Allison paused when she reached the Special Operations team. She quickly bundled the jungle and old places data. She swept a copy to each soldier. Thomas looked a bit upset when he saw the holos of the dead women and children. The others were unreadable in their goliath power armor. Thomas looked down at her.
“Shadow one, lead on.”
Allison shook her head.
“Paul will be point. He knows the terrain and tunnels. He’s offered to be our guide.”
Thomas looked down at Paul.
“Well, Paul, please lead the way.”
He turned to Allison.
“Shadow One, if it’s all the same I’d prefer you hang back. Orders from command are you are to be protected at all costs.”
Allison slung her rifle over her shoulder again and shrugged.
“They find out I’m a Princess and all of a sudden I have no idea how to fight.”
That evoked a couple of chuckles and a feminine laugh from one of the goliaths. Thomas grinned.
“In my tribe you’d be leading the charge, I’d be first in line to follow you into battle.”
Thomas waved with his hand forward.
“Alright move out. Nav beacons every five hundred meters. Safety of Paul and Shadow One are primary.”
Allison could hear Thomas and Paul talking.
“If you’re a man, why do you take orders from a girl?”
Thomas seemed amused by the question.
“First off, she’s my superior officer, second, she’s probably the most bad ass soldier on this planet, third, she’s the princess of eternal night. That makes her the second in command of my people now.”
Paul glanced back at Allison then up to Thomas.
“But she’s my age, and a girl, they don’t know how to fight. She barely beat me.”
Thomas actually laughed at that.
“Boy you have a lot to learn about the real world. She looks small but she’s a dhampir. Even if she didn’t know how to fight, she’s strong enough when she gets mad, she could probably rip one of these trees out of the ground and use it as a club. Do you know how many bugs she’s killed with her bare hands? Hell, just total?”
Paul shook his head. Thomas motioned to the sky.
“Do you know what the Grey is?”
Paul nodded.
“It is the wrath of God. It brought the great cold to punish humanity. It killed almost all of us.”
Thomas motioned with his head towards Allison.
“Shadow One there, killed twice as many bugs then humans died in the great cold. In one day. She’s the only one of us that took one out with a knife.”
He made an upward stabbing motion.
“Stabbed him right in the fucking head. Carved his brain out. If she fought you and you lived, it was because she didn’t want to hurt you. She’s a born killer. Her mother killed a hundred demons, in one night. Didn’t even break a sweat. She was already like a hundred and sixty, Shadow One killed what, fourteen billion bugs in less than a second. You tell me if you’re alive because you won, or because she wanted you that way. Hell, her mom was alive for three thousand years, she couldn’t even come close to Shadow One’s kill count, and she’s sixteen.”
Allison wasn’t sure she liked that description of herself. She realized that she had been more than happy to add to her kill count if she’d found any Sal’nash in the tunnels after what they did to the cult members. She imagined the same scene playing out on countless worlds as she saw in the old places and realized that she had made the only choice she could when she wiped the Sal’nash out. Paul was quiet for a while then asked another question.
“Who stopped the bugs?”
Thomas laughed again.
“Who do you think? It was Shadow One, she threw a rock from space and killed their Queen. Then killed so many while waiting for us to arrive that my team barely had anything to do when we got here. Climbed down to a place with something that could have destroyed everything here to save this place from turning into a giant crater.”
Paul looked back at Allison.
“But she’s a girl.”
Thomas hit Paul’s back.
“Leader of my tribe is a ‘girl’ she could kick my ass any day of the week. I don’t know what you’ve been taught, but best you forget all of it and start respecting the ladies if you want to get anywhere with them in the outside world.”
“Do you follow the demon-queen?”
Thomas looked confused.
“Who?”
Paul touched his chest.
“The sword and red gemstone.”
Thomas laughed.
“The mother of spirits? No. I respect her. I follow my tribe’s totem the Winter Wolf.”
Paul was very confused now.
“What about the lord, the book? You will burn in hellfire.”
Thomas actually had to stop he started laughing so hard.
“Hellfire! Boy, my people don’t go to heaven or hell, we join the spirits in their realms. The demon-queen is the daughter of the Lord, and Shadow One, she’s the daughter of the demon-queen. What does that make her?”
After that Paul got very quiet. The group placed beacons down. They ended up using six in all. Thomas called for a halt by holding his fist up. He held Paul back and waved the goliaths forward. Paul looked confused.
“It’s safe they’re all dead.”
“First lesson I’ll teach you today is, you never assume anything is safe. If you don’t have eyes on it there could be a hostile there.”
He offered a face mask and breather to Paul.
“Put this on when we get to the dead. It will help with the smell.”
Once they got the all-clear Allison formed her helmet and Paul put the mask on. Thomas didn’t bother. They hurried through the dead and to the goliaths. The only woman that was part of Thomas’s team spoke up when they arrived.
“Nothing on scanners. There is a lot of interference. It seems to be the yellow crystals Shadow One discovered. They seem to make a harmonic shield to scanners. We’ve cleared to the point Shadow one explored.”
