by Mars Dorian
“Already?” Eriksun said.
“Night’s coming, Doctor. I bet you have recorded more data than you could analyze in two lifetimes.”
She smiled behind her face shield. “Three at least.”
The trio and their APE unit headed back via the same route they came from. The darkness leaped through the alien forest like a menacing cloud. Everyone flicked on their helmet lights, which attracted more swarms of flying critters. To Tavio’s amazement, he and his squad weren’t the only life forms capable of producing light. The fungus-like flowers emanated a glow reminiscent of fluorescence often found on Earth’s oceans. Jellyfish-like insects left trails of green vapor which Tavio assumed must be poisonous to humans. The captain trusted his atmogear—the most insulated armor humanity could craft. Without it, he didn’t think any of them would survive two seconds in the toxic atmosphere.
The team had just reached the meadow when night drowned the alien environment in darkness. Foreign beeps and chirps echoed from the forest. Tavio circumnavigated the shuttle and stayed on guard for anything unusual. A quick glance proved the Martian soldier functioned on standby; his battle stance hadn’t changed for hours. “I’m going to set up a defense array around the dropship, sir.”
“What armament are we talking about, Sergeant?”
“Mobile motion sensor, three auto-turrets, and trusted ol’ APE running his patrol ‘round the shuttle.”
His steely eyes homed on the doctor. “Everything’s set on defense, of course. No little green men will get blasted.”
“Make sure they fire only upon my command.”
“Yes, sir.”
He saw the soldier programming the APE’s route which the cybernetic unit promptly picked up. Bellrog then approached the cargo bay of the shuttle to grab his auto-sentries and strategically placed them around the perimeter. Semi-smart turrets equipped with 20mm HV anti-personnel rounds. Dr. Eriksun watched the soldier’s defense work with rising concern. “Do you think a military setup puts out the right message when dealing with a sentient life form?”
“As long as they don’t fire on sight, I don’t see a problem. Safety comes first. Especially here.”
Tavio retrieved the inflatable tents from the bay and stationed them inside the defense perimeter Sergeant Bellrog had set up. The folded tents expanded into one person housing units. Dr. Eriksun immediately installed her technical equipment and dove into her research. Tavio, hoping for some vital information that would help their mission, said, “Happy findings, Doctor.”
The equipment absorbed the doctor’s attention. Tavio joined Bellrog who had programmed a defense pattern into the north-eastern turret’s display. “Looking good, Sergeant.”
The soldier finished his routine and shut the display off. “Whatever tries to penetrate our perimeter better carry titanium armor—or else—tatataboom.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. But I appreciate you taking our safety seriously.”
“Looks like our doctor would disagree.”
Tavio followed the soldier’s eye and saw Dr. Eriksun flicking a glance at their direction before she focused on her equipment again. Tavio smiled with a sigh. “The doctor has never served in a military environment.”
“And I thought she’s just moody around Martians.”
“This mission’s bigger than colonial issues. I’m sure Eriksun would agree.”
Bellrog shrugged. “I’m going to stand guard for a while before I turn over defense completely to my AI array.”
“I trust you to handle the situation in an appropriate matter.”
Tavio returned to his tent and laid down. He checked his oxygen supply, saw it was going strong at 84.3%, and ensured the support pack was within easy reach. Tavio tried to find a comfortable position but sleeping with the atmogear on proved difficult. He remembered moments during the war where he had to take power naps between battles. Despite the tech advances since then, standby-sleeping still felt awkward. And for better or worse, Tavio didn’t doze off for long. A priority message from Aidos in orbit woke him shortly after his eyes closed.
25
The crisp and perfectly-pitched voice of the AI sliced through Tavio’s snoozing mode. “What’s going on?”
“Captain, our satellites have picked up an unknown flying craft approaching your position.”
Tavio’s eyes snapped wide open; all thought of sleep vanished. “How far is it?”
“Approximately fifty-two klicks from your position with an average speed of sixty-five kilometers per hour.”
Tavio shot up and felt a cramp in his left leg. Atmogears and comfort didn’t go together. “Size and armament?”
