Resist the Red Battlenaut (4 page)

 

Moments after the shuttle landed in the docking bay of the
Sun Tzu
, the hatch dropped open, and the passengers filed out.

Scott was the last one down the stairs, pulling his wheeled duffel along behind him. When he got clear of the shuttle and took a look around, he was surprised; the docking bay, which was located in the fore section of the central shaft, was bigger than he'd guessed on approach. The ceiling was easily eighty meters away, more than high enough to house the two destroyers parked at one end and the small fleet of fighters stacked on racks at the other.

Men and women in red jumpsuits rushed in all directions, hurrying on foot or aboard motorized carts. Everyone seemed to be shouting or dropping gear or banging on things at the same time, filling the place with echoing clamor.

As on any wartime ship or base, there was a feeling of barely controlled chaos in the air--but there was something else, too. Scott felt sharper somehow, his mind clearer, his senses keener. He'd been on the tired side when he'd boarded the shuttle back on Ovid; now he felt completely energized and alert, as if someone had dosed him with stimulants.

Was it his imagination? Was he just charged up because of the excitement of starting the new mission? Or was there another explanation?

"Well now." Perseid, who'd marched over to talk to a female officer, returned to Scott. "Here you are on my ship. What do you have to say for yourself, Corporal?"

Scott snapped to attention and saluted. "Permission to come aboard, sir."

Perseid returned the salute. "Permission granted. Welcome aboard."

"Thank you, sir." Scott lowered his arm.

"Let's get you situated." Perseid waved at the female officer he'd been talking to, and she hurried over. "Corporal Solomon Scott, this is Corporal Donna Perihelion. She'll show you to your billet."

Donna was a petite young blonde with a bright, friendly smile. "Good to meet you, Corporal. Welcome to the
Sun Tzu
."

"Good to meet you, too," said Scott.

"After you get him settled, bring him to the Command Deck," said Perseid.

Donna saluted. "Yes, sir."

"We're still launching at 0400 hours as scheduled," said Perseid, and then he marched off across the vast deck of the docking bay.

"This way." Donna smiled again and gestured for Scott to come with her. Then she started across the deck in the opposite direction from the one Perseid had taken.

Scott followed along beside her, taking in the hectic surroundings. "How long have you been with the Diamondbacks?" he asked, feeling at ease enough to make small talk.

She flashed her smile in his direction. "This is my fifth tour."

Five tours was a long time with a high-pressure group like CORE. "Are you re-upping for more?" said Scott. "Or do you have other plans?"

Donna stopped and gave him a look like she thought he was crazy. "I've never wanted to be anything other than CORE. I still don't." She spread her arms to encompass the bay. "Everyone here will tell you the same thing."

With that, she dropped her arms back to her sides and resumed walking, heading straight for a transport tube along a wall to her right.

Scott decided to change the subject. "So where are you from?"

"Archibald," said Donna. "Quillid City in District Seven."

The CORE Academy was on Archibald, but Scott didn't bring it up. "I've been to Archibald a few times, but never Quillid City. Pretty place, from what I saw."

"It is, isn't it?" The transport tube doors slid open when Donna held up her I.D. "What about you, Solomon? Where do you call home?"

Scott entered the passenger cabin in the tube after her. "Tack. The town of Tisserie, near Vast, to be exact."

Donna pressed a button, and the cabin launched upward through the tube. "Never been there. What's it like?"

"Beautiful." Scott's stomach lurched, then calmed as the cabin reached the limit of its climb and shot into a perpendicular tube, moving horizontally. "Jeweled mountains, lavender skies, illuminated forests, and golden seas. Fields of coppery glow-grain stretching as far as the eye can see."

"Sounds nice." Donna smiled again. "Sounds like you love it there."

Scott shrugged. "I guess I do."

"You'll love it here more." Donna nodded. "You'll see."

"You think so?" said Scott.

The cabin stopped moving, and the doors slid open. Donna paused and gave him a meaningful look before stepping out. "CORE gets in your blood like nothing else, Solomon. It'll change you."

Scott followed her out into a metal-walled corridor. "The Marines already did that," he said.

"You only
think
so because you've never been CORE before," said Donna.

"I'm not CORE now, either."

Suddenly, she spun and pointed an index finger at him. "Not
yet
." Then, she gave him a wink and spun away again, zipping off down the corridor. "Billet's this way!" she shouted over her shoulder. "How about getting a move on?"

 

*****

 

Scott stowed his gear in the billet and followed Donna across the
Sun Tzu
to the Command Deck. When the big double blast doors swept open before them, Scott started forward...then froze, instantly disoriented.

