by Mark Wandrey
"Can't you do something about it to help us?"
"The Rasa are coming, you are on the portal they are coming through. You exist in time, we do not. We have made it possible to speak to you even as you are still moving temporarily. Though your perception is changed, we cannot stop your natural temporal movement, we cannot speak to you outside of your universe's restraints."
Minu concentrated on her body again and got another view of Aaron. He was no longer floating between strides, now one foot had reached the ground. Judging from her memory of the previous view and how much closer he was, she guessed a tenth of a second had passed while the Weaver and her spoke. Her mind did the math of it's own accord and she guess six hundred to one was the ratio. She almost asked how much time was left, then cursed when she realized it was a waste of time. Time, damn it! "I'm trapped," she realized with a sinking sensation. The Rasa were about to come through. Aaron was running because the portal was activated, and like an idiot, she was sitting on it having a little meditation with space spider-crabs from another universe.
"Weavers," it corrected her, "I am."
"I know, you are. How do I get out of this alive."
"You live, you are yet to be born, you are gone, it is all the same."
"Maybe to you, but I wish to stay alive the next few moments in my real time!"
"It is all the same to us.” Minu's mind suddenly reeled from a tiny blast wave of data. It felt it like a physical blow right between her eyes. Calculations with figures, diagrams, and thought forms that seemed to take a year to go by. When the Weaver spoke again she was still in a haze. "That is how we see you, in your time."
"Okay," she mumbled, uncertain if the words were more than a thought. Not that it mattered to the Weavers. "That doesn't mean a thing to me. Let's see if I can get you to understand. The second you reverse my perceptions to normal, things speed up for me. A thousand Rasa come through the portal and kill me in a very gruesome way."
"That is a correct perception."
"Fantastic. So I'm going to die."
"You already have. As has everyone else in your universe, and you have just been born-"
"And you could care less?"
"Beings such as yourselves are inexplicably linked to a time continuum, and thus mortality. From the moment you enter existence, your lives end is predetermined, if not necessarily the mode of that ending. We see your birth, and your death, and all in between. Such as now."
"Heartless bastard."
"Our incident is coming to an end."
"Is there nothing you can do?"
"What would you have us do?"
Minu felt herself beginning to slip from the void, dragged back to her body. Everything was speeding up, the weaver a crazy blur of motion. She resisted with all her will. "Save me! Help me!"
"You are already dead."
She thought desperately, trying to work within the beings convoluted logic and perception of her own world. "I do not wish to perish in this moment. Do you control the portal?" There was no answer. She took that for a yes. "Stop the Rasa from coming through."
"They already have come through."
"No, not in the moment I exist in, the incident, that I exist in. Remember, time is linear for me."
It was the first time she'd given the being a moment of pause, albeit a brief one. "This is not how we agreed to do our task."
"What is your task?"
"It is as we agreed, and if you do not remember, this incident is ending too quickly to explain it."
"Well I'm asking you, I'm begging you, to break the rules! Stop the Rasa, even for a few seconds-"
"We do not understand seconds."
"Okay, stop them until I have moved safely away from the fucking portal!”
Again there was a pause before it replied. "Your new instruction is accepted." She felt herself begin to sweep back to her body faster and faster. The Weaver's voice echoed in her head with one final word; "Remember, Sapphire." Then with a brain rending snap she was jerked back to her body. Aaron slammed into her, driving both of them from the portal dais and onto the ground by its side. Energy weapons fire tore through the portal where she'd sat only an instant before.
Chapter 4
Julast 13th, 518 AE – 13:22
Portal Quad, Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
The portal quad exploded into deadly fire. Beamcaster energy bolts cracked back and forth with deadly intensity. As Minu rolled further away Rasa began to pour through, trying to spread out and be less of a bunched up target. Aaron pulled a pair of old style ballistic handguns and started blazing away, the reports painfully loud. The front line Rasa soldiers were armed and armored like the scout team she'd battled back on GBX2334. The light arms the scouts usually carried were no match. The guns Aaron used were huge slug throwing hand cannons. One soldier went down immediately, an entire arm blow off at the elbow, two more staggered and fell from breaches in their torso plates. They became impediments to those following them. The advance began to slow.
