The Soldier

by Terrance Mulloy

  Before they could take cover, a blast pulverized the ground in front of them, hurling all three of them into the air, the hard-packed dirt and rock spraying them like a volley of bullets. They hit the ground, Mace screaming as he landed and bounced on his wounded shoulder.

  Now fighting to maintain consciousness, Matt wearily looked up through the swirling dust to see the gigantic alien tank stomping towards them on its metal legs. The triangular lights glowing above its primary cannon stared at him like some enraged monster. Strange motors and gears could be heard grinding as the hidden driver readied the cannon for another shot.

  Matt sprang to his feet, snatching Mace by the collar of his vest and hoisting him to his feet.

  WarBarbie wasted no time joining them, clinging to Mace as they all staggered through the chaos, plasma tracers now screaming over their heads like hornets, ripping the air with fire.

  Another projectile hit a large rock formation in front of them with a fiery blast. The explosion it caused blew them off their path, forcing them to veer left and dart along a narrow canyon. Within seconds, they had melted away into the darkness.

  After scrambling up a steep furrow, the three soldiers took refuge in the mouth of a small cave.

  WarBarbie continued deeper, probing the cave while her two companions caught their breath.

  The tactical light attached to the under-barrel of her rifle revealed how shallow the cave was – around twenty-odd meters deep. When she reached the end of it, she panned her rifle up to the ceiling, searching for any native fauna that might pose a threat, allowing her torchlight to expose the crevices between each stalactite. Epsilon held no shortage of dangerous organisms, many of which were tiny to the human eye.

  To her relief, the cave appeared to be unoccupied. “Clear,” she whisper-shouted to her two colleagues, her eyes still scanning the ceiling. “No Assassin bugs.”

  “Assassin bugs?” Matt asked with a look of bewilderment. This planet was revealing itself to be more horrible with each passing moment.

  WarBarbie shouldered her rifle and made her way to them. “Yeah, real nasty fuckers too.”

  “What are they?”

  “It’s a tiny venomous bug that liquifies the innards of its prey, then stacks the corpses onto its back – kinda like trophies.”

  “Doesn’t sound too bad. We have insects back home that do that.”

  “If that’s all they did, they wouldn’t be so dangerous. Except these guys also inject some type of acid into the empty exoskeletons of their victims, reanimating the corpses and turning them into zombified shock troopers it can control. You get attacked by a swarm of these things, you’re as good as gone, especially if they crawl into an exposed orifice.”

  “Why, what happens then?” Matt was now visibly disturbed.

  “They try to zombify you,” Mace added. “They can burrow a path directly to your dorsolateral cortex and turn you into a living vegetable.”

  “God,” Matt whispered with disgust. “That’s awful.”

  “Trust me, greenie. God ain’t got anything to do with these things. They’re straight outta hell,” WarBarbie snickered.

  Mace groaned when he pressed a hand against his destroyed shoulder. The pain was starting to throb with a new intensity that was way more severe and debilitating. “I had no idea those fuckin’ Dupes had the patience to think tactically like that.”

  “Why do you think they never fired on us?” Matt asked, seeing Mace’s visible pain. He ripped open a small supply pouch and pulled out his own field kit.

  “My guess is that Stalker had limited ammo. They couldn’t afford to waste it on us until we got too close to their prize.” Mace saw what Matt was doing and gave a dismissive wave. “Save it for yourself, I’ll be fine.”

  WarBarbie plunked down next to them and pulled out her field rations pack, first making sure her rifle’s torchlight beam was dimmed to a soft glow and aimed at the rock wall, not the mouth of the cave. “I’d say they were also waiting for reinforcements to arrive. There’s a lot of supplies in those rigs; weapons, food, ammo, water… plenty to go around.”

  “Reinforcements from where?” Matt asked before sucking on the electrolyte tube in his helmet. He then lifted his faceplate to breathe in the damp and scummy air of the cave.

  “We suspect there are at least two settlements in this region that we know of. One was that abandoned base we detoured around. The Dupes that survived had to have gone somewhere. There’s intel that suggests they went underground, but we can’t be certain. We just ran into a handful of them, but there’s definitely more of them out here.”

  Mat sat there, his mind churning as he absorbed all that information. When he looked up again, he noticed Mace was staring at him. “Sir?”

