Alien Mine Ch. 24

***

Rishit Banerjee watched the lights as something streaked across the sky before exploding high up in the atmosphere. "They are getting closer," he said to Master Sergeant Chadha.

"Yes sir, they are," the Master Sergeant replied, "and bigger too."

Major Rishit had started seeing the fireworks in the sky about a month ago. Just a few at first, now there were some daily, their intensity growing and the size of the explosions. None had hit yet, though a few had gotten close. Now, there were explosions several times a day. The Major wondered what effect the bombardment had on the aliens, if any. The pyrotechnics were splendid, though, the rocks streaking through the sky from random directions before exploding high above the Aksai Chin region and the mountains along the northwest border of India. In the first few days, one of the rocks had gotten close, real close, and the explosion had been dramatic, to say the least. Unfortunately, the Om had gotten better at defending, and now, most of the explosions were higher up in the atmosphere.

"There are reports of alien movements near Gorga hot springs and Mt. Chang Chenmo Kangri," Master Sergeant Chadha said. The hot springs were located near the border of the disputed area at 4,700 meters (15,750 feet). The master sergeant knew they would soon be fighting there.

"Yes," Major Rishit replied, "get the men ready; it's time." He was glad they were going to the hot springs and not Mount Chang Chenmo Kangri. It was much higher, 6,536 meters, and rugged, the snow-covered peaks steep and dangerous. It was well inside Indian territory, and the fighting around it had been vicious. Combat was brutal for humans at those altitudes and temperatures, even for a man in armor. He was proud of the men he served with and grateful for the armor and the BFWs. Without Rhys and Miranda, they would have been overrun in a week. Now, they were holding their own while building up their numbers. India had three thousand men in the new armor fighting along the northern border and another three thousand in the training pipeline. They would play a role in the planned offensive against the Om stronghold, or 'Nest,' as his superiors referred to it.

The two Air Assault craft flew the hundred men under his command to an area ten kilometers outside Gogra. Gorga was not a town; it was really nothing more than a campsite for nomads located in the Kugrang River valley. In times past, it had been a halting spot for travelers to Central Asia and on into the Aksai Chin Plateau. Fighting began there in the late 1950s when China started claiming the Changlun River valley as its territory. Now, it was firmly claimed by the Om. The Chinese troops had withdrawn or been taken by the Om to be turned into Trangrods. Rishit shuddered to think of that happening to him. Like the men under his command, he had resolved not to be captured alive. Each soldier wore a self-destruct charge over their heart. Inert, the charge could only be triggered by a command from the individual soldier or the Major and Sergeant. All agreed a quick death was preferable to what awaited captured soldiers.

A ten-kilometer approach at an altitude of 3,488 meters would have been challenging if not for the powered armor. It tended to give soldiers a god-like feeling that they could do anything, and Rishit and his sergeant did everything they could to discourage that attitude. Still, the brain interface that allowed direct links to their weapons computer and armor CPU sometimes gave the men a false sense of invulnerability.

The soldiers were organized into five platoons of twenty, each with two squads of ten. Each squad was equipped with three heavy weapons instead of the usual two, and each platoon had two heavy drones armed with autocannon, chain guns, and short-range missiles. Small airborne surveillance drones covered the area ahead and both flanks. They were here to plug tunnels the Om used to raid the nearest towns, though most of the civilians had already been evacuated. Thousands of refugees were fleeing south to stay ahead of the Om depravations. This assignment was almost routine now, or at least as routine as anything could be against aliens. The Major was confident there was enough firepower to handle whatever the Om might throw at them. His job was to destroy any remaining Trangrods and then plug the two tunnels that had been identified and any others he could locate. Two platoons of twenty men each moved toward each tunnel entrance while one remained in reserve. "First and Second Platoon have found an entrance and are proceeding inside," the sergeant Major reported.

Major Rishit switched to view the aerial drone feed. "That tunnel looks different, too big and open with no defenses," he replied. "Lieutenant Garg, I am looking at your position; we haven't seen anything like that; it's different from the others. Proceed with caution, and do not enter the tunnel."

