Earth Awakens (The First Formic War) (19 page)

CHAPTER 9

Goo Guns

Mazer lay on his back in the mud beneath the fuselage of the HERC, twisting two wires together, trying to make a spark. They had landed in a rice field southwest of Lechang, with the nose of the fuselage resting on an embankment between two paddies. That left a narrow space beneath the HERC at the edge of the embankment where Mazer could crawl in, remove some of the hull plates, and access the main electrical system. The two wires touched, there was a crack of electricity, a small motor whirred to life, then something popped inside the circuit boards and a puff of acrid smoke wafted out into Mazer’s face.

“That doesn’t sound promising,” said Wit. He was kneeling at the bottom of the embankment, bending low to look under the fuselage where Mazer was working.

“I think I just cooked the avionics,” Mazer said. “Plus the lenses are inoperative, and I can’t reboot the system. The only way this thing is flying again is if we launch it from a giant slingshot.”

“I’m not heartbroken,” said Wit. “I didn’t want to get back in that thing anyway.”

It had been a rough landing. The rotor blades had slowed the HERC’s descent, but they hadn’t stopped it. Mazer had brought it down as best as he knew how, but the landing had rattled everyone on board.

Mazer turned over onto his stomach, commando-crawled out from under the HERC, got to his feet, and squinted at the sun. He was covered in mud, and his wet uniform clung to his body. He had shed the biosuit after they had landed. It wasn’t much use at this point; the glass shards from the windshield had left gaping holes in it. As for the cuts, Mazer had come out better than he had expected. Two shards of glass had imbedded into his skin, the worse of which was on the back of his right forearm. It had just missed the ulnar artery. Wit had pulled the shard out using tweezers from the med kit, then he had put a few stitches in the wound and covered the area with a liquid bandage. The paste had dried hard and created a sort of vambrace on Mazer’s arm.

Mazer walked up the embankment that separated the paddy from the one adjacent and got one of the water bottles from the emergency kit. He unscrewed the top, took a long drink, then poured water into his hand and cleaned the mud from his face.

“Any sign of Shenzu?” he asked.

Wit put the binoculars to his eyes and looked west toward the mountains. Shenzu had gone in that direction a few hours ago with the antenna to try to get a radio signal. “Here he comes now.”

Far in the distance, Shenzu stepped from the jungle and made his way across the field toward them. When he arrived Mazer could see it wasn’t good news.

“The dozer got through to Dragon’s Den, but it makes no difference. The entire convoy from Lianzhou was destroyed. Most of the camp at Lianzhou as well. A small group got out and have regrouped north of the city, but General Sima’s army is essentially annihilated.”

“That was eleven thousand men,” said Wit.

“It gets worse,” said Shenzu. “The transports are more aggressive now than they have been. All of them are targeting populated areas now. And I don’t just mean the new transports from the second wave. I mean all of them, including the death squads that were in rural areas spraying rice fields and livestock. They’re all targeting cities now.”

“Which cities?” asked Wit.

“Every city in southeast China, including the big ones. Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan. Many of these had already been evacuated, but there are millions of people who hadn’t left. Other transports are hitting villages and cities as far north as Linwu County. I can’t imagine what the casualty estimates might be.” He took a water bottle and downed half of it. Then he wiped his mouth and said, “That’s not all. I also got word on the attacks Sima coordinated against the landers.”

“The drill-sledge teams?” asked Mazer.

“They failed,” said Shenzu. “The sledges waited too long. The underside of the landers were shielded when the teams arrived. Formics wiped out the two teams and destroyed the drill sledges.”

“So the landers still stand,” said Wit. “And the Formic army is larger and more aggressive than it ever was before. Do you have any good news?”

“I wish I did.”

Wit sighed and thought for a moment. “If the convoy at Lianzhou was taken out, then the science team is lost. That means no one is working on stopping the gas. That should be our priority.”

“We’re not scientists,” said Shenzu. “We can’t develop a counteragent.”

“No, but we can take goo guns to scientists who can.”

“Who?” said Shenzu. “China had assembled its strongest team. How will we find replacements? The best universities and research facilities are south along the coast where the death squads are attacking. Those people will be scattered.”

