Chapter 42
Lily stared at the remains of her two transports. They’d put the fires out but the air still reeked of burning chemicals that Sunshine’s filtration systems hadn’t or couldn’t remove. Alex showed up in his juggernaut, completing the squad of five biomechs.
“Sorry I’m late,” Hawkins mumbled.
Lily was considering putting Sunshine in standby so she could investigate the wreckage. The casualties had been light since the attackers broke off after scoring hits on both transport vehicles. She wanted to see it firsthand but with their enemy still out there, she knew where she belonged. “Sunshine, scan area for any power emanations or other sources of radiation, electromagnetic or otherwise.”
“I’m sorry, Lily. There’s nothing indistinguishable from background radiation available.”
Lily pressed her lips together. She noted the continuing evolution of Sunshine’s artificial intelligence and how it communicated with her, but it wasn’t enough of a priority to distract her. There were rebels nearby who had just cost her all of her supplies and most of her Fourth Squad.
“Do you still believe the lack of communications was caused by jamming?” Lily asked.
“The probability is in the upper ninetieth percentile. Once visual contact was established with the lost elements of Second and Fourth Squad, communication was acquired using tight-knit beam communications.”
“But nobody saw anything,” she mumbled to herself. “Just the shells striking the transports and destroying them.”
“Lily, private communication from First Sergeant Bidaro incoming,” Sunshine warned her.
Lily had no time to react after Sunshine’s warning. Bidaro’s voice filled the silence before the last echoes of Sunshine’s voice faded. “Captain, what are your orders?”
“We’re going fishing, Sergeant.”
“Fishing, ma’am?”
Lily’s grim smile went unseen in her pod. “Lieutenant Blain and your light tanks are going to spread out. Maintain visual contact with at least one of us at all times on a secondary comm channel. Keep your primary comm system in use to communicate with Lieutenant Blain and the light tanks.”
“Ma’am, I thought they had some sort of signal jammer?”
“They do,” she explained. “As long as your tanks and the scout biomech can’t talk via the primary system, we can pinpoint where they’re at.”
“A sensor net,” Bidaro muttered.
“Exactly.”
“Good idea, ma’am,” he agreed.
“Find those terrorists, Sergeant,” Lily ordered. “Find them and make them pay.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Lily relayed the orders to her squad and then started them moving to the north, where the shots had come from. After a few minutes of travel, Sunshine reported, “Lily, my sensors are malfunctioning.”
“Show me,” Lily grunted.
A rapid stream of numbers and characters filled her field of view. In less than three seconds, Lily grunted and said, “Enough. I can’t make sense of that!”
“Neither can I.”
Lily felt her brow furrow. Had her biomech just gotten snappy with her? She pushed the thought away and almost laughed. The biomech’s control system possessed an artificial intelligence but it was limited and did not include any emotional capabilities. “Can I still communicate with the forward elements?”
“Confirmed. Line of sight communications are unaffected by the interference.”
“But the sensors are scrambled, so we can’t identify any elements, friendly or enemy, beyond visual range?”
“Confirmed. Terrain is included in this list.”
Lily nodded. “Cross-reference movement with visual identification and the existing topographical data we have for terrain.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Captain, we’re losing anything beyond mark one optics,” Bidaro commed to her.
“Acknowledged,” Lily said. “Widen your net until your sensors work on the outside of the net. That will tell you that you’re at the edge of the jamming. Keep your mark ones looking into the net.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
A few minutes passed with minimal comm chatter other than the forward elements finding the edges of the jamming field. Once they’d identified their proper positioning, they kept moving forward.
Lily studied the overlay as they moved across fields of varying crops, from rows of vines to sugar cane and fruit trees. They’d pushed almost ten kilometers but the terrain kept the terrorists hidden from visual confirmation in spite of a distance of just under a kilometer separating the edges of the jamming field.
“Lily, in three point four kilometers, a system formed by lava flows before Venus’s terraforming will allow the enemy elements ground cover.”
Lily zoomed out on her map and saw the canyons and caves that Sunshine was referring to. She growled in her throat and studied the alignment of her forces again. “Sunshine, open comms to all pursuit units.” She paused for a breath and then relayed her order. “Jessa, you’re with me. We’re going to jump in and try to get ahead of them.”
“I’m all yours, ma’am,” Jessa responded.
“Captain, be careful, those tanks have forty-five mill dual auto cannons that can rotate up to seventy-five degrees,” Bidaro warned. “They’re designed to handle threats from all vectors.”
Lily tried to keep her irritation out of her voice as she said, “Thank you, Sergeant. As soon as we identify, you are to close and fire when you have a shot.”
“Acknowledged, ma’am.”
“Ready when you are, Captain,” Jessa said.
“Sunshine, deploy wings,” Lily said and felt the biomech’s balance shift as they extended out.
“Acknowledged,” Sunshine said a moment later.
“Follow me, Lieutenant,” she said before using her implant to mentally trigger the flight process. Her biomech crouched down and jumped half a second before the rockets engaged and pressed her back into the warm padding of her pod.
