Star Cadets - Soldiers of the Future 4

by Todd Mcleod

  STAR CADETS:

  SOLDIERS OF THE FUTURE

  * * *

  EPISODE 4

  By Todd McLeod & M G. Thomas

  Copyright © 2019 Todd McLeod & Michael G. Thomas

  Published by Swordworks Books

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Elvin returned to the mine to meet up with the others. He’d been trying to reach Vi, but had no luck in raising her on the comms. He wanted to think it was from the disturbance caused by the invaders, and that she’d be waiting for him when he got back to the base, but he felt a sense of dread building up in his stomach. As he arrived back, he saw the mine in a flurry of action. Everyone seemed to be taking stock of supplies and doing some manner of drill. One of the other cadets told him that Stevens was looking for him. Elvin nodded, not knowing how he was going to explain the loss of the rest of his unit. He didn’t think delaying would help and went up to find Stevens in the makeshift command centre in the mines.

  “I’m sorry, Sir,” Elvin said, lowering his head, “We got caught in an ambush. The others didn’t make it.”

  “That is truly unfortunate,” Stevens replied in a grave tone, “Though it would seem that their sacrifice was not completely in vain.”

  “Was Vi successful in sending out the signal?”

  “She was,” Stevens said with a nod, “The enemy cut it off rather quickly, but we’re confident at least part of it got out. I cannot say how and when we’ll get reinforcements, but we’ve done what we could.”

  “Has there been any word from Vi? Did she make it out?”

  “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but she was captured by the enemy.”

  “Captured?” His best friend and rival in the clutches of such an enemy filled him with more dread than the thought of his own destruction, “We need to rescue her.”

  “I’m sorry, but we cannot afford the resources right now.”

  Elvin looked at Stevens with a shocked look on his face. “We can’t leave her in the hands of the enemy.”

  “There are a lot of people in the hands of the enemy,” Stevens replied sternly, “The invasion happened faster than we could ever have prepared for, and literally thousands are in the hands of the enemy, if not tens of thousands. I know she’s your friend, Cadet, but we cannot prioritise one detainee over another at this time.”

  “That’s very easy for you to say.”

  “What did you say?” Stevens demanded, “I understand that you’re quite skilled and a prodigy. You have a lot of accomplishments in this conflict and before, but you seem to lack the awareness to how this works. I have been on countless missions and had to make a lot of hard decisions. I once had to leave a man behind, a man that was one of my best friends because going back for him would mean everyone else dying. Everyone is someone’s friend, someone that no on could leave behind, but you need to think of the big picture. I literally am trying to keep what is left of the free people of this planet out of the enemy’s clutches. We lost some good men trying to send the message out, and she knew what the risks were. I cannot offer more, especially with the intel we have received.”

  “What intel?” Elvin answered, trying not to think of the implications of what Stevens had said.

  “We’ve had a message from some survivors in the mountains. Ever since we’ve been on the run from the initial invasion, we have strived to find some indication that there were other survivors. We were starting to think we were it, but we got a hard-wired Morse code message from the mountains to the west. A bunch of people, military and civilians are holding out in a terraforming station there. It has resources, it is defensible, and we’re making preparations to go there.”

  “We’re giving up this position? But any from the cities to the east will have no one to protect them.”

  “There is no one left,” Stevens admitted, “You may think you know everything that’s going on, but you don’t. I have had some pilots doing recognisance fights. These have been very dangerous, but we needed to know if there were any more survivors. Not only if there were more forces and resources to fight back, but also if there were civilians who needed help. We lost a pilot for almost every scrap of information we recovered. There are no cities still standing, and every Human still fighting to regain them is fighting a losing battle. This mine, and that terraforming base are almost definitely the only Human assets left on this entire planet. We need to consolidate.”

  “Would that not make too tempting a target? Wouldn’t it make it easier for the aliens to finish us all off in one fell swoop.”

  “They already know where we are. They might not know where the entrance to the mine is, but they have a ballpark. They’re combing the area to search for us in a methodical way, and when they get to this area we’re in trouble.”

  “We’ll take out the scouts,” Elvin said defiantly, “Just like the last ones.”

  “It’s nowhere near that simple. They’ve been sending out scouts before in hopes of spotting us and reporting back, but too many scouts have failed to return. They know that someone here is taking out the scouts, so they’re sending groups of them, each seemingly designated to a search pattern. Therefore, when some go missing, they know the exact areas. We cannot take out any more of them, and if they spot us, it’s all over. We could close up the front and make it look like just part of the area, but that’s a great risk. We have no way of knowing whether or not they can identify us here if they were on top of it, and if we dig gown deep, there’s no back door, no escape.”

