The War for Earth (Children of Earthrise Book 4)

by Daniel Arenson

  Ahead, the Rattlers extended their laser cannons again.

  "Fleet, scatter!" Rowan cried, grabbing the yoke. "Dodge those lasers!"

  The green beams fired.

  Rowan screamed, hanging off the yoke, pulling it with her entire body. The Byzantium groaned in protest, yawing ever so slowly. A laser beam grazed their starboard hull, ripping off cannons like a blade carving off barnacles. More lasers slammed into ships around her, carving through shields and decks like blades through silk. Lines of fire raced across hulls. Soldiers screamed, ejected into the vacuum.

  It was time.

  Rowan grabbed her ansible—among the most expensive pieces of equipment in the fleet, a communicator able to broadcast through a warp bubble.

  "Firebird squads two, three, four—deploy!" she shouted. "All warships—fire everything! Send these snakes to hell!"

  Bay was still unconscious. Rowan was desperate to tend to him, but she couldn't spare a moment. Leaving the yoke on autopilot, she ran back to the gunnery station and unleashed her fury. Across the human fleet, the other warships pounded the enemy with everything they had. Thousands of shells slammed into Rattlers, exploding, blinding the alien warships.

  Above them—a bubble of warped space dissolved. A squad of Firebirds swooped, raining missiles on the Rattlers.

  From below and behind—two more bubbles popped. Two more Firebird squads emerged into regular space.

  Missiles flew.

  The enemy was trapped.

  The Rattlers tried to turn, to engage the new combatants, but they were too slow, too disoriented. The new missiles flew from below, hitting their vulnerable underbellies, and from behind, slamming into their engines.

  Die, you sons of bitches, Rowan thought.

  She watched with satisfaction as explosions bloomed across the enemy ships. Their scaly shields cracked.

  Rowan released another volley. This time the enemy shields were crumbling. This time her missiles tore through the bastards.

  The Rattlers exploded.

  Rowan fired again.

  She leaned forward, sneering.

  She fired more missiles. More. Emptying her payload. And kept firing on empty. Tears in her eyes. Teeth clenched. Still pressing her trigger long after the last Rattler floated away in a cloud of debris.

  Die. You bastards. Die.

  Because she was firing on the scorpions too.

  She was firing on the creatures that had murdered her family.

  On the aliens she had hidden from for years, cowering in the ducts.

  On the monsters who had done this to humanity. Who took wretched refugees who just wanted a home, who shoved them into camps.

  Who turned her into a killer.

  I was meant to live on Earth. To film movies. To marry Bay. To be happy. And I'm killing again. You turned me into this. You made me a weapon. And now I will kill every last one of you.

  "Row …" Bay was moaning, slowly coming to. "Row, what happened?"

  She knelt by him, placed her hand on his wounds, and summoned her Harmonians. They flowed through his wounds, healing him, then back in to her.

  "We're going in, Bay." She straightened and drew Lullaby. "I want to kill more snakes."

  He looked at her, and Rowan saw something akin to fear in his eyes. Was Bay afraid of the basilisks? Or of her?

  The human fleet plowed through the debris, knocking aside chunks of Rattlers. Dead basilisks floated through the void. The planet Anubis hovered before them, a sandy sphere draped with bronze clouds.

  Rowan led the fleet, entering orbit first. The others fell in behind her.

  She stared down at the planet, seeking them.

  "Where are you?" she whispered.

  The planet's surface rolled by below the fleet. Rowan narrowed her eyes. Nothing but cracked, rocky plains. Deep canyons. Rolling dunes. Smoking volcanoes. She saw no cities, no military bases, no internment camps. No signs of life at all.

  "Was our intelligence wrong?" Bay said. "My scanners are picking up nothing. This is a dead world."

  Rowan shook her head. "No. The refugees are here somewhere. Otherwise why did the Rattlers guard the planet?"

  They kept orbiting, still seeing nothing.

  "A decoy?" Bay said.

  "They're here," Rowan said softly. "They're underground. Bay, these are basilisks. Giant snakes. They must live in holes and tunnels. They must have the humans hidden underground. Adjust your scanners to—"

  She caught her breath.

