by M. R. Forbes
They reported a dozen hits.
The second transport fell into a dive.
“Tango Two is down,” Dagger One reported.
“Deliverance actual, this is Drone Seven,” the drone pilot said. “I’ve got visual on the first crash site.”
Washington found the feed on the display. He used the controls at the command station’s terminal to enlarge it.
“Shit.”
The side of the transport was torn open. A pair of Abominations were climbing out of it, apparently undamaged.
“Dagger Group Four,” John said. “We have a high priority ground target at my mark. Klahanie, mark it.”
“Yes, sir,” Klahanie replied from the pilot’s station at the front of the bridge. He marked the area on the tactical and passed it to the Daggers.
“Got it,” Dagger Sixteen said. “On our way.”
John returned the primary display to the multiple feeds. He was doing his best to manage the battle, but he would have rather been in the thick of it. He had never aspired to become an officer or lead from a command post. He understood why Caleb had chosen him. He was honored by the trust Cal was putting in him. But he still felt like he would be more useful on the ground with a rifle in his hands.
“Tango six is down,” Dagger Five announced.
“Tango eight is down,” Dagger One reported.
There were other comments. They had lost four of their own already, though they seemed to be holding firm against the incoming assault.
At least until boots started hitting the ground.
He returned his attention to Dagger Sixteen’s feed. The group was closing in on the two Abominations, who had cleared the transport and were making their way through the trees. The cover was thick, but they were so large it was easy to spot them beneath it.
The Daggers opened fire, sending bolts down into the hybrid machines. The rounds burned through the brush to hit the Abominations, the fighters strafing past and rising to circle back around.
“Sixteen, damage report,” he said.
“Standby,” Dagger Sixteen replied, and then a moment later. “No effect, actual. I don’t even think we left a scuff mark.”
John had been afraid that would be the case. He had destroyed the Abomination at the Seeker by detonating an Axon Intellect against it. They didn’t have any actual weapons that could pierce the machine’s tough hide.
“Roger. Refocus on the transports. We’ll have to handle the Abominations from the ground.”
“Roger. Re-engaging transports. Dagger Group Four, you—”
Dagger Sixteen’s voice vanished, his feed going dead. John quickly scanned the field. The Abominations were firing up at the fighters.
‘Daggers, watch the ground,” he said. “You’ve got incoming fire.”
The battle continued, the Daggers swirling around the Relyeh transports, doing their best to knock them out of the sky. They were getting closer to the Deliverance, and his best estimate was that they would only succeed in removing half the enemy force from the ground battle.
It sounded like a lot, but when their own army was wearing tin foil and firing pop guns, it meant they were in for a massacre.
It wasn’t his job to win the battle, only to delay the enemy long enough for the colonists to finish escaping and for Caleb to capture the Seeker. It was a mission he knew he probably wasn’t going to survive. He was sure Caleb had known that too. But his friend, leader and mentor had made the hard decision the way all good men had to do at some point in their lives. He had put his personal feelings aside and made the best choice for the good of the whole.
John, too, was ready to die to save these people. He had gotten the revenge he had once sought. He had done his duty to the best of his ability.
When the end came, he would embrace it.
Chapter 55
“Come on,” Tsi shouted, waving the colonists on. “Keep moving. Hurry.”
She glanced up over the top of the Deliverance, using the Skin’s optics to zoom in on the fighting. She saw another Dagger get hit by an energy blast and explode in a fireball, the pieces spreading through the sky and dropping to the ground. She shifted her head slightly and saw a group of Daggers unleash their firepower on a transport, blasting a hole in it that caused it to begin descending, smoke trailing from its hull.
The airborne battle wasn’t going poorly, but it wasn’t going well either. Too many of the Relyeh transports were making it through, the first of them already descending to touch down. For as hard as she had worked to train the soldiers on the ground, she knew their weapons and armor were primitive. They would inflict some casualties, but it wouldn’t be enough.
“Damn you, Jax,” she said under her breath. If the Free Inahri hadn’t abandoned their potential allies, they might have had a chance.
Their only chance now lay with Sergeant Caleb. He was on his way to the Seeker—and judging by the fact that he had taken his squadron of Relyeh fighters over the jungle—his goal of recruiting some of the wayward uluth was a success.
But would it be enough?
She returned her attention to the colonists. Caleb had asked her to get them to safety. It wasn’t the role she wanted. She would rather be fighting for the freedom of all Inahri than monitoring the Earthers who were too frail to be part of the fight. But he was in charge, and she had promised herself to the cause. She would never dishonor him by questioning his order.
“Keep moving,” she repeated, waving her arm to try to speed the colonists up. A line of them still ran from the lander tubes across the open clearing—created by the ship’s landing—to the front line of upright vegetation. At least half had already made it into the canopy and were following her squads deeper into the trees, but that meant there was still a decent number who had yet to clear the Deliverance.
And the enemy was almost here.
The DDF soldiers were organized on the ground beneath the ship, using APCs as cover positions. More soldiers were still on the ship, crowded around the main hangar carrying heavier long-range rifles. They had hidden still more soldiers in debris-covered trenches nearby, hoping to catch the enemy in a surprise crossfire or at the very least use the trenches as cover.
