Codex entry no. 12, “the Bugs”
While the Bugs do have a proper name to science, it’s not very important. What is important is what they are and why they were made. Bugs were a rival project to Nathaniel Winter’s proposed Maine Initiative which would later become the Maine Project, and then finally, the Maine Family. The Bugs were proposed by a group of researchers from the Office of Research and Innovation who felt that the war was an excellent opportunity to prove that Martian genetics research had just as much potential for mankind as Artificial Intelligence and robotics.
Five hundred units of Bugs were created in parallel with the Maines, and at first they performed well in testing. They consumed every mandroid and synthetic the researchers threw at them. Then one day a researcher cut himself, and the stench of blood drew the things in. That’s when the bugs began eating the very men and women who’d created them, and the Maines were called from the other side of the facility to contain them. The Bugs were my family’s first enemy, and my greatest nightmare as a child.
Their shiny black armored bodies could deflect most small arms fire and minor explosions. Their only weaknesses were extreme temperatures, gas weapons, and their squishy insides. The issue with that last one though is that you have to let the damn things charge you if you want a good shot at a kill from a maw shot. I wish the little things had remained nightmares from the scary stories I’d been told as a child. I’d be much happier that way.
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Chapter 13 - Last of the Martians
Following our encounter with the bugs Greta and I decided to proceed deeper into the vault with the flashlights of our weapons on so that both of us could see. While there was a large chance that the light would attract the bugs to our location, I was willing to risk it so that we could have two pairs of able eyes rather than just my own.
I had grown concerned by this point with Zeus’ lack of smart comments or advice, but the A.I. had fallen silent to even my most persistent mental prompts, leaving me with only Greta for company. Though not unwelcome, the fear running through her saturated the air, and her jaw was so tightly clenched that I suspected even if I tried to strike up a conversation she wouldn’t be too forthcoming with any line greater than five words.
A sour situation indeed, as I’d really rather grown used to the constant back-and-forth Zeus and I had, but I figured that I could worry about the A.I. 's situation later.
The second stairwell we tried showed signs of combat and death. Blood stains, bullet holes, and scorch marks told me a grim tale that I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to know the ending to. Part of me was tempted to say everyone was dead and just go find somewhere to hide, and once I realized that a thought crossed my mind.
I’m scared?
Up until then, I hadn’t felt much of anything when it came to negative emotions. Hell, even the positive ones were subdued, and that was all Zeus’ doing. He kept my brain’s “irregular mental fits” under control so that I could remain level headed, and as my muscles tightened I decided that I had preferred it that way. In any stressful situation fear is the worst liability one can stomach.
Five levels down from where we’d entered the stairwell, I raised my hand and brought us to a stop, as my eyes narrowed from a steady sound that I hadn’t heard from the bugs, but was common for humans: Breathing.
My enhanced senses are alright then, I determined, it just takes more focus without Zeus’ help. Based on the sounds of that breathing though, this person is either at the end of a marathon, or the end of their life.
“Stay sharp. I think I hear an injured person up ahead. Be ready for anything,” I advised before proceeding further down the stairs.
Up until that point we hadn’t encountered any Martians, alive or dead, and I was sickened to think why that might’ve been.
Bugs were supposed to be able to eat most anything, and as hungry as they seemed to be I was willing to bet that they weren’t in the habit of leaving much of anything behind to bury.
Still, if there were as many deaths as I feared then there should have been weapons and equipment laying around, though it was possible that the damn creepy crawlies had eaten those too, and I knew it. There were too many unknowns, and the more damage I saw through the Vault the more sure I became that no matter what I found there wouldn’t be a single iota of sense in staying there.
The sound of labored breathing grew louder, harsher, and enough that I was sure even Greta could hear it. Looking across the stairwell I saw that the level we were coming up to, sublevel 95, was missing its door. The damn thing had been breached based on what I saw, and the sticky sheen of red I could see glittering on the other side of the chasm confirmed that at the very least the person I was looking for hadn’t just concluded a marathon.
Coming down and around the final set of stairs Greta and I swept into the room with weapons ready for action, but saw only the corpses of bugs, and a pair of armored Martians.
The one who’d likely produced most of the sticky crimson pool we were standing in was missing his head. The other, propped up against the wall, was missing his arm up to the point just below his shoulder. His helmet was off, his face carried a sheen of sweat over it’s paled look, and as we approached the guy’s eyes came to rest on me. My jaw tightened when I recognized the face.
Rushing forward, I pulled out my canteen and offered the one-armed Davis Biggs of the Star Corps a sip. He took a few careful draws before hinting with his eyes he’d had enough, and I quickly barked at Greta, “Get your hands on a first aid kit. If you can’t find a kit near here then-” I looked over at the corpse, “-see if our fallen comrade has a trauma kit on his armor.”
