It was a man, or at least it had been, but to the dying marine it seemed like there was something not right about him.
Something not altogether human.
A STORM WITHOUT END
Ajax rested his arm on the barrel of his pulse rifle, the weapon slung over his shoulder, and let the rain wash over him. It had been a long time, too long to recall clearly, since he had enjoyed a good rain storm.
The forest moon of Khal was a place still untouched by the polluted cities of humanity, and when the rain fell it was free of toxins and sweet on the tongue. It was the little things like that which Ajax realized he'd grown accustomed to living without. The marines existed on packaged food and recycled water, with the occasional nutritional cocktail fed intravenously if their vitals were not in peak condition.
The worlds upon which the Einherjar trod were always war zones, from the shattered cities of Verdun 12 to the toxic swamps on Himar. The marine found himself oddly thankful that Task Force Grendel's mission had led them to a still pristine environment.
There was industry here, of course, but it was highly regulated and of minimum impact. Several ink-rock deposits had been discovered deep in the moon's core, and a single drilling compound had been sanctioned to extract. The rest of the moon was something of a nature preserve, though Ajax suspected that it wasn't open to the public so much as it was reserved for the elite of human society.
Ajax stood on a hill that looked down into a small valley, where the rest of Hydra Company had rallied. Beyond the valley, over a series of rocky hills and forested ridges, lay the drilling compound. Communication had been lost with the compound for several days, and like Kai Prime, that radio silence combined with the attention of the Bloodhound, spurred command to order Bright Lance to make haste. Orbital recon had given the impression that the compound was deserted. All the equipment had been shut down and not a soul could be seen moving about the site.
"Gorgon in position," came a voice over the company channel, soon followed by "Manticore in position."
"Hydra Company in position," said Jarl Mahora, "Break into your fire teams and hold your ground till Cerberus comes online."
Ajax and Hydra Company had made planetfall first and moved quickly to secure their current position. Thus far, no sign of the garm had been found, though Ajax was positive that the steadily increasing psychic pressure was emanating from the compound. He stood on the hill next to Hart, the sniper turned skald having been attached to his former marine company along with Omar and several other operators.
The men stood silently, using the large trunk of a tree as partial cover, which allowed them to have a clear view of the valley below and forest ahead. The only problem was the rain, sweet as it was. Air support from the Edda would have been desirable, though the heavy rain would make it nearly impossible for the pilots to register a shrieker suicide attack in time to evade it.
The willingness of the garm to choke the machines of humanity with their own bodies had once again put the infantry units at the vanguard. After years of war, Ajax was perfectly used to the vicious ground fighting without much in the way of air support. Artillery would do them little good here, given the thick canopy. Several tanks from Armor One had been assigned to Task Force Grendel, they lay idle, in wait for a battlefield that suited them. With the thick foliage, dense canopy, and a wilderness unspoiled by roads, it was upon the shoulders of the infantry that this battle would fall.
After Kai Prime, Ajax had no idea what to expect out of the garm this time. He had given a detailed report of what he'd witnessed in the sea caves, and his report raised more questions than it answered.
Thanks to Jormungandr, the snail creatures were pulped beyond recognition, and so Idris and his team had precious little to work with. Thus far they had no findings to report, and it was the same with the glowing green fluid, the only conclusion being a confirmation that whatever Jormungandr had done with its gills had made the fluid inert. It was filled with cells and tightly packed DNA, but all so degraded that nothing could be gained from its study.
The bodies that had been ripped from the belly of Jormungandr were coated in a fluid that continued to break them down even after they had been freed from the confines of its digestive system. By the time marines could get down to the safety nets and recover the torc from Ajax's corpse, the marine's armored body was awash in a thick soup of digested meat. The fluid had begun to eat away at his combat armor. Had he remained suspended in it much longer his torc might have been damaged.
