Steel World

by Larson, B. V.

  “McGill? This is crazy, man. This tunnel might run forty kilometers for all we know. And the rescue party might be behind us, baffled as to where we went.

  I leaned against the wall of the tunnel and sipped water. My suit’s reservoir was running low.

  “All right,” I said at last. “Let’s give it ten more minutes. We march that much farther, then turn around.”

  They groaned, but they followed. I had to admit that even I was giving up hope.

  Fifteen minutes later, we rounded a slight bend in the tunnel and saw daylight only a hundred meters ahead. That was a stunner.

  We crouched, stared and zoomed with our optics. We spoke in whispers despite the fact we couldn’t see any lizards.

  “I can’t believe it,” Carlos said. He was working on his tapper, bringing up data. “My GPS doesn’t work down here—no surprise. But the computer counts every step you take. I reset the counter when we started. We marched over four frigging kilometers. Ten minutes…you’re such a liar, McGill. I hate you.”

  “I found the way out, didn’t I?” I said, smiling. “Okay, what we’re going to do is poke our noses out. Take off your safeties and be ready for anything.”

  I took a half-step, but Carlos’ hand fell on my wrist. I pulled it away and almost shoved him. He’d never dare try that crap if I had real rank on him.

  “McGill? James?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “It’s over man! You found what you wanted. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “That’s what I intend to do. I’m going to march out of this tunnel and radio our report in. They can come pick us up. That will be much faster than walking back.”

  “But they don’t have any airpower. That wasn’t in the contract. We’d have to wait for the ship to send down a lander or walk all the way back through the forest.”

  I thought hard for a second. The rest of them looked scared. We all knew that going out onto the surface was dangerous. Walking through that forest was going to be close to suicide, and my suit’s AC was already failing.

  But I wanted to see where this tunnel went. The answer was so close I couldn’t give up now. I came up with an angle that I thought would give them a good reason to follow me.

  “Listen,” I said, “this is all about avoiding perma-death at this point. If we walk out there and get wiped—well, at least the finish will be recorded by our GPS systems. We’ll be back in camp within an hour, healthy and fresh. If we stay down here in this hole, anything could happen. We’re all taking the risk of being permed if we stay in the tunnels.”

  In the end, their fear of getting permed outweighed their fear of being overrun by hungry lizards. They complained and gave me frustrated groans, but at last they pulled it together and followed me to the mouth of the tunnel.

  We crept up to the glaring entrance. The mouth was overgrown and half-filled with sifting mud. It was raining outside and relatively cool. The green canopy of the jungle softened the glaring sky, and as our eyes adjusted, it no longer seemed brilliantly bright.

  We sat just inside the entrance for several minutes, listening to the rain and talking in whispers.

  “Do you see anything?” Carlos asked me.

  “Trees—that’s about it.”

  “No lizards?”

  I looked at him in disgust. “Don’t you think I would have mentioned that?”

  I was closest to the entrance. The rest of the team hung back, with their rifles aimed at the opening. They looked extremely nervous. I tried to see them through the confident eyes of Graves. He’d never have let his troops see him worried—especially if he was worried.

  I straightened my back and stared out into the jungle. “You still can’t get anything?” I asked Carlos.

  “Nothing. Not from inside. Damn these metals walls.”

  Without further discussion, I moved out of the tunnel.

  I had to crawl to get past the debris-choked entrance. Mud had slid down into the hole, and I thought it must have been a tight squeeze for a jugger even when it was freshly dug.

  I walked outside in a crouch, trying to look everywhere at once. A flock of flying reptiles screeched at me, and took wing. Their flapping, leathery wings made snapping noises in the air, and they showered me with dark gray guano.

  “What’s going on?” Carlos hissed.

  I looked around for a second longer then returned to the tunnel entrance. “Not much. Looks clear, come on up.”

  They did so, reluctantly. They were all working their tappers soon, but they didn’t operate.