Thomas looked at Paul.
“Well, you have point, if I tell you to get down or get to cover you move your ass and do it, got it?”
Paul nodded. The group moved out. They had to take it slow. The tunnel network was extensive with a lot of side passages. The deeper they got the less organized they got. The hieroglyphics ended entirely. Paul stopped suddenly as they reached a deep wide cavern. It would take rope or antigrav packs to descend into.
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“I didn’t go past here.”
Thomas kneeled down and pulled out a chitin spike. There were hundreds in the granite leading to the ancient underground road below. He held it up to Allison.
“You were right. This is where they came from. The hive was three hundred klicks from here. There is no way they travelled quickly enough to have left when the hive showed up in orbit. The jamming signal didn’t start until they arrived here. The timing works. The bulk went to the colony, the rest cleared this out then moved on.”
Allison crouched down beside him and nodded.
“This looks like some sort of ancient road. The spiders were probably subterranean. If we’re three hundred kilometers from the super hive, there could be thousands of kilometers of tunnels between us and there.”
Thomas nodded and stood up. He motioned at one of the rooms they’d passed recently.
“We’ll set up base camp there.”
Allison nodded. She was frustrated because she knew she wouldn’t be able to help explore the cave network. She had to get her data to Silwra. She stood up.
“I will take Paul back to the base and arrange for his evac. I’ll send some survey teams, more troops and more nav beacons. We’ll need to use drones to map it out. Master Chief it’s your mission now.”
Thomas smiled.
“You got it, Shadow One. See you around.”
Allison stood up and motioned to Paul.
“Come on, Paul, let’s go.”
Paul looked confused.
“I can help, I can climb.”
Thomas hit Paul on the back.
“Go with Shadow One, kid. We’re not climbing down there for a few weeks. We have flying drones to do the really dangerous work. Our job was just to make sure no bugs were up here, set up a perimeter and make sure there were no more survivors. This is boring picket duty and babysitting the nerds.”
Allison gave Thomas and his team one last wave before walking with Paul towards the alternate path to the exit. The decision was made wordlessly, neither of them wanted to see the remains of the cult members again. As they entered the jungle, and the sweltering mid-afternoon heat Paul spoke for the first time since they’d left Thomas behind.
“What is a nerd?”
Allison snickered.
“It is what the soldiers like to call non-soldier specialists. He was talking about scientists and surveyors. People like Thomas and his team just make sure things are safe, then we send the smart people to do the boring stuff.”
Paul looked at Allison.
“What do you do then?”
Allison shrugged.
“I go in first, usually alone.”
“Isn’t that the most dangerous thing?”
Allison nodded.
“Yes. My official job is called Military Specialist. Thomas calls me a Pathfinder. I’m supposed to be able to do everything any member the military can. Not as good, just enough so I can get by.”
They passed nav beacon four before he spoke again.
“Did Robin really send you?”
Allison sighed.
“No, she is fine though, she’s living with my family. She told me about where you lived… did you hear a noise when the bugs attacked?”
He nodded.
“It scratched at my ears. Made it hard to think.”
Allison pointed towards the colony.
“If you weren’t in the Old Places, it would have killed you. Three thousand plus people died from it. More might never be the same. I wanted to know what protected Robin. She thinks everyone died. We had no reason to doubt her. The Sal’nash would have killed you, or worse, taken you to their hive so you could be fertilizer or nutrient paste.”
Paul shuddered involuntarily. Allison continued.
“They devour everything living in their paths. They scour entire planets clean. Make more of themselves and spread. It took a supernova to stop them last time they swarmed. I stopped them this time with my own version of a supernova. You’re all lucky to be alive. I don’t believe in Gods anymore, but at this point, I’m doubting myself because the fact you survived is a miracle.”
Paul fell silent until the pair hit the first nav beacon that had been set.
“But you said you’re the demon-queen’s daughter.”
Allison nodded.
“Look at me. I’m a teenager. I’m nothing special. If she was really a goddess, you’d think I’d be able to snap my fingers and bring all of your families back. If I could, I would. I can’t, I just have a knack for figuring out how to break things. All that stuff Thomas told you about me. Most of it is true but I didn’t just snap my fingers and make it happen. I was lost and I was scared, and I realized if I did nothing everyone, I loved would die so I did something stupid. By some miracle it worked.”
She waved her arm in the general direction of the crater caused by her orbital strike.
“And the Sal’nash super hive, I knew the FTL by product store was going to go up and I needed to stop the noise so I could land and try and stop it. I threw a giant rock at it. Nearly destroyed my starfighter in the process. Whatever you hear about me is ninety percent exaggeration and you’ll hear a lot.”
Paul spoke more softly than he had since the pair had met.
“Pastor says faith is putting trust in something greater than yourself. You gave Ezekiel faith in your mother.”
Allison rolled her eyes.