I heard a splattering behind me, and felt a warm sensation through my boot. The acrid stench told me that Greta had just vomited, but before I could comment she stalked off to do as I asked, just as she’d been trained for.
“You look like shit,” I said as lightly as I could, focusing on trying to keep Davis awake.
“And you.. You are still a fucking ass…asshole,” Davis managed with grunt, “I appreciate the drink though.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“You left, and Sarah- Sarah went with Robert to manage some techs as they tried to find stuff we could use down here. I got some scared radio blasts sent my way, and after I suited up it was essentially just a storm of bug juice and Martian blood. Everyone started fleeing to the lower levels but those bugs… Thos bugs aren’t bad hunters. They knew we had a lot of easy prey. I don’t actually know how many people are left, but I do know that- that we did everything we could to thin those fuckers out. There can’t be more than a dozen or so of them down here now. We killed at least sixty,” Davis struggled to explain, his face contorting every few words as he resisted the urge to pass out.
Greta arrived with the first aid kit and handed it to me. I took the hint and started doing my best to patch Davis up and start filing him with the synthetic blood from the kit so he’d be able to function.
“Do you think we can find anymore survivors?” Greta asked as I did my work and Davis allowed the morphine to do it’s work.
“I don’t think the bugs got everyone, but we won’t stay down here once we find the others,” I said, “this place clearly isn’t safe anymore. Some of those bugs likely made it to the surface, but probably not too many. I can’t imagine there were thousands of them in the vaut.”
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“One… Hundred…” Davis contributed as he resisted the urge to pass out.
“There!” I said happily, well, as happily as I could, “so at the very least sixty percent of the bugs are gone, and I’m sure if the bugs poke around the surface Earth will thrash them. Done and done.”
“But what comes next?” Greta asked, “this vault was supposed ot be our ultimate safe haven! What will we do? Is ther anything we can do?”
“Wait for the fleet to arrive. I summoned it, so they should be here soon enough. We just have to hold on,” I encouraged, leaving out the part that Hannah ahd actually summoned hte fleet.
Greta’s eyes flashed gold, and she then said, “Um, Artemis says that she can tell you are low on power. She wants you to recharge.”
Looking up I raised an eyebrow.
“Do you have the Energizer Bunny around?” I asked, sweeping my hand around us, “because unless you do then we are SOL. There are no outlets around that I can see and I’m not feeling the urge to go poking around in rooms since that’s how we got this place turned into bug-town.”
Again, Greta’s eyes flashed gold, but this time they stayed gold and in Artemis’ voice but through Greta’s lips I was told, “You are free to stop being a smartass at any moment, Lieutenant Maine. Power is more than freely available if you just siphon some from your fallen comrade’s armor… The dead one, that is.”
I grimaced at the suggestion of taking from a corpse, finding that despite my lack of many scruples apparently I did have that one. Still, I stood up once I was finished, and walked over to the corpse before holding out my hand and closing my eyes to focus.
Remember that feeling, I tried to coach myself, and try not to think about how weird it feels to have a bunch of wires come out of your-
Silvery-gray tendrils like silk from a spider emerged from my fingers and dove into the cracks of the fallen martian’s Armor. A warm feeling swept over me, and soon enough I heard Zeus say, Power restored to non-critical areas. Reserves at thirty-five percent and climbing. Estimated charge capacity: One hundred percent.
Good to have you back with me, I greeted.
You held up well enough, Zeus replied, but I do agree with your earlier assessment. Based on the data we got while we were on the surface I have some suggestions on where we can take survivors.
Once the charge was completed, I found myself feeling much better, physically and mentally. Rejoining the other Martians, I helped Davis up and handed him my side-arm. He held it awkwardly in his right hand and sighed, “This is a really bad time to be a lefty.”
Still, the patches we’d put on his wounds and the synthetic blood I’d pumped him with had done it’s job. His face had color again and he didn’t look like he was two steps from death. It was as close to success as I’d gotten that day, so I decided to take the win and move to the next phase of my working plan.
“Since everyone seems to be scattered we need to find them. That means we will need to bring auxiliary power online. Is there a reason you guys didn/?”
Davis chucked and admitted, “We didn’t have the codes… Do you have them?”
“She should,” I said, jerking my thumb at Greta, “She has a kind of memory unit from the Dean before his death. It should have the codes.”
Too tired and fatigued to think about how out of the ordinary my statement was, Davis said nothing further. There was a fire in his eyes, a will to live that hadn’t been there when we’d first entered the room. Greta helped him up, and I offered Davis my pistol. Looking down at the stump of what used to be his arm he muttered, “I wonder what we’re going to do about that…”
“Either give you a clone version or if they are in a rush they’ll issue a combat prosthetic. Honestly, the clone version is better,” I answered him.
