Part 10
Harper turned to Private Brooks and they both opened their mouths to say something. Harper spoke first. "Brooks, notify Pioneer we have contacts." He looked back to the ridgeline to see the objects were indeed coming closer.
"Ian, they’re probably just doing a sweep of the outlying area," Kasan offered as Brooks hailed the colony ship.
Private Smith cleared his throat to get their attention. "Um, if they’re headed this way, should we not be heading back to the ship?"
Captain Relo’s voice crackled through Harper’s communicator. "Lieutenant, we have analyzed the spectrum of the red beams coming off of the objects down there with you. They are the same readings we received in your last encounter. Culver’s devices should reflect any signals they aim at you."
Brooks didn’t look convinced. "Sir, it doesn’t mean they have no other offensive weaponry."
"Understood, Private, but this is Harper’s call," Relo responded.
Harper worked his jaw for a bit. At the moment they were not being threatened nor did they have much intel on these contacts. Frustrated, Harper could see his breath as he exhaled. "We’re still a Go, Sir." He looked over to Kasan who gave him an appreciative nod. "Smith, how many contacts do we have?"
The soldier looked down and typed away on his commpad. "Exactly 336." He frowned as he looked up. "That’s an odd number."
Harper crawled over to see Smith’s display and found the motion of the contacts to be almost casual with no perceivable pattern. They swept down over the rift and slowly circled back along the ridgeline. They only came within 250 meters of Contact Team. "Brooks, were you able to get a better image?"
"Yeah, here it is," the rifleman said as he punched a few buttons on his commpad. The image resolved itself into a fairly cubed shape with rounded edges. It had a single red eye in the front that was centered in its gray chassis.
All four of them were fixed on their displays. Harper made a quizzical expression. "Pioneer, do you see what we see?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. Standby."
Harper sat up and waited patiently for a response. They're probably talking with Sergeant Hill.
"Harper, we have temporarily lost contact with Strike Team. They traveled into a cave where the power source is located and apparently it’s shielding our transmissions." A static hiss filled Harper’s ears as the captain sighed. "We still have their biometrics and comm buoys, but we are unable to make visual or radio contact."
The coloring in Private Smith’s face paled as his right hand hovered over his rifle. "Not good." His commpad beeped repeatedly and his eyes grew wide. "I’m picking up multiple lifeforms entering the area."
Harper quickly turned around when he heard an animal-like roar. His eyes swept from left to right trying to locate the source. "There! On the right."
Both commandos' training kick in as they turned to face this new threat. "Mark 150 meters," Brooks informed Smith who was rising to his feet to take aim.
Harper held up his hand to halt the two men. He squinted through the snowfall that had just begun and was able to identify a humanoid. It let out another yell that took a spit second to reach Harper’s ears. The wandering, gray cubes snapped out of scanning the surface and turned towards the humanoid. With a final cry he took off running towards the mass of 336. As if on cue, hundreds of other voices joined in the battle cry. Harper looked around the ridgeline to see an equally numbered force of humanoids charging into the clearing.
"Sir, orders?" Brooks ask with obvious haste.
Harper didn’t have time to analyze his options, but he couldn’t let those barbaric people get torn to shreds. "Fire on the machines at my command." He held his hand up as he watched the events in the clearing unfold. The humanoids had reached the first line of machines and were struck with the familiar red beam.
Harper’s mouth hung open as the barbarians rushed on without any effect from the machines. They leaped into the air and landed hard on the machines causing them to dip to the ground. At first, it appeared the humanoids were beating them senseless with various long objects, but the rate at which the machines fell to the ground suggested to Harper that they had found a weakness in the chassis.
The battle was a massacre as the gray cubed machines fell to the ground and their red eyes winked out. "Hold your fire," Harper said slowly as if not believing what he was seeing.
If the soldiers said anything in response it was drowned out with a staccato of static that filled the communicators Contact Team wore. Sudden and agonizing pain returned to Harper’s head as his body stiffened and slammed to the ground. The snow did little to soften his fall and he realized it would soon blanket him, hiding any evidence he was ever on this planet. Kasan Abrams was in his periphery, lying face first in the snow with one eye visible. The pain on her half-exposed face made his heart ache. I’ve failed to protect her again.
Harper could hear Smith and Brooks fall to the ground as well, and he knew the other two were paralyzed. His head felt like it was going to explode as the neural device somehow forced more needles of pain into his skull. As darkness crept into the sides of his eyes, he found himself perplexed. The machines could not have done this.
He couldn’t explain it then, but he knew they had been betrayed.
**********
Kasan blinked her eyes several times. She knew she wasn’t dead, but her head felt like a spit melon. Kasan felt a strong hand push her left shoulder down to the ground so as to face her skyward. A couple snowflakes caressed her reddened cheeks. That same hand reached up and tore her neural device and communicator off. The pain she felt cut off like a door being slammed shut, and she immediately sat upright and coughed several times. Her vision swirled and she laid back down rubbing her temples with gloved hands. She heard Ian beside her respond in the same manner as a dark figure removed his headgear.
"You are safe, for the moment," said an oddly accented voice.
Kasan could hear the two commandos moaning as they too were brought back to the land of the living. Tension and worry brewed in Kasan’s chest as she didn’t recognize the voice that had just spoke. "Safe from what?" she asked hesitantly.
A silhouette of a head and shoulders appeared from above. Kasan’s eyes focused on a middle-aged man with flowing gray hair. His face was lean and bearded that made him look much older while his brown eyes told of his youth. He smiled down at her. "We need to get you into shelter. The snowfall is a bit unpredictable and can turn to a blizzard very quickly." He sat Kasan back up into a sitting position and she found her vision normalizing.
"You didn’t answer her question," Harper’s croaked. He reluctantly stood with his left hand holding his head. "And who are you?"
The bearded man began to help up Kasan when he replied, "I am Dr. Shalan Canner, and we are safe from the machines, for now." He grabbed Kasan’s knapsack and handed it to her. "Please, we must hurry."
Kasan looked over to Harper as he reached for his communicator. It was sparking and the severed wires at the ends gave little hope of contacting Pioneer. She looked down at her belt and found everything that was hooked up to the neural protector was blackened and smelled of burned electronics. "Our personal beacons are shot, too." She turned and faced Harper who gave a blank look.
Brooks and Smith came up with rifles still in hand. Brooks shook his head at Harper. "Pioneer probably thinks we’re all dead, Sir."
"And it should stay that way," Dr. Canner called up to them as he awkwardly stomped down the hillside. "Come, we must hurry. I’ll tell you all you need to know when we’re inside."
"Orders, Lieutenant?" Private Smith asked with furrowed brow.
Kasan could tell scenarios and possibilities raced through Harper’s mind behind his eyes. She shrugged in helplessness.
"Follow the doctor," Harper said at last. "He’s got a lot of explaining to do."
They traced Canner’s path down the slope, and even as their tracks left deep impressions in the ground, the snowfall quickly filled their steps.
New story out! Halo: Below the Brine
(it's the best story you're not reading!)