Forging Zero

by Sara King

  “Zero! Get rid of those recruit toys and man the walls. Send your best snipers to the roof with Rat, your skirmishers outside.”

  “I’m not here to stay,” Joe said.

  “Furgsoot! This is a real firefight and you’ll—”

  “Commander Lagrah said we’ll need fahjli grenades and Jreet poison rounds,” Joe interrupted. “We’re going after their base.”

  Battlemaster Gokli narrowed his eyes at him. “Where is that bastard? I thought he got blown up with the others.”

  “He’s directing the surviving platoons on the ground,” Joe said. “They’re fighting rebels over by the barracks.”

  “Then he’ll be here soon and I can hear it from him,” Gokli said. “Until then, take up positions to guard the armory.”

  “We have to go now,” Joe said. “I know where to find Na’leen.”

  “You’re recruits,” Gokli snapped. “Lagrah’s insane to send you off by yourself.”

  “My platoon’s got the best rankings on the hunts,” Joe said stubbornly.

  Gokli gave him a long, piercing glare. “You realize this isn’t a game, right Zero? They will kill you and all of your friends and not even blink.”

  “I know,” Joe said.

  Gokli swiveled and led him deeper into the armory. “Fahjli grenades,” he grunted, shoving handfuls of little black discs that resembled bottlecaps into his arms. “Twist the two halves in opposite directions and toss it at the fire-loving Huouyt. It stuns them like a flash grenade, except it only works on Huouyt.”

  Joe passed the grenades to the other members of his platoon, then followed Gokli further down the endless rows of weapons.

  “Jreet rounds,” Gokli said, shoving packs of bright red canisters at him. “Use it like your fake plasma, except this stuff will really kill you. It’s the only poison a Huouyt bastard can’t neutralize with a shape-shift.” He began taking the stuff off the shelves, handing packs of it to Joe and his groundmates. “Didn’t exactly plan on fighting a war with the Huouyt, so there’s a limited supply. Good thing is, though, it only takes one hit to kill them. Even a spatter will do.”

  Once he was finished, Gokli hesitated, scowling at Joe. Finally, he said, “Take Rat and her squad. I can fight off the rebels with the rest.”

  “I don’t think—” Joe began.

  “Do it, Zero. You’ll need the help.”

  Joe collected the others and passed out the new rounds to Rat and her friends. Joe caught Libby’s cold look when she handed Bailey his portion of the new weaponry, and an image of Libby sprawled in her own blood, a lump of dirty flesh laying in the dirt beside her returned to Joe’s mind. Bailey, in turn, gave her an anxious glance as he snapped the chamber closed over the new rounds.

  He did it, Joe thought, suddenly furious. He’s the one.

  “Get out of here,” Gokli shouted. “Before the Huouyt blow up your haauk!”

  Joe and the others clambered aboard the haauk as the remnants of Second Battalion covered their retreat. Then Joe fired up the haauk and they were soaring above the chaos, shooting eastward, looking for a needle in a haystack.

  Three hours later, they had still not found the door. Back in Alishai, silence had descended upon the city. For hours, they had anxiously listened to the battle, jerking at every explosion. Now, the stillness seemed ominous. Lagrah still had not appeared with his promised assistance.

  “So where is it?” Rat demanded. She had been angry that Gokli had made her leave the fight, even angrier to find out Joe didn’t know where he was going.

  “It’s somewhere around here,” Libby said. “Just shut up.”

  “I’m a burning battlemaster. If I want to know why I’m riding around with this loser when my friends are dying, I’m gonna find out.” She turned her hawkish gaze on Joe. “So why do you know where this place is, anyway?”

  “Lagrah showed me once.”

  Rat gave Joe a narrow look. “Right. Find that door or I’m going back.”

  “Then you’re gonna have to find out some way to fly, because Joe’s the only one who knows how to use the haauk,” Maggie said. Her tone of voice added, Bitch.

  “Listen!” Joe shouted. “It’s around here somewhere. The last thing I need you guys to do is fight. Rat, if you wanna go back, I’ll put you on the ground, but I’m not flying us back. Commander Lagrah told me to find this place, and I’m going to.”

  Mention of the Prime Commander made Rat’s face sour. “Just hurry up.”

