by Lucas Marcum
Brian then asked, “Ok, sir. What’s the plan?”
The grim-faced Special Forces officer motioned them to follow and set off at a fast walk. “We’ve only found one entry, and it’s this way. I want you two to get in, retrieve my men or what remains of them, and get out.”
Brian considered this, then asked, “Sir, what about this tech you were looking for? Should we look for it?”
The Special Forces officer paused and looked at them. “Officially, yes. If you see anything unusual or that looks like it’s of value, grab it. Unofficially, I don’t give a fuck. I’ve lost too many people already in this ancient pile of shit to risk any more people.” He considered the two Valkyrie crewmen in their powered armor, then spoke again, “Listen. Get in, get my guys, and get the fuck out. I think you’ll be ok in the hard-shell armor, but who the fuck knows what else is in there. They showed you the fighter?” Brian and Elizabeth nodded, thinking of the teeth marks in the metal high above the ground.
The officer nodded. “Good. If you see anything that needs killed, kill it. If you see anything worth grabbing, grab it, but if you don’t, I don’t care. Get. My. Men. Clear, Valkyries?”
Elizabeth smiled grimly. “Crystal. How are you for rec drones? I assume there’s a reason you didn’t send any in.”
Corporal Deucy, who had joined them on their walk towards the massive wall, spoke up, “We did. The quad drones just vanished. Interference, we think. The ground drones with a reinforced fiber optic tether also failed. We pulled the cable back, and it’d been chewed through. We had to make a good-faith effort to get in there, though, so we sent a team in.”
Captain Tulp stopped and said tersely, “We’re here.”
In front of them in the massive wall was a single opening, rectangular and stretching back into the building. The ruins of a massive door lay to the side, nearly covered in the moss that covered the ground near the base of the building. The Special Forces soldiers had thrown chemlights inside to illuminate the tunnel, but only six meters or so were visible, then the tunnel turned to inky blackness.
Elizabeth turned to Captain Tulp. “Any last tips?”
The young officer only shook his head and replied angrily, “Only that you should be grateful for your low light systems. My guys went in with flashlights.”
Brian spoke up, “Let me guess. No night vision systems outside of the ones built into your suits, right?”
The captain responded bitterly, “I see you’ve played this Army game before, Sergeant Agawa. That’s correct. In addition to not having our armor, we also don’t have night vision systems.” He spat onto the damp ground. He continued in a low voice, “Rest assured I’ll be…’discussing’ this with my chain of command.” The young man’s voice dripped with venom.
Brian nodded and, without a word, walked towards the entrance. Elizabeth joined him at the entrance. She considered the hallway. It was large, perhaps four meters wide and four meters tall. The entryway had a considerable amount of debris, mostly rocks and plant matter blown in, but deeper inside, the floor was visible.
She spoke to Brian, her eyes not leaving the hallway, “So, suggestion. Let’s use just our night vision and infrared floods. I think visible light will probably just wake everything up. Also, let’s go maximum stealth. Same reason.”
Sergeant Agawa nodded, his eyes not leaving the doorway. He activated his camouflage unit, and his armor suit turned from mottled green to a flat, non-reflective black. He said, “Don’t open your suit inside for anything. Just in case.”
Elizabeth grimaced, thinking of the dead soldier’s face. “I wasn’t planning on it. You ready?” The taciturn noncommissioned officer simply nodded and without a word, dropped the visor on his helmet. Elizabeth followed suit, activating the matte black armor camouflage. Before she sealed her helmet, she turned to Captain Tulp. “We’ll be back soon, and we’ll check in every fifteen as comms allow. Don’t hesitate to call the bird if you need help.”
The man nodded and replied, “Be safe, Ma’am, and if you can’t be safe…well, you know the rest.”
Elizabeth hoisted her rifle slightly and cocked her head a bit, “Indeed I do. See ya in a few.” She sealed her helmet and turned to the entrance, where Brian had taken a few cautious steps down the tunnel. She sighed and moved to follow.
