by Isaac Hooke
“No,” Marlborough said. “If there are any stealth craft out there, a LIDAR burst will light up our position like a beacon. Come back down.”
10
Eric retreated to the Devastator, then squeezed himself into a ball to fit the cockpit, and the external hatch sealed. His consciousness returned to the POV of the Devastator, and he descended the trunk to the forest floor.
When he reached the ground, Marlborough was already giving the latest orders: “Dickson, take us forward. I want a traveling overwatch formation. Three overwatch groups: two groups of mechs, followed by a third group of tanks and combat robots on drag.”
Dickson spoke up: “Eagleeye, send the Ravens forward. I’m going to assume that the top of the map matches the northern point of the compass. So we head in that direction, to the north. Scorpion, your two Ravagers get to be on point. You’ll join me, Bambi, Brontosaurus, Slate, Mickey, and Tread in T1. We proceed forward, zig-zag pattern, five meter separation. Sarge, Crusher, Traps, Hicks, Dunnigan, Eagleeye, Frogger, you form overwatch team T2, follow fifty meters behind. Support troops compose T3, and follow another fifty meters behind.”
Eagleeye dispatched the Ravens through the trees ahead. Meanwhile Eric ordered the two Ravagers to take point ahead of Dickson, and then he assumed his position five meters behind the staff sergeant, offset a short distance to the left. His heavy feet broke through the wiry undergrowth and crunched into the yellow snow below. The other members of T1 also took their places, offset random amounts to the left and right behind him every five meters as per the zig-zag formation.
T2 followed fifty meters behind them, with the tanks and robots in T3 coming another fifty meters after them, using the paths carved through the wiry undergrowth as tracks. The tanks could have probably carved their own route through the undergrowth, with the thick shovel blades they carried on their forward sections, but the faster route was following in the wake of the bigger units.
Eric piped in the feeds from the two Ravagers on point, and placed them in the upper right and left of his vision, on either side of the rear view video feed he kept at the top center of his HUD.
Now I have all my bases covered…
The gravity was heavier here, at one point two Gs, and at first Eric felt the pull as he walked, dragging him down into the snow; he simply amped up his servomotor output and thereafter didn’t notice any difference. It did cause a slightly higher drain on his power cell, but the dim light imparted enough of a charge so that his battery level remained relatively constant.
Their passage was relatively loud, giving the sounds of breaking undergrowth, and the stomp of their heavy feet in the snow, which overrode any noise produced by their servomotors. Anything out there would have warning of the Bolt Eater’s approach well in advance.
The Ravens soon reached the limits of the map data, and began to chart new territory. Well, new only in a sense, because the terrain otherwise remained the same, with the distant boughs relentlessly canopying the sky, and those trunks jutting like thick pillars from the ground.
He searched the trees, forest floor, and upper branches around him carefully as he walked, but didn’t see any sign of any alien surveillance equipment. He overlaid different visual data over his camera feed, including infrared, and LIDAR, but there wasn’t anything obvious out there.
The team occasionally halted so that Eric could climb one of the trunks and scan the canopy from above the tree tops, but he never spotted anything out of the ordinary. The forest always continued to every horizon.
Still, despite the quietude, and the lack of any obvious technology around them, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the team was being watched. This was an alien world, after all, and any surveillance equipment would likely assume an unfamiliar form. It was possible there were cameras all around them, and the team simply couldn’t see them on any of the spectral bands, or even LIDAR.
“Man, so dead here,” Slate said. “Can you imagine if we came all this way only to find an empty world? That would be the irony of the century. And I’m starting to believe it. I mean, look at this place. There are no signs of life whatsoever. No birds. No warthogs, no nothing.”
“Why would there be birds?” Eagleeye said. “We’re on an alien world.”
“Well I mean bird equivalents, obviously,” Slate said. “Not like the birds found on Earth.”
“Sure you do,” Eagleeye said.
“Yeah, whatever bitch,” Slate said.
