In this age of terraforming and interstellar conquest, the humans managed to conquer a lot of planets and tried to make them as habitable to human population as possible. But all planets were not of the same size and mass. So, even if the atmosphere and landscape are made similar to earth as possible, the gravity on the planet can only be maintained between a range.
There are a number of planets that are so large the gravity after terraforming, they still had a very high gravity that wouldn't allow humans to live there for a long duration. Such planets were developed into hunting grounds or mining planets and didn't have any large-scale settlements on them.
After a long trip of more than 24 hours, Balthazar, Albert and his team reached the planet BR-64. This was a planet at the core of the alliance territory fondly known as Elysium. BR-64 was quite a large planet. It had about three times the size of Asklepian and had a gravity about 4 times the one on Asklepian.
By the time, they had reached the planet, they had already received information from Arthur regarding the Orthrus Guardian Group cooperation and the location of the Burns brothers. Balthazar had already informed Bolena that he was coming to meet her during the flight.
As soon as they landed on the planet and they got out of the vessel, Balthazar could feel the change in gravity. His entire body felt heavy and tired. He realized that this is one of those planets which has a higher gravity than the general standard as maintained in planets like Asklepian. As he was thinking about that, Albert came towards him.
"Ever been in a planet with higher gravity before? You probably have been to other planets during transfers right?"
"Yeah. My base has about 30% more gravity than at home. Though it is a lot more here than that I think I can adapt quickly to it," said Balthazar.
"It is not just gravity you need to be worried about kid. Gravity changes a few things which people usually tend not to notice."
"Like?"
"Higher gravity implies a lot of other things. The air is a lot dense near the ground. Even though it maintains about the same concentration levels. Though the standard pico-tech enables you to adapt to all of these, the mechanics of weapons change a lot. Explosions cover a larger areas, the firearms need to be calibrated for lower explosive force else the kickback will be more and the firearms might also be damaged."
"How do I do that? For the standard ones, I don't think we can do it without opening them up."
"Ya that is a bit of tedious procedure and people usually blow up themselves when they try to do such sensitive activities when the gravity suddenly changes. Army bases and the like stock weapons already precalibrated for the planets."
"So, get a new gun on this planet?"
"Yeah, that is not a viable choice for long term. You can't keep searching for new firearms every time you land on a new planet. I am giving you a custom handgun and a sniper rifle," said Albert handing him a case. "These are configured to connect to your wrist band and can only be used after your fingerprint is validated on the sensor by the trigger. You can change the settings on it to match the conditions you are in."
"Yes, I get the idea. But is this really necessary. I am sure I can handle a bit more kickback than usual."
"It is not just about you. Even the gun gets damaged if there is a bigger recoil and it has a lot of effect when you are making long distance shots on a rifle. So, use them properly and use it at the most optimal conditions and get used to using it well."
"OK."
"Also, the explosives here might have a higher explosive range than what you are used to. So, maintain a healthy distance from any explosive you observe. More than usual radius. You should also learn to gather info about these things in the future. This is the first time so we can excuse you not being aware of such things."
They immediately set off to the Apropos research headquarters. Albert and Balthazar went to the headquarters in a hover car to the main building. The rest went to take their positions separately.
The Apropos research headquarters had three main parts. The office complex where all the employees convene on regular basis, the labs where they experiment most of their new ideas and the testing grounds where are the dangerous stuff which require open spaces are conducted.
The entire research station had a large force field covering it. The testing grounds has its own separate force field and its main purpose is to prevent any dangerous explosions or gases or viruses tested from escaping the area. It actually had several force fields which allowed them to have multiple individual tests done without interfering with the other.
The office complex had 7 floors and an area of about 5 acres. There are 6 security towers which generated and maintained the force field covering the research headquarters each about 120 meters tall. Nolan and Charles immediately joined the security at two of the towers replacing the members of the team who were previously guarding Bolena.
As Balthazar reached the gate, his identity was verified, and he was immediately given a V.I.P. visitor badge along with his bodyguard Albert and directed to Bolena's workspace. Behind him he found Sean and Jordan enter through the gate.
"Colonel Balthazar," said a pretty lady coming towards them. "I am Mary. Dr. Bolena is in a meeting right now and couldn't meet you. How about we have a tour of the facility in the meantime."
I would be taking you to meet Dr. Bolena. Please follow me."
"May I know where she is?" asked Balthazar.
"She had just finished her meeting. She is at the training grounds. We will meet her at the cafeteria of the training grounds," said Mary.
Soon they reached the training grounds which were covered by a large red colored force field. They went through the gate and soon found Bolena drinking tea along with a few of her colleagues.
"Hi Sis, how are you?" said Balthazar taking the lead.
"Hi Bel, it's past noon already?" she thought aloud looking at her wrist band.
"Yeah, you busy?"
"When am I not?" she asked back rolling her eyes.
"Can we talk?"
"Yeah. Yeah. Give me a couple of minutes. Why don't you have a couple of drinks in the meantime?" she suggested.
"You got any beer there?" asked Albert.
"This is a research institute," replied Mary.
"Why don't you suggest something for us, Mary?" asked Balthazar.
"Let me get you a couple of health shakes," said Mary getting them a couple of drinks in disposable tumblers.
The sat at a table nearby and a few minutes later Bolena came back.
"Come. I got a room for us to talk about this," she said walking them to a small private room at the cafeteria.