“We don’t look in China,” said Wit. “We take the goo guns to New Delhi. There’s a bioengineer there. A man named Pavar Gadhavi, the world’s leading authority on defining the folding mechanisms of protein structures. MOPs have used him before to counter bioweapons. He knows me. If anyone can decipher the liquid it’s Gadhavi.”

“You’re proposing we take an alien bioweapon across the border into India?” said Shenzu. “China would never allow this. India either.”

“We can’t bring Gadhavi to us,” said Wit. “It’s not safe. Even if we had a second Chinese team, I’d suggest moving them out of country. Besides, we don’t have the equipment Gadhavi will need. We have to go to him.”

“You speak as if the military and government have no say in the matter,” said Shenzu.

“They don’t,” said Wit. “Not as far as I’m concerned. Mazer and I were under General Sima’s command. That command structure has broken. If you want to help, I could certainly use it. We need your expertise, but I’m not waiting for the CMC or Politburo to debate the matter. They would never approve it anyway. Are you in or out?”

“How do you propose getting to New Delhi? Even if the HERC could fly, it would never make that distance. New Delhi is over thirty-five hundred kilometers away.”

“We’ll find another aircraft. Airports will have abandoned planes.”

Shenzu scoffed. “So you’ll steal one.”

“‘Commandeer’ is a more polite term,” said Wit.

“What about fuel?” asked Shenzu.

“This is why I need you,” said Wit. “You’re already making a list of everything we’ll require.”

“If you try to cross the border illegally, India will shoot you down. They’re extremely protective of the border because of the war.”

“They won’t shoot us down,” said Wit. “That would release the Formic gas into their country.”

“They won’t know you have Formic gas,” said Shenzu.

“They will because I’ll tell them. Once I do that, whatever fighters they scramble to shoot us down will be ordered to escort us wherever we need to go.”

“You’ve thought this out, haven’t you?”

“Actually no, we’re making it up together, but it’s a beginning. Is there an airfield near here?”

Shenzu was quiet a moment. “They’ll arrest you the moment you land in India.”

“We’ve been arrested before. It didn’t stick. And anyway Dr. Gadhavi will vouch for us.”

“Oh yes, I’m sure a scientist has enough clout to make the government forget you dragged them into an interstellar war. That’s a misdemeanor at most. Easily overlooked.”

“India is eager to enter this war,” said Wit. “They’re as determined to wipe out the Formics as you are. China is eager for a solution to the gas. Having India develop the counteragent without China asking allows China to gain an ally without appearing weak. We didn’t go begging to India, China can say. They proactively came to us. We didn’t need their help, per se, but we’ll gladly take it as a show of goodwill. This could birth a coalition, Shenzu.”

“Be that as it may,” said Shenzu, “if I help you, I would be going outside my chain of command. I would be court-martialed for treason. And if I accompany you to India, I would be tried for desertion as well. I would never see my family again.”

“Then point us toward an airfield, and we’ll be on our way,” said Wit. “We’ll say you tried to stop us, but we subdued you and escaped.”

Shenzu said nothing for a moment. He looked down at his wrist pad and tapped at it for a moment. When he finished, he looked up and exhaled, as if coming to a decision. “Shaoguan Air Base is thirty kilometers southeast of us. It’s a dual-use military, civilian airport in the town of Guitou. We will likely find a plane there.”

“We?” said Wit. “You have a family, Shenzu. I don’t want to be responsible for keeping you from them.”

“If we don’t stop the gas, my family won’t live long enough to see me anyway. I’d rather they live and I go to prison than I do nothing and let them die.”

“We’ll tell the Chinese we took you kicking and screaming,” said Mazer. “We’ll say we had to gag you and bind you because you fought us every step of the way.”

“And I never stopped singing the national anthem,” said Shenzu.

“Or waving a little Chinese flag,” said Mazer.

“How do we get to this airfield?” asked Wit.

“The Wujiang River,” said Shenzu, pointing east. “We’re close. The river runs straight southeast to the airport. I say we commandeer a boat and avoid the roads until we get Mazer another biosuit.”

“If it’s a military airfield,” said Mazer, “how do we commandeer an aircraft without causing a scene?”

