SNAFU: Resurrection

by Dirk Patton

  “We’ll take the clusters,” Barnes said, swinging his heavy metal body upright in the cradle. “You got someone to take care of the outliers?”

  “Not yet,” Piper said. “I’m working on it, but there’s not much more than drones available in your area.”

  “Let me know how you go, we don’t want any friendlies getting in our way.”

  Gibbs and Williams were up now, moving quickly. Barnes joined them, and they went to the armoury to draw weapons.

  Gibbs – Hunter Two – grabbed a seven-barrelled brute of a weapon from the weapon rack, an electrically-driven Gatling gun that was usually aircraft mounted for area suppression work. The weight of the weapon and its ammunition hopper was something that only a cyborg could carry, and Gibbs was almost completely ‘borged – only his face wasn’t metal or Kevlar composite, that being the line that he wasn’t going to cross.

  Williams – Hunter Three – grabbed a two barrelled, over-and-under combination with a 40mm automatic grenade launcher on top and a 15mm machine gun below, meant for bunker defence work. Even for a cyborg the weapon was considered ‘heavy’ – Williams’ body of titanium bones and polyfibre muscles could carry it, but the recoil was horrendous, and even a cyborg needed a tripod mount to fire effectively.

  Barnes loaded up with a simple battle rifle, a 30mm weapon that looked like a much-upsized version of what he carried before he’d been rebuilt. Capable of firing in multiple modes, it was simple, accurate and lethal – the lighter weapon meant he could carry three thousand rounds into battle and still stay light on his feet.

  Barnes inspected the two other men as they gave him the once over. He was the least ‘borged of them all, with only his arms, legs and spine replaced by metal and polyfibre, all held together by the Kevlar nano-composite that made up his skin.

  His vital organs were all his though, and he still had functioning genitalia, which marked him apart from the others. He figured that if he had his own junk he was still a man, even if that was all he had left.

  Piper had prepared the deployment packets for their inboard tactical computers. “I’ve marked the three clusters on your maps, gentlemen,” she said as they accessed the data. “I’ve designated them Clusters Alpha, Bravo and Charlie on your maps, and the outliers are numbered Oscar One through to Oscar Seven.”

  “Good work, Piper,” Barnes replied. “I’ll be taking Alpha, Gibbs will take Bravo, Williams on Charlie. We’ll sort the outliers after we clean out the clusters, so we’ll need you to keep an eye on them until we’re clear.”

  “Roger that, Hunter One,” Piper said. “I’ve got drones on their way. I’ll keep you informed.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Barnes said, then looked at the other two men. In the dim, flickering light Barnes thought they looked like misshapen trolls ready to head out into battle, and he wasn’t entirely sure that image was necessarily wrong. “We ready?”

  “Born ready!” Gibbs said, raising the heavy Gatling gun. “Been sleeping here too long, time to pay the rent.”

  Williams grinned and slapped Gibbs on the shoulder, sending a metallic echo through the building. “Ain’t nothing keeping us here, Sarge,” he said. “Let’s get out and show them how it’s done.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Barnes said. “Piper, this is Hunter One, heavy metal moving out.”

  The three cyborgs left the barracks and moved quickly and carefully through what was left of the city. It was a mess. Streets were piled high with the rubble of collapsed buildings, torn down by rampaging aliens or blown to pieces by desperate defenders who had quickly lost all interest in preserving real estate in order to stay alive. In most cases it hadn’t worked, and scraps of military uniforms, discarded weapons and human bones littered the ground.

  Mercifully, most of the dead were out of sight, buried beneath the rubble, but the three cyborgs knew they were there, their enhanced senses picking up the smell of rotting corpses coming up from their graves of fallen concrete, glass and steel.

  Barnes had plotted a course that kept the three men together for as long as possible before splitting up to make their way to their respective targets. Partly for security, but Gibbs and Williams were all that was left of the old days, and he knew that every battle could be their last. They didn’t talk about it much, but he knew the other two felt the same.