The chamber in front of him looked like it was open to space. Instead of walls, floor, and ceiling, he saw stars and darkness all around. Instead of floor-mounted chairs in front of wall-mounted consoles, black-uniformed crew members floated in antigravity harnesses, surrounded by holographic controls in all the colors of the rainbow. He knew only one person in the room--Vic Fong, who seemed to have more control holos around him than anyone else.

As Scott took it all in, he had chills; he'd never seen anything like it. The command decks he'd been on in the past had all been crowded, cramped, and packed with equipment. This one, on the other hand, looked like something a hyper-advanced alien civilization might have installed on an intergalactic vessel.

Donna bumped his shoulder, snapping him out of his reverie. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"That's putting it mildly," said Scott.

"CORE gets all the best toys." Donna giggled. "And we put 'em to good use."

"This is
way
beyond anything else I've seen in the fleet." Scott shook his head. "What if the Rightfuls got hold of it?"

"Not a prob," said Donna. "We've got self-destruct systems you wouldn't
believe
. Not that we'd ever
need
them, the way
this
baby handles."

Just then, the blast doors shot open behind them, and Scott heard footsteps and a familiar voice.

It was Perseid. "It's time, people!" He brushed past Scott and Donna without acknowledging them and headed for the center of the Command Deck. When he stopped walking, a circle of white light pulsed to life under his feet. "Launch in five minutes!"

Without being asked, the crew members floating in their mid-air harnesses shouted out status updates in quick succession. Some of the updates were familiar to Scott, but others were new, referring to things he'd never heard of before.

Finally, Vic Fong spoke up. "Negative mass drive ready. Maneuvering thrusters ready."

"Engage thrusters." Perseid waved a hand in front of him, and several holos appeared. From where Scott stood, they looked like an assortment of readouts and monitors. "Take us out to launch distance."

"Aye, sir." As Fong said it, the starscape started sliding past all around. The ship was moving forward, away from planet Ovid, in preparation for full-blown launch.

"Hey, Solomon." Donna leaned close to Scott and kept her voice low. "Ever watch a star-jump from up front like this?"

Scott looked around at the scene drifting past, as if the prow of the ship were transparent. "Not like this."

She elbowed him in the side. "Then you're in for a treat."

"Coming up on one minute," said Fong. "And
mark
."

A red digital countdown appeared in midair at the front of the room. It was already whipping through seconds, racing toward zero.

As the countdown continued, Scott heard a low hum building. The decking beneath his feet--solid enough though it showed an image of the starry space outside the ship--began to vibrate with quickly increasing strength.

"Thirty seconds!" said Fong.

"You'd better hold on to something," whispered Donna, and then she took Scott's hand. "Trust me on this."

"Ten seconds!" said Fong. "Nine...eight...seven..."

"Charge the grid," said Perseid. "Position masses."

"Grid charged," shouted one crew member.

"Optimum mass positioning achieved," shouted another.

Meanwhile, Fong kept counting. "Four...three...two...one..."

"Launch!" said Perseid.

Suddenly, the starscape seemed to explode. The darkness of space bloomed with millions of streaks of light, the distended tracks of stars surging past the hurtling ship. Each streak was a spectrum unto itself, running from nearby blue to distant red.

The view was beautiful, something Scott had never seen in quite the same way before. His heart pounded, and chills dashed up his spine; he felt as if there were no ship around him at all, as if he were sailing through the cosmos under his own power, drinking in the magnificence of the universe.

Just then, Donna squeezed his hand, reminding him she was there. "See?" Her breath was warm in his ear. "Didn't I tell you it was better to hold on to something?"

Scott smiled at her, watching as the multicolored light of the passing stars played over her face. He had to admit, she was cute...and the hand-holding had been a good sign. But he knew he should get his footing among the Diamondbacks before jumping into anything.

"What a view." As he said it, he let go of her hand. "It really takes your breath away."

"People say they get used to it," said Donna. "But I never do. I bet you'll feel the same way." She smiled, and her eyes drifted up to meet his.

Scott swallowed. He thought he should look away, but her gaze held his in place as if with magnets.

Fortunately, Fong's voice broke the mood. "We are now underway, sir. Shall we maintain the heading you requested earlier?"

"Affirmative," said Perseid. "Best possible speed to Shard, in the Veda system."

"Aye, sir." Fong's fingers flew over the holo controls glowing and blinking around him. He spun around in his antigrav harness, worked a bank of holos behind him, then spun back around to face forward again. "Estimated time of arrival is 72 hours from now."

