Compared to the tall transmission towers and broad dishes pointed up at the sky that hung overhead like massive upside down umbrellas, the entrance to the underground communications management bunker was a tiny feature. There was a small landing area for personal craft in front, but other than that they were in the middle of the sugar cane field, the tall green stalks stretched out as far as the eye could see.
In the light of day the dishes were just transparent enough to permit light to pass through, and the nearest shadow was Damshir Spaceport, several kilometres away. “I'm amazed that growing sugar like this is much more economical than using a mass production materializer,” Ayan remarked as they settled in at the edge of the landing field. There were two personnel carriers made for carrying several people apiece. The driver's side door to one had been ripped off, the single occupant long dead.
There were a few other personal carriers, and only one armoured law enforcement transport. “Naturally grown sugar is a delicacy, most of the residents here can't afford it,” Jason replied as they all quietly observed the clearing for signs of movement.
“That police craft could be useful,” Minh pointed out. “Looks like it's got a couple guns too.”
“Pretty obvious. It might get us somewhere fast, but if anything on the ground wants to shoot it down it could be more trouble than it's worth,” Oz replied.
“Let's make it part of our escape plan, just in case.”
“Okay, if we find the andies that are responsible for it and can take them out, then we'll consider it. From what Alaka says they're linked to all their gear somehow and the signal jamming doesn't effect them.”
“I wonder how they managed that?” Jason asked himself more than anyone in particular. “Everything but a few encrypted military bands are jammed.”
“They've got a lot of toys here that we've never seen before. Speaking of which, I don't see any guards out front,” Ayan said. “Let's split into pairs and circle.”
“Good idea,” Oz said as he and Jason stepped onto the edge of the gravel landing area and they started walking the edge to the right.
Ayan and Minh started in the other direction. “Alone at last,” Minh teased as they made their way around slowly, watching carefully for any stationary guardians. It was eerie, robotic combatants could remain perfectly motionless, had infinite patience and hold ready infinitely. It was like looking for deadly shadows. “Did you mange to pry any info about what they're protecting in that mountain vault of theirs?” he continued.
“Nope, and I tried. It looked like Roman wanted to tell me at one point too, but he kept it to himself. I did catch one thing though; he's not from here. I heard some of his men talking and he arrived just a couple weeks before the virus. They said he was part of internal police security. I don't think he's just a Sergeant.”
“I could see that, he seems more military than anything. I'm surprised he and Alaka let us take this objective on so quickly, it's like Roman wanted us out of the mountain.”
“Alaka didn't seem so glad to see us go. I think he was happy to have our help holding the tunnels. Not that he needed our help with strategy on that front, but then, he was hunting rim weasels for a living before all this started,” Ayan chuckled lightly. “Who'd have thought that would be the perfect training for tunnel fighting?”
“Explains why he knows his way around so well. Rim weasels get everywhere, I've even heard that they can squeeze through a hole only a centimetre wide.”
“We found a couple on a bounder when I was serving on my first deep space tour.”
“One of those old short range shuttles? That had to make for a fun cleanup.”
“Yeah, I spent a week with the rest of the juniors cleaning out that thing, I barely saw outside it. The weasels ate half the wiring insulation in the whole craft, I swear.”
“Sometimes I miss those old ships with all the wiring tucked away behind panels, the fuzzy and carpeted surfaces everywhere. It's more like being in a living room.”
“They're a pain in the ass to get anything fixed in though. Strange that Rim weasels won't go near the carpet but they'll chew on anything else. Makes you wonder if there's something dodgy about whatever the pads are made of.”
“Never thought of it like that, huh.” Minh said pensively.
They quieted down and focused as they came around the rear of the bunker, their sensor suites outlined distinct shapes for them in the darkness of night. The metal double doors were only slightly smaller than the front entrance, and these had a short set of stairs going down to them. The outline showing where Minh, still invisible to the naked eye, signalled for Ayan to stop. His head was turned towards the entrance, so Ayan carefully looked everywhere else. “What is it?” she asked quietly even though their vacsuits stopped all sound from escaping.
“Two andies down those stairs. They're exactly the same temperature as their surroundings so thermal missed them completely.”
“Nice trick. My motion sensors didn't pick them up either, they must be on standby.”
“Think they'd see through our cloaksuits?” Minh asked quietly.
“No way, you'd need some kind of field or pressure sensors and that's pretty much impossible to tune properly in this atmosphere.”
“That's reassuring.”
Ayan's vacsuit highlighted Oz and Jason coming around from the other side of the landing area a hundred meters away, they were moving very slowly. Her visor display indicated that they were in proper line of sight and she could communicate with them again using the laser link. “Do you two see the androids down there?”
