Incursion at elea statio.., p.19
Incursion at Elea Station, page 19
"Fifty meters." The sound of Tabby's voice was barely a whisper.
Tabby's hand, like mine, rested on the hilt of the multi-purpose tool attached to the calf of our leg armor. As far as weapons went, it was one of my favorites. Made of nano-crystalized steel, the tool could be used as a pry bar, hammer or telescoped out as a crude, dull-edged sword. In that the Popeyes provided significant power, dull wasn't much of an issue with anything short of ship armor and rock faces. Even so, I wouldn’t go sword-mode. I preferred the ten-kilogram hammer head against untested enemies.
At twenty meters, the first of the three Mendari locked eyes on our position and pulled up short. "Intruders!" it roared as one weird segmented leg simultaneously leveled an energy weapon in our direction. Tabby rushed forward, her arm a blur of motion as she raised her multi-purpose tool.
Only a moment behind her, I wielded my deadly hammer and raced into battle. An energy bolt ricocheted off Tabby's armor as she closed rank on the lead Mendari. My AI displayed an instant analysis of the bolt. The Popeye armor had easily deflected the shot, but the load was heavier than the blaster rifles carried by Zaida and Tonifi and definitely a problem for their armor. Zaida’s vac-suit was armored, but Tonifi wore a standard vac-suit as we had no armored suits small enough to fit her.
Emboldened by the knowledge that the Mendari blasters weren't effective against the Popeyes, I worked less on dodging and more on covering the remaining ground that separated me from my two fighters. Poor decision on my part. A bolt from the second Mendari was stronger than his friend’s and scored my armor.
I swept my bar low with an arc that should have caught at least a couple of the Mendari's mechanical legs. Impressively, the spider body released each leg's hold on the deck as my hammer passed beneath. The hammer impacted the legs, but they had become flexible and my hammer bounced off, causing little damage.
The third Mendari, seeing his buddy faring well against me, made to race past. I squeezed off a triple shot as I followed the unexpected inertia of the hammer.
Impact high on my back sent me toppling forward. The Mendari I'd attacked had regained its footing and slammed into me with two of its tentacled legs. The hit, while not entirely unexpected, pushed me into the third Mendari's path. More mechanical legs lashed into me and sent me sprawling away. At least I had their attention.
The two Mendari ran at me, their rounded bases bouncing off each other as they fought for position. Apparently, I was the hot dance card and these sailors were looking for action.
I learned a lot in the first moments of our encounter. Primarily, that their mechanical legs were highly coordinated and used as effective weapons. I knew I had more lessons to learn, but then I'd always felt the best lessons were those that were earned. I changed my tactic as I pushed forward to meet their charge. I swung the hammer end over end, driving it into the armored base of my chosen target. I aimed next to where the humanoid body had been joined to the mechanical part.
Legs flipped up, deflecting my blow. I'd expected the move and instead of fighting the deflection, I guided the head of my hammer to strike on the Mendari’s side. For a microsecond the armor resisted and I worried that my attack would be completely deflected. Fortunately, my hammer's irresistible force had yet to meet an immovable object. The hammer tore through the mechanical torso, leaving a swath of destruction in its wake.
The Mendari surprised me once again, its tentacled legs wrapping around to trap my hammer as if unaffected by the damage. The second Mendari battered my suit with its tentacles. The good news was, the pummeling was different this time because I had something to hold onto. Instead of being thrown, I held fast.
My weapon was not only encumbered by the armored body it had dug into, but the Mendari’s back-folding legs held fast. I made a quick decision, released one hand, and grasped a leg near its connection point. The second Mendari rained blows down on me, but I pulled hard. Resistance was followed by an audible pop as the leg came free.