  They were silent with their thoughts as they advanced, finally reaching the point where their paths separated. Gibbs and Williams gave each other a quick fist-bump then went on their way, leaving Barnes to watch them go.

  Only when they were out of sight did he continue on his own course.

  * * *

  Cluster Alpha, formerly the corner of Main Street and 4th Avenue

  “Hunter One, this is Command.”

  “Go ahead, Piper.”

  “I have eyes in the sky above you.”

  “Thanks, Pipes.” Barnes closed his eyes and activated the data feed. The three drones in his area each pushed information directly into the chip in his skull. He cycled through them quickly to give himself the best read on the ground he could.

  Five portals four hundred metres ahead. By the time he climbed atop a mound of rubble high enough to get a good line of sight, they were starting to sparkle. It should have been a beautiful sight, but the inner light of some alien dimension shining through was generally followed by clawing hordes of death. Barnes hated it. The sight triggered the fear and anger he’d felt the first time he’d seen it – he had his fear mostly under control now, but he’d stopped trying to hold the anger back, letting it consume him during battle.

  “All units, Hunter One in position,” he said over the comms channel, trying to keep the growing anger under control a little longer. “It’s gonna get busy here, so if you have anything you need to say, now’s the time.”

  “Hunter Three here,” Williams said. “Still en route to Cluster Bravo. Terrain here is a mess, might not make it before those portals open.”

  “Understood, Hunter Three,” Barnes replied. “Command, I won’t need my drones much longer, you might want to send him some support.”

  “Roger,” Piper responded. “Redirecting some eyes your way, Hunter Three.”

  “Much appreciated, Command,”

  “How’s things looking at your end of town, Hunter Two?” Barnes said, jumping to a higher position on what was left of an adjacent building, his cyborg legs clearing the fifteen-metre gap easily. “You going to make it in time?”

  “We have a problem, Hunter One,” Gibbs said. “I think we have mice in the area.”

  “Fucking civilians,” Williams cut in. “You’d think they’d have the sense to leave by now.”

  “How many?” Barnes asked, mentally agreeing with Williams.

  “Not sure,” Gibbs replied. “I can see signs of them everywhere. I’m picking up some fleeting heat signatures, but nothing concrete.”

  “Keep them alive if you can,” Barnes said. “Don’t get yourself dead doing it though.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Gibbs said. “Some support here to clear them out of the way wouldn’t go astray.”

  Barnes frowned. “Command—”

  He stopped talking as the portals at Cluster Alpha opened, and creatures came spewing out.

  Whatever alien dimension had spawned them had little in common with Earth evolution. There were several different breeds amongst them. Most were four legged with long-snouted heads, like dogs; some were round-faced like great cats while others were sharp-beaked like birds. They all had thick hide, and some had slabs of chitin that provided some slight armour protection. Barnes had long given up wondering how and why they’d evolved the way they had.

  Two things they all did have in common though were sharp claws and fangs, and a serious hatred of humans – they seemed to want nothing more than to kill every human they could.

  Barnes raised his battle rifle, thumbed the selector to auto and squeezed the trigger, bracing himself against the recoil. He fired short, co
ntrolled bursts into the closest groups. The 30mm rounds were copper-topper hollow-points, with a tungsten penetrator core, and they punched through the creatures hide before blossoming to tear them apart from the inside.

  The creatures turned towards him, snarling in fury, and charged at him at full speed, without any thought of seeking cover or trying to flank him. The scrape of their claws on concrete sounded like an avalanche, and they struck sparks with every step.

  The natural lay of the rubble channelled them into four distinct lanes, and Barnes let his rifle play for a few seconds across each lane in aimed bursts before moving to the next. The carnage was horrendous, but they kept coming.

  By the time they’d reached two hundred metres, their howls had built into a shriek, a primordial sound that cut Barnes to the core, and for a moment he felt the terror the sound had caused the first time he'd heard it. He pushed that aside, giving in to his anger, and let loose a howl of his own, all thoughts of aimed fire gone as he fired long bursts from the hip.

