“No idea, sir. Should I shoot him?”
“No, look around for any others and wait for my signal.”
“Yes sir.”
“Or if it looks like he’s spotted us.”
“Gotcha.”
“Kissida?”
“Yeah.”
“No heroics – if you die I’ll kill you!”
“That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
Mike was thinking that Alice would have said something rude…he missed her.
The rest of the squad spread out and made their way to the bottom of the ridge, where a small river wound its way through the valley. Mike stopped there and checked in with the two snipers.
“Anything?”
“We found three other sentries. One of them appears to be sleeping, two are reading magazines, and the last is doing his job. That last one hasn’t seen you yet, but I think he’s heard you. Every now and then he looks through some binocular-like gizmo towards your position.”
Mike sighed. I guess we won’t be sneaking up on anyone while using these suits.
Nope.
“Take aim at the alert one and one of the readers. If it looks like we’ve been spotted, open fire.”
“Roger.”
“The rest of you get ready. When the sniper team opens fire, rush the hill and engage the enemy. Snipers, get to the top of the other hill ASAP and engage. Any questions?”
There were none so the squad started moving up the hill. After they had gotten a third of the way up, Mike’s mech stepped on a twig and the snipers opened fire. Of course it just seemed like a “twig” and not a 6” diameter trunk that his mech crushed, but it seemed small and innocuous from up there…
Mike bolted up the hill.
A horde of lizards erupted into his path.
A blue bolt of light struck the lead Raptor. The rest scattered as more light came from behind Mike.
Mike raised his chain gun and fired.
More raptors fell as he swept the weapon back and forth.
He felt like a god of wrath as bolts of blue light rained down among the enemy.
But then the Raptors tried to return fire.
The ground exploded all around Mike as a lizard opened up with a ridiculously large Gatling laser.
Mike’s weapon roared its defiance and the Raptor fell.
Things were strangely silent as Mike looked for more targets but all he could see were the tails of the enemy as they ran over the hill.
With a cry of “C’mon you idiot!” Kissida’s mech raced past him and climbed up the hill. Mike followed.
Of course, the main Raptor force was waiting for them.
Laser bolts and machine gun fire cut loose as soon as the two of them crested the hill. Mike got the impression that they should fall back.
A funny thing happened.
He stayed put.
With a cry that started deep in his guts Mike fired his chain gun. Next to him Kissida launched rocket after rocket with deadly precision.
Blasts from the enemy rained around him until one, then two found their mark. But the armor held up.
Rather than stopping him, Mike fired with renewed fury.
Then the other two members of his squad joined him, taking out lizard after lizard with their precise laser fire.
In what seemed like a few seconds, the remaining Raptors were in full retreat. Looking around Mike realized that the whole ridge had been devastated.
The four members of his squad stood on the ridge like avenging angles, the area around them torn up and devoid of life.
Mike noticed a Raptor with massive damage to him, from Mike’s own weapon it seemed, was moving. Mike walked over to him, his chain gun at the ready.
The lizard managed to raise his head as Mike came closer. It seemed to focus on him. It raised a forelimb towards Mike.
For no reason that he could explain, Mike reached out his mech’s hand to grasp the Raptors, but instead the lizard gave him a high five.
“1eet!” it said, and died.
* * *
“y0r l3e7n3$$?” One of his aides was prodding the Truly Awesome Uber-General awake.
“Hmm…yes? Oh well done, good job.” The general decided to have another nap.
“umm...w3 L0$7 @
[email protected], y0ur l3etne$$.” The aide shifted about nervously.
“Did we now, well, that was good thinking on the part of…WHAT?!” The general sat up straighter and peered at the aid through a monocle.
“Ah…mumble, mumble, cough, cough…”
“Speak up man!” The aide stared at him curiously, “lizard,” the general amended.
“W3ll, We W3re, liKe,
[email protected] ou7 When tHe5e
[email protected] dud3s juMP3d U$, @ND 7hey
[email protected] 7he$3
[email protected] $UIt$.”
“Must you talk like that?!”
“lIKe
[email protected]?”
“Never mind.” The general sighed. “Continue.”
“5o lIK3 tHe$3 5ui75 w3r3 pRe77y l337 anD they lIK3 g0t 7h3 jUMp on us @ND w3...ah...lo$7.”
“So what you’re trying to tell me is that these Earthlings are going to be more of a challenge then we thought?”
“pr377y much.”
“Excellent,” the general said, dropping his monocle. When he saw the aide’s expression he hastily rephrased, “I mean…too bad.”
The general dismissed the aide and rubbed his hands together: at last, a challenge.
* * *
Mike had thought Sterling would be in a better mood.
The Colonel was reading a report at his desk when Mike came in. He didn’t so much as look up.
After a few minutes, still without glancing up, he yelled “And get Mike Smith in here!”
“I’m right here.”
Sterling glanced up. “Oh, good.” He went back to reading the report. Mike sat down.
“Sit down.”
I’d say he’s distracted.
Thanks for the hot tip.
“Haven’t the new mechs shown up?” Mike ventured.
Sterling sighed and put down his report.
“Oh, they showed up, alright. Training is coming along well too.”
