The Thessalonica Legacy
Chapter 6: Moonlight Reconnaissance
Ramirez held on to the rollcage as his patrol partner accelerated their all-terrain vehicle up the embankment. The internal-combustion engine whined as oversize tires struggled for purchase. His other hand clenched around the Federated Long Rifle in his lap. The vehicle fishtailed as they crested the embankment and narrowly avoided a fallen log.
“Geeze, Liz, take it easy!”
From the driver’s seat, Corporal Virat gave him a sideways smile. “Aw, too rough for ya’ ‘Mech-jock?” Her slanted blue eyes sparkled as she teased him. She was only a hair shorter than Ramirez, with wide cheekbones and curly black hair. Her rich, almost ebony, skin accentuated her large, brilliantly white teeth, especially in the dim light of the forest floor. Despite her dark complexion, her features belied the extensive genetic mingling that had occurred in the centuries since mankind spread out to the stars.
“Just be careful. I’d rather stay in one piece.” Ramirez shot back in Cantonese, the most common language in their corner of the Inner Sphere after English.
“Guess you’re not used to being outside of your tin suit,” she grinned at him. Good-natured ribbing between infantry and MechWarriors was a time-honored tradition.
All in all, he was in a good mood. The autumn colors of this forest were spectacular and the weather was delightfully crisp. This was definitely a colony world, he decided. These trees were all Terran species; oak, elm, birch, larch. Obviously Earthling birds flitted in the trees. He spotted several jays and finches among the branches. They were making too much noise to spot many other animals, but he swore he had seen the tail end of a snake disappear into the undergrowth.
Ramirez had left his BattleMech at the LZ, in the shadow of the Felicity Klimkosky. He had scouted the immediate area, but the thick canopy of the forest had slowed his progress to a crawl. Leftenant Ling had elected to continue the mission on foot and in their small collection of light vehicles. Leaving only himself and one volunteer at the LZ to act as a communications hub, he broke up the remaining five infantry and Ramirez into two-man teams, which fanned out into the forest, working their way east. The objective was to make contact with any settlements and determine which planet they were on.
They had quickly dispensed with the cumbersome envirosuits. This planet seemed particularly suited to Terran life. Atmospheric pressure and content resembled a pre-industrial Terra. Even the surface gravity was essentially equivalent to Terra at approximately 1 g. With all this variety of Terran plants and animals, it was obvious this planet had been subject to extensive terraforming, probably many centuries ago. With the large moon and wide seas, this world might as well have been Terra, though a pre-industrial version.
Not all the life here was of Earth origin; there was that fuzzy insect-like thing that tried to eat all of Ackermann’s ration bars before he squashed it with a boot, and one of the other scout teams had reported seeing what they claimed looked like a branth soaring high overhead. If that was the case, the presence of the large, winged flying dragon-like creatures would narrow their location down to only a handful of worlds in the Free Worlds League; the Duchy of Andurien to be more precise. That would place them an impossible 300-or-so light years from their home on Valexa, ten times the maximum single jump distance capable by modern JumpShips.
The lack of radio traffic was worrisome. The Duchy of Andurien’s 25 systems were all well-populated. So, for now, they were still at a loss for their location.
Free of the embankment, the two camouflage-clad Davion soldiers stumbled upon what appeared to be a narrow path cutting through the underbrush. The Corporal turned onto the path and gunned the throttle. What luck! At this pace, they’d reach the suspected settlements in no time.
In front of them, a small shape darted across the path. Liz yelled out in surprise and slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve to avoid the creature. Ramirez only caught a glimpse of a long, green body, leathery bat-like wings, and a small white head before it disappeared into the bushes. The ATV lost traction on the fallen leaves and slid sideways off the path and into a ravine.
“Son of a bitch!” Liz slammed her fists on the steering wheel.
“I though you said you could drive.”
“Shut up.”
Neither of them was hurt, so they crawled out to inspect the damage. It didn’t appear too bad at first, but the crash had bent the front axle and the nose was wedged tight between some rocks. They could get it out and probably repair it, but with just the two of them it would be a long and difficult process. While Ramirez was pondering if they could use the winch to raise the nose clear of the rocks, Liz began transferring everything she could from the vehicle into their already overstuffed packs and pockets. She dropped one heavy pack on the ground next to the MechWarrior.
“C’mon, Sarge. Looks like we’re hoofin’ it from here.”
Ramirez slipped the straps over his shoulders and retrieved his borrowed rifle and combat helmet. He scrambled after Liz up the shallow ravine and back onto the path. Together, they hiked off, leaving their stricken vehicle behind.
