Again the mayor nodded.
“Many of you Humans have a sickening sweet stench. What is that foul odor?”
The mayor replied, “We call it deodorant or perfume. If we go long without bathing we tend to smell.”
The officer scowled. “A strong natural scent is the mark of a powerful being. It is what attracts the males of our species.”
The mayor looked up. “You’re female?”
The Karthian officer placed the tip of her weapon on the mayor’s forehead. “I should like to burn a hole through your skull at this moment, but I would rather not have to repeat the instructions I have just given you to another. Be careful with your choice of words. Other Karth officers will not be so lenient as I.”
Jenny shook her head. “Poor guy’s under her command.”
Mace replied, “May not be any guys under her command. They all have similar body shapes and features. Could be the Karthian warriors are all women.”
The video feed from Johnny’s camera began to move, turning up the ramp leading into the ship.
Mace said, “Johnny, where are you going?”
Johnny whispered, “I know we’re all curious to see the inside of one of these without having to fight our way aboard.”
Mace said, “Do us all a favor and stay near the ramp.”
Johnny smirked. “It’s a walk in the park. The soldiers aren’t even looking at the ramp.”
Jenny said, “Keep in mind they can see you if you’re moving.”
“Moving slow. Not an issue.”
As the mayor stood, the faceshield of a nearby soldier shattered, followed by that of another. The Karthian officer turned, running to the ramp, yelling as a third was struck in the back. The soldiers who had been on the ground were now charging up the ramp as it lifted. Johnny’s comm feed cut off.
Jenny replied, “I count two shooters. Both moving away.”
Seconds later, a set of heavy laser pulses blasted each position, vaporizing everything within thirty meters and setting the surroundings afire. The two Humans who had sniped the Karthian soldiers were gone, floating away as ash in the ensuing flames.
Jenny grabbed Mace by the arm. “Come on! They’re scanning! They can see us!”
Before Mace could reply, he was pulled down behind a guardrail. The two lay motionless as the cruiser remained hovering.
Jenny said, “Don’t move or we’re caught!”
The cruiser began to lift toward the sky. At half a kilometer up, it came to a stop.
Jenny said, “They have to see us. Our bio signatures have to be in full view!”
The cruiser sat motionless for most of a minute before nosing over toward the ground and then dropping like a stone. The roadway shook as the half-kilometer long ship plunged into a nearby hillside, the lower decks collapsing before the entire structure rolled over on its side.
Mace stood, grabbing Jenny by the arm. “Come on! That has to have been Johnny. We need to get him out of there!”
Jenny held fast. “This place is gonna be swarming with Karthians in five minutes! We go in and we get caught!”
Jenny pulled back on Mace. “We have to go. We can’t help him now.”
Mace hesitated before taking a deep breath and exhaling. “Johnny? You still there?”
The comm was silent.
Jenny again pulled. “Come on! We can’t stand here.”
The two Humans sprinted down the road, heading back toward the cave.
Mace stopped. “Wait. We have to stay and see what happens. We can hide on the ridge.”
Jenny shook her head. “We can’t risk it. As I said before, they do a bioscan and we’re caught. Might as well be waving flags. We’ve got to go.”
The ramp to the fallen ship began to open, jutting out into the air from the aft lower deck. Mace took a final look back before turning to run. The duo was halfway home before the first of four fireballs could be seen dropping through the atmosphere. The fireballs slowed and extinguished as the Karthian cruisers that made them neared the town. One stayed at high altitude as two others began patrolling the crash perimeter.
The fourth dropped its ramp beside the downed cruiser and soldiers streamed down, taking positions around the ship, which was beginning to belch smoke and flame.
Mace and Jenny ran into Jeff’s lab. “We’re in trouble. Johnny brought down a cruiser. They’re gonna be scanning this whole valley.”
Jeff replied, “They won’t see us here.”
Jenny said, “We still have bio signatures.”
Jeff shook his head. “As long as we remain in these buildings or in the cave, we’ll be fine. The paint on this structure has the gatrellium copper alloy mixed into it just like the cave. If they scan, they will see nothing more than the normal background noise.”
Jenny flipped open her faceshield. “Paint? Could that be applied to our battlesuits?”
Jeff nodded. “Excellent idea. We should have considered that as a need. Gnaga is in the other room. Ask him if it can be applied in a manner that will make it effective.”
A comm came in from Johnny. “Sorry for the mess, but I wasn’t about to let them take me all the way to space.”
“Where are you?” asked Jenny. “What happened?”
“When that ramp closed I lost signal. They must have a jammer running that screws up our comms. Anyway, I hustled to the bridge and started blasting away with my thunder glove. Surprisingly, the inertial system was still operating when we hit the ground and rolled, so other than a few jerks I didn’t feel a thing until it switched off. We should see some fireworks in about two minutes. I cleared out the reactor room and set two of the reactors to overload. The closest farmhouse was a half a kilometer away so I just finished sprinting to there. No one is home so I’m heading back to you guys.”
“They didn’t pick up your bio signature?” asked Mace.
