Incursion

by Paul Teague

  The channel was silent for a moment.

  “I think you’re right,” said Stansfield with a grudging respect. “They have the firepower to snuff us out, so this isn’t about destruction. This is a full-scale incursion.”

  “It’s a damned weird way of doing it,” said Vernon.

  “Life would be dull if nobody tried anything new,” said Stansfield. “Prepare to repel boarders.”

  “Will do,” said Vernon grimly, leaving the bridge to prepare his small contingent of Marines.

  “Davies, Conway,” said Stansfield. “I could really use that radio link back home.”

  “Working on it, sir,” said Davies.

  “Well, work faster, damnit,” snapped Stansfield. “The situation is deteriorating.”

  “Oh, shit,” said Ten as the Mechs began to move and spread out in waves. “They’re heading your way, Vengeance.”

  18

  “Status report, Mr Fernandez?” Stansfield’s voice boomed from the radio.

  “We’re seven SEVs down, we count at least thirty more clusters, I don’t know how they’re able to send out so many of these things.”

  “And have you managed to trial radio comms yet? How are Conway and Davies doing out there?”

  “They’re on the other side of the portal, sir, running a relay test to Kingdom 10. Based on the last timings, the portal will be closing again soon. We have to sit it out for a while until it opens up again.”

  “Keep me informed, Lieutenant.”

  Out in the field, Ten and Hunter were working well with the SEV teams from Vengeance. Hunter had taken to battering the Mechs, flying into them to knock them from their discs. His SEV was covered in abandoned Mech discs, held in place by some mechanism that Ten didn’t understand. He stared at them for a few seconds, scrabbling to work out what he was missing.

  “No remote,” he murmured suddenly as realisation dawned. “They need to be in contact. Hunter, get them off the discs and they’re helpless.”

  “I’m way ahead of you, mate, but I don’t see how we win this.”

  “I reckon we can kill the whole group by hitting the Bosses. You up for it?”

  “Sounds like a plan. How about those guys over there? The cheeky buggers are trying to break away and head for Vengeance.”

  “You’re right, Hunter, they have a strategy. Okay, try not to hit one of the general Mechs, I want a direct hit on a Boss, okay? I’m going in as bait.”

  Ten’s SEV roared across the path of the cluster, and they were immediately on him, turning to follow. Ten slowed, allowing them to catch up. He’d seen what they’d done to Conway, trying to break into her Raptor rather than destroy it. They’d looked like a savage salvage team, setting about her vehicle before he and Hunter had sent them flying into space.

  “Careful, Ten,” Hunter warned. “I can’t shoot if they’re on your SEV, I don’t want to kill my new buddy.”

  “You focus on the Boss,” said Ten. “Leave his guardians to me.”

  He closed his canopy, securing the vehicle, then slowed his SEV until he felt the Mech’s discs lock onto the side of the craft. They were all over his ship; he could feel the vibrations from their saws as they began to cut their way inside. And for the first time, he got a real close-up look at the enemy through the SEV’s external cameras.

  “Are you seeing this, Vengeance?”

  “Following, Marine X, report what you see,” said Vernon.

  “These things are about ninety per cent Mech and ten per cent human. Can you see the detail on the images you’re getting? Some of them have human faces inside their helmets, and some have other body parts too. That one has an eye and an arm inside his suit. They’re trying to strip my SEV of parts.”

  “Confirming your analysis, Marine X, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Stansfield.

  “Hey, I got your Boss,” said Hunter. “Do you see any change?”

  Ten had. The Mechs had paused, frozen in place for less than a second. The Mech that was just above him, the one trying to remove the glass canopy of his SEV, transformed in front of him, gaining the purple light that indicated its new status. The new Boss went back to its disc and moved to the side of the ship, back into flight, leaving the rest to carry on their work.

  “False hypothesis, Vengeance,” Ten said. “I thought we could disable a cluster by shooting the Boss. Turns out they just elect a new one.”

  “Say more,” said Stansfield. “What do you mean?”

  “The Boss Mechs are like cluster leaders, but they’re interchangeable. The role is reassigned if a Boss is killed.”

