by M. R. Forbes
“It looks like it’s working, General,” Rico said. “They’re tracking you and the APC.”
Nathan checked the grid. The marks were beginning to shift forward, clearing the path for the civilians.
“Get them on the move,” Nathan said.
“Roger,” Rico replied.
Nathan looked ahead, just in time for the tank to vaporize another target. The machine’s ferocity seemed to be making the xaxkluth angry, seizing their attention and making it the primary objective.
Good.
“Hicks, more speed,” Nathan said. Now that they were following, he wanted to get the xaxkluth as far from the survivors as he could.
The tank sped up more, barely getting past a xaxkluth that came out from one of the alleys. Its tentacles slapped down on the back of the tank, and then it groaned as the APC tore into it, ripping it apart with its large rounds.
They crossed eight blocks, making it to the perimeter wall. The crushed vehicles had been toppled, their scrap metal bodies thrown about the area. The armored vehicles that served as gates were thrown effortlessly to the side, the whole thing like an easily opened can. The exit was dead ahead, but they would be the last ones to leave.
They slowed, turning down the street to the right. The turret moved independently, carrying Nathan the other way while it blasted a xaxkluth on the other side before it could reach them. He had a good view of the corridor from his mount. The APC was fifty meters back with a wall of tentacles behind it, nearly a dozen xaxkluth chasing it. He couldn’t see Rico and the others through the aliens, but he could picture them, advancing slowly and preparing to make a break for it.
“Hicks, around the corner and over a few blocks. We’ll make our stand and then—”
He stopped talking when he noticed the xaxkluth behind them stop moving. All at once, their front tentacles lifted and stretched backward, and they flipped themselves over to head in the opposite way.
“General, incoming!” Hicks shouted.
“What?” Nathan spun to the left as the armored modbox the Axon had taken rushed at them from the side. He sprinted toward the car, aiming his rifle at it to stop it before it could escape. His finger tightened on the trigger.
A blue glow emanated from inside the car, and then it flashed out, the energy beam blasting through the windshield and hitting him in the chest.
Everything went dark.
24
Caleb
“Colonel, are you okay?” Hotch repeated, still looking at him.
Walt was sitting up behind the corporal, still staring at Caleb, waiting to see what he would do.
“Hotch,” Caleb said calmly.
“Yes, Colonel?”
“Move.”
Hotch wasn’t sure what he meant, but Caleb didn’t wait. He shoved the corporal aside as he jumped off the rack and onto the floor. Walt did the same, and they landed facing one another, only centimeters apart.
Caleb, what happened to us?
The excursion into Vyte’s machine network flashed through Caleb’s mind, offering the experience to Ishek. He felt the Advocate’s disgust at the series of events.
Along with a tremble of fear at the sight of Nyarlath.
Free the Queen or join the maniac Axon. Those are our options?
“Colonel?” Hotch said, standing beside the pair. “What’d you shove me for?”
Walt moved, reflexes enhanced by whatever Relyeh species was driving her. Her hand hit Hotch in the chest, throwing him back. He landed in the stairwell, slipping and falling out of sight.
“Well, Card?” Walt said. “Are you in?”
Caleb stared into Walt’s eyes. Hormones flooded into him, triggered by Ishek. There was another option, and from where he was standing, he was confident it was the right one.
Destroy them both.
“No,” he replied. “I”m going to find you, and I’m going to end you.”
Walt replied with a sharp jab toward his face, so fast he never saw it, but he still managed to react to it. He jerked his head aside, sweeping his leg around her ankle and pulling her off-balance. She fell back into the racks, and he nearly won the fight with one punch. Caleb’s fist grazed her cheek before slamming into the wall and leaving a dent in the metal.
The blow left his guard open, and Walt lunged into it, hitting him in the gut with a few quick jabs. The punches forced him back, and he turned himself to get more space, raising his hands in defense.
Don’t drag this out. She’s trying to get into our heads.
Caleb felt a slight pressure. Her Relyeh was pushing at them the same way it had in the field. They couldn’t afford as much as a tie this time. If he lost consciousness again—if he wound up in the Collective again—he and Ishek were as good as dead.
He growled and surged forward, throwing a series of punches toward her head and chest. His hands were fast. Hers were equal. She blocked his shots one after another, finally grabbing his hand and turning it over, trying to break his wrist. He pulled back, dragging her off-balance and reversing the grab, turning and throwing her over his shoulder onto the floor.
Bad move.
Caleb realized it right after he did it, as Walt rolled backward to her feet. Now she was blocking the stairs, and he wanted to go down them.
“You could have been a general in the largest army in the universe,” Walt said. “You could have saved your entire country.”
“I’m a Marine,” Caleb replied. “My loyalty isn’t for sale.”
Walt rushed him, coming in harder and faster than before. The pressure in Caleb’s head was slowly increasing. Ishek was fighting back, but the Advocate couldn’t effectively combat the Relyeh and feed him chemical cocktails at the same time. Walt didn’t have to win. She only had to stall, which left Caleb in a bad spot.
