Shards of Eternity

by John Triptych

  “I’m sorry for interrupting again, but I just received a priority com-link signal from the Clint V up in high orbit,” Sappho said. “Shall I put them through?”

  “Yes,” Strand said.

  Jia-Hao’s excited voice came over their com-link audio channel. “LT, you there?”

  “I’m here, Spacer,” Strand said. “What is it?”

  “We just got a contact in the shadow zone, sir,” Jia-Hao said. “We’ve confirmed she’s the Tiburon, and she’s heading towards Pirindra at high acceleration. According to our calculations, she’ll reach high orbit in less than an hour.”

  Strand cursed. “Damn, you’ll get spotted.” He glanced over towards Fytti. “If we lose that ship, we’ll never get outta here.”

  Fytti quickly inputted something on the virtual planetary map. “Direct them to land at these coordinates; it’s in the low equatorial regions. They need to shut down their engines the moment they’re on the surface.”

  Strand monitored the information flow as the coordinates were forwarded to the strike team crew on the Clint V. “Y’all got it?”

  “We have it, LT,” Jia-Hao said. “We’ll begin planetfall right away, then await further orders once we’re on the ground.”

  “Okay, over and out,” Strand said before standing up and tapping the boy on his shoulder. “Let’s get going, kid. If this is the wreck where the archon’s son really is, then we’ve got no time to lose.”

  Hauk got up after unstrapping himself from the pilot’s chair. He glanced towards Fytti. “Can you pilot the shuttle?”

  Fytti sighed as she too stood up. “Of course I can. This is my shuttlecraft, remember?”

  Strand had already opened the rear hatch leading to a small, adjoining storeroom. “No need to bring us in low, we can make a drop from this height,” he said to her before gesturing at Hauk to join him. “I hope you assembled these a-suits properly, kid.”

  In less than a second, Hauk was already standing beside the lieutenant as he pulled open a box containing components for their Armatus battle armor. “Sure did, LT. I even added plasma torches and extended fuel for them. There’s extra juice for the jump jets too.”

  “Good,” Strand said. “Let’s suit up and make the drop ASAP. I have a feeling things are about to heat up very quickly.”

  28 Combat Archaeology

  Sitting in the captain’s chair inside the Tiburon’s bridge, Toto Vega let out a stifled groan as he continued to suffer the agony of high-gee forces. The ship was barreling towards low orbit over the planet Pirindra, and he was confident the crushing pain would soon subside once they decelerated.

  A beeping noise on the com-link made him wince. What in the hell is it now?

  Despite the intense force of gravity pushing everyone else into their seats, Baz Wilkerson leaned sideways as he read the contents of the incoming message. He glanced over to his superior, and the apprehension in his eyes had nothing to do with the ship’s high delta-V. “Captain, we got an alert from the Scythian military on the ground.”

  Vega winced, hoping the pounding in his head would cease so he could think clearly. “What … is it?”

  “The Scythians are saying they’re encountering rebels inside the crevasse and coming under fire. They’re waiting for reinforcements.”

  Vega cursed out loud. His words were pained and slow. “Baz, once we hit low orbit, get down there … and bring all the remaining warbots we got with you. I … want that shard found …. or make sure the other side … never gets it.”

  “Consider it done, boss.”

  In addition to their battle armor, both Duncan Hauk and Garrett Strand also wore an even larger engineering harness over their Armatus suits. With extendable joints and equipped with plasma welding torches, they were halfway through one of the lower decks of the downed transport when their suit sensors began picking up the unmistakable signs of a battle coming their way.

  Hauk was too busy concentrating on slicing through a lower deck plate to notice, but Strand turned off his welder and began sorting through the incoming information. It seemed the local military garrison was coming into the crevasse with all available forces, and Unus’s rebel cell had begun engaging them.

  A com-link signal from Fytti came over their audio speakers. “I can’t keep hovering in this position above you two. The archon’s security forces are swarming just above the ice canyon, and they’ll spot me very soon if I keep this up.”

