by Jan Domagala
Hacker accessed the computer isolating his search by targeting just the internal sensors and what he learned was that she was not on the base. Something else strayed into his search parameters as he was linked to the computer, something much more disturbing.
“She’s left boss, but I did learn something else you may want to look at,” said the young Marine.
Guardian and Matt added to the link along with the rest of the team forming a combined network.
“Holy shit!” Matt exclaimed, anger at her escaping contorted his face into a rictus of rage and then the consequences of her leaving sank in.
“We have to go, we have to get everyone out of here,” he said. His eagerness at chasing her, of finding her had brought all these others here and because of his actions had placed them all in danger.
Guardian saw the expression of guilt on Matt’s face and said, “It’s not your fault Matt. You did what you had to do and it gave us the opportunity to cripple her organisation.”
Matt nodded his head in thanks and looked at the others before saying, “C’mon, let’s get the hell out of here.”
“How long have we got Hacker?” Guardian asked as they made their way to the elevator that would take them to the docking bay.
“Not long enough boss and besides, Matt hasn’t got an environment suit. ‘C’ Platoon breached those doors in the docking bay and it’ll be open to the outer atmosphere. He’d never make it to the shuttle before he died,” replied the young Marine.
“He’s right,” Matt agreed and he turned away in thought, his eyes turning a milky white as he accessed the computer to find what they needed. As he turned back to them his eyes had returned to their original ice blue colour. He said, “This way, I think I may have found something that could help,” he said as he ran off in the opposite direction.
VI
When the Colonel reached the C and C with his advance guard from ‘C’ Platoon they found it deserted. They had passed several dead bodies on their way, which they found disturbing, all of them were the Rover5s they had heard so much about and had fought before.
“What the hell happened here?” De Boer said in anger and confusion. His fists balled at his side as he looked around at the deserted room. Equipment was still running and several monitors showed scenes of confusion and destruction as ongoing missions involving the Rover5s dramatically fell apart.
He pointed at the banks of equipment and shouted, “I want every scrap of data you can tear from that thing. I want to know exactly what the hell happened here.”
Marines ran to comply with his orders and one of them turned, a look of shock and fear on his young face. “Sir, you’re going to want to see this,” he said.
De Boer linked to the same computer as the young Marine via his NI and he immediately saw what the Marine had spotted.
Backing away he said, “Now listen up, this place is rigged to blow in less than ten minutes. Get as much as you can from the computer, it’s vital we get as much data as possible about their operations before we leave. This is our only chance people so let’s not blow this.”
Turning away from the Marines who continued to work feverishly, he accessed the comm. channel that connected him to the rest of his troops. “Prepare for a fast evac, this place is set to blow in less than ten minutes. We’ll get what we came for then we’ll be double timing it back to the docking bay. Make sure you’re all ready to leave.”
Once that was completed he contacted the Legend. “Captain Biggs we’ll need a fast evac from the surface sir, this place is rigged to blow, we have less than nine minutes,” he said urgently.
He heard the voice of the captain loud and clear when he replied, “Shuttles are on their way Colonel.”
De Boer turned to face the room now to see how his men were performing. He had done all he could to prepare things for their hasty departure; all that was required now was one final call.
“Guardian, are you aware we have less than nine minutes before this place blows?”
Guardian replied saying, “Yes Colonel and we won’t reach you in time so we’ll make other arrangements for our departure.”
“Good luck to you and your team Guardian,” De Boer said then signed off. He knew they would be okay; he had trained most of that team personally so he was well aware of their capabilities so he concentrated on his own men.
“Okay people let’s move this along, the clock is ticking,” he said.
24
I
Tartaran
Kurt was dropping down on the centre panel of the courtyard. He looked across at the agonised face of Zara as she rolled on the floor holding her head. He increased his pace and then jumped using all the strength in his powerful legs.
His jump took him over thirty feet into the air and across the widening void as the floor still dropped away from him. At the last second he stretched his arms out, desperately reaching for the edge of the gap. He saw his fingers fall towards the edge and for a second he thought they would fall short.
His right hand grabbed hold of the edge and then his left also. Quickly he pulled himself up scrambling over the edge to reach Zara who was still writhing in agony. He had no idea what had gone wrong, he just knew he had to get to her and fast.
He was within a second of reaching her when she suddenly stopped, looked up at him, her eyes clearing as she saw him, recognition registering in them.
“I know what we have to do,” she said and was on her feet in a flash.
Kurt was surprised by her sudden reaction and when she took his hand and dragged him back towards the edge again he thought she had gone mad. Nevertheless he went with her over the edge, falling down after the descending floor panel from the centre of the courtyard.
They dropped like two stones quickly catching up with the floor until at fifty feet down they landed in the centre of the panel. They landed and went down onto one knee as their bodies absorbed the forces of the impact like no regular human could.
