Wayward Galaxy 2 by Jason Anspach & J. N. Chaney

Author:Jason Anspach & J. N. Chaney [Anspach, Jason & Chaney, J. N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B08ZNSD5BP
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2021-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

An hour later Gruber had finished his autopsy, assisted by Alexa. The android led him to Bosa’s office, where he was conferring with Reach.

“What did you find, Dr. Gruber?” Bosa asked.

Gruber delivered a small plastic bag, some even smaller, bloodstained item zipped inside. “This. It is a neural implant, and it was inside the fildeema.”

“It would have been difficult to discover without knowing what to look for,” Alexa added. “It is quite small.”

Bosa held the bag up into the light to better see.

Reach stared as well. “Thin as a sheet of paper.”

“Thinner, actually,” Gruber said. “Captain Bosa, do you want to know what I believe has happened?”

Bosa nodded. “Let’s hear it.”

“I believe that the research facility in question was augmented by a military presence at some point and time. I believe they continued to work to weaponize the Bangora or to neutralize it and allow for additional RUPAC colonists to arrive on planet once it was safe to do so. But, as Mr. Reach informed me, the arrival of so many US Army Rangers out of the past provided a significant wrinkle.”

“We had RUPAC here to meet us, if you’ll recall,” said Bosa. “Though hardly of the same caliber as the second group that attacked.”

“Precisely. The encounter with the ragtag remnants of another group sent to Amir had the poor fortune of running into you. But they also provided a way of harassing you and your Osay allies while hiding themselves. They would have, of course, inspected the abandoned colony site and I’m sure monitored your comms array—theirs is a very similar model.”

Bosa and Reach shared a look.

“How similar?” Reach asked.

Gruber shrugged. “The RUPAC version of the same thing. Simply a matter of where its components were manufactured.”

“I’m hearing a lot of reasons to pay that camp a visit,” Bosa said. “Assuming you have a location.”

“A rumor of the location.”

“Same continent?”

“Your own big backyard, as it were.”

“We’ll need some time to consider this,” Bosa said.

“Of course,” answered Gruber. “You are a military man, and here, all of a sudden, I—a RUPAC scientist—turn myself in to you and have knowledge that sounds just as much like the settings of an ambush as it does a valuable piece of intel. But allow me to say this. You may not know where they are, but they certainly know where you are. The advanced RUPAC force you encountered—surely it was them. They took significant losses. You took their only way off planet that doesn’t involve calling for an additional, and extremely expensive, colony ship to come and retrieve them. Something that they would be just as likely punished for unless things have changed.

“Assume, like me, that they have not changed. What is left for those whom your magnificent android has failed to kill? They can report their failure and be executed because of it, or they can seek to unseat you as the dominant power on Amir.”

“Trying hasn’t gone well for them so far,” said Reach.

“Clearly not,” agreed Gruber. “But they will continue to try.

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