If we kill the Trilisk or capture it, I bet we’ll be doing them a favor.
“Unholy Cthulhu, what is that thing?” exclaimed Arakaki.
A giant machine appeared from behind the building. Caden stared with wide eyes. It resembled nothing so much as a giant gaping mechanical mouth. Two opposing apparatuses held spinning metal teeth descending into a maw between them with additional grinder-like spinners set inside the narrowing space between them. It was not large enough to consume the building whole, but it could probably tear the entire thing to shreds.
“A house grinder?” Caden hazarded.
“You’re right. Some kind of floating house demolisher!” Arakaki agreed.
Zing. Crackle.
Her last attendant exploded.
“Dammit!” she said aloud. Her voice sounded stressed. “He’s on that thing!”
“Get behind me!” he told her urgently. At the same time, he directed his attendants to get him out of line with the mouth. He altered course enough to send him around the danger, then he swooped down to land on the side.
There was no artificial gravity to hold him to the machine, so he grabbed onto a ridged surface and a bar of metal on its side. The spinning mechanism of the grinder-mouth was dangerously close. Caden knew his copy would try something. He let go with one hand and brought up his rifle with the other.
A grenade came around the metal hinges in front of him. Caden knew he could not dodge. He fired his weapon, hoping it could acquire the incoming danger, but it was an attendant that intercepted it. The grenade exploded.
Blam.
The blast buffeted Caden into the spinning grinder of the huge device.
Smack!
He expected an instant death, but his Veer suit distributed the first strike across his entire back, bringing it to the level of a sharp slap across his backside. He felt something sharp. Probably one of the sharp teeth of the debris buckets had bitten through his protection.
Still alive. But if I’m drawn farther into the machine—
Caden tried to roll off the sharp bucket that had smacked into him. He felt something tear as he broke free. Through the adrenaline blur he could not tell if it was part of his suit or muscles in his back.
The grinding noise became louder.
Get… out… now!
Caden got a leg under him and tried to jump one-legged. Then he was spinning away. The sharp buckets turned inward toward the maw of the device.
His attendants pinned him against the outside of a metal fender on the other side of the machine’s mouth. Somewhere along the rough ride, he had lost another attendant sphere.
“Move toward the top,” Arakaki said.
She doesn’t have any protection. The next shot could kill her.
Caden climbed toward the end of the machine he guessed she would call the top. There was a tall, round cockpit with about a dozen windows across its front.
“What is this? Some kind of control tower?” asked Caden.
“I don’t know, but he’s in here. Keep your finger on the trigger.”
Caden wondered about her phrase. What did the manual fire trigger have to do with anything? He would fire with his link, of course.
“You want me to go manual?”
“No. Never mind. Stay alert.”
“I see an entrance here. Going in,” Caden said. Arakaki scrambled closer, almost flying off the surface of the machine.
“Take one of my attendants,” he said.
“No. You’re going in first; you’ll need them,” she ordered.
Caden grabbed the edge of the spring door. He slipped through. The attendants slid close to his body to come through with him. A floor lay three meters below, so he launched toward it.
The first thing Caden noticed was the return of artificial gravity to hold him onto the floor of the interior. He landed clumsily. Then he heard an attendant strike something.
Zing. Booom.
The retort of a rifle boomed through the closed space. Caden dropped and brought his own rifle around, launching three rounds.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
There was nothing. His double was already out of sight.
Arakaki dropped in beside him, her laser ready.
“He’s too fast. We’ll never get him,” Caden transmitted with his link.
“Shut up, change your diaper, and aim for that doorway there,” Arakaki growled. She indicated the opening by flashing it red in his virtual view.
“What? Why there?”
Caden did as he was told. Arakaki sounded so certain of herself. She left her cover and ran out through the room.
What is she doing? Caden2 will kill her—
Caden saw his double raise a rifle in the doorway Arakaki had indicated. Caden2 was shooting Arakaki. Caden locked on and ordered his weapon to fire.
Brrrooom!
They both shot at the same time.
Caden2 actually turned to face the bullet as if he heard it coming. Caden knew it was not possible, as it was a supersonic round. The bullet slipped into Caden2’s left eye socket and sprayed out the back in an explosion of brain matter.
I got him. I got him, but—
Caden leaped across the room after Arakaki. He knew Caden2 would not have missed, but somehow his mind protected him from the obvious conclusion for a moment. Then he saw it.
Arakaki lay sprawled in a back of equipment. Blood poured out of a huge wound in her side, blown right through Momma Veer’s protection.
If she isn’t dead, she will be in seconds. She saved my life. I don’t know how she knew, but she knew.
Caden bent down and turned her over. Her eyes were closed. She was not breathing.
“Thank you,” Caden said. For the first time in a decade, Caden felt tears pooling in his eyes. Then his misery came rushing out, and he flopped over her and sobbed.
Dammit. Dammit.
Chapter 28
Siobhan found herself outside amid the battle. The danger did not feel real.
We can’t let that thing get away, she told herself. She pushed down an internal warning and concentrated on her course. An attendant intercepted something headed for her. Siobhan soared around the target building to bring the far side into view.