“I told him what he needed to hear so I could get you guys medical treatment, food and shelter. My mother… the Dark Mother in her book she says, ‘Look not to me for succor, seek it from yourself. I am your hope, but you are your strength.’ and if you remember, when I was telling you what she said about children, she didn’t say she would care for children, she said you should take care of children. My biological mother was very big on the fend for yourself thing. All she promises to do is give you hope.”
They reached the base; Bit was still where she had been parked and so were the shuttles. The children and the troops from the Ark Royal had shifted to a tent that had portable fusion generators and cooling units. Any tech on the colony was hopelessly destroyed from sustained exposure to the Sal’nash signal. Paul seemed hesitant to enter the tent. Allison sighed.
“If we were here to do you harm, we would have done it already. There is going to be food in there, and it will be cool, probably a shower.”
Allison went inside. Without her helmet she was soaked with sweat that wouldn’t evaporate because of the absurd humidity of the planet and her hair was turning into a frizzy mess of epic proportions. She breathed in the cool air once she got into the positive air pressure of the tent. Paul came in a few seconds later. The children and teenagers were sitting at temporary tables eating a good meal. It looked like the food had been prepared on the ship and brought down for them. One of the mess soldiers motioned to Allison and pulled out a plate for her.
“Ma’am.”
She took it and a metal cup of mystery juice. She sat down in an open spot and dug in. She opened a comm to bit after she’d finished.
“Bit, I need a link with the Ark Royal captain.”
The captain’s face appeared.
“Shadow One, anything to report?”
Allison nodded.
“Aye, Ma’am, we cleared the Old Places, but we found a much more extensive underground road network. We need to set up a more permanent base camp in the ruins, set up a defensive perimeter and dedicate some survey teams and science teams to map it out. They were definitely the source of the Sal’nash attack. It would appear the Sal’nash hive in orbit had sent a signal ahead while it was still in transit. Someone will have to do the math. On how far out they were. They’ll need a lot more nav beacons, at least two survey teams and a science team to analyze the crystal formations that likely protected the inhabitants from the signal. Definitely more security forces. I suggest two squads, fully armed. Survey the roads and send the Master Chief with his teams to do a visual inspection of what the drones covered the day before. It will take a while, there are a lot of tunnels.”
The captain smiled.
“I suppose you’re heading out.”
“I would appreciate a bunk and shower first, if it’s all the same ma’am.”
The captain laughed.
“I can arrange that, Shadow One. Let space control know when you’re ready to head up here. I’ll have a bunk set aside for you. Good work.”
Allison gave her a salute before ending the call. Paul looked a bit ruffled when he sat down across from her. He had the look of a boy who had just visited a medical team with lots of injections. He was rubbing his upper arm.
“What did they do to me?”
“Uh, well, T-Cell enhancer, probably a superdose of broad spectrum antibiotics and superdose of broad spectrum anti-virals. An ident chit and maybe a blood sample. And you have no idea what any of that is. Look, you and your friends have been together for a long time, there are nasty things that make you sick, we have different nasty things than you do, so being around us could make you very sick. They gave you things to stop that. I guarantee more than a few of you are going to get the sniffles but it will go away, if they didn’t give you those injections, you’d all die.”
He still looked confused.
“Paul, you guys can’t stay here. If I had found you the day of the attack, they would have just evacuated you right away, as it is, we are pretty sure things are safe so they’re giving your T-cell enhancers a chance to take root before they take you somewhere else. Probably to where I live. It is where they are taking minors whose parents are dead.”
“Minor? I’m a man.”
Allison sighed.
“Not in the System’s Alliance. You’re not an adult until you’re twenty-one years old. Legally, I have just under five years. It sucks, but it is what it is.”
“But they let you fight.”
Allison nodded.
“Yeah, and I had to get my parents to sign off on it and pass a bunch of extra tests.”
Allison stood up.
“Well Paul it was nice to meet you. Sorry I shot you.”
He looked up at her from his meal.
“You’re leaving?”
Allison spoke quietly.
“Yes, I have someplace I need to be.”
He looked upset.
“Will I see you again?”
Allison shrugged.
“Who knows, if you end up on Eden, you’ll probably see me every day except weekends and summer vacation. If not, who knows. Good luck.”
Ezekiel rushed up to her as she was putting her dishes into a bin. He offered her the pendant back. Allison took it. He spoke quietly.
“It worked!”
Allison smiled.
“I knew it would. Do you want some extra dessert? I think you deserve it for protecting all of your friends here so well.”
She walked Ezekiel over to the women serving the meal. She motioned to Ezekiel.
“Ezekiel would like some more ice cream; Do you think we can arrange that?”
The cook smiled.
“I think we can.”
She pulled out a cup of ice cream and offered it to Ezekiel. As the six-year-old took it he mumbled thank you and ran off. Allison smiled and put her pendant around her neck.
“Thanks. He’s a good kid.”
The cook nodded. Allison walked to the exit of the tent and looked back. These weren’t the morose looking children she’d rescued. They were laughing and smiling. They weren’t over what they had experienced by a long shot, nor the warped beliefs they had been taught, but with time there was a good chance they would be alright.