by Rod Carstens
"First video," Usiche instructed the room.
A security video of the Emergency Combat Information Center on Rift during the attack began. The camera was located above and behind Usiche. The senators could see her back and the rest of the room stretched in front of her. The situation display filled the front wall. Suddenly, a female lieutenant manning one of the stations stood and fired two shots, killing Admiral Golepaul and then Admiral Oxford. She moved so fast that her movements were literally a blur. That’s when another female lieutenant suddenly leaped across the room at the hybrid. Usiche had made sure her technicians had changed Istas’s face so her identity would be hidden. The hybrid jumped twenty feet across the room and ten feet up the wall of the command post to avoid the attack. She hung there with ease. The speed and power of her movements was startling.
"Admiral, is the video in fast forward?" Senator Katte asked.
"No, Senator. That is how fast the hybrids move."
The fight between the hybrid and the second female lieutenant was almost too fast to follow until the end, when the lieutenant who had come to the defense of the command center ripped the hybrid’s throat out.
"I assume that woman fighting the hybrid is the Anjin we have heard about?"
"Yes, Senator. That is Istas. The Anjin sent her to protect me. I was unaware of her presence until she acted."
"The Anjin are a secretive society who will hire out their skills to anyone who is willing to pay. Why was she sent to protect you?"
"Senator, they are human after all. I was told they felt the threat went beyond individual interest."
"How did they know about the hybrids, the Xotoli and the threat yet not warn us?"
"According to the leader of the Anjin they were not sure but had enough evidence to act as a precaution."
Senator Katte continued to stare at the video. Usiche could only imagine what was going through her mind as she realized who and what was occupying her home planet. Usiche paused, wanting to give the senator a moment to collect her thoughts after seeing the video. If she had been seeing it for the first time, she would need a moment to compose herself.
"Senator, may I continue?"
"Yes, Admiral. Please."
"The hybrid that attacked me was apparently bred and trained for a covert mission. When an autopsy was performed, the doctors found that her brain was configured differently than ours. At this time, the conjecture is that when a fetus is approximately five weeks old, the cells begin to differentiate for their specific functions. The Xotoli introduce proteins and chemicals we are unfamiliar with at this point. The proteins interact, producing a complex interaction of signaling cascades that involve many genes. This cascade, as the scientist described it, changes the fetus from fully human to part Xotoli and part human. Once the child is born, they continue to use enzymes, hormones, and chemicals to finish the process."
Usiche had to look down at the table at this point. The thought of aliens manipulating a fetus and then a child always gave her chills.
"This hybrid must have had extensive socialization training, otherwise she could not have passed for human for so long. We know the Xotoli have stolen children going back close to fifty years at Ixco and Choem. The scientists speculate that they ‘raised’ the first children and watched them carefully to understand our social interactions. Then, with the next set of children they kidnapped, they began the experiments that led to the hybrids like the one you saw in the video."
Again, Usiche paused. Her face did not change, but her hands were white with force, and she gripped them together to control her emotions. The thought of those children being manipulated at the hands of aliens was more than difficult to describe out loud. The room was completely silent and still. Everyone seemed lost in their own images of what those children had gone through.
"The fighters that landed on Rift are very different. Physically, they appear normal. They are more muscular and heavier than the average human. While they look much like we do, their DNA is a combination of Xotoli and human. There was no attempt to hide the genetic differences, it an easily identified mixture. Their actions during battle are not human, though. They have no fear of death. The Xotoli use them in waves when they attack with no regard for losses. In addition, they show a distinct desire to kill their enemies in close hand-to-hand combat. We feel that they were bred this way. It produces a formidable enemy."
Usiche could see her testimony had affected Senator Katte. Usiche knew the senator’s family was still on Mapiya, her home planet in the system. She could only imagine what images her testimony was creating in the senator’s mind.
Katte visibly took a deep breath before she said, "And what of these Xotoli?"
"We’ve never seen one, Senator. We can only speculate what they look like. Second slide.”
A picture of a footprint in the dust came up next. It was clear that the footprint was definitely not human.
"This is a picture from Gaxola that General Sand took when he was a lieutenant. That was, as you know, over twenty-five years ago."
The slide showed a long narrow imprint in the dusty Gaxola surface
"Using a human footprint as a comparison, this imprint is at least three times its length. Remember, this print was made with armor so the exact size is difficult to determine. But we feel they are much larger than humans."
Usiche touched the table again, and another slide replaced the footprint.
"This is a set of prints we found on Rift. As you can see, they are the same. So some Xotoli were with the hybrids that attacked Rift, but we never saw one or knew of their presence during the battle. Our alien biologists speculate that the Xotoli are close to ten feet tall and, given the narrowness of the prints, very slim. The biggest argument is whether they are reptile-like or mammals or some combination. We just don't know."
"Why have they attacked us?"
