Chapter 246: (Hesstla) (2/2)
”Ralvex,” he said simply. He smacked his lips for a moment, wincing at the sour taste. ”My mouth tastes like green.”
”Yeah, that happens,” the Ikeeki said, still adjusting the instruments. Ralvex felt the restraint systems release.
”Let me up. Please, let me up, my men need me,” the Terran moaned in his sleep.
The Ikeeki went through the standard questions, ensuring that his brain was still functional, that he wasn't suffering any lingering effects of his ordeal in the draw.
”All right. You can go out and move around the fire base. No combat, no getting in your armor, no using your neural jack, don't lift anything with your left arm for at least twenty hours while the support systems set into the bones,” she said. ”You try to lift something too heavy, you'll tear your arm off at the shoulder and rip all the cyberware out of your shoulder and upper chest.”
”I won't, ma'am,” Ralvex said. More and more of his mind was coming back, still flooding in. She helped him up off the gurney and out the door.
”Get something to eat. Those quikheal proteins for Telkans tear through your stores and ramp your metabolism up something fierce,” the nurse said.
”I will, ma'am, thank you. And thank Doctor Screams for me, please,” Ralvex said.
”Of course, Marine,” the nurse said, then ducked back into the positive pressure tent.
Ralvex looked around, checking the time on his datalink. He'd only been down three hours but now he got a good look at the 'firebase' now that he was moving under his own power.
The berm was dirt, with integrity fields glittering in them, overlaid with sheets of anti-spalling material. Battlescreens and psychic shields rippled and glimmered and snarled in the afternoon light above the berm. There was a landing field for hover-strikers, a small parking lot that the tents and equipment was being moved away from that had three heavy tanks and two armored scout vehicles parked in the cleared area with mechanics swarming over them. Another berm area that he could see heavy duty ammunition producing nano-forges inside.
And where they were stacking up bodies.
He moved away from that, heading over to the antenna. A Telkan with the rank of Private Second Class on his light pilot's armor was listening to a Terran Army Captain as Ralvex walked up.
”Pretty much all the communications are down,” the Terran said.
”You can't get anything working?” the Telkan asked. Ralvex could see his nametage, Mukstet, on his armor.
”Not at any distance farther than ten miles or so, and not into orbit,” the Captain said. ”I've got an idea, but to be honest, it's going to affect you combat guys more than anything else, but it might work.”
Ralvex sat down on the box, pulling his numb and tingling cyberarm into his lap and rubbing the forearm.
”All right, that Tri-Vee station in Duskelanst is still on the air, right?” the Terran said.
”Right. I've seen it a couple of times. That poor Hesstlan has been reporting for almost two days straight,” Mukstet said. ”She's probably chewed more stimgum than our Marine sitting there.”
That made the Terran chuckle. ”Anyway, her broadcast is coming through loud and clear. I sent a couple of my guys with your guys to test something, and they came through loud and clear,” the Terran said. He cocked his head. ”How much do you know about commo?”
”I know Terran standard communications devices use quarks and strange matter particles,” Mukstet said.
”Right. So I went back a bit. I had BOLO Daisy check his databanks and shoot me some schematics. We built a couple and they work perfectly fine,” the Terran said. He turned around and tilted his head forward, showing off that there were three little glowing LED's on his spinal column at the base of his skull. ”The SUDS is borked, all the strange matter and quark commo devices are shot, but our intrepid Tri-Vid reporter is still yammering on and telling everyone to stay in the basement and not come looking for Terrans, right?”
”Al right, I kind of follow,” Mukstet said.
”That's because she's broadcasting her video on 235.25 Megahertz, her audio on 239.75 Megahertz. When we started firing off atomics, her station stayed up, but for a moment our instruments picked up the entire spectrum. Most of it is abandoned, since like most species they cleared their EM bands by installing cabling,” the Terran said.
”OK, you're starting to lose me,” Mukstet admitted.
”OK, long story short, Daisy's memory banks had digital transmitter schematics for electromagnetic frequencies, so I nano-forged up a couple of them and they work,” the Terran said. ”Only problem is, it's line of sight as far as the curvature of the planet goes, and we're going to want to drop repeaters every five miles.”
”Not a problem, I can have my communication specialists handle that,” Mukstet said.
”You're going to have to take some of my men on your strikers,” the Captain said. ”This is real old tech, I mean, EM broadcast systems. We're going to have to fab it up, install it, and train on the fly.”
The Private Second Class stood there for a moment, turning slightly to look at the landing strikers. After a moment he turned back.
”All right, do it,” the Telkan private said.
”No problem. We'll get right on it,” the Captain said. He paused for a second. ”You hanging together?”
The Telkan nodded. ”Yeah. I don't understand why I'm still considered in charge.”
The Terran shrugged. ”This is a striker base. You're the ranking striker. With the... well... other problem happening right now, there might be even more issues,” he said.
”So it's confirmed, its effecting the clones too?” the Telkan suddenly sounded tired.
”It's not effecting the Dee-Ess's or any non Terran Descent, but any Terran Descent, it's pretty much across the board,” the Terran said.
”And you?” Pv2 Mukstet asked.
The Terran sighed. ”Believe me, me and my men want to get out there. We're tired of being behind these walls. We're tired of fucking hiding. We're fucking Space Force, we're the goddamn Terran Army, the hammer of the Hamburger Kingdom, we're...” The Terran's eyes started glowing amber, then red. ”We shouldn't be back here, screw our MOS, when it happens, everyone fights! We'll fight, and we'll win! The Enemy exists to be destroyed and we are the universe's ultimate...”
Ralvex found himself shrinking back slightly as rage poured off the Terran, pounding at his temples, and making his head under the bandages ache.
”You're red-eyed,” the Telkan, Mukstet, said calmly.
The Terran blinked, stepping back. ”Apologies.”
Two Rigellian nurses in power assist loading frames were wrestling a Terran infantyman off the striker, her legs missing from the knees down as she screamed to let her go, that she could still fight, that her boys needed her and GET OFF OF ME GODDAMMIT! PHILLIP STAB YOUR EYES! LET ME GO!
Ralvex shuddered, pushing up and heading for the tent where food was being served. Behind him the female Terran was laughing, screaming, sobbing, and threatening to let her go, she could still fight. He got halfway there when Mukstet caught up to him.
”You see it?” Mukstet asked.
”They're going mad,” Ralvex said.
”Seems like they'd back off with their SUDS going down, but if anything, it's made them more aggressive,” Mukstet sighed. ”I saw a Terran missing and arm and a leg try to crawl out of my striker, still firing their rifle with one hand, screaming that the Precursors couldn't kill them.”
”What's doing it?” Ralvex asked.
Mukstet shook his head as he pushed open the biohazard flap and let Ralvex move by.
”I don't know,” Mukstet said. ”Nobody does,” the two Telkan each grabbed a field ration and went and sat down at the table. After a moment Mukstet looked around then leaned toward Ralvex.
”Listen, I'm going to warn you like I've been warning everyone else,” he said. ”There's something really strange going on out at the line,” the Telkan said. ”I heard you were engaged in combat, maybe you saw it too.”
”What?” Ralvex asked, chewing on the meat flavored nutripaste.
”The Terrans, they keep shooting at stuff I can't see. Even my ship's instruments say it isn't there, but they keep shooting at it, maneuvering to engage something out there,” Mukstet said.
”Part of this madness?” Ralvex guessed.
Mukstet shook his head. ”Madness doesn't make it so the missiles all explode in the same place, that trace rounds go bouncing off.”
Mukstet leaned even closer.
”There's something out there, something we can't see, and it's driving the Terran's crazy.”