The captain gathered his squad near the landing area and drew a quick action plan on sand with a dry branch. There were no points of interest on the map and neither the scout nor Captain Samir had seen anything of significance from the observation point. However, a squad of soldiers with unknown origin sitting in the middle of nowhere with three transport ships meant the Arinar was there.
“We have to secure the stone no matter what,” Sarah said.
“And we will, Sarah.” Captain Samir took a branch from the ground and drew a rough map of the area. “We’ll flank the enemy from two sides and down as many as possible in silence.”
Walters spat on a bush nearby. “Too much open field. We’ve little room to maneuver.”
“The alternative is to charge blindly on, Walters.”
“That sounds heroic,” Walters said.
“That sounds stupid,” Captain Samir slapped. “They can take us down like flies or destroy the Arinar. Do you want to be the one to tell Admiral Conway about how we let them destroy the statue?”
Walters eyes bulged. “We’ll be silent as the night.”
Sarah sighed, “And we’ll pray the luck be with us.”
“Is this package that important?” one of the marines asked, checking his weapon.
“You saw what they sent to Pendar for just one of those things,” Captain Samir said.
“Yes, sir,” the soldier’s face went pale immediately with the memory of Pendar, saluting his captain. They were all eager to forget recent history and Sarah couldn’t blame the kid.
The teams, six men each, moved through the bushes, their active camouflage blending them into the rocky background, slowly surrounding the unaware enemy soldiers. On the captain’s signal, the team took out their silenced weapons and killed six of the guards patrolling near the ships.
“They’re armed to the teeth, boss,” Walters whispered over the communicator. “They were expecting us.”
Samir looked at one of the dead guards’ weapons lying nearby. “MR-8’s.”
“Special forces gear?” Sarah whispered. She heard Walters’ coarse voice cursing over the communicator.
“Check the transports,” Captain Samir ordered via the communicator, moving toward the ships with careful steps. “They’re what they are; the enemy.”
Several muffled gunshots echoed through the in-ear radios, followed by confirmations of his soldiers sweeping the ships.
“Sir!” Walters called over the radio again, “I found something. Two things, actually.”
The team gathered around what the sergeant found; a stairway going underground in the middle of nowhere. The metal staircase was covered in dust and sand but had no noticeable corrosion or metal fatigue.
“This looks recent,” Walters said, checking the bolts on the wall. “Someone went down not too long ago. Hours maybe.” He scanned the sand covering the steps. “The sand’s strewn, not formed naturally.”
“What’s the other thing, Walters?” Sarah asked.
“This,” Walters reached for a body lying near the entrance. The man had been taken down with a single headshot. He raised the body enough for the group to see, pulling down the neck of the dead soldier’s uniform.
“I think I’ll be sick,” Sarah said. “Freaks!”
A symbol was carved into the man’s back; a sword made of hexagonal shapes, its blade intersected by an upside down crescent moon as its hilt, its arms facing down.
“Cosmon Brotherhood,” Walters said, dropping the body. He spat on the dead man in disgust and Sarah couldn’t argue with the man’s actions.
“Perkins,” Captain Samir turned to the nearby soldier, “pick Oswald and Jones. Stand guard topside. Report the moment you see something off.”
The marine saluted him, waving two of the commandos to follow him into the bushes.
“Jackson, you still there?” the captain asked over the radio.
“Yes,” a man whispered. “All quiet.”
“Provide fire support for Perkins’ team.”
“Acknowledged,” was all Lieutenant Jackson responded. The man was withdrawn by nature; a perfect fit for a sniper.
“All right, are you ready?” Captain Samir looked at Sarah.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for something like this.”
“That sounds ready enough.” He activated his night vision glass and dived into the darkness.
