Five Empires: An Epic Space Opera Page 13
After an interminable wait, a freshly pressed breast plate emerged from the wall in a hiss of steam. Michael had been worried about the use of a different kelp variety, but if anything the salt water version was an improvement. The armor was as tough as nails without losing any of the flexibility and streamlining needed for elite underwater movement.
Varosk hefted the piece and inspected it closely.
“Solid, solid,” he grunted, removing his own chest armor and replacing it with the new piece.
“Shoot me,” he ordered one of his corsairs. The man didn’t hesitate to level his blaster and fire. The plasma bolt was fully absorbed by the armor. The only sign of impact was a tiny scorch mark.
“Can you press one of these for all my men?” he asked with the hint of a smile.
“Already on it,” Michael said, flushed with pride. It wasn’t quite the same elation he might have felt before Emilia was murdered, but it certainly felt like an appropriate reward for many years’ work. The general air of imminent danger only made it sweeter.
His fingers dancing across the controlling lightsphere, Michael commissioned fifty breast pieces.
The Yeneri forge complied.
Jake was eying the forge with intense interest. This kind of tech, lying dormant under the ocean for over a millennium, was priceless. As were those who knew how to interact with it.
“Be sure to record this exact location,” Varosk was telling one of his men. “We can return here if we survive another day.”
It was a sensible notion. This kind of facility would be a perfect node for future colonization. Michael noticed Varosk’s predatory gaze in Jake’s direction. No doubt the Nostroma represent a potential treasure trove of intelligence. Michael laughed at the idea of interrogating Jake Le Sondre. It seemed pointless to interrogate any Nostroma. They were simply too neurologically advanced to fall for such party tricks
It took several hours to press the requested number of customized Aegisi breast plates. Over that period Michael nibbled on some trail mix and mostly kept to himself. He noticed soldiers disappearing down the corridor and wondered where they were relieving themselves. Jake remained as cool as ever, content to wait.
18
Once the last breast piece had been pressed successfully, Varosk took a moment to admire his soldiers in a parade line of cobalt blue. Michael hadn’t neglected to load the Aegisi insignia over the heart.
“Thank you, Danner,” he said with pride. “You’ve performed a valuable service.”
Michael bowed his head, gratified to hear the words. Though he seemed combative, Varosk clearly cared for his corsairs. All in all, he was handling the destruction of his warship as well as could be expected.
“Move out,” Varosk barked. And to Michael: “The marines have found something else you might be interested in.”
Further north the soldiers fanned out through a wide hangar bay. Unfortunately there were no flying units great or small - that was too much to hope for. Instead there were hundreds of aquasors. The compact, one-man riding machines consisted of a wide saddle, thruster pedals and handle bars for steering. There were twin lasers mounted on the front, but these were strictly for enemy infantry and couldn’t be expected to damage larger, armored units.
“They look fast and elusive,” Varosk observed. “I want every man to take one.”
Michael was only too happy to sit astride one of the blue-green aquasors. The Yeneri hadn’t bothered code-shielding them as they were probably there for emergency evacuation.
“Now - how the hell do we flood the chamber?” Varosk asked anyone within earshot.
“Let me oblige, sir,” Jake said somewhat belligerently as he tweaked a setting on his aquasor’s tiny diagnostic screen.
“Anchor all units!” Michael yelled. If the ocean was about to rush in, the relatively light aquasors were liable to be tossed around like debris.
Anchoring the unit was a simple function accessible through the diagnostic screen, but not all the soldiers found it in time.
The entire north wall slid open and a torrent of heavy, cold water charged at them. The soldiers were engulfed by the violent flood. Michael’s body was buffeted to and fro. For a moment he thought he might lose his grip on the handlebars.
The soldiers that hadn’t anchored themselves went flying head over heels through the tumult of water. One smacked his head hard against the wall and left a red smear. His body immediately assumed a corpse float. The other soldiers managed to get their aquasors under control. Once the battalion was settled and in position, Varosk looked at Jake with hard, glassy eyes.
