“It’s a stick, dumbass,” Corporal Mike Burke replied. “If it’s bothering you that much, I can take care of it for you.” The corporal cycled his autocannon.
“It’s weird,” Private DeWayne said. “I saw it about 10 minutes ago, and it’s been following us ever since.”
“Well, it won’t be much longer,” Burke said, taking aim.
“No!” Walker ordered as he jumped to the private. Walker slapped the rifle up as Burke fired, and the rounds vanished into the sky.
“What the hell’d you do that for, Staff Sergeant?” Burke asked. “I was just shooting at a stick.”
“First of all, outside of combat, nobody fires without my permission. Got that? Second, do you see any trees around? Where the hell do you think it came from?”
“I don’t know, Staff Sergeant. Maybe it floated here from someplace else that does.”
“Maybe,” Walker allowed. “DeWayne, how long did you say it had been following us?”
“About 10 minutes.”
“And you didn’t think to mention it until now?”
“Well, at first I thought it was just a stick, like Burke said, but then I saw it was following us down the coastline, always keeping about the same distance away. And then I had this creepy feeling like something was watching us.”
“Have you tried making contact with it?”
“Making contact? You mean like talking to it, Staff Sergeant?”
“Talking to it? Waving at it?”
“You’re asking me if I’ve been talking with a stick? Are you serious?”
“Well you just made a pretty good argument for it being sentient; why don’t you try communicating with it?”
“Umm…me, Staff Sergeant?” Private DeWayne asked. “I’m sorry, I can’t tell if you’re kidding with me. Do you really want me to talk to that branch?”
“Yeah,” Walker replied, “I do. Why don’t you wade out a little and see if you can talk to it?”
“Uh…okay.” The private sounded a lot less sure of his observations now that he was forced to act on them, but he walked down the beach into the water; the massive suit making large splashes with every step.
“Shit,” DeWayne said as he took his third step into the water. “It’s gone.”
Walker scanned the surface of the ocean. The stick, or whatever it was, had vanished. “Did anyone see where it went?” he asked.
“I saw it,” Sergeant Kane said; “it submerged.”
“Submerged?”
“Yes, Staff Sergeant. It went straight into the water. It didn’t fall over; it submerged.”
“Huh,” Walker said. “Well, that isn’t normal behavior for a stick.” He turned away from the water to find the squad clustered around him and Burke; they weren’t in any sort of military formation. “Get back into formation and stop standing around gawking like school girls!” he bellowed. “Try to maintain some military bearing, will you?”
Walker turned back to the water. “Whatever it was, it’s gone now. DeWayne, come on out of the water, and let’s finish our patrol. Keep an eye out, and let me know if it returns. If it’s alive, it may come back.”
“I hope not,” Private DeWayne muttered.
The squad continued their patrol down the beach. As they made their way down the beach, the ground began to rise on the left, away from the water, in a series of undulating sand dunes.
“Movement!” Sergeant Mark Morgan exclaimed from the point. “I’ve got…well, shit; I’ve got walking teddy bears up here.”
Walker jumped to the top of the next dune alongside the trooper and looked down into the gulley beyond it. A large number of four-legged, eight-inch-tall brown shapes were walking toward the ocean. Walker zoomed in on them.
“You’re wrong,” Sergeant Kane said; “they’re too long. They look more like sea otters, only they’re smaller.
Walker had to agree; they did look like sea otters.
“That’s freaky,” VVR said. “I’m down here on the right wing, and I can see them coming out of the ground. It looks like there are a number of…nests? I don’t know. They’re emerging almost like they’re sea turtles.”
Walker looked to see who was on the left end of the line. Private DeWayne. “Hey, DeWayne, what are the creatures doing? Have they made it to you yet?”
“Yeah, it looks like they’re headed to the water. I’m getting some good Tri-V vid of it. This is gonna be great! The kids will…Oh my god! It’s got me! Help!”
As Walker turned and jumped, he saw DeWayne’s MAC fire once. The suit went offline a couple of seconds later. “Squad, meet me at the beach!” he ordered.
