Chapter 16: Chapter 15 – Bugs (2)

Rururin’s shuttle launched from the Veil’s bay with three others onboard. All of them were dressed in sealed, tight suits, while Rururin had the bracelet wrapped around her wrist on the outside. The slick, black shuttle was shaking heavily as it descended downwards, into the atmosphere of the orange colored gas giant. The thick helium clouds made the visibility almost zero. Lucky for them, they had their scanners to rely on and not just their eyes. A few minutes in, the bracelet on the bunny-girl’s wrist beeped, and lit up, displaying dozens of quickly scrolling texts that she couldn’t read at all. The appearing symbols were alien for her, not in the inherited, common language. 

 

“Some kind of… damage report?” She thought to herself as a few appearing symbols were flashing in red.

 

“The radar picked it up! We are nearing the suit!” Her pilot said, drawing Rururin back to reality. 

 

When they reached close enough to see it, the group was mesmerized by its raw beauty. It was around 20 meters in size, as big as their shuttle. It was human-like, having two legs, attached to a thin waist, that had some kind of utility belt attached around it. It had two, normal looking arms, ending in mechanical fingers, empty of weapons. They were attached to an armored, triangle shaped chest, still glinting with images of golden thunderbolts etched on it. The head was reminiscent of ancient knights, spurting a golden plume, waving behind it in the winds of the gas giant. On its back it had something like a backpack, fastened to its torso. Sadly it looked heavily damaged, whatever it was originally. Three, still sharp, blade-like ‘arms’ were stretching towards the sides. Looking at the remains, once there were eight such blades attached to it. They were twisted off by the constant, vicious winds of the planet, leaving behind nothing more but their broken off bottom parts, still attached to the device.

 

“...” None of them could say anything for a moment there, only watching the machine that was doing the same, looking at them silently.

 

“Report!” Parthen’s voice came, shaking them back to reality. 

 

“Yes!” Rururin flinched “We reached the Suit of Ares! It looks damaged but not too heavily! Do you see it?” She replied but both her and Parthen’s voice was greatly distorted.

 

“We can’t see the camera feeds from your helms, the interference from the planet’s atmosphere is too strong!” Parthen answered. 

 

“Tell them to bring it up.” Omega said, looking down at Parthen, crossing his arms before his chest. “To reactivate the Suit, someone has to get into it and reinitiate the booting procedure with the bracelet.”

 

“Did you hear?” Parthen said, with a soft chuckle. 

 

“We are already doing it!” Rururin grinned and her men were manually aiming the prepared cable-guns. It was their plan from the start, to drag it back to the Veil. They were close enough, her pilot experienced, so the wild winds of the gas giant did not add extra difficulty for the other two, manning the weapons. Two, strong, threaded cables shot out the next moment, wrapping around the machine’s body. “Good! Start going upwards! Take it at a steady speed! We don't want to lose our cargo!” Rururin ordered as she looked at the bracelet of hers.

 

Swiping on it, she could see the holographic projection of the armor and its different parts highlighted in red. The most glaring part was its backpack. It was constantly flashing with weird symbols. There were some red warnings coming from its torso and from its two hands but every time she tried to look closely the image jumped back to the backpack. Again and again.

 

“Can our expert translate this for me?” Rururin asked with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

 

“We still don’t have the camera feeds!” Parthen answered, yet to their surprise, Omega just smiled before speaking as if being there with them on the shuttle. 

 

“Its wings are damaged beyond repair. It can’t perform atmospheric entries anymore. This model was clearly equipped for a planet-side recon mission when last deployed. The utility belt is for the multiple devices it has against ground targets. Grenades, bombs, the like. Sadly, it is empty! That is why it is flashing its warnings. 

 

“What about the hands?” Rururin asked quickly.

 

“It’s missing its weapon. For recon missions they were equipped with a long-range rifle and a close-quarter weapon of choice by the pilot. For now, this suit is without any weapons.”

 

“Bummer…” Rururin thought to herself.

 

“We are nearing the surface!” Her pilot said as they slowly ascended, steadily dragging the suit behind them. 

 

“Heh, I like when something goes smoothly!” Rururin grinned and if not for being on a critical mission, Parthen would scold him through the open channel. Her commanding officer felt like, the stupid bunny-girl of his just jinxed everything. 

 

Arriving into orbit, finally their headset’s feed came back online and everyone could see the image of the Suit of Ares being dragged behind the shuttle. Even Parthen was mesmerized by its elegant beauty and probable strength. Something that was designed for war by the humans, had to be immensely powerful! What nobody noticed was that Omega was moving his fingers, gently tapping away at the air. The bracelet on Rururin’s hand immediately did as ordered and lit up once again, alerting its wearer.

 

“Something is happening!” She exclaimed, looking down at her wrist. Parthen wanted to order her to do something… but even he had no idea what they were dealing with. “It looks… automated!” She said but just so she would not be blamed for it later on. 

 

The image, projected out of the bracelet quickly changed to the suit’s 3D model. It was turned to its back, as if invisible fingers were controlling it. The next moment, the damaged wings were selected, zoomed in on and even without any understanding, Rururin knew what was happening.

 

“The suit is disengaging its ‘backpack’!” She said, looking out from the shuttle. Everyone could see as white smoke got sprayed out from its back as the ancient mechanism came to life. “The cables are still wrapped around it, it won't be able to-” She said but the rest of her sentence was stuck in her throat. 

 

The sharp, broken wings moved, cutting off the cables that were capable of towing away almost anything. They were slashed into small pieces, without effort. Then the suit turned a little and its back shot out the wing-addon with a violent force, sending it shooting back into the gas giant.

