Casserine (15 page)

“Lure them out away from the Queen,” Tokoru broke in excitedly. “It would be like shooting fish in a barrel if we can isolate her.”

“We also have to figure out a way to block her signal though,” Jake added. “When we find out where she’s at, we may be able to bombard her with ultrasonic vibrations, while playing Pied Piper to her horde.”

“What about changing the frequency of the particle beam weapon theory?” Mercer suggested. “It works using the molecules in the air. If it were set to work within an audio range of the type used by the Queen, we could bombard her right through the ground from above.”

“Damn Charlie,” Jake smiled, clapping a hand on Mercer’s shoulder, “that might just work. What do you think Anton?”

“I’ll get the lab boys working on it as soon as they figure out from our recordings, and the creatures, what exactly makes them tick. I have some disturbing news to add though, General.”

“What is it?” Jake asked, suddenly somber at Stavros’ words.

“I hate to disrupt the festivities over your successful mission, but you might as well hear it now,” Stavros replied. “Our tracking satellites with the heightened sensor arrays worked just as you had envisioned. We were getting readings from two different areas on Bougainville, and since you left the surface, the activity in those suspected nests sends the scanners right off the scale.”

“Two Queens?” Jake asked.

“I’m afraid so, General,” Stavros confirmed as the others around them cursed under their breath. “As you know, Bougainville orbits this quadrant’s Sun at roughly the same distance as Omaha, and only has slightly more mass. Both planets would seem almost negligible to Earth in size, but their density is almost identical, hence the atmosphere they enjoy, and the Earthlike gravity. Omaha.”

“I don’t mean to be short with you,” Jake interrupted impatiently, “but this changes.”

“Bear with me, Sir,” Stavros cut in. “Reports of new plant and animal life on Omaha since the extermination of the Bugs make our scientists believe the Bugs are responsible for the barren aspects of the terrain on both Omaha and Bougainville. Even small bodies of water have formed on Omaha since the war there. The scientists believe the Queens and numbers in the horde vary according to planetary conditions or attrition, meaning they drain the very life out of the planet to the point where nothing can exist there but them. Ever.”

“I’m beginning to get a headache, Colonel,” Jake said quietly. “Let’s take this discussion into a more private hearing room, and you can bring me up to date. A picture has begun forming in the back of my head, and I don’t like what it’s showing me. Charlie, can you tell those lab boys what we want them looking for, and then meet us in the same wardroom as before. Get the weapons officer you met in the meeting, Major Richardson, in on it too, okay?”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” Mercer replied crisply, turning to carry out hisorders.

“Corporal, see to those civilians,” Jake told Mendoza. “Make sure they are confined to quarters, and a guard assigned to make sure they do no wandering around at all. You know what to do if you get any grief from them.”

“What about you Sir, I.”

“Do what I said, Bob,” Jake smiled, “and then get some food, clean up, and report to the wardroom. I’ll still be there.”

“Yes Sir,” Mendoza saluted, and hurried off.

Jake turned to Stavros and Tokoru, gesturing for them to lead the way. “Shall we gentlemen? Let’s get the video piped into the wardroom, and I’ll watch it while I throw down some coffee. Then you can finish telling me what they’ve been holding out on us.”

Stavros began to say something, but instead he turned towards the wardroom with a smiling Tokoru trailing him. Jake saw Major Peters exit the Drop Ship with Captain Corey. Corey gripped Peters’ arm, shrinking back away from the creatures and the crowd around them. Jake caught their attention, and gestured for the two pilots to join him. They caught up to Jake, with Corey still hanging on to Peters’ arm. Major Peters patted her hand with his free one, smiling down at her in commiseration. Corey looked up at Peters sheepishly, as if noticing for the first time she was still clinging to him. As they drew abreast of Jake, Corey had moved a step away from Peters, and her color had improved.

“God, Jake,” Corey exclaimed in a whisper. “What the hell did you have to bring those things on board for? You thinking of getting a pet?”

Jake and Peters both laughed at her half serious remark. “They were dead before I brought them on, Sara, and we need to find out a lot more about them. Remember this was only the preliminary round, and from what Colonel Stavros just hinted to me, we may even need a live one later on.”

