With Our Dying Breath

by Unknown

  A single round opening was set in the center of the sphere. As each team set security, Oswald marked the directions of the openings. They faced similar directions but varied slightly, as if they were all aligned to some very distant point. It would be difficult to triangulate, even if the fourth site had a similar array and opening. If it did, it ceased transmitting long ago.

  "Ranger Three, starting recovery." Luskin's video showed the external combat frame, known as tin soldiers or tinnies, detach from his armor and crawl through the portal. Luskin scanned again; still no sign of movement.

  Command Sergeant Salazar's feed also showed a combat frame autonomously entering a sphere, as did the third team leader's video. Oswald switched the video back to Luskin's feed.

  When separated from the combat armor, the exoskeletons looked like mechanical stickmen. The power-pack was stationed in the middle of the spine and a small spherical sensor cluster topped what would be its neck. It easily switched from biped to quadruped, its limbs able to bend in any direction at each joint. Each appendage ended in three grippers that allowed them to walk, crawl, run, climb, or jump around almost any obstacle with great agility, as well as manipulate Ranger weaponry.

  Luskin's tinny approached the target, providing video from several angles. Something hovered in the center of a crystalline looking frame. But no matter the angle the camera looked at it, Oswald could not assign a shape to it.

  "Command, Ranger Three. Are you able to make that out? Run some fancy space fleet mumbo-jumbo?" Luskin at least was not able to see it either.

  "C'n D, Command. Can you make it out?"

  "Negative, Command. It's like I just can't look at it." Trese sounded as flummoxed as Oswald. "I'll get someone on it, but I don't think it is video feed issue."

  "Roger, Trese. Do what you can."

  Oswald repeatedly switched between all the feeds of the alien artifacts. They all showed the same undecipherable object.

  "Sir, perhaps it's some manner of interference that is affecting the optics," McFarran suggested. "Not a feed problem, but something that the camera cannot make out for us. Perhaps the Mark One eyeball would work better?"

  "Negative, Roland," Luskin said. "I'm looking straight through my visor and I still can't tell what the flip it is."

  Oswald examined the views of the squad leaders who were watching from a greater distance but it still didn't help. While his brain still couldn't process what he was seeing, he did notice—with humored exasperation—that the head of Salazar's tinny had been painted to look like male genitalia. Oswald had a guess as to what that tinny might be called.

  "All Ranger teams, begin recovery." Luskin's tinny reached out with two limbs and plucked the object from the air. From the position of the tinny's arms in Luskin's view, the object looked to be about one meter tall and half as wide. There was no immediate reaction from Delta Pavonis Five. The other two tinnies began reaching out.

  "Ranger Command; standby."

  "Uh, sir?" Salazar was obviously not expecting to be getting orders from the floaty flight commander and his hostile tone indicated what he thought about it.

  "Ranger Two," Luskin called firmly. "Command has called abort."

  "Roger, Ranger Three!" Salazar reacted immediately. "Form up at rally point!" The tinny immediately ran at Salazar and jumped on the man's back, reattaching itself smoothly as they ran.

  "Command, this is Tactical."

  "Go Tactical."

  "That was pretty slick."

  "Roger that, Tactical," Oswald agreed.

  The tinnies for team one and three each carried an artifact out of the domed rooms and took up security formation with their squad. The Rangers waited silently for any reaction from the alien ruins that had killed previous expeditions. Norris' drone arced overhead, detecting no threats.

  "All teams," Luskin sounded relieved. "What the—?" Luskin's feed showed a small segmented creature, or maybe a robot, come out of a previously unopened panel in the base of the spindle. It was hard to tell if it was biological or mechanical, another alien mystery Oswald's eyes couldn’t solve. The small segmented plates that ran down the thing's serpentine spine looked both chitinous and metallic. From what he knew of xenobiology, which to date hadn't been much different than the terrestrial sort, anything living here would have to live in a constantly controlled environment or not be biological.

