by Andrew Beery
“Ah… Yes, Astarte is indeed most ‘Nefarious’,” the Ashtoreth Lieutenant agreed.
***
“Peters… Davis… work your guys in from the left. Keep your heads down. Commander Hiller has Hammond’s platoon coming in high. If they need to start shooting I don’t want any of your guys making a trip through the bio-gens,” I grunted to the teams I was personally leading. I grunted because I was in the middle of a sticky mess. I was engaged in what I have to admit was likely a less than textbook perfect jungle low-crawl.
Our scouts had detected a network of passive sensors. They would not detect our cloaked Stark suits but movement through the dense underbrush would be a dead giveaway that something was going on. Low-crawling allowed us to advance towards our goal while being mistaken for small woodland creatures.
The ground was covered with a toxic tangle weed that oozed a yellow sap that stubbornly defied the hydrophobic nanoparticle sluffing layer on my Stark suit. That nanite coating normally kept our Stark suits pristine. The sap was not so much a problem for the suits as it was for our camo systems.
It was one thing to be invisible and shift some plants while moving past and another to be what appeared to be a leafy bush monster moving systematically in the one general direction. I was forced to adopt measures more consistent with what soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war of the mid twentieth century might have used. Advance and freeze… Advance and freeze.
We were making our way towards three of the camouflaged entrances to the Ashtoreth buried city. The thinking was our Starks could make short work of the fifteen feet of dirt and gravel covering the entrances. The likelihood of the Gators expecting an assault from these entrances was minimal.
To the best of our knowledge, Astarte didn’t even know we were in the area. So far all of our recognizance had been via Starks in fully cloaked mode. The only surface activity we had encountered was a few scattered patrols near the handful of established entrances. None of the patrols had given any indication that they were aware they were under observation.
The plan had been a simple one… enter the complex covertly, in force and present King Astarte with a choice… step down as king and accept confinement to the planet’s surface without access to his spacefaring assets or exile to a distant world under pretty much the same conditions.
To my way of thinking… the second option was going to be the better of the two offers for the Ashtoreth King because, if Mak was any indication, life on Ashtoreth Prime was about to get pretty rough for any surviving member of the royal family.
Sadly, as is often the case, no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy… or in this case toxic little plants with obnoxious yellow sap.
Sergeants Davis and Peters, along with their teams had arrived ahead of me. The hole we were going to use to attempt a covert entry into the vault was already dug. All we had to do was breach the final interior shell and we would be able to enter.
I noticed immediately that I was the only one of the sixteen of us present who had been covered in the yellow sap.
“How’d you guys come out of this so clean?”
Peters continued widening the entry hole. “Lieutenant Maktar warned us about messing with the SaarSip bushes. They have a number of nasty surprises under their leaves. I’m sure he must have mentioned something to you about it.”
I shook my head. The ten pounds of sticks, twigs and moss that was stuck to my armor made a rattling noise.
“It’s a cultural issue. The Ashtoreth military has been trained to only pass advice down ranks. I’ve asked him to ignore that protocol but apparently my words were not completely heard and accepted. I’d appreciate any advice about local fauna or conditions to be shared across the board. Understood?”
“Understood,” both sergeants echoed as one.
“So…” I prompted. “What did Lieutenant Maktar share about these SaarSip plants?”
“You mean besides the sticky sap?” Peters and Davis responded as one.
“Yes”
There was a loud rustling off in the jungle along the path that I had followed.
“Oh crap,” Peters said. “Mak wasn’t kidding. That thing is big!”
I checked my sensors. There was a large biologic moving in on our position and making good time doing it. By large I mean something on the order of twice the size of a full-grown elephant.
“Gentlemen,” I prompted while raising my rifle.
“Yeah about that advice, Sir,” Peters began hesitantly. “It seems the sap has a pheromone that acts as a ‘sexual’ stimulant for ground boars. There is a really good chance that the big boy out there headed in our direction is interested in you for something other than your witty conversation.”
***
Half an hour later I was still cleaning up the mess. Let me state for the record that becoming the object of affection of a fifteen-ton paramour is not a role I would wish on anybody. Our goal was to make a covert, low-profile, entrance into the massive subterranean vault… the operative word was ‘covert’. You cannot imagine the amount of noise an amorous ground boar can make in the face of unrequited love.
Per my orders, we attempted to deal with the situation without using our energy weapons. There was too much risk the EM signatures would be detected by whatever monitoring systems the Ashtoreth had in place. This meant we had to use the brute force available to us via our Stark suits. Ground boars do not respond well to brute force.
In the end, another amorous ground boar came to investigate the noise and pheromones. About the only thing worse than being the love-interest of a ground boar… was being the contested love-interest of several ground boars.
I finally decided that enough was enough. If I didn’t address this issue with the natives soon then every Gator on the planet was likely to descend on us to see what all of the ruckus was about.
The good news was there was no longer any need to low-crawl to avoid the detection net. The two boars having the pissing contest with each other were going to be the center of attention for any Gators that might happen to wander by. In addition, the beasts had effectively destroyed any of the Ashtoreth sensors.