Ajax had made it clear to any who would listen that the bodies weren't completely human, but with no bodies to check, it was impossible to know for sure. He was already dying from the poison, and the other remains were badly decomposed, but the marine could not shake the certainty that they had been tampered with somehow, by the garm.
"You’re thinking of those men back on Kai Prime, yes?" asked Hart, his voice cutting through the rain and snapping Ajax back to attention, the marine having drifted into his thoughts.
"Aye. One of them landed right next to me, and I know it could have just been damaged," grumbled Ajax, "But I'm sure it was more than that."
"Most are inclined to believe you, Ajax," said Hart, "Even without proof, your word counts for a great deal these days. Some say you are Beowulf incarnate, if the talk has any truth to it."
"Hindsight is always keen, it seems easier to put meaning on things that have already happened than it is to predict what will come," stated Ajax as he cast his gaze across the valley, which was nearly obscured by the falling rain. "Skald Omar insists that there are at least three alpha garm incursions to be rooted out, we are here for the second. He is trying to look ahead with his stories."
"The god, Loki, had three sons from the womb of the giantess, Angrboda," spoke Hart as he flipped open the cap that covered his scope and leaned in to peer through it. "We find one in the sea and call it Jormungandr, now we hunt Fenrir in dark forests. I have to wonder if we would face such horrors had we not named them so."
"What about the double-blind effect?" asked Ajax from his position just below the sniper. "I pinged on Kai Prime before anyone told us the story, or at least told me, of the serpent, Jormungandr."
"Ah yes, but once the beast was so named, did you not slay it in a manner befitting legend?" argued Hart with a bemused tone as he continued to look down his scope, the heavy rain making it difficult to see much, even with the sight assist features of his helmet. "We have pulse rifles, chainfires, even grenade launchers, and yet you strike the killing blow with what was essentially a spear. You accomplished this feat with the use of but a single eye."
"Odin, the one-eyed god with the enchanted spear," breathed Ajax, and he looked away from the sniper and down into the forest just below the hilltop upon which they were positioned, his eyes coming to rest on Hydra Company as the marine force awaited the coming conflict. "The similarities are impressive, and yet in the sagas, it was Thor and his hammer who slew Jormungandr. It’s like the pieces of the sagas are all there, but we’re putting them together differently in the living of it. I don't see how Omar can think anything can be predicted, the meaning of it all only makes sense looking backwards."
"It will drive you mad if you dwell on it too much, Ajax," said Hart before shifting his stance slightly so that he could rest more of his body against the trunk of the massive tree behind which the men had taken cover. "Skald Thatcher died attempting to cast himself as Beowulf instead of focusing on the approach that made the most tactical sense. Besting Grendel in single combat was a fool's errand, had he waited for the rest of us, perhaps he would yet live."
"The sagas seem to be an accurate road map, so far," observed Ajax, "At least by strokes broad enough to yield some measure of victory. Even Jarl Mahora seems to be taking the narrative more seriously."
"As am I, brother, your defeat of Jormungandr, and the manner of it, certainly adds to the mounting evidence from Heorot. Though you make an excellent point, all the pieces seem to be here,
and that is of note, and yet events unfold as they do and it is only afterwards that we see the whole of it. Thor may have slain the serpent in legend, yet it is undeniable that you filled the role of Odin in that moment," replied Hart as he flipped down the cap and relaxed his grip on the rifle so that he could turn and face Ajax. "Perhaps there is something deeper at work here, a sort of archetypal momentum to our journey. My point is that we should be using the narrative as a supplement to sound military strategy. Thus far, Skald Wallace seems to be of the same temperament, despite how loudly Skald Omar may proselytize."
Ajax was silent, and found himself looking back down at Hydra Company as they began forming into small attack squads. Omar had, indeed, become much more vocal about the sagas after the events on Kai Prime. Ajax could not blame him, as it was undeniably serendipitous that Ajax should lose an eye and then slay the beast with the harpoon, even if those events were at odds with the exact details of the sagas. It was a living remix of the struggle between the mythic Jormungandr and the gods, down to Ajax killing the garm with a spear and then succumbing to the beast's poison. The marine could not deny that it was a rather powerful example of life syncing up with story, and taken alone, it could be considered coincidence, though when combined with the events on Heorot, it was downright chilling.
