Valkyrie Rising (Warrior's Wings Book Two) (14 page)

They’d spent two day-cycles establishing camp and observing the local area, all basically to learn that there was nothing here they could eat and nothing that could eat them…but unfortunately, there wasn’t anything smart enough to realize that besides the Lucians themselves.

Of the mechanized and organized military threat that destroyed the DSD, there wasn’t a hint. Oh, they’d found plenty of signs to indicate the presence of another sentient group. Trails had been cut, paths marched down, and there were even artifacts all over the place. Some probably lost when the DevCorps moved in, some obviously lying around long past that, the common sort of detritus Kriss expected of any developed species. It was pretty clear to him that, whoever they were, they’d been here for several decades at least, and he was honestly more and more curious to see the files DevCorps had signed off on for this whole sector.

The idea that they’d completely missed a sentient spacefaring species with several decades of history right on the Alliance frontier was laughable. For a species to have this kind of capability, and be this close to the Alliance, the Sentinels should have been briefed on them a long time past.

For them to have gone unnoticed was either an example of extreme incompetence, or someone in DevCorps was covering something up.

It happened from time to time, he knew. DevCorps received a slice of the developmental proceeds from opening a new frontier. It was a huge initial investment, but long-term proceeds from frontier planets could often amount to enough to fund entire system governments for centuries. Unfortunately, that occasionally led to corner cutting and the usual sorts of governmental back dealing, which inevitably led to the sorts of situations Kriss was now in.

It was academic to him, of course. Kriss and his team didn’t care, really, they just had a job to do. It would as likely kick off another scandal if it came out, but again, it wasn’t his concern.

He figured someone was going to lose their DevCorps position over it, though. Probably not whoever was actually responsible, but someone.

In the meantime, he and his squad would simply have to be about the business of securing DevCorps’s position here. Kriss supposed it was a nice enough world, though the local gravity was a fair sight too light for his bones. If the assignment lasted overly long, they were going to have to spend a long time on Luca, working themselves back up to regimental form.

All the more reason to figure out what we have to do here and get it done,
he decided as he walked across the clearing and kicked the closest man out of his slumber.

“Up,” Kriss growled. “Sun is dropping, time to work.”

The Sentinel grunted in acknowledgment and twisted in place to shake his neighbor awake. The camp slowly came to life while Kriss shouldered his kit and walked over to the edge of the hill so he could again eye the former DSD site.

They obviously built it right on top of a previously occupied position.
Kriss was surprised at the hubris involved, particularly given that whoever was in charge hadn’t ordered it blown to particles to cover up that particular fact.

Every moment he spent on this world made the situation stink just a little bit more.

Kriss sighed and signaled his men.

It was time to start hunting down the opposition on this heat-soaked rock.

*****

Hayden Jungle

North of USF basecamp

Jerry hooked his foot in the crook of a tree, boosting himself up a bit so he could get a look at the valley ahead of them.

They’d only been back in basecamp for two days before he’d been sent back out with Brecker’s squad. Dean wasn’t with him this time. Sil had assigned him to his own squad to guide. He hoped the kid was up to it; not that he doubted Dean’s skill, but some of the troops were less than polite when dealing with civilians, let alone younger ones.

“Anything?”

Jerry looked back from where he was crouched in the tree and shrugged. “Not so much, Lieutenant. Seems quiet.”

“Good.” Brecker nodded, looking up to the sky. “Moon’s waning.”

“Yeah. It’s going to be dark in another couple nights,” Jerry said, hopping down. “Really dark.”

“We have night vision.” Brecker shrugged. “Stars will be out?”

“As long as the clouds don’t move in,” Jerry said. “Why?”

“With starlight, we can run passive light enhancement,” Brecker said. “I’d rather not use active night vision if we can avoid it.”

Jerry nodded, remembering some of Sorilla’s comments. “Probably for the best. This time of season, though, we’re likely to see it go overcast.”

“Damn,” Brecker muttered. “Well, nothing to do about it. We can use straight thermal for close-range stuff, at least. It’s not the best for serious precision, though.”

