by Jake Bible
“Goddammit, Schroeder,” Parveet snarled. “Are you disobeying a direct order?”
“No, Boss,” Schroeder said. “But we’ve already lost people. It’s no longer a clean op. I’d rather secure the Dorso than retreat at this point.”
“You will lose more people, Sergeant,” Parveet said.
“Stack?” Schroeder asked.
Stack glanced at his remaining squad. They both nodded.
“We’re staying,” Stack said.
“I’m sending reinforcements then,” Parveet said. “Who do you want, Sergeant?”
“Give me Halva’s team,” Schroeder replied.
“Oh, I like the sound of that,” Stack said. “Bring in the big guns!”
“Hooyah!” a voice called over the comms. “Been waiting for the order! My team is on the way!”
***
“Oh, come on,” Roar snapped as she leaned against the wall of the mech hangar. “Send us in there!”
“And do what?” Wall asked. “Mechs can’t fit in the passageways.”
“I know,” Roar said. “That means we rip them wide open. They need rockets? Shit, man, we’ve got the biggest rockets.”
Roar pointed at the weapons racks in the center of the hangar.
“I do like that,” Wall said. “Rip the passageways open. Boom, boom, boom.”
“Someone say boom?” Gore said as he walked into the hangar. “You know I like the sound of boom.”
“Roar thinks we should be in the fight,” Wall said.
“What’s this?” Chomps asked, coming in directly behind Gore. “Parveet hasn’t said a word about deploying mechs in this shit storm.”
“She should,” Roar said.
“Stand down, Roar,” Chomps responded as she rolled her eyes. “We’d shred that ship in seconds.”
“Not necessarily, Chomps,” Giga called from the opposite wall. She was sitting down, a tablet in her hands. She looked up and smiled at everyone. “I’ve got movement on the hull.”
“What movement?” Chomps asked as she yanked her tablet from her belt. Giga swiped at hers and the same image came up on Chomps. “Well, I’ll be.”
Chomps passed the image to everyone else’s tablets. They studied, they stared, they smiled.
“Boss?” Chomps called. “Stop watching the team feeds and take a look at the externals. We have two xenos on the move.”
“Chomps? What the hell are you talking about?” Parveet replied over the comms. “I’m too busy right… Goddammit.”
“They are heading to the tethers, Boss,” Chomps said. “Halva’s team is about to get a nasty surprise.”
“Shit,” Parveet said. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Permission to engage with mechs, Boss,” Chomps said.
“Permission granted,” Parveet said. “Two mechs only. You pick.”
“Got it,” Chomps said.
She pointed at Roar and Wall.
“Hell yeah,” Roar said and began running towards her mech.
“Boom, boom, boom,” Wall said, heading towards his.
“I’d go, but you know…” Gore said.
“I know,” Chomps replied and smiled.
***
The mech hangar deployment hatch opened and two mechs leapt from the Jethro, both firing tethers at the Dorso’s hull. The tethers raced across the open space and punctured the hull, the hooks engaging and holding the lines fast. The mechs reeled themselves in, racing towards the Dorso at very unsafe speeds.
Just before collision, they disengaged the tethers, spun their legs around and landed feet first on the Dorso’s hull, the mechs’ knees bending and taking the brunt of the landing before straightening.
“We have some hull to cover,” Roar said over the comms. “The team tethers are two hundred meters that way.”
She pointed across the hull at the barely perceptible shapes of Halva’s SpecCom team that had just landed. And the two shadows racing towards them.
“Boom, boom, boom,” Wall said as the two mechs began running as fast as the mag-locks would allow.
***
“Sarge!” a soldier yelled as he spun about and started firing at the two shadows.
“Goddam, they’re fast!” Halva shouted as she whirled her fist in the air then took a knee and started firing too. The entire team ignored the hole in the hull they were about to go through and found positions on the outside, setting up a line to take out the oncoming xenos.
The plasma blasts had zero effect.
“Switch to rockets!” Halva ordered.
