“Yeah that makes sense.” Yuina weaved over the surface of the planet. “Engineering, give me rear shield power.”
“How much?” Cyrus asked.
“Whatever you got.”
The Eye of Orion raced across the land, zigzagging to elude the two robots and avoiding the ground lasers.
“We gave you what we can Yuina,” Cyrus said.
She looked down at her console more than the terrain whipping by.
In the holobridge, Steo saw they were either slowing down or the robots were catching up.
“War robots coming within gun range,” Hawking reported.
“Count on it,” Yuina said.
“Robots firing high-explosive armor penetrating shells. Impact,” Hawking said.
This time everyone heard the explosions behind the ship.
“They are cycling their weapons to fire again. Range closing.”
Yuina braced herself in her chair. The ship came to an abrupt halt. The first war robot struck the rear of the Eye of Orion. Its armor crumpled on the ship’s shields. Its solid fuel ignited, engulfing it in flames. It spiraled down into the trees and exploded.
The second war robot lurched out ahead of the ship. Yuina sped after it. As it slowed to bring its forward guns to bear, she hit it with a glancing shove and it spun wildly. She must have hit the ammunition bay because it detonated in mid-air, a cascade of flashes and sparks spewing from the wreckage as it plummeted to the ground.
Steo came back into the bridge. “Good work.”
Yuina slowed down.
Glaikis said, “I’ve done a complete survey of their communications and movements. These are elements of a planetary defense system. They’re notorious for adapting to enemy tactics. If we keep fighting them, they could get more dangerous.”
“Any damage?” Steo asked.
“Yes sir,” Hawking said. “A ground battery fired lasers and projectiles. As the lasers weakened the ventral shields, some of the projectiles penetrated, damaging plates and tearing off a small sensor dish. I don’t recommend flying across any more of those.”
“Thanks,” Yuina said.
“How good are their sensors?” Steo asked.
“Pretty poor,” Glaikis said. “If we don’t move or generate much energy, these old systems shouldn’t be able to locate us.”
Steo and Glaikis worked at a console, looking for a place to hide.
Cyrus and Renosha came up to the bridge.
“That went well, I thought,” Cyrus said hesitantly. “What are we going to do now?”
“Glaikis and Steo are looking for somewhere to hide,” Yuina said. “I’m looking for a gap in their batteries.”
She flew the ship slowly across the land, sliding this way and that to avoid where she thought laser batteries were.
“What’s that?” she said, looking up at the main panel.
A green beam hundreds of feet in diameter split the sky, then again.
Glaikis said, “Wow. That’s a neutron splitter beam. Powerful enough to target ships in orbit. It’s easy to avoid down here.”
“Correct, Navigator Glaikis. It has targeted and possibly hit the Fire Scorpion above.”
The green beam fired again.
“That’s great, but let’s not stay too close to that,” Steo said. “Glaikis can you plot the course for Yuina?”
“Sure, Steo. Yuina take us to these coordinates,” she said.
In next to no time they traversed the landscape, sidestepping ground-based laser batteries. They approached a mountain range. Yuina let the ship glide over hills and valleys. Eventually they came to the coordinates. A wide, fast-running river ran over a cliff, causing a waterfall a mile wide.
Steo said, “Take us under the waterfall. Drop shields. Our engines and armor won’t even notice the pressure. This will hide us from the planetary defense system’s scans.”
“What about our friends above?” Yuina said.
Hawking said, “They have moved out of range of the neutron splitter beam but are still capable of detecting us here.”
Steo said, “There’s a side-benefit to this. It’ll wash the radioactive dust off our hull. We won’t leave a trail anymore, so one more jump and that’s it. We only have to escape this planet and the Fire Scorpion will never see us again.”
“We only have to escape gun-wielding war robots, surface-to-air laser batteries, and a ship that’s vastly superior to us,” Yuina said.
“And the neutron splitter beams, Pilot Yuina. You failed to mention those,” Hawking said.