The pathway made for easy going. They walked mostly in silence, listening to the rustle of the wind in the leaves and the twitter of birds. With less noise, they spotted more animals, including rabbits and squirrels and a few neither of them could identify. None of the animals seemed particularly alarmed at their presence, and some watched them with what looked like curiosity. They radioed their status back to the Leftenant at the DropShip periodically, but otherwise their trek was largely uneventful.
As the sun was going down, the forest suddenly ended. The two travellers stopped short, taken aback at this sudden change of scenery. The forest border was almost perfectly straight, as if some giant invisible hand had scribed a line across the landscape. In front of them lay rolling hills blanketed in luxurious green grass and punctuated with low-growing bushes and small stands of trees, vibrant in their orange and gold autumn attire. Snowcapped mountain peaks lay not too distant, almost glowing in the light of the sun rapidly sinking behind the western woods.
Liz pointed towards a spot above the hills, “Is that smoke?”
Sure enough, rising above the crests of the hills were a series of pale blue wisps of smoke, languidly drifting in the soft breeze. In a flash, the Corporal had shrugged off her pack and scrambled up the nearest tree. Ramirez alternated between watching her clambering through the branches and gazing at the distant smoke. Above his head, Liz let out a triumphant whoop “Sarge! Get on the horn. There’s a whole village out there!”
****************
Moonlight imparted a silver hue to the grassy hills. Stars filled the inky black sky in a multitude of tiny fires. Ramirez and Liz ignored the stellar tableau above their heads as they slipped silently through the grass. The Leftenant had ordered them to recon the village before attempting to make contact. He was still worried about a backlash should they not be in Davion territory. On their bellies, the two scouts peeked over the top of a hill towards the village below.
Ramirez sighed. This was no good. It was too dark, and even though the visor on his combat helmet could see in thermal IR he couldn’t make out anything besides the shapes of the buildings and the lay of the land. No flags, no propaganda posters. Just a cluster of quaint little buildings and the soft glow of a handful of lights.
Beside him, Corporal Virat spoke softly, her voice picked up by her helmet’s integral microphone and transmitted into Ramirez’s ear. “Damn. I can’t see anything. Should we try that hill to the south? Or how about that barn over there?” she pointed off to where the roof of a large barn poked up above a low rise.
Ramirez was impatient. He rose to a crouch and slipped quickly down the face of the hill.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
He glanced back up the hill and whispered, knowing his own microphone would make him easily heard by his partner “I’m getting a closer look.”
“Leftenant said over-watch”
“He said find out where we are. Maybe a store sign or something will give us a clue.” He didn’t wait for Liz’s reaction, and hopped a low picket fence. Behind him, Liz swore under her breath and slipped quietly down the hill.
Moving in a low crouch, the two Davion militiamen ducked from cover to cover, advancing unseen up to the outskirts of the little village. Peering carefully around corners, they made their way slowly through the streets, slinking under eaves and through alleys.
It was a pretty little village, with timber-framed buildings and thatched roofs. It was picturesque, almost like a postcard. They slipped around what looked to be a town square and a large, circular building Ramirez assumed was the central government building. The streets were totally deserted. Not a soul stirred aside from the two of them.
Something about the town tugged at Ramirez, making him uneasy beyond what he would expect from clandestinely sneaking around a strange village at night. Everything seemed a little too perfect. No peeling paint or apparent disrepair on any of the buildings. The doors on the buildings all seemed a little too short and wide, so that a normal height person would have to duck or risk hitting their head. The signs were most odd. Shops and buildings were identified not by words but by a picture denoting their function—a sudsy bar of soap on the side of a market cart so short it would have only come up to his mid-thigh, an open book denoting a bookstore. Ramirez wondered at what sort of store would be represented by a picture of an old-timey writing quill and an opulent sofa. A handful of signs, particularly on those buildings which appeared to offer services, had silhouettes of horses or equestrian-related paraphernalia like horseshoes or saddles.
“Huh, that’s weird.” Liz nudged his shoulder to get his attention, “Switch to IR”
Ramirez complied with a couple of well-timed eye-points and blinks. The silvery moonlit world melted away to a cavalcade of colors. The residual heat from the day was translated by his helmet’s computer and fed to his visor. He looked around confused, wondering what Liz wanted to show him.
“Look at the tracks” she whispered.
Faint heat traces from footprints crisscrossed the ground. He looked closer at a nearby set, glowing faintly against the cooler dirt. The individual prints were small crescents, like a diminutive horseshoe. So what? Someone had lead an animal through town, perhaps a small pony.
“Lots of hoofprints, but no footprints” Liz swept her hand across the patch of ground before them “At least I don’t see any.”
Ramirez shrugged. He didn’t have an answer. There could be a dozen reasons for a herd of animal prints and no human prints. He switched his visor back to visible light, which he preferred. As they passed out of the town square, he felt the rhythmic thump of music.
