The Fifth Column Boxed Set

by J. N. Chaney

  My wrist unit buzzed silently, indicating it was time. Guy 2 wasn’t quite where I wanted him, but he was headed that way instead of toward us, which would have to do. I checked on Guy 1 next.

  “LT, the mark is on a trajectory to pass your position.”

  I didn’t have to tell him what to do. From my position I could see Guy 2 walking down the middle of his zone, eyes scanning dispassionately. It happened fast. One second he was upright and the next he was gone, pulled down without so much as a yelp.

  The rustling of a short struggle came over the comm, then subsided.

  “Give me your security credentials to get inside the house,” Tyndell growled, the menacing tone a far cry from the man who had told us about meeting the love of his life only two nights before. “No? That’s fine, I have four more to choose from.”

  Guy 2 whimpered. I couldn’t see the exchange because I was keeping an eye on the rest of the guards, waiting for audio confirmation from Mack or the lieutenant.

  I got it within seconds. Tyndell dragged the unconscious guard out of sight near the trees, just outside the red inner perimeter. I caught up to him and helped cover the man with one of the camo sheets.

  “Guy 2 is coming back around,” Mack warned as Farah and Calliope joined us.

  Tyndell handed me a small metal cuff and waved at the house. I nodded to say I understood, then stepped cautiously toward the security scanner. The lieutenant had the same handheld version we’d used the first night and was ready to make sure it worked.

  When I got within range, he nodded and gave me the thumbs up.

  Farah went through first, followed by Calliope, Tyndell, and finally me. Just as Mack predicted, the sensor reactivated within four seconds.

  “You need to get through that door or you’re going to have company,” Mack said urgently.

  I broke through the tree line and reached the house, hugging the exterior as we proceeded to the breach point. I spotted it just a few meters away and closed the distance. The bracelet worked on the security panel mounted there, the display going green. We filed inside and eased the door shut.

  “Gods.” Mack blew out a breath. “One more second and you guys were toast. Guy 5 is still on the roof. Proceed to the lower level.”

  The house was big and ornate, but spartan when it came to furnishings. A few tasteful pieces of art adorned the bland grey walls, but nothing personal. The entertainment space held an expensive looking couch, but it was a muted beige color. It was like the Vice-Admiral lived in a hotel and I had to wonder why he even bothered.

  I found the stairs leading down and descended with Calliope, leaving Farah and the lieutenant to stand watch. They emptied out into a large room that Kaska had set up as an office. An ornate wooden desk sat at the far end, the Neutronium case atop it.

  “Man, it’s just sitting there,” Calliope whispered. “He didn’t even put it in a safe.”

  Funnily enough, the same thought had just crossed my mind.

  “I’ve lost sight of 5,” Aaron said. “She went under the curtains a few seconds ago. I didn’t think anything of it until a gust of wind flipped them up and she was gone.”

  A whirring sound came from the wall behind and I spun around. “Cal, get the case,” I ordered.

  The girl ran to the desk and hefted it. At the same time, a false wall next to the stairs slid open and Guy 5 walked in, data pad in one hand, pistol in the other.

  My rifle was already pointed at center mass and her eyes registered surprise. The woman recovered quickly, dropping the data pad and bringing the pistol level.

  “Don’t,” I warned her.

  “Don’t what? If I put this down, you’ll just kill me anyway.”

  “You think I want to kill you?” I shook my head. “Not at all. But I will if you don’t let me pass.”

  She seemed to consider that and I could almost see the little gears moving in her head as she thought. Then one corner of her mouth tugged up into a smirk and I knew. “Sorry, but I have a duty.”

  Her hand shifted and I fired, aiming just a little higher. The slug struck just above the bridge of her nose. The guard’s head snapped back and she dropped the gun. It clattered to floor and stopped as she began to sink down.

  I started to pass her when someone spoke.

  “Sergeant-Delgado. I would say this is a surprise, but I’d be lying.”

