NanoSymbionts

by Joseph Philbrook

  ***

  No one detected their arrival to a low orbit around LosLand. Not even the Tactical officer who was diligently monitoring it's ship's sensor systems. It's systems also failed to detect it when the stealth craft followed a reaper shuttle through the cargo bay doors. The failure to detect these things was not in any way it's fault but it would soon pay for them with it's life.

  All three of them were wearing stealth equipped combat armor when they left the stealthcraft. Which they had parked on the edge of the the docking pad where the cargo craft they had followed was unloading it's prisoners. They used no transmitted signal as they crept into the ventilation system. Which should lead to where Stephanie's final transmission had said they would find the forcefield holding Jake prisoner.

  Cindy was amazed that they had made it so far without being detected. She had begun to think that her plan was actually going to work when the docking clamps released the empty reaper shuttle. So that it could go get more food beasts. When it began to move it collided with the parked steathship. Which exploded, severely damaging the larger reaper ship and the docking pad itself.

  The tactical officer was immediately aware of the collision. It also knew it's life was forfeit. It had barely enough time to wonder how long it would take it's commander to react. When One's full body weight drove it to the floor. One was so much bigger that the tactical officer never had a chance as it was expertly eaten alive. It felt each of it's 6 limbs being partially severed. It had to admire One's skill in making sure that it didn't sever any of the pain bearing nerves in the process.

  One flipped it's helpless prey onto it's back. Exposing the vulnerable fleshy area around it's universal orifice. One carefully shredded each piece of flesh in such a way as to maximize the amount of pain it's victim felt. Then One carefully slipped each morsel into it's own universal orifice. All the while, One carefully transmitted the sensations from the taste buds on the base of it's chewing claws, into the former officers brain. This maximized the sensation of fear and pain it could sense in it's victim. This was one meal it was going to enjoy.

  Moments after the stealthcraft was destroyed, several of the six legged monstrosities began searching their ship for intruders. Only the younger ones were still small enough to enter the ventilation system. Nonetheless they were still more than a match for a human, even one wearing combat armor. Not only were their shells at least as tough as the high tech armor but their muscles could generate more force than the armor's servomotors. Which supplemented the relatively feeble capabilities of the human inside it.

  Aside from that, the young of these creatures had had to evolve a defense against their much bigger and stronger elders. Their shells outer surface had developed a naturally adaptive camouflage which, combined with their ability to move quietly, served to nullify most of the advantages. That the team's stealth systems should have given them. Especially in the dim shadow filled environment within the air ducts.

  Adam carefully scanned the next section of ductwork. He would have felt much more comfortable if they could afford to use a more aggressive active scanning technique. Unfortunately no mater how carefully they masked the signal, there was too great a risk that it would be detected. So he spent a little extra time examining the passive scan results. He could detect no unexplained radiant energy. There was no vibration and the visual display looked like an empty duct. Still he hesitated for another second before he gave Cindy the thumbs up.

  She quietly passed Al, who now brought up the rear, then she passed Adam as she advanced around the corner towards the next vantage point. She had no warning of the dangerous beast waiting in the shadows.

  It almost hadn't detected the approaching intruders. They moved nearly as quietly as it did. It had barely had time to step into a shadow and alter it's shells color pattern to blend in when it heard one of them arrive at the next bend in the pipe. The intruder stopped moving at the corner. It was unable to see any trace of the intruder but it knew something was there. After a short time it heard the intruder move slightly. Then it heard another intruder begin to move.

  The second intruder was even quieter than the first. If it hadn't already been listening so closely the shelled monstrosity wouldn't have heard this intruder at all. It was quite certain that the second intruder had passed the first. It didn't understand why it couldn't see any trace of the intruder but it heard something approaching. In the narrow confines of the tunnel it only had to wait until it was sure the intruder was too close for the capture net to miss.

  Cindy moved with all the stealth of a Sister of Rebirth. Which stealth technique allowed her to move quicker and with less noise than either of her companions. She listened as she moved, both to her surroundings and to what little noise she couldn't avoid making. The loudest thing she could hear was the soft sound of her armor's servo-motors. Though since they were the quietest motors that Hillside's technology could produce, even that noise was hard to hear. Cindy also kept a wary eye on the sensor display within her helmet. There were an assortment of pipes and cables running throughout the ventilation system. Just ahead, she could see one of the boxlike assemblies that marked where several of the cables came together.

  As she got closer her passive scanners were able to provide more details. Which supplemented the dim view provided by the passive stealth mode of her night vision system. Cindy's scanners began to report a slightly larger area of shadow, just beyond the cable junction, than her night vision system indicated. She realized something was wrong and activated her nano-boost system but it was already too late.

  Since Cindy was wearing combat armor and the effects of the elixir Kernislarn had given her were still accelerating the neuro-response time of her brains synapses. The only real advantage of her boosted mode was the speed with which she could signal the armor's control systems. There was a slight indistinct movement and she instantly let loose with an intense stunner blast. Which would have rendered a Buffalo instantly unconscious.

