A Space Adventure [Bug Wars]

by J. A. Cipriano

  Even Rayne didn’t have anything to say as we watched the voracious thing do its work, but I knew she was watching, trying to crane her head to see a good view from her awkward position. As we all landed around the thing and I put Rayne back on her feet, dividing up what little energy was left in the bug between our suits, I broke the silence.

  “Okay, Jill, it’s not just a flashlight,” I admitted. “Good work.”

  Jill lit up at the praise as Claire gave her a sour look, but Rayne was too busy picking at the corpse, taking samples with her own kit, some kind of bracer that had to work on similar tech as our suits, producing tools for her use. I guess that might be how she was transporting the virus as well. Mina glanced at Rayne and me in sequence, but kept her own counsel, dropping into watch mode.

  She didn’t need to clue me in on what had to happen next. I was already in mid-step, coming up behind Rayne and clearing my throat. “So, Rayne, did we learn a lesson here?”

  “That my hypothesis that our trek would give me access to tremendously fresh specimens was correct?” she offered as she sucked up a sample of ichor into a syringe.

  “No, that you need to pay attention to keeping yourself safe over gawking around like a goddamn tourist,” I growled, and the shift in my tone made her flinch as she looked back at me. “Or do I need to wrap you up in psionic webbing, so we can carry you around like a duffel bag?”

  Claire’s mood seemed to improve as she looked over at us and raised a hand. “Can I second that suggestion?” She lowered her hand with one sharp look from Mina.

  Still, the realization of the situation did seem to finally percolate through Rayne’s genius mind. “I see.” She sighed, an impressive sight with the skin-tight enviro-suit clinging to ever rise and fall of her breasts. “Though I may not be able to fully suppress my scientific delight at this situation, I also can’t be selfish by indulging in it too much. I don’t want to be the cause of endangering you or anyone else, Mark, especially with you all being so quick to lay down your lives in the line of duty.” She raised her hand solemnly. “I swear I will try not to be any more trouble.”

  I nodded with a grunt. “Okay, then. Marines, let’s get moving before the vultures come out to feast.”

  26

  There were a few more minor skirmishes on our trek to the valley where Billy died, but our thrashing of the landshark had sent a message. It was one of the few times I was glad for the hive mind bullshit the bugs had going on for them. We kept on the move, we kept our footprint small, and chatter was kept to an absolute minimum.

  Normally the last part would have been right up my alley. Talky-feelie crap wasn’t my strong suit, and we certainly needed it at a minimum with what was ahead. The downside was that there wasn’t a good time to give Rayne another round of interrogation. Why were we going to this place in particular? Was it some stupid coincidence just to piss me off or was there some darker motivation?

  I just focused on my faith in Dr. Garmin’s brilliance and the moments we had shared on that transport. I’ve always been good at reading people, something essential when every mission saw me with a new squad to adjust to. When your life is in the hands of strangers, you learn which hands will catch you when you fall, and which ones will let you hit the ground. Rayne, for all her foibles, felt like a catcher.

  Cresting one last sand dune, the first of the twin Turan suns starting to break the horizon, we got our first clear look at our final destination. I expected that it would be the same patch of desert we had left behind all those months ago, right down to the slight rise of earth that marked Billy Langham’s grave. Of course, what we found was nothing at all like that. In fact, it was about as far off from that image in my brain as possible.

  Instead of a non-descript dip in the dunes, there was a small outpost made with the same adobe-like material and curved architecture of the Acburian city we had seen on our first unfortunate visit here. In even intervals along the outer wall were gates made of shaped plates of bug shell, and the walls themselves were reinforced with a mix of that same plate and small amounts of Ellebruim, the alien metal that was a critical component of our power suits and the main thing this war was being fought over.

  “What in God’s name are the bugs doing here?” Jill asked aloud as we all huddled atop our dune. She had stowed the artificial sun the moment we had seen the fort so as not to reveal our position

  “That’s a good question,” I grumbled, “and why the hell didn’t intel know about this place?” Turning my voice inward, I continued. “Annabelle, give me a full run of passive sensors. I want to know everything you can tell me about that place without alerting whatever is in there to our presence.”