  They found the entrance twenty minutes later, the door wide open. Three dozen dead Ooreiki lay on the ferlii branch outside, their brownish faces contorted in pain.

  “Soot, Joe,” Scott whispered to him. “I think there’s something big moving down there.”

  Joe drew closer, frowning at their blue Peacemaker uniforms. One of the closer ones held a scaly, cream-colored lump of flesh in a death-tightened tentacle. Beside him, almost falling off the branch, a small Jreet lay with its cream-colored throat torn open, the fanglike appendage in its chest unsheathed.

  One moment, Joe was staring at the dead Jreet, the next a recruit behind him cried out and fell, convulsing. His biosuit was even then sealing over a puncture wound in his chest.

  “Jreet!” Joe shouted. “Look out for Jreet!”

  Rat dropped to a knee and raised her rifle at the same time Libby jerked, then flipped around and smashed a boot into thin air. Around them, the ferlii suddenly vibrated with an ear-splitting shee-whomp, the sound of an aircraft engine gone awry. A huge reddish figure shimmered in front of her, then slammed a fang-tipped appendage down at her leg with all the strength in its powerful central limb. Joe’s heart stopped.

  Libby’s biosuit deflected the fang and reddish poison spilled over her leg, dribbling onto the branch beneath them. Unfazed by her brush with death, Libby slammed the butt of her rifle into the Jreet’s diamond-shaped head.

  The Jreet snapped around like a whip and slammed its upper body into Libby, knocking her clear off the ferlii branch. Joe heard a startled cry as she fell over the edge. The Jreet made another eardrum-piercing shee-whomp cry and found another target.

  Recruits everywhere were running from the monster in their midst. The Jreet was nearly half the length of a school bus, built like a massive python with a nearly humanoid torso. It lashed out again, jabbing its spear-like shaft into another recruit’s back. She fell and curled into a ball on the ground, never uttering a sound.

  Rat had retreated fifteen feet and was back on one knee, aiming her rifle at the Jreet’s flickering head. It disappeared again before she could fire.

  Joe backed away, heart pounding in his ears, knowing he wouldn’t be able to see the thing until it struck again. “Everybody keep your eyes open!” he shouted, hoping his command would draw the Jreet’s attention to him.

  “He’s right there!” Scott screamed, spinning and pointing at thin air. A kid that had taken refuge in the entrance suddenly collapsed in silence, a red shape disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.

  “There’s two of them!” Rat shouted at him.

  “Yeah,” Scott shrieked. “Two!” His head was swinging back and forth, like he was watching two different grim reapers stalking towards them. He brought his rifle up and fired, coating something invisible in red Jreet poison.

  Joe was busy twisting the fahjli grenade, activating it. He threw it at the spot where the Jreet had disappeared. It hit something in the air and bounced to the ground, closer to Joe than he would have liked. He ducked, flinching.

  There was a brief blue flash, then nothing.

  “They don’t work!” Joe shouted.

  “Rifle rounds aren’t working either!” Rat shouted. “I’ve hit that asher twice and he keeps on going!”

  “Are Jreet immune to Jreet poison?” Joe cried.

  “How should I burning know?!”

  Joe bit his lip as another recruit crumpled, her biosuit punctured by the Jreet’s powerful strike. “Keep your rifle pointed at him, Scott!” he shouted
, running back to the haauk.

  “Where the ashes are you going?!” Rat demanded.

  “I’m getting rid of them!” Joe climbed onto the haauk, raised it off the branch, and twisted it around to the spot where one of the Jreet was whipping its tail through the recruits, slamming them to the ground. An unfortunate few went careening over the edge, screaming.

  Scott continued to point out the Jreet with his rifle, though he was backing up, now. “It’s coming at me, Joe!” Scott cried.

  “Just hang in there!” Joe shouted, then he sighted down Scott’s line of fire and crammed the accelerator forward.

  The haauk hit something invisible head-on and a Jreet flickered into being, snapping its fang against the armored plating of the ship. It tumbled a couple yards, its crimson-and-cream body whipping back and forth like an angry earthworm. Joe held on and rammed the haauk into its middle with all the speed the ship could muster.

