Asteroid Return: An Arek Lancer Novella

by Troy Osgood

Ignoring her I concentrated on the facility that was about three hundred feet away. The walls were tall, about twice the height of a terran building. The Tiat were taller than us, a couple feet on average, and for some reason they liked very high ceilings. This resulted in the floor to floor of their buildings being almost double that of a Terran building.

  Harrow had a pair of imagers and spent a couple minutes studying the building. From here I couldn’t see much without some form of magnification, but there didn’t appear to be any patrols or guards or surveillance equipment.

  There had to be something. The Tiat were many things but stupid was not one of them. The remoteness of this place was very good security itself but they wouldn’t rely on just that.

  “Launch the eyes,” Harrow said.

  Sweet crouched down, reaching behind him. Under his tanks was a square container. He pulled it off and opened it up. The insides were padded, most of the space padding. A wristcomm came out and he pulled it on, hitting the buttons to activate it. Next he carefully pulled out a small tube. It was only about three inches long and an inch in diameter. There were small jets attached to front and back ends, at least that’s what I thought they were.

  He set the tube on the ground and hit a button on the wristcom. The jets kicked up a small amount of dust from the asteroids surface and the tube rose into the air. It settled at a height of twenty feet or so and sped off towards the facility.

  “Next gen drone,” Sweet said as I watched the small tube disappear to the eyes. “Full range scanning, all spectrums.”

  A small screen appeared in my heads up display and I realized I was seeing what the drone was seeing. Neat little device. I wondered how much one cost and how I could get my hands on one. Could come in handy. I’m sure it would be illegal to own one but that never stopped me. I had a good collection of Expeditionary Forces gear that was illegal for civilians to own.

  The drone moved fast, the image changing rapidly. I was surprised how wide the camera on the thing was. I’d expected a small picture but what I saw was big. Could see the edge of the building come into view. The wall we saw had no doors, no openings of any kind. The roof of the one story structure had running lights and painted markings. A door was off the second story building. No windows.

  The roof was a landing pad.

  Good security. No openings except on the top and so far only that one. A ship would need to land on the roof to access the entrance

  The drone did a quick run around the entire building and the full roof.

  Just the one opening.

  “That makes it easy,” I said and got a couple chuckles.

  Harrow glared at me.

  One way in didn’t mean one way out. That’s what explosives were for. Just had to hope that what we had for explosives was enough to get through whatever the walls were made of.

  Worry for once we were inside.

  *****

  We ran across the open space one at a time.

  Cover was provided from behind the outcroppings, all weapons pointed towards the Tiat facility. Gilbert went first, followed by Treuto. Fortin was next and then they sent me.

  I felt exposed and I was. Any Tiat on top of the building would see me. The distance wasn’t that great but it wasn’t close either. About a five minute run from start to when I slammed tight against the wall. No shots had been fired at me and none had been fired back.

  The ground was rocky, the footing unsteady. The trek to the facility had been done carefully, making sure of each footstep. Not this time. This was a quick and wild run. Just get to the wall as fast as you can.

  I waved my arm indicating that I was there safely.

  Sweet followed. He ran quickly. I saw his foot land awkwardly and he fell. He rolled along the ground, scrambling to get up and protect his suit and tanks. Sweet lay there for a minute or two, unmoving. I looked at Gilbert and Fortin, unsure what to do. Should we run out and get him?

  But he finally sat up. Slowly, carefully.

  With greater care he finished his run, coming to a panting stop next to Fortin who quickly looked Sweet over looking for rips or tears. Finding none, Fortin flashed the thumbs up.

  Sweet waved his hands to signal the next runner.

  “You run like you dance,” Fortin said with a laugh.

  We all chuckled. Treuto grunted and hooted ending with a repeating squeak that I assumed was laughter.

  “Not you too,” Sweet said to Treuto, causing the Europan to squeak with laughter even more.

  Some private in-joke that they didn’t bother to share. I didn’t ask.

