Into the Black: Odyssey One (38 page)

“Oh shit,” he breathed a few moments later. “Oh Shit.”

There were still moving heat sources in there.

“Major,” he accessed the command channel. “We’ve got a problem.”

*****

Brinks cursed, shaking his head. “How many?”

“About seventy percent of them survived, Sir.”

“Jesus Christ,” The Major cursed. “What the hell are these things?”

The words went out over the command channel and to all the members of the impromptu war council.

Savoy’s voice came back, sounding like he was sighing. “They’re obviously adapted to a different environment than this, Sir. I’m guessing that the Tee Bee’s just didn’t have enough heat to cook ‘em, and the chemicals apparently aren’t harmful to them, either.”

“But the concussion should have been enough to rip them apart, anyway!” Sargent Rogers objected over the line. “Nothing gets up after a blast like that!”

“Underground, you might be right, Sarge,” Savoy told him. “But out in the open, even with the tandem controlled blasts… Apparently there’s at least one thing that can get up.”

“I’m with Sav.” Bermont said after a moment, frowning over the HUD. “I saw what that laser rifle could do… If that can’t cook these things, they’re not going to be burned by a little explosion. We ripped a few of them up with the concussion, but the ones that survived that weren’t affected by the other components of the Tee Bee.”

Brinks growled slightly, but nodded. “All right. We still have to clear them out. Suggestions?”

“Major,” Bermont said, sighing. “I think we’re just gonna have to get down and dirty with these guys. I don’t see any slick trick that’ll take ’em out.”

“He’s right, Major,” Sargent Rogers replied.

Brinks nodded slowly, almost unwillingly, and though he wasn’t opposed to the idea, he’d rather not risk his men that much. “All right… Go to it.”

“Yes, Sir,” the Chorus came back.

*****

“Report coming back from Major Brinks, Sir.” Waters said as Weston turned around.

“How are the teams doing?”

“Not badly, Sir.” Waters frowned, “Some injuries, only one that looks serious. The Major is requesting that we deploy Carnivores, so he can re-task his ‘chutes’ for squad deployment.”

Weston nodded. “Do it.”

Launching Carnivores during the firefight wouldn’t have been possible, given that the drones required either the Odyssey or a shuttle to control them and all of the above had been quite busy at the time. Now, it was feasible, so he’d give the Major whatever he could.

“What’s his progress?”

“Unknown at this time,” Waters shook his head. “They’ve eliminated some of the ground troops the enemy vessel launched, but they aren’t certain of total numbers…”

Weston nodded, but grimaced. “Give him his drones, Mr. Waters. Have Commander Roberts and the auxiliary bridge take up their controls, for the moment.”

“Yes Sir.”

“After that, consider yourself relieved,” Weston told him, “Get yourself something to eat and a cup of coffee.”

“Aye Aye, Captain.”

Eric Weston turned away from the young man and looked back at the screens that depicted the outside orbit of the remaining Drasin ship, as it circled far out beyond the planet’s orbit, waiting.

Waiting for what, was the question.

Chapter 24

The first of the three Carnivore Recon Drones slid into position over the city, while Major Brinks looked out over the incredibly complicated mesh of buildings and structures that made up the population center.

“Switching Carnivores to Active Thermal Scanning.” Commander Roberts’ voice came crisply over the network. “Drones two and three are descending to two hundred meters… Drone one is being tasked at eighteen thousand meters, please set waypoints for deployment, Major.”

“Thank you, Commander,” Brinks said, tagging several key points for close overflies. “I’m dispatching troops to these points now.”

“Confirmed. I’ll have detailed recon data waiting for them.” Roberts replied.

“Excellent,” Wilhelm nodded reflexively, eyeing another section. “I’ve also dispatched Savoy’s team to investigate an apparent wreck. It looks dead, but I’d appreciate it if you could drop Drone one to a tactical altitude.”

“Roger,” Roberts replied. “Primary Carnivore descending to eight thousand meters, could you relay a waypoint for this wreck?”

“One second, Commander,” Brinks said, tagging the location, then attaching all the information they had already gathered to the waypoint before shooting it up to the Odyssey. “Done.”

