Puppet: Soldier
By
Whatever
Copyright 2013 by Whatever
[email protected] https://blather-n-stories.blogspot.com
Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.
Cover photo “Exoforce Light Mech” by Don Solo. His site is
https://www.flickr.com/photos/donsolo/
The image itself can be found at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/donsolo/415674000/in/photostream
The image is licensed under the Creative Commons “Attribute-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.0” license.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, including but not limited to Robert A. Heinlein. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
Table of Contents
Previously
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Previously
Earth is invaded by a race of creatures that have the ability to control a human like a puppet; hence they are called “Puppeteers” or “Puppet Masters.” Physically, the aliens resemble puddles of mercury, hence the other name for them: “The Blobs.” The aliens are capable of reproducing by dividing in two. Because of this, and because a person “hosting” a Puppeteer is very difficult to distinguish from a normal person, the invasion spreads exponentially.
Mike is “converted” while having lunch at a Burger King. Unlike most hosts, he finds possession to be a positive experience. Alice, a woman who is also hosting a Puppeteer, has a similar experience.
Scientists in the US government discover that the aliens are very sensitive to encephalitis, a disease that infects the central nervous system. The condition is spread from the host to the Puppeteer, where it proves to be almost 100% fatal. The US unleashes a virus that effectively wipes out the alien presence, though it also results in 50 million human deaths worldwide.
Mike finds that, without the presence of his Puppeteer, he sinks into depression. As a result, he volunteers with the Planetary Defense agency to be a host to an alien, so that humanity can gather additional information about the Puppeteers. PD is an organization that the world’s governments have formed to combat the alien menace in the wake of the invasion.
Mike’s new Puppeteer informs him that the remaining aliens are likely to try bombarding the Earth with asteroids before invading again. Mike’s efforts to alert PD of the threat are met with scorn, however, causing Mike to try to persuade an officer named Tom to help him. Tom believes Mike and the two of them escape from PD custody to try to save Human civilization.
Mike recruits other people with conditions similar to his own and meets Alice again. “The Guided,” as they call themselves, resolve to hijack an alien spacecraft and then to use it to stop the aliens from bombarding the Earth.
Masquerading as Puppeteer controlled humans, Mike and Alice are able to capture various strategically important refueling bases in the solar system, preventing the Puppeteers from attempting a planetary bombardment. After contacting Planetary Defense, Mike turns the operation over to humanity, who opt to keep the Guided at the base.
The aliens launch a series of attacks on the base. While Unguided pilots prove ineffectual, Mike, working together with his Puppeteer, is able to defeat the aliens. PD switches over to using Guided pilots. During an all-out attack on the base, Alice sacrifices herself and takes a large part of the attacking force along with her. After this, the Puppeteers ask for a truce.
Mike helps negotiate the cease-fire and meets the Elder: a giant Puppeteer that claims to be the leader of the aliens. The Elder also claims that the Puppeteers were originally symbiants to the race that created them.
The Puppeteer ship sustained major damage from a meteor impact during the voyage to Earth and all of the Puppeteers symbiant partners were killed. During the ensuing multi-century voyage, most of the remaining Puppeteers went insane due to isolation. The Elder claims that the insane ones were responsible for the invasion.
The Elder warns Mike that due to the use of Puppeteer technology in the solar system the “walls between dimensions” have become weakened and the Earth is in imminent danger of attack from a race of lizard like creatures.
It is at this point that the story continues…
Chapter 1
Colonel Sterling looked blank during Mike’s briefing on the Elder’s warning. Mike found it unnerving that the man could be so unmoved in the face of yet another invasion.
“So we’re going to be invaded.” Colonel Sterling said.
“Yes”
“By lizardmen…from another dimension.”
“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound rather…implausible.”
“That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“A couple of years ago I would have laughed at someone who told me that we were about to be invaded by blobs from outer space!”
“I’m glad you said that.”
Mike waited patiently as Sterling laughed.
“Look, “Mike explained, “I wouldn’t have believed him if it weren’t for the fact that my own Puppeteer thinks they’re on the level.”
“So we should believe their blob because your blob will vouch for them?”
“Yes!”
This time the laughter went on for several minutes. Finally Mike just left Sterling’s office.
That went well.
I just hope that we aren’t taken completely by surprise.
* * *
In the dead of night, a giant lizard approached a military base. Physically, it looked like something that had stepped out of Jurassic Park, though its accessories (uniform, Gatling laser) showed that it was not the primitive from the movies.
The Raptor made a gesture over its shoulder and several more lizards joined it, each taking up position behind a tree. Suddenly, the lead raptor held up a clawed hand: wait. A guard started walking past their position.