All of a sudden, the second Mendari slammed into me. While surprising, the shift in our battle worked to my benefit and I used the confusion to grab a second leg. Instead of directly pulling, I twisted it out. I'll admit, plucking legs from its torso felt weird, especially when the cyborg crumpled, tumbling us across the deck.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a Mendari pick itself up and skitter back toward Tabby. Bowling the Mendari into my little group had been a good maneuver. By the time we stopped rolling, I'd pulled a third leg from my opponent and freed my hammer. Not seeing the third Mendari, I assumed Tabby had dispatched it while I’d been busy. A single leg impacted my armored chest, but the force wasn’t enough to push me off. I mashed the hammer downward, this time hitting near the center.
The humanoid atop the mechanical body looked into my face shield and spat as its legs collapsed beneath it. "Kill me, evil one. A thousand of my brethren will hunt you down and rid the universe of your filth."
"Evil is destroying a moon and hunting peaceful people," I grunted, batting off flailing legs that sought to finish what they'd started. With only five legs, the heavy man-machine had difficulty maintaining its balance while attacking. I swung mightily and buried the hammer into the mechanical body. The blow was sufficient. The hybrid body sagged to the floor, no longer operational.
I spun away from the dying Mendari. Ten meters to one side, Tabby still battled her Mendari. She'd wounded it and would finish momentarily, but I realized the Popeye I’d seen a moment ago had been Noah, not Tabby. My heart skipped a beat. The Mendari were easily beatable by experienced operators and Noah was hardly that.
I jumped forward, assessing Noah's fight. His multi-purpose tool lay on the ground and he fought for control as the Mendari assailed him with multiple legs. He held his own but appeared to be making little progress. I swung my hammer, catching Noah and the Mendari he fought off-guard. With a full swing, I drove the hammer through the back third of the mechanical body, instantly causing two of the legs being used to brace itself to buckle and give way.
Noah seized the opportunity and attacked the soft Mendari atop the spider body. I would have warned him that the spider would continue to fight but the deed was done. We could discuss strategy in a quieter moment. I took no joy in helping Noah finish the Mendari.
"Tabbs, you good?" I scanned her bios and then her Popeye status. Her heartbeat was slightly elevated, but her suit showed no permanent damage.
"Good," she answered.
Noah stared at the bloodied body of the Mendari he'd struck down. To my knowledge he'd only engaged in combat from a ship. His face was sallow and stricken with pain.
I stepped between him and the Mendari corpse. "You had no choice, Noah."
His face was filled with shock and grief. "How can they live like this?"
I shook my head. "Foot soldiers don't always have a choice," I said. "You did what was needed. Word of the Iskstar will spread and the Mendari will come for you at Faraji eventually. Can you imagine what one of these would do inside Underhill?"
"We could stop it," he said.
"After it killed how many? How many did the Mendari kill when they attacked our home on Kito?"
"I know, but this …" He gestured to the fallen Mendari. "How are we different from them if we do this?"
"Without resistance, bad people will push us from every place we go," I said. "Mendari had a home, but they destroyed it. Then they destroyed our home. Do you really believe they'll stop?"
"No. You're …" He turned and stumbled away. I heard retching noises and winced as I realized he hadn't opened his faceplate. I raced over to release his mask in time for a stream of whatever he'd recently eaten to splatter against pipefittings in front of him. I snapped his face shield back in place, as the atmosphere was hardly breathable. Fortunately, the low-pressure environment sucked out some of Noah’s vomit, although I was certain he’d be smelling it for the remainder of the trip.
"This one's still alive." Tabby got my attention on private comm. "Want me to finish him?"
To the outsider, her words might have seemed chilling and indifferent. In truth, we both understood our reality. We had no capacity for prisoners and couldn’t afford to leave someone behind who had information about us.
"No, let me talk to him," I said. "Talk to Noah for me, would you?"
We passed and Tabby gave me a sympathetic look. We'd lost our innocence to combat long ago and we'd both have given much to allow Noah to retain his.
I considered the questions I'd ask the dying Mendari. No soldier would give up valuable information, so I'd skip the obvious troop strength and strategy questions.