Captain Tulp watched the power-armored figures disappear into the inky blackness of the tunnel. He shook his head angrily, thinking about his men, who were probably dead.
His company’s senior noncommissioned officer, First Sergeant Rogers, was watching him closely. After a moment, she spoke.
“They’re good, Sir. Let’s get to the CP. They’re pinging activity on the perimeter. Again.” There was a weary emphasis on the last word. The primitive sensor net the Special Forces soldiers had spread was frequently alerting with all the life in the jungle, despite their attempts to fine tune it. The constant alarms were wearing the team out, but they had to take each alarm seriously, as the intel they’d received prior to dropping in had clearly identified several active Elai teams in the area. Captain Tulp shook his head, and the two set off for the command post.
****
Inside the tunnel, Elizabeth paused. There was something etched into the wall. She stepped closer to it, then stopped. The symbol there was fresh. It looked like someone had taken a knife and scratched three curved lines then a slash through it. She frowned. She’d seen it somewhere before…A few steps ahead, Brian paused and turned.
“Come on, Ma’am. Let’s not get too far apart. Also, this is tighter than I thought. Might want this.” He held up his sidearm.
Elizabeth nodded, swung her rifle onto her back, retrieved her sidearm from the hard point on her leg armor, and reflexively checked the load. She took a few steps after Brian, then activated her low light systems, and closed the metal blast visor on her helmet. The display in her helmet lit up green and black, as if her vision had changed colors. The infrared lights that were part of their suits provided plenty of light for the low light systems, and she could see about ten meters down the hall to an intersection.
She activated her comm system. “Brian, take point. And watch it.” He grunted in acknowledgement and began to move, slowly.
Reaching the end of the hallway, they came to a T intersection. She played her lights one way, then the other, then looked at Brian and shrugged. He knelt down, looking at the floor, which was flat, but had a layer of dust on it. He studied it for a moment, then pointed to the left. “The tracks go that way.”
Elizabeth shone her light down the hall. It was another featureless corridor. She sighed. “Well, that way it is.” She activated the inertial tracking system in her suit and ordered the onboard computer to make a map as they moved.
Brian started down the hall, moving slowly, taking cautious steps. After another ten meters or so, they came to another branching hallway, once more leading to a featureless hall stretching into the darkness.
Brian knelt, peering at the floor again, then stood up and shrugged. “Can’t see footprints this time, so… Straight? I’ll be honest, I’m just guessing.”
Elizabeth frowned. “I suppose. If we go a reasonable distance and don’t see them, we can always come back and try this one.” Brian turned and continued down the hallway. As she moved, Elizabeth played her light up and down the walls. There was a faint tracing of darker lines above them in the ceiling that she assumed might be an inactive lighting system, and the walls had small wavy lines about waist height. She made sure her cameras were active and followed.
After a few steps, she paused. Something felt strange about the floor, almost crunchy. Leaning over, she peered at the floor, and realized with a start that there were hundreds of the red and black insects the Special Forces medic had shown them. They were swarming over their feet, attempting to climb her armor, and the crunching she had felt was them being crushed underfoot.
Straightening up, she said, “Brian, those bugs…”
Grimly, he responded, �
�Yeah. I see them. Hang on, let me try something.” There was a pause, then he spoke again, “Activate the anti-static charge in your suit. It seems to drive them off.”
Elizabeth rapidly tabbed through the menus and activated the setting that pushed a small electrical charge through the exterior of the suit. It was intended for use in very dusty environments, to keep the exterior of the suit from picking up the talcum powder-like dust found on many moons and arid planets. In reality, most people who used the power armor suits used it to clean the suits after use, as it tended to make anything sticking to the surface of the suit fall off.
Looking back down, she could see the small insects falling off her suit and trying to get away from her armored boots. Breathing a sigh of relief, she looked back up. “You know, that captain’s right. If they’d had their armor, their guys would probably be alive.”
Brian replied grimly. “Yeah. Always gotta be a good idea fairy in every unit. Let’s keep looking. If we’re seeing these bugs, those missing troopers have to be here somewhere.” He turned and kept moving down the hallway. A few seconds later, he said, “Here’s one.”