The four heavy beamcaster turrets fired as fast as they could cycle. The weapons reports were nearly deafening in the enclosed space despite the open sky above. They were capable of firing automatically at anything that moved, or be manually aimed. Aaron reloaded his two guns with amazing speed and tossed one to her. As Minu caught it off handed and fired in the face of a Rasa soldier just as he turned toward her, the muzzle blast assaulting her hearing like a sledgehammer. It was then she saw that only three of the Chosen beamcasters were manned. The fourth should have been controlled by Aaron. He'd abandoned his post and come to her rescue.
The face shield of the soldier she'd shot exploded, making him hiss and drop to the ground. The recoil nearly broke her wrist. Minu switched it to her right hand and fired twice more as Aaron drug her toward the unmanned turret. The intensity of fire from the three manned turrets covered them until she felt the tingle heralding their passage through the defensive shield. Particle beams splashed harmlessly behind them in rainbow bursts of light that bespoke little of their true power.
"Are you insane!?" Aaron yelled at her, dropping the only handgun he still carried into her lap and spinning to man the turret.
"I am," she replied then shook her head to clear it. “They're real, I can't believe it, they're real!”
"You just go over and plop down on the portal dais like it's a picnic table." He took control of the beamcaster and started pouring fire on a group of Rasa soldiers using their fallen comrades as shields. Under the particle accelerator beams entire bodies exploded in red balls of burning gore.
Minu swallowed against the bile rising in her throat. “What's real?” She shook her head and pretended she'd never said a thing. "What happened, I think I blacked out."
He looked at her, snarling and sputtering as he continued to fire, then finally spoke. “You strolled up there and sat down, pretty as can be. We all looked at each other, wondering if you'd lost it. Pip suggested you were goading them into attacking and we all laughed. Then the damn portal activated and we stopped laughing. I ran for you, even though I figured you were dead. We could see the portal opened onto a grass plains and there were hundreds of soldiers waiting. I hadn't taken two steps when they fired. Then the weirdest thing happened."
"What, tell me," she begged breathlessly. The two huge handguns felt heavy in her lap where she half sat, half leaned against the beamcaster mounting.
"Their shots hit the portal and didn't go through."
"Maybe they missed the actual portal."
"No, they didn't miss. I've seen enough weapons fire pass through those portals to know better. Somehow they were stopped." He leaned over the weapons simple sighting mechanism and triggered a shot that blew through two soldiers just as they stepped clear. "It was almost like the portal decided to stop them, for a couple seconds at least. As soon as I knocked you clear, all hell started to break loose."
"Oh my god," she whispered.
"Reload those guns," he said and dropped
a belt next to her which held dozens of thick magazines for the guns. “And put on a set of those ear protectors before you lose an ear drum.
"Where did these guns come from?"
"Gregg and I designed them in our free time from salvaged junk. I think they started out as signal flare launchers, or something."
"You guys should be in science.'
Aaron made a rude noise and fired again. "Just doing our job." Another shot. "I think we're holding them."
"They'll change tactics any time now," she said, fumbling a bit with the mechanisms until she figured it out. What she'd thought of as a magazine was really more accurately described as a speed loader. The guns were massive revolvers holding five shots. Consider the slugs were at least twenty millimeters, it was no wonder the Rasa armor wasn't holding up too well. They'd even designed a rudimentary recoil suppression into the bulky grip.
"How do you know they'll change tactics?"
"Because I would." When Aaron fired again a plume of steam shot from one of the weapons intercoolers. "How bad?"
"Close to the red line." If the beamcasters had a weakness beyond size and energy consumption, it was heat dissipation. Normally it wasn't an issue because you ran out of ammo long before heat became a problem. These guns had unlimited power because they were linked to the Steven’s Pass massive EPC stores, heat was the only issue. They could fire for days on end, or until they exploded.
