by M. R. Forbes
He winced when he heard the hinges of a nearby hatch squeal, the door ripped away from the ship. He glanced back up the ladder at the sunlight suddenly pouring in.
Maybe their luck was about to change for the worse.
Chapter 24
“Let’s go, Liberators,” James ordered, only an instant before he vanished out of the side of the helicopter.
Nathan sprang to his feet, getting in line as Alpha Squad moved to the open side of the craft. A pair of ropes had already been thrown out, and he leaned over the edge while Glitch slid down, gloved hands absorbing the heat of the friction.
“You’re up, Relentless,” Pokey said behind him. “Let’s move, sir.”
Nathan ignored him, waiting for Glitch to clear the rope. Then he flexed his legs and jumped.
It was four meters to the deck of the ship. He fell straight down, hitting the deck and bending his legs slightly, absorbing the shock the way only a replica could. He saw the expression on Glitch’s face as he charged past him, registering shock and amazement at the move.
James was up ahead, already grabbing for one of the hatches leading into the boat. The general was pissed that he had wrongly assumed Sheriff wouldn’t hide out on a boat full of trife. After Buzzcut had caught sight of the old Navy ship start floating away from the island and his sensors had picked up the crackling of gunfire, the other Stacker had gone into a fit of rage that left C-Dog with one less functional leg.
Alpha Squad had been called back to the chopper, and then they had taken off, making a beeline for the ship. James had seen the trife on the glass of the bridge and grabbed the mounted cannon, strafing the ship while Buzzcut got them into position to board.
The powered armor made it almost trivial for James to tear the hatch off its hinges. He lifted it and threw it overboard and into the water, pointing to the interior.
“Relentless, Doc, Pokey,” General said, ordering them inside.
“Roger,” they all replied, nearly in unison.
James continued forward, shooting a trife that thought to challenge him, the rifle cutting the creature nearly in half. Then Nathan lost sight of him, following Doc to the interior of the vessel.
He immediately heard footsteps on the ladder ahead, and he ran to it, looking down. The lighting was dim, but he made out two figures at the bottom, escaping the ladder and heading aft.
“Down there,” he said, taking the lead.
He dropped four steps at a time, quickly outpacing the other soldiers in his pursuit. He could hear his quarry running up ahead. Running to where? They were on a boat in the middle of the river. A floating island.
“Relentless, wait up,” Doc said through his comm as he hit the bottom of the ladder. He glanced up, seeing they were still three decks behind him.
“I don’t want to lose them,” he replied.
“There’s nowhere for them to go,” Doc said. “If they hide, C-Dog will track them down.”
If C-Dog still worked after James had beaten the robot in his anger.
Nathan ignored Doc, running down the passageway behind Sheriff and his companion, whoever they were. He outranked her. Unless General told him to stop, he wasn’t going to stop.
They reached the end of the corridor and turned to the left. Nathan continued running after them, making it to the same spot only a few seconds behind, just in time to see the shadow of a hatch closing. He made it to the door, pulling on the handle and finding it unlocked.
“Relentless, sitrep,” General said.
“In pursuit of Sheriff, sir,” Nathan replied. There was a ladder behind the door. “Descending in the aft section. Deck Six.”
“Roger. Stay on them. We’re working our way back.”
“Roger.”
Nathan jumped down the ladder, continuing to gain on them. He heard another hatch open further down.
He reached that hatch a few seconds later. He came out into another corridor. There were trife here, and they were attacking Sheriff and his companion, who he could see from the back was female, and not wearing a Spacer uniform. Who was helping him?
He aimed his rifle. For as angry and desperate to recover Niobe’s ring as he was, he couldn’t shoot them in the back. He watched Sheriff use his metal hand to grab a trife by the neck, crushing it and throwing it to the side. The woman had a long knife, and she slashed at the creatures, pushing them away without slowing.
“Sheriff!” he shouted.
