Mech 2

by Isaac Hooke

  Rade nodded. “Thank you.”

  She paused, chewing her lip as she did when there was something on her mind, and she was unsure whether she wanted to voice what that something was. Finally: “I know you’re looking for redemption, but you might not find it here.”

  Rade smiled sadly. “Redemption? I suppose I am, in a way. For abandoning Taya, and the previous iteration of Nicolas. A part of me wonders what would have happened if I had at least tried to save Taya. If I had clambered down amidst the aliens that were tearing her apart, would I have been able to make a difference? I’ve reviewed it in my head so many times, and I’m forced to conclude each time that I would have been torn apart as well.

  “And as for the previous iteration of Nicolas… there was no point in going back after I gave the order to abandon him. He and the Jupiter mechs with him would have destroyed their AI cores shortly before capture. But this time, this version of Nicolas can’t do that. This time, there’s a chance I can help him in some way. And I have to try, if only to feel like I’m doing something to help. So that, when this mission is done, I won’t lie in bed at night, wondering what would have happened if I had gone back, instead of running like a coward.”

  “You always did hate to sit around in the passenger seat while fate drove,” Shaw commented.

  “Yes,” Rade said.

  “Okay, then, what are we waiting for?” Shaw nodded toward the trampled trail.

  Rade zoomed in on the drag portion of the enemy party. Though he couldn’t see them, he knew HS3 equivalents would be there, bringing up the rear.

  “They probably have scouts watching on drag,” Rade said. “We’re going to have to stay back, out of sight, until we’re sure they’ve passed beyond visible range of us. We should be able to stay within earshot, however: the SKs aren’t bothering with stealth… they’re moving fast, loudly, breaking branches and trampling undergrowth. Even though the jungle will conceal them, we’ll know how far away they are by sound.”

  Rade watched Nicolas’ silhouette continue down the trail until it vanished into the undergrowth, along with the three other visible SKs. Then he waited another minute; the volume of the enemy’s passage diminished with every moment. The sound shifted slightly, probably indicating a change in direction—no doubt the SKs were taking the side route he had passed earlier, on the way here.

  The volume continued to drop, and he decided to start going while the sound was still loud enough to be heard above his and Shaw’s own advance.

  The pair emerged onto the trampled route and placed their boots carefully in order to produce minimal noise. Rade still couldn’t help but cringe whenever he stepped on something that produced a loud crack; when that happened, he half-expected a bunch of enemy troops to come barreling down on his position. He held his laser rifle firmly in hand, but doubted it would make much of a difference if an attack came.

  The pair reached the side trail they had passed earlier. Rade entered the jungle next to it, and peered past the edge, staring down his rifle sites. If there were any HS3s or other units standing guard, he couldn’t see them. It wasn’t worth it to risk a LIDAR burst, since the SK LIDAR blurring tech would ensure he couldn’t spot the targets anyway. All he could do was try to create a diversion…

  He picked up a rock, and threw it at a tree on the other side of the side trail. It produced a loud thud. He waited, keeping an eye on the ground for signs of footfalls, but saw nothing. After another thirty seconds, he emerged, holding his laser rifle at the ready.

  No robots tackled him.

  “It’s clear,” he sent Shaw.

  He wasn’t entirely sure the SKs had taken that route, but when the noise produced by their targets remained steady, Rade knew it was the right way.

  They continued forward for about five minutes, then the sound seemed to shift, as if changing directions yet again. It was hard to tell which way because of the echo induced by all those trees.

  Rade and Shaw eventually reached a side trail, which explained the shift he had heard.

  As before, Rade entered the jungle next to the branch, and leaned out to survey the path with his rifle sight. He didn’t see anything, but that meant nothing. He knelt, retrieved a rock, and hurled it a tree on the opposite side of the trail. The loud clunk floated to his ears. He saw no change on the foliage below, nothing to indicate a hidden unit was moving closer to investigate. Nor did he notice any foliage wavering back and forth beneath the isolated air currents generated by invisible drones.

  He stepped into the open.

