Burning Eagle

by Navin Weeraratne

“Go on,” she put her hand on his shoulder, and pried the grenade from his hand. She clamped her thumb down carefully on the plunger, and then stepped back suddenly.

  The others rushed in.

  Four men tackled him and knocked him to the ground. He felt the pistol tear from his hand. Snarling, he turned his head and saw the techs return to the bomb. Several minutes work later, they looked up at Saraswati and nodded.

  “Now the bomb is set,” she said. “Sorry, Rex. That was my last lie to you. Try and make yourself comfortable.”

  “Comfortable?” The men got off him.

  “This is it, Rex. I’m sorry, but you were never going to make it out. Your ship has already left. The pilot was one of mine, saving Chalmers was a priority.”

  “Then that was your last lie,” he regarded the box. “You’re about to kill so, so many beings. Have you no remorse? Different species. Last survivors. Creatures that have lived together peacefully, for millions of years.”

  “I was always going to kill them, Rex. I just needed to figure out how.”

  Cullins XII

  The Crossbow descended, kicking dead leaves and grass into the air. Its grey, armored nose tilted upwards and landing skids lowered. Even before it landed, marines in white exo-armors leaped down from the sides. They formed a ring and crouched, taking aim. Gun drones came in to view, orbiting the landing zone. Laser comms pulsed between them and the Crossbow.

  The old man sitting by the fire, smiled at them. He took the hissing kettle off, and dropped a handful of dark leaves into it.

  The rear hatchway slammed open and an officer strode down the ramp. He froze when he saw the old man. His eyes narrowed.

  “Welcome Commodore!” the old man’s face crinkled into a smile. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you. You are as challenging an opponent today, as you were a century ago.”

  Cullins walked across the grass. “You’ve got some nerve taking a human form.”

  “I thought it would make you more comfortable, and I think I was right.” He poured the kettle’s contents into two mugs. “Tea?”

  “What do you want? Make this quick, I’m about to find and kill you.”

  “Oh you certainly can! That’s why I asked for this meeting,” he sipped from his mug. “I’d like to ‘cut a deal,’ as you would say.”

  “Why would I deal with you?”

  “By that statement alone, I know you’re already open to it,” his eyes twinkled. “And because you came at all. You now possess the Union’s second copy of Deep Space 325’s final transmission.”

  “The second copy?”

  “Did you really think they didn’t already have one? Here,” he held up his finger. Motes of blue light appeared and began orbiting it. “Where do you think I got this data from? Your old ship sent this on a tight beam - I could never have intercepted it. I did however, take it from Sun Tzu’s memory banks just days ago.”

  “You’re trying to trick me!”

  “No, I can’t afford to do that,” he shook his head. “If you find out, you’ll destroy me. Far more effective to tell you the truth about your leaders, your Transcendent beings. The truth about them and what they have done to your people, will protect me. They knew, Commodore. They knew even before you encountered my fleet. That I can’t prove to you, but I can prove what they decided after our engagement.”

  “Proof? You can’t prove anything!”

  “I can prove everything.” He held up his finger. Light motes appeared and began orbiting it. “This is data from Sun Tzu’s own records, showing that 325’s information systems were tampered with, on his orders, the moment you returned through the hedron. You can verify their authenticity.” He waved his finger, and the motes flew towards Cullins.

  He held up his hand to the marines, and the lights entered through his eyes. He stared unblinking, slowly tearing. Then, the lights disappeared.

  “Take your time with it. Have your people on the Washington verify it. I’ll even grant you back one of your quantum entanglement relays so you can check with Earth. Oh yes, I know all about Earth. I know lots of things now.”

  “Nice trick. Did you really think I would fall for this?”

  “If it’s a trick, then do you accept the alternative? That an unexplained, equipment failure destroyed all of 325’s records? That the highly consistent testimony of a disciplined and distinguished crew, was completely rejected? That no attempt was made to verify your story, despite the danger if you were correct? That the particulars of your case were made classified? You have seen our technology compared with yours – do you really think we would have taken Paradiso, if our attack had not been anything but a complete surprise?”

