by Isaac Hooke
“Manic has a point,” Rade said. “Algorithm, I want you to try a test shot. Aim for a lone alien perched on one of those rooftops, with no others nearby. Take it down. Be careful to choose an alien located far enough away from the edge of the rooftop. I don’t need the tango falling down into the streets and alerting the others.”
“Boss, can I do it?” Bender asked.
“Aiming for the center of mass...” Algorithm said. “Got it. The alien dropped. They are indeed vulnerable to our laser fire.”
“Damn you,” Bender said.
“All right, we’re going to start making our way down,” Rade said. “Tahoe, fire team one leads the way. Fire team two, spread out along the rim with me, we’ll provide overwatch.”
Algorithm, Tahoe, TJ and Manic proceeded onto the small path and began to pick their way downward. Meanwhile Brat, Rade, Bender and Harlequin emerged from the opening and spread out across the ledge. The former three aimed their rifles down into the subterranean city, while Harlequin remained near the exit and kept his weapon trained into the sandstone tunnel, guarding the rear.
Rade swept his scope over the three-dimensional wireframe representations of the city, searching for signs that any targets were approaching the bottom of the trail. When it seemed clear, he momentarily swept his targeting reticle over the first fire team, and their blue outlines showed over the white wireframes. While the trail was wide enough to fit a Hoplite, giving the jumpsuit-clad Argonauts ample room to maneuver, Manic advanced disturbingly close to the edge. His rifle seemed directed toward something in the city below.
“Manic, you’re too close to the edge,” Rade said.
“Sorry, distracted by a tango I was tracking,” Manic said.
He stepped away, but not before disturbing several small rocks near the edge, which promptly tumbled down, the sounds echoing across the subterranean valley. The advance fire team immediately crouched against the cliff wall and froze.
Rade and the others similarly drew back, lowering their profiles.
Below, Rade heard a rising chittering as creatures emerged from between the leaning buildings to gather along the base of the cliff.
“Do you think they’ve seen us?” Manic said.
“Even if they haven’t, they know something is here,” Rade said.
More and more of the aliens gathered, and the chirping increased.
“So much for sneaking unnoticed along the edge of the city,” TJ said.
fifteen
Rade continued to survey the growing gathering below.
“Look at the base of the trail, up ahead,” TJ said.
Rade aimed his targeting reticle there. Some of the large forms were slowly beginning to make their way up the winding path.
“Do we open fire, boss?” Bender asked, sounding excited.
Rade hesitated. “So far, the aliens seem more curious at the moment than anything else.”
“That’s all well and good,” Tahoe said. “But what happens when they reach our fire team and figure out we’re hiding here?”
“Hold,” Rade said.
Rade followed the lead alien with his scope as the creature ascended the trail toward fire team one. Eight more followed. He decided in that moment he wasn’t going to allow the aliens to reach his Argonauts.
“Tahoe, pull back fire team one,” Rade said. “Get back here. Move stealthily... try not to draw any attention to yourselves, if possible.”
Tahoe and the others began their return, crouching close to the cliff edge.
The aliens must have seen them, because the chittering excitedly rose in volume below. Rade watched as the creatures immediately shrank away from the edge, as if frightened. More loud chirping came from the base of the trail. When Rade swept his targeting reticle there, he realized those that had started up the trail were retreating, either in fear, or to allow other more powerful units to take their places.
“I think they spotted us,” TJ said.
“Keep retreating,” Rade said.
A new, louder chittering came, and the creatures below dispersed, retreating into the lanes between the buildings behind them.
Rade dreaded what the source of that chirping would be. He imagined something akin to the dragons or salamanders in size, a massive, towering behemoth that his Argonauts would have to deal with at great risk to themselves.
So he was a little surprised when a smaller creature darted forward. On the LIDAR representation, it appeared to have some sort of wings, though the parts were a blur. It swooped upward.
“Do we fire?” Bender said.
