~
Five kilometers down. Two more to go. Elderly trees surrounded him. The rain had ceased, but gloomy skies still lingered. The forest was empty, but Tuck could not find any music to appease his worried mind. Recent research had found that listening to music enhances performance especially concentration if it is something the listener prefers. He switched from generic rock songs he had never heard of to some softer pop music. Nothing sufficed. He was annoyed with everything.
“Calvin, find me something soothing. Something you know I’ll like.”
The computer searched his music scores and preferences eventually finding something Tuck never would have chosen.
“What’s this?”
“Finlandia by Sibelius. It is an old piece from the 19th cen…”
“This song gives me the creeps. Find something better.”
Calvin tried again; this time more successful. Something less ancient sounding and with an odd beat. “Dubstep,” Calvin informed him. He turned the volume down, but allowed the music to sink in.
“Shall I play delta waves in the background to help you focus?”
“Don’t delta waves assist with sleep?”
“Affirmative.”
“How would that help me concentrate? I need to stay awake.”
“I have noticed that ever since your reassignment your heart rate has increased. So has your perspiration. Your blood pressure has gone up as well. Cortisol levels are still rising. At this point I believe that delta waves would prove insufficient at inducing sleep. However, they may help ease your mind.”
With delta waves playing in the background of his helmet Tuck continued marching through the forest. The trees formed a thick canopy blocking out light from the sun which was larger and brighter from the Earth.
“Sir, I have surmised a logical reason why the battle took place.”
“Calvin, delete word surmise and all conjugations of said word.”
“Sir, may I ask why you want to remove this word from my dictionary?”
“It’s a stupid word.”
“Can you clarify?”
“Only turds who think they’re smarter than everyone else use of this word.”
“Acknowledged. Word surmise removed.”
“Proceed with your explanation.”
“Sir, I believe the battle may have been a distraction to draw out warrior class Amazons from their stations. If a platoon was dropped behind the line their chances of detection would be greatly reduced.”
“But they were detected. And you haven’t explained why they were dropped behind the lines.”
“Correct.”
“And?”
“I am afraid that this is the most likely conclusion based on available data.”
The forest gave way to a ledge. He peered over. Nothing but a steep drop into a ravine for quite a ways to the left and to the right. His mecha suit would probably not be able to withstand a fall from that height. There was no stream in the middle of the ravine however. He double checked his map to confirm his position.
“Calvin, are you mapping this?”
“Affirmative.”
“Make certain you are saving this data. The map should not show a stream here if there isn’t one. We’re in the right place all right. Have you discovered a way across?”
“That will not be necessary. According to Foxtrot Command’s brief the platoon is within the ravine.”
“We need to go down?”
Tuck considered the likelihood that the platoon was stuck down there because of the terrain, but could not figure out what sort of obstacle could be in their way. Pinned down. By what – bows and arrows? Calvin discovered a path he could descend west of there. It was not far from where they were and would allow him to jump down in steps
Once at the bottom he pulled up the map again. This time Calvin’s updates provided ancillary information showing where the platoon’s last correspondence had been traced to. It was four hours ago and it was half a kilometer back east through the ravine.
He heard shots. Quickly, he ran ahead.
The first thing he saw was an abandoned gun lying in the middle of the ravine. Leaving a weapon was highly atypical for any soldier. To the side of the ravine he noticed a small enclosure. The rock adjacent to the spot had marks on it. He zoomed in. Yes, in fact, they were abrasions from projectiles. Many of them. He approached the enclosure with caution.
The shadow hid most of it. As he neared he found that the opening went back deeper than he first thought. Inside the cavern he adjusted to night vision and saw a body lying before him. Not a human body, but the shell of a Tiger.
In standard assessor fashion he performed a bioscan to determine if any life remained inside. Negative. Then he uploaded data from the mecha’s computer.
“Failure,” Calvin said. “Memory corrupt.”
He moved further into the shadow. Two more bodies. One showed a weak sign of life. He ran to the man and opened the Tiger exposing his body to the native environment. The badge on his exoskeleton suit read ‘Dexter.’
“What happened?”
“They…they…” he coughed, “hit like lightning.”
This time the proximity of a bioscan revealed fatal wounds penetrating the suit’s armor into the man’s chest. He did not have long.
“Tell me everything you know. Quickly.”
