Forged to Hunt

by James David Victor

  Jack called forward the two drones. They raised up out of the dust and came slowly forward, skimming over the surface of the asteroid. Jack reached out and grabbed one. He turned the small fist-sized drone over in his hands to find the small control panel. The drone skidded about in his hands. His hands were covered in the Chitin slime that had covered the control panel. Now it coated the entire drone. Jack found the small thumb-sized access port and flipped it open. With a small adjustment to the power cell, Jack could turn the drone into a small explosive device. He made the adjustment and closed the port. He held out his hand and let the drone hover next to its partner.

  Setting the second drone as an explosive would leave Jack without any remote surveillance platform. He left the second one untouched.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Jack took a look out to the horizon. The Chit was motionless, and in hiding again. Jack lay on the ground, taking cover behind his ship’s rear landing strut. He pulled out his field scanner and surveyed the horizon.

  A small puff of dust drew his attention. It might be the Chit carelessly disturbing the loose dust on the asteroid’s surface.

  Jack focused on the spot. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw the movement of a Chitin tentacle.

  Jack sent the drones toward the spot, fifty meters apart and fifty centimeters above the ground. They moved slowly to not disturb the loose surface and give away their position. Jack watched through the field scanner as the drones moved to flanking positions on the location where he’d seen that puff of dust and that Chitin tentacle.

  The flash from the plasma spear filled the field scanner’s view. Jack ducked back into cover, but the spear was not aimed at him. The drone on the left flank exploded as the plasma spear struck. A pinpoint accurate shot from the Chitin.

  Jack lowered the second drone to the ground. It was the one set to explode, and Jack needed to get it closer if it was to do any damage.

  Then the drone reported movement. Jack picked up his field scanner and looked at the point the drone had identified. The field scanner could only show a flickering of the Chitin’s pale tentacles just above the ground. But the drone, being close, was able to see more of the Chitin, its pale smooth head with the circle of rasping teeth, that inner beak like mouth chattering with the rapid opening and closing. Jack couldn’t hear but he knew that sound, the chattering of the hard, flat beak, like a stone-bladed guillotine.

  The Chitin was advancing, slowly and carefully, toward the drone sitting in the dust. Jack watched closely and willed the Chitin to continue advancing on the explosive drone.

  Jack judged the distance to the chitin from the drone. The explosion would be a powerful blast, but with the drone so close to the ground, a lot of the blast’s destructive power would be lost. Jack needed the Chit to come closer.

  Then as if reading Jack’s thoughts, the Chitin stopped.

  Jack remained in cover. The Chitin was advancing toward him, stalking him, hunting him, but the Chit didn’t know about the deadly surprise waiting a few meters away. If the drone was only a few meters off the ground, the detonation would be enough to cripple, if not kill, the Chitin soldier. Jack knew the time was right. It was time to make his move. The drone would have to be quick but even if the Chit blasted the drone with its plasma spear, the detonation would still be enough to severely injure it.

  Jack instructed the drone to climb to a height of ten meters and then detonate. He gave the command and braced for the explosion.

  Nothing.

  Jack glanced over his shoulder, back toward the drone and its supposed target, the lone, pale Chitin soldier.

  Nothing.

  Then Jack noticed the data from the drone. It was still live. He accessed it.

  The drone was holding its position at ten meters above the surface of the asteroid. Just a few meters away, pressed against the ground and moving slowly forward, was the lone Chit.

  Jack watched in astonishment as the massive Chit moved smoothly across the ground. Why had the drone not detonated, and why had the Chit not seen the drone? Jack sent the detonation command again.

  Nothing.

  Jack pressed himself to the ground and pulled out his field scanner. The drone was clearly visible, hovering above the surface. Its dark outer casing glistened with the Chitin slime it had picked up off Jack’s hands.

  “It’s that nasty Chitin slime,” Jack said. “It’s fouled up the detonation.”

