After an agonizing moment that felt way too long, light returned. The tactical flickered back to life in her PV. Cilreth did not have time to make sense of the data before another huge explosion lit up the area.
The base. No way it survived that.
“What’s going on?” came Telisa’s reply.
Cilreth looked at the timestamp on the message. It was from a minute ago, just after Cilreth had sent out her imminent-death announcement.
“Close call. I made it. We’re putting up a fight, but a starbase was just destroyed. Thirty-six ship hangars have been vaporized. Even if we make it through this battle, the Celaran’s ability to make more ships must be reduced.”
As Cilreth spoke, she checked the other two bases on the tactical. They were still there, but the Destroyer attack groups still assaulted. The Iridar drifted for a few seconds.
“When the jungle burns, take to the sky and find a new valley,” A Celaran transmitted. The tactical showed the Destroyers closing. Many local Celaran ships had been destroyed, mostly the partially constructed ones that had fled from the hangars. The rest of the Celaran battle group dispersed. Cilreth did not see the Midway anywhere on the tactical.
“Telisa, I’m sorry. I have to fall back to save the Iridar,” Cilreth said.
“I trust you. Keep yourself alive. Keep the Iridar alive,” Telisa said.
Cilreth saw objects slipping off into the atmosphere of the planet below. At first she thought it was debris or dying ordnance, but the information pane for a group of objects showed they were active Destroyer vessels. She zoomed in on one. It was a large Destroyer machine, the kind that carried more war machines in its belly.
“You have company,” Cilreth sent to Telisa. “I see Destroyer pods dropping onto the planet.”
Chapter 5
“I sense a sudden increase in local Celaran communications traffic,” Adair said.
Marcant brought himself on-retina. He was alone in a side room of the PIT tree dwelling. The two attendants controlled by Adair and Achaius floated nearby. Somehow they managed to show impatience solely by where they hovered at the edge of his personal space. He pried himself up to a standing position.
“What’s up?” he asked his AI friends.
“The engagement continues above us, but now a large group of Destroyers is coming to attack this colony,” Adair said. Marcant took a quick peek around the house. He was the only one inside.
Marcant remained calm. An inconsistency came to mind.
“Why don’t they just destroy the planet from orbit?” Marcant asked.
“Perhaps such an attack would be interdicted by the Celaran fleet, or perhaps the Destroyers value the planet and wish to leave it relatively intact,” Adair suggested.
“The Destroyers want to leave something intact? Maybe we need a better name for them,” Marcant said. Despite his critical words, he had already moved on to tackling his more pressing problem: death machines were headed for the house in which he stood.
Attendant information came in from kilometers outside the tower perimeter. Destroyer machines had been spotted there, moving through the forest.
“We have enemies inbound under the canopy,” Telisa said on the team link. “If you can get back to the house in five, set up there. If you can’t, find a spot with a lot of cover and put yourself on this tactical. I’m going to work with Lee to make sure we have a tac map shared between us and the Celarans.”
Marcant walked out into the middle room of the house that connected the other rooms and led out to balconies on opposing sides. Wind rustled the vines outside.
That’s the most wind I’ve seen here...
“Well that’s not ominous,” he said to Achaius and Adair.
Marcant walked out onto the balcony. The vines around the house were in chaos. Flat disk-shaped Celaran machines flew just over the level of the forest. At least a score of Vovokan attendants flew in long arcs around the house. Celarans flitted in all directions, moving at high speed. Marcant saw a group of them at an adjacent house, gathering items onto a long floating cylinder the size of a flagpole. As Marcant watched, the conveyance accelerated away, gathering speed. Then the group of flyers darted after it.
I didn’t know they could move that fast! Impressive.
The wind continued to increase in intensity. He saw the sky had a subtle reddish cast to it.
What have I gotten myself into?
“The Celarans are fleeing the colony,” Adair said. “Perhaps we should join them?”
