Incursion

by Paul Teague

  “Those mines weren’t triggered until we were ten kilometres from the portal,” Conway explained. “Ten thousand metres, dead on, and that’s no coincidence. That’s something human engineers would do.”

  “Careful, Conway, I’m still monitoring,” came the voice of Fernandez.

  “No normal person would fuss that much,” Conway continued. “They’d mark a perimeter in a rough spot, and that would be that.”

  “Do you think that’s what this is? A perimeter?” said Ten, intrigued by her suggestion.

  “I hope so,” Conway replied. “If not, we’ve got fifteen of those Sentinel Mines to shake off. I don’t fancy our chances of getting all fifteen, even with Hunter’s mod.”

  Mason thought it was a sound theory. “Agreed, let’s pull back to ten-k and see if Conway is right.”

  “Kearney,” said Conway, “you’re too far out, come back in closer.” Kearney had become separated from the pack; she had a couple of kilometres to make up.

  “Get out of there, Kearney…” Conway warned.

  Mason, Hunter, Ten and Conway spun their Raptors back towards Vengeance. Kearney did the same, monitoring the Sentinel Mines as she did so. Three of them had split off from the main pack, heading her way now.

  “This is going to be tight,” said Kearney, doubt in her voice. “I might need your help, guys, stay alert, please.”

  “Watching those fuckers like a hawk,” Ten reassured her.

  “Same here,” said Hunter. “I’ve got all three eyes on those critters.”

  “Three eyes?” said Mason, alarmed at the thought.

  “Don’t ask,” warned Conway. “I need your minds on the job at hand.”

  One by one, the Raptors came in over the ten-kilometre line. As each craft entered Conway’s theoretical perimeter, three of the Sentinels broke off and switched to target Kearney’s Raptor instead.

  “Well, thanks for nothing, guys,” said Kearney. “I’ve got fifteen of those things chasing me now!”

  “Hellfire, what are they?” said Conway. “We’re coming out to assist Kearney.”

  “No, I can do this,” she protested. “We need to test your theory. If I make it to the ten-k line and these things still have their noses up my sphincter, then you can help!”

  Kearney moved to full throttle and patched in the evasive array option. She could see all fifteen of the deadly spheres on her monitoring screen, getting closer – closer – closer by the second.

  “Have we got radial armoury on these things?” said Kearney. “Does anybody know?”

  Hunter knew the answer. “Yep, scroll down, it’s one of the few criticisms pilots had of these things. Counter-intuitive labelling in the menus. You say radial, Raptor says 360. It’s first in your menu.”

  “We’ve got to go out and help Kearney. There’s too many of them, even with random switched on. You’re outgunned, let us help.”

  Conway was genuinely concerned that Kearney would be outpaced.

  “Negative, Conway,” Kearney insisted. “I can do this. It’s going to be tight, but I’m certain I can make it. Where’s DD when you need his maths skills? One thousand metres from the perimeter, engines at max burn, fifteen Sentinels…fuck!”

  There was a massive purple explosion, the wreckage from Kearney’s Raptor went hurtling out of control over Conway’s perimeter, and then it went deathly quiet in space.

  15

  “Kearney? Kearney? Damn you, Kearney!” Conway was frustrated and disoriented.

  “Chill, Conway, it’s all good,” Hunter reassured her.

  “Stick your chill where the sun don’t shine,” Conway was genuinely angry. “I can’t lose another – we’re not losing another member of the team.”

  “We’re not losing any team members today, Conway,” said Ten, anxious to put her out of her worry. “Look out there.”

  Conway steadied herself. She’d let down her guard, which was rare for her, but after what had happened with Gallagher, she was tightly wound. She looked out into space and breathed a sigh of relief. Far off in the distance, maybe three hundred metres beyond the perimeter, Kearney floated in her power armour, still in her pilot’s seat. Silent, still and waiting were the nine remaining Sentinel Mines, lined up obediently around the perimeter as if waiting for permission to step over an invisible line.

  “I told you,” said Conway, greatly cheered now. “Engineers love round numbers, they just can’t help themselves.”