  “Understood,” Strand said. “Can you find cover and shut down your engines?”

  “The fifth wreck site is about three klicks from where you are,” Fytti said. “I’ll land beside it and try to blend in. Hopefully it’ll fool them for a bit.”

  “Okay, go for it,” Strand told her before switching audio channels to speak with the boy. “Kid, how much longer?”

  Hauk had extended both arms on his harness, with a plasma torch on each end as he made a slow, circular cut through the ship’s flooring. “I’m not sure, LT. These transports have got thick inner hulls, and I’ve used up close to sixty percent of my torch fuel already.”

  Strand grimaced. “We need to make faster progress. Try to slice through the bulkheads and hatches instead of just the plain decks.”

  “If I do that then it won’t be a direct path to the wreck underneath this one,” Hauk said. “I’m gonna have to cut through a hatch, move sideways, get into position while clearing out debris, then cut through another.”

  “It’ll have to do,” Strand said. “We’re running out of time.”

  Section Leader Unus’s grim countenance continued as he crouched down beside his com-link operator. A series of loud explosions rocked the ice cave his command staff was hiding in, sending down pieces of packed snow all around, threatening to bury them alive.

  One of his sub-officers had his own extended com-link pack, and he followed the battle’s progress using a handheld virtual map. “Enemy forces attempting another drop, this time forty klicks west of our main position.”

  “Are they still in range of our anti-air missile teams?” Unus asked.

  “Yes, but if we fire at them from our positions, we’ll be exposing ourselves to crossfire from those bastards directly above us.”

  “Order them to fire if the right opportunity presents itself, then have them shift firing positions afterwards,” Unus said.

  “Alright,” his subordinate said. “But we’re running out of places to take cover in.”

  “We just gotta keep this up for a bit more,” Unus said to him while tapping his female com-link operator’s shoulder. “What’s the status with Fytti and those pirates?”

  “They’re still in the process of going through their assigned wreck site, sir,” the com-link operator said. “They’re also asking for help.”

  Unus shook his head. “Tell them they’re on their own. My forces are tied up over here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  After coming back in from an adjoining tunnel, Section Leader Y’tay walked up to his rival. “Unus, who is that over at the easternmost wreck site?”

  “The info merchant and a few of her pirate friends,” Unus said. “They have a shuttle and excavation gear, so I allowed them to help out with the dig sites.”

  Y’tay puffed up his barrel-like chest until it was visible underneath the thick parka jacket he wore. “You allowed them? You? This is my territory. You were supposed to tell me about them first!”

  “Do you want us to waste more time with pointless introductions? We have to find that relic before the archon’s forces overwhelm us.”

  Y’tay shook his gloved finger at him. “And if they should find the shard, what then?”

  “Then they will inform us and we can all get out of here.”

  “What happens if they find it and sneak away without telling us?”

  “We’ll just have to trust them,” Unus said. “And at this rate, it’s doubtful any of us will be alive by the end of the day.”

  “I don’t trust them,” Y’tay sai
d. “I’m sending one of my teams over to their position to keep an eye on them just in case they do find it.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  The ice cave shook once again as more explosions happened nearby.

  After turning off the battle drone’s radiators now that the planet’s atmosphere allowed the heat generated by his engines to bleed away via natural convection, Baz Wilkerson began sorting through his com-link to make sure the Scythian forces below identified him as a friendly.

  The audio voice came from the archon’s local garrison units. “This is Executor Ratigan. I have received and confirmed your transponder codes, sir. My units will not fire at you, you have my word.”

  “That’s good to know,” Baz said while checking the map. “I’ll start at the eastern edge of the ice canyon. Please be sure to mark my warbots as friendlies too. I’m sending you their respective transponder codes now.”

  There was a mild gasp on the other line. “Warbots? But those things aren’t allowed to operate in Concordance space.”

