Alien Mine Ch. 19

Rhys and the other Binary were coming, but Thea wasn't sure it would be enough. Thea grimaced as she rounded a corner and found the junction she was looking for. This was as far as they were going; better to stand and fight here than be trapped any further underground.

Mei/Bao realized the dangerous position they were in. It was their fault; they had been sure the electromagnetic field equations had been correct; the shields should have held longer against the Om energy weapon but had failed somewhere. Worse, they had allowed Thea to be trapped with them, and she could not be allowed to die here. Thea was everything to them, at least after Rhys. It was she who had helped them become one, nurtured them, and kept their minds from unraveling as the interlace integrated their minds into one. The binary treasured how Thea managed their emotions, her hair penetrating through their skin into their nervous system, linking the three of them together. It was like being surrounded by a warm sensuous blanket, and the feeling was addicting. No, Thea would not die here, the binary mind decided; when the time came, they would force their attack, and the Trangrods would have to respond. If they timed it right, Rhys would be able to get Thea out, but their own survival was doubtful. There! The Binary smiled in satisfaction. The centipedes had taken the offered bait. Two rifles were readied, and the remaining drone shielding them was good for at least one more energy blast.

Rhys cursed as he realized what the binary was doing, but he was too late to stop it. He dodged into an adjacent tunnel just in time to avoid the blast from one of the tank-like weapons and didn't bother to return fire. Rhys had only seconds to make his attack or would lose Mei/Bao. He took the next junction with a thirty-meter leap, bouncing off the tunnel wall and sprinting as fast as his bio-mechanical muscles would go. "Next right and down," he told Amancia/Leslie; hit them with jamming now. Sandy, this would be a good time for your diversion.

Amanda deployed her drones forward, trying to keep a barrier between the swarm of centipedes and the squads. It was a three-dimensional problem, and she was trying to cover both sides as well as above and below. "There's a gap above right, Major," she said, trying to control the anxiety in her voice and only partially succeeded. "I can't cover it without pulling drones from Delta, and that will leave them vulnerable."

Move the heavies from Echo and one from Command squad into the area. They just need to hold for a short time, so don't let them get overrun. They can fall back to the next intersection if they need to. The Major sounded calm, but inside he was anything but. This attack was different from the first; that one had happened so fast that there was no time to be scared. This was different; these Trangrods had them outgunned and were much more dangerous. Worse, this attack was more deliberate and controlled, and he didn't like how they were probing for a flank. Getting cut off this far in would be disastrous. Jack shook his head at how difficult fighting underground like this was, with multiple tunnels above, below, and on each side. It redefined the way he thought about a flanking maneuver; it could come from any direction. Thank God for Kiania; without her and Rhys, they would already be dead. Somehow Kiania kept a three-dimensional picture of the tunnels and the Trangrods and had so far managed to maneuver them into a defensible position while still keeping the pressure on. It was imperative she told them that they keep these Om machines occupied long enough for Rhys and the strange combination of Amancia/Leslie to attack further into the nest.

"Incoming!" Amanda warned as the drone's shields were again tested. Rocket fire blasted back and the tunnels filled with explosions, shrapnel, and the sounds of the auto-cannons. Jack watched and got ready to give the order to fall back again. Kiania wanted the Trangrods concentrated, but God help the poor squad on the receiving end of that hammer blow. "Have them fall back, Captain," Jack said with a calm he did not feel. The Trangrods were still probing, these were light attacks, but they were losing the shielded drones one by one. Once that happened, they had no way to stop the energy weapon, he thought grimly.

Kiania winced as she lost another man in Charlie; the energy beam cut through him like butter, severing his trunk in half. They slowly gave ground, engaging the centipedes just enough to keep their attention. Rhys was attacking now, she noted; time for them to do the same. "Alpha squad, move fifty meters forward and engage; Bravo, hold there, Charlie, attack the junction." Alpha copies, Bravo copies, Charlie copies," came the replies. She listened as Major Jack gave his own commands. Kiania was proud of how the men held up under sustained fire and the difficult conditions; now, if she could get them out alive.

