Exodus: Empires at War: Book 05 - Ranger

by Doug Dandridge

  Finally Sean had to excuse himself, apologizing for having a busy day coming. He pulled Cornelius aside for a moment before he retired.

  “I am so happy to see you moving on, Cornelius,” said the Emperor, his arm around the younger man. “It’s good to have balance in our lives. I was so worried that you would destroy yourself with an obsession.”

  “I still want to kill Cacas, your Majesty,” said Cornelius, the smile leaving his face.

  “And the Empire needs you to be killing them. But we don’t need you out there with a death wish. I’ve talked to Preacher about you, and he thinks you have big things ahead of you. So do your job, end as many of the big bastards as you can, but try and come back from your mission.”

  “I, will try, to make it back,” said the Corporal.

  “Please do. And it was very good to see you again, Cornelius. You are genuine. I feel like you are a person I can be myself with, without having to worry about who you might be reporting to, or working for. I’ll want to meet with you when you come back from your first deployment. So don’t disappoint me.”

  “I had a wonderful time,” said Devera as Cornelius walked her to her room.

  The Corporal nodded, feeling light headed from all the alcohol he had drunk tonight. His internal nanites had taken some of the edge off, like most people he could never get completely out of control unless he wished it.

  “I did too,” he said, opening the door to her room. He thought for a moment, then leaned down to kiss her, expecting her to pull away. Instead she moved into the kiss, then grabbed his hand and pulled him into the room.

  It was not the best sex that Cornelius had ever had. He had early feelings for this woman, but not the deep ones he had held for his late wife. Still, it was good, and he felt his feelings deepen for this woman he barely knew.

  Afterwards they lay in the guest bed that was as comfortable as any either had ever occupied. Cornelius held Devera in his arms, while she played with the hair on his chest. Her fingers touched the ring he wore on a chain and she grasped it, looking up into his eyes.

  “My wedding ring,” he said to her unasked question. “It’s the last thing I have of my wife. Well, except for Junior, and I can’t carry him around on deployment.”

  “And you still love her deeply?”

  “Of course. We were childhood sweethearts. But she’s gone.”

  “And the ring?”

  “It reminds me of why I want to kill Cacas,” he said in a flat voice.

  “And what am I to you?” she asked in a quiet voice. “Just a diversion?”

  “No,” said Cornelius, pulling her close. “You’re the reason I have to come back.”

  Chapter Eleven

  It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire.

  AZURE. JANUARY 10TH –17th, 1001.

  “This is so pretty,” said Benjamin from across the clearing.

  Rebecca turned quickly, not liking the sound of that. On Azure pretty often meant deadly. “Get away from that thing,” she yelled as the great flower came into her view. It was beautiful, all blues and whites, large petals, all suspended from a thick stem. It was a wonderful specimen of vegetable life, only it wasn’t vegetation. It was a plantimal, and a very deadly one. Dad’s friend Ted had shown her one in the jungle, before destroying it.

  The blossom started to move, centering on her little brother. The dots on the fleshy petals opened, giving the plantimal a view of its target. And then it spit out a trio of darts in a cloud of propellant gas.

  Rebecca screamed out as she brought her rifle to bear, pulling the trigger three times quickly and sending a trio of high velocity rounds into the center of the flower. Pieces of plantimal exploded outward and the flower collapsed in on itself. She lowered her aim and sent another three rounds into the center of the plantimal’s stalk. One of the shots hit the fluid pump of the beast, and bluish liquid shot out, as the stalk leaned over like a drunken man.

  Rebecca saw the form of her brother lying on the ground. With a cry she started to move toward him, stopping for a moment to check the rest of the area for further dangers. Seeing none, she knelt by her brother, expecting the worst. The darts contained a deadly poison that started the digestive process going, even with the alien proteins of humans. Then the plantimal would move onto the prey and sink digestive feelers into it.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the darts had all hit on his survival suit. The suit was basically a garment of impact armor with an outer covering of passive camouflage, not quite as good as the military version. The darts were low velocity hardened living matter, something that had no chance of penetrating the suit. Benjamin had been lucky that none had hit the open flesh of his face or hands.

  “Is it gone?” asked the child, rolling over and looking up at Rebecca.

  “I killed it,” said Rebecca, taking another glance around. She grabbed Benjamin by the arm and shook him. “You need to stay close to me. I need for you to not wander off.”

  “I was just across the clearing from you,” complained Benjamin.

  “And you almost died. If you hadn’t said anything about the flower I wouldn’t have even known you were in trouble.”

  “My suit stopped it from hurting me,” protested Benjamin.

  “And a damned great bear or a pack of hell hounds still would have ripped you apart. You’ve got to understand. We have to stick together at all times. Once we get to the cavern you can have a little more freedom. You understand?”

  “I’m sorry,” said Benjamin, tears in his eyes. “I don’t mean to be trouble.”

  “I know you don’t, Benny,” said Rebecca pulling him into a hug. “I know you don’t. Now let’s get going.”

