Chapter [ERROR - OUT OF RANGE] - Aftershocks

Chapter [ERROR - OUT OF RANGE] - Aftershocks

"People used to homogeneous societies look at the Confederacy and think it is one big monolith.

"That is so far from the truth it because comedically hysterical.

"Even the Mantid have two separate civilizations within the Confederacy.

"And just ask any three Treana'ad Matrons what their favorite ice cream is." - Ru'udamo'o, Meditations Upon the Lemur

The androids kept pushing at the doorway, taking shots to the face and dropping, dissolving away, only to be replace by two more.

For Ru'udamo'o is was practically a shooting gallery for nearly five minutes.

Then, glancing at the outside alley cameras, he saw all eight of the androids outside suddenly go still.

They quit marching lockstep toward the door, holding in place.

Then they scattered. Two taking cover to watch the mouths of the alleys. The other six getting one behind another in a close line, left hand on the one in front's left shoulder, battle rifle held low in the line with the leader holding it at low ready.

Ru'udamo'o frowned.

The tactic was a weird looking one.

They rushed in the door, close together, and Ru'udamo'o started shooting, wishing he had a grenade, going for the legs since they were unarmored.

They made it almost halfway down the hallway, pushing the lead members to the side when they got wounded, firing wildly, until the last one went down with a shattered head casing.

Ru'udamo'o had to admit, without grenades or maybe a directional mine, the tactic had almost managed to push them close enough. Only the narrow long hallway had kept them from reaching the room and spreading out.

He checked the monitor and saw the two still in the alleyway were facing one direction, firing their weapons. A bright light was illuminating the alleyway, throwing them into stark relief. He could see the android's mouths open and knew they were giving their high pitched screech of alarm slash warcry.

Bullets shattered their skulls and the light slowly faded.

Ru'udamo'o held tight to the pistol, noting that he was down to half an amblok, watching the security cameras.

A blur moved through, followed by a russet colored mantid holding tight to a heavy box and a greenie carrying a toolkit.

The blur stopped at the edge of the door.

"Friendly, coming in," came from the doorway.

"ID yourself," Ru'udamo'o said.

"Terran Diplomatic Team," the voice said. "Three coming in."

Ru'udamo'o recognized it as the Mosizlak's voice.

"Advance and be recognized," Ru'udamo'o ordered.

The Mosizlak, dressed in torn adaptive camouflage and carrying the board with a nail in it in one hand and a Terran magac rifle in the other, stepped into the doorway. Ru'udamo'o waved him forward, getting him close enough to poke with one hand to make sure it wasn't an android underneath a hologram projector.

"All the androids are down or they'd be coming straight at me or you," the Mosizlak said.

"Where is Speaks?" the russet asked.

"This way. I have a doctor working on him, but the doctor is relying on GalNet," Ru'udamo'o said.

"Then it is good I am here," the russet said.

"I'll watch the door," the Mosizlak said.

Ru'udamo'o nodded, feeling relief fill him.

-----

"How is he?" Dreams asked the hologram of Fights.

"Lost a lot of ichor, carapace damage, some internal organ damage, but he's tough and the doctor his savior took him to was skilled," Fights said.

Dreams took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, feeling the tension release.

"Good. Move him when you can," Dreams said. She looked around then at the hologram of the russet mantid. "Half the diplomatic channels are crashed. I can't get a hold of half the Diplomatic Corps and things are really confused right now."

"What happened?" Fights asked.

"Not over an open channel," Dreams said. "Thankfully, our assets warnings allowed us to defend the starport, the weather engineering control, and the important governmental assets the androids went after."

"Any clue who was using androids, of all things?" Fights asked.

Dreams shook her head. "No. It's causing some concern among certain people since androids haven't been seen in large numbers since the Fifth Human/Artificial War. Someone managed to bypass the lockouts on the creation engines and nanoforges, which has some interesting, and frankly frightening, implications."

"But not ones you're willing to go over across an unsecured channel," Speaks mused. She nodded. "All right. As soon as he's stable enough, we'll move him to a secure location."

Dreams nodded. "Be careful," she said.

"You too," Fights said and cut the feed.

Dreams turned and looked at her four Tukna'rn guards and the two black mantid, all covered with holographic overlays to make them look like part of the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest Rain Forest National Park glade.

The day was overcast but not cold, slightly windy without being blustery, the morning one of those strange ones that felt like it should be storming or miserable but instead was oddly pleasant.

