Stranded (ESS Space Marines Book 7)

by James David Victor

  “Sergeant?” Andy asked tightly.

  “I’m not sensing anything nearby,” Roxanna replied, trying to watch the trees with every sense that she had. “But I can always sense them somewhat. There are many of them in this forest. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many.”

  “That was more information than I needed, Sergeant,” the major replied wryly.

  “Sorry, sir.”

  The tension seemed to rise with every step, and Roxanna felt nearly choked by it, but she pressed on. The fire from the torch, since the pilot was right behind her, started to heat the back of her neck. She felt her skin swirling with her agitation, that faint tingling that moved just beneath her skin.

  “I’m not sure if I should envy you or not,” Viator said. He was carrying the front of one stretcher, roughly even with her as they walked slowly.

  “Why is that?” she asked without looking at him, keeping her eyes on constant movement to all sides that she could see.

  “The empathy,” he went on. “It seems very useful, yet incredibly troubling.”

  She smiled wryly. “You would be accurate on both counts,” she said. “It can be particularly difficult for us to be around humans a lot.”

  Viator frowned slightly, thoughtfully. “Why is that? Why more so than others?”

  “There are plenty of others who are the same,” she was quick to clarify. “But humans are…chaotic. My people are strongly emotional, but because we are an empathic race, an orderliness to our thoughts is a requirement for survival. Humans do not possess that mental order, and that can be difficult for a Selerid, especially when we are new to it.”

  “Then why join the ESS?” he asked. “If it’s so difficult, what’s the point? I know that you are not like us. You have…more of a choice.”

  “We do have a choice,” she said. For a moment, she paused, thinking she’d felt something approach…but then the feeling vanished. “We always have a choice, and anyone who serves in the ESS is there because they choose to be. A Selerid chooses to serve because we believe that our service will help. Normally, we enter the medical and psychological departments.”

  “But not you.” It was half question and half statement.

  She smiled wryly, purple eyes rising to survey the darkness of the forest canopy above her. “No, not me.”

  There was a long pause while he waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. “Why not?”

  “That’s a story for another time,” she said, not feeling like discussing her entire personal history with someone who had been the enemy just a few days ago.

  Suddenly, the feverish Arkana screamed.

  Everyone stopped, terrified at the attention the sound would cause.

  “Shut him up!” the major hissed.

  The Arkana carrying his stretcher stopped and put him down so they could lean in and try to sooth him back to quiet. It didn’t work and he screamed again, so Marthe pulled something out of her pocket and injected him.

  He instantly fell silent. So silent, that for a moment Roxanna thought they had euthanized him. After all, they all committed suicide when they were captured, so would murder be so far out of the realm of possibility? But a moment later, she saw his chest rise and fall, and felt his existence with her empathy.

  She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

  They all stood there, staring at one another as they waited to see if the commotion would bring the beasts down upon them.

  Somehow, it didn’t.

  “Keep moving,” Andy ordered, voice still low and tight.

  Marthe and Igno picked up the stretcher again, and they all marched forward in silence, and darkness…and fear.

  14

  Claustrophobia.

  It was coming for them all.

  Unfortunately for the two injured Arkana, they got the short end of the stick. They were bundled under the line of seats where the Marines would sit when the ship was actually space-borne and moving. The feverish one was unconscious and didn’t care. The coherent one wasn’t thrilled, but too feeble to complain. The pilot and Jade were now permanent residents in the cockpit, while the rest of them found places in the seats and on the floor. Except for whoever was on watch.

  They had brought the water, food, and medical supplies from the Arkana ship here, which was also taking up space.

  In a word, it was miserable.

  “How long do you think we’re going to have to remain this way?” Marthe asked with a sigh, leaning her head back. “I’m almost beginning to think being eaten by the creatures isn’t so bad after all.”

  “I’m not sure if they want to eat us or just make sure we’re dead,” Andy returned. “I just hope they aren’t too smart.”

  Enzo looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

  She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “So far, they have attacked us in small groups. It was bad, but we could mostly handle it. If they figure that out and attack in numbers… We could be in trouble. None of us are in a state to fight a full-scale battle.”

  No one replied, so she took that as agreement.

  The gleaming city stood before her.

  It had been a while since she’d had one of these dreams. The nightmares about Station Eclipse had taken over for a while, but now…here she was again. On a planet where she was building new nightmare fodder, she returned to the world of the Arkana. A place she had never seen, but apparently knew what it looked like.

  Andy could at least appreciate her heightened lucidity and awareness. So, there was that.

  This was an area of the city she hadn’t seen before, though. She looked around and saw that she was on a hill on what she guessed was the north side. Normally, her dreams had her walking up from the south, from these broad plains and swaths of emptiness. She had a long way to go to reach the city.

  This time, she was practically already in the city. This area looked less industrial than others she’d been through. There was an air of opulence to it, and the thing that rattled around in her mind was that this was where the leadership lived. This place had a view over the city below, it looked down on them.

  So. This was where her father lived.

