The Autumn War Vol. 04: Succession

Evan glanced over at Foster, expecting some kind of negative reaction, but the Marine seemed to be holding his tongue. Maybe his change of heart was more genuine than it had first appeared. There was also the distinct possibility that being hit on by a giant insect that had just climbed out of a meat suit full of tentacles had simply overwhelmed his capacity to be offended, like a form of exposure therapy.

"So, what ship are you guys assigned to?" Sunny asked as she continued to drink, pulling off the usual Jarilan ventriloquist act.

"We're what they call a Ghost Company," Garcia replied as he tended to his miniature stove. He was cooking a little pot of what looked like beef stew over the flames created by the gel packet. "We were reassigned after our original companies were broken up. The Bugs hit us pretty hard during the first landing. Most of us are from the Dragoon. These two are from the Spratley," he added with a nod to Evan and Hernandez. "And, our madcats are from the Guam."

"It's starting to sound like I've been assigned to an interesting squad," she mused as she took another sip from her tube, Evan watching the bulge travel up her proboscis. "This is the first time they've actually let me deploy, so I'm looking to make up for lost time."

"I don't think you'll have any issues rackin' up kills in that thing," Hernandez said with a nod to the idle suit. "Is it, like...switched off now?"

"No, sixteen is still awake," Sunny replied as she glanced at the suit over her shoulder. "She'll respond to my commands to the best of her limited abilities."

She gave a silent signal, and the suit rose from its crouched position, taking a step towards them. Everyone save for the Jarilans recoiled in alarm, Borzka baring his teeth in a snarl. The suit quickly settled again, Sunny chuckling at their reaction, holding a hand to her mouth in a gesture that she must have picked up from her human counterparts.

"She's a darling as long as there are no hostiles around," Sunny explained. "Our Warriors have a rudimentary intelligence - just enough to respond to basic commands and to know not to step on Workers on their way to the maintenance bays. It's something equivalent to a lower life form, like an insect or a fish. You want a closer look?" she asked, giving Hernandez a sly smile. "C'mon, she won't bite. I promise."

He looked to Tatzi as if to ask for permission, Evan stifling a laugh as the Borealan narrowed her eyes suspiciously, giving him a slow nod. He and Sunny rose to their feet, and he followed her over to the suit, the pair stopping before its open chest cavity.

"Never thought I'd touch a live one," he muttered, reaching out to brush his fingers against its carapace tentatively.

"Go on," Sunny prompted, planting her lower pair of arms on her wide hips. "You gotta get in there elbow-deep for the real Warrior experience. Don't be scared to get your hands dirty..."

Hernandez turned back to glance at his friends, but he couldn't back out now.

"Elbow-deep, Hernandez!" Collins called to him.

He shook his head in exasperation, rolling up his right sleeve, then reached into the suit. Evan could hear the wet squelching sound as he pushed his hand into the mass of tentacles, grimacing as the slime coated his forearm.

"Ew, it's warm!" he remarked. "Feels like a bunch of tongues or somethin'."

"I'd call it cozy," Sunny added.

"I feel like I'm birthin' a calf. Whoa, somethin' grabbed me!"

"Aw, she likes you!" Sunny chuckled as he struggled to withdraw his arm. "Just kidding, this thing has the mental capacity of a beetle," she said as she rapped on its shell with her fist. "That's just a reflex. The whole process is automated, actually. She would pull you inside and secure your limbs if I gave her the signal. I like my men flustered, covered in slime, and safely tied down," she added as she glanced back at the scowling Borealan. "But, I can see that I'm stepping on someone's tail."

She snapped her fingers, which Evan doubted was actually a signal that the suit would respond to, and the grasping tentacles released their captive. Hernandez tried to wipe the layer of gelatinous goo off on the leg of his pressure suit, the substance matting the hair on his forearm.

"Don't worry, it's not toxic," Sunny said. "It's a water-based lubricant."

"You are one uninhibited Jarrie, ain't ya?" Hernandez grumbled.

"They don't let us out much," she chuckled, giving him an encouraging pat on the back as he returned to his seat. When Hernandez had made it back over to the IFV, he reached out to Collins with his slime-covered arm, the Marine scrambling past Foster in an attempt to avoid him.

