Heads snapped up, all of them scanning the tree tops at once.
Ethan saw a solid mass of heat signatures just above their heads.
“Stalkers!” Magnum roared, his ripper cannons already blazing golden fury into the night.
“Scatter!” Atta said.
Ethan ran as fast as he could. On his rear view screen he saw Stalkers dropping from the trees and landing right on top of his squad mates. He spun around and took aim… but he couldn’t shoot without hitting friendlies. He considered charging back in with energy blades flashing, but that would be even more deadly to the Rictans.
Ethan watched, helpless and wondering what to do. Then the Rictans began electrifying their armor, and Ethan’s infrared blinded him. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned off IAMS, settling for light amplification alone.
The scene snapped into focus, and he got a better look at the enemy. They were six-legged, with thick black fur and fangs that didn’t even fit inside their hawkish heads. Long claws scratched furrows in the Zephyrs’ armor. Even electrifying their armor didn’t convince the Stalkers to leave them alone. One Zephyr stumbled around blindly with a stalker wrapped around his head, electrifying his armor every other second to shake it loose, but the beast wasn’t letting go. Then he extended his energy blades and sliced the stalker’s back end off. It fell from his shoulders in smoking pieces, legs spasmodically kicking and clawing at the dirt.
The comms roared as the Rictans shouted warnings to each other, but so far no one seemed hurt. These animals were an irritant, not a threat.
“Don’t let them grab your helmets!” someone said.
Ethan wondered why. Then he heard a low growl behind him. He spun around to face a monstrous thing crouching low behind him. Frek! He raised both his arms to shoot, but the stalker lunged and knocked him over before he could fire. Jaws full of sharp, snapping teeth came within inches of his face, and his arms threatened to buckle beneath the weight of the stalker, despite his mech-enhanced strength. He held the monster back by its neck, and it snapped at his right arm, locking sharp fangs around his guantlet.
At first Ethan didn’t feel anything, but soon he felt the pressure from the beast’s jaws. It was compacting his armor, deforming it around his arm.
The pressure became uncomfortable, and then something sharp touched his skin. Fear gave him the boost of strength he needed, and he heaved with all his strength to get the stalker off his chest. It went skidding through the dirt, and Ethan bounced up, his ripper cannons already blazing. He pumped the beast full of high caliber rounds before it could recover. The stalker shuddered with each impact. Black fur exploded with gouts of red blood, and the beast dug troughs into the ground as it struggled to rise. Then it lay still with red eyes wide and staring, its jaws gaping open and a fat red tongue lolling out the side of its mouth. Ethan looked away and scanned his immediate surroundings. The Stalkers were gone. At least six of them lay dead on the ground, most of them in pieces. Energy blades seemed to be the preferred way to deal with them at close range.
“Rictans, report!” Magnum snapped.
Multiple clicks and verbal acknowledgments sounded over the comms.
“Where’s Princess?” Rictan Four, Rockhead, asked.
“Motherfrekker…” Magnum hissed. “I’ve got her beacon. They’re draggin’ her off. “Atta? Can you hear me?”
Silence.
“Frek it!”
“Her vitals are good, and she’s awake,” Rictan Six, Blades, said. He was the unit’s medic, so he would know.
“Her comms must be damaged,” Ethan said.
“Krak got real,” Three said.
“Move out!” Magnum called. “We have some catching up to do!”
He dashed through the trees, and Ethan raced after him.
Chapter 34
They ran for almost an hour straight, always half a step behind the nightstalker dragging Atta.
“Why doesn’t she electrify her armor?” Ethan asked between gasps for air.
“Capacitors are only good for about a dozen uses,” Magnum replied. “She must have depleted them.”
“What about energy blades?” Ethan insisted. “She could slice that beast in half. Are you sure she’s conscious?”
“I’ve triple checked her vitals,” Blades replied.
“She must have multiple systems failures,” Magnum said.
“Has this ever happened before?” Ethan asked.
