“…peat… Capt… lles, Shutt… fly… this is Lieu…” Static scoured the air and the voice came back on. “Please… Rutthh… Er… land… Zone…”
“This is Captain Curran!!” Jules's voice cracked. “We are under attack! Close on my coordinates!” Rattling off the numbers, she heard something crash into the hull of the shuttle. “What was that?!” she yelled behind her.
“Subs!” was the frantic answer over the top of someone screaming and what sounded like a fire extinguisher being set off.
“Captain Curran, this is… Rae… ETA six…”
More static and Jules cursed. They didn't have six minutes. “TOM! We need to move!”
He didn't answer.
* * *
Where she came from, they called her the Devourer.
In a time far removed from the present of this day, she'd consumed whole cities and left haunting emptiness in her wake. Like a scourge out of the depths of the Great Darkness, she was a destroyer to all she encountered. On the world that first birthed her, she'd emptied a continent, held back only by the hated ocean.
Then, the feeding had been good and the soil soft and pliant. Her children moved in the land beneath the sunless earth, basking in the black sea of the Slurry. With the rich meat of brain matter nourishing the Slurry, the thought stream connecting them all was like living lines of currents. Taken from their primary prey, the sunbacks who built and tilled above ground, their soup was the sweet ingredient needed to give life to the Slurry. No other prey would do.
Until the day, they swept over the hated ocean, in numbers greater than she had ever seen. Fierce and vengeful, they found the Slurry and destroyed it, murdering all her children with their unholy weapons, incinerating them. She still could picture inferno in her mind's eye, howling with the screams of her dying children. Instead of killing her, they scooped her up, like a great hand and placed her in a cell she could not escape.
And without a second thought, flung her into the endless void of space.
Whether it was by cosmic design or mere luck, she came to a world where the prey was just as sweet and weak as they had been when she first feasted well. Within hours of reaching this new realm, she awoke, ravenous. To the prey, she was a goddess sent from the heavens. She allowed them their belief. After all, a god needed sacrifices.
Once more, she ate well, mining their brain matter to create a new Slurry; but, like before, she'd been careless. Bloating herself without thought, she'd exhausted the supply and there were no more sunbacks who tilled and built. The lower animals sensed the Slurry and stayed away, forcing her children to scavenge the dead husks already rotting in the dirt. But it wasn't enough, and the Slurry began to wither. Fear of its complete stagnancy drove her into hibernation.
Now there was a new prey but these were of the kind responsible for her exile in the void. Oh, their brain matter was sweet indeed. The few brought to the Slurry were quickly consumed but the others, the others were filled with hatred. They fought back and now she could hear her children screaming again, their agony reaching her in the Slurry. She felt their deaths, each strand of their lives cut one by one with such speed, it was dizzying.
It enraged her and gave birth the black need for vengeance. Her children were dying and, like any good mother, she had to protect them.
* * *
“FUCK!” Derick yelled, nearly falling backward when a sub appeared out of the ground in front of them. A shot over his shoulder exploded the creatures head just as the ground shook beneath his feet. “What was that?” he asked Tom.
Suddenly, dirt and torn greenery washed over them like a dam had broken, knocking both men off their feet and sending them tumbling in the mess.
“What the fuck…” Derrick spit dirt out, trying to clear his eyes. This time, Tom hauled his friend to his feet.
“Not stick…” He began, glancing behind them and froze. “Bloody fucking hell!!!”
Towering over them was forty feet of monster, rising and shedding flora like water. Its shadow eclipsed them as its mouth opened. The resulting roar was deafening and shook the ground at their feet. Almost on reflex, Tom emptied what was left of his ammo into the trunk of the thing.
It did not make one slight bit of difference.
The creature screamed indignantly like an angry god. Tentacles writhed, Medusa-like, around the mass of its head. When its mandible shuddered, Tom cursed loudly, knowing what was coming.
“The fence!!” he shouted at Derick, glancing back one more time… and it was too late.
