Invardii Box Set 2

by Warwick Gibson

  Fedic forced himself to relax as it hit, and his body rolled and bobbed within the webbing of his harness as the wave rolled by. Eventually he stopped moving, and looked up at the overhead screens. Good, there was only the one shock wave, but there were lumps of cooling magma rocketing through space around the little fleet.

  He got himself out of the restraining webbing and checked on the space stations. The dry docks were more robustly built, and the Earth ships all had the Druanii shields. The Sumerian warships would have to take their own chances.

  The stations were already calling in. Miraculously, all were still functioning. The main problems were caused by semi-molten rock smashing into the hulls at escape velocity speeds. Reports began to come in as patches were put desperately into place, of levels sealed off, and fires being fought and extinguished. For a while, it almost looked as if the Sumerians of Rokar might make it through the massive impact without a loss of life.

  Then the furthest space station from the Lucky Streak twisted suddenly and collapsed. Fedic thought at first it had simply been holed, and was venting internal atmosphere. But then half the station caved in, with pressure waves crumpling along the hull as the structure failed.

  Debris spewed from the stricken station, and Fedic realized that most of what he was seeing was bodies. He felt sick. Eighty thousand Sumerians were dying, and others were seeing their loved ones die. Some would be desperately trying to save others, and failing. Some would be desperately trying to save themselves, and seeing no escape.

  Shuttles arrived from the remaining stations, trying to dodge the last molten projectiles coming in from the collision. It was already too late for those who had been exposed to the harshness of space, but there was a chance of survivors in the remains of the station. A desperate rescue attempt got underway, but in the end less than a thousand Sumerians were taken off the space station still alive.

  Shuttles returned to cargo bays, and the little fleet drifted on through space. The space stations and dry docks could only wait to be rescued, and life support systems would give out eventually under loads they were never designed to bear. As the fleet drifted aimlessly, Fedic considered the loss to the Sumerian empire.

  The cost in terms of population had been relatively light – if you hardened your heart and thought of it in terms of percentages – but the loss of the main industrial base on Rokar would hurt the Sumerians far more.

  Fedic decided he was weary of running away from the goddamn Invardii. When would the Alliance get the chance to strike back?

  Not for a long time yet, he reminded himself grimly.

  CHAPTER 14

  ________________

  Fedic was stood down for two weeks after the destruction of Rokar. It was standard procedure. The psychologists had a long name for it that tried to give the impression of stress and mortality. All that happened was that Fedic got bored.

  He did find the stabilization of the new planet interesting to watch. It was bigger now, having had the mass to trap most of the ejecta that had spewed away after the impact. Rokar kept throwing up new continents, and then dissolving them again, as the planet tried to merge the two cores within it.

  Then he was told he was going to Uruk, the Sumerian home planet. Much of the population had been left behind after the Alliance had pulled off a massive evacuation right under the noses of the armada. His job would be to assist whatever resistance had formed since that time.

  He was going to be ‘dropped off’ in rather a spectacular fashion. He was familiar with the dipole shuttle, having used it during the mission to Alamos, but in this case it was going to be dropped during a rapid bypass of the planet. Speed and direction under those circumstances were going to be a lot harder to get right.

  Two days later he was on his way.

  The starship appeared out of nowhere in a brief, red-shifted glow, and raced toward the night side of Uruk. It had come out of star drive just beyond the planet’s gravity well, and would make the briefest of passes before dropping back into the grainy gray nothingness of star drive. A little under half of the armada that had destroyed civilization on the planet still remained.

  The thought of handing the Lucky Streak over to someone else for the trip had not sat well with Fedic, so here he was with AldSanni, one of ParapSanni’s aides, and a Javelin pilot, in a greatly-enhanced miners’ ship.

  There was a good chance this might be the first and last stealth mission for this ship, but the pilot, an experienced veteran, was a volunteer. He knew the risks he was taking. The dipole shuttle, however, would almost certainly be lost in the excursion to the surface, and that was unfortunate.

