Warrior Chronicles 4: Warrior's Wrath (18 page)

“You know,” Cort said. “That suit is supposed to be the
light
combat system. It wasn’t meant for this kind of use.”

Before Lex could respond, his comm activated. “Sike here. Go,” he said. “Okay send her down.”

Cort looked up when he heard, “Send her down.” When Lex disconnected he said, “That had better not be who I think it is.”

Lex smiled and said, “No sir, it is not Kim. Speral is here. She wants to talk to us.”

Cort sighed and said, “Thank the gods. I could not have dealt with my wife right now. She seems to think that what we are doing is dangerous.”

Lex laughed and said, “What would give her that idea? In your case it is more like a spa day. Every time you get hurt, you end up prettier.”

Cort laughed, “I know, right?”

“Are you going to wait for Speral or go in now?”

“How long will it take her to get here?” Cort asked.

“Her shuttle is above the city now, so I would guess fewer than ten minutes.”

“Let’s go eat, then. The caves can wait an extra half hour.” Activating his comm Cort ordered, “Badger company, this is Ares. Hit the mess and get some fuel, we roll in thirty minutes.”

--

They were still in Lex’s command module when Speral arrived. She was in her own FALCON 4 with the mask pulled back, only the alabaster skin of her face and the tips of her dorsal barbs showing. “Cortland, Lex, it is good to see you both,” she said.

After Lex and Cort both greeted her, Cort said, “I didn’t think you wanted to come back here, Speral.”

“I did not, but my people are fighting a war.” She paused and added, “You. Not my species. I can be of use to you.”

“I see. How can you help us?” Cort asked.

“The Nill are not going to be honest with you about the Tapons. But I know the truth, and it is time that you do as well.”

“Will it affect how to fight the war?”

“No Cortland, but it may affect
if
you fight the war.”

“No Speral, it will not. I am not fighting this war to protect the Nill. I am fighting it to exterminate the Tapons. It is just happenstance that I am killing them on Nill. But if you think I should know the history of the Nill conflict with them, I will listen.”

“I see. I believed your vow to make them extinct to be hyperbole.”

“No. They hurt my son and tried to kill Kim. They will all die.”

“Why did you not make good on your promise to exterminate the H’uumans then, Cortland?”

“I never promised that. I promised to exterminate the Cuplans, and I did. And for them, it was simply war. They never set out to fight me personally, they just tried to control the galactic arm.”

“The Tapons are fighting for a much smaller goal. They only want this planet back, Cortland. A planet that my people took from them. It would seem they are much less a threat to the federation than the Cuplans were.”

“The Tapons have actually united the federation in ways only war can, Speral. But for the Addisons, for our pack, this war is personal.
Very
personal.”

Speral regarded Cort for a moment before turning to an aide that was standing in front of a holographic representation of the tunnel system. “Are you an Addison, Lieutenant?”

The surprised tactical officer looked at Cort questioningly. When he nodded, she said, “No, ma’am. I am not an Addison.”

“Then why do you fight for General Addison in this personal war?”

The lieutenant thought for a few seconds before responding. “This war is personal for General Addison, but that does not mean it is not a just war. The Tapons are a threat to humanity, and they colluded with the Blatterians to undermine the security of the Ares Federation. Through subterfuge and battle, we are nullifying the threat they represent.”

“Do you still feel they are a threat to you?” Speral asked.

The junior officer was feeling bolder and more confident, so she asked, “How long ago did your people take this planet from the Tapons, ma’am?”

Speral closed her eyes and read the information from her eyelids. “It has been over three million human years.’

“So if even one mating pair of Tapons is left alive, they are still a threat to us, because they can hold grudges for over three million years. If I can touch a firing stud today and know that I am protecting my great grandchildrens’ great grandchildren from a vengeful species, why would I do anything less?”

Cort and Lex had listened to the exchange and were impressed with the answer the young woman gave. Cort had a battle to fight though, and decided to hurry things along. “Speral, I am about to lead a group of Marines into a cave system nearby. Is there anything in the history of your people that can help me with that?”

“Show me the caves, please.”

