Chapter 3
Matt flared the exo-mecha suit thrusters, executing another gravity defying glide. Most of the best scientists humanity had to offer were involved in one way or another with project Iron Man. Just like during the second world war, a secretive village had been built, this time in the Swiss Alps, and everyone who was anyone with a STEM degree found themselves there working on a way to save human life.
The result was a bit of absolute cutting edge tech. The suit armor was strong enough to stand up against most AP or HE the average tank might be carrying. Most models had a .50 BAR machine gun under one arm, and a Mk. 19 under the other. The Exo-Mecha’s back had hard points that supported various additional weapons systems, comms gear, or cargo storage.
Even under a full load, the suit could respond almost as fast as the human body, and could jump almost 100 meters straight up with an extra push from an external thruster package. Matt and Lieutenant Soto were pushing that to the max right now, trying to catch up with the fleeing elf.
Matt had experienced a bit of disorientation when he’d first stepped through the portal. Massive trees with neon colored crystalline leaves stretched towards the sky. And odd black sun sucked light into it far in the east, while a blue star shown on the western horizon. The underbrush consisted mainly of vines and small shrubs all of them possessing odd crystalline branches or leaves, glowing with enough neon light that Matt felt he had stepped into a rave.
Without the comms infrastructure they were used to, Matt and Lyndis had to spread out, maintaining contact via radio while looking for signs of the elf’s passage. Fortunately Matt’s XO was better at land nav and tracking than the average Lieutenant, and they quickly picked up the trail.
With their target in site, Matt was pushing through, paying little attention to how much damage they were causing the ancient forest. They needed to kill the fleeing boss before they made it wherever they were headed, or the bad feeling in his gut told him damaging some old trees would be the least of his worries.
If one of the two pilots could catch up, the other could attempt to flank, and they’d have a good chance of completing the mission. Matt knew that if the enemy commander realized his forces had failed without knowing why, it’d buy them time before a second attempt was made, which was the only reason he’d decided on this course of action.
Modern army doctrine basically said to only engage if you had every possible advantage on your side, but an alien invasion wasn’t the same as the conflicts the army had fought in the recent past. Matt couldn’t risk civilian lives while he waited for backup or sent a scouting team.
Matt had been happily surprised to find the portal leading to a forest rather than somewhere on earth or in an elven base of some kind, but that ultimately wouldn’t matter if they couldn’t get the kill shot.
Suddenly the elf ahead of them seemed to realize something was following him, and stopped, turning to look over his shoulder. The action proved fatal as both exo-mecha opened up with their .50 machine guns. The elf tried to dodge, but it seemed he didn’t understand the basics of machine gun fire. Basic physics had an undeniable effect as large caliber rounds tore the invader in half, most of the body turning into pinkish mist.
Kill assist Detected!
System Initializing…
Congratulations CPT Matt Williams, And welcome to the system. You have been awarded system access for killing an invasion troop boss.
Scanning…
You have assisted in killing an invasion troop boss
Judging baseline stats…
Further action required to unlock full system access to a class. Please seek out additional enemy combatants and kill them.
Matt was a confused at the contradictory message the system had sent him. He wasn’t sure why he got credit for a kill that didn’t happen on earth, unless this strange forest was somehow considered earth by the system. Also, how could he not get access to a class? The system had even acknowledged welcoming him. He didn’t really have too much time to think about these things now though.
“Good kill Savage 6. The boss is not going to be an issue anymore. Now we just need to get the heck out of here.” Matt toggled his radio.
“Uh… Sir? I think we might have an issue on our hands. Seems like something is making the local flora somewhat hostile.” Lieutenant Soto’s voice crackled over the radio.
Matt pivoted, turning to see something straight out of a children’s horror story. Tree's they’d passed moments ago had grown what seemed to be faces. And they were not happy. Primal alarm bells started going off in Matt’s subconscious. Broken branches had re-grown, twice as large and intertwined with the branches of neighboring trees. Where before the forest had been glowing with all the colors of the neon rainbow, now things were uniformly a decidedly violent red. Large black ravens stared down at the two exo-mecha with beady eyes that promised destruction.
While that might have sent the average person screaming in a mad dash to get away, the story was a bit different for two highly trained soldiers who’d been told to expect the unexpected. If the forest was somehow alive, it was about to learn that you can’t fuck with the US Army and get away with it.
“Lock and load Lieutenant, looks like we’re not out of the woods just yet. Any ideas on getting back to the portal and getting out of here?”
“Nothing other than making a whole sir. If we’d thought to leave a radio locator beacon, we might have some other options, but I think we’re just going to have to cut our way through, Sir. These trees are much taller than we can jump, so we can’t even really get a clear idea of where we are. I might be able to run back through the feed of our mad dash here, and simulate a path back, but with so much of the forest changed, it’ll be hard to know for sure if we’re on the right path.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Well, these trees are certainly not getting any more friendly. Let's get moving. I’ll cover your 6, and you focus on getting us a way out of here.” Matt ordered.
2 hours later, Matt was forced to admit that they were hopelessly lost. Whatever magic had been powering the entrance and exit here would likely have long since dissipated. The blue star had started shifting erratically, which couldn’t possibly be good, and the forest’s ability to grow and change almost at will made finding any kind of landmarks or navigation points impossible.
The only thing that gave him a feeling that things weren’t a total bust was the fact that the black sun was still in the same location, sucking light toward it in an odd way. Matt felt an odd connection to the thing.
“Well, we’re not making any real progress finding our entry point. The way that blue star is moving has me kind of worried. Why don’t we try making our way toward that black hole in the sky. It seemed to be the way the elf was headed, and maybe it’s some kind of exit.” Matt theorized.
