She kicked her jumpboots against anything she could push them into, but she found very little to push against. The beast had her trapped longways within it, keeping her away from rib cages and such. She was so constricted by the creature’s gullet and the weird tentacles that with every move the thing seemed to find a way to tighten its grip and clamp down even harder. She couldn’t reach her knife, or her rifle, but she had her blaster in her hand. The bad thing was that it was pointing slightly toward her right thigh.
The suit cannot take much more of this pressure! Bree warned her. Emergency seal layer has been activated.
Shit! Shit! Shit! Dee thought. Administer immunoboost and pain meds now!
With that, Dee worked the controls of the M-blaster, doing her best to push the muzzle upward and away from her leg. Her best wasn’t good enough. The blaster released an electric plasma bolt that evaporated a strip of armor on the side of her thigh and all the way down the back of her calf. The energy bolt dug through the armor, past the seal layer and organogel, and then through several centimeters deep of flesh and skin, but at least it kept on going.
“Jesus Christ!” she shouted, wincing at the pain. The bolt of energy skittered out the back side of her armored calf muscle and into the stomach of the alien monster. The creature must have had methane forming in the bottom of its stomach, because once the energy bolt hit home at the bottom of the creature’s belly there was a rapid release of heat and light energy and a clap of thunder that left Dee’s eardrums ringing.
The inner wall of the creature’s stomach exploded, and it burst open like a piñata, spilling Dee and other fairly sticky and gross contents out underneath it onto the mud of the river bank. It howled and lurched up onto its hind legs, but Dee was quick on the draw and let loose three more blasts into it. Red and orange bits of heated flesh exploded with each bolt. The creature howled one last time and then fell over on top of Dee. Strands of muscle and inner workings of the creature’s innards stuck to her and squished into the joints of her suit under the weight of the hovertank-sized beast. Dee managed to squirm her body face down to the mud and then she pulled herself out from underneath it as best she could.
“You bit off more than you could chew, didn’t you, beasty,” she said, and then instantly dropping to a knee, she pulled her HVAR, looking about for other danger. Another one of the creatures came rushing out of the underbrush at her, but this time she was ready for it. She jumped high into a somersault over the beast, firing several hypervelocity rounds into the back of the creature. The rounds tore through the beast like it was paper. It screeched and then slid to its final resting spot only a few meters from the other one.
I hope there aren’t more of these things! Dee spun about, aiming her rifle in various directions, looking for movement. There wasn’t any at the moment. At least not that she could see anyway.
We need to get a closer look at these things with the sensors to determine why we couldn’t see them, her AIC said. It would make avoiding them easier.
Okay. Crank up the mics though and let’s keep a supersensitive ear out for giant footfalls.
I’ll do that. No need in you worrying about it. If I detect them I’ll bring up the sound and track it for you.
Great. Thanks, Bree. Deanna knelt next to the first creature and waited as her suit conducted detailed close-range scans of it. Well?
This creature, while it was alive, didn’t look like any creature nature would create, Bree began. I think it is artificial.
How so? Dee was confused. Were the Chiata making new creatures, she wondered?
The outer layer armored scales and skin have synthetic materials in them that are practically identical to the stealth micromaterials in your armored e-suit, Bree explained.
That’s why we couldn’t see it?
Precisely.
This planet is just fucking weird, Dee replied. Then a suit diagnostic popped up in her mind showing the large burn down her right thigh, through the suit’s seal layer, into her calf muscle and then out just above the Achilles tendon. Shit, that’s gonna hurt I bet.
Hopefully not. There is now enough immunoboost in your system to heal you rather quickly. The self-annealing and healing process for the suit has also begun.
Dee noticed for the first time that she wasn’t anywhere near where she had been. The creature had run with her for several hundred meters. The thing just didn’t know what it had gotten itself into and had probably been scared to death. Either that or it had known exactly what it had gotten itself into and was following whatever purpose the thing was built for.
She brought the map page up in her mindview and zoomed in on her blue dot, and had it reroute her to the path toward the alien ruins. She slowly turned to her right and realized that she was on the opposite side of the river now. Somehow while she was inside the beast it had dragged, jumped, run, swum, or flew as far as she knew, but whatever it had done, it had carried her to the other side of the river in only a few tens of seconds.
Maybe that thing is a hovertank, she thought jokingly and turned toward the ruins and started moving, cautiously.
You might not be wrong about that, her AIC told her. Perhaps the creatures are some sort of autonomous weapon system.
Still fucking weird if you ask me.
Then she was distracted as one of the skyballs whipped down in front of her face and stopped. The little floating ball blinked an infrared light at her and quickly downloaded what information it was carrying. Instantly, the red force tracker lit up in her mindview, showing that her six pursuers were moving as a group fairly quickly upriver in her direction. Imagery data overlaid upon the tracker data showed some sort of vehicle flying just above the treetops.
Shit! They must have heard all the ruckus.
Or saw it from space platforms is more likely.