  She walked down the short expanse of hill remaining open between her and the back terrace. It was empty. Everything felt empty here.

  Andy moved into the terrace and looked at the flowers. They seemed to be everywhere, covering the ground and crawling up trellises. Blue. All of the flowers were blue, she noticed, but different shades. It made her think about Arkana eyes. They all had blue eyes. Except her, being only half.

  She looked like her mother.

  Crossing over the ivory-white stones, she moved to the house. The door was open. No, the door wasn’t there. There was no door. Or windows. It was all open, just decorative columns holding up a roof that looked like slate.

  She moved inside. There was the same opulence to the inside as the out, showing in all the furnishings. There was a lot of glass and crystal, she noticed. It was unlike anywhere she had ever seen in real life. It looked so…uptight.

  It made her want to use it all for target practice, but that was just her spiteful side coming out. It was just the side of her that hated her father. Not that she really knew the man at all, since the only time she’d met him had been after he tried to kill her and her Marines, but still. It seemed like reason enough.

  “You’re here.”

  That was her father’s voice.

  She sighed and dropped her head, almost like a teenager who had been found out sneaking back into the house after curfew.

  “It’s not like I have much choice.”

  There was a mechanism at work in all this that she didn’t understand. If she didn’t know better, she would have said that her father somehow communicated to her in her dreams. She had heard him speak before she ever met him, but he had been without face or form then. And she had been to this place many times without ever setting foot on it.

  But the Arkana were no
t supposed to be telepathic in any way. So…how?

  Andy turned around and faced the pale ghost of a person sitting in the chair at the far end of the room.

  He smiled at her. The expression was…smug. It took a lot of self-control to not sprint across the room and punch the expression off. Or at least remove some of his teeth and bruise his lips so he couldn’t do it anymore.

  It wasn’t, in truth, that Andy was a violent person. As a Marine, and as a commander of them, she knew the necessity of violence, but she did not crave it. Except with this man. This man who had brought war to her home. Who was willing to wipe out as much of humanity as was necessary to achieve his goals. To kill all humans who believed in the sanctity of life, be it from Earth or elsewhere.

  The Arkana took xenophobia to a new level, and she hated him for it.

  “I’m coming for you, old man,” she whispered, her expression and tone and whole being flat. “I’m coming for you, and when I get to you, I will end this…”

  15

  “Incoming!”

  At Dan’s shout from outside, the soldiers within the craft woke fast and turned into a single mass of movement, awkwardly moving against and over one another to get out of the shuttle. At any other time, it might have been comedic. At that time, it was just frustrating.

  They all spilled out of the shuttle with their weapons drawn, and without having shot any of each other. Dan was already fighting one four-armed beast, and another had just landed. They all angled their bodies away from the fire, although the mere presence of its light didn’t seem to be enough to keep them away.

  Andy didn’t waste time aiming and firing at the beast trying to crush her Marine. Any vestiges of her dream washed away with the gunfire. Her bullet was joined by an energy bolt of an Arkana weapon. The sight of it was enough to send a shudder down her spine, and she had to remind herself that it wasn’t aimed at her but at their common enemy.

  Both shots hit their target, and the beast roared and flailed back with its arms. It teetered on thickly muscled legs for a moment before springing forward, leaping right over Dan, and then jumping into the trees.

  That was not the last of their enemies, however.

  A small horde of them dropped from the trees like gigantic, furry, flailing rain. Several of them landed on the top of the shuttle and used their multiple hands to tear at the roof of the craft. Andy and Marthe noticed first, whirling to take aim at those particular creatures to try to stop them.

  Andy watched in horror as one creature took a part of the hull off and tossed it into the trees.

  “Yeah, your shelter is so much better,” Marthe shouted sarcastically over the noise of the fight, firing bolt after bolt as they frantically worked to knock off those creatures.

  “Oh, shut up!” Andy shouted right back without taking her eyes off the targets. “At least they have to work to get into this one!”

  Another piece of the outer hull came off, but Andy knew enough about her ship to know that there were multiple layers to it. They had to work harder to break through, but she knew that they could do it if given the chance. The bullets and bolts weren’t doing the job fast enough.

  She thought fast.

  Andy stopped firing and turned.

  “What are you doing?” Marthe shouted.

  “Hold them!”

  She sprinted the short distance to the fire and grabbed a burning log. It was thick, and hard to pick up. The fire was close to her hand, but her gloves somewhat protected her. She just had to hope it was long enough…

  Someone screamed behind her, but she couldn’t stop to look. There was a wet thud too, but she ignored that also.

  Major Dolan had to focus on the objective, and that was making sure those monsters didn’t destroy the only refuge they had. She raced back to where she’d been, where Marthe still held the line, and threw the log as hard and as high as she could. She hadn’t played sports since she was a teenager, but she did her best.

  And hoped that the fire didn’t go out on the way.

  Fortunately for her, it didn’t.

