CASPer Alamo

by Eric S. Brown

  “And Cronus…let’s not forget about him.”

  “Cronus was our father, and we are his children.”

  “So you’ll grow up to be just like him, gelatinous blobs of goo that get blown up by mercs like me?”

  “When we grow up, some of us will be like him. We will change. Undergo metamorphosis.”

  “What do you mean when you grow up?” Rai asked.

  The chief smiled. “As I have said, you don’t understand us, and it will lead to your undoing. We are the children of Cronus, yes. You do understand what children are, do you not?”

  “Offspring. Scions.”

  “Young,” the chief said, spitting out the word as he flashed the smile she had seen before Cronus made his appearance. “All you have seen at this point are the babies. The children. We are the young amongst the tribe, and you have slaughtered us systematically.”

  “You’re the chief. You aren’t a child.”

  “I am leader amongst those like me. But we are the young. As I mentioned before, chief is your word, not mine. I am simply the strongest among my brothers and sisters, elevated above all others by my size, strength, and superior intellect. I am the best of the offspring of Cronus.”

  “What does that mean?” Rai asked.

  The chief grinned. “What it means is the elders weep at the deaths of so many of the young from our tribe, and their anger has been roused. You think you have conquered us; however, you have only fought against the weak, the untrained, and the youth of our kind. Soon, you shall feel the fury of the elders, and you will regret the day you ever set foot on our planet.”

  Rai broke out in a cold sweat as she realized what he meant. Without a single thought, she unholstered her sidearm, put it to the savage’s temple, and blew the side of his head off.

  “Colonel Robert,” she said, speaking into her comm unit. “We have a very big problem.”

  “What do you mean, Lieutenant?” Colonel Robert answered her.

  “We’ve got more trouble coming, Colonel,” Rai told him. “According to our prisoner, that thing we just blew to heck isn’t just the god of these savages, it’s their father.”

  “So?” Colonel Robert asked.

  “Apparently that monster is what the savages grow up to be,” Rai tried to explain. “There’s another stage of growth that we haven’t seen yet. Elders, the chief called them before I put a bullet in his brain.”

  “Roger that, Lieutenant,” Colonel Robert responded. “Let’s hope those dropships get here soon.”

  His comm officer had finally gotten a message through the EM storms to the ships in orbit, and dropships were on the way down for their evac. The last Rai had heard, the dropships were about ten minutes out, but anything could happen. The dropships might not survive the EM storms. If they did, they might be overrun when they landed. Provided none of that happened, these “elders”, as the chief had called them, might arrive first, finish everyone off, and render the need for dropships unnecessary. They were far from safe.

  Rai’s bruised body ached as she ran across the encampment to where Drake was. He was overseeing the perimeter defense of the survivors as they awaited the arrival of the dropships. This was all they had left to work with, and it would have to be enough. Still, even though Rai was usually optimistic, she couldn’t help thinking they were completely and totally screwed as she looked at the scant numbers remaining.

  “Drake!” she yelled at him even as he saw her approaching his position. “We’ve got more trouble coming!”

  The wiry killer stared at her in disbelief.

  “Calm yourself, Lieutenant,” he ordered her. “We just killed a god. I don’t think the savages will be coming at us again anytime soon. We’ll be long gone from this planet before they work up the nerve.”

  Rai shook her head. “You don’t understand. There were things we didn’t know from the start, things that seriously impacted the mission. The devils we have been fighting so far…they are the babies of the tribe.”

  Drake’s eyes widened. “And Cronus?”

  “The sire,” Rai said. “Which means there’s a completely different group of savages that are bigger, nastier, and even worse than the savages we’ve already fought.”

  Drake snarled. “And let me guess, they’re none too happy that we’ve killed so many of their offspring.”

  “I would imagine so,” Rai said.

