As he walked out of the armory he passed one of the cultists, who was carrying a bundle of water pipes. “Have you seen Lucas Miller around?”
“No,” said the cultist. “I think he went off to the east tunnel with that Blucher lady. They was going to be taking some electronic thing out there. If they be back I not seen them. I ask around if you want.”
“No, that’s alright. I’ll find out when the headcount comes in.”
Adenour walked over to where Brother Sincich was standing. “All quiet on the western subway,” said Sincich.
“Be nice if it stays that way,” said Adenour. “I’m behind on the communications nodes.”
“And I’m behind on the water filtration,” said Sincich. “And my reading, and my naps. But duty calls, and all Librarians must answer.”
Adenour nodded. He listened in on his radio – it was mostly Brother Subotai telling people to go here or there, and sometimes people calling back with status updates. They had only the single encrypted channel and Adenour knew better than to break signals discipline, so he logged a low-priority request and waited.
The cultists continued working on their tasks, but they were clearly unsettled at seeing all of the Librarians fully armed for war. Sometime they would hear thumps off in the distance, and the sound would echo in the tunnels. Once a particularly large explosion went off nearby and dust fell down from the subway ceiling.
Twenty minutes later Subotai contacted him on the radio. “Hello, Brother Adenour. What do you want?”
“Hello, Brother Subotai. I had heard that some of our brethren, and some of the cultists are missing out in the east tunnel. If you can spare me, I would like to go and check on them.”
“I can confirm that Brother Pascal, and the civilians Lucas Miller, Joseph Estevez, and Imelda Blucher are currently missing, and contact with the east tunnel has been lost. I can spare you, but I will not send a brother out unsupported. We wait until we are more certain of our position.”
“Apologies, but I could not help but overhear,” said the ribhus Calibri. “What if I went along with Brother Adenour? Then he would not be breaking your precious rules on having a buddy.”
“I heard that,” came the voice of Subotai from the radio. “If Calibri is willing to back you up, then fine, go have some fun. But no heroics. If you encounter any hostiles check in before engaging. Subotai out.”
Adenour turned to face Calibri, who he was surprised to see was heavily armed, but otherwise naked. His pale skin was smooth and flawless, except for over his chest where the skin was puckered and scarred. “You are not wearing any clothes,” said Adenour.
“I know that stating the obvious is supposed to be a human virtue, but sometimes you overdo it. It is true, I am not wearing any clothes. Why should I? I’m not bothered by most levels of cold or heat, and clothing would only slow me down.”
“Well, yes, but you are so pale that you are nearly white. You’ll be easy to spot.”
In response the ribhus’s skin and hair suddenly took on the pattern of the surrounding wall tiles. The effect didn’t work quite as well over his scars, and did not extend to his equipment, but nonetheless it made him nearly invisible if you weren’t looking right at him. The long hair was especially good at breaking up his outline. “We have built-in adaptive camouflage. We had to wear rags up topside to conceal the fact that we are a different species, but down here that’s not an issue.”
“Nice trick,” said Adenour, “but, I could not help but notice that you don’t have any genitals?”
The ribhus changed back to his normal pale coloration. “I will have you know that I come fully equipped, except that unlike your own primitive plumbing, mine are retractable. No, I’m not going to demonstrate.”
“Agreed. But, not even any body armor?”
“Speed is armor.”
“The battlefields are littered with the corpses of people who said that.”
“Indeed. But they were only human. Speed is armor if you are fast enough.”
“I suppose. But if we are to work together, let’s compare details on what we’re each packing. For example, your main weapon. I saw your kind use that style before, but only from a distance. What is it, exactly?
The ribhus held up his gun. It looked like a chunky black submachine pistol with an extended magazine. “This is a mini-missile launcher. The rounds are programmable, they can seek out targets on their own, and even their blast pattern is settable from armor-piercing to fragmentation. Take a look.”