  Kaska’s voice was coming from the data pad the guard had dropped. I didn’t pick it up.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. The Emperor just witnessed you kill a Sarkonian soldier in cold blood in order to steal a weapon from my home.”

  I motioned for Calliope to move, then I followed her without answering him.

  Kaska made a tsk-tsk sound. “Sergeant, did you really think it would be that easy?”

  “No,” I said. My heel came down, smashing the pad and cutting him off before he had time to respond.

  23

  “The other guards heard that. 2 and 3 are on the move. You need to haul ass,” Mack said tautly.

  “I hate to deliver more distressing news, but I’ve just detected a change in flight pattern for a number of ships,” Vega announced.

  “Shit, she’s right. I have to focus on this,” Mack said, her voice almost shrill now.

  “I can cover them,” Aaron promised. “Just try to get to Guy 1’s patrol zone.”

  No longer worried about stealth, the four of us burst out the breach door, rifles at the ready. Except for Calliope, who had the case in both hands. Guy 2 came around the west side of the house before we could make it through the tree line.

  Tyndell put him down with three slugs. The soldier squeezed off rounds of his own, trying to take us out before he expired, but they went wide.

  “Go!” the lieutenant shouted.

  “Cal, you’re with me,” I said, ducking through the trees. “If you get the chance, run like hell for the ridge and rendezvous with Aaron.”

  A great thumping sound came from the east side of the house and the ground vibrated under my feet. I jerked around, expecting to see that Kaska had sent a tank, but the area was clear. Whatever it was seemed to be coming from the outbuilding.

  “Aaron, do you have eyes on—”

  The rest of my sentence was cut off by the doors of the outbuilding sliding open. What emerged wasn’t a tank, but it was close.

  “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s not farm equipment,” said Aaron.

  The metal monstrosity was easily twice my size. It walked on four sturdy legs, and a gatling gun sat on each shoulder. A lighted strip of red ran horizontally along the oblong domed “head” mounted at the top, which I surmised to be a scanning system.

  A loud ping sounded from the machine and I thought someone had thrown a rock at it. Another ping sounded and a bullet ricocheted in the sand near my feet.

  “My ammo isn’t doing shit,” Aaron grunted.

  “Take cover!” I yelled, pushing Calliope down behind the nearest boulder.

  As soon as it cleared the structure, its head swiveled, looking for a target. It found one. Me.

  I bolted away, intending to lead it away from the younger girl. No sooner had I done so when I realized my mistake. Two more strips of red glowed in the dark of the outbuilding. The machine behind me was already adjusting its weapons when the second walked out, pinning me.

  Something whizzed by my head and struck the dome of the first machine. It landed with a metallic clunk, then rolled down and landed in the sand. The blast was small, but it knocked the machine off balance and disrupted its tracking system.

  Farah started yelling and waving her bow from the southern tree line as I made my escape. “Hey! Over here, assholes!”

  The last two machines fixed on her and began to lumber in her direction. I took a step toward her but stopped when I saw Tyndell emerge from the west and let loose with a volley of bullets. It worked and one of the steel monsters turned its red eye on him. The lieutenant ran toward the outbuilding a
nd took cover at one corner.

  A quick glance told me that the first was recovering from Farah’s thermal arrow, its eye beginning to track again.

  Farah had enticed hers to the south tree line, leaving me only two directions. South toward the ridge or the northwest portion of the property.

  I put the ridge to my back and aimed for the other tree line that had been Guy 2’s zone, shouting into the comm, “Cal, if you aren’t already running for the ridge, get moving!”

  She didn’t answer.

  I tried again. “Cal, do you copy?”

  Still nothing from her, but I got a response from Aaron: “I saw her running this way and covered her. Definitely made it to the ridge but she didn’t meet with me and isn’t showing up my HUD.”

  My gut clenched at the thought of her shot down or caught underfoot of one of the machines.

  “Cal’s gone,” Mack said, back from whatever had been going on with the ships.

  “What do you mean, gone?” I shouted, squeezing off more rounds as the giant metal beast advanced.

  Each step shook the ground and sent clouds of sand and rock into the air. The thing would be hard to take down but at least it was slow.

