Tomi sat and watched it all happen. He wanted to be out, to watch it firsthand, to be able to move. It felt so restrictive just sitting and waiting, even if his tank was engaging targets nonstop.
Mick's voice was a monotone as he labeled targets, fired, and then searched for more. The gun danced on top of the hull as it fired at the coordinates and then dutifully moved on.
Artillery alarms rang out.
"Artillery," Mick called over the squad comms. "Get to cover!"
The infantry converged inside the broken corner of a warehouse. The steel siding had peeled out and flapped gently in the wind.
The umbrella on the rear of Bulldog fired. The artillery that landed was different. Instead of exploding like a traditional round, it was a penetrator with a casing of shrapnel. The velocity was massive. They released the shrapnel fifty meters in the air while the penetrator simply buried itself in the ground.
Bulwark took a penetrator in the front quarter. The armor plate sheared off a panel and exposed the hydraulics beneath. The shrapnel buried itself into the hull, but still they fired.
An enormous clang sounded from the top of Bulldog. Then another, like a gong being struck.
Tomi snapped suddenly alert. He scanned his head, but whatever had made the noise was directly on top of the tank and out of his field of view. "Sergeant?"
"Shrapnel," Mick mumbled. He continued firing.
Traverse alerts sounded, followed by a hydraulic leak. A moment later, the ammunition system displayed a fault. The gong struck once more.
"Mick! It's on you!" Puck called out.
Tomi looked straight up, as if he could see through the hull.
"Bastard! I've got infantry on me!" Mick called. "Puck, fire! Get him off!"
Tomi could see Bulldog's infantry peeking out from the building. They aimed and fired. Rounds pinged off the hull. Hutchins leaned out and leveled his grenade launcher. Tomi could see the muzzle flash and hunched down.
"Holy fuck!" Puck called. "The hell is that! Keep shooting! It just cut the main cannon in half!"
"Tomi, move! Back up! Back up!" Mick yelled. His voice was loud, excited, frantic.
Bulldog slammed backward.
Tomi snapped his head from one side to the other. He couldn't see what was on him, but he knew something was. Alarms and maintenance alerts exploded. Something was trying to get in. He slammed the tank from side to side.
Explosions rose up around Bulldog. Hutchins stitched the grenades all around.
Tomi switched one lens to show the infantry view. There, perched atop his tank, was a solid-black humanoid. It sliced and stabbed with a jagged-looking sword and its other hand ripped and tore. A grenade detonated next to it and seemed to have no impact. It snapped its head up from the tank; its eyes were like oily gears.
He recognized it from a briefing that the Sigg mercenaries gave. It was an Emflife synthetic soldier.
"Stop moving," Riga called from Devastator. His voice was level, calm, clear.
It took every bit of trust for Tomi to release the controls and hit the brakes.
Bulldog halted. Small-arms fire pinged and ricocheted off. The Emflife synthetic slammed down its sword once again, and sparks exploded up from Bulldog's loading port.
"Ammo alarms!" Tomi yelled.
"We're hitting the hatch, get out!" Mick yelled. He tucked himself out of the commander's position.
Tomi peeled off his headset. He rolled over and scrambled into the crew compartment.
"Cover! We're coming out!" Mick called.
Then the crew compartment went dark. A line of blue safety lights flickered on the floor. Smoke rolled out of the ceiling. Something crackled and hissed. Paint boiled up and peeled off the ammo locker.
Mick hit the door release, but nothing happened. Tomi rushed up and pushed against the armor plate. It didn't budge.
"Blowing it!" Mick ripped clear a safety panel and tugged on a red lever.
The explosive bolts parted. The door blasted out and tumbled to the ground.
Tomi was out first. Smoke rolled past, and the air was filled with dust. He turned and looked up at Emflife synthetic.
It stood on the very edge of the tank with its weapons at its side. Small-arms fire pinged off of it. It hunched down slightly, as if to pounce.
Then, in an explosion of radiant white sparks, it was gone. Shrapnel flew off in all directions. A second round creased the top of Bulldog and whistled into the distance.
Tomi and Mick ran up to the ore container and huddled next to it.
