Abyss Of Savagery

by Toby Neighbors

  “Watch out for rogue aliens getting close to the ship,” Dean ordered.

  The Viper platoon was soon scrambling up the ramp toward Dean. He helped the first few get onto the hull, then turned his attention back to the sky just in time to see a trio of Kroll diving toward them. Dean fired his EMR rifle in a quick succession of shots, hitting the first two aliens who then crashed into the third. They all went down hard as Dean climbed quickly up and over the hump of the ship’s hull.

  “Admiral, we are clear for takeoff,” Dean said. “I repeat, we are clear for takeoff.”

  He hooked the strap of his utility rifle over a protrusion in the hull, then slipped the rifle over his head and under his arms like a safety harness. Then he brought his EMR to bear and fired off four more shots before he was forced to reload.

  The ship began to move, and Dean felt a thrill of fear. He knew his armor would protect him from the elements, even hard vacuum, but he still felt exposed on the hull of the ship.

  “We’ve got a breech!” someone inside the ship shouted. “Man down.”

  “The aliens are getting inside!” Adkins called out. “Form up on me.”

  Dean brought up Adkins’ vid feed and heard his friend grunt as one of the ferocious aliens slammed into his shield. It then raised up, its wide mouth open to snap down on Adkins’ head—when suddenly a long, curved kukri stabbed through its open mouth and into its brain.

  Chavez jerked his knife free and shouted, “Keep the Urgglatta moving!”

  Dean saw the staff sergeant sag against the corner of the big outer bay doors. One hand was holding his utility rifle, the other was by the safety switch that would seal up the ship. Dean knew if the bay doors closed completely it would be difficult to get back inside. His attention was drawn to a duo of Kroll racing by. He winged one of the flying aliens and then turned to look back inside.

  “Clear!” Adkins shouted.

  The call was echoed by other members of the Wolfpack and Viper platoons, but there were at least ten dead Urgglatta and perhaps that many feline aliens.

  “Staff Sergeant,” Dean said. “Form up at the inner bay doors and hold that position.”

  “I’m on it, Major,” Chavez said through ragged gasps for breath.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “One of those damn heifers stepped on my foot,” Chavez said. “I think she broke it with her fat ass.”

  “We’re almost home, Staff Sergeant,” Dean said. “Hang in there a little longer.”

  The ship was nearly a hundred feet off the ground and rising. The Kroll were circling like carrion birds about to pounce on a free meal. Dean kept shooting, as did every other Recon Specialist on the hull, but they were sorely outnumbered. The only thing keeping them alive was the fact that the Kroll could do little to stop the ship that was rising up. It took five minutes to reach ten thousand feet, and as the Bushido continued to rise, the Kroll dropped away.

  “Looks like we’re clear,” Dean said, taking a deep breath and then sighing in relief.

  “Well then get your ass back inside,” Esma snarled. “The other ships are under attack, over!”

  “Roger that, we’re on the move,” Dean said, realizing he had been so consumed with the battle on the ground that he hadn’t heard the alerts over the command channel.

  Chapter 42

  Getting back inside the ship wasn’t simple. The doors that allowed the tentacles to extend were still open, and Dean shimmied into one of the openings and then helped other specialists until they were all inside the ship. They moved quickly back through the inner bay doors and sealed the large section that was filled with telescoping, articulated tentacle arms.

  Chavez was limping back up to the aviary, and Dean raced past him. He climbed the closest ladder up and into the aviary, where a herd of Urgglatta was cowering together. Dean ran around them and up onto the command deck just as the Bushido broke out of the planet’s atmo.

  “Where are they?” Dean asked, moving up beside Admiral Matsumoto, who was studying the plot.

  “Everywhere, I’m afraid,” he replied calmly. “The Moses was effective with the nuclear warheads, destroying five out of eight Kroll longships, but the other seed ships either didn’t reach their targets or the bombs didn’t detonate. She’s running back this way, but there’s a swarm of tug vessels in close pursuit. Unless they are very lucky, the crew will be overrun with aliens soon.”

