System of the Damned
Chapter 3 - Roderick
Roll for Perception Check.
The Yangtze stopped its retro thrusting and I was ordered back to the ship for a meeting on the bridge, the scouts had already refueled. My command shuttle dropped me off, refueled, and went back out to help destroy debris in the way of the colony ship. I of course still had Xavier riding in my helmet, the fuzzy shit snored and kicked in his sleep. He’d already kicked me a few times in the jaw before I got aboard.
What had surprised me was that as I moved through the hangar and up the ladder for the main pathway I’d need for the bridge, I’d seen the techs getting more fighters out. Not just the fighters, but seven more scouts had already been launched. What truly surprised me was the fact that all of the ground gear and vehicles were being prepared, but that required us to actually land.
I had to stop at a bathroom, well more turn around and run for one when Xavier woke up and started chittering and poking at the faceplate. I made it just in time to not have him unload in my helmet, and a sink worked for a bunny. Though my stop earned me…”What the bloody hell took you so long Lieutenant? You stop to take a shite?” From Captain Rowland.
“Actually…” I triggered my visor and snapped it upright, revealing Xavier, who twisted one of his ears across the other in a salute. “Xavier here needed an emergency stop, and don’t ask. I found him in one of the corridors on my way to the shuttle. He’s smart and behaves in my helmet.” I shrugged, and tried to ignore the fact that I was being stared at by several people, including all of the senior staff of the ship.
One of the people was also being glared at by the fuzzy lump in my helmet and I heard Xavier growl as the lanky dark haired lab lead took a step back from me. “If he gets along with you, then you can keep him. Don’t worry about it, I’ll do the paperwork myself.” Came from the man as he went wide around me and nearly dove through the hatch to escape.
I was thoroughly confused until the XO boomed in deep laughter. “Oh we were just discussing the violent escape of several lab animals and one particular bunny with the doctor. Did you by chance look at the bunny’s teeth?” When I shook my head Igor nodded. “Little one, would you be so kind as to show your partner? I will give you coffee.” Commander Wulf always sounded like a stereotypical Russian Bond villain when he was cheerful.
If my boots hadn’t been locked to the floor, I’d have flipped backwards flailing as Xavier was suddenly in front of my right eye and smiling in an unsettling predatory way...for a bunny. He didn’t have the normal buck teeth, instead he had lots of sharp pointy teeth. “Jesus titfucking Christ!” I yelped and heard the Captain sigh.
“Commander...can I guess that your visits to the lab sections during the trip have included a certain bunny that the medical staff have come to fear?” Captain Rowland asked as Xavier held onto my helmet and leaned to suck on the bulb of coffee held for him by the XO.
“I may have slipped him coffee, puffs off of my smokes, and snacks. There is also a cat down there that I’ve claimed, but she’s finicky about people. Though I think we need to get on track with the meeting. All reports are in and we’re low on fuel for the main thrusters.” His eyes flicked to me as Xavier wiggled back into my helmet and came around my neck to his spot on the right, looking out and chittering.
“We have even used some of the waste system water for the thrusters, but we’re low. We should, and I am guessing on should...have enough to land on that moon.” Captain Rowland said grimly as he lit a cigarette, drawing in a deep breath of smoke before handing it off to the XO.
“Great, that means that you have to land the damned ship or crash it….I’m hoping for land myself.” I took the cigarette as Igor passed it over to me and took a deep breath, then snorted as Xavier peaked out enough to get a hit on it. “The atmospheric engines run off of the fission plant if I remember right, you just have to slow down enough not to be a meteor.” I sighed. “You’re also going to need to know where you can land this giant cigar tube in a flat enough area.”
Xavier chittered and poked the pressure sensor inside my helmet to make the front snap down, then a little wiggle and he was leaning in front of me and looking at the hud. Fuzzy hand paws and ear tips moved to tap to spots and bring up little menus until a nearby screen lit up with the map the scouts were forming. I couldn’t talk since if I opened my mouth...I’d end up with half of a bunny in it.
