Each of the soldiers was dressed in a survival suit, but of course, the respiration pack and helmet were not required as SUBs didn’t breathe. The suit was necessary outside because its color could be altered to adapt to the terrain, or to a threat. Right now, they were all dark shades of gray and black as they hoped to evade Indra's detection in the night. The suit also masked the body's infrared, or heat, signature.
On Antyllus, a world predominantly blue and cyan in color, the ability to blend in and become camouflaged was not necessarily the best protection. Most of Antyllus's creatures could see in both the full spectrum and in the infrared, so they were able to see their prey as bright, warm, and moving spots in the forest. It was discovered that a display of a concentration of bright and contrasting colors would, in many cases, ward them off or even scare them into flight.
To get past Indra, a diversion was planned. One of the regularly scheduled fence patrols remotely detonated a red phosphorous smoke grenade on the opposite side of the city from where Sel's SUBs were attempting their exfiltration. This would create a cloud Indra's eyes could not penetrate. The hope was that Indra would concentrate all his efforts on that spot.
Kathy and her soldiers got out to the other side of the security wall through a heavy, but narrow, door designed to allow the passage of one person at a time for purposes of maintenance.
Outside the confines of New Roanoke, the first thing that struck Kathy was the darkness. Inside the compound, the security lights made the place literally brighter than an Antyllian day. But once outside the fence, with the last safeguards behind them, the darkness was profound. All the SUBs adjusted their vision; still their ability to see was greatly hindered. Kathy had every other person switch from passive to infrared, and so they pressed on.
After just a few hundred meters beyond the fence, at the crest of a hill, the forest to their left just seemed to end. From the edge of the wood line, Kathy could look down the gently sloping hill at an ocean of beautiful blue ferns.
Kathy stood very still for a moment looking up at the billions of stars in the night sky. She looked down at the soft blue blanket of ferns on the hillside below, and then she turned to look at the explosively illuminated city of New Roanoke. The dome of light over it, and the fingers of light shooting out from it made it look like an electric blue sunrise. It struck Kathy as being completely out of place.
Kathy now focused her mind on her objective: the clinic. They were to simply scout the facility from a distance. They were to observe activity, try to determine the number of personnel present. Determine if they were IIEA or not, if they were armed, and if armed, what is the extent of their defense, and what is the level of their preparedness.
The clinic was about thirty kilometers south from the base of the wall. Staying off the road which was to their west, Kathy figured a ground speed through the forest of approximately four point eight kilometers per hour, so given no unexpected delays, they should arrive an hour to forty-five minutes before morning nautical twilight.
Unexpected delays…two simple words. She rolled them over in her mind. Here in this forest, delay could come in the form of swift death from any number of sources.
To converse over Ismay was to reveal their position to Indra, so COMde communication was in use as well as the spoken word, which Kathy now consider quaint.
In the forest, no trails were to be found, and no animal paths were visible. Fortunately, once they entered under the triple canopy the forest floor became much easier to negotiate.
The satellite system now in orbit around Antyllus could provide Kathy with GPS locations of all the SUBs as well as their direction and speed of travel. But Indra would know as well, so all of Sel's SUBs had their GPS locators turned off. They navigated by the map saved in their memories and their internal compass.
Kathy called Cassie on her internal COMde.
"Yes, ma'am?" Cassie answered.
"Cassie, I'm forward in the column, would you join me please?"
"Yes, ma'am, I am Oscar Mike." Moments later, Cassie and Mitch ran up to where Kathy was walking in the column.
"Yes, ma'am," Cassie reported.
Kathy grinned at the two of them. "Doctor Bristol told me you were joined at the hip."
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Mitch apologized, "I'll return to—"
"Don't be silly, Mitch, I should have asked to see you both, it's okay. Besides…I understand you two are on detached duty, serving under Doctor Bristol as…doctors of xenoanthropology."
Mitch and Cassie glanced at one another. "Ma'am," Cassie smiled, "it's only an honorary title. She likes us, but she has a difficult time with personal relations."
"I've noticed."
"She made us doctors as a form of ingratiation."
"Okay, we're going to go with that to make the good doctor happy. Remove all the insignia off your uniforms under your survival suits. From now on, you two are lab coats—xenoanthropologists—which is indeed the truth, is it not?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Great, then you'd better drop the ma'am stuff. I'm Kathy. Try to think like a civilian from now on."
"Kathy, you don't have to be insulting," Cassie quipped, and everyone chuckled.
"Okay, Doctors, what can you tell me about the Umarraw?"
"Well, the first thing you should know is that they do not call themselves Umarraw," Cassie responded.
"No?"
"No, they call themselves E'lawvat E'meset, it means the living people, in English."
"Where do we get Umarraw?"
"When the first humans landed here and encountered the indigenous people, they asked them, in English, 'who are you?' They answered in their own language saying, 'In umarraw'…which means, I don't understand. Thus, we christened them the Umarraw.
"The same holds true for their name for this planet. Again, they were asked, this time by a Frenchman in his native tongue, what they called the planet. In response, they asked, what do you speak, or Mitaseena Pooho. Ergo, the Frenchman thought they called their world Pooho. Imagine."
