by Isaac Hooke
At oh nine hundred, Rade gave the order to take flight. The rockets activated, and fuel burst from the nozzles in blue flames, launching the mechs skyward. Below, the watching robots saluted; the country house quickly shrank in size, the estate becoming merely part of a patchwork quilt of green and orange farms.
The MILNet portion of the InterGalNet had been restored early that morning, and Surus had been able to gain access. She had promptly transmitted the plans for the emitters to the remaining human fleets in orbit. According to her, they were 3D printing mass quantities and engaging in spacewalks to attach the devices to their hulls. Once the devices were attached, they planned to come about for an attack run on the mothership. Depending on the timing, it could prove convenient for Rade and the others, potentially offering a distraction while the Argonauts made their way inside.
The curvature of the Earth became more pronounced as the mechs proceeded toward the upper atmosphere.
“Well, we haven’t been shot down yet,” Manic said. “The tech must be working.”
“We have a ways to go yet,” Fret said. “I wouldn’t go jumping to conclusions and jinxing us.”
The blue sky gave way to the stars of space. The team steered toward the coordinates Surus had given Rade earlier. Ahead, fixed against the deep space backdrop, several black shapes blotted out the stars.
“Those are the smaller ships that protect the mothership,” Surus said over the comm.
“Surus, nice to see you finally decided to grace us with your sexy presence,” Bender said.
“Of course,” Surus said. “I couldn’t leave you by yourself, all lonely up here.”
Rade glanced at his tactical display and saw her blue dot entering orbit nearby. He had shared the linkage codes for the ATLAS comm nodes earlier so that her mech would be marked as a friendly to his team. She had installed the necessary emitters into her unit to provide spoofing and particle beam protection, of course.
“Hey Surus my girl,” Bender said. “When we’re done hunting bugs here, let’s grab a bite to eat. My treat.”
“No thanks,” Surus replied.
Rade thought he heard Manic snickering over the line. Probably his imagination.
As they flew between those dark ships, Rade began to make out the details. They were dodecahedrons—three-dimensional structures having twelve pentagonal faces. He had boarded one such vessel during the Second Alien War, rescuing Keelhaul from the clutches of the enemy.
Keelhaul. He smiled wistfully at that name.
I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately.
Fighting the aliens who had caused his death would do that, Rade supposed. He also remembered Harlequin dying for him. He could still see the boreholes appearing in the face of the Artificial, as Harlequin saved Rade’s life, sacrificing himself so that Rade could live.
He cleared his mind.
I have to stay in the here and now. And do whatever I can to prevent such deaths from ever happening again.
“And so we drift through the bowels of hell,” Fret said. “In this, our darkest endeavor, with enemies on all sides. Surrounded. Who will be the lantern that brings light to this darkness? Who will be our guiding beacon?”
“Oh Fret baby, let it be me!” Bender said.
“Just be glad they still haven’t fired,” Manic said.
“Here comes your guiding beacon,” Lui said.
Surus joined the rest of the Argonauts in her mech; she pulled ahead, taking the lead.
One by one the booster rockets exhausted the last of their fuel, and the ATLAS units jettisoned them in turn. Momentum carried the team toward their target.
“This could be it,” Fret said. “The last hurrah of the Argonauts.”
“Damn it!” Bender said. “Can you stop with the doom and gloom? Ain’t nobody’s last hurrah but yours.”
“Since this is my last hurrah,” Fret said. “I might as well reveal my deepest, darkest secret. I love you, Bender.”
“And I hate you,” Bender commented. “Passionately.”
“Looks like you found someone else to grab a bite to eat with when this is done,” Lui quipped.
“Har,” Bender said. “I’d rather eat with a roomful of Marines.”
“See that?” Manic said. “Unequivocal evidence that Bender is gay.”
“The hell you talking about?” Bender said.
“You just said you’d rather eat out a roomful of Marines,” Manic explained.
“I’m muting you now,” Bender said.
Eventually the last of the dodecahedrons fell away, revealing a larger monolithic darkness waiting beyond. It looked like five of the smaller dodecahedral vessels had been glued together to form a cross shape.
“Seems the buggies have done some upgrading to their ships since the last time we whooped their asses,” Bender said. “I’m looking forward to stomping their mofo nest. Like stomping on the nest of some paper wasps.”
“You do realize that when you do that, most of the wasps come out, right?” Manic said. “And they’re mightily pissed.”
“Bro,” Bender said. “You got no idea. My dad used to crush paper wasp nests with his bare hands. It’s all in the technique. You gotta crush the little bastards quick, letting the compressive forces of the nest do most of the work for you. If you do it right, the paper acts as a padding and protects your hands.”
“Oh really?” Manic said. “Okay, when we get back to Earth, I’d like to see you crush a paper wasp nest with your bare hands.”
“Bro, I’ll gladly do it,” Bender said. “I’ll show you a thing or two about what it means to be more than a man.”
“Yeah, that’s going to be real fun to watch,” Manic said. “Who wants to bet Bender won’t be crying like a baby afterward from all the stings he gets on his hands?”
