A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 1

CRYSTAL VENOM.

A FURY OF ACES 2.

Steve Wheeler.

Dedication.

For my mums and the families.

Part One.

Mudshark.

One.

16 October, Year 581 post Earth Solar Flare, Star System Gliese 581.

'Marko, wake up.'

Sergeant Major Marko Spitz liked sleep. He always had. He liked bed in general. In his forty-seven and a bit standard years he had slept in a lot of odd places - sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold, sometimes too comfortable, sometimes deeply unpleasant - but that particular bed in those particular quarters was just right.

He dozed in that wonderful place between sleep and full consciousness. Aware that he was alone, he dreamt of his beautiful Jan, wondering why she was not beside him.

'Wake up, Warrant Officer Spitz ... Now!'

The Base Augmented Intelligence had taken on a strident schoolmistress tone as she formally addressed him, so he reluctantly opened his eyes, his mind slowly climbing towards wakefulness. 'Right, come on, out of bed.' Naked as always, he padded to the small shower area, which had been grown as part of the room; he smiled with the thought that rank still had a few privileges. He pushed into the translucent membrane, which folded and sealed itself as soon as he was through. Once he stood on the almost gritty, coral-like floor, water started pouring over him from the overhead surface at the precise temperature he liked and with just the right amount of soap in it as well.

The soapy water was cleaned as it sank through the porous material below his feet and recycled back up into the header tanks. The material filtered from the water moved further down onto the shower's organic base plate, where, after the soaps had been recycled, the residue was consumed by the room as it constantly refurbished itself.

Judging himself sufficiently clean, he tapped the wall and pure water cascaded over him, rinsing him off. He tapped the wall again and the water stopped as he pushed his way back through the membrane.

While drying himself with the fresh towel growing from the cubicle's ceiling, he scanned the day's schedule in the wall screen, noting who was on base and also where his own crew was.

Pulling on fresh overalls he uplinked to the Base Augmented Intelligence then scanned for Glint. Glint had once again taken his ID offline, so even the BAI did not know where he was. Glint's behaviour in this respect was a constant grievance of the AIs and it often pet.i.tioned Command to have the ACE placed under its direct control, but the major had always managed to block such a move. Undoubtedly, Glint created a certain tension in some people. Everyone knew he could be a bit of a p.r.i.c.k at times and he'd made himself deeply unpopular with some of the more straight-laced pompous types on base.

One of Glint's favourite tricks was to buy some meat from the cooks, mash it up a little and then hurl it at whoever he wanted to rev up. His aim was always as perfect as his ability to catch the target completely unawares and in a fresh uniform. Although Glint was sometimes intensely annoying and his occasional disappearances irksome, Marko reckoned he was becoming a superb ent.i.ty with an extraordinary mind, good engineering capabilities and constantly improving martial arts skills. He was always grateful that Jan had convinced him to bring Glint into existence and Marko was very pleased to have the ACE around as his son.

After checking that he had on him everything he needed for the day, including the issued communications headband, he walked out through the living wooden door knowing the room would clean itself, sloughing off a fine dust of material from the walls and ceilings to be absorbed into the floor, and that the bed would also make itself as it too was living plant-derived materials.

Moving down the corridor towards the all-ranks mess, he looked up to see the roof slowly becoming translucent, allowing the light from the rising sun to penetrate all the enclosed s.p.a.ces as the interior of the building reinvigorated itself. Stopping to admire a slowly opening group of magenta-coloured flowers growing from the walls, breathing in their perfume, he smiled as Glint appeared as if out of thin air beside him.

When his chameleon-ware was switched off his sudden appearances still caught most of the base personnel by surprise, but Marko and the rest of his crew had become used to it. And besides, the proud creator thought, what was the use of having special abilities if they could not be used to good effect?

Marko nodded at him while slipping the very annoying headband on. Base AI would not allow any of the Basalt crew to communicate with their line-of-sight light-based comms systems when inside the main base compound, claiming that such use disregarded accepted security protocols. Even the major could not argue the issue so they left it alone. Only problem with the issued headbands was that Base could eavesdrop on anything they discussed.

'A good night, Glint?'

'Yes, thanks, Marko. Spent seven most enjoyable hours hacking Gerald. I do believe that he is even more p.i.s.sed at me than normal.'