"Hey, watch the burrito!" Foster complained as he leaned out of their way.

Evan watched Hernandez chase Collins around the vehicle, laughing to himself as he lifted his own meal off the ground. He slid it out of its sleeve, peeling open the packet, a wisp of steam rising into the air.

"What's on the menu today?" Jade asked, shuffling over to sit beside him.

"A maple pork sausage patty," he replied, taking in a lungful of its scent. "The side is hash browns and bacon, and I have a maple muffin for dessert. I guess the Canadians had their way with menu number eight."

"Ever since you blended that food for me back on the carrier, the honey hasn't been doing it for me," Jade said as she watched him take a bite out of his patty. He held it in his mouth for a moment - it was still a little too hot to chew - blowing cool air over it as he juggled it with his tongue. "I know it has all the nutrition that we need, but maybe I can petition the hive to make some different flavors, at least. A little variety would go a long way."

"You want my grape juice?" Evan asked, waving the little packet of powder at her.

"Sure," she replied, her antennae bobbing happily. He filled a collapsible cup from his canteen, then mixed in the powder, stirring it with a plastic spoon before passing it to her.

"Haven't seen humans and Jarries getting on this well since I left the colony," Sunny said, sitting down to Jade's right. She took another drink from her tube of honey, watching the pair curiously. "I don't mean to pry, but it's pretty much written all over you," she continued with a nod to Evan. "The pheromones, I mean."

"Yeah, I'm getting used to that," he replied.

"I've been furloughed in orbit since the carriers jumped in, and I was starting to think the Coalition didn't want us here," Sunny continued. "It's...nice to see that's not the case."

"It took them a while, but I think they've warmed up to us," Jade said as she took a sip from her grape juice.

"Smells like it," Sunny chuckled. "Seriously, though, I didn't think I was going to drop down here and hang out with humans. I thought I'd be staying in my suit until I was shipped back to the carrier."

"Here," Jade said, passing her the cup. "Try this."

"What is it?" Sunny asked, waving her antennae over it suspiciously in the same way a human might give it a tentative sniff.

"Rehydrated fruit juice," she replied. "Trust me, it's good."

Sunny probed the beverage with her proboscis, then her eyes lit up, and she took a longer draw.

"Delicious!" she exclaimed, passing the cup back to Jade. "I haven't eaten anything but honey since leaving the colony."

"Sounds like someone needs to open a Jarilan-themed bar there," Evan added, taking another bite out of his sausage patty. "They'd make a killing."

"Speaking of which," Jade began, setting down her cup. "In just a few hours, we'll be moving on the Ant Hill. I don't know if everyone really appreciates how heavily defended the Queen will be. It's going to be a...hard-won battle."

"You guys come from a hive," Evan said, glancing over at the pair as he started on his next course. "What's it like on Jarilo?"

"The Queen lives in the deepest chamber," Jade replied. "She's kept far underground in a secure area, separated by security doors and guarded by a contingent of males who spend all of their lives by her side."

"That's how it works for nuptial fleets, at least," Sunny added. "For a hive that's been digging in for this long, who knows what kind of defenses they might have developed? I pity whoever lands the job of going in there and clearing the tunnels out."

"It'll be the Trog teams," Evan replied. "That's what they do - they're specially trained to clear Bug tunnels."

"We offered to help out, but I'm told that SWAR wasn't having it," Sunny continued as she took another sip from her tube of honey. "A lot of those tunnels are going to be large enough to accommodate Warriors because they're a useful tool in tunnel fighting, and we could do a lot of good below ground where the tanks won't fit."

"Yeah, I had a run-in with SWAR," Evan muttered. "They're not the most accommodating people, especially when it comes to Jarilans. They talked about my squadmates like they were military hardware."

"I thought you were going to punch that guy right in his stupid visor decal," Jade chuckled.

"Well, I'm glad there are people like you here," Sunny said with a smile bright enough to match her namesake. "It's almost like being back home again."

"I think they might reconsider when they actually reach the Ant Hill and realize what they're dealing with," Jade added. "Being able to carry heavy weapons and block tunnels with those shields would be invaluable. They'll need every advantage they can get."

"It's not our job," Evan said with a shrug. He broke off a piece of his maple muffin, popping it into his mouth. "Our job is going to be to support the advance on the hill and secure the area after the fact."

