Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 5: Debug Mode

by Ben Winston

  At one klick from the surface, AI Honor told her she was launching one of the scout drones He’rsree was carrying. She watched the little ball shoot away from her and arc down toward the surface under its own power.

  Impact.

  The grav engines had to have slowed them down a lot more than normal since she hardly felt the touchdown at all. From the chatter on her unit command channel, she knew that a good share of her troopers had landed in water, and two had become mired in the more shallow areas.

  “Use your damn grav engine to blast out of there! What? Are you a newbie or something?” He’rsree called. “Quit yer bitchin’ and get moving!” She switched channels to Command. “Vulpas on the ground, moving.”

  Not expecting a reply she was about to switch back to her own command channel when the Colonel spoke to her. “Vulpas, be advised. You’re going to have Terran company. The shuttles are circling around and will be down once they finish their scan of the area. Until then, try to ignore them.”

  “Understood, we had a lot of wet landings, Colonel. If the Terrans have the same issue, they could lose some people. Do you want us to assist?”

  “Only if you can do so safely Vulpas. If it looks like they have it under control, leave them to it, but don’t pass up someone in real need,” the Simonian replied. “Mired in a swamp is no place for a Marine to die.”

  “Will do and thanks Command. Switching back to unit channel to issue the order. Vulpas out.” He’rsree replied and switched channels to relay the orders.

  It turned out to be a good policy. Several of the Terran Marines had indeed landed in the water and quickly became stuck. Although, in most cases, their comrades did come to assist, in several instances Alliance Marines had to assist their Terran brothers.

  In one case, the Marine had been pulled under water and was drowning. Although there was already two Terran Marines there, they could do little to help. Using their gravity drives and sealed suits, two Alliance Marines quickly moved out over the water and dropped in.

  One of the Marines gave the drowning man their auxiliary oxygen feed while she began working disconnecting the man’s chute. The other Marine began working getting his legs free from the muck, but was having little success.

  Once the Terran Marine realized just who had come to help him, he started to panic, but quickly relaxed when he saw that these ‘aliens’ were helping him. Once he calmed down, the two Marines grabbed hold of him as gently as they could and slowly pulled him out of the mud on the bottom of the small pond he had landed in.

  They got him freed and while one of the Alliance Marines took him to the surface and over to his friends, the other gathered up the gear he had dropped, including the now useless parachute and brought all of it to the shore as well.

  As the Alliance Marines touched down on the shore of the pond with their burden, the two Terran Marines pointed their weapons at them. “I don’t know if you can understand me Alien, but you are under arrest. You are ordered to return with us to our camp for interrogation.”

  The woman looked at the Marine who spoke. She replied in clear, flawless English. “No, we’re not Corporal. We have a job to do out here and we really don’t have time to play with you guys.”

  “What did you do to Meyers?” the other Terran Marine asked.

  “They pulled my ass out of the mud and kept me from drowning, that’s what they did to me! Jesus Samuels, are you fuckin’ blind or something?” the man they saved replied.

  “You were down there longer than you could have held your breath Meyers. You should be dead. So I ask again, what did the two of you do to him?” the second Marine asked without lowering his rifle.

  “I gave him my secondary air. What’s the big deal? Look, private, this suit is sealed and has its own atmosphere controls so we can use them in space.” She pulled the auxiliary line out again so the two Terrans could see it. “If one of our guys gets damaged, we have to be able to render assistance.”

  “So, why did you help Meyers anyway? You have to know we are here to arrest all of you, and failing that, kill you,” the Corporal replied.

  The woman just nodded her head. “Yeah, we had a pretty good idea what your orders would be in regards to us. Because of our technology, you can’t hurt us, but we also know you have to try. We don’t want to see any of you hurt, so we’ve been ordered to assist you if we find you in trouble from the landing. Once you guys are all safe, we’ll be on our way.”

  “Look, uh, what do I call you anyway? Do you have a name?” the corporal asked.