It was an impressive setup for such a short preparation time, but Tsi wasn’t convinced of its effectiveness. Not that it needed to be completely effective. She knew Caleb didn’t expect to win this part of the fight. He just needed the DDF to stand their ground long enough for him to get the Seeker under control, and for her to get the colonists scattered in the jungle.
At least the Axon uluth wouldn’t be an obstacle to that.
The pitch of the battle increased as the airborne skirmish drew nearer, the sizzling hiss of Relyeh bolts and the crackling of the Daggers’ guns echoing everywhere.
“Move, move, move!” Tsi shouted. She activated her comm. “Deliverance, we need cover on the colonists. They’re moving too slow.”
“Roger,” Washington replied. “Third Company, move the APCs along the line, put them between the colonists and the enemy.”
“Roger, Deliverance,” Third Company’s commander, one of Law’s remaining deputies, replied.
The soldiers began to break from beneath the ship, the APCs and other vehicles following. Tsi watched from the treeline as they began to line up on the right side of the fleeing colonists, the same side the first Relyeh transports were landing on.
The Inahri soldiers were jumping from the vessel, in full battle armor and carrying heavy blasters. They targeted the APCs, concentrating fire into one of them.
It took two seconds to breach the armor, and another two to hit something critical. The APC exploded, sending hot debris out among the colonists and killing more than a few.
“No, damn it,” Tsi said.
The Relyeh squad’s commander seemed equally displeased. The group of soldiers stopped fighting, bowing their heads as he moved along the line. The soldiers swapped rifles to stun weapons. They wanted the colonists alive.
“It’s not enough,” Tsi said. It was never going to be.
A fourth transport landed. The soldiers started climbing out. They turned toward Tsi, noticing the colonists running past her into the jungle. Their commanded signaled for them to head in her direction and spread out, to stop as many as they could before they got too far out of reach.
“Hurry!” Tsi shouted. “They’re coming!”
Nothing got the colonists moving faster than seeing the armored Inahri rushing in their direction. Women and children screamed and picked up the pace, the whole line of civilians beginning to fall apart as each person tried to escape in different directions.
The intensity of the fight increased. More transports made it down, and the Daggers began trying to strafe them, taking one out before it could unload.
“Defenders, watch for enemy contact,” she said, warning the other soldiers guiding the colonists. “Try to stay ahead of them.”
The Relyeh had almost reached her. The people around her were screaming and running along the tree line, trying to escape the incoming soldiers.
Tsi turned to face them. She was still projecting Beth Stone. The enemy thought she was one of the colonists. One of them raised their stunner in her direction. She shouted and dashed forward, activating the Skin’s shield. The round hit her, the shock arcing away on the shield and revealing the truth. Too late.
She slammed a powered fist into the soldier’s chest, throwing the armor backward. She drove ahead, coming down on top of it and slamming her other hand through the face plate, the tips of her Skinned fingers reaching the soldiers’ forehead. A burst of electricity into his head killed him instantly.
Tsi rolled off him, grabbing his heavy rifle as she did. She came up on a knee, firing at the nearest Relyeh. The blast tore through his armor near the neck, taking most of his head with it. She pivoted and fired again, killing another Relyeh before jumping up and retreating toward the trees, drawing the soldiers behind her.
She heard a new round of screaming behind her and risked a glance back.
An abomination charged out from behind the stern of the Deliverance, heading toward the suddenly terrified DDF soldiers, who were already under immense pressure from the forward line. The trenches were revealed, the soldiers in them sending round after round off the enemy’s armor. A line of the Earthers were already dead, slumped over the holes they had dug.
Tsi fired backward, keeping her chasers honest as she neared the trees. A whine drew her attention, and she looked up in time to see one of the Relyeh transports bypass the battlefield on a course for the Seeker.
Why was that ship leaving this fight?
“Deliverance, the defenses are falling apart,” Tsi said.
“I know,” Washington replied. “These people aren’t soldiers.”
“We need to slow the advance.”
“You need to protect the colonists.”
“Slowing the advance is protecting the colonists.”
“There’s nothing you can do, Tsi. We knew things were going to get bad.”
This was worse than bad. It had only been a few minutes, and she could already see armored DDF soldiers joining the colonists running for the trees.
She reached the tree line, taking cover behind a large trunk and turning around again to fire at the Inahri ahead of her. She took him down but couldn’t hold them all off.
They were almost on top of her. She kept shooting, firing as quickly as she could. She wanted to get back out into the field, to charge the enemy. To stop them from leaving the earth covered in stunned colonists.
A sound to her left drew her attention. She turned in time to see an Inahri soldier aiming at her from ten meters away.
She froze.
It was over.
A blast from nearby crossed the distance and hit the Inahri, knocking him back. Two more rounds followed, taking him down.
A battle armored Inahri swung out in front of her. She stared at him through the faceplate. This couldn’t be right.
“Sergeant Caleb?” she said.
The projection vanished, replaced by a female face. But women weren’t allowed to become soldiers.
“My name is Lia,” the woman said. “Caleb is my friend. I came to help.”