"Work together," she told him, "volley fire. Try to cool them down a little." The big handguns reloaded, she stuck one in her belt with half the ammo, slipped the hearing protectors on and went behind Aaron to stuff another gun in his belt. She smelt scorched material then spotted a burn along his back. "When were you hit?"
"Just before we got through the damn shield," he said with no hint of the pain he was feeling, "bad timing."
"How bad is it?" She moved some of the burned jumpsuit to reveal charred flesh and sickening white fat. "Oh god."
"Didn't get the bone." He gestured with a hand to his side and she saw an empty quick injector lying on the ground. A mixture of boost and pain killer which the scouts called buzz.
"That's dangerous stuff," she warned.
"So they tell us." Minu reached into the field kit on her hip and pulled out a sterilizer pack and bandage. In less than a minute she'd sterilized the wound, applied metabolism boosting heal jell, and had the flexible field bandage in place. "Thank you," he said. She patted his shoulder and looked past him. There were at least fifty dead Rasa and none more than a few meters past the portal. There was a massive pile on the portal dais where very red blood mingled with gore and dripped down the stairs or over the side. This wasn't warfare, it was slaughter. As if on cue they stopped coming through. "Do you think that's it?"
Minu snatched her field glasses, computer enhanced descendants of binoculars, and looked through the portal. The image magnification apparatus cleaned up the view and showed her the plain where the Rasa milled. They were carrying forward containers. "No, that isn't it. Second wave coming. Bots!"
"Oh crap," Aaron cursed. He yelled a warning to the others just as Pip came running to their position
"Bots!" he warned.
"We know," Minu and Aaron said in unison.
Pip was working on a tablet, a network power booster attached. "I don't think his is the time for research," Aaron snapped, “grab a gun, damn it.”. Pip spat something about working and that was when the second wave hit.
Minu just had time to see a pair of Rasa soldier hurl a crate through the portal. "Shoot it!" she screamed, too late. Aaron fired as the case struck the ground and burst open. Hundreds of bots of all types exploded from the broken case and all Aaron's shot did was burn a couple. Slow and sturdy crab-bots skittered, quicker centipede-bots scurried, seldom seen turtle-bots sprouted legs and advanced with armored head-like sensor domes and a squadron of dizzyingly fast dragonfly-bots took to the air.
Minu slapped her hand on the opaque control of the beamcaster turret's shield control a split second before a dragonfly-bot smashed into the shield with a flash of light.
"Burn the turtles first!" Pip yelled.
"Why," Aaron asked as he fired at a wildly dodging dragonfly-bot. The shield created a shimmer of opalescence as his blast passed through. Nothing could just walk through the shield like before, but it came at a cost. The dual system now consumed energy as you fired out of it as well. Minu fired a round from the huge handgun at the nearest crab-bot as Pip instructed, but during Aaron's hesitation it's shell opened to show a series of energy antenna. Her shot flashed and was deflected by the turtle-bots own shield.
"Next time do what I say!" Pip almost screamed. Aaron turned his beamcaster on the turtle-bot that was advancing toward them at a plodding pace. He fired over and over, the bots shield glowing first red, then orange, and then blue. It was only a meter away when another section of it's shell split to reveal a pair of the Rasa signature flechette machine guns.
"Aaron!" Minu yelled. In an instant the bots shield would contact their own. The nature of the shields meant they would harmlessly merge, leaving nothing between Minu, Aaron and the automated killing machine. A pair of beamcaster bolts converged on the turtle-bot. It's shield became a brilliant white then shorted out with a thunderous explosion, taking the bot with it. Flaming debris splashed against their shield like a meteor storm.
"We'll take the bots!" a familiar deep voice boomed.