  “Clear,” he sent Shaw, and she rounded the bend to join him.

  They continued forward. A roar came from overhead, as of a shuttle flying very close to the treetops. Rade immediately took cover—though the canopy was relatively thick, there were still gaps that would allow LIDAR to penetrate and mark their positions. By pressing themselves against the base of a nearby tree, there was a chance the LIDAR would mistake them for rocks, or other natural objects.

  The vessel passed, and Rade leaned from cover to target it through his rifle scope. He used his Implant to help him calculate its position, and then spotted it between the overhead branches. The glimpses he saw told him it indeed was a shuttle.

  He lost sight of it shortly, and the sound receded into the distance. It changed pitch suddenly, as if the vessel’s engines were cutting back.

  “I think they’re landing,” Shaw said.

  Rade nodded. “There must be a base up ahead. They’re probably going to transfer Nicolas to another facility for interrogation. Come on!”

  He hurried forward, but noticed he couldn’t hear any footfalls in the distance, nor branches breaking. Either the targets had moved out of hearing range, or they’d reached the theorized base. The latter seemed the most likely, so Rade continued forward for two minutes, and then decided to shift to the cover of the trees, as there would be sentries guarding the trail closer to the base.

  They were forced to move slower, otherwise they would have made too much noise. Rade kept worrying that the shuttle was going to take off before he could get there, but so far, it remained grounded. Probably had to refuel, first.

  A clearing appeared ahead, and he and Shaw low crawled to the edge. When he reached the treeline, he surveyed the area through his rifle sight.

  It was indeed a military base. Various outbuildings had been erected throughout the cleared brush, including several Quonsets. Next to one of the Quonsets, ordinary, non-stealth robots oversaw the refueling of the shuttle that had just landed. Two long, corrugated tubes emerged from the Quonset, and were connected to fuel valves at the rear of the aircraft—a big quadcopter. The shuttle’s rear ramp was lowered, and Nicolas was escorted aboard by two mechs. The Jupiter had started up its squawking once more, so that the positions of every hidden mech, combat robot, and HS3 equivalent in the camp was revealed. Though with only one mech doing the squawking, the accuracy of some of those positions was questionable—blurs around some of the revealed units indicated the margin of error.

  One of the escorting mechs must have said some threat to Nicolas, because the squawking ceased as the enemies loaded him inside.

  Rade kept the last known positions of the hidden targets displayed on his HUD. Some of those were on obvious patrol of the camp, and he could see their footfalls as they proceeded to circle the periphery. Other units were on the rooftops of the different outbuildings, but offered no footfalls he could perceive from this angle.

  He and Shaw made their way along the edge of the clearing, repositioning closer to the shuttle. He quickly determined that the shortest route to the craft was to come in from behind the refueling Quonset.

  Unfortunately, Nicolas’ echolocation hadn’t penetrated that particular area.

  When Rade and Shaw were in position behind the outbuilding in question, as usual, Rade picked up a rock. He threw it at the forest across from him, and produced a loud thud. He spotted the foliage shifting as some invisible guard moved forward to investigate.r />
  “That’s no good,” he sent Shaw.

  “We can cross here while the robot is distracted,” Shaw said.

  “No,” Rade said. “Usually SK guards stand watch in pairs. Like our own.”

  “So, what do we do?” Shaw asked.

  “Reposition,” Rade said. He waited until the footfalls indicated the robot had returned to its previous position, and then proceeded very slowly, and carefully, through the trees.

  He stepped on a branch, producing a loud crack. He immediately dropped, and low-crawled behind a nearby tree. Shaw joined him.

  He heard the foliage rustling as some guard robot approached through the undergrowth.

  He ducked lower.

  The rustling ceased next to the tree. Rade had his rifle aimed up at the edge of the trunk, but knew he wouldn’t even see his opponent. The robot might be aiming down at him at this very moment.

  Rade resisted the urge to fire.

  Finally, the rustling started up again. Retreating.

  Rade exhaled in relief.

