First Contact

Chapter 638: The Spoked Offensive

Many species have wondered exactly what can stop Terran Descent Humanity. They feel sure that somewhere out there is something that can withstand the might of the Terran Descent Humanity's overwhelming strength, adaptability, and resilience.

There was a planet that could have. Everything about the planet, from the weather, to the microbes, to the flora and fauna, was designed to kill Terran Descent Humanity. Some of the creatures upon that planet even looked at the toxic stew of the human body and saw it as food.

I am sometimes asked what happened to that planet. What happened to those creatures?

The answer is simple: The Mantids Glassed it eight thousand years ago.

And Terran Descent Humanity, being humanity, recreated it in all of its lethal glory.

Behold: TerraSol. - Most High Great Super Secret Agent Ba'ahn Ya'ard, Lanaktallan espionage agent, TerraSol, 86th Century

People think of Terrans and only think of Terran Descent Humanity, the Clone Consortium, Digital Sentiences, and, of course, the cyborgs. People know that the humans were lonely, so they cloned themselves, created advanced digital sentiences in their image, and even journeyed out into the stars to find friends.

What they often forget is the Biological Artificial Sentience Systems. Most think it's simply genetically altered humans or humans reskinned into a new body.

They forget about one simple thing the humans did before even achieving superluminal flight.

The Uplift.

Behold: Humanity's Children. - General A'armo'o, the Atomic Hooves, Reflections upon War.

They lost us for over eight thousand years.

They did not forget us.

Just as we would never forget them. - CW3 Jack "Chief" Nuntru, The Scent of Memories Upon the WInd

Ralvex flexed his knees slightly as the striker set down. His armor felt light, almost like cloth, even though it weighed over five hundred kilos. It was heavy scout armor, with power assist, movement assist, light battlescreens, grav spike generation, and inertia dampeners.

It was just lighter than his thousand kilo heavy assault suit he had worn for the last three years of fighting on Genverall-3 against the Dwellerspawn and the Slorpies.

No words were spoken, no commands over the radio, just other passengers of the light striker moving off and taking their assigned positions. Ralvex was third off, going right, unlimbering the cut down M318A6 close infantry support weapon. It synched up automatically, running on passive systems rather than ranging sensors immediately scanning the area.

The jungle had been blasted away by atomics a month prior then had been shelled that morning, leaving huge gaping holes from the high impulse thermobaric rounds detonating in air bursts backed by defoliants.

Ralvex ducked down behind a twisted and burned ground vehicle frame, tabbing up a piece of stimgum and chewing it while he waited. He kept glancing at the other eight members of the team even as he kept scanning the streets of the deserted and overgrown city.

The crew of the striker quickly covered it with a camo net that would even help conceal it from broad phasic sweeps. Ralvex knew that a simple pulsed electrical current would turn the net to ash so it wouldn't inhibit the striker if it had to take off suddenly. Once it was covered the crew moved back into the striker, waiting for whatever happened next.

Major Harkrik, a Treana'ad, motioned to Ralvex and the others on the right flank to gather up.

Ralvex stayed silent, the counter-acoustic systems making him completely soundless, as he jogged up.

The Major held out one hand and everyone stacked their hands on top of it.

"All right, command says the slorpies are growing crystals two klicks in. They're sticking to inside skyraker stubs and semi-intact parking garages, but a drone spotted the phasic signatures yesterday," the Major said.

Everyone blinked icons to signify they could hear him.

"Double skirmish line. Chief will take point," the Major said, nodding at the figure in armor much like Ralvex's, only thicker and bulkier. Not because it was heavier armor, but because the being it protected massed twice as much as Ralvex. "It's probably oozies and slimers building the crystals and brain fungus charging it, but command wants to know."

"Drones?" Sergeant First Class Tvn.Plerk asked, his voice tight with stress as he leaned forward on his third leg, lifting up his right leg and flexing it to ease up a slight twinge in his knee.

"Negative. The one pass was enough for them to seed the whole area with puffballs and spitters," the Major said.

"Extraction if it goes sideways?" Staff Sergeant Ngrwark asked. Her icon was a tiny picture of when she'd competed for the Regimental Body Building Championship back on Terra only ten years local before, three years Galactic Reckoning.