  It was about one meter long with countless stubby legs in constant motion beneath it. Two long eye-stalks, or sensor pods, poked out from Team Two, abort!" Oswald suddenly called. "This is Ranger Two abort recovery. Form up your team and between the first two plates. The Rangers leveled their weapons as it skittered down the building towards their defensive circle.

  "Hold fire," Luskin said nervously. The alien millipede stopped several meters away, its two eye-stalks obviously directed at the artifact. Oswald bet that thing’s eyes could see it clearly. He pondered briefly what manner of eyes could see through that distortion before pulling himself back to the situation at hand. A similar creature stared at team one from a distance, though its rear half drug limply behind it as it approached. Obvious signs of decay dappled its plates.

  "Ranger, this is Command. All teams cautiously head back to the landers."

  "Roger that, Command," Luskin answered then repeated the order to his teams.

  "Any new signals or indications?" Oswald asked the ops net as he watched the aliens chase after the retreating teams. As Ranger Team One rounded a corner, their dilapidated escort suddenly rushed at the tinny carrying the UXA, its broken tail bouncing and dragging behind, kicking up a trail of ancient dust.

  "Hold fire," Luskin repeated, watching his own alien start to charge at the tinny carrying the artifact.

  The broken millipede raced around team one's tinny and extended a claw-tipped arm towards the artifact. The tinny lifted the artifact in the air like a sibling playing keep away and brought a foot down on the centipede's head.

  "Here we go," Oswald muttered, wishing dearly that he could rub his temples.

  "Command, Sensors! EM readings are spiking! Looks like power indications at all four sites."

  "Drones motion sensors are keying on something," Norris added.

  "Ranger, this is Command. All teams make for the landers double time." Oswald waited for all the team leaders to reply, and then for Luskin to acknowledge.

  "Command, Aux. Sir, all landers telemetry show green. All systems are ready for immediate launch."

  "Roger that, Hashi." Oswald might have control over the nerves of cold calculated warfare, but watching the Rangers race to their rovers in low gravity tactical bounds had his heart racing.

  "OMG. Sir!" Norris gasped.

  Oswald quickly pulled up the display from Norris' drone and would have muttered something, anything, if he wasn't so shocked by what he saw.

  A huge millipede like thing was racing between buildings right towards Luskin's team. It didn't have the plates of its smaller kin or the stubby legs. It looked like an armored spine with countless spider-like mechanical legs pounding on the not-so-dead streets of the alien city. Two orbs waved from the front. One looked up towards the drone's camera and the video was replaced with a blinking yellow Signal Lost message. Oswald noted two other of the monstrosities were racing alongside the one that had destroyed the drone. The other two drone feeds quickly died too.

  "Tactical, deploy every seeker head from the ORBAMs we have." Oswald blurted out one of the many conflicting and confounding courses of action that bounced around in his head like panicked street urchins all trying to hide in the same box. "We'll see if those optical targeting systems are worth a flip. I also want a gunner on each laser covering teams one and three. Start burning up those things until the ordnance gets down!"

  The laser arrays were designed to fire rapidly at coordinates provided by the firing computer to try to overcome any complications caused by maneuvering, light lag, or jamming, and score hits. But the lens arrays also had the capability to provide an optica
l display of what the laser had sighted. At short ranges, such as orbital to surface, the resolution was passable enough.

  Large gouts of plasma erupted from the streets and buildings as the Roland's lasers tried to burn the massive attackers. The moved incredibly fast and twisted around so much as to make it pointless to try to estimate which way they would turn. But a target that is onehundred meters long can only hide from a determined laser for so long. Soon the lasers were taking their toll, easily burning through the targeted giants. But more kept closing on the fleeing Ranger teams who seemed to be creeping along at a snail's pace in comparison.

  "Command, Tactical." Mathesse was panting slightly between each blurted out word. "I fed the ORBAM with the images from the laser scopes and the wonky junkers accepted the profiles. All seeker heads away."

  The landers had set down outside of the cities, as the buildings were too close together to risk dropping within. The rovers were making good time, but the legs of the defenders kept their grip where the rovers often bounced, requiring precious seconds to regain control.