"As you know, they had no desire to contact us despite our best efforts for decades. Our feeling is that Hawking's Rule provides the explanation. Stephen Hawking was the best theoretical physicist and cosmologist who ever lived. He said any space faring civilization would not be friendly, but instead would simply take the resources they needed and move on. The best evidence we have is that they have had some sort of catastrophic event that has destroyed most of the resources needed for space flight —Von Fleet crystals and other precious metals used in ships. They simply want our resources and don't care to trade for them. Much the same way humans behaved in antiquity when we expanded across Earth. Whole native civilizations were decimated because they were simply in the way of the more advanced society. The more advanced society felt themselves superior."
Usiche remembered the old Navy saying: Payback is a motherfucker. It was almost as if the human race was being paid back for all their previous sins.
"A last question, Admiral. It’s been almost a year since Rift. There have been skirmishes, but why have the Xotoli not pressed their advantage? They destroyed most of the Pleiades Fleet and the legion units assigned to it. Why have they not advanced with their invasion?"
"They have to a certain extent. They have occupied a number of Von Fleets planets that are rich in resources: Von Fleet 40, 86, and 703. Today we received intelligence that they have now occupied Von Fleet 69. These planets are at the very edge of our controlled space. It was a simple matter of them expanding and occupying them. As you know, mining operations on such planets mean they are sparsely populated given the harshness of their environments. So the Xotoli were able to simply land and take over the operations."
"What did they do with those Von Fleet men and women who are manning those facilities?"
"We don't know, Senator. We haven’t been able to get any drones close enough to gain any meaningful intelligence."
That was a lie and Usiche knew it, but the operational security established by the secretary general stated that only the secretary general, herself, and the men and women on the mission could know of its existence. Monnetal felt that the
y still didn’t know how many sleeper hybrids were embedded in the Confederation military services. Usiche glanced up at the corner of her contact and saw that the Marines would be in the middle of their operations by now.
"If the resource planets were so easily taken, why have they not used Ceti to stage attacks on Ross or Groom Bridge for example? Ceti has wormholes leading to both."
"It’s the feeling of my intelligence staff, and I happen to agree, that we hurt them much more severely than we know. They were attacking both Rift and Ceti at the same time. The size of each of the fleets in both of those battles was larger than the Pleiades Fleet alone. I think they used the majority of their forces in the two battles in an effort to destroy our military capabilities in one massive attack. When we were able to first hold and then throw them off Rift, it set them back badly. We've tried to estimate their losses. In the space around Rift there weren’t enough bodies for even an estimate. Just on Rift alone, the estimates of their casualties is in the tens of thousands. We killed so many of their hybrids they cannot quickly replace them. The scientists don't think they can speed up the maturity of human's significantly. So it’s taking them time to grow new hybrids."
Usiche hesitated to say what she knew she had to. She took a deep breath.
"But now they control the Ceti system, and we don’t know how that will affect their ability to produce more hybrids."
Senator Katte looked as if someone had slapped her. She leaned back in her chair and stared down at her hands. Usiche continued.
"In my estimation, the legion's stand on Rift saved the Confederation. Had they not held, the Xotoli would have occupied Rift, and we would have had no way to force them off the planet. Eventually they would have reinforced their fleet around Rift, and we would have been forced to retreat back to Sol. The Xotoli would then have controlled three quarters of our resource planets and all of the wormhole transits back to Sol. We would be fighting the Xotoli and their hybrids here on Earth today."
CHAPTER TEN
Xotoli Outpost
Exoplanet 1123.567
Von Fleet Planet 703
1st Marine Raider Battalion
Alpha Company
1st Platoon
Hu hinged pulled his helmet down and snapped it into place. He and the other members followed Nani back into the server farm to the back door. According to the blueprints, it should lead to an open area where a series of dormitories and other outbuildings would be under the settlement’s huge dome. The squad formed a stack next to the door. Nani threw the door open and ran into the open ground. They were immediately taken under fire by troops in a dorm to their left. The squad returned fire and raced across the small courtyard toward the dorm, firing as they ran. Nothing was going to stop them after what they had just seen, Hu most of all.
Von Fleet 69 Hu's home planet was no different than 703. In fact he had to shake himself at times to remind himself he was not back home. He had fought back visions of 69 under Xotoli control since the drop but seeing the children and what had been done to them broke down any walls he had built. Visions of his little sisters being experimented on by the Xotoli filled his mind. The only thing that would erase them was punishing those who had done those things. He wanted contact. He wanted a fight. He wanted payback. He ran in front of men and women in his squad and threw himself through the door into the first building in the closest row of dorms. He didn’t wait for his fire team, nor did he coordinate with Nani. Hu was reacting and not thinking. He just ran.