  “What’s that little greenie brain of yours thinking? I’m starting to know that gleam you get in your eye.”

  Matt was silent for another moment before revealing his cards. “Sir… I’m just thinking, we need to get back to that rig somehow.”

  WarBarbie chuckled before gnawing into a protein bar. “Gonna be hard with that Stalker sitting there, guarding it like a dog with a bone.”

  Matt looked at her. “How many grenades do you have?”

  Still chewing, she held up a single index finger.

  “One might just be enough.”

  She turned to Mace and shook her head. This greenie is nuts!

  Mace turned to Matt with his usual cynical grin. “Theoretically? Maybe. That’s assuming you could get close enough to disable its cannon. Good luck with that.”

  “But what if we could get close enough.” Matt’s eyes now held a glint of newfound optimism as he began recalling something. “Before I enlisted, I read a lot about the previous wars back on Earth, as well as some of the tactics used… I remember reading this story about the last German offensive of World War Two. They didn’t have enough fuel to run their tanks, so they began capturing Allied fuel dumps—”

  “We’re fighting aliens, not Nazis,” Mace interrupted.

  Matt continued, unfazed. “When U.S. Forces got wind of this, they had GI’s burn all the fuel dumps off so the Germans couldn’t use it. Their tank weaponry was far superior to what the Allies had, but they were essentially useless. I think that’s what we have to do - destroy the Stalker’s primary fuel reactor. With no power, that thing will also be rendered useless.”

  WarBarbie tossed her empty wrapper and picked up her rifle, careful not to shine the light outside. “Those reactors are hidden by protective plating that’s as thick as the walls of this cave. Even if we had some armor-busting grenades, they would barely make a dent.”

  “Yeah, but there’s a small vent next to the sensor housing unit that measures reactor pressure. Theoretically, it would be wide enough for someone to slip a grenade into it. Once detonated, the spherical fragmentation of the blast would be powerful enough to rupture the core. No power, no cannon.”

  “How the fuck do you know all this?” WarBarbie quizzed.

  Matt shrugged. “I read stuff.”

  She turned to Mace and raised an eyebrow. Despite Matt’s limited military experience, there was a quiet strength about him. She was growing to respect that.

  However, Mace’s response was way more measured. He could see Matt’s eyes were bright with determination, and the idea he pitched sounded feasible in theory, but he’d seen plenty of guys like this over the years. They’d ship out to this war, young and idealistic, ready to kick ass and save humanity, only to end up getting themselves killed, or worse, clamping up when the time came to prove their mettle. “Ain’t gonna work, greenie. Besides, it’s too risky.”

  “We have to try, sir. I’d say it’s worth the risk.”

  Mace glared at Matt with a hardness that even took him by surprise. “If you think today can’t get any worse, believe me, it can.”

  Matt returned Mace’s glare with visible annoyance. “What’s our plan then? You just want us to sit here and stare at these walls?”


  Matt’s snark caused Mace’s jaw muscles to flex. He wasn’t used to being directly challenged like this, especially from a greenie. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I want you to do. You’re gonna keep that spindly ass of yours planted right there while WarBarbie scouts ahead. For all we know, this entire area could be riddled with Dupes. While she’s gone, you’re gonna get some sleep. Then, at dawn, I’m gonna frogmarch you outta this cave myself.” He pivoted to WarBarbie. “If we keep pushing east, we can make Camp Suffield in less than a day.”

  Matt audibly scoffed and shook his head. “Oh, that’s great. But we’re not gonna be much use to them if we turn up empty-handed. This is a fucking joke, right?” Matt instantly regretted that comment, bracing for the shitstorm he was about to receive from his captain.

  But it never came. Mace just looked at him, deciding it was better to just let the private vent. “There you go. Stay mad, greenie. Bottle that shit. You’re gonna need it.” Mace then fished out a fresh ammo cartridge from his supply pouch and tossed it to WarBarbie. “Recon only. Three-mile radius. Cover your tracks. You see anything out there that’s not human, do not engage unless you have no choice. Mark its location, then head straight back.”

  Without saying a word, she slipped the extra cartridge into a supply pouch and stood.

  “Hey, you good?” Mace asked, sensing some conflict inside her.

  After an unsure beat, she gave him an earnest nod. “Yes, sir.”

