Minimum Safe Distance by X. Ho Yen

Author:X. Ho Yen [Ho Yen, X.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sci fi, hard sci fi, international, alien contact, psychological
Publisher: Grand Unification Monastery
Published: 2022-10-19T11:00:00+00:00

* * *

While Goose zenwalked the dungeon yet again, the data feed on his HUD kept blinking on-and-off indications from the acoustic sensors. When he would stop in his tracks, the periodic blinking mostly seemed to stop.

Nevertheless, being a professional, he called it in.

“Acknowledged,” Master Sergeant Butkiewicz said, never one to be verbose.

Just a few minutes later, Goose’s HUD informed him that a truck had been detected north of the base near the twenty-click fence and that 2nd Squad was being deployed to secure the area.

It had boarded the buggy, a low-profile light APC with reactive armor, a GMG/HMG turret, and six large, high-stroke, solid conic wheel assemblies, giving it all-terrain speed and improved survivability. They would reach a recon point in about twenty minutes.

Goose kept zenwalking his dungeon. The acoustic sensor warning indicator continued to toggle. He quietly performed a head-to-toe gear check, because he was a professional.

At twenty-two minutes, 2nd Squad reported in position. Several armed people in camouflage guarded the truck, but they were not on alert and just appeared to be casually scanning the horizon.

LT ordered 2nd Squad to hold and observe.

A short while later the acoustic sensor warning indicator in Goose’s feed came on and stayed on. Goose heard a brief scraping, cracking sound in one of the storage chambers.

Silently coming to full combat readiness, setting his isohelmet goggles to superspectral mode and all sensors recording, he slowly projected the periscope mirror at the end of his rifle beyond the threshold of the door and scanned the room. Something was definitely amiss. Subtle changes in the light in the room suggested there was movement, but he could see no obvious threat, no operatives in stealth suits, no infiltratorbots.

Goose shifted and swept his aim point across the room until he’d fully checked right, top, rear, and left.

Then he saw it, toward the back of the chamber.

There was a three-centimeter hole in the floor and something in or under the hole was silently vibrating, almost too rapidly to notice. Dust occasionally puffed out of the hole. But even more astonishingly, two tentacles extended into the room from the hole. One of them seemed to be curled up into a tight roll, just holding its position not far out of the hole. The other was fully extended and stroking one of the keg-like “poo” containers, feeling its edges.

This is not good, Goose thought.

He called it in:

“Watch, Goose. Alerted by acoustic sensors to penetration of chamber Bravo Zero Six by two long tentacles.”

Master Sergeant indicated backup was en route. They’d be sending the rest of 1st Squad, with 3rd Squad guarding the rest of the base.

He slowly backed out of the doorway and shifted out of view, keeping his periscope close to the threshold so he could see if anything started approaching his doorway.

He evaluated the tactical situation.

Whatever those tentacles are, they seem to have dug their way from kilometers outside the base to right here. They either knew the layout of the base ahead of time or they were able to figure it out in real-time.

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