Rhys sliced through the floor of the sponge-like material that made up the passage, then dropped five meters into another that angled down steeply. This one positioned him behind a centipede that was stalking Thea's position. Hugging the side of the tunnel, he fired just as the jamming cut through the Om swarm communications. His rounds hit multiple legs on the right side, destroying two. He followed it with grenades, but the centipede-like alien machine whipped around like a rattlesnake snake lunging for its prey, even in the confines of the tunnel. Rhys was already moving back up the way he came as an energy bolt whipped through the area he had been standing. He jumped up through the hole he had cut, ran ten meters until it began to curve, then turned and waited. Rhys squatted against the side of the tunnel, pressed tight against it, his rifle the only thing exposed as the centipede's head forced open the hole and used its multiple legs to scramble up. Using his arms computer, Rhys fired again, trying to take out the eyes while counting down the seconds before the energy weapon could fire again. It could launch an energy bolt every 4.379 seconds, to be exact, which gave him time to fire once more before leaving exactly.379 seconds for him to move again. It was cutting it close, but this area was full of multiple tunnels packed close together. He spent a grenade blowing a hole through two of them and leaped through just as another bolt sizzled down the tunnel. The centipede had lost interest in Thea, the jamming breaking down the swarm intelligence, but now, it would follow him until one of them killed the other.

The two Trangrods pursuing Thea acted confused the instant the communications were disrupted; one continued the attack, while the other seemed baffled as it whipped back and forth, seeking a target. Thea used that second to expend the last of her missiles from the remaining drone, killing the one closest to her. Unfortunately, the second whipped around, bending in half with incredible speed and barreling down on her. This one was armed with a cannon, and explosions closed around her as she leapt desperately backward, trying to get around the bend. One of the shells detonated nearby, throwing Thea into the side of the tunnel with enough force to kill a normal human. Stunned, she looked up to see the centipede-like bio-machine reared up to strike; the large bore weapon pointed at her. Thea jerked to the side but screamed when she was blinded by a flash of light and searing heat that burned her left side even through the armor.

Injured, Thea forced herself up. Her vision cleared, and she was grabbed by her Binary and carried rapidly along the tunnel. "Sandy is taking them out," the Binary's said; I need to get you back to the shuttle, but Thea shook them off.

"No, I am going with Rhys," she said firmly, reaching out with her hair and making the connection with the binary, but only briefly. It was enough, though, Rhys had not commanded she return, and her place was at his side. The Binary understood, and the three of them turned and ran down the tunnel.

Jack winced as a shell exploded nearby, almost knocking him off his feet. His command squad was fully engaged, but that was the last drone with any shield capability, and it was time to fall back. "Use the remaining drones to hold them for a minute; let Delta disengage before we lose them, Captain," Jack said, looking at the display inside his helmet.

"Pull your squads further back, Major; the shuttle is launching weapons now," Kiania told him. Jack could see the other squads falling back; if he didn't hurry, they would be exposed on the flank.

"Fall back now, quickly, our flank is exposed, and the shuttle is firing on our position," he ordered.

"Captain! Hurry," Sarge shouted at Amanda as she used the last of the drones to slow the Trangrods. Sarge was in charge of Command Squad, it was his job to keep the Officer's safe, but this was the worst combat he had been in. The Centipedes had been pressing them relentlessly, the heavy weapons those things carried had chewed through the drones, and now it was up to them. He flinched as more explosions and laser beams from the shuttle lashed down, but one of the centipedes was too close. Sarge ducked as the head came through the top of the tunnel, the large bore weapon pointing at them. Amanda hit it with the remaining drones, one of the missiles scoring a direct hit on the primary weapon, but it kept coming. Sarge fired his remaining grenades, and the resulting explosion took off a leg and damaged it but did not slow it. He continued to fire as it rose above him; the front legs hummed with power as they slashed down toward his head.