“Must not be looking for it. Although I wouldn’t know why. Let’s be happy they’re being sloppy.”
“We’re in the lab with the doc when you get here,” Mace said.
The building shook just as a smiling Johnny Tretcher walked in the door. “That should be it. Would love to have seen that on video. The place already looked like a disturbed anthill as I was slipping away. If we’re lucky we just took out a second cruiser along with it.”
Jenny frowned. “Expect this area to be hot for a while. They’re gonna wanna know what happened.”
Johnny said, “My first shot took out the comm console. Hopefully their last message out was talking about the snipers. Let’s pray they don’t take retribution out on that town. I’m sure the mayor is gonna get it.”
Mace shook his head. “They killed the mayor as they were running up the ramp. He never had a chance.”
Jane came over the comm. “What were the two explosions? Everything OK?”
Johnny replied, “We’re all good. The explosions were from a Karthian cruiser hitting the ground and then blowing up a few minutes later.”
Jane scowled. “Was that you?”
Johnny half smiled. “It was, but it couldn’t be helped.”
Jane grimaced. “I thought we all discussed not causing trouble here in the valley. Were you not paying attention? They’re gonna be all over this place now.”
Johnny raised his hands. “Not my fault. There was a sniper attack on the Karthians who were on the ground.”
Jane said, “So you expect me to believe a sniper attack caused a Karthian cruiser to crash?”
“Well… no. But —”
Jane shook her head. “Don’t want to hear it. Just glad you’re all OK.”
Jenny sat back in a chair. “So what do we do now? What are our options?”
Mace gestured toward the other room. “We go see Mr. Klept about some paint.”
A short meeting had a battlesuit ready for spraying. Mace’s would be the first suit to have the coating added. The gatrellium blue mixed with the copper yielded a purplish color. Mace winced at the first sight of the result
.
Johnny laughed. “You gonna be the Purple People Eater?”
Gnaga said, “Please, try it on. We’ll perform a number of scans with and without the holo-projector running.”
The others watched on a holo-display as Gnaga swept the airwaves for the telltale signs of a bio reading. Mace used his comm to send a text only message. No signals were detected. A video feed was attempted next, with the same result. With a simple command, the holo-projector was enabled. The Army ranger disappeared.
Johnny said, “We aren’t detecting a thing. Send us your video feed again.”
A voice could be heard, seemingly coming from mid-air. “It’s broadcasting.”
Gnaga reviewed the data from the scan. “Open your faceshield.”
Mace complied.
Gnaga tilted his head to one side. “Interesting. Other than a slight increase in infrared, you remain largely unseen by the sensors. One moment… there… I can detect your breathing. But only if properly tuned. And I would expect that not to be the case once the sensor had been moved back by a hundred meters or so. From a ship passing overhead, so long as you remain off the comms, you would likely remain unseen.”
Johnny said, “Why can’t we do this to our ships? I mean, if we still had ships.”
Gnaga replied, “The infused copper would not allow us to slip through the micro-wormhole. And we would lose much of the shielding capability the gatrellium skin provides.”
Johnny crossed his arms. “Why not put it on the inside? Paint every one of our exterior-facing walls with it.”
Gnaga rubbed his chin. “Hmm. An interesting and yet simple concept. I shall go over the possibility with Mr. Moskowitz. In the meantime, I’ll let you worry about finding us a ship we might apply it to.”
Johnny chuckled. “Was that an attempt at a joke? If so, keep trying. That was almost a good one.”
Gnaga nodded. “Perhaps I should work on my delivery?”
Johnny smiled. “We’re gonna make a comedian out of you yet. As far as testing that out, we have two shuttles sitting out there. With all those Karthian ships up above, we can’t make use of them. You make them invisible to signals and we could at least sneak out at night.”
“I will see what I can do. For now, we should focus our energy on testing Mr. Hardy’s suit.”
Mace’s voice echoed in Johnny’s ear. “Can you hear me now?”
Johnny stepped back. “That is freakishly weird.”
Johnny reached out, pushing his hand through the holo-projected image and touching Mace’s suit. “It’s like I’m pushing against the air.”
Johnny turned to face Gnaga. “Mr. Klept, these holo-projectors have been around for years. Why isn’t anyone using them just like this?”
“In the Galactic Union it was unlawful. As to why other species have not done so, I cannot say.”
Johnny said, “I think it’s time you go investigate the crash site. Mace, you up for your first mission? Find out what they’re saying about that crash?”
A voice came out of thin air. “You do realize that means you stay right here, don’t you? There won’t be any sitting up on a ridge and watching from afar. They will have scans running continuously.”
Johnny nodded. “Not a problem. While you’re out I’m going to have Mr. Klept do another paint job. If it turns out that it doesn’t work, well, I’ll just have a purple suit. No big loss.”
Mace left the cave compound and was soon at a full sprint, heading to the crash site near Ronceverte. As he approached, two additional Karthian cruisers joined the three that hovered just above the downed ship. Numerous shuttles were on the ground. As teams of Karthian investigators picked through the strewn-out wreckage, others scouted the remaining larger structure. Mace walked in close to one of the teams as it looked over a smattering of ship parts that had been scattered in a nearby field from the explosion.