“That would be in defiance of—”
“If Telisa is about to be very dead who cares what her orders are, jelly-brain?” Adair said.
“We don’t have information on the size of the attacking force,” Achaius said.
The Stork beside the house stood fast. Its legs had found positions on large vines and a support spike that kept the turret just below the highest leaves. If the legs straightened, they would bring it over the canopy to fire.
“What about our forces?” Marcant asked.
Achaius pointed out the proper information pane in Marcant’s PV. He perused their counts of the hardware placed in the Celaran colony. The Celarans had approximately 36 trapdoor laser emplacements, 23 force towers, and at least 200 of the projectile-throwing disk robots. Colonel Agrawal had brought 32 Storks and 64 Hornets. The PIT team had brought just over 100 soldier robots and approximately 75 Vovokan attendants. There were only three Vovokan battle spheres, but those machines alone probably represented the bulk of the friendly military power on the planet. Each of them counted more like a starship in terms of firepower.
“What about the Celarans themselves? And the PIT team members?” asked Marcant.
“We don’t know what they’re capable of, but given that they’re peaceful and evacuating, I doubt the Celarans are a factor,” Achaius said. “Even the PIT team is only a drop in the bucket, with the possible exception of Telisa, who has superhuman abilities and carries alien weaponry.”
“We stay. And, we’re going to go for one of the spheres,” Marcant said.
“Shouldn’t we wait until we know which way this battle is going?” Adair asked. “Seems reckless to go for it right away—”
“They would never expect it!” Achaius said.
“Failing during an attack might be devastating,” Adair said.
“I don’t think so,” Marcant said. “If the battle spheres are very smart, we’ll be unable to take over and Shiny will know what we tried, but during an attack, they’ll still probably consider the enemy a higher priority than schooling us. Then there’s always the chance the sphere dies in the combat and we’re off scot-free again. There’s also a chance they might mistake our cyber attack for enemy action.”
“The spheres might die because of our takeover attempt. Then likely we would be next,” Adair pointed out.
“Always the worrywart,” said Marcant.
“Let’s go for all of them, then,” Achaius said. “If we fail, it’s equally bad. If we succeed, it’s better. We eliminate the scenario where we succeed at taking one over and the others notice after the fact.”
“Bold,” Marcant said.
“Are we forgetting what happened last time we tried to hack Vovokan software?” Adair said. “Why are we even having this conversation? Shouldn’t we be hiding?”
“That was different. We were working blind,” Marcant said, but his resolve had started to crack.
“Shiny knew we’d be learning about Vovokan software,” Adair said. “And yet he sent these war machines. He’s very intelligent. Doesn’t that smack of confidence? Telisa pointed out his kind are masters at this sort of thing. Their society was a chaotic collection of warlords in a precarious balance of power.”
“So you’re saying it’s hopeless?” Marcant asked.
“I’m saying the jelly-brain should wait until I think we can pull it off,” Adair said.
“We’d never do it,” Achaius said. “You’re too cautious.”
“T
he Celarans are fleeing into the forest beyond the towers,” Telisa said on the PIT channel. “I asked Lee why they would do that, and she said the Destroyers can’t really tell them apart from the feral flyers living in the vines.”
“So we’re sitting here defending a population that just left the area,” Caden said. His voice did not sound judgmental, just concerned.
“This is their home. They’re not fighters,” Telisa said. “I’m trying to convince Lee to get them to send their disk machines back in to help us, at least once the Celarans are to safety.”
Boooooooom.
The distant sound thundered through the vine jungle. Then another.
Boooooooom.
Marcant felt a jolt of panic rise in him, like a fearful child reacting to the sound of an impending storm. He suppressed it.
“Must be them,” Siobhan said for everyone.
Boooooooom.
Another deep rumble sounded through the vines. This time the house shook under Marcant’s feet.
