Primal Destiny

by Ryan Kirk

  He was saved again by one of the other hunters, who seized upon the exosuit’s focus on Tev to get directly behind it and drive a blade into the neck joint, an almost identical strike to the one Tev had performed on the first pilot. The exosuit crumbled as the pilot died.

  There wasn’t time to celebrate. One exosuit remained, and even one could kill them all if they weren’t careful. Tev pushed himself to his feet again, certain he would be sore that evening. The four of them swarmed the final exosuit, but the pilot, who had figured out what had happened to his companions, was too smart to let himself get caught standing still, even for a moment.

  One of the hunters risked too much and was struck by a flailing arm as the exosuit continued spinning. Tev heard the hunter’s ribs crack, but Tev didn’t think the blow would be fatal. The other three hunters redoubled their efforts, making sure the pilot didn’t have enough time to aim at their injured friend. The hunters landed cut after cut, but they couldn’t pierce the armor in any place fatal. Tev worried that a stalemate would only serve the exosuit pilot.

  Apparently, the rebel didn’t feel the same way. Maybe he was scared. Maybe he thought he needed to escape to warn the Hellbringer. Tev couldn’t guess the reason, but the exosuit suddenly broke from the battle and sprinted towards the edge of the plateau. The hunters chased after, afraid at first that the pilot was just trying to create space to better use his weapons. They needn’t have worried. With a soaring leap, the exosuit jumped off one of the steepest sides of the plateau.

  Tev reached the edge just in time to see the pilot careen off a rock ledge. Perhaps the pilot had been aiming for it, perhaps not, but the result was the same. The pilot couldn’t control his descent, and he plummeted through the sky, tumbling out of control. He hit the ground at tremendous speed, and even hundreds of meters up, the sound was loud. Tev watched to ensure the pilot wasn’t alive. The odds of it were less than slim, but he needed to make sure. When the suit didn’t move for several minutes, Tev was satisfied, and he went back to tend to his injured hunter. They had a long journey ahead of them to return to camp, but they had drawn first blood on the planet’s surface.

  After the return journey, Tev was more than happy to fall into his tent and sleep through the night and halfway through the next day. They had taken turns supporting the injured hunter back down the plateau, and once they reached flatter ground they built a stretcher to carry him. Even so, the hunter wasn’t small, and by the time they returned to camp, Tev was exhausted. But he didn’t want to stop until he was back home, meaning a trek of several more kilometers.

  Tev woke up to the sounds of daily camp life. Hunters were training in hand-to-hand combat, and Derreck was showing a group of hunters the different places they could strike an exosuit and potentially kill the pilot.

  They would be bringing the new exosuits back today. The last action Tev had taken before he had fallen asleep was to have Eleta travel to the plateau with a group of pilots. She would be able to disable the trackers and initialize the suits for the new pilots. Having the two additional suits would be a welcome boost to their forces.

  Tev didn’t rush around after he woke up. He savored a slow afternoon before meeting up with Derreck after the training sessions. He thought he saw a hint of grey in the captain’s hair, and wondered if the stresses of this new existence were starting to get to him. Together they returned to the Vigilance, where Alston was keeping watch on their surroundings.

  The news wasn’t as good as Tev had hoped. Hellbringer had detached two dropships, heading for two different points. It was still too early to determine where the landing zones would be.

  Derreck’s analysis was quick. “They’ll be sending large forces this time. We needed several days to stop the survey crew, so they’ll already have good information. Nicks will have a plan.”

  “What do you think he will do?” Tev asked.

  “If I were him, I would be proceeding with my original plan. I don’t think he knows we’re here yet, but he must be suspicious that there’s more happening on the surface than he guessed. If nothing else, he knows that your people pose a threat to pilots. Those two forces he’s sending will be numerous, and if the plan is still to recruit your people, they’ll be landing near the biggest clans and taking the young men hostage.”

  “We need to stop him before that happens.”

