Battle On The Marathon

by John Thornton

  “Armor!” I heard someone cry out. “Armor!”

  I opened my eyes, and salty sweat ran down into them, blurring my vision. I wiped it away. I sat up as fast as I could. My cot was a mess, and my sheets and blankets were twisted around me. The pillow was caught in the crook of my arm.

  “Armor! The armor has finally arrived!”

  Light from Queen’s sky tube was peeking past the flaps of my tent. My heart was beating a rapid cadence in my ears.

  “Everyone come out! The armor is here!”

  I slipped on some dry clothing, and tossed my sweat-soaked garments onto the messy bed. Rushing outside, I saw two trucks pulling up to the kitchen tent.

  Pulling on my belt with the gimp in its holster, I staggered outside. “Just a dream. It was a nightmare. Just a dream.”

  A Red Guard was standing in the back of one of the trucks. “Come out my dear special guests. We have presents for you. Come and see yet another act of generosity from your benefactors.” He was in his typical armor, and the helmet and faceplate covered over him, yet the smug smirk on his face was clearly present, even if hidden by the technology. “Come on foreigners, come and see the blessing given to you.”

  The LT emerged from her tent. She was still wearing the same uniform as when I had seen her the night before. She looked frazzled, but took control of the situation.

  “Thank you aspirant,” our LT said as she looked at the symbols of rank on his armor. I understood that aspirant was the lowest rank of officer in the Red Guard, and that our LT outranked him.

  “Well, yes, Lieutenant Harpy, I am glad you appreciate our efforts here. All fifty armored spacesuits are here. Our Reproduction and Fabrication facility even customized them to suit you, foreigners. No corps colors, for you. Oh dear, that would be the red markings on the armor, and no symbols of Queen for these. You can colorize them as is fitting to own, shall I say, your own your fine unit. I am told those others, the ones living down by Lake One, the Kitties or something like that, will be coming here to claim their gifts as well. Alas, that is as it should be. It is so good for you to finally have quality products made in Queen and not inferior stock, am I right? Of course, I am right, we are the Red Guard. The trucks, however, they are not part of this gift, so you soldier boys and girls, you hurry and have your underlings unload our generous gifts.”

  With a nod the LT indicated that our people should take the armor off the trucks. In a mere few minutes, fifty parcels were stacked neatly on the ground.

  “Goodbye Lieutenant Harpy,” the aspirant saluted. His hand was twisted and not in a formal position, and as he dropped he salute he made a subtle gesture of disrespect. “When your little soldiers are ready, we have set up instructional bases at each of the lakes. You can learn from our expertize about how to properly walk about in armor. You will have plenty of time to master it, and no one expects you to be proficient. After all, you are foreigners.” He repeated his sloppy salute, and departed. His vehicle followed the first in driving away from our camp.

  I remembered Lazlo and his team were at the lake. I rushed back to my tent, and hooked in my transceiver. I scanned for messages, but none were there. Keeping it on and active, I came back and found the others were distributing the armored spacesuits. I expected them to look like the armor which the Red Guards wore, but there were differences. These armored spacesuits were all a dull and drab brown color, while the Red Guard’s armor was glossy blue colored with red piping.

  I walked over to the LT who was helping unpack the armored spacesuits.

  One of the other Blue Tigers, I do not remember his name, said, “They give the Blue Tigers brown armor, which is their not-so-subtle way of insulting us again. Might as well call us turds or dung while they are at it. Snooty supercilious sots.”

  The LT upbraided that soldier, “We got the armor, and they have set up bases at each lake. Ignore the insults. Let them be that way. It is their habitat, and we are guests here.” She winked at me as I approached.

  “LT? Any word from Lazlo?” I asked

  “Yes, but they found no Jellies there. A lot of suspicious tracks by that farm, a multitude of dead dairy cows, and some barriers set up by the Red Guard. Local people already have a beef processing facility set up there to make those dairy cows into meat, but as I expected, the Red Guard claim it was some domestic disturbance where a man murdered his wife and children, and tried to kill all his own cows. Not the truth as you related it.”

  “I know what I saw!”

  “Kalju, I know that. Your account best fits the facts as I know them, and as Lazlo reported them. But like I am telling everyone here, we must work within the parameters of the Red Guard’s limits.” The LT looked thoughtful. “When can you be ready to go?”

  “I can leave whenever I get suited up. May I go to meet Lazlo?” I asked.

  “I am dispersing the troops to all six lakes. You will transport enough armor for all of Lazlo’s team. Start diving in that lake as quickly as you can.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “We still are lacking in effective weapons. However, overnight I considered what you described with your latest encounter. This new armor has a built-in headlamp. Consider setting it to strobing, when you catch up to that Jellie.”

  “You think it was the lights in that barn?” I asked. “Just light?”