  Fedic had been sent by Cordez, and he always had the option of saying no to the assignment. Every time Cordez told him that it made him snort in amusement. AldSanni was there as an acting member of ParapSanni’s new government, intending to find out what lines of command and stores of basic supplies still existed. Once he knew that he would organize the survivors into a resistance that stretched across the planet.

  AldSanni would always remember the destruction of ToruRoth by the Reaper ships, and the loss of so many of his shipmates. He was prepared to put his life on the line again in remembrance of them, and for all who suffered under Invardii tyranny.

  The two operatives prepared for departure as the ship approached the middle of its bypass. The unified field dipole between the round ball of the shuttle and the ship would lower them through the atmosphere. The ship would be racing past the planet above them, and the drop would have to be timed perfectly.

  It had been a welcome relief to find the night side of the planet unguarded, but their ship would have shown up on enemy scanners as soon as they came out of star drive. Time was of the essence.

  Fedic walked toward the glistening black shuttle in the cargo bay. There was a soft hiss as the hatch slid sideways into the hull. It was a bit of a scramble to lever himself over the waist-high sill and into the smooth interior. AldSanni had already checked the controls from the ship’s bridge, while Fedic had checked the systems inside the shuttle. Everything was ready for departure.

  Once AldSanni had joined him, and locked himself into a harness, Fedic closed the hatch and gave the launch command. The pilot swung them out through the cargo bay doors, and held them there until the optimal moment for release. He activated the dipole, and the smooth, black shuttle fell away toward the planet below. There was a moment’s acceleration, and then its inhabitants were weightless.

  Fedic glanced toward AldSanni, who nodded. They didn’t have time for a normal descent, and the ride was about to get rough. He began to feed energy from the ship’s engines into the dipole. Acceleration toward the surface increased, until they were both hanging uncomfortably in the harnesses. Then the shuttle started to shake as the density of the atmosphere built up. Both of them hung on grimly as the sensation of speed increased.

  The pilot’s voice echoed oddly inside the round shuttle. “I’m getting Reaper ship signatures closing from the horizon. Let me check for an estimated time until arrival. Stand by.”

  Dammit, thought Fedic, their luck might have just run out. The mission so far had been easy, now they had a fight on their hands. The miners’ ship was a sitting duck while it maintained level flight and controlled the descent of the shuttle.

  If the ship cut the dipole to the shuttle and ran for it, Fedic and AldSanni were as good as dead. Slamming into the planet at their current speed would bury them good and deep. Anything in the shuttle would be jelly moments after impact.

  “Four minutes until the Reaper ships are within firing range,” said the pilot, “maybe less. I’ll have to terminate the link in four minutes, it’s the best I can do for you.”

  There was a noticeable hesitation in the pilot’s voice.

  “Good luck,” he said at last. The transmission ended with a click.

  The pilot was a good man, thought Fedic. He had cut his own safety margins to the bone so he could give the shuttle the maximum amount of t
ime until the release. Then he turned his mind to the shuttle’s problems.

  There was no possible way they could be safely on the ground in four minutes, and if they were still falling through the atmosphere when the link was cut they would lose all control of the shuttle.

  Fedic brought up a topographic map of the surface of Uruk directly under them. The shuttle was headed for an agricultural area, a wide plain of river silts cut by the braided arms of two large rivers. He followed the rivers as they ran ahead of the shuttle. Both rivers entered a small sea a little way ahead.

  A sea would work! It was something softer than land, at least it was to the impervious hull of the shuttle. The two passengers might make it to the surface in one piece after all – with a giant helping of luck. Fedic opened a line to the pilot.

  “I’m going for an angled descent,” he said. “Expect an increase in atmospheric drag.” He paused for a moment, then abandoned the crisp informational manner normally used by pilots to one another.

  “Hell’s teeth, just stick by us until you cut the link, then get yourself out of there!” he said. There was a brief acknowledgment.

