Qualea Drop (The Spiral Wars #7), page 46
Both of Phoenix's gunners had spent many hours on the bridge learning to operate within the new coordination matrix sent their way by the drysines, integrating human gunnery with drysine in what would hopefully prove to be seamless coordination. Doubtless it would not appear that way to the drysines, who were accustomed to operating in space combat with the efficiency of a single synthetic mind. Not for the first time, Erik wondered where all the organic races would be in starship combat if they hadn't long ago banned the use and development of anything approaching sentient-level AI. Corrig and Harris were elite, but if there was one post on a warship bridge that AI could most obviously replace, it was gunnery.
His private channel opened, as Sasalaka wanted to talk. "What do you make of the ceephay's concerns?"
"The ceephay doesn't like these drysines," said Erik. "Which is understandable, as they tried to snatch her, plus in AI-evolutionary terms, drysines are what replaced ceephays a number of generations into her future. I doubt she's accustomed to being technologically inferior. Let's hope she's just being paranoid."
Not that there was a damn thing he could do about it if she wasn't, he thought grimly as the timer hit one minute.
The air beneath Qwailash Quarter smelt damp, and faintly pungent with moss and lichens. The downward sloping tunnel trickled with an endless flow of water, and the derelict ceiling dripped with wet growth, dangling like tendrils. Fungal blobs grew in gaps in the concrete, some of them recently chewed on.
"It's like there's a whole ecosystem down here," Rael observed, following what the marines were calling a BFM, or Big Friendly Monster. "How do they grow without sunlight?"
"There are chemical processes," said Romki, peering at the growths as they passed. "Mostly bio-engineered and unnatural. The kind of things reeh would know."
The BFM sniffed the air, ducking here beneath a low overhead, and growling with a long, slow vibration of chest and throat. Clearly it smelled things, and was probably hungry to meet them. To hear the Akcho speak of it, those things could smell it in turn, and would keep their distance. Otherwise they'd have probably run out of ammunition by now, with piles of native monsters on the ground and more still coming. Having seen what reeh behavioural adjustment could do to even sentient beings, Trace believed them.
"I've been hearing that the qwailash are responsible for the animal menagerie beneath their feet," Jokono added. "They let them breed so they can use the best specimens in their fighting pits. They come down here occasionally and harvest them."
"Yeah," said Arime. "The Akcho I was talking to said the qwailash are morons. He said there was stuff down here that would harvest them if it wanted to. They just live real deep and don't like the light."
"So the qwailash keep all the fungus and stuff growing and the monsters eat it?" Wang wondered.
"Nah, there's herbivores and stuff that eat the fungus," said Carville, peering up at one long, dripping mass of weeds from the ceiling. "They're real quick, don't like the light either, more reeh engineering. And the carnivores eat them."
"Styx?" asked Trace as something occurred to her. "Is it an accident that the ceephay queen's old headquarters just happens to be protected by a mass of underground monsters?"
"These headquarters ceased to function as such around eight thousand years ago," said Styx, walking with a light, clattering gait behind the main group, while Peanut brought up the rear. "The qwailash have been here longer than that, but their love of the fighting pits, and their use of reeh bioengineering technologies to pursue that love has been more recent."
"So a coincidence then," said Rael, unconvinced. "Huh."
The BFM followed its lestis handler out of the tunnel, and into a vast open space. Pitch black, if Trace had lifted her visor, but within the green tinge of nightvision, it stretched to a high ceiling beneath a tangle of ancient steel supports. Impossible to tell what any of it had been, Trace thought, as the BFM rose to its full two-legged gait, striding like an angry power-lifter as it sniffed the air. Tacnet showed two more formations, the Akcho following one more BFM off their left flank, while the Purists followed the other off their right, following alternate paths down.
