Message for the Dead

by Jason Anspach

  Nothing about that sentence sounded good to Chhun. “Copy.”

  He returned to the waiting logistics comm operator. “Sighting verified and confirmed by team leader. He says a lot of pods are arriving in that region.”

  The reply sounded befuddled. “Something… something’s going on, because I’m seeing drop pods in atmosphere. But all of ours are accounted for. There’s been no sign of any pods launched from the ship Intrepid is engaged with. “

  “Copy. We’ll keep an eye on it.” Chhun was developing a very bad feeling. He decided to try the Intrepid’s bridge. “This is Captain Chhun. I need to be patched into your starfighter comm channel.”

  “Sir?”

  Chhun heard Admiral Deynolds speak up, her voice being captured by the comm officer’s input piece. “Do what he says.”

  Chhun watched the holocam feed showing fighter position, ported directly from Intrepid. It had been primarily a long-range skirmish, the two ships exchanging relatively harmless blaster-cannon fire. But now fighters were engaged. Chhun listened in to Reaper Squadron’s comms.

  He heard the voice of Dax Danns, a pilot he’d met on the mission to capture General Nero.

  “Yeah, I saw it,” Danns called out. “Hang on…”

  Chhun could hear the pilot’s breathing over the comm. “Vaped another fighter.”

  “What do you think it is, Boss?” asked another pilot.

  “Dunno,” said Danns. “But these fighters… it’s like they’re not even trying, man. Like they’re just trying to keep us at arm’s length.”

  Was this because the enemy destroyer—or whatever it was—was sending down those drop pods? Perhaps with a sort of stealth tech?

  Chhun surveyed his battle maps, and saw that the major coordinating the Legion assault was up and active on the battlenet. He keyed for a direct L-comm connection.

  “This is Captain Chhun, overseeing the Dark Ops mission.”

  “I read you, Captain.”

  “Did your force bring any observation bots?”

  “Yeah. We’ll deploy them once we’re in position.”

  “Major, I need to get one of those bots in the air right away, and I need to observe its feed. Can you make it happen?”

  If he were dealing with a point, Chhun knew he would be in for a fight. But this was a better Legion than the one before Article Nineteen. The major must have recognized that if he was being asked by Dark Ops, it was important.

  “I’ll have one sent up and get the feed routed to your comm signature.”

  “Thank you, Major.”

  “KTF.”

  “KTF.”

  Chhun watched his monitors, mumbling under his breath, “C’mon… c’mon…”

  An incoming feed notice flashed in front of him, and Chhun quickly accepted. The image from the TT-16 bot showed it gaining altitude from the legionnaire’s position where it was deployed. Chhun provided a passkey that gave him control of the bot, then proceeded to fly it away from the area of operations, out to where Bear had reported the other pods impacting.

  Bear hadn’t been imagining things. Several large drop pods were clearly visible, with thin trails of blue smoke from entry rising up from their landing sites. Column upon column of soldiers were streaming from the sites and moving toward the city.

  Chhun went wide on the battlenet comms. “Confirmed sighting of a non-Legion force moving from landed drop pods at the following grid location.” He transmitted the coordinates. “Be advised they are moving in the direction of the city center.”

  “We see them,” answered the Legion major. “Can’t tell who it is. More of those Black Fleet dark legionnaires?”

  “Going down to take a closer look. Stand by.”

  Chhun moved the bot closer, knowing that taking it in that low would likely get it shot down.

  The marchers were soldiers, but not human. They were war bots, and massive ones at that. At least eight feet tall, of a type Chhun had never seen before. They were thick with armor, and carried what looked to be tri-barreled N-50s with ease. Some of them also carried large riot shields. Smaller streams of other bots—human-sized—marched along the big ones like some sort of support unit.

  This was trouble.

  The major saw it too, and began giving orders to prepare for counter-attack.

  Chhun pinged his kill teams. “Make sure you’re at your exfiltration points and you’re ready to fight and leave. Multiple war bots are headed into the city, presumed hostile.”

  The team leaders responded with utter calm and professionalism.

