by Ryk Brown
“Loki!” Josh yelled. “Whattaya doin’?”
“I’m going after them!”
“The hell you are!” Josh insisted, running over and grabbing his friend to hold him back. “You heard the captain! We’ve gotta cover the entrance while the Ghatazhak go after them!”
“But that’s my wife down there!” Loki argued, panicked. “My child!”
“I know!” Josh replied, grabbing his old friend with both hands. “Jess will get them! You gotta trust her! Besides, if the Jung get the Seiiki, then we’re all fucked! Your wife and daughter included!”
Loki stared at Josh, absolutely terrified.
“Anwar! Willem! Split up and engage the troop shuttles,” Jessica ordered over the comms. “High-low, on the go, fire and move! Try to pull them away from the package. We’ll cut down the middle to make contact!”
“Understood, moving right,” Sergeant Anwar replied.
“Moving left,” Sergeant Willem added.
“Jess?” Loki pleaded over the comms, his voice trembling.
“We’ll get them, Loki!” Jessica promised. “Just hold the cave mouth so we’ve got someplace to go!”
Jessica moved quickly down the rocky mountainside, leaping over rocks, dodging trees and brush as she made her way toward the roadway. Four red icons appeared on her visor, and she suddenly stopped, allowing her auto-camo system to blend her in with the scenery and remain invisible.
Four Jung soldiers moved quickly up the road toward her. She fired two quick shots, dropping the first two. As the remaining two opened fire, she stepped to the side allowing their shots to streak past to her left.
The targeting alert suddenly sounded in her comms. “Oh, shit,” she cursed, diving and rolling to her right as she opened fire again. Her first shot struck the road, blowing dirt and rocks into the air. Her second and third shots struck one of the two remaining attackers, and her fourth shot struck the front of the troop shuttle directly behind them. Once she stopped rolling, she fired again, dropping the fourth man. A quick spray of fire into all four writhing bodies ensured that they would not fire on her again, but that would not be enough.
Her targeting alarm sounded again.
The shuttle!
Jessica jumped up and ran toward the side of the road as the troop shuttle one hundred meters down the road began to lift off. Within seconds, it opened fire with its automated belly turret, easily carving through trees and rocks, chasing Jessica as she ran for cover.
One, two, three shots struck the ground around her as she ran, the fourth one impacting the armor plating on her left thigh as she dove for cover behind a cluster of large boulders on the side of the road. Despite her armor’s dissipative properties, she could feel the intense heat, even as her protective enhancement undergarment fought to cool the affected area.
“Fuck!” she cursed as she leaned against the rocks, energy bolts slamming into the other side. “Somebody pull this fucker off of me!”
The shuttle began to climb, and the angle of its fire increased, causing Jessica’s safe area to diminish as the shuttle gained altitude and grew nearer to her hiding place. Knowing she would be cut down if she tried to run, she prepared to do the only thing she could. To stand and fire, head on, and hope that her chest armor and helmet would protect her. She took a deep breath and tensed up to leap upward, realizing that it might very well be the last thing she ever did.
“Nash! Stay down!” Sergeant Todd warned over the comms.
Jessica did as instructed, as several rounds of friendly fire erupted from her left.
The turret on the underside of the approaching troop shuttle came apart, sparks flying in all directions. The shuttle immediately turned away and took evasive action. Jessica rose quickly and turned toward the fleeing shuttle, just as the troop shuttle disappeared behind a blue-white flash of light, followed a split second later by the whoosh of air and the subdued ripping sound of the enemy shuttle’s departure jump.
“Four more coming up the middle,” Todd warned over the comms.
“Head back up toward the cave,” Jessica ordered. “I’ll head right, you go left. They’ll split up to chase us. After you take yours out, skirt down along the sides and get behind the troops from the second shuttle. If we flank them, we can cut them down before they reach the package.”
“Understood,” Sergeant Todd replied.
“And watch out,” Jessica added as she started to run. “They can track us, even with our auto-camo.”
“Copy that.”
“Josh, go help Dalen!” Connor ordered as he ran toward the mouth of the cave. “Loki! Get us ready to take off!”
“Jess told us to guard the cave entrance!” Josh argued.
“You don’t work for her, you work for me! Get moving!” he reminded him as he and Marcus ran past them, headed outside. “If we don’t get that emitter fixed, we’re screwed no matter what!”
Josh and Loki looked at each other.
“Oh, fuck,” Josh muttered, turning to head back to the ship.
Neli turned and watched in dismay as Josh and Loki both left their posts to return to the ship. “Wait!” she cried out. “How am I going to hold the entrance all by myself?”
“Here,” Josh said, tossing his energy rifle to her as he passed. “You can shoot for both of us!”
Neli caught the rifle clumsily, her eyes wide with fear.
“For all three of us,” Loki added, tossing his rifle to her, as well, then followed Josh back to the Seiiki.
Neli caught the second rifle, dropping the first two and nearly falling over. “Oh, this is just great!”
