by Randy Dyess
“Look!” someone in the crowd shouted as they pointed to the sky. Everyone looked up and saw a green ball of what looked like lightning descend toward the city.
“What kind of firework is that?” Cindy asked.
Mel stood there for a few minutes, watching the ball of fire before his old marine training finally kicked in. “Run! Back into the café!”
“What? Why? I want to watch the fireworks,” Cindy said.
“Someone’s bombing us! We need to get to shelter!”
“Bombing? Who would bomb us? We’re not at war.”
Cindy turned back to watch the ball of light drop about five kilometers away from them. A new explosion threw a huge amount of dust into the air, and screams sounded as the top of a large building collapsed. Everyone started panicking and people pushed and shoved each other to get out of the park to safety. Cindy’s eyes went wide and she turned back toward Mel.
“I said run! We need to get to shelter,” Mel screamed at her.
“What shelter? Who would do this?” Cindy asked. She just stood there, staring in the direction of the collapsing building as a cloud of dust billowed out toward them.
Mel grabbed Cindy and started dragging her away. At first, she tried to fight him off, but she soon came to her senses. “Mel! What are we going to do?”
“Shut up and run! We need to get to the café.”
“Why? What’s in the café that would save us?”
“The freezer should stand up to the bombing. Even if the building collapsed, the freezer would hold. Hurry, damn it.”
They ran the two blocks to the café, but before they made it through the front door, the sky above them took on a green hue. She looked up to see what was going on and tripped on the curb outside of the café. When she fell to the ground, she curled into a ball, shutting down from the shock of watching the city blow up around her.
*****
“Michael was having a hard time keeping his focus, and he knew Jason had lost his several minutes ago. The booms kept getting closer together and louder, and both men lowered their swords and looked at each other.
“Was there supposed to be rain today?” Jason asked.
“Not that I heard of,” Michael replied. Rain was a big deal on a dry planet, like Candus, and when a storm developed, it was often the talk of the town. Michael was just about to go look outside when he heard a big explosion right behind his building. Time seemed to slow as dust filled the air. A larger shake occurred, and then the ceiling above them buckled and started falling on the two friends. The building was collapsing, and Michael knew it. He glanced down at the heavy table they used for storage and knew he could throw himself under it for protection. It might not have worked, but it was the only choice he had. Moving quickly, he flung himself to the floor and rolled under the old, heavy table. He was just able to turn his head and see Jason as the roof collapsed and buried them both.
*****
Skylar’s day had not gotten better, and she was sitting in her office, trying to rework the mess her team had made of the presentation, when the power in the office went out. “What the hell?” she yelled at her assistant. “Call someone and get the power back on. I have a lot of work to do today and can’t afford to be without power.”
Her assistant tapped her comm unit, but it didn’t work. “My comm unit doesn’t work. Does yours?”
Skylar rolled her eyes and tried her comm unit. “Crap, mine doesn’t work, either. Why would our comms go out? They don’t work on the power grid.”
Her assistant was just about to answer when her eyes went wide. Skylar turned around and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows. She had fought hard for an office with outside windows and she loved looking at the buildings of Candus City, dreaming they were on Metros. As she looked over the city, she saw what her assistant was seeing as another explosion flashed in the distance.
“What the hell is going on?” she muttered as there was another explosion closer to her office building. She heard her team shouting at each other, asking what was going on, but no one knew anything. Skylar didn’t seem to think that was unusual—her group never knew anything. The fact that none of their comm units were working was unusual, though.
Skylar kept watching the explosions grow closer, and soon could hear them through the heavy windows of her office. She was starting to really worry as they grew in number. She could hear the rest of the people in her office leaving and running down into the basement, but she didn’t want to be in the basement if the explosions continued. For all she knew, it was a series of gas line explosions, and those were located in the basement. She knew, however, that she couldn’t stay here.
Skylar left her office and started toward the elevators, but rolled her eyes when she realized they wouldn’t work without power. In this day and age, this crappy, dusty city on this crappy, dusty planet let the power in her building go off. This wouldn’t happen on a real planet, she thought as she opened the door to the stairwell. On core planets, each elevator had its own power supply. They had to, for the buildings were thousands of meters tall, and elevators had to work without fail to move the tens of thousands of workers around. Workers who couldn’t get to their offices were workers who did not make money for their companies.
What a crappy, damn day, she thought as she opened the door to the hot stairwell and looked down the twenty flights of stairs below her. She thought about taking off her shoes, but they were already ruined, so she might as well finish the job and completely destroy them.
She was halfway down when the building started shaking. Skylar grabbed the handrail and hung on. Dust filled the air, making her cough and her eyes tear up. She almost let go of the handrail to wipe her eyes when the building shook again, but much harder. She started panicking; the fact that the building was going to collapse was all she could think about as she started running down the stairs, leaving her expensive shoes behind.
