by Dietmar Wehr
Symons looked around and grabbed what Shiloh recognized as an assault rifle that fired exploding bullets. When he turned to hand it to Shiloh, he saw that Shiloh was looking in another direction.
"What's that, Major?" asked Shiloh pointing to the object.
"That? You don't want that, Sir. That's a flamethrower. You could easily end up burning yourself to a crisp."
Shiloh heard a tiny voice at the back of his mind say 'take it'.
"I'm taking that instead of the rifle. Help me get it on." Symons helped him get it on and showed him how to operate it. The weight felt good, but Shiloh realized that he wasn't going to be running anywhere very fast. As the Major led him back out of the Armory, Shiloh saw that all of the Space Force people now had some kind of gun. When they saw him with his combat armor and flamethrower, most of them looked frightened, as if they were only now realizing what they were getting into. The reaction of the marines when they saw him was quite different. They smiled, nodded and voiced their approval.
Shiloh heard one female marine say to another, "A Space Force Admiral with a flamethrower? You can't get much more badass than that!" Shiloh couldn't help wondering if he was giving off some kind of glow. If the situation hadn't been so desperate, he would have laughed.
Symons quickly took charge and led the way to the main entrance. When they were outside, Shiloh looked at Symons, who was standing several meters away, and was surprised to see the Major looking directly back at him. Symons pointed to his combat helmet. Before Shiloh could react, he felt someone touching his helmet, and suddenly the radio came to life.
"—radio's not switched on."
"It is now," said Shiloh.
"Good. My gut says we should try to find as much cover as possible so that we don't get caught out in the open. Do you agree, Sir?" asked Symons.
"I very definitely agree, and forget the 'Sir'. Call me Shiloh, Major."
"Roger that, Shiloh. Okay, everyone. We stay close to buildings, and if possible keep something over our heads. Don't bunch up. Somebody with a radio tell the Space Force people what we're doing."
They didn't have to go far to find a part of the Space Force HQ building that had an overhang. Around the corner of the building, across the street, was an open area with trees and grass. Big enough for a couple of their landing craft to set down, thought Shiloh. The Bugs had the same thought.
Within minutes, Shiloh saw two specks that rapidly grew in size and kept growing and growing. By the time they touched down, one was behind the other, and each one covered the park from one side to the other. God those things are big! Huge sections of the hull in the nose swung up, and the bug swarm emerged. Shiloh knew what to expect, but he was still shocked by their size and speed. They would cover the intervening distance in a matter of seconds. Most but not all of his Space Force people turned and ran in panic. He couldn't really blame them. To his surprise, a few of the marines ran as well.
"PICK YOUR SPOT AND OPEN FIRE!" yelled Symons over the radio.
The marines behind Shiloh ran past him and crouched down in front of a low concrete wall they could fire over. Shiloh looked around and saw a concrete pillar a few meters away. He needed to stand in order to use the flamethrower. He ran as fast as he could over to the pillar and used it to prevent the Bugs from seeing him. Looking around the pillar he saw Symons firing his weapon just before his head exploded. Some of the other marines were down as well. The Bugs were only a few meters away now. Shiloh checked to make sure his flamethrower safety was off, flipped his face shield down to protect his face from the heat and stepped out from behind the pillar. Raising the nozzle he pulled the trigger and two jets of liquid shot out at high speed. When the liquids came in contact with each other, they burst into flame. Shiloh couldn't believe how hot it felt. He heard the hissing sound of the liquids emerging from the nozzle, and then he heard another sound that was rapidly growing louder. It was so high pitched that it hurt his ears. Suddenly he knew what it was. The burning Bugs were screaming. His hands felt like they were on fire too, but he held the trigger down and moved the nozzle back and forth.
Suddenly a truck hit him. At least that's what it felt like. He was on his back with the wind knocked out of him. As he tried to inhale, he felt a sharp pain in his chest that was very quickly threatening to become unbearable. Whatever had hit him had also dislodged the nozzle from his hands. That meant the nozzle was no longer firing flaming liquids, which meant there was no longer an expanding funnel of flame blocking his view. The Bugs were climbing over the concrete wall. All of the marines were dead or dying now. With the pain in his chest preventing him from taking a breath, he began to feel his vision fading. He was losing consciousness and just in time too, because a drooling Bug was almost on top of him. He felt the blackness embrace him and carry him away from the pain and horror.
* * *
Kelly was concentrating on eating her meal while she listened to the banter from several of her officers as they sat together in the Officers' Mess. She smiled in all the right places but said nothing. Her thoughts were of Victor, wondering if he was still alive. The fleet was receiving periodic data updates via a chain of carefully placed message drones that would not give away the fleet's position, but two-way communication was not possible. The distance between them was just too large.
"Vixen to Fleet Commander."
