"It is a prayer," Tarafau sent to her. "They are petitioning The Creator of All Things for victory over evil in the multiverse and in their hearts. They are giving thanks for the abundance of life and beauty. They are asking for strength and courage. They are also praying for the Groga, that they will have a change of heart, that they might not have to destroy them."
As the music stopped the vibration hung shimmering in the air for a moment. As one, all of them, including Tarafau and her Guards, extended a fist in front of them and placed them on their heart. Jenny and the rest solemnly copied the gesture. After a moment of complete silence, one of the commanders sent. "To the boats by ranks."
The ranks peeled off one at a time and they walked to the water's edge where the boats had been tied. At no time had the Troopers marched in unison while in the rainforest. They made less noise when walking at a staggered pace as they would have if just hiking with a group.
Once Tarafau had handed Jenny into their boat and she had seated herself, she got Lizziebot out of her MDP per instructions. She didn't have to brief Lizzie, as she had access to the same stream of information that the other bots had, plus her own connection to Sanglarka and Jenny's phone. Lizziebot also was linked to the "bug" Burt had installed in her hand. Part of her programming was that if Jenny was in a situation that the bot couldn't get her out of, the bot was to immediately report to Sanglarka for further instructions.
They started down the river. At one point Jenny had trailed her fingers in the water beside her, but Tarafau had reached out and grabbed her hand firmly, pulling it out of the river. "You don't want to do that. The water seems peaceful, but my research…" and he trailed off, nodding out to the river. Jenny's eyes widened as she saw coils of something very large undulating alongside the boats. It appeared to be as long as the boat and thicker than Tarafau's thighs.
It was no trouble after that to keep her hands well inside the protection of the boat.
The river curved to the right or left as they went, sometimes drifting them under canopies of trees that blocked out most of the light, but mostly they were exposed to the baking sun and the dense humidity that permeated the rainforests of the Amazon basin. It would have been completely quiet, if it weren't for the various calls, hoots, whistles and sometimes roars and shrieks that emanated from the vegetation that surrounded the river. The boat's engines made almost no sound, and no one spoke aloud, as instructed.
They didn't stop to eat, relying on prepared rations stored in their MDPs when they were hungry.
Jenny watched the bank slip by. It would have been hypnotic, if it wasn't for the fact that each stretch of bank held new and interesting things to see, or that they were on their way to a battle where many might possibly be seriously injured or lose their lives. Jenny would have found the trip almost pleasant, with the exception of the buzzing insects, some of which were not deterred by the insect repellent and the overpowering heat.
All heads were covered with brimmed hats, but that only shaded their faces from the sun. It did nothing to stop them from sweating until every hat was ringed with sweat around the headband, even soaking out towards the brim.
The boats had been equipped with a kind of porta-potty cubicle. Unlike other public toilets of this type, there was no terrible smell. Waste was simply evaporated with no telltale odor or dumping it into the river. One blessing at least. This meant that they didn't have to stop the boats at all on their journey until night fell, since each had been provided with rations in their MDP.
They wouldn't travel in the dark. Night was when most of the big predators came out, especially on and along the river, and lights on the boats would give them away to anyone who might be watching.
The first day passed with no incidents of any importance. They had seen wildlife as they floated past the banks faster than Jenny had expected. These weren't speed boats, but they were way faster than they could have walked. The fastest pace they could sustain on the march was about 3-4 miles per hour. The boats covered 25 miles in that same amount of time. Since they weren't going "as the crow flies,” they had a lot more than the 150 or so miles to travel, but they would still reach their destination in a couple of days, since they didn't have to make any stops except to sleep.
Jenny found herself wondering how they could go so far without refueling. Burt explained, "We aren't using standard fuel, such as you understand it. These boats could go a year or more without having to pay attention to fuel. If we have issues at all, it won't be because we need to look for a service station."
Jenny had to let herself be content with that. Her mind was far too focused on the impending mission to wrap her head around dimensional science. It was hard enough to mentally prepare herself for a new experience she had never coveted. Of all of the adventures she had imagined herself pursuing, going into battle against alien beings in a jungle had not been on the list.
The morning of the second day, Jenny assiduously applied her sunscreen, jammed her hat on her head and left with Lyra, Nona, Mynn and Tarafau in tow. Lizziebot hovered beside her as well. She was on print speech mode to comply with the no verbal speech orders. When she would speak to Jenny, her digital face would disappear, and a text readout would replace her smiling face and those intense blue eyes.
During the previous day, once she was finally able to relax, Jenny had amused herself by asking Lizzie questions about the things they saw. Lizzie was a fount of information. She had noticed, after a while, Lyra, Nona and Mynn were peering over her shoulder as well to see what Lizzie had to say. The tiny pop-out touch keyboard that extended from Lizzie's chest made it easy to have a silent conversation.
The forest around them was noisy. The birds and creatures of the forest greeted the day with loud contact calls, bird-song, shrieks and what almost sounded like laughter. And, of course, the insects contributed buzzing and something that sounded a lot like the little drones Brendan was so fond of. Jenny really didn't want to see the insect that made that noise.
