by Ernest Filak
Sunshine and Theodore were putting on their heavy backpacks. Did they understand the situation? Theodore most certainly did. Question was whether he would be fit enough to take decisive steps. I was more worried about Sunshine. She was focusing on her lover too much, which definitely limited her in a way.
“Let’s go,” the paramedic urged us on.
The first step was the hardest to make. Then the body got into a mechanical rhythm of repetitive movement. I must say this planet made quite an impression on me with these huge thirty-year-old tree trunks, leaves which were a yard in diameter and very tall grass. From all sides we heard voices of the local fauna. This place must have been inhabited by predators. I didn’t really look forward to meeting any of them. The representatives of my own species were dangerous enough.
We heard gunfire at a distance. Two less seriously wounded Star Troopers must have been given some orders because they moved our way and placed their index fingers dangerously close to the triggers. My hands began to itch. I wanted to feel the calming touch of a gun in them. I rubbed my palms against my pants and felt better instantly. My wounded companion had noticed but didn’t say anything. I knew that I had just given myself away. He knew already that I wasn’t an ignorant slave. Those fucking instincts!
“Sit down,” the other less seriously wounded soldier stopped our marching. “And don’t you dare even whisper.”
Behind the line of trees a big open space opened up. Individual Star Troopers were taking positions. I glanced behind.
“Don’t even think about it. You won’t be able to make even five yards,” the voice of my wounded man was cold. I didn’t answer him – what would be the point of that?
We found a cozy place in a small niche overgrown with lichen. We all managed to fit in there. All we had to do was wait. It didn’t last long. The squad whose hands we were in opened fire. For a moment the noises of earlier shooting died out. Apparently they didn’t hit the volunteers in the formations because soon the first laser beams started to fly over our shelter. Whew, whew! We heard the characteristic whizz of heavier bullets and the first explosions of something of really large caliber.
I expected a lot of fun but to my surprise the gunfire began to quiet down. What was going on? I pushed myself higher to see.
“Lower your head,” Ingrid intervened.
“What is going on?”
“I can hear the sound of a few low flying objects.”
“Uroboros or revolutionary?”
“I have no idea. I can’t tell the type.”
This I found strange. Ingrid had done a very thorough intelligence training and as an AI she could do really a lot. Others were getting impatient too. Ignoring the orders, we crept up closer to the edge. But before we even put our heads up we heard four relatively quiet explosions with a metallic after-sound. They were soon followed by a series of explosions which were quickly getting nearer. The last one hit really close to us. Too close for my liking. The tree that grew next to us was uprooted and flew right over our shelter. We reflexively cuddled up into the moss.
“Fuck! What the hell was that?” somebody asked. My ears were ringing and I felt as if I had just had a bath.
I was in the line of fire already but this time it was something new. Nobody stopped me when I raised myself onto my knees.
“Fuck me,” I said.
The patch of the forest that was between us and the open space had disappeared. And not metaphorically. I couldn’t see any damaged trees or burn that would normally follow a blast of high-energy explosives. In front of us there was nothing. Something had ripped out a fragment of reality, and I don’t know what they had done with it because they left nothing instead. There was an oval crater in front of us. That’s it. The forest that grew here just a few seconds ago ceased to exist.
The Star Troopers kept clicking their consoles. One of them took his helmet and hit it repeatedly against a stone that was lying next to him.
“What is going on? All communications are down. Everything’s gone haywire!”
Across the open space I could see the whole battlefield. There were masses of corpses wearing red bands on their sleeves lying around. It was the Mechs coming our way! Exactly the type I used to work on. The fact froze me down to the ground. Inside the field I saw regular buildings. It wasn’t hard to guess that it was a military base. Some of the hangars were already burnt out skeletons. Others were still on fire. To the right at the foot of a hill there were ramparts. This place served as a fortification, above which I saw a ragged flag with the symbol of a circling arrow with an embroidered golden crown on top. That was something new.
I didn’t have time to analyze the situation. Over our heads two silver-winged machines flashed as they began diving. They weren’t wearing any signatures on their hulls and it didn’t look like another series of gunfire would be coming from that direction. However, new havoc was being wrought inside the Mech formation and the destructive wave spread towards Uroboros forces. I was left speechless by the effect of the unfamiliar weaponry. For fractions of a second, round spheres appeared in the places that were being targeted; then they suddenly disappeared together with all the matter that they encapsulated. Nothing, absolutely nothing was left. No casualties, no fire, no flying debris. It was a perfectly clean weapon.
“There is no technology that could create such weapons.”
Apparently, this was the first time my wonderful Ingrid was mistaken. That meant she wasn’t so perfect after all. I instantly felt better.
One of the machines sky-rocketed straight up. It made a turn in an incredibly sharp whirl and plummeted to the ground. Some of the revolutionaries and Star Troopers began to fire at the machine. They weren’t doing a very good job of it. The Mechs acted as if in slow motion. They sluggishly raised the barrels of their guns. It crossed my mind that their power steering had failed.
