Apiyo sat Aryna and Allison down at the kitchen table as she prepared to check their marks. She had taken great pains to ensure she was the first to see them. Allison was tapping her fingers nervously. She truly had no idea how she did on her exams or what her final marks would be. Apiyo looked over Aryna’s first. Then forwarded them on to her.
“Good job Aryna, go get dressed for dinner.”
Apiyo opened Allison’s next. She scanned them then forwarded them to Allison who looked them over and was pretty surprised to see straight A’s including history. Apiyo stood up.
“Go get dressed, make sure Robin gets something nice on. We’re going to eat at Mumbai.”
Allison hopped out of her chair and was looking in Robin’s room in seconds. Mumbai was the best Indian restaurant on the planet.
“Hey Robin, can you please put on the blue dress we bought. We’re going out for supper to a nice place.”
Allison pulled out a black dress. Usually such a thing would have taken more than gentle prodding for her mother but of late, she’d been leaning towards more feminine attire and just general demeanor. She was pulling the dress out when she received an incoming call from Major Ghai. She sighed and answered it.
“Hello Sir.”
Major Ghai was smiling.
“Well, Lieutenant it would seem that your persistence has paid off. Please report to base with your fighter by 1700 for your briefing. You have the mission you’ve been begging command for.”
Allison was not pleased with this news. She had been begging her mother to take them to Mumbai for supper forever, but it was deemed wasteful.
“Sir, could reschedule that for 0700 tomorrow morning?”
Major Ghai leaned closer to his desk holo-projector.
“No. Whatever you did to make this happen has the Special Operations Commander in a bit of a rush. As if his job depended on it. You’re not making friends and since you’ve been begging to go to Yellowstone, I suggest you be here in thirty minutes, or plan on being charged with AWOL.”
Allison sighed and put her dress back in the closet.
“Understood sir. On my way.”
She reached for her secure container that held her armor and weapons. She’d been obligated to get a locker for her weapons after they took in an eight-year-old child. She dropped it on the bed and popped the locks. She was cursing her very real be careful what you wish for moment as she got kitted out for her mission. She slammed the case shut and went to find her mother. Then she realized she had another much more problematic issue. Her fighter was still full of everything from Qual’sa, the only room she had was the cargo bay that had been holding the data beacon. Her mother was not pleased to see how she was dressed.
“Allison you are not going to Mumbai looking like that. I believe the word is scandalous. Is there no armor they can give you that doesn’t announce to the world your chest size?”
Allison sighed. Robin interrupted the pair she looked very upset when she saw Allison in her armor.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m sorry, I have a mission, it is short notice and I need to be on base in twenty minutes. They want me on Yellowstone. I don’t know how long I will be there but it’s perfectly safe and has been secured by Alliance forces. Mom, I really want to go with you guys but, I asked if we could reschedule until tomorrow, but my request was denied."
Allison turned to Robin.
“I will be back before you notice I’m gone. But mom might have to drop you and Oozie off at school tomorrow.”
Robin pouted. Oozie was giving Allison a dirty look.
“My fighter is going to be full of survey equipment so no space for white furballs. Please look after everyone while I’m gone.”
Allison gave Robin a hug. Then she did the same with her mother, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She rushed off to ensure she could meet her deadline. Bit quizzed Allison while the teenager prepped for launch.
“What madness are you dragging me into this time?”
Allison laughed.
“No madness, just a survey of Yellowstone’s status and picking up some things for Robin. Warm up the Drone Wing and get them into orbit for linkup so they’re their when we’re ready for FTL.”
Allison managed to arrive at her briefing with two minutes to spare. Major Ghai was there with two pilots. She’d flown with them on occasion, their callsigns were Digger and Beef. They were from Earth and assigned here to the defensive air group. Both were far older than Allison. Both outranked her. They nodded to her. She slipped into one of the many empty chairs. Major Ghai brought up the briefing. It showed Yellowstone.
“Against the protests of command, the Board has assigned Lieutenant Wanjala to survey the remnants of Yellowstone colony and its environs. The following information has been classified. Do not discuss it outside this briefing. During her mission to investigate lost communications with the colony of Yellowstone the Lieutenant determined there was a jamming field that extended past the moon’s orbit that had the additional effect of disabling most of our technology. To disable it she accelerated an asteroid to high speed and used it to disable the jamming field.”
He zoomed into an impact crater. Then he zoomed in further and Allison was in shock. The image was the heavily damaged interior of a hive.
“What she targeted without realizing it was a buried Sal’nash super hive.”
He zoomed out to display the dimensions that the survey teams had discovered.