“They’ve dragged off a few unarmored Gors,” Magnum replied.
“So Atta’s the first human they’ve captured.”
“We’ll get her back,” Magnum said.
Ethan listened to the steady thunder of footfalls and eyed Atta’s comm beacon racing ahead of them on his HUD map. He noticed Union Base at the top of the map, not far from their position. The stalker was dragging her back to base? Ethan frowned. “Has anyone noticed—”
Magnum held up one fist, calling a halt and silencing him at the same time. “I’ve found a tunnel entrance,” he said.
“This close to base?” Rictan Three, Hop, asked.
“They must be getting more brazen,” Magnum replied.
“Think they took her down there?” Hop asked, hovering over Magnum’s shoulder.
Ethan went to look. He noticed that up ahead the trees thinned out to the muddy clearing that served as the Union’s parade grounds. He couldn’t see any sign of the Stalker or Atta in that clearing, but her beacon was still transmitting from that direction.
“It must have,” Ethan decided.
Magnum went down on his haunches to study the ground around the tunnel. “Tracks end here; that confirms it.”
“Frek!” Rictan Five said.
Magnum turned on his Zephyr’s floodlights with a blinding flash of light, and turned to the rest of them. “No guts, no glory,” he said, and then he dropped inside the tunnel.
Ethan snapped off his light amplification overlay and turned on his own floodlights before jumping after Magnum. He landed inside the tunnel with a thud. Bits of loose dirt trickled from the walls and ceiling with a pitter-patter. Ethan was surprised to find that the tunnel was actually tall enough for them to stand.
Up ahead, Magnum called out, “Pick up the pace!” and Ethan raced to catch up. One after another, the rest of the Rictans jumped down and ran after Magnum. The tunnel descended gradually, crossing directly below the Union’s parade grounds.
“The frek?” someone panted. “They’ve been tunneling under our feet all this time?”
The tunnel branched in three different directions, but Atta’s blip was dead ahead, so Magnum kept straight.
“I don’t like this,” Rictan Seven said.
“Think they’re trying to dig a way in?” Four asked.
“Cut the chatter!” Magnum growled. “Eyes and ears on target.”
A few minutes later, they found themselves directly under Union Base. Scanners showed that the tunnel opened into a hollow chamber up ahead, and Atta’s blip had stopped there.
Magnum drew both his sidearms and crept up to the edge of the chamber. Ethan was just half a step behind, and he saw the dirt walls of the tunnel abruptly end, replaced by solid rock. No, not rock—
“They dug through castcrete?” he whispered. “With what?”
Magnum shook his head. “Quiet.”
Ethan tried to peer around Magnum to get a glimpse at the chamber beyond. Then the squad leader jumped down, and Ethan got a better look.
The chamber was some kind of bunker; the walls and ceiling were all made of solid castcrete. A heavy-looking alloy door lay on both ends, but there were no working light fixtures, just a big, empty space. The floor was covered with castcrete dust, dirt, and rubble from where the Stalkers had dug through. Multiple dirt and rubble-strewn tunnel entrances marked the perimeter of the room. Atta lay motionless at the center of the chamber. The Nightstalker who’d taken her paced restlessly in front of her and snarled as Magnum approached. Ethan jumped down. Broken castcrete crunche
d with the impact, and the sound echoed noisily off the walls. Then came more echoes as the rest of the Rictans jumped down.
The Nightstalker pacing in front of Atta snarled and then it tossed its head in the air and gave a high-pitched screech. Black fur rippled as thick bands of muscle flexed beneath the Stalker’s skin. Slitted red eyes glinted in the glare of their floodlights. The creature shook its head and shut its eyes, momentarily blinded. Magnum took aim with his pistols, and the beast flattened itself to the ground, looking subdued or ready to pounce—Ethan couldn’t decide which.
Then came another screech, and another one, followed by countless echoes of the same. Ethan saw his peripheral screens filling up with Stalkers. They poured into the bunker from all sides, filling all the entrances.
