by C. S. Harte
Alyana laughed at the response.
“Where do we begin our search?” Jonas asked.
“Genko gave us two possible coordinates based on the geo-shifting modeling of the planet’s crust. I’m sending them to you now.”
As soon as Nume sent the coordinates, Jonas’ visor HUD updated with a two-dimensional, top-down map overlay of the city. Two bright red dots flashed, one on the eastern side of the capital where a temple currently stood. The other was on the opposite side of the city next to a coliseum. “Antel is over 30 kilometers wide. We might have to split up.”
“NO! Are you crazy?” Alyana threw her arms up in the air.
“Kovat agrees with Jonas.”
“Well, that’s a first,” Jonas said with a sneer.
“Kovat wants to remind us that unknown parties are tracking us. The longer we stay on this planet, the more we are at risk of them finding us.”
“Nume, you go with Kovat, obviously. You’re the only one who can communicate with him. You take the east target.”
“OK, Jonas.”
“Alyana, you’re with me. We’ll take the west target near the coliseum.”
Alyana hesitated to answer.
Nume looked at Alyana who smiled shortly after.
“OK, Jonas. I was reluctant to be alone on a creepy, desolate alien planet — which may or may not be haunted — with a guy I only met a week ago, but Nume convinced me otherwise.”
Jonas looked into Alyana’s visor. “Do you feel more comfortable going with Nume? I don't mind going to the second target alone.”
She shook her head. “No, Nume said you need me more than I need you. Which makes sense. I’m tougher than you,” Alyana said with a cheeky smile.
Nume placed a hand on Jonas and one Alyana. “Our suits have eight hours of battery life left, which coincidentally matches when the sun sets on this planet. Let’s make it back to the ship before then.”
“Eight hours, got it.” Jonas added a countdown clock to his HUD.
“Good luck everyone, and be safe,” Nume said.
“Be safe, Nume. And Kovat,” Alyana said.
Nume and Kovat took a winding path downward toward the eastern area of the city. Centuria-1 and Centuria-2 trailed them.
Jonas and Alyana, along with Centuria-3 and Centuria-4 followed a path with a long stairwell leading toward a hilly part of Antel. When they reached the top of the slope, they found a large cluster of Atoomwok pushing through the stone pathway, forming a wall and blocking their progression. Each pod stood three to four meters high. The surface of the fungus had a paper mache texture to it.
“Do we just shoot through it?” Alyana asked.
Jonas gave Alyana a cold stare. “No. We shouldn’t shoot a giant, alien species of fungus when we do not know of its physiology or defense mechanisms.”
“That makes sense. But I still want to shoot it,” she cackled.
He ordered Centuria-4 to perform an infra-red and x-ray scan of the alien structure. His visor updated with a three-dimensional, wireframe look into the fungus which showed multiple hollow chambers containing a liquid substance. “I see a massive root system connecting every pod. I wonder if destroying one would cause a reaction with the others.” He passed the data to Alyana’s HUD.
“Their size, color, and texture makes me think of wasp nests. Imagine if bugs were living inside these things.” She shuddered.
Jonas re-scanned the Atoomwok surface again. “I don’t see any movement or life forms inside.”
“I’m far from a xenobiologist, but zooming in on the surface, I see cell walls composed of cellulose and not chitin. Also, tiny leaves which I’m guessing is for photosynthesis. What fungus species do you know has plant traits? Take a look.”
Jonas studied the magnified images pushed from Alyana’s HUD. “Doesn’t matter what it is. It’s in the way. We need to change that.”
The onboard artificial intelligence of Centuria-4 displayed a suggested course of action via a notification on Jonas’ HUD.
Recommend using incendiary projectiles to burn unidentified plant life.
“Droid says burn it down.”
“That works.” Alyana took a few steps back. “I’m going to stand back, just in case.”
Jonas affirmed the recommendation with his eye movements and set the middle pod as the target.
The gears within Centuria-4 whirled as it switched to incendiary projectiles. A prompt appeared on Jonas’ HUD asking for fire confirmation.