  “Of course, Lieutenant,” she replied. “Sensors online and correlating data. I will have an analysis for you shortly.”

  “Thanks, old girl.” With that going, I turned towards where Mina and Dr. Garmin were, the veteran deciding to play babysitter for the scientist after the landshark incident. “So, got anything to tell us, Rayne?”

  Claire joined me in the suspicious look department as Mina was focused on analyzing the target. Rayne blinked slowly, and I could tell right off the bat that she was as surprised as any of us were. “I … well … no, not about this. I didn’t expect any of this. We specifically chose this subject because it was the sample so far outside of the normal Acburian patrols. There’s supposed to be nothing here save the body, Mark, you have to believe me.”

  “Lieutenant Ryder, passive thermal scans and electromagnetic sensors are detecting multiple life-forms, Acburian ground troops to be precise, manning the structure, as well as a concentration of bio-organic equipment producing electrical signals in the center,” Annabelle chimed in. “Cross-referencing this data with the mission briefing, that equipment is on the exact coordinates of our mission goal.”

  “I do believe you, at least as far as this roach motel goes,” I nodded, thumbing at the fort. “But what I need to know is why here? Why are we going to the spot where Billy Langham’s corpse is buried?” This little base was the straw of coincidence that broke the camel’s back, and I needed to know the full truth before I’d endanger a single Marine life, especially these women, in attacking the place. I was done with throwing lives away, and I was done just following orders.

  “I thought I explained that the virus needed to interact with elements peculiar to Turan.” Rayne’s brow knit in frustration for a moment before she went pale. “Oh, dear, I did forget something.” She shook her head slowly. “It must have been the coma. I must have still been more dazed than I thought when I explained it all … but it should have been in the briefing packets!”

  Mina was now joining in the looming crowd over the scientist. “What should have been there, Dr. Garmin?”

  “That I technically only have most of my virus,” the doctor explained. “It still needs a host to take root in.”

  “What?” That was all I could say because my mind was already starting to make the rest of the connections that Rayne so quickly explained.

  “A human biological host. It needs specific human DNA to set off the chain of events necessary to spring into action. As the chain reaction once the virus is activated will not only kill a living host but do so in the most painful way I can imagine, it made far more sense to take advantage of a human corpse exposed to Turan’s unique biochemical trace elements. As PFC Langham’s body is the only one we definitively knew the location of and it was far off the normal Acburian patrols, it made the most sense as the host.”

  Rayne bit her lip and lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mark. I swear I explained all of this to the Commissioner and he assured me that this information would be given to you in the briefings. That’s why I didn’t mention it during the initial meeting, especially with me trying to hide that one, uh, rescue mission.”

  A growl of fury was rising in the back of my throat. Not at Rayne, no, I had a particular target in mind. “Reynolds!”

  Mina nodded at me, her eyes grim.
“It had to be. If he was setting us up like this, he no doubt altered the intel from Della, setting this up as a second trap in case the Bullet sabotage didn’t kill us.”

  “Then we’re screwed.” Claire deflated with a sigh, turning her crestfallen eyes to the fort. “Even if the bugs don’t kill us, he will somehow. He’s the most powerful man in the Alliance!”

  Jill nodded in agreement, but she still had a hopeful eye cast towards me, as did Rayne. Mina, well, I could see the combination of razor focus and fatalism in her eyes. She hadn’t given up, but she was as resigned as I had been before the start of this with the idea of death. As I would have said, we were trained to die.

  But that wasn’t good enough for me, not anymore. It was liberating to not give two fucks about the chain of command, to know they really were out to get you killed. Strangely, it gave me the will to live, to care about my life as more than a cog in the Alliance war machine. I clenched one armored fist and grit my teeth.