"Is there anything I can do to ease your passing?" I asked, kneeling next to him.
"Once the wolf has been exposed, the sheep is no longer visible," he said. The translation wasn't perfect, but I admired my AI's attempt at mapping back to a common idiom.
"You have us wrong," I said. "Just because we have wolf teeth does not mean we wouldn't live in peace if allowed. Why haven't you attacked Faraji?"
"I once thought as you," the Mendari said. "Is it not easier to take than to build or to grow? There is little we need on your moon. We have considered attack many times but held back, waiting for the prophesy to be fulfilled."
"Prophesy?"
"They said you have no foresight," he said. "But it is known among our people that the blue-eyed devil will destroy the Mendari people. Our only hope is to rid the universe of your people. Now that I am at the end, I know this devil is you. You are not so much."
With that, the Mendari slumped to the deck, his eyes staring over my shoulder without blinking.
"Learn anything?" Tabby asked as I joined the team who'd gathered around Noah.
"He called me the blue-eyed devil," I said. "You doing better, Noah?"
"My suit smells like barf."
"That’ll be fun for you," I said. "Tabbs, scout forward. I'll move the bodies so they're not quite so conspicuous."
"Allow me," Zaida said. "I will be quieter and will not be seen."
I nodded. Felio were natural hunters and her armor would be considerably quieter than Tabby's Popeye. "Be careful and only go to this point." I marked a position that was just short of the target I had in mind. "We're looking for a gate."
Zaida slipped softly away from the group, keeping close to the mechanical structures that abounded around us. She moved with the grace I'd always affiliated with her species and I hoped I wasn't sending her to her death. Intel was critical for our success and our body count was already high.
Tabby helped move the Mendari corpses to an unused alcove. I wanted to fling them from the station, but even the light gravity would be enough to affect their return and likely attract unwanted attention in the process.
By the time we started forward, Zaida had already traveled two hundred meters without encountering patrols. We made good time as we followed, crawling up the large structure toward the central core. The topography of the station changed from purely mechanical to more useable by the habitants it was originally designed for. Whoever occupied the station now had not taken the time to repurpose every part of it.
Tabby was obviously seeing the same thing. "How many Felio was this originally designed for?" she asked.
"Felio?" Noah asked. "This was built by people from Kito. Your people, Liam. Right?"
"This section used to be an old Felio spaceship," I said, pulling up the original specifications. "Five thousand occupants, Tabbs."
"Merrie and Amon, right?" Tabby said, referring to the main architects of the station.
"Mostly Merrie," I said. "She was the engineer from Ophir. Remember, she made those drones to watch the natives who were attacking the Yishuv settlement?"
"Hard to forget. She brought them out of the bronze age and saved their asses," Tabby said.
"You must tell me this story, brother," Noah said.
"I will," I said.
We continued an hour before Tabby alerted us. "Contact."
We'd run up behind a patrol of two. Like the previous group, they were arguing as they walked. Fortunately, they were moving away from our intended route and we holed up, waiting for them to move far enough away that we wouldn't be forced to deal with them. If I knew these were the only troops in this section, I’d have jumped them, but we had little information regarding the Mendari forces aboard the station.
"Let's go," I urged when the area was clear.
We continued for another hour before we were once again stopped. I was surprised at how poorly the Mendari patrolled the station. Although, given that there hadn't been another force on the station for at least a decade, they likely found it difficult to maintain wariness.
We hunkered down and waited for the patrol to move through.
"We may need to clear some of these patrols out," Tabby said. "We didn't set any alarms off with the last guys."
"Not yet," I said. "We're not sure what we're up against. There has to be a larger force if they're patrolling out this far."
"We're only half a kilometer from the center," Noah said.
"Slow and quiet," I urged.
Twenty minutes later Zaida's voice cut through on the comm channel. "I have found something."
"What is it?" I asked, marking her position on our map.
