by M. R. Forbes
The plasma stream continued while the Corleone changed course, turning slightly to align with the planet, giving Mitchell his first view of it as Millie adjusted course for entry.
He felt his heart rise into his throat for the second time.
46
"That isn't a planet," Millie said. "It can't be."
Mitchell stared at the mass in front of them. It was large and orbiting a nearby star, so in that sense it fit the definition. It didn't appear to be composed of rock or gas, though there might have been some firmament somewhere beneath the visible surface, a surface that was decidedly Tetron in nature.
If it was, it would easily be the largest Tetron Mitchell had ever seen.
It was at least a quarter of the size of Earth, with twists of massive dendrites surrounded by even larger axons that snaked from one to another in layers along the surface. Massive nuclei rested among them, pulsing with energy, alive with activity, revealing specks of light that sparkled and danced with life.
"It is Watson," Teegin said, sounding as surprised as they were. "He could not have made this on his own."
"The lost Tetron theory?" Mitchell asked.
"Even that would not fully explain this. The engine that was discarded on Earth might, to a certain extent."
"You mean he found where it came to rest beneath the ocean?" Mitchell said.
"It appears that way."
"Wonderful."
"Colonel, if you don't mind, we've got other problems," Millie said.
Mitchell returned his attention to the view ahead of them. There was motion from the planet below, as hundreds of ships broke free of the long axons and began rising to meet them. These weren't the hybrid monsters Watson had created. They were the more standard New Terran starships, prepared to cut them off from reaching the surface.
"I applaud you for getting past the first line of defense, Mitchell," Watson said. "An ingenious bit of maneuvering. It won't save you, but Teegin still can. I am willing to forgive your hesitation, brother. Put an end to this, and not all of humankind will have to suffer."
"Colonel," Teegin said, his tone pleading.
"No. If you want to save us, find a place for us to land and get us to the surface. I'll take care of things from there."
"I am scanning the planet."
"Time is running out, Teegin," Watson said. "My ships will fire as soon as they are in range. And as for you, Mother. I've outgrown you."
A blue light appeared on the surface, quickly expanding into a large plasma stream. It generated and discharged within seconds, a huge plume of energy that speared upwards toward the Dove, so large and wide that there was no easy way for Origin to avoid it.
"No," Mitchell said. "Damn it."
The energy crossed the distance, lighting the universe around it as it tracked toward Origin. A flare of green energy from the Dove was the only response, the last bit of power from the eternal engine used to make an unstable shield.
The stream tore through the swarm, cutting out thousands of the ships on its way. The energy field expanded toward it, reaching out to defend. Then the two energies met, the stream pushing against the shields, spreading along them in crackling bursts of energy, continuing to pour forth as the shields began to fail.
Just as the stream pierced the shields and began to inevitable trip into the side of the Dove, the ship disappeared, only barely escaping into FTL.
"Yes," Mitchell said, watching the event unfold and breathing a sigh of relief. At least some of them had made it to safety.
"I have coordinates, Colonel," Teegin said. I am transferring them to the Corleone now."
"What about the ships?" Mitchell asked.
"Try to avoid them," Kate said. "We'll hold them off as well as we can."
"You won't survive," Mitchell said, his voice choking.
"Probably not, but you might," Kate replied. "This is bigger than the two of us, Mitch. You know it is. We're committed, and you have a job to do. So do I. I'll always love you. Remember that."
Mitchell blinked to push the tears away from his eyes. "I'll always love you, too. We'll make it down. I promise."
"I know you will."
Mitchell stepped forward, putting his hand on Millie's shoulder.
"You've done a great job, but it's my turn to drive."
Millie nodded silently, slipping out of the pilot's seat. Mitchell slid in to replace her, quickly going over the Corleone's manual controls. He had trained on them in the prior recursion and knew them well enough. He put his hands on the sticks, using his p-rat to identify the incoming targets and their vectors, picking out the most likely threats.