“Based on previous scans of a super hive ship provided by the Lieutenant our science teams believe the source of the field was the Sal’nash queen. Most of the Sal’nash on the ship were desiccated with only chitin remaining. There were signs of living Sal’nash moving through the ship. It is believed that the hive that entered the system sent some form of signal to wake the super hive’s queen and the attack was initiated from this super hive. The meteorite punched through the dirt covering the ship, along with the hull, and all layers of the ship. It caused a catastrophic plasma leak which in turn killed the super hive. Why it was not detected by our initial planetary surveys is unknown. Although we are confident all Sal’nash on the planet are dead, it is not considered secure.”
“Lieutenants Hamid, and Abado, you will fly escort for Lieutenant Wanjala while she is on route to the planet and provide air support on a rotating basis with forces present in system off of the Ark Royal. Lieutenant Wanjala’s fighter will maintain twenty-four-seven air support, along with her drone wing. Lieutenant Wanjala is in command of the ground mission.”
He looked directly at Allison.
“Lieutenant, command advised me that the League council has pressured them into this mission and have briefed you on what they require. You have been given broad discretion on how to complete this mission so that you can satisfy their curiosity. You may share the findings we have on the existence of the buried super hive. Please ensure you use the time efficiently. Upon completion of the survey as requested by the League you are to make best time to Silwra to deliver the report in person. At that point, Lieutenants Hamid and Abado will return to Eden prime. As their presence will slow down your travel time substantially. Lieutenant Wanjala you are to maintain your drone wing air cover during the last phase of this mission. You are instructed to remain on Silwra until such time as the League is satisfied with your report. You are required to check in once every twelve hours. Any questions?”
Digger held up his hand.
“Sir, this is a one fighter job, why are you sending three of us?”
Major Ghai folded his hands behind his back.
“We have had multiple unscheduled FTL activations and several wormholes initiated in the area and I am concerned that they are hints of another attempt on Lieutenant Wanjala’s life, if I had my way I would not be sending any of you but as it is, you will watch Lieutenant Wanjala’s back.”
That seemed to satisfy the pair of older pilots. The briefing ended and Allison headed to the hanger where their fighters were being prepped for the mission. A couple of ground techs were arguing loudly. Both were male. One made a very vulgar and insulting references to ‘females’ and wondered what idiot chose to make an AI female. Bit’s response would have been very blistering, however Allison knew exactly what Bit was going to say so she intervened before Bit could escalate things.
“Bit do not say what you’re about to say.”
The two corporals looked very uncomfortable when they realized Allison had likely heard the insult. Allison looked at the offending Corporal.
“Corporal I had better see a perfect grade on a sexual harassment course by the time I get back or I will place a written warning on your file.”
The corporal stammered trying to dig himself out of the hole he found himself in.
“She is refusing to open of the cargo bays, and we have survey equipment and weapons to load.”
Allison narrowed her eyes.
“Excuse me corporal are you saying that women who don’t do what they’re told, deserve verbal abuse?”
He swallowed hard.
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“No ma’am that isn’t what I meant.”
Allison crossed her arms.
“What exactly did you mean then? I am very curious.”
His companion stepped forward.
“Ma’am, if you could please get the cargo and weapon bays open for us to load the ordinance and survey equipment we will get you on your way.”
Allison opened the one empty space her fighter had.
“Here. I have a sufficient weapons load out for the mission already. Just the requested survey equipment please. I need to be careful about mass for wormhole transit.”
Bit messaged Allison directly via translator.
“Allison that is incorrect.”
Allison just smiled pleasantly while the two maintenance crewmen loaded the survey equipment in the cargo bay she opened. Then slipped into the fighter and prepared for launch. Once inside with the cockpit closed she responded to her friend.
“I know that, but how do I explain the existence of several tons of genetic samples from a world that’s been gone for six thousand years. Prepare for launch. I am entering mission parameters for you.”
The flight of starfighters launched. There were nine in all, three pilots, and six drone wings. Their jump to Yellowstone was fairly short it was only two hours away at normal FTL speeds. Allison flew low over the crater and cored super hive.
“Yep, that’s a super hive queen’s room. Lucky shot.”
“No luck was involved. You used appropriate investigation and calculations to target the source.”
Allison blinked.
“Woah, wait, when I was doing it, you called me insane.”
Bit sounded a bit self-conscious when she responded.
“I may have been hasty with my assessment of your strategy. The airframe of one starfighter in exchange for the destruction of a Sal’nash super hive seems an equitable trade.”
Allison rolled her eyes.
“Okay I’ve taken all the scans I promised the Grand Eminence. I’ll set down at the base then I’ll need to head into the jungle on foot. I’ll likely have to stay the night if I understood what Robin was telling me, the ‘Old Places’ is a fairly large network of underground tunnels and above ground shelters hidden by the jungle.”
“I do not agree with this. The jungles of this world are notorious for interfering with sensor readings and overwhelm bioscanners.”
