Chapter 12

I should never have had hope. Perhaps my optimism was too much for the universe to bear. Maybe it was hubris? I’m not sure, but looking back, I know that after we killed that first group of Yishkak, I should have packed up the ship and fucking moved it to the other side of the planet.

The fabricator was slowly printing the new core. I remember reading about the evolution of fabricator technology, and how the earliest versions could only extrude plastic filament, and the process was generally slow with sub-millimeter print resolution. The fabricator could print objects from varying materials with 10 micron resolution in minutes. Unfortunately, the crystalline structure of the core required angstrom resolution: the fabricator had to precisely deposit each atom and ensure that it properly bonded to its neighbors. This process was slow and consumed a lot of power. During the process, we needed to be careful to not jostle the fabricator, as any motion could introduce flaws in the printed material.

Three fucking days into the month-long print, the survival computer beeped a notification that a watch condition had been triggered. On the satellite view, a dozen Yishkak marched in an arrowhead formation. A six-bug triangle with three ranks of two bugs behind it. They were heading in our direction. “Fuck!” I swore.

Thivkari looked up from her breakfast across the table at me. “What is it?” I turned the survival computer around so she could see the image on the screen. “Fuck,” she swore.

After we ate, we went up to engineering and retrieved the cart. It was really more like a wagon that children would play with. The wheels were plastic with a rubbery outer layer that would absorb some shock, but I wouldn’t want to ride in it over rough terrain. It had a cover and tie-down points on the inside, and attachment points on the outside for the ... tow straps, I guess. The straps connected to a load-bearing belt, and at my insistence, could be disconnected by pushing a disconnect button like a seatbelt. Each of us would attach to the wagon so we could split the exertion of pulling it.

It took us about an hour to get everything loaded. The first item was a 50 liter water tank. Based on my analysis of the terrain, it looked like it would take us about five or six days to get to where we could start setting the traps. The idea was that if they somehow avoided the traps we set, we would have plenty of time to set new ones. The ultimate contingency would be to haul ass back to the ambush point and set up, making a stand there. Next came ammunition, mines, stakes, pullies, monofilament, and entrenching tools. Then food supplies, our tents and bedding, and finally a pair of cased M115 heavy machine guns and eight cases of belted 15mm ammo. Strapped to the outside were a pair of folded chairs so we wouldn’t have to sit on the ground. Our packs carried hydration bladders, rations, first aid kits, six 10-round magazines loaded with 7.5mm precision rifle ammunition, as well as clean clothes, cold weather gear, and a pack of cloths we could use to clean ourselves. We carried the rifles on slings and the survival computers on straps attached to the packs.

We set out around 1030, and the wagon was fucking HEAVY. Going uphill was slow and strenuous, and going downhill required that I attach to the back to act as a brake. We made it to the prepared ambush point just before sunset and unloaded the M115s and ammunition, which lightened the wagon considerably. We stashed the weapons and ammo in our foxholes, and prayed that we wouldn’t actually need them. Then we unpacked the tent and made camp. Sleep was difficult, as we were sore as hell. We struck camp just before first light, and the second day’s travel was easier. The second evening, we made camp away from the trail we were following, refilling our hydration bladders from the tank in the wagon. That night we had sex in an attempt to burn off some of the nervousness. Sleep came easily.

Each day got easier as the wagon lost a few kilos in water as we refilled our hydration bladders, as well as food consumed. I insisted we pack our trash, not wanting to leave anything for the bugs to see. I would rather them be unsure of our numbers than know from our trash that there were only two of us. We had seen signs of the first group of Yishkak and were confident that we were on the right trail. It looks like they had mostly followed game trails, but had cut through some denser brush occasionally to make course corrections. These areas were easily spotted, as they had just burned their way through with their plasma weapons.

Around noon on the fourth day, I decided we had gone far enough. Even though the march had gotten easier, we were both exhausted, and we probably smelled terrible. Sometime during day three, I became smell blind, but every so often, I would catch a whiff of myself, and it was rather unpleasant. The bugs were about a day away, and had pretty faithfully followed their predecessors’ trail. I found a wide spot in the trail that looked perfect, and set up four of the 5.5mm mines, and two of the 7.5mm mines, three mines on each side of the trail, with the heavier ones in the center. I used a single strand of monofilimant to set each side, running them across each other on our side of the trail. The idea was that the point bug would trip both lines, and the mines would be behind its position. I positioned them to try and cover the entirety of the enemy formation, the heavier 7.5mm mines aimed for the middle, where I thought the densest concentration of bugs would be. I then marked the position of each mine on the satellite view, and camouflaged everything with leaves and other brush. We turned around and headed back. About a hundred meters from the first set of mines, we used our entrenching tools to dig holes in the trail where we buried six more mines. After marking these on the map, we set out again. Shortly before we made camp, I identified another good ambush position and placed four 7.5mm mines, all on the same side of the trail. These all had their own trip lines that went across the trail. We marked their location, camouflaged them, and made camp another few hundred meters down the trail and off the side.