“Annabelle,” I said, swallowing hard as I steadied myself, “how fast can I move in this thing?”
“How fast?” she asked, seemingly confused by the question.
“If I divert the energy to vibrational movements within the suit, would I be able to shake fast enough to phase through this damn glass?”
I balled my hands into fists, realizing my idea was pretty damn crazy. The suit’s ability to induce vibrational movement was meant as a defense against sonic weaponry, not shake someone to a different vibrational plane, but there was a first time for everything.
“Scanning database for scientific information that might serve to better answer this question,” she said. A beat later, she added, “General information tells me that you will either succeed in your endeavor or destroy both of us from the inside out in your attempt.”
“Percentage chances?”
“Seventy to thirty.”
“Do I want to know which side of that equation me staying alive is on?”
“Probably not, Lieutenant Ryder.”
A loud boom sounded again. This time, the door separating us from the room where Rayne was being held opened. Smoke billowed from out of it and through that smoke walked a goddamn Acburian soldier.
“Guess I’m going to have to take my chances, Annabelle,” I said, the breath catching in my throat. “Let’s get to shaking.”
9
A thousand thoughts moved through my head as the order I gave Annabelle took shape. None of them made sense. This was a secure Bullet ship on a covert mission so secret that no one outside of the people involved and the damn head of the entire Alliance was even supposed to know about it. How the fuck did an Acburian wind up inside the ship, and why did it wait until we were in the most inconvenient of positions to attack?
This screamed of a set-up, of someone shooting us up into space in order to die, but who would do that, and why?
Like me, each member of Artemis Squad seemed totally stunned by the sight of a bug in what was supposed to be a secure area. No longer were Claire and Jill trying to bust out of their containment. Without their suits to protect them and provide a source of offense, the pods were their best bet in staying safe.
Of course, those pods wouldn’t keep them safe. Mina and I knew as much. Whoever was responsible for dropping a bug in our proverbial laps did so with a purpose, and us surviving was almost certainly not part of that purpose.
I thought about Rayne, up there in the upper area. Sedated to remain calm and with the ship on lockdown, she was very likely dead already. She would, for all intents and purposes, sleep through her own murder. Not that it would matter. In fact, it was probably for the best. A scientist wouldn’t stand a chance against a bug the size of the one that was standing in front of me now. Rayne going painlessly was probably better than the alternative.
Rage filled me. The idea that she could die so close to fulfilling her goal was even more unfair to me than the rest of this unfair universe.
“I’m coming for you,” I told the bug (who couldn’t hear me through the glass) as my body began to shake. To be fair, even if he could have heard me, he wouldn’t have been able to understand me. My voice was a shaky mess of a thing with my body vibrating as quickly as it was.
The world started to melt away, to blend together and disappear into a mesh of vibrant colors and sounds. My stomach started doing flips and instantly sent me to dry heaving. Luckily, I hadn’t eaten anything for at least a day and, even better, I blew right past nausea as the vibrations intensified.
Every piece of me vibrated. Even my teeth felt soft and temporary as I struggled to breath.
I tried to speak, but words wouldn’t come. Luckily, Annabelle was connected to my brainstem and read my unspoken question. ”Just a bit more, Lieutenant Ryder,” she answered. “0.3 seconds and your vibrational wavelength will meet the requirements to phase through the pod.” She waited for a beat before adding emotionlessly, “If your organs don’t melt first that is.”
I couldn’t let that happen. Mina, Claire, and Jill were too important to me for that. And Rayne; well, that woman was too important to the whole damn world. Pain shot through me as my body shook even harder, with even more ferocity. I knew I had to push past it though. I knew I needed to man up, to do what I had to do, to do what all those little grassfeds back in the Alliance Halls who grew up on tall tales of me would imagine I would do in this situation.
I had to get it done.
I felt a burning grow in my insides; bright, vibrant, and equally as horrible.
