Alien Alliance Box Set

by Chris Turner

  The NOA ships arrowed in. Long thin tapers, smooth hulls, globelike belvederes dead center, shaped like the submarines of old. In a trailing wedge, they spread out to flank the Orb flagships.

  Orbs hurtled to surround the foremost fighters. Miko cringed as Zikri uro bombs flashed out from spiked fuselages and smashed into NOA fighters, penetrating submarine hulls and capsizing shields, while the Mentera began their sinister descent planetward.

  “Bridge, evasive action! Get Viscurg moving,” barked Nrog into his communicator. “Alpha wing team, take out those lead fighters! Destroyers, don’t let them flank you!”

  Some of the NOA broke through the spiderweb and fired in a tight ring on the enemy. Viscurg shuddered to new assaults while sister flagships fell under heavy fire.

  Orbs regrouped. They unleashed sprays of hitherto unknown anti-matter technology down on the fighters. White light with jagged edges splashed across the holovision 360. Some kind of disruptor beam, Miko guessed. Dozens of NOA ships went up in flames or were rendered powerless, zapped of their power.

  An exultant leer came over Admiral Nrog’s face as he chittered on, pointing at Miko. “Look at your pitiful resistance! Blown to dust. Losers of a dying realm.” He lifted a stinging tentacle bristling with muscle and smashed Miko across the room. “All you humans are weak—and stupid.”

  Miko groaned, rubbing his ribs, as he struggled to rise. He shook the daze from his head and wiped his lips. “We will not fail,” he croaked. Usk scuttled to his aid, ready to fight, though he had only one claw.

  Nrog chittered out a laugh. “You’ve already failed.”

  On its canted angle, the simulacrum gazed on in watchful silence. “Not necessarily. Aggressors always have a propensity for underestimating their enemies who will give their life blood to take out their oppressors. You need only study the patterns of history, the chronicles of warfare, your own race’s wars, their bloody history and those of your allies.”

  Jring scowled, one antenna drooping in growing alarm. The holo view flickered out, revealing mossy walls once again. Before the nearby amalgamator, the Princeps scuttled to crouch poised, ready to transport himself back to his own ship. “We did not request an analysis of our military tactics.”

  “You’re much too polite,” rasped Nrog. He glided over. “Fly back to your nest, see to your fleet, Jring, and hope that no more resistance comes our way.”

  Jring and two of his guards vanished in a flash of amber brilliance as the U-shaped amalgamator whisked them off.

  The simulacrum appeared to absorb the changing situation with an air of curious amusement. “My database and nth-order light-AI virtual network is equipped with data from a hundred million worlds, Nrog. I’d have thought you’d have taken advantage of it at this moment.”

  “I could care less for your networks. The time for idealizing has passed. We crush these overweening NOA!”

  The simulacrum’s primitive brow seem to crinkle in interest.

  Miko only wished he had a weapon in his hand. A starship at his disposal. He would rend these foul squids from tentacle to tentacle. This unpredictable power of his, blinking out, leaving him defenseless was useless, unless he could somehow manifest it at will. Such a potent gift wasted.

  He staggered to his feet. Basilursk and his bullies came gliding in, tentacles twitching to encircle him and Usk.

  Chapter 24

  Regers paced the bridge aboard Grendel, his E1 slung over his shoulder. “We’re minutes from that dimhole Xares.”

  Jennings, resenting the perilous mission, hissed through his teeth. “You realize you’re getting mixed up in something over your head.”

  “Have no intention of getting caught up in a bug war, Jiminy. But if it lands us a chance of netting that fucker Yul, I’m in.”

  Jennings snorted while Vincent grinned. “You’ve never told us the full story of this Yul bastard.”

  “And I never will, Vincent. All you need to know is he and I go back a long way.”

  “Whatever beef you have with this man,” said Jennings, “I don’t want any part of it.”

  “Thanks for clearing that up, Jiminy. It’s a hell of a lot deeper than you think, and you’re neck deep in squid shit as it is. You do what I tell you. Nothing more, nothing less. As in, if I say ‘jump’, you ask ‘how high’? Without a care of how much squid shit you may be swallowing on the way up, got it?”

  “Like hell I will.”

  Regers nodded to Vincent. Vincent jammed the muzzle of his E1 in Jennings’ mouth. Dragging knuckles across his peach-fuzz head, he brought his head in close. “Listen up, Jennings. It’s better for your health.”

