Chapter 638: The Spoked Offensive (2/2)
Ralvex knew that it wasn't too exaggerated.
The Major held still for a moment then signaled. 298 moved the phasic shielding up slowly until Ralvex could taste blueberries on his back molars. Once it was spun up, Ralvex signaled he was good to go.
The team moved on.
Two klicks wasn't far. Ralvex knew he could run it in fourteen minutes and only be slightly winded.
But sneaking up on it was time consuming.
It took nearly an hour for the parking structure to come into view. Heavy vines and curtains of moss hung across the open areas, same with the melted-candle looking stubs of the skyrakers on either side. The streets were full of rubble from where atomic sledgehammers had smashed buildings down with white hot fury and the rubble was covered with moss and vegetation.
Ralvex spotted three places where the rubble and the moss had shifted to reveal heavy nutrient pipes that sat silently pulsing. One had steam coming off of it and heat venting plants. He pointed them out, pointed at the garage, pumped his fist twice, then pointed at where his onboard map showed a lake eight miles away.
The Major nodded tightly.
Moving carefully it took nearly twenty minutes to find an access point into the garage that wasn't covered by moss or hanging vines.
Ralvex was second through, moving carefully when he shifted from daylight to the darkness inside the parking garage. He looked around, noting that the vehicles were all gone.
Instead there were clusters of crystals on beds of crystalline 'foam', with brain coral nodes the size of Ralvex's fist clustered around it and brain fungus in thick ropes between the formations of crystals. Ralvex made sure his suit recorded all of it and had 298 load it into a 'kill drone' just in case.
There were too many new things and Ralvex had learned that in war, new meant bad.
The team moved silently through the garage, ducking under curtains of moss and hanging sheets of fungus. The crystals painted the garage in soft pink and purple light, giving everything a strange otherworldly look. Here and there purple strands of phasic energy crawled across crystal or down nodes of brain fungus.
After a few minutes of careful movement Ralvex could see the destination.
The ramps leading up and down.
Chief suddenly made a motion and the squad went still, holding position.
298 slowly moved the phasic shielding up, his antenna curling slightly with the stress.
An Atrekna moved out from behind a crystal, running its hand across the surface. The iridescent robe glittered softly in the darkness, a thin disk of purple energy was under it, and it wore a complicated arrangement of crystals, wires, and chains on its conical head. Its eyes were almost completely white, the elongated slit pupil almost completely closed even though the garage was only lit by the crystals. It had long, thin, four jointed fingers with no nails or talon on them. Blue lines of phasic energy trailed behind the fingertips as the creature slowly floated past the crystal.
The entire team held its breath.
The Atrekna drifted around the crystal and Ralvex realized with a sinking feeling that it was going to come around and head right toward where the team had frozen in place.
Major made a quick motion and everyone faded back, putting crystal formations between the Atrekna and them.
The Atrekna froze, looking around slowly, one hand still on the crystal.
A heat dissipation bulb chose that moment to release steam into the air with a sharp hiss and the clacking of the folded protein shell opening. More followed and the air filled with steam as the temperature rose.
Ralvex felt a surge of relief as the Atrekna turned back to the crystal.
The relief turned to tension as the Atrekna suddenly moved away from the crystal, floating deeper into the garage level.
Right toward where the team was trying to hide behind the crystal formations.
As the Atrekna drifted past Chief, Ralvex realized that Major was going to be spotted. Ralvex reached down slowly to his equipment, wrapping his hand around his knife.
Chief took two quick steps, one arm looping around where another creature would have a neck, lifting the Atrekna up and squeezing. Before the Atrekna could do much more than start to realize what was happening, Chief drove his combat knife down at an angle, the tip of the blade slicing through flesh and ripping through the joint plate at the top the skull, the thick blade plunging deep into the brain of the Atrekna.
Chief yanked out the eight inch blade as he moved backwards, still holding the Atrekna off the ground, until he was near one of the coolant pipes. He laid the Atrekna down, wiped the blade on its robe and sheathed it. He took a can of spray off his hip and sprayed it over the Atrekna, covering it in glittering mist.
In less than 10 seconds the nanite infused spray broke the Atrekna down into its components then turned into atoms of carbon, leaving no trace.
The team waited, most of the tabbing up stimgum to take the tension off.
Major gave the signal and the team gathered up and set their hands on top of one another to network up the induction links.