“Holy shit!” Sergeant Loftis shouted over the net. “Something’s got him and is dragging him into the water!”
“Fuck!” Walker exclaimed as he landed on the beach. DeWayne had something—a tentacle?—wrapped several times around his suit. The thing was gray and as big around as his leg, and it was dragging the dead suit into the water.
“It killed his suit!” Loftis transmitted. She jumped and landed with a splash next to him. Her suit’s knife blade already out, she began hacking at the tentacle wrapped around DeWayne.
The scene was surreal—the trooper fought to cut off the tentacle while the sea otters passed by them on their journey to the open water, seemingly unconcerned with the battle going on next to them. A flash of gray tentacle and one of the sea otters in the water disappeared. That’s it—whatever was in the water was being drawn by the sea otters, hoping to feed on them. They had to get away from the water.
Walker raced toward DeWayne, with the rest of the squad in pursuit. He jumped, touching down next to the soldier as Loftis cut through the tentacle. The larger piece withdrew, leaving the last 10 feet attached to DeWayne’s suit with some sort of suckers.
“Stay out of the water!” Walker yelled as he raced into the surf. He grabbed hold of one of DeWayne’s arms. “Loftis, take the other arm and let’s drag him out!”
Loftis grabbed an arm, turned, and took a step toward shore, but something slithered out of the water and wrapped itself around her right leg, and she fell forward into the water. After a second, she started sliding out to sea.
“Help!” she called. “Something’s pulling me out!”
“Fire your jumpjets!” Walker ordered, letting go of DeWayne to go to her aid.
Loftis triggered her jumpjets, and the rockets flash-boiled the water surrounding the bottom of her CASPer, as well as the tentacle pulling her out to sea. Walker splashed over to the trooper’s aid, unable to see what was happening in the frothing water, but whatever had grabbed her was gone. He helped her to her feet with one hand and pulled the laser rifle off his leg mount with the other.
“Quick!” he urged. “Let’s get out of the water.” He turned and began backing out of the water.
“Damn right!” Loftis exclaimed. She turned to run.
Before she could take a step, two monsters erupted from the water 40 feet offshore. A nightmarish combination of mouth and tentacles, the two creatures burst forth and began jetting toward the beach. The monsters would take in an audible breath from the front and then expel it out the back; the force of the air exhalation drove them forward. The closest creature’s tentacles splashed in and out of the water as the creature approached, reaching out toward the Humans. Walker triggered his rifle and got off several shots before one of the tentacles slammed into him, knocking him onto his back at the water’s edge.
As he hit, a blur of motion on his monitors showed Loftis being lifted into the air, with one of the monster’s other tentacles wrapped around her CASPer several times.
The tentacle that knocked Walker over descended on him again. Walker’s knife snapped open from his left arm with a thought, and he caught the tentacle on the point of the blade. The knife buried itself to his fist, penetrating a tough outer skin, but then slicing easily into the flesh underneath. The tentacle withdrew, and he used the embedded knife to lift him from the ground, retracting the blade
as he reached vertical.
Walker dropped to his feet and got his first good look at the creature as it skittered toward him. The “body” of the creature was 15 feet wide and incorporated both body and head, although there wasn’t much of a body from what he could see; it was all mouth. At least 10 feet wide, the mouth was ringed by at least three sets of spines that approximated teeth. Each of these was nearly two feet long, mounted in concentric circles around the maw. The creature had tentacles at least 60 feet long, which it used to hold itself out of the water as it rushed forward.
Walker’s rifle had survived getting knocked down, so he pointed the weapon at the creature and fired, blasting away a number of outer teeth from the side of the monster’s mouth.
Despite the pain the creature had to be in, it didn’t make a sound, which was somehow worse than if it had screamed. With a shock, he realized most of the platoon’s weapons indicated the green of “Ready”…not the amber of “Firing.”
“Shoot them, damn it!” he ordered, continuing to fire as he backed away. His laser appeared to have a minimal effect at best. The creature lunged forward as he fired again, and the bolts hit the creature under its mouth, causing no visible damage.
