“I assume you can install it yourself, Technomancer.”
She sounded bitter and it was starting to annoy me. I had a special place in my heart for women in the military, and a very special place for Lilian, but keeping a relationship in a battle zone was harder than killing a Templar. I used to call it a spinning-magnet relationship. You were extremely attracted to each other because you shared powerful, emotionally tasking moments. Death was constantly peeking through the window so you both wanted to experience the good things in life as best you could. Sex was great, intense, and unforgettable, but then there was the other side of the magnet. The constant anger, the nerve-wracking day-to-day battles, the constant fear and alertness that spiked your anxiety. All these things, these paradoxical emotions that should cancel each other out, they existed at the same time.
“Yes, I can install them myself, nanite-engineer.”
I grabbed the module and slammed the drawer shut.
“Be careful with my gear, soldier.”
I opened the drawer again and then closed it cartoonishly slowly, never breaking eye contact with Lilian.
“To your satisfaction, my Lord?”
She hissed and looked away. I marched out of the engineering bay almost shaking with anger. Was this how she wanted to say goodbye to me? But I was equally at fault, I guessed. This may very well have been my last day, but she didn’t seem to care. Sitting there in her lab and fiddling with nanites all day long could cause one to become colder and harder to approach, but that didn’t mean she should be angry with me for being focused on my mission. What if we never managed to see each other again?
I forced every thought from my mind as I made my way to where Leo and Layla were shown on my INAS.
“Random radiation spikes,” Leo said as he read from his INAS just as I came into earshot. He sat with his legs crossed on a box while stuffing down army rations and preparing for the mission. “Hey, Boss,” he said in greeting. I just nodded and stood there.
Layla, who sat across from Leo listening to music over her INAS, looked at me and spoke. “Why the frown, Sarge?”
“It’s nothing,” I replied, trying to shake Lilian from my mind. Layla raised an eyebrow but didn’t investigate any further.
“It’s the mission, isn’t it, Boss? I was just reading the briefing for the third time and this thing with the random radiation spikes bothers me.”
“Your nanites can handle small radiation exposure,” I said matter-of-factly.
“Right, but what does it mean? Radiation in the mountains in the middle of nothing? Sounds like something to me.”
“Could be a misreading, could be a leaking detrium pipe, could be a rotting engine, could be a million things, Leo, and it’s usually the most obvious ones.”
“Hmm,” he muttered and stared back at his INAS. I made it clear that I wouldn’t be caught up in some conspiracy theory unless there was hard evidence. I had much more important things to think about.
“Did you get your new gear?” I asked as my eyes moved to Layla’s.
“Look at this!” she pointed at her legs. “Hi-steppers, or hydraulic boots as some call them. They’ll let me rush in and get out fast! I’ll have more maneuverability, I’ll be faster, jump higher, and—”
“I get it, Layla,” I said, interrupting her. I still put up the best smile I could muster. “Nice pick.”
She winked at me for some reason. She did that a lot, and it was becoming weird. Where I’m from, a wink was a way to flirt with someone, but Layla came from, a wink was a sign of contentment. Or so I assumed.
“Leo? What about you?”
“Ah, right, look at this.”
He got to his feet and almost completely disappeared.
“Cloaking, huh? Good move. We definitely could have used that earlier.”
He turned off the cloak and the millions of small mirror-cells in his armor went dark. Cloaking wasn’t a new technology, but it was still very expensive. Only a battle-proven Commando, just like Leo, had a chance of getting one. Unlike the Duskwalker-class, which had near-permanent cloaking due to how their nanites interacted with their armor. Other classes could only get their hands on this technology via level-points. The cloaking ability wasn’t something that could last long, mostly about half an hour. One of the few things that could mess it up was water, but it was still much better than nothing.
“Boss, can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“We’ve proven ourselves, right?”
“Proven yourselves? What’s your point?”
“I mean we were rank one during the flight over here. We handled that fiasco at Alpha Station as well and we took the stronghold. Why would Tailor send us on such a—”
I cut him off before he’d say something stupid.
“Boring mission?”
“I didn’t mean boring.”
“I know,” I replied with a sigh. It was true that we had been doing pretty well, but we were still far from “proven” warriors. It had only been a week since Alpha Station, our landing, and the takeover of Zero Base. The real war was still out there, and it was so vast that our accomplishments weren’t even a footnote in the grander scheme of things. The little success we had so far was amiable, but it was already getting to Leo’s head.
“Then why?”
“Let me explain something to the both of you, so turn that music off.” I waited for Layla to comply and took in a deep breath before I spoke. “Do you see the skies above you? What color are they?” Leo and Layla looked at each other but didn’t answer.
“Bluish?” Layla asked.
“Yeah, they’re blue. They weren’t blue in the simulation. Did you ever notice that?”
“I noticed but I never cared to ask,” she replied. I could see the cogs in her mind whirr as she tried to come up with an explanation.
“Exactly. You never cared to ask because you thought it didn’t matter. There’s a reason the simulation had green skies and it’s very simple: we were supposed to land on the other side of the planet. That was our original mission. We should have landed near Prosperion City where the air is so polluted that it seems the very sky is green. But here we are, tens of thousands of miles to the west.