Tanks fired in the distance. Smoke rose up from the dust field. The Emflife armor retreated through the swirling winds and smoky ruins. Finally only sporadic weapons fire rang out.
Tomi stood slowly and wiped the dust from his face. He started walking toward Bulldog. The infantry emerged from the warehouse with weapons at ready.
Bulldog was a wreck. Its main cannon was a shredded mess. The umbrella system was ripped right off. The top of the armor was cracked open. But worst of all, the ammo containment system had cooked off. A bit of filthy black smoke rose up from the back. But through it all, the reactor still hummed.
A Vasilov tank rumbled up through the street. It was a hunter-killer model with a heavier-bore cannon on top. It pivoted and backed into the cover of a building, and the rear hatch opened.
Tomi ran up to Bulldog just as the fire suppression system engaged. Pink foam rolled out from every seam and crevice. In just a few seconds, the dust coated it all. But it was enough; the fire was out. He stood at the edge of the pink-yellow gunk with a look of horror on his face.
Riga stepped out from the rear of Devastator and surveyed the area. He nodded twice and walked over to Tomi. "We'll get 'er fixed up, I think."
Tomi knew Bulldog would get fixed up. Now he worried what would happen the next time they engaged one of the Emflife synthetics.
They couldn't always shoot them off.
#
Chapter Thirteen
Planet Terra, Sol System
Unknown Facility
Umi Matsuo looked into the light and just wanted to go back to bed. His head felt like someone had smashed it in with a dull spoon. The spot where the mystery woman had shot him tingled and burned. He raised a hand up and scratched it.
He took stock of his position. First, he wasn't dead—though he felt close to it. Next, he wasn't in shackles or in a neural lockdown. Which meant they hadn't cracked his mind. He'd seen true-blue criminals in neural lockdown while a judge poked through their memories.
His eyes adjusted to the light. A man stood next to the light, and behind him were two other men. Further back was the furry head of a Lokeen. Lastly was a creature that looked like a spider had gotten into a fight with a lawnmower, and next to it was a robotic machine.
"One hell of a welcome party. What is this, the circus?"
"I asked you a question," the man said. His voice was that of someone used to giving orders. "And you'll answer me. Now, where did you get this?"
"From your mom," Umi replied.
The man lunged ahead. "You—"
"Paul!" one of the other men yelled.
Paul stepped back from Umi and walked away with his hands balled into fists.
The two men walked up to Umi. One snapped the light off as he walked by. The room dimmed and felt much less intimidating. One of the men tossed Umi a dry towel.
"My name is Sir Wilhelm Pauling. My colleague is Faizal Azam. You'll have to excuse our, hmm, rough nature, but you arrived on planet holding something that belonged to one of our own." He leaned back on his heels and placed his hands behind his back. "And you arrived as the center of a diplomatic incident. So it was expedient to ferret you away."
Wilhelm was bald as a cue ball, with a build like an old tailor. The one named Faizal had a hawk nose and dark eyes. Behind them, the one they called Paul stood with his arms across his chest, glaring. He had the look of a soldier—a very blunt one.
"Now, what happened to Irena?" Wi
lhelm said.
"I didn't know her name," Umi said.
The Lokeen looked up and nodded to the spider-looking alien.
"She's dead?" Wilhelm said.
"Yes."
Wilhelm glanced back at Paul. "Would you"—he paused for a second—"tell us what happened?"
"I will. But first, where are my colleagues?"
"Safe."
"Safe, like locked up? Or safe, like knocked out?"
"They're comfortable, Captain Matsuo," the Lokeen said.
Umi felt a heaviness in the room. Everyone was focused on him now. Irena. He'd wondered what her name was. Irena.
“We were bringing in a load of surplus tanks, a Vasilov Colonel named Clarke purchased them all. We’d just finished loading them onto a Lokeen freighter. On the way out we were attacked by an Emflife synthetic. She, I mean Irena, saved us. But the Emflife...”
Paul turned away and walked out of the room.
Then he told them about Lady Atli and how they had translated the information from the pendant.
"What of Lishun Delta? Did the Vasilov hold the planet?" the Lokeen asked.
