Chapter 3.145 (2/2)
CASE OMAHA OVERRIDE
continuing startup
I felt the belts, the straps, tighten even through my body armor as the light in the drop-pod went yellow. My mouth went dry and I suddenly had to pee. I looked around and saw that half of the guys in the pod were asleep or looking bored, the other half looked like I probably did.
Scared.
Captain Dietrich looked at me and nodded. ”You'll be fine, Private, less than 15% of green troops die on their first podding,” she told me.
The lights went red and my belly rose up into my throat as a fist punched us straight down.
”WE'RE ON AN EXPRESS ELEVATOR TO HELL!” Sergeant Mason crowed out.
I clenched my teeth and tried not to vomit.
Nanite repair systems online
28% available
shutting down
CASE OMAHA OVERRIDE
Nanite systems deployed
I ripped the foil off, sitting on a rock and facing the burnt out ground car, and tilted the package so the steam didn't rush up and fog my goggles.
”I don't care if you aren't hungry. Eat now, we'll move out later. Everyone swallow down some fluids,” Sergeant Mason yelled out. ”Squad leaders, check your men. Ammo count, armor status. Newbies, enjoy your lunch.”
Still no reason for the colony to be silent. They hadn't responded to any communication. The ground car was the first sign that anything bad had happened. The doors were torn off, tossed to the side.
Something was making colonies go dark and, for my sins, my unit had been sent to see why.
The Terran peach pie tasted good as I squeezed it out of the foil package and into my mouth.
With a screech the thing lunged up out of the ground. A dark blue and green starfish looking creature with some kind of eyeball staring from the end of each of the five sections. Its underbelly was nothing but reddish cilia with a mouth full of crude teeth in the middle surrounded by more eyes. It wrapped its arms around Private Pak, who I'd gone to advanced infantry school with, and he started to scream in absolute unfathomable agony.
I dropped the pouch, grabbing my rifle.
”ENEMY CONTACT!” Captain Dietrich shouted.
System Recovery at 22% Total
Warning: Biological degredation
Aborting
CASE OMAHA OVERRIDE
Continuing System Recovery
Captain Deitriech walked into my berthing bay, looking around. She motioned at the rest of the squad, motioning at them. They all silently filed out.
”I don't normally take a soldier's personal history into account when planning an operation, but I felt I needed to speak to you,” she said. Her freckles were faded on her umber skin and her eyes were still shadowed with the memory of being killed two weeks prior.
I nodded. ”I understand.”
”They've been silent for nearly a month before we were deployed. It's been another month, and I was informed that they aren't responding to the hailing from the Task Force,” she told me, sitting down on Pak's bunk.
I nodded again, my mouth dry.
”You're a good soldier, and I'd hate to lose you,” she said. ”But I understand if you can't take part in the drop.”
”I can,” I told her.
”We're dropping on your Home of Record, Private,” she said softly. ”There's at least three clusters in the city.”
I swallowed thickly, trying not to think.
The smell of my mother's perfume and my father's cologne welled up.
”I am willing to excuse you from this mission, Private,” she said, trying to be gentle and kind.
She was never good at that. She'd been infantry too long.
”No. I have to know,” I said. ”Let's get it on.”
She nodded, giving me a lopsided smile. ”That's the spirit, trooper.”
I followed her out.
The drop pods awaited.
System damage exceeds threshold
Shutting Down
CASE OMAHA OVERRIDE
Attempting system startup
”I've got your back,” Pak told me. Like me, he had his face mask off. It made you a little more at risk, but it let you smell the thick cloying smell of pine scented cleaning products, which was sometimes the only warning you got that the Starfish were around.
”Thanks,” I said. I moved in and touched the door pad. It still had power and still recognized me.
The front door unlocked.
We moved through the house, slowly, Pak behind me, his armor on a reflex trigger.
”Smell it?” He asked.
”Yeah. Fresh, too,” I said softly. The Starfish didn't really 'hear' the same way we did. They used pheromones as far as we could tell.
I paused at one door. I didn't want to open it.
But I had to.
The room looked the same, but different. She'd grown in the time I was gone. The child's posters and decorations were gone, replaced with stuff more fitting for a teenage girl. There were still pictures of me on her dresser.
I was her hero.
I was also probably too late.
Some hero.
I turned to tell Pak that I'd seen enough when the floorboards shattered and the thing, the Starfish, burst out from under the house. Its cilia were pale pink, it was starving, as it grabbed my hand with the rough calcite teeth.
My arm filled with fire as I managed to get my pistol into play.
I pulled the trigger as my arm pulled off. Pak was turning back toward me, trying to get his rifle into play as I screamed.
Standing in my baby sister's room.
Bootstrap personality loading successful!