  Both ship and Jreet went sliding down the ferlii branch, leaving a blue streak of Jreet flesh and blood along the way. Screaming its shee-whomph cry, the Jreet wrapped its body around the haauk’s bow and held on, bluish fluid leaking over the ferlii branch beneath it. Joe was maneuvering the haauk and its unfortunate victim over the edge of the ferlii when something like a hammer slammed into his back.

  The second Jreet had found him.

  The Jreet grabbed Joe by the head and threw him out of the haauk. Joe hit the ground in a roll, the edge fast approaching.

  Someone caught him and jerked him to his feet.

  “You okay?” Maggie asked. “I saw him hit you with his fang.”

  Joe felt his back. “I’m all right. Where’s Rat?”

  Maggie pointed to the haauk. Rat was wrestling the Jreet inside, ramming her combat knife into its throat over and over. The Jreet had long since stopped fighting. The Jreet trapped under the haauk’s bow was being similarly dismantled by Carl and the rest of Fourth Platoon.

  Joe jogged over to Rat and helped pull her out from under the alien’s body. “You okay?”

  “Fine,” Rat snapped. She looked him up and down with disdain. “You?” The old rivalry was back.

  “Dude,” Carl said breathlessly. “Guys, I think we just killed two Jreet.”

  “They were little ones,” Rat grunted dismissively, at the same time Joe said, “Don’t get cocky, those were babies.” He turned to the haauk. “Help me here. We need to block the door.”

  With Rat’s help, he pushed the Jreet corpses over the armored railing and moved the haauk to block the entrance. Once they were sure no more Jreet were going to sneak up on them, Joe took a moment to stare at the devastation. No less than twenty kids lay dead on the ferlii branches, with a dozen more missing.

  “Now what?” Rat demanded, eying the haauk. “How are we getting home?”

  “We’re not. Lagrah told us to go in.”

  “Burn that,” Rat spat. “Are you crazy? We’ll all die.”

  “If Zero says we go in, we go in.”

  Joe turned at Libby’s voice, unable to believe it. She was alive, and standing over the flagellate body of the dead Jreet. “Libby, how—”

  “I hit another branch, about a hundred feet down.” She stood, shouldering a dead recruit’s rifle. “I had to find my way back.”

  Even Rat looked impressed.

  Libby scanned the branch and her confident smile suddenly faded. “Oh no.”

  Joe’s eyes caught on Maggie, who was sitting by a body, her knees up to her chin, rocking back and forth. “Maggie, get over here.”

  Maggie shook her head and continued rocking.

  Still, it took Joe a moment to realize the body was Scott’s.

  CHAPTER 37: Into the Lion’s Den

  “No, Joe, please. Don’t make us go in there.” Maggie was sobbing, hugging him. “What if you and Libby die, too? I’d be all alone, Joe.”

  “Grow up, Mag,” Lib said. Her face had hardened after her initial shock, and now she only looked angry. “We’re not gonna die.”

  “Joe,” Maggie sniffled, ignoring Libby. “Please. I’m scared.”

  Joe winced. First Elf, then Monk, now Scott. Maggie was watching the only family she had ever known drop like flies. “We have to, Mag. Lagrah will bring more.”

  Maggie looked up at Libby, then tugged Joe’s arm, pulling him away from the others. Joe stiffened, thinking she was going to try and act cute to get out of the fight, but once they were alone, she simply stared at him. “Are you really gonna ruin Congress, Joe? Is that why we’re fighting?”

  Joe suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. He glanced at the door, his eyes raking in all the dead recruits, the dead Jreet, and the dead Ooreiki Peacemakers.

  “No,” Joe said, taking a breath. Saying it hurt and at the same time was a relief. He knew what he had to do, but he also knew that doing it would mean giving up on getting home. “I’m not. That’s why we’re doing this. We’ve got to stop Na’leen.”

  “But the Trith said—”

  “Forget about the Trith!” Joe snapped. “I’m fighting for Congress.”

  “No,” Maggie wailed. “You’re lying.”

  Joe stared at her. She was his groundmate and she didn’t believe him?

  Maggie clung to him. “Don’t go in there, Joe. Please.”

  She was making a scene and Joe knew he had to end it before her fear spread to the rest of the recruits. Sharply, he said, “Libby’s right. Grow up. You’re a soldier, not a baby. Start acting like it. This is what we do. If you don’t like it, sit out here and cry. The rest of us are going in.” At that, he wrenched her arms from around him and stalked toward the haauk.

