A Space Adventure [Bug Wars]

by J. A. Cipriano

“Not really,” Claire said, grinning as her hand moved off my shoulder and ran down my back. “I came for something else entirely.”

  “Oh yeah?” Jill asked, leaning against me but also pulling Claire closer. The three of us were a mash of sweet pressure and body parts by the time Claire spoke again.

  “Yeah, I came for this.”

  Getting on her toes, she pressed her lips hard against mine, her tongue opening my mouth and invading me. My body heat rose, and every piece of me stiffened with anticipation as she pulled away.

  “You call that a kiss?” Jill tutted, shaking her head. “That’s not a kiss, you amateur. This is a kiss.”

  Pressing a free hand against my abs, Jill did the same thing Claire just had, lips against lips, tongue running all over my mouth. Claire was still there though, her roving hand finding its way down to my ass and squeezing.

  “That’s not a kiss either.” Claire shook her head. “Here. Let me show you.”

  To my surprise, the next kiss didn’t come for me. Grabbing Jill’s purple hair by the handful, Claire pushed her face into the woman’s. Their lips met in an explosion of ecstasy. Claire’s hand traveled from Jill’s hair and found its way to the ample curves of her breasts. Jill moaned with pleasure as Claire’s lips moved down to the woman’s neck.

  Jill’s head jutted upward, her purple eyes opening as they looked at me. Her lips parted, and a pink tongue ran over them, calling to me teasingly. “Come and get it,” she said breathlessly as Claire’s lips went to work on her breasts, pulling her nightgown down and exposing her nipples for all of us to see. They were pert and hard as they disappeared under Claire’s willing mouth.

  “Please,” Jill gasped, her back arching. She grabbed at the band of my boxers, pulling me even closer and groaning as she felt the proof of my excitement against her leg. “Please. Take us right now, dammit!”

  I exhaled, my hands roaming over both their bodies with reckless abandon, feeling their taut warmth, feeling their damp excitement.

  I smiled and dove in.

  “Whatever you say.”

  22

  With our clothes back on and Mina awake and ready for action, it was time to put our money (and blood) where our mouths were. Claire checked the solution she’d been baking for the last few hours and deemed it ready for use. The sun was still down, but that could be a good thing.

  Once Rayne was among the living, I would lay out the whole shebang for the others. Then, with Jill’s weapon, we could march through the night with nothing to fear. Most colonized enemies waited for the sun to make their moves, leaving the night to nocturnal predators and bloodthirsty creatures that lacked the sort of cognitive reasoning more evolved Acburians possessed. Though they were per pound more dangerous, they ran solo or in smallish packs for the most part. So, with Jill’s ball at our disposal, we could make quick work of them and completely bypass Anya and the sort of armada she and people like her tend to amass.

  For once, this might be in and out. With any luck, our mission would be complete before the sun came up, and we would either call Reynolds’ bluff and deal with whatever he sent for a ‘transport’ or maybe just commandeer an Acburian ship. Maybe I’d suggest that anyway. I kind of always wanted to fly one.

  Claire leaned down, drawing the solution into a standard-issue Marine air hypodermic and moving very carefully toward Rayne. The nervous way the medic walked toward the sleeping scientist made me a little suspicious.

  “What aren’t you telling me? Is that combustible? Have we been sleeping next to a bomb?”

  “Most of us haven’t been sleeping at all,” Claire shot back, giving me a withering look that said the best three-way any of us had ever had didn’t have any effect on how she was going to treat me now that we were back on the clock.

  I understood that, and I sort of respected it. It didn’t mean I still didn’t want an answer though. ”Answer the question.”

  “It’s not combustible, but it’s dangerous,” she explained. “Any homebrewed, untested medicine is dangerous. We’re injecting a mixture of basic meds, Acburian blood, and charcoal into a sleeping woman. This is crazy, sheer insanity, and the only reason it’s going to work is that I’m as much of a genius as Jill is.”

  Competition was always a good way to create excellence, something I could now see was yet another wrinkle in Mina’s plans when it came to Artemis Squad. It was brilliant, I had to hand it to her. Wouldn’t work for me, though, because I always took matters into my own hands at the end of the day.

