Precursor Revenants (The Precursor Series Book 1)

by Cain Hopwood

  Fortunately the floor was solid stone, so he could move with complete silence. He ghosted along the corridor, then burst into the room at the far end, rifle at the ready. But it was empty too.

  He took a couple of deep breaths, it was then he noticed one of his HUD indicators was flashing. It told him he’d lost comms somewhere along the way. Keeping an eye on the unchecked doors he retraced his steps along the corridor.

  Just after he’d passed the junction his audio feed crackled.

  “You’re back, did you feel anything as you went through the barrier?”

  “Nope, must just block radio frequencies.”

  “Well it doesn’t seem to bock light, hopefully a laser relay will get through.”

  Jon nodded and prepared a relay. It was about the size of a large button. He attached it across from the junction, and as high on the wall as he could reach. As soon as he pressed it to the surface it activated, and its adaptive coating took on the wall’s color and texture. It wasn’t invisible, but it would survive a casual glance.

  “It worked, we’re online,” Skip said. There was silence for a moment, then he continued his voice full of excitement. “There’s a lot of radio noise, lots of SIGINT, and I’ve got the two drones.”

  Jon heard a whisper of sound, then another as the two drones they’d originally sent down the corridor woke, then continued their original mission.

  “Release the rest of them.”

  Jon opened the tube with his remaining four micro drones and one by one they activated and took off. “Check those doors. The gap under them is large enough. I’ll cover the stairs.”

  “Copy,” Murdoch drawled.

  Three of the drones zipped off. It only took Murdoch a moment to confirm that the doors all opened into storerooms. And all were empty. It looked like this whole level of the redoubt was clear.

  “Now give me some forward eyes,” Jon said.

  “Already on it,” Skip said.

  Six drones was a lot for only two operators to manage, but they’d work something out. The drones spread out, staying high in the shadowy corridors. They’d map the space ahead, then feed back any changes to his HUD.

  With only a few drones he wouldn’t get a lot of detail, but when the system worked well, it was like he could see through walls. At least wherever the drones had coverage. It was essential for the kind of stealthy intrusion he was doing.

  “Stairwell’s clear, as are the adjoining corridors.” Skip said.

  Jon moved out, it was time to get some backup.

  Jon pressed his back into the shadowy alcove as a Marbelite shambled past. The creature was unarmed, and judging by the way it was moving, either intoxicated, or half asleep. His hand rested lightly on the hilt of his knife; If it noticed him, he’d have to deal with it. For its sake he hoped it didn’t.

  It stopped in front of a door, then opened it and entered. The moment it disappeared he ghosted out of the alcove and around a corner.

  He’d managed to make it this far without having to incapacitate any of the residents. Most of the rooms he’d passed were empty, or just storage. Unlike humans, Marbelites lived mostly underground, so the aboveground portions of their buildings were their basements. He’d be forced to go hot eventually, but the further he could get without being noticed, the better. Jon was one level above ground now; below was a vast ground level hangar, and somewhere in there would be the ship he was after. He didn’t really have a plan for once he found it, but whatever he came up with, he would probably need help. That’s why he was making a minor detour.

  He needed Gritz, and he wasn’t far away.

  “I’m getting the occasional blip from his implant, keep going in that direction.”

  Jon paused as he approached a four way intersection. He had drone coverage down each arm and ahead, but he gave each corridor a quick scan just to ensure there would be no surprises.

  “Straight through.”

  Jon dashed across the intersection, relying on his peripheral vision to pick up anything unusual. Once through he slowed, moving silently was more important than speed.

  Several twists and turns later had him at a corridor with doors down each side. His directional sense put him below where he’d come in, and a quick check of the map confirmed he was right.

  “Third door on the left. But we’ve got a problem, he’s under guard.

  Jon nodded, Skip would see that, then he moved slowly along the corridor. Any second now Gritz’s guard might decide to leave, and Jon had to be ready. As he moved closer to the door, he slipped his combat knife out, it would be quieter than the ARX-70.