  “And the Dodge City?” Dean asked.

  “None of her nukes engaged,” Matsumoto said sadly. “The tugs were much more versatile than we’ve seen before. The operators were simply out-flown. Several of the tugs landed on the DC. They had Kroll inside, not the feline aliens. Masterson is leading them away from our position, but I’m afraid the Dodge City is lost.”

  Dean felt a knot of fear in his stomach as he looked at the nearly two dozen enemy ships on the plot. Seven were following the Dodge City away from the planet. Another four were tailing the Moses. The rest, twelve all told, were making straight for the ring portion of the Bushido that was still in orbit.

  “We have to get to the ring before the enemy ships,” Dean said.

  “That’s not possible, Dean,” Esma said. “They’ve got the speed advantage, and reconnecting the ships is difficult under the best of conditions. It will take too long to reconnect.”

  “But we can’t leave without the others,” Dean said.

  “No,” the admiral said. “We don’t have enough power to get home. Without the ring ship, we are lost.”

  “Captain Grant,” Dean said over the command channel. “How many seed ships do we have left on board, over?”

  “Eight, sir,” Grant said. “I’m hearing disturbing things out there, over.”

  “Yes, it looks like you’ll be boarded, Captain. You have to hold off those aliens until we can reattach to you and get the hell out of here, over.”

  “Yes sir, we’ll give ’em hell sir, over.”

  “Grant, focus your defense around the controllers. We can’t let anything happen to them. Do you understand, over?”

  “Roger that, Major. Raptor platoon is ready for war. First in the fight, sir. Over.”

  “Tip of the spear,” Dean chanted back. “Good luck, Captain. Wish I were there to help. Wolfpack out.”

  Dean felt like he was failing. It had been his idea to stay, and suddenly it seemed like that decision had sealed the fate of the entire task force. Even worse, Dean had worked so hard and risked so much to earn Captain Grant’s trust, and when the man needed him most, Dean was unable to help.

  “The ring is deploying seed ships,” the radar officer called out.

  “Operators, this is Major Dean, designating targets.”

  For a moment it seemed that perhaps the Kroll had made a mistake. They were converging on the ring, bunching up to deploy as many tug vessels as possible in a small area in the hopes of blocking the seed ships with the nuclear payloads.

  “They’re adapting to our tactics,” Admiral Matsumoto said.

  “But not perfectly,” Dean replied. “Operators, move down and away from the incoming ships. Loop back up and around them.”

  “Sir, won’t that leave us vulnerable?”

  “There’s no stopping the Kroll from boarding the ring,” Dean said. “The only question is if we can deliver your payloads first. I want you to come at the Kroll ships at top speed. Detonate on impact.”

  “Won’t that minimize the damage the nuclear weapons can do?” Matsumoto said.

  “At this point, we aren’t hoping for total annihilation; we just need to disable the Kroll so we can escape.”

  “We’ve reached orbit,” Esma called out from the top of the gravity drive where the ship’s controls were located. “Awaiting orders.”

  “Move us higher, toward the pole of the planet,” Dean said. “Fast orbit.”

  “You want us to fly around the planet?” Matsumoto asked, obviously mystified by Dean’s orders.

  “If the seed ships don’t stop the Krol
l, we have to get away,” Dean said.

  “But we don’t have enough power,” the admiral said.

  “We’ll slingshot around the planet and make our way out of the system.”

  “To what end?”

  “Our job at this point is to ensure we have possibilities,” Dean said. “I don’t know what we’ll do if we get away, but I don’t want to fail for lack of trying.”

  “Do it!” Matsumoto ordered. “Prepare for slingshot maneuver. Calculate best trajectory away from the Kroll vessels.”

  “Task force, this is the Dodge City,” Admiral Masterson’s voice came over the command channel. “Looks like we’ve reached the end of the line.”

  “Whats the status on your Recon platoon?” Dean asked.

  “Lieutenant Seebert gave the Kroll all the fight they could handle, but eventually the Kroll managed to pin them all down with that goo they spit. A few of them are in the aviary circling the bridge. I’m slowing down and will scuttle the ship. It was a pleasure serving with you all.”