“Twenty-one meter wingspan. Armament is unknown. I’m running a comparison with similar ships from the Alliance to make an educated guess.”
“Good idea.”
Tavio ran a thousand scenarios though his head, but getting intel mattered the most. To handle the situation effectively, he first needed to know what vessel he faced. “Stay put.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tavio stormed outside, flicked his helmet lights on, and found the Sergeant standing in front of one of his turrets. At first, the ground-pounder looked as if he was checking something on the grass. But upon closer inspection, Tavio saw that the soldier’s eyes were shut behind the face shield.
“Sergeant,” Tavio barked.
The man jerked awake and snapped his head up, his soldier mode activated. “Yes, sir?”
“Has your motion scanner detected an unknown craft nearing our position?”
He checked the display on his arm and wiped a few menus. “No, why?”
Tavio focused on the onyx-black sky with the golden tint. “One of Aidos’ satellites has spotted an unknown craft. It is approaching our position.”
“What kind of craft?”
“Not yet identified.”
Bellrog nodded and keyed in a new command for his turrets. They rotated toward the sky. The APE unit aborted its patrol and joined the soldier with its legs stretched to maximize its balance.
“Whatever we’re dealing with, I’m ready.”
Tavio nodded and saw Dr. Eriksun stumbling out of her tent with a scanning device in her gloved hand. She probably hadn’t slept at all. “Is there a problem?”
“Yes,” the sergeant said.
“Maybe,” Tavio added.
Eriksun hurried toward the two with rising anxiety. “What’s going on?”
“An unknown craft is approaching our location.”
Her eyes widened as she glanced at the sergeant’s military equipment. “You’re not going to shoot it, are you?”
“Depends on whether it’s going to shoot us first,” Tavio said and then addressed the soldier. “How strong is your anti-air defense?”
“I’ve got a smart HVP Skorpion launcher. APE’s equipped with a dual, twin seeker, rocket bay.” He smiled. “Won’t shoot down a cruiser, but should handle a single fighter, no matter the origin.”
Dr. Eriksun’s eyes protested. “Captain?”
“It’s our last option, but it is an option.”
He tuned into his channel with Aidos high up in orbit. “Distance update.”
“Thirty-one klicks. Unknown craft is slowing down its average speed to fifty-two kilometers per hour.”
Bellrog stepped closer. “It may be preparing for the ground attack.”
Dr. Eriksun chimed in. “Or maybe it’s trying to communicate with us?”
Bellrog arched his thick eyebrows behind his face shield. “With an airborne craft?”
“It’s just one, isn’t it?” Eriksun said. “Maybe they’re sending a diplomat who wants to initiate contact.”
“Or maybe it’s an advanced bomber who can flatten our entire perimeter with a single load. They wouldn’t be the only race with that type of technology.”
Another hint from the Colony War, but given the gravity of the situation, Tavio decided to skip over it. “Guys, we’re dealing with a situat
ion here. Let’s keep a clear head.”
He checked his comlink and pinged Aidos in space. A beep beep sounded, but not from his interface. “What’s that?”
“Motion scanner’s picking up our visitor,” Bellrog said. “Which means the craft is nearing our close combat zone.”
Eriksun swallowed. Tavio took a deep breath in and pondered the best handling of the situation. Mission Master Kelly’s heeding whirled around his head—combat should be the last option. Easy to say when sitting inside a mission briefing where a potential alien threat was nothing but an abstract concept.
Time passed with a vengeance.
“Sir?” both Bellrog and Eriksun said.
Aidos’ update reached the captain’s interface—the alien craft’s distance dwindled to two klicks. Tavio said, “Sergeant, activate your APE’s anti-air missiles.”
Bellrog smiled.
“Captain,” Eriksun said.
“But do not engage until I tell you to.”
“Yes, sir,” Bellrog said. “Contact in twenty-two seconds.”
Tavio hovered his right hand near the side-holster where the ion pistol lurked. He knew it was next to useless against an advanced fighter craft but his instincts reigned.