  Salazar shrieked over the net as his feed showed one of the giant spines climb over a building straight ahead of them. Both of the creature's orbs turned towards him.

  "Jump!" Salazar cried and his feed became a blur of dust, crumbling buildings, and dark alien sky. When the view stabilized it showed the now unmanned rover, still rolling along. A red haze formed around it and was immediately followed by a dull red flash, after which the rover simply wasn't there.

  An alarm sounded on the net to indicate Specialist Kovac's telemetry feed had been lost. Salazar made to aim at the attacker when a flower of fire streaked down from the sky and sent the giant's remains slowly bouncing around the alien city-scape.

  Another monstrosity peered around a nearby building. Salazar raised his large, suit portable laser cannon to his shoulder; the power cable that trailed from it swung slowly as he took aim. One of the orbs on the alien machine silently burst into sparks and flame as Salazar scored a direct hit. Another ORBAM warhead came slamming down from above, scattering the thing and shaking Salazar off his feet momentarily.

  "Command, Tactical. Ranger teams are danger close to ORBAM targets."

  "Roger that, Tactical," Oswald agreed. This was a new type of combat for him and Roland. All flight commanders slated for combat were trained in ORBAM and landing assaults; Earth Force just hadn't much experience in yet. "Nothing for it."

  "Ranger Three, we can't find Kovac!" Salazar's feed was bouncing around so frantically Oswald would be surprised if the Ranger could find anything.

  "Ranger Two, he's gone like the rover!" Oswald didn't like the uncertain waver in his voice and tried to hide it by barking orders like some drill instructor. "Get to your lander now, Ranger! Double-time! Go-go-go!"

  It was a desperate run. The giant millipedes seemed to just appear out of the streets and buildings, stymying the Rangers until Roland could rain death upon them. A Ranger from team one went off-line one second before Luskin burned through the alien that vaporized her. Each team was getting closer to their landers, but the monstrous constructs were getting closer still.

  Oswald was doing the math to see which team was most likely to survive and give them full coverage from Roland's weaponry. It looked like Luskin's team had lucked out and the other teams—especially team two, with no prize thanks to Oswald—had become assets. He owed Anahita a more sincere apology if they got back.

  "Command, Aux!" McFarran exclaimed, his French accent thick over the net. "Sir, there's been some sort of explosion at site one! And look, the defenses have become immobile."

  Oswald pulled up the view from laser array two. A small building near the center of the alien city had collapsed into rubble that still glowed on the thermal scans. The giants in that city hung expectantly for a moment then silently collapsed into clouds of dust.

  "Tactical, did we do that?"

  "No sir." Mathesse paused for a moment to quickly replay the video log up to the explosion. The laser strikes from Roland's laser were concentrated near the Ranger team. "Verified, sir. It wasn't us."

  "Command, Engineering. Looks like some ancient transformer blew under the load." Bowens made a short series of clicks with his tongue. "That or it is some sort of control station. Though a power surge would explain the explosive failure better. Sure killed them bugs dead."

  "Tactical, find that building on site one and drop a tactical penetrator on it. Shift laser coverage to team two."

  "On it, Command."

  "Command, Aux. Sir, should we deliver ordnance to site two as well?"

  "Negative, Aux." Oswald put the big-eye on the damaged building at site one, as the laser array had moved to cover team two. The damage looked extensive from up here, but he had no way of knowing what sort of redundant systems the aliens might have. "Tactical, let's also make sure site three stays down."

  "Roger, Tactical." Mathesse sounded cheery again. "Nuke penetrators away to targets at sites one and three... only."

  Two missiles sped away from the orbiting ORBAM remotes, streaking to the surface of DPV. The lasers from Roland continued to rip apart the serpentine defenders even though they had begun seeking more cover from above. Oswald tapped into the feed of Luskin's tinny and watched the skies.

  "Rangers, Tactical," Mathesse now spoke calmly but loudly. "Incoming heavy ORBAM, danger close. Team One, Team Three take cover now."

