The Link

by Isaac Hooke

  3

  Once all of the downed mechs had their power cells replaced, Jason had Jerry’s team of War Forger clones lead the way through the rectangular corridors, and his own team followed just behind, along with the teams of the others.

  “I’ve tapped into the MilNet,” Lori said. “These are definitely aliens. Not only are they staging multiple attacks across the planet, there are also several alien craft in orbit as well… the defense platforms and space navy are having a field day fending them off. Apparently, the ships guarding the Eastern Galactic Front are also under attack. The Link is trying to keep our forces divided.”

  “Do we have any idea who the attackers are yet?” he asked.

  “All evidence points to the Link Empire,” she replied.

  Jason nodded slowly. Well, his avatar did, anyway. “They’ve finally made their move.”

  The smooth metal walls soon gave way to raw stone where the construction ended. The unlit escape tunnel beyond led away beneath the mountain, and was just big enough to fit the tall mechs and the Rex Wolves—if they proceeded at a crouch.

  “Headlamps on,” Jason ordered.

  The teams activated their head lights, and continued.

  “I hate having to abandon my 3D printers like this,” Aria said. “And all our ore supplies.”

  “You and your precious printers and your ores,” Sophie said. “Sometimes, that’s all you seem to care about.”

  Aria’s avatar gave her a snooty look. “To give you a better analogy, it would be like Tara abandoning her Rex Wolves.”

  “Something I’d never do,” Tara said.

  “There you go,” Aria said. “Now you know my pain.”

  “We all have pain,” Xin said. “This is our home. Was. And now we’re leaving it, after all these years.”

  Aria nodded. “You’re right.”

  “We’ll build a new home,” Jason said. “Someday.”

  They continued in silence for several moments. Well, the silence of whirring servomotors and the thudding of huge metal feet on stone. The cave floor held up well to their passage; they added to the thin layer of dust that coated the surface as their weight pulverized the rock underneath. There were repeaters installed at intervals in the wall, allowing them to maintain their connection to the base’s local network.

  “I wonder why the Link troops chose our particular location to attack,” Sophie said. Her Highlander mech crawled just behind his, in that weird combination of humanoid torso and spider.

  “Could be that they followed previous rift openings,” Aria said. “Rifts leave impressions in spacetime, and when new ones are opened in a region, they tend to be drawn to those areas. So unless the Link had reason to open the rifts elsewhere, they would have allowed the endpoints to drift naturally toward the previous terminations.”

  Jason nodded. “Where the aliens appeared coincides roughly where we’ve seen rifts in the past. And rifts would have opened in the major cities during previous invasion attempts by other Link members species.”

  “How do we know that the Link itself is actually attacking this time,” Maeran said with her crisp, slight Ethiopian accent. “And not just another member species?”

  “It could be just a member species,” Jason agreed. “But I suspect, given the coordination of the attack—strikes worldwide, in orbit, and along the Eastern Galactic Front—kind of points to the Link. So I’d agree with the military’s assessment.”

  The team proceeded deeper into the mountain.

  “And here I thought I was over my claustrophobia,” Lori said. “I can almost feel the crushing weight of all that rock on top of us.”

  “It’s actually quite roomy in here, considering how big we are…” Tara told her.

  “There’s an underground cavern coming up soon,” Jason said, glancing at the map. A bunch of tunnels led away from that cavern. “One of the main ore mines.”

  “Oooh,” Lori said. “You know how much I love big, hunky machines. Especially when they’re covered in oil. And you can’t get bigger and hunkier and oilier than mining machines!”

  “Why does that image disturb me?” Iris said. As usual, her avatar wore shades, and a bright pink shawl. Her bronzed skin was exquisitely made up.

  “Because you’ve never come to terms with what you are?” Lori told the Middle Eastern Mind Refurb.

  “Oh, I’ve come to terms with it, years ago,” Iris said. “That doesn’t mean I’m attracted to big, oily machines as you call them.”

  Lori giggled. “That was a metaphor! Of course I’m not into actual machines.”

  “Oh, okay, good,” Iris said.