  Derreck shook his head, a sorrowful look on his face. “I don’t think we can, Tev. If we try to fight them in the sky before they land, we’ll be toast. Vigilance is as good a dropship as any, but with a jumper in orbit, the second Nicks knows we’re here, we’re dead. We won’t even be able to get to the enemy dropships before Nicks blows us out of the sky. We have to wait until they land.”

  Tev hated the answer, but he trusted Derreck. “So, we just need to wait and see where they land?”

  Derreck confirmed Tev’s guess. “Yes, and then we’ll let them know the exosuits are here.” The captain stood up straight and looked at Tev. “Get the hunters ready. The time has come.”

  The next few days were an endless nightmare for Tev. After all the training and preparation, to be forced to sit and wait for Nicks to make the first move was agonizing, and Nicks’ dropships didn’t seem to be in a rush to reveal their plans. They had circled the planet several times, each time causing Derreck and his crew to hold their breath. They had camouflaged the dropships as well as they were able, but the result was far from perfect. Each pass risked revealing Derreck’s surprise.

  Fortunately, it seemed that the camouflage was good enough. The ships eventually found their landing sites, and Tev split his hunters into two teams. His group would take the landing site farther away. Xan would lead an expedition closer to their camp. Both of them would require several days of travel, with an additional three for Tev and his group. Travel time that Tev worried they didn’t have.

  The problem was made worse by the fact that even Xan couldn’t attack until Tev and his team were in place. They only got one chance at surprise, and once they lost it, it was gone for good. Xan and his team would abandon their suits several kilometers from the landing site and scout on foot while Tev and his team raced towards their destination.

  Tev was tempted to push just a little farther every day, but he didn’t dare take the risk. When they got to the site, they had to be ready to fight. Traveling in the suits was still exhausting, and they slept well each night.

  When they arrived, Tev had several of the hunters get out of their suits and scouted the second landing site. They brought back a young woman from the local village, who told her story in between bouts of tears. The enemy suits had come several days ago. The woman had been out picking food when they arrived, and had wisely hidden from their searches. But she had watched what happened inside the village. Homes had been burnt and several people killed. The clan was forced to serve the rebels in the suits.

  “On the third day, several of the clan tried to attack them at night. They left the door to their ship open, with two empty suits next to it.”

  Tev, knowing the suits as well as he did, already knew where the story was going. The suits had a guardian function to protect pilots in just such a circumstance. The programming and firing pattern was very basic, but it would have been a complete surprise to the clan.

  “They charged the door, but the suits fired on us, without any people in them. Many of my clan were killed, and the next morning, the leader of the ship came out and told us never to try that again. That was the morning he started forcing the young people of the clan to pilot the suits. He said that every time someone tells him “no” that he’d kill an elder. Since then, he’s been showing some of the clan how to use the suits.”

  Tev stood up and walked away from the circle that had gathered around the woman. She was attractive, and Tev was certain no small number of his hunters were hoping to play the hero for her. Tev, though, had more pressing concerns. Everything they had worried about from the very first day was coming to pass. He climbed into his sui
t and used it to communicate with Derreck, hundreds of kilometers away.

  Tev’s only question was how best to stop what was happening. He assumed Xan was seeing the same behavior, and Derreck confirmed it. Tev mapped out the village for Derreck and gave him the best estimates for the number of pilots. The woman had said there were sixteen pilots, which made sense to Tev. It was a reinforced company, four lances. His pilots would be outnumbered, but Tev wasn’t too worried about that. This was their home territory, and they were fighting to protect their people. They could make up the difference.

  Derreck and Tev shared the same worry. The dropship was going to be a problem. It had enough weapons on it to turn the tide of the battle, or, in the worst-case scenario, decimate the village. Tev couldn’t let that happen.

  He and Derreck threw around a number of ideas, but everything came down to the same problem. They needed to get inside the dropship and disable it before they could affect a rescue.

  Tev was the one who finally figured out a solution. “We could always just blow it up.”

