Exodus: Tales of The Empire: Book 2: Beasts of the Frontier.

by Doug Dandridge

  “They’re in the harbor,” came a call over the command net, coming from an aerial attack ship. “We’re moving in for the attack.”

  And now we find out if this strategy is going to kill them, or just drive them off, thought the Major. She knew the Governor would be happy with the second result, driving him from his city. She wanted the first, making her own job easier.

  * * *

  The five Gatherers making their way into the harbor could smell their prey through the waters. They could also feel the activity of boats and ships of various types moving through the water. And several things beneath the water, small, and one large object. Something splashed into the water to the front of the center creature. It sent out waves of its own sonar and identified a small object, not more than a meter in length, floating in the water to its front. It approached swiftly, intent on capturing whatever it was, when a beam of sonic energy blasted from the object and hit its body with the force of a hammer. The Gatherer recoiled from the strike, then forged ahead to again try to engulf it. And again the sonic beam struck, this time disrupting almost a cubic meter of its substance.

  More objects struck the water, making the same kind of splash, then some more that hit with a different sound. More sonic beams struck out, hitting all of the creatures, then the roar of an explosion sounded through the harbor as a strong conventional warhead detonated.

  One of the creatures wanted to retreat, but the thoughts of the others through their quantum connection overruled it. The collective decided that they would destroy this city, and if taking some damage was the price of it, then it was. They rolled on, ignoring the hits by sonic waves or the concussion of explosions, which, while they disrupted cubic meters of the creatures they struck, did not really endanger the massive creatures.

  One of the creatures rolled over one of the sonic projectors, its molecular acid eating into the casing over a period of minutes until it reached the inner circuitry and rendered the device useless. More of the objects dropped, but now that the Gatherers had decided to push through the pain, there weren’t enough of them to stop the huge creatures. They hit the rolling sea bottom and advanced, rising up above the water and pushing their hundreds of kilotons of bulk onto the shoreline. Where they came under attack from new and different energies.

  * * *

  “Here they come,” shouted a strident voice over the com.

  Colonel Isabella Suarez stood in the turret hatch of an Allosaur Mark III medium tank, tapped into the command and control net of her militia, and watched what looked like a slow motion wave rolling over the seawall. Other parts of the creature rolled up the sides of docked fishing boats, immediately eating away at the hulls and the superstructures. Suarez looked at the disposition of the one battalion, reinforced with a couple of support companies, that had been available here. The other two battalions were scattered about the planet, their members’ homes among the other towns and villages. Transports were being scrambled to try and bring in a couple of companies to the capital, but the Colonel doubted they would get here in time to affect the battle.

  The light infantry were all behind cover, as ordered. Even though they weren’t fighting what appeared to be a conventional foe that could shoot back, the Colonel didn’t believe in taking chances. The Planetary Police were for the most part standing in the open, in their riot armor, holding up shields and gripping mostly sonic stunners, though the tactical team had heavier armor and particle beams. The two platoons of the militia armored company that were stationed in the capital were arrayed behind the infantry, with the Colonel’s tank in the exact center. And what artillery they had was still in the process of setting up in the hills overlooking the city.

  “All units,” said Suarez over the com. “Prepare to fire on my command.”

  The police were not hers to command, and she could only hope that they didn’t do something stupid. Standing out in the open was to her a stupid move. The police probably thought their armor was protection against anything this creature could do. Which was not a given.

  One of the boats at the dock crumbled into pieces under the attack of the acid, followed by a section of the wooden dock. The Colonel didn’t want to think what the things could do to an unprotected human, and was hoping that she would not find out.

  “Air group,” she said in her com as the creatures continued to push more of their mass onto the shore. “Are you in position?”

  “In position, locked and loaded, ma’am.”

  The other five crew in the tank reported in, and Suarez made ready to give the order. She hesitated for a moment, anxiety at not being able to stop these things almost overwhelming her. Most of the people in the city were safe, supposedly, under the cover of modern buildings made to handle earthquakes and tsunamis. And again, there was no guarantee these things couldn’t get into them. Besides, the city was not all superstrong material construction, and the damage could amount to hundreds of millions of Imperials. And it was all on her to stop that from happening.

  One of the creatures recoiled under the attention of a squad of police striking it with sonics. Suarez cursed under her breath. The idea was to let the creatures get ashore where the weapons of the defenders would be most effective. And the police could drive one or more back into the water, where the particle beams and lasers would be least effective. The creature recoiled, then came on, right into the sonic waves. Those police started to back up as the protoplasm advanced, still playing their sonics on its front.

  “Fire,” she finally yelled, as her HUD showed that over half of each creature was out of the water.

  Not everything fired at once. One of the tanks got off the first shot, sending out a hypervelocity round that struck the center of the creature, followed an instant later by the pair of coaxial particle beams and the defensive lasers put to offensive use. The round struck at a thousand kilometers a second, accelerated through the magrail cannon of the tank. The wind of its passage pulled dust and some discarded objects from the ground to fly after the round. It blasted through the membrane of the creature, vaporizing tons of protoplasm before the small antimatter warhead detonated, destroying more of the creature. Some of the outer mass vaporized under the assault of the beam weapons.