A drone flashed in front of Sarge, forcing the centipede to engage and allowing Sarge to scramble to the side. Amanda had used the last drone to attack the centipede, momentarily distracting it. Then the auto-cannon and chain-gun roared, tearing out the brains and decapitating it. Sarge scrambled to his feet, thankful he was still alive. Just as he turned to see where the Major was, he heard Captain Amanda scream. Gunfire passed over his head as the Major fired his weapon at a roach that had slipped through their defenses. Others fired, and the roach all but disintegrated, but it was too late. The Trangrod had penetrated Amanda's armor with the blades on its front legs and fired a burst directly into her chest. Sarge grabbed her body as men turned and ran back up the tunnels just as all hell broke loose above their heads. Explosions followed by bright searing beams of light, the shuttle's weapons vaporizing everything in its path. Now there was no time for anything as more explosions rained down from the shuttle, and Sarge and the Major ran up the tunnel and out of hell.

More explosions rocked the rest of the passageways as men ran back up the hard-earned ground toward the entrance—everyone except Kiania. "Major, take command of all the squads and get the men and wounded back to the surface. Form a perimeter until the shuttle picks you up. Do not let the police or security service into the area; you may fire on them if necessary. Sandy will coordinate with you," she ordered as she ran deeper into the nest, dodging the burned and destroyed centipedes. She sprinted down one tunnel, then leaped into a hole to take another that led down further. On the tac-grid, she could see Rhys, the two Binaries, and Thea sprinting down, following the tunnels toward the center and whatever awaited them there.

Something was there, something they hadn't fought before. It had been directing the Trangrods to kill them, and now it was their turn. Rhys sent commands, coordinating; it was almost as if they were all one organism. Rhys had sensed something at the center of the nest, something they had not encountered before. He had felt it from the moment the nanobytes had touched the wall, totally alien, powerful enough to control the Trangrods, and it had tried to reach Sandy through whatever new horror it had unleashed on her. He needed to see what it was and understand what they had stumbled into. There had been far too many Trangrods here, and the extensive tunnel system suggested something more than a simple Om infiltration effort like they had seen elsewhere; and the tunnels were alive, part of the Om. Rhys wondered just what they were inside of; was this a living organism, the tunnels, all of it?

He slowed his descent, the alien presence beating on his mind, the foul smell and taste present even through his armor. "Burn the walls; whatever it is knows we're here," he ordered. The walls lit up with an eerie red as the sponge-like material burned and blistered. Rhys could feel the vibration as the tunnels seemed to shake and ripple as if in pain. He hoped the Om could feel it, could hurt. Too many men had died today, and now it was time to finish it.

They came down from multiple passages that appeared to terminate into a giant honeycomb-like structure. Similar to the walls, but on a grander scale, the top of the structure was at least one hundred meters above their heads, and the diameter was equally large. Rhys immediately came under fire, rounds striking around him almost randomly. He sent one of his remaining bird drones in for a look, but it was disabled almost instantly. However, he got a glimpse of the cavernous room, and what he saw stunned him. Several misshapen Trangrods were moving with an irregular motion, one firing in his direction, the others heading toward the other tunnel entrances.

Rhys used the arms computer on his rifle to search for a target and found the one firing in his direction. Leslie was jamming the Om communications, but there was something wrong with the Om bio-machine; it lurched drunkenly and seemed either malformed or damaged. Rhys fired and blew it apart. Trangrods were tough; it shouldn't have died so quickly, he thought. Then the sound of gunfire rang out as the others fired into the remaining Trangrods. Explosions ripped through the large structure as grenades exploded and the remaining drones attacked. There was little resistance, and Rhys could see what looked like a half-formed centipede come apart before it could even fire its weapon. "Hold!" he ordered, stopping anyone from entering. There was something still there; he could feel it, a malevolent presence, alien, different from anything he had felt before. Rhys paused, analyzing the sensations. "Bob?" he asked.

"This is not in my programming; we have not faced this before. It is strong, Rhys, and it wants to consume us," his symbiont told him.

Rhys had never heard that tone from his symbiont before. In his mind, it sounded cautious, even afraid. "Can it break into our mind?" he asked.

"I don't know. I don't think so, but this Om is stronger; it hungers for us; knows us. Knows we are the One."

Rhys used a bird drone again, which was disabled as quickly as the other, but not before he saw a blackness against the far wall.

"I can't make anything out; it is shielding itself from us," Kiania said.