Kurt dragged Zara around to look her in the eyes when he asked, “What the hell happened up there?”
“I accessed some sort of computer that’s still running, somewhere in this city,” she said, her eyes widening with amazement as she realised what she had just done, what she had learned. “Kurt this place is amazing, you have no idea what went on in here, I can hardly believe it myself,” she added her expression opening up. She smiled at him and he felt her enthusiasm, her sense of wonder.
“I’m still processing everything I’ve downloaded from their archives and it’ll be some time before I know everything but,” she suddenly stopped, looking around as if she was seeing something in the shadows of the channel through the ground as they travelled downwards. Something was bothering her and it showed in every line across her forehead, in every furtive glance of her eyes.
“What’s the matter?” Kurt asked suddenly worried her brain could have been damaged beyond her body’s ability to regenerate from the download.
She turned to him then, her eyes wide with fear, “We have to move fast,” she said, clutching at the front of his clothes in desperation.
Kurt reached out with his own mind, attempting to link his own NI with hers to see if he could learn something of what she had found in the computer. Making a direct NI to NI link without using a comm. channel or other such means should have been impossible as the designers had made it to prevent anyone intentionally hacking another’s NI and learning everything they knew. A link should only be possible if both parties were in accord so what Kurt was attempting was both illegal and wrong, but when he saw his love’s expression it was something he knew he had to do.
Using the unnatural control he had demonstrated before over his NI, he managed to invade Zara’s defences and grasp hold of her NI. He accessed all her recent files searching for the one he needed and immediately downloaded it to his NI.
The pain was almost unbearable as the data package was transferred to his NI. His brain attempted to sort the alien data into some
kind of pattern that it could handle and comprehend. The pain was from the data corrupting his neural pathways from a massive overload that was not enhanced abilities compensated for this by repairing his brain as it was being torn apart. He dropped to his knees under the sudden strain.
Just as sudden as the attack, the pain was gone and he could think clearly once more. As his brain functions returned to some semblance of order he found he was beginning to understand what had happened here too. But with that knowledge came the horror, the realisation that they were all in mortal danger, not just from the Alliance troops and battle fleet that had arrived but from something much more deadly and much closer and it had been set free.
Kurt looked at Zara and his gaze reflected the horror he saw in her eyes.
Together they said, “Christ, what have we done?”
II
Jake and the rest of the Wildfire Team arrived at the entrance with the certain knowledge that the Black Knights were not far behind them. Their ride was across the landing pad and they had to reach it unseen by the pilot of the shuttle the Black Knights had arrived in. This would not be too difficult as they had already run past it to get inside without being seen, the consensus being the pilot was too intent on keeping the engines running and watching his scanners for anything that might attack from above. Hopefully he would be too busy doing that to see them on the ground.
Their ride, the forward section of the Pulsar, was still under a stealth shield so the pilot would not even know it was there.
“Right, let’s make a move, keep your heads down like before and get to the Pulsar,” Jake said quietly. He had no idea why as he was aware there was no chance of them being overheard.
Torres said, “Okay Artie get ready to drop your stealth shield, we’re coming home.”
They all heard the AI’s reply loud and clear through their helmet’s comm. units. “I will be ready sirs,” he said in his usual calm and measured synthetic voice.
Jake gave the signal and they all sprinted across the open ground, mindful of the danger that could present itself at any time from above.
Not quite sure if they were going in the right direction, they ran at full tilt towards where they remembered their craft to be. As they passed the Alliance shuttle they suddenly saw a shimmer appear in front of them a few hundred feet to their right.
“There,” Vance said as he veered off in that direction.
Jake scanned the sky for any sign they were about to be attacked and saw three huge creatures break away from the battle raging above their heads. “Move it people,” he shouted into his helmet mic.
They reached the Pulsar and ran up the ramp just as their AI initiated the stealth shield again and the craft disappeared once more in a shimmer of distorted light.
The creatures, suddenly confused at what they had seen, began to circle above the Alliance shuttle should the tasty morsels they had spotted appear once more.
Inside the Pulsar Jake said, “Okay Artie, take us up.”
He took off his helmet and kept his face turned from the rest. He didn’t want them to see his anger at having to leave two of his team behind, even though he knew they were more than capable of looking after themselves down there it still rankled with him. It just wasn’t something that Marines did. Wherever possible, they always brought their team home, even their dead. It was a tradition dating back centuries and was as firm now as it was then.
“You okay Jake?” Torres asked, she knew him as well as the rest of them but was always the first to show concern. She placed a tentative arm on his shoulder to let him know he wasn’t alone and he glanced at it then smiled.
“I’m fine,” he said then turned around. He looked at her, his face softening as he saw the concern in her eyes and realised why she was the first to show concern, why she had never had a steady boyfriend for as long as he’d known her. It wasn’t because of the demands of the job as he had first thought and he mentally kicked himself for not seeing it earlier. All their friendly flirting before he had been reunited with Natasha had now stopped and he realised just how withdrawn she had become, well it all made sense now.
