A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 19

'Thanks, Glint, I know I can rely on you to put me right.' Marko said, only half joking.

Veg cut through their conversation. 'Eyes on the job, people, tactical is coming up.'

Everyone looked at their screens as the results from Rick's recon drones started to come online. The drones were flying below thick cloud cover, through low hills, identifying various groups, a.s.signing ident.i.ties to each, and mapping the deep sheer-sided ravines where the Avians had their colonies in the cliff tops. Above the ravines on the surrounding flatfish land, they could see the areas of human habitation surrounded by cultivated fields, with the native predominately fungal forests pushed back.

They then saw the first group of Avians with their belongings waiting at an airfield south of the human habitation.

Lilly spoke first. 'This looks like a place ripe for so many things to go horribly wrong. The desperation of sentient beings wanting to be the authors of their own future. I wonder what is going through their minds, knowing that not that long ago they were simple birds lacking in complex thinking.'

'I agree, Lilly: I don't like this one little bit. And don't forget they will know that they were created as weapons against people they have no actual knowledge of. What do you think that we should do, Stephine?'

After a long pause, a serious-sounding Stephine said, 'Come up with some alternative plans, Veg. Remember that we are here as a punishment as far as the Administration is concerned. It is designed for us to look bad. d.a.m.n, it is happening already!'

One of the feeds showed the group of the refugee Avians being killed by missile strikes originating from the Gjomvik Corporation stations. The airbursts obliterated great numbers of them; the few survivors, after taking flight, were struck from the sky by something also coming from the Gjomvik station. A fraction of a second later the facility was. .h.i.t by a giant particle-beam strike from Rick which vaporised the entire complex in seconds, resulting in a great explosion of superheated material. Marko thought that it would have felt like a nuke going off, although he did note that other groups of refugees, many kilometres away and within range of other stations, were left alone. He allowed himself to speed up.

'Blackjack. How do you think that Stephine will cope with this if it turns out to be another bloodbath?'

The ship replied. 'An interesting thought, Marko. I think that she will be all right, strangely enough. I have wondered about her since her return. It is as if she has had a tiny amount of her essence removed. It did surprise me that she was unable to rebuild Tux to his former self, for instance. In making her more stable they have taken some part of that mercurial mix that is Stephine. Yes, she will be fine. To be blunt, Marko, we are a little concerned how you will take it, as you have become a more empathetic ent.i.ty.'

Marko nodded slowly to himself, wondering the same. 'Well, you will just have to look after me, eh.'

He slowed back down to listen to Veg. 'Seems that an impa.s.se of sorts has been reached. We are allowed to take those Avians who want to leave, as long as we do not take any technology Nuts! They are the technology. Then once they are away, we will negotiate a settlement with the Gjomvik Corporations. Yeah, like that is going to happen. Rick is sending down a special lander which will be sealed totally, then transported to a destination that no one is being told of in a long-range interstellar transporter created especially for the job.' He paused for a second before continuing. 'Seems that there are not that many of them who want to go anyway, so we are to escort the one lander that Rick is sending. OK, you know the protocols. The bird creatures themselves are the only things carrying the viruses and toxins, so as long as you don't come in actual contact with them you will be fine. I know that we have had plenty of boosters to our biomed units, but be safe anyway. I am uploading what we now know about the life forms on the planet itself in case any of us gets clipped.'

Two.

Basalt dropped away from Rick as a lander of almost the same size as the frigate moved ahead of them. The bay that held Blackjack and the Games Board lander sealed itself, and moments later the hull doors opened as both craft were moved into drop position on their platforms. Minutes later they lifted above the retracting platforms, with Stephine flying Blackjack until it took up a position above the large lander. Marko looked over his shoulder to see two Skuas piloted by Minh Pham and Julie still docked onto the side of Basalt with the salvage craft, squatting like a giant insect, also hard docked, clinging onto Basalt's upper portion. They all dropped straight down towards the heavy cloud cover with each powering up their antigravity to drop into the half Earth-standard-gravity-well at a stately two hundred kilometres per hour. Once they were well into the thick atmosphere Stephine ordered the Hangers to deploy and hold station at five hundred metres apart.

