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    Zero 4.0: Mech. Chronicles, #4
    Zero 4.0: Mech. Chronicles, #4
    Zero 4.0: Mech. Chronicles, #4
    Ebook201 pages3 hours

    Zero 4.0: Mech. Chronicles, #4

    By Adam Moon

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    About this ebook

    The red cloaked extragalactic aliens are poised to strike and the mechs have little time to prepare for them. The new colony on planet Harbon is thriving but the Reds can end that prosperity in seconds if the mechs can't stop them.

    The mechs decide that waiting is no longer an option and give chase, but they may not like what they find.

    Meanwhile, the Reds work tirelessly to reverse engineer a captured mech to create an army of their own. Once complete, they'll drop most of them off on Earth to eradicate the pesky humans and drop the remainder off on Harbon to destroy the upstart colony.

    Zero and his handful of friends must go landside to take on those larger mechs, leaving their ship virtually defenseless against attack.

    Can Zero survive the greatest threat the mechs have ever faced?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAdam Moon
    Release dateApr 16, 2015
    ISBN9781513068367
    Zero 4.0: Mech. Chronicles, #4
    Author

    Adam Moon

    Adam Moon was born in California, grew up in Scotland, and currently lives in Wisconsin with his wife and two young sons. His oldest son wants to grow up to be the first American President who is a space-ninja sniper-robot from the future. His youngest son likes to punch things and say bad words. His long suffering wife just wants some peace and quiet for a change. Adam writes science fiction and horror. You can visit his website at: www.moonwrites.com

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      Book preview

      Zero 4.0 - Adam Moon

      Prologue

      It had been several Earth months since the last time the mechs had seen the Reds. They remained parked in Harbon’s orbit, ready for a Red ambush.

      Harbon was like a magnified Petri dish with four distinct types of aliens calling it home. The earthlings had been grown there as an experiment, but when that experiment expired, they’d learned to adapt on their own. The Beetars, once the blight of the galaxy, were trying their best to coexist with the Dosians and the Cogmores. The Cogmores didn’t make it easy, but luckily two mechs were policing the inhabitants of the planet. The rest of the mechs circled in orbit in a Destroyer class warship, waiting and preparing for the Reds to return.

      The Reds were the first extragalactic species to arrive in the Milky Way galaxy, and they were not friendly. They were a species who worried that a jump drive could be used against them. The Destroyer had jump capabilities but even though the mechs had no intention of using it to find and destroy the Reds, the Reds maintained that they were an ever-present threat that must be eliminated.

      There were five mechs on the Destroyer. Zero was the leader and Commander. Eve was the nav. officer and the meanest bitch within a thousand light years. Jackson was the bloodthirsty one with a quick temper, Ace was the most able of all the mechs and a hell of a good shot, and Gloria was the new addition. She spent most of her time in silence, pining for Steven, the mech they’d lost to deep space during battle. She didn’t talk about it, but they all knew.

      The remaining mechs, Volts and Old Man River, had been landside for months setting up land based defenses. If the Reds came back, like they knew they would, they’d be as ready for them as was physically possible.

      Planet Earth had waged a war of sorts against the mechs but a single decisive victory coupled with a healthy scare put the Earthlings in their place. Zero sent them their dead after the battle was over to let them see the folly of attacking mechs. They hadn’t heard from Earth since then. What made the conflict so odd was that technically the mechs were human too, at least their consciousnesses were.

      River was the robotic version of Doctor Henshaw, a man hell-bent on exacting his revenge against those who’d wronged him. The mechs had killed the human version and rehabilitated his mech counterpart. That was good for everyone because River was a damn genius.

      They’d procured something called a jump tracer from a ship that had originated from Earth and attacked them. Not surprisingly, the jump tracer had been the brainchild of Henshaw’s so it only made sense for them to have his mech counterpart, River, work on getting it back into working order.

      Old Man River 

      River hailed the Destroyer. I got that jump tracer to work. It’s really quite ingenious. It reads jump signatures and strengths and then it extrapolates data. It can basically tell you where a ship jumped to or from, as long as you place it within the jump trail. If you jumped the Destroyer away right now, I could take a shuttle into space, float the jump tracer out to where you used to be and then be able to tell exactly where you went.

      Zero thrummed his metal fingers on the side of his chair. That’s great. Now we can find out where the Reds ran off to. To Eve, he asked, Do you remember the last place we saw the Reds?

