by Isaac Hooke
“You always make it sound so easy,” Fret said.
“Ms. Bounty, you can just stun the mech, right?” Shaw asked.
“There might be a problem with that, actually,” Ms. Bounty replied. “The stun device was only designed for robots and Artificials. Anything larger, and the AI core might be too well shielded. And it’s Tech Class IV remember. It might not work for even a smaller unit. You’ll quite likely have to rip open its chest before I have a clean shot.”
“We can do that,” Bender said.
“I’m loving the confidence,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Thank you,” Bender said. “By the way, I heard you were into mating these days? I’m free later tonight, if you’re interested.”
“I’ll pass, thanks,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Let’s swing by the so-called royal chambers just in case Harlequin hasn’t left,” Rade said.
Ms. Bounty guided the mechs to the “royal chambers.” Sure enough, there was no sign of Harlequin. Rade stared with disgust at the mat where he had had sex with Ms. Bounty—or rather, the Queen—and quickly left the room. The guilt was made all the worse because he remembered how much he had liked it at the time.
But I wasn’t in control then, he reminded himself. I’d never willingly do such a thing.
And he definitely wouldn’t enjoy it.
At least, that was what he told himself.
They proceeded toward the surface and encountered no further resistance along the way. The gatorbeetles had all gone into hiding, giving the nest the appearance of a ghost town.
Even at the entrance, the usual sentries weren’t waiting to intercept, allowing the six Hoplites to emerge unencumbered into the sun.
Rade flung his arms outward, glad to be in the light once more. He only wished he could feel those warm rays on his face. The brightness would have to do.
“If I never see a cave again, I’ll be a very happy man,” Fret said.
twenty-one
I think we’ve all had our fill of dark tunnels by now,” Rade said. “Ms. Bounty, where’s this preservation depot?”
“I’m marking it on your overhead maps,” Ms. Bounty replied.
A flashing waypoint appeared four kilometers to the west.
“All right,” Rade said. “Tahoe, take us there. Traveling overwatch.”
Tahoe split the Hoplite squad into two fire teams of three each, separated by fifty meters. The mechs piloted by Rade, Shaw and TJ were part of the second team and provided traveling overwatch of the first. Each individual mech was separated by five meters from the Hoplite in front, and offset a random distance to the left or right to form an overall zig-zag pattern.
The metal feet sank into the dark sand as the units proceeded at a trot, leaving heavy footprints in the dunes. The upper portions of their camouflage skin had changed coloration to match the surrounding terrain; the blood-soaked lower portions soon became covered in black grit where disturbed sand particles glued.
Rade tapped in Shaw directly on the way.
“I hope someday you’ll forgive me for what happened back there,” he told her.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Shaw replied. “Like you said, you weren’t in control.”
“Yes,” Rade said. “But I should have tried to fight harder. The thought of all the hurt I caused you, not just the physical, but the emotional pain... I can only imagine how pissed—how enraged—I would be if you had slept with Harlequin.”
“You know what?” Shaw told him. “I’d actually prefer if you didn’t remind me of that. Because let’s just say, I’m not a big of fan of Ms. Bounty right now.”
“Sorry,” Rade said.
She sighed audibly over the comm. “Stop it. And I need to stop, too. I can’t really blame either one of you. While I’m pissed off, I know neither of you are truly guilty. It’s those Black Phants that did this. Let me just say, I’m going to be wearing an awfully big spiteful grin when we finally cast them into the sun.”
The two teams made good time toward the waypoint, and in twenty minutes the first fire team reached a kilometer out from the target.
At that point, Tahoe, part of the lead fire team, called a halt and his units dug in.
“Second fire team, halt,” Rade transmitted. He switched to the point of view of the lead Hoplite, piloted by Bender. Where the waypoint resided ahead, he saw what looked like three dark, horizontal half-cylinders protruding from the sand, abutting against one another. Basically a triple set of long Quonset huts. The surface material glistened in the sun, as if made of some sort of polished, black metal.
