by Isaac Hooke
“I shall try,” Surus replied.
In moments, the green mist that was Surus’ representation in this reality emerged from the Hoplite, Sprint, and floated across the cavern toward the digger unit. Rade willed that mist to move faster, his eyes repeatedly darting back to the dark opening that was the source of the vibrations.
Finally the green vapor reached the digger unit. It floated past the focusing mirror utilized by the large drilling laser, and into the square-shaped cabin, where it vanished entirely.
Rade pressed his lips together and tried to break free of the gravitational binds every few seconds. Nothing.
“Don’t think she’s doing anything,” TJ said.
Finally the green mist reappeared. It didn’t emerge from the cabin, but rather some distance behind it. The vapor slowly drifted across the cavern, and settled on Sprint’s hull once more.
The mist vanished inside, and Surus spoke over the comm a moment later: “The digger unit is hiding the gravity generator from view. Essentially, the gravity waves require a few meters before they converge into a coherent field, and happen to cancel each other out in the region where the digger unit resides. The generator seems capable of emitting those canceling waves in realtime, focusing on a subject, which would explain why Corunna was able to walk free. The device itself is basically a small, black crate; behind it the gravitational field is normal, with the rest of the cavern unaffected. But in front, past the canceling waves, the gravity vector points directly toward this wall.
“I was able to enter the device, but the circuitry is incomprehensible... alien... I’m not certain it even has an AI. I could not deactivate it, I’m afraid. However, I believe a well-placed laser shot will shut it down. I will journey to Shuttle A, possess one of the Centurions, and then return.”
“Then go!” Rade said. It was a small hope, but in truth he doubted the Argonauts would still be alive by the time the Centurion arrived, judging from the rising level of vibrations Rade felt in his cockpit.
He stared at the cave opening. Whatever was coming down that tunnel, its arrival was imminent.
eleven
Rade heard a soft tone. It was a HUD notification he was familiar with—a new friendly had come into range.
Rade glanced at his overhead map. A Hoplite had arrived.
“Stay where you are, Surus,” Rade said. “Looks like you won’t have to travel all the way back to the shuttle after all.” He attempted to contact the friendly. “Nemesis, do you read?”
“I do,” the Hoplite’s AI replied.
According to the blue dot that represented the mech on the map, Nemesis was unmanned. Shaw had remained aboard the Argonaut, much to Rade’s relief.
“How did you get down here so fast?” Rade said. “I only dispatched the HS3s a few moments ago.”
“Shaw launched me shortly after you departed comm range the second time,” Nemesis said. “She was spooked by what you told her happened to the Russian researchers. She made a judgment call, and decided it was imperative that I join you on the surface. Her words. I had only just entered the cave when the HS3s came into range. When they told me about the betrayal, I arrived as fast as I could.”
“Well, Shaw may have just saved our lives,” Rade said. “That is, if you hurry.”
“I’m moving at the maximum possible speed allowed by these confines,” Nemesis replied.
Rade watched as the blue dot continued to close with the cavern. Nemesis should have encountered Corunna and Alton by then. “You didn’t pass anyone on the way here?”
“No,” Nemesis said. “If there was anyone else, they are taking a different path to the surface.”
“All right,” Rade said. “Get your cobras ready. There’s some sort of gravitational field generator in here. I’m marking the estimated location on your map. When you reach the cavern entrance, proceed carefully until you have the device in view. It should look like a small black crate. Fire at it with both cobras as soon as you sight it: I don’t want you getting any closer than you have to. It may have some sort of self-defense mechanism that involves throwing gravity waves at any attackers.”
“You will want to aim for the object’s center of mass,” Surus added. “That will cause the most damage.”
“Understood,” the AI answered.
“Did I mention that you should hurry?” Rade said. The vibrations had become so loud that Rade activated his internal noise canceler to mute them. He couldn’t think with that racket.
“I’m here,” Nemesis announced.