“I think it’s cute how he said warthogs,” Bambi commented. “Instead of wild boar, for example.”
“Yeah, that’s my African roots showing themselves,” Slate transmitted. “Hey by the way, Bambi, we haven’t slept with each other in a long time. About time we remedied that, no? What say you and I hang out later… or maybe even now? We’ll keep it to ourselves, and won’t tell Scorp.”
“I can hear you…” Eric said.
“Oh yeah, whoops, sorry bro,” Slate said. “Switching to private.”
“He’s only baiting you,” Frogger said.
“I know,” Eric told him.
Crusher tapped in on a private line. “Hey.” Her avatar appeared concerned on the lower right of his HUD.
“What’s up?” Eric asked. “You’re not trying to distract me on Slate’s behalf, are you?”
“What?” Crusher replied. “No, of course not.”
“The timing is suspect…” Eric pressed.
“I seriously doubt Bambi has opened up a private line to him,” Crusher said. “If you don’t believe me, ask to check her logs.”
“No, I trust her,” Eric said. He didn’t want to ask her for something like her call logs—it would only sow feelings of indignation, which in turn would lead to doubts, and eventually distrust, because she would ask to see his in turn. Trust was one of the keys to the success of his relationship, and he wasn’t going to do anything to put that relationship in jeopardy, not now when they were in the middle of a mission.
“Good,” Crusher said. “We’ve been together twenty years, we can’t stop trusting each other now.”
“Yes,” Eric agreed. “So, what’s on your mind?”
“Well, actually, I feel like I could use a good lovemaking session in VR,” Crusher replied. Before Eric could answer in the positive or negative, she added hastily: “But I’m too afraid to let my Accomp pilot my mech in the interim. I feel like we’re being watched… like we could be attacked any second.”
“I get that feeling, too,” Eric said.
“Should we tell the Sarge?” Crusher asked.
“No point,” Eric said. “I’m sure he knows. We all do. Look at how intensely we’re scanning the trees.”
“But that’s just our training,” Crusher said.
“Is it?” Eric said.
“Could also be our fear of the unknown,” Crusher said. “For all we know, some creature could come crushing through the forest at us at any time. And probably will.”
“I agree,” Eric said.
“Look at this,” Brontosaurus said over the main comm, and Eric dismissed the private call with Crusher.
Eric switched to the point of view of Brontosaurus, and saw that he had paused before one of the trees. There was a large gash in the side; it had to be fresh, because the tree was bleeding sap.
“There are also small trails through the snow here,” Mickey said. “Look like rodent equivalents, maybe. Well, except these rodents are the size of house cats.”
Eric glanced at the ground, and to the far right, he saw small trails in the snow, just as Mickey had described.
“And this would be guano equivalent,” Frogger said.
Eric switched to Frogger’s POV. There was a large pile of a gooey black substance next to another tree near his mind clone.
“So, we’re not alone after all,” Marlborough said. “Keep sharp, Bolt Eaters.”
They continued the march.
“Notice how the terrain seems to be slowly sloping upward?” Hicks asked.
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“I did,” Dunnigan said. “That’s good, I think, because it means we might reach a lookout at some point. Or at least a spot head and shoulders above the surrounding terrain, where we can get a good look at everything nearby.”
“Speaking of which, Scorpion?” Marlborough said.
Eric climbed to the tree tops once more but once again there was nothing out there.
The Bolt Eaters continued the march for the next hour; shortly thereafter, the two Ravagers on point spotted a herd of small creatures that had escaped the notice of the Raven scouts.
The herd raced away through the snow. The individual animals looked like small spotted white leopards with six legs rather than four, and with two horned heads. Eric recorded the whole thing, and then he transmitted the recording to the others.
“Cute,” Bambi said. “Except for the multiple heads.”
“I like the multiple heads,” Slate said. “Reminds me of my bifurcated dick.”
“You’ve got a bifurcated dick?” Hicks said.
“The degeneracy of VR,” Eagleeye commented.
