Veil of Shadows (Book 2 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (21 page)

Talbot’s eyes widened. “I can see your face! Sort of. It’s dark in the helmet, so you’re in shadow. Can you turn on a light?”

Since the armor was feeding video right into her ocular implants, she wasn’t aware she was in darkness. The thought of being in pitch darkness had freaked her out the first time she’d worn the armor. Thankfully, she’d gotten over it quickly.

She found an interior light and turned it on. “How’s that?”

“Perfect. It’s as though you’re looking right at me. I can hardly tell it’s a projection or that you aren’t really using your eyes directly. Now, hang on. We’re about to level out. Expect some heavy G-forces.”

Despite her tenseness, nothing bad happened as they decelerated savagely just above the surface and settled into a clearing in the vast forest of huge trees. Her artificial muscles and armor made the extra weight easily bearable. She imagined that the pinnace could probably handle a lot more load with a team of enhanced marines.

As soon as they touched down, Talbot ordered his men down the landing ramp. They flowed out like water and spread out around the pinnace, their weapons covering the forest.

Kelsey didn’t follow them. She had her orders. She and Talbot would stay inside the pinnace while the rest of the marines made certain that they were in no immediate danger. Lieutenant Reese was guiding his men from the flight deck.

Even as the men were scouring the forest around them for threats, Reese launched half a dozen small drones. Four of them spread out over the immediate area and began scanning. The remaining two had targets further away.

One headed toward the mountain range the asteroid had targeted. As that was the most distant objective, it would take about half an hour to get there flying close to the ground. The second drone headed for the nearest ruins. Scans from orbit had tagged it as a large city, the desiccated corpse of a once thriving pre-Fall metropolis.

Kelsey examined the map of the area with her implants. The mountains were to the northwest and the city was almost due south.

She split her attention between the various drones, but paid the most attention to the one going to the city. They had no immediate desire to go there, but it was the most likely location for the Pale Ones to have a base in their vicinity.

Watching the drone fly over the terrain was like flying herself. She could almost feel the wind on her face. She definitely felt the lump in her throat when the drone crested a hill and the ruined city came into view.

She’d seen images of devastated cities before, but this was like looking at one with her own eyes. Honestly, it felt a little bit more intimate than that. The forest was struggling mightily to retake the land the humans had appropriated, but it was making little headway. Even broken and abandoned, old Empire constructions endured.

The rebels hadn’t bombarded this city from orbit. The buildings were intact, even though the people had abandoned them. Under other circumstances, she knew the scientists on
Best Deal
would’ve descended on this location like locusts on a crop.

As the drone flew closer, Kelsey started to get an idea of the scale. She immediately had her implants perform a measurement on the tallest tower in the city. The answer shocked her so badly that she had it check again. Just to be sure.

The central tower was over 1500 meters tall.

That was three times taller than the most modern office building on Avalon. And unlike the skyscrapers she was used to, this one came up in tiered layers. The bottom of the building took up what would’ve been three or four blocks on a side. There were half a dozen distinct tiers as the building rose into the sky. The top segment was as thick as the skyscrapers back home.

She turned to Talbot. “Are you seeing this?”

“Seeing what? Which drone?”

“The old Empire city. The towers are still intact and they’re huge. The central one has to be at least three or four hundred stories tall.”

He stared at the readouts on the console and whistled. “Holy crap. That one building probably held a hundred thousand people. Using that as a yardstick, that city had tens of millions of people living in it. Maybe a hundred million.” This brought the scale of the genocide home to her in a way the books she’d read never had.

Kelsey examined the scanner readings more closely. “It doesn’t look like there are any active power units in the city, but a lot of things seem basically intact. I can see where some walls have fallen, but that looks cosmetic. Bushes and trees have taken over the ground levels, but they haven’t affected the structures. It looks like the rebels left the city intact.”

They sat in silence, watching the drones’ data until she noticed that the mountain drone was on station. Lieutenant Reese ordered it to go to a somewhat higher flight path traveling down the mountain range. After half an hour, they still hadn’t seen anything out of place. It looked like untouched wilderness.

