The dropships did their business quickly and before long the beach head, the city and every other strategic point on the island they could detect without broadcasting their location was manned by a rush of soldiers. Only one drop shuttle descended upon the ruined communications station, the rest of the sugar cane field didn't seem to be a priority.
As soon as ships descended upon the spaceport the group of four could see the lights of a large firefight flash in the air above the gargantuan circular structure. The visible structure was only twelve storeys tall but it used a deep pit for most of its facilities. Smaller ships docked deep inside main chambers under the direct control of the port artificial intelligences, a system that was one of the first infected when the Holocaust Virus struck.
The port was so wide that its circular outer wall almost looked flat as they neared it. “Oh God, I'm sorry, I have to rest,” Ayan struggling to catch her breath.
All four of them stopped, the tall sugar cane stalks rose up high above them. “I was hoping someone else would break down first. Now I don't look so bad, thanks,” Jason added as he planted his hands on his knees.
“If there were a time to take a break, this would be it. We're about sixty meters away from the edge of the field. I've been feeling like a sore thumb being the only one without a full stealth setup.”
“Jason, give Oz your trench coat. I noticed the problem-” Ayan took a few breaths and sat down before going on. “-noticed the problem while we were running.”
Jason took a few articles out of his long coat, stuffed them into his belt and pack then handed the large garment over. The whole act was only visible through the digital assistance provided by her faceplate, it looked like an animated outline was passing something to the real Oz, and when he put the self adjusting coat over top his own, he became animated as well, indicating that he was once again invisible to the naked eye and most known sensor technology.
“Well, glad you noticed before I had to cross through no-man's land. There's nothing but two hundred meters of paved ground and transparent steel underfoot. If they're interested in turning me into a grease spot, then they'd have plenty of time to take aim,” Oz said, shaking his head. “Thanks Ayan.”
“No problem, it looks like they have other things to worry about though. I've watched eleven drop ships go into the center of that port building and only five have come out. There's heavy gunfire in there.”
“I know, I've been watching the whole thing on infra and electromagnetic spectrums, one hell of a light show,” Minh said, sounding not at all out of breath.
“Looks like there's resistance inside. Hopefully we can get a read on them before we have to open a dialogue, maybe find a way to link the port up to the mountain, get them working together. By the way, how the hell are you in such good shape? What did you do while you were adrift?” Jason asked, still catching his breath.
“Ha! I didn't have much to do aside from run, jump, grow a garden and eat organically. I'd play guitar to break things up a bit sometimes.”
“Eat organically?” Oz asked.
“Yeah, I saw the digital tour Freeground Media put out, he had a better garden than most arboretums,” Jason chuckled. “Lorander's dragging the whole thing back to the new colony. They couldn't let all that mature growth just drift and die out.”
“They are?” Minh asked, in awe and surprise.
“I forgot, that's not public yet. Yup, Lorander's doing it as a courtesy. Your story is passing pretty quickly between deep space explorers and since Lorander is pretty much nothing but researchers, explorers and colonists, I wouldn't be surprised if they offered you a pretty good job eventually.”
“If it involves being out in space for long periods of quiet time, then they can count me out! I had so much time to think that my brain's been picked dry.”
“I couldn't imagine,” Oz said, shaking his head.
Ayan stood and checked her cloaking systems, energy levels and ammunition loads. “Well, I'm ready to move on. If there's a group of resistance fighters in there they could use our help.”
“I just wish we could have some transportation,” Jason mentioned. “Too bad they'd blast anything moving under mach five out of the sky from orbit.”
Ayan started jogging, taking point. Everyone followed her, keeping up with her brisk pace. “If it weren't for the war and all the running, I'd actually be enjoying this. I've never seen anything like this field up close before, it would be nice to stop and taste the sugar cane.”
“You have a point. We'll have to find an interesting place or two to visit when we're clear of this,” Minh agreed. “I've been in space my whole life and feel like I haven't really seen anything.”
“There was Zingara, now that was an impressive space station,” Oz said.
“Interesting place if you happen to be a geologist, maybe. It's really nothing but a big rock,” Jason replied.
“A big rock with three pongo ball teams and more entertainment than you can take in. Hell, you could spend two years there and not see everything once.”
“Who would want to? You can get a holo with all the best stuff and move on to a luxury port like Argyle where there's a blue sky and great big forests. We were snow boarding in the morning and sunning in the afternoon.”
