by Isaac Hooke
He abruptly slid through an opening and landed on a floor that was, judging from the undergrowth, the ground. He was covered in acid and slime.
He forced himself upright and cast about with his headlamp. The “trees” around him vomited up the others, and when everyone emerged, the tubelike shapes receded into the ground. None of those tubes had boughs, and instead ended in sharp, bristly tips. They vanished one by one, leaving empty holes.
The others had their headlamps active as well, and glanced about in confusion at the vanished tubes. Crusher went up to one of the pits left in the ground and gazed into the hole.
“I only see dirt down there,” Crusher said. “I guess it’s gone.”
“Well, that did it then,” Traps said. “Good job, Scorp. You freed us from the creature.”
“Yay me,” Eric said.
“See, that’s the problem with hanging around two girls all the time,” Slate said. “You start to talk like them. Yay me. Sheesh.”
“You mean two bodacious babes,” Mickey said. “Not girls.”
“Don’t get me started…” Slate said.
The forest began to shake around them.
“Oh no…” Hicks said.
The ground began to crack underneath them, and the team made a hasty retreat through the forest. The trees were well-spaced here, meaning that no hidden giants were waiting to spring a similar trap.
Eric glanced in his rear view video feed, and watched something emerge from the forest floor, something big: its back bristled with the tube-like shapes the platoon had originally confused with trees. It was a quadruped of some kind, about the size of a football stadium.
“That’s either a really big porcupine, or a giant armadillo with quills,” Dunnigan said while on the run like the others.
“Out of the radiation chamber and into the plasma conduction channel,” Crusher said.
“In my day, we used to say ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire,’” Mickey commented.
“Fuck your day,” Slate told him.
A crack formed in the side of that creature, revealing a series of razor sharp teeth.
“Looks like it has two ingestion mechanisms,” Crusher said.
The mouth opened further, and the giant beast unleashed a stomach curdling roar.
“Why do I sometimes feel like I’m trapped in Jurassic Park?” Frogger commented.
“Weapons pointed behind while on the run!” Marlborough said. “Open fire!”
Eric directed both arms behind his back, switched to auto-targeting mode, marked the giant creature as his main target, and engaged. The muzzles of his laser, plasma, and energy weapons rotated to fire at the creature.
It launched quilled barbs in return. They appeared as spears in the night, and Eric dodged to the side; one of the spears penetrated the ground beside him, embedding deep.
“I don’t think we want to get hit with these…” Brontosaurus commented.
“No,” Eric agreed.
“We’re not doing any damage!” Tread said. “At least, nothing significant!”
“Sync your weapons with mine!” Marlborough said. “I’m going to target its mouth!”
Eric sync’d his armaments to Marlborough’s as requested, and a moment later the platoon opened fire; every single weapon struck the alien mouth. One of the teeth melted away, and the inner palate must have been hit, but the creature still kept coming.
“I’m hit!” Bambi announced.
16
Eric immediately turned back. “Got her!”
Crusher beat him to her.
Bambi was pinned to the ground.
“One of the spears lodged between her exoskeleton and her armor,” Crusher said. “Looks like the armor deflected the path of the blade, so it caused only glancing damage. I can’t pull the spear free, though… it’s lodged fairly tight.”
The portion of the spear that jutted from underneath Bambi was inaccessible, preventing Eric from cutting through it with his alien blades. So instead he wrapped his hands around the protruding top portion and tugged at the same time as Crusher; this while the big creature continued to rapidly bear down on the trio.
The long shaft refused to budge.
“Going to have to cut away your exoskeleton to get you out!” Eric told Bambi.
“No!” Bambi said. “Without it I can’t—”
Eric slammed his alien blades through the exoskeleton, and ripped away the spear. “Sorry. I had no choice.”
He helped her to her feet, and the three of them ran forward; because her exoskeleton was damaged, thanks to him, Bambi no longer gave off the thermal signature of a Sloth.
“Headlamps off!” Marlborough said. “This fucker might be able to track visual spectrum emissions! Not to mention the light will attract the attention of any Banthar patrols passing by overhead!”
Headlamps deactivated across the platoon, until they were running through the pitch-black forest once more, relying solely on night vision and thermals.
But the big creature had gotten too close, and that huge head swung, striking Eric, Bambi and Crusher at the same time, though they fired at point blank range; they were batted aside like so much crumpled paper.
Eric struck a tree, while Bambi and Crusher tumbled past it on either side. He glanced at his power levels. Sixty percent. Decent, but no the greatest, considering he had another fifty hours to go before he could recharge again.
“My emitters are down, too,” Crusher said. “That blow shattered a quarter of my exoskeleton.”
Eric checked his own, but it had remained intact. Lucky.
The creature had continued past them on its rampage, apparently having forgotten the three, and instead pursued the remaining Bolt Eaters who continued to flee up ahead.
“We have to help them somehow!” Eric said, clambering to his feet to pursue. He leaped over the fallen trees the creature left in its path, and accelerated until he was following behind it by about three hundred meters. Bambi and Crusher joined him momentarily: they were moving at their top speed, but still couldn’t catch it.
