22

Elise took the lead, maneuvering her micro-fighter through the asteroid belt slightly faster than I was comfortable with.

“This will improve your piloting skills, Reaper Cain,” X-37 said. “You have most likely run out of beginner’s luck.”

“I’m not a beginner. I’ve had training,” I said.

“I believe you know what I mean,” X-37 said.

“Try to keep up, Reaper,” Elise said. She always sounded happy and alive when we were tearing through the void.

“I’m right behind you.”

“Good.” Something about her voice had changed. “I think I’ve spotted something. Possibly a ship.”

“What kind of ship?”

“I think it’s an Alon scout ship,” Elise answered. “Whatever it is, it knows I see it and it’s running.”

“X, can you confirm what she’s seeing?”

“Absolutely, Reaper Cain, just as soon as you bring us into visual range. I can’t analyze what I can’t see,” X-37 said.

“You know what I mean, X. Elise, let me take the lead.”

“It’s too fast. Just try to keep up.” She shot forward at full speed, weaving around asteroids one after another.

Before our sudden acceleration, there had seemed to be plenty of room between the space rocks. Now it felt like every time I steered, it was right toward an asteroid.

“Tom,” I said. “Stay out of the asteroid field but don’t get too far behind. Follow along the perimeter.”

No response.

“Tom,” I repeated.

“The scout ship is jamming our communications, which is intriguing since I don’t see how they can know our frequencies or even our basic technology,” X-37 said.

“How are they doing that if I can still talk to Elise?” I asked.

“Unknown, but it may have something to do with proximity and/or the asteroid field we are navigating at a rather dangerous rate,” X-37 said.

Elise pulled farther away from me and I still couldn’t see the mysterious Alon scout vessel she was chasing.

“My analysis suggests that you should minimize the rate at which she is leaving you behind without exceeding your piloting capabilities,” X-37 said.

“Are you worried, X?”

“I am somewhat worried, Reaper Cain. The odds of surviving the next several seconds are not promising. Please focus on what you are doing,” X-37 said. “Would some relaxing music assist your concentration?”

“Shutting the hell up would be better yet,” I said.

An extremely large rock tumbled toward me, or that’s what it looked like. I couldn’t see Elise or her quarry. Guessing which direction they were taking the pursuit, I jammed the control sticks forward and flew under the unusually large chunk of space debris.

When I cleared the rock, I was immediately faced with a cloud of smaller grit that peppered my shields. X-37 and my Archangel LAI worked together to find Elise.

I respected X-37’s warning, but if I didn’t take some risks, I was going to lose her and whatever she was chasing.

“Keep trying to raise the Jellybird and see if they can meet us on the other side of this asteroid belt,” I said, then accelerated as fast as I dared—plus about ten percent.

“Unable to establish communication with the Jellybird,” X-37 said.

Something big bumped my shield and scooted me sideways. I dropped down to avoid the next rock, then put the micro-fighter into a roll.

“It’s leaving the asteroid belt,” Elise said, her voice buried in static. “Just punch out of the belt and try to catch up with us on the other side. I’m going to…”

“We’ve lost signal,” X-37 provided unhelpfully.

I shot forward, clearing the last group of rocks easily. Cheering, I whooped and hollered my way toward a planet that had an ominous look to it.

“I’m detecting two small ships descending into the stratosphere,” X-37 advised. “I am ninety percent certain that one of them is Elise.”

I redlined the engines and went straight at them, desperate to catch up before Elise got herself into trouble.

* * *

The cockpit of the micro-fighter vibrated as the wings extended for atmospheric maneuvering. Alerts flashed in my HUD and the controls fought my hands.

“Reduce speed immediately, Reaper Cain. You are going to overshoot Elise and the other ship,” X-37 said.

I backed off just as I came alongside Elise. “Cain for Elise, how copy?”

“I hear you, Reaper.”

A wash of words I didn’t understand interrupted, completely burying our conversation. Whatever the other pilot was saying, it seemed to be some kind of challenge or accusation.

“X, can you figure out what he’s trying to tell us?”

“I’m working on it, Reaper Cain,” X-37 said.

“How’s your ship, Elise?” I asked.

“It’s good. I didn’t run into anything, unlike some people I know,” she answered.

“Ouch,” I said. “Run into a couple of rocks, and everybody makes a big deal out of it.”

