by Nick Cook
‘Somebody needs to check and I’ve seen more dead bodies than you have. So please, Lauren, let me do this. It’s better that you remember him as he was, rather than what we might find in there.’
I gazed into his eyes and saw nothing but love and concern. Jack didn’t want me to be traumatised by what we might be about to discover.
I gave him a slow nod. ‘Okay, okay…’
Jack gave me a sweet smile, his hand lingering on my arm for that all important bit of human contact. Then he headed past me and squeezed through the hole into the cockpit.
I listened to his footsteps echoing around the interior of the X-craft, my mind already imagining in vivid gory details the mangled state of Tom’s body that Jack was about to find.
But then his head reappeared at the opening. ‘Okay, so the really weird thing is that there’s no sign of Tom’s body.’
Mike tucked his chin in. ‘Then what the hell happened here?’
‘Maybe Tom had a chance to walk away from this?’ I said, refusing to let my hope die.
But this time it was Mike who was shaking his head. ‘No, I think that whatever transported Artemis here, probably also removed his body. Don’t forget that Tom had already activated the self-destruct before that electrical pulse happened.’
I felt something inside me crumble, any last hope that somehow he’d miraculously survived was now gone. ‘But there might still be a way that Tom survived.’
Jack gently took hold of my shoulders and made me look at him. ‘Lauren, you and I both know that’s a near impossible hope. The only way we are going to get any real answers is by talking to the micro mind.’
‘Yes…’ I said, barely able to hold his gaze.
Ruby’s voice came over the link. ‘About that. I think I’ve just detected its whereabouts. But you’re really not going to like it.’
I traded a worried frown with Jack as we clambered back down from the wreckage of Artemis and headed back to Mike.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The moss-covered boulder field that we’d been walking through as we headed towards the pool of light in the distance had started to give way to strange Angelus crystal structures that resembled round gas cylinders. They were connected by a spiderweb of conduits to large, faintly glowing pillars of crystal about six metres high, around which the conduits were wrapped like wiring looms of an electric motor.
As we closed in I could feel the static in the air beginning to tickle over my skin again but this time it was accompanied by the growing smell of ozone. As we walked through this alien sculpture park of towering monoliths, I could hear a low level humming coming from the strange structures.
‘I tell you what this place reminds me of – a power station,’ I said. ‘We had a small sub-station back at Jodrell Bank that sounded a bit like this, albeit this is obviously on a far larger scale.’
‘It certainly looks like some sort of energy management system,’ Mike replied. ‘And if so, going by the hundreds of crystal pillars, whatever it’s designed to power needs a heck of a lot of energy.’
‘Maybe this really is designed to power some sort of Angelus mega weapon,’ Jack said.
I nodded. ‘That could certainly be one explanation and I wouldn’t rule anything out, taking into account the sheer, jaw-dropping scale of this place.’
The pool of light that we’d been steadily moving towards as we’d followed the track was now close enough for us to see moving dots silhouetted against it. Jack pulled a pair of binoculars out of his pack and aimed them towards the distant specks.
His eyebrows arched as he looked through the binoculars. ‘You’re going to want to see this for yourself, Lauren,’ he said as he handed them to me.
I peered through them to see that the dots were actually teams of workers. The source of the glowing light actually seemed to be coming from a small quarry behind them. A large dug ramp dropped down into it, on which diggers were trundling up and down to deposit their loads of rocks into piles around the edge.
‘That looks like the centre of some sort of serious operation,’ I said, handing the binoculars back to Jack.
‘Odds on that’s going to the location of our micro mind,’ he replied. ‘Going by the look of it, this has all the hallmarks of one of Fischer’s not very subtle excavations.’
‘Then we’d better get a closer look to make sure,’ Mike said.
We set off again between the crystal power stations and as we slowly drew nearer, a thumping soundtrack of pneumatic drills became audible, echoing under the glass roof.