  When the rustling ceased, Rade waited another good minute to be sure the enemy was no longer watching. Ordinarily, he would have preferred to wait at least twenty minutes, but he didn’t have the luxury of time.

  He low crawled away from the tree with Shaw, and when he had put a good ten meters between himself and his previous position, he clambered to his feet behind another thick trunk.

  “Thankfully they’re sure taking a long time to fuel,” Shaw commented over the Implant comm line.

  Rade nodded, and continued through the jungle, approaching the target Quonset from the far side. He low crawled to the edge of the forest once more.

  Nicolas’ earlier squawk had revealed a unit standing guard on the rooftop of an adjacent Quonset. Rade guessed it was a combat robot, because a mech would have likely collapsed the fragile Quonset.

  He couldn’t just shoot that robot down, because if it fell, its loss would alert all the other units in the area, who could see each other’s statuses in realtime on their HUD equivalents.

  No, Rade and Shaw would have to sneak forward, and hope to hell the robot hadn’t moved very much since Nicolas’ last squawk. Its head was facing to the east, and Rade and Shaw would be sneaking alongside the target Quonset’s western side.

  This portion of the Quonset had been in view of Nicolas’ echolocation, so Rade didn’t have to waste rocks trying to ferret out hidden units. If he did throw something, he’d probably only attract the attention of the robot on the rooftop.

  “I’ll go alone,” Rade sent Shaw.

  “What’s your plan?” she asked.

  “I’m going to board the shuttle, and go with them to wherever it is they’re taking Nicolas,” Rade said.

  She smiled sadly. “We already talked about this. I’m going with you.”

  He nodded. He expected as much.

  Taking a deep breath, he grabbed Shaw by the hand, and pulled her out into the open.

  22

  As Rade and Shaw sneaked alongside the Quonset, Rade kept expecting the robot on the nearby rooftop to sound the alarm. Or to shoot them down. Or for some other patrol to round the front of the building. Or for hidden cameras to spot them, and report their presence to the overarching AI of the base.

  But none of that happened.

  They reached the forward edge of the Quonset. The shuttle blocked them from the view of the rest of the base. The open ramp was facing away from them. There were no units nearby, according to Nicolas’ earlier echolocation burst.

  Rade glanced at Shaw.

  “Dial down the range of your Implant to less than a meter,” Rade sent her. That was close enough to continue communicating with her, but far enough to avoid detection by the enemy.

  “Done,” she said.

  He nodded, and did the same himself. Then he stepped out past the edge of the Quonset, and pulled her along by the hand. As they approached the shuttle at a crouch, they used the thick fuel lines for further cover. The two tubes were stacked one atop the other, reaching almost to waist level.

  When he and Shaw arrived at where one of the fuel lines joined the shuttle, the pair ducked underneath.

  The undercarriage was a series of interlocking pipes and grilles that would allow intrepid travelers such as themselves to stow away. Rade pulled himself into place between the fuselage and one of those grilles, and Shaw squeezed in beside him.

  He knew the shuttle wouldn’t be taking them into space. Those four rotors couldn’t operate in the void. So, Shaw was safe without a jumpsuit. There was still a chance the craft might fly higher than a human could feasibly tolerate, but if that happened, he could fit the suit’s spare oxygen mask over her so she could share his supply. With her splitting the O2 like that, he still had enough to last for a day and a half.

  He was more worried about being spotted during the pre-flight sweep. Or rather, worried that Shaw would be spotted, wearing only her fatigues.

  The SKs closed the fuel valves, and withdrew the corrugated tubes. The aft ramp sealed, judging from the thud and subtle vibration he felt from the fuselage above him. Then a small robot passed by on the right side of the shuttle, following along the periphery as it examined the undercarriage.

  Rade’s environment blending was still active, allowing him to blend in with the surroundings—just another part of the undercarriage. He was positioned in front of Shaw, so he shielded her, too. But what would happen when the robot checked the other side?

  The robot finished its sweep, but before the small robot could travel to the left flank and check that side, the shuttle launched.

  Rade slumped in relief as the base receded below them.