  “I’m still monitoring,” came the voice of Fernandez once again. “And that’s another spacecraft destroyed. I am counting, you know.”

  “Whoa,” said Kearney, feeling a little exposed.

  “What is it, Kearney?” Conway asked.

  Conway looked out on her colleague with relief as she deployed another of the features that a previous generation of Sol pilots had loved so much: an ejector seat option with the ability to get some basic propulsion in space. Every time she boosted the seat to move herself closer to the perimeter, the Sentinel Mines jumped but didn’t re-target her. The trace from her boosters wasn’t enough for her to be targeted.

  Kearney spoke again. “Hey, Fernandez, seeing as you’re listening in anyway. The SEVs must give out a similar negligible trace. Surely that means we can get in close and disarm these things manually?”

  “That’s good thinking, Kearney, you’re right,” said Fernandez. “They give a minimal trace, nothing like a fighter or a shuttle. I’m not sure if I’d like to be in your space boots diffusing a line of alien Sentinel Mines, though.”

  “Who says they’re alien?” said Conway. “Kilometres are a human unit of measurement, and this perimeter is ten kilometres dead. Somebody said I want a perimeter around that portal at ten k. We said it already with the Guardian units, these things originate from Earth tech. That perimeter has every sign it was put up by humans. I’d say this is the work of an Ark ship crew. Does anyone know if any Arks headed out this way?”

  “You’re right about that ten-kilometre limit, Conway,” said Mason. “Hey look, Kearney’s back. You looked like you were paddling back to shore on that thing.”

  “Ha,” said Kearney, not laughing. “It’s not the most elegant way of getting through space, but it saved my neck. And it proved Conway’s theory.”

  “Sorry to butt in, guys,” said Ten, “but am I the only one excited by the prospect of disarming these things from an SEV? Come on, everybody – party!”

  “I’ve got a right arm that’ll help with that,” said Hunter.

  “Is there anything that tin arm of yours doesn’t do?” asked Ten with genuine interest.

  “Saving kittens,” Hunter replied unexpectedly. “It’s not good at saving kittens. When I’d just got it fitted I tried to save a kitten. I hadn’t got the hang of my strength at that stage, so–”

  “Oh no, what happened?” said Conway.

  “I’m pleased to tell you I was fine,” said Hunter. “I learnt to handle the arm.”

  “I meant the kitten,” said Conway , exasperated. “What happened to the kitten?”

  Mason laughed.

  “Come on, Hunter, we’re on tenterhooks here,” said Ten.

  “Well, yes, the kitten survived, after the initial shock of a tight squeeze. She went on to live with my mum in one of the colonies. She still yowls at me whenever she sees me on a video screen.”

  Vernon’s voice crackled over the radios. “This is all very entertaining, Charlie Team, but let’s get you back to Vengeance and out on the SEVs. There’s work to do!”

  sent Fernandez, wanting to keep a low profile.

 

  Charlie Team burst out laughing in unison.

  “That’s fricking priceless, Hunter.” Mason was laughing his head off. “The meanest-looking bastard in Sol and he has a cat called Fluffykins.”

  “Hey, it’s not my cat, I t
old you that,” Hunter protested. “And I am the meanest bastard in Sol space, don’t you forget it.”

  “Reading you, Fluffykins!” Ten teased.

  “We’re ready for you in the bays when you have a moment,” said Fernandez. “And don’t forget Kearney.”

  “Yeah, who’s clipping me on?” asked Kearney. “Conway, come and get me, will you? I’ll get the smoothest ride with you.”

  The Raptors enabled an ejected pilot to clip on externally at the rear of the craft, so Kearney got a decent ride home courtesy of Conway, who – for a moment or two at least – had had to face the prospect of her friend being dead.

  “I’m gonna get some close-in footage of these Sentinel Mines and give DD and the tech team a better idea of what we’re dealing with out there,” said Mason.

  Mason stayed behind a few minutes, capturing details, diagnostics and visuals, then returned to the bay with the others. As an explosives geek, it was bliss for him.

  “Do we think it’s safe yet to send out a Sol signature ship? I mean, those things would track anything with a pulse,” said Conway as the team assembled back in the hangar.