“Belay that order!” Roar’s voice came over the comms. “Get your people inside, Sarge! We’ve got this!”
Halva focused her display’s screen on the space behind the oncoming xenos.
“Goddamn,” Halva said and laughed. “Who’d you blow to get permission to launch mechs in open space?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Roar replied. “Get your team inside, Halva. We have your back.”
Halva studied the distance between the xenos and her team, and the distance between the xenos and the mechs that were sprinting across the hull.
“You better,” Halva said. “You’re cutting it close.”
“That’s how mechs roll,” Roar said.
“Team! Inside!” Halva ordered and stood up. She turned and ran to the opening in the hull. “Let’s go rescue some SpecCom!”
“Hooyah!” her team shouted as they started dropping inside the Dorso.
***
“Locked,” Wall said.
“Then what are you waiting for?” Roar replied.
Wall fired a massive rocket from the launcher he held gripped in his fist. The rocket’s engine sputtered for a half second then flared bright blue as it raced at the closest of the two xenos. Wall was breathing heavy as he stared at the blue fire.
Then it impacted with the xeno and the space where the thing had been became a brief explosion then a mist of black that drifted into the wide open.
“Boom!” Wall yelled.
“Nice shot,” Roar said. “Still got one more.”
Roar fired her launcher and the rocket zipped across the space towards the second xeno. That xeno stopped its pursuit of the SpecCom team that was dropping into the Dorso, turned to face the mechs, caught the rocket as it reached it, then hurled the projectile back at Roar.
“Shit!” Roar yelled as she threw her mech down flat against the Dorso’s hull, letting the rocket race over her.
“What the shit?” Wall shouted, dropping into a crouch as he took aim with his launcher. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah, I goddamn saw it!” Roar shouted.
An explosion made the Dorso shudder as the rocket impacted with the hull well behind them.
“Roar!” Parveet’s voice shouted over the comms. “I sent you there to take out the xenos, not add more damage to the Dorso!”
“We got thinkers, Boss!” Roar yelled back. “It caught the rocket and threw it at us!”
“On it!” another voice said as a mech dropped onto the hull between the breach where the SpecCom team had entered and the xeno. “Hey there.”
The xeno twisted about and shot several tentacles out at Giga’s mech.
“Nope,” Giga said and fired both launchers she held. Two rockets raced at the xeno and impacted in a massive fireball. Black mist was all that was left. Giga raised the launchers, resting them across her shoulders. “Sniper’s instinct.”
“What the hell does sniper’s instinct mean?” Wall asked.
“It means she saw something in the way the xenos moved,” Roar said. “She also could have told us over the comms.”
“And miss all the fun?” Giga replied, laughing. “Come on. Let’s see if we can get inside. Drop ship hangars should be big enough for us.”
***
The xeno dropped from the hangar’s ceiling and came at the SpecCom squad so fast that the first two soldiers didn’t even flinch before being grabbed up in tentacles. They managed a scream each before t
hey were ripped into shreds.
“No!” Corporal Mevins said as he opened fire. “Shit! No plasma! No plasma!”
He switched to rockets as the last of his squad was snagged by a tentacle and thrown against the hangar wall. The soldier cried out on impact then went limp, her body bouncing off and floating down to the floor where it bounced again and began floating back at the xeno.
“No,” Mevins snarled and fired his rocket.
The xeno moved too fast and the rocket missed, exploding against the opposite wall.
Mevins backed up, pulling another rocket from his pack and loading the launcher on the move. The xeno came at him so fast that he barely saw it move.
“DOWN!” a voice roared in the comms.
Mevins got down and the xeno flew over him, followed closely by three rockets.
Mevins rolled onto his back and watched the rockets collide with the xeno, his helmet’s display dimming automatically to filter out the explosions. The xeno was vaporized. Only a few particles of black mist floated in the hangar before dissipating into nothing.
“Thanks,” Mevins said to the SpecCom soldiers behind him.