"Excellent." Perseid stepped off his glowing disk, and the light at his feet went out. "That gives us more than enough time to get our Marine friend fit to fight." He turned and smirked in Scott's direction.

Scott frowned. Since when was he not fit to fight? He'd been fighting the civil war for the past nine months, ever since the first shots were fired.

Perseid strolled over and stood stiffly in front of him. "What do you say, Corporal? Ready to give one of
our
Battlenauts a try? We're sure as
flux
not putting you in the middle of a
hotzone
without
armor
."

Scott nodded. "I'm fully rated on all combat armor, sir."

"No you're not." Perseid smirked and shook his head. "Believe me, you're not."

Donna laughed, and so did half the Command Deck crew. Scott got a sinking feeling in his belly as he wondered what the hell was so funny.

"Driving a tin can is one thing." Perseid put a hand on Scott's shoulder and led him toward the doors. "Driving a high performance piece of bleeding edge super-tech equipment is something else entirely."

Scott was annoyed and trying not to show it. "Is that so?"

The doors opened, and Perseid guided him through. "You know how to
crawl
, Corporal. Now it's time to get your scudge together and learn how to
run
."

 

*****

 

 

The Training Center was a huge chamber in the central shaft of the
Sun Tzu
, adjacent to the cargo bay. It was a giant, open space, completely empty when Scott and Perseid entered except for a pair of big black armored figures facing each other in the middle of the room.

Battlenauts
. Even at a distance, Scott recognized them instantly--realizing, at the same time, how different they were from any Battlenauts he'd seen.

The details became clear as he got closer. These Battlenauts were much sleeker than any he'd piloted or faced on the battlefield. They looked more like giant, heavily muscled humans than blocky mechanical constructs. They were all curves and contours instead of right angles and sharp edges.

"There it is." Perseid stopped ten meters from the Battlenauts and gestured at the one on the right. "Your assigned armor for the duration of this mission."

Scott narrowed his eyes as he scanned the gleaming black hardware. Something jumped out at him right away...something that was missing. "No weapons?" He didn't see a single gun barrel or missile chute anywhere on the armor. "Is this strictly a defensive unit?"

"Don't worry." Perseid chuckled and walked the rest of the way to Scott's Battlenaut. "It has everything you'll need."

Scott scowled as he followed. What kind of Battlenauts were these? Their hulls looked perfectly smooth and seamless. Was neither one equipped with weapons systems?

"Put your hand here." Perseid pointed at a spot on Scott's Battlenaut's left leg, just above the knee. "Press it flat against the surface."

Scott stepped forward and did as he was told. The spot was just above eye level, the hull warm to the touch. In fact, it didn't feel much like metal at all...more like some kind of hard plastic.

"The plating is molded from enhanced superhard carbon nanotubes overlaying a morphic film," said Perseid, as if he'd been reading Scott's mind. "The next best thing to indestructible."

Scott looked at his hand on the Battlenaut's leg. "What's this supposed to do?"

"Tune the armor to your DNA," said Perseid.

"Which does what?"

"Puts you perfectly in synch," said Perseid. "You can move your hand now."

Scott tried to pull his hand away but couldn't at first. It was stuck, as if the armor didn't want to let it go. "What the hell?" But when he pulled harder, his hand popped free.

Perseid laughed. "You're bonded now. It's like you're part of it."

Scott's hand had a mild case of pins and needles, and he tried to shake it off. "What kind of Battlenaut
is
this?"

"The blow-every-other-Battlenaut-out-of-the-water kind," said Perseid. "The kind you never want to come face to face with if you're driving one of those other Commonwealth jalopies."

Scott shook his head. The new unit was so different from anything he'd piloted, he wasn't convinced. "Now what?"

"Now you put it on." Perseid clapped his hands and raised his voice, aiming it up at the Battlenaut. "Authorization Perseid one-one-three, kilo bravo victor papa seven-nine-zero-zero-two. Provide ingress!"

With only the faintest whirring sound, the Battlenaut lowered itself to its knees. Its chest and abdomen flowed open as if they were covered by liquid metal, revealing a simple black pilot's couch inside.

"Get in." Perseid gestured at the open armor. "Make yourself comfortable."

Scott hesitated, wondering what he was in for. Then, he clambered into the unit and lay back against the couch. Its padding was much softer than that of the couch in his old standard-issue Commonwealth model and molded itself to the shape of his body.

