by Mars Dorian
The trio rushed down the valley path where the APE had disappeared.
“We’re fifty meters behind the walker,” Bellrog said, using the tracking info from his cybernetic link layer.
Tavio still couldn’t see the unit. As he slowed down his steps, he stretched out his left arm and waved as if to wipe away spider webs. A semi-transparent wall fizzled and disappeared as he traversed it. Vertical layers of moving colors vanished. “What the—?”
A new world manifested.
The APE unit reappeared several meters in front of the trio; along with the far away wall and the cybernetic city attached to the canyon. Tubes linked different sections of the construction, and geometrical plates of the scrapers moved automatically. The super structure looked even more astonishing in real-life with its many scrapers and sensor arrays rotating.
Dr. Eriksun seemed to be the only one happy about the finding. “We are the blessed human representatives witnessing an advanced alien cluster.”
Tavio’s mind worried about one issue only: safety. His fight-or-flight response kicked into gear. “Sarge, tell the APE to lead the charge. We stay behind.”
“Roger.”
The servo-mechanical legs of the machine cranked again. The gun mount activated while the missile bays extended from each side of the torso’s rear.
“Don’t shoot,” Dr. Eriksun said.
“I’m in command here, Doctor.”
The distance to the wall reduced to 243 meters. Every new step sent a jolt through Tavio’s spine. An advanced cluster was the last thing he expected to see. The team lacked the technology and troop size to deal with the discovery.
“What are they trying to keep out?” Tavio asked no one in particular.
The alien wall half-circled around the super structure and connected with the canyons in the back. It must have been at least three stories high.
“I don’t like this one bit,” Bellrog said with his rifle drawn.
Far away, a turret extracted from one of the wall’s towers and rotated toward the trio.
“Shit,” Bellrog said and keyed in a command. “They’re going to shoot. Captain?”
Tavio realized the diplomatic option had vanished. A life form bent on making first contact wouldn’t activate turrets. Simple as that. “Fire.”
The APE spread his legs, locked onto the far away auto-sentry and released a barrage of rockets. They speared through the air in a curved trajectory and rained down on the turret. Four rockets blasted prematurely, the final two impacted the device and blew it apart.
“Nooo,” Eriksun said as she reached our her hand for the smoking sentry.
Bellrog grunted his teeth. “Science lesson’s over, Doc. The aliens are showing their true intent.”
More turrets extracted from the massive wall’s anchor points. Tavio could hear his heart aching as he counted at least a dozen units awakening to cybernetic life. All the sentries twisted their chassis heads toward the crew. “We’re cannon fodder out in the open,” Tavio said. “Retreat to the woods.”
Bellrog ordered the APE to march backwards while keeping its weapon systems pointed at the wall and its defenses. They didn’t shoot yet, but one part of the barricade parted sideways and released a squad of hovering tanks with rotatable twin barrels. The core chassis featured an angular design, probably to reflect radar waves.
Dr. Eriksun hesitated so Tavio pulled her armored arm. “The sergeant’s right, Doctor. We’re dead meat if we stay.”
Words left Eriksun. She gazed like a star struck bystander before Tavio yanked her away. Together they rushed to the forest they had come from—over a hundred meters in distance.
The APE released another volley of homing rockets that exploded half-way through their trajectory. The incoming hovertanks were outfitted with a point-defense system and roared over the valley like a mechanical ghost brigade. Despite Tavio’s enhanced build and the cybernetic implant, he and his team weren’t going to outrun the tanks. They just couldn’t beat the machine. The team’s only chance of survival floated many kilometers above in orbit.
32//E405 orbit, SAS Moonshot
Chief Srini Naveesh inspected the engine room aboard the SAS Moonshot. He had run many check-ups through the built-in diagnostics and found the fusion drive to be functioning as smoothly as during the simulation test runs back on Mars. He was thankful his company, Pegasus Aerospace, had added many redundancies to keep the prototype ship floating even if partial system failure snuck in. Among all the ships he had worked with, the Moonshot was truly the marvel of modern human engineering. His guardians back at Venus should feel proud of him working at the cutting edge of astro-engineering.
