Homefront

by Scott James Magner

  I’ll get you back alive, Carlton. I promise. But I need you to be scared a little while longer, just in case.

  Mira sent a thought to Katra, wincing at the pain that followed.

  ~Katra. We’re going to wait here a minute until Carlton can proceed.~

  ~Understood. Fifty meters, then back.~

  Once she lowered her defenses and allowed Mira in, the Gamma was surprisingly easy to talk to. Mira suspected that all Gammas had some kind of low-level psychic sensitivity, but given how little Mira know about them, there was no way to know for sure. Whatever it was made her a good soldier, and as with Carlton’s inexperience, it was something Mira needed right now.

  She slid her hand up from the Beta’s chest to his shoulder and then pressed him down to the floor. He resisted at first, fear spiking so high that she gasped with the pain. But then he relaxed just enough so she could think on her own again, and he crouched down next to her in a tight ball of nerves.

  Sensing her discomfort, Jason sent her another recovered image from her past. This time it was one of herself and Tommy climbing down into the caves, about a month before she left Roswell forever. It was another inappropriate memory, but Mira was thankful for it all the same. Each one he was able to isolate and return to her was a gift that restored a bit of her emotional spectrum. A moment like this was something wonderful, and she was happy to have it back.

  On the tour they’d taken during the day, the colors of the cave had been fascinating. Greens and reds and oranges formed in a place where the sun never shone, and only when humans had come blundering in with electric lighting and cameras did simple sedimentary deposits transform into works of art. At night, Tommy’s ebony skin had been part of the darkness, and the occasional flashes of his teeth and eyes in the chemsticks they carried had made what they were doing more exciting.

  Mira and Tommy had hidden a blanket and a bottle of his father’s whiskey in a secluded grotto during the day, and tonight was going to be "special." She knew what Tommy wanted, and she’d more or less made up her mind to give it to him just so he wouldn’t follow her around forever with his sad eyes.

  But when they startled the bats, all thoughts of youthful indiscretion flew out with them into the night. Mira held on to Tommy as tight as she could when the leathery wings snapped by her head, and afterward the two teenagers laughed until they cried. Then Tommy made his move, but when his lips brushed hers she pulled away. The moment was gone, and as far as she knew the bottle and blanket were still stashed there, waiting for her to change her mind.

  Maybe if I had, it would have been easier later. Maybe he wouldn’t have . . .

  The sound of the bats echoed in her mind again, but instead of tiny claws scratching at her ears and the musty smell she thought would never wash out of her hair, it was accompanied by the cold hiss of escaping air that even a first year middie feared.

  ~Katra. Stop.~

  Jason was warning her of something, but there wasn’t enough information to pass along. Katra didn’t respond with words, but Mira felt the Gamma’s awareness expanding. She knew what might be down here just like Mira did, but Mira had seen one of the death machines before during her military education in Colorado, right on the edge of the Reclamation zone.

  And that should make me even more frightened than Carlton. Chalk another advantage up for the Transgenic virus, I guess. That, and having my brains scooped out.

  Most of Katra’s training involved sneaking up to the enemy and eliminating it before it knew she was there. Sealed up in her black encounter suit, Katra was nearly invisible when she wanted to be, but they’d agreed ahead of time that the mod shouldn’t use her active camouflage save in emergencies. A stray electron here or there might make the difference between life and death when facing an adaptive killing machine with advanced sensor capabilities.

  Down here, in the blackest night imaginable, there was nothing for her to aim at. No enemy to evade or capture, and with the Mississippi River a hundred meters over their heads, blowing their unseen foes up wasn’t really an option. But she was still in control of herself, and Mira borrowed as much of that feeling as she could.

  Mira’s own senses were stretched to the limit, but despite her plan Carlton’s fear was making it hard to concentrate. Whatever made Jason think of the bats was also screaming a warning at Carlton’s subconscious mind, and that more than anything made her want to abort the mission.

  Come on, you metal freak. Show yourself.