“Is the bunny using your backup touch controls to do this?” At a fur muffled sound from me, Captain Rowland nodded and moved to look at the map. “We’ve already seen a few settlements and crashed ships on the surface, very few of them are the same race. So we have several races on one planet it seems...but I’m guessing they were pulled here like us and survivors from the wrecks we’ve seen.” He had a thoughtful look on his face as he spoke.
I just grumbled before snapping my helmet loose and setting Xavier on a station, the helmet atop him. “I’m going to need a bigger helmet if you’re going to do that Xavier. I’m not going to ask how, but why did you bring up the mapping?” There was a chittering from the helmet and the alien settlements blipped up one by one circled on the map and then it zoomed back. It took me a moment to realize something. “They’re all far back from the oceans….and these redwood looking forests.” I said as I pointed to the larger screen.
The Xo looked at the screen and nodded. “All of them are like that and far from each other, we need to get set up first, then worry about diplomacy. Scouts report back that the air is breathable for us...higher gravity and air pressure, but safe enough to set down and survive.”
Captain Rowland snorted as the screen shifted and showed animals fighting, no doubt predator and prey, but they both looked at least the size of an elephant. “Lieutenant, find us a place to set this thing down away from the others and…” He trailed and shook his head. “Away from the larger forests or coastal areas.” He pointed to one of the wrecked black ships on the screen. “Near one of those if you can….if we can scavenge, I want to be close.”
I nodded and saluted, picking up my helmet and snorting as Xavier was saluting as well. “Aye aye, keep up the British tradition. Find an island away from the other islands and stab in a flag, maybe shoot some locals.” Xavier hopped to me and climbed up to wiggle into my helmet after I’d snapped it back on.
“Get to work ya bloody Yank, take the bunny with you. Scout and make sure you’re not setting down in a nesting area or a bloody floodplain. I know how you yanks are with putting even cities below sea level.” The Captain said it with a grin and motioned for me to get back to work.
As I climbed down the ladder and turned to sling myself down the tube, I sighed softly. “Hey once we get back to the shuttle, can you show me how you did that with the map system? I didn’t know we could do that with the helmet systems….” Not that they’d truly explained most of the gear we’d been given toward the end of the war. Hell half of it was stuff we’d only been given when our other gear was too damaged to use.
I got a soft squeak and a little nod against my neck as Xavier settled in for the ride, peeking out through my helmet vents. “Alright, gotta make some calls.” I brought up the links and tied in all of my squad commanders. “Command boat and Alpha boat back to the dock first, then each shuttle. Load at least one heavy weapon per shuttle, backup melee weapons, and load the spare fuel tanks onto the shuttle’s sides. Our mission is to scout landing zones behind the scout ships. The planet has large seemingly hostile life, there’s also alien settlements. The plan is to find a place large enough to land, away from the coast, far from the other settlements, and also away from the large forests.” I kicked the connection a second. “Can you send them the map data?”
After a little squeaking and wiggling up with an ear either side of my nose, Xavier sent the map data off to my squad leaders. Thankfully he wiggled back down away from my mouth, I really was going to need a bigger helmet. “Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot are to break out the heavy weapons and parse them out to the shuttles before loading themselves up. Once we find a landing zone, I want it secured, that means breaking out all of the shuttles and dragging the tanks out of storage. I want the M3C1 and the M3C6 out first and loaded onto shuttles for drop.”
The M3C1 was a newer fission powered one hundred and thirty ton Abrams model with a one hundred and forty millimeter main gun and twin thirty millimeter chainguns. I personally preferred the M3C6 though, which was around the same weight when loaded, had slightly lighter armor, auto loading twin heavy mortars, and an upgraded Gau-8 thirty millimeter gatling. With the duo of tanks, even a Kaiju would think twice about messing with our landing zone, and I was really hoping this planet didn’t have kaiju.
The affirmatives flew across the channel and I heard the happy cheers behind Gunnery Sergeant Bradley “Porky” Anderson, the tanker commander, and commander of the M3C6. “Break out Miss Piggy and Kermit!” was the last thing I heard boomed on the command channel and I heard chittering beside my head I swear was bunny giggles. The man’s voice sounded like he gargelled gravel each morning.
