Rise of the Valkrethi

by Warwick Gibson

  It wasn’t long before the shuttle landed at the base of the island called the Pillar, where the second torpedo team had entered the inner sea. When they disembarked onto the beach, there was nothing to say the others had ever been there. Regardless of that, the Hud men and woman felt they had to make the effort to find their own.

  Battrod assembled the crews from on the sea shore. Dusk was almost upon them, and there was little wind. The rippled water of the inland sea stretched out to the abrupt orange wall of the dome.

  “We may be looking for bodies,” said Battrod quietly, “so be prepared for that. We’ve got activation codes for the explosives they were carrying, so we can finish the job if they managed to put them in place.”

  There were nods around the group at this statement. It seemed right to finish what the torpedo team had started.

  “The head man of the alliance force above us thinks we should go in without torpedo units. We would be less likely to be detected, but we’d also be slower on our way back if we ran into trouble.”

  The others nodded again. Cagill would always be the big boss as far as the Hud pilots were concerned – while Cordez was next to God – but Ayman Case was turning out okay when it came to task forces and smaller operations like this. The villagers understood little of the alliance hierarchy, but if the Hud pilots – their own young people – thought leaving the torpedo units behind was a good idea, it probably was.

  “We’ll be going in same as the first mission,” said Battrod. “Three teams of three, and pilots turn all comms off unless lives are in danger. We don’t want to alert the mining base to our presence.

  “Tie yourselves together in the same teams as we had before. Some of us have experience using the side fins, but most of us don’t. If you’re one of those that don’t, just do what you can to help and let the others tow you in. Remember, long, slow beats with your legs, don’t cramp up by trying too hard.”

  This time around, every one of those going in would be carrying the long tubes with the short, solid cylinders attached. They were good under the water or above, firing a brace of tiny torpedoes below the surface and a magazine of super-dense slugs above it.

  The Shellport villagers had been through a brief course on how to use them, but they still treated the strange weapons with a good deal of nervousness.

  The water in the shallow sea was almost warm. Hudnee did his best to help his team with the swim in, but found himself mostly towed along behind the others. The re-breather worked perfectly, as they had during the first trip in, but the long tube-weapon was uncomfortable across his back.

  It took the teams longer to reach the bottom edge of the shield without the torpedo units, but at last they swam under it. A few minutes later the vertical wall of the mining base loomed out of the murk ahead of them.

  CHAPTER 24

  ________________

  Battrod signalled to one of the teams to go left along the wall, while he took his team right. Hudnee and the remaining team waited where they were, keeping a close lookout for signs of the Invardii war machines. Battrod returned first, indicating something of interest to their right. When the other team had also returned, the group set off in that direction, and soon arrived at an indentation in the wall.

  It was an entrance of some sort, but it was hard to say what it was for. Did it take in water to cool the fusion ring when it was operating, or was it an exit point for the war machines? The teams spread out, and examined the large recess and its surroundings. One of the villagers began to point excitedly toward a particular spot, and Hudnee swam over.

  It was one of the explosives packages, stuffed behind a mechanism that ran along the top of the door. So, thought Hudnee, the second team from the first attack run had made it this far.

  Battrod’s team produced more of the packages from their body packs, primed the detonators, and fixed them all the way along the top of the door. When all three teams had backed off into the murk, Battrod sent the activation codes for the explosives. The shock wave swept toward them as a boiling wave of white bubbles. Hudnee was tossed around by the surge, and clung to his tube-weapon to make sure he didn’t lose it.

  When they came back to examine the effect of the explosives, they found the top of the door peeled back, making an entrance way. Oddly, the sea wasn’t pouring in through the hole. Perhaps it was one of the areas that had been sealed off after the first attempt with the explosives.

  Battrod shone a light into the gloom, but nothing reflected back. Whatever body of water was on the other side of the wall, it was big.

  There was some agitated sign language among the teams. Battrick wasn’t in favour of anyone going in through the hole to look around, but they still hadn’t found any sign of the torpedo team. There hadn’t been any sign of the Invardii war machines either, though all of them were looking nervously into the surrounding gloom.

  In the end Battrod sent two of the Hud pilots through the opening, deciding they would be more used to the technology they might find within than the villagers, and motioned for the others to wait where they were.

  It was a long wait. Those on the outside of the wall were about to send in another team when a strange clattering built up, transmitted through the wall. It took them a while to understand what it was, until one of the Hud pilots kicked himself up level with the top of the mining base.

  He broke comms silence immediately.

  “War machine coming!” he shouted, and the rest of the group recognised the sound as the clatter of many legs on the roof of the mining base as it hurried toward their position.

  “Check underwater firing option,” snapped Battrod, referring to the twin torpedoes in the shorter, solid tubes, and they went through the load and check procedure. He motioned them up to join him, and they formed a ragged line at the top of the wall. It was nerve-wracking to hear the Invardii war machine coming, but not see it.

