Starforge unsec space bo.., p.46
Starforge (UNSEC Space Book 3), page 46
“Simple,” Anna said. “I’m going to burn it. The rest of you cover me. It’s probably going to try something as soon as I open up.” The lines on her suit were glowing crimson, her hard-light systems active and at the ready. “And definitely keep an eye on the tongue-pod things.”
Jake nodded and focused his Rezzer on one of the closest tongues. “Got it.”
“You want a missile?” Sweets asked, both hands up. “Or just bolts?”
“Save the missile for if something goes wrong. But if it does, unleash hell. That goes for all of you.”
“Understood,” Voi answered. “Ready when you are.”
“Firing … now.”
Anna fired, a spear of flame starting out of the end of her thrower, but before it had reached even halfway to the All cocoon it had fired back, a long, mushy-looking tendril shooting toward her so fast that even with his augmentations Jake felt he would have missed it had he blinked. It was fast—impossibly so.
Anna was faster. Her flamer cut out as she twisted to the side, a crimson blade coming to life and extending out past her wrist. The All tongue missed her by inches, streaking past … and then was cut free as Anna’s blade sliced cleanly through it.
Then the cocoon was enveloped by gunfire, flechettes, reddish bolts, and standard rounds punching into it and spraying clear ichor in all directions. More tongues fired, and Jake adjusted his aim, jerking to the side and shredding the tendril with a single shot.
Anna’s thrower lit once more, sending a sheet of flame out across the forest and coating the All cocoon in liquid flame. The remaining tongues began to spasm, then slumped. The sounds of gunfire stopped, leaving only popping hisses as the heavy fires ate through the alien mass.
“Don’t!” Anna’s command stopped one of the marines who had been bending over to pick up a bit of severed tongue. “It might not be dead. I’ll cook them instead. Point out any bits on the forest floor.” Her thrower spat a shorter burst of flame, roasting the bit of the tongue she’d cut off and adding thick black smoke to what the cocoon was sending up. “Then we need to move. This told us what we needed to know.”
“It did?”
“Yeah,” Jake said, pointing to another bit of All. A sheet of flame from Anna’s thrower washed over it. “One: This hex is compromised. That ship dropped biomass all over the place. Second: that biomass is already working to convert and adapt the local wildlife.”
“Three: Local security hasn’t responded yet,” Sweets added. “So the Starforge’s defenses are already spread thin. But …” He paused. “On the way.”
Anna burned another chunk of All, then turned and gave the cocoon another burst, working the thrower back and forth. “We’re burning this one because we can. By the time we find another …”
The marines were nodding. “They’ll be finding us.”
“Exactly. So we need to keep moving.”
A few minutes later, satisfied that the All material had been dealt with, they boarded the quad once more, Voi driving them back to the EEV, the other scouting party darting ahead to continue canvassing the beach. The trip passed in silence, no one speaking. The EEV slowed to a stop as the team approached it, and there was a brief pause as all of them sprayed themselves down with sterilizing foam to remove what was left of the All ichor. Then Voi boarded the quad with the other two marines he’d traded during the pickup and the machine took off.
A minute later they were underway once more, the EEV crawling up another large dune before moving back out onto the flatter sand, the waves retreating once more.
Crazy tides, Jake thought as the EEV picked up speed once more. Probably why the Sha’o made it a resort. Lots of currents to play with.
A faint chirp from nearby pulled his gaze away from the endless beach, and he looked up just in time to see one of the avian lizard-birds tuck its wings close, diving down past him to land in front of him on the EEV. It turned, long whiplike tail sweeping back and forth behind it, then looked at him and cocked its head to the side, letting out another chirp.
“Is that the same one?” Sweets asked as the little creature looked up at him.
“I’m not sure.” The creature seemed to be waiting for something, and after a moment he held out his hand like he had earlier. With another chirp followed by a whistle, the avian hopped forward and into his waiting palm, turning in circles and then looking up at him.