  Part of her wanted to be wrong. The consequences of being right were too horrific, especially on top of everything that had happened in the last two days. But all the signs were there, and if there was a pre-Reclamation killing machine in the tunnel ahead of them, Mira and Katra needed to buy JonB enough time to either defuse the charges on the bridge or find some way to succeed where she’d failed.

  The whine of Katra’s pulse rifle coming to life told her that the time of "if" was over.

  "Now, Carlton. Do it!"

  The Beta’s fear was nearly overpowering him, but with Mira drawing it away he was able to hit the switch on the device he’d been cradling for half a kilometer and roll it into the middle of the tunnel.

  In terms of illumination, an infra-red heater was about the least effective device one could use on a battlefield. But when deployed against a mechanical monster that hunted by body heat, it leveled the odds faster than high explosive rounds.

  Speaking of which . . .

  The bloom of heat scrambled her visor’s sensors, but Jason could still see just fine. As fifteen meters of robotic death powered up and uncoiled from a hiding place on the tunnel’s ceiling, Mira relayed its movements mentally to Katra while she got a better grip on Carlton’s shoulder and pulled him back toward the entrance.

  Katra’s pulser was firing nonstop, and the invisible packets of phased energy were tearing away large chunks of exoskeleton. She’d already crippled one of its legs, but according to the power usage Jason could see it had at least five more.

  Thankful again that both of them had missed shooting one another during the firefight on the Valiant, Mira dropped a second infrared heater and sent Carlton a strong desire to run to the surface. She felt his terror recede as he left, and turned her full attention to the monster twisting around as it attempted to destroy whatever was damaging it.

  The robot’s strategy was a sound one, given the technology it was programmed to fight. It was immune to most conventional weapons; Mira’s slugthrower would be little more than an annoyance to the monster. But it wouldn’t take long for its adaptive subroutines to come up with a defense against phased plasma pulses, and it was time for Mira to begin the next stage of the attack plan.

  Now that Carlton was far enough away, Mira stretched out her mind and made a full connection with Katra and Jason. Their thoughts melded with her own, until they were essentially one person with three different bodies and a single goal.

  As Katra fell back to the second beacon, Jason picked up one of the decaying machines littering the tunnel and launched it at the robot’s head. Katra rolled behind a rusted lump of metal and sent a pair of pulses at the monster’s rear legs. Mira was momentarily dazzled by the way the pulses sparked as they encountered small bits of matter in the air, but Jason accepted it as a normal phenomenon, much like the X-ray bursts from Sagittarius-A he’d shown her last night.

  The robot had a target and a direction now, and it bounded forward quickly enough to make Mira’s heart skip a beat. Only the confidence she felt in Katra’s mind gave her the will to stand her ground. The Gamma sent two more pulses into the robot’s exposed inner workings. As they impacted with a shower of sparks, she relocated to a new firing position with a fluid grace that even Jason admired.

  The Omega launched another improvised missile at the robot then sprinted to the side of the tunnel. His already low body heat was completely masked by the heaters, but even an Omega’s thick skin had limits. A pair of cobalt lasers converged on the spot he’d just vacated, bu
rning deep holes in the concrete and giving the creature a hot-spot to target.

  But despite their impressive power, every cadet knew that the lasers weren’t the real threat. The microwave emitter powering up in the robot’s head was, and Mira charged toward the robot to spring the final part of their ambush.

  Apart from a genetic super-assassin and a gentle telepathic architect who could see almost the entire EM spectrum, Mira had another weapon that hadn’t existed during the Reclamation.

  A fully charged hardsuit, capable of amplifying her strength by a factor of five.

  Maneuvers like this were best performed in zero-g, but the SDF spared no expense in training their officers, and she’d learned her craft under the watchful eye of a grizzled and scarred sergeant. Most of the security forces assigned to the Valiant came to the ship fresh out of training, with a host of bad groundside habits and poor suit discipline. But those under Mira’s command either learned to use their suits at their intended level of performance or found another posting in the fleet.