I instructed my armor to flash burn the layer of goo off. I was betting that with the local sensor net destroyed, any EM pulse would be seen as random noise like a lightning strike. I signaled the others to help me herd the fighting animals away from where we were attempting to gain entry.
The problem was moving that much fighting tonnage takes time even for a dozen plus marines in powered armor. Time was the one thing we didn’t have as we were on a schedule that included two other groups under the command of Bradly and JJ.
I hated being late to a party I had planned. It set a bad example for the men and women under my command. To make matters worse, by the time we got back to our excavation site, it was crawling with curious Gators.
***
Processing Unit Two-One-One-Six entered the system 2.6 AU from the only planet in the star system’s goldilocks zone. The world in question was a water-rich world with two large land masses. The planet was known by the current inhabitants as Bashar. The planet was filled with traces of Ashtoreth.
Analysis of the indigenous population yielded interesting results. The sample subject secured by remote probe was a seven-foot-tall and three-hundred-and-fifty-pound male. The subject’s skin had a golden tint.
Perhaps most interesting was that the subject’s genetic code was chemically identical to a previously encountered species called Humans. The actual genetic coding was within 0.3% of baseline Terran.
Processing Unit Two-One-One-Six shared its finding with its cybernetic brethren. A determination was made. The home world of the Humans needed to be located and the Ashtoreth taint infecting it eradicated.
Chapter 7: Black Death…
The marines we had left near the excavation site were fully cloaked as per my earlier orders. They stood near enough to touch the Ashtoreth team investigating the sudden loss of sensor data from
this area of the jungle. The Gators, for their part, had no idea they were surrounded and moments from having a very bad day.
The centurion in charge of the squad was obviously confused. Twenty to thirty thousand pounds of horny ground boar can do a lot of trampling when they have a mind to. In the process they had managed to destroy the local sensor net and at least partially bury the hole we had been digging to get down to the vault entrance. It was this ‘partially’ piece that was problematic.
The centurion was poking his sizeable snout down the hole my marines had been digging. Ground boars dug holes to bury their eggs. I don’t know if the Gator in question was looking for a nest or what… but what he found caused him to raise an alarm. His hand started to move towards his communicator. The device included a hand-held microphone strapped to the Gator’s shoulder pad.
Before the officer could get his hand within two inches of the mic… an energy weapon to my right barked loudly. Acting Lieutenant Maktar had opened fire. While the Gator’s body was still falling to the ground, my men took out the remaining soldiers. All told, the entire neutralization effort had taken under three seconds… that had to be some type of record.
While I was still scanning the area for more threats, Mak ran forward and grabbed the communicator off the dead centurion and began barking in it. My AI provided an instant translation. It seemed my newest ally was reporting the sighting of a Tredder. They had wounded it and were in the process of tracking it down. Mak promised the comm officer on the other end that he’d get a tasty hindquarter if he’d keep the hunting expedition on the QT. The comm officer readily agreed. It turned out Tredders were a delicacy for the Gators… the other white meat as it were.
Having handled our unexpected guests, I put my team back to work excavating the tunnel for a second time. We were about five minutes behind schedule. In the end, our delay had no impact on our operation. Bradly and JJ’s teams were already in place as we arrived in the subterranean vault.
The vault seemed to be some type of storage facility… which was not in and of itself a surprise. We had detected only a handful of active but minor power signatures. It seemed the facility was in some type of standby mode. Call me silly, but I was quite content to leave it that way.
“Good Lord, this place is huge,” Sergeant Kowalski mumbled. ‘Kilo’ as his friends called him was a member of JJ’s team. He was correct. I suspected you could have fit ten Yorktown-class starships in the place. There were no lights, but our Starks provided a simulated view based on sensor data. The sight, albeit simulated, was startling.
“What the hell are those things?” Bradly asked quietly as he scanned the tens of thousands of oblong shapes lined up in neat rows throughout the chamber.
“I have no clue,” I responded. “Mak, any thoughts about what we are looking at?”
The Ashtoreth was inspecting one of the nearest oblong cylinders. “I know exactly what they are, and you should be thankful that they are here.”
“I’ll bite… why would that be?” I asked.
“There is no reason to threaten. It was my intent to share what I know with you.”
I chuckled. “’I bite’ is a slang term for ‘I’m curious’. Why should we be thankful that they… whatever they are… are here?”
“Interesting… then I too, frequently bite,” Mak replied after a moment’s pause. He pressed a colored triangle on the side of the obelisk he was standing next to.
A brief series of clicks followed his actions and the obelisk split in half and opened. Inside was a massive, solid black Gator.
“Gurath Dar,” Mak spat.
My AI translated it “Black Death.”
“We’re looking at some type of armor system… aren’t we,” I said.
“Affirmative,” Mak answered. “Our forefathers had mastered a number of advanced technologies which were lost during the migration between galaxies. These suits are similar to your Stark suits but utilize carbon fiber and ceramics. Nanites maintain a layer of interlocking diamond scales that are incredibly tough.
“The AI’s built into these suits have a massive number of failsafe mechanisms to prevent the suits from being used by anyone other than an authorized user. This is why they are in storage. King Astarte was a usurper and was never able to bypass the security systems.”