“I’m low on fuel,” she said. “I’ve sent several unanswered messages to the Jellybird. I really hope they know we’re on this planet, because I’m going to have to land.”

I checked my HUD and confirmed my fuel was also low. “I want to know where this strange scout ship is going, but we need to break off. I don’t really want it telling its friends where we crashed down.”

“Who said anything about crashing?” Elise asked indignantly.

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s make a hard push to catch the Alon scout ship, then reverse course, break contact as cleanly as possible, and find a place to set down while it still believes were are in pursuit,” I said.

“I’m on it.” Elise rushed at the strange ship. Almost immediately, it accelerated far faster than we could match.

Elise and I banked in a wide turn, then flew down into a valley obscured by trees that had to be hundreds of feet tall.

* * *

Elise managed to get out of her ship before I did and was standing with her arms crossed, tapping her foot when I disengaged my Archangel armor from the chassis of the micro-fighter.

“What the hell are we going to do now?” Elise asked. “I couldn’t get confirmation that the Jellybird received our distress call.”

After pulling a long work knife from my leg armor, I began chopping branches from one of the enormous trees surrounding our landing site. Elise quickly realized what I was doing and followed suit. We camouflaged our little ships as we talked.

“It’s actually nice,” I said. “Not much humidity, oxygen-rich environment with lots of plant life—suggests there will be other animals to hunt or domesticate. We could live here for a while.”

“Or we could get rescued before some Alon search ship finds us,” Elise said.

“What do you think, X? Should we just retire here and make the most of it?” I asked.

“I cannot make a valid analysis of that question until we have more information. Could you please explore the planet, or at least the immediate area?” X-37 asked.

“We can do that,” Elise answered. “I feel like we are exposed here anyway. Why didn’t we train for terrestrial field operations, Reaper?”

“I’m thoroughly trained for that type of thing,” I answered. “Which is a good reason for you to listen to me and do what I say.”

“Now I really want to get rescued,” she said.

We moved into the trees, pausing to peer out from our new hiding place and search the sky for enemy ships. All we saw were flocks of birds moving across the valley, perching on treetops just long enough to gather and launch themselves with the flurry of activity.

“There is some sort of animal trail,” I said. “It should lead to water. We can test it and see if it’s drinkable. If it is, we will have a much better time surviving until we’re found.”

We moved steadily into the forest, descending through gullies and climbing up hills, all of which were covered with the towering evergreens and different types of underbrush. The landscape was a hundred layers of colors and textures and animal life.

“I think we’ll probably have to explore this when the rest of the fleet gets here,” Elise said. “It could definitely support everyone from Wallach and Xad.”

“Unless it’s already taken.”

Elise made one of her faces that involved eye rolling and turning away from me. “Duh. That’s why we’ll scout it.”

“X, have you decrypted any of that Alon transmission?” I asked.

“Only a single message. Something like the planet defends itself,” X-37 said.

“That doesn’t sound ominous.” Elise turned in a circle. “I don’t care what attacks as long as it doesn’t have tentacles.”

“Let’s just not get seen,” I said. “That’s the best way to avoid attacks, tentacle or otherwise.”

We found a stream with water so clear we could see fish swimming in it and the rocks on the bottom. I wasn’t sure I liked the look of the fish—they had a rainbow sheen to them and darted away before I could think about catching one.

Some sort of four-legged creature covered in spotted fur looked at us from the other side of the water, then darted away. Only then did I realize there were seven or eight of them of different sizes.

“There’s a lot of wildlife here. I wish we could get in touch with the Jellybird, or any ship that can scan for cities or technology,” I said.

“I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of those ships,” Elise said. “What do you think that means? Could we have discovered this planet at the same time that the Alon found it?” She paused. “And if that’s the case, how would they know the planet defends itself?”

“It’s too early to tell and we don’t even know for certain if that’s who we’re dealing with.” I scanned the terrain and got X-37’s opinion on where we might be able to take shelter.

There was a natural windbreak in the foothills of the mountains that surrounded us. With luck we might even find a cave to get us through the night.

“My analysis suggests that is your best option for shelter,” X-37 said. “It’s a defensible position and we can see a lot of the surrounding area on our approach to be sure it isn’t already claimed by someone else.”

“You heard X,” I said. “Time to see how well the Archangels do on the ground.”