“Looks like you made a new friend,” one of the marines said.
“Pretty easy when they’ve never seen people.”
Jake tipped his hand to one side, the avian chirping in annoyance but not protesting when he set it on the inner side of the bunker. A moment later it curled up, then retched, catching whatever it had spit up in its mouth and chewing on it.
“Gross,” someone said.
“Cows do that. I wonder if it’s like a cow?”
“I’ve never seen one, how would I know?”
“Keep alert, people.”
The chatter died down, though it still continued. The tide began to roll back in once more, so soon after going out that the sand had barely dried under the sun, forcing the EEV back into the dunes. The scouts found another All torpedo and incinerated it with several rounds from a Phoenix cannon.
Jake’s thoughts wandered, even as the small alien creature finished what he guessed was a nap, gave him another chirp-filled whistle, and flew off.
It’s obvious what the All want to do with this place. It’s fuel. For a new armada, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen. If we get the Warforge online, how large is its force complement? Big enough to come back here and push the All off for good?
He frowned, leaning forward slightly as the EEV crawled to the top of another dune. There’s got to be something we can do.
“Uh, Captain Iyis.” Sweets’ sounded hesitant as his voice moved across the comms. “Can we stop at the top of the dune? The Liaison says that there’s something you might want to see.”
“We can do that, Candy,” Iyis said. The EEV slowed as it neared the top, its heavy tires rolling over the spiky grass. As high as the dune was, they had a spectacular view of the ocean and beach around them. “What are we looking for?”
“I—” Sweets’ voice cut off as out on the edges of the ocean the water churned. “Quarantine measures. Against the All, not us.”
The churned water broke, a silvery shape rising into the air. It was shaped much like the battleships that they had faced outside of the Starforge, with the same teardrop design and concave underside, just smaller. Jake couldn’t see any jets, but the thing hung above the waves all the same, water running off of it.
Then it began to move forward, water still cascading off its sides and fins, floating silently through the air as it headed for the beach. As it reached the breakers the bottom opened up, dozens of triangular shapes dropping out of it and flying off under their own power.
At least I can see the thrusters on those, Jake thought as some of the curved arrowheads grouped up, sweeping toward them. The tips on both sides flared up, giving the small, dart-like shapes a concave look. The center of their forward slopes pulsed with blue light that seemed to emanate from a single, bright point.
“Defense drones?” Anna asked. “Quarantine?”
“The Liaison said they were support platforms,” Sweets said, stepping up to the edge of the bunker. “Called … closest we have is ‘darts.’ But they back up other drones and look for All presence.”
“Like the ones we had on Pisces?” someone asked.
“Yeah,” Sweets said as the pack of darts flew closer. “Cleaners. And … nobody do anything like shoot. They just want to check us out.”
Three of the drones came to a stop in the air as their leader continued forward, deploying six multi-jointed legs from its underside as it landed atop the front of the EEV. The other three then split up, circling around the EEV, and appearing to examine it from all sides. The only sound they made was from their thrusters, and even those were quiet, almost a whisper. The drone sitting atop the front of the EEV on its spindly legs seemed almost to “eye” them with the central glowing point … and then it lifted off, legs folding as it and its counterparts shot away across the dunes, heading into the forest.
“We’re clear,” Sweets said. “We can move.”
“That ship,” Anna said, pointing to the Sha’o aircraft as it slowly hovered past the dunes. It was at least a hundred feet long. “What is it?”
“Best translation I’m getting is ‘the wave that crashes on a foe,’” Sweets said.
“So Wavefall,” Roen said from the back of the bunker. “Makes sense. Is it a troop carrier?”
“And a gunship, I think. Deployed locally or from something called a ‘passage of opposing tides conveyance.’”
Jake glanced at Roen, but the woman shrugged. “I got nothing on that one.”
“I do,” Caruso said. “It’s a tidal rift. Two tides meeting. And a conveyance, so a platform of some kind for supporting all the Wavefalls. So ‘Tiderift platform.”