  Gunfire erupted from the perimeter of the camp. Drake’s self-assured, cocky expression fell from his face as he sprang into motion, running to see what was going on. Rai followed him, wishing she had her CASPer. All but a handful of the suits were destroyed or damaged too badly to be of any use, and those that remained belonged to Robert’s unit, not the Hellhounds, so she couldn’t pull rank and take one for her own use. She suddenly felt very small and vulnerable. It wasn’t a feeling she was accustomed to, or one she enjoyed.

  “What the frag are those?” Drake muttered as the camp’s front lines came into view.

  The monsters emerging from the woods surrounding the camp weren’t like the savages they had been facing. Each of them stood between ten and twelve feet tall. Their bodies were almost translucent, like that of the savages’ god. Tentacles whipped about their bodies, growing out of their shoulders and backs. The creatures still had humanoid arms and carried spears in their hands. They were a strange hybrid of the devils they had fought previously and Cronus, the one who had made them. They were also angry and out for blood, which was never a good combination.

  Drake’s men were already pouring fire into the ranks of the new attackers. Machine guns chattered, and rifles cracked as they unleashed a hail of bullets at the hybrid monsters coming toward them. The monsters responded by racing faster toward the camp and hurling their spears. Rai watched as one of the last CASPers was hit by a spear that pierced its chest and sent it stumbling away from the firing line to collapse seconds later, its pilot dead. As she readied herself for battle, she couldn’t help thinking how strange it was that they had the best military tech money could buy, and they were being outgunned by a bunch of aliens with spears. It made the old adage about carrying a knife to a gunfight seem outdated; the savages were doing just that—and they were winning.

  “We’ve gotta hold them off until the dropships get here,” Rai told Drake as he drew the matching pistols holstered on his belt.

  Drake nodded grimly. “The question is, do we have enough ammo left to do it?”

  The hybrid monsters moved with a speed that surpassed that of the savages the Humans had dealt with before. There were far fewer of these creatures, but Rai and Drake could already see they were a great deal more difficult to kill. They were stronger, faster, and more mature, and it showed in both their fighting skill and their resistance to the bullets being fired at them by the magazine and belt-load.

  A soldier on the firing line emptied his weapon into one of the hybrids as it charged at him. Bullets ripped into the creature, tearing at its body. Most of the wounds they inflicted, though, simply closed themselves as the more gel-like parts of its body flowed and shifted about to heal them. The soldier grunted as several of the monster’s tentacles lashed out to spear through his flesh, impaling him. With a flick of its tentacles, the monster lifted the man from the ground and flung his limp, bleeding form from its path. Another soldier moved to stop it. The woman fired point blank into the monster, but it shrugged off her attack and backhanded her. The blow caught her beneath her chin and snapped her neck. Her corpse tumbled to the ground as the monster continued.

  Rai and Drake reached the heart of the battle. Rai spotted a shotgun on the ground near the corpse of one of Drake’s men and snatched it up, pumping a round into its chamber. The monster turned its attention to them as its brethren continued to tear into the other troops along the line.

  The thing’s face was straight from a nightmare. Its eyes and forehead were like those of the normal savages, but its mouth made up the rest of its face, a gigantic maw filled with circles of razor-l
ike teeth. The tentacles growing out of its shoulders whipped forward at Drake. The little man dodged them, ducking under one as he continued on past the monster. Rai waited until he was clear and opened fire. The shotgun bucked in her hands, and a spout of white phosphorus flames erupted from the weapon’s barrel, spraying the monster with fire and shot. The monster shrieked, its tentacles whipping about wildly as it was set ablaze. Rai didn’t give it a chance to recover, pumping another round into the shotgun’s chamber and firing again. This time she’d aimed her shot for the monster’s head. It blew apart in a shower of burning chunks that splattered into the dirt. The monster’s headless body reeled about, trying to stay on its feet, and finally toppled over. The gelatinous parts of its corpse crackled and popped as it continued to burn.

