Galactic Arena Box Set

by Dan Davis

  Only the gigantic wheelhunter named Red, at the rear of the room, showed any interest, raising one of his hands after Kat finished speaking.

  “No questions from you, Red,” Kat said, flicking a glance at him.

  “My apologies, Lieutenant Commander.” Red’s voice was generated by a translation device that converted the alien’s natural speech—in the form of various electromagnetic emissions—and converted it in real-time into English. The voice was masculine and its tone flat.

  “Lieutenant Seti?” Kat prompted.

  He glanced at Sergeant Stirling, who raised his eyebrows in turn.

  “Yes,” Ram said. “I have a question.” He cleared his throat. “Does anyone think for a moment that this mission can work?”

  While the Hereward’s crew scowled in disapproval, most of Ram’s own team grinned. Cooper laughed out loud.

  Kat nodded slowly without smiling. “It is certainly a challenging mission and success is far from guaranteed. But it is difficult to overstate the importance. We must have the weapon. If we do not retrieve and utilize the weapon, we cannot defeat the Hex. And if we cannot defeat the Hex, the Earth will be lost to us forever. The Hex will pick off our outposts in the outer system one by one and we will be at the mercy of the Hex forever, assuming they never decide to wipe us out.”

  Stirling whistled. “No pressure.”

  “Why not send an entire fleet?” Ram said. “If this weapon is so vital to all humanity, why not send an army? Why not send everything we have?”

  “Come on, Ram,” Kat said, “Unless you’ve been improperly defrosted then you should be smart enough to guess why not.”

  “A small ship and a small team have the chance to avoid the Hex’s defensive systems around the Earth?” Ram suggested.

  Kat nodded. “In a nutshell, sure. More explicitly, UNOP couldn’t field a fleet or an army big enough to make it through the Hex’s defenses. If we could do that, we might have tried to reconquer Earth by now.”

  “So how are we going to avoid the enemy defenses?”

  Kat held up two fingers. “Stealth and speed.” She nodded to an ensign. “Bring up the insertion simulation, Yuri.”

  In the air between Rama and Kat, a 3D image of the Earth from space flickered into view. Just the sight of it, bright and blue with swirling white clouds reflecting the sunlight, stirred something in Ram’s soul.

  “The Hex have a defense grid of orbiting ships and satellites that detect and intercept any approaching human ship or weapon aimed at Earth. We hope that the Hereward is traveling fast enough and is stealthy enough to make a close pass with the planet. By the time the Hex systems pick us up we will already be traveling away from them so fast that they won’t be able to catch us with anything. Yes, Ram?”

  Ram lowered his raised hand. “How does my team get down to the planet surface if we’re going so fast? You throw us over the side as you fly by?”

  Kat nodded and jabbed a finger at him. “That’s exactly right.” She indicated the 3D image of the planet beside her. An icon showing the arcing course of the Hereward passed by at what seemed an alarmingly low altitude, while another icon popped out of it and fell toward Earth. “We will pass over at a minimum altitude of five hundred klicks, but before then we will detach the entry package. That entry package will decelerate sharply before entering the atmosphere. Your vehicle will be a part of that package which will make its way to the drop zone in Alaska. Yes, Ram?”

  “Reentry package? What else is in it other than our descent vehicle?”

  “The package is designed to confuse the Hex’s defense systems. While your vehicle is designed for stealth once it enters the atmosphere, it will also provide multiple other targets that will make landfall across North and South America and in West Africa. While the Hex are targeting and pursuing each of these targets, your team will land undetected and carry out your mission.”

  Ram and Stirling exchanged a look. “They won’t be able to see us? You’re sure?” Ram asked.

  Kat nodded. “We are reasonably confident in the stealth technology.”

  “Reasonably?” Stirling said, wincing.

  Behind them, the wheelhunter named Red spoke up. He wore an environment suit over his bizarre alien body but even so the hint of sulfur clung to him and no one wanted to be close to him.

