The Exoskeleton Chronicles Part 3: Terraform

By Chad Descoteaux

Amidst talks of brewing nuclear war from the terrorist leader who used to date his wife, Wally Crimson wonders why a future version of himself travelled back in time to save him. Why did Future Wally ask Dr. Andrew Boon for help instead of himself? What is the endgame of Null Tech executive turned U.S. President Diane Burgess? What is the connection between the President and the hybrid insect girl Wally's son just befriended? And why does Jeremy always get roped up in these kinds of things when he's just trying to pop his anxiety meds and relax?
The thrilling final chapter to The Exoskeleton Chronicles trilogy, this is where all the bug-squashing action and adventure come to a head.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chad Descoteaux
• Release date: Mar 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005398781

Chad Descoteaux

I am a self-published, mildly autistic science fiction author who combines quirky sci-fi elements with issues that we can all relate to. Check out my official website www.turtlerocketbooks.com

Book preview

THE

EXOSKELETON

CHRONICLES

part 3: TERRAFORM

by Chad Descoteaux

Copyright 2020 Turtle Rocket Books

Cover art by Joe Dickinson

All characters in this book are either fictional or used fictitiously.

The author came up with the vaccine-related ideas in this book BEFORE the COVID-19 pandemic started. That’s the best trigger warning we can give without spoiling anything. But if you are reading this in a universe/timeline/planet where coronavirus is still a thing, WEAR YOUR MASK, listen to scientists and STAY SAFE!

Check out the first two books in this series and MUCH more sci-fi at…

turtlerocketbooks.com

Excerpt from Old Wally’s memoir. Scribble draft.

Gawking upwards at a mushroom cloud, fire pouring from the smoking hole where the Coral Reef Motel used to be, filled my mind with powerful, jarring flashbacks. Flashbacks of the day Mali died in that blast, flashbacks that would soon fade away when the timeline realigned, like a gel, around the act of heroism my son and I just performed.

Mali was standing about eight feet away from me, alive and well, hugging, sobbing and kissing my younger self, the one I pulled out of the motel before it was nuked. My son Keith, code named Dragonfly, was there as well, a skilled soldier and my partner in time travel. I remember the first time this happened, the day my heart got nuked too. I am delighted at the prospect of forgetting that horrible day for good. Not just forgetting it and pretending it didn’t happen. As of right now, it did not happen! In my experience, the space-time continuum has a more-efficient track record of healing itself than the human heart.

And now I’m here with Mali, and my son, to carry out the second part of our mission with my younger self. Both Keith and Mali are excellent fighters (I’m okay) and they proved invaluable as we took down a secret facility in Bhelkashan, operated by rebel terrorist leader Mahng Mum. We destroyed every last drop of his XO3 formula, a serum he previously used to attack me and Mali, mutating bed bugs in that urinary cesspool of a motel. And we used the last bit of serum to mutate four spiders Keith brought with him, giving us a means to both escape and fight the mindless, man-sized mosquitoes Mahng Mum was using as security.

But even before we got to the XO3 lab, the timeline, as expected, started to shift. I didn’t expect said shifts to be painful, or even to bring up painful memories. But as my right arm transformed into a robotic one, my mind was pummeled with the trauma of how it got that way.

As my younger self and Mali played kissy-face in the back seat of a car my son was driving, I remembered a sword fight. Well, not so much a sword fight as being attacked by someone with a sword. It was Mali, years from now, face beet red with more anger than I’d ever seen in her eyes before. She accused me of being a traitor, sticking a blowgun into her sash as I plucked poisonous darts out of my body. These darts were weakening me. I couldn’t stand. My legs wobbled. My exoskeleton was retracting, revealing my pained human form as I dropped to one knee. And the minute my arm was exposed, it was lopped off, flying off the rooftop of Mali’s father’s Bhelkashani palace in a trail of blood. Happy memories of our relationship and marriage were also there, things my younger self would have to look forward to, along with the inevitable prospect of losing a limb and getting it replaced by what was currently future tech.

