“If he didn’t come back to Earth, where did he go?” Vito asked himself.
David looked at Vito and shrugged. “There’s a statue he left at the elevator, about all we have left of him.”
William adjusted his grip and leaned into the rusty side of the cab. The hills stretched out into the horizon lazily. They seemed to be laying down with less rock poking up. An occasional flock of sheep grazed on the horizon.
The VTOL first poked over the horizon a dozen kilometers away. In a rapid commotion everyone sat up and stared as it disappeared behind another hill before popping back up. The sleek shape was hugging the landscape tightly. It looked to be the same beast that had bombarded the capsules.
Around them stretched green fields broken by an occasional stone. The low hills offered nothing to hide a man. The worries of the civilians grew louder as the whine of the rotor drifted in.
William looked into the back of the truck. The pattern armor! Aleksandr, Leduc and Crow were strapping themselves into the bulky armor.
“Did the first three have comms?” William asked quickly.
“What?” Sebastien asked.
“Radios, communicators, anything!” William said louder.
“No, nothing that I saw.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Stop the truck!” William yelled.
Selim slowly pressed on the brakes and the truck lurched forward and back like a drunken hippo. “I hope you’ve got an idea.”
“Crow, get in the drivers seat, Aleksandr, Leduc, pop in too. Everyone else in the back and lay low!” William said. He stepped off of the side of the truck and jumped into the back of the truck.
The positions were switched rapidly as the Marines and Soldiers crawled in and lay beside the Civilians. The truck bounced back into motion.
“Crow, when that VTOL comes in just stop the truck, sling the merc rifle onto your shoulder and get out.”
“Just like that? And va-voom, he goes away?” Crow asked angrily.
“I’m open to ideas,” William said softly.
Crow shook his head and drove slowly.
The VTOL creeped above the next rise and skidded sideways through the air. The blunt autocannon was pointed squarely at the truck as it pivoted around. It wavered up and down as if unsure if it wanted to remain.
Crow slowly brought the truck to a stop. It bounced back and forth before finally stopping. He sat in the seat for a second.
“Get out!” William hissed.
Crow turned and grasped the slender rifle. He dropped himself off the cab casually and slung the rifle onto his shoulder over the bulk of the armor. He took a few steps towards the VTOL.
The craft swung in the wind and hovered at a steady distance.
What the controllers of that VTOL saw must have baffled them. Crow began by waving his arms north. He followed this up with a pantomime of his hands rising like a rocket followed by a large explosion. He ended it all with a quick exaggerated jog of ten steps. This ended with a final universal gesture of ‘fuck it’ followed by a steering wheel turning gesture.
The VTOL hovered and didn’t looked convinced.
Crow gave it one final wave north and dismissed it. He turned his back and hopped up into the cab. The truck bounced as he accelerated slowly. He waved it away dismissively.
William lay as low as he could get and watched through a slat in the side. The VTOL hovered and slowly banked away before moving north. A rough hand ruffled his hair. He looked up with a smile and was greeted with Sergeant Selim grinning down at him.
“You owe me a new pair of underwear Midshipman,” Crow called over his shoulder.
The truck continued south until it finally arrived at a modest settlement. The houses were a mix of old concrete and weathered stone. The wounded were offloaded and passed into the hands of the locals.
Sebastien took special care moving Saul indoors.
Before them stretched a dirty agricultural landscape dotted with ragged farms and scraggly trees. An occasional ancient truck could be seen doddering about on the lower plains. Far off on the horizon the slender black form of the Elevator rose into the sky. It glowed orange for a brief moment as the reflection of the sun played on it in a perfect moment.
The lower line of the elevator was obscured by the horizon and a sooty smoke that seeped above it. William stood and squinted to get a better view.
“Ready for this Midshipman?” Sebastien asked.
William looked down to the augment and nodded. “Planets just don’t liberate themselves now do they?”
Sebastien snorted and leaned his head back as the truck continued south.
CHAPTER TEN
Hostage
The agricultural landscape was verdant fields, lush crops, and crude farmhouses. The only thing as common as rows of crops was rows of graveyards. It seemed that the colonization had not been as easy as had been hoped. Such was a universal truth.
The fields were plump with harvest, ripe, and in some cases going to seed. Faces worn with the endless task of toil watched in silence as they rolled past. What had been one generations escape was another's binding.
Night began to drop. The truck bounced across the patchwork horizon of fields before finally coming into view of the Capital. What had once been pristine was now coated in grime and grit. The smelters and stamp mills gave the horizon a dim glow.
They stopped the truck. The crew piled out of the still bouncing bed. The smell of fruit tickled their noses as they stood and stared below. It was not as they had pictured.
The very upper reaches of the elevator stretched skyward like a golden thread. The light rose at a steady pace hiding the thread as the night came on. A giant rectangular building was perched on an empty rise with hills of slag and debris surrounding it. A comm tower poked skywards with scaffolding about the edge.
All around stretched vertical towers with weights dropping below. Near to those was a hellish sputtering as the arc furnaces torched the darkness. Nothing could separate the ores of ill repute quite like the pure white burn of a carbon rod.