Rade immediately switched to the Hoplite’s viewpoint. Or rather, the point of view of its rightmost cobra. The video pixelated slightly from interference, probably due to the intense gravity waves.
The targeting reticle centered over a dark object—a rectangular crate about half the size of the digger unit behind it.
A small white dot appeared in the side of the crate.
“Direct hit,” Nemesis said.
Electron dropped to the cavern floor, along with all the other Hoplites.
“Good job!” Rade said. “Argonauts, we fly!”
Rade and the others dashed toward the exit, where Nemesis resided.
“Lead the way, Nemesis!” Rade said.
The Hoplite turned around and retreated, giving the others room to enter the tunnel behind it.
Halfway there, Rade glanced at the opposite exit, and his headlamp illuminated small dark shapes pouring out over the surrounding surfaces, expanding in every direction across the floor, ceiling, and cavern walls. It looked like an insect swarm. On the overhead map, their positions were marked with a series of red dots; the indicators quickly formed a solid mass.
“Are those bugs?” Manic said.
“No,” TJ said. “Zoom in, they’re robots.”
“Tiny robots!” Bender said gleefully. “Robot dust bunnies!”
“They’re a bit bigger than dust bunnies,” Lui said. “Look about the size of a human hand, to me.”
“Dust bunnies can grow that big, Phooey Lui Pimplepocks!” Bender said.
“Electron, take over,” Rade ordered.
While Electron assumed control of the mech and continued the retreat, Rade zoomed in on the swarm. It was difficult to discern their features, as they moved so fast most of them were a blur, but he thought they bore a vague resemblance to insects. He couldn’t tell either way if they were robots, or organic, however.
“Are we sure they’re robots, and not ordinary bugs?” Tahoe said.
“Robot dust bunnies!” Bender fired his cobra into the swarm, cutting small swaths through them. More of the robots simply flowed forward to replace those that were lost, and the gaps instantly filled.
“Fly!” Rade repeated. He resumed control of his mech and raced into the tunnel.
He glanced at his overhead map and saw the rest of the Hoplites following behind him, including Bender. On the map, the cavern they had left behind was covered in a sea of red that fast approached the tunnel.
He could only imagine what would be happening if the Hoplites were still trapped in that room. He suspected the gravity field would have deactivated to allow the swarm to engulf the Hoplites. And if not, well, the mechs would have essentially been buried alive.
“Boost it!” Rade said.
It was hard to travel fast within the confines of the tunnel. His extremities constantly scraped the obsidian walls and ceiling around him. Even so, the team made relatively good progress—while they couldn’t outrun the coming swarm, at least it wasn’t gaining on them. Much.
“Hey Surus!” Fret said. “By the way, what did you find inside that starship? I’d like to know, before I die.”
“Our prey did a thorough job of damaging most of the technology I discovered in the outermost sections,” Surus said. “I suspect the same will be true deeper into the interior. We will have a hard time finding anything recoverable, I’m afraid.”
“So basically we’re dying for nothing,” Fret said.
�
��We’re not dead yet,” Rade said. Though it was easy to see why Fret felt that way. All it took was a glance in the rear view feed to see the swarm bearing down on them.
“Rade, do you read?” Shaw’s voice came over the comm.
“Shaw!” Rade said. He glanced at the overhead map. The positions of the HS3s had updated: they were strung out at intervals ahead of them, forming a long line of repeaters that linked the underground to the surface. “About time you came back into signal range. We’re in a bit of a bind down here.”
“I see you have some red on your tails,” Shaw said.
“Just some,” Rade agreed. “The HS3s revealed Corunna’s betrayal?”
“Yes,” she said. “I take it Surus is still with you?”
“She is,” Rade said. “She plans to remain on our side, for the time being. Or so she says. Have you spotted the two traitors yet? One of them is masquerading as me, the other Ms. Bounty.”
