Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2)

by Paul Moxham

  Frank took a deep breath to calm himself before he and Molly entered the room like they owned the place. No one gave them a second glance, until one of the ex-cons in the hall peeked his head too far into the room.

  The Seods did a double take and made some type of squawking alien curse. They whipped up their silencers while the humans charged. For all the hi-tech weaponry, the battle was medieval. Green bolts, fists, and teeth flew in every direction.

  Red and blue blood soaked the deck as humans and Seods fell to the ground. By the time the shooting was all over, only one side had a few men still standing.

  The remaining soldiers pried off dog tags from their dead friends and hefted the wounded onto their shoulders. The group, now only half the size as before but with ten times as many weapons as before, was ready to move in less than a minute.

  Just as they did, Seods in white suits appeared from down the hallway and opened fire. The soldiers returned the favor with gusto.

  Leaving a few of the troops behind to provide cover, the others advanced and sanitized the hallway. They met little resistance along the way as most of the Seods fled at the sight of the humans. And for those that didn’t, they were cut down in a hail of green bolts before they could kill any of the humans.

  The team reached the missile room without any casualties. Just as they entered, one of the soldiers spotted a group of blue-suited Seods scurrying down the hall. He hollered at the lieutenant, who in turn told the general.

  Loreto turned to Frank. “How long do you need to set the demo charges?”

  “Ten minutes,” Frank replied and then ducked as a stream of laser bolts lit up the hall. “Hmm, maybe we can do it in five. Can you hold them off that long?”

  The general narrowed his eyes. “Leave that to me. You just concentrate on setting the charges.” He waved at the soldiers and gave that old, magic infantry motto: “Follow me!” Leading from the front, the general fired from the hip and charged the Seods.

  Frank didn’t waste time as he took off his helmet and told Molly to do the same. He then gave her some explosives. “Attach one of these to the side of each warhead. If we work together, we can get this done quicker.” Frank hurried to the nearest missile.

  The two of them worked as fast as possible. The boom-boom sticks were stacked in neat rows, so it didn’t take long.

  They had nearly finished when Lieutenant Davidson burst through the door. Blood dripped from a wound in his arm. “We just lost the general. Are you nearly done? If we wait any longer, we’ll lose everyone.”

  “Just give me a moment.” He adjusted the timer and blew out his breath. “All right, five minutes is all we have to get away from here.”

  “But I can’t run fast in this suit,” Molly complained.

  “Then take it off.” Frank pressed down on the plunger and started the timer. “I’ll also take mine off.”

  As the lieutenant hurried back to his men, the two quickly took off their suits. A minute later, with the timer already down to four minutes, the two stepped into the hallway.

  The firefight between the humans and Seods was still going fiercely. Both parties had managed to find some barricades, and with neither side willing to advance, no one was making progress.

  Frank flipped his watch over. “If we’re still here when the timer goes off, we’ll be vaporized.”

  “What can we do?” Molly asked, worried.

  Frank hurried back into the missile room. Glancing around, he spotted an RPG. He scooped it up. “Can you get two more of those?” He pointed toward a pile of small rockets.

  Molly grabbed two of them and followed Frank outside. Bending down behind a barricade, Frank loaded the rocket into the launcher and held it up, high on his shoulder.

  The lieutenant snatched the weapon from Frank. “Get out of here now! Stay at least ten meters away from the back blast. It’s about to get hot in here.” He ripped out the arming fuse and sighted down the hall, ignoring all the incoming fire ricocheting inches past him. “Fire in the hole!”

  Frank shoved the rest away as the lieutenant torched off the rocket-propelled grenade. The warhead lanced down the hall at two hundred meters a second and smashed into the face of a Seod fighter running to join the others.

  The rest kept their heads down as shrapnel rained around. The lieutenant prepped and fired the next launcher with practiced ease, this time aiming for the center of the barricade.

  The blue-suited Seods, seeing what was coming, tried to retreat. Some made it clear before the shaped-charge warhead, designed to kill tanks, blew the barricade to smithereens.