 

“Damn it!” Rururin shouted “Load in another set of harpoons! We can’t lose the machine too!” 

 

As her men were already doing that, Parthen looked up at Omega, trying to see something he was only feeling inside his head. It was an annoying thought at the back of his mind. That he was somehow responsible for what was happening.

 

“Now that connection is reestablished,” Omega said, as if he read Parthen’s thoughts, “The control bracelet purged the damaged, potential hazard before being recovered.” 

 

“What do you mean?” He asked and a second later he was glad that he looked away from the screen. 

 

What came next came the scream of Rururin and the darker side of the planet was completely lit up in a white light, blinding everybody. Its origin was coming from the gas giant’s upper atmosphere, where the damaged backpack of the Suit of Ares disappeared into. It was followed by a shockwave that shook even the Veil and cut every feed off, replacing them with buzzing static. 

 

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“This.” Omega said, holding his hands behind his back, turning his head towards Parthen. “It is standard procedure to protect the recovery crew. A wing-pack for the Suit of Ares has its own dark matter converter, for its power source. In that state it is highly possible it would explode… doing that inside the ship…” He smiled, making everyone on the bridge shiver. 

 

“Start initiating the backup systems! I want the communication back online, now!” Parthen shouted, turning forward. “Launch another shuttle and recover the Suit of Ares then the crew! We only have a short amount of time!” He gritted his teeth. “The bugs are coming!”

 

…

….

…..

 

When the second shuttle launched, its first priority was to secure the Suit of Ares before it even checked on the first shuttle. Luckily, the explosion only disturbed the communications and cameras. The main systems were shielded from any interference as they were resistant towards EMP attacks. The only injuries Rururin’s crew suffered were the two men, responsible for controlling the harpoons. They looked straight into the blinding explosion as they were taking aim and their vision was reduced to seeing nothing but whiteness. After they were recovered and sent to the infirmary, Rururin, with bloodshot eyes went to oversee the suit’s recovery and help the crew find space for it in the belly of the Veil. As to what would come next was not hers to worry about.

 

“Report…” Parthen said with a heavy voice.

 

“They are coming towards us.” One of the officers gulped, watching his long range scanner’s readings. “80 ships immediately mobilized and are coming this way. Another 40 is heading towards the nearest Astropath, leading out of the system! They are trying to cut us off from the outside world.”

 

“Well… that was a blinding explosion… Our luck has run out, of course they saw it!” Parthen sighed, looking up at Omega who remained calm, watching the images of the suit, displayed on the big screen. 

 

“It was heavily damaged. It was better that it exploded outside and not in our hangar bay.” He said, with a reassuring smile. 

 

“Why do I get the feeling you had a hand in this?” Parthen murmured.

 

“And how would I manage to do that?” He asked, shaking his head, playing innocent yet he just did it. It was yet to be seen if he saved the Veil from an explosion or just pushed the 2000 souls on board towards the welcoming arms of the approaching fleet of bugs.

 

“I don’t know yet.” Parthen said to himself but did not answer as the bridge was lit up with warning beeps of their sensors. “Report!”

 

“Multiple Astropaths have opened up!” came the hurried answer “Kaltazar’s spirit be with us!” The officer gasped, unable to correctly relay what he was seeing.

 

Parthen was watching the same feed from his chair, displaying the image of three Astropaths. They were all connected to the other systems in the bugs’ hands and now tens of thousands of ships were flooding forward from them. They were from the smallest, shuttle sized ships to huge, asteroid-like monstrosities, overshadowing the Veil in size. 

 

“This is a damned invasion fleet!” Parthen said, biting into his lip, hitting on the armrest of his chair. “They were planning to invade one of their neighbors! Are we really that unlucky? Coming right when they are getting ready for war?” Groaned, asking nobody in particular. 

 

“Major General.” Omega said, trying to calm him down. “I suggest that we start running.”

 

“...” All of the officers on the bridge looked back at the two, some even nodding, wholly on board with their guest’s idea. 

 

“Fighting 40 ships is preferable to the 80 heading towards us.” He continued.

 

“That is still suicide.” Parthen said “They are closer to the Astropath, they are going to arrive there before us and take up a defensive position.”

 

“And?” Omega asked, tilting his head “Isn’t this a battleship? Or the word ‘battle’ is just for show in its name?” 

 

“Hmf!” Parthen snorted but wore a small smile. “Set course to the nearest Astropath! Before we are swarmed by the bugs! Forget the 80, heading for us, a colossal swarm just arrived from behind us! We either make it out or we die here!”

 

The ship quickly gave up on the possibility of hiding, diverting all energies to the engines, heading towards the nearest escape route. 

 

“Can the suit be helpful?” Parthen asked a question suddenly, before he even thought it through. 

 

“How much time do we have?” Omega asked.

 

“55 minutes.” Parthen said, checking the computer’s calculations. 

 

“Let my friends out so they can help me and give me full access to the Suit of Ares.” Omega said after a brief pause. “I can make it battle ready. It won’t be a miracle worker, but it can give us an edge to break through. If I am the one who pilots it.”

 

“Was this your plan all along?” He murmured, not expecting an answer. 

 

“No.” Omega shook his head. “I dislike the fact that this places Miyon and Sylen in danger.”

 

“At least it is a good motivation for you to not betray us!” Parthen said, nodding at him. “Go, I’ll tell Rururin you are coming and he is to assist you! Do as you see fit! Remember, if the Veil goes down, so do your friends!”

 

“You are more human than you would think…” Omega whispered to him, leaving the bridge, shaking his head softly.

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