“I had no idea your people had advanced AIs and nanite technologies”
“Much was lost from the time before. In many ways we are but a shadow of what we once were. I had always been taught that our fall had been brought about by factions within the royal household that were jealous of the position of power wielded by the rightful king. I’ve come to believe that while the essence of the story is correct… Astarte was never the rightful king and may well have been the ‘jealous faction’”
I nodded. Whatever else Astarte was… he was not what I would define as a ‘good king’.
By now JJ, who had always been one to walk where angels fear to tread, began to poke at the ancient Ashtoreth armor with his finger. “Do you suppose they have figured out how to turn any of these guys on? I only ask because there are about a hundred of these things all opened up like discarded Christmas present boxes and quite empty.”
“Well that’s not good news,” Bradley muttered.
It turns out Lieutenant Commander Bradly Hiller had a gift for understatement… that and Lieutenant Jeremy James Hammond’s unparalleled gift for finding trouble meant my day was about to get complicated.
“Sir, I’m seeing a massive spike in local EM emissions,” Ensign Robison reported.
In point of fact, I had started to see the same thing at about the same time as JJ had started poking that robo-gator. I’d like to think it was a coincidence, but I think deep down, I knew better.
“Show and tell is over boys and girls. Full cloak. Advance towards primary target and avoid engagements,” I yelled over my comms.
JJ and Bradley had their own objectives per our plan. I snagged Jon Robison because I was about to change my objective and I needed his hacking skills. The ensign was both brilliant and a royal pain-in-the-ass sometimes… but he always carried his load and always got the job done. Right now, that was exactly what I needed.
I was glad we had switched to full cloaked mode because moments later the lights came on and we truly saw the scope of the place. It was beyond massive. White ceramic ribs poked up from the floor and extended far overhead to support the carbon-fiber sheeting that ran the entire length of the ceiling. I imagined it was like being inside of the belly of an enormous beast.
Before we had moved more than a couple hundred meters towards the access tunnel that was our destination, we were swept with a powerful sensor beam.
I checked my AI. It confirmed my worst fears. Whatever had just scanned us had no problem penetrating our cloaking fields. The beam had paused for a millisecond every time it encountered one of my marines.
I saw both Bradley and JJ pick up their pace. They undoubtedly saw the same thing I did. I waved Sergeant Davis forward. It was time to get creative.
“Tom, the gig is up. They know we are here. I need to confuse their internal sensors for a few minutes. Do you think you can cause some mayhem?”
I couldn’t see my aid’s face, given that we were both wearing our stark suits, but I could almost feel the grin that I’m sure was splitting his face.
“Why yes, Sir. Mayhem is what I do best.”
I smiled. “I knew I could count on you Tom.”
“Jon, you’re with me. The rest join up with Sergeant Davis and ‘mayhem away’.”
In hindsight, I probably should have provided more guidance to Tom… specifically a list of things not to do. Absent that list, he pretty much covered all of them on his own. The tactical nuke to bring down the roof was a bit of overkill and resulted in Tom, his team and half of JJ’s team getting recycled through the bio-generators. Somehow JJ managed to miss the recycle bin this time around.
I was thankful that Tom had waited until most of
us had cleared the room before his final act of mayhem.
Bradley and his teams were going to take out the power generation systems… or more to the point, the power conduits leading from the colony ships that were supplying the underground city. It was hard to mount a creditable defense when limited to flashlights and mark-one organic legs.
JJ and the two other surviving members of his team took out a section of tram track that would make movement between sections of the underground city and the buried colony ships considerably more difficult. Everywhere I looked I saw more of the same white ceramic ribs supporting a reinforced ceiling. It was both eerie and beautiful.
My goal had originally been to locate King Astarte. That goal changed when we discovered a large number of the advanced Ashtoreth armor had been moved. There were only two reasons I could envision for moving the armor… and neither one filled me with a warm and fuzzy feeling.
First, a massive new R&D effort was underway to activate the armor or second, they had already succeeded and were actively deploying the armor. If half of what Mak had told us about the level of Ashtoreth tech, pre-migration, was true… then that armor represented a paradigm shift in our ongoing conflict with the Ashtoreth.
I knew from our study of the underground facility that one of the colony ships was going to be the site of any research going on. My guess was it would be the one with the largest EM signature. Coincidently, the Yorktown had detected the source of the scanning beam. As I suspected it originated from one of my potential targets. It was to that ship that I directed my team.
Unfortunately, the locals were most insistent that we cease and desist in our efforts to visit their quaint little corner of nowhere. The only good news was given our current location, namely about a hundred meters below the surface, our reluctant hosts were less inclined than normal to use the heavy stuff to dissuade us. The bad news was they had access to more advanced technology courtesy of the colony ships that had brought them to this world.
James Peters was one of the first to discover this grim reality. One moment he had been standing next to me exchanging high velocity kinetic rounds with some of the Ashtoreth defenders… the next… the upper half of his body was simply gone and half the circuits on the left side of my Stark suit were fried. I could move my right arm and leg, but the other side was completely frozen. Of course, the bottom half of Sergeant Peter’s body collapsed into me… knocking me over.