  Dean didn’t know what to say. There were so many things happening all at once, and Dean felt helpless. He was alternating between the plot and the vid feeds from the cameras on the ship’s hull that were capturing the action all around them.

  “Admiral, the enemy ships are converging on the Dodge City,” the radar controller called out, which was completely unnecessary in Dean’s mind. They were all watching the plot and could see what was happening to the beleaguered longship.

  With no warning whatsoever, the Dodge City detonated its final nuclear bomb. The DC went nova, and the shockwave slammed into the Kroll ships that had gathered around their captured prey. As Dean watched in shock at the sudden loss of a friend and colleague, he saw several of the enemy ships crash into one another. At least five of the seven ships that had followed the Dodge City seemed unable to correct their trajectory. It was impossible to see from that distance, but Dean imagined he could see atmosphere venting from the hodgepodge vessels.

  “We have contact,” said someone on the Moses.

  “Lieutenant Jefferies,” Dean said. “Prepare for the tug ships to be manned by the Kroll. They will fly and spew their gooey mucus. Strong defensive measures are indicated.”

  “Roger that, Major,” the lieutenant said, but Dean could hear the fear in the Recon officer’s voice.

  Dean knew the Rhinos had struggled to stop the feline aliens, and the Kroll were bigger, more versatile, and much more intelligent fighters.

  “Admiral, the ring only launched seven seed ships,” the radar officer commented.

  “I thought they had eight warheads?” Matsumoto said.

  “I checked and double-checked; only seven launched.”

  “What are the tug ships from the Kroll advance doing?” Dean asked.

  “About half their number have followed—easily a hundred ships.”

  “Admiral,” someone else called out. “The Kroll ships chasing the Dodge City are breaking up.”

  Dean glanced at the camera and could see scores of small sections of the Kroll longships spinning outward into space.

  “They’ve jettisoned everything from the aviaries,” Dean said. “We’ve seen it before.”

  “You are saying they aren’t destroyed?” Matsumoto asked.

  “Unfortunately not,” Dean said. “They’ll live to fight another day.”

  “And so shall we,” the admiral declared. “So shall we.”

  Chapter 43

  “We’re being overrun!” Lieutenant Jefferies cried out. “I’ve lost half my platoon.”

  “Fight like hell, Lieutenant,” Dean snarled. “That entire ship is depending on you.”

  But even as Dean said the words he knew they were worthless. There was too much fear in the Recon officer’s voice and too many Kroll ships crowding the Moses.

  “They are slowing down,” Matsumoto said.

  “They have one nuke left,” Dean said solemnly.

  “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee,” Admiral Aviv said on the open channel.

  Dean saw everyone in the aviary, even the refugee Urgglatta, looking around as the voice boomed from the loud speakers that had been set up near the bridge.

  “And strengthen me, I pray thee—only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”

  A moment later, the Moses was consumed in a flash of light and flame that vaporized the tug vessels swarming around her and knocked the pursuing Kroll vessels off course by the shockwave.

  Dean turned all his attention back to the ring section of the Bushido, which was about to be boarded by scores of Kroll tug ships.

  “Captain Grant, you have multiple contacts,” Dean said.

  “And plenty of ammo,” the arrogant officer said. “Wish I could say it’s been a pleasure, sir, but in all honesty, I wish I’d never come on this godforsaken mission. You’ve got a hell of a punch, Major, I’ll give you that. And you’re a canny fighter. Good luck getting back home.”

  Dean wasn’t sure what to say. He felt horrible at the thought of the Raptors fighting so many Kroll at once. But he also had hope. The ring portion of the ship was nothing more than a wide walkway, a curving corridor lined on one side by the holding cells and on the other side by the bulkhead that would reconnect to the harvester section of the ship. If Grant positioned his platoon correctly, they could concentrate their fire in opposite directions and hold the Kroll back.

  “Grant, set up your platoon—”

  “Oh, hell no,” Grant said angrily. “I’ll be damned if I let you tell me how to run my platoon now, Major.”