“I haven’t heard from either of them, yet,” Shaw said. “Nor seen them. If they’re surfacing, they’re obviously taking a different route. Looks like you still have a lot of the tunnel system unmapped down there.”
“And it’s going to stay that way,” Rade said, glancing at the swarm in his rear view camera.
“In any case,” Shaw continued. “The Phants are in for a surprise if they think I’m going to let them board my ship. I’ve repositioned the shuttles by the way, and had them stop transmitting positional information.”
That was probably a good idea, if Corunna and Alton were spoofing the team’s Implant IDs to simulate Rade and Ms. Bounty.
“One of the unmapped tunnels probably exits closer to the base,” Rade said. “It would have to, given the temperatures out there.”
“But even if they surface relatively far away, both of our enemies are Artificials, right?” Shaw asked. “With Phants inside them.”
“True enough,” Rade said. “That makes them a little more resilient to the heat.” Even if their jumpsuits failed during the walk back, the Artificials inside would likely remain unaffected inside. And if they had to, the Phants could simply vacate their hosts and proceed toward the base in their natural form.
“It does make them just a bit more resilient, yes,” Shaw agreed. “Of course, they might have alternate means of transport. Perhaps something involving alien technology.”
“Maybe,” Rade said. “Be prepared to fire on any Skeeters you see leaving the Russian base. Or any other craft, for that matter.”
“Will do,” Shaw said.
“Also, recall the HS3s to the surface as we come within range,” Rade said. “Let’s not lose any more of them.”
“Already doing it,” Shaw said.
On the map, Rade saw the positions of the HS3s were indeed compressing as the Hoplites made their advance.
“You’re two steps ahead of me,” Rade commented.
“As always,” Shaw said.
The mechs reached the cavern that contained the exploration vehicle.
“Double time, Argonauts!” Rade sent.
With the extra room the vaulted grotto provided, the mechs were able to attain their top speeds, and they ripped across the cavern toward the next tunnel.
Rade glanced at the feed from his rear view camera. Behind them, the swarm flowed rapidly into the cavern. The black mass engulfed the segmented vehicle and assumed its shape, at least for a moment. And then the vehicular outline seemed to sink inwards, collapsing, as if the swarm were digesting the craft inside: perhaps using the raw material to form new robots.
Rade barreled into the exit tunnel, which could fit two Hoplites abreast. The Argonauts kept their single file formation, however, and used the extra room to maintain their top speed.
The temperature began to rise as they neared the surface. It jumped rapidly from zero to a hundred, and then crept upward more slowly thereafter. One twenty. One fifty.
One seventy.
The tunnel opened up and the Hoplites burst onto the surface at a run.
“To the booster rockets!” Rade ordered.
Those rockets were located two klicks to the southeast, beyond the research base.
The HS3s led the way fifty meters ahead.
In seconds the swarm flowed onto the surface behind them. It was like a black tar rising from the depths of the planet, blotting out everything it moved over.
Rade had harbored a small hope that the heat of the temperate zone would stop them, but that possibility was dashed now that the swarm continued to pursue.
“Come on you motherfuckers!” Bender said. “Come on!”
He was firing his dual cobras at the swarm as he retreated. He occasionally swapped out the cobra for the grenade launcher, and unleashed a frag into their midst, sending the small robots flying in all directions. The attacks didn’t have much effect on the overall mass. It continued to flow inexorably from the depths, spilling out onto the surface in a veritable black river of pursuit.
“Bender, save your grenades,” Rade said. “But everyone else, fire your cobras at will. Try to stave off their vanguard while we retreat.”
“These bitches remind me of land-based Perdix drones,” Bender said. “What we need is the equivalent of Repellent to shut them down.”
Repellent modules were essentially expensive electronic warfare countermeasures that used directional interference to disrupt drone navigation. Unfortunately, none of the Hoplites were equipped with those modules. Not that it would have worked, anyway, since the countermeasures were designed for human tech, not alien.
