by Greg Dragon
As Lamia floated over, he reached behind his back and withdrew a long black sword. “This is a spectacular weapon that was created by the ugliest of people,” he said. “The Geralos are the only ones with this technology, so we take it from them when we can.”
When he got close enough for her to see the details of the sword, she saw how it glimmered in the starlight. It was about 90 cm, and was built from a metal that Helga didn’t recognize. There were grooves and runes from an alien language running all along its length.
Lamia did some fancy tricks and the edge of the blade came alive. White fire ran along the sharpened edge, and Helga backed away from it slowly. There was something unnatural about this weapon. It made her even more petrified of the Geralos that they’d fought.
She imagined that the cost of one of these weapons was enough to secure a fighter, or a luxury apartment on the Rendron. Fight enough Geralos and she could collect two or three. That could get her a home on Casan and an early retirement from the military.
“I need to get my hands on one of those,” she said out loud, and Lamia cooled the blade and then handed it to her, hilt first. She studied it carefully then touched the button near the hilt. That was when she heard a hum and saw the edge grow white.
“That hot edge can cut through anything. Our PAS, stone, even the hull of the Rendron,” Lamia said. “I’ve used it on over 35 missions, and it still hasn’t let me down. By the time we make it out of here you may end up with one, Ate. It just depends on the Geralos that we’re fighting.”
Helga tried her hand at wielding it, swinging it wildly around her body in arcs. “I think a lesson may be in order, before you take off your own leg.” Lamia laughed.
“Hurry your schtill!” Cage shouted through the comms, and Helga powered down the las-sword and handed it back to him.
“I think I’ll stick to fighting in the air,” she said, not knowing whether to be impressed or horrified by the weapon. She had learned so much in school about the Geralos, but out here she realized that she didn’t know much at all.
Now that they had a break, she tested the movement of the PAS as they worked their way over to Cage. She found that the boosters worked with gestures and motion. Move quickly in any direction and it assisted your velocity.
Crouching while you clenched your fists would activate the boosters, causing them to overheat in preparation for a high jump. Launching from that crouch would literally make you fly. Walk with your arms slightly behind, and the rockets would pulse, allowing you to float.
They found Cage near the lieutenant, who was propped up against a rock. His face looked pale beneath his mask, but he was breathing and conscious.
“Get what you can from the Britz. We’re going to have to relocate,” Cage said, and then hoisted Cilas up onto his shoulders. Brise Sol jumped down from the Britz’s hatch with a large sack tied to his back.
“Good flying, Ate, but she couldn’t be saved. Not unless we can salvage some parts from the settlement,” he said. “Hopefully they haven’t stripped their dropship, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. If they still have it there, we can borrow it to go home.”
“Here’s hoping,” Helga said and fell in next to Cage. None of them spoke as they marched along.
Helga found that she was still haunted by the image of the Geralos. Despite the numerous images, videos, and simulations in her training, it still hadn’t prepared her for what she had seen. She looked forward to addressing this when she returned to the Rendron. Updating the codex for all of their future cadets.
The HUD of her helmet reflected the time, and she realized that they had been walking for well over an hour. Surprisingly the gauge on her PAS read full on her display although she had been using her rockets to drift along. The more she used the armor the more impressed she was with it. She wished that she could wear it all the time.
Cage pulled them up short and Helga floated up to see. There was a hole in the rock wall next to him, big enough for them to walk through. “This looks promising,” he said. “A cave where the lizards won’t be able to track us. We can set up camp here, and see to the Lt. Then get back to the mission afterwards.”
“We should put detectors here, and traps over there,” Wyatt said. “Then one of us can cover the entrance in case the lizards come back. I’ll take first watch if that’s alright with you, Master Chief.”
“Yeah, you got it, Wyatt,” Cage said, as he placed Cilas down by the wall.
There was a slight vibration in the ground below their feet, and Helga had to double check to make sure that it wasn’t her boots. Lamia Brafa stretched out his arms and moved them away from the hole. “Get away from the cave,” he shouted, and the company complied, except for Cage who wouldn’t leave Cilas’s side.
