by Isaac Hooke
“I hope you’re right,” Dickson said.
“Trust me,” Frogger said. “I haven’t let down the platoon yet, have I?”
Dickson didn’t answer that.
“So keeping our distance could prove tricky, if we’re planning on approaching the rift site,” Mickey said. “Considering we already agreed there will be more than a few guards.”
“When the time comes, we’ll have to fight our way past to the rift, yes,” Frogger said.
“Assuming it ever opens again...” Mickey said.
“We’ll wait for however long it takes until it does,” Marlborough said.
When all the spare parts they could carry were loaded, Marlborough had the team head north, where there was a break in the mountains. “We’ll follow this range along the shoulders, until we find a path to the south again, and then begin the long walk back to the rift.”
“At least where we think it is,” Mickey said.
“Bitch, I’m tired of your negativity,” Slate said.
“No, let it slide,” Marlborough said. “He’s right, it could be the wrong direction. But we’ll keep trying until we find it.”
“Do you want me to send my scouts forward?” Eagleeye asked.
Marlborough turned toward Eagleeye. “The drones could give away that we’re not really Banthar. Hold them back, for now. We’ll use them sparingly.”
“You got it,” Eagleeye said.
“The rest of you, form a front, like a Banthar search party would use,” Marlborough said. He added preemptively: “And yes, I know, they’re aliens, so we can’t really know what formation they’d actually use. But we can make some educated guesses.”
The group trudged toward the northern defile that led out of the valley. The platoon could have headed south, but obviously Marlborough wanted to avoid encountering the Banthar again, who were very likely sweeping the southern sides of the valley at that very moment. Eric didn’t spot any other airborne craft, but that didn’t mean other patrols weren’t out there.
When they neared the valley entrance, Marlborough had Eagleeye send his two repurposed repair drones forward to act as scouts. They reported that the area was clear, so Eagleeye recalled them and hid them in his storage compartment once more.
In half an hour the team was out of the valley, and heading east along the shoulder of the mountain range. The trees here provided ample coverage for the party—who were just a group of fourteen Sloth units, as far as the enemy was concerned. The trees were as tall as those in the previous forest, but not densely packed enough to completely canopy the sky. They continued the long line, but this time Marlborough made a slight alteration: putting Slate on point fifty meters ahead, and Brontosaurus on drag, fifty meters behind.
An hour later, Brontosaurus reported in: “Got termites coming in from the southern defile. Looks like they’re fanning outward through the trees. What do you want to do, Sarge?”
Marlborough paused. “They would have seen us by now. As soon as you spotted them.”
Eric switched to the POV of Brontosaurus’ rear camera. He could see the black cloud of micro machines spreading through the trees.
“But it looks like they’re still fanning out,” Marlborough continued. “As if they plan to pay no attention to us. That’s a good sign. These emitters must be working...”
“Should we take cover?” Tread asked.
“Too late, now,” Marlborough replied. “They’re already headed our way.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to allow them to get close?” Tread said.
“If we act like we’re afraid at this point, it will only draw their attention,” Marlborough said. “Keep moving. Pretend as if nothing is amiss. We’re just some Banthar scouts, searching for the missing Mind Refurbs. Also, reduce comm range to fifty meters. Broadcast in directional mode only. If the micro machines get closer, shut down comms entirely. We don’t want to ruin our disguises by transmitting on frequencies that are obviously non-Banthar.”
The termites fanned past above the boughs, continuing to approach.
“Shut down comms entirely,” Marlborough ordered.
Eric did so.
The termites moved past overhead, above the treetops, and still paid the Bolt Eaters no attention. In a few moments, they were completely gone.
Eric glanced at Marlborough, who made a circular gesture with one finger above his head, indicating to reactivate comms. Eric did so.
“Well, that was interesting,” Traps said. “You think they reported us to their command and control?”
“Doubt it,” Dickson said. “If they’d figured out what we were, they would have swarmed in an attempt to delay us.”
“So we can let the enemy get close to us without blowing our cover after all,” Hicks said. “Frogger, your emitters are even more effective than you thought.”
“Not necessarily,” Frogger said. “My guess is these termites are easier to fool. Their software receives a friendly signal it recognizes, and instantly ignores the target. There is only so much tech you can miniaturize into something that small.”
“Sure, but together they could form a cloud computing network to share any image recognition loads,” Bambi said. “Negating the need for specialize technology in each unit.”
“Maybe,” Frogger said. “But they didn’t detect us, so we have to assume the termites don’t use their cloud for image recognition. Either way, I still recommend we keep our distance from other units, like I told you before.”
“We’ll do so,” Marlborough said. “Maintain the reduced comm range of fifty meters, directional mode broadcasts only.”
The team continued east along the mountain range, wending through those trees for another hour.
And then Mickey, marching on the far left side of the front formed by the Bolt Eaters, reported in.
“I’m detecting a signal to the north,” Mickey said.
“A signal?” Marlborough asked.
“Hm, scratch that,” Mickey replied. “Multiple signals.”
“What are you saying, man, we got a whole army coming at us?” Dickson said.