  The woman grinned. “Sergeant Bethany Bennet, Alliance Marines, this is what you would call my ‘battle buddy’ Private J’Cars Hedreans. The Private doesn’t speak English so he’s letting me do the talking since I’m from here.”

  “From here, you mean Earth?” the private asked.

  Bethany nodded. “Born and raised in Minot, North Dakota. But not all of my fellow Marines are from Earth, nor are they all human, but we all do have the same job; to protect this planet.”

  “Put yer gun down Jacobs,” the corporal said. “We can’t shoot them for rescuing Meyers!”

  “But we can’t let them go either, can we?” Meyers asked as he gathered up his gear. “Fuck, even my spare clothes are soaked!”

  The corporal didn’t get a chance to introduce himself before someone obviously called him on the radio. He smiled sadly at the sergeant as he put a hand to his ear and turned away slightly. “Yes Sir!”

  “Corporal Marcelli, I see you have two of the aliens in custody! Good work! We’re sending reinforcements to your position before the rest of the aliens can move in to rescue them,” his company command said.

  “They are not in custody, Sir. They came swooping in from nowhere and rescued Private Meyers from drowning Sir. We were just about to get into the water to try to get him, but we knew we couldn’t get there in time. Before we could even drop our gear, these two ‘uh’, Aliens, show up and rescue him. We were just attempting to take them into custody Sir, but it sure is a hell of a way to thank them,” the corporal replied.

  “I can understand your feelings on this son, but orders are orders. Arrest them and get them back here. Look, we’re only a couple hundred meters away, just keep them there until we can surround them,” the officer ordered.

  “Understood, Sir. But just so you know, one of them isn’t an Alien at all; I have a Sergeant Bethany Bennet, from Minot, North Dakota. She tells me that the other man is from another planet though.”

  “She came from space, she’s an E.T. Marcelli, don’t forget that. Besides, she could easily be lying. Just keep them there. Command out.”

  “Sorry about that Sergeant, Command wanted to know what we’re doing out here. I’m Corporal Marcelli by the way, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Marcelli said offering the woman his hand.

  Bethany nodded. “I know; I monitored the frequency you used. It’s nice to meet you as well, but we won’t be here when your company commander gets here. Just remember a couple of things, Marcelli; we have no need to fight back, especially since we are not here to take over or fight you. You all saw that fight in space the other day? Well, there are at least two sides to every fight, unless your commanders think we were fighting ourselves? We’re down here to protect the planet from something far worse than your leaders can even understand.” Bethany said as she nodded to the other Alliance Marine to get moving.

  “Wait, what is it your down here to fight then?” Marcelli asked.

  “Spiders, Corporal. Really big, really smart spiders. Semper Fi Marines,” Bethany said as she and her partner seemed to float away into the woods.

  Nudging his two fellow Marines, all three of them pointed their rifles into the air over where the Alliance Marines had gone and fired several times, making it look like that were trying to stop the ‘E.T.s’ from leaving.

  “Command, Marcelli, the E.T.s escaped Sir. They moved off to the northeast, really damn fast!” the corporal reported.

  “We saw tha
t, thanks Corporal! We’re shifting our advance in that direction,” the captain replied.

  “We’re going to make sure Meyers gets back to the medic and we’ll be right behind you,” Marcelli reported.

  “Understood and good work, Marcelli. There are three other teams making for the command area. Wait for them and bring them out. You’ll have command.”

  “Will do, Sir.” Marcelli said and grinned at his two friends. “You heard the man, gents! Let’s go.”

  Temp. Command Post

  Alliance Marines

  Northwest Territories

  Canada

  Planet Earth

  Sol System

  Several incidents of his Marines rescuing Terran Marines were reported and handled very well. In none of the interactions was anyone hurt and although there had been injuries, several Terran lives had been saved. The big Simonian colonel looked down on the large holographic battle board so he could see the operational theater. So far, everything was going to plan, now if they could just find the thrice-cursed hive entrance before a Terran Marine tripped over it!