Suddenly a large shape burst from the hole, revealing a maw so large and horrible that Helga jumped back several meters. As she drifted up and away, she saw what it was, the monstrous head of something large and serpentine. Its mouth was lined with several layers of chipped up teeth, and its forked tongue probed the atmosphere trying to find its prey.
Cage deployed his stargun, firing as he stood his ground, close enough for the creature to devour him. But it seemed to know pain, so it thrashed about, tried to consume Cilas, but then retreated instantly.
“What in the worlds was that?” said Wyatt.
“That was a dredge,” said Lamia. “Now we’re going to have to kill it or it will hunt us down forever.”
“Whoa…whoa…whoa, we’re not killing anything. It went back into its hole, after Master Chief lit it up,” Wyatt said. “I would take that as a sign that we need to keep it moving.”
Lamia shook his head at him. “Dredges have long memories. Either we kill it now or we will be ambushed later, at which time we lose the advantage.”
“Get your rear end in line,” Cage said suddenly, as he peeked inside the cave. He reached down and unclipped a flare from his belt, then tossed it into the darkness.
Lamia Brafa walked past the big man to take point and led them into the cave. Helga swallowed against her fear and fell in behind Brise Sol.
A private comms came in to her then. She wasn’t surprised that it was Varnes. “How you holding up, rookie?” he said. She hated that he kept calling her that.
“Well,” Helga said, “so far, I’ve managed to not wet my pants.”
Lamia stopped and raised his right fist. “Mute the chatter,” he said. “You all need to be ready for anything. This path splits, but I saw it move to the right. But we can’t know if it has a way to circle back to the left. Dredges are large, but they can twist their bodies in any direction. I suggest we leave the lieutenant here with someone while the rest of us split up to investigate.”
Cage Hem touched Wyatt’s shoulder and he pointed to Brise Sol, but the Master Chief shook his head and beckoned Helga over. “Sol, stay with the Lt and watch the entrance there for lizards,” he said. He then walked over to the young ESO and handed him his stargun.
5
“So listen up,” said Lamia, “the Dredge is only about 24 meters
long—”
“That’s it?” said Wyatt.
“Clear the channel, Wyatt, this ain’t the time or place, copy?” Cage said.
Lamia let them finish. “There is a chance that there are a number of them. We’re seeing blood stains from the wounds it took, but it seems to be moving at a rapid pace. This means that there’s bound to be more inside of here, possibly a nest that we will need to destroy.”
The comms grew silent and Helga knew that they were all thinking the same thing. Why would they be pursuing this dangerous behemoth into its lair to fight more like it?
“It’s either we do this now, or risk the surface where the lizards have us outnumbered and outgunned,” Cage said, as if he could hear her thinking and wanted to explain.
“Aim for the mouths; it’s their weak spot. They have a metal-like exoskeleton, tougher than a ship’s hull. There’s no point in overheating your weapons tryin
g to penetrate it,” Lamia said. “They are highly intelligent creatures, so please don’t make the mistake of underestimating them.”
Helga’s mind went back to Lamia’s las-sword. I bet it could cut one of those things in half, she thought. Were there las-guns and las-bullets that the Geralos had in their arsenal? She thought about the futility of going up against ordinance like that, and she hoped that the tech was restricted to melee weapons.
After they started to move the cave opened up, spreading out to give each of them a clear line of fire. Cage was in the center leading them through, while Wyatt hugged the right wall close to him. Helga hung back with her auto rifle raised and her rockets pulsing steadily. She liked this mode of travel since she exerted no energy doing it, but when she saw that she was the only one floating, she quickly turned it off.
The HUD of her helmet mapped the cave, utilizing the synced data from each of their vantage points. The fork had divided them, but it converged further ahead where she saw the two green blips of Varnes and Lamia Brafa.
“We got contact!” said Varnes, and she could hear auto rifles over the comms. The Master Chief picked up the pace, charging forward, and they followed him, pushing through.
