by Isaac Hooke
“I actually think we should help them,” Pyro said.
“Help who, the aliens?” Bender said. “Okay, if you insist. Blowing up SKs is almost as fun as blowing up aliens.”
“The colonists…” Pyro said crossly.
“Oh,” Bender said.
“I mean, sure, they’re SKs,” Pyro said. “And we’ve had our differences with them in the past. But in the end, they’re human, like ourselves. It’s our duty to help them.”
“I hear you,” Rade said. “But I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do. Here are some recordings I made outside the hangar bays.” He transmitted the appropriate video segments to both Bender and Pyro. “You see all those wreckages surrounding the metal crates? Those are SK mechs. Tahoe’s unit is buried among them, its AI core incinerated.”
“Yeah, but the SKs obviously shot out the core,” Pyro said. “Not the aliens.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Rade said. “I’ve only partially glimpsed their bodies. Who knows, maybe they’re armed with plasma blasters.”
“Then why didn’t the alien that attacked you in your cell simply blast through your door, instead of trying to bite through?” Pyro asked.
“Good point,” Rade said. “But I still don’t feel the risk justifies an attack. We need to stay here and lay low until our extract vessel arrives. We’ll notify the SKs of what happened, and they’ll send in their own reinforcements to deal with this.”
“Actually, the United Systems will be just as likely to send in their own attack fleet,” Tahoe said. “Once we reveal what the Sino Koreans have uncovered here.”
“Well, I’m sure the Sino Koreans got out their own distress signal by now,” Rade said. “So any ships the United Systems send will be met by resistance in force from the SK space navy. But I’m not going to worry about that. Right now, all I care about is getting you guys home.”
The four of them remained silent as Bender and Pyro continued bringing their mechs toward the distant waypoint.
“You know what, I’d be up for exploring that alien ship,” Bender said suddenly. “So we can see what kind of alien tech we can secure for the United Systems.”
“Again, I can’t authorize it,” Rade said. “If we encounter any more of those aliens, things will get messy.”
“All right all right,” Bender said.
Soon, Valjean returned to signal range.
“Boss,” Valjean said. “I’m very happy you made it.”
“Trust me, so am I,” Rade said. He proceeded to update his mech with everything he’d told Pyro and Bender.
“Interesting,” Valjean said when Rade was done. And that was that.
The four of them reached the extract site where the Falcon mech waited. There was no sign that lava had once encrusted the mech’s hull, well other than for the fact the environmental blending layer had burned away. Without that layer, the mech appeared as a gray mass against the surrounding rock.
Rade clambered up the rungs on his Falcon’s right leg and paused at the storage compartment to shove his rifles inside. Then he clambered onto the hatch, and as he loaded into the cockpit, Pyro transmitted: “Oh, by the way, when Valjean returned, Bender and I spent a good hour replacing your camera lenses with the spares. You’ve got video feeds again. So you won’t have to rely purely on LIDAR.”
“Good to know,” Rade said. The cockpit closed, sealing him in darkness, and true to Pyro’s word, the camera feed filled his vision so that Rade was viewing the world from the height of the Falcon mech.
“Chief, do you mind?” Tahoe leaped down from Pyro, and pointed at Rade’s passenger seat.
“Go ahead,” Rade said.
Tahoe climbed the rungs on Valjean’s legs and hips to swing into Rade’s passenger seat. “Hm. There’s some solidified rock in here. Isn’t the most comfortable.”
“You can still ride with me if you want,” Pyro said.
“No, I’d rather shotgun with the chief,” Tahoe said.
“Let’s get a defensive perimeter set up,” Rade said. “We got almost a day and a half to wait.”
The trio of mechs spread out equally, deploying to the three sides of the extract site. They unfolded their ballistic shields into their left arms, and knelt, aiming the weapons in their free arms over the notch in the top of the shield. Tahoe remained in Rade’s passenger seat; the Navajo covered his immediate aft quarter with his rifle.
Bender and Pyro had repaired his video camera, but Rade wished they had been able to restore the environment blending skin, which was absent even from his shield: he felt like he stood out from the others like a sore thumb. Then again, all three of them would easily show up on any LIDAR, so he supposed it didn’t really matter.
The Sino Korean mechs and combat robots employed thermal masking and LIDAR blurring in addition to environment blending, making them almost impossible to spot without echolocation. The Falcon mechs were jury-rigged to generate such echolocation with their speaker systems, and while the atmosphere was thick enough to support it, Rade preferred not to have the squawkers running unless absolutely necessary, since it would only draw nearby troops to their location.
Rade took a moment to check the damage screen of his mech. Everything was in working order. The left leg knee actuator had taken some damage from an enemy laser rifle, followed by repeated dunkings in lava, but was still operating at seventy-five percent of optimal capacity. The ballistic shield had severe plasma damage along the outer edges, and the intact portion was down to sixty percent integrity: still enough to protect his hull armor. Well, at least against Sino Korean attackers. These aliens—if they were aliens—were still a big unknown at the moment. He couldn’t shake the image of all those destroyed mechs around the metal crates. If one or two of the creatures could completely destroy the most expensive and most powerful war machines the Sino Koreans had on the ground, Rade could only imagine what ten or twenty could do to an entire colony. He had made the right choice by ordering the team to remain at the extract site. They would only die if they went to that colony. Like the civilians were doing at that very moment.