He momentarily increased his comm range, sending out a burst so that he could connect with the other units; he saw that a small group of them were still running directly ahead of the beast, while the remainder had fanned out in multiple directions. Because the Bolt Eaters had the same speed limitations as Eric, those in front of the beast were unable to lose it.
Eric restored his comm range to the lowest setting, and continued his pursuit. He and the girls launched a couple of energy bolts, but it seemed to do nothing, even when they combined shots.
That said, still the creature occasionally slowed down: no doubt when the Bolt Eaters in front fired concentrated bursts, perhaps into the mouth. This allowed Eric and the girls to close to within fifty meters.
“If only I still had my jumpjets, I could get on top of the thing,” Bambi said.
The creature slowed again, and Eric sped toward it once more. “Maybe you don’t need jumpjets!”
As he neared the beast, he switched to Bullet Time and leaped; he slammed his Wolverine-style blades into the hind leg. The alien spears sunk deep, and he remained fixed in place as the leg continued to move up and down like some piston from hell.
Bambi appeared beside him on the same leg, and Crusher on the other side.
He deactivated Bullet Time to conserve power, and then grabbed onto Bambi with his free hand, slid his blades free, and then pulled himself higher using her mech for purchase. He leaped again, stabbed the weapons into the skin above her, and lodged himself higher against the beast’s leg. Bambi grabbed his ankle and pulled herself above him; she vaulted higher and similarly secured herself with her spears. Crusher climbed both him and Bambi and did the same.
In that manner, the three of them were able to scale the leg, slowly leap-frogging one another. When Eric reached the top, he carefully picked his way past the ring of giant, spear-like quills that lined the outside of the creature’s back, and then lent
a hand to Bambi and Crusher after him. It was tricky to maintain his balance, as the surface bobbed and tilted with each stride.
“So what now?” Crusher asked.
Eric turned toward the forefront. “Let’s see how well this creature takes to head attacks.”
They hurried to the front. He momentarily increased the range of his comm node to confirm that some of the Bolt Eaters were still trapped ahead of the beast. The group put some distance on the creature—they had slowed it down enough for Eric and the girls to board, after all.
Eric returned his comm node to minimal power, and then began plunging his blade repeatedly into the neck region. Crusher did the same beside him. He kept digging until he had carved himself quite the hole in the tissue.
Abruptly the creature roared, and began rearing, as if trying to knock the three interlopers off its back. Eric stabbed his spear in deep and held on.
He increased his comm node range and saw that the Bolt Eaters had pulled far ahead. He’d succeeded in stopping the creature, for the moment.
Unfortunately, he also saw a pair of red dots. Incoming fast.
“Airships!” Eric said. “Down! Comms off!”
Eric pulled his blade free and allowed the creature’s bucking to send him flying away. He disabled his comm node entirely and landed next to a tree. He immediately took cover.
He had no idea where Bambi and Crusher hit the ground.
The stars blotted out overhead as the airships filled the sky. He heard what sounded like harpoons launching, and the huge creature howled. It tilted its body and launched several quills skyward; the energy shields of the airships kicked in, causing sparks to light up the night sky where the blows were deflected. He heard more harpoon sounds, and then the creature collapsed, howling no more.
Then it floated upward, spread between the two airships, suspended on cables. A fresh kill to feed the Banthar snails in the city.
As the two craft pulled away, he realized the tractor beam was active beneath one of them. It carried two shapes. Mechs?
He zoomed in.
The tractor beam carried Bambi and Crusher.
Eric realized that without their emitters, they had no way of hiding from the airship, even with their comm nodes disabled.
He had the sudden urge to run at them, but he knew that wasn’t the best idea.
He did it anyway.
He reached his top speed, but it was too late. The airships were retreating, fast.
He considered activating his comm node at maximum range to broadcast his position, but that would only put the other Bolt Eaters in danger—when the Banthar realized he was emitting human protocols, that would put all Sloth units in the vicinity under suspicion.
I could rip off the emitters instead...
But by then he couldn’t even see the airships. Probably a good thing, because allowing himself to get captured was an emotional reaction, not logical. No good could come from it. He could rescue them better from the outside.
Too bad he had no idea where the airships were headed.
Time to remedy that.
He ran toward the closest tree and retracted his blades to clamber upward; he made handholds and footholds as he went. He reached the boughs, and ejected in his Cicada, and climbed past them until he could peer past the distant treetops. The city was still in view to the north, barely. When he zoomed in, he could see the buildings clearly. He switched his targeting crosshairs over the airships, and watched as they deposited the carcass of the huge creature into a processing center in one of the farms. Then the airships separated to go their own ways. Eric kept targeting the one that had captured Bambi and Crusher, and watched it pass over the outskirts of the city, and approach a large silo several blocks inside. It paused on top, and he saw two small dots descend, courtesy of the tractor beam—he was unable to zoom in any further, but he was sure they were Bambi and Crusher.