“So what do you think?” Rade transmitted.
“I don’t see any sign of defenses,” Bender said.
“Ms. Bounty?” Rade asked.
“There aren’t any defenses,” she replied. “Discounting the mech. And the external weapons attached to the small starships.”
“Starships?” Rade said.
“Yes,” Ms. Bounty said. “The rightmost cylinder was essentially a hangar bay. It contained two Tech Class IV starships from the race once known as the Xaranth: the gatorbeetles, as you like to call them.”
“Harlequin might have taken one of those ships into orbit already,” Bender said.
“I’m not so sure he’d leave without his Queen,” Ms. Bounty said.
Rade glanced at the glass container TJ ported over one shoulder. The black liquid still resided inside.
“Which of those half-cylinders holds our Xaranth mech?” Rade asked.
“The leftmost,” Ms. Bounty replied.
“All right, Tahoe, take your fire team forward,” Rade said. “Sweep the external area. Fire Team B, with me, we move forward to cover them.”
“Wait,” Ms. Bounty said. “They’ll need me to open the hangar doors.”
“Not if they blow it down,” Rade said. “I want you to stay back, with us.”
“You seem a bit overprotective about her,” Shaw transmitted over a private line.
“I want to preserve the knowledge she has of the gatorbeetles, and the Queen,” Rade said.
“Are you sure that’s all you want to protect?” Shaw said.
Rade frowned, and then sighed. It wasn’t her talking, but the burning jealousy.
As Tahoe led the two mechs with him across the plains toward the target, Rade and the others moved forward and assumed the team’s former position. TJ lowered the glass container to aim his cobra at the target, like Rade and Shaw were doing. In Shaw’s passenger seat, Ms. Bounty surveyed the area via the sights of her stun rifle.
Rade scanned the different structures himself, through the scope of his right cobra. In his left arm, he had deployed his ballistic shield. Just because he was farther away didn’t mean an incoming laser attack would be any less effective. Hoplite armor itself could deflect a few laser blows, especially when the mech was in motion, preventing the laser from striking the same area overlong, but when planting oneself on an open plain it was just common sense to deploy the shield. The other Hoplites with him had done the same.
Rade switched to thermal and other electromagnetic spectrum bands as he swept his scope across the structures, but he saw nothing more, so reverted to the main band.
“Is it possible the Xaranth mech is using emitters to hide its visual signature?” Rade asked.
“Even with their tech class,” Ms. Bounty replied. “Their emitters were not powerful enough to hide something of that size. Just as I could not hide your mechs.”
Tahoe, Bender and Lui closed to within fifty meters of the target structure. Then they began circling around toward the other side. Before the Hoplites vanished from view, Rade had his own fire team relocate five hundred meters to the right of the structures, so that he had a bead on the back portions of the structures. There was nothing behind them.
Rade signaled for Tahoe to continue.
The first fire team explored the back area, and proceeded to circumnavigate all three structures, stopping before the target structure of the
left.
“Looks clear out here,” Tahoe said.
Rade repositioned once more, placing his team five hundred meters behind Tahoe’s in front of the leftmost Quonset.
“Approach,” Rade sent.
Tahoe’s fire team tentatively closed with the structure. Bender, on point, stopped before what looked like a pair of double doors, which towered over him, about twice the size of his mech.
“There’s no obvious way to open it,” Bender said.
“Only the pheromone attachments in my gloves can do that,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Well baby, come join me,” Bender said. “And we’ll rock this place all night long.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Rade said.
“All right boss,” Bender said. “Do I have permission to make the door go boom, then?”
“Permission granted,” Rade replied.
Juggernaut’s cockpit opened and Bender climbed down onto the left thigh using the rungs. He popped open the storage compartment and retrieved several charges. Then he climbed back up to the cockpit and leaped at the double doors. When he touched, he obviously activated his magnetic mounts, because his lower body attached to the surface.