Jake shrugged and gunned his aquasor. Varosk scowled, raised his fist, lowered it. The corsair battalion primed their aquasors and advanced through the ocean tunnel.
Rock surrounded the party for around a hundred yards. Michael hung at the back and kept a safe distance from the rider in front of him. None of them were familiar with the sea units and were edging forward in fits and spurts.
Owing to the extreme sensitivity of the controls, Michael found the handling difficult at first. He suspected the Yeneri had extremely tactile hands with more webbing than the Aegisi. As the aquasor convoy cleared the rocky tunnel and entered the open ocean, Michael found his groove, surging through the open water like a bullet.
Varosk allowed his troops to familiarize themselves with the machines before calling for a loose formation. The battalion cruised in an easterly direction while Varosk tried to make contact with the Aegisi fleet. After a tense minute a garbled reply dribbled from the captain’s wrist pad but Michael couldn’t make out the words. He noticed Jake edging forward, also keen to listen.
Michael tried to swallow his panic. Tower mechs were leviathans - it was said that none had been bought to ground in the history of their deployment.
But the more Michael thought about it, the greater his sense of opportunity. The battalion had fallen silent so he decided to fill the void.
Michael had to agree with everything the Captain said. No one in their right mind went up against a tower mech unless they were airborne and had several heavy plasma cannons. Ground units couldn’t bring a mech to ground. It was simply impossible.
Ground units…
Silence as Varosk and the his corsairs absorbed this concept.
Michael waited while the Captain mulled this over. He genuinely felt sorry for the man. All these troops under his care and no real backup or direction from his superiors.
There were several murmurs of agreement over the com.
Michael heard a ping at his wrist pad - there was a kelp farm off a small island to the east of Samalar. Based on the aquasor’s top speed, it was probably a solid hour’s ride away. Hopefully the tower mechs were still in the general vicinity when the Aegisi were ready to attack.
For the moment, Michael simply enjoyed the ride. Water caressed his cheeks as he surged through the middle water profile. There was just enough light to see the others. Varosk seemed intent on avoiding detection from above and it was a sensible move. Michael had lost himself in the indistinct haze of the open ocean when the general com crackled.
The captain began receiving various replies from his troops. It seemed that just under half of the aquasors were equipped with the battle gear. Michael got a thrill when he found he was one of the lucky ones.
The battle masks were well made but quite standard in function. They provided basic cranial protection whilst boosting the user’s accuracy via targeting computer. The assault rifles were very interesting indeed. Whilst standard blasters were reasonably effective at short to medium range, they weren’t terribly powerful and prone to overheating.
A tank-fed assault rifle could unload plasma at an extremely rapid rate. They were also more powerful than the blasters by a magnitude of five. Fully powered suits of armor were known to crack under a sustained tank-fed assault. Optimal designs for tank guns, as they were known, had proven elusive for the Aegisi, Jaj and presumably the Nostroma also.
The Cava05 had officially produced a few but had opted not to deploy them on a wide scale, perhaps mindful of the resources required to manufacture them. The elite models were able to regenerate tank plasma for continued use. Happily for the Aegisi, the Yeneri had not only mastered tank guns but had seemingly adapted them for marine use. Michael couldn’t wait to test his new weaponry on the Cava05.
An open transmission from the Tranquility, the Aegisi flagship, tempered the positive vibe amongst the surviving battalion.
Jake drawled casually.
Michael felt a knot of dread in his chest. Jake’s intel was proving invaluable, but Varosk was now in a quandary. Should they continue their desperate run for the kelp farm or dive deep to avoid the Cavan drone patrols?
In the end the captain didn’t need to make a decision. One of the corsairs pointed at the dark shapes soaring over the ocean’s surface. The triangular probes couldn’t be more than fifty yards from the water. The enemy craft were long gone before someone spotted the small red spheres drifting lazily to the surface.
Michael found that accelerating vertically through the water profile was a fast way of losing control. With great discipline he controlled his speed even as his ears threatened to burst. A second boom tumbled through the Aegisi ranks as the soldiers desperately made for the darkness below.