  The other tanks and the infantry opened fire moments after. More rounds penetrated into the mass of the creatures, while hundreds of beam weapons ate into the substance of the things. Moments after the ground troops opened up the aerial vehicles came down in a hover and started to send beams into the creatures from above.

  The creatures were all under attack now, the three in the center getting more attention than the two on the flanks. All were quivering as if in great pain, portions of their mass dissolving into vapor.

  “We’re going to kill these things,” came the voice of a platoon leader over the com.

  Indeed we are, thought the Colonel as the tank rocked again, sending another hypervelocity shell at the creature. The round struck with similar results as the last, and the creature the tank was fighting was starting to look in sad shape.

  What the hell? thought Suarez as the membrane of the creature started to change, thickening, changing from a light red to almost a black color. The particle beams hitting the creature went through a change in their effect, heating the areas they stuck to a dull red while no longer vaporizing the thing’s mass. The tank bucked again, and this time the round smacked into the membrane and did the impossible, bouncing away, then detonating a microsecond later within the city.

  A wave of molecular acid sprayed under high pressure from the front of the creature, while streams squirted at the aerial vehicles above. Several of the police and a few militia went down as the acid burned through their light armor suits, while two of the combat aircars spun out of the sky, one into the harbor, the other onto the top of one of the creatures. That aircar smoked and slid into the creature, disappearing through the membrane to the cutoff screams of the crew over the com. And that was when the Colonel realized that this battle was
anything but won.

  Next the creatures all sprouted tentacles made of the same impossibly strong substance. A tentacle swept through the air and smack into a gunship, taking it down onto the surface of the creature, where it was engulfed. Other tentacles swept into the troopers ashore, pulling them into the creature. Dozens of cries came over the com, cut off with finality as the militia were brought into the creature, where they were attacked by the molecular acid the monster used to digest.

  “Fall back,” yelled Suarez, firing the tank commander’s laser at one of the tentacles to no observable effect.

  The militia moved back from the waterfront, continuing to lay down fire that was ineffective at best. Hypervelocity rounds from the tanks were for the most part bouncing away, their antimatter warheads detonating to the detriment of the city and the defenders, one kiloton explosions sending out heat, radiation and shrapnel to hit buildings and defenders.

  “Get us the hell out of here,” yelled Suarez over the com to the tank driver.

  She took aim at the thick tentacle that was coming at the tank. Where the beam hit the thick membrane glowed red, and steam rose from the strike. The tank started to back on its grabbers, but the tentacle reached around behind it and grasped, burning its way into the ablative surface of the armor to get a better hold. The tank massed five hundred tons, the tentacle more than five thousand, but still it struggled to move the vehicle that was pushing back with all the force it could generate. The Colonel could see what was coming and ducked into the turret of the tank, cycling the heavy hatch closed overhead. With a squelching sound the tank was pulled into and through its membrane.

  “How are we holding up?” she asked nervously over the com.

  “The tank is sealed tight,” replied the driver, who was monitoring all the systems from his forward compartment.

  The armor is thick and tough, thought the Colonel, closing her eyes and saying a quick prayer. The creatures were supposed to have problems with modern materials. That hasn’t seemed to help the soldiers in their light armor, or those in aerial vehicles, but neither the people or the aircars had the same temper of armor as a tank. Now the question was how to get out?

  * * *

  Jensen moved through the water on her suit’s waterjets, hitting a hundred knots as she skirted the edge of the creature she was following.

  “All units. Hit them with sonics,” she ordered, activating the large units attached to both of her forearms. The water rippled under the assault of the waves of disruptive sound, and the membrane of the target creature rippled and bent along with it. The creature recoiled a bit, though she knew that the damage had to be minimal.

  The other suited Constables, dolphins and humanoids, joined by some local dolphins, were all adding their own sonic assault to the mix. And Argonaut was focusing all of the power of its fusion reactor through the sonic blaster units in its nose. Its target area actually rippled and burst into fragments that were falling apart as they flew away from the bulk of the creature.

  A call came through the com, one of the dolphin constables warning off one of the unprotected cetaceans. From the tenor of the reply, followed by a squeal of pain and terror, the dolphin was caught and dissolved by the carnivorous creature they were battling.

  The fight went on for minutes, the suited constables, the submarine and their allies galling the creatures but not doing any serious damage. And then things changed, as the membranes of the creatures thickened, toughened, and tentacles erupted from bodies of the monsters. A Constable screamed out as one of the tentacles grabbed him and pulled him into the creature. The screaming stopped, followed by a string of profanity as the man tried to fight his way out.

  Our suits are tough enough, she thought. Their submersible combat suits were in a class with heavy Marine and army battle armor. Still.

  “Everyone back off. Keep hitting them, but try to avoid being caught.”

  I’m not sure we’re going to beat these things at this time and place, she thought as she moved back and continued to send sonic waves into the creature she was fighting. She was thinking they might need to lure them away from this inhabited area where they could hit them with heavy weapons. There was no way they could handle medium sized antimatter warheads, was there?