“War depot.” The voice had come from Yee, one of the few marines not currently scouting. “Tiderift war depot.”
“You can’t name something you haven’t seen.”
“It is a good name, though. Besides, I think we’ll know it when we see it.”
“If we see it. That thing came out of the water.”
“Fair point.”
“Look.” Anna’s voice, calm and collected, quieted the rest of the marines. She nodded off toward the horizon. “There’s another one. And another.” More of the silvery ships were rising out of the water and moving toward the island.
“Candy, while you’ve got the Liaison answering questions, I’ve got another one for it,” Iyis said. “This tide schedule you gave me says the tide is about to rise again. But it already rose to the dunes. Is it going to get higher?”
“Correct-accurate.” The Liaison entered the conversation directly. “The number-quantity of moons—”
“How high?”
“It’s going to be in these dunes, at least.” The voice belonged to Reyes. “That’s why there aren’t any trees on them. They’re temporary.”
“Captain? Htay here. The tide is starting to move up rather quickly.”
“Understood. Don’t get caught in it. For now stick to the edge of the treeline until we can see how far this is going to rise.” A second later the EEV began to roll back, stopping and then turning so it could drive toward the trees.
A loud crack split the air, and Jake turned to see the Sha’o gunship firing down into the trees some ways off, darts swarming around it.
“Guess it found more All,” he said. Further up the coast, more cracks echoed back at them.
“Good,” Anna said. “Frees us up to move faster.” The EEV began to drive forward once more, passing over one of the fan trees. Its giant leaf rolled up as the EEV passed it, body bending the central trunk beneath it.
Curious, Jake turned, watching as the tree—now more of a whiplike stalk, the two halves of its leaf wrapped around it—popped back up behind them, swaying like an antenna.
A whole alien world, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen. And the All are going to devour it. There has to be a way to stop them if the defense systems can’t.
The EEV rolled on across the edge of the beach.
Chapter 14
Captain Iyis ordered one of the quads docked for the night so it could recharge, the other bearing a night crew to lead the EEV forward at a slower pace while most of the team got some sleep. Anna could tell before drifting off that for many of them it wasn’t coming easy—and in fairness she found herself jolted awake more than once by the EEV changing speed abruptly, her hands drawing her FOX-9s out of pure reflex.
But the cause was never All. Sometimes it was strange, nocturnal creatures cutting across the EEV’s path, scurrying away from its massive bulk. Sometimes it was the motion of the EEV shifting from the trees to the beach or back again as the tide changed. On one occasion the noise that had awaken her had been the reaction of the team to a massive patch of bioluminescence that moved through the ocean in rippling waves, its cause unknown.
Each time she’d taken a look around at the darkened forest and beach, her suit’s nightvision systems amplifying the available light with added highlights and false color that still looked a little unnatural before laying herself back down atop the EEV in the most comfortable position she could find. Sweets had chosen to sleep inside the machine, atop crates in one of the storage spaces or on a bit of spare deck somewhere, but she’d volunteered to be one of the few that remained outside.
Jake had stayed above as well, though every time she woken, she’d noticed his position had shifted, implying that he’d woken up at least as often as she had. A few times she even suspected he’d been awake at the same time, but hadn’t wanted to acknowledge her momentary disorientation.
And without fail, no matter the position she found him in, one hand had always been near his Rezzer. Ready, in case of a nearby threat.
Still, each time she’d noted Jake’s apparent lack of rest her first thought had been that he would get used to it. Only for a second to follow a moment later, wondering if he already had. A third had drifted in the wake of the prior two, less distinct than the others as she’d drifted back into her slumber, but no less direct: Should he have to?
On reflection she hadn’t been sure if she’d been asking if he was used to it already, or if she felt all right with the answer possibly being yes.
