Authors: Evan Currie
She was moving well, though, he had to admit that. Since the explosions had died out she had been leading them at a fast pace through the Hayden jungles, and she was easily pacing the better rested men and women he’d rounded up to join them. There were times when Jerry had to admit, privately, that this woman scared him.
Only privately, of course, and even then not when anyone was around.
He smiled at the thought just as Sorilla’s fist came up, and the group froze in place. She was perched at the edge of a jungle clearing, and as she turned back he caught a hint of faint green glow in her eyes to tell him that she was accessing implanted displays. Whether it was for information, or full nightvision, he couldn’t tell of course.
“Reed.”
Her voice stirred him from his thoughts, and he slid forward until he was up beside her.
“One of the drop boxes is just over the ridge. No sign of the golems,” She told him, “Setup a perimeter while the rest of us get in and break open the tin can.”
Reed nodded, then slid back to Jason Clarke and Scott Siemens, and relayed the same orders to them. The group split into two, and Sorilla led the larger forward Reed and his team broke up further and began to circle slowly around.
As he melted into the jungle shadows, Reed reluctantly put his worry for Sorilla aside. For the moment there was nothing to be done about it anyway. Later, perhaps.
He had to believe that there would be a later.
*****
Sorilla kicked a broken branch out of her way as she stepped up to the drop box and checked it out. The box was about twenty meters on a side and five meters high, the drogue cute hanging half over it and half caught up in the trees above.
“Cut that down,” She ordered, nodding to the chute, “There’s about a million things we can use the silks for.”
Two men nodded and clambered up the side of the box as she got closer and found the access panel on the side of the box. Ripping it off was the work of a few seconds, and she spent only a half dozen more examining the flashing lights inside. “Fire in the hole!”
Men ducked back, automatically shrinking from her when she said those words and a smile touched her lips as she triggered the explosive bolts that held the side of the container on. The nuke story must have already made the rounds a few times, she decided. The bolts weren’t dangerously powerful, however, and in a few seconds they’d popped clear off and the side fell clear into the jungle.
“Hold back,” Sorilla ordered, planting a foot on the fallen siding as she stepped inside. A red glow inside the black box lit up suddenly, and her eyes glowed green in response as she was challenged with an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) signal. She responded with the appropriate codes from her processor and the red light dimmed slightly as the Cougar Automated Battle Tank rolled forward, its twenty millimeter turret swinging to cover the jungle.
“Holy shit!”
Sorilla ignored the shocked curse, instead waving the Cougar on past. “Perimeter defense, maximum stealth.”
The tank didn’t respond verbally, but the heavy machine rolled out past her and bulled into the jungle as her HUD lit up with the systems’ affirmative response. Multiple queries began lighting up on her implants, and Sorilla found herself directing several automated combat systems into the jungle, basically telling them to make their own way as best they could. She had get them cleared out of the area as fast as she could, in case the Golems showed up before they could get clear.
“Son of a...” Bethan muttered as she stepped up close to Sorilla, “It’s a freaking army.”
“Not hardly,” Sorilla replied even as she continued to give orders to the machines. “A short platoon at best, and none of them are exactly nimble in this environment. You know any routes we can get through the jungle from here in a vehicle?”
Bethany blinked, twisting around to orient herself. She’d only spent a year and a half on Hayden, and most of her time was spent with her nose in a field microscope, studying the Chiroptis and their ilk. “Damn. No, this isn’t one of the places I spent a lot of time in.”
“Go out and find Jerry,” Sorilla ordered, “Take his place and send him in here.”
“Right,” she nodded, turning and heading out.
An army MULE (Multifunction Utility, Logistics, and Equipment vehicle) rolled up and out of the drop box, loaded down with a full load of munitions, food, and water, causing Sorilla to breathe a sigh of relief. The squat vehicle was a good deal wider than it was tall, and she knew that it was loaded with the standard two thousand pounds of equipment intended for delivery to a frontline squad in the middle of a firefight.