Headquarters Company, First Telkan Marine Division, was drawn up in ranks for morning accountability formation, the wan sunlight bathing the Telkan Marines gathered up in their adaptive camouflage uniforms.

At the front of the four platoons were three Telkan. One carrying the guidon, the pennant snapping in the breeze. The company First Sergeant, who was staring at the gathered troops, and behind him was the Interim Company Commander, normally the Executive Officer, First Lieutenant Naxton.

"Company!" the First Sergeant, a Rigellian female, bellowed out.

"PLATOON!" the Platoon Sergeants yelled.

"Attention!" the First Sergeant called out.

All of the Telkan went to attention.

"Report," the First Sergeant ordered.

Each platoon sergeant called out that all were present and accounted for, one by one, starting with headquaters platoon and finishing with maintenance platoon.

The First Sergeant tensed to do an about face and salute the CO and turn the company over to him when there was a bright flash at the back of formation, where the officers and some of the senior enlisted were standing.

There was the sound of trumpets, loud enough to shake the windows. The gold glow brightened then the middle dimmed enough to show what looked like golden clouds and what looked like a wrought gate made entirely of gold.

Everyone turned to look, shielding their eyes.

A blurred figure could be seen approaching the gate. It paused, on the other side of gate, turning around and waving. Several other shapes, larger than the first one, did the same.

Nobody said anything, everyone frozen in shock, as all seven of the figures walked through the gate, becoming more distinct as they walked toward the gathered together company.

There were gasps as the first one stepped out of the arch of golden light, the light sparking and popping in showers of gold and silver sparks.

The armor was unmistakable, even if the colors were different. The armor was white with gold inlay, except for the red and silver warsteel making up a bullseye in the middle of the chest. The faceplate was missing, showing the familiar face of the only person who wore armor anywhere near that design. The figure had a smart-harness on and was holding an inlaid and ornately done up M318 20mm autocannon.

The next one was a Terran female, wearing adaptive camouflage, smiling at everyone as she moved to the side.

Afterwards came five of the heavy Ringbreaker suits.

The gate closed and then vanished as the golden light disappeared and the horns and trumpets went silent.

The first one, the Telkan, moved up to the front of the formation, letting the autocannon move up into the storage position.

"Everyone accounted for, First Sergeant?" the Telkan asked.

"Yes, sir," the First Sergeant said, trying to hold onto her professionalism.

"Excellent. Have the armorer fall out and meet me at the arms room. Have the armor master present too, First Sergeant," the Telkan said.

"Yes, sir," the First Sergeant said.

"We've come a long way and wouldn't mind getting out of our armor," Vuxten smiled. He looked up. "Gonna rain soon, might want to get the troops moving."

The First Sergeant just nodded, staring as the Telkan slowly moved toward the building. She noticed that he had a hitch in the shoulder joint and the knee joint and that there was a deep dent in the greenie protective housing.

She turned back to the company. "Armorer and Armor Master, post to place of duty," she snapped.

The two Telkan jerked as if she'd physically slapped them, then fell out of formation, jogging to the building, passing the seven people heading for it.

The First Sergeant did an about face, saluted the XO. "All yours, sir."

The XO stepped up. "Platoon Sergeants take charge. Company, attention!" he called out. "Fall out!"

The XO and the First Sergeant ran for the building even as the first drops of rain began to fall. They stood nearby, watching anxiously as the seven figures all cleared their weapons.

Vuxten held back a smile as he watched everyone almost hop from foot to foot, questions hanging in the air.

"Are you going to need debriefed by military intelligence and CID, sir?" the XO asked.

Vuxten chuckled. "Might want to call the Chaplain Corps too."

"Where were you, sir?" the First Sergeant asked.

Vuxten turned and looked at the highly decorated non-commissioned officer, a female with over two hundred years in service. He stood still for a moment, thinking.

"A place you can't get to from here, I think," he said as 471 popped the shell and climbed out. He saw the gathered up greenies and stood to his full fifteen inches of height, raising his hands over his head.

"INERTIA!" the greenies all yelled.

Vuxten just chuckled, moving toward the armorer's cage. The armorer had the door open.

"Treat her good," Vuxten said. "It was a pretty intense business trip for her."

The armored looked down at the weapon. Even the nanoforges and the ammo belt links were engraved.

Even the rounds themselves were inlaid and engraved.

When he handed over the heavy assault cannon, Vuxten took a moment, just a single breath, to close his eyes.

I'm glad to be home.