Trickling water hit the floor from a high altitude nearby, and everything echoed. Nodular fungus sprouted in lines across the wide floor, following cracks in the concrete. Trace wondered how she'd explain this tactical situation to a marine officers' review board. Surrounded by civilians, half of them alien, both sides mostly hostile to each other, with drysines in support, while following fighting-pit monsters through the bowels of a once-great city. If they came under serious attack, her general idea was that most of their civilian wings would die, and buy time for the Phoenix crew in the center. She hadn't asked the civvies to come, and would have rathered they stayed behind. If they all died, this time at least, it wouldn't be her fault.
All except Taj. She blinked on a visor icon and connected to him. A moment's pause for him to find the return icon. "Hi Major."
"What are they saying, Taj?"
"They think it's a trap." He spoke very quietly, Trace's earpieces automatically amplifying the whisper above the echo of footsteps and rattle of equipment. "They think either you or the Akcho will betray them, to keep them from finding the truth about these headquarters."
"Do all of them think that?"
"All the ones who matter." He sounded nervous, which was probably smart. "All told, I'd rather be with you."
"Okay, I see what looks like one more large space ahead, maybe five hundred meters. Tunnels should converge there, we'll meet up and you come join us."
"They'll be suspicious."
"Just tell them I need to talk to you about something."
"Okay. See you there."
Ahead, the lestis headed into another tunnel between protruding steel girders, the BFM bending to follow like a faithful dog. Perhaps that was all it was, Trace thought. A master taking his pet for a walk. As grim as these surroundings were, they were better than the monster's cell. Trace wondered why the monster ever went topside again, and didn't just stay down here where there was food, and all the locals were evidently terrified of them. Or perhaps that was it. Maybe these big fighting creatures were just too slow to catch whatever lived down here in the dark. This one's enormous shoulders and clawed fists would make red mince of whatever was trapped with it in a fighting pit, but if that creature was fast, and had another option, surely it would run.
"Styx? This old ceephay headquarters must have been a very large and well known base in its time?"
"Yes Major."
"So there's no chance of any remaining technology? No computer cores or retrievable data?"
"It seems unlikely, Major."
"Well, we were lucky at the lestis temple, it had old scenes painted on its walls. I don't think we'll get that lucky here, and painted scenes on walls won't describe where the ceephay queen is now in the Reeh Empire."
"No Major."
"Then I think it's time you told us all the real plan." She didn't like admitting so openly that Styx was the one truly in command, but she liked lies and deception with her marines even less. They knew as well as anyone just how reliant they all were upon Styx's outsized intellect. Without her, they could have been down here in Qalea for years and not found a thing.
"My simulation picture of this region of the Reeh Empire is now extending far beyond Qalea and Eshir," said Styx. "This period of contact with reeh-based technologies here in Qalea has updated my own network capabilities enormously. As you say, it is doubtful that our headquarters target will actually contain the data we seek. But I calculate that the reeh are now sufficiently alarmed that we are indeed on to some hidden information source that they themselves have forgotten that they will be down here shortly in full force to stop and trap us."
Ah, thought Trace, as it all clicked. And it was actually a very good, if very violent plan. "So you're not expecting to find anything down there at all," she surmised. "You want to lure some very high-ranking reeh down here after us so we can trap them, capture or kill them, and hack their data."
"Dammit," Rael muttered as he saw it too. Because they hadn't actually fought that many reeh so far. At Zondi Splicer it had been mostly slave species in a well-set trap, and while Rando Splicer had had more reeh, Rando was a backwater, a hardship posting by the standards of any reeh officer, and there had been few present. Which raised the next question.
"How many high-ranking reeh do you think are in-system?"
"Many," said Styx. "This system is of a far greater significance to reeh than its outward appearance might suggest. All of those high-ranking reeh are now convinced there is a ceephay-level AI in Qalea, though they may be unaware that I am in fact superior to their queen. Thus their haste to find me."
"You're drawing them into a trap. Not just with us down here, but with Phoenix and your warships up top."