Several other handheld lasers fired at the closer monster, but none of the suits’ heavier weapons. What the hell? Five of the suits had gone offline. Offline? They had completely shut down! Fuck! A second check showed that only one of the remaining suits had missiles—Sergeant Kane’s.
“Kane, hit it with a spread of missiles!” Walker shouted.
“With pleasure!” A missile launched and streaked toward the creature, detonating on its left eye. Massive chucks of flesh were blasted out of the creature, and it sank below the surface.
“Hit the second one, Kane,” Walker ordered. If anything, the missile strike on the first monster had only served to anger the second; it came on even faster.
Nothing. Damn it! Kane’s suit was dead now, too. The monster was headed straight toward Walker. He fired a couple of times with the laser then threw it to the side; it was worthless. He raised his right arm and armed the MAC mounted to it.
Targeting one of the creature’s eyes, he fired, right as the creature did one of its jetting maneuvers; the shot hit behind the eye, blowing out a chunk of flesh. Readjusting his aim, he fired again. His display gave a brief, “Emergency Shutdown,” and then everything went black.
What the hell had just happened? His suit was dead, and there was a monster from his worst nightmares headed toward him. He had to get out!
He slid his right arm out of the suit sleeve and slammed the piezoelectric detonator plate. The canopy blew off, and he got a good look at the monster’s mouth. At least five concentric rows of teeth were charging toward him. He knew he didn’t have time to get out of the suit before it reached him, but he began disconnecting the leads to his helmet.
He finished removing the wires but was too late; one of the creature’s tentacles was already within striking distance. He didn’t have time to exit the suit. Before the tentacle could strike, an L bomb exploded alongside the monster, and the force of the enormous grenade’s detonation shifted the aim point of the tentacle. It missed the CASPer, and the creature started to turn. Walker was forgotten as the creature turned to attack the source of its pain.
“That’s right!” Corporal Donald Toth yelled, his speakers set on maximum. “You want some more? I got it for you!” He threw another L bomb, but it went wide, only doing superficial damage. He pulled a third L bomb off his belt, but a tentacle lashed out, knocking the giant grenade backwards out of his hand.
The bomb detonated, and Toth was flung forward with the force of the explosion. The creature reached out a tentacle, scooped Toth out of the sand, and threw him into its mouth. Walker didn’t see how Toth could have survived the blast, but as Toth went into the creature’s mouth, he heard a weak, “Fuck…you.”
The creature’s mouth closed on Corporal Toth, and the trooper detonated the remaining three L bombs on his belt. The sides of the creature expanded outward with the blast, then it seemed to droop. It started to turn weakly back toward the open water, but its movements slowed, and it finally stopped, sinking to the ocean floor about 30 feet offshore, with the top half of its body still above water.
Walker climbed down from his suit and went running over to Private DeWayne’s suit. It was lying face down in the surf. DeWayne couldn’t get out of the nonfunctional suit the way it lay. He looked up and saw two functional CASPers approaching. “Flip him over so he can get out,” he yelled.
“Sure thing, boss man,” said Sergeant Morgan. He bent over the suit and flipped it onto its back with little regard to the person inside.
“On second thought,” Walker said, “let’s get him out of the water first.”
“Grab hold, VVR,” Morgan said, and Walker moved out of the way so VVR could get to the downed suit.
VVR bent down and grabbed DeWayne’s arm. With a flash of gray, a tentacle whipped through the space where he had been a second before and slammed into Sergeant Morgan, knocking him off his feet. VVR stood up in time to catch the return blow in the center of his CASPer. He was thrown from his feet and slammed to the ground just out of the water.
Walker turned; the first monster had returned. Whether it wanted revenge for its lost eye, the death of its mate, or just because it was a mean son of a bitch, Walker didn’t know, but all of a sudden, he found himself alone with it. The creature swung a tentacle at him, and he dove into the water next to DeWayne’s CASPer, using it for cover. He could feel the breeze as it swung over his back before he crashed into the suit. It was still in the surf zone where the small waves were breaking, and pain radiated up his side as he slammed into something sticking off the CASPer.