  “The enemy’s ships produce more power than yours and they build them bigger and with thick armor. Their weapons as a rule are more destructive than yours. But the enemy have never concerned themselves with hiding. They do not believe in it. Have never pursued it as worthwhile technology. The single technological area that humanity is best at, in space and within atmosphere and planetside, is in stealth.”

  “I hate to admit it but Red’s right,” Kat said.

  “Thank you for saying so, Captain. Your public recognition of my value is important to me and it makes me feel appreciated for the unique insights that I can bring to the proverbial table.”

  Kat did not disguise her irritation but it passed quickly. “If you want to be concerned about something, Ram, you should worry about reentry and landing. Your vehicle will have to decelerate rapidly to avoid burning up in the atmosphere and your landing will likely be a little rough, even if you survive it. You have to come down to a low altitude at high speed before translating west across the Canadian wilderness with a final rapid deceleration before landing in remote Alaska.”

  “Sounds like a bit of a risk.”

  “You will be the fastest moving manned spacecraft to ever attempt entry.”

  “Attempt?” He could not hide the alarm he felt.

  “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. If it all goes wrong, you will be atomized before your brain can register anything at all. You’ll be snuffed out.” She smiled and snapped her fingers. “Just like that.”

  At the time, they had laughed but now he was in the descent vehicle it did not seem so amusing. Ram shook all over and the sound of the atmosphere on the heatshield and hull roared in his ears like some great demon. Kat’s words filled his mind, going around and around.

  You will be atomized before your brain can register anything at all.

  You will be atomized.

  The pressure eased off and he could almost take a breath again when a huge mechanical thump shook the craft, and then another.

  Ram realized it was the sound of the decoys disengaging from the main craft and blasting away for their distant landings. Another banged away and then another. They were small but shaped to show up as large on radar and visual sensors, with flat sides emitting ranges of radiation across the spectrum while their tiny but powerful engines roared off.

  More banged as they disengaged and then there was silence.

  Ram’s vision came back to him and he saw a few icons on his AugHud letting him know he wasn’t dead and that all his limbs were still attached. Likewise, the icons for his team members in the vehicle with him showed they were alive and well, though all were showing signs of distress.

  No surprise there, Ram thought. They knew just as well as he that they were at extreme risk of sudden death. Or worse, surviving the descent and the landing only to be captured alive.

  Everyone in his team had agreed to fight to the death rather than be taken prisoner and subjected to whatever tortures and experiments the Hex might subject them to but such a glorious end might not be possible. Ram secretly dreaded being paralyzed in the landing, his back snapping due to the enormous mass of his body being multiplied by the force of deceleration and the subsequent decision he would need to take to end his own life rather than fall into the hands of the alien enemy.

  He shuddered and tried to push the worry from his mind. Ram told himself he did not care about death, having died many times before.

  But it was a fear older than humanity, older even than mammals, and he could not shake it. Especially while he had nothing to do but wait. The vehicle was entirely automated, the computer making decisions that would mean life or death for his team and, if Kat was
to be believed, for their entire species and civilization.

  Whether the weapon they were supposed to recover truly would be devastating for the Hex, Ram doubted, for how could it be so? He had the distinct impression that UNOP were not being completely honest about the nature of the mission but there was not much he could do other than attempt to complete it to the best of his ability.

  In theory, it was simple. Extract a weapon from a UNOP base. In practice, there were so many variables and so many unknowns that success seemed unlikely at best.

  New vibrations hummed through the hull and the vehicle link window on Ram’s AugHud informed him that grid fins were being deployed.

  He had little to do other than plan for the coming mission while the flight computer made tiny course corrections as they plummeted toward the ground through the dark of night, their black hull shaped for stealth more than it was for maneuverability and even for survivability.