As they ran to keep up with Cage Hem, Helga chanced a glance behind her. She saw a hole in the ceiling that they had somehow missed and her heart jumped out of her chest and into her throat. Silver ridges and monstrous coils dropped down to their level, then teeth reflected her PAS’s light and it came for her. She took a step back and squeezed the trigger, pulsing her shots to keep her weapon from overheating.
“Contact on our six, Master Chief,” she shouted, but no one seemed to hear her.
Kinetic rounds ricocheted off the monstrosity as it twisted towards her through the tunnel. She felt a presence on her side, and Wyatt ran up, adding his gunfire. He was using one hand to shoot while using the other to urge her away from it. Together they drifted backwards using their rockets while the dredge kept coming with its mouth closed.
“Damn it,” whispered Wyatt. He pushed her back. “Get ready to shoot when it opens its mouth.”
Helga didn’t understand, but kept on retreating. Then she saw Wyatt raise his hands. “Shields!” he shouted, and the translucent disc formed on his forearm. He stood his ground and thrust it forward as the dredge wrapped its coils around his legs. Helga’s knees felt weak as she saw it raise up and open its mouth to devour him.
“Ah!” she screamed as she squeezed the trigger, allowing for a fully automatic stream. Most of it caught the outer skin, bouncing off harmlessly, but a few managed to find its mouth. The dredge seemed to ignore the pain and bit down on Wyatt’s head.
Helga saw that she’d failed but she kept on firing, but then the creature stopped and slumped to the ground. Wyatt emerged with his auto rifle smoking and his PAS dripping with the dredge’s slime. She ran over to check on him to see what happened, but he didn’t seem to have any injuries.
“Woo!” he screamed over the comms. “Looks like their teeth can’t penetrate our armor. Lucky for me since Ate can’t aim for schtill, but now we know,” he said, laughing.
Helga felt worse than she had ever felt in a long time, but he patted her on the shoulder as he walked by. Not only was it embarrassing that she’d let him down, but she knew that he’d never let her live it down.
When they caught up with Cage he was standing next to Lamia and Varnes. Before them were several dead dredges, piled up into a heap. “Where were you two?” the Master Chief said without turning to look at them. Wyatt proceeded to tell him how they’d been flanked by one of the dredges.
“Nasty creatures,” was all he said, then turned to glance back at the tunnels they had come through.
“We should place motion detectors here, as well as under that hole where yours came from,” said Lamia. “You never know with these creatures, though I believe that they’re all dead.”
“Can they eat through the rock?” said Helga.
“Yes, but it takes them a long time to make tunnels like this. Their digestive systems are capable of breaking down anything, but with the rocks it takes days, which is why they do it as a group,” Lamia said.
“So why don’t we just collapse the tunnels?” said Helga. “Then we can camp here without worrying about any secret holes.”
“I like her idea. Put a wall between us and them,” said Wyatt.
Cage Hem regarded her. “Good thinking, Ate. Now, let’s blow this schtill hole and get back to the lieutenant.”
Seismic charges planted at the entrance to the forked tunnel collapsed it in a matter of seconds. Lamia Brafa installed sensors in the deeper regions of the cave so any movement would be tracked.
Helga didn’t trust camping inside the tunnels. It was reassuring that their armor could withstand the bite, but the sight of those numerous teeth would give her nightmares, forever, even after a long career of similar fights.
She sat next to Cilas who was finally conscious, and the two of them looked on as the men set up camp. First they used rocks to conceal the entrance, but left enough space for one person to squeeze through.
They decided to take turns on watch outside of the tunnels, since the cave walls rendered the radar useless. Normally this wouldn’t be necessary with a flobot surveillance android, but they had traveled light and were short on equipment.
“If we’re stuck here for long then I’m going to be ripe,” Helga said to no one in particular, and got a few chuckles from the rest of the men.
A private call came through, and it was Cilas. He was reclined with his hands covering the hole in his armor. “We’re hiding in a cave built by aggressive giant worms and you’re concerned with how bad you smell,” he said.