By the time the XO3 facility was destroyed, the four of us were on the nearest beach riding the giant spiders, waiting for a helicopter Young Wally had called for. As I slid off my spider, preparing to disintegrate it with my ray gun, so no one else could replicate the mutation formula, Mr. Keith ‘Dragonfly’ Crimson was giving me a look.

Are you…remembering things? he asked me cautiously, turning the dial on his ray gun. Are things different?

As expected, I deadpanned, finally cracking a smile. I couldn’t help but be amused at the way Keith was tap-dancing around whatever he was starting to remember.

You didn’t have your robot arm when we traveled back here, Keith stated, remembering how his father lost it.

I suppose not.

Then why the hell did we rescue her? She didn’t have to be part of the mission. You succeeded without her in a different timeline.

Because I missed her.

Right, Keith understood. In the old timeline, because she died in the blast and never cut off your arm.

"I miss her now, in this timeline, knowing everything she’s done to me, I explained, looking over at the younger versions of myself and my estranged wife. We were passionately kissing in the stiff breeze of this beach. I made my choices. That horny bastard will make his."

Are you going to tell him? Keith wanted to know.

I might drop some hints. Highlight certain flaws in our relationship I overlooked. But humans have to see their path in order to take the path. They have to make choices and they have to learn.

As best as I can remember, this was right after all the spiders were disintegrated. Completely unexpectedly, a time portal ripped open, right behind Keith, with a shrill buzzing sound as I was talking. Someone, someone very strong and very familiar to me, grabbed my son by his still-dangling dragonfly tail and yanked him into that portal, wings flapping pointlessly. A splatter of blood stained the sand at my feet before the portal zipped shut, like when I’m in a rush after taking a leak.

I recognized the one who did this, his stocky silhouette being very vivid in my mind. It was the one whose assassination was to be the second part of our mission. Instead of viewing the existence of this individual in our future world as evidence the mission had failed, I reminded myself that this man had a robot body, piloted by an alien tick in his head. Someone could have rebuilt him, I thought. That could be a different alien tick piloting the same body. They are trying to intimidate me. They know I’m on the right track.

Then, the thought hit me like a ton of bricks. How did he track us well enough to know where Keith was? The only thought I had was the relay device I was wearing on my belt, the device that was to take my son and I back to the future once we were finished. If he tracked this thing and hacked it, he could do the same to me, pulling me back home before I’m ready. As the Army rescue helicopter descended onto this beach to rescue us, I ran off like a shot, shouting for my younger self and Mali to go on without me!

My robot arm is basically a Swiss army knife with a blaster on it, connected to my brain, allowing me to transform the arm with mere thought. I popped a few jagged daggers out of my forearm, trying desperately to pry the relay device open. I finally did and the time crystal was right there, glimmering in the hot sun. Praying that my blaster had enough energy to destroy the crystal, I focused a thin laser on it and cranked up the intensity, tapping a button on the side of my arm like I was turning up my TV volume.

I did destroy the crystal, trapping me hopelessly in the past. The helicopter containing Mali and Past Me left without Future Me. Likely, they assumed I was dead when they saw the rising fireball the time crystal left behind when it went bust. The explosion knocked me back into the Bhelkashani jungle, setting a few trees on fire as I got back up, my face scarred for what remains of my life.

They did a sweep of the area, but I knew they wouldn’t come back for me. Young Wally works for the man I came back in time to assassinate and that would make things too easy. Or too complicated. Regardless of how much my target knows about how things are destined to unfold, he wouldn’t risk it, rescuing an older, slower version of a soldier he already has reason to be suspicious of.

So, for the past few months, I’ve been living in the jungle, working for and getting things I need from townspeople friendly to the U.S. government. I take down the operations of Mahng Mum single-handedly, building homemade explosives and clinging to the shadows with my black beetle exoskeleton and weapons. To the townspeople, I am a rural legend, a shadow, a half-insect wraith that hoists bad people into the air and shoots others from trees. I give back money that was stolen or exploited from the poor, Robin Hood-style, but I collect from the generosity and hospitality of this beautiful culture. I am saving up every kip (Bhelkashani currency) for a plane ticket to the United States so I can complete my mission, the only reason I am here. For that, I will also need a fake I.D. So far, the only thing I saved up for is my cowboy hat. My poncho was given to me by a streetwise formicophiliac prostitute named Lai.