  “I could care less what your laws are,” Baz said. “I’m bringing them over and don’t you dare engage them. If you got a problem, talk to the sub-archon who’s orbiting above you.”

  “Y-yes, sir.”

  “Over and out,” Baz said before he switched to another communications channel. “Okay, warbots one to six, listen up. I’ll perform a low insertion drop at the designated area. Once I start hovering, deploy and start scanning using the specific emission signature I uploaded into your systems, got it?”

  Six machine-like voices answered in unison. “Yes, sir.”

  “Secure the area once you locate it, and engage any hostiles,” Baz said.

  “Yes, sir,” the warbots repeated emotionlessly.

  Hauk used up the third fuel pod before switching over to his fourth and final one while standing over the partially breached hatch. A nearby explosion shifted the floor sideways, and the boy nearly fell forward, but he was able to hold onto a nearby support column to stop himself from slipping.

  Cursing in frustration, Hauk slammed his armored foot onto the top of the hatch. The remaining bolts gave way and the dome-shaped portal fell through the floor, leaving a gaping hole underneath him.

  Strand had been observing the battle from a higher deck within the ruined hulk, but he quickly made his way down upon hearing the breach. “How we doing now, kid?”

  Hauk had already made his way into the previously untouched lower wreck as his helmet visor began running a preliminary scan. “According to my a-suit computer’s database, this second shipwreck was definitely a command craft.”

  “This has gotta be it,” Strand said as he made it up just above the now breached hatch. “I can feel it.”

  Hauk slowly turned to cover the whole interior, making sure his helmet scans were thorough. It felt like he was in an icy tomb. “Lots of dead bodies still frozen in their chairs. I’m checking for any telltale signs of radiation signatures based on our readings of the shards.”

  “You better hurry,” Strand said. “I’m picking up new contacts directly above us.”

  Hauk trudged deeper, his bulky suit and exoskeleton knocking aside a number of frozen corpses. The moment he got closer to the forward part of the craft’s hull, he frowned. “LT, bad news. The bow of the command craft must have crumpled upon impact with the ground. There’s a ton of debris blocking me.”

  “Damn it,” Strand said. “Maybe it’s just the pilots on that side of the wreck.”

  “Based on the schematics for this type of aerospace craft, I think there’s another command module just ahead of me,” the boy said. “But I don’t think I’ve got enough fuel in my welder to go on.”

  Strand activated the disengage mode on his harness, letting the metallic exoskeleton fall away from him. After grabbing the fuel cells, he threw them down the breach. “Here’s some more juice, kid. Keep going. I’m going to see if I can draw the enemy away from you.”

  Hauk reached back, extended one of the harness’s forward grasping tools, and took the fuel canisters from the icy floor before replacing his spent tanks. “Thanks, LT.”

  Fytti’s voice came over the com-link circuits. “You guys need to see this.”

  Strand patched into her video feed. It showed a number of warbots using attached fusion hover thrusters descending towards them from the top of the crevasse. “Looks like Vega’s own forces have arrived. I’d like to hope he’s leading them himself, but I think he’s too chicken for that.”

  Hauk was using full power on the plasma torch while focusing on the concentrated debris in front of him. “This is gonna take some time, LT. Do you want me to help you?”

  “No, keep working,” Strand said as he began running a quick diagnostic scan on his battle suit’s weapon systems. All results came back with a positive signal. “The moment you detect something, give me a holler, otherwise stay off the air.”

  “Got it, LT.”

  As the first two warbots slowed their descent and began floating closer to the wreckage, one of them detected a hostile contact, but it was too late. A metallic box that had been left near the open top hatch suddenly sprang to life as its lid opened, and an automated laser turret popped out and began firing at them.

  The first warbot took most of the barrage in its barrel-shaped torso. Although the robot was heavily armored, the relentless bursts of flashing heat eventually ablated through the layers of protection and damaged its internal systems. With its sensors and main power plant knocked out, the warbot fell like rock and crashed onto the crevasse’s icy floor.

