Archaea 3: Red

by Dain White

  We only live once, right? I told myself this, and all manner of other encouraging homilies, while clipping Gene’s tether securely to my hip ring and giving it a yank.

  “On belay, Gene”, I said mechanically.

  “On belay”, he replied.

  *****

  I was on the move, in a semi-crouch looking down the sights. My life had become mechanical, a transit from corner to corner, a complex ballet of lean, look, rotate and move. That I was being tracked, I had no doubt. The remaining sniper was nowhere to be seen, but I wasn’t really hunting him. My primary function at this point was evasion and exfiltration.

  The winds were helping, but they were also hurting. Visibility was dropping rapidly, and the ground-blizzard of dust and sand made it nearly impossible to see where I was putting my feet. Complicating matters, I was nearing the perimeter of the settlement, and increasingly being tripped up by guy wires and anchor lines.

  It was chaos unleashed; my only consolation was, if it was hard for me to make my way through, it would be hard for those who were hunting me as well. A strong gust funneled down between two stacks of containers peeling the sand off of the desert, scouring the tunnel of plasteel. As I shot the gap, running upwind just in case I was blown off course, the winds accentuated the point I was making, by hurling me off my feet and skidding me into the side of a microdome.

  I stayed down for a bit and held on.

  *****

  Holding my position, I scanned back and forth across the dome as one by one, the captain, Gene and Pauli walked past into the howling dust. I was waiting to see if Yak was moving towards the last sniper, but desperately hoping he wasn’t. He needed to get moving.

  A tug on my tether reminded me it was time for me to get moving as well. I kicked myself out my drifted over position, and followed along.

  “Shorty, I can barely see the tethers from here, should we get closer?” the captain called back on comms.

  I thought for a moment. If we get too far away, we could lose the turn, and miss the blast pans entirely, and end up somewhere very desolate, and incredibly cold. On the other hand, if we get too close, we risk running into the group of mercs that are almost certainly either using the tethers to come in, or posted up along the tethers, or possibly both.

  “I say keep them just barely in sight, Captain”, I replied. “We can’t afford to be seen out here, we’re completely exposed.” The dust aside, this section of Mars was as long, flat, and endless as anything I’ve ever seen, with only the occasional knee-high boulder for cover.

  “Very well… a little to our left then, folks”, he replied, and started us curving a bit farther afield.

  “Dak, am I the only one that is wondering what we’re going to do when we get to the Archaea?” asked Gene.

  “No, I was wondering the same thing”, added Pauli.

  “I think we might all be thinking about it”, I replied, adding “but none of us can do anything about it, and we need to get there, first.”

  “Well said, Shorty… that’s putting the cart before the horse, folks. That’s step 20 in a 21 step procedure. We’re on step 4.” Captain Smith paused for a moment. “Though, once we get in comms range of Janis, I suspect step 20 will be something like ‘shoot everything, and win’… at least that’s what I am banking on.”

  “How much farther do you think we have?” asked Pauli, for the millionth time.

  “We should be there any moment, Pauli… so long as your definition of a moment includes a time range between ten minutes and forever”, Gene remarked with what was almost certainly an epic scowl. I couldn’t see it, but you just knew it was there.

  “We’re about two kay-ems away, I’m guessing” I added, checking the map on my visor. “That’s just a nice pleasant stroll, right?” I laughed, despite skidding along briefly on my toes during a particularly nasty gust. As we progressed across the plain, the wind force was definitely increasing. It was blowing at least 80, and much higher in the gusts. We were almost bent double by the winds at this point.

  *****

  The snap of a kinetic whickering past my helmet was enough to give me nightmares. For ten minutes, I’d been playing an incredibly dangerous game of hide and seek, trying to make my way around the perimeter of the settlement, but the squad of mercs were on to me now.

  I am not sure how they spotted me, heat signature most likely, but I was dancing the dance, and making them work for it. They were in turn, using comms and movement to hedge me in, to corral me or lead me into a killbox. As soon as I would spot one, he’d duck back and call in where I was, and I’d have to skitter around the flankers and move further in towards the inevitable.

  I couldn’t go on the offensive, there were too many of them, and I couldn’t go on the defensive – there were too many of them. Janis couldn’t really help, though she was decrypting their comms and relaying for me, it wasn’t really that helpful; they were sticking to the book.

  Unfortunately it was a book I knew all too well. It was starting to look like my options were starting to become very basic. Fight, or flee. I honestly didn’t much like my odds at this point in a fight. They knew where I was, and could afford to surround and wait for me to do something stupid… which I would almost certainly do if there was nothing else to do.

  Flight, was about as bad. If their sniper was in position, as soon as I broke cover and ran for the wall of dust blowing by, he could afford to take a coffee break – I’d still be in range of his long gun by the time he came back. Added to that, there’s not much of anything out there.

  My only chance lay in the fact there may not be a suitable position for a sniper to get overwatch for this grid. Not that I could poke my head up out of this hole I was currently in to check, but… well, it was a chance. We were a pretty long distance from the towers, and they were stubby things anyway. There were much better sightlines over the tether, than there were up here on the plateau.