  At last a dark shape materialised out of the gloom, headed straight for their position. The response was instantaneous, and a web of white bubble lines shot out from the tube weapons toward the mechanical contraption. For a moment there was the continuous glare of exploding charges, and then the machine was obscured as the shock wave engulfed it.

  When the view had cleared, the war machine was still coming on. It had been damaged – parts of the structure were bent or missing – but the torpedoes hadn’t stopped it. Hud pilots and villagers alike scattered, diving down before heading off into the murk.

  One figure, however, headed straight for the advancing war machine. Battrod pulled the last of his explosive charges from his body pack and primed the detonator as his side fins powered him onward. At the last moment he turned and dropped lower, fixing the charge as he passed under it.

  He had barely cleared the end of the structure when he tapped in the activation code, and the many-legged machine was obscured, once again, by an enormous underwater blast. This time when the view cleared it was lying on its side. Its many legs were still rotating feebly, like a giant beetle upended and unable to right itself.

  Battrod came to his senses a few moments later, sprawled on the top of the mining base. That had been a little too close for comfort, he thought wryly. He swam awkwardly past the disabled machine in the direction of the others, favouring his right knee, which wasn’t working properly.

  The rest of the company had heard the rumble of the second explosion, and cautiously regrouped near the top of the wall. They weren’t far from the entrance into the mining base that they had blown open.

  At the same time as Battrod appeared over the top of the wall and drifted awkwardly down toward them, the two Hud pilots who had gone in through the opening reappeared, dragging a third figure between them. One of them had fixed his re-breather to the limp form, and was buddy breathing with the other pilot. An urgent gesture toward the shore by Battrod sent them all back toward the shuttle.

  It was a very relieved team that took off fins and re-breathers as the shuttle lifted off from the base o
f the Pillar. When they had stored their gear and put on dry clothing, they turned their attention to the unconscious form on the floor of the shuttle. The villager had been given some blood sugars and painkillers straight through the side of his neck, and he was coming round.

  “This is one of the second torpedo team, all right,” said Battrod, closing up a bad cut over one eye with a temporary skin solution.

  “Is he up to telling us what happened?” said one of the pilots who had brought him in.

  “Maybe later,” said Battrod. “Where did you two find him?”

  “Well,” said the pilot, “there isn’t much to tell. We surfaced inside a loading dock of some sort. We were still a long way under the surface of the sea, so the dock must have been pressurised.

  “The place was deserted, and there were stacks of goods along a dock on one side. They were strange things I can’t really describe to you. Once we saw it was safe, we hauled ourselves out of the water to take a look around.

  There was a corridor leading into the dock area and it was a huge thing, ten times the height of us. We heard something coming along it, so we hid on the dock. Then a couple of those orange Invardii shapes showed up.

  I jumped back into the water, but Hedras here saw one of our guys laid out on a ledge in the side wall. He managed to get him into the water when the orange shapes were on the other side of the dock. The shock of it seemed to bring him around a bit, so we fitted one of the re-breathers on him and shared the other one.

  “The rest of the story you know.”

  The rescued villager was too dazed to tell them much during the trip back to the Javelin task force, but they spoke to him again when he’d been stabilised in a medical bay on one of the ships.

  He wasn’t able to add much. The door into the mining base had opened when the torpedo team were laying the explosive charges, and they had been swept into the base on the current that had been generated. He’d banged his head and couldn’t remember anything else, nor did he know what had happened to the other two on his team.

  Ayman was pleased to get this much information. It left two members of the second torpedo team unaccounted for, but it could have been worse. As he was thinking about the two lost crew members, his navs officer reported in, his voice sharp with excitement.

  “More Reaper ships coming out of star drive, Sir! Still getting a grip on the number of energy signatures, but there’s something else. There are flagships coming as well! No idea how many yet, but the star drive readouts are too massive to be anything else. We’ll let you know as soon as we can confirm numbers. Navs out.”

  Ayman sat down in his chair on the bridge. He sat down very slowly indeed. That would do it, he thought, grimly satisfied. That would make up enough of an enemy force to justify calling in the Valkrethi.

  Cagill got the call from Ayman at mid-morning. The Valkrethi riders had stayed up late around a driftwood fire exchanging news with Menon and Metris. Much had happened while the Hud pilots in the company had been away training on the Valkrethi.

  Now they were together again after a light breakfast, waiting on the call from the task force at the Barrens.

  Cagill called the riders together as soon as the call from Ayman came through. There wasn’t much he needed to say to them about the work that lay ahead. This was what they’d trained for, and they had already gone up against an Invardii force bigger than this one, and destroyed it down to the last ship.

  “Don’t get overconfident,” he told them, “and don’t take anything for granted. Work together, stay cautious, and don’t take on the flagships until I give the order. Taking on the flagships will have to be a team effort, and I want you to remember that! No individual actions!”

  He looked suspiciously at the research team, but they looked innocently back and nodded in agreement.

  “Mount up,” he said, “and if you know how, say a prayer for all of us.”

  Cagill didn’t know if those prayers would be answered or not, but he knew how the prayer of a believer focused that person’s mind and cut out the chatter of the ego. People in that state of mind tended to survive.