  Carleton came next and made it without incident. Sweet muttered something that no one caught.

  That left just Harrow. She had volunteered for the hardest run. She would have no cover. From our angle we couldn’t provide any covering fire without stepping away from the building’s wall. We couldn’t even see if any Tiat appeared on the roof until they started firing on Harrow.

  We saw her stand up, step away from the cover, and start her run. She ran smoothly, a straight line. A steady pace. She got to the wall. No one had fired on her.

  She took a couple steps away and looked up towards the roof of the building.

  “Let’s do this,” she said.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Climbing in zero G is as easy as it sounds.

  Turn off the boots and pull yourself up the rope. Easy.

  Just don’t let go or you’d float away.

  Climbing in an environment with low gravity isn’t as easy as it sounds.

  The low gravity worked against you. Instead of climbing carefully, you could go too fast and end up overshooting. Your own momentum would keep you moving up. Too slow and you’d go nowhere.

  *****

  Sweet seemed to be the bag of tricks guy for this op. Every operation I’d ever been on had one. It was the guy that carried all the extra miscellaneous equipment. Stuff that you knew you’d need and stuff that you didn’t think you’d need but ended up needing it. And you never could figure out how the guy stored all that gear.

  He pulled out a grapple line from somewhere and stepped back from the wall. Estimating the distance, made some adjustments to the grapple, and fired. The hook shot out at a little bit of an angle, trailing the rope behind it. We couldn’t see it from where we hid tight against the wall and couldn’t hear it land or catch either. Only knew it had caught when Sweet pulled on it and the hook didn’t fall.

  Giving a thumbs up to Harrow he let the rope fall against the smooth side of the Tiat facility.

  Harrow pointed at Sweet, Treuto and then myself. The three biggest people.

  Six foot, two hundred pounds, I was a big guy. But the other two were much bigger. Treuto was average for a Europan, which put him at close to seven feet. Sweet was about six or so inches taller than me, wider and heavier.

  Sweet and I looked at each other, wondering who would be the first up.

  That was not a fun job. You were basically a sitting duck to anything that was at the top of your climb, with no way to defend yourself. Second person up had at least the first to provide cover if needed.

  “Rock, paper, scissors,” I asked.

  Sweet laughed.

  Treuto grunted and held out his hands. With a flick, three long climbing claws extended out of his wrist. About six inches long with a slight curve at the front and serrated edges, they looked and were sharp. The Europans lived in icy caves, the claws on their hands and feet helped them move through those caves.

  “Put those away,” Harrow ordered.

  With another grunt and what looked to be a shrug, Treuto resheathed the claws.

  “Sweet, you first,” Harrow added.

  “I would have thrown rock,” Sweet said passing me with a smile.

  Grabbing the line with two hands, he set his left foot against the wall.

  “Scissors,” I said and Sweet gave a soft curse.

  Hand over hand, setting each foot solidly against the smooth wall, Sweet made his slow wa
y up the wall. His blaster rifle hung by it’s sling and he kept his body angled so the weapon would not bang against the wall.

  Finally making it to the top, he paused before reaching a hand over the wall. There was no weapons discharges that we could see, no noise from Sweet through the comms, so we assumed it was safe enough. One hand on the wall, the other still gripping the rope, Sweet swung a leg onto the top of the wall. Pulling himself the rest of the way over, Sweet disappeared.

  “Clear,” his voice said through the comms.

  My turn.

  I grabbed the rope in both hands, pulling at it. Adjusting the weight of the boots, I pulled myself up by my hands. One over the other, a bit at a time, feet flat against the wall for stability. At the top I reached over the wall, my fingertips gripping. The wall was only about eight inches thick, if that. I looked over the top. No body laying down, no weapons. Sweet hadn’t been ambushed and killed. I could see him crouching about five feet ahead, weapon to his shoulder and pointed at the one door.