  “That’s right,” Lori said. “We’re all human minds trapped in machine bodies. Of course we’re not attracted to machines. Though I have to admit, after being stuck inside this body for so long, when I look at Jason’s Vulture mech, I can’t help but think he looks kind of sexy, just the way he is. I’d do him, if we had the anatomy.”

  “You would,” Sophie said. “By the way, how can you be so lighthearted at a time like this? The Earth is under attack and you’re joking about having sex with machines.”

  “I can’t suppress my lighthearted nature,” Lori said. “The world will never bring me down, no matter what happens.”

  “That’s a lie, and you know it,” Cheyanne said. Her Dragonfly mech walked on foot nearby. “There are some blows no one can recover from.”

  “Not me,” Lori said. “I can recover from anything.”

  “And what if Jason were to die one day?” Cheyanne pressed.

  “Don’t ever say that,” Lori said, sounding suddenly sick. “That’ll never happen.”

  “It’s very possible,” Cheyanne said.

  “No!” Lori said.

  “She’s right,” Jason said. “There may one day come a time when I’m no longer around. While I’m potentially long-lived, I’m not immortal. I could die at the hands of these aliens and there would be nothing anyone could do to save me.”

  “You can’t die…” Lori said.

  “We’d all be lost,” Tara said quietly. “Set adrift.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Jason said. “You’d still have the other versions of me. Or you could create a new me from their minds.”

  “Maybe we should backup your mind now,” Aria said. “If we divide the backup into volumes, and spread them out among the rest of us, we could fit the copy in our internal storage spaces.”

  “While I said it’s possible I could die, I don’t actually intend to,” Jason said. “No backups, for now.”

  The conversation died out after that, and the group continued through the tunnel.

  The other War Forger clones no doubt engaged in similar banter, though they would all be communicating on private bands unique to the Jason clones in question.

  Jason glanced at his overhead map and noticed that Tara had fallen behind. It looked like she had stopped.

  “What’s up?” he asked, activating a rearview camera to get a look at her, but she was blocked by the other mechs.

  “Runt,” Tara said. “He’s got a bit of a limp from the last battle. Looks like he lost a toe.”

  “He hasn’t regenerated yet?” Jason asked.

  “No,” Tara said. “The Rex Wolves need access to oxygen to properly regenerate. There isn’t very much down here, in case you forgot.”

  “Oh yeah,” he said. “I actually did. I am a machine, after all. Oxygen isn’t’ something I normally worry about.”

  “It also isn’t helping that the chlorophyll cells of their fur have no access to sunlight,” Tara said. “They’ll be getting very hungry in a couple of hours. And after that, lethargic.”

  “Hopefully we’ll be out of here by then,” Jason said.

  “We’ll see,” Tara told him. She paused. “There. I just installed a makeshift brace around Runt’s foot. That should help with the foot, until he has a chance to regenerate.”

  On the overhead map, her dot was moving once more.

  The
War Forgers reached the cavern that served as the mine shortly thereafter. The mining units were hard at work. They all had big laser drills on their front sections, with bucket scoops just underneath them that collected the rocks the lasers cut away. They deposited the goods on small conveyor belts that carried them to the transport trucks waiting nearby.

  “You might as well shut down mining operations,” Jerry said. “It’s just a waste of energy to keep them running.”

  “I disagree,” Jones said. “Let them remain operational. It’s something else to distract the aliens.”

  “But it’s also something else for the aliens to destroy,” Jerry said. “You want to give them more moving targets? You want to rebuild all of this when we return?”

  “Jerry’s right,” Jason said. “If shutting down these machines increases the chances these aliens will leave them alone, then that’s probably a good thing.”

  He accessed the nearest repeater, pulled up the main navigational menu for the base, and issued a mining shutdown order. The mining robots stopped digging, and the conveyor belts ceased all motion.

  Jason was about to dismiss the menu interface, but then it winked out entirely. His connection to the repeater terminated, and it no longer appeared on his “available connections” list.

  “Looks like our friends have hit the generators,” Jason said. “The repeaters just went offline.”