  Jennings fumed, licking at his bloody lip. Regers turned to Deakes. “We’ve got full power, Deakes, a fast new ship, and plenty of firepower and booze aboard. I won’t kid you, we’re going to have a lot of trouble out there. Feel it in my bones. Bugs to the left of us, bugs to the right of us. The main objective is to get in and out as fast as possible.”

  Deakes blew out air from his cheeks. “Whatever you say, boss. You know my feeling on the subject.”

  “Attaboy, Deakes! Always loyal. Let’s shape up, bitches! We’re not going to waste time quibbling or shedding tears. We’ve got a hell of a lot of bug gunk to wade through and vengeance to wreak! Jennings! You got something to say? Guess not. With a mouth full of bleeding teeth you’d better save your wind. Of all these bastards here, you’re the slowest learner I’ve ever seen.” He shook his head in smiling wonder. “You’ll learn, Jiminy, if I’m not your Uncle Regers.”

  Grendel came out of light drive a safe distance away from the bug fleet poised ready for battle. “I’ve a feeling the most interesting gambits’ll be down on Xares—from there we’ll find our quarry when those locusts start landing cargo vessels on the surface. Ramra, keep ship intercept open for human transmissions. Our Yul boy’s probably going to be squawking on the blower to NOA before long.”

  “Right, boss.” Ramra nudged Jennings aside from the nav panel. “Move over, Jiminy. You’re hogging the console.”

  Regers laughed as Jennings slurred his words through a sore mouth.

  Deakes pointed to the rose-tinged planet below on the holo screen. “From the sound of our friend Dez’s hare-brained scheme, I bet they plan on planting those mechnos down there somewhere in the cities. The dragonflies hate their habitat being disturbed. When they see trouble, they’ll take action.”

  Regers shrugged and muttered under his breath. “Like a few moths in fancy armor are going to take on a whole bug fleet. I’ll believe it when I see it, Deakes.”

  “You said Dez mentioned NOA’s pegged our boy flying a mantis ship?”

  “Yeah, which means we’ll follow the bug swarm down to planetside and listen in.”

  “We still got the squids to worry about,” Deakes cautioned. He made a sweeping gesture at the holo view crammed with clusters of hostiles. “Look at those fucking Orbs. Thousands of them. While the bugs kill each other, the squids’ll plug a bomb on everyone’s ass. Nuke us all, squeeze the bejeesus out of us.”

  Jennings just shook his head in disgust. “You guys are bloody clueless.”

  “Got something to say, fuckface?” growled Vincent, sidling closer, rattling his rifle. “Why not offer it up fair and square, instead of pitching insults?”

  “Enough, you SOBs,” said Regers. “Concentrate on getting this vessel down to planetside without alerting the enemy. Look, the bugs are on the fly.” All eyes turned to the holo view. Thousands of aphid fighters spiraled down toward the planet with mantis scouts and raiders, a swarm of swarms.

  Ramra frowned. “Why aren’t the squids following?”

  “Backup? Dunno.” Regers grunted. “No chance NOA’s going to make any difference against that horde with a few mechnos.”

  “Don’t underestimate them, Regers,” said Jennings through a mouth of swollen gums.

  “Ain’t my war,” said Regers. “I could give two shits.”

  But a part of Regers
felt hollow at such words. Damnedest thing.

  Am I starting to go soft or something?

  * * *

  The Mentera fleet spiraled toward Pandara continent’s most affluent major city, Kibalsh. Yul pawed with frustration at the controls still locked on autopilot. He looked over at Cloye and the innumerable red blips spread over the tactical holo map. He had no clue of the fate of Miko amidst that horde. He’d lost contact with the former NAVO lieutenant back on Quenrix. Fenli’s groans became palpable through the com. The man gnashed at his ill choice in coming back to this hellhole. As luck would have it, his controls were locked on target below as well. The fluke of his nav ever being free again looked unlikely.

  Cloye grazed Yul a meaningful stare. A savage glint pooled in her eyes, her slender fingers moving over the touchpads, itching to peg off bugs. Hresh was as white as a ghost. His jaw half swung wide, as if he were ready to puke. Perhaps the man foresaw his own doom in the steep descent of the Mentera ship, the canted angle of the stars, a dive to the human planet below...a doom coming up fast.

  “Let’s make it good, folks,” said Yul. “These may be our last moments.”

  The bug fleet, rapidly descending, was just minutes away from the atmosphere. Yul saw the flashes of ship fire and advance warnings of ship battles far out in space.