Marko watched as the Hanger sensed true atmosphere and its wings folded out from the fuselage to aid lift, while the ring manoeuvring unit also expanded, creating an annular wing with the individual manoeuvring thrusters also streamlining themselves.

They could see nothing but clouds, so they switched to their imaging, which showed the rolling hills and deep ravines where the fungal trees reached a hundred metres tall, interlocked with millions of symbiotic fungal plants and the odd rare leafed plant as well. Eventually, they dropped through the cloud cover and transited into level flight with the three Hangers leading, then Blackjack, then the lander, with the Games Board craft off to its port side, and then Basalt riding shotgun over them all.

Marko, as the lead aircraft, flew over the first landing site, pulling a hard right-hand climbing turn, followed by Lilly and Jasmine, providing top cover as Blackjack orbited left at a lower alt.i.tude. Rick's lander slowed, then touched down, floating just above the ground. Within a few moments the refugees, carrying their few belongings, trooped on board. The lander lifted off and every ship moved to the next pick-up point. The procedure happened a dozen more times throughout the long day, as they followed the rotation of the moon in relation to the sunlight, until every Avian who wanted to leave was accounted for and every member of Basalt was bored with the repet.i.tion. They finally started the climb up into the atmosphere, with Marko coming in for his fifth refuelling dock with Basalt.

'Might as well stay where you are, Marko. All small craft, dock please. We are going straight up to RV with the refugee carrier.'

Marko saw his tanks being rapidly refilled as he reached across to open the last of his drinks and grab a bite of a fruit bar.

Just then, Harry yelled a warning. 'Missile launch. Target is the lander!'

Marko felt Sledgehammer being dropped away from Basalt so he fed full power to the thrusters, dropping his drink and the fruit bar as he flipped the fighter onto its back and dived towards where his screen told him the missile was coming from.

'Glint! You have the belly gun, I will look after the rest.'

The little voice of Spike asked. 'Can I control our micromissiles, please, Marko?'

'Help yourself, Spike!'

They flashed down into the top of the clouds with the belly guns starting to fire as the missile, which was longer than Sledgehammer, thundered past them only tens of metres away. Marko, in a sped-up state, trained the linear accelerators onto it, punching holes into the missile's side as micro-missiles chewed up its rocket engines. It started to falter and Marko carried on accelerating down in order to gain distance before it blew up. Seconds later there was a huge orange flash in the thick cloud above them and chunks of the missile whistled towards them, then there were two additional explosions as missiles launched from Basalt also hit the falling wreckage. Marko carried on accelerating, going supersonic as they roared out through the cloud base looking for the missile's launch point. The computer on board located it seconds later; another missile was being folded out on a launch gantry from a ravine wall that lay below them.

Marko pulled Sledgehammer onto the target and fired the wing-mounted accelerators directly into the missile, as Glint also started firing into the propellant tanks of the missile, producing an explosion which blew the gantry off its mounts. He then rolled Sledgehammer over to expose the belly guns so that as they flew past Glint could fire into the cavernous installation through its open, camouflaged doors. Small, short-range anti-aircraft missiles were launched from hidden positions to chase them, but Spike responded with more of their own knocking them down, while Harry yelled over the comms, 'Get your a.r.s.e out of there, Marko. Now!'

Grinning to himself, and with Glint making whooping sounds behind him, Marko pushed Sledgehammer's nose down and poured on even more power, charging along the slowly curving ravine to see the flash of the particle-beam strike from Rick behind him, lighting up the orange and dull-red fungal growth to the sides and in front of him. Flying off his instruments and timing the pa.s.sing shock-wave, he roared over one ravine and dropped into another before climbing skywards.

Spike was squeaking with excitement. 'Wow! That was most enjoyable, Marko. Can we do it again?'

