Mission Orion: The Travel through Time

Chapter 45

 As per our guide's information, our ship is neither a battleship nor a destroyer. It belonged to a whole another class of ships known as "The Watchers." Weird and creepy name, I agree. But he also told us not to mistake these ships to be weak. He had informed us that these ships had as much firepower on them like the rest of the ships do, and that they could put up to more damage than the destroyers. Believe me, the ship was huge. It had engines, very similar to what powered our Orion Ships but these engines seemed like they were able to provide a lot of acceleration in a short period of time. And that is a huge plus. I looked out of the windows of my room to find soldiers and other officials rush to their respective ships.

***

 All crew, be advised. We are taking off in T-Minus 60 seconds. Alpha Team would be the first to take off, followed by Beta, Charlie and Tango teams respectively. All crew must be in their designated stations."

"This is your captain speaking. All crew, please strap into your seats. The weather conditions have changed dramatically over the past hour. It's going to be a rough take off." 

All of us were at the bridge, strapped into chairs which were designated for us. All we had to do was sit there and watch as we took off. "Where is the Alpha Team?" I asked a person sitting next to me, whom I remembered was a part of the rescue team. "The whole take off facility is divided into eight levels, each level similar to this one. The top levels consists of Alpha team, below them Beta and so on. After each level, is cleared, the huge bay doors, which serve the the base for that particular level open up and the next level's base rises to the take off level. You'll see it as it happens." he replied. 

"Team Alpha reports all systems functional. Take off in T-minus five... four... three... two... one... Alpha One is in the air. All other Alpha ships, follow Alpha One to the outer marker. Beta Team, please prepare for Take Off. Level One clear." 

"This is your captain, our level is next. So, buckle up." 

"Level Two, clear. Alpha Team is in the air. Level Three, prepare for take-off.  Beta One, you are next."

"Beta One, we are good to go."

"Watch the magic happen now." The guy sitting next to me said. I saw from the glass, which covered the whole of the hull, from which you can get a 360 degree view of your surrounding to find that the roof of our level was splitting up right in the middle. At the same time, I felt the ship rising towards the roof. After a second, I could see the dim sunlight trying to creep it's way into the darkness and droplets of water were dripping down from the roof. The humming of the engines grew louder as we approached the surface level. The sky was now grey with clouds and the trees were almost touching the ground due to the harsh winds. "How did the weather change so suddenly?" I asked the guy sitting to me, whose name was Locher apparently. "It's common on this planet. When this planet was created, people oversaw a flaw in it which caused huge storms which whipped out of nowhere. Most bases have indoor facilities for absolutely everything due to the unpredictable climatic conditions. This is nothing, you should have seen the storm which hit us about two months ago. Scared the shit out of us." He replied. Soon we were onto the surface level and I could feel the vibrations of the engines. 

"Beta One, this is tower, you are cleared for take-off."

"Beta One to Tower, roger that. Taking off." 

"This is your captain speaking, all stations, we are go for taking off."

The humming of the engines just increased, and the ship slowly lifted itself up and as soon as we were a few feet above the ground, we started moving forward and climbing altitude at the same time. There was a lot of turbulence during the whole process. The engines were doing a remarkably good job by providing the ship with a great amount of acceleration which kept the ship up and running. We were way above the escape velocity needed for the ship to escape the gravitational field of this planet. Soon, the rest of the smaller ships belonging to the Beta Force fell into formation and we began heading away from the base, our altitude climbing rapidly. We had risen above the clouds, and could see the Alpha Team just above the horizon, the ships gleaming in the blue sunlight emitted by the sun. 

"This is tower to all teams, all teams from Base Four have taken off. Further communications from Command and Control Base. Good luck out there. Over and out."

***

Soon we were leaving the atmosphere of the planet. The air resistance decreased drastically, so did the vibrations and the humming of the engines. The ship was gradually slowing down and so were the other ships in the formation. The ships of the Alpha team were now closer than they were before. It wasn't long before we were completely above the atmosphere of the planet and the sight was mind blowing. There were thousands of ships, of all sizes floating around the planet in small clusters. But that wasn't the best part about the view. The jewel in the crown was the huge weapon, which apparently could incinerate the target. It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. By the looks of it, the weapon was approximately ten times larger than Beta One, which was apparently the largest ship in the whole force. And a good thing, considering everything which is going on during the war is monitored here. 

Everybody in the bridge took off their straps and stood up, and I followed suit. I walked up to Montwik to find him busy listening to something a man in a military uniform was saying. "We just received the latest report from Photrox. The kenjah's army have moved into a defensive position. Their formation is apparently changing from time to time, so we have no clue on how their formation would be when we get there, but our intel suggests that they have some pretty heavy firepower. I suggest we proceed with extreme caution." I overheard him saying to Montwik. "Thank you, general. We will adapt according to the current scenario. We will discuss our further course of action in the meeting of all the generals which would be held approximately in one hour." Montwik replied. The general walked away to his station, and went back to his work. "How was the launch?" Montwik asked me. "Was good. Incredible ships you've got here." I replied. "What's the status?" I asked him. "We're almost set." He started. "All teams from all the bases have arrived except for one. They had a slight technical snag with one of their ship. We except them to be here very soon. We are looking at a countdown of T-minus twenty minutes for mission launch." He replied. "The weapon looks beautiful." I said, looking at it from the windows. "It sure is a beauty. We decided to call it 'The Thunder Bolt. Inspired by the lightning bolt of Zeus." he replied. "You guys have a Zeus of your own?" I asked him, smirking. "Don't forget, Rithvik, We created you. And we kept whispering ideas into your minds even before the invention of fire. Your Zeus and our Zeus, both are the same. But unlike your race, we do not fight and kill amongst ourselves on the name of religion. Our people co-exist, despite our differences. That is one of the main reasons of our development. We were amazed by the pace at which the human species developed. It was way faster than any other species we had seen before. We thought, by now your species would have been more advanced than us, but your greed, your selfishness, your desire for war amongst yourselves, all these have hampered your growth. There was a time we thought your species would be the successor of ours. Every civilization would have an end date, no civilization can escape the wrath of extinction. We left behind a legacy, a legacy we wished you would would uphold. But things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to. There are somethings you still are not aware of, Rithvik. One is that after the Kenjah gets rid of your civilization, he intends on creating a new one. Another civilization which he hopes will be the successor of ours. But we do not support it, and this is one of the main reasons we are fighting this war. Remember this Rithvik, if we fail, we are sealing the fate of every other civilization in the multiverse. The kenjah is going to destroy them all, irrespective of whether they were created by us or not." Montwik said. "You make it sound as if you are free from greed. From ego and from destruction. There is a saying back on Earth, Montwik, to err is human and yes, we committed mistakes, but we learn from them. Each mistake makes us stronger. Anyways, there are a lot of other things we need to know, Montwik. You were never clear with any of the information you've given us- how you got your powers, how you created the universe and everything related to that. You haven't been clear with us with regard with any of the things I mentioned. When the time comes, you have to tell us." I interrupted. "You have the right to know, Rithvik. When the time comes, you will know."

***

This was a chapter which was delayed for way to long due to a number of reasons. Hope it was worth the wait!

Thanks for reading it! VOTE IF YOU LIKE IT! 

-LPS21/ Rithvik.