The Trilisk Supersedure

Chapter 13



Arakaki moved slowly across the ruins after the Konuan.

She didn’t have any delusions about who hunted whom. The Konuan was letting her follow. It wanted to lure her out away from her friends, her Guardians, and her probes. It planned to ambush and kill her just as it had done to so many of her fellow soldiers.

I’m coming, you bastard.

Arakaki checked her PAW for the tenth time. Its self-diagnostic reported optimal. The laser at her hip verified at full charge over her link. All her grenades checked in, including the one around her throat. The UED probe taking up the rear thirty meters behind her monitored the area. It reported another sensor ghost near a larger building ahead.

So this is the spot for your trap. Fine.

It had steadily led her across half the city, going toward the area occupied by the newcomers and their tiny robots. Arakaki figured the Konuan must be hunting them as well. At least she hoped it was. Anything to distract its predation of the UED unit would be a welcome break.

Or so I tell myself. Have I grown so used to it being out there, hunting, that I would miss it? Miss my chances to kill it or die trying?

She chomped down painfully on the sliver in her mouth. The tiny fragment was so tough she could gnaw on it for decades without accomplishing anything but wearing her teeth.

Arakaki dropped the self-analysis and walked toward the building.

“Captain Arakaki, report,” Holtzclaw ordered over the link.

“I’m pursuing the Konuan,” she said. She half expected to be chewed out for calling for fire support, or to be pulled away for another remote pickup. But Holtzclaw had something completely different cooking.

“Good. Keep on it. Keep that thing away from camp. I’ve pulled a lot of men and probes to go after the science ship east of the ruins. Our tech team is vulnerable in the back.”

“Yes, sir.”

That suited Arakaki. She was seldom so happy to have to obey. Especially since she had given up all hope for the war. She had contemplated desertion several times, but…where would she go? What would she do without him? And here, she had the creature to hunt.

In another five minutes she saw the first face of the structure. Like all the other clusters of Konuan living chambers, it was a hodgepodge of square cells heaped one upon another three or four layers above ground. There was often one layer under the surface as well, and below that, Trilisk tunnels.

There was a hole in the side of the building. Arakaki looked at the roof and clusters of plants nearby. She didn’t sense any danger. Neither did the probe trailing her. She padded over to the opening.

Arakaki checked the rocky ground. There was no dirt to hold any prints, but the red coating on the rocks became darker if their surface was recently scuffed or struck. The rocks around the entrance held a lot of evidence of movement through the area. She spotted some wide scuffmarks—Terrans’—as well as the smaller pick holes caused by the spider legs of their little robots.

Who are these people? Scouts? Scientists? Why are there so few of them? They said the ship was huge.

The UED soldier knelt beside the entry point. She listened and scanned. Her weapon picked up a power signature. A machine. It could be a piece of equipment or a robot. It wasn’t moving though.

They left something behind here. Maybe some poor sucker was carrying something, the Konuan got him, and he dropped whatever he was carrying.

Her curiosity had been awakened. A Konuan trap? Unlikely. It had never used such tactics before, at least not that anyone had survived to report. The creature was always certain to destroy the link in its victim. It was scary to think it knew that would limit their knowledge of it.

Arakaki dropped to the ground. Her dark gray battle suit protected her from the cold, hard stone. She crawled forward, weapon first, toward the hole left by the pulled grille. The probe covered her back. She hoped it would be enough warning if the Konuan darted in from behind to attack her.

She saw it. A silvery metal ant the size of a large dog. It stood near the center of a room filled with rusted strips of metal hanging from walls and ceiling.

The machine turned toward her. There was a split second where she had the choice to fire first. She decided against it. Some part of her knew instantly that her target was the Konuan, not these odd robots.

The machine didn’t fire at her.

As I thought. It’s got weapons, but not for me.

Then she scolded herself slightly. If the machine had shot a glue grenade at her, she could have been pinned here like food on a dinner plate awaiting the Konuan’s pleasure.

But of course I have the ace up my sleeve…or around my neck.

“So, you’re not going to shoot me?” she said quietly. She left her weapon aimed at the machine and slid forward through the low portal. The floor inside was a bit below ground level. She regained her footing.

The machine turned back toward one of the other openings and froze. Arakaki gave the room a once-over. She didn’t see anything Terran looking except the robot. It was definitely responsible for the power signature: the machine had a lot of juice. At its current output, Arakaki doubted it could go for more than a few hours.

Arakaki’s own weapon angled toward the same doorway the machine covered.

Do we have company?

Her weapon didn’t see any other targets. The probe trailing Arakaki sidled up outside the building. It was a tall cylinder about a quarter of a meter in diameter adorned with countless ports, sensors, and sampling equipment. The machine gently hovered outside, then settled onto the red rocks to save energy. It wouldn’t go through the doorway by itself, even though it could theoretically fit through if turned on its side. The machine could only hover in an upright position, so Arakaki would have to lug it through herself if she wanted it inside the building. Even if she were willing to make that investment, it would have to be repeated for every new room. She left the probe outside. It could still pick up a lot through the walls of the Konuan ruin, since it had extremely sensitive sonic sensors and radiation scanners.

Whoever owns the bug here knows I’ve arrived. Unless the Konuan already got them.

Only one of the grilles in the room had been opened. So if one of the scientists had been here, they went that way, or they went to a lot of trouble to make it look that way.

Just to be sure, Arakaki checked the other grilles. With her weapon ready, she pulled on them one at a time and examined them for signs of tampering. The other exits looked solid, and she didn’t find any signs of the Konuan. The probe outside told her the adjacent rooms were clear.

Which proves almost nothing, she thought to herself. She prepared to slide through the grille hole into the next room straight ahead.

Arakaki stole a glance back at the bug. The machine didn’t move.

“Guarding the door, huh? Good luck with that,” Arakaki murmured. She turned back to the room. She saw silvery webs of metal gleaming on the walls.

What the hell?

Arakaki grabbed a grenade as she stared for a couple seconds, trying to figure out what the structures were. She saw the flash of a furry, umbrella-shaped body flitting away like a squid swimming through the air. At the same moment the probe notified her link of a reading. She didn’t hesitate. She tossed her incendiary grenade to the ground and gave it a destination in the adjacent chamber to her left.

It’s too fast. I’ll aim where it isn’t.

The grenade whirred through the grille and into the side room. There, it took the next right and rolled through another grille.

Blam! Blam!

Arakaki sent a couple of rounds from her PAW straight ahead to run the creature toward her seeker grenade coming in from the side. The thing might well go in another direction, but she had to try.

A massive flower of flame erupted from the grille opening. A redundant detonation report from the grenade arrived at her link. She stepped aside a bit late. Her face burned. Then just as quickly as the heat had come, it dissipated.

The summary result was target grazed. The grenade’s computer brain, at least, believed in its last instant of existence it would slightly damage the enemy. Arakaki had set all her weapons slightly on the “trigger happy” side, knowing the Konuan was a fast and resourceful target.

Her probe lost track of the creature again. But Arakaki felt sure it wasn’t dead.

No, I didn’t get it. This is just the beginning.