  “AI Honor, this is Colonel Cren’lith.” He called.

  “What can I do for you, Colonel?” the AI replied.

  “A query only; has the area now occupied by the Terran troops been checked yet?”

  “Negative Colonel. My search routines have been focusing on the area between your current position and the landing site of the seeding pod,” the AI replied. “It was believed that the highest probability of success rested in this area. Do you now disagree with this?”

  “Call me paranoid, but if the Arac hive is in the Terran Area, it will be for them as though dinner has been served. Can we spare a drone to quickly check these two areas?”

  “Your request is not unreasonable, Colonel. Drones reallocated. Launching. Requested scans may take longer than anticipated Colonel, there are considerable wildlife dens and small burrows in this area. A good portion have been filled in with water,” Honor replied.

  “That might not necessarily preclude it from being a hive, AI Honor. The Aracs cannot breathe under water, but they do not fear it either. Properly constructed, such an entrance would be well camouflaged,” Cren’lith replied.

  “Your suggestion has merit, Colonel. However, several cannot be rechecked at this time, they are simply too far away. They can be rechecked when the probe returns,” the AI explained.

  “Understood. I would request that the probe schematic be loaded into our field replicators in the future so we may create more if the need presents itself,” Cren’lith said.

  “Request noted in mission logs for later review, Thank you Colonel,” Honor said closing the channel.

  “If the hive has not been located by nightfall, please have the shuttles placed in defensive array Beta Four, I want all investigation teams returned by seventeen hundred local,” Cren’lith said addressing his aide.

  Noticing one of his combat teams moving directly towards the far Terran encampment near the village. He put one thick finger on the icon and the table increased magnification. “Captain He’rsree…” he said quietly.” I have a bad feeling about them.”

  “Sir?” his aide asked.

  The big Gorilla sighed deeply. “Nothing Lieutenant, just an old soldier letting his fear whisper lies into his ears.” He tapped the screen icon and it zoomed back out to the full area. “Who do we have on standby?”

  “Herren and Fokkor are on rapid standby, Sir. All others are out investigating possible locations,” the aide replied as he used his control of the holographic board to show his superior the units in question.

  “Move Fokkor here,” he indicated a spot on the map very close to where Vulpas was located. “Make sure they are heavy on supplies and have them take an extra medic. Hot standby on location until Vulpas returns. Then both units are to return to base for evening meals.”

  The Lieutenant entered the commands into the computer and looked up to see the unit begin moving on the big board. They moved to the supply point first, then rapidly moved to follow after Vulpas. “Fokkor in motion, Sir. Position in twenty.”

  “Very good Lieutenant, thank you,” Cren’lith replied nodding. “The Aracs are down here.” He tapped the large map and indicated their area. “They would starve before reaching maturity. We have to assume that they know that as well, which is why they moved south to begin with.”

  “Sir, the Aracs, the Queen included, are little more than pupae after hatching. How would they know to move? Do you believe they have inherited memory like some of the biologists suggest?” the aide asked.

  “Possibly, but I think it’s more than that. Not all of the interior mass of the pod was taken up by eggs. There was something else in there. I’m betting it was either a communicator of some kind, or a computer capable of guiding them until they mature.” He snorted. “It could well be both of those things. Honestly, Lieutenant, we simply do not know. We assume there is only one queen in each pod because most arachnids do not tolerate the presence of other queens very well. It could be that we are looking for more than one hive. But, that is inviting trouble we do not have room for.”

  The Lieutenant nodded his understanding, but suddenly began listening intently. “Contact. Vulpas Two has engaged an Arac soldier.” The Lieutenant began entering commands on the holoboard so his commander could see what was happening. “The Arac is avoiding contact.”

  Cren’lith nodded. “No doubt trying to hide from our soldiers. If they can tag him, it might very well lead us right back to the hive.”