Marko and Glint laughed. 'Soon, probably very soon, Spike. I have a feeling that this is a long way from being over.'

He ramped up the antigravity unit to a.s.sist them out of the atmosphere, climbing up to join the others as they carried on escorting the lander.

Marko looked at the cameras. 'Jim, you have been very quiet?'

The monitor responded. 'Yes, Marko, just concentrating on getting excellent images and sound. I have sent across my edited version of the missile attack and all I had back was an acknowledgment, which is good. If I had had anything else, I would suspect that the producer knows something of my true nature. We have to be careful about that. Please do not refer to, or engage me, unless I say otherwise.'

Marko grimaced. 'Oops! Yes, of course, Jim. My apologies. I shall be more careful.'

Ahead of them they could see the transporter for the refugees sliding across the top of the atmosphere to gather up the lander. As they docked together and started to accelerate out towards the nearest LP, four of Rick's gunships took over the escort. Marko, on an impulse, thought of Sledgehammer docked and to his surprise, and delight, the little fighter responded, sliding home against Blackjack's docking clamps. He wondered if there was still the ghost of Tux in Sledgehammer.

'Now that is interesting.'

Glint looked at him. 'What is, Marko?'

'Oh, nothing much, Glint. It appears we used slightly more fuel then we should have. Good shooting, both of you, by the way. Was fun, wasn't it!'

Seconds later he felt the refuelling hoses attach themselves and the magazines being reloaded as well.

'Marko,' Stephine said, 'we are to go back on board Basalt for a meal and a rest. You might as well join us for a coffee as we stole your entire stock of biscotti anyway. There is evidently a great deal of discussion going on between the standard humans on this moon and Rick, so we are stood down for the time being.'

Marko laughed. 'On my way, Stephine.'

He then thought of the acceleration chair being back inside Blackjack and once again had a response, with the seat unlocking then sliding down into the ship below, while allowing himself to speed up again. 'Blackjack, are you getting messages from me in regards to docking Sledgehammer?'

'No, Marko. There have been no communications from you or Sledgehammer. Why do you ask?'

Marko told her of his experiences. There was a microsecond's delay in response which meant that she was seriously thinking about her reply.

'I believe that we are dealing with an echo of Tux, in that he may be in the very structure of Sledgehammer. Keep giving the craft instructions and let us see where it leads us.'

Slowing down, he climbed out of the seat, stretched and did callisthenics for a few moments. A steaming cup of coffee arrived from Veg, and he took a couple of biscotti from the jar offered by Jasmine.

Glint grabbed a couple as well and was about to bite one when stopped by Spike. 'Glint, if you expand the link between us, I would be able to taste the little biscuit maybe?'

Seconds later Glint took a bite of biscotti and chewed slowly.

The little mechanical spider bounced up and down on Marko's shoulder. 'I need some taste recognition files, but that is most interesting.'

Nail looked up at the little spider. 'I shall load you up with as many as you like, Spike.'

'Thank you, Nail. I am living vicariously and it is quite acceptable.'

Everyone smiled at the little spider and Lilly stroked his tiny head, which he seemed to enjoy as well. Marko smiled and wondered if the ACEs and Topaz had done a better job with the personality of the little fellow than he would have. He felt inordinately fond of them and knew he was, indeed, a proud parent.

Walking bleary-eyed into breakfast the next morning, Marko was greeted with grins and calls from Fritz calling him 'captain fantastic'. Everyone had seen the AV from the Games Board preview showing a grinning pirate of a man hurtling down on the missile. Ivana announced that it would almost certainly feature on everyone's AV units as a highlight when they made it back to the Sphere. He took the good-natured ribbing in his stride.

'So the refugees made it away OK then, boss?' Marko asked the major.

The man was munching on a piece of toast and used it to gesture at one of the screens showing the transporter.

