Beachhead Series Collected Adventures Volume One: Invasion Earth series box set

by Chris Lowry

Weber took a tentative step, like a fawn wobbling across a woodland clearing. By the third footfall, he had it. By the sixth, he leaped as high as he could, the bottom of his feet clearing the workbench.

  He landed with a grin, and turned to Doc for the helmet.

  “We’re ready,” said Renard as he donned his helmet too.

  Lt watched his scarred visage slip behind the smooth surface of the visor.

  Now he looked like one of them.

  “Blasters,” Weber said as he moved his arm and head in sync.

  Lt figured he was practicing the targeting reticle inside the heads up display on the helmet.

  “These will be different from what you wore on Mars,” said Doc. “The first gen were experimental air tight, but they weren’t always effective.”

  “Do we plan on leaving the atmosphere?”

  Weber’s visor shifted toward Lt.

  “We’re chasing Lick wherever they go, but as far as I know, we’re earthbound for the near future.”

  “What else?” Weber asked.

  “You’re feeling the effects of the nano on your system,” Doc licked his lips. “The programming is first generation too, so there is a limit to what it can do.”

  “Yeah, we learned that with Danish,” Lt said. “Don’t get shot.”

  “It’s their weapons,” said Renard, still testing how the suit felt. “Their designs use something different.”

  “Like the hovercraft,” Lt thought about the vehicle waiting on them in the woods. “How it operates.”

  “I’d like to reverse engineer one,” Doc stared through the wall as if he could see their transport hiding in the trees.

  “Well Doc we got this one all to ourselves to get a ride to the fighting, but if I can grab you one, I’ll bring you back a prize.”

  Doc nodded.

  “I’ve got three of their weapons,” he indicated a pile on the table. “But my focus has been on getting the suits prepared. Now I can turn to the next task, perhaps to offer more help.”

  Lt squinted at the man, then turned to Weber and Renard.

  “Get on out and wait with the others. I’ll be along to outline the mission shortly.”

  Weber and Renard moved with a balletic grace as they crossed the room.

  “Welcome back,” Lt heard the older man say.

  “I never left,” Renard responded, a hint of sadness in his voice.

  Lt knew how he felt.

  The suit was powerful, the tiny robots injected into their system even more so.

  But war did something to you, no matter what you had to fight with.

  A memory beat against the brick wall he had built in his mind, threatened to tear it down and overwhelm him.

  He fought it back with a grunt.

  “Are you well?” Doc asked.

  “Fit as a fucking fiddle, Doc. Now, you did real good getting those suits ready. I’m gonna need you to fix the hole in this one.”

  He prodded the ruck sack with Danish’s suit on the long low table.

  “I think I have the parts,” Doc’s eyes wandered toward the back of the lab, his mind starting to work on the repair.

  “Hey, eyes on me,” said Lt. “Focus for just one second.”

  “Of course,” Doc shook his head and zeroed in on Lt.

  “You got a couple of pieces of homework, and I don’t want you to let the dog eat it.”

  Lt ticked them off on his glove fingers as Doc stared at his golden tinged reflection in the faceplate.

  “Suit. See what you can learn about those weapons. Good work on getting these systems up and running, but it’s time to recruit some help. You think you got some choices out there in the mix?”

  Doc looked past his shoulder at the hole in the wall.

  “Maybe.”

  “Burmage seems hot to get in here.”

  “He was a computer programmer before,” said Doc.

  “Not many computers left.”

  “We have them, but they draw so much power.”

  “Yeah, well one of them fellas out there knows how to clean a window, don’t they? Get ‘em on the roof and clear off the solar panels. Dust and dirt interfere with them catching the sun.”

  One of Doc’s eyebrows inched up in surprise.

  “What?” Lt scoffed. “I was a reader before the Lick. I learned me a few things.”

  “I suppose I only considered you a war machine.”

  “I’m that too. See if you can get this camp whipped into shape. Tighten ‘em up and button ‘em down.”

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “But you get my fucking gist, don’t you Doc. You know I mean bring this fucking camp out of the dark ages and get it moving like a well fucking oiled machine.”

  Doc gulped and nodded.

  “Anything else?”

  “What? That ain’t enough for you? Find some of the daughters out there and marry ‘em off to the sons of France to strengthen our alliance.”

  “I don’t understand,” Doc fumbled.

