Harbinger

by Ken Lozito

  Connor heard Lieutenant Layton order Corporal Bradley to pick two soldiers and stay with Dash and the Ovarrow. They were behind Connor and Samson. When Corporal Bradley took up a position by Dash, Connor heard him mutter a comment about "babysitting duty." Bradley’s no-nonsense look cracked into a lopsided smile for a moment, and then she was back to business.

  Connor walked up the ramp and approached the edge of the gateway. For some reason, when they went through the gateway, they all leaned forward a little bit as if they expected to meet some kind of resistance. But going through the gateway didn’t entail any resistance whatsoever; it was as simple as stepping through a doorway, except that when they stepped through, the ground under their feet changed to whatever was on the other side, and their view was one of emerging from the warehouse and stepping onto the plains of another universe. The gateway remained active for a few moments after the last person was through, and then it disappeared. There wasn’t any flash of light; it was as if the window or doorway back to New Earth had simply ceased to exist.

  They were on a schedule now. Back in the warehouse, Major Henderson would open the gateway at twelve-hour intervals. They had to adhere to the clock back on New Earth, but they also had to account for the fact that time might flow differently here. The days could be longer. They could immediately measure that the gravitational pull was three percent less than on New Earth. Initial scouting missions involving just reconnaissance probes had broken the theory that every gateway led to a world that was only slightly different from the one they called home. That wasn’t the case at all, and they had to be prepared for those differences that may not be readily apparent.

  Before they'd gone through the gateway, Major Henderson informed Connor that they'd moved the arch forward one hundred meters in order to allow them to emerge under cover. There were medium-sized trees about eight meters tall, with ground-sweeping branches of muted yellow and gray leaves and stout trunks with some exposed roots of dense black bark that transitioned to white in the broad, rounded crowns at the tops. The ground was covered with discarded leaves, and the air was crisp and dry.

  Connor ordered stealth recon drones to be sent out. They were about a meter in length, with an elongated bulge in the middle. Reflective plates were used by a cloaking mechanism that projected the imagery of the surrounding area. The drones flew low for about half a kilometer, going in opposite directions, and then flew higher in the sky, noting significant movement toward the northwest of their position. Between the data sent back from the drones and their own observations, they were able to compile a map of the immediate area.

  Connor looked at Samson. “Let’s stick to the high ground on this ridge. That’ll give us a better view of our approach.”

  They set off at a quick pace, allowing Connor to monitor the drone feeds, which were on an open channel for the officers. There was no one nearby, and they were able to move a bit quicker than he would’ve expected. The drones were closing in on the small city, and he was able to make out more of the details.

  “They look like Ovarrow soldiers,” Samson said.

  There were several hundred Ovarrow soldiers with multiple types of weapons and armored ground transportation bringing them toward the city.

  Connor programmed one of the drones to speed ahead, while the others monitored it to give a better view. If the first drone was detected, they’d at least have the others in reserve.

  As the drone flew overhead, Connor got more of a bird’s-eye view. There was now a significant group of Ovarrow soldiers marching directly for the city.

  “They have thousands of soldiers there,” Connor said. “Looks like a full division, and they’re storming that city.”

  “We just happened to pick the day that a battle is going to be fought,” Samson said and shook his head in dismay.

  The drone had reached the city, and Connor noted blackened craters from some kind of bombardment. “This isn’t the first day of battle. There’s been a lot of fighting here.”

  Bright flashes from particle-beam weapons came from the Ovarrow soldiers and their ground assault vehicles. Krake soldiers returned fire from the broken shells of the outer buildings. The Krake's dark gray armor had streaks of black and glowed yellow along the arms. Parts of the armor looked like they were organic, as if the armor had been grown rather than manufactured. Connor could see muscle-like tissue, even from the distance the drone flew overhead.

  As the CDF soldiers made their way closer to the city, the Ovarrow began pushing toward the city that the Krake were trying to reinforce. The Ovarrow ground assault vehicles concentrated their fire, punching a hole through the Krake defense, and Ovarrow soldiers surged forward. Connor could appreciate the tactics used, but he much preferred surgical strikes rather than waging all-out war. He kept looking up in the sky, wondering why the Krake hadn’t used any type of orbital bombardment, which would end this fight rather quickly. There had to be more going on here than what they were seeing.

  They got within two kilometers of the city and circled around the outskirts so they could keep watching the battle. There were several bright flashes of light and thunderous sounds. Another bright flash of green lit up the sky, and a steaming swath laid waste to hundreds of Ovarrow soldiers from some kind of Krake heavy turret. Several more rose from the ruins of the city wall. There was a buildup of power as the weapon primed and then unleashed its god-awful fury onto the battlefield. The Ovarrow army scattered out of the way. Connor’s enhanced vision saw that the weapon had been fired from within the city and cut through the buildings as much as it had the soldiers, as if the Krake didn’t care about actually protecting the city. This was more about killing than protecting.

  As the Ovarrow began to withdraw, they heard the high-pitched whine of several ships breaking the sound barrier from above. Krake combat shuttles raced down toward the battlefield and unleashed their weaponry on the retreating forces. Waves of Ovarrow soldiers came to a halt and then ran back toward the city, only to be shot at by the vicious cannon.