“No one will resist us,” said Shenzu. “The airport fell five days ago. One of the hangars wasn’t damaged in the attack, and my database indicates there is an aircraft still inside it.” He looked uncomfortable. “But I should forewarn you. The army hasn’t returned to the site since the attack. It won’t be pleasant.”

He meant corpses. Carnage. Bodies bloating in the sun for five days. The military was so overwhelmed with the fighting and so depleted of its resources that it couldn’t even spare personnel to bury the dead.

They loaded their packs, grabbed their weapons, and hiked to the river. There were several large homes along the waterway with boathouses. Wit kicked in the door to one of the boathouses, and they found a small fishing boat with a decent-sized engine inside. Wit checked the fuel cell, judged it sufficient, then they loaded their gear, climbed aboard, and cast off.

They heard Chinese aircraft soaring by overhead and later spotted several Formic troop transports as well. But everything remained a few hundred meters up, and nothing dipped in their direction.

Mazer felt exposed without a biosuit. He was keenly aware that at any moment, a cloud of gas could drift into their path and envelop the boat.

He imagined, as he often did, two military officers going to Kim’s home in New Zealand, their faces solemn, their hats tucked under their arms. They would be strangers to her, but she would know at once why they were there. We’re so sorry, they would say. And Kim would stare at them and lean against the door frame to keep from collapsing.

Mazer should not have listed her as his next of kin. That had been a mistake. They were not married. He had wanted to leave the space blank, but the clerk doing the paperwork had insisted that he list someone. There were uncles and aunts and cousins, of course. Mother had family all over New Zealand. But they were strangers to Mazer now. After he and Father had moved to London following Mother’s death, Father had made no effort to maintain contact with Mother’s side. That had ended badly. Mazer’s grandfather had insisted that Father give Mother a traditional Maori funeral, and Father had flatly refused. There were arguments, raised voices, harsh words, one of Mazer’s uncles had moved to hit Father before being restrained. It was as vivid in Mazer’s memory as the simple ceremony Father had held. It was just the two of them at the grave site. No minister, no words, no flowers. Just Father’s cold hand in his and the silence between them and the smell of fresh-turned earth.

*   *   *

They docked the boat at a jetty at Guitou. The airport was close to the water. A faint, rancid, rotting smell permeated the air. It worsened as Mazer left the boat and approached the shore. When the airport came into view, he saw two long narrow runways, several hangars, and a control tower. To the east of the runways, the military had set up enough tents to house over one thousand men. There were tanks, ATVs, antiaircraft lasers, heavy-equipment transporters, EMP trucks, all the firepower needed to conduct a small offensive.

And all of it lay in ruins.

Corpses were scattered across the camp and airfield. Vehicles were overturned, burned out, and half melted. The runway was pockmarked with craters as big as a truck. The tower had burned down, leaving only its steel skeletal structure leaning dangerously to one side. Two of the hangars had completely collapsed.

No one spoke for a long moment. The smell was so strong Mazer thought he might be sick.

“They came at night,” said Shenzu. “One of our antiaircraft gunners shot down a transporter, and the Formics retaliated minutes later with a swarm. The air was so thick with them at one point that in some of the satellite photos, you can barely see the ground.”

“Did they gas this place?” asked Wit. “Is it safe for Mazer to even approach the hangar?”

Shenzu was holding a device in the air. “The gas has long since dissipated. All I’m getting are elevated traces of hydrogen sulfide and methane, both likely from the decomposition. As long as he doesn’t touch anything, he should be okay. There are resupply trucks in the camp. We’ll find an unopened biosuit there.”

They made their way through the labyrinth of tents, heading toward the resupply trucks. Some of the tents had burned down; others had blown over in the wind and rain. Debris was everywhere. Pots, plates, helmets, weapons. Many of the soldiers had been roused from sleep during the attack and had run out of their tents in their undergarments. They lay in the mud among the soldiers in uniform, bloated and pasty and bleached by the sun.

All of the pathways were thick with mud. There were puddles with standing water everywhere, all of them coated with a thin layer of chemical scum.

They passed vehicles that had burned out, some with the driver still at the wheel. They passed downed Formic aircraft, a few of which had crashed into the tents, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake.