Dead Force Box Set

by S D Tanner

  He acknowledged her with a brusque nod. “Do you know where to go?”

  “Coordinates received.”

  Although he’d asked Lolo to help them, he was still surprised. “From Lolo?”

  Jessica’s smooth brow furrowed in confusion. “I am the Servator for ark Animax. Coordinates received.”

  Looking across at Judge, he asked, “Coordinates to where?”

  Judge shrugged. “Where do these arks really go? We never saw any others in space.”

  Stomping across the Bridge toward the main screen, Rok grumbled, “Dammit, did we just get kidnapped by an ark?”

  He had no idea what coordinates Jessica was talking about. If Lolo managed to find the Dead Force, then he might be about to find his army, but for all he knew they would simply head into space. Surrounded by Defensors, they couldn’t leave the ark, but staying onboard meant they could end up anywhere.

  It was another gamble. He would have to spin the wheel and hope they got what they needed. “Are we ready to lift off?”

  In answer to his question, Jessica pointed to the screen where the land around them appeared to be moving, but it was an optical illusion. The massive ark was rising from the desert, slowly lifting into the sky.

  Rok was watching the screen, his mouth hanging open, making him look like a confused dog. “Err, where are we going?”

  If he had his way, then he would find the Dead Force, and together they would kill aliens anywhere he found them. War was a real estate business, one where each side staked a claim and killed until a single side was left standing. Jessica had said it best when he’d first met her; his job was to eradicate the enemy. If it meant he had to turn a subject into an object so he could kill without conscience, then that was a price he was willing to pay. Lolo should never have been an exception to the rule, but now wasn’t the time to explain that to Judge.

  A dozen beacons were chasing the ark into the atmosphere, clearly preparing to attack. “Jessica! Wherever the hell you’re taking us, we need to get there fast.”

  Groaning with the effort, the ark was gathering speed and giving the beacons a run for their money. They were passing over the forest so fast it was a green blur that then turned a deepening blue. White crests of waves sped by and they too blurred until all he could see was the blueness of the sea. The beacons were keeping pace with the ark which jolted sharply trying to avoid their missiles.

  “Jessica, are we under attack?”

  “Ark Animax is functional.”

  “For how long?”

  Jessica tilted her head, giving him one of her enigmatic smiles. “We are near target destination.”

  The ark was slowing until the ebb and flow of individual peaks above the waves could be seen. Below them was only the ocean, and he frowned, confused by her reply. “Where are we?”

  The usually quiet Bridge exploded with the sound of screeching metal. A dome that had been attached to the ship was falling toward the sea. Their ark was losing altitude, dropping like a lead brick toward the water. Where moments earlier the sea had been a steady deep blue, it began thrashing as pieces of their ark plummeted ahead of their descent.

  Feeling the floor fall away from his feet, he clutched at the command chair. “Jessica!”

  Honey-coated and calm, Jessica’s voice failed to soothe his frustration. “We are near target destination.”

  “Where is that?”

  “We are near target destin…”

  The ark hit the water at such a speed, the crunching howl drowned out the rest of Jessica’s reply. An ark was never intended to function like a submarine. Pieces of the outer hull tore away and the screen on the Bridge went dead. Left in darkness, he still held onto the command chair, and his body pulled to the left as the ship tipped to one side.

  “Jessica! What have you done?”

  If she answered he didn’t hear her reply. The ark had hit the sea hard, forcing it deep under the water. As the ship creaked its way into the ocean, chunks of it peeled away and he could hear water rushing inside. Slamming down the faceplate on his helmet, he hoped his earpiece and speaker would still work.

  Judge shouted, “You’re a pain in my ass, Tag!”

  His eye cover switched to infrared and Judge was lying on his side in what he guessed was a growing puddle of water on the tilted Bridge. Rok and Ash were slipping and sliding as they struggled to stand. Hawk was already gone and Flak was tumbling through a wide crack in the hull.

