Black Hole Sun

CHAPTER 34

Hell’s Cross, Outpost Fisher Four
ANNOS MARTIS 238. 4. 0. 00:00

The first two bodies out of the hole are both human. Ebi falls first, followed by Vienne, who fires her armalite as she plunges from a height of over a hundred meters. She pulls the clip then drops the gun.
Halfway down, she and Ebi both tuck into a ball. Cover their heads with their arms. Rotate so that their backs will strike the ground first. I hold my breath. Ebi hits first. And hard. Her armor takes the impact from the courtyard tiles, but she comes out of the tuck too soon. Her arms flail. She rolls over to her stomach, groaning.
Sprinting, I reach her at the same time that Vienne lands. She shoulder rolls and lands on her good foot. Then grabs the nearby armalite and begins spraying the roof with fire.
“Get up!” I shout at Ebi, who’s rising slowly. Too slowly. “Is she injured?” I ask Mimi.
“Her symbiarmor isn’t signaling distress,” Mimi says. “No broken bones. No internal injuries.”
“Regulator!” I yell at Ebi. “You got the wind knocked out of you. Move! Before they kill us both.”
Ebi shakes the cobwebs loose. “Yes, chief.”
“Fall back!” I call to Vienne.
She nods. Backs up toward us. Firing until the clip is empty. That’s my Vienne.
“Or mine,” Mimi says.
The three of us retreat under the safety of the arcade, where I open a vid link. “Jenkins! Status report.”
“They’re back. And they got sleds.”
I expected that. So we have a little surprise for them. “Tell Fuse to execute step one—but only after two of the sleds cross the bridge.” I switch off the vid, knowing that I can count on Fuse, even as I hear the gunning roar of the sled’s turbines. Above us, the Dr?u start firing. Plasma rains down on us.
“We’re pinned down!” Vienne shouts as she and Ebi take turns firing. “We have to stop their fire!”
“Fine with me!” I say. “I’m open to suggestions!” Neither of them has one, except to keep firing. In the distance I hear the sound of a power sled revving, which means the sled drivers are about to make their move. Where, I wonder, is the queen? I look up at the ceiling again, trying to do a head count. Five, maybe ten Dr?u are looking down, aiming at us. It is hard to tell.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice the tall crane sitting idly by. In the cockpit Spiner sits back with his feet on the panel, eyes closed, oblivious to the fact that he is only a few meters from a barrage of ammunition. “Give me some cover,” I say, ready to make a run for the crane.
Vienne and Ebi stand, their rifles trained on the blackness. I take off. Race to another column. Then to the far corner. Behind me, I hear a crack. A Dr?u falls to the ground. But I don’t stop to celebrate as a round of plasma dots chase my trail. Out the back corridor. Across a tiled patio that leads to the closed tunnel.
Finally I reach the crane. Dive behind the treads just ahead of a large plasma blast, which explodes beside the cockpit and sends Spiner sprawling backward in surprise. “Out!” I yell as I swing open the door. Then pull Spiner from the cockpit. “And stay down!”
Grabbing the pilot’s seat, I sweep the hook over the container. The hook drops down, and the magnet attaches. I lift the container. Swing it between the crane and the hole to block another barrage of pulses. “Stay under cover,” I order Vienne and Ebi through a vid link. “This thing’s going to start swinging.”
The crane cable groans as the container swings back and forth, a three-ton stone. I yank back on the brakes, and the container sails high. It hits the cavern ceiling—huge chunks of rock cascade to the ground.
“Kusottare!” I yell. “Missed!”
With the container out of the way, the Dr?u start firing on my crane. On the ground Vienne and Ebi return fire, giving me another chance to bring the container around. “Mimi,” I say, “give me a hand, will you?”
“I believe that you are the one with the hands in this relationship.”
“You know what I mean. Calibrate an angle that will ram this hunk of steel into that hole, then use the symbiarmor to guide my hand.”
“It will be painful.”
“Sorry it’s going to hurt you.”
“Not me, cowboy. You. Countdown. Three, two, one.”