“We are the Archangels, sort of,” Elise said. “I know that’s the armor designation, but if we worked for the Union that’s what we would be called.”

“Sure, but let’s not do anything like the Union would.” I took off at a fast run. The armor augmented my strength and conserved my energy. Every movement was more efficient, and I made good time until I tripped.

Elise staggered to a stop beside me, having her own problems moving at the speed these things were capable of. Standing and fighting for balance, she eventually put her fists on her hips and looked down at me as I climbed to my feet.

“That was awesome,” she said. “It’s different than running on one of the treadmills or even the track of the Bright Lance.”

“It’s fantastic. Especially the part where we stick out like shining gold armor in a raw world that doesn’t seem to have been touched by technology,” I said. “We need to find some camouflage.”

Elise laughed, totally up for the game. She scooped up a handful of dirt, her shining gauntlet every bit as efficient as a shovel. For several moments she smeared the rich, loamy soil all over her armor—and achieved nothing.

“There must be some sort of carbon and fluorine clear coat, polytetrafluoroethylene basically, covering the exterior of this stuff,” Elise grumbled, but not in a negative or unhappy way. “I can’t get it dirty.”

“I noticed that when we crossed the river and came out clean as a whistle,” I said.

“Well La-dee-da. Aren’t you smart,” she popped back. “We’ll figure something out. For now, we can just stay inside the tree line to avoid aerial counter reconnaissance.”

“Good idea.” I checked the sky. Privately, I had expected there would already have been one of the Alon scout ships looking for us if it was going to happen. It seemed unlikely that there was a major enemy presence, if that’s what they were on this planet.

I’d been wrong before.

“You’re awfully quiet, X. Can you help us out with camouflage?” I asked.

“Of course, Reaper Cain,” X-37 said. “I am highlighting camouflage instructions on your HUD now. It takes a few moments, but all you have to do is activate it and then remain motionless until the armor can adjust. It’s not a true stealth option like the cloak that you inconveniently left on the Bright Lance, but it will change the outward appearance of your armor to match the flora of this environment during this particular season.

“Thanks, X.” I activated the environment mimicking protocol. Elise, probably guided by the Archangel group LAI, was done before I was. That was getting to be a trend. She was quick.

“I told you integrating the armor was a good idea,” she said.

“I never argued with you. Let’s keep moving. I want to scout an area around our landing zone as thoroughly as possible.” The helmet optics and my cybernetic eye integrated well. Images were stored in short-term memory, then analyzed and saved if they were something X-37 thought useful.

The forest was dark at night and it was strange to be outside of a ship without seeing a massive star field all around me. I tried to remember the last time I had been on a planet and not in a city.

“Any luck contacting the Jellybird?” I asked.

“No, Reaper Cain,” X-37 said. “I am no longer detecting interference with our signals, however.”

“Should be a matter of time. Elise, what do you think about spreading out? We’d be less of a target for whatever is in these woods.”

“Our comms are solid right now. Let’s do it.”

I moved away from her, searching for threats and checking her position on my HUD when I couldn’t see her directly.

“This seems like a nice planet,” Elise said. “I wonder what President Coronas and Rejon will think of it.”

“Every system we scout will be a potential new home for their people,” I said.

“I’m hungry. Surely there has to be something we can eat on this planet,” Elise said.

“Let’s finish our security sweep before we get distracted.”

* * *

“There is only so much I can do,” X-37 said. “My analysis of these berries is limited to visual feedback and/or the reactions of your body when you consume it. A check of my database suggests that some berries of this basic size and color are edible but that others could kill you instantly.”

I looked at the purplish fruit in my hand. “That seems a bit harsh. They look sweet.”

“Yeah,” Elise said too casually. “Just throw down a couple of handfuls and see what happens. You’re the logical choice for the experiment since X-37 can gather more data.”

With our helmets off, her expressions were easier to read, and I saw that she honestly wanted to know if the local berries were edible, but that she also wanted to see me gag.

“Tom for Hal, please respond,” a voice came in my ear.

After dropping the berries, I slipped on my helmet for better reception. There was an urgency in my friend’s voice I didn’t like.

“I’m here, Tom. Elise is with me.”

“That’s a huge relief! We’ve been scanning the planet for hours. You really hid your ships well,” Tom said. “What is your situation? You need to get off that planet immediately.”