  The data from the drone showed Jack exactly where the Chitin was. He used his field scanner and focused on the spot. He could just make out a faint movement at the spot where he knew the Chitin was. If he didn’t know, he might have missed the subtle movement.

  Jack pulled up his pulse pistol. He took careful aim at the spot the drone had identified as the Chitin’s location. Jack was firing at an unseen target, hoping for the best and trusting the data.

  The instant he pulled the trigger, Jack saw a puff of dust on the horizon. Checking with the drone data, he saw the pulse round slam into one of the Chitin’s tentacles. A spurt of orange came out of the tentacle, drifting into the vacuum of space as the tentacle writhed about, thrashing down into the dust and throwing up a plume of pale powder.

  Jack had his target. He fired again and struck the Chit a second time, hitting the massive smooth head this time. Jack fired another shot, but now the Chit was scurrying away. Its location discovered, it sought out a new hiding place.

  Jack stood up and aimed his pulse pistol. He fired and at that same moment, a plasma spear came toward him. Jack moved back into cover. The plasma spear was not so accurate this time with the chitin soldier scurrying away and it struck the side of the tac boat, exploding in a shower of spinning balls of white plasma fire.

  Jack sat on the ground, his back against the landing strut and his pulse pistol held, two-handed, to his chest. He tipped his head back and took a breath. He felt as if he hadn’t breathed for minutes.

  He had hit his enemy. Not a fatal hit but a crucial one. Jack had drawn Chitin blood, now to drain the rest from that lone Chitin soldier and win this battle.

  9

  Heading to the point where the drone was hovering, Jack felt excited and nervous. He was hunting the Chitin now, the Chitin had become his prey, but the Chitin was still a dangerous and deadly adversary. Jack had to be cautious. As he neared the drone, he sent it higher.

  The expanded field of view showed Jack the direction the Chitin had headed, but the Chit was lost to view. Jack brought the drone back down the eye level.

  The slime over the drone was still coating the entire dark sphere. Jack guessed it had fouled up the detonation, but had it also prevented the Chit from seeing it. Jack had no way to test his theory, and this was no time for experimentation. He had a Chitin to seek out, and to destroy.

  Sending the drone ahead to the point where the Chit had taken the pulse pistol rounds in the tentacle and head gave Jack a slight feeling of safety. The drone would surely spot the Chitin and give Jack a chance to act, to hide or attack.

  Jack reached the point where the Chitin had been lurking and he immediately spotted the splatter of orange slime that had spewed out from the pistol wounds. The bright orange blobs lay in a trail across the pale dust, a trail that would lead Jack to his prey.

  The light scuffmarks in the dusty surface made by the Chitin’s tentacles were a little more pronounced but still very faint. Only the trailing, wounded tentacle left any real discernible print, but it was still an easy trail to follow. The only danger was that Jack focused too much on the trail and not the distance, where the Chit would most likely lie in wait, ready to attack.

  Jack sent the drone ahead, skirting across the ground at a height of only a few centimeters, following the bright orange trail.

  And then, lying partially covered in dust, Jack saw the body of the Chitin through the drone’s scanners.

  Jack dropped to the ground. He moved forward slowly and carefully. He crept forward on his elbows, getting closer to the Chit, getting
to striking distance, where his pulse pistol would be effective, where he could deliver the killing blow.

  Then the tac boat exploded.

  The flash of light burst over the asteroid, throwing Jack’s shadow forward in front of him. The shockwave from the violent explosion hit and sent Jack sprawling forward. The drone was knocked to the ground. It landed in front of the Chitin and threw up a puff of dust.

  Jack clambered back up to his feet and saw the Chitin strike out at the drone, slamming one of its tentacles down on the surface at the point where the drone had hit the ground. Then, slowly, the Chitin turned its great smooth head toward Jack. The round mouth ringed with teeth opened wider and the snapping interior beak chittered.

  Jack brought up the pulse pistol and pulled the trigger just as a billowing cloud of fine dust thrown up by the exploding tac boat came pouring over him. The pulse pistol fired a round and then jammed.