“Tsi,” she replied.
Lia smiled. “I could only dare hope it was you.” She turned back toward the fight, firing her rifle into the Relyeh. Tsi joined her, using her as cover and shooting past her into the enemy. It wasn’t going to change the outcome of the fight, but every little bit helped.
The Abomination reached the main line, tendrils whipping out and grabbing DDF soldiers, crushing them and dropping their bodies. There was no sense to the fight anymore. Colonists and soldiers were scattered everywhere—alive, dead and stunned. The Inahri were scaling the side of the Deliverance, trying to reach the hangar. The Daggers still strafed the ground, but even they probably knew it was too little, too late.
The battle was over. The colonists would be captured. There was nothing they could do about it. Even if Caleb did get the Seeker, he couldn’t save his people. He could only save himself.
But he wouldn’t. That wasn’t who Caleb was.
A sound nearby caused both Lia and Tsi to look that way. Two more Abominations were coming up from the south, heading right toward them. Tsi had to make a choice. She could escape into the jungle, or she could stay and fight the thing.
She looked over at the failing battle. If they saw her fighting an Abomination, would it strengthen their resolve? Would her actions inspire them?
She had to take that chance.
“I’m going after that thing,” she said to Lia. “Are you in?”
“I’m in,” Lia replied.
They came out of the trees, both of them firing up at the front of the hybrid machine. The heavy bolts managed to leave scores in the armor and draw the control mind’s attention. It sped up, charging toward them.
Tsi stood her ground, Lia beside her. They kept shooting at the front of the machine. If they could pierce its shell they might hit something vital. Like its pilot.
The Abomination loomed over them, clawed tendrils beginning to reach for them.
“It was an honor fighting by your side, if only for a moment, Mother,” Lia said.
Tsi stopped shooting, looking at the Inahri soldier. Mother?
A wave of heat washed over her, the force of an explosion knocking both she and Lia to the ground. Tsi rolled to her hands and knees in time to see the Abomination collapse to the side, toppling like it had been shoved from the side.
A Free Inahri transport floated over it, side hatch open and a soldier leaning out, a launcher balanced on his shoulder. Twenty more Free Inahri transports were in the sky around it.
“Sergeant Tsi,” General Jax said, his voice crisp in her ear. “I have reconsidered our position. We will honor your alliance.”
Tsi smiled, jumping back to her feet with fresh energy. “Yes, General. As you say, so shall it be done.” She walked over to Lia. The other woman was sitting on the ground, staring at the wreck of the Abomination. “Come, daughter. Let us do honor to our family in the name of the Free Inahri.”
Chapter 56
Caleb crested the mountains, the peak vanishing beneath heavy clouds he knew were hiding the city-ships below. The rest of his squadron trailed behind him, staying in tight formation around one another.
The trife were there somewhere. Caleb hadn’t known it at the time, but there was a cave system in those mountains that allowed the creatures to pass through without going over, giving them a chance to keep up with the much faster aircraft.
Even so, they would lag nearly half an hour
behind him in the assault. It didn’t seem that long at the outset, but it was forever in a firefight. There was a real chance he would be dead before they ever reached the Seeker.
He had been monitoring the action back at the Deliverance, listening in to the reports from the field. He had nearly turned back when he realized how severely he had overestimated the DDFs ability to hold the line, the soldiers on the ground buckling beneath the weight of the Might’s assault. He needed time to get the trife into position. Even with the shortcut and their footspeed, they could only go so fast.
Then a miracle happened.
The Free Inahri showed up, all of what remained of their military taking the Might by surprise and quickly evening the odds. Judging by the messages slinging back and forth, the battle could still turn either way, but the colonists had made it into the jungle and the soldiers were holding their own. The Relyeh couldn’t rely on brute force to overpower the colony.
And Caleb now had the time he needed.
In a stalemate, whoever controlled the Seeker would win the battle, and with the Free Inahri joining them, likely the war.
Which meant the entire future of both the colony and their allies rested on his shoulders. He wished he at least had Washington with him. But all he had brought were four Relyeh fighters and a slick of trife that were too far behind to be of any use at the moment.
Still, he wasn’t nervous.
He had Ishek. And he had a plan.
He guided the fighter into the clouds, remaining within the storms and letting them knock the craft around in their signal-blocking tempest. He kept the other aircraft with him, guiding them as if they were tied to his fighter by a string. He stayed relaxed and in control, focused but not tense. Calm confidence flowed through him, the result of everything he had already encountered and survived. He was going to win this battle. He was going to capture the Seeker. He was going to save the colony.
And then he was going to bring the fight to Arluthu.
He had decided on the way over the mountains. The ancient Relyeh couldn’t be allowed to survive, imprisoned or not. He had Valentine, the teleportation tech, and the location of the Earth base on Proxima. As he understood it, while the Relyeh collective knowledge was shared across every Relyeh in the universe, it still took time for it to pass from one side of that universe to the other, especially if none of the original owners of that intel were alive. Valentine had known it. He had realized it was the reason she had so formally passed her torch to him and put him in charge of finding a way to let Command know what was happening out here. She expected that if he won—if the Earthers won—she was going to die.