Elise had her helmet on now as well and was moving toward her micro-fighter. “We need fuel, Tom. Can you send us down a shuttle?”

“I could do that, but we will lose a shuttle. There won’t be time to recover it. I’m launching a care package to your location, which will alert the swarm. So don’t mess around. Refuel and just leave the container. I don’t like the look of this,” Tom said, sounding even more worried than before.

“Send me a video,” I said.

“It will be compressed. Standby,” Tom said. “I’m doing two things at once.”

“The fueling container is on its way,” Jelly said.

I saw the single use fuel pod streaking down from the atmosphere, arcing toward our location with a complete lack of subtlety. If there were Alon forces on the planet or something else we hadn’t seen yet, they wouldn’t have difficulty finding us now.

“Talk to me, Tom,” I said as I watched the first image is coming through my HUD projection. The view was of the planet from high orbit and there was a cloud of something moving our way.

“We thought it was a storm at first,” Tom said. “But it doesn’t move like an environmental system. It stopped several times, then seemed to detect something that got it moving again, then headed straight for your position.”

“I don’t like the look of that,” Elise said, all of her cockiness gone. She’d proven her bravery over and over again. Our experiences together had taught me how to interpret her tone well.

I was glad we were on the same page. It wasn’t quite time to crap our pants, but we needed to give our best game right now. We were on an alien planet of which we knew very little about and a swarm of something the size of a small continent was heading for us.

“My analysis of planetary creatures in the database combined with what we are seeing from high orbit suggests this is a flock of birds or some type of insect swarm,” X-37 provided, probably trying to be helpful.

“Yeah, let’s hope they can’t penetrate Archangel armor or micro-fighters.” I ran toward the fuel container as it struck the clearing.

“A bigger problem will be the sheer mass of the swarm,” X-37 said, then gave me an extensive list of size estimations that really didn’t help me much.

“We can’t fly through a swarm of birds or bugs or whatever that size,” Elise said. “Can you hurry up?”

I scrambled down into the crater, wanting to chastise Tom and Jelly for misjudging the impact velocity, but I wasn’t sure it was their fault. We were working on the fly and just had to adapt.

Scrambling down into the hole, I searched frantically for some type of handle and found a clamp that looked like it matched a section of the Jellybird’s storage bay. Grabbing with one hand and climbing with the other, I worked my way to the top of the hole where Elise pulled me the rest of the way out.

“Grab on!”

She quickly found the clamp on the other side and seized it. We shuffled ungracefully toward our ships and pulled out the refueling tubes.

Elise laughed in frustration. “If we had parked closer together, we could do them at the same time.”

“That’s the best we can do right now. Let’s get this going,” I said, starting the refueling of her ship first.

“The swarm will reach you in fewer than thirty minutes,” Jelly said.

“That is almost exactly the amount of time it will take to fill both of your ships with the rather viscous fuel these things use,” X-37 said. “That does not, however, account for the time it will take you to move the container to your ship, Reaper Cain.”

“Fine. Time to put this armor to the test.” I ran across the clearing where my micro-fighter was hidden. “It seemed like a good idea to spread them out at the time.”

“You didn’t hear me disagreeing with you.” Elise ran to help me.

“That was kind of unusual, now that you mention it,” I said.

We each grabbed a wing and moved the chassis with ease, then began filling it with the second nozzle immediately.

“Well done,” X-37 said. “Now there’ll only be a two minute and fifteen second overlap.”

“That’s what I’m predicting as well,” Tom said. “The cloud does tend to stop seemingly at random. Fingers crossed, maybe you’ll get lucky.”

I checked my HDK dominator and the magazines I would reload from when shit got hot. Elise did the same.

A shadow moved through the night, appearing strange with our night vision optics giving everything we saw a harsh edge to be better identified by the armor’s limited artificial intelligence and my cybernetic optics.

“I really hate this!” Elise’s voice sounded forced, as though she was pushing the words through clenched teeth.

“Analyzing data,” X-37 announced, not sounding the least bit worried. Sometimes it was nice to be an emotionless combination of hardware and algorithms. “I believe you can relax.”

“Why don’t we err on the side of caution,” I suggested. “We’re about to face the edge of a continent sized swarm of unknown alien life-forms.”

Elise shifted her stance, her own HDK gripped in both hands.

“It’s been nice knowing you, kid,” I said.

