by Ian Woodhead
“Magnus, Livingston, cover our exit and stay on point. I need to know the second something changes. Is that clear?”
The men nodded before following Livingston to the open gates. It pleased him to see that the pair of them were keeping their heads below the wall height to minimize the chances of being seen by the enemy. He was playing on the hope that as long as the big orange bastards didn’t see or hear him of his men then they won’t start shooting.
“You two, follow me.” He followed the example of the others by staying low while he raced out of the courtyard.
He reached the next building and flattened his back against the blue featureless wall. The remaining soldiers took up position at either side. He put up his arm and made a fist before bringing it back down. Both Magnus and Livingston looked nonplussed at his bizarre behaviour. Cole ground his teeth in annoyance. What kind of marine does not understand basic hand signals? “You two move forward,” he hissed, “and keep your eyes on the landscape.”
He waited for the men to move past before turning to the marine on his right. “Has the nausea left you yet?”
The young man nodded. “Yeah, thanks. I feel a little better now, Sergeant,” he replied. “I think the fresh air has helped to shift it.” Private Dave Jeffery’s mouth split open into a wide grin. “That was some ride though.” He paused. “Although I am not sure that I want to repeat it any time soon.”
They believed that the ship would be blasting their way through that orbital matrix. It was such an easy mistake to make, especially after witnessing the ease at which that had stopped the Imperial ships. It is what Cole would have believed if he hadn’t known any better.
His voice of reason had suggested giving them time to adapt to their new situation, and judging from their initial disgust when first seeing the alien weapons, Cole knew that his trepidation was valid. Even as the Chaplain led them onto the displacement pads, he said that it was just a decontamination booth.
Their combined screaming while the ship de-constructed their bodies atom by atom would likely stay with him for a long time. Cole knew he screamed too. It felt like the alien ship was eating him alive. The next thing he remembered was opening his eyes, covered in sweat, and shaking like a leaf. The air which filled his lungs tasted strange, and the light filtering through that alien construction hurt his eyes at first.
It had taken him a minute or two for all of his senses to re-align. Once his bearings returned, Cole had set about ensuring the other four were okay. While checking the marines, he had wondered why it hadn’t affected him so badly. The ordeal quickly faded and, thankfully, left no scars, mental or physical. He remembered the Chaplain privately mentioning that the ship had assured him that she had not detected any movement anywhere near the landing site. Doing his hardest not to show the Chaplain how much this unknown procedure was worrying him, he had simply said that it wasn’t the first time that he had led a squad into a sudden firefight.
If the unit had materialised in the midst of those orange monsters, they would not have stood a chance. They would have melted every one of his men while they were as helpless as newborn babies.
Cole considered the young marine’s concern. Would their return journey be as traumatic? As worries went, it wasn’t exactly at the top of Cole’s list. They had to complete the impossible before he even considered contacting the Chaplain.
“We have a sighting.”
Cole hoped it was the two they were supposed to extract. The Gizanti ship had assured him that she would place the five of them as close as she dare to their location. He watched Magnus adjust his bio-scanner and impatiently waited for the man to confirm his hope.
“I do not know what they are,” he said, not taking his gaze away. “They are not Imperial citizens. Blue skin tone, a slender body mass, and about a metre taller than the average human.” The man dropped his bio-scanner and raised the weapon.
“Stand down, Magnus!” he hissed. “Stand down!”
“That’s the indigenous population.”
“They look suspicious. Probably spies for the enemy; at best, they’ll be collaborators.”
“The only lifeforms around here acting suspiciously is us. An aggressive alien species had invaded their world. They are most likely running in fear, looking for somewhere to hide. Magnus, focus on our primary mission and locate our targets.”
He sensed movement and spun around to find private Jeffery getting to his feet. “Get back down, you fool, what are you playing at?” The man had already left his position. Cole jumped up and ran towards him then skidded to a complete halt at the sight of a huge armour-plated orange monster staring straight at Private Jeffery.
“Cladinus,” said Jeffery. “I thought you were staying on the ship.”
“Move out of the way,” yelled Cole, raising his weapon. “That’s not him.”
He dared not shoot in case his blast hit the young man, but the altered Gizanti had no such objection. It fired once. A bright blue flame enveloped Jeffery’s left leg, eating through skin, flesh, and bone within seconds. The shrieking man fell to the floor. Once he was down, the other three marines opened fire. The strange energies bursting from the alien weapons turned the huge creature into a pool of bright red slush.
Both Livingston and Magnus dropped to their knees to try and do what they could for their fallen comrade. Cole sensed movement to his left and grabbed the pair of them by the backs of their jackets, dragging the men out of the way before he turned his own weapon to the side and fired one shot.
The stream of energy smashed into the outside courtyard wall, missing his intended target by inches. He dropped to the floor and rolled to the side as a second altered Gizanti warrior fired its staff weapon. The blast hit the moaning soldier full on, dissolving him instantly. Cole fired again. This time, he hit it in the face. The huge creature toppled against the melted stone.