  Derreck, with his natural inclinations, wouldn’t think of it. Tev could almost hear the disapproval in the silence that greeted his proposal. Derreck viewed the dropships as a valuable resource. Tev didn’t care about them in the least. Destroying them was the only way of guaranteeing they would have a chance. Derreck had to see that.

  He did, but Tev could hear how much it hurt him.

  Tev got out of his suit after signing off with Derreck and approached the woman from the hostage clan. He told her what he had planned, and although she wasn’t eager, she agreed to take part. Tev gave her a bag of explosives after showing her how to use them, then ordered his hunters into their suits.

  By the time the countdown timer in his suit was down to five minutes, Tev and his force were all in position. Now, all they had to do was hope that the woman had succeeded in her task. They would know soon enough. Unless Tev received some sort of clear warning, he wasn’t planning on stopping the countdown. The explosives were going to go. The only question was whether the woman had gotten them where they needed to be. Tev hoped so. He wasn’t sure he could take the blood of more innocents on his hands.

  When the timer hit two minutes, Derreck checked in with him. Their attack would align perfectly with Xan’s. Xan and his team were in position, also with a plan to destroy a dropship. Tev confirmed they were also ready to attack, and their path was set for them.

  Even though he knew the explosion was coming, the violence of it still caught him by surprise. The explosives had been shaped charges, and the woman had followed the instructions perfectly. Explosions tore through the hull of the dropship, fire and smoke pouring everywhere. Tev didn’t need to order the attack. The hunters sprang forward of their own accord, rage in their hunting cries.

  Tev hung back from the rest of the group. Every muscle in his body itched to be part of the fight, but Derreck had asked him to remain behind. Tev’s rifle was accurate at long ranges, so in case of emergency Tev could still take part, but Derreck couldn’t command both battles at once. If Tev ran into the battle he wouldn’t be able to keep track of the larger fight. He’d only be able to focus on the part happening right in front of him.

  Tev was immediately glad he remained to watch the village. The enemy exosuits responded in a way Tev had never expected. Almost as soon as their ship blew up, without any hesitation at all, they started firing their weapons into the village. Bullets tore through huts, and men, women, and children ran for cover that didn’t exist.

  Tev choked on his rage. He had never considered his enemy might start killing with such wanton abandon. His mistake had been in assuming they had some sort of decency. Tev watched as a young girl spun around, the force of a bullet punching her to the ground.

  Tev’s hunters exploded out of the woods surrounding the village a few moments later, but those few moments almost destroyed the entire village. Their rescue, such as it was, felt a failure even before it began.

  The hunters had seen everything Tev had, and they tore into the crew of the Hellbringer with unquenchable fury. His hunters moved so differently than the enemy pilots. Tev sometimes forgot, after training with the hunters for as long as he had now, how different their fighting was from the pilots they fought against.

  The enemy largely stood in place. They were, after all, wearing powerful suits of armor.

  Those suits did almost nothing to stop the hunters. The hunters moved with grace and speed, getting in close to their enemy.

  Tev saw one hunter slide into an enemy, crawling on top of the other pilot as soon as the suit hit the ground. A few seconds of fire from the hunter’s rifle ensured that the enemy stayed down.

  Another hunter leapt into the air, her elbow coming down on the unsuspecting helmet of another exosuit. The other suit collapsed immediately.

  Four hunters, working together, all trained their rifles on one poor enemy suit, making it the focus of an incredible amount of damage. The enemy suit spun from hunter to hunter, trying to hit just one of them before it fell, riddled with bullet holes.

  Almost as quickly as it began, it was over. Only one suit remained, and it held two hostages in its right arm. Tev zoomed in on the scene. From the markings on the suit, it looked to be the captain of the dropship they had just destroyed, now a burning wreckage to his back, protecting it. In his right arm two women struggled to get free. Tev recognized one of the women as the one who had given them the information, the one who had been responsible for destroying the dropship.