  The shuttle jerked and twisted on the end of the invisible tether that connected it to the miners’ ship. It struggled to take the new heading, seeming to resist Fedic’s attempts to steer it. Then at last it swung toward the small sea. The sudden change of direction flattened the two operatives against the side of the shuttle.

  Don’t let me pass out, prayed Fedic, as his vision narrowed to a small circle at the end of a long, red tunnel.

  The shuttle accelerated in the new direction, towed behind the ship as it passed in close orbit far above them. Fedic struggled to retain his senses. He read the positional telemetry, and made an adjustment to the rate of descent. They were rocketing across the landscape, a giant ball about to be bowled across the surface of the planet.

  Just give us a few more seconds, murmured Fedic.

  Aldsanni had long ago closed his eyes.

  There was a momentary judder and they were flying free. Fedic floated weightless at the controls of the shuttle, anxiously checking the shuttle’s speed and angle of descent. Aldsanni muttered something and slowly raised his head.

  Dammit! thought Fedic. They were too low, and going far too fast! They would hit the sea all right, but not with the gentle dive he had hoped for. He motioned urgently to AldSanni to wedge himself under the rungs on the floor of the shuttle. There was just time for him to let go of the now useless controls and do the same for himself, when the shuttle hit.

  It seemed much later when Fedic came round, but then he realized the shuttle was still flying. Slowly his befuddled mind pieced together what must have happened. They had hit at a shallow enough angle to skip across the surface of the water. That meant they were back in the air, and would hit again soon!

  He looked around. Aldsanni wasn’t moving. He was unconscious on the floor of the shuttle, and one leg was bent back at an awkward angle, caught around one of the rungs.

  That doesn’t look good, thought Fedic, before the second impact pushed the air out of his lungs. He doubled over, convulsing as he tried to get some of that air back. Then they hit again, and began a series of juddering bounces as the shuttle skipped across the surface. Gradually it began to slow down.

  There was one long, last, plowing contact with the surface of the sea, and then the black sphere finally came to a stop, bobbing up and down under its own momentum.

  CHAPTER 15

  ________________

  Fedic grimaced as he stood up. Everything seemed to hurt. He checked himself over carefully, but found nothing major. He was going to be black and blue in places, but his legs and arms seemed to work. AldSanni hadn’t been so lucky, and a grayish goop was spreading from his twisted leg. Fedic had no idea what that meant, but he figured AldSanni was in serious trouble.

  He looked up, and saw the hatch was slightly more than half way up the wall of the shuttle, and presumably above the waterline. He went to open it, but every time he hauled himself toward it, his weight brought the hatch down to the water. Damn. How were they going to get out of the shuttle without letting half the sea in?

  Then he decided the problem would have to wait, AldSanni was the greater priority. Fedic moved cautiously over to the Sumerian. AldSanni was a strange color, his shiny, leathery skin now a dry, charcoal gray.

  There was no point in trying to straighten AldSanni’s leg until he came around. Sumerians were capable of prodigious strength when they dumped adrenaline into their systems in response to a threat. Fedic didn’t want to struggle with an unconscious AldSanni who had no idea what he was doing.

  The answers to both his problems came at the same time. Aldsanni opened his eyes and grimaced at the pain in his leg, and Fedic felt something bump against the shuttle. Both of them looked up as the bumping sound came again. Fedic crawled across until he was nearer the point of contact, and rapped out a pattern on the hull.

  There was no answer. He tried again, and listened for a minute before making his way back to AldSanni. He had barely worked out what they should do with the Sumerian’s injured leg when there was a solid thump as something was placed on the exterior of the shuttle. Fedic raised his eyebrows. Friend or foe, there was nothing he could do about it right now.

  He braced Aldsanni as the Sumerian tried to extricate his leg from under the bar. The first time the pain was so sudden, and so severe, that Aldsanni froze in agony. He held on, breathing in quick gasps, until the pain ebbed away again. The second time he just kept going, and dragged his leg out until it was free.