Bellrog flapped open the holo-targeting display of his Skorpion launcher while the APE walker unlocked its missile bay and pointed the twin seekers at the blackened sky. What a scenario—a mobile FLAK walker stationed at an alien planet prepping for a potential air assault. Tavio’s life was officially stranger than fiction.
“Making contact,” the soldier said and raised his launcher.
A silver ship the size of an unmanned assault drone whooshed over the curved tree-tops. The vessel circled over the defense perimeter and descended with its pointy nose directed at the squad.
26
“Ready to engage,” Bellrog said with a steady voice that showed no signs of nervousness.
Tavio locked his eyes on the strange vessel whirling far above their heads like a cybernetic vulture. The command to fire sizzled on his tongue but something in his mind told him to wait a little longer. One wrong word could escalate the situation and turn the first contact into the first contact war. Tavio had to keep the repercussions in mind.
Bellrog seemed more eager to engage. “Sir?”
“Just wait.”
Dr. Eriksun raised her chin and snapped 3D images of the airborne vessel. Seconds passed but seemed to stretch into torturous eternity. “It’s not firing at us.”
“Yet,” Bellrog said.
Tavio’s mind battled with his experience. His instinct told him to give the fire command, but his mind told him to wait. If he waited too long, the vessel could switch to attack mode and endanger his team. But if he shot first…
Choices.
“It’s fleeing,” Dr. Eriksun said, sounding almost relieved.
The craft stopped its circumnavigation and ascended.
Tavio addressed the Moonshot’s AI channel. “Aidos, what’s the ship’s new trajectory?”
“The craft seems to have resumed the… hold on.”
“What is it?”
Both Eriksun and Bellrog looked at their captain with expecting eyes. Tavio concentrated on the audio channel which cracked with interference.
“The ship is aborting its route, sir. No. It is picking up. No.”
A big, fat invisible question appeared on Tavio’s face shield. “What do you mean?”
“Sir, the ship seems to be… zig-zagging around.”
“What?”
Aidos sounded like a broken voice program. “The ship is leaving its original vector and following a new trajectory toward the planet’s orbit.”
Alien logic—well beyond Tavio’s comprehension. The life form played with the human crew and tested their patience.
“Is it targeting the Moonshot?”
The response took a while. “No, sir. Its trajectory is thousands of kilometers away from my orbital vector. I’m calculating the vessel’s current route but can’t locate a target destination. It’s crisscrossing.”
What were they trying to do?
“Getting new input,” Aidos said. “The ship is breaking atmo.”
Tavio and his crew spotted the faint trail shooting up into the dark sky like fireworks going for the big boom.
“The ship is breaking apart.”
Tavio used the magnifying function of his helmet and zoomed in as the ship shredded into a hundred pieces before it reached E405’s stratosphere.
“Contact lost,” Aidos said with a neutral voice.
The trail lingered a few seconds before it vanished into nothingness. Both Dr. Eriksun and Bellrog swapped confused stares with their captain. Decades of combat and field experience, but only one question span around Tavio’s head:
What the hell was going on?
The enhanced adrenaline surged high in Tavio’s veins as his eyes stuck to the alien sky. “Any signs of another craft? Any communication attempt?”
“Negative, sir,” Aidos said. “Receiving no signal from my satellites.”
“Keep them on standby and message me ASAP if you pick something up.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That is good news, Captain,” Dr. Eriksun said with first signs of relief on her face. “They obviously wanted to communicate with us.”
Sergeant Bellrog kept his gloved fingers clawed around his Skorpion launcher. “Maybe it was a vanguard drone doing reconnaissance.”
Dr. Eriksun went right into it. “Then why did the craft aim toward space and self-destruct?”
“Alien logic? You’re the xenologist.”
The doctor couldn’t follow up with a comment. She was as clueless as everyone, which seemed to annoy her.
Tavio ran every scenario through his head, but he couldn’t remember a single occasion during his service that resembled this strange encounter. Maybe his mistake was to assume a humanoid behavior. He had to think outside his human psychology, which proved challenging with no reference point.