"So, what brings my dear brother back to this part of the universe?" asked Bolena. She had just met him a few days ago and she knew her brother wasn't missing her. Visiting to check upon the project she was leading was absurd as the project was just accepted by the military and were going to have a demonstration of it a month later.
"I wouldn't have if you had just listened to Winston and agreed to go to a bunker for a few days while we handled it," said Balthazar.
"Come on, I hardly have any time here. We have a demonstration the next month and we can't just waste any time. It is of extreme importance for us to land this contract and if we fail to do so within the next few months, all of my work would be a waste," said Bolena.
"OK. I understand," said Balthazar. He then looked at Albert and said, "Albert, can you give us a few minutes alone? It would be best for our plan."
"OK," said Albert nodding his head and went out the room.
"You refuse to listen to reason. So, I am going to explain to you exactly what caused all this interference from me and grandpa."
"Well, finally someone is going to be frank about this."
"You came to get me back to home a few days, ago right? We are expecting something similar."
"You expect an alien attack at Elysium? That's ridiculous."
"No. No. The attack was by some rebels against the alliance. They actually pulled the aliens to cover their attempt. It is all a secret and you should never talk about it to anyone including me."
"You for real?"
"Yes. I accidentally ended up piggybacking a signal of theirs and we have managed to gather some more information about them during the incident. That is why I immediately agreed to return to home."
"You got yourself into a lot of mess."
"Yes, they have already threatened me, and we managed to find out that they are attempting to attack you to get to me."
"So, this is the reason for you guys forcing me to bear all this is your suspicions that someone might attack me."
"OK. We already have been interrogating two people, but they turned out to be patsies who were threatened to act against us. We know that two more are on the planet but not sure where. You have to understand that these people didn't hesitate to blow me up at a military base."
"But that is at your base. You probably don't need to be worried about it here."
"There was an incident aimed at me and Robert at the Ambrosia restaurant on Asklepian, yesterday. You still think we are safe."
"But, but.." stuttered Bolena checking him for any injuries. She couldn't believe that an attack was made in Asklepian on a member of the Blyth family. As much as she understood that was just suicidal.
"I agree it sounds ridiculous. But they are downright suicidal. They killed my lieutenant Jane where they blew themselves up."
"Is Robert alright?"
"He is fine. But now that you understand the problem, I want you to wear a combat suit to protect yourself," said Balthazar lifting the case.
"You want me to wear a combat suit while I am working?"
"Yes. It is a defensive and stealth-camouflage suit meant mostly for protection of targets. Just wear it while they take care of the men who came here. Set the illusion so that it matches your usual wear. We don't want anyone to be alarmed or alerted."
"Is it really necessary?" said Bolena she still didn't want to try to do it.
"Bolena, once you wear the suit, we can be a bit assured of your safety and we will be able to devote more resources towards catching the guys who came here. Once, we get a hold of them, we could reduce your security," said Balthazar.
"OK. I will," said Bolena taking the case from Balthazar.
"OK. I will leave the room. Show me the results your experiments after you suit up," said Balthazar leaving the room
As soon as he exited the room, he saw Albert having a video chat with someone. It was Bruce and Arthur on the other side of the call.
"Confirm the locations of the remaining of your team and we will go ahead with the plan," said Arthur.
"Did we confirm the locations of the Burns brothers from Max's communication device?" asked Balthazar joining in on the call.
"We never told you this. We tried to get details from his wrist band and home terminal, but we never got any decent information from the logs and think that he might be using some alternate method of communication, which we never managed to identify. That is why, this mission to capture the members is very critical," said Arthur.
"Yes. This would be the first decent chance we got to get decent intelligence about them," added Albert.
"She agreed to wear the suit and accept the security?" asked Arthur.
"Yes, to the suit. Might need to talk with her more about being cooperative with security for a longer duration," answered Balthazar.
"OK. That's still an improvement over what the Patriarch managed to do."
"I would suggest we go ahead with the seizure of the remaining two of the Orthrus Group agents," said Albert.
"We managed to find out their locations?" asked Balthazar.
"Abel and Roger are working with us now. So, is the Orthrus Group. We have Yassin Achaemenid supporting us. They seemed to have somehow infiltrated their organization and Yassin is very adamant of finding out how. They had a method of locating their agents which we are using," answered Albert.
"How can we be sure that they are actually working with us?" asked Balthazar.
"The mother of one of the agents is being monitored by someone I trust, and Yassin wouldn't dare to betray us so openly," said Bruce.
"Ok. Then, best of luck with you endeavours," said Albert cutting the call.
A few seconds later, Bolena entered wearing a combat suit. "I am not able to adjust the suit with my wrist band. How did you do it?" she asked.
"Oh sorry! I have an app which enables you to configure it. You can't transfer the app to other devices," said Albert transferring the app required to configure the combat suit. He also quickly configured the suit through her wrist band. He also explained how to enable the defensive and stealth features of the combat suit.
"This is Albert. He would be in charge of all the security provided by the family. He would be serving as my bodyguard as long as I am here following you," said Balthazar finally introducing Albert to Bolena.
"Nice to meet you Albert. Did I meet you before?"
"Yes, we did. I followed the Patriarch as one of his guards for a couple of years. You might have noticed me at that time."
"Oh! Yeah! I remember. How about I show you what I am working on? Come with me, guys."