The dots reached the building, and he could no longer discern the girls from the background thermal radiation.
He marked the building on his HUD, then returned to his mech and clambered back down.
The other Bolt Eaters were waiting for him.
“We saw what happened to Bambi and Crusher,” Marlborough said.
“We have to go back for them,” Eric said. “I know where they are.”
“There’s no time,” Dickson said. “The clock’s ticking. We have a nuclear bomb going off in nine and a half hours.”
“I don’t care,” Eric said. “You can all stay behind. I’m going. It was my...” His voice cracked, and he had to momentarily suppress his emotional subroutines because he wouldn’t have been able to finish, otherwise. “It was my plan that caused them to get captured. I knew their emitters were damaged. I should have told them to get down off that creature’s back a lot sooner. But I didn’t.”
“You couldn’t have known Banthar airships would be coming,” Brontosaurus said.
“No,” Eric said. “But I knew the noise that creature was making would draw them, eventually.” He glanced at his battery power. “I’m down to fifty percent. But that should be all I need.”
“Wait,” Dickson said. “You forget what we are. We can just restore the two of them from backups.”
“No,” Eric said. “Unacceptable. I won’t lose them both like this, not again. Would you want to be restored from your backups? Knowing that this version of you would die, and never again see the light of day?”
Dickson didn’t answer.
“That’s what I thought,” Eric continued. “While there’s still a chance to save them, I have to go.”
“I’ll go with you,” Brontosaurus said.
“Me, too,” Eagleeye said.
“Shit, I’m not going to let you three have all the fun.” Slate stepped forward.
“Before everyone else volunteers, I want to mention something,” Marlborough said. “The fewer units that participate in this rescue mission, the better their chances. You’ll recall that when we spotted Sloth units patrolling the city grounds earlier, it was always in groups of four.”
“We can send multiple groups of four then, to approach the target from different angles,” Tread said. “There’s twelve of us, so that makes three groups.”
“But three groups also increases the chance of discovery,” Dickson said. “The Sarge is right, if we really want to allow this, one group is best.”
“You know, it’s kind of convenient that our emitters just so happen to emulate Sloths,” Tread said. “You must have quite the foresight, there, Frogger.”
“Not foresight, but luck,” Frogger said. “Or then again, maybe it’s because the Sloth units are the predominate guard robots the Banthar use on this particular colony.”
“Well, whatever the case,” Tread continued. “What happens when Scorp and the other four rescue Bambi and Crusher... they’ll become a group of six. You’re telling me that won’t draw attention?”
“We’ll have to use some form of bounding overwatch,” Eric said.
“Except their masking emitters don’t work anymore,” Frogger said. “So they won’t register as Sloth units. It won’t matter if you maintain a diamond formation.”
“Maybe we can pretend they’re our captives,” Eric said. “Either way, we’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
“Famous last words,” Mickey said.
“Thanks for that,” Eric said.
“We’ll join you up to the outskirts, and wait for you,” Marlborough said. “Three hours is all we can afford. If you aren’t back by then, you’re on your own, because we’ll have to retreat at close to our maximum speed to escape the detonation by then.”
“Can we disarm the nuke?” Traps asked.
“Not without Bambi’s primary codes,” Marlborough answered.
“So we could still give the Scorp’s team a few hours extra,” Traps said. “Because if they’re late, you can just disarm the bomb with Bambi’s codes when they return.”
“Yes, but I’m not
going to take the risk,” Marlborough said. “If I wait here five hours, for example, and the team doesn’t return, we’re all dead. And you’re assuming Scorpion will successfully retrieve her. For all we know, Bambi could already be dismantled. So, three hours.”
“Three hours,” Eric agreed.
17
Eric, Slate, Brontosaurus, and Eagleeye approached the outskirts of the city. There was no wall or other barricading structure, but no doubt sensors of some kind lined the perimeter. Mindful of that, Eric and the other three marched in the same diamond formation they had seen Sloth patrols using in the city earlier.
The rest of the Bolt Eaters remained behind on the outskirts, watching from the closest estate, and out of comm range.
As the four-mech team neared the buildings, a small alien sphere appeared on the thermal band and came forward—one of the alien scouts the platoon had encountered in the forest before. Seeing it confirmed Eric’s suspicions about sensors embedded near, or within, the buildings. Some kind of city AI was keeping tabs on them.
Up until that point, they had kept their comms dialed down to a five-meter range. But they had all agreed that if any units approached, they would disable comms entirely. Eric did just that.
The sphere reached him, and hovered a short distance above and in front of his head. He continued walking toward the buildings, unsure what the standard protocol was.
Then the sphere moved away.
He restored his comm node to the five-meter distance.
“Now we see if it calls in the cavalry,” Eagleeye commented.
Eric thought they were done, and expected some sort of alarm to be raised, but he wasn’t going to say anything, since openly speculating like that wouldn’t help. He continued forward, eying the silo-like buildings looming over them, waiting for an attack to come.
