Descent into Mayhem (Capicua Chronicles Book 1) (5 page)

“Damn Sarge can read my mind ...” Baylen chuckled as they rejoined the finish line attendants.

Shortly before mid-day the last recruit washed-out in the river tunnel, no other having managed to find his way up to Valhalla.

“Captain, Spaz just cracked in the water-pipe. Nona had to drag his ass out. He froze, sir.”

“Strike his name from the log and close it. Baylen, get the boy into his provisionary uniform and out to the canteen. It’s time to fill some bellies.”

“Yes, captain.” Baylen answered, remaining where he stood.

They watched in silence as the camp slowly emptied, its former occupants launching themselves confidently onto the nano-net one at a time, cart-wheeling, rolling or slowly sliding down its extension in single file. If Toni hadn’t already seen a sledgehammer wielding armored Suit ambush flying recruits, he would have considered that the strangest thing he had ever seen.

“What’s your name, boy? Baylen asked as he stared at the descending group.

“Toni, sir.”

“Don’t sir me. What’s your last name?”

“Miura.”

“Ahuh. Never heard that name before. Where you from?”

“A farm on the outskirts of Leiben. My father works in livestock and forestry.”

“And your mother’s last name?”

“Martial. Why?” He asked.

“Don’t know any Martials here either. Been a soldier ‘bout fifteen years now. Maybe not the brightest, but I still got a good memory for names and families. Don’t know how the hell you managed to do the Click in your time, but you came in second best in forty six runners. The chick you finished ahead of is called Hannah Arakaki. Not a generation has gone by without at least one member of her family making officer rank. And the one who face-kissed the suit’s called Ian Templeton. You know the name?”

“Only the last one.”

“That’s the only one you need to know. The Army isn’t a popular institution any more but it’s still got a lot of power in the general scheme of things. There’s not a seat of power on Thaumantias that doesn’t have a Templeton or sympathizer-of sitting in it. If this kid makes it, he’ll be the third in MEWAC alone. And he finished the Click in a record time. Four minutes and seven seconds. Makes sense since they’re all transgen freaks. That family invests so much in gene therapy it’s hard to believe they still got more money than God. Arakaki, Tani, hell, most names with top results on the Click belong to families with their fingers and thumbs dipped in all that crap.”

“Not mine. My father doesn’t believe in it. He’s a natural. Only my mother’s got transgens on her side.”

“Rook, that’s my point. You got lucky today. When they do the medical, they’re gonna look for the genes they think will fit the Suits. And they’re not gonna forget what families support military funding, I guarantee it. You must have had some ideas about what you wanted to do here, but it’s best you put the Suits out of your mind. Fifteen years ago, I finished well ahead of the curve in the Click here. Was a bit different then, but I still managed under nine mikes. You know what I do now?”

“No.”

“Foot infantry, Close Ground Support. I’m the one with nano-net camo in my pack and a Lacrau on my shoulder. If I’m lucky, I can hitch a ride on a Hammerhead so it will park me up a tree to set up an observation post or a defensive position, and that’s about as close as I’ll ever get to being in one. I’m saying this ‘cause I just don’t want you to go down to the canteen and mouth off about your time. Keep your eyes open, your trap shut, and hope for a miracle, ‘cause that’s about all you can do from now on. Got it?”

“Yes ...”

“And shut your mouth about your father being a natural. You won’t be getting any points for that either, understood?”

“Yes.” Toni answered quietly.

They stood silently for a while, watching as, far below, the radio-operator carefully dropped his equipment into a soldier’s waiting hands before jumping into the mud. A minute later they were truly alone.

Toni finally turned to the corporal.

“Baylen, I know what you said about asking questions, but could you answer me a couple?”

Baylen smiled and nodded. “Depends on what you ask, rook.”

“What was my time?”

“Eight minutes, seventeen seconds. Do you get it now?”

“Yeah, I got it. Another question. What the hell did Mason write on my forehead?”

Baylen snapped his head towards Toni and watched him carefully. Then his lips cracked into a grin and he began to laugh loudly enough to disturb the wildlife.

“Ah hell, you rooks crack me up! You mean you haven’t even guessed by now?”

