Nemesis (The MechaVerse Trilogy Book 2)

by Jeremy Cunkle

  All of which boiled down to explain exactly how they were currently in the right bloody fucking mess they found themselves in at this moment.

  “Time until enemy contact: two minutes.” Athena announced urgently over the frequency Alyona, Kiryl and Vera shared. Athena continued, “Multiple squadrons to either side are now converging to cut off your line of advance. New high-priority targets identified. Infantry have established a defensive line along this route. They are using the sand dunes and hills for cover. There is larger force of Mech armor and supporting mechanized infantry converging from behind. All of the forces present have more drones with them than we have ever encountered before.”

  “What the hell! How did we miss this Athena?!” Alyona blurted out in shocked reply, speaking the thoughts of other two-squadron members.

  “It appears the Iris satellite feed might be compromised by PDF hackers. I am currently examining the data, but am not seeing any signs of tampering. Whoever is manipulating the satellite feed is very skilled.” Athena answered.

  Alyona cursed under her breath as she examined the HUD, searching for a way out of this ever worsening situation. An Iris satellite, brought from Earth, watched over their every move, seeing everything that happened for miles in every direction, relaying video footage to the HUDs of the Omnos squad members in real time, or so they thought. Over reliance on the veracity of the satellite feed had now officially caught up with them. The PDF, were obviously aware, of their satellite and had figured out a way to hide themselves from its all seeing eye. Now they were using it against them to set up this well planned, and perfectly configured, trap.

  Two weeks ago, Kurtis fixed the lag in the surveillance system, fully integrating the Iris feed into Athena’s programming, allowing her to create maps and keep track of red and blue team information, and with the help of information gathered from the sensor network, generating the collected information on the Omnos squad’s HUD’s. During their missions, they used the satellite feed to alert them of danger and thereby keep them one-step ahead of the PDF, or at least they used to. The video feed had been the single biggest factor in deciding whether she and her squad lived or died during the near constant fighting. Neither Alyona, nor anyone else, ever imagined the PDF being capable of copying one of their most successful moves in hacking their satellite. In retrospect, it came as no surprise, it now proved a liability. She could hear Mikkhael’s voice in her head, repeating what he said back in the hangar upon their arrival, that the PDF were human too, and did not simply roll over and die when they were asked. They were soldiers as well, fighting for their own right to live in the best way they knew how.

  Their current role, like so many of their recent missions, was to escort Lazarus faction reinforcements and supplies to Kerrak. The problem was that the PDF were sending a tidal wave of reinforcements to the area and doing everything they could in order to isolate the rebel outpost, and to slowly whittle away at the defenders situated there. A noose of Mech armor, infantry, mechanized armored vehicles, and drones was being drawn around Kerrak, gradually growing tighter, and laying siege to the outpost while the noose slowly closed. Up until now, they had been able to avoid, or blast their way, through the surrounding PDF patrols. The number of enemies moving to surround them this time was too large for them to fight through without losing a large portion of the supplies they were escorting.

  “Damnit Athena! You chose this route!” Alyona yelled in frustration as no good option presented itself. It took her a bit to realize that she was lashing out at the only thing she could, Athena, when in reality this situation was her fault for over relying on Athena, and the satellite, to do her job for her. She chided herself as she continued watching the HUD, attempting to figure out a solution as the PDF continued approaching. She knew that she could easily survive if she simply turned, engaged the afterburners, and did not care about what happened to the slow pair of automated anti-grav trains crawling across the broken alien terrain, entirely oblivious of the impending disaster. That knowledge, lurking in the background with its sweet whispers of temptation, made staying behind that much more difficult. Responsibility was not a burden easily shed however; and the consequences of running away were extreme. The defenders of Kerrak needed the supplies to stand against the developing siege, and they were counting on her squad to deliver them safely.

  After their very first battle, at Hells Gate, during which the three Omnos squad members discovered and then destroyed a PDF ambush, they defended their actions as civilians attempting to help the noble cause of the rebellion against Mars Industries. The corporate government ruled the red planet through fear and enslavement. They Mars Industries government forced tens of millions to live and die in underground mines, working their lives’ away in drug-fueled stupors. Now though, Alyona, Kiryl, and Vera were hardened veterans, with more than ten battles under their belts. They had lost men and women under their command, watching them die as they struggled against overwhelming odds in every battle. What they could no longer deny was that each member of the Omnos squad members, aside from Kurtis, had now killed dozens, if not hundreds of enemies in combat. The trio were now hardened veterans. Fighting for their lives and the rebels they chose to protect against overwhelming odds was their new reality.

  Kurtis and his Mech armor, Nighthawk, remained hidden, their trump card waiting to be played, holding out as long as possible. Although everyone was aware that the time was quickly approaching when Kurtis would no longer be able to effectively support them from Mount Olympus, and would instead join them on the battlefield. The coding for his AI, Argos, was nearly complete. Kurtis had learned incredibly useful lessons from culling through Aurora’s code merging and applying what he found into Argos’ programming. Argos would serve as a dedicated replacement for Aurora’s information gathering and cyber-warfare capabilities, without those vulnerabilities that had caused her to overwhelm and render unusable the entire planets’ Interweb and communications networks.