“Yup, just spotted them. I'm thinking I'll launch a shaped charge at the door while everyone else opens fire on the andies. We're going to have to dump half a clip into those two to take them out.”
“Are they seriously that well armoured?” Ayan asked.
“Someone didn't do their homework,” Minh teased.
“I was busy designing the Needle, remember?”
“She's not the only one, I was working on the broadcast system the whole time,” Jason interjected. “I could use a quick brief on 'em.”
“Right,” Oz started, taking command of the conversation. “They're an android with sixteen processing centers, so even though they look like humans there's actually no central brain. You can knock their head off they'll still see perfectly fine thanks to secondary and tertiary sensors.”
“Wow, sounds expensive,” Minh commented.
“Effective, more like. We seriously have to slag these buggers to do any good.”
“All right, we'll go as soon as we see you launch your shaped charge,” Ayan responded.
They watched as Oz marked the targets; Ayan and Minh would fire at the one on the left while Jason would fire on the one to the right. If they didn't come running out they would launch explosive charges from their rifles after the shaped charge went off. Their visors marked a projectile for a split second as it sped through the air to the double doors half under the cover of the stairs. It was marked red and blinking with a counter overhead as it attached itself to the doors.
Ayan and Minh opened fire, sending sub-sonic explosive rounds across the distance, peppering their android target and filling the air with a tattoo of small explosions. Jason's rounds hit home as well, and as Oz joined in their target sprinted at an incredible speed, firing its rifle back in a sweeping arc of pulse rounds.
One of the shots struck Oz, interrupting his cloaking systems and the android slung his rifle as he leapt through the air, striking him in the shoulder as he tried to dodge out of the way. In the next instant the android stood and swung his arms outstretched, feeling for his invisible prey. His hand landed on Oz's arm. With one jerk Oz was pulled towards the machine, who, with deadly force and precision began hammering his fist into his target.
Oz tried to aim his rifle at his assailant, but being pulled off balance he couldn't get a shot so he let the weapon fall as he tried to pull free from the machine's iron grip.
Jason took careful aim at the android but he spun around, dragging Oz into his line of fire. “I can't get a shot!”
“He's going to bust through my armour if this keeps up!” Oz said as he drew his nanoblade. “Get clear, going melee!” The first swing of his meter long blade half severed the android's neck and thousands of nanobots from the black sword remained behind to work at the softer systems inside the machine.
With a final great effort, Oz was hauled completely off his feet and thrown down onto the gravel so hard that he heard the hardened layers of his vacsuit crack. He rolled onto his back and swung at the android's midsection, cutting into the armoured stomach just enough to leave nanobots behind. The stress of striking the android's hardened surfaces was enough to almost completely deplete the blade and he deactivated it as he drew his sidearm, set it to full automatic and opened fire peppering the android with explosive thermite rounds.
Jason, having a clear shot at long last, followed suit and opened fire with his assault rifle and between the pair and the work of the nanobots, the android fell face first into the gravel.
Ayan and Minh, who had an easier time with their target, ran to join Oz and Jason.
“My cloaksuit's done for now. It'll take half an hour to regenerate,” Oz reported as he got to his feet.
“Any injuries?” Minh asked.
“Shoulder, hairline fracture on a couple of ribs and upper arm but the suit hit me with a dose of active biogel that'll take care of it in a minute.”
“Gotta love that stuff, anaesthetic and concentrated healing accelerators all in one, wish we had that on the First Light.” Minh commented as he double checked Oz's status on his command unit. The tall Officer was known for exaggerating his wellness.
“I don't think anyone has that stuff, it was in one of the Special Projects crates Doc Anderson dropped off,” Ayan said as she started moving towards the bunker. “We have to move.”
Oz picked up his rifle and checked its condition as he took his position behind Minh and ahead of Jason. “Well, looks like I'm just one big distraction. I was wondering who would get the honour.”
“Better you than me,” Minh sang quietly.
“I see thermals from five inside. What's the plan?” Ayan asked.
“I'll move in slowly, as though I'm alone while you three move in well ahead, take them by surprise,” Oz said.
“Good plan, head in quick,” Ayan confirmed as she started running.
Oz stood up straight and took several pot shots around the entrance, over Ayan, Minh's and Jason's heads as they quickly closed the distance between them and the bunker. His sensor suite confirmed that they were taking cover inside the bunker, getting ready for him to try and enter on his own. He kept a steady, confident stride while looking down the sight of his rifle and taking the occasional shot at the nearest defender. He had no hope of hitting the man, but gave him good reason to remain behind his crate.
The outlines of Ayan, Jason and Minh were inside a moment later, running between the five people inside and positioning themselves with nano blades at the ready. “In position,” Ayan announced as her outline poised with her cloaked blade at the neck of an unarmoured recruit.