CHAPTER 32
Old War
Steo spent the next few hours in the holobridge trying to hack into the planetary defense system. It was slow going. He was tired and worn out by the constant chase. Losing his old friend Tully left a pain in his chest. He would have to explain to Tully’s wives and children that their father was dead, and maybe it was his fault.
Cyrus joined him. Muliar was wild and overgrown, but there were signs it was involved in an interplanetary war long ago. Scans showed there was no intelligent life on the surface or under the oceans.
Cyrus said, “It’s possible the inhabitants of Muliar were on the losing side. That would explain why the buoys transmit a warning.”
Finally they found an old but active civilian computer system. They couldn’t translate the language. Neither their onboard computer nor Hawking had ever seen its like before, but they could gather from images that Cyrus’s theory was probably correct. Muliar was the home world to a species of people with gray skin and small antlers. The computer’s best approximation of the name of the species was “lafiou.” In the images, their language was even written on the material of their clothes.
Renosha arrived and looked over the information.
Steo said, “The buoys weren’t made by the lafiou. They were made by the saru.”
“Saru?” Cyrus asked.
“We have one line in our database. ‘Militant reptilian species, probably extinct.’ A few symbols of their language are included. This region of space isn’t documented well. The buoys are transmitting a common signal meaning danger. They’re much simpler to hack into, and the language matches that of the saru.”
“So the ancient war is long over. The saru and lafiou destroyed each other, but their machines live on. A familiar and tragic story,” Renosha said.
Repairs continued. Hawking confirmed that the waterfall had erased the radioactive residue which the Fire Scorpion had used to track them. They exited the waterfall, even though they didn’t have an escape plan yet. Steo used the holobridge day and night. The planetary defenses were still a threat. They were awake and probing for a long-lost enemy. More war robots could attack them at any time; the surface lasers were still active; and the neutron splitter beams could cut their ship to ribbons.
Cyrus asked, “Are we refreshed?”
Glaikis said, “Mostly. Gases were easy to gather from the atmosphere. We need some water.”
“Why don’t I go get some?” he offered.
Glaikis smiled like she was talking to a child. “We’re gathering it from the humidity. A bucket won’t be necessary.”
“Oh,” Cyrus said, a little dejected. He still didn’t have a place among the crew, and he volunteered for everything.
A little while later, Steo heard a commotion. He found Yuina, Glaikis, Renosha, Hawking and even Governor looking out the side door and yelling, “Come back in!”
Outside, Cyrus was on a glider. He wore only shorts. The spray of the nearby waterfall splashed over him. His bronzed skin glistened in the late afternoon sky. Hovering hundreds of feet above the earth, he held the glider with one hand. His hair waved in the breeze.
“Where is he going? Where are you going?” Steo yelled to Cyrus.
“I don’t have a job here! I can’t help. I’m not a gunner, engineer or tactician. Not even a leader like I was grown to be.”
“So what?” Steo yelled. “You help. You’re not a passenger. We don’t want you
to leave!”
Yuina yelled, “Cyrus, as disgusting as I think you are, the idiot’s right! Come back in.”
“You’re a friend, Cyrus,” Glaikis said.
Cyrus paused at that. “I like to think of you as my friends too. I liked Tully. He did things. I can do things too. I have an idea. I’m not going to tell you what it is! I think I can get us out of this. Just wait. Either I’m right or I’m dead.”
Hawking said, “Ship’s sensors indicate incoming war robots. They can detect us now.”
“I can turn them around,” Cyrus said.
“You’re taking nothing with you?” Yuina yelled.
“What are you going to stop them with?” Glaikis said.
Cyrus hovered a little closer, smiled with bright white teeth and said, “My tan.”
Then he flew down to meet the oncoming war robots.
Repair robots worked on the inside and outside of the Fire Scorpion. They scuttled over its surface, rebuilding a structure in the hole made by the neutron splitter beam. Soon they would cover both sides with a makeshift hull.
Many crewmen kept track of the Eye of Orion on the planet surface.