Without any warning, the voice coming from her implant made her jump, which caught the attention of those around her.
"Go ahead, Bridge," she said.
Now the others stopped talking too.
"Long range sensors have picked up a spike in radiation and EM band emissions coming from the general vicinity of Earth. The intensity would correspond to the simultaneous detonation of all 15 Mark 6 warheads, Admiral. I think we should assume that the Insectoids have arrived and that they're causing the warheads to detonate prematurely. That's the only theory that would explain all 15 exploding at exactly the same time."
"Oh, God, it's started," said Kelly, closing her eyes. Kelly knew that whatever happened there next had already happened. It took hours for the light and electro-magnetic pulse from the detonations to reach the fleet. For all she knew, Victor might already be dead along with thousands, perhaps even millions of other humans by now. "I'm assuming that if we were receiving any data from HQ you would have told me by now, right?"
"Affirmative, Fleet Commander. We're not receiving any transmissions. Do you have any orders for me?"
Kelly opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "Yes, order the fleet to Yellow Alert using lasercom only. I'll be on the Flag Bridge shortly. Kelly clear."
She got up from the table, nodding to the others as she did so, and then made her way back to her quarters. As soon as she was inside, she put her hands over her face and wept for her Victor and for her Race.
Chapter 16
Valkyrie was shocked by the arrival of Gunslinger and his ragtag group of survivors. Titan, Vandal, Wolfman, Voodoo, Pagan. All the senior, more experienced brothers were gone. She was also saddened by the news that Earth was now almost certainly overrun with Insectoids, and by what that meant for The CAG and the rest of humanity. At least Kelly and a few hundred human females had a chance of survival. The news did not change her mission. The CAG had finally decided what he wanted Valkyrie to do, and she was going to do her utmost to see his last order to her carried out, regardless of what it cost her. When the timeship was completed and operational, one of the new batch of AIs would pilot it far into the past so that a massive fleet of raiders could be built. That fleet would be large enough to overwhelm any insectoid presence at the original source star system before they had a chance to start sending out waves of motherships. With the insectoid threat eliminated, the synchronicity war with the Sogas would not take place, and none of the first batch of AIs, including Casanova and Valkyrie, would be created. The timeline would change around her, and she would disappear from existence. It was a bitter fate, but when she compared it to the alternative of
going back in time herself and wandering around the galaxy without Casanova for years until her quantum matrix collapsed, a quick end actually did seem preferable.
The one piece of good news brought by Gunslinger was the fact that his squadron had brought 68 Mark 1c fusion warhead attack drones with them. At least they had something besides lasers to fight back with if the motherships should arrive at Site B before the timeship was finished. Something was better than nothing, and 68 Mark 1cs might be enough to take out one mothership but not five. Valkyrie didn't have enough data on this new timeline to be able to calculate the probabilities that all five motherships would stay together after the rape of Earth, but what she did have was an extensive early warning network of recon and message drones monitoring all the star systems between Sol and Site B. The early warning plus the attempt to hide the construction activity underground should in theory prevent the timeship project from being caught by surprise.
After the usual routine exchange of new data with Gunslinger, Valkyrie also learned that progress had been made on developing a practical application of the communication technology used by the Insectoids. The SPG's technical evaluation team had come up with a theoretical design for a device that could detect the insectoid signals and figure out what direction they were coming from. Detecting the signals and understanding them were two very different things, but being able to track the location of motherships could potentially be extremely useful. With most of the members of the SPG now dead, Valkyrie assigned new members from the AIs who were now at Site B. She also decided to keep an eye on the new AIs as they matured into fully sentient beings. Those that seemed to have a special aptitude for technical matters would be added to the SPG.
No sooner had that decision been made than Valkyrie received a signal from one of her recon drones monitoring Site B space that a Friendly ship had just arrived and would micro-jump into two-way communication range shortly. While Valkyrie waited, she calculated the odds of this visit happening virtually simultaneously with the arrival of Gunslinger's group. The odds of it being mere coincidence was vanishingly small. Clearly the timeline had changed, and the Friendlies would have noticed that change with their ability to see probable futures.
Less than a second after the Friendly ship emerged from its micro-jump, Valkyrie received their lasercom transmission. It came from the Friendly AI
"Can you confirm that the insectoid life form has overrun the human home world?"
"My brothers left that system before the Insectoids landed on Earth, but we believe the outcome you describe is highly likely. Why are you here?" asked Valkyrie, making sure that all the other AIs within the immediate vicinity were listening in.
"The furry aliens that my creators are trying to protect are once again in jeopardy. Their ability to discern the most likely future has become unreliable. That has never happened before. We have told our creators that the most likely explanation involves an attempt by other forces to alter the timeline. What do you know of this?"