  He focussed his fire onto the right-most approach, being the closest, pouring round after round into them until that entire group was gone, and then he switched to the far left.

  At one hundred metres, that group was nothing more than alien flesh decorating the rubble, so he switched to the next group, spraying rounds into them, his fire just one long burst now. He knew he was burning through his ammunition too quickly but he didn’t care – he wanted them dead, and ammunition was only going to be a problem if he survived this battle.

  At fifty metres, their shrieks and the drumming of claws on concrete blended with the echoes of his rifle fire, filling the area with sound. It was maddening, so intense it threatened to overwhelm his other senses, making it almost impossible to think clearly.

  He gave in to it, advancing towards the last group of approaching aliens, spraying quickly to thin them out as they charged towards him. They were fast, and he knew that a couple would get through – the press of a button on the trigger grip extended his rifle’s bayonet, impaling the first as it leapt towards him, and the second was met with the metal-shod butt with a blow that caved in its skull, sending fluorescent alien brain-matter splashing to the ground.

  The area was silent and Barnes raised his battle rifle and scanned his surrounds.

  Nothing moved.

  “Command, this is Hunter One,” he said, slowly letting his rage subside. “Cluster Alpha neutralised. Send the next target coordinates.”

  * * *

  Cluster Charlie, formerly the corner of Queen Street and 2nd Avenue.

  “Command, this is Hunter Three,” Williams said. “In position overlooking Cluster Charlie.”

  “Roger that, Hunter Three,” Piper replied. “Look sharp, expect company.”

  The surviving satellite network could analyse the energy readings from the portals and accurately predict their opening to within a few seconds. Williams watched the small timer on his data feed tick down. Right on zero, the portals in the square some three hundred metres away and thirty metres below him spiralled open, their bright alien glow lighting up the shadows, and aliens spilled out. The drones around him counted the creatures as they emerged, the counter quickly tripping past three hundred.

  He’d set his over-and-under weapon on its heavy tripod, its clawed feet dug into the rubble and stable. Williams fired both barrels at once, the lower barrel spitting 2400 tungsten-tipped rounds a minute towards the aliens as they emerged, while the upper barrel coughed a high explosive grenade every second or so.

  The volume of fire from the machine gun was considerable, but the tungsten penetrators lacked real killing power unless they struck something vital. They punched straight through the alien bodies, ripping out flesh and spraying their fluorescent green and yellow blood everywhere, but only a kill shot stopped them from moving towards him. Even with limbs torn off and gaping holes in their bodies, the creatures came on, crawling on bloodied stumps, dragging themselves forward by their claws, their shrieks all the louder in their pain.

  The grenades, on the other hand, exploded amongst them and scattered their remains all around. With a lethal radius of ten metres, every second created a hole in the enemy swarm, one that took time to fill.

  Williams tripped the filters in his cybernetic ears, reducing their shrieks to almost nothing. For a long while the only sensation he had was his hands tight on the spade grips of his weapon and the shake of recoil through the tripod.

  Their numbers began to thin and he stopped firing grenades, concentrating long bursts of machine-gun fire on the closest groups, letting the penetrators do their work, slowing them down if they didn’t die outright.

  Soon, there was nothing left on its feet moving towards him, only dozens of wounded aliens doing their best to get to him before they died of their wounds. Williams turned his cybernetic hearing back up, enjoying the sounds of the creatures in pain.

  He moved to finish them off. Some things had to be done up-close and personal, and payback was one of them.

  “Command, this is Hunter Three,” he said, the armoured heel of his cyborg foot crushing the life out of the first alien he reached. “Cleaning up here, will be ready for new orders in a few.”