  The other hunters were uncertain. The captain had positioned himself well, and there was no real way to surprise him. But the captain had to know what he was up against. He had seen the way the hunters moved, and knew that even if he bought himself a few minutes of a head start, they would catch up with him. He had to know he was doomed.

  The realization made Tev’s heart race. As soon as the captain knew there was no way out, he’d kill the hostages. Tev had to end the stalemate before it lasted too long. Again, he was grateful for Derreck’s advice, as it had put him in just the place he needed to be. The targeting reticle appeared in Tev’s visor as he brought his rifle up, stabilized by the powerful strength of the suit.

  The shot was a difficult one. Tev was several hundred meters away from the battlefield, and the captain was shuffling back and forth, either very anxious or nervous about snipers. Regardless, Tev was certain he would make the shot. He couldn’t afford not to.

  Soft sounds carried over the distance, and Tev realized the captain had turned on his speakers and was trying to command the other hunters to lay down their weapons. The man’s mind, flooded with fear, still hadn’t realized just how hopeless his situation was. Tev was grateful. He had a few more moments to line up his shot and wait for the captain to stand still.

  Tev was a stone. His breathing was deep and steady as he pushed away everything that wasn’t his aim and his target. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard some of his hunters opening a channel, trying to ask him for advice. He ignored them. None of them would act rashly, giving him the time he needed.

  The captain’s head danced across his reticle, moving from side to side. Sometimes the head of the woman who had been their ally was in it. Tev held steady through it all, waiting for just the right moment.

  A voice came through his helmet. More alarmed. His hunters were starting to get on edge. Tev didn’t have quite as much time as he hoped, but the fact barely registered.

  The moment came as the captain stopped to point his rifle at something besides the heads of the women. One of the other hunters must have made a move.

  Regardless, just for a moment, the captain stopped shuffling back and forth. He had hugged the women a little closer to him. Tev only had centimeters of margin to work with over a vast distance.

  Tev pulled the trigger.

  He held his breath for the moment it took his round to cross the distance between him and his enemy.

  Then he saw the hole open
up in the helmet of the captain, who dropped to the ground without a word.

  Tev watched for a few more seconds as the women struggled free. They were both unharmed, as near as he could tell.

  The clearing that held the village fell strangely silent, and Tev knew they had just started a war.

  Eight

  Kindra looked out on the scene before her with a strange mixture of pride and horror. Dozens upon dozens of wounded rested outside the Vigilance waiting to be healed. The violence of the past few days had gone well beyond the exosuits themselves.

  Kindra remembered someone saying from her childhood, “When the warriors play, it’s the innocent who pay.” She hadn’t liked the saying as a child, and she still didn’t, but she acknowledged the truth of it, at least.

  By all accounts, Tev and Xan had led two very successful raids. They had eliminated two dropships and over two dozen pilots. However many suits Hellbringer originally had, Nicks had to be running low by now. Their surprise had worked, but it didn’t mean it didn’t come with a cost.

  In both villages, the enemy exosuits had fired upon the village as soon as they came under attack. Derreck had told her they must have had standing orders to that effect, because he couldn’t understand why else they would resort to such horrific tactics immediately. Even worse, with Xan’s group, one enemy lance had escaped out of the pincer of Xan’s forces. They ran for an hour and found a second village before Xan and his hunters tracked them down.

  The horror of everything that had happened was almost beyond comprehension, and Derreck had taken a huge risk to try to help. As soon as Hellbringer dipped below the horizon, he took Vigilance and launched, flying towards each of the sites to pick up the wounded and bring them back. His window had been small but he had just made it, every hold, nook, and cranny of the ship filled with wounded. Fortunately, it looked as though Hellbringer’s scanners hadn’t picked him up.

  Which led Kindra to the sense of pride she was feeling. In front of her, everyone was helping out, and there was no complaining, even among the gravely wounded. They had been working through the night and into the next day, and not a single person had asked for a respite.