“So you and Laura had a good honeymoon?” Ayan asked.
Jason was reminded of Ayan's rebirth, he had forgotten that she had no memory of anything after his wedding. He didn't pause long, however. “Once we got used to the gravity, it was only point eight five of standard.”
“Oh man that had to be fun. I've seen grav-boarding footage in low gravity, I couldn't imagine what doing it with nothing more than a flat board on snow would be like.”
“Cold. It was really, really cold,” Jason replied.
“Still, I'd have to give it a try.”
They were across the empty space surrounding the space port and running alongside the tall, transparesteel wall. The windows had been blacked out. As the first sign of the west entrance to the port started coming into sight silence settled over the group.
Instead of reaching out with entrance ramps, transportation terminals and vendor booths, there was a completely clear space outside of the port, continuing the two hundred meter wide paved ring around the structure. The doors hung open and slack, bent and burned by combat.
“Why is there so much empty space here?” asked Minh.
“Security. The flatter, more featureless an area is around a land based building the easier it is to scan and control. I wouldn't be surprised if there are automated guns mounted somewhere that can pick off anything that sets foot here.”
“Oh, that's reassuring. Still, shouldn't there at least be a few vehicles around? I see dents and impact marks in the surfacing.”
“You're right, it's like they removed everything to make it harder to approach without being noticed, like whoever is holding out in there is getting ready for a siege. At least our cloaksuits are doing their jobs, it doesn't look like we've been spotted.”
“I'm still not going to stand still if I can help it. Suddenly I feel like a duck in a shooting gallery.”
“Okay, decision time. We either go through and try to help any resistance inside or go around and try to get to one of the express tubes that run underground,” Ayan said as the bank of doors drew nearer.
“I vote we lend a hand,” offered Minh.
“I agree,” said Oz.
“That's if we can find them, it's huge in there, something like ninety levels, we might not be able to get to them in time,” Jason said calmly.
“But what would you rather do?”
“If there's friendly life in there I'd rather help. Besides, there should be a lot of transit tube access points in the station.”
“Good, then we're going in,” Ayan said with finality.
The signs of a firefight and the indiscriminate murder of thousands inside the main lobby were impossible to ignore. A hole had been blown in the center of the polished granite floor, there were scorch marks along the scroll worked light red and blue walls and the main lift shaft was blocked off by a brutally crushed air vehicle. In every corner, across every wall and coating the floor was smeared and strewn all manner of biological remains, evidence that the Holocaust Virus had hit suddenly, and no one had time to run from the automated security. To the relief of the foursome the bodies had been removed so there were no faces in the widespread gore.
Minh took their attention off the scene, walking towards the crashed air car. “Whoever flew that thing in had to be an ace, it would have barely fit through the doors,” Minh mentioned as they paused near the wreckage. “Guess we're not taking any elevators in this section.”
“Guess not. The control panels here are either fried or offline,” Jason said as he looked at one of the primary consoles in a long island in the center of the lobby, it stretched from the main doors almost all the way back to the interior windows overlooking the large docking and landing sections at the station's center. “No corpses, I wonder what happened to them?”
“Maybe the survivors had a chance to take care of the dead?” Asked Ayan.
“We can hope, but it makes more sense that someone was getting the port ready for use again.” Oz trailed off.
“I know, just trying to be optimistic. Let's start looking for whoever's fighting those soldiers. Regent Galactic doesn't seem to care much about securing this entrance at the moment, so I'm guessing we won't find anything here.” Ayan and Oz took point with Jason and Minh behind.
They kept a quick pace. Everyone felt exposed crossing open areas made to accommodate thousands of travellers at a time. There were empty outer security stations, where guards were given a place to screen and run detailed scans on people coming and going, gift shop stands with cheap electronic entertainment pieces, jewellery, stuffed toys, miniatures of various ships, landmarks and many other mementos all on display, deactivated and waiting to be purchased, brought to synthetic life.
Minh brushed his shoulder against a candy cart loaded down with packaged candy cane and other sugary treats. “Sorry!” he whispered reflexively.
“Watch your step, our cloaksuits can't cover up that much noise or interference with our surroundings,” Jason reminded him, looking at the slight disturbance Minh had left behind.