To distract himself from that thought, Rade examined the weapon statuses of his load-out next. The right arm contained a stingray plasma launcher, and the left arm a ballistic shield, along with a zodiac 5-way: a new type of electrolaser that could launch lightning bolts at five simultaneous targets at medium range, or a concentrated five-prong attack against a single target at close range. It was about equal in strength to the damage caused by the stingray when used upon a single target.
Because of the power requirements of the stingray and zodiac 5-way, no further weaponry could be utilized by the Falcon—there were no cobra lasers, grenade launchers or missile systems, as found on other mechs. A Trench Coat anti-projectile countermeasure system was still installed, as well as jumpjets; the latter unit was bigger than on most mechs, allowing the Falcon to jump higher and farther with each burst of thrust, hence the name of the mech. The stingray could be rotated out of the right arm to facilitate gripping, just as the shield could be folded away on the left in order to utilize the zodiac 5-way, or to similarly allow for grasp ability. The ballistic shield and 5-way couldn’t be active at the same time.
All weapons were in full working order and ready to engage.
Finished with his examination, his mind once more shifted to the colony, and the ravages its citizens were likely enduring right now. Blast shields would have activated around those buildings that supported them when the aliens breached the dome. Mechs and drones would attempt to intercept the aliens. If the automated defenses failed, there was nothing to stop the aliens from peeling open the blast shields around the buildings, and exposing the civilians inside to the toxic atmosphere.
He could see children screaming as the air burned their lungs, the mothers weeping as they struggled to bring their offspring deeper into the buildings, away from the encroaching atmosphere, and the aliens that came with it.
Children. You had to go
and think of children.
He tried shifting his mind elsewhere, and found himself pondering Alejandro, and his death. Alejandro wouldn’t have stood idly by while aliens ravaged civilians. Alejandro wouldn’t have stayed back, waiting for extract, while there was a chance he could make a difference. He would have turned back, regardless of Rade’s orders, and ran headfirst into danger, no matter how deadly the enemy was, so that he could aid those in need. Any MOTH worthy of the name would have done so.
“What am I doing,” Rade said softly.
“Chief?” Valjean asked.
“We can’t do this,” Rade said, raising his voice. “We can’t stand idly by while civilians are torn apart by aliens. I can’t order any of you to come with me. But I’m going to the colony. I’m going to help the civilians, if I can. There’s only one of me, and maybe three of you, if you come. The four of us, in three Falcons, against who knows how many aliens. Our chances of survival are probably close to zero.”
“I’m going with you,” Tahoe said.
“So am I,” Pyro said.
“Wooyah,” Bender said.
Rade nodded to himself. “I’m sorry for taking so long to make up my mind on this. Sometimes I forget why we joined the Teams.”
“We all forget, from time to time,” Tahoe said. “But no matter what happens, we always remember when it counts.”
“All right, we head southeast,” Rade said. “To the colony. Bender, you get point. Pyro, drag. I want a zig zag formation. Scan all horizons. We move at half speed. Falcons, out!”
The three mechs assumed their places, with Rade in the middle, and Bender in front, Pyro on drag, offset from one another so that their advance was zig-zagged. They shifted left and right randomly as they moved, to prevent enemies from targeting them. Rade still felt like the main target without his environment blending, and he kept his shield deployed as he advanced. The others did as well.
The geodesic domes of the colony continued to grow in the distance. When those domes loomed before them, almost as big as the mountain they had left behind, Rade suddenly understood where all the support craft he had seen above the volcano had gone: they were circling the colony, as if searching or tracking something, but otherwise weren’t firing.
Rade slowed down and zoomed in on the largest geodesic dome. He could see areas of shattered glass near the concrete, circular base, where the creatures had obviously broken through. Deeper inside, he could discern blast shields surrounding around fifty buildings, mostly skyscrapers at the center of town. There were plasma burns and blast craters on the exteriors of some of the buildings, no doubt from missed shots by the defending SKs. Some of the blast shields were also peeled back near the bottom, suggesting alien penetration. But there was no sign of any of the aliens themselves.
No, wait. He did see a dark shape racing through a group of mechs, literally tearing them apart. Many of those mechs were hidden from view, thanks to environmental blending, but became visible when the mass collided with them.
He tried to zoom in further, but reached the maximum range, and couldn’t discern any further details.
“Why aren’t the support craft firing?” Bender asked.
“That’s a good question,” Rade replied.
“Maybe they’re afraid of damaging the buildings,” Pyro said.
“Maybe so,” Rade agreed.
“Those SK mechs don’t seem to be having much success…” Tahoe commented.
“We’re going to have to make sure we engage the enemy at a distance,” Rade said. “That much seems obvious. We continue forward, men. Prepare to fire on my mark.”
6
Rade and his team continued toward the outskirts of the geodesic domes.
“You know, there’s a chance the SKs are going to attack us too, right?” Tahoe said.
