by M. R. Forbes
The soldiers crouched down, staying low, letting the trife jump over them to attack. They looked at one another with confused expressions, unsure what to make of their sudden change in fortune.
“This way!” Hayden shouted.
He started across the field, heading north toward the buildings. Some of the trife were still in that area, and they were breaking up their engagements with the human enemy to shift their attention to the competition. They scampered across the open space, charging at the eastern trifes’ flanks and leaping into the fray.
Hayden threw up a shoulder as a trife rushed in from his direction. It smacked off him, stumbling slightly and pushing past, leaping into a group of western trife, claws flailing and teeth gnashing. It screeched and hissed, killing its target at the same time its opponents shredded its back with their claws.
The cars turned around again, driving back across the field. Soldiers jumped into the rear or sat on the trunk, letting the vehicles carry them out of the way. Hayden continued to run, joined by more soldiers as they made their escape and left the field to the demons.
He reached the hospital, only then turning around to look. The two slicks were intermingling, mixing in a dark swirl of death, cutting one another down in a frenzy of violence.
The tired Liberators stood on the sidelines. They were dirty and sweating, many of them with at least one or two gashes along their flesh that would require patching or stitching. They had a new brightness in their eyes. An expression of hope.
Hayden left them, hurrying back to the armory. Five minutes had passed, leaving Gus and Pyro standing outside the building. They weren’t wearing body armor, but they had found a pack somewhere and loaded it with supplies.
“You’re late,” Pyro said when she saw him.
“Did you find everything I asked for?”
“No. I don’t think there’s any extra protection in there. But Gus and I do already have our links in our ears. Hang on.” She dug into the pocket of her pants, pulling out a small black device with a wire running out from it. “Here’s yours. It’s already set up.”
“You knew how to do it?” he asked, taking it and sticking it in his ear.
“I am a botter, Sheriff. I’m familiar with tech.”
“Right. Let’s go. I want to get out of here before anyone has time to realize we don’t belong. They’re happy with me for saving their asses, but it won’t last.”
He started cutting back toward the cars. The one he had ridden in was stopped nearby, parallel to where the trife were tearing one another apart.
“Sheriff Duke,” the driver said, grinning when he noticed Hayden. “I can’t believe you did it.”
“I can barely believe it,” Hayden replied. “Come on out of there, Corporal. I’m going to need your car.”
“What?” the driver said.
“I’m not with you,” Hayden said. “I’m not a Liberator. But I do have somewhere to be. I need your car.”
“Sheriff, I can’t give you my car.”
“We don’t have to make this hard. I don’t expect you to give me the car. I do expect to take it.” Pyro drew her sidearm, pointing it in at the corporal. “Or she can kill you.”
The driver took his hands off the wheel, putting them up. He started climbing out of the car.
“You!”
Hayden heard the shout behind him. He recognized it immediately.
“Sorry, Corporal,” Hayden said, reaching out and grabbing the driver by the collar. He yanked the man out through the open window and dropped him to the ground. “Gus, Pyro, get in back. Let’s go.”
They threw the bag into the back of the car. Hayden pulled himself in through the window.
“Stop him!” Lieutenant Hong shouted. “Stop that car!”
Hayden looked to his left, finding the Lieutenant running over from near the gates. He had been unconscious while the trife were going past him, which was the only reason he was still alive. Hayden adjusted his attention to the soldiers nearby. They were looking at Hong, confused.
“That car,” Hong said, pointing at him. “Kill that man.”
The car’s engine was still running. Hayden put it into drive and slammed his foot down on the gas, sending the vehicle ahead.
The soldiers recovered from their shock a few seconds later. He heard the reports of rifles behind them, followed by the soft thunks and cracks of rounds hitting the armored rear of the car. Gus and Pyro ducked low in back, hiding from the gunshots.
Hayden navigated the car toward the gate. Hundreds of trife and the truck they had arrived in were both blocked their exodus.
“Gus!” Hayden said, using his newly acquired comm. “Tell me you got something good for a situation like this!”
“Pozz that, Sheriff,” Gus replied. “Standby.”
Hayden looked in the mirror, watching Gus duck down and grab the bag, quickly unzipping it. A moment later, he pulled out a rifle. Hayden recognized it and its twin barrels immediately. It was a standard-issue USSF assault rifle with an integrated launcher.
Gus leaned on the roof in front of his position, using it to steady his aim. Hayden heard the thunk of the launcher. Once. Twice. Three times. Gus fired three of the high-explosive rounds at the truck and everything around it.
The spheres bounced along the ground ahead of them, rolling to a stop. One of them managed to make it beneath the truck.
Then they exploded in rapid succession.
The force of the blast lifted the truck into the air, tearing it apart and knocking it onto its side. The other grenades detonated too, tearing into trife who were trying to reach the fighting, blowing a massive hole in their ranks and creating a lane of travel for the car.
“If there are any rounds left in that gun, we’re going to need them,” Hayden said, pointing to the car’s machine-gun.
“Pozz that, Sheriff,” Pyro replied.