My back arches against the armor, which goes rigid to hold my body in place. It hurts, and I grunt. Only my arm and hand move, controlling the stick so that the container swings eight times like a pendulum, its massive weight causing the boom and the attached cable to groan.
On the last upswing, the magnet releases, and the skyhook container shoots straight to the ceiling and slams into the hole. Taking several Dr?u with it. “Who says you can’t put a square peg in a round hole,” I say, and try to shake off the effects of Mimi’s control. “You do good work.”
“Technically, it is a rectangular peg. But thank you. A girl always enjoys a compliment.”
“Either way, it’ll hold them for a while.” I jump down and race back to the courtyard to join Ebi and Vienne. “You two, man your positions on the minarets.”
Vienne directs Ebi to the sniper nest on the minaret, and I run in the opposite direction, down the corridor toward the Zhao Zhou Bridge.
Boom-ba-doom!
An explosion rips through the cavern, and the shock knocks me to the ground, dust raining down on me.
“Was that Fuse’s handiwork?” Vienne asks via vid link.
“Hope so,” I say.
At the end of the tunnel, I find the source of the explosion. A fifteen-meter-long segment is now missing from the Zhao Zhou Bridge. It’s been dropped into the gorge by two C-42 charges, courtesy of Fuse.
The Dr?u’s main force is stranded on the far side of the gorge, which is good. But they have two power sleds, which is bad, because each sled has a gunner, and they’re spraying bullets at the miners.
“Jenkins,” I say through the vid. “Status?”
“Fuse says to please shoot the fossickers shooting at us!”
“Will do.” I call to Vienne and Ebi. “Snipers, take out the gunner.”
Through my omnoculars I watch them raise their armalites in unison, sight a gunner, and squeeze their triggers. Each bullet finds its mark at the base of the Dr?u’s skull, and the targets collapse over the barrels of the chain guns. Twip! Twip! Twip! Twip! Four more Dr?u on sleds go down before Vienne takes out the remaining two.
“She stole my kill,” Ebi says.
“Get used to it,” I say.
I bounce down from the container and run across the tops of the other containers until I reach the next crane. áine is operating it. “Time for stage two. Drop the container.”
She salutes. The boom swings around, and the container, which is missing both of its doors, drifts over the gorge. After two minor adjustments, áine settles it above the gap that the C-42 has created.
“Jenkins,” I say into the vid, “you and Fuse get those miners inside.”
“Can I bring in the sleds?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Whoop!”
I signal the second operator to lift a container, which creates a gate, and the miners pour in, with Fuse and Jenkins behind them in the captured sleds. When they’re safely inside, áine drops her container into place.
“Think they’ll take the bait?” Fuse asks me.
“They’re not as stupid as we thought,” I say, watching them as they begin to move en masse to the container. “But they are as bloodthirsty. I don’t think they’ll be able to help themselves.”
“Won’t their queen keep them back? She’ll know it you’ve set up a trap.”
“Haven’t seen her at all.” But I know she is out there. Somewhere. It isn’t like Eceni to miss the action.
“Here they come!” Vienne announces from her high-vantage point. Then she abruptly fires several rounds into the area where the sled is parked. Ebi follows suit.
I tap open the vid. “Vienne! What the blazes?”
“They’re back on their feet, chief. The Dr?u we shot. Five of them are on their feet and moving into firing position.”
“Did you miss?” I ask.
“No. Body shots to the heart and lungs. All on target.”
Merda! “Keep shooting then.” I tap out of the vid and have áine swing the boom around. After I step onto the hook, she lowers me to the ground inside the maze. There, Fuse and Jenkins are waiting. They’ve stripped the chain guns from the sleds, which the miners are now hiding inside two of the containers.
“Look!” Jenkins says, hefting a chain gun in each arm. “Twins!”
“Glad you’re having a double date. Fuse, stay close to me. With your aural link out, I can’t open a vid, and this next part gets dicey.”
Fuse agrees, and we take position for Stage Three. Jenkins remains on his mark, growling to psyche himself up.