‘Yeah, it’s never a trowel to do the archaeological work when Fischer’s around,’ Jack said with a growl.
Something crunched under my boot and I glanced down to see shattered crystal shards beneath it. The fragments stretched away in a line from the debris towards the intact nose cone of a Guardian tetrahedron crystal.
‘Looks like it was shot down by something,’ Jack said, squatting to examine the remains.
‘Not just that one, look…’ Mike said. He gestured round us.
The destroyed remains of at least a dozen Guardian crystals littered the ground. ‘What the hell shot all those AIs down?’ I frowned.
‘I’d lay good money on it being something to do with those,’ Jack said, pointing towards the excavation site, more specifically two white, dome-shaped objects mounted on the back of a flatbed.
‘And they are when they’re at home?’ Mike asked.
‘Two C-Ram defence phalanx systems. They’re equipped with Gatling guns that can fire twenty millimetre high-explosive incendiary rounds at 4,500 rounds per minute. Basically they’re designed to take out a missile or even an incoming mortar round in flight.’
‘And also Guardian AIs by the looks of it,’ Mike said, pursing his lips. ‘They were probably trying to defend the micro mind from the Overseers in that excavation site.’
‘But we’ve never run into anything like these Guardians defending a micro mind before,’ I said.
‘Once again it all points to this being a high-value target,’ Jack replied.
‘We really could do with some more intel,’ I said. ‘Ruby, have you got eyes on whatever is in that quarry yet?’
‘Affirmative, Commander. I’ve just finished climbing one of those crystal pillar things for a sniping position and now have a clear view down into the quarry from here. I’m relaying a live feed – it’s quite a doozy.’
A video popped up in the corner of my HUD. Partially buried in the strata of rock was a spherical ball of glowing energy about thirty metres wide and partly transparent. Workers were using pneumatic drills to break away the sections of rock that trapped the shimmering orb. The sphere itself was strobing very slowly with light that poured into it from a network of conduits connected to it from the surrounding soil. And then I saw what was just visible at its heart and my pulse shot up. There, like a glowing blue seed in an apple, was a crystal tetrahedron – a very much awake micro mind AI. But just to make life really interesting there were at least fifty soldiers standing guard around the edge of the quarry.
‘Are we looking at some sort of force field around that micro mind?’ Jack asked. He’d been watching the live feed on his HUD, as had Mike.
‘I think so. It would certainly explain why the Overseers haven’t been able to recover it so far,’ Mike said.
‘Okay, so the next obvious question is how are we going to get to that micro mind if it’s behind a force field?’ I asked.
‘Actually, I may have an idea about that,’ Ruby replied over the link.
The view in the feed shifted towards a short stone pillar mounted near the edge of the quarry’s rim. The view zoomed in until we could see a circular shallow depression on the top of the pillar.
‘Tell me that’s not just the right shape to fit your Empyrean Key, Commander,’ Ruby said.
’I think you could be right, especially based on its proximity to the micro mind,’ I agreed. ‘But to point out the blindingly obvious here, how
are we going to get anywhere near it when those soldiers are almost on top of it?’
‘I’ve got an idea about that too,’ Ruby said. The view started to move again, this time down towards an area in the middle distance where some vehicles were parked, including a few special forces open dune buggies with roll cages and large calibre machine guns mounted on them. Next to those stood two soldiers, who were smoking cigarettes and looking towards the excavation site.
‘How about this for an idea?’ Ruby said. ‘I take those two guards out and then one of you can use one of those buggies to draw the rest of the soldiers away?’
‘That could work,’ Jack replied. ‘Mike, can you drive whilst I get busy with one of those heavy MGs to get the attention of our little friends?’
‘Yep, that works for me.’
Jack turned to me. ‘So how about it, Lauren?’
‘It works for me too. And whilst you guys are keeping them distracted, I can slip past and try my luck with that control pillar.’
‘Sounds like a suitably batshit crazy plan for our team,’ Jack said.