Meanwhile, Perseid opened the other Battlenaut and climbed inside the same way. "There we go. Now repeat after me, speaking in a firm, clear voice as follows." He cleared his throat. "
Recognize Corporal Scott
comma Solomon.
"

Scott repeated the words loud and clear, enunciating each syllable. "
Recognize Corporal Scott comma Solomon.
"

Perseid kept talking. "
Program vo
cal imprint in three, two, one: Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow.
"

Scott held off. He could easily imagine that this was all an initiation prank, and a recording of him reciting the nursery rhyme would haunt him for the rest of his career.

But when he saw Perseid glaring and spinning a finger in the air, he knew he had to go along with it, prank or not. "
Program vocal imprint in three, two, one
," he said. "
Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow.
"

"
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,
" said Perseid.

Scott sighed, then repeated the line.

"
Systems activate,
" said Perseid. "
Preset Alpha Zero One.
"

"
Systems activate.
Preset Alpha Zero One.
" As soon as Scott said it, his Battlenaut popped up from its knees to a standing position. The chest and abdomen flowed shut, sealing him off inside the armor, and the couch sucked up against him.
What the hell?

For an instant, the interior of the Battlenaut was pitch black. Then, a swath of holographic displays lit up around him, like a glowing, multicolored funnel with his upper body in the middle.

Scott looked around at the holos, which provided numbers, charts, and graphs depicting the status of the unit, its surroundings, and Scott himself. Then, he heard a loud knocking against the hull of the chest--three echoing raps in quick succession.

"Hello in there." Perseid's voice came next, booming all around him. "Corporal Scott, can you hear me?"

"Roger that." Scott wasn't sure his response would get through; he couldn't find a mic to talk into or any related controls.

But Perseid heard him anyway. "Don't just stand there. Take that thing for a spin, Corporal."

"How?" Scott reached up and ran his fingers through the holos, but nothing happened. He looked down, trying to find armrest keypads, but there weren't even any armrests. He couldn't find a stick, either, or any of the usual buttons, knobs, or switches on the walls. "Where are the damn controls?"

"All you need is your
voice
," said Perseid. "Why do you think I had you
train
the unit to accept your vocal imprint?"

"Total voice control?" said Scott.

"Not total," said Perseid. "The holo displays are eye-movement activated. Two blinks for on or off. Change settings by focusing, dragging, etc."

"What if my voice and eyes go out at the same time?"

"Then we don't need you anymore," said Perseid. "Self-destruct time."

"Right." Scott experimented with the holos as Perseid had said, and they worked. If he blinked twice and focused on a particular readout, it grew larger. Staring at a control for a few seconds made it change setting. Gazing at a display and sliding his eyes one way or another moved it in the direction he chose.

"All right, playtime's over," said Perseid. "Let's put that thing through its paces."

Suddenly, a massive blow struck Scott's Battlenaut. The holo readouts showing the armor's status changed rapidly, spiking across the board.

"Get moving!" Perseid's voice had a taunting edge. "There's plenty more where
that
came from."

Instantly, Scott shifted into battle mode. His senses sharpened, his head cleared, and his thoughts raced, presenting him with options.

As unfamiliar as the CORE Battlenaut was, he was determined to put it to work for him. "Frontside viewer on." He wasn't sure how to frame voice control commands, so he tried to keep them simple...and it worked. The holo readouts slid away to either side, and a viewer window appeared in front of him, showing a video feed from the frontside cameras.

The feed came up just in time to show Perseid's Battlenaut unleashing a punch with one ebony fist. Scott's armor shook under the onslaught but stood its ground.

"Aren't you going to
do
anything?" Perseid shouted over the comm. "Maybe I was wrong, thinking a Marine like you could handle top-of-the-line equipment like that."

"Microphone off," said Scott. "Punch enemy's torso with right fist."

Suddenly, a new voice spoke in the armor...a male voice, smooth and serene. "The command 'Right punch to gut' will be sufficient, along with a requested level of force."

Scott grinned. Apparently, his new armor came equipped with an onboard artificial intelligence, an A.I. smart enough to suggest a more concise command.

Might as well put it to use. "Right punch to gut!" said Scott. "Maximum level of force!"

The armor obeyed instantly. He felt the weight of its right arm swing back, then forward, carrying the rest of the unit's bulk along with it. At the same time, he watched a wireframe holo of his Battlenaut projected in midair to the left of the viewer window, going through the same motions. On the viewer itself, he saw his armor's gleaming right fist plowing into the belly of Perseid's Battlenaut.

"That's more like it!" said Perseid. "Now let's see what else you can do!"

"Left punch to head," said Scott.

"What level of force?" said the armor's A.I., still prompting him.