Without warning, one of the Raptors yelled “133+!” and sprang to the attack, firing its Gatling-gun at the guard. With war cries like “w00+!” and “F0r
[email protected]!” the other lizards in the squad also opened fire. When they finally stopped nothing was left of the soldier: where he had stood was a smoldering crater.
From the base sirens started wailing.
Soldiers poured out of the base.
The lead Raptor did a face-palm.
More lizards poured from the jungle and began firing.
The lizards fired haphazardly, but their Gatling-like lasers had a devastating effect: walls crumbled, cars exploded, a burger joint on the premises was leveled.
Oddly enough, the Raptors stopped for a second when the fast food joint was destroyed and yelled at the offending lizard. It seemed abashed.
The soldiers took that opportunity to regroup and try to fight off the intruders. Some dropped to the ground and fired their rifles, others took up position with mortars.
The lizards quickly gathered their wits, however, and started returning fire. As before, their weapons had a devastating effect on the humans. Worse yet, most hits on them seemed to do little damage; even a mortar round did not faze them – provided it wasn’t a direct hit.
“Stand and fight!” shouted one lieutenant, standing above a trench. There was a flash of light and then all that could be
seen of the officer was his smoldering boots.
“The hell with that!” shouted one man as he dropped his weapon and ran away.
The rest of the squad looked at each other and then took off as well.
Strangely enough, the Raptors did not fire on the soldiers as they ran away. As they watched the soldiers go, one of them whined: “w34k.”
* * *
Mike found himself back in Sterling’s office a week after their first meeting.
“What the hell is going on?!”
“You mean with the invasion?” Mike asked.
“Of course I mean with the invasion.” Sterling said through gritted teeth.
“It sounds exactly like the warning from the Puppeteers.”
“Don’t…”
“I told you so.”
“…say it!”
Sterling glared at Mike.
“So how are we doing?”
Sterling rubbed a stubbly chin. “Not good. These guys don’t seem to have a grasp of tactics, but what they lack in finesse they make up for with firepower and sheer…sheer stupidity.”
Mike glanced at Sterling curiously.
“They don’t seem to care what kind of losses they take! They just keep rushing in to attack. It’s like they’re insane.”
Mike turned to a monitor that showed some shaky footage of a Raptor attack.
“Z3Rg!” one of the attacking lizards yelled.
“What does that mean?”
“We’re not sure…the crypto boys think it’s some sort of code.” Sterling rubbed his face.
“So how do we strike back?”
“Your pals are offering to help.” Sterling spat.
Mike raised an eyebrow. “How?”
Sterling activated a screen behind him that showed a robot about one and a half times as tall as a man. It was vaguely insectoid.
“You’re kidding me.”
I’ll bet you that the pilot needs to have a Puppeteer in order to run that thing.
“The catch,” said Sterling, “is that we need one of the guided to pilot the thing.”
There goes my get rich quick scheme.
“And I don’t suppose there are enough guided to pilot all of them?”
Sterling just looked grim.
“Interesting.”
“We want you and the other pilots to test these things and see if they’re going to be useful to us.”
“But that would leave us vulnerable to another attack from the Puppeteer base.”
“It’s over my head.”
* * *
Mike and Colonel Sterling regarded the mech as a couple of technicians poked and prodded the thing.
“Couldn’t the Puppeteers just take over the Raptors like they did with us during the first war?” Sterling asked plaintively.
“Their nervous system is different enough that the Puppeteers cannot interface with them. You see, there are various chemical receptors that, in a human…”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty much what our guys say too.”
After considering the mech a bit longer Mike asked, “How are we doing against the Raptors?”
“They are winning most engagements, though we are managing to slow down their advance.”
“In other words, we need to give these things a try.”
“How convenient,” they both said and then glanced at each other.
Mike turned to one of the technicians. “How?”
The back of the mech opened, forming a short staircase to the cockpit. To Mike, it looked uncomfortably like a mouth.
Mike climbed into the suit and waited. The back closed and a blob-like material reached out and made contact with his Puppeteer.
How are you doing back there?
Fine, just getting used to the additional sensory inputs…
Suddenly Mike’s senses adjusted to the mech. As when piloting a ship, he felt he could “see” all directions. The experience was much more personal with the mech, however; it seemed more like an extension of his body than a ship.
One of the technicians spoke up.
“We’ve prepared a series of tests that exercise your ability to control the suit and test the tactile feedback system.”
Mike noticed a table with a pitcher of water and some glasses.
“OK, I’ll give it a try.”
“Alright, let us wheel this over…”
But Mike was already in motion. He tentatively picked up the pitcher by the handle, though he had to be careful with the suit’s larger hands. He could actually feel the glass. Mike poured the water, sloshing a bit at first. He then picked up the full glass and placed it on a nearby tray.
“Is that it?”