  Frank glanced at his watch, their one remaining minute flying away. He ran back to the lieutenant and guided the choking man through the noxious exhaust clouds. “Come on!” He rushed down the hallway, one arm on the officer and the other holding his rifle straight out, firing endless three-round bursts.

  As the humans advanced, the Seods fired back. More than half of the humans fell before a massive explosion shook the entire craft.

  Everyone dropped to the ground as another explosion, this one bigger than the last, blew the missile door off its hinges and sent a wall of fire along the hallway.

  As the aircraft started to groan, complete chaos erupted. The Seods scurried left and right like rats attempting to escape the doomed ship. The badly wounded lieutenant, along with two of his men, hurried after Frank and Molly as they headed for the hangar.

  Because of the constant explosions that rocked the aircraft, most Seods took no notice of the humans. They appeared to be mostly concerned with their own safety.

  When two white-suited Seods appeared and opened fire, the two soldiers dropped to the ground, dead. Wounded, the lieutenant managed to shoot one of the creatures while Frank took out the other one.

  As the lieutenant lay on the floor, gasping his last breath, Molly knelt down next to him. The soldier reached out and grabbed the girl’s hand. “Go. Get to safety.”

  “But—” Molly spluttered.

  “Go. Before it’s too late.” Lieutenant Davidson gave a final groan before his head slumped to the ground.

  “Come on!” Frank yanked Molly away. The two of them raced toward the hangar.

  They ran inside, only to find just a few Strikers left.

  Lucy whistled from the ramp of one of them. “What are you waiting for? Get your crazy butts in here!”

  Scrambling aboard, Molly followed Frank as they clambered into the seats of the aircraft.

  “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t make it,” Lucy said, clearly worried.

  “Me too,” Derek said, clutching his sister tightly.

  “We haven’t made it to safety yet,” Frank muttered as he spotted some blue-suited Seods approach the aircraft and open fire.

  With green bolts hitting the exterior of the Striker, Frank switched on the firing mechanism and grabbed the stick. After taking aim at the blue Seods, he pressed down on a button. Red bolts flew out of the front of the aircraft and hurtled toward the creatures. They didn’t stand a chance. They collapsed to the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  Derek glanced toward the hangar door and saw a group of Seods putting together some kind of large weapon. He quickly pointed it out to Frank. “Look!”

  “Good spotting.” Frank whipped the controls to the left and opened fire. Just as he did so, another explosion rocked the aircraft and the Conqueror started to tilt to the right.

  “We need to get out of here!” Molly cried out.

  “I know,” Frank dropped his empty mag and slammed a fresh one in. As soon as he finished getting rid of the Seods who had hid behind the large weapon, he focused his attention on the closed doors of the runway. He aimed his weapon toward the doors and let the red bolts destroy it.

  As the cargo doors shattered, blue sky greeted Frank and the others. Suddenly, the aircraft tilted dangerously to the right. As loose objects tumbled and cracked noses, Molly screamed and pointed out a viewport. “They’re all over us!”

/>   Outside, Seods swarmed over the other Strikers in the hangar like a bloodthirsty horde of locusts.

  “Hold on to something!” Frank gripped the control stick with both hands.

  White-hot flames and acrid smoke filled the air as one of the remaining Strikers blew up and added to the chaos.

  Frank tried to steady the Striker as he navigated down the runway, but with explosions happening left and right of them and Seods running everywhere, it was hard to do.

  Derek gripped the edge of his seat tightly as he stared through the glass windshield. “Agh!” he howled as a small object flew toward the screen and hit the glass full on. Luckily, it didn’t break.

  “Hurry up!” Lucy shouted.

  “I’m doing the best I can!” Frank thundered as the Conqueror gave a massive, loud groan and then, with the largest explosion so far, the aircraft tipped even farther to the right until the runway was at an almost vertical angle. Various items started to hit the glass. Frank glared at a large and deep crack snaking across the screen.

  Clutching the controls, he yanked the stick in the same angle as the floor of the runway and pushed the power down.

