Alien Empress (Argonauts Book 3) Read online

  But then Rade noticed the large, nasty-looking turrets on either side of the base, and he realized no meteor had a chance in hell of arriving intact. Then again, even a pulverized meteor could cause damage. Perhaps the two corvettes he had seen in orbit would drag the bigger meteors and stray asteroids out of the way.

  “Yup, that’s a moon all right,” Lui said.

  “Looks like Bender’s zit-covered ass,” Manic said.

  “My ass ain’t white,” Bender said. “That’s your ass, bitch.”

  “My ass doesn’t have acne scars on it like yours,” Manic said.

  “Who says those are acne scars I’m talking about on your ass?” Bender retorted. “Those are stains from all the times Fret sprayed you after pulling out.”

  “Spec ops people don’t talk like that,” Fret mocked. It was an oft-used refrain on his part, based on something Fret had read on the comment section of the InterGalNet site Rade had set up for the business.

  “Like I give a shit what the general public thinks MOTHs are supposed to talk like,” Bender said. “Some InterGalNet troll thinks spec-ops is all about stone-faced men who say one or two words, grunt a few times and stare down everyone who tries to talk to them like some brainless moron. That shit pisses me off to no end. Almost as bad as those shitwads claiming to be ex-MOTHs we sometimes find hanging around the station dive bars. You know the kind: those lowliest of scumbags whose asses get kicked the moment I realize them for the posers they are. I tell you, this right here—” He slapped his gloved fist against the chest of his jumpsuit. “This is how the true spec-ops people talk, baby.”

  “He really likes the sound of his voice today,” Tahoe commented.

  “He’s just trying to impress Surus,” Shaw said.

  “Humph,” Bender said. “I’m muting y’all now. Good-bye.”

  The hangar bay doors at the metal base of the geodesic dome parted as the shuttle approached, and Shaw piloted the Dragonfly toward the opening.

  “You’re coming in too fast,” Surus said.

  “Backseat driver,” Manic commented.

  Artificial gravity returned as the shuttle entered the bay, and Rade felt the deck shudder as Shaw issued a rapid burst of countering thrust to slow both their forward motion and descent at the same time. The craft dropped down hard on the landing pad and Rade was jerked violently in his seat, along with everyone else.

  “Sorry about that,” Shaw said. “Surus was right: I came in a bit too fast.”

  “Bender’s comment about Fret spraying Manic’s ass must have excited her,” Lui said.

  “Yeah, that’s it,” Shaw said.

  “Cut her some slack, guys,” TJ said. “I’d like to see you all land a shuttle at speed. No one’s perfect.”

  “Except an Artificial,” Harlequin replied.

  “I’d rather have Shaw pilot any day over you,” Bender said. “You AIs with your damn bragging tongues. ‘We’re the best at everything! You humans suck at everything and can kiss our tin can asses.’ Why don’t you go kiss up to Surus some more. Tell her about your man problems.”

  Harlequin cocked an eyebrow behind his faceplate. “My man problems?”

  “Yeah, how you wish you were a real man like us MOTHs.”

  “Ex-MOTHs,” Lui clarified.

  “Once a MOTH, always a MOTH,” Bender said.

  “Just the other day you were the one clarifying that you weren’t a MOTH anymore,” Lui said.

  “Well I changed my mind,” Bender said.

  “Harlequin is like Pinocchio, he wants to be a real boy,” TJ said.

  “The hangar atmosphere has pressurized,” Shaw announced.

  “Okay, everyone out,” Rade said. He was glad for a chance to get moving. As were the others, no doubt. Their crude banter typically increased in the moments before a deployment actually began. That they were trading jibes so heavily told him the Argonauts were more antsy than usual about what awaited. And the lack of response to those jibes was telling. Neither Bender nor Manic had threatened violence in reply to some of the cruder comments, as they would have if they were on the ship. Because the words were not truly meant to insult, but to distract their minds from the terror that was slowly creeping in around the edges.