  Rockets were launching from below, moving at terrifying speed.

  "Incoming!" she shouted. "Fleet, full power to shields!"

  They tried to dodge. But the missiles adjusted their vectors—then hit the fleet.

  The Byzantium jolted and spun. Fire raged. The underbelly tore open. Rowan was thankful that she had emptied her arsenal on the Rattlers; every missile inside the Byzantium would have blown. Around her, several starships exploded.

  She saw it now on the surface. She zoomed in. Doorways carved into the stone—missile silos. The attack had come from there.

  Bay spoke into the fleet-wide comm. "Nuke those bases from orbit! Wipe them out!"

  Rowan grabbed the comm from him. "Belay that order! Hold your fire!"

  "What—" Bay began.

  "The humans might be there!" she said. "I'm detecting organic scans from below."

  "Basilisks," Bay said.

  "Basilisks are coldblooded. These are warm bodies. Muck! They're using the prisoners as human shields."

  More missiles were rising from the surface.

  Damn it!

  Rowan pulled the Byzantium aside. A missile grazed their hull and exploded. The frigate lurched and slammed into a tanker. Ships cracked around them.

  "Row, we gotta nuke them or—"

  "No!" she said. "We can't risk it. Marines! All marines, head to the hangars! We're executing a spacejump. Go, go!"

  She looked at Bay. He met her eyes.

  Are you with me? she asked without words.

  He nodded. Always.

  Rowan switched on a monitor. She typed furiously.

  "Fillister! Fillister, you there?"

  Words appeared on the screen. "Here, Row!"

  The words warmed her heart. Fillister might have lost his body, but his consciousness was still inside the fleet's computers. Her old friend was still with her.

  "Take control of the ship," Rowan typed. "I'm granting you and Brooklyn full admin access. Keep this fleet in the air."

  "Will do, Row. Go get 'em."

  Rowan and Bay ran.

  Within moments, they were in the hangar, armored spacesuits on, jetpacks ready. Missiles were exploding outside, casting searing light through the portholes. A platoon of fifty marines gathered around them.

  "Rabblers!" Rowan said. "Humans are waiting below. Humans need us. Fight well. Fight for humanity. Let's kill some snakes!"

  They roared their approval.

  They opened the airlock door—and dived into space.

  Missiles streaked up from the planet, moving faster than bullets.

  "Scatter!" Rowan cried.

  Not that the Rabblers needed any encouragement. Their jetpacks thrummed. They broke apart and—

  One missile tore through five marines.

  Another slammed into the Byzantium above, denting the shields, spraying fire. More marines screamed.

  Across the fleet, missiles were detonating. Firebirds were zipping around, shooting down the enemy missiles. But they couldn't hit them all. Another basilisk missile exploded nearby, ripping through two diving paratroopers.

  Rowan gritted her teeth and dived down headfirst.

  A missile came streaming upward.

  She fired Lullaby and hit the projectile a kilometer or two away.

  It exploded. She sighed in relief, adjusted her trajectory, and swerved around the cloud of smoke and debris. The remaining Rabblers dived around her. Below them, the missiles were rippling the atmosphere before emerging into spac
e.

  Rowan took a deep breath. She had spacejumped several times before. She never got used to the pain.

  This is going to get rough.

  She winced and closed her eyes.

  They hit the atmosphere.

  It was like hitting a brick wall. She groaned as her body plowed into sky, ionizing the air. Fire blazed around her, blinding her, heating her armor so much her skin blistered.

  She kept diving. Falling through fire. She struggled to keep her legs pressed together, her arms at her sides, keeping her body in a straight line.

  Beside her, one paratrooper lost his form. He began to spin madly, moving so fast it knocked him unconscious. Another missile soared, pulverizing a marine, leaving only a cloud of red mist.

  The others kept diving, racing toward the ground. The desert spread below, a rocky landscape of mountains, gorges, and pools of bubbling methane. Rowan could see the missile silos—underground cylinders, rimmed with metal. Doorways were carved into mountainsides and canyons.

  The internment camp, Rowan thought.