Sheriff hesitated a step, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t turn around. He knew Nathan wouldn’t shoot him in the back. Damn it. Nathan’s finger shifted to the trigger. He had to do it. He didn’t have a choice. His finger tensed on the pull.
The woman Sheriff was with did turn around.
Rhonna?
He held his fire for a moment and then shifted his aim, shooting a trife that was about to dig its claws into her back. The dark red plasma bolt that poured out of his weapon took him by surprise. The gas was so dense and powerful it sank easily through the creature and left a deep mark on the bulkhead behind it. Tinker’s modifications meant he could probably punch through General’s armor with this thing.
Sheriff reached the doorway at the end of the corridor, pulling it open, keeping his back to Nathan as they both ducked inside.
What the hell was Rhonna doing with Sheriff? He was glad to see her alive, but why was she helping him?
He ran after them again. The trife were closing in, hissing angrily. They seemed more agitated than usual.
“Doc, what’s your position?” Nathan asked, activating his comm. He would try to kill Sheriff and spare Rhonna if he could. After what he had seen on the street, he wanted to make sure the Liberators didn’t ruin that plan.
“On the ladder heading down, sir,” Doc replied.
“Roger. They ducked into an aft room. I’m in pursuit.”
He fired single bolts at the trife, the rounds powerful enough to burn the creatures who got too close to them. He quickly adjusted his aim, dropping the creatures one after another. He made it to the doorway. He could hear a buzzing noise behind it.
He opened the door. The space was larger than he was expecting, with large turbines on either side of a wide passageway, an even larger piece of machinery in the back he recognized as a reactor of some kind. There were trife covering the open floor, hundreds of them pressed and piled against one another, a sticky ichor covering them and causing wet slurping noises as they moved. They didn’t seem to notice him, or if they did, they weren’t paying him too much mind. He didn’t see Sheriff or Rhonna, but the turbines were plenty large enough to hide behind.
“Sheriff, I want my ring,” Nathan said.
His voice drew the attention of the trife. The buzzing lowered in pitch, the undulating motion of their bodies slowing. Sheriff didn’t reply to his request.
“Rhonna?” Nathan said. “Why are you here? Why are you helping him? He tried to kill me. He took the only thing that matters to me.”
She didn’t answer him either. Sheriff must have told her not to. Or maybe he was holding her against her will, now that he was here? He noticed the trife had stopped moving at the sound of his voice.
He heard gunfire in the passageway behind him. A few seconds later, Doc and Pokey finally caught up to him, entering the room.
“Colonel,” Pokey said out loud. Then he noticed the nest. “What the fuck is that?”
The trife heard him. The ones on the edges started to peel away, the mucus hanging from their bodies. Pokey brought up his rifle.
“Wait,” Nathan said, noticing how they were responding to sound.
Too late. Pokey discharged the weapon, hitting the trife in the head and knocking it back into the pile.
The sudden reverberation through the back of the ship was audible and physical. The deck shuddered beneath Nathan’s feet. He looked over at Pokey, whose eyes had gone wide with fear.
More of the trife were breaking away from the nest, and they charged at the Liberators with reckless abandon.
Doc joined the shooting, firing first on the attackers, and then on the nest. Nathan held his fire. This was a mistake.
Sheriff had led them here on purpose.
Chapter 25
“Come on, Stacker,” Hayden said, watching the action unfold through a reflection in the metal of the turbine opposite their hiding place. “Get the hell out of here.”
He glanced at Rhonna. He had put his hand in front of her, to keep her from going out to try to talk to Nathan. Neither one of them could believe he was there, fighting with the enemy that had tried to kill him the night before. Hayden knew there had to be a reason for it. They must have promised him something. He could only think of one thing Stacker wanted badly enough to sell his soul. He didn’t want to kill Nathan, but he had taken the data chip to keep it out of the hands of the people Stacker was working with.
Rhonna glanced back at him, and then her eyes returned to the reflection. Gunfire was echoing loudly in the space, but Hayden didn’t see any flashes from Nathan’s plasma rifle. Stacker had realized they had been led into a trap. But why were they still standing there instead of retreating?
