by J. A. Scorch
Porter reached the landing bay, touched down, and waited to be raised back into the ship. When he popped up on the launch deck, he spotted the cargo attachment being shunted over to him for a quick connection. While this happened, his X90S was automatically refueled and rearmed by a few of the deck drones.
Garcia chimed in on the comm. "Porter. I just heard from up top. I trust you understand what to do?"
"Fly Teve over to that damn ship before we all bite it?"
"Affirmative. Don't screw this up, Captain. That thing will end us all within the space of a few hours if we don't do away with it."
"You don't have to tell me, ma'am. I've never seen so much power come from a set of cannons before."
"You and me both. Damn Zeal always have something new to kill us with."
Porter received the all clear to be loaded into the slingshot tube. "I'll see you soon, Commodore."
"Godspeed, Porter. Tell your brother to kick their asses."
The X90S and its cargo attachment were loaded up and ready for launch. Porter inspected his systems over and over and finally checked in with Teve. "How are you doing in there?"
"Ready to fight. You just need to take me to the capital ship and follow my command from there."
"Yes, sir," Porter joked.
"I'm serious, Bradley. This is our only chance to survive this attack. Otherwise, the Zeal will be raining hell down on Mars and Earth until there's none of us left to fight."
"I know. Trust me." Porter let out his breath and stretched his neck from side to side. "Let's do this."
Chapter Sixty-Five
Teve kept his eyes closed for a few minutes as his brother flew him directly toward the destroyer-killing capital ship. Only moments ago, he was with Mish and X at the lake cabin, locked away in some weird fantasy. But now he was awake and ready to end the Zeal.
As Bradley piloted the Stalker with grace across the expanse toward the enemy, Teve could not see a thing beyond the walls of the cargo bay attachment. He didn't need to view the world outside with his eyes to know what he was about to do. For the first time in a long while, he had absolute clarity.
"Bradley. How many SF transporters have we got on hand?"
"Let me check with the system ... It looks like we have three squads from the Orion still in action."
"Good. Have them follow you in. They will back me up."
"Back you up? I got a report here that says three of the four squads from the Andromeda got wiped out trying to board that ship."
"It's okay. I know what to do. You have to trust me."
An audible huff came over the comm. "I trust you, Teve. It's just this is our one shot before another one of our battle carriers goes down. By my count, we have seven minutes before this thing fires again."
"Take me to the ship, and I'll stop it," Teve said. It wasn't only confidence driving him headfirst into death's arms; he sensed the nanites swirling within his core, begging to be released upon his enemies.
"ETA: one minute. Good luck, Teve."
"Thank you. And don't go too far."
"I'm not going anywhere. Not a chance I'm going to miss this."
Teve felt a smile etch its way across his lips. He held his arms out wide and splayed his fingers. The nanites were flowing through him like a current. X hadn't just given him clarity, but also a sense of direction that had been lacking for the last year. The nanites were no longer controlling his systems. He was controlling them.
Teve felt the Stalker above him maneuver into a combat drop. Bradley would be matching the speed of the capital ship so he could keep his skids off the ground and burn away from the deadly vessel as soon as Teve hopped off. The cargo door slid open automatically to reveal the surface of the sleek Zeal destroyer killer. Teve didn't waste another second before he used his space suit to force his way down and lock on to its metallic material. He had a bit over five minutes left on the clock.
Bradly burned away but remained handy as one of the three SF squads came in for a landing. The other two were still inbound. Teve moved forward to allow the team space to land and disembark. The twelve soldiers rallied to his position as quickly as they could while the timer ticked under the five-minute mark. Romeo, Red, and Pocket were among the twelve.
"Listen up," Teve said over the comm. "The Zeal on board this ship are the best of the best. They are the elite command that only shows up to fight when the enemy has pissed them off enough. They will not hesitate to kill you. Don't give them the option. Our first objective is to disable these cannons before they hit one of our carriers. Follow my lead."
The squad leader shouted his acknowledgment and began barking orders down the line. Teve took point as he headed directly for the cannons his brother had placed him near. The second he took a step toward the gun array, the Cyclones sitting away in the distance buzzed to life. Teve could sense their Tritons and transporters all launching at once. There would be close to fifteen thousand of them all buzzing out of their homes to fight.
"Teve," Bradley shouted. "We've got company. The Cyclones are—"
"I know. They've just sent everything this direction. Get the non-stealth fighters out of here."
"Are you sure? They could be out of range of their carriers."
"They don't have a range limit while this capital ship is around."
"Shit."
"Yeah. Get them out of here, now."
"Okay," Bradley said. "I'll take care of it. Just stop those damn cannons."
"I'm on it," Teve muttered as he started to jog toward the huge weapons protruding out of the nose of the ship.
"Sergeant," one of the SF soldiers yelled. "We've got three distant hostiles approaching from the port side of the ship. Should we engage?"
"Negative. Charge up your EMP grenades. All of you. I want you to detonate four grenades each inside the panels covering the base of the cannons. It's where the Zeal run maintenance on these weapons."