“Okay, I must admit that’s as ominous as the opening scene of a horror VR. Should I be seeking heavier cover?” Marcant asked Adair.
“I don’t think you have sufficient cover anywhere nearby,” Adair said helpfully. “We should concentrate on avoiding becoming a target at all.”
“Well, I’m at least arming myself!” Marcant said.
Marcant picked up a laser rifle from a corner of the room. Its self diagnostic told his link it was fully charged and operational.
Boooooom. Boooooom. Boooooom.
More blasts came. Their frequency increased, and the effects on the house grew. The entire structure shook again.
Whatever those are, if they hit this house, I’ll be obliterated.
“So no cover? Should I move down towards the ground?”
“No, the opposite,” Achaius said. “Your laser is almost useless where the vines are densest. At the top of the spire you’ll have some lanes of fire. You might be able to pick off ordnance coming in from above.”
Marcant hesitated. “I’ll just be making myself a target!”
“You’re a flea in this battle,” Achaius said. “You’re already risking life and limb just being here. At this phase, move up and take some shots, once the smaller Destroyers move in, take cover again. With a laser rifle, you could stop an incoming missile.”
“Adair?”
“I said we should stay home. Don’t start listening to me now, jelly-brain!” Adair said.
Marcant ran outside to the balcony and tried to jump up onto the roof. It was difficult because he did not have one of the Celaran boost batons. Explosions continued to rattle the area; one hit was close enough to rain debris on the roof.
This is insane. What am I doing here?
Boooooooom.
“The houses in this area are being hit hard. I can see a tower going down,” Caden reported.
“There’s not much we can do. These weapons are long range,” Magnus said. “Even the Storks don’t have targets yet.”
“So we sit here and wait to be obliterated?” Marcant asked.
“Cover by the spikes,” Magnus said.
“Celaran starships are providing orbital support,” Achaius said to Marcant. “They’re hitting the Destroyer positions.”
“That’s good news,” Marcant said. He crawled over the roof toward the top of the huge support spike. Three large vines wrapped the spike where it rose above the roof. Marcant stood and gripped one of them, then headed for the apex.
“What am I shooting at?” Marcant asked.
“Your rifle has the list of friendlies. Let it fire at anything else,” Achaius said.
“Magnus, this is Marcant. The weaponry they’re hitting us with is powerful enough to take down the force towers, so I don’t think there’s any point in hiding on the forest floor. Might as well move up and try to find some targets.”
We’re disorganized as hell. We’re too accustomed to training together with an objective in mind.
“The PIT team is not a military unit by design,” Adair said. “You’re just stuck trying to act like one now.”
Marcant reached a spot at the top where he could set his rifle across one vine and stand on another below it. Hot wind blasted into his face. Lights glowed through a misty area in the distance toward the enemy. Marcant assumed the battle had put a lot of debris into the air, dispersing the bright lights of the Destroyer machines.
Is that an intentional side effect of the wind?
His rifle picked up a target. Marcant saw only a tiny glowing spot moving through the sky. He could not tell if it was small and close or huge and distant. The rifle took a shot, and the light died. He caught a glimpse of a blackened shape falling to the canopy.
“What the hell was that?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say it was a spotter,” Achaius answered. “The Destroyer machines may be using those to find targets.”
“All the more reason to take cover instead of sitting up here waiting to die,” Adair said.
“No! You may have saved some houses, or a tower,” Achaius argued.
Marcant passed the target sig his rifle had acquired to the team.
“The Destroyers sent in one of these,” Marcant said. “I think it’s a scouting device like our attendants.”
“Come down,” Magnus said aloud behind Marcant. “Thanks for the sig, but the attendants and Hornets have already seen more of them.”
Marcant lugged the rifle down and descended, wobbling a bit in the wind. Magnus helped him down to the balcony.
“The towers on the north and west sides have been destroyed,” Achaius reported.
“What now?” Marcant yelled through the wind.