He played his IR light over the prone form in front of them. The tiny insects were swarming over the still body. Elizabeth moved up next to Brian, and together they rolled the body onto its back, brushing the insects away with their armored gauntlets.
As they did, they revealed a young, blonde soldier. The soldier’s face was mottled black and purple, her fine features locked into a terrible grimace, with her blue eyes wide and bulging. Her throat had scratch marks on it from where she’d been tearing at it as she died. The bruises covered almost every part of her face, hands, and arms, and went into her uniform. The red and black insects were still climbing in and out of the soldier’s clothing and equipment. Brian knelt, felt for the woman’s identification tags through her uniform, and gently removed them. He then reached up to the side of her helmet and removed the recording chip. He looked up at Elizabeth and nodded.
Elizabeth grimaced and pulled her aid bag around on its sling. Reaching into a side pouch, she retrieved a small package. The outside read ‘Improved Human Remains Transportation Bag’. Ripping the package open, she and Brian quickly spread it on the floor, then rolled the soldier’s body into it and zipped it up. Reaching to the top of the bag, she pulled a cord, triggering a hissing sound inside the bag. The bag puffed slightly as it flooded with inert nitrogen, then flash cooled.
She glanced up at Brian and nodded. “She’ll be OK for a while. The cryo will probably kill the bugs we missed, and we can get her on the way out.”
Brian stood and looked at the soldier’s tags in his armored fist. “Private First Class Christine Marie Robinson.” His voice was somber. “She was twenty years old.”
Elizabeth laid a gentle hand on the soldier’s chest for a moment, then stood. “Yeah. Time to mourn later. We have two left to find. I’ll call it in.”
Turning to face the direction they had come from, she keyed her radio, “Raider Actual, Valkyrie One Mobile.” The radio hissed and spat. Frowning, she turned the suit transmitter to maximum power. “Raider Actual, Valkyrie One Mobile.” She paused and waited again. “Raider Actual, Valkyrie One Mobile.” After a moment, she looked at Brian’s green and black image in her helmet screens and said, “Nothing. Probably whatever these walls are made of is interfering. I’ll let them know our plan, just in case, and we can keep moving.”
Keying the radio again, she spoke in a calm, clear voice, “Raider Actual, Valkyrie One Mobile. We have located one Kilo India Alpha. Will proceed as previously planned. Be advised, we have no radio reception at this time. Will check in in one-five mikes, or with situation updates. Valkyrie One Mobile, out.” Ending the communication, she gestured to Brian, who had just finished dropping an IR chem light near the body. He spread his arms in the armored-suit version of a nod, then turned and continued down the hall. Elizabeth looked down at the closed bag at her feet and frowned, then continued after her partner, feeling a grim satisfaction with each crunch as the tiny, lethal insects died under her boots.
****
Outside the structure, Captain Tulp leaned over the specialist manning the primary radio receiver station and asked, “That it?”
The soldier nodded, “Yes, Sir. It was all I could do to pull that off, and if Specialist Frost hadn’t been as ballsy as she was running that antenna down the tunnel, I wouldn’t have gotten it at all. I can’t promise anything else if they call again.”
The young Special Forces officer nodded and stood. Frowning, he looked at Master Sergeant Matthews, and asked, “Thoughts, Top?”
The senior noncommissioned officer shrugged. “Nope. Nothing we can do anyway. Just gotta keep the entryway secure until…” Another soldier manning a sensor station spoke up.
“Sergeant Matthews, Contact report. Sector Kilo, fifty meters. Not sure what it is, but it’s about the right size. I pinged the perimeter teams.”
Seconds later, the soldier on the comm network spoke up again, “Observation Post Lima Three reports twelve Elai infantry bearing two two three, fifty meters. They appear to be in a movement column. OP Three is not engaging, and will wait for instructions.”
Tulp and Matthews exchanged a glance. The senior NCO observed sourly, “Well, so much for no Elai contact, Sir. I’ll check the line. You keep it here.”
