Armada

by Paul Teague

  “Only when I can do it in private,” muttered Davies. “Not a good topic to discuss with everyone on the bridge.”

  Conway nodded. Davies was often a little paranoid, but on this occasion his caution made good sense.

  “Admirals don’t like difficult questions,” said Jackson, glancing across the room from the doorway where he watched for approaching Mechs and OctoBots. “Makes them uncomfortable.”

  “Fuck uncomfortable,” snapped Conway. “What about all this” – she waved her hand at the Sphere – “is there to be comfortable about?”

  Jackson shrugged inside his armour and turned back to the corridor. “Just saying,” he muttered.

  Then the OctoBot lit up as Davies plugged in a lead to the tech bay. “Gotcha,” he said in quiet triumph. Then he turned to the others. “I think we have a right to know what’s going on, don’t you? Bearing in mind we’re risking our heads out here. The minute I can get to Orion, I’m getting backed up in their cloning bay. This mission is already way too hazardous to risk a real life.”

  “Seconded,” said Conway, “but Stansfield is a tough old bastard, and maybe there’s an operational reason we’re being kept on a tight leash.”

  “Hah! Yes, but,” Davies began, then he stopped dead. “Fuck, I didn’t think that would work quite so easily.”

  “What?” said Conway, frowning suspiciously. “And shouldn’t Ten and Gray be back from their scouting expedition?”

  Jackson nodded and eased into the corridor to check for the missing team members.

  “This brain’s still alive,” said Davies. “I’ve got a DNA sample, we might be able to ID the owner when we’re back on Vengeance.”

  “Can we communicate with it?” Conway asked.

  “I don’t see a mouth, do you?” Davies replied dismissively.

  “It’s obviously still sentient in some way. There has to be a way to communicate. If we could speak to it, we might be able to find out what they want.”

  “Very commendable and tree-hugging of you, but I suspect that kick-arse armada probably tells you all you need to know. It doesn’t need a Doctor Doolittle to speak to this animal.”

  “I still think it’s worth a try,” persisted Conway. “Just–”

  But then, without warning, the panels surrounding Conway and Davies lit up and started flashing.

  “What’s happening?” Conway asked.

  “Not sure,” said Davies, frowning at the panels. He unplugged the OctoBot, but the panels didn’t stop flashing. “It’s not this thing, it must be something external.” He opened a channel to Lieutenant Yau. “We’re seeing activity on the Sphere, Vengeance. Is anything happening out there?”

  “Orion’s probe just came through the portal,” said Yau, his voice unusually tense. “And four more Firewall Spheres just dropped out of hyperspace.”

  There was a moment of frozen silence as Davies frowned and stared at Conway.

  “Four more Spheres?” he said quietly, not quite believing what he had heard. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m bloody sure, Trooper,” snapped the Lieutenant in a most uncharacteristic display of nerves.

  “But,” said Davies with a frown, “why aren’t they firing? On Vengeance or Orion’s probe?”

  “Unknown,” said Yau. “They’re converging on your position. You have minutes, if that, before they reach you.”

  “Roger,” said Davies. He closed the channel as the sound of running boots floated along the walkway.

  Ten came around the corner, Gray just behind him. “We need to get out of here,” he said, deadly serious.

  “What did you see?” Conway asked.

  “This sphere is jointed,” said Ten. “It’s the first chance I’ve had to take a proper look without some Mech trying to kill me. I wanted to take a closer look since I saw Centurion painted on one of the panels towards the top. This thing’s built from multiple, massive sheets of metal, each one hinged, jointed and tethered by these weird piston-like cable things. Never seen anything like it. And the entire structure is wired up to this tech area.”

  “Okay, so it’s clever stuff,” said Davies, “but is there a point to this?”

  “Yeah. It’s all moving, like it’s alive or something. The piston-things are bracing. The entire structure flexed a couple of moments ago.”

