by Isaac Hooke
Rade squeezed the trigger first. The muted thunder of the electrolaser erupted, and Rade saw electricity engulf Harlequin through the scope. The Artificial collapsed.
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about him picking us off one by one,” Shaw said. Her voice had a slight echo, because her lack of helmet allowed the words to drift to the external microphones of his suit in addition to being transmitted over the comm.
“Yeah,” Rade said. “We only have to worry about the bugs picking us off. And at least he can’t get into your head. For a while anyway.” He fired the stun weapon at one of the incoming gatorbeetles. It still had no effect. “Sorry about the helmet by the way.”
“It’s all right,” Shaw said. “I’ll kick your ass later.”
As the enraged aliens closed in for the kill, a strange chittering sound drifted from the midst of the defensive circle, barely heard above the angry symphony of mandibles gnashing against one another.
Rade spun, and realized it was Ms. Bounty.
“Shut her up!” Rade told Fret. He aimed the stun rifle at her.
“Wait,” Ms. Bounty said weakly. “It’s me. I’m telling them to stop.”
Rade paused.
Fret stared at him, waiting. “Well are you going to shoot her?”
Rade lowered the weapon. “Continue.”
Ms. Bounty opened her mouth and made the sound again.
The aliens began to halt as they came within meters of the party.
“Tahoe, Bender, stop firing,” Rade said.
The pair complied.
Ms. Bounty continued chittering; her voice carried farther now that the aliens had begun to fall silent. The noises she made seemed to soothe them.
To the west, the gatorbeetles parted, forming a tight passageway whose walls were formed by their bodies; in moments, a route to the arena entrance was available.
“Let’s go!” Rade said.
The party hurried toward the entrance.
“Ms. Bounty?” Rade asked. “Are you still with us?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m in control for the moment. The Black is already beginning to reassert itself, however. You’ll have to stun me again.”
Rade waited until they had crossed past the entrance; he didn’t want to piss off the aliens by shooting their so-called queen again in front of them. The moment he passed beyond sight of the sentries waiting in the tunnel outside, he paused to point the stun rifle at Ms. Bounty.
“Turn around,” Rade ordered Fret, who still carried her over one shoulder.
The ex-MOTH did so and Rade released the stun weapon at nearly point blank range. Ms. Bounty convulsed on Fret’s shoulder.
“Unit A, give Shaw your helmet,” Rade instructed the robot. That would protect Shaw from any psi attacks launched by the remaining Black when it awoke.
The robot removed its helmet and handed it to Shaw. She accepted the one-size-fits-all gear gratefully and donned it.
A distant chittering echoed from the arena behind them. It sounded like it came from one mouth. A very angry mouth, at that. Rade guessed that Harlequin had recovered, and was yelling at the aliens to pursue.
“Tahoe, Bender, get on point,” Rade said. “Clear any bugs from our path. Let’s go!”
The team retreated down the tunnel.
Behind them, from the direction of the arena, erupted the clattering roar of vengeful mandibles.
twenty
Rade glanced over his shoulder. “Ms. Bounty, we’re going to need a map to the Hoplites. Assuming you know where they are. I’m guessing since you can speak the bug language...”
“Yes,” Ms. Bounty said groggily. “The Queen’s memory engrams have imprinted my neural network. I know everything it knows. Including where the Hoplites are, and where they moved the Phant trap to. I’m transmitting the waypoints of both to you now. The Phant trap is the closer. It’s not far from where you mated with me.”
“You mated with her?” Shaw said.
“Er, I wasn’t exactly myself for the past few hours, in case you hadn’t noticed back there,” Rade said. He received the waypoints and forwarded them on to the rest of the team.
The glass container, or Phant trap, was indeed the closer. It was only a short distance ahead, in fact; a slight detour on the way to the Hoplites. Ms. Bounty had also transmitted complete map information of nearly the entire nest, so he saw that there appeared to be an alternate route leading away from the chamber containing the container. That meant they could probably afford to take the detour without being trapped.