Sorilla directed it to the side and had it park just behind her as another rolled out on its silent electric motors. There were five MULEs in total, three Cougars, a half dozen of the armed scout DOGS, two Oshkosh freight transports, and a single tracked ambulance. They’d just finished unloading themselves when Jerry arrived from the jungle.
“Well I didn’t believe Beth when she told me, but hot damn...”
“Don’t get too excited,” Sorilla cut him off, “We’ve got to get them out of here before we get nuked.”
Jerry winced and scratched his head, “Yeah, well there is that. Need some sparse jungle then...?”
“Right. These boys are good to go, and they’re all terrain ready, but an eight foot wide Hayden tree is gonna slow em down some.” Sorilla replied simply, “besides, I don’t want to leave a trail a blind man could follow.”
“Leave a...?” Jerry blinked, “What do you mean ‘slow them down’!? These are Hayden hardwoods! You have any idea how long it takes to cut one down??”
“About two seconds with what these puppies are packing,” Sorilla replied, “But that’s not my first choice. We need to get the MULES out of here at least... and I’d really love to get the Ambulance and we can’t leave behind the pair of Oshkosh freightliners either. The Dogs aren’t a problem, those really
are
all terrain. The Cougars would be nice, but from what I’ve seen they probably won’t make much difference.”
Out of that entire speech, about the only thing Jerry recognized was the word ‘Cougars’. The automated battle tanks were well known military chassis, even out on the colonies. They were featured in a ton of action shows and the like, and he had to admit to having mixed feelings about having a bunch of automated killing machines rumbling around his jungle.
“Cougars?” He asked, looking around, “Where?”
Sorilla glanced up, then pointed out into the jungle at three specific points. “There, there, and there... They’re filling out the perimeter defense.”
He looked, hard, but couldn’t find what she was pointing to. He decided to take her word for it, however. “And you want to leave them??”
“I don’t *want* to leave any of it.” She growled, stepping over a small quadraped bot that was brandishing an assault rifle as it run past. Jerry flinched and jumped out of its line of fire as the small DOG hit the jungle ground and accelerated out into the tree line. “But I’m not going to blaze a military specification road right back to camp either.”
Jerry followed her into the darkness, looking around as he did but it was almost pitch inside and all he could see was the faint glow of her eyes. Then there was a snap and red lighting lit up the entire cavernous box from one end to the other, and he turned to see Sorilla with her hand on a large switch. “Alright... it’s over here.”
“What is?”
“This is a standard drop box, it’s meant to supply an infantry platoon with support and resupply,” Sorilla told him as she stepped up to a large locker on the far wall. “Which means that...”
She palmed a catch and the locker snapped open, the top falling back and swinging open with a bang that startled Jerry into jumping back again. When he looked up, though, he whistled. The locker held a line of infantry rifles identical to Sorilla’s own, which he knew were incredibly more powerful than the hunting rifles he and the others held.
“Get a couple boys in here,” She said quietly, “Get these distributed around. Tell them to just sling the new rifles, use their own. I’m going to have to pull the discrimination chips before you can use them.”
He didn’t understand completely, but he nodded and whistled in a couple of the others and told them what she’d told him while Sorilla pulled open another locker and drew a rather large and heavy looking rifle from it.
“What the hell is that??”
“M900 Sniper System.” Sorilla replied, “Not my tool of preference, but this is going to come in real handy. There’s another in there, grab it, Reed. And hey! Shorty!”
‘Shorty’, a squat but powerfully built man named Greg Corbin, turned to glare at her until he saw what she was picking up with one hand. The weapon made the assault rifles the others were picking up look like half grown runts, and Corbin immediately cut his path to the rifles short, and headed for where Sorilla was standing.
“Squad level support weapon,” Sorilla told him, “We’ve got eight more in here, so get them broken out and passed around to the guys who can lug 'em best. Jerry, grab a couple of the 900's and follow me.”
Sorilla picked up the other two sniper systems and strode out the door, making Jerry scramble a bit to catch up. He found her outside, stuffing the long rifles into the straps on one of the Army MULES, so he did the same.
“Any thoughts on the best way out of here?”
He nodded, “Yeah, there’s an old access road just over the hill. If we can get there, we can follow it up the line fifty miles, then double back through some softer jungle. Can these things ford a river?”