A moment later, Lily felt weightless as the biomech’s flight path evened out and began to decay. She looked down, scanning across the almond trees that obscured her sight of the ground. Sunshine highlighted areas in her field of view, indicating items that visual scanning reported as suspicious. It only took Lily half a breath to recognize the tracks through the field from overhead.
“Incoming fire,” Sunshine warned as the first of the shells cracked against the biomech’s shoulder.
“I’m under fire!” Jessa shouted through the comm.
Before Jessa’s cry had finished, Sunshine triangulated the origin of the anti-air fire. Lily sighted in the target and confirmed the tank beneath the falling limbs of the tree it had been hidden beneath. She shifted her balance back to drop Sunshine’s feet and fired her jets to soften the landing. Slowing her descent brought her back into the stream of shells from the auto cannon and twisted her right shoulder back, but not enough to threaten her landing.
Lily rose up from the crouched position and pushed Sunshine forward into a run. She raised her gun and fired, sending the electromagnetically propelled slug whistling through the air at twelve times the speed of sound. It missed the tank and struck the trunk of an almond tree behind it, shattering the wood and continuing on to tear a rift in the ground behind it. She jumped to her right to avoid the thumping twin cannons of the tank while the capacitors in her rifle recharged and a fresh armor-piercing round cycled into the magnetic rings.
“Landed in a tree. I’m down!” Jessa cried out.
“Can you recover?”
“Yes, just—” The feisty lieutenant growled over the comm line before continuing, “Give me a few seconds to rip free.”
Lily frowned and counted as the charge meter rose into the operational range. She slowed her biomech fast enough to jam its feet into the ground and risk toppling to the ground. She swayed and placed the yellow reticle on the red rank’s outline and fired as soon as it flashed orange. The pr
ojectile went from close to fourteen thousand kilometers per hour to zero when it struck the sloped front of the light tank. Sparks and flames burst from the point of impact and then were blown out as the tank was twisted and split open by the kinetic energy of the strike.
Lily turned as she heard Jessa cry out. Her myrmidon fell out of the tree she was twisted up in, thanks in no small part to the other tank that was pouring shells into it. Lily growled and switched to the rocket pods on her shoulders. She turned and shifted forward to paint the tank in an orange probability circle and released the twenty rockets. They raced through the air at a fraction of the speed of her railgun but made up for the lack of velocity with the high explosive warheads. When the smoke cleared, the largest recognizable remains were of the tank flipped upside down. The tree it had hidden under twisted and crashed on top of it.
“I’m up!” Jessa cried a few seconds later. “Hey, where’d they go?”
“Threat resolved,” Lily told her. “Thanks for distracting them.”
“Lily, sensors and communications restored.”
“Omega Platoon,” Lily announced, keying her biomech to initialize communications. “Immediate threat eliminated. Second Squad is to push ahead to lava flows and investigate for additional terrorist activity.”
“You think there’s more?” Jessa asked.
“It took more than two tanks' worth of people to butcher that town,” Lily said. “First Squad will rotate support. Lieutenant Case, you drew the short straw.”
“Acknowledged, Captain!”
Lily turned to study the smoking remains of her first two real opponents and felt a grim sense of satisfaction. They’d paid the price for trying to stop her from avenging the innocents who had been butchered. Just like her family and friends had been. The lines in the sand as to who had done what didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was that people who hadn’t been soldiers had died because of those who were. That was what she had come here to fix. So far, so good.
“Lily, would you like a damage report?”
“What? Oh, yes, I’m sorry, Sunshine.”
Lily studied the schematic that showed the pounding the light tanks guns had given her armor. It was dented and cracked or torn in a few places, but she hadn’t been breached. Her supplies had been destroyed by the tanks, unfortunately, so it was good that she was still fully functional.
“Jessa, damage report,” she requested.
“Some scratches and a few bruises. Nothing a wash and wax won’t fix up.”
“We’re a long ways from a wash and wax job.”
“I would have been fine if that tree hadn’t jumped out at me.”
Lily chuckled and glanced at the broken almond tree lying on the ground. “I think you won that battle. Let’s head back and set up a base. I’ve got a long report to file.”
Sunshine intruded on her thoughts to offer, “I have battle logs recorded to corroborate your report.”
“Thank you, Sunshine. I’ll let you know if I need them.”
Lily wanted to shake her head at how helpful her biomech’s AI was. Helpful to the point of being obnoxious. Unfortunately, she didn’t have room in the pod to move her head very far. She sighed into her mask and began to walk back with Jessa towards Settlement Delta-22. She was hot again. Hotter than before, even if she hadn’t sweat out quite as much this time. She wondered if she could find a residence with a clean shower. She was the platoon commander—rank had to have some privileges.
Chapter 43
“Lieutenant Riggs, I’m supposed to commend you for running the quietest and most productive colony on Venus,” Commander Breslin said.
“Thank you, sir,” Shelby said without relaxing her stiff posture.
He leaned forward on his desk and stared at her, ignoring Krys for the moment. “Tell me, Lieutenant, do you deserve a commendation?”