“Surrender or die!” Oz called out using his voice amplifier. He knew they could hear him.
“This is an Eden World now! The West Watch will never surrender!” replied one with fervor.
“Double check your seals,” Ayan ordered.
“Sealed,” Minh replied.
“All buttoned up here,” Jason reported.
Ayan reached into her poncho and produced a heavy stun grenade, it had enough range to cover four times the size of the room they were standing in. She detonated it in her hand. All five of the conscripts fell to the floor.
“Oh, they're gonna feel that in the morning,” Minh chuckled as he dropped a self sealing vacuum containment sac over the nearest conscript. The protective mini-prison took on a life of its own as it stretched around him and sealed. “And that's going to be a rude way to wake up.”
“All clear Oz, get in here, we have alarms going off,” Ayan ordered as she did the same, making sure the bag activated before moving on.
“I hear most people think they've been buried alive when they first wake up in one of those. They'll thank us for it if we have to fire bomb the place though, they'll come out without a scratch,” Jason added.
When Oz arrived inside Ayan and Jason were quickly working at the main consoles and Minh had gone downstairs. “No one's down here as far as my scanner's concerned. It's mostly servers and reserve power,” he called up audibly.
“Good, plant the charges, we're going to plan B,” Jason shouted back.
“So they had time to lock down all the systems?”
“No, just to warn a command carrier in orbit that they're under attack. They've assumed control and according to this there's an invasion force on the way.”
“Oh great. Any idea how large the fleet is up there?”
“None, I don't even recognize the class of the command carrier, but it's Regent Galactic. The people down here might not have been experts on communications, but whoever's up on that carrier knows exactly what they're doing.”
“Charges are in place, counting down from one minute on your go,” Minh called up from downstairs.
“I've got an access port for the hypertransmitter in orbit, as soon as the jamming stops I can broadcast,” Jason said as he set the main terminal to go into standby mode.
“All right, lets go. Start the timers,” Ayan ordered as she lead the way out of the bunker at a dead run.
Jason was right behind her, closely followed by Oz and Minh. It had started to rain, giving the gravel a more slick quality, they took cover behind a half ruined four seater atmosphere car in the thickening downpour. The seconds ticked by quietly until there was a flash of light and a pop at the bunker doors followed by billowing, thick black smoke.
The group watched as Jason uplinked to the hypertransmitter in orbit, and sent the emergency message from Alaka to the Carthan Government successfully. “That's done, I even have a confirmation signal from the other side.” He pressed another icon on his command and control unit, sending their encoded mission complete signal to Roman and Alaka inside the mountain along with their status and location. “Too bad they can't get someone out here to help, there's a ton of traffic on the command line. Wait, what's this?”
He brought up a transmission that had just gone through the hypertransmitter from the planet and patched it in through their communicators. “Here it is from the beginning.”
Lalonde, Randolph
Spinward Fringe Frontline
“This is Captain Valance to Triton, I need a pickup in Damshir on Pandem. It's a war zone, there's a fleet in orbit, the Holocaust Virus has hit and the West Watch have taken control of all automated systems with support from Regent Galactic. I'm in the city south of the mountain, there must be someone alive up there behind energy shielding-” The static and wireless noise of aggressive jamming signals resumed, cutting Jacob off.
“What's with him not reporting his coordinates? How the hell are we supposed to get to him if we don't know where he is?” Oz exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration.
“He might have something after him. I don't know why he'd come alone, but at least the Triton will know what's going on soon. It sounds like he's headed for the mountain though, so he's going in the right direction,” Jason reassured him.
“How would he signal anyone in the mountain to let him through the shield? It's not like he could sneak in, they've got the whole place locked down.”
“Hopefully we can get to a wired connection to the mountain somewhere to tell Alaka or Roman to expect him.”
“I'm guessing the spaceport would be the most likely place to start looking for an intact-” Minh started but was interrupted as the sky lit up with the engine fire of dozens of drop ships.
“If we can't find an intact wire maybe the transit tunnels can get us back to the mountain. I told them we wouldn't be getting back, but if Jake is on his way there we should try to get him behind the shield and regroup.” Ayan said firmly, making sure her rifle was securely slung.
“Sounds like the best choice considering there's a fleet in orbit,” Oz said quietly. “Oh, and some of my stealth systems still haven't regenerated.”
“I know, your long range covert systems still work, right?”
“Yup, I won't show up on thermal or throw any EM.”
“Good, let's go,” Ayan said, starting off at a run between the rows of sugar cane.
“Are you all right?” Minh asked her privately.
“I'm fine, let's just get back in one piece and try to save Jake's butt along the way.”