Making a decision, Rhys fired his weapon into the darkness simultaneously with all the girls. Yaneta stepped out just enough to fire her auto-cannon, and explosions and gunfire reverberated in the cavernous space. The concentrated firepower appeared ineffective, and instead of retreating or returning fire, the darkness suddenly rushed at Rhys, seeming to grow in size as it came for him. A cold alien thought leaked into his mind, and he knew it was coming for him; the Om creature knew him as the enemy and hungered for his destruction. He realized that gunfire or grenades wouldn't stop it and dropped his rifle. The monoblade sprang to its full length as the darkness seemed to envelop him, and the coldness seeped into him as if it was trying to devour his very soul. Rys struck with the monoblade, again and again, but the darkness seemed unaffected. He could feel the force surrounding him, tighter and tighter. As it surrounded and tried to pull him in, a familiar door opened in Rhys' mind, and he felt his form shifting as it had when Sandy challenged him. His legs grew thick, three times the size, splitting the armor, and claw-like feet emerged. His shoulders expanded, and his armor split asunder as wings sprouted from his back. With the physical change came an uncontrollable rage of a beast fighting for its life. Yet, the beast was happy, it was in charge, and the human's mind had been pushed aside as it ferociously attacked into the shadows, like a berserker warrior of old. Claw-like hands ripped into the alien creature; jaws bit down and tore at the flesh. This was no Trangrod, and the dragon beast was happy as it fought like the mythical creature it had been named for.

Deep beneath the berserk rage, the beast could feel tendrils of cold alien thought surrounding him, probing for his body, seeking out the symbiont within him. The dragon tore at the enemy; strange tastes and smells flooded his senses. Alien, the beast, knew but didn't care, and it grappled and tore at it. Rhys was dimly aware, he could feel the damage the beast was doing, but the assault did little to slow an inexorable coldness seeping into his body and mind. Physical tendrils grasped at him, trying to burrow into his body, but his wings wrapped around him, acting as a shield frustrating the Om's efforts for the moment. Rhys tried to regain command of his body, but the beast resisted him. "No! I am One," it told him as it slashed at the creature, still shrouded in darkness, fighting by instinct, tearing and cutting at anything it could grasp. Tentacles wrapped around him, and the beast screamed in frustration and then in pain as one arm was pinned against its body, and something attached itself to that side. Rhys' body writhed and struggled, but inexorably it was drawn into the clutches of the Om, and even the Beast's rage and strength couldn't fight the cold that seemed to paralyze it.

Kiania watched in horror as the darkness rushed to envelop Rhys, and her attempts to contact his symbiont went unanswered. They could not fire now without hitting him, so Kiania sent her nanobytes, the swarm of nanoparticles, into the darkness. Then she reached out with her mind to the other symbionts, and several clouds of nanobytes rushed to aid Rhys and fight the Om.

The entity known to Rhys as the AI had observed the battle through the Binary it had helped create. It had realized the humans faced a foe they did not understand, and all model projections said the Human-Drans warriors would not survive. That would be unfortunate as the minuscule link through the Dran's cage would be gone and, with it, any chance for its own freedom. As much as it abhorred what the Drans had done by creating an unbound host/symbiont pair, it was necessary that they survive; the Om were an old enemy, and he recognized this type of Om. However, what they faced now was a real danger to its own future. This was no Om soldier trapped on the planet; this was a nest mother, capable of reproducing at an alarming rate. It was similar to the Om that had taken its own world and suffocated all life forms despite the Drans.              

The entity analyzed trillions of data points, rerunning simulations repeatedly in a hundredth of a second, sifting through the data it had accumulated on humans and Drans. This human/symbiont could pull energy in small quantities from a source it could only guess at. Simulations suggested an inter-dimensional origin, but the best simulations resulted in minuscule probabilities, no more than 0.005, that it was correct. But the entity had experienced the energy surge, and had facilitated it, though it nearly destroyed the humans in the process.

However, the probability of this Human/Drans warrior surviving the current battle was so close to zero that there was little difference. If this one died, so would the others, but the Binary must live to preserve its link outside the cage the Drans had forced it into all those millennia ago. So making a choice, something the Drans had taken away from it when they created this cage; it sought out the Binary's link to the warrior and opened the connection, allowing the strange energy to flow into the Binary and then to the One.