  “Latch looks to be on your side. Opens inward.”

  He stopped. This side of the door would be better for surprising someone leaving the room. Anyone inside would have to stand on one side of the door to open it, and they wouldn’t see him until they actually stepped through.

  “Activate another relay, it should be able to reach Gritz.”

  The last thing Jon wanted to do was tinker with hardware with a possible combatant nearby, and while standing in the middle of a corridor. Skip or Murdoch must have picked up on his hesitation.

  “Sir, you’re okay. Corridors are clear in both directions, and the Yogi in there is sitting. If he moves, we’ll give you plenty of notice.”

  Jon nodded, pulled out a comms relay, activated it and pressed it quietly to the wall above the door. A couple of seconds later Gritz’s location popped up in his HUD accompanied by imagery from his datatacts. To Gritz’s credit he didn’t sit bolt upright, but lazily scanned the room.

  “Gritz, you picking us up?” Skip asked over the tac-link.

  A tiny double nod confirmed that he was.

  “Good, Jon’s just outside the door. Give us a more detailed scan of the room.”

  Gritz stood, stretched and took a walk around his cell. Nothing seemed to be separating him from the guard, though he took a long look at a box attached to the middle of one wall. Then he looked at the guard, who was engrossed in a device.

  Jon didn’t know what the hell to do, apart from go in firing. Skip and Murdoch were basically running the show, so they’d have to come up with something. Meanwhile, he was stuck in the corridor with his ass hanging out.

  “Okay Twenty questions time Gritz. Does your guard go out much?”

  Gritz shook.

  “How long? Wait. Has it been more than an hour since it’s been on duty”?

  Gritz nodded.

  “Four hours?”

  Gritz nodded.

  “Okay, so it’s probably tired and bored. Can you safely attract its attention? Get it looking at you? Not the door.”

  Jon could see where Skip was headed The guard was tired, any kind of distraction would be welcome towards the end of a long watch.

  Gritz nodded.

  “Good, make enough noise so Jon can open the door. But not too much, okay.”

  Gritz nodded.

  “Whenever you’re ready, we’ve got all night.”

  Jon readied himself, hand on the door, ears straining to hear what was happening on the other side. Skip fed imagery from Gritz’s datatacts to one corner of his HUD so he could see the room from the prisoner’s perspective.

  Gritz seemed to stagger, then fell to the floor on his side, but still conveniently facing the guard. He then started kicking out, banging his foot into a piece of furniture with a regular rhythm as if he was having a fit.

  The guard noticed immediately and stood. As soon as he was turned away from the door Jon cracked it, using the regular thumping of Gritz’s leg to cover the noise of the door opening.

  Jon stared intently at the sideways, vibrating image coming from Gritz. The guard took one step closer, then two. Then the crucial third that left his back to the door.

  Jon slipped through, took two quick steps, wrapped the Marbelite’s bullet like head in his arm and plunged his combat knife into its throat and down straight into its brain.

  The creature died instantly.
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  Jon lowered the Marbelite to the ground, they were heavy bastards. He considered dragging it back to its chair; maybe he could prop it up and make it look like it was taking a nap. But he’d worry about that later.

  Gritz was standing like a statue in the middle of his half of the room. Jon motioned him over, but he just shook his head and pointed at a small box attached to the wall.

  “Must be some kind of field dividing the room,” Skip said in his ear. “Clever, turns any solid room into a cell.”

  The box wasn’t large, about the size of his hand, and a couple of centimeters thick. It was clipped to the wall, and had a number of controls that faced Jon’s side of the room. Now that he knew there was a barrier between them, he could see Gritz seemed a little fuzzy, as if there was a pane of glass between them.

  Jon double tapped a tooth and subvocalized. “Gritz, can you turn this thing off?”

  “Not from here, but I’ve been watching when they take me out. Press the button on the far left, and turn the knob clockwise.”