  “I don’t know!” Mack responded. Her voice sounded frazzled. “She must have turned off the wrist unit or it’s trashed.”

  It didn’t make sense, unless… “The weapon,” I realized.

  “She had it when we came out of the house,” Farah responded. Her voice came across strained and I could hear the machine clomping both in the background and through the comm.

  “Not… what… I… meant,” I grunted, zigzagging across the sand in an attempt to confuse the oversized killer robot chasing me. I doubled back around to the trees and reloaded. “I think she took it. For the Union.”

  “I’m sure she’s just laying low,” Farah said. “We’ll find her.”

  I couldn’t split my focus to deal with Calliope’s sudden disappearance right then because the metal thing started shooting at me, but a sinking feeling started to take root. I dodged to the right, but its domed head tracked with me and it sprayed a line of bullets that I narrowly avoided by rolling behind a rock. I thought about just staying there, but it exploded around me, and I was peppered by rounds. It had seemed like a good idea at first, but now it was a death trap.

  With Aaron on the ridge trying to fend off more enemies and Calliope MIA, that left three of us to handle the machines. Somehow, I didn’t feel as good about these one-to-one odds.

  Not all of the machine’s bombardments hit my rock. Plenty sailed overhead around the sides of the boulder to strike the surrounding area and send debris flying at me. One particularly lucky shot hit the flat top of a stone buried in the sand. It exploded, showering me with rocky shrapnel. A chunk the size of my stress ball hurtled into my visor, creating a network of cracks and shutting down the optics.

  The rock was getting smaller by the second, so I went with the tried and true—a grenade. There wasn’t time to plan the shot, so I had to go with my best guess and pray.

  “Fire in the hole, guys!” I yelled into the comm, hoping they heard me over the roar of gunfire.

  Without my visor to tell me where anyone was, I had no way of knowing if my grenade would put them in danger.

  “Throw it,” Mack said. “That is the closest thing to you, about five meters directly behind.”

  I didn’t hesitate. Pulling the pin, I said a speedy prayer and let it fly, careful not to get my hand shot off in the process. I covered my ears and counted to four.

  The grenade exploded with a loud boom that shook the ground.

  Right on time, I thought.

  A quick peek around my hiding spot revealed the machine was down. Its guns clicked, still trying to fire, but the barrels were twisted and broke, unable to do as they were commanded. Its legs had suffered the same fate and it lay in a heap of mangled metal. The head still tried to track its target but kept shorting out.

  “Nice one,” Mack complimented.

  “Thanks. Where are Farah and the lieutenant?”

  “Farah’s on top of the roof and her machine is almost done for. Lieutenant Tyndell is currently pretending to be a rock on the south side of the outbuilding.”

  “Is that actually working?” I asked, more than a little shocked at the notion.

  “For the moment. These machines are pretty low tech. They’re designed for brute force and I doubt they can pick him up under the camo tech.”

  “Got it,” I said, giving my downed machine a wide berth.

  A loud thump sounded near the house and I looked over in time to see Farah’s machine tip over, smoke rolling out of its exploded head.

  It didn’t take long to find the last of the machines. I found it on the other side of the outbuilding scanning for Tyndell. I edged closer to it, unsure how good its detection sensors were, but it didn’t react.

  “Huh,” I murmured. “Where is he?”

  “See that lump about twenty meters in front of the machine?” Mack asked.

  I located said lump. “Got him. Tell him I’m about to stick a grenade up this thing’s ass.”

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  Pulling my second grenade out, I moved closer, testing out my theory. Still no response. Shrugging, I walked up behind it and shoved the load in a cavity below the dome, then sprinted away.

  The only close cover was around the corner of the outbuilding and I barely made it before the explosion went off. When I checked, the last machine was scattered and lifeless.

  My placement of the grenade had utterly destroyed the thing, sending metal shrapnel in all directions for a good distance.

  “Crap. Is Tyndell okay?” I asked, suddenly worried.