Adenour hefted the ribhus’ gun, experimentally sighting it on a distant light fixture, and checking out the controls. The grips were oddly shaped to fit the ribhus’ long fingers and dual thumbs, and he had trouble grasping it properly. “Auto-sentry, evasive, intercept, list waypoints… Looks pretty complicated to set in combat.”
“Not for me.” The ribhus gestured at the body harness he was wearing, and the objects hanging off of it. “For the rest, I’ve got spare magazines for the missile launcher, some grenades, a utility tool, a multi-band electronic warfare module, and of course, a single micropower radio courtesy of the Librarians Temporal.”
“I take it you don’t need night vision goggles?”
The ribhus gestured to the center of the enormous black pupil of his right eye. “Correct. My eyesight is not quite as efficient in low light as your goggles, but I have a much broader field of view. My eyes are pentachromatic: I can see red, green, and blue just like you, but I also have ultraviolet and near-infrared photoreceptors. Now your turn.”
“Well, let’s see. I’m wearing composite body armor, and over that I’ve got light fatigues of adaptive camouflage.”
“Yes,” said Calibri, “I’ve seen you use that. I should tell you that, while I’m sure it works well against humans, to my eyes it sticks out. It’s kind of garish even, but you don’t have a word for the color.”
“Good thing I’m not up against ribhus then.”
“Yes, it is, but keep in mind that many military systems have multispectral vision just like I do.”
“Useful to remember,” said Adenour. He hefted his rifle, and handed it over to the ribhus. “My main weapon, a hyper-velocity flechette gun. The projectiles are unguided, but very powerful; they can penetrate all but the heaviest armor. Fifty rounds per clip, I’ve got five clips on me. The scope has variable magnification and thermal imaging capabilities, and can send a direct video feed to my goggles if I need it.”
The ribhus checked the rifle out. “A bit heavy, can’t say much for the balance, but a fine weapon. Always nice to have some brute force on the battlefield. It doesn’t look commercial: did you Librarians make this?”
“As a matter of fact, I did. Weapons of any kind are tightly regulated, as you must know, and military-grade weapons even more so. Thus, building our own has been a necessity. We also appreciate the spiritual and contemplative aspects of weapons-smithing.”
The ribhus handed the flechette rifle back to Adenour. “You humans, you are so romantic. I am still a bit surprised at all the hardware that the Librarians Temporal have managed to build or acquire. It hardly seems possible for such a small group of humans.”
“It’s amazing what you can achieve if you don’t distract yourself with non-essentials. Remember also that this branch of the Librarians Temporal has existed for a long time. A little effort every year, and as the centuries go by, it’s amazing the kind of stuff that you can collect. And as with most archivists, we are famous pack-rats.”
“I can see that.”
“Yes. Anyhow the rest of it – I have a composite armored helmet with inbuilt eye and ear protection, and air filters. The night-vision goggles flip down from it. I’ve also got a dozen seeker grenades on me, a micro-flashlight that can do visible or infrared, and a Swiss army knife.”
“Is the Swiss army formidable? I haven’t heard of them.”
“No, that army hasn’t been around for centuries – nor have the Swiss, at least not as a single nation. It’s
just a traditional term for a useful folding knife with multiple tools. I also have a water bottle and some emergency rations. I take it you don’t need those?”
“I can go about seven days without food or water before my performance degrades, so yes, for a mission like this I’m not going to bother carrying any. Your grenades though, I don’t know the make. Tell me about them.”
“Oh, the seeker grenades. We’re quite proud of these.” Adenour unclipped one from his webbing belt and held it up. It was a dark gray cylinder three centimeters in diameter and ten centimeters long. There was a tiny lens on one end, perforations on the other, and a recessed dial with five detents in the middle. “You can shoot them out of the underslung launcher on the rifle, or in a pinch you can arm them manually and just throw them. They have five modes: seek out a target in a general direction, fly in a straight line and explode, target the source of incoming fire, act like a mine and after impact wait for a target to come by before taking off again, and, of course, just allow itself to be thrown manually and explode on contact.”
