Saturday Fun Stuff: Chapter 5 of Cyborg Wars

If you want to Start at the Beginning

My shuttle touches down just as the landing craft are lifting off to return our men to the ship. Those who survived.  High General Gohn is already there, standing at the hatchway as I step out of the shuttle.

“Admiral Mann,” he says with a small, stiff bow.  “It is a pleasure to fight beside you again.  And it was a glorious battle, was it not?”

We lost 43% of our Troopers, and 60% of our ships.  I don’t see anything glorious about that, but Stormers consider dying in battle the height of glory.  “Mmm… Glorious.”

General Gohn laughs and steps aside to let me exit.  Then growls and reaches for his weapon when he sees my guest.

I held out my hand, with out touching him – never try to restrain a Stormer Warrior or you’ll end up dead too.  “Allow me to present,” I say in as cordial a voice as I can manage at the moment, “Wing Commander Ulan.”  The General stands with weapon at ready, lip curled, but stays where he is.  I continued, “Who is grateful…” and I emphasize that last word, much to Ulan’s chagrin, who tries not to, but looks indignant just the same, “for our assistance in this matter.” 

“Assistance?” Growls the General if it were not for us, they would all be dead.  Most of them already are!”

“Now see here, you hulking…” She tries to push past me, I stay put.

“Wait, wait a minute you two.  There has been enough bloodshed here today.  And we have some urgent business to attend to.”

“Yes,”  agrees Ulan, “you are correct about that.  We must go.”

“Lead the way please, Wing Commander.” And I let her pass, hoping that Gohn’s curiosity is greater than his hatred of Birdmen for the moment.  He steps in beside me.

“You follow the Birdmen now, Admiral?”

“In this single instance, General; yes.”

We follow Ulan toward the central building.  A large, lavish affair with tall spiky spires.  All made of what appears to be white marble.  Very odd for the Cyborg.  Their ships and what we know of their lifestyle are strictly utilitarian.  No decoration.  No creature comforts.  They sleep standing up in a regeneration pod.  To find them clustered around a marble castle… that is unheard of.

Our security teams accompany us to the entrance of the castle, mine stays posted outside, Gohn’s come inside, Ulan was alone.   Another detail from Alpha Company meets us inside and guides us to their find.  We rush along winding passages that twist upwards as well as from side to side.  A great deal of damage has been done to the interior.  Bodies are everywhere some still standing.  I try not to look at the faces of the human bodies, or the half converted bugs.  I don’t want to find anyone I knew.

“In here, Admiral, High General, Wing Commander.” Our guide ushers us into a high vaulted compartment.  In contrast to the rest of the castle, this room is almost empty.  In the center is a large chair.  In it sits a Cyborg unlike any we’d ever seen.  Cyborgs have devices: tools, scanners, weapons, implanted all over their bodies.  They are barely recognizable as a living being.  But not this one.  Other than a few tubes emerging from her skull and back, a couple of vents in the top of her shoulders and a peculiar series of hooks piercing the flesh around the neckline of her garment there is no sign of implants.  Two eyes, two humanoid hands, a body that is obviously female in a close-fitting leather outfit.  No hair, and that mottled gray skin that all the Cyborg share.

Also in the room are two regular drones and half a dozen Birdmen — two alive, one just barely.  That one wears a black uniform and a Cyborg style implant on the right side of his face covering the area between his eye and his ear.  Green blood oozes from his ears, nose and mouth as he lay gasping on the floor next to the throne.

Ulan rushes to him, “Tell me what you know.”  His eyes sweep over the Federation and Stormer troops and focus on Gohn and I as we step up to stand either side of Ulan. “It’s alright, they bought you enough time to complete your mission.”  She lowers her head, “I’m afraid I failed in that.”  He is hesitant, distrustful.  “Hurry,” she urged, “we must know, don’t let your knowledge die with you.”

He speaks haltingly to her in their native language.  I know enough to get parts of it, but he is weak, speaking softly and through spasms of pain.  After a few moments his head slumps to his chest and Ulan lays him back on the floor.  She gently removes a data pad from his lifeless hand.

