Archaea 3: Red (48 page)

The soldiers were wearing full mimetic armor, but they were as visible to Yak and I as if they were painted bright red. One of them was working his way through the crowd of colonists, tearing children away from their screaming, hysterical parents. Another one viciously clubbed what had to be a distraught father into unconsciousness on the deck, and suddenly fired his chemser at point blank range into the back of his head.

Yak’s hand crushed into mine.

The other men were threatening, shouting, kicking and forcing the colonists away from an ever growing group of children, who were all completely scared out of their minds, screaming, crying.

“Yak…” I croaked. “We can’t…”

“Jane, we do this, we’re burned. The Archaea… gone. Captain Smith… gone. This is as bad as it gets, Jane, but we are going to get through this. Stand down.”

“No Yak, no…” I trailed off, as it became apparent to me what was about to happen. Two of the men leveled their chemsers, and advanced on the children.

I grabbed Yak by the shoulder and sho
ok him violently around. “Yak, we are not going to let this happen!”

He
didn’t turn… he just replied with a voice as dark as death.

“Yeah, Jane… this isn’t going to happen.”

Our minds were made up. The needs of the small outweighed every concern, any petty fight we may have with some no-name slaver all the way across the galaxy. If all we accomplish is this, we can sleep tonight and feel good about our place in the world.

We both
raised slowly on lifters behind the box, as the men continued to tease and taunt the children into a terrified mass, crying and yelling in fear. They were shoving and throwing some of the larger boys, who were fighting back desperately.

A smaller boy was was clubbed to the ground as I
moved left, assigning targets as fast as my eyes could move, as fast as I could think. Yak moved right. I was vaguely aware of the dropships perched on elevated landing platforms off to the side, and a thought percolated through my mind that we needed to prevent them from launching to orbit... but even that was now secondary to the task at hand.

The man nearest to me shoved a little girl into the deck, and started to swing
up his rifle; I shot without thinking, the word, the thought, leaped out of my head and through my railer and into his skull. His head was vaporized into incandescent ash. It happened so fast, no one had time to react. His rifle was still falling from nerveless fingers as I launched myself towards the crowd ahead of us like an avenging goddess of doom.

*****

We streaked across the black water towards the lights of the platform ahead of us. The ferocity of our acceleration was breathtaking, but I was too busy to appreciate it.

The occasional wave slapped into our lifters and blew apart as we howled past, tossing us around more than I would have liked, but we had to be as low as possible to avoid detection out here.

“I am in range, sir. I will have network control in 3… 2… 1…”

“Very well, Em” I called out and dropped speed, shoving the crab back underwater probably a little sooner than I should have. A mighty wave crashed into the sky as we plo
wed deep, hurling up against our crash bars.

“We’re in, sir”, Pauli yelled, working on his screens.

“Orbital link?”

“Yes sir, we’re with Janis. The Revenge is on another pass, located far side.”

“Janis, how are you my dear?”

“Very well, Captain, thank you.”

“Have any communications made it to the Revenge from the surface?”

“
Sir, Emwan is following their standard protocol and maintaining constant contact. She is very good at being someone else.”

“
That’s good to hear, it sounds like we may have made it here just in time. Em, do you know what Shorty and Yak’s status is?”

“Captain, I can’t tell… it’s a cloud event, sir”, Emwan replied sadly.

“Pauli, what is she talking about?”

“She’s built to visualize probabilities, rather than actualities, sir”, he blathered incoherently as I dropped back into the waves.

I laughed.
“Make some damn sense, Pauli, that’s a direct order, son.”

He tried again. “She can’t scan the future like Janis. She’s preactive, but not in the same way, sir. Her preaction is tuned differently. Where Janis sees a straight line path of her experience through spacetime, Emwan sees events as a series of probability clouds.”

I thought for a moment. “That’s going to have to be good enough. Em, do you know what you need to do?”

“My path is clear, Captain, but my visualization of Yak and Jane is probabilistic. My path is in direct support of theirs, but they are on their own track.”

I snorted, and tried comms again.

*****

“Shorty, how copy, over”, the captain called again.

“Captain, solid copy, stand by”, she
replied in a quiet voice. I sighted in on a merc breaking away in a run towards the upper platform and vaporized him into a cloud of bits, then continued my sweep inward holding about five meters off the deck.

Jane was off to my left, and doing what I w
as; moving from target to target, killing without mercy. We were unstoppable, and absolutely remorseless. These weren’t people, they weren’t even animals; they were nothing but targets.