***
The stairs ended up several meters underground, where they connected to a stone tunnel. Sarah realized the place was old, really old, unlike the scaffold at the entrance. The air was heavy and moist, making it hard to breathe, and the narrow path made them feel as if they were dwelling inside a limestone tomb. The corridor only had enough room to walk in pairs and if they bumped into an enemy patrol, there was nowhere to take cover. Their descent lasted half an hour before the corridor came to a sudden end.
“Great, now what?” Walters muttered, the dust making him sniffle.
“Well, there’s something behind this wall,” Sarah pointed the footprints ending near the wall. One footprint was cut through the middle by the wall. “Or this man walked through solid stone.”
Captain Samir looked around, inspecting the wall. “Here,” he said.
“Let’s see.” Sarah came closer and saw a slight bump on the surface. She removed one of her gloves and scanned the rock with her hand. When she came on a raised spot, she pressed on the stone piece and the rock moved into the wall, activating the door mechanism. The blocking wall opened into another corridor with a thunderous sound like the structure was collapsing on them. Sarah winced.
“Let’s hope no one heard that,” Walters whispered.
One of the marines whispered back. “Even my momma on Moon heard that!”
“Hush!” Samir pointed. “Light, up ahead.”
The squad moved quietly toward the light reflecting off the walls at the end of the tunnel. Near the entrance to a large chamber, they stopped. Samir took out a gadget the size and shape of a marble. He touched the thing twice and a tiny green light flashed once.
“A scanner?” Sarah asked.
“It’ll map the room.” The captain put the spherical device on the ground and awaited the probe’s adaptation to its surroundings. A few seconds later, the ball-shaped device had the texture of the sandy, rock floor.
“That’s cool,” Sarah whispered. “I need one of those to spy on Ray.”
Captain Samir looked at Sarah, raising an eyebrow.
“Just for fun, you know,” Sarah said, blushing.
The seasoned soldier slowly rolled the device into the room. After a while, his wrist tool gave an almost inaudible beep and a holographic image of the hall appeared before them, outlining the shapes with blue lines inside.
There were twenty-one guards scattered around the room. Three men stood at the far end, before a rectangular object protruding from the wall. Besides the columns supporting the ceiling and whatever those men were studying, the room was open.
Samir signaled his men to get ready, switched his vision to infrared signature mode, and armed his weapon. He waved his hand at Sergeant Hughes and the grim man changed places with Walters, preparing his riot gun.
“Get ready.” He turned to Sarah. “Shoot everything red on your visor.”
“Don’t worry about me, I’m cool.”
“Do it,” the captain whispered, nodding at his men.
Hughes leaned around the corner and fired several shots from his silenced weapon, sending small capsules into the room. A second later, several booms filled the hall, followed by curses and noises of men tumbling over one another, trying to figure out which way is up.
“Go!” Samir barked and rushed into the hall. Sarah dashed right after him, taking out anything red, as Samir had advised. One of the enemy guards recovered himself quickly, firing his rifle blindly through the fog and shooting one of Samir’s men in the chest, but that was the only casualty they suffered. By the time the smoke cleared, all of the enem
y soldiers lay dead.
“How the hell these guys have such hardware, boss?” Walters spat on one of the dead bodies.
“I’ve no idea,” Captain Samir said, checking the bodies.
“Traitors, I tell you.” Walters spat on the corpse again, cursing under his breath.
Sarah checked on the young marine, Peterson, and closed his eyes gently, taking the tag of the fallen soldier. She sent a silent prayer for the kid’s soul and threw his tag to Captain Samir.
The captain caught it midair and cleaned the blood on the metal id. He signaled the men to secure the room. “All right, do your thing Evans.”
The blond woman, Evans, attached a scanner to one of the nearby columns, and activated it. The scanner shone with a sudden blue light and modeled the whole room in detail, including the interiors of walls and columns, its scanner beam passing through the stone surface and dust over and over again. The scanner beeped when it completed marking the rectangular sarcophagus leaned on the northern wall of the room.
“Nothing on scanners sir, no booby trap.”
