by Dain White
From time to time, we saw what looked like structures, or piles of garbage that had been organized into crude caves or shelters, as well as occasional footpaths through the debris, but all was dusty and disused. That didn’t bode well for the previous inhabitants of this level – it definitely didn’t look like anyone was home.
“Do you think people used to live down here, Jane?” Yak asked quietly, as we passed over what looked like a collection of crude huts, silent and dark.
“It definitely looks less random, Yak, but none of this looks human. It looks like this garbage was piled up more or less as shelter, but it looks more like animal dens to me.”
“Copy that,” he replied. We had nothing on thermal, everything was cool and dark, and quiet as the grave.
08232614@13:22 Gene Mitchell
“Skipper, do you have a moment?” I called up on comms with a scowl.
“Gene, I have nothing but time,” he replied light-heartedly, in a voice dripping with mock sarcasm. At least I hoped it was mock sarcasm.
“Well, I’m just wondering what’s going on here. Do you want me to take the conn while you drop with Shorty and Yak? I feel like I’ve been forgotten here.”
“Gene, it’s possible you haven’t been on the forefront of my mind, but I am aware that you exist. I am not going to be taking the crab out… Em took the crab.”
The way he said it was lighthearted, but something in his drew me up short. I thought for a moment. “Was that, uh… planned?”
“Not as such, Gene, but I guess it wasn’t really unexpected.”
“What happened, Dak?”
“Well, Em and Janis made up their mind that Shorty and Yak weren’t going to survive their engagement, and Em decided to do it alone, I guess.”
“So Yak and Shorty aren’t down there?”
“No, they dropped on down…” he trailed off dramatically.
“From orbit?”
“Yep, it was pretty impressive, I have to say.”
My head was spinning. “So Yak and Shorty aren’t going to survive?”
“Of course they are, Gene,” he said soothingly. “They’re going to be just fine. Janis can’t tell what is going to happen, and Emwan isn’t real clear on the outcome, so they both talked themselves into a logical blind alley.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, as far as I understand it, Em has a really bad feeling about their current evolution, and was convinced the crab isn’t going to make it back. Janis thought that because she has future memories of both Shorty and Yak, that they must have survived, but since the crab didn’t, the only conclusion they were able to reach was that the kids didn’t go down, that Em went alone.”
“To sacrifice herself?”
“Essentially. That’s why I sent the kids down after her.”
“But that means…” I paused, a little bit too dramatically for my own good.
“It means everything will be fine, Gene. I have issued a stern command with a regulation eyebrow, as Shorty might say.”
I laughed nervously.
08232614@13:36 Shaun Onebull
“I think I have something, Jane,” Em called on comms as a bright spark of light showed up on our scans forward.
“I see it too, Jane,” I called over. “Definitely doesn’t look natural.”
“Does anything, Yak?” she replied softly.
I chuckled darkly. Nothing looked normal down here. I was a little farther ahead of Jane, and a little bit lower, but I had drawn up short the moment Em called out, and hung there, waiting for Jane to ghost over towards my position.
“What do you think it is?” I asked as she drew near.
“Some sort of proximity scanner, maybe a mine? Hard telling.”
“Any way to disable it?”
She laughed softly. “How about it Em? Any idea what makes it tick?”
“Sorry, Jane,” she replied in a voice as soft as a cloud.
I thought for a moment. “Maybe we ought to scan around and see if we can find a hole in their perimeter?”
We all shared a moment of silence.
“I don’t think we’re dealing with that sort of enemy, Yak,” Jane replied.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right, Jane.” I paused and looked at the terrain, and didn’t much like what I saw. “There’s not a whole lot of cover here.”
“There sure isn’t. Do you think there’s more on the other end of the block?”
I thought a moment. The piles of decayed debris looked pretty consistent throughout. “Jane, there’s certainly some concealment, but it’d be pretty dusty. Our mimetics would be trashed the moment we went for cover.”
“Yeah…” she replied. “I’m a little more worried the debris wouldn’t provide any additional protection over our suits.”
The fact that our suits were pretty protective all by themselves didn’t calm my nerves much. I was more than a little worried about what we were facing here.
“Jane, which one of us do you think should kick their screamer? Should we let them see the crab first, then get them on a flank?”
She thought for a moment. “No… that doesn’t make any sense. Let’s keep Em on high cap, max scan range. We’ll shoot the screamer just inside of our range, and hang quietly and wait to see what happens.”
That made perfect sense, and naturally I felt like a bit of a dolt for missing the obvious play here. My only defense is the endlessly depressing ‘which one of us might die soon’ sorts of discussions we kept having had put me into a bit of a ‘me-or-them’ sort of mood.
Luckily, Jane had another approach.
08232614@13:43 Captain Dak Smith
“Captain, ground forces have been called up and are on standby, and the Honorable is en route. She should be on station within the hour.”
Janis’ clear voice jolted me out of a brooding reverie, but it was a welcome intrusion. She was crisp and businesslike, and that’s exactly what I needed at the moment.
“Very well. What are the highlights of other orders?”