“Confirmed. Wait One.”

Brinks waited as patiently as he could, knowing that the computers and technicians, on the Odyssey were already meshing the various scans from his ‘chutes’ and Suit sensors into one high resolution scan.

“Confirmed. Drone one will remain at a maximum tactical altitude, Good luck, Major.”

“Thanks Commander.” Brinks said.

*****

“Man, this shit sucks,” Corporal Deacon griped as he and the other two members of his squad ducked under a fallen wall, the huge slab of whatever it was, actually still intact after having been blasted clear off the building, it had been previously attached to.

Sargent Steward made a face behind the anonymous faceplate of his armor, but didn’t respond as he lay back against the solid material and slowly pushed his gun over the edge and twisted it around.

“Looks like…, five of them,” he said after a moment, pulling his rifle back. “Everyone have their weapons set to thermal guidance?”

“Do I look like an Officer?” Deacon asked in amusement

“No, and you never will, if I have anything to say about it,” Lieutenant Mackay replied in like manner. “We’re good to go, Sarge.”

Steward nodded in the exaggerated motions necessary when wearing powered armor. “All right. Spread out a little, and remember… at this range, we’ll only have a two, maybe three, degree flight correction… So don’t pretend you’re in an action flick, alright Deac?”

Corporal Deacon rolled his eyes, but only nodded tersely in response as the three of them spread out.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

Deacon glanced back, looking at the local cop who’d been tagging along with them. “Relax, stay low.”

Tsari didn’t have much to say in response to that, so she did as she was told and hugged closely to the wreckage as the three soldiers spread out.

There was no traditional three count, the three of them didn’t need one, in this case. Their linked systems shared a few million calculations, estimated the location of the enemy from indirect heat sources it flashed a green light on their HUD’s.

Together, they rose up, weapons levelling as they brought them snug to their shoulders and squeezed the triggers. The air was immediately filled with the whining of the capacitors discharging in rapid fire sequence, and the roar as their bullets went supersonic, letting a hundred of the lethal little killers fill the air.

The Drasin reacted almost as fast, two of them jumping for height, their tough outer carapace somehow letting them dig their mandible like claws into the obsidian smooth material of the surrounding buildings as they moved to bring their weapons to bear.

The other three spun around, weapon mandibles coming up, only to be chewed to shreds as the heavy rounds struck home. Each of the three caught the bullets originally intended for five, as the guidance systems in each round, redirected them away from the two escapees, right into the armored carapaces of the three that remained.

Even as those three fell, though, the two that had escaped the opening barrage opened fire and the sizzling beams slammed into the fallen wall, one of them tracking fast enough to catch Lieutenant Mackay as he twisted aside.

Flame and nauseous gases erupted from the armor as he fell, the material being vaporized by the extreme heat and force of the blast.

As Mackay hit the ground, Steward and Deacon raised their rifles, even as they threw themselves aside, rolling in the air, and firing.

The weapons made their unique whine/crack once more, sending dozens of hefty killers upwards in the reflex shots, as the two troopers hit the ground hard and slid to a stop.

Neither of them had aimed particularly well, but it didn’t really matter, because as the bullets leapt forward, their eager little forward sensors detecting the heat of the Drasin drones above them almost before they even left the barrels of their rifles. The hardwired nano-circuitry took a moment to glimpse at the few lines of onboard software, just to confirm the target parameters, they happily raced off in search of the warmth they were designed to seek.

Less than a tenth of a second after they fired, the Drasin drones were torn apart and falling to the ground.

Sargent Steward ended his slide with a reverse shoulder roll and came back up to his feet, rifle seeking out any other targets around them as he shouted over the net, “Deac! Check on him!”

“You got it Sarge!” Deacon said, already on the move.

The Corporal hit the ground, skidding on his armored knees, and came to a stop by the fallen Lieutenant, even as he automatically called up the medical information from Mackay’s suit.

“No heartbeat!” He shouted, ordering the suit to defib.

Mackay jerked once, back arcing off the ground as the suit shunted a jolt through his body. His face mask cleared as the armor automatically shifted to medical mode, letting Deacon see his eyes open wide from the shock, staring around unblinkingly as he settled back down.

