by Isaac Hooke
The hundreds of other flying worms simply clung to the surrounding trees and waited. All across the forest ahead, the trees seemed to turn white, thanks to those creatures.
“Well, that worked for a few seconds, anyway,” Slate said. “Bro, either these flying worms have experience dealing with black hole weapons, or they’ve got amazing instincts.”
“I’m leaning toward the former,” Marlborough said.
“But if they have experience dealing with black hole weapons…” Eagleeye began.
“Then this planet could be a Banthar colony after all,” Marlborough finished.
“Great, so we can all go home!” Hicks said. “Mission accomplished.”
“We can’t leave until we get confirmation, of course,” Marlborough said. “Tread, you might as well shut down that black hole. It’s useless in the current situation. Not against organisms that have developed a response to its effects.”
“You got it.” Tread reared on the hind legs of his Rhino, and aimed the two muzzles of the cannon he carried on his back through the trees. He released two bright dispersion bolts in rapid succession, and they traveled in a line toward the rip in spacetime.
The first struck, and the raging wind diminished by half; when the second hit, the rip in spacetime vanished entirely, and the winds around Eric and the others instantly subsided.
“And just so you know, I can’t create another black hole or wormhole for a while,” Tread said. “Until I regain some charge.”
The Dragonworms released the trees and began their advance once more. The buzzing grew in volume.
“Finish moving into the previously requested positions!” Marlborough ordered.
Eric released his grip on the ground, and dove behind a tree for cover as the Dragonworms in the vanguard began firing those laser weapons from their maws. The other members of T1 likewise chose different trees to hide behind, as did the Bolt Eaters of T2 when they reached T1 a moment later.
Traps joined him, hiding behind the same thick bole. “Hey, Scorp.” His two-legged Rambler seemed out of place next to Eric’s Devastator, but Eric didn’t mind the extra firepower.
The tanks came up rapidly, forming a scattered half circle behind the trees that harbored the different team members, with the smaller Savages using the tanks themselves for cover.
Eric gave Dee control of the Ravagers. “Fire at will.”
“Will do,” Dee said.
Eric leaned past and fired his shoulder-mounted energy cannon. The energy bolt smashed into a Dragonworm and tore it apart.
Eric fired his plasma and laser weapons next, and took down two more in rapid succession—the plasma bolt melted through the side of one of them, while the laser left a burn mark in the head region; the dead creatures fell to the snow-covered forest floor below.
But more Dragonworms simply replaced them.
Eric continued to fire, taking as many down as he could, but in moments the Dragonworm vanguard reached the front ranks. By then the air was filled with the loud buzzing those dragonfly-like wings produced, a buzzing that seemed to come from all sides at once, thanks to the sound waves reflected by the canopy overhead and the many boles in between.
One of the worms headed directly toward Eric, opening its maw as if to chomp down on him and fire its organic laser at point blank range. But Traps intercepted, throwing his body in the path of the creature, and activating his experimental energy shield. A convex field lit up two meters beside Traps as the Dragonworm hit that shield, and bounced to the side. Its legs were blackened as if singed.
An energy bolt struck the Dragonworm before it hit the ground, thanks to another Bolt Eater somewhere behind him.
“Wow, that used up a lot of battery power,” Traps said. “Looks like I won’t be doing that very often!” He unleashed a laser barrage from the cannons on either side of his torso as the next Dragonworms rounded the tree and came into view.
Eric deployed his ballistic shield to serve as a protection, and for blunt-force bashing whenever a worm got too close. In his right hand, he fired his ZX-19 laser cannon, alternating it with his shoulder mounted energy cannon. Behind him, tanks bombarded incoming Dragonworms with plasma bolts, while Savages unleashed their laser rifles.
He glanced at the tree next to his, and saw Bambi’s Crab fighting back to back with Crusher’s Devastator, while tanks and Savages similarly provided backup fire.
Eric continued to fight in that manner for at least sixty seconds, but the drain on his batteries proved too great—the canopy’s dim twilight made power regeneration too slow. So he stopped shooting and deployed the dual spears in his forearm, using them to slice and dice the worms instead. Each impact generated a small shockwave of electricity that only inflicted more damage, causing skin to rupture and organs to burst free.