  Jack pulled the trigger again but nothing. In a swirling cloud of fine pale dust, Jack felt more lost and isolated than he had since becoming a Marine. There was no focal point. All around was the same fine dust. Visibility was reduced to a few meters.

  The pulse pistol’s operation circuits sent a performance failure report to Jack’s meat suit. The fine dust had entered the pistol and become molten, jamming up the firing mechanism. Jack activated the electron blade, the thirty-centimeter cutting blade now his only weapon, and his only defense.

  Then out of the pale fog came the Chit.

  The Chitin appeared in the dust cloud just a meter or two in front of Jack. The rigid tentacle came stabbing forward. Jack dropped to his right knee and let the stabbing tentacle slice the cloud just above his left shoulder. Jack sliced through the cloud toward the tentacle in a wide arc. The tentacle pulled back just an instant before Jack’s electron blade could cut it away.

  Jack anticipated the next move from the Chit. Another stabbing tentacle came toward his chest, but Jack had already moved. He rolled forward over his shoulder and came up on his feet in front of the Chit. He stabbed forward and thrust the electron blade deep into the Chitin’s body.

  The Chitin pulled away, tentacles flailing. The thick orange fluid spurted forward, splattering over Jack’s stabbing arm. One thrashing tentacle caught Jack a ringing blow on the side of his helmet and sent him sprawling. As he skidded to a halt in the dust, he knew not to hesitate. He scrambled forward, rising to his feet just as another tentacle came stabbing out of the pale dust. Jack could just make out through the swirling thick dust cloud the silhouette of the Chit as it stabbed blindly.

  Moving forward and to the side, Jack put himself on the Chitin’s left as it stabbed into the dust. Jack took a bold step forward and thrust the pistol’s fizzing electron blade into the massive, smooth Chitin shell.

  The Chitin spun around, and a tentacle caught Jack on the upper arm. It was rigid and heavy. Jack felt the bone in his upper arm snap. The pain flooded out from the point of the break, rushing over his arm and shoulder. It filled his sinuses and his gut with a sickening feeling of horror and pain. As he fell under the force of the blow, his medical package stiffened the suit’s left upper arm and created a battlefield splint. The analgesic and antiemetic drugs took effect in an instant and the pain of the break and the sickness it caused soon dissipated, leaving just the fear.

  The stabbing tentacle came toward him as he stumbled. He slashed out with his electron blade and sliced through the tentacle. Jack landed heavily but was on his feet, his left arm held uselessly at his side, his right arm bearing the deadly electron blade.

  The Chitin sent another tentacle swinging toward Jack, slashing through the dust. Jack held the blade up and in front of the tentacle. The tentacle struck the blade and was severed under its own weight against the fine, glowing blade.

  Jack advanced, his right hand with the blade drawn back over his shoulder, tip forward. He stepped forward, his left side to the Chit presenting a narrower target for the stabbing tentacles.

  And then Jack was face to face with the Chitin. The dust swirling around stuck to the thick orange liquid that leaked from the Chitin’s wounds. A tentacle came around to deliver a blow, but it was weak and Jack parried it with his stiff left arm. He stepped forward a half a step more and plunged the electron blade deep into the Chitin’s shell right up to the muzzle of the pulse pistol. And then, slicing effortlessly sideways, Jack cut the Chitin in two. It fell and lay at Jack’s feet, twitching and writhing in its final throes before becoming still and limp and utterly lifeless.

  Standing over the fallen Chitin soldier, Jack deactivated his electron blade. He felt the pain in his broken arm. He looked into the dust that surrounded him, lost in a swirling cloud. He recalled the faces of the Marines lost on this operation. There was still work to do before the belt was clear of Chits, but for now, all Jack could do was wait for rescue. He sat on the ground next to his fallen enemy and waited.

  10

  Jack stood on the command deck of the Scorpio, his arm in a sling across his chest. His wounds were dressed and his uniform was freshly laundered. He felt a hundred times better for the simple comforts and his short rest.