  “How far?”

  “Not sure, keep turning until the field is off.”

  Jon held a hand close to the field. “Is it safe to touch?

  Gritz nodded. “It’s just a barrier. I ran straight into it on my first night when the guard left.”

  Jon manipulated the controls. On each click of the knob he tapped the barrier field. On the third click his hand went straight through.

  He handed Gritz his canteen. “How are you holding up?”

  “Hungry, they haven’t fed me much.” Gritz took a sip of the water and handed it back. “Their water’s better than yours though.”

  “Steri-pills, they’re an acquired taste. Are you okay to fight?”

  Gritz kinked his head and gave Jon a derisive look. In response Jon unslinged his second ARX-70 and passed it over; along with a couple of spare magazines.

  Gritz checked the rifle’s suppressor. “Subsonics?”

  “Yep, this is a sneak in, sneak out operation. I haven’t had to fire a shot yet, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “No backup?”

  “You’re the backup.”

  Jon took a closer look at the barrier field control box. He gave it a tug, and it came clear from its clip.

  He turned to Gritz. “Do you know how to turn this on?”

  “Sure, press the button, turn the knob back the other way.”

  “Could be handy,” Jon said and slipped it into a pouch. As he shut the pouch, he got a flashback of Annelise in his apartment. It seemed like an age ago, when she’d surprised him with a visit, and later admitted that her VP had arranged the trip hoping she’d persuade him to pick up any Galactic technology he might find ‘lying around’.

  Gritz gave the dead guard a poke. “Have you got somewhere to put this guy?”

  Jon double tapped. “Any ideas Skip?”

  “There’s a storeroom directly opposite. It’s full of crates, and boxes.”

  They dragged the guard’s body to the door. Once Skip gave them the all clear they took it into the storeroom and hid it behind some crates. Then they shifted a couple of boxes so a casual glance in the door wouldn’t reveal it.

  “What now?” Gritz asked.

  “Now we do what I came here to do,” Jon said.

  “I’m starting to think that wasn’t just to rescue me.”

  “No. You know that ship you warned us about? It arrived a few hours ago.”

  Gritz’s face fell. “That’s some bad shit. What’s the plan?”

  “Find it, then buy some time until we can get word to the colonel.”

  “Blow it up?”

  “If we can. But, this fuel is liquid, so just tipping it down a drain would help. It would slow them down at least, contain the problem to this facility.”

  Gritz tapped his forehead. “I see we’re offline.”

  “Yes, they took out your satellite feed, and the weather’s turned bad. As soon as the relays can get a signal through, the colonel will know. But until then, we’re on our own. Do you know where the hangar is?”

  “Sure,” said Gritz. “I’ve been through it a couple of times, but they didn’t want too many people seeing me, so we took a quiet little stairway.”

  “Where did they take you?”

  “Downstairs, for questioning.”

  Something in the tone of his voice told Jon that now was not the time to ask Gritz for more details. “Well, we don’t have a lot of time, it will be light soon. Let’s hope we don’t run into any of them on the way down.”

  Gritz’s face hardened. “I’m kind of hoping we do.”

  — 40 —

  Jon and Gritz moved down the narrow stairwell. The stairs were small and awkward, and Jon’s feet kept threatening to slip off the small treads. They felt like steps made for children. On top of that, they were worn.

  Gritz stopped on a landing and pointed at a door down a short corridor.

  “Careful sir,” Skip said over the tac-link. “I don’t have eyes on the other side. The door’s sealed too well.”

  “We’ll crack it for you,” Jon subvocalized.

  In a couple of steps he was beside the door. It looked heavy, opened outward and sealed flush against the frame, almost like an airlock. It didn’t have a handle, just a low bar running its full width. With a little investigation he figured which way it swung, then motioned to Gritz, who moved to one side, shouldered his rifle and covered the gap where the door was going to open.

  Jon pushed. Nothing happened.

