by Jeff Kirvin
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Solo Media
www.solomedia.org
Copyright ©2005 by Jeff Kirvin
First published in 2005
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NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.
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The Unification Chronicles #4
Volume 01.04
Exiting Eden
by Jeff Kirvin
The Story So Far: Major Jack Killian and the crew of the Envoy discovered humanity's first extrasolar planet, which they named New Eden. Shortly after landing, they found evidence of another sentient life form on the planet. Jack accompanied the captain of the Envoy to meet the aliens, an avian race resembling a large-brained cross between a velociraptor and a turkey. The aliens attacked as soon as they saw the humans.
* * * *
Jack noted the arrival of the Marines, but he was too busy not getting killed to acknowledge them. Another explosion rocked the transport, and Jack could see two Saurian machines closing in from the sides. If Robyn and the others couldn't slow those behemoths down, Jack knew he would never make it back to the colony.
Robyn had started the evacuation, but TRHQ had to know what they'd be facing if they sent any more colony ships out. If Jack didn't make it back, someone who had faced these things in combat would have to.
Jack vaulted the transport over the crater of another near miss as Robyn and others moved in on the Saurian machines and engaged.
Humanity had a new enemy, and somebody had to live to tell them about it.
* * * *
Robyn and her Marines did their best against the aliens, but their best wasn't doing much good. They'd each managed to distract one of the alien machines who didn't seem to care what they attacked but that still left two following the transport. She couldn't take down her machine quickly enough to attack the ones following the transport, assuming she could kill it at all.
The machine in question brought its foot down hard, nearly stomping Robyn flat. With a thought, Robyn activated her jumpjets and rocketed over the Saurian mech. From above, the avian shape was more obvious, and the dorsal side seemed to have less armor than the front. She fired her plasma rifle as she arced down with gravity, drawing only a scorched black scar on the back of the machine.
Robyn rolled as she landed, coming up in a crouch and shooting at the knee joint of the mech. She saw a satisfying burst of sparks, then had to roll to her side to avoid a stream of autocannon fire from the mech.
She saw another blast of fire hit the mech in the “arm,” just above the autocannon. Private Girish bounded into her line of view, dodging the attacks of the mech with effortless grace.
"I got mine, Lieutenant,” she heard his voice over the tacnet. “Let's finish these assholes and get back to camp!"
She jumped up and ran around the thing's legs, firing as she went. She was doing damage, but not enough. The only thing she had going for her was that with Girish jumping around, bouncing off cockpit, back, autocannon like an armored gnat, the mech's pilot wasn't working too hard at shooting at her.
She dodged a giant metal talon as the mech nearly stepped on her, then saw her opening. Lying supine, she raised her plasma rifle and fired at the underside of the mech, where the legs met the torso. She heard a loud crack as something weakened and snapped, then the mech began to topple.
As the cockpit of the mech smashed into the dirt, Girish bound up again to jump on its back.
He never landed.
Girish was ripped to shreds by autocannon fire. He didn't have time to scream. Robyn peeked around the fallen mech to see another running her way. The legs didn't move that fast, but with a stride that long, they didn't have to. She could see the small armored form of Sergeant Jabari trailing after it.
"Get under it!” Robyn shouted to Jabari. “Hit the hip joint!” She used the crippled mech as cover and opened fire on the newcomer.
Instead of attacking the new threat, the mech spun and opened fire on Jabari. She leapt out of the way, but it tracked her.
Robyn wasn't about to lose two of her people. Not like this. She bounded over the fallen mech and landed on top of the new one. She pointed her plasma rifle straight down and opened fire on the cockpit, trying to drill down into it.
The pilot lurched, trying to shake her off. Then she heard a familiar crack, and the mech began to fall backwards. Robyn jumped away, staying well clear of the mech's still firing autocannon.
"Come on,” she told Jabari. “We're outta here. Let's just hope the boss made it back to camp."
* * * *
Jack made it back to the colony, but that wasn't the end of his problems.
He drove the huge transport over the perimeter fence, and headed straight for the landing pad. The two Saurian machines slowed somewhat inside the fence, pausing occasionally to turn their weapons on buildings.
Go ahead, boys, Jack thought. We're never coming back here.
The colony was deserted, and when Jack arrived at the landing pad he confirmed why. Other than the security team's dropship, only one shuttle stood on the pad, prepped and ready to go. One of the few security concessions the optimistic and naïve designers of the Envoy had made was to include enough shuttles to evacuate the entire colony in one trip. Nearly a thousand people were already safe aboard the Envoy, and they would leave within the hour with or without him.
If Jack didn't find a way to distract them, the two Saurian machines could make easy work out of him and the remaining colonists as they tried to transfer to the shuttle. He had to get them off his back.
He turned to one of the colonists huddling in the back of the transport. “You! You know how to drive?"
The man, a balding scientist in his late forties, shook his head. He was terrified, and nearly incoherent. Still, he was only one back there that wasn't either injured or in shock.
"Time to learn,” Jack said. “Get up here.” The man stumbled to the cockpit.