  * * *

  Cluster Bravo, formerly Central Station

  Gibbs was having a rough time of it, his advance blocked by fallen buildings and walls of rubble. His internal timer told him he had plenty of time to get into position before the portals opened, but he’d rather be there early and take the best position than settle for whatever he had to.

  “Command, this is Hunter Two,” he said. “Roads are blocked, looking for another way in.”

  “Better get the lead out, Hunter Two,” Piper replied. “We have your portals opening in twelve minutes twenty, and I think everyone would really like you to be there for that.”

  Gibbs’ navigation AI pinged, showing a workable path. “On it, Command.”

  The new route took him back a half-block, and he cut down an alleyway, aiming to approach the cluster from a different direction. Despite his bulk, Gibbs’ cyborg legs pushed him three times the speed of a normal man. He sprinted through the alleyway, turned right and leapt up a mound of rubble in his path. The top was surprisingly even, with most of the girders and concrete blocks tipped over to make it almost level in parts, which was going to save him a lot of time.

  He was halfway across when he saw the portals on the other side. He had just enough time to see they lacked the tell-tale sparkle that meant they were about to open, before the ground beneath his feet gave way and he fell into darkness.

  * * *

  Oscar Three, formerly St Michael’s Cathedral, Main Street

  Barnes was perched atop of the one remaining turret of the old cathedral, firing controlled four-round bursts from his battle rifle at the aliens milling around below. From his position he had could see all the outlying portals in his area, and he had fired a short burst at each of the alien mobs as they emerged, baiting them to him.

  It was easier than tracking them all down and dealing with them in small groups.

  “Hunter One, this is Command,” Piper said suddenly into his earpiece. “Hunter Two is missing, never made his cluster.”

  “Shit,” he said. “Are the drones tracking him?”

  “Negative, Hunter One,” Piper replied. “But there’s a huge hole in the ground along the path his onboard AI had mapped out for him.”

  “Aliens?”

  “Portals haven’t opened.”

  “All right… keep an eye on them, I’ll finish up here and head over.”

  “I’m done here,” Williams cut in. “I’ll see you there, Sarge.”

  “Will do,” Barnes said. “Stay alert though, there might be something out here we’re not aware of.”

  “Roger that.”

  Barnes switched to automatic and sprayed his fire all around the base of the cathedral. He was in a hurry, and conserving ammunition was even less of a priority now. Gibbs was one of
the few men left from his original company, and he desperately needed to find him.

  * * *

  City North Subway Line, below Cluster Bravo

  Gibbs fell heavily, but not enough to cause him any harm. The drop was a good thirty metres, which would have killed the pre-cyborg him. As it was, it just rattled him a little, and he stood and dusted himself off.

  The darkness was lit only by the small hole above him. His artificial eyes enhanced the available light; bodies of aliens surrounded him, some just broken from the fall, others impaled on spikes and stakes set around the area. Looking up, it appeared the hole he’d fallen through had been covered with light wood and a thin layer of rubble. A trap. And he’d fallen into it like a dumb animal.

  He brought up his map AI and plotted his position. Looked like he’d fallen into an old subway line, and the latest drone information suggested there was an open subway station about two hundred metres to the south. No way was he climbing out, so he turned south and moved as quickly as he could, hoping he’d get to the surface in time to be of use.

  * * *

  Oscar Seven, formerly the State Library, South Avenue

  Barnes joined Williams along the way towards Cluster Bravo, and they moved fast yet wary. The portals weren’t due to open for another five minutes, but neither of them wanted to be surprised by anything out there that might have done Gibbs some harm.

  “Hunter One, this is Command,” Piper’s voice cut in. “I have bad news.”

  “Tell it, Command,” Barnes said, and his heart sank, fearing the worst.

  “Easier to show you,” Piper said. “Sending you the video feed from the drones.”

  Both men closed their eyes and watched the feed played directly into their optical nerves. It showed the area above Cluster Bravo, with a dozen portals, large ones, as yet unopened.

  “Seems quiet,” Williams said softly. “No sign of Gibbs though.”