by Isaac Hooke
Rade could see the plains beyond the opening, and the Draactals rushing up the shoulder of the mountain. The tentacles on their flanks were bent backward by the wind their passage induced, their mandibles opening and closing wildly in anticipation of the coming kills. The plains beyond the front ranks were completely blackened by the enemy host, reaching all the way to the eastern horizon, and covering the land from north to south.
“Well, that’s going to be a whole lot of fun,” Bomb said, voice dripping sarcasm. “Remind me why we ever thought coming to this planet was a good idea?”
“Bro,” Bender said. “There’s only two paradises in this world. A field full of pussy. And a field full of bugs. Today we get the latter. Man oh man, but we’re going to be splattering some bugs. And I mean splattering.”
“Try not to jizz in your pants or anything,” Manic said.
“Bro, I already did,” Bender replied.
“We can’t let these Draactals get too close,” Rade said. “We kill them at the entrance, their bodies will pile up, forming a barrier. On the one hand, sure, that’s good, because it protects us from the aliens behind them. But on the other, it’s shitstorm bad, because we’ll be trapped.”
“Time for a little crowd control, then?” Tahoe asked.
“You read my mind,” Rade replied. “Alpha Platoon, outside! Fire with extreme prejudice!”
Rade dismissed Xavien’s feed so that he viewed the world through the cameras of his own mech, and then he continued forward into the gap the Hoplites left. Xavien and the two mechs with the AI spread out when they reached the entrance, moving to either side of the opening as they continued firing into the incoming throng.
Rade activated the ballistic shield in his left hand and also emerged, taking up a position on the left side of the entrance. He aimed down the sloping shoulder of the mountain, toward the Draactals that were quickly rushing up the incline.
He opened fire, targeting the heads, moving his aim from Draactal to Draactal. The beam intensity was powerful enough to drop the aliens like rag dolls, but there was always another Draactal to replace any that fell, leaping eagerly over the bodies.
Tahoe joined Rade, as did other members of his platoon, alternating between the left and right sides of the opening.
When Bender reached the opening, he giggled wildly and abruptly broke away to race toward the front lines. He fired his cobra at the Draactal like a madman.
“Bender, get your ass back here!” Rade said.
Bender promptly reversed course; his Brigand thudded up the shoulder of the mountain, followed closely by eight Draactals. He swapped out his cobra for the zodiac and fired it at point blank rage; the lightning bolt hit the closest Draactal, arcing to the next two aliens. All three of them exploded.
Bender swatted away the flying body parts with his ballistic shield.
“And I thought popping pimples on my ass was fun!” Bender exclaimed gleefully.
“Wait till they start popping your ass, period…” Manic said.
“Never happen,” Bender said. “Not while I have you around to protect me, sweetie!”
Bender rejoined the defensive line in front of the cave. By then, the whole platoon had emerged, as had Eayan’s mechs. But though they fired frantically into the incoming swarm, it wasn’t good enough. There were just too many of them, the plains continuing to seethe with their numbers.
“We’re screwed!” Snakeoil said.
“Fret, where are you?” Rade asked over the comm.
“I… her,” Fret said, his voice distorting thanks to the interference produced by the thick mass of rock between the opening and the cavern. That Rade received his signal at all told him Fret was on the way back.
Rade glanced at his overhead map. Sure enough, Fret’s signal winked in and out, halfway through the tunnel to the entrance.
The Draactals began to close with the cave entrance. Rade and the others unleashed their zodiacs, clearing a good portion of them. While waiting for the thirty second recharge period, they fired serpents from their shoulder-mounted launchers. Draactal body parts fountained into the air, spraying the mechs with blood and gore; body part fragments tore into the surrounding aliens, ripping them open like butter knives.
“Such a beautiful sight!” Bender commented. “This is art! This! If I were a painter, all my canvases would look like this!”
“Looks like the time I dropped my pet frog into a blender,” Manic said.