  “Tag sunk our battleship,” Rok said, sounding more amused than worried.

  “Do we need to breathe?” Ash asked.

  “You’d better hope not,” Rok replied.

  “I hate swimming,” Ash said unhappily. “Makes my hair go frizzy.”

  Only Jessica remained silent, and listening to his squad on the dark Bridge, he was almost grateful when the roof collapsed on top of him. Water was gushing through cracks in the hull, grabbing at him until he let go of the chair. His body went with the current, slamming into a wall before being sucked through a hole in the floor. Dragged by the water, he felt like he was flying. Pieces of the ship hit his body, spinning him deeper into the ocean. Forcing his body to relax, he allowed the swirling water to drag him even lower.

  “Sound off!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Monster Munch

  Pieces of the ark were sinking with him. Above his position and at least fifty yards away was the main body of the ship. The domes had broken off and the ship was truncated at both ends. All that was left was the core containing the pods and rooms. Pressure from the water was bending the cylindrical body so that the ship was beginning to split at the seams. The pods inside the chamber would make ideal coffins, and anyone already inside one was about to be buried at sea.

  He continued to sink with the debris, his arms above his head and his feet pointing downward. If anyone was watching, they might think he was already dead. His gun was gone and his helmet was filling with water. He could feel the cold lapping at his neck as the water slowly rose toward his mouth. The sea sloshed around his helmet and a saltiness coated his tongue. Freezing cold water was rising until it covered his mouth, and he pressed his lips closed trying to only breathe through his nose. The salt was irritating his eyes and he felt the hairs inside his nose flattening under the water. He held his breath, knowing that when he gasped for air that his lungs would be filled by the cold sea.

  Instead of worrying about his situation, he found drifting with the debris soothing the same way Jessica’s voice was. He was dead, meaning the worst had already happened. His only regret was losing Daisy. What kind of life had she lived in a world slowly being stolen by an unknown enemy? She’d been his pride and joy, the one thing he’d been determined to get right. As it turned out, he’d probably been the one to kill her. That thought made the blood he didn’t need boil inside the veins he no longer used. What kind of a world had the aliens created? Slavery and bloodshed were all they’d brought to Earth, as if humans had ever needed any help killing and abusing their own.

  He’d wasted his life as the puppet of another master and he wouldn’t use his death the same way. If Jessica hadn’t been held prisoner, he would have blasted the floating city to oblivion, taking his own crappy existence with it.

  Although no one had answered his order to sound off, now a familiar voice broke through his thoughts. “Tag?”

  Judge sounded vague and, without thinking, he drew in a breath to answer him. Water filled his mouth, and he punched out at the sea desperate to find oxygen. A coldness flooded through his chest as the seawater settled deep inside his body.

  Although his voice sounded thick, at least he had one. “Judge?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think I just drowned.”

  “Did ya die?”

  “Yeah, but it was a long time ago.”

  “Fine mess you got us into.”

  The next voice through his earpiece was Rok. “Where the hell is everybody?”
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  “I’m here, dude,” Ash replied.

  That only left Flak and Hawk, but he suspected they were caught inside the swirling water, sinking to the bottom of the sea with them.

  “Lucky Lolo wasn’t with us, huh?”

  “Not funny, Tag,” Judge replied sharply.

  Slowly sinking through the water probably wasn’t the best time to argue with Judge, and he was about to say so when something wrapped around his ankle. He couldn’t feel much through his boot, but instead of drifting peacefully toward the bottom of the ocean, he was yanked downward. Tipping forward, looking for whatever was holding onto him, he was confronted by a glossy, black eye the size of a dinner plate. The mouth under it was generous and open as if it were about to receive a tasty snack.

  “Venator!”

