So Close to Home

by Galen Surlak-Ramsey

  “I can have your stuff?”

  “No, stupid. I want a Viking funeral.”

  I sucked in a breath and prayed. Please, oh please, great and venerable Kibnali gods, don’t abandon us now. I guess it’s true. There are no atheists in foxholes—or drop pods for that matter.

  “Switch to DCS ranging,” Tolby said.

  I glanced over to him as he kept his focus on the monitors. His displayed a slightly different picture than ours. While it still had an identical view of the planet, it also had a HUD overlay with plenty of real-time information being shown, presumably to help him guide our pod down.

  “Two-four-zero, nominal to profile,” Jainon said.

  Tolby grinned. “We’re in the pipe, five by five.”

  The air grew hot and stifling, even more so when a new counter popped up on my screen, the time until landing—the time until impact was more like it. As best I could tell, this drop pod was a one-way sort of thing, and it wasn’t trying to come in gently whatsoever.

  “Your harnesses will disconnect automatically upon our arrival,” Tolby said as if giving a lecture to new recruits, which we more or less were. “I want you out of this pod and in position before your heart beats twice.”

  I was about to ask where exactly our position would be when all of a sudden a translucent display popped up on the visor to my helmet and gave the answer. What I was now presented with was a tactical battle map of our insertion point along with easy-to-read icons where not only I should be but where everyone else would be, too. “Well that’s handy,” I said, taking a moment to appreciate it all.

  “Very,” Tolby replied. “Now focus.”

  A retrograde rocket lit up beneath us and pressed us all into our seats as the ship slowed. I sucked in a breath and held it. All the while I tried to imagine what was about to take place. Did all marines have such jitters? Or was it just me because I was pretending to be one?

  “Range zero-one-four, coming up on final,” Tolby said. “Look sharp.”

  “I’ll bet you twenty rens there’s nothing,” Jainon said.

  “Done,” Tolby replied.

  The rocket increased its thrust for the last ten seconds, and I thought my spine was going to collapse due to the massive amounts of Gs we were taking in. My vision darkened and then tunneled. My body felt as if it wasn’t mine, and the entire experience became surreal, sort of like if one downed a dozen shots of Venetian whiskey and turned six sheets to the wind in less than two seconds.

  We slammed into the planet, and I bounced on my butt. Literally dazed upon impact, I flopped out of my seat as everyone else rushed out of the pod. By the time I regained my wits, I was alone in the pod with nothing but the sounds of battle to keep me company.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Welcome Back

  I raced out of the pod, heart blasting in my chest.

  The smell of ozone assaulted my nose, and the sounds of plasma fire crackled all around. Tolby, Jainon, and Jack were spread out, taking shots at a handful of Nodari swarmlings that charged down at us from the top of a small rise.

  None of them made it within fifty yards. They all were hit multiple times. Heads exploded. Legs were sheared off. Bodies became mangled. When it was all over, my eyes scanned our grassy surroundings, finger on the trigger of my carbine, but saw nothing.

  “Not so tough when they don’t have a hundred million of their friends around, huh?” I said, smiling.

  “If we stay here for more than a few minutes, that’ll change,” Tolby said grimly. “They undoubtedly saw the drop pod come in.”

  “Hopefully they won’t find our trail,” Jainon added.

  I fidgeted with my carbine. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It’s not,” Tolby replied. “Imagine a sea of those things following us wherever we go.”

  “Okay, so why are we standing here again?”

  “We’re not,” Tolby said as he hiked off.

  Half trotting, we made for the city. Over the course of the next couple kilometers, I didn’t see much of anything when I looked behind us, other than the gorgeous planetary landscape of gentle hills and lush flora. Looking forward, however, I could see the towering buildings off in the distance, silhouetted against the first rays of sunlight. That probably would’ve been a great view, too, if many of those buildings weren’t billowing thick clouds of smoke.

  Several times during our travels, Tolby or Jainon would stop, and their rifles would go up and their ears would flatten. Then we’d wait a tense couple dozen seconds before continuing on without a word.