“You don’t mean that,” Corey said. “Adrian would cut your heart out if she ever gets wind of what you’re up to, General.”

“There’s a nice court martial and five years on Tannengate for the one who lets her in on the details of our mission on Bougainville,” Jake replied, shaking his finger at Corey.

“I won’t do it,” Corey protested, “but what about the streaming video you had going back to Genoa live? Don’t you think…Jake…are you okay?”

Jake had stopped dead in his tracks as he remembered he had ordered video transmitted right from the recon mission to Genoa for all military and civilian personnel to see. “Oh…my…God.”

Corey broke into raucous laughter at the sight of Jake’s stunned visage. She turned to Peters, who merely smiled in confusion. She gestured to Jake. “When his wife gets a look at that video from the recon mission, our erstwhile General will be volunteering for sentry duty back at Tarawa Jump Gate again, right Sir?”

Chapter 14 

Re-infestation

Jake started walking again, as he slung his particle beam weapon further up on his shoulder. “What was I thinking? I could have edited the public version, and sent back the whole thing for General Risling, encoded. She’s probably already transferred my stuff to the cave.”

“Maybe Risling hasn’t sent it out to her yet,” Peters offered. “She doesn’t have a live feed on Casserine unless she gets the signal from Genoa.”

“Tea,” Jake said enthusiastically. “I’ll bet he didn’t. I’ll get hold of him after the meeting, and make sure none of it gets to Casserine.”

“In all of your old video and literature perusing Jake, did you ever run across the term ‘pussy whipped’?” Corey asked derisively.

“Okay, I may overreact a little where Adrian’s concerned,” Jake admitted, “but living by ourselves on Casserine means I have no place to go when she gets mad at me.” He hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders in resignation. “I’m whipped. There’s no use in denial.”

Both Peters and Corey burst into laughter at this admission as they walked through the hatch and into the wardroom. Jake stripped down to just the uniform coveralls he wore under his armored outer layer. Peters and Corey joined Tokoru and Stavros at the conference table after getting some coffee from the drink dispenser. Jake brought his cup over moments later and sat down.

“We better make this short,” Jake said apologetically. “I smell like agoat.”

“If you hadn’t been hauling around twenty foot monsters, General, you would be a bit fresher,” Tokoru pointed out to everyone’s amusement.

“Thanks for the insight, Yuri,” Jake replied. “Let’s get started.”

Stavros triggered the hologram display set up at the end of the table. Images showing the action sequence, along with the movements of the support ships, played as a backdrop to the helmet cam video streams. Although they stressed the terror of the confrontation, Jake had Stavros cut out the civilian group’s video stream. The whole mission took very little time from beginning to end. When the display ended, Jake looked around.

“Any observations?”

“They picked up on the civilian group astoundingly fast,” Stavros said. “Add to it the speed at which the things started a flanking movement, and I can see why it was a miracle you ever made it down into the nest on Omaha.”

“First off,” Jake replied, “the Bugs didn’t flank us. They’ve acquired that little maneuver since Omaha. Secondly, Command used a regiment of Marines as bait to draw the Bugs out, and then did what they could to keep them busy while the rest of us went down in. As it was, we had very little time before the things made their own beelines right back to the nest. The explosive charge needed to pierce the protective shell the bitch has would ignite the entire underground cavern. Anyway, we’ll come up with something else when the time comes.”

“All the weapons worked,” Mercer said as he joined the group.

“Amen to that,” Jake agreed.

“Well, here’s what the satellite scanners picked up,” Stavros said, switching to an image of movement under the crust of the small planet, as projected from the scanners. Two distinct pockets of heightened activity became immediately obvious as the attacking horde was destroyed.

“Son of a bitch,” Mercer exclaimed. “There are two Queens.”

“This the only surprise you were talking about, Colonel?” Jakeasked.

“That and the news they finally let filter down to us about how changed Omaha became after the Bugs were killed,” Stavros replied. “The rumors of some form of communication between the Bugs on both worlds would seem guaranteed with today’s recon mission info.”