  The Striker shot forward, nearly losing a wing as another aircraft came across its path. Frank hurriedly grabbed the firing control and shattered the other aircraft with red bolts.

  With a screech of scraping metal, the other vessel slipped by. Spitting in the face of gravity, Frank poured on the g’s, shooting through the brief opening and out into the blue sky.

  Before anyone could celebrate, the engine on the aircraft spluttered once, twice, and then died. Frank slapped every button in frustration, but nothing seemed to work.

  “What’s happening?” Lucy said, her eyes wide open in fear.

  Suddenly, the engine powered back on. “That was way too close. Must have gotten something caught in one of the exhausts.” Steadying the Striker, Frank pointed their nose back at the Conqueror.

  “It’s going down!” Derek yelled.

  “We did it!” Molly cried, hugging her brother.

  Lucy also grinned, but then her smile melted away. “Oh no …”

  “What’s wrong?” Frank asked.

  “It’s going to crash into the mountain!”

  The others stared as the sleek, black aircraft broke apart. The two parts dropped like stones toward Mount Shasta. The front part, the one with the controls, seemed to be heading directly for the black hole.

  With an ear-shattering crash, both parts collided with the top of the mountain and exploded in a fiery crash. The massive shockwave slammed into the Striker and sent it spinning toward the ground.

  Frank grabbed the stick and attempted to regain control of the aircraft. He failed. His face took on an expression of fear as the engine cut out once more.

  With all thoughts of the Conqueror now out of their minds, the teens and Lucy grabbed the side of their seats and didn’t let go as the aircraft tore toward the ground. Everything became a blur as the ground rushed by.

  Frank knew that they were running out of time. He punched the control keypad in frustration as each button after the other failed to respond.

  Slowly, the aircraft started to come out of the spin. Finally, half a minute later, it did just that. As the ship whined and strained to level off, Frank could make out bird nests in the pine trees. Frank roared just as the engine finally sputtered back to life.

  Too late though.

  “Brace for—”

  The Striker plowed into the forest full on. The blazing engines torched the woods and bled off just enough speed to keep them from becoming a crater.

  Frank unsnapped his crash-seat harness and stood up, only to topple over in pain. “Ah!” He rolled to the side and slammed his left shoulder back into its socket. He staggered to his feet and kicked at the warped escape hatch, but it didn’t budge. “We’ll have to get out another way.”

  “What about the glass?” Derek whined, tilting his bleeding nose up.

  “Good idea.” Frank fumbled through the debris until he found a weapon. Despite the extensive damage, the armored glass didn’t go down without a fight. It took two magazines and several minutes of crowbar prying before they could gouge out a man-sized hole. “Damn, they should have made the whole ship out of this stuff.”

  Derek shimmied through first, soon followed by Lucy and Molly. The three of them dropped to the blackened grass and waited for Frank to join them.

  Frank slipped and rolled down less gracefully, but he managed to get back on his feet before too long. He swayed, with his hands on his knees, and laughed. “We’re in luck.”

  “What the hell do you mean?” Lucy wheezed through the small, but smoldering forest fire. “We’re stranded—”

  “Near one of the secret exits.” Frank pointed toward the trees on the left side. “The exit should be around that bend, up against the cliff. Now it may not be the one that the others will head for, but it could be.”

  “Let’s go and check,” Derek said, striding off.

  “Wait, I just have to get something.” Frank clambered back into the Striker. “I’ll just be a moment.”

  While Derek waited outside, he slipped in some liquid dripping out of the bottom of the aircraft. Before Frank could say anything, he heard a whoosh from behind followed by a world-shattering explosion.

  Chapter 18

  The teens and Lucy were thrown to the ground by the shockwave as the front of the Striker erupted in a sheet of flame.

  Coughing, the survivors crawled away from the scene of the inferno and watched, shell-shocked, as yet another explosion, this one at the back, took apart the back of the aircraft.

  Lucy cupped her hands too her mouth. “Frank!”

  Everyone listened, but no one answered. Not a single sign of life came from inside the aircraft.