  “No, no, we are not screwed,” I pronounced like a prophet. “Who cares what Reynolds has planned for us? He’s tried to kill us once, and he failed. He’s going to fail again this time.” I turned my gaze to Rayne. “More than that, we’re not going to simply survive. We’re going to win. We’ve got the weapon to end the war in our care, and that weapon is going to get into the fortress and bring down the entire Acburian menace. We’re going to take all the mission footage in our suits and crack open this entire corrupt bastard’s scheme. And why’s that, you may be asking?”

  No one had an immediate answer, too caught up in my forceful words to have a response, so I elaborated. “Because I have a dream team of talent here, that’s why. Even if it were just me alone, that’d be enough to give us a shot, but it’s not just Mark Ryder here, the man who has completed the most missions in Alliance history.” I gestured at Mina. “We have Mina John, the other living legend of the Infinity Marines, here, the woman with the highest kill count on record, and just as importantly, we have her hand-picked squad of badasses.”

  I pointed at Claire next. “You took a woman who was for all purposes dead, and with some shit, dirt, and buckets of blood brewed a concoction that brought her back to life again. You are a goddamn miracle worker, Claire.” My hand swept to Jill. “And not to be outdone, Jill, just look at that whirling ball of light and doom you whipped up out of spare parts in your free time. The thing ate through the shell of a landshark like it was a fat man at a buffet line. If that doesn’t make you a genius, well, they need to throw out the measurements because they’re fucking wrong.”

  Turning to Rayne last, I spread my arms wide. “Last but not least, you’re the one carrying the dagger that will stab those bastard bugs in the heart and have them die in their beds. All we have to do is thrust it into their black hearts.”

  Planting my fists on my hips and puffing out my chest, I looked from each set of staring eyes to the next. “So, my question to you all is if you’re done bitching about it and are ready to start kicking some Acburian asses?”

  27

  I’m sure that when the bugs built their little play fort over Billy’s body, they thought it was an impregnable monument to their superiority. Nothing could ever blow down these walls, they thought, especially not some stupid humans in their tin suits. Those walls would stand forever, guarding them as they did whatever horrible desecration they liked to my former squadmate’s corpse.

  Of course, those dipshits didn’t think about Mark Ryder. They sure as hell didn’t think about Mark Ryder hopped up on a burning need for revenge, a Mark Ryder that had no fucks left to give and the most powerful suit of armor in Alliance history wrapped around him. Even if they somehow managed to grasp all that, the bugs could never in a million years combine that with the storied Artemis Squad, a screaming flight of armored banshees by my side, all ready to make this the bugs’ day the worst one imaginable.

  I’d like to think that the bug looking out across the valley that morning, sipping whatever bugs used for coffee, shit himself when he saw the sky-darkening cloud of dust, sand, and debris rising over the dunes. It was an apocalyptic cyclone that revealed itself, and it had just one purpose.

  To rip down the bugs’ house of cards.

  Riding that tornado of doom was yours truly. “Keep pouring it on, Annabelle,” I growled. “I want everything into the Titanic Tornado except for baseline life support and shields.” A thought struck me as I floated in the heart of the storm, feeling like a god once again. “And give me some sparks.”

  A little bit of electrical discharge could go a long way in the storm and dust system I’d whipped up. I’m no weatherman, but I knew enough from my farm boy days that thunder and lightning went well with a twister. Thunderstorms birthed tornadoes, and all this swirling dust would be a hotbed for static electricity. Touch it off, and you get double trouble … for the bugs.

  “Lieutenant Ryder, regulations require me to warn you that this degree of energy expenditure violates your own conservation orders issued a few hours ago,” Annabelle reminded me unnecessarily. “I could produce a power use plan to fit your orders if you would like?”

  “Do you think I’d like you to do that?” I replied with a hearty laugh.

  Annabelle’s answer was swift. “Initiating your requests now, Lieutenant. If your reckless plan leads to your death, then it has been a pleasure to serve you.” After a beat, she added, “Though my internal projections do not consider this a likely outcome.”

  The bleeping alarms about my reckless use of power were cut off in a second as more energy coursed through my body and armor and into the tornado around me. Electricity ripped off me and bounced through the storm system, adding peals of thunder to the death coming down atop the Acburian fort.