We need to move fast! Dee said, turning into the dark jungle in a full suit speed trot. Low level IR floods on and let’s stay under the canopy.
They are ten minutes away at their current speed. We need to move! Bree said with urgency.
Send the skyball to watch them and let it ping an active download every minute. Use only the quantum entanglement transceivers, Dee ordered.
Roger that. Now pick up the pace! Bree had sounded urgent, angry, sad, and even excited on many instances as long as Dee had known her, but at the moment, Dee was pretty sure that her artificial intelligence counterpart was just as scared as she was.
Chapter 21
February 19, 2407 AD
U.S.S. Roscoe Hillenkoetter
Rendezvous Point, 10.5 Light Days from Target Star System
700 Light-years from the Sol System
Monday, 6:53 P.M. Ship Standard Time
“Coming out of hyperspace, Captain.” The STO, one of the Teena clones, said without looking up from her console. “There is a long list of repairs the CHENG wants to do, but it will put our hyperdrive offline for some time.”
“I’ll approve that once I know our situation,” Nancy replied to the STO.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Nav, get me an updated position and make sure we’re where we are supposed to be,” Captain Penzington ordered. “Comm, ping friendly to the rest of the Fleet if they are here.”
“Captain, we pulled through with nineteen ships left,” Rackman noted, and he didn’t sound too thrilled about it either. Nancy wasn’t thrilled herself. In fact, she was appalled at the outcome of the first mission and couldn’t understand why their intelligence on the system was so bad.
“COB, you should take a walk around the boat and look out for any personnel requests that need my personal attention.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The COB, a Franklin clone, replied and then efficiently closed down his console and was out the hatch.
“While all of our Beta wave have reappeared in reality space, reports show they’ve begun licking their wounds.” Rackman continued. “I might add that there are a few with some very significant wounds that’s gonna take a lot
of licking. Ma’am, if you don’t mind my saying it, we got our asses kicked.”
“Thanks, XO.” Nancy pulled up the local space of the rendezvous point in her mindview and noted that there was a large debris field and only five supercarriers from the Alpha attack wave, the Thatcher and the Madira among them. Between the two attack waves they had started with forty ships and were now down to twenty-four. From the status readouts she was getting in her mindview, she could tell that at least half of those ships were in piss-poor shape and wouldn’t really count as a supercarrier in a real fight. They’d barely be good enough to use as something to duck behind once the shooting started.
Nancy couldn’t help but question the mission and the plan. The expeditionary fleet ships that had gone on this search for a pot of gold at the end of some unseen rainbow that was a long damned way from home and very well protected were damned near cut in half and were battered and bruised. And that was just the ones that had survived. There was something about the mission that reminded Nancy of King Arthur’s Quest for the Holy Grail, whereas the search was for a prize of infinite reward but never to be obtained. Nancy thought about those promised rewards that only led to the downfall of the noble knights and their king. But in her former life as a spy, Nancy understood that sometimes the long shot is the one that would win the day. She just hoped the day wasn’t over and there was still a long shot that could be taken. And on her next attempt, she would have a much better fucking plan.
She scrolled by the casualty lists in her direct-to-mind view and could see that the day had truly gone against them. They had taken on some really serious casualties. The number of lives lost in the engagement was mind numbing to Nancy and made her feel knots in the pit of her stomach as if she were going to be sick. Her attack wave alone had been decimated. The first attack wave hit even worse and was cut completely cut in half. She pulled up the Madira’s casualty list and had Allison run a quick search algorithm.
Captain Jack Boland is listed on the Madira’s wounded and his current status is “recovering,” Allison alerted her. His condition was only ever critical for a few brief moments during and immediately following his ingress and landing procedure. I’ll get you the full report.
Thank you, Allison. Let me know if there is any change. And start working our work schedules to figure out the soonest I can get to him or him to me.
I will. I’m in contact with Candis now. Would you like to speak with Captain Boland?
Uh, I—she didn’t have time to finish the thought before Allison interrupted her.
General Moore is pinging you, DTM. He wants to speak with you now, Allison told her.
Shit. Didn’t take him long. I haven’t even had a chance to talk to Jack yet. Just keep an eye on him for me and tell Jack I can’t talk right now.
Done.
Nancy felt the knots in her stomach twist up even tighter. She wanted to get to Dee and the rest of the ground teams just as bad as anyone did and that included the General. But there had just been nothing she could do about the overwhelming situation. The planet had simply been cut off by the Chiata and that was that. She continued to tell herself that there was nothing she could do. Every attempt at getting to them led to the loss of ships and thousands of more lives. She knew that she had made the right decision, even if it did suck shit.
Open the channel, Nancy thought.
Captain Jack Boland says he will be fine, by the way. Channel with General Moore is open.
General Moore, Captain Penzington here.
Nancy, from the blue force tracker I see you’ve taken on serious casualties. I’m glad you made it through. At the risk of sounding selfish and putting personal needs above the mission, what of Dee? Alexander Moore asked about his daughter. I can see that she’s not with you.