The hatch leading forward opened and Lieutenant Reese stepped onto the marine deck. “Have you been watching the drone’s transmissions, Princess? Hey. We can see your face.”

“I figured out how to put a projection on the adaptive skin of the helmet. The city is stunning. The mountains are empty.”

“Apparently so. At least that’s what it looks like through the drone. I’m wondering if the pinnace’s scanners could get a little bit more detail. Find something out of place.”

He put his hands on his hips and stared out at the forest down the ramp. “We’re not going to see anything sitting here in the middle of the forest. Talbot, recall the men. Let’s make ready for a pass over the mountains.”

“Aye, sir.”

The marines returned to the pinnace in stages until everyone was aboard. The local drones returned to their recessed mounts. Once everyone was secure, the pinnace rose above the forest and headed for the mountains.

The pinnace’s scanners were significantly better than those on the drones. As they made their way past the foothills and over the peaks in the mountain range, they could see deep into the ground. Nothing seemed out of place.

They made a pass up one side of the mountain range and then returned flying down the other. About two thirds of the way back, Kelsey saw something in the readings that made her speak up. “Lieutenant Reese, can we hover here for a minute? I’m seeing something.”

“What have you got?”

She directed the pinnace’s scanners to probe more deeply once it came to a halt. “I’m not quite sure. It’s gone now. It was some type of transient reading.”

She reviewed what her implants had recorded and saw it again. It was a density reading. For just a moment, the density of the rock they’d flown over had grown markedly stronger.

“It must’ve been some kind of glitch. The ground seemed denser, but only for a moment. Now that I’m looking at it, I see that there wasn’t a problem at all. We can go on.”

The marine lieutenant didn’t answer for a minute. “Actually, I’m inclined to trust your initial instincts. If they’re wrong, all we’ve lost is a little bit of time. We’re going down.”

The pinnace settled onto a plateau. The ramp came down, but the pinnace kept its grav drives online. They were probably afraid that too much weight might cause a rockslide.

Once again, the marines exited and covered the area. This time Lieutenant Reese followed them out. He gestured for Kelsey and Talbot to follow him.

The view was stunning. From this height, the forest stretched out as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful. She removed her helmet and took a deep breath of the fresh air. It smelled of nature, untainted by civilization.

Of course, the reason for that was that the rebels had virtually extinguished humanity on this planet.

Reese turned toward her. “Where exactly did you sense the density spike?”

She pointed towards the center of the plateau. “Not precisely in the middle, but not very far away from it, either.”

He directed one of the squads to scout ahead and the rest followed more slowly. The plateau wasn’t completely flat, Kelsey saw. As they went further from the edges, the center rose up. Not evenly though. Small hills and ruts cut by water made the surface uneven in places.

Kelsey nudged Talbot. “Is it just me, or is this a great place to ambush someone?”

“It could be,” he admitted, “except for the fact we didn’t detect anything even remotely like a living being on the scanners. This kind of open area makes hiding difficult.”

“Isn’t that kind of the point of an ambush? I know I’m not a marine, but we are in a hostile environment. What do we do if somebody jumps us?”

“We shoot the ever living crap out of them. See how widely spread out everyone is? Well, except for us. That’s to minimize casualties if we’re attacked. Which, again, I don’t expect.”

She put her helmet back on and used her armor’s scanners to peer into their surroundings. It detected no power sources other than her companions.

The scouts avoided the gullies and stuck to the high ground. The others scrambled up the incline and peered down into the depths of the water worn tracks as they advanced.

Being somewhat contrarian, Kelsey went to the largest of the gullies and peered into the dim interior. At the height of the day, the sun would light everything, but now that it was the evening, the shadows were long in its sand-covered bottom.

“Lieutenant Reese? Since your people have a high ground covered, do you mind if I take a look inside the gully?”