'Yeah; from what we could see, Marko, they jumped away from the system about thirty-five minutes ago. Would love to have seen what that transporter was using for engines as it accelerated at a high clip. All good, now that everyone is here.' He raised his voice and announced to the a.s.sembled crew: 'OK, the inevitable has occurred. A group of the Avians, who had initially wanted to be left alone to live out their lives and die in peace, saw some of their kin escape with our help and want the same, but I am told that the Gjomviks and the martial groups of Avians are attempting to recruit them instead to fight us. So looks like this thing is going to continue.'

The major looked across at Stephine and Veg and continued. 'Stephine, I have a request from Rick. He asks for you and Veg, with Blackjack, to accompany one of his heavy recon units while they carry out a survey of the two Goldilocks inner planets to see if they are a suitable biosphere for a colony. He will leave as soon as you are ready. Looking at the data they already have on the planets, I would say that you will be away for about five days.'

Stephine nodded. 'Very well, Michael. We will be ready to leave within the hour. I shall have the Hangers off-loaded onto deployment platforms.'

Michael Longbow thanked them. 'The rest of us are going to identify suitable pick-up points for the new sets of refugees and start moving them into orbit. They are interesting because they tell me that they have purged themselves of the biological weapons they were bred to carry. So we can be sure, Rick is building testing units which are basically a large cylinder with the screening units at the base, and then stairways to a waiting lounge at the top. Once each lounge has a full complement it will detach and lift into orbit on antigravity for Rick to gather up. If the existing colony is not suitable for them, the Avians will go on ice and Rick will find a suitable place for them sometime in the future.'

He was interrupted by Stephine and Veg saying their goodbyes and continued after they had left.

'Of course, their more warlike kin are not happy, so one of our jobs is to protect the refugees. Rick is supplying plenty of drones, but we need to be there as well. So it's time for the salvage lifter and the Chrysops, with Lilly and Jasmine in Hangers to supply us top cover and interdiction if necessary. Rick is also supplying one of his planetary-theatre combat dirigibles for control, refuelling and rearming, so visually there will be plenty for you ladies of the Games Board record. Orders are released to your wrist units. We leave in an hour.'

Everyone looked down at their orders, which detailed their call-signs, unit positions, load-outs - equipment, clothing, et cetera - on the Chrysops, ground maps and areas of responsibility.

Marko, when he returned to his quarters to visit the toilet, found the original Tux suit waiting for him. He sat on the bed and pondered whether he should use it or his other primary combat suit. Rising he stripped and backed up against the Tux suit, which automatically opened and encapsulated him. He then opened his locker, which had had everything replaced, and took one of Veg's short swords, plus one of the long-barrelled pistols that Jan had specially made for him. He loaded two hundred rounds of caseless ammunition into the pop-out bandolier on the Tux suit and then wrapped the special belt which housed his diamond garrotte around his waist. Looking up, he saw Glint and Spike with the ever-present Jim watching him.

'Expecting a punch-up, Marko?' Glint asked.

Marko grinned. 'Yes, Glint, I am. I see you have your suit and your own sidearms as well. Pity we could not organise something for you, Spike.'

The mechanical cheerfully answered, 'No problems, Marko, I have these!'

Marko looked carefully at what seemed like a haze around Spike, and smiled, seeing Spike had diamond filaments to play with.

'OK, team, let's go find something to bash! Hey, Glint, the Chrysops are only single seaters, right?'

Glint shook his head. 'Nope, not our one. We adapted it to twin c.o.c.kpits. We told the producer, when she was not our friend, that it was to accommodate Sirius as she queried why we had it in pieces. Harry and Veg helped us with the heavier bits, but really us ACEs built it.'

Marko nodded. 'Good skills, guys, well impressed. Right, time to go get some bits and pieces to eat and drink and then transfer to the salvage craft. Been meaning to ask you, Glint. These days, considering that you are always rebuilding some part or other of your internal structure and I always see you eating at meal times, how much of your daily energy needs now come from food?'

'Unless I am required to work very hard physically, Marko, I take one hundred per cent from food. And before you ask, yes, I have made further changes to my digestive system and there is very little waste.'