  “I thought we’d damaged this thing so much it couldn’t act anymore?” said Gray, frowning at Conway. “And aren’t you supposed to be hacking it?” she said, switching her gaze to Davies and glaring at him.

  “I knew something like this would happen,” said Jackson.

  “Maybe it’s a rescue attempt,” said Davies, lost in thought.

  “Rescue attempt?” said Ten. “What are you talking about?”

  “Four more Spheres,” said Davies. “No time to explain, but maybe they’re here to support this one and join the armada.”

  There was a moment’s silence. Then Jackson said, “I hate it when I’m right.”

  “We have to get back to Vengeance,” said Ten.

  But before they could move, the Sphere began to creak and groan, and the lights on the panels flashed again, faster now.

  “Vengeance,” said Davies, re-opening the channel, “what’s the status of that probe?”

  “The probe came through safely,” said Yau, “and Orion is now preparing to follow.”

  “Not sure that’s a good idea, sir,” said Davies. “This Sphere is reconfiguring. Looks like the changes coincided with the arrival of Orion’s probe, so there’s something still alive over here, something that’s not under our control.”

  “All the spheres are changing,” said Yau. “We’re watching them re-form as they close on your position.”

  “What are you seeing, Marine X?” asked Stansfield.

  “Not sure, Admiral,” Ten replied. “But I’d say these things are about to transform into something completely different.”

  He’d barely finished his sentence when his suit sounded a pressure warning as the Sphere’s internal atmosphere was sucked away. In seconds, a hard vacuum had enveloped the party. Then the panels of the sphere began to move around them.

  “We need to get out of here,” said Conway.

  “Back to the shuttle,” said Ten, leading the way.

  “Pass me that thing, Davies,” said Conway, pointing at the disabled OctoBot. “If it belonged to a human, there has to be a way to communicate with it. Maybe Fernandez and his team can rig something.” She stuffed the legless Bot into her pack.

  “Go,” shouted Ten, ushering them out into the corridor. The roof had gone, and the walls were going as the party ran towards the landing platform.

  “Bollocks, I didn’t break the data link,” said Davies, stopping suddenly in his tracks.

  “Forget it,” snapped Conway, “we can’t go back. Move!” She waved at Davies and he followed, swearing under his breath as Ten led them back towards the bay.

  But now the exterior panels of the sphere were opening, moving and reforming. The entire structure was shaking, and there were gaps in the hull through which large patches of star-scape were visible. The walkway began to vibrate violently; then it tilted, moving downward into a different position.

  “Shit,” said Davies angrily, “don’t tell Stansfield. I’ll cut it off from the ship. It’s a bloody good job I firewalled the links.”

  “This thing is like some giant geometrical puzzle,” said Gray as she snatched at a railing.

  “Bleeding engineers,” said Ten, “they have to fiddle with bloody everything.”

  “We’re not going to make it to the bay,” said Conway as the Sphere’s movements and rearrangements grew. The gangway was now tilting so badly that they were in danger of sliding off.

  “The discs,” said Conway, gesturing wildly at a squadron of abandoned Mech transports, “get on the discs!”

  Conway made a leap from the gangway, and the others quickly followed suit as the gangway finally split apart behind them.

&n
bsp; “That was too close,” said Ten as they hovered in a group while the internals of the Sphere shifted and crashed around them.

  “We’re trapped,” said Jackson.

  “Over there,” said Gray, pointing at a new hold that had opened in the Sphere’s hull. “We can get out that way, if we’re quick.”

  But before she had travelled more than a few metres, the Sphere’s hull shifted again and they were trapped, blocked in by the crashing metalwork and completely enclosed by the Sphere’s massive frame.

  13

  “We’re going to get crushed in here,” said Jackson, and for once his pessimism seemed justified. “The whole damn structure is collapsing in on us, like some sort of evil origami.”

  Always happier in the company of a circuit board and soldering iron, Davies was beginning to feel the pressure of the situation. The others seemed entirely at home, but Davies was struggling, and Jackson’s morose pronouncements weren’t helping.

