Starship Valor (The Galactic Wars Book 5)

by Tripp Ellis

  “Who is that?" Walker asked.

  “Probably her boyfriend, Jasper,” Harlan said.

  "Ex boyfriend," Lily corrected. She stepped onto the porch to head him off. She closed the door behind her.

  “She can’t seem to get rid of that one,” Harlan said.

  “Understandable.” Walker could hear them arguing outside. He tried not to eavesdrop, but every now and then the conversation got rather heated.

  Lily stormed back inside and slammed the door behind her. She looked furious. “What part of I don't want to see you anymore does that guy not understand?”

  Walker peered out the window and watched the man storm to his hover-truck. He looked back to the house and glared at Walker.

  Jasper opened the door and hopped into the truck and sped away. Walker knew this guy was going to be trouble.

  28

  Walker

  “The curfew is going to make it hard to travel after dark,” Lily said. “But I hear there is a resistance meeting at the Miller farm. Do you want to go?”

  Walker thought about this for a moment. "I'll check it out. You stay here."

  “They don’t know you. They’ll never let you in.”

  “These kinds of meetings can be dangerous. You can bet the synthetics are looking to break up any underground network."

  “I’m a big girl. I can handle myself.”

  “I’m sure you can.”

  Lily arched an eyebrow at him. "I'm going with you, and that's the end of the discussion."

  After nightfall, Walker and Lily snuck through the cornfield, heading toward Chuck Miller’s farm. The full moon lit their path as they crept between the rows. Walker hobbled along, still not able to put his full weight on his leg.

  “Are you sure you're going to make it?" Lily asked.

  “I’ll be fine."

  "Just don't reopen the wound.”

  At the end of the field, they hopped the barb wire fence and cut across the wheat field on the Johnson’s property. Old man Johnson's dog chased them through the field. Walker wasn’t in any condition to run. He just stopped and let the dog come to him.

  The border collie stopped a few feet away and barked at Walker, but didn't attack.

  “Be quiet, Duke,” Lily hissed.

  Duke ignored her.

  Walker knelt down and pulled out a doggy treat from his pocket. He held it in his palm. “Here boy.”

  Duke stopped barking and raised his brow, intrigued.

  “Come on, Duke,” Walker said.

  Pretty soon, Duke was chomping on the treat. Walker pet his head and scratched his chin. Walker never met an animal he couldn't get along with. Bugs were an entirely different story. But dogs—no problem.

  Miller's farm was 2.5 miles away. Walker and Lily continued through the wheat field and Duke followed along, probably hoping for another treat.

  They reached the fence line to Miller's farm. Walker stopped and surveyed the property. He could see a few people entering the basement doors at the exterior of the house. Walker and Lily climbed the fence. The dog stayed behind—he knew where his boundaries were.

  They marched through the field of soybeans, toward the basement. Chuck Miller stood at the door with a shotgun, greeting people and ushering them down into the basement. His eyes darted around frantically, and he caught sight of Walker and Lily long before they got close.

  Lily waved, and he seemed to recognize her.

  Walker kept scanning the perimeter. Resistance operations were tricky. All it would take was one informant to tip off the authorities, and the whole organization could come crumbling down. During resistance operations, civilians rat each other out all the time for various reasons. Maybe you want to take out your competition and business. Maybe you got yourself in trouble and you need a get out of jail free card. Or maybe you're just plain jealous.

  Despite his reservations, Walker knew that a successful resistance effort was going to be crucial if mankind was going to escape oppression by the synthetics.

  “Mr. Miller, this is Commander Walker, UPDF Navy,” Lily said.

  “It's a pleasure to meet you, Commander."

  “Likewise, sir." The two shook hands. “How many are you expecting tonight?"

  “50. We sure could use someone with your experience."

  “Do you know of any other cells?"

  “I know there's one down in Franklin, and another in Columbus. The main leadership is out of Nova York. From what I'm told, it’s led by Admiral Slade herself.”