“If we take you to the glass container, can we extract the Phant from you?” Rade asked.
“Yes,” Ms. Bounty replied. “If you stun it before putting me inside and activating the interface, it will simply splash down on me when the process is done. It won’t seep inside me and I can escape. She’ll be trapped within the container.”
“All right,” Rade said. “Bender, I want you to head for the first waypoint. We’re making a stop at the glass container. Ms. Bounty, transmit the necessary access codes for the container to me. I need to be able to activate it.”
Only the occasional gatorbeetle crossed their path from the forward direction. It seemed most of the nest had gathered to watch the executions in the arena. Those few that they did encounter were not warrior caste, for the most part, and fled as often as engaging.
“One thing I’m wondering,” Lui said during the retreat. “Ms. Bounty claims she knows everything the Queen knows. How come Harlequin never exhibited similar memory retention when he was possessed by the Phant Zoltan? Sure, he remembered the Phant controlling him, but he didn’t have access to its full memory.”
“Surus modified my AI core to automatically download and backup extraneous records detected in my random access memory, as is the case when a Phant possesses a host,” Ms. Bounty explained. “She did this so that I might retain her complete memory whenever she found the need to temporarily depart my core. This granted me the useful side effect you mentioned, Lui.”
“Okay, good enough,” Lui said.
Rade soon switched to the LIDAR band as there were few glow bars in these portions of the cave system. They wound their way through the twisting tunnels, traveling deeper into the nest. Rade stunned Ms. Bounty every now and then while on the run. He couldn’t afford to stop. The chittering behind them was growing louder by the minute.
Ms. Bounty tried to sooth them by shouting their language into the rear tunnel, but either they didn’t hear her, or Harlequin had told them she was a traitor.
The Argonauts detoured westward from the main passageway and reached the destination chamber. Two sentries protected it, but Tahoe and Bender shot them down. Inside, they found a small cavern. The glass container was there, along with several spare robot parts. There were no signs of their other weapons, however.
Rade stunned Ms. Bounty one last time and then threw her into the glass container. He activated the remote interface with the codes she had given him, and she floated into the air. Before she began to spin, Rade said: “Unit A, Manic, port the container. Tahoe and Bender, continue leading the way down the western tunnel!”
Unit A and Manic scooped up the container. It had started to hum.
The team made their way westward. Rade shone his infrared headlamp at the container. Ms. Bounty was a blur inside, and the Phant was being sucked out of her, forming a ball above her.
They reached another cavern, slightly bigger than the last chamber. A glow bar in one corner provided light.
Tahoe and Bender hurried toward the opposite corridor, but then the pair stopped.
“Uh, this isn’t going to work,” Tahoe said.
Rade glanced at the overhead map. Several red dots had appeared in the adjacent tunnel, blocking the way forward.
Lui, on drag, said: “Well, we can’t go back, either!”
In the rear passage the remainder of the gatorbeetles were quickly coming forward. More red dots swarmed over that section of the map.
“They’ve outflanked us,” Shaw said.
“We shouldn’t have made the detour,” Rade said. “Tahoe, defend the rear passage. Bender, guard the forward route. The rest of you, search for hidden walls!”
Inside the container, Ms. Bounty floated toward the bottom. When she touched it, the liquid sphere of the Black that had coalesced a half meter above the body dropped down and splashed over the Artificial. So far, those droplets that weren’t on the floor were just sitting on the fabric of her jumpsuit and not seeping inside.
Rade hurried to the container and opened it.
“Ms. Bounty, get out of there,” Rade told her.
She struggled to stand, but couldn’t, so Ms. Bounty simply rolled from the container. When she passed the verge of the metallic disk on the floor, all of the black drops still on her were swept inside, the liquid constrained by the extents of the disk. Rade quickly shut the door.
