by M. D. Cooper
Peering down at the panther, he was reminded of images he’d seen of hunter-kill drones that the Psion AIs had used in the first Sentience War. He supposed it made sense that there would be similarities, since most of the core AIs had left Sol in the thirtieth and thirty-first century.
Terrance nodded wordlessly, following after the TSF officer. He hadn’t even noticed the explosions from the ground-huggers, but the combat net showed that the missiles had taken out nine of the panthers.
The group advanced as quickly as they dared and had made it five hundred meters—Terrance having been moved to the fore while the TSF soldiers covered the rear—when Sue called out.
Four soldiers rushed past Terrance, and he followed after, curious to see what Sue had found. She was a few meters ahead, crouched at the edge of one of the crevasses.
A moment later, she slipped over the edge, and as he drew near, he saw that she’d landed on a ledge several meters down, where a door was mounted into the cliff wall.
Sue had her stealth activated, though it was only giving her partial coverage with the dust they were covered in. Still, it was enough to delay a turret from spotting her, and she slapped a hand on it, deploying a breach kit before it could open fire.
The combat net flashed an alert that she’d deployed drones. Terrance watched their feeds as they drifted through the door and into a wide, airless passageway. A quick radar burst later, and the tunnel mapped out on the combat net. So far as Terrance could tell, it was a straight shot to the center of the crater.
Once Terrance was on the ledge, he stepped to the side and let the soldiers land and enter the tunnel first. He felt a twinge of guilt for allowing them take the lead, but also knew that if he went ahead, they wouldn’t thank him for it.
Sometime, it would be nice to be just a soldier and not the precious cargo.
Then the view was obscured by the rest of the squad approaching, soldiers leaping over the edge and barreling into the tunnel.
Terrance couldn’t help but notice that there were four fewer members of the squad than there’d been a few minutes ago.
The soldiers all rushed past Terrance, and he tapped their feeds from a minute ago to see what they were running from.
What he saw set him off running as well.
Low-profile, armored mechs were approaching from all sides. They carried ten-centimeter guns and bore armor that the TSF loadouts could barely scratch.
He nodded wordlessly and pulled his arm away, reaching speeds of a hundred kilometers per hour, trailing just behind the soldiers who were spread out along the wide corridor, firing at anything that looked suspicious, though nothing had fired back as yet.
A few seconds later, vibrations shook the ground, and rounds streaked past from behind them.
Terrance obeyed without question. The instant he hit the ground, sliding along the passage’s floor, a blast of plasma flared overhead, and then a concussive wave picked him up and bowled him over.
His armor responded by sending a signal for his muscles to relax before forcibly folding him over into a fetal position. He felt like a bowling ball, and wondered when he was going to hit the pins.
When he finally stopped rolling, despite his mods and the armor’s ability to stabilize his body, it took several long seconds to figure out which way was up.
Standing on shaky legs, he looked around, identifying the remaining members of the squad and then Sue.
Sue, unfazed by being spun around like a top, gave Terrance a light-hearted slap on the shoulder.
The AI said it on the open combat net, and a chorus of exclamations came from the squad.
Sue shrugged.
The lieutenant whistled and then signaled that they should catch up with the squad, as soldiers were approaching the end of the tunnel.
Amazing what running at breakneck speed and then being blasted down a tunnel by an antimatter explosion will do for covering ground.
Ahead, Terrance saw that the end of the tunnel was—for lack of a better word—gone. Twisted sections of bulkhead were bent out around the sides, and as he drew closer, he could see the remains of a catwalk that had been torn away.
Beyond was a large cavern, one that appeared natural in formation, but was now filled with a host of equipment. He could make out several banks of SC batteries, a field of CriEn modules, and a number of massive NSAI nodes.
The soldiers took up positions along the sides of the tunnel, staying out of sight as their few remaining drones eased toward the edge to supply a better view.
Terrance’s own armor was going through a cleaning process, removing dust and debris and repairing damage to the stealth systems. A message on his HUD showed that his stealth was only forty percent effective, and he didn’t have hopes of it getting over sixty anytime soon.
Sue’s armor had fared considerably better, and she moved to the edge of the drop.
&n
bsp;
They waited for several minutes, Terrance growing more and more apprehensive, worried that something was going to arrive to investigate the blast and discover the squad hunkered down near the end of the tunnel.
He was beginning to wonder if something had happened to Sue, when a tightbeam came from the cave’s floor, relaying off one of the TSF squad’s drones.
Terrance wasn’t prepared to be so certain. He expected to see an ascended AI rise out of the center of the cavern and smite them at any moment.
Though I suppose that’s a part of why Sue has the antimatter.
Terrance looked over the cavern, noting that even on the far side, a kilometer distant, the squad’s sensors were picking up panther drones, plus a few of the heavier tank-like varieties.