"You say that like it's going to be easy," Jade chuckled, giving him a nudge with her lower arm. "The Bug forces are going to be concentrated at that hill, and it's going to be their last stand. They're fighting to the death - literally. If we kill the Queen, the hive is effectively sterilized."

"They say that a knife-tooth is most dangerous when it's cornered," Sunny added with a knowing nod of her horned head.

"Knife-tooth?" Evan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A little critter we have to deal with back home," Jade explained. "They're fond of eating our chickens."

"So," Sunny said, her tone growing more conspiratorial as she leaned in. "How did you two get together? If there's a knack to it, I want you to clue me in. I'm in the market for some endo action, and the fish haven't been biting, if you get my drift."

"What does endo mean?" Evan asked as Jade unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh.

"Endo," Sunny repeated, reaching over Jade's head to give his upper arm a pinch through his pressure suit. "Boys with bones on the inside. As in, by the end of tonight, you're gonna endo-up in my quarters. That doesn't really work," she sighed, settling back into her seat on the ground. "I'm a Pilot, not a Punlet."

"I'm gonna put you back in your pod and write return to sender on the hull," Jade chuckled, giving Sunny a playful shove. "There's no knack to it," she added, becoming more serious. "You just have to give them the time they need to come around." She reached out to take Evan's hand in hers, giving it a squeeze, the impromptu display of affection making his cheeks flush. "Some of them don't, but the right one will."

"No fair, you got a head start," Sunny said with a smirk. "I was running combat sims for the better part of a year, then it took us six months to get here. Now, they drop me in when the fight is almost over."

"I'm sure there will be plenty of time for socializing when we're done," Jade added, giving her an encouraging pat on the thigh. The Pilot was so much taller than she was that it was the only thing she could feasibly reach. "There will be lots of endo boys sitting around waiting for orders with nothing better to do than talk to you."

"Sounds like a good time," she replied with a wink. "Now, all I have to do is survive."

***

"There it is," Hernandez whistled, dialing in the magnification on his visor.

Evan did the same, peering into the distance. The ash clouds had been almost completely swept away by the violent winds now, and while a dark canopy still hung over the blasted landscape like a nuclear winter, the obscuring haze that had limited their visibility was now all but gone. They could see for kilometers, the flat landscape broken up here and there by low mountains and landforms that had once been concealed beneath lush forests, now reduced to carpets of blackened stumps. There had clearly been a lot of volcanism in this area at one point in the distant past. Ancient lava flows that were newly uncovered dominated the region, and in the distance, the Ant Hill rose into the sky.

It looked to Evan like a mountain that had been cut in half, its steep faces rising to terminate in a flat, table-like top with no peak. It was large enough to be wreathed in snow, but it looked like most of it had been melted by the heat of the bombardment, only a few clusters of white starting to reappear where fluffy clouds were forming at its edges. The high winds must be blowing warm air up the mountain's face, where the altitude was cooling it, creating condensation.

"How tall do you reckon that is?" Brooks asked, walking out from behind the idling IFV to get a better view. They were perched on a hill, the rest of the company assembling behind them, preparing for the assault.

"Data says fifteen hundred meters," Simmons replied, joining the squad as they gawked at it.

"We don't gotta climb up there, do we?" Hernandez sighed.

"There will be entrances near the base of the structure," Sunny said, her voice coming through over the local channel. She was in her suit again, looming over the team as she stood behind them, the many lenses of her helmet glinting in the dim light. "Those slopes will probably be covered in defensive structures."

"That's what the UNNI surveys show," Simmons confirmed. "That mountain has a shell of volcanic basalt and granite that the orbital guns can't punch through without breaching the moon's crust and making the Siberian Traps look like a joke. It's a better holdout than the critters even realize."

Evan turned his magnification to its maximum setting, peering at the far-off slopes, atmospheric haze tinting them blue as the system struggled to clear up the picture.

He could see sprawling structures, what looked like defensive fortifications built into - or perhaps carved from - the very rock. They took the form of cylindrical towers with domed roofs, similar to the ones they had faced off against during their trench assault, the long barrels of plasma cannons jutting from their walls. There were more traditional bunkers, too, little domed pillboxes that were scattered across the exposed mountainside like soap bubbles wherever there was space for them. Another common structure projected vertically from the sheer rock face like the turret of a medieval castle. They sported windows like horizontal arrow slits, designed to let the occupants fire out at anyone who might approach the mountain. These were more common at higher altitudes, where there were fewer slopes and outcrops to make use of.