Bender proceeded to place the charges, then pushed off from the double door, deactivating his magnetic mounts at the same time. Juggernaut caught him and placed him back inside the cockpit, which sealed. Then the Hoplite sprinted away from the doors.
“Ready to go!” Bender said.
Rade glanced at the members of Fire Team A. They had all assumed defensive positions, crouched down on one knee, anti-ballistic shields raised in their left arms, cobras aimed in their right.
“Boom time,” Rade said.
The charges detonated and the door fell inward. Through his scope, Rade saw what looked like a storage bay containing a bunch of miscellaneous equipment. He carefully scanned the inner region through his scope. He saw tubes, conduits, coils, spools, sacks, crates, you name it. But nothing resembling the mech Ms. Bounty had spoken off.
“You call this shit Tech Class IV?” Bender said. “Looks like a Tech Class II dump. If that.”
“Ms. Bounty, where is the mech?” Rade asked.
“It’s not there anymore,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Could it be hiding behind anything in there?” Rade said. “Say, behind those large tire-like objects in the back?”
“It’s certainly possible,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Hmm,” Rade said. “All right, Bender. I want you to place charges on the doors to the other bays.”
“I only have a couple left,” Bender said. “Tahoe, can I borrow some of yours?”
Tahoe’s leg compartment folded open. “Borrow away.”
“Thanks man,” Bender said. “You know how much I love blowing stuff up.”
“I wouldn’t want to take away your enjoyment,” Tahoe said.
Bender climbed out of his cockpit, retrieved two charges from Juggernaut’s storage compartment, and then leaped onto Tahoe’s Hoplite to grab some more. He returned to his mech, piloted Juggernaut to the other structures in turn, and emerged from the cockpit to place the charges against the doors. When he was done, he rejoined Fire Team A.
“Let’s do the middle structure first,” Rade said. He aimed his scope at the double doors there. “Detonate when ready.”
The charges exploded and the door fell inward. Once more Rade was greeted with a profusion of equipment, none of which was the mech. There were more steel crates in this hangar than the previous, as well as some large, mirrorlike spherical objects, but that was the only difference.
“What are those spheres?” TJ asked.
“Those are storage archives,” Ms. Bounty said. “Containing the history and culture of the Xaranth. They are password protected, and unfortunately the Phants misplaced the password.”
“Mighty kind of them,” Lui said.
“Could our mech be hiding behind any of those objects?” Rade asked.
“If the mech was lying flat, yes,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Where are HS3s when you need them?” TJ complained.
“Blow the third structure,” Rade said.
In moments the final charges detonated and the third set of double doors fell in. This time, Rade’s scope was greeted with a much cleaner hangar. Inside, a single vessel took up the closer half of the space, while the other half was completely empty. About a quarter the size of the Argonaut, it was a white, slightly horseshoe-shaped craft, with thick prongs emerging from an ovule main body. It was somewhat similar to a gatorbeetle head, actually.
Along the outer rim of the hull, tiny rods of various sizes protruded. Rade had no idea what purpose that served—perhaps to function as some sort of advanced Whittle layer to redistribute the impact energy of micrometeors?
Above the ship, it looked like there were more double doors that could fold aside to provide a quick egress.
“I thought you said there were two ships,” Rade asked.
“There were,” Ms. Bounty replied.
“I guess our King really did flee the planet,” Lui said.
“Taking Harlequin with him,” Bender said quietly.
“All right, Fire Team A, clear the structures,” Rade said. “Start with the one on the left.”
And so Tahoe led his fire team into the first structure. Rade relocated his own Hoplites to the entrance to provide overwatch. While Shaw and Rade aimed their cobras inside, TJ once again lowered the glass container to cover the plains behind them.
Tahoe’s Hoplites were spread out, and they moved between the various equipment, pieing the different potential hiding places formed by crates and whatnot. “Pieing” meant they circled wide, as if following the periphery of a large piece of pie, keeping their weapons trained past the corner of the potential hiding place as they slowly increased their angle of exposure.