It was the only building in town in which lights burned brightly in the windows, casting angular yellow shapes on the ground. From within, Ramirez and Liz could hear muffled music and what could only be laughter. Ramirez’s curiosity got the better of him. If he could peer in at that party, maybe some clue of the dress, or language, or décor would give them the information they needed. There was a decorative row of rose bushes along the front of the house, to the side of the door and beneath a windowsill. On his belly, Ramirez wriggled into the narrow space between the thorny bushes and the wall. He set his Federated Long Rifle on the mulch and carefully reached his arms up to grasp the windowsill, moving his legs under him. His ears strained to hear the laughter inside, trying to judge distance and disposition.
The door flung open, throwing a long, yellow shaft of light across the road. Ramirez instinctively dropped to the ground, trying to make himself as small as possible behind the roses. He hoped Liz, somewhere in the shadows behind him, was similarly out of sight. He could hear them talking at the doorway, but he could not place the language. It barely sounded human, more of a melodious sing-song, like a babbling brook tumbling over gravel mixed with high, sugary richness. There was more laughter and Ramirez could see the shadows of the speakers moving back and forth in the light cast from the open doorway.
One of the sources of the voices stepped out of the doorway. Ramirez blinked in disbelief and stared through the thorny branches, forcing himself to breath shallowly, though his heart was pounding in his ears. It wasn’t a person at all, but a small, purple quadruped. It looked sort of like a miniature horse, with a compact body, and a big, round head with large, purple eyes. The four legs ended in broad hooves, and it had a mane and tail like a horse, though of a dark indigo and each with a pink streak running through. From its forehead protruded a short, spiraled horn, giving the entire creature the distinct look of a diminutive unicorn of ancient mythology. As it turned, he could see a large tattoo of a pink six-pointed star with six more white points interspersed and surrounded by a halo of five white six-pointed stars occupying the entire haunch. With a start, he realized the creature was smiling and speaking. The language he had heard was coming from it.
The creature was joined by several others, all chattering to each other in that same sugary-sweet tongue. There was an orange one with a long yellow mane and tail and what looked to all the world like a cowboy hat perched on top of its head. A sky-blue one with a brilliant rainbow-hued mane stretched and folded a pair of feathered wings as it chatted with a snowy white unicorn with luxuriant purple hair. Another winged one stood off to the side, yellow face mostly hidden behind a long pink mane. A light pink one with a bushy magenta mane alternated between bouncing excitedly and staring curiously at its left forehoof.
He watched as another creature joined the sextuplet of diminutive equines. It had a round body covered with purple scales accented with green spines and a very reptilian appearance. Unlike the others, it walked erect on a pair of stubby little legs. It reached up with a clawed hand and climbed onto the back of the purple unicorn creature. Reaching its perch, the lizard-creature stretched and yawned.
Ramirez was transfixed. Were these pets? But they were talking. Or were they? It sure sounded like a language. It sounded like a whole conversation, in fact. And they were certainly laughing. They were beginning to walk away now. He was fighting the urge to push some of the branches out of the way to get a better look, when he realized the pink one hadn’t moved away with the others. Instead, it was standing stock-still and staring. Staring straight at him. His breath caught in his throat, and he felt as if his heart would burst out of his chest.
The pink horse-thing lowered its head and took one tentative step forward, staring at the rose bushes with large, inquisitive blue eyes. He willed himself to be as still as possible. Perhaps the creature hadn’t actually seen him yet. A call from down the road caused the creature to perk up its ears and turn. It answered in a high-pitched voice and trotted off to join the group of others, casting glances over its shoulder as it went.
As soon as it was out of sight, Ramirez closed his eyes and slumped fully to the ground. That was close. Too close. A touch on his leg nearly caused him to jump out of his skin. Turning, he saw Liz tugging on his hem. He couldn’t see her eyes though her visor, but her cheeks looked pale. She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. Nodding in agreement, Ramirez backed out of the flowerbed and together, they slipped away quickly and as quietly as they could from the house. Glancing back, Ramirez saw another group of the colorful creatures trot merrily out of the door and into the night.
They crept in silence until the canopy of the trees closed in over them. Liz was the first to break the silence with a stream of expletives. “Blake’s blood that was close. That was too close. What the hell were you thinking? You almost blew our cover!”
“Did you see them? They sounded like they were talking.”
Liz sunk against a tree and smiled, “Yeah. That was pretty cool.” Her tone turned serious again, “But we still haven’t finished our objective. We still don’t know where we are.”
Ramirez sighed. He knew he had been reckless. He tried to salvage what pride he could. “Maybe when the sun comes up we can get a glimpse of the people. Maybe that will help us out. Or maybe by then the Silvertongue’s nav computer will have gotten a fix.”
Liz shook her head, “Sir,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “I think those were the people.”