Battle for Earth
Page 27
I guess the bugs were paying real close attention to us. This one had direct knowledge of Earth calendars and timekeeping. Our bug even gave us the code-key for the airlock doors. And Mr. T didn’t have to ask. They rotate the codes, but they aren’t too worried about intruders and use the same codes over and again depending on the day. So, we had the code for September 29th .
We had finished with our bug friend. Mr. T made a point of thanking him for the information. Rock ported him, or her, to the bug POW camp. No, I can tell the difference now, it was a male. With that experience I decided that I truly liked the idea of a POW camp. It’s better than just killing them. We were being ... charitable.
What if the bug queens have some kind of evil hold over the other bugs, and the bugs themselves don’t have control over their actions? The evidence seems to be pointing to that. Let’s not kill them when we don’t have too. Sure, we have to lock them up. But we can treat them decently. Then figure it all out after this thing is done. That’s what I was thinking when Mr. T jumped up after finishing with his notes.
“This bug was very cooperative. And he is intelligent. He helped me piece together what I’ve learned from my various bug interviews. The worker bugs and soldier bugs don’t seem to have a lot of choice in their actions. Well, that’s the case with regular bugs, as this bug understands the situation.
“It’s not the same for the queens. They are totally evil. The other bugs are controlled by the queens. A pheromone, a bug chemical, allows the queens to control the regular bugs. And the pheromones have been biochemically altered to enhance the effect. That’s not a secret in bug world. They know they’re controlled. Some even resent it.
“Pheromones and the chemical effect with respect to Earthly creatures has received a good bit of study. Pheromones are pervasive on Earth. It is the case with Earth insects. And some would say, even people to a limited extent. A bug queen has complete control of those in her nest. Queens can influence bugs from other nests too. But it’s more limited. For example, a bug queen from one nest can’t make a bug attack its own nest. That’s true even if the queen of that nest is dead.
“The influence of the pheromones lessens over time and distance. Away from a queen’s influence, a bug would tend do what it was told by someone in authority. Why would it do otherwise? Even before the age of enhanced pheromones, queens had extensive control over their nests. It was the way of their culture. But an individual bug can resist. There have even been bug uprisings against extra wicked queens.
“There is also a battle drug used to dose soldiers. It stimulates the aggression centers of their brains and deadens the reasoning and decision-making centers. As we’ve seen, it turns them into raging monsters. The High Queen became angry early on in the invasion, troubled with the amount of resistance humans were managing. This bug says she has been overdosing the soldiers. Some bugs have even died because of that.
“It is also no secret among the bugs that the High Queen is addicted to the battle drug herself, which she mixes in with some other potent pharmaceutical compounds. She is dazed much of the time. She is making mistakes. But as we can see from our new bug friend, regular bugs can make up their own minds when away from the influence of the queens.
“The High Queen has a lieutenant-queen stationed at Darkside. But the High Queen has primary control. She also has control of her own nest ship. It seems as though that would be a lot of responsibility, even for a healthy queen bug. I wonder how much time the High Queen spends at Darkside?
“Our bug suggested the High Queen comes and goes without notice. She is well guarded. He suspects she does not announce her comings and goings as a safety precaution. He thinks assassination is a real possibility. She is despised. He suspects her chemical control at Darkside is low.
“Some, not all, but some bugs might even be developing a resistance to the control pheromone. That was conjecture on the bug’s part. He personally feels that his will has been stronger of late. He definitely was helpful with the interview.
“In fact, I’m impressed enough that I think a phone call is in order. Perhaps our organic chemists that mixed up the bug spray can tone it down a bit. Let’s use more of a knockout spray than a killing spray. ”
Good decision!
***
+ BEGIN TIMELINE DROP. This is a Timeline Project drop.
