by M. R. Forbes
They aren’t unguarded, but there’s no other way to get back to your ship before the Might.
Washington’s eyes darted momentarily away from Caleb to watch the winged Relyeh swing around the last bridge and rise, flying directly toward them.
“Uh, Sarge, we need to make a decision,” he prompted.
Caleb wanted to get back in range of the Skin’s link to check on Lia and Oni. He had no idea what had happened to the women or if they were still alive. He wanted to do more for the Inahri, especially the breeders and servants. They deserved to know the truth about their so-called god.
There was no time. He wanted to save everyone. It was the desire that had made the Vultures so effective. But sometimes saving everyone wasn’t possible. Sometimes he had to make the hard choice.
“That way,” he said, pointing down the tunnel away from the hangar. “There’s another launch bay further down, at the base of the Citadel.”
“Roger that,” Washington said.
They turned to run. The first of the winged demons landed in their path. Rushing ahead side-by-side, they both sent charges of energy into the gloves of their Intellect Skins.
The Relyeh reacted, crouching and spreading their claws. Caleb released his energy flare, sending it into the nearest demon and knocking it from the platform. Washington saved his power, coming in hard and grabbing the hand that slashed out at him. He flipped the Relyeh over his shoulder, cracking it hard against the stone wall before smashing his foot down on its neck to finish it. He turned in time to grab the foot of another creature as it came at him. He held onto it, swinging the creature into the side of the platform with a wet crunch.
Caleb saw another demon coming at Washington. He took three quick steps and jumped in front of his fellow Marine. Swinging an arm around the Relyeh’s neck, he pulled it down, stuck his other hand on its face and fired, burning his handprint right through its head. A high-pitch scream from below echoed across the city, turning Caleb’s attention back and down to where Riley was on the surface of the cavern, doubled-over in pain. Was Arluthu trying to get into her head? Was she somehow managing to hold him back to give them time to escape?
They raced along the platform at full speed, disappearing into the Arshugg tunnel. Washington caught up to Caleb and moved ahead, still a faster runner despite his size. The tunnel floor was covered in a stinking, sloppy sludge—condensation and waste from the beasts—and they splashed through it, nearly slipping on the mess.
“The first stop is ours,” Caleb said, staying close behind Washington. “Knuckle-up and stay alert. We aren’t alone down here.”
“Roger.”
They reached the opening in the tunnel, diverting to the small, rocky station. A winding, barely excavated corridor led out from the Arshugg passage. The heat and humidity were closing in on unbearable, leaving Caleb sweating beneath his Intellect Skin, his throat beginning to feel parched. He was sure Washington was feeling the same discomfort. What were the odds they would drop from dehydration before they made it to the launch bay?
Caleb felt a sudden, sharp pain in his head. He fell forward, hitting the wall and dropping to his knees. Washington pulled up and looked back, frowning in concern. “Sarge?”
You won’t get away from me.
Caleb closed his eyes. He felt Washington grab hold of his shoulders as he began to topple over, but the marine’s anxious voice was all but drowned out by Arluthu’s—a hammer in his head.
I know what she told you. I know what she gave you. There is no escape, Earther.
Caleb remembered the Kuu. Riley had put them both inside her head. That was her Kuu. The Deeping Tree was a connection to Arluthu. That was his Kuu. Did the same rules apply here?
He decided not to push back or try to force Arluthu out. He stayed calm, keeping himself level. He had faced adversity before. He had been alone behind a thousand trife once and had fought his way out.
He wasn’t giving in to a convict.
The pain in his head eased. He could sense Arluthu there, but he had managed to block him out enough to stand up again, Washington’s hands dropping from his shoulders. The pain retreated entirely a moment later.
How did you do that?
Ishek’s thought seemed weaker in his mind. “Do what?”
Resist.
“You said I could resist.”
Against your Advocate, not against your god.
“He isn’t my god.”