"What's your name?” Jack asked.
"Mike,” the man stammered.
"It's real simple, Mike,” Jack said, pointing with one hand as he talked, driving in narrow avoidance of the Saurians with the other. “The long skinny pedal on the right makes you go, the short stubby one on the left makes you stop. You control your direction with this wheel. Got that, Mike?"
Mike nodded.
"Great. You're going to drive while I distract our two friends back there. As soon as they leave you alone, head straight for the landing pad and get yourself and the others on that last shuttle. Once you're all on board, run to the cockpit and punch the button marked ‘Autopilot'. It's already programmed to take you back to Envoy.
"Got all that?"
Mike nodded again, doing his best to make himself look composed and in control.
"You'll do fine, Mike,” Jack said, hurling the transport around a sharp corner to give Mike a few seconds to take the controls. Once the older man sat down behind the wheel, Jack lurched over to the side hatch. They were very close to the security building.
"I'll see you on the Envoy,” Jack said, then he jumped.
As soon as he was clear of the transport, Jack sprinted for the security building. He didn't have much time. The once stark white buildings of the compound were a dingy gray, and many of them were missing large chunks of plasticrete. The place was empty, a ghost town. The Saurians had done an effective job of def
ending their territory.
He reached the security building and hurried inside. His armor was where he left it, and he donned it with practiced efficiency. In under a minute, Jack underwent a transformation from harried man to confident metal demigod. He grabbed the most powerful weapons he could carry. Armed with a small shoulder-mounted rocket laucher, a plasma rifle and a rifle-sized rail gun, he stepped back onto the street. Elapsed time from his exodus from the transport: 77 seconds.
Jack homed in on the sounds of weapons fire. The transport was three blocks away, the two Saurians in close but frustrated pursuit. Mike's inexperience with piloting was working in his favor, as the colonist haphazardly hurled and caromed the transport around the wide streets with frenzied unpredictability. The Saurians couldn't draw a steady bead on the weaving vehicle.
Let's give them something else to shoot at. He loosed a missile salvo for the Saurian on the left, and a few high density iron slugs magnetically accelerated to supersonic speeds by the railgun for the Saurian on the right.
The effect was immediate and exactly what Jack had hoped. Both Saurian machines pivoted and addressed the new threat that had pierced their rear armor. The transport forgotten, they advanced on him.
Jack keyed his helmet radio. “Killian to transport! Do you read me, Mike?"
"Yes,” came the tentative reply.
Jack backpedaled, making sure he kept the Saurians’ attention, and fired of his plasma rifle to keep them interested. He noticed it didn't do as much damage as the kinetic weapons. “I think I've got their undivided attention,” Jack said into the radio. “Head for the shuttle and get everyone on board. After you leave I'll make my way to the dropship and meet everyone on Envoy. Got all that?"
The Saurians let loose a barrage of particle beams, and Jack barely dodged in time. They crumbled the building behind him.
"What was that, Mike? I didn't read you."
"I said I understand,” the colonist shouted into the radio, causing more ringing in Jack's ear than the Saurian weapons. “I'll get us out of here.” The transmission cut off.
That's done, Jack thought, running into an alley, throwing just enough firepower at the Saurians to entice them into giving chase. He didn't plan on taking out the two Saurians, but if he could keep them distracted long enough for the shuttle to take off, everything would be okay. He needed the friendly confines of the prefab colony buildings; the Saurians could pick him apart out in the open. He ran through the alley, firing back at his pursuers.
The Saurians seemed to reach the same conclusion. With their next volley of fire, they destroyed the two buildings on either side of Jack, landslides of rubble rolling in towards him.
Jack vaulted up onto the artificial rocks and returned fire. He'd thrown away the ineffectual plasma rifle some time before, and was left now with the more effective kinetic energy weapons, the railgun and missile rack. His next volley set off a series of explosions in one of the machines, causing thick, oily smoke to billow out of its left “knee". When the machine moved again, advancing on its small but dangerous prey, it moved with a distinct limp.
So you can be damaged, Jack pondered as he leaped from the rubble, somersaulting over the answering Saurian particle beams.
As Jack landed on his feet in the street beyond the rubble, he heard the roar of engines at the edge of the compound, in the direction of the landing pad. Looking that way, he saw the final shuttle lift off and climb out of sight. Now he just had to get to the dropship and wait for Robyn and the others.
A Saurian particle beam shook him as it pulverized the ground. Rolling with the concussion and then back to his feet, Jack saw the two Saurian machines lumbering over the rubble they created. They crept with great caution over the unstable surface, and Jack took off in a powered run. He might be able to outrun them to the landing pad.
No such luck, Jack discovered before he turned the first corner. He could outrun the machines, but not their weapons. Rapid fire particle beams from behind him pulverized the buildings in front of him, the wreckage pinning him in. He could jump for it, but a burst of fire over his head convinced him he'd be an easy target until he got over the makeshift wall.