“Hold,” Rade said.
When it was twenty meters away, Rade was ready to give the order to fire. But then his external microphone picked up a voice.
“Masters! What are you doing here?”
Rade exhaled in relief. “Stand down.”
Noctua swooped upward to hover in front of Rade. “Masters?”
“Why aren’t you transmitting a friendly signal?” Rade said via his external speaker.
“Oh, yes, I had forgotten,” Noctua said. Abruptly the white wireframe became silhouetted in blue as Rade’s Implant interpreted the robot owl as friendly.
“But now, master, tell me, why have you come?” Noctua continued. The robot had linked to their shared comm frequency after switching to friendly mode, and her voice came over the main channel.
Rade’s relief was forgotten, replaced with guilt. “To check on Surus, obviously.”
“But she told you she might be ten hours!” Noctua said. “Five hours still remain!”
“I know,” Rade said. “We got worried about her.”
“Humans!” Noctua said. “You are ever an impatient lot! You could have gotten yourselves killed!”
Noctua dove, flying down to the base of the cliff, where she perched on a small rock. The little robot issued more chirping sounds, and any remaining creatures vanished from view.
“I guess that’s her way of telling us to follow,” Tahoe said.
“All right, Tahoe, get down there,” Rade said. “We’ll be right behind you. Brat, lead the way.”
Rade followed Brat downward, while Bender and Harlequin took up the rear. They moved cautiously, staying close to the wall, still somewhat worried about attracting the attention of the creatures.
The first fire team reached Noctua and waited for the second to arrive. As Rade approached, Noctua once more took flight, wending between two of the buildings. According to the overhead map, her marker had paused a short distance between those structures. Obviously she was waiting for them once more.
Rade and the Argonauts hurried forward to join the robot owl. They held their weapons in hand, though lowered.
“No point keeping our headlamps turned off,” Rade said.
The party members activated their external lights, and the white wireframe representation of the street filled out. Rade glanced upward, shining his headlamp at a nearby structure. The stacked cubes were made of crystals similar to the cones Rade had seen on the surface outside the cavern, except that the individual facets were far smaller, and at a glance, seemed like something Rade could use for purchase if he had to climb them. That would explain the aliens Rade spotted clinging to the exterior farther up.
The other buildings around him appeared similar: stacked cubes reaching for the ceiling, harboring the occasional clinging creatures. Small openings in the bottoms of the structures allowed ingress.
“Sugar cubes!” Bender said. “We’re chillaxin’ in a village made of giant sugar cubes! Sweet mammaries!”
“Kinda makes you want to rub your nipples, doesn’t it?” Manic said.
“Speak for yourself!” Bender said. “You’re the one taking female hormones.”
“Ha,” Manic said. “Last I checked, test was a male hormone.”
“That’s why you ain’t taking test!” Bender said. “Gotta keep up your MTF transition. We don’t call you bitch-tits for nothing.”
“If I’m bitch-tits, then y
ou’re saggy-momma,” Manic said.
“Uh no,” Bender said. “No no no. These pecs are like paladin shields. Perfectly formed, tight, and manly.”
“So that’s what you call them,” Manic said. “Well, whatever gets you off, Saggy.”
Algorithm led the way. On either side of the street, aliens lurked in the shadows. Different team members directed their lights toward the creatures in turn, but the things didn’t react.
“Guess they really are blind,” TJ said.
The aliens had bodies that were vaguely similar to buffaloes both in size and shape, with thick torsos and four powerful legs, and even had fur, though in place of heads they had large, clam-like shells, complete with horizontal slits down the middle. A small lump in the throat area moved whenever one of the aliens emitted a chirp.
“Buffaclams,” Bender said. “That’s what I’m calling these bugs. We should invite them to a clambake later. They can be the guests of honor.”
“I don’t believe they’re edible by humans,” Harlequin said.