  “Give it a rest,” Davies said, his tone higher than usual. Conway shot him a glance, but locked away inside his armour, it was impossible to tell how he was doing. She switched to the team’s health readouts in her HUD, and what she saw wasn’t encouraging.

  Then a series of huge metal plates swung past and repositioned themselves, further restricting the area the team were hiding in.

  “It’s not destroying itself,” said Conway as the panels moved silently past in what she might have described as ‘a ballet of steel’ if she hadn’t been so distracted by the situation. “It’s reassembling itself, which means there must be a safe place to take refuge.”

  “Agreed,” said Ten, “it’s transforming into something new. If we head towards the power and control area over there,” he said, pointing at a patch of light on the far side of the darkened volume, “that has to be safe, right?”

  Davies was off before the others had even had time to register Ten’s suggestion. His disc leaped forward, shooting through a small gap and weaving its way back into the part of the structure that they’d just come from.

  “Ten’s right,” said Davies as he shot off. “Whatever this thing is doing, it won’t destroy its own power source or control area.”

  “Whoa, Davies, slow down,” said Gray as she struggled with her disc. She wasn’t quick enough off the mark; Davies was away like a greyhound with its arse on fire.

  “What’s up, Gray?” Conway asked.

  “That’s what’s up,” said Gray, pointing at a pair of massive structural girders that were about to shut Davies into a gap from which he wouldn’t be able to escape.

  “Fuck,” said Conway with a grimace. “Davies, get back here.”

  But Davies wasn’t listening. His disc travelled on even when the rest of the team were shouting at him.

  “What the hell is wrong with him?” said Ten on a private channel to Conway.

  “He never was one for the heat of a crisis,” Conway replied. “He’d be happier stuck in front of a computer interface all day.”

  “How’d he ever become a Marine, then?” said Ten.

  “Oh, don’t worry, he can find it when he has to. It’s just that Davies’ default mode is shit bricks. When he has absolutely no other choice but to get involved in a scrap, never fear, you’ll find the Marine that’s hidden deep inside him. I guess he just figures that when you have me, Mason and Kearney covering your back, why get your hands dirty if you don’t have to?”

  She flipped back to the team’s channel and tried once more to attract Davies’ attention.

  “He’s panicked,” said Gray, “and he’s about to get himself locked in there.”

  They watched from afar as Davies manoeuvred his Mech disc through a narrow gap that took him to the control and power areas. Then a huge girder closed the entrance behind him, and he was stuck.

  “Davies? Are you hearing me?” said Conway again, hoping that he might have calmed down a little now that he’d reached his target.

  “Er, hey, guys,” Davies said hesitantly, a mild hint of fear in his voice. “I’m stuck in here! Where the fuck are you? I thought you had my back!”

  “We were hailing you, you dickhead,” said Conway, “but you weren’t listening to us.” She was annoyed with him. She’d seen this kind of behaviour from him before, and it never ended well.

  “We need to move,” said Ten, still staring at the structure around them. “The best place to shoot for is over there. If you take a look at how it’s transformed, there’s another protected area in the centre. At least we won’t get crushed in there.”

  Conway looked around at the location Ten had flagged in his HUD and nodded. “Move,” she said, “now!”

  They glided forwards, Gray moving confidently on her disc, the others floating less adroitly, some way back. Conway, for all that she was a natural flier, struggled to make the disc go where she wanted. She weaved around, colliding with the panels that still moved through the Sphere’s interior.

  Gray reached the designated ‘safe spot’ and jumped off the disc, letting it cruise away. She unslung her rifle and turned on the spot, searching for enemies as Ten and Jackson bobbed down to join her.

  “Hurry it up, Conway,” said Ten as he raised his rifle. “You’re cutting it close.”

  “This bloody thing doesn’t work properly,” snarled Conway, leaning first left then right in her attempt to make the disc go in the right direction.