“That’s messed up,” Leo whispered.
“Sure is. See, our original mission was supposed to be boring. Planetfall, joining up with another regiment. Transport to hot zones shouldn’t have occurred weeks from setting up our base. You shouldn’t have seen an Aloi by now, but instead, you fought three Templars before you even landed. Did you get my point?” They both nodded.
“I never thought about it like that.”
“Listen,” I said and looked around, scanning for prying ears. “Pull up your maps on the INAS and look at where Zero Base is, where we are right now. This is one of six detrium mines in this region. To our west is this mountain range and just below us, there’s another detrium mine not much larger than this one. The Aloi forces we pushed out of Zero Base are regrouping there. To the south of that position is another detrium mine, also Aloi controlled, right? Now that’s our eastern flank. Look at the south. Two more mines three hundred miles apart, both Federation controlled. Got it? Look at the location of our mission objective now. Do you see it? It’s just between the Aloi and the Federation controlled mines, in the very center of this sort of circle. It’s deep in the Hargaa Mountains, no strategic value, there’s no defendable position there, just a massive mountain range five miles above sea level.”
The two of them didn’t say anything. I realized that they didn’t know what I was going for. Sure, the detrium mines surrounded this position in the mountains and geographically it looked like it was of importance, but any trained military eye could find no value in the center of the circle of mines. One Star Eater-class battleship could level the whole mountain range in an afternoon.
“What are you getting at, sir?” Layla asked.
“There’s something there, something the military doesn’t under
stand and know what it is.”
“Random radiation spikes,” Leo whispered.
“Yes, random radiation spikes.”
“So, you’re thinking it’s something?” Layla asked.
“No, I’m not. It’s probably detrium residue from a crashed ship,” I said, hoping they would catch the subtext. They did. We talked no more about this mysterious aspect of the mission as it wouldn’t bring either of us anything but trouble and headache. What’s more, my damn INAS flared up just then.
INCOMING MESSAGE:
SQUADS 23, 48, 88 REPORT TO HANGAR.
I cursed inwardly as I was far from ready, but the army didn’t care. If they called us, we responded.
“Come on, we need to get moving. Take your gear with you.”
The dropship was ready and waiting when we got there several minutes later. Somehow the brass thought it was a good idea to just send three squads on this mission. Squad 23 was led by Sergeant Willsbury while Squad 48 had Sergeant Petrushka as their commanding officer. I barely knew these guys, but I had full confidence in them if the captain put us together.
Squad 23 was ranked 7th in the simulation and Petrushka’s squad ended up 31st. They weren’t the best we had to offer, but they were high enough in my book.
“Sergeant Stavos,” Petrushka saluted me and then offered his hand.
“Sergeant,” Willsbury added and did the same. “It’s good to be part of this mission.”
I grinned as I shook their hands.
“Tell me that once we’ve gone through the meat grinder together.” They felt the underlying tone and just nodded slightly. “Are your people in there?” I asked, nodding at the flyer. They both nodded.
“Primed and waiting,” Willsbury replied. “Is your squad ready?”
I looked over my shoulder and nodded at the flyer.
“Get in there, we’ll be right with you.”
Leo and Layla walked in and disappeared behind the wall.
“Does anyone have a problem with me?” I asked, my voice barely carrying. “If you guys have any issues with me, we need to get that out of the way right here and now.”
Both Sergeants shook their heads slowly and never broke eye contact.
“We’re good, Sergeant. We know you earned the top spot and how much you have contributed since coming here. It’s truly an honor to serve with you,” Petrushka said calmly.
“In that case, after you two.”
I followed the two inside and sat next to my squadmates. The first thing I noticed was how the others stared at Layla or at least tried to do so while not seeming so obvious. She had become somewhat of a legend around the base when she beat up Corporal Jinx over a badly placed catcall. She dented the 200-pound veteran’s helmet with her bare hands much to the cheers of everyone around. Corporal Jinx didn’t say a word to a superior, mostly out of shame. That and the fact she was in Squad 88 were reasons enough for superstitious soldiers to think she had alien blood in her or something.
“So, what do you make of this mission, Stavos?” Willsbury asked me as we lifted off. I kept it brief and official.
“Tailor wants us to check if rocks have chosen a side in this war of ours.”
The soldiers chuckled, probably having no idea what I was going on about.
“Is there a reason he had to send you to lead this thing?” Petrushka asked, gutting the laughter.
“The same reason you’re here, Petrushka,” I answered. “To save the fucking Federation.”
There was a moment of silence before laughter broke out again.
No one spoke for a while after that, at least not until we stopped and hovered in place.
“The area is clear,” a voice came over our INAS. It showed to be from the flight channel, so it had either been the pilot or the co-pilot. Not that I cared. “We’ll be landing shortly.”
“Gear up and run your scans,” I ordered as I got up. The nanites around my body started whirring and swirling, showing how much I’d come to control them.
“You heard the Sergeant!” Willsbury yelled. “Now!”
The group snapped to attention and moved just as we landed, the ramp already lowering slowly. Cold air struck my face as I moved out and looked around, noticing we landed on the single patch of level terrain the pilots managed to find among the spiky rocks.
