Maeve immediately sensed what had just happened. It felt like a soft, soothing voice inside her head had suddenly been silenced. A sort of mental bond which had slowly been repairing itself was shattered, leaving a yawning emptiness of sadness and regret. The girl stood up and let out an ear-piercing wail. “Dhara!”
Hauk had just managed to activate the self-repair diagnostic on his suit when he noticed Maeve running over to where Dhara had fallen. The boy sat up and looked straight up at the towering security robot above him. Fumbling for his laser pistol, he began shouting towards the girl. “Maeve, look out!”
The security robot ignored the boy as it strode over to where Maeve had run to. It locked its weapons onto the girl as she knelt down beside the writhing woman lying on the ground. “Subject Zero identified. You are to follow me immediately.”
Tears were running down Maeve’s cheeks, fogging up her helmet visor. She looked up in anger at the robot standing above her. “Leave us alone!”
Less than a hundred meters away, the artifact began to glow with a strange golden radiance. With its sensors quickly noticing the new disturbance, the security robot had managed to twist its main torso when a forked beam of energy erupted from the pointed tip of the relic and struck the armored machine on the top of its body. The intense surge of superheated plasma penetrated its hardened optical systems, completely short-circuiting its quantum-based processing core.
The security bot swayed unsteadily back and forth like a drunken giant barstool before toppling over, crashing to the side several meters away.
Hauk had seen the whole event with his own eyes and he could hardly believe it. The boy stood up and quickly made his way over to stand beside a kneeling Maeve. “It looked like a bolt of lightning just came out of the relic and hit the bot. What could have caused that?”
Maeve cradled Dhara’s head in her arms. The girl was weeping uncontrollably. “Duncan … please. Help her.”
Hauk ran a medical scan on Dhara. He let out a sigh of resignation. “I’m sorry, Maeve. She’s gone.”
“I forgive you,” Maeve said softly to her, even though it was too late. “You were my only mother.”
Keo ran over to them, still cradling the laser rifle. “Holy antecessors, I’ve never seen such a sight. Is she dead?”
Hauk nodded. “Yeah. I think Maeve somehow willed the artifact to unleash some sort of weapon that took down the bot.”
Keo turned and readied his weapon when his helmet’s proximity sensors began beeping. “Fekk. We need to get going. Right now.”
Maeve didn’t move. She continued to hold on to Dhara’s body as if it was the only thing that mattered. “Leave me alone.”
Hauk bent down, trying to gently take the girl by the arm. “Maeve, please. We can’t stay here.”
Maeve resisted his attempts. “No, no. We can’t leave her like this.”
Six humanoid forms emerged from the mist and surrounded them. At first Hauk thought they were from the Union, but the hard chitinous shell coverings on their bio-suits indicated they were from the other side. The Concordance had sent in their own forces to investigate.
One of the bio-warriors stepped forward. His outer covering had a dark green tinge to it, and whatever being was beneath the grotesque-looking opaque helmet seemed to glow slightly with an eerie phosphorescence. They resembled an unholy fusion of man and crustacean, for even the outside surface of their suits periodically excreted a slimly substance from gaping pores in between the gaps of their armor.
Keo had aimed his laser rifle at the intruders the moment they emerged from the mist. “Back off, slimeballs.”
The lead bio-warrior tilted his head up as two antennae extended from the back of his helmet. The com-link voice they heard was low-pitched, as if coming from the hollow of a gnarled, twisted tree. “You have made an unauthorized excursion into this quarantine zone. You are all under arrest.”
Keo grimaced. “Like hell we are.”
“Any type of resistance will be viewed as hostility, and we are within treaty jurisdiction to eliminate you.”
“Well, I’m not a Union citizen, I’m with the League of Independent Worlds, so screw you and your treaties,” Keo said as he held his ground. “We’re leaving quietly, so you can have this piece of dirt.”
“Put down your weapon and surrender,” the bio-warrior said. “We will not ask again.”