"Dram!" Minu cried in relief. Dram had arrived with twenty more Chosen, all carrying beamcasters and heavy projectile rifles. Beams cracked and crisscrossed the courtyard and the guns boomed. Bots exploded and careened around, constantly testing and attacking the shields. The newly arrived Chosen reinforcements all carried personal shields, one per two man fire team, and they used them to good effect as they started advancing toward the portal. The Rasa had been active during the first chaotic moments of the bot attack. Two full squads of Rasa soldiers carefully maneuvered through under cover of the bots and were deploying around the portal. Another case of bots was deployed and the scene became total pandemonium.
The new Rasa squads quickly salvaged all the beamcasters that were still functional from the first wave, a fact not lost on Minu. Before she could share that detail, new particle accelerator beams were splashing around the courtyard. Several soldiers combined their fire and in an an instant two Chosen died as their small capacity personal shield overloaded and exploded. Several Rasa soldiers died while they got further organized and working with newly arrived turtle-bots. Now their fire teams were also shielded, and the bot shield was considerably more robust than the personal shields the Chosen used. Minu recognized the changed tactical situation as soon as Dram did.
"Take the turrets and fall back inside," he yelled. "Give them cover fire!"
Minu helped Aaron dismount the beamcaster turret from its mount, pain distorting his face as he strained to lift the massive weapon. With a snap the power cable disengaged, and their shield went down with it. Minu dropped to one knee and leveled the handgun at the nearest Rasa. The gun boomed and the alien fell back. The soldiers coming through the portal now were no longer the heavily armed shock troops which first appeared, these only wore light armor and helmets suitable for stopping small ballistics and lasers. She shot three more of them in quick succession as Aaron stumbled under the turrets weight toward the nearest exit.
A line of hypervelocity darts tore through the air just over her head and made her duck. She checked over her shoulder and made sure Aaron was under cover. Minu took a deep breath and ran as fast as she could, tracer fire chasing her all the way to the door. Reaching relative safety, she used the frame as cover to reload (only two magazines left) and snapshot one of the few Rasa in heavy armor who was trying to sneak toward her position.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Alijah pull his gun free of its mount. The heavy weapon over balanced him and he stumbled back onto his butt. "Cover him!" she yelled and fired as fast as the monster handgun w
ould allow. Alijah struggled to his feet and took a halting step backwards, then a burst from a flechette gun on a turtle-bot nearly cut him in half.
"No!" Minu screamed and tried to run out to him even as his body fell in two with a fountain of blood. Someone grabbed her from behind, the arms that encircled her were strong but gentle as they restrained her from rushing to her death.
"He's already gone," Aaron said. Minu saw the shocked expression on Alijah's face as his body settled to the ground, the gun falling back and pinning him in a widening puddle of his own blood. Centipede-bots swarmed his body and Minu savagely emptied her gun into them.
"Clear the doors," she heard Jacob yell. Aaron forcefully pulled her clear and the doors flashed with the shimmer of a field being activated. A line of flechette darts popped across the field in a spray of light. The shields were more than enough to protect them from the deadly projectiles.
"We need to get back to the next level of defense," Aaron yelled, letting her go.
"He didn't even have a chance," she said. Outside, on the other side of the forcefield, she could see a Rasa dispassionately kick Alijah's body, making sure he was dead. Considering he was nearly cut in two and the centipedes had ravaged the corpse, it seemed a needless act. Soldiers began to flood through the portal three abreast to fill the portal courtyard.
"He was doing his duty, now we need to do ours."
Minu looked down at the gun, surprised to find it empty, and mechanically reloaded. Her left wrists was throbbing from the repeated brutal recoil of the massive weapon. Reloaded, she offered it back to him.
"Keep it," he told her, "we made fifty of them." Even though he was carrying the massive beamcaster turret over his shoulder like a fallen log, he still held the strength to steady her as they walked back toward the jumpoff room. There dozens of Chosen worked furiously assembling plates of dualloy and sacks of sand to make defensive firing points. Quite a few carried Aaron and Gregg's new hand cannons. She'd spent months developing hundreds of high tech weapons that sat partially assembled up in her lab, and two scouts had cobbled together a very effective weapon in their spare time. She felt like a fool.