Four of the soldiers crept back down the tunnel, sending a single tick on the comms when they found the door. The rest of the soldiers waited for a tense two minutes until the corporal called up, sending the message through a relay in the passage they took.
A marker appeared on the combat net for the team’s destination, and Lieutenant Jordan sent another team down before gesturing for Terrance to follow her.
The passage was a long ramp with two switchbacks. At the bottom lay the panther-like drone, and Terrance felt his skin crawl, walking so close to the thing.
Once out of the access passage, the soldiers spread out, taking up several defensive positions on the cave’s floor. Jordan and Terrance settled in with fireteam one while Sue continued on alone to the closest NSAI node.
The teams went comms silent, no one speaking or moving while Sue got into position to undertake the data extraction. Every so often, a panther would pass by on a patrol, but the teams had found enough cover, and their stealth armor had repaired well enough, that none were spotted.
Terrance was surprised that the panthers hadn’t gone up to check the tunnel, but he supposed that the machines assumed that the explosion had proven fatal for the intruders.
That thought gnawed at him. In his experience, non-sentient systems didn’t ‘assume’ things. They checked and verified. Which meant that either they’d somehow escaped detection, or they’d been spotted and the enemy was waiting for them to make their move. Or the repair drones were all that had been dispatched, and when Sue had disabled them, it had signaled an all-clear.
I hate this part.
He turned his attention to the combat net and saw that, thus far, the TSF soldiers had spotted over a hundred panthers in the chamber, easily enough to take out the small group of humans and their AI companion. That knowledge did not make him feel any better.
She highlighted a spot twenty meters away at the edge of the chamber, and he nodded in response, glad that at least they wouldn’t have to go back through the tunnel and dig their way out.
The next five minutes passed uneventfully, at the end of which, Sue came back on the combat net, announcing her success.
he replied.
By the time Sue made it back to Terrance and Jordan’s position, fireteam two had reached the shaft leading to the surface and were in the process of scaling it. Once they reached the top and secured their immediate surroundings, the rest of the squad followed after.
Ten minutes later, the entire team was on the surface, hunkered down in the lee of several low structures. The purpose of most was indiscernible, but a few had doors on the end that were just the right size for panthers.
Despite the lieutenant’s orders, double-timing it still saw the squad only halfway to cover when the antenna array half a kilometer behind them came to life.
At full power, it blasted a ‘Here we are, come get us,’ into space, and Sue gave an embarrassed laugh over the combat net.
No one replied, and a few moments followed where nothing happened, and the squad began to move toward their target. They were still a hundred meters away when the low buildings behind them began to spew panthers.
DURGEN FLIGHT
STELLAR DATE: 10.12.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Durgen Station
REGION: Karaske System, Rimward of Orion Nebula, Orion Freedom Alliance
Joe raced through Durgen Station’s corridors, trusting his stealth armor to keep him out of sight as much as possible, though not overly concerned if he slammed into the odd evacuating citizen.
A squad of ISF Marines followed behind, also stealthed and only taking moderate care for any civilians they might collide with as they worked to keep up with their admiral.
The Marines had landed at one of the locations where the Widow shuttles had accessed the station. Joe had hoped his daughters would use it for an egress point, but when they breached the station, they found no one in the bay—other than a company of Orion soldiers.
Two squads had remained to fight the enemy and secure the bay on the off chance that Cary and Saanvi showed up, while the remaining two squads split up. Joe led his to the bay where the second Widow shuttle had docked, while the fourth squad moved toward an ops center were there had been reports of fighting.
His gut told him that that the reports were old—at least by several minutes—and that he’d do better trying to get ahe
ad of Cary and Saanvi rather than trailing after.
With that thought firmly in mind, he rounded a corner, turning onto a wider concourse, only to find it packed with civilians who were all trying to get past a station security barricade fifty meters to his left.
On the far side of the temporary barricades, he could see the entrance to the ring’s port district. Based on the information he had, the bay he needed to reach was just a kilometer beyond that point.
Joe looked the direction she was pointing and saw four station security cars settle down on the deck, disgorging just eight officers who were immediately consumed with trying to control the crowds rushing toward the barricade.
I’d sure hate to be these cops when they have to report what’s going to happen next.
* * * * *
A1 stared silently at the clone of General Garza as he strode toward her. He stopped when he was just three meters away and shook his head.
“What are you doing, Lisa? …If that is really you. Animus is convinced it’s not.”
“Animus is wrong,” A1 replied in a calm voice. “Not only that, but it has been working against you, Garza. He’s turned you and your clones into puppets, dancing on his strings.”
“I see you with one of my clones, A1,” he said, nodding to the General Garza who stood behind her. “From what I can see, he’s a puppet, and you’re the one pulling strings.”