  It wasn’t long before we reached a narrow suspension bridge that crossed the mighty Shaze River. Though I couldn’t see it from the small, rocky outcropping I’d ducked behind, I could hear the waters roaring. Had I not been in the covert military ops I’d managed to get myself into, I’d have been looking for a place to put in a kayak for some whitewater fun.

  “Bet you twenty rens there’s an ambush here,” Jainon whispered through the comm.

  “You already owe me twenty,” Tolby whispered back.

  “Then it’s double or nothing for you,” she replied without missing a beat.

  “Fine. I’ll take that bet.”

  Given the banter going on, I relaxed and laughed at my giant furball bud. “When did you start betting on anything?”

  “Since always. Why are you even surprised?” Tolby asked.

  “Because the only time I’ve seen you gamble was in a card game with me,” I said. “You lost interest in ten minutes and never wanted to play since.”

  “Only because you’re a bad player.”

  “I’m not a bad player.”

  “You blush every time you get anything over a straight,” he said. “That makes things boring.”

  “She does, does she?” Jack said with amusement. “Oh, Dakota, we have got to play some strip poker when this is done.”

  “Really? Can’t do any better than that?”

  Jack shrugged unapologetically. “Should I have suggested dinner first?”

  “That would’ve at least helped.”

  “Enough for you to play?”

  “Enough for me to weasel a free meal out of you.”

  “I smell something,” Jainon said, perking and twisting in place. She scanned the area behind us before grunting. “Swarmlings are on our trail. Far, but not for much longer.”

  Tolby sniffed the air, too, before nodding. “Then we cross right now.”

  My body stiffened. I was hardly a military genius, but if Jainon’s first words were accurate, the idea of running into an ambush seemed bad. It seemed even worse if somehow they had some gun-toting Nodari with them as well. “Should we maybe look for another crossing?”

  “There isn’t another for twenty kilometers,” Tolby said as he punched a few buttons, and a timer suddenly appeared in my visor. “We go in ten seconds. Stay sharp.”

  I checked and rechecked my carbine as Tolby’s countdown ticked away on the screen of my visor. I took a deep breath and tried to steady my nerves. How did I ever get myself mixed up in all of this? I only ever wanted to find artifacts, not firefights. Okay, that’s obviously not including spas and the perfect glass of wine.

  Waypoints and assigned fields of fire popped onto my screen. Tolby and Jack would be up front as Jainon and I brought up the rear.

  Tolby darted forward, and the rest of us followed right on his heels. Advancing on the bridge like a pro was a simple task, thanks to my handy tactical battle computer installed in my Kibnali armor. That said, my nerves still went into overdrive, and my hands shook.

  Tolby and Jack passed between the bridge towers on the near side without incident, as did Jainon and I. My hands tightened on my carbine, but still no attack came. Did I dare believe we’d get across without a shot fired? No. I didn’t.

  It wouldn’t be that easy.

  My eyes looked up, scrutinizing every detail of the suspension cables, but I saw nothing out of place.

  “A hundred meters
to go,” I whispered to myself as we crossed the halfway point.

  “Contact!”

  The shout was drowned out by alarms blaring in my helmet. Our squad’s vital signs flashed in the lower corner of my visor, heartbeats elevated, and breathing grew rapid. Diamond icons—each one representing a new target, a new threat—filled the rest of my faceplate. I tried to count them all but quickly gave up as scores of Nodari swarmlings came charging out of the brush on the other side toward us.

  Tolby and Jack each dropped to a knee, and their rifles met the seething mass of teeth and talon head on. Plasma fire flew with deadly precision. Tolby chucked a grenade, landing it in the middle of the swarm, and blasted them apart like tissue paper, but still the sea of fang and claw came.

  I darted to the side to get a better angle and contribute to the fight, but Tolby’s words blasted in my ears. “Watch the rear, Dakota!”

  I spun around right as a slew of more icons filled my visor. Nodari swarmlings bounded at us from whence we came, closing the distance with godlike speed. I fired madly, most of my shots not doing a damn thing other than draining my powerpack.