  “It was a fucking joke, Doc. I was trying to lighten the mood cause you looked like I busted your balls a little too hard.”

  “Oh.”

  Lt could see the tension in his face, the knots in his shoulders as the man hunched up.

  “You did real good on the suits,” he said. “You’ll do just as fine on working the camp.”

  Doc nodded.

  “I’m sorry about your man,” he said.

  “That what bugging you?”

  “I know what you’re planning to do. I feel you think the suits make you invulnerable. They don’t.”

  “I got that Doc. I watched Danish die. And?”

  Doc sighed.

  “What happens after?”

  “After what?”

  “After you get back from rescuing your friend?”

  Lt leaned against the workbench and crossed his arms over his chest. He popped up the visor so Doc could see his face.

  “Know what I like about you Doc? Besides your winning personality and brains and shit?”

  “I suppose it’s my usefulness to your cause.”

  “It’s cause you think we’re coming back. You just said it. When you get back. That tells me something about the way your brain works. And I like it.”

  Lt watched some of the tension leak out of the man’s shoulders.

  “Will you?”

  “Come back? Hell yeah. Crockett’s taken a shine to this place. You get it set up right, it will do just fine.”

  He pushed off the bench and navigated toward the opening to join his squad.

  “Get some rest too Doc. We’re gonna get out of your hair for a little bit, and you did a sprint on those suits. Be ready for when we get back. Then we’ll figure out what’s next.”

  Doc watched him slip through the hole, and the two civilians popped back into place to act on guard duty.

  He almost chased after him to find out who was staying, to get more of the plan.

  But he turned to the bench instead and started pulling out the scorched remnants of the dead man’s suit and lined them up on the surface for examination.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Lutz tried not to stare.

  They beat you if you stared. He did the work the Lick soldiers directed him to do.

  Clean out muck from dark holes. Scrub hovercraft. Move supplies into the main building.

  Whatever they asked.

  But he watched from the corner of his eye.

  He searched the thin dirty faces of his fellow prisoners, tried to pick out the women.

  Stringy, greasy hair swaying with furtive movements over bowed heads.

  No one made eye contact.

  No one talked.

  They beat you if you talked.

  “Hey,” he would whisper if he thought it was safe. Each time he approached a woman.

  No raspy voice answered him.

  It got him a lot of scared looks, and women scurrying away from him.

  “God, I
feel like I’m in high school,” he muttered after the last one.

  A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, and he cringed, waiting for the blow that followed.

  When it didn’t, he saw a giant man, bone thin, with hollowed out cheeks and dark circles under his eyes standing behind him.

  “Come,” the man whispered and let go of his shoulder.

  Lutz almost said no.

  But it was the first person to speak to him since he heard the girl’s voice.

  And he was curious.

  The tall man topped six foot six, towering a head above the rest of the prisoners.

  He walked in a slumped over stoop, as if working to disguise his height. He shuffled with purpose, leading Lutz on a meandering path through the building.

  “Pick up,” he instructed Lutz as they reached a stack of boxes, and took one into his own large hands.

  Lutz did as he was told.

  They continued through the building to what Lutz thought looked like a food prep area on the other side, and left the boxes by a back door.

  The giant opened the door and ushered Lutz through.

  If they were in a city, it would have passed for an alleyway. A long narrow path between two structures, lined with doors over small concrete pads.

  Lutz stepped into the narrow slice of sunshine that cut a line of shadows on the far wall and stopped.

  A woman waited for him there.

  The door behind him clanged shut.

  “Persistent,” she said, her raspy voice carrying to him across the row.

  Lutz stepped down and approached her.

  “I’ve been searching, I’ve been seeking,” he said in a sing song voice.

  “And you found.”

  “Who was the square crow?”

  “That’s Bob,” she said. “Bob works for me.”

  “And you are?”

  She flipped her greasy hair back from her face, almond eyes sparkling with humor.

  “I’m the boss of this here joint.”

  “Is that supposed to impress me?”

  “It is if you want to bust out.”

  He studied her smooth skin, could see the outline of the bones in her skull too.

  She was younger than him by a couple of years.

  “You’re just a kid,” he smirked. “How’s a kid a boss.”

  “Maybe I’m just the boss of you,” she smirked back.

  “And Bob,” Lutz added.

  “And Bob,” she agreed.

  “I’m Lutz,” he said.

  “Call me Kiko.”

  “You’re Kiko.”