  “NOA, finally!” cried Yul. “They attack the Orbs. Took their sweet time.”

  Hresh hustled to the nav, his white face suddenly suffused with hope. “About 1500 of them!” He worked the locust scanners. “They’re taking on the Zikri forces. Small numbers by any comparison, but better than nothing.” His thin shoulders quivered. “Not faring too well.”

  Yul stared at the wide holoscreen to see submarine NOA hulls flaring to dangerous levels as Zikri blasted their shields and flanked them. Some Zikri Orbs blipped out, blown to ashes by return fire, but not nearly enough.

  “Can’t worry about it, Hresh. We’ve got our own battles ahead. The allies’re going ahead with the invasion. We’re seconds from contact.”

  Attack squadrons swept down to the Kibalsh’s main city center in similar blitzkrieg MO as Gibras on Quenrix.

  The locust fighters streamed in, a long line of offense mantis and aphid shaped warcraft. The city loomed ahead, a pale smudge on the horizon. Strange rust-colored clouds hung low in the midmorning sky like long coral snakes . Sky towers, airways, industrial complexes, took form in the light haze. The hapless millions padded about on their day-to-day business, oblivious to the menace fast approaching. If only they knew what hellfire was about to hit...The Mentera stealth craft hurtled closer, cloaked under radar. A planet-wide warning had been issued with strong advice for civilians to evacuate the city to underground bunkers, but few of the skeptical masses had actually heeded such broadcasts. The Xareans were simply a naturally sceptical people. The ruling class, taking little action, considered these warnings ‘boy-cried-wolf’ threats.

  At last, mobilization of air and ground forces came, as the enemy ships registered on their tracking devices. Fire from Xarean advance guard slashed out. Yul’s mantis ship rocked.

  1700 NOA defense lightfighters faced the Zikri and Mentera vanguard. They split, half staying up to deal with the Orbs, the other half chasing after the descending locust swarm: a solid wedge of ships, weaving in and out of enemy space like two sets of rival hornets. Some shot up in flames, others skidded off to destroy incoming craft while aphids targeted buildings below, causing small fires on the surface. But the Mentera destroyers and Orb flagships remained high up, deliberately forcing the defending NOA to split ranks. Pandemonium erupted on both fronts.

  Full nav control came back in the Mentera lightfighter. Yul gave a gasp of relief. He banked to avoid a stream of NOA fire. A NOA transmission came crackling through the com: “This is Eagle Base 1. Do you read?”

  “Copy,” said Yul.

  “Vrean, you’re in one of the bug ships, right?”

  A familiar voice. Bjen Stone? “Yes, why?”

  “Target the decoy mechno we dropped in Cirrus Square. You can’t miss it—it’s an upright slab of armor off Galihine street. A time bomb waiting to go off.”

  “Say again?”

  “Shoot the thing! It’s priority, Vrean. Pure titanium, shielded, you can’t harm it. We need to make it look as if an ambush is in progress from an enemy vessel. Whatever you do, get the hell out of there after the first hit. Don’t engage it—if you know what’s good for you.”

  “Copy that.” Yul dipped away from the convoy, his lips set grim.

  “What the hell are you doing?” rasped Hresh. “The bugs’ scout craft’ll come after us.”

  Yul ignored him. “I see the target, Eagle Base. Moving in.” He sighted on a blue-black upright hulk and hissed through the com. “Fenli, you too, quit your bellyaching and make yourself useful—Lure the locust ships to the mines. We’re made anyways, soon as we step out of line. Don’t fire on them or you’ll have a freakstorm up your ass.”

  “Roger,” croaked Fenli.

  Yul banked in a tight sweep down a wide street, breaking ranks for the first time from the Mentera convoy. In the middle of the road on a square patch of grass divider, loomed an ominous hulk. Cloye set fingers tapping on the weapons grid. Bright silver patterns arched from the Mentera mantis craft and deflected off the mechno’s gunmetal hide. The thing was knocked backward. The blue light on its forward turret blinked on. In sudden activation, the unit hovered a dozen feet above the grass and took pursuit of the offending craft.

  Cloye, rasping in defiance, sent more silver fire shimmering off its hulk.

  “Bonzai!” Yul fell back in line with the other craft. He accelerated ahead toward the vanguard. He knew he had to get a safe buffer between him and the pursuing mechno. The other ships trailing behind were lit up by the beams lashing out from the mechno’s turret.