Knowing that he was being listened to by the said Gerald, Marko chuckled. 'Gerald? The Primary Base AI is called Gerald? Ha! Gerald! Who would have thought? So, have you been calling him Gerry?'

'No, Marko, that would be disrespectful. Gerald is a good name for a Frontier Base AI. A certain air of dignity if you will. And besides, even if he is annoyed at me getting that deep into him he has been most helpful with my latest upgrades.'

'Well, Glint my son, what have you done now?'

He just smiled in his almost angelic way and told Marko to wait.

They entered the main mess hall, which featured high, structurally curved plant-based wall panels and a roof formed from interwoven giant semi-translucent leaves. It allowed in the perfect level of light for early morning as they made their way through the throng to the area for Senior NCOs. The grown tables and bench seats had the form of a much-altered wood fungus, but none of the a.s.sociated smells. Marko sat, and Glint did an interesting thing with his tail, forming his own seat that allowed his head to be almost at the same level as Marko's and the table's other occupants.

His fellow sergeants and warrant officers nodded at Marko and Glint, murmuring their greetings of the day. Reg looked across at Glint, then looked at Marko to enquire, 'What the h.e.l.l is he up to now?' Marko shrugged and replied that he had a new upgrade but Marko had no idea of what it was. There was a general shuffling of b.u.ms with most looking around and calculating the fastest escape route, should the need arise.

The corporal came around and took their breakfast orders but skipped over Glint, as he always had in the past.

'Corporal James.'

'Yes, Sergeant Glint?'

'I wish to place my breakfast order, please.'

Oh, s.h.i.+t, Marko thought, this is going to be interesting. Glint with plates of food, in the middle of several hundred potential targets. He loved Glint but the ACE still made him very nervous at times. 'Ummmmm, Glint, what are you going to do with breakfast food?'

'Eat it, Marko. What else would I do?'

'Really, Glint. Oral sensory? Or full digestive and do you now have a s.h.i.+ny new a.r.s.ehole as well?'

'Yes, Marko, I now have an a.n.u.s! Would you like to see it?'

There was an explosive chorus of 'No, no, no, no thanks!' with the occupants of the tables around them stopping whatever they were doing to listen in.

As they ate, they also watched with some awe and trepidation as their good friend Glint ate his first-ever meal. He started with a small bowl of muesli, which he consumed with great relish, then fawned over the sugar when he discovered its taste. The milk, he said, was OK but decided that fruit juice on muesli was just the ticket. He followed that with fresh fruit and then pan-fried bacon and eggs, which he thought was most interesting.

Reg cheerfully told him that the plates were edible as well, so Glint bit a piece from the side of his cleared one, chewed thoughtfully for a few moments and declared that although it was bland in taste it would make a good projectile and crunched down the remainder, which created further nervous looks from around the table. Marko smiled, thinking about getting Glint back to the workshops and running a full diagnostic to see what engineering marvels he had created in himself. He did note that Glint's midriff was definitely larger by the end of breakfast. Coffee the ACE was not that keen on, until Marko suggested honey in it.

'Seems a waste of materials, Marko.'

The others had all left and Glint and Marko were alone at the table.

'What's a waste, Glint?'

Glint pointed at the table tops around them. 'Seeing all the uneaten food and the cups, plates and cutlery just being consumed by the tables like that.'

'Actually, it's very efficient. There's no waste and the plates, cups and tableware are all grown new, so no cleaning and storage. This way the building gets fed as well so it can grow any new rooms we want and constantly maintain itself; and it can be a.s.sured that nothing biologically hazardous is left inside it either as, believe me, the technology consuming the leftovers can kill just about anything known.'

Glint started and quickly asked, 'Would it eat me if I sat on it for long enough?'

Marko smiled and resisted the urge to ruffle Glint's frill. 'Nope, because it knows who you are and that you are alive. Come on, time to sort ourselves and then off to the workshops.'

They walked back to their quarters, with Glint giving a full commentary on what an interesting material food was, and an update on what he had built into himself. And telling Marko how Topaz, the sentient design and construction unit, and Patrick, the frigate Basalt's controlling AI, had been very helpful creating the components and the interfaces.

