Alpha mouthed an O and continued staring at her terminal.
Tag followed Sofia out of the shelter and then paused, watching her delve into the verdant Forest. Even though she wore the crisp, clean white-and-blue uniform of the SRE, she appeared at ease on Eta-Five, gingerly stepping over the knotted roots and between the vines, walking as if there were a path where there was none. Her voice warbled between the trees even as the foliage enveloped her into its colorful embrace. The singsong language of the Forinths chorused back in reply, emanating from all around like the siren call of wood nymphs beckoning a traveler into their clutches.
As Sofia diverged and Tag followed a trail the Mechanics had made, he felt the gentle tugging of the Forinth song on his mind. He couldn’t fully understand their language like Sofia, and the translation tech the SRE had developed was unable to comprehend the intricacies of a language built on a complex blend of intonation, melody, rhythm, and pitch, especially when compared to the more commonly spoken languages of the universe. Still, like a moving piece of symphonic orchestration, the haunting song of the Forinths played on his emotions. He felt a strange mix of nostalgia and an almost intoxicating giddiness, like he was drunk on gutfire without the burning sensation in his stomach or the knowledge that a debilitating hangover was on the horizon.
“Captain,” G said, snapping to attention.
Tag shook himself from his reverie. “At ease.”
The marines were scattered about a courtyard of sorts and were trying on their power suits. Nothing looked different about the suits the marines had arrived on Eta-Five with, but Tag was all too familiar with their new features. As a halfhearted apology, Bracken had ordered a couple of Mechanic engineers to retrofit the SRE marines’ suits with the same shielding system that came standard on Mechanic foot soldier power armor suits. The SRE had installed energy shields on all their spacefaring vessels in the navy, but they had as of yet been unable to miniaturize the technology. Bull had been resistant to the idea of Mechanics tampering with his power suit but had eventually acquiesced when Bracken had demonstrated the capabilities of the energy shield by having her foot soldiers fire a fusillade of pulsefire at a Mechanic power armor suit.
Bull examined the wrist controls of his upgraded suit, turning the shield on and off. “If these xenos can make this kind of tech, our scientists should be doing it, too.”
He gave Tag an almost accusatory look.
“I’m all AI and bio,” Tag said. “It’s out of my league, but we’ll send the schematics to the Montenegro next chance we get.”
Sumo strutted back and forth in her suit as if trying it on for the first time. “I’m just happy to be one of the first members of the SRE to try these things out.”
Gorenado looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could, a violent rumble shook the Forest. Birds began squawking, taking flight, and flitting between the trees, and a small herd of the buffalo-like spirit oxen with color-changing hides stampeded through the Forest, charging deeper into the vast caverns. Their long fur flashed a fierce crimson, and they bellowed a flurry of strangely high-pitched growls.
“What was that?” Bull demanded. He secured his chest plate with a snap and clipped his helmet onto his suit. The other marines assembled their armor, and the clink of magazines jamming into weapons pierced the cacophony erupting around them.
“That the ice gods?” Lonestar asked, rotating with her rifle pressed against her armored shoulder.
Tag’s fingers inched toward the holstered pulse pistol at his hip. “I don’t know.”
“Thought you said that Forinth drum-thing keeps them out,” Bull said. He stepped toward the opening to a forest trail. Lizard-like creatures scurried from the trees, hissing and spitting. They traveled on six legs, their muzzles scrunched in snarls as if they were prepared to fight. But they didn’t bother with any of the marines, instead charging into the undergrowth where the spirit oxen had gone.
“What are they all running from?” G asked, uncertainty lacing his deep voice.
The caverns’ trembling crescendoed until the quaking was loud enough to resonate through Tag’s bones. Dirt and rock started tumbling from cracks in the high ceiling of the cave. Bioluminescent leaves and plants shook free, floating down like fluorescent confetti. The rumbling suddenly stopped.
“Bracken, Coren,” Tag said through his comm line, “what’s going on?”
