A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 20

Marko pulled a face. 'Yeah, Glint, let's hope it stays that way.'

Rick's distinctive voice came into everyone's headphones. 'That was the easy one. It's all uphill from here. We can see squads of mixed Avians and standard humans, with what appears to be some sort of mech in support, moving towards the next two landing zones. Remember, unless they fire on the refugees or on you, you must not engage them.'

They dropped out of the clouds again to see fire engulfing some of the fungus trees, kilometres away from the landing zone, with the wind carrying the thick smoke across the area where the blue marker was hovering.

'Thought that that fungus did not burn well?' Marko mused out loud.

Spike answered. 'If it's dead and dried out, Marko, anything will burn.'

They flew over the area of the burning trees to test if any of the ground forces would engage them, just as thousands of small flying lizard-like creatures erupted from the ground around the flaming trees. They formed into swarming b.a.l.l.s and rapidly climbed up to investigate the smaller guns.h.i.+p drones as they in turn decelerated to ascertain if there was a threat. As soon as any group got too close, the drones would accelerate straight up. Marko watched with increasing interest as the creatures constantly changed tactics to try and get close to one of the drones.

As if orchestrated, dozens of different 'groups' converged on one drone which suddenly found itself cut off from any avenue of escape. The creatures came within a metre of the drone and ejected a sand-coloured mist. As the drone flew through the mist, it suddenly shot upwards, then rolled over and tumbled out of control to explode when it hit the forest floor, its fuel and ammunition detonating. The resulting fire encouraged even more of the lizards to take flight.

'Wow! Wonder what that mist was made of, to take out a combat drone so fast?' Harry exclaimed.

'There are a few possibilities, Harry, but triflic acids would be right up there with them. Dissolves just about anything quickly. Fascinated that an advanced biological could evolve them for use, as we normally only see that in insects.'

The major spoke up. 'Lilly is right, people, stay away from the lizards. Now listed as a natural biological hazard. Right, the Avians are moving across onto the southern ridge line. The lander will attempt a pick-up from there.'

All craft carried on orbiting, escorting the fast-moving Avians, some of whom were flying to the pick-up sites, constantly looking for threats to their sides, when Jasmine suddenly yelled, 'Julie! Eject!'

Marko swung around in his seat to see Julie being blasted upwards from her craft just as three micro-missiles slammed into it. The ejection seat took her hundreds of metres as the nearest guns.h.i.+ps fired down into the forested ravine that she had just pa.s.sed over. A third drone swung up to catch her seat with her still in it, before it reached its zenith, and grasped the seat back with waldos, flying her up towards the lifter. Marko could imagine her grinning, but shaking at the same time from the near miss.

'Spike,' Marko said. 'Watch what happens on the AV feeds and let me know how she gets on.'

More micro-missiles were fired from another concealed position as microwave beams flashed downwards from the dirigible far overhead, burning the missile warheads before they reached their targets. Hundreds of metres above them, explosions started in earnest as well.

'Bit far away for air bursts, don't you think?' Fritz asked.

'Unintentional air bursts, Fritz,' the major answered. 'The dirigible is knocking down mortar sh.e.l.ls. Anti-mortar in a few seconds.'

High-acceleration missiles flashed from above, exploding on the mortar positions below, as the guns.h.i.+ps also started to engage ground targets. The guns.h.i.+ps howled towards the ground to scream along millimetres above the ridge lines and tree tops, firing into the mortar emplacements as well as pulling extreme internal G forces far in extreme of what any biological could withstand. From Basalt's crew's perspective it was obviously exactly the response that the enemy ground forces had been waiting for when, seconds later, two guns.h.i.+ps, which the command dirigible had sent to investigate signatures of mortar positions, crashed headlong into fine net-like tough fungal rhizomorphs which had swung up from the towering fungal trees seconds before the guns.h.i.+ps came into sight.

The effect was dramatic: each otherwise tough craft was suddenly seized and flung into a savagely tight loop that was terminated against the ground due to its own speed and kinetic energy. They exploded, producing impressive fireb.a.l.l.s which ignited even more trees and agitated greater numbers of the lizards, and then millions of long streamlined double-winged iridescent red hornets. Basalt's crew, on seeing them, shuddered, remembering their experiences on 27's planet with insects. The hornets swarmed around the burning areas, then immediately attacked the two Games Board flying cameras which had come down to get closer footage of the destroyed guns.h.i.+ps. As soon as a hundred or so of the hornets had come in contact with the cameras, they simply fell from the sky to crash into the forest. As each camera started to tumble down, the flies left it to seek out other targets, including the lizards, as an ecological battle royal started in the surrounding area with hundreds of different creatures and insects attracted to the fires. Marko wished fervently that he'd have the time to study them, hoping that he would at least get a chance to look through the Games Board's images.

