Sigma 16 - Chapter 73 – Cooperation (Patreon)

Sigma 16 Book Two - The Ferroin Gate

Talia faces new challenges and unexpected alliances as she fights to escape from the planet she crash landed on, Sigma 16.

Struggling to expand her fledgling industrial base, she must navigate a delicate balance between resource exploitation and the planet’s increasingly restless native lifeforms. An unlikely alliance offers her the edge she needs, but at what cost?

As Talia ventures closer to her crashed starship—a key to her escape—she finds that her growing operations on the planet are not the only thing to have evolved. Armed with new technology and mounting a more organized resistance, her enemies are more dangerous than ever.

As a final confrontation looms, Talia must decide whether to risk everything in a desperate assault that will put her ingenuity and alliances to the ultimate test.

Will Talia unlock the secrets of Sigma 16 and secure her escape, or will she be ensnared in a cosmic game far larger than she ever imagined?

Chapter 73 – Cooperation

The Pegasus APC kicked up a storm of dust and sand as it moved down the packed desert road. Talia pulled up the vehicle’s roof mounted exterior camera and checked on her passengers. Dusky was still positioned near the front, raising two spider legs up into the air, enjoying the fast pace of the vehicle.

Hot Pink was holding onto the back, covering the rear hatch letting out a constant stream of hostile chirps, the loose translation meaning “I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.” Dapple had her legs curled up and was nestled up against a ridge on the vehicle’s roof, sound asleep.

In other words, everything was going normally.

The view in front of the vehicle gradually changed from endless stretches of shifting dunes to the thick rocky outcrops that marked the edge of the desert and transition towards the terrain around Sigma 16’s enigmatic jungle. The packed earth rose in grade and they rose several hundred meters over the last few kilometers before breaking through the low point between two higher hills.

The other side contained more of the same beige rock and sand, but it was unnaturally flat at the base of the hills, before a sharp line of green foliage cut a long line to the north and south as far as the eye could see. As the Pegasus rode the incline down the other side, they turned and made their way around a small ridge to her waiting supply depot.

A few CRD-X9s waited in a short line beside a small structure with a large antenna and comms array. A few LIRU stood watch while a single MIRU carried over a spare fusion cell from a small building that contained replenishment supplies. Three large piles of resource blanks contained tens of thousands of resource units split between refined silicates, high conductive material, and rare alloys.

All the polished ingots glinted in the bright desert sun, waiting for dedicated haulers pulling large resource trailers to arrive and collect them up. She’d set the process up to streamline her base’s resource acquisition a day earlier and Neo had happily confirmed it had increased efficiency by nearly thirty percent.

As the APC pulled to a stop, a half dozen spiders popped out of hiding from the nearby rocks and skittered towards them. Dusky went over to jab Dapple awake, while Hot Pink disembarked immediately, wobbling around and acting like she’d been maimed.

A small smile appeared on Talia’s face, and she triggered the rear hatch to open and made her way out. Hot Pink had taken to rolling about on her back while groaning, making a huge show of it. Shaking her head, Talia pulled out a small HEM cube and tossed it nearby, instantly curing the spider.

“I should rename you to drama queen.” Talia mumbled, but she couldn’t hide her grin. The spider gobbled down her snack and fell in behind her as they headed to meet the other spiders. Dapple and Dusky joined them and the two different groups formed a rough line.

Talia looked to Dusky. “Can you ask them if the deal is still good?”

Dusky turned to the tribal spider’s leader, a big gray with black dots. “Take-Maker-Home-Nest-Good?”

The tribal spiders looked at each other, then the leader replied. “Maker-Snack-Take-Yes!”

Talia nodded and waved for one of the LIRU to join them. It carried a small box. All the spiders regarded it eagerly. The infantry robot handed her the box and when she opened it and displayed the contents, all the spiders began to chirp excitedly. She stepped forward, then set it on the ground halfway between them and stepped back.

The leader of the group began to distribute the HEM cubes. The spiders were bouncing with energy once they had their shares and the black dotted gray turned toward her and raised its legs. “Maker-Home-Nest-Group-Go!”

“Great! Let’s pack it up, Neo.”

[Affirmative: Convoy units are prepared for expedition and awaiting User orders.]

Talia pointed to the Pegasus and Dusky and Dapple chirped and headed to jump back on the roof. Hot Pink let out a low grumble and hopped back and forth on her feet.

“You can go with the other spiders if you want,” Talia offered.

Hot Pink chirped happily and then ran to join the tribal spiders who greeted her into their group, all of them patting her down with their legs. Talia shook her head and was just happy that the spiders didn’t repeat that gesture with her.

By the time she got back into her seat, the spiders had already begun to skitter toward the jungle. Neo shifted the vehicle into gear, and Talia could feel the smooth hum of the vehicle’s engines come to life.