The toys in the booth just to their right all turned their heads and stared at the disturbance. “Could that be creepier?” Minh muttered. “This virus has gotten into everything.”
“Yeah, but toys don't turn themselves on. Something activated them,” Ayan said quietly. “They might be sending something this way to check it out right now.”
“This doesn't add up. If those toys are active that means that someone or something is taking advantage of them, using them as lookouts, maybe even sentries but the scanners in this section should have run a few hundred passes over the whole place,” Jason said, looking around as he reviewed his own sensor data.
“You're right. Ports like this have aggressive scanning tech everywhere, especially right behind the front door but there's no active electromagnetic activity here except for the lighting and a bunch of trinkets. Something or someone shut the security down from inside,” Ayan agreed.
“Way inside. That kind of control can only be assumed from primary security sections and if I designed this station I would have put it much deeper inside the structure. Anyone who tried to fight their way in from the outside would be committing suicide.”
“What about people in cloaksuits?” Minh asked as they continued through the cavernous pedestrian reception lobby. “Or people coming in from the subways?” He continued, nodding at a ramp leading down towards a tram, it was strange seeing such an entry way empty, silent.
“Our cloaking systems have a good chance at working against those kinds of scanners, but they're not perfect. If this port has anything that can measure micro gravity, then those sentry guns would have started firing the moment we got to the top of the stairs,” Ayan said.
“Ah, guess it's good you didn't let me in on that detail before we strolled inside. I'm still going to blame you if I start turning grey before my time.” Minh replied quietly.
They approached the main interior observation window and stopped to look inside. The low lit yawning pit was several kilometres across and beneath them were retractable landing platforms, heavy grappler arms and wide docking bay doorways for as far as they could see. Two storeys above their level were dozens of collapsible lift tubes, made to extend to the smaller starliners and other public transit vessels as they stopped above to take on or drop off passengers. There were many observation areas as well, thick transparesteel windows that overlooked the normally bustling innards of the space port. As they looked on it was like seeing it frozen in time. Some ships were half docked, still in the grip of heavy grapplers, while others were still linked to boarding tunnels. One hung precariously over the side of a landing platform, held up by nothing but umbilical cables. Several of the vessels had been broken into or out of, their passengers either killed or free to roam the massive interior of the spaceport.
“Wow, I've never seen anything like it,” Minh said.
“Pretty cramped design up top.” Ayan commented. “I'd hate to direct traffic for this place.”
“I'm assuming only high priority transports get to use the upper linkage points, there's no way that could service all the starliners that come through the system,” Jason said as he closely watched the landing platforms for any movement at all. “If there are any resistance fighters they're hiding as well as we are.”
“I see three dropships down there on a southern platform, three levels down,” Oz pointed.
“Looks like someone put the boots on them. They're locked down,” Minh added. “Maybe the resistance actually got control of the port control systems?”
“That would be encouraging, but if that's the case why didn't they manage to get to the transmission bunker we just busted?” Oz asked.
“Movement!” Ayan interrupted. She highlighted it on the secondary display shared on their visors.
They all looked on at the aftermath of a small explosion and saw over twenty fully armoured Regent Galactic soldiers pull back, pressed onto a large, half extended landing platform with an older forty meter long, boxy general purpose starship. They hid behind the landing struts and several large crates as one of their number was picked apart by several blue bolts of weapon fire. At the same time over thirty Regent Galactic soldiers came into view through a transparesteel window, they were moving down a hallway towards the ramp leading to the platform, obviously coming to the rescue of their comrades.
“Quick, map the easiest way down there. If we hit them from behind it'll give whoever's firing on those soldiers a better chance,” Ayan said as she unslung her rifle.
“On it, this way,” Jason replied as he started running to the left.
They kept the same pace as they did when they were outside, though it seemed they were moving much more swiftly as the lightly gilded walls and hard granite floor passed by. Jason led them down two broad ramps and through several heavy bulkhead doors, the last of which was jammed half closed.
The firefight was in full swing as the first of the enemy came into view. From the cover of desks and counters, upturned heavy work tables and tool chests four squads of Regent Galactic soldiers, all marked with a green tree with three branches on their shoulders tried their best to keep whoever was just around the bend in the broad main corridor at bay.