  “So, our choices are to hide and hope for the best, or go to the mountains and start the cycle of hide and seek all over again?”

  “That’s the crux of it, yes. We have chosen the latter.”

  “But it will be the same,” Elvin retorted, “We have to fight them.”

  Stevens sighed. “You already forget what our little victories cost us. Do you really think we have enough resources and bodies to keep throwing at them for what is needed? Our only chance is to hold up and wait for reinforcements. They might find us at the mountain as much as here, but at least we’ll buy some time. It’s not going to do us much good if the reinforcements come and we’re already dead.”

  “But if we give up this position, we...” Elvin paused, “We give up those that were captured.”

  “I have no answer to that. Just as if you were to answer to the civilians we are protecting here to why their lives are less important than your friends. We’re going to make preparations to move to the mountains, and you are to help it in any way you can. That is an order. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Sir,” Elvin replied, not even hiding his resentment to the wor
ds he was forced to say.

  “Well take a rest. You earned it, and you have a lot to compartmentalise. Enjoy a lull in the storm. There might not be another for quite some time.”

  * * *

  Deep within alien-controlled sectors of the planet, the aliens had started to build. Mostly disinterested with the man-made structures, they’d set up their own devices and enclosures; fit more for them than the Humans who previously had possession of the area.

  Vi was led down a long corridor by mech-suited aliens. Some sort of force field pinned her arms to her sides. She didn’t know how it worked, but there was a device placed on the back of her shoulders. The aliens had not been harsh to her yet, treating her like livestock to be transferred for processing. All around were other survivors of the invasion, all being corralled, and many bound by the same field. Some were not, proving to be not worthy of restraining. With how ineffective most of the Human opposition had been, it was not surprising that the aliens didn’t treat those they’d captured with much caution. This was the one advantage Vi might have to help with her escape, and for the time being she focused on keeping her eyes open. She had been instrumental in some of the only resistance against the aliens, and doubted she would have too many chances to put any kind of escape plan into action.

  There were massive pens where the survivors were being taken. They were hastily built but consisted of massive pillar-like towers where hundreds of Humans were held. She could imagine the conditions in these areas, if there was water, decidedly less food. There were so many people not killed by the initial attack, mostly civilians, people that didn’t have the means or training to fight back when the invasion happened. Vi had plans in her head on how she might rally them, how she might make some kind of strategy against the alien invaders.

  However, as many were being taken to the storage facilities, she was taken in a different direction to a facility deeper into the city. It looked like a landed alien craft converted to some sort of base. The security here was tighter, the alien scouts more heavily armed, and much more conscious about who was there. Vi caught sight of other military and government officials, all held in priority cells. They were mostly separated, possibly so the aliens might use them as needed. The civilian populace seemed like pests to the aliens, an unfortunate leftover of the invasion, and stored until the aliens could figure out what to do with them. The military and others had an inherent worth, and she seemed to be considered one of them.

  Though she held a small rank in the defence force, they surely recognised her for her deeds since their arrival. A thorn in the aliens’ side, not only standing up to them, but also helping to send word out that might mean reinforcements. Vi was led to a small cell, tossed inside, and left there. She didn’t see any kind of door, but a shimmer in the space where one was meant to be. Something was now in place, but she didn’t particularly feel like testing it. She discovered that she could now move her arms, so reached back to the thing on her shoulders, but was interrupted.

  “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” a man said as he raised his hands. He was tall and lanky and wore a pilot’s flight suit, “The field is off, but it’s rigged against tampering. Very painful.”

  “Where are we? Some sort of military prison camp?”

  “I’m not sure exactly. It’s hard to tell the alien stuff apart from anything. But there are only soldiers here, and they have separated the top brass. Mostly grunts now.”

  “I’m Cadet Vi. I was captured sending a signal out.”

  “Lieutenant Geiz. I was shot down and captured after doing surveillance fights to see if I could find any survivors.”

  “I was with some survivors. I have no contact with them, but they’re consolidating what is left to wait it out for reinforcements.”

  “Well, we desperately need them. They took most of the planet in a night, the rest within hours. If there is any left out there it’s a miracle, and there will be war to take it back.”

  “Do we know where they came from? Or what they want?”

  “Well, I had what was left of the command line when I was in my ship. The small fragmented chain of command tried to reason with them, barter with them, even surrender. They seemed to have the ability to understand our language and communicate back, but they refused. They are like machines.”

  “They aren’t machines. They’re biological inside those suits, not quite like us, but not machines.”

