Miranda's War

by Eric S. Brown

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  Chapter 5

  Claus Wulf awoke, screaming a battle cry, only to realize that he lay in a bed, stripped of his armor. A bruised and battered Lee stood nearby, along with Bergman, her bodyguard, and a man who looked to be a doctor.

  “Boss!” Lee snapped, moving to restrain him before Wulf could leap out of the bed.

  “What…” Wulf stammered. “What happened?”

  “You and your crew got your butts handed to you,” Bergman’s bodyguard, Keith Leighman, said.

  Wulf remembered the monster and its glowing yellow eyes as its fist slammed into his armor.

  “I had to call them for help, Boss,” Lee explained. “Peters is still working on Strider, so he couldn’t fly over to pick us up.”

  “The Hog?” Wulf asked.

  “Trashed.” Lee frowned. “That thing did a number on it.”

  “Mr. Wulf…” Bergman said, drawing his attention.

  “That thing took us by surprise,” Wulf said. “That’s all. Trust me, it’s going to pay for it, too.”

  “I certainly hope so,” Bergman growled. “I’d hate to think I’d wasted my credits on hiring someone who couldn’t get the job done.”

  “You haven’t,” Wulf assured her. “We hurt that thing…badly.”

  “So Mr. Lee here has told us,” Bergman said.

  “We warned you about it, Mr. Wulf.” Bergman’s bodyguard walked closer to his bed. “I imagine you thought we were just stupid locals with no idea of what we were talking about, right? You underestimated the creature, and now two of your kill crew are dead.”

  “Mr. Leighman,” Wulf said as he rose from the bed, grimacing at the pain shooting through him from his broken ribs, “I’m still alive. Give me another day, and that thing won’t be.”

  “You get one more chance, Mr. Wulf, and that’s all,” Bergman said, her voice like ice. “Fail again, and I’ll consider you in breach of contract.”

  “I won’t,” Wulf assured her.

  Wulf watched Bergman and her bodyguard leave the room. The doctor, having seen he was okay, had already departed. Wulf turned to Lee. “Carson and Peart are dead?”

  “Yep. Both of them.” Lee nodded. “We hurt the thing bad, though, like you said. For all we know, it might be bleeding out somewhere in those hills right now.”

  “Our luck isn’t that good.” Wulf grunted. “Help me up.”

  Lee took Wulf’s hand and pulled him to his feet.

  “Where’s my gear?” the master hunter asked.

  “It’s with Peters on Strider,” Lee answered. “It needed some fixing up, just like you did.”

  “This is bloody embarrassing,” Wulf commented.

  “Tell me about it,” Lee agreed. “We should have had that thing.”

  “But we didn’t.” Wulf snorted.

  “You got a plan, Boss?” Lee asked.

  “Yeah, get back out there and finish that monster,” Wulf grumbled.

  “You’re not in any shape to…” Lee started, but the master hunter cut him off.

  “I’m fine,” Wulf said. “That thing owes me some blood, and I intend to collect.”

  “You’re the boss,” Lee shrugged, “but I’d prefer not to see you get your entrails ripped out, or worse, my own head ripped from my shoulders.”

  “We’ll be ready this time.” Wulf started for the door. “You coming or not?”

  “You say that as if I have choice!” Lee laughed and followed Wulf. They left the colony’s medical building, heading straight for Strider.

  As they walked through the streets of the town, Lee noticed the cute young blonde staring at Peart watching them. Her expression was one of profound disappointment, a feeling likely shared by all the town’s residents. Lee had only remembered her because he’d seen her use a form of martial arts used by the special operatives of Earth Gov. She was too young to have been in the service, much less at such a high rank to have that kind of training. She was an attractive girl for her age, but Lee’s interest in her didn’t stem from that. He was curious where she’d learned the move she’d used on the girl who had been with her.

  “You think you can make it to Strider without me?” Lee asked Wulf.

  “Why? You got plans?” Wulf challenged him.

  “Just something I want to check out,” Lee answered honestly.