  “Hey, are you saying my SEVs don’t have a pulse?” Fernandez replied, mock wounded by her comment.

  “I think we need to hang fire on that,” Mason picked up. “Let’s deal with the mines first, then explore beyond the perimeter. After what happened to Colossus, we can’t risk it. We’ve made great progress.”

  “Agreed, Marine,” said Stansfield, striding into the bay with Vernon at his side. “Solid work out there. Too much dicking around for my tastes, though. Hunter, what was that shit you put into the Raptor?”

  “It was a VR game mod, sir. From Deadly Mission 3, they use it on the Gazelles. It’s a great game.”

  “Enough, Hunter! Did you ever consider how a piece of black hat code from that action arm of yours might compromise the ship? Has it been checked for viruses or malware? Do you know where the mod came from?”

  Hunter had been caught with his dick in his hand. He considered telling Stansfield that Fluffykins had gone on to live a full and purposeful life, filled with adoration and plentiful mice, and that it was cause to celebrate. But even he didn’t need a fancy cybernetic arm to tell him to keep his mouth shut.

  “You give me one inkling that you’re going to endanger our people with that thing,” said Stansfield, “and I’ll tear it off and give it to Fernandez for scrap. You got that?”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Now, that said, how can that cybernetic arm assist with the mines?”

  Hunter snickered under his breath. Stansfield resented him, but recognised that he couldn’t do without him. And however suspect the code, he’d got them all out of a scrape.

  “My arm has been designed for complete steadiness, sir. High-speed auto-stabilisers make it excellent for taking detonators out of mines.” He picked up a screwdriver and balanced it on the tip of one finger to demonstrate. “It can interpret my thoughts and compensate for the vibration of the ship, and my breathing and me speaking, and remain perfectly balanced.”

  “My ship does not vibrate,” muttered Admiral Stansfield defensively.

  “I have the data from my arm’s sensors, sir,” said Hunter. “It vibrates.” He was going to add also good for safe-breaking, but thought Stansfield might tear off his lower arm and have Fernandez add it to one of the SEVs as an indicator if he provoked him any further.

  “You’ve picked out your next role already, Charlie Team. Marine X and Hunter, I want you out there on the mines. This looks like an ideal task for two smart-arse criminals looking to pay their debt to society. Kearney and Mason, you take them out in your Raptors and provide backup if it’s needed. Bring them back if they survive.”

  “We don’t get our own Raptors, sir?” Ten asked.

  “No, you don't. I want some left for later, and at the rate you SBS Jonnies are destroying my complement of ships, I'll soon have nothing but empty hangars,” said Stansfield.

  “We'll take the SEVs, then,” Hunter said.

  “You certainly won't. If you screw up the disarming, we'll lose a valuable vehicle. No, for you two it's a few kilometres of travel, safely secured to a Raptor. You're more than trained enough to handle that, and you've just ably demonstrated it's perfectly feasible with Kearney. Switch to engineering power armour, though, it's more capable for the task,” Stansfield ordered.

  “How about me, sir?” Conway asked, visibly pissed off at being left out.

  “You’re with Davies and Fernandez. Next time that portal opens, we’re going to try and re-establish comms with Sol. We need our best pilot on that. I want you on standby in case the window is shorter this time again,” Stansfield replied. “That's if it opens at all,” he added.

  Stansfield looked around at Charlie Team and nodded. “Good luck, troopers.” Then he was gone, with Vernon following in his wake.

  “Careful out there, boys,” Conway said to Ten and Hunter, who were already itching to head out.

  “Hey, what happens to the world if two of the Commonwealth's finest Penal troopers get blown up by nine motherfucker alien mines?” Hunter joked.

  “I don’t know,” Conway replied. “Make sure it doesn’t happen, right?”

  “We mourn the loss of the mines,” said Kearney quietly. Hunter glared at her, but she stared back, face blank.

  “Bugger me, that was dark,” said Ten.

  “And it’s not funny,” said Conway as Hunter grinned. “Do you see me laughing?”