  “So, you stick in her and wait to see if she either wakes up or dies.” I laughed, not because I was making fun of Claire. This was just the kind of roll of the dice that I made on a daily basis.

  Mina was right. I was a bad influence on the girls. Or maybe the best influence they could ever have.

  Speaking of the leader of Artemis Squad, she frowned as she watched the drama. “Is there anything we can do to make more likely to work.”

  “Other than prayer?” Claire smirked.

  “Be serious,” Mina shot back.

  I couldn’t blame her for that. Prayer was something I was strangely serious about. No, I wasn’t the kind of guy to put his hands into an unknowable, infinite bearded guy in the sky. Still, when spitters are raining death down on your position, the rest of your squad is hamburger, and you’ve got about ten percent energy left in your suit, it’s easy to find faith. Whoever first said it centuries ago on Earth was right. There are no atheists in a foxhole.

  The medic’s smirk faded as she grew serious, though I wasn’t sure if it was from Mina’s admonishment or my stern look. “Sorry, ma’am.” She looked down at the peaceful scientist. “Yes, there is, actually. There is enough alien biochemistry in this syringe that it’s going to act like super-adrenalin, so if two volunteers would restrain her arms and legs, it would greatly lessen the chances she’ll hurt herself when she comes out of this.”

  We had all had gotten a shot of adrenalin at least once in our times as Marines. It was part of the emergency medical packages any of our suits could activate as part of the emergency medical protocols and we’d all seen enough action to have gotten that dumped in our systems. It meant for someone as untrained as Rayne that she’d be kicking and bucking with all the hysterical strength her body could muster.

  It wouldn’t hurt any of us, not at all, but she could seriously smash herself up or even sprain muscles without meaning to.

  “I’ll get her arms,” Jill volunteered.

  I nodded. “I’ll take the legs.”

  Mina materialized a sidearm, a mean-looking needle gun, from her armor’s inventory. “And if she starts to suffer too bad, Claire, give me the word, and I’ll put her out of her misery.”

  There wasn’t a hint of meanness or cattiness in Mina John’s words. She was right. If Claire’s concoction went wrong, well, let’s just say I know enough to know not to let Acburian fluids get inside my body.

  Claire grinned, nervousness gone and utter confidence setting in. “Sure thing, ma’am, but it won’t be necessary. You’re about to see your second miracle in as many days, folks.”

  As we held Rayne down and Mina held her pistol at the ready, Claire injected the viscous fluid into the brachial artery of the scientist’s right arm. I could see the dark red solution push through her arm, the injection site bruising from the thickness of the goo. It took a few moments for the witch’s brew to take effect, but boy, when it took effect, it really took effect.

  Rayne spasmed violently as the concoction threw her straight out of a coma and right into a seizure. For her slender body, she kicked and bucked like mad, the super-adrenalin mixing with real, natural adrenalin, and it actually took a little effort to keep her in place and not hurt her worse than letting her thrash. As Rayne managed to raise her head, about to dash it down onto the rocky floor, Claire leaped into action, grabbing her by the jaw and interposing a gauntleted hand under the back of her skull.

  “Do I shoot?” Mina asked, cool as a cucumber
, needler barrel carefully following Rayne’s squirming temple.

  “No,” Claire shouted, “give it a few more moments! It’s got to work through her bloodstream!”

  Rayne’s bucking decided to go into overdrive just then and, well, there was only one thing I could think of to keep her down. I climbed right on top of her, legs straddling her hips, chest-to-chest, hands clamped around her wrists.

  This wasn’t a new position for me, though the last time Rayne and I had done it, it had been a lot more fun.

  Just then, after one last violent spasm, all her muscles clenching for a good second, Rayne collapsed under me, completely spent, sweat running down her face and her perfect cleavage. I pushed myself up just a bit, not sure if she was breathing or if she had just died on us.

  Mina raised her pistol up to a ready position. “Well, I suppose I don’t have to shoot her.” She glanced at Claire. “Is she – “

  “Alive?” I finished.

