by Jake Bible
“Yes, Boss, sorry,” Chomps said. “I’m not losing sight of their capabilities, just that we haven’t seen any signs of a civilization yet. No buildings, no infrastructure, no tech of any kind. What are the Jethro’s eyes picking up?”
“She’s right, Boss,” Wan said. “You could walk the planet and not know there’s a sentient race living on it.”
“That’s why I think they’re subterranean in nature,” Chomps said.
“Schroeder already employed her tunnel rats?” Parveet asked.
“Yeah,” Chomps replied. “They did run into Shock, but he waved them off. And, this is where it gets worse.”
“Didn’t think your call was to wish me happy birthday,” Parveet said.
“Is it your birthday?” Chomps asked.
“No, pilot, it is not,” Parveet said. “Get on with it.”
“The xenos can use carbines,” Chomps said.
While the bridge didn’t go silent, since the noise the equipment made was impossible to completely shut up, a stillness fell over the crew instantly.
“Repeat that,” Parveet said.
“The xenos can use our carbines,” Chomps said. “They were armed and pursuing the tunnel rats. Schroeder sealed off the hole with plasticrete to keep the xenos down there, but that doesn’t make me feel much better.”
“Four infantry squads’ worth of armaments are on that planet,” Parveet said.
“Has anyone done a weapons inventory on the Dorso yet, Boss?” Chomps asked, echoing a thought most on the bridge were thinking. “Because–”
“Yeah, I understand the implications,” Parveet said. “Those xenos we encountered may not have been the first of their kind to be on the Dorso. They could have already made a few trips down to the planet.”
Parveet snapped her fingers and Wan began sending orders for soldiers to check the Dorso while Stegson started deep scans of the planet, hunting for Earth tech hidden below the planet’s surface.
“We’ll let you know what we find, Chomps,” Parveet said. “Next move?”
“Morisaki has the LZ locked down,” Chomps said. “I’ve relinquished command of the area and will be heading to the third drop zone.”
“You sure you don’t want to send Gore and stay at the LZ?” Parveet asked.
“Too many cooks in the kitchen, Boss,” Chomps said and laughed. “You know how Morisaki is about his LZs. I twitch too much and he thinks I’m trying to supersede his command of the area. I’ll leave Gore here since no one thinks he’s in charge.”
“Did he hear you say that?” Parveet asked and chuckled.
“Probably, but he’ll live,” Chomps said.
“You want to keep Wall with Roar?” Parveet asked. “He could head to the last drop zone.”
“Roar’s mech took a beating,” Chomps said. “Hawker got her fixed up, but I’d rather have Wall there as backup. Plus, that drop zone was first encounter. I think it’s still hot. If I were the xenos, I’d wait for everyone to get comfy then strike hard and fast.”
“That would be my play too,” Parveet said.
“So, you cool with my call?”
“Of course. I trust your judgment,” Parveet said. “Get to it and keep me posted.”
“Will do, Boss,” Chomps said and the comms went quiet.
“That blip I saw, what was it?” Parveet asked Wan.
“Not sure, Boss,” Wan said. “Analyzing now. Definitely an energy surge of some kind.”
“Under the surface?” Parveet asked.
“I think so, yes,” Wan said. “Not gonna give you an answer until I have facts.”
“You done with the Dorso?” Parveet asked.
“Yes,” Stegson said and the look on her face wasn’t reassuring. “They cleaned it out.”
“You have eyes confirming that?”
“Yes.”
“Torpedoes?” Parveet asked. “Please tell me that the Dorso’s torpedoes are still in their bays.”
“I’d be lying if I did tell you that,” Stegson said. “Sorry, Boss, but we way underestimated these xenos.”
“No shit, Corporal,” Parveet snapped then waved her hand. “Sorry. Not your fault. I didn’t catch it either. We should have, but we didn’t.”
She sighed and rubbed the tops of her legs over and over.