“Pyro, see if you can send their air support a message,” Rade said. “Tell them we’re here to help them defend their colony.”
“On it,” Pyro replied.
A moment later, several of the Sino Korean airships broke away from their circling pattern, and made straight for Rade and his team. The boomerang-shaped bodies had several menacing turrets poking out the front, which were pointed directly at the Falcons.
“Uh, shit?” Bender said.
Plasma beams erupted from those turrets.
“Cover!” Rade said.
He dove to the ground, landing in a small lava-carved trench, and turned over to hold his shield flat across his body. Beside him, Pyro leaped behind a boulder, while Bender took cover in the same trench nearby.
The plasma blasts slammed into the ground around them, tearing gaping orifices.
“They’re firing on us,” Pyro said.
“No shit!” Bender told him. “Where were you when they were handing out the brains in grade school?”
“I took yours,” Pyro said.
“Tahoe, you all right back there?” Rade sent.
“Never better,” Tahoe replied.
Rade shoved his stingray past the notch in the upper edge of his shield, and switched to its targeting scope. “Valjean, line me up with the closest tango.”
His right wrist moved of its own accord, and in a split second the crosshairs were aligned over the center of one of the boomerang vessels. Rade squeezed the trigger.
The stingray unleashed its plasma bolt, but the target had time to dodge. That was one of the downsides to such a weapon, versus something more instantaneous, like a laser.
Rade would now have to reposition, since he’d given away his location.
He scrambled to his feet and folded away his shield as other plasma bolts launched from his companion mechs. He swiveled the 5-way into his left hand and directed it toward a pair of the incoming tangos. He fired, and five prongs of lightning emerged from the weapon. Two of them struck one airship, another two impacted the second, and the third flew off at an angle into empty space.
Lightning arced across the surfaces of the stricken ships, and the tangos plunged toward the ground, their power systems shorted out.
Plasma bolts erupted from two other boomerang craft, targeting his position, and Rade leaped out of the way, rolling to the ground. He swiveled the 5-way aside, and unfolded his ballistic shield. He swung the stingray over the notch, and aimed at the next closest tango. He fired, and this time the airship was too close to dodge and the plasma bolt tore into its hull.
“We’re here to help, damn it!” Rade sent on an open band. “We have a way to beat these aliens!”
That did it. Though the Sino Koreans didn’t reply by voice, the air support ships pulled back and resumed their circling over the geodesic dome.
“You know, we’re going to have to support that lie, now,” Tahoe said.
“Not really,” Rade said. “Because it won’t matter when the aliens kill us anyway.”
He rose to his feet, as did the other two Falcons with him.
Thanks to the blue silhouette that overlaid Bender’s mech, Rade was able to watch as he dusted off his hull.
“Bitches dirtied my mech,” Bender complained.
“At least your environment blending is still working,” Rade said.
“Yeah, sucks to be you, Chief,” Bender said.
“I have a feeling blending won’t be helping us against those aliens,” Rade told him as he resumed the apprehensive march toward the largest geodesic dome.
“That brings up a good point,” Tahoe said. “How are they tracking the Sino Korean mechs? The units have environmental blending that hides them on the visual band. They employ advanced thermal masking, and LIDAR blurring. They’re essentially invisible.”
“Maybe they’re using echolocation, like we do to see those mechs?” Pyro asked.
“It’s possible,” Rade said. “Though I didn’t hear anything when the alien tried to break into my cell. Then again, any squawks the alien was using might have been beyond my hearing range.”
“I’m not picking up any higher frequency sounds,” Valjea
n said. “Though admittedly, our range is great.”
Rade thought for a moment. “The alien tried to enter my cell, but not Tahoe’s. It only came for me when I shouted in my sleep. Which tells me they’re drawn to sound. Even with all the stealth measures the SKs employ, their servomotors and electroactuators still produce a soft hum… and their footfalls, well, those will give them away every time.”
“Unless they stand still,” Tahoe said.
“That’s right,” Rade said. “If they can do that, they’ll avoid drawing attention to themselves.”
“We don’t know yet whether they can actually see or not,” Pyro said. “I’d recommend you stay back, Chief, until we can determine that. Considering your lack of environmental blending.”
“I can agree with that,” Rade said. “In fact, we’re all going to stay back. To engage the enemy at a distance, as I already mentioned.”
When they reached the concrete base of the main geodesic dome, Rade gave the order for the team members to fire their jumpjets. They arced upward, traveling the four meters to the top of the concrete, which formed an expansive circular rim all around the colony. A few meters in front of them was the metal framework of the dome itself, with hexagonal glass panes sealing off the colony within from the toxic environment outside. Nearby, a whole row of panes along the bottom were shattered.
“Assume offensive positions.” Rade and the others spread out in front of the shattered panes, and dropped to one knee. They held their ballistic shields in front of them, and slid their stingrays into the notch.
“Time for some sniping,” Pyro said.
“Yeah, it’s just too bad we don’t got no lasers,” Bender said. “Leave it to the brilliant bitches in Brass to come up with the worst possible load-outs for the mission. Slow ass stingrays. Frig! The worst for sniping. And 5-ways are little better.”
“We’ll make it work,” Rade said.
