The Depths of War (Dark Seas Book 5)

by Damon Alan

  Heinrich looked back at Kuo. “You can go first if you like. Not that you’ve been on duty long.”

  “No, sir, I’ll stay. You go and get some rec time in. I have a feeling our lives are about to get interesting.”

  “You feel that too, huh?” she replied with a sigh. “It seems they always do.”

  “I did have a small break from the excitement, but I prefer this to prison,” he countered with a grin.

  “I suppose I would too.”

  She unstrapped and headed toward the hatch.

  “Do you play zeroball, Captain?” Kuo asked.

  “I’m terrible at it,” she replied. “But I know the rules.”

  “I learned from the best,” he replied. “I believe the Stennis has a zeroball court. Want a match sometime?”

  “I’d like that,” she replied. “There’s nothing quite like beating the snot out of a cocky man, taking him down a notch.”

  He was grinning as she left.

  She wondered if he was making a pass at her, and if he was how she’d respond. He was a handsome man, a few years older than her but that didn’t matter. The problem was that what Orson did had eternally hurt her, in ways she’d never shared with anyone despite how much Doctor Jannis had pried.

  But now was not the time to think about it. Once again she pushed feelings of violation down into obscurity, then masked the hole with anger.

  She didn’t know if she had it in her to let a man get close ever again.

  Sighing, she admitted she couldn’t keep her walls up forever. She was young in terms of a human lifespan, and the men in the fleet who liked a woman in a position of power might try to seduce her. It was human nature.

  She could do worse than Kuo, she admitted to herself. But he could probably do a lot better. Someone less broken would make him happier. Kuo was a good character, and his record demonstrated his personal integrity.

  In all likelihood, she was jumping the gun even thinking he was attracted to her. Maybe he just wanted friendship and a good beating on the ball court.

  Chapter 39 - Swamped

  30 Febbed 15332

  When Hamden left Barotikal, he’d grabbed his entire team although that hadn’t exactly been Captain Heinrich’s orders. But she wanted him to lead any potential ground excursion, and he needed his team to do it.

  That meant Ensign Torris was piloting once again.

  He sat in the co-pilot seat, because sadly the fleet was still in a situation that two pilots were often not available.

  “What’s this?” he asked her.

  “Do not touch,” she snipped reaching to slap his arm down. “That’s the power switch for the lateral atmospheric thrusters.”

  “Oh.” He sighed. Boredom. They’d dropped down from orbit over the ocean, because that was fleet policy to avoid gun emplacements. Not that there seemed to be any guns here. The shuttle raced toward the shore at five hundred meters above the water. Everything they saw raced by too fast to see it in any detail.

  “How far?” he asked.

  “Oh stars, you’re just like a kid!” She pointed at a display on the middle console. “Look at that. It tells you everything you want to know about the destination.”

  He looked at the display. Two hundred kilometers.

  “How fast we going?” he asked, laughing.

  “You’re a prize, Lieutenant Ton Hamden. I’m going to keep reminding myself of that, and I hope you know I feel that way despite you pestering me.”

  “I know,” he said, leaning back into the seat and folding his fingers behind his head. “I’ve heard it all before.”

  “Oh? How many girlfriends have you had?”

  “Girlfriends? I heard it from my Mom.”

  She laughed. Mom had also told him that if he made a woman laugh, he was halfway to her heart.

  “Well your mom was a smart woman.”

  “Family trait.”

  She zerberted him.

  They flew in silence for a while, finally a dark line appeared on the horizon. It slowly grew in prominence, until the shoreline of the continent their target was on passed by. Sadly, too fast to study.

  “I can’t see anything,” Hamden complained.

  “Me either,” she replied. “I hope we make it.”

  He laughed and rolled his eyes.

  “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she said. “Probably landed by then if there is a good spot for it.”