"Rain," Mitchell said.
"Yes, Colonel," Ilanka replied.
"Try to keep up."
With that, he forced the thrust to max, sending the dropship bursting ahead with renewed speed. The maneuver put him past the rising starships' aim, and their first laser attacks passed behind them, off by kilometers.
"Show me what you've got," Mitchell said, throwing the Corleone into a corkscrew rotation that put him on a chaotic plane of descent.
The Goliath opened fire behind him, amoebics tracing across the distance and slamming into the enemy ships. Two of them fell dead ahead of them, and Mitchell adjusted his vector towards them, splitting between them as the two forces finally converged.
The universe was a blur of metal and lasers, lit up by his p-rat, spiking the area around them as he guided the Corleone through the melee, keeping the motions tight and unpredictable, using the enhanced reflexes Teegin had given him to think and adjust faster than the Watson configurations could, staying one step ahead. Ilanka trailed behind him, nearly keeping pace, releasing amoebics from the starfighter, hitting the targets that managed to get an angle of attack on them, disabling them just ahead of disaster. Further back, the Goliath continued firing, keeping the field covered, making it impossible for Watson to ignore it.
"I didn't want to do this, Teegin," the intelligence said. "It doesn't have to end this way."
Teegin didn't say anything. The Goliath continued to fire, only now a mass of Watson's ships were converging on it. Kate didn't change her aim, sending the amoebics streaking past the Corleone and into the ships blocking their path, covering them and keeping them clear while they began to take on damage, the New Terran ships sending lasers and amoebics up against the starship's diminished defenses.
Then the Corleone was through, past the orbital defenses and descending quickly, beginning to shake as it hit the edge of an atmosphere a few seconds later. Mitchell tapped a button to bring the landing coordinates up on the small terminal in front of him, feeding it to the HUD on the polycarbonate viewport. He followed it down, only subconsciously aware of the flare of light behind him, and the fading voice in his p-rat.
"I love you," Kate said, one last time as the Goliath was crumbling into pieces.
47
"Riggers, look alive," Mitchell said, opening the channel to the teams in the rear of the dropship. "We're coming in hot, and by hot, I mean scalding, boiling, and ready to melt your frigging skin off. The Goliath is down, it's up to us to get this done, and I won't accept failure. Do you copy?"
"Yes, sir," Teal said.
"Yes, sir," Shank said.
"Affirmative, Colonel," Tio said.
Mitchell didn't dare blink or pull his eyes from the landscape ahead of him, a landscape that was both familiar and completely alien at the same time. A landscape where every part of a Tetron was magnified and enlarged, where every axon and dendrite and nucleus was not only a pathway for energy but a pathway for people as well. How many people? It was impossible to guess, but he could see them moving within the tunnels, passing by transparencies that allowed them to see the artificial landscape beyond.
It was a scale that would have unnerved him if his nerves weren't already so taut with anger. Kate's final words resonated in the back of his head, driving him forward, echoing in every twitch of his hands to guide the Corleone down.
He wasn't quite sure what they were landing in yet, but he was sure he was going to make it, and Watson was going to die.
Even if it was the last thing, he did.
"Millie, take the stick," he said, quickly abandoning the seat for her once more. "We're about thirty seconds from Teegin's mark."
The New Terran ships didn't appear to be able to operate within the atmosphere, and had remained in orbit with no targets left to attack. It was time for him to suit up and prepare to abandon the Corleone with the others.
"Once we're out, get out of here. Come back in an hour or two. Either Watson will be dead, or we'll be dead."
"Roger," Millie said.
Mitchell turned toward the rear of the craft, stepping into the hatch to exit the cockpit when he heard Millie let out a short cry of surprise.
He swiveled his head, looking back at the landscape ahead of them, feeling himself turn cold for the third time. They were fast-approaching what appeared to be a field, where tall spires of tendrils were holding up tree-like branches of dendrites. There were figures dangling at the end of each of them. Thousands of figures of various ages and sexes, nude and motionless, hanging like fruit.
