Laden

After ‘tracking’ unheard sounds and shadows for half a mile or so, Alex found himself in a relatively squat chamber, met by quite the welcome party… A rabble of riled ‘n’ ragin’ rodents.

Gods, they were swarming. It was likely hopeless now.
Where the hell was his squad?

The herd of Roo ran at him, and – mentally back in the Belt - he screamed bloody murder, firing deep into the heart of what he took to be horny hellbent hardlight holograms.

Fortunately, the Roo phased expertly in and out of this dimension, and he didn’t actually harm any (which if he’d known what he was doing he’d have been glad about). He was gonna tear the evil smeggers out of this system single handedly if he had to. DRrrrrrRRRrrrrrttt! DRrRrrrrrRrrRRrrrttt!
The Roo were slowed but not halted.

“Hallo, love birds!” He yelled, manic, the quarter-focused, present, part of his mind recognising the two lovers he’d left slumped in the security office. He fired ineffectually at them. DRrrrrrttt! DRrRrrrrrrrttt!
On somehow hearing his comment above the din (probably due to her massive satellite dish ears), a sandy kangaroo mouse waved a paw and the Roo stopped advancing.
“What did you say, Fur-long?”
Alex frowned and stopped firing. She repeated the question.
“These boys” he explained, jabbing a gun towards the pervgerbs. “’Caught ‘em shaggin’ in their security room, din’t I?”
“You WHAT?” The mouse snapped. “Plum is my squeggin’ HUSBAND!”
He’d kicked Plum in the plums? Some part of Solvay appreciated this and he sniggered.
The two security gerbils looked sheepish. “Snuffles, listen-“ “Shut it Puddin’.”
“And they were copulating? Instead of monitoring their sector?” Asked another (a posh-sounding hamster).
“Uh…” Alex didn’t know whether he should resume shooting, or exactly what was going on. Confused, he nodded.

The posh one pulled a haughty hamstery grimace and rounded on the post-deserting, extramarital jirds. And suddenly, with a squeaky rage like nothing Alex had ever heard before, the assembled Roo began squabbling and fighting among themselves, cruelly zapping each other with painful looking weaponry.
“Gott dang it, Marjory Pouches, that was mah rat danglin’ tail! Have some!”
“Ow! You bastard!”
“Plum! I am a monogamouse, and you KNEW that!”
“KaROOOO! Feel the wrath of my Interdimensional Carrot Slice!”
“I don’t regret a thiiiiiiiing…”
“Fur-k you, pellet head!”
Pachoo! Pachoo! Squeak squeeaaak! CLICK CLICK! PACHOOO!

<snip>… and send them against one another, and let them destroy themselves in battle… </snip>

Solvay watched on, in bewilderment.
“WHERE’S JACOB?” He demanded, but they didn’t answer, engaged as they were in a gigantic rodentine squabble of truly epic proportions. He looked around the chamber for back up, help, advice, a second opinion, anything, but not a single human was to be seen.
He shrugged and joined in the ruckus. DRrrrrrRRRrrrrrttt! DRrRrrrrrRrrRRrrrttt! Everything seemed to move in slow motion. DRrrrrrRRRrrrrrRrRrrrrrRrrRRrrrtt! “Jaaaa-coooobbbb!” And part of him swore he could hear Adagio for Strings playing, as round after round slammed into the vicious rodents*.
Squueeeeaaakkkk!!!! “Aaaaaaaaarrrggghhhh!!!!!” DRrrrrrRRRrrrrrttt! DRrRrrrrrRrrRRrrrttt!

*And ricocheted off/passed through them.
-----

Kuiper Belt

They’d been in the damned Hinterlands for what felt like epochs, surviving on weary-wired wits, poor, tasteless, rations and hard-bitten willpower. The holos came at them relentlessly, sweeping unaffected through the humans, gleefully wiping out platoons in bloody, unfairly weighted, grizzly firefights and maulings.
Occasionally the humans would get lucky, but it was only occasionally. Most of the time the holos were devastating. Sometimes, after they’d done their damage, they’d leave the bodies to rot - piled at sides of swamps, woods or grassland, where the grunts would bury them. And sometimes they wouldn’t. It was common knowledge that the holograms used human bodies as sex toys, or puppets. Sometimes they’d eat them – and they didn’t even need to eat.

One dreadful day Alex’s squad were given new orders – they were to infiltrate the holo’s bunker complex the next morning. Told to locate their collection of underground energy sources and take them out.
It was lunacy, and everyone knew it.