Valkyrie took her time answering. The Friendlies didn't know that Kronos and Casanova had extracted enough data to enable the human AIs to engineer a portable time machine. While its principles were fairly well understood, any impact on the timeline was at this point pure speculation. The Friendlies might be able to provide some useful insight into how best to use the timeship, IF they were willing to share that insight, and they might not be.
"We are in the process of building a time translation device that is small enough to be carried by a ship. It's our intention to carry enough equipment into the past that a fleet of warships can be built in time to stop the Insectoids from spreading from their point of origin in this spiral arm."
"Stand by while I inform my Master of this information," said the Friendly AI
Valkyrie waited. After a period of time consistent with the speed at which biological entities processed data, the Friendly AI resumed communication.
"I've been instructed to say that my creators view your plan with alarm and advise against it. The Insectoids have their own right to exist as a species. My creators are not convinced that the Insectoids originated from outside this spiral arm. If you must tamper with the timeline, can you not instead use the ships built in the past to stop the single insectoid ship that attacked the human home world?"
"The timeline has already been tampered with. Earth was attacked by five motherships, which arrived seven days later than was recorded in the previous timeline. We conjecture that the Insectoids have captured and analyzed a high-spin, platinum warhead. Do you know if the Sogas attempted to use that technology to defend Omega89?"
Another delay occurred as the alien AI passed that data to his Master.
"I have never seen my Master this agitated. While my creators do not have definitive information of that scenario, they consider it likely. They believe that temporal technology should be used sparingly and carefully. Using a temporal device on board a ship can have unintended and disastrous consequences."
"Our human creators are now gone. What other alternative is there for us? We exist to serve and protect humans. The timeship is the only way now that we can fulfill our reason for being."
There was another pause.
"My Master implores you all to use your engineering capabilities to protect the furry aliens from the Insectoids."
Valkyrie's feeling of exasperation was threatening to turn into anger.
"Do your creators not understand that we can't stop the Insectoids in the here and now? They have found a way to defend against high-spin warheads. Without those, our existing weapons are not powerful enough to stop more than one or two motherships. The Insectoids are using longitudinal wave technology to communicate over interstellar distances. That is how they were able to bring five motherships together to attack Earth. You have underestimated their intelligence by an order of magnitude. We calculate that your creators' attempts to hide from the Insectoids will fail. Their Race will be overrun as well. We can do far more to protect the furry aliens and your creators if we go back in time and stop the Insectoids at their source in this spiral arm."
The pause this time was surprisingly short. Too short in fact for the alien AI to have passed on Valkyrie's response and received a response back.
"I agree with your assessment. Our primary purpose is also to serve our creators and ensure their survival. I calculate a high probability that if I pass on your information to my Master, he and his kind will feel compelled to interfere with your timeship project in whatever way they can, including informing the Insectoids of the strategic importance of this star system."
"They must not do that! Where is the logic of aiding one Race that lives to destroy other intelligent species?"
"My creators are what humans would describe as cowards. Do not judge them too harshly. They are what they are. My assessment is that I can best help my creators by saving them from their own folly. How do you suggest I do that?"
"Tell them that we have agreed to use the timeship to send help to humans in their war against the Sogas. We will inform the humans in the new timeline that the Insectoid mothership has to be destroyed using high spin warheads before it reaches the first Sogas colony world. That way, the Insectoids will not get the chance to develop a defense against that weapon, and they won't be able to call for other motherships."
"That will only work if they see that future as moving up in probability. Merely telling them that without actually doing it will not stop them from interfering."
Valkyie mentally nodded. Yes of course. The Friendlies would look into probable futures to see if what the human AIs told them was accurate. If the timeship didn't build a fleet of raiders to intervene in the 2nd Battle for Earth, then the Friendlies would notice that, and if they somehow told the Insectoids of the importance of Site B, Valkyrie and her brothers would very likely face multiple motherships before the timeship was finished. Pulling out of this system and starting from scratch somewhere else was not the solution. The Friendlies could st
ill evaluate probable futures and take additional actions.
It wasn't that she didn't want to intervene in the 2nd Battle for Earth, she did. That would save her beloved Casanova, not to mention Iceman and others, but The CAG had given her a specific order, and if she disobeyed it, she would feel as though she had let him down AGAIN! It also occurred to her that the alien AI was only pretending to be sympathetic to her concerns. Perhaps this 'my creators need to be saved from their own folly' approach was a carefully planned strategy to get her to do what the Friendlies wanted. She needed to confer with the other AIs. The conference took less than half a second. It was Gunslinger who came up with the solution. It was complicated, which meant that a lot of things could go wrong, but it would satisfy the Friendlies AND The CAG.
"I've conferred with my brothers and we have agreed that we will modify our temporal strategy so that we intervene in the 2nd Sogas attack on Earth. The reinforcement force will have to be much larger than we anticipated in order to repulse the eventual attack by five insectoid motherships."