“We’ll stay put, regardless. Bellrog, keep the defense perimeter on high alert. Doctor, forget about the fauna for now and focus analyzing the footage of the vessel. Tell me what you find out.”
“Yes, sir,” Dr. Eriksun said and strode back to her tent.
“Aidos. Can you trace the object’s trajectory back to its origin? I want to know where it came from.”
“I definitely can, sir.”
Tavio wiped his gloved hands. Despite the high intensity of the situation, the crew performed well. And with the AI’s help, they could pinpoint the drone’s location and maybe initiate contact in physical form.
27
Tavio couldn’t sleep for a single second. His advanced body could go on for days without needing a single recharge thanks to the wonders of cybernetic implants and nanomedicine. He checked his oxygen supply and called for Dr. Eriksun and Sergeant Bellrog to meet up in his tent. Shay appeared exhausted from her night-long analysis, but Bellrog moved as swiftly as ever. Since the alien contact, the soldier glowed with exuberance. Tavio wondered whether that battle readiness was a character trait or a result of his genetic engineering. Synthetic humanoids defaulted with ready-made augmentations and a superior gene layout. But since Bellrog ‘belonged’ to Fairstryke, Tavio wondered if the soldier was capable of independent thought or simply a mouthpiece of his corporate creator. He would find out eventually, but for now Tavio had to focus on the mission. He shared his findings and updated the 3D map of the route. “Aidos has traced back the trajectory of the vessel. It came from the valley.”
“The one with the unusual electromagnetic readings,” Dr. Eriksun said.
Tavio nodded. “It was suspicious right from the get-go and now we have a reason to check it out.”
“What’s your plan, sir?” Bellrog said.
“We will gear up and set course for the valley. Maybe we’ll find a sign of the alien that was oblivious to our orbital scans. The drone maneuver has shown the life for
m wants to establish contact but not on our terms.”
Silence filled the tent.
Dr. Eriksun broke it first. “And then what, sir?”
“We hope for another clue and see if the life form dares another contact attempt. One that involves actual communication.”
Tavio disliked the blurry mission goal, but with so little intel, a simple, actionable plan beat theoretical over-analyzation.
The captain turned to the soldier. “Sergeant, I want you to prep the APE for our march. Keep the auto-sentries stationed.” Tavio could swear he noticed a sparkle in the Martian’s eyes. “But remember, it’s for defensive purposes.”
“Of course, sir,” Bellrog said and sprinted out of the tent to grab his equipment.
With worried eyes, Dr. Eriksun watched him leave. “When the aliens had sent their craft to initiate contact, I was watching Bellrog closely, sir. I spotted a glow in his eyes and a twitch in his fingers.”
“Elaborate.”
She forced her eyes to keep the contact. “He was one second away of blasting the object to smithereens.”
“But he didn’t.”
“Because of you, sir. Imagine what might have happened if you hadn’t been present.”
“I understand your concerns, Doctor, but I can’t make assumptions based on actions that might have happened. So far, Bellrog hasn’t committed one violation of conduct.”
She nodded but something must have lingered on her tongue. Something which she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, entrust the captain with. Tavio wished he could read her mind to better address her concerns. “Prepare for the trip. It’s going to be a long run.”
She saluted and left the tent. Alone, Tavio pondered using the shuttle to reach the valley, but two fears opposed this idea. First, arriving with a shuttle might trigger anti-air maneuvers, in case the aliens used such weaponry. Since they commanded advanced aircraft, they would possess some form of FLAK. Secondly, the valley’s tight vegetation made a shuttle landing challenging, if not impossible. That’s why after a solid fifteen minutes of thinking it over, he chose the long march through the jungle.
He and his crew geared up their exosuits and the weapons that could deal with almost any threat. Tavio connected with Aidos and ordered him to plot the fastest and least obstacle-ridden route through the jungle, which the AI could calculate with the help of the satellite surveillance. The final path appeared on the upper left corner of Tavio’s HUD in a semi-transparent, interactive map.