“Oh hush Xavier, nicknames are nicknames. Callsigns and all that can be anything from wonderful to absolutely horrid and only used in combat.” I said firmly and there were a few more squeaks of giggles, yep those were giggles and I felt him rubbing at his face. “Just don’t be too much of a pain with my people, not that you have been. I like you.” And the little shit pat my cheek with his ear, causing my eyes to roll.
By the time my mag boots latched to the hangar decking, my shuttle was back locked to the decking as well. Hiroshima had apparently called ahead and told one of Delta squad to gather his stashes, and was now passing out explosives and flashbangs to other squads. I also saw rocket pods and gatling mounts being latched to the sides of the command shuttle. This was going to be a hell of a run.
**************************
It took roughly two hours to get the assault group of two heavy landers and six assault shuttles heading for the planet sized moon. Ok it was a planet, it was only a moon in the respect that it was stuck spinning at the side of a gas giant. I honestly despise gas giants being called planets, they’re too damned big, I mean they’re small failed stars...pretty though. Like the monster my group was nearly skimming the atmosphere of, all the pretty colors of tans and purples, and the demonic looking storms.
The scouts had found a trio of the giant jagged looking starships grounded on the planet away from the alien settlements we’d spotted. The only problem was that those ships were surrounded by a forest larger than the others, and only had a single large plain between it and one of the planets odd, near ocean sized lakes. It was like a planet of giant seas and titanic forests, aliens, actual aliens, but in little fiefdoms like some bad medieval strategy game. Some of them seemed to have trade with each other, but many didn’t due to forests blocking the paths. I learned most of this while trying not to end up with a mouthful of bunny butt.
Most of us drifted in and out of that ancient soldier’s custom of sleeping when you could, not when you should. The area had been picked for us to scout and make sure that there wouldn’t be too much trouble landing there, though if anything animal or sentient stuck around with a colony ship landing…
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
My hazed thoughts were shoved aside as I heard pfc Duke “Noble'' Avery sigh, good kid, just not very bright. “Ok this is bugging the shit outa me sir.” He said as he looked at an overflight on a tablet. “Why the hell is everyone of these groups of aliens staying away from the big trees?” He snorted. “I mean we got at least what eight or ten types of aliens at the least, from giant anthro wolves to these odd bug looking fuckers near the hot area of the equator.” He brought up one. “Hell one of the groups we’ve found is actually built IN a damned river...but not a one of them is too close to one of the big seas or the damned forests….”
Pfc Paula “Johnny” Johnson groaned as she sat up straight. She was a smart cookie, and the one who always kept an eye on Duke. “We’ll find out eventually...and we can refuel the shuttles from the gas giant...so we can scout and go try and make nice with the other aliens.” She sighed. “Lets just hope some of the shit on this planet is edible for us…”
Prophet snorted. “Neither of you better try and eat anything until the lab teams make damned sure that we can metabolize it without getting some plague or poison.” And then he grimaced. “By Allah, I’m going to have to make sure the others in my trust don’t do that either…” He paled a little and it got some laughter from the team. He was the head of our muslim contingent and looked like an arab movie star.
“Heads up redshirts, we hit atmosphere in two minutes, and word from the scouts is that only one group actively fired at them when they flew over. The rest just seemed to go on alert and look worried.” Our pilot “Blitz” Krieg said over the intercom.
I tapped the side of my helmet and snapped up the faceplate, Xavier slipping out and moving to the can we had on the decking for him. “We ain’t got any ideas why they steer clear of the giant trees, or the larger bodies of water. We know the gravity is higher, the air is thicker, and there are some big cranky beasts.”
Evans held out her hand and caught Xavier when he bounced to her, her duo curiously watching the bunny. “Here...just in case you end up outside his helmet…” She held out an odd little shiv made from one of her crossbow bolt’s heads. She’d been wittling on it for over an hour and grinned as the bunny took the weapon and poked the tip to an armor plate on her arm, small blades snapping out. “And you can lock them closed or open by twisting the head…” He tapped her armor and then when it was closed he twisted the head and chittered, nodding. It even had a little loop of leather for him to tie around himself.