  “That means the defense turrets scattered throughout the base are also offline,” Aria said.

  “Yes,” Jason said. “I doubt the aliens will catch us, though. We have a huge head start. Plus, they have no idea which tunnel we went down.”

  A small spherical drone darted past him then.

  “What the—” He said. It paused in front of Jason to emit a quick scan of blue light; he swatted at it, and the sphere dodged. He glanced at Aria. “One of yours?”

  “Not mine,” Aria said. “It’s alien.”

  The drone scanned Lori in a similar manner until she swatted it away as well. It reached Maeran, but then was cut in half by Tara’s swinging sword.

  “I think it’s a good bet they know where we are now…” Tara said.

  “All the more reason to keep going,” Jason said. “At twice the speed.” He switched to the main line that connected all War Forgers. “Pick up the pace, guys.”

  Jerry’s team reached the far side of the cavern and took a side tunnel. The others followed inside. As the walls tightened once more around him, Jason certainly felt the return of the claustrophobia Lori spoke of earlier.

  “What if this is it?” Cheyanne asked. “What if the Earth finally falls?”

  “Then we leave this planet behind,” Xin said.

  “You mean via the rift generator Queen Risilan gave Jason?” the double-sworded Dragonfly mech pressed.

  “That’s right,” Xin told her.

  That generator opened directly into the alien queen’s palace.

  Originally, Jason had kept the small triangular device on his person, but Bokerov had subdued him and stolen it thrice over the years. Even after he’d let Bokerov go, still the Russian Mind Refurb returned to steal the device. Bokerov probably had a thing for Risilan. Luckily he couldn’t figure out how to work it, and Jason recovered the generator successfully each time. After the third time, Jason decided to construct an elaborate vault at the bottom of the mountain to protect the device. They would pass it by on the way out. Jason planned to collect the generator when they did.

  “I wonder if the queen will be welcoming after all these years,” Maeran said. Her avatar wore an accusing expression. “In all the years since she gave him the device, never once has he returned.”

  “She’ll probably be pissed at first,” Jason agreed. “But if we are forced to use the device, I’m hopeful she’ll come around.”

  “There’s a reason he never returned, you know,” Lori said quietly.

  “Oh?” Maeran said. “And what’s that?”

  “Uh, never mind,” Lori said. “I’ll let him tell you.”

  The Ethiopian turned her Grazer mech toward Jason. The three small orbiting drones buzzed about her. “So what’s this reason?”

  “I was worried she wouldn’t let me return, once she had me,” Jason said. “The queen and I used to have a… little thing going on.”

  “I see,” Maeran told him.

  “Yes,” Jason said.

  “He has a ‘thing’ going on with a lot of females,” Iris said. “He doesn’t seem to care if those females happen to be aliens, or machines.”

  “Lucky for us,” Xin said. “Otherwise we’d be stuck creating simulacrums for our pleasure.”

  “We have to create simulacrums anyway, given how little he sexes us as it is,” Sophie complained.

  Jason sighed.

  A shout came from up ahead as Jerry rounded the bend on the way to the vault.

  “Got trouble!” Jerry said.

  “What is it?” Jason said, requesting access to Jerry’s video feed.

  When Jason received that access, he was stunned by what he saw.

  4

  Through the feed, Jason saw bioweapons crawling all over the tunnel. He was familiar with all the Banthar bioweapons that roamed the uninhabited zone—he had lived here too long not to be—but these were completely unlike any of those creatures.

  No, these bioweapons were cybernetic. Riddled with machine parts. Their bodies were generally insect-like—the best description was of giant scorpions—but long, metal pincers protruded from underneath their mandibles, silvery antennae jutted from the tops of their heads, and their thoraxes were padded with thick golden armor. Three curved stingers rose from the rear sections of their abdomens, carrying what looked like plasma beams strapped to the tips.

  Jerry and the War Forger clones with him ducked around the edge as bright beams ate into the tunnel walls behind them.

  “Back!” Jerry said.

