Throw water on her! Throw water on her!
Remark attributed to Rand (unconfirmed) on seeing the Invid Regess for the first time
Most of Earth’s population was unaware of the Expeditionary fleet’s arrival, let alone of the Olympian battle that was taking place in the skies above Reflex Point. But even as far off as the remote areas of the Southlands, people knew something was up. The Invid were suddenly taking their leave—from cities, towns, communications outposts, and Protoculture farms, a steady stream of Troopers and Pincer units, all headed north for some unknown purpose.
Meanwhile, in one small section of those embattled northern skies, a green and orange Invid command ship was going one on one with a Veritech, each oblivious to the ferocious fighting going on around them, as though these two had been chosen representative combatants. And in some ways they had.…
For Corg, the alien prince, there was no thought of defeat, only the glory of victory. Showing a malicious grin, he raised the right cannon arm of his ship and loosed a bolt of red death at the approaching fighter.
But Scott was well prepared for it and already thinking the Beta through an avoidance roll; he returned two bursts to Corg’s one, reconfiguring to Battloid mode as the VT came full circle.
Corg darted left and right, almost playfully, then threw his ship into a frontal assault, even as the Battloid’s rifle/cannon continued to pour energy his way. The two crafts collided and grappled in midair, thrusters keeping them aloft while they flailed at each other with armored fists. Scott tried to bring the cannon down on the ship’s crown, but Corg parried the blow and punished the VT with body blows. Scott twisted and hurled his opponent away; once again he brought the cannon into play, and once again Corg seemed to laugh off the attempts.
The alien’s voice seethed over the tac net: “Your pitiful attempts make your defeat at my hands all the more pleasurable!”
Scott snorted. “I’ll be satisfied with boring you to death, then!”
The Battloid had the cannon in both hands now; the first volley missed, and the second impacted harmlessly against the command ship’s crown. In response Corg loosed a flock of missiles from his ship’s shoulder-mounted racks, and Scott met the stakes with an equal number of his own. The projectiles destroyed themselves in midair between the two ships, but Corg had followed his missiles in, emerging from the smoke and bringing the metalshod foot of his ship against the VTs control modules before Scott had an opportunity to take evasive action. Electrical discharges snapped around the inside of the Beta’s cockpit like summer lightning as circuits fried and systems shorted out. Scott sat defenseless in the seat as shock poured through his armor and the displays cried out last warnings. Corg’s ship was behind him now, cannon raised. Scott thought he would feel the final blow against the Battloid’s back, but Corg played his hand for insult instead. He targeted and zapped the Beta’s thrusters, incapacitating the ship.
The Battloid commenced a slow facedown descent, trailing thick smoke from its leg and neck.…
Corg watched it for a moment, laughing out loud in his cockpit, then turned to deal with the half dozen fighters that had suddenly appeared to avenge their commander.
“How quaint,” he sniggered to himself.
He positioned himself central to their assault and let them take their best shots, which he avoided with ease. Then, as they came in at him, he showed his teeth and counterattacked, taking out the first as it swooped past him, then a second, third, and fourth as they strived to ensnare him.
At the same time, Corg’s Troopers were taking the battle to the edge of space. The so-called Mollusk Carriers and squadrons of Pincer units a thousand strong had moved in to engage the main fleet. Laser fire crisscrossed and lined local space, spherical explosions blossoming like so many small novas.
Hundreds of Invid ships were annihilated by mecha they could not even see, let alone fight. Squadrons of Enforcers and Pincer ships were wiped out; Mollusk Carriers exploded before they could even release their brood. And yet they continued to come, more and more of them.
On the bridge of the fleet flagship, Reinhardt received the latest updates. “Estimate of Invid troop capability is coming in now, sir,” Sparks reported.
“I want a full status report on the assault force entry into Reflex Point,” he demanded.
“They’re continuing to meet heavy resistance, sir.”
Reinhardt studied the monitors and displays. “If push comes to shove we’re going to be forced to use the neutron S missiles.”
“But our troops …” said Sparks, alarmed.
“I’m aware of the consequences,” Reinhardt answered him grimly. “But is there a choice? Either we eliminate them and reclaim the planet or give it all away. We can deal with the ethics later on.”
“I understand,” Sparks said softly.
“Shadow Fighter launch is complete,” a female tech said over the comlink.
“This is it, then,” said Reinhardt. “Wish them Godspeed for me, Lieutenant.”
In the hive chamber, Lancer, Lunk, Annie, and Sera had their eyes fixed on the Protoculture globe as glimpses of the battle in space were relayed to the Regess’ sanctum sanctorum. It was obvious to the Humans that the Regess was growing concerned now; she was no longer the omniscient being they had first met.
“All units regroup,” she was telling her troops. “Repel the invaders at all costs!” As she swung around to face her small audience, her eyes found Sera. “Your defection has cost us much, my child.”