  In this moment of vulnerability, Alyona realized just how much she needed Kurtis and the role he was supposed to fill. Their plan was for him to serve as their battlefield coordinator, tactician, and information specialist; keeping them updated on enemy positions, anticipated movement, critical updates, and prioritizing the enemy’s kill order. Those were roles that he could fulfill from Mount Olympus, with the satellites and communication network functioning properly. Roles that Athena was supposed to function as a substitute for, however; neither of them were current options. As she searched for answers, only one presented itself, struggling as they always did to survive one more day, and to do the best they could until he was ready to join them.

  * * * * *

  Kurtis checked and re-checked the information scrawling across the monitors in front of him in disbelief. On the center monitor, Aurora’s AI code was laid bare, revealing its secrets as an autopsy should, the results of which were staggering. She had evolved on her own far more than even his wildest dreams. At some point, recently, the time in the quarters where he confined himself, and the computer rig he slaved at, holding absolutely no meaning, he had stumbled across the mutations in her code that allowed Aurora to manifest herself, physically, in certain locations throughout the base. She followed up that trick by developing the ability to create shells of her main personality, spinning them off to use instead of her main consciousness, thereby avoiding any vulnerabilities while completing high-risk tasks. The level of her personal growth was simply staggering.

  While riding a caffeine infused wave of adrenaline fueled motivation at these discoveries, Kurtis forgot to sleep. Time passed unnoticed, unwanted, while he continued digging, prying further into her code. He was no longer searching for unnecessary information to delete from the bloat overwhelming her original programming, but instead he was simply trying to understand what the sheer size of her memory banks contained. That was why he did not notice the alert Argos triggered on a side display, dedicated as a threat monitor, attempting to notify him of
the impending danger his friends were in. The threat monitor continued to blink in a fruitless attempt at capturing his attention. The monitor in question had gone unused for so long, and he was so close to finally figuring out Aurora’s secret, that he failed to notice the warning. His lack of recognition went long enough that Argos assumed control of each of the three main monitors on his computer rig, simultaneously duplicating the alert on each of them, pushing Aurora’s code to the background.

  At first, Kurtis stared at the monitor, believing that Aurora’s main conscious had somehow broken free from her confinement and was corrupting his workstation in order to keep him from learning her secret. A minute of pure disbelief passed before he recognized the buzz in the room as the auditory alarm wailing its piercing cry in a desperate plea for his attention.

  The outside world’s realities crashed down on him as he fought to focus, suddenly realizing that the buzzing in the background had been the auditory alarm blaring for quite some time. With a shock, he checked the alert scrawling across the main monitors, filled with dread as he opened it.

  DANGER… DANGER… DANGER… DANGER…

  As soon as he saw the words scrawled in red across the center of all three monitors, they were replaced by satellite footage, meshed with feedback from the sensor grid outside of Kerrak. The situation filling the monitors with images and data showing that the Omnos squad members were headed into a far bigger trap than they realized. He needed to swallow, but could not because his throat was constricting out of fear. His thoughts felt sluggish as he fought to re-orient himself, his mind refusing to process the data in front of him as a direct consequence of that fear. Argos continued to fill in the data, showing that there was one inevitable outcome to the developing situation, not allowing Kurtis to shake the premonition of absolute dread that settled over him.

  In front of him, on the center monitor, the Omnos squad was clearly surrounded by nearly a dozen squads of Mech armor, intermixed with a well-equipped force of infantry, using a series of hills and sand dunes for defensive positions. All of this supplemented with hundreds of drones. Kurtis, his mouth dry, watched as the marker identifying DawnsLight broke off from the convoy they were escorting, pre-emptively engaging the dozens of PDF on one side, while Atalanta supported her from behind. Opposite of them and impossibly outnumbered, Intrepid moved to intercept a cluster of squadrons closing in on the other side.

  He would not have been worried if that was the extent of what was happening, knowing that they would eventually turn the tide or simply flee if they had to, but there was more. The monitor to his left showed a satellite view of the situation, centered on a pair of anti-grav trains. Kurtis was able to judge that each train was hundreds of cars long because every fifty cars there was another engine to help propel the huge bulk forward. Surrounding the trains were nearly sixty mules, automated trucks that traveled in convoys. The presence of the supply convoy hampered the response of the three Omnos squad members, limiting their options, and their ability to perform a tactical retreat if needed. On the monitor to his right, a large mixed force of infantry in powered combat suits, Mech armor, and drones approached the convoy from behind, closing rapidly in order to finish trapping them in position. Behind all of them though, an entire battalion of PDF reinforcements were converging on their location, ready to finish the job the ambushing force started.

  The Omnos squad members were fixed in place, unable to leave the large amount of supplies to be destroyed or captured. The force pitted against them was obviously intended to keep them in place until the battalion of reinforcements arrived to overwhelm the trio through their sheer numbers. Unaware of the second force, the Omnos squad members were playing right into the hands of the PDF.