“We’re leaving, so you can’t detain us,” Keo said as he began moving sideways. “Duncan, get her and let’s go!”
Hauk crouched low and gently took Maeve by the elbow. “Come on, Maeve, we gotta go.”
“Stop where you are,” the bio-warrior said.
Keo continued to move backwards, followed closely by Hauk as the boy continued to lead a dazed Maeve along with him.
One of the other bio-warriors along the flank moved in, attempting to grab hold of Keo’s rifle, but the youthful sergeant turned and fired, striking the warrior’s chest at close range. The short burst staggered the enemy warrior, but it quickly swung its spiked arm, narrowly missing Keo, who managed to duck just in time.
Keo was nearly out of options. He fired a full burst at point-blank range, hitting the opposing bio-warrior’s face. Although the enemy soldier’s helmet took most of the impact and absorbed it, two pulsed laser blasts burned through the thick outer chitin and into the brain case of whatever was inside of it. The bio-warrior let out a gurgling noise before it fell backwards.
The other bio-warriors around them raised their knotted arms and began to fire back before shifting sideways to take cover among the outlying boulders. The weapons they discharged vaguely resembled their Union counterparts’ own, with dart-like projectiles traveling at near supersonic speed and biological laser weapons emanating from crystalline lenses along their forearms.
Keo had heroically positioned himself in front of Maeve and Hauk. The bio-warriors made him their primary target, and he took the brunt of their attacks. Keo’s hard suit absorbed most of the damage, and his arms and torso looked similar to a porcupine’s, with embedded spikes sticking out from them.
His suit was severely damaged and he knew it. Keo howled in rage as he brought up his rifle, only to be hit by a second barrage of weapons from three sides. The young sergeant’s hard suit finally gave way as one penetrating spiked flechette pierced his heart. Keo staggered sideways for a bit, firing his laser rifle without hitting anyone, before he finally toppled over and died.
Hauk tried to use his jump thrusters to leap away from the fray while holding on to Maeve, but one of the bio-warriors grabbed hold of his ankle just as he made the jump and threw him across the landscape with incredible strength. Both Hauk and Maeve landed in a heap as they collided with one of the nearby boulders.
The boy quickly got up, but one of the embedded spikes along his forearm had injected a neurotoxin that spread through his nervous system. Hauk lost all feelings in his limbs and fell to the ground beside a screaming Maeve. Breathing soon became hard as darkness drew its curtains over him.
24 Hot Extraction
Garrett Strand gritted his teeth while continuing to hide behind one of the many boulders in the area. The suit’s command link had just indicated his entire strike team had been lost. The numerous hostile contacts in his sensors told him the Concordance must have sent in a large contingent of bio-warriors to secure the artifact.
He gripped the laser carbine tightly while looking out at the thick, nearly opaque mist in front of him. What am I going to do now? Dhara and Keo are gone.
The signals coming from Duncan Hauk’s and Maeve Lindros’s hard suits revealed they were still alive, but it was apparent they had been taken prisoner. There are too many Concordance soldiers out here. I can’t go after them by myself.
Strand weighed his options. Attempting a one-man rescue would be tantamount to suicide. He would need help, and it meant he needed to call in for an extraction. But time wasn’t on his side, for he knew the Concordance would surely send the prisoners off-plan
et in order to interrogate them once they were safely within their territory. He needed to track and intercept the two kids the moment they were transported, but how?
They’ll surely remove the AI implants before bringing them off-planet, he thought. I’ll have to find another way to track them.
Strand turned and began making his way back towards the ATV. Maybe Xander might know of a way. I’ll need to use the vehicle’s com-link system since it takes a lot of power to get a message past the thick atmosphere of this hellhole.
Moving from one boulder to the next, Strand could only see a few meters ahead of him. For some unknown reason the haze all around him had suddenly thickened, as if the planet itself was making an effort to hide the chaotic landscape. I just hope they didn’t find our vehicle, otherwise I’m screwed.
A voice erupted in his audio speakers, startling him temporarily. “You there. Halt!”