  Thankfully, Jainon was worth ten of me when it came to firefights. With exceptional precision, she drilled shot after shot into the oncoming horde. As she kept them at bay, movement caught my eye, and I looked up to see more of the creatures racing down the suspension cables.

  I shouted a warning, and then another half dozen swarmlings came up and over the sides of the bridge. Jack pivoted and ripped into them with his carbine.

  Time slowed, and the world became a surreal haze of frantic exchanges and the distant sound of Tolby’s orders.

  I tracked a Nodari running down the cable to my left. I fired twice, striking it in the front legs and sending it toppling over the side to the river below. Another followed the same line of attack, and I managed to kill it just the same. And then another, and another. Number three fell to a headshot from Jainon, while number four dropped from a single plasma round from Tolby.

  Two more dashed at me low along the railing. I fired as fast as I could, and the only thing running faster than they were seemed to be my ammo counter racing to zero. One moment it was in the fifties, and the next, it barely registered the twenties, but at least I’d managed to kill my latest two assailants.

  Another blur of movement was captured in the corner of my eye. I barely spun in time to see a swarmling flying through the air, its powerful jaws open and ready to snap through my neck in a single bite. I fell backward and tried to get my carbine up in time, but I was too slow. The creature slammed into me and knocked my weapon out of my hands. Trying to keep its jaws away from my face, I raised my left arm, which it promptly chomped on. My armor held, but when it shifted its bite, it found my hand and sank fang into flesh.

  Reflexively, I used my psychokinesis to shatter its skull. Its body went limp. I tried pushing it off, but waves of agony radiated down my left arm, freezing me in place. Teary-eyed, I sucked in a breath and managed to rid myself of the monster before coming to my feet.

  The fight on the bridge raged on. I scooped my weapon off the ground, but with my left hand mangled and wracked with pain, all I could do was keep it tucked against my midsection and fight one-handed.

  Surprisingly, I managed to shoot without blowing my own foot off—or anyone’s head for that matter. And when I drained my powerpack, I even managed to eject it and slam home a new one by pinning the weapon to my side with my left arm and using my right hand to finish the job. The moment I got it seated, a swarmling ran straight at me from down the cables. I whipped my gun around and fired three times in rapid succession.

  Two of the three missed, but the one that landed vaporized half its skull. The kill hardened my resolve. I could do this. I would do this.

  Grenades exploded behind me, and I could feel the heavy thump of air against my back. A glance over my shoulder showed that Tolby and Jack still held the front, but as fast as they were firing, too, I couldn’t help but wonder when all of their power packs would be spent.

  I shook my head, realizing I couldn’t worry about such things. I had to keep firing, had to hold the rear and pray that the Nodari numbers would run out before our weapons went silent.

  Jainon roared next to me. Whether it was out of fear or enjoyment from the killing frenzy, I couldn’t tell. Then again, maybe it was born from both.

  More swarmlings came. More died. Powerpacks from all of us dropped to the ground, empty.

  I took aim at another who raced down the cables, and squeezed the trigger. I drilled it dead center, causing it to fall. When it hit the ground, I realized there was a lull in the action. A few bursts from Tolby put down the last swarmling that ran at us, and a few similar shots rang out from Jainon, but after that, all was quiet.

  I dared a glance to the sky, feeling like any moment chaos would return and perhaps this time, it wouldn’t be four-legged monsters but flying nightmares come to snatch us away. Thankfully, all I could see were clouds hanging lazily above.

  “Clear?” Tolby asked, not moving from his position.

  “Clear,” Jainon replied.

  Jack repeated the answer, and finally I did the same, once I realized I needed to sound off.

  “That’s double you owe me,” Jainon said, lowering her rifle. As Tolby eyed her, she came over to him and nudged him with her hip. “You can work it off, though.”

  A Nodari swarmling dropped next to me. Its skin swelled, and an instant later, it exploded.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A Nice Little Dip

  I flew backward, the force of the blast sending me over the bridge railing. A scream escaped my lips an instant before I hit the cold, dark rivers below. I shot to the surface as fast as I could, sputtering once I reached the air. My armor filled with water and pulled me back under.