“Yeah, you shut up, AI,” Bender said. “Unless you eat, you ain’t allowed to comment.”
“I could certainly eat them,” Harlequin said. “Considering that no digestion would be involved. However, it would be disgusting, on my part, especially considering that I would eventually have to regurgitate all of the ingested material.”
“Hmm,” Bender said. “I think I might actually enjoying watching you eat one of these buffaclams. That’s a great idea, Harlequin. When we’re done here, we’ll make a visit to that rooftop where your robot buddy downed one of the aliens, and I’ll sit back while you chow down. I’m going to record it and stream it on MyCrazyVids, and make a fortune. ‘Robot hurls after eating alien clams.’ I’ll teach you all about clickbait.”
“That’s a terrible title for a video,” Manic said. “You want to get hits, go with something like: ‘Shocking! Cute alien clam eaten alive by evil robot.’ That’ll get you views.”
“Yeah, whatever, like you know anything about viral videos,” Bender said.
“I should tell you about the viral video I posted of your sister,” Manic said. “Bet you can’t guess what the headline read?”
“I’m muting you now,” Bender replied.
As the Argonauts proceeded, any aliens that lay in their path moved aside to let the party pass unmolested. The creatures chirped away quietly, almost shyly.
“Must be cold down here,” TJ said.
“Why do you say that?” Manic said.
“The fur,” TJ said. “Plus, the temperature reading on my HUD.”
“Doh!” Bender said.
“So what are these things, Noctua?” Rade asked.
“This race was once known as the Taenia,” Noctua said. “They had not achieved spaceflight when the Phants arrived, and thus were restricted to this world. However, they were very technologically advanced in other ways, with some of their industries reaching all the way to Tech Class IV, hence sweet master’s interest in them.”
“Taenia,” Harlequin said. “That’s an interesting name you have given them. It is a genus of tapeworm.”
“I’m glad you noticed!” Noctua said. “These aliens were parasites, similar to tapeworms in fact, though not in shape obviously: they lived in the gut of dinosaur-like creatures. You have seen a few of the descendants of those dinosaurs in the deserts above, I’m sure. That desert was once a lush rainforest, by the way, but I digress. In any case, after the Phants came, they killed off most of the hosts, and altered the gut flora of the survivors, causing most of the Taenia to die. A handful of Taenia genetically modified themselves to survive outside of their hosts, and evolved into these gentle creatures you see today.”
“I’m still calling them buffaclams,” Bender insisted.
“I thought you muted us,” Manic said.
“Huh, what’s that?” Bender replied. “Can’t hear you.”
Noctua perched on the lower ledge of a towering building up ahead, and as the party approached, the robot owl took flight once more, vanishing into the next street.
Noctua continued leading them between the structures in that manner. Rade set his overhead map to leave a breadcrumb route, in case the party needed to make a quick retreat.
The Argonauts entered a small clearing where several of the creatures had gathered around what appeared to be a shallow pool. As Rade and the men skirted the liquid, creatures walked to the center of the pool and knelt to submerse their lower bodies; then they splashed around, apparently washing themselves.
“They’re taking baths?” TJ asked.
“No,” Noctua transmitted. “They are feeding. That liquid is nutrient dense, and diffuses directly through their skin and into their bloodstream.”
“Where does the liquid come from?” Tahoe said.
“I’m glad you asked!” Noctua said. “The Taenia collect the fecal matter of the flying lizards that nest on the crystal cones on the surface, via conduits hidden in their nests. They pipe said matter down here, and then treat the liquid before allowing it to percolate in various feed locations throughout the city.”
“So basically, it’s sewage,” Tahoe said.
“Brings new meaning to the phrase: eat shit,” Bender said.
“Probably a good thing we’re locked away in our jumpsuits right about now,” Manic said. “The smell is probably horrendous.”
“Can’t be much worse than when you take off your boots on the ship,” Bender quipped.
During the march, the chirping aliens sometimes came right up to the individual party members.