  I was trying to be as calm as Mina, but I was a bit more worried. I had put a lot of stock in seeing Rayne’s mission through, especially if you read the sabotage attempt as someone trying to stop it. Even more so if you believed as I did that Reynolds caused the whole mess to begin with.

  Claire didn’t look at either of us. Instead, her eyes were moving, following what had to be readouts in her HUD as her glowing fingers, the sign of Healthy, Happy Marine! medical sensors at work, pressed against Rayne’s slick forehead. For a moment, I couldn’t read the medic’s expression, but then I saw a slight smile.

  “I’d ask for a medal, but I know the best I’ll get is a notch in the Civilian Salvation! leaderboard.”

  As if on cue, Rayne Garmin’s lovely eyes fluttered open as her ample chest heaved under me. She looked around, wincing slightly as if she had just had the biggest workout of her life, which she sort of did. Claire and Jill both pulled back a bit, but I kept my position hovering over the doctor.

  A moment’s confusion later, Rayne focused on me. “I didn’t think stasis would hurt so much.” She licked her lips and yawned. “Are we on Turan yet?”

  “Sure,” I nodded. “You all right?”

  “Fine, I guess,” she muttered. “I’ve got the worst case of dry mouth, though.” She blinked again. “Uh, why are you on top of me? And why am I all sweaty? And where exactly are we?”

  I laughed. “Well, as much as I would like to say I’m on top of you for the same reason as last time, well, let’s just say things have gone off-plan.” Pushing myself up and off her, I stood at the foot of where she lay. “As for the rest, well, I think it’s high time everyone knew what was going on here.”

  23

  Though Rayne said she was okay, I wasn’t so sure. Though her skin had regained much of its color, she still had dark circles around her eyes, and the way she moved suggested she might have experienced some sort of clinical lethargy from staying under for too long. Still, we couldn’t sit around, not when we had enemies on the home front as much as we had bugs all around us. Her eyes were clear, and that brilliance I had seen before was in them. We had to press on.

  Jill and Claire were both obviously eager to see what the hell was actually going on. Claire was paying more attention to Mina and me than her patient, though she still had her fingers at Rayne’s temple as she was now sitting up. Speaking of Mina, she had dematerialized her needler, giving me a nod and the floor to explain our current bad luck.

  “Okay, squad,” I began, folding my arms over my chest and making like my old drill sergeant. “You already know that our primary mission was and remains to get Dr. Rayne Garmin here to the designated destination. There’s a lot more to it than that, which I’ll let Dr. Garmin explain in a minute. I’m a Marine, not a scientist, as you well know.”

  Though I was sure everyone’s first instinct was to either agree wholeheartedly with me or, in Claire’s case, let out a chortle, the ladies of Artemis Squad kept their discipline. I think they all realized by the dead-serious tone in my voice that the pussy-footing around was over and it was time for Marine focus now.

  “I have two things to say before she briefs you.” I held up a finger. “One, this may be the mission that wins the war, that gives us the weapon that will break the bug’s slimy backs. Now, if I’m telling you this, you know this isn’t bullshit.” I gave Mina a sidelong glance at that, just to remind her of my renewed faith in this mission, before continuing.

  “Two, there’s a force working against us, one that’s not the bugs.” Claire’s brow wrinkled, I guessed she had her suspicions, while Jill looked a bit more surprised. “I know you all, well, except for Rayne here, saw the bug in the Bullet. You can guess that the only way for that to happen was sabotage and treachery of the highest order.”

  Jill bit her lip. “Does that mean we’re on our own out here, Mark?”

  “We can’t be one-hundred percent sure who or what is involved,” Mina added. “We only know that there are definitively forces in the Alliance that don’t want us to succeed.”

  “So, that means conserve ammo, conserve energy, and don’t hesitate to spend coins,” I nodded. “We don’t know when someone might try to interfere with our supply lines and if someone does manage to cut us off, we’ll have to rely on good old Marine know-how and all the energy we can steal from our kills to keep going. Once these suits” – I thumped my chest plate – “run out of juice, we’re as good as dead out there.” I glanced around the room. “Any other questions?”