Ishek was silent. Caleb didn’t think he had done anything special. He had just wanted Arluthu to shut the hell up.
“I’m okay,” he said to Washington, drawing a deep breath. “Let’s move.”
They resumed their sprint down the corridor, passing adjacent tunnels on the way. All of the passages were dark and only barely accessible through rifts in the stone. According to Ishek’s memories, there were more aircraft in a small launch bay up ahead.
There was also something else. Caleb’s HUD sprang to life, a red blob of targets suddenly appearing on both flanks.
Chapter 48
“Wash, step on it!” Caleb snapped, picking up the pace. They dashed ahead, racing to reach the forward passage.
It was going to be close.
He looked to the left, finding the passage on their flank. A mob of trife were rushing toward them, scrambling over the rocky terrain, nearly trampling one another to get to them. The same thing was happening on the right side, at least two hundred of the creatures all racing to catch Caleb and Washington.
They broke ahead as the first of the demons, lunging to reach out for them, cleared the adjacent tunnel. Caleb felt claws rake along his back, but they failed to get through the Intellect Skin. As they crossed the intersection and dove into the next corridor, the trife hissed at one another, converging at the Marines’ backs.
“Don’t slow down!” Caleb yelled ahead to Washington, who was gaining ground ahead of him, bouncing over the uneven terrain like he was on tank tracks. Caleb wasn’t quite as agile, slowing slightly to navigate the uneven ground. The trife stayed right behind him.
He had known for a while now that Arluthu was responsible for the trife on Earth, and that the Axon had brought their demons to test against the Inahri. He just hadn’t expected to run into the creatures here.
“Stay alert, Wash. We’ve still got more tangos up ahead.”
Washington didn’t miss a beat, answering calmly. “Roger.”
Caleb’s HUD showed the targets a few seconds later, two of them fixed on either side of the narrow passage. He nearly lost his head a second after that, as a pair of bolts lit up the cave, smashing into the rock next to his face and sending chips of stone off the mantle. He felt cold and warm at the same time, part of the debris piercing the Skin and drawing blood.
Washington shouted, his voice echoing in the tunnel. Then he cut left, hitting one of the shooters at a full-on charge. The force lifted the attacker up, driving its back into the rough wall behind it.
A flash of light—an energy bolt striking the wall—smoke followed.
Caleb took the shooter on the right, barely avoiding a bolt as he jerked to the right, finding a small ledge on the floor and using it to push off. He led with his foot, catching the guard in the chest and kicking it back, landing and grabbing it as they ricocheted off the wall. He turned it and threw it into the side of the passage, satisfied with the resulting flash.
There was no time to relax. Caleb looked down at the defender. Clear fluid and blood were spilling from a hard, dark shell—human in shape but definitely not human. The rock had gone through its back, exposing wires and servos mingled with organic muscle and tissue.
He found its weapon, the dark plasma rifle resting beneath its head. He kicked the head away and grabbed the gun, turning and firing as the first of the trife reached him. He shot it point-blank in the head, the bolt traveling clear through and into the demon behind it.
Washington was shooting too, round after round finding trife flesh, cutting them down like
timber. It only took a dozen heartbeats to put a small mound of dead trife between them and the newcomers desperately trying to reach them in the small space.
Caleb glanced over his shoulder. They had run right into a dead end, but he knew better than that. The wall opened up to the launch bay. All he had to do was get in.
“Wash, you need to hold them off while I enter the code. I have to do it manually, like before.”
“I’ll keep you clear, Sarge.”
Caleb moved into position, still shooting. He used his free hand to activate the panel, quickly entering Harai’s access code. He was half expecting it to fail. Why would Harai leave his codes unchanged? He thought of Lia and Oni. Unless Harai had no idea he was even missing.
It didn’t fail. The door pivoted open, revealing the bay beyond. More of the Inahri-machine hybrids were waiting inside, and they started shooting before the door had completely cleared the lane. Caleb dove to the side, grabbing the gun as he rolled to where Washington stood. He came up on a knee beside him, facing the trife.