“Sir?” she asked, visibly shaken by his question.
He turned and gestured at Krys. “This young man is the only living person I know of who can be in two places at once. You’ve managed to secure citizenship records for him right here, on Venus, and yet he also is taking classes on TLC-1.”
“Sir, there was some sort of miscommunication or misdirection a few years back during—”
“I know damn well what happened,” Breslin snapped, silencing her and making Krys jerk in his seat. “And I don’t approve.”
“Sir, Mr. Evans has proved himself time and again to be a valuable member of Settlement Sierra-12. His talent with repairing machines is well-known among the settlement and he’s passed all necessary mastery tests to be a mechanic. He has been able to keep all of our machinery and vehicles operational, even the tanks and other military hardware he was unfamiliar with.”
Breslin scowled at the mention of the military equipment. He lifted his head enough to be noticed and said, “There’s a reason the refugees were sent to the education centers. It’s not just to prepare them for a trade or profession; it is to ensure they possess the correct mindset.”
“Mr. Evans is fully supportive of the cultural shift that has taken place and recognizes the superior manner in which humanity will be able to face our future.”
“Fancy words,” Breslin challenged. He turned to stare at Krys. “How about you convince me instead of her?”
Krys fought the urge to glance at Shelby. His stomach was as tight as the back of his neck but the difference was he felt like he might throw up the tiny breakfast they’d fed him this morning. He took a breath and forced himself to stay strong. Hiding from a problem wouldn’t make it go away. “Convince you? You sound like your mind is made up.”
“Then change it.”
Krys frowned. Maybe running away wouldn’t eliminate a problem but it might give him time to stay alive long enough to solve it. “I’ve never been off Venus, sir. I was fourteen when Lieutenant Riggs and the other soldiers came. I happened to be out camping in the woods, so I missed exactly what followed, but I found out later.”
Breslin’s face twitched for the first time, giving a brief respite from the hard glare he wore like a shield. It gave Krys hope that the man might have a human side after all.
“I wasn’t happy. Devastated is more like it, but that gave me a new way of looking at things.” Krys paused and hoped he looked like he had a sad smile on his face.
The lines at the edge of Breslin’s eyes deepened. “Let me guess, hope for a better future for the human race?”
Krys heard the scorn in Breslin’s voice. “No sir, it’s a hope that nobody else would get hurt.”
Commander Breslin stared at him for a long moment. He sighed and shook his head. “Son, I don’t disagree with that.”
Krys jerked at the commander addressing him that way. Only two men had ever called him son: his father and Mr. Strain. He wasn’t sure the commander deserved to be included in that group.
“You’re not a soldier, but you’ve seen the hardship of war. There’s no way to make it pretty and there’s no way to stop people from being hurt by it. All we can do is trust that it was the right thing and move forward. That’s what we’re trying to do now, move forward.”
“And my settlement has done exactly that,” Shelby reinserted herself into the conversation. “You said it yourself. I have a peaceful community with consistent yields on our ag products. The only troubles I’ve had dealt with convoys nearer the starport rather than my colony.”
Breslin leaned back and let his eyes linger on her. “And you maintain part of your success was in harnessing the talent of someone born there with native knowledge?”
She nodded.
He sighed. “Do you think the replacements will ever reach his level?”
“Sir, if I may?” Krys broke in.
Breslin’s eye twitched again but he turned to look at Krys. “You already did, you might as well continue.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Your people, the replacements, you called them? Yes, well, they do the work and they’re learni
ng day by day, but most of them do it like a job.”
“It is a job.”
“Right, but the people I grew up with—that was our lives. It meant something to us. We took pride in it.”
His eyes narrowed. “Pride?”
“Pride in knowing that we were doing a good job and helping out. We weren’t greedy; we were just happy to bring in a harvest and make sure people got it. We were paid for it, I suppose, but there was never once any delays because we asked too much or wouldn’t agree to sell it. At least none that I ever heard of.”
He frowned. “The new workers have been taught to feel the urge to serve one another.”
“They do,” Krys was quick to say. “But they’re young. Older than me, I know, but young enough that most of them haven’t had the chance to really need to rely on one another. Until they understand what it means to be without, it’s hard for them to understand how important it is to provide and how good they should feel about themselves for being able to do that.”
The commander’s eyes narrowed and glanced away a few times, showing that Krys had at least made him think. Finally they settled on him again and he asked, “How old are you?”
“Almost eighteen.”
He snorted. “You’re smart. Smarter than you should be, if you ask me.”
Krys finally broke down and glanced at Shelby. She kept herself sitting at attention in her seat as she faced Commander Breslin.
“A smart man can be a dangerous thing. You can solve problems and see things others can’t, but maybe you can make them too, by giving people ideas that they shouldn’t have.”
“Like I said, I don’t want anyone getting hurt,” Krys volunteered.
Breslin grunted. He held Krys’s gaze and made him feel like the only two people who mattered were him and the commander. “I’m an old man by today’s standards. Almost three times your age. There aren’t many people like me left. Just these replacements with their training and not a damn bit of experience at anything outside of that.”
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