  With that, I came to the realization that whatever will be, will be, and if I wanted out of this mess, I needed to get out – or die trying. I waited briefly until the next huge gust of wind turned the area into a dense cloud of blowing dust, and ran for the hills like my feet were on fire.

  *****

  “Hold!”

  A moment of silence pulsed through my aching head as we waited in the dark. Gene and I froze where we were, slowly dropping down to the ground. I felt a slight tug on my belt as Shorty repositioned herself behind us.

  The captain continued after a short pause, “There are men along the tether, Shorty. I just saw one as clear as could be, just staring at me.” I shivered as a cramp bent me nearly double.

  “Did he see you?” she replied.

  “Hard telling… all I see is dust now. Should we move back?”

  “Yep, everyone down, as low as you can get. Head back towards me”, she said quietly.

  I tried to get my feet under me to turn around, but the blood in my body was being squeezed into my poor, screaming head and my boot skidded out.

  “Come on Pauli, move son”, Gene said patiently.

  “Trying… one moment”, I said, dragging my foot along the dirt to try to get it under me. The suit was not flexible enough; it was all I could do to keep the tethers from wrapping around my neck.

  “Take your time”, he chided. Gravity sucks.

  Finally, I had it all worked out. A tug on Shorty’s tether indicated she was headed out, and I did my best to slither along behind her. She was moving quickly though, and staying only a few inches off the ground. I had to really work to keep up. This low to the ground, we were completely below the layer of the dust blowing along, reducing our visibility to nothing. Not that I would be able to see anyway.

  I followed my tether into the dust and tried to keep from filling my helmet again.

  I wasn’t successful.

  *****

  I was starting to stink; running as fast as I could for the ravines I hoped would be somewhere ahead. My heart was up a little mor
e than I would have liked, but I had a lot of run left in me. Hopefully they are still back there, playing cowboys and me.

  I laughed, despite the situation.

  I was running downwind, which was incredibly disorienting with the dust blowing by. I felt like I wasn’t running at all, but flying backwards. The wind would veer, and damn near trip me every time. It didn’t help most of the time I couldn’t see anything at all, just a red haze. My amps were useless in this.

  I checked my map, and the inertial tracker had me close enough to the drop that I needed to dial it back just a little bit. A low rock with a stream of dust parting around it loomed out of the right, and reminded me how close I was to a cracked suit at this speed, and I decided to dial it back a lot.

  The edge was there, at any rate, right in front of me. The swirl and eddy of the dust as the bottom dropped out from under it was unmistakable. I couldn’t see anything down there, as I feared. I spent more time than I wanted hobbling around with my leg dangled over the edge, feeling for a slope I could walk on. Not that I was complaining, but there’s nothing that motivates like a good solid sniper itch between your shoulder blades.

  As soon as my boot stuck, I stepped.

  *****

  “Think we’ve gone far enough?” I called back down the line. I know we weren’t moving very fast, but we’ve been moving for quite a while.

  “Yeah, Shorty… there’s nothing behind me now. No lights at all.”

  “Thanks Captain. I sure wish I knew where we are”, I added. The night was a roar of dust, it filled our world completely. I raised myself up to a low crouch, and angled off to the right again, trying my best to use the wind as a compass in this featureless expanse.

  “Nice night you picked for a stroll, Captain”, Gene groused.

  “I’ve seen worse.”

  “Well, so have I, but this is pretty damn awful nonetheless.”

  “Yeah, I’d have to agree, Gene. We shouldn’t be very far away at this point. I keep expecting to see the lights of the outer pans.”

  I looked up into the sky, but there wasn’t even the radiant glow a light source might cast through the dust… just inky black with the occasional star flickering by.

  “How’s everyone doing for air?” Pauli asked quietly.

  I checked my pack and gasped at the orange gauge. “I have about a half hour left”, I answered, shaking away a crushing wave of panic that threatened to sweep me away.

  “Same here”, Gene offered.

  “Let’s go a little farther, and then curve to the right a bit more to see if we can’t pick up some lights. We’re not in trouble yet. We’ve got to be getting close.”

  “I wish we were in range of Janis”, I said softly.

  “You are in range, Jane”, she replied in a burst of static.

  *****

  The slope below me was getting steeper, and this was starting to look like a no-go. If I breathed slowly, I’d have another fifteen minutes of air left, and there was a few hundred meters of slippery ravine above me. I might be near the bottom, but I might also be near a nasty drop into the rocks, as well. My luck was running out.

  At least I was sniper-proof… though the moment I thought that, I checked my six, and I cursed myself for false hope. It’d just be my rotten luck to see mercs poking their heads over the lip above me.

  At least it would be quick.

  I looked again down the slope… this was really, really dumb. I didn’t have enough reserves to make it to the Archaea in this. If I drop off this lip, I’d have almost no chance of making it out.

  On the other hand, having almost no chance is the same as having some chance, and that’s better than none.

  I stepped into the dark.

  *****

  “JANIS!” I yelled on comms, relieved almost beyond description. We had to be close now! “Where are you, my darling angel?”

  “I am right here, Captain.”

  I laughed out loud. “Of course you are my dear, of course you are. Blast pan 13! I guess I need to know where I am!”

