Out of the Black (Odyssey One, Book 4) (41 page)

For the ship minds of the Drasin swarm floating above the blue-green world so deeply infected by the red band, the situation had begun as untenable and had not altered even
slightly over the period they had been occupying the system. The infected fourth world had already been cleansed, as had the satellite of the third world and several minor outposts dotted through the system.

The third world, however, was stubbornly resisting with every possible weapon at its disposal, plus many that the Drasin had never previously considered to be weapons at all. Only the urging of caution from the lower-generation ships prevented a total and complete obliteration of the planet, despite the fact that such an act would inevitably cripple the Drasin force deep in what seemed likely to be enemy territory.

That said, however, the fighting on the ground was rapidly threatening to enter a scale that practically
matched
that horrible outcome.

The normal consensus of the ship minds was now split widely on the best method to deal with this world, given the available resources at their disposal. Unfortunately, they were crippled and weak compared to the normal strength of a Drasin swarm, when hundreds of thousands of ships represented a
small
force. Simply throwing numbers at the world was inadequate, and this world was both poverty stricken and incredibly rich by Drasin standards, further complicating matters.

The materials needed to produce sufficient drones on the world were centered in areas of extremely high resistance, and much of the rest of the planet was poor fare indeed for the replication of the species.

The swarm had little desire to sacrifice more low-generation drones or ships, but it was becoming clear that the higher generations used to this point were fatally flawed and unsuited to the endeavor. That left the swarm with few
options, and it appeared that total war was the only acceptable choice from a long list of bad options.

The decision, however, was far from made as the ship minds continued to debate the wisdom of leaving themselves crippled amidst such enemies as these.

There were many more of the red band nearby, plus those that had enslaved the swarm, and they
all
had to be eradicated. No exceptions. The death of the swarm was only acceptable if the red band died first.

Gaia walked the scorched earth of the battlefields, her feet bare but unaffected by the heat, shards, and poisons strewn about. She was immaterial, but not untouched. The death and savagery was such that it stood out, even in her long memory of death and savagery, and the entity knew it to be a moment in history that would be remembered by either everyone or no one
.

Those moments were rare, in her experience
.

So much history had come to pass that only she recalled, that only she knew the truth of. Great men had died unknown and unlamented, while weak-willed cowards stood tall and claimed glory. Nations had crumbled so completely that the only trace of their passing was that which she carried with her. History was filled with those moments, important things that would forever be forgotten by everyone save her
.

This, though, this was something
. . .
momentous
.

It only remained to be determined whether or not anyone would survive to remember it
.

Gaia paused in her walk, silently surveying the bodies of the Drasin and the bodies of the human warriors who fell in the fight, then vanished from one place on the Earth to appear again in another
.

This time it was a similar war zone, nearly identical ruins filled the landscape, and more bodies of both sides lay motionless on the ground. It was a different continent, however, and a different people as those of the Earth viewed such things. Gaia walked across this field and fell into step beside a machine that walked as a man, her eyes lighting on the sight of a familiar face she could see inside it
.

“Oh Captain, my Captain,” she mused as she walked beside the lumbering war machine piloted by Eric Weston. “Are you ready for what is to come? I wonder . . . I know that I am not, but humans have surprised me in the past despite my near omniscience within the Earth realm
.

“There is much to do, and so little time to do it. I do not believe I will be able to confuse our foes for much longer, my Captain.”

She walked alongside him for a time, through the ruins of a city that had once been the center of so much activity and promise, then sighed to herself with a sound like the wind through the trees and shifted her focus elsewhere
.

The captain was on mission, and doing what must be done
.

For the moment, that would have to suffice
.

Eric felt a chill run down his spine and he shifted uneasily in the cockpit of the EXO-13, eyes automatically checking all the warning systems, telltales, and proximity instrumentation. Everything seemed in the green, so he pushed the feeling off and returned his focus to the job at hand.

They’d secured the Beta site as best they could for the moment, and were proceeding to clear the city. Excaliburs had been left behind at both manufacturing sites along with some of the Abrams MBTs to provide security, so they now
had two fire bases to call on. As it turned out, they’d already located stockpiles of munitions for both.

No rounds for their assault rifles, unfortunately, but those weren’t exactly scarce. They were just getting harder to have airdropped in.

“Spread out, scan
everything,
” he ordered as they began to move into the ruins of the city, fires still burning where gas mains had been ruptured, a thick smog of smoke clogging everything. “If it moves and it’s hotter than thirty-two degrees,
kill
it.”

The others acknowledged and they began moving into the debris field, circling around the impact craters formed by the devastation from above. The Kilo Kilo strike had
flattened
entire blocks, partially because many of the old buildings had been there for close to two centuries, and some even longer.

The shattered remains made movement easy, but also provided an unfortunate supply and variety of hiding and ambush positions for the enemy to utilize. It was slow and dangerous work, but had to be completed and completed properly because to miss even one of the enemy was to court disaster.

“Good God. The bridge is still standing,” Siobhan said softly as they moved.

Eric scanned the construct briefly, but had to agree that it was indeed standing, and even looked pretty solid. The bridge connected Detroit with Windsor, one of a few connections that effectively made the whole area one massive metropolis. They’d hammered Windsor just as hard with the Kilo Kilo strikes, and two of their objectives were on that side of the river, so he was just as happy they had an easy way across.

The suits and EXO-13 could cross regardless, of course, but being able to call on some heavy backup like the Abrams
would be nice, particularly since they’d flattened most of the buildings that might get in the way of the big tanks.

The squad flinched as a burst of auto fire tore through the air, all of them half crouching, even Eric in the EXO-13, and looking around. When he found the source, Eric swore, twisting the big walker around and launching himself across thirty meters of open space in a single leap.

He landed hard just meters from the Drasin that had come surging up out of the rubble and grabbed one of his men. Eric drew a bead, haloing the alien in his HUD, and fired off a short burst into the far side of the beast. The rounds from his tri-barrel tore into the Drasin, distracting it from the man it had held up two meters off the ground. The creature spun on Eric, who realized that perhaps he’d gotten a little too close.

He lifted the left arm of the EXO-13, initiating the motion with the stick in his left hand and guiding it through the NICS interface and a fair bit of desperation, blocking the down stroke intended to cleave his armor and shuck him from it like an oyster. The servos and hydraulics in the EXO-13 moaned under the load, but held, and Eric used the opportunity to bring his right arm forward. He jammed the tri-barrel under the Drasin’s body and fired a medium burst directly into its main bulk.