“Curious little bastards, aren’t they?” TJ said.
Bender abruptly bashed one of the closer aliens on its shell-like head, and it backed away, chirping madly.
“Bitch touched me with its clam head!” Bender said.
Nearby creatures quickly gathered, rather aggressively, around the party, enveloping the Argonauts and blocking all access forward. Some of the Argonauts raised their weapons uncertainly.
“Permission to open fire,” Bender said.
“Hold!” Rade said.
Noctua returned from up ahead, chittering wildly as she repeatedly swooped between the aliens, and at last the creatures receded.
“What did you do?” Noctua said.
“Bender punched one of them,” Manic said.
“Please, masters,” Noctua said. “Do not anger them again!”
“Then tell them not to touch me!” Bender said.
“Done!” Noctua chittered loudly, then swooped around the bend.
The crisis averted, the party continued.
“Look who just showed up on the overhead map,” Tahoe said.
Rade glanced at the map. In one of the structures ahead, the blue dots representing Ms. Bounty and her remaining Centurion had appeared as the two of them finally came into range.
“Surus, do you read?” Rade tried.
It was the Centurion that answered: “She and her host are temporarily incapacitated at the moment.”
Noctua led them to a slightly out of place crystalline building, this one wider, and much lower to the ground than the others at around three stories tall. According to the map, Surus and the Centurion were inside. The robot owl flew within.
Rade exchanged a look with Tahoe, and then followed along with the rest of the party.
They entered a large vault. Beside them, near the entrance, the Centurion stood watch. Farther in, the floor was covered in a series of thick, curved, knee-height ribs that protruded at regular intervals. Near the edges of the chamber, those ribs bent upward onto the wall and ceiling, like the trellis of some cubical carriage. On the ceiling, conduits of bright blue and green threaded the outer surfaces of the ribs, ending in a series of crystal rods that descended down into the center of the room. Underneath the rods, the floor ribs joined together to form a dais.
Surus’ host, Ms. Bounty, lay on that dais, apparently unconscious. Her helmet was removed, and resting on the dais be
side her.
Rade slowly approached her. “What is she doing?”
“She has created an interface unit,” Noctua answered. “Using ancient 3D printers found in a different part of the city. It is somewhat surprising that any of this technology is still functional. If there is one thing that can be said about the Taenia, it’s that their tech was built to endure.”
“She used ancient 3D printers...” Rade said. “How did she learn how to control their tech so fast?”
“The Phants conquered this race a long time ago, remember,” Noctua said. “The memories were available to her in the higher realm of her existence, though also readily accessible in this current reality through me.”
Rade spotted what appeared to be a dongle protruding from the back of Ms. Bounty’s unhelmeted head, attached to an access port hidden in her hair. Rade could see the green drops of condensation on the nape of her neck, indicating the Phant still possessed the host.
“Can you wake her?” Rade asked.
“No,” Noctua said.
Rade sighed, then took a seat on one of the ribs, beckoning for the party members to do likewise. He wasn’t going to stun the Phant while it was interfaced with some alien machine. He didn’t want to risk anything befalling her. He glanced at the time. An hour had passed since their arrival. That left another three hours before Falon attempted to make good on his threats to harm the crew of the Argonaut.
“Algorithm, Brat, join the Centurion,” Rade said. “Watch the entrance.”
Rade observed as the combat robots joined their brother. Rade hadn’t actually posted them there so much to watch the entrance, but rather because he wanted the robots ready to take down the guard when the time came.
Another hour passed. Rade found himself growing antsy. Once Surus awoke, the squad still had to make its way back through the desert, including the snail-like crawl away from the crystal cones and nesting dragons. All sorts of complications could arise out there to slow them down. The dragons might be actively patrolling. More giant salamanders might attack. And so forth.
Rade might have to risk stunning Surus while she was still interfaced after all...
He decided to wait a little while longer.