“So what’s the problem?”
Sterling hit a button. A monitor turned on behind his desk, showing a bleached blonde and some guy. Both were naked.
Mike’s eyes widened.
Sterling hastily changed the channel to something showing a horde of Raptors descending on a base somewhere.
“They’ve redoubled their attack.”
Mike surveyed the carnage for a time in silence. “Are the new suits coming in fast enough?”
“Not fast enough to stem the tide. At this rate we may have six months.”
Mike rubbed his face. “So what can I do for you?”
“The Puppeteers…”
Hey, he didn’t call them ‘Your buddies!’
“…say they have another advance that could help us. I want you to meet with the Big Blob…”
I knew it was too good to last…
“…and see what you think.”
A short shuttle ride later, Mike was aboard the Puppeteer asteroid. Gideon met him at the airlock.
“Mike! Nice to see you…”
“Cut the chatter, I need to get back to my squad. Take me to the Elder!”
The Elder was much as Mike remembered him: what looked like a 30 foot sphere of mercury.
“What did you need to see me in person for?” Mike asked as he barged in.
“Nice to see you too.”
“And what’s that?” Mike asked pointing at a bunch of blackish bean shaped objects, each about a foot long.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“So what are they?”
“They’re seeds.”
“You brought me up here to talk about gardening?!”
The Elder writhed about. “They grow into factories that turn out battle suits!”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Mike frowned “stil
l, they won’t help unless they grow really fast.”
“It takes about 2 months for one to mature into a factory.”
“How do you grow them?”
“That’s why I asked to see you! Honestly, Gideon, have you ever met a more impatient ape?”
“Hey!” Mike and Gideon said simultaneously.
“Sorry. The idea is that I can give you all the information you need directly. That’s why I asked to see you. There, happy now?”
“Well, that explains…”
“You sure?”
“I guess.” Mike said sullenly. “How exactly to you propose to exchange information.”
“Pull my tentacle.” The Elder formed a pseudopod and reached towards Mike.
Mike sighed.
Just the specs for the factory, OK?
Alright.
And don’t dawdle around!
You never let me have any fun.
Mike’s Puppeteer oozed around to cover his arm. Mike reached out and touched the Elder.
As with the last time Mike had touched the Elder, he felt as if a universe of knowledge were his to command. He felt like there was a bit of rooting around and then in a flash the information was there. Abruptly, the connection ended.
“There you go! Now I expect you want to get back to your squad!”
Mike looked at the Elder curiously. The last time it had tried to extend the contact; it was almost as if it were…
I think he’s hiding something.
What makes you think it’s a ‘he?’
Well, the alternative is using the plural and it just sounds strange to say ‘I think they’re hiding something.’
Alright, alright. What do you think it could be?
I suppose I could say ‘she’ but it just doesn’t strike me as female.
About what he’s hiding!
But as he had been communicating with his Puppeteer, Gideon had gathered up the seeds into a bag. He passed it to Mike and started hustling him out of the Elder’s chamber.
“Hey, wait a minute!”
“No, no, you were in such a hurry before. Off you go!”
The Elder even formed a pseudopod that waved goodbye.
“Do you like Trivial Pursuit?” Gideon asked inexplicably.
“What?”
“The Elder is just no good at it…”
Unable to resist Mike asked “You play Trivial Pursuit with it?”
“Hey, it gets pretty boring up here.”
“But there’s no gravity in the Elder’s room, how do you roll the dice?”
“Ah, we have to use computer generated numbers for that…I think he cheats.”
See? Even Gideon uses the masculine pronoun!
Shut up!
But just then they arrived at the airlock.
“Keep in touch! Here’s an autographed photo.”
Gideon handed Mike a picture of the Elder waving at the camera. It was signed “To my good friend Ralph.”
“Hey, I’m not Ralph!”
But the airlock door was closing.
When Mike got back to base he was hustled into Sterling’s office.
“What’s that?” Sterling asked immediately.
“These are seeds that the Elder says…”
Sterling had come out from behind his desk and was examining the photo.
“You’re not Ralph.”
“…seeds that can grow into battle suit factories.”
“Is your middle name Ralph or something?”
“Grow into factories in two months!”
“What, from this picture?”
“No! From these!” Mike said, showing Sterling the seeds.
“Oh, great. Magic beans.”
Mommeeeee!
“Look, I’m really tired, and I was hoping to…”
“But let me guess, we need a Guided to grow the things.”
Mike stopped short. “I had not thought of that.”
Sterling stalked back behind his desk.
“Great! First you get this picture to Ralph somebody…”
“I have no clue who Ralph is!”
“…and then we have to create five more blobs…”
“Three.”
Sterling eyed the bag suspiciously.
“…three more blobs to tend some magic beans!” Sterling sulked for a bit then asked abruptly “How long did you say it would take those things to grow?”
“Two months.”
“Assuming we can hold out that long.”
Chapter 3
Mike looked around at the base: a half-dozen buildings in addition to some warehouses. It didn’t seem like much.
“Are you sure this is the right place?”
“For the twentieth time…YES, THIS IS THE RIGHT PLACE!” Gupta said.