Srini was about to run a physical diagnostic on the exterior hull layer of the ship to check for minimal damages done by debris when Aidos’ gentleman voice echoed from his comlink. “Chief Naveesh, your presence is required on the bridge.”
Srini’s routine broke; his perfect world of working solely on engineering issues burst like a bubble.
When the AI called, trouble loomed.
Always.
“Is it something grave?”
“Please hurry.”
Srini passed the gates of the engine chamber, stomped through the lower deck with his magnetic boots, and climbed up the stairs to reach the forsaken bridge on the second deck. Since he was the last humanoid on board, the craft began to feel like a ghost ship where only consoles and graphical displays reigned. Srini’s kingdom under normal circumstances.
“What is the nature of emergency, Aidos?”
“The crew has made contact with the alien. Unfortunately, the encounter is of a hostile nature.”
Srini reached for the elevated chair and remembered his role as second-in-command. He ordered the AI to show the satellite scans on the side screen and found a bird’s eye view shot from the valley down on E405. He zoomed into the position but could neither detect the captain nor his crew. “Where are they?”
“Your coordinates are right, but a holographic mirage seems to be shielding the team’s position from our satellite’s optical sensors.”
Srini had to drop his scientific curiosity and put on the military man’s cap. “Do you have contact with Captain Alterra?”
“Yes.”
“Put me through.”
Alterra’s strangled voice rushed through the crackling connection. He sounded stressed and coughed, “Naveesh? Goddamn, what took you so long?”
“Sir, I was in the engine room running diagnostics. Is everything okay?”
“We’re under heavy attack from a hovertank division. You have to shoot it down.”
Interference rattled the comm. Naveesh had to close his eyes to focus on the contact before it broke up. “Did I hear hovertanks, sir?”
A volley of curses bombarded his ears. “Jeez, Naveesh. Stop the questions. Get the lasers online and target the coordinates we’re sending you.”
Another sizzling sound echoed through the communication. Was the alien tank squad firing at them? Srini could feel the pressure building in his veins.
“Naveesh?”
“Still here, sir, but the LaWS-12X is considered a weapon of mass destruction so I need orders from the chief operational officer to use it.”
Tavio yelled. “Permission granted, Chief. I take full responsibility.”
Naveesh addressed the AI. “You heard the man.”
Aidos checked the new encrypted signal arriving through the Moonshot’s comm relay. Naveesh accessed the intel and found the average coordinates of three valley targets he still couldn’t see on the view screen’s satellite coverage. Even so, he trusted the captain. Something unusual was going on the planet’s surface and it threatened the crew’s life.
“Aidos, prepare the main laser battery. Fire on my command.”
“Yes, Chief. Estimated time of initialization is four minutes and twenty-two seconds.”
Srini’s eyes almost rolled to the back of his head. “What? That’s unacceptable.”
“We’r
e not yet in optimal firing range.”
“We will be soon.”
Srini quickly changed course to take the Moonshot closer to the target zone from orbit. E405’s atmosphere grew dense, so the laser’s beam would dissipate slightly due to the particles in the air, but he hoped the Pegasus technology proved strong enough to pulverize whatever was hunting down the captain and his crew. “LaWS update, Aidos.”
“One minute and eleven seconds.”
Still too long, but Srini had to work with it. Meanwhile, the captain’s plea for help hit his comlink.
“Srini, where the hell is my orbital support?”
33
Tavio, Dr. Eriksun, and Bellrog neared the forest while the APE covered their back with suppressive fire. The mech walker released the last barrage of homing missiles and rolled its two coilguns until they overheated. Stacks of javelins pierced the atmosphere and impacted with the hovertanks.
During the escape, Bellrog checked his APE’s status. “Over five thousand degrees of hellfire. The guns are done.”