  You had to admire his self-control, thought Fedic, imbued with a newfound respect.

  The loss of the jelly-like gray blood was not apparently critical. From what AldSanni told him, it appeared Sumerian skin closed over a wound and generated scar tissue within a day.

  The break in the leg was more of a problem. The previously sea dwelling Sumerians had adapted cartilage for the same function as human bone, but it was an inter-connected, fluid-filled mass under quite some pressure. The break had effectively deflated AldSanni’s leg bones, and he would be of no further use until he got some major medical attention.

  After he had made AldSanni comfortable, Fedic sat back and turned over the situation in his mind. He listed the main points in his mind, and it didn’t look good.

  Someone or something had apparently taken the shuttle into captivity. The Invardii had control of the skies above the planet and could spot the shuttle at any moment. Their mission was to find and assist the Sumerian remnants on the planet, yet so far they had no leads to go on. The pilot who had brought them here could well be dead, and Aldsanni had broken his leg. Oh yes, but they were still alive. He smiled. Well then, the odds were definitely in their favor!

  The shuttle was dragged along for quite some time, and it developed an unpleasant left and right yawing motion. Fedic surmised that it made an ungainly sea vessel. It felt like the shuttle was bulldozing its way along, and it didn’t help that it rode low in the water.

  Then at last they started to slow down, and a short while later the shuttle was bumping against something that was solid but had a little give in it. A short whine of electric motors confirmed for Fedic that they were now tied to a hydraulic dock.

  The shuttle lurched upward and swung to one side. Fedic figured they were being transferred onto land. He tossed AldSanni a small box with a data input point at one end.

  “Punch in three stars and you’ll take out the shuttle and everything around it a couple of seconds later. You may not need to use it, but it will give you some leverage if things aren’t looking too good when we get out of here.”

  AldSanni looked surprised, but he put the box in a front pocket and made a slow Sumerian nod of his head.

  Fedic took a number of things out of the bulky military jacket that overlay his body armor, strapping some of them on his arms and assembling others into formidable-looking weapons. He didn’t know what was out there
, but he was going to be ready.

  The hatch slid back before Fedic was ready to activate it from inside. He figured someone had some sophisticated scanning equipment to do that remotely. He counted slowly to three then took two fast steps and vaulted cleanly through the hatch. He was already turning in the air as he reached the highest point of his dive and started to descend.

  Three . . four . . contact, he counted off, then rolled along a hard flat surface through two revolutions before coming to his feet at a run. Four and a half seconds in the air put him a good two meters below the bottom of the shuttle. He must have cleared some sort of flatbed device the shuttle had been lifted onto, and he would be on the surface of the dock now.

  He didn’t need to look behind him to confirm it, and wasted seconds got you killed. He took two more steps at full speed and slammed into a bay between two pillars, dropping to one knee as he spun around, weapons coming to the ready.

  A party of startled Sumerians stood frozen in shock. Most were still turning their heads as they followed his path out of the shuttle and into the shadows.

  “Er, welcome to RockHaven,” said one of them tentatively.

  Fedic relaxed. He lowered his weapons and clipped them on his belt. He carried linguist earpieces as part of his kit, but it looked like they wouldn’t be needed. Aldsanni had started issuing a string of orders from inside the shuttle, as soon as he heard the language of his countrymen.

  The first concern was AldSanni’s leg, and whatever RockHaven was, it did apparently have medical facilities. As far as Fedic could tell, the settlement was some sort of self-sufficient village on the edge of the sea.

  While the Invardii ground ships had destroyed anything that looked like a power plant, the villagers continued to trap power from the sun and live as unobtrusive a life as possible. Hell’s teeth, they had a thermo-incline between the sun-heated rocky cliffs on the foreshore, and the freezing water in the depths off the coast, and that generated power too.