  “Seems we’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest.”

  “Don’t get too trigger happy, Cloye. NOA warned us.”

  “Tell that to Fenli,” croaked Hresh. “Looks as if he’s bagged some targets of his own.”

  Yul peered at the flickering holoview. Two more of the hulks that Fenli had pegged off were now tearing after him in pursuit.

  “Holy hell,” Fenli’s voice rattled over the com. “Got some angry wasps on my tail.”

  “I warned you, Fenli!” Yul spoke into the com, “We nailed the targets. Fenli got two more. What the fuck are those things?”

  “Devils in disguise,” NOA said. “Pure titanium, courtesy of Cyber Corp. Powered by plant pod hatchlings you brought back from the outer zones.”

  Yul’s face dimmed a shade of grey umber. His grin turned to a lopsided grimace as a shudder of comprehension ratcheted up his spine. The thought of what those things could do chilled his blood. This was biotech graced with the ferocity of an alien intelligence, beyond anything he had ever encountered—and driving the titanium hulks. The irony of it brought phlegm to his throat, no less the sheer improbability of the current moment.

  Mantis fire arced out of the back of the convoy at the mechno. Nothing seemed to faze it. It came weaving up, dodging the deathly streaks and firing high-intensity beams back with savage force. It thrust in at impossible speeds, smashed the rear of the Mentera brigade, severing ships in two, shearing off fuselages, wings and rear thrusters. Ships went careening off to strike the surface and explode in the streets below. The hulk passed through the smoke to pursue the remaining ships.

  “What the hell—? NOA, can you confirm what I’m seeing? Is this hulk for real—that I’m not dead in some twisted dream?”

  NOA’s reply cut off in mid-sentence. Instead, a voice, familiar and not, intruded on his reverie.

  “Yul, baby, is that you? Talking to your boyfriends? Your goody good NOA?”

  Yul’s lips parted in a frown. He blinked, as if hearing a ghost from the past.

  “Don’t you remember me? No, you don’t, do you? But I’d recognize your smarmy, whiny voice anywhere. Old Regers is
here to collect his dues.” A clown’s laugh came over the receiver. “Come out and play, Yul boy. Uncle Regers’s coming for you. Fuck your sweet ass nice and pretty.”

  Yul half choked, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing. “Regers?” His bull throat worked, swallowing dry air. “You died down there—on Phebis.”

  “Oh, ho. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Me’s the man! A hundred lives for old Regers. Prepare for a sweet reckoning, Yul. Get the grease out. Whoopee!”

  “Who is this nut case?” Cloye rasped.

  Yul’s eyes swung to the tactical holo view. A blue blip came hurtling out at breakneck speed, a rogue ship diving out of the multitudes, veering their way.

  Yul gazed in awe, not without some trepidation. Regers. Could it be? No way. The cannons were locked on their much smaller ship. A pink blot of fire blipped out at them.

  The ship rocked to a concentrated blast. Warning yellow lights danced across the console.

  “Friend of yours?” grumbled Cloye.

  “Damn that fucking Regers! He’s actually going to take pieces out of our hide. Can’t he see who the real enemy is here?”

  Cloye set the target lock. “Give me the word, I’ll nuke him.”

  “He’s no friend of mine, Cloye. Blast him.”

  “With pleasure. Mentera are sending suspicious eyes our way.”

  “Forget the Mentera. Concentrate on Regers. Fucking bastard. He’s going to spoil our whole ruse.”

  “Thought you said we were already made?” muttered Hresh.

  “I was wrong. How the hell did he...?” Yul croaked. He wet his dry lips. “The signal’s encrypted.”

  “Ever hear of a decrypter, bozo?” Regers jeered.

  Yul scowled down at the receiver, not realizing he had a live channel still with Regers.

  “Grendel rules. This is state-of-the-art shipcraft, Yul baby.”

  “What the fuck’s he talking about?” muttered Cloye.

  “He’s a madman.” Yul shook his head. “Crazy as a loon.”

  Skimming recklessly over the streets, past ships, round bends and ruined apartment blocks, Yul tried to lose his new menace. Brilliant bursts peppered around them. Shields fell. Now other Mentera craft, perceiving Regers’ vessel as hostile, took pursuit. But Regers state-of-the-art Roamer was more than a match for the inadequate mantis fighter he was flying. Yul cringed. He suffered through the irony that he was glad to have Mentera hostiles on his tail.