Marko grimaced. 'I did not really need to know that, but there you go! Good for you. Grab whatever you need to sustain yourself in that case. I would suggest that you also take at least three ration packs.'

'No, Marko, such will not be necessary. I can still take energy directly from whatever craft I'm in and if we do end up planetside, which I believe you are preparing for, there is a great deal of material I can eat down there. I'll take a couple of extra ration packs for you though as your digestive system would have difficulty with what is there.'

They walked down to the galley, with the silent monitor, Jim, trailing behind and recording as Marko selected drinks and snack foods and placed them in a small carryall. On the way out of the galley he took three combat ration packs which he slid into the pockets of the suit, and smiled when Glint did the same. As they moved down the stairway, Jasmine kissed him, patted Glint and scratched Spike's head, and handed them bags of fruit as the rest of the crew a.s.sembled by one of the airlocks leading to the salvage craft.

They rotated through, with the major moving forwards onto the flight deck and the others moving aft to check their a.s.signed aircraft. Marko and Glint's was furthest away so they walked down a raised pathway through the equipment-lined hangar past the exposed c.o.c.kpits of the Chrysops, which protruded up through the floor. Marko nodded at his friends as they each woke up their fliers from a remote console. Glint checked the readouts to confirm that their flyer was fully fuelled and had full ammunition loads for the rail guns, then went through the wake-up sequence, booting up its computers and the separate navigation systems. Marko watched for a minute then looked around at the rest of the crew settling down into their ejection seats, opening their screens and selecting whatever external video feeds they wished. He then looked at the tandem arrangement for himself and Glint, frowned and looked more closely.

'Glint, this appears to be parts of the armour augments from the Tux suit and the ejection seat from Sledgehammer.'

The ACE agreed. 'Yes, they are similar, but not the same. Veg, Harry, Fritz and the ACEs decided that because you are reckless sometimes we needed to protect you better so a new set of augments was made. Rick was not happy about us chopping and modifying this part of the salvage lifter, but he eventually said that it had been signed over to Stephine anyway so what the h.e.l.l! Veg and Stephine won't tell me how they came to meet up with Rick on their way back, Marko. A little peculiar, don't you think? Were we not supposed to pick only them up?'

Marko shrugged. 'Yeah, been wondering about that myself. Curious things happen around that pair. Right, we might as well get in. Um, what about the monitor?'

'Same as what we did in Sledgehammer,' Glint said.

As they climbed down into the c.o.c.kpit of the Chrysops fighter, the monitor unfolded, then unlocked parts of himself with various components attaching themselves to the craft. Six little camera units locked down into the c.o.c.kpits using their own miniature mechanical grippers as the AG unit slid aft to where a hatchway opened to accept it. The central part of it rotated then unfolded further, flattening itself with little manipulators and pulling itself along to slide down behind Marko's seat.

He nodded to the lenses watching him, then sat down in his own seat; it first interfaced with his suit, and then conformed to his shape with the cam restrainers folding across and down him. The instrument panel then quietly slid across from the sides as a small windscreen lifted up in front of him. Each of the systems came alive as Glint brought everything online to a fully ready state. Looking at the others in their c.o.c.kpits, he saw that the one Chrysops c.o.c.kpit closest to the control c.o.c.kpit of the lifter was empty, and presumed that it was a.s.signed to the major if he needed it.

Marko scrolled through the AV feeds before settling on the one in front of the major, looking out over the blunt nose of the lifter. Basalt was holding station with a flattened half-cylinder-shaped airship base that started to grow upwards as a number of lift envelopes were inflated: once at maximum size each segment locked against its neighbour and electrically bonded together, forming the cla.s.sic airfoil shape of the dirigibles of the twenty-first century. The gases were vented, allowing a vacuum to exist inside the wafer-thin-walled molecular chain-linked graphene t.i.tanium carbide reinforced lift envelopes. They were then sequentially sealed as the craft, with Basalt and ten smooth teardrop-shaped atmospheric gunships in escort, all on antigravity, slid down towards the distant thick white cloud cover.