“No. I just didn’t like the way the captain looked at me, that’s all.” Toni replied.

The grin dissipated from Baylen’s face.

“Rook, you gotta understand that some reputations can be hard to lose around here. Some guys fuck up on Day One and never get over it. And if First Sergeant MotherFucker Mason wrote
Mister Tardy
on your forehead, it’s ‘cause you broke one of the cardinal rules over here. You never, ever, make your betters wait for you.”

“Understood. If that’s the case, can we get going now?” Toni asked.

“That’s the spirit, rook.” Baylen said, giving Toni a heavy slap on his shoulder blade before he launched himself out onto the nano-net.

200 kilometers above Capicua, 14H35, 14th of January, 2771

Tommi “Kaiser” Von Beulwitz was beginning to feel the gees stacking up, the Tactical Entry Capsule rocking slightly as it encountered denser atmosphere. For the first time regretful at executing the entry dry, he began to flex his forearms and abdomen as his suit tightened like a python around his legs. The following minutes wouldn’t fare well if he blacked out. At the very least it would be an embarrassing event.

Kaiser wondered how Lippard was in that moment, and whether she was taking any pleasure in the suit’s tightening embrace.

No, no, stop thinking about her
, he scolded himself. It was definitely no time for an erection. Getting wood just as his suit was constricting his crotch was a bad way to go.

As the blue-lettered Operating System before his eyes displayed a deceleration exceeding six gees, he began to feel very small indeed. One man inside a g-suit, which was inside a mobile Suit, which was inside the TEC, which was at that very moment penetrating the bloated atmosphere of a planet over three times as massive as Earth. All that remained was for God to show up and dropkick the planet.

The atmospheric entry had officially begun only three minutes before, the four TECs advancing in single file, distanced ten kilometers from one another as they streaked across the sky at just under eleven kilometers per second. That figure was history by now, the speed bleeding off so quickly Kaiser could feel his eyeballs trying to push their way further back into their sockets. The digital deceleration indicator was no longer blue but grey, although he knew nothing was wrong with his instruments; he was momentarily colorblind, in the graying-out stage before complete loss of consciousness. He also knew that he was only a powerless passenger; The TEC’s onboard computer was the current pilot for the flight, and it would be taking care of the entire voyage down to the planetary surface, landing included. But most of all, he knew what would be expected of him from that moment onwards.

And wouldn’t it be rather awkward if his subordinates were met with snores instead of leadership? Lippard would certainly tease him mercilessly afterwards, although that idea he didn’t quite mind. He clenched his fists painfully, breathing in low grunts as the moment of greatest deceleration came and passed.

The seconds slowly bled away. Already reverting to its sky-blue coloring, the deceleration indicator finally dropped below three gees. Kaiser mentally ordered the OS to indicate airspeed instead. It was time to get to work.

Visible Light Orbital Images had shown the landing site to be almost entirely forested, with the exception of several clearings, each about thirty meters in diameter and set within a region four kilometers across. There had been no positive identification of artificial structures like those found twelve hundred kilometers to its north-east, but near-infrared imaging had pointed to something else; the area comprising twenty by fifty kilometers was noticeably darker than its surroundings in the false-color images, and was roughly rectangular in shape. The clearings were all within that rectangle, and four would shortly be targets of visitation.

Kaiser felt the TEC wobble slightly and veer towards the side. The capsule had found its target and was presently homing in on it. At least, that was what a flash message from its CPU was telling him via its link with the mobile Suit’s counterpart. Still entirely blind except for his OS indicators, unable to establish comms with his subordinates and unqualified to pilot his entry vehicle, he ordered his Suit’s OS to offer him instead a countdown to landing, feeling momentarily impotent as he watched the clock count backwards from four minutes and eight seconds.

As the seconds passed slowly by, Kaiser took the time to personally reconsider his orders. They had seemed quite simple when studied from orbit, or at least as far as the commander giving them was concerned, he thought. But when one is hurtling downwards towards the unknown, plan B suddenly becomes just as important as plan A. And plan B, in that instance, wasn’t altogether too encouraging. He considered his options. The very thought of them left him decided to do his usual. Carve out a plan C.