“If you see anything unusual, I want you to turn around and get the hell out of there. No dawdling.”

“Yes, sir.”

Talbot motioned for two of his men to lead the way in and waited until they were almost out of sight before indicating Kelsey could follow. He followed on her heels.

The loose ground made the footing somewhat treacherous, so Kelsey had to devote more attention to her balance. In spite of the circumstances, she was enjoying the experience. She’d forgotten how much she enjoyed being out in nature. Even dry, dusty nature. Of course, she usually didn’t go hiking in combat armor, surrounded by armed men, and worried about people shooting at her.

Her enhanced vision made it easier to see clearly in the dim light. The implants also boosted her eye for detail. So when she spotted an irregularity in the sand off to the side, she stopped. “Hold up.”

Kelsey knelt down and gave the area her full attention. Even with the wind blown sand everywhere, this looked too regular to be natural. For the most part, she knew nature abhorred straight lines. Whatever this was, it didn’t seem like it belonged.

“What do you see?” Talbot asked.

“It seems crazy, but I think this might be a footprint.”

The rock wall in front of her disappeared as though it had never been there, revealing a gaping black opening. She was so startled that her feet slid out from under her when she tried to surge upright and she fell forward into the darkness.

Chapter Twenty-Two

After half an hour of sorting through the commands received by the shipyard, Jared decided that he’d made a mistake. The instructions from the AI in command of the solar system were so general as to be useless. Build this number of ships, have them done by this time, and statuses on their progress going back down. Also requests for new personnel to man those ships.

He made his way over to where the scientists were still manually examining the computer system. “We’ve been here a while, gentlemen. Perhaps it’s time we returned to
Courageous
. Well, perhaps only me. I’m not sure I’m adding much to this expedition.”

Owlet looked up from the console he was working at. “Actually Captain, I think I found something that might change your assessment. How would you like to capture a completely functional shipyard?”

Jared raised an eyebrow. “You have my full attention, Mister Owlet.”

“I’m still looking over the data, but I think I found a security flaw. Not in the programming, but in the rules of engagement. This shipyard had an automated defense system. That system determined what was hostile and what wasn’t. The rules of engagement seem pretty straightforward and comprehensive until you look at the exceptions.”

He tapped the screen in front of him. “They must’ve had some friendly fire incidents in the past, because it says right here that any ship with an appropriate transponder is friendly.”

“Are you telling me it’s a simple as salvaging a transponder and just flying over to the other shipyard? That’s stupid. The other shipyard has to know we’ve overrun the system. It’s going to ignore that instruction.”

“Not if it has these rules of engagement. There is no room for discretion. It’s like the difference between the words
shall
and
may
. According to this, any ship with the correct transponder shall be considered friendly. The other computer won’t be able to fire on us. It also couldn’t fire on the other shipyard or the orbital we destroyed. That probably explains why the operational shipyard hasn’t fired on us yet. This shipyard is between it and
Courageous
.”

Jared peered over his shoulder at the text on the screen. It wasn’t computer code, but it was completely unfamiliar. Fleet didn’t use automated defenses like that. They required a human being to be in control of deadly force.

He waved Sergeant Coulter over to join them and explained the situation. “If we were able to take the pinnace over there, what type of resistance could we expect?”

“Based on the number of corpses we found, several hundred Pale Ones. In tight quarters like this, that could get hairy. Particularly if they’re armed with advanced weapons.”

“If we don’t take that shipyard over, we have to take it out. That probably won’t be difficult, but the positives of gaining an advanced construction facility might be worth the risk. Yes, the Pale Ones build crappy ships, but I’ll wager that facility could build something better with the right instructions. Mister Owlet, what do you think?”

The scientist manipulated his screen. “I’m not seeing anything in the system that would indicate they have more advanced plans available for use. That said, this system has the potential to build modern warships once we create the instructions. And if we find advanced plans later, it could probably do them, too. Apparently, there is an unmanned mining station in the asteroid belt to get the raw materials and mold them into basic equipment.”