  An hour later they were trudging across a large open area, a prairie. Large herbivores grazed on the blue tinted grass. Rebecca charted a course across the veldt around the herbivores, who tended to ignore them unless they got too close. What she was mostly looking out for were the predators that hunted these herbivores. Humans really weren’t nutritious to them, but they didn’t know that. They wouldn’t realize that until the proteins in their stomachs were poisoning them, which really didn’t do the human they had eaten any good.

  Halfway across the prairie she became aware that they were being stalked. The high grass hid them from the shoulders down, and hid the predators from them as well. Their survival suits were masking most of their pheromones. But the predators were tracking on them somehow, by sound, vibrations, movement of the grasses or something. The survival suit alerted her to their presence by their pheromones, despite their coming in from downwind.

  “Stay close, Benny,” she told her little brother as she checked her rifle and then looked for some spot that would give her the advantage. She saw it straight ahead, about one hundred meters, a hill with a tree rising above the grass. The predators, which the suit system had identified as a pride of prairie cats, were close in around them now. Rebecca thought about running to the hill, then vetoed that idea. There was no way they were going to outrun the speedy cat surrogates. Their only hope rested on making the cats think their stalk was going well, until their prey were on the top of the hill.

  Twenty meters to go, and the prairie cats in front started to curve in. One moved onto the hilltop for a moment before it realized it was now in the open. The beast growled low in its throat and it slunk off the hilltop on its six legs. The four eyes narrowed, looking straight into hers, the harsh sunlight glinting off its dappled blue hide.

  Rebecca fired a couple of rounds its way, not really caring if she hit it, just trying to drive it from their refuge. The rounds cracked by over the head of the beast, which crouched, roared, and sprang off the hill to land in the high grass.

  “Come on,” she hissed at Benjamin, hustling him up the hillside. As soon as they were at the top she put her back to the tree, making sure that Benjamin was standing beside her. She crouched dow
n, her eyes scanning the grass around the hill. The tree was wide enough that she felt secure from the rear. Anything coming at her from that direction would have to come around the tree.

  The grass rustled to her left, followed a moment later by three hundred kilos of predator springing from the cover. Rebecca swung her rifle that way, pulling the trigger and hoping that she could scare it off. She really didn’t want to kill any of the magnificent animals. Killing too many of them could doom the pride. She also didn’t want to let them kill her or her brother. Her third round hit the cat, into the meaty part of its right center leg. The beast roared and jumped back, a dark reddish blue blood staining the limb.

  “Make them go away,” yelled Benjamin, his frightened eyes looking up at hers.

  “I’m trying, honey,” said Rebecca. She felt like her nerves were about to explode from the tension. She saw movement and swung her rifle that way. The cat was barely visible when it slunk back into cover. That gave another cat the opening it wanted, and it sprung out onto the hilltop and reared up over the pair, its four front limbs outstretched, claws exposed and ready to bring them in with a killing stroke.

  “Get away,” yelled Rebecca, swinging her rifle back and trying to get a shot into the animal. She started pulling the trigger before she got it in her firing arc, hoping that she could scare it away. A claw struck out and hit the rifle, knocking it from her hand, and Rebecca was looking up at death for her and her brother.

  The cat roared and fell back a step. The high pitched sound of a sonic weapon sounded from nearby. Rebecca acted in that instant, pulling her pistol from its holster. As soon as it was leveled she shot rapid fire into the center of the beast. It roared again, this time the sound dropping into a death rattle. The sound of the sonic kept rising and falling as it was waved around the area. Rebecca looked down to see her brother sweeping his sonic pistol around. Roars of displeasure sounded from the surrounding grass. The roars started to move away, the pride defeated by the two small morsels standing upon the hilltop.

  Rebecca stepped up to the dead cat and around it to the side, keeping her weapon trained on it. The beast didn’t move, and as she moved back around to the front of the mighty predator she could see that the four green eyes had no life to them. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, bowing her head, not really sure if she was asking the animal’s forgiveness, or God’s. It was a beautiful creature, a killer, but as Ted had told her, that was what they did. It was them or her and her brother, and she had to make sure it was her family that survived. At least it was only one of them, she thought, looking up and scanning the grasslands. One kill would weaken the pride, but not fatally.

  Rebecca spent a few more minutes watching, then checked Benjamin’s sonic weapon and made sure it had a fresh power pack. She then led the way down the hill and back into the grass, heading east on a bearing toward the cavern where all their needs would be met. She figured in her head it would take them a week to get there from this point. Maybe five days, but Ted had taught her that it was always better to estimate on the pessimistic side. So one week and they would be there.

  They made the other side of the prairie an hour later. Again they entered another realm, a world of shadows broken by bright beams of light penetrating the gaps in the canopy. Different predators, animal and plantimal. Different vegetation.

  Rebecca led the way down slope, where she was pretty sure they would find water. When they reach the stream she made a complete check, then filled a inflatable water container and poured the water into her brother’s backpack bladder. The filter would remove all impurities, while the secondary nanite filter would make sure there were no biohazards. Not that there should be, but it didn’t make sense to take chances when there was a technology to avoid it. After filling his she scooped water and had Benjamin fill hers, making sure they would have enough water for several days travel. It was starting to get darker, and the night predators were even worse than those who stalked by day.

