It was the secrecy that troubled Rand most. If Scott had simply disappeared for the day, Rand might not have given his absence a second thought, but when Scott failed to return with Colonel Wolfe that afternoon, he and Rook decided to take matters into their own hands. They didn’t bother with the formalities of the chain of command that kept Jonathan Wolfe insulated from the city’s rabble; they simply made their own way to his room and burst in on the man uninvited.
“Where’s Scott, Colonel?” Rand said, out of breath from his run down the hall.
Wolfe turned puffy eyes to them. He was seated at a table in the fetid room, a half-empty bottle of vodka in front of him. He had barely moved when Rand and Rook had thrown open the door and was now regarding them tiredly, with little concern.
“Scott who?” he said, refilling his glass.
“Bernard,” said Rook. “We know he was with you this morning, and he hasn’t returned since.”
Wolfe made a dejected sound and put down his glass. He reached for his dark glasses and slid them on. “Bernard …”
“Well?”
Tight-lipped, Wolfe turned his gaze from them and shook his head.
Rand gasped. “You mean …”
“I can’t say for sure. The Invid surprised us, and in the confusion I didn’t see if he made it out or not. They were waiting for us, and we were overmatched. What more can I tell you?”
Struggling with the possible truth of it, Rand said nothing. But a suspicious look had begun to surface on Rook’s face. “A whole lot more,” she told Wolfe. “How did you escape, Colonel?”
Wolfe shrugged. “I was luckier than the others. That’s the way it is.”
Rook snorted. “From what I hear, that’s the way it always is with you.”
“What are you insinuating?” Wolfe seethed, flashing her a cold look.
Rand gestured Rook to back off. He took two steps toward the table and slammed his hand down. “Just tell us where you were attacked.”
Wolfe’s hand went out to steady the bottle. “If you’re thinking about trying to go out there and find him, forget it. You won’t make it.”
Rand showed his teeth, then relaxed. “Look, we’ve got an Alpha fighter hidden nearby. If there’s even a chance that Scott’s alive, you better believe I’m going out there to find him.”
Mention of the VT seemed to bring Wolfe around somewhat. He lifted the bottle but set it down without pouring. “Even a fighter might not be enough.” Wolfe gave Rand an appraising look. “Yes, Scott told me that you’d seen action together. But we’re up against a hive, not a Scout patrol.”
“It’s still worth a try.”
Wolfe thought a moment, then said: “All right, I’ll lead you out there.”
“Great!”
Wolfe stood up and went for his jacket. “We’ll leave immediately.”
Rand swung around to Rook. “Let the others know what I’m up to. We’ll get Scott back!”
With that he rushed from the room, Wolfe a few paces behind him. Rook stood dumbfounded for a moment, then followed him to the doorway. “What am I—your personal messenger or something?” she yelled to his back. But he didn’t turn around. “Rand!” she shouted again, fuming.
Rand showed Wolfe where the Alpha was hidden, but the colonel insisted they recon the area on Cyclones before bringing the Veritech into play. The fighter, Wolfe insisted, would stir up the entire hive; it was simply too precious a commodity to risk, even for the life of a valued friend.
Rand saw the logic of it, disturbing as it was, especially after Wolfe had led him to the hive.
“The place is a fortress!” Rand exclaimed, keeping his voice low. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Wolfe regarded him from behind the dark glasses, obviously pleased by Rand’s shocked reaction. They were at the edge of the clearing now, suited up in Cyclone armor and armed with hand blasters. “It’s just one of many,” Wolfe said. “There’s a chain of these things that runs clear to Reflex Point,”
Rand swallowed hard, discouraged. “It was around here that you last saw Scott?”
Wolfe nodded and lowered the helmet’s faceshield. “We’ll search the perimeter first.” He motioned Rand off to the right. “Stick to the woods, and I’ll meet you on the other side. I only hope there’s something left of Bernard to find.”
Rand refused to allow the thought to register. He turned and was about to move off when the ground began to tremble. Wolfe drew his blaster and pivoted through a 360, searching for some sign of the Invid’s egress point. Rand managed to get his blaster unholstered and aimed in the same general direction as Wolfe’s.