  * * *

  The artillery company was finally in place and opened fire. One hundred millimeter shells started to rain down on the creatures, their laser heads attempting to burn into the membranes of the targets just before they struck and their warheads detonated. Some of the warheads contained small antimatter charges, others had a mass of crystal matrix batteries that sent gigwatts of electricity into their targets. And still others hit and sent waves of sound into the creatures. All causing damage, but not enough to kill them.

  The creatures continued to move into the city. First one, then another, levitated above the ground, using some unknown force to counteract gravity and hover. They continued to attack the city, four of them levitating into the air flying for a hundred meters, then coming down on top of groups of militia or police. Those in tanks, if they happened to be sealed, survived, while the rest were dissolved away inside the Gatherers. The fifth went into the air, leveling off at five hundred meters and speeding toward the hill on which the artillery was deployed. As soon as it was over the artillery company it dropped, adding the hundred and fifty-three militia and ten cannon to its store of resources.

  Before the creature could get back into the air and seek another target it became the target. Three five hundred megawatt class lasers and a pair of particle beams came down from above and struck the creature on five points on its body. This was a warship firing, only a system defense class frigate, but still ten times the firepower of the reinforced militia battalion and police that the creatures had been battling. The thick tough membrane ruptured under the attention of weapons made to penetrate meter thick armor made of supertough materials. Tons of the underlying protoplasm converted to superheated steam that destroyed ten times its mass of surrounding tissue.

  The Gatherer writhed in agony, bounding into the air as it tried to escape the onslaught. The targeting systems of the frigate were up to the challenge, and the beams continued to sear through the body of the creature as it frantically tried to escape. With the last of its strength if headed back toward the ocean, losing mass the entire way as the naval gunfire continued to score. It hit the water twenty kilometers from the entrance to the bay that was the capital city’s harbor.

  The creature was badly damaged, but not near death. All of it, every gram, had to be killed for it to really die. The water protected it from lasers and particle beams that turned water to steam, but could only penetrate several meters. Once in the water, still massing over a thousand tons, the Gatherer was sure that it was now safe. It continued with that view until the four kinetic weapons came slashing through the water to strike it directly. The heat and blasts of the penetrators disrupted the remaining mass, and the creature was truly dead. Its last thoughts came through the quantum connection to its fellows, and the collective consciousness realized that it was in serious trouble.

  The remaining creatures were almost panicked. They had been on the cusp of leaving the planet, spreading into the Galaxy. If they had gotten out of this system and went through another cycle in the next six systems, they would have reached the point where they would have been difficult to stop. Five more cycles and they would have been all but unstoppable. Just their misfortune that they had awakened for the last feeding period to find high tech species had colonized it. If the ship hadn’t entered the equation, they still might have won, but now they were at risk of annihilation.

  Going into the water for safety was not a given, with the ability of the thing in orbit to drop high energy weapons on them. Staying on the land was also a non-starter, since they were then targets for the beam weapons. There was only one possible solution, and the creatures immediately took the action needed to ensure that at least one of them survived to carry on the species in t
his Galaxy.

  Three of the forms flowed together to form one enormous creature, one massing multiple millions of tons. It levitated into the air, heading for the outer atmosphere at high acceleration, keeping itself between the remaining creature and the ship above. That last Gatherer headed out to sea, looking for the deeper water where it could hide. And within it was Colonel Suarez’ tank, still engulfed in the mass of the creature.

  * * *

  “Kama,” yelled Jensen over the com. “I need an immediate pickup.”

  The Master Sergeant acknowledged and sped the Argonaut to the side of the Major, taking her aboard. Jensen shed her suit in the armory and ran to the bridge, throwing herself into her command chair and looking out over the holo map that was showing the entire scenario.

  “Orders?” asked Warrant Officer Zaya, looking back from her station.

  “Follow that smaller one,” ordered the Major, pointing at the creature that was cruising over the ocean, heading for the deep.

  “What about the other one?” asked the Master Sergeant.

  “That one’s not our problem,” she replied, her eyes locked on a side screen that showed the smaller creature on satellite view. “Push it to the limit, Zaya. I want to be over it before it goes deep.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The Warrant Officer lifted the sub out of the water on grabbers and pushed the acceleration to the limit. Within seconds the vessel was pushing past the sound barrier, the power of its grabbers turning the poor aerodynamic form into a swift transport.

  The main holo switched to view the creature they were chasing, while the side screen flipped to show the image of the larger being still heading up, out of the atmosphere and into the vacuum of space. It was accelerating at over a hundred gravities, amazing for something that was supposedly alive, though nowhere near the class of the frigate that was still pumping beam energy into it.

  Amazing, thought Jensen, shaking her head. The creature was like nothing human science had ever run into. As far as she knew, checking her assumption in the sub’s computer, no other intelligent species had ever run into anything like this. A creature that could live in space or in the crushing depths of a deep sea. That could change its outer coating to fit the situation. That could swim at hundreds of knots, levitate in the air, and accelerate at the speed of a ship that would have amazed with its performance less than three hundred years before.