  There was a heavy thud on the side of Ten’s SEV. Hunter had arrived, and the two SEVs were holding station, locked together like lovers in a desperate clinch.

  “I don’t know if you noticed,” said Hunter, “but your SEV’s getting stripped by Mechs. Back to work, Marine. On my mark … three, two, one, open.”

  Ten and Hunter popped the canopies of the SEVs. One of the Mechs lost its footing and tumbled away, arms flapping as it floated slowly into space.

  Its comrades swarmed across the surface of Ten’s SEV, some slicing at the metal, others racing to reach Hunter. One reached into the cockpit, leaning in to flail an arm at Ten, groping for something it could seize in its mechanical fist.

  “Gngh!” said Ten as he leaned away. The Mech followed him, slithering into the cockpit on its belly. Ten grabbed at his pistol and hammered at the Mech’s faceplate, forcing it back far enough that he could place the barrel under the thing’s chin. He squeezed the trigger and repeatedly shot the Mech until it crumpled and released its grip on the SEV to float away in a swirling cloud of rapidly-freezing bodily fluids.

  “Too fucking close,” said Ten as he holstered his pistol and grabbed his rifle, “and these things have brains.”

  Hunter stood on the outside of his SEV, held in place by the magnetic boots of his power armour. “I dunno, they don't seem all that bright to me,” he replied as he shot two of the Mechs, rifle eerily silent in the darkness of the interstellar void. “Hey, robo guts look super cool in space,” he said with a grin.

  “I meant actual brains. They're definitely not robots. If we weren't in vacuum I'd be splattered with grey matter right now.”

  “SEV teams, withdraw to Vengeance,” said Stansfield. “They’re sending out more clusters, hundreds of them. Get back to the ship.”

  “Time to go,” said Hunter as he fired at the Mechs swarming Ten’s SEV.

  “Watch your rear, Hunter,” said Ten, struggling to escape his chair, secure his safety line and bring his weapon to bear. “You’ve got one at your back.”

  Hunter turned, boots still clamped on the SEV’s surface, as three Mechs clambered over him, tightening their grip until he could barely move. His power armour fought against the Mechs but, working together, they were too strong.

  “Help,” he squealed, rifle firing uselessly into space as the Mechs grappled with him. Then they ripped the weapon from his grasp and tossed it away.

  Ten, his line finally secured, pushed himself out of his seat and brought his rifle to bear. He emptied the rest of his magazine into the closest Mech; then his line snapped taut and he floated in space, ten metres from his SEV as the fight played out before him.

  “Why aren’t they shooting at us?” he yelled, slamming a new magazine into his rifle and trying to choose a target.

  Then a new vehicle came into view and, just for a moment, Ten thought Vengeance had sent a shuttle to rescue them.

  But as its manoeuvring thrusters fired to settle the craft neatly between Ten and the SEVs, he realised it wasn’t a Royal Navy ship at all.

  Out of sight, Hunter growled and screamed curses at the Mechs. Ten fired on the enemy vessel, hoping to draw their attention from Hunter, but his efforts had no discernible effect.

  Then the craft’s thrusters fired again, and it slid sedately away before turning to head back to the giant sphere. Ten could only watch as the ship’s main engines fired
to take it and the Mechs home.

  And when he turned back to look at the SEVs, Hunter was gone.

  The only indication he’d ever been there was a hole in his SEV, where the Mechs had cut him loose from the surface.

  19

  On the bridge of Vengeance, the situation was hardly any better. Admiral Stansfield watched the vid-screens as alerts came in from across the ship.

  “There are hundreds of them,” said Vernon from his post in the main bay. “External sensors show them swarming across the hull. They’re all over the outside of the ship.”

  Stansfield would never have believed it if he hadn’t seen it for himself. The Mechs were landing in huge numbers and using some sort of magnetic clamps to traverse the hull.

  “Brace for breach,” said Stansfield. “Secure the bridge, lock down all systems. Mr Yau, I want to know the minute the portal reopens.”

  “Ay, sir, monitoring for any sign of activity,” said Yau.