  “Then have a good time out there tonight, kid.”

  She returned a weak smile, grabbed her gear, and headed out of the cave, easing cautiously down a sloping egress of rubble.

  Once WarBarbie’s figure had disappeared, an eerie silence overtook the cave. They were truly alone out here, miles from any help, surrounded by never-ending danger.

  Mace watched as Matt kept sucking on the drinking tube inside his helmet. The bladder inside his suit was now empty. He peeled off his helmet, clipped off the haversack attached to his back, and pulled out a small metallic canteen. He then tore open a satchel of drinking powder and added it, careful not to spill any. He then shook the canteen and took a deep sip before offering it to Mace.

  Mace gave an appreciative nod and reached for it with his good arm, taking a much-needed drink to wash away his cottonmouth.

  Opening the haversack wider, Matt fished out a small packet of flavored crackers.

  They both sat there in stone silence, Mace watching him chew the stale crackers, washing them down with his canteen. He knew Matt was physically and emotionally drained from the events of the day. He could see it etched across his face. “She’s probably gonna be a while. Try and catch some Zs. I’m serious, you’re no good to me without some shut-eye.”

  Matt gave an exhausted nod, but sleep was the last thing on his mind. His nerves had been working overtime for hours. “Sir, I don’t know if I can… too wired. Too amped.”

  “Just try.” Mace held up his sidearm and placed it on his lap. “Don’t worry, I’ll take sentry. Soon as she gets back, I’ll wake you.”

  As if on cue, Matt yawned widely, suddenly feeling like he’d been hit with a ton of bricks. He could feel the energy draining away from his bones as he sat there chewing his final bite. After taking one more sip, he put away his canteen and moved into a more relaxing position, resting his head against his haversack. All he could think about now was sleep. Deep sleep. The kind that verged on hibernation.

  His eyes fluttered a few times until they closed. Within minutes he was snoring heavily.

  Twenty-Five

  WarBarbie slithered up a steep incline, pressing her stomach against the rock as she moved slow and cautiously.

  The moment she left the cave she had made certain to kill all her digital outputs, moving through the darkness as a fleeting shadow. Despite the treacherous hike, traversing the highest bluff in the immediate area would offer her a good vantage point. There, she could get a clear lay of the land and hopefully locate any threats.

  Stopping just shy of the incline’s steep drop, she lay dick-in-the-dirt prone, lifting her faceplate to raise the rifle’s scope to her naked eye, scouting the valley below. Making sure all her primary outputs were still turned off; she allowed the optics of her rifle to switch on its automatic night-vision mode.

  Everything was awash in blown-out shades of green as her crosshairs drifted across the never-ending tundra of blackened rock, landing on a distant field of sand where a long column of figures was moving.

  Dupes.

  A lot of them.

  Marching towards her position.

  More than she’d ever seen at once.

  From what she could estimate, there were at least several hundred.

  There was also something about the way they moved. These weren’t the shuffling insurgents she’d encountered wandering out here before, half-starved and aimless. These seemed like healthy and well-equipped troops, moving with purpose and determination. They carried a mix of Wraith and human weaponry, also wearing a hodge-podge of scavenged combat armor, stripping away even the barest hint of their origin. These were Infiltrators that had somehow been reborn as something else.

  Eyes wide with shock, WarBarbie lowered her rifle and quickly backed down the incline. She had to warn the others and tell them there was an army headed their way.

  Twenty-Six

  Matt startled awake, gasping for breath.

  Dreaming he’d just been shot, he frantically checked himself over, relaxing when realizing it was only a bad dream. He waited for his vision to adjust to the gloominess of the cave, catching Mace sitting across from him, hunched over something. “How long was I out for?”

  “About an hour.” Mace was encased in a dim electronic glow, studying a hardcopy military map that was self-illuminating. Using his good hand, he folded it up and slipped it into a side pocket of his leg, then checked his watch. “You kept calling for someone named Ally.”

  Matt straightened into an upright position, taking an armored glove off to wipe some grit from the corner of his left eye. “Yeah, she’s my kid.”

  “How old?”

  “She turned five last Thursday.”

  The two men sat in silence for a moment until Mace motioned to the wedding band on Matt’s finger. “How long have you been married?”