The warning beep signaling the sixty second mark returned him to reality. He paused for a moment as he collected his thoughts, and then set about checklisting his status. Given another silent order, his OS responded immediately, supplying him with a virtual stereoscopic HUD upon which were displayed several small rectangular panels. Providing the adequate neural impulse every time he locked his eyes on a panel, thus selecting and displacing it closer towards him, he checked his operational status, quickly arming his weapons and synchronizing the reactor’s ramp-up with the moment of touchdown. Aside from the chirpy sounds playing into his ears every time a panel was opened, checked or closed, he was pleased to hear the thrum surrounding him become somewhat louder and higher in pitch in response to his adjustments.

As the countdown continued past the thirty second mark with another loud beep, Kaiser left a final panel open before him, willing himself not to activate it before touchdown. The panel lay in the foreground, almost blotting out the digital countdown and other backdrop indicators, and its coloring was presently azure. In a few moments, the panel’s activation would turn it green in color, and then the panel would automatically drop back into the semi-transparent miniature of the initial HUD display below and to his right, where his right pauldron was usually visible beyond. If there was a failure of some kind, it would either drop away red, which would be a bad sign, or maintain its current position, flashing crimson with a corresponding verbal warning, which would be far worse.

A clear, serene female voice spoke out clearly, giving a verbal countdown towards landing as if she were calmly reading the numbers from a scroll. For the second time since having begun atmospheric entry, Kaiser felt his spine tingle in anticipation. His entire body began to key up until, just as the count hit the five second mark, he heard a muffled thump, and then he felt his back suddenly press against the Suit’s interior exoskeleton as the g-suit within began to tighten around him once more. The deceleration was much more intense than before and, as he heard the last three seconds being announced, his magnified hearing caught the unmistakable roar of retrorockets firing.

And then the pressure ceased entirely, immediately compensated for by the sudden relaxation of his g-suit. Kaiser hadn’t even felt the bump of the landing, so smooth had it been, and yet, just as his OS had been programmed to do, he suddenly gained stereoscopic vision, with display overlays duly set at differing depths of perception, figuring dominantly since the mobile Suit’s oculars were still in complete darkness. Kaiser eyed the dominant panel and activated it. The panel blinked, glowing suddenly red, and trailed away towards the miniature HUD, momentarily leaving a crimson streak in his field of vision.

“Scheisse!” He muttered.

A brief flash of blinding light accompanied several loud popping sounds, the sudden light being immediately compensated for by the OS before his eyes had even managed to adjust. The TEC’s four petals had released, deploying promptly outwards and freeing his mobile Suit’s extremities. The solitary red panel still present in the Op Status HUD blipped once more, turning a verdant green color. Kaiser sighed inwardly in relief; apparently in his zeal he had jumped the gun, activating Suit mobility too early.

He lay there for a moment, a feeling of unreality gradually stealing over him as he contemplated his surroundings. The sky was the same blue as the unchecked panels, effectively obscuring them from his sight. The system automatically compensated for that, offering Kaiser the option to change to an appropriate setting. Duly altered, the unchecked panels glowed a bright purple for as long as the backdrop was blue.

It was certainly the most beautiful of days. There were almost no clouds in the sky, the few present nonetheless whizzing darkly overhead with unnaturally high speed. His immediate surroundings, however, were a hazy brown from the violence of the landing, and he could see at least one of the jettisoned braking chutes clinging to the trees at the edge of the clearing, threatening to blow away due to the strong wind that was ruffling the forest treetops. The sound, however, was quite unlike anything Kaiser had ever heard on Earth.

The chirping cacophony of birds was terribly intense, as avian species of all kinds swooped through the air in alarm at the intrusion upon their domain. To his great surprise, Kaiser found that the clouds he’d seen before were nothing less than massive pulsating flocks of birds seemingly disturbed by his arrival, and indeed as one such flock strayed closer towards him, his magnified hearing clearly caught the intensifying swoosh of thousands of flapping wings until, veering away, the sound abated to a rumble. He was astonished by the awesome, almost exorbitant, display of life, a vision quite unlike anything he had encountered in person before.