An increasing number of the Einherjar, from the rank and file grunts, to the special forces operators, to the officers in command, were open supporters of the sagas. In many ways, Ajax felt that the disjointed unfolding of events was the only thing preventing the All-Father's army from looking to the sagas as a core battle script instead of a curious supplemental advantage. It wasn’t as though Ajax could have fought Jormungandr by himself, it still took legions of marines, air support, and sound military stratagems to carry the day.
"The men are looking for change," said Hart suddenly, "Deep down, we all know that if the war continues as it has, this grinding stalemate will see us all black out eventually and humanity annihilated."
"What about the new marine companies coming out of Bifrost?" asked Ajax, curious as to his comrade's nihilistic sentiment. "They’ll be blooded veterans soon enough."
"Men do not volunteer so readily as they once did now that the threat of the garm is fully engaged. That urgency has dimmed somewhat for a civilization so far removed from our war. Especially considering how few arise with their minds intact from that first death and rebirth, as we were not ever meant to persist in this way. That being said, yes, there may be new companies founded on Bifrost, and perhaps they will be enough to maintain the stalemate," Hart shrugged. "The veterans, which are most of us, crave a war that can be won. That, more than any empirical evidence in support, is what brings warriors into the fold with the likes of Omar."
"Command didn’t even hesitate to mobilize our forces when I let it be known that this forest moon throbbed in my psyche," said Ajax, at once encouraged by the faith that everyone showed in his abilities and filled with dread as to the level of responsibility that put squarely on his shoulders.
"The more victorious we are, the more fanatical we may become, and fanaticism breeds inflexibility," said Hart, more to himself than Ajax. The rain fall began to ease and he looked through his scope once more, this time with much less interference. "If you believed as hard as the others, you might have overlooked the harpoon in search of a hammer, and Jormungandr might have escaped. It is better that you are open minded, yet unconvinced."
They were dancing around the grisly spectacle of the severed hands that had been nailed to the interior wall of the engine section. It was a behavior undocumented in all the years of conflict against the garm, and the sight of it haunted him still. For what purpose would the garm do such a thing? They had never displayed an inclination towards decoration, or trophy taking, and even advanced organisms like Grendel and Jormungandr had focused on combat and recon. Psychological warfare was not something the garm conducted, at least not on a conscious level. The Hive Mind certainly engaged on a universe-wide psychic level, but even that did not have the sort of artful malice inherent in the atrocity.
Skald Omar had insisted during the debriefing that the hands and the way they were nailed to the wall in a large circle pointed to one of the Norse stories. In that tale, the trickster god Loki's misdeeds resulted in the sun god, Tyr, losing his hand, swallowed up by the beast Fenrir.
The skald was immediately shut down by Wallace before he could say more, and the discussion was tabled. Ajax could tell that the skalds were keeping something from the marines, and so could Jarl Mahora. The hardened veteran had chosen to let it go, insisting later to Ajax that they let the skalds keep their secrets, marines had better things to do.
Ajax dared not ask Hart, for even if the sniper knew something about the hands and their significance, the marine knew that the sniper would keep his silence. Their friendship was an awkward one, but based on mutual respect and years of fighting side by side, and Ajax did not care to upset that balance. Marines had better things to do than worry about what schemes the skalds were up to.
"Cerberus in position," came through the channel, and Ajax knew it was time for action.
The marine touched his fingers to his temple to give Hart a farewell salute, and then turned to make his way down the hill to join his fire team, his boots sinking into the loamy soil and crunching through the layer of pine needles that rested on top.