She made it another five stories when the building shook again and the walls started cracking. Jumping down the stairs as fast as she could, Skylar had just made it to the first floor when the building started collapsing. The door to the first floor bent inward and chunks of wall came bouncing down the stairs. The dust rolled down like a thick fog and covered Skylar. Her eyes filled with tears and pain before she could close them. After tripping on a piece of the stairwell, she fell into a gap under the bottom flight of stairs. She curled up into the fetal position and cried as the building collapsed around her.
The only thing that went through her mind as her world went black was: How are they ever going to find me?
Chapter 12
Sergeant Major McCoons peered out from behind the piece of machinery he was taking cover behind. Good, it’s stopping, he thought as he looked out over the smoke-filled city. He watched the last green plasma ball land a few dozen kilometers away, taking down an apartment tower. All around him, marines were scrambling out from behind whatever cover they’d found on the rooftop when the bombing had started. Hundreds of large clouds of dust billowed where tall buildings used to be with fires and smoke surrounding the dusty plumes. He still didn’t know why someone would bomb Candus City, but he was glad it was over.
“That was intense,” Tech Sergeant Chen said. “How lucky were we that none of those plasma balls landed here?”
“Very lucky,” Sergeant Bleddyn said. “I still don’t think those balls were controlled. They landed all over the place.”
“Luckier than you realize,” Sergeant Major McCoons said. “If they knew we were here and could control their shots, they might have lobbed a few our way.”
“Damn lucky, then.”
“Get a status report. See if anyone was hurt,” Sergeant Major McCoons commanded the two sergeants.
“Aye, Sergeant Major,” Tech Sergeant Chen said. The two sergeants turned to start making their way toward the other marines.
“Incoming!” someone shouted.
“Where?” Sergeant Major McCoons yelled.
“Straight
up!” the man said while pointing.
Sergeant Major McCoons and the two sergeants looked up to see large objects coming through the cloud layer. “Those look different than the other bombs,” Tech Sergeant Chen said. “They’re shaped differently and coming in a lot slower.”
“They look like meteors,” Sergeant Major McCoons said. “First plasma balls, and now they’re throwing meteors at us.”
“Meteors?” Sergeant Bleddyn asked.
“Wait!” McCoons yelled. “Those aren’t meteors. They’re maneuvering. Those are landing ships—the raid is starting.”
“Who the hell has landing ships shaped like meteors?” Tech Sergeant Chen asked.
“Don’t know, don’t care, right now! Prepare the men for action.”
“How?” Sergeant Bleddyn asked. “Our weapons and suits don’t work. What will we use to fight with?”
“Find anything you can. This is going to be hand-to-hand. Use your knives and take weapons from whoever you can when the fighting starts,” Sergeant Major McCoons replied.
“Shouldn’t we retreat, until we can get something to fight with?” Sergeant Bleddyn asked. “We won’t stand a chance against someone with a rifle.”
“Nowhere to go,” Sergeant Major McCoons said. “We need to wait until they’ve landed, so we can get a good idea of their landing patterns. Once we know that, we’ll make for the rally points.”
The two sergeants didn’t like the answer, but they picked up their knives. Sergeant Bleddyn instructed his fire team to pick up their rifles and act like they were useful. An armed marine assault team would be a tough opponent for whoever was raiding the planet, and he hoped it would make them think twice about assaulting them if they pretended their weapons worked.
Sergeant Major McCoons took out a short sword, which he had taken off of a pirate years ago. Fighting with swords had been made illegal four hundred years ago, but he didn’t care, and he had been carrying it for over thirty years. It had saved his life multiple times during pirate fights, and he wouldn’t let anyone tell him he couldn’t carry it on his missions.
“Sergeant Major,” Tech Sergeant Chen said. “They’re landing in the bomb craters.”
“That’s why they bombed the city and didn’t care where they landed: they were creating landing zones,” Sergeant Major McCoons responded.
“Incoming! One is heading our way! To the north!” a marine shouted.
Sergeant Major McCoons looked up to where the woman was pointing and could see a single ship making its way toward them. “Alpha Squad,” Sergeant Major McCoons yelled, “cover the stairway door. The rest of you, find some cover and get ready for the ship to make a strafing run before landing its troops.”
As he watched the ship, McCoons could tell it was slowing down. He couldn’t see anything that looked like weapons, but he had never seen a ship that looked like this before. It could have been heavily armed and he wouldn’t know, until it fired at them. He saw the ship slow to a stop over fifty meters above. “They look like they’re going to repel down, instead of strafing us,” McCoons informed his men. “Our only hope is to take them out as they land.” The entire assault force looked up and was surprised when very large objects and not pirates started jumping out of the ship and falling toward them.
“What the hell are those things?”
“Shut up and get ready to fight whatever they are,” Sergeant Major McCoons yelled back.
“They look like spiders,” Sergeant Major McCoons heard Tech Sergeant Chen say. “What kind of battle suit looks like spiders?”