  Matt glanced down as if suddenly remembering he was still wearing it. “Uh, would have been going on eight years.” He started fiddling with the ring, twisting it over and over like he always did when thinking about Karen. “She passed away during the invasion.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  After another beat of silence, Matt looked up at the battle-weary captain. “What about you, sir? Married? Kids?”

  “Lost her on the second day of the attack. We were married just shy of sixteen years. No kids.”

  Matt was worried he’d just overstepped a boundary. “Sir, I didn’t— um…"

  “It’s OK, we’re just talking wives. We both had one, now we don’t.” Mace used his teeth to slide off the glove of his left hand, taking a moment to study his own wedding band. It was polished like a golden mirror, indicating he still wore it with a strong sense of pride. “I’ve been asked before… would I be any easier on people if I took this off. Maybe not. But then again, maybe I could avoid conversations like this one…” He looked up, caught Matt’s look, and smiled. “Don’t worry, greenie. I like talking about her.”

  As silence overtook the cave again, Matt thought he saw some regret reflected in Mace’s eyes as he went back to staring at the ring on his finger. “What did you do before the war, sir?”

  “Ran a construction company out of St. Louis.”

  “I can only imagine how tough that was.”

  “Yeah, hated it.”

  “How long?”

  “Worked it for as long as I could, right up until the invasion. But it’s hard when you’re constantly getting sidelined by bigger property developers. These guys were flush with Chinese cash and would undercut my quote by a th
ird, as well as bring in their own crews and equipment. No way I could ever compete with that. So, I started coming home in a bad mood. Always pissed off, always whining. Then I started drinking. Started getting ulcers too… in the end, I was just a miserable prick to be around…” There was a long pause before Mace continued. “But every night I’d walk through that door – no matter what time – she’d be there. Every damn night. I’d lie down in her lap, and she’d rub my neck. Some nights she’d even sing me to sleep. I remember just lying there, staring up at her, wondering why the hell this woman hadn’t walked out on me yet.” There was another long pause before Mace looked at Matt again, his eyes now hardening like glass orbs. “Let me tell you, I became a soldier the day she died. Any hesitation I might’ve had on my first tour was long gone before I even deployed. I worked a Direct-Action Assault Force my first year out here. We were a zombie squad; running covert kill missions, penetrating enemy lines, sabotaging chain of command, real head-cracking, wrecking ball shit… the pain of losing her was the only thing that drove me. I was a true believer. A savage who wanted nothing except retribution. And I got it too, by the pound. Once I’d gotten a taste for it, it was hard to stop. I spilled a lot of Wraith blood during those first few years... fuck ‘em all, you know?”

  Matt nodded solemnly, understanding exactly what Mace was feeling. In those early days after losing Karen, he’d been there himself. That’s partly the reason he was here now, lightyears from Earth, entrenched in this war.

  “All the fire team’s I commanded in those early days… every one of them I promised I’d keep alive. Not anymore. Not since the last crew I lost. Now, I just tell people straight up what to expect out here. Some greenies don’t wanna hear that… shit, even some Praetorians don’t. But I’m done carrying this guilt any longer.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened the last time you lost a crew?”

  Mace curled his lip. Clearly, this was a sensitive topic for him to revisit. “We were running a strike cell with an Australian AFO unit. They were embedded with our Praetorian element - tasked with shutting down smaller enemy outposts near the Skrynn Valley. We got some good intel there was an HVT holed up at this one facility. I requested orbital strikes, and not surprisingly, was denied on three separate occasions. Frustrated, I gave the order to move in hunt him down on foot. That entire unit walked straight into an ambush. We were providing support and had no time to warn them. Happened so fast. Sixty-five souls wiped from existence, just like that.” Mace worked his jaw, seeing the faces of dead soldiers in his mind as they mocked him with their memory, feeling every bit of their anger and pain. “The very next day, they sent another unit in to replace them and continue the op. That unit lost twenty-two men and nine women. It was like a conveyor belt at some slaughterhouse. They just kept throwing bodies at the same problem, hoping for a favorable outcome. The Wraith were putting up some strong resistance, so in the end, low and behold, my CO suddenly thought it would be a brilliant idea to level the facility with an orbital strike... I tell you; I was beyond fucking livid. The whole thing made me realize how expendable we are out here. This place is nothing but a meat grinder.”