by Isaac Hooke
On the overhead map, the dot indicating the designated HS3 moved toward the hillock. Rade switched to the video feed from the scout and watched it approach. The two alien sentries appeared invisible against the dark wall of rock. Rade switched to the infrared channel, and the creatures stood out from the night, their outlines filled with varying shades of green that represented the different levels of body heat. The pair seemed oblivious to the approach of the scout.
The sentries continued to rub their mandibles together now and then, and the chittering produced by that action became louder as the HS3 approached.
The scout closed to two meters away, and still the gatorbeetles did nothing.
One meter.
six
Rade held his breath as the HS3 edged past the twitching antennae of both gatorbeetles.
“Careful,” Rade said.
Rade knew that the individual rotors on the craft generated an outflow of air. These military grade variants produced very little current, but still Bender had to be careful to take what little was produced into account. If he got too close to those probing antennae...
One of those antennae stiffened, as if the sentry it belonged to had sensed the slight puff of air produced by the HS3.
But then the scout was past and moving into the cave beyond.
Rade switched to the rearview camera on the HS3 and saw that the two sentries were searching the space just in front of the cave mouth, as if they had definitely detected an air current. After several tense moments, they finally returned to their previous stances, as if concluding that what they had sensed was merely nothing.
Rade exhaled in relief and switched to the forward camera on the HS3 once more.
It was too dark to see anything inside the tunnel, even on the infrared channel.
“Bender, halt the scout,” Rade said.
“Done,” Bender replied.
“Is the local-beam LIDAR still active?” Rade asked. That was what the drone used for collision detection.
“It is,” Bender replied.
“Good,” Rade said. That meant the gatorbeetles couldn’t detect LIDAR.
Rade activated the LIDAR overlay, which projected a three dimensional wireframe over the tunnel, filling out the dark areas. The drone was hovering next to the ceiling.
“Continue forward,” Rade said.
The drone proceeded ahead, following the downward slope of the tunnel.
The HS3 had only traveled a few meters before the video signal began to pixelate and freeze.
“I’m getting severe signal distortion,” Bender said. “This is about as far as I can go. Unless you want to send the other HS3s in to act as repeaters.”
“Do it,” Rade said.
He waited for the other two to stealthily fly past the sentries and enter the cave. Each time the sentries became agitated, and searched the entrance. The third time, Bender had to send the last HS3 deeper as the gatorbeetles proceeded a short way into the tunnel to explore.
When the HS3 stopped transmitting, Rade said: “Tell me that those aliens didn’t find our scout.”
“No,” Bender said. “It passed beyond signal range. I gave it instructions to return to the entrance when the threat passes.”
Several moments passed.
Finally the video feed returned.
“The HS3 is back within signal range,” Bender announced.
“I see that,” Rade said. On the feed, he saw that the gatorbeetles had given up and returned to their posts.
The final drone remained close to the entrance to maintain the signal while the other two proceeded deeper.
Rade switched his viewpoint to the lead HS3 and watched the progress from there.
The tunnel sloped downward for several minutes before reaching a crossroads. Two tunnels branched away to the left and right, while the main continued forward. Vertical glow bars placed next to each opening provided dim light.
“Do those glow bars look like something a preindustrial society would make?” Tahoe asked.
“No,” Manic said.
“Evidently, they’ve recovered some of their ancient technology,” Surus said.
“Either that, or our Phant has been feeding them tech,” Shaw said.
“Well,” Lui said. “It’s looking like they rely on a combination of both sight and sound to navigate the cave environment at this point.”
The HS3 revolved to observe each of the three different branches, sending its LIDAR beam down each tunnel in turn. They all seemed much the same.
“Do you want me to follow the right-hand rule of mazes?” Bender asked. That was the rule to take the rightmost branch every time, retracing one’s steps and taking the next right-hand branch after reaching a dead end.
“No,” Rade said. “Let’s go straight on this one. Squeeze as much range from our repeaters as we can. Unless Surus has a suggestion?”
“I won’t be able to give you any further directional information regarding our prey until I’m actually inside the nest,” Surus said. “So straight ahead is as good a choice as any.”
Shortly after passing the crossroads, the video began to distort once more.
“I’m retreating a few meters,” Bender said. “And then leaving an HS3 here to act as a repeater.”
The video became crisp again. The HS3 continued downward alone, reaching another crossroads. After the scout turned to scan each direction in turn, once more Rade instructed Bender to move forward.
A distant chitter echoed from the cave walls. In moments a lone gatorbeetle appeared ahead, scampering toward the HS3 in the center of the tunnel. According to the three dimensional image produced by the LIDAR, the alien’s antennae were outstretched and constantly feeling out the wide walls. The HS3 flew directly above the V shape formed by those antennae.
The creature paused for a moment, as if puzzled by the slight gust of air it must have sensed from the HS3 as the scout flew past, then it momentarily flicked up its abdomen in what must have been the alien equivalent of a shrug and continued on its way.
“If we have to go in there, it could be tricky navigating those tunnels while gatorbeetles are wandering around,” Tahoe said. “Especially if we have those antennae to contend with.”