She stood and grabbed the handles of the weapon, rotating it toward the nearest demons. She started shooting when they didn’t move aside fast enough, ensuring they wouldn’t try to stop them from escaping.
Hayden slowed as he neared the truck, maneuvering the car around the burning mess of metal, squeezing between it and the now damaged stone wall that composed the western perimeter. He was surprised to find the line of trife they had just pushed through was the last of the nest.
The other group was larger. Much larger. The trife were attacking one another for the moment, but it wasn’t going to last. He hoped the Liberators would keep their attention on the real enemy instead of worrying about him.
He kept them headed west, along a road leading back out to the old highway. It wasn’t long before Fort McGuire and the trife faded from the rear-view.
“Well, that was easy,” Gus said.
None of them noticed the faint outline of the creature standing in the guard tower on the western wall, watching them go. It remained there, motionless for a minute.
Then it jumped down from its position and began to follow.
Chapter 23
The Pulse dropped toward the brown and gray ground below, coming down almost as fast as it had risen, taking a steep vertical descent to the coordinates Tinker had provided.
The old military base was in the middle of nowhere. That much was obvious from the moment the surface became visible. There were no structures anywhere near it. No roads leading in or out, or if there had been roads, they had either gotten worn out or destroyed a long time ago.
Intentionally?
He couldn’t rule it out.
There were some mountains, some hills, and plenty of desert. He caught sight of animals along the dusty landscape, wild horses mainly. He also saw something else off in the horizon. Something massive and upright, moving slowly through the haze. At least, he thought he did.
But it was too big to be human. Too big to be real. A mirage, James called it. An optical illusion. They didn’t have mirages on Proxima. It was a frightening trick of the light.
The Pulse shudd
ered as they hit some low turbulence, only a few klicks off the ground. It didn’t bother Nathan, but he heard James grunt, and when he glanced back he saw the general’s hands were white-knuckled against the chair’s armrests, and his face was tight.
He had thought James was too tough to be bothered by a little shaking. Maybe he was more willing to show his fear to Nathan. Maybe he was trusting him more?
Nathan believed he had earned it. Shooting down a Centurion dropship was a big step for him. It added finality to his decision to stay on Earth and to work with Tinker and the Liberators. Even if the odds were slim, he could return to Proxima and clear his name.
That was all over now.
Maybe Command would never know he was the pilot who took the shot. Maybe they would blame it on the Trust; and he hoped they would. But he knew he had killed another Centurion Spacer.
And this time he had done it on purpose.
He was past the point of no return.
Niobe had drawn him into this. Had she known what the Trust would do? Had she expected him to die when he reached Earth? He wished he could resolve that thought. He wished he could make a decision to love her or not based on that consideration. How could he still care so much for someone who was so willing to sacrifice him?
In his mind, the decision only served to make her stand out more. She had always been decisive, strong, and passionate about what she believed in. It was a trait he respected, and giving him up in the name of that belief was a major sacrifice.
At least, he hoped it had been.
“Relentless,” James said. His voice was sharp like he had said it a couple of times already.
“Sir?” Nathan replied, snapping out of his head.
There was a large salt flat adjacent to the few buildings visible from the air. He had touched the Pulse down on it almost subconsciously, not even realizing the small landing gear on the bottom of the dropship had flexed and stabilized against the ground.
“We’re here,” James said. “Funny the pilot doesn’t know that.” He laughed.
“I was thinking about Niobe,” Nathan said.
“You do that a lot?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were lucky, Nathan. To get to know her like that. Only one Mary replica and she went to you.”
“I feel lucky most of the time.”
“And betrayed the rest?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s just the two of us here. Call me James. We’re brothers.”
“Roger that, James.”
“I know it probably feels fucked up that she guided you to Earth knowing the Trust would want you dead. It worked out okay in the end.”
“Pure luck?”
“Or fate. Do you believe in fate?”
“I’m starting to.”
James laughed again, pointing to the buildings visible in the port side display. “We need to infiltrate that complex and see if we can find the mainframe.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Nathan said. “This place is deserted.”
“It looks deserted. I’ve learned you can never be too sure. Between the trife, the nomads, the CSF, the Trust, and the leftovers of the CSF’s science experiments, the most innocent, empty, remote looking locations always have the potential to morph into shit central.”
“I know Tinker is trying to keep this quiet, but I’m surprised we didn’t bring any other Liberators. Not even Doc, at least.”
“Doc’s got her own work to do. Now that the trials are done, she’s back to working in the lab, producing more of the stuff. I don’t trust anyone else enough to let them in on this.”
“Are you sure you can trust me?”
“I don’t know, Nathan. Are you sure you can trust me?”
“No,” Nathan replied. “I’m not sure. But I’m doing it anyway.”
“Good answer. I know you’ve lied to me. I know you had a soft spot for that Rhonna girl and the sheriff. It makes it harder to trust you.”
“You didn’t have to let her die,” Nathan said, since James had brought it up.