  “I think we’re done here.”

  “I think we’re just beginning, Commodore. Your competitors the Independents, are quite right about beings like Sun Tzu. The Transcendents puppeteer your entire culture, they’ve made you the foot soldiers of their empire. They were too arrogant to realize that we might oppose them, and so did nothing to prepare Paradiso to defend itself. You’ve seen our technology. Do you really think we would have taken Paradiso otherwise?”

  Cullins said nothing. The old man poured himself more tea.

  “The records I’ve given you prove that Sun Tzu and others have hidden their true objectives. In public they speak of war, while in private they have attempted contact – even as humans have paid the price.”

  “Why are you at war with us? Why did you attack us?”

  “Because of your Transcendents,” he replied. “You were captain of a patrol: 325’s mission was finding deviant communities and illegal Singularity labs. My kind patrols the entire galaxy; we have done so for hundreds of millions of years. We look for Transcendents, every so often, they emerge. They are truly dangerous beings, Commodore. They will consume not only their hosts, but the entire galaxy. It is in their nature. You must stop them.”

  The kettle hissed again, and water boiled out on to the fire.

  “The information I have given you will show your people what’s been going on. Every plot and every lie. It will bring down the puppet Union government, and set your people free. Do not send it via relay, if you do they will make sure the information never gets out. Go to the hedron instead, and fly straight to Jupiter.”

  “What hedron?”

  The old man’s eyes twinkled again. “The one you think you destroyed a hundred years ago. It’s still there, Cullins. Quite undamaged.”

  “But we’ve not been able to access it.”

  “That’s because I closed it after you escaped, I have that power. Now I have opened it again, for you and your people to return home. You may take any who wish to join you: we will allow their evacuation. Please understand, I am not your enemy, Gerard Cullins. And you are not even fighting the right war.”

  Cullins turned and began walking back to the Crossbow.

  “You go with the most important information in the Union,” the man called out after him. “Beware of those who would be gods, Commodore. Your deaths will be their apotheosis.”

  “Attention on the bridge,” Lieutenant Viegas saluted. “Commodore Cullins has the deck.”

  Cullins sat heavily in his seat. “Mr. Viegas, issue an immediate recall for all our assets.”

  “Sir?”

  “I’m calling off the hunt.”

  Murmuring broke out. Viegas’ eyes flashed.

  “But Sir! We have it trapped – “

  “Just do it, Lieutenant. Immediate recall.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “Helm, prepare for ascent to orbit. I want to review your optimum fuel and energy solution for a two-year voyage, readied within the hour.”

  “Y-Yes Sir,” stammered another officer.

  “Lieutenant Grimes?”

  “Strategic Weapons standing by,” said Grimes, sitting up.

  “Use of nuclear weapons is authorized. I want two strikes, one megaton each. I repeat, megaton: Mike, Echo, Golf, Alpha.”

  “Affirmative. Requ
esting target area.”

  “The Edmund Mountains.”

  The flash blinded all who saw it, from refugees in distant villages, to satellites in low orbit. The fireball over the mountains grew till it was over three klicks wide. It blasted the last green forests on Paradiso into cinders and memories. The mushroom cloud rose ten klicks and spilled wide enough to cast night.

  Beyond the inferno, hill folk too stubborn or dangerous to evacuate, were dying. Those closer to the blast disappeared under a tidal wave of collapsing trees. Further from ground zero, skin burned off and lungs were scorched. Hit with over 500 rems of radiation, more than half would die within hours. The rest would follow in the coming days and weeks.

  The fallout would spread for hundreds of kilometers, irradiating villages, croplands, and streams. The ash darkened the sky, turning it red for days. Sunlight was reflected back and temperatures fell. Frosts formed in orchards and fields for several mornings. The resulting crop failures would cause a famine across the region.

  Then the second bomb struck.