"Yes Major. Their information networks would have been inaccessible to me until recently, but now I am prepared. It simply takes time to accumulate all the keys required in order to decipher a sufficiently complicated network language. We need several high-ranking prisoners, I fear warships will prove difficult to capture because they can be so easily self-destructed. Individual reeh officers are more resilient. Phoenix marines and drysine warriors will come down behind them and trap them between us. We first must find a strong defensive location."
"So they're the hammer and we're the anvil," Arime surmised. "Sounds fun."
"Could have told us first, Styx," Rolonde said with annoyance.
"I could," Styx admitted.
"The algorithm is processing irony," Jokono muttered. "Wonderful."
28
The shriek of engines blew a storm of dust and grass into the air, rising in thick clouds. Parents shielded the eyes of their children, as corbi clustered in groups, and hid behind the wagons they'd been using to shelter from the sun in the absence of trees.
A big croma shuttle rose now, with an ear-shattering din, angling as the rear thrust kicked in. Even now, beyond the dust that obscured the sky, another shuttle was circling, seeking a place to land on the crowded landing zone. On the edge of the zone, Resistance soldiers waved hands and rifles, directing the next clump of civilians forward, as the whole far-left line began shuffling up. A new shuttle was down behind where the previous had been, visible now as the dust cleared. Before its ramp, the big figure of a croma crewman, waving his arms impatiently for the civilians to make haste. Not all of the croma were military, but all were probably accustomed to better organisation than came naturally to corbi.
"Not long now!" Jindi shouted to those nearest. "Stay patient!" There was a single group ahead of them now in this line, within their marked square upon the grass, filled with corbi desperate to get moving.
Overhead, something whooshed, streaking left to right across the sky. Then a crackle and pop, Jindi staring upwards amongst the corbi faces to see streams of flares erupting from a circling shuttle. Another whoosh!, as it fired a missile. Beneath his arm, Melu looked at Jindi with fear and worry.
"Liala!" Jindi shouted into his mic. "Liala, do you hear me? Is our landing zone under attack?" There was a pause of engines and muffled corbi shouts, as out on the far right, another column was directed to a new, smaller shuttle landed on the far side.
"Hello Jindi," came Liala's voice. "There are many reeh occupation teams still on the surface of Rando, our attacks only disabled their major bases. Some of these are engaged in harassing assaults on your landing zone. It's possible they have noticed the increase in activity there, and are attempting to disrupt it."
"Can we fight them off?"
"Yes Jindi. However, countermeasures against advanced missile fire are rarely entirely effective. We will do what we can."
Jindi didn't suppose that any call was ever entirely 'over' with a being that could talk to dozens of people at once. But for now it seemed that Liala had nothing more to say.
"What did she say?" Melu shouted over the din.
"There is an attack coming from somewhere out there!" Jindi yelled for the benefit of his group, pointing out in the direction the shuttle had fired the missile. Possibly he should have kept his mouth shut and pretended nothing was wrong, but these people were desperate, not stupid. They knew something was wrong, and in the absence of clarifying information, their fears would only grow. "Liala says she can hold them off, but they might not stop all of the missiles! Be ready to take cover!"
As though that would help if something big enough came in. Or just happened to hit nearby. But people armed with a rational plan of action, even a useless one, were less prone to panic than those without. The greatest danger here, surely, was panicked corbi running to the shuttles and trying to fight their way aboard. Pilots threatened with being overwhelmed would likely take off and refuse to land again, stranding everyone indefinitely.
Something exploded upon the far side of the landing zone, where there could certainly have been some people, but it was impossible to see if there were casualties. Then a shuttle was lifting, obscuring the zone with more dust, and a Resistance soldier came running and waving his hands at the group ahead of Jindi's. That group went shuffling forward in a low run, children clutching the hands of parents, strong men carrying elderly who could not walk. Another shuttle had landed at the rear of the zone, and Jindi watched through squinted eyes as the huddled group picked their way between landed shuttles and shrieking engines.