  The Valkrethi stood on the beach outside the cave, under the brilliant sun of a fine, clear Hud day. Menon and Metris stood in the cave mouth, looking up at the huge forms. Each one looked so much like the rider who nestled inside it. Menon shook his head in wonderment.

  The riders brought up the optic shields and opened a connection between themselves and the Reaper ships further out in the system, which appeared as blinking red dots. The riders could all see the imposing energy signatures of the six Invardii flagships.

  That must be every one of the giant flagships they’ve got left, thought Cagill wonderingly. The Valkrethi were making a difference. But for now the riders had to block the flagships out of their thoughts.

  They had a job to do. They had to fall on the Reaper ships carrying the vengeance of every family relocated to another planet and every city destroyed by the Invardii armadas over the savage years that had gone before.

  CHAPTER 25

  ________________

  It would take all the power they had to escape from the planet’s gravity well and make it as far as the enemy ships, even with the power stored in the dipole systems and the energy efficiency of the Valkrethi. The giant figures would have to immerse themselves in the shields of the Reaper ships as soon as they had completed the jump. It would restore their energy levels to normal.

  The first handful of Valkrethi lifted off the beach, gently at first, and then more quickly. Others followed. Menon and Metris strained to see the bright shapes against the sun, and then the Valkrethi were mere sparks of light as they soared higher into the planet’s atmosphere. Then they were gone.

  The giant figures left the planet behind them, and took a new bearing. They were headed for the swirling confusion of Reaper ships and Javelins near the edge of the planetary system. They accelerated more sharply now, their riders beginning the vigorous breathing they used to keep themselves conscious in the middle of such elongated jumps. Then they were slammed the other way in their restraints, and the Valkrethi started decelerating.

  Celia chose an enemy ship on the edge of the action, and slid in past an attacking Javelin to lodge in the ship’s shimmering orange shields. She watched the exhilarating display as vast arcs of plasma energy sliced away from her, toward the Javelin.

  The alliance ship twisted under the arcs to rake the bottom of the Reaper ship with a broadside of super-dense slugs. Then the Javelin twisted away, its navs officer recognising a Valkrethi energy signature.

  The energy readings of Celia’s Valkrethi climbed past the halfway mark, and she turned her head as another figure dropped into the shield beside her, and then another. She increased the magnification of her optics until she could see both of them clearly. The nearest one turned its head side on to her, and she recognised one of Cagill’s pilots. The other lifted its hand in greeting across the sea of flame, and she recognised Roberto.

  She felt her stomach lurch, and told herself to stop reacting so strongly to his presence. She believed if she didn’t keep a tight lid on her feelings, she would slide toward a place that was, for her, a place of shame and betrayal.

  She saw that her mount’s energy levels had returned to normal. It was a blessing to get away from her thoughts, and back into the fight. She worked her way through the shields and dropped onto a hub directly below her, followed by a short sideways link to a larger hub further on. She landed on its surface moments later.

  Now it was time to show the Invardii what the Valkrethi could do! She punched both fists down through the surface of the hub, and wriggled into the interior. She discovered that she had entered a storage bay of some sort. Orienting herself from her point of entry, she dug down toward the middle of the hub. It didn’t take long before she found one of the power plants that ran the Invardii ships.

  For a moment Celia wondered where the other two Valkrethi were, but then she decided they would
be okay if she destroyed the ship. She looked up at the now familiar central column as it towered above her, and saw the surrounding balconies filling with the orange shapes of Invardii in their active phase.

  Time to take this ship out of the fight, she decided, and ripped the pulsing plasma cables off the central tower. The power plant filled with incandescent material that vaporised everything it touched. There was a moment of bright light, followed by the Valkrethi’s optics overloading, and then she was back in space again. She was at the centre of an expanding ring of debris, mute testimony to the destruction of the Reaper ship.

  Ahead of her one of the flagships was beset by a squadron of Javelins. Using their extraordinary reflexes to advantage, the Hud pilots kept their ships away from the thick ropes of plasma that snaked out toward them. It was clear, however, that the Javelins had no answer to the size and power of the massive Invardii warship.

  Celia looked around for other Valkrethi forming up nearby. Cagill had been adamant that the flagships would only be attacked when there was a full team of Valkrethi to do so. A pulsing blue point formed in her optics, denoting an assembly point. She formed a link to the coordinates, and arrived as several other Valkrethi did. Cagill was one of them.

  “This is unknown territory, people,” he said, once they had all linked into an open comms circuit. “We don’t want the Valkrethi hit by the flagship plasma weapons, so choose your line of attack carefully.

  “I want you to work in pairs. Once you’re inside the flagship, it won’t be possible to maintain open comms links unless they’re line of sight. If one of you goes down, the other gets him or her out of there. Got it?”

  They all grunted an assent.

  Celia teamed up with one of the Hud pilots, as did the others in the research team. She was quietly pleased. Rather than just being observers, the research team had now been accepted as part of the fighting formation. They were brothers and sisters in arms with the pilots, and that felt good.