The center of the city was dim. The buildings seemed to cower in the shadow of the brutish constructions nearby. A crisp smoke blew in that smelled of burnt wire and pickled steel.
“It wasn’t always like this,” David said. He raised his hands to point at the city but caught himself and stopped. His face was rimed with sadness.
“What’s on the roof of the big building?” Tero asked in the twangy accent of Mars.
“Dat is drone pods,” Von Hess said. He leaned against the truck and favored his good leg.
William scoured the plains below for entry points. Cover everywhere. They could get in and close through the slag piles. “Can we shut them down inside?”
“Yah, if you can get to the control station.”
“And if we can’t?” Crow asked.
Von Hess shrugged. “Get to the roof then yes? Drop the comm tower.”
Sebastien pointed to the base of the elevator. A handful of orange sodium lights winked in the thermals. “Looks pretty quiet.”
“Why would anyone go there? We don’t have a ship at the top,” David said.
Sebastien rose his eyes upwards. “Hmm, I bet they do.”
William turned to David. “Where is your son?”
“I can find him, but it may take me some time.”
“We don’t have time,” Sebastien said.
William nodded. “Not much at least.” He pointed to the comm tower on the peak of the refinery. “Xan, can we use that comm array?”
“Maybe, if there’s anything worth talking to,” Xan replied.
Sebastien smiled a warm smile and looked up to the sky.
“We’re going to cut the flank, come in on the side away from the refinery. If they send troops north now they’ll come right by us here,” Crow said.
“Why not smoke em here?” Avi asked and pointed at the cover.
“Go pick fruit,
” Crow ordered. “And think about that.”
“Call me stupid, and I’ll pick fruit too, but why is it a bad idea?” Vito asked.
Crow pointed to the surroundings. “They come in, we engage, they turn and get back into the refinery mess. Now they can use the cover and we can’t get to the objective. If there were a dozen units assaulting the capital it’d be an option, but we’ve got one chance. Need to make it stick.”
“I see, I’ll help Avi,” Vito added softly as he walked into the orchard.
William kept his mouth shut and listened. He knew this wasn’t the right place but he knew enough to listen and learn. It looked formidable, dirty, rough, but how did that compare to the pristine death in the snow? He kicked the dirt and marveled at feeling a warm breeze. He could just lay on his back and be completely content.
The truck turned a hard right and flanked the edge of the city. An occasional apple core bounced off the road behind. Avi had done an exceptional job picking while Vito carried the bounty. The apples were an amazing thing to marvel over and savor.
The truck slowly descended the bowl and began to enter into the slums. Rock hovels were roofed with ragged sheets of slate. Survival was the design, meager was the supplier. The truck pulled behind a low group.
“We do shifts of two, go down the line, everyone stays in the truck,” Crow called from the cab.
“David,” William called in the dim light. “How long till you find your boy?”
“Eh? Well, I’ll know in the morning, it all looks so different here.”
William sighed and nodded. Just what he needed, they had to wait another night.
Judging from the light on the horizon they were still about 20 kilometers out of the main city. The slums and stamp mills grew on the perimeter. An occasional arc popped from the shabby lines of an electrical conductor. The lines drooped lazily off of concrete poles.
The temperature dropped quickly as the dampness rose around them. William curled himself up with a filthy sleeping bag. He wondered as he fell asleep if he would ever sleep in a real bed.
William awoke to a hissing sound and a rough hand shaking his shoulder. He sat up and reached for the sidearm tucked into his jacket. He blinked and saw the men around him sliding off of the rear of the truck and dropping down onto the ground.
A white searchlight beamed through the hovels and grew steadily closer.
“Shit,” William said.
“Follow me,” Avi said as he grabbed William by the elbow.
The orange industrial light, even at 20 kilometers, still gave a slight sickly glow. William could make out the walls, the general contours, but couldn’t see individual men. The light blinked behind a stamp mill and reappeared on the opposite side.
Avi sighed. “I’d kill someone to get a comms.”
William agreed. Everyone had nanites implanted that would work off of a local comm network. Unfortunately without the proper hardware they simply sat idle. During the day it was easy enough, but now things would become a bit more difficult.
The harsh white beam reappeared and swung back and forth lazily. The back reflection illuminated a small flat bed truck. A single wide headlight provided dim illumination for the driver. The light hadn’t yet found them, but it was heading on the road they sat near.
“Avi! Can you see anyone?” William whispered. He lacked the nano-augmented night vision that the ground troops had.
“Shh, when they come in they’ll be caught in a crossfire. Just wait!” Avi whispered in reply. He slid the barrel of his weapon onto a pile of rubble and waited.
William watched and dropped the pistol nose lower. The truck was still a hundred meters off. It was going to pass close enough to toss a rock at. He looked at the hovels around him, it wouldn’t take but a single burst to wake up the inhabitants. Then they’d really have a mess.
He shivered slightly. The adrenaline was beginning to flow. The back of his mouth tingled as he squeezed the pistol. The aim was odd, it just didn’t feel the same as aiming a rifle.