The Trooper who had been bitten by the Wandering Spider had since recovered, but Jenny still was very careful to not sit or stand too close to the vegetation where they were known to hide. Burt claimed that snakes wouldn't attack people unless you frightened them, but Jenny still couldn't repress a shudder when she heard the dry, rasping sound of a snake or lizard slithering through the underbrush.
Back in the boats, they began their journey again. This time, however, instead of sitting in silence most of the way, Gariel began to relay the reports of the bots, broadcasting via mindspeech to everyone in each boat. They were nearly there. They would pause in their trip about halfway through the day in a clearing about a half day's march from the nearest Groga sentry. The bots had plotted a map of the occupied area, including marking out the location of the portal.
While in the clearing, all would put on their battle armor and ready their arms. Jenny was relieved to discover that the battle armor was actually air-conditioned and treated in such a way that casual surveillance methods such as radar would not detect them on their approach.
They had issued Jenny something that looked like a blaster out of a space opera. After demonstrating its use, they had been impressed with her accuracy. She was no sharp-shooter, to be sure, but her dad had taken the kids out to the weapons range fairly often to teach them gun-safety and to be sure they could defend themselves that way. Jenny had never chosen to own a gun, but she knew one end from the other. She could hit a target, but she wasn't sure how accurate she would be when she was running or when the target was moving too fast.
Gariel told them that the bots had also determined that the portals did work via a device. These devices had been issued to each of the platoon commanders. The first part of their mission was to acquire one or more of those devices, preferably without alerting the Groga of their presence. The second priority would be to discover what dimension the portal was pointed at. Once they were able to provide Alliance scientists with a device to study, they would attempt to discover h
ow far the enemy portal network extended, and what, if anything they could potentially do to disable it once and for all.
The final push would not be limited to the Troopers in their party. Assuming the dimension being attacked was in the Alliance interdimensional network, a suitably large army of Troopers would be waiting for the Groga when they emerged through the portal on the other side.
It all sounded so simple and logical to Jenny, like they just couldn't lose. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as she had imagined? But Tarafau squashed that thought like a bug.
"It's as good a plan as we can have, but we all know that there will be contingencies we didn't plan for. What are our fallback instructions?"
"We will establish a command post a hundred yards or so from the Groga camp. The hovercars will be stationed there. If things go bad, get back to the command post and fill those hovercars or use one from your MDP. They are programmed to take you to a safe place where you can reconnoiter. Each of us have accepted Burt's bugs. If you get lost, find a quiet spot and stay put, if possible. We will not leave anyone behind, if we can help it.
All of our decoys and distractions are in place and everyone has received their orders. We will start infiltrating the enemy camp as soon as we are in range. The bots have marked all of the sentries they could find and have left us the schedule of the guard changes. Each sentry point has two guards and they are armed with blasters as well as com devices to alert their command post of anything untoward.
Stage 1 will be to wait until a change of guards, put the new guards to sleep with a bite from our nanobots and take over their posts. We will steal their uniforms and go looking for the portal devices. Preferably we would like more than one device. It will be high priority to preserve one for examination by our techs at Alliance headquarters."
Bob twitched and added wistfully, "Any chance I can be in on that?" The look of suppressed eagerness almost made Jenny laugh.
"We'll have to see," Gariel said with an amused twist to his mouth. "Your clearance for tech may take a bit. They're pretty careful with that. Tech pollution in the early days of the Alliance was the cause of more than one failed culture. That kind of infection can cause so many more problems than it solves, and in some cases it has proven disastrous." He held up his hand to forestall Bob's objection.
"We know you are trustworthy, and we know that your intentions are good, but despite that, there are protocols we must follow. As a veteran of Earth military, I know you understand."
Bob nodded, a bit chagrined.
"Jenny, do you have anything you would like to add?"
Jenny's head jerked up. She had been so wrapped up in the instructions and her jumbled feelings about the impending conflict that the question blind-sided her. She thought a moment then nodded her head.
"I have learned something important today about myself and about our cause," she began, tentatively, weighing each word carefully before she said it. "I don't know for sure why my aunt Lizzie chose me to do this, but I do know that I am on the right side of this conflict. I know we are doing what is right and I know that we stand for something important. It is comforting to me to know that my associates in this cause feel as I do. I too would rather never harm another living thing in my lifetime, but I cannot sit still when I know that others are being wrongfully attacked, killed and enslaved, for whatever reason. I admit I am afraid, but I am consoled by the fact that I can count on every person on this team and I want you to know that I will not hang back when the time comes to fight."
All faces turned to her in what appeared to be alarm. "You are with us as our leader. We will not have you engage the enemy. If I had my way, you would be at the command center in Sanglarka," Gariel said bluntly, but without heat. "You are precious to the Alliance. Your task will be to oversee the command tent and coordinate information as it comes through the communications network. Tarafau, Nona, Lyra and Mynn will also be with you to assist you and protect you. I thought you understood this."