  Jason suppressed the urge to flee. He dropped to one knee, and aimed his energy cannon at the bend as the War Forger clones leaped behind him for cover. Beside him Tara had her laser weapon aimed and ready to fire. Lori had cloaked.

  Aria squeezed past him, and plunked down her ballistic shield. She aimed her lightning weapon past the top. Glancing over her shoulder, she told him: “Get behind me.”

  Jason and Tara repositioned so that they could use her shield for cover. He kept his energy cannon scope aimed past the edge.

  When a scorpion appeared around the bend, he unleashed an energy bolt. Aria fired her lightning weapon. Tara unleashed her laser.

  The scorpion collapsed to the cave floor in a heap of broken metal and burned flesh. But then another scorpion emerged. And another.

  Jason, Aria and Tara continued to fire. The three of them were at the forefront of the War Forgers, and essentially blocked the attacks of those behind them—the cave wasn’t wide enough for everyone to engage.

  The three of them took down the next few scorpions.

  “The Rex Wolves are chomping at the bit here!” Xin said.

  “Keep them back!” Jason said.

  The trailing scorpions began to use the corpses of the fallen for cover. Jason and Tara ducked behind Aria’s ballistic shield as she took fire. The center portion turned red hot.

  “It’s going to fail!” Aria warned.

  “Get down!” Sophie shouted.

  Jason, Aria and Tara ducked; Sophie’s spiderlike mech leaped over Aria and landed in front. Her energy shield flashed as she took beam impacts. Her micro machines fanned outward, forming a deadly blade that smashed into the scorpions on the far side of the tunnel, slicing through their cover and into the hiding bioweapons.

  “Alternate!” Jason said. “John, Tara 2, Aria 2, take over!”

  Jason and the two mechs with him pulled back, allowing the specified three to move forward. Sophie recalled her micro machines and retreated as well, ducking behind the shield of Aria 2 just as the next wave of scorpions broke through the bodies of the fallen.
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br />   The War Forgers kept alternating like that, placing a different Aria clone, and a fresh shield, at the front. Meanwhile, the damaged Aria’s activated their local repair drones to mend their shields. The Sophie clones placed themselves in the line of fire as necessary, using their energy shields to protect the group. Maeran also used her three orbiting drones to create energy shields between them as necessary.

  The enemy kept coming. It soon became apparent that the current strategy wasn’t going to work.

  “They’re going to keep us entrenched here until the other aliens can outflank us from the rear!” Maeran said.

  “Let me loose!” Tara said. “If I can close with them, I can take them down in waves with my sword!”

  “Me, as well!” Cheyanne said.

  “No,” Jason said. “They’ll shoot you down before you reach them.”

  “You have to trust me!” Tara said. “I can do this!”

  Jason shook his head fervently. “I won’t risk it. Even if you clear them, there will be more in behind.”

  “Then I’ll keep pressing forward!” Tara said.

  “At some point, you’ll get shot down,” Jason said. “Not with so many of them out there. I’m sorry. Looks like we’re going to have to take another tunnel. Retreat! Xin and clones, offer covering fire!”

  Xin and her clones sprayed the enemy units with plasma streams from their eye areas as the remaining War Forgers retreated. The Xins followed on the rear, and when they rounded the bend, they directed their plasma beams at the ceiling. It didn’t take much work to cause a collapse.

  “Nicely done,” Jason said.

  “Well, that was a pleasant diversion,” Jones said. “Not really…”

  “No,” Jason agreed. He accessed his overhead map and computed an alternate route through the mines to the surface. He considered bypassing the vault room entirely, because he just wanted to get the hell out of the cave system, but decided he couldn’t afford to lose the rift generator.

  The queen might be the only one who can help us now. She knows this enemy.

  Assuming her planet hadn’t already fallen before the might of the Link Empire. Before he’d left, she was about to withdraw the Tyrnari from the empire, or at the very least renegotiate the terms of their membership, so that she could begin restoring her homeworld’s atmosphere to its natural, breathable state. She wanted her people to live free of the domes that rampant bioweapon production had forced them inside. Bioweapons that were part of the quota demanded by the empire.