  Rai looked up to see Drake taking on another of the monsters. The little man was darting about it, firing his pistols into it as he moved. Each round he fired tore a chunk of the monster’s flesh away from its body and left a ragged hole in its wake. Those wounds closed quickly, though, and despite Drake’s onslaught, the monster only seemed to be getting angrier with each bullet that bit into it. As Drake danced about the monster, the little killer made the fatal mistake of accidentally stepping too close to it in his determination to bring it down. One of its tentacles caught him about the neck. That was all it took to slow him enough for more of them to grab him. Tentacles wrapped about his arms and legs as the monster turned to face him. It held Drake tightly as he struggled against it. The tentacles shook the pistols from his hands, but Drake still refused to give up. Rai knew she couldn’t help him. The Dragon’s Breath of her WP shotgun would fry Drake along with the monster if she tried.

  Drake flicked his wrist and a knife slid from the sleeve of his uniform into his right hand. He slashed at the thickest of the tentacles holding him, drawing pus-like, oozing blood from it. The tentacle withdrew as Drake stabbed another, shoving the blade of the knife through it. He twisted the blade about inside the tentacle, severing it, and it fell from him. His face was blue as the tentacle wrapped around his neck continued to tighten the more he fought against the others. Drake’s eye bugged out as all the tentacles but the one choking him suddenly released him, and he was lifted into the air as it drew even tighter, crushing his windpipe completely. With a crack, his neck broke, and his head lolled to the side.

  As the monster released Drake’s corpse, Rai ran up to the monster and fired her shotgun into it. The monster staggered backward with a ragged hole torn through it, and its body set on fire by the WP. Rai pumped the shotgun and fired again, finishing the monster with a second blast of white hot flames.

  Rai looked up as she heard the roar of dropship engines streaking through the clouds above the camp. From the color schemes, two of them were from Byrne and four from Minotaur.

  * * *

  “Hold the line a little longer,” Colonel Robert said, trying to rally the troops. He wanted to take as many survivors home as he could. He also wanted to walk away from this planet with all of his limbs intact. Although the dropships were en route, Robert knew the odds weren’t in their favor. They still had the EM storms, the lack of ammo, and their steadily dwindling numbers to contend with.

  The next few minutes were a blur. If the young devils they had fought originally were ravenous, bloodthirsty dogs, the elders were this planet’s equivalent to great white sharks. They were the perfect predators. Normal bullets barely affected them. They towered over the humans they faced. Their bodies had a way of healing themselves if attacked by anything that didn’t cause fire or burning. Some of them even walked on their tentacles so their feet dangled just a few inches off the ground.

  Colonel Robert saw what was left of his group getting slaughtered. The dropships were descending, but one of them lost control, and it plummeted toward the planet in a giant ball of fire.

  “Incoming!” Robert yelled as the ship slammed into the ground, erupting almost immediately and igniting several of the elders who were closest to the crash site. They flailed and shrieked like bottle rockets as their appendages caught fire and burned. A large section of the nearby forest caught fire as well, and Robert came up with a very bad idea, but it was the only one he had left.

  “Everybody move toward the crash site!” Robert ordered. No one moved.

  “Toward the fire,” he yelled, hoping the clarification would help. “Fire is their weakness. It’s the only chance we have left.”

  It made sense, and everyone realized that almost immediately. Gradually, they started backing toward the smoldering wreckage. Once they got close enough, some of them turned their backs on the elders and ran toward the burning remains of the ship.

  The charred and twisted metal of the dropship was enough of a threat that the elders kept their distance temporarily. Flames licked the metal with ravenous tongues, and large columns of smoke rose into the sky. As long as the mercs kept the wreckage between themselves and the monstrosities, it might be enough to hold them off until the dropships arrived. For good measure, Robert tossed an incendiary grenade into the forest, setting off a chain of burning foliage that quickly spread across the tree line behind them. They were hemmed in on two sides by fire, which was normally not a desirable place to be. At this point, however, Robert realized fire was the only thing keeping them alive.

  Although the fire kept them safe from the snake-like tentacles of the elders, it didn’t protect them from the volley of spears that came sailing through the air, and several of his men were impaled.

  “ETA is five minutes,” the captain of Minotaur radioed.

