THE OUTLAND

2

The Interworld Conquista is an association of worlds of a medium-low level of development under the leadership of the church of the great Xolotl, which the Far Search encountered in its very first Breakouts. In the event of a collision, it is recommended to maintain a distance without entering into fire contact. Despite their technological backwardness, the Conquista fighters showed extremely high efficiency in trapping, searching for and destroying Long-Range Search operatives.

From the Charter of the Far Search.

There are more, there have always been more. Oh, my head ... How do they manage to constantly figure us out? They are bare-assed savages, howling against us with our own weapons! How? Mystery.

Mixed in with the hangover feeling was a vaguely familiar sensation that I would have been hard pressed to pinpoint. Everything ached - my head, my eyes, my teeth... Having searched a bit in my memory, I revived a very similar feeling that happens once a year, when operatives are given a comprehensive vaccination against everything at once. They say that in addition to weakened microbes, a whole bunch of weak narcotic drugs are mixed there - so that we can fight them if something happens.

Residual effect of the contents of the dart?

- … Glad? We are now in the wrong place! It's Faye's voice.

“Better that than being caught by this… this…” Frost spat.

I lay with my eyes closed, not preventing my squad from swearing. Let off steam, come to your senses is also useful. The main thing is not to start again to find out which of them is stronger in hand-to-hand combat. At the base, it’s clear - there is a first-aid post, dislocations and fractures of limbs will heal quickly. And here what to do in case of what?

Perhaps we are still too young and unprepared to roam other worlds. In the end, the Search went into its third decade, and Fey and Froze still caught the moment when we were returned to the base with a spatial lasso after a clearly allotted time, while the installation did not care where you are. Some of ours even managed to get out of the captivity of the Conquista. So on the one hand it was even good. On the other hand, the independence of the detachments suffered greatly from this.

But progress does not stand still. First came the portable arc piercer, then the "last chance" button. So far, only a prototype has not been put into general use. And we, therefore, experience it.

- Fei, you're bleeding. On the chest.

- What? Ah, nonsense.

Voices sounded muffled, somehow strange. As if through cotton wool. When I opened my eyes, I understood why. Fog.

And the damp earth, the cold of which was felt even through the armored suit. So we...

- It's not nonsense. You never know what kind of rubbish can be found here. Let me treat the wound.

“No need, it’s all over.

“Fool, we are in a swamp!” Nothing lives here!

In the swamp. Amazing. It is still unknown what is worse - to fall into the hands of the Conquest or to linger here.

“Take care of your wounds, Frost, and leave mine to me.

- Well, I do not. When you become a squad medic, then you will perform, but for now, cover your mouth and let me do my job.

“Froz, don’t…” Did it seem, or was there something strange in Faye’s voice? - Everything is fine.

- Everything will be all right when I ... Oh you!

There was a crunch, the noise of a struggle and the sound of a slap in the face.

Well, they don't seem to agree. Overcoming the pain and nausea, I sat up and opened my eyes with the words:

Have you decided to kill each other again?

Decided. In any case, the huge hand around Fei's neck ruled out other interpretations.

"Froz, what are you doing, stop it!"

I got up and went to separate the operatives.

We're all in the same boat, stop it!

It was terrible to look at Froze - his face turned purple, the veins on his forehead swelled, it seemed that just a little more, and he would simply break the fragile Fey in half.

"Stop what, Commander?" He pulled his gaze away from Fey's eyes and turned to me. - Yes, I'm this nit ...

- Yes, that's it. I took my service nine-millimeter out of my holster and aimed at a couple. - Either you stop your kindergarten, or get a bullet in the knee. Each. And at the base they will patch us up.

“They'll patch us up in the morgue. Frost reluctantly let go of his partner's neck and took a step back.

— Why all the fuss?

"Don't you want to tell him?" The operative muttered grimly.

— Tell what?

“Commander, no offense. Who pressed elche?

- Well, I.

“Then we are finished.

- What? Why?

“Have you ever seen how an elche works?”

- Not. Fey is in charge of the trial.

