Void Dragon

by William Kephart

  Covering fire.

  The unit fanned out and went full auto. Their flechette guns could do this for hours with full ammo spools so there really wasn’t any reason not to. The Enemy receded like a tide as engineers set charges on the chamber’s supports.

  A few were dropped by Enemy return fire but their charges were picked up quick enough by the rest.

  The Enemy withdrew. Local superiority. How? Did they truly not expect to be attacked here? It must’ve been. Wen had allowed them to strike at the Enemy’s soft underbelly. The plan actually worked!

  A sudden, irrational thought struck him. This is a trap. It didn’t feel like a trap, well, it did and it didn’t. Why give up so quickly? Did they mean to bury us here?

  Hold fire, he signaled. It took a few seconds for everyone to get the message but eventually the fire died down, replaced with an eerie quiet, made more so by the fact that their helmets were tamping down on incoming sound. He switched off the feature with a blink and waited for everyone else to do the same.

  “Set up a defensive perimeter,” he ordered. “Engineers, start reinforcing rubble piles with photon fields and dig in a bit. Stay alert people! More could be here at any moment.”

  He waited a minute. And then another, eyes darting around the room and ears keen to pick up on any sounds of movement. Despite their hasty fortifications he found himself feeling their position was pretty damned exposed, what with the high ceiling and walkway running the length of the chamber. His marines knew their business and secured the high ground first, and then all the exits. It was pretty easy without the Enemy putting up a fight. He was covered on every side but just couldn’t shake the feeling of something being off, though he couldn’t tell you what, exactly.

  Where are they? “How long has Colonel Xia been gone?” he asked to nobody in particular.

  A marine checked her watch. “Five minutes.”

  Fast as she moves that’s as good as an hour.

  “Sergeant Toro.”

  “It’s Toryn.”

  Whatever, they’re always making up new names on the Tiandao anyway. “You and your squad are with me. I know where Montjoie was interrogating his prisoners. Xia knows, but she might have run into too much for her to handle alone.”

  “Just great,” Toryn replied.

  “The rest of you,” Logenhayn said, “are to remain here. Set the charges for fifteen minutes. If I’m not back in ten, assume Montjoie is a lost cause and withdraw. We all knew that was a possibility going in here. Rendezvous at Xiaoshan for evac. We’ve done all we can.”

  Logenhayn took point and led Toryn’s squad through the narrow tunnels that branched off from the greenshift gateway, mostly for volatile munitions storage, but Montjoie set up shop there as well.

  “Sure you want to leave a whole battalion without an officer, Lieutenant?” Toryn asked after a few twists and turns.

  Typical noncom. “No choice. I’m the one who knows the way, now be quiet, who knows if they’re listening in?”

  Who knows indeed? The Enemy should’ve had sentries posted, even if they temporarily abandoned the gateway. No attack is this perfect. They’re still here, somewhere.

  He peered over the corner and startled for a second. Bodies. Enemy bodies. They were out of uniform and in strangely pristine condition. Flechette guns didn’t do that. Colonel Xia must’ve taken them out silently. She’s been this way.

  That was comforting at the very least. The Enemy leaving their own people exposed and undefended like that smacked more of incompetence than deception. Perhaps we did catch them with their pants down after all?

  He signaled a halt. The door to Montjoie’s language lab was ajar, and there were sounds coming from within. Logenhayn clutched his weapon and leaned forward to listen.

  “I’m telling you, Colonel, this rescue is really quite unnecessary.”

  He’s alive. Logenhayn would recognize that insanity anywhere. He burst through the door and found four flechette guns trained on him from various sides. They all just stood there for a long awkward moment before Colonel Xia motioned for them to lower their weapons.

  “The self control of my troopers is the only reason you’re alive, marine. What happened to waiting in the chamber?”

  “They gave up too easily,” Logenhayn replied. “I thought it was suspicious and I know how long it takes to get here. What kept you?”