“Call Chomps and Morisaki,” Parveet said. “Have them spread the word to the rest of the landing forces. I want every single person on that planet aware that the xenos are armed to the teeth with our own goddamn weapons, got it?”
“Yes, Boss,” Stegson said and began making the call immediately.
“Wan? I want to know what that blip was,” Parveet ordered. “The game has changed and any blip we see could mean annihilation of our people down there. I really don’t want that to happen.”
“Understood, Boss,” Wan said. “I’m working it hard.”
“Good,” Parveet said then began scrolling through data on her tablet. “I’ll do the same. Get me answers, people!”
“Yes, Boss!”
10.
There was a small alcove off to the left and Shock ducked into it the second he saw it. He basically collapsed against the rock of the tunnel’s surface and slid to the ground, grateful for a brief rest. He’d been running non-stop for more than thirty minutes and his legs were toast even with the power boost the battle armor gave him. He could never admit being exhausted after thirty minutes or Giga would give him hell for relying on his mech too much.
He would gladly take that hell if it meant getting back to the surface and seeing the rest of the pilots, though.
“One hole means more holes, right?” he mumbled to himself. “Has to be more.”
His display came alive as his armor’s sensors picked up movement. It was too close for Shock to try to make a break for it. Slowly, he pulled his legs up to his chest and tried to be one with the rock. The armor had some stealth tech in it, but Shock had no idea what kind of senses the xenos possessed. As far as he knew, they could see straight through the very rock he was leaning against.
So, he waited, his eyes locked onto the six blips that grew larger in his display.
It took about five minutes for the xenos to arrive. Each held two infantry carbines, and by the way they were wielding them, it looked like they’d been practicing. The creatures still did that slither/undulate way of moving, but their tentacles were pressed in tight to their bodies except for the ones holding the carbines.
If Shock didn’t know better, he would have sworn that the xenos were moving in a classic team formation. And, once they had passed by him without even glancing towards the alcove, he was more than sure that that was exactly what they had been doing. It was uncanny.
That meant he needed to wait until they were clear from his sensors otherwise the xeno bringing up the six would spot him the second he left the alcove.
Shock smiled.
It was absolutely terrifying that the xenos were adapting to the warfare style of humans, but at the same time, it was comforting. An alien race with alien tactics was something he didn’t know how to fight. But an alien race co-opting human tactics? Shit. They just handed him the advantage. He knew everything about human tactics.
Once the blips were off his display, Shock stretched out, made sure his legs hadn’t fallen asleep, then stood and slowly left the alcove. He stared down the tunnel the way the xeno team had gone then turned the opposite direction and continued on. They came from somewhere and he intended on finding out where.
***
The drop ship hit the ground hard, and Giga was already letting go and jumping from the ship before the dust had even thought about settling. She tucked her mech into a roll, came up on one knee, and swung her KYAG back and forth, ready for the attack.
None came.
“Stay in the drop ship and let me clear the area,” Giga said.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Schroeder replied over the comms. “But don’t take too long. We got a lot of work to do.”
/> “Schroeder?”
“Yes, Giga?”
“Cram it up your twat.”
“Right back at ya, pilot,” Schroeder said and laughed. “Give us the signal when you got the place cleared.”
“Will do,” Giga said as she stood and began walking the area.
The drop zone was just as destroyed as the last one, but the difference was there was a distinct lack of obliterated drop ship. Giga shivered at the thought of an alien race that was able to study and operate human tech so fast. Drop ships, carbines, who knew what else they could handle.
Giga scanned for infantry bodies, but they were missing as well. Plenty of signs of battle, but no signs of the combatants that fought it. It was like seeing the after-image of conflict. Giga walked carefully, her attention as much on the ground as on the surrounding area.
“Giga? Check your two,” Schroeder said. “Scanners are showing a dark spot. Can’t quite see what it is.”
“I see it,” Giga replied, swinging her KYAG toward an occluded area on her scanners.