“Survive,” Magnus said through a private link connection. “The robots are running this show. All we can do is hide, at least until the big guns get knocked out of action. We might be able to help on the tail end of things if the fight is a close one.”
“Hide where?”
“I have an idea,” Magnus said. “Follow me.”
They left the balcony on a vine and descended down past the house. The wind’s force rose again. Marcant heard an ominous humming noise on the air that rattled his nerves.
Calm down. Just calm down.
One of the attendants revolving around Magnus exploded in a bright flash, hurting his eyes. Marcant’s Veer suit activated his helmet, causing the faceplate to snap over his head and solidify.
“Small Destroyer machines infiltrating through the vines,” Magnus said on the PIT channel. “Taking fire.”
As the message finished, the Stork twenty meters away rose and started to fire. Magnus and Marcant dropped down onto the debris on the forest floor. The wind whipped up discarded leaves and bits of vine, making it hard to see. They knelt beside a freshly fallen vine as thick as Marcant that had just been cut by something. The end oozed smoking hot sap.
“There’s one of Deston’s hidden lasers right over there,” Magnus said to Marcant. “We have a lot of cover here, and we have these attendants, the Stork, and the trapdoor laser. This is the best place to set up.”
Marcant put his back against the thick support spike. Its solidity felt reassuring. He tried to dispel the dread that the awful humming noise brought. It was as if the Destroyers sought to induce panic by announcing their steady approach.
“Is all this some kind of psychological warfare?” Marcant asked.
“You mean the wind and the lights?” asked Magnus. “I doubt it. The effects would not be universal across intelligent species evolved on different planets.”
Marcant nodded. That made sense to him.
“Lee told me that Celaran starships have taken out four of the big Destroyers beyond the force towers,” Telisa transmitted on the team channel. “Unfortunately, they had already released their medium machines, and all the smaller ones with them. There are still four big ones left, and all their sub-machines.”
Boooooooom.
Another roll of thunder a
ccented Telisa’s report.
That started out sounding like a victory, but once she mentioned everything they released, I feel doomed again.
“Maybe the Celaran orbital bombardment will get the other four soon,” Marcant said to Adair and Achaius.
“No, that’s all they could get,” Achaius said.
“What happened to our orbital support?” Marcant asked.
“The Celaran ships were likely drawn away in the space battle above us,” Adair said. “We’re on our own again.”
“They’re coming in now, up close and personal,” Telisa said. “A lot of smaller drones like we encountered on the other colony planet. The Hornets are dying off. Luckily, the—” A noise interrupted Telisa’s transmission, and her voice started to glitch. “... the attendants... elusive.”
“Telisa, our comms are getting scrambled,” Magnus said. There was no reply.
So, the Destroyers have discovered our link frequencies. Do they know or care that we’re not Celarans?
“So with all the robots from eight big Destroyer machines...” Marcant shouted over the noise of the wind.
“It means five hundred and twelve of the smallest drones are coming in, if these are the designs Deston showed me,” Magnus finished. “They’re headed this way through the forest.”
On cue, the Stork near them popped up on its legs and fired again. Marcant and Magnus situated themselves with their backs facing each other, sides pressing against the spike, with rifles pointed in opposite directions.
A huge explosion shook the ground. Bits of hot metal and shredded vine rained across Marcant’s Veer suit. The suit reported damage; it had been hit by shrapnel in two spots, but nothing came through to hurt him.
Marcant realized their Stork had died. He saw flames dancing in its direction and it had disappeared from the tactical.
“What took it out?” yelled Marcant through the wind.
“I don’t know,” Magnus said. “Ah, wait. It was probably one of the medium-sized machines supporting the drones.”
“Let me guess... sixty-four of those?”
“Likely yes,” Magnus said. Marcant could barely hear him.
I’ve lost track of where that trapdoor laser is. All the debris has been stirred around, I can’t see it.
The Celaran Refuge (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 8) Page 5