His comrades waited for him, men whose own reputations were beginning to take shape simply by their close association with him. Yao had swapped out his rifle for a grenade launcher, having been determined by the jarl to be the best suited replacement for Boone. Rama, Sharif, Ford, and Silas all stood by the freshly minted grenadier and shouldered their rifles as Ajax approached.
"Fire teams, fall in," growled Jarl Mahora over the company channel, "This will be just like the island, boys. We hit the objective from all sides, divide the swarms, and secure the compound building by building. There were two hundred and eighty people living and working here, and while I'm sure they ended up meat for the hive, let's hope there's somebody left to save this time. Move out!"
A PLACE AMONG THE PINES
Ajax was thankful for the steady downpour, as it masked the sound of so many marines moving through the forest. There was still plenty of natural light; by local time it was early morning, which meant they had plenty of time to get this mission done before nightfall, or at least they hoped. They did their best to pick their way through the dense trees, though the occasional snapping twig or sucking mud hole was unavoidable.
The Einherjar were trained soldiers to be sure, but moving through terrain and being on the offense was not a tactic generally employed by the marines. Thanks to the subtle and oppressive psychic pressure of the Hive Mind and the raw technical and tactical reality of fighting the garm swarms, the marines were far more used to defensive combat maneuvering. While they had all fought many times defending trenches and re-taking ditches that had been overrun, assaulting an objective at the outset of an engagement was still something they were getting used to.
The island assault on Kai Prime had shown them that Einherjar forces were indeed capable of going on the attack and actually winning. Now the warriors carried on with a sense of heightened purpose, eager to prove to themselves and the garm that marines could take a proactive stance. No longer could the garm rest comfortably in the knowledge that it was they who determined the particulars of battle.
Ajax found himself snarling quietly as he moved through the underbrush towards the compound, it was good to be the aggressor.
Ajax halted his advance just behind the treeline near the compound, recalling from the orbital photos that there was roughly a ten-meter perimeter around the compound that had been carved out of the forest. The crew of the facility maintained the perimeter, cutting back against the ever-encroaching forest that sought to re-take the ground seized by human ingenuity. The marine looked to his left and saw Hart using climbing spikes affixed to his wrists and boots to ascend
one of the trees on the edge of the line.
The sniper gazed through his rifle scope for a few moments and then signaled the all clear down to the marines below. Ajax nodded and hefted his pulse rifle. The marine stepped out of the treeline and stalked double time across the open ground. No attacks came, and in moments Ajax and his fire team reached the cover provided by the elevated walkway that encircled the compound.
There were sizeable land predators indigenous to the forest moon, beasts similar to the wolves of ancient Earth, that incentivized the colonists to build the platform an extra meter off the ground. Ajax stood to his full height and grabbed the railing so that he could heft himself onto the platform, climbing the railing like a ladder before casting himself over the top.
It did not take long for the other fire teams to begin pouring over the railing and Ajax had his rifle up and started moving deeper into the compound.
It was a pre-fabricated facility, one of the newer models used by human colonists in the years just before the garm invasion. It could be dropped in a single massive cargo pod and then workers could un-pack and erect it within a matter of days. It reminded Ajax of the mobile fortress they'd deployed in the last days on Heorot, and the memory gave him a shudder.
Since its construction, the locals had made a number of modifications. Ajax saw several add-on habitation buildings made from converted cargo containers, in addition to the massive drill rig that jutted up from the center of the compound. The marine passed by a lift-gate set into the edge of the platform, which would allow for colonists to explore the rugged terrain, mostly astride the small ATVs that were so common among colonists that they were a symbol of the lifestyle itself.
The buildings were laid out in a simple grid, which made for easy navigation, though in a combat scenario it put the marines in a position of having to treat each intersection as a potentially hostile hard point. All those right angles made for excellent ambush points, and Ajax found himself thankful, for once, that they were facing alien creatures who did not fight like men.
Space Marine Loki (Extinction Fleet Book 2) Page 10