  He wasn’t sure landing right away was a good plan. “Maybe we should do a bit of reconnaissance first.” The images from orbit hadn’t shown anything but a canopy of trees. But there was radiation from their destination that wasn’t from a natural source. “You should be ready to react fast if we’re fired upon.”

  “You think someone has a base here? And might want to take a shot at us? Really?”

  “What I think doesn’t matter. What I’m prepared for does. Be ready for evading fire,” Hamden said. Hopefully his tone of voice meant he didn’t actually have to make it an order.

  “Aye, aye, sir,” she replied. “Look at that,” she pointed at a glass display, “that is a series of computer generated evade and escape routines I already have prepared just in case.”

  “You’re a prize too,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I know,” she answered. “I’ve heard that before.”

  “Past boyfriends?”

  She reached over and rubbed the top of his hand. “No, just my current one.”

  He rolled his hand over to grasp hers, but she used her fingernails to scratch his palm instead. Shivers ran up his spine.

  She had something he really liked. An attitude, an inner fire, a spark of mischief.

  “Stop it,” he said. “I’m immune to your spells.”

  “You certainly are not, but you can think so for now,” she replied. “But speaking of immunity, you should put on that helmet in the case beside you. We’re getting close enough that if something is there, it might see us soon.”

  He put on the helmet, the visor dropped automatically in front of his eyes. He saw through just fine, but now readouts lay laced over the top of the reality around him. A diamond with an X through it lay just below the horizon with a countdown on it. The decreasing number readout was kilometers to go. Fifty-four.

  “I’m dropping lower. If there are thermals, we might get some jolts,” Torris said.

  “I’ll tell the back,” Hamden volunteered as he keyed his mic. “Pladin, tell everyone to hang on. The ride might get rough for a few minutes.”

  “Got it, sir. I’ve got the tank up and running, ready to go. Let me know if we’re deploying and I’ll bring her out hot for targets.”

  “If we’re deploying, I’ll be back to do it with you.”

  Fifty.

  “Well, drat. I thought I was going to conquer this world without you,” Pladin replied.

  Hamden closed the link.

  “He trusts you more than he probably should,” Torris said. “I mean, you don’t have a lot of experience killing aliens.”

  The shuttle jolted hard, dropping twenty meters closer to the forest top. Torris climbed and leveled off.

  “More than you,” Hamden said. “What’s your flight time, like ten hours?”

  “I have five hundred hours, I’ll have you know,” she responded indignantly. “Simulator time counts, right?”

  “Well I sure wish you hadn’t told me that,” he said. “How many hours live?”

  “Only about twenty before I was assigned to your team.”

  He almost choked on his own spit. “I’ve spent more time cleaning my rifle than that!”

  “Couldn’t tell by looking at it.”

  He grinned and shook his head. “I am fond of you, Brinda. I’m not sure how to deal with that yet.”

  “I know.”

  Thirty kilometers to the LZ.

  “Think you can operate the scanners?” Torris asked. “It would keep my mind more on flying.”

  “Sure. The tank’s not much d
ifferent for sensor equipment.” He pushed a button then heard a small motor as the transmitter-antenna array dropped down from the shuttle frame. “Going active.”

  The shuttle’s sensors sent out a broad spectrum of EM radiation. Some ground penetrating, others capable of returning the chemical components of various targets.

  “Lots of carbon, not surprising in a forest… thin soil layer, sandstone bedrock rife with cavities. Extensive water underground if the topography generator is working right.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Because we’re using equipment that was hand-me-down when we got it, and it’s taken years of abuse with barely enough maintenance hours, let alone adequate spare parts,” he answered.

  “Well, yeah, there’s that.”

  He turned his focus back on the scanner returns. “How far out are we?” he asked.

  “Eleven kilometers.”

  “I’m detecting some objects up ahead, buried in the ground. At the radiation source. They don’t look natural.”

  “Nine kilometers.”

  “Aluminum, iron, nickel, carbon, calcium, copper, and a lot of other trace materials. Hydrocarbons.”