  “Stansfield’s a prick,” said Hunter with a shrug. “We did good work out there, and he’s on my case fretting about shitty mod code. It got the job done, no lives lost. What’s his beef?”

  “I hate to sound like your wise Aunt Lucy–” Ten began.

  “I don’t have an Aunt Lucy.”

  “Hey, I’m bonding here, Hunter, cut me some slack. I’m loathe to admit it, but Stansfield’s right. Even as a one hundred per cent dyed-in-the-wool, break the rules kinda guy, it was reckless to put untested code on the network that risked bringing Vengeance down and crippling our mission,” said Ten, and the bay fell silent as they watched the two Penal Marines square off.

  The moment lasted only a few seconds, then Hunter nodded, and the tension bled away.

  “Yeah, point made,” said Hunter, hands raised. “I’ll get it checked out, cleared for combat and all that. Truth is, Stansfield doesn’t know half the stuff I can do with this thing.”

  “Your private life is your own business,” said Ten, “but if it affects the mission, we need to know, right? So how about you let all of us know what it can do for Charlie Team, eh? Other than help us play decades-old games.”

  “Right,” agreed Hunter. Then he grinned. “Are you ready to get your hands dirty with some explosive alien shit?”

  Ten shook his head, “You're the one with the magic wand. I'll bring the toolkit, and you can play with the bombs.” He was warming to Hunter, but he could see why Stansfield considered him a loose cannon. Ten had furrowed the brows of many a superior officer in his time, but Hunter was a new level of agitation.

  But Hunter was good in the field, he played nice with the others, and he was a good laugh. As far as Ten was concerned, he could talk all the bollocks he wanted, as long as he did the job of an SBS team member. There was something that still bothered him, though.

  “Can you lot stop calling this crap alien? We thought the Deathless were aliens for a day or two, but they weren't either. Everything we've encountered is based on human tech, so unless you find something with a tentacle or six eyes, it's not likely to be alien, okay?” Ten said.

  “How about Advanced Line Iterated Equipment Non Sol, then?” Davies suggested.

  It took a second, but he got a good round of laughter.

  16

  “Have you any experience with mines?” Hunter asked on a private channel.

  “Anti-spaceship mines and their disarmament, anti-personnel mines and their use in ground w
arfare, denial of access using anti-vehicle mines, or just mines in general?” Ten asked.

  “Any. All. Anything that you can do other than just watch me work would be handy to know. If I'm going to explain my arm to you all, you could do the same,” Hunter replied.

  “I've done plenty of demolitions and bomb disposal in my time, but mostly landmines and terrorist weapons. I've done courses on minefields in space, but the plan was always about how to get through them to reach a target. I've never had to disarm anything like this. How about you?”

  “Some. I’ll bet Stansfield read my criminal record. That’s probably why he looks so tired and grey-faced all the time.”

  “No judgement here, Hunter,” Ten reassured him. “We’ve both done some serious shit to get where we are. I wish Stansfield didn’t have such a downer on us brig-bunnies, though. I mean, what’s not to love?”

  Hunter and Ten were closing on the ten-kilometre perimeter. Fernandez had warned them not to take too many detours. The suits were designed for use outside a ship, but they weren’t suitable for flying through space for long periods.

  Mason and Kearney had dropped them off as close as possible, then retreated five kilometres to wait for them. If the Sentinel mines were somehow kicked into a different operational mode and crossed the threshold to pursue the Raptors, they'd need a head start to respond and make their escape.

  “Not that I don’t trust you boys,” said Kearney, “but we’ll sit out here well beyond the blast zone. Shout if you need a hand. Mason will be happy to come to your aid.”

  “I’d rather be out there with them,” said Mason, genuinely pissed to be left out of an explosives situation. “It’s a bit dull just sitting here in space. I’ve got this lovely Raptor at my disposal and nothing to do with it.”

  “Stay alert, Charlie Team,” Stansfield’s voice came over the radio. “We’ve got the portal opening once again, we’re going to try and establish a radio link hop while you’re out there. Keep your eyes wide open, we’ll shout if we need you.”

  Hunter and Ten arrived at the Sentinel Mines. They looked even more sinister up close.