“Now, Lieutenant Ryder,” Annabel’s said into my brain, though now even the words streaming straight into my mind sounded fuzzy and unclear.
I tried to breathe as I reached my hand out toward the glass. Air didn’t come, of course. My body was moving too quickly for that. It was moving too quickly for anything.
The bug was marching toward me. No, not to me, to the eject button behind me in the far corner of the room. The ugly thing, tall with an elongated head and scythes for arms, moved directly and with purpose. That meant he knew where he was going and for what reason, which meant he had been directed.
This was all set up. Not a series of unfortunate events, this was a plan in motion.
My heart leaped (not easy to do at the rate at which it was currently beating) when my hand, buzzing and vibrating, passed harmlessly through the glass. Quickly, pushing through the pain and discomfort, I thrust the rest of myself forward. I moved through the glass cell as though it wasn’t even there, as though I was a ghost milling about an old house hoping for days that would never come again.
Without the casing to steady me, I fell forward, though thankfully I was able to steady myself.
“Reverting to normal speeds,” Annabelle said, still muffled into my brain.
“No!” I said in response, though it was more of a thought at this point. “I have an idea.”
“Lieutenant Ryder, your body and, to a lesser extent, this suit is already pushed well beyond its limits. To continue at this rate would only serve to –”
“It’ll only be a second,” I answered as I moved toward the bug.
The Acburian was still heading toward the eject pad, but its pace was no longer relaxed, almost gloating. Seeing me free, it was going into high gear, and all it had to do was touch that button to win, at least in its compound eyes. Normally, a complex set of movements would need to be followed in order to initiate ejection protocol. We were on lockdown though, an emergency state. That meant a single stroke of that red button would send three of the strongest woman I had ever known out to their deaths.
“Not on my watch,” I muttered.
I beat the bug to it, interposing my vibrating self in front of the Acburian. The bug hissed, its scythe-arms rising to cut me down, but not nearly quick enough. I jutted my still vibrating hand through the bug’s chest and out the back of him.
It passed through harmlessly, which was the entire point.
“Now, Annabelle!” I said in my head. “Cut vibrations now!”
Instantly, I jutted to a stop. My entire body jerked to a hold, and as the world returned to normal, so did I. Most importantly, so did my arm.
The newfound mass inside the mass of the bug’s chest proved to be unexempt from basic laws of physics. Two bodies cannot occupy the same space and given that my body materialized inside of that bug’s, he was on the losing end of the bargain.
In one fell swoop, I blew a hole through the damn thing’s chest and right out the back. He squeaked as the wound killed him instantly, and I grimaced a little as I shook the husk that used to be him off my arm, now covered in awful black bug goo.
The things I did for my people.
Turning back to Mina, I asked, “Are you guys all right?”
She looked at me with wide eyes. “That was…” She sighed heavy. “Goddamn.”
“You’re welcome,” I grinned. Before I could say more, an explosion sounded from the open bulkhead door to the fron
t of the ship, shaking the entire thing again. “Rayne!”
Without another word, I rushed off into the smoke-filled compartment.
10
The entire front section of the ship was shrouded in a torrent of smoke. Luckily, given the alien atmospheres we Infinity Marines are faced with on just about every mission, my suit automatically filtered out anything harmful that might be roaming the air. Air filtration didn’t make for a clear visual, though. The entire area was one big, very dark cloud.
“Annabelle,” I said, feeling a rush of heat hit me as I crossed through the still open doorway, “get me the best visual filters you can for in here, and tell me where Rayne is!”
My body was still feeling the after-effects of my hyper-vibrational stunt. I was jittery, shaky. My eyes were a touch out of focus, and my ears were ringing loudly. Luckily, for all the decidedly human disadvantages I had going on right now, Annabelle seemed no worse for the wear. A good thing, too, considering the absolute reaming I would have gotten from Della if I’d have returned my suit all banged up after trying something as foolhardy as what I’d just done.
“Affirmative, Lieutenant Ryder,” Annabelle replied, and in an instant, my vision changed from visual light to thermal. The heat signatures I could now see told me three things.