  “I can’t connect,” Kivi complained. “It’s just saying: ‘synching with network’ and keeps spinning.”

  Everyone had the same problem.

  “Maybe we’re too far out from base.”

  Carlos shook his head. “No, no way. These things can reach ten miles or more.”

  “Can they get a signal from Corvus?” asked Kivi.

  We glanced at her then tried it. But it was no good.

  “Our basic tappers aren’t strong enough. I bet an officer could do it.”

  “The techs can. I’ve seen them do it.”

  Carlos made a pin-wheeling gesture of exasperation with his arms. “Well, that’s just great. They give recruits the best of everything, don’t they? Shit guns, shit suits, and shit com equipment. The trouble is, we’re the only ones left alive! If I’d known, I would have stripped Graves and left him naked for the dinos.”

  I was working my tapper, ignoring him. I was deep in the confusing options screens. I’d spent some time poking around in there but hadn’t figured out what every screen did. Now, there was a serious reason to do so.

  “Let’s set up a local network, so we can at least talk to one another.”

  “What the hell for?”

  I gave him an irritated glance. Before I could answer, Kivi spoke up.

  “That’s a great idea!” she said. “We’ll set up our own little net then make it discoverable. Anyone else with a system more powerful than ours might detect it. They could receive our weak signals and if they did a little work, link up with us.”

  I nodded, as if that had been my idea. In truth, I’d just figured we could communicate if we were separated.

  Carlos came near looking over my shoulder to stare at my options screens.

  “Well, look at the big brain on you,” he said. “I guess you learned something in school before you dropped out.”

  I considered punching him, and I almost did it. But it would be counterproductive at this point, so I saved it for later.

  “Well, I have a fix via the GPS on our location at least. Camp is that way.”

  I didn’t get an argument after that. They followed me toward camp.

  We hadn’t gone a hundred steps before we found digging equipment, and a big pile of loose shale. It shone with metallic spiraling strips of metal.

  “They bored in, and took pains to hide the evidence,” I said.

  “They knew we’d be watching from Corvus.”

  I nodded, and we pressed on. What we came to next startled us. It was a lizard camp, with sleeping nests and campfires. The surprising thing was the massive size of it. The camp stretched for over a mile.

  “There must have been thousands of them here,” Kivi said.

  “Yeah, but where did they all go?” I asked. I walked into the deserted camp, and for nearly a minute, no one followed me.

  They hung back at the edge of the jungle.

  I looked back and laughed at them.

  “What? Do you think you’re safe standing there behind trees? If they aren’t gone, we’re all dead anyway. Come on.”

  They followed me at last.

  As we walked, we all took video with our suit cameras and tappers. If they wanted detailed data, that would give it to them.

  “Isn’t this weird?” Carlos asked me as we passed the massive camp. “I mean, we would always leave behind a few troops in a camp this big.”

  “Yeah, they aren’t us. They don’t have
non-combatants in their armies. They all fight. Every one of them.”

  “We shouldn’t walk straight to our base from here. If they are hitting it and retreat, we’ll run right into them.”

  I stopped, frowning. The rest pulled up behind us, nervously watching every tree.

  “You’re right. Let’s veer off at a ninety degree angle for a kilometer or so. We should be out of their path then.”

  We turned and walked away from the alien camp and our own base for a time. The jungle became deeper and the suns began going down. In truth, that was a blessing. I was overheating in daylight. My suit’s AC was operating, but only barely. I could feel every outlet of cool air trickling down inside my suit, drying sweat as it went. It was barely enough to keep me from getting heatstroke.

  About two kilometers later, I called a halt. Everyone worked their tappers. We still couldn’t connect with the base network.

  “Something’s wrong,” Carlos complained. “This can’t be right. We are only two or three kilometers out. I know our signals should reach this far.”

  I privately agreed with him, but didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.

  “Let’s keep marching,” I said, doing my best to sound like Graves. “It will sort itself out soon enough.”