"So, there has been a lot of misunderstanding because of the language barrier?" Kathy asked.
"Yes, ma'am…um, Kathy. That was true during the first encounters; however, over the last several years, their comprehension of English, French, German, and Spanish has improved greatly. We don't know how or to what extent."
"Okay, just how smart are they? Are we dealing with the equivalent of Australopithecus here, or what?"
"They are physically very evolved, but a comparison to our own evolution would not be appropriate as their environment throughout their evolution has been very different from our own."
"Honey," Mitch chimed in, "I think Kathy is inquiring about the level of their mental and technological advancement. If I may, the E'lawvat E'meset have mathematics, and engineering skills advanced enough that they once built vast cities on this planet. Their deserted cities still exist out there 'in the wild blue', with buildings over sixty meters tall and great pyramidal temples, reminiscent of those found at Tikal in Central America, over a hundred meters in height. Their mathematical ability and astronomical knowledge allowed them to create a very accurate calendar.
"Several decades before our arrival, something happened here that caused the E'lawvat E'meset to abandon their great cities and start living underground. Eventually some of them came out and began living in modest stone dwellings with thick walls.
"Our satellite photos reveal that the cities seem to have been attacked with weapons large enough to produce craters thirty meters in diameter and ten deep. Several of their cities were entirely demolished. The E'lawvat E'meset tell stories of a great war that decimated their tribes and washed their stones away."
"Craters?" Kathy asked. "How do you know it wasn't meteorites?"
"These craters are quite uniform, and are only found in the cities. Whatever caused them, they were aimed with great precision, whoever it was, they were targeting the larger buildings.
"The Indigs say their
deity, Lu'aya, was angry with the E'meset and brought the fish down on them. When the evil of those of the fish grew too great Lu'aya destroyed them."
"Okay…who are those of the fish?"
"Their words are Quin K'ala. Sometimes the words used are Yot kaltolvat K'ala, which means those from the fish. Remember our study of their language stopped when relations went south. However, their study of Earth languages seems to have continued. Again, we are at a loss to explain that."
"All right," Kathy held out a hand and lowered her head, "by the sound of that translation we can infer that someone was sent to them by a fish."
"It could simply mean people who fish for their food," Cassie explained, "thus, people from the coast or who live near a lot of water. Regardless, their stories tell of them going to war with Ulka mi las tin, what we'd call aliens. Now, before we jump to conclusions, the word could simply mean people from another part of the planet. As with English, the word alien does not necessarily mean beings from another world.
"The war lasted for almost two Earth years. It ended when Lu'aya had enough and the fish people were forced to leave. But the E'lawvat E'meset were almost completely destroyed.
"Their species is on the road to recovery, but let me tell you this one important thing about them. They believe they are their deity's tool. If they believe that Lu'aya wants all of them to die for a given purpose, they will throw themselves into the fray to the last child."
"They are zealots, then?"
"From our perspective, perhaps. But from theirs, they are devotees. I won't call them true believers because the concept of not believing in their deity is unimaginable to the E'meset. Few humans today will admit to a belief in some great all powerful deity. But among the E'lawvat E'meset there are none who do not believe, and never have been."
Kathy nodded gently. "So if some witch doctor has told them to kill us, we're dead."
"Yes. That is true," Cassie responded. "But that is obviously not the case."
"Why?"
"Because they have been following us since we entered the forest. If they wanted us dead, we'd be dead already."
Kathy again opened a channel in her COMde and contacted Dave.
"Dave, are you still with the rear guard? Anything to report?"
"I'm still back here, and no Kathy, there's nothing to report. The forest just closes in behind us."
"Doctor Cassie O'Connell says the Indigs are watching us."
"Doctor O'Connell?" Dave asked.
"I'll let the O'Connell's explain it to you. Just keep your eyes open. It seems we're not alone."
An hour later, the point element, over their COMde, gave the signal to halt. The formation went to ground tactically watching both flanks, front, and rear.
The point then called Kathy. "Charlie Oscar this is spearhead, over."
"Spearhead, Charlie Oscar, go."
"I have something very large in the forest about thirty-five meters in front of us, it's making a noise like a hiss and its eyes are glowing slightly. I can't see the thing for the forest, but the eyes appear to be about three meters apart. So, I'm guessin’ it's big."
"Take no action other than self-defense. Stand by. This is Charlie Oscar, out."
Kathy replayed the description for Mitch and Cassie. "What do you think, Doctors?" she asked.
"My God, it's an Esso Layo'wat!" Cassie gasped, alarmed.
"What do we do? Shoot it, what?" Kathy asked.
"Kathy, they are confronted by a vicious creature. Its eyes are extremely sensitive, and it sees in the infrared."
"How do they defend themselves against it, Cassie?"
Cassie came up on her COMde, and spoke directly to the people up front. "First, activate your suit's visual repellant, then, if you have flashlights, turn them on and point the beams at its eyes."
A moment passed, then spearhead replied, "Ma'am, I don't think this is working."
"Start stepping back, slowly," Cassie advised.
Kathy started to move forward quickly, not running, but moving fast. Mitch and Cassie followed.