  He’d lost everything when he tumbled through the hole in the Bridge, including the blade normally attached to his belt. Using one arm to swim downward, he used the other to punch the oversized squid in the eye, feeling it give under his glove. He was rewarded when an inky color swirled through the water. Upset at being blinded in one eye, the venator let go of his ankle, but another was quick to take its place, and it wrapped one of its legs around his waist. Finding himself pulled toward another gaping mouth irritated him. When it shoved his entire body into the open maw, he kicked sharply at the edges of its mouth, managing to leverage himself out again.

  “We have company!”

  “I didn’t think they liked carrion,” Rok shouted.

  “They seem a little less fussy underwater,” Judge replied.

  That was an understatement. Recovering from its bloody lip, the venator grabbed him again, determined to shove him inside its wide mouth. With several thick tentacles wrapped around his body, he couldn’t free his arms to fight. Traveling head first, he was pushed to the back of what he assumed was its throat. The tube was slippery and, although the tentacles had let go of him, he was now trapped inside a tight gullet. Muscles inside the throat worked against him, forcing his body deeper down the tube. He was being eaten by a large squid and he couldn’t have been more annoyed about it.

  Eventually the tube opened to a larger space where he could move his arms. Clutching at the sides around him, he used his hands like claws, ripping into the soft flesh. A bellowing sound caught him by surprise. Clearly, he was giving the venator a bellyache, and a rush of fluid sent him flying through the tight tube. Although he’d been spewed back into the sea, the venator wasn’t finished with him. This time it had decided to break him into smaller pieces before eating him. One tentacle wrapped around his leg and another curled across his throat. Pulling him by his head and leg, it tried to tear him in half, but the tentacles stretched more than he did.

  “Tag! I’m being eaten,” Rok complained. Then he added sulkily, “And it’s all your fault.”

  Given his body was being pulled in opposite directions, he had his own problems. “Embrace the suck.”

  “Way to show leadership, Tag.”

  Wishing he hadn’t lost his blade, he dug his fingers into the tentacle around his throat, ripping into the flesh. His other leg was kicking at the head of the venator hoping to get it in the eye. It was enough to force the monster to ease its grip around his ankle and he kicked again. Suddenly the tentacle around his throat eased, and he was floating in the water. Turning so he was facing downward, he kicked against the sea intending to swim away from the venator. The tactic worked, but there was no escaping the hunters.

  A swarm of venators had been drawn to the sinking ark. Some were clinging to the hull, eagerly pulling pods from the broken main body of the ship. Even as he continued swimming downward he was joined by several venators. Where they’d looked clumsy on land, under the sea their long tentacles pumped gracefully, making them fly through the water. He was a landlubber and there was no way he could outswim them.

  “A little help!” Ash shouted.

  “Punch your way out,” Rok replied.

  He could see the bottom of the ocean, and he pushed out his hand until he felt a hard surface. Although he’d reached the seabed, the swirling water was obscuring his vision. They were deep under the ocean and his squad were being eaten by giant squids. Twisting until he was upright, all he could see were the fleshy undersides of venators. The water was thick with monsters determined to make a meal out of them.

  Scrambling backward against the seabed, the water turned even more blurry. He was skidding along the sand, using his legs and arms to propel himself away from the venators. A long tentacle idly flicked past his face as if to tease him. Drifting gracefully under the water, the venator swung its head toward him so one large glossy eye was staring directly at his face. The mouth was closed and upturned as if it were smiling at him.

  His hand hit something hard and, hoping he could use whatever it was as a weapon, he twisted until he had his back to the venator. Running his hand along the hard surface it felt like a box, or maybe a coffin.

  “Tag! Not winning!” Judge called.

  A tentacle swiped past his eyes, and he pulled himself across the coffin hoping to use it like a shield. As he skidded over the rectangular box, he found himself staring at the face of a sleeping man. His eyes were closed and his head was shaved, just as theirs had been inside the pods on the ark. Shocked, he looked across the coffin only to see more of them. Lined up in rows, just like the pods had been on the arks, were thousands of coffins, each one occupied by a sleeping soldier. The heart he didn’t need began to pound so hard he could hear a deep thumping inside his ears.

