Telisa was perplexed. She turned her wide-eyed stare to Thomas. "What? Is that true?"
"I"m equipped to screen us from orbital detection. We fired off several electronic countermeasure modules before entering the atmosphere. I think their jamming window was wide enough to hide us. The chances are good that they don"t know the location of our landing site. They might not even know that we landed for sure."
Jack stepped up beside Magnus.
"Although I admit that this is one of the worst things that could have happened, we still have a fifty-fifty chance to make it out of this. I"m not going to just give myself up. We can go and check this place out, and get some artifacts. Then if the ship hasn"t been found, we might be able to make our way out without being detected," Jack said.
Telisa was speechless for a moment. Then she said, "They know someone"s here though. They"ll bring in more ships."
"That"ll take time, probably weeks," Magnus said. "There probably aren"t many security people in system. It"ll mostly be scientists. There"s a chance they might not even come after us."
"We"ll probably have to sell the artifacts somewhere else though," Jack conceded. "The best prices are on Earth, but it"ll be too risky to try and bring them in for a long time."
"If they do come for us..." Telisa started.
"None of us will ask you to do anything but defend yourself," Jack clarified. "I understand that you didn"t sign up with us to kill UNSF people."
Telisa nodded weakly. "Okay... so we"ll look for artifacts and hope for the best," she said. She didn"t feel as confident as she tried to sound.
"How far is the anomalous site?" Magnus asked.
"About sixty-five klicks."
"We"re going to be walking it too, if you"re serious about avoiding detection," Telisa said, getting drawn in despite herself. Her excitement returned as she thought about the Trilisk artifacts again. "How large a power source did you detect?"
Thomas smiled as her enthusiasm returned.
"Enough to power a small city," he said. "I"m thinking it"s military. Just the kind of stuff we need to get filthy rich."
"How much you wanna bet four aliens aren"t going to pa.s.s security?" Telisa said.
"Yes, but we"ll only have to deal with the purely automated stuff. This civilization"s clearly dead, there probably won"t be any Trilisks around to oppose us."
Telisa raised her eyebrow. "Probably?" she asked. Humans had never encountered a live alien of any race. The ruins of three different races had been discovered, but they were from ancient times and were no longer around.
"Well, they are aliens after all," Thomas said. "I try not to make a.s.sumptions about things like that. For all we know, this is just the local powerplant, anyway."
"Then why don"t we try some of the other ruin sites?"
"Because we"re after intact tech, and there"s a greater chance of finding intact stuff in a place that still has power. The entire site might be sealed up completely, utterly unaffected by the elements. That would be a find that could make us, if we can get back off this planet."
Chapter Four.
Joe Hartlet barely breathed as he examined the odd creature through the scope of his NX-37 sniper rifle. It looked like a tentacled mollusk with a flat plate-like sh.e.l.l, hanging upside down from a branch so the sh.e.l.l faced the ground. It had at least three tiny eyestalks waving around, examining its next potential meal, a big green fruit dangling in front of it. The thing was about the size of a large housecat.
"Here"s another one," he said. "Let me know when youa""
"The scan is complete, sir. You may take your shot," a clean, emotionless voice responded from behind.
Joe swept some of his black hair off his face and centered on the target. He gently squeezed the trigger. His beefy 110-kilogram frame easily absorbed the light recoil.
The round hurtled towards its target, too fast for the human eye. While still dozens of meters from its target, the bullet detected a wind drift from its logged destination and corrected for it with tiny bristles on its surface that could alter its drag. The projectile slammed into the unfortunate tree dweller and tumbled through its innards, dropping it from the branch.
Joe searched through his scope for a moment, looking for his target. He found it lying on the ground, leaking red fluid. The thing looked very dead.
"Looks like it"s got iron-based blood, anyway," he noted happily.
To Lieutenant Hartlet, this was a dream job. Travel to strange planets, scan every type of lifeform, catalog it, and make sure that it could be killed. After all, part of his job was to identify species that were potential threats to the UNSF personnel who were working on-planet. Besides, none of the scientists ever complained if he brought in an extra corpse or two for dissection.
"That would be consistent with other life forms catalogued on this planet, sir," the robot behind him agreed flatly. It was a humanoid constructed of black plastic and metal, its head smooth and featureless other than a black plate where a human"s eyes would be.