“Look at the distinct V the feelers form,” Shaw said. “Assuming we penetrate the nest in our jumpsuits, full stealth mode, and when a gatorbeetle comes along we all curl into a ball and hug the edges of the walls as they pass, the aliens won’t even notice we’re there. We don’t produce any gusts of air, after all.”
“I don’t know...” Tahoe said. “It’s still going to be dangerous.”
The HS3 reached a subterranean T intersection and rotated first to the left, then the right. Both passages seemed the same, in that each descended for fifty meters before sloping out of view.
“Who wants to bet our feed is going to drop out momentarily?” Fret said. “As in, when we take either of those bends?”
No one took him up on the bet.
“Bender, take the right hand branch,” Rade ordered.
The HS3 moved into the designated corridor. After traveling only a meter, unsurprisingly the feed began to distort badly.
“I’m losing connection,” Bender said. “And backtracking the HS3 to the T intersection.”
The connection restored a moment later.
“Looks like we’ve gone as far as our HS3s can take us,” Rade said.
“Time to get our boots dirty?” Bender said.
“Not yet,” Rade replied. “We stay in the Hoplites for the moment. Tahoe, take us forward. Stealth mode. Halt three klicks from the hillock: like someone said, those antennae look extremely sensitive. Let’s not take any chances.”
Stealth mode meant the slowest possible speed, with noise cancelers active throughout the mech body; though even at that pace the Hoplites wouldn’t be entirely quiet.
At that speed, it took half an hour to reach the designated waypoint three kilometers from the hillock.
“A
ll right, now it’s time for the dirty boots,” Rade said when they arrived. “Dismount, Argonauts. And break out the secondary holographic emitters.”
Those secondary emitters were stowed in the storage compartments of the mechs. Surus had developed a way to use the emitters not only with the HS3s, but also in conjunction with the camouflage tech of their jumpsuits as well, allowing them to completely blend in with the background. Once again, it was tech that not even the military had—soldiers relied on their dynamic camouflage alone. And with the recent sound-masking patch that Surus had uploaded, it would hide them from echolocation, too. Similar to the HS3s, the jumpsuits would still appear on any LIDAR and thermal bands of course, but it was apparent by now these gatorbeetles didn’t utilize either.
While in theory the Hoplites themselves could squeeze between the two sentries and fit inside the tunnel beyond, unfortunately the tech didn’t work with the larger mechs. It was restricted to the jumpsuits, the HS3s, and the Phant trap. Even if Surus could get it functioning with the Hoplites, the minimal hum produced by the servomotors even under stealth mode would give the units away; to eliminate that would require a complete retrofitting of the noise cancelers across the skin of the mech. Not something she could do at the moment.
“Well this is farewell for the moment, El,” Rade told his Hoplite’s AI.
“It is,” Electron replied. “I’ll keep the cockpit warm for you.”
“You do that.”
The hatch opened and Rade climbed the rungs to the ground. When he stepped onto the black sand, it swallowed him to the middle of his calves.
Rade opened up the storage compartment and grabbed the triangular-shaped emitters inside. He clipped them to the harness and utility belt of his jumpsuit, using the pattern Surus prescribed. These particular emitters were larger than those Surus had developed for the HS3s, and they couldn’t be worn on the jumpsuits while inside the cockpit—the protrusions they formed on the suit interfered with the inner actuators that composed the motion cocoon.
When he had finished attaching the devices, Rade lifted one of his boots from the sand. Already the gray material was sheathed in soot from the sand. That black dust would probably cover him to the thighs by the time he reached the cave entrance.
“Will this dust interfere with the holographic emitters?” Rade asked.
“Only when you move fast,” Surus said.
“What does that mean?” Rade said.
Surus finished attaching her own emitters and turned toward him. “I designed the emitters so the suits would act as a backup, in case there was an error in the occlusion calculations that caused the holograms to momentarily fail in their coverage of the subject inside. These errors in emitter calculations will only occur when a subject is moving faster than usual, for example running. The errors are cumulative, meaning that you could run without issue for a few paces, but after that, portions of the suit would occasionally show through until you slowed. And since the black dust is preventing the suit camouflage from working in the leg region, those portions will be visible.”
“So you’re saying if we move too fast then they might see our legs?” Bender asked.
“Precisely,” Surus said. “But if we were moving fast, the sensitive hearing these aliens possess would no doubt give away our positions long before they actually saw us, because moving fast also counters the echolocation masking.”
“Don’t forget to bring along some frags, smokes, and charges, people,” Rade sent.
Listening to his own instructions, he unloaded a few frag and smoke grenades from the launcher of his Hoplite and secured them to his harness. He grabbed a couple of explosive bricks from the storage compartment of the mech and similarly attached them.
“Nothing I love better in this life than sneaking into an alien nest,” Bender said while retrieving several grenades from Juggernaut. “And I ain’t joking. Well actually, that’s not entirely true. I do like something just a little bit better. And that’s sneaking into an alien nest with guns blazing.”