Michael leveled out in the cold murk and followed the tail lights of several other aquasors. One by one the Aegisi soldiers regrouped. Varosk initiated a roll call and found they were three men short.
Michael activated the long beams that presumably once helped the Yeneri navigate and explore the dark depths of the Southern Ocean. The combined light generated by the battalion was enough to illuminate a hundred yards of dense, frigid water.
Varosk maintained com silence after his last order, no doubt concerned about a second pass from the Cavan probes. The only sound was the bubbly whir of the impressively quiet aquasors.
And the mournful call of a whale somewhere in the distance. At first Varosk was content to ignore it, but the calls became more frequent, suggesting a pod of deep ocean mammals.
Jake’s silence was its own answer.
Michael pressed the throttle to its maximum position, shivering slightly at this very low depth. Nothing had yet appeared in the long beams but the whale call grew louder and increasingly agitated.
19
The whales closed the distance with deceptive speed. The incoming pod moved within the aquasors’ long beams. The leading whale was probably an alpha of some kind, its blue-grey skin scarred and mottled with age. The thing had to be more than seventy yards long, easily the largest of the pod. Its enormous, anchor-shaped head quivered with the speed it had generated through the dense water.
Now it was simply a matter of nerve. Any corsair with access to an assault rifle had strapped the tank to their backs. Michael considered prepping his own weapon but decided he would lose too much speed at this late stage. He would either make it through the pod or not at all.
The corsair to the left of him, already a little jittery at the sight of the whales, muttered something unintelligible over the com. Michael wondered if his mind had been affected by a concussion buoy.
The leading alpha bowhead pushed its way through the battalion aggressively. Most soldiers were able to swerve out of its path, but one was unlucky enough to be drawn into the side of its huge head. The man clashed sickeningly against the rampaging whale and went limp immediately.
Panicked by the encounter, the corsair to Michael’s left opened fire with his tank-fed plasma rifle. A flurry of neon blue bolts peppered the whale’s elongated jaw, sending nuggets of rough skin flying through the water. The whale howled as more corsairs opened fire, shredding its skin with rapid fire. The plasma bolts were fluorescent fireflies thudding into the whale’s head. Chunks of skin, blood, bone and cartilage splayed to either side of the stricken beast.
The alpha’s entire skull had been exposed and smeared with neon blue by the time it reached Michael’s vicinity. It was probably dead but certainly wasn’t slowing down. The forager was f
orced to roll the aquasor to avoid being crushed by the beast’s weight. Once he had regained his balance he found he was cruising laterally from the whale pod and was theoretically out of danger.
Slowing his heart rate, Michael took a moment to watch the passage of frightened whales. It was surreal to see the dead, jawless alpha whale sinking deeper and deeper as the rest of the pod maintained their westerly course. From this distance the battalion was a galaxy of glowing blue orbs that hung in the ocean like jewels. The forager corrected his course and rejoined the soldiers as they continued on their way.
Varosk ran a head count and it was discovered that two men had lost their lives during the encounter. The Captain sounded weary as he signaled a resumption of their journey. According to their geographic systems the kelp farm was less than ten clicks away.
Michael again found his position at the back of the pack as the battalion surged into a shallower water profile. The general gloom dissipated and shafts of welcome sunlight set fire to a sprawling coral reef. The battalion needed to head a little further east in order to avoid the potentially treacherous coral. The aquasors were capable of traveling on the water’s surface but that option was clearly too dangerous.
Out of curiosity Michael set his com channel to roam and after a few seconds picked someone speaking in rapid-fire Foundation. Nothing valuable, just a diagnostic report.
Michael reported over the Aegisi channel.
The kelp farm came into view to the south. It wasn’t a huge operation, understandable considering the limited demand amongst the fragmented human population on Cerulean.
The bobbing kelp forest stretched for several hundred yards. More importantly, a charge barrier enclosed it. There was enough material here to at least provide a substantial obstacle for one of the patrolling tower mechs.