"Yes, Sir, but I am not reading any signs of Om; if we set charges at the entrance, it will be easy for them to reopen. With your permission, we will advance only one hundred meters, and then we can send drones further inside with the demolition charges."

Lieutenant Garg was the best platoon leader he had and also one of the most aggressive. He was prone to taking unnecessary risks, but his tactical skills and intuition had paid off before.

"Very well, one hundred meters, and keep your drones deployed well in front. Third and fourth platoons, stop where you are, do not enter the tunnel, and fall back into defensive formation."

"I don't like this, Sergeant Chandra; call in air support and get them as close as you can." The Major watched as LT Garg led his men into the mouth of the tunnel. This one was larger in diameter, perhaps 25 meters, not as rough and crude as the others they had seen, and big enough to serve as an invasion route into the area. The men stopped at 100 meters in, sending the drones deeper into the tunnel. The major watched the video feed as drones ran further into the passage. "This was not simply dug out of rock," he told LT Garg, "it looks too smooth, almost organic, similar to what we saw in the sims. Set the charges now and pull out now!"

The drones reached an intersection at half a kilometer, and the LT stopped them there to set the charges, but the video feed abruptly stopped. "What happened, Lieutenant? Report," the Major said urgently.

"I don't know, sir. I'm sending another to find out.

Major Rishit had not seen anything like this from the Om in his limited experience. Their actions tended to be predictable, static, without much tactical initiative, and losing drones with no warning suggested a surprise waited in the tunnel. He switched to a broader view of the surrounding region but saw no sign of Om activity, and all the sensors remained quiet. Set charges where you are LT Garg and withdraw immediately. Fifth platoon, move forward to provide support. Something is wrong," he said to the Master Sergeant. "Check with air support, see if they can slip a drone in here in case we need the firepower."

Corporal Kadam was in fire team two, second section, 1^st platoon. He was a veteran of three encounters with the Om and one with the Chinese here along the border. The battles with the Om had been short and violent, resulting in only a few casualties. His first impression of the Trangrods was something terribly alien, a nightmare kind of creature that screamed 'alien,' much like the movie. He had frozen when he saw them for the first time in combat and would have died if not for the other members of his fire team. At that instant, he had felt a crushing terror, unable to move or to control his breathing. That was one of the first rules of dealing with fear: control your breathing, and everything else follows. Something was wrong here in this tunnel; he could feel it, and the creeping paralysis of fear made it hard to focus. Right now, Corporal Kadam wanted more than anything to run, run out of the tunnel, but discipline and fear of dishonoring himself gave him just enough control. Then the walls started moving, and he heard a metallic clatter above him, a whine-and-clack as hundreds of feet began moving. All the fear he'd felt until now faded by comparison as the screams began.

***

"How many men did they lose," he asked Kiania, trying not to be distracted by her naked body as it flowed through her yoga/martial arts training regime. Kiania had always trained this way, a habit she picked up as a young prostitute. Her uncle and pimp had insisted on it. "It keeps your body tuned; your customers like you this way." He had told her. The uncle used to charge men to watch her train, then let them fuck her afterward. He was long dead, thankfully, or Rhys would have killed him. When Kiania got older, she used his own knife to exact revenge. Her only regret was that he had died too quickly. Kiania had learned though, and he wasn't the last one to feel the knife slicing through their guts and other parts of their bodies. Then Rhys found her and gave her a symbiont, changing her life completely. She still trained this way, but now with a greater purpose, and she didn't really need the exercise to keep in shape.

"Almost all of them, thirteen survived, none of the officers," she said, not even breathing hard.

"The Om are changing tactics again; they are slow to do so but effective when they do," Rhys acknowledged.