"Beat feet back to the striker. Go loud the whole way back. Ninth CyberQueen's Royal Armor is fifteen miles out, they'll feint toward the city, their tanks should draw anything big enough to worry us," the Major said.

Everyone blinked icons.

"Let's go," the Major said.

Ralvex knew his place. Lead, right flank, fifteen meters behind Chief, five meters ahead of Ngrwark. On his left Tvn.Plerk was moving with the odd fluid walk of the tripod Pubvian troopers, his weapon the same as Ralvex's.

A new innovation was built into Ralvex's scout armor. The feet had a slight electrical discharge that numbed vegetation nerve bundles in different sized patches, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes so that the pattern was somewhat random.

Moving along, Ralvex wondered how long it would take the jungle to come up with a counter-measure.

He remembered the Second Telkan War.

--sneaky sneaky-- 298 said.

"Uh-huh," Ralvex said quietly.

298 had been assigned to Ralvex a year ago, replacing 525, who had been assigned to the Cyberqueen's Royal Robot Combat Armor Division. He'd worked with Ralvex long enough to understand the Telkan was taciturn where others of his species were pretty talkative.

--music-- 298 asked.

"Later. No harmonic risks," Ralvex said, giving the inside of the shop another look over through the shattered bay windows.

Up ahead Chief checked either way across the cross street. Ralvex watched as Chief suddenly gave a complex flash of three hand symbols. His armor translated them as fast as the other trooper made them.

Clear on both sides and ahead.

Ralvex checked the air and the sides of the buildings right before he took his turn to dash across the street.

Moss, vines, sporadic crystal growths, barnacles and puffers.

Standard for cities overrun by Slorpie forces.

At one point the nine man team edged by an Ohm class Dwellerspawn that sat unmoving, the eyes dark, just a slow steady rumble as the book lungs under the armor slowly inhaled and exhaled. It had been unmoving long enough that the moss and feeder vines had covered it in a thick mat. Sunflowers, the kind that shot 4.5 MW laser beams focused by reflective petals not the smaller ones with the crunchy seeds, had grown on top of the Dwellerspawn.

Ralvex made sure his armor got a good recording. The sunflowers' laser was strong enough and had enough range to knock down missiles and artillery round.

Ralvex pointed it out silently to the Major, who gave a quick set of hand signals.

Mount the side of the building and stick get eyes around.

Ralvex jumped up and scampered up the side of the building on all fours, 298 running the grav systems so that the Telkan didn't rip out segments of the moss or the building facing. He planted one foot and one hand, holding onto the Mini-Madame with his other hand, his foot hanging free.

The massive Dwellerspawn was covered in sunflowers, all of them fed by a web of nutrient carrying vines.

--new-- 298 said.

"Uh-huh," Ralvex answered. He dropped down, letting his Icarus land him safely in a soft flare of light, the blue illumination letting him know he was running stealth.

Ralvex signed back that the whole back of the Ohm Class Dwellerspawn was covered. The flowers were dormant, but being fed by nutrient pipes.

The Major nodded and signaled and the team moved on.

Just shy of two clicks Chief made a hand signal and everyone hustled to cover, taking a moment to toss a 'shock grenade' that would stun any nerve bundles in the moss for a few hours.

Ralvex knelt down in the entryway of an old shop, the doors and windows gone but the upper story collapsed into the building, giving Ralvex full cover on his right.

Chief broke the seal on his faceplate and Ralvex felt his balls tighten up in reflex.

Chief's eyes had the clear nictitating membrane over them and he had black warsteel studs along his muzzle.

Ralvex knew Chief had the ware to keep his bloodstream, fur, and skin from getting contaminating, but after nearly a decade of fighting the Dwellerspawn Ralvex had a healthy respect for the pollen, spores, and tiny organisms that came along with any Atrekna crawl.

Ralvex watched as Chief sniffed at the air, the big blocky head moving almost daintily as he sampled the breeze.

Chief's helmet closed and Chief hustled over to stunned spot and crouched down. Again, Ralvex's faceshield translated the quick hand motions even though Ralvex had learned the sign language.

Heavy phasic source Atrekna sweat.

Ralvex looked around, wondering where the source was.

Other troopers joked that troopers like Chief could smell an upwind wounded Dwellerspawn hiding under a bed in an active brothel on payday at twenty miles and even identify the type.

Ralvex knew that it wasn't too exaggerated.

