by Sara King
“Yeah,” another one said. “Shit, I think I see a heat signature up behind that rock.”
Warning Two. You have crossed twenty-eight legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Two.
Thirteen seconds between warnings, Tatiana thought. She did a little quick mental math. Four legs plus twenty-eight legs made thirty two legs… There was approximately a hundred feet between her and the Nephyrs. That meant every leg was just over three feet long. That meant the barrier was about twelve and a half feet out…
Gotta take them alive, a Nephyr’s thought hit her. I’ll get enough of a bonus to buy an entertainment system for the barracks if we get them alive.
Hey Milar, Tatiana said. Do you trust me?
Milar groaned. Do I have to?
No, but remember what happened last time.
Grimacing, he said, Yeah, I suppose…
Then just stay right where you are, okay?
Milar blinked at her. While you do what? Ask them to go away?
Something like.
What about the inviso-aliens?
Just trust me, Tatiana said. We’ll be fine.
“Yeah, they’re up there! Spread out. Remember we get a bonus if we get them alive.”
Warning Three. You have crossed twenty four legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Three.
“It’s the curse of the Phage!” Tatiana cried, jumping up out of their hole. “Oh my God, oh my God, the Phage is here!” She ran forward about twenty feet, then froze, like she’d seen the Nephyrs for the first time. “Oh shit.”
Immediately, the robotic voice bellowed into her head, Warning One. You have crossed two legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning One.
Several Nephyrs chuckled and started moving to surround her, fanning out.
“Where’s your buddy, little girl?” one of the Nephyrs asked, sauntering up to her. He glanced up the hill at the cluster of rocks where Milar remained hidden.
Warning Four. You have crossed thirteen legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Four.
“No, you don’t understand,” Tatiana blurted, taking four more steps forward before they could get behind her. “They’re dead. They’re all dead. The Phage is killing them! Please take me home with you. Please! I want to go back to the base right now! Take me in now!”
The entire platoon of Nephyrs around her paused and looked at each other with confusion.
“Seems to me,” the lead Nephyr—a prick of a colonel that Tatiana knew liked to use colonist pets for target practice—said, “that somebody with a knife was killing them.”
“Don’t forget the five megawatt sniper rifle,” another Nephyr—a woman Tatiana recognized as the lead in the last public correction—added.
“N-n-no,” Tatiana babbled. “It’s this invisible thing. With blades—blades! The Phage! It got Miles! It’s gonna get me too, it’s coming, please protect me, please. Guys, you gotta listen to me. Please. It’s out there. Listen. Just listen!” She grabbed the closest Nephyr’s arm and clung there. The Nephyrs looked at each other again. The guy she was holding shoved her roughly away from him.
Warning Two. You have crossed five legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Two.
Colonel Tevall, the Dog Lover, as his buddies called him, snorted. “You expect us to believe that? That there’s, what, an ancient Aashaanti monster out there?” Other Nephyrs snickered.
Tatiana, who had always been excellent at base impromptu drama competitions during personnel downtime, nodded with wide, tearful eyes. “A monster. Yes. Please. Just take me home. Take me home right now. I can hear it coming!”
Warning Five. You have crossed six legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Five.
The lead Nephyr grabbed her chin with unnaturally smooth, hard hands. “You hear it coming, huh?” he snickered. He tilted her head side to side. “You know, guys, we could skin the bitch right here.” Wish I could, too. That thing in her head creeps me the fuck out. “What did you do to your forehead, there, little girl? That some sort of new operator node?” All the cameras went out in that medical lab. Why’d all the cameras go out in the medical lab? And my heat sensors keep spazzing out. And fuck my head hurts. What the hell did they feed me at chow?!
Warning Three. You have crossed five legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Three.
We should get her back to base. Less time she’s in our hands, less time we have to lose her. “Let’s find her buddy and go,” Colonel Tevall said.
“No, guys,” Tatiana cried. “Listen to me. There’s a demonic invisible thing that’s out here killing people. We’ve got to get back to base. As soon as we can. Like, now.”
Which, of course, just made the Nephyrs all the more suspicious and intent to stand around. Colonel Tevall squinted down at her, brown eyes leery. I should just do the little shit right here. I wouldn’t get the bonus, but they wouldn’t take my hide for losing her again… “Where’s your friend?” he growled.
Tatiana made a show of looking down the hill behind the Nephyr before hurriedly looking back at him. “I told you,” Tatiana said, “he’s dead.”
“Dead, huh?” Tevall turned to look down the slope.
“No!” Tatiana cried, way too quickly. She grabbed his arm. “No. He’s not back there, he’s behind me!” She pretended to catch herself. “I mean…his body is behind me!”
“Yeah, sure it is, sweets,” a big Nephyr said. He stepped a few feet further into the danger zone, followed by a few others. “Whaddaya guys say we poke around some more? Orion wants him pretty bad…”
Warning Six. You have crossed eight legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Six of six. This is your final warning. Remove yourself immediately or you will be neutralized for the good of all sentient life.
