Chapter Twenty-One

  The Next Steps

  Of all the things Cheape had expected to encounter in the center of the Red Segment, a massive greenhouse was not even on the list. And massive it was. She could see it stretch up into the sky like a tower, with strange-looking trees visible through the frosted glass walls.

  It took up the entire center of the Segment, stretching from one side to the other like a wall. The closer to the center it got, the taller it was. The strangest part was that they had not seen so much as a single plant in either segment before now.

  “How is there even anything alive in there?” Sparks wondered aloud. “I’m not even reading any water nearby.”

  “I guess we have to go in to answer that question,” Gas Tank said wryly. “Think it will be worth it?”

  “No,” Cheape said bitterly. “Nothing is worth the lives we have lost.” She took a deep breath. “But since we have already paid the blood cost, let’s at least get it done.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” Gas Tank nodded. “Perhaps the next Segment will offer something better?”

  “There is no next Segment, not for us,” Cheape said. “We have paid enough.”

  “But—” Sparks hesitated until Cheape turned to look her way. “We can advance so far with this technology.”

  “And maybe we will suffer the same fate as the Builders when we do,” Cheape shook her head. “They advanced so fast they vanished in the process. If we learn one thing from this place, let it be that people are always Haven's first priority. Never advancement.”

  “There’s an idea I can get behind,” Gas Tank said happily. “People first, progress second.”

  “People first,” Sparks nodded. “I think we have our first Haven motto!”

  “Why not?” Cheape sighed. “It’s a lesson everyone should learn.”

  The inside of the greenhouse was sweltering, but that wasn’t something any of them had to worry about. Now that their suits were running off the Haven cores, they had more than enough power to keep everyone cool and comfortable, no matter how hot it got.

  “These aren’t even plants!” Sparks said, running her hand over the silvery-looking tree trunk.

  “She’s right,” Andy said. She was crouched over the neatly trimmed grass. It was blueish-grey, but it certainly looked like grass. “This is all metal.”

  Cheape could see that for herself as her sensors reported dozens of metal alloys in the near-scan of her team. It was… bizarre.

  “Why have this place?” Cheape asked. “A bunch of fake plants with a weird greenhouse doesn’t make any sense at all.”

  “They knew they wouldn’t be able to keep water in here forever, so they made fakes?” Sparks suggested. “Kind of a representation of what it should have been?”

  “But why include it at all?” Cheape insisted. “Everyone, keep an eye out. There has to be something going on here we aren’t seeing.”

  They moved deeper into the greenhouse, encountering some of the strangest sights any of them had ever seen. Gnarled trees and willowy ones, all with grass and shrubs between them, but not a single bit of it was anything other than metal. Sure, it would make them last, but still, the question of why nagged at Cheape. There had to be a reason for this place, but try as they might, no one was coming up with anything that made even a lick of sense.

  They hadn’t encountered anything to scavenge or even fight in almost an hour of searching when Sparks got frustrated and kicked the nearest tree.

  “Fuck it! Maybe they just wanted to show off all their alloys in a fancy way?” She kicked the tree again, leaving a dent this time. “This one’s kind of soft.”

  “Who knows,” Cheape sighed but stopped when the motion sensors on her Suit went off.

  “Oops,” Sparks grabbed her rifle.

  “Form up!” Gas Tank yelled. “We have incoming!”

  “I can’t get a clear reading through all this fucking metal!” Gas Tank yelled to Cheape as they formed a firing line.

  “Same here,” Cheape gritted her teeth as the metal leaves and branches on the trees around them began to sway and shake. “Be ready for anything.”

  No sooner had she said the words than the first attack came.

  A metal tentacle shot out of the nearest tree, forcing Andy to leap aside as it slammed against the ground. Cheape and the others opened fire as more of the things burst from the surrounding trees.

  “Send your sensor data to the Queens,” Cheape ordered. “They might be able to get something we can’t.”

  After that, it was too busy to speak. The metal vine-like appendages seemed to come from everywhere, whipping back and forth too fast for the team to land many hits with their rifles.

  “Switch to melee!” Cheape ordered after five fruitless minutes of being driven back. For most of them, that meant using the shields on their arms and the plasma torch on their wrists. For Cheape, that meant pulling out one of her plasma chainsaws.

  The change in tactics helped, and as she cut through the third tentacle to strike at her, Cheape finally got a look at something that didn’t seem to be a fake plant. It was bulbous, like three spheres mashed together, and it had six tentacles—five now—three on each side. While it kept itself tight against the metal tree, the other tentacles were used to whip attacks at her team.