“I think it may be bigger than just some telepathic communication,” Jake proffered. “The Bugs don’t have space ships, so how the hell did they get on Omaha and Bougainville. Even with the similarity in conditions, it’s a big stretch to start believing in spontaneous creationism. I’m glad they’ve started thinking about how Omaha changed without the Bugs. There’s a piece missing out of this puzzle, and my imagination has begun to work overtime. Maybe.”

Jake jumped up out of his seat. “Shit, I just got a bad feeling. Anton, can you put me through to the Commanding Officer over on Omaha?”

“Sure,” Stavros replied, as everyone else had stood up. “What’s wrong?”

“Does Omaha have any tracking for underground movement since the war?”

“No Sir, I don’t.” Stavros began.

“Skip the rest,” Jake cut in. “We have to make some calls. Lead the

_ 55way.

“I’ll put it through to your quarters, Sir,” Stavros said.

Jake nodded. “Get me General Risling after I get through to the Commander on Omaha. What’s his name?”

“Colonel George Langston,” Stavros answered on his way out.

Jake looked over at Corey and Peters. “You two better get some rest. This all may get complicated real quick.”

The two pilots nodded their understanding and followed Stavros out of the hatch. Jake grabbed up his equipment, and motioned for Mercer to follow him. Mendoza was already out in the corridor. He fell in behind Jake and Mercer.

“What’s going on, Jake?” Mercer asked as they walked.

“If some new force wished to claim this sector, what would be an easier way of doing it other than an open confrontation with us?”

“You mean plant the Bugs on a planet we have already started colonizing?” Mercer asked in astonishment.

“Not plant Bugs, Charlie,” Jake replied, “just drop off one or two queens. Hell, we don’t monitor these colonies at all after we get them started up. At least I know they never paid attention to any security on Omaha before the Bug war, when the colonists were annihilated. I doubt they do now either. The escape ships were added as a security blanket for the colonists. They never figured to have to use them after the War ended. It took a while before the attacks began on Omaha. The colony leaders thought it had to do with the mining levels, but I think the mining didn’t matter. Something dropped off a Queen, and let her do her work.”

“But we beat them,” Mercer pointed out.

“What if time means nothing to this force?” Jake asked. “What if when the purge didn’t take on Omaha, they just bided their time and then went right on over to Bougainville? What would keep them from hopping back over to Omaha after they gave us something to think about on Bougainville?”

Mercer followed Jake into his quarters while Mendoza took up a position just outside the hatch. Jake threw his gear down and turned on his linked station.

“What would this force want?” Mercer continued. “They’d just have a planet full of Bugs, even if they were successful.”

“What if they know how to control the Bugs, and they have the same interest in mining we do?”

“We would be in a world of shit,” Mercer said, shaking his head. “We’ll need to put off Bougainville and get our asses back on Omaha, just so we can watch out for those colonists.”

Stavros voice came over the open com unit. “General, you have the Commandant of the Omaha mining colony on now, Sir.”

“Stay on, Anton,” Jake said, as he sat down in front of his screen. He could see Stavros in the command center, and on the other half of the screen Colonel Langston sat at a desk in his office on Omaha.

“Colonel, I want you to lock down the habitat right away. Get your perimeter gunners at their posts. Once you have everyone inside, prep your escape craft. How many Marines do you have under your command?”

“One company, Sir,” Langston answered. “What’s this all about?”

Jake went over his fears of another Queen on Omaha brought in by a foreign source.

“Holy God, I’ve got five thousand colonists on here now,” Langston said fearfully. Jake saw him reach over and hit a switch. Sirens began to blare in the background. He shouted orders over another com unit before coming back into view.

“We are on our way, Colonel,” Jake promised. “Do you have your sensor setup in the mines?”

“Yes, but they’re calibrated for plate shifts, General, to warn of tunnel collapse,” Langston explained. “I’ll hone them done to tell us of motion when I get everyone in the habitat. With all the changes on the surface, we were only weeks away from private living quarters all over. Sir, we don’t have enough room on the escape craft for everyone.”

“Lock it down, Colonel, and we’ll be there in time to evacuate,” Jake replied.

“I’m on it, Sir. Langston out.”

“Full speed to Omaha, Anton, and prep all of our Drop Ships. We will only be able to take a company of Marines on each ship, because we’ll need room to take the colonists on board.”