  The current was far stronger than I could hope to match, but I fought regardless. I’d survived Mister Cyber Squid, Goliath, swaths of Nodari and Nekrael, so a stupid river wasn’t going to do me in. My feet hit the river bottom, and when they did, I kicked, and kicked hard. Again, I surfaced. Again, my lungs gasped for air. My heart thundered in my chest, and my eyes focused on my objective. The shore was maybe thirty meters away.

  The survivor inside me took over and demanded long, powerful strokes that moved me forward. But it wasn’t enough. It took only a few moments to realize my armor would be the end of me.

  I sucked in the largest breath of air I could and allowed myself to sink under once again. As I did, my hands fumbled for the quick release straps. My greaves came of first, and my legs rejoiced at their newfound freedom before driving me to the surface.

  Another gulp of air. Another dip under the river. I knew my chest piece would have to go next. My hands reached up to my shoulders, and I yanked the locking straps hard.

  To my dismay and panic, the straps held fast, and the armor did not break away. My body slammed into a rock, and a rib cracked when I bounced off a second one.

  Thankfully, I had the presence of mind not to exhale.

  A third rock hit me in the head. My helmet absorbed most of the impact, but it jarred me nonetheless. I felt myself tumbling along the riverbed, but I managed to right myself and push off one last time. Once I broke the surface, I tore at my straps again.

  Thanks be to the Kibnali gods at that point, for my entire chest piece broke away. With the last bit of energy I could muster, I swam for the shore. When I reached it, I dragged myself out and collapsed in a heap.

  My arm still felt cold from telekinetically punching that toothy monster, so since I was only a foot from the water, I rolled and flopped my left arm in to recharge my Progenitor batteries.

  I welcomed the flow of energy up my left arm and sank into the warm feeling. Exhaustion took over, and I let my eyes rest for a moment.

  * * *

  Someone clamped down on my shoulders.

  “Dakota!”

  The name, though strange in my mind, triggered a small thr
ead of recognition.

  “Dakota, damn it, wake up.”

  A dream involving me playing xenoarchaeologist as a kid and discovering lost Progenitor tech faded away, and I realized I was lying on my back, looking at a blurry sky with an equally blurry silhouette above me.

  “At least she’s not dead,” said a voice, distant and vaguely familiar.

  “Come on, Dakota, wake up. You still owe me a root beer.”

  I rubbed my eyes, and once I regained some of my focus, I saw Tolby standing over me with my carbine in hand with Jainon at his side. “What happened?” I asked.

  “Nodari xenocide,” he replied.

  I sat up and stared at him blankly. “A what?”

  “A living bomb,” Tolby said. “Xenocide. Kamikaze. Whatever you want to call it. The Nodari have mutated into such things every now and again.”

  Jainon helped me to my feet. “Are you hurt?”

  I looked myself over. Thankfully, I appeared mostly intact, headache and some nausea aside—presumably from hitting my head a few times during my impromptu whitewater excursion. “Other than getting mauled on the bridge, I’m okay,” I said, raising my left hand so they could see my injuries.

  Tolby didn’t share my enthusiasm. Neither did Jainon. The handmaiden took my upper arm in a vise grip with one paw and, with the other, manipulated my hand so she could get a better view.

  “Ow! That flipping hurts!” I said, instinctively trying to pull away, try being the keyword.

  “This doesn’t look good,” she said to Tolby. “Give her a test.”

  “A test for what?”

  “Swarmling venom,” she said. “Stomach churning yet? Double vision?”

  “Not…a lot,” I said, voice wavering. I didn’t like them treating this as if the grim reaper had saddled up to my side. “But I did hit my head a few times coming down that river. It’s probably from that.”

  “Pray that’s all it is,” he said as he whipped a small tablet off his belt. It had a rectangular blue display on the bottom and a number of round buttons across the top. From the side came a thin silver needle that he pulled free and jabbed into my shoulder. “Don’t move.”