  Ram’s guts lurched and his heart raced as the vehicle banked and rolled. Were they evading an enemy weapon? No, he saw on the AugHud, the stubby wings had deployed, and the vehicle was making the final sudden adjustments to level off their descent so that they skimmed over the endless trees of the boreal forest of Canada.

  Below them, he imagined the black surfaces of the countless lakes and the billions of coniferous trees and the rocks and hills and gorges, all linked by thousands of rivers, great and small. They were traveling at Mach 2.83 but the speed bled off rapidly until the shielded engines started at low power, providing just enough to keep them at altitude.

  Even if the Hex were not concerned with stealth technology, surely, they would be detected by some system or other. Would an interceptor be coming to destroy them before they ever reached the landing zone?

  Ram watched their airspeed settle and flatten out and he watched the timer count down. When it reached zero, they would land and immediately begin their escape and evasion march on foot.

  “Alright, we’re nearly there,” Ram said. “Everybody check in.”

  His team was arrayed around him, encased in their armor and strapped into their own crash couches. One by one, Stirling, Cooper, Flores, Fury, and Red the Wheelhunter sounded off.

  “You’re all looking good. Everything is nominal and we are on course and coming up on the landing zone. Nothing on sensors indicate—”

  A warning flashed on his AugHud and blared in his head. “Weapon lock. Weapon lock.”

  “What the hell?” Stirling growled. “That shouldn’t be—”

  Ram had time to see the warning change to indicate incoming fire before a blast hit them.

  The vehicle lurched up and rolled with the blast.

  This is it, the thought came unbidden. We’re dead.

  2.

  His suit protected his ears but the pressure waves thrummed through him as the enemy energy weapon hit the hull, broke through and decompressed the interior and rocked the entry vehicle. Alarms sounded as the autopilot fought to keep the ship above the trees but Ram watched the indicators turn red as the ship veered off course as it struggled to keep at the correct altitude.

  They were 100 meters up and descending.

  Expecting another blast from the enemy weapon, Ram considered opening his reentry chair, climbing into the compartment, opening the doors and jumping to the ground. A hundred meters was a long way, even with the protection of his suit and the strength of his engineered body and he would probably be killed in the fall.

  But it would be more of a chance than being blasted to pieces by some Hex AA gun.

  There was no ejection system on his reentry chair but if he could get the emergency release to let him go then he might be thrown clear by the centrifugal force of the spinning vehicle.

  But he did not get further than the thought and before he could take any action, it was too late.

  BRACE. BRACE. BRACE.

  The left wing tip clipped a tree, snapping the tip off and sending the ship spiraling down into the forest, crashing through branches before shooting out low over the surface of a dark lake. Ram tensed his body, waiting for his death while the warnings flashed before his eyes.

  The landing rockets fired in a stuttering sequence that halted their spin and slowed them rapidly. The g-forces increased until the weight on Ram’s chest became intolerable, and then it was gone.

  For the final few meters, the vehicle came down on the far shore of the lake in a couple of seconds of incongruously serene control, settling down on its landing gear instead of crashing. One leg sank into the sodden ground at the lake edge, so the ship ended up tilted at an alarming angle.

  “Everybody out!” Ram shouted, as his reentry chair released him.

  Dragging himself to his feet, he pulled his body around to his equipment locker, punched open the lid and grabbed his rifle, his sidearms, knife, and his packs. Around him, the others did the same before slipping through the hatch into the night. Ram waited for the others to make their way out and then watched as Red, the enormous alien wheelhunter, maneuvered his bizarre body, encased in its own custom armor, through the hatch. He dropped into the darkness beyond. Ram gave the interior a final look to make sure nothing had been forgotten and followed his team outside.

  The others lay prone in an arc around the ship, weapons up and ready to return fire. The night vision provided by his helmet and enhanced by the AugHud overlay was excellent but still the world looked strange. Was it an effect of the suit or was it because he had not been on Earth for years? He had not been on Earth in the body he was in, ever. And even in his original body, he had never been in a forest of any sort. Other than in Avar, and that didn’t count.