No one really understood what she meant by it, least of all Sera. It was true that she had stayed her hand when it had come to killing Lancer, but it was beyond her how her presence in the current battle could have affected things or altered the outcome any. “It can’t be,” she answered her Queen-Mother, knowing guilt for the first time.
Lancer was about to add something, when he saw one of the cells of the communication sphere black out. It was the third time he had seen it happen now, and it suddenly occurred to him that the sphere was tied in not only to the Regess in some direct way but to her offspring as well. He turned his attention to the battle images again: A squadron of Enforcers was being decimated by laser-array fire erupting from what seemed to be empty space; and as the last of the ships were destroyed, another cell faded and was gone. Annie noticed it, too.
“Hey, look at that!” she said, pointing to the dark patch on the underside of the globe.
“It loses power with each Invid loss,” Lancer explained. “Isn’t that right, Regess?”
The alien looked down at him imperiously. “You are perceptive, Human.… And as you have observed, our entire race feels the loss when even one of our children ceases to exist.”
The pain she must have known, Lancer found himself thinking. Even over the course of the past year, to mention nothing of what had happened before, with the Tirolian Masters, then Hunter and the so-called Sentinels.…
“Those Shadow Fighters are chewing them up!” Lunk enthused as more and more Invid ships disappeared in fiery explosions and seemingly sourceless cross fires.
Lancer took a step toward the pillar of flame that was the Invid Queen-Mother. “Your forces can’t detect those fighters,” he told her. “Your children are defenseless, don’t you understand? Now you’re the only one who can end this destruction.”
Unmoved, the queen regarded him. “Twice in our recorded history we were forced to relinquish our home and journey across the galaxy.… But this time we shall not leave!”
“Don’t you know when to take no for an answer?!” Lunk shouted at her. “Your children are dying!”
Sera glanced at Lunk, then looked up to the Regess. “Mother, perhaps we should listen to him.…”
“You have the power to transform any world you choose,” Lancer argued. “Some planet you won’t have to fight for!”
“You cannot understand,” the Regess said, almost sadly. “The Flowers of Life exist on this world and this world only. They are our strength; they are our life. Without them, we would perish.”
Scott opened his eyes to Marlene’s face and a world of pain. He was in his battle armor and propped up against a tree not far from the smoldering remains of a crashed fighter. He had no recollection of the events that had landed him there.
“Scott,” Marlene was saying, dabbing at his head with a moistened rag. “Is your head any better?”
Scott saw blood on the rag and raised his fingers to the wound. Even this slight movement brought a wave of pain along his left side; at the very least his ribs were cracked under the armor’s chest plate. “Agh … what happened?” he groaned.
Marlene gestured to the VT, “You were shot down. I saw you fall and—”
“Where’s the Beta’s component?” He tried to raise himself and collapsed; Marlene laid her hand and cheek against his chest.
“You shouldn’t be moving, Scott. Stay here with me!”
“I’ve got to get back.…” He saw that she was staring at him in a peculiar way and couldn’t understand it. The revelations of the previous day and the sequence inside the chamber of the hive were lost to him. “Marlene, what’s wrong?” he asked her, almost warily.
“I … I don’t know how to explain it,” she stammered. “I feel so strange, so concerned about you.… Do you think you could love me, Scott? Even if only for a little while?”
Some of it was coming back to him now, scenes of battle, memories of Corg. He looked at her like she was crazy to be saying these things. “Marlene, I’m capable of only one thing, and that’s fighting the Invid!” Refusing her offered lips, he managed to struggle through the pain and get to his feet.
Marlene chased after him as he ran off. “But, Scott,” she screamed, “I love you!”
Elsewhere, two Battloids were moving through the chaos like lovers taking a Sunday stroll in the park. Rand’s had just suffered a near miss, and Rook was teasing him about it over the tac net.
“I think you need some lessons in how to maneuver, kiddo. My grandmother could do better than that.”
“All right,” he told her in the same teasing voice. “But the next time you’re in trouble, don’t come to me for help.”
“Who’ll come to who for help?”
Rand smiled for the screen. “Love you, too.”
“Same goes for me,” Rook started to say, but Corg’s approach put a quick end to the flirtation.
He split them up with fire from his hand cannon. They had arrived on the scene too late to see what the alien had done to Scott, so it took Rand by surprise when Corg moved against him hand to hand—something seldom done in midair—effortlessly knocking the rifle/cannon from the Alpha’s grip. Rook stared out of her cockpit amazed, watching the two ships begin to duke it out, moving in to exchange rapid flurries of blows, then separating only to thruster in against each other all over again, trying to punch each other’s lights out. But Rand was nothing if not resourceful, and somehow he managed to get the Invid ship in a kind of full nelson, which left Corg vulnerable to all frontal shots.