By now Calvin had uploaded everything from Dexter’s drives. He overlayed Dexter’s visual recordings on the left panel of Tuck’s faceplate.
“We had him man. We had him…He tricked us. Got us stuck,” he coughed again. This time producing blood. “He got us stuck in this Hell hole.”
“What was your mission?”
“Didn’t think they’d send someone after us. Top secret stuff.”
“Tell me!” he shook him.
“Sir, if I may,” Calvin interjected, “it seems the data related to his mission has either been deleted or was never present in the first place. The video feed stops just as the party was deployed.”
“Quiet Calvin. Dexter, tell me what you were supposed to accomplish.”
“Locate and retrieve. A deserter. He’s not far. You can get him if you hurry. But watch out…” his words became faint. “He’s a tough…”
After examining the rest of the hosts he found that they were dead as well. None of them possessed any useful data. He replayed in his head the words Dexter said.
“A deserter? What do you make of this?”
“I am not able to calculate,” Calvin said.
“Maybe they were trying to capture him. Do you think that could be it?”
“As I said before I am not…”
“I get it. Computer, shut up.”
Tuck stepped out to the light. Then he took off through the ravine. The clouds overhead were still heavy with moisture. Streaks of lightning passed from one end of the sky to the other. ‘NINETY PERCENT MOISTURE,’ his faceplate read. Could rain at any time.
Unexpectedly, the ravine curled around. To the side the wall receded to level ground. Then further ahead it dropped off in a steep cliff. Something in the distance caught his eye. He zoomed in, but his mecha zoom was not sufficient. He raised his gun and looked through the scope.
There. It was him. The Tiger that had just killed the platoon. So there was a deserter. This guy’s suit was different though. Different than anything he had ever seen. But he had little time to evaluate. He steadied himself against the ground, aimed and fired.
A shot resounded through the forest. He raised his scope again. A hit! The man was down, but it was not fatal. Unfortunately, he was able to hobble out of view.
“Calvin, map the easiest route. The hunt has begun.”
/> Calvin did as instructed. By the time Tuck reached his destination the target was gone. He left no tracks.
“This guy is good. But he’s wounded. He’ll need treatment soon.”
He examined the site further for something the computer would have missed. On his faceplate he noticed the moisture had reached 100%. He looked up. It was raining. He pressed on.
After a good thirty minutes of walking he encountered another stream. This one, however, wound back through rocky terrain. But just as he was about to attempt crossing it he saw something in the ground. Yes! It was a footprint. The deserter was going the same direction.
He looked up. On the other side a shadow moved slowly through the trees. His heart pounded. He had to act quickly. With weapon raised he took aim again.
Bang!
A miss.
The shadow disappeared behind the distant trees.
“Calvin, heat vision up now!”
An image of brightly colored hues displayed on his faceplate.
“Overlay heat display. Main display optical!”
Now he could see the colors superimposed, but faded a little while the visible spectrum guided his steps. The rain hampered his sight, but the heat vision would confirm the presence of any threatening object.
He scanned the scene before him.
“That’s odd. Calvin, where’d he go? I should be able to see him, right?”
“As he is wounded his mobility is limited. Failure to locate him is impossible. The only reason you would not be able to see him is if he has maneuvered behind you as you have not yet…”
Two shots violently interrupted his words. Tuck ducked behind a large tree for cover.
“Where the Hell did that come from Calvin?”
“Sir, as I was saying, he has likely maneuvered behind you.”
“I thought you said that was not possible since he was wounded.”
“Perhaps his wound is not as severe as you thought. Or perhaps he has some sort of cloaking armor.”
Needing to think quickly Tuck tossed a hot-smoke grenade to hide his movement and smother any heat vision optics used by the deserter. He burst through the smoke with the assistance of booster jets on his calves. He could not fly, but the boosters did exactly what they were supposed to. A hundred-foot leap brought him to safety. The forest sloped down giving way to lower terrain. Using the boosters on their suppressed power setting he sprinted down the stream quietly.
Satisfied, his new position gave him an advantage over the deserter. He peeked up over the little hill. He was right there! Not more than fifty yards away.
“Sir, I am detecting the presence of another mecha suit in your proximity. Most likely a warrior grade Tiger of unknown-”
“Computer off.”
“Sir, do you want me to turn off completely?”
“Calvin, just shut up!”