      No, but the ship’s computer does.

      To River, he said, Ask the Beetars to help you configure it to work with the Destroyer. The Beetars had designed the Destroyer. If anyone could help River retrofit the jump tracer to the ship, they could.

      River’s response brought a smile to Zero’s face. I already have. It’s ready whenever you want it.

      Send Volts up with it.

      Are you worried that the Reds might return here the moment you leave? You should be. I know I am.

      I can’t just do nothing, man. We stand a better chance against them if we catch them by surprise. Anyway, if we have to fight them, wouldn’t you prefer we do it far away from here?

      I agree, but like I said, if they show up just as you vanish, Harbon will be at their mercy.

      It’s a risk, but it’s one I’m willing to take.

      Alright. I just sent Volts off to get a shuttle to bring it up to you guys. Give them hell.

      We plan on it.

      Eve was busy hand grinding rust from the bottom of her feet. They’d voided the atmosphere the moment they offloaded the last biological passenger but the damage had already been done; they’d all started to rust out. Brown dust piled on the floor beneath her. She brushed the excess away with a wire brush and then sprayed a clear-coat to seal out oxygen. Then she handed the tools over to Jackson.

      He said, "I’m so sick of body maintenance. If River was here he could probably fit us all out with rustproof armor and even give us a few upgrades.

      She slapped him on the back of the head. For a monstrous attack robot from space you sure are a crybaby.

      We’re about to chase down the Reds. Forgive me if I wish we had better equipment.

      Zero smiled. It was funny that Jackson considered his own body to be equipment. But it was factually correct. They weren’t alive in any conventional sense. Their life-spark came from a built-in battery. But, to a man, they had come to terms with their version of existence. They all missed a few things that their biology had once brought them, like sexual urges and sneezing and food, but their biological bodies had died off a long time ago. In exchange for immortality, it was a fair trade. Any way, biology supplied urges that had to be met. Without those urges, the mechs felt freer than they ever had as human beings.

      When Ace said, Volts’ shuttle just docked, they all jumped up and ran to the docks to greet him.

      Volts was breathless which was weird since he didn’t need to breathe, but old habits die hard, even hundred year old habits.

      He carried the jump tracer in both arms like it might explode at any moment. This thing isn’t Beetar built. It’s kind of delicate.

      Ace snatched it from him and chucked it on the ground at her feet. Then she wrapped him up in a metal-rending hug. He couldn’t help but smile.

      Eve picked the tracer up and asked, Where does this get installed?

      The Beetars said the best place to put it is on the front of the ship. I have the wiring schematics in the shuttle whenever you’re ready to get to work.

      Zero said, Now is as good a time as ever. Do you want to help me or are you too soft from your time on Harbon?

      I’m tougher than you could ever hope to be. He smirked like a sly child before pulling a sword out of a sheathe strapped to his back. It was eight feet long and six inches wide, with elaborate alien markings up and down the blade. He twirled it around with that same dopey grin on his face.

      All of the mechs rolled their eyes and Ace shoved him in the chest. I can’t believe you made another one.

      I asked the Dosians to make it for me. They’re funny people. They love to make weapons but they’re a bunch of stinking cowards. It’s a strange dichotomy.

      You’re the strange one.

      Volts swooshed the sword through the air deftly and then sheathed it before they got sick of his antics and decided to throw his ass off of the ship.

      Eve handed the tracer to Zero and asked Volts for the schematics. Jackson and Eve poured over them right there and said, This is going to be pretty easy. We’ll walk you through it once you get into position out there.

      The dock opened and Zero shoved Volts out into space. Volts’ boosters came alive and he swooped in and careened into Zero’s chest like a cannon ball, knocking the jump tracer from his hands. Zero doubled over which gave Volts the time he needed to throw Zero off of the ship. He pulled his sword out with a flourish and made to follow after Zero when Eve yelled at them both. Knock that shit off. Your system fluids will freeze if you keep goofing around.

      Zero’s boosters lit up but he refrained from a counterattack. Volts put the sword away and jumped ship.

      Ace chucked the tracer at him and they got to work. The quicker they got it installed, the sooner they could go looking for the Reds.

      Mech Steven

      Steven was dizzy. He’d been strapped to an operating table of some sort as the Reds reverse engineered him.