“No,” Mickey said. “At least, I don’t think so. These signals are different from anything we’ve detected from the Banthar before. A series of high energy photons, at varying frequencies, overlapping—”
“Wait, what you talking about?” Slate said. “That’s not different. The termites communicate with high energy photons. It’s how we summoned them all to the black hole back on Earth, and destroyed them.”
“Yes, I know,” Mickey said. “But these high energy photons are operating at about half that frequency. And they vary around that baseline, too. They’re almost like the kind of signals you’d expect from communication towers, back on Earth.”
“So you think there might be some sort of comm outpost out there, coming from the north?” Dickson said.
“It’s very possible,” Mickey said. “Or maybe a command and control base.”
“Our mission is to gather Intel on the enemy...” Eagleeye said.
“Yeah, I think that mission is pretty much over,” Traps said. “Considering we’re probably not going home at this point.”
“I think we should at least check it out, mates, while we’re here,” Dunnigan said. “We’ve come all this way, after all. And we’ve got FEZ protecting us now.”
“FEZ?” Slate said.
“Frogger’s EmitterZ, with a capital Z on the emitters,” Dunnigan said.
“I’m not certain we want to get too close to a command and control...” Tread said.
“We don’t know for sure what it is,” Frogger said. “I say we at least send a few of us to check it out.”
Marlborough remained quiet for several seconds.
“All right, I’ve made up my mind,” Marlborough said. “We proceed north for a quick side trip. We find out what’s producing those signals, and then we get the hell out of there.”
“Switch to overwatch formation?” Dickson asked.
“No,” Marlborough said. “That’s a formation they know we use for sure by now. If they spot us from afar, I want them to believe we’re Banthar. We maintain the current search pattern for now, and head north.”
And so the team turned north. Slate remained on point, Brontosaurus drag, with the remaining Bolt Eaters forming a line from left to right between them.
“Got something,” Slate said after a few minutes.
Eric had Slate’s viewpoint piped into the upper left of his vision, and he enlarged it to fill his full screen. Beyond the trees, standing in a clearing up ahead, was some sort of metal cylinder.
“Full halt,” Marlborough said.
“That object is giving off a lot of high energy photons,” Mickey said.
“What are you saying?” Brontosaurus asked. “It’s the signal source?”
“No,” Mickey replied. “It’s essentially equivalent to one of our repeaters.”
“So this is a friggin’ alien repeater,” Slate said. “Don’t look like much. We knock this out, we eliminate communications in the region.”
“Doubtful,” Mickey said. “If it’s anything like Earth’s telecommunications infrastructure, there will be hundreds of backup nodes nearby. All you’ll do is call in the equivalent of the telecom repair team.”
Dickson turned toward Marlborough. “What do you want to do, Sarge?”
“Are you detecting more signals to the north?” Marlborough asked Mickey.
“I am,” Mickey said. “I believe the signal source is located somewhere within the next ten kilometers.”
“Could be just another repeater further north,” Frogger said.
“No,” Mickey said. “The signals are stronger here, with more diversity. We’re getting close to whatever is producing them.”
The party continued northward, and after eight kilometers, the trees began to thin out. In the distance, in a valley before them, Eric saw what looked like more trees, lining the horizon from east to west. He zoomed in, and realized they weren’t trees, but metal cylinders protruding from the ground. Buildings of some kind.
“This isn’t an outpost, but a whole frickin’ alien city!” Slate said.
Between the buildings, Eric spotted aliens that could best be described as human-sized snails, except with six slimy antennae on their heads, and two spiraling shells on their backs. Each of the entities rested on disks that floated a meter above the ground. On some of the buildings, Eric spotted balconies, where other snails were lounging in the sun, also on hovering disks.
“We’ve finally spotted our first Banthars in the flesh,” Traps said.
“Anyone up for some escargot?” Bambi asked.
“Mm hm,” Slate said. “I definitely want to see these bitches fry for what they did to our planet.”
“Looks like the population live their lives on hover boards,” Mickey commented.
“Those disks are strange, aren’t they…” Tread added.
Overhead, different sized airships patrolled the sky, all of the same basic design.
“Enough patrol ships for ya?” Brontosaurus asked.
Eric surveyed the city for quite some time, pausing to absorb everything he was seeing. He noticed that there were Sloth units standing watch at some of the intersections, and also some on patrol, always in groups of four. They were either there to protect the population, or to keep them in check. Maybe a little of both.
Eric zoomed out so that he was looking at the skyline of the alien city from a distance once more.
“Well, looks like we found our signal source,” Marlborough finally said.
14
Eric surveyed the cleared land in front of the row of buildings in the distance. For about two kilometers in front of it, there were fenced estates containing undergrowth that was far more lush than any he’d seen in the forest so far. Large, two-armed machines hovered above the different estates, tending to the prickly foliage.
“Growing crops,” Hicks commented.
“Well just lookee here at this shit,” Slate said. “Lookee here. This is an opportunity.”
“What do you mean?” Mickey said. “For more recon?”
“Hell no,” Slate said. “We gots ourselves a nuclear bomb, carried by Bambi. You get what I’m saying?”