Davis raised an eyebrow and asked, “Who took one of your limbs? I’ve never heard of anyone being able to touch you, let alone take a limb from you.”
“My Aunt Victoria, when I was eight,” I answered truthfully, “it took a year and a half for me to be back at 100 percent. Without the stuff I had access to, you’ll probably out two years. Still, once your recover you don’t have to worry about upkeep and you’ll never notice the difference.” Patting my left leg for emphasis, I finished, “I don’t.”
I started forward with a bit of a smirk at the horrifying truth I’d dropped on both of them. It was amusing to watch people from outside my family’s reactions to things like this. Most of them didn’t believe it when I told them, but those who did never quite said my family’s name with the same reverence.
With Zeus’ help we proceeded in silence through the halls towards the Auxiliary Control Room that was on our level. Three was one on each level, but they all required a set of security codes that the Dean had expired without leaving behind… Luckily, we had Artemis.
The massive chamber we at last came to was at least twenty meters high and had a half-sphere in the center of it which held a kind of dynamo similar to the one which was in the mental space Zeus and I shared.
Greta approached the console in front of the dynamo and started typing away. As she did so, I watched Davis to check his physical state.
“I’m fine,” Davis said, apparently guessing what I was doing, “You’re a decent enough medic.”
“Thanks,” I accepted, “but I’m really trying to determine how much you have left in you. You lost a lost of blood…Plus an arm.”
Davis snorted and said, “Cut off the other arm and I’ll still be able to keep up with the best of ‘em. I’m fine.”
Davis and I whipped around as Greta cried out, hands over her eyes and red-orange holes in her clothes where sparks had burned through. Her shouts became more shrill and grew in volume with each second. Davis got to her first and pulled her hands enough away to see the damage before shouting, “Fuck! Thomas, her eyes- She needs a first aid kit! We need to knock her out!”
The lights in the room flickered back on, and I quickly rushed around the console to the other side of the room to get the first aid kit there. As I rushed back, I noticed damage to the back of the console, the back casing peeled back like an orange and wires hanging out where someone had made a hash at trying to hot-wire the damn thing.
Fucking Lab Coats, I thought bitterly as I dropped beside the pair. Morphine came first, and soon Greta stilled as Davis and I worked to treat her wounds as best we could. Grimly, I looked over at Davis as we concluded my second major act of medicine for that day, and checked that Greta was out cold before stating, “I think she just lost her eyes.”
“Fuck… Fuck!” Davis swore as he shook his head. “How did-” “-someone tried to mess with the console. Probably someone without the code,” I answered, “but this is going to slow us down. For now though, let me see what I can do. Sit tight, I need to concentrate to do this bit. I’m still getting the hang of using these new abilities.”
Davis nodded, too worried to question me.
I went off, and sat down, closing my eyes and willed myself into the mental space I shared with Zeus.
“This is not our day,” I Zeus noted as I entered the space. This time it was the library again, but Zeus maintained his more modern appearance.
“No,” I agreed, “but tell me we can see where everyone is now?”
“We can,” Zeus said, “but I’m afraid I have some bad news. About half of the survivors remain. The rest… They are dead.”
My fists balled up, my jaw clenched, and I found myself thinking only of how I wished I could go back into orbit to make Earth pay for the blood they’d spilled. I wish so many bloody things, and as I did the room took on a red light.
“You need to relax, Thomas,” Zeus said with a sigh, the lights returning to the persistent sunny temper Zeus seemed to enjoy, “We can’t turn back time. If you let your anger guide you then we’ll wind up worse than any of these people.”
Zeus snapped his fingers and I found myself sitting across from him at one of the study tables.
“I’ve been working on figuring out what Hannah did to us. I have at last found out what, I have also fixed the issue, but we can go over specifics later. I have already sent a message to all Martians over the intercom instructing them to come to you or to message you if they need an escort. I am curious about where you are going to take these people though. The vault was our best place to hold out, so where now?”
“There is a set of bunkers for students beneath each of the schools. Given what a small crowd we have now, the Intelligence School is my best option,” I explained.
Zeus was all to quick to remind me, “The Intelligence School was blown to oblivion.”
“The bunkers are below ground and there are several access points I’ll check the place out before I bring anyone there, secure it, and then move everyone there if it’s safe. THe people here in cryo will have to wait for now. We don’t have the capacity to care for them or to move them.”
Zeus sighed, and muttered, “You have far too much courage and confidence in your ability for your own good.”
Shaking his head, Zeus said, “Very well. I can’t stop you, but if you are going to do that perhaps we could find some equipment we could use that is better than the antiques you have strapped on?”