“No, Lieutenant. I mean, yeah, it’s not the greatest of my concerns. But it has crossed my mind that I will be stuck inside this suit,” she said.
“Come on, Helga,” he said, annoyed. “Are you seriously sitting here, worried about a shower? How about staying sharp and watching the entrance so that we can do what we came here to do?” he said.
“I will, Lt, I’m just thinking out loud. I tend to run my mouth, but you know that,” she said.
He placed his hand on top of hers and she looked down at him. “Do you know how many cadets qualify for a tier as high as second class?” he said.
“I don’t know, about twenty percent?” she said.
“Five percent, Helga. You’re a five-percenter. Not many ESOs have this distinction. We stand apart from anyone else. Look, I get it, you’re a young woman, stuck in the company of hardened men. It’s intimidating as hell, and again you’re a rookie, so you want to say and do things to make it okay. The thing is, this isn’t a simulation.
“This is the real thing, life or death. All we have out here is each other. And the little jokes you tell? It makes them respect you less. You’re a five-percenter, just like me, and the fraternity of officers on the Rendron. Now I want you to say it so I can hear it, Ate,” he said.
“I’m a five-percenter,” she said, feeling embarrassed.
The last person she wanted to get a lecture from was Cilas, who she saw as a big brother of the academy. It was so different out here on the field. Everything was brand new and kept her on edge. Had it been a simulation where she had the shot on that dredge, she would have killed it easily and Wyatt would respect her.
She began to wonder if they saw her as a goof, and a liability like Wyatt said. She had been so focused on proving him wrong that she had managed to forget herself.
Where was the Helga who’d made second-class in her unit? The tough half-breed Casanian who defied all the odds? She had graduated with honors from officer school, and was given the rank of Ensign, not to mention she was invited to be a part of the elite Nighthawks.
“I’ll tighten up and get it together, Lieutenant. You can rely on me to make you proud,” she said. “Can’t promise that I won’t say anything else that’s inappropriate, though. It’s kind of a tic, if you know w
hat I mean.”
Cilas laughed, and it helped. She felt a tremendous weight lift up off her chest. For a few minutes there, she had been convinced that she had managed to let him down.
Brise pulled out several rods from the pack he was carrying, then connected them in such a way that they formed a cross about two meters wide. Helga watched as he walked to the middle of the cavern and placed it on top of a square base, where it levitated till it touched the ceiling. Beams of light arced down to the floor, forming an illuminated dome.
“It’s good,” he said, and Varnes gave him a nod, then lifted the lieutenant up and placed him inside. They removed all his armor, carefully, and then Varnes knelt next to him, working on his wounds with an artisan’s care. “It’s safe to take off your lid, Ate,” he said. “This is a Vestalian atmosphere generator, you can breathe the oxygen in here. Stay within the light and you will be alright. The air’s good, it’s just a tad bit rank.”
They huddled around him as he worked on their leader and Helga reached up and removed her helmet. She felt brave for doing it. The moon wasn’t meant for human beings, but she was happy for the chance to see with her own eyes. The armor she didn’t mind; it kept her warm and right, plus it allowed her to float around and conserve her energy.
“Sol get over here, I need you,” Varnes said suddenly. “Pull off your layers and spray your hands.” Brise did as he asked and walked over to the makeshift operating table, removing both his PAS and 3B XO-suit. “He should be out cold, but I’m not taking any chances. Hold him steady while I clean his wounds.”
They worked for an hour as the rest looked on in silence. They had already lost Cruser, which was still fresh in Helga’s mind. The thought of losing Cilas was a bit too much to bear. She recalled her days as a cadet when he first visited them during one of the assemblies. He had worn his armor, all decked out in medals, and they’d watched in awe as he addressed them.
Being both an orphan and part Casanian had made for a tough childhood on the Rendron. Being one of the star cadets made it even worse for Helga, but she had pushed through with silent perseverance. Lieutenant Cilas Mec had called her name that day and praised her accomplishments in front of everyone. She had been so happy that she’d almost floated, and from that day on he had been a hero to her.