His group moved forward to the new square, hauling their few possessions, as a Resistance soldier waved them in, counting numbers and making mental notes. The soldier saw Krissik and his tanifex, lean reptilian figures amidst the stout corbi, and stared. Another Resistance soldier came bounding, had a shouted conversation with the first, then stood tall before the group.
"This one has room for twenty-two more!" he yelled, pointing at the biggest, nearest shuttle, stragglers still filing up its lowered rear ramp. "Pick twenty-two who can go early!"
Something exploded in the air middle-distant with an almighty crack! Corbi all looked at each other. Many looked at Jindi. There were more than five hundred now, far more than he'd started with when they were just escapees from the Splicer. Many looked yearningly toward the open hold of the big croma shuttle, but not one of them moved.
"Try another group!" Jindi shouted at the soldier. "There are more mixed groups over there!" He pointed to the right, where he knew the occupants of the next square-in-line were from several villages who had not arrived together. "We all came together, and we'll leave together!"
The soldier did not waste time arguing, and ran that way. "Good," said Melu, clutching Jindi's arm. "The shuttles will get all mixed up and go to different ships, I heard the soldiers talking about it. Different ships could end up at different places. We should all be together." She'd grown particularly close to many, Jindi knew. Had held the small children who cried, and told many stories to families about the Splicer, and the horrors inside. Those that were fit to tell, at least, with children listening.
Two shuttles were lifting now, nearly at once. The smaller, civilian shuttle was hit almost immediately by a low-streaking missile that came out of nowhere, a huge bang!, then flames and the shuttle spinning amidst debris, losing power and completing a half-turn before slamming into the ground.
Civilians fell to the ground with screams and yells, as the Resistance soldiers turned in shock. Several pointed and shouted, needing to stay and organise the departing civilians, but also needing to help those aboard the crashed shuttle. Jindi saw the dilemma immediately -- the shuttles could not stop, the busy schedule could not be interrupted just because someone had crashed.
"No!" he shouted, limping forward to the soldiers. "No, you stay and organise the civilians! We'll help the passengers!" Even as he shouted, and waved for Chuta, Krisik and their soldiers to come, they were already moving, running toward the downed shuttle. Others joined them, mostly men, and a few of the stronger, childless women, including Melu. "No!" he told her as he limped as fast as he could manage across the field. "You stay back!"
"If you're going, I'm going!" Melu retorted, grabbing his arm and helping him move. Jindi knew he had no business helping, likely he'd be more hindrance than assistance. But somehow he'd become a leader to these people. If the job were to get done, he had to be there.
The big shuttle overhead fired missiles as they ran, streaking in the general direction of the reeh. The noise was impossible, eyes blinded by dust and hot jetwash, another shuttle landing to the right even as they ran. Ahead, Krisik reached the downed shuttle first. One side was on fire, an engine nacelle ruined, noise from the remaining engines declining as the pilots shut down their stricken machine.
Belly-down with its landing gear retracted, the shuttle's rear ramp was compressed, unable to open more than a third. Some of those passengers were emerging now, receiving what would normally have been an enormous shock to be helped from the rear by a tanifex, but dazed and frightened, they barely noticed.
"Here!" Jindi yelled, waving his arms as he saw the clear spot between landed shuttles could serve as a temporary rally spot. "Bring them here!" Staring around, he saw a Resistance soldier bounding toward him on all fours through the dust, rifle bouncing on his back.
"We're holding the new shuttle for these people!" the soldier shouted. "It's down on the right flank over there! Send them over this way!"
"Wait!" yelled Jindi before he could leave. "We can't just send them across the landing zone, they'll get lost or wander into the jets! Wait here until we've got more of them gathered, then you can lead them!" Multiple explosions crackled and boomed from the direction of the reeh, much closer than before.