“Come on,” he repeated quietly.
Nathan finally started backing away, leading the other Liberators on an orderly retreat. He was too late. They had already disturbed the nest. Already pissed off the trife. Hayden could hear the creatures around the ship, heading to defend the queen. There was only one more thing to do.
He shouldered his rifle and swung out beside the nest. The trife saw him, but they didn’t attack. Not right away.
He fired a burst of rounds that slammed into one of the soldiers, hitting him in the leg above the kneecaps. The soldier cried out and fell.
Hayden ducked back behind the turbine before the return fire could follow him. He watched the reflection. The woman with Nathan said something, and then she fled the room. Nathan looked angry, and he bent down and grabbed the fallen soldier, scooping him up in a fireman’s carry. Only then did he start shooting at the trife, his odd plasma rifle cutting down three or four with one shot.
“We should talk to him,” Rhonna said.
“Not now. We head to the hold. If the ship doesn’t make landfall by the time we’re ready, we swim.”
“What about the trife?”
Hayden smiled. “All part of the plan.” He watched Nathan leave the room carrying the injured soldier. “Let’s go.”
He moved out alongside the nest. The trife were looking at them as they unraveled themselves from their mating ball, but there was no hint of violence in their eyes. He had helped defend their nest, and that made them allies.
For now, anyway.
The trife were piling out into the passageway. More trife were closing in from around the ship. Hayden could hear the gunfire, both nearby and in the distance. He led Rhonna to the exit, joining the flow of creatures on the way out. They stood shoulder to shoulder, human and alien, pushing out into the ship. Hayden glanced back as he reached the doors. He caught a glimpse of the queen at the center. She was bigger, smarter, and more powerful than any of the others. She watched Hayden, and he could almost sense her approval and gratefulness for the assist.
Then they were out into the passageway. Nathan was further down, still retreating, his plasma doing a lot of damage, but not quite enough. The female soldier was further back, almost at the forward ladder. She had a cut on her cheek, and her face was pale and sweaty with fear.
Nathan noticed them, and he and Hayden locked eyes. It only lasted an instant, but Hayden could feel the fiery anger in the gaze. He half-expected Nathan to charge ahead, to try to reach him through the slick. Nathan was smarter than that, and he had a wounded soldier to worry about.
Hayden turned to the right, moving through a small secondary passageway the Liberators had likely missed. It led to a smaller vertical ladder that led up through a hatch and into a maintenance passage. It was challenging for him to climb it with one hand, but he slung his rifle and managed the ascent, going up to Deck Five.
They made their way along the access passage to the next hatch. Hayden opened it, and they came out in another passageway, heading toward the bow. A few trife were around them, but they had already gotten the message that Hayden and Rhonna were friendlies.
“You knew they would leave us alone?” Rhonna said.
“Pozz. It won’t last forever. Their instinct will overpower their gratitude sooner or later.”
They rushed forward. They could still hear the gunfire around them, along with the hissing of trife. The ship was alive with the chaos of survival.
They made it to the ship’s hold. Hayden closed the door behind them, but it locked from the other side. He ran across to where he had left the motorcycle, pushing the hatch open and looking outside. He leaned over the edge, finding the shore approaching ahead of them. They were going to run aground soon, but it appeared they had made it to the other side.
He returned to the outer hatch just as the far door opened, and a pair of Liberators ducked in.
His eyes flicked to Rhonna, who was standing off to the side. She dropped to the ground beside one of the tents, and he saw her crawl inside. He shifted out of sight, peeking back out of the corner of his eye.
“What’s this?” he heard a man’s voice say. “Looks like a fucking sleepover.”
“Pipe it, Grimes,” a woman said. “There aren’t any trife in here. I’ll take it.”
The soldiers moved further into the hold.
“General, this is Needle. We’re on Deck Five. Cargo hold. We managed to get clear of the trife.”