  Molly sobbed at Lucy, “Is he …”

  Lucy slowly nodded. “I’m afraid so.” She put her arms around the two teens and comforted them. As another explosion, this one from far away, shot through the silence, she looked up.

  She couldn’t see anything. She frowned. “I wonder …” More explosions, all coming from Mount Shasta, drowned her out.

  The explosions didn’t come from the shattered remains of the Conqueror strewn all over the summit, but from deep inside the mountain.

  Derek flinched as a fresh plume of smoke rose up through a hole near the top of the mountain. “A part of the Conqueror must have somehow set off explosions inside the base.”

  “I wonder if the others are heading for that entrance,” Molly muttered.

  “Come on, let’s go and find out,” Lucy stated, tearing her eyes away from the avalanche in the distance.

  ~*~*~

  As earthquakes rocked the mountain, Kenneth stood by Logan as he fired the silencer at the door.

  “Come on,” Kenneth muttered, trying to urge the door to fall apart. The roof wobbled as an especially loud explosion rocked the cave. “What do you think is happening?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s anything that the Seods were expecting,” Logan said as he continued to fire green bolts at the door. “The guard seemed jittery when he rushed away five minutes ago.”

  Kenneth grinned as a hole suddenly appeared in the door. He tried kicking it open. The first kick didn’t do anything, but then, with Logan’s help, the door suddenly opened.

  Logan looked both ways before going to the right. Kenneth frowned. “What are you doing? That’s the way back to the cave.”

  “I know. I want to find out what’s happening,” Logan replied.

  Reluctantly, Kenneth followed him down the tunnel. The explosions grew louder as they rushed closer to the cave, and high-pierced shrieks could be heard.

  “Whatever’s happening, the Seods seem frightened.” Logan rounded the corner and stopped in shock and wonder as he reached the end of the tunnel.

  The rocket lay on its side. It was ablaze. A ring of fire circled the rocket. All the Seods seemed to be trying
to put the fire out with whatever they could find.

  A group of white-suited Seods spotted the brothers and hurried toward them, reaching for their weapons.

  Logan flipped his up first and fired from the hip. “Time to get the hell out of Dodge!” He rotated and raced down the tunnel, Kenneth nipping at his heels.

  Rounding the first corner, a massive shockwave turned the ground into a bouncy house. He tumbled forward and stayed on the tunnel floor as another explosion, bigger than the first one, kicked the mountain in the nuts. Chunks of the wall rained down on them.

  Logan and Kenneth rose as the explosion subsided, but before they could speak to each other, they heard another noise.

  “What’s that?” Logan asked. “Do you hear it?”

  Kenneth took off back to the cave but drew up short before the entrance. Something appeared on the ground.

  It was black water. As the seconds passed, more water streamed in. Kenneth hurried to the tunnel exit and stood in shock. Ice cold water gushed in from a tunnel above them.

  Logan watched as more water rushed in from the tunnel. It flooded the main cave and swept the Seods aside. Glancing down at the tunnel floor, he whistled at all the water streaming past. More and more water flooded the cave with each passing second.

  “Damn! This cave mustn’t be level,” Logan muttered.

  “And we’re on the down slope.” Kenneth hurriedly looked around and spotted a tunnel on the other side of the cave that the majority of the Seods were heading for.

  The water seemed never ending. It kept on coming and coming.

  Logan stared back and forth between their tunnel and the tunnel that the Seods were heading for. “We could try it,” Logan yelled, trying to be heard above the rushing water and its steadily increasing roar.

  Kenneth shook his head. “Even if we did make it, we’d be prisoners.” He glanced down the tunnel they had come up. “This might lead somewhere.”

  Logan nodded and led the way down the tunnel. It was relatively easy going at first, but as they passed the cave that they’d been held prisoner in, the tunnel started to go downhill.

  “Hmm.” Logan pivoted his weapon back up at the tunnel just as the lights, which had been lighting up the tunnel, went out. “Damn! We don’t have a flashlight.”