“We must get to our ships quickly.  Get all your Captains together for a meeting.  Pull all your troops out of here. ”

“I will not.” Insists Gohn, “We have much to learn here, maybe even how to beat this enemy.”

“You will learn nothing here, Stormer, but you will surely die, if you stay.”

I issue orders to have the rest of Alpha Company retrieved.  Gohn reluctantly does the same for his men.  Then we all board my shuttle.  Gohn’s will follow.

I know from the uniform and insignia that the Birdman in the throne room is – or was — a psi-terrogator; their new weapon, but I resist asking about him.  Ulan alone knows what the major had discovered and I don’t want to risk offending her.  Birdmen like to think that their secrets are safe from us inferior species.  Perhaps letting her know that I know all about their psi-terrogation officers would push her into breaking her promise to share what he would find out while we battled the Cyborg fleet.

She sits silently, reading the data pad, her face expressionless.  Finally she closes her eyes and sighs, “Admiral Mann, does your strike force have enough firepower to destroy this moon?”

“What?” Shout the three Stormers. They all yell at once, shouting about Ulan wanting to keep the secrets of the Cyborg to herself.

“We do not have time for this.” She snarls in a voice that quiets them all. “If we do not destroy that moon – now – we will have lost our chance.”

“We killed all of them.”  Growls Gohn.

“Oh, no, Stormer, you did not.”  She slips the data pad into a pocket inside her tunic.  “We have known for some time that the Cyborg are not completely autonomous. They do have leaders who provide guidance, make decisions when decisions must be made.  And they sometimes refer to ‘The One Who Brings Order To Chaos’.”

“Did they tell you this?”  Asks Gohn.

“Not… willingly, but yes they did tell us many things.  We have a new method of interrogating Cyborg prisoners.  One they cannot resist.  But that is not important right now.  What is important is what the Major has gotten this group to tell him.  You think you’ve won.  That the battle is over.  It is not.

Deep in the bowels of that moon are a hundred thousand more Cyborg, just waiting to be told to attack.  And the facilities to make as many more.”

“If that is so, why did they not attack us?”

“Because no one told them to.  Because the Cyborg are all mind linked, they communicate in a way we cannot even conceive. As I said, we’ve discovered that they do have a leadership structure.  Kill their leader and they must stop to choose a new leader.  The more important the leader, the longer it takes to choose.  Kill even a task force leader and there will be little if any perceivable difference for another leader is selected almost immediately.  A sector leader will shut them down for a few minutes, more or less.  But killing their Queen… that hurt them.”

“Then you’ve succeeded,” I exclaim, “You’ve stopped them!”

“Only temporarily”, sighs the Wing Commander, “The planet must be sterilized immediately, they must all be killed before a new ruler is chosen.  And every Cyborg ship you can find must be destroyed now.”

High General Gohn shouts, “We can’t possibly destroy them all, we don’t even know where they are.”

“Then the war is not over?” I ask.

“No,” laments Ulan, ”far from it.  During the battle several ships passed through that array in the distance.  The Cyborg secret weapon; an escape route, a jump gate.  On board one of those ships was the Queen’s… uh… call him her son, Vyctor.  He and a full contingent of Cyborg.  As we attacked this moon which they call Borga, he was sent off to the center of another galaxy, to start another Cyborg Collective.” She fumbles in her tunic pulling out the data pad and hands it to me.  “A seed planted in a fresh fertile field where he will grow, and spread, and eventually come back here to avenge his mother. Even if you can destroy all Cyborg in this quadrant, Vyctor will return.  If we don’t stop him from building another collective, we are all doomed. I have failed in my mission.”

And with that, she pressed a small button on her arm band , closed her eyes and died.

“Admiral Mann,” squawked a communicator, “bridge reporting, the two war birds just exploded!”

“My first officer gripped my arm, “Hugh, we’ve got to act fast, we’ve got to warn the others and get this campaign going. Now.”

“Recall all ships and bring all weapons on line!  I’m on my way to the bridge as soon as the shuttle docks.”

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If you want to Start at the Beginning