Strand ducked down and rolled sideways on the ground, a burst of flechettes narrowly missing his back. He could tell the firing had come from his rear left flank. Strand quickly found cover while turning towards the direction of the attack.
The crocodile-like voice of the Concordance bio-warrior lacked any emotion, eerily similar to the monotone audio of a synthetic. “You are surrounded on all sides. Surrender and you will live.”
Strand cursed. He was already wanted by the Union authorities and would probably be exchanged in a prisoner swap. Being captured held no illusions for him. Boosting the power of his com-link to full, he directed it up to the mist-filled skies above him. “Xander, come in, over.”
“You have ten seconds to come out with your hands up,” the leader of the bio-warriors said. “After that we will use full force.”
Strand grimaced. “Xander, you son of a bitch, come in! I need a hot extraction now, over.”
All he got was static.
“Five seconds,” the bio-warrior said.
Strand looked around. He noticed the bulky outlines of their insect-like armor behind a number of boulders facing him. Strand counted about four of them. They seemed to have covered every direction except towards the northwest, though it was obvious they had called in for reinforcements to block that route off the moment they spotted him. He needed to get out of the kill zone right away.
The audio link from the bio-warrior remained active. “Full lethality is approved.”
Several bursts of fire quickly erupted from three sides, hitting the surface of the boulder in front of him. Strand waited until they began to shift their firing positions before adjusting his jump thrusters and activating them.
When the sound of his suit jets activated, two of the bio-warriors fired several shots above the large volcanic rock Strand had taken cover behind, expecting him to leap up into the sky to try and avoid them.
The ex-VIPR operative did the unexpected, firing his jump thrusters sideways to give him an extra boost while keeping his feet on the ground. Strand made a lightning sprint towards the northwest, expecting to get through the still-open flank before they could close the trap on him. Just as he shot through the gap, another bio-warrior suddenly appeared from behind one of the jutting rocks beside him and delivered a wicked kick to his torso.
Even though Strand tried to avoid the incoming kick, the blow connected. While he didn’t take any physical damage, it made him lose his balance, and Strand careened sideways into a solid nanocarbon blast wall before his body ricocheted again, this time rolling along the ground. The laser carbine flew away from his hands upon the first impact, and was lost in the low-hanging mist.
The gyros in his suit had been jarred out of whack, and Strand got back up just in time to stare at the bio-warrior aiming its arm-mounted weapons straight at him.
“You were warned,” the bio-warrior said while it aimed and activated its flechette guns.
Strand cursed again while bracing for the incoming fire. His luck had just run out.
A shadowy outline emerged just beside the Concordance soldier, completely surprising it. The bio-warrior refrained from firing at the last second and glanced sideways, its senses detecting something extremely close. Strand’s own helmet readings indicated multiple new contacts had abruptly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
Before either of them could react, a monstrous creature leapt out from the foggy ground and launched itself at the startled bio-warrior, its wide jaws clamping down on the victim’s thick neck. The Concordance soldier fired its flechette weapon, but the griglak was too close, and two of its middle legs kicked the bio-warrior’s arms aside while using its weight to bring its prey down. Despite its enhanced strength, the bio-warrior fell flat on its back. The griglak began to excrete a highly toxic acid from its mouth while continuing to chew through the warrior’s chitinous armor.
Strand turned around and dashed in between two blast walls. His sensor suite made constant beeping sounds, warning him about the numerous griglaks now swarming the area. Although he was glad one of the creatures had saved his life, a sense of curiosity began to creep into his thoughts. Did Maeve’s unleashing of the artifact’s power to take down the security bot have something to do with the sudden appearance of these monsters?
The sensors in his helmet told him something solid was hiding in the haze, right where he was intending to go. Strand had no doubts it was another griglak, probably waiting to spring the trap when he got too close. He glanced behind him, and his sensors indicated the other bio-warriors were still trying to pursue, but they were now fighting for their lives amidst the rapid attack of the griglaks.