Hearing no argument from the Lieutenant, Matt started walking in the new direction, snapping branches off at the trunk to make way when necessary instead of using up more of their dwindling supply of high explosives. The forest seemed to have tired from the fight somewhat as well, since it hadn’t regenerated much of their back trail.
As Matt trekked on, he realized something odd. “Lyndis, have you had any system notifications for killing anything other than the elf? I’m wondering why we haven’t had any credit for blowing up half a forest worth of trees, let alone all the Ravens we must have killed.”
“No Matt, I haven’t had any more notifications. I wonder why that is. I’m sure the Intel guys back at the Pentagon will want to know about this.” She replied.
Eventually the two realized the ground was slowly angling upwards, and half an hour later, a mountain range came into view. Covered in snow and ice, with low hanging clouds obscuring the mountain peaks, the view gave off an ominous aura. Unfortunately the black sun seemed to be somewhere at the top of the central mountain. It was now obscured by the clouds, but Matt could tell it was there by the way the clouds seemed to be backlit as the sphere continued sucking light out of the world.
“Good thing I was starting to get a bit hot.” Matt joked. “Looks like we’re in for a bit of a climb. We'll have to hurry too, assuming we want to beat the sunset. Things seem to be getting a lot darker.”
“Agreed sir. I don’t want to be here any longer than we already have. Let's get moving.” Came the response.
Another half hour of marching toward the mountain found the two at the base of a sheer cliff. Freezing wind whipped past, and while the suits provided a large amount of environmental protection, capable of keeping the pilot safe in the vacuum of space for short amounts of time during emergencies, somehow Matt could almost feel the chill sinking into his bones.
“Let me go up first sir. I am something of an amateur free climber, and I’ll do my best to find a route you can easily follow.” Lieutenant Soto piped up.
“Roger that LT. keep your head on a swivel, and stay frosty. I can’t afford to lose you this close to the objective.” Matt replied. He’d known his XO enjoyed rock climbing in her free time, but he was surprised she would volunteer to do it in an exo-mecha suit. He wasn’t sure how the skill would transfer. On the up side, the cliff wasn’t terribly high, and they still had most of their thruster fuel left. Worst case scenario, the suit should protect her from any kind of fall.
*******
Lyndis stepped up to the rock wall. She was a little worried that the suit wouldn’t be able to keep up with the amount of feedback she would need to climb properly. Fortunately any possible falls could be prevented with use of the thruster if she noticed in time, and she wasn’t too worried about falling, as the suit should protect her.
Taking a minute to review the cliff, she began plotting a route up that could handle the weight of an exo-mecha suit, and still be obvious enough for Matt to follow. She carefully reached out with her left hand, gripping an outcropping, testing her weight before placing her right foot in a crevice, and pushing herself up. She continued making progress, although it was agonizingly slow. She was taking time to make sure her hand and foot holds would support the full weight of a suit. When Lyndis finally reached the top, and rolled over on her back, staring into the darkening sky, she felt exhausted, mentally and physically. She hoped Matt had been paying careful attention to the assent, as it was now his turn to climb, and if he wasn’t fast, they’d have to turn on the external suit lights to finish the climb.
After catching her breath, she made a quick visual sweep of the ledge she found herself on. An ice and snow covered trail, just wide enough for the suits to climb, led further up the mountain. Nothing else stood out, and Lyndis called out to Matt. “You are good to start climbing sir. There’s a narrow trail leading up from here, so we’ll be okay if you can hurry up. Otherwise we are going to run out of daylight, and I’m not sure how comfortable I am with taking this trail on instruments and suit lights.
Matt nodded exaggeratedly in his suit, and then started climbing. At first things seemed to be going well, with the Captain making good time on the ascent. Then, as Matt lifted his left leg onto a bit of rock jutting out, one of the thruster nozzles caught, and with the sound of tortured metal, the external pod came way, falling to the frozen ground below. Matt swung precariously, trying to get his leg back in position, but the rock outcropping had broken off and fallen as well, and the captain couldn’t see that.
“You will have to find a new foothold sir. That bit of rock fell away when you lost your thruster module.” Lyndis quickly called down. The response was a bit breathless. “Any recommendations? I’m doing about all I can not to fall here. Without the thruster, I can’t exactly recover if I fall, and I’ll have to start over.”
“Normally with rock climbing, you don't want to be lifting your weight with your arms, as you may have noticed, but with the suits, it may be possible. If you can find a good place for your right hand, you might be able to execute a modified pull-up, and get your right leg into the next hold. That’s probably your best bet in this position sir. I wish I had better news, but your going to need to figure this out, and fast.”
Matt’s swinging stabilized a bit, and as the free leg of his suit came back in, he jumped. Lyndis felt her heart drop. This was certainly a valid move, but not one she’d ever seen an inexperienced climber pull off.
Somehow Matt managed to succeed, getting a firm hold with three points of contact. Lyndis blew out a long breath, and radioed her captain. “That was well done, just maybe don’t try it again without the suit.”
Matt quickly made his way back to the path she’d taken up, and before long he’d reached the ledge as well. They took a moment to recover before starting up the narrow trail. After a couple of adrenaline fueled moments, the pair found themselves at a mountain meadow. Thick snow drifts made navigating their way across a difficult prospect, but the black sun seemed to be within reach, sitting just atop a slight rise on the other side of the meadow. A small wood hut emitted weak light from it’s boarded up windows, but the pair’s eyes were drawn to a figure in dark armor standing at the base of the rise. It would seem they weren’t done fighting just yet.