The Broken Cage (Solstice 31 Saga Book 2) (2 page)

“Grav-foils and sensors powered. Move it out, Mr. Cook!” Commander Worthington barked from the reactor room. He handed Elkin the O
2
again.

He could feel the 1G plates come back up as they lifted off. Flying by Kidwell grav-foils was interesting without the main computer automatically compensating. It felt like a water vessel in heavy seas.

Elkin was nearly manic with the hemitrophic stims coursing through her system. Sarah Wood, the med tech, was assigned to monitor her, for now, while Jim got back to the bridge.

As he entered, Jim heard Dr. Bowen over the comms, screaming at Tyrrell to give her an open channel.

“Dr. Bowen, we are under attack. Any active broadcast will give away our position. Standard procedure i
s—
” Tyrrell explains, as Jim broke in.

“Bowen, if you try to transmit ANYTHING, I will put you in the airlock and space you myself. Now, shut the hell up and strap in because we will likely crash, again, at any moment.” He cut off her comms without waiting for a reply.

“Dammit.” Jim finally noticed his broken collarbone as he strapped back into the command chair.

“Matt. Give me ship-wide,” Worthington said.

“Go for ship-wide,” Matt Tyrrell said.

“People, I need you all to strap in. This isn't over, yet. The
Ventura
has been destroyed, and pieces of it almost took us out with it. Debris is still falling. We’re moving the ship to the dark side of this moon and out of harm's way, hopefully.”

“Commander. Ship's main screen is back up,” Muir said. “No AI, but I have visual.”

“Do it,” Jim said.

Suddenly, the entire room flashed bright-white. Then, it was like their canopy was gone, and the open sky was above and before them, as they skimmed across the dead surface of the moon.

They saw impacts of various sizes, happening in every direction. They hit at extreme velocity, causing giant plumes of dust or even secondary explosions. Some were far too close.

The door to the bridge slid open and Dr. Bowen stormed in, yelling, “How dare you? Do you have any idea who I am?”

Commander Worthington didn't even turn to look at her. Hume rode Bowen down to the deck as stun gloves administered shocks to the back of her neck. A shocked Bowen thrashed into unconsciousness.

“I want her to wake up in airlock number three,” Jimbo said. “Change the access codes on the hatch. I don't have time for her shit right now.”

“Stupid bitch,” Greg Ibenez said from the door. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, I meant her.” Ibenez pointed at Bowen, backing away when he saw Hume move toward him.

“I know a shortcut to airlock number three,” Ibenez said, as he smiled at Hume.

CHAPTER TWO

Crash and Run

“I crashed my shuttle on the planet. At the time, I didn't think there were any other survivors. Not on the planet, much less the moon. I didn't know then the depth of the treason that destroyed the
Ventura
.”

--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Master Chief Nancy Randall, senior surviving security member of the Ventura's crew.

<<<>>>

“Sonofabitch!” Rand cursed, through clenched teeth, as she ran. She had blood in her eyes. “It just had to be a damned scalp wound,” she scolded herself.

She rounded the outcropping of boulders at the edge of the woods as she wiped her eyes, again, with her sleeve. She stumbled, again, but stayed on her feet this time.

“Shit!” she whispered as she acquired concealment within a maze of boulders.

Her Heads-Up Display was specially designed for the tactical units on the mission. Her heart rate, respiration, and other vitals were available at the left edge of her vision. All were elevated. She had to calm down. Date and time were there also, but she noticed a new indicator she had not seen before. Her HUD indicated it was scanning for networks, but was not connected to any, even though one was detected. No time to think about that now.

Rand found a good spot to pause as she leaned her rifle against a stone wall made of boulders. It felt very light in this gravity. She turned her ring around and activated its camera, popping open a vid window in her HUD, as she probed her wound. She took off her helmet, and she easily saw in the window that it was a superficial gash.

“Dammit, .89 gravity.”

It made her stumble when she first began to run. She was used to 2G in the outer rings of the
Ventura
. Falling, she cut her head on the shuttle's debris. She had never been this physically fit in her whole life. Life in 2G was the best workout.

Barcus was right.

Shit.
She couldn't think about that now.
Barcus is dead.
They were all probably dead.

Without looking, she opened a thigh pocket in her black jumpsuit and withdrew a med spray. Watching in the display, she opened the wound and sprayed into it. The bleeding, as well as the pain, stopped almost at once. Pressing the wound closed, she sprayed it again. She wiped her eyes, one last time, with her sleeve and put her helmet on, as she moved into the shadows.