Sergeant Major McCoons looked at the Tech Sergeant. All of the marines were standing still with shocked expressions on their faces. “I don’t care if they are spiders,” Sergeant Major McCoons yelled. “Get prepared to fight them off!”
The first spider landed on the roof and looked around. McCoons didn’t know what to think as it recovered from the jump and sped off toward one of his marines. “Damn, they’re fast,” was all he could mutter before dozens of them landed on the roof. The marines tried to fight back, but using their rifles as clubs didn’t work against three-meter tall spiders. A few marines managed to stab one with their knives, but it still didn’t matter: nothing seemed to faze the spiders.
They overwhelmed the marines, knocking them down and wrapping them in silk cocoons. Sergeant Major McCoons couldn’t believe his eyes as a spider picked up the cocoon containing Tech Sergeant Chen and jumped into the ship still floating fifty meters above the roof. While concentrating on the spider making that incredible jump, he almost missed a blur coming for him.
He turned just in time to see two long, hairy legs reaching out for him. McCoons slashed with his sword, severing one of the legs off at the tip. The spider reared up in pain, and Sergeant Major McCoons took advantage. He jumped under the monster and sent his sword into its stomach, driving it all the way to the hilt and covering his arms in warm, green blood. I thought spiders were cold-blooded, he thought as it wobbled and started falling.
Sergeant Major McCoons tried to roll away from the spider, but it fell on him, trapping him. Damn, this thing’s heavy, he thought as he tried to lift it. He could barely move the spider, but he grunted and tried again. His arms were shaking, his back arched, and a painful grin covered his face as he moved it just enough to crawl out from underneath it. Once out, he lay on the ground, breathing hard and shaking from the effort. He finally gathered his strength enough to peek over the body of the spider to find that all of his men were gone. He was the only marine left, and there were still a dozen spiders on the roof. It had taken everything he had to kill the one spider—there was no way to kill a dozen of them.
The ropes, Sergeant Major McCoons remembered. He started crawling to the side of the roof while trying to keep the dead spider between him and the others. He was able to make it to the side of the building, but he knew the next part would be difficult. After taking a big breath, he threw himself over the roof ledge and grabbed the rappelling rope with both hands. His sword fell, but he couldn’t grab it—it took all of his remaining strength to keep hold of the rope.
One of the spiders had seen him as he jumped over the side of the building and rushed over, grabbing for him, but it was too slow: Sergeant Major McCoons was already fast-roping his way to the ground. He looked up, wondering what he would do if the spider followed him. He could imagine the three-meter monster walking straight down the side of the building with a rope of silk holding it up. He had lost his sword, and there would be nothing he could do to save himself.
“I’m not going with you, damn it,” Sergeant Major McCoons yelled at the spider. “I’ll let go and fall before I let you get me!”
He didn’t know if the spider heard him, but it turned away from the edge of the roof and none of the other spiders went after him. Sergeant Major McCoons looked down, hoping there wasn’t a spider waiting for him, but he couldn’t see any, so he finished his descent.
As he landed, his right knee buckled and he collapsed. He tried to hold off the pain, and he managed to crawl under an air truck dock. He knew he wouldn’t be able to go any further, but hoped he could hide. He dug into the soft dirt and soon had a shallow crater with a wall of dirt between him and the streets, hiding him from view.
Grunting with pain, he dug into one of his trouser pockets and retrieved a small med-kit. He had only used the multi-syringe once in a training class, but he thought he had correctly set it for pain and muscle repair as he raised it to his neck. Sergeant Major McCoons counted to twenty to give the tool enough time to create a powerful pain medicine and millions of med-nites. The medicine would be needed as the microscopic med-nites repaired his knee with bits and pieces of his other bones and muscles. It would hurt, but he would be able to use his knee in a few hours to get to safety. After jabbing the hypo-spray syringe into his neck, he sighed as the pain medicine immediately took effect.
Letting the relief wash over him, Sergeant Major McCoons rolled over and dug a small peep hole into the
wall of dirt. For several hours, he watched the feet of people as they ran away from pursuing spiders. Twice, spiders stopped right in front of him, but they never looked under the dock.
None of his experience has prepared him for this. Humans were not meant to be hunted, and nothing on any planet colonized by humans had anything even close to the three-meter tall spiders. Sergeant Major McCoons lay back into his crater and let the repair-nites work on his knee. It was going to be a long day, and he wanted his knee repaired before he started making his way to the spaceport. He couldn’t believe all of his men were gone. Every one of them had been overwhelmed in the fight and wrapped up without taking out one of the spiders. He was the only one who had killed a spider. None of his men had any success and none of them made it off of the roof, so there was no need to go to any of the rally points. No one else would be joining him.
*****
The Candus Corporation security vessel, Castle, streamed through FTL space with the rest of its squadron. Everyone was anxious to get this one last port call over with so they could go home. It was the last day of their latest one-week patrol, and they wanted to get back to their families.