“I’ve got you, Staff Sergeant!” Private Berkelun Enkh yelled from up on the beach. “I’ll distract him so you can escape.” She was out of her suit and holding a small laser rifle, which she fired at the creature. “Hey ugly! Why don’t you come get me?” She continued firing at the creature and narrowly missed hitting its other eye.
The monster swung away from Walker and turned toward the diminutive trooper. Its attention elsewhere for the moment, Walker frantically searched the CASPer, looking for a weapon. If DeWayne’s suit had previously mounted a hand-held laser, it was gone, and he didn’t see anything he could use. The wave withdrew, and he saw what had caught him in the side; DeWayne had several L bombs on the side of his CASPer.
Nothing more than a sleeve to hold four K bombs and get them to detonate simultaneously, the L bomb had the explosive power of four sticks of C-4. The device was, in effect, a CASPer-sized grenade, and a great way to show an enemy a lot of explosive love. It was also heavy, Walker noted as he detached it from the CASPer’s belt. With each smaller grenade weighing a couple pounds, the entire device was almost 10 pounds; there was no way he was going to throw it and escape the lethal blast radius.
The monster continued to slide past him as it pulled itself out onto the beach with its tentacles, intent on capturing and eating Private Enkh and someone else who was shooting it from the other side. Walker set the bomb for five seconds, its longest delay, and slung it up onto the sand against the beast’s side, then he turned, took several steps into the ocean, and dove down to the bottom of the water. The L bomb detonated with a flash.
Walker surfaced to find the creature turning back toward him. He dove in and stroked twice to reach DeWayne’s CASPer and stood to remove another L bomb. Spinning back to the monster, Walker saw it was no longer interested in him. Seriously wounded, it appeared to be trying to escape. “Oh no, you don’t!” Walker yelled. “Come get me!” He waved a hand at the creature, but it ignored him.
No—it wasn’t ignoring him; Walker was on the side where it had lost its eye. Thirty feet away, it was almost to the water as it weakly pulled itself forward. Walker could hear the ‘whoosh’ as it sucked in a breath, but it wasn’t as effective on land as in the water; the creature was
too bulky, and it was moving slowly. Walker ran to the front of the creature, armed the device, and pitched it into the cavernous maw as it opened for its next breath. “Eat this, fucker!”
He had neglected the effect of the suction, though; he tried to run, but the force of the air held him in place and started to lift him off his feet. He was going into the mouth with the bomb!
The grenade hit inside the creature’s mouth, and the creature reflexively bit down on it, closing its mouth. Freed from the force of its breath, Walker fell to the ground. Realizing there was no time to run, he flung his arms over his head as the bomb detonated. The ground shook slightly as the head slammed down next to him, and he rolled over and jumped to his feet, but the creature was dead.
“What is this thing?” Private Enkh asked as she ran up with Corporal Smith.
“Beats the hell out of me,” Walker replied, “but I think we just found out what destroyed the undersea mine our employers had. I’ll bet these things could make underwater buildings look like a bomb had hit them…it may not have even been the MinSha.”
“More importantly,” Corporal Smith asked, “what the hell happened to our suits?”
“I don’t know,” Walker said. “I fired my MAC once, and when I pulled the trigger for the second shot, I got an ‘Emergency Shutdown’ message and everything went black.”
“Mine too,” Smith said.
“Mine did the same thing,” Private Enkh said.
“What’s worse,” Walker said, “is that the suit did a burst transmission before it died. I don’t know who it contacted, but there’s a chance someone knows our suits are dead…and I doubt it was our base the message went to. We need to get our gear and get the hell out of here.”
The searched the area and rescued the soldiers whose CASPers had fallen forward when they shut down, trapping them. Sergeant Morgan and VVR still had operational suits and were able to flip the non-functional CASPers back over. Within a couple of minutes, Walker had the eight remaining squad members gathered around him. “I know Toth is dead,” he said; “one of the monsters ate him, and he blew it up from the inside. Did anyone see what happened to Loftis?”
The Golden Horde (The Revelations Cycle Book 4) Page 17
