Terra-33 Ep. 07

She spun in the turret, taking a quick stock of the remaining human forces. Three buggies were twisted, smoking metal, leaving only five still active. APC-1 was bogged down, either because it had lost propulsion or it had simply suffered enough damage that the drivers were dead. The turret on top still hammered away. Thor's command vehicle had come to a complete stop now and began extending its upper section. Trix saw the telltale glow of energy whips charging. As she bounced along, she tried to get an accurate count of the slumper vehicles and lost track, not able to keep the fast-moving hovercrafts separated. Her overall impression was that they were outnumbered at least two to one.

"Ida, start rotating around APC-2. At least we can use their anti-air lasers to defend against the mortars," Remi ordered.

Trix's HUD displayed a lead indicator and she began moving along it, biding her time until she had reached the correct speed. When the slumper was locked in, she let another stream of armor-piercing rounds go. As the bolt clacked up on empty, she saw the slumper vehicle falter. Ida's yell was the only warning Trix had.

A burst of flame suddenly roared up the opposite side of their buggy, making Trix instinctively duck down. The buggy swayed sideways and for a gut-lurching second, she thought it would topple over. Ida somehow righted the vehicle and had them screaming toward APC-2 when Trix regained her perch.

"Engineer Remi, if one of those hits us directly, we will be destroyed," Ida stated, her clam diction betrayed by a worried tone.

"I know, but — "

"All eVac chambers are full!" Carol's shout filled the override channel. "We can still mat-trans but we no longer have medical facilities to manage further casualties."

Trix looked up in abject fear, the reassurance that she could be popped up into a life-saving hot dog now shattered. If she suffered a serious injury now, the best that would happen is she would get transported up to the bird to bleed out. The huge bird was thumping out heavy shells, smashing the slumper reinforcements before they could get across the battlefield. The sight didn't hearten her much, there were still plenty of enemies directly engaged with their dwindling team.

"Maintain your fire!"

Thor's command reminded her that she should be looking for targets. Ida was careening around APC-2 while Remi cracked off grenades from the passenger seat. Remembering her empty magazine, Trix scrambled for another set of Drills. Pulling the last one from her stock, she loaded up and resumed firing when she had a target. The command vehicle's energy whips snapped into the ground nearby, lighting up at least ten of the enemy ships in a white glow. Trix watched them melt in various sections, all dropping to the ground. Almost as if taking a cue from that, every remaining slumper vehicle that was still moving spun and began streaking back toward the pillars. Fully half of them had been destroyed but the humans had suffered heavy losses to metal and personnel.

Trix watched the horizon, glad to see the flames of the enemy's propulsion units becoming smaller and smaller. As she watched the pillars, she saw the tops of two begin to bud open like a flower.

"Fuck! Prepare for incoming strike," Remi shouted.

"What is it?" Trix screamed, watching as a slender, conical head extended slowly from the top of each.

"Some kind of missile? Aerial, get out of here!"

Trix didn't recognize the voice on the override channel, all semblance of military operation now gone as the survivors waited for this new attack. Ida gunned their engine and began streaking away toward the northeast.

"Tech-8, maintain position around me," Isaac's driver cut in on the fireteam channel.

"Negative," was Ida's terse response.

"Fuckers! Get back here!"

Remi pushed an icon on the screen and Trix's comm fell blessedly silent.

"Where are we going, Ida?"

"Away," the construct stated firmly.

"I'm with her," Trix said, sliding down from the machinegun nest and securing the little roof hatch in place. She poked her head up between Ida and Remi, trying to get a look at Remi's console.

"They just launched," Remi said, his voice flat and emotionless.

Trix watched Remi's feed from the cameras of the bird, the two clearly missile-shaped objects now fully exposed. They trailed white exhaust, streaking far up into the sky.

"Are we too far to trans-mat?" Ida asked, glancing over at Remi.

"Half a klick and we will be."

"Load our cargo bay: food, fuel, ammo, in that order."

Remi didn't respond, but minimized the camera feed and began clicking icons to request supplies. The system was automated and no one had thought to disengage it, so Trix watched with her heart in her throat as Remi queued up his order. Ida had slowed momentarily and when Remi hit OK, she resumed her speed.

"Check it out, Trix," Remi ordered, not meeting her eyes.

She spun in her seat and opened the inner cargo hatch, seeing the six cubic meters completely stuffed with boxes of supplies.

"We're good," she replied, spinning back to the front.

"How far from the command vehicle?" Ida asked tersely.

Their technical was roaring along the coast now, going faster than Trix had thought the machine was capable. She checked the indicator and saw they were traveling at 200 km/h.

"Looks like fifteen kilo — "

Remi was interrupted by a detonation louder than anything Trix had ever heard. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the blank camera feed. Remi was frantically clicking through each command vehicle and the bird's cameras and they were all blank. She spun again and looked out the tinted side window, craning her neck to get a better look.

"The bird... The bird is... just gone," Trix choked.

"What about the rest?" Remi asked, poking his head over the back of his seat.

"They're still on the ground..."

"Shockwave incoming!" Remi shouted.

As soon as she heard his words, she saw it was true. A burst of dust at least a meter high was rocketing toward them, ballooning out from the other vehicles. Trix turned in her seat and buckled into the harness, hoping it wouldn't reach them. She saw Remi scrambling to do the same when their buggy was lifted and punched forward. The brief stomach-dropping sensation of being airborne was replaced by heavy impact with the ground. Trix's helmet smacked against the cushioned seat behind her, hard enough to make her see stars. Suddenly, the cab went dark.

"What's happening?" Trix shouted.

"Help me! Ida isn't responding," Remi said, reaching across his seat to shake the construct. Trix knew that her foot was still on the gas due to the whine of the strained engine. Something must have been wrong though, because the vehicle wasn't moving. She unlatched her harness and sprang forward, grabbing Ida's knee and pulling with all her strength against the dead weight. Finally, she got the girl's foot off of the accelerator and an eerie quiet descended.

"Remi, what's wrong with her?"

"I don't know," Remi said, frowning at the dead console set into the dash.

Trix hadn't noticed until now, but as she watched Remi pulling Ida out of her harness, she realized her HUD was not enabled.

"Remi... I think something disabled all of the electronics..."

"Oh, shit," he began, eyes widening, "Ida's brain is partially electronic..."

Trix had come to the same frightening conclusion and as Remi spoke it, she knew that the aliens must have unleashed some sort of pulse weapon. That would explain the dead electronics. The bird must have taken a hit from a standard missile so it couldn't return to the Burg and warn the other humans. Now, they were sitting here, in a disabled car, with a comatose driver, waiting to get captured. She spun frantically and looked out the window but was unable to see anything through the cloud of dust that had risen all around them.

"Help me move Ida," Remi said, struggling to get the construct across his lap.

Trix put her hands under Ida's arms, for once not trying to cop a feel. Remi took the driver's seat quickly after they had shifted her over. Trix wasn't sure what to do, so she popped the hatch on the machinegun bay and squeezed up into the nest. Looking to the west, she saw five fast-moving spots heading in their direction. They were still long kilometers away but they would close the gap quickly, and when they did...

"Remi, we have a problem," she trailed off, sliding down inside the cab.

"More than one," he grumbled, fiddling with some now exposed wires around the steering wheel.

"Five, actually."

"Five problems?" he paused to look in her direction.

"Yep," Trix said, meeting his wide eyes with her own, "They're coming this way, fast."