by Marcus Sloss
Rio tore off at a fast pace to the west. I could only see where he was because he was identified as a friend. The camouflage tech was phenomenal. When enough food was given away, the people thanked us and we moved to follow Rio’s tracks.
I decided to check in with Mila at this point. I sent here a beep to let her know I wanted to talk before barging into her mind. She rang my display with a regular video call.
“I talked with Lorie, which went well. She has been hired, I just need an assistant for me now. Starla and Astrid are chatting with her while I provide overwatch. Mack do not run into that mine. Something is confusing the sensors on the Griffin. It could simply be a mineral interference or something more diabolical. Play it safe and slow. We are a few kilometers above the cloud cover staying hidden.”
“Roger, proceeding with caution.”
Rio should be able to observe the target area by now. I ordered the company to spread out and filled second platoon’s leadership role while I had Rio on scout. First went left, third went right. Still, nothing back from Rio when I halted the formation. I ordered defensive fields of fire to set in place and tried to reach Rio again. Nothing. Mila. Nothing.
Shit, we were being jammed, but what could block advanced tech.
The sand erupted as quarter meter tall robots with knives for limbs materialized in our formation.
“Open fire, every robot is considered a foe. Fire and fall back! Fire and fall back! Do not scatter, stay together!” I yelled with all my willpower to keep the troops from breaking. Our weapons never fired. The computers in them were inoperable. No one knew how to shoot without assistance. We were slow to react and eleven bodies were left behind as we retreated. Sacrificed to our foes.
My brain worked overtime to piece it together but I could not rationalize what I saw. Rio came sprinting towards us with an army of mutated cyborg humans mixed with robots following behind him. That did it and the timer in my brain dinged. An AI had set up shop here. A rouge species was capitalizing on the lack of oversight this far out.
“Fire at will. Everything you got.”
My troops kneeled and selected fire over and over. Nothing happened. It was not looking good, the robots and cyborgs decimated our lines when they hit. They had no weak spot for men and women who brandished knives in a desperate attempt to defend themselves. I saw a hovering hulking figure covered by rotting cloth behind the miniature deadly robots and cyborg troops. It moved its hand as if directing an orchestra and our dead rose from the ground converted into foes as bodies and machines entwined. I called it at that point. Full retreat.
“Full retreat, full retreat!!!” I screamed until the troops broke and ran east.
As we gained distance the enemy slowed, then organized. Our remaining dead and wounded were mutated to join the perverse ranks. It was a massacre. I left with a hundred and four soldiers. Only forty eight arrived to the little shantytown.
We panted from the run back. It was humiliating and a sting to my ego. So many dead… so fast. If our weapons were aimed by sight and not computer we could have saved more.
I was able to chat with Mila at this point. She broadcast before I could talk.
“Rouge species, I repeat rouge species. Retreat and regroup. Help is on the way.” Her words were too late for me and my troops.
Thousands, and then tens of thousands of ships blinked into existence. The air shattered in response to the sudden arrival of so much mass. All the vessels were of various shapes and sizes. The Onatics had arrived and arrived in full force. We were dematerialized and placed thousands of kilometers into the capital of the planet. Ukuq. It happened in a blink. One moment I was in a shantytown, the next the outskirts of a massive city.
The planet shook beneath my feet. Then shook some more. Battlecruiser, carriers, dreadnaughts, and destroyers never stopped materializing. It was an endless tide of Onatics on a mission. Of complete and total annihilation. When the skies could fit no more vessels of endless designs and shapes the troops materialized. By the trillions, if I had to guess. The planet itself lurched and moved into a proper climate orbit.
I stood in shock at it. There was so much to digest that my intellect of two was overwhelmed. Dunes, not a kilometer away erupted with robots. The enemy was swarmed in mass. This was when the fight was a show off of prowess. The few species I recognized were fluid like gods on a field of war they thrived for. Dragumi dove into the enemy ranks as the crested from hidden holes deep within Narshak. A squad of lancers roared with rage in full metal suits of augmented lethality.