The parked CRD-X9s rumbled to life as well and formed a single file line behind her. The spiders were faster than the convoy could manage, which didn’t really surprise her, considering how much they were capable of.

The group stopped at the edge of the jungle and waited for her to catch up. As soon as the Pegasus came to a stop, the spiders began to chant and chirp while doing a little rotating dance. It was hard not to giggle at the sight of a half dozen alien spiders doing what she wanted to call a rain dance.

A minute later, the vegetation began to pull back, slowly at first and then with increasing speed. The spiders kept up their song until the tunnel opening was large enough for her vehicles to fit. She muted the EM sensor, which was beeping like crazy, but noted that Neo was dutifully recording the entire interaction. She still hoped that they’d be able to find a way to ask the jungle to let them in ‘nicely’ instead of burning their way through whenever the spiders weren’t available as an escort.

A few spiders went through first before she followed them. Even Dusky and Dapple sang while riding on the roof. The more spiders, the larger the opening they could make, which explained why they hadn’t offered to open a portal for her before: they needed at least six for the vehicles. Otherwise, they could only make a smaller tunnel large enough for themselves.

The other side of the tunnel was a flattened area she had built for parking. The jungle was already working to slowly try and reclaim it, but she had built a thick Durasteel foundation which resisted infiltration. That didn’t stop vines and other things from trying to grow overtop of it, but it saw enough use and periodic clearing that wasn’t a major concern.

As soon as the entire group was through, the tribal spiders spread out and moved deeper into the enclosed jungle ecosystem. Humidity sensors reported increased water vapor in the air, and a much cooler temperature than outside the barrier the jungle’s canopy and perimeter flora created.

It was like stepping into an entirely new world.

Her vehicle’s external lights dimmed slightly to avoid attracting the dozens of glowing bugs the filled the air, but the spider’s chirping song acted as a natural repellant to those too. When she’d first explored the jungle, one of the bugs had demonstrated they were full of a potent acid, so that was more than ideal. Neo had developed their own protocol for keeping the bugs away, but it was much more…invasive.

They pushed forward as a group towards the cave where she had first met the spiders. First when she had recovered her survival fabricator, and again when she had encountered the entire tribe outside and picked up Dusky and Dapple.

A feeling of expectation filled her. She had managed to get the big red spider to meet with her again and agree to an exchange. Her CRD-X9s had been harvesting the jungle’s giant trees as carefully as possible so as not to disturb the eco-system, but that was becoming much harder as the travel distances to the untouched forest increased.

Neo had discovered a dense deposit underground, full of valuable rare alloys, but it was close enough to the spider nest that she hadn’t wanted to just begin mining it without permission.

The external camera highlighted the bioluminescent environment on the vehicle’s main screen. A giant spider face suddenly appeared, causing her to nearly jump. Dapple chirped at the device, then curled up on top of it and started to go back to sleep. Talia punched the intercom button.

“Not on the camera, Dapple!”

The spider opened its eyes and chirped back and moved a little further back, and went to sleep.

Talia shook her head and settled back into her seat. Hot Pink waved a leg at them, encouraging the vehicles to move faster, but Neo was already driving the vehicles as fast as they could through the challenging terrain. Small streams dotted the area, water welling up from underground springs and flowing toward the massive rivers in the jungle's heart that she had yet to see for herself.

Predators in the jungle tended to avoid her vehicles entirely, but the spider escort meant it was pretty much safe and from what they had explained to her the small worms only interacted on the jungle’s periphery, and the giant ones remained in the deep desert when they were rarely seen.

When they arrived at the area outside the cave, there were more spiders already waiting for them. The convoy of vehicles rolled to a stop, and Talia disembarked again.

The first CRD-X9 in line moved up and followed them to the same spot she remembered encountering the spider tribe for the first time. Dusky and Dapple joined her, and Hot Pink came out of the nest chirping just ahead of the giant red spider.

It towered over all the other spiders, her, and even her vehicles. It was hard not to fidget and all her instincts were telling her to run away, but she stood her ground, rubbing Dapple’s side gently. The other spiders all chirped their greetings.

Big Red halted and then sat down and peered at her. “Maker-Trade-Dig-Snack?”

Talia cleared her throat and dialed her suit speaker slightly higher. “Snack-Give-Dig-Yes?”

Big Red leaned a little closer, then repeated the words, “Snack-Give-Dig-Yes.”

“Neo, drop the HEM, please,” Talia instructed.

The CRD-X9 hummed and then ejected its contents, a stream of HEM blocks falling from its mining attachment. All the nearby spiders that had been chirping suddenly stilled and went silent. Dusky immediately began to chirp in what Talia recognized was a laugh.

Talia glanced between the spider and the others. Was she laughing at the other spider’s reaction?