‘Doesn’t it just?’ I grinned. ‘Ruby, get ready to take those guards out when we’re in position.’
‘I’ll be waiting for your call to get this party started,’ she replied.
We set off across the moss, staying clear of the faint pools of light cast from the power crystals just in case either of the guards happened to look our way. Creeping between the shadows slowed us down considerably, so it was a good five minutes before we reached the last of the pillars between us and the two soldiers next to the vehicles, about three hundred metres away from our position.
I thumbed the sector on my MP5 submachine gun to full auto mode just in case this all went wrong. ‘Okay, Ruby, we’re in position. Take those two soldiers out whenever you’re ready.’
‘Roger that, Commander,’ she replied.
There was a faintly suppressed crack, followed by a dim muzzle flash from the top of a pillar about two hundred metres to our right. Then one of the two soldiers slumped backwards clutching his chest. As the second guy started to turn, his head erupted with blood as Ruby fired a second round.
I was just about to commend Ruby on her shooting when her voice cut in over the link.
‘Shit, the first guy is still alive and he’s got a radio in his hand. Taking another kill shot.’
We heard the whistle of a bullet and the guy with the radio who’d been struggling to sit up collapsed.
They say in the military that even the best plans often don’t often survive that critical first contact with the enemy and this was so one of those moments.
An alarm warbled out from the quarry as search light beams came on and swivelled out towards the parked buggies.
Jack shook his head. ‘Crap, that guard did manage to call it in before he died.’
Another whizz of a bullet and one of the spotlights exploded as Ruby took it out.
A burst of return gunfire immediately crackled out and bullets ricocheted off the crystal pillar she was positioned on. Then at least twenty soldiers started to race towards her hiding place, firing as they went.
‘Shit, there’s no way we can get to those vehicles in time to draw them off now,’ Mike said.
I quickly scanned the terrain between us and the buggies, looking for suitable cover to give us a tactical advantage. Experience told me that the situation was going to descend rapidly into an inevitable firefight.
There were a number of large, squat, rectangular crystal junction boxes with conduits blossoming from their sides like spider legs. The nearest one was between us and the advancing line of soldiers bearing down on Ruby’s position. Tactically that looked like it would give us a reasonable amount of cover to take on the enemy, who would be in a much more exposed position out in the open.
‘We’re going to try and catch the enemy in a crossfire situation, Ruby,’ I said over the link.
Another whistle of a bullet and one of the soldiers dropped. ‘Good, because it’s only a matter of time before they overrun my position,’ Ruby replied.
‘Understood,’ I said. ‘Follow me, guys,’ I said to Jack and Mike.
The three of us broke into a crouched run, heading towards the junction box. Glints of light kept erupting from Ruby’s crystal pillar as more bullets pinged off it.
We reached the junction box and dropped into cover behind it. I peered over the top to see the group of soldiers had now split into two squads. One glance told me everything I needed to know, thanks to Niki constantly drumming military tactics into us during countless training exercises.
‘They’re trying to outflank Ruby and pincer her from two different directions at once,’ I said.
‘Damn it. The squad on her right flank will be completely out of range for us,’ Jack said.
‘Then we’ll just have to take down as many of them on this side as we can,’ I replied, grim-faced. I was already dreading the odds of us surviving this one. ‘I’m afraid, Ruby, the rest will be down to you.’
‘Doing my best to trim down their numbers here,’ she replied over the crack of a bullet that found a home in one of the soldiers furthest away, dropping him like a bowling pin.
The group nearest us was now less than fifty metres away from our hiding place and were beginning to circle round on Ruby’s position.
My mouth was bone dry, in contrast to the eerie sense of calm that always kicked in when I was facing mortal danger.
‘Okay, make every round count, guys,’ I said.
‘Oh don’t you worry, I intend to,’ Jack replied, his face tense.
Mike nodded as he checked his dart gun’s magazine.
If it came to it, I knew we’d all go down fighting to our last breath.