  For the last five years, the Valiant had maintained the highest efficiency ratings of any ship in active service. Her damage control teams went through equipment almost as fast as they did recruits, but once Mira raised the Clarke Cup over her head for the first time, she knew she would never give it back.

  And just because my ship is dead is no excuse to slack off now.

  Mira’s first stride was at normal power, but her second launched her three meters into the air and toward the tunnel’s curved wall. When she hit, instead of surrendering to gravity’s pull she bent her knees and flipped out over the still thrashing robot, firing all her attitude control jets and coming to rest on the ancient machine’s back.

  Its response was immediate, and predictable. It stopped thrashing its legs, tail, and manipulator arms in a futile attempt to find Katra’s firing position, and it rotated every appendage into a configuration that would let it tear Mira apart. But Mira was already gone, having applied a thick paste of thermite gel to the back of the robot’s head.

  Rocketing backwards, Mira drew a borrowed pulser pistol and held the firing studs down, remembering to shut her eyes just in time. The plasma discharge ignited the gel in a white-hot explosion, burning completely through the robot’s head in seconds.

  The robot was by no means disabled, but its energy weapons were now useless, and a hefty portion of its adaptive software was now tasked with reconfiguring itself to meet the threat of an airborne opponent.

  Which gave Katra all the time in the world to completely discharge a fresh energizer into its exposed interior.

  The machine fizzled and died in a cloud of smoke and electrical discharges. Mira twisted in midair and landed in a perfect three-point stance between the infrared lamps. She gave herself an imaginary pat on the back—the three of them had just defeated one of the most advanced weapons ever invented in less than thirty seconds without casualties, and now they could forget all about the bridge and take their time guiding the train through the tunnel.

  Not bad for an old lady. If you’re watching, Captain, I did the side proud.

  Mira dissolved the three-way link and staggered as the pain in her head tripled. She closed her eyes against it, activating her suit’s emergency lights with practiced hands.

  Katra’s spike of alarm added exponentially to Mira’s headache, and the sight of Jason turning and running full out for the tunnel entrance was like a punch in the gut. But the Gamma’s flare of emotion was gone in an instant, replaced by the cool emptiness she’d maintained during the battle.

  The Gamma rose up from behind her cover, inserted a fresh energizer, and started firing over Mira’s shoulder. Her thoughts weren’t hard to decipher as she did, and it was Mira’s turn to be alarmed.

  ~I think we should be going now, Lieutenant Commander.~

  Even though she had an idea of what was there, Mira had to see it for herself. A second later she wished she hadn’t and was running fill tilt at Jason’s retreating back, with Katra just a few meters behind.

  Oh, shit.

  Jantine

  JANTINE WAS STANDING OUTSIDE THE ENGINE WITH Serene when the Earther comm unit sputtered to life. The child was wearing another one of Mira’s modified garments, this time a heavy cloth jacket with the sleeves removed. It was near enough to the coveralls the Mods used for the child to look almost dressed, and the Earther had assured her that "M. Callaway" would not want the clothing back.

  For once, O-6913 was not with her. The Omega was twenty meters away, staring down the tracks Mira and her team had followed to the tunnel mouth as if willing them to appear. It wasn’t a defensible position, but having seen the Omega shrug off multiple barrages of micro-slugs, she wasn’t worried about him. Besides, Artemus was standing at the edge of the bridge, with one pair of weapons pointed across the river and another in the direction the Omega was facing. If any threat came at them from either set of tracks, the Delta would know about it.

  JonB and Serene were Jantine’s real priority, and as ruthless as Mira’s risk assessment had been, Jantine had to agree with it. Even with all the losses they’d sustained so far, the mission could still proceed if the Betas and the Alpha child made it to a place of safety.

  But even before she heard Mira’s voice on the comm, Jantine suspected that it was not going to be good news.

  "JonB! Detach the trailing car and get the locomotive onto the bridge right now!"