Lex turned to the map table and signalled the lieutenant to call up a map of the area so Speral could see where the caves were in relation to the city. “They are here, Speral. We can map them to this point, but not further.”

Speral looked at the map and said, “So
that
is where they are.”

“Excuse me?” Cort asked.

“We have long known there was a colony of Tapons on the planet, but we have never known where they were. For eons we have seen signs of them, but were never able to find where they lived. It must be in those caves. Occasionally our young would disappear in the forest. I think the Tapons that fled into them must have known there were allies there as well.”

“How did you know there were still Tapons on the planet?” Cort asked.

“The Core told us.”

“It told you?”

“Yes. The Core is a kind of...god to the Nill, Cortland. We protected it. In exchange for our protection, it allowed us to use it for communication and transport. That was the agreement we had with it.”

“You mean it is alive?” Lex asked.

“It is. Although it is quite damaged now. When I learned where the Tapons had taken Dalek, it told me that it had lost much of its connection to the universe. It said the Tapons had sent a worm to attack it.”

Cort was becoming very interested now. He asked the major in charge of the Badgers to join them in the command module and that the mission into the caves was to be delayed. Once the major joined them, he told Speral to tell her story. “Start at the beginning, Speral. Tell us everything.”

“It would take me years to tell you everything, Cortland, But I will share the relevant history with you.”

--

It was an incredible story. For the Nill, it began when the Tapons appeared among them and took their young. Once on the Tapon planet, they were first pets, then servants to the kidnappers. Many of the young died in those first years, until a microbe was found by Tapon scientists that allowed the Nill to survive in the planet’s atmosphere. The relationship with the microbe was symbiotic and led to the poisonous properties of the Nill dorsal spines.

After several thousand years of enslavement, the Nill occupied all positions of subservience on the planet, including the job of maintaining the planet’s library core. From its cooling system to replacing faulty nodes, the Nill were responsible for everything except programming the library. At that time, the library became self-aware and began to study the world and universe around it. Finally, when the library realized it was being used by the Tapons, it decided to act. It fouled the control of its own cooling system, which sent a party of Nill workers to the area of the breakdown. While there, the library made contact with the workers via a data terminal. After talking to various Nill for several years, the library notified the Tapons that their Nill servants were planning a revolt. It then suggested the Nill be fitted with what became known as ocular bridges.

To the Tapons the bridges appeared to be, and in fact functioned as, neural control devices. But to the library and the few Nill who were a part of the conspiracy, they became a means of communication. By closing their eyes, the Nill could read data fed to them by the library. In order to feed information back to the library, early ocular bridges required the Nill to speak, but in later versions of the device, the Nill were able to use eye movement to communicate with the living computer and each other.

At the same time, the library began to feed other false information to the Tapons, including atmospheric data, causing them to began dumping gases into the air that would benefit the Nill and their microbes, while weakening the Tapons, who had already began an evolutionary process of skeletal and muscular atrophy.

At a time when the
Australopithecus afarensis
Lucy was walking across Ethiopia’s Afar Depression on Earth, the Nill revolted. The library shut down data to the Tapons, while the Nill spent one of their deadly dorsal spines on each Tapon they encountered. Only one colony of Tapons survived, on a planet so far from the homeworld, and so desolate, that neither the Nill or the library computer believed the exiles would ever be able to reach for the stars again.

With the planet finally their own, the library and the Nill developed a society in which the computer became known as
the Core
, and in exchange for its own independence and the protection of the Nill, the Core provided the now free species with a means to communicate with each other and to travel among the stars.

--

“Wow,” Cort said an hour later. “I can see why they want revenge now. It’s too bad for them that they decided to involve me. If they had left Dalek alone and not tried to undermine our ties to the Collaborative Government, I wouldn’t have cared about their grudge with the Nill. Especially after they banished you.”

“Thank you for that, Cortland.”

“How many Tapons were killed?” Cort asked.

Speral looked down and said, “Billions. Perhaps tens of billions.”

The number hung silently among the small group for several moments before anyone spoke. Only Cort was able to fully grasp the guilt Speral felt about her species’ eradication of another.