Allison set the starfighter down and started gathering supplies from the various compartments in her cockpit. The task was made more difficult by the fact she had dresses and other personal belongings stuffed into the cockpit, even around her seat. She tossed her pack out of the fighter.
“Bit, your objections are noted. Sorry, but I need to disregard them and track the old places down, if they shielded the residents from the queen’s signal, we need to know what did it. It could be instrumental in preventing more tragedies like this one.”
Allison jumped down from the cockpit and started tugging on her backpack. Bit had to make sure Allison was clear on the risks.
“Be aware once you enter the jungle proper communications with Alliance Net may be interrupted. You will be on your own. I will track you as best as I can. Be careful Allison.”
Allison had decided to be a little more paranoid than usual. She had both her pistols, her vibro knife and a bolter rifle slung over her shoulder. Thankfully her armor kept her body cool. The planet was almost entirely swamp, peat bog and jungle. This was just under the equator so during the day it was very warm. Coming from Eden where it was winter the heat combined with the humidity was oppressive.
As Bit predicted when Allison entered the jungle proper, she was unable to track her fighter’s location, or pick up any broadcasts. There were a lot of dead animals. It had to be close enough that Robin on foot could have run it in thirty minutes at the most. The problem was she only had one landmark and that was the tree that marked the boundary Robin wasn’t supposed to pass. Unfortunately, the jungle was full of very large trees. The one she was looking for had a cross carved into it.
“Talk about a needle in a haystack.”
The jungle floor was dark. She realized that it was getting darker. She had spent so much time doing the survey she’d promised the League the sun was setting. She was fairly sure setting up camp would be safe. The majority of the animal life in a one-thousand-kilometer radius had been killed in much the same way the as the colonists, neurological disruption caused by the queen’s signal. The only thing she’d scanned in the vicinity she could reach, which wasn’t large were insects that seemed to be thriving on the dead.
She found a hollow under a tree that had been prepared by a large predator. It wasn’t present and was definitely dead. The bigger the animal the quicker they died. It was blissfully empty of any droppings or carcasses. It appeared these predators preferred to keep a clean house. She leaned her pack against the rear roots and sat cross-legged. Dinner would be an MRE C pack. Turkey, Gravy and Mashed potatoes with a chocolate bar for dessert. It also included a pouch of mystery juice. Allison called it that because she’d never heard of the fruit it was made from. It was sweet and sour at the same time, a little too sour for her to truly like it. She drank her fill of water and left out her portable dehumidifier which would pull moisture from the air and provide clean drinking water. She set up her laser trip wire at the only entrance to her shelter and snuggled in for the night.
Allison woke up a few times during the night, but she didn’t pick up anything on the scans she ran. She woke up for good about eight hours after she laid down to sleep when her alarm went off. She had breakfast, which was another MRE pack before packing up camp and heading onwards. She was sure to put all of her trash in her pack. Special forces survival training 101 was leave as few clues to your presence as possible.
The search grid she’d outlined paid off about midday when she found the tree. She traced the cross with her gloved finger. Due north would be the location of the old places. She trudged forward. The jungle here was less difficult to traverse. It was becoming obvious someone had cleared it. She had realized there might be traps so she was moving forward at a glacial pace. Her scanner tipped her off to a camouflaged entrance she would have walked right past if she had been depending on her eyes alone.
She passed through the mass of vines and was in the tunnel network Robin had described as the Old Places. These were definitely not human. They were also not created by an advanced species like she had been hoping. They were stone and covered in an alien language in the form of hieroglyphics none of which made sense. The species appeared to be some form of arachnid-based life form. Allison did not have much love for spiders, and they looked far too similar to spiders for her liking. She pulled her bolter assault rifle off of her shoulder.
Her AR HUD showed that her path was clear of traps and anything living. She methodically cleared the tunnels building a map and holo-scan of them. They could be used by linguists and people far smarter than her to recreate it in virtual reality or holo-chambers to explore the ruins. She did not see any signs of habitation for thirty minutes. It would have been a short run but she was painstakingly picking her way through the ruins to get a good scan and ensure she didn’t trigger any traps by accident. She’d had proper solo clearance procedures drilled into her head. She could take no chances that one of the adults or older children had survived.
Once she entered the living space inhabited by the commune, she had to rush out. The smell of human decay was so thick in the air that it caught in her nose and throat. Allison was no hardened veteran. Seeing bugs chowing down on a random animal was nothing like seeing them devouring a dead child’s face. She bent over trying not to vomit. She regretted eating breakfast. It took her thirty minutes to finally convince herself she needed to go back into the charnel house the commune had become.
She put her helmet up and steeled herself for the horrific sights she was about to witness and went back inside. She took scans of each corpse. She identified ten men ranging in age from twenty-two to one hundred and seventy. She identified the father of and brother of Robin. It appeared the commune had formed a sort of militia to fight off the Sal’nash. She only found six Sal’nash corpses, one was a super-drone. They had died from primitive weapons. The humans had all died from Sal’nash poisoning. This was definitely the site of the battle. She only found seven minors. They were all male and ranged in age between ten and twenty. It was obvious the Sal’nash had come from further in the network of tunnels. Likely this was the path they took to join up with the Sal’nash attacking the colony.