Passengers from the crashed shuttle were arriving now, as Jindi's people sent them his way. Jindi yelled at them all to wait, indicating that they should gather, and preferably to crouch, as a new wave of jetwash blasted over them from a lifting shuttle. This one stayed low, angling to forward thrust while skimming the ground, heading directly away from the reeh attack. Overhead, a thin, white contrail cut the swirling brown sky -- some kind of high-velocity missile, heading toward the reeh.
His private channel opened, as Sasalaka wanted to talk. "What do you make of the ceephay's concerns?"
"The ceephay doesn't like these drysines," said Erik. "Which is understandable, as they tried to snatch her, plus in AI-evolutionary terms, drysines are what replaced ceephays a number of generations into her future. I doubt she's accustomed to being technologically inferior. Let's hope she's just being paranoid."
Not that there was a damn thing he could do about it if she wasn't, he thought grimly as the timer hit one minute.
The air beneath Qwailash Quarter smelt damp, and faintly pungent with moss and lichens. The downward sloping tunnel trickled with an endless flow of water, and the derelict ceiling dripped with wet growth, dangling like tendrils. Fungal blobs grew in gaps in the concrete, some of them recently chewed on.
"It's like there's a whole ecosystem down here," Rael observed, following what the marines were calling a BFM, or Big Friendly Monster. "How do they grow without sunlight?"
"There are chemical processes," said Romki, peering at the growths as they passed. "Mostly bio-engineered and unnatural. The kind of things reeh would know."
The BFM sniffed the air, ducking here beneath a low overhead, and growling with a long, slow vibration of chest and throat. Clearly it smelled things, and was probably hungry to meet them. To hear the Akcho speak of it, those things could smell it in turn, and would keep their distance. Otherwise they'd have probably run out of ammunition by now, with piles of native monsters on the ground and more still coming. Having seen what reeh behavioural adjustment could do to even sentient beings, Trace believed them.
"I've been hearing that the qwailash are responsible for the animal menagerie beneath their feet," Jokono added. "They let them breed so they can use the best specimens in their fighting pits. They come down here occasionally and harvest them."
"Yeah," said Arime. "The Akcho I was talking to said the qwailash are morons. He said there was stuff down here that would harvest them if it wanted to. They just live real deep and don't like the light."
"So the qwailash keep all the fungus and stuff growing and the monsters eat it?" Wang wondered.
"Nah, there's herbivores and stuff that eat the fungus," said Carville, peering up at one long, dripping mass of weeds from the ceiling. "They're real quick, don't like the light either, more reeh engineering. And the carnivores eat them."
"Styx?" asked Trace as something occurred to her. "Is it an accident that the ceephay queen's old headquarters just happens to be protected by a mass of underground monsters?"
"These headquarters ceased to function as such around eight thousand years ago," said Styx, walking with a light, clattering gait behind the main group, while Peanut brought up the rear. "The qwailash have been here longer than that, but their love of the fighting pits, and their use of reeh bioengineering technologies to pursue that love has been more recent."
"So a coincidence then," said Rael, unconvinced. "Huh."
The BFM followed its lestis handler out of the tunnel, and into a vast open space. Pitch black, if Trace had lifted her visor, but within the green tinge of nightvision, it stretched to a high ceiling beneath a tangle of ancient steel supports. Impossible to tell what any of it had been, Trace thought, as the BFM rose to its full two-legged gait, striding like an angry power-lifter as it sniffed the air. Tacnet showed two more formations, the Akcho following one more BFM off their left flank, while the Purists followed the other off their right, following alternate paths down.
Trickling water hit the floor from a high altitude nearby, and everything echoed. Nodular fungus sprouted in lines across the wide floor, following cracks in the concrete. Trace wondered how she'd explain this tactical situation to a marine officers' review board. Surrounded by civilians, half of them alien, both sides mostly hostile to each other, with drysines in support, while following fighting-pit monsters through the bowels of a once-great city. If they came under serious attack, her general idea was that most of their civilian wings would die, and buy time for the Phoenix crew in the center. She hadn't asked the civvies to come, and would have rathered they stayed behind. If they all died, this time at least, it wouldn't be her fault.