  Lutz looked up and down the alley. They were alone, but he could hear the Licks and the people around them.

  “Relax,” she said. “The acoustics work to our advantage here. We’ll be able to hear them coming from either end before they see us.”

  Lutz nodded, but still ducked into the shadow.

  “Busting out,” he said. “What did you have in mind?”

  She tilted her head to one side and watched him with her dark eyes.

  “What every good jailbreak needs,” she told him. “A distraction.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Lt stepped into the corridor to a crowd of people watching them. Babe and Waldo stood with Jake and Steph off to one side. Weber and Renard were by each other a little apart from the rest of the group.

  The crowd didn’t clap this time, and he appreciated their restraint.

  There was work to be done.

  “Burmage,” he called out and watched the small man scurry from behind the people.

  “You’re in charge out here,” said Lt. “We got you weapons to take care of your people, keep ‘em fed and safe.”

  Burmage nodded.

  “It’s working,” he said. “We’re still hungry, but not starving.”

  “It’s a start alright. And a start is all we got. Teach a man to fish and all that bullshit. You keep folks in the woods running circles around this place on a hunt, and you’ll do fine. Now these two men,” he pointed to the duo by the door. “And two more I’m gonna pick, they work for Doc.”

  Burmage shot a look over Lt’s shoulder at the opening in the wall.

  “Doc is in charge inside that wall, but he’s gonna help you, got it.”

  Burmage frowned. Lt snapped his fingers to get his attention.

  “When I say Doc is in charge, I mean me, got it.”

  The leader of the survivors nodded, his jowls jiggling.

  “He may ask you for help,” Lt continued. “It’s like me asking for help.”

  “I understand.”

  “You take care of your people out here. Doc is going to take care of me and my people from in there.”

  “You’re leaving again?” Burmage’s hands started rubbing together in small circles, fingers caressing the back of his palm.

  “That’s the plan.”

  “But you’ll be back?”

  “Also, part of the plan.”

  Burmage nodded.

  Lt turned to his squad. He kept his visor up so they could see his face, but all he could see of theirs was his own reflection.

  “I told you when we started, we were going to be a Lick killing bushwhacking army. Well,” he amended. “I told you three that.”

  He pointed to Babe, Waldo and Crockett.

  “I told you some of us would die. I told you we were going to make an accounting for our lives. I think we made a difference. I damn sure know we made a difference in these people’s lives.”

  He pointed at the strip of LED’s that ran the length of the corridor.

  “We brought light back into their lives. And with these suits, we’re bringing hope.”

  “Is it enough?” Weber asked.

  “It’s going to have to be,” Lt answered. “But there’s more than just these folks out there. We got a thousand more encampments and hidey holes were people are hunkered down. High Command had a list, and if the Lick was smart, they grabbed it. That means a whole lot of people are in for a world of hurt, unless we can stop them.”

  “Are we shifting into the people saving business?” Waldo asked.

  Lt considered for a moment.

  “The way I see it Waldo, Lick killing and people saving is the same business. Two sides of the same coin. We have us weapons now and you still owe me. You owe me for the contract you signed when you signed up with this here outfit. You owe me for the men who ain’t here no more.”

  “I didn’t sign anything,” said Jake.

  “And you two owe me for your freedom. The price is-”

  “All of them,” Babe shouted. “All of their heads.”

  “Babe, you have got the soul of the queen of hearts. He’s right. I want to double our business. Hell, I want to triple it. But we’ve got to be careful.”

  “You need more men,” said Renard. “We’re not enough.”

  Lt nodded.

  “You know who else thought they weren’t enough? The three hundred Spartans who held off the Immortal Persian Army at Thermopylae.”

  “Didn’t they all die?” said Jake.

  “Cause they had doubt, Chief. Doubt that they could do it. You can have fear in your heart. You can have concerns about the obstacles we’re gonna come across. But ain’t no room for doubt.”

  “Is that supposed to inspire us?” Jake said.

  “I ain’t in the inspiring business. This ain’t a rah-rah speech. This is a telling it like it is talk.”

  He moved among them and motioned them closer.

  “There’s seven of us. Seven’s a powerful number. That’s seven thousand Licks if we do our job right. How many you think they keep on a base?”

  Weber’s helmet moved.

  “Ten thousand. Maybe more.”

  “That’s a lot of Lick heads to chop, Lt,” said Babe.