My surviving troops were shell shocked by our losses and the sudden dramatic turn of events. The Griffin landed not ten meters away. I exited the butterfly and sent it to board the ship. It was a liability here with the AI able to hack. I called Rio and ordered the troops to lineup outside the ship.
We raced in and handed out laser weapons. The last in line was Lt. Francine Lafot. She had blood soaked over her face but it looked like it was splashed from a friendly and not her own. I placed my hand on her shoulder and grabbed a laser pistol from the pile.
“Lt. Lafot, take this. We need to aid our allies. We can fight with these, aim and squeeze the trigger. No auto aim.”
“What if I shoot a friendly? There must be safeguards.” She asked in a panic - her breathing becoming rapid.
“Huh, no it is zone four standard weapons, aim it at a foe only.”
Her breathing calmed and she gave me an ice cold stare. “I thought I would have to wait until you slept and knife you. This will work. The crown prince saw your declaration that you want his spot when Linus’ reign ends. We made a deal. Sorry you had to die.”
I dove to the right trying for cover when a blinding searing pain ripped through my torso. My lungs filled with blood and my heart was pumping its last when she presided over me and squeezed the laser pistol while aiming at my face.
∞∞∞
My mind screamed for a brief instant and suddenly a snaking tube exited my stomach. It slid out through my throat and out my mouth. I coughed a few times which was unusual.
By the verse I was angry. That traitorous bitch killed me. It was so public and pronounced. Mila stood waiting for me with my set of zone four combat armor. Last I had seen it was when it was stolen during EDF in processing. I grumpily walked over to it and equipped it. The triple threat weapon I had purchased back on Lunish was handed to me. It fit nicely in my hands. Mila never said a word. I marched out of the hold and right back to the ramp.
Astrid knelt over Francine pummeling her face with bloody fists. “You fucking hoe!”
I halted her arm from landing another blow. One of the Lt. Lafot’s eyes was swollen shut, her nose shattered, and she had spit out blood mixed with teeth that had splattered across the floor. I look at my dead body and oddly was calm.
“Who the fuck are you?” She got out between coughs of blood. “Your outfit is not scary.”
When she finished I dramatically removed my helmet. She screamed in rage at seeing my face.
“He will slaughter my family, no. NO!” It went on that way for a while.
Astrid panted from her exertion of smashing Francine’s face from earlier. Slowly I placed a hand by her cheek that she snuggled into her neck. I let the triple threat hand loosely by its strap and handed my nano knife to my wife. She received the weapon with questioning eyes. I slid a finger over my neck and she nodded.
“This death is too good for you, you evil vile bitch,” Astrid said calmly while she turned the combat knife into a saw. She worked the jagged edge from the right side of Francine’s neck. Her victim screamed fiercely as her head was sawed off. I saw Starla and Lorie cover their ears. Astrid grinned madly. The screamed turned to gurgling denials of death, then silence. I just wanted her to slit her throat. This worked too.
The head came free and I snatched it by the hair before Astrid could kick it. I stared at the dead open eyes that were probably still transmitting to a lavish room where a certain crown prince lounged.
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I wanted to say some cheesy line but knew any information I gave him might help him escape. I punted the head and tossed the body off my deck.
“Savage,” Rio spoke breaking the ensuing silence.
“Raul’s Roughnecks. The battle still rages. Let us avenge our fallen brethren and kill some rogue AI.” The forty seven remaining troops followed Rio as we trekked to the fighting. Astrid raced inside and equipped a dragonfly and caught up to our light jog no problem, ready for battle.
And a battle it was. There were tens of thousands of caverns that had opened up. I realized the situation was a meat grinder. The living species had more than enough to overwhelm the robotics given time. If I died again I respawned in a standard body on Lunish. The forty seven men and women I led would not. As we approached we were halted by a perimeter guard. A species I had never seen before, chitin like an ant but twelve legs. It was decked out in weapons all over its one meter high body.
“Sorry humans, we know this is your planet but you do not qualify for this battle… Wait you bear the mark. You may enter the rest may not.” The soldier said.
