“Thanks.” He took Gib’s place, giving him a kind smile for the honor of being the one to test the radio. Mike turned the knob and a crackle came through the speaker. He slowly dialed the knob clockwise until the crackle turned into a series of clicks and grunts.
“That’s them!” Gib said. “The other croatoans from the farms.”
Mike listened but couldn’t make out the words.
“They’re talking in code,” Gib added, dashing around Mai in order to find a pad and a pen from the rubble strewn on the workbench.
As the radio continue to play out the croatoans’ language, Gib noted down on the pad what they were saying.
He dropped his pen on the table and handed the pad to Aimee. Mike didn’t like the look on Gibs’ face; it resembled fear too much.
Aimee read the pad and sighed.
“It’s as we feared. He’s coming for us… with force.”
Chapter 6
RAPID FOOTSTEPS ECHOED through the cavern. Layla glanced at the others in the group. Two croatoans ran through a gap in an adjacent corridor with rifles raised. Neither alien noticed them, but it appeared they were looking for something as they retraced their steps a few moments later.
“Are they searching for us?” Charlie said.
“No,” Vingo said. “But if they find you, I can’t predict the outcome. Follow me. We need to move.”
Layla followed Vingo and Charlie as they headed up a stone tunnel toward an exit from the caverns. The suit made movement effortless, once she had gotten used to it. Denver powered along by her side, inspecting the tredeyan rifle. They’d all decided to take one, mainly due to the amount of available ammunition.
Four spare magazines, containing rounds with a liquid propellant in a transparent casing, were magnetically attached to indents on both hips of their suits.
Vingo had given them a crash course on the rifle’s main functions. According to Denver and Charlie, it turned out to be fairly standard for an automatic weapon.
For Layla, it was about as alien and advanced a weapon as she’d ever handled. Unlike human weapons, this one featured a red crosshair that automatically appeared in her visor when she raised the rifle, and it followed the sights as she swept it about.
The rifle, like the tredeyans, was stocky and short, and she hoped both were reliable and trustworthy.
Every twenty seconds Layla glanced back, half expecting two angry croatoans to storm up the tunnel and start shooting.
“The scion are in many places,” Vingo said and stopped by a smooth black panel next to a door. “Report anything that you think looks suspicious.”
“Any clues what we should be looking for?” Denver said. “That’s nice and vague. We’ve seen the fighters. That’s about it.”
“They’ll likely be machines on the ground. I’ll verify.”
“We’re going to be relying on you,” Charlie said, stepping closer to the alien. “Lead the way and we’ll provide cover, but think of screwing us over… well, let’s just say I’m sick of being used by aliens.”
Vingo blinked and dropped his chest in a quick movement indicating he understood.
“You okay, Den?” Layla said, checking on Denver, concerned over his leg injury. He gave her a reassuring nod, helping decrease the hopeless feeling while being chased by the clusp and hunter, with oxygen running low. Vingo provided hope—assuming he could be trusted. She didn’t forget what Hagellan had said to them about the tredeyans: they were politicians, and if they were anything like the ones back home, she didn’t expect the best. “What do these scion actually want?” she said.
“They demanded full access to our systems,” Vingo said. “It’s the same for every planet. If you don’t comply, they attempt to take it by force.”
“What’s the motivation?” Denver said.
“The scion want some lost information. I don’t know exactly what, and it will also mean nothing to you. They will stop at nothing to get it.”
“That’s a merciless way of obtaining something you might not even know about,” Charlie said.
“They think somebody is hiding it from them. Planets under croatoan influence are being targeted. They are the ancient species, so I think the scion concluded that they must have it. That brings both of our species into their quest.”
Vingo pressed the panel. A green light winked above the dull metallic door. All raised their rifles and the electronics in the suits droned in unison. The door punched open.
Bright stars spread across the midnight blue sky. The view through Layla’s visor automatically brightened, providing an excellent enhanced view of the dark landscape. A few of the rocks stood out on the field of brown scree in front of them.
Vingo led the way. They moved in an extended line, heading for a light green hill. A plume of dark gray smoke rose behind it. Aircraft lights zipped across the sky as sporadic explosions rumbled in the distance.
Layla turned and gazed at the black prism in the sky. It had gained altitude since she last saw it and only a few small craft buzzed around its pointed base. It was hopefully a sign that they were scaling down the attack, leaving the group an uneventful trip to Vingo’s village. She laughed to herself at that ridiculous notion. Like anything would be uneventful ever again. The idea of spending time at the tredeyan village excited her, but not as much as getting safely home and not having to feel like the equivalent of being strapped to an ocean floor, surrounded by sharks, with air rapidly running out.
A charcoal-colored tredeyan fighter whined overhead. It banked to the left, headed for the silhouette of a volcano, and released a missile from its wing. Seconds later, the ground shuddered below Layla’s suit, a tower of fire belched into the sky, followed by a loud boom in close proximity.
Charlie ducked to one knee and swept the area with his rifle. “What kind of forces do the scion deploy on the ground? Do they have any missiles like that?”
The explosion glinted against Vingo’s visor as he turned back. “They attempt to leave transmitters and probes. We have to destroy them quickly before they spread.”
“How long do they carry out these probing raids?” Layla said.
“This is no raid. It’s an invasion.”
Denver and Layla quickened their pace to draw alongside the tredeyan, who continued to trudge up a hill. “Hagellan said this was a scouting mission. Is it likely to succeed?” Denver said.
“We are picking up activity all over the planet. I knew this when I said I could save you. There is a good chance Tredeya will fall.”
“And if you do?” Charlie said. “Where does that leave us?”
“We have places in our village that have survived many invasions. The scion will not purge us completely.”
Charlie glanced at Layla, who shook her head. She had no idea what the impact might be. Relating the situation to Earth during previous conflicts was her only frame of reference. Villages were easy targets for invading forces.
Vingo picked up a winding dirt path between small bushes and zigzagged toward the ridgeline.
“Why don’t you give them what they want if they’re going to leave after?” Denver said.
“The croatoans and our command won’t allow it. They think once the scion have access to their networks, the universe will fall. Machines will replace life.”
The thought sent a chill down Layla’s spine, although Vingo’s version of life probably didn’t include plants and animals, only the species who ruled each planet. Vingo trudged to the top of the ridgeline and crouched. Layla joined him and looked down into a light green valley peppered with rocks and circular dark green bushes.
A group of fifty tredeyan ground troops moved under the cover of starlight, darting from tree to rock at the bottom of the slope. White-hot flashes burst from their muzzles and the hollow crackle of alien gunfire echoed in the valley. They headed for a six-meter-high square black machine hovering above the ground among a lone cluster of trees. A rod came from its under-section and planted in the ground.