The creatures hissed at them but decided the new targets were a better opportunity. They poured into the bay past the two Marines, taking heavy casualties as they charged into the room. A few stragglers went for Washington on the way past only to find themselves with bolts embedded in their heads.
It took almost a minute for the trife to clear the corridor into the bay. Caleb’s HUD was a mess of red, the two sides attacking each other. He waited another minute for the two sides to inflict more damage on one another before tapping Washington on the leg. Washington lowered his hand, thumb-up.
Caleb rose from his crouch, and the two Marines rounded the corner together, plasma rifles up and ready. There were trife and hybrid corpses spread across the hangar floor, giving Caleb a flashback to the Deliverance when it had launched. A large group of trife remained, trying to get around a massive black machine to reach the defenders behind it.
“Should we give them a little help?” Washington asked.
“Why not?”
Washington took a moment to aim and then fired, his bolt flashing through the thick of the trife, hitting one of the hybrid soldiers in the head. The trife let out a hiss of approval, becoming bolder in their assault.
“There,” Caleb said, pointing to the other side of the bay.
Two dozen fighter-size ships rested in the shadows, dark and uneven, almost stonelike in appearance. They were organized for exodus through a long tunnel at the head of the room which, judging by the sound and smell of seawater, led directly outside.
“Who flies those things?” Washington asked.
“Right now, we do,” Caleb replied.
They broke across the room toward the ships, making it halfway there before the guards noticed them. Bolts barely missed them as they hurried to the nearest craft, taking refuge behind it. The hybrids had taken out nearly all the trife. With the few remaining demons fleeing the room, the hybrids once again concentrated their attack on Caleb and Washington.
“Cover me,” Caleb said. He circled behind the first craft to the next, examining its side. “Ishek, how do I get in?”
You’ll need my assistance to interface with the control mind.
“Control mind?”
Arluthu has taken a large volume of the Axon and Inahri tech captured here and redeployed it for his needs. Young Inahri born with feeble bodies are brought to the city. Their minds are removed from their physical bodies, mutated with Relyeh genes, and converted into control systems for the various weapons platforms.
The idea of it sent a shiver up Caleb’s spine. “Great. Whatever you need to do, do it.”
Caleb felt the change in the Advocate, a different kind of pressure entering his mind. He closed his eyes, and suddenly he saw through the front of the craft as though it were part of him. It was like the CUTS system on the Dagger, only much more intimate.
He opened his eyes, the world returning to normal. What the hell?
Your mind is much stronger than the control. You overwhelmed it.
“I wasn’t trying to overwhelm it.”
You don’t need to try.
He closed his eyes again. The pressure returned. It only took a thought to open the access hatch to the craft, which slid aside near the rear of the craft.
“Wash, time to go!” Caleb said, moving to the hatch.
Washington was still trading fire with the guards. He started backing away, while Caleb helped pick up the slack. They stood on opposite sides of the hatch, sending a continual stream of plasma across the floor.
“I’ve got this,” Washington said. “Go on.”
Caleb climbed into the ship. There were three stone seats arranged in a wedge pattern near the center, large enough to fit a big Relyeh like General Ogg. The stone at the front of the ship was transparent from the inside, affording a view into the hangar of the hybrids shooting from cover on the other side. There were no manual controls. There was no cockpit. He took a seat on the bench.
Caleb closed his eyes again.
His vision moved all the way to the front of the ship. He looked at the defenses, thinking about the craft’s weapons system. A reticle appeared floating in space ahead of him, and he used his mind to place it on the enemy. He triggered the system, and a series of a dozen heavy ion blasts launched from the craft, blasting the black machine and decimating the hybrids behind it.
Washington climbed into the ship. “Nice shooting, Sarge.”
“Grab a seat and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Roger that.”