  Dean shook off the insult and turned his attention back to the seed ships. They were moving fast and almost in position. Dean could see the designations for each ship on the plot.

  “Echo three and Echo four, fly straight between the enemy ships and detonate on my command, over,” Dean ordered.

  “Roger that, command. Awaiting your order.”

  Dean could hear shooting over the controller’s comlink. It took all of his willpower not to ask what was happening. He knew what the Kroll would do. They would distract Grant’s platoon while they found a way to outflank him. They didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver, but he guessed they would find a way—and then the crew of the ring ship would be overrun. It felt to Dean as if he were being forced to witness his folly. Already two entire ships had been destroyed, more than half of the total crew. It didn’t matter to Dean that they had destroyed scores of Kroll ships; all he could think about were the men and women who had obeyed his orders. It had cost them their lives.

  “Now, Echo three. Now Echo four.”

  The explosions between the ships that were bunched together sent them slamming hard into each other. Five more seed ships detonated on impact with the flanks of the Kroll line of ships. The seed ships blasted the Kroll ships apart and sent them smashing into one another. Only seven nuclear warheads had been used, but all twelve of the Kroll ships were destroyed. Dean watched for a long moment on the vid screen with a tiny feeling of satisfaction that his tactics had been superior to his enemy’s, but it was a sour victory.

  The Bushido was dropping behind the planet, and Dean watched as more and more Kroll ships made contact with the ring section of the ship on the far side. And then—without warning—it too exploded in nuclear fire, destroying well over a hundred Kroll tug ships. Dean turned away, looking down, feeling as if he were going to be sick. His platoon and the Vipers were gathered below the command deck, watching the battle on the vid screens, surrounded by the rest of the crew and the refugee Urgglatta.

  Maybe it was arrogance, he thought to himself. He had been so sure that his strategy and tactics were right. Private Loggins was gone, a casualty to the Kroll on the Urgglatta home world, his body left behind. Dean wasn’t sure, but it looked as though Captain Ortega had lost four platoon members herself.

  “What’s our telemetry and speed?” Matsumoto said.

  “On track for slingshot,”
the navigation officer said. “Speed is one-quarter light speed and building.”

  “Excellent, we should escape the system,” Matsumoto said.

  Dean wanted to scream. He wanted to shout his fears and languish over his failures, but instead he shook his doubts aside and walked slowly down the stairs from the command deck. The Recon platoons parted, but they all reached out to touch his shoulders. Behind him, Dean heard the radar officer declare that some thirty tug vessels were moving to intercept them. Dean had no idea what their plan was, but he understood their intent. He wanted vengeance, but he also wanted to get as many of the crew members around him to safety as possible.

  “Captain Ortega,” Dean said, his voice sounding strange to his own ears.

  “Sir?”

  “Where are the Urgglatta archives?”

  “We saw no archives, Major,” Ortega admitted. “If the Urgglatta have it, they must be hiding it.”

  Dean walked over to the herd of frightened-looking bovine aliens.

  “Who among you understands our language?” Dean asked the herd of Urgglatta.

  One moved forward, nodding its head. It reminded Dean of an act he’d seen once at a circus where a trained horse would ‘answer’ questions asked by its trainer, nodding its head up or down, and counting out numbers by pawing one hoof on the ground.

  “We don’t have a lot of power left on this vessel,” Dean said. “We need to get to a safe planet. One with atmosphere that we can all breathe. Is it possible that in your vast knowledge you might know of a world where we can take shelter?”

  The Urgglatta moved forward, walking past Dean and moving toward the nav station on the bridge.

  “Hey, what the hell?” the navigation officer declared.

  “Back up, lieutenant,” Dean ordered. “He’s here to help.”

  The Urgglatta began to move its head to one side, over and over. For a moment Dean was stumped, and then it hit him.

  “Can you move us over, to the right?” he asked the navigation officer.

  The officer sat back down and slowly swiped his touch-sensitive console screen, moving to the right. The Urgglatta’s head started moving up.