“I’ll buy in on that,” Fret said. “But to make it more fun, we should tier the betting based on how many sting him. First tier is under ten. Second is ten to twenty. Third is twenty to thirty. We—”
“We’re approaching the vessel’s protective ring system,” Surus interrupted. “Rade, I’d like you to take the lead here. I’m designating the entry porthole on your tactical display”
Surus applied decelerating thrust, allowing Rade to pull ahead.
twenty-eight
Rade spotted the ring system, which was composed of a series of pods that slowly rotated around the mothership. According to Surus, in previous battles against the fleet, those pods had detonated incoming nukes, and smashed into ships that came too close, converting them to the side of the aliens. They were essentially full of nano-machines.
“Now we see if this spoofing tech truly works,” Fret said. “Entering orbit, and passing through the smaller ships was only the first small step.”
“It will work,” Rade said firmly. “They wouldn’t have allowed us to come this close if it didn’t.”
Rade adjusted his course to pass over the ring system, and headed toward the entry porthole Surus had designated on the tactical display.
As the mechs moved through the revolving defenses, and none of the pods departed the ring system to intercept the party, Rade breathed a sigh of relief. The spoofing emitters were indeed working.
“Surus, you’ve given the spoofing tech to militaries worldwide?” Lui asked. “Or just the anti-particle beam emitters?”
“The latter only,” Surus said. “As I told Rade earlier, I don’t want to alert the enemy to the fact that we can spoof their signatures until we’re already aboard. I’ve programmed a timer message to go off on Earth two hours from now that will share the spoofing design over the MILNet with your fleets in orbit, and to nations across the Earth.”
“Well that’s good,” Fret said. “Because if we fail, that means at least someone else can try.”
“I’ve just about had it with your morale leeching pings,” Bender said.
“There will be no second chances,” Surus chimed in. “We can’t fail. Because if we do, I’m convinced
the Mahasattva will disallow any further boarding parties until they find a way around our spoofing protocols. We must succeed.”
As Rade neared the enemy hull, he fired the thrusters on his jumpjets, adjusting his speed and course vectors to match that of the mothership. The changes didn’t require much propellant, as the rocket boosters had provided the majority of the necessary momentum.
“Their point defenses aren’t firing,” Harlequin said. “Another good sign.”
The hull below was composed of millions of pentagonal tiles, each one about the size of a human hand.
Rade landed near the outline of a hangar door—the target—and activated the magnetic mounts in his feet to secure himself.
“Stand in the circular area,” Surus said.
“What circular—” Rade began, and then he saw the round hollow next to the outline.
He waited until the other mechs attached to the hull beside the door, and then walked toward the hollow. The magnets in his feet automatically adjusted their strength based on the angle of his feet, and the speed of his stride, giving an approximation of walking under gravity conditions. It was a bit like trudging through thick mud, because he had to give a good pull every time he lifted each foot.
He entered the hollow and stood very still. A moment later the doors soundlessly opened. Rade could feel the vibrations traveling along the hull to the feet of his mech, which the ATLAS unit transmitted through the inner actuators to his actual limbs.
“The wonders of boss DNA,” Bender said.
“Anyone else feel that?” Lui asked. “Didn’t one of you say, at some point, that ATLAS units don’t transmit vibrations?”
“That was you!” Tahoe said.
“Oh,” Lui said. “Well, obviously some variants do, some don’t.”
The team entered what appeared to be a staging area. A medium-sized compartment that was capable of fitting all nine of their ATLAS units, plus several more to boot. Artificial gravity took over, gluing them to the deck and negating the need for the magnetic mounts. It felt equivalent to Earth gravity.
Dark passageways led away in several directions. The black bulkheads were composed of the same pentagonal tiles as the hull outside.
“I’m overlaying our route to the destination waypoint,” Surus said.
Rade accepted her overlay request, and the bulkheads of a dark passageway directly ahead became highlighted in green, negating the need for light. The passageway was broad enough to fit two mechs side by side.
“Activate LIDAR,” Rade said. The highlights were good, but didn’t indicate any enemy units that might block their path in those passages.
A white wireframe momentarily overlaid the green of the bulkheads, deck, and overhead.
“Let’s go,” Rade said. “Single file marching order.”
Rade proceeded inside, leading his Argonauts deeper into this place of darkness.
Different side corridors occasionally branched off, sometimes on either side, forming a crossroads. Rade spotted a scorpion unit at one point, headed toward him. He was only aware of the unit because of his LIDAR.
“Keep moving,” Surus said. “Trust in the spoofing technology.”
Rade continued forward, and the unit respectively moved to the side to let his mech by. It remained in that position until all of the succeeding ATLAS units had passed.
“Damn, I love these spoofing devices,” Bender said. “Surus, I’m definitely taking you out for drinks later.”
“No you’re not,” Surus said.
They reached more scorpion units, which seemed to be on some sort of patrol errand, but always the robots moved aside.
“How are these scorpions seeing?” Tahoe asked. “Are they detecting our LIDAR? Because my sensors aren’t picking up any photons launched by them.”