"He's growing people," Millie said, the disgust obvious in her tone.
"Mitchell," Watson said then, his voice invading the Corleone's comm once more. "Do you like what you see? I was willing to bargain. I was willing to spare as many of your humans as I could in exchange for Teegin's help and loyalty. I was telling the truth, and now you can see why. I don't need to take all of humankind. I can make more than enough of you to fuel most of my war."
"Most," Mitchell said, even though Watson couldn't hear him. "Not all."
Nothing Watson said or did could change the fact that the war against the Naniates was a war humankind would never need to be involved in. He was sure the Tetron had no remorse for killing Teegin either, despite his insistence on calling him 'brother.'
"You won't survive here, Mitchell," Watson continued. "If you thought the climate beyond my immediate reach was hostile, you haven't seen anything yet."
With that, a stream of lightning passed between two of Watson's axons, lighting up the area ahead of them. It duplicated and spread, branching out into a suddenly furious electrical storm. Millie tried to avoid it, pushing the Corleone closer to the ground. She was too late and too slow. The gouts of energy smacked against the dropship, burning into the wings and fuselage. The interior lights went out, some of the equipment overloaded, and Mitchell could smell something burning.
"Shit," Millie said. "Mitchell, gear up and get ready to jump. We aren't going to stay airborne much longer, but I told you I would get your there and I meant it."
Mitchell ran out of the cockpit, hurrying past the cargo modules and into the rear of the ship, where the drop modules were waiting to be released. He tapped the side of the first one, opening the hatch and stepping in. The Riggers were waiting there - Shank, Cormac, Mouth, Sunny, and the others. A light exo-suit was resting in the single empty space.
"Colonel on deck," Shank shouted.
"Riigggg-ahhh," the others replied.
"How's it looking out there, Colonel?" Cormac asked as he reached his suit and began clicking it onto the attachments.
"Cloudy, with a chance of asshole," Mitchell replied. "We're going down hard. Be ready to do some damage."
"Yes, sir," Cormac said.
The Corleone started to shake, rattling him as he reached out and grabbed onto his security harness, pushing himself back and locking in. They began to tilt to the left, then flopped over hard toward the right. The burning smell was getting stronger, and smoke was filtering into the module through the hatch. If it were getting into the drop box, it had to be a hundred times worse in the bay.
"Colonel," I've gotten you as far as I can," Millie said, in between heavy coughs. "Two klicks out, straight ahead. Drop doors are opening." He could hear the hydraulics working, clearing the hull. He was thankful they were still functional. "Releasing. Now!"
There was a soft clunk, and then the feeling of falling, as the module was dumped from the dropship. He called the telematics up on his p-rat, watching as they tumbled from a thousand meters towards zero, a trip that would take nine seconds.
"Good hunting, Colonel," Millie said, her voice weak, following with a soft cough. "I-"
She vanished, the Corleone disappearing from his HUD with her.
"Shit," he heard Shank say, indicating he was watching the threat display as well. "Frigging son of a bitch."
"Rain, are you still out there?" Mitchell asked. "Rain?"
There was no reply. He didn't know when she had been taken out. He had lost track of her in the chaos.
"Stay focused," he said, to himself as much as the others. "We don't know what Watson's going to throw at us."
"Whatever it is," Cormac said, "I'm going to kick its bloody ass."
The repulsor on the module started whining, slowing their descent as they neared the surface, bringing them down hard, but not too hard. The side of the module clicked and dropped open, hitting the ground with the echoing clang of metal on metal, and the security harnesses released the soldiers.
Mitchell led the charge down the ramp and onto the surface. He scanned the area around them as he did, first finding the storms high above them, and then finding the smoldering wreck of the Corleone against a distant dendrite.
"Mech one, two clicks ahead, you're on point," Mitchell said. "APC three, stay between the mechs and the grunts."
"Roger," Gremlin said from behind the controls of the APC.