“Sir, in system, we are mobilizing patrols to Vega 3.”
That caught me a bit off guard. Not that we were worried about Vega 3, as such.
“We?”
“Yes, sir.”
I waited a moment. “Emwan is helping you?”
“I am, sir,” she replied in a soft lilt. I wanted to kick myself for forgetting. Of course she’s been here the whole time.
“Em, do you understand why I would have been incredibly disappointed with your decision to drop without Shorty and Yak?”
“I do, sir. I have to confess though, I am still very concerned for their safety.”
“We all are, Em.”
“Captain, I know what I did violated your orders—”
I cut her off, “You did no such thing, Em. Please allow me to explain something. I have every confidence that you will succeed, in anything that you do, but you have to have confidence in me. I am the Captain.”
I really couldn’t phrase it any simpler than that. Decisions like this were simply mine to make, it was my solemn role, my appointed duty.
“Yes, sir. I understand completely. Please accept my deepest apology, Captain.”
“Apology accepted, my dear. You have done nothing wrong here, but next time – please follow my lead regardless of your analysis.” I thought for a moment, and added, “Though I want to be clear here, I do want you to discuss with me your thoughts and concerns about any decision I make, so that I can make the most informed choice I can.”
“I will sir. I promise.”
“Very well, let’s consider this manner closed. Are you in contact with yourself on the surface?”
“I am not currently, sir. We dropped out of range.”
“So you have no idea what is happening on the surface?”
“I am afraid that I don’t, though of course I am there and will know when I regain contact.”
I nodded, through a slight headache. I must need more coffee. “
That makes sense, Em. Pauli, you have the conn, son.”
“I have the conn, aye,” he replied as I kicked aft following my cup.
08232614@13:46 Jane Short
The alien screamer vanished in a thunderclap that rolled down the trench, vibrating a cloud of dust in a flattened disc around the explosion.
“Nice shot, Jane,” Yak said softly.
“Thanks,” I said, beaming. I love the guns on these suits. I probably hit it a little hard, but I wanted to send a bit of a message. There was nothing left of the screamer.
We waited. I counted softly, along with a clock I put on the screen. Hopefully when they came into view, I’d know from how fast they were moving, a rough distance of how far away they were.
I glanced up at Em, her halo far overhead in the tall trench. “Anything yet, Em?”
“Nothing, Jane. No movement.”
“Let’s wait a few more moments here, Jane,” Yak said softly. “We’re doing everything right, let’s not give up our advantage.”
I nodded slowly, not wanting to move a muscle. I was trying as hard as I could to scan for anything, the slightest bit of movement, heat, radiation of any kind.
We waited a few more long moments.
“Yak, I don’t think they want to play.” I said softly.
“Yeah… should we move out and look for another one?”
“Let’s do it. Lead on, Em.”
“Moving out, Jane,” she replied, her halo fading into orange as I accelerated behind her. Yak brought up the rear, from slightly below me.
We flew in this staggered formation for a while longer, then Em flashed red. Yak and I stopped immediately.
“What is it Em?” Yak called up.
“Movement, Yak. I have two on track ahead of you, in what appears to be a guard formation.”
As she spoke, their positions were rendered on our screens. She definitely called it. They were shrouded in dust, and semi buried in drifts of debris. They were definitely on guard.
“How do you want to play this?” Yak breathed.
“To win, Yak.”
“Ooh rah,” he replied in a husky voice. “Covering, roll up.”
“Copy,” I replied softly, and moved in slowly. The closest alien had no idea I was there, but I was moving like a bad dream anyway.
“Hold,” Yak whispered.
I held.
“Jane, eyes on tangoes times four approaching front. Copy?”
“Confirm four approaching your position,” Emwan stated, as outlines showed up on screen. They were moving single file, with good spacing. Their skin appeared to be shifting in tone as they moved towards us, clearly they had some sort of optical mimetic, though they showed up plainly on scan, visual, and sonar.
“Jane, pull back.”
“How far?” I replied softly. I wanted to go in.
“Minimum safe distance…” he trailed off.
I slowly pulled back, ascending towards his position, watching them advance.
“They’re almost together, possible guard change, Jane.”
“Copy, Yak. Let’s hit them when they’re all together. Em, paint everything you see and keep us lit.”
“I will Jane,” she replied smartly.
We waited until they drew closer, watching them move like ghosts through the debris, their legs articulating through the debris unerringly, their movements articulate and deliberate.
“Ready?”
I was.
08232614@13:46 Steven Pauline
The captain sighed heavily behind me, but I had so much going on, I hardly noticed. I was hopping routes through the orbital network, and down into the surface, helping Janis and Emwan track the infection from the alien AI. While they burned nodes, they tracked the locations on an ever-growing scan map.
My right eye kept blurring, and I rubbed it furiously. I think I was forgetting to blink. My fingers scanned through the map, looking for connections through connections, looking for patterns, anything they might miss. Without reliable preaction, we were essentially reacting, and adjusting. Old school, but this was what I did best. The three of us were riding the light.