Instead, he turned and fought. The knee joint of one of the machines was still billowing smoke, and Jack hoped to do just enough damage to get past and around them. There were many routes to the dropship. He had to find a different one.
The damaged Saurian lurched forward and fired off several of its weapons. Jack sidestepped the missiles and autocannon fire, not realizing that it would take him in line with the particle beam.
The force of the blast hit him dead center in the chest and knocked him off his feet. Warning lights flared and buzzers sounded all through his helmet, desperate to tell him what he already knew: one more hit like that and he was dead.
Jack struggled to get to his feet, but a missile barrage from the other Saurian machine kept him down. They had him pinned, and they were moving in for the kill, or worse, capture. Jack didn't know what Saurians did with their POWs, but they were all claws and teeth, and he didn't relish the thought of being alone with them without his armor.
Jack rolled across the rubble, staying ahead of a stream of autocannon fire. Somewhere along the way, he'd lost his railgun, and his shoulder-mounted missile rack was pulverized. Fight was no longer an option; he had to find a way to make flight feasible.
The Saurians machines drew closer to Jack with each barrage of weapons fire, the one on the right stepping lightly for a hunk of steel weighing several tons, and the one on the left eschewing avian grace for a crippled stagger and dragging its smoking leg. The noose was closing, and Jack could see no way around them that wouldn't get him flattened in the attempt.
Better that than capture, he thought, and pulled himself into a crouch on the rubble, preparing to explode into the fastest run his armor could muster.
Just as the closer of the two machines, the crippled one, drew another step in, Jack heard the familiar sound of plasma fire and saw a stream of superheated hydrogen erupt off the cockpit of the machine. Two figures appeared in his peripheral vision, one on either side of him, and the Saurians stepped back, reassessing the situation.
"I was wondering when you'd get here,” Jack said to Robyn. “Where's Girish?"
"He didn't make it."
Jack nodded, and looked back at the two Saurian machines. Their initial surprise fading, they moved towards the humans again. “At least the odds are in our favor. Three to two instead of two against one."
Jack was knocked off his feet by an explosion from behind. Spinning around, he saw three more Saurian war machines crest the rubble, standing atop the ruined building, great conquering birds forged in steel.
"Make that five against three,” Robyn said. “Where the hell did they come from?"
Jack lurched to his feet. “You didn't think we saw all they had in that clearing, did you? We still don't know what their dropships look like. Let's go."
Robyn and Jabari turned and fired on the three Saurians standing on the rubble. The Saurians returned fire, but the humans were no longer there. They ran top speed for the two Saurians in the street, Jack slowing only to scoop up his railgun.
Jabari took aim and fired on the smoking knee of the crippled war machine, tearing the joint apart and causing the machine to topple onto the street. The standing war machine was hit repeatedly by weapons fire from the other three Saurian machines as the humans put it between the three on the rubble and their escape. As they turned the first corner, they heard the chain reaction of explosions that signified the machine's demise.
Two down, three to go, Jack thought as the human trio wound their way down a labyrinthine path through the artificial canyons of the colony base camp. Their radar picked up the three war machines following them, but the big Saurian machines weren't as agile as the armored humans, and Jack and his Marines gained distance on the Saurians with every turn.
They reached the landing pad. As expected, the dropship
sat alone on the far edge of the flat plasticrete expanse, its boarding ramp extended.
"We'll be sitting ducks until I can get that thing prepped,” Robyn said.
Jack checked his radar. The Saurians seemed to have figured out where the humans were headed, and were taking the straightest route possible to the landing pad. “Then get to it. Jabari and I can hold them off for a few minutes."
The trio rushed to the dropship. Robyn hurried inside while Jack and Jabari assumed defensive positions just outside.
The Marines stood ready while Robyn brought up the dropship's engines, the whine of its fusion turbines drowning out the approaching thunder of the Saurian mechs.
All three appeared at once, coming from different directions. They formed a rough semicircle around the landing pad, noted the bristling weaponry on the dropship and moved cautiously.
"How long?” Jack asked Robyn over the tacnet.
"About forty seconds to liftoff."
Forty seconds, Jack thought. Not too long at—
As if reading Jack's thoughts, the Saurian mechs charged as one, their towering metal legs eating up distance to the dropship.
"Open fire!” Jack shouted.
Both armored Marines gave the Saurians everything they had, but it wasn't doing much. Jabari's plasma rifle just scorched the mech rushing from the north, and Jack's railgun knocked the arm off the eastern mech, but nothing more. They didn't have the firepower to standoff the giant war machines.
Jack felt the dropship lurch into the air behind him. Riding gouts of superheated flame, the Terran warship swiveled in midair and launched a barrage of missiles at each mech, reducing them to shrapnel.
Robyn's voice sounded over the tacnet. “You folks need a ride?"
Thirty seconds later, the final three human survivors of New Eden were aloft and speeding back to Envoy.
* * * *
Per evacuation protocol, all the colonists were still in their shuttles when Jack arrived, lined up in the launch bay. Jack and his Marines exited the dropship the moment it touched down and ran to the bridge.