When they were still twenty kilometres above the planet's surface, the major detached the lifter from Basalt which, with Patrick in control, climbed out through the atmosphere to hold itself in a geosynchronous...o...b..t. High above them, double-winged disc-shaped landers deployed from the nearest portion of Rick and also started to descend.

From the rear c.o.c.kpit, Glint asked, 'Why is Basalt not coming down with us, Marko?'

'You know how the boss is all for as much independence as possible, Glint. From where he will be, Patrick can give us some fire support if required, and he has our own landers on board as well. It's smart, I think.'

They settled down for the fifteen-minute descent with nothing to look at except the horizon of cloud, the ships around them, and the inside of the lifter's hangar. When they were five kilometres up, the gunships started to fan out, with five dropping lower and moving in a clockwise direction, and the others staying above them, moving further out in the opposite direction with wings deploying from the bodies of the craft and fat-muzzled linear cannons folding down in cupolas underneath them. Atmospheric jet turbine pods also rotated out of the rear of the craft as they readied themselves. Three smaller versions of the gunships dropped away from each one and quickly flew down into the clouds to start reconnaissance of the pick-up areas. The Games Board lander waited above them and deployed small flying camera units which looked to Marko like winged eyeb.a.l.l.s.

Spike had climbed onto Marko's helmet and locked himself on, jacking into his AV feeds.

'Do the gunships have biological pilots, Marko? I know I could just access this information, but it is more interesting to hear it from you sometimes.'

Marko chuckled. 'Fair enough, Spike. I like talking with you too. No, they do not have pilots. Not biological ones, anyway. Limited sub-AI minds which are controlled for some of the time, directly from the dirigible in this case. That craft will have at least two fully augmented intelligences but I would not be surprised if there was also at least one biological Rick on board as well. Trouble is, all comms from him sound just like him, AI or manifested. Here we go, coming up on the cloud cover. Wonder if the surface ever sees the local sun?'

'Yes, Marko, but not at this time of year for this lat.i.tude, and it is not particularly strong light anyway.'

'Yeah, that would be right, Glint. Just wish that we knew a lot more about possible nasties down there.'

The major interrupted. 'All crew, we have a go on the mission. Stand by to drop in three minutes.'

Marko checked his air feeds then sealed his helmet faceplate with the outer protection folding up and around Spike from the collar of the suit. Another blister-shaped transparent shield slid over his head from the rear of the c.o.c.kpit. Looking into his screens, he switched to the ground maps that the radar from the dirigible, stationed seven kilometres above, was feeding them. He then started the turbines and throttled back, easing off the power settings on the antigravity. He noted the dispersal sequence and took the controls lightly in his hands.

'We are good to go, Glint,' Marko instructed.

A moment later they abruptly dropped away from the lifter to be buffeted by a sudden rush of air. Marko peeled the Chrysops away to the right, its four vectored thrust jets working to hold station off the right rear of the lifter, with the other aircraft doing the same. Lilly and Jasmine in their Hangers deployed a moment later, climbing above the lifter just as they broke through the clouds to see the forest of enormous bright orange, cream, yellow and red fungus spread out below them.

At the ends of, and beneath, the stubby wings, the double rail guns folded out and extended on their gimballed mounts, targeting crosshairs appearing in the heads-up units inside the flyers' helmets as each came online. They all did a large sweeping pa.s.s over the first of the pick-up points, a single bright blue orb hovering above it, seeing only the hundreds of Avians crouching in a great circle. The first of the landers swept in from the south at speed to flare out hard over the landing zone, and six large hatchways quickly opened downwards. The lander hovered to allow those waiting to move quickly up the ramps and within minutes the hatches were closing again and it lifted away from the spongy ma.s.s of flattened fungal material. The lander went straight up on antigravity before accelerating with its jets through the cloud cover with an escort of three gunships.

'That looked easy!' Glint commented.