Bracken’s voice crackled. “We’ve got contacts. A whole—”
Before she finished, an explosion echoed from near the Forest entrance. Tag saw the resulting concussive force wash over the Forest like a tremendous wave, and he turned to duck with the rest of the marines. But he was too slow. He was lifted from his feet and thrown backward, his teeth chattering. He pushed himself up against his swimming vision and the dull pain throbbing from deep within his torso. A creaking caught his attention, and he rolled to the side, dodging a falling tree. It crushed a Mechanic shelter, sending up a cloud of dirt. The aliens ran between their squat black buildings, gathering weapons and assembling near several of the ground vehicles they had been using since making their refuge on Eta-Five. Tag’s eardrums screamed in pain, and he yelled a command at the marines to follow him back to Sofia’s shelter, back to Coren and Alpha. He couldn’t tell if they had heard him or not. His voice was muddled by the persistent ringing in his ears. The marines seemed to have understood his intention, and they fell into formation around him as they barreled back to Sofia’s.
The ground still shook under Tag’s feet, threatening to throw him off balance. Adrenaline surged through him, churning him onward, and his vision became tunneled on the path ahead as he hurdled over fallen logs and vegetation that had plummeted from the high roof of the massive cavern. Slowly his hearing returned as they approached Sofia’s shelter. Alpha burst from the door, her mini-Gauss rifle at the ready. She lowered it when she saw Tag, and her tinny voice greeted him, beckoning to him, although her words sounded like a jumbled mess to him, like he was hearing her through water in a pool.
Coren was already busy inside, zipping into his EVA suit. He tossed Tag his helmet with one hand, and Tag caught it, securing it into place. As the helmet drowned out some of the external noise and the ringing in his ears died, he could finally make out the voices flying back and forth over the comm system.
“—attack!”
“Four, no five—”
“—entrance now!”
Mechanic voices. All of them.
“Bracken,” Tag yelled, establishing a private channel. “What is it? What’s going on?”
“The Drone-Mechs,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically high. “They found us.”
CHAPTER TEN
The squeal of some poor creature wailed amid the din exploding around the Forest. Tag wasn’t sure if the animal had been hurt by a falling tree or caught in the crossfire somewhere. Something like remorse moved through his chest, almost painful. He couldn’t help but think it was his fault the Drone-Mechs were here, destroying a sanctuary for all kinds of unique life-forms that had eked out an existence on the ethereal, beautiful, and decidedly fragile biosphere of Eta-Five.
How had the Drone-Mechs found him? How had they seen past the atmospheric shielding of Eta-Five? For the gods’ sakes, how had they known he was even back in the Eta system?
Tag and his crew hadn’t seen any drones, much less scout ships to let them know the Drone-Mechs were here, watching and waiting for him. He wondered if the Mechanics had somehow been complicit in helping the Drone-Mechs find them. Or maybe a stealth ship had followed them after they saved the Montenegro, perhaps a ship that had survived the battle and skirted all the SRE sensors. Both scenarios made him shudder uncontrollably, but nothing frightened him more than the voice screaming over his comm line.
“Skipper!” Sofia cried. “They’re everywhere!”
“Sofia, where are you?” Tag asked.
“Near the volcanic field. The Forinths are freaking out.”
“I
t seems like the Drone-Mechs used the main entrance to get down here. Is there another exit? Some way we can take to the Argo and the ship without having to fight through their forces?”
“Yeah,” Sofia said. “There are a few tunnels that lead to the surface. They’re a few kilometers from your position, though.”
“Understood. We’re coming to you.”
Another explosion sounded from behind them, and it was rapidly followed by the scream of pulsefire scorching the air. Tag snagged one of the mini-Gauss rifles from where it was leaning against the wall. His return to Eta-Five had been brief and already overstayed. “Bull, keep the Drone-Mechs off. I’m leaving security up to you.”
Unable to nod in the bulky power armor, Bull lifted his fist in acknowledgement. The other marines were too large to fit into the small shelter with their armor, so they had formed a ring around their doorway as they bristled with weapons, looking into the rest of the Forest for enemies.
“Remember, our pulse weapons are virtually useless against these guys,” Tag said. “Overloading their energy shields is next to impossible with the SRE weapons we’ve got, so you’ve got to use kinetic slugs.”