He approved.
Centuria-4 shot one projectile into the center pod. Immediately the polyp collapsed as the fire consumed the organism. A shrieking sound came from the surrounding Atoomwok. Streams of gray spores burst into the air as the fire spread along the entire wall.
“That sounded awful!” Alyana shook her head.
Jonas disabled his external suit microphone.
“Is it alive? How can a fungus, plant… whatever… scream like that?”
The air quickly became saturated with fungal spores, masking what little sunlight was peeking through the clouds.
“We need to leave.” Jonas checked his countdown time, 6 hours, 34 minutes, 26 seconds of battery life remaining. Using video from Centuria-4's drone, he mapped out the time and distance of various paths to the coliseum. “This is the fastest path to the target. Any other way would risk our lives.”
The spores descended on Jonas and his team like a steady snowfall.
Alyana swiped at her combat suit with her gauntlets. “Um, Jonas…. whatever is raining down on us is sticking to us.” She picked up a plant leaf and used it as a towel with no luck. “It's sticking real good…”
Jonas walked up to Centuria-4 and tried to clean off the spores stuck to its metallic surface. “It’s glued to the droids too.”
“OK, we can’t stay here. Nope. Time to leave.”
“We still have a mission to complete.” Jonas ordered Centuria-4 to run through the burning wall of fungus.
Centuria-4 lowered its shoulders and barreled through to the other side.
Jonas’ eyes widened at the thickness of the wall, not expecting it to be 20 meters in depth. “Let’s go,” he waved Alyana over.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” She ran through the opening with Centuria-3 following her.
Once Alyana made it to the other side, Jonas followed.
“Hurry, the walls are regenerating!” Alyana waved her arms frantically pointing at the edges of the tunnel.
“Dammit!” He began sprinting.
A vine lashed out at his legs, tripping him.
Jonas fell on his stomach.
More vines crawled toward him, wrapping themselves around his body.
“No! Jonas!” She tried to re-enter the tunnel, but more vines sealed off the entrance.
“Stay out!” He waved her away. “Don’t come in here!”
Alyana brought her hands to her face. “What should I do? Jonas! What should I do?”
25
The vines coiled tightly around Jonas like a serpent trying to squeeze the life out of its prey. His eyes darted toward Alyana who stood ten meters away out of the reach. Compression and suffocation warnings repeatedly flashed across his HUD. Suit integrity dropped to 76%. The vines would eventually breach his suit and crush the life out of him if he did nothing.
Nume? Can you hear me?
Jonas waited for a response but it never arrived. How am I going to get out of this? With his eyes, he navigated to his Bio-Interface Panel menu. Strength Neuromod. He switched it on. Adrenaline coursed through his veins. Jonas growled as he ripped off vine after vine and pushed himself to his knees. More vines slithered toward Jonas, faster than his two hands could remove. This isn’t working. I’m still too far away from daylight. The walls continued to repair itself, already more than half-way closed.
“I tried calling for Nume and Kovat. They aren’t responding!” Alyana yelled, speaking frantically.
“We might be too far, or there’s some sort of interfe
rence.” Jonas watched as his heart rate monitor climbed. Stay calm. Fire seems to be the only thing to work…
Alyana took out her tactical knife and hacked away at the vines, trying to clear a path to Jonas. The vines recovered faster than she could cut. “Talk to me, Jonas! Nume would kill me if you died!”
“Stand back!” Jonas ordered.
Centuria-4 positioned itself in front of the closing tunnel.
“What are you doing? Jonas? Are you going to shoot yourself? Don’t give up yet! We can get out of this!” She screamed while slashing through the vines.
Jonas ordered Centuria-4 to modify an incendiary projectile to remove 90% of its explosive charge and target the area above his head.