  None came. Mina already knew the score, Claire’s expression set with grim determination, and Jill took a deep, centering breath. Rayne was the most shaken of the group, but she still managed to keep a strange sort of enthusiasm around her, as if we were on some magical adventure. I’d have to pop that bubble ASAP, but first, we needed her to fill in the squad about her virus of doom.

  “Okay, take it away, Dr. Garmin.”

  Rayne nodded to me, smiling at Claire before standing weakly up. “Hello, I’m, as you may have gathered, am Dr. Rayne Garmin, and let me start by saying that I am very much in your debt for saving my life from the crash.” She clasped her hands to her ample chest and gave us all a short bow and a nod of the head.

  That was new, well, not totally new. As I’ve said, there were those people out there who knew what the Infinity Marines sacrificed and gave back in their own way. That didn’t make it refreshing to hear, and well, good for morale to have a mission target like this actually thanking us for getting shot to get them to their destination.

  From there, I didn’t pay much attention to her briefing. After all, I had heard it all before, not even a half-day earlier, so I focused instead on how the junior members of Artemis Squad reacted. Not to my surprise, they both had more questions about the whole deal than I did. This whole scheme connected to their interests and roles in the squad, after all. Claire had plenty of medical questions about the virus that went over my head, while Jill had a fair few about some of the more technical aspects of the deal. In the end, questions aside, it didn’t take too long for the briefing to wrap up.

  “Okay, Marines,” I said once Rayne had wrapped up, “let’s break camp. I need to have a quick conference with the doctor here.” Glancing over at Mina, I added, “If you could get the enviro-suit read for her, it’ll save some time.”

  Mina arched a delicate eyebrow at me, but when she glanced over at Rayne, no doubt seeing the same star-struck look in her eyes that I did, she nodded at me. “Understood, Mark. We’ll be ready to go.”

  I nodded her thanks as I pulled Rayne aside.

  “So, Mark, what questions do you have?” Rayne smiled. “Or is there something else you wanted to do before we left?” She fluttered her eyes at me, pressing closer to me in the alcove.

  If I had any thoughts about her physical condition, well, she was giving me signs quite the contrary. As much as a quick roll in the hay would have felt great, we weren’t on downtime anymore. It was time to kick ass, not get some ass.

  “Normally, I’d be all over
the second, Rayne,” I said, “but that will have to wait. We’re about to go out into some crazy shit, so I wanted to make sure that you’d be okay.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Rayne responded, nodding at me. “Hell, the world has almost stopped spinning completely. Besides, you just try to keep me in this cave.” She looked around with a strange and unfamiliar sense of wonder plastered all over her tired looking face.

  I wasn’t used to that sort of reaction from my teammates. Even grassfeds seemed to come out onto these planets already tired of them. Even Billy Langham, who was the happiest, most carefree person I’d ever known (except for his own father) had been weary of this place.

  “Can you imagine?” Rayne was beaming as she turned back to me. “An entirely different atmosphere, a completely new ecosystem.” She shook her head. “I know we’ve studied samples you guys have brought back from this place. I’ve seen them, and I’ve seen the pictures from your last mission. Still, there’s something completely different about being here, about being ensconced in a foreign world with all of its secrets laid out in front of you.” She practically screamed as she smiled wildly. “It’s exhilarating.”

  “It’s fucking dangerous is what it is,” I answered, my tone low and my face dark. “You know the difference between looking at pictures and studying dirt samples through your microscope and actually being here, boots on the ground? I’ll give you a hint. It has nothing to do with the goddamn ecosystem.” I stepped closer to the doctor. “You can die here, Rayne. I know you know that. You nearly got your ass killed on the last alien planet you found yourself on.”

  “Mark,” she started, “it’s not like that.”

  “You’re damn right it’s not,” I shot back. “That was an outlier planet, and we were dealing with a simple transport and a contained number of enemies. This place is infinitely more dangerous, and the enemies we face here, if this goes south, are a hell of a lot more dangerous. I can’t have you running around looking through soil samples and dancing in fields of daylilies out there.”