  “Go on, then.” Wulf waved him away. “Just be back to the ship in an hour. I want us to be ready to head back out after that thing before the sun comes up. Nights may be longer on this sinkhole of a planet, but they don’t last forever.”

  “Will do,” Lee promised and veered away from Wulf as the master hunter hobbled toward the town’s gates.

  The girl saw him walking in her direction and appeared to panic. She ducked down the closest alleyway, sprinting away.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Lee muttered under this breath and raced after her. His long legs gave him an advantage in speed that he put to good use, though he wondered why the girl was running. What could she possibly have to hide? Or was it maybe that the attention of a monster hunter had spooked her?

  “Hey!” Lee called out to the girl. “Wait up! I just want to talk!”

  Lee caught up to the girl easily and reached out to grab her. She must have heard him coming, though, because she whipped around with a kick aimed at his face. Lee was barely able to block the blow. His instincts took over, and he sent a punch toward the side of her skull. The girl ducked his punch, delivering a flurry of short jabs to his stomach. Lee grunted and reeled backward. His eyes were wide with shock—this kid really knew how to fight. Where in Hades had she learned that on a small farming world like Tanatos IV?

  The girl stood in a defensive stance, staring at him, waiting on him to make the next move.

  Raising his hands in a gesture of surrender, Lee said, “Look, kid, I ain’t after a fight. I just want to know where you learned how to do it so well.”

  “My father taught me,” the girl answered.

  “Who the frag is your father?” Lee blurted out, unable to stop himself.

  “Keith Leighman,” the girl told him.

  “Bergman’s bodyguard?” Lee gasped, putting two and two together.

  “That’s him.”

  Lee had noticed Leighman carried himself like a soldier, but never in a million years would he have thought the guy was an Earth Gov operative and not just some veteran from the line.

  “I’m Lee Wrath. One of Wulf’s kill crew,” he said. “What’s your name?”

  The girl looked reluctant to tell him, but finally said, “Miranda.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Miranda,” Lee said, offering her his hand.

  She accepted it, and they shook. Miranda’s grip was firm and strong. Lee continued to be impressed by her.

  “He’s dead isn’t he?” Miranda asked.

  “Who?”

  “The cute one with the gray cap.”

  “You mean Peart,” Lee told her. “Yeah…I’m afraid he is.”

  “Why aren’t you more upset about it? The two of you looked like you were close,” Miranda said.

  Lee shrugged again, this time with a heavy sigh, “It happens. Killing monsters is a dangerous line of work. We all know the risks when we sign up. Sooner or later, my turn will come, too.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Nobody ever said the universe was a perfect place, kid.” Lee frowned at her.

  “Are you going after the monster again?” Miranda asked.

  “We are. We’ve got a contract with Bergman, and we aim to see it through.”

  “I want to come with you,” Miranda said. She seemed to surprise herself with her words as much as she did Lee.

  “You’re dang good, kid, but you ain’t that good!” Lee laughed. “Give it a few years, and if you’re still interested, look us up.”

  Miranda huffed and turned to walk away from him.

  “Wait,” Lee called after her. “Your dad, is he retired or what?”

  “
If you’re worried he’s still an active Earth Gov operative, he’s not. He left all that behind when my mother died, and we came here,” Miranda said, then she rounded the corner of the alleyway, disappearing from Lee’s sight.

  Lee let her go this time. She’d told him what he’d wanted to know, and his questions about her had been answered. The unrest between the fringe worlds and Earth Gov was growing. It hadn’t escalated into real, organized violence yet, but Lee didn’t think that day was too far off. Wulf wasn’t going to be happy to find out that Bergman’s bodyguard was a former Earth Gov operative, but at least they didn’t have to worry about him trying to shut them down with some sort of crappy regulations or demanding a cut of their pay for operating on an Earth Gov policed world, even if it was just him there. Honestly, Keith Leighman didn’t strike Lee as that kind of Earth Gov jerk anyway, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Digging his pack of cigarettes and lighter out of his pocket, Lee lit one up. The professional monster hunter took a long drag from it, holding the smoke in his lungs, before he finally exhaled. He stood there and finished it, despite knowing that Wulf was waiting for him aboard Strider. He needed a minute to get himself straightened out and made good use of the one God had provided him with.