  Kivi wouldn’t let it go. “Yeah, Carlos is right. This is all wrong. There are too many repeaters. They can’t all be down.”

  “Look,” I said, “maybe their power is down. I don’t know.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. In order for—”

  “Kivi,” I said, interrupting her. “There’s nothing we can do about it. Let’s keep moving, not talking. We’re easy meals out here.”

  Talk of being eaten got them all moving again. After nearly an hour, it finally was dark and we came within sight of the walls.

  They didn’t look good. Using our night vision equipment, we could see they were damaged, and the entire area was filled with a pall of smoke.

  “They’re dead,” Carlos whispered with sudden, panicked certainty. “They’re all dead. That’s the only answer.”

  “They can’t all be dead,” I told him.

  “We’re screwed,” he said, not even looking at me. “Look at those walls. There’s no one up there. Big holes punched right through. No network. We’re screwed. Totally screwed.”

  IWe were hugging a bushy area about two hundred meters from camp. It looked quiet—too quiet.

  “If we die now, they won’t even be able to revive us,” Kivi said. She had the same panicky tone Carlos had. It was becoming infectious. “Everyone who’s died—they’re already permed.”

  “We’ll be fine,” I said with a certainty I didn’t feel.

  “James, our data is here—on the planet,” Kivi said. “Even if they did transfer it up, they have no way of knowing if we’re alive or not. They can’t produce a copy of any of us without being certain.”

  “Oh, God,” Carlos said. “Varus did it again. My first damned time out.”

  “Did what?” Kivi asked.

  “What are you? An idiot? They wiped. You know what I’m talking about, McGill. Just like I told you back on Earth. The legion is gone!”

  I stared at the walls quietly. Kivi stared with me in mute horror.

  I had to admit it—he could be right.

  -15-

  We crept into the camp, passing one at a time through a smoldering hole in the puff-crete walls. The rim of the hole was still smoking, and I crushed hot embers with my boots as I slipped inside.

  We’d expected to find piles of dead inside, and we did—but they were mostly lizards. Our own dead were stripped of equipment and left to rot—every last one of them.

  “Where are they?” Carlos asked loudly, spinning around and lifting his arms into the air. “There aren’t more than a thousand of our dead here.”

  “Quiet!” I ordered. “Someone stripped these bodies. The only question is: who did it?”

  He snorted at me and dropped his rifle. “What’s the difference? There’s no one here. Don’t you get it? They pulled out. They check-marked us as lost underground, and after getting hit hard, they pulled out. We’re totally screwed.”

  “A minute ago you were certain they’d wiped.”

  “Yeah, well—this is probably worse. I can’t believe it. They just ditched us. I mean, a few recruits I can understand. But Harris and Graves? They were loyal Varus troops, you know? Graves even cashed in his chips to give us a chance to march out.”

  “Maybe,” Kivi said. “Or maybe he knew what was going on, and he bailed out on us. He knew they would revive him so he ditched us down there.”

  We all looked at her. I frowned. This rumor-mill was in high gear.

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I told her. “You’re all panicking like a bunch of splats.” I turned back to Carlos. “Pick up your rifle, Recruit.”

  Carlos laughed. “Make me!”

  I aimed my rifle at him. “Graves left me in charge. If you don’t want me to test our revival equipment today, you’d better start listening. Pick up your damned weapon.”

  Carlos grumbled, but he picked up his rifle.

  “Let’s go to the tech bunkers,” I suggested. “Maybe they left some equipment behind.”

  They followed me to the tech bunkers, but they were pretty much stripped bare. We spent the next hour searching the place. The humans were gone. It was clear they’d suffered a massive attack and then pulled out.

  “Here are the skid marks,” Carlos said, indicating deep furrows in the land.

  I looked at them. They did indeed look like the footprints of a lander.

  “You believe me now, McGill?”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding. “Anyone find any com equipment? Anything powerful enough to reach space?”

