Atlas: Infinity Verge Trilogy: Book II (27 page)

“The Vald are not for…fo…forgiving, A…A……Abel Cain,” she said. She spat blood and bluish fluids. “They already have the E…E……EXO Prime’s location. The Vald do not lose. We will conquer the humans, we will conquer the Quintarrans, then we will find Sol and d…de…destroy it,” she said grinning. Blood and fluid continued to bubble up in her mouth.

Abel watched. His horror kept him from pulling the trigger again. He hoped she would say more, reveal more about the Vald's connection with the EXOs. He was concerned about what she had said about the Vald wanting the EXO technology. Aurora did not say anything else, about the EXOs, about the virus, about Echo, none of it. She just gurgled and died.

27:
QUINTAR V

Quintar V - Surface Wreckage: TP-D Justice

2973 ESD - Wednesday, June 16th 15:30 hours

Echo woke. She didn't know how long she had been unconscious. The TP-D entered the atmosphere and sparks from the console must have shocked her. She couldn't remember the ship crashing, but from the state around her, it certainly had. No debris appeared to be holding her down, but she felt itchy all over. She sat up and looked down at her torn and bloodied clothes. She could find no wounds to speak of.

It took her several minutes of trepid confusion before she understood the nanites had repaired her body. Her stomach growled and her mouth felt parched. She recalled that the nanites fed on caloric intake, much like the body itself did. In the absence of food nanites could shut down or start in on the natural fat stores in her body. Depending on how long she had been out she might be emaciated.

Echo knew it was a vain thought, all things considered, but it was there nonetheless. She also feared she was going to die. The realization hit her full force. She had told no one to come for her and had specifically forbade Abel from rescuing her. She couldn't remember why she had sent the message, but she knew the EFNF would oblige. Abel may not, but that would mean his death as well. Echo wasn't sure if he would take the risk or not, but she wasn't going to wait around to find out.

She started to help herself up and a stabbing pain raked through her left leg. She looked down to see that a rod of some sort had been driven through it. The rod was about a meter long and extended just a few centimeters above her calf. She figured she could pull it out, but the skin around it had already began to heal due to the nanites. She looked around for any other survivors. Andrew Boulson's body lie mangled a few meters away. The Transteel canopy was completely shattered and the flowing grasslands of Quintar V waved in the light breeze.

Got to get moving E, you are completely exposed here,
she thought.

Echo wasn't sure, but she thought she heard a voice. There was a light whispering call. She remained silent and tried not to draw attention to herself. Someone was calling her name.

It is delirium E,
she remained silent.

The voice grew louder and she thought she recognized it. She was still afraid though. She felt at her waist and winced when she shifted too much. The rod clicked hard against the base of the console and rang out. The pain was secondary to her horror that she just gave her position away. She groped at her waist and found the plasma pistol still there. She drew the pistol causing another ping from the rod and another shot of pain up her leg.

“Echo!?” the voice said. It came from the front of the shattered Transteel canopy.

Echo was sure it was Six Remington, the voice was too familiar not to be his. However, they were on Quintar V. It was a miracle she survived, but for Six to have survived as well seemed uncanny.

Wasn’t he in the medical bay?
Her caution felt justified.

Echo stayed silent, but prepared to switch on the plasma pistol. She unhinged the safety and pointed it at the open Transteel canopy. She continued to hear rustling and eventually Six. He looked nearly as haggard as herself. Six stepped through the opening at the front of the ship.

Echo switched on the pistol. The micro-turbine whirred to life indicating the weapon was charging. The light whine of the plasma pistol alerted him. Six looked over immediately. Instinctively he drew his sword. When he saw it was Echo he started towards her.

“Echo!” he called.

“Stay right there!” Echo gritted her teeth to keep from crying out as she forced her pistol hand forward. “Are you infected!?””