  “It is a guess, I admit that. I sent in a summary to my friend in the flight crew. He covertly suggested the idea. I thought the sirens might be part of it, but he said the lights were what to try. Well, I just got word that in some simulations, done by some oceanographers, they found a possible connection. Deep sea creatures shun light, sometimes. No proof, no certainty, and no promises. But think about it Kalju. Those Jellies seem to darken the water with their thick toxins. Maybe that is like a shade for them? Just a wild hare of a guess, but you saw something happen.” She patted me on the shoulder. “On land, we have some other weapons, and from a watercraft we can drop charges. When you go deep in that lake, some vibration saws on poles might be all we can offer for now. Cutters, for all intents and purposes. Those are being assembled right now, and not by Reproduction and Fabrication. I have four people assembling those as we speak. No range, but you cut through a Jellie with one before, so maybe again? Everyone will get one. We are robbing ESRCs to get the vibration saws. Anyway, take one of our few trucks, and head over there as fast as you can. The rest of the teams will disperse to the other lakes.”

  I sprinted over to my tent, quickly gathered all my possessions, and then hustled to the truck.

  “Corporal Kalju!” a soldier ran up to me carrying three long poles. “I have the first of the cutters. These will work underwater, and are powered by the best lufi amalgam batteries I could get my hands on. The LT says you are to have the first. Kill that thing for me!”

  His words brought back recollections of my nightmare as well as my memory of the dairy farmer. “Make more of these quickly, we will need one for everyone.”

  His eyes were bright as he looked at me. “Understood. We do have designs for an underwater gun, of sorts. It fires darts, which measure 7mm by 100mm, and are somewhat effective underwater to about fifteen meters near the surface. That range and accuracy drops rapidly the deeper you descend into the water. It has multiple barrels each with a single jet propelled dart. Like a needle-gun or flechette thrower. That weapon is a complex design, to overcome the hydrodynamic effects, and with the pressurized gas needed, and projectile shapes, it must be made by Reproduction and Fabrication.”

  His eagerness and obvious engineering knowledge reminded me of Kulm, and so I just nodded as he went on.

  “We made the cutters instead, because, well, the underwater gun does not have as much ballistic impact in the water as the bullpup rounds do on land. You know how ineffective the bullpups have been against the Jellies, so we did not consider the underwater gun as an effective weapon. I am thinking of some other way to strike back at the Jellies, but the cutters are the best I could make right now. Sorry, if tha
t is not enough.”

  “Thank you. I will put them to good use. Keep up your efforts!” Even though he was older than me, I felt he was looking up to me. It was sort-of weird. He hustled off and I drove that truck back to where the armor was stacked. Then I loaded in the right number of suits and left.

  The truck made good time to Lake Three, and as I was pulling up to that, I saw that barriers had been set up blocking the way to the dairy farm. There were signs which read, “Crime Scene: Do Not Enter” in vivid colors. I ground my teeth in anger, wishing there was something I could do to let the world know that that dairy farmer had not murdered his family. I could not think of any way to get that message out.

  Lazlo had put sentries all around the lake, but they were spread thin. The instruction base the Red Guard had put up was on the bow end of the lake, by the river, opposite from where that solitary Jellie had attacked that dairy farm. I tried not to think of the child that was killed, but that image floated in the center of my thoughts. I wish that was the only child I had ever seen killed, but alas, wishes are like fog that has no substance. I took the armored suits to each of the Blue Tigers who were in position. In turn, each soldier put on the armored spacesuits. Lastly, I drove to where Lazlo was, as he was nearest to the dairy farm.

  “We have looked all around for that Jellie of yours,” Lazlo stated, “but the shoreline is clear.”

  “I know what I saw.”

  “I am not denying that in any way. I know you saw a Jellie, if for no other reason than you said you did. I believe you, I just do not know where it has gone.”

  “With these armored spacesuits, we can pursue it in the water now,” I said. Looking at Lazlo, I was still surprised by how much his lack of a beard changed his appearance. I missed the old look, but accepted that lack of facial hair was a requirement for us to be safe in the armored spacesuits. My own red hair was chopped very short, and what little beard I had grown was gone.

  “I tried to get a vodnee automacube assigned here,” Lazlo said as he looked across the lake toward where the Red Guard had set up their instruction base. “But our hosts say none are available. They are less than congenial. But one of the others did trick them into giving us a hydrology chart. That has been fed into the transceivers. Serves us as a diagram for the underwater channels from the lake down to the aquifer deep underground.”

  I glanced at the transceiver. The armored spacesuit’s fit and finish were nice, and the controls were just like what I had practiced with back at Raven Academy, with just the added layer of the armor. It sort-of reminded me of the Marine Pressure Suits, but that might have been because I knew I would be taking it deep into the lake. The display on the transceiver showed the outlines, depth, and characteristics of Lake Three. I was surprised at how deep it was in its center. While the lake’s average depth was about one hundred meters, a narrow trench which ran along the center of the lake dropped to a depth of eleven hundred meters. That chasm was only three hundred meters wide, so it was deep and narrow.

  “It will be dark down there,” Lazlo stated as he saw what I was reviewing. “The sky tube’s light will penetrate the water only to about one hundred or so meters. So, at the average bottom of this lake, it will be rather crepuscular, but in that chasm, it will be pitch dark blackness. Our armored suits have lights, and can handle the water pressures, but that chasm is a good place for anything to hide.”