“Where had they come from?” screamed Magnus. “The view was clear, I know it was. There wasn’t anything larger than those blue things moving about.”
This was all his fault. Cole should have paid more attention. Now, thanks to him, one of his men was now gone. He would not lose another one. “The dwellings,” he said. “They were hiding in the dwellings.” Cole smacked the butt of his gun against Livingston’s shoulder. “They came from in there,” he hissed, pointing at the closest building. “Go check it out.” He took shelter against the closest wall and scanned the visible area. He prayed that they had not just walked into an ambush. If that was indeed the case, then they would not last much longer. Those large monsters could be hiding in any of the dozens of buildings in this settlement.
He was also now very aware that they had made their presence known. Even if the monsters were not waiting for them, the bastards would know they were here now. He looked up when Livingston staggered outside. The soldier leaned over and vomited.
“Are you okay?” Magnus ran over to his buddy, but the other soldier waved him away.
“I am uninjured. The contents of that dwelling are not a pleasant sight.” He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth before running over to Cole. “There are alien bodies stacked neatly against three walls. There is also evidence that suggests those things we melted were dining on them.” He took a deep breath. “There is also what looks like a tunnel leading from the building.”
A thin stream of fluid, leaking from the Gizanti’s liquefied remains, flowed into what had once been Dave Jeffery. Cole stared as the two colours, each from the different species, intermixed. Such a beautiful pattern. He tore his gaze away. “You saw no other Gizanti?”
“No, just the corpses.”
“Then our route is decided. We’ll use the tunnels.”
“I’m not going back in there. No way.”
“You’ll do as the sergeant ordered,” replied Magnus.
That surprised him. Cole expected Magnus to side with Livingston. He faced the remaining soldier. “Davis, are you okay, son? You haven’t spoken a single word since
we arrived on this planet.”
“When you grabbed me, Sergeant, back on that other planet, I honestly believed that you would kill me. I had never been so scared in my life.” He swallowed hard. “That is, until I lost my best friend, Dave.” He looked straight at Livingston. A single tear rolled down the young man’s cheek. “I remember when you continually raged at the other units in the palace. The ones who were sent on the important missions, the ones who always had the best equipment. The ones who were never ridiculed.” He turned to Cole. “Livingston, they told us when Cole was delivered to us that this man here once commanded the most effective assassination unit in the Empire. Livingston, this man here has just saved our lives. If it hadn’t been for his lightning reflexes just now, we all would dead.”
Both Magnus and Livingston had bowed their heads now.
“That fear had never left me,” continued Davis. “But I am getting better at controlling it.” He finally raised his head. “Thanks to our new sergeant.” The walked pushed past Livingston and strode right up to the open doorway. He then turned his head. “Remember your training, what little we had. Look at our location.” He pointed to the next dwelling. “There could be some of those armoured monsters in there, Livingston. Just waiting for you to pass them. Maybe there are some in the next dwelling, or the one after that. The odds are stacked against us, and as the only marine here who’s had experience with street fighting, I’ll follow what Cole says.”
He waited until the remaining marines followed Davis inside before taking up position at the rear. Cole had stayed silent during the young man’s little speech, deciding that it was for the best if Davis said what had been troubling him. Cole knew that no other squad leader would have let the boy ramble on; they would have either whipped him or shot him. These were extraordinary times and his three remaining men were not ordinary soldiers. He might as well be commanding civilians.
It is what the other Imperial soldiers thought they were.
He stopped walking as soon as he entered the building and looked at every wall. There was no sign of any corpses. Granted, a few gnawed bones shared the dusty floor with a few small stones, but he saw nothing to indicate that any body had been stored here. A chemical odour hung in the air. He wrinkled his nose. It was an odd smell but not altogether too unpleasant. It certainly wasn’t the stench of dead meat.
“They were here,” cried Livingston. “I did not make any of it up.” He stormed over to one of the walls. “This was piled high with them.”
“It does not matter,” replied Cole. He saw that at least Livingston had not been wrong about the alternate exit. The other two were close now; they were almost at their location. “If this was a storage facility, then it stands to reason that it does get emptied.” Cole picked up one of the bones. “The two creatures could either be bringing more food here or were guarding it.”
“Yes, but where did it go?”
Magnus grinned at Livingston. “If it even existed.”
Cole sighed heavily. “It’s suspect that it went in the same way we arrived. Now, shall we continue with our mission or perhaps you would prefer to wait here until more monsters arrive?” He hurried over to the grate in the floor and slid it back. He took a glowglobe from his belt, twisted it, then threw it down. The white light coming from the device showed his hard-packed soil and nothing else. He suspected that the monsters didn’t even know it was here. This is where his instincts were telling him to go. This tunnel would lead them straight to the two.
He dropped into the hole, picked up the glowglobe, and threw it further into the tunnel. The light showed him more hard-packed soil and nothing else. Cole looked down to check for footprints. The only ones he saw were his own. He moved further into the tunnel to allow the others to drop down. That chemical smell had followed him down here as well. Cole shook his head. He had better things to think about. It was likely coming from the earth.