'Julie is well, Marko,' Spike reported. 'A hatchway opened in the top of the lifter although she was still locked into her ejection seat as it was lowered by the guns.h.i.+p.'

'Good, thanks, Spike.'

Before he could comment further Rick spoke. 'We are moving further up the ridge line. My intel drone is encouraging the Avians to ditch their belongings and fly to another area, but they are insistent that they take their gear. Another larger group is now moving down the ridge to join them, so two landers are now inbound. ETA is fifteen minutes.'

Marko thought that, considering the swarming behaviour of the creatures they had seen, there must be a burning time in the planet's year, and started to look in the forest for evidence. Looking carefully, he saw trees that appeared to have been burnt and had thousands of orbs dotted over them; he wondered if it was part of a life cycle of the native species. He also wondered about the mechanism that would ignite the trees, as it appeared to be a fairly random spread. Things were starting to settle down again as the two landers broke cloud cover and started to sweep down to the hundreds of waiting Avians.

The first slowed down and then hovered just above a large flattened area with a stone outcropping. The vehicle's hatches rapidly swung down and the refugees swarmed aboard. It lifted away as the second large craft did the same. Nothing had attacked them by the time the remaining guns.h.i.+ps and craft orbited. They all sighed in relief when the second lander started to climb up through the clouds with the remaining guns.h.i.+ps in escort.

Three.

Marko looked down at his fuel levels and wondered how soon before they would be allowed to refuel. He keyed the major's comm link. 'Boss, I am coming up short on fuel.'

Michael Longbow replied a minute later. 'Yeah, just got the word. The next pick-up is some thousand kilometres away. All dock.'

As he swung the Chrysops towards the lifter, there was a huge flash from overhead and seconds later one of the landers could be seen to tumble out of the clouds some distance away. Marko ramped up his vision and watched as the s.h.i.+p, billowing smoke and fire from its main engine bays and obviously struggling to maintain control and alt.i.tude, appeared to gain some control as the hatches were blown off and the Avians poured out of them and away from the stricken craft to fly back to the planet's surface.

The large s.h.i.+p started to gain alt.i.tude again then suddenly there was another explosion deep inside the craft. It rolled over onto its back and plummeted towards the ground. To Marko, it seemed to take forever to hit - until he realised that he had inadvertently sped himself up. Seconds after he reverted to normal speed the large s.h.i.+p hurtled down into a ravine with a great burst of fire and smoke. The shockwave arrived seconds later with the noise of the crash audible even through his helmet layers.

's.h.i.+t! Rick is taking some solid hits over this lot!'

The major, surrounded by data feeds in the lifter's c.o.c.kpit, replied. 'Not wrong, Harry. Looking at everyone's cameras, Ivana estimates that only three Avians were unable to get out. Fairly remarkable if you ask me. But then again I am a cynic at heart. And Rick will not say why the lander failed. Continue to dock, people. Come on board for a stretch and a drink. We have seventy-two minutes' flight time and I am taking us high. That s.h.i.+t down there bothers me. Have just been advised that the survivors from the crashed lander will be picked up tomorrow.'

Marko was the last to dock with the lifter. Around him the small guns.h.i.+p recon drones were also coming into dock as they had nowhere else to go after the destruction of their mother s.h.i.+ps. He watched as Harry, ahead of him, slid his Chrysops up against the docking grapples that had swung down under the lifter. As soon as the fighter was in contact with three of the six, they softly contracted, grasping the craft like a hand and lifting the c.o.c.kpit up through the floor of the lifter. As soon as it was snug, the heavy locking cams slid into place and, seconds later, the fuel hoses and ammunition feeds locked themselves on. He keyed Glint's private comms.

'Hey, Glint. You want to take this one?'

'Take what, Marko? Oh, you mean do I want to control the dock? Yes, certainly.'

'You have control.'

Glint called out. 'I have control. Hold on!'

As soon as Marko relinquished the controls, he regretted it. Glint poured on the power, rolled the fighter down and away to then rip up under the lifter while performing a perfect barrel roll, and seconds later neatly slotted the c.o.c.kpit though the floor of the lifter with an almost imperceptible touch. He held the fighter against the lifter until the graspers figured out that they had already docked.

