Scifi Smackdown

Smackdown 1.3 - Hammer of the Gods

"Well, crap," one of the tac-squad mumbled to himself.

Tanu glanced back at him, then returned his gaze to the screen. Crap was right. On the screen was a developing quasar, a symphony of mass and heat held together by a supermassive black hole. Tanu had seen the training vids when he was an initiate, but he never thought he'd ever have to stare one down.

The commander paused to let it sink in, and continued.

"Our quarry, Doctor Brindle, is right here." Another image of a planet appeared on the screen, overlapping the quasar. "He's got himself holed up in there good and tight. While he may be several lightyears away from the quasar himself, he still has interplanetary-range technology which gives him full control of the cosmic event, God help us. And he plans on using it."

One of the squad raised his hand.

"Yes, Gerry?"

"Yeah, uh, how the heck did he manage that? I thought you'd get sucked up if you got too close."

"Hell if I know," the commander said, brusquely. "I'm not paid to figure that out." He looked to the side of the briefing room and gestured to what looked to be a couple of non-combatants. "Luckily for us, however, we have people who are. These are professors Tirinius and Earl. You get them in, they make sure we don't have a hostile rail gun the size of a solar system to deal with."

The two scientists walked up next to the commander and self-consciously addressed the rows of special-ops soldiers outfitted in exoskeletal armor. The two were mismatched, one looking professional, the other unshaven and dressed down. The well dressed scientist cleared his throat and began.

"Hello all, my name is Tirinius. I was called in for my expertise in black holes and, subsequently, quasars. I'll help by finding out what he's doing and how to stop it." The other scientist took that as his cue to step forward.

"Uh, hi. I'm Earl. I mostly mess with computers, so once Tye over here figures what we should do, I'll be the one doing it." He flashed a smile. "Unless it involves blowing shit up. You guys get that honor." A few chuckles came from the ensemble, and the commander got their attention again.

"I don't need to tell you how important it is we complete this mission, boys. If we do our jobs, a few planets report strange weather. If we don't, God help the few planets who survives the first attack." He looked around the room solemnly. "Dismissed."

Tanu and every other soldier immediately stood up and began heading to their perspective drop pods.

The space carrier they were on was massive - able to carry over 500 crew members, not including military personnel. It hung like an unspoken threat above the planet, silent and daunting.

The drop pods spilled out of the ship, a swarm of angry bees disturbed from their rest. While he was still rocketing towards the planet, Tanu took out his knife and carved the Japanese symbol of "life" into the drop pod with his enhanced strength. He stared at it and said a small prayer, going back to stare at the infinite abyss being marred by the approaching atmosphere.

The ground thundered as drop pod after drop pod crashed into the ground in front of a facility. Orders were shouted and parameters were set. Tanu and a barrage of mechanically-enhanced troopers blew through the front door and ran through the facility, level by level, staircase by staircase, until they finally arrived at a pair of blast doors.

A small box in the corner crackled to life.

"Knock knock!"

The soldiers paused. After a moment, Gerry bit.

"Who's there?"

"The universe."

Another pause. "The universe who?"

"No, the universe blew! As in blew up! Get it?" Silence. "I'm talking about destroying everything you know and love! That's gotta warrant something, right?" Tanu made hand motions to have charges placed on the door.

"Wow. Tough crowd. Well, all the world's a stage. Gonna have to try my luck with another stage, am I right? Ha!"

The door blew to pieces, leading them straight to the man himself: a small wiry man sitting in front of a sea of monitors and whirring equipment. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Ohhhhhhh... Hi guys! You weren't supposed to get through that." He was violently hauled from his equipment and the scientists converged on the equipment like hungry dogs.

Earl whistled. "This guy has projectile data for every spec of debris in that thing!" He noticed a specific monitor and stiffened. "Shit. We have less than ten minutes before this thing can't be stopped."

Tirinius was transfixed by the data. "We could learn so much from this data..."

"Tye!" Earl shouted, and Tirinius returned to his senses.

"Right! Shut it down."

On one screen the quasar churned, like a cosmic meat grinder. It was beginning to glow.

"Any time now!" Tanu interjected.

"We're working on it!" Earl seethed.

2 minutes passed. 5. 8.

"What are you guys doing?!"

"Important stuff, will you shut up?!"

Finally Tanu grabbed a grenade launcher from another soldier and leveled it at the computer bank.

"Move! Now!"

The scientists glanced back, gave a double take, and dove away.

With an explosion far too close for comfort, everybody in the room was blown backwards, almost crushing their prisoner in the meantime. Debris and fire cascaded down on them.

Tanu grabbed his communicator.

"Status?"

They waited on baited breath.

"Uh... Not much change up here." Tanu gripped his communicator til it hurt. The room was silent as death.

"Well, crap." Everyone looked at the speaker, the same guy from the briefing. He shrugged. "It's a good way to kill the silence."

"It could just take a while to cool off," Tirinius commented. "There's still hope."

The communicator started again.

"... Yeah, it's winding down!"

A cheer rose from the room. Tanu went to the doctor and gave him a good kick before heading topside.

"Knock, knock, psycho."