I turned to Rio and ordered him to secure the Griffin and form a circle around it. Under no circumstances were clumps allowed. A collective sigh of relief from the troops was released as they trudged back to my ship. The only one disappointed were Astrid. I got an “until later hot stuff.”
I checked my weapon was fully charged with three spare drums strapped to my back. With a determined mindset, I ran to join the fighting. A fresh hole erupted from the sand and the quarter meter dagger bot birthed itself from the ground. I shouldered my weapon exhaled and fired. I sliced the tiny robot in half.
I smiled in my victory when a massive full bodied three meter blocky monster widened the exit. The sand rained off its frame as it noticed me. It was a cube with two legs on each side. There was no head on it, only the core body and its supporting weapons. The bottom half of each leg was a curved sword, lethal as it was shiny.
I triggered the laser until a leg came off and quickly tucked into a roll to avoid a thrust attack. A quickly snatched the leg and I latched at the joint of the limb. It was slippery but my grip firm as I climbed onto the massive robots back as I dodged a stab. I shifted my hands to claws and dug them into a potential key spot of the robot. With a great heave, I pried the metal back and created an opening. I dug my hands to grab a fist full of electrical components as my victim managed to buck me off. The parts I clutched came with me. The beast shuddered, not comprehending vital components were missing. A thud and a billowing of dust blossomed as it crashed to the ground.
I regained my feet and peered down the massive tube into empty blackness. What was that saying? You only live once... it totally applied here. Time for a cave crawl filled with dissecting robots of mayhem. I launched myself down and into the unknown.
CHAPTER 18
My feet smashed into the rigid stone flooring. My body jarred from the impact forcing me to step forward to ease the jolt. The tunnel went down and to the left. I had a forehead smacking moment when a realization struck. The mites… with my free hand I summoned my facial protectors. The tips of my fingers were still claws and I left them that way.
I inspected my triple threat rifle and found two buttons. A selector for weapon type and a press-down for a light. I indented the little red button and instinctively flinched a little hoping it wouldn’t explode. Nope, the light came on. Phew, it was red. I swapped the selector to plasma and started down the trail.
It was at this point I wished I had a full bandoleer of grenades. I displayed my list of items needed and added them to it. I noticed sheets and pillows. Awe… I missed my wives. This EDF shit sucked. Managing poorly trained troops as a leader who received the same useless training. It was no wonder on my first engagement I lost more than half my troops. Hopefully, I could get Mila to wiggle me out of the service on some discharge request. I was ready to go home.
A scratching noise echoed in my little chamber. The tunnel was rectangular from the frame of that large battle robot I had… killed, or was it deprogrammed. Killed works I guessed. The noise came again, and I watched where a little blade pierced the side of the wall. One of the quarter meter bots struggled through and plummeted to the floor.
It was wounded and tried to go down the path I was heading. I ended its attempts with a light shower of plasma disintegration. I smiled with glee. Die you little evil creation. My boots echoed off the walls as I marched past the sludgy metal that pooled. Down I went, and while I progressed my head was on a swivel. It was possible I was getting over paranoid when I would move my body around in a silent three sixty spin to ensure no deathly metal contraption was behind me.
Ten minutes passed and I finished off two more wounded small dagger bots. It was not a challenge, and my intense focus was fading. A sigh escaped my lips as I became bored. Wrong thing to do.
The ground below my feet vibrated softly, then shook violently. I dove further down into the tunnel when another three meter monster erupted. It sensed my heat signature, maybe my breathing, or my silhouette. In the end, it didn’t matter. It folded itself up to travel the cavern tunnel I was in and closed the distance.
Plasma spewed from my weapon coating the metal monster in incendiary goop as it neared. A sword leg sliced the side of my hip searing the skin. My side flared in anguish. The robot had shot an appendage at me. That was new and my eyes widened behind my shield at this revelation. I ducked and rolled as two meter long projectiles of death raced for me. I flipped the selector to my spear projectile as I exited a summersault move. If there were cameras I would have looked really dumb. My opponent had been melted. Some vital circuits reduced to molten stew. The last two legs it launched were its dying attempt to get even.