  Samson looked at Connor. “This isn’t a battle; it’s a slaughter.”

  Connor watched as the Ovarrow soldiers tried to fire their weapons at the Krake, but they had no effect on the armored shuttles. Eventually, an estimate from the recon drones appeared on Connor's heads-up display, showing that less than fifty percent of the Ovarrow soldiers remained. He looked at Cerot and the others, who watched the carnage with grim fascination, and Connor realized that they were just as bewildered as the rest of them.

  The Krake combat shuttles wheeled away and flew off, heading west. Connor sent a reconnaissance drone after them. There was a Krake military compound on the outskirts of the city that had a similar structure to what they’d found in the forward operating bases but on a much larger scale. The weapons ceased firing and the Ovarrow seemed to limp away.

  “I think they’re heading toward our egress point, General,” Samson said.

  Connor looked at the path the Ovarrow soldiers were retreating on. The area the CDF team had used for their transition into this universe had a lot of tree cover.

  Dash came over to his side. “What just happened? They killed so many of them, and then they just stopped. What was the point?” Dash asked.

  The second drone was making another pass over the Krake soldiers, and Connor saw that they were walking among the dead Ovarrow, killing any of the survivors. There were different groups of Krake doing the killing, and they utilized different weapons for their task.

  Connor glanced at Cerot as he and the other Ovarrow watched the grisly scene, grimly acknowledging something they'd already witnessed many times before. There was no mistaking it. When a soldier had seen battle, they didn't react the same way as someone who'd never fought in one. Connor was beginning to feel that he might have been too hard on Cerot, Vitory, and the other Ovarrow.

  “General, you need to see this,” Samson said. He brought up the image taken from the drone video feed and made a passing motion to Connor.
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br />   Connor looked at it and saw thousands of habitation units that were cordoned off behind walls. It looked like some sort of encampment, but there were guard towers all around. Connor’s mouth dropped open a little. It was a prison camp that held thousands of Ovarrow soldiers. Then he looked back at the battlefield.

  “They aren’t soldiers,” Connor said. Dash looked at him, his mouth agape. “These are prisoners. They’re being forced to fight.” He looked at Cerot. He couldn’t quite connect the thoughts in his mind, but he knew the brutal truth.

  “This is a weapons test,” Samson said. “And they are the targets.”

  Samson was right.

  Cerot began tapping symbols urgently. “We have to help them.”

  Connor peered at the battlefield using his internal heads-up display. It showed different features that weren’t within direct view but that his cyber-warfare suite in his combat suit knew were just beyond view based on the drone data.

  “We can’t help them. That’s not why we’re here,” Connor said.

  “There has to be something we can do,” Dash said. “If this is a weapons test and the Krake are arming the Ovarrow, why would the Ovarrow go into that city in the first place? Why not just run away?”

  Connor brought up the drone footage, looking for something he'd missed, and found a deep crater roughly in the middle of the city. There was an arch at the bottom. There were glowing lights on the outside of the arch and a slight shimmer on the inside—an active gateway. Connor looked back at the retreating Ovarrow soldiers, and it only took his brain seconds to put it together.

  “You promised to help the Ovarrow,” Cerot said.

  Connor looked at him. “I promised to help you and your people. To prevent something like this,” he said, gesturing toward the battlefield, “from happening to you on New Earth.”

  “They are us. We are the same. There are more prisoners,” Cerot said.

  Cerot wasn’t able to see the drone video feeds, but he'd made the logical leap that there must be a place where the prisoners were kept.

  A high-pitched siren sounded from the city, and the Ovarrow soldiers stopped their retreat immediately. They turned around almost as one, and Connor watched as they checked their weapons. Then, they began to march back toward the city. The siren was almost ear-piercing, and it went on for a few minutes. Several of the soldiers attempted to run the other way, only to be shot by the nearest Ovarrow soldier, who then resumed his march back toward the city. There was no retreat, and apparently there was no surrendering either.

  “What do you want to do, General?” Samson asked.

  Dash had left the Ovarrow communicator on, and the words were translated for Cerot and the others. They watched Connor warily.

  “We have ten more hours before the gateway from New Earth is activated. We need to do more reconnaissance. There’s a Krake military installation. I think we can circle around and have a closer look,” Connor said.

  Samson considered this for a few moments. “We can make it back in time if there was—if we wanted to leave at the next check-in.”

  “You’re right, but we need to send a status report back. I don’t want to leave a comms drone, so let’s send a small team and then they can catch up with us,” Connor said.

  Lieutenant Layton, who'd been listening, ordered three soldiers to wait, and when it got closer to the time for the check-in, they'd send a comms drone directly to where the gateway from New Earth would appear.

  Connor looked at Cerot. “I can’t make any promises. We need to assess the situation further.”

  “Understood, General,” Cerot replied.

  They took their time circling well away from the city. Connor and Samson expected that there would be defenses in place that might even be capable of detecting them. They moved slowly and steadily, carefully navigating the battlefield and keeping as close to cover as they could. The drones continued to survey, providing valuable data on the layout of the area.