  The Lieutenant nodded agreement, “I believe they have already done that, Colonel.”

  “Kick Fokkor in the ass and recall all investigative units. Immediate dispatch to the east as soon as possible.” He again opened the channel to the ship. “Command, we have contact with an Arac soldier in the vicinity of the village of Discovery. Terran soldiers currently occupy the village. I am preparing to redeploy my troops according to the plan, but what do you want us to do with those Terran troops?”

  “Colonel, if the hive is near Discovery I don’t think the Terran troops are going to want to stay for very long. Try to get them to relocate, otherwise you’re going to be fighting through them,” Captain Edgigly replied.

  “Understood. I’ll do what I can, Captain,” Cren’lith replied. And looked at his aide. “Do we have any former Terrans in Vulpas or Fokkor?”

  The Lieutenant ran a quick check and nodded. “Yes Sir. Captain Br’nit’s executive officer is Terran. Lieutenant Wendy Foster.”

  Cren’lith nodded. “Get me this windyfoster, I have a mission for him.”

  “Wendy Foster is a female Sir. It is two separate names.” The aide replied as he worked to connect to the Lieutenant’s personal comm unit.

  Cren’lith snorted. “Humans! I will never understand their naming conventions! Thank you Lieutenant.”

  The man smiled and nodded. “I have her on the comm Sir.”

  Village of Discovery

  Northwest Territories

  Canada

  Planet Earth

  Sol System

  “I understand Sir, I’ll do my best.” Wendy replied to her battalion commander. She looked at her captain. “It looks like I have to abandon you, Sir.”

  “I’m certain I will wish you had been able to remain, Lieutenant Wendy Foster. However, Colonel Cren’lith is a much-revered commander among my people. If he feels the need for you to undertake a separate mission, it is my duty to support you in it. What do you need?”

  “I am to try to convince the Terran Soldiers holding the village of Discovery to move. It would appear that the hive is near that village and those soldiers would be quickly overwhelmed,” Wendy explained to her immediate commander. I know we cannot let any of our equipment fall into their hands, but I feel I will need to show them something if I am to convince them of anything. May I borrow your spare plot board so I might show them the danger?”

  “It is yours, do you think they will listen to y
ou Lieutenant Wendy Foster?” Captain Br’nit asked.

  Wendy shook her head. “No, they will not go past trying to arrest me. At that point no matter what I say they will not listen to me. They are very obstinate individuals. Still, the attempt must be made.”

  “Private Harper O’Neal, Private Allain, I have need of you.” The Captain again looked at the smaller female. “You will not go in there alone. I will send the two I called as your guards. If Colonel Cren’lith did not order it I will; remain in contact at all times. Report any new developments and remain safe. If the Aracs attack while you are there, they will focus on you as you have the most powerful weapons.”

  “Thank you Captain. I will depart as soon as the two privates arrive,” Wendy replied just as the two Marines in question touched down near them.

  The Simonian Captain nodded to her. “Be well, be safe and call if you need assistance.”

  Wendy saluted her superior, pointed to the two new arrivals and motioned them to follow her. She locked into their private comms. “Listen up, we have a side mission. The Arac hive is very close to the small village the Terrans have occupied as their base. We have to convince them to clear out before the Aracs attack them or we assault the hive. There is a very good chance these Terrans will simply ignore what we are saying and only continue to try to arrest us. We are not to let that happen, nor are we to allow them to have any of our technology. For the most part, you two are along to keep me safe, and I am supposed to convince these idiots to move. Let us hope you are far more successful in your mission than I am in mine.”

  “We still can’t hurt them, right, Lieutenant?” O’Neal asked. “This is my old unit, I might even run into someone I know.”

  “That might be helpful, O’Neal. Keep your eyes open for someone you might know. No, no harm if we can prevent it. If the Aracs attack while we are there, we are to defend the Terran commanders, although we will most likely attract the most Arac attention since we have the best toys,” Wendy explained.