Hu found himself in the middle building, full of technician hybrids arming themselves. A group stood together at the far end of the dorm. Hu’s sudden appearance had momentarily stunned them. The group at other end of the dorm were just starting to draw weapons. Some had rifles or pistols. They turned, saw Hu, and fired. The rounds bounced off Hu's armor. Hu fired his 48 into the unarmored crowd of hybrids. His rounds tore into their unarmored bodies and they dropped where they stood.
More hybrids burst through a door opposite Hu. Without weapons they threw themselves at Hu with their bare hands. With their hybrid strength and numbers, they took him down to the ground. Hands groped for his pistol and the shovel on his leg. If they got a hold of one of those, armor or not, he was dead meat.
He no longer cared what the numbers were; he only wanted to kill. He thrust his armored fist up into a hybrid’s stomach with all the power in his suit. Its face contorted in agony. Hu fist had actually entered the hybrids torso he twisted it for a second then pulled it out. The hybrid fell away in a heap. Another lay across his legs, he kicked it away. Another one pounced on his chest and began pounding its bare fist into Hu's faceplate. Another was trying to pin one of his arms down.
With his free hand, he grabbed the head of the hybrid on top of him. He grabbed it as if it were a ball with all the power in his armored hand. Hu fingers sunk into its head, it screamed and grabbed his arm with both hands. He threw it off of him, blood spewing from the wounds caused by his armored hand. Blood spewed all over Hu's faceplate. He couldn't see anything. He was fighting blind now, grabbing at whatever body part he could find. He grabbed an arm and pulled until he felt the arm separate from the hybrids body. It fell of him and he mounted it and drove a fist into its skull. Just shooting them didn’t give him the visceral satisfaction that he seemed to need since he’d seen the children. Killing them with his bare hands did.
More hybrids burst through the door and jumped on Hu's back. In spite of his powered armor, they were beginning to get the upper hand. Hu grabbed a hybrid with each hand and was kicking those around his legs. A hybrid grabbed his pistol. Through the blood on his faceplate, he could just see the barrel of the pistol as the hybrid brought it up. He desperately tried to get an arm free to grab the pistol, but two hybrids instead of fighting him suddenly tried to hold his arms down. It was just enough so he was unable to stop the hybrid with the pistol. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable rail round that would end it all. Instead, the hybrid disappeared. Nani was standing over him, firing her pistol into the hybrids on top of him. He turned his head and saw the rest of his fire team crash through the side of the dorm, firing into the mass of hybrids. Between Nani and his fire team, the hybrids were torn to pieces. That’s when Nani grabbed him and pulled him up. Then she slammed him into the wall of the dorm.
"If you ever leave your fire team again, I will personally shoot you. Do you understand?" Nani snarled over the all hands frequency so the whole squad could hear what she’d said.
"Yes, Sergeant," Hu said.
"You damned near compromised the whole squad with your personal vendetta. Oh, yeah, I know why you did it, but this is not the way. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Hu said quietly.
Nani turned and went outside, where the rest of the squad was still in contact, without another word. The only time she had ever talked to him like that had been when he was an FNG before Rift. He deserved it, and it only added to the burden he felt after seeing the children. He hadn’t acted like the legionnaire or Marine he’d been trained to be. Nor had he acted like the combat veteran he was. Another squad leader might have let him get killed rather than risking lives to save him. He knew she was right. He had forgotten his responsibilities to his fire team and his squad. They were in the deep shit, and every man and woman counted. You were part of a team, and you didn’t go off the way he had. Gras came up and handed him his pistol and then slapped him on the back to let him know he understood. Then he smacked Hu's shovel back into its holder on the leg of his armor.
"You ready, boss?" Gras asked quietly. "From the sounds outside, they need us."
Hu turned and said, "Follow me."
#
Nani was so upset she was shaking. She completely understood Hu's actions, but she couldn’t tolerate them. She hoped she had gotten through to Hu. He was better than that. She knew he had his family on his mind after seeing the children, but that was no excuse.
Nani's squad electronics man was standing next to h
er.
"Sarge, I've got two drones up. Look at this."
Nani looked down at the screen that hinged down from her armor. Armored hybrids were pouring into the dome from an entry at the far end of the dome. They were all heavily armed and organized into squads. As they emerged, they would gather together, and then move forward with one squad covering the other. It was a classic bounding over watch tactical movement, just like what Nani would have used to advance the squad on an occupied position. These guys were well trained and armored up.
"Where the fuck are they coming from?" Nani asked.
"I can't get anything out of this damned dome. All I do know is and there’re a lot of them."
"What about the blueprints? Do they show anything?" Nani asked.
Eron changed his display to the blueprints the Von Fleet guys had given them. They were coming from an entrance to the main utility tunnel that connected to the rest of the complex. Any hybrid in the complex could come down that tunnel then up into the dome.
"Shit!" Eron said. "Every hybrid in the fucking facility can come down that tunnel and up that entrance."
"Yeah and it looks like everybody is. Goddamned armored infantry in addition to the techs to run the facility," Nani groused.