'That earns you a little bonus, Glint, and probably a kick up the a.r.s.e from the major!' the producer commented.

Glint sounded indignant. 'My thanks, Producer Ivana. But why would I get a remonstration for such an excellent manoeuvre?'

The major took that one. 'Because, Glint, we do not put additional stress on a craft when it has just been in combat. There may be damage that you are not aware of and something could go dramatically wrong. Nice work, but don't do it again. OK?'

A slightly contrite Glint answered, 'Yes, Major, I understand.'

Marko's restraints let him go and he climbed out of the c.o.c.kpit. He looked at Glint as he climbed out as well, then leant down and shook him by the hand, combat tapping against Glint's wrist: 'Nice! Liked it!'

The ACE suddenly brightened and smiled up at him.

They made their way along the walkway between the c.o.c.kpits, with the one that had once held Julie's now destroyed Chrysops sealed off. The rest of the crew smiled at Glint, with Lilly and Jasmine arriving last, climbing down the ladders from where they had docked the Hangers above them. Moments later the monitor, Jim, after rea.s.sembling himself, also joined them to record the inevitable non-official debriefing.

The crew had a drink, then carefully checked their individual Chrysops through the lifter's systems, with Harry finding shrapnel damage in the top engine management systems of his. Everyone moved forwards as Julie and he lifted the deck plates out of the way to get access to the top of the craft. The major brought the lifter to a hover a kilometre above the clouds while they clipped on, then activated, an automatically deployed wrap which sealed the Chrysops against the lifter. This allowed them to work on the machine while the lifter accelerated back up to speed and continued with the mission.

Minutes before they arrived in the vicinity of the next pickup points they finished testing the replaced units. As the lifter descended and slowed down, they had the onboard computer fold the wrap out of the way so they could slam and lock the access hatches back into place. They all climbed back into their c.o.c.kpits with Julie flying the spare Chrysops. After dropping away from the lifter, Marko noted that there were large areas of open water below them and wondered if the big moon also supported large aquatic life. The plant life floating on the water's surface looked extraordinary, with huge, deep blue, water-lily-like leaves which must have been at least six metres in diameter. Tucked beneath them were smaller versions of the same leaves, of different colours.

High above them, another of Rick's dirigibles hovered, directing operations. This time there were even more guns.h.i.+ps and, for every one of those, there were two sleek high-speed missile drones - shaped like long elegant sharks - sporting dozens of different configurations of missiles under their wings. The crew of Basalt had seen them in various conflicts before and knew that there was also a large warhead in the front of the drones, with drop-down ramjets which could accelerate them up to Mach 8 making them scary weapons to be on the receiving end of.

Harry thought they were overkill and wondered what Rick was up to. The rest of the crew were wondering if they would be able to get sufficiently far away to escape the blast if Rick decided to use them. They could see the blue intel drone hanging above the designated pick-up point as they started to orbit again.

'I see no Avians waiting, Marko,' Minh Pham said.

Marko scanned his screens. 'Yeah, I don't either, Minh Pham. And that piece of ground looks very smooth, don't you think? I bet you Rick got this one wrong.'

An agitated-sounding Rick answered. 'No, Marko, this is the point and my intel says it is OK, although I now see the Avians a.s.sembling on the other side, away from that stone. OK, no problem, I shall direct the pick-up lander to them.'

The lander slid down out of the clouds again, making a textbook pick-up, although instead of climbing out again - and with every craft escorting it at high speed - it slid down to the centre of a nearby lake and uplifted a small village of refugees from an island. As it started to lift off over the water, something resembling a huge tree slug flung itself up out of the shallow water and latched onto the underside. Two guns.h.i.+ps immediately fired at it, but the projectiles pa.s.sed straight through its writhing soft body as it clung on with its two-metre-wide sucker mouth.

Marko, being closest, rolled in and brought the rail guns to bear, firing continuously and slicing the body away a metre below the mouth. As the body dropped, the mouth segment also died and peeled away, to reveal that the hull plating had almost been eaten through. Bits of the plating were still falling away - whatever was in the creature's saliva was still active. Marko relayed the images to Rick. 'Rick, you have a problem. You seeing this?'

The Rick proxy that appeared on his screen seemed very angry. 'f.u.c.k! What a s.h.i.+t of a place. Another expensive lander stuffed. OK, will have to transfer the refugees onto the dirigible. Proceed to the next pick-up. I wonder what horror awaits us there!'

Spike spoke through the crew comms. 'I think the very big, very powerful Rick does not like his a.s.sets being beaten up on by mere biologicals, Marko.'