“RUN!” He yelled, his steps stuttering as he heard the nightmare's sickly heave. Diving for the nearest rock that wasn't nearly big enough, Tom skidded face first into the dirt seconds before something massive and wet splattered against the rock and the ground around him. He had just started to his feet before he realized exactly what had happened or even register the sticky, gel-like clumps clinging to his armour.
The smell registered before the pain did, seizing Tom in what felt like a shower of burning coals. A fire that burned sickly sweet as it ate into bits of his flesh. “Shit!!” he hissed, too distracted by his slagging armour to see the second danger until Derick roared his name.
He looked up, just in time to register the tree-thick tentacle coming at him like a speeding train. Later, he wouldn't remember the actual hit but the monster swept Tom off his feet like he was nothing, hurling him through the air a good thirty feet. He slammed full-body into a thick, high rock fence and bounced into the wild overgrowth below.
* * *
“Fuck me…” Jules breathed as she gaped at the creature emerging from the ground.
Whatever that Lego thing had been earlier, it was a puppy compared to this thing. Four slithery limbs framed a massive eyeless head the size of a hopper. Two curved tusks, easily six feet long flanked a mouth full of rows and rows of teeth. The body was twice as thick as one of those sky crabs and it seemed to ooze more than step forward.
“LUKE!!! I need all power diverted to the engine!!” she yelled.
* * *
“TOM!! I need cover!!” Derick yelled into his link as he crashed into the bushes in search of his friend. “The Major's down!!” Hauling a sapling out of the ground and out of his way, he spotted a flash of bald head. “Tom!”
“Get this fucking thing off me!” Tom barked, pain hitching his voice as the nerve endings in his fingers lit on fire. “Get it the fuck off!”
Just then, a shadow zipped over them, front cannons already blazing as a Zephyr lit up the beast. Derick snatched his knife from his boot and quickly worked it under the side that wasn't melting. With a yank, he cut the remaining straps, barely getting his knife out of the way before Tom stripped off the now useless body armour.
Tom could hardly think straight for the pain as he fumbled for Derick's battle harness. “Der… Derick?” he gritted out as he was hauled to his feet.
“Just a second,” Christ, blood was fucking everywhere! Derick hurriedly cut at Tom's shirt to try and get the soaked pieces off him.
“OY! Derick!”
“What!?”
Tom blinked, not used to Derick pulling Gunny Mode on him. “Okay. You're in charge now.”
Then Tom Merrick, the Commander of Tiger Platoon, fainted.
* * *
Despite the Sharks' beyond heroic efforts, Jules couldn't help but notice the line of sub bodies was getting closer and closer. Something zoomed by in the corner of her eye and she looked up. “YES!!” she cried exultantly when she spotted the Zephyr and two more descending from the sky.
As the fighter came around, tracer fire danced up the monster's torso before larger detonations imploded against its shell. The creature roared in defiance, refusing to accept its coming death as it fell backwards in slow motion, limbs flailing, toppling like a building going down in demolition.
“Mayday, meet me at the ramp!!”
That was the Gunny. Jules's stomach leapt into her throat.
* * *
�
�…did not fucking faint…I don't…fucking…faint!!” Tom protested when he regained a moment of lucidity and realised he wasn't where he'd landed. In fact, the Firefly loomed over him, which meant he lost time. Derick was raving, not unlike the occasion when some bright spark of a recruit had substituted his shampoo for hair dye.
“MAKE A HOLE!!” Mayday's voice carried to them before she appeared through the throng of bodies. She took one look at Tom and motioned to the Med Bay. “Back here, Gunny!”
“Where the fuck she get those bloody lungs?” Tom mumbled as he was moved to the med station. A blanket had been laid out of the floor, mostly because the bed had been stripped down. The process to get him on the deck hurt more than he could have imagined. In the last moments of his consciousness, he wondered if this is what Lisa felt that night. If it was even a fraction of her pain, then spacing her was a kindness he'd never again regret. Absolution loosened months of self-pity and anguish out of his body and let him slide peacefully into unconsciousness.
