By Other Means Read online

  Sweeping his view over the team, he found Breadle down and Peak firing his bar-buster standing next to his fallen comrade. Breadle rolled over onto his side trying to get up to one knee. Roberts was receiving all of the feed and made the intuitive jump before Kiersey did, redirecting the fire from Peak and Anderev up into the canopy of the trees. Bangs, every bit as lucky as she always was, crouched untouched behind the stump of a toppled tree, her LinAcc pointed toward the incoming hostiles. Kiersey picked them out, painted them, and passed the info along to Roberts. Seconds later the first one slumped forward, promptly followed by the next. The final combatant turned to make a run for it, but Bangs’ headshot brought his limp form to the ground.

  Kiersey fanned out the aerosats looking for more movement. Then he received an image from Anderev and quickly forwarded it to Roberts—the fire the combat group received was from two automated systems that were embedded in the trunks of large trees.

  At the base of the nearest tree, Heyer looked up at the splintered remains. “Why the hell do that?”

  “The tree covered up the metallic ping and soaked up the heat signature. It’s high enough to give the system good covering fire and, finally, a bunch of farmers don’t think like we do.” Anderev’s delivered his assessment in a clipped tone.

  “Too right. Only a bunch of farmers could figure on kicking the Federate and not expect a response,” returned Bangs as she got to her feet.

  Kiersey began a broad sweep looking for any emission from more emplacements, resetting the parameters to catch the limited exposure of these embedded traps. Roberts turned his attention to Bangs’ feed and Kiersey found himself following along using the ’sat that shadowed her. She crept up on the casualties and then came to an abrupt halt.

  “What is it, Bangs?” sent Roberts.

  When she turned, the body at her left came into view. At first all that Kiersey could see were the muddy boots and non-mutable camouflage, then Bangs walked closer. There was no mistaking the cylinders strapped to the dead man’s face.

  “Go to BW-1. All team, BW-1. Now,” barked Roberts over the comm.

  Bangs’ chatter reduced itself to a constant stream of profanity that Kiersey chopped off. Her shoulders shook once, then she reached around and pulled the filter clasp across the front of her helmet like they all were doing. Then her LinAcc came back up and her back straightened. He’d seen Bangs like this before. Someone was going to die and soon. He was just glad she was in front of him. Kiersey dialed back his viewpoint and a twitch raced up his spine. Who knew what bio weapon they were all exposed to....

  Transcript Committee Hearing, Sylvan Seven Atrocities

  Senator Wellheim: Correct me if I’m wrong, General, but I understand that you gave your troops something extra.

  General Pressman: All troops were inoculated with a new full-spectrum antigen.

  Senator Wellheim: Well that makes sense; you don’t want your troops coming down with anything once they are groundside.

  Leigh patched up as much of Breadle’s side as she could while Kiersey and Peak watched over her. Kiersey stole a glance at Roberts. The lieutenant, from his tense stance, was having a heated encrypted conversation with command on board the Ross. Once Roberts secured evac for Breadle, Kiersey saw him send Peak to help the injured man to a clear LZ. Pushing the net farther, Kiersey kept scanning for enemy signatures. Now that he had a template from the automated guns in the trees, he was able to identify two other emplacements. He caught Roberts’ comm lighting up.

  “Leigh,” Roberts sent and the medic jogged over to him. “I need a report and I need it yesterday. What the hell did we just step in? How bad is it?”

  Leigh looked away briefly. “Sir, I’m not certain what we’re up against, but it’s fairly virulent. When I knew that we were looking for a pathogen, something that I found from the casualty we discovered earlier made better sense. The boy shouldn’t have died from exposure. It just doesn’t get cold enough in this season. His cause of death must be due to whatever the rebels released. I’m still trying to narrow it down, but there were some unusual viruses in his system.”

  “Are we safe?” Roberts asked.

  “Our new antigen treatment should cover most of what the opposition could throw at us.”

  Roberts put a hand on Leigh’s shoulder and turned her away from the team, their comm’s chatter becoming encrypted. Kiersey considered what had just happened. Roberts wasn’t very subtle when it came to communication. If Kiersey didn’t know any better, he’d swear that the encryption slip was deliberate. He didn’t get any time to think about it further, because Roberts redeployed the team and once again started them toward the highest point. Kiersey could still hear Bangs mumbling under her breath as they struck out.

  There was a body lying in the clearing at the base of the rise. The metal in the gun it held pinged on the mosquito.net but its temperature had dropped enough that the IR could not immediately discern it. After making their way around the two tree emplacements, the team continued on to the objective. At the foot of the hill, the trees were all cut down to give the defenders on the heights the advantage of a clear line of sight. Except, when Kiersey flew the aerosats over the landscape he found no IR spikes or metallic pings other than the fortified position on the hillside that had been identified from orbit by the Ross. Where were all the defenders, he wondered? The only thing the team discovered so far was a casualty lying in plain sight.