She saw several things moving on the surface of the building, but an unusual color caught her eye. She saw a light-blue machine shuffle oddly out of the building. Why did it move like that? Siobhan realized it had only three legs.
What’s that? It’s got three legs! It has to be…
Siobhan told her link to retain what she had seen recently. She brought up her tactical and put up a priority flag at the location.
“I see it!” Siobhan said. No one answered, so she opened a direct connection to Cilreth.
“Yes? What’s going on? There was an explosion—”
“I saw it! Take the data from my link,” Siobhan said. She sent Cilreth a pointer to the information. “It’s pale blue, a robotic body with three legs.”
“What? How do you know it’s not just some random robot?”
“It would have been attacking instead of running,” Siobhan said.
“You’re right. This looks like a robot we found on another planet,” Cilreth said after a moment. “I think we’re tracking it on this side.”
“I have three attendants watching it,” Siobhan said. “It’s not far from here. I’m getting the rest of the team.”
What’s left of the team.
Crackle. Zip.
Suddenly an attendant sputtered and died next to her. Then she felt the heat.
“I’ve got a problem!” she said. Another attendant moved to protect her while her last pushed her away in a spiral. But the next blocking attendant died as well.
“A laser has acquired me! Where’s it coming from?” she said.
“I’ll send some soldiers to assist,” Cilreth was saying in the background, but Siobhan was already overheating again. Her Veer suit could only absorb so much before she would cook inside it.
<
br /> Caden and Arakaki aren’t around. Where’s Telisa? I have to save myself.
Even as Siobhan thought it, she realized there was very little she could do. She was at the mercy of the attendants trying to alter her course and whisk her away.
Siobhan ripped open her pack and shielded herself. She asked the pack for its inventory. She grabbed a grenade and tossed it away, and then another, and told them to explode in five seconds. The grenades spun, but there was no surface for them to push off from. The heat spiked again as her evasive course was predicted.
One of the items in the inventory caught her eye. Smoke flares.
The flares might work—those Blackvine machines aren’t really military robots. They might not be equipped to see through smoke.
Siobhan told her last attendant to bat the flares out in the direction of her retreat. At the same time, she activated them with her link.
Boom, boom. Pop, pop, pop.
Grenades and flares detonated. Bright orange-and-blue smoke intertwined from the flares as they hurtled away from her.
Blam.
Her last attendant exploded.
The heat eased. Whether she had been obscured by the flares or saved by a soldier she did not know. There were no attendants left to protect or move her, so she resorted to her cylinder fans. She used them to accelerate herself toward the nearest building past the smoke.
When she landed, she looked on the tactical. She saw she was still only a kilometer away from Telisa, Imanol, and Maxsym. She went inside for cover.
“What’s happened?” Siobhan whispered to herself. The sounds of battle continued outside, though somewhat abated. She connected to Imanol’s link.
“What’s happened?” she asked again.
“Magnus. Gone. I think we got Magnus2, though,” Imanol said.
“I’ll be there,” Siobhan said, though she had not even found a route to take on the tactical yet.
“We won the robot battle again, but the—”
“I saw the Trilisk escaping,” Siobhan sent at the same time. “Cilreth knows about it. She might have been able to tag it somehow. Some of our machines may be following it.”
“I don’t know if the team is ready to pursue it,” Imanol sent. “Arakaki and Caden went off after Caden2.”
Magnus is really gone. I just can’t believe it. I feel like it’s just another exercise, and he’s only dropped out for the round.
The UNSF had supposedly used virtual exercises for decades to attenuate soldiers to the horrors of battle. A fighting unit tended to keep going when it was the thousandth time they had suffered 50 percent attrition rather than the first time. As long as the simulations felt real, a Terran brain just got used to loss and learned to shake it off—at least as long as a person could go on pretending it was just another exercise. Eventually the reality sank in.
Later, it’ll hit me. If I survive to see later.
Siobhan sent out a request for more attendants. She knew some had to be around. If Shiny responded, she would be able to move out quickly. They might be able to catch the Trilisk.
She moved to the far side of the building, her weapon ready. The horrible thought struck her that the Trilisk might have pursued her here. She felt an illogical anxiety rise, but when she got the message that attendants were converging to help her, it faded.
The Blackvine items hoarded around her sat quietly in their weird twisted rooms like relics from another age.
Why did the Trilisk come here? Is this just another conquest? Tourist site? Are the Blackvines old allies?
She walked out to meet four incoming attendants on the outside surface.
As they arrived she jumped off in the direction of the PIT team. There were still machines flying around in the sky, though the tactical said they were all friendlies. With boosts from her attendants, she was able to make the trip to the others in four house hops without incident.
The scene she found was grim. Telisa was broken down on the floor, partly rolled into a corner, with Imanol hovering nearby, guarding her. Maxsym patrolled the room uncomfortably.
Siobhan flopped down next to Telisa.
“Magnus did it. He gave us a chance.”
Telisa did not answer.
“Telisa! I have attendants shadowing it. Cilreth is tracking its access to the habitat networks. We can find it!”