Information source: Scotty Montgomery, of Kreahaam (AKA a bug), and a well-known associate of Undersecretary Trollkin, helped to decipher an encrypted communication uncovered on the personal computer used by the High Queen of the invasion. The personal computer was found in the Darkside Base quarters of the High Queen within a hidden vault. The statement as presented was excerpted from a communication sent by Mr. Montgomery to the Undersecretary. Both parties granted permissions to use this excerpt for the Timeline Project.
“Aye, Capin. Indeed, there twas one other message from Prime Command sent on top of the directive to drop the ancillary gate. It twas eyes-only to her highness, to her very self, the High Queen. It helps ta know, Prime, they are quite the stingy lot wit the gate exotics. We only had material to make one gate and a wee bit extra for the just in case.
“No one wanted to be havin even a wee bit just lyin around, so we buried it neath the southern polar region of the Moon. The gate exotics, it tis finicky. We had used a load of the stuff at Sleepy instead a Jupiter as Prime Command had actually wanted. The communication error and all.
“On the besides, it twas an emergency gate so we did have quite a bit of it left. It is finicky though, as I made mention, and amounts needed for a gate can vary dependin on this and that. The Primers knew they would need to drop-ship another load of exotics out to Sol. That twas on them though. All of that delayed the setting up of the primary portal gate at Darkside.
“Any the way, once Prime got around to doin a test on that emergency gate, and found it twas way out to Sleepy, they were a mite perturbed.
“The second message that twas sent pronounced to her highness, by way of paraphrase, it twas the last straw droppin the gate way out to Sleepy. Command was clear in sayin, when they caught up to her, the High Queen herself would be fed to the spice flies of Aarodan.
“I am of the thinkin, that message did no help with her drug dosages, if ya catch me drift.” END TIMELINE DROP. +
***
*COMMUNAL: Isn’t that interesting? The bugs buried a small amount of exotics near the south pole of the Moon. That may explain the gravitational anomaly discovered back in 2019. This is interesting. The discovery was facilitated by information from charting done even earlier, back in 2011. That would suggest the bugs have been on the Moon for quite some time.
***
Mr. T said this bug even knew of times when some bugs managed to help humans. The bug wasn’t specific. It was like he was being humble. Mr. T had to press with the delve, to find out more.
Our bug was in the Darkside control room when the base watch satellites detected Bugeye on a course heading for the Moon. There was some general radio chatter, and one ship was sent to intercept. Mr. T got the impression our bug was eves-dropping on the comms.
The intercept ship was undamaged and could have easily overtaken the recon ship, BugEye. Our bug primarily works as a fusion reactor engineer, though he has other engineering skills as well. He took the risk of sending a file to the onboard computer of the bug ship that had been directed to destroy BugEye.
It was a modified reactor diagnostic test file that tripped a subroutine which emulated a glitch with the fusion reactor. It would be unsafe to proceed at over one-half maximum acceleration. Because of that, Bugeye was able to take scans before Darkside defenses destroyed it.
Our bug was caught red handed by a colleague. Mr. T is getting better at delving. He was able to access part of the bug’s eidetic memory of the event and provide a translation. Let’s look up the quote.
Our bug said to his colleague, “Oh, put your little dagger
ressive. Perhaps it will prompt them to surrender and end all this bloodshed.”
Obviously, Kahlum didn’t turn in our bug. It does make a person wonder.
Another incident was widely broadcast to the bug invasion forces as a warning against making “mistakes” when given a direct order. That incident resulted in the bug that made the mistake being stripped of rank, tormented, and sent to the re-processor.
The incident was called a mistake but our bug was certain it was a deliberate act of kindness and mercy. The incident involved Shockwave! It was back when we were being hunted by the High Queen, right after the commando style raid at Mr. T’s residence.
When the raid failed, the High Queen gave an order to nuke the house. She deemed it an appropriate time to remind the humans that their insolence would inevitably bring a retaliatory response. Multiple thousands would have died.