The drop ship hangar doors began to slowly open and every soldier spun around, took a knee, and raised their rocket launchers. Then mech hands slid through the gap in the hangar doors and the soldiers relaxed.
“Goddammit, Roar,” Stack said, sitting down and laying back. “Warn us.”
“Did we miss the fun?” Roar said as the hangar doors were shoved apart and three mechs came stomping inside. “No more xenos?”
“Not in here,” Mevins said and took a deep breath. He turned in a circle then looked up and saw the remaining soldier of his squad floating against the ceiling. “Shit.”
“Got her,” Wall said and jumped, holding up one massive mech hand to catch the soldier and the other to stop himself from slamming into the ceiling. “She’s alive. I can see her eyes twitching.”
“Good,” Mevins said.
“Sarge?” Stack called.
“I think we’re clear,” Schroeder replied over the comms. “Scans aren’t showing any movement.”
“Keep eyes and ears open,” Parveet ordered over the comms.
“Always,” Schroeder replied.
“Um, guys?” Roar said and pointed her finger at the center of the hangar. “I thought all the Dorso’s drop ships were lost on the planet?”
Everyone turned and stared at the drop ship that sat there. Where a hatch should have been was only a hole and the ship was missing its view shield.
“Hey, Boss,” Giga said. “The xenos aren’t just thinkers. They’re sentient.”
“Sentient? How the hell did you come to that conclusion?” Parveet replied.
“Well, I think they flew a drop ship up here on their own,” Giga said. “Yeah, I’m pretty damn sure that’s what they did. We might be in trouble, Boss.”
3.
Parveet, Chomps, Lucky, Stony and McDorn stood around the command table, each watching the feeds from the SpecCom soldiers and the mechs.
“They attack like wild animals,” Lucky said. “But if Giga’s hunch is right, then we do have a serious problem. We may want to cut our losses and get out of here.”
“Leave?” Parveet asked. “The Jethro doesn’t leave.”
“I agree, Boss,” Chomps said. “But, Lucky has a point. This may be more than the Jethro can handle.”
“I don’t know what those words mean,” Parveet said and smirked.
“Doesn’t matter much either way,” Stony said. “Engines are trashed.”
“Trashed?” Parveet replied.
“Trashed,” Stony repeated. “Some parts are salvageable, but parts do not help us much. We’re going to need to strip the Dorso and see if we can cobble together some engines before we even think of leaving this system.”
“Boss?” Wan said, coming into the side room just off the bridge that Parveet used for command meetings. “I got something to show you. A couple of somethings.”
She swiped at her tablet and the image transferred to the table.
“What am I looking at?” Parveet asked.
“Two things,” Wan said. “First is a log of one of the Dorso’s escape pods leaving the ship.”
A grainy image from an external vid camera showed the pod launching and rocketing down towards Hrouska.
“There might be survivors?” Parveet asked.
“Might be,” Wan said. “I’ve been hunting for the transponder signal, but I’m picking up zip.”
“Keep looking,” Parveet ordered.
“I am,” Wan said. “The other thing is the data sent to us from the Dorso. It’s data of Hrouska.”
The image of the escape pod was replaced with a read-out of data parameters of Hrouska itself.
“Sweet Jesus,” Chomps said. “Is this right?”
“We suspected, but now we have proof,” Wan said. “Atmosphere is almost exact, water-to-land ratio is almost exact, even fresh-to-salt water ratio is almost exact.”
“Temperature and climate zones are perfect,” McDorn said. “A bit on the tropical side on most of the planet, but pretty much an exact match.”
“You’re looking at what Earth was like maybe a million years ago,” Wan said. “Boss, we found our planet.”
“All the more reason to leave and come back with an armada,” Lucky said.
“Hold up,” Chomps said. She was watching a vid in the bottom corner of the table of the first fight between the xeno and SpecCom soldiers. “Take a look at this.”
She swiped the vid over to the table, the data reduced to a square in the corner.