“Now I really feel like Wolverine!” Frogger commented. He had also deployed his spears, as had most of the other Bolt Eaters.
“Wolverine with electrified blades instead of Adamantium!” Mickey said.
“Vibranium is stronger!” Eric said.
“Da fuck you loser bitches talking about?” Slate commented.
“Shut up and kill!” Eagleeye said.
“Dude, that’s the title of the new book I’m working on!” Traps said.
Eric was slicing through the Dragonworms that were coming around the tree that was protecting him as if they were paper. Soon his hull was covered in grayish-white slime that composed their blood and guts. Dead bodies piled up around him, forming makeshift barriers that succeeding Dragonworms were forced to bite through. As he fought, the trampled snow underneath his feet quickly melted, leaving mud.
“This is disgusting as hell,” Crusher said. “I mean, come on, I hate bugs...”
“I just pretend they’re big juicy escargots!” Bambi said. “And that their tasty, cooked juices are flowing down my chin!”
“Ah, leave it to the French to romanticize eating of slugs!” Tread said.
Slate was humming over the comm. “Killing these bitches, uh huh, mm-hm. Killing these pasty white bitches, uh huh.”
“Hey, was that a racist slur I heard?” Traps said.
“That’s right, bitch,” Slate said. “I’m pretending to blow up your pasty white face. Again, and again, and again.”
“Shut up and kill!” Eagleeye said.
“I think we’re pissing him off,” Dunnigan said.
“Killing the bitches, that’s what I do,” Slate rapped. “Stomping and squishing and electrocuting them, yeah yeah.”
“Man, that’s the worst song I’ve ever heard,” Traps said.
“It’s called rap, bro,” Slate said. “I’m composing. And believe you me, when we all get home, you’re going to be hearing this song at the top of the streaming charts.”
“Assuming we get home...” Brontosaurus said.
Eric was bowled over by a Dragonworm that came down on him from directly above. In an instant Bambi ripped it off of him, wrestling it to the ground with the eight legs of her Crab. She crunched those legs together, crushing the creature.
“I wish all of our units were as strong as yours!” Mickey said.
Eric had only just scrambled to his feet when a webbing shot from the tail of one of the Dragonworms struck him in the chest. The impact sent him flying backward to the muddy ground; he tried to get up, but the edges of the gooey lattice had sunk into the mud and snow, pinning him.
12
Eric tried to slice the web away with his blades, but his wrist was bound at a poor angle, and he couldn’t do it.
Crusher landed beside him, and she waved her blade around his body in rapid succession, cutting him free.
“You’re welcome,” she said.
Without warning a long blade penetrated her unit from behind, passing through the chest piece and lifting her into the air. She shook violently as sparks passed outward from that blade, electrifying her body. Then the blade, lowered, and she slid off, falling lifelessly to the now muddy groun
d.
That blade was connected to a long tail of some kind, making it a stinger. Eric gazed higher, toward the source of that tail, and spotted a huge Dragonworm, far bigger than any that had come before. It was wearing a metallic helmet of some kind, and from it protruded mandibles that were made of plasma beams—they looked like they could cut through anything.
That head darted toward Eric, and he switched to Bullet Time to dive out of the way; he smashed into the wall of corpses beside him and crawled upright. He struck down at the huge head beside him as it attempted to retreat, but his blades glanced off the helmet.
The tanks and robots behind him unleashed a barrage of plasma and laser fire at it, but the Dragonworm touched together those two plasma mandibles, and from the join a long beam of energy shot out. It cut a swath of destruction through any tanks and robots that got in its path.
Traps and Brontosaurus dashed forward to engage the big creature, while the other Bolt Eaters and support units continued to fight off the smaller Dragonworms.
Meanwhile Eric hurried to Crusher’s side. He dragged her Devastator behind a nearby tree while Bambi watched his back and protected him from the attacks of other Dragonworms.