The Major held still for a moment then signaled. 298 moved the phasic shielding up slowly until Ralvex could taste blueberries on his back molars. Once it was spun up, Ralvex signaled he was good to go.

The team moved on.

Two klicks wasn't far. Ralvex knew he could run it in fourteen minutes and only be slightly winded.

But sneaking up on it was time consuming.

It took nearly an hour for the parking structure to come into view. Heavy vines and curtains of moss hung across the open areas, same with the melted-candle looking stubs of the skyrakers on either side. The streets were full of rubble from where atomic sledgehammers had smashed buildings down with white hot fury and the rubble was covered with moss and vegetation.

Ralvex spotted three places where the rubble and the moss had shifted to reveal heavy nutrient pipes that sat silently pulsing. One had steam coming off of it and heat venting plants. He pointed them out, pointed at the garage, pumped his fist twice, then pointed at where his onboard map showed a lake eight miles away.

The Major nodded tightly.

Moving carefully it took nearly twenty minutes to find an access point into the garage that wasn't covered by moss or hanging vines.

Ralvex was second through, moving carefully when he shifted from daylight to the darkness inside the parking garage. He looked around, noting that the vehicles were all gone.

Instead there were clusters of crystals on beds of crystalline 'foam', with brain coral nodes the size of Ralvex's fist clustered around it and brain fungus in thick ropes between the formations of crystals. Ralvex made sure his suit recorded all of it and had 298 load it into a 'kill drone' just in case.

There were too many new things and Ralvex had learned that in war, new meant bad.

The team moved silently through the garage, ducking under curtains of moss and hanging sheets of fungus. The crystals painted the garage in soft pink and purple light, giving everything a strange otherworldly look. Here and there purple strands of phasic energy crawled across crystal or down nodes of brain fungus.

After a few minutes of careful movement Ralvex could see the destination.

The ramps leading up and down.

Chief suddenly made a motion and the squad went still, holding position.

298 slowly moved the phasic shielding up, his antenna curling slightly with the stress.

An Atrekna moved out from behind a crystal, running its hand across the surface. The iridescent robe glittered softly in the darkness, a thin disk of purple energy was under it, and it wore a complicated arrangement of crystals, wires, and chains on its conical head. Its eyes were almost completely white, the elongated slit pupil almost completely closed even though the garage was only lit by the crystals. It had long, thin, four jointed fingers with no nails or talon on them. Blue lines of phasic energy trailed behind the fingertips as the creature slowly floated past the crystal.

The entire team held its breath.

The Atrekna drifted around the crystal and Ralvex realized with a sinking feeling that it was going to come around and head right toward where the team had frozen in place.

Major made a quick motion and everyone faded back, putting crystal formations between the Atrekna and them.

The Atrekna froze, looking around slowly, one hand still on the crystal.

A heat dissipation bulb chose that moment to release steam into the air with a sharp hiss and the clacking of the folded protein shell opening. More followed and the air filled with steam as the temperature rose.

Ralvex felt a surge of relief as the Atrekna turned back to the crystal.

The relief turned to tension as the Atrekna suddenly moved away from the crystal, floating deeper into the garage level.

Right toward where the team was trying to hide behind the crystal formations.

As the Atrekna drifted past Chief, Ralvex realized that Major was going to be spotted. Ralvex reached down slowly to his equipment, wrapping his hand around his knife.

Chief took two quick steps, one arm looping around where another creature would have a neck, lifting the Atrekna up and squeezing. Before the Atrekna could do much more than start to realize what was happening, Chief drove his combat knife down at an angle, the tip of the blade slicing through flesh and ripping through the joint plate at the top the skull, the thick blade plunging deep into the brain of the Atrekna.

Chief yanked out the eight inch blade as he moved backwards, still holding the Atrekna off the ground, until he was near one of the coolant pipes. He laid the Atrekna down, wiped the blade on its robe and sheathed it. He took a can of spray off his hip and sprayed it over the Atrekna, covering it in glittering mist.

In less than 10 seconds the nanite infused spray broke the Atrekna down into its components then turned into atoms of carbon, leaving no trace.

The team waited, most of the tabbing up stimgum to take the tension off.

Major gave the signal and the team gathered up and set their hands on top of one another to network up the induction links.

"We've got confirmation the slorpies are actively here," the Major said. "Mission parameter options are to continue the sweep for more data, rig to blow in place, exfiltrate when necessary."