  They were several kilometers above the surface now. Within moments, they would be there. Other platoons were diving from other human ships. In total, the force contained only three hundred paratroopers. It was all Earth could spare.

  It didn't seem like enough.

  "Marines!" Rowan said, speaking into her helmet's comm. "First platoon—make to the mountain tunnel. Second platoon—dive into that gorge. Rabblers—you fly with me, and we'll work to disable those missile silos. Kill every snake that moves. These bastards grabbed starving gulock survivors and tossed them into prison. Show them no mercy."

  Bay was diving beside her. He turned to look at her, and she saw the same concern in his eyes. She met his gaze, her own eyes hard.

  Emet isn't here, Bay, she thought. He would be merciless. So I will be too.

  Shrieks from below tore through her thoughts.

  Rowan stared down and cursed.

  Basilisks were rising from their holes. Basilisks with wings. And they came flying toward her.

  "Ra damn!" Bay blurted out. "They can grow wings?"

  For a moment, all Rowan could do was stare in shock.

  The creatures screeched, fangs shining.

  Rowan opened fire. Around her, her fellow marines added their bullets to hers.

  Several of the creatures fell, leathern wings pierced with holes. But at least a hundred reached the diving marines—and attacked.

  One beast slammed into Rowan, screeching, eyes red with fury. Its claws grabbed her, digging into her armor. Its wings beat in a fury. Its head moved in, jaws opening wider than her head.

  Rowan fired Lullaby into those open jaws, taking out the back of its head. No sooner had the beast fallen than another replaced it.

  The basilisk had scales in all the colors of fire, shimmering and chinking, and its wings sprayed the blood of its fallen brother. This time the jaws closed around Rowan's side—and bit down hard.

  She yowled and fired her gun, but the bullets shattered against the scaly head, and the shards leaped back to sting her. The creature began to coil around Rowan, crushing her, denting her armored suit. They plunged through the sky. Around her, Rowan saw the other marines battling the flying serpents. Corpses were already tumbling.

  Rowan gritted her teeth. She gave her jetpack a burst of full power, hoping to scorch the basilisk wrapped around her. But the alien had left an opening for the exhaust. The flames spurted uselessly into the sky.

  The snake squeezed tighter. The jaws tore at her. Rowan cried out in pain. She nearly passed out. She couldn't breathe. The basilisks were everywhere around her, tearing through her troops, and the missiles were still flying, pounding her fleet in orbit.

  The basilisk constricting her finally opened its jaws, releasing her flesh. It stared into her eyes.

  "Rowan Emery," the alien hissed. "The famous ape of Earth. I will take you to my mistress so she may devour you whole."

  Rowan stared into those red eyes—and saw a vision of an alien world. Of a mountain of skulls. Of a creature upon it—half woman, half snake.

  And she saw the fall of Earth. The bones of humanity rotting in the mud.

  She would not let that happen.

  "Eat shit," she said and shoved on her throttle.

  They roared forward—and into the flaming wake of Bay's jetpack.

  Rowan winced as the flames washed over them, heating her suit, cracking her helmet.

  The basilisk holding her burned. With a scream, the alien released her.

  Rowan pulled herself back from the fire, her armor dangerously hot, and fired a barrage of bullets. The basilisk's head tore open, and the charred corpse fell from the sky.

  With hailstorms of bullets and blasts of fire, the marines took out the last flying basilisks. The soldiers descended the final few kilometers and landed on Anubis.

  Rowan stood on the rocky surface, Lullaby raised, eyes narrowed. The ground trembled beneath her feet. She closed her eyes, focusing, feeling.

  Inside her, the Harmonians stirred. Creatures of caves.

  Rowan let the vibrations move through her. Through the Harmonians. Hearing. Sensing. Seeing.

  She opened her eyes.

  "They're down there," Rowan said. "Directly under our feet. The human refugees."

  The ground began to quake—not a light vibration but a mighty tremor. Rowan fell. Smoke blasted from an underground silo nearby, and fire raged. A rocket emerged from underground and soared skyward. The sound was deafening. If Rowan hadn't been wearing her helmet, it might have punctured her eardrums.

  She pointed at the smoking hole. "We need to take out this missile bay."