In a moment the Invid Trooper showed itself, rising up through the earth and underbrush just outside the clearing. Wolfe and Rand hit it full power, but neither of them was successful at directing a charge to any of the creature’s vulnerable points. The Trooper seemed to sense their helplessness and opted to kill them with its claw rather than cannon fire. It had one of its pincers raised for a downward strike, when someone behind the two men stunned it with a Scorpion delivered to the head.
Rand turned in time to see Rook’s red Cyclone’s rear-wheel landing in the clearing. She slid the tail end of the mecha around and shouted through the externals for Rand to jump on.
“I told you you weren’t leaving me behind,” Rand heard as he raced to the Cyc. “And it’s a lucky thing for you two that I decided to follow.”
As Rand straddled the Cyclone’s rear seat, he realized that Wolfe wasn’t behind him. Over his shoulder he glimpsed Wolfe waving Rook off. “Get going!” Wolfe told them. “I’ll make it back to my mecha!”
Rook wasn’t about to sit around and argue. She toed the Cyclone into gear and sped off almost before Rand had secured an adequate handhold behind her. Meanwhile, the stunned Invid had come to life and was spewing a horizontal hail of annihilation discs into the trees. The Trooper pursued them, its shoulder cannons blazing. Rook pushed the Cyclone through a series of twists and turns, dodging explosions, plumes of fire and dirt.
Rand was thinking they were in the clear when the carapaced head of a second Invid appeared in front of them, pushing itself up from the soft forest ground, an unearthly land crab. Rook tried to launch the Cyclone over the thing before it completed its rise, but the Invid got one of its pincers free just as the mecha was directly overhead. Rand felt the jolt as the alien’s claw impacted the mecha, and the next thing he knew he was on his butt in the grass, dazed, Rook similarly postured nearby. The Cyclone was nowhere in sight.
Rand shook his head clear and raised the helmet face-shield. “We’ve gotta find the Cyc,” he shouted to Rook. “Split up.”
Rook got to her feet; Rand waved her the okay sign and disappeared into the brush.
Splitting up was a bad idea, Rand told himself fifteen minutes later. The woods were thick, impenetrable in places; he had started working circles to fix his location, but he soon lost track of his own center—along with Rook and the missing Cyclone.
He was close to the hive clearing again, removing his helmet, when he heard sounds of movement close by. Rand turned, glimpsed Colonel Wolfe, and almost called out to him. But something made him pull himself into concealment at the last moment. Wolfe had holstered his blaster and looked as though he were waiting for a delivery of some kind. A Human-size figure was walking toward Wolfe, but it was still too far off for Rand to get a good look at it. And even when it finally approached Wolfe, he didn’t know what to make of it.
Rand had his H-90 aimed at the thing now: It was taller than it had first appeared, perhaps eight feet tall, bipedal and suited up in bulky dark-colored battle armor. The creature’s head—if that was indeed its head and not some kind of helmet—reminded Rand of a snail’s foot. He told himself that it had to be an Invid. It certainly matched Scott’s description of them, but Rand had for so long come to think of the aliens’ ships as the creatures themselves that his mind refused to accept the idea.
Then Rand saw the Invid
soldier hand Wolfe a carry pack of Protoculture canisters.
He was tempted to kill them both—alien and traitor—but knew as the rage spread through him that he wanted Wolfe to know who was taking him out when the moment came.
Rand lowered the weapon and silently began to work his way toward the conspirators. There was an outcropping of rock behind Wolfe; Rand made his way to the top of this while the Invid walked back to the hive. Wolfe had the Protoculture and was about to return to his Cyclone when Rand surprised him.
“So the hero’s a traitor,” Rand said from the outcropping, his blaster aimed down at Wolfe. Wolfe had been quick to raise his own weapon, but Rand went on, undaunted. “No wonder the city’s full of laughing soldiers—it’s so safe and secure now that you’ve arrived.”
Rand risked a leap and in a moment was standing face to face with Wolfe, who had yet to say a word. “The Robotech hero’s made a deal with the Invid! For a few measly canisters of Protoculture, the great Jonathan Wolfe leads his own soldiers to the Invid’s doorstep. Isn’t that it?”
Wolfe fired.