“They know the layout of the ship thanks to their internal databases, of course,” Surus said. “As for sensing our presence, it’s because of the spoofing devices. If you check your EM spectrum, you’ll see that the scorpion units emit similar signatures to what our spoofers give off. Consider their EM waves a form of greeting, one that our devices give the appropriate response to.”
They also passed a few clones, these ones wearing jumpsuits, with glass extending from underneath the usual crescent moon shape of their helmets to form a closed-atmosphere environment.
Rade paused before a point in the passageway where the bulkheads seemed to distort slightly, just ahead; it was as if the photons of the LIDAR were traveling through a separate medium. Rade raised a halting hand and momentarily switched on the headlamp of his mech.
He saw a yellowish, translucent field in front of him. It spanned from deck to overhead, completely blocking all passage forward.
“What is this?” Rade asked.
“An airlock,” Surus said. “A few millimeters in thickness, the field functions as a semi-permeable membrane, keeping the atmosphere inside while allowing crew members to pass in and out.”
“The Mahasattva have definitely advanced their technology since the last time we encountered them,” Lui said.
“It is based on technology stolen from the Elder,” Surus continued. “Be warned: a cutting laser is fitted around the perimeter. If it flags you as an intruder, you will be incinerated when you pass through.”
“My DNA will protect me?” Rade asked.
“That’s what I’m hoping, yes,” Surus replied.
“Hoping,” Rade said. “You don’t sound too sure.”
“You will be safe,” Surus said.
Rade tentatively edged forward. When he was standing right before the field, he examined the perimeter, and saw the small metallic indentation that lined the bulkheads around it: the cutting laser.
“Don’t hesitate overlong,” Surus said. “Lest you alert the Sentience.” That was the overarching command and control, essentially the mind ganglion, that all Mahasattva were linked to.
Rade held his breath and extended the arm of his mech through the yellow membrane. It passed through without issue. He moved forward.
He saw a flash of yellow as he proceeded, but otherwise felt nothing; in moments he was standing on the other side of the barrier.
He checked the external readings on his HUD. “There’s definitely an atmosphere here. Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide. They’ve designed it for humans.”
“Of course,” Fret said. “Have to keep your clones alive. Their organic portions, anyway.”
“All right, who’s next?” Rade said.
“Rade, come down from your mech,” Surus said. “You must shove the glove of your jumpsuit through the membrane, underneath the laser cutting rim, so that it continually detects your DNA. Essentially ‘holding the door’ for the rest of us, as the spoofing tech won’t be enough for the cutting laser, not for organic units.”
Rade dismounted and clambered down the rungs of the ATLAS to the deck.
He placed his gloved hand through the membrane and held his breath as Tahoe stepped through next. Rade’s hand remained intact, and Tahoe’s mech was not incinerated.
So far so good.
The rest of the team passed through without issue, and then Rade withdrew his hand and re-boarded Hugo. He disabled his headlamp, reverting to LIDAR, and continued to lead the way.
He passed more clones in the passage beyond, in addition to scorpion units. These ones wore the standard open air helmets.
At one point a klaxon sounded, and a red emergency light illuminated the passageway.
“Do you think we’ve been discovered?” Fret said.
“I have no idea,” Surus said.
“Well, we don’t need LIDAR anymore,” Rade said. “Not with these lights. Beams off.” He deactivated his own LIDAR as he spoke.
He advanced only two steps when a long line of troops appeared up ahead, hurrying toward the party.
Rade tensed, unsure of the newcomers’ intentions.
“Permission to open fire at these bitches?” Bender said.
“Hold,” Rade said. “Their weapons are directed toward the ground. Move to the side, let them pass.”
The troops, a mixture of scorpions and clones, jogged past, heading toward the outer regions of the ship.
“The fleet must be making its attack run,” Surus said.
“That would explain the emergency lights,” Lui said.
“Why would it explain it?” Fret said. “If they already know the layout of all the passageways, they wouldn’t need light...”
“Well, if the passageways are damaged in an attack, they would need to know,” Lui said. “Hence the lights.”
“Wait a second, Surus,” Fret said. “You say the fleet is making an attack run... what if they succeed in destroying the ship while we’re in here?”
“Then that’s good for humanity,” Tahoe said.
“But not so good for us,” Fret said.
“They won’t succeed,” Surus said. “At best, they will distract the enemy.”
“Must be working,” TJ said. “We’ve made it this far.”
Shortly thereafter the passageway opened up into a vast, cavernous area. A bright globe of light suspended near the top illuminated several hundred dodecahedral, spherical and conical structures made of crystals. Those buildings towered high into the air, their exteriors glowing very subtly, usually pulsing between two different colors; the overall effect was to give the city a kaleidoscopic, almost cheery quality. But the clones and scorpions that stood guard in front of some of the buildings, and patrolled between others, reminded the team that there was no cheer here.
“I’ve seen this city before,” Rade said. “Under their homeworld.”
“So that wasn’t a cave system you were in on the homeworld,” Tahoe said. “But a ship. They were building a ship.”
“It would seem that way,” Rade said.
“I hate nano-machines,” Manic said.
“Though the last time I was here, there were a whole lot of bioengineered creatures,” Rade said.