Conquest

-22-

Within a few hours, we knew the full truth. The enemy had not only dropped unknown large objects into the sea, these objects had vanished into the oceanic trench off our eastern shore and sunk to the very bottom. I could only imagine the activity going on down there on the deepest seabeds of the Caribbean. While their fleet hovered far above like watchful parents, perhaps they were setting up domes of force and factory complexes to produce the monstrous foot soldiers of the Macros. Hundred foot tall robots I’d had nightmares about for years.

There could no longer be any confusion about the enemy’s intent. They’d tried a direct assault, but when their losses had grown too high, they’d broken off and shifted to Plan B. Like colonies of ants, they would build their invasion army and when they came again, we would face a combination of invasion and bombardment.

“We have to assume they’ve set up six factories on the bottom of the ocean,” I told General Kerr. He was the lucky recipient of my first call since the withdrawal.

“What? What are you talking about, Riggs?”

The General was out of the loop as far as direct input from the battle was concerned. The Macros had blown down all his satellites in the region as they came in, methodically popping any orbital object in the local sky like light bulbs.

“Down in the trench, sir,” I said. “The invasion ships dropped their payloads to the bottom of it.”

“No, no, no, Riggs. You have to be mistaken. Macros are land animals.”

“They don’t need to breathe, sir. They’ve unloaded six factories onto the bottom of the trench and they probably intend to invade after they build up their forces.”

“You listen to me, Riggs,” General Kerr said. “You told me to hide my subs down there to keep them safe.”

“Yeah. Not a good spot, as it turns out. The Macros have apparently decided that’s also a good locale to hide their breeding equipment.”

“Just like that, huh? Scratch one half of the U. S. nuclear sub fleet? Now I suppose you want me to withdraw them.”

“I apologize sir, but that’s not why I’m calling.”

“What do you want, then?”

“You have a number of attack subs. I believe they are equipped with nuclear-tipped torpedoes—”

“Now, you just hold on a second—”

“I need them to seek out the enemy in the oceanic trench, General.”

“That’s suicide.”

“If they get set up and begin churning out those big invasion machines, we’ll be overrun.”

“I can’t order my subs in—even if they had nuclear torpedoes, which I’m not confirming or denying. I can’t communicate with the subs when they are that deep. We’ll have to wait until they come up to shallower depths and can receive VLF signals. Do you think the Macros know they are down there with them?”

I thought about it. “Probably not, sir. But I can’t be sure as to their underwater sensory systems.”

“What are you going to do, Riggs?” Kerr asked me after a pause.

“I think we’re going to have to rebuild here first. The trouble is, when they do come, they will be coming up out of the sea. Laser fire doesn’t penetrate more than a few yards into the ocean. They will be able to march in extremely close before they surface. We won’t be able to engage them at a distance. Worse, the laser turrets on that entire coastal zone have been knocked out.”

The more I thought about it, the more I realized we were screwed. The Macros were going to churn out troops on the bottom of the sea—something I’d never realized they could do. They would use their fleet of cruisers to cover them from any kind of aerial assault. If we were going to go after their undersea base before they built a robot army and overran us, we would have to do it by walking on the seafloor, just as they were.

“Well,” General Kerr said, sighing, “I’ll work on getting the approval I need to use those subs again. You work on a way to get rid of those underwater factories. Lord, when the press gets hold of this there will be a panic in Miami. The entire population of the planet has been traumatized by the last invasion. Every continent fears a Macro dome building an army nearby like an anthill. They are going to go ape when they figure out what the machines are up to.”

I was barely listening to Kerr. To me, his problems seemed petty in comparison to my own. I had six giant factories in the sea next to my base, each no doubt was already churning out workers to gather the required materials to build more and more Macros.

We broke off the discussion and I stressed and mumbled over the computer table until Kwon tapped me on the shoulder. Fortunately I was wearing armor, otherwise his metal-wrapped finger would have broken my collar bone. I turned to him, and nodded.

“What is it, First Sergeant?”

“We’ve done it, sir.”

“Done what?” I snapped. I was tired and worried.

“We’ve dug ourselves out of this hole.”

“Ah, good,” I said.

I followed him up toward a glimmer of distant sunlight. Sandra trailed behind us. Together, the three of us stepped out into the ruins that had once been Fort Pierre.

“Those damned machines,” I said.

“Our headquarters building is gone, Kyle,” Sandra said. “Your new office, that awful orange carpet…all gone.”

The building had indeed been leveled. Of all the buildings scattered here and there, it had withstood the harshest pounding. I supposed Macro thinking was behind it. They knew our leadership was posted here, so they’d tried to obliterate the area.

