by Isaac Hooke
Finally, after another thirty minutes passed, his helmet speakers activated, transmitting the female voice picked up by his external microphones. “Rade, is that you?”
Rade glanced toward the dais. Surus was sitting up.
“Welcome back,” Rade told her via his external speakers.
“Thanks.” She removed the dongle from the back of her head, stowed it in her harness, and reattached her helmet. “What are you doing here?” Surus spoke now over the comm. “Have the Greens arrived? I told you to wait for me.”
“We detected a few vessels in the system changing course toward the station, but they’re still about a day away,” Rade lied.
“So why are you here?” Surus pressed.
“We grew impatient,” Rade said. “You’re our client. It’s our duty to protect you.” Damn, he felt guilty saying those words. He reached for the stun rifle that hung from his opposite shoulder, but couldn’t bring himself to perform the deed, not yet. Stalling, he nodded toward the rods that descended from the ceiling. “So what is this?”
“Archives,” Surus said. “And they are incredible. The descendants of the Taenia—did Noctua tell you that’s what I’ve named the aliens?”
“Yes,” Rade said.
“Well, the descendants do not know the extents of what they possess,” Surus continued. “Nor how to access these archives. I’ll have to return here at some point and teach them. They could prove useful allies of humanity in the days to come.”
“Did you grab all the tech you needed?” Rade asked.
“Mostly,” Surus said. “I have acquired the plasma arcing tech I originally sought. But there is one more technology I wish to procure.”
“You haven’t found it, yet?” Rade said.
“No,” Surus said. “But I intend to make another data dive.”
He remembered what Bourbonjack had told him she was looking for: tech that would protect her from the stun devices. He couldn’t allow her to acquire that. Then again, perhaps if she did, he could use that somehow, to trick Falon into believing she was stunned...
Rade glanced at the clock in the lower right of his vision. Too bad there wasn’t really enough time.
“We should go back,” Rade said. “You can finish up after we return the Acceptor to the Argonaut.”
“It should only be another few hours,” Surus said. “Since the need to depart isn’t urgent, I might as well do the dive now, while I’m here.”
Rade smiled sadly. Falon would begin executing his Argonauts by then.
Surus lifted her gloved hands to remove her helmet and reinitiate the interface.
Rade nodded toward Algorithm and Brat, and they disabled the guard Centurion with their weapons.
Rade lifted the stun rifle toward her.
As Surus stared at him with surprise in her eyes, he had a moment of doubt, and almost wanted to back out. But then he thought of Shaw and the twins, and those others who had remained behind.
I do this for them.
Rade fired.
The look of betrayal on Surus’ face bit deeply into Rade’s heart, and he felt a terrible shame in that moment.
“I’m sorry,” Rade said softly.
Surus collapsed onto the dais.
“What have you done!” Noctua said. “Traitors!”
Bender swung his rifle toward the owl. Noctua abruptly flew toward the rear of the chamber, hiding in a small alcove near the ceiling.
“I got the little bitch!” Bender said, running after the owl.
“Let it go,” Rade said.
“But—”
“Let it go,” Rade repeated firmly. He turned toward his men. “Hurry!”
Tahoe scooped up the stunned Artificial and strapped her to his back using a carbon fiber cord from his utility belt. Rade didn’t have to worry about the Phant attempting to incinerate Tahoe, not with the EM emitter his friend had embedded in his jumpsuit. Besides, during the return journey Rade planned to unleash the rifle at Surus every few minutes to keep her stunned.
“You’re sure firing the stun weapon at her won’t affect me or my jumpsuit?” Tahoe asked. “Considering her proximity to my suit?”
“Positive,” Rade said. He directed the weapon at Surus and squeezed the trigger at near point-blank range to prove his point.
Surus momentarily convulsed, but Tahoe was unaffected.
“I see,” Tahoe said.
Algorithm meanwhile had removed the still-intact AI core from the fallen Centurion, and secured the device to Brat’s harness.