  “No way,” Carlos said bitterly. “That stuff costs money. They would never leave that behind. Fortunately, recruits are almost free.”

  I had to admit, I was beginning to buy into Carlos’ doom-and-gloom bullshit. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t deny how things looked. We’d been written off.

  “All right, did anyone find anything useful?” I asked.

  “I found two crates of food.”

  “I’ve got a few uniforms—but they’re ripped.”

  I moved immediately to check on the damaged uniforms. I grinned. “AC units look good. We’ll use these for spare parts.”

  Carlos hooted at me and shook his head while I dismantled my pack and plugged a new one into place.

  “The batteries will be dead in a few days, you know.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed in pleasure as the cool air slipped into my suit, blowing it up like a wet balloon.

  “I don’t care,” I said. “At least I won’t die bathed in sweat.”

  We gathered water next and drank a lot of it. We found a few medical odds and ends. I unzipped at around midnight and let my teammates work on my back and legs. There were plenty of other injuries in the group as well. We had to rub them down with antibiotic salves and skin-growth creams. They tingled after that. I could feel the freshly-growing skin. It was rubbery and numb.

  “This is worse than a revival,” Carlos complained.

  For once, I agreed with him. When you were reborn, at least you didn’t have to go through the pain of healing wounds.

  It was about two hours later that our sentry shook me awake. I got up, grabbed my rifle, and crept out of the bunker we were hiding in.

  The rest of the team were awakening and following me. There were some murmured complaints, but everyone shushed one another. We used hand-signals and our tappers to communicate.

  There was something outside, something big. It was a machine of some kind.

  I eyed it, and it took me a moment to realize it was an air car. Cruising at an altitude of about fifty meters, it glided slowly over the camp. All the running lights were switched off.

  “What are they doing?” Carlos whispered nearby. “Who are they?”

  “How
the hell should I know?”

  He shut up for a second, and we all stared. The air car came lower, and we could hear a soft thrumming sound. It was remarkably quiet for a machine of its kind.

  “That thing cost some money,” Carlos said. “That isn’t standard tech. Someone had to buy that from Galactic with hard credits.”

  He was right. I knew what air cars normally sounded like, and this one wasn’t a noisy, buzzing machine. They usually used fans and turbo jets that roared loudly enough to be heard a mile away.

  I frowned at the machine. I was under the impression it was sneaking around, observing. I didn’t like it. I pulled out my rifle and sighted on the exhaust system.

  “You can’t be serious,” Carlos said. “You don’t even know who’s in there. It could be our own tribune reviewing the damage. If you bring him down, Varus will fry you.”

  “You want to walk out there and signal them first?” I asked.

  “Um…no.”

  “Right. If we shoot that thing down, our team will know we’re alive.”

  “What if it’s an enemy?”

  “All the more reason.”

  “And what if it is legion equipment, and you kill the occupants?”

  I shrugged. “That’s what revival units are for. Besides, no aerial units are allowed on this mission, it’s part of the contract, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “All right team,” I said, “take aim. Concentrated fire, aft portion of the ship. Let’s bring it down. At the very least, we might get a radio aboard big enough to communicate with Corvus.”

  There was no more hesitation from my team members. They were desperate and scared.

  “Mark…Fire!”

  We all opened up. We only had light snap-rifles, but the air car wasn’t armored. There was a shield, but aiming at the exhaust ports bypassed that in many vehicles. The exhaust had to have a way to exit the vehicle, so the shield didn’t cover the vulnerable area. The bullets splattered the vehicle creating a shower of orange sparks in the night.

  All in all, I’d say we were lucky to get a critical hit before it could rotate the exhaust section away from us. The aft fan cut out almost immediately. The craft wobbled, and the nose tipped up. I could hear it revving, showing the pilot was trying to get away, but it was hopeless. The air car slid downward at an angle, and went into a spin.