"What's it doing?" Kathy asked the point.
"It has stopped moving and has lowered its head to the ground."
"Get out of there!" Cassie shouted over her COMde.
"Run!" Mitch shouted.
Over their communications device, they heard gunfire; they also heard it in the forest in front of them simultaneously. Then, a woman screamed. Kathy, Mitch, and Cassie now ran as fast as they could, arriving in seconds at the scene. Three individuals were just rising to their feet. Kathy was seeing everything through infrared, so in addition to their flashing suits, she noticed their weapons were hot. A forth individual was running into the woods in pursuit. Kathy caught his identifier, James Null. "Null, get back here, now, that's an order!" Kathy shouted.
Mitch and Cassie had moved to Kathy's right to examine something on the ground. Whatever it was it had been warm but was cooling rapidly now.
Kathy turned to the nearest member of the point party. His identifier read Specialist Ralph Middleton. "What happened?" she asked.
The young man's eyes were wide open and Kathy could see that he was cycling through his visual frequencies rapidly as he moved his head quickly around scanning the area, his weapon at the ready.
"We shined our lights on it, ma'am…it crouched and…it grabbed Janice in its jaws and it shook its head rapidly…she just seemed to come apart."
Another woman joined them. She looked to be thirty years old, not that her appearance, or the appearance of any SUB, was a true indicator of age. Her identifier read, 'CDF–CYB–223 – Webster, Brenda, Sergeant First Class.' She reported, "We opened fire on it, ma'am, but the rounds had no effect on the thing at all. The attack was over in about four seconds. I know we hit it. Specialist Janice Stice hit it several times in the head and mouth before…well, like I said our weapons were useless."
"Thank you, Sergeant Webster. Would you look after specialist Middleton for me?" Kathy then called Dave again on her COMde and informed him. Then she asked, "Dave, Private Zolna is carrying a SMAW isn’t he?” Kathy was referring to a Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon.
“Yes, ma’am, he’s got an AT-88 missile launcher.”
“Good, send him up to the point."
Kathy consulted her chronometer. They had lost only a few minutes. She sent Middleton back to replace Zolna; she was worried Middleton was going into shock.
"Sergeant Webster," she called to the woman who had reported, "I did put you in charge of the point, right?"
"Yes, ma'am. I'm in charge, unless you want to make a change."
"No change. We must keep moving. But don't you let anyone go running off into the woods like Null did."
"No, ma'am."
Kathy attempted to contact Chuck back at New Roanoke. He should have had advanced knowledge of this creature before they reached it. All those satellites and the vast number of ground sensors, he should have known. But Chuck was not answering. Kathy ran a self-test and discovered her long range coms were not functioning. She checked with the members of the patrol immediately around her, no one had global communication capability. What the hell is going on?
She checked her COM-de and discovered she still had line of sight communications.
They continued on. Every soldier was now hyper-alert. The forest was no longer just dark and dangerous. Now, it was dark and deadly.
Chapter 8
A Stroll in the Woods
Mr. Wilmington was spending the nocturnal hours studying recently received, highly classified, reports. After which he'd planned to return to his room for a recharge.
He had to approve the construction of a large number of these special SUB housing units with built in recharge stations lately. He had hoped to avoid the introduction of too many SUBs to the Colony. He pointed out to the governments of Earth that though SUBs can do a lot of things normal humans cannot, they do not reproduce and the colony had to grow, or die.
But there
was another reason, a primary reason he did not want more SUBs on Antyllus. He could care less about colony growth. His problem with SUBs sprung from the fact that they almost exclusively came from the military of one of the allied nations. Soldiers, he found, were invariably overly principled individuals who would not follow orders they considered to be either illegal or immoral. They did not understand the principle of 'a means to an end’ or 'survival of the fittest'. He did not want them on his Antyllus.
Mercenaries, on the other hand, do as they are told and were not that much more expensive. Fortunately, the IIEA's private army of mercs currently far outnumbered the tin soldiers of the CDF which was a plus, because few, if any, of these mercenaries had any real training or experience. These people were more hoodlums than soldiers. That's what you got when you needed people without scruples. To Wilmington, it was an acceptable trade-off.
Wilmington's thoughts were interrupted when, over Ismay, came a call from Indra.
"Mr. Wilmington."
"Indra, I'm busy, what is it?"
"A group of individuals has departed the compound without authorization."
"What! How many?"
"Forty. They attempted to deceive me and depart unnoticed, which of course is not possible. The group was armed and headed south. I conclude their destination is the clinic."
"Who are they?"
"Unknown, however as they wore no respiration gear it is apparent they are all SUBs. It is safe to assume, therefore, that the CDF is responsible for this expedition."
"Steinherz." Wilmington mumbled through clenched teeth. "Indra, inform the good General I'll want to see him in my office in one hour."
Five minutes later, Indra again contacted Mr. Wilmington, "Sir, the general sends his regards and instructs me to inform you that he is not available at this time. Your requested meeting will have to take place in his office at 10:15 hours in the morning. Otherwise, he will be available over his COMde for another hour."
The Vampires of Antyllus Page 11