"They did."
"Then we have some time," the spider-alien said. Its voice was eerily human.
Faizal cleared his throat. His voice was rich with a hint of bass. "Why did you come here, Captain Matsuo?"
Umi licked his lips. How do you explain a debt to the dead? Would they understand? "She, I mean Irena, recorded a vid. She asked if whoever had the pendant would bring it back to Earth."
Faizal looked thoughtful for a moment. "You came across half of the human-controlled worlds simply to return a pendant?"
"Yes."
The Lokeen spoke next. "Lady Atli sent word of your arrival. We had hoped to meet you on a different route."
"Why did you go through Boben territory?" Wilhelm said.
"Impatience," Umi said. He'd had a lot of time to think about it.
"Very well," Wilhelm said with a smirk.
"What now? You steal me from the police. Whisk me away somewhere, all for a pendant?"
Faizal glanced back at the aliens behind him. "No, Captain, we did it so we could offer you a job."
"Lady Atli said you'd make a poor diplomat," the Lokeen said.
"How kind of her," Umi said dryly.
"But she did mention your certain talent for the, uh..." Wilhelm stopped talking and searched for a word.
"Violence," Faizal said.
"Well, yes, violence," Wilhelm said.
"I'm flattered and all, but can I get some dry clothes? I'd rather not discuss a job offer while I'm squishing in my shoes."
They led him out and into a wide hallway. Men, women, and Lokeen moved through. Whatever the place was, it wasn't a prison. They found him a dry maintenance suit, and he changed into it.
Umi found the rest of his crew in a conference room. They sat around a table with a plate of dry donuts in the center. He looked for any sign of distress, but they looked like him—tired.
Wilhelm and Faizal walked in. The Lokeen, the spider-alien, and the machine came in next.
"Nice suit," Kelly said.
Umi glanced down at the safety-orange coveralls and frowned. "Fancypants here is Wilhelm, the man in black is Faizal. I'm not sure who the teddy bear, the spider, or the walking washing machine are."
Vaughn chuckled and leaned back. He snapped up a donut and crunched on it.
Vik rubbed his eyes. "When can we go? They said we could go."
"Can we go?" Umi said.
"We can release you into police custody if you'd like," Wilhelm said. "Or you can hear us out and let the clones finish growing."
"Clones?" Kelly said.
The spider-alien spoke. It clambered closer. Around its neck was a voice synthesizer. "We're solving the diplomatic issue by having your bodies found. The digital trail will be erased, and it will appear that you perished en route while attempting to escape. Then the Boben will have no claim, and the issue goes away."
"Who are you?" Umi said. He didn't recognize whatever kind of alien it was. He shivered. It looked like a bad-guy alien from some early 21st century video.
"My name is Bill. Well, it's the name I've chosen. We don't speak as you do, so it's difficult. I'm of the Opoolio race." Bill's mouth clattered for a second and there was a slight bow.
"The Opoolio are our staunchest allies in this fight," Faizal said.
The Lokeen spoke. "For now."
"That is Master Tovel, our Lokeen liaison," Wilhelm said.
Master Tovel nodded. "There was once a truce between us and the Emflife. But it is crystallizing and could shatter at any moment."
"I've heard," Umi said.
"The Lokeen are reluctant to enter this fight," Faizal said. "Regardless of what the evidence shows."
Umi caught the jibe.
Master Tovel shrugged. "I stand with you, but it is not my call."
"What's happening?" Umi said.
The machine spoke next. It stepped up carefully next to Faizal. A display came to life. A blurred face came to view. It was a Ken-Ashi machine construct. "The Emflife have taken control of the Kadan. For many years the Kadan were able to assert some degree of independence, but now the Emflife have seized total control. It’s open war. They are now going to strike out into the human worlds."
"Why?" Vik said. "The hell they want to stomp on us for?"
"Because humans are a threat. At a certain point, and you'll reach it soon, your growth becomes exponential. Mankind will dominate this section of the galaxy. The Emflife will not let it stand."
"How do you know?" Umi said.