“Yeah well, good luck putting something like that together,” Tahoe said.
The Hoplites employed their jumpjets liberally to navigate the rougher terrain, and they bounded across the rocky terraces and crags, wending between the columns of basalt that occasionally protruded. They were putting some good distance between themselves and the enemy swarm, and for a moment Rade actually thought his Argonauts were going to make it to the jumpjets.
“Any sign of the traitor yet, Shaw?” Rade sent.
“Nothing yet,” she replied.
The ground began to shake violently a moment later. So much so that Rade found it difficult to run in a straight line without employing the jumpjets to stabilize his motion.
“The hell?” Tahoe said.
“Earthquake,” Lui announced.
“Don’t think that’s an earthquake,” Harlequin said. “Look.”
Ahead, a large portion of the obsidian began to crack. The different rock segments started to break away, receding from view.
“Sinkhole?” TJ sent.
“If it is, it’s a very wide one,” Harlequin said. “It appears an entire shelf is collapsing. Forming a canyon.”
Rade glanced at the overhead map, and saw the imagery transmitted by the Argonaut in orbit. A large trench was indeed forming in the terrain up ahead, cutting off their retreat.
From the sinkhole more of the robots flooded onto the surface, like black blood gushing forth, outflanking Rade and his team.
“Can we use our jumpjets to fly over them?” Tahoe asked.
Abruptly the black mass geysered upward from the long trench, towering over the party, forming a long wall in front of them. It was at least a kilometer wide, and maybe half as tall.
The HS3 scouts, in the lead, were caught by the outburst and every last one was swallowed by the massive wall. Their indicators vanished from the overhead map.
“Guess not!” Tahoe said.
The crest of that wall shifted inward, and came crashing down like a deadly tidal wave curling straight for the party.
twelve
Northwest!” Rade shouted. “To the northwest!”
That was the only obvious route at the moment.
Rade glanced in his rear view mirror as he retreated between the incoming swarm on the west and the tidal wave to the east. The leading portion of the wave never touched the ground behind the team. Instead, it appeared the smaller robots were joining together, and formin
g part of a larger shape. The inbound swarm from the west joined that shape as the front ranks arrived, and their numbers added to the assembling behemoth. Or rather, behemoths... three distinct shapes were coalescing on the rocky plains behind the Hoplites. The behemoths appeared to be larger versions of the smaller robots: long, insect-like bodies with six legs. A head with a single long horn protruded from the thorax of each one.
“Awwww... unicorns!” Bender said.
“More like rhinos,” Manic said.
“Unicorns!” Bender repeated, ignoring him. “Going to catch me some unicorns.” He was firing his cobra at the behemoths while he ran, humming softly.
“You know, I’m going to have to side with Bender on that Camp Cockroach story,” TJ said. “This is not a man who screams when a spider lands on his dick.”
“He’s exactly the kind of man who screams,” Manic said, unleashing his cobra as well. The laser caused little apparent damage to the targeted behemoth.
“Friggin’ giant unicorns!” Bender said, still firing. “And I just wanted to hunt a few bugs!”
The lead behemoth, which seemed the most fully formed, pointed its long horn toward the fleeing Hoplites.
“Watch that horn!” Rade said.
A particle beam emerged. Rade and the others dodged behind a nearby basalt column. It was struck near the middle, and a large section of rock disintegrated entirely. The upper portion tumbled down onto the lower, and upon impact the entire column toppled, the rocks fanning across the terrain behind the party.
“This isn’t good!” Fret said. “Not good at all!”
“Who wants to bet that our ballistic shields are useless against that particle beam?” Lui said.
“They are most definitely useless,” TJ said.
“Deploy them anyway,” Rade said. “Keep your shields pointed toward those behemoths at all times. But assume if you’re struck, you won’t last long. Weave between the basalt columns, and the crags and steppes. Use your surroundings for cover. And keep zigzagging. Don’t make it easy for the enemy to target you.”