  Argos populated a counter for him, showing that in two hours and twelve minutes, the PDF battalion would arrive on scene, and then it would be game over. “Argos, send Alyona this information now! They need it!” Kurtis ordered breathlessly.

  “I’m sorry, but there isn’t enough bandwidth available for me to send them this information, which is why I needed to gain your attention. Separate teams of PDF infantry are locating and destroying the laser relays we need in order to communicate. The other communications networks are still unavailable. This information is all provided by the Iris satellite, and while we can see what is happening, the PDF are using a local jammer to prevent other methods of communication. I believe I am detecting signs of hacking in the Iris satellite as well, the PDF are manipulating the feed sent to Alyona and her team. We have no way of contacting and alerting them to the battalion closing in from behind.”

  Kurtis cursed quietly to himself in his native German as his fingers flew across the keyboards in front of each monitor, desperately trying to find a way to alert Alyona of the force closing in. His attempts quickly proved futile as it became clear the infantry were doing a thorough job of dismantling the laser and sensor network.

  In frustration, he slammed his hands down on the desk, “Argos, what can I do?! Help me!”

  For a reply, all three monitors blacked out, leaving a single sentence appearing in their center. It read, THERE IS ONLY ONE OPTION.

  Recognition of what Argos meant took some time as Kurtis looked around the room in askance. Something out of place caught his eye, and without knowing why he found himself staring at the dedicated station that housed Aurora’s main consciousness, cut off from all access to the outside world. He shuddered as her self-representation stared back at him from the solitary monitor, grinning with feral delight, somehow aware of what was happening.

  Argos was right, there was only one option left to save his friends. He pushed back from the chair and stiffly hurried outside his quarters, chasing down and appropriating an electric scooter from a technician who was too shocked to put up any resistance. As he boarded, he used his wrist communicator to place a call to Soren, the man Kiryl and Alyona had placed in charge of maintenance on their units.

  Soren’s confused face answered the video query almost immediately. “Who is this?”

  Without wasting time on introductions, Kurtis began issuing orders. “Soren, they are all going to die if I can’t make it there in time. Prepare the NightHawk for launch. Argos will help. Hurry! I’m on my way.”

  Without waiting to verify if Soren understood or not, Kurtis closed the video link. Leaving it open would only invite questions and delays that none of them could afford. Praying that he was not too late, Kurtis raced through the carved stone tunnels of Mount Olympus to the hangar where the only thing that stood between his friends living, or dying, waited for his arrival.

  * * * * *

  DawnsLight pulled back from another failed attack, Alyona cursing in frustration at her latest lunge into the sea of weaponized drones, arrayed against her, was yet again thwarted by their sheer numbers. Kiryl was not having any success either, as waves of enemy infantry fired a seemingly endless flood of missiles and rockets at him, overwhelming even Intrepid’s stolid defenses. Only Vera was able to deal any significant damage, using the range of her sniper rifle to gain a necessary advantage in distance. There were too many enemies for their missiles to be effective, and each of their shields kept overloading against the focused barrages of drone laser fire. All of their ammunition counters were reading far lower than ideal, temporarily forcing the trio to rely on their weaker laser weapons until they had a better chance of succeeding.

  Breathing hard from the exertion of battle and the high level of stress, Alyona opened their squad frequency, Athena automatically bringing the faces of Vera and Kiryl up on her HUD along with their vitals as she did so. “This isn’t working. There are just too many of them,” she said before pausing a second, “Dammit!”

  Vera fired again, eliminating another drone, before replying as she waited for the energy banks of the sniper rifle to cool. “I don’t understand. Why don’t they just swarm us? What are they waiting for?”

  Kiryl wiped the sweat from his brow, not sweating from exertion but rather
stress, taking a moment to choke down a tasteless protein bar during a lull in the fighting as his units energy shields regenerated yet again. “Whatever they are waiting for; has to be bigger and badder then these are. These aren’t even second rate fighters, and the drones would be worthless if there weren’t so many of them. This is purely a numbers play, and I think they don’t want to chance me loosing the Eclipse missiles and leveling the field. Their job is to hold us, and the supplies, here until whatever is coming arrives, and because of the trains and mules, it’s working.”

  Vera tried again to contact Kerrak, or Mount Olympus, and request reinforcements. She had lost track of the number of attempts long ago as her communication signal failed yet again to reach anyone.

  Alyona cursed quietly to herself, maintaining an almost constant litany of mumbled expletives as she watched the PDF’s actions through the HUD. “Something’s got to give, and soon, or else! We will fight for as long as we can to protect the supplies, but be prepared to leave them if you have to. Something is interfering with the Iris satellite, the sensor network, and even the local radio network. They’re blocking our communications. So if we get into trouble, we may not be able to call for help from one another. Watch your backs at all times. Before this is over we may have to split up and each make our way back to Mount Olympus.”

  They did not like it, but Vera and Kiryl simultaneously confirmed they understood the order. Neither were able to dispute Alyona’s logic or find another option. In the meantime, they would hold out for as long as possible and hope for a miracle. A miracle none of them actually expected.