  "What was that?"

  JonB stood in the door to the engine compartment, handheld in one hand and one of Mira’s chess-pieces in the other.

  "Don’t think," Jantine said. "Obey. I will move the train."

  JonB slid down the ladder and ran toward the rear of the train, while Jantine picked Serene up with her free arm. She could have waited for O-6913 to finish his charge up the tracks and claim her, but she wanted to hold the girl, as if it might be her last chance to do so.

  "Casualties?" Jantine handed Serene off as she spoke into the comm, then she vaulted into the engine’s cab. Mira’s response was close to panic, and the thought that Jantine had lost another friend distracted her from which of the controls she was supposed to activate to get the train rolling again.

  "Not yet, but . . . dammit, Katra, keep up!"

  Jantine wanted very badly to see what was happening, but the "backup plan," as Mira had explained it, was for her to get Serene across the bridge as fast as possible, and not look back.

  Which control was it? Why can’t I remember?

  Jantine was afraid, and she didn’t know why. It wasn’t until she heard Carlton’s voice yelling from outside the cab that she understood the feeling might not be her own.

  "We have to go. We have to GO!"

  "Jantine. Jantine! Is the train moving? We can’t hold them back much longer."

  Them?

  Mira’s voice over the comm was enough to at least get Jantine’s mind working again. If she couldn’t remember the control, Carlton or JonB would. Her first responsibility was to get Serene out of danger, and that she could do with just a word.

  Jantine hurried back to the ladder and looked outside. O-6913 had Serene cradled to his chest, and she could see real fear in the child’s wide eyes. She waved the comm unit at the bridge.

  "Run."

  The Omega was moving before she finished the word, and Carlton was not far behind him. There was enough starlight for them to make their way onto the bridge without difficulty, and as Jantine watched them pass Artemus and move onto the rusted metal structure she raised the comm to her mouth.

  "It will be soon. Do you need support?"

  Artemus started across the bridge, and by the way the Delta’s heavy footsteps shook the tracks, Jantine revisited her doubts as to how successful JonB’s efforts to disable the detonation charges had been.

  As if on cue, she heard hissing air from the rear of the train, accompanied by a soft clanking sound.

  "Mira. Do you need support?"

  Jason appeared out of t
he night, waving his arms over his head. The Omega did not turn and follow the rest of the mods onto the bridge but instead moved to the rear of the engine and braced himself against it. There was a squealing sound as the train started moving forward, and Serene and her fear were far enough away now that Jantine realized he too was carrying out Mira’s orders the only way he knew how.

  Jantine thought she heard something from the rear of the train, but the sound did not repeat. She marveled at the sight of an Omega doing the work of a one-hundred ton machine before turning her attention back to the control panel to find JonB already standing there.

  The civvie had somehow entered through the entrance on the other side of the engine without her noticing, another indicator of just how paralyzing Serene’s uncontrolled and contagious fear had been. The Beta’s right hand reached out and threw several switches, and as the electric motors hummed to life, she noticed his face was flushed, his left arm was cradled against his chest, and there was a trail of blood leading from the entrance to where he was standing at the control panel.

  Although she easily adjusted to the motion of the train moving down the tracks, Jantine was nearly pitched out of the cab when the engine rocked violently to the left. She caught herself before she slid completely out of the open portal, but she lost her grip on the comm unit. It fell to the ground and bounced toward the tracks, and over the squeal of metal wheels on rails she heard a distinct crunching sound.

  From her position on the floor, Jantine was facing the rear of the train and had an excellent view of not only Jason pulling himself up to the top of the engine but also of lines of purple light illuminating two human-sized figures in the distance.

  Before she could stand again, the train’s brakes engaged and Jantine nearly joined the comm unit under the engine’s wheels. Mira’s chess pieces bounced past her head, and Jantine wondered why JonB had been carrying one of them when he ran toward the back of the train.

  No time for that now. We have to get moving.