Allison moved on to what she found was the same repeated scene. Mothers, minor girls and children that were slaughtered by the Sal’nash. None of them had a chance. She found Robin’s mother. The woman had used a spear to stab a Sal’nash warrior drone. She had found one of the openings in their chitin and managed to pierce their brain up through the body. It had stabbed her with all four of its tiny arms, each tipped with a poisonous barb. The same ones that had killed Allison.
She saw the bed where Robin had hidden underneath. Allison crawled under and looked out. She imagined Robin being here shaking in terror. Her stomach twisted into knots when she realized Robin’s mother’s eyes were looking towards where Robin would have been hiding. The child had seen her mother die. She imagined the horror going through the eight-year-old’s mind as she saw the life leave her mother’s eyes. Her eyes were growing moist just thinking of it. She noticed four well-used books stuffed under the bed. She pulled them down and looked at them. They were the books Robin’s mother had read her. They went into her backpack.
She scrambled out from under the bed when she heard a noise echo throughout the tunnels. She grabbed her bolter, confirmed it was ready to fire and quickly started towards the noise. She was really hoping it was Sal’nash because she had a really strong urge to use her bolter to pin them to the wall and watch them twitch at this moment, nothing would please her more. She activated her cloaking field and made her way towards the source of the noise.
The noise led her to a large open chamber with trampled crops and slaughtered cattle, many of which had been chewed on by Sal’nash. A series of mirrors brought the sunlight down here and made the whole room glow. She didn’t have time to marvel at the ingenuity because her scanner locked onto the source of the noise in one of the side chambers. When she rounded the corner her leg ran into a primitive twine tripwire which caused a ruckus when it triggered a row of cans hanging along another piece of twine to hit each other. She stopped and had her bolter aimed down the hallway into what appeared to be a food storage room. A boy who was maybe six at the most came out with a stick topped by a Sal’nash chitin spike.
“Whose there! Gloria, I told you that you couldn’t come! Stop hiding! Is it a bug, come out you stupid bug!”
Allison quickly lowered her bolter rifle, so it was no longer pointing at the child. She lowered her helmet and deactivated her cloaking field. She held up one hand but her other was firmly around the grip of her bolter. Her finger was across the trigger.
“It’s just me. I’m Allison. Robin Holiday was told to find help. I’m the help. She is safe. It took me a while to find you. You don’t need to be scared.”
His eyes locked onto her Dark Mother pendant.
“You’re a heathen! You will not get my soul!”
He lunged at Allison with the spear. She let her grip on her rifle go and easily grabbed the shaft of the makeshift spear and forced it to the side into one of the walls and disarmed the kid.
“No, I’m just a girl here to rescue you.”
She broke the spear over her knee and tossed the dangerous the half away. She had no doubt her armor would have stopped the attack but with how much the poison burned she really didn’t want to feel that again. He stumbled backwards holding up his hands. She rolled her eyes.
“Would you stop? I’m not going to hurt you. Girls don’t know how to fight, remember?”
Allison’s scanners were telling her some very grim news about the food stores. This kid was likely going to starve soon. The boy stood up straight.
“Yea, that’s right. Girls can’t fight.”
She looked towards the remnants of the food, all of it trashed by the Sal’nash.
“Girls do know about food and cooking.”
He nodded.
“You’re out of food, aren’t you?”
He looked down at the half-rotten vegetables he’d had stuffed into his shirt that had fallen and been trampled in his attempt to attack Allison. He nodded.
“I have food. You look hungry. Do you want some?”
He moved a little closer when Allison pulled out the power bar she did not eat from her breakfast. Usually, she’d keep them for a mid-morning snack. She ripped the wrapper off and offered the bar to him. He smelled it and took a nibble. He bit into it and devoured it hungrily. They were sweet and salty. The boy looked much calmer.
“Do you have more?”
Allison nodded.
“I do, who is Gloria? Are there more of you that are hungry?”
He looked like he was a bit hesitant to answer. Allison distracted him with another question.
“I told you my name, its only polite that you tell me yours, as James says: Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the King.”
He blinked at her.
“You know the book?”
Allison nodded.
“I do. Do you think Robin would send someone who didn’t?”
He moved closer.
“I am Ezekiel, like the Angel. Are the bugs gone?”
Allison nodded.
“Yes. The lord sent a fireball from the sky to smite the demons. I saw the hole it made. That is what silenced the noise they were making. Ezekiel where is Gloria? She must be frightened without you there to protect her.”
He pointed towards the deeper tunnels.