He offered Ms. Bounty a hand and helped her to her feet. Within the container, the scattered droplets began to coalesce into a single puddle. The fringes of that liquid moved about, exploring the circular perimeter that confined it, searching for any gaps in the containment.
“I can’t hold them off!” Bender said.
“People, find me that illusory wall!” Rade said.
“There isn’t one here,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Then we’re trapped,” Rade told her.
“No,” Ms. Bounty said. “While there is no illusory wall, there’s still a secret passage. With me!”
She walked forward haltingly at first, still recovering from what had happened to her apparently, but her pace soon increased until she was able to move at a sprint.
She halted beside one of the walls and spread her arms wide. She turned one of her gloves toward Rade. The fingertips were equipped with what appeared to be small metal funnels.
“The Queen equipped my gloves with small pheromone generating devices,” Ms. Bounty said, rotating the glove back toward the wall. “These simulate the antennae of one of the aliens. With them, I should be able to trip the hidden door...”
A small rectangular portion of the wall moved inward and then slid to the side, revealing an empty passage. “As I told you, I know all of the Queen’s secrets.”
“To the Hoplites, Argonauts!” Rade said.
The team hurried into the passageway. Bender and Tahoe brought up the rear, firing at the gatorbeetles as they rushed inside. Manic and Unit A continued to port the glass container that harbored the Black.
“Can you close the entrance behind us?” Rade asked.
“It should close on its own in a few seconds,” Ms. Bounty said.
The wall attempted to seal, however one of the gatorbeetles had already come inside: its body halted the moving rock and acted as a blockage. That particular gatorbeetle appeared trapped, and the others simply plowed over it to pursue.
“Bender, I want you on point!” Rade said. “Tahoe, keep them away from our drag!”
Bender hurried forward and took his place at the front. He led the way, and in moments they had emerged from the secret passageway onto the main route once again. On the way to the chamber that contained the Hoplites, the party only encountered two more gatorbeetles blocking them. Meanwhile, the rest of the nest continued to pursue behind them.
Finally they arrived at the target waypoint. Their six units resided in the small cavern, standing side by side, illuminated by a light bar situated near the far wall. In front of the mechs, three tripods held Tech Class IV holographic emitters.
“I’ll take these,” Ms. Bounty said, separating the emitters from the tripods and securing them to her harness.
“Catch.” Rade tossed the stun rifle to Ms. Bounty and dashed toward Electron. The mech wasn’t responding to his remote start commands.
“We’re going to have to manually bootstrap them from within,” TJ said.
Rade clambered the leg rungs onto the chest, and then continued until he could reach the manual chest release. He yanked it and the cockpit hatch fell open. He swiveled onto the inside of the hatch and pulled himself inside. He reached up, shoved the two bootstrap releases, and plugged his glove into the slot that appeared over his head. From the manual interface that overlaid his HUD he activated the boot-up process.
The servomotors whirred to life and he withdrew his finger from the slot as the overhead panel shut. The inner actuators enveloped him and the hatch slammed closed, sealing him in darkness. The feed from the external video camera filled his vision and he looked down on the world from a height of two and half meters.
Around him, other Hoplites were coming to life.
“Electron, are you there?” Rade said. “Electron?”
No answer.
“My AI doesn’t seem to want to come online,” Tahoe said.
“Our enemy has a weapon that can disable AIs,” Ms. Bounty said. “You will have to operate your battle suits in manual mode. At least until we can get back to the ship and initiate a full suite of repairs and diagnostics.”
“That suits me just fine,” Bender said.
“And while fighting without AIs has its disadvantages,” Ms. Bounty continued. “On the plus side, it also means our enemy won’t be able to disable our mechs with that weapon again.”
Rade, Shaw, Tahoe, Bender, Lui, and TJ got mechs. Manic, Fret, Ms. Bounty and Unit A were the odd ones out. Tahoe had apparently tossed the laser rifle to Manic, because the latter was sporting the weapon now, while Fret wielded Bender’s blaster. The glass container lay on the ground between Ms. Bounty and Unit A.
