We practiced the low-gravity gliding learned on Io and Charon. I would have liked to be home in the solar system right now. The Forerunner artifact continued to glow and radiate strangely. I no longer looked at it, although I was much too aware of it in my peripheral vision.
We beat the Fifth Legion reinforcements to the shattered Lokhar dome. The shards of the thing looked like diamonds; its controls seemed to be plant-like bulbs.
“Freaking weird stuff here,” Rollo said.
“Look,” Ella said over the helmet-comm. “I’ve found a Lokhar body.”
Everyone scrambled to her. Ella stood beside a seven-foot suited creature with tiger features. The Lokhars—if that’s who this was—had a humanoid shape. This one lacked a tail.
“Natural predators,” Ella said. “I imagine they are ferocious foot soldiers.”
“Makes it surprising then that they’d use bio-terminators on us on Earth,” I said.
“What is your reasoning?” Ella asked.
“If they’re natural predators—warriors,” I said. “Wouldn’t they prefer to fight it out instead of using poison?”
“An interesting thesis,” Ella said.
“It looks like we’re going to test how good of warriors they are real soon,” Rollo said. “Dmitri just radioed. A couple of enemy platoons are on their way here.”
With the warning, I tried to set up an ambush. Maybe the bio-suits helped and made us harder to spot on radar. Did the Lokhars use personal sets? It might have helped us if we did. We engaged them among some low peaks behind the shattered dome.
In our firing line and from behind rocks and low trenches, we beamed with our lasers. The Lokhars wore powered armor, or something like it. There must have been forty against our twenty. The ambush worked after a fashion. We cut down five, maybe six Lokhars the first volley.
The enemy went to ground or to the surface, and we found ourselves in a bitter gunfight. They fired RPG-like missiles and a white ray akin to what beamed from their domes. A touch of a ray curled a trooper’s bio-suit, exposing human skin to space. Violent decompression killed the trooper before the suit could repair itself. Blood drifted in a mist as the man collapsed.
A Lokhar single ship zoomed overhead, and from it, a legionary beamed down at us, taking out three of my troopers fast. From on my back and with help from several others, we destroyed the single ship, firing upward.
It gave the Lokhars on the surface time to close with us. They were big and there were more of them, and these were elite soldiers. Without our pulse grenades, they would have won. I and others used the highest setting and threw. The pulses blew powerfully in purple explosions as if we were high on an LSD trip. The explosives shredded the Lokhar battlesuits. Even so, I lost two thirds of the maniple. Fortunately, other maniples landed, joining me, and we low-glided across the rocky surface for the next dome.
This time it was the Lokhar turn to ambush us. Luckily, we had a few hotshots on our side, using their sleds as the enemies had used their single ship, like close air support. The sleds’ rail-guns blasted battlesuits, but one by one, the Lokhars destroyed the sleds. We lost half our troopers, but we beat the ambushing team, destroying every tiger daring to face us.
Death abounded, and it should have worried me and the troopers, but the bio-suits pumped us up with something, pouring killing-lust into our bloodstreams. I felt elated and more than eager to finish it with these Lokhar giants.
Much of the fight became a blur of action, of targeting and beaming alien butchers. We reached the next Lokhar dome, and broke in with our pulse grenades. It shouldn’t have happened, but I think we caught some of the Lokhar dome-gunners by surprise.
In an orgy of bloodshed, we killed the tigers, as we began calling them, and successfully opened up the first asteroid to the invasion.
That’s when it happened, perhaps several minutes after our victory. I’m still not sure about the timing of it.
“Creed, you gotta come and take a look at this,” Rollo told me over the helmet-comm.
I sat slumped in a corner against some Lokhar machinery. My bones and joints pulsed with radiation pain. Once we returned to the battlejumpers, we’d all have to spend time in the healing tanks to repair cellular damage.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s got you so excited?”
“The artifact,” Rollo said. “Something is happening to it. You gotta come and look because it’s too hard to explain.”