  Oswald wasn't sure if Earth Force had an official rating for danger close concerning subterranean tactical nukes, but knew that anything that split or fused the atom for purposes of destruction should be given a very wide berth. Given how fast the warheads' tracks on the display raced, it seemed an interminable wait to Oswald before he saw the flash of the explosion high above. The nuclear penetrator was ejected at hypersonic speeds but with no atmosphere he could see no trace of it. It punched a deep hole in the ground before detonating. A second later the video feed showed a sudden jolt followed by a violent tremor that the camera's stabilizer couldn't quite overcome. A moment later the leading edge of a thick dust cloud bounced slowly over the Rangers.

  "Go, go, go!" Luskin commanded.

  "Tactical, Aux. Did the strikes complete successfully?"

  Mathesse was slow to answer. "Roger, Aux. Both penetrators hit. It looks like all enemy movement at site three is now null and site one is still dead."

  "Tactical. Get remaining ORBAM covering Ranger Team Two."

  "Roger, Command."

  The Ranger teams showed on the move again. Team two had lost their rover but the combat suits and exoskeletons allowed for them to cover distance quickly with short tactical jumps that were kept low enough to provide cover. They leaped in such a pattern that at least one trooper was steady on the ground with their heavy laser ready to fire while the others moved. If one of their team mates had not been utterly destroyed, they would have been bounding in teams of two.

  Teams one and three reported on site and Luskin's video showed him violently testing the restraints of the two other Rangers in the lander before strapping in himself. Luskin and the voyeurs aboard Roland watched as the tinny stowed the strange artifact in a heavily plated crate.

  A text ping came to Oswald's display from Mathesse.

  Lucky guess! EF made box just right size.

  .LOLOL Oswald would have to process that information, and deal with his tactical officer's frivolous texting, later. "Knock it off."

  "Command, this is Aux. Teams One and Three are locked in and ready for departure. Team Two ETA is ten minutes."

  "Roger that, Aux." They were getting back into the realm of numbers and vectors and deltaV; it had a calming effect on Oswald. "Launch the recovery pods."

  "Negative, Colonel." Luskin tried to object. "Not until all teams are ready to go."

  "Aux, launch the recovery." Oswald repeated. He wasn’t about to have a discussion about it now, but didn't begrudge the curse he heard beneath Luskin's breath.

  Two recovery pods exploded
away from their landers, discarding the useless landing frames as they escaped. Oswald wondered what an explorer from the far future—whenever that may be—would puzzle out about the mix of the artifacts left on Delta P Five. Two species who had not come from there yet left their footprints millennia apart.

  The orbital tracks of the two recovery pods arched from the planet on the navigational display. Five new tracks appeared from the fourth site.

  "Tactical—"

  "On it, Colonel. Inputting firing solutions."

  The new tracks were from the site left unmolested by the human invaders but Oswald could tell right away the ORBAM wouldn't have a clear shot until the recovery pods and their stolen treasures would be intercepted. Apparently someone wanted to keep those beacons.

  "Command, Sensors," Gresh said over the net. "Now detecting high levels of ECM. We're having trouble locking on the enemy incoming."

  Oswald looked at their vector tracks, the newest updates very fuzzy. One track was actually showing the target flying through the planet at seventy percent of light speed.

  "They've hosed our fire control," Oswald agreed. "Tactical, extrapolate their initial launch tracks and drop the rest of the BB's in front of them. I want a full spread but make sure to keep Team Two's launch window clear."

  "BB's deployed, Command," Mathesse answered after a moment. "We'll see how it goes this time." Mathesse then added matter-offactly, "I'm sure glad we toasted those sats beforehand. There's no telling what they'd be up to now."

  They got their first good look at the alien interceptors on the big-eye as the lead one smashed into the tungsten rods put so casually in its path. Before it flew into twirling debris, Oswald saw that it looked like a cockroach turned into a rocket. The look was as ambiguously organic as the constructs below, save for the rockets on its tail and the smooth black orb it had for a head.