Despite the mech’s size, it moved with surprising grace; a product of its pilot’s years of training. Giga made sure she knew exactly where her feet were at all times as she moved closer to the dark spot on the scanner. Last thing she needed was to go toppling over because of a misstep just as an attack was launched.
“What is it? Another hole?” Schroeder asked once Giga had reached the area.
“That’s exactly what it is,” Giga said, stopping a couple meters from the edge.
The hole was about twice as large as the one at the previous drop zone. That wasn’t the only difference. As she leaned forward for a better scan, she could easily tell that it wasn’t even close to as deep as the last one. In fact, it seemed to be on a slight decline. It was still a sharp drop, but there was definitely an angle to the way the hole was cut.
“You catching this, Schroeder?” Giga asked.
“Yeah,” Schroeder replied. “Your vid is coming through clear as a goddamn bell.”
“Why would a bell be damned by God?” Giga asked, chuckling. “Strange way to use that word.”
“I use it for spice,” Schroeder said. “Peppers things up a bit. Words get boring.”
“I hear that,” Giga said. “Hold tight. I’m going to flank the hole, see if that angle is better.”
She sidestepped her way around the hole, but the angle was all wrong and her previous position allowed her a much better view. Giga was about to return to that position when she distinctly felt the ground under her vibrate. She stopped moving and stayed where she was.
“Schroeder? You feeling that?” she asked.
“Feeling what?” Schroeder replied.
“Dial up your sensors,” Giga said. “I’m picking up a vibration.”
“Hold on,” Schroeder said then, “Yeah. It’s subtle but getting stronger. Ideas?”
“Other than take aim with the drop ship’s canons? Nope. No ideas,” Giga said.
Giga backed up about five meters, took a knee, and aimed the KYAG at the hole. Down closer to the ground, she could feel the vibrations even more.
They reminded her of a stampede she and Shock had found themselves in on some idiotic world where every animal was an herbivore and dumb as paint. They didn’t need predators on that planet because the fauna wiped themselves out by running off cliffs, running into cliffs, or just running until they collapsed and died. The bodies would rot, the nutrients returned to the soil to grow more plants to feed more stupid herbivores that would start the cycle of moronic death all over again.
Giga wasn’t kidding herself that the vibrations she felt were from a stampede of stupid animals. From everything she’d witnessed, the xenos on Hrouska were so far from stupid that if it was a stampede of them, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those kind of numbers made her bladder clench.
Then the vibrations stopped.
“Giga,” Schroeder said.
“I know,” Giga replied. “Not cool.”
“You can walk your mech ass back here and we can take off,” Schroeder said. “Assess from above. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.”
“Let’s play this out a little longer,” Giga said. “I don’t want to run quite yet.”
“Not talking about running,” Schroeder said. “I’m talking about regrouping. Taking our engagement from a different approach.”
“Could have been geological,” Giga said.
“That feel geological to you?”
“No. Felt xeno.”
“Exactly. So, how about you stand up slowly and make your way to the drop ship? Or we can come pick you up.”
“Don’t do that,” Giga said. “You’d have to fly over the hole and that would expose the drop ship.”
“I know, so…”
“I’m on my way,” Giga said and stood.
The ground shook with such violence that Giga thought she was gonna fall on her mech ass.
“Lift off!” Giga yelled. “Now!”
“Ain’t leaving you!” Schroeder shouted.
“That’s an order! I’m pulling rank, Schroeder! Something is coming fast and hard!”
“Goddammit!” Schroeder snapped then began barking orders to the drop ship’s pilot.
Flame and smoke shot from under the ship just as a massive cloud of dust exploded from the hole and shape after shape after shape came with it. Giga wanted to fire, but the dust blocked her view and she was afraid she’d hit the drop ship.
“Are you clear?” Giga yelled. “Dammit, Schroeder! Are you clear?”
“Fifteen meters up!” Schroeder yelled back. “Open fire!”
Giga did.