It took about five minutes to complete the sweep of the first structure. Rade had Tahoe perform the same clearing operation on the middle Quonset. Once more Fire Team B assumed an overwatch position at the entrance.
In another five minutes, the middle structure was clear. The team swept the third even faster.
“Guess it’s time to sweep the ship,” Rade said.
He sent Shaw into the structure, and Ms. Bounty leaned down from the passenger seat to apply the pheromone generators located on the fingertips of her gloves.
As the entry hatch swiveled aside, Bender said: “Get back get back get back!”
Shaw obeyed, quickly retreating; in the passenger seat, Ms. Bounty drew the Phant-stunning rifle and kept it aimed at the opening.
“Our Hoplites could fit in there,” Tahoe said. “But it’s going to be a tight fit.”
“Manic, Fret, Unit A, inside,” Rade said. “I want Unit A to take point. Ms. Bounty, give the robot the stun rifle.”
Ms. Bounty tossed the weapon to the robot, and the indicated individuals leaped down from their passenger seats and hurried into the hatch.
Rade watched on his overhead map as the inside of the vessel slowly filled out. He switched to Unit A’s point of view, and saw smooth oval-shaped walls big enough to fit a single gatorbeetle. Rade wondered what the protocol had been when two gatorbeetles needed to pass each other in the cramped space. He supposed one of them would have had to crouch down on the deck and allow the other to crawl over it.
They passed a compartment that seemed to be the crew quarters: six circular hollows were dug into the deck. Another compartment appeared to be an engineering section of some sort. A third proved the cockpit, or bridge: basically a circular depression in front of a short, featureless pillar. The last compartment was wider than the rest, and held a smaller ship inside. It looked like a squished ovule, with a black visor near the front. Almost like a very big helmet, actually. Two small wings protruded from the body section. Those wings looked like they could telescope wider to handle atmospheric flight if necessary.
Manic transmitted: “So, if you’ve been following ou
r progress, you’ve seen that we’ve cleared everything except for this hangar bay. There’s a smaller shuttle inside. We’re going to have to request Ms. Bounty’s presence to open it.”
Ms. Bounty glanced at Rade’s Hoplite. “With your permission?”
“Go ahead,” Rade said.
Ms. Bounty climbed down from Shaw’s passenger seat and hurried inside. Rade watched from Unit A’s point of view as she entered the internal hangar bay and approached the shuttle. She touched the aft surface with her fingertips and a rear section folded away, lowering to form a ramp.
“Get back!” Manic said.
Ms. Bounty retreated as Unit A rushed inside.
Within, the shuttle was relatively empty. In the center of the floor was a hollow, with a smooth pillar emerging at the fringe, just in front of the tinted glass that coincided with the dark visor on the outside; that glass provided a view of the hangar bay beyond.
“It’s clear,” Unit A said. “The shuttle seems to be a single passenger craft. More like a lifepod than anything else.”
“All right,” Rade said. “Everyone outside. I want to make one final sweep before I decide what to do next.”
“May I have my rifle, please?” Ms. Bounty asked the Centurion.
Unit A tossed the stun weapon to Ms. Bounty and the group emerged momentarily.
Rade and the others retreated to a spot twenty meters in front of the central Quonset; the first fire team separated to circle the structures and repeat their sweep of the equipment-laden interiors, and when that was done the team rendezvoused with Rade and the others.
“I guess he really did abandon his Queen,” Manic said.
“So much for Phant loyalty,” Lui added.
“So what now, boss?” Tahoe asked.
“I guess we board that ship,” Rade said. “And continue our search in orbit. Assuming Ms. Bounty can fly it?”
“I can,” Ms. Bounty confirmed.
“What the hell is that?” Fret said from Tahoe’s passenger seat.
Rade followed Fret’s pointing arm to the sky behind them. An incoming object was fast approaching.
“Inside!” Rade said.
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