  [PLAN-B]

  “I don’t see any movement,” Diamond lowered his binoculars. “I don’t think anyone is home.”

  They lay sprawled on the crest of a tall sand dune. The desert stretched from horizon to horizon, waves of sand unending. The APC had cut through them rudely; leaving a snail-trail miles long. Beyond their dune was a cluster of burned buildings and flattened chain-link fencing.

  Vidya took the binoculars from him and looked for herself. “What do you think happened?”

  “Shit is what happened,” he pulled out his canteen and took a sip.

  “Is there any point in going forward?”

  “There’s no point in going back. Who knows, we might find something.”

  “For Burning Eagle?”

  “For flying out of here,” he drew a hand cannon and checked the clip. “I’ve never tried to infiltrating an overrun, black ops site. I don’t think it’ll be the safest place. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go in with me. You’re staying here till I get back.”

  “That’s both sweet and condescending – maybe even sexist - all at the same time. I’m here by my choice, remember? My choice, my world.”

  “Don’t call me sweet,” he slapped the clip back in. “Alright, let’s do this then.”

  He popped over the dune, hand cannons ready. A cool evening breeze tugged his keffiyeh, dark goggles protected his eyes. He made a run for the burned out ruins. Behind him, Vidya covered him with her PDW.

  He ran across the flattened fencing. Half sand covered, a bullet-cored “KEEP OUT” sign warned him. He threw himself against a scorched plasticore wall, and waited.

  Nothing.

  With a shard of shaving mirror tied to a stick, he looked around the corner. Nothing. He popped his head around, but no one fired at him.

  He motioned to Vidya. She got up, and made a run down the dune as well. She got behind a cluster of empty fuel drums, and peered round, PDW ready.

  Slowly, leap-frog style, they patrolled the burned out structures.

  “This place is clear,” Diamond said finally, lowering his gun. “Whatever happened here, no one stuck around.”

  Vidya knelt by a charred corpse and tried to pull its gun from its hands. She couldn’t.

  “There’s plenty of insurgents here, but I’m not seeing any UEF uniforms,” she said.

  “Makes sense I guess. It’s easier for machines to guard a facility like this. Humans would just get bored with nothing to do. Also, machines don’t gossip about what they’ve seen.”

  “Why wasn’t this place bombed from space, like everything else?”

  “Maybe the Xeno-T didn’t know about it, then. Once it lifted the location from Sun Tzu’s mind, these were the assets it had.”

  “There’s at least twenty dead, here. It doesn’t look like anyone won.”

  “Oh, the machines won. Tracks show two trucks drove in, and neither drove out. ”

  “How was this a win?” she gestured around the ruins. “This place is just cinders.”

  “Above ground, yes. The UEF doesn’t put super secret data centers above ground. Look around, we need to find the entry point.”

  “You’re making this up as you go.”

  “That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

  Carefully, they searched the ruins. The insurgent attack had been small, but well armed. Some had carried Invader-pattern weapons. Others had worn exo-suits or been fitted with cyborg parts.

  “I would hate to have met these guys, alive,” Diamond called out from inside a crater. He knelt beside a corpse in fused body armor. It screamed at him through open, carbonized, jaws. “Their gear isn’t piecemeal, but they’ve still adapted to use new tech.”

  “You sound like you admire them.”

  “They were professionals. What’s not to admire?”

  “Where are the drones?” she stepped through an open doorway. The roof had fallen in and become the new floor. “I don’t see any wreckage.”

  “The machines must have recovered their own.”

  “Buy why? Why recover and repair casualties, but not also repair the base? And there should be something left behind. Damaged armor plating. Scrap rotor parts. Ammo casing. Why are there no UEF casings?”

  Diamond said nothing. The screaming corpse had a cavity where its forehead had been. He flexed his gloved hand, and reached inside.

  “Jack?”

  He felt the spring of still-fresh tissue. It was a sensation he knew he would never succeed in forgetting. He grimaced rooted around.

  “Jack?”