"Maximum!" snapped Scott, and his Battlenaut launched a blow as ordered, aimed straight at the head of Perseid's armor. On the viewer, Scott saw his Battlenaut's left arm whip back and lash out--only to be deflected when Perseid lashed up his own right arm to block the strike.

"Nice try," said Perseid. "Are you
sure
you've seen action in the war?"

"Right knee to gut!" said Scott. "Maximum force!"

He felt the Battlenaut's mass shift suddenly back as its right knee lunged up and forward. Checking the viewer, he saw the top of the knee connect with the belly of Perseid's armor, making it double over from the impact.

"Lucky shot," said Perseid. "But you'll have to do better than that."

"Left shoulder to chest! Maximum force!" said Scott.

His Battlenaut crouched and plowed its left shoulder into the chest of Perseid's unit. A resounding
clang
rang out at the impact, followed by the clatter of armor plating as Perseid struggled to stay on his feet.

Scott knew he needed to follow up fast to keep his advantage. "Right uppercut punch to chin." His Battlenaut did as he ordered; on the viewer, he saw his giant black fist swing up and crash into Perseid's chin. "Left hook punch to face." Again, he watched one of his fists blast into Perseid's armor like a runaway wrecking ball.

Scott got in two more big hits before Perseid spoke again. "Barely satisfactory." Another blow was coming, and Perseid caught it with one armored hand. "You need some training, Marine."

"Flux that," hissed Scott, and then he gave another order. "Weapons online."

Just then, Perseid let loose a barrage of rapid-fire blows to Scott's upper body, pounding the hell out of his head and chest. Scott counted five, six, seven blows; each new one knocked his armor back, to the right, or to the left, depending on the angle of impact.

"Step back," he told his Battlenaut, hoping for some breathing room. But as the armor took a backward step, Perseid caught it in the knee with a stomping kick, making it stumble.

"Stabilize! Stay on your feet!" said Scott, but he didn't need to say it. Servos whirred as the Battlenaut automatically compensated and regained its balance, planting both feet solidly on the floor.

Even as the unit kept itself upright, the A.I. piped up again. "Weapons are online."

Scott grinned. What a machine! It even reminded him, without being asked, that the onboard weapons were ready. Why hadn't Commonwealth Command installed the same system in every Battlenaut in the fleet by now?

On the other hand, he had no idea what weapons were available. He hadn't seen a single gun, sonic projector, or missile launcher on the unit's exterior.

Meanwhile, Perseid was taking advantage of his brief hesitation. Lunging forward, he grabbed hold of Scott's Battlenaut, wrapping his arms around its torso. He pitched Scott one way, then another, trying to throw him off his feet.

"You're going down!" said Perseid. "Shortest armor orientation session of all time!"

Sweat ran down Scott's back and sides, and his heart hammered like a fighter's fist in his chest. He knew it was only a practice session, and the stakes weren't life and death...but they might as well be. If he made a fool of himself during his first ride in a CORE Battlenaut, he'd never live it down. The Diamondbacks might never fully trust him on the battlefield.

Again, Perseid wrenched him hard to one side. Servos whined in protest, but Scott's armor stayed on its feet.

"What weapons are available?" Scott asked the A.I.

"Projectile guns with dummy rounds. Lasers at one-half power. Sonics limited to close-range." The A.I. paused as Perseid gave the armor an especially strong heave. "Drone pods fully powered."

With the other weapons in training mode, the words "fully powered" sounded promising. "Deploy drone pods," said Scott. "Target opponent unit."

"Deploy
all
drones?" asked the A.I.

"Yes!" said Scott as the Battlenaut rocked again. "Don't make me tell you again, Frank!" He surprised himself, calling the A.I. by a name like that. He'd done the same with his old Battlenaut, the one that had been blown to pieces on Chelong III. It had helped him, in the thick of a fight, to think of the big, lumbering machine as a person. Not that the reason for the name mattered, as long as New Frank launched those drones...whatever their capabilities were supposed to be.

As if Frank had anticipated his uncertainty, additional feeds appeared on the viewer, showing topside, rightside, leftside, and backside views along with the frontside feed. In each one, Scott saw sections of the Battlenaut's smooth hull...only it wasn't so smooth anymore. Each section was studded with rounded lumps the size of softballs.

As Scott watched, the lumps pushed outward and broke free of the armor, then leaped into the air under their own power. They went straight for Perseid's Battlenaut, all thirty or forty of them swarming his head and shoulders at once.

Perseid only got in one more good heave before the drones made contact with his armor. They slammed into it and bounced off like bowling balls, pounding it again and again with enough force to make him release his hold on Scott.