  “Give me a status report on the SEVs,” said Stansfield.

  “Only two left, sir,” said Midshipman Henry. “Trooper Hunter and Marine X. All the others are silent.”

  Stansfield nodded as he absorbed the news. In all his years of command, he’d never seen anything like it. Hundreds of Mechs were attaching themselves to the sides of Vengeance, and the metallic tapping of their fingers could be heard as they crawled all over the outside of the battleship, looking for a way in.

  “Close the bays, Mr Fernandez,” he said, opening a channel to the main bay, “they’re our most vulnerable point.”

  “We still have SEVs out there, Admiral. And Davies and Conway too, they’re stranded on the other side of the portal …”

  “I’m well aware of that, Lieutenant,” said Stansfield. “Lock down the bays, that’s an order.” He switched channels before Fernandez could argue further. “Commander Vernon, report.”

  “We have squads standing ready to repel boarders in each bay and covering all entrances on every level of the ship. All non-essential personnel are armed and deployed, and the firewall protocols have been enacted on all essential operating systems and power sources. Bridge fortifications are active and ready to be implemented on your order. In short, we’re ready for the buggers if they breach the hull, sir.”

  “What about vents and exhaust systems? These things are everywhere, like ants.”

  “Fernandez has teams on it, sir. Nothing more to do but wait.”

  “There’ll be no twiddling thumbs today, Commander. Keep everyone on their toes, and get me a status report on our pilots – how many still active and how many wounded?”

  “Twenty-seven pilots lost with their craft, three wounded, sir. Kearney and Mason from Charlie Team made it back. Conway and Davies are working on the comms link. Marine X's link shows him to be alive.”

  “And Hunter?” asked Stansfield.

  “Nothing, sir, he’s offline.”

  “Keep me informed, Commander,” said Stansfield. Then he closed the channel and reviewed the monitors. Things weren’t looking good.

  “Sir, the sphere is broadcasting,” said Lieutenant Yau, Vengeance’s science officer. “They started when the Mechs were launched.”

  “Broadcasting, Mr Yau?” asked Stansfield, leaning forward in his chair.

  “A slow pulse, sir, not on one of our normal communications frequencies. I believe it’s meant to go unnoticed, but we caught it whilst scanning the Mechs to try to figure out how they communicate.”

  “And your conclusion, Mr Yau?” said Stansfield, trying to keep his frustration in check. Like all science officers, Yau seemed to have a limited appreciation for urgent strategic situations.

  “I think it’s a pulse given out to mark the position of their main control. It just carries on every fifteen seconds, and doesn’t seem to influence the Mechs or the Firewall Sphere in any way.”

  “Can we make any use of this information, Lieutenant?” said Stansfield. “Maybe by disrupting the signal?”

  “Maybe, sir,” said Yau with a frown as he thought it through. “But I’m not sure what impact it might have. From a scientific perspective, it’s interesting to know that the enemy need to communicate and that they do it in an open way.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” said Stansfield, more calmly than he felt. “If you find a way to disrupt the signal, please go ahead.”

  “Ay, sir, I’ll work on that now.”

  “Commander Vernon,” said Stansfield, dismissing Yau’s information as an unhelpful distraction, “can we make contact with Conway or Marine X?”

  “Hailing Marine X now, sir,” said Vernon. “Open channel.”

  “Hey, I thought you’d forgotten all about me,” said Ten. “You seem to be covered in Mechs, Vengeance.”

  “Vengeance fights on, Marine,” said Vernon. “What’s your status?”

  “My SEV is damaged but still usable. Ammunition still plentiful. The flow of Mechs from the Firewall Sphere seems to have stopped, so it looks like that’s your lot for now.”

  “Anything else to report on the Sphere?” said Stansfield. “Our intel is seriously limited.”

  “Nothing to report, sir. It looks for all the world like a giant spherical dustbin I once saw at a music festival in my spotty youth. I don't suppose that helps much. Difficult to get a sense of size from here, but I’d estimate battleship size.”

  “We concur,” Stansfield replied, looking to Yau for confirmation.