There was a pause while General gave her his orders. Hayden assumed she was talking to the man in the powered armor.
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “No sign of Sheriff or the bitch, sir.”
She started scanning the room. Hayden tucked back behind the hatch as her eyes reached it.
“I think there’s a hatch leading outside down here, sir. It looks like the entire bulkhead might open. Leave it? Yes, sir. Roger. We’ll wait for your signal.”
Hayden risked a look around the corner. Needle was facing away from him, toward the other two soldiers.
“You heard General,” she said. “We don’t move until Buzzcut is in position. Pokey's hit. Doc's cut. Fucking trife are everywhere, and they’re pissed.”
The three of them took a position facing the door, defending it from the trife.
“This Sheriff is a tricky son of a bitch,” Grimes said. “He shot my brother. I’d like to cut his balls off. Slowly.”
“Forget it,” Needle said. “This isn’t some dumb savage you’re playing with. He’s a damned Centurion. You get the shot; you take the shot.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Glitch, go close that hatch. I don’t want any demons finding their way up our asses.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Hayden ducked away again as one of the soldiers turned and started coming his way. He couldn’t afford to let the Liberator seal the hatch with him outside and Rhonna inside.
He remained in position, waiting beside the door. He rested his rifle against the bulkhead, freeing up his hand.
Glitch leaned out through the opening to grab the hatch. Hayden took him by the neck, choking him and yanking him through, turning him around and pressing him against the bulkhead. The soldier’s eyes were big with surprise. His hands starting balling into fists to hit back at his attacker.
Hayden held him, keeping him from breathing. Glitch started flailing and punching, getting more frightened with each second. His blows were weak and ineffective against the bodysuit. Hayden barely felt them.
“Sorry, kid,” Hayden whispered into his ear. “It’s you or me.”
The soldier shuddered, and then the blood pooled into his eyes and his head drooped. Hayden set him down quietly, a wave of remorse passing through him. He hated killing people.
“Glitch?” Grimes said. “Where’d you go?”
“What the fuck?” Needle said.
&
nbsp; Hayden stayed out of sight.
“General, we have a situation. Glitch is gone.” A pause. “I don’t know, sir. I sent him to check the hatch I told you about, and now he’s gone.” Another pause. “Trife? They didn’t come inside, but it could be. Shit.”
Hayden didn’t move. He heard a sharp crackling rumble, and then something punched through the metal bulkhead beside him. A second crack and another flechette pierced the steel, getting closer. What kind of weapon could shoot through armor like that?
“Damn it, Needle, the trife are going to hear you.”
“Fuck the trife. He’s here.”
“Who?”
“Sheriff, you asshole.”
Needle kept shooting, each alloy flechette cutting through the bulkhead like it was made of paper. The rounds inched closer to Hayden, trying to force him out of hiding.
He pressed against the far wall. He was going to have to cut back across.
“Needle,” he heard Grimes say. Then he heard claws on the deck of the hold.
The trife had found them.
“Cover me,” Needle said.
Grimes started shooting at the trife, his shots echoing in the expanse of the hold. Needle kept shooting, too, picking up the pace. The metal parted right beside Hayden’s face, close enough that the sound of the impact left his ear ringing. He felt the heat as the slug zipped by and out to the water.
He clenched his jaw, and dove back to the right, rolling on his shoulder and coming up facing the hold. Somehow, he survived the maneuver. Somehow, Needle’s flechettes didn’t cut him in half.
He saw how an instant later. Needle was on the ground, blood spreading around her. Rhonna was in front of the tent; her rifle pointed at the woman. With all the noise, Grimes hadn’t noticed the other Liberator was dead.
“Grab her gun,” Hayden said. The trife were pouring into the hold, having found something to attack. They were staying away from him for now, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last.
Rhonna picked up the fallen Liberator’s weapon, rushing over to him. He grabbed the handlebars of the bike, planning to roll it out onto the deck.