"A large gathering of Mendari," she said. My virtual map filled with dozens of targets. "I believe I see the gate that was mentioned."
She'd taken a high position and was looking down onto a broad circular courtyard a hundred meters below. My AI tallied enemy Mendari. The number zoomed to eighty-five and slowly ticked up.
"Are you well hidden?" I asked.
"I just need to see a little more," she said.
"No, Zaida, back off!" Tabby said. "You're too close."
I pulled Zaida's video data-stream to a window on my HUD. No sooner had I done this when a slinky arm flashed across her body and her bio sign blinked to gray.
18
Holding Court
"Frak, they got Zaida," I said.
The deck rushed up to meet the data-stream of her helmet video. She’d been struck from the side and from all appearances, it killed her in a single blow.
"Hold on, Liam," Tabby said. "I hear something."
I pushed the volume up on the feed. I heard the long hiss of O2 leaching from a broken vac-suit and the rhythmic clink of metal on metal. Blood pooled on the deck and seeped beneath the helmet. A moment later the faceplate jerked backward, leaving a wide streak of dark blood. A loud, gasping intake of air into her lungs preceded the return of Zaida's bio signs.
"Zaida, report," I ordered.
"Captain, I ran into a patrol," she said. "There is light occupation of the civilian housing that surrounds the courtyard I was observing. I was jumped but managed to return fire, killing my attacker."
Zaida's data-stream scanned across a different-looking Mendari. Instead of a full spider body, this one retained its humanoid form but had tentacles attached along its back.
"You need to find cover," I said.
She grabbed the unusual Mendari and dragged it through the open door behind her. The door had been closed when she'd originally been sneaking past. The scene explained itself; the Mendari had exited its living space only to discover Zaida.
Zaida paused within the residence, scanning. It was surprisingly domestic. A bed was centered along the bulkhead perpendicular to the exterior passage.
"Turn left," Noah said. "Look, there on the table."
Without hesitation, Zaida turned but initially missed what Noah saw. On the table, amongst a pile of discarded foodstuffs and other litter, lay a panel device ten centimeters square and a couple centimeters deep.
"Electronic device," I added. "Grab it and get out of there. The blood in the passage will give away your presence."
Zaida picked up the device and slunk back to the doorway. Her audio feed picked up on a clank of steel on steel. The sound came from somewhere above. Instincts kicked in and she bolted from the room, quickly scooting around a corner. In her position, I would have continued hightailing it out of there, but Zaida stopped, lowered herself to the deck and crept back to the corner so she could view what approached.
A Mendari female lifted herself over the railing and settled onto the passageway. Like the one before, she was humanoid with four tentacles on her back. I felt Zaida tense for an attack, but she pulled back around the corner.
For a moment, all we could hear was scraping. When the sounds diminished, Zaida peered around the corner. "She's in the room," Zaida whispered as the video caught the tail end of the tentacles disappearing through the door.
"You need to get out of there," I said.
"Wait," Tabby said. "You have video dots on your belt. Put one on the railing."
It was a risky move. Generally, finding the source of radio transmissions wasn't difficult if you were looking and had the right equipment. The fact that we hadn't yet been discovered was surprising and an advantage I hoped not to lose. It soon became clear that Zaida wasn't familiar with the technology Tabby was requesting. Fortunately, her AI directed her to the device.
"Work your way back to us," I directed. "But take it slow. We need to make sure you're not being tracked."
"I copy," Zaida answered.
"What's the plan, Liam?" Tabby asked.
"Take us here," I said, slaving my Popeye once again to Tabby’s. Our destination was a grouping of residences two hundred meters from the courtyard Zaida had discovered. As we moved, I searched for a room that would meet the criteria I was interested in.
Since the vertical section of the station was actually a spaceship standing on end, the decks ran perpendicular to the horizontal landing platform that finished the cross shape. We’d been working our way up to the junction point and were currently just below the area Zaida had shown us.