He saw the recognition that he suspected dawn on her and she withdrew her hand and looked away.
“We’ve still got work to do people, let’s get back to the rest of the Pulsar so we can be ready when Kurt and Zara need us,” he said as he turned back to the weapons locker to stash his gear. Suddenly he couldn’t look at her. He felt uncomfortable somehow and just hoped it would pass. Torres was a valued friend and he would hate for their friendship to alter because of this. Not only did he value her friendship; it was greater than that, she was part of the team and they all depended upon her for what she brought to the team dynamics. They were a unit and each member played their part, if one left the team would fall apart.
He just hoped they could work through this as he was certain Torres thought the same.
It was quiet on the bridge as they all went about their various tasks to get ready for what must come next.
Artie piloted the forward section up into space avoiding the battle zone that was raging between the fighters and the creatures. It was relatively easy for them as the craft was invisible to any known detection device or the hyper alert senses of the creatures.
As they reconnected with the main body of the Pulsar the Wildfire Team got their first glimpse of the battle group.
“We are in big trouble,” observed Jake as he took in all the craft that had gathered in orbit.
III
Major Solon reached the exit of the city before his men and realised their horror was not over just yet. They still had to reach their shuttle and navigate through the sky, which was still a battlefield between their fighters and the winged inhabitants of this world.
He stopped his men, glancing skyward to judge the best time to make a run for it. Time was running out for them. Whatever was planned by the battle group would take place soon so they had to move fast.
“I want two men here,” he said pointing to the doorway, “to cover the rest as they move to the shuttle. Once they are safe there, we’ll cover you two as you come across,” directing his commands to the two men who took up station at the door as indicated.
He looked to the skies once more and knew the longer he waited the greater the danger to them all. “Right let’s go,” he said as he pushed his men forward joining them half way.
The dash to the shuttle was completed under covering fire from the two men left behind at the doorway. Solon stood at the base of the boarding ramp with two of his men as the rest of them filed aboard.
“Okay you two, come across now, we’ll give you cover,” he said as the comm. channel linked his unit via their combat helmets.
The remaining two Black Knights stopped firing and ran across the open ground towards their shuttle, but they got only half way before three creatures dodged and weaved through the pulsed plasma bolts fired their way. The creatures aerial ability was far superior to the accuracy of the Black Knights and the two running men were scooped off the ground and torn apart in mid-air as the attacking creatures flew off with their prize.
Solon stood at the base of the boarding ramp both shocked and furious at the outcome. He slammed the butt of his rifle against the boarding ramp in anger then ordered his men aboard.
Not only had they had to pull out before the mission had ended but they had lost more than half his men in a futile action.
Someone would pay and pay dearly for this.
He threw himself into a seat just as the shuttle lifted off the ground. It was clear what he thought of this debacle from his expression and none of his men spoke to him as they rode up into the battlefield that was taking place above them. Solon just hoped there was good enough reason to call off his mission when they had, if not he knew heads would roll.
The shuttle powered through the air as the pilot tried to avoid the battlefield that almost destroyed them on the way down.
Solon was strapped into hi
s seat by the time they encountered their first obstacle. A winged monster swooped at them from above narrowly missing them. Solon felt the talons of the great bird rake the top of the shuttle gouging huge rents in the fuselage. All the occupants of the shuttle were thrown about in their seats and Solon saw the terrified expressions of his men. This was a battle they feared most; one they had no control over, totally at the mercy of the skills of someone else.
Solon remained calm even when another bird almost took out one of the engines of the shuttle when it collided with the rear quarter. It had landed on the top of the shuttle and was about to tear away the entire rear section of the craft when a fighter dived at it firing its pulse cannons. The bird was blasted off the shuttle but it tore open one of the engine cowlings and damaged it slightly.
Solon reached around in his seat to see if he could catch a glimpse of what had happened just in time to see smoke billowing out of the port side engine.
“Hang on men, this could get rough,” he said when he saw their worried frowns.
Involuntarily he clutched at the armrest of his seat as he kept his face calm, all the while hoping his men could not see the fear in his own eyes.
IV
Kurt and Zara looked around when the panel they were on came to a stop. They were in a huge cavern that stretched out for hundreds of yards.
“What the hell is this place?” Zara asked as the both of them took in their surroundings.
They had dropped through hundreds of feet of hewn out rock into a huge dome-shaped cavern situated beneath the city. Whatever purpose this place served there was no indication of it here. All traces of what this cavern was used for had been eradicated through the passage of time.
“This place looks like no one has been here for centuries,” Zara observed as she walked towards the one domed doorway over to the right of where they had landed.
Kurt agreed with a nod of his head and said, “We need to get further inside this place and see if we can’t stop this thing altogether.”