Thirteen, Tatiana thought.
“Wonder what those colonists fucks are hiding in here,” one of the Nephyrs mused. “All those reports of people disappearing…gotta be something in here they don’t want us to find, huh?”
Twelve, eleven, ten…
“But he’s not down there,” Tatiana whined, as several more Nephyrs turned to peer down the slope. “You have to believe me.”
Nine, eight.
“Have to, huh?” Tevall spun and hit her with the same impact force of a hammer, catching her square in the jaw. Tatiana cried out and fell to the ground, face afire.
Seven, six…
“Hey, they didn’t say we couldn’t fuck her until she tells us,” one of the other Nephyrs said. He’d taken up casual residence on a mossy rock outcropping and was giving her a sickly smile. “That could be fun.”
Five, four, three…
From the ground, Tatiana laughed. “What, with your tiny dick? Or, wait, are you the one who lost his balls to that surgical mishap? Couldn’t get the blood vessels to align properly after they skinned
your nuts? Dude, you are, aren’t you? What’s your name? Pedin Twitty? Oh, wait, Twatty, that’s what they call you, right?”
Two, one.
Warning Four. You have crossed five legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Four.
Several of his companions hooted. “She sure pegged you, Twat.”
“Yeah, come on, big guy,” Tatiana snickered. “Let’s see what you got.” Right behind Twatty, she saw a couple leaves flutter in the breeze.
Bingo.
The big Nephyr seated on the rock was narrowing his eyes and getting to his feet when he got cut in half. Then, before the two halves could hit the ground, they got cut in half again. And again. And again. And again.
Several Nephyrs just stared at the tiny pieces of corpse, their glittering bodies utterly immobile as the liquid energy sheeting over the remaining pieces of their friend sizzled and sputtered out.
“It’s the Phage!” Tatiana screamed. “Run! The Phage is coming!”
A moment later, there was a slight breeze by her face and Colonel Tevall received the same gory treatment, becoming what was essentially a pile of meat and sputtering electronics in less than two seconds, the resulting spray coating Tatiana in a fine mist of crimson. Then two others succumbed, at the same time. Then three more.
In that moment, Nephyrs started screaming and falling into a defensive position, back-to-back. “What the fuck is it?! Is it a weapon? Where’s it coming from?!” That Nephyr went down in a bloody pile, a heap of gooey foliage shredded with him. “I can’t see it!” another Nephyr screamed. “I can’t see it! There’s no heat signature! What are we dealing with?”
“I told you,” Tatiana cried. “It’s the Phage!”
“Someone grab her,” one of the Nephyrs shouted. “Shut her the fuck up!”
Warning Five. You have crossed five legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Five.
One of the Nephyrs stalked towards Tatiana, but got shredded halfway, spraying her with more blood and bone chunks.
“Fuck, I hear something moving!” one of the Nephyrs screamed. “It’s invisible!”
“Wow!” Tatiana called, sloughing dead Nephyr from her shirt, “Ya think?!”
“And there’s more than one!” another Neph screamed, right before a shredder got him, spraying meat and gristle in a twenty feet radius.
Several more Nephyrs went down in impressive swaths of gore. A group of them began firing pretty much at random into the forest, narrowly missing Tatiana and putting several rounds into thin air before something big impacted the group and ripped it apart from the inside out. Tatiana paused, eyebrows going up at the spray of blood and electronics.
Whatever that is, it’s carrying some cool tech. She thought about what a soldier could do with that kind of tech, and how cool it would be to walk around invisible…
“Break and run!” one of the Nephyrs screamed. “Run!”
“No, not that way!” Tatiana cried, when they started fleeing back the way they had come. “That’s where it comes from, you idiot gruntbags! That’s its home! We gotta go out that way!” she gestured frantically down the slope, into the valley, and took a few steps to illustrate.
Like fleeing herd animals, the Nephyrs turned and bolted downhill. “Regroup at the base of the hill!” one of them called. “Get ahold of some backup! Someone get air support!”
Warning Six. You have crossed seven legs into the area affected by the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Please return the way you came immediately or your threat of contamination will be removed. As per the Solid State Accords, that was Warning Six of six. This is your final warning. Remove yourself immediately or you will be neutralized for the good of all sentient life.
Tatiana stopped running with the fleeing Nephyrs and hastily backed up the hill. Below her, she heard more shrieking and screaming and the weird whipping whine of what had to be some sort of ultra high-speed blade. Within moments, it was over.
Thank you for your cooperation in maintaining a Phage-free dimension, the robotic voice replied.
“No problem,” Tatiana said. She scanned the devastation below, wiping her arm across her face to remove some of the crimson from her nose and mouth.
After a few moments, Milar walked up to her, slowly. When she turned, he was as pallid as a sheet. “Heya, Milar,” she said, waving a bloody arm. She hawked and spat out a tooth from Tevall’s fist to the face. Bastard. She’d have to remember to send a fruitcake to his mother. “Hey, you see the shredders? They really are invisible. I thought you were just pulling my leg, but that was pretty sweet.”