“What’s next?” I say.
“Tell the cranes to drop the second wall.” Fuse mentally measures the spot where the containers would go. “And you might want to step back two point two meters.”
“Let’s make it three.” I signal for the cranes to be dropped behind Jenkins. Creating a second wall. Leaving me as bait. Then I order Vienne and Ebi to stand down. We want the Dr?u rushing the gate, not dodging sniper fire.
“Yes, chief,” Vienne says, sounding disappointed.
From her crane, áine shouts, “They’re charging across the bridge!”
“Let a couple dozen cross unharassed!”
“They’ve already crossed!”
“Then lift the carking box off the bridge! Keep the rest of them on the opposite side.”
The cables tighten on her boom, and I hear the sound of metal scraping as the container lifts.
“Done!” she shouts. “About twenty of the beasties crossed. The rest are caught in the box or—wait! One’s hanging from the edge of container. You’ve got to get it off. It’s throwing off the balance.”
“Vienne,” I say, “take out the dangler. But let the other targets inside the gate before.”
“Yes, chief.” Twip! “Dangler down.”
We’re interrupted by the sound of twin chain gun fire and Jenkins’s gleeful roar.
“Heewack!” Jenkins roars.
“Get him out of here!” I order one of the crane operators.
A hook swings down, and Jenkins latches on, somehow wrapping his knees around it while holding onto both chain guns. As he clears the top of the containers, Jenkins steps off and swings the twin guns to his broad shoulders. The flashing blue lights from the cranes cast a purple shadow on his face, blanching the ruddy color away and highlighting the pockmarks on his cheeks. When he speaks, his voice full of the sound of gravels and dust, I don’t know him. “I’m Leroy Jenkins, you cark-sacking cannibals! Bring it on!”
“Fuse,” I say. “Step Four?”
“Right,” Fuse says, intent on the Dr?u who rushed in to kill Jenkins. “Close the front gate.”
I make the call. Two containers drop. Boom! Boom! Trapping the Dr?u inside. Howling in rage, they begin firing. But they have no targets.
“Chief,” Fuse says. “We need the Dr?u to spread out of the middle. Pronto. So we can drop the next containers.”
“Jenkins,” I say, “pin them against the walls.”
Now safely unhooked and atop the wall of containers, Jenkins steps to the edge and opens fire. The Dr?u dive for cover, spreading themselves like a layer of aminomite along one side of the maze.
“They’re out of the middle,” I tell Fuse.
“Let’s drop walls one through three,” Fuse says. Then shouts, “Miners! Keep ’em separated!”
I signal the cranes. “On my mark. One.” Boom! “Two.” Boom! “Three.” Boom! The maze is now divided into four equal sections, Dr?u trapped in each one. They scream in unison, a sound that makes the hair on my neck stand on end. On the other side of the gorge, the other Dr?u howl in answer.
“On my order,” I call into the vid as the last container falls into place. “Vienne, your target is area one. Ebi, area two. Jenkins, three. Fuse and I will cover four.” Taking a deep breath, I pray that this is going to work. There has to be some way to kill these monsters—maybe filling them with lead was the way to do it. “Open fire!”
Two dozen Dr?u. Their weapons useless against our cross fire. Penned in. Trapped. The maze turns into a slaughterhouse. Some try to scale the walls, their great leaps taking them halfway up the sides. But they’re cut down before they can even get a handhold. Others close ranks and fire at us until their plasma weapons run out of charge. Then our bullets find them.
This is not who we are, and it shames me. The Tenets teach us to respect our enemy as we respect our friends, to honor ourselves, our ancestors, and our children with our actions. There is no honor here, just the killing, the need to destroy the enemy utterly in order to survive. Father would understand this action, would say that the Tenets were written for old-fashioned before days Mars, not the planet we’ve become. But it sickens me, and up on a minaret, I’m sure that Vienne is refusing to watch, her scope directed at the Dr?u on the far side of the gorge. Her voice is in my ears: You are less the man I thought you were. I am less the Regulator for serving under you.