Echo knew the question was silly, she had only seen a handful of people aside from Alek Vale who retained their thoughts and memories after being exed, but she was taking no chances.

“No, god no,” Six said. He looked shocked and a bit hurt, like a puppy. “I've been searching for you all morning. The shields seem to have held the ship together right up until impact. With time and resources she could fly again.”

Echo listened to his voice. She searched for some hint he was infected; a slight reverberation or a mechanical whir. She heard nothing besides her pistol, which she still aimed at him. Six looked at her leg and frowned. Then he looked back at the pistol and his frown deepened.

Echo felt a bit sheepish and she switched off the pistol, “Hello Six.”

“Hello Echo,” he replied. “We need to get that out of your leg,” Six pointed to the rod that kept her from being able to move.

“I was about to do that when I heard your voice. I was afraid you were exed,” she said.

Damnit E, don't show weakness. You don't need anyone, you can survive and fight on your own!
She scolded herself.
Don't you?
She added.

“Well, it looks like the flesh is healed but the rod isn't fused to the bone,” he said as he tested the rod. Echo bit her lip hard enough to draw a small trickle of blood.

“Just pull it out,” Echo said gasping.

“On the count of three. One … two,” Six said as he yanked the rod from her leg.

Echo did her best not to scream and it came out as a muffled cry. She could taste the coppery blood in her mouth. She pushed her tongue against the inside of her lip and tested her leg. The pain shot up into her hip, but she was able to put pressure on it.

“Give me a shoulder,” she said. Six obliged quickly. “We need to get moving. The EXOs are sure to know we're here. I'm surprised none have shown up yet. What day is it?””

“Wednesday, I think. Based on your injuries and mine, I'd say we needed a full day of rest and then some to heal up. The nanites work pretty well, but neither of us had much in the way of fat stores. Our first order is finding water I think,” Six said.

“Avoiding EXOs and finding water,” she said. “Why didn't that URSA class shoot us down or follow us?” She thought that this might have been a trap from the start. Considering the actions of First Fleet and the URSA, she was starting to think that it was.

“I managed to salvage some data from the crew hub, everything I could find on Quintar V. There is a considerable amount from Abel himself, but little else. Sadly, it is mostly about the indigenous people rather than the landscape. I was able to-” Six said before Echo interrupted.

“The crew hub? We still had power?” Echo asked.

“Just enough. I had to transfer it to a Writcom.”

“What about the rest of the crew?” Echo asked.

Six bowed his head. That was enough for Echo, she knew that there was little chance they had all survived. However, Six decided to say it anyway, “Kay was in engineering when the secondary power coupling failed, that caused the engine to burst on the starboard side, that is what caused us to drift into the planet instead of the moon. You saw Boulson on the command deck. Martinez made it to an escape pod, but the EXOs targeted pods first,” Six bowed his head.

“I think that the EXOs targeting the pods is what allowed us to rest and heal. They wanted to get any survivors from the pods before combing the TP-D for tech and usable parts,” Six finished.

“I see. What were you able to do?” Echo asked. Six looked confused. “With the data on Quintar V?”

“Oh, yeah. I was able to decipher where to find water based on Abel's observation of the Quintarran habits. We're a couple of cliqs away from a hill stream,” Six explained.

“That's the way we're going then. Did you find any other weapons?”

“I didn't check Captain,” It was the first time Six had called her captain since he found her.

Echo appreciated the respect, “I'm not much of a Captain without a ship,” she echoed Abel's sentiment regarding the loss of the
Kodiak
and his commission for the TP-D.

He should have been commanding this mission,
she thought.

“Come on,” Echo said. “If we're going to survive long enough to kick the EXOs in the teeth we're going to need water and food.””

“There is supposed to be some sort of species of fish in the stream too,” Six offered.

“Good, I need something to eat sooner rather than later,” Echo sighed. “I'm glad you're alive Master Chief, otherwise I'd be stuck with a rod through my leg.””

