you contact with the surface?’
The commander of the Marlins
spoke. ‘Negative, sir. None of us have comms. Our gear shows us that the
signals are being received, but something is blocking them. The lifters are
having the same problem.’
‘OK. Bring your guys in close,
Alpha: something is very wrong here. Fritz, did you manage to hack the monitor’s
feed?’
‘Not yet. Close, but not yet. I
have managed to get a rerun of an earlier GB report about us. Evidently we
found, and had a punch-up with, another large group of what the Games Board is
calling the Chromic Squid, a vicious predator that came up from the south pole
of this planet in a normal migration to feeding grounds, and then decided human
flesh was tastier. We have all been commended for our actions in eliminating
the last of this threat.’
‘Longbow, this is Alpha. This is
all complete bullshit, but we had better play the game. Admin can be pretty
nasty at times about keeping secrets.’
‘Agreed, Alpha. How come you’re
broadcasting in clear? What about the monitors?’
‘They’ve gone, captain. Bugged
out a few minutes ago.’
Fritz interrupted, saying, ‘Captain,
I’m being relayed distress beacons by the hundred from way above us. Some
serious shit is going down among the Orbitals. The lifters want to be advised
of what to do. They have identified many escape pods descending through the
atmosphere. They are also reporting that some ships have exploded. No one has
satellite information. GPS is also offline.’
‘I was afraid of this. Alpha, get
your guys topside. Pronto. Assemble and then lock yourselves together. We are
coming up as well. OK, Fritz, advise the lifters that they are released to
render any assistance for recovery of the escape pods.’
The Marlins started to move away
ahead of the Sunfish.
‘Boss, I’ve located a central
unit. Looks like a type of computer. I have two recovery drones a minute away
from it.’ Marko reported.
‘OK. Jan, take us out and
surface. Fritz, can the drones bring it to the surface on their own?’
‘Yeah, but it’s a big piece of
kit so they’ll need another pair to help them.’
‘Do it. We’ll grab it once on the
surface. Anything further, Marko?’
‘No, boss.’
They surfaced ten minutes later
with Jan lifting the sub right out of the water on its AGs. There was a light
sea swell running underneath them and a large bank of stormy clouds moving
across the northern horizon. Marko moved to the centre of the ship and
activated a hatchway above him, a ladder descending from it. Saltwater dripped
down on him as he clambered out through the hatch. At the top of the hatch a
pair of handles deployed so he grabbed them, locked on a short lanyard from his
belt and looked skywards with enhanced vision, replaying the images to the rest
of the section. They could see at least three expanding balls of debris and the
upper atmosphere was alive with escape pods.
All the ships and Orbitals were
moving away from each other as obviously no one had any idea what was
happening. The Marlins had rafted up and Jan powered over towards them, holding
a position fifty metres from the mottled iridescent blue vessels. As Marko
watched, he could see that most of the escape pods were making their way
towards the land, but a few were obviously in trouble. Two started to tumble
and rapidly burnt up in the atmosphere while another three made it through the
re-entry, but obviously would not get as far as land. He zoomed in on each and
could see hull damage.
‘Fritz, send a signal to the
three pods. Tell them to put down here and we’ll attempt recovery. Tell the
Marlins to stand by for a possible rescue mission as well.’
‘Yes, boss.’
Ten minutes later the first of
the pods hit the sea hard some four hundred metres away, completely out of
control. It immediately sank from view and three Marlins broke away and dived
to intercept it.
The commander of the Marlins
spoke. ‘Negative, sir. None of us have comms. Our gear shows us that the
signals are being received, but something is blocking them. The lifters are
having the same problem.’
‘OK. Bring your guys in close,
Alpha: something is very wrong here. Fritz, did you manage to hack the monitor’s
feed?’
‘Not yet. Close, but not yet. I
have managed to get a rerun of an earlier GB report about us. Evidently we
found, and had a punch-up with, another large group of what the Games Board is
calling the Chromic Squid, a vicious predator that came up from the south pole
of this planet in a normal migration to feeding grounds, and then decided human
flesh was tastier. We have all been commended for our actions in eliminating
the last of this threat.’
‘Longbow, this is Alpha. This is
all complete bullshit, but we had better play the game. Admin can be pretty
nasty at times about keeping secrets.’
‘Agreed, Alpha. How come you’re
broadcasting in clear? What about the monitors?’
‘They’ve gone, captain. Bugged
out a few minutes ago.’
Fritz interrupted, saying, ‘Captain,
I’m being relayed distress beacons by the hundred from way above us. Some
serious shit is going down among the Orbitals. The lifters want to be advised
of what to do. They have identified many escape pods descending through the
atmosphere. They are also reporting that some ships have exploded. No one has
satellite information. GPS is also offline.’
‘I was afraid of this. Alpha, get
your guys topside. Pronto. Assemble and then lock yourselves together. We are
coming up as well. OK, Fritz, advise the lifters that they are released to
render any assistance for recovery of the escape pods.’
The Marlins started to move away
ahead of the Sunfish.
‘Boss, I’ve located a central
unit. Looks like a type of computer. I have two recovery drones a minute away
from it.’ Marko reported.
‘OK. Jan, take us out and
surface. Fritz, can the drones bring it to the surface on their own?’
‘Yeah, but it’s a big piece of
kit so they’ll need another pair to help them.’
‘Do it. We’ll grab it once on the
surface. Anything further, Marko?’
‘No, boss.’
They surfaced ten minutes later
with Jan lifting the sub right out of the water on its AGs. There was a light
sea swell running underneath them and a large bank of stormy clouds moving
across the northern horizon. Marko moved to the centre of the ship and
activated a hatchway above him, a ladder descending from it. Saltwater dripped
down on him as he clambered out through the hatch. At the top of the hatch a
pair of handles deployed so he grabbed them, locked on a short lanyard from his
belt and looked skywards with enhanced vision, replaying the images to the rest
of the section. They could see at least three expanding balls of debris and the
upper atmosphere was alive with escape pods.
All the ships and Orbitals were
moving away from each other as obviously no one had any idea what was
happening. The Marlins had rafted up and Jan powered over towards them, holding
a position fifty metres from the mottled iridescent blue vessels. As Marko
watched, he could see that most of the escape pods were making their way
towards the land, but a few were obviously in trouble. Two started to tumble
and rapidly burnt up in the atmosphere while another three made it through the
re-entry, but obviously would not get as far as land. He zoomed in on each and
could see hull damage.
‘Fritz, send a signal to the
three pods. Tell them to put down here and we’ll attempt recovery. Tell the
Marlins to stand by for a possible rescue mission as well.’
‘Yes, boss.’
Ten minutes later the first of
the pods hit the sea hard some four hundred metres away, completely out of
control. It immediately sank from view and three Marlins broke away and dived
to intercept it.
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