  It had little effect on her target however. It activated the capture gun it had just pointed at her. A gelatinous blob the size of a tennis ball splattered against Cindy's armor. It hit with sufficient force to knock her back against the bend in the ductwork, twenty feet behind where she had stood. It spread out into a network of extremely strong adhesive strands that fastened her to the ductwork, like a fly in a spiders web.

  Adam's sensors picked up the energy of Cindy's stunner blast. Thanks to the residual energy it left in the creatures shell he could now see where the hellish beast was. He also saw that it was now moving towards his position with alarming speed. Since Cindy's heavy stun hadn't been effective he set his weapon system to maximum and targeted the creature with an energy beam intense enough to have instantly fried every single cell in an elephant. It didn't have much more effect on the nightmare bearing down on him than Cindy's stunner had. The six legged monster screamed with pain and anger. As it smashed into Adam's armor with enough force to knock him unconscious.

  The creature hadn't seemed aware of Al's presence until he moved to unshoulder his heavy weapon. Each member of the team had selected an antitank weapon of some kind to supplement the armor's built in weapon systems. Al had selected a high powered coil gun. Each of it's magazines held 50 small explosive pellets and a power cell with enough juice to magnetically accelerate them to hypersonic velocities.

  The pellets penetrated the monsters armor and exploded deep within it's body. Al's first shot was probably fatal but these creatures wouldn't stop fighting until they were completely dead. It took another five shots to stop it's advance. Al quickly checked his brother's medical data. Fortunately it appeared that he would recover. Next Al approached Cindy but she quickly spoke into her tight beam secure com-link.

  “Stay back!” her voice commanded. “Do not touch this stuff. I've got some of Sandra's best nano-toys working on cutting me free. But it's slow going.”

  “We knew these buggers were tough,” Al said quietly after his brother regained con
sciousness. “But not this tough. I suggest we don't waste any more time with the built in weapon systems. I just wish I had more than a half dozen spare magazines for my coil gun. At five or six pellets apiece to take down one of those things 344 shots won't last very long.”

  “It's my fault that we underestimated their physical strength,” Cindy stated. “I've replayed my sisters transmission. It included a fairly accurate assessment of their strength. Which as a fellow Sister of Rebirth I should have interpreted more accurately. But I allowed my grief to blind me to it. It hurt to much to listen to her last report properly. Once I extracted what technical data she transmitted on their weapon systems, I stopped listening. That mistake nearly cost us dearly. So I'm now prepared to step down as mission commander, if one of you will accept the job.”

  “Nonsense!” Adam exclaimed. “If you hadn't insisted, we wouldn't have burdened ourselves with our supplemental heavy weapon systems. And where would we be if Al wasn't packing that coil gun?”

  Al waited a second for his brothers outburst to sink in. Before he commented with a wry grin.

  “I second Adam's opinion,” he said. “I'm afraid you can't duck your command responsibilities that easily Cindy.”

  “Very well boys,” she conceded. “I don't know if I should thank you for the vote of confidence or not. But if I'm still in charge then it's time I acted like it.

  Adam, I agree with Al's assessment. It's time you prepped that particle beam system you're lugging around. Also, I analyzed the way that creature fought. It was already well hidden when we got here so it knew we were coming. Yet it waited until I was very close to deploy that adhesive weapon it used on me.

  It didn't seem to know Al was even there until he moved. So I don't think it could see us. I think it heard us. But there isn't much we can do to move more quietly than we have. Unless of course we turn off our servomotors. But dragging these suits around would exhaust us before we got very far. So we're going to have to change our point man tactics. Now you two both know that Sandra cooked up some special nano-toys for me. But I don't think you know how special.

  I've got an integrated nano-boost system that can deliver micro-doses of customized nanites on command. That means I can boost my strength enough to compensate for briefly turning my servos off.” Cindy waited for a moment for that to sink in. Then she explained her plan. “Whenever we approach a corner or junction I want the two of you to alternate on the pivot position. I'll, take a micro-boost as I deactivate my servos and advance around the point with extreme stealth. Then when I'm in position, the pivot man is to send a single active scanner pulse on the lowest power setting and jump back! Meanwhile I want the other one of you ready to spring forward shooting if and only if, I've engaged one of them buggers.”

  Cindy silently cursed Sandra for actually embedding a recording of that banal music from her bank into the combat mode of her micro-boost control system. It was a very effective deterrent against the temptation to overuse the nano-boost system. Which wouldn't be nearly so annoying if she only had to put up with it while the combat boost system was in active use but Sandra had encoded it to play inside her head slightly longer than it took for the effects of the boost to fade away. So far they had used the new tactic three times and each time there hadn't been anything there.

  Each micro-boost used up about 30 seconds worth of her 90 minute usage limit. It felt like a waste. Just ahead there was a junction in the ductwork. She looked carefully past the point where the other duct branched off to the right. Then when Al had reached the pivot point she carefully advanced. When she was in position Al released a scanner pulse and jumped back.