“Let’s go,” Rade said. “Noctua, remain here with these aliens. You’ll be safe. We’ll try to come back for you when this is over.”
The robot owl, still hidden in her alcove, didn’t answer.
Rade and the others quickly retreated into the city, following the digital breadcrumbs left on the overhead map. They swept their rifles across nearby aliens, but none of them paid much heed.
When the Argonauts were about fifty meters from the structure, Noctua’s voice echoed down the street.
“I will hunt you down!” the little robot said. “And I will gut you! Bleed them, my Taenia allies. Bleed them!”
An incredibly loud, angry chittering erupted from the robot.
On the overhead map, Rade saw red dots gathering on all sides as aliens moved to surround the team.
“Little bitch has gone and done it now,” Bender said.
sixteen
Frags,” Rade ordered.
The team threw frag grenades into the waiting line of Taenia. The grenades impacted, detonating, clearing a path and sending up several body parts from the buffalo-like aliens. A large clam-shaped head landed in front of Rade.
“What do you think of that, you stinkin’ clam bugs?” Bender said. “That all you got, bitches?”
“Go!” Rade said.
He unleashed his laser rifle at a side street ahead, shooting down the aliens that attempted to cut off the team’s retreat. Around him, the other Argonauts opened fire as they ran, taking down more aliens that rushed in from the flanks and rear.
The group made its way back the way they had come, wending between the different crystalline buildings at a sprint. The sound of angry chittering filled the air around them, as the aliens were egged on by the continually chirping Noctua.
“Overhead!” TJ said.
Rade glanced up in time to see a Taenia plummeting down toward him.
He leaped aside just in time. The alien hit the ground where he had been standing with a sickening splat. It didn’t get up.
“We have to get out from under these buildings!” Rade said.
More aliens dive-bombed from above, forcing the Argonauts to dodge them as they continued to shoot down any that got in their path.
Ahead, another large group had formed near the outskirts of the city, milling about to block the party’s retreat to the winding trail that climbed the cliff face.
“If you have grenades left, use them!” Rade said.
He threw his last grenade; his wasn’t the only one that struck, and several body parts geysered when the frags detonated. But the milling throng remained.
Rade paused in a large square that was well away from nearby buildings and the aliens dive-bombing from them.
“Dig in!” Rade said. “Cigar formation!”
He dropped to one knee, and opened fire repeatedly at the seething mass in front of him. The other Argonauts had formed a circle formation, and they defended the other flanks as the aliens kept coming in from the different streets.
Rade couldn’t see any obvious way out. He momentarily switched weapons to stun Surus, who was yet attached to Tahoe’s back. Then he swapped back to his laser rifle, narrowly taking down a Taenia that rushed him. It dropped to the ground, sliding across the dirt on the cave floor, its shell almost slamming into him before the alien came to a stop.
“Boss!” Harlequin said.
“What is it?” Rade asked. He remained down on one knee, repeatedly switchin
g his aim to target different tangos.
In front of him a line of alien corpses had formed, but the creatures behind simply crawled over the dead. The Taenia had begun using their clam-shaped heads as shields, apparently having realized that the team’s laser weapons required several shots to penetrate the hard material, and so when they advanced it was with their heads lowered like charging bulls, protecting as much of their bodies with those shells as possible.
“I’m marking a building that resides inside the milling throng, but still near the outskirts of the alien city,” Harlequin said. “It leans toward the cliff face. If we can climb to the top, we should be able to leap onto the trail, right over the churning mass blocking our path ahead.”
A nearby towering structure became highlighted in green, courtesy of Harlequin.
“Team, climb that building!” Rade said. He dialed up the strength of his exoskeleton to full, then planted both feet firmly on the ground, bent his legs, and leaped.