Tag half-expected Bull to sneer and give him a smartass remark about how he had paid attention to Sofia’s briefing. To the marine’s credit, all he did was raise his fist again.
“Alpha, stay down and close to me,” Tag said.
“Yes, Captain.” She stood, never letting her mini-Gauss down. She was as fierce as she was intelligent, but her chassis wasn’t built from a battlemech.
“Don’t engage if you don’t have to, got it?” Tag said. “That’s what we’ve got these guys for.” He motioned to the marines then looked at Coren. “You with us or with Bracken?”
For the duration of the mission to the Montenegro and back, Coren had been, more or less, an official crew member of the Argo. Now with that mission over, the fate of Tag’s engineer was up in the air.
“Right now, I’m very much physically with you,” Coren said expressionlessly. “And I’ll be staying with you so long as our main goal here is to evacuate my people.”
“That’s the damn reason we came back,” Tag said, “Drone-Mechs or not, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Coren gave an assenting nod, no relief or gratefulness painted across his face. Bull looked almost disappointed to hear the alien was still tagging along.
“Bull, we need to get to the air car, then”—he paused and tapped a command on his wrist terminal—”travel to these approximate coordinates to rendezvous with Sofia. She’ll help us get the hell out of here.” He switched to a private channel again. “Bracken, how are your people holding up?”
“So far, we’re managing,” Bracken said. “I don’t think they expected to see us down here. The first wave of scouts was nothing more than a half-dozen soldiers in light exo-suits. But I don’t think that’s all they brought. They want you badly, Captain Brewer, and I wish I knew why.”
Me too, Tag almost added. He refrained from saying it aloud. “Can you start to fall back? Organize an evacuation to your ship. We’ve got to get you all out of here.”
Bracken huffed. “I am already organizing our retreat. We just need to know where we can escape to.”
“Understood,” Tag said. He motioned for the marines, Alpha, and Coren to follow him. They started at a jog for the air car. More mechanical groans and whines echoed through the trees, emanating from the entrance near where Bracken’s resistance was stationed. “I’m sending you the coordinates of our first stop. From there, we’ll navigate our escape.”
“If I’m to borrow a phrase we learned from Sofia, this sounds rather half-assed.”
“We don’t have time to sit down and flesh out a full-assed idea, so unless you’ve got a better one, this is what we’re doing,” Tag said.
“Fine,” Bracken said, sounding exasperated “Here I am, trusting a technologically and intellectually inferior race to be our salvation again. I suppose I should find some irony in that.”
“Yeah, maybe you should,” Tag said. “Sofia ever teach you the human phrase, ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...’”
“No, we haven’t had the pleasure.”
“Good. But who knows, maybe you’ll learn about it today.”
Another fusillade of blue pulsefire ripped through the air, trailing up the wall of the cave. Tag was far enough from the blasts to avoid the shrapnel of rock spraying from the impacts, but the distance didn’t assuage his fears of getting involved in a gunfight. The faster they escaped and were back on their ships flying out of here, the better. He just prayed the Stalwart was actually as spaceworthy as Coren had estimated, but there was no better way to find out than trial by fire.
“The air car!” Bull yelled, pointing with one massive armored fist toward the vehicle. G and Sumo sprinted ahead, drawing away from the pack to secure it. As they did, something rustled in the glowing blue and orange bushes near one of the abandoned Mechanic shelters. Three Mechanics in sleek black armor appeared. Their suits looked untouched by wear and extended use like Bracken’s Mechanic forces. They froze in apparent surprise before wheeling their rifles on G and Sumo. Tag swiveled to fire on them, joining the marines in lobbing a flurry of rounds at the enemy. Kinetic slugs ripped into their armor, and black liquid poured out.
But the Drone-Mechs still had time to fire. A wall of pulse rounds sizzled through the air, splashing against G and Sumo and sending them wheeling backward.