  “Target sighted!” Cheape yelled, leaping forward to attack.

  The enemy launched itself at her, ignoring the loss of another ‘leg’ as it tried to wrap itself around her.

  Cheape managed to get her arm up to put her shield in between her and it, but as the tentacles wrapped tight and began to squeeze, it was slowly forced against her armored chest.

  The closest bulbous end opened, and a set of glowing pincers slid out, slamming closed inches from the front of her helmet. She flared the power from the Haven Core, forcing it back enough to get her other arm around and slam the chainsaw into the thing’s side. It let out a squealing screech and dropped, twitching to the floor. She stomped it with her boots, smashing the pincers beneath her heel.

  “Wardens! Advance!”

  /====<<<>>>====\

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Nellie and Lucy worked feverishly to analyze the latest nasty surprise the team had encountered. The wireframe was incomplete, thanks to the interference from all the metal plants.

  Just like Cheape, they had been trying to figure out any point to the decorative-seeming fake plants. So far, all they had managed was to figure out the strange internal structure. Everything metal they had encountered in the Red Segment had an early version of the folded material technique at play—everything except the plants. Not only did the plants not have any folding in the alloys, but the internal structure was nearly a perfect copy of how plants grew. It was not just weird but another seemingly pointless addition.

  Kind of like the whole place, or so it seemed.

  The latest enemy drones were like a cross between an ant and an octopus. It was not a combination she would ever have considered, but seeing them move rapidly through the plants and trees certainly showed how well-designed they were for the environment.

  “Why don’t they have weapons?” Nellie muttered to herself. “Everything else did.”

  “Not the maintenance bots in the first part of Yellow,” Lucy said quickly. “Could these be something similar?”

  “What is there to maintain?” Nellie waved at the holographic map. “Metal plants don’t change.”

  “This is clearly designed to trim something,” Lucy was examining images and scans of the pincers. Looking over, Nellie had to admit they did look like shears, albeit made of folded steel alloy and edged with a plasma cutting surface. “Checking the surrounding vegetation for signs of being cut.”

  “Are you serious?” Nellie huffed. “Who cuts metal plants?”

  “These things do, apparently,” Lucy brought up a close scan of one of the trees near Gas Tank. There was a clear cut halfway up the trunk where a stump was sticking out.

  “This makes no sense at all,” Nellie shook her head. “That looks like it was just done!”

  The switch to melee weapons helped the team a lot but even better was the fact that it got one of the creatures right next to the sensors on Cheape’s Warden Suit.

  They finally got a clear scan of the robotic drone. With the readings, Nellie was able to set up a detection and identification algorithm that highlighted the enemy units. In moments, the team adapted as their suits downloaded the information, and they started to really push through the drones, heading deeper into the greenhouse.

  Lucy was distracted by another cut mark, and Nellie joined her once it was clear the team was out of immediate danger. Like the others she had identified, it was clearly done by the drones, but it looked almost…

  “Is that partially regrown?” Nellie asked, not believing what she was saying in the slightest. Nothing in this greenhouse made any sense at all.

  “Is that possible?” Lucy asked. “I mean, my people can grow silicone. Could the builders have found a way to do that with metal alloys?”

  “No way,” Nellie shook her head. “The silicates use some kind of silicon gel that transforms. They don’t actually grow from nothing. There’s no sign of anything like that here.”

  “Something like a proto-nanite tech, maybe?” Lucy shrugged.

  “Hopefully,” Nellie nodded. “That way, we can get into the next Segment.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Lucy said with a sly smile. “I think I have a plan for when we can take robots inside.”

  “I’m listening,” Nellie said but never got to hear the idea as something like an air-raid siren sounded over the comm lines.

  “What now?” Lucy growled, and they turned to the screens.

  A new enemy appeared, showing above the tops of the trees ahead of the team, and Nellie felt her mouth go dry at the sight. Being mostly nanites didn’t remove fear or instinctual reactions, and these things were setting off every alarm bell she had.

  Made of opalescent metal that shifted colors as they moved along, a series of humanoid shapes appeared over the trees. Humanoid in shape but not in size. The torsos were long and slender, with broad shoulders that led to a long, thin neck before a head like a hammerhead shark even wider than the shoulders. Worse still were the arms and legs. Each one looked impossibly thin as they moved, as if walking about on ten-meter-long legs was the most natural thing in the world. Their arms were equally long, ending in long, thin, knife-like fingers.