“Why the hell would you do that?” Lui said. He unleashed a stream of flame from his incendiary weapon, and Draactals were covered in jellied gasoline. Because of the nature of that fiery liquid, the flames spread to any nearby aliens they touched.
“It was an accident, obviously,” Manic said. He fired his holler sonic weapon, and swept it back and forth for the five second duration. All aliens caught in the path dropped where they stood, and simply lay, convulsing on the ground, completely vulnerable to any follow up fire Rade and the others might launch.
“Accident? Ha!” Bender said. “Just like the time your dick slipped into the blender? Whoops!”
“In my defense, I was very drunk,” Manic said.
“Dude, I admit I’ve slept with a few warpigs in my time, when drunk,” Bender said. “But even I’ve never confused a blender for a pussy.”
One of the burning Draactals exploded when a zodiac fired at point blank range, and the body parts splattered Bender. Some of the jellied gasoline rubbed off onto the torso of his mech, and flames sprouted there.
“Shit!” Bender said. “Who’s using the jellied gasoline?”
“Sorry,” Lui said.
“Bitch,” Bender said. “Cut it out.”
“Your mech is rated to withstand three times the heat,” Praxter said.
“Well, thank you very much, Poindexter,” Bender said. “But it’s still going to get hot in here!”
“Man up,” Manic said.
“My name is Praxter, not Poindexter,” Praxter said.
“Friggin AIs,” Bender commented.
Some of the aliens were getting close enough to strike at Rade with their axe-like feet now. Rade deflected the blows with his ballistic shield—or tried to, anyway. More than a few times, those sharp appendages penetrated straight through to the other side of the shield, but never deep enough to harm him. He shoved backward, sliding the appendages free, and followed up with a bash attack to the face, striking those mandibles, and forcing the aliens back far enough for him to fire at them with his cobra or zodiac.
He shoved the latest alien back, slamming it into the two behind. Then he retracted his shield and rotated his holler weapon into place. He fired it, disabling all of the Draactals directly in front of him. He mowed them down with his cobra afterward, but already more Draactals were climbing over the fallen.
As he and the others around him continued to fire at the enemy, the bodies began to pile up, hemming the platoons in.
“I thought we wanted to avoid letting them get so close,” Tahoe said. “You know, to prevent getting trapped here?”
“Can’t be helped!” Rade said. “We’ll just have to shove our way past when the time comes! Fret?”
But Fret burst through the opening just then.
Behind him was Eayan, with Cynthia riding on the Hoplite’s back via the passenger seat. She carried a small medical bag—no doubt harboring the Anarchist’s spores. She also wore a backpack sporting several small tanks—likely the last of her oxygen supply.
“It’s done?” Rade asked her.
“Yes,” Cynthia said. “The Anarchist has replaced her.”
“Good,” Rade said. “We go north!”
Rade and the others fought their way north along the base of the mountain. To his right, the closest Draactals abruptly spread apart, clearing a path to the plains below. At first, he wasn’t sure why, but then he spotted a dead Pack Animal lying on the plains below. One of its turrets pointed straight up at him.
An energy bolt emerged. Rade lea
ped forward, but it was aimed too low, and slammed into two nearby Draactals, disintegrating them.
“Watch those turrets!” Rade aimed his cobra at the turret and quickly released three shots before the Draactals could block his aim. “We’ve taken down the Pack Animals, but their weapons are still hot! If the Nemesis are operating them remotely, we definitely don’t want to step into the line of fire.”
The platoons had to take down two more turrets in a similar manner, but soon the weapons of Rade and the others began overheating, and they had to begin bashing the enemy with the bare fists of their mechs, along with their ballistic shields. Those ax-like legs cut gaping holes into their armor, but so far didn’t penetrate deep enough to injure anyone. But that wouldn’t be the case for long, Rade knew.