  “Not soon enough,” Robert replied. “Get them down here now! We’re getting annihilated.”

  “Roger that!” the captain exclaimed. “I’ll tell them to hurry!”

  The moment they were within range, the dropships opened fire on the elders, driving them further away from the survivors. Fifty-caliber guns rained death on the savages, and they responded with a volley of spears and rocks that were thrown with enough strength to leave dents in the ship. Still, the elders were forced out of range, and the dropships landed.

  Immediately the mercs left the cover of the flaming wreckage and raced toward the dropships. Some were wounded and bloodied, some were shell-shocked, and all of them were exhausted, but they all found the motivation to sprint for the dropships.

  The elders saw them running away and dashed forward, some of them leaping through the fire while others used their whip-like appendages to vault over it. Within moments, they were accompanied by a tsunami-like wave of the younger devils. They were out for blood, and the entire race surged forward with a collective purpose—to put an end to what was left of the mercenary forces.

  Rai boarded one of the ships and started strapping in, praying they would take off before the creatures arrived, but her worst fear were confirmed as she felt the ship rattle and shake. Looking out, she saw several of the elders had battled through the flames and were intent on tearing the ship apart. Their translucent flesh was burned and charred, yet the damage they had sustained didn’t stop them; instead, it motivated them beyond pain, beyond anger. This was their last chance to stop the ships from leaving the planet, and they attacked with a vengeance.

  Knowing they only had a matter of seconds before the creatures destroyed the ships, Rai slammed a handful of phosphorus shot into the shotgun she’d been carrying, jumped out of her seat, and ran out of the ship with a battle cry. The elders didn’t look her way until the phosphorus shot slammed into them, igniting them like the tips of a book of matches. They howled as they burned, dying amid the unrelenting flames that ravaged their bodies. Even so, one of them lashed out with a long tentacle, and it slapped the side of Rai’s head. Pain ripped through her as her world went dark.

  * * *

  Rai awoke screaming, and she sat upright in the bed. Hands grabbed her, forcing her back down. Rai struggled against them.

  “Rai!” Colonel Robert yelled at her. “Snap out of it! You’re safe.”

&n
bsp; The sound of Robert’s voice seemed far away and distant as she tried to get a grip on the emotions and fear surging through her. She stopped fighting as she was finally able to focus on Robert’s face and realized who he was. Rai slumped back onto the bed.

  “We made it?” She asked.

  “We sure did. You’re in Minotaur’s sickbay,” Robert smiled at her. “If it hadn’t been for you, we might all be dead now. That was some quick thinking on your part, to go after those monsters like you did. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything so brave, or so stupid.”

  Rai laughed. She flinched as the movement from the laughter sent ripples of pain through her bruised and battered body. Her head hurt like hell, and it was hard to think between the pain and the meds she knew had to be pumping through her system.

  “Saved your sorry butts, though, didn’t I?” She smiled back at Robert.

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “You saved us all.”

  Rai stared at Robert. She had always thought the man was a coward and an utter prick, but something about him seemed to have changed. He wasn’t the same man he’d been before landing on Zala IV. The way he spoke and carried himself were completely different.

  Robert took a seat in a chair next to her bed. The two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments before Rai couldn’t take the awkwardness silence anymore.

  “I guess we’re not going to be getting paid, huh?” Rai asked.

  Robert laughed and shook his head. “No. We’re not. We failed to live up to the terms of the contract. Zala IV still belongs to those things, and as far as I am concerned, they can keep it.”

  Rai was shocked Robert wasn’t more upset about the loss of pay, especially considering the losses his unit had taken.

  “You can afford to just call it all off?” Rai asked in disbelief.

  “I can,” Robert told her with a wry grin. “You’ve got to think ahead in this business, Rai. You’re not going to win every battle you charge into. I’ve set aside a considerable sum over the years to cover things like this. Robert’s Guard will be back in business as soon as I can get things back in order, and trust me, whatever our next contract is, we’ll see it carried through, and the money will be rolling in again just like it always has.”