As I continued my scan for additional
hostiles, I thought about how the scene we witnessed had been repeated on so many other worlds, thought about the lives ruined and lost… the children, their parents… entire families... entire colonies.

The only people who were getting off this rock were the survivors.

*****

“Clear”, I said softly.

“Clear, Jane”, Yak replied with a hoarse voice. I tried not to look at what we had done, but it was grim, and undeniable. The colonists were absolutely terrified, but they were alive.

“
Captain…” I started, but didn’t know how to make the words come out.

“Copy, Shorty. Report status”, he replied immediately.

I looked around at the carnage strewn across the deck, and took a deep breath. “Captain, I don’t really know how to say this… we weren’t able to maintain a covert profile, sir.”

“Shorty, are you okay?”

I gave that some thought, and answered as confidently as I could, “We’re good-to-go, sir. We saved some of the colonists, sir… and their children.”

He was silent for a moment, as he assimilated
what we had done.

“
Copy that, Jane… Stand by.”

“Standing by, sir”, I replied.

Yak turned off his mimetics and landed on the platform, and I followed his lead. A fresh chorus of screams broke out from the colonists, as might have been expected at the sight of us appearing out of thin air. They weren’t having a very good day, to say the least… but at least it was getting better.

“Jane
… this isn’t over. We’re going to need to get up there and finish this”, Yak said, pointing into the sky. I followed his arm skyward, and thought about what this place was going to look like if the Revenge started dropping nukes.

Suddenly the crab hove into sight off the platform, water streaming off of gleaming surface as
the captain dropped mimetics. He pulled forward over the platform, as its legs articulated out of their sockets and reached down for the deck.

The colonists
again screamed in terror, and bunched together between Yak and I, with the crab touching down on the other side.

“
Jane, Yak, new mission. Pauli and I are going to take these people back to the Archaea, and you are going to infiltrate and subdue the Revenge.”

Yak spoke up, “Interrogative, sir… how do we
get up there? We can’t fly their dropships.”

“Emwan
will take you up. She’s already taken control from M2, and will rendezvous with Janis in orbit. Janis has almost certainly infiltrated the Revenge by now, so you will have her full support as well. Do you have any other questions?”

I cleared my throat and tried to sound confident, “None, sir. Let’s end this.”

“Ooh-rah, Captain”, Yak added.

“
Very well… make it happen, and be safe up there. Do what you have to do… but I want Red alive.”

“Understood, sir”, Yak
replied softly.

Chapter 11

“Flight, you are cleared for
docking lane three on deck zero-niner”, the voice on the ship comms called out.

“Copy lane
three, deck zero-niner”, Emwan said smartly in a man’s confident voice. Jane looked over at me with a smirk.

We had our helmets off, and were relaxing in free fall, in the few moments we had left. Her warm tears were cooling on my cheek, b
ut she looked as tough as ever.

“Jane, Yak. We are cleared for landing. I will
crash the other dropship ahead of our arrival, to help cover your entrance.”

I looked over at Jane. “Ready?”

“You bet. Race you to the bridge?”

“You’re on”, I laughed and pulled my helmet down.

“Be advised, Janis and I have total control over many of the core systems, but there are many manual systems we can’t control.”

“Understood”, I replied. Having both Janis and Emwan working together was incredibly reassuring
, I almost felt bad for our enemy. The thought of the colonists they had enslaved, trapped somewhere in the depths of the massive ship filling our forward ports reminded me that the worst we could do, wouldn’t be enough.

The Revenge was huge. In terms of scale, I’ve never been up close and personal with a ship this size, and had never served on one in the service. Capital ships are orbital platforms, built in orbit, designed to be self-sufficient. I thought a million-ton destroyer was a big
ship; these were easily ten times as large. It wasn’t as large as the planetoid-sized cargo haulers we saw around Talus, but we were considerably closer to this one.

“Jane, have you ever been on one of these?” I asked softly, floating along the forward screen of the bridge deck.

She pulled herself over to get a better look. “A few times, Yak. The Vice Admiral’s flagship was a capital-class ship; though I am sure it had a completely different internal layout. I don’t really know what to expect when we get in there, to be honest. Maybe Em knows?”

I nodded. “
Em, can you load our suits with some sort of map, or schematic?”

“
Of course, Yak. Once you enter the ship, you will find that the nearest egress leading to your destination has been highlighted, and will remain so until you pass through to the next section. I will also highlight threats that I am unable to suppress, as well as hostile individuals as I am able.”