In a conference room, Hack had just made his report to Slaught. Pesht was a little nervous. He was out of the bridge, therefore out of his element, and in such environments he felt inferior because of his shorter stature. The six-legged alien struggled with his instinct to climb.
Other mercenaries were present.
Slaught turned to Pesht. “Leech.”
“After-action report: regarding the damage to the Fire Scorpion. Eight men dead, five robots destroyed,” Leech recounted.
Pesht nodded. He knew this would be about his decisions during the attack. “Those are facts.”
Boc was there, leaning back and smiling broadly. Nothing entertained him as much as suffering, and he expected to see some.
Leech circled the small kalam. “What you may not know is a scan indicated the planetary defense system was arming and preparing to fire the cannon that punctured this ship!”
“What?” Pesht said. “I wasn’t made aware of that. I couldn’t have reacted to information I didn’t get.”
“Is that an excuse, Bridge XO Pesht?” Leech asked.
Straightening, Pesht said, “No. The ship is my responsibility. The bridge crew are my responsibility. I just want the facts out.”
Slaught nodded. Pesht watched for signs that the spiders danced.
Pesht asked, “Which crewman was it?”
“Junior Scanner Tech Madds,” Leech replied.
Pesht thought that strange. The behavior of his bridge crew was his responsibility, but Madds wasn’t one to slack.
Leech said, “In my assessment, I don’t blame you for missing the warning, Pesht. In fact I don’t blame your crewman either. You’ll both be punished of course. Docked pay. Reduced rations. A session with the ship’s discipline robots. The usual.”
Pesht knew that a deadly blast like the one they’d suffered couldn’t go unpunished. He didn’t understand why he was being given a light sentence. The discipline robots would probably subject him to an hour of freezing, drowning, sensory deprivation or something equally memorable, but that was nothing in comparison to what the true culprit would suffer.
“The crewman was distracted, sir, which shouldn’t have happened. Another crewmember was in the bridge. One who isn’t a member of the bridge crew,” Leech said.
Slaught faced Boc. Leech did the same.
“You,” Pesht said. Now it was the kalam’s turn for glee. He climbed up on the table, like a predator tensing to attack.
Boc stood up. The other mercenaries stepped away from him and didn’t make eye contact with Slaught.
“You,” Slaught said in his gravelly voice.
Boc lost his smile.
Leech unfolded his arms and pointed at Boc. “Field Officer Boc was in the bridge without express permission from the Bridge Officer. Being equals, the Bridge Officer couldn’t command him out of the bridge. Field Officer Boc then distracted the scanner tech while the ship was being targeted by a powerful cannon so large it had to be planet-based!”
Boc gulped. No discipline robots awaited him.
Slaught stood and stared at Boc. Boc hoped the punishment wasn’t what he thought.
“You know what to do,” Slaught said.
Boc wore a wretched expression. Death wasn’t the worst punishment for mercenaries. That was the Torment Bundle.
A Torment Bundle was a set of nerve fibers implanted at the base of the brain. Most mercenaries got them early in their carrier as a contractual requirement. In fact that was normally considered the difference between a mercenary and a crewman. The bundle was passive and couldn’t be triggered from outside. It was a disciplinary tool that could only be activated by the mercenary himself.
Boc activated his Torment Bundle and screamed with every ounce of his being.
It was a formidable tool. First, it deactivated his pleasure center. There would be no enjoying this. Then it sent shocks through his nervous system, causing agonizing, excruciating pain. He collapsed and thrashed on the floor, burning his vocal chords with screaming. Boc could barely take a breath between the debilitating jolts. Images of sheer terror raced before his eyes. The hallucinations affected all his senses. His mind was no longer his own. He lost self-control and soiled himself.
Everyone in the room was a hardened mercenary. They had seen terrible events and been toughened by them. They watched and winced in disgust at the display.
The torture was physically and mentally thorough. Nobody could stand it for long, so the Torment Bundle simply shut off when it approached overload. People reported feelings like it lasted hours, but they shut off after a few minutes.