The bug gunner dropped a small implosion bomb instead of a nuke. As a result, no one was hurt. When the High Queen found out, she was furious with the insolent bug that had botched her command. She was so focused on his punishment, she forgot all about the house and Shockwave, and even retaliation against the humans in general.
The normal course of action would have been to insist the initial command be completed. In her rage and focus on the poor bug that had shown such mercy, she forgot to reorder the nuke. I don’t think we will ever know how much we were helped throughout the invasion by honorable bugs. Or, how many mistakes the drug addicted High Queen made throughout the invasion.
***
+ BEGIN TIMELINE DROP. Drop initiated by Viz. As a Kreahaam (AKA a bug) fusion reactor engineer, Scotty spent most of his time at the Moon base, working on the power supply for what the Empire calls a Primary Service Transportation Gate.
A Primary Gate is built to last. Such a gate is often used by High Officials. As such, the primary power system would have twice the output necessary for normal operation. There would also be redundant systems. It just would not do to lose a High Official in transit-space.
Matter/antimatter reactors were often used for Primary Gates. But Luna had a rich supply of Helium-3, which made nuclear fusion a good choice. Fusion reactors were fine, though the process of gate set up required additional time. There was no time urgency for this project. That was especially the case since there would be a delay in receiving the additional shipment of exotics for the gate. END TIMELINE DROP. +
***
+ BEGIN TIMELINE DROP. Drop by Viz.
NOTE: This information was obtained from our Kreahaam (AKA a bug) friend, Scotty.
Bugs have their own gossip mills. Scotty had a chem-lab friend at the Moon base, whom he considered a reliable source. He found out from his friend, in the early stages of the invasion, the High Queen had been using stim-chemicals and mixing in small doses of the berserker modifiers.
She had ordered a small team of chemists, one of them being Scotty’s friend, to sequence the berserker compound formula. That command alone would be a capital offense. It was a complex formula. It took a few days to develop the information required by the High Queen.
Scotty’s friend confessed he was terrified. Would she have the chemists killed to hide her crime? With the sequencing formula as developed, it turned out the drug was fairly simple to distil. It would be possible for the High Queen to order a close confidant, with minimal skills in chemistry, to make large quantities of the berserker drug.
It was not long before there was a tragic lab ... accident. The small chem-lab team that had been so helpful with sequencing the berserker compound was found dead. Scotty, of course, was enraged. From the very start of the invasion the High Queen was agitated with the humans. She said as much when they managed to destroy the first inbound invasion ship. From there it seemed to get worse.
The humans were not cooperating at all with the invasion. And they were causing a good deal of damage. Oddly, she mostly blamed her own troops, dressing them down constantly for their weakness in the face of such a soft enemy. She kept the troops dosed with the battle rage drug, full dosage, sometimes for days. She even resorted, at times, to overdosing the troops. Some bugs had gone insane from the overdone doping. Some had died.
The High Queen herself was often in a state of rage. At other times she was in a drug induced haze. That led to costly mistakes. At the time, Scotty felt genuinely sorry for the humans. This was his first expedition and he didn’t like the process at all. There was nothing he could do about it as far as he could see. It would be best to keep his head down and stay out of the reprocessing unit.
At least he wasn’t required to engage in military action. Still, if an opportunity arose to show a kindness to humans, or to bring hurt to the High Queen... END TIMELINE DROP. +
***
September 26 th It looks like everything is going according to schedule. DDT day is set for September 29th. DDT stands for Darkside Decontamination Task. I guess it’s as good a name as any. It helps a little to know that there was once a powerful bug killer used extensively on Earth, an insecticide, called DDT. So, a clever op name.
Mr. T has promised the nerve agent in the special bug insecticide will not be lethal. The mission is nearly ready for implementation. But first we need to take out the blockade fleet. Well, Rock and Roll need to do that. It’s planned for tomorrow, the 27th . Then we take Darkside.