  As they were circling around the city, there were two more attempted sieges by Ovarrow soldiers. Even Connor was beginning to wonder how many prisoners the Krake had there. He was impressed that they didn’t run away; they threw themselves at the objective, and there was no mistaking that they were trying to reach that arch. He didn’t know where the gateway went, and he wasn’t about to risk sending one of the drones that close.

  Five hours had passed since they'd observed the first grisly battle. The ground began to shake under their feet, followed by several large explosions east of their position. Connor spun around, as did Samson. Lieutenant Layton attempted to open the comlink to the soldiers they'd left behind. After a few moments, they got a reply. After a short conversation, Lieutenant Layton looked at Connor. “They’re fine, but it looks like the Krake have added an orbital bombardment to their weapons testing. The area we came in through is now a massive crater a half a kilometer across and several hundred feet deep. We’re not going home that way.”

  Connor muttered a curse. “We have contingencies for this. Tell them to leave a comms drone and schedule it to go active at the time the check-in is scheduled. Briefly update, explaining what happened. We’re surveying the area to come up with another egress point, but we don’t have one right now.”

  Lieutenant Layton relayed the orders.

  Connor had been in more than a few hot spots throughout his career, but this was different. They were on someone else’s battlefield, and they didn’t know all the rules. More than a few soldiers glanced above them, wondering if the next orbital strike was going to be on them.

  “We need to move closer to the city and head toward the Krake military compound,” Connor said.

  “Move closer? But won’t they detect us?” Dash asked. His voice was high, but he was keeping it under control. Corporal Bradley said something to Dash, and he quickly glanced away from Connor. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right. Calm down. We’re moving closer because there's less chance of the orbital strike occurring in the city. Otherwise, there'd be no city left,” Connor said.

  Dash nodded and pressed his lips together, determined to keep his mouth shut.

  Connor looked at Samson and Lieutenant Layton. “Let’s move.”

  18

  As Connor and the rest of the 7th made their way closer to the city, the reconnaissance drone flying overhead showed no sign of Krake forces being aware of their movements. The battle being fought a few kilometers away had gained in intensity, and the bombardment hadn’t stopped. The Krake must’ve changed their tactics because they were attacking with smaller ordnance. They didn’t restrict their activity to one particular area. Instead, they seemed to be blanketing the entire area, with an occasional shot that came closer to Connor and the others. As they got closer to the city, they found makeshift barriers and shallow tunnel networks from previous attempts to infiltrate the city. Also, the closer they got to the city, the ground cover lessened, leaving the area open, which would make them easy targets if the Krake were watching. There were several louder explosions that Connor equated with bunker busters, which penetrated deep into the ground.

  They slipped into a pattern of evaluating the next fifty meters, then moving forward and repeating. Bright flashes made the thick cloud cover above them blaze with a blinding light. Something pierced an area over the battlefield, and then a new blossom of light appeared in rapid succession on the ground.

  “Take cover!” Samson shouted as a bright flash of light appeared directly above their heads.

  Connor grabbed Cerot’s arm and pulled him down, shielding him. The sound of the explosion was deafening, but the combat suit dampened the sound. The ground shook, and Connor squeezed his eyes shut for a few moments, waiting for it to be over. There was nothing he could do. Cerot covered his ears, and when the roar of sound was finally over, Connor glanced around. He saw Dash a short distance from him. Corporal Bradley helped Cerot to his feet. Other CDF soldiers had protected Esteban and Felix, but the Ovarrow were disoriented
and it took them a little while to regain their feet.

  Connor looked up and saw that there were more bright flashes as the bombardment continued along the surrounding areas of the city. Had they been spotted? He couldn’t be sure. The only time he would order an orbital strike that blanketed a specific area was when he couldn’t find the enemy, but this was different. The Krake knew exactly where their Ovarrow prisoner army was attacking from, which meant this tactic was just as much a mental attack as it was physical.

  Connor looked at Samson, who was surveying the area. “Containment strategy,” he said.

  “That's a bit over the top,” Samson replied. “We need to find cover. We’re too exposed.”

  The recon drone video feeds showed a large crater fifty meters from their position. Any closer and the force of the explosion would have taken lives. Those types of orbital strikes were meant to take out heavily armored units, and while the Nexstar combat suits had plenty of armor, they couldn’t withstand the kinetic force of an orbital bombardment. They had to move.

  The rest of the 7th sounded off, and everyone was accounted for. A short distance away, the force of the bombardment had caused the ground to cave in, exposing an underground tunnel. There was water at the bottom that must have been from an underground river system. An artificial path led inside. They couldn’t see inside because of the angle of the drone cameras.

  Several soldiers shouted an alarm, and Connor glanced over at them. The sky was lighting up again. This area was about to get pounded.

  “Move into the tunnel!” Connor shouted.

  His orders were repeated, and the 7th ran for the exposed tunnel. Once inside, they kept on going. The tunnel angled down, and they could hear the bombardment above them getting closer and closer until it sounded as if it were right on top of them. The ground shook violently, and they kept moving as fast as they could. Then the bombardment stopped. The Ovarrow coughed, clearing their throats of the dust in the air.