* * *
With the all clear to take off, Jules pulled the throttle back to lift off. The shuttle shuddered and… Nothing. “Come on!!” She yelled, kicking the console. Several lights blinked and fluttered as a shadow passed overhead.
“Captain Curran, this is Lieutenant McRae. Target destroyed, ma'am.”
“Excellent job, L.T.!” Jules barely held back the sob of relief that wanted out just as another idea crossed her mind. “Lieutenant, are you carrying a bunker buster?” When the affirmative response came through, she nodded. “Drop everything you have on that hole the creature came out of.”
“Roger that, ma'am.”
Jules touched the throttle again and the little hopper that could, roared to life once more and lifted off the ground in a lurch. “That's it, baby!” she grinned, heading away from the hot zone to rendezvous with the shuttle that just appeared on the horizon.
* * *
As per orders, Lt. Sloane McRae circled the large rip in the earth where the creature had first emerged, sighting the pool of dark sludge that pooled at the bottom of it. Her nose twisted in disgust beneath her oxy mask as she adjusted her trajectory to place it in the crosshairs of her targeting computer.
“TARGET ACQUIRED.”
The computer announced dutifully and McRae wasted no time dropping the plasma payload into the orifice that stared at her like a blight on the pristine world's surface. She felt some measure of disappointment regarding the structures she was about to destroy and looked forward to the landing team's report about the civilisation birthed in this valley. McRae had no doubt they'd have a hell of a story to tell.
The missile struck the target and the explosion that followed was eclipsed by a wall of sand and dirt filling the air, almost reaching the Zephyr's hull. McRae adjusted her altitude and rose easily above the blast, watching the shock wave ripple destruction outward from the kill zone. Sand, rock, architecture and history disappeared as the ground liquefied. What had been in the epicentre of the blast was no more. It had been vaporised.
The Slurry and all its kind were gone for good.
XXVIII
Reflections
Ren Richards spent the two days after their rescue in the Ruthie's Medical Centre. She suspected she was being kept an extra day to make up for the time she should have spent recovering after the Audrey made her a shish-ka-bob. Honestly, Ren didn't mind the rest (and it would take a whole mess of Audreys to get her to admit that) because she hurt. Her body was bruised almost everywhere and, thanks to a concussion, the inside of her skull pounded with a raging headache. A good soldier knew when to surrender to superior forces and for Ren, this was it.
Besides, convalescence provided her with time to think.
Dr. Whelan told her she was lucky to be alive, but Ren didn't need the Ruthie's CMO to state the obvious. She knew it. How many had died on Gaia? Olivia Hall, Tammy Adelaide, Hanae Akiyama, Colin Macon, Tonie Edwards, Evan Chu, Dee Sheridan and Alain Dupree. Her name could have been easily added to the list of the dead and each one drove home how damn lucky she was to be still breathing.
Maya became a frequent visitor during these two days. During one such visit, the medic reluctantly gave Ren a final roster of those who'd perished on Gaia, until she got to Colin's name. Only then, in the privacy of the hospital room and with her closest friend, Maya let him go. They both did, holding onto each other, Maya shedding tears for Colin and Ren, weeping for her fallen comrades.
Despite Colin and Maya's protests to the contrary, Ren knew their relationship was more than just casual. It might have begun as a fling between two strangers seeking comfort after a catastrophic loss, but it had become something more. It was plain to anyone who saw them together they were, or were very close to, falling for each other fast.
Ren thought about the other Sharks who fell on Gaia. For the members of Alpha Squad and most of the armed services, Sol's destruction meant the loss of everyone they'd ever loved. The only connections not obliterated by civilisation's end were those formed in the ranks. During the six months in space, these relationships sustained morale and deepened so much that none of them were strangers to each other. When someone died, they weren't some faceless soldier you knew in passing, it was a person you talked to and saw every day.