  The command deck was bigger than the tac boat where he had spent so much of the last four weeks. The space seemed extravagantly large. The holostage appeared to have been refurbished; the entire command deck had been given an upgrade.

  Captain Pretorius stepped over to Jack and presented him with the small box that contained the Fleet Marine Star.

  “By the order of Marine General Wallace, it is my great pleasure, and an honor, to be awarding you with the Marine Black Star.” Pretorius held out a small black box to Jack.

  Jack took the small box and tried to open in one handed. It contained only a small black metal star, but the significance of the item gave it a weight that Jack felt barely able to hold.

  He was being promoted to major.

  Pretorius took the star out of the box.

  “You are out of uniform, Major,” he said with a smile and pinned the star on Jack’s collar. Then Pretorius offered his hand for Jack to shake. They were equals now, but Jack would always have a huge amount of respect for the Captain of the Scorpio.

  “Congratulations, Major,” Pretorius said. “The Scorpio Battalion is yours. I know the battalion, and all of us, are in good hands. Well done.”

  Jack looked across the refurbished command deck. The command officers were all standing at their stations, Commander Chou at the holostage in his usual position. And then, at once, the whole command crew saluted Jack. He was Major Forge, Commanding Officer of the Scorpio Marine Battalion.

  Pretorius stepped alongside Jack and put an arm over his shoulder.

  “Walk with me, Major,” Pretorius said, and he walked Jack toward his small office to the side of the command deck. “You will have to call me Alistair from now on, Jack my boy.”

  “I don’t think I could get used to that, sir,” Jack said.

  Pretorius laughed and stepped into his office, closing the door.

  “We will have to get used to a great many things,” Pretorius said.

  Then Jack detected a change in the captain’s tone. The lightness of the promotion ceremony was replaced by a deadly serious tone that Jack had come to expect from Pretorius during the most difficult and challenging encounters with the Chitins.

  “Now that you are a major, you have access to information that other ranks do not. It is by no means a pleasure for me to show you this, Jack, but it is my duty.”

  Pretorius sat behind his heavy timber desk. He tapped the holokeys projected onto the timber’s polished surface and activated a holoimage of the system. He looked up at Jack to make sure he had his attention. Then Pretorius zoomed the view out to the widest extent. Around the system, in a sphere several light-weeks across, there was a scatter of thousands upon thousands of tiny orange dots.

  “The fleet sent micro-surveillance drones out the moment the Chits withdrew after you delivered our stunning victory at the Bat
tle of Brecon Moon. The drones have returned their data. Every dot in this image is a Chitin craft. We estimate ten percent of them are Leviathan-class vessels.”

  Jack felt his heart drop to his stomach. He felt ill and dizzy. The entire system was surrounded by thousands of Chitin craft.

  “This information is classified as top secret. No one below our rank is to know of the true threat we face. As far as I can tell, Fleet has not yet decided our best course of action, but it comes down to one of two options.”

  “Stay and fight,” Jack said, “or run. Completely abandon the system.”

  Pretorius nodded.

  Jack staggered toward the chair opposite Pretorius and sat down heavily.

  “How many?” he managed to say.

  Pretorius shook his head. “That information is above our level of clearance, but I think it’s clear that there are too many for our current force to reasonably deal with.”

  “Why don’t they attack?” Jack said, feeling ill.

  “We don’t know. We expect to have mobilization orders in the next few hours. Organize the battalion, Jack. Use whatever personnel you have available. I don’t think we’ll be getting any more replacements.”

  Pretorius switched off the holoimage, then pulled out a bottle of amber liquor and two heavy tumblers from his desk draw. He poured two measures of the sharp liquid.

  Jack didn’t really like the taste of the liquor, but he grabbed the glass and downed it all at once.

  “You okay?” Pretorius asked Jack.

  “Yes, sir. Just a bit of a shock, is all.”

  “Indeed,” Pretorius said. “Go and rest. You will need your strength.”