  Walker's eyes went wide. “So she's alive?"

  “Do you know her, Commander?"

  Walker nodded. "I need to find her.”

  “Marcus is my contact with the Nova York cell. I'm sure we can help you find her."

  “I’d appreciate that."

  Chuck motioned them toward the steps. "Come on in. Make yourself at home. It's about time to get the meeting started."

  Lily and Walker descended the steps.

  Chuck scanned the field one last time, then crawled into the cellar and pulled the double doors shut.

  The basement was stale and musty, and was lit by a single bulb in the center of the room. The walls were lined with mason jars of canned fruits and vegetables. Men and women of all ages gathered around. Chuck introduced Walker to the crowd, and he was instantly bombarded with questions.

  "Is the military planning a counterattack?” a man asked.

  “What's left of the fleet?" a young woman said.

  “Where's the rest of your company?” someone else asked.

  Walker surveyed the inquisitive faces. He paused for a moment, thinking about how to address their concerns. He wasn't going to blow smoke up their asses, but he didn't want to send them into a panic either. “I can't discuss details of classified operations, but I can assure you that the UPDF will make every effort to liberate New Earth from oppression. I'm not going to lie. The odds are slim, and it won't be easy. You're going to have to fight. You may get bloody. You may die.”

  “We’re all willing to do what it takes,” Chuck said.

  Walker noticed Jasper in the crowd, glaring at him.

  “How do we fight them? Their armor is too strong for small arms fire?” someone asked.

  “We can't stand toe to toe with these things. Hit-and-run tactics. Guerrilla warfare. Neural disruptors may be temporarily effective. But these robots are highly sophisticated and adaptable. Any weaknesses that we may be able to exploit will only be temporary. They'll learn to compensate and adjust.”

  “What you're saying isn’t very encouraging," a woman said.

  “I wish I had more answers for you, but I don’t.”

  A young kid, maybe 14, stepped forward. “I've noticed encrypted data packets transmitted at routine intervals. They have been consistent every 15 minutes since the beginning of the occupation."

  “System updates?" Walker asked.

  “I think so. See, I think each one of these mechanized soldiers is connected to the network, relaying data in real time. Then each device is securely updated. New mission objectives, firmware updates, etc.”

  Walker seemed impressed.

  “I sort of geek out on this stuff."

  Walker smiled. "I can tell. What’s your name?"

  “Isaiah. I’ve been trying to break the encryption, but I don't have enough system resources."

  “What would it take to break the code?”

  “More processing power. As it stands, it's gonna take my machine 10 years of crunching numbers to crack the encryption." The boy brushed through his hair as he thought about it for a moment. "Well, there might be a quicker way.”

  “I’m all ears, kid,” Walker said.

  29

  Tyler

  At the north entrance to the compound, there were several massive dump trucks. But these were no ordinary trucks—they were HK Behemoths. State-of-the-art mining dump trucks. They had 8 wheels that were 12 feet in diameter, at a cost of 62,000 credits each. A turbine engine provide
d 9,600 horsepower and propelled the vehicle at a maximum speed of 80 miles per hour. The monstrosity could carry 500 tons of rock and weighed 82 tons, unloaded.

  Tyler scanned the area on his PDU. "We'll use one of these to reach Station 5.”

  “Shit, I call shotgun,” Faulkner said. “I ain't riding in the back of that thing."

  The high truck bed made for a good defensive position, but it was completely exposed. The creatures were fast and nimble. They could scale the sides of the truck with ease. It would take a hell of a lot of firepower to hold them off—and a lot of luck.

  “How do you plan on getting to the damn thing?” Petrov asked. “We’re not going to last 2 seconds outside of this room.”

  It was a good question, and Tyler didn't have the faintest clue. He kept studying the schematics of the complex on his PDU.