Mike considered this.
“No way have I asked you twenty times.”
Gupta turned his mech away in disgust. Sinclair and Kissida were in their mechs a little further off. Kissida shrugged.
“Ours is not to question why…”
“Reason.”
“Excuse me?”
“The correct quote is ‘Ours is not to reason why…’”
“Actually,” cut in Sinclair, “the correct quote is ‘Theirs not to reason why.’”
“Oh shut up.”
“Right-o.” Mike could hear the smirk in Sinclair’s voice.
“And the Raptors are definitely coming?” This was directed at Kissida.
“Oh yes.”
“Great.”
“Sir, why are we about to try and stop a horde of lizards from taking this base?”
“Because…” Mike began. Then he thought back to the day he had lost Alice. There had only been 16 of the enemy to fight that day, but they had to hold the line against them or the Earth would have been finished.
“Because…” Alice had sacrificed herself to destroy eight enemy fighters. Mike would have taken her place, but she had always been impulsive.
“…I have no idea why, but we’ve got to do it.” For some strange reason, this seemed to satisfy them.
“Incoming in five.” Kissida informed them.
“Right, take up positions.”
Mike got behind some sandbags. Kissida did the same. Sinclair and Gupta jumped onto the roofs of some buildings.
After a few tense minutes of waiting, Mike could detect some movement in the forest outside the perimeter. He figured the enemy might try to use snipers to take them out. Instead, one lizard stepped out of the trees.
“Z3Rg!!!”
The rest of the Raptors poured out of the forest and rushed the base.
Mike leveled his chain gun and started firing.
Kissida let loose with rocket propelled explosive rounds.
Gupta and Sinclair picked off individuals with their lasers.
Lizards were falling left and right but more just kept coming.
The advancing line was fifty yards away.
Mike cut down another five Raptors, but ten more rushed in.
Twenty yards.
Ten.
Mike expected the Raptors to just blast away with their ridiculous laser weapons, a cross between a six-shooter and something from a steampunk novel, but he was wrong.
These lizards were armed with chainswords.
Mike punched one Raptor ten feet through the air.
He turned and fired point blank, the light from the muzzle flashing like lightning, and back-handed another one.
He turned to face another, but a sniper got the lizard first.
Then he had to side-step a chainsword directed at his head.
“133T!!!” yelled one of the lizards.
An explosion threw Mike and his mech to the side.
Glancing over he realized that Gupta had lobbed a grenade close to him. A number of lizards glared up at Gupta.
“w34k!!!” They turned their lasers towards his building and started firing.
“NO!” Mike
roared. Stooping, he picked up a fallen chainsword used it to chop the heads off three nearby lizards.
The startled lizards were swiveling to face him when an explosive round from Kissida’s rocket launcher tore through them.
Wielding his gun in one hand and his chainsword in the other, Mike rushed the other Raptors.
He fired the gun in one direction and swung the chainsword in the other.
Some lizard must have blocked his gun with a chainsword, the thing stopped firing. Mike threw it at the advancing horde.
Mike and Kissida were now back to back, surrounded by Raptors.
“Looks like this is the end, chief,” she said.
“In that case, I want you to know…”
“Yes?”
“…that you’re annoying.”
The Raptors started to rush them, but just at that moment explosions tore through their ranks. With a rushing sound an A-10 Thunderbolt swooped past. Another followed, strafing the lizards with its 30mm cannon.
The sky above them was filled with swerving and diving aircraft, both human and the odd, backwards swept wings of the Raptor’s fighters.
Mike took the opportunity to scoop up a fallen lizard’s laser and started firing at the hesitating Raptors. Kissida did the same.
With a roar, the other Raptors rushed the two of them, heedless of losses.
Soon it was hand-to-hand again. In a few moments, Mike found himself pinned, with a Raptor trying to cut through his armor with a chainsword.
The lizard glanced up, distracted, then took several rounds from a rifle in the chest. At first it just seemed to annoy him, but the bullets kept coming. The lizard finally fell over.
Mike managed to dislodge one Raptor from his legs and smashed two others together.
He got up to see human troops pouring into the area.
The Raptors started returning fire with their lasers.
The troops were taking major losses but they were pushing the lizards back.
A nearby lizard shook his fist defiantly at Mike “w3LL g3t YoU, @nD y0ur Lit7le b10b 700!”
The Raptors retreated.
Major Rock Slate pulled up next to Mike as the lizards left the field.
Mike was breathing hard. It looked like one of the Raptors had gotten through his leg armor. The suit had sealed the cut to limit blood loss.
“I thought I ordered you to stay out of this.” Mike observed.
“I outrank you.”
“I just hope we bought enough time for those damn factories to come online.”
* * *
Sterling seemed very self-satisfied when Mike saw him again.
“So how are things going?” Mike ventured.
“We’re making progress on all fronts. The volunteers for the new mechs are learning quickly and they seem to be loyal. The factories the Blobs gave us are online and can churn out 200 mechs a month.”
“Aren’t you worried that we’re building our own occupying force? I mean if the Puppeteers took control of those soldiers and turned the mechs on us…” Mike began.