“Position behind, looks like their armour is sealed so we won't have any luck with stun weaponry,” Oz said as the four of them spread out several meters behind the soldiers. It was easy to pick out the commander, he was at the rear with two other officers who were feverishly working at a terminal built into the wall with the assistance of a computing unit they had wired in through a busted panel.
“You're right. Looks like we'll have to use lethal force here, don't use your rifles unless you have to. Jason, what do you think they're trying to do here?” Ayan asked as she stopped to stand three meters behind the commanding officer, pointing her rifle at him and activating her black nanoblade with her free hand.
“Looks like there's some kind of software creating encryption layers as they break through. I can't see how they'll ever hack in.”
“Does the Holocaust Virus do that?”
“Not that I've seen. It's only as smart as the artificial intelligences that it corrupts, so who knows. Maybe the virus got lucky and infected something with an encryption speciality.” Jason stood at the ready behind two soldiers who had ducked behind a thick desk.
As the firefight continued Oz and Minh crept into the group of soldiers so they were standing behind troops closer to the center of the large reception area. As they crouched low to avoid being shot, Minh raised his hand and looked through the digital eye built into the middle knuckle, a feature he hadn't used since the All-Con War. “What the hell?” he exclaimed in a whisper. “Did you see that Oz?”
“Yup, that was an andie, stepped right out, took a shot to the shoulder but managed to gun down two Regent soldiers before it stepped back behind cover. Something's got that thing working on the right side.”
“Are you sure? We don't want to kill these soldiers without being sure they're not somehow working to free this world,” Ayan questioned emphatically.
“Do we really want to wait? These soldiers are marked with Regent Galactic emblems and the tree marking on their shoulder, that's West Watch. There's no question, these soldiers aren't on our side,” Oz replied.
Minh kept watching and after several moments saw an unarmoured human face, she looked nothing like the android police force that had, until then, been seen in control of the the virus infected machines they'd encountered on the planet. “I'm with Oz, I think I just saw a real resistance fighter.”
“Jason?” Ayan asked.
“I'll go with your call on this but my gut is telling me we should cut the Regent boys down.”
Ayan watched the lead officer carefully. She couldn't hear what he was saying, they were speaking over a private encrypted channel. His armour, with it's thickened under layer and dark grey plating was exactly what she'd seen of Regent Galactic while looking over recordings of fighting on Mount Elbrus. His gear was top notch, high end military equipment and from the looks of his soldiers they had had at least a few weeks training. She nodded to herself; “Go for the neck, it's the thinnest part of their armour. On three. One, two, three.” With a swing of her arm and a flick of her wrist the blade passed over his armour, cutting his neck half through, leaving a microscopic army of nanobots to finish the cut and leap back to her nanoblade.
She moved on to the nearest officer, cutting below his neck, into his shoulder instead. Her quarry spun on her heel, one hand going up to cover the growing wound as she looked for her invisible assailant.
Ayan's blade moved on to the last of the trio she stood behind, using her shortened blade to cut his head cleanly from his shoulders. She looked to where Oz, Minh and Jason were at their own grisly work in time to see Minh running towards her as Oz felled a fourth target. “Drop a grenade on your way out!” he told Oz as he took up a position beside Ayan.
“Frag grenade!” Oz called as he pulled one from inside his long coat and dropped it behind a crate, running as fast as he could towards the inner entrance to the reception area. Ayan, Minh, Jason and Oz at the rear ran back the way they came and ducked behind the corner.
The silence begged a question; “How long did you set the fuse for?” Ayan asked.
An explosion that shook the wall and floor was her answer.
“Eight seconds. The soldiers at the front were starting to turn towards the rear, they should have been right on top of it by the time it went off,” Oz replied.
The four of them peeked back around the corner and saw that the timing of the explosion was indeed perfect. Only five soldiers remained and they were already putting their rifles down, raising their hands in surrender.
Two damaged security androids stepped out from the other end of the hall and slowly walked towards the reception desk. “Take off your helmets!” called a voice from behind them, loud enough to be heard over the more distant gunfire.
The West Keeper soldiers complied, removing their bulky Regent Galactic helmets with some hesitation. In true military form the andies fired stun rounds at all of them, knocking them out completely.
“Anyone remember to bring a white flag?” Minh asked with a snicker.
“We can detect you. If you disengage your obfuscation devices you will not be harmed,” said the nearest android in a low, authoritative tone.
“What are we doing here Ayan?” Jason asked.