“I don’t want to look at it,” I said. “The glowing earlier gave me the creeps.
“No, you gotta come see this,” Rollo insisted. “The Lokhars are retreating to it and the thing is becoming fainter by the second.”
I groaned as I stood and float-jumped for an exit. I joined Rollo and Ella on a low hill to the rear of the dome. We looked toward the center of the swarming junk orbiting the torus. The Forerunner artifact glowed with an unearthly light, but even more so than earlier. I shuddered, and I’m not sure why.
“Look,” Ella said, as she pointed at the artifact’s center.
“What am I supposed to be seeing?” I asked.
“The black hole appears to have widened, to have grown,” Ella said.
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“I am a scientist. I am trained to observe and notice the details.”
I’d have to take her word for it. It looked no different to me. What I found impressive was the streaming line of flying Lokhar legionaries and single ships. There was one bigger, bloated vessel. I saw a single ship land on top of it and zoom off seconds later. Was that a fuel tanker? A mother-ship? From all directions they fled the asteroids and headed inward toward the artifact. I’d thought the Lokhars would be like World War II Japanese, fighting to the bitter end and making kamikaze charges at us. These were elite religious troopers and they were fleeing already. That didn’t make sense.
“What do you think the artifact is doing?” Rollo asked.
“Maybe the Lokhars know how to make it detonate,” I said. “If they can’t have it, nobody can.”
“No,” Ella said.
“Do you have an idea what’s going on?” I asked.
“I do,” Ella said.
“Well how about spilling it for us, Einstein?” I asked.
Ella remained silent as she watched, with a small smile on her face.
I watched her for a moment, but finally, almost against my will, I studied the giant artifact. It grew fainter, as if it was in the process of disappearing. Then I’d swear I could see the stars behind it. This was getting weird.
“Should we go back inside the dome?” Rollo asked nervously.
“Why?” I asked.
“Black holes and disappearing ancient Forerunner artifacts seem like they might pump out gamma or X-rays or who knows what kind of radiation at us,” Rollo said. “I’d like more shielding.”
“You’re right,” I said. “Let’s get behind some cover.”
“You’re too late,” Ella said. “It is happening just as I thought it would.”
I swallowed uneasily. I’d been seeing plenty of strange things these past weeks. Why should a faint Forerunner artifact matter? It did, and I can’t tell you why because I don’t know myself.
One moment, the giant torus became fainter yet, so we could hardly see the outlines, and then it was gone. The Lokhars near the object vanished with it. The rest streaming toward the departed artifact kept advancing. Had the thing teleported elsewhere, been destroyed, what had just happened? I didn’t know.
“Was this supposed to happen?” Rollo asked. “Is this what Claath was really shooting for?”
I shrugged, and I turned to Ella. “You’re the Einstein. You seem to know what happened. Did it disappear?”
“Do you mean go invisible?” Ella asked in an amused manner.
“Let’s not play twenty questions,” I said. “Where did it go?”
“As to that, I cannot say,” Ella told us. “The clue is the black hole in the center. Amazing technology
to hold such a thing in place—I would not have believed this unless I had seen it myself.”
“Yeah, why’s that?” I asked.
“What causes the jump routes?” Ella asked. “Why are they there?”
“What’s that have to do with the Forerunner artifact?” I asked.
“Are jump routes a natural phenomenon?” Ella asked in a rhetorical way. “Are they folds in space, oddities caused through natural occurrences? Or were the jump routes created?”
“Why does it make any difference?” I asked.
Ella faced me. “It makes all the difference. If jump routes are artificial—”
“Are you suggesting the Forerunner artifact made the jump routes?” I asked.
“Ah, you’re a clever thinker,” Ella said. “The black hole is the giveaway, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
“It is my belief that the artifact slipped away through a wormhole,” Ella said.
“Then why don’t we see evidence of the wormhole?” I asked.
“A reasonable question,” Ella said. “Yes, why aren’t the rest of the Lokhars sucked into a wormhole? It is an interesting question.”