The ribhus spun the grenade in his fingers. “Very nice. Although from the appearance I don’t expect that these move very fast: probably not effective against something with a decent point-defense capability. But nice. Our own ammunition can only be made in specialized large-scale industrial facilities, so when we run low we’ll have to start making our own as well.” The ribhus handed the grenade back to Adenour.
“You would be welcome in our workshops. Brother Keynes is, I think, the most capable of our weapons-smiths; have him give you the overview of our workrooms first if you can. Most likely we could also learn a lot from you. Anyhow, that’s what I’m carrying. Well, aside from my backup weapon.”
“Back up weapon? You need a different weapon for walking backwards?”
“No, it’s a small weapon for emergency use if the main one jams.” Adenour removed a tiny pistol from his belt. “Miniature 9 mm semi-automatic, five rounds only, but very small and light.”
“Ah, backup, right. I am continually reminded that as smart as my people are, we have not been around very long. There are still so many gaps in our knowledge.” Calibri picked up the pistol and looked at it skeptically. “I didn’t know the term, but I have encountered backup weapons before. This one looks pitiful.”
“I know, but better than nothing if it comes to that.”
Calibri handed the pistol back to Adenour. “I suppose that, for a human, it might give you a sense of security.”
“So you don’t believe in backup weapons?”
“Brother Adenour, I was biologically engineered to be a warrior. I am my own backup weapon.”
“Well then. However, I thought you ribhus were going to stay out of combat. Why come along?”
“Good question. Several of my fellows disagreed and I think they are cross with me. Partly because I owe a debt. Partly because if all of us hunker down in a cave how can we see danger coming? And partly because I’m just a male: it’s the females that are carrying the fate of our species, right now my loss would count for little.”
Adenour nodded. “That makes sense.”
“If we don’t get wiped out, in seven months I will have a daughter. If I personally don’t survive, tell her stories about me.”
“I prefer to think on the positive side, but if it does come to that, well, I would be honored to. Now I think we have wasted enough time admiring each other’s hardware. Time to be off.”
“Yes,” said Calibri. “Onwards.”
Brother Sincich waved as they left. “Have fun storming the castle.”
The ribhus and the Librarian walked off towards the east tunnel. “I think I already know the answer,” said Calibri, “but the remark about assaulting a castle. That was a joke, right?”
“Right. Ancient literary reference. I’ll show you when we get back, but really, it’s not worth the effort. Sometimes Brother Sincich likes to be deliberately obscure.”
They arrived at the entrance to the tunnel. Adenour pulled a hood over his helmet and activated his adaptive camouflage, and the ribhus turned jet black. They walked into the tunnel. It had originally been built for two parallel tracks, but these were long since vanished. On each side was a narrow walkway about a meter up from the floor; Adenour took the left and Calibri the right. In the middle of the tunnel, where the trains used to go, were racks of hydroponics vats. Intense red lights shone from them; the wavelength had been tuned for maximal photosynthetic efficiency. Adenour could see beans sprouting under the red lights. Because the beans were efficient at absorbing red, they looked black, which was weird until you got used to it.
After five hundred meters the lighted part of the tunnel ended, and there were only unassembled pieces of hydroponics sitting in the dark. The cultists had been evacuated from this tunnel when the alert had been raised, and they were doubtless working in some less endangered portion of the subway system. The lighted part of the tunnel fell behind them. Adenour flipped down and activated his night vision goggles. As he walked he passed a section with several large crates near the side walls: explosives set to seal off the rest of the tunnel should it prove necessary.
He performed some mental concentration exercises. He felt himself become fully alert, cautious, but unafraid, and completely vigilant.
They continued to walk in the darkness of the tunnel. Adenour estimated that they had travelled four kilometers. He tapped out a silent message on his haptic interface: Adenour. 4KM all quiet. After a pause, he got a return message: Subotai. Proceed.