"What are you going to do, Sergeant?"
Teve smiled. No one could observe his face inside the reflective visor, but he couldn't help himself. "I'm going to stop them." He turned away and stomped toward the three towering elite Zeal soldiers that had killed SF troops without hassle.
Teve started a slow charge that escalated into a full sprint. The elite Zeal did the same. They had weapons capable of killing him from a huge distance, but the three had opted to pull out the long blades built into their arms. They wanted to get close and personal to the human they were about to slaughter.
The three stayed as one, charging at Teve faster than he'd ever seen their Stilt counterparts move. Teve yelled out as he closed the gap. His rifle remained connected to his chest, and he had no intention of using it.
As the three aliens raised their blades up high to strike, Teve activated his suit's air thrusters and stopped his momentum short of their attack and threw up both of his hands. The nanites felt like they were about to burst out of his skin when he splayed his fingers at his three attackers and thrust the power surging within his core at them from only ten feet.
As one, the three aliens locked up into fixed poses like a set of statues as Teve froze their powered armor in place. His nanites beamed a short-range signal at the elite soldiers and disabled their suits’ abilities in an instant. The forward momentum carried them past Teve as they bounced along the surface of the ship like debris. They were in his control.
With another gesture, Teve made their legs all fly down and lock their magnetic feet to the hull. He strolled up to the disabled aliens with his right hand still controlling their limbs. He stared at the three giant beasts and smiled as he used his left arm to force them to stab each other to death with the very blades they had intended on utilizing.
By the time Teve killed the last of them, the Special Forces had disabled all three cannons with their EMP grenades. The soldiers all came over to Teve and stared at the mess staining the deck. Zeal blood spread itself out and floated in the null gravity environment.
"How di
d you kill them?" Romeo asked him.
Teve stared at the bodies for a moment before he answered. "I can control their suits with my nanites."
"What the actual fuck?" Pocket asked as she heard his response.
"It's hard to explain, but I promise, I'll try and tell you once we're done here."
"Once we're done?" Pocket asked with a screwed-up brow.
Teve turned to her and said, "You'll see."
The swarm of Tritons came barreling past the capital ship on a direct path toward the Martian battle carriers.
"Let's go," Teve said. "There isn't much time."
Chapter Sixty-Six
Porter pushed his X90S to a full burn as he spiraled back to the Andromeda and the Orion. Nicole and Briggs joined his wing and flew in formation with him as they guided the remaining MAF pilots away from the approaching storm of Zeal Tritons.
"There's too many for us to take on," Briggs said. "Even with our stealth modules, we won't stand a chance. Should we retreat?"
"We can't," Porter said as he completed a scan of the raging crowd of alien fighters. "Those aren't just Tritons heading our way; according to the sweep I ran, almost half of those ships are heavy transporters."
"Like the ones that overran the Andromeda?"
"Yes," Porter muttered as he studied the specs he had on the reinforced, fast-moving vessels. Within each armored box would be at least fifty Stiltz all equipped and ready to penetrate the battle carriers to slaughter the regular soldiers waiting inside.
"So what should we do?" Nicole asked.
Porter let a sigh escape his lips as he closed his eyes. There was no choice to make. They had to fight the coming swarm until the last of them failed.
"All squadron leaders, this is Captain Porter. As you are all aware, the Zeal are heading our way with a force of over fifteen thousand ships. Retreat is not an option. This means we will not survive this attack. But we have a role left to play. It is our duty to stop as many of these aliens as possible before they hit our homes with enough soldiers to sink the entire fleet. I want each and every one of you to kill as many of these assholes as you can. For those of you fighting the Zeal for the first time, remember your training and do not let fear stop you. We fight for the people we love and never look back. It's been a pleasure serving with you all. Porter out."
A silence washed over the comm. Porter expected a torrent of questions to hit him at once, but none of the pilots could argue the point. Every aviator could see the mass of alien vessels filling the eternal emptiness of space. The swarm grew, swelling up like a living being. There was no turning back. No running away to fight another day. The hundreds of MAF pilots were all that stood in the way of an army capable of enslaving humanity.
Porter switched his comm to Nicole. He dialed up her image on a screen as he turned off the reflection on his visor to see her face one last time. She had already disabled her helmet by the time she accepted the connection.
"We can do this," he said to her. "Just like any other day."
She nodded with short, sharp movements. "Okay. We can do this," she repeated.
As Porter reached for the button to disconnect, Nicole interrupted.
"Don't switch me off. I want to see your face the whole time."
"Okay," Porter said. "I won't go anywhere. I'm here for you."
Taking a moment to center himself, he stared out at the wall of alien metal filling their view. His mind bounced to Teve in a flash as he prayed to whatever spiritual being was listening that his brother found a way to stop the Zeal.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
"We still need to disable the ship if we want to stop those Cyclones," Teve said as he guided the Special Forces soldiers along. "This is a capital ship. It controls everything."
"Then let's get a move on," Romeo said. "Those fighters are heading straight toward our people."