  “Deeeeaaaad Foooorce!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Sleeping Knights

  “Dead stupid, Tag!” Judge roared back at him.

  His elation couldn’t be killed by Judge or the venators, and his laughter sounded manic even to him. “Lolo must love ya, Judge. She gave Jessica the coordinates.”

  “Crap, he’s right,” Hawk shouted. “They’re inside the coffins.”

  The venator chasing him had wrapped a tentacle around his waist, pulling him away from the coffin, but he dug his fingers into the edge. Caught in a tug of war the coffin lost, and he was pulled upward still holding onto the lid that had covered the soldier. He let the lid fall from his hands and it dropped through the water, banging into the seabed and throwing up a spray of sand.

  The soldier was wearing armor identical to his own, and he hoped the man could hear him. “Defensor! Defend!”

  At first nothing happened and then the man’s gloved hands tightened into thick fists. Raising his arms, the soldier grabbed the edges of his coffin and used the base to push powerfully into the water, launching himself toward the venator.

  Watching the Defensor fire past him with his arms reaching for the venator, he shouted, “Open the coffins!”

  His soldier had wrapped his arm around the head on the venator, using his other fist to punch it in the eye. Inky fluid leaked into the water and the venator let go of him. Once he was free from the venator, he swam toward the next coffin. Another soldier was sleeping inside, and running his fingers along the rim of the lid, he braced himself against the coffin next to it. Pushing upward, the lid lifted and water rushed in, waking the soldier inside.

  When the eyes snapped open behind the faceplate, he shouted, “Defensor! Defend!”

  His squad were working their way through the coffins, opening each and ordering the Defensor to fight. Some of the freed Defensors turned and opened more coffins while others fought against the venators. The sea began thrashing with less than a hundred Defensors attacking the venators. Soon a hundred became a thousand, and the venators were swarmed by angry soldiers determined to follow their orders.

  Swimming from one coffin to the next, his gloves came apart from tearing open the lids. Tugging them off, he continued opening another coffin. “Defensor! Defend!”

  Each one wore the same armor as his own and they pulled themselves from their watery graves to follow his order. Clearly deciding the pods
offered an easier meal, the venators they began retreating toward the ark. Their ship was now only a broken wreck at the bottom of the ocean, its cylindrical body broken by wide cracks that had spilt pods out onto the sand. Venators were widening the openings in the hull and slithering inside. All they would find were dead humans, buried underwater in pods that were now their coffins, but even in death there would be no peace. The venators would crack open the pods, consuming the people like a squirrel would a nut.

  He didn’t care about the lost ark, or even the people who had drowned inside their pods. Those sleepers had lived and died by the sword. Maybe this new world was so savage they’d turned into the animals the aliens thought they were, but their reign would soon be over. He had found the Dead Force, an army capable of taking back their world.

  Swimming upward, he ordered, “Defensors. Follow.”

  From his vantage point above the seabed, he looked down at the thousands of coffins on the bottom of the ocean. This was where he must have been before joining the arks and Jessica. Treated like weapons, stored and dressed for battle, they’d been sealed inside coffins until they were called, but would the Dead Force fight for him? He didn’t know, all he could do was ask for their loyalty.

  Thousands of men and women wearing the familiar armor with matching helmets were driving upward through the water. Their faces pointed at the surface while their arms swept them forward. Water churned behind them as they kicked their way toward the sky. Swimming with them, he felt a familiar pride surge through him. Dressed as they were it wasn’t possible to tell one soldier from the next, which was exactly why he loved the army. They were a single mind with one mission to protect what was rightfully theirs. Knowing his purpose and where he belonged brought back a confidence he thought he’d lost along with his memory. That was the beauty of the military, whenever you didn’t know where to go next, there was always a brother ready to stand by your side.