A worker said, “I tell you, these Humans are going to be more trouble than they are worth. We should be rid of them all now, while we have the upper hand.”
“We have no evidence that this was anything but a catastrophic failure. Records show this ship took more than forty hits from their weapons. We are still patching holes on ours. Until we find something that says different, this was nothing more than poor maintenance and mistakes by her crew and captain. With damage, they should not have taken this duty.”
A third worker called out. “Over here… this is the head of a reactor. The hole in this plate is from one of those orbital weapons.”
The second worker turned to the first. “Reactor containment loss. That’s exactly what this all looks like.”
The first worker scowled. “While that is what brought down the Canatoid, there is no evidence it was because of the battle. I’d be willing to bet you fifty credits this was sabotage.
The second worker stopped. “Before drawing conclusions, let’s investigate first, shall we? The Humans are largely cooperating. It won’t be long before they will be the ones fighting the Consortium instead of our own people. They have proven to be great warriors. You would have us throw such an asset away?”
The first worker huffed. “I tell you, they will be trouble. This is just the first sign of it.”
Mace moved slowly up to the teams investigating the bulk of the wreckage. He moved close to a group of four officers.
A Karthian wearing a captain’s collar said, “The log files were destroyed. We have nothing that tells us of what happened in the moments before she went down.”
A commander replied, “There is no evidence of a struggle. Had an alert been sounded, we would have received it over the comm net. We know at least one reactor failed. That would have taken out the others.”
A lieutenant shook his head. “Why is the debris field not larger? The reactor exploded after they hit the ground.”
A sergeant walked up. “Sirs, it would appear that some of the bridge equipment was smashed.”
The captain asked, “Weapons fire?”
The sergeant shook his head. “No, just smashed. Possibly from the explosion. We have yet to find any evidence of weapons being discharged.”
The captain replied, “Keep us informed, Sergeant.”
After an hour of walking in and around the wreckage and listening to various conversations, Mace returned to the cave compound.
Chapter 4
*
“I think we’re in the clear,” Mace said. “Johnny’s use of that glove weapon left no evidence of a firefight. And I had no indication that I was spotted. No odd looks or second glances in my direction. If you move slowly as we discussed, they see nothing. I say we cover all our suits with that paint as soon as possible, and we make it a priority to outfit our shuttles with the same. Mr. Klept, do we have enough of that paint at the ready?”
Gnaga nodded. “We do, and we can make more if required, although we will need more copper.”
“Copper we can get. Let’s get started on this as soon as possible.”
Jeff said, “I was going to suggest that we build a tunnel from the cave to this building so we could move back and forth freely. If our suits are covered, the tunnel won’t be necessary.”
Johnny held up a hand. “As far as tunnels go, I was thinking we should have built in a few exits into that cave complex. I know you can go deep in back and climb out. We should look at putting in something a bit more formal in for that.”
Mace replied, “It’s already there. You should have received the updated map of that complex on your arm pad with an instruction to familiarize yourself with it. Embedded in that map you will find two exits that now have ladders taking you up to the surface.”
Johnny chuckled. “Who reads instructions?”
Over the week that followed, every battlesuit was painted and every wearer given a touch-up kit. The inside walls of the two shuttles were painted as well. Johnny began calling the ships the “purple fleet.” The next day, white paint was applied over the purplish covering. Repeated tests showed extremely
weak levels of signal leakage. Gnaga was determined to “quiet” them all.
With their battlesuits invisible to the Karthian sensors, they began a series of patrols, wanting to keep track of the happenings in and around Ronceverte. They discovered the people from the surrounding farms were being brought back to the community centers, and from there groups of citizens were being marched out into the fields in unison. Those who failed to follow orders precisely were pulled from the line, punished, and shoved back into place. Drills would go on for three hours, followed by a new group being brought out.
Johnny stood with Mace. “Seems very elementary. You’d think they’d at least make them carry fake weapons or packs or something. I guess they aren’t in a big hurry to field anyone.”
“I don’t think these are their elite troops. I see a lot of out of shape men and women.”
Johnny scowled. “You heard about the kids out marching yesterday, right?”
Mace nodded. “I did. Given the fact that the whole world has been taken over, and we know what their intent for us is, I don’t find it shocking, if that’s what you’re after.”
Johnny shook his head. “Some days I don’t know what it is we’re after. We just come out here and watch every day.”
Mace replied, “Well, we know they bring out three of these groups per day, always at the same time. And the groups are always the same size. We know how many guards they have watching them. We now know there’s a regular shuttle that comes down once a day at the same time. What we’re finding is a species that follows patterns. Knowing those patterns will allow us to plan.”
Johnny chuckled. “Not sure what we can plan. We might free up one of those groups, but what do we do with them? There would be a dozen ships down here on us in ten minutes time.”
“Even if all we do with this information is keep ourselves safe and hidden, it’s worth knowing.”
Johnny nodded. “Yeah, I know. It just gets frustrating being stuck here and not doing anything about it.”
HADRON Havoc Page 3