***
WHAT A BLAST
We are in the War Room of the Earth Defense Force. September 27th . Shockwave has a side room, windows opaque to anyone outside. The general is here. Those special beacon transponders have been teleported to the bug blockade ships near the Moon. Goldilocks bombs have been pre-positioned at Shockwave’s desert munitions depot. Rock and Roll are about to port to the depot site and begin the operation.
All of the bug ships are stationary. They repositioned after the Nemesis 12 Operation and haven’t moved since. The twins have the coordinates for each ship on their pads. EDIC, Earth Defense Intelligence Control, will immediately inform them of any ship movement. Well, almost immediately. The satellite repeater system will detect any movement within about one second and relay the information to EDIC. EDIC will provide position information for each ship, 1- 9.
The twins are going to work from the inside out, going with Roll’s suspicion that the High Queen is hiding in the middle of the blockade. I think she’s at Darkside. No matter. We need to destroy all the ships. Rock and Roll have ported. Nine ships.
*EDIC: “Transponders are all reading in the green, telemetry data systems are optimal, tracking all ships, one through nine. No movement. Alert. Nuclear detonation ship four; detonation ship five. Waiting on confirmation. Ship four and ship five have been destroyed, spectral confirmation, debris pattern confirmation. New picture. Remaining ships are in motion.”
Viz: “Are Rock and Roll okay?”
*EDIC: “Tracking positions of blockade ships one, two, three, seven, eight, and nine. They’re scattering. Ships three and seven have slowed, holding line of site to Darkside Base. Coordinates have been received by Shockwave port team. We are negative on location tracking for blockade ship six. Searching. Alert. Detonation ship three; detonation ship seven. Blockade ships one, two, eight, and nine are still running. We have no eyes on blockade ship six. Confirmation on ship three and ship seven, they have been destroyed.”
Para: “Take it to them guys!”
*EDIC: “Blockade ships on tactical evasive maneuvers. Very fast. They are running deep. Timestamp has been started. 30 seconds, mark: still running, evasive. 60 seconds, mark: approaching two-million kilometers. We’ve got serious time lag. 2 minutes, mark: 5 million kilometers. 2 minutes 20 seconds, mark. Courses have stabilized. Plotting. Analysis complete. Coordinates received by Shockwave port team. 3 minutes, mark. Alert. Detonation ship two; detonation ship eight. Time lag due to distance. Detonation ship one; detonation ship nine. Confirmation will take a minute. Yes! We have confirmed kills, ships two, eight, one, and nine.”
Mr. T: “The bugs felt s
afe so far out and stopped their evasive maneuvers. But they were scattered and could no longer communicate efficiently. The light speed trap caught them. Rock and Roll were able to destroy those last four ships before the bugs knew what happened. But where is number six?”
*EDIC: “We have a possible location, blockade ship six. Processing telemetry Skywatch INT-4. Confirmation. Ship six is deep, approximately 15-million kilometers. Extreme evasive maneuvers. We are at range limit for transponder. Signal is intermittent.”
*EDF-Line: “General Whitehall, we are patching through a call from the Whitehouse.”
*EDIC: “Blockade ship six is holding distance, approximately 15-million km, still evasive.”
*EDIC: “Attention. We have received a message, at this Earth Defense Forces location. The message was sent to many other locations. It is from ship six. The broadcast utilized a complex carrier wave. The message weave includes numerous languages. Hold. Our techs are still parsing content. Playing message in English. Running script ... now.”
*BLOCKADE SHIP SIX MESSAGE. RUNNING: ‘This is xxxxx
*EDIC: “That was the full message. Analysis of telemetry data does confirm the message was sent from blockade ship six. Adjusting for distance, the message was sent starting at timestamp 2 minutes, 35 seconds. Due to the distance, we did not receive the message until timestamp 3 minutes, 25 seconds. All other ships were destroyed by timestamp 3 minutes. We did not receive the message until after the ships were destroyed.”