  “Intrepid,” Chhun called out, reaching the destroyer’s bridge by comm. “This is Captain Chhun. I need a hurry-up on the exfiltration. Multiple hostiles are headed toward my kill teams.”

  Admiral Deynolds answered the call herself. Her voice was harried. Full of alarm and worry. “Captain Chhun… I’m not sure we can do that.”

  ***

  The first legionnaires to come in contact with the war bots were Task Force Granite. Together with the liberated POWs, the kill teams were hit on both sides by a swarm of the hulking machines.

  Chhun looked on with gritted teeth as the task force formed a defensive perimeter and exchanged fire with the war machines. They were using ear-poppers to disorient the machines, but out-of-doors, these had limited effectiveness. A few of the bots were falling under concentrated fire to their heads, but more were coming.

  Losses began to mount, and the war bots had Task Force Granite isolated and encircled in the large square at the heart of the city. The square’s park-like features, like rolling, grassy hills, had made it the designated landing zone for the kill teams to exfiltrate from. But those shuttles were nowhere to be seen, and the luxurious park was now turning into a battlefield.

  The Legion and marine elements sent to the planet had withdrawn from their blocking positions and pushed forward, hitting the bots from the rear and breaking through, uniting the forces and intensifying the firepower sent against the robotic threat.

  Chhun did what he could to support the defense, calling in targets for their mortar bots to strike, signaling to his team leaders where war bot surges were being staged. But it was clearly a losing battle. Every legionnaire or marine that fell diluted the defensive just a little bit more, whereas the war bots’ numbers only grew. A steady flow of drop pods carrying new machines continued to hit the planet’s surface—one every minute or so it seemed. Not all of these headed toward the battle, but enough did. Too many. The machines began to close around the defenders like a tightening noose.

  “This is Captain Chhun requesting orbital support.” He was trying to reach Intrepid. But the only answer he received was the frantic shout of a comm officer asking him to stand by. At least they were still up there trying to stem the tide.

  Finally, he received good news. “We’re sending down a squadron of fighter-bombers… it’s all we can do.”

  “How about some shuttles to get us out of here?” Chhun called back.

  “Sorry, sir, shuttles wouldn’t make it down in one piece.”

  Chhun wanted to argue, but it wouldn’t do any good. If that was true, things were bad. So much so that even the incoming bombing run might well be a suicide mission.

  He watched on his displays as four tri-bombers swooped in, dropping a payload on the columns of bots, sending them into nothingness. But it was like brushing a trail of ants off of a picnic table. The assault resumed almost immediately. His men in Task Force Granite barely had time to breathe. They were going to die unless a shuttle could get them out.

  He keyed in for Intrepid once more, but his comm message was interrupted by Bear.

  “Sir,” Bear said, “we’re waiting at the exfiltration site. No sign of any shuttle, and it doesn’t sound like one is coming. Requesting permission to let the delegate go and join Task Force Granite.”

  Chhun winced. He knew the desire Bear and Kill Team Outlaw felt to help their brothers. He felt the same. But if he had them leave, he would be signin
g their death warrants. “Negative. Stay tight. It’s bad everywhere, but if there’s an opening, you need to be there to get on the shuttle.”

  “Copy.”

  Chhun expected an argument. But perhaps Bear saw what Chhun himself saw. They were in a no-win situation if it came down to an up-front fight with these bots. There were too many of them. “I’ll monitor to make sure none of those war bots are headed in your direction,” Chhun added. “So far they don’t seem interested in your neck of the woods.”

  “Copy,” Bear responded. “Hell of a first mission to be in command of, huh, Captain?”

  A gallows smile stretched across Chhun’s face. “Funny. I was just about to say the same thing to you.”

  A beep sounded, and Chhun looked up to see that all four of the tri-bombers had been splashed into the ocean. Pursued by some unidentified starfighters. Bad to worse.

  Chhun went back to work trying to find a way out for his men. He opened a comm to Intrepid, but got nothing. And then his sensors updated, removing Intrepid from the battlefield. Had it been destroyed? The very thought caused Chhun’s knees to feel rubbery. He remembered the last time he was in such a situation. Kublar.