  In front of it, Libby, Bailey, and Rat dropped to a knee, preparing to fire into the entrance. Joe climbed into the haauk and, once he was sure the others were ready, moved it away from the door. Immediately, Libby tossed a smoke grenade inside and they waited.

  “Nothing,” Libby said as purple smoke issued from the hole. “Or if there is something in there, it’s not moving.”

  “All right, everyone get ready.”

  “Joe…” Maggie whispered, the whites of her eyes showing under her biosuit.

  “Stop your whining, recruit!” Joe snapped. He tried not to look at her, knowing how much his words would hurt. It lanced his soul just to say them. “Let’s go.”

  #

  Joe stopped in the crossways, his every muscle tense and buzzing with adrenaline. Behind him, his comrades came to a reluctant halt. Their small group was breathing hard, panic from the last Jreet attack still hot in their lungs.

  “This isn’t a good idea,” Libby said, staring down the four-way corridor in the dim red light. “We should go back and wait for Lagrah.”

  Their group was huddled together in the convergence, their rifles jerking from spot to spot as they nervously scanned the tunnels before them. They had encountered two more Jreet and seven Huouyt. Only a third of their original number had survived. Those that had now used plasma pistols they had taken off the Huouyt. The Jreet rounds, they had confirmed, did not work on Jreet.

  “We’ve gotta do our best without him,” Joe said.

  “Everyone’s dying,” Bailey said. He, Tank, and Rat were the only three that Gokli had given them that had survived. Their friends had all fallen. “She’s right, Zero. We should go back.”

  “You scared, Bailey?”

  Bailey scowled at Libby. “I wasn’t scared when I was crawling through sewers in San Diego with Rat and I’m not scared now. Are you scared, bitch?”

  Joe slammed the muzzle of his plasma pistol between Bailey’s eyes, pushing him into the wall. Into his face, he shouted, “You burning shut up or I’ll cut out your tongue, you fucking ashsoul!”

  Bailey’s eyes went wide under the biosuit.

  Quietly, Joe added, “You touch any of my friends again and you’ll be puking out your own guts. I should kill you right now for what you did, in front of everybody.”

  “She started it,” Bailey whispered.

&
nbsp; “Furgsoot!” Joe roared, shoving the gun further into Bailey’s face.

  “Stop threatening my recruit,” Rat snapped. “He’s right. This is stupid. What the hell are we supposed to do down here, Zero?”

  Joe lowered the pistol, still glaring at Bailey. “Lagrah told me to come.” But they’re right. It’s crazy. We’re just recruits. We shouldn’t be here.

  “Lagrah’s a sootbag furg,” Libby said.

  “He is not!” Rat snapped. She looked ready to throw down her rifle and fight Libby for insulting her Prime. “If he said to do it, then he must’ve had a reason.” Still, she looked unsure as she gazed down the four long corridors.

  “Like what?” Libby demanded. “There’s an entire planet rebelling. How’s one little hidey-hole gonna make the difference between—”

  The plasma shot hit her rifle head-on and splattered over the two closest recruits. Libby dropped her rifle and stared down at herself, stunned. Somehow, the plasma hadn’t hit her.

  “Get your biosuits off!” Joe shouted at the two panicking recruits. Libby picked up one of their rifles and began spraying the corridor with Jreet poison. Along with what seemed like a hundred moving shapes in the far corridor, they saw predatory aliens on six legs with way too many teeth. Several kids around Joe let out little whimpers and began to bawl even as they fired their rifles.

  “Careful!” Joe shouted. “At least they’re not Jreet. We can kill them!” He threw a fahjli grenade down the corridor and watched the monstrous-shaped Huouyt scatter. Several got hit with the blue flash and their bodies reverted back to their squid-like form with a colorful flutter. They fell to the ground and remained motionless as the children around Joe pelted their bodies with Jreet poison.

  Then they saw a real Jreet—its head held almost fifteen feet off the ground, hunched over in the low corridor like some monster in its dungeon—and barely had time to flinch before the massive thing was on them, bowling them over like they were made of cardboard. It caught Bailey and pinned him against the floor with a huge tail, and only his biosuit kept it from crushing his chest. Its poison-tipped appendage unsheathed under its head and it reared back to slam it into Bailey’s chest.