Finally, when the chain guns are empty and the screams have died out, I call for a cease fire to assess the damage.
“Mimi, scan the hostiles.”
“Cowboy, you shouldn’t feel—”
“Just the scan, please.”
“No detectable signs of life.”
“All targets are down,” I say. “Let’s clean it up.”
The operators lift the containers, and the remaining miners, who’re waiting safely in nearby containers, rappel to the ground. Their job is to remove the bodies before the next wave of Dr?u is let across the bridge, and they take to it with gusto. On command, an operator drops a container in the middle of the maze. Quickly the miners load the Dr?u carcasses to it.
“Cowboy! Alert! Alert! Multiple heartbeats registering! The Dr?u!”
Down in the maze one of the miners yells and pulls out his wrench. “It’s moving! The beastie’s still living!”
“Mine, too!” another calls, and they all began to back away. The looks on their faces ask the same question I have: How can something so full of holes be alive?
“Get out of there!” I shout, finally understanding. The Dr?u are coming back to life. I tap in Vienne. “Eyes on multiple targets in the maze. Take out the Dr?u that regenerate.”
“Negative, chief,” she responds. “Too many friendlies in the line of fire. I can’t get a clear shot. Get the miners out.”
“Will do.” I shout into the maze. “Everybody out! You’re in the line of fire!”
Easier said than done. The cables the miners rappelled down aren’t attached to cranes. They have to climb out. Too many miners in the hole. Too long to get them all out.
“Jenkins,” I say. “We need you on deck for backup.”
“I’m going in,” Jenkins says, recognizing the problem as soon as I do. He’s about to jump into the mix when a reviving Dr?u reaches up from the ground and grabs a miner by the ankle. Instinctively the miner swings his heavy wrench at its head, smashing the base of the skull.
“Tch,” he says. “Would y’look at that.”
The other miners gather around him. They nudge the Dr?u with the toes of their boots. One kicks it in the ribs. Then rolls it over. A huff of air escapes its lungs, and the eyes roll back into its head.
“It’s dead,” the miner says.
“It is. A knock with a wrench is all it took.”
They get the idea quickly, and the real slaughter begins.
“Chief?” Vienne says.
“Stand down,” I tell my davos. All men have a breaking point, and this is mine. “Turn your backs. All of you. Let them finish but don’t become part of it. Ebi, abandon your station. We’re going to need another short-range gunner in the maze.”
A few minutes later a cheer goes up. The container full of slaughtered Dr?u, its doors sealed and locked, is lifted out of the maze and then dropped into the gorge. The miners climb up the cables one by one, their overalls blotted with blood. They start singing. I look into Fuse’s face and see the same expression that must be on my face, a mix of horror and shock.
“Know what they reminded me of?” Fuse says.
“The Dr?u when they’ve got fresh meat?”
“Yeah.”
“One difference between us and the Dr?u,” I say.
“What’s that?”
“Our bellies are still empty.”
“That’s a mighty thin line, chief.”
“It’s the thinnest lines that define us, soldier.”
“Oy, that’s very wise. D’you make that up on a lark?”
“No, I say, “I stole it from my father.” Turning to áine’s crane, I signal her to drop the container across the bridge. Time for the second batch.
Ebi comes running across the top of the maze. “Ebi reporting, chief.”
“Stay close,” I tell her. “Don’t fire until I give the signal.”
Mimi pipes in, “A mass of signatures gathering at the bridge.”
“Battle stations, Regulators,” I say through the vid. “Here they come again.”
áine lowers the container, and the rest of the Dr?u roar across the bridge, intent on reaching their comrades. When they are past, she raises the box again, trapping them.
They’re screaming for blood as they rush like a flood toward the gate. “Open it!” I order. The Dr?u stream inside, blind with bloodlust, too berserker with rage to stop their charge. Their eyes are mad, and they’re frothing at the mouth, their faces wild and terrible to see. It’s insane, insane. But I’m counting on their strength being their weakness.
This time there is no need to use Jenkins as bait.