Tulp nodded. “Stay safe, and stick to the plan.” She nodded and moved off towards the primary defensive line. Captain Tulp turned to the communications station. “Get me Lima Three.” The specialist, having anticipated the order, held out the handset. Lima Three had been placed about ten meters up a tree and had clear lines of sight to the approach to the Special Forces team’s position; subsequently, it was well situated to be able to see anything trying to approach the encampment.
Captain Tulp keyed the microphone, “Lima Three, this is Raider Six Actual. What do you have, Sergeant Kenshi?”
The soldier on the other end replied in a whisper, “Raider Six Actual, I have fifteen Elai foot mobiles moving in a single file heading towards sector two. No heavy weapons; just rifles and sidearms. Some of them are humping equipment, though. Not sure what. Doesn’t look like weapons, but whatever they’re carrying, it’s bulky. There’s too many of them for me to engage, so I’m sitting tight.”
Captain Tulp keyed his mic. “Got it. Keep your eyes open and watch for the fireworks. Let us know when they’re in the zone. Should be any moment now. Raider Six Actual, out.”
He passed the handset back to the soldier and moved to the specialist manning the tactical display. The display showed a map of the area with the Special Forces soldiers showing up as green dots, and the reported Elai soldiers as red dots as the other outposts checked in. The directional mines the teams had set up showed up as green boxes and were spread liberally throughout the area. The Elai soldiers were taking the easiest visible path up to the entrance of the ruins, as the Special Forces team had suspected they might, if they came at all. The Elai came into view themselves on the screen, now visible to the tiny observation cameras stuck on trees and rocks throughout the area.
Leaning over the soldier’s shoulder, Captain Tulp watched and spoke under his breath, “Come on, you motherfuckers…just a little more…” As the last red dot on the map indicating the trailing Elai soldier entered the kill zone, he said, “Hit ‘em.”
Behind him he could hear Corporal Deucy on the comm unit, issuing orders. From the jungle in front of them came a rippling crackle as the directional mines detonated.
On the tactical map, tiny flashes indicating detonations blinked, and immediately, five of the red dots turned into little red Xs. Three more turned into yellow dots.
The Elai patrol was temporarily out of sight inside the smoke of the detonations on the camera screens. As the smoke cleared, Captain Tulp could see at least five Elai soldiers lying on the ground, not moving, and several others flopping around. From the jungle in front of him he could now hear the sharp barks of the S
pecial Forces carbines as they opened up on the Elai patrol. The fire was joined by the deep chop of the Mark 30 lascannon as the soldiers raked the Elai column with fire.
The specialist on the tactical display reported, “Sir, three of the directional mines didn’t go off. That’s why we missed those last four. Probably this goddamn rain shorted ‘em out.”
Tulp nodded and looked back at the tactical display. The four remaining Elai had taken cover in a depression that sheltered them from the murderous fire coming from the Special Forces lines. There was a pause in the Mark 30 fire, then a loud CRACK from in front of them. Three of the dots on the map representing the Elai turned to the red Xs, and the fourth turned yellow. Moments later, the last yellow dot turned to a red X. The fire in front of the command post slowed, then died out. The radio crackled with soldiers reporting, “Lima Clear.” “Foxtrot Clear.” “Mike Clear.”
Several seconds later, the voice of Sergeant Matthews came through the tactical channel, “All zones report clear. Hostiles down. Cease fire. Cease fire. Cease fire.”
On the display, the green dots representing his soldiers were cautiously moving out of their prepared positions, moving to where the Elai had fallen to make sure they were all dead. Captain Tulp straightened up and nodded grimly. He clapped the tactical station operator on the back and turned to the comm sergeant, then paused.
Corporal Deucy was listening to his headset intently, then said, “Sir, one of the Elai triggered an emergency beacon. We’re trying to find it and shut it down now, but I’m almost positive they got a message out.” Captain Tulp scowled.
Matthews came running up behind him, slightly out of breath, her rifle at the low ready. She spoke rapidly, “No injuries, and we got ‘em all. You hear about the beacon?”