Rade found purchase via the small edges of the facets composing the exterior, and pulled himself up to the ledge formed by the next stacked cube. He paused to provide some suppressing fire as the other Argonauts leaped up, then he continued the climb. All of the remaining Argonauts had latched onto the crystal surface below and beside him.
The aliens pursued, the limbs of their buffalo-shaped bodies twisting at grotesque angles to form almost insect-like appendages, the two segments of each limb bending at ninety-degrees to one another. The Taenia climbed swiftly, forcing Rade to double his pace.
“Pick it up, team,” Rade said. “These things aren’t slow!” He paused to target a few of the leading aliens with his rifle. Because of the way the legs of the Taenia contorted for the climb, the appendages were exposed beyond their clam-like heads, and he was able to readily strike them. Upon impact, the creatures promptly released the wall and plunged, occasionally bringing down others clinging to the exterior underneath them.
But more aliens quickly leaped onto the crystal surface to take their places.
“A second group is moving onto the trail to head us off,” Harlequin warned.
“Damn things are clever,” Manic said. “Why can’t we ever face stupid aliens?”
“It’s pretty hard to find an alien with an intellect that matches yours, I know,” Bender mocked.
Rade stopped wasting his time shooting the aliens, and continued the climb. It was more important to reach the top before the second group of aliens cut off their escape.
Bender reached the rooftop first, but then promptly let go and plunged.
Rade caught him by the wrist as he descended, and then swung him onto the ledge below. Bender grabbed on, and Rade released him.
“What happened?” TJ asked.
“Damn alien bitch smacked me up there!” Bender said.
Rade glanced upward. There was indeed a Taenia prowling back and forth on the rooftop.
“Algorithm, distract it while I climb around to the other side,” Rade ordered. “The rest of you, defend. Keep those bastards underneath us at bay. Brat, Harlequin, I want you to target those aliens climbing the trail. Don’t let them head us off.”
Rade moved sideways, searching and finding handholds, bringing himself around the structure. Then he hurriedly clambered upward.
As he neared the top, he saw that Algorithm had succeeded in distracting the alien, because it was perched on the far side of the roof. Rade reached the edge of the roof and, hanging on with one hand, aimed his rifle at the thing, and struck it squarely in the behind. The alien slumped, then fell over the edge.
Rade scrambled onto the flat surface and then took a running leap toward the cliff face that harbored the trail. He aimed for a spot well in front of the incoming aliens, about five meters away from the rim of the leaning structure.
Time seemed to slow as he floated out into the empty air; he was well aware that he had no jumpsuit to back him up if anything went wrong.
He landed on the trail and slammed into the rock wall bordering it. He rebounded from the surface and nearly fell from the ledge. Recovering his balance, he advanced up the trail several paces to make room for the others, and then turned his rifle on the incoming aliens to open fire. There was a long, single-file row of them on the path; the lead creature was only about four meters away from him by then, and like the others, it had lowered its clam head to shield its body.
“Hurry!” Rade said.
Without warning the foremost alien leaped at Rade, sending him crashing into the stone floor of the ledge. The weight of the creature pressed down on Rade, and that clamshell opened.
Rade dodged his head to the side, avoiding the acid that spilled out, and the rock sizzled beside his helmet. He twisted his body off the ledge, bringing the alien over with him. Rade found purchase at the last moment, and hung on with one hand while the Taenia fell away.
Rade was worried that another alien was going to jump at him in the same way, but then movement above told him that other Argonauts had landed and moved into position on the ledge, and were firing into the incoming herd.
Harlequin reached down and wrapped his hand around Rade’s wrist and pulled him up. Brat and Algorithm stood on the trail beside him, doing their best to aim their rifles at any exposed limbs beyond those protecting shells.
Bender still resided on top of the nearby building; he was the last Argonaut there, and he was getting in some solid hits from the side as he fired into the Taenia on the trail, forcing those aliens to decide whether to leave themselves open to attacks from the front or the side. TJ and Manic, located a few meters ahead of Rade, were picking off the creatures on the structure below Bender, but they couldn’t hit those located on the far side. Bender’s building was nearly overrun by the climbing aliens by that point.