  Though I couldn’t see through the storm directly from my position, I had linked my sensors through Mina’s suit, managing the permissions of the linkage a lot better this time, so I got a perfect view of the situation. Logically, Artemis Squad should have flanked, using my F5 finger of God as a diversion, but logic wasn’t going to save our asses in this situation, with everything set up against us.

  No, they were coming right up the center in my wake, an unseen bullet behind me, ready to enact my plan when the moment was right. In a way, I guess I still was playing a diversion, but it was a diversion that would blow their asses away like the Big Bad Wolf. Speaking of that, I could see through Mina’s sensors that the bugs were doing exactly what I thought they would.

  Gates flew open and panicked Acburians scuttled out. Just like the bugs I had faced not a week prior, these poor bastards had no concept of what it is they were seeing. Sure, Turan had dust storms from time to time, but overall the weather was mild like it was on most Acburian worlds. What they saw descending on them was death incarnate and, hive minds or not, they sure as hell did not want to die, not here, not today.

  “Annabelle, plot me the course to send this thing on an arc around the north side of the fort,” I commanded. “Squad, thrust on past and stick in the dagger. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

  While I could have manually steered the whirlwind around the base, sucking up and throwing bugs around like building blocks all day long with a smile, I wanted to be down there, hammer in hand, to see what the bugs were daring to do to Billy’s body. Some things you just have to do first-hand and in person.

  Our ‘dagger’ was safely ensconced on Claire’s back, having dropped her banked coin from this mission to buy a Civvie Safeguard system similar to the shielding Mina had used during the crash. Rayne was a baby in a papoose of ceramic, steel, and cushioning goo. As Annabelle fed me the maneuvers needed to send my twister on its way, bugs shrieking with terror as they tried to avoid being sucked up and spat out to their deaths, Mina led the way past me, flying nape of the earth under full afterburners. The bugs that weren’t in a panic were still so focused on the storm they didn’t see Artemis Squad coming, not before it was too late.

  Twisting midair to match the projected maneuvers
, I grinned as the first few bugs in the girls’ way were taken down by laser bursts, telekinetic arrows, and flaming lashes. “Okay, shift power to shields, thrusters, and weapons, Annabelle, and send this baby on her way.”

  The turbines and air induction systems of the Terrible Tornado system whined with one last focused thrust before going silent. Energy coursed through the suit as dormant systems powered back to life, the induction plates that let our suits drain the bio-energy from Acburians opening wide to drink in the power released by the platoon of dead bugs my storm had ripped apart. Not only had this little stunt paid for itself in the power department, but my batteries were also almost topped out.

  “Affirmative, Lieutenant,” Annabelle reported. “Power re-routed and retracting collection plates. As I so often learn, I should never doubt you.”

  “Damn straight, Annabelle. Now, get me my hammer and cut the feed to Mina’s sensors.” As my thrusters fired up, I angled down for the path we had cleared to the inside as the trickle of incoming coins sounded in my ears from our kills. “Daddy doesn’t want to be late to chaperone his girls to prom.”

  “Of course, Lieutenant Ryder.”

  The comforting, familiar weight of my Warhammer materialized in my grip as I rocketed down to the ground, slamming the weapon right into the head of a bug who decided it was too stupid to be dead already. The hyper-dense block of a head fixed that wrong thinking, splitting its exoskeleton into a million bits and its brains sprayed out the back of its headcase. I didn’t stop for even a micro-second, engines firing to full power and shooting me down the trail blazed by Artemis Squad.

  Though the fortifications themselves had been impressive, once I was inside the front gates I realized just how small this compound was. Well, small wasn’t the best word. Simple was more like it. Past an interior corridor that looked to run the whole perimeter, probably for defenders to quickly gather against oncoming attackers, the whole thing opened up. In a way, it reminded me of the ‘throne room’ where Mina and I had encountered the queen that bitch Anya had forced us to kill. The big difference was that instead of an empty, sandy floor, there was strange Acburian tech clustered around a baby-vomit-green pod, maybe ten feet tall, in the center of this central chamber.