  Hoisting myself up, I swung a leg over the wall, and let myself slide down to the roof. The parapet was only about a foot high. Not that far. Pushing myself up, I pulled my weapon around and pointed it at the door.

  “Clear,” I said through the comms as I stepped away from the wall.

  The walls were a dull gray, flat. The roof, some kind of membrane, was the same color. Dull and lifeless. Also empty. Which was good.

  Crouching down next to Sweet, both weapons trained on the door, we waited for the rest of the team to climb up.

  *****

  Once up we quickly ran to the door. Harrow had us spread out, a V formation with the point facing the door. Each of us had a clean line of fire and enough space between us to make it hard to target more than one at a time.

  We made it without incident, again holding tight to the wall. Harrow and Gilbert were at the door, both crouched down and examining a keypad mounted next to it. We waited for what seem an eternity but was only a few minutes.

  Gilbert was the first in, followed by Treuto. Harrow held the rest of us back for a minute as we all slid down the wall to the open door. I could see inside the opening. There was nothing visible, just darkness. Treuto poked his big head out and waved a hand up and down. His version of the all-clear thumbs up.

  Harrow pointed, motioning at me to come closer.

  “You’re second behind Gilbert,” she said. “Since you know the way.”

  “This place is nothing like it was the first time,” I pointed out but knew it didn’t matter.

  “As the only one here that has ever been in a Tiat facility, let alone multiple like your record says, you’re second behind Gilbert.”

  I walked over to the door, Treuto stepping aside so I could enter. It was dark just past the door. The ceiling was probably three times my height, double a Tiats, and dark tiles. The walls were the same drab metal panels as the exterior walls. There was another door directly across from the one I had entered by. An airlock.

  Gilbert leaned against the wall, the keypad faceplate removed. He was fiddling with the wiring. The entire team crowded into the small space, feeling very vulnerable. When the exterior door closed, Gilbert opened the inner door.

  It slid open soundlessly into the wall revealing a well lit corridor that ran left and right with another door directly across. Gilbert stepped out and looked right, Fortin followed and looked left. Harrow and I walked across the hall.

  Touching the door with my hand I could feel vibrations.

  Carleton tapped Gilbert on the shoulder, switching positions.

  He was getting better at opening these doors. Gilbert had this one open almost instantly.

  Harrow and I followed Gilbert into a large room. Judging by the size, it took up pretty much the entire upper level. And it was filled with machinery. Ducts penetrated the floor in multiple locations, connected to large units the hummed and vibrated.

  “Ventilation,” I said and the other two nodded.

  “Fortin, get in here,” Harrow ordered.

  A couple seconds later Fortin entered, looking around. The visor on his helmet was blackened so couldn’t see any expression. Aside from Sweet’s size, the others were hard to tell apart. In a squad where everyone wore the same armor, you started identifying people by the way they walked or held themselves. I hadn’t been, and wouldn’t be, with this group long enough to get to know them that way.

  I wondered if Harrow was using their names more often for my benefit.

  “Set one up.”

  With a nod, Fortin walked deeper into the room. He wandered around for a bit, looking at all the machinery, examining the duct work, before finally settling on a spot. I couldn’t see what he was doing, just that he took something off his vests harness. A couple seconds he returned, flashing a thumbs up.

  Probably set a homing beacon.

  Which meant the countdown had started.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  We moved quickly after that.

  I understood what Harrow was thinking. The engine room, as that was what it seemed, was a good place to set the bombs. If we couldn’t penetrate deeper, bombing that would pretty much destroy the facility. Place the bomb, start the timer, and see if could complete the rest of the mission.

  Same move I would have made if I had been in charge. Just didn’t like it now as I wasn’t a soldier anymore and I was heading down to the floor below the bomb.

  At the end of the hall was the stairs down. The door’s security was easy for Gilbert to bypass and we made our way down. Quickly and silently. The stairs themselves were a little awkward. Tiat were taller than us humans, the shortest would be a very tall human. The treads and risers were only an inch or two different but it was noticeable. Was that what it was like for the Storwoi that had recently been on the Nomad’s Wind?