“Pop goes the thesis?” I asked.
“Not necessarily,” Ella said. “If I had monitoring equipment—”
“Just a minute,” I said. “N7 is hailing me on the command channel.” Using my chin, I clicked a pad inside the helmet. The smooth-skinned android appeared in the HUD of my visor. He seemed to be sitting at the controls of assault ship six.
“You must gather those under your command,” N7 said. “The Lokhars are returning to the maze.”
“You’re retrieving us?” I asked.
“On the contrary,” N7 said. “You must gather your troopers and move deeper into the maze. You must destroy the returning Lokhars before they can regain their positions on the inner asteroids.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “The artifact is gone. This isn’t holy ground anymore. So pick us up and have the Starkiens blast the asteroids into rubble, killing Lokhars. It will be like shooting fish in a barrel. They can slaughter the Fifth Legion.”
“That is an interesting proposal,” N7 said.
“You mean no one else has thought of it yet?” I asked. “Come on, why waste human lives and why waste time? Pick us up and let the Starkiens deal with them. Our battle’s won.”
“Await my word,” N7 said. “I must speak to Naga Gobo concerning your suggestion.” The android vanished from my HUD.
“So what’s up?” Rollo asked, as I turned toward them.
“High command is trying to figure out what to do next,” I said.
“The fight’s over, right?” Rollo asked.
“As a savant,” I asked Ella, “do you think the artifact will reappear here?”
“Hmm,” Ella said. “I hadn’t considered that. In truth, I lack enough data to make a rational prediction. My instincts tell me no, but it might be possible.”
“Yeah,” I said to myself.
I liked Ella’s original explanation about the artifact because it helped dampen my own ideas. The way the artifact had glowed and then grown fainter—it had seemed too much like a stellar ghost or a Flying Dutchman. The thing had seemed supernatural there at the end. That’s something I hadn’t expected from aliens and outer space. I didn’t want it to be supernatural. Black holes, wormholes, jump routes: give me rational and reasonable explanations. I’d once read something by Stephen King, the author explaining how one of the truly most scary things would be for a rock to suddenly start talking to you. It would freak you out, right, because rocks aren’t supposed to talk. Well, Forerunner artifacts made by First Ones who in reality had been angels from Heaven would freak you out, too. I disliked that line of reasoning and preferred Ella’s hard science approach. It fit my view of reality better.
N7 reappeared on my HUD. It was hard to tell, but he seemed grim. His thin lips were downturned. I’d never seen that before. “You must continue the assault,” the android told me. “The victory—”
“Hey, guess what?” I asked. “The object we came to collect is gone, kaput, dis-o-peared. There isn’t any more victory to be won because we’ve already won.”
“Your logic is faulty,” N7 said. “Much of the Fifth Legion remains. You must slaughter them. That is the criteria for victory.”
“Oh right, sure, what was I thinking?” I asked. “Their holy object is gone and now who knows what kind of righteous wrath is pulsating through their tiger veins? No, my plastic friend, now it is time to use the Gatling guns.”
“Your reference fails me,” N7 said.
That didn’t surprise me. The Gatling guns were human in origin from the last Colonial Era. American Indians in the Midwest and African tribesmen had each in turn charged Gatling guns, often in a howling mob. Sometimes, they had been holy warriors, given heavy mojo by their shamans to protect them from the industrial man’s bullets. The mojo always failed against a stream of lead, particularly those hosed from the then ultra-modern Gatling gun. That was the trick: hosing lead. The Gatling guns were the first machine guns. What I was saying to N7 was that it was time to forget about hand-to-hand or visor-to-visor ground pounding and to start hosing the enemy with high-tech weaponry. I didn’t want to lose any more humans in a useless fight.
“Does Naga Gobo still have a problem bringing his ships near the maze to blast the Lokhars to bits?” I asked.
“Yes,” N7 said.
“I could understand it before,” I said, “but not once the artifact is gone.”
“The object could always return,” N7 said.
“Does Naga Gobo know this to be possible?”