“Bender, get over here!” Rade said. He planted an explosive charge on the trail.
Bender took a running leap, but an alien managed to strike one of his boots before he took off, affecting his jump. He fell just short of the ledge and latched onto the rim.
Rade reached down and hauled him up.
“Let’s go!” Rade said.
The group hurried up the trail, continuing to fire at the herd behind them.
When Rade judged the distance sufficient, he detonated the charge. The explosion shook the trail and carved a four meter crater in the path behind the team.
But the Taenia simply leaped over the gap to continue the pursuit.
“Persistent little bitches aren’t they?” Bender said.
“That’s what all your ex’s tell you?” Manic quipped.
TJ reached the sandstone opening and hurried inside. Rade and the others followed just behind him.
As they neared the area where the sandstone tunnel transitioned into crystal, Rade said: “TJ, I want you to place a charge on the ceiling, on the border between the crystal and sandstone. About a meter before the crystal begins.” Rade chose that location because he was unsure if the explosion would harm the crystal at all.
“Will do,” TJ said. “Might need a boost.”
“I got you,” Tahoe said.
The party paused to fire back down the tunnel as Tahoe helped TJ affix the explosive.
“Done!” TJ said.
“Argonauts, go!” Rade said.
The team hurried into the crystal portion of the cave; in moments they reached the sunlit opening, piling the two meters to the purple sand below one by one.
“Proceed to the north side,” Rade said. “Away from the other cones!” And out of view of those dragons.
Rade had harbored a small hope that there might be a dust storm of some kind to cover their retreat, since when his team had arrived earlier the entrance to the Acceptor cave had been buried, hinting that such storms occurred often, but the sky was clear. It didn’t matter... he had another plan.
The Argonauts crouched, hugging the circular exterior of the conical structure as they moved toward the north side of the cone. When Rade judged the dista
nt sufficient, he detonated the charge.
An explosive thud echoed from the crystal, and the ground shook. Dust rose from the three meter opening.
Rade sensed motion above. Not unsurprisingly, the detonation had attracted the attention of the dragons.
By then the Argonauts had succeeded in making their way to the northern side of the cone, and continued to hug the surface.
“Halt!” Rade said.
He switched to Algorithm’s viewpoint. The Centurion was on drag; and right around the bend behind it, Rade could see two of the large dragons already exploring the opening. They chirped loudly, sniffing at the dust.
Rade wondered if there were any Taenia trapped within the crystal passage, and how long it would take the other aliens to dig through the collapse and join them; Rade had instructed TJ to place only one charge in the hopes that the delay wouldn’t be overlong, because if that explosion had caused extensive collapse damage, sealing the sandstone entirely and preventing the Taenia from providing fresh meat for the dragons, then his team would be in trouble. Especially considering that one of the dragons was already starting to circle the conical structure on foot.
So much for my plan...
And then a Taenia fell from the opening, landing in the sand.
Rade slumped ever so slightly in relief. He still wasn’t entirely certain how the dragons would behave toward the new arrival, however, and he knew that relief might be short-lived.
But then the closer dragon promptly scooped up the alien in its large jaws; the other dragon turned away from its attempted circling of the crystal, and hurried back to chomp down on the rear portion of the Taenia that was exposed from the first dragon’s mouth. The two flying lizards fought over the alien, chittering and hissing loudly, eventually tearing it apart. They spit acid over their respective pieces and waited a few moments for the flesh to dissolve, and then began devouring the remains.
Another dragon arrived, and promptly attempted to steal the corpse pieces away from the other two, but they snapped at it, driving the third dragon off.
But then, to that dragon’s delight, three more Taenia promptly piled outside. The giant reptile instantly pounced on them. The other two dragons gave up their current meals to join in the fun.