  This time seemed like it would go much, much worse.

  But maybe it was a trick. Some sophisticated jamming. Whoever had the tech and resources to send down this many war bots, likely could achieve comm and network interference.

  Chhun went wide on the Intrepid all-craft comm. “This is Captain Chhun on Gallobren. I need an immediately evac shuttle for a VIP and kill team at the marina bluff landing point, Echelon Actual.”

  No reply.

  “Repeat. This is Captain Chhun requesting evac shuttle. We have been overrun and experienced extreme casualties. Priority landing is for drop shuttle at marina landing point Echelon Actual. Do I have a copy?”

  More silence.

  And then a comm channel opened. It immediately filled with background noise, warnings, and beeps that might have come from a starfighter cockpit. “This is Reaper One. I copy.”

  “Dax!” Chhun called, relieved to hear that someone was still up there. “Dax Danns—I need help down here, buddy.”

  “Hang on…” he said, apparently speaking on another channel. “Two more!” The pilot’s voice refocused on Chhun. “Captain Chhun, I’m sorry. Reaper Squadron is doing everything we can right now to keep an exposed command shuttle alive until it can make the jump. Then we’re bugging out too. Intrepid’s already gone to hypersp—”

  Danns’s voice cut out. Chhun closed his eyes, assuming that the featherhead had just been vaporized.

  But he soon came back online. “Captain. The crew of the command shuttle wants to try and get you. They’re heading for re-entry. They say one pass.”

  Chhun nodded. “All right. We’ll be ready.”

  “Damn it!” shouted the pilot.

  “What? What is it?” But Chhun already knew the answer.

  “Shuttle’s gone, man.” There was a pause, the fading of all hope. “I wish I could stay and help, but we’re getting swarmed. I gotta take care of my squad. We gotta go. I’m sorry. We gotta go.”

  “I understand.”

  “I’m sorry,” repeated Danns. “Stay alive. I’ll tell them you’re still alive. We’ll come back when we can.”

  “Copy. Get out of there, Reaper One. You did what you could.”

  Chhun looked at his monitor. Bear’s team was in position, with no threats nearby. But Task Force Granite—everyone else. They were gone.

  All of them.

  “Captain Chhun,” Bear said, sounding agitated. “What’s the status? I can’t reach any other leejes except my squad, and there’s so much going on that my HUD is worthless beyond fifty meters. Do we have a shuttle coming?”

  “Negative,” Chhun responded. “Intrepid has been forced to retreat. Task Force Granite and the Legion assault force is a total team kill.” Sorrow and grief threatened to choke out Chhun’s last words. But he held it in, wanting to be strong for Outlaw.

  Bear was quiet for several seconds before asking, in a small voice, “What?”

  The drop pods carrying more bots continued to fall.

  “They’re all dead,” Chhun said. “Our job now is to survive.”

  “How is that even possible? How could this have happened?”

  “Bear… listen to me. It doesn’t matter the how. It happened. You need to keep your team alive. You’re still removed from the enemy, as best I can tell. I’m going to leave this post and try and join you.”

  “Yeah… copy that. We’ll dig in and wait for your arrival. Figure out a plan.”

  “Roger that. See you soon.”

  Chhun looked around his sophisticated command room. The plan had always been to sink the boat on departure, but he wondered if that even mattered anymore. And the explosion might just alert those machines that he was here.

  He decided he would use timed explosives and blow it anyway.

  Removing a thermal fragger that would be more than sufficient to destroy the room and burn up the ship until it sank, he set its dial for three minutes. Enough time for him to swim for a quiet shore and head for Outlaw.

  He looked at the long-range, deep-space comm—and had an idea.

  Holding the grenade in one hand, he activated the comm in the other. He sent a looping, recorded message to the Indelible VI.

  ***

  Keel woke up in the utter darkness that was his bunk on board the Indelible VI. He liked sleeping in the deep black that only a ship traveling through space could provide. Shifting, he felt a sudden jolt of pain in his side. He winced and felt around his torso. A layer of re-knit meshing was in place.