As far as getting home is concerned, I will have to find my colleague, Dr. Andrew Boon, the one who sent me back here in the first place. I must convince him of who I am, so he can help me initiate Plans B through X. X being one of the most heavily-guarded places on Earth. A place that does not, by any stretch of the imagination, clearly mark the spot.

CHAPTER ONE

SUSPICION

It was a mere three months after the mushroom cloud incident that Wally Crimson was headed back to Bhelkashan. It was an important mission, one that would save and protect hundreds of innocent Bhelkashani citizens. As he clutched his machine gun, sweating with pregame anticipation, Wally couldn’t help but wonder about his older self, the time-traveler. Is he still alive? Wally wondered. I don’t know why we didn’t go back for him. Beetles can survive a nuclear explosion. We would have gone back if it wasn’t for that pilot! He was afraid of not following the General’s orders to the letter. Coward!

Wally was in a cargo plane, surrounded by fellow soldiers. The plane itself was surrounded in mid-air by other cargo planes carrying medical personnel and equipment. Looking out at one of them through a small window and seeing the Red Cross symbol, Wally was reminded of the first time he heard about the radiation leak. He heard about it on the news, like everyone else in the world, a few hours before being briefed by General Leo Nunes.

They knew people were getting sick. Only later would they discover a bunker filled with nuclear materials a few miles away from this small peasant fishing village. The Prime Minister of Bhelkashan had disarmed his country a year ago, turning all their nuclear weapons over to the United Nations during a peace summit at the Kingly Chalice Hotel in New York City. So, the assumption was that this bunker belonged to well-known rebel leader Mahng Mum, a name that means ‘Lone Spider’ in Bhelkashani.

Wally was to lead a team of soldiers into Bhelkashan. Their assignment was to protect the relief workers from rebel attack as they cleared the village of all residents, getting them out of the radioactive hot spot, one causing severe illness to villagers. The Red Cross plane was filled with ambulances that would be taking these people to hospitals in Pakset, the nearest Bhelkashani city.

Wally remembers seeing ambulances and jeeps being driven onto these planes after his briefing, as he was walking through a crowded Army bunker. Turning to his left, he saw his men, his team for this mission, reclining in what looked like dentist chairs in this damp warehouse. These soldiers were all attached to tubes, as a neon green serum was being pumped into their arms intravenously from a clear bag. It was the Null Tech logo on the bag that sent Wally’s mind back to a different time.

Thanks to experiments Wally had volunteered for as a young soldier, he had the ability to pull a beetle’s exoskeleton out of his person, covering his body in a bulletproof covering that allowed him to fly. I know they’re not making more of me, Wally thought. The Army wouldn’t allow it. But what ARE they doing to these guys?

Wally didn’t have to ask that question out loud, because Dr. Andrew Boon, creator of the XO2 formula that had given Wally his exoskeleton, was standing right behind him. Andrew volunteered an explanation, feeling that the leader of the team should know what’s going on.

It’s a serum that makes the human body more resistant to radiation, Andrew said. Wally didn’t know such a thing existed, but he saw the potential benefits during this particular mission. The lab name is XO4, playfully referred to as Vampire Sunblock. The medical workers all got injected with it this morning.

New invention? Wally wondered.

Yes, Andrew replied. Probably the most practical application we’ve come up with, studying the cockroach genome. Obviously, beetles are also resistant to radiation, so we didn’t bother giving you the…

Of course, Doctor, Wally interrupted, seeming nervous as he kept tapping his fingers on his pant leg. Andrew could tell that Wally had a lot on his mind and fully understood why.

I hear you’re getting married in a few weeks, Andrew said with a polite smile, holding his clipboard in front of him. Congratulations.

Thank you, Wally said with a shrug. I’m a little nervous.

A common sentiment.

We’re doing it at her dad’s palace, Wally volunteered.