“Manic, you’re with me,” Rade said. “Ms. Bounty, you get Shaw. Tahoe, take Fret. Bender, Unit A is yours.”
Rade and the other designated Hoplite pilots knelt their mechs to let the grounded individuals load up into the passenger seats.
“TJ, bring the Queen along with us,” Rade said.
TJ lifted the glass container onto the right shoulder of his Hoplite and held it in place with his arm.
“The rest of you, cobras in hand,” Rade transmitted. “We gots ourselves a King to bag.”
“A false king, you mean,” Shaw said. “Because you’re the only king around here.”
“I love you,” Rade said.
“Ms. Bounty, I don’t suppose you can use those Tech Class IV holographic emitters to cloak our mechs?” Tahoe asked hopefully.
“No,” Ms. Bounty said.
Rade approached the entrance to the cavern. Two of the pursuing gatorbeetles had broken ahead of the others and already crowded inside. “We’re going to have to fight our way out.”
Rade unleashed a cobra, aiming between the mandibles. His target fell.
The others joined in, content to let the aliens rush them via the bottleneck.
They soon realized that the same rules applied as the smaller weapons. If you hit the gatorbeetles in a limb, they kept coming. To truly take them down you had to target their esophagi, or strike the center of their thorax. Black blood spurted from heads and limbs in profusion, smearing the mechs.
A wall of bodies began to form. The succeeding gatorbeetles simply shoved past them. Rade and the others formed another wall of dead bodies from those who clambered by the first; that too was surmounted by the enemy. The Hoplites created more and more successive walls of corpses, and were forced backward. Soon, the mechs were pressed up against the far side of the cavern by the sheer force of numbers.
Soon the laser weapons began to overheat.
“Well,” Rade said. “I think it’s time we switched to shields and started bashing our way forward. Otherwise we’ll be here all day.”
Rade scooped up one of the dead gatorbeetles and wielded it like a club. He staved heads and split thoraxes. He used his shield like a battering ram to shove the aliens forward.
“Come, Argonauts!” Rade said. “Synchronize with me! Push in unison! We form a phalanx of shields!”
Beside him, the other Hoplites formed a line with their shields and they sho
ved in unison against the enemy.
They slowly advanced.
In the passenger seats, Manic and Fret continually fired down at the aliens. TJ, on the right side of the shield phalanx, occasionally slammed the glass container down at the defending gatorbeetles, crushing their heads. Meanwhile, Rade and the others stomped on any limbs or heads that appeared underneath their shields; either that, or they slammed down the shields directly, using the bottom edges as decapitating and maiming instruments. When their cobras began to cool down, they also fired over the top of the shields at the incoming enemy.
They forced the living and the dead backwards, slowly shoving the packed throng from the room.
Finally the enemy broke. The gatorbeetles realized they were essentially flowing into a giant meat grinder. The rout started when those in the front ranks began to turn around and flee, clawing and biting at the gatorbeetles just beside them. The behavior was infectious, so that soon the entire swarm was retreating.
In moments, the entire enemy had been routed, leaving behind the crushed bodies of the dead they had trampled in the process.
Rade and the others waded their way through those corpses; the bodies reached to the waists of the Hoplites, and further steeped their lower bodies in black blood.
“Ms. Bounty, where do you think we’ll find Harlequin?” Rade asked.
“I doubt he is in the nest anymore,” she replied. “Likely he will have fled to a preservation depot east of the nest.”
“A preservation what?” Fret asked.
“A place where the Phants stored technology salvaged from these aliens. Harlequin will likely be going there to retrieve a Tech Class IV weapon. There is a certain battle suit I know of, designed specifically for these aliens. Their equivalent of a mech. If the Phant vacates Harlequin, he should be able to pilot it directly.”
“An alien battle suit,” Rade said. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
“I do,” Bender said. “It’s like a bug in a tin can. All you have to do is apply a can opener, extract your bug, then ground it under your heel.”