  When there was nothing left of the cigarette but a burning butt, Lee flung it to the ground and smashed it out with the sole of his right boot. He glanced up at the stars in the night sky, crossed himself, and then finally got moving.

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  Chapter 6

  As Wulf approached the town’s gates, one of the night guards moved to stop him. The man was clearly nervous about doing so, despite the fact that Wulf wasn’t wearing his armor and had failed to slay the monster terrorizing the colony on his first attempt.

  “Uh…Mr. Wulf…sir,” the guard sputtered.

  “What is it?” Wulf asked.

  “There’s been some activity outside the walls tonight…around your ship,” the guard told him. “Are you sure you want to go out there?’

  “What do you mean, activity?” Wulf demanded.

  “The truth of it is, we’re not sure, sir,” the guard said. “One of our guys thought he saw something big moving up the ship’s ramp.”

  “Are you trying to tell me the monster out there came all the way down here and walked onto my ship?” Wulf stared at the guard. “I thought it never came this close to your town.”

  “It never has before, sir,” the guard said. “Harry swears he saw the thing out there tonight, though, but…”

  “He’s been drinking,” Wulf guessed, making the leap from how noncommittal the man was being about his fellow guard’s trustworthiness.

  “How did you know that?” The guard gawked at him.

  “Just a hunch.” Wulf smirked. “I’ve pulled guard duty before. I know how it goes sometimes up on walls like these. Thank you for your warning, but I think I’ll take my chances out there.”

  “Yes, sir.” The guard saluted him before moving out his way.

  Wulf sighed and muttered under his breath where the guard couldn’t hear him, “Locals.”

  Crossing the field toward Strider, Wulf’s eyes had long adapted to the night. He looked up ahead to where his ship rested within the burnt-out patch of land it had landed on. There was a hover cart sitting near the ship’s ramp. Something gleamed in the starlight on top of it. As he got closer, Wulf could see it was his armor, fully repaired from the looks of it, and ready to be brought into town for him. A part of him grew angry that Peters had just left his armor sitting out on the hover cart, since the engineer was nowhere to be seen. There was something else near where the cart sat. Whatever it was, it was small, and seemed to be floating in the air. Wulf picked up his pace toward the ship, breaking into the best jog he could manage, given his wounds.

  His eyes bugged out as he saw that the thing that appeared to be floating in the air wasn’t floating at all. It was Peters’ head, impaled atop a thin stick of wood. The expression on the dead engineer’s face was one of utter terror, and fresh blood still dripped from the remnants of Peters’ neck that dangled beneath his severed head.

  Wulf flinched as he saw something moving about inside the ship’s open bay just above its landing ramp. His armor had voice activation controls built into it, and he used them.

  “Beowulf!” the master hunter said loudly. The suit of armor broke apart where it lay on the cart, its pieces flying to embrace him. They clanged into place around his body. His axe was still melded to the back of the armor, and he drew it. It came to life, humming in his hand, as the last bits of his armor snapped into place, and his armor’s collar grew, extending to surround his head in a high-tech battle helmet. The armor had cost him a fortune, but right now he was glad for every penny he had spent on having it built and improved over the years.

  Wulf stared at the ramp leading up into Strider, noticing it was wet with blood. Whatever was on the ship had killed Peters there, then after impaling his head on the stick, entered the ship. Strider’s interior lights were on. A long shadow fell over the ramp as something moved above it. The monster emerged from Strider, so tall it had to duck on its way out. Muscles rippled beneath the brown hair covering its body, and its eyes glowed like miniature yellow suns in the night, full of rage, fury, and hatred. The great beast was moving slowly and bore the wounds the Hog’s auto-cannon had inflicted upon it. In the monster’s right hand was a large RPG launcher taken from Strider’s armory. Wulf gawked at the weapon in disbelief. The monster handled the RPG launcher like it somehow knew exactly what the weapon was and how to use it.