Teve charged forward and led the Special Forces soldiers down into the capital ship. He didn't hold back on his approach, disabling every alien he came across while his squad finished them off with their rifles and coilguns at close range. He not only froze the aliens in place but disabled the extra functions that protected them from attack.
Teve could control dozens of them at once, feeding off the power he wielded. Every Stilt he killed synced up with the memory of a fallen UEF soldier.
By the time they found what resembled the bridge of the ship, there were no more Zeal on board to kill.
Without thought, Teve disabled every Zeal ship in the solar system—including the second attack force headed for Earth—using his nanites to infiltrate the network in front of him. He got the all clear from Bradley a few minutes later that the swarm of death outside the ship had ceased to function. Earth would take some time to respond.
"How the hell did you pull that off?" Bradley asked over the comm.
"I'll fill you in later over a beer. You can tell Command that the Zeal are all dead on this ship. They can start sending in crews whenever they want to check it out."
"Roger that. I don't know how to thank you. Words don't seem enough."
"No need to thank me, Bradley. You're my family. There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect you. I'll see you soon."
Pocket, Red, and Romeo all stared at Teve. He could tell he had their full attention, even though their visors reflected his suit back at him. "Okay, you have to tell us your secret." Pocket said.
"I've got something better than that for you all. Come with me." Teve directed them to the ship's Orb. It wasn't exposed like the ones on the carrier. It was located in a room barely big enough to house the massive object. The giant, purple sphere continued to glow as the four of them stared at it despite its masters all being dead.
"Why are we here? I thought these things were bad news for us?"
"Not this one. It can alter our nanites and stop them from slowly killing us. We can save every SF soldier."
"How do you know all this?" Romeo asked.
He turned to face her. "I can't explain why, but one of the Zeal hybrids on Earth did something to my nanites when Mish and I infiltrated the Atlanta base. This wasn't the first time I'd encountered it, either. This thing got inside my head and kept telling me that the attack from the Zeal was all a test."
"A test? For what?"
"I don't know. It was never that clear in my head. When I arrived on the Andromeda, I came across the device one of the MAF Marines found when the Zeal first entered the solar system. This thing latched onto my nanites as soon as I went near it."
"What did it do?"
Teve let out a long breath. "It fed me information on the Zeal. Everything you could think of: ships, their technology, the inner workings of their suits, you name it. At first, I took in small chunks at a time, but I got impatient."
"Sounds like you," Romeo joked.
"Yeah, it was stupid, but I let this thing give me everything at once. It almost killed me, but when I woke up, there was nothing I didn't know about the Zeal. On top of that, I could control my nanites instead of them simply controlling me."
A silence washed over the group. Teve had stunned them all with his story. He doubted any of them would believe a word of it.
"This is—"
"Hard to believe?" Teve asked, cutting Pocket off.
"No, I was going to say amazing. You're telling me we don't have to let these things slowly kill us from within. I'm going first. What do I need to do?"
"There's not much to it. Just go up to the Orb and touch it. It will hurt like hell and will knock you out for a minute. But when you come to, you'll have full control."
Pocket shook out her concerns by flicking her arms out wide. "Okay. I can do this."
Teve watched as one by one the three soldiers all regained control and allowed their nanites to become their own. The Orb knocked them out for a moment, so Teve moved them over and away from the massive sphere to allow them time to wake up.
The MAF arrived with scientists and higher ups to examine what all the fus
s was about. Garcia even came down to consult with Teve. She saw the three downed soldiers and said her condolences.
"They aren't dead, ma'am. Quite the opposite, in fact. When they wake up, the Zeal virus will no longer be killing them."
Garcia gave him her most skeptical face possible. "Is that so? You'll forgive me if I don't want to wait and see first before sending down more gullible idiots to test out your theory."
"Not a problem, ma'am. The Zeal fleet is ours. I just thought I should fill you in on what this capital ship and its Orb can do for us."
Teve proceeded to explain the function the Orb had to cure the SF soldiers. He then revealed another capability of the strange system. "It can also give a regular person nanites, safely. We essentially have the ability to make more Special Forces soldiers without killing nine out of every ten people that come into contact with them."
Garcia shook her head. "This is insane, Sergeant."
"Never said it wasn't. But the fact remains that there must be more Zeal out there, itching to kill us."
The commodore half sighed. "I know. Plus, the next time they decide to pay us a little visit, they won't be so arrogant with their forces. Those bastards had us beat. But once again, they didn't think to press their attack." Garcia shook her head.
"Still, this was a good day. We stopped the biggest attack on our species and now have the ability to wipe out the rest of the Zeal still on Earth."
Garcia chuckled with crossed arms. "Crazy times, huh? I was prepared to die on the Andromeda. I had accepted that days ago. Now you've given us all hope for a new tomorrow."
Teve leaned in close to the commodore. "We all deserve a little hope. Besides, I doubt the Zeal will be back anytime soon. We just devastated their biggest fleet, according to what I now know about the aliens. It's going to take them a lot longer than a year to rebuild a force this size."