  “Him!” Xia replied fiercely, pointing at the crazy old man himself, who was cowering behind some sort of force field. He didn’t look roughly treated at all. His gray chin hairs and mustache were well trimmed, his clothes clean, and his cheeks had a nice healthy color. From the looks of the slight billowing effect towards the waistline of his green Zhongshan suit he was even being well-fed.

  “Just as I told the good Colonel, the Quay’Tahhhn are not nearly as united as we imagine. There are factions that can be reasoned with. A separate peace with this group is entirely possible.”

  “Kui-something” was about all Logenhayn got out of that. Montjoie spoke the word with an unsettling trill from deep in his throat, like the purring of a cat but alien.

  “And I just told the professor that he’s needed back on Zhongxing, today. If he wishes to discuss negotiations it can be done there,” Xia said tightly.

  How long had they been arguing?

  “Listen,” Logenhayn said, “they could be back at any moment. For now the coast is clear. We’ve got to go!”

  “See, Montjoie? You heard him. This is our chance.”

  “You’re blowing things out of proportion,” Montjoie said. “I’ve just told you they can be reasoned with. You see, they have a very interesting social structure. It’s sort of a “fusion-fission” society. They’re eusocial like ants, but rather than a queen, they have a king.

  “Very very few males are born, perhaps one in a million. When a boy comes, the mother forms a new unit with a group of independent female followers, millions in some cases. They serve the boy’s mother for the right to mate with him. Planets are governed this way. Males just spend all day breeding with whomever they’re told to. It’s the mother who rules. On some colonies they have only one male per planet, his mother absolute dictator. On their most populated worlds there are still only a handful of males, usually close relatives though, or the planet would see civil war shortly.

  “They have a council of sorts for ‘mothers-of-sons’ which is effectively their political system, but in practice each ‘mother-of-son’, a translated term by the way, is an authority unto herself. I’ve spoken with the local one. Peace, here, is within our grasp!”

  That’s why they pulled back? This was big, bigger than him.

  “That’s interesting, but we still need to go, professor,” he said

  “We can always make you,” Xia added menacingly.

  Ren, horrible when they don’t get their way. He knew that approach wouldn’t work at all with someone like Montjoie, and he was pretty well dug in, too. The photon field protecting him was the same one they used to confine their prisoners, but Logenhayn noticed the controls were on his side of the field.

  “Please, sir, we had to fight our way to you and while some of them might be willing to negotiate, they were still launching vicious attacks on our positions as recently as twelve hours ago. Are you sure they can be trusted?”

  Montjoie looked at him for the first time, really looked. “Do I know you?”

  “I was General Cotto’s aide,” he replied in a small voice.

  “Then you know what’s at stake here! This is the first breakthrough in Quay’tahhhn-Gongyue relations after almost a generation of war! I simply can’t afford to leave now.”

  There was that awful word again. Logenhayn, conscious of the time frame he set for the battalion, was more worried by staying. “Sir, we’re on a tight schedule here, and if we remain a minute longer we’ll be abandoned in all likelihood. You may trust yourself to their mercy but I don’t. Some of our marines have fallen in the last few minutes!”

 
Montjoie held up his hands. “An unfortunate circumstance, but nothing compared to what will happen if I walk away now. They’ll think I was just playing with them when I spoke of peace.”

  “And maybe they’re just playing with you,” Xia pointed out.

  Wow, clever. “Yeah, they do seem to want our new technology really badly,” he added.

  A flash a doubt passed over Montjoie’s eyes before he fixed them ahead. “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

  That left them at a loss for a moment until Colonel Xia spoke up again.

  “We came here on a ship, based on the same technology as the gateway, just downscaled. They’ve been launching suicide attacks to capture our landing zone for going on three days, all while they were speaking to you of peace. They can’t be trusted.”

  “And they hounded us into the badlands!” Logenhayn said. “Everyone who escaped the Mountain. Only a few hundred are left, out of the thousands that were based here. You saw what they did!”