"It's the new Trangrod form that's concerning," Kiania said as she did slow cartwheels across the room, moving in a way impossible for a normal human. From what we know, it's a significant improvement over anything we have seen before. Mid-sized between the standard Trangrod and the much larger centipedes. Faster, deadlier, and better armed. At least twenty pairs of main legs, multi-jointed, some for walking, others for integrated weapons. The front legs mounted some kind of blades, and the ones right behind wielded massive multi-barreled chain guns, the feeds for which wound cleverly into the big armored thorax. The big, many-eyed head in front had eyes that could cover at least 180⁰ and could swivel almost 360⁰. In addition to the chain guns, each one mounted a beam weapon, and some were equipped with some kind of autocannon. And even worse, they were armed like a platoon's mix of riflemen and heavies, almost as if taking a playbook from military men they had absorbed. "These Trangrods were certainly designed to fight in tunnels and caught the Indian troops entirely by surprise. They panicked initially, not that I blame them."

Rhys sighed and took a drink of bourbon, enjoying the slight burn. "Easy, Bob, let me enjoy it for a few minutes," he said. His symbiont tended to remove the alcohol from his system immediately. "I know, we are rushing them through training, hoping they learn in the field and survive long enough to become effective. I knew this would happen; they aren't the first, but we have no choice. We have a deadline now, and we need to end this so we can focus on the next attack." Rhys leaned back in his chair, thinking about everything he needed to do, but kept getting distracted by the movements of the firm and taut body that moved so gracefully in front of him. Kiania had been beautiful before he met her, quite accomplished as a stripper and a whore. Now, she was even more attractive to Rhys, all her minor imperfections smoothed away, perfectly smooth skin, large, but not too large, breasts slightly upturned with nipples that begged to be kissed or bitten. From whore to the leader of the Earth's military forces, all because of the symbiont she now carried. All the girls were exceptional in their own way, developing abilities they needed to fit the role Rhys assigned them.

"The Major led the counterattack, attempting to get to the two platoons trapped in the tunnel. When the attack failed, he euthanized any of the survivors so the Om didn't get them," Kiania said grimly. Then, he led the rear guard action so that some of the men survived."

Yes, Rhys thought, the men had gone down fighting. Not much choice when fighting the Om. He had sent the Binary out to finish the job, and he didn't like what they had found. The tunnel was exactly like what they had encountered in Russia. It may have been hewn through rock, but the surface was organic and much larger in diameter than anything they had experienced before. That suggested a Queen's nest even greater in size than they estimated. Kiania and her generals were recalculating the forces and weapons needed in light of the new information.

"We need more warriors, Rhys," Kiania said while standing on her head doing pushups.

"Show off," Rhys laughed as Kiania used her arms to jump up into the air and land on her feet.

I'm serious; a lot more men and women are going to die if we don't have more symbiont-equipped warriors. There is time before we attack Rhys; you need to reconsider."

"No. We have had this discussion before. I can't risk it at this stage. After we have purged the Earth of the Om, but not now," Rhys replied firmly.

Kiania stopped her routine and came and stood in front of him. "You have solved the Sandy problem," she said intently; there is no real reason to think creating more symbiont warriors will have those results. Jessica is very stable, and with Yaneta gone, we have only the Binary, Jessica, and myself, who will fight in the tunnels. That is not enough, Rhys, especially if we face that Om monster we fought in Russia. It may have died in one of the other nests we struck, but there is still at least one under the ground in Akisai Chin, and we have to kill that mother fucker. The other one nearly ended us, and we didn't kill it. This time, we have to destroy it."

"Sandy is not the only problem," Rhys replied.

"Nelya?"

"Yes," he said, nodding; "she has the potential to become a problem. Since we lost Yaneta, Nelya has changed. I thought Clara would solve the problem, but it is a temporary fix at best. She... well, she and the symbiont want someone to dominate as she did Yaneta, and taking the President of the European Union as a lover has helped, but it does not solve the issue. I am concerned about her stability, and that is dangerous considering she will be in charge of one-third of the Earth."

Kiania returned to her martial arts routine, one she had developed with the help of her symbiont. It changed as she acquired new skills, and now the disrupter she wore on her right arm. The disrupter gave them so much more firepower, making them almost superhuman in their combat abilities. It was unfortunate that Thea had not been able to design one that ordinary humans could use. "So give her what she wants," Kiania said; give her the traitor's daughter and train her like you did Yaneta."