Sir, we pressed and pressed but couldn’t get to the planet. There were so many ships that we were overwhelmed and the planet was cut off to us completely. We started taking on heavy losses very quickly. I have to tell you that recovering Dee was personal for me as well. I was afraid I was letting my personal feelings put more of the Fleet at risk trying to get to her. I couldn’t continue in good conscience to risk hundreds and maybe thousands of lives for a handful. Nancy stopped and collected her thoughts for a second. She was telling the truth. She hadn’t realized until she had just thought it that she was playing the situation differently based on it being about someone she cared for rather than just the next mission. Her life had changed to the point that she barely recognized herself. She liked her reflection, but barely recognized it.
I’m sure what you did was justified, Captain. Moore’s thought was deadpan.
No sir, I didn’t mean it that way at all. My actions as a Captain were justified, certainly, but me personally, sir, I wasn’t even close to done. I’ll go back in there right now to get her, but not with more crew to send to the graveyard. I’d just take a small team with a smaller shuttle. You could drop us out of hyperspace and go. Give us time to get down and back up then drop back in. I’m pretty sure I already have another volunteer ready to go, General. You just give us the word.
I’ll take that plan under advisement, Nancy.
Sir, feel some better in knowing that Dee was fine and evading any pursuits when we left. Her first group of pursuers she handled like a true Marine. She’s strong, sir. She will survive until we can get back to her. I will get back to her. I promised you I’d take care of her, sir, and I failed for now, but I won’t next time.
You said it yourself, Nancy. Alexander hesitated. The Chiata have the planet cut off. We need a better plan of attack to get our people back.
Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. Dee is like a little sister to me.
I appreciate that. Have your senior officers ready for a Fleet-wide virtual conference in fifteen minutes.
Yes, sir.
Moore out.
I’m not sure how that went, Allison said in her mind. Are you?
No. No, I’m not.
“You talking to the General, ma’am?” Rackman looked at her through his open visor. He had a good intuition about situational matters and Nancy could see the concern and worry on his face. She nodded an affirmative to him. Nancy knew about Rackman and Dee’s relationship and was sure it was tearing at the SEAL. But the job came with its woes and there was nothing to do about it now but to figure out what to do about it. And now. The longer Dee had to stay on that planet the worse her odds for survival got. She figured General Moore was having similar thoughts.
“Assemble the senior staff in the conference room in fifteen minutes for a Fleet-wide virtual con. Alert the rest of the Beta attack wave to do the same,” Nancy told him.
“Yes, ma’am.” Rackman turned to his console and started initiating her commands and then he paused and turned back to her. “Ma’am, if we’re going to drop a team down there, I’m much better at close-up wet work than all this big ship stuff.”
“Duly noted, Commander. Honestly, me too,” Nancy replied while smiling inwardly. She’d already counted on him volunteering in her conversation with the General.
Allison, get the full story on Jack for me. Get me data on his mission, injury, surgery, status, images, whatever. You know the drill.
Yes, Captain, her superspy AIC replied. Do I ping him directly?
Not yet. I want to know what I’m dealing with before I talk to him. He’s alive according to the blue force tracker, but I want to know if he needs coddling or scolding or both.
Understood.
“Captain,” the STO clone interrupted. “If you don’t mind, I could use a moment of your time.”
“Of course, STO.” Nancy looked at the clone. She had been working with the clone crews for a good while now and was beginning to appreciate their work ethic, abilities, and intelligence. Each one of them was like a digital library with superhuman intelligence and a damned near inexhaustible level of deadpan enthusiasm which came in very handy at times, but she still couldn’t get used to not being able to size up a perso
n by their body language. She thought that the AIC quantum computational abilities were so advanced and fast that they’d be able to mimic facial expressions, vocal inflections, and body language better. But for whatever reason, all the clones were horrible at it. It was both amusing and disturbing at the same time.
“Ma’am, if you don’t mind, this would be easiest explained in the mindview,” the STO said.
“Very well.” Nancy nodded.
Allison, let her in.
Roger that.
“Ma’am, I have been studying the blue beams hoping to determine how they are guided and how they can hold so much energy within each shot. And it is curious how they managed to penetrate the shields with only a few hits.” A virtual image of a blue beam incident on one of the Fleet ships appeared in Nancy’s mind. At first there was little to see other than the blue beam being dispersed across the shield’s surface area.
“Go on.” Nancy was curious where the STO was going with this. To date, nobody had a damned clue how those fucking blue beams of death from Hell worked, and any insight might prove to be a tactical advantage. Nancy was all for a tactical advantage right now. Any good news to report right then would be, well, good news.
“Watch as the beam interplays with the quantum barrier shield. At first the interaction is what we’d expect to see. The beam is spread out across the barrier. But then something else happens,” she said, highlighting an area just in front of the beam. The point in the image zoomed in quickly enough that it took Nancy off guard, and she would have lost her balance had she not already been sitting down.
Kill Before Dying (Tau Ceti Agenda Book 5) Page 20