Caleb kept his eyes closed, giving Washington a moment to sit before urging the Relyeh craft forward. His experience with the CUTS helped him keep things steady, bringing the ship off the floor and accelerating almost evenly toward the tunnel. They entered the long passage, streaking out through the Citadel toward increasing light and then bursting out of the ship only a few meters above the ocean. Caleb increased thrust with a thought, pushing them both back in their seats as the craft rose and banked in the direction of the deep purple sunset.
“And we’re out,” Washington said, heaving a sigh of relief.
Caleb was glad to have made it, but he still couldn’t quite let go of the feeling that he had abandoned Lia, Oni, and too many of the Inahri.
In the launch bay they had just left behind, twenty-eight Relyeh fighters came to life.
Chapter 49
“How long to get back home, Sarge?” Washington asked.
“I’m not even sure I’m going in the right direction,” Caleb replied.
This is the correct heading. It will not take long.
“Ishek says not too long,” Caleb added, pushing the throttle higher. The craft gained more velocity, shooting hard over the ocean. He had already decided that once the Deliverance was safe and the Seeker was back under Free Inahri control, he would figure out how to help the rest of the Inahri.
If he could bring the Deliverance to safety and get the Seeker back under Free Inahri control.
While he and Washington had managed to escape, their troubles were far from over. Arluthu’s Might was vastly more powerful than what the colonists could counter with. They didn’t have a trained military, and their Mk-12 and P-50 rifles were like peashooters against battle armor. The Inahri might be of some help, but their own numbers had been decimated by Harai’s assault on their compound, leaving them in equally bad shape.
Not to mention, he had no idea how he would be received when he returned to the ship or when he tried to contact the Free Inahri. He was a pariah to both communities.
It didn’t matter. Arluthu’s Might was on its way. He had an hour, maybe two, to do whatever he could to prepare the colony for the attack. It was an impossible mission. After what had happened to Law, he imagined Metro was trying to seal themselves off from the outside world to hide from the coming storm. Without Law, without Stone, without Dante, the colony would be completely unprepared. They wouldn’t stand a chance.
The thought
drove him harder, the craft adding more speed. He could see the shore up ahead, a rocky cliff face leading into the ocean below and the beginning of the rainforest behind it.
A symbol appeared in front of his eyes. A flashing red Inahri glyph. Caleb selected it with his mind, his vision splitting suddenly, with the top half remaining forward and the bottom facing back. Red outlines formed around tiny dots behind them.
Arluthu hadn’t given up on him yet.
The control mind counted the dots for him, quickly adding up to twenty-eight. Caleb whistled softly.
“What’s up, Sarge?” Washington asked.
“We’ve got company. Twenty-eight bogies on our tail.”
“Did you just say twenty-eight?”
“Unfortunately.”
“We can’t take on that many.”
“I know. We’ve got about fifty klicks on them. We can make it to the Deliverance before they can reach us.”
“And then what?”
That was the question. If they led the ships there, would they decide to open up on the grounded Earth starship instead?
“Let me see if this thing can send out comms,” Caleb said. “Maybe we can call for help.”
He reached out to the control mind, searching it for a comms system. He paused a moment later, an Inahri voice entering his head.
“Two point seven six five parses and closing. Prepare to fire.”
“Wash, hold on!” He realized he had tapped into the comms for the fighters behind them, and they were preparing to fire.
He threw the craft into a hard right turn, banking and descending toward the cliff face. Ion blasts launched from the fighter group behind them were two seconds too late, the beams hitting the rock and causing a small landslide into the sea.
Caleb brought the ship up and over the terrain, banking back on course, skirting the forest canopy.
“Group One, flank left. Group Two, flank right,” the Inahri voice said. It was flat and unemotional, more machine-like than organic.
The pilot leader didn’t seem to know Caleb could hear him. Caleb broke to the right again, staying ahead of the squadron and keeping them from getting into a flanking position. It was also preventing him from closing on the Deliverance.