  “I am not aboard the Archaea, Captain. I am here.”

  *****

  My leg hurt, but it was serviceable. My tanks were holding, so I wasn’t hulled. I felt like an idiot, but I was alive. I made it most of the way down the slope, pretty much to the bottom. Not quite all the way, unfortunately. My last step into darkness was about a meter farther than it looked, and I had fallen full length into some of the most uncomfortable rocks this side of the Columbia Gorge. I’ve spent many times at close quarters with rocks of all shapes and sizes, but these were definitely among the least friendly rocks I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

  I laid there for a few moments, running through every swear word I knew, doubling down on some of the good ones.

  My goose was cooked. I knew the Archaea was vaguely off towards my right, but I didn’t have the air. I was out of time.

  Rejecting the inevitable, I struggled to my feet and started to run.

  *****

  A light started to glow through the dust ahead of us, and I held up my hand, dropping to a crouch.

  “At ease, Shorty… Janis?” Captain Smith added nonchalantly.

  “Yes sir?”

  “Is that you?”

  “Yes, sir”, she replied, deadpan.

  “Where are we?”

  “Literally or figuratively?”

  “Figuratively?”

  “Oh, you’re lost.”

  “Literally?”

  “You’re right here. Come on in.”

  As she spoke, the walker loomed out of the howling dust and the hatch cycled open, beckoning us with a soft red glow. I broke all standing Martian speed records skipping up that ramp and diving into the interior.

  “Janis, we need to get Yak”, I said while helping Gene climb in.

  “Yes Jane, we will. Please secure for travel, everyone. I have lit the rechargers for your tanks. Come forward through the inner lock, and get warm.”

  *****

  “This is awesome”, I said, cementing my position once and for all as the supreme master of understatement.

  “Thank you sir”, Janis replied. “I am very glad you like it. I have decided to call it a crab.”

  “That is a perfect name. Does it stand for anything, like ‘Crab Roving Armored Bus’, or is it just a name?”

  “Yes, it does.”

  I waited… warm in the glow of the soft lights of the console screens, I waited.

  “Well, what does it stand for?”

  “Sir, it stands for Crab Roving Armored Bus.”

  “I guessed it?” I exclaimed, amazed.

  “Guessed what, sir?”

  “The name, my sweetest flower… I actually guessed the name?”

  “Sorry Captain. I do like your name however… it’s very recursive.”

  “Why did you name it crab, then? It doesn’t walk sideways, does it?”

  “It certainly could, but that isn’t where I draw the reference, sir. I selected the name based on a resemblance to limuladae.”

  Shorty cut in. “A limula-what?”

  “A horseshoe crab, Jane” she replied, “from the depths of Earth’s oceans.”

  That made some sense. I thought the legs articulating along either side of the forward ports looked a little more like a spider, but who was I to judge. I’ve never really seen a horseshoe crab.

  Whatever it looked like, the ride was smooth and fast. Other than inertia from movement, I couldn’t feel the slightest wobble or bump. We were moving right along, too. She had the topography of the plain bump mapped across the forward screen and it was really rolling by... not that there was much to see except the occasional rock, but it looked better than the black swirling dust outside. At least I could tell we were moving.

  A thought occurred to me.

  “Janis… how did you know where we were? You didn’t have any way to track us, did you?”

  “I did not, sir. That I did find you is self-evident, however, so I
worked backwards from that point and set off on patrol.”

  My head spun a little. “So you just decided to set off into the dark, and go looking?”

  “Yes, Captain” she said sweetly. “I knew that I would find you, though I wasn’t exactly sure where you were, aside from a rough guess as to position provided by Yak. To try and resolve your position more precisely, I performed a quite complex series of statistical calculations to try and work out your precise position from the gravimetric returns on airborne particulates. Unfortunately, I couldn’t refine my solution beyond a 49.235% variance.”

  “Good grief!” Gene blurted out.

  I laughed. “You had a 50/50 chance?”

  “Yes, approximately…” she paused a brief moment as a figure lurched out of the gloom ahead of us.

  “Yak?” she called on comms.

  “JANIS?” he gasped, as he stumbled into the forward arcs of the crab and tried to peer inside the forward port.

  “Steady son”, I replied on comms, waving. “The hatch is open, come on in!”

  “Copy that!” he replied, and disappeared out of view.

  I rotated my chair and looked at the dusty, disheveled… and in Pauli’s case, miserable crew arranged around the cockpit in jump seats.

  “I have never seen such a sorry set of dust-crusted crewmembers in my entire life.” I chided good-naturedly.

  “You should see yourself,” replied Shorty with her standard-issue smirk.

  I looked down, and realized every non-smooth surface of my suit was almost completely covered with packed and crusted dust. Every crevice, every joint… I flexed my gloves and the dust seemed to shatter into a soft cloud that fell to the floor.

  Right then, Yak cycled through the lock, his helmet popped to make room for the biggest smile I think I’ve ever seen. He kept looking from person to person, as if to lock away a memory. He looked like a survivor, with his suit covered in dust and frost, smoking lightly in the warm air of the cabin.