The soldier smiled, “Like ducks.”
“Alright, I think we can hide our trail then.” He said simply.
“Good,” Sorilla said, yanking a strap tight,” let’s strip this box to the bare walls while we’ve got the time, then we’ll be ready to move out. Twenty more minutes, max. Pass the word.”
He nodded, “Got it.”
It took them twelve, and when they pulled out of the artificial clearing, there was nothing but the box behind. Sorilla would have taken that too, but dismantling a drop box took two hours with an experienced crew and she didn’t feel they had the time. The jungle wasn’t too thick in the immediate area, luckily, or they’d have had to clear a road. As it was the automated combat vehicles picked their way between the larger trees and only occasionally had to break out a terrain clearing device to make things easier.
As they were programmed, the vehicles worked together, the heavy tanks and freightliner trucks used their weight and larger tires to pull the lighter MULES through any tough spots while the smaller DOGS covered the perimeter with their own assault weapons. Sorilla and the rest mostly just hung on and hitched a ride, only occasionally hopping off to clear a light obstacle from the road of a MULE or the ambulance as they moved.
Her eyes were on the Oshkosh Terrain Max 12 freightliners, however. She knew what was in them, and was extremely happy to see those two behemoths. Of course they had to get them back to camp in one piece, which she knew was going to be tricky.
They hit the road a few minutes later, and Sorilla glanced over her shoulder. Time to see if the enemy won’t mind helping sow a little confusion.
She accessed the computer system in the drop box, then ordered it to send a planetary scale signal, announcing its location to anyone listening. Sorilla made a private bet with herself, silently counting off the seconds as they rode away, and reached forty eight seconds before a ball of nuclear fire erupted behind them.
As the men and women of the Hayden Pathfinders yelped and ducked their heads, Sorilla just smiled grimly to herself. Her suit comms were spread frequency, encrypted, burst transmission systems. So far she’d been able to use them in limited levels without having whatever the enemy used for artillery nuking her off the face of the planet. However, it was obvious that the enemy did have the capability for radio direction finding, and they didn’t mind dropping some Arty on anything transmitting that wasn’t them.
That’s one trail they’re gonna have to work to pick up,
she thought
. That’s what you get for being predictable, assholes.
The Pathfinders stared in confusion as the soldier in their midst whistled cheerfully as they bounced and jostled down the old access road. They couldn't understand what she was smiling about, given the fires burning in their wake, but whatever it was it had to be pretty disturbing to put a look like that in her eyes.
Sorilla ignored the looks and just kept on whistling as she began to consider exactly what else she could do to use the enemy's tactics against them.
*****
Unified Solari HQ
Third Tier, New Mexican Tether Counterweight
“Captain Petronov, welcome.”
Alexi nodded to the adjutant who welcomed him into the room, glancing over the man’s shoulder to see that there were another couple dozen men and women he recognized. All of them deep space Captains, none of them military. He walked in and took a seat next to Captain Mira Vasquez, nodding to her.
“Alexi,” she said, “I see they sucked you into this mess too.”
He nodded, eyeing the screen they were all arrayed around. It was blank for now, so he tried to relax despite the fact that he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like it. Hell, he knew he wasn’t going to like it. There was nothing about the entire situation he liked.
“You staying with the Soc?” She asked.
“Da,” He told her, turning his attention to Mira. “You?”
“They’ve refitted my Nico.” She admitted tiredly, “What do you know of the situation?”
“They tell you about Hayden?”
“Yes.” She said, shaking her head, “Unbelievable. Is it really aliens?”
Alexi considered for a moment, then shrugged, “I saw the raw data. Nothing human moves that fast.”
“Mierdre.” She muttered, “Your Soc, my Nico, they are not military any more than we are. Why are we here?”
Alexi sighed, “Because we are all they have right now.”
Mira was about to reply when the lighting shifted and the screen came to life, showing a set of star charts recognizable to everyone in the room. Alexi was mildly surprised to note that it wasn’t the Hayden system, but the Ares mining platforms up on the screen.