Awesome! That plasma was so effective and I had a lot of it left.
The shuffle of something walking reached my ears. It came from further down so I picked myself up from my ready fire kneeling position and heading that way. A light whispering side chatter gave way to combat calls.
“Check every direction. Behind us!” A voice warned.
I raced to the action to find a five tunnel intersection. My ears pointed me to the third shaft that sloped down and I didn’t hesitate. More running. These caverns carried sound so well, I thought for sure I would have reached them by now. A corner ahead of me turned and I found myself centimeters from a three meter death dealer. It noticed me and stabbed a sword leg my way. I dove under it and swapped to laser. This was not my smartest move – placing myself under a creation that had weapons for walking.
I fired.
The laser beam tore up through the robot and fried some control sensor. I saw the laser die off as it hit the armored inner shell of the robot's top. This told me the underbelly was lightly covered, probably only thin sheet metal. I needed to halt my pondering as the monster was collapsing. I flipped onto my belly and frog leaped closer to the fighting. The robot shuddered behind me and collapsed. I did a no turn back fade away as I raced ahead.
Dozens of the large battle bots clashed against a full platoon of female dragumi. It was not going well. My ears rang with the sounds of combat and I smelled the sulfur of the dead. Mere seconds passed before I aided the allies. Every creature, not a robot or cyborg was a friend here.
My selector went to plasma and I soaked the back lines. I went unnoticed for at least a minute decimating the enemy in front of me. Eventually, they spun to address the threat behind them. Their shifting focus gave the dragumi a chance to push on another front.
The wide grin that grew over my face at the death of my foes sank into a worried frown. I was about to get overrun. This would be a good death if I died but I was Mack Raul… Giving up was not an option. I hosed the ground between me and the charging foes in plasma and retreated up the tunnel.
I reached the first dead boxy robot and used it as cover. The little knife bots I had termed knifies, skittered up the walls to avoid the pool of plasma I left in the way
. It did stall the three meter tall sword legged robots I named swordies. A big one worked to get across the melting pool by pressure walking on both the left and right walls. Its legs were not designed for this and they crumpled. Hurray, except it now covered the pool for its other larger brethren.
There was no time to focus on that. I had been spewing plasma at the oncoming knifies when one got through. With no other option, I kept firing with one hand and utilized my left to crush the quarter meter robot. I threw it at another small terror and retreated again. My left wrist screamed in pain from multiple slashes from man handling the knifie. My blood sounded with a steady drip and my hand grew slick. I spewed plasma the entire time. When I reach the five way intersection only three knifies remained.
My plasma drum showed empty so I swapped to the laser. It was harder to dissect them with the laser. It was much easier to coat the little buggers with plasma. I wounded the first too bad enough they retreated. The third dug its eight daggers into my leg and crawled up my body in a cacophony of crying pain. It was awkward to get the laser in position but I managed it and squeezed the trigger.
The agony was blinding before I shot through the robot and into my own foot. It was near torment now. I fell on my ass and aimed blurrily down the tunnel. I nabbed kill shots on the remaining two wounded retreating bots. I expected swordies to come charging up that tunnel any moment now so I ejected the spent plasma drum and slapped in the recharge. It was at this point I noticed the mites were repairing my body. They were not instant but the pain was trickling down in sensation and my wounds were slowly knitting together. Now that was neat.
Without shame, I rested on my ass waiting for the next round of fighting.
“We approach, our sensors detect your breathing and heat signature. Do not fire on us.” The order was clear and concise.
That gave me a glimmer of hope. My reckless retreat had worked. It was possible I would survive until the next fight.
A tall scaled beauty was the first to enter the intersection cavern. A glistening translucent shield shimmered over her teal colored body. The edges of her frame shifted from the teal and blended into a dark blue. The dragumi wore a backpack between its wings, I concluded that was what was giving the deadly creature its shielded cover. Weapons were strapped to key locations on her body. Thighs held close range weapons and forearms. A netting vest covered her torso with slots for grenades and ammo.