- Yes? Didn't it seem strange to you then that we study the arc piercer thoroughly, but we only know about the elche that this is a means of last chance?

- Let us suppose. What's up with Faye?

- You said it yourself. Frost snorted. She is responsible for the test! She has all the technique of moving!

- That's right, according to the instructions. AND?

- Look.

He threw me some kind of plastic cube with a button on the end.

- What is it?

— The same Elche. Turn over.

I obediently did as Fros asked and with difficulty kept a strong word. Should have figured it out right now! Runic inscriptions, a crooked needle and a blood collector. Technology Conquista.

Okay, feel sorry for yourself is not the time, I'll have time yet. If I survive this operation.

How fast can they spot us?

- Already caught. But they still need to get to the swamps. Fay replied.

Dark rituals, obligatory sacrifices, sorcery.

I looked into Fey's eyes demandingly.

"So that's how they find us so quickly." Who is aware of the base?

- The entire transportation department.

- And you were silent? Yes I…

- What could I do? Faye yelled out of nowhere. - They just gave me this nonsense and told me to wear a button from the body! If I want Lucky's sacrifice not to be in vain, if I want revenge, then this is a chance!

“You didn’t take revenge, you brought a detachment of the Conquista on us. Frost growled again.

- Yes, open your eyes! Elche has been running since the death of the captain! Conquista already knows everything he wants to know, including the coordinates of our house!

- Stop. “I hurried to intervene in their dismantling before it came to hand-to-hand combat again. “You don’t want to say that in that raid where I replaced you…”

— First prototype test. Elche was with Hyde.

I groaned and squeezed my head in my hands. Have we got a traitor? How? Why? We all know very well that...

They do not return alive from the Conquista. The lasso-drawn operatives were such a sight that even seasoned surgeons were nauseated.

The conquest only needs information, and their masters of shoulder cases are capable of destroying a person's identity in a matter of hours.

We know that…

- ... that Conquista is not afraid to leave her people on the battlefield, even without weapons, equipment - almost naked! Because every Conquista fighter knows a simple ritual that allows him to return home.

That year, the school was buzzing, and the news showed a smiling Hyde, for the first time in history, dragging a "tongue" to an intermediate base deep underground in a deaf concrete pencil case. Ours used a couple of cocktails on it and asked everything they knew, and the next morning the cell turned out to be empty - the prisoner, pumped up with chemistry to the very eyebrows, managed to cut himself on the sharp edge of the bed, and did everything else with chained limbs.

And we dubbed it. I said slowly. “Not caring that perhaps this ritual might reverberate.

I said it just like that, "for a fool", but it turned out ... Damn, it's me, I'm the biggest fool! Would they pay me if I could just say something? I won't get used to it in six months!

Our own "magic", the work of intuition, unconscious search and comparison. My intuition told me the most obvious facts. If the space between the worlds is like water, then we wade through it with effort and master it only in small detachments, when the Conquista simply grew fins. And ears to hear flopping even for several kilometers. Conquista adapted to the worlds, and we tried to adapt them to ourselves. It is not difficult to guess who will emerge victorious in such a situation. All this mystical nonsense, rituals, magic - and in the end, intuition claims that Conquista would be smart enough to do something similar with us!

True, it was not entirely clear why, in the Search with so many intuitives, I alone reached such a simple thing? Am I a genius? Or is it because the others are just... Keep quiet?

“Lucky Hyde volunteered to test the prototype. she argued desperately. You were just unlucky to be there. You were unlucky.

- Fei, you're stupid. Frost said.

“But we have really advanced since then!” They began to get captured less, it was easier to get away from the chase.

- Yes, if not for Rob, the chase would not have happened! the medic yelled, clenching and unclenching his huge fists. - We would be tied up right at the place of the Breakdown warm!

- They didn't tie it up.

“Fey, let me remind you that Conquista learned how to block arc piercers with an inert gas—when?” Not in the last six months? Become invisible on thermal radars and heartbeat sensors, even shoot at the only weak spot of the suit! Can you guess for yourself or hint how unwashed savages came up with solutions where their science has not yet matured in principle?