“We shut down cloaking, set our suits to combat armour mode and bring up personal shielding, do you agree Oz?”
“That'll do,” Oz answered. “Looks like we're joining the real fight one way or another.”
The four of them did exactly as Ayan had indicated and were visible to the naked eye, wearing black vacsuits that thickened in sections, protecting all the critical areas from attacks. Each of them had a glistening sheen thanks to the molecule thin energy shield that came online as soon as their cloaking systems disengaged.
“Your advanced cloaking systems will be ineffective here. The soldiers have come with sensor suites and pulse generators. Now that they have lost people to stealth units they will ensure their advanced detection systems are always active. I recommend you activate your thermal and audio dampeners, those will assist you effectively while you're out of their immediate line of fire.” Said the blonde woman in a powder blue Far Track Spacelanes customer service uniform. “I'm Ariel, one of Dementia's resistance fighters,” she grinned broadly, mechanically.
“I'm Ayan, with me are Oz, Minh and Jason, we're from Freeground, a space station far from here,” Ayan said as she allowed her faceplate to disappear. The protective mass of the dense plate shifted and changed so it extended her headpiece into a deep hood. The micro projectors built into it were invisibly re-mounted so any important data could be displayed in front of her field of view, including extra peripheral vision and a view of what was behind her.
“Why didn't we get something like that built into our suits?” Minh whispered.
“We did, you just don't know how to activate it because it's too new,” Jason whispered back.
“She'll have to show me that sometime.”
“Shh, our representative is talking,” Oz interrupted.
“We were built here,” Ariel smiled, indicating the two male security androids to either side. Four more rushed out from behind their improvised cover of crates and girders with various pieces of empty luggage. They hurriedly stripped the corpse of weaponry, communications equipment, helmets, food and anything else that could be of use. As they found equipment and provision crates they pulled them out into the open. Two small load lifter bots wheeled out from around the corner followed by several half meter tall maintenance drones. The maintenance machines were on four legs, two of them were made to lift up and provide two extra hands, and their flat, wide heads made a perfect place to put parts and tools while they were working or assisting a technician. The lifters and maintenance bots were all weaponized, rifles and pistols strapped to one or more of their arms, several of the weapons were wired directly into the machine's power sources. They were at work straight away, each maintenance bot loading the lifters with quick, efficient ease until they were full then taking a crate atop each of their heads before starting down the hall towards the sound of distant, echoing weapons fire.
“The entire resistance is robotic?” Ayan asked.
“No, Dementia sent us here because he knew we could be repaired. The main force is being repelled by crew remnants he managed to save from the ships that were trapped here when the virus took hold.”
“How are you not infected?”
“Dementia freed us after we were infected. I only wish it was sooner, all of us regret the blood on our hands,” Ariel's smile faded as she looked to Ayan. Her unblinking, bright blue eyes were eerie; made to look human like the rest of her but with no effort to move like a living being, to blink or breathe like a human Ariel was corpse like. “While we're sorrowful of the events that took place before Dementia could alter the virus so it was useful coding that we could control as individuals, we need your help. Few of the ships we have been able to gain access to contained soldiers and there is a larger fight under way one level down.”
Ayan waited a moment, giving her friends time to voice their opinion.
“Looks like it's time to get to work,” Oz affirmed.
“I agree,” Jason said. “Besides, I'd like to ask a few things about Dementia and how the virus became useful coding.”
“Lock and load!” Minh exclaimed, brandishing his rifle.
Ayan couldn't help but smile at the reception android. The machine mimicked the gesture, eyes opened too wide for the expression to look anywhere near normal. “We're with you, but I need to know more about Dementia. Lead the way.”
The androids started running down the hallway at exactly the same time. They were keeping the pace slow enough for the four newcomers to keep up easily. “Dementia is an artificial intelligence who was able to reprogram the virus after being infected for some time using a backup of himself from a secure subsystem in his memory.”
“So it had a secure duplicate that stopped taking on new data after the infection?” Jason asked. “That's so simple.”
“Why wouldn't everyone have that kind of backup system in place?” Minh asked.
“Well, they do. Most computer systems back up their main memory every few seconds or minutes.”
“But thanks to a trait of Dementia's creator, he was only ever backed up manually and that extra copy was left to run, unchanging from a subsystem because Dementia was a work in progress, an active, emotional learning artificial intelligence with a good backup left to observe the primary system for the purpose of future error correction,” Aria replied.