“Sir, this is an awful big gamble,” Stavros pointed out. “There may not be any danger on Omaha.”

“Well, Bougainville ain’t going anywhere,” Jake replied. “I’ll take the blame for this if I’m wrong, now let’s get going. Put General Risling through as soon as you get hold of him. Put a call through to Major Stedman. We will need her to cut off from her route and swing the Tennyson by Omaha in case we need to evacuate the Colonists for any length of time.”

“Aye, aye Sir, Stavros out.”

Jake turned to Mercer. “Charlie, get with Yuri, and have our men ready. We’ll be in orbit around Omaha in less than two hours. We’ll get some rest as we can once we’re loaded up on the Drop Ships, and ready to deploy. We ain’t losing any Colonists this time.”

“We’ll be ready, Jake,” Mercer said as he jogged to the door.

Jake felt the Gallant begin to move, just as General Risling appeared on the screen.

“What’s this I hear about another infestation on Omaha, Jake?” Risling said with some confusion. “Hell, we’re still absorbing the video stream you took of the recon operation on Bougainville.”

“I know, Sir. I believe an outside force may be dropping Queens on the two mining colonies to avoid confrontation. They can do it until we give up the posts. I believe they thought we’d be gone from Omaha. When they checked they found even more of us on Omaha, and a new colony on Bougainville. That’s when I believe they infested Bougainville, and when the attack drove the Colonists off, they went over to Omaha and infested it again.”

Risling rubbed his chin, considering Jake’s words. He looked up after a couple of moments. “Tour theory would go a long way to explaining all of the anomalies we’ve run across.”

“From the sensor data, we’ve got two Queens on Bougainville, and I further believe they have some way they can control the Bugs. I have them working on the bodies of two I brought on board, and if.”

“You brought two on board?” Risling broke in. “Let me guess, General, who exactly went out there to get them?”

“I had back up, and I taped it,” Jake grinned. “I just didn’t think a live feed was in order for that little addition. Anyhow, I have them working on a way we may be able to block the Queen’s signal, and feed in our own. If we can do it, then someone else can too.”

“What would these raiders want?”

“To mine the crystals,” Jake answered. “Same as us. The Bugs suck the life out of the planet, according to the information I have. The Queen reproduces until they bleed the planet’s resources to the point where her horde begins to die. I’ll bet if you look at the first explorer’s reports on

Omaha, it was probably a paradise. By the time we served there, it looked like a moonscape. I bet the same holds true for Bougainville.”

“If you’re right Jake, someone should have put two and two together at the beginning,” Risling observed. It would have saved a lot of lives on Omaha and Bougainville.”

“They probably thought the flora started dying out because of something they did with setting up the colony,” Jake mused, “but they should have noticed when the water started drying up. It’s easy to fault someone working under production pressures to get a colony up and running. We’ve warned Omaha, and we are in route. If I’m wrong, I will call and tell you so. If I’m right, I’ll be wiping out the threat on Omaha first, and setting up some kind of satellite warning system to tell us when those jokers check back in.”

“Maybe we’ve been pretending we’re the only ones out here for too long,” Risling mused.

“You’re probably wondering what kind of sick SOB’s would set something like those Bugs loose on any race. If they could have confronted us militarily, they would have. Either that or they just don’t care.”

“I’ll have to have a Force Cruiser around Omaha and Bougainville on a permanent basis if you’re right about this, Jake.”

“There must be another Jump Gate around here too, General,” Jake added. “If they had come through at Tarawa, we would have known about it.”

“Crap, we’ve only just begun branching out from there. I know one thing: those Bugs didn’t come from anywhere we’ve been so far. Well, keep in touch, and take care of yourself. Some genius set up your lovely wife, the redoubtable Lieutenant Byers, with a feed of the Bougainville operation. She was none too pleased at what she saw.”

“I take it the fact you are a General and she is a Lieutenant did not slow her down a bit, huh?”

“She used to be a fine officer,” Risling sighed. “That is, until I sent her off on a scientific survey to that.”

“Do not even tread for a moment down that path, Sir,” Jake cut in, laughing.