Cole activated his last glowglobe and held it next to the weapon as he slowly traversed along the tunnel. Before long, the tunnel bifurcated. He stopped walking and peered into the darkness. His instinct suggested that this route would not take him and his men to where they needed to go, so he carried on.
“Sergeant, I don’t think we should go this way,” hissed Livingston. “It doesn’t feel right.”
Magnus chuckled. “Coward.”
“Shut up, I am not a coward. I am just saying. Can you not feel the difference?”
Cole stopped again. He lifted his head, closed his eyes, and tuned out their voices. That irresistible pull could not be denied. This was the closest route to the other two. He knew this as sure as he knew his own name.
Yet despite the total faith in that feeling, he could not just disregard the marine’s warning. For a start, Livingston had no reason to lie about the bodies he saw, and his theory about them displacing the bodies had been gnawing at him ever since he had started moving along this tunnel. “I want you all to stay silent and keep focused on…”
Several rocks the size of their head pushed through both walls and landed in their midst. That chemical stench blasted out of the gaping holes left from the displaced rocks. “Back!” ordered Cole. “Move back to the other tunnel.”
He waited until the men were out of the way before he dropped to one knee. He lifted his gun, aimed it at the nearest wall exit, and impatiently waited for whatever was crawling along that hole. Again, Cole wanted to scream for not looking at the evidence. The answers were there, right in front of his eyes. Those aliens hadn’t removed them, why would they?
He heard the sound of shifting soil, yet the noise wasn’t coming from any of those exits. Cole jumped to his feet and staggered back. Oh no, the bastards were beneath their feet! He ran backwards then stopped just before he smacked into the other three.
“They’re behind us too!” said Davis. “They’re everywhere!”
“Quiet!” snapped Cole. He let off a single blast at the tunnel floor. The ground directly under his feet heated up, almost to the point of melting his boot before dissipating. He fired again, this time at the wall. “On my order, you follow me.” Cole aimed at the opposite wall and fired again. “Run!”
Human-like screams erupted from all around them as they raced along the now-fused tunnel. Cole heard more movement and felt the soil beneath his boots shifting. There was only one direction left. He aimed his weapon up and fired a continuous blast into the ceiling.
More screams joined the already deafening chorus; this time, the voices were from his men. He turned around and dragged them down. It wasn’t dirt above their heads! Scraps of burning fabric rained down on the four soldiers. Cole grabbed Magnus and rolled him over before he slammed his own back against the wall.
Cole blinked as the bright sunlight stabbed his eyes. “Oh fuck!”
This wasn’t a damn tunnel, it was a trench, and they now found themselves totally surrounded by hundreds of altered Gizanti warriors and every single one of them were now aiming their staff weapons at him and the three marines.
“No! I will not allow this to happen.”
There she was. The pair of them, surrounded by these huge orange monsters. The girl flew out her arms just as the first volley of superheated energy left those staff weapons. Cole staggered backwards and threw both arms over his head.
“How are we still alive?” cried Davis.
The alien monsters continued to fire their staffs, but an invisible umbrella surrounding the four soldiers deflected their blasts down and into the ground, turning the affected area into a narrow moat of bubbling lava.
They never stopped firing at them. Cole had to cover his eyes to protect against the intense light. None of the heat penetrated that barrier. He slowly got to his feet, listening to talk of witchcraft and sorcery coming from Magnus. Through gaps in the energy slamming into the barrier, he saw the girl lift her companion to his feet. The little alien screamed something in an unknown language before he too threw out his arms.
Every staff weapon fle
w out of their hands before the monsters themselves were swept up into the air. The little alien continued to chant while the Gizanti warriors swirled around like uprooted trees in a tornado. The little alien’s voice suddenly went dead. Every Gizanti dropped into the boiling lava.
Cole leaped out of the trench. He stopped to help the others out then looked beyond the glowing moat. Both the human girl and the little alien had collapsed on each other. He moaned in anguish before running towards them, hoping that whatever they had just done had not killed them.
Chapter Fifteen
The Chaplain activated the remaining sleep-pod’s waking process. He waited for a moment until he saw the occupant stir before joining Cladinus on the bridge. As he walked through the dark red walls which rhythmically pulsated, Philip found himself asking at what moment in journey did this organic vessel feel like home?
The large Gizanti stood beside a monitor screen which covered one of the living bulkheads. The display showed him the planet which he once thought of his home. The Imperial Terran world. The centre of this vast Empire which had ruled the Galactic Expanse for over three thousand years.
They had reached orbit with very little opposition.
“Where are the orbitals?” Surely they had not been destroyed. There should have been eleven huge orbiting stations visible yet he saw nothing.
“Moved,” replied the Gizanti. “For safety, to prepare for imminent invasion.” Cladinus turned his massive head. “It appears that the God-Emperor does take his visions seriously.”