“Not a kid,” she replied.

I didn’t really know what the first insect was when I saw it, because it was bigger than a kite. In the darkness, cast in the eerie black and white and green tones of the night vision optics, it looked ominous.

Hundreds more followed, then thousands, then we were surrounded in every direction by slow-moving insects of every shape and size.

“That’s not what I expected.” Elise stood straighter and lowered her weapon.

I activated the helmet light that I had rarely used, turning the scene into a rainbow of colors. Elise and I laughed, surprised and delighted despite how amped up we had been to face our death only seconds before.

“Please remember, Reaper Cain, that this swarm may still be dangerous despite its pleasant appearance,” X-37 said.

I laughed as I talked. “Sure thing, X. I’ll watch out for the pretty bugs.”

Something happened as the light from my archangel helmet struck the delicate creatures. Some of them started to glow around the edges, and I realized that the top of the cloud was pulling light from the stars and moonshine.

“Maybe you should turn off your headlight,” Elise said softly.

“Get in your ship.” I finished off the refueling of my own micro-fighter chassis.

Elise climbed into hers, connected her armor to all of the strong points, and powered up the unit. I wanted to do the same but wasn’t ready.

More and more of the bugs gathered light from the night sky until we were under a canopy of the most brilliant cloud I’d ever seen. The wings of each creature beat slowly against the gentle night breeze. The bottom layer of insects moved toward a perimeter that encircled us and began to gather their own light that was unavailable when they were at the bottom of the churning cloud.

I powered up my fighter.

Light swelled in the top layer until it was too bright to look at without filters for my helmet visor.

“Let’s get the hell out of here, Elise. We’re going to have to fly through the trees and look for a way to gain altitude.” A second later, I punched my engines and took off without even bothering to fully disconnect the fuel hose. X-37 chastised me for ruining the coupling, but my gut was telling me we should have been gone five minutes ago.

“Hal, you’ve got a serious problem!” Tom shouted.

The combined energy of the solar insects gathering moon and star light focused in the center and blasted toward the surface, gouging a huge crater in the clearing.

Elise and I shot between trees, often tipping the micro-fighters onto their sides to avoid crashing into them. She took the lead, dropping into a gully and racing over a stream of water that was starting to boil from the destruction behind us. The more power the strange creatures poured into their organic weapon, the more the scene behind us looked like a nuclear holocaust.

In the void, it was easy to forget how fast these little micro-fighters were, but with the perspective of trees and mountains all around us, I really felt like we were about to die.

“The explosions are having a cumulative effect,” Tom warned. “I’m still tracking you, thank the gods! Don’t stop for anything.”

The stream bed became a waterfall towering a hundred meters above us. Elise and I both shot upward, grunting at the G force as we were pulling to complete the maneuver. One of her wings clipped the water and sent a spray into the night.

“Why… would… bugs incinerate… the forest?” I asked as I pulled my fighter into the sky and flashed away from the destruction behind us.

“Unknown,” X-37 said. “I believe they are defending the planet from invaders.”

“I knew you were going to say that.” I joined Elise, flying wide of the cloud of deceptively beautiful creatures. The plasma-like blast they had generated was reaching for the atmosphere.

“I’m not sure this planet is going to make a good home for the fleet,” Elise said. “But now I’m curious. What’s with this place?”

“Jelly is telling me the swarm is attempting to communicate,” Tom said. “Apparently, the butterfly swarm is sentient and not happy about trespassers.”

“I’m consulting with Jelly now,” X-37 said. “We’ve agreed it’s not a true language, more like the roar of a wild animal than a creature we could negotiate with.”

“Great. Any sign of the Alon scout ship?”

“No, Captain,” Jelly answered. “But there is a crisis on the Bright Lance requiring your attention.”

“Fantastic,” I said. “Do we have any idea what happened to the ship we were chasing?”

“Your encounter with the indigenous life-forms of this planet was on the edge of the swarm,” X-37 explained. “I’m working with Jelly now and it seems that there were a series of other explosions. Our hypothesis is that the strangers you were pursuing, possibly the Alon, had an outpost that was just annihilated.”

“We need to confirm that.” I aimed my little ship toward the Jellybird.

“Of course, Reaper Cain. But I really must insist you head for the Bright Lance at your best possible speed. If you don’t handle this situation, finding a new home for this fleet will be a moot point.”

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