  As the monster’s gaze fell upon him, Wulf whirled about and raced toward the gates of Harold’s Colony. His armor was tough, but it couldn’t stand up to the firepower the monster was packing. His legs pumped beneath him as he pushed himself faster. Each gasped breath hurt like Hades from his broken ribs. The monster made no move to charge after him. It merely walked down the ramp and kept a calm, unhurried pace behind Wulf as the master hunter ran for his life.

  A commotion broke out atop the town’s walls as the guards there saw both him and the monster coming their way.

  “Open the gates!” Wulf shouted, waving his axe at the guards.

  The heavy gates slid apart to admit him into the town. Wulf bolted through them and heard the gates clang back into place behind him as the guards atop the wall opened fire at the approaching monster. Their weapons cracked and chattered, booming in the night. The next thing Wulf knew, the gates behind him exploded into bits of flaming debris. The shock wave from the explosion threw him to the dirt. He hit the ground hard on his stomach, the impact jarring his already aching ribs. Pieces of debris from the gates pinged off his armor like bits of shrapnel. Wulf felt them hitting him and bouncing away. In the wake of the explosion, Wulf rolled over and got to his feet, his axe still clutched in his right hand. There was nothing left of the town’s gates but flames and ruin.

  Through the flames, Wulf saw the monster coming. The great beast discarded the spent RPG launcher it carried, flinging the empty weapon aside. The guards atop the wall had died in the blast that had blown the gates apart. Alarm klaxons had come to life, screeching throughout the town. He spotted Lee nearby, running to join him. Wulf knew this was it. They had to hold the monster here and kill it, or they were never going to get paid. Their reputation would be ruined if they failed, and God only knew how many townsfolk would die at the monster’s claws before the beast was sated and withdrew once more to the hills from which it had come.

  Lee wasn’t the only person running to help Wulf make his stand. Keith Leighman, along with several other armed men and women, was rushing to join him as well. He hoped all of them combined would be enough to stop the monster.

  Wulf sank into a defensive stance, his axe ready, as the monster issued a thunderous roar and finally broke into a run toward him. Its claws gleamed in the starlight as it came. The monster’s lips were parted in a fierce snarl as it reached him. Lee and the oth
ers couldn’t take a shot at the monster with him between them and it, but Wulf was done backing down. He was the legendary Claus Wulf, master hunter and slayer of monsters, and it was time for the Hell-born beast coming at him to die.

  The monster struck first, and one of its clawed hands swung at Wulf. The master hunter met the beast’s swinging hand with the blade of his axe. It cut through the thing’s flesh and bone at the wrist, sending the monster’s hand spinning away into the night. The monster’s blood splashed over his armor as it staggered backward, shrieking in pain. Wulf pressed forward, bringing his axe around to strike at the beast again. As wounded as it was, the monster was still ready for him. It dodged his swinging axe and sprang forward, ramming into him. Wulf was knocked from his feet and sent sprawling before the monster.

  The master hunter expected the beast to drop onto him, tearing at his armor with its claws, but instead the thing lifted one of his massive feet, bringing it down on his chest. Wulf screamed as the monster’s full strength and weight came down onto his chest. His armor cracked, and his ribs folded inward into his heart and lungs. Wulf vomited blood inside his helmet as he rolled to his stomach and tried desperately to crawl away from the monster. The great beast’s remaining hand reached down, sinking its claws into the metal of his armor, and lifted him up just as Lee and the others opened fire. The weapons of the colonists were no real threat to his armor. The rounds they fired sparked away harmlessly, but Lee’s didn’t. The shot Lee fired entered his chest through the ragged and damaged armor covering it and blew out the backside of his suit in an explosion of blood, splinters of bone, and bits of shattered metal.

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  Chapter 7