Strand activated his jump thrusters as he leapt over a tall slab of rock, completely bypassing the obvious trap along the gully. The planet’s higher-than-average gravity was taxing his suit’s movement capabilities, and he regretted not installing more powerful thrusters at the back when he had the chance. It’s always the little things one forgets about until it’s too late.
The mist near the edge of the dig had thinned out, and he already had a visual of the hill the ATV had been parked behind. Just a few hundred meters to go, he thought, then I can gain some real distance and get my wits back.
The constant alerts on his visor’s smartglass had somewhat numbed him to the danger in the area, and in his rush towards the ATV he had overlooked another potential ambush point along a rock outcropping. Strand had only a split second to react when another griglak leapt out of its hiding place and tried to clamp its jaws around his head.
Instead of putting an arm up or ducking forward, Strand bent over backwards, making the creature’s leaping attack miss by mere centimeters. The griglak hadn’t expected that kind of reaction and it had already overextended its momentum in one direction, allowing Strand to easily push himself away from the creature’s thrusting body while remaining upright.
Strand activated his thrusters once again, jumping over the side of the ravine and onto the base of the hill. The ATV was just behind the other side, its remote signal now making contact with his suit’s com-link. Hopefully the Concordance didn’t find and disable it or anything, he thought while making another leap onto the hilltop.
The moment his feet touched the top of the fused volcanic ridge the ground suddenly moved, tilting him sideways. Strand was off-balance, and he used his right arm to stop himself from falling down the slope as the griglak hiding underneath him reared up and tried to bite down on his chest.
Strand cursed as he sat up, using his hands to grab the sides of the griglak’s massive jaws, barely preventing the creature from clamping its mouth on his face. The suit’s servos strained against the griglak’s tremendous strength, and somehow held. It looked like a stalemate, but he knew it wouldn’t last long once the other griglaks caught up to them.
A stream of vile liquid erupted from the goggle-eyed creature’s throat and made a sizzling puddle on his chest. His suit sensors began blaring an alarm once more, indicating his outer armor was being dissolved by some sort of powerful molecular acid. If the griglak spat at him again, the next attack
might just breach the suit.
Strand placed the heel of his right foot onto the creature’s side and activated his jump thrusters. The sudden blast of plasma from the exhaust ports distressed the creature long enough for Strand to push away and make a successful jump over towards the other side of the hill.
Bounding over to the side of the ATV, Strand grimaced as he pushed himself into the small airlock and quickly cycled the air inside the compartment to human norms. Once the atmosphere matched the level of the interior cabin, he quickly began to peel off his hard suit. A slight burning sensation on his chest meant the acid those monsters were using had already burned through the armor.
After he took off his helmet, Strand quickly worked to remove the smoldering chest piece from his body. Loosening the side panels by his torso, he threw the armor aside and stared down at his chest. The bio-gel had partially solidified and protected his skin from the acid. Sighing with relief, Strand sat back along the side of the module and closed his eyes. “Damn, that was close.”
A loud crash on the vehicle’s roof brought him back to reality. Strand opened the inner airlock hatch and quickly made his way towards the cockpit. The pounding above him continued while the ATV’s alarms began screeching. Obviously one of the griglaks had leapt on top of the vehicle and was trying to pry him out.
Strand sat down on the driver’s seat while starting up the engine. “Don’t these damned things ever give up?”
The com-link system crackled to life amidst the static, with Xander Gunhardt’s gravel-like voice coming online. “Garrett, did you say you needed a pickup?”
Strand gunned the accelerator, and the griglak on the roof nearly slipped off. The ATV lurched forward, though it was obvious he couldn’t go very fast because the low visibility would invite a crash. “Yeah, a hot one!”
“On the way; I’m giving you the coordinates.”
Strand looked at the readouts on the dashboard while turning the steering wheel left then right, hoping to shake the monster off the roof. “That’s almost fifty klicks away!”
Nepenthe Rising (Stars in Shadow Book 1) Page 26