“I’m sure your girlfriend wishes the same thing when you visit her alien nest,” Manic said.
“Har,” Bender replied.
“Switch to stealth mode,” Rade said. Unlike the Hoplites, the local noise cancelers installed in the suits and robots would ensure that stealth mode muted every sound.
“Hoplites, assume guard positions,” Rade instructed the mechs. “Argonauts, activate emitters.”
The Hoplites formed a defensive circle, each of them facing outward to scan the plains.
Meanwhile, one by one the jumpsuited members of the team completely vanished as the emitters took effect.
Rade activated his and walked forward, testing the masking effect. Around him others were doing the same. While the emitters did a good job of hiding the suits themselves and the disturbances to the ground directly below, the sand-filled indentations left in their wake were somewhat obvious.
“Uh, I’m not sure this is going to work,” Tahoe said. “Invisible boots that create visible prints? Even if they’re shallow, these footprints are still fairly obvious giveaways.”
“Maybe they won’t see them in the dark?” Manic said.
“When we get close, I’m sure they will,” Tahoe said. “Their eyes have to be adapted for night vision. They live in caves, after all.”
“I thought we already decided they can’t see the thermal band?” Manic said. “Or they would have swatted our drones down.”
“Yes, but I mean like the kind of night vision cats have.”
“All right fine, it’s a risk,” Manic agreed. “But I think it’s a reasonable one.”
“I’m going to have to agree with Tahoe.” Rade zoomed in on the hillock. “Let’s approach the entrance at an angle, and climb onto the sloping side of the hillock before we make our way to the entrance. The hillock surface looks free of sand and fairly solid from here. I’m hoping we won’t leave any footprints.”
“And if we do?” Shaw said.
“Then we cross that bridge when we get to it,” Rade said.
“Will our noise cancelers be able to block the sound of our boots scraping across the rock?” Fret asked.
“They should,” Rade said. “Tahoe, take us in.”
Tahoe organized the squad into a single party, and they advanced in a straight line. Each member stepped in the footprints of the person ahead, with the goal of minimizing the number of depressions they made in the sand. The two robots brought up the rear; the pair no longer ported the Glass container, but dragged it along behind. Or rather, one of them did: the pressure produced by the container flattened out the sand, basically eliminating the footprints the party left in its wake. Of course, the price was that they left a long rectangular depression behind them instead.
“Hoplites,” Rade transmitted. “Use your jumpjets and relocate to a new position. Stay low. Move at least fifty meters away from our starting position.” If the Hoplites didn’t move, the trail the party was creating would lead directly to the mechs.
“Roger that,” Electron replied.
Rade glanced at his overhead map. The Hoplites relocated as per his orders. As for the Argonauts, though he couldn’t see anyone in front of him as he made his way forward across the sand, he knew where everyone was thanks to the map. He activated the “squad display outline” mode on his HUD, and his Implant overlaid blue silhouettes over his vision, showing Rade precisely where each of his team members were in front of him. Those outlines were three-dimensional, and updated as their individual limbs moved. It was just as good as LIDAR, well actually better, because it made them stand out from the backdrop.
They reached the hillock. As hoped, it was composed of a solid material and free of the sand. The Argonauts made no impressions on the bare rock as they clambered onto the slope and advanced toward the two sentries at the entrance. As Rade had told Fret, the sound of their boots scuffing against the rock was completely suppressed, making their approach absolutely silent.
When Bender, on point, neared the entrance, Rade lowered the laser rifle from his shoulder and said: “Walk extra slow when making the crossing, people. We don’t need the gatorbeetles detecting the vibrations of our passage.”
Rade watched the dot representing Bender edge past the closest alien sentry; the dot hesitated at the entrance, then moved inside.
“Watch the antennae at the entrance,” Bender sent.
One by one the squad members reached the cave mouth, waited a few seconds, and then proceeded inside. When Rade’s turn came, he saw why the individual members were pausing at the opening: while there was a relatively wide gap between the gatorbeetles, enough to fit a Hoplite anyway, those continually twitching antennae routinely swept past the empty area. Rade watched the moving feelers for a few moments to work out the pattern.
He timed it so that the twitching antennae were well away from the opening when he dodged past.
When everyone was in, the squad continued the advance into the tunnels, following the three-dimensional outline of the walls as generated by the LIDAR.
“And so we enter the hornets nest,” Manic said softly.
The HS3 that lingered by the entrance had quickly descended deeper, staying within fifty meters of the point man, Bender. This allowed the farthest HS3 to proceed into the right-hand passageway of the distant T intersection.
“Be very careful,” Surus said. “While it is well and good you consider yourself hunters, the truth of the matter is, in this alien nest you are the prey. We remain in the shadows at all times until we discover our target. And then we strike. I’m hoping for a surgical-precision type capture, followed by a clean extract. With luck, we’ll be gone before the aliens know we were even here.”
Rade had to smile at that. Somehow he doubted it would be so easy.
seven
The walls proved uneven, especially on the tops and sides, though the floor was relatively smooth, likely worn away by the endless passage of aliens across the surface.