The slightly-wounded soldier that was guarding us kept shooting a caseless ammunition rifle. The other one was swearing his head off but his weapon remained quiet. I knew this type of a gun – I had a similar one on the flag ship. It was a standard laser rifle with a backlit collimator. It was a good and cheap shockproof gun, although it wasn’t the best against an armored enemy.
“Electromagnetic impulse!”
“What?” I didn’t understand.
“They used electromagnetic impulse. That’s why all communications are down and all electronic equipment isn’t working.”
This could be it. There was no time to verify her revelations. The silver machine hit the ground. When it was almost on the surface, it leveled its flight and touched the ground. The tentative cries of joy went dead silent. The vehicle didn’t get stuck in the ground! It rolled along its surface and tumbled, creating something cylindrical. Out of its sides emerged arms like scythes. The whole body whizzed about one hundred yards at an incredible speed, then it lifted up into the air and flew away as if it had been catapulted. It sideswiped three Mechs on its way and they disintegrated sliced into pieces. A few poor guys shared their fate, the difference being that their passing happened in geysers of blood. They looked as if they had got caught in rotor blades.
I was glad that we were standing far away and I couldn’t see all the gory details. I wished I could say it was over, but it was just the beginning. As soon as the first machine took off, another one began its mowing attack. Death was taking its bloody toll. And it targeted everybody. In one of the subsequent attacks the scythes struck the Star Troopers stationed behind the rampart. Lying in line, they didn’t really have a chance to run away. It was good that I had already puked my guts out.
Somebody finally raised the white flag, hoping it would end the ordeal, but in vain. The white rag quickly got sprinkled with red. A few soldiers were still putting up a fight. The more sensible or maybe more terrified ones were looking for cover in the forest. Very few actually managed. Just opposite our shelter a young boy was running, having already shed his equipment. He was unarmed. He chose a moment
when the wounded Star Trooper was changing clips.
“Kill the terrorist,” somebody shouted to the man still struggling with the laser rifle. “What are you waiting for?”
The man switched the regulation module to back up. Without aiming he pointed his gun at the revolutionary, who was quickly getting closer. But there was no lethal light beam to welcome the boy. The replaced module didn’t work either. The insurgent noticed the niche we were all sitting in. He took a few desperate paces and jumped our way. He curled into an embryonic position and wept. He had crossed the limits of his self-control.
One of the Star Troopers put a hand on his gun holster but hesitated. Sunshine and Theodore stood up, ready to take action. I realized that I was holding a bayonet that I had somehow snatched out of the trouser leg of the soldier I was looking after. With my knee I was pushing him into rough lichen. He didn’t even protest. It’s difficult to be indignant when you are finding it hard to catch your breath when paralyzed by somebody pressing the nerve nodes on your neck. For the time being, he was desperately gasping, mincing brown blackthorn and soil in his mouth. Well, that was just an innocent trick that one annoying Marine corporal once taught me.
“Enough,” two Star Troopers crawling into our shelter broke the tense status quo.
It was getting really crowded. Theodore shrugged and pulled his woman’s hand. I quickly slid the blade into the right sheath and helped the wounded man get up. I couldn’t guess why he spurned my help and crawled away cursing me under his breath. This was not the first time that Star Troopers turned out to be ungrateful pigs. Man carries the troglodyte on his back all day, then one small thing and he goes into a huff. What s sissy.
“I knew we had met before,” one of the recently-arrived men was obviously Sergeant Andy Gall. “I don’t know if Corporal Pickers made it, but if so he will gladly have a few words with you later.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Signal a retreat. Nothing for us to do here,” he turned to the soldier by his side.
The man whistled loud.
Chapter IV
HES Judgment
Commander Tony Cassino, the man in charge of armored ship HES Judgment, tightened the anti-shock harness of his seat. He observed the efficient work of the bridge crew contentedly. The rest of the five-hundred-member crew also carried out their duties to the best of their ability. So far only three troublemakers were detained in a hole, which, given the low requirements at recruitment to the Fleet, was quite a miracle.
“We’re ready,” Captain Vladislav Kuznietsov reported in the private channel. He commanded the cruiser accompanying them.
“We are as well,” Cassino said. “What is the general feeling?”
“Militant!” the dark circles under King Edward’s commander’s eyes testified to the contrary.
Both ships were in a difficult position. They had practically run out of solid fuel to escape from the place of the most intensive fighting. Both units decided to remain faithful to their oath. They didn’t take either of the two sides of the conflict taking place in the Hadesian System. Given the first opportunity, they got out of the mayhem and flew over the plane of the ecliptic. They were now observing the course of the struggle from a distance.
“I would like to report that the progress of work on starting the phase pile is unsatisfactory,” Kuznietsov said after a while. “I shooed your engineer away and waved my clenched fist at him.”
“And?”
“Fucking nothing, he didn’t give a shit. He’s sure the problem is in the software rather than in the installation, and we don’t have an expert in that field here. Yob tvoyu mat.”
Getting the main pile started was a priority. Without the energy coming from their drives the ships were slow and weaponless blocks of stalmite.