He did his best to fend her off, but she managed to get him in the mouth with a hook. The force of the blow stunned him for a moment, and she landed three more punches, cracking a rib in the process. He stumbled back on the ropes, hands up in a weak effort to stop the offensive.
If Ishek could stun her only for an instant, he might be able to turn the tide.
If it doesn’t work, we’ll die.
They had to try. After the next punch left her off-balance.
She took it, the blow hitting Caleb in the chest with enough force it pushed him to the bulkhead. That turned out to be a benefit as it kept him upright while Ishek shoved back against the enemy parasite, using all of his force to take it by surprise.
Walt shuffled for an instant, her hands dropping. Caleb caught her at the waist and pushed her to the ground, keeping his momentum forward and rolling over her and back to his feet. The move left him facing the stairs with Walt behind him, back at full strength. The pressure in Caleb’s head intensified, Ishek weakened by the effort.
I can’t hold it long.
Caleb didn’t need much time. He entered the stairwell, practically collapsing down them. Hotch was still at the bottom, his neck bent at a bad angle, dead from the fall. Caleb jumped over him as Walt reached the top, giving chase.
He rounded the corner, reaching the outer hatch for reactor control. He dropped beside it, grabbing at the panel along the wall.
“What are you doing?” Walt said, coming up behind him. She grabbed his arm and pulled, throwing him into the opposite bulkhead. The pressure was becoming too intense, causing flashes of light in front of Caleb’s eyes.
Walt rounded on him, trapping him against the bulkhead. The panel was almost off. He just needed to get to it again. But how the hell was he supposed to get past her? He had already used his best move to surprise her. She wouldn’t fall for it again.
Caleb, hurry!
Ishek felt pained in his mind, struggling to keep the other Relyeh out.
Walt smiled viciously in front of him, sensing his defeat. “I wish you had a family we could destroy,” she said. “I wish you had something we could take from you. Your life will have to do.”
Her
hand snapped out, reaching for Caleb’s neck. He managed to get under it, grabbing it and pushing himself into her, lifting her and jumping so that her entire body hit the top of the deck. He let go of her, letting her roll off his back as his legs gave out. He fell forward onto his knees, his hands yanking at the panel.
Walt was barely stunned and had her feet under her again within seconds. She grabbed his foot and tugged him back toward her.
“Now you die, Caleb Card,” she said, wrapping her arm around his neck and pulling back, choking him.
He brought his arm up behind him.
He didn’t need to see her to jab the microspear into her side.
The pressure vanished almost instantly. Walt gasped and let go of his neck as the spear extended through her body, traveling up to the Relyeh parasite and killing it. Caleb let go of the weapon, rolling them both over. Walt stared up at him, the rage in her eyes fading. Her eyes softened.
The Relyeh was dead, Walt’s mind her own for the first time in who knew how long. The internal injury caused by the microspear was fatal to her as well. They both knew it. But she smiled anyway.
“Thank you,” she said.
Then she died.
Caleb closed her eyes, wishing it hadn’t come to this but knowing he should have seen it coming.
His whole body throbbed in pain, but it began to diminish as Ishek poured fresh adrenaline into it.
That was close.
“Too close.”
We’re still alive.
25
Rico
“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Isaac said.
“I think that might be the understatement of the year,” Rico replied.
Their modbox was sitting in the middle of the street, at the head of the line of survivors they were trying to get out of Sanisco alive. Lutz’s car was beside theirs, the engineer’s head swiveling back and forth between them and the obstacle ahead.
Obstacle. That might be the understatement of the century.
They had been trailing behind the xaxkluth, keeping to the shadows of the dilapidated buildings on either side of the corridor and staying as quiet as they could while the alien creatures chased General Stacker and the two armored vehicles toward the southern gates. The plan to draw the enemy away had been working perfectly, the civilians on foot behind them managing to stay grouped and moving along, despite the palpable fear within the ranks.
For a moment, Rico thought they were going to get away with it.
For a moment, she was convinced their plan would succeed, and they would get the nearly five hundred people out of the city alive. Five hundred out of ten thousand. She tried not to think about that part.
Not that it mattered.
The moment was over.
The xaxkluth had stopped, every last one of them at the same time. Then they had flipped themselves over, using their tentacles to change direction in place. It left their central mass upside down, their eyes below their mouths, but that didn’t seem to affect them in the slightest. Now they were charging toward the survivors, hundreds of tentacles stretched across the entire street, blocking the gate ahead, preventing them from escaping.
The people behind Rico screamed, and a glance back showed them scattering, each one of them individually abandoning the group. She found Bale standing fixed at the head, his fear keeping him locked in place when he should have urged them to stick together. They were safer that way.
Not safe, but safer.
She gripped the handle of the machine gun and leaned back in the seat slightly. Holding the trigger, she rattled with the weapon as it unleashed its ordnance, sending bullets smashing into the closest xaxkluth.
“General,” Rico said. “They’re bolting.”
Nathan didn’t answer. Rico kept shooting.
“General!”
No reply.
“Ike, we can’t just sit here.”
“Where do you want me to go?”