  The last thing Keel remembered was pulling off his clothes and armor and collapsing into his bunk. Someone else had taken care to put the dressing on him. They’d also put his heavy Armonian fleece over his legs. He felt warm and cozy, almost too much so, straddling that line between comfort and the outbreak of a sweat.

  “Thanks,” Keel said into the darkness, knowing exactly who had taken care of him, covered him up, and remained at his bedside.

  “You’re welcome,” answered Leenah.

  Judging from the location of her voice in the darkness, she was sitting on the old wooden trunk that Keel kept his personal effects in.

  He waved a hand in the darkness, causing an ambient light to shine up from the deck. He saw Leenah’s form at the foot of his bed, draped in shadows.

  Another jolt went through Keel’s ribs, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut at the pain. “How long have I…?”

  “Going on six hours now.” Leenah rose and came to Keel’s side. “I figured you’d have been out a lot longer, truthfully.”

  Keel relaxed his body, letting his bare shoulders sink into his bedding. “I certainly feel like I should still be sleeping.”

  A smile formed on Leenah’s face. “You’re popular, Captain Keel. Garret was trying to reach you. I told him to knock it off unless it was an emergency. The comm chime probably woke you.”

  Keel nodded. “You been waiting the whole time I was out?”

  “Not all, but for the most part.”

  Shutting his eyes, Keel let out a sigh. “Thanks, Leenah. For staying with me, I mean.” He forced himself into a sitting position. “I better see what Garret wants.”

  Leenah placed her palm on Keel’s breastbone and gently pushed him back down on the bed. Her touch was warm and felt electric against Keel’s skin. “What you need is rest. Ravi’s taking care of things just fine, and contrary to what you might think, the galaxy is capable of moving along without your presence for a few hours.”

  Keel surrendered to her pushing, and didn’t attempt to rise again. “I feel like I was run over by a pileated gorb-ox.”

  “You’ll be as good as new in no time. Rest.” She left her hand on his chest.

  Keel gently grabbed hold of it. “I do need rest. But… it’s pretty lonely out here in the deepness of space…”

  He
sensed Leenah smiling in the dark, or maybe he just imagined it.

  She removed her hand and said, “You’re hurt. You need to recover.”

  Keel let out a long and exaggerated sigh. He was exhausted. And sore. He felt like he could sleep for a week straight if left to it. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks again for looking after me.”

  “Thanks for coming for me. And Prisma. I think it meant a lot to her. She seems like she’s changed her mind about you.”

  “They always do.” Keel swallowed, his mouth feeling dry. “Kid’s had enough trouble for one life. We’ll find a place for her to grow up. Live as normal a life as she can.”

  “I think that’s a good idea, even though she may not like it.”

  The two stopped talking, and Keel felt his eyes grow heavy. His breathing slowed, and he began to drift back into sleep.

  “Garret is working hard on getting KRS-88 put back together.” Though Leenah had insisted that Keel needed rest, she apparently still wanted to talk. “Shouldn’t be much longer before he’s done. He’s really a savant when it comes to tech. It’s amazing.”

  Keel propped himself up on an elbow. The pain was not quite as bad. “Yeah, I don’t think any of us would’ve made it off that ship without him.”

  Keel meant what he said. Garrett, who’d been just a chance pickup back on Tannespa, had turned into one of the most valuable people he’d ever worked with.

  Keel remembered the comm chime that had woken him up. “So what did the kid—our pal the tech wonder—want?”

  Leenah didn’t answer.

  Keel sat up and pulled back the fleece. He was getting too hot. “C’mon… you can tell me. I promise not to rush to deal with whatever it is. I’ll be a good patient. Do whatever my doctor asks.”

  “He got a message from the Legion. On the channel your commander uses.”

  “What did it say?”

  “I don’t know. It I told him that you could hear it when you were feeling better.”

  Keel slapped his thigh. “Actually, I don’t care who they want me to kill next. You still wanna run away with me, Leenah?”