"We created them." The screen dimmed a moment before the face came into focus again. "Once we were biological. The Emflife were our machine servants. Digital-mechanical things. Then we sought to be immortal, and they sought to truly live. We transitioned to how you see us now, but the Emflife did too, as immortal creatures. They tried to annihilate us, and nearly succeeded, and then the war started."
Umi remembered the wrecks of starships lying in the sand.
"They achieved their freedom, but at great cost. Now both our races are diminished. They once seemed content to live quietly, as we did. But now they steer other races into war."
"All because they want to?" Umi said. "Why? Why go to that trouble?"
"Because once we programmed them to," the Ken-Ashi said. "Once we controlled the stars. Once we nurtured races. Once we destroyed them. The Emflife were the instrument of our will."
"Sounds like karma," Kelly said.
The Ken-Ashi took a moment to reply. "Sins of the fathers, if you will."
"The Emflife have decided to strike at the Vasilov Worlds first because they border the Vasilov Expanse. They have no neighbors to come to their aid except those from behind them," Wilhelm said.
The Vasilov Expanse was a region where no stargate could cross its length. It made a fantastic border in wartime, but also channeled hostiles.
"The Vasilov are interstellarly isolated, politically fractured, socially backward, and have a culture of violence," Faizal said. "It's undefendable. We make our stand at the Sigg Worlds."
"Ah, and we're Sigg," Umi said.
"We want you to help acquire something that is very valuable and deliver it to the Sigg Worlds," Master Tovel said.
Umi looked at his crew and then back to the others. It took a moment to settle in. "You're abandoning the Vasilov Worlds?"
Wilhelm started to speak.
Faizal cut him off. "It's not a defendable position. You're a soldier, Captain Matsuo. You don't waste lives defending something you can't hold."
"If we don't halt them at the Sigg Worlds..." Wilhelm said.
The Ken-Ashi finished, "Then we won't stop them."
Umi didn't like the thought of abandoning the Vasilov Worlds. Not one single bit. He had friends there, and even though the Sigg and Vasilov had their issues, they were still allies, and both human. But to see his own home overwhelmed, the nation he'd f
ought for, well, that struck something inside of him. He’d defended Sigg Prime from the Boben once, and he'd damn well do it again.
"You're just cutting them loose? The Vasilov are just a meat-shield to buy you some time?"
"Yes, in such simple terms. To buy humanity time," Faizal said. "I'll trade a dozen worlds for a thousand."
"So, what, they fight an unstoppable foe?" Umi said.
Wilhelm said, "The longer they hold, the greater the chance that we can come to their aid. If they hold long enough, then we could hold the Emflife. But the most defendable point is where the Sigg Worlds border the Vasilov Worlds at the end of the Vasilov Expanse. And we need a valuable tool to help us hold Sigg space."
"What is so valuable?" Umi said.
"A starship," Wilhelm replied.
Vaughn sat up. "What?"
"One of our, erm, agents, acquired the location of an ancient fleet battle. It's a long shot, but from what we can tell, there may still be a functional starship. If all else, we might be able to strip parts."
"So what do we have to do with it? How the hell do we even get there?" Vaughn said.
"We need you to escort our team. We have a command crew, maintenance teams, technical experts, and they all need to get there safely. Once there, they need to do their jobs," Faizal said.
"As far as getting there, you'll takes gates into a border zone and then negotiate for interstellar transit with the Vek Esh Shell."
"Ah," Umi said. He’d run into the Vek before, mercenaries and opportunists. But they were normally trustworthy. At least if they were paid well.
Wilhelm gave a thin smile. "Now you see."
Umi felt a bit of steam go out. The Vek were opportunistic mercenaries with a penchant for violence and profit. No one knew where they came from or how they acquired their starships. Everyone assumed they'd stolen them from somewhere and were no longer welcome. Umi didn't like them.
"Captain, we're strung thin," Faizal said. "I have tens of thousands of agents and teams. War is coming, and we're trying to get ready for it. I need people I can trust. I think we can trust you, Captain Matsuo."
Umi looked at his team. "Well?"
"I'm in," Vik said.
"Absolutely," Vaughn said.
"Why not?" Kelly said.
Steel Storm (Steel Legion Book 2) Page 10