“Frek me…” someone whispered.
“TESTUDO!” Magnum roared. He lunged toward Atta, and her captor sprang away, fleeing to the safety of its fellow Stalkers. The Rictans formed a hollow square around Atta, guns facing out. Stalkers milled in restless circles around the entrances of the chamber.
“What are they doing?” Ethan asked.
“Fire on my command,” Magnum said.
“Look—” someone pointed to one of the entrances.
The beasts were retreating back into their tunnels, and within seconds the Rictans were alone inside the bunker.
“Blades, check Princess! Everyone else, keep those entrances covered. Remember what happened last time.”
Ethan did. He glanced up, but the ceiling was solid castcrete, so Stalkers couldn’t drop down on them this time.
All of a few seconds later Blades had Atta’s helmet off and she was cursing at them, the Nightstalkers, and the universe in general.
“Get me out of this mech!” she roared.
“What happened?” Ethan asked, using external speakers rather than comms to speak with her.
“That thing slashed my power core, that’s what! It left me paralyzed in two hundred and fifty pounds of armor.”
“Not just dumb beasts after all,” someone said.
Ethan shook his head, his eyes fixed on the entrance ahead of him. It was dark and empty. The chamber where they stood was the perfect place for an ambush, but the Stalkers had already come and gone.
“Let’s get out of here,” Atta said. Ethan saw her bounce to her feet on his rear screen.
“You’re not injured anywhere?” Blades asked.
“Disappointed?” she asked.
“Not at all, Princess,” he replied.
“Stop calling me that.”
Magnum chuckled and holstered one of his pistols. “All right, that’s enough. The Stalkers are gone. Let’s get out of here and hit the rack.”
Ethan frowned. “What about the ruins?”
“I think we’ve all had enough excitement for one night,” Magnum replied. “If you’re that determined to see what ancient human bones look like, go check out the exhibit on level six tomorrow. Move out, Rictans! Princess—keep to the middle of our formation. You’re not armored anymore.”
“Sure thing, Maggy.”
Ethan smiled as Magnum led the way back to the tunnel they’d jumped down from. The entrance was at shoulder height, but Magnum managed to haul himself up easily enough. “The frek…”
“What is it?” Ethan asked.
“The tunnel’s caved in.”
“How far does the cave-in go?” Atta asked.
“Far as scanners can see. Check the other entrances!”
Ethan’s pulse jumped with a sudden spike of adrenaline. He turned in a quick circle to find the next nearest tunnel entrance. He jogged up to it…
“This one’s caved in, too!” he said.
Atta appeared beside him a moment later. “Frek!” she roared.
The rest of the Rictans raced around the chamber, checking tunnels and reporting the same. Magnum walked up beside them, shaking his head. “They led us here on purpose.”
“Why?” Atta asked. “So they could wait until we’ve starved to death, and then dig us up for a snack?”
“Something like that…” Magnum replied, studying the chamber.
“If they can dig their way back in, then we can dig our way out,” Ethan said.
Magnum nodded, turning in a slow circle to study their surroundings.
Ethan followed the other man’s gaze. The castcrete walls were featureless, the ceiling likewise, but there were those two heavy-looking doors.
“Think those doors still work?” Ethan asked.
“Maybe,” Atta replied, striding over to one of them. She tried to wave it open, but nothing happened.
Ethan couldn’t see any door controls.
“Might be locked from the other side,” Atta said.
“Or else it’s not programmed to open for you,” Magnum said.
“We could blast it open,” Rictan Seven, Carnage, suggested.
“Better than diggin’ our way out,” Magnum replied. “Set charges. Let’s see what’s behind door number one.”
“Yes, sir.” Rictan Seven went to work, and the rest of the Rictans retreated to a respectful distance. They kept busy watching the tunnel entrances, just in case.
“Charges set!” Carnage said, racing away from the door.
“You better not bring this whole place down on top of us,” Magnum warned.
“You worry too much.”