Leaving the ring camera activated, she launched its small HG drone, which was the size of a housefly. In fact, everyone called it a Fly. No one remembered the actual acronym. It ascended straight up, thirty meters to just above the boulders and trees. After performing the standard 360° orientation sweep, it centered the panorama window on the crash site.

“Holy Mother of God,” Rand said, out loud.

I cannot believe I survived that.

The shuttle had broken up into several large pieces. Many were now burning. The command module included, where she had been strapped in when the first explosion hit. She wasn't a pilot, but she knew the ships could fly themselves. She took a moment to remember the long hours in a tumble, never knowing if she was near an impact or if she would burn in the next explosion. She managed to get the emergency systems online, but the ship was half-gone by then.

She had been knocked unconscious when the ship crashed. Her personal emergency HUD implant alarms woke her. Her training kicked in. Her go bag, her rifle, and her training were all she really had. All she ever needed.

The drone video showed people arriving at the crash site. They were not getting too close because of the smoke and fires. An explosion shook the ground, ripping open another section of the fuselage. When the smoke was cleared to the side, by the wind, she saw the edge of an Emergency Module. She keyed the code into her cuff to remotely activate the EM.

Another window opened in her HUD, showing the “Emergency Module Initialization Status” and, it currently said, “Damaged. Please wait.”

Much to her surprise, the EM spun up on its emergency start sequence. “Crash Indicated.”

It moved.

Rand zoomed her helmet view in on the scene. People on the ground noticed the movement in the fire. The EM ripped itself from the wreckage. She watched as it tore off two damaged legs from the middle joint because they were pinned and crushed. It was now fully engulfed in fire, as it continued to struggle. Rand knew that the conventional fire was no problem for the Emergency Module. It did, fortunately, keep the people back. It looked like a giant spider thrashing in tortured pain because of the intense flames.

It finally shuddered free, dragging two of its broken legs. It still had six functioning legs, three awkwardly placed on each side, so it could still walk. It was designed so it could even walk on only three legs. It began to move north.

From nowhere, a man attempted to block its path, waving his arms. Before Rand could react, the EM crushed him beneath a footpad. It was an accident, but he was still just as dead.

Rand keyed in a survivor code and a rendezvous point. She watched as it limped away in the opposite direction, south, on a vector that would mislead the witnesses. There was a settlement very near to the east that she saw. The EM would, definitely, avoid it. More of its systems came online. Their statuses were conveyed to Rand as they progressed. The advanced AI was off-line. The command AI was up, but it had glitches. It would do, for now. She would have time, later, to assess things.

Just get the hell out of here,
she thought.
Figure it the hell out, later.

That was when she saw the man raise a familiar weapon to his shoulder and fire a burst of light at the retreating spider.
Particle Burst Beam weapons?!
It hit the body of the spider and staggered it. Alarms went off in her display.

Rand was decisive.

All windows closed in her personal HUD, save one. Targeting.

She cleared her cover and, a moment later, was on target by instinct; and, as if by magic, an instant later, the man’s head exploded as the 10mm caseless, cannon round sent him to hell.

Six seconds later, the sound of thunderous shots rolled over the man's corpse, sending those around him running.

The spider reached the tree line, as Rand brought the EM status in her HUD back up. “HULL BREACH” flashed in red. Rand said, “
Shit, shit, shit,”
with every flash, like a mantra. She watched the scene through her scope, waiting. It helped her calm down. When another man walked up to the headless body and picked up the dropped Particle Beam Rifle, she fired. The round hit the PB rifle, as he held it, directly in front of his sternum. The rifle exploded and ripped the man in half.

Fuckers. That's two.

She leaned her rifle against a boulder and shouldered into her pack, groaning. Standing back up, she looked inside her shirt and saw that she was already black-and-blue from the crash and the five-point harness.

This is gonna suck.

She properly donned her pack, over the bruises, stifling a gasp. Clipping the clasps, then checking her thigh holster, her Ka-Bar, and her machete, with long-practiced ease, she picked up her rifle and began a ground-eating run to the rendezvous point. The High Ground Fly followed, watching over her.

It's going to be a long damned day.

As she entered the tree line, the shuttle’s reactor core exploded. The shock wave almost knocked her off her feet.

***

It didn't take long for her to adjust to the lighter gravity. It made carrying the large rifle, and all the gear, comfortable as she ran. The woods consisted of beautiful, large pine trees with a thick canopy and a soft bed of needles to run on. The trees looked like they had been limbed up about ten meters, and there was no tree fall. None. Not a single twig in the undergrowth.