First, this room was absolutely filled with fire. Splotches of bright red and orange flame dotted my vision. They were everywhere, and growing by the second.
Secondly, the body of a woman was strapped into a medical slab on the far end of the chamber. Given the fact that Rayne was sedated, I could deduce it was her and not the pilot. Luckily, her heat signature told me she was alive and if the color of the glow she was emitting had anything to say about it, somehow unharmed.
Of course, that might change because the third thing I saw was a shape standing over her, hand raised and ready to take her out.
I grimaced as I took all of it in, not least of which was the fact that the shape I was now looking at wasn’t Acburian at all. This was no bug, no expected enemy. The form standing over the person who was likely mankind’s best hope for salvation from the ever-encroaching bug threat was unmistakably human.
The truth sent spasms of disgust through my gut. What kind of person would do this? Who would side with alien bugs over their own kind, over their own planet and her people?
The answer, of course, was an idiot and also probably the pilot of the Bullet ship. It was the only conclusion that made any sense. Transport pilots were capable of beaming people and goods into the ship in very much the same way my suit could beam me upgrades and weaponry from Alliance Hall. If a plan had been put into place to get a bug on this ship and use that bug to kill everyone onboard, the pilot would have had to be in on that, and that made him my enemy.
“Annabelle, plain old-fashioned energy blast,” I said, raising my hand open-palmed at the pilot-blob. He was holding something. I could tell by the way his fingers seemed to wrap around something and the heft in which he moved. Still, whatever it was didn’t have any heat signature, so it was invisible to me.
I aimed my blast for just past his hand, at whatever that weapon was. Better to strip him of it first before going at him personally. Long range weaponry was too good for him. I meant to kick his ass the straightforward way, with my fists and fury.
The blast slammed into the man’s mystery weapon, knocking it out of his hands. He was already moving forward though, momentum granted him by the weapon. He fell forward, unable to stop himself, and slammed against something surrounding Rayne. It glowed bright red, brighter than anything else in the room. He screamed when he hit it, and I heard the man sizzle before he pulled himself away.
Genius. The Alliance eggheads had outfitted Rayne with some sort of security system, some kind of energy field to dissuade unauthorized contact. The pilot obviously wasn’t authorized for that contact. Rayne was safe for the moment, especially since I was about to kick this sonofabitch’s ass from stem to stern.
“Your bug is dead,” I said, walking over to the traitor. I watched him tense as he heard my voice, his head turning as he looked around the smoke-filled room. “I killed him, but don’t worry,” I continued through gritted teeth. “You’re about to join him.”
The pilot lifted his arm and something on it blazed with a bright red light, burning nearly as brightly as the shell surrounding Rayne. It was so bright and so focused that I had to command Annabelle to cool it with the thermal vision. It was a good thing too because, as the ship shifted back to a regular view, I saw the pilot had used whatever that light was to burn away the smoke.
Blinking, I got a good look at the bastard. He was younger than me, but not a grassfed by any stretch of the imagination. He had an ugly ass goatee and sunken cheeks that seemed to scream for a sandwich. His hand was covered by a metal glove, glowing red. It was Alliance tech, I could tell from the make of it, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
“You people are all the same,” the pilot said, spittle at the corners of his mouth. “You Marines all think good is good and wrong and wrong like there isn’t any in between.”
“Yeah,” I scoffed. “I don’t really give a damn about your ideology, you unimaginable moron. You’re a liar, a traitor and, worse than that, a failure.”
I shook my head as I looked at the man, lying on the ground, his chest red and raw from the contact with Rayne’s shield. “You did manage to fool the Alliance. I’ll give you that much. What did that take anyway? You have to kill somebody to get a valid government issued I.D.? How long have you worked for the Alliance? Did you really work yourself all the way up to transport pilot just for this moment? If so, I’m impressed. You hippie-dippie motherfuckers are more driven than I give you credit for.”