He ran a remote damage scan. The tail blade had cleanly pierced Crusher’s chest piece, but thankfully it had missed her AI core entirely. She was out of action for the time being, however—those electrical sparks passing through her system had shorted out some critical components.
“Looks like we fight here for the time being,” Eric told Bambi.
“We protect her with our lives,” Bambi agreed.
That was a far cry from the early days, when Bambi and Crusher had been at each other’s throats. They had grown fond of each other as the years passed, and he knew neither could imagine life without the other. He couldn’t imagine life without them, either.
He slammed his dual blades into the maw of the next Dragonworm that presented itself, and he flung his arm to the side, twisting the dead body off his blade.
Alarms went off on his HUD as lasers struck him from above, and he tilted his shield upward to protect himself and Crusher. Bambi also deployed a ballistic shield on her left claw, and used it to partially protect Crusher, in addition to herself. She swung her barbed tail at a Dragonworm, exploding its head.
Then another huge worm appeared on top of him, and it clapped its plasma mandibles together, releasing a deadly energy beam.
Eric ducked, pulling Crusher away.
His battery had recharged enough by then that Eric could fire his energy cannon; he aimed at the helmet, and let it charge for several seconds before he unleashed a powerful, bright bolt. It struck the helmet, and melted away half of it. Eric took a running leap, and stabbed his twin blades into the exposed face of the Dragonworm; his spears sunk deep, and the creature collapsed underneath him, pulling them both to the ground.
Withdrawing his blades, he leaped away before it struck and landed beside Bambi and Crusher.
“Energy bolts penetrate the metal!” Eric announced.
He peered past the wall of bodies next to the tree and saw other huge Dragonworms incoming next to the smaller ones.
“We can’t stay down here!” Eric said. “At least not while we’re charging so slowly. There are too many of them.”
“What do you suggest?” Dickson transmitted.
“Climb the trees!” Eric said. “Get to the sunlight!”
“How’s that going to help?” Brontosaurus transmitted. “The branches are too thick to reach the upper canopy and the sunlight beyond, which is why you always had to jettison your Cicada to perform lookout duty. Unless you’re proposing we eject our Cicadas?”
“Not at all, once you’re in place, start cutting down the branches,” Eric said. “You don’t need to look out across the sea of branches like I was doing. All you have to do is make a path to the sunlight.”
“What about the support units?” Mickey asked. “We abandon them?”
“No need,” Eric replied. “Toss the tanks into the upper branches, where they’ll get tangled in the canopy. Meanwhile the Savages can leap onto our backs, and help protect us while we climb.”
Marlborough didn’t answer for a moment. Eric glanced at his position, and saw that he was arrayed inside his own bulwark of dead Dragonworm bodies. One of the big ones came at him, and Marlborough unleashed his energy cannon at the head—obviously he’d been charging it all this time—and then followed up with rapid fire laser blasts that penetrated through to the creature’s brain cavity, felling it.
That must have been the last of his battery power, because when the next huge Dragonworm came at him a second after, Marlborough retreated, plowing through the bodies beside him as the creature fused its mandibles and unleashed that deadly beam toward him. The Sarge leaped on a tree, and swung around to the far side as he began climbing.
“Do it!” Marlborough said. “If anything, we’ll recharge faster, like Scorpion says. Staying here otherwise is a recipe for disaster.”
Eric broke through the line of piled bodies that were protecting his rear, and folded away his shield and laser to scoop up one of the tanks in both arms. He spun around, like an Olympic discus thrower, and released it, tossing it toward the branches overhead.
Beside him, other Bolt Eaters were doing the same with the remaining tanks. Eric allowed three Savages to crawl onto his back, and other Devastators did likewise. He cut open a smaller Dragonworm on the way back to Bambi. When he reached her, she was trying to load Crusher onto her back.
“Just take her AI core,” Dickson transmitted from nearby. “No time to carry the whole body!”
“We’ll make the time,” Eric said. “I’ll get the Ravagers to bring her.” He glanced at the statuses of the two mechs under his control: they were still in the green. “Dee, bring the Ravagers here, and share Crusher between them. Then start climbing!”