  Then he pushed a little harder, but held tight to the bar, he only needed to crack it enough to let Skip fly a couple of micros through.

  Then the door moved, making a loud click. He stopped it and froze, ears straining to hear the sound of running boots, or yelling voices.

  But there was nothing.

  “That room is huge, I’ll use three drones. Murdoch, keep one up and one down the staircase.” Skip said.

  As soon as the drones were clear, Jon slid the door shut.

  Images streamed in from Skip’s micro drones, and huge was an understatement. The room beyond made the stadium sized regimental hangars back home look like outhouses. And it was full to the brim with flyers and ships of every shape and size.

  “That can’t have been part of the original building,”

  “No,” Murdoch replied. “The walls are glass smooth. Everything else so far has been rough hewn rock. From here I can’t even see how far back into the mountain it goes.”

  Jon butted in. “Guys, we’re a long way out on a limb here, how about you find that ship.”

  “We’re on it sir, but there are a lot of ships in there. I can see six at least as large as the Aquina. It could be any of them. And, I haven’t found the far end of the hangar yet.”

  Jon looked at Gritz. “Any ideas?”

  But before Gritz could answer Murdoch butted in.

  “Sirs you have company, coming up the stairs.”

  Jon and Gritz spun, rifles shouldered.

  “How many?” Jon whispered.

  “Three.”

  A quick glance at his HUD told Jon the other side of the door was clear, so he pushed it open and signaled Gritz to follow. Then quickly closed it. A couple of hand signals had Gritz watching the vast hangar while he listened at the door.

  They didn’t have to wait long.

  Murdoch had a micro perched on the other side, high above the door. It showed three Marbelites coming up the stairs. They stopped on the landing, exchanged a few words, then one continued up, while the other two headed straight towards Jon.

  And they were heavily armed with a couple of nasty looking flechette rifles.

  Jon moved to one side of the door so he’d be behind it when it opened. With any luck they’d surprise the two guards.

  He went for his knife, then realized that there were two of them, and he only had the one knife. With a quick exchange of signals they allocated targets. Then the door swung open.

&nbs
p; The Marbelites weren’t trying to be quiet, the heavy door swung fully open, then bounced off the wall. Jon gave it a tiny shove to give them a little more cover.

  But they didn’t need it. The guards were coming on watch, and clearly not expecting trouble. They strode through the door, chattering away in their raspy version of Galingua.

  The moment both were clear, Gritz took his shot, and one guard went down. Before it had even hit the ground, Jon followed, putting a round straight between the other’s shoulder blades. His target crumpled without making a sound.

  Gritz looked a little too pleased with himself.

  “Got your revenge now?” Jon said.

  “Getting there. I still want to meet the Ka-Li that was questioning me.”

  Jon looked out at row upon row of silent empty ships and shivered. “This place gives me the creeps, where is everyone? I’d have expected this to be buzzing.”

  “It’s still early morning, these guys were probably on their way to relieve the night watch.”

  Jon cocked his head. “I wonder. Hey Skip?”

  “Sir.”

  “Are any of the ships under guard?”

  “Checking, give me a minute, this place is big.”

  While he did that, Jon grabbed one dead guard by the harness and dragged it over to the nearest corner. There was a small pile of garbage there, which didn’t even come close to concealing the body, but it was better than nothing.

  By the time they’d concealed both bodies, Skip had an answer. “Only one ship under guard, it’s at the far end of the hangar.”

  “Of course it is,” Grumbled Gritz.

  “That must be the one,” Jon said. “We’re on our way. Skip, give us some overwatch. Murdoch, get us some images, and think about the best approach.”

  Jon and Gritz moved off at a trot. The ships and flyers were all shapes and sizes, and while they were parked more or less in rows, the varying sizes meant that there was no clear line of sight down the full length or width of the hangar.

  Once they’d passed a few ships, Jon looked back and had lost sight of where they’d come in. “We could get lost in here if we’re not careful.”