“Close the gate?” Fuse asks.
“Wait,” I say. “I want to make sure we’ve got them all. I don’t want us to go through this more times than we have to.”
“Got it.”
“Mimi,” I say, “scan the perimeter for signatures.”
“Yes, cowboy,” she says. “Wait. I am picking up a unique signature on the far side of the bridge and closing fast. It is—”
“The queen!” Vienne yells through the link.
I turn as a power sled emerges from the tunnel, its turbines blazing. Two Dr?u ride with the queen, one of them driving and the other manning the gun. She straddles the jump seat, the mortar launcher on her shoulder and two bandoliers of ammo draped across her chest.
“She’s going to jump it,” I say.
Ebi scoffs. “Impossible.”
The sled hits the end of the bridge and goes airborne. The front of the craft lifts, the heavy engines tilting its approach angles upward. It lands hard but with several meters to spare. The rear end fishtails, flinging the gunner from his post. As he tries to stand, Vienne takes him out with one kill shot.
The queen maintains her balance perfectly, firing a mortar at áine’s crane. The shell hits the thick plexus window, cracking it. Then it falls onto the hood, where it detonates.
“áine!” I yell above the din, though I know she can’t hear me.
Fuse starts toward her. I check him with a halt sign. At the same time the driver steers toward the opening and the Dr?u that wait inside.
“Drop the gate!” I shout. “Don’t let the power sled in!”
Too late. The gate falls a second after the sled skids inside. Seeing their queen, the Dr?u roar louder. The driver, obeying a silent command, guns the engine and heads toward the back of the maze.
“Drop the rest of the containers!” I yell.
Boxes one and two fall into place perfectly, trapping most of the Dr?u. But as the crane dropping number three swings into action, the queen fires another mortar. It strikes the boom.
The cable snaps and the box swings free, crashing into the back wall and knocking it down. The driver sees his opening. He drives the sled between two fallen containers and disappears from the maze.
“Where is she going?” Ebi asks.
I know exactly where she’s going—the treasure. “Fuse, you’re in command of the maze. Drop another back wall now. Take these rooters out. I’ll get the queen. Vienne—” I start to say and then reconsider. Her wounded foot will slow us down. “Ebi, you’re coming with me.”
Seconds later Ebi and I are running along the top of the maze, headed toward the Cross. Behind us, the shooting begins. So that was her plan all along, I think. Distract us with mad rushes, then go for the treasure when our hands are full. Simple but brilliant. And it shows that she doesn’t care about the Dr?u. They’re a means to an end, a toy to be played with until it’s outlived its use. I know how they feel.
“Mimi, where is the queen?”
“Signatures are stationary. They are fifty meters ahead.”
In the Cross. Ebi and I sprint down the tops of the cargo boxes. For an instant I pause, taking it all in, feeling the rush of…something. Old memories? Déjà vu? At battle school, I commanded my own acolyte davos, and my first skirmish was against Eceni. She won that time. She won every time we matched up. But this is a real battle, not a student exercise. When we reach the edge of the maze, I signal Ebi to halt. We drop low, and both of us scan the Cross for targets. That’s when Ebi shoots me in the back of the head.
The force of the blow knocks me forward, and I fall to hands and knees. Roll to my back.
“Permission to fire now, chief?” Ebi says.
“Mimi,” I say, my head a hive of noise. There is no answer. “Mimi?”
“My name is not Mimi,” Ebi says, pointing the barrel of her armalite at my head. “It is Bramimonde, Jacob Stringfellow, from the proud House of Bramimonde that men like your father destroyed.”
“No.” I try to rise, but my thoughts are full of bees. The symbiarmor is sluggish. Where is Mimi?
“Oh yes.” Stomping my chest, she drives me hard onto the top of the cargo box. “But the queen is going to change that. When she finds the treasure, she’s going to return the Orthocracy to power, and I will be able to realize my true destiny.” She spits in my face. “The added benefit will be killing you. Remember when you disgraced our home with your presence, dalit? I said I would repay you one day, and that moment is now.”