Marko laughed. 'I think that you're right, Spike. Did he talk with you when you saw him in the mess?'

Spike made a rude little sound, much to Marko's amus.e.m.e.nt. 'No, he only lowers himself sufficiently to speak with Glint. He even ignores our friend Nail now.'

Marko frowned. 'Interesting. I wonder why. Think that I might delay making his ACE a little longer yet.'

'Two more to go today,' Harry commented, 'and then time for us to climb back up to the dirigible as this is now effectively mid-afternoon and I'm told that the really scary critters come out to play during the night.'

Glint replied. 'Well, I know that I'm not speaking for Marko, but I think that the rest of us have had enough surprises for one day.'

Marko laughed. 'Harry and Glint, sometimes you guys have no imagination!'

Flint broke into the conversation in his little high-pitched voice. 'That's true, Marko. He gave it all to me.'

'Sometimes you talk too much, Flint!' Harry said.

Half an hour later they were orbiting another of the cliff-dwelling groups of the Avians. Their lifter was once again hovering over what appeared to be a flat rock plate on top of the ridge line, hundreds of metres away from the settlement. Marko orbited the landing site and looked at it carefully - he had a feeling that something was wrong. He swung the Chrysops until he could see directly into the c.o.c.kpit of the lifter, then activated his crew comms. He, along with everyone else, could also see the settlement of refugees hundreds of metres in the opposite direction.

'Boss?'

The major replied by the line-of-sight crew comms. 'Yeah, mate?'

'Who makes the decisions over the pick-up points?'

Michael Longbow shrugged. 'Rick. Why?'

'Reckon there is something dodgy about that rock plate - the one that looks as if it is a stone disc, rather than a natural rock formation. What's the bet there is something living and nasty under it?'

A moment later the major replied. 'Hold on, I'll check. Nope, Rick is getting agitated; methinks this is turning out to be far more of a bad publicity deal for him than us. He says that that is where the lander is going and the refugees can go shaft themselves if they don't board it there.'

Marko swore silently then said, 'In that case, I think we had better step well to one side. If there is something under that plate, it is going to be awfully hard to shoot at it with a lander a metre above it.'

The major lifted both hands up for Marko to see. 'We will do whatever we have to, Marko.'

Marko, with Julie flying as his wingman, orbited in a pattern, looking for evidence that it was something other than just another outcropping of rock. As they searched further out, they started to find other similar, but smaller, rocks spread out for a hundred metres around.

'Harry, Minh Pham. Slave to what my video is seeing. I think that it is an organism of some sort. Can you have a quick look around the area where the habitation is, and where the refugees are a.s.sembled?'

Harry replied as he and Minh Pham swung their fliers in for a closer look. 'On it. Don't have much time though. The lander will be here in five minutes.'

Fritz commented. 'Wish we could ask the refugees. They have been on this moon for at least thirty-five standard years, so we are told. Rick can communicate with them, so I'm sure we could as well. After all, the languages are loaded into our helmet software.'

'Yeah, you're right, Fritz. Bit odd,' Julie said.

Before anyone else could comment, an angry Rick blasted into the conversation, almost yelling at them. 'All biological crew! Just to remind you that I am in charge of this operation. Stick to the plan, my plan, and we will get along just fine. I know that you are using your crew comms which I cannot hear and that is starting to really p.i.s.s me off. Rick out.'

There was silence as they watched the lander slide down through the clouds to flare out, then hover directly over the centre of the ten-metre stone disc as its large hatchways opened to touch the ground. Marko waited for the refugees to move, but none did so. Flas.h.i.+ng red lights started around the leading edges of the craft and the lander sounded its klaxons so loudly that each of the Basalt crew in their separate flying craft could plainly hear them.

An instant later the ground around the lander moved as huge starfish-like arms rose over the top of the lander. It tried to lift off, but a separate smaller and faster tendril flashed out of the side of one of the starfish arms and neatly speared the blue intel unit as it tried to escape, pulling it down into the closing arms. The arms pushed down onto the lander's top as what Rick had a.s.sumed was a rock surface split open. In the instant before Marko lost sight of the lander, spears of material were thrust into it with the whole ma.s.s becoming a ball, and great streams of rocket exhaust vented through the rapidly overlocking arms while the lander continued trying to break away.