"Okay. This critter is definitely not a threat," Joe summarized. "Let"s pick up some big game. It"s kinda fun to plink at these things, but I doubt anything that small could hurt humans anyway."
"Size is only one of several variables involved, sir," the Series Seven commented.
"Agreed. I don"t care. Now, big game," Joe insisted. He scratched at the dark stubble forming on his chin.
"I"m afraid we"re needed at the base, sir."
Joe"s eyebrow rose, but he didn"t have time to reply. His comm link announced an incoming message with a mental flourish of musical notes. Joe connected and saw Commander Mailson waiting to speak with him in his mind"s eye. He immediately joined the channel.
"Hartlet here," he announced.
"Lieutenant. We have something requiring your immediate attention."
"Yes sir. What is it, sir?"
"Looks like we have a surprise visit from some smugglers. Over on Yarnitha."
Joe considered the news for a moment. Yarnitha was the second largest continent on the planet. So far no UNSF bases had been set up on it.
"Smugglers? That sure was quick. We just got here. What"s the plan of action, sir?"
"Here"s the suspected landing zone," the commander said. A map appeared on the link and Joe mentally examined it. The continent of Yarnitha was displayed with a wide red swath over about a third of its surface.
"I know, it"s large. They were quite resourceful in our orbital encounter. Take your copter out there and see if you can snoop them out. If you do find the landing site, try and identify the ship so we can intercept it at its destination port if they elude us here. Of course, if you run across any of them while investigating..."
Joe knew what that meant. Smuggling alien artifacts was a grave offense, posing a considerable danger to the United Nations. Grave enough, in fact, that anyone caught doing it could be shot if they didn"t surrender immediately upon coming into contact with the s.p.a.ce force.
Commander Mailson knew Joe quite well. The lieutenant"s line of thinking was transparent to him.
"I thought you"d enjoy the chance to bag something other than alien varmints, for once."
"Yes sir! I appreciate that, sir."
"Be careful. They know it"s a dangerous business and have already proven to be well prepared. They"re more likely to start shooting at you than surrender."
"Yes, sir. What do I have at my disposal for this operation?"
"I requisitioned some hardware for you. The scientists are having a s.h.i.t fit over it. I managed to get you another Series Seven, a variety of small arms, and some satellite coverage to help search for them. We"ll drop a refueling station for your copter near the search zone. Since the copter travels light, we"ll drop most of the other supplies you need with the fuel."
"Sounds good, sir. Anything else?"
"That"s it. Keep me notified."
The commander broke the link. Joe opened his eyes and threw his rifle over his back.
"Big game it is," he said happily and marched back towards the copter.
The refueling platform was a huge metal spider, its gasoline-filled abdomen resting against the green earth. Joe skillfully maneuvered his one-man copter in a spiral down towards the landing zone on the spider"s back.
He landed the flying machine expertly, then pried himself out of the tiny seat. He winced, coaxing sleeping muscles back to life. At least the weather had been good; it was summer here on Yarnitha.
Joe walked down into the small living center of the platform. As Commander Mailson had promised, two Series Seven robots were waiting for him. Joe wished that he could make use of more formidable hardware than this. These were general purpose robotoids and could perform a wide range of functions. The real combat robots, which looked more like tanks than humanoids, were needed for base protection. The Series Sevens would have to do.
He looked the robots over and checked their programs. They were both loaded with reconnaissance software as he had expected. He left one alone and cleared the other one"s brain, loading a combat package instead.
The robots were too heavy to ride on the small copter. There was a large, slow hovercar provided for their transport. It would serve to shuttle them back and forth but would be worse than useless in a combat situation. Joe decided that he would have to get a bearing on the smugglers before calling for the robots.
Joe had no choice but to sleep before getting started. The day-and-a-half trip over from the other continent had been long and uncomfortable. He was completely exhausted. The copter was fast and maneuverable, but sitting in the same position for several hours between rest stations was less than ideal. Still Joe spurred himself on, eager for the opportunity to hunt some real prey for a change. He was bored with the routine of sniping at helpless creatures while the robots catalogued them. This time the targets of his hunt might be able to fight back.