“I did,” James insisted. “You created that problem. I couldn’t let it go unresolved in front of the troops. They either respect me or they fear me or both, and when I say jump they need to ask me how fucking high. I can’t command that if they think I’m soft or preferential to anybody. Doc is included in that, too. It isn’t personal.” He paused, then stood and walked down to put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “For whatever it’s worth, now that we’re here alone, I’m sorry I had to do it.”
Nathan looked at him. “Okay. Apology accepted.” What else could he do? She was dead. Nothing was bringing her back.
“Let’s gear up and get a move on,” James said. “The sooner we find the mainframe; the sooner Tinker can start working on it.”
Nathan unbuckled himself and stood. A light on the control surface started to flash. Nathan recognized it as an incoming communication, but who would be calling them here?
“We’re being hailed, James,” he said.
“Put it on the bridge comm,” James replied.
Nathan leaned over the control surface and patched the communication into the bridge.
“This is General Stacker,” James said.
“General Stacker, sir,” a voice said over the comm. “This is Major Nelson at Edenrise Central Command.”
“Major. What can I do for you?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, sir. Tinker asked me to contact you.”
“Then you aren’t bothering me, Major. What’s going on?”
“Sir, we’ve received multiple emergency calls from Lieutenant Hong at Fort McGuire. There’s been a—”
“Multiple emergency calls?” James said, interrupting. “Why am I only hearing about this now?”
“Sir, it took some time to find Tinker and ask him what to do. Without you here—”
“Where the fuck is Lieutenant General Caspar?” James shouted.
“Sir, he’s—”
“Never-fucking-mind,” James hissed, his face flushing. “It took you all of four hours without me to completely fuck up, and there’s nothing I can do to change it. What’s the situation, Major?”
“Uh. Right. Sir, the Hellion got loose.”
James looked like his head was going to explode. The veins in his forehead throbbed, his face flushed even darker, and his prosthetic hand grabbed the arm of the captain’s chair and twisted the metal. “How many did we lose?” His voice was a sharp whisper.
“Twenty-six soldiers to the Hellion, sir. Eighty-six more to the trife.”
“Trife? What trife? McGuire has been clean for six years.”
“According to Lieutenant Hong, they attacked when the Hellion started attacking. They came from both sides of the fort, east and west. Two different nests, we think.”
“Two nests?”
“Yes, sir. Lieutenant Hong said that the troops were able to repel the attack, but his account was put to question by the technician who connected the call.”
“What do you mean, put to question? He’s the commanding officer at McGuire.”
“Yes, sir. I have the transcript here if you’d like to hear it?”
“Just give me the summary, and be quick about it. I didn’t leave Edenrise to find somewhere to meditate.”
“Sir, apparently an outsider entered the fort with Snake platoon. He fought off the Hellion, and then he led the fourth mobile division out into the field to bring our soldiers together, causing the trife from opposing nests to start attacking one another and ignore the troops.”
“An outsider?” James said, looking at Nathan. They were both confused. “And he fought off the Hellion?”
“He had a robot with him, sir. A very advanced robot. I’ve never seen one like it outside of Edenrise. The Hellion destroyed it, but it distracted the creature while the outsider attacked and wounded it enough to cause it to flee.”
James’ eyebrows wrinkled, dipping down and in, expressing his confusion. “
The only advanced robot I know of anywhere near Fort McGuire is in Crosston,” he said. “But Loki would never be so heroic to help anyone but himself.”
Nathan’s heart began to beat a little faster. Could it be? He didn’t see how that would be possible. The virus was one hundred percent fatal, and he had left Hayden inside the Crosston complex. In fact, he was standing right in front of the canister.
“Major,” he said. “This is Colonel Stacker. Can you please describe the outsider?”
“Uh. Colonel.” The major was surprised to hear someone else with James. “Of course. Let me find it in the transcript. One second.” There was a short pause. “Here it is. Lieutenant Hong confronted him after the Hellion ran, but then he sucker-punched the Lieutenant and knocked him out cold. He had two replacement arms. One was very human in size and shape. The other was oversized, crude and powerful. He was wearing dark clothes with a lot of holes and cuts in them, and a dark, rubbery looking material underneath.”
James and Nathan locked eyes. Nathan imagined they were both wearing the same expression of disbelief. The difference was that while James’ eyes were beginning to burn with new fury, Nathan was elated by the news.
“It says when he went into the motor pool, he introduced himself as Sheriff Duke. Does that mean anything to you, sir?”
“I don’t fucking believe it,” James hissed softly. He closed his eyes. “Major, what’s the current situation at Fort McGuire?”
“The Hellion is gone, sir. The trife are defeated. We have a number of wounded and dead, but Lieutenant Hong is continuing the retreat to Edenrise.”
“And what happened to Sheriff Duke?” he asked.
“He stole one of the cars and drove away, sir.”
“Of course he did.” James brought a hand up to his forehead to massage it. “If the fighting is over, why did you bother me?”
“Sir? Tinker told me you should know. I was only—”
“I know. Following orders. What the fuck does he expect me to do about it from here?”