“Hello, beautiful!” Samir whistled, hitting the stone tomb with his rifle. “This is solid. Walters, blast it.”
“Sure, boss.”
“Blast it?” Sarah said, not hiding the concern in her voice. “What if we damage it?”
“That won’t happen, Sarah,” Captain Samir said, looking at Walters. “Right, Walters?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“Walters, small charges. We don’t need the whole place coming down.”
“When did I ever fail you, boos?” Walters looked offended.
“Remember that hostage situation on Galaxia? The luxury liner?” Evans said, packing her scanning gear.
“Wasn’t my fault.”
“Walters, you blew up three decks to remove an air duct gate!”
“Oh, boy,” Sarah sighed.
“Enough, open it up.”
Walters planted a small plastic charge on the bottom of the lid and sprayed a gel around the covering. With the press of a remote, the colorless gel turned yellow and smoke rose. A moment later, the stone cover fell on the ground.
“See, no fuss.”
“That was a first,” Evans said.
Sarah walked toward the sarcophagus. The Arinar sat in the hands of a mummified corpse. The bones of the occupant were long rotten, the remains defeated before the test of time.
Sarah gently took the statuette from the hands of the corpse, “Sorry buddy.”
A sudden quake hit the room, shaking everything violently.
“Sir?” Walters raised his head hesitantly toward the ceiling, trying to figure out what was causing the tremors.
“Run!” Samir yelled, grabbing Evans’ arm and pushing her toward the exit. “Sarah, move!”
Sarah didn’t need another warning. The wall panels of the hall cracked one by one, flows of sand filling the room from every side. The marines rushed to the exit, but the flood was too fast and too dense to avoid. By the time they cleared the hall, the squad was already short two men taken by surprise. One of the younglings, Private Gus had a stone panel fall on his head, cracking his skull wide open, and Private Derrick had disappeared in the knee-deep sand, trying to save his fallen comrade.
“Don’t stop!” Samir roared, lashing his men with his words.
Sarah afforded a quick glance over her shoulder and saw the waves of sand rushing toward them like a hungry beast chasing its evening meal. By the time the squad reached back the hidden stone door they had opened, five men of the team were already lost inside the dune sea.
“Help!” Sergeant Hicks called, but his words were muffled by the tsunami of sand surrounding him.
“Walters!” Sarah yelled, throwing the Arinar to the sergeant running at the front, “Move it!”
Sergeant Walters caught the statuette mid-air and dashed without looking back. The stairs were ahead, the daylight shining faintly through the staircase, calling for them, but sand was filling the corridor fast, new trap doors opening in their way as if the tomb was aware of their presence.
Walters reached the stairs first, climbing as fast as he could with the statuette, Samir close behind him. Private Austin and Lieutenant Evans were a few steps back and running madly. The sands filling the hallway roared in Sarah’s ears like a waterfall.
Sarah saw Captain Samir jump to the stairs, coughing violently as he pulled Private Austin up. So far, only Walters, Samir and Austin were outside the tomb. Sarah risked looking back and realized her mistake too late. The sand wave devoured her like the huge mouth of a sea monster. She screamed and then darkness took her over.
***
Sarah’s scream for help halted Samir before he could enjoy the sweet air. He looked down to see the woman pulled into the dune sea and without hesitating, he jumped back into the yellow waters.
“Captain!” Samir heard Walters screaming helplessly behind the two. Then the sands took him over.
The captain came out of the sands almost a minute later, grasping for air, his hard face covered with the yellow clod, “Grab my hand!” He reached for Walters. “Pull!”
Walters dashed to the stairs, grabbing his hand and trying to pull him up with all the strength he could muster but his grip was slipping. “I can’t hold you, Captain!”
“Pull!” the captain howled again.
Walters’ muscles swelled, as if they were about to be torn apart. He was about to let go, no longer able to resist the force of the dune sea when Perkins and Evans rushed beside him, catching the captain by his backpack. Together, they pulled the man free of the sand’s grasp, but he dove right back into the opening and only reflex alerted them to grab his feet.