  “Starting to wish we had blown this place up from space,” Nellie muttered. “Cheape! You see these things?”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Cheape reported, sounding calmer than Nellie would have in her place. “They appear unarmed.”

  “I know, that’s what worries me!” Nellie snapped as one reached out and plucked a leaf from a tree as it passed. Energy glowed in the palm, flooding the piece of metal. In seconds, it had grown into a long, sharp-looking knife.

  “That was Transit Energy,” Lucy said hollowly. “Cheape, don’t let these things touch you!”

  “Understood, Ma’am,” Cheape responded. “Happy to comply.”

  /====<<<>>>====\

  “Haven Cores to full!” Cheape ordered. “Form a line and wait for my order!”

  The squad fell into position around her on a small hill as Cheape watched the strange things approach. Their reach would be terrifying if she intended to let any of them get within range.

  Which she did not.

  “Ready!” Sparks confirmed.

  “Aim!” Cheape ordered, marking the target in front. “Full array, maximum rate.”

  “Full array! Max that rate of fire!” Gas Tank repeated the order.

  “FIRE!” Cheape ordered, unleashing both laser arrays and everything her rifle could offer as she shifted her stance to allow the minigun to fire as well.

  The enemy unit went down in flames.

  “Reload!” Cheape ordered as everyone dumped their empty drums. “Target left!”

  “Reloaded!” Sparks reported.

  “FIRE!” Cheape felt something in her throat tear as she shouted orders over and over again. The enemies fell one by one until only a single one remained, its hand reaching for her.

  “FIRE!” Cheape screamed once more… and it was over.

  Silence reigned in the metal forest.

  Control of this segment has been transferred to the invaders! All forces Friend/Foe settings have been changed accordingly. Congratulations on your success.

  Please make your way to the Museum of the Endless once you have collected your reward.

  In the distance, a slightly larger hill seemed to roll aside, revealing a facility inside. She saw the group relax, so much that she could almost see the grins on their faces.

  “TIGHTEN UP!” Gas Tank roared.

  “We ain’t done until we are back in the Atrium!” Sparks joined him in the tirade. “Did you hear the Mistress say we were done? I sure as fuck didn’t.”

  Cheape shook her head and smiled.

  “Come on, people,” Cheape tossed aside the half-empty drum and slapped a new one in place. “Let’s go see if there is anything worth having in there.”

  If she had been confused by the greenhouse, the reward seemed even more insane. The revealed facility looked like nothing so much as a seed store and nursery for metal plants.

  Which was ridiculous, obviously.

  They moved past trays of metal seeds, through trays full of intricately carved metal saplings and seedlings, and into a central chamber that held something similar to what they had seen in the original Segment.

  It looked like a kind of energy field generator to Cheape, but she dutifully waited for the Queens to arrive and actually claim it.

  Honestly, she didn’t see the attraction. Sure, all this alloy would be helpful for Haven, but even the entire greenhouse wasn’t going to last more than a few weeks at the rate they went through the stuff.

  The squad spread out into a defensive ring, not entirely trusting the place.

  Good, Cheape thought. She’d not rest or relax until they were all back in Haven. If the Queens ordered them into another Segment, well… she’d have to argue against it. If they insisted… she’d go alone.

  Haven would not lose another son or daughter in this place. Not if Cheape had anything to say about it.

  When the Queens arrived, they nodded to each member of the team as they approached the central reward display.

  “We might be blowing this thing up,” Lucy told Cheape as they arrived in front of it. “It seemed to use Transit Energy.”

  Cheape fought the urge to take a step back. They had all seen what that stuff had done to the Confed planet. She knew better than most, given that it was partly her job to clean the place up. The initial readings from the scans they had done from orbit didn’t show much in the way of residual energy, but it was still enough to terrify her. If these people were insane enough to use the stuff, she wasn’t surprised that they had vanished.

  Lucy examined the object closely as small bubbles appeared around it, each one showing a component in more detail.

  “It’s not Transit Energy,” Lucy said eventually. “And it doesn’t open a way in or out.”

  “Thank fuck for that,” Queen Nellie looked as relieved as Cheape felt. “But what does it do?”

  As if responding to the question, an image appeared of one of the metal seeds. It was inundated with the energy and grew before their eyes.

  “How?” Cheape asked before she could stop herself.

  “It’s a trick,” Lucy shook her head. “It’s not growing; the energy just bonds metal together. I just can’t figure out where it’s coming from.”

  “Coming from?” Queen Nellie and Lucy walked away, still talking, but Cheape tuned them out.

  She already knew everything her people needed to know.

  This Segment was done, and they were going home.