Tavio grunted. Soon, they would be too if Srini didn’t hurry up with the LaWS deployment. His blood cooked with adrenaline while his exoskeleton legs stomped the lush vegetation. He shouted into his intercom until spit droplets splashed against the inside of his helmet. “Srini. Where the hell is my ordnance?”
A pulse-like effect tore through the valley behind them. The glow in the air hit the APE and melted its rear on impact. Poly-alloy pieces shredded. Sparks fizzled. The twin seeker pod and parts of the coilgun exploded and kicked the mighty mech walker over.
“Nooo,” Bellrog shouted and reached out his gloved hands as if to grab a falling child.
The proud APE belched smoke into the air. The alien hovertanks fired more light javelins, annihilating the ailing mech. The creature blew apart in an orange and blue burst. A burning wreckage scorched the grass and puked streams of gray smoke. Bellrog looked as if he wanted to run to his mech but refrained from it. Tavio’s lungs burned as he yelled, “Sergeant, we’re next if we don’t hurry.”
Bellrog averted his eyes from the debris and dashed forward as fast as he could in his exoskeleton suit. He caught up with the captain and seemed to double his speed. “Alien scum. I’m gonna rip their freaky bodies apart and scorch ‘em with the shuttle’s thruster.”
Tavio lacked words and soon, hope. During the sprint, he raised his chin toward the sky and noticed the cloud layers stirring. A pillar of translucent light shot down from the heavens and targeted the incoming hovertank patrol.
The Moonshot’s main laser beam missed all of them.
Tavio wanted to shout until his lungs collapsed but kept his temper in check. If he lost control, his team would be done for. The soothing words of the legendary self-help primer aided his manic mind.
Liquid like water, solid like stone, ghostly like gas, I am the Lancer; always durable, always adaptable.
The words brought serenity to Tavio’s high pressure situation. With his retinal scan and the enhanced targeting of his ion pistol, he guessed the distance to the hovertanks and updated the new coordinates back to the Moonshot. He forced calmness into his stressed voice. “Keep shooting, Srini. Almost there.”
With the updated coordinates, the ray scratched around the ground until it ablated the hulls of the hovertanks.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Tavio said, although his confirmations sounded like awkward coughs. “You got them.”
The beam didn’t blow up the tanks, but it appeared to have melted their electronics because the squadron zigzagged before they pounded into the ground like lifeless stones. Not a single vessel was able to fire or move. Pure exhilaration streamed through the captain’s limbs. “You’re a genius, Srini.”
“Just doing my job, sir.”
Tavio and his team hit the jungle and took cover. With the air support of the Moonshot, they would survive their escape back to the dropship. Hundreds of meters deeper into the thicket, he ordered his team to pause to get fresh oxygen from their life support system. Tavio patted the soldier’s armored pats. “I’m sorry about your APE.”
Sadness left the synthetic’s coarse voice. “Don’t be. He’s served his purpose and died an honorable death. I’ll never forget him.”
Bellrog talked about the APE like a deceased family member, but maybe the cybernetic connection formed a bond between man and machine that Tavio wasn’t able to feel. Not knowing what else to say to Bellrog, Tavio turned back to the situation. “I have to check out the alien’s reaction.”
He climbed up one of the protruding plant corals to give himself a height advantage and used the binocular function of his helmet. He magnified on the turret installations, now a couple klicks away. They still rotated their barrel-shaped bodies but ceased fire. Behind their barricades, Tavio spotted a swarm of jewel-shaped vessels escaping a scraper’s bay. He feared an air strike, but the crafts shot up in a curved line and pierced the first cloud layers. The crafts were targeting something else…
Oh no.
Tavio signaled the Moonshot. “Srini, don’t party yet. Something is approaching you.”
34
Tavio Alterra crossed his fingers for Srini’s survival. But his empathy wasn’t purely altruistic—if Srini and the Moonshot were taken down, his crew’s fate on this planet would be sealed. The Alliance would launch a counter-measure which could lead to the first and probably last interstellar war. Tavio had to avoid that horrid scenario at all costs.
Deep into the alien jungle, the captain ordered a second break and checked on his teammates’ condition. “Status report, Sergeant.”