All except Taj. She blinked on a visor icon and connected to him. A moment's pause for him to find the return icon. "Hi Major."
"What are they saying, Taj?"
"They think it's a trap." He spoke very quietly, Trace's earpieces automatically amplifying the whisper above the echo of footsteps and rattle of equipment. "They think either you or the Akcho will betray them, to keep them from finding the truth about these headquarters."
"Do all of them think that?"
"All the ones who matter." He sounded nervous, which was probably smart. "All told, I'd rather be with you."
"Okay, I see what looks like one more large space ahead, maybe five hundred meters. Tunnels should converge there, we'll meet up and you come join us."
"They'll be suspicious."
"Just tell them I need to talk to you about something."
"Okay. See you there."
Ahead, the lestis headed into another tunnel between protruding steel girders, the BFM bending to follow like a faithful dog. Perhaps that was all it was, Trace thought. A master taking his pet for a walk. As grim as these surroundings were, they were better than the monster's cell. Trace wondered why the monster ever went topside again, and didn't just stay down here where there was food, and all the locals were evidently terrified of them. Or perhaps that was it. Maybe these big fighting creatures were just too slow to catch whatever lived down here in the dark. This one's enormous shoulders and clawed fists would make red mince of whatever was trapped with it in a fighting pit, but if that creature was fast, and had another option, surely it would run.
"Styx? This old ceephay headquarters must have been a very large and well known base in its time?"
"Yes Major."
"So there's no chance of any remaining technology? No computer cores or retrievable data?"
"It seems unlikely, Major."
"Well, we were lucky at the lestis temple, it had old scenes painted on its walls. I don't think we'll get that lucky here, and painted scenes on walls won't describe where the ceephay queen is now in the Reeh Empire."
"No Major."
"Then I think it's time you told us all the real plan." She didn't like admitting so openly that Styx was the one truly in command, but she liked lies and deception with her marines even less. They knew as well as anyone just how reliant they all were upon Styx's outsized intellect. Without her, they could have been down here in Qalea for years and not found a thing.
"My simulation picture of this region of the Reeh Empire is now extending far beyond Qalea and Eshir," said Styx. "This period of contact with reeh-based technologies here in Qalea has updated my own network capabilities enormously. As you say, it is doubtful that our headquarters target will actually contain the data we seek. But I calculate that the reeh are now sufficiently alarmed that we are indeed on to some hidden information source that they themselves have forgotten that they will be down here shortly in full force to stop and trap us."
Ah, thought Trace, as it all clicked. And it was actually a very good, if very violent plan. "So you're not expecting to find anything down there at all," she surmised. "You want to lure some very high-ranking reeh down here after us so we can trap them, capture or kill them, and hack their data."
"Dammit," Rael muttered as he saw it too. Because they hadn't actually fought that many reeh so far. At Zondi Splicer it had been mostly slave species in a well-set trap, and while Rando Splicer had had more reeh, Rando was a backwater, a hardship posting by the standards of any reeh officer, and there had been few present. Which raised the next question.
"How many high-ranking reeh do you think are in-system?"
"Many," said Styx. "This system is of a far greater significance to reeh than its outward appearance might suggest. All of those high-ranking reeh are now convinced there is a ceephay-level AI in Qalea, though they may be unaware that I am in fact superior to their queen. Thus their haste to find me."
"You're drawing them into a trap. Not just with us down here, but with Phoenix and your warships up top."
"Yes Major. Their information networks would have been inaccessible to me until recently, but now I am prepared. It simply takes time to accumulate all the keys required in order to decipher a sufficiently complicated network language. We need several high-ranking prisoners, I fear warships will prove difficult to capture because they can be so easily self-destructed. Individual reeh officers are more resilient. Phoenix marines and drysine warriors will come down behind them and trap them between us. We first must find a strong defensive location."