  Rade didn’t blame them. He felt that faceless terror too. If he pondered it for too long, or faced it head-on, it would engulf him. Better to let it linger at the periphery of his awareness, not truly acknowledged, but not forgotten either. Traveling across the galaxy to an alien homeworld under siege, hoping to offer what assistance they could to an alien race a full tech class ahead of humanity... Rade didn’t have high hopes for the mission.

  When we walk onto the Acceptor, we might never return.

  To be honest, he wasn’t even sure why Surus was letting them come. She had to think the Argonauts could make some sort of a difference, otherwise she wouldn’t have allowed Rade and his team to join her. But at the moment, he couldn’t quite fathom what aid his team could offer the Greens.

  Then again, if the Greens truly were stretched to their breaking point as Surus had suggested, then they could probably use all the help they could get.

  The ramp lowered, and the clamps securing them to the seats retracted. The group marched into the hangar, unsure of what sort of welcoming party they would find.

  Outside, there were different Dragonfly models scattered throughout the hangar, but otherwise there was no one there to greet them at all.

  Scratch that: a golden robot owl flew forward from where it had perched on a railing near the exit.

  “What the eff?” Bender said.

  “Hello, Little Noctua,” Surus said, extending her hand. The owl landed on the wrist area of her jumpsuit, its claws retracting so as not to perforate the gloves.

  “Welcome back, sweet master,” Noctua said in a high pitched, loving voice. “I missed you.”

  “And I missed you, little one,” Surus told it.

  “What the eff?” Bender repeated.

  “These are my friends, Noctua,” Surus said, gesturing to the party. “Shaw. Rade. Tahoe. Bender. Lui. TJ. Manic. Fret. Harlequin.”

  Noctua tilted its little head toward them. “Hello there.”

  “My friends, meet Noctua,” Surus said.

  “Noctua?” Shaw asked.

  “My assistant,” Surus said. “Within her is contained all the wisdom, perspicacity, knowledge, and erudition of a thousand races. She is the archive of archives. Humanity relies upon special analytical programs to sift through those immensely large sets you call ‘big data.’ I rely upon Noctua. Come, little one, take us to the homeworld Acceptor.”

  “Are we going home?” Noctua said excitedly.

  “No,” Surus said.

  “That makes me sad, master.” Noctua took flight and swooped underneath an open hatch on the far side of the hangar.

  “Is it just me, or is that thing creepy as hell,” Bender said.

  “The way it flies is kind of disturbing,” TJ said. “It falls a half a meter, then flaps its wings like a hummingbird to get back up again, then pretends to flap them slower like a normal bird while it falls again before repeating the process. Brings new meaning to the phrase uncanny valley.”

  “Except Noctua was never meant to depict a real bird,” Surus said.

  “Really?” Manic said. “Then why give it the form of an owl?”

  “I happen to like owls,” Surus replied.

  “You just contradicted yourself,” Manic said.

  Surus ignored him, continuing to lead the way, and Rade and the others followed. They took an escalator to a small terminal and then emerged inside the geodesic dome. The stars peered through the glass above; the points of light were blue shifted, as was common in glass coated with an anti-rad layer. The base probably also had a field generator that would simulate a small magnetosphere, deflecting most gamma and cosmic rays.

  The one and two story concrete buildings around them looked similar to what one would find inside other geodesic domes that contained traditionally architected cities. None of the buildings were externally labeled in any way, Rade noted. Likely there were augmented reality indicators for each of them that he didn’t have access to on his Implant.

  “You might as well take off your helmets while you can,” Surus said. “This is the last time you’ll be breathing fresh air in a while.”

  “It’s not recycled?” Fret asked.

  “No,” Surus said. “You did see the plants in the hydroponic dome on the way in, didn’t you?”

  Rade unlatched his helmet and removed it. The air felt crisp on his face. He inhaled. It was indeed fresh, and smelled slightly of pine needles.

  “Well I’ll be damned,” Bender said. “That air is good.”

  “Feels almost like we’ve landed on a terraformed world,” Tahoe said.

  “That’s the idea,” Surus said.