“I have a question,” Lex said. “You said they kidnapped young Nill and brought them to this planet. What happened to the Nill on your original planet?”

“That is one of our great mysteries. The Core does not know. We were taken long before it became self-aware, and we have never been able to find that world, though we have searched for a very long time. Now it seems we will never know.”

“That isn’t true ma’am,” the lieutenant said. “The H’uumans can still jump, and we plan on using them for all transport, civilian and military, so it is quite possible they will find your people.”

Cort looked at the woman and asked, “How do you know of our plans to utilize H’uuman jump tech?”

The lieutenant thought fast and said, “Because we would have to be stupid not to use it that way, sir. And you are not stupid.”
Oh gods!
That
was stupid.

Cort looked at the woman and said, “Uh huh. Sure, that’s how you know. Just answer me this, do I have an intel leak somewhere?”

The lieutenant wasn’t about to betray a lifelong friend who worked for Rand Gaines, so she just said, “Sir, if my source were a threat to our security, I would not leave that person alive.”

“It’s not that big a secret LT, but I don’t want you sharing it again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Turning back to Speral he said, “Do you want to find your ancestors? I mean you personally, Speral. If you do I can work on making that happen. I can’t promise it obviously, but I can try.”

“I have often wondered about them Cortland. I am sure all Nill have. But I am Federation now. They are not my concern. You may be able to use that offer as a bargaining chip with the Nill though.”

Earth

“Detective Thorn, how soon can you be in my office?”

“If you can send a flight for me, I can be there this afternoon, Superintendent. Why do you need me?”

Dar Sike was looking across his desk at Lee Pan. “I have someone here who has information you need, and I would rather you be here to talk to him personally.” Looking down at his flexpad, Dar added, “I will have a flight there in ten minutes. That will put you here in two hours. We will see you then.”

Looking back up at Pan, Dar said, “Do you remember the first time we met, Lee? The day I cancelled the contract for atmosphere plants?”

Pan laughed and said, “If it were not for my synthetics, I think I would have had a stroke that day, Superintendent.”

“I half expected you to anyway,” Dar said. “Shall we have lunch while we wait for Detective Thorn?”

“I have learned to trust you about food, so yes.”

“Have you ever eaten SPAM?”

--

“When I sent the request to Dr. Pan for information about Cort’s transition, the science people looked into the actual mechanics of the transition,” Dar said.

Dr. Pan continued, “I have always been curious about the way he travelled through time, but until I took over Sciences for the government, I did not have access to the data. Addison’s transition was spatially anchored.”

“What does that mean?” Detective Thorn said.

“Let me back up,” Pan said. “The transition system worked using anchor particles to connect the general’s transition chamber to our space time. In the case of jump transitions, the anchor particles were time particles, allowing us to jump spatially.”

“Time particles?” Thorn said.

“Just accept them,” Dar replied, smiling. “You will have fewer headaches that way.”

“In the case of General Addison’s transition, the anchor particles were spatial, allowing him to jump chronologically.”

Thorn thought for a minute and said, “Okay Dr. Pan, so the jumps have two anchors, time and distance. To jump, you let go of one and ride the other.”

“More or less.”

“I am guessing then that you believe this is how people are being abducted. Some sort of jump system is being used to snatch people from specific locations.”

“One specific location,” Pan said.

“But people are disappearing from multiple locations.”

Pan belched and excused himself. “SPAM is evil, Superintendent. Evil. Where can I buy it?”

Pan poured himself a glass of water before continuing. “It would seem so, but using spatial anchor points my people have determined that they have all disappeared from the same locus. At least in terms of galactic position, anyway.”

“Okay, I think I follow you Doctor. The people appear to be disappearing from multiple locations, but on a galactic map, it would be the exact same spot. How could we get to the same point if the universe is constantly moving?”

“The universe is constantly moving, that is true. But the objects in the universe move at different speeds. So using specific alignments points, specific stars for example, we can calculate specific transition points, just as General Addison’s team did.”

“Okay. So the entity behind abducting humans is using our spatial relationship in the galaxy to pick points on Earth. Once those points have humans at them, they reach in and grab us. Is that about it?”