The two of them hobbled out of the wreckage and started towards the destination on Six's Writcom. Echo could feel the nanites pumping through her system itching at every pore repairing the damage in her leg. Only three hours later she was walking on her own again. Although she was extremely tired and her body was rebelling against the lack of food. More than once the two of them had to stop and catch their breath before moving on again.

“There it is,” Echo said. She could see the stream. It was larger than she had expected, but then again Quintar V was at least three times the size of Quintar IV, which her histories showed was one and a quarter the size of Earth. A stream on Quintar V was a wide river on Earth.

Echo and Six rushed forward and threw their faces into the water. Echo gulped and drank as much as she could. Six drank a bit, but then began poking his sword into the water. Echo, startled, jumped back and saw a wriggling form at the end of his blade. He grinned as he flung the fish at her. Echo squealed and leapt back. For a moment he had helped her forget the horrors of the EXOs and their predicament. Sadly, it made her think of Zee and Abel. She had traveled with them for a short period of time, but in that time she had grown to love Zee like family. She had grown to love Abel as something more. She wished she had not told him to leave her here. Six seemed to recognize the somber mood and continued gathering more fish. They used the grass and several twigs to make a small fire.

28:
FALLOUT

Near Quintar V - Independent ATLAS-V Class Gunship: Atlas

2973 ESD - Wednesday, June 16th 13:20 hours

After disposing of the two crew, the Vald, and Aurora Rigel, Abel, Tee, and Artemis secured AaBee's body in the cold storage. Abel wanted to bring him home, which ironically was Quintar V. They meshed out again with ADM at the helm while the rest of them took rest.

They meshed out within sight of Quintar V. The Rear Admiral's escort was waiting and Zed agreed with Abel's request to bring AaBee's body to the surface. The EXOs couldn't ex him now and he would have wanted to be home. Abel knew little about him, but he was a sort of surrogate for Zee.

They had a funeral for Zee, but it was not on Quintar V where Zee had been born and struggled against the AI. The majority of Quintarran's lives had been spent on Quintar V, it was home regardless of their oppression. He felt he was honoring Zee by bring AaBee home. The lack of opposition concerned Abel. The communications ADM had intercepted indicated they knew he was coming.

Just when he was about to remark on it ADM spoke, “Statement: Incoming URSA class vessel. Reading additional contacts, twelve RAVEN class fighters and scouts.”

“Flak, I knew it was too good to be true,” Abel said. “Artemis, I need you to start acquiring targets. Tee! Get on the comms with Rear Admiral Zed and have him coordinate an attack on those RAVENs,” Abel ordered as he sat down in the captain's command chair.

“ADM I need a neural uplink with the
Atlas
, give me sub-light navigation and start an attack array based on Artemis' targets,” Abel finished.

“Confirmation: Affirmative, preparing neural link in three … two … one,” ADM said.

Abel felt the entire ship weigh down on his mind. The complex ins and outs of ADM's programming, the location of every member aboard the ship, the schematics, and the sensory input all flooded into his neural uplink. The
Atlas
and Abel became one. He began evasive action to avoid making direct contact with any of the approaching ships and filed the
Atlas
into formation with the EFNF battlecruisers.

The Lady Luck
took the central point flanked by the other two EFNF ships. Abel kept the
Atlas
below and behind the other three ships, concealing his heat signatures with the exhaust of the other vessels. A general comm request came through to each of the vessels.

“Observation: no EXO virus is contained within the communications request,” ADM relayed.

“Tee, go ahead and put the comm up on the viewer. Don't open our end of the channel though,” Abel said.

Tee nodded and the Transteel viewer shifted. Breaker Jones appeared before the crew of the
Atlas
, “Greetings Abel Cain. I been waiting a long time for this. The EXO Prime wants you dead.” Breaker smiled. “I am feeling inclined to oblige him. Time to die. Fleet Commander Doyle, ATTACK!”