It was a good question. There was no escape from these things. Not right now. She continued shooting, tearing three limbs off the lead xaxkluth. Lutz’s gunner finally joined the fight, following her lead.
“Fall back,” she said to Isaac. “Keep us away from them so I can keep shooting.”
“Roger.”
The modbox started moving, spinning a tight radius to get them turned the other way. Rico rotated the turret around to keep her guns on the enemy, still ripping into them. They started back down the street, continuing to shoot.
Rico checked her HUD, noting for the first time that Nathan’s status was orange. Injured but alive. The APC was headed down the street, taking a wide approach to flank the xaxkluth, while the tank was still in position.
Why wasn’t it moving?
A loud boom answered her question, the shell hitting the line of xaxkluth and detonating, sending the creatures sprawling. The tank didn’t move while it reloaded, and they all waited for the xaxkluth to turn their attention back on the weapon.
They didn’t. They continued closing on Rico and the rest of the civilians. Worse, a quick glance at the situation grid told her more of the creatures were closing on them all.
The Parabellum swooped over the area, firing plasma into the xaxkluth. The tank released another round, killing another. Rico kept shooting, sending hundreds of bullets into the one nearest them, finally getting through its tentacles and cutting into its central mass. It reached for them, its limb falling just short as it died.
Rico sighed in relief, trying to keep track of the scene. The survivors had scattered everywhere. Some were hiding in buildings. Others were trying to run back to the pyramid. They were headed right for the other xaxkluth.
Two of the cars were fleeing too, the drivers making a run for it. The others were more brave, staying ahead of the xaxkluth and doing their best to injure and harass them. Rico looked up in time to see one of the Relyeh catching up to one of the cars. Its tentacles grabbed the machine and lifted it, easily tearing in half, the deputies falling out on the ground where more tentacles grabbed them and either tore them apart or stuffed them into its monstrous maw.
Rico didn’t stop shooting, the handle of the turret growing warm in her hands. She glanced down at the belt feed and the linked crates of ammunition stacked beside it. The bullets were going fast, nearly half already expended.
“Hold on!” Isaac shouted. He cut the wheel hard, skidding the machine as a xaxkluth lunged at them, its swinging tentacle only barely missing the vehicle. She rotated the turret toward the limb and fired, cutting it off.
“There’s too many!” Rico shouted back.
Another shell from the tank damaged the xaxkluth line, but the smaller ones had gotten ahead and were passing Rico. They attacked the civilians, and the screaming started again.
Rico’s jaw clenched. The people were all going to die. The plan had failed, and they didn’t have enough firepower to do a damn thing about it.
A sharp whine cut through the rest of the fighting and the APC charged in from the left, main gun tearing through the smaller xaxkluth and cutting them down, stopping their attack. The Parabellum passed over again, firing down into the enemy line. Rico smiled, getting a second wind as she rotated the turret toward another mark on her grid.
She was about to fire when the modbox was lifted and thrown sideways. She barely had time to pull herself from the turret and jump free as it slammed roof first into a solid brick wall, crushing the gun turret on its roof nearly flat.
She landed beside the toppled vehicle, rolling to her feet and looking back to where she could see Isaac through the barred windshield. Still in the driver’s seat, he hung from his seat belt, struggling to release it. Obviously a little dazed, he moved slowly , but at least he was still alive. For now.
The xaxkluth that had latched onto the modbox and tossed it into the brick wall like a kid’s toy had come from around the corner. While it had only shown as a red mark on her HUD, it was the largest of the aliens she had seen thus far. It
towered over them, rivaling a small goliath in size.
And it was coming right for them.
Rico reached to her back for her rifle, only to realize it had been dislodged during the crash. Her eyes fixed on one of the xaxkluth’s tentacles, rising into the air to whip down toward her. She grabbed the pistol on her hip. It wasn’t much, but it was better to die fighting.
Rico didn’t hear the motorcycle engine over the din of the fighting, and the volume of targets had shrouded her view of it on her HUD. In one second, she was staring at the tentacle reaching for her, sure it would kill her, and in the next, the bike was there, and Hayden landed cleanly in front of her, along with an Axon, the motorcycle tumbling away.
“Sheriff!” Rico shouted in a mix of relief and excitement.
Hayden didn’t look at her. “Help Isaac!” he shouted, catching the tentacle in both augmented hands as it descended toward them. He held it above his head and leaned toward it, his knees locked, so that he skidded on the soles of his boots as the alien pushed him backward. The Axon raised its right arm, its skin stretching into a blade that glowed blue before cutting down through the tentacle and slicing it away.
Hayden drew his guns and rushed toward the main body of the giant xaxkluth, the Axon at his side.
26
Caleb
Caleb got back to his feet, stumbling toward the bridge. He put his arm out as the dropship started banking, the movement smooth enough not to adversely affect his balance. He continued on to the bridge, reaching it as they leveled out again. He didn’t have access to the doors, so he pounded on them. “Pyro! It’s Card!”
The door slid open. Caleb entered, surprised to find a new face in the pilot’s seat. He glanced up at Caleb as he entered.
“Who are you?” Caleb asked.
“I could ask you the same thing,” the pilot replied.