  Rebecca started to search the area for what she needed. It took about twenty minutes, but when she found one she found several. Ted called them safe trees. They were not poisonous nor did they have any thorns. It was an easy climb for creatures with hands like humans, with many handholds, but the bark was resistant to claws. Thirty feet up were the first branches, and where they joined the trunk they widened, forming hollows large enough to hold a reclining human.

  The older child sprayed the pheromones that would keep insects and flying hunters away, then settled down to eat some ration packs with her brother. The food was hot and filling, the pack heating as soon as they pulled the tabs. Each contained enough calories for an adult for an entire day, so the children were well nourished. With full stomachs they settled down to sleep, Rebecca’s last thought that they had seven days ahead of them, and enough rations for four. She couldn’t do anything about it now, so she closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep.

  * * *

  Three days later Rebecca made a kill. She thought the animal was beautiful, standing on it six slender legs, its four green eyes turned her way. There was a look of curiosity in its eyes, but no fear. It had obviously never learned to fear humans. We need food, she thought as she fought past her inclination to not kill and raised her rifle. We need food, she thought as she pulled her trigger. They only had one more day of rations, after that they would go without eating. And at the rate they burned calories by moving cross country they would need more than that food, and so this was necessary.

  The animal fell with a short scream that tore at her heart. She put a second shot in its head, bemoaning the use of the ammunition. She only had one whole clip and a partial in her rifle, a little under a hundred and fifty rounds, plus the two hundred rounds for her pistol. That seemed like a lot, until she factored in how many rounds she had to use every day to keep animals and plantimals away.

  “Come over here, Benny,” she said as she knelt down by the small herbivore and pulled out her monomolecular survival knife. She had to work fast, before the smell of the kill attracted other life forms, carnivores and scavengers. She sliced into a hindquarter of the animal, cutting off a large hunk, then another, until she had harvested about three kilos of meat.

  A hooting sound made her look up, to see a quartet of plantimals moving toward her, sending their root legs ahead and pulling themselves along. They didn’t seem to be moving very fast, but they were closing the distance at an alarming rate. Benjamin aimed his stunner at the creatures.

  “That won’t work, Benny,” she said, stuffing the meat steaks into a bag and grabbing her brother’s arm. She watched to make sure that her brother didn’t fire. The sonic wouldn’t have an effect on the primitive nervous systems of the creatures, except in a provocative manner. She had no reason to provoke these creatures that already had their next meal in front of them.

  She backed away and into the jungle, heading for the small cavern they had used the night before. Upon arriving Rebecca put some fresh fuel in the fire pit, then started it going with her laser igniter. Quickly setting up the steaks on spits, soon she had the meat cooking and dripping liquid into the pit. An appetizing smell rose from the meat, but still the odor was slightly wrong. Rebecca and Benjamin, like most citizens of the planet, had nanite augmentation of their digestive systems that allowed them to eat the food produced by the planet. There were still some difficulties, but they got some of the nutrition and didn’t die, so the tech worked enough to be useful in survival situations.

  “Take this, Benny,” said Rebecca, handing Benjamin a small pill that was made up of nanites.

  Benny made a face but took the pill. Rebecca was thankful that the child was obeying without any kind of conflict. Several brushes with death, from which his older sister had rescued him, seemed to have crushed the child’s rebellious nature. At least for now.

  After eating, and putting the rest of the meat in the self-sealing travel bag, they started off for the day. They walked for several hours, Rebecca on alert for anything that
might be a danger and moving them around it. Once they stopped before what looked like a clearing, Benjamin wanting to go ahead, but Rebecca, noting the bushes on one side of the open space, stopped him before he could set off the carnivorous plant’s ambush. Both cringed slightly whenever a faint boom or rumble sounded, evidence that the battle was still joined. She thought about her dad at such times, wondering how he was, or even if he were alive.

  A little after noon they came upon an aircraft that had crashed through the canopy. The craft was well made, showing no damage from crashing through branches and even taking down a large tree with a wing striking through the trunk. The scars of particle beam weapons on the hull showed how it had been downed, and that it was not invulnerable.

  There was a hole in the side of the ship, melted on the sides, reaching into the pilot’s compartment. A plantimal had pushed a tentacle through the hole, and Rebecca was sure she knew what was going on in that compartment. Plantimals were a bizzare form of life, able to digest just about any kind of organic matter except for the hard cellulose of woody vegetation. She looked at the plantimal, careful to keep her distance, and could see the pulse of the tentacle that showed it was pulling material into it.

  The aircraft had a double cockpit, forward and back. The rear cockpit was not penetrated, and she looked through the canopy at a crewman who had died when some of the inertial systems had gone out and he had been subjected to killing stresses. Rebecca moved to the panel that covered the canopy controls and put her ear to the cockpit to ascertain if she could hear anything. There was nothing, and she was pretty sure that the compartment had not been breached. She looked over to make sure that Benjamin was with her, his sonic pistol out and covering them both against animal attack. Then she lifted the panel and pushed the opening switch.