I looked around the place. Not much was left standing. The landing pits had even suffered a pounding. The only place I really cared about was the officer’s mess, which was still partially intact. They had excellent food, and I was hungry.

“Hey look, Sandra,” I said. “They nailed our bungalow, but on the bright side, they only took out half the restaurant.”

“You can think of food now? What if they come back? What if they fire their missiles? Can you see them, out there in the sky over the ocean?”

I followed her uplifted finger and I did see them. It was strange to see so many ships in Earth’s sky. Dark, arrowhead shapes hung over our earthly sea. The day was clear except for drifting smoke. There was a slight haze, but the ships were so large and numerous you could not mistake them for what they were.

I called to Barrera and asked him if he could manage the clean-up without me. He assured me his staff was already on top of the task. I believed him. There were emergency operations going on all over the island, of course. Crews were digging people out, fire truck sirens warbled in the distance and the medical people were looking haggard. But I’d learned a long time ago to take a moment to rest whenever it presented itself. Star Force could run itself for a few hours, I decided.

“How long do you think we have?” Sandra asked me suddenly.

I removed my helmet and looked at her. She had already taken hers off. Dark flowing hair ran over the top of her armor, catching on the bulging plates at her shoulders.

“What do you mean?” I asked her gently.

“Before they come out of that trench. Before they crawl up onto our island to wipe us out.”

The cool beach breezes dried my sweat. The smoldering craters around us stank of burnt charcoal and dust. I hugged Sandra then, armor to armor. I think I surprised her, but she didn’t resist. Our battle suits scraped and groaned slightly at the pressure.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I plan to go down there and hit them first.”

She studied my face. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. I really shouldn’t be.”

I expected her to become angry and try to talk me out of it. But she didn’t. Maybe she thought I was right, and it was the only thing to do. Or maybe she realized that I would do it anyway. In any case, I didn’t bring it up again. We walked through the smoking mess that had hours ago been a tropical paradise. I was sad, rather like walking through the ashes of one’s own home.

“Let’s see if the officer’s mess is still serving,” I suggested.

She agreed and we headed toward the sagging doors. One wouldn’t budge, having been folded down by the building when it leaned forward like an old man that’s taken a hard blow. I forced it with my armored hands. The metal screeched and groaned as it came reluctantly open.

Inside, we found the officer’s mess serviceable, if abandoned. Kwon and his team were in the area, digging people out of their bunkers. Most of the base personnel had survived. We had drinks until the kitchen people showed up. When they finally did, we were pretty well lit. With big smiles, we welcomed them to the facility, still wearing our battle armor.

The cooks gave us odd, sidelong glances. They looked away quickly when we returned their gaze. I didn’t care. I hammered the table until it dented, and demanded a good meal. I didn’t care what it was, as long as it was hot and tasted good.

After awhile, they came up with a shrimp dish they called camarones salvajes. It was a seafood plate full of wonderful flavors. Shrimp, marinated octopus, calamari and mussels, all mixed with black olives, roasted peppers and tomato. There was other stuff in there I couldn’t identify, but it all tasted hot and good.

We polished off a bottle of wine, but I made sure I didn’t reach the point of actual drunkenness. Sandra became loud and silly, and when we finally left the place, I think the staff was glad to see us go. I gave them a tip they wouldn’t soon forget and my first thought was to lead my girl back to our bungalow. We headed that way, but soon were reminded our home wasn’t in the best condition. It was demolished, smashed to sticks by a strike on a nearby building.

“Hmm,” I said, realizing I wasn’t going to get laid in this place anytime soon.

Sandra gave a deep sigh, but she didn’t start crying. I think before our campaign against the Worms and the long journey home fighting against the Macros, she would have broken down. Now, she understood that things were just things. As long as the people you cared about were alive, crying wasn’t worthwhile.

“I’ve got an idea,” she said, then led me down to the sea.

It was getting dark now, but when we took off our battle suits and slipped into the waves, they were very warm. I looked off down the beach and saw a lot of dead sea creatures on the sand. All the hits in the water had killed thousands of fish. I turned her away from the washed up bodies.

“Why here?” I asked.

“Because those damned turrets can’t see us now,” she said. “I want to have some fun before you fix them all and they stare at me again.”

I laughed, and as the darkness fell we enjoyed ourselves in the waves. The water still felt warmer than usual, almost hot, but I’d checked my Geiger counter before we went out there. It registered increased activity with a mild amount of clicking. It was nothing a couple of Star Force marines couldn’t handle.