Thankful for the shadows to disguise our presence, I aimed my MP5 over the top of the conduit, directly at the nearest member of the enemy squad.
Once I would have felt conflicted about springing what was effectively an ambush on someone, but not anymore. Too much experience of real world combat had hardened something inside me forever.
‘On my mark,’ I whispered. ‘Three, two, one, open fire!’
With a bark of automatic fire, Jack and I sprayed the advancing soldiers with bullets, both of us dropping two of them instantly. Mike took out a third guy with a tranquilliser dart to the face. The soldier managed to take just three faltering steps before he collapsed.
The rest dived for cover behind another of the crystal junction boxes. Although we’d thinned out their numbers a fraction, my blood chilled when I heard my very own personal nemesis Alvarez barking orders to another group of around twenty soldiers. They ran from the quarry to reinforce the rest, who were already attacking us.
As I knew it would with him now on our case, a hailstorm of incoming fire erupted around our junction box, forcing us to duck down.
‘Jesus, we’ve got to fall back,’ Jack hissed as bullets whistled over our heads.
I stared at him, too appalled to even think about retreating. ‘But this could be our only opportunity to make contact with the micro mind.’
‘Lauren, what if we covered you to make a dash for that rune?’ Mike said as he reloaded his dart gun with fresh rounds.
‘No way she’d make it through that hornet’s nest that we’ve stirred up now,’ Ruby replied before I could. ‘If only I had my bloody WASP swarm with me then I’d show them.’
Then, in the middle of my desperation, a possible answer to our impossible situation popped into my head.
‘Ruby, when we found Artemis the drones were still intact. Could you control them via your Sky Wire?’
‘Yeah, that’s a distinct possibility, Commander. But with the power offline to that ship, they’ll need to be manually rebooted before I can get them into this fight. I would go back and do it myself, but I’m a bit busy being pinned down by gunfire and trying to stay alive right now.’
‘Leave it to me,’ Mike said.
Before I could stop him, he was o
n his feet. Keeping his head down, he tore back the way we’d come.
A barrage of bullets whistled past him, fired by the soldiers advancing on our position who had now grown to at least twenty in number.
‘Bloody hell, Mike!’ I said. ‘Next time, we have a conversation about this first. You’re too damned brave for your own good.’
‘Just making sure I earn my place on the team,’ Mike replied.
‘We are so having words about this later if we live long enough.’ I looked at Jack. ‘Time for a bit of covering fire.’
‘Damned right,’ he agreed.
The two of us popped up again and sprayed rounds into the enemy’s ranks, taking out at least three more soldiers before a firestorm of return fire forced us back down into cover. But at least they had stopped firing at Mike long enough for him to escape into the distance.
Then just when I thought we might have a faint chance, things got seriously worse.
Alvarez bellowed more orders and a moment later one of the C-Ram batteries swung its Gatling gun towards us. With the angry buzz of high-speed incendiary rounds, a blazing trail of red erupted from the turret and raced towards us. We ducked, then the crystal junction box shook as the bullets began slamming into the far side of it.
My heart was thumping hard as I glanced over towards Ruby’s crystal monolith to see it receiving similar treatment from the other C-Ram. Crystal shards were exploding from the structure.
‘Fuckity, fuck!’ Ruby said over the comm channel.
The batteries ceased firing for a moment and I sucked in several breaths before popping up again to trade fire with the soldiers. Then, with a roar praising instant death if one of their rounds hit us, the C-Rams opened up once more.
The world felt like it was tearing itself apart as the unrelenting barrage of the large calibre rounds pounded into our cover, gradually destroying it. Despite the active hearing protection of our combat helmets, my ears were ringing to hell. At the rate our cover was disintegrating it would only be a matter of minutes before there was nothing left to shelter behind.
‘Okay, I’ve made it back to Artemis,’ Mike’s voice said over the link. ‘But the bloody launch hatch is jammed solid.’