Boc flopped on the floor, his eyes unfocussed. He went limp and gasped for air.
Admiral Slaught adjourned the after-action meeting. Everyone left the room. People never laughed at seeing a Torment Bundle activated, but it mattered if people watched. It was the most humiliating, degrading experience imaginable. It damaged your reputation severely.
The punishment had only begun for Boc. The torture was exhaustive but brief. The after-effects were worse. Unlike an hour with the discipline robots, this punishment lasted days. Because the mercenary activated the Torment Bundle himself after agreeing to a failure or lapse in discipline, his brain reacted with overwhelming guilt and shame. He had been torn down in front of peers and his commander. No one could tough this out. His weakness was exposed, and he had done it himself. Every mercenary knew stories of another who had activated his Torment Bundle and lost so much respect from his men that he got fragged in the next fight.
Since his pleasure center had been shut off, he couldn’t take pride in the fact. He had no honor, only disgrace. The indignity was his own fault. Waves of self-hate would wash over him for the next few days. There would be no laughing his way out of this.
Boc would remember to ask permission of the acting bridge officer in the future. He didn’t have a choice.
Slowly the Torment Bundle returned his self-control. He fumbled to his knees and smelled his own waste. Tears, blood and vomit soaked the front of his shirt. Things only seemed funny to him when they happened to other people.
Yuina ran to the bridge, hoping she could intercept the incoming war robots. Glaikis stood in the door shouting down at Cyrus. Steo went to grab another glider.
Cyrus descended fast and landed on the riverbank. He stepped off his glider and pressed a button on a handheld device. It was a circuit taken from a decoy drone, and it emitted the same signature as the Eye of Orion.
The war robots flew across the jungle tops. Each was oblong like an egg, with barrels jutting from the front. They veered toward Cyrus, alone and nearly naked by the river.
Glaikis gave up yelling, shut the door and ran to the bridge. Steo arrived moments later. “He disabled the rest of the gliders.”
“He was born a hero,” Yuina said.
&nbs
p; Hawking said, “Scans of the war robots are coming in. They have improved armor and energy shields now. Their armaments are fission guns.”
Glaikis said, “A shot from one of those could rip through our shields. The planetary defenses are adapting!”
Yuina lowered the ship as they watched the drama outside.
Cyrus held up a hand to the approaching robots. They could have reduced him to bits from a mile away, but the crew was shocked when they flew toward him. The crew’s eyes went wide when the robots stopped, facing him. Gun barrels pointed at him as they hovered.
Cyrus waved at the robots, then pointed at himself. He pointed at the descending Eye of Orion, then back to his transmitter and himself.
“Is he talking to them?” Steo said dubiously.
“They can’t understand him. This is insane,” Glaikis said.
Still the robots didn’t fire. Cyrus gestured and even jumped up and down. He slapped himself in the face and pounded his chest.
“Why aren’t they firing?” Steo asked.
Hawking said, “By my data, he should be dead, sir.”
Renosha walked up next to Steo. “I guess data isn’t everything.”
The Eye of Orion was well within weapons range of the war robots yet they did nothing. Cyrus continued his show. The Eye of Orion came down behind him. The war robots seemed to take no notice. Then they turned and glided away, as if disinterested.
There was a round of shouting and laughter in the bridge. Even Renosha tried a metallic chuckle. They were safe.
They ran back to the bay door and opened it. Cyrus rose to meet them. They grabbed him and pulled him inside.
“How did you do it?” they asked.
Cyrus looked happy for the first time.
“I told you, my tan.”
“What?”
“How?”
They walked to the bridge while he explained.
“You said the lafiou built the planetary defense system to fight the saru, a green-skinned reptilian race. They didn’t build it to kill themselves – at least I hoped. Anyway, I showed them that I wasn’t a green-skinned reptilian. Reptiles don’t tan.”
The Eye of Orion_Book 1_Gearjackers Page 22