from below, but we did know the tube wasn’t a direct shot to the bottom. Curves appeared everywhere in Centaur architecture. They simply didn’t believe in straight lines.
Slapping at the walls with my gloves, I’d just managed to get myself reoriented so my feet were heading downward instead of my helmet when I hit an elbow-like curve at the bottom. I also landed on something cushy. It was my first Centaur kill in years.
I think I surprised them, jumping into space and free-falling down into their midst. My battle suit helped complete the effect, I think. I’m sure to them I looked like a killer machine in their midst.
They’d been sniping at us, taking turns firing up from this elbow, and then ducking out of sight while we fired back. One of them had popped out for his sniper shot just as I came down on his back with heavy, magnetic boots. I felt the spine snap—I was going pretty fast by the time I reached the bottom. Even with lighter gravity and therefore less acceleration as I fell, I was heavy enough and moving with enough velocity to crush the life out of the alien.
Still standing on the broken centaur’s back, I managed to get my projector around and burned the next shadowy sniper I saw before he figured out what was going on. There were two more, but they fled.
“Look out below!” shouted a voice. I recognized it as Kwon’s and I scrambled out of the way on all fours. Kwon could do to me what I’d done to the first Centaur.
Soon, it was raining marines. Some claimed it to be more fun than the skateboard ride through space, but I knew they were lying. We pressed the surviving Centaurs back, and by the time we’d come out of the tube at the bottom of the elevator shaft, they had run off. I got the feeling they were not regular troops. I figured they were probably militia or local guards of some kind. They didn’t operate as a cohesive unit.
Outside the shaft, we linked up with the rest of my unit as they dropped from above on their flying dishes. I sent out recon units and immediately learned the enemy was gathering in force nearby.
“Why haven’t they hit us, yet?” Kwon asked, coming to stand near.
“I don’t know, really,” I said. “I don’t like it either, but they are aliens. They aren’t responding quite the way humans would, but we can’t expect them to. Maybe we surprised them and they are out of position. Maybe they just don’t have a lot of troops.”
“This looks like a peaceful habitat,” Kwon said. His voice sounded wistful. “Most of it is farmland. There must be thousands of hectares of land here.”
I knew Kwon had been a farmer in his past life, and we’d not seen green, growing things for a long time. I smiled at him faintly. Maybe the big man was homesick.
“Well, whatever the reason, they are giving us a breather,” I said. “Let’s use it.”
I gathered my forces into a line along a ridge that was topped by thick foliage. It didn’t look appetizing, being dark green and leathery with huge leaves that blew about in the breezes. I wondered what the source of the moving air could be, and if the leaves would taste like the giant spinach they resembled.
While my marines organized themselves and took up positions, I climbed into an oversized foxhole my men had dug for me and pulled the communications box into it. Kwon joined me after awhile and watched as I poked at the controls.
“Uh,” Kwon said after a time, “what’s the plan, Colonel?”
“We are appearing to invade this station, just as the Macros expect us to. They are watching, remember. I didn’t like our position on the outer skin. We were too exposed.”
“So, are we going to blow a hole in this balloon and kill it?”
I shook my head. I just couldn’t do it. They weren’t even fighting hard. How could I butcher millions to protect my own? There had to be a better way.
“I want to talk to them,” I said. “I figure they have Nano tech, and that means we should be able to use
Slapping at the walls with my gloves, I’d just managed to get myself reoriented so my feet were heading downward instead of my helmet when I hit an elbow-like curve at the bottom. I also landed on something cushy. It was my first Centaur kill in years.
I think I surprised them, jumping into space and free-falling down into their midst. My battle suit helped complete the effect, I think. I’m sure to them I looked like a killer machine in their midst.
They’d been sniping at us, taking turns firing up from this elbow, and then ducking out of sight while we fired back. One of them had popped out for his sniper shot just as I came down on his back with heavy, magnetic boots. I felt the spine snap—I was going pretty fast by the time I reached the bottom. Even with lighter gravity and therefore less acceleration as I fell, I was heavy enough and moving with enough velocity to crush the life out of the alien.
Still standing on the broken centaur’s back, I managed to get my projector around and burned the next shadowy sniper I saw before he figured out what was going on. There were two more, but they fled.
“Look out below!” shouted a voice. I recognized it as Kwon’s and I scrambled out of the way on all fours. Kwon could do to me what I’d done to the first Centaur.
Soon, it was raining marines. Some claimed it to be more fun than the skateboard ride through space, but I knew they were lying. We pressed the surviving Centaurs back, and by the time we’d come out of the tube at the bottom of the elevator shaft, they had run off. I got the feeling they were not regular troops. I figured they were probably militia or local guards of some kind. They didn’t operate as a cohesive unit.
Outside the shaft, we linked up with the rest of my unit as they dropped from above on their flying dishes. I sent out recon units and immediately learned the enemy was gathering in force nearby.
“Why haven’t they hit us, yet?” Kwon asked, coming to stand near.
“I don’t know, really,” I said. “I don’t like it either, but they are aliens. They aren’t responding quite the way humans would, but we can’t expect them to. Maybe we surprised them and they are out of position. Maybe they just don’t have a lot of troops.”
“This looks like a peaceful habitat,” Kwon said. His voice sounded wistful. “Most of it is farmland. There must be thousands of hectares of land here.”
I knew Kwon had been a farmer in his past life, and we’d not seen green, growing things for a long time. I smiled at him faintly. Maybe the big man was homesick.
“Well, whatever the reason, they are giving us a breather,” I said. “Let’s use it.”
I gathered my forces into a line along a ridge that was topped by thick foliage. It didn’t look appetizing, being dark green and leathery with huge leaves that blew about in the breezes. I wondered what the source of the moving air could be, and if the leaves would taste like the giant spinach they resembled.
While my marines organized themselves and took up positions, I climbed into an oversized foxhole my men had dug for me and pulled the communications box into it. Kwon joined me after awhile and watched as I poked at the controls.
“Uh,” Kwon said after a time, “what’s the plan, Colonel?”
“We are appearing to invade this station, just as the Macros expect us to. They are watching, remember. I didn’t like our position on the outer skin. We were too exposed.”
“So, are we going to blow a hole in this balloon and kill it?”
I shook my head. I just couldn’t do it. They weren’t even fighting hard. How could I butcher millions to protect my own? There had to be a better way.
“I want to talk to them,” I said. “I figure they have Nano tech, and that means we should be able to use
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