  The log hit the top of the shuttle with a thunk, and it only took a moment for the creatures to see it there. They stopped tearing and stared at it, until the first one tried to grab it and discovered that it hurt like hell. It shrieked as the fur on one of its hands lit up, flailing its hand around until it had succeeded in lighting two of the others on fire.

  The burning monsters jumped into the trees, while the others left the shuttle to jump to the ground and come for the one who’d done it.

  Normally, making yourself a target wasn’t meant to be the goal, but she’d take it in this case.

  Grabbing her weapon in both hands again, she took aim at the creature running toward her. At least, the closest one. She fired once and hit it center mass, but that didn’t seem to be enough. It kept running. It was so close, she knew she only had one more chance, and she took it.

  The bullet grazed the thing’s neck.

  And she was sure she was about to get steamrolled.

  But suddenly, a bolt of white energy lanced the sky and drove straight through the beast’s head. It was knocked sideways as it instantly fell. She looked at Marthe, who nodded once at her. She nodded back.

  And they got back to the fight.

  A beast had broken Jade’s gun in half.

  There was a long stream of words rushing through her head that she had only learned once she was in the Marines, but every one felt applicable in this moment, and had the moment been otherwise, she would have been saying them aloud.

  She jumped back, trying to avoid the arms sweeping in for her. The bottom one missed her, but the top didn’t. The big hand smacked the side of her neck, somehow fitting around it despite her helmet and armor. The grip was tight, and she felt the air starting to flee from her body.

  The beast lifted her, drawing her slowly to its open mouth. Its gaping, dog-like muzzle with large faintly-blue teeth. Was it going to eat her? Probably.

  Her lungs began to burn just as her head throbbed. She gripped the thing’s hand with both of hers, but didn’t try to pull it free. She knew it wouldn’t work, and would waste energy she needed.

  She struggled to breathe shallow. To not panic, which would force her body to try to take more air than she could. Jade was trained. She knew she could do this. She was a Marine.

  She could do this.

  She was a Marine.

  Her world began to grow dim around the edges, but she was close to the things face as the mouth opened wider. How could it move so slow when it attacked so fast? Or was her perception off because she was dying?

  No. She wasn’t dying.

  Close enough now.

  Using the hand like a pull-up bar, she fought to bring her knees up…

  …and kicked the beast in the neck.

  Fortunately for her, it needed its neck too. As much as she did. It dropped her in an instant, grabbing at it, wheezing and hacking.

  The youngest of the Marines of alpha squad hit the ground flat on her back, what little air she had left rushing out in a great gust. She gasped hard, that bit of air burning almost as much as not breathing had. She forced herself to roll over onto her hands and knees, ignoring the pain in her back as she got to her feet and rushed back toward the shuttle to find another weapon.

  16

  When the next creature stumbled into the fire clutching its throat and lit up, the whole band ran off. Just as suddenly as they came, they were gone.

  Andy knew they would be back.

  “Report,” she said wearily, looking down at her hand. The glove was partially melted and now that the battle was over, the adrenaline waned and it burned intensely. She tried to ignore, but it wasn’t easy.

  “Anallin is hurt, sir,” Roxanna said.

  The major hurried over to the pair. The Selerid was kneeling beside the Hanaran where it leaned back against a fallen log. It looked almost like half of its face had been clawed off, but it was still breathing and ta
lking so it couldn’t really be that bad. Just large gashes along the face, bleeding blue. Its eye-clicks were slow, but steady.

  “Here, sir.” Dan.

  “Here…sir…” Jade’s voice was hoarse, strained. Andy looked toward her and saw her holding her throat, breathing hard.

  “I’m alive,” Anath chimed in, just as wearily.

  Andy noted that none of the Arkana replied, and she looked around the clearing. “And the Arkana?”

  Enzo replied, “I didn’t know we were required to report.”

  She could have gone over there and smacked him. “It would be nice to know who’s alive.”

  To her surprise, he laughed. “Yes. Apologies. I’m alive.”

  “Injured but alive,” Igbo said. “I hurt terribly, but I can walk.”

  “Alive,” Viator said, but weakly.

  “Alive,” Marthe said, walking over to join Andy where she knelt in front of her people.

  She’d take what she could get.

  The members of the group still on their feet scouted around their camp and the trees above, but there weren’t any signs of the creatures returning immediately and Roxanna reported she didn’t sense any beings nearby. Once assured there, they went back to tending injuries while Andy scoped out the damage to the top of the shuttle.

  “We need to shore this up,” she declared. “Thomas, you’re on guard. Roxanna, keep taking care of Anallin and Martin. Anath, you’re with me. Let’s get this fixed.”

  “What about us?” Marthe called up from where she stood on the ground.

  “I don’t give the orders for your people,” Andy replied. “Where do you think you can best help?”

  Ingo surprised her by saying, “I will help with the roof.”

  The major tried to keep the surprise off her face, but apparently, she failed because he smirked up at her. “I can best help there.”

  She nodded once. “Let’s see if we can find the pieces that were torn off, but don’t go too far into the trees and don’t go alone.”