“If we can’t find these bastards,” Jerry shrugged, “we won’t need precision.”

Brecker grimaced, but that was true enough. On the one hand, he wasn’t exactly eager to cross swords with a group that used strategic weapons as a tactical option. But the gravity valves were destroyed and Sergeant Aida’s encounter with them didn’t exactly portray them as military geniuses, so he was pretty confident that his squad could handle any light encounters as long as they didn’t run into any of the heavier combat drones Aida had reported.

Luckily, those things were pretty easy to spot before they came into engagement range, and in the jungle, they had a hard time spotting people compared to animals, so he wasn’t too worried about them. In fact, his squad had a few heavy weapons he knew the general wanted tested against those particular targets, so Brecker figured that he wouldn’t turn down a chance to take a few of them on if he could do it on his terms.

“I don’t get it,” Jerry said after a time. “Where the hell are they? I mean, they didn’t hide from us before.”

“They did all the ass kicking before,” Brecker countered with half a smile. “In their place, I’d be really careful about who knew where my basecamp was located.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Jerry replied, shaking his head.

“Something wrong?”

“You weren’t there when they invaded, Lieutenant,” Jerry said. “Never seen anything like it, but since that night, there’s not a man or woman who lived through it that doesn’t see it every night in their nightmares.”

“I read the reports,” Brecker said. “I think Aida had it dead on. The terror response can be generated by hitting the right low-frequency sound. It’s instinctual in most animals. Even off-Earth, since it’s one of the common signs of an impending earthquake. These buggers are better at playing with it than anyone I’ve heard of, but it’s nothing we haven’t played with in the past ourselves.”

“I know, she told me,” Jerry said. “Doesn’t matter. If you weren’t there, you can’t imagine it.”

Brecker shifted uncomfortably, not really having anything to say to that. Anything he could think of would be either patronizing or mealy-mouthed, and neither would have any positive effect. Objectively, it seemed pretty clear to him. Aside from the low-frequency sound, the other reported effects were just as easy to explain. Invisible attackers were actually expected. He’d have been surprised if it wasn’t in the report. While true invisibility was tricky as hell to pull off, there were dozens of ways to come close, and even without that kind of tech, a well-trained assault could be so fast and effective that witnesses wouldn’t see a damned thing.

The reports of a sudden chill were more interesting, but again easily explained. Environmental energy conversion technology was experimental on Earth, but what it did was convert energy from the local environment into something useful. A major side effect of that was a sudden drop in temperature as environmental heat was tapped and turned into useable energy.

That said, trying to explain all that to someone who was emotionally tied to an event was a losing proposition. Brecker just shrugged instead. “Well, we have to find them first at any rate.”

“Yeah,” Jerry said, looking out over the darkening skies.

He watched the shadows fall across the valley, lengthening through the jungle foliage as the sun slowly descended to the horizon.

“We’ll find them,” Jerry said finally. “I don’t think you need to worry about that, Lieutenant.” He hopped off the tree branch and landed easily beside Brecker. “No,” he went on, “I wouldn’t worry about that at all. We’ll find them, Lieutenant…or they’ll find us.”

Brecker cringed as Jerry walked back to where the others were finishing up with setting up the camp.

He really wished that the pathfinder hadn’t put it quite that way. It sounded rather…final.

The Army lieutenant shook his head before taking another last look out over the valley before he turned and followed the pathfinder back to the others.

No matter what, it was going to be a long patrol.

*****

New trails were exactly the sorts of things the Sentinels wanted to find, but even Kriss had to admit that there were better ways to do it than to accidentally stumble into the middle of your quarry’s camp.

In defense of his people, this group was very competently camouflaged and decently disciplined. They’d brushed their own trail neatly, hidden their personal shelters well, and were apparently resting when the Lucian squad bumbled right into the middle of the camp.

Kriss brought his fist up, instantly, silently, but far too late to do any good as two of the locals appeared from the jungle and the two groups found themselves staring at one another in stunned silence.