  “Can we drop lights in there from up here?” I asked. “Maybe add some motion sensors and survey equipment?”

  “Excellent ideas, Kalju, and doable,” Lazlo hesitated, “but our guests there had problems with just letting us use the fishing boat Ella is on, and when I asked about acquiring some probing equipment for use on the lake’s bottom, they laughed and refused to even discuss it. They claimed all our training can take place in ten meters of water or less. Something about a bathtub for us children. Their exact words do not bear repeating, but they were quite insulting. We are on our own going down that deep. No deep-water explosives, no combat equipped boats, and no help from the Red Guard.”

  “If a Jellie comes out at their position, they will change their minds. That might be too late.” I had saved the three cutters, as I knew I would be on that first dive into the lake to chase down that Jellie. So, I gave one to Lazlo, and asked, “Who else is going with us?”

  “Like I said, Ella has outfitted a boat, and Prezsky is nearby. Kensington is on the opposite side and overseeing the Blue Tiger sentinels there,” Lazlo replied. “I think three of us will be about all we can spare, unless you want to leave the coast unmonitored. If the Jellie comes out somewhere we need to know it.” He activated the transceiver by voice command and summoned Ella and her boat. “The fishing boat does have some large nets. This lake has abundant fish and supplies a lot of food for the habitat. Each lake is a unique biome of fish. Not as impressive as Styx’s warm water seas, but a decent lake for fresh water. The six lakes here in Queen are all basically the same designed shape, but by alterations in alkalinity, subsurface temperatures, and aquatic flora, they all are unique. The aquifer beneath them is filtered, baffled, and strained to prevent cross contamination from one lake to another.”

  “But all the lakes are connected by the water?” I asked. “A watery passageway? So, the Jellies could contaminate them, like they did in Foreigner and Styx?”

  “That is my fear, so shall we go hunt this one down and eliminate that threat?” Lazlo asked. “Ella and her boat will be here shortly.”

  The noise of the boat drew my attention, and I saw Ella standing by the controls. It was not a big boat, and nothing at all like the military-style boat, the MOP-1, which I had seen fighting the Jellie in that horrible time by the beach. This boat was obviously used for fishing. It had a small cabin very close to the bow, and an open cargo area behind. Being only about twelve meters long, it bounced a lot in the waters. Its cargo hold was empty. A small boom and crane arrangement was at the stern where it could lower nets into the water. It was a nice pearly white color with some festive decorations around the cabin’s windows.

  “Ella, anchor the boat. I will bring you a set of armor. Suit up. Then I want you to just follow us with the boat on the surface,” Lazlo commanded. “Prezsky is down the shore a bit, and she will be suited up by the time we get there.”

  “All the Blue Tigers I saw on the way over here were putting on their armor. Hair is flying off! Barbering has been done on a wide scale! When suited up they are keeping their faceplates open and atmospheric gear at minimal,” Ella replied with a smile. Her own dark hair was cut very short in anticipation of wearing the armor. The shorter hair made her smile appear even bigger, and she looked younger to me. “I thought I might be left out, but I cut my hair back anyway.”

  “We will never leave you out, Ella!” Lazlo said as he met her by the shoreline and passed over a container with the armored spacesuit.

  “Beardless Blue Tigers. I never thought I would see the day,” Ella laughed, but unpacked her own armor and began putting it on.

  I walked out into the water after checking the seals, adjusting, and properly fitting on my armor. Even though it was made in Queen, and the Red Guard had said it was some kind of superior quality suit, I just made sure to double check it all. Mister Fisher taught me well. The transceiver connected me into Lazlo, Ella, Prezsky, and even Kensington on the other side of the lake. Lazlo had set up a private channel for just us, but we would be alerted by any emergency call from any Blue Tiger. With those connections, we began to search for that Jellie which had attacked the dairy farm.

  Entering the lake, I set the armor to have zero buoyancy, so I could just walk on the lake bed. There were some rocky parts near the shoreline, but beyond about ten meters out, the large rocks were gone and the bottom was fairly smooth, but steeper than I expected. As my helmet and faceplate went partially underwater, it was a strange sensation to see the line of the lake’s surface cutting across my vision. The air above and the water below made for an unusual vista,
but I only kept it that way for a short time.

  Underwater, I could see the beauty of Lake Three. The sky tube’s light shone down and illuminated the sandy bottom of the lake. As I walked, I kicked up some materials which clouded the water, but otherwise it was very clear. Plants grew up in various places, and there was an abundance of fish.

  “Communications check,” Lazlo’s voice cut through as his words rang from the speakers in my helmet.

  We all checked in.

  “Kensington? Make sure to have all the Blue Tigers watching the waters. If we scare that Jellie out, let us know right away,” Lazlo commanded.

  “Already alert and doing that,” Kensington replied. “Wish I was in the water with you, but if that alien emerges, we are prepared to hit it with everything we have out here in the air.”