“Well, no, actually that was it.” The technician pointed to another table with some blocks on it like you would see in kindergarten.
“I guess we call it a successful test?” Mike ventured.
The technician rolled his eyes.
* * *
Training with the suits proved to be easier than with the ships. After less than a day of practice Mike forgot that it existed at all. The sensory suite was beyond human perception: he could see infrared and ultraviolet. His hearing was better than a dog’s.
The other pilots from Mike’s squadron also found the mechs easy to master. Oddly enough, the most cumbersome thing about the armor was the weapon systems. While easy enough to learn, the targeting systems did not seem to integrate with the rest of the mech as well as, for example, the communications systems.
I wonder why the weapons don’t work as well as everything else, his Puppeteer remarked.
Well, Mike rejoined dryly, if they’re as peaceful as they say they are then I suppose it would make sense that the things were adapted from some other task. Perhaps they’re really space suits.
“Yeah, space suits, yeah, that’s it.” The Elder responded to Mike’s question. If the Elder had been a person he would have been shifting his eyes about nervously.
“So why do you have them at all?” Mike asked.
“Ahhh…solar radiation. Very dangerous. Oh wait, another call is coming in!”
A version of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” rendered on a kazoo, came from the speakers. Mike drummed his fingers. After 5 minutes of this, the Elder came back on.
“Sorry for the interruption. Now what were we talking about?”
“Why is it that you can’t control Raptors?”
“We weren’t talking about that.”
“Then why did you ask?”
“Don’t change the subject,” the Elder replied brusquely.
“Alright, why can’t you control Raptors?”
“Oh well, you see the nervous system of those guys is completely different from you humans. The connection between nerve cells is this thing called a synapse and there are these chemicals. I can see that I’m boring you.”
“No you’re not, go on.”
“Oh my, another call!”
“Don’t you dare!”
More tinny muzak ensued.
What do you think? Mike asked his Puppeteer.
I think he’s hiding something.
When the Elder finally came back on, Mike blurted out “We think you’re hiding something!”
“Well, I never…have I ever lied to you?”
“There was that time that you…”
“Oops! Another call!”
More muzak.
“You son of a blob!”
“I heard that!”
“I thought you had another call!”
“Yes, well, if I were you I would worry about what those lizards are thinking.”
* * *
Several thousand miles away in the heart of the Raptor base, the enemy was discussing the situation.
“We are pwning them.” The Totally 133+ but Second in Command to the Truly Awesome Uber-General finished his report. The assembled staff cheered in approval.
“We rule!”
/> “W0rd!”
“W00+!”
As it turned out, the Raptors didn’t blink a whole lot and could sleep with their eyes open. Therefore, it wasn’t until the general tumult had died down and almost a minute had passed that it became apparent that his total 133+ness, the Truly Awesome Uber-General had, apparently, dozed off. Finally, an aide prodded him until he woke up again.
“Eh? What? Oh, erm…death to the warm-bloods!”
The assembled Raptors looked nervously at each other.
“D00d! We R warm-bl00ded!”
“Oh…right…well death to the cold bloods then!”
“Ye4h, 4b0ut th4t…th3y R warm bl00ded.”
“Then death to the damn mammals!”
This got the desired effect.
“W00+!”
“T0T41 p0wnersh1p!”
The leader of the Raptors stalked out of the meeting room. Truth be told, he was disappointed that the humans had not put up more of a fight. While he savored victory as much as the next lizard, he found the taste of this one somewhat…unappetizing.
Chapter 2
Mike and the rest of the pilots went through a battery of tests during the first week; surprising the scientists and technicians with their progress. Even Tom stopped snickering…as much.
As Lieutenant Gupta observed while he regarded the smoldering remains of a target, “These things rock.”
* * *
Mike’s squad deployed to a river valley near where the lizards were dug in – all 200 of them.
“What’s the plan, sir?”
“We march up the ridge where lasers will take point. They’ll cover the rest of us as we sneak up to the next ridge. Once we’re in range, the snipers will take out any sentries and then the rest of us rush their position.”
“We’ll make such a racket that they’ll hear us a mile off.”
“I’m hoping you’re wrong there, uh…private.”
Sergeant.
“I mean Constable.”
“I mean Sergeant.”
“Whatever, get moving.”
The squad climbed the hill. Thankfully, the suits made this easy work, instead of the exhausting job this would have been without the exoskeletons. At the top, the two mechs with lasers took up position.
“Let me know if either of you see anything.”
“I see something, sir.”
“And don’t play ‘I spy with my little eye’ with me!”
“No sir. I see one of the enemy.”
“What’s he doing?”
“It looks like he’s reading a magazine.”
“Really?”
“Well, actually, it looks like he’s just looking at a Playboy spread.”
“Why would he do that? I mean, it’s the wrong species!”