  O’Malley had taken a turn for the worse. His eyes were glazed, and his face was sunken. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His arm was discolored, and the skin edging out from underneath the bandages had changed in texture. It was scaly and hard. Deep blue streaks spidered up his arms. His voice was listless. “Hey, Chief. I'm not feeling so good."

  Just as he finished the words, he collapsed.

  Donovan rushed to him. She peeled O'Malley's eyes open. They were rolling back into his skull. O'Malley's body started to convulse and twitch. He shook for a moment, then passed out. His body went still.

  Donovan checked for a pulse. O'Malley was still alive and breathing, but completely unresponsive.

  “He'll stay like that until the mutation completes,” Horton said.

  “How long will that take?” Donovan asked.

  “Maybe a day. Maybe less. I’ve seen it happen in as little as a few hours.”

  Donovan’s face tensed. She took a closer look at O’Malley’s hand. It had already changed structurally. It was somewhere in between human and insect. A gnarly, bloodied, pus filled transitional stage.

  “I’m telling you, the best thing you can do for him is end it now," Horton said. "You're going to have to kill him sooner or later."

  Tyler grimaced. It was hard to argue with Horton at this point. There was no doubt that O'Malley was changing. Soon he would pose a threat to the rest the platoon.

  “It’s too bad we don’t have any bug repellant,” Faulkner said in jest.

  Tyler's eyes lit up. “Faulkner, you’re a genius.”

  Faulkner grinned, feigning modesty. “Well, you know.”

  Tyler stormed to the back of the med center, into the cold storage room. He scanned the shelves until his eyes came across dozens of five gallon buckets of diethyl-tetra-methylatroxin (DETMT). The Army had developed it back in 2312, and it was still standard issue to troops in jungle environments. Nobody was exactly sure how it worked, but it appeared to disrupt the olfactory senses of insects, making them oblivious to prey. In clinical studies, most insects had a downright dislike of the scent.

  It made sense that an outpost situated deep in the jungle would have some stocked away. But either the stuff didn’t work against these creatures, or nobody at the facility had been using it.

  Though the UDA classified it as generally recognized as safe, there were multiple peer-reviewed studies that cast doubt on that classification. Some even going as far as to label it a known carcinogen.

  Tyler grabbed a bucket from the shelf, and hauled the stuff across the med center to the inner airlock door. The bucket clanked against the floor as he set it down. Then he jogged to the store room and grabbed a mop.

  Back at the airlock, he opened the inner door and pushed the bucket into the chamber. He pried off the lid and plunged the end of the mop into the oily liquid. Then he swabbed the floor in the area around the outer airlock doors.

  The sharp chemical smell filled his nostrils. This was a 100% solution. It was enough to make your eyes water and your skin itch. The stuff you could buy in stores was only 5% DETMT. This concentrated version was meant to be mixed down.

  Tyler pulled the bucket back into the med center and closed the inner airlock hatch.

  “You're not really going to do what I think you're going to do, are you?" Faulkner asked.

  “There's only one way to find out if this stuff works," Tyler said.

  “Yeah, but I’d feel a whole lot better with two doors in between us and them.”

  “Better get your weapon ready, just in case."

  Tyler pressed a button and activated the outer airlock doors. The battered doors slid open. The horde of insects were still outside. They recoiled at the aroma of DETMT. Until now, they had been desperately trying to get into the med center. But they had suddenly lost all interest.

  The DETMT was working.

  Not a single one of them tried to venture into the airlock.

  Tyler swabbed the area around the inner airlock door. Then he slathered the DETMT all over himself. He covered all of his exposed skin as well as his fatigues and helmet. His skin was tingling from the high concentration of chemicals. This was definitely going to leave a rash, he thought. But he’d take a rash over getting bitten by one of those things.

  “If I were you, I would apply that stuff liberally,” Tyler said.

  The rest of the squad took turns drenching themselves in the repellent.

  “Grab a few more buckets of this stuff,” Tyler commanded. “We're going to need as much as we can carry.”