Never again
, he thought in wonder.
Never again shall I set foot on another spacecraft or planet, this is where I will live and where I will die
, Kaiser privately promised himself.

His sense of balance told him that he was still lying on his back. He stood slowly, one careful movement at a time so as to leave the entry capsule undamaged, and his eyes assessed the state of his appendages, focusing especially on the pulsed laser platform gripped between his mechanical hands. A massive titanium carbon nitride-coated thumb flicked its selector to semiauto. Holding the rifle in his right appendage, Kaiser flexed his arms outwards and around in a practiced movement, the feedback to his interior exoskeleton telling him that his freedom of movement was currently unimpeded. Surging forwards, the Suit’s heavy pads stomped loudly over the ramp provided by one of the petals, until moments later much more muffled footfalls could be heard as he padded over the clearing’s grass-carpeted grounds.

The other TECs must already have landed
, he decided. Activating the short range radio comm, Kaiser broadcasted into the unknown.

“RecOp Chain, Kaiser here, Over.”

A brief moment later he was answered.

“Kaiser, Lippie here.” He felt his spine tingle at the sound of her husky voice.

“Received, Lippard. RecOp Chain, sound-off, over.”

“Lippard here.”

“Moose here, over.”

“Deadhand here.”

So operators two, three and four were currently up and running. A perfect drop, he thought with some relief.

“Chain received. Execute recce as previously established. Stay off the air, over.”

Kaiser waited for their acknowledgements, receiving them mutely as he itched to set off on his own.

He had exactly one hour to beat his part of the bush before rendezvous four kilometers to the north-east. Conjuring a semi-transparent overlay of the area, Kaiser dragged it with his eyes to the bottom left of his visual display. Taking a few steps forwards, he watched as the semi-spherical virtual compass beside the map danced about due to interference from the myriad local magnetic fields. The planet’s magnetic field was just as weak as he’d been warned. He’d have to keep moving while the CPU computed the mean magnetic average, all just to keep his map’s top edge pointed north.

After making the necessary adjustments Kaiser finally set off, making a slow circuit of the clearing as he peered at his surroundings. Magnifying a spot of earth on a foreground overlay, he found it littered with what appeared to be bone-white seeds between the clumps of grass, their number increasing sharply as he neared the center. Kaiser scraped his left gauntlet along the soil, bringing up more dirt than anything else, pocketing the yield securely inside an empty pouch on the Suit’s tactical vest.

He then moved into the forest with rifle snug against his breastplate pylon, roaming in a spiral trajectory so as to get a feel for the surrounding area. Despite the Suit’s sizable dimensions, the trees were tall and well spaced, offering him a meter of ceiling as long as he carefully chose his route.

The woods had definitely seen the hand of man. They had the feel of a kempt plantation, although the trees themselves didn’t have the look of a rapid-growth type.

And what on Earth do you know about trees?
He asked himself.

Enough to know that sooner or later they fall, and there simply do not seem to be any of those lying here
, he mused as he searched around. Yes, he concluded confidently, despite the overwhelming abundance of animal life the place reeked of mankind.

As he moved along at leisure, stopping every few moments to allow his ears to do some exploring of their own, he happened occasionally upon the local wildlife. Aside from the great abundance of birds, whose panicked calls chafed at his ears whenever he got too close to them, Kaiser crossed paths with a troop of small monkeys taking refuge in a particularly robust tree, and they let out all manner of shrieks as he curiously inspected them. He had never seen a live monkey before. Soon afterwards he also crossed paths with a fleeing deer and a shy red fox, although both made themselves scarce in a heartbeat. If it hadn’t been for his system’s motion alerts, he would probably never have known they were there in the first place.

For most of the hour allocated to him for solo reconnaissance, Kaiser searched his surroundings, finding not a sign of recent human activity. Despite coming upon some narrow roads, clearly intended for use by tracked vehicles, he had been unable to detect a single tread on them, although all led north-westwards to where the nearest known settlements could be found. Kaiser also noticed at least an earth-year’s worth of undisturbed vegetation growing over those roads.