“Why the hell are you giving the bunny a weapon? He’ll get eaten if he tries to use IT!” Noble squeaked the last bit out and probably wet his catheter as Xavier bounced at high speed into his helmet’s open face, the sharp tip of the little weapon stopping just in front of his wide eye.
I didn’t bother to get up or move. “Xavier is a gene mod, don’t insult my partner…and Xavier?” I got an angry chitter for a reply. “Don’t stab my marines...even the ones who say stupid things.” The little furball chittered and hooked his weapon over his head and shoulder to hang, then punched Noble in the nose and kicked from his helmet to float over to me.
Johnny giggled. “Damn it Noble, don’t piss off the Lieutenant's spirit animal...and is your nose bleeding?”
The rather pale Pfc was holding his nose and had his head tilted back. “Ucker ighta broke my nobe.” He whined and Johnson leaned over, grabbing his nose and making him squeal as she shook her head.
“Not broke.” Was all she said before handing him a small bit of cloth.
“Let us all just hope that we can secure the area without an incident.” I said firmly and looked over at Miller, who had his helmet shut and was out cold. “And how the hell can he sleep so damned hard?” I reached to thump his shoulder and his head snapped up, making me smile.
“Was only resting my eyes, Sir.” My com man said as he checked his rifle and then went to the task of checking with the other com toting members of the shuttles. “Hitting Atmo in three...two...one.” The shuttle shuddered softly as it slammed into the atmosphere, and soon enough the trip hammers started to beat at our rides. “All shuttles are in formation and on target sir.” No matter how hard I tried, he refused to use a callsign with me or say just my last name, nope, always called me…Sir.
My hand moved to trigger an all-shuttle broadcast through Walkie’s com unit. “Alright kids, we’re doing a hot drop into unknown territory, I want weapons hot and ready. I want drones out and scanning for any trouble. If you see something, don’t shoot unless it attacks or it looks big and hungry. Try to scare off the cranky things.” Then they all got to hear me snort. “But I’m sure the bio geeks would love something for samples.” I heard the chuckles in my shuttle and nodded. “And now a word from Prophet.”
It had become our ritual since I’d gotten Prophet and his people assigned to me during the later part of the war, before every drop he spoke a prayer. It wasn’t a christian prayer, but it worked. Williams switched the feed over to Prophet and bowed his head like the rest of us. The arabic NCO bowed his head and opened his hands as he started. “O Allah, I seek Your forgiveness and Your protection in my religion, in my worldly affairs, in my family and in my wealth. ... O Allah , guard me from what is in front of me and behind me , from my left , and from my right , and from above me . I seek refuge in Your Greatness from being struck down from beneath me.”
As he finished, I said “Amen” and heard a soft squeak beside me, Xavier had his hand paws together and chittered as I clicked the channel back to myself. “And as is tradition with hot drops in my command. As we travel through the fire and flames of atmosphere…” My eyes flicked and triggered my suit to broadcast a classical metal song. Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce, a classical metal piece, which started to blast through the shuttles as they dove for the surface. And in marine tradition it blared outside the shuttles at full volume while they arc’d down to land. No one else could see it, but a small fuzzy head bobbed to the music and a hind foot tapped my helmet in time to the beat.
************
The shuttles circled the valley once before the tank carriers dropped their burdens on a small rise that was large enough for the two vehicles. The shuttles then moved to a lower rise and started to launch the drones they carried, unarmed and packed with all sorts of sensors to pick up everything from com systems to heat and movement. “Kermit and Miss Piggy are down and drones are deploying. Bring in the crunchies, we’re lonely.” Gunny Anderson said in my com as I knew he was using the drones to scout and spot for his tanks.
My shuttle spun and came down facing with its weapons out toward the distant trees, the light inside turning from red to green as its gear touched the odd grass. My people didn’t storm down the ramp since we weren’t doing a combat op, instead they stood and grabbed their gear before walking down. Evans and her duo moved around toward the front of the shuttle as the pfc’s moved out flanking her. Prophet moved with Hiroshima to set up the twenty millimeter autocannon near some boulders. I myself was busy with Williams checking on the other shuttle teams, who were getting their own systems setup. We had to get the perimeter defenses setup before the Yangtze came in to land.