  Kiersey brought a group of aerosats level with the front of the opening in the hillside that led via a switchback tunnel up to the keep above them. Nothing. Still no heat signatures. Once inside the ’sats found the bodies of two guards, one of them with his arms out-stretched, futilely reaching for a cylinder mask. Beyond that there were more dead, all of which were cold enough that Leigh couldn’t guess at a time of death.

  “What the hell happened here?” mumbled Heyer.

  Roberts stood considering the scene before him. Kiersey watched him shake his head briefly. Then the lieutenant spoke, sending Bangs in to lead, followed by Heyer and Michaels. Kiersey looked at the ’sat readings again. The cave ran straight back for fifty meters before starting to ascend. Roberts sent him a brief message, “Stay here with Anderev. Move some aerosats over our back trail and continue to push forward the ones in the cave.” With that the lieutenant motioned Leigh ahead of him toward the dead guards.

  Kiersey picked a ’sat near Bangs and watched as she moved further into the cave. She was still twitchy and her shoulders jerked back and forth. More bodies slumped against the sides of the cavern.

  “This is bad,” Michaels sent over the band. “It’s like they didn’t even know what they set loose.”

  “No chatter,” Roberts replied from where he stood over Leigh as she examined the guard’s body.

  The furthest ’sat picked up a spike in the IR. Kiersey relayed the highlighted view to the rest of the team. “You’ve got a live one all the way at the back of the cave. There’s some metallic pings from around the combatant.”

  “Bangs!” Roberts sent cutting across Kiersey, but she was already in motion, the LinAcc’s barrel swinging in front of her as she tracked the enemy.

  “What is this stuff?” came from Heyer, who was down on one knee in front of several bags made from coarsely spun fiber.

  “Bangs, I need them alive. We need to know what’s going on here.” Roberts started to move away from Leigh.

  “There’s more over here. It’s really fine,” answered Michaels, something white and powdery spilled out onto the floor in front of him. “There’s something buried under all of these bags. Look at they way they hump up in the middle.”

  Kiersey saw Anderev move in the corner of his eye. The combat specialist was also watching the feed from the cave in a reduced window according to Kiersey’s

  log. There was a brief, sharp breath from Bangs’ feed and a muffled thump as the LinAcc’s ammunition found its target.

  “Damn it, Bangs!” came from Roberts.


  Kiersey flipped back to the feed from the ’sat shadowing Bangs just in time to see the thumb on her victim’s hand rise.

  All of the team in the cave’s audio caught the pop of small explosions. The ’sats images were overwhelmed by the fine white particles that shot into the air as the bags were destroyed. Kiersey’s mind was working at putting everything he saw together when Anderev slammed into him throwing them both to the ground. The feed from the ’sats vanished into bright white overload. The ground shook momentarily and an orange lance of fire jetted from the cave across the clearing into the surrounding woods. Kiersey felt himself rolling away from Anderev, his ears and eyes overwhelmed despite the protection of his helmet.

  He came to rest on his back. Blinking his eyes, Kiersey looked upward in time to see the tree flying through the air. Its roots came down, striking him in the chest and shoving him along the ground for several meters.

  There was a smell of something other than burning wood when he came around. At the edges of Kiersey’s awareness, he could hear Anderev muttering. He heard snatches of “Flour, of all things, damn primitives” and then “You’re not going to like this, but I can’t carry you.” The burning scent got stronger and when he dug far enough into his memory, Kiersey realized that it smelled just like incinerated flesh.

  Transcript Committee Hearing, Sylvan Seven Atrocities

  General Pressman: We gave our soldiers much more than just a new antigen.

  Senator Wellheim: Enlighten us.

  General Pressman: Ships by nature are very difficult to keep completely clean in a biologic sense. They are breeding grounds for all kinds of new bacteria and phages all altered by the incidence of cosmic rays and other radiations. By giving our crews the full-spectrum antibody, the infectious agents were encouraged to adapt, becoming more and more virulent over time. The soldiers of course would be fine.

  Senator Wellheim: I note here on this report that the full- spectrum antibody does not necessarily destroy these hostile agents, but rather stops any effect on the troops. So essentially you turned them all in Typhoid Marys. I’m sorry, General ,do you have any response to that? No, I didn’t expect you would.

  This dream is really the worst, thought Kiersey as the feeling of floating continued. He had a few snatches of memory that kept coming back and made no sense. There was a disturbing tugging sensation, a release, and then he felt like he was sailing through the air as if he suddenly weighed nothing at all. It reminded him of the way the tree flew through the air in the moments before landing on him. Then there were a few seconds of very distorted vision as if he were hanging upside down and swinging back and forth. Through all of this he could smell that horrendous odor once again of burning flesh.

  “OPS-AI give him visual.”

  Kiersey worked over the new stimuli for a moment. That was Anderev’s voice he realized and then he could see.

  The image before him wavered and Kiersey realized he was in the infirmary onboard the Ross. He’d made it. He started to turn his head in the direction that Anderev’s voice came from but nothing happened. The staff must have him secured, that made sense since his back or neck was probably injured. He heard a chair scrape on the flooring and Anderev came into his line of sight.