The low-charge blast caught Rand in the right forearm guard, knocking the weapon from his grip and sending a jolt of searing heat to the flesh beneath the battle armor. He went down on one knee, as much from surprise as pain, and stared up at Wolfe in disbelief.
“Go ahead and finish me,” Rand spat. “I was meant to be Invid bait anyway … Just like Scott and all the others.… It’s how you always manage to return in one piece and well stocked with ’Culture.…”
Wolfe put the short muzzle of the blaster to Rand’s head. “Easy, boy,” he warned him.
Rand was shaking uncontrollably in spite of his best efforts to contain his fear. “How could you do it?” he asked Wolfe. “Scott idolized you.… He told me you’d saved his life once.”
“Now you know about the dark side of heroism,” Wolfe said flatly.
Rand could feel the blaster’s priming charge grounding on his skull. He wished he could see the man’s eyes, know just what he was thinking. “I’ve seen it before—everyone out to save their own necks, trading lives … But why you, Wolfe? Why?”
Wolfe retracted the blaster. “Because they can’t be beaten.” He sneered. “Because it’s better to have a few safe towns than an entire planet of slaves … And because … because of things you wouldn’t understand, kid.”
Rand scowled. “You better kill me, Wolfe, because I’m gonna see to it that you’re stopped.”
Wolfe stepped back and bolstered his sidearm. “Go ahead and tell the town. See if they believe you.”
Wolfe turned and hurried off.
• • •
Rand unfastened the scorched battle armor from his forearm while he watched Wolfe leave. Relieved that his burns weren’t as serious as he had feared, he began to search the tall grass and brush for his blaster, wondering if he might be able to catch up with Wolfe before he reached the Cyclones.
Go ahead and tell the town, Rand recalled Wolfe telling him. See if they believe you.
Suddenly he heard Rook’s voice and looked up. Scott was with her, one arm draped over Rook’s shoulders for support. His battle armor was blackened in places, but he looked otherwise intact.
“I can’t believe my eyes,” Rand said, extending his hand to Scott. “Is it really you?”
“Barely,” Scott returned.
“I found him in a hole in the ground.” Rook laughed.
“And I miss it already.” Scott disengaged himself from Rook and started to say something about a prehistoric-looking creature he had seen while in hiding, when he spied Wolfe several hundred yards off. He tried a shaky step in that direction and said to Rand, “Is that Colonel Wolfe? He came back to look for me?”
Rand put a hand out to restrain him. “Let him go, Scott.” Scott looked over his shoulder, puzzled. “I’ve got something to tell you, and you’re not going to like it … Wolfe … Wolfe’s a traitor. He’s got an arrangement with the Invid—he’s been trading soldiers’ lives for Protoculture.”
“What are you talking about?” Scott’s eyes were flashing.
“He’s a traitor! I saw him with my own eyes. And an Invid, Scott, not a ship but—”
Rand didn’t see the punch coming. Now, lying facedown in the grass, he couldn’t even remember feeling it. “You’re lying, you little coward!” Scott was yelling. Rand rolled over and sat up, feeling a slight numbness beginning to spread across his jaw. “When I confronted him, he didn’t deny it. I’m telling you, we were both led out here to be killed.”
Scott roared something and launched himself, but Rook stepped in his way. In his weakened state he was no match for Rook and was easily held back. But she could do nothing about the curses he was hurling Rand’s way.
All at once a fiery explosion effectively erased all traces of the struggle, the concussive force of it flattening Rook and Scott to the grass on either side of Rand. Through the smoke the three could see Trooper after Trooper issuing from the ground around them, blinding globes of incipient fire at the tips of shoulder cannons.
In a moment, annihilation discs were zipping into the area, pulverizing rocks and roots and whatever else lay in their path. Rand helped Scott make it to the safety of the stone outcropping, while Rook laid down cover fire with her hand blaster.
“The Cyclones—where are they?!” said Scott.
Rook indicated a direction. “I’ll see if I can slow these things down some. Swing back around and pick me up.”
Scott and Rand signaled their assent and rushed off, crouching as they ran.