The mining drone had been filled to the brim, and it took a few minutes for it to divest itself of the 10,000 HEM units. The little blue hexagons seemed to glow under the jungle’s luminescence and a few spiders approached, mesmerized by the sight. It took a few growls from Big Red to keep them at bay.

When it finally finished, Talia cleared her throat. “Snack-Big-Enough-Dig-Yes?”

Big Red stood up slowly, then went to the pile and leaned down and took a bite of the stuff, somehow taking a single unit despite being so large. The spider seemed accepting as it turned toward her. “Snack-Big-Enough-Yes.”

The other tribal spiders creeped a little closer, causing Big Red to roar. “Snack-Eat-No! Carry-Snack-Nest-Now!”

The tribal spiders quickly went to work and Big Red gave her a parting message, “Tch’Llik’yzz’Lrr-Thank-Maker.” It then turned and headed back into the cave. The female workers made little bags with their silk, then began to carry the HEM down to the nest.

It all felt a little… anti-climatic to her. Talia looked at the three spiders who weren’t joining in on the parade. “Uhm. That’s it? We are good to go?”

Dusky did a little dance. “Maker-Trade-Dig-Go-Good!”

Dapple nodded, tilting her entire body forward and backward to do so. “Dig-Dig-Maker-Metal!”

Hot Pink didn’t seem interested in saying anything. Instead, she eyed the CRD-X9 with apprehension. Talia could already guess what the spider was thinking.

“You don’t have to ride if you don’t want to while we are in the jungle.” Talia informed her. The spider seemed instantly relieved and began to bounce on her legs before spinning and heading out towards the area. Talia blinked and felt a bit of surprise.

She’d shown the spiders where the site was on the map, but they’d never actually been there. That the spider knew which direction to go was more proof of how smart they were. Heck, she wasn’t sure if she’d know which way to go without consulting her map and compass.

As Talia re-entered her command vehicle and slid into her seat, a new map popped up, showing a 3D representation of the ground underneath the vehicle. Her brows furrowed. She hadn’t pulled it up. “Neo?”

The map spun and then a massive series of tunnels were displayed, going deep under the earth.

[Informative: Advanced sensor data has been correlated with known data on native fauna species. HEM emissions likely pinpoint nest’s storage locations and maximum extent.]

“So you managed to fine-tune the sensors on the spiders now?” Talia asked. They had determined a few days earlier that all the spiders gave off faint emissions of the same type that the HEM deposits did, likely because they used it as a food source. Interestingly, their Blue prisoner had the same low grade emission, although much smaller.

[Affirmative: Emissions likely present positive locations for native fauna of multiple species.]

The map lit up with hundreds of blue dots, most of them moving. She realized that most of them were spiders. Dusky, Dapple, and Hot Pink and the other spiders on the surface were shining, and several bigger dots in the nest probably indicated the male spiders. The map only went so deep, and she realized she had seriously underestimated the size of the colony.

It spread out horizontally as well. “Neo, we’ll need to be careful when digging the mine not to break into the nest or any other natural caves down there.”

[Notice: Adjustments to preliminary mine protocols will be made once onsite.]

Talia nodded and pressed her comms button and informed the spiders it was time to go. Hot Pink led the way while Dusky and Dapple waved to the tribal spiders, who were still intent on collecting the giant pile of HEM.

It took nearly an hour to traverse to the mining site. The path wasn’t as well mapped, and they had to navigate around several streams and broken areas where tree roots had made the path too uneven. That wasn’t a problem for Hot Pink, but it was for the tracked vehicles, and especially her APC.

When they finally arrived, a half dozen dormant CRD-X9s stood waiting patiently, a round area cleared and already flattened in as large a space as was possible between the massive trunks of the jungle trees.

A beep from one of the monitors drew her attention to an updated mining map. Talia sighed in relief. The rare alloy deposit wasn’t connected to the spider nest or any other natural caves, so it was mostly just a matter of tunneling down deep enough to reach it.

It was deep, several kilometers, and a long spiraling course would be required to reach it.

The glow bugs had avoided them so far, but she did a double check on the area before commencing the operation. The spiders stuck close to her APC, having an appreciation for how dangerous the mining lasers could be if they got too close.

Once progress on the tunnel confirmed its viability, she turned her attention to the operation’s above-ground needs. “Neo, let’s start on that path back to the exit-site.”

That wasn’t going to take as long as digging down to the resource deposit, but it was a lot more technical and benefited a little from a human touch. It was going to take a lot more time that the trip to the village to grade the path to a level that would allow the mining vehicles an easy transit.

It was going to be even more complicated avoiding damaging tree roots while keeping the native flora from reclaiming it, even if the growth rate inside the jungle was a lot more sedate than the edges.

It was going to be a long day, but good day, though. As long as she got the rare alloy she needed.