“Commander,” King Edward’s boss asked cajolingly. “You say yes. We’ll fly away just a bit and do it my way.”
The captain of the cruiser once again suggested another attempt to get the pile started by breaking all safeguards. The crew that was blindly devoted to him was willing to grant his every wish.
“I don’t allow it,” Cassino had his opinion and wasn’t going to succumb even to a more experienced commander. Not in such a matter. He preferred to change the subject before Kuznietsov got into a fury, which he was famous for. “What do you think about the Aliens, Commander?”
“And what am I supposed to think?” Kuznietsov was agitated. “They are unfaithful sobakas, that’s what they are. They destroy everything that gets in their way and could be potentially dangerous.”
Cassino didn’t fully understand all the archaic words the commander used, but could easily figure out their pejorative meaning.
“Do you rule out the possibility of entering into an agreement with them?”
“No, I don’t. Although in the present situation I don’t think it’s possible.”
“Do you think it might be an issue of the inaccurate linguistic software we’re using?”
“Those guys don’t give the impression that they want any dialogue with us. I’ll risk saying that they came here with a very specific aim in mind.”
“Which is?”
Vladislav Kuznietsov ran his hand across his neck in a very meaningful gesture.
“Isn’t that a bit over the top, Captain?”
“Commander Cassino,” he began calmly as if he was explaining something to a small child. “I’m an old man, who should soon retire. On my home planet geezers like that take delight in one sport only. Have you ever heard of angling?”
“No, Sir,” Cassino replied surprised by the turn this conversation was taking.
“It’s an ancient method of getting food – very unergonomic, although not devoid of the pleasantries of being in contact with nature. What you do is you throw an insect into water. The creatures living in water love them. When the gullible animal is lured and takes the bait, which is signaled by a primitive alarm, you pull the metal hook which is hidden inside the insect and it pierces through the animal’s mouth. You need to be pretty skilled to do that, but after long training you can get astonishing results.”
“And who is the bait in our situation?” Cassino smiled.
In response he got an image of Hades on the screen he was looking at.
“I have long pondered how a planet so rich in minerals could have been created. Our geologists still haven’t figured it out. It’s an ideal bait,” Kuznietsov continued.
“And the mysterious phenomenon that cost us our ability to maneuver is the hook that is supposed to immobilize us?”
“No. That was the alarm that the victim has arrived. The hook is coming our way,” the commander was thinking about the Alien units that were already coming.
“Your theory bothers me, Captain,” Cassino observed. “Although it seems quite likely.”
“I’m worried about something else.”
“Yes?”
“Everybody knows we’re not alone in the Universe. We sporadically keep finding the remains of other civilizations. Always very meager,” Kuznietsov added. “Tell me, Captain, is the thing that emerged from the sun an artifact that had been hidden inside for thousands of years? And an ability of moving that our physicists have never dreamt of – does it exist? In other words, coming back to our angling terminology, how far does the fishing line extend and where is the angler?”
First officer, Jim Kato, stopped further discussion reporting from a back-up command post.
“What is it, Jim?”
“Skipper, we’ve got an uncoded transmission from Admiral Black in all channels.”
“Anything interesting?”
“The old man issued a procedure of starting up the pile and asked for a cease fire.”
“We’ve also received the transmission,” Kuznietsov confirmed. “What do we do with it?”
“Pass it on to the engine room and let our boys take a look at it. If they don’t find anything suspicious about it, I allow for it to be introduced,” C
assino quickly made a decision.
“I will see to it,” Kuznietsov’s image disappeared.
It all looked as if for the crew of the engine room the next few minutes would turn out to be the most difficult time in their careers.
“Captain,” the tactical officer spoke up. “The Orbital Station and HHMS Sword have activated their protective energy fields.
On the computer screen icons of different sectors started showing up as the officers who were in charge placed their reports, which came quickly one after another.
“Tracking reports that we began receiving signals of phase piles working.”
“We’ve registered take offs of three fast units. They’re descending below the ecliptic.”
“This is communications here. The units of the separatists confirm the launching of Plan Moses.”
The commander of the armed ship received the information. His ship and the line cruiser that was accompanying them were outside the shooting range of any other unit. If, however, the revolutionaries or separatists sent a fully operational ship at them, they would probably not be able to activate their own energy sources on time. Every minute mattered.
“Jim,” Cassino contacted his deputy, “go through the archives of the previous commander. Private files as well, if you have to. Find out what this Moses is all about.”
“Ok,” the icon of the deputy disappeared.
Cassino zoomed in on the general image of the whole Hadesian System. The signatures of Alien units were marked red and they had already passed the second planet. They dealt surprisingly quickly with a few separatist fighters diverted their way. The cunningly planned attack didn’t bring any unusual results, although it was hard to precisely assess it from such a large distance.
“Sword has been started!” Commander Lieutenant responsible for the tactical sector shouted out from his seat. He was so agitated that he forgot to press the transmission button. Cassino hardly heard his voice coming from the right part of the bridge.