She brightened the display and relied on her scanners to tell her where the shapes were. Her eyes were useless with all the dust and smoke that filled the drop zone. Giga locked onto the closest shape and fired twice, sending bright red laser bolts into the dust cloud. There was a loud screech and the shape moved to the right. But it didn’t fall.
“What the hell?” Giga muttered as she started to move to her right, her KYAG aimed into the center of the drop zone.
More shapes came flying out of the hole, close to a dozen of them, and Giga fired at each one, hoping to drop something before it could engage. All she heard were more screeches, but not one of the shapes stopped moving until they were in a huge mass in the center of the drop zone.
“Gonna clear the air!” Schroeder announced as the drop ship did a quick low flyby.
A good amount of the dust and smoke dissipated and Giga gasped.
“Holy shit,” she said.
“Understatement of the century,” Schroeder said. “Fire!”
The drop ship’s canons opened fire on the grouped xenos. Giga did the same, her eyes barely believing what she was seeing.
Instead of black flesh, the xenos were covered in armor. Battle armor. Battle armor that was taken directly from ground infantry. The creatures had figured out how to mold and meld the battle armor with their own bodies, adding a layer of protection that was admittedly impressive and terrifying in equal parts.
“Gonna need backup!” Giga yelled into the open comms.
***
“You heard the call!” Captain Q Morisaki shouted. “I want teams ready to deploy now!”
“I’ll go with,” Gore said, walking his mech over to the closest drop ship. “It sounds like Giga could use my firepower.”
“That leaves the LZ without a mech, Gore,” Morisaki snarled. “How do you think I feel about my LZ not having a mech?”
“You hate me, Captain,” Gore said. “I’d think you’d like to be rid of me.”
“I’d like to trade you out, yes, but not lose a mech,” Morisaki said. “Park it, Gore. You are part of my defensive plan, and until another one of your cowboy friends comes to relieve you, you stay a part of my defensive plan.”
“If you say so,” Gore said.
“I say so,” Morisaki replied then pointed at a team of SpecCom soldiers. “Is t
here a reason you are trotting and not all out sprinting those privileged SpecCom asses into that drop ship? Is there a reason I am having to yell at you to double time your overconfident butts up into that ship so that your brothers and sisters in arms do not get their own overconfident butts ripped to shreds? Move!”
“You do know how to command a LZ, Q,” Gore said.
“Gore, the next time you call me by my first name will be the last time you call anyone by any name,” Morisaki said.
“But Q is a great name,” Gore said. “I wish my first name was Q. My parents named me Bastion.”
“And that explains everything about you, Gore,” Morisaki said. “Now shut the hell up so I can do my job. Where is a mechanic? I want a mechanic on that drop ship?”
“Here, sir!” Rots said as she ran up to the captain and gave him a crisp salute.
“Do you know how much I hate you right now?” Morisaki barked. “Do not waste my time with a salute! Get your rookie ass into that drop ship!”
“Yes, sir!” Rots said and turned to run off.
“Mechanic!” Morisaki shouted.
“Sir?” Rots asked, skidding in the dirt and almost falling over as she stopped.
“Do you have your tools?”
“Oh, right. Sorry, sir,” Rots said and let out a loud whistle.
“Is she calling a dog?” Morisaki snarled. “Gore? Is this mechanic calling a goddamn dog?”
Four of her inventions came scurrying towards her.
“You two stay here,” she ordered then hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “One is on mech duty. Three is on general duty.”
“What are those?” Morisaki asked, red in the face. “Why did you bring those down to my LZ without my authorization?”
“They’re mechtopuses,” Rots said. “Or mechtopi, I guess.”
“No!” Morisaki yelled. “I will not have something named that in my presence! You see that huge machine behind me? That’s a mech. If you call those things mechtopuses, then people will think there are eight-legged mechs running about. There are not! I refuse to have that kind of confusion!”
“Mechtopi,” Rots said.
“Kid, don’t make it worse,” Gore warned. “Seriously.”