Alyana watched as the combat droid loaded the projectile into its cannon aimed at her shipmate. “Hey, I don’t know about this plan of yours. Obscuras are designed for stealth and mobility not for taking hits or extreme heat…”
“It’ll be fine.” With a twitch of his eye, Centuria-4 fired its projectile at Jonas. Time seemed to slow as he watched the low-velocity incendiary round flying, landing on the patch of fungus above him.
Instantly, an explosion bloomed around Jonas. A fiery wave splashed onto his suit, covering him in scarlet red flames.
The area around Jonas charred to a soot black crisp.
Multiple critical messages blinked on Jonas’ HUD.
Extreme temperature warning.
External integrity failure imminent.
“Jonas! Get out!” Alyana screamed into her voice comm.
The vines holding Jonas smoldered into ash as the fire continued to spread.
Jonas tried to stand, but the motors in his suit refused to respond. “I can’t move.”
External integrity failure!
The internal suit temperature reached 260 Kelvins and climbing. At 320 Kelvins, human protein molecules denature.
He coughed as stale, smokey air entered his lungs. Jonas felt light-headed. I might not make it. Of all the places to have my luck run out…
Fires continued to rage around him in the narrow space of the fungal cluster. He felt an overwhelming desire to sleep before an excruciating pain jolted him awake. My legs are burning. Jonas navigated to his BIP and injected himself with a combat stimulant. He crawled forward on his belly toward an opening clouded by smoke. Muffled screams came through his voice comm, but his brain could not register the words.
Suit temperature at 305 Kelvins.
This is not how it ends. I could’ve died a dozen times since Wynter Prison Station. Jonas willed his arms to keep pulling him forward. I need to find out what happened to Saera… Clear Nolan’s name… My name… The pain in his legs suddenly disappeared. And get revenge on those who destroyed my life.
A gray gauntlet reached through the jet black smoke and dragged Jonas through the Atoomwok wall.
“I have you, Jonas!” Alyana cried. “You’re out now.” She knelt on the ground next to Jonas and examined his armor.
Jet black soot covered every centimeter of Jonas.
She wiped the smokey residue of his visor and looked into his eyes. “Stay with me, Jonas! You’re not dead yet. Which is amazing, by the way. I don’t know how you’re alive right now!”
Jonas tried to reply but could only muster a cough.
Alyana connected her oxygen line to his suit. “Clean air coming. You will be fine.”
A searing pain spread across his chest with every breath.
“Just breathe. My suit is filtering all the smoke.” She knocked on his helmet. “Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.”
Jonas blinked in acknowledgement. He tried to relax and allowed his lungs to catch up on air. After a few minutes, he could speak. “Use the repair nanites from the combat droids to fix my suit.”
“So, I don’t think you understand, but you’re pretty badly hurt. I tapped into your suit’s diagnostics. You have third-degree burns on your lower legs. We need to get you into a medical pod!” She wrinkled her brows. “And, honestly, if you could see yourself right now…”
“The motors in my legs are dead. I don’t think you can carry me back.”
“Oh… OK. Got it. I thought you still wanted to proceed with the mission. You seemed like the type who ignores pain, reason, good judgment, and common sense.” Alyana opened her command keypad on her suit’s right forearm. “Give me a minute to program the nanites.”
“Why isn’t Nume responding to comms?” Jonas asked between coughs.
“Please, Jonas. Do you want me to program the nanites or worry about something else?” She stopped typing. “Oh, do you think the fungus thingies got her too? Or maybe someone caught up to us? What if…”
Jonas tuned out Alyana’s voice. Nume? Can you hear me? Why haven’t you responded?
“Hey, Jonas?” Alyana tapped Jonas’ helmet.
He looked up at her.
“I asked if you think someone has followed us to this planet?”
Jonas shook his head. “We’ve been careful to mask our engine trails, haven’t we?”
Alyana nodded.
“It’s me they’ve been targeting, not her.”
“Have you tried telling whoever is chasing you that you know nothing?”
Jonas gave a half-laugh followed by a coughing fit. “I told them, but they seem to enjoy the torturing part too much.”