"Too many Ohm Class, saw a lot of firejack nests," Tvn.Plerk said. "We stir this up, they'll still have enough to rip us apart even if Royal Armor starts flattening the place."

The Major nodded. "We'll withdraw. Ralvex, when we get out, go up the building, drop a queriable beacon. We'll head out, slow and steady."

Everyone flashed assent and pulled their hands apart.

Moving out of the garage went slow, Ralvex feeling his nerves draw tight as they wove between the crystalline structures.

An Atrekna came around the corner and Ralvex reacted instantly, already tensed and keeping the movements in his mind.

His hand slapped down, pulling free the combat knife. His other hand reached out, grabbing the feeding tentacles and crushing them. He felt the squishy pop of the weird lamprey some of them kept in the tentacles as he raised up the knife even as he yanked the Atrekna toward him.

The Atrekna's face was full of so much agony it couldn't even transmit to the communal mind.

Then the combat knife stabbed it six inches above its eyes, slightly to the left, through the unfused growth seam, between the soft bones.

Ralvex caught its weight and dragged it to the side, setting it down.

He took the time to step of the two finger-length eels that fell from its face when the feeding tentacles popped silently before spraying down the body with 'body-b-gone'.

The entire team held still for a full minute, then started moving again.

They exited out the same way they came in, moving down the street slightly. The Major pointed at Ralvex, then at the top of the building.

Ralvex jumped up, quickly climbing the thirty stories left of the skyraker. Up near the top, where it was all naked twisted hyperalloy girders, he stopped and swung back and forth, held in place by one hand and one foot, his other hand holding the Mini-Madame, his foot hanging free.

--not good-- 298 said.

Ralvex could see dozens, hundreds of Ohm Class Dwellerspawn, thousands of the -Jack Class, and hundreds of nests in the exposed girders of the buildings.

"No, it is not," Ralvex said softly. He looked down into the collapsed skyraker. Sheets of hanging moss and fungus hid the bottom of the hollowed out space below him but a quick thermal check showed it was extremely hot and extremely humid.

He slapped the beacon onto the exposed girder and triggered the adhesive patch. He turned it on to query only, then glanced down.

The updraft of hot air chose that moment to give him a straight down view into the hollowed out skyraker.

A massive pool of bubbling greenish fluid, large veined pods in the pool, coolant and nutrient pipes sticking out of the rubble.

And what was the largest brain coral that Ralvex had ever seen. It was the size of one of the heavy tanks, surrounded by a half-dozen smaller ones, each of those ringed by dozens of smaller clusters. Crystals jutted out of the fluid, connected to the brain corals by ropes of brain fungus. Clamshell-esque heat dissipation and armor plates surrounded every coral, ready to close and protect the growths within seconds.

Ralvex let go and dropped, trusting his landing system. He hit and looked up, rapidly throwing out crisp hand signals. The Major held still for a moment, obviously thinking. After a second he made another set of hand signals and the team moved out, following a slightly different route than they had used to come in.

Twice they edged by Ohm Class Dwellerspawn and once had to reroute to get around a Titan Beetle nest that had consumed the interior of a shopping mall, the exterior structural beams holding the nest in place.

When they finally reached the striker Ralvex held back a sigh of relief.

It ain't over till you're in the club with two fingers in a redhead telling everyone how cool you were, Ralvex heard the rather profane advice from an old school operator in his mind.

The camo net was quickly taken down, rolled up, and crammed into the compartment even as the striker crew ran through the launch checks.

The flight back was silent and Ralvex was left alone with his thoughts. After a bit 298 turned on music, the Telkan Holy Choir, and Ralvex could feel the tension draining out of his body.

When the striker landed, Ralvex followed the Major and Chief into the heavily armored command center of the forward operations base. There were still patches on the walls and floors, repairing the damage from the attack only a few weeks before. Ralvex peeled off from the two officers, heading to the armory then the morgue.

He had to admit, it felt weird to be out of armor, even inside a FOB, after weeks of living inside armor.

When he sat down to eat a tray of food there was a slight tremor that got through the FOB's gravshock stabilizers.

Ralvex didn't bother looking up from where he was praying before eating.

He knew what it was and included his thanks at the end of his prayer.

And bless Saint Oppenheimer, amen.