”We've got confirmation the slorpies are actively here,” the Major said. ”Mission parameter options are to continue the sweep for more data, rig to blow in place, exfiltrate when necessary.”
”Too many Ohm Class, saw a lot of firejack nests,” Tvn.Plerk said. ”We stir this up, they'll still have enough to rip us apart even if Royal Armor starts flattening the place.”
The Major nodded. ”We'll withdraw. Ralvex, when we get out, go up the building, drop a queriable beacon. We'll head out, slow and steady.”
Everyone flashed assent and pulled their hands apart.
Moving out of the garage went slow, Ralvex feeling his nerves draw tight as they wove between the crystalline structures.
An Atrekna came around the corner and Ralvex reacted instantly, already tensed and keeping the movements in his mind.
His hand slapped down, pulling free the combat knife. His other hand reached out, grabbing the feeding tentacles and crushing them. He felt the squishy pop of the weird lamprey some of them kept in the tentacles as he raised up the knife even as he yanked the Atrekna toward him.
The Atrekna's face was full of so much agony it couldn't even transmit to the communal mind.
Then the combat knife stabbed it six inches above its eyes, slightly to the left, through the unfused growth seam, between the soft bones.
Ralvex caught its weight and dragged it to the side, setting it down.
He took the time to step of the two finger-length eels that fell from its face when the feeding tentacles popped silently before spraying down the body with 'body-b-gone'.
The entire team held still for a full minute, then started moving again.
They exited out the same way they came in, moving down the street slightly. The Major pointed at Ralvex, then at the top of the building.
Ralvex jumped up, quickly climbing the thirty stories left of the skyraker. Up near the top, where it was all naked twisted hyperalloy girders, he stopped and swung back and forth, held in place by one hand and one foot, his other hand holding the Mini-Madame, his foot hanging free.
--not good-- 298 said.
Ralvex could see dozens, hundreds of Ohm Class Dwellerspawn, thousands of the -Jack Class, and hundreds of nests in the exposed girders of the buildings.
”No, it is not,” Ralvex said softly. He looked down into the collapsed skyraker. Sheets of hanging moss and fungus hid the bottom of the hollowed out space below him but a quick thermal check showed it was extremely hot and extremely humid.
He slapped the beacon onto the exposed girder and triggered the adhesive patch. He turned it on to query only, then glanced down.
The updraft of hot air chose that moment to give him a straight down view into the hollowed out skyraker.
A massive pool of bubbling greenish fluid, large veined pods in the pool, coolant and nutrient pipes sticking out of the rubble.
And what was the largest brain coral that Ralvex had ever seen. It was the size of one of the heavy tanks, surrounded by a half-dozen smaller ones, each of those ringed by dozens of smaller clusters. Crystals jutted out of the fluid, connected to the brain corals by ropes of brain fungus. Clamshell-esque heat dissipation and armor plates surrounded every coral, ready to close and protect the growths within seconds.
Ralvex let go and dropped, trusting his landing system. He hit and looked up, rapidly throwing out crisp hand signals. The Major held still for a moment, obviously thinking. After a second he made another set of hand signals and the team moved out, following a slightly different route than they had used to come in.
Twice they edged by Ohm Class Dwellerspawn and once had to reroute to get around a Titan Beetle nest that had consumed the interior of a shopping mall, the exterior structural beams holding the nest in place.
When they finally reached the striker Ralvex held back a sigh of relief.
It ain't over till you're in the club with two fingers in a redhead telling everyone how cool you were, Ralvex heard the rather profane advice from an old school operator in his mind.
The camo net was quickly taken down, rolled up, and crammed into the compartment even as the striker crew ran through the launch checks.
The flight back was silent and Ralvex was left alone with his thoughts. After a bit 298 turned on music, the Telkan Holy Choir, and Ralvex could feel the tension draining out of his body.
When the striker landed, Ralvex followed the Major and Chief into the heavily armored command center of the forward operations base. There were still patches on the walls and floors, repairing the damage from the attack only a few weeks before. Ralvex peeled off from the two officers, heading to the armory then the morgue.
He had to admit, it felt weird to be out of armor, even inside a FOB, after weeks of living inside armor.
When he sat down to eat a tray of food there was a slight tremor that got through the FOB's gravshock stabilizers.
Ralvex didn't bother looking up from where he was praying before eating.
He knew what it was and included his thanks at the end of his prayer.
And bless Saint Oppenheimer, amen.