He looked back up to see the mecha again. Through the sight on his rifle he got a closer look. He was sitting up against a tree. It looked as though he was examining the damage from the sniper shot. His left leg below the knee had suffered damage. As he worked with it he must have noticed Tuck because his careful motions soon became hurried.
The two starred at each other guns drawn for a split second. In the next moment Tuck retreated to the cover beneath the bank. Bullets whizzed overhead. One of them exploded into an enormous pile of orange goop sticking to his mecha suit. His gun was disabled. His movements were slowed. The stuff stuck to his faceplate like hot tar.
He ran further down the hill. At least his boosters had not been hindered. Eventually, he came to a closing with cliffs surrounding him. There was a small opening that looked like a stream once flowed there. He was running into a trap and he knew it, but he could not go back the way he came.
Having passed through the entrance the cliffs receded to distant walls leaving a mess of rocks jutting up from the ground.
Not wanting to waste any time he crouched quietly behind a boulder and unsheathed his blue electroblade. He examined it closely then turned it off and set it on the ground.
“Calvin, run AUTO. Set to WAIT. I’ll return shortly.”
“Sir, exiting the mecha has a low percentage of survival. I do not recommend…”
Tuck abandoned his mecha, but he was armed with his own rifle and explosives. He set all of his C4 on the electroblade plus most of his personal handheld explosives. Once finished he found a spot behind a rock far away, but within view. Now secure in his location all he had to do was wait.
The rain turned into a downpour. The rocky ground filled with flowing water. The weather was not as cold as he had expected. What was the temperature? He could not remember. He wished Calvin was there to tell him.
Finally, with a rising stream flowing before him, he saw what he waited for. The deserter approached, but did not see him cloistered away or his mecha suit hiding behind the boulder. Then as the deserter unknowingly passed by his empty mecha he attacked. At that moment Tuck activated the electroblade which ignited the explosives. The ensuing inferno ripped through the other incendiaries. Fire engulfed both mecha units, but as soon as it erupted a piece of fire flew through the air.
He must have tossed the electroblade just as I turned it on lessening the explosion. He could feel the heat even from his distant position.
Before he knew it he was down near the stream firing into the dissipating smoke. Without hesitation he moved towards his mecha hoping some of it would be recoverable or witness both units destroyed.
The smoke did not go away when he arrived. He found his mecha and saw the shadow of the deserter through the haze. His heart pounded. It looked disabled. He took a step forward hoping Calvin would still be operational. A light flickered on the deserter’s faceplate. His head turned, arms raised and approached him.
Frantically, Tuck tried to open his mecha, but the deserter grabbed him with his massive metal hand. He held him by the feet suspended in the air. Tuck gazed into the black tinted faceplate of his adversary who did not move. A red beam scanned him from bottom to top. After this neither moved for some time until finally the deserter pulled him closer to the faceplate. The deserter’s AOLC voice spoke, “You are not combat mecha. State your mission.”
Dangling less than a yard from the deserter’s Tiger Tuck realized his opportunity. He reached out, unlatched the control panel on the deserter’s neck and pulled the emergency eject lever. The Tiger shut down expelling the occupant into the sky and releasing Tuck to the ground.
Without hesitation Tuck sought his mecha. It responded. He commanded it to open. Once inside he quickly closed up the frame and shields sealing the suit.
“Calvin, run a diagnostics for all available systems. I want to know what I can still use.”
As Calvin inspected his systems Tuck cautiously walked over to the deserter’s unmoving body. A preliminary bioscan revealed that he was still alive, but injured.
Standing over him he reached out to pick him up, but as his long metal fingers articulated around the body he found that the deserter was not a man! He held her feeble body in one hand. If he squeezed too hard she would pop. But that might be a good thing.
The rain matted down her hair. He read her badge, ‘Avers.’ That felt familiar. Had he heard of her? A gash was still bleeding on one side of her head. Her exoskeleton, riddled with holes, was unlike any he had seen before. An array of colorful fiber optic wires protruded from her spine. Some had been ripped off tearing the suit. Her helmet was missing. Probably still inside the mecha. On each hip was a holstered pistol, but she attempted neither. She must have known that she was defeated.
Tuck brushed the hair from her face and looked her in the eyes, but it was she who spoke first.
“I know you, Ichythus. We’re not so dif
ferent.”