"Yaneta was evil," Rhys said, "this girl is innocent. Nelya will treat her like she did Yaneta unless I am closely involved, and I don't have the time right now. We saved Nelya from an awful fate, but I still don't understand how the symbiont and the host develop over time. Sandy has it under control right now, but I am concerned for the long term."

"And Sandy?" Kiania asked, stopping her routine and taking a drink of water.

"She and Anita are doing well," Rhys said with a smile. Sandy was a success story in some regards. However, her position had changed; she could no longer oversee all the girls. "These bonds are unbreakable, and giving her Anita has replaced something that was missing. It was probably a mistake to take Amancia from her when the symbionts were forming, but it was not intentional. Bob may have made that decision."

Their conversation was interrupted when Amancia and Leslie entered their quarters' living room deep underground in the Drans base in west Texas. Sandy had designed this part of the house and made it feel as if they were on South Beach, where Rhys had been living. One nice feature of their quarters was that the room would expand as needed, so when Kiania was training, there was extra space. The two women went first to Rhys kissing him, then to Kiania. "You are so hot," Amancia said, breaking the kiss. If I had known we were doing the briefing naked, I would have left my clothes behind," she said with a small laugh while eyeing Kenai's charms.

Kiania smiled back at Amancia, feeling the sexual tension between them. Amancia was the ultimate willing submissive, never wanting to be in charge and ever ready to do anything Rhys (or one of the girls) wanted. She reached for her clothes but stopped at a command that sent a sexual thrill soaring through her. "What's the status of the cicadas? How many do we have on the ground now," Rhys asked Leslie without taking his eyes off Kiania.

"Thea estimates several hundred thousand, and we are slipping more over the Indian border. The fighting there gives us an excuse to probe their defenses with drones. They destroy them, of course, but each drone carries thousands of cicadas each, and we think another 300,000 or so from these. We should have several million in another month, and they are reproducing," Leslie said. "The population should start doubling every week or so, depending on what minerals are readily available," she added. Leslie found it hard to concentrate; there was too much lust in the air. She could feel the vibrations coming off Rhys, like a sexual predator about to strike, but one they knew would never hurt them.

Rhys smiled, looking at the other two girls, aware of what he was doing to them. He promised himself he would enjoy much more of them shortly; he needed the relaxation. Rhys had just returned from Miranda and was back at 'home' organizing the various national groups needed for the assault on the Om nest. The politics and petty infighting never ceased to amaze him; thank god for Sandy and her three professional politicians, no offense intended, he thought with a smile. Without Mika, Nelya, and Anita, he would have probably resorted to executing the more recalcitrant leaders he had to deal with. Fortunately, they dealt with most of them. However, some still insisted on meeting with him to try and pad their own nests in some way. He hated those the most and often took Sandy to those meetings. Sometimes, he let them talk, but others never got a word out before Sandy's hair was rooting around in their brains. Rhys knew he was losing his patience and resorting to tyrannical measures he would never have considered even six months ago. Now, however, he felt the pressure of time every day and would no longer tolerate any actions not directed toward defeating the Om.

"How is production going with our rocks," he asked Thea while shifting his gaze to Leslie, causing her to blush at her sudden arousal.

Excellent. We are up to six per day and can increase that to twelve in a week. I will start producing some with a Drans metal core to try in three weeks; those should give us a good idea of their defenses."

This had been Rhys' idea, a rock with missiles inside that would fire just before the rock was intercepted. This was something similar to what they had tried initially on the other nests with some success, but the acceleration on these would be much greater and should test the Om responses. In addition, hidden within the rock was a small Drans metal core about the size of a marble that he hoped would survive the Om missile strike. If they were lucky, it would fall to the ground unnoticed amid the debris. The marble-sized object was a tiny spider drone equipped with sensors that would identify the missile launch sites if they were not discovered. "Your engineering team is working wonders; please thank them for me." Miranda was growing so fast that Rhys had trouble keeping up. Besides the weapons to throw at the Om, they had built drones that built manufacturing facilities on Miranda and in orbit. They had also constructed enough in-system craft to continuously shuttle between Earth and Miranda and explore the rest of the solar system. Construction was also underway in the asteroid belt, where plenty of mineral-rich asteroids could be exploited.