  “Faster,” said Ten, waving at her as if that was going to make any difference. Conway leaned forwards and suddenly the disc accelerated, blasting across the gap between the corporal and her team.

  “Too fast,” said Jackson as he scurried out of the way, “far too fast.”

  Then Conway was amongst them. She jumped from her disc as it flashed through the area, landing on her feet, then falling into a roll to bounce across the deck until she slid to a halt. The disc shot away, narrowly missing Gray before disappearing off into the distance.

  Then the light disappeared as more panels moved into place, and the deck shuddered as they slid together.

  “Are we trapped?” asked Jackson, the lamps on his helmet flicking on to illuminate the new room the team were in.

  “No,” said Ten calmly. “Consoles, workstations. And doors,” he said, illuminating each item in turn. “We’re fine.”

  “We’re moving,” said Conway as the floor lurched beneath them.

  “That’s not good,” said Gray. “And I can still hear that pulsing, only it’s louder now, like a heartbeat.”

  “Vengeance, are you still hearing us?” said Ten.

  “Just about,” said Yau’s reassuring voice, “only the signal’s intermittent and we’re struggling to maintain contact.”

  “What’s going on?” said Conway.

  “You’re not going to like this, Charlie Team,” said Yau. “The spheres are changing, re-forming. We think they’re merging into one giant structure. If you could see what we can see, it’s like a giant spherical puzzle, but it looks like the parts will all slot together to create some kind of monster space station. I’m sending a feed to your HUDs.”

  “Well,” said Gray as the rest of the team watched Yau’s feed in awed silence, “the Mechs know how to build big.”

  Then the lights came on and the artificial gravity vanished. The team were suddenly floating freely through what seemed to be a control room of some sort.

  “Are you okay, Davies?” said Conway when it became clear that there was no immediate danger.

  There was no answer for a few moments; then he said, “I just hit my damn head on some metalwork. Have you lost gravity?”

  “Yup, we’re just floating around back here, trying to stay busy, watching out for Mechs.”

  “It’s only a matter of time,” said Jackson, “before they find us.”

  “Charlie Team,” said Yau suddenly, his voice broken by the poor signal from Vengeance. “Things are taking an interesting turn. Get ready.”

  “What’s happening, sir?” asked Conway.


  “The spheres are reforming,” said Yau in an amazed tone. “The five separate parts are coming together to create a new structure.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” said Ten. “Doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

  “It all makes perfect sense from out here,” said Yau. “It’s amazing, a really stunning piece of engineering.”

  “You may want to dampen down the praise, Mr Yau,” growled Stansfield as he joined the channel. “Something like that presents a formidable challenge, and you’d do well to remember that.”

  Yau was chastened, but undeterred. “Ay, sir. Charlie Team, if you’re in the power and control areas, I’d say you’re about to become part of a greater whole. Hang on in there, and keep us updated if there are any new developments. We’ve still got our own shit to deal with out here, I’m afraid.”

  The three Marines could sense that there was movement around them, but in their state of weightlessness, they were spared the crashing against metal walls they would otherwise have been treated to.

  Then there was a solid, heavy thud that shook the entire structure. Three more thuds followed; then everything went still.

  “Is that the–argh!” said Ten as the gravity was abruptly restored. The team crashed to the deck.

  “Goddammit,” snapped Ten angrily, “why the hell weren’t we near the deck when they switched the gravity back on? That hurt!”

  They all heaved themselves to their feet and checked the room, but they were still alone.

  “Are you okay, Davies?” Conway asked.

  “Yeah,” said Davies, “and this is good, guys. Very good!”

  “What are you seeing?” asked Stansfield, alert to any new possibility.

  “I’m at the heart of a massive control area, sir,” said Davies. “Everything that we saw previously has fused in this new structure; it’s a one-stop-shop now for a tech-head.”

  “The Spheres are still reconfiguring,” said Stansfield, “but surely that means this new entity has five times the capacity?”