  “We are meant to think they are,” another voice offered, and an older man got up. He was tall and slim with a scraggly white beard, “I am Professor Faiz. I served as an assistant to the colony command. I tried to give my insight on these invaders, but it proved to be too short a timeline. As fast as I could surmise something, it was far too late to do anything about it.”

  “Well any insight you could offer would be valuable now,” Vi admitted, “We seem to have the time.”

  “And what good will it do us?” Geiz asked, “We’re but three people in a holding cell.”

  “I never give up. I’ve killed several of these things and infiltrated past them. All I have done is by figuring out my opponent and how to beat them. I can’t guarantee we’ll have many chances to stand up to them again, but when we do, all the knowledge we can gather on them is going to mean the difference between success and failure.”

  “I suppose that makes sense. Please share with us all you have worked out, Professor Faiz.”

  “Well, they may be biologically very different in many ways, but the same in others,” Faiz began, “They seem to breathe some kind of different gas to oxygen. As to what they can and cannot process, that is anyone’s guess.”

  “The suits seem like long-time wear,” Vi added, “I don’t think the one we busted open had been out of the suit for a long time.”

  “They likely rely on their technology more for things than environment and survival,” Faiz continued, “From their tactics, their societal cues, and other things, it seems everything is made to overcome for the weaknesses inherent to biological beings. They know that the individual in their regular body is inherently fallible, so they’ve used their technology in place of it. It also seems they have a class structure. The drones are treated poorly and mostly just serve their purpose. These ones likely live in their technological shell and rarely come out. They’re probably bred, raised, and conditioned to do their task. They’re dangerous in numbers, but seemingly not so individually. I realised from the brief defence, they were the only ones most soldiers managed to take down. From there it seems there are specialised ones, trained and augmented for piloting, operating heavy machines, and weapons. These are smarter and more capable, but fewer in number.”

  “There are also scouts and hunters,” Vi chimed in, “The scouts are faster and harder to catch. The hunters are heavily combat-capable and very difficult to kill.”

  Faiz nodded. “Precisely. These are rarer, and so likely harder to create. Think of it like weapons. Your standard issue blasters are easy to mass-produce, but are not the most powerful weapons. They’re easy to make and easy to train people in the use of. A laser sniper rifle is harder to manufacture, hard to configure, and takes years of training to learn to use. By blending the elite troops with the smaller ones, you create a unit that is very effective.”

  “Well, if they’re so like us in how they train and operate, how did they blitz us so easily?” Geiz asked.

  “There was a myriad of factors. First of which that while we were reaching out to the cosmos and announcing ourselves, they didn’t do the same; they listened to us talk and share our society as they learned and prepared. While we had no idea they existed, they planned this offensive. They caught us unready, unable to adapt fast enough. They came with superior technology and numbers, overwhelming us. They knew that their structure is automatic. Their drones and other soldiers set to work with little interference, whereas we have a rather malleable chain of command. They knew they could put us in chaos, and that worked.”

  “There has to be
more to it than that.”

  “There is also another class we are not familiar with as of yet. There are levels of drones and workers and specialised fighters, but we haven’t seen those in command. Though they seem mostly instinctual to their tactics, there have been great acts of cunning and strategy. Times where we have tried to turn this around, but they adapted.”

  “They seem to be able to corrupt some of us,” Vi joined in, “They brainwashed one of us during an escape, and we still don’t know how they did it.”

  “There has to be other castes we are not aware of yet,” Faiz said gravely, “If it were anything like what we are used to, I would imagine that the mind control and subterfuge is done by some kind of special operations caste. There also would be by definition a ruling class, and perhaps a high caste like a queen or leader.”

  “Those would be the ones to attack,” Vi agreed, “It might make the whole thing fall apart.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Elvin walked through the mine compound. Every person he saw at work, preparing for the move to the terraforming base, was another symbol that Vi was going to be left behind. Ideas flowed through his head, resources, and plans. There were a lot of weapons and things in the mines, stuff captured, and brought in from the few survivors that managed to make it there. They had a lot of weapons, but they lacked manpower, and the opportunity to use them. No matter how many plans Elvin conjured, they never seemed to be enough. Something was missing, and it was like a house of cards missing one card that was needed to finish it.

  “You are Cadet Elvin, right?” It was an unfamiliar voice, and Elvin turned to see a tall middle-aged man in thick glasses. He was dirty with engine fluids, and looked to have spent a long time working and little time sleeping.

  “I am. Can I help you?”

  “I am prime engineer Andrade. I understand that you are not completely thrilled about us falling back.”