He cranked open the two tiny windows on opposite sides of his cramped quarters. He thought briefly about the dangers of allowing something in while he slept but decided the robots could watch for him. He wanted to feel the warm night air and hear the sounds of the forest outside. It reminded him of summer nights on the frontier planet where he grew up. It seemed that he had done the same sorts of things back then as he did now, wandering around through parts unknown with a rifle on his shoulder. He fell asleep quickly with old memories of his childhood adventures knocking around in his head.
It was night when he climbed back into the refueled copter and took to the air. Switching on his scanning equipment, Joe searched for lifeforms. The devices he had were for his usual job of cataloguing new species. Joe increased their helpfulness by setting the computer to screen out creature types which had already been catalogued; anything he detected would be either new species or humans.
Joe set a search pattern into the computer and then let the copter fly itself over the dense expanse of spiny trees. He realized that the search was going to be long and perhaps futile. He thought about ways to increase his chances of finding the smugglers. He remembered that the commander had allocated one of the new satellites to gather data for his search.
Joe linked into the satellite network to look over the information that had been obtained from orbit. He looked over the raw maps, searching for anything that would give him an idea. Something caught his eyea"an electromagnetic anomaly on the surface. It didn"t look like any kind of s.p.a.ceship, but some form of power generator was functioning on the planeta"a big one.
Suddenly Joe had an idea. If this power source was so prominent to him, it might be seen by the smugglers as well. Which meant they might show up there. Since the robots were wasting their time just sitting at the refueling station, perhaps he should put them to use. He could set up an ambush at the power source, tell the robots to wait there and then continue his search. Joe liked the plan. If he couldn"t find the smugglers, he might get lucky and get them to come to him.
Joe hailed the robots waiting at the refueling platform and set up a rendezvous near the odd readings. They would meet close enough to walk towards it without alerting anyone there. He broke the copter out of its current search pattern and headed out.
At the rendezvous Joe found that finding a spot to set the little copter down in the middle of the night was difficult. In the end he had to have the robots set the hovercar down first and clear away a few trees before he could land.
Once on the ground, Joe converted the second Series Seven to a combat program and designated them simply One and Two. They each had an a.s.sault rifle of standard UNSF issue and plenty of ammunition. Joe gave a backpack of miscellaneous gear to Two to carry.
"There are no other UNSF personnel on this continent," Joe told them. "If we encounter anyone, it"s safe to a.s.sume that they"re smugglers operating here illegally. Shoot to kill."
"We are to allow no surrender, sir?" asked One.
"The smugglers waived their surrender opportunity in an encounter with a UNSF ship in orbit of this planet. We are now authorized to use lethal force in apprehending them."
"Yes, sir," both robots responded simultaneously. Joe waited the last half hour until daylight, pacing about impatiently. Finally he decided that the light had increased to a level that would be safe for him to walk in.
"One of you to each flank," Joe said. He took a bearing using his satellite link and headed out through the trees, cradling his rifle. The robots moved to either side, holding their rifles in similar fashion.
Joe remained linked with the automatons, making use of their scanning information so he would know if they detected any human signatures. Joe picked his way through the spiny forest. The small battle group had made it perhaps a hundred meters into the forest when a transmission came in.
"This is Two. I am falling out of formation due to inordinate difficulties negotiating the terrain," a voice said over the link.
Joe rolled his eyes. "This wouldn"t happen if I"d been a.s.signed one of the Veer Leviathans," he complained to himself.
"Do you need a.s.sistance, Two?" Joe transmitted.
"Negative."
"You are making progress?"
"Five minutes added to ETA at logged destination."
"I"ll slow down. Notify me of any further difficulties."
Joe stood for a moment, listening to the sounds of the forest. He realized that he could hear One and Two churning through the woods nearby. He debated moving ahead and scouting out the area alone.
"This is One. A native lifeform has attached itself to my leg."
"My momma Veer!" swore Joe.
"Repeat last, sir?"
"One, remove it with all due haste. Stay focused on our priority," Joe said.
"I am unable to remove it, sir."
"Can you still make progress?" Joe asked, exasperation drenching his voice.
"Five minutes added to ETA at logged destination."
Joe clenched his teeth. If some critter still clutched the leg of his Series Seven when they got to the power source, he felt inclined to shoot whatever it was.
"This is Two."
"Let me guess. Five minutes added to ETA?"
"At logged destination, sir. For a total delta of ten minutes over original estimate."
"Both of you, break inward. We"ll a.s.sume a file formation, I"ll take the point."