  With the first enemy contact out of the picture, the automated turret concentrated on the second warbot. This time, the hovering enemy returned fire with gauss rifles and missiles, quickly knocking out the opposing turret as it blasted the unmoving target with a barrage of high-powered explosives and kinetic ordinance.

  But the now destroyed turret’s lasers had managed to score a lucky hit on the second warbot’s external fusion thruster at its bottom and subsequently breached the deuterium fuel tank, causing a chain reaction. The second warbot was unable to control its movement, and it tried to compensate by altering the boost of its left thruster, but it was too late. The flying robot slammed into the side of the crevasse, the impact causing a minor avalanche which buried the warbot after it crashed, disabling it.

  Two down, four to go, Strand thought as he cycled through the remote camera feeds he had installed along strategic points, both outside and inside the wrecked ships. Whoever is running this show is an idiot for not going in and leading his bots.

  Baz cursed as he saw both his lead warbots go down. Using mental commands from his battle suit’s helmet, he ordered the drone he was riding in closer to the crevasse’s top shelf. He could see a partial view of a wrecked fuselage. Whoever it is must be protecting that dig site.

  Switching to audio command, he began talking to his remaining robots. “Units three to five, try to get inside that wreck and clear it of any enemy contact. Be careful. Unit six, do a hover sweep in a twenty-klick radius in case there’s anybody else around.”

  The remaining robots acknowledged at the same time. “Understood, sir.”

  Pushing himself deeper within a pile of debris inside the upper wreck, Strand waited until the next warbot began entering through the hatch he had just been using. Come on, come to Papa.

  The robot used its plasma torch to widen the opening before shining a searchlight to search for anyone waiting inside.

  Just like clockwork, Strand thought. Same old ingrained tactics.

  The moment the robot began moving into the cavity, Strand remote detonated a grenade he had placed at a bulkhead, partially damaging the robot’s rear armored shell. The warbot instantly turned and began a sweeping burst of fire at the mounds of debris to its rear. At the same time, it shifted sideways to the left, in an apparent attempt to use a nearby support column as cover.

  Strand grinned fiendishly as he mentally activated another detona
tor. The inner strut the warbot was taking cover behind exploded less than a second later. The packed, bursting fragments failed to penetrate the robot’s torso, but the explosion was able to severely damage its lightly armored hoverfans, and the machine fell onto its side, almost rolling over along the slanted flooring of the wreck.

  Using his jump jets, Strand burst out of his hiding place and thrust himself towards the stricken robot. He needed to close and disable the warbot’s control systems before it could turn and use its lethal barrage against him.

  Strand managed to get right on top of the robot’s rear, just as the machine twisted violently to try and bring its weapons to bear. Grabbing the back panel, Strand applied full pressure as his powered gauntlets tore through the warbot’s access port and exposed its command module.

  The hapless warbot thrashed around, like a tarantula desperately trying to fend off a parasitic wasp, but Strand quickly clawed his way into the machine’s internal circuitry and tore out its quantum processing core. Now missing its command and control modules, the warbot began shutting down its systems almost immediately.

  Another warbot peered in through the top opening and spotted the two opposing enemies locked in mortal combat. With its own processing core calculating the probabilities of its ally’s chances, this other warbot quickly concluded its colleague was done for. Using its auto-targeting system, the robot opened fire with a full barrage of lasers, gauss rifles, and grenades at both of them.

  The target lock alert sounded in Strand’s helmet half a second before the enemy fired at him. Strand was able to activate his jump jets and pull away, but he sustained more than a dozen hits on his battle suit, mostly from the other warbot’s laser fire. Two laser shots had impacted the side of his helmet, partially damaging his sensors, and he failed to notice the incoming bulkhead in time. The collision against the side of the wreck’s hull stunned him as he inadvertently drove both his head and shoulders into the unyielding wall.