  Suddenly the scanner display shut itself off. “See? Lack of spare parts, not enough maintenance,” he complained.

  “Or something doesn’t like being scanned,” Torris said. “Seven klicks.”

  “It won’t turn back on.”

  “Then we’re visual. Or we can use your tank after we unload it,” she said. “It works, right?”

  “Like a top.”

  “Okay, let me focus now,” she said, then dropped even closer to the treetops.

  They flew as low as possible over the site. It looked like any other spot in the rain forest, nothing visual to indicate there was anything special from the air. She circled it several times looking for something out of the ordinary.

  “There’s a shallow marsh southwest of the site, I can land in that and you’ll have to disembark in water, or I can use the turbines to clear an area of the forest. It’s a rain forest, it probably won’t catch fire,” she told him.

  “Let’s go with plan A,” he answered. “Whatever this is has been here a long time. I’d hate to burn it up before we figure out what it is.”

  “Then tie a rock to a rope and measure the depth for me off the back ramp.”

  He toggled the scanner switch. No results. “Rope and a rock, huh? The scanner is fried. It would be a lot easier way to measure water depth.”

  “Plan B, rope and rock. Get going, boyfriend.”

  That filled him with a pleasant sensation. “Rope and rock. Got it.”

  As he headed toward the back the tank’s unloading ramp lowered so he could step out on it.

  He stopped in front of one of the marines. “Give me ten meters of synthrope,” he commanded.

  As the marine spooled out the synthetic rope, he looked around the shuttle for a “rock” to use. There. A metal shovel attached to the wall. He took the rope from the marine, tied the shovel to it, walked to the back of the ramp and tossed it into the fountain of spray rolling into the air from the water below. The sound was insane.

  The rope started to go slack as he looked down the line, so he drew it back up into the shuttle. Thick muck coated the forty centimeter shovel, and another fifteen centimeters of muck coated rope was tied to that. So fifty-five centimeters through water and silt to ground that could support a shovel.

  He keyed his commlink to Torris. “Sixty centimeters,” he reported.

  “That’s fine, the struts can extend more than that far. Down we go,” she replied.

  The shuttle dropped toward the water. The turbines were mounted on the top pylon projections, so they’d be fine, but the water quickly rolled up the ramp as the landing pads settled into the soggy bottom. The back of the shuttle was slightly lower than the front once the settling was done, so the last two meters of the shuttle floor had water lapping over it.

  The engines shut down and the whine of turbines was slowly replaced by an uncomfortable silence other than the ringing in his ears. Moments later the noise of insects erupted from the surrounding forest.

  “We’ll take the tank to shore,” Hamden told Torris via his comm. “Do us all a favor and keep the shuttle from sinking.”

  “It’s on solid ground somewhere down there. Bedrock, from the feel of it,” her voice said behind him. “I want to come with you.”

  He thought about it for a minute. This was a new world, never a human on it before. He really should keep her here, but being the first to walk on a world previously untouched by humans was a once in a lifetime opportunity at best, and probably much more rare than that.

  “Alright. Keep an open link to the shuttle and an active relay to the Stennis at all times. I want them seeing what happens down here.”

  “Already set up,” she said.

  “Everyone into Three-Eight-One,” Hamden ordered. “Torris, you won’t have a seat, you’re to strap to a wall harness. There is room for the commander, the driver, the gunner, and six marines. You can come, but it’s a full ride.”

  She smiled. “Chance of a lifetime.”

  He knew that.

  Chapter 40 - A Mystery

  30 Febbed 15332

  “Open the top hatch and hand me a combat rifle,” Hamden ordered. “I’m getting out.”

  The tank was parked near an area where under the forest floor were several voids. Voids the ground penetrating radar said were oddly cubical. The tanks sensors also picked up a significant spike above background levels of radiation, in ratios that would indicate a fusion reactor operated below.

  Once he was outside, on the ground, he let the others come out.