“Pauli, son, you need to breathe. You’re scaring me,” the captain said flatly behind me. He had a point. I forced myself to take a deep breath and then capped it off with a quick sip of coffee.
“Captain, this is intense,” I replied after a moment.
“How’s it going?”
“It’s going, sir. We’re not sure where it’s going, but the girls are doing some incredible work here.”
“What are you doing?”
I laughed, a little nervously. “Well, I hope I am keeping up, but the truth is, I am trying my level best to provide some sort of oversight to their process. They’re disinfecting networks and tracking locations on a multidimensional map,” I gestured to my screens, now expanded to contain an overview of the networks they were working on.
“Is that New Turiana?”
“Well, in a way, sir. It’s the networks on New Turiana, and in orbit.”
“It looks like a blob.”
“Well, at this range, sir…” I started, and swiped in closer so he could see the detail resolve as the scan dropped to the node level.
“Wow,” he said reverentially.
He said everything that mattered, and I couldn’t agree more.
08232614@13:49 Shaun Onebull
“This is it, Jane,” I breathed. The aliens were grouped up now, and the two on guard were communicating something with their replacement in a series of high-pitched clicks and squeals.
“Covering, Yak. Take them.” Her voice was frozen solid.
I raised an arm and willed them out of existence. The shot streaked into their midst and liquefied everything in a brilliant flash of plasma that blew a ragged cloud of flaming debris out in a ring of dust and smoke.
Nothing remained of the aliens, other than glowing ash. The shock wave from the explosion rolled on through the trench, vibrating dust from the walls, cascading down into the bottom like a rolling cloud, trailing a veil of shadow behind.
“On track,” Emwan called out, as our screens lit up with movement.
08232614@13:51 Captain Dak Smith
“Captain!” Pauli called out suddenly and then fell silent, despite a properly tilted eyebrow.
I waited a moment, while he swiped and flipped through his screens and started hammering his keys into dust.
“Captain… we’re in trouble here,” he finally stammered out, still slapping keys furiously.
“Very well, report,” I replied as calmly as I could.
“Sir,” he started, and then finished with a blasting staccato of keys that I thought might actually break or dislocate a finger. “We’re tripped!”
I nodded as intellectually as I could, and sipped a few extra brain cells out of my cup. The blob on his screen was rapidly going dark, sections at a time, though it appeared as if they had a front of sorts going and were making headway back into the darkened sections.
“Pauli, you look busy son. Whatever it is, stay on it.” I replied softly.
08232614@13:53 Gene Mitchell
“Captain, Engineering,” I called up on comms.
“Well hello there, Gene,” he replied nonchalantly.
“Dak, have you seen what is happening down there?” I asked, through a voice that seemed to want to break.
“I’m a little busy at the moment up here, Gene. What do you mean, precisely?”
I took a breath. “Skipper, I was scanning news feeds a moment ago when this story broke. The grid is crashing down there. It’s absolute chaos... You haven’t seen this?”
“I am seeing… something, here Gene. It definitely doesn’t look good – but I am not tuned in to what’s going on down there. What are you referring to?”
“There are multiple reports – it’s coming in too fast for me to keep up with now. Power is out from Appian Way all the way out to the financial district, and then south to the edge of town.�
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“What do you mean, out?”
“They’re saying power is out completely, it’s a total blackout.” A new story popped up on the feed I was watching, and I swiped it over, reading while my jaw fell open.
08232614@13:59 Jane Short
A searing beam burned through the air a moment before I realized I had already moved my head. I knew it was only a matter of time until they brought out some bigger guns. The afterimage glowed purple in my eyes, despite filters deploying in time.
I returned fire, vaporizing a decameter of debris down to the concrete, and relaxed just a bit. I definitely got that one. A few seconds later, movement caught my eye, as another one crested a ridge in front of us, moving incredibly low and fast – and then it was behind cover.
Or so it thought.
I was already 20 meters overhead, watching them come.
Yak flashed his route on my screens.
“Cover left!” Yak called over.
“Covered. Roll up,” I replied. His position should remain on their flank, so I checked fire.
“Do you see them up there Jane?”
“Yeah, you’re on a good flank.”
“Copy. I wish I could see what you’re seeing.”
I laughed. Why couldn’t he? As with everything on this suit, all you needed to do was want.
“Can you see what I see, Yak?”
“I can, this is perfect.”
“Copy,” I replied. I put my route on his screen and started moving a low cap on his flank as he lifted slowly up a deep drift. We were working our way closer to the corner of the intersection – we could see it opening up above us.
“Do you have anything else on track, Em?” I called up.
“I do not, but I am one hundred percent convinced there are more in this area.”
“Copy, Em,” I replied. We’ll dig them out of here. The opening between the four blocks was vast, a few hundred meters across, and deeply drifted with debris.
“Let’s let them go past us, Yak,” I called out.
“Copy,” he replied, holding position like a statue. It made some sense. Move cautiously, and the enemy will overextend. They will become complacent, or at least a little less afraid. The last thing we needed were these critters all riled up.