  Rade attached the helmet to his harness and let it hang, then he followed Surus forward. Ahead, Noctua was circling near a wide hatch that connected to the northernmost geodesic dome, waiting for them.

  Occasionally someone walked out of a building and headed toward another nearby. Dressed in blue fatigues, like the kind military personnel wore aboard starships, their faces all looked perfect. Artificials like Surus, no doubt.

  One passing woman, carrying a bunch of vials on a tray, looked the spitting image of Emilia Bounty. She had to be the same make and model.

  “Well hello,” Bender told the woman as she passed.

  The Artificial person ignored him and continued on her way.

  “That’s typical of all the approaches Bender makes,” Manic said. “He can never get them to stop.”

  “Yeah whatever,” Bender said. “I never see you stopping the ladies.”

  “I stop them all the time,” Manic said.

  “You’re so full of it,” Bender said.

  “Ask Fret,” Manic said. “He saw me pick up two chicks at Etalon station that time.”

  “Yeah you paid for them,” Bender said.

  “Actually, he didn’t,” Fret said. “He spouted some mad game, my friend.”

  “Ha!” Bender said. “Mad game. Like Manic knows the meaning of the word. The only ‘game’ he knows is the video game kind.”

  “I’ll show you,” Manic said. “I’ll pick up any chick in this facility. Just point her out.”

  “Okay, pick up the chick I just said hello to back there,” Bender said.

  “Um, real women only,” Manic said.

  “That will be kind of difficult,” Surus said. “Considering that all of my personnel are Artificials.”

  “Oh well, guess I can’t prove myself to you, Bender,” Manic said.

  “Yeah, figures,” Bender said. “Video game player.”

  The team neared the hatch where the golden owl lingered, and Noctua dove through. Rade and the others followed Surus underneath that hatch and into the next dome, where the buildings were much the same as the last.

  Ahead, the golden owl circled above a larger building than the others. It was more like a warehouse, and had a wide garage door to match.

  Noctua landed on a small perch near that garage door.

  “We’ve reached out destination,” Surus said when they arrived.

  “The mechs have been fueled,” Noctua said as the garage door opened. “And they’ve passed the bootup checklist. I hope you are pleased, sweet master.”

  “I’m sure I will be,” Surus said, walking inside.

  “Mechs?” Bender said. “Man, I hope these are the Titans we were promised.”

  Rade and the others entered.

  four

  Inside awaited ten Titans, one for each of them, including Surus herself. There would be no passengers on this mission. The humanoid-shaped mechs stood three and a half meters tall, a full meter taller than the Hoplite models. The torsos weren’t as bulky as previous Titans he had used in the past—Rade guessed because there wasn’t the need for as much radiation armor on these units. The silvery color of the skin reflected the different members of the squad, the camouflage feature currently inactive. He recognized the different armament choices right away: the right arm could alternate between a “zodiac” electrolaser and a grenade launcher, while the left could switch between an ordinary “cobra” laser and an incendiary thrower. Those swivel mounts could also rotate aside entirely, allowing the mech to manipulate objects when the hands were needed; this allowed the Titan to scale walls, etc., without the weapons getting in the way. It also meant the Titan couldn’t use those weapons during such activities.

  A missile launcher was attached to each shoulder, holding seven rockets per launcher: Hellfire H-8A minis. These rockets were the same size as the H-7B minis, but had corrected the fatal flaw found in the latter versions: proximity fuses aboard the rockets rendered the warheads inactive when the Hellfires were close to the launching mech. This prevented an enemy from detonating any of the rockets while the weapons were still racked in the launcher; in the past, it was possible to target those missiles, and a lucky shot could see the entire set of Hellfires detonate, causing major damage to the host mech. Rade had lost a man when that very thing had happened in the past, so he was glad to see the problem corrected, even if it was a little too late.

  “These are special Titans,” Surus said. “Their armor hardened to protect against the powerful laser weapons employed by the Hydra. My team has been working on modifying these units during our entire journey here, and only just finished the day before we arrived. Needless to say, this technology must never leave this moon. If these things ever got into the hands of the United Systems, your government could potentially become unstoppable in this region of the galaxy.”