  “So nothing else on the planet, except some holes in the ground and a fusion reactor?” Torris asked.

  “Voids. We’d climb down into holes. These are cavities below the surface. We’ll have to dig down to get to them,” Hamden said. He turned toward his men. “Vallat, Banjin, you’re on patrol, if you see an animal, kill it and bring it to camp. We’ll test it to see if it’s edible, and collect DNA for the science team back on the ship. I’d like to also have some fresh meals here if we can. Madoro, Carzo, you’re the digging crew. Get shovels out of the Three-Eight-One and start digging over there where that marker is. Coutts, you’re in charge, dig too. Smits, you’re camp guard and cook. Armed at all times, you’re also in charge of keeping this place comfortable.”

  His crew jumped to their tasks.

  “What do I do?” Torris asked.

  Hamden handed her an axe. “You and I get the best job. We’re going to clear some trees with axes and explosives to make a landing pad right here. I don’t like the shuttle being two kilometers off in a bog.”

  “Blowing things up? I’m in,” she answered as she took the axe from him. “Where do we start?”

  “Let’s walk the perimeter and see if we can find a spot that will be easier than other places,” Hamden said. “The fewer trees down, the better. How long is the shuttle?”

  “I think you are asking how much space I need to land. Thirty meters,” she answered.

  He looked into the forest around them. “Well, that’s a lot of trees to take down.” He sighed, then handed her his pistol. “Let’s get started.”

  She checked the safety and then fell in behind him as they set off.

  It took a few hours, but they found a spot suitable for the task. Flat, only a few dozen large trees to blast, a lot of smaller ones to cut down, but the ones less than eight centimeters she assured him the shuttle would simply crush, no need to mess with them.

  That suited him just fine. The less work unrelated to their investigation of the strange signal, the better. The planet had a twenty-nine hour day, which made for a long day of labor. When they came into camp that night, Smits had everything set up. Four tents, two persons each. Cots in place, a fire pit dug, and field rations set out on a small fold up table for each marine.

  “That looks
great,” Hamden said as he grabbed his ration pack. “Compliments to the chef.”

  “You give him something real to work with, sir, and he’ll make a feast. That boy can cook,” Coutts said. “He’s a regular kitchen magician.”

  “Then Vallat and Banjin should probably quit beating the bushes and get him something,” Hamden replied. “I’m busy blowing up trees.”

  Sergeant Coutts’s eyes flicked over toward Torris. “Yeah, blowing up trees, sir.”

  Hamden felt his face turn a bit red.

  “Hey, Smits, you did put the officers in the same tent, right?” she asked.

  “Duh,” Smits answered. “Nobody else wants to sleep with them.”

  Coutts winked at him. “There you go, sir. You can blow up trees all night long.”

  Torris laughed. “You’re just jealous, Sergeant. Won’t any of these guys blow up your tree for you?”

  “From the way I hear it, she doesn’t like trees,” Carzo said. “Ain’t that right, Coutts. Just your luck to get stuck as the only woman on an all male squad, and boys ain’t your thing.”

  “Torris isn’t a man, you dolt,” she replied.

  “She ain’t available either,” Carzo teased, “and not technically part of the combat squad.”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Hamden said, cutting the banter short. “Nobody is going to blow up any trees tonight, and we all need plenty of rest. We’re in the tropics, so it’s going to be dark half of each day. Which is over fourteen hours, if I do the math right. That means plenty of down time, I want three people, one from each tent, awake and on guard at all times.”

  The marines moaned and complained as they ate their meals.

  Finally, as they stowed the trash from dinner, Hamden had enough. “That’s still seven hours of shut eye out of twenty-nine. You all never had it so easy,” he said. “And there is enough food in the dry goods locker to feed us for two months. So tomorrow we get serious about getting the shuttle here, then getting into those chambers below.”

  “I get to rack out first,” Torris said.

  Hamden narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Hey, I called it.”

  “Fine,” he said. “But you better get up when I come to wake you.”