I was almost on him now, watching the glow on his pathetic glove brighten with my nearness. It wouldn’t do him any good. “It’s a shame really. You worked so hard, waited so long, and now you’re going to fail. And the freakiest part is because you’re going to fail, your people are going to survive. Hell, the whole world might just survive.”
“Who are you to say who gets to survive?” The pilot choked back tears of either pain or rage, I wasn’t sure which. “Who are you to decide who gets to have our world? It belonged to the insects before it belonged to us, you Neanderthal. It was only a matter of time before they took it back, before they took what was theirs.”
“They’re not going to,” I shot back quickly, “and it’s all because you forgot my suit isn’t like the others and because you thought some little glove would be a match for me.” I leaned forward. “Finally, to answer your question about who I am, I’m Mark Ryder, bitch, and I’m about to show you exactly what that means.”
The pilot started to laugh uncontrollably.
“You pleading insanity or something?” I scoffed. “Because I’m not a judge, you piece of trash, and I’m not interested in showing you mercy.”
“I’m not laughing because of that,” the pilot said, still chuckling. “I’m laughing because you think this is a glove.” He shook his head. “It’s not a glove, Mark Ryder,” he said, disdain dripping off his voice as he spoke my name. “It’s a bomb.”
And, just like that, the pilot exploded, taking half the front of the ship with him.
11
Instincts took over as the fire and flames washed off my armor’s shields, pushing me to leap toward the still unconscious Rayne.
It wasn’t training. In fact, it was the exact opposite of that. As Infinity Marines, we weren’t tasked with saving others out in the field. We were to keep ourselves safe and, more to the point, keep our suits safe and running. The idea of sacrificing ourselves and the fortune worth of tech and extraterrestrial metal encompassing us to save another person was in direct opposition to what the Alliance wanted from us.
Still, despite being one of the Alliance’s bright shining lights, I had never been very good at taking orders.
Rayne needed saving and, even if she hadn’t been someone I’
d shared time and swapped spit with, she’d have gotten it from me. Still, as I lunged toward her, heat blooming behind me as the explosion spread across the bay and adding to the rings of fire that already in this room, I remembered just how safe she was.
The shell that had burned the fuck out of the pilot as he tried to save her flared back to vibrant life at the sign of trouble.
A spurt of maneuvering thrusters pulled me to a stop mid-jump. I turned around to survey the damage. I didn’t need to though. I could already hear the whoosh of air behind me, the loud roar that told me a hole that been blown into the Bullet ship. It had been compromised fatally. We were going down, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Still, with some luck, I could slow it down. “Webbing. Psionic webbing. I have that now, don’t I?”
I searched my brain, trying to remember whether or not I had decided to splurge for what I saw as an unnecessary luxury item a few years ago. Luckily, as Annabelle answered, it turned out I was just as lavish with my spending as I’d imagined I might have been.
“Seven entire spools at last count, Lieutenant Ryder,” Annabelle reported.
“Excellent,” I responded. “I want it all aimed at this hole. I want to plug the damn thing up.”
“Scans show the hole you’re speaking of is more of a complete lack of a nose, Lieutenant Ryder,” Annabelle clarified, her voice in my head the only thing that could possibly come in any louder than the air vacuum that explosion had created.
Looking forward, I saw that she was right. With the last bits of smoke pulling out of the room (along with all the oxygen), I could see that the entire nose of the Bullet ship had been blown off.
“I’m afraid psionic webbing won’t be enough to stop the ship from crashing. At present, there is a 99.979 percent crash of a crash landing, Lieutenant Ryder.”
“I understand that, Annabelle,” I said as I mentally instructed her to activate the gravity clamps on my boots. Between that, the remaining artificial gravity of the ship, and my suit’s actuators, I wouldn’t blow out the hole myself. “But, given the fact that there are still four women in this ship that are helpless as a bunch of cats on a mountain peak, I need to buy myself enough time to get them out of here.”
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