“Sarge?” A young private asked. “This don’t seem right.”
“Orders.” A grimy, flop-haired, bandana-sporting Alex replied, around a rollie. “Get in, get out, go home.”
Simple as that.
He carried on examining the rifle that had been handed to him.
Another, darker haired man, three or four years Alex’s junior, approached. “It’s smegging ridiculous is what it is.”
Insolent smegs.
He scowled, and looked around the squad, some a few years younger like the dark haired one, some older. A selection of grunt-survivors thrown together in a desperate situation, with Al, the normally non-talkative NCO.
“You know what happens to deserters?” He asked them.
There was a collective mumbling in the affirmative.
“Right. And don’t you want to go home?”
Another murmur.
“’S’what I thought. Get your smeggin’ heads straight.”

“It’s getting my head ripped off and humped, I’m worried about” muttered the young private.

They’d crumble if he let them know he agreed, but the boy was talking sense - creeping into a holo facility was more dangerous than playing Russian Roulette with your dick and a faulty blender.
No-one had ever even attempted it before.

“Shut it” he replied. “Why’d you think they chose us?” The private shrugged.
“‘Cause we’re the best.”
The boy looked doubtful.
“Still alive, ain’t we?” Alex told him. “… What are we?”
“The best?”
“Damn right we are.” He addressed the whole group. “I said what are we?”
“THE BEST!”
“Don’t you ever smeggin’ forget it. Now if you want to go home to your mummies. He looked at the dark haired solder “… or Daddies… Get some sleep.”

Alex didn’t like being a sergeant, not out here. But that’s what they’d made him, so that’s what he had to be.

***

They took advantage of the holos’ down-time and managed to penetrate the first level. Having never been approached in their holo-hive before – because for a human to do such a thing would be utter madness – the arrogant, perverted monsters were not expecting visitors.
Solvay ordered the squad to split as planned. A third were to accompany him, deep into the tunnels.
The darker haired insolent smeg hissed at him. “Al, I’m coming with you.”
Alex spat some mud out of his mouth - for advanced holograms, the bastards had chosen to nest in a real shithole.
“No. Do your job. And don’t call me Al.”
“I’m coming with you Sarge.”
“You’ll do as you’re smegging told. Now get going, all of you, Johnson, McReady…” The two women nodded “… keep your eye on this loser.” They laughed, quietly, grittily.
He turned back to the troubled one. “I told you, get in, get out, go home. You got brains bigger than the rest of us put together.” The younger man went to protest but Alex continued. “And don’t worry about me, I’m a sneaky smeg. Everything’ll be fine.” He clapped a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “Okay?”
He didn’t answer.
“Solvay?” Alex warned his kid brother “I said ‘Okay?’”
Jacob squinted. “Yes Sarge.”
“Right. I don’t wanna see your ugly mugs again till it’s done. Now go.”

As the three younger soldiers left to fulfil their destiny and play their part in saving the wo- Well, their part in saving a bunch of rich, corrupt, empathy-lacking assholes, some money, the ‘world’ didn’t even know what was going on out there - one of them - the young man - looked back, with a sad glint in his eye. Alex gave a sharp “shoo” gesture and turned to the remainder of the squad.
“Patterson, Jarvis, Sneebly, with me…”

----

Roo Warren

Some of the other Dwarfers had entered the chamber now - Jade, Jamie, Jaxx and Evelina. They watched in large eyed bemusement as this chamber’s Roo scrapped away, Solvay yowling and firing beserkely into them.

“Alex!” Jade yelled, trying to get his attention. He didn’t respond, so she threw a stone at him.
He whirled, dived to one side, saw her and lowered his weapons. She opened her hands in a what the hell? gesture, and he pounded over.
“Jacob!” He panted, frantically. “Where’s Jacob?”
“Who’s Jacob?”
“Don’t give me that shit, McReady Jacob! What are you wearing? Get back into uniform.”
McReady? The woman gave him a concerned, sympathetic look. “Jacob’s not here, Alex.” She glanced warily at the battling Roo, currently distracted – but for how long?
She took hold of Alex’s elbow, trying to steer him in the right direction and jerked her head at the others. “C’mon, we need to get back to the first chamber.”
Solvay shook her off. “No. I need to find him!”
“Why?” Jade enquired, slipping into savvy medical mode.
“Have to save him!”

A frowning Jamie waved a hand between the Roo and the agitated Alex. “Shouldn’t we be getting out of here? What’s he going on about?”
“I think he’s having… some kind of CSR.” At the confused look from Evelina she elaborated. “Combat Stress Reaction.”
“Uhm, doc…” Jaxx began.
“Hang on…” Jade decided she needed to continue her concise questioning while Alex was still talking. She turned back to him. “Save him?” She pressed. “From the Roo?”
“From me.”

She took him to one side.
“You? Why?”
“Because I killed him, Jade,” he looked at her, finally in the present again. His features were twisted in misery, and he slumped to his knees.
“... I killed my little brother.”

-

Jaxx didn’t want to be rude but it was getting kind of urgent. “Doc…” he reminded “The Roo!”

----
----

-
<To be elaborated on when appropriate.>