A few seconds later, Samir pulled another body from the sands. Dust covered Sarah’s face.
“Holy hell, is she alive?” Perkins checked the pulse, “Oh, no…”
“Step aside!” the captain barked, grabbing a water flask from his backpack. He roughly washed Sarah’s face and began mouth-to-mouth. Walters was beside him in a flash, starting chest compressions.
“Stay alive, stay alive…” the sergeant mumbled frantically, his eyes were in tears because of the sans, salty water rolling down his dusty face, creating tiny lines of mud mixing with his now gold-coated beard.
“Come on, Sarah!” Samir continued the artificial breathing. “I order you to wake up!”
After minutes that felt like eternity, they finally gave up. Samir cursed heavily, spitting sand.
“Ray will be pissed.” Walters said, looking at Sarah’s pale face.
“I am pissed!”
The other two marines had come running from their posts only to watch Sarah die, and stood in silence over the poor girl. Lieutenant Evans was on her knees, staring at the hole, now filled with sand.
“To hell with—”
Sarah suddenly coughed as if her lungs were coming out, bursting sand into their faces.
“Yes!” the captain clenched his fist. “Quick, help me carry her!” he and Perkins grabbed Sarah’s arms to take her back to the staging area.
“Did—” Sarah was hit with a coughing spasm.
“Easy, girl.”
“Did we get the Arinar?”
“Yes, now relax.” Captain Samir looked at his sergeant. “Walters, help Austin to move. And don’t forget that damned trinket!”
***
By dusk they’d made their way back to the evacuation zone, and found Lieutenant Jackson lying still at his post with a knife in his neck.
Samir grimaced when he found the young man cowardly murdered, and signaled everyone to lay low in the bushes. Perkins crawled to Jackson, checking the man’s body. He looked back and raised two fingers, estimating the time of death. He reached for the dead man’s evacuation transmitter and signaled the transport for pickup, then crawled back to the group.
“Nothing, sir,” Perkins whispered. “The knife’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he showed the recovered weapon to Captain Samir.
“But how can they be here? And those men we took out were humans.”
“Who knows what the Cosmon Brotherhood’s up to. They may very well be the reason of these scums invading us. Wars have their own traitors.”
“But what would you gain from having your own planet seized or destroyed?” Perkins said.
“Damn me if I know, Perkins.” Samir looked back at his team. Sarah was conscious but in no condition to fight. “We can’t hold if there are more of those men. Especially against towering aliens and invisible pets hoping to eat our guts for breakfast.” Perkins and the two marines had their visors but Samir, Evans and Walters had lost all their equipment while trying to save their skins and Austin had only his sidearm to fight.
“I don’t like this.” Walters said. “No one in sight. It’s too silent.”
“What’s the plan, Samir?” Sarah asked. She looked much better now, considering her return from the dead.
“You’ll lay low and stay alive.”
“I’m fine,” Sarah smiled but her voice sounded weak.
The captain looked around, narrowing his eyes. “We’ll keep our heads down and hope that damned pilot makes it quick,” he said finally. “What do we have as gear?”
“Perkins’ team has their stuff in order,” Walters whispered. “Us five, we’re out in the open except for Sarah’s pistol. We can get Jackson’s camouflage as well.”
“Yeah, real good it did him. Just take the sidearm,” Samir said bitterly. He checked the Arinar inside Walters’ backpack and nodded. “I’ll carry that. All right, keep it low and cover yourselves with bushes; we’ll do it the old-fashioned way. Sarah,” he turned to look at the woman, “are you able to walk?
“I’m fine, just lead the way.” Sarah straightened up.
“Maybe we should wait,” Perkins pointed to a light in the clear evening sky that stood out against the stars, its brightness growing each second. “I believe that’s our ride.”
“That was fast.” Walters spat on the ground.
Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) Page 33