“Alpha through delta are set up and moving to scout inward into the valley to make sure it’s stable and clear.” Williams said calmly, and for sounding to all the universe like a teenager, he was always annoyingly stoic and phlegmatic.
I knelt down, running my hand through the green, teal, and blue grasses that were about knee height on me. Xavier chittered and tapped the closed vents on my helmet with his ear. “I know...I want to smell the air too, but we have to wait for the bio team to check it more.” I lifted my head and clicked on my com. “Good, tell echo and foxtrot to move to finish placing the other sentry systems with their shuttles.” I stood and looked over at the shuttle with the science team setting up their gear. “Bio, I want to know as soon as you find out anything good or bad or weird. You know the drill.”
A sigh crackled over the com. “Yes Lieutenant, we’re getting the air systems setup now. Shouldn’t be too long before you get to use one of your marines to test the air.” Dr Dennis Lee said with that odd southern accent, it being odd since Lee’s parents had migrated from China to the state of Tennessee. “If we ever found a way home, we could make bank off selling this grass to Kentucky.”
I just snorted. “Yep...analyze it too. Hell Dennis, analyze everything.” I said and reached to check my sword and then racked a round into my rifle. “Anyone see anything moving?” I asked across the open channel, cause I hadn’t seen anything moving yet, but we’d just made a ton of noise.
A bunch of “Negative Sir.”s flowed across the com net and I sighed before Anderson cleared his throat. “Sir...this is going to make me sound like a nerd, and I’ll admit I’m a nerd...dnd, tabletop and all that...but the boulder beside my tank is staring at me. With eyes that weren’t there when we rolled up. Chest thing…can’t think of the name.” His words made my head snap up and I turned to look out across the valley at the rise the tanks were on.
I loved many things, including fantasy and sci-fi novels, and something twigged in my mind, but I couldn’t place the...Hiroshima cut me off with a yelp of surprise and panic. I turned in time to see an odd tendril flow from a boulder and seemed to absorb one of the spike drivers used to hammer in the rods that held the autocannons in place. “The fucking rocks are alive!” came roaring over the open com channel before Prophet jerked him into the shuttle.
“Everyone FREEZE!” I roared into my com and sighed, I had a stiffening bundle of fur against my neck from my yelling. “Anderson...slowly and gently back away from the boulders and reposition away from them. Any and all teams near a set of these odd boulders...get your shuttles and gear away from them...but leave a tool or the like. One here just ate a hammer like it was a cookie…” I said and watched as the tendril came out and poked the autocannon and shield only for it to pull one of the spikes out of the ground and absorb it. “Everyone move away from them calmly...do not fucking run, do not fucking shoot them. These things might mass as much as a shuttle.”
“Prophet...you and Hiroshima...get the spikes out and get that autocannon away from the hungry boulder. Give it the spikes and even the pull bar if you have to. Johnny, get an mre and bring it to me from the supplies. Walkie, get in the shuttle with Blitz and have him move it about a hundred yards further out….and radio the Yangtze. Let them know what’s going on.” I said firmly, the last bit on a private channel to Williams.
Williams snorted. “Mimics sir...they’re mimics, polymorphs. I’d bet a week’s rations on it.” The Lance corporal said as he headed for the shuttle’s open landing ramp. “I’ll leave you patched into the net sir.”
Johnny trotted up to me as I watched Prophet and Hiroshima gently and casually start to move the autocannon, she saw me grinning as Prophet actually handed one of the spikes to the tendril that’d eaten the others. “Sir...one mre, what are you planning on doing?”
Xavier chittered softly in my helmet. “They’re mimics...I’m going to see if they eat stuff other than hammers and spikes. Not that mimics are supposed to be big ass rocks, but...see.” I nodded to the boulder, which now had four eyes about a foot across, watching my people move about curiously. I unhooked my rifle from its sling and traded Johnny for the mre, nodding for her to head back as the shuttle lifted up and gently slid away. The engines kicking up a little wind as the craft moved.
I was about halfway to the mimic boulder, and yes I know how ridiculous that sounds, but I was halfway when I thought of something. I clicked on my open com. “Drone controllers...are these Mimics showing on any sensors?”