Incendiary weapons were still an option, but Rade resisted the urge to use them, not wanting to drain his jumpjet reserves.
Speaking of the jumpjets…
He glanced at the steep cliff face to his left, and spotted a ledge twenty meters up. There were more ledges at different heights beyond it, capable of holding one or two mechs at a time. If the platoon kept climbing, there might just be a way out of this.
“Snakeoil, what kind of rock is this?” Rade asked.
“Igneous, as far as I can tell,” Snakeoil said. “A combination of plagioclase, pyroxene and olivine, based on a quick, limited scan. It will readily yield under pressure, if you’re planning what I think you’re planning.”
“Team, follow my lead!” Rade said. “Jump one at a time. In this order!” He had Taya initiate a quick randomize routine, and sent the jump order to his platoon. Taya also assigned random numbers to Eayan’s units—their numbers were all higher than his own team members, of course, who would go first.
Rade retracted his weapons so that both hands were free and then fired his jumpjets. He reached the ledge. It was barely wide enough to fit his feet, and he had to crunch his metal fingers into the rock in front of him to form a handhold—as Snakeoil promised, the stone was relatively soft and malleable, partially liquefying into molten metal beneath the pressure of his blow.
He fired his jumpjets again, leaping to the next ledge. Behind him, Tahoe followed, with Bender behind him.
Rade reached the fourth ledge, but didn’t spot any further shelves nearby. He’d have to climb.
He slammed his fists into the sheer rock face in front of him, forming the necessary handholds, and pulled himself up. He stabbed his metal toes repeatedly into the rock below, digging footholds, and then reached higher to create yet more handholds. In that manner he scaled the mountain.
As more and more of the mechs clambered onto the cliff face below him, the Draactals began to howl in disappointment. Rade kept an eye on his rear-view camera feed, maintaining its orientation toward the ground; he was ready to take out any turrets he spotted among the dead Pack Animals.
A flash drew his attention southward. An energy bolt tore through the air and smashed into one of the Titan mechs near the middle of the formation. Its torso was pulverized, and the wreckage fell to the ground far below, where it was set upon by Draactals and further torn apart.
9
“It was a mistake to leave those turrets intact…” Rade said, thinking about his order to target the heads of the Pack Animals. “Taya, triangulate the source, if possible. The rest of you, destroy as many turrets as you can.”
The locations where the Pack Animals had fallen were readily accessible, as their mech AIs would have recorded and shared the positions. Rade activated those locations so that they appeared on his overhead map and overlaid his camera feeds as flashing beacons.
Rade released the rock with his right arm and swiveled the cobra into place—the weapon had cooled enough by then for him to use it. Other members of the team began to do the same, and opened fire with him into the seething throng below, targeting the turrets of the downed Pack Animals.
“Got a position,” Taya said.
A flashing beacon highlighted one fallen Pack Animal in particular, and Rade zoomed in on the area. Draactals swarmed around its body, evidently trying to hide it from view… some of the aliens were using their mandibles to reposition the energy cannon on its right flank, so as to better target the next mech on the cliff face.
He aimed at the turret and released several shots in rapid succession. When he was satisfied it was disabled, he targeted the turret on the opposite flank—after clearing away the aliens that covered it—and then destroyed it, too.
He targeted more turrets, but his weapon overheated once again. He only had a few missiles left, but wanted to save their explosive punch, so he refrained from launching them. He had Taya mark off those turrets the rest of the team had engaged, and when they were all highlighted, he gave the order to continue the climb.
Some of the Draactals had leaped onto the wall then, and were stabbing their ax-like feet into the rock like pick-axes, and slowly ascending after the team.
“Time to climb, people,” Rade said.