  “The Sphere is a little over five hundred metres in diameter,” said the science officer, “with an internal volume of sixty-five million cubic metres. There could be thousands of Mechs on the Sphere.”

  “And it has a main cannon that can destroy a battleship like Colossus,” said Ten. “Any idea why they haven’t just blown us out of space?”

  There was a pause before Stansfield replied.

  “We concur with your earlier suggestion that they wish to capture Vengeance rather than destroy her. Do you have a sit rep on Hunter?”

  “The Mechs took him. They cyborg-napped him, as it were,” said Ten. “Did something to his armour, bundled him into a transport, and returned to the Sphere. He was alive when I last saw him.”

  “Capture it is, then,” said Stansfield quietly. “Hunter is lost, defending Vengeance until the portal reopens is our priority. Return immediately.”

  “Sorry, sir,” came the voice of Ten, suddenly quiet and wobbly. “You’re breaking up. Can you rep–”

  “Marine X? Marine X, answer,” snapped Stansfield. He glared at Midshipman Staunch at the comms desk. “What happened?”

  “Running diagnostics, sir,” said Staunch with a confused frown. “Nothing wrong at all, sir. We’re still linked to Marine X’s SEV, he should be able to hear us.”

  Stansfield stared at the monitors, shaking his head as the view showed a lone SEV powering toward the Sphere.

  “Bloody Marines,” muttered Stansfield. Then he turned his full attention to the Mechs that crowded the hull of his ship.

  “Sorry, sir,” whispered Ten. He paused to make clicking noises with his tongue. “You’re breaking up. Can you rep.”

  He stopped and muted his microphone. It was an old trick, and he knew the admiral wouldn’t fall for it, but there was no way he was getting back to Vengeance alive, not with all those Mechs crawling outside it.

  Not that he blamed the admiral. He understood that Stansfield’s only choice was to order his return to the ship, but even if he survived the journey and fought his way to a door, they couldn’t let him in without also admitting the Mechs, and that was never going to happen.

  “Sphere it is,” he said to himself, looking back at his SEV as he floated on the end of his line. He switched his HUD to take stock. An alert from the SEV warned of low power and oxygen reserves. “Shit.”

  He tugged on the line and floated back to the SEV. Hunter’s craft sat alongside, dormant and open, and in much better condition than Ten’s vehicle.

  “Time to move, Marine,” said Ten.
He activated his magnetic boots and manoeuvred himself into his SEV. “Ammunition, weapons, oxygen,” he muttered as he pulled items from his craft and attached them to his armour or gathered them in his arms.

  Then he stepped out of the SEV, walked carefully across the hull to Hunter’s less damaged craft, and slipped into the seat. The canopy slid closed, and he gave the controls a little nudge to get clear of the other SEV.

  Ten looked across the void at the Sphere that now held Hunter. The likelihood of death out here, so far from home, was high whatever he did, and there was little chance of his backup ever being found. If that happened, he would eventually be redeployed, but with no idea what had happened since he’d left New Bristol.

  For a few long seconds, Ten stared at Vengeance. The only humans for hundreds of light-years were in there, safe at the moment, as far as he could tell, but outmanned and outgunned and a long way from help. The Mechs would get in eventually, and when they did, the small teams on Vengeance wouldn’t last long.

  If he was going to die in the cold void of space, he may as well try to pick up a little intel before he croaked.

  “Fuck that shit,” said Ten to nobody in particular. He pushed away all thoughts of death and focussed on the Sphere. “One problem at a time,” he muttered. “Hold on, Hunter, I’m coming for you.”

  He punched the SEV’s controls and felt the gentle kick as the engine fired, starting him on his voyage to the Sphere.

  “Marine X, come in,” said a voice. Ten almost opened his mic, but he didn’t need new orders at the moment. He said nothing and concentrated on the Sphere.

  “This is Mason,” said the voice. “If you’re out there, there are still three Marines in damaged SEVs. We don’t know if they’re alive, but you’re their only hope. Good luck.” Then a file landed in his HUD: a flight plan with coordinates of the three unfortunates.