Like Tonie, whom Ren would miss every day because of her irrepressible energy and optimism, like some demented cheerleader. Ren initially found Tonie's obstinate refusal to let the grey walls and bitterness dampen their spirits somewhat irritating. But the truth was, they had needed to hear Tonie's constant reminders of a better life. The cynics among them never appreciated Tonie. Now it was too late, and Ren wished in hindsight she'd been kinder.
Before Maya left, Ren sent her on a last errand, to go through Evan Chu's locker before someone placed his gear in storage or, worse yet, divvied it up among themselves. Months ago, during a late-night drinking session, Evan showed her the seed packets he'd managed to save from his parents' house before Sol became a memory.
Unlike Ren, Evan never intended being a lifer. Instead, he was using his military service to travel the system like some culinary Jack Kerouac. When that plan died with Sol, he adapted it on the fly. He would plant these seeds and open a restaurant. It would be called The Dragon's Wok, after his parents' place in Los Angeles.
The death of that dream left a bitter taste in her mouth and Ren vowed to see those seeds planted, even if she had to dig the dirt herself.
And then there was Dupree.
Ren was already out cold by the time Dupree died. During Shiny's visit, Ren asked how Ozzy was handling his friend's death and the comtech revealed sombrely how she'd had to restrain Ozzy from going after Dupree when the subs took him. While her heart bled for her friend, she wasn't surprised. Even more so than Colin and Maya, Ozzy and French kept their relationship discreet. She'd only found out because she had come across them discussing plans once they reached Gaia. They'd asked for her secrecy and she'd willingly kept that oath to protect the two men.
Like Maya and Colin, their relationship had burned brightly and knowing Ozzy, he was probably mourning in silence, too afraid to tell anyone what Dupree really meant to him.
In the months after Earth's destruction, the Major had overlooked things like fraternization, but the stigma remained. It was easy to compromise a situation with personal feelings, and in a firefight, it could be deadly. She made a vow to find Ozzy when she was released, since he wouldn't come to her, and let him know she was there for him.
Because grief was something she knew about too.
During their bout of shared tears, Ren showed Maya the folded picture of her beautiful daughter Emma, stashed in her foot locker. Though Ren kept the photo close to her, she almost never looked at it. Maya sat and held Ren while she relayed how the little one had died of pneumonia in the second month of her life.
As Maya brushed a gentle finger over the photos, Ren found herself realizing she'd missed her so much! In her friend's delight at Emma's hair and he
r eyes and even her toes, Ren remembered those moments of sheer perfection. The feel of Emma's newborn skin the first time Ren held her. How her little smile would take Ren's breath away and the strength of a tiny fist around her finger made her promise Emma the world, every time.
Gaia had taken even more from a desperate population, but as Ren talked about Emma for the first time in years and studied the picture she'd stowed away until now, she realized they had also gained.
Everyone would see grace and beauty again. They'd experience the wonder of discovering a whole new planet where twigas drifted by in boneless grace and little balls of fluffy personality brought smiles to people in dire need of hope.
Ren had rekindled her passion for life amidst the horror and realised there was someone who cared for her as much as she did for him. Derick, just Derick, kept a vigil at her bedside the first day. He was there every time she'd opened her eyes. They hadn't talked much but they didn't need to. His eyes had been the first thing to capture her attention years ago. Hazel and expressive, he could rock the flinty-eyed poker face but when Derick Rickman wanted to, those amazing eyes could say everything he felt and reveal a world of emotion.
Loving Derick made the years behind her a little more bearable and the years ahead hopeful.
* * *
“Don't work too hard, yeah?”
Luke made a face at his brother's grainy visage on the screen. “Look who's talking.” He wouldn't go into it with Derick now, not over the link.
Working was the only way Luke Rickman knew how to get past what happened in the ancient city the squints were now calling Roanoke. Where it once stood, only a huge crater existed now. The flight wing dispatched to 'sterilize' the area had been remarkably efficient. There was no trace of the city or the creatures responsible for destroying the nascent civilisation. The expedition team hastily collected every bit of data before the final destruction and it was hoped they could use it to provide a memorial for the dead race.
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