I knelt and pressed my palms to the ground, using all of my available O-Nans. Both familiars took on their usual shapes as more and more of the tiny buggers swarmed together and grew in size.
“So, we’ll get to see a Technomancer firsthand, huh?” Willsbury asked. I nodded and looked over at the two sergeants.
“Have someone set the perimeter.”
Two of the specialists, both Commandos from what I could see, walked down the ramp and were quickly followed by Leo. I noticed their names as Tabash and Gunter as the two walked past me and put up turrets.
Buzzard was already back by the time the three finished, showing me nothing at all. There were no enemies here, no monsters, no aliens, no nothing. Nothing but the extreme cold. The rest joined us outside just as the golem was summoned.
“Anything?” Petrushka asked.
I shook my head. “No, and I don’t like it at all. Still, we have to keep moving as the temperature will only keep dropping.”
We fell in line and no one bitched around or made stupid remarks or jokes. Thanks to Bucky, we plowed through the snow and toward our objective. Outside, the temperature was freezing, but the nanites in our blood and the armor on our skin kept the temperature even. The sun could be melting the planet or throwing it into the deep-frozen wasteland of vacuum, but my Fyre Armor would keep me comfortable.
Hours of tracking over rough and jagged terrain passed, but we finally closed in on our objective. An eerie feeling took hold of me when I saw the mission area. At the foot of a mountain peak, a large, flat open area spread like a bazaar from Persei Prime. Unlike a bazaar, this platform wasn’t perfectly flat nor rectangular. It could easily be a natural formation, but I had some faint doubts that nagged me. There were too many aspects of this mission that smelled weird. Soldiers were superstitious folk, mind you, but I always tried to suppress connecting dots where there weren’t any. I trained myself, but obviously not well enough.
“Do you want me to scout ahead, Sergeant?” Leo asked.
I nodded and replied.
“Watch yourself.”
Leo vanished behind the reflective mirrors in his new armor and slowly approached the plateau. I followed what he saw through my INAS as the other squads set up flanking positions to our right and left so we had the platform surrounded. If anything was to suddenly show up, it would eat a hailstorm of bullets.
The plateau itself was the size of a football field and lay perpendicular to the steep mountain peak that overlooked it. What was the objective here? Captain Tailor had ordered to investigate and collect data. Here we were collecting data on a piece of rock and doing nothing.
“Nothing here, Sergeant,” Leo said over our squad channel. “If there is, it’s extremely well hidden, but I’d stake my life on nothing being here.”
“Move up to the plateau and set up a perimeter,” I ordered as we ran up to where Leo stood. He wasn’t visible but my mini-map told me where he was.
We scanned above ground, then beneath the rocks, and except for a couple of crevasses, there was nothing there. We measured the radiation spikes, and while there were some deviations, they could hardly be classified as spikes. The radiation was weak and fleeting at best.
“Perhaps detrium?” Leo asked as we stood in a circle around the point where the radiation showed to be strongest.
“Highly doubt it,” I replied. “They scanned every inch of this planet for any kind of radiation and have been at it for thousands of years, millions maybe even.”
“How come it never ran dry?” Layla asked.
The rest of us looked at her in bewilderment.
“Really? You skipped that class in school?” Leo asked mo
ckingly. “Yeah, really, smart-ass. What? Look at the dumb redneck, she knows nothin’, is that what you’re saying?”
“Shut it,” I snapped, not liking what the two were doing in front of the others at all.
“Detrium will eventually run dry, it’s true, but even the smallest amount in their raw form is extremely powerful though very volatile. Extraction could take years and that’s just the first step before it would become useful. It would have to go through a whole process, first they—”
“We don’t have time for this,” I said, cutting Leo short. “Layla, you go and read a book. Leo, scout around and gather any information you can. Let’s try and not return completely empty-handed. Squad 48 and 23, be on the watch and try to find something. Anything.”
They obeyed my command without question, and seconds later the circle spread out around the plateau. Every soldier was trying to make him or herself useful, but in all honesty, we knew this was one of those thank-you-god missions where you could relax more than work. Fuck it, I thought. Let them set up that perimeter and then we’ll eat, relax, maybe even have a fire and camp out here. We hadn’t had a chance to relax in days anyway.
The ground suddenly shook just enough for me to notice. I took two steps back from the center of the plateau, and as I looked around, the others went about their way with their backs turned toward me. None of them had obviously felt it.
“What the hell?” I cursed.
The ground shook even more violently, and I felt the flat rocks below my feet shift. I jumped up and away from where I was standing, almost expecting something to jump out.
“Something’s up!” I snapped over my INAS, speaking to everyone in the raid channel. The sergeants were first to react but were followed shortly by the others. I jumped back again, and again, getting out of the way as layers of rock moved and shifted to create a rectangular hole. I got down to a knee and trained my rifle at the hole, waiting for something to come crawling out, but besides stale air, there was nothing. I carefully crawled to the hole on all fours and peeked over it. My INAS flared up red. Aloi.
Starblood: A Military Space Opera Series (War Undying Book 1) Page 13