Marko brushed his teeth and explained to Glint that decaying remnants of food would not be good in his mouth either. Marko snapped an additional wooden toothbrush from a small branch over the top of the basin and handed it to Glint. He grinned, thinking that the day was all the more interesting as he watched Glint getting to grips with a toothbrush for the first time. He walked over to the room's screen, brought up the housekeeping menu and advised the system that it would need to grow an additional two toothbrushes per day for as long as they stayed at the base.

'I need better teeth, Marko. These tapered plates are good, but actual teeth would be a lot better. I shall do some research. What do I do with this used brush? Interesting taste: what is it?'

Marko reached across and patted Glint's shoulder. 'You make me laugh. You are a walking, talking advertis.e.m.e.nt for the att.i.tude: "If it can be improved, just do it!" Leave it in the basin and it'll be consumed as well. The taste? Ummmmm, peppermint, I think. There's a thought. I wonder what the real stuff looks and tastes like. Must ask Stephine when she gets back.'

As they walked across the Base to the main hangars, the rest of the crew gradually attached themselves to the group. Jan, after giving Marko a good-morning kiss, patted Glint on the head and said: 'Morning, beautiful creature. My spies tell me you have been augmenting yourself. Here ... I have something for you.' She pulled a large, brightly coloured lollipop from her jacket and pa.s.sed it over to him.

'Thanks, Jan! Lolly on a stick! I know about these.'

Watching him hobbling along on three legs, eating his lollipop, had everyone in fits of laughter, to which Glint reacted by hamming it up even more.

They all looked out across the wide sweeping horseshoe-shaped bay and its distant towering volcanic b.u.t.tresses, as a stiff breeze came in off the sea bringing a cloud front with it, making Fritz complain about it being cold.

Jan looked at him witheringly. 'You are a wimp, Fritz! Get another vest or at very least step up your bioware for a better blood temperature.'

Fritz, the eternal teenager, shrugged and mumbled, 'Can't find my spare vest.'

Marko laughed, saying, 'The room probably consumed it thinking it had additional calorific value, considering how rarely you shower, Fritzy! No wonder the eel bitey beast from the library planet did not want to eat you. It probably smelt you through the canopy!'

Fritz looked angry. 'f.u.c.k off, Marko! You are such an a.r.s.e! It b.l.o.o.d.y well did want to eat me!'

Still grinning, they let themselves into one of the vehicle workshops through the large living wooden doors and giant living leaf walls, which, when originally planted, had grown up to curve across and bond at the roof apex, forming a half-barrel-shaped structure. The senior members of the crew, Warrant Officer First Cla.s.s Harry Stevens and Major Michael Longbow, had arrived before the rest of them and were deep in discussion with a group of the base engineers. Harry gestured for all to join them.

The major spoke first. 'Morning, people. First things first. It's officially called the KA14 by its original creators and operators, but what are we going to call it?'

They looked up at the huge hulking machine parked in the centre of the hangar.

After a few seconds Fritz spoke up. 'Mudshark. Yeah, call it Mudshark.'

They all looked at him, then back at the squat Gjomvik Corporation combat hovercraft, then looked across at Fritz and back to the major.

' Mudshark ? Any particular reason, Fritz?' asked the major.

The large-headed little man just shrugged. 'Looks like one, right? Kind of obvious really.'

The major looked at the hovercraft and nodded once. 'Well, I reckon since we recovered it mostly intact and since you had a lot to do with the recovery, Fritz, I say we go with that. Mudshark it is, people. OK, that is a mean ugly-looking sucker. Always thought mudsharks were kind of pretty animals but there you go. Harry, brief the guys, please, I'll be in my office. See you on board shortly.'

Harry Stevens was not really a big guy, but he had 'presence' and even those who had seen the worst of him still had an immense respect and liking for him. When he spoke they shut up - even Glint, and particularly Fritz, who treated him like his father which, considering Fritz's rather intriguing past, was probably fitting. Harry gestured to the ACE mechanical spider, Flint - his constant companion - who tapped the keys on the desktop until a full holo of Mudshark hovered above the large square table.

Harry spoke loudly and clearly. 'Gather in, everyone.'