"So they're the hammer and we're the anvil," Arime surmised. "Sounds fun."
"Could have told us first, Styx," Rolonde said with annoyance.
"I could," Styx admitted.
"The algorithm is processing irony," Jokono muttered. "Wonderful."
28
The shriek of engines blew a storm of dust and grass into the air, rising in thick clouds. Parents shielded the eyes of their children, as corbi clustered in groups, and hid behind the wagons they'd been using to shelter from the sun in the absence of trees.
A big croma shuttle rose now, with an ear-shattering din, angling as the rear thrust kicked in. Even now, beyond the dust that obscured the sky, another shuttle was circling, seeking a place to land on the crowded landing zone. On the edge of the zone, Resistance soldiers waved hands and rifles, directing the next clump of civilians forward, as the whole far-left line began shuffling up. A new shuttle was down behind where the previous had been, visible now as the dust cleared. Before its ramp, the big figure of a croma crewman, waving his arms impatiently for the civilians to make haste. Not all of the croma were military, but all were probably accustomed to better organisation than came naturally to corbi.
"Not long now!" Jindi shouted to those nearest. "Stay patient!" There was a single group ahead of them now in this line, within their marked square upon the grass, filled with corbi desperate to get moving.
Overhead, something whooshed, streaking left to right across the sky. Then a crackle and pop, Jindi staring upwards amongst the corbi faces to see streams of flares erupting from a circling shuttle. Another whoosh!, as it fired a missile. Beneath his arm, Melu looked at Jindi with fear and worry.
"Liala!" Jindi shouted into his mic. "Liala, do you hear me? Is our landing zone under attack?" There was a pause of engines and muffled corbi shouts, as out on the far right, another column was directed to a new, smaller shuttle landed on the far side.
"Hello Jindi," came Liala's voice. "There are many reeh occupation teams still on the surface of Rando, our attacks only disabled their major bases. Some of these are engaged in harassing assaults on your landing zone. It's possible they have noticed the increase in activity there, and are attempting to disrupt it."
"Can we fight them off?"
"Yes Jindi. However, countermeasures against advanced missile fire are rarely entirely effective. We will do what we can."
Jindi didn't suppose that any call was ever entirely 'over' with a being that could talk to dozens of people at once. But for now it seemed that Liala had nothing more to say.
"What did she say?" Melu shouted over the din.
"There is an attack coming from somewhere out there!" Jindi yelled for the benefit of his group, pointing out in the direction the shuttle had fired the missile. Possibly he should have kept his mouth shut and pretended nothing was wrong, but these people were desperate, not stupid. They knew something was wrong, and in the absence of clarifying information, their fears would only grow. "Liala says she can hold them off, but they might not stop all of the missiles! Be ready to take cover!"
As though that would help if something big enough came in. Or just happened to hit nearby. But people armed with a rational plan of action, even a useless one, were less prone to panic than those without. The greatest danger here, surely, was panicked corbi running to the shuttles and trying to fight their way aboard. Pilots threatened with being overwhelmed would likely take off and refuse to land again, stranding everyone indefinitely.
Something exploded upon the far side of the landing zone, where there could certainly have been some people, but it was impossible to see if there were casualties. Then a shuttle was lifting, obscuring the zone with more dust, and a Resistance soldier came running and waving his hands at the group ahead of Jindi's. That group went shuffling forward in a low run, children clutching the hands of parents, strong men carrying elderly who could not walk. Another shuttle had landed at the rear of the zone, and Jindi watched through squinted eyes as the huddled group picked their way between landed shuttles and shrieking engines.
His group moved forward to the new square, hauling their few possessions, as a Resistance soldier waved them in, counting numbers and making mental notes. The soldier saw Krissik and his tanifex, lean reptilian figures amidst the stout corbi, and stared. Another Resistance soldier came bounding, had a shouted conversation with the first, then stood tall before the group.