Milar said nothing.
The brisk wind hitting the edge of the jungle from the funnel of the valley below reminded her she was covered in gore, which got cold as it dried. Tatiana flicked a few bone-chunks off her arm, but realized there wasn’t much she could do for the rest of it. “Shit,” she said. “Hey, I need some new clothes. You got some extra clothes?”
Milar said nothing.
“Milar?” she asked, turning to look.
Milar had stopped a few feet off, staring at her in white-faced silence.
Tatiana frowned. “What’s wrong with you? You get shot again?” She wiped at her face again, but only succeeded in smearing the gore around. “Hey, you at least got a rag or something? I think I’ve got some Colonel Tevall on my face.” Then she paused, grimacing at her arm. “Gawd, I hope he didn’t have STDs or something. I hate shots. Something about needles.” She dropped her arm, once more surveying the carnage. “Man, just think about what we could do with a soldier with one of those invisibility shields. And those knives it was using. Cut right through Nephyr skin. You see that, Milar?! Nephyr skin! Oh my gawd, I want one!” She thought about outfitting a soldier’s arm with something that could cut matter-phobic liquid energy like it was butter and quite nearly suffered a joygasm on the spot. “You realize what we’re gonna be able to do with this tech, right? Once we meet these Aashaanti survivors and make them our friends, we’re so gonna be able to trick up our gear.”
After a couple minutes, Milar still hadn’t replied, so she glanced back at him. “Milar?”
“You,” Milar said, “are covered in coagulating blood.”
Tatiana glanced down at the front of her shirt, which was a sheet of crimson and meat chunks, then went back to thinking about that awesome blade, and how she was going to acquire one for her soldier
“Okay,” Milar said, “maybe I was totally seeing things, but did you just lead an entire platoon of Nephyrs into a meat grinder and somehow survive?”
“There’s a trick to it,” Tatiana said distractedly. “Gotta love bureaucracy and its anal-retentive rules.” They’d have to capture a robot somehow, then rip off its blade so they could reverse-engineer its awesomeness.
Milar peered at her for much too long.
“Hey,” Tatiana said, flicking gore from her fingers, “think you could give me your shirt or something? My eyes are starting to sting.” Then she frowned. Her eyes were starting to sting because they were filling with blood. Ew, blood! Her mind was wrenched away from soldier upgrades as she looked down at herself, imagining that working its way into a node. “Oh my gawd, Milar, I’m covered in gore! Get it off, get it off!” She started swiping at her arms and chest, but only managed to rub it in. Standing a few feet away, Milar just crossed his arms and watched her, completely useless in the face of her crisis. “Please!” she whined.
Milar wordlessly pulled off his shirt and handed it to her. Tatiana hastily wiped herself down, then, when she was relatively sure she wouldn’t be introducing Tevall to an internal organ via an exposed node, tossed him the shirt back. Milar sidestepped and let it fall to the ground with a wet plop, then rai
sed an eyebrow at her.
Tatiana, meanwhile, rubbed her hands together and cracked her knuckles, back to thinking about the alien defense grid and how to beat it. She loved to beat the system. Hell, she thrived on it. “The way it was picking up those Nephyrs’ thoughts gave me an idea. Hold up a sec.” She took a step forward.
“What are you doing?!” Milar cried.
“Stop immediately,” the familiar robotic command insisted. “You have triggered the Phage Containment Defense Grid. Authorized personnel only. Please present authorization or return the way you came. Eradication measures trigger in one leg.”
Tatiana winced. She’d thought she’d backed up further than that. Oh well. To the robot, she thought really hard about wanting to save the Aashaanti hidden in the northern cleft of the Tear, bring them to a special militarized safety zone, and protect them and their valuables from the Phage forever and ever.
Authorization of purpose approved. Search and Rescue personnel granted access. Please proceed according to Emergency Phage Containment regulations.
Tatiana grinned and looked over her shoulder. “I don’t think the Aashaanti were good mental liars.” Which said, what, exactly, about her species? She frowned, a little disturbed.
“Huh?” Milar asked.
“Look,” Tatiana said, shaking herself, “I want you to think really hard about how you want to rescue a bunch of Aashaanti survivors and give them a really nice, Phage-free zone to live in. Think like a government quarantine squad. It’ll get you in.”
Oh my God, she’s so hot when she’s covered in gore. Does that make me a sick bastard?
“Negative,” the robot said. “Assisted Individual Reproduction is not an authorized mission type. Please present proper authorization of purpose. Containment measures begin in four legs.”
“Milar!” Tatiana stomped her foot impatiently. “Think about the survivors.” She hesitated a moment, then added, “And yes, it totally makes you a sick bastard. Pervert, really. There’s a condition that sums it up. Haematophilia. Really nasty stuff. To actually get turned on by gore…” She tisked. “You should get checked. I hear they do lobotomies sometimes that help.” She looked him up and down lazily. “Sometimes.”