That didn’t last long.

One of the two, the one wearing what appeared to be a uniform and armor, went for a weapon at his side, faster than Kriss would have guessed. Faster than a Lucian could manage, but the Sentinels already had their weapons drawn.

The crack of a gravimetric bolter filled the area, almost startling Kriss as much as it clearly did the unknown species. The warp pulse slammed into the uniformed subject, blowing out a chunk of his flesh the size of Kriss’s fist and threw him back into the jungle and out of sight. Movement erupted from all around them, and Kriss could have cheerfully strangled the idiot who’d opened fire while they were effectively surrounded.

He didn’t have time to worry about it, though, so he pivoted to the left while his mate moved right, and they both brought their bolters to the ready. They opened fire, the entire team, razing the local jungle with warp pulses from their bolters.

Explosive cracks began to sporadically sound from the jungle, weak and barely noticeable over the roar of their bolters, but when one Lucian went down hard with a hole in him big enough to house much of Kriss’s arm, it was pretty clear that the weapons weren’t to be taken lightly. The Sentinels took a knee, holding line discipline as they kept firing in response to the weak fire coming from the jungle. The warper pulses blew apart the jungle and anything else that crossed their path. The return fire was weak, poorly aimed, and becoming more of both after just a few seconds of saturation fire tearing through the area.

Several seconds after the fire from the jungle finally petered out, Kriss lifted his fist high, and the Sentinels’ pulse fire ended as well. He rose from where he was kneeling, his gravimetric bolter swiveling as he looked for any sign of movement.

“Report,” he finally commanded when nothing showed itself.

“Siek is down.”

“Recoverable?”

“No.”

Kriss bared his teeth. Among the only features visible on a Lucian’s face, the ragged edges of their teeth were the clearest sign of what any Lucian was feeling. Right now, Kriss was anything but happy or satisfied. They should never have just stumbled into an enemy camp like this; it was a sign of complacency. Well, it was also a sign of their lack of knowledge and comfort in the area. Whoever these people were, they were far more experienced in the local jungle than he and his Lucians.

Not that it did them any good.

Kriss stepped over his fallen troop, examining the wound. 
Interesting.

“Find me one of their weapons,” he said. “Secure the area in the meantime.”

Kriss didn’t bother to watch them move off, he knew they’d do their job. He knelt and closed Siek’s mouth, prying the fallen troop’s lips open to show his teeth.

Falling in a fight was far from the worst way to go, but it would have been more satisfying if it hadn’t been due to some impotent, blasted fool getting lucky.

He was still angrily reprimanding himself for the stupidity of just wandering blindly into an enemy camp when a flurry of motion and sudden squall of sound erupted from the edge of the camp.

*****

Jerry couldn’t believe his own eyes when he walked back to their camp. He and Brecker coming face to face a group of grey-skinned humanoids, the likes of which he’d never imagined. Stocky and solidly built, they had the two legs and two arms one might expect as a human, but where the face should be was leathery blank, save for an overly large mouth filled with teeth he could see even in the low light of the area.

When Brecker went for his gun, Jerry instinctively threw himself aside as the world exploded around him.

Brecker hit the ground a dozen meters back the way they’d come, unnatural rumbling explosions shaking the air and ground like thunder and lightning called down by the gods. Jerry cast about, eyes falling on his rifle where it was resting against a tree almost a dozen meters away.

I officially owe the Sarge an apology,
he groaned, ducking his head down in the mud.

The sound died down, the shaking calmed, and slowly Jerry lifted his face out of the mud to see what had happened. He was shaking, unable to keep his hands from shuddering as he tried to take in everything he saw.

The greyish figures were moving out from where they had been, covering the ragged remains of the jungle and temporary camp with the strange-looking weapons they carried. The survey scientist in him clinically noted that the aliens seemed to have two opposable thumbs, gripping the guns oddly from either side, and the one that had been put down seemed to be bleeding a fluid almost the same color as his skin tone.