“Hey, having a bifurcated dick is not a sign of degeneracy,” Slate said. “It’s a sign of advancement to a higher state of being. Every man should get one. VR or not. Hell, if I was still human, I’d go and get myself an operation. Once you’re able to have sex with two girls at the same time, you can’t go back.”
“There he goes again with the two girls at once thing,” Eagleeye said. “You know, I’m convinced he’s jealous of you, Scorp. Despite his denials.”
“What?” Slate said. “No way I’m jealous. I told you I have all the girls I want already. It’s the sameness of the same girls for twenty years that bothers me.”
“I thought you were more into fembots than real girls anyway?” Tread said. “You did freeze your brain with one all those years ago.”
“People change,” Slate said.
“As do fetishes,” Tread commented.
“Wasn’t a fetish,” Slate said. “Anyway, did I ever tell you that they thawed out the fembot with me?”
“Yeah, what happened to her?” Eagleeye said.
“Well, by the time they finally revived me, I found out she’d left me for another bot,” Slate said.
“Serves you right,” Eagleeye said. “That’ll teach you to love a robot more than a human being.”
“Hey, we’re all robots now, in case you hadn’t noticed,” Slate said.
“Quiet, people.” Marlborough’s HUD avatar raised a hand over his head. “I’ve had it up to here with conversations about bifurcated dicks and fembots.”
“Sorry, Sarge,” Slate said.
They continued north at good speed, but spotted no other life, nor any machines. They did, however, encounter ample signs that smaller animals had fled from their path, judging from the spoor, and tracks in the snow.
The three teams paused so that Eric could climb up to a lookout above the canopy once more.
“I guess those six-legged leopard things were deaf or something,” Hicks said while Eric was clambering the latest trunk. “Because all these other animals heard us coming from a kilometer away, and compensated accordingly.”
“Compensated accordingly,” Slate said. “Who talks like that? Pricks, you’re really embracing your machine side, aren’t ya, boy?”
“Don’t call me Pricks,” Hicks said. “Stain.”
“Stain!” Slate said. “I don’t know how you can get Stain out of Slate, bro! That’s quite the stretch.”
“You’re right,” Hicks said. “I meant Crate.”
“Doesn’t insult me,” Slate said.
“Well it should,” Hicks said. “Because your brain case is an empty Crate.”
“Har, har, har,” Slate said. “Pricks wins the day with his insanely humorous names yet again! Um, no.”
“I always liked Bait,” Eagleeye said. “Since Slate is the one we use to draw all the enemies away from us in a pinch.”
Eric reached the top then; he’d already switched to his Cicada, and was looking out at the swaying trees around him. “Still nothing out here. Though the sun is directly overhead. I guess that means we have another eighteen hours of daylight.”
Eric returned to his Devastator, loaded in, and continued the climb down.
“Ravens just picked something up,” Eagleeye said. “We’ve got company. And it’s big.”
11
Eric reached the ground just as the two Ravens came whirring back. He heard a distinct, dim buzzing just underneath the sound of their rotors. The hum grew in volume until he sighted the source: behind the scouts, towering almost to the top of the canopy, were three big… flying worms, for lack of a better word. They had the wings of dragonflies attached to the corrugated, white bodies of larvae. Those bodies drooped downward in an arc so that the tails were facing the Bolt Eaters, almost like scorpion tails in reverse. Four thin, white legs drooped down near the front areas, while long pincer-like mandibles emerged from where a maw would be on an Earth-based insect; those mandibles were sharp, and could have definitely formed the gash the team had spotted previously in one of the trees.
Before Marlborough could give any orders, the trio of creatures attacked; from the tails, weblike nets erupted, pummeling straight toward Eric’s Ravagers.
He switched to Bullet Time and steered the Ravagers out of the way. The nets struck the surrounding foliage, which they entangled.
“If those things hit us, I have no doubt we’ll be pinned, probably for a long time,” Dickson said.
“The Dragonworms are coming in!” Bambi said.