“He believes it.”
“The artifact has done this before?” I asked.
“Naga Gobo has declared the object’s vanishing as a miracle,” N7 said. “He cannot destroy the maze, as it witnessed the miracle.”
“The maze is made of rocks and sand,” I said. “They can’t witness anything.”
“Naga Gobo believes otherwise,” N7 said. “However, his wording may indicate Starkien idioms that I do not precisely comprehend.”
“Okay, look,” I said. “Pick us up and use the assault ships to attack the Fifth Legion. The assault ships have defensive weaponry, but they’re still a lot more powerful than our laser rifles and pulse grenades. Besides, I bet we’ve already taken heavy losses.”
“Human casualties do not matter,” N7 said. “You were brought here to fight. You must continue the attack.”
I laughed at him. Human casualties certainly mattered to the humans. I told him, “I doubt your troops are going to do much advancing at the moment.”
“You must instruct your maniple and the others to—”
“Listen to me, N7,” I said. “Try to use your logic circuits.”
“I have a bio-brain, not circuits.”
“Okay, okay, don’t get technical on me. Your neurons then, if that makes you happy. Just listen for a minute. Claath didn’t structure our little army with higher commanders, just the maniple firstmen. We knew the score, though: storm the Forerunner artifact and kill every alien defending it or on it. But the object disappeared, right? Now everyone is going to hunker down. If you’d—if Claath had made higher levels of command—those commanders could order the troopers back into action. But no one is going to listen to another firstman telling them what to do. The object’s disappearance changed everything. That doesn’t have to ruin the secondary battle-plan: killing Lokhar legionaries. Pick us up and maneuver nuclear missiles at the Lokhars while they’re trying to get back to the safety of the asteroids. You have an open window to destroy them without taking any loss in return, but you gotta move quickly to do it.”
“Naga Gobo—”
“Listen to me, N7. You have command authority over the assault boats. Use that authority. Force those baboons—the Starkiens—into doing what’s smart. Don’t let their superstitions cost Claath profits.”
&nb
sp; “There is merit to your words,” N7 said. “But I distrust your motives. You are the android-killer. Perhaps you’re telling me these things in order to trick me.”
“If you’re afraid I can outsmart you—”
“It is not a matter of fear,” N7 said. “I have a far greater IQ than you.”
“There you go,” I said. “It isn’t rational that I can outthink you. Therefore, for you to act as if I could is irrational. Claath loves profits. Outfitting and training mercenaries cost money. The Jelk wishes a solid return on his investment. Don’t get his property killed, especially as there is no longer a profit-motive reason for doing so.”
“I must admit that your logic is impeccable,” N7 said.
“I’ll add one more factor,” I said. “Too many maniples have become mixed up on our asteroid. I bet it’s the same way all over this maze. That means some assault troopers will drift too far away from their boats. If they drift too far that will cause their obedience chip to explode and kill them, and for no profitable reason.”
N7 stared at me. He held that pose for several seconds. Finally, he gave a sharp, severe nod. “Prepare for pickup,” he said. “The Forerunner object is gone. Its presence made the space holy. Now it is gone and so should be the Starkien inhibitions to using nuclear weapons in the inner area. If they cannot see reason, the androids will destroy the remaining Lokhars and win Shah Claath’s favor.”
“Now you’re thinking,” I said.
The HUD winked out without N7 even saying thank you. But that was okay. I’d saved human lives and that’s all that mattered.
Too bad I hadn’t foreseen Claath’s reaction.
-16-
We boarded the assault ship and the sides closed up as if they were giant tarantula legs. That sealed us in except for one spot. The wall there moved several times until the slot jammed into its proper place. The rent in the bulkhead had a metal patch over it, so we couldn’t peek outside any longer.
“Pretty smooth ride,” Rollo said after a time.
I’d been dozing due to battle fatigue. The bio-suits no longer amped us up and the hours of pre-battle jitters had finally demanded their payment of sleep.
Assault Troopers Page 18