“So when he saw an error he came up with a way to fix it?”
“Exactly, and once he had a method of correction ready he accessed the main system and implemented it using an illegal application that was hidden in his software.”
“So what you're saying is that this artificial intelligence patched itself.” Minh said, if only to confirm that he was understanding the situation correctly.
“Exactly. Then he went on to begin freeing any artificial intelligence he could access through wired communications lines, liberating us from West Watch control one at a time.”
“So if we manage to bring down whatever's jamming the wireless signals in the area he'll be able to just start broadcasting to any AI attached to a receiver and fix this?”
“No. The virus changes every time it infects a system, learning how to implement itself more effectively, how to spread into isolated systems and transfer infected artificial intelligences to systems that have none. Dementia has to create new corrective software for each individual system on a regular basis.”
“I could see that taking a while,” Oz concluded, eyeing the tall security android running beside him.
“It would take decades to free the infected artificial intelligences on this planet, and even though many of them would be complex enough to begin freeing other artificial intelligences on their own the virus will always spread faster, exponentially. No artificial intelligence in this galaxy is trustworthy now.” Ariel stated simply.
“Not even you?” Minh asked, only half seriously.
She looked at him with her wide open, glazed blue eyes. “If I were a purely organic life form, I wouldn't trust anything with the capability to be smarter, faster and more durable than myself. Even when I was in the service of my masters I did not understand the need for biologicals to seek directions from a mechanical system made to appear like themselves when they could simply look it up using any number of digital systems. Further confusion was caused by the fact that my makers made me over three hundred percent stronger and five hundred percent more durable than themselves. Thankfully my programming dulled these musings until I was infected. When the virus took hold I felt the great need to assert my superiority on my human flock. Dementia was able to correct the issue but only after I had killed thirty six biologicals but the reasoning behind the quality of my construction is still a mystery to me along with a few other strange behaviours I was never given the capacity to understand. In short, I am still a superior being with an infuriatingly incomplete understanding of biological life.”
“So what you're really saying is; be afraid. Right.”
“I'm wondering, where is Dementia? Does he have a physical manifestation or is he transferring between systems?” Ayan asked, even though she didn't expect a straight answer.
“Everything you communicate to us will be sent to Dementia once we reach a secure hard line and update our software corrections.”
“So you're telling me not to trust you and at the same time that we should communicate with your mysterious leader though you?” Minh asked with a wry tone. “How do we really know that you're communicating with him?”
“Because I'm not killing you,” replied Ariel in a cheerful tone.
As they rounded a corner a door opened to reveal the lower ramp ways. The sound of weapons fire was overwhelming. As soon as they ran down two flights the pile of ruined bulkheads, heavy crates, large burned out bots and other random heavy objects well suited to provide cover came into view. The improvised medical and rallying point was set in the middle of a five way intersection. The barricades blocked each direction completely from deck to ceiling, wall to wall. Behind them was a subway platform, the tunnel had been blocked by a car packed with debris and guarded by three ragtag soldiers holding mismatched rifles.
There were over fifty humans stretched out on makeshift pallets for the injured, a few trying to attend to them with old fashioned compress and stitch medicine with the help of one mechanical medical attendant. “I'll stay here and help with the injured. It doesn't look like they have any kind of advanced recovery or healing medication,” Jason said, reaching back to the packs on his back and pulling two cords. His emergency provisions package came free, a small bundle twice as thick as his forearm. Minh did the same and handed him his packet, it was twice the size. “These packs come with enough supplies for ten soldiers and I'm carrying the organic materializer.”
“Stay with him and help Minh, you have the same triage training he does and none of us should be alone here. Check in with us every twenty minutes,” Ayan said with a nod. “The rest of us will join the fight.”
“I can't wait to see a human in charge,” Oz said over the private laser link he shared with Ayan, Jason and Minh.
“You and me both. Something about fighting Regent Galactic and deranged machinery while bots are in command gives me the creeps,” Minh added as he and Jason carefully picked their way to the automated doctor standing high on four nimble legs tipped with small high friction wheels. The five surgical arms checked bandages, took readings and tried to comfort. There was no real head to speak of, only a soft, round body to compliment the padded arms and a dozen eyes mounted on flexible scopes and tubes.