  “I’m not sure,” Mack admitted. “He’s not answering me.”

  Farah walked up and together we went to go look for the lieutenant.

  A hand waved from roughly the same spot as I’d seen him before, and I jogged over to him, Farah right next to me.

  “I’m fine,” he said, sitting up. “That just rang my bell is all.”

  “Sorry about that,” I said.

  The lieutenant made a pfft sound, then laughed. “Now that is a war story. ‘I’m about to stick a grenade up this thing’s ass.’ Perfect.”

  “I think you got hit on the head, LT,” I said, offering my hand.

  He took it and let me help him to his feet before answering. “Nope. Sometimes you just gotta stop and enjoy the laugh.”

  “Maybe you’re onto something,” I said. “But let’s get out of here.”

  “Guy 3 is down but I don’t have eyes on 4,” Aaron said.

  I scanned the area in search of the guard but came up empty.

  “Got him,” Mack declared. “In the outbuilding.”

  Farah, Tyndell, and I approached the building and flanked the wide-open door. A blood trail led inside, the bright red already fading to black from baking in the hot suns.

  Using my rifle light, I followed the gory path inside. With the machines gone, the whole building was empty. The beam fell on a pair of combat boots.

  “Hands!” I barked.

  Guy 4 made a noise that sounded like a laugh, but it turned into a rattling wheeze. He didn’t have to show me his hands for me to know he was at death’s door. I checked anyway before entering. Dying people did crazy things, like try to take as many others with them as they could, give deathbed confessions, or just chant prayers to gods they had never believed in for a chance to go somewhere heavenly.

  “Godsdamn machines don’t know how to aim,” he said weakly when we got closer.

  He looked to be mid-twenties or early thirties and his complexion was a pasty shade of grey. Blood seeped out of a chest wound, staining the sandy brown of his tac suit. The lightweight armor had done little against the heavier munitions.

  “I didn’t want to do it,” he continued, babbling now. “I just wanted to be a good soldier.”

  Lieutenant Tyndell knelt down and put a
hand on the man’s arm. “What’s your name, soldier?”

  “Carson. Adam Carson.”

  “I’m Colonel-Tyndell, son. You did the Empire proud today, son. Go ahead and close your eyes now.”

  I raised a brow at the title. That explained the confidence and keen battle senses I had noticed before.

  “Thank you, sir,” he mumbled. His eyes drooped shut and his breathing slowed, but he kept talking, most of it unintelligible.

  I turned away, not wanting to bear witness to the poor man’s last moment, when I caught a few of his words.

  “What did he just say?” I asked, whirling around.

  Farah shook her head in an “I don’t know” gesture.

  Tyndell looked troubled. “It was something about a decoy case.”

  I moved closer again, ready to ask the soldier to repeat it, but the lieutenant was closing his eyes.

  “He’s gone,” he said.

  “I don’t mean to interrupt,” Mack said, “but the palace just deployed ground and air forces.”

  Of course they did.

  “How soon can you scoop us up?” I asked.

  “A few hours. They’re searching the airspace around you, looking for the Genesis. Cloak or no cloak, if I drop now, they’ll detect the change in atmosphere.”

  I cursed. “We’ll never make it on foot. Can you contact the Initiative?”

  Mack hesitated. “I’ve been trying but haven’t gotten a response yet.”

  “We could try the vehicle that’s still in the drive,” suggested Farah, but the lieutenant nixed that.

  “Got shot to hell by the machine that chased me,” he said.

  “What about the hover bikes?” Aaron said abruptly. “They were two seaters.”

  I’d forgotten all about them.

  An inspection of the bikes showed them to be drive-worthy, with little damage from the raging storm of bullets that had taken out the other vehicle. The trailer wasn’t armored by any means, but its position had saved the smaller crafts inside.

  Mack gave us coordinates for a rendezvous point, promising to be there in a couple hours. I told her to keep scanning for Calliope, but I didn’t expect much. She was gone and the weapon along with her, probably already on her way back to the Union. If by some miracle we did get her back, we were going to have a long heart to heart.