  He was almost fast enough. The gelatinous blob grazed his shoulder as he jumped back. His arm wound up glued to the floor. Yet even as the creature fired it's capture weapon Cindy fired a drill dart. The dart corkscrewed it's way through the creatures shell and exploded with sufficient force to kill it outright but even as it fell dead she saw three more of it's kind rush into the scene. One from each way. Adam had just launched himself forward with the particle beam emitter in his hand primed to generate a maximum power beam. He detected the creature approaching from the side passage, behind the one Cindy had just killed, and activated the beam. The power pack on his back delivered a massive charge to the emitter in his hand. Which sent a stream of particles into the creatures body. It took a full second for the beam to kill the beast. It only had time to fire it's weapon once. The force field guided blast of electrical energy just missed Cindy.

  Unfortunately, when he fired his weapon Adam had presented a clear image of his exact position to the other two attackers. Meanwhile Cindy had called up a maxi-burst from her micro-boost system. As she reloaded and fired a drill dart at the creature in front of them. Her reflexes were so accelerated that she was able to duck the energy blast that the creature coming up behind them had fired at her. At the same time, just before her second drill dart exploded, Cindy's target fired an electrical blast that struck Adam's armor a glancing blow. Most of it's energy had dissipated in the ductwork wall beside him. However the small percentage of the blast that did hit him was enough to fry some of his armor's critical circuitry.

  Cindy suddenly realized that she had ignored the one approaching from behind them, just a little bit too long. As she desperately dove to one side while loading another dart Cindy heard Al's coilgun fire. The last creature had made the mistake of thinking that Al was helpless but while he was stuck to the floor, he was still able to point his weapon at a limited field of targets. Even as the beast aimed it's weapon at Cindy it blundered into Al's field of fire. Al fired a 10 pellet burst into it's body.

  Cindy used her control interface to start some nanites on the task of freeing Al from the adhesive. Then she turned her attention to his brother. Adam wasn't injured but his armor's defense shield, stealth and communication systems were down. A quick examination of the primary control crystal told her that they had no way to repair the damage.

  “Can you fix that?”, Adam asked. Though his eyes told her that he knew she couldn't.

  “Not exactly Adam,” she admitted. “But if we replace the prime crystal we should be able to bypass most of the damage.”

  “Replace?” Adam queried. “Where are you going to get a replacement?”

  Then just before Cindy started to unfasten her own armor Adam realized what she was thinking.

  “NO! you can't do that,” he protested. You'd be a sitting duck.”

  Cindy continued to shuck her armor.

  “I have the stealth of a Sister of Rebirth to fall back on Adam,” she countered. “And I'll be able to move faster without my armor.”

  Then Cindy accessed her suit's primary circuitry. She removed the crystal and handed it to Adam.

  “Install this while I reconfigure my stuff,” she said.

  Adam wasn't happy with the situation but he knew better than to argue with her. While he replaced his armor's damaged crystal with Cindy's, Adam noticed that Cindy made some adjustments to her shoulder bag before she pulled a small black object out of it. Cindy held the object for a moment before it began to transform into a skimpy looking black leather outfit. Which consisted of a pair of boots and a mono-strapped mini dress that left one of her breasts exposed. Since Adam wasn't attracted to girls the casually erotic way Cindy had changed in front of them had little effect on him. It was a different story for his brother however.

  “I know you like to flaunt your stuff Cindy,” Al said. “But you know these suits don't have much extra room down there.”

  “Sorry Al,” she replied. “But dressing like this makes me feel naughty and that will help me stay on my toes. Tell you what when we get out of here I'll kiss it all better.”

  “It's a deal,” Al said. “But it would have been a lot less painful. If you'd have waited till I was outa this can to make me think about that possibility.”

  “OK I've got all I'm going to get,” Adam reported. “The defense shield is operative at 75% of normal.
I've got 95% on stealth. But the best I can do with communications is 37%. While I was at it I also tweaked the power delivery system for my particle beam weapon. I had to bypass some of the safety circuits to do it. But now it will deliver a higher power surge to the weapon. This will yield as much destructive force as a normal two second stream in a 10th of a second burst. Which should greatly increase it's effectiveness. However I'll only get two or three shots in before the backpack unit will need to spend at least 30 seconds cooling down.”

  “It'll have to do.” Cindy said. “It's time we moved out. Before some more of those critters show up. Speaking of which I've rigged whats left of my armor to serve as a booby trap. It will explode if one of those things disturb it. Follow me.”

  Cindy led them on through the ventilation system. Cindy's nanite control system itself could briefly generate a cloaking field that was actually superior to the one her armor used to provide for her. Though after only three seconds of operation it rapidly degraded and it took nearly a full minute to recalibrate and reset it's field control matrix. In the mean time however, her nanites themselves could provide an extremely effective camouflage image on the surface of her body and/or clothes. This was however completely effective only as long as she remained motionless. Every time she moved they had to recreate a three dimensional image of the background and that took a second. So she had modified their strategy accordingly.

  It was Adam's second turn on the pivot position since Cindy sacrificed her armor. He wasn't comfortable with the new pattern. The timing was too critical. Once he was in position Cindy activated her cloaking field as she used his armored shoulder as a fulcrum to launch herself forward. There was no sound but Adam could feel the pressure on his armor. That was the signal for him to activate the scanner pulse and jump back.