"This one has room for twenty-two more!" he yelled, pointing at the biggest, nearest shuttle, stragglers still filing up its lowered rear ramp. "Pick twenty-two who can go early!"
Something exploded in the air middle-distant with an almighty crack! Corbi all looked at each other. Many looked at Jindi. There were more than five hundred now, far more than he'd started with when they were just escapees from the Splicer. Many looked yearningly toward the open hold of the big croma shuttle, but not one of them moved.
"Try another group!" Jindi shouted at the soldier. "There are more mixed groups over there!" He pointed to the right, where he knew the occupants of the next square-in-line were from several villages who had not arrived together. "We all came together, and we'll leave together!"
The soldier did not waste time arguing, and ran that way. "Good," said Melu, clutching Jindi's arm. "The shuttles will get all mixed up and go to different ships, I heard the soldiers talking about it. Different ships could end up at different places. We should all be together." She'd grown particularly close to many, Jindi knew. Had held the small children who cried, and told many stories to families about the Splicer, and the horrors inside. Those that were fit to tell, at least, with children listening.
Two shuttles were lifting now, nearly at once. The smaller, civilian shuttle was hit almost immediately by a low-streaking missile that came out of nowhere, a huge bang!, then flames and the shuttle spinning amidst debris, losing power and completing a half-turn before slamming into the ground.
Civilians fell to the ground with screams and yells, as the Resistance soldiers turned in shock. Several pointed and shouted, needing to stay and organise the departing civilians, but also needing to help those aboard the crashed shuttle. Jindi saw the dilemma immediately -- the shuttles could not stop, the busy schedule could not be interrupted just because someone had crashed.
"No!" he shouted, limping forward to the soldiers. "No, you stay and organise the civilians! We'll help the passengers!" Even as he shouted, and waved for Chuta, Krisik and their soldiers to come, they were already moving, running toward the downed shuttle. Others joined them, mostly men, and a few of the stronger, childless women, including Melu. "No!" he told her as he limped as fast as he could manage across the field. "You stay back!"
"If you're going, I'm going!" Melu retorted, grabbing his arm and helping him move. Jindi knew he had no business helping, likely he'd be more hindrance than assistance. But somehow he'd become a leader to these people. If the job were to get done, he had to be there.
The big shuttle overhead fired missiles as they ran, streaking in the general direction of the reeh. The noise was impossible, eyes blinded by dust and hot jetwash, another shuttle landing to the right even as they ran. Ahead, Krisik reached the downed shuttle first. One side was on fire, an engine nacelle ruined, noise from the remaining engines declining as the pilots shut down their stricken machine.
Belly-down with its landing gear retracted, the shuttle's rear ramp was compressed, unable to open more than a third. Some of those passengers were emerging now, receiving what would normally have been an enormous shock to be helped from the rear by a tanifex, but dazed and frightened, they barely noticed.
"Here!" Jindi yelled, waving his arms as he saw the clear spot between landed shuttles could serve as a temporary rally spot. "Bring them here!" Staring around, he saw a Resistance soldier bounding toward him on all fours through the dust, rifle bouncing on his back.
"We're holding the new shuttle for these people!" the soldier shouted. "It's down on the right flank over there! Send them over this way!"
"Wait!" yelled Jindi before he could leave. "We can't just send them across the landing zone, they'll get lost or wander into the jets! Wait here until we've got more of them gathered, then you can lead them!" Multiple explosions crackled and boomed from the direction of the reeh, much closer than before.
Passengers from the crashed shuttle were arriving now, as Jindi's people sent them his way. Jindi yelled at them all to wait, indicating that they should gather, and preferably to crouch, as a new wave of jetwash blasted over them from a lifting shuttle. This one stayed low, angling to forward thrust while skimming the ground, heading directly away from the reeh attack. Overhead, a thin, white contrail cut the swirling brown sky -- some kind of high-velocity missile, heading toward the reeh.