I bet it has all been collected by nearby settlements. That means the population density here is high. But primitive.

Her HUD displayed a rope of mist that seemed to stretch out before her as she ran. It was leading her to the rendezvous point. At the present pace, her ETA was forty-one minutes.

It took a bit longer, thanks to changes in the terrain. Elevation increased and the land became rockier. At one point, she found herself running on an old logging road, making good time. About thirty-five minutes into her run, she heard a loud roar of engines, above in the trees. It was some kind of aircraft with no grav-neutral plating.

Man that is loud.

She kept running. It took her fifty-five minutes to reach the rendezvous point. She could not believe she got there before the EM. Rand had the Fly search the clearing and the surrounding area.

“Emergency Module, do you read me?”

“I read you. Recommend radio silence. ETA six minutes,” the AI’s flat voice responded, in her head.

The EM Status window displayed a 3D model of the EM, indicating areas of damage. The third leg on the left side and the front leg on the right side were broken. They were held up off the ground by the EM's utility arms.

The passenger’s side door hinge was damaged, as well as the air intake right behind it.

It was the two-seater model, but it would do. Minimal storage, though. Her pack would be fine, for now, in the passenger’s seat. But, the EM had no weapon’s rack.

Dammit.

She would have to find a way to keep it handy.

“Emergency Module. Window forward display.”

A window popped up in her HUD, showing the Module’s progress through the forest. The clearing was ahead. The trees were thinning out. The display was not steady. The spider limped.

“Stop at the edge of the clearing. I'll get in.”

She heard it clomping through before she saw it.

She stood up and said, “Emergency Module, I am Randall, Nancy J. Log me in. Survival mode. Hostile territory. Escape-and-evade.”

“Voice confirmation and login received. Warning: Survival mode unavailable. AI Higher Functions failed to start.”

“Never mind that now. Open up.” The body of the spider lowered to the ground, the driver’s side door unsealed and the reverse gull-wing lifted. “Open the passenger’s side.” She heard a series of muffled mechanical clicks, but nothing happened.

“Dammit.”

She reached in and pushed the pack in the driver’s side door, over the console, into the passenger’s seat. She climbed in and drew the rifle in behind her. It lay along the center console. That would have to do, for now.

“Link to High Ground Fly 421 as an external source. Audio, video and data.”

“Yes, Nancy.”

“Call me Rand. I'll call you Bob.”

“Bob, sir?”

“Yes. Bob. Fly, ascend to 200 meters and begin mapping. Bob, plot a track to the least populated area within this sector. Transfer tactical to your EMD.”

The Emergency Module Display (EMD) inside the vehicle immediately filled with the surrounding area visual. Also, there were damage report status screens, and scrolling color-coded, damage logs. There was far too much red. Only the line that read: “HULL BREACH. Seal not achieved,” was red
and
flashing.

“Bob, I want this to be a clean E and E. Escape-and-evade. We need to get to a safer area before we can execute repairs.”

A rope of mist appeared before them. They didn't move.

She scanned far too many windows that were open before her. Finally, she saw the problem. She mashed the ‘autopilot while pilot aboard’ virtual button and set the speed to half. The spider limped head.

“Tactical map, main view.” Nothing happened.

“BOB! Tactical map, primary view.” The map came up. AI~Bob said nothing.

The scrolling error log showed a new red line: “Error Initializing AI. Attempting Restart. Please Wait.”

Worry about it later.

“Bob, please annotate known points on the tactical map.”

Icons appeared. They were simple letters. A, B, C, D. There was also a green line and a blue line.

Sigh.

“Replace annotation A with 'Crash Site’, Bob.” She was annoyed.

“Replace annotation B with 'Rendezvous Point’, Bob. Replace annotation C with 'Current Position’, Bob. Replace annotation D with 'Current Destination’, Bob.”

“Display current speed, distance to destination, and estimated time until we reach the destination.” Nothing happened.

“Bob, for Christ’s sake...Display current speed, distance to destination, and estimated the time until we reach the destination.”

“Command not completely recognized.”

“Bob, how much faster can we go without risking additional damage?”

The scrolling error log showed a new red line: “Error Initializing AI. Attempting Restart. Please Wait.”

AI~Bob had no additional answer.

At least I am not driving on manual.

***

The Fly helped them avoid four sets of people before night fell. Just after dark, it rained, and in the spot where the gull-wing overhead door was not sealed, it leaked, almost dripping on her rifle. Rand rearranged the pack to avoid the drips. She groaned as she stretched across, feeling her bruises.