Those worms moved forward, accelerating so that despite Eric’s Bullet Time, they still appeared to be coming in quite fast. From their mouths fired laser weapons. At least, Eric assumed they were lasers, though he saw nothing on the visible band. But the Ravagers reported multiple impacts on their hulls. Eric deployed their ballistic shields, along with his own.
“We’re taking laser impacts!” Eric said; he ducked behind his shield. Red hot spots appeared along the inside as it absorbed the blows.
“What the frick!” Slate said. “Organics shooting lasers from their mouths? That’s impossible!”
“Not if they were bioengineered,” Frogger transmitted. “It’s possible to mimic the focusing lens of a laser via organic matter. Take the lens found in the human eye, for example. Make it big enough, and then provide a luminescent organ capable of emitting photons at synchronized frequencies, and you have yourself an organic laser.”
“Ooo, you’re so smart Froggy Boy,” Slate said. “Me and you should take this discussion to our rooms later. It so turns me on.” He had deployed his own ballistic shield, and was firing his plasma weapon up at the Dragonworms.
Bambi engaged her jumpjets, and hurtled skyward. She slipped underneath one of the incoming worms, and fired her plasma weapon at near point blank range, causing the central body to explode. The creature fell in a gory mass of wings and tissue.
She jetted higher, behind another creature, and latched onto it with her eight legs. Her weight pulled the Dragonworm down. Before she hit the ground, she squished it by tightening her legs, then jetted to the side so that she landed on empty ground.
“Disgusting things,” Bambi said.
Brontosaurus, Slate, and Mickey made short work of the final creature, reducing it to a gooey pile on the ground.
“Well, that was easy,” Brontosaurus said.
“Those were only the lead scouts,” Eagleeye said.
Eric heard the characteristic buzzing sound of more Dragonworms. A whole lot more. He gazed into the distant forest, and saw that the entire space between the undergrowth and canopy ahead was completely packed with them, forming a long, impenetrable line from north to south.
“This is going to be fun,” Slate said. “And I really mean it.”
“T2, forward to T1’s position!” Marlborough said. “Form a defensive line! Traps, Bambi, get those Savages forward. Tread, I want the tanks in range behi
nd us!”
“You got it,” Tread said. “But maybe this is a good opportunity to try out my black hole weapon?”
“Go ahead,” Marlborough said. “Try to create the spacetime rip as far away from the rest of us as possible.”
“Thank you, Sarge,” Tread said. His Rhino dashed past Eric, and aimed between the trees ahead. He unleashed a bright bolt that traveled into the forest, above the undergrowth and toward the incoming Dragonworms. It winked out of existence about three hundred meters away, forming instead that characteristic tear in reality.
Except the suction was far greater than the wormhole the team had used to arrive here. It kicked up hurricane force winds.
Eric slammed his fists into the ground, hard, digging in, and he commanded the Ravagers to do likewise.
“Damn it,” Eagleeye transmitted. “You could have warned us you were going to create a black hole, versus a wormhole.” Since the words weren’t spoken, but transmitted over the comm band, Eric heard him easily above the raging wind, which his noise cancelers had kicked down in volume a few notches anyway.
“Sorry,” Tread said. “I thought you understood.”
“Can someone in T1 grab my Ravens?” Eagleeye said.
The members of T2, including Eagleeye, hadn’t yet closed with T1, and probably wouldn’t now, not with that black hole in play. The Ravens were struggling overhead, being pulled past by the forces; they passed by just above Eric, and he released the ground, leaped upward, and snatched them both from the air, shoving them into a leg storage compartment. He was pulled forward in the meantime, until he landed and rammed his fists into the ground once more.
“Thanks, Scorp,” Eagleeye said.
“Don’t mention it,” Eric said.
He gazed through the trees ahead, and he watched as several nearby Dragonworms were sucked in, their innards spaghettifying moments before vanishing. Some of the closest trees to the black hole were uprooted and devoured as well, and a small half-sphere was carved into the ground directly below as clumps of snow and soil were lifted away.