“That usually works for me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a girl or because I always look clueless. Then again, I can’t recall being tortured…" She closed her command terminal. "... And finished!”
A hatch opened in the back of Centuria-3. Thousands of nanites streamed out of the opening, each flashing with a bright blue glow as they landed on Jonas’ combat suit, covering him in a living blanket of light.
Jonas checked his BIP. His enhanced healing biomod was active. Between the combat stimulants and his healing mod, the pain was bearable. “Once my suit is repaired, we can continue with the mission.”
“What?" She punched his chest plate. "Is this some macho male thing? Because you were almost fried like a Kridi eggroll.” Alyana threw up her arms. “How on Sol could you possibly continue with the mission?”
“Stim packs and enhanced healing.”
She slapped her helmet. “I should just turn off the repair nanites and drag you back to the Zephyr myself. Your suit was heavily damaged. You lost two power generators. Did you conveniently forget that?”
Jonas checked his suit battery life on his HUD. “I have 3 hours and 53 minutes of power remaining. Should be enough.”
Alyana groaned. “What about Nume and Kovat? They aren’t responding to our communications. That doesn’t concern you?”
“It does. But without the Guardian Essence, nothing else matters.” Jonas’ suit flashed a message requesting a reboot. “One minute, need to restart the AI.” He allowed his suit to power off, restarting its initialization sequence.
Alyana continued to mouth something at Jonas, angling her face so he could see her exaggerated expressions of anger.
Thoughts of Nume flittered into his mind, especially the endearing moments when she tugged at her ear. Nume denied being the Entrent transformation of Saera. Hope has never been anything but an enemy to Jonas. Yet, he could never find the strength to let go.
His Obscura suit finished its rebooting sequence. Jonas ran an internal diagnostics test. The nanites repaired his leg motors. No apparent damage to the processors. Jonas looked back at the tunnel he crawled from. He felt something heavy in his stomach. What if Nume is in trouble? What if she's passed out and unable to reach me?
Alyana continued to shout into her suit comm, but was talking too fast for Jonas to understand.
“Al!” He yelled.
“What?” She yelled back.
Jonas settled into a normal speaking volume. “Let’s go back and search for Nume and Kovat. Just to be safe.”
She ran to Jonas and hugged him. “Finally! I knew if I talked you to death, you would eventually listen.�
��
Jonas stood and tested his legs. Bearable.
“Whatever we do, let’s go around all the Atoomwok walls.”
“Agreed.”
Centuria-4 flashed a possible hostile combatant alert.
The massive flying insect creature from before came back. This time it circled directly above Jonas’ head.
Alyana picked up her rifle. “That’s a bad omen, isn’t it? This is bad…”
26
Jonas and Alyana sprinted through the crumbling streets of Antel, taking an alternate path through the abandoned capital as they searched for their shipmates. Each step for Jonas was more painful than the last.
2 hours and 47 minutes of battery remained. With the thick cloud of spores blocking the sun, Jonas had no means of recharging.
“I need to stop for a moment,” Alyana said in between breaths. She looked up at the sky.
The giant insect chimera continued to drift over them, gliding in lazy circles.
Nume? Where are you? Give me a sign...
“Why is that creature just following and not attacking us?”
“I don’t know. Let’s hope it’s just curious.”
She aimed her rifle at it. “Should we shoot it down?”
“It doesn’t seem wise to make a new enemy right now.” Jonas pulled up a map overlay of his current position on his HUD. The drone he dispatched earlier was no longer relaying information. “We’re near our starting point. We should be in range of the other team.”
“They’re still not responding to our comms. I’m getting really worried, Jonas.”
“So am I. Let’s keep going. I only have 2 hours and 40 minutes of battery life."
They continued their run toward the western temple district of the city. Their path took them through a spacious field resembling a communal area with trees, benches, and playgrounds. Spore density in this area appeared thicker compared to the eastern side of the capital.
The ground vibrated softly.
Jonas slowed his run.
“What’s wrong?” Alyana asked.
“I felt something. Did you feel it too?"