There was no avoiding conflict now.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
G and Sumo had fallen under a mess of deadfall behind the shrub- and tree-covered berm when they had been shot. Tag didn’t have time to worry about them. Movement between the emerald and crimson plants caught his eyes, and he adjusted his aim. Between leaves speckled with blood, another half-dozen Drone-Mechs cut through the foliage, stepping over their downed compatriots. Pulsefire rang out around Tag, peppering the ground and tearing bark from the trees. He dove for the ground, with Coren and Alpha beside him. The remaining marines circled up, kneeling behind logs and twisting around trees, firing back at the Drone-Mechs.
“Bracken,” Tag yelled over the gunfire. “I thought you said you had them at the entrance.”
“We did,” Bracken said. “Or we thought we did. They tore a hole from the entrance tunnel into the wall. They’ve been trickling in around us. We’re moving now, but I think they’ve got us surrounded.”
A round skimmed above Tag’s head, and the heat radiated through his EVA suit. That was way too close, he thought while the marines fired back into the forest. They now had the benefit of heads-up displays utilizing built-in AIs that would automatically mark their enemies. With Coren’s help, all the AI systems related to the Argo, including these, had been fitted with Coren’s anticorruption code to protect them from Drone-Mechs overriding their computer systems. Even with these safeguards, however, the density of the plants and trees prevented them from getting a clean shot on their enemy. The remaining three marines would have little chance against an enemy overwhelming them in firepower and numbers.
Tag needed to do something, anything, to get them out of this mess.
“I’m getting to the car,” Tag said. “Bull, cover me.”
“You got it, Captain,” Bull said. He fired a burst of kinetic slugs into the brush. Leaves and twigs sprayed with the impacts. Each shredded plant glowed in changing scarlet, amber, and sapphire hues, as if expressing the pain of a slug ripping through it. Tag hated seeing this place get torn up by relentless invaders, but what else could he do short of killing them all or escaping to stop the destructive madness?
“Alpha, Coren, ready?” Tag asked.
Coren grunted a terse acknowledgment.
“Aye, Captain!” Alpha said, childishly enthusiastic.
“Go, go, go!” Tag yelled.
He dashed toward the car, winding between trees and keeping his body low. A torrent of pulsefire slammed into the trees, and he threw him
self to the ground, sliding, before jumping up and sprinting again. Approaching the car, he dove into the wide trail where it was parked. Rounds careened against the side of the car and left singe marks on the scarred alloy. The smell of wet dirt and burning plants kicked up around him, making it through the air filters of his suit, as more pulsefire streamed everywhere. He reached for one of the air car’s hatches, ready to tumble inside, when movement in his peripheral vision caused him to drop low. Five Drone-Mechs marched toward him, weapons hammering the earth around him, and he scuttled toward the front of the vehicle. The air seemed to morph, wavering like heat rising from asphalt on a summer day as the pulsefire grew in intensity. Pounding footsteps announced that the Drone-Mechs had split up, coming at the car from either side.
Coren, Alpha, and Tag were stuck in the middle, trapped against the air car. Tag leaned around to fire at one of the Drone-Mech groups but was quickly dissuaded by a burst of orange rounds.
“Son of a—Bull!” Tag yelled. “We’re pinned down!”
“I know!” Bull shot back. “We’re trying to help, but we’re surrounded! Can’t lift our goddamned heads without getting shot at!”
Tag felt a layer of sweat form between his palm and his gloves, his nerves twitching with anxious energy. They needed to move; they needed to be inside the damned air car. At least it would offer some protection and get them out of here, get them to Sofia and to the rest of the Mechanic forces. Another round zipped by him, slashing into a tree. Smoke wafted up from the fresh hole in the trunk, and ravenous tongues of flame leapt up the bark.
Everything was going to shit. The Forest of Light would be gone, destroyed in a few minutes. The remnants of the surviving free Mechanics would be rounded up and either slaughtered or enslaved. And Tag’s crew would be massacred.
But whatever the Drone-Mechs wanted from him, he wasn’t going to give it to them easily. He tightened his fingers around the mini-Gauss rifle. “Alpha, Coren, on my count, we give it our all on the right side, got it? Knock these guys out then make our way into the car.”
Edge of War (The Eternal Frontier Book 2) Page 6