  “Fury, burn the ship,” Ram ordered. She jogged back to the hatch, heaved in two satchels filled with incendiaries, and returned to her position. “Alright, let’s move twenty meters into the trees and head south along the lakeshore for two klicks before turning west.”

  Before they left, Fury ignited the incendiaries and they filled the inside of the entry vehicle with a fire hot enough to melt much of the interior. If the Hex found the ship, the intention was that they would not be able to tell what had been inside. Even if they could tell people had been inside, ideally they would not know how many humans they were hunting. It was hoped they would also be unable to discern that one of the entry chairs was made for a wheelhunter.

  Whatever edge they could get, Ram would welcome, though it seemed redundant now. They were not supposed to be discovered at such a low altitude. They had been supposedly flying over wilderness uninhabited by either people or Hex, and yet they had been hit by a focused energy weapon powerful enough to bring them down.

  “What hit us?” Stirling asked as they started to move off. They could speak using their encrypted comms implants that could be boosted by their combat suits so the team would always be in range, within reason.

  “That was undoubtedly a Hex weapon,” Red said. His suit covered him like a second skin but with thick armor panels covering his central hub and other key parts of his wheelhunter anatomy.

  “Obviously it was a Hex weapon,” Stirling said. “What’s it doing up here? There’s nothing up here, is there?”

  “Automated?” Fury suggested.

  Cooper replied. “I heard they have mobile units all over, focused on subversion and psyops and the like.”

  “But subverting who? There’s no towns up here. Just trees and bears.”

  “Whoever they are, there’s a good chance they’re coming this way so let’s get moving. And stay ready.”

  “I ain’t getting taken alive,” Flores muttered. “No way.”

  “None of us are,” Ram said. “But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Hurry up now.”

  Ram’s team had barely entered the trees when a proximity alert sounded.

  “Something’s coming,” Cooper said, pointing out across the lake, into the air.

  “Find cover,” Ram snapped and jogged deeper into the forest, away from the quietly burning dropship. His sui
t beeped a warning and highlighted the approaching aircraft before it appeared above the trees on the other side of the lake.

  It was moving slowly, the engines emitting a blue light in the darkness that reflected off the surface of the lake as it flew over. Ram crouched behind the trunk of a large tree that was hardly wider than he was and watched.

  It was not an especially large aircraft but it had a bulbous body between the stubby wings and their engines. For a moment, he thought the enemy vessel was going to pass over the lake without stopping but at the last moment it swerved towards them and descended over the water near the shore.

  “Shit, they’re landing,” Flores said. “Orders, sir?”

  “Be ready,” Ram signaled to his team. “But hold your fire.”

  “We can get the drop on them, sir,” Stirling muttered.

  Ram knew that was true. But engaging in a firefight could endanger the entire mission, even if they won it. All it would take would be one of the aliens to send a message confirming human ground forces were in the area and they might be swarmed with enemy reinforcements.

  “Hold your fire,” Ram repeated.

  The craft hovered and came down at the shoreline on the other side of their burning vehicle. Wisps of smoke drifted from the open hatch and no doubt the infrared poured out with it like a beacon. Ram cursed himself for giving the order to burn the ship. Should have left it, he thought. They might have missed it otherwise.

  Movement at the ship.

  The view was obscured by half a dozen tree trunks but Ram just made out the swirling mass of flailing legs of the small group of aliens approaching his downed dropship.

  Since waking from his 26 years in stasis and during his two weeks of prep for the mission, he had learned about the Hex. UNOP classified the species as hexadecapodiformes on account of their sixteen legs, which looked for all the world like long, spindly but stiff tentacles that held the body—the thorax— aloft so the top of it was 3 meters above the ground. Their bodies were encased in almost-spherical suits, much of which was transparent and Ram could make out some of the creatures’ exoskeleton within. Some of the dark-clad legs held weapons or carried other devices or reached out to touch the surface of their dropship.