Starforge unsec space bo.., p.85
Starforge (UNSEC Space Book 3), page 85
Iyis stared at the AI for a few seconds, or rather through it, his mind clearly elsewhere. “I’ll believe that when it happens,” he said, picking his helmet up from a nearby seat and sliding it down over his head. “How long will this scan and explanation take?”
“Roughly-approximately two minutes.”
“A lot can happen in two minutes,” Iyis growled, his ill-pleased tone well apparent even through the slight distortion of his helmet. Then he held a hand up to the side of his head. “Neeva, you about done out there?”
With his helmet currently down, Sweets couldn’t hear the woman’s response, but the captain nodded. “Let TC finish, tell him to pull his ass inside as soon as we’re a minute out. Right now I want you in here doing a scout flyby of what’s ahead.” Iyis dropped his hand.
“As for you three,” he said. “Whether or not this is an ambush, I’d prefer to have your guns—” His visor shifted, settling directly in Sweets’ direction. “—and whatever it is your suit does, helping out. I led more than one ambush of … in my day using this exact kind of thing. I’m not about to blindly walk into it myself. Even if I don’t have any say in it at the moment. Liaison? How far?”
“Three-point-four-seven minutes now, captain.”
Iyis nodded, his hand snapping back to the side of his head. This time he spoke loudly enough for his externals to relay it. “Two minutes, people. Move!”
Sweets turned, but Jake and Anna were already moving for the door, both pulling their helmets down over focused expressions. His own helmet formed at will, the scales of the alien armor sliding up around his neck at a thought and encasing his skull. Even before the light of the real world faded completely his view was back, the inside of the helmet projecting—or maybe displaying, he wasn’t sure which—the cabin of the EEV, so that his donning the helmet wasn’t so much temporary blindness but a bar of black blocking his view as it slid from bottom to top.
Jake and Anna were already outside, and he followed, sliding past Neeva as he left the cabin, the two of them trading places through the doorway. The transport platform was moving slower still now, what had looked like thicker snows falling from a grey sky actually much lighter now that their pace had lessened. We can’t be going more than a few hundred kilometers an hour right now, Sweets thought as he followed his teammates up onto the top of the EEV. Maybe slower.
The top of the EEV was in disarray—or at least it looked like it at first. But after a second he could see the patterns the marines had fallen into, the positions that they were building as they packed everything up. There was one locker sitting near the back of the bunker that was being ignored however, and Jake and Anna were both heading right for it.
He saw why as soon as Anna flipped the lid up. Rezzers, extra FOX-9s, and lots of ammo. It was a crate for her and Jake, then, and both of them began silently arming up.
Which … I don’t need to do. Unless I want to. The stony islands around them looked … old. Weathered. Worn away, like nubs that had been pressed against by time. Sharper, more jagged areas broke up their silhouette, marks where bits and pieces had fallen away.
The plants looked different as well. The lower, pillar-like underpinnings of the islands seemed alive with some sort of long, stream-like kelp that lit up with every wave that crashed against it. The tide was lower at the moment, but the waves still caught some of the dropping ends of the upper layers of plant life, and as Sweets watched a faint pulse of light seemed to run up them, a shimmer that could have been anything from bioluminescence to some sort of reflective coating catching the light just right.
Weird, he thought as another wave crashed against the bottom of a nearby island, sending a flickering cascade of light rushing up it. But neat.
And the All are going to end all of it. Maybe it was something he could talk to the Liaison about. If we can’t stop them from wiping all of this out, maybe we can at least keep a record of it.
A faint whir announced the departure of one of the scouts, launched from the cabin door rather than the damaged dock. It shot off into the sky, wobbling slightly as it passed through the invisible membrane around the platform but then pushing on ahead, snow scattering in its wake.
We’re definitely slowing down. Ahead of them he could make out a gap between two of the islands, straight as an arrow between their rocky surfaces. I wonder if it was a slot canyon of some kind once. Or whatever that would be when it’s in the water? Whether or not it had been, the undersides had long since been eaten away, leaving a long, rocky outcropping that extended out over the water from either side of the island.
Mushroom overhang. The marines were setting up positions now, and he pulled his focus away from the oncoming island long enough to check on Jake and Anna’s locations before moving to join them near the back of the bunker.
A few marines, he noticed, were hopping off of the EEV and taking up positions around the base, pulling empty lockers or containers over to serve as flimsy cover. So we’re not all in one central spot, he thought. Probably smart.
A gasp across the tacnet snapped his focus forward. A massive ring was rising out of the waves, just like the others that had guided them on their journey so far. This time however, they slowed significantly as they passed through it, their speed dropping at least by half.
“Signal’s up,” Neeva said. “Putting it live.”
A video appeared in the corner of his hud, the scout nearing the rocky islands ahead of them. So much closer they still looked like mushrooms, the island on the right rising high to a rocky, snow-covered peak, while the island to the left had a flatter leveling to it, the cliffs making it look like it’d been carved from stone blocks. The one on the right has to be at least what … a few hundred feet tall? More? Five-hundred, maybe?
The scout flew onward through the passage between the two, and the rock on both sides began to climb upward. Much of it wasn’t bare, but covered in snow and some sort of plant-life that looked like a leafy-moss. It wasn’t orange, though, nor did it show any sign of being recent. Not that he could tell from the narrow window the drone was offering as it sped past.
“I’m going to have to agree with the captain,” Jake said, his voice coming across their private comm channel rather than the mostly silent tacnet. “This absolutely looks like a good spot for an ambush.”
“Agreed,” Anna said, her voice low and focused. “The rock walls on either side, us being stationary. I don’t like this.”
“You two are making me nervous,” Sweets said, letting out a chuckle at the end of it to let them know he wasn’t serious.
“Check your mic, Candy.”
His eyes went wide as he heard Prak’s voice. Agh! “Sorry!” he said, tapping at his wrist and adjusting his comm settings. Laughter rippled across the tacnet as he pushed himself onto the right channel.
“In fairness,” Jake said. “You did get a laugh.”
“Yeah, I did,” he replied, his voice this time going out across their private link, rather than to the whole expedition. “I was thinking it’d be out of you two, though.”
“I gave it a smirk,” Anna said, her tone light. “Does that count?”
“Captain, we’re dressed and ready to dance. Waiting for the music.”
“Affirmative, Prak. Hold.”
They were almost at the outer edge of the islands now. Or had it been a single island initially that had over time been split into two?
“We’ve got structures,” Neeva said, and Sweets glanced back down at the feed to see what looked like a walkway of some kind sweep past, though its design didn’t look like anything he was familiar with. It jutted out of the rock like a bone from flesh. In part because of its pale, metallic color, but also because in some places the walkway was covered in stone and rock where the island had collapsed over it.
“Give me a second.” The scout drone dropped downward as it neared a gap in the island stone, ducking under the cap of the “mushroom.”
“There,” Neeva said, the camera fixing on what looked like a metal strut standing exposed against the rock around it. “There’s no getting around it. Some of this island’s support is artificial, if not all of it.” The scout rose back above the lip of the cap, moving to view the top-half once more. “And it’s had a lot of time to fall apart.”
The drone began to follow the pathway, using the metal as a guide as it moved further down what was almost … if not a canyon, then something close. Gulley, maybe? Valley? But one where the bottom collapsed out? Slot?
Whatever it was, they were moving into it, and he didn’t miss the way the marines’ fingers shifted to be close to triggers as the rocky walls rose around them. They weren’t walls exactly, more like steep, rocky slopes, with softer, smoother inclines here and there showing where something had slid off, but …
It’s still pretty good terrain if you wanted to ambush someone, he thought as they moved deeper between the islands. Lots of places to hide, lots of cover. The dusting of snow, just enough so that the brown of the rock or the darkish green-blue of the moss could poke through in most places, gave it a surprising array of blandness that made it harder to pick out detail or discern shadow from stone.
Not that there was much shadow. The cloudy skies drizzling snow on them made the light somewhat … all-encompassing.
Save for the lights just now appearing on the scout’s feed. “I think I’ve found our destination, captain,” Neeva said as the machine swept over what could have been a dock at any marina, if not for the fact that its metal fingers extended out into open air rather than water. The light and shadow came from posts that had been erected at equal intervals along the docking array, each glowing soft and steady on the feed. The drone swept around, following the fingers back up onto what looked like a small bowl on one side of the canyon, carved out of the stone around it. Or built to look like it.
Regardless it was clearly part of the docking complex, or whatever the station was. The ramps, overgrown and covered with snow and gravel as they were, led up to what looked like several levels of tiered grids built into the side of the island, now slightly overcome by earth and partially buried. But not buried enough to hide their manufactured nature, or the massive, square obelisks that rose from the spaces in the grid like row after row of server towers.
Those must hold the equipment that’s going to examine our transport, Sweets thought as the scout’s view panned around the station, lingering on what looked like several paths leading out and away from the station. Then it panned up, along the steep, rock cliff at the station’s back, slowing every time the snow-covered stone gave way to metal.
“The peak’s artificial too,” Neeva said, and the drone’s view tilted back further, showing metal and what looked like glass growing out of the side of the cliff just a short distance before the top. “Looks like an observation station of some kind.” The view zoomed in, but the glass was covered in snow and ice. “Not very well-cared for.” The scout turned away, looking at the more natural-looking rock opposite the station. There the layout was a mirror of the other side, only without the steep cliff at its back or the observation station, and with a lot more rubble and rock clogging the lanes between its towers.
Maybe there was a cliff, but it collapsed at some point. It would explain where a lot of the rubble had come from.
“Doing a sweep,” Neeva said as the drone dropped back down and began to move around the station. “Not seeing any signs of disturbance in the snow.”
“Don’t forget to check for heat,” Reyes said. “Note any hot spots under the snow.”
“Checking the snow’s smart,” Anna said quietly, her comment confined to their own channel. “But with it snowing, anything that’s lying in wait could have been buried if they had enough time.”
The transport was now moving slowly enough that someone could have run alongside it. There was even a space for it: the metal walkway that the drone had found earlier.
“Taking a reading,” Neeva said, the video she was feeding to everyone fading. “Looks like … these islands are long and narrow. One island, really. With this gap straight down the middle. At the most maybe … a little under a klick across for each one. Maybe less.”
“Not a lot of room to run if things go wrong,” Prak noted.
“No,” Iyis agreed. “It isn’t, unless we want to swim.”
“Station’s coming up,” Reyes said, and once again Sweets saw the marines shift, making last-minute checks of their positions and gear. A number of them had extra weapons and equipment sitting on the deck beside them; single use missile launchers, MMR support systems, or others he couldn’t identify.
A few seconds later the transport platform came to a silent halt, stopping squarely in the center of the station. The ends of the metal docks extended almost to the platform, the closest only a few feet away and at the same height. Not much of a step to cross over. Though the lack of railings made the thin protrusion of metal a little suspect all the same.
A snowflake landed on his arm, and Sweets looked up to see snow drifting down over the entire platform. Whatever bubble had held the weather back was no longer with them.
A faint rasp from the right of the platform pulled his attention back to the station. One of the towers was shifting, rising out of the ground, the sound coming from the stone and gravel pressed against it. A few of the marines raised their weapons, but no one fired, even when the sides of the obelisk began to float out into the air.
“Easy,” Iyis cautioned as several marines pointed their weapons at the tower. “Liaison, are these the scanners?”
“Correct-accurate,” the Liaison replied as several metal drones floated out of the tower. They were stubby and compact.
Kind of like a crab, Sweets thought as they began to float forward by unknown means. Wider than they are long. The drones circled the platform and began to move in recognizable up and down patterns.
Just like the Liaison said they would.
“I am informing-advising them now of the quarantine-protocols situation,” the Liaison said as the small drones hummed around the platform. “We should be underway in moments.”
Sweets eyed one of the drones closely as it moved past his position. “Up close it looks even more like a crab,” he said.
“I was thinking the same,” Jake noted. “There must have been something like a crab on their planet they modeled it after. That or they just liked the shape.”
“We’ve found crabs on a lot of alien worlds,” Anna said. “Or crab-like things, anyway. Maybe they did have them. That, or the design just worked for their scanners.”
“These scanners aren’t going to be bad for us, are they?” Htay asked across the general tacnet.
“What are you worried about?” Gunn replied. “We beat cancer decades ago.”
“Just because we beat it doesn’t mean I want it.”
“Quiet,” Iyis said as the drones reached the back of the platform and as one moved back to the tower. “Looks like they’re done. Any minute now …”
The tower closed back up, retracting into the ground, and a stillness settled over the station.
“Liaison?” Iyis asked. “Wasn’t this the part where you assured us we would go?”
“I … I am sorry-apologetic. I do not—” The AI let out a shrill, startling whistle, and Sweets snapped his hands up, aware that the entire group had their weapons up and looking for hostiles.
“Liaison!” Sweets’ shout cut the AI’s painful-sounding squeal off. “What is it?”
“My request has been overruled!”
“So—”
“You do not understand-comprehend!” The image of the Liaison appeared on Sweets’ hud, its multiple eyes looking right at him. “I am an Overseer portion-fragment, and the Starforge Overseer is not viewing-active on this segment-network. The override is physical. All I am shown-aware of is their nature. They scanned-logged as Sha’o. Persisting-living organic Sha’o! In the overlook-observation center!”
Silence reigned across the tacnet. Then several voices broke out at once, all overlapping with one another until a stern “Shut it!” overrode everyone, quiet descending once more.
“I don’t buy it,” Iyis said. “Not for a moment.”
“I don’t either,” Anna added. “Trap. It has to be.”
“But the signature-genetic—” the Liaison began.
“Trap,” Anna replied with a bit more force. “You said it yourself. All the Sha’o were killed by the All plague.”
“But if some could have survived—”
“Your reaction is exactly why it would be a useful illusion,” Anna replied. “That and because it can keep you from overriding this station, correct?”
“If—”
“Correct?” The word was firm as a steel bar, and AI hesitated.
“Correct-accurate. An override-command from a living Sha’o cannot be ignored-countermanded. You will need to persuade-convince them of your objective-cause so that they may lift-disable the override for you.”
Anna was already rising from her crouch. “Oh, I can be very persuasive.”
“If you will allow me to—”
“Liaison, can you call the observation center now? Let us communicate with them?” Jake asked.
“No. The overlook-observation is—”
“Trap,” Jake said, rising as well.
“Trap,” Sweets agreed, standing. “Sorry, Liaison. Are you going to shut my armor down if we go ‘speak’ to them in person?”
“I will not.”
“Then that’s what we’re going to do,” he said, moving after Anna and Jake. “After all, we’ll need you to guide me through shutting the override down once this is over.”