The placement of the fortifications seemed devoid of any logic or strategy, and there was little consistency in their sizes, as if each one had been designed and placed without much consideration for the grander whole. Still, their sheer number was intimidating, leaving the mountainside bristling with guns and bunkers.

There were the resin and soil structures that he was already familiar with, suggesting that the Bugs must have carted thousands of tons of earth up the mountain, but many of the fortifications were made from stone. It hadn't been hewn into blocks or even chiseled away in a recognizable sense. Instead, the surfaces were oddly smooth, as though they had been melted by some kind of acid or plasma until they had taken the appropriate shape. It gave them the look of poured concrete that had been polished to a sheen. As was usual for the Bugs, there was no decoration, no adornment. Everything was strictly functional with no care devoted to aesthetics. It reminded him of brutalist architecture in a way.

There were few walkways visible on the exterior of the mountain, suggesting that these nodes were all connected via tunnels that had been bored into the basalt. That, or the Bugs were about as agile as mountain goats. He could spot a few battlements joining the larger structures together, however. Rather than the gothic crenelations that one might expect, these walls were covered over, and they had windows like the trenches to let those inside fire out.

As his eyes wandered down towards the base of the mountain, where the greater abundance of soil resulted in more traditional resin structures taking the forefront, he saw that the surrounding land had been completely reshaped by its tenants. The mostly flat terrain transitioned onto kilometers of trenches, with more bunkers and gun towers spreading out across the plains, massive earthworks supplementing the defenses with ramparts and ditches like something from a bronze age hillfort. There must be tens, hundreds of thousands of Bugs down there. Evan could pick out Scuttlers between some of the nearer trenches, the living tanks having dug themselves into the ground, leaving only their turrets exposed to turn them into organic emplacements. There were AA and radio varieties, too, as well as Pangolins that were transporting their charges from one place to another.

"We have to fight through that?" Collins asked, spreading his arms in exasperation.

"Not before getting our briefing," Simmons said, checking his display. "Come on, back to camp."

They turned to make their way back down the barren hill, where a circle of vehicles was waiting. The battalion was holding position just outside the range of the Bug defensive guns, the mechanized companies making camp as they waited for the attack order to come through. The Bugs certainly knew they were there, but they had pulled back to defend the mountain after the Coalition forces had crushed all of their defenses between the landing zones and the Ant Hill. They were cornered, surrounded on all sides, and they knew it. The best strategy for them now was to wait for the Coalition to come to them, where they were dug-in and had the home-field advantage.

The company commander was setting up a portable projector near the middle of the wagon fort while the Marines and vehicle crews assembled in front of it. There were a hundred and fifty people and change, a few Jarilan and Borealan auxiliaries standing out in the crowd. Evan's squad joined them, Sunny moving to the back of the group in her plodding suit, where a handful of other Warriors were standing. The commander grumbled something to himself, giving the blocky housing of the cooler-sized projector a tap with his boot, then an image flickered to life above it.

"Everyone here?" he asked. "Good, let's get started."

He gestured to the hologram that was hovering beside him, which was displaying a semi-transparent image of the Ant Hill and its surrounding terrain, portrayed as a heightmap. The Bug defenses were shown as a red circle around the mountain, and the Coalition companies were highlighted in blue. They were scattered around the extremities of the image, forming a cordon, so numerous that it was hard to estimate their number at a glance.

"The surrounding territory has been secured, and we're on the Queen's doorstep now," the commander continued as he gestured to the map. "It's been a hard fight to get here, but every defensive structure and fortification that we cleared out on our way is now occupied by Marines, and there's no way that the critters can break out. Just because they're cornered doesn't mean they're gonna give up without a fight," he added, glancing out at his subordinates. "The Coalition has committed the largest ground force that we've ever deployed in one place to the assault. We have nearly two hundred thousand troops and auxiliaries, three thousand armored vehicles, and a thousand aircraft on standby for support. If you want to deliver any packages to the Bugs, you're gonna be getting priority shipping."