“Just let it go. That’s what we should have done in the first place.”
“How can you not be angry now? Kill it for him!”
“I just can’t. I just can’t anymore.” Telisa wiped away new tears.
“It killed him. We’re getting our revenge. Wake up, frackjammer!”
Telisa looked at Siobhan as if for the first time.
“You were a good pick for the team,” she said. “You go get it.”
“Shut up! Let’s go! If you’re really so messed up about losing him, then what do you care if you die? Let’s give it a shot!”
Siobhan thought Telisa was not going to recover. But she focused on Siobhan.
“Okay. Let’s go kill it.” She looked around. “Where are Arakaki and Caden?”
“They went after Caden2!” Imanol said. “Get it together! Let’s get this thing!”
Telisa saw Maxsym under cover in the far side of the room.
“Maxsym,” Telisa said sharply. Siobhan saw him flinch. “You stay here. If we die, stay and study the Blackvines. Grab some of their technology, some artifacts, and go back to sell it. Then you can afford your research back home. Or stay here with Shiny. Maybe he can use you.”
Maxsym nodded vigorously.
He doesn’t want to go. Not cut out for it. Nice that Telisa can see that, even in her current state. Or maybe she can see that because of her current state.
Siobhan checked Caden and Arakaki. Their links were out there but refused connections.
“Caden and Arakaki are still after Caden2. But I can scrape up a dozen attendants. There are also grenades we can use. Cilreth sent back a target sig we can use based on the robot body you found on Callnir.”
“It’s in one of those?” Telisa asked.
“Yes. I think so. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”
I’m not sure she’s entirely with it, Imanol observed privately to Siobhan.
She’ll get the job done if she can get that thing in her sights, Siobhan said.
Chapter 29
“It’s in there,” Siobhan said.
Telisa checked out the building. It was long and thin. Its angles were more regular than the usual in the space habitat. Her insides still ached from emotional turmoil. Her eyes were puffy. The only thing that really kept her going was the idea of punishing the Trilisk for Magnus’s demise. After that… she did not really care about anything anymore.
“Looks specialized. It’s not so… random looking,” Imanol said.
“Something is special about it,” Telisa agreed. “But I think it was still built by the same race that built the other buildings.”
The PIT team had salvaged the remains of their robot army and arrayed it around them for kilometers. Everything was on the watch for the new Trilisk body.
Imanol had gathered up a cache of grenades to use in the attack. They had been provided with a target signature based upon the feed that Siobhan had obtained. The grenades floated nearby, ready to go into action. He had rigged attendant spheres to racks in order to launch groups of ten grenades toward the target.
“Begin the attack,” Telisa said.
The fleet of grenades started to move forward in the makeshift launch racks. More grenades joined the assault, fired from soldiers and thrown by the PIT team. The grenades landed on the building and then started to spin along the outer surfaces. Lasers from the supporting machines cut holes into the windows and doors to let them in.
“Let’s go,” Telisa ordered. Telisa, Siobhan, and Imanol had their attendants push them toward the building.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Grenades were exploding inside before they even rea
ched the outside surface. Telisa watched the feed anxiously. Not a single grenade had returned a positive predicted hit before exploding. As the team landed on the building, the explosions subsided. None of the grenades were responding.
“Didn’t work,” Siobhan summarized grimly.
This is suicide. I should send the others back and try this myself, Telisa thought.
A large sphere floated by the team. Siobhan and Imanol did a double-take.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Imanol.
“That’s Vovokan!” said Siobhan.
“Shiny has fourteen of these battle drones,” Cilreth said. “He says the design was used for subterranean combat on Vovok.”
“Where were they before?” Imanol asked on the edge of a snarl.
“He claims he didn’t know they were needed, and just produced them recently,” Cilreth said. “But I wonder too if he’s been holding back until now. Maybe he thinks this is our best chance, and he’s ready to commit his strongest stuff?”
“Just thank him for us,” Telisa said blandly. “If you two want to head back…”
“I’m in,” Siobhan said without hesitation.
“I’m in too,” Imanol said, but he sounded less enthusiastic. “And just so you know, if we make it through this, I’m no friend of the UN. Neither is Siobhan. I think Caden is the only one who might balk if we defy them openly.”
I guess he wanted to get that off his chest.
Telisa nodded. “Thank you.”
Magnus would want me to finish that fight, Telisa thought. But I don’t know if I can bear to fight the UNSF without him. Tears rose again.
The battle drones started to move. Shiny connected to Telisa’s link.
“Trilisk no longer in Terran host. Chances of capture gone, infinitesimal, insignificant.”
“But your drones are going in.”
“Testing strength of enemy. Possible to exhaust, de-energize, fatigue alien machine. Suggest trail battle drones, attempt to terminate Trilisk.”
“Got it.”
“Why don’t we nuke the bastard?” asked Imanol.
“I never prayed up any nukes. Besides, we can’t destroy the habitat. We’re already despicable, coming in here and shooting everything up,” Telisa said.
Parker Interstellar Travels 4: The Trilisk Hunt Page 22