  Rade had modified the simulation pods to emulate Titan models when Surus had first informed them about the mechs. He had used the updated weight specs she had provided for the armor, and he and his Argonauts had been practicing their war games ceaselessly since then. He had taken the men through several different scenarios, including a few underwater campaigns, at the suggestion of Surus. Apparently, the Hydra lived in atmospheres of liquid methane. During the simulations, the team had used different Titans for the land and underwater missions; in the latter, the mechs were equipped with fins and turbines. He didn’t see any of those underwater Titan variants here. Rade assumed the team would be given new mechs later at some point.

  Rade approached the mech assigned to him, as indicated by the green highlight Surus had outlined his Titan with. He donned his helmet, then clambered the leg rungs and swung inside the cockpit. The hatch sealed, the inner actuators enveloped him, and the feed from the head cameras piped into his vision.

  “Welcome aboard, boss,” came a voice that sounded suspiciously like Electron.

  “Is it you, Electron?” Rade said.

  “In the flesh,” Electron replied. “Or rather, in the mech.”

  He glanced at the Titans Shaw and Bender had boarded, and saw the callsigns of their usual mechs displayed above their names: Nemesis and Juggernaut, respectively. The callsigns of the others were similarly familiar.

  “Surus, what’s up with the AIs?” Tahoe said over the main comm, asking the question that was on Rade’s mind.

  “I took the liberty of backing up your AI cores and downloading a copy into these mechs,” Surus said.

  “That’s illegal you know,” TJ said. “Overriding an existing AIs personality like that.”

  “I am well aware of the legal and moral issues,” Surus said. “Which is why I purchased blank AI cores. There were not yet any engramic imprints for memories or personalities.”

  “Is that true, Harlequin?” Manic asked. “I mean, I know we bought you as a blank, but I thought that was only possible for smaller robots, like Artificials.”

  “It is very possible to procure mechs with blank AI cores,” Harlequin said. “Though they have to be ordered specifically as such directly from the manufacturer. I am confident that no AIs were killed in the making of these mechs.”

  “Oh,” TJ said. “Well, as long as Harlequin says it’s okay I suppose it’s all right then.”

  “Yeah, that Harlequin, he knows best,” Bender said in a mocking voice.

  Rade accessed the defenses of his Titan and noted that the Trench Coat anti-missile system had enough charges for eight uses, and that each arm had fully retractable ballistic / anti-laser shields, which could rotate in and out with the other weapons.

  “No Lighters in these ones?” TJ asked.

  That was a feature that allowed a million volts of electricity to flow through the external hull, blasting anything that foolishly attempted to attach to the mech. It was a feature inherent to the Titan class.

  “The Lighters are there,” Surus said. “But I have attached an extra safety access to them, as they will be more dangerous in the environments where we may be using them.”

  Rade knew what she was talking about. In the simulations, the range of the shock produced during the liquid methane scenarios was about twenty meters, though of course the voltage level was significantly reduced, as the current dispersed from the hull in all directions thanks to the surface area of the touching liquid. And while the hulls of their mechs were insulated, protecting the pilots in the cockpits from any external shocks, if they activated their Lighters too close to one another, there was a chance of shorting out some of the circuits in the extremities of their neighbors, such as those running the servomotors in the hands and feet for example.

  “So how do we activate them?” TJ said.

  “Navigate to the unlock menu on your HUD,” Surus said. “And then the mechanism is the same as before.”

  “I got ya,” TJ said.

  Rade followed her instructions and familiarized himself with the interface.

  “Please meet me outside when you are ready,” Surus said. She approached the exit of the warehouse in her Titan, which was labeled Swift. Its feet stamped loudly on the burnished steel floor with each step.

  “It’s war time,” Rade said. “Send your final messages to your friends and families. Because in a few minutes we’re going to kiss the InterGalNet, and this entire side of the galaxy, goodbye.”