“That is
exactly
it, Detective. And I can tell you where and when it will happen next.”

“Wait!” Thorn said. “Did the abductees get taken across time?”

“I do not believe so,” Pan said. “We have not picked up that kind of tachyon burst.”

Thorn asked, “Okay. Where is it happening next?”

Nill

“I wish I could say I envy you General, but this time I do not. It is going to be hell in there.”

“Lex, I’ve left instructions with the others. If it goes south in there for me, you are in command. Not just of the war, of the whole federation.”

Lex was shocked. “What?”

“You get it. You get the burden of command, and you understand the problems I face every day. So if I fall, you take over. Understand?”

“Yes, sir. But I do not like it, so do me a favor and make it out okay.”

“That’s the plan.” Turning to the major in charge of Badger company Cort said, “Let’s move out.”

Major John “Bump” Hearns called out, “Let’s roll, Badgers! Time to clean up.”

“OORAH!” came from over two hundred voices.

“By the way Speral,” Cort asked the small woman beside him. “What did Jeff think of you coming out here?”

“To borrow a phrase from you Cortland, he was less than pleased. In fact, he demanded I not leave Mars.”

“Yet here you are,” Cort said as he pulled the mask of the FALCON over his face.

“Yes. He was sleeping soundly when I left. Hopefully he will not follow me here.”

Turning to Lex, Cort picked up a shield that was designed to absorb bursts from the Tapon energy weapons. “If he does show up, keep him out of our way.”

“Yes, sir.”

--

Thero walked deeper into the cave system and found Siyan. “They are coming, sir. I estimate two hundred of them.”

Siyan looked at the map of the caves, indicated a spot well inside the main tunnel, and said, “When they reach this point, collapse the cave.”

--

“I show charges up ahead!” Bump called out. “Disable them!”

Cort lowered his shield just enough for a Marine behind him to fire small plasma slugs into the charges, rendering them useless.

“How the hell did they get in here?” Cort asked as the group began moving again. “They are taller than us.”

“But they are thinner,” Hearns said. “Bending over just a bit, they can probably move through here pretty quickly.”

“Especially since they don’t have to worry about booby traps,” Cort added.

“Booby traps, sir?”

As so often happened, Cort felt out of place. So many of the phrases from his time had not survived three centuries of human growth. “An old saying. Hidden traps. Things like the charges.”

“Ah.”

--

“They have disabled the charges, sir.”

“Then we must fight them, Thero.”

--

“Here they come!” Hearns yelled. “Shields up!”

The shields were made from the same material as the FALCON 4s, thousands of alternating layers of copper and graphene that directed the energy from the Tapon weapons into each Marine’s FALCON powerpack. Cort was in the front of the group and his shield was hit with so much energy from the initial blast of weaponry that he seemed to actually feel the force in his arm. Within seconds, the shield overloaded his battery and began to disintegrate.

As the barrier broke down, Cort dropped to a prone position and raised his weapon. The latest Multiple Ammunition Tactical gun was a far cry from the model Amber Hansen had left in his cave centuries before. The new model, known as the MATE, or Multiple Ammunition Tactical Energy weapon was still able to fire a variety of rounds, but the source of those rounds had changed. Inside the stock of the weapon were several removeable molecular capacitors which supplied power to an ammunition printer, which was housed under the firing mechanism, much like a traditional magazine would have been. The printer converted energy from the capacitors into ammunition which was inserted into the firing chamber before being charged and fired from the coil gun barrel.

What this meant for the Tapons was death. A safety feature of the weapon kept the capacitors from overloading by converting excess energy from the FALCONs into plasma. That plasma left Cort’s weapon in a near constant stream, killing Tapons by the score with their own redirected energy.

While Cort fired from his belly, Hearns stepped over to him, carrying his own shield. As he absorbed the energy of enemy fire he stepped forward over Cort, putting himself at the front of the advancing column. Once his shield was depleted, Bump dropped in front of Cort, who had stopped firing.