Warning! Neural Damage Outside Recommended Levels
CASE OMAHA OVERRIDE
Invoking most recent memories.
The black dog stared at me as I clawed away the dirt and debris covering me.
Danger Close
I must have gotten buried underneath debris.
I stood up, looking around. My vision was compromised and my self-diagnostics reported that one eye no longer worked.
DISCOVER SOURCE OF ANOMALOUS SIGNAL appeared in my vision.
It shifted as I breathed deep. There was a weird whistling sound when I did so, a wheezing accompanied it, like bellows with the side split.
I was in pain, but I'd been hurt worse.
DISCOVER SOURCE OF ANOMALOUS SIGNAL updated in my vision.
HOLD EXTRACTION POINT UNTIL RELIEF2:00 MINUTES UNTIL EVAC appeared.
I looked around. I was on top of a steep hill, only one side approachable. It only took me a split second to figure out that there was only one side they could easily come at I/Them/Me/He/We/Us.
There were rocks that could be used to construct emergency fighting positions.
HOLD UNTIL RELIEVED
ENSURE SAFETY OF INDIGENOUS NON-COMBATANTS
2:00 MINUTES UNTIL EVAC
Appeared.
I got to work.
I could see eight of them. Cute little things, like something my sister would have a stuffy of. Another one, bigger, fluffier, sleeker fur, with a bushy furry tail, was curled up with them. Her head was shaved, down her spine was shaved, but it didn't look like the probes and crude machinery attached to her body was hurting her.
I'd need to make her and the little ones a shelter first to protect them from shrapnel.
HOLD UNTIL RELIEVED 2:00 MINUTES REMAINING TILL EVAC
I didn't have a weapon, but that was OK.
There are no dangerous weapons.
Only dangerous men.
And I am a Ranger.
I looked at one of the little fuzzy ones, staring at me with wide curious eyes.
”Don't worry. We'll get out of here and I'll get you some pie,” I said, smiling.
HOLD UNTIL RELIEVED
2:00 MINUTES UNTIL EVAC
It smiled shyly at me.
------------------------------
THREE WEEKS AFTER CASE OMAHA
TELKAN-1
Halna'atik set the grav-lifter down carefully. Her passenger, Ms. Smith, had her eyes closed. Halna'atik had learned that she did that to concentrate on her retinal link. The grav-lifted shut down, only the power plant online.
”This one may take a while,” Ms. Smith said. ”I will be back some time after dark. If I am not back by morning, return and report me as overdue.”
Halna'atik nodded as the Terran female exited the craft, pausing to make sure her suit was perfect. She approached the forest, walking toward the upraised hill that was crowned by trees that looked decades old.
Halna'atik had checked. There had been a major fight between Terran forces and a Balor attempting to build something called a 'screaming array' out of Telkan broodcarriers.
The thought of broodcarriers at the mercy of the Precursor Autonomous War Machine's cold metal claws nauseated her.
Time went by slowly until suddenly her comlink clinked.
”Halna'atik Tourist Flights,” she said.
”Is this Halna'atik, System Identification Number 3282720-17312?” a crisp voice asked.
”Yes,” Halna'atik said.
”Hold please,” the voice said. The line clicked and light tinkling music filled.
Halna'atik frowned. Who calls me just to put me on hold?
The picture opened in her retinal link and Halna'atik recognized the other Telkan immediately. The patterning of her fur, the premature silver on her muzzle and around her eyes and on the tips of her ears.
”Director Brentili'ik,” Halna'atik said.
”Pilot,” the Director of the Telkan System said, her voice firm but not unfriendly.
”How may I help you?” Halna'atik wondered, her mind whirling. What would the Director herself want with her.
”You are assisting a Ms. Smith from Confederate Grave Recovery Services, correct?” the Director asked.
”Yes, ma'am,” Halna'atik said.
”I don't have to tell you how politically sensitive what you are doing is, do I?” the Director asked.
”No, ma'am,” Halna'atik said.
”Terrans are a strange people, with many rituals and customs we may find strange. I realize that I am asking a lot of you, but as a recently approved Citizen, you know that you now carry a heavy burden,” the Telkan Matron said.
”Yes, ma'am,” Halna'atik answered. She didn't have to ask how she ended up a Citizen. She could guess.
”Be careful, be considerate, be polite. That is all I'm asking,” the Director said. ”You may get strange requests, but as long as they are legal and do not provide too much discomfort, I am asking you to give consent whenever you are able.”
”Yes, ma'am,” Halna'atik said.
”Thank you,” the Director said. She nodded, and the call ended.
Halna'atik blinked then gave a shuddering sigh.
We are sisters now, you and I.
Halna'atik looked at the quiet forest and wondered who was out there.