As they moved around the desktop, he started the briefing. 'Well, it's a bit of a beast. That Gjomvik company really screwed up royally in letting us get our hands on it, as it holds tech that I know they would not be keen on us seeing let alone taking to pieces. Interesting; not entirely sure what its actual theatre of operation would be, but I'd say they designed it for long-range insertion of their small armoured walking units over most terrain types - and fairly quickly at that, as it has good low-alt.i.tude flight characteristics as well. Then it would be able to hang back and give them some fairly mean fire support as well. The guns are nice. I'd say that they are an upgrade of their MK-17 120mm rail gun. They are still 120mm but there was no ammo left on board by the time we got to it, so I can only go on the sizings of the breeches, ammo drums and feeds as to the propellant casings. Looks like they had at least four types of ammo and considering that this thing has the capacity to carry at least two tonne of the stuff they must have been involved in an absolute pit fight before the crew abandoned s.h.i.+p.'

They all nodded in agreement as Harry continued.

'And they must have been pumping the ammo through. The barrels are knackered and they were nice barrels, really nice. Toast now. Obviously, whatever they went up against they were s.h.i.+t scared to pump that amount of ammo through in such a short s.p.a.ce of time. A wonder they didn't go bang, actually. I think that one was about to; the cooling pumps on the starboard guns are fried. May have been why the crew legged it. Pity this outpost doesn't have more surveillance satellites as I'd love to see what they had for escape modules. Looking at the personnel stations on board, they had five crew. There may have been something in the hangar as well but we have no idea what it was.'

Fritz opened his mouth to speak but when he saw that Harry wasn't finished he closed it again.

'By the time we arrived the modules were both over the horizon and still accelerating, so they must be a cla.s.sy bit of kit as well. Umm, the power plants are sweet, really sweet, h.e.l.luva long way from anything the Games Board would allow us to use in any AV battle as they are too powerful. The Board will go ape when they see this. b.l.o.o.d.y fortunate that the boss was able to get that Harpoon into it as quickly as he did. Beautiful missile, Fritz. Took perfect control of Mudshark's electronics. It was literally seconds from going boom bigtime. Nice bit of tech that, Fritz, well done. Looking at the remains of the computer logs, the Harpoon took total control in about three milliseconds. We had better have a look at marketing that to the Administration. Chunk of coin in that for all of us. h.e.l.luva test fire, eh! OK, we can talk about that later.'

As Harry spoke, the image of the craft came apart with the individual units expanding in size, allowing them all a clear view of what it was like inside as well as out.

'The boss agrees that this thing is repairable with what we have here on base and we might just as well be doing something useful while waiting for our next deployment. We can't use Mudshark 's hangar as it's just not high enough for any of our combat walkers or mechs. Fritz, Marko, let's get our heads together later and cook something up at some stage, if required. I have always considered the need for a smaller more compact mech a worthy design project anyway. Right, the guns we can rebuild. I have the base's Manufacturing AI already onto it. That and some nice new ammo as well.'

He paused for a second, tapping his wrist screen and saying, 'Memo: I need to talk to the boss about that ammo. End.'

He looked around at the crew and continued. 'OK. The cooling pumps we'll refit with ours; also need a new computer and the Tech AI is happy to give us some of himself whenever we are ready. There is a ma.s.sive load of deep scoring under the hull and subsequently about twenty-five per cent of the underside armour is stuffed. We have that being made as well and delivery is about ten hours away. They had cla.s.s armour as they pinched our Cobra gear and placed another beryllium bronze layer over it. Nice. The camo is actually bonded into the surface, bites in about point two of a millimetre. Have already loaded up the specs on that to the Intel AI. She likes it. More points for us. Having said that she is going nuts trying to figure out what damaged the armour.'

He paused for a few seconds to look at one of his wrist screens then continued. 'All she is coming up with is a biological agent. Says she will have some results in a day or so. Like I said, the power plants are sweet, but Glint, I need you and Marko to get into the software on them as there is something there that the AIs can't ID yet, so give them more raw data. Try not to wreck them, will ya? The figures say the plants are pumping out some seven per cent more usable power than ours are.

'Now, the AG units are both wrecked. That's the big ticket item. The boss has started negotiations with the Games Board. They like the idea of Mudshark going up against a bunch of our units, but I kind of like the idea of new tech for good or not so good. Or maybe someone has cooked up some interesting punch up to justify the manufacture of this machine. Still, you all know my views on the Games Board as they are getting more and more manipulative to get their stories. Anyway, let's get on with it. The Base AI stripped all the self-destruct stuff out and the Harpoon has been disengaged so everything has been made safe; that's what Base says but ... be careful, eh. And keep an eye out: we still don't know why this thing is on this world, so any clues upload 'em right away. See you all at smoko. Oh, Fritz, the boss wants a report on the Harpoon as soon as you are ready.'