  Montjoie looked at him, and then Colonel Xia, and back again. His mouth opened once and no words came out. Finally, he cast his gaze downward, hopelessly.

  “I...I was so close...close to understanding them, but you’re right.” He powered down the forcefield with a trembling finger.

  Xia snapped into action and rattled off a coded order to her Ren backup. Two Ren marines materialized at either side of Montjoie.

  Huh, there were more in the room than I noticed at first. They’re really as good as they say.

  “Lieutenant, cover us, we’re getting out of here.”

  Don’t need to tell me twice.

  With the exception of Montjoie, they crossed the narrow hallways one by one so as not to be caught stacked up. They moved pretty fast and Logenhayn allowed himself to hope they would get out of there with no problems.

  Those hopes were rapidly dashed when they heard the clear sounds of a renewed battle in the gateway chamber.

  Shit!

  Xia made some hand signals he didn’t understand and then realized what she was doing and signaled him with the standard Marine Corps usage.

  ‘Mei Forward.’

  Just great. Who knew Special Forces had their own sign language?

  The Ren were busy guarding Montjoie and hustling him along. He and Toryn’s squad were the best choice. He knew the military reason, but he didn’t have to like it.

  They came across a whole swarm of Enemy bunched up and setting breaching charges on the wall.

  If the door is too heavily guarded, make a new door, right guys?

  At close range like this one good burst was all it took to mow them down.

  Didn’t expect an attack from this side, did you?

  With the sounds of battle everywhere the rest of the Enemy didn’t even notice they were being attacked from behind until it was too late.

  The passages were wider here as the tunnels were originally dug for storing heavy munitions and equipment. Sergeant Toryn and his squad added their fire to his and before long they started to run out of targets. One Enemy trooper with a death wish even ran into the fortified gateway chamber.

  Logenhayn expected her (he knew they were all “hers” now) to be shot to pieces at the threshold, but it didn’t happen.

  Wait, how long has it been?

  His eyes flicked up to the little clock in the corner of his visor’s heads up display. Fourteen minutes!

  “We have to get out of here, this place is gonna blow in one minute!”

  Montjoie, Xia, and her people were kind of hanging back. He sent one of the troopers to hurry them along.

  “Run for it, marines!”

  Logenhayn cut across the empty, shot to hell chamber in record time and started scaling the ruined elevator shaft with little jumps from wall to wall as fast as his jets would allow. About of a quarter of the way up Xia and company overtook them.

  Fast!

  A second later the whole Mountain shook like hell. Green depleted-xinium plasma erupted from below and started rising. It was the fuel for their most destructive thermobaric charges and would probably collapse the whole Mountain in time.

  The pressure of it all pushed him upward and he nearly lost control of his jump jets which would’ve been certain death.

  Come on, come on!

  A marine in a rush, with death behind him, can go faster than he thinks, or so Logenhayn found out personally. He managed to vault up the shaft without taking another breath and caught up to Xia and Montjoie dealing with a problem.

  The ground, the walls, the ceiling, everything around them was horribly unstable and quivered as they moved, but the worst thing was the apertures through which they had entered the Mountain had collapsed.

  The Ren marines were trying to shoot their way out but the walls of the Mountain proved thick and more was collapsing all the time. They were probably seconds away from the total collapse of everything around them.

  In their desperation the Ren were shooting from the hip and trying to dig their way out with the other hand.

  Logenhayn had to laugh. As tough as they were they were still skinny, frail Ren at the end of the day.

  “Allow me, he said.

  He started by opening fire at full auto, his flechettes tearing apart the wall but not doing much to open a path. Then, he set his rear jump jets for one big burst and approached the wall at a run, head first!

  Like a Mei bullet he blasted his way out of the Mountain and didn’t notice much else until he felt himself being grabbed.

  “Lieutenant. Lieutenant! Speak to me!”

  Everything seemed slow, like he was underwater. It took him a couple seconds to realize his helmet was off and Colonel Xia was kneeling over him.