Her sleep had at least been dreamless, if only because she’d slept in such short fits. Six hours later, when it was time for the night crew to take their well-deserved rest and the remaining marines to rise and start another “day,” it was still dark, the sky above them a velvet blackness lit by millions of points of light, sparkling and shining amid two moons.
That has to be the most expensive illusion ever, Anna thought as she looked up at one of the moons, peering past the tips of the fan trees. Realistically, she knew there wasn’t a star-lit sky above her. There was nothing above them but a vacuum filled with mining machinery and a single burning point that powered the entire Starforge. Yet there was nothing to the nighttime sky above the hex to suggest that it wasn’t real. It stretched from horizon to horizon, its constellations unrecognizable but beaming away brightly. Here and there some of the stars moved, mimicking satellites as seen on Earth, and she briefly wondered if it was an intentional effect or actual sign of some Sha’o ship passing by far overhead. So much effort … all for the illusion of a night sky.
But why not? She pulled her eyes back down, away from the passing moons and back to the forest around them as the EEV rolled steadily forward. If you can mimic a sunrise and sunset, or build an artificial world around a star, why not go all the way and replicate day and night as well? Sure, it probably took more energy, but that was just energy the star was putting out anyway.
Hell, they’re not even using all of it, she thought as the EEV slowed, its front tires climbing over a particularly large ridge of rock. They built the vents in case they couldn’t. Because they couldn’t. So I guess … Her eyes slid upward once more to the impressive panorama of stars. They could, and they wanted to, and it didn’t cost them much.
So I wonder, is this what space looked like from the world this hex was based on? Or what it looked like around the Sha’o homeworld? The EEV shifted slightly, its front tires rolling down a steep section of bare rock and then back up again. The topography of the island had changed in the last few hours, growing rougher and gaining more verticality.
Jake let out a low moan, probably just loud enough to be picked up by their private comm channel, then sat up, looking up at the sky and, she suspected from the way he stared, blinking beneath his visor.
“Morning,” she said, giving him a nod as his helmet turned toward her. “Sleep well?”
“No,” Jake admitted, his tone almost curt. Then he let out a yawn, stretching. “But … I guess I’ll have to get used to it.”
“The fact that it’s still night? Or trying to sleep on a moving, rocking vehicle?”
Jake was silent for a second or two before replying. “Both?” he asked, and she let out a laugh. Jake joined her a moment later.
“Probably the first,” he replied once their chuckles had stopped. “But the second didn’t help.”
“I noticed you were in a few different positions last night each time I woke up.”
“You woke up?” Jake asked. “Well if it woke you up, then I can definitely admit sleeping on this thing threw me off.”
Anna shrugged, turning her gaze back forward as another nocturnal creature scurried away from a patch of brush the EEV was about to flatten. “It’s not something to be ashamed about.”
“Let me put it this way,” Jake said, leaning against the sidewall. “I didn’t sleep well, but I can’t say if it was the artificial night, the All, or all the bumps. Together they all played a pretty significant part. I don’t think I could pick one or the other.” He leaned forward a little more as the EEV slowed, another steep ridge of mostly smooth rock nearing ahead of them, half as tall as their current perch. Here and there Anna could see spots where sand and soil had been caught in little grooves, weathering on the smooth stone making grips for small clutches of plant-life.
It probably looked a lot less weathered before this place sat untouched for several thousand years.
“No wonder I woke up,” Jake said as the EEV slowed almost to a stop. Anna could guess what was going through the driver’s mind. The quad that had scouted ahead had left tracks up the steep slope, but it was a much smaller vehicle with a lot less mass to get up to a running start. “How long has the terrain been like this?”
Anna shrugged as below them the EEV began spreading its weight, the tires and suspension shifting into a wider stance. “Probably not too long. A few bumps last night got my attention, but I’ve only been up a few minutes longer than you. It is getting rougher, though.” The EEV began its climb up the steep slope, the roof tilting back as it made its way up and over, smashing vegetation out of the way. “Look at the dunes.”