Julie, looking out one side of the Chrysops, recorded with dread fascination seeing other tendrils ripping the fuel feeds away from the lander's engines, tearing them apart and pulling the pieces down into itself. As soon as the lander was completely enveloped, a foot-like appendage shot out from the base of the starfish-like creature, which was used to push-start the whole ma.s.s rolling down the ridge. The fifty-metre ball of creature and lander bounced off the side of the ridge to smash and tumble its way through the fungal ma.s.ses. The guns.h.i.+ps and missile carriers rolled and fired into it, having little effect, as the projectiles appeared to flash through the creature to detonate inside the already badly damaged lander. Eventually, the grey and black ball bounced off the sh.o.r.eline of the nearest lake to impact with a huge splash and quickly sink from sight, taking numerous giant lily pads with it.

Harry roared loudly. 'Rick, you are a f.u.c.kwit sometimes! All that power and muscle has gone to your head!'

Rick spat back at him from his dirigible. 'Shut the h.e.l.l up, Harry!'

There was a silence for five minutes as they all continued to fly their patrols. The refugees had started to move back up the ridgeline to where the giant creature had been and were now waiting again.

'Marko, this line is secure,' Glint said. 'I am fascinated by that creature! And no explosion from the lander? How could that be? Also did not appear to take all that much damage from Rick's retaliatory fire. He broke the rules on that. His own rules, in fact. Do you think, much like those Games Board flying cameras that Sirius told us of when the electrics had been absorbed by the wasps, do you think that the same thing happened here?'

Marko shook his head in wonder at what they had just seen. 'Yeah, I am amazed as well, Glint. Would have loved to get a sample of that. Wonder what it eats normally? The growth is pushed flat, but does not appear to be dying. I mean, look around ... if it had been like a starfish feeding on algae on the rocks there would be a trail of destruction leading to it, but I can't see anything. And the fact it had living material all over its surface would suggest it is normally slow moving.'

The major interrupted. 'Guys. Heads up: we have another lander inbound.'

'Hope like h.e.l.l this one goes to plan, boss.' Fritz chuckled. 'Rick will nuke it otherwise.'

'Yeah, let's just hope he tells us if he is going to, Fritz.'

The lander spiralled in from directly overhead to hover off the side of the ridge line as one hatch opened, allowing the refugees to walk on board. The hatch closed as it turned and then went vertical with everyone following in their s.h.i.+ps. Once through the cloud cover, the 300-metre-long dirigible could be seen hanging overhead. The lander swung over the top of it and then hovered at one end with a wide walkway extending out to the lowering hatchway. They all watched the Games Board AV feeds as the few dozen refugees walked across, then down a deck into a large transparent walled lounge.

The dirigible then started to climb and move westwards towards a mountain range fifty kilometres away, as another of Rick's egg-shaped troop carriers came down through the atmosphere to hold station beside the dirigible, extending an air bridge into the lounge area. After ten minutes the air bridge was retracted after the refugees had all transferred and the brutish-looking carrier, with its weapons still deployed, swung astern of the airs.h.i.+p then accelerated away towards the late afternoon sun.

'Pick the nearest craft for hot refuelling, guys,' the major said.

Marko looked around to see the dirigible was probably the closest craft to him, so he flashed his ID across to it. It responded and a gantry swung the twin aerial pipes and drogues down towards him. He waited for them to stop moving, then slid up beside the filling head, matching its speed before opening the filler ports and gently pus.h.i.+ng them up against the drogues. As they met, both sets of valves opened and Marko carefully worked the power controls because the fuel made them gradually heavier with the liquid oxygen and hydrogen rapidly filling the tanks. As soon as they were full, the valves snapped shut and the drogues pulled out, allowing him to slide away as a guns.h.i.+p came up behind him to go through the same process.

He dropped away checking where the rest of his mates were and taking care to avoid the jet exhausts of all the craft as he carefully flew to the front of the lifter. They climbed higher into the mountains where the cloud cover started to break. He could see the fungal vegetation giving way to more woody plants and low scruffy fern-like trees high up the hillsides. They flew over the terminal point of a large long valley where three spectacular waterfalls cascaded down to the fungal forest a kilometre below. Sheer rock walls towered on either side of them and winds started to buffet them.

Marko heard the smile in Jasmine's voice as she commented, 'At last! This is much better: real flying for once.'

He looked over his shoulder to see both Hangers high overhead, flying close to the stone walls at low speed, keeping pace with Rick's dirigible.

The guns.h.i.+ps and missile carriers started to accelerate out in front of them. The rendezvous point was only seven kilometres further up the valley where the tall b.u.t.tresses of the valley walls became vertical and rose kilometres above them to disappear into the high clouds. Marko started to feel a foreboding as the monitor, Jim, deployed himself even further.