“He’s right,” Eagleeye said. “We’ve come all this way, we’re in the heart of enemy territory. We might not get a chance like this again. We have stealth tech that hides us from their sensors. And we have a nuke.”
“Yes, but that nuke was meant for defensive purposes only,” Dickson said. “We have no authorization to destroy military targets, let alone civilian targets.”
“Don’t we?” Slate said. “Our mission was recon, yes. And you say the nuke is for defensive purposes only? Well, this is for defense. We need some sort of distraction, to pave our getaway to the south. We nuke this place, we’ll draw in all support troops from around the continent.”
“Or we make them angrier, causing them to search for us all the harder,” Hicks said.
“Look how big it is, this has to be the main city of the colony,” Brontosaurus said. “We destroy this, we disable the entire colony.”
“There you go,” Eagleeye said. “And if anything, we have to bomb this place to pay the Banthar back for what they did to Earth. This is our chance.”
“Just because it’s big, doesn’t mean it’s the main city,” Mickey said. “There could be an even bigger one somewhere out here. But still, you’re right, we’ll cause some damage, I admit.”
“I tend to agree with Slate and Eagleeye,” Marlborough said. “I want these alien a-holes to pay for what they’ve done to our planet. But I won’t speak for all of you. We’ll take a vote.”
“A vote?” Traps said. “That’s new. Don’t think I’ve ever had a chance to vote on any order in the army before.”
“That’s because this order might go against some of your consciences,” Marlborough said. “There could be anywhere from a million aliens to a hundred million in that city. Or it could be empty. Or fully automated. We just don’t know. But destroying it will certainly inflict damage, and cause the aliens to sit up and take notice that we’re not a species to be trifled with. And you know what else, we won’t even have to go inside the city to plant the bomb. Because of the warhead yield, if we place it somewhere along the outskirts, it’ll still vaporize anything inside a five kilometer radius, and the resultant firestorm will burn everything else within a hundred klicks to a cinder.”
“What if the city is shielded in some way, like their airships?” Eric asked. “And the nuclear blast can’t penetrate?”
“I’m not seeing any indication it is,” Marlborough replied.
“What about wormholes?” Traps said.
“Wormholes?” Frogger asked.
“Yeah, wormholes,” Traps answered. “I remember when we tried to blow up their mothership with nukes launched from Earth, the Banthar had wormhole generators lining the entire outer perimeter of their hull. Just because we haven’t seen anything like that here, doesn’t mean they don’t have them hidden somewhere.”
“True,” Marlborough said. “But I think in this case, it’s likely their defenses align with the local perceived threats. Their mothership was designed for conquering, and had all the defenses one would expect of such a massive, powerful weapon of war. But here, on the other hand... I’m not convinced the Banthar will be expecting a nuclear attack. They’ll probably have some defense turrets, sure, maybe a few bioweapons and mechs, but that’s it. We’ll never face any of those—because we won’t be getting too close.”
“We’ll have to get ourselves at least a hundred kilometers away before we detonate the bomb,” Frogger said. “Our mechs are rated to withstand heat, but not that kind of heat.”
“We’ll have to set a long timer, yes,” Marlborough agreed. “So, all in favor of planting the nuke, raise your right hand.”
Everyone raised a hand except Dickson.
“Ki
lling them won’t bring back our dead,” Dickson said.
“No, but it’ll feel good,” Slate said.
“Do you all seriously want to do this, when we have a chance to go home?” Dickson said.
“There’s no guarantee that we’ll get home,” Eagleeye said. “But at least we can try to kill a few Banthar before we go down.”
Dickson’s avatar shook his head. “I’ll help, of course. Even though I disagree.”
“Good,” Marlborough said.
“So what’s the plan?” Mickey asked.
Marlborough glanced at Frogger. “You’re still worried we can be detected on the visual band?”
“At close range, or zoom magnification, yes,” Frogger said.
“Then we’ll wait until nightfall to approach the city,” Marlborough said. “Under the cover of darkness, we place the bomb somewhere near the outskirts, hopefully in one of the outlying farms, and then retreat. We set a timer with a conservative number, say ten hours, which means we have to maintain a minimum travel speed of ten klicks an hour, which is readily sustainable. And then, when we’re a hundred kilometers away to the south, the bomb detonates behind us, wiping out the Banthar colony.”
“Why bother to approach at all?” Slate said. “Why not just plant the bomb here, and let the firestorm do its work when we’re gone? You did say the firestorm would have a radius of a hundred klicks, after all...”
“Because I want to cause the most damage possible,” Marlborough said. “And vaporize as many of those buildings as we can in the initial strike. Just in case the structures are able to withstand the heat of the firestorm. If those buildings are made of the same material as our shields, for example, there’s a good chance they’ll still be standing.”
“Fair enough,” Slate said. “We plant the bomb on the outskirts, and then go home.”
“You got it,” Marlborough said.
“You always make these sorts of operations sound so simple, Sarge,” Crusher said.
“I know,” Marlborough said. “But they rarely are, are they?”
“Especially not this time,” Crushes said. “Considering that without sunlight, we won’t be able to recharge if anything goes wrong…”