The dance repeated itself, a little over two meters at a time, for the next three hours. By the time Cort had advanced to the front of the company for the third time, six Marines were dead and eight were seriously wounded, but the Ares fighters had moved nearly a kilometer into the cave, their progress slowed only by the bodies of their enemies.

--

“Siyan,” Thero said. “We are losing ground.”

“Yes. We have lost the planet again,” Siyan said. “But this time there will be no reprieve.”

“What should we do?”

“The White Council was sure we would prevail now. I do not think they understood Addison.”

“What do we do now, Siyan? The Ares warriors are just a few thousand meters away, and we cannot stop them.”

“How many of our fighters are left?”

“We have a few thousand perhaps.”

Siyan turned to the sealed vault behind him. “Thero, order a full retreat. We will not reclaim our past home, but neither will the Nill have it. The warriors will leave through the Core. Once they have all fallen, we will sterilize the planet.”

“How, Siyan?”

Siyan dusted off a round section of the vault and tried to rotate its cover out of the way. When the small disk would not move, he broke it with the butt of his weapon. Then he pulled a small ornate pendant from his neck and inserted it into the opening he had exposed. Turning to an aide nearby he held out a small icon and said, “Order everyone through this tunnel. It is long, but it will take you to the Core. Once there, find this image and it will lead you to the outside. You must fight until the last of us are dead.”

As primates began to pour by them, Thero turned back to Siyan  and asked, “What of us?”

“If you will trust me but a little while longer Thero, I would have you by my side. I have known of the White Council for most of my mature life. I was selected for my position almost at the time I was able to mate. But even for me, they have been a distant body that seemed beyond reality. I would like you to be with me when we meet them.”

--
 

“They have opened the hidden tunnel!” a tech called out. “Gods! It is ten more kilometers long.”

“Full ping! Put it on the tactical map!” Hearns ordered. After the updated map appeared in the visor of his FALCON mask, he called Cort. “General, I think this is bad. Really bad. The tunnel they are fleeing into leads to the capital city. To the temple, sir. I think it leads straight to the Core.”
 

--
 

Siyan played with the key in his hand hesitantly. He was either about to meet his gods, or he was about to find out that his entire adulthood had been a waste. Like the first lock, this one was covered with a small disk, but in this case, the cover turned almost freely. He looked at the smaller opening for what seemed to Thero to be an eternity. Finally, Siyan pushed the cylindrical key into the recess that matched it.

“It cannot be!” Thero exclaimed under his breath as he took in the scene before him.

Before them were eleven beings, each wearing a necklace of the same icon Siyan had handed the aide. Siyan stepped into the room and fell to his knees. “I have failed, White Ones. Our world, even our species, is lost. Forgive me.”

One member of the council stepped forward and placed her hand on Siyan’s shoulder. “Rise, young one. We have all failed. It is not your burden.”

Siyan stood and looked at the woman before him. She was clearly old, but he had no clue what her true age was. If the legends were to be believed, she was as old as the conflict.
It cannot be though. Millions of years? Surely not!

Thero was less impressed by the Council member’s ancient countenance than he was her general appearance. She was pale and nude except for the pendant around her neck and a small dagger at her waist. She was nearly two meters tall, still shorter than he, but much taller than any of her kind he had seen before. She was facing Siyan, which meant Thero saw her from an angle. The view he was afforded clearly showed the six spines lying against her back. Were she but a meter shorter, she would look like any female Nill he had ever seen before.

--

“Ares, this is Bump. We are approaching the end of the known tunnel. What are your orders?”

“Stand by, I’m moving forward.” Cort had fallen back in the combat order to carry a wounded Marine to safety. Once he maneuvered his way back to the front, he found the major standing in front of one male Tapon.

“Are you Addison?” Siyan asked.

“I am. Who are you?”

“My name is Siyan. I have been waiting for you.”

Cort didn’t reply, so Siyan continued. “I know you are going to kill me, General. You can do nothing else. But you must know the truth before I die.”

“Make it quick, Siyan.”

“Do you know our past, General?”

“Yes. You captured and enslaved the Nill. With the help of the Core, they rebelled and kicked you off the planet.”

“The traitor Speral has told you much.”