While Harry had been briefing them they had all quietly powered up their neural spectral links, placing them in their ears. They still wore their headpieces but Base could only hear them if they spoke aloud. Comms now became very fast and seamless, with an interface that linked through Glint; his was always the primary job of laying out the link networks, which he did with his usual speed and efficiency, more often than not helped by the large mechanical spider, Flint, and, when he was around, the cat, Nail. The small self-aligning scales, which would automatically adhere and orient themselves so that their light-based comms systems could operate, seemed to float off Glint as he rounded bends, establis.h.i.+ng line-of-sight maser communications throughout Mudshark.

As they followed him, the usual gossip, news, new music from Fritz and jokes - as gathered by Flint - were uploaded from the seven of them onto their own personal net, completely free of outside interference or snooping. The Base AIs could not hack into it as they knew that Glint had some unique software running through his bulletproof self. Neither Fritz nor Marko could actually get a handle on it either. Fritz said that it was based on his original designs and code but that Glint had taken it to a whole new level. Marko believed that Glint had come up with it himself, but Harry believed that Stephine had given the ACE something. Marko, being a proud dad, still believed that his creation had done it for himself.

Marko went to his a.s.signed locker and pulled out the coffin-like light engineering suit carrier. He stripped and laid down as it formed itself around him. Leaving the helm off, he caught up with Glint as they made their way onto Mudshark.

Thinking about it, Marko decided it would be nice to see the wonderfully enigmatic Stephine, and her man Veg, together with her ACE - the cat, Nail - again soon. The crew seemed incomplete when they weren't around. As soon as they had all arrived at the Base, Stephine and Veg had sent a quick "bye and see you soon' and disappeared to a remote part of the planet to search out interesting life types in their own s.h.i.+p.

Everyone had a chuckle as they viewed Glint's latest exploits as seen through his eyes: a perfect shot of a small piece of b.l.o.o.d.y mince being deftly deposited on some unfortunate senior staff member's s.h.i.+ny head as he stepped from the shower.

'So, Glint, what are you really doing with all that nice food now in your new guts? Are you processing it, storing it, turning it into projectiles, or what?'

'Everything actually, Marko. The processing plant is more like the stomach of a tuna fish from Old Earth. Topaz helped me with that and Patrick made the parts. Ernst made some very good suggestions in regards to the linings of my intestines, and also designed the compressing units so I can make my own ammunition for the rifle. Very fast and efficient. I can take energy, trace elements, basically anything I need to function, and can now grow at a much slower more controlled rate than I would normally through my purely mechanical upgrades. I concluded, after talking with the other AIs, that I may as well consume normal human food - I mean, you guys stop all the time for food and fluids - so why not join you for more than just conversation and enjoy myself with new experiences?'

Marko chuckled as Glint continued. 'And then I also decided, well, why not fit myself out with the whole package? Did you know that since I installed the taste sensory package my sense of smell is much improved as well? And besides, creator of mine, I can now taste everything for poisons, carcinogens and also what is good and bad for you and everyone in the squad. Jan will be very pleased. Ernst downloaded a huge file about that. You really are quite fragile in some respects, Marko. There are many many compounds that can make you very sick or even kill your biological self. I would have thought that as you are a sentient species you would have addressed those dangers long ago. But as Ernst says, you are only human! Flint is jealous of my changes though. It's unfortunate that you can do nothing for him.'

Marko groaned. 'Yeah, well, you make it all sound like something to look forward to. And Harry wants to keep Flint as compact as possible, so I don't think we can do anything about that. Don't go making changes to him by yourself, will you? That would be stepping outside accepted protocols. He can always make the changes should he decide to leave Harry once he has finished his indenture to him. Right, Fritz, can you open up the engine room access, please?'

'Give me a couple of secs, Marko. Having to route everything through the Intel AI. She's controlling the s.h.i.+p until the new computer arrives in a couple of hours.'

Marko frowned. 'Why so long?'

'Nah, it's just the boss said do everything right. The mercs had a nice compact unit, our closest is 7mm too large so a new case is being made. Ah, there you go, guys, full access.'