"Roger," Teal said. "Mech is heading your way. ETA twelve seconds."
Mitchell turned in the direction of the echoing steps of the disembarking mechs. So far, there was no sign of any opposition.
Why not?
"All units, we've got two klicks to cover before we reach the ingress point," Mitchell said. "Stay tight and stay alert. We aren't in enemy territory; we're standing on the frigging enemy."
He looked down at the surface, studying it. It resembled the liquid metal that the Tetrons' tendrils seemed to be made of, but was more dull and slightly soft. Was it possible that Watson could burn them where they stood? They were beside one of the larger axons, not on top of it, and the intelligence had yet to kill them, leaving him hopeful that they were safe.
That hope faded quickly, as the sudden sound of tapping was picked up by the enhanced senses of his neural implant. He checked his HUD, watching as it began painting a red mass approaching them.
"Oh, hell," Cormac said weakly.
The targets weren't coming from one direction.
They were coming from every direction.
48
"Pick up the pace, Riggers," Mitchell shouted. "Haul ass. Mech one, get up ahead, weapons hot. Rigger two, cover our tails."
He wished he had a drone he could push over the rise of Watson's dendrite, to get a look at whatever was headed their way. They sounded small, but that didn't mean anything. A million spiders could drop their small force in less than a minute.
He reached behind his back to the weapon mounted there, bringing it to his hands and tapping the barrel to activate it. His p-rat immediately showed a small icon of the weapon with a '200' beside it, indicating the number of amoebic rounds in the rifle.
At least Teegin had given them some upgrades.
They ran ahead at full speed, the mechs easily catching up and then outpacing them, scrambling forward along a relatively flat plain that was like the bottom of a metallic gorge. Mitchell kept one eye forward and the other on his HUD, tracking the red mass as it drew closer ahead and fell further behind. Whatever was coming, it wasn't as quick as they were.
"Don't slow down, whatever you do," Mitchell said. "Barrel through, clear the center. "APC four, watch your fire."
"Roger."
"Here they come," Teal said, the height of his mech giving him a better view as the enemy crested the rise. "Oh, hell, Colonel."
He pass
ed the view from his mech's cameras to Mitchell's p-rat, causing Mitchell to almost lose a step and fall in his charge forward.
They were spiders like he had expected. Similar to the others the Tetron had sent after him before, but different in one important way:
Like the ships that had attacked them in orbit, these spiders were a conglomeration of both organic and mechanical pieces, with the organic parts clearly sourced from the humans Watson was growing. They weren't as defined as hands and arms, noses and ears and eyes, but the obviousness of flesh was visible, intermingled with metal gray. They moved in a pattern that suggested they were alive, showing a bit of apprehension as they saw the mechs approaching.
"Mech one, watch the blood from those things," Mitchell said. "We have to assume they're carrying the toxin as well."
"Roger," Teal replied, at the same time the squad of six mechs began firing on the targets.
They fell in rows, dropping quickly under the heavy firepower of the machines, quickly leaving a mess of splintered metal and dark ooze spreading along Watson's surface. It only took a few seconds for the mechs to begin wading forward into it, clearing the way for them to punch through toward Teegin's coordinates. If those had been the only targets in the fight, they might have defeated them easily.
But they weren't the only targets. The spiders were closing from all sides, drawing remarks from the Riggers as they crested the axons on each side and started jumping down into the ravine.
"Fire at will," Mitchell said. "Watch your ammo."
Cormac turned to his left, holding out his arm and releasing the flechettes from his railgun, sending a line of fire sweeping across the field. Every round hit something, knocking it back and to the ground, clearing it away for another to take its place. He fired a round from his right arm, an amoebic round, and a hundred spiders blew away from the explosion.
The scene was the same on the other side, as the Riggers battled for their lives, the intensity of their firepower barely enough to keep the spiders from overwhelming them. They kept going, forging ahead one step at a time, following the mechs into this new swarm.