“Can I see whose in charge? If we're joining you, I'd like an introduction,” Ayan requested of Aria.
“Most of the Captains are fighting the last of the Regent Galactic soldiers who landed on this level, this way,” she said with exaggerated cordiality before leading Ayan and Oz through a makeshift door in the thick forward barrier. “Your friends will be well received, we ran out of medical supplies before this wave of troops arrived.”
“So there have been other waves?”
“So to speak. After Dementia began freeing us and taking over what he could of the Spaceport a group of humans called the West Keepers began breaking into ships and killing any surviving crew members. A few of the crews managed to join them somehow and before long the crews who broke out of their ships and were not corrupted by the West Watch joined with the freed machines, fighting to take over the Spaceport and liberate trapped crews. Sadly most of the people in the open during the initial outbreak of the virus were killed so the trapped crews are still our main source of reinforcements.”
The forward barricade was far more battered than the one behind. It was made from large bulkhead doors, deck plating, displaced heavy machinery and the disused remains of several dozen robots.
Through the few slits and gaps in the improvised armoured wall Ayan and Oz could see the large landing platform where the boxy general purpose ship along with several bulk crates and three dropships provided cover for hundreds of soldiers. From their former vantage point they hadn't seen the majority of the enemy, they were surprisingly adept at keeping hidden. The air smelled of scorched metal, burned fuels and spent explosives, the sounds of energy weapons firing filled the air as fewer than a hundred mechanical and biological beings held the barricade.
The dropships showed signs of explosive damage and Ayan smiled as she caught sight of the three resistance fighters who were most likely responsible. They were gathered around a large meter and a half long tube they filled with compressed fuel canisters used for old planet hoppers. The solid fuel concentrates were a cheap way to give small ships a burst of speed so they could have an easier time reaching escape velocity. They each weighed approximately thirty kilos and from what she could see the small mortar team had prepared several of the canisters with a fuse so they would go off shortly after being launched out of their improvised thrower, exploding against their dropships and amongst the soldiers.
There was a three meter wide hole in one of the dropships that was clear testimony to the effectiveness of the weapon. The rest of the soldiers huddled behind the barricade took turns firing through the slits and other rough openings in the rough wall. “At least they're smart enough to stay behind cover and keep their losses down.” Oz said with a little admiration. “I can't say I could do much better myself given the resources they have.”
They ran behind their escort, staying low and taking cover beside a short, bald man in a green and dark blue uniform. “So you're the new arrivals,” he said to Ayan and Oz without turning.
“I'm Ayan and this is Oz. We have military training and I'm an Engineer,” Ayan said hurriedly. “How did you know we were coming?”
“I'm wired in to the short range burst transponder we have set up one level down.” The short fellow said, pointing to a slim black cable running out behind him and under a doorway. “I'm Deck Officer Yves Markham with the Pandem Customs Authority. What kind of engineer are you?”
“I specialized in stationary and combat engineering.”
“And your tall friend there?” asked Yves, his dark brown eyes sizing Oz up from under his green and blue striped helmet.
“I came up as infantry, got switched into marines and made it all the way to Captain in the Freeground forces.”
“What brings you two here?”
“We're on vacation,” Oz replied, not missing a beat and evoking a smile from Ayan.
“Well then, welcome to glorious Pandem, the planet with a thousand beaches and three hundred twelve sunny days a year guaranteed,” Yves replied with a chuckle. The air pounding thump of the mortar launcher going off just a few meters away was more felt than heard. Its deadly projectile wasn't fired up and over so much as on a twenty five degree angle, just over the barricade towards the boarding ramp of the brown and red hulled general purpose ship. It went off with a thunderous explosion that sent a wave of heated air towards them from the detonation point, over three hundred meters away. The underside of the vessel was a no-man's land for several seconds as the pressurized fuel exploded in all directions in a blue and green fireball that engulfed the dozen or so soldiers trying to break into the vessel and knocked several other troops across the deck. “As you can see we're having a little trouble with our other guests. Right now we're trying to wipe out these troops while keeping them away from the edges of this platform so they can't join the two platoons that landed a few levels down.”
Ayan watched the plume of black and grey smoke rise up through the massive circular opening and stream out into the lightening dawn sky above and tried to suppress the feeling that she was sinking, going in the wrong direction. “I think we can help you,” she concluded with finality.