“Okay, I’ve got him!” Rook heard Rand yell over the net. “Blast him!”
Rook tried to depress the HOTAS trigger button, but her fingers simply refused to obey the command. If she didn’t catch the alien just right, Rand would be destroyed along with him. Her face was beading up with sweat and the HOTAS was shaking in her grip as though palsied, but she couldn’t bring herself to fire with Rand’s safety at stake. He was screaming at her, telling her not to concern herself.…
Corg was just as confused as Rand: the red Battloid had a clear shot at him, but instead of firing the pilot was throwing herself against him, trying to batter him with the mecha’s cannon. It was a tactical blunder and one that gave him all the time he needed to reverse the Battloid’s hold. Corg grinned to himself and fired off a charge into his opponent’s right arm, taking it off at the elbow; then he threw open the command ship’s arms to propel the Human mecha backward. Engaging his thrusters now, he fell against the red ship, striking it with enough force to stun the mecha’s female pilot.
Rook came around as Corg’s ship was surfacing in her forward viewport, the hand cannon primed and aimed at her. But just then Rand rammed the thing from behind, and although he had managed to interrupt Corg’s shot, he received the blast that had been meant for her.
Rook could hear his scream pierce the net as his crippled Battloid began a slow backward fall, bleeding smoke and fire and sustaining shot after shot from Corg’s weapons. Rook came up from behind to try to slow his descent, but Rand protested loudly:
“Rook, it’s useless.… He’s coming in for another run. You’ve gotta save yourself!”
“You’re out of your gourd, mister,” she told him, “I’m not letting you go now!”
Corg had the two Battloids centered in his sights and was preparing to fire the one that would annihilate them both, when an energy bolt out of the blue impacted against the back of his ship.
Scott’s voice came over the tac net as Rook saw the component section of the Beta come into view.
“Get Rand out of here. I’ll take care of things up top.”
“Roger,” she exclaimed, wrapping the arms of her mecha more tightly around that of her crippled friend.
The Beta and the alien mecha went at it again, only this time both of them knew it would be for keeps. Enough of Scott’s memory had returned to make him aware of what Corg had done to him.
The two ships spun through a series of fakes and twists, drops and booster climbs, slamming each other with missiles and volleys from their cannons. Again, flocks of projectiles tore into the skies and met in thunderous explosions, throwing angry light across the field. But then Scott saw a way to prey on the alien pilot’s technique: He made a move as though to engage Corg hand to hand, then surreptitiously loosed a full rackful of heat-seekers as Corg hovered open-armed and defenseless.
Even Corg wasn’t aware of how much damage the Bludgeons had done to his ship and sat for a moment, complimenting the Human pilot on what had been a clever if underhanded maneuver. But all at once his ship’s autosystems were flashing the truth, even as the first explosions were enveloping him, searing flesh and bone from the humanoid form that had been created for his young soul.…
Scott shielded his eyes: Fire and green nutrient seemed to gush from the ship at the same instant as the explosion quartered it, arms and legs blown in different directions. But as important as it had been for him personally, Scott knew it for what it was: a minor battle in a war that was still raging all around them.
Scott put down a few minutes later to see about his friends. His mecha’s missile supply was virtually depleted, and it was time to let the fleet VT squadrons take charge of things for a while. He asked Rand if he was all right, but instead of the thanks he thought he was due, Rand said: “What the heck did you say to Marlene?”
“Yeah,” added Rook, “we can’t get a word out of her.”
“I’d rather not talk about her,” Scott started to say. But without warning Rand was all over him, head bandage or no, his hands ripping at the armor at Scott’s neck.
“You’re gonna tell me whether you like it or not! You think you can just walk out on this thing? She’s got some crazy idea that she loves you—as if she had some idea of what that means. But you’re gonna see to it that she understands, pal! I think you would have loved her, too, if you hadn’t found out she was an Invid.”
Rook separated the two of them. Then she had a few things of her own to say to Scott. “Stop torturing yourself over your dead girlfriend and come back to life, will you?”
“How can I ever forget that she was killed by the Invid—by Marlene’s race?”
“So you’re going to hold that against Marlene?” Rand seethed. “It wasn’t like she pulled the trigger, you know. Besides, what about all the Invid you and the rest of Hunter’s troops killed? This war has made victims out of all of us. When are you going to realize that the Invid are just our latest excuse for warfare?”
“Rand, you’ve lost it—you’ve gone battle-happy. They started it; they attacked our planet—”
“Listen, there were wars before we even heard of the Invid or the Robotech Masters or the Zentraedi. You might’ve lost your Marlene fighting other Humans.”
Scott shook his head in disbelief, but even so he sensed some rightness in Rand’s words. Not the way he was phrasing it; more in the sentiments he was trying to express, the sensibilities.…
After a moment, he said: “If only we could have avoided this.…”
Scott Bernard might as well have asked to negate his own birth.