Jenny gaped. She didn't know how to reply to this. Not fight? Be protected? There it was again. She did not want to appear sullen, but Gariel had just sucked something important right out of her. She had to sit in the command tent while everyone else was risking everything?
Tarafau put one hand on her shoulder. "Each person on the team has their part to play. Will you not choose to do your task?"
When he put it that way, it made her sound selfish and petulant. Slowly she nodded at Gariel. "I will do my part. I promised it and I will not go back on my promise, but I don't have to like it."
Gariel nodded and went on, detailing the various posts and tasks of the platoons of troopers and the techs who would be running the various decoys and distractions. Jenny realized there would be a lot more going on in the command tent than she thought and that Burt, Bob and Gariel would also be with her in the command tent, so perhaps it wasn't as much of a big deal as her mind had made it at first.
When they arrived at the clearing, they disembarked, and the watercraft were installed back into the MDPs. They set up camp and made their preparations. Each of them went about their various tasks without fuss or comment, having been thoroughly briefed during their time on the water.
Even knowing she would not be in the middle of the action, Jenny's stomach was churning. By tomorrow morning, they would be fully engaged with the enemy. By tomorrow morning Jenny realized that her life would have changed even more than it already had, for good or ill.
They took their march once again, through the dense canopy and undergrowth of the forest. Jenny thought, as she hiked with Tarafau in front of her and her Guards surrounding her on either side and to her rear, that somehow time had sped up as they approached closer and closer to the Groga camp.
All at once they were halted and Jenny realized they must be at their command post. The Troopers were already assembling the barracks and the command tent. One group of them were parking hover cars on one side of the area, the cars' camouflage shielding in place, so that they were difficult to see visually or with any kind of detection equipment unless you knew where they were. Everyone was in armor and had weapons at their belts and strapped to their backs. All in all, the scene was somewhat like the science fiction movies she had always been fascinated with.
She noticed the command tent was ready and she decided she might as well get to work. There were no more inspiring speeches or even quiet discussion as all was put in readiness. Everyone knew their duty and, if they needed to communicate, mindspeech was the order of the day.
As she entered the tent, she noticed that the map above the conference area had changed. Now it was a real time aerial view of the Groga encampment. The camp lay about 1,500 yards away from their command tent. It was laid out like the spokes of a wheel, tent-like structures, similar to their own radiated out in neat lines from the center. In the center was a large clear space that looked like it was probably used to assemble their army. On the side of the wheel closest to their own camp was a large tent that had soldiers coming and going, clearly the command center of the Groga forces.
At the top of the inner cleared space of the wheel was an area labeled on the map as "portal.” It might as well have been an empty patch of ground, as there was nothing to even indicate it was there. It didn't appear to be guarded, probably to avoid drawing attention to it, but Gariel had explained to them during the briefing that it had been identified by the bots in their fly-over, after having observed troops coming and going through it. The portal seemed to go to more than one place at once. They had to assume the devices controlled the destination.
"We will be neutralizing the sentries in about an hour from now," Gariel began, as the last of the command team arrived. "We have about 8 hours from that time to try and get as many of the portal devices as we can without being detected. The guards change again in eight hours and we need to get Troopers in place before tomorrow afternoon, when the Groga plan to launch their attack. The big distraction to allow our guys to sneak through the gate ahead
of the Groga soldiers has already been prepared and we will trigger it after we have obtained the portal devices.
Once the last of the Groga attacking force is through the portal, our Troopers here will move to attack the few remaining forces and secure the Groga encampment. If all goes well, we will have neutralized the Groga forces deployed here and will be able to fortify this portal against any further incursions. They will no longer be able to use it to get to Earth.
Lova and her team will be streaming our reports directly to Alliance headquarters. They have twice the number of Troopers than the Groga assembled, and they are in readiness to immediately deploy to the dimension being attacked.
Bob, have you activated the first round of distractions?"
"Ready."
"Burt, are you ready with round two?"
Burt grinned evilly, "Ready and willing."
"So now we wait until we get the signal."
The view of the screen changed to a grid view of eight sentry posts. The Groga guards didn't seem all that attentive. They stood back to back, their weapons slung on their backs, looking almost disinterestedly at their surroundings.
"They have very good hearing," Gariel continued. "But their eyesight is questionable. I think they may have trouble with low contrast, especially in the shadows, based on past intel. This could work very much in our favor. As a matter of fact, one of our distractions is very much based on that assumption. Burt and Bob have passed their decoy and distraction strategies on to the Alliance troops back at headquarters, for which they were very grateful. You Earthlings have very devious minds. I'm glad you're on our side," he said grinning at Bob and Burt.
The two of them sported twin grins and fist-bumped to celebrate that praise.
Jenny smiled. Burt and Bob had made a real connection. You nearly never saw one without the other. Mynn had taken to calling them "BnB" and it had caught on with most of the team.
The House on Infinity Loop Page 32