Eric waited near Crusher as the Ravagers rushed in; he held off a pair of smaller Dragonworms, and then began climbing shortly after the Ravagers, who carried Crusher’s Devastator between them. Bambi scaled the tree trunk at his left side with her eight legs. Like him, she slammed her feet into the wood hard enough to create her own footholds.
One of the huge Dragonworms came in on the left side then; it attempted to bite at Eric with those plasma mandibles, and he released the trunk, letting himself fall out of the way. He latched on again below; the stinger at the tip of the tail tried to stab him, but he swiveled to the side, and the long stinger pierced the trunk.
Bambi released the tree and activated her jumpjets; she swung her barbed tail toward the base of the helmet, and all three barbs impacted. The huge Dragonworm shook violently from the electrical bolts the impact released, and as Bambi withdrew her tail, the big creature dropped; it slammed into a smaller Dragonworm that had made the unfortunate mistake of flying underneath the bigger creature, and both plunged to the ground.
“Well, that’s another way to kill them,” Eric said.
“As usual, the ladies have to show the men how it’s done,” Bambi said, using her jumpjets to return to the trunk beside him.
“What would I do without you?” Eric asked.
Slate was climbing the tree beside Eric, when two Dragonworms attacked, one big, one small. Slate leaped from the tree, toward the bigger one, and slashed out with his alien blades. He struck the tail, cutting it clean off. He scooped up the severed appendage in midair, which still had the long stinger protruding from it, and threw the tail toward the smaller Dragonworm. The stinger impaled the creature’s head, and the stricken Dragonworm plunged to the ground alongside the bigger, maimed tango.
“Pin the tail on the donkey!” Slate exclaimed as he landed on a nearby tree.
“Well that’s a twentieth century phrase I never thought I’d hear coming from your mouth,” Eric said.
“The game survived through the centuries!” Slate said. “Played it in my childhood. Still play it to this day, as you just saw. I’m puttin
g it in my rap song!”
Eric continued climbing as fast as he was able. Smaller Dragonworms continued to round the tree and assail him. Finally he reached the upper boughs, and pulled himself into the thick foliage alongside the Ravagers. “Bambi, get the Savages on my back to start firing at the branches. Cut a path to the sunlight.”
The Savages that were hitching a ride immediately unleashed their laser rifles at the boughs, causing pieces to fall away. Eric joined in, slicing with his twin alien blades, while Bambi did the same with her barbed tail. Eric had the Ravagers secure Crusher to a thick branch, and then Dee had them climb higher, breaking away any branches in their way.
He broke away one huge branch, and caught it; below, a huge Dragonworm was ramming its head toward him, and Eric swung the branch three times back and forth, hitting the Dragonworm hard in the face each time. The metallic helmet clanged.
“Where do you think they got those helmets?” Hicks said.
“Definitely from the Banthar,” Mickey said.
Above, a beam of sunlight hit Eric’s armor, courtesy of Bambi and the Ravagers, who had cleared a gap through the canopy to the sky. The hole only grew bigger with each moment so that the beam encompassed more and more of Eric’s hull, allowing his battery to recharge all the faster.
He finally had enough battery power to launch an energy bolt again, and he did so, unleashing it at the big Dragonworm he’d stunned with the branch. The blast penetrated the frontal portion of the helmet, and Eric leaped down, striking the exposed head underneath with his dual blades. The creature dropped, and Eric shoved away, taking care not to touch its still active energy mandibles. He landed on the tree, and clambered up to the beam of sunlight to regenerate his power once more.
The tide turned once the team reached the sunlight, and they were able to fend off the seemingly endless ranks of Dragonworms, until finally, the creatures just stopped coming. Eric climbed down out of the sunlight a short way to gaze into the forest, and he saw that they were fleeing the way they had come. On the forest floor around them, the dead bodies were sprawled all over the snow. The piles were so high that if Eric let go of the upper canopy, he’d plunge only a few meters until he hit the first body. Then he could basically walk down the series of steps those dead bodies formed.