  “Someone’s in a hurry,” Shaw said. “Lucky for us.”

  Rade thought they’d find out just how lucky they were soon enough, or unlucky, rather: he was convinced one of the ground robots would spot Shaw squeezed between the undercarriage grille and the fuselage, and expected the shuttle to land again at any moment.

  So, he was a little surprised when he felt the sudden press of G forces as the shuttle accelerated.

  “Gah!” Shaw sent. “I really miss inertial dampening.”

  The base receded rapidly behind them, replaced by the blur of trees below.

  Rade held on tight to the grille portion in front of him. Beside him, Shaw, too, gripped the grille, her knuckles white. He released his hold, hanging on with only one strength-enhanced arm, and slid the other around her waist, holding her firmly in place, wanting to give her muscles some relief from the exertion. She glanced at him and smiled appreciatively.

  “Wish I had a jumpsuit,” she sent.

  “I wish you did, too,” he told her.

  Her eyes drifted over his shoulders.

  “I don’t think we’re heading to the mountain,” Shaw sent.

  Rade glanced to the right, and saw the mountain passing by to the south. “Apparently not.”

  Soon the mountain became a hill that receded past the far horizon behind them.

  The craft remained low for the most part, so he didn’t have to supply Shaw with oxygen. The two of them remained there, stowed uncomfortably underneath the shuttle, while it continued east. Rade’s best guess was that it was heading toward some larger military base.

  The minutes ticked past, becoming hours. The jungle gave way to farmland, and the occasional military base. When the shuttle continued eastward without landing at any of those bases, he wondered what had ever possessed him into thinking this was a good idea. It wouldn’t have been half as bad if Shaw weren’t present, but dragging her into all of this seemed a terrible thing to do. If something happened to her out here, he’d never forgive himself.

  I could lose not just Nicolas, but Shaw, too.

  But no, he had promised himself long ago that he would not second-guess himself. He had made up his mind to come, and he had decided to allow Shaw along as well. He couldn’t just leave her alone in the jungle, after all. He had done the best possible thin
g he could, given the circumstances, and the resources available to him.

  “Do you ever think of what would have happened if we hadn’t joined the navy?” Shaw transmitted at one point during the flight. “The life we would have lived?”

  “No,” Rade said. “I don’t. Because that’s the path of regret. And I have no regrets.”

  “Don’t you?” Shaw asked. “That might be what you tell your men, but I know you better. You’re lying.”

  He smiled, and lowered his head. “Yeah, I’m lying. I already know what would have happened if I didn’t join the navy. Alejandro would be alive right now.”

  He shook his head, and took a few moments before continuing. “The two of us would have remained Dissuaders. We’d probably still be doing that to this day.”

  “Remind me what Dissuaders are again,” Shaw said.

  “Too lazy to check your Implant, are you?” Rade taunted her.

  “I don’t want the Implant’s cold, academic answer,” Shaw said. “I want your personal, hands-on answer.”

  “Bodyguards,” Rade said. “We escorted people, and dissuaded others from attacking them. Clients called us Disuasivos.” Rade smiled. “I remember the day I told Alejandro I was going to quit. He hired some guy to hit me in the back of the head with a two-by-four. I thought it was some random thief at first, but Alejandro owned up to it at the bar that same night. Told me he couldn’t help it, that it was his Dissuader nature acting. He was trying to ‘Dissuade’ me from making a run across the border to the United Countries. Said it was a bad idea to be drafted into the military. He gave me all these reasons, but I ignored them. I told him I wanted out. I wanted a better life. And then I did something I’ll always regret. I told him to come with me.

  “He said no, at first, of course, but when the time came to leave, he changed his mind. I think he would have come even if I hadn’t invited him, but still, the guilt is there.” Rade smiled wanly. “I still remember the very first thing he said to Tahoe, when we met him for the first time on the back of the pickup truck sneaking us across the border. Tahoe asked if he was looking forward to joining the military, and Alejandro tells him, ‘hey, bro, we only join the military if we get caught.’ We got caught.”