  “We’ve got Montjoie clear of the Mountain! You’ll get a medal for this, I promise. Now we’ve got to get to Xiaoshan! Get up!”

  Right, Xiaoshan. The ship.

  “Okay,” he said, but it came out slurred.

  “Fuck, you have a concussion. I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Xia wrenched him off the ground and flipped a switch on his belt. Logenhayn only just realized Xia was slaving his suit to hers when they started jumping in tandem. Well, she was jumping and he was being dragged.

  About halfway to Xiaoshan he shook off enough of the cobwebs to ask a question. “Have they left yet?”

  “No, they still need time to charge up for a greenshift jump, we’ve got five—” she checked her visor, “— four minutes. We’re just about there.”

  At Xiaoshan Captain Ogun waved them in and Colonel Xia’s marines escorted Montjoie aboard. They were just about to do the same when Ogun’s plasma flak opened up. They were being attacked from the air. There was nothing in him except to stand there stupidly and watch.

  It wasn’t an orbital bombardment but Enemy interceptors that were circling and strafing the perimeter, only barely held at bay by what remained of their flak’s coverage.

  A lucky shot took out one of the canons and Logenhayn thought they were about to get swarmed, but just as the Enemy interceptors formed up for an attack run another interceptor showed itself, one of theirs!

  It’s Captain Wen!

  Wen shot down one, and then another, all while avoiding the purple fire of their plasma flak and driving the Enemy into it with a skillful display of dog fighting and positioning. Logenhayn had never seen anything like it. She landed just as skillfully and rushed aboard while Ogun covered her.

  The Energy field around the Void Dragon was visible now. It was just thin massive light at present but it would soon be full of xinium energy and impossible to walk through. Looks like it’s time to leave.

  Captain Ogun and Second Company thought so too. They abandoned their fortified positions and marched aboard one by one. It was just him and Ogun when they saw.

  The Enemy, thousands of them, poured out of the mountains, coming right at them.

  Ogun sighed and started walking to the flak control console. Logenhayn followed him without thinking.

 
; “What the hell are you doing, Lieutenant? Get aboard!”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Somebody has to run flak control to keep them off of us. I’m staying behind.”

  Fuck that. “I’ll do it.”

  “Do you even know how?” he asked incredulously.

  “Turn the guns horizontal, area denial mode, manage each battery from the central console to keep the guns from destroying themselves or each other,” he replied automatically.

  Ogun’s black face scrunched up in disbelief. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” he replied. He wasn’t thinking, but that was probably for the best.

  Ogun started jogging for the ship when he thought of something. “Hey, wait!”

  “What? Changing your mind already?”

  “Got a cigarette?”

  Chapter 14

  Sleep, glorious sleep.

  Harbin had been a nightmare, but it was all over now. The last jump to the Dark Facility totaled the core according to Tian. Her chief engineer had to jettison it as soon as they came out of their shift. Unstable, she said. Still, mission success!

  Montjoie and the Xuanwu survivors were taken away on a transport just as soon as they got off, to some public place where they could be seen, Wen presumed. They had been surprisingly subdued, all things considered. She heard their red-headed Lieutenant didn't make it. That was too bad.

  There’d been no debriefing for her, either. The Void Dragon was out of commission for the time being so she was a captain without a ship. Her orders came on the next news shuttle: she was to report to the People's Central Committee itself on Zhongxing, the capital world. That was how she came to be here in her old apartment in Aolin city, an inheritance from her parents. She'd never be able to afford it otherwise.

  Aolin city, built atop the great mountain Olympus Mons, was the first place they settled when Zhongxing was colonized. Back then it had been called Huoxing, or Mars, and very different indeed. It was red at one point! She couldn’t imagine Zhongxing being anything other than purple. Purple was everywhere. Genetically engineered plants with purple foliage thrived in the planet’s soil, and even survived in ancient days when Zhongxing lacked a fully breathable atmosphere.