“Still nothing!”

Deacon hit him again, jolting the soldier off the ground again, even as his suit finished applying foam to the breach and the drab green substance started to harden.

A series of beeps and symbols flashed across Deacon’s HUD and he let out a breath, “Got him back, Sarge, but he’s in a bad way!”

Steward didn’t answer as he finished his circuit and let his rifle drop from his shoulder as he shifted to the Command Emergency channel.

“Major, we’ve got a man down. I say again. Man down.”

*****

Milla Chans didn’t move as the two armed men entered the habitat, weapons aimed at her. She’d expected some degree of caution on the part of the Admiral, though this might be somewhat extreme in her opinion.

A third man entered behind them, eyes alighting on her, “Ithan Chans?”

“Yes.” She nodded, helmet concealing the motion though she didn’t realize it.

“You are to come with us.”

Milla nodded again and took a step forward.

And accidently jumped about ten feet.

The two armed men almost jumped out of their skin as she lurched forward, right into their midst, and landed practically within arm’s reach. They swung their weapons around to fire, and probably would have, except that Milla fell over, as badly surprised as they were.

“Blast!” She muttered from the ground. “This thing is
insane
!”

The third man, now well outside the room, looked at her cautiously. “Perhaps you should remove the suit, Ithan.”

“Even if I knew how, we will need it to relay communications,” she said sourly, slowly and gingerly picking herself up off the ground.

The man didn’t look happy about it, but nodded. “Very well, Ithan. Follow me… Gently, please.”

“Yes Sir,” she nodded, glad that her blush and chagrin wouldn’t be seen from within the mask.

*****

“Roger that,” Brinks replied tersely. “Am redirecting a ‘chute’ for pickup. Standby.”

Steward confirmed the transmission, signed off leaving Brinks to do his job. He now had two seriously injured soldiers, and no immediate evac point. He directed the ‘chute’ to pick up Mackay after shifted his comm-suite to locate Milla.

“Miss Chans,” he said after a moment.

*****

“Yes Major?” Milla paused, head cocked slightly as she listened.

The guards froze behind her though the man in front moved on for a few steps before realizing that no one was following. He half turned, “Ithan? What are you doing?”

She held up a hand, “one moment. Yes Major, there are extremely good medical facilities in the city. Yes Major, I will arrange it.”

“Arrange what??” The third man demanded.

“Medical treatment for injured soldiers,” she told him calmly. “There are two seriously injured men in need of medical attention.”

“Ithan, we have to get you to the Admiral. You can deal with that, once we arrive.”

“No, I will deal with it while we travel. You have a Comm, of course?”

“Of course, but…”

“Then contact the Admiral,” she told him coolly, starting forward again as she motioned to him with one hand. “Now.”

*****

Across the city, far from the heavier built up sections where the majority of the fighting was currently contained, Lieutenant Savoy and his ‘Geek Squad’ were moving slowly toward a badly chewed up, piece of machinery that looked more like a fallen rock, than the remnants of a lander craft.

“What kind of radiation are we getting off this, Lt?” Burke asked softly, his weapon traversing the wreckage slowly as they moved forward.

“It’s hot, but not smoking,” Savoy responded, eyeing the levels carefully.

They were peaking at lethal levels for unprotected humans, but nothing that would seriously endanger armored soldiers. The odd thing was where the spikes were in the EM field, most of them were very low in the spectrum for radiation, rather in the higher energy wavelengths.

Another odd thing was the mist that had formed around the wreckage, making the entire approach feels like something out of an old horror flick.

“Jesus,” Mehn whispered, watching as the mist curled up around his legs, reaching higher as it poured out from the wreck. “Where the fuck is this coming from?”

“Looks like water mist…,” Savoy replied. “Probably a coolant breach or maybe their reactor is running hot. The heat might pull water vapor out of the atmosphere.”

“It’s fuckin spooky, Boss,” Burke said in no uncertain terms.

“Yeah,” Savoy whispered as he stepped up to the huge rend in the hull of the lander. “Tell me about it.”