Jessica flew through the air, landing in the middle of six Jung soldiers, catching them by surprise. She fired once, dropping the soldier directly in front of her, then dropped and rolled to her right, coming up to fire again and dropped two more.
A soldier to her left lowered his rifle to take aim at her head, but she shot her left hand up and knocked the rifle barrel upward, causing the shot to graze the Jung soldier to her right in the arm. She rolled onto her back, pulling on the muzzle of the soldier’s rifle, as she curled up and placed her left foot into the falling soldier’s belly, using his own momentum to pull him over her and into the soldier to her right as he charged forward.
The two soldiers collided, one knocking the other over, allowing Jessica a moment to deal with the two others charging from behind. She spun around just in time to see the butt of the fifth soldier’s rifle coming toward her visor. She leaned to her right, twisting her head and allowing the rifle butt to graze off her visor. She pulled her combat knife from her right hip, and drove into the soldier’s side as he followed through with his own body weight to strengthen his blow.
She continued to spin around, elevating her knife hand just enough as she rotated to plant her blade into the left eye socket of the sixth soldier. The additional force added to her blow by her undergarment’s enhancement systems was enough to clothesline the sixth man, knocking his feet from under him, landing squarely on his back.
One of the two soldiers who collided had, by now, managed to scramble back to his feet, and was charging toward Jessica. She turned toward him, took one powerful stride, and leapt upwards, rotating in the air, placing her right foot into the side of the soldier’s helmeted head. The blow knocked the soldier down again, blood and teeth spraying out from his open mouth.
The other fallen guard was also recovering, but found a knife suddenly lodged firmly in his throat. He grabbed at his spurting neck wound, gasping for breath as he dropped back down to his knees.
Jessica, now lying on the ground after landing, rolled to her left side, pulling her energy pistol from her right thigh holster. She fired two shots into the soldier she had just kicked in the face, ending his involvement in the engagement, once and for all. She r
ose to her feet, turned, and fired once into the face of the soldier on his knees, as she pulled her knife from his neck and allowed him to topple backward, blood still gushing from his neck and mouth.
Jessica quickly surveyed the men lying around her, firing several more shots to ensure that none of them would dare challenge her again. Noticing that the tactical display on the inside of her visor had gone out, she beat against the side of her helmet several times. The display lit up again, showing red dots on either side of her.
A crossfire!
Energy weapons fire streaked over their heads, slamming into the rock faces where they hid, cringing in fear for their very lives. In the background, they could hear the sound of weapons not of their enemies, but of the friends who had come to rescue them.
Doran and Travon returned fire as best they could, popping up every few seconds in an attempt to slow the enemy’s advance on their position.
Jerrot also returned fire, although only on occasion, as several of the enemy soldiers were closer to him, and were constantly bombarding the old man.
“Give me a weapon!” Rorik begged his father. “Allow me to defend myself!”
Travon hesitated.
“Father! Please!”
Travon reluctantly pulled his sidearm, tossing it to his son behind the next boulder over, firing across the top of his boulder at the same time, as enemy fire continued to pound their hiding place.
“Travon!” Doran called out. “They mean to circle us! If they flank us…”
“I know!” Travon thought for a moment. He did not want to make the call, but he had little choice. “Rorik,” he finally called out. “Fall back to the trees! Then circle to the right, to prevent them from flanking us on that side!”
“No!” Travon’s wife cried out, fearing for her son’s life.
“Go! Now!” Travon yelled as he fired back at the enemy, giving his son a chance to move back as instructed.
Rorik quickly fell back, scrambling on his hands and knees in the dirt, his wife reaching after him in futility.
“Doran!” Travon called out. “The same to the left! We must force them to go wide! To buy us time until help arrives!”
“I’m ready!” Doran replied.
“Now!” Travon ordered, opening fire again.
Doran quickly kissed his wife, then crawled backward, away from their position, keeping low to avoid being seen by the enemy.
“When are they coming?” Yanni wondered, as he crouched down low next to the admiral and his wife, his arms around Lael and her baby girl to protect them from flying bits of rock and dust as the enemy continued to fire.
“Soon, I am sure of it,” the admiral replied.
His wife exchanged looks with him. She knew he had no idea.
Jessica fell to the ground, face down, as flat as she could be, taking cover behind the bodies of the soldiers she had just killed. Jung weapons fire came from both sides, slamming into the bodies around her with a sickening thud. Smoke from the energy weapons’s burns on the corpses that protected her swirled amidst the dust, its acrid odor filling her nose and burning her eyes. She caught the strap of her energy rifle lying near her with her foot and dragged it toward her.
Two shots struck the combat pack attached to her backplate, blowing it apart. Her visor went dead, as did her comms. She could feel the heat from the unit as sparks flew from it in all directions. Still lying flat on her belly, she reached under her chest and hit the eject button, shaking her body just enough so that the pack fell away to one side, just as it took two more direct hits from incoming fire.