“Watch,” Chomps said and let the vid play slowly. As Pasco was ripped apart, she paused it.
“Jesus, Chomps,” Parveet said. “Show some respect.”
“Look,” Chomps said and moved the vid forward a few frames. “It ate Pasco’s head.”
“Don’t you ever say that to Schroeder,” Parveet said.
“Now look at this one,” Chomps said, showing the other xeno tearing a soldier apart. “This one shredded the body, but ate the head. The xenos eat heads. Do you get what I’m showing you?”
“They like sweetbreads?” Stony asked.
“No,” Chomps said. “I think they absorb knowledge.”
All eyes fell on Chomps then narrowed then looked away, pair by pair.
“I’m not kidding,” Chomps said. “How can you explain the fact that they piloted a drop ship from the planet up to the Dorso? I’m a mech pilot, and I’d have a bit of a learning curve just hopping into a drop ship and taking off. These things are xenos and they suddenly can not only pilot, but land a drop ship?”
“Without getting blown out of the sky by the Dorso’s defenses,” Lucky said. “Damn…”
Parveet held up a finger before anyone could speak. They waited.
“We have to find that escape pod,” she said finally.
“A rescue mission is a nice idea, Boss, but with what Chomps said, this is way more than we bargained for,” Lucky said.
“If we don’t find that escape pod, and the xenos get to it first, what do you think is going to happen when they eat the crew on board that pod?” Parveet said.
“If that’s what’s happening here,” Stony said. “It’s a little far-fetched.”
“Can we take the chance I’m wrong?” Chomps said.
“No,” Parveet said. “Wan? Who was on that escape pod? Command?”
“No, Boss,” Wan said, tapping at her tablet. A list of six passengers came up on the command table’s screen. “Engineering.”
“Well, that ain’t good,” Stony said. “I’m not saying I believe in the snack-and-think theory, but if they eat those crew members, then they’ll know how the Dorso’s engines work. If they know that then–”
“Then they can use the ship to leave the system,” Parveet said. “They’ve shown they can handle being exposed to space. The Dorso would probably tear apart if it went through the wormhole port
al, but…”
“But we can’t take the risk,” Chomps said.
“Can I bring something up?” McDorn said.
“Shoot,” Parveet replied.
“I’m watching these vids and what I see backs up Chomps’ theory,” McDorn said. “These xenos absorb. They can handle the energy produced by explosive rounds; they even tolerate plasma blasts.”
“Don’t like rockets,” Chomps said.
“No, that much power is too much all at once,” McDorn said. “The thing is, if they were to get through the wormhole portal, then that kind of quantum energy might actually feed them even more. They could end up evolving as they travel.”
“Well, that ain’t good either,” Stony said.
“No, it’s not,” McDorn said. “However, I might have a solution to our weapons issue beyond just rockets.”
“What is the solution?” Parveet asked.
“Lasers,” McDorn said. “Good, old-fashioned lasers. There is no way they could absorb that kind of light otherwise they’d be absorbing energy all day long on their planet just from their star.”
“I see where he’s going with this,” Stony said. “I can make this happen.”
“Lasers?” Chomps said. “Like 23rd-century weaponry? Are we in the Wild West here?”
“I can switch out the power supplies in the KYAG plasma rifles as well as the SpecCom rifles,” Stony said. “It would be easy, actually.”
“And we’d have more than ten times the amount of power per weapon,” McDorn said. “That would solve some of the ammo issues.”
“I haven’t decided if we’re going down or not,” Parveet said.
“Are we voting? Because I vote no,” Lucky said. “My gut is telling me this planet is bad mojo, Boss. We need to leave and get back to SBE. Let the UEC send in a hundred warships and wipe the planet clean.”
“Which they’ll do,” Wan said. “Making the planet no longer clean. They’ll nuke it all to Hell and we lose the greatest find in MEU history.”
“Damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” Parveet said, rubbing her temples.
“Schroeder will fight,” Chomps said. “My mechs will fight.”