  Probably worse. Instead of inches, they were feet shorter than humans.

  Fortin, at point, paused at the lower level door. He looked up for the okay from Harrow. Given, Fortin moved to the right of the door where the pad was located. Carleton took his spot to the left of the door, where it would slide into the wall. Tapping the pad, we all waited for the door to open.

  It opened at normal speed but felt very slow.

  The door slid into the wall and Fortin locked that way. Carleton pivoted around the jamb and into the opening. He was crouched low, weapon to his shoulder, eyes scanning what he could see. We saw lights coming in through the opening and that was it. Carleton took a step forward.

  He flew backwards, slamming against the far wall. Smoke rose from the blaster mark on his chest armor. More shots hit the door jamb, head and the floor around the opening. They were pinning us inside.

  I glanced at Carleton’s status in my heads up display. Still alive. Just unconscious.

  Not for long if we couldn’t move him.

  One of those blasts would hit in and the way he was crumpled up, chances were good it would be where he wasn’t armored up.

  “Four of them,” Harrow said. She was staring at the wall from her position on the stairs just behind me. Must have been scrolling through Carleton’s helmet cam images.

  Random patrol that got lucky? I doubted it. There had been no surprise from Carleton, no body language to suggest the Tiat attackers had appeared from around a corner or anything. He was just shot. That meant they were already in position and waiting.

  “Ambush,” I said. “We must have tripped an alarm.”

  Harrow looked like she wanted to argue but backed down.

  “Agreed,” she said. “We need to get out of this stairwell. Time’s wasting.”

  She didn’t need to remind anyone of that. We all had a ticking clock in our heads.

  The problem was that there was only one way to go and no good way of getting through it.

  Or was there?

  I looked up the stairwell at where the floor and ceiling would be in the hall beyond. Last time in this facility, or the first one here, there was some duct work that
ran in a cavity space between the ceiling and floor. In Terran facilities there wasn’t enough space to crawl, but in the Tiat one there had been.

  Our ceilings were fairly weak, the Tiat’s had been strong made of the same metal as the walls. I’d seen the ceilings above and they were like I remembered.

  Would there still be a cavity?

  It was worth a try.

  Harrow agreed.

  *****

  Fortin and Gilbert, now on the side of the door where Carleton had been, provided cover fire out the door when they could. Alternating, waiting for pauses between the continuous fire of the Tiat. We’d managed to drag Carleton out of the way during Fortin and Gilberts fire.

  Treuto and Sweet stood against the wall facing me, Sweet with his hands cupped. I placed a foot in the cup and he lifted. I used my hand on his head to help balance until I was level with Treuto and stepped on the Europans shoulder. One was a little taller than the other, but it worked good enough to support me.

  Holding the torch that Sweet had brought, I started cutting a large hole in the wall, hoping I was above the ceiling. The walls were a hard metal, the torch having a hard time.

  I was regretting my plan.

  But it was my plan so I was the one that would do it.

  A minute or two later, after what felt like an hour, I had the four sides cut. The wall finish material proved to be pretty thick. A sheet of metal attached to some kind of structure. Enough space for me to work my way through. The hole I made opened into the cavity space, just like I remembered. I could see the floor above, the structure it rested on and about two feet of space before the ceiling. There were numerous ducts, tubes and squares, along with wires, running everywhere.

  Just like I remembered.

  Leaning into the hole as far as I could, I pushed against the ceiling. Awkward angle, I couldn’t put my full strength into it, but it felt strong enough. Would have to hope it held.

  With a final boost, I crawled into the space. Spreading out as much as I could, distributing the weight as evenly as possible, I started working my way through the cavity.

  I’d reviewed Carleton’s helmet cam video and had a rough idea of where the Tiat soldiers were positioned.