She reached down and pulled her rifle to her side, then rolled over onto her back, firing the weapon toward her feet in the direction of the incoming fire.
She had only seconds. Soon, more Jung would show up, having circled ninety degrees to either side in order to stay out of the crossfire that kept her pinned down. She would have to be ready.
But it would not come.
Shots rang out. Not energy weapons, but projectile. Repetitive zings and crackles, the familiar sound of slugs being propelled down launch rails. She could hear the sounds of slugs ricocheting off of Jung armor, slamming into exposed flesh, then followed by cries of pain. The sounds repeated, over and over, coming from the opposite side this time.
Jessica turned to look in the direction from which the sound of projectile weapons had come. Two men, running toward her. She swung her weapon around to take aim, but relaxed as two familiar faces came into view.
Marcus and Connor ran toward Jessica, their projectile rifles still crackling and zinging as slugs left their barrels.
Connor continued forward, jumping over her, rifle still firing.
Jessica couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Are you all right?” Marcus asked as he paused momentarily to help her up.
“Yeah! But my comms are down!” Jessica said. She turned her head to see Connor charging down the road, cutting back and forth to make for a more difficult target. “Jesus!” she exclaimed, watching him charge down the road. “Don’t just stand there!” she yelled, turning back toward Marcus. “Stay with Nathan!” she added, scrambling back to her feet to follow them.
“Have you got that thing moved yet?” Dalen asked as he installed the relocated emitter in place of the damaged one.
“We’re disconnecting it now!” Loki replied as he helped Josh.
“Well, hurry the fuck up!” Dalen urged.
“When did you learn how to work on jump systems?” Loki wondered.
“About two minutes ago,” Josh replied, working frantically. “Same as you.”
Connor charged up on the Jung position from behind, spraying the unsuspecting soldiers with projectiles from his rifle. From such close range, the slugs tore through the Jung body armor, sending pieces of armor, flesh, and blood flying out in all directions.
Connor’s mouth dropped open, his eyes widening at the death he had just caused. The others had been further away. All he had seen were bodies falling. But this…this was personal.
Suddenly, a memory hit him. Bodies being unloaded in a massive hangar. Bodies, disfigured and burned, so badly that they hardly seemed human.
Connor froze, the memory nearly making him sick. He heard a familiar voice cry out warning, but did not move. He looked away from the carnage before him, turning toward those they had come to rescue, even though he only saw the burned bodies in the hangar.
Travon Dumar took advantage of the sudden cessation in weapons fire to look at the enemy position. But he nearly dropped his weapon when he saw a familiar figure, standing next to the enemy position not twenty meters distant, looking directly at him.
Nathan!
Movement to his left caught the admiral’s eye. Two Jung soldiers, likely having moved from their position to the right of their now-dead comrades, were coming to close the gap that had just been created by the very man that Travon had believed dead all these years.
Travon rose from his position, yelling a warning to the man he believed to be Nathan Scott. He fired his weapon as he charged out from behind the rocks, turning toward the charging Jung soldiers to his left. He fired again and again, yelling Nathan’s name the entire time, warning him to get down, unable to bear seeing the young man die again.
Two energy bolts slammed into Travon’s right side, causing his legs to collapse under him. More energy weapons fire sounded, along with projectile weapons fire from further out. Travon hit the ground hard, his weapon flying out in front of him.
Seconds later, he found himself surrounded by Ghatazhak soldiers who were still firing sporadically. His wife was huddled over him, sobbing, begging him to hold on. His daughter and the rest of his extended family were also nearby, crouched low for safety.
His son, Rorik, came running
up, his handgun still glowing from constant firing. The young man dropped to his knees beside his mother.
Then he appeared. Standing behind the others.
“Nathan,” Travon gasped, barely able to speak.
Connor looked confused, hesitant. Jessica stepped up behind him. Connor turned to her, a lost look on his face as the dying man called him Nathan again. “He thinks I’m…” Connor couldn’t even say the name.
“Go to him,” Jessica said. “Let him die happy.”
Connor stepped forward, coming around to kneel next to Travon, opposite the dying man’s wife.
“Nathan,” Travon whispered.
Connor leaned closer.
“You must become Nathan,” Travon whispered to Connor. “You are the only one who can lead them… The only one who can help them take it all back, just as before.”
“I, I’m not sure how,” Connor admitted.
“You will find a way,” Travon said, a smile finding its way forward through the pain. “You are Na-Tan.”
Connor looked at Travon’s wife, unable to find words. He looked back down at Travon as his breathing stopped, and the life slowly left his eyes.
Two more claps of thunder sounded in the distance.
“More troop shuttles,” Sergeant Anwar reported.
“We have to move,” Jessica told Connor and the others. “Willem, carry Dumar. We’re not leaving him behind.”
“I’ll carry him,” Connor offered.
“Thanks, but it’s better if…”
“I said, I’ll carry him!” Connor repeated more forcefully, cutting Jessica off.