Jonathan Wolfe watched them from another part of the forest. He was surprised to see that Bernard had lived and was strangely relieved. Nevertheless, his escape had been but a minor stay of execution, for there were at least six Troopers going up against the three freedom fighters. Wolfe could see that the woman was remaining behind to buy time for her comrades. But even if the other two were fortunate enough to make it to their Cyclones, it would just be a matter of time.
Unless someone came to their aid with the appropriate firepower.
An Alpha fighter, for instance, Wolfe said to himself.
Rand got to the Cyclone first and doubled back to pick up Rook and convey her to the waiting red. Afterward he launched and went to Battle Armor mode, neatly disposing of one of the Troopers with a single shot to the thing’s sensor.
Rook and Scott were similarly reconfigured now and going after a second alien. Scott dazzled the Trooper with in-close fancy flying, then boostered up and away from its pincer swipes to loose a Scorpion, which the creature blocked with its claw armor. In return the Invid pilot loosed a volley of annihilation discs against Scott, but in so doing had overlooked Rook and the missile she launched straight to its vulnerable scanner. The Trooper was blown to pieces, and the three teammates regrouped on the ground. The woods around them were crawling with Invid.
“We’re surrounded,” Rand thought to point out, his back to Rook and Scott. “Now what do we do?”
“What we always do,” said Scott, almost laughing. “Fight our way out. Now, look alive.”
Rand launched first, but critically misjudged his trajectory and ended up snagged by a Trooper’s claw. Scott heard his desperate cry through the net, but even before he could think about how to free his friend, a bolt out of the blue took the Invid’s pincer off at the elbow. An instant later, Scott saw the Alpha streak overhead. He was confused until he heard Rand yell, “Wolfe! It’s gotta be him!”
Wolfe had the VT in Guardian mode. Missiles tore from undercarriage launch tubes, detonating like geysers of fire around one of the Troopers. But the creature survived the storm and struck back. Wolfe rolled and tumbled the fighter through a steady stream of discs and dropped in to knock the troublemaker off its feet. He then switched to Battloid mode and came back down at the rest of them, the rifle/cannon discharging white death from its high-port position.
There were two Pincer ships in the skies now, and Wolfe propelled t
he Alpha up to deal with them. One of the Invid had barely arrived in the arena when it was disintegrated by a flock of heat-seekers Wolfe launched from the Battloid’s shoulder racks.
On the ground, Scott was saying, “A traitor wouldn’t handle an Alpha like that.” He and the others had followed the fight and were now in the arid heights west of the base escarpment.
Wolfe came on the net a moment later. “Just thought I’d give you a few pointers, flyboy.”
“Be my guest!” Scott enthused.
Wolfe kept the VT in Battloid configuration to take out the second Pincer ship before moving against the remaining Troopers. He literally stomped one of these senseless by bringing the mecha down full force on the alien’s head. But the acrobatic act ended up costing him a precious few seconds: Wolfe pivoted the Battloid in time to deal with the final Invid, but not before the Trooper succeeded in holing the techno-knight with an energy bolt that passed clear through it like a flaming spear.
Scott watched the crippled Battloid go down on one knee, then reconfigure to Guardian mode, seemingly of its own accord.
“Colonel Wolfe!” he yelled, running over to the fighter. “Are you all right?”
The canopy went up, and Wolfe managed to clamber out of the cockpit, one hand pressed to his side wound. He lowered himself to the ground, collapsing into Scott’s arms. Gently, Scott laid Wolfe on the ground, his own hands now awash in the colonel’s blood. “You’re bleeding, sir,” he told Wolfe hurriedly. “We’ve got to get you back to the base.”
Wolfe reached up and removed his dark glasses. “Too late, Bernard,” he answered weakly, eyes closed. “Get yourselves out of here on the double.”
“I won’t let you die like this,” Scott objected. “You’re coming back with us!”
Wolfe forced his eyes open and looked hard into Scott’s own. “I’m a traitor, Commander—”
“Colonel—”
“And a traitor should be left to die out in the open …” Wolfe shivered from a cold that began deep down in his guts. “When I think of the lives I traded to save my own skin …” Wolfe screamed as something seemed to come loose inside him. Scott watched him blanch and felt the dying man’s grip tighten on his arm.
Invid Invasion: The New Generation Page 18