They took cover on the far side of the chamber and took up a semi-circular formation with Atta safely nestled between them and the wall. “Light it up!” Magnum said.
Ethan made the mistake of watching the explosion. The sudden flash of light blinded him; then came a whump and a loud bang! Castcrete dust billowed out and pebble-sized debris hit them at high speed, plinking off their armor.
“Princess?” Magnum asked as the debris settled around their feet.
“I’m fine.”
“Good. Carnage, check the area.”
A moment later, they heard: “All clear!”
They all hurried over to see what lay on the other side. Ethan reached the threshold of the blast and saw some kind of equipment locker. The door had been blown inward, turning the inside of the locker into a war zone. Magnum stepped through the smoking frame, debris crunching under foot. Overhead lights flickered on automatically, and dust swirled, dancing down through the light.
“Who hides access to another room inside an equipment locker?” Magnum asked.
Atta walked in after him and went down on her haunches to study the debris. She fished a smoldering roll of bandages out and tossed it aside with a wrinkled nose.
“This is a medical supply room. We’re back in Union Base, all right.”
Remembering something, Ethan turned to look behind them. “If this door leads into the fortress, then where’s the other one go?” he asked.
Magnum and Atta both turned to look.
“That’s a damn good question,” Atta said.
Magnum shook his head. “Whatever’s through there, we’ve been getting along just fine without it all these years, so it can wait one more night. I’ll make my report in the morning and someone will come investigate. Right now, we need to seal this place up and make sure no Stalkers come creepin’ in while we’re sleepin’.”
Ethan’s brow furrowed and he studied the caved-in tunnels that Stalkers had dug all around the perimeter of the chamber. “What’s the point? If they can dig through castcrete, they could come through anywhere.”
So why haven’t they?” Atta asked.
“Another question that can wait to be answered,” Magnum said, already crossing the supply locker to the inner door. Just before he reached it, the door swished open and a squad of soldiers burst in. Therius stood behind them, looking ill-amused.
“What’s going on here?” he demanded.
Chapter 35
“What were you doing down there?” Therius demanded, his eyes on Atta.
Therius had them all standing in a line in front of him. They’d left their mechs for the s
quad that had come to investigate, and now, standing in the jumpsuits, it was easy to see how exhausted all of them were.
“We were performing night ops,” Ethan replied, taking a quick step forward. “My idea, sir.”
Therius’s gaze swept to him. “You were performing night ops beneath Union Base?”
“No, sir. We ran into Nightstalkers in the jungle, and they dragged off the general. We followed her comm beacon down one of their tunnels, and ended up in an abandoned chamber right outside the supply locker where you found us.”
“So why’d you blow a hole in the wall? You could have gone back the way you came.”
“It wasn’t a wall. It was a door, sir, and we didn’t go back the way we came because the Stalkers caved in their tunnels to trap us.”
Therius’s eyebrows floated up. “Really? You’re saying they laid a trap for you? They must be more intelligent than we thought.”
“It would appear so, sir…” Ethan trailed off. Something about this situation didn’t sit well with him.
“Something on your mind, Commander?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go ahead.”
“How did you find us so quickly?”
“You’re not the only one who can follow comm beacons. When a squad checks out a group of Zephyrs for an unscheduled mission in the middle of the night, I have to sign off on it or they don’t even get out the door. Are we still sticking with night ops, or does someone here want to give me a better description of what you were all doing out there in the jungle?”
Ethan sighed. “I wanted to check out the ruins, sir.”
“Why?”
“Curiosity.”
“Didn’t your squad already explain to you what’s been found at those sites?”
“Yes, but I wanted to see for myself.”
“So instead of getting some much-needed sleep for tomorrow’s training, you thought it would be a good idea to go hunting through the jungle for bones. Don’t take your squad’s name too literally, Commander. You’re not actually rictans.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There’s going to be plenty of time to go unearthing the mysteries of Origin when Avilon is conquered, but until then, your curiosity can wait.”
Armageddon Page 28