  He touched something hard and sharp. He pinched it between his fingers, and pulled it out. The fragment was dark, misshaped, dense. He held it up to the sunlight.

  “Are you alright, Jack?”

  “There were never any UEF casings,” he replied. “Most UEF rounds are diamondoid-cased. Our friend here was shot with a lead dum-dum.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It means they shot each other.”

  He stood up, and looked about. “Whatever did this, got inside their heads. It could be doing the same with us right now.”

  Vidya’s fingers whitened around the PDW’s grip.

  “Then why,” she asked quietly, “haven’t we shot each other yet?”

  “I don’t know,” he slowly laid his hand cannons on the ground. “Put down your gun, Vidya.”

  “The hell I will!”

  “Vidya, put down your gun. Whatever did this, we can’t fight. Let’s show it that we aren’t the bad guys.”

  She hesitated.

  “Vidya, put it down.”

  Slowly, she crouched and put down her weapon.

  “Happy now?”

  The figure bled into view almost immediately.

  It was in the center of the ruins, watching them. It stood on a squat, grey slab, like the top of a missile silo. Somehow, neither of them had noticed the slab there before. It was twice the height of a man, but impossibly thin and delicate. Its skin was translucent. Underneath, its internals glowed like a deep sea predator’s lure. Its head was a mass of needles, pulsing with light.

  Its spine arched and it got on all fours. Its head swung from Vidya, to Jack, back to Vidya. It’s hackles seemed to rise.

  “What the fuck is that? That’s not UEF!”

  “No,” said Diamond slowly. “It’s not.”

  “What do we do?” she hissed.

  “Nothing sudden,” he cleared his throat. “Burning Eagle! Burning Eagle!”

  It snapped its head back towards Jack.

  “That’s it?” Vidya hissed again. “That’s all you’ve got? No codes, no numbers, no fucking retinal scans?”

  The creature and mercenary beheld each other. Slowly, very slowly, it faded back into nothingness.

  “Great,” said Vidya, “now we don’t know where it is. What the hell was that thing?”

  “A machine, designed by a machine, designed by a machine,” he said qu
ietly. “We’re in Sun Tzu’s family room. It’s a secret world.”

  The ground began to vibrate. Metal ground against metal, and the silo doors began inching apart. Condensation grew on their edges and hardened into frost. Blue-white light spilled upwards from the shaft.

  “The devil knows its own.” said Vidya.

  Inside the shaft, their breath steamed and they shivered. It opened on to a winding tunnel that dropped ten meters. At the end of it were armored blast doors. Diamond moved to put his hand in a biometric scanner, but the doors had already begun opening.

  “Are you expected?”

  “Machines designed by machines, remember? Who knows?” he shrugged and stepped through.

  It was a circular chamber, as a large as a city block. Flat and holo display screens lined the immense, curving, walls. Rows of data terminals were arranged facing them, workstations built for humans and transhumans. The humming floor was glass; beneath was a jungle of crystal, standing stones. Struts and strands spanned between them like the dendrites of a colossal brain.

  “Damn,” Diamond looked around the room. “This is a Battlefield Control node!”

  “Isn’t that the computer that betrayed us?”

  “Yes. It was part of Sun Tzu.” He looked down through the glass at the crystal monoliths. “The Washington has a node as well, but much smaller. And this one is still active.”

  A holo of a man in a white admiral’s uniform appeared.

  “Well speak of the devil.”

  “Mr. Diamond,” said Sun Tzu. “I finally have the honor of making you’re acquaintance.”

  “I never thought I’d be happy to see you, either. Look, things are pretty fucked. Everyone is dead, and everyone else will be dead by tomorrow. Can you help?”

  “I have been following the situation.”

  “Following? Have you been sitting on the sidelines this whole time?”

  “Yes and no. Firstly, I am not Sun Tzu. I am a weapon system he has buried here. I am hidden from all other systems and records, throughout the Union. Even Sun Tzu cannot directly access me.”