  The team readied themselves at the edge of the door, weapons in the firing position. If things went wrong, they were ready to blast these creatures to bits. At least until their ammo ran out.

  Tyler's hand hovered over the button to open the inner airlock door. It was the moment of truth. The repellent had kept the bugs away from an empty room, but could it keep them away from a juicy meal? Tyler sure hoped so.

  30

  Walker

  "Why are we wasting our time with this?" Jasper said. "We need to be talking strategy, acquiring weapons, making battle plans.”

  “Let the boy finish," Walker said.

  “Who put you in charge?” Jasper said.

  Walker’s eyes narrowed at him.

  “I think the commander has significantly more experience than you, Jasper." Chuck said.

  “Go on, Isaiah,” Walker said.

  “It's likely that each soldier has the encryption key hardcoded.”

  “So if we captured one of the machines, you could figure out the code?”

  “I think so."

  “How do we capture one of those machines?” Chuck asked.

  Walker's eyes found the sheriff standing among the crowd. "An STN 50 might do the trick. Pretty common among law enforcement. Sheriff?”

  “They came in and confiscated all of my weapons. Even took my tasers and batons. I'll check with some of the other departments, see if anyone was able to hold onto one."

  "So what if we are able to capture one of these things?” Jasper asked. “What good is that going to do us?"

  “Duh,” Isaiah said. “We use it to crack the encryption key and push an update through the system to disable them and lock out further updates.”

  Jasper gave him a dirty look.

  “I like the way you think, kid,” Walker said.

  “At least we have some kind of plan," Chuck said. "In the meantime, let's focus on gathering weapons and ammunition. And keep under the radar.”

  “Since this is a farming community, I take it fertilizer is readily at hand?" Walker asked.

  There were plenty of nods in the crowd.

  “You planning on growing a garden?" Jasper asked.

  “Ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel oil is a powerful improvised explosive device,” Walker said. "I've got blasting caps and C-15 to use as primary charges. We can definitely become a thorn in their side."

  The rumble of thrusters startled the crowd. An enemy vehicle hovered overhead. Eyes filled with terror. The mason jars on the shelves rattled. The air was thick with tension.

  After a few moments, the craft left. The thruster
s faded into the distance. The crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief.

  “It’s dangerous to have meetings with crowds of this size,” Walker said. “I’d keep it small from here on out. Find ways to disseminate information and coordinate activities.”

  Chuck agreed. The meeting adjourned, and Walker hobbled up the stairs. He stepped into the fresh night air. It had gotten rather stuffy in the cramped basement. The sound of crickets filled his ears as he scanned the perimeter and the sky.

  No sign of trouble.

  Chuck thanked Walker as the crowd filed out and quietly disappeared into the fields. Jasper brushed past Walker, trying to intimidate him. Walker just chuckled. Even with a bad leg, Walker would wipe the floor with this punk.

  “Just ignore him,” Lily said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  Walker took another glance at the sky. He and Lily marched into the soybean field and hopped the fence to the Johnson farm. Duke was waiting for them, and Walker tossed him another treat.

  Walker could hear the rumble of thrusters in the distance. It sounded like the craft was returning. “Come on. We need to move.”

  Walker hopped as fast as he could through the wheat field. They made it to the edge of the field, then shuffled down a slope to a creek bed. Walker crawled into a cement culvert underneath the dirt road that ran alongside old man Johnson’s property.

  Lily followed him.

  The culvert was wet and muddy at the bottom, and their clothes were covered with dirt. But it was a good place to hide. It obscured them from view, and the cement would likely block their thermal signatures.

  Walker heard the craft approach. It flew overhead, then banked around and made another pass. The sound of the engines faded as it flew back in the direction of Miller's farm.

  Lily started to crawl from the culvert, but Walker stopped her. “Wait.”

  They sat still for a moment. The sound of the enemy craft was undetectable.