How perfect can a firefight be? William knew that ideally they would drop everyone in a single volley, not a single return shot. He didn’t even know if anyone would shoot. Would they wait till sighted or take the initiative?
Avi crunched the rubble as he adjusted his weapon. The truck prowled from view behind a low line of stamped sand. Above them only the brightest stars poked through the thick air.
The truck came into view slowly and ambled down the final approach. The dim headlight bobbed into view as the searchlight swung from side to side. The hovels looked even worse wilting under the precise beam of the searchlight.
The silence was eerie. The slight whine of the electric motor was only broken by the creeping crunch and popping pong of the suspension. The truck must have shared the same designer as the cattle truck that the survivors rode in.
A single muzzle blast exploded from the other side of the road. The rapid burp of the rounds impacting the truck was followed up by that terrible symphony erupting all around. The flash at the end of each barrel was a hint of orange surrounded by a blue plasma layer. The beauty was evident if you had the ability to admire it in a firefight.
At the first shot William pointed the pistol and pulled the trigger. The weapon leapt in his grasp like an angry animal. His night vision was gone as he had been watching the truck approach.
He cursed his stupidity. The first barrage that went out had popped the headlight and searchlight. The enemy would be as night blind as he was. Just to feel slightly useful he leveled the pistol once more and prepared to fire at the first muzzle blast he saw.
A voice cried out in pain. The hovels were awakening with voices calling into the darkness. A horrible wailing began as if an animal was wounded.
William turned his head and tried to pinpoint the sound. His night vision was slowly coming back. The voice before him was pleading in a language he didn’t know.
A rapid popping sound came from the truck. William slid his head down and fired a round into the direction it came. He realized he wasted a precious, irreplaceable round and waited for a better shot. The mournful wailing continued.
“What do you see?” William asked.
Avi poked his head up slightly. He wore a slender pair of the nightvision glasses. “There’s a man on ground rolling around. Someone set something off.” He strained forward and pushed some of the rubble pile.
William watched as Avi popped off a single round into the darkness. The wailing stopped.
A second later a scream belted out into the darkness. William sat up higher and scanned into the areas that had enough light to see. A man was on the ground 20 meters away from him and rolling about madly. “Avi! Cover me,” William said as he crouched and sprinted to the form.
William reached Kerry who was rolling around grasping at something on his back like it was on fire. William slapped at Kerry’s back and recoiled when he felt a hard metallic shape.
“Get it off! Get the fucken thing off!” Kerry cried.
The thing was about the size of a large apple. It was firmly latched to his flesh.
William grasped the bitter edges of the thing and reefed. Kerry howled. The metallic thing was bored right into Kerry’s flesh. William cracked at it with the barrel of his pistol but it did nothing.
“Shoot it, shoot it off!” Kerry cried as he writhed in pain on the ground.
A loud blast echoed from the truck as a grenade was detonated. The night sky turned titanium white for a split second. William felt a deep shift in his gut as the concussion wave hit.
He focused his attention on the monstrosity bored onto Kerry’s back. He turned the pistol sideways and laid it against the curve of Kerry’s back. The bullet would, hopefully, pass through the construct and destroy it. If it was deflected it would blow a hole right through his back. William slid his finger onto the crisp trigger and turned his head.
The thing dropped away in a hollow clatter and sat idle at his feet. He released his breath and
stepped back, keeping the pistol leveled at it.
Kerry scrambled forward and rubbed the hole on his back. "What'd you do?"
"Nothing, it just fell off."
"Clear! Vito, c'mon up!" Crow yelled from the hostile truck.
William grabbed the drone. It was like a hollow can in his hands. He walked up to the truck cautiously holding the item like an egg. The dim light wasn't enough to show details.
Crow was hunched next to a man in gray coveralls with combat webbing on his chest. His hands worked quickly as he patted and emptied the pockets. The man was dead.
Near to him Vito was bent over another man. Avi stood above him with the barrel of his weapon pointed at his chest. This one was alive. A light flickered and Crow tossed a small pen light over. The man wore red slices on his arms, evidence of the wire grenades.
More screams came from the surrounding hovels.
Selim shouted, "Find out what's going on!"
Eduardo came and squatted next to the truck and ran his hands over the edge of the bed where the drones emerged. A dim glow came from the tattoos on his arms as the grubby uniform stretched back. "Oh, what are you?" he mumbled.
"I've got one here," William said as he held the thing before him. He looked over at the wounded man. Foamy spit hung onto his lips as he formed words with no sound.
"Oh! Jesus!" Eduardo cried out. "Drop it!"
William dropped the empty metal thing and stepped away as if burned. "What? What is it?"
"Oh shit," Vito said as he scrambled back.
"Do I shoot it?" William asked pointing the pistol at the dark spot on the ground.
"No, no, is it empty? Did it already go off?" Eduardo asked.
"It was on Kerry, on his back, what is it?" William asked again.
"Is it empty!" Eduardo shouted.
"Yes, yes!" William replied hurriedly.
Vito talked slowly. "It is a nanite virus carrier. You drop those when you need to control a population, doesn't kill them, just makes them sick, like a flu."
Trial by Ice (A Star Too Far) Page 14