  The combat specialist was missing an arm. The slope of his shoulder cut off abruptly and a reddish blue bandage covered the absence. Burns covered what was visible of the rest of Anderev. “It’s not as bad as it looks, but when it itches, then it is that bad,” Anderev grated out. “Sorry, smoke inhalation,” he continued pointing at his throat. “But what I’m really sorry about is that I couldn’t carry you out…” his voice trailed off and he looked away.

  Kiersey was briefly confused at that. He was thinking more clearly now than before, perhaps the level of drugs in his system was being reduced. “What do you mean?” His voice sounded tinny and unmodulated; perhaps he had some smoke inhalation damage as well.

  Anderev didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he reached across and pulled a slate off of nearby table. He fiddled with it awkwardly until its surface became reflective. “I’m not sure you’re ready for this…” Again he trailed off and then brought up the mirrored screen before Kiersey.

  It was quiet in the room while Kiersey went through several panicked reactions. But they were reactions that would have taken a body to act upon. His face was barely recognizable and that was what remained of most of him. Just below his adam’s apple, Kiersey became a ragged mass of flesh. His body was gone. A gelatinous mass of blue, a tangle of tubes, and several flexing bellows were attached to his pitiful remains. His mind...his mind however continued to work fine. Six long months, six incredibly long months and the techs on the Ross would grow him a new body. He’d be more than just a chunk of flesh again. That was when he realized that Anderev was still much too quiet and still. “You saved my life,” Kiersey said.

  The big man’s shoulders slumped. “It was about the only thing I saved,” he sat down at the edge of Kiersey’s vision.

  “Now I know what you mean when you said you couldn’t carry me.” If he had a body, Kiersey would have shuddered. He’d heard before about the option of sealing the armor’s helmet before in life-threatening situations. But he’d never heard of anyone using it. That’s what the handle on the top of the helmet was really for, not just hanging it on the wall. Then he started to think more about what Anderev said. “Look, there was nothing we could do for them. It happened so fast. It was over fast—that was the only good thing. I’m sure they never even felt it.”

  Anderev turned back around where Kiersey could see his face. Some of the tension there had lessened. “Kiersey, you don’t understand. All of those dead men and women down there, even that kid—it’s all our fault.”

  “When we get sent in, people die. It’s a fact.”

  Kiersey heard Anderev stand up to his feet. “No, you don’t know. When we were sent down to Cansec our hyped-up immune systems were carrying live infectious agents. We were full of diseases that had to develop into radically dangerous forms as they tried to overwhelm our antigens—viruses that the population of that world had no protection from whatsoever.”

  As Anderev stepped out of Kiersey’s line of sight he heard him say softly, “Every last one of them is dead. We walked on their world, breathed its air, drank its water, and we poisoned them. We poisoned them so well that they never had a chance.”

  Kiersey heard Anderev’s footsteps and then the chuff of the airlock door as it opened and closed. He stared at the opposite wall and its blank grey metal for a long time. Everything that he saw appear was a product of his imagination and none of it could be as bad as the reality. “OPS,” he said, “I think you can turn me off for awhile. I think you can turn me off for a long while….”

  Transcript Committee Hearing, Sylvan Seven Atrocities

  Senator Wellheim: So you knew full well what you were doing?

  General Pressman: Sadly, sir, it is not without precedent. Our ancestors gave blankets impregnated with the small pox infection to the Indians and achieved the same result. Our decision was not arrived at lightly. After all it was a group of rebel farmers that started the American Revolution. Since the consolidation, the Federate simply is not prepared for another conflict. We were all aware of the consequences and have accepted them as a necessary cost of winning this war.

  Senator Wellheim: You condemned all of those people to death.

  General Pressman: No, sir, they accepted their fate when they challenged us. We were given little choice in how to accomplish our goal. I could just as easily lay the blame on your shoulders when your committee cut the finances to the war effort. But you do not want to see or hear that, you are only looking for someone to accept the blame. Well, I will. If you want to blame someone for accomplishing something that you tried to make certain could not be done, then blame me. If you want to blame someone for finishing this with no recourse, then blame me. If you want to blame someone for having the balls to do what it takes, then
blame me. But don’t you ever tell me that I have failed the Federal Coalition.

  Senator, I’m done here. I have answered your questions. I have nothing further to say.

  Sheepdog

  An Alliance Archives Adventure

  Mike McPhail

  “Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident. Then there are the wolves, and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy. Then there are sheepdogs, and I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolves.”

  Paraphrased from “Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs”

  Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

  It was a relief to finally escape the smothering darkness of the old-growth forest. Its ancient canopy had long ago meshed to form an impenetrable barrier to the life-giving light of this world’s sun, Tau Ceti. Nature had not seen fit to give the planet a celestial traveling companion, as with Earth and her moon, so the term ‘the dark of night’ had a whole new meaning here.

  As starlight shown on the scene through the towering grasses at the edge of the tree line, the suit’s all-governing computer, or Pacscomp, powered down the peripheral, infrared lamps, once again allowing the helmet-mounted, electro-optical scopes to gather the faint ambient light and amplify it into a false-color day.