Bellrog went straight into soldier mode. “No injury and no hovertanks following us. Haven’t seen any aircraft either, but then again, I’m judging by human standards. Who knows what these alien creeps are scheming.”
Dr. Eriksun stepped up to him and raised her voice. “You fired first.”
“Technically, the mech did.”
“You told your APE to release the rockets when no shot was fired on their side.”
Bellrog shrugged. “Peace talks don’t start with turrets, Doc. If those things want diplomacy, they should show up in person and speak.”
Dr. Eriksun’s eyes burned with intensity. They seemed to melt through the face shield of her helmet. “We invaded their territory, you twat. They feel threatened by our presence, don’t you understand?”
“Scared by what—three meatbags and a bot? Gimme a break. A life form in control of advanced aircraft and hovertanks can’t be that dumb.”
The doctor hissed. “You and your toxic mind. This isn’t the Colony War where you blow up everything on sight.”
Tavio realized the situation escalated. “Easy, Eriksun. I gave the sergeant the go ahead. If you want to blame someone, pick me.”
She pressed her lips and swallowed the next comment. Tavio could tell the fire blazed inside of her. “You have to admit the life form has been acting strangely. First they set up a beacon and contact us then they take it away. Then they send a drone and blow it up in orbit. And now the hovertank brigade and their turrets—it’s overkill.”
The doctor calmed down although her breathing seemed shallow. “That’s because we believe they think like us, which they obviously don’t. We can’t judge their behavior with our limited human minds.”
Bellrog rolled his eyes and mumbled. “The alien whisperer speaketh.”
Eriksun’s hard tone swapped to defeated disappointment. “I don’t expect you to understand. It takes empathy and curiosity to embrace the unknown.”
Tavio had enough. “Let’s quit blaming each other. In case you two hotheads forgot, we’re still in the danger zone, and Srini’s up there dealing with a swarm of alien fighters.”
The two quieted their discussion and raised their chins. Tavio observed the space between the curved tree-crowns. He couldn’t see the Moonshot, but he hoped Srini did everything possible to protect himself. According the chief’s profile, he seemed to be quite creative when
it came to technical challenges.
“Aidos, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, sir. A swarm of unknown crafts is approaching our ship.”
“You and Naveesh have permission to engage.”
“Roger that, sir.”
A weird silence crept into the surrounding. Only the rattling of the bushes and the burps of the alien insects dominated.
“Let’s head back to dropship before the aliens find us.”
He resumed viewing the way markers leading back to the landing zone meadow when Bellrog stopped in his tracks. “Sir?”
Tavio hated the soldier’s intonation. It reeked of uncertainty.
“Getting movement on the motion scanner.”
The sergeant’s voice frosted as he shared the surrounding scan with the captain. A horde of red triangles circled their perimeter and were closing in. Fifty-five meters and counting.
“Run,” Tavio said. “We need to reach the shuttle.”
The three sentries were still guarding the perimeter which would allow the team to take off safely. Bellrog guarded their rear and readied his weapon. “Hostile contact.”
While running, he aimed his FAR7 flechette rifle and switched on single-fire mode. Squeezed the trigger and penetrated the fauna with high-velocity darts. The whiz sound echoed as the flying devices caught up. Tavio maxed out his exosuit’s servo-motor and leaped across the alien soil.
1021 meters to the dropship zone.
Behind his back, he saw Bellrog shredding nature. The soldier shot the curved trees and bushes, but a second glance revealed the enemy—a squad of triangular drone fighters bursting through the thicket with dazzling speeds.
When the mag depleted, Bellrog fed a new cylinder of HV flechettes into his rifle’s drum chamber.
He hit an approaching drone and pierced its front layer. The thing changed its vector and boosted into higher ground. The other units scattered and increased the distance from each other to avoid getting taken down by the dart volleys.
“Smart critters,” Bellrog said during the run, almost sounding impressed. “Give me a Fairstryke squad and I’ll melt their shiny butts into trikes for my collection.”