  Bay cringed. "Please, Rowan! Call it a missile silo." He glanced around. "I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea."

  Rowan contemplated for a moment. She could drop a few grenades into the silo—but that might set off the munitions inside. The explosion would kill every human captive underground—and likely every marine aboveground too.

  "Bay, focus your fire at that mountainside." Rowan pointed. "There, below that ledge of stone."

  He understood. He turned toward his troops. "Men! Follow our fire."

  Rowan shot first, aiming a tracing round at the mountainside. It left a smoky line in the sky. The others opened fire around her, following the path of smoke. The rounds slammed into the mountainside.

  "Give us some grenades!" Rowan said.

  A few of the men complied, launching grenades. Explosions peppered the mountain, loosening stones.

  The rocky ledge cracked.

  Rowan fired another round—and the ledge of stone tumbled.

  Boulders rolled. More chunks of mountain tore free. Soon an avalanche was cascading down the mountain—larger than Rowan had anticipated.

  "Muck," she muttered, then activated her jetpack. "Up, up!"

  The marines rose to hover a hundred meters overhead. The boulders rolled below them. Stones tumbled into the missile silos, clogging them. Clouds of dust rose. When the avalanche settled, the bays were gone. No more missiles flew.

  But one entrance still gaped open. A cave in the mountainside, rimmed with basilisk runes.

  The gates of Hell, Rowan thought.

  She loaded a fresh magazine, cocked her gun, and stepped into the shadows.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Rowan walked down the dark tunnel, holding Lullaby with both hands. The other marines followed close behind, rifles raised.

  The pits of Anubis spread before them—a dark, twisting hive. The place stank. Rowan advanced slowly, the flashlight on her helmet illuminating her way. Her feet scattered old bones—some of animals, others human. A serpentine shape ahead made her start, but it was only a basilisk's shed skin, a husk rustling with insects. Rowan walked deeper, plunging into the darkness.

  "Just like the ducts back home," Rowan muttered.

  Bay looked at her, and she met his gaze. Unspoken words passed between them. They both remembered
that battle in the ducts of Paradise Lost, fighting the bonecrawlers. It had been almost four years ago.

  We're both so different, Rowan thought. I was a scared girl then. Now … who am I now?

  She gripped her gun tighter, and she knew.

  Not a movie director like I thought I would be. Not a writer. I'm a soldier.

  A shadow stirred.

  Her flashlight reflected off metal.

  A basilisk appeared below, hissing, squirming up the tunnel toward the humans.

  Rowan opened fire. But her bullets met armor. The snake was wearing thick metal plates. It came lunging forward at terrifying speed, gushing up the tunnel like a torrent. Bay was firing too. So were other marines. The bullets kept glancing off its armor.

  Rowan closed one eye. She stood steady and aimed.

  The basilisk leaped through the air toward her.

  It was a meter away when she put a bullet through its eye.

  The alien crashed into her, knocking her down, dead before they hit the ground. She shoved the corpse off.

  "Bastard." She spat.

  Bay raised his hand. "Nice shot."

  Rowan gave him a high five. "Years of playing Duck Hunt finally paid off."

  She forced herself to smile. To choke down the horror. They kept walking.

  The tunnels kept sloping deeper. The surface of this world was searing hot, but the temperature plunged down here. The tunnels tightened, becoming so narrow the humans had to walk hunched over, then on hands and knees.

  Rowan paused, closed her eyes, and felt the vibrations again.

  "We're close," Rowan whispered. "I feel them. Humans. And …" She grimaced. "Something large. Foul. Evil."

  Bay was crawling behind her. He placed a hand on her back. "You can feel evil through vibrations?"

  She shuddered. "The Harmonians can. They evolved in caves. They can sense evil in the depths. They feel the tremors, and they paint a picture in my mind. A vague picture. More a sense than an image. There is great danger ahead."

  Bay clenched his fist. "So we'll kill it. Together. That's what we do."

  "That's what we do," Rowan repeated, voice soft. "We are killers."

  A hiss sounded ahead. Rowan looked up and saw a basilisk wriggling up the tunnel. She fired again and again until it fell down dead. She loaded a fresh magazine.