He began bashing his fists and toes into the walls again, making hand and footholds. He reached a ledge, hauled himself onto it, and surveyed the wall until he spotted another shelf, not far. He checked his fuel levels, and decided he could spare another jump, so he activated his jets and thrust onto the ledge. When he reached it, his cobra firing indicator turned green, and he aimed the weapon down at the Draactals that scaled the rock below. He fired at their heads, peeling ten of them from the wall until his cobra indicator turned red again. He switched to the zodiac, which had also cooled, and released a lightning bolt that struck a Draactal at the extreme limits of its range. The creature fell away.
Rade was about to continue climbing when he spotted a portion of wall breaking away. A Brigand mech clung to it: Bender’s. Rade watched helplessly as his friend plunged toward the ground below.
Bender finally recovered, and fired his jumpjets, countering the fall. Unfortunately, he had descended to the same level as several Draactal scaling the wall, and they leaped onto his mech; their added weight pulled him down despite the thrust.
“Help Bender with whatever weapons you can spare!” Rade said.
He and the others opened fire, trying to assist their friend. In Rade’s case, his zodiac had recharged, so he unleashed it, striking a Draactal as it left the wall. At that range, it caused only enough damage to maim the alien. Some of the Hoplites launched grenades, while other Brigands unleashed Cobras. But aliens were quick, and numerous…
Bender kicked and bashed at the Draactals, but more kept jumping onto him, pulling him ever closer to the seething mass waiting on the ground below. The aliens there leaped up eagerly, mandibles sawing back and forth through the air in anticipation. Bender was still out of reach. But not for long…
“Damn it!” Bender said. “What do you think of this?”
He fired off his three remaining serpents, and the rockets struck the cliff face, exploding several of the aliens there. But not all. More Draactals leaped onto him before he could jet upward.
“Fuck!” Bender folded away his shield and fired his incendiary launcher, roasting several of the aliens attached to him. He unleashed his holler, causing several more to let go. But he had plunged even lower thanks to those aliens so that the wall beside him was littered with Draactals fresh from the ground, and they leaped onto his mech in waves.
“Almost out of fuel!” Bender said.
Suddenly Praxter let go of the wall. He plunged, firing latitudinal thrusters to line himself up with Bender.
“Hang on, Bender,” Praxter sent.
The Artificial launched missiles from his mech as he descended, striking Draactals still on the wall. Praxter also fired his cobra, targeting the aliens hanging onto Bender. When he was in range, he switched to his incendiary, and holler, and swept more creatures from Bender’s hull.
Three Draactals leaped at Praxter, but the AI responded by unleashing his zodiac. The lightning weapon arced between all three, frying them.
Praxter slowed as his mech dealt with the full weight of Bender’s unit; Rade and the others fired what weapons they could at the wall below, in an attempt to clear it off. Rade was still waiting for his zodiac to recharge, and his cobra to cool, so he launched a serpent. The missile exploded one of the Draactals as it left the wall.
Praxter arced inward, landing on the cliff face a good distance off-center from the others, but well away from the main mass of scaling Draactals. The pair smashed their arms and legs into the cliff face, forming handholds, and began climbing.
With a sigh of relief, Rade likewise continued up the face. He checked Praxter’s fuel levels, and saw that like Bender, the Artificial had exhausted the last of his propellant.
“I didn’t need your help,” Bender announced.
“Yes, of course,” Praxter said. “My apologies.”
Bender scaled the cliff beside him in silence for several moments. Then he said: “Thanks.”
His voice sounded half grudging, and half sincere.
Praxter spared him any sort of response.
Soon, Rade hauled himself onto a plateau. It formed a pass of sorts between two of the mountains, and offered him and his companions the escape they were looking for.
He waited until the last of the mechs surmounted the plateau, then said: “Snakeoil, our mechs would have been gathering geological data on the cliff face during the climb. Can you use that data to calculate the weakest points in the wall? In other words, the best spots for us to place serpents in order to unleash an avalanche?”
“Oh, goodie, goodie, goodie!” Bender said.
“I sure can,” Snakeoil agreed. A few moments later: “I’m transmitting the targeting information now.”