Another kilometer. Adenour thought that sometimes he could hear sounds from back in the inhabited part of the subway, but that might have been his ears playing tricks with him. The ribhus was utterly silent, and now and then Adenour would look over in his direction to make sure that he was still there. The ribhus appeared as the hint of a shadow on the walls. Sometimes he would hear a low echoing boom; probably distant explosions.
Another kilometer and they came across a pile of rubble blocking the tunnel. The Librarian and the ribhus approached cautiously, climbing up the slope of dirt and crushed rocks. The slope climbed higher than the tunnel ceiling, but the cave-in rose even higher so they could squeeze over the top of the pile. As they did, they began to see dim light from further on.
They passed the crest of the underground hill, and began walking down the other side. The light was brighter. Adenour flipped up his night vision goggles, and tuned his mind to maximum alertness. Every speck of dust was brought into relief, every sound was clear, and things seemed to move in slow motion. They moved cautiously forwards, the Librarian hugging the left wall, the ribhus, the right.
The shattered tunnel opened up into a large cavern that had a ragged gap open to the sky. The black-armored figures of federal special weapons troopers milled about on the floor. There were four other figures on the far side, they were bound and hooded but Adenour could see that one of them was wearing the red robes of a Librarian, and the others the faded jeans and scrubs of the civilian cultists. The Librarian was lying unmoving on his back, the other captives were sitting on the ground with their backs to the wall.
Two shapes drifted in from above. Adenour watched them carefully; these were military-grade drones. Their meter-wide bodies were suspended on muffled air jets; their fronts were studded with lenses and sensors and weapons.
He sent a message back to the base: Found missing. Eight SW troopers + two mil drones. Advise.
A couple of minutes passed, and he got a reply. Withdraw. Subotai.
Adenour got a message from the ribhus. You have left drone I have right. Attack on three.
Wait, we were…
One.
Supposed to…
Two.
Fuck.
Three.
Adenour shot the hovering drone on the left with his flechette rifle. The round easily punctured the drone, which lost power and instantly fell straight down. The ribhus had launched a barrage of small missiles at the drone on the
right, but the machine was intercepting them: there was a cluster of explosions in front of it like fireworks.
The surviving drone opened fire on the ribhus’ location with a withering dose of heavy machine gun fire. Even with Adenour’s helmet protecting his hearing the sound was deafening. The Librarian shot the second drone, this time it didn’t fall, but slewed around to open fire on him. He barely ducked behind a concrete pillar in time. Then he heard the drone’s fire shift away from him. He looked out and saw that the ribhus had re-engaged it with similar lack of effect as before. However, even though the small missiles were not hitting the drone, it was fully occupied in defending itself from them. Adenour took the opportunity to shoot it again, and this time it went down.
The human troopers had by this time become alerted. Adenour ducked back behind some cover just as they unleashed a fusillade of automatic weapons fire. Drawing on the accumulated store of centuries of tactical experience, he fell back further – just in time. Programmable rounds exploded just where he had been behind the pillar a moment before. He set three seeker grenades to home on incoming fire: they arched up lazily out of cover and when the troopers opened up, they accelerated back down the projectile tracks. He heard the three grenades explode, then a flurry of additional weapons fire, then it went quiet.
Someone was contacting him on his radio. All clear. Calibri.
Adenour cautiously peeped out from behind cover. There was the wreckage of two drones, and the bodies of eight troopers sprawled on the ground. The ribhus was removing the hoods from the captives. “Ah, there you are. Make yourself useful and see if you can find the keys to these shackles on one of the troopers.”
“What was that about? Attacking two military drones? Do you know how insane that was?”
“Well, it wasn’t – at least I didn’t think it was. I’ve fought this model before. I was jamming it and the missiles should have taken it out, but this one adapted almost instantly.”
Splendid Apocalypse: The Fall of Old Earth (An Old Guy/Cybertank Adventure Book 5) Page 19
