The cloud stretches across the heavens like the Devils own wedding veil. It is the coming of an immortal penumbra as Lalonde is eclipsed by a force before which nature trembles in fear. The planet is being forcibly wedded to a dark lord, and the prospect of cold alien offspring issuing forth is one which gnaws menacingly at the teams fragile spirit.
Please! Sal Yong protested loudly. I want to eat sometime today. The big combat-adept mercenary was sitting on the bench ahead of Kelly, shoulders slewed so the front of his rounded, dull-gloss head was aligned on her.
Sorry, she said. She hadnt been aware she was talking out loud. This is crazy, you know. We should be running the opposite way.
Life is crazy, Kell. Dont let that stop you from enjoying it. He swung his doughty shoulders back.
The problem is, Id like to go on enjoying it, preferably for decades.
Then why come here? Ariadne asked. She was sitting next to Sal Yong, steering the hovercraft with a small joystick.
Born stupid, I guess.
Ive been with Reza for a decade now, the female ranger scout said. Ive seen atrocities and violence even your scoop-happy company would never show for public consumption. Weve always made it home. Hes the best combat scout team leader youll ever meet.
On a normal mission, yes. But this bloody thing Her arm rose to take in the cloud and gloomy jungle with an extravagant sweep. Look at it, for Christs sake. Do you really think a couple of well-placed maser blasts from orbit are going to knock it out? We need the whole Confederation Navy armed with every gram of antimatter theyve ever confiscated.
Still got to have somewhere to shoot that antimatter down at, Sal Yong said. The navy would have to send the marines in if we werent already here shovelling shit. Think of the money were saving the Confederation taxpayer.
Beside Kelly, Theo broke into a high-pitched chuckle. He even sounds like a monkey, she thought.
Regular marines couldnt handle this, Ariadne said cheerfully, guiding the hovercraft round a rock. Youd need the Trafalgar Greenjackets. Special-forces types, boosted like us.
Bunch of knuckle shufflers, all theory and drills, Sal Yong said witheringly. The two of them started arguing over the merits of various regiments.
Kelly gave up. She just couldnt get through to them. Perhaps that was what made mercenaries so different, so fascinating. It wasnt just the physical supplement boosting, it was the attitude. They really didnt care about the odds, staking their life time and again. That would make a good follow-up story back at Tranquillity; interview some ex-mercs, find out why they had quit. She loaded a note in her neural nanonics. The pretence of normality. Keep the mind busy so it doesnt have time to brood.
The hovercraft arrived at the Quallheim itself after another forty minutes. It was four or five times the width of the tributary, over two hundred and fifty metres broad. Both banks were overrun with tall trees that leant over the river at sharp angles, plunging aerial roots and thick vines into the water. Snowlilies lay three deep on the surface, moving at an infinitesimal pace. Where the tributary emptied into the Quallheim they formed a mushy metre-high dune on top of the water.
Now the scout team headed upriver, keeping close to the northern bank and the paltry cover of the trees. Reza seemed more concerned about lying exposed to the cloud than proximity to possible hostiles on the land. With nothing but the lightly furrowed carpet of snowlilies opening out like an empty ten-lane motorway ahead, the hovercraft began to pick up speed.
It was dark on the river, under the centre of the cloudband, an occultation which made all the team switch to infrared vision. The trees blocked any sight of the natural sunlight beyond it. Thunder was a constant companion, booms slithering up and down the river like the backwash of some vast creature burrowing its way through the vermilion vapour above. Big insects, similar to terrestrial dragonflies but without wings, skipped across the snowlilies, only to be hurled tumbling by the wind of the hovercrafts passage. Vennals, burning with a pink-blue radiance of charcoal embers, hung in the branches of the trees, watching the small convoy rush past with wide, soft eyes.
Towards the middle of the morning, Reza stood up and signalled the second hovercraft towards the northern bank where there was a break in the trees. Ariadne rode the craft up the lush grass to a halt next to its twin. Fenton and Ryall were already bounding off into the undergrowth.
I didnt want to datavise, Reza said when they all gathered round. And from now on well operate a policy of minimal electronic emission. Ariadne, have you detected any broadcasts from the invaders?
Not yet. Ive had our ELINT blocks scanning since we landed. The electromagnetic spectrum is clean. If theyre communicating its either by ultra-tight beam, or fibre optics.
They could be using affinity, or an analogue, Pat said.
In that case, you can forget homing in on them, she said. Nobody can intercept that kind of transmission.
What about the blackhawks? Jalal asked. Could they detect it?
No good, Pat said. They cant even detect the bond between me and Octan, let alone some xenoc variant.
Never mind, Reza said. The Quallheim Counties were the origin of the invasion. There has to be a large base station around here somewhere. Well find it. In the meantime, there is a village called Pamiers a couple of kilometres ahead. Pat says Octan has located it.
Thats right, Pat Halrahan said. Hes circling it now, at a reasonable distance. The whole place is illuminated with white light, yet there is no break in the cloud overhead. There are houses there as well, about thirty or forty proper stone buildings alongside the wood shacks the colonists build.
Smith said there were buildings like that in villages the observation satellites did manage to view, Reza said.
Yeah, but I cant see where they came from, Pat said. There are no roads at all, no way to bring the stone in.
Air or river, Sewell suggested.
Invade a planet then airlift in stone houses for the population? Pat said. Come on, this is weird, but not insane. Besides, there is no sign of any construction activity. The grass and paths havent been churned up. And they should have been, the houses have only been here a fortnight at most.
They could be something like our programmed silicon, Kelly said, and rapped a gloved knuckle on the hard gunwale behind her. Assembled in minutes, and easily airlifted in.
They look substantial, Pat said with vague unease. I know thats not an objective opinion, but thats the way it feels. Theyre solid.
How many people? Reza asked.
Twenty or twenty-five walking about. There must be more inside.
OK, this is our first real chance to obtain serious Intelligence data as to whats going on down here, Reza said. Were going to deactivate the hovercraft and cut through the jungle around the back of Pamiers. After weve reached the river again and set up a retreat option, Ill take Sewell and Ariadne with me into the village, while the rest of you provide us with some cover. Assume anyone you meet is hostile and sequestrated. Any questions?
Id like to come into Pamiers with you, Kelly said.
Your decision, Reza said indifferently. Any real questions?
What information are we looking for? Ariadne asked.
Intent and capability, Reza said. Also physical disposition of their forces, if we can get it.
Hackles raised inside her armour, Kelly let the team shove a couple of hovercraft electron matrices into her pack before they all set off again. Reza didnt want them to walk in single file, for fear of ambush; instead they fanned out through the trees with chameleon circuits on, avoiding animal paths. There was a method of trekking through the raw jungle, Kelly learnt, and for her it was always walking where Jalal walked. He seemed to instinctively find the easiest way around trees and thick undergrowth, avoiding having to force his way against the clawing branches and heavy loam. So she kept her helmet sensors focused on the low-power UV pin-point light at the nape of his neck, and bullied her legs to keep up.