Jane spoke up, “Janis, do you know what sort of resistance we will be facing?”

“I do, Jane. In general, you will be facing a cadre of reasonably well-trained and very well-armed mercenaries, some of whom are veterans of multiple low-level glom-sponsored conflicts. A small percentage are service-trained, though many of them washed out, dropped out, or were discharged for various reasons. Almost universally, negative social issues were factors in their development as individuals.

“They sound like real charmers”, I said grimly.

“I believe the term psychopath is appropriate for many of them, Yak. Some are more sociopathic, but most of them share an almost inhuman disregard for life.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from a crew hand-picked by Red Martigan”, Jane added.

The captain called up on comms, “Shorty, how copy, over?”

“Solid copy, Captain”, she replied.

“We’ve ferried everyone to the Archaea and are again on the bottom, as requested by Janis.”

“How did it go?”

“Well, it wasn’t too hard, once they realized we were people, and not some sort of alien invasion. I don’t think they fully understood what you and Yak were, but they seemed pretty relieved when I walked out on deck.”

“I can imagine, sir!” she laughed.

“These folks have gone through a lot, but I told them there’s no reason for them to be exposed, until we know it’s safe for them to return to their colony. If you find survivors on the Revenge, we’re going to get them back to their homes as well, if we can…” he trailed off.

“Agreed, sir”, she replied.

“What is your ETA?”

The hull of the Revenge had grown in the last few moments, filling the forward screens completely. A black opening in the hull lit up and we started our final approach.

“Sir, we’re on final now. Janis and Em can keep you posted; Yak and I will probably be too busy to chat.”

“Understood, Jane, and thanks… take extra good care of Yak, please. We need him reasonably intact, and preferably without serious leaks.”

She laughed. “No promises, sir, but I will sure think about it!”

*****

Jane and I kicked clear of the dropship as it entered the landing bay, dropping soundlessly to the deck below. Ahead of us, in the forward section of the deck, the first dropship was engulfed in flames, wedged into a massive support beam.

In the last moments before it crashed, Emwan had accelerated,
mashing it through a series of other ships that were on deck, turning the entire forward section into a mass of twisted metal, hissing steam, arcing electricals, and general mayhem.

It was the p
erfect cover for our infiltration, not that we were necessarily going for stealth. We couldn’t afford to turn this into a game of cat and mouse while they scanned and nuked the surface, we had to bring the fight to our enemy and move aggressively towards our objective.

With mimetics engaged, Jane and I made our way through the landing bay towards the fire hatch that had locked when the dropship exploded.

“Janis, can you open this door?” I asked, looking at the hardened durasteel. These doors were designed to contain explosions, fires, all sorts of bad things.

“Negative, Yak. These doors are automatic, slaved to a simple circuit. You will have to open them directly.”

“Copy that… Jane, take cover”, I called out.

“Like hell, you take cover”, she replied, first in position as always. I shrugged, and got behind one of the support beams along the side of the bay. So far, no one on deck knew we were here, but I had a feeling this was about to change.

Jane positioned herself behind another beam, and fired her railer. We were both rocked hard by a concussion blast that hammered through the enclosed space – anyone not wearing suits like ours was probably dead from the compression wave, or wished they were.

“Damn!” I called out, as I got my first look at what remained of the door. There wasn’t much… melted fragments and strips of steel, glowing red hot in some places, sparking and white hot in others, flowing across the decks.

“Can I get an OOH-RAH MARINE!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, clearly amped to the max.

“OOOH-RAH!
” I hollered back. “Let’s take this beach!”

*****

As we led the colonists out of the crab, and into the Archaea, their faces lit up with the hope that their nightmare was soon over.

Gene really set their mind at ease, though I don’t know how. Maybe he reminded them of people they knew, or
maybe he’s just a lovable old guy even through his dour cranky irascible scowl.

Gene led us forward to the wardroom, showed them the showers, the galley,
the sickbay, but for a while, all anyone did was use the bathroom and take showers.

It was easy to tell from the extravagance that Janis had taken a turn in the
galley with an assembler or two; there was a wide assortment of incredibly delectable little goodies and bits, baked goods and my favorite part, she had filled my biggest urn with an excellent brew. 

The colonists wanted to huddle at first, but the quiet, serene atmosphere on the Archaea worked its magic. Before too long, kids
were playing on ladders and running around in the rings trying to climb to the tops while their parents smiled.

*****

“Janis, we’re pinned down”, Yak called on comms, as we clawed for cover behind a container that was rapidly coming apart.

“I’m sorry Yak, those are manual turrets, there’s nothing I can do. They have independent power supplies, and
are crewed from a sealed compartment.”

“That’s not the good news I was hoping for!” he yelled back, as the turrets continued to pour fire into our position. These were point defense turrets,
at least 20mm, probably firing tungsten or depleted uranium rounds. The heavy container we were behind was being shredded into bits.

“Any ideas, Jane?” he
yelled over, as I crouched  over to the corner of the container to see if there was anything else we could get behind that was more substantial.

I yelled back,
“Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything else to get behind, and their position is pretty well protected as far as I can tell. Do you think our suits can handle it?”

“Are you kidding?” he replied, incredulously.

I shrugged, and considered waving my hand out there to see. Janis built these suits tough; both of us had some nasty score marks already from various hits and ricochets... though, not from anything as substantial as these turrets.

“Don’t do it, Jane”, he begged. “I’ll do it.”

“Don’t be macho, Yak”, I laughed. “I am perfectly capable of getting shot, just as well as you are.”

“It’s not that, Jane… I’m a Marine, this is what
we do… this is my job. We can’t risk you, Jane. You are the heart and soul of the Archaea. Without you, we don’t have a main gun, dummy.”

He had a point, but we were rapidly running out of options, regardless. The world was coming apart in a hail of high velocity ordinance. I just hoped the suit’s ability to lock allowed him to absorb the impact, if it didn’t just blast through him.

“I’ll just wave a leg… we’re in null-g half the time anyway, who needs a leg?”

I dropped down to my knees behind the box, and watched him
, this big dumb stinky jarhead, speechless at his bravery, his incredible stupidity.

A mighty crack and a
sizzling buzz of a very nasty ricochet threw sparks back down the corridor as it howled off downrange.

“Woah!”
Yak yelled, and pulled his leg back into cover.

“Are you okay?” I screamed, hands fluttering like crazy birds around his leg, looking for damage.

The fire intensified, sounding like a swarm of furious bees screaming past.

“Hell yeah… it hits hard as hell, but the suit can take it. Hang on, Jane, I can do this”, he said, and leaped out from behind the container. Both turrets tracked full on him, and the air was instantly full of shards and slivers of metal as the rounds spalled into little bits against the suit and scattered through the compartment.

Despite the tremendous beating he was taking, he was still standing
, his suit glowing hot, rounds tracing fading lines of fire back and forth across him. He had one leg behind him for support and the suit was locked. I could feel the shove as his emitters worked to keep him from falling over.

“Now… Jane…” he gasped.

I wasted no time. I prairie-dogged up out of cover and reduced the armored compartment between the turrets into molten rubble, slamming us both across the deck and against the far bulkhead from the flashing blast.

“Ka
-POW!” I cheered, laughing. This was never going to get old. These suits could really bring the heat. They were precise enough to shoot cups off of the counter, yet we could probably shoot ships out of orbit if we wanted.

“
Holy hell, Jane!” he replied, laughing. “Let’s move out, before they realize we’re not dead in here.”

“Roger”, I replied, and moved forward past the flaming ruin of the control bunker. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, but it was trivial in the suit to move,
as strong as I was now. As I pulled and bent bars and angle bracing away from the opening, I realized it wasn’t just amplified, my strength was incredibly magnified.

We could probably tunnel our way straight through bulkheads with our bare hands if we needed to, though it wouldn’t be the fastest way to move.
I crushed a section of thick pipe, and smiled.

As soon as we had
forced a route through the wreckage, we fetched up on either side of another pressure door.

“What’s on the other side?”
Yak asked, with a subtle tug on the charging handle to see if it was locked.

I took a quick scan of the map
. “It looks like we have yet another corridor, Yak.”

“Don’t they have enough? How many do they need?”

I took a knee laughing, “Ready to knock, Yak?”

“Sure thing… anyone home?” he called out, and punched the hatch at the upper and lower hinge, shoving his fist through the plate like it was made of fresh bread. Immediately, impacts from small arms fire started plinking against the door, as the terrified mercs inside
lost what remaining cool they had.

Yak
laughed and kicked the hatch down, and it sailed off into the distance of the corridor, whanging and banging off of various bulkheads and skidding to a stop somewhere in the distance in a cloud of sparks.