It took a moment, but one of the techs came back on the com. “Yes sir, they’re showing a slightly higher warmth than the rocks around them.”
“Wonderful.” I said in a cheerful tone. “Now use the drones to find all of these things in the valley, and let alpha, bravo, and charlie teams know where they are. The three specified teams are to take spikes, hammers, and other things...and try to coax them away from the centerline of the valley.”
“May I ask why sir?” Came from the controller.
“Oh just because we have a few hours max till we land a massive ship in this valley, these mimics eat metal, wood…” I opened the mre and held it out, the tendril touched it, then yanked it from my hand to toss it into an actual mouth. “Ok they eat everything...I don’t want them eating the ship or the ship oh...landing on one.” I kept most of my sarcasm out of my voice, but not all of it. I had no damned clue how many of these things were around, but there were enough I didn’t want them angry, and burning or crushing one...would probably anger the others.
“Aye sir...and mimics?” The tech asked curiously and I could see the drones moving down into the valley.
I couldn’t help but start to laugh and got to hear squeaky bunny giggles as Gunnery Sergeant Anderson broke out into a bad brogue. “Oy lad, Mimics are beasts that are powerful and feared by all adventurers.” And it was then that I realized that “Porky” was a dwarf player.
“Oh gods, you’re such nerds…” Came from Evans and I looked over to see her watching the forest.
I was going to say something to counter what she’d said, but a beastial roar from the forest made me look over, the boulder beside me also shifted its gaze as well. “Evans….get back here now! Move!” I barked and started for her as she turned and started to sprint, her duo out running her easily. My hand hit my chest and I remembered I’d handed off my rifle to Johnny, then my hand went to the grip of my sword.
I had an issue that I blamed whole heartedly on the government scientists that had twisted my genes to make me a better soldier. Most people have this fight or flight thing that kicks in, fight if you can, flight if you can’t. For some reason my brain’s fight of flight switch had been jammed into fight, then glued or welded into place. When my brain went to instinct in panic or stress, my one and only true reaction was brute force or violence. I’d faced some of the North Korean and Chinese gene modded soldiers with the same issue, or they were just fanatics, but fanatics usually run when they’re unarmed and you have a gun.
More roars sounded from the forest and I knew weapons were racking behind me as I ran. I barely noticed the odd basketball sized creature bounce up to and past Evans from the forest. Then I heard a growl in my ear as I ran to cover Evans, not even thinking, and just being a big protective idiot. Luckily Prophet and Hiroshima had moved the autocannon and hammered enough stakes in to use it, not for sustained fire, but they could rip out bursts with it.
Zeus and Hera slowed as I ran past them, and I panted in the heavier gravity as the first beast broke free of the thick forest edge. It largely resembled a pangolin, except it was about the size of an elephant. That and the thing’s maw opened to let out a roar and I realized it was an omnivore...the head kinda looked like a bald possum. The two other beasts that ran out behind it were just as large and fast as they charged forward.
The heavy thudding chatter of the twenty millimeter autocannon was something I barely heard, but its fire slamming into and breaking against one of the beast’s armor was something I saw. The heavy plates on the beast’s bodies stopped a twenty millimeter round dead, shattering it like glass, but the unarmored skin of the beast splashed bright violet blood from the wounds. The beast on the side of the cannon screeched in pain and snapped its tail around to block the cannon fire.
Evans spun as she came to my side and brought up her heavy rifle and I knew she was having to skip as she backpedaled and started to fire past me. I drew my sword back over my head and swung with every bit of my strength toward the opening maw coming for me. The beast’s nose split when my sword hit it and I felt bone shatter under the heavy blade, and then I was slammed back. My own sword snapped back as the long handle was jerked from my grip and slammed into the dirt. I have to admit that I screamed like a little girl when fifty pounds of violet drenched metal broke my armor and cut into me.
The last thing that I saw was a black mass rushing over me to slam what looked like holding spikes for an autocannon into the head of the beast that was half grinding me into the dirt. The last thing I heard was a squeak and growl in my ear, and a fuzzy something pat my face.