      They’d picked him up a few months back after he’d lost control and floated off into deep space. At first he was glad they grabbed him because he was certain they’d kill him, which was preferable to drifting in space, all alone, for eternity. But that didn’t happen. His fate was worse and far more complicated.

      Several times they asked him questions. They were clearly perplexed by the fact that a living consciousness was running the mech. Steven wished he had the answers they needed but he was as clueless as they were; he, along with all the others, had been duped by the Beetars into piloting their mechs. He barely knew how his own body worked. If he did, he’d tell them everything in the hope that they’d finally be done with him and put him out of his misery. But at the rate they were going, he’d be their lab rat for a long time.

      A few times he thought he saw beneath their shrouds but it was always fleeting and he could never be sure he trusted his eyes.

      Something he’d only just noticed a month ago was that cables ran out from under the red cloaks they wore. The cables seemed to be alive, like tentacles. Each Red had around twenty of them. They glinted like they were made of metal but they pulsated like they were alive. Those cables had a mind of their own too. They flicked around spastically across the walls and along the floor until they found one of many port holes that dotted the room. Once they found purchase within a port hole, they’d go still, until the Red cloaked alien moved far enough away to pull it free at which point it would thrash around wildly again until it found a different hole to slip into.

      He wondered what would happen if the cables were removed from their ports. Would the alien they belonged to die? Or maybe the cables connected the alien to the ship so that there was a two way transfer of information. Thinking about it too long hurt his head, but he’d love to test his hypothesis just to see what would happen. With a bit of luck, the victim would become so enraged that it would squash him like a bug.

      The Reds were big enough to do just that. He used to think mechs were big bastards but the Reds towered over him by several feet and they looked to be twice as wide. Despite their immense size, their movements were unnaturally graceful. There was something subtly sinister in their fluid movements, though, like they were ready to pounce at any moment.

      He’d often heard the clichéd line from movies and books, usually iterated by the villain that, ‘By the time I’m done with you, you’ll beg for death’ and now he knew what that felt like.

      The Reds weren’t torturing him, per se, but it was abundantly clear that he had no future worth contemplating. If he was to be executed at the end of this, then he’d as soon just get on with it. Of course, he wasn’t that lucky.

      Preparing for Departure

      As soon as they were done installing the jump tracer on the front of the ship, Zero and Volts came back to the Destroyer, and just in time because Volts’ systems had started to freeze.

      Zero helped him back to the hub.

      Eve explained to them, The Reds jumped in and away from the same position so I won’t know which jump signature to follow. We’ll either be following the arrival jump or the departure jump.

      Zero scratched his head. It was an old useless habit but it conveyed his point: he had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

      Jackson rephrased it for him. We’ll have two choices. It will be a fifty-fifty chance that we choose the signature that will lead us to them. If we pick the wrong signature, we’ll end up jumping to where they jumped from to get here.

      Ace said, Let’s give it a shot. My main concern is that the signature will be too faint by now to detect.

      Volts slumped in Zero’s captain’s chair and said, I told River I thought too much time had passed for it to work. I told him the signature would have dissipated by now. He called me an idiot and said it would take him an eternity to explain how it works so I should just shut the hell up and trust him.

      The mechs laughed at that. The more they got used to River the more they liked him.

      But there was a nagging doubt that they’d discussed at length. Could River be trusted? He was a copy of Doctor Henshaw’s twisted mind and Henshaw had gone to great lengths to try and eradicate them. But River had been copied before Henshaw had learned to despise the mechs. In this instance they had no choice but to trust him. If they didn’t make the first move against the Reds, their fate was sealed; the Reds would converge on them and wipe them out easily.

      Volts said, I want to come along on this one, if that’s okay.

      Who’s going to keep an eye on River? I like the guy but we don’t know him well enough to trust him alone with the Harbons.

      Gloria volunteered. I’ll go. I kind of miss him. It’ll be good to see what he’s been up to.

      Zero glanced at Ace and she shot Jackson a concerned look. Gloria was new to them too, and she had a history with River.

      Ace lied. It’s my turn to go landside. I’m sorry, Gloria, I’m going to have to pull rank on you.

      You don’t outrank me. None of us has a rank.

      Well then, let’s call it seniority.

      Volts said, If this is a big deal, then forget it. I’ll go back.

      Gloria sighed. "No. I get it. None of you know me well enough to trust that I would stop River if he went nuts. It makes sense, I guess. When we get back, it’s my turn to go down there,

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