The ship made a tight turn and then cruised back around to make a pass at the clearing to see if they could offer some fire support, but by the time they were lined up, everyone was already dead and the monsters were fleeing.
“I think some of them are dragging bodies,” Nadia said.
“What? Why?”
“Don’t know. Looks like they’re heading to the center of the city though.”
“Can we get close enough to get a lock on them?” Kit asked, the ship’s ballistic system already queued up.
“Not yet,” Nadia responded. “We’ll have to wait until we get closer to the city where things open up. The jungle canopy is too dense here.”
“What about all those gunships we were seeing? Where are they?”
“I think some of them bugged out back to the carriers in orbit. Couldn’t be all of them though. I swear there were-”
An array of red flashing lights suddenly blared on the counsel as they felt the ship rock sideways.
“What the fuck was that?” Nadia said, bracing herself.
Before Kit could answer, something big and red crawled across the viewport.
“What the fuck was that?” Nadia repeated.
“I think we’ve got company,” Kit said, pulling up the side-cams that ran along the ship. All across their hull were huge insectoid creatures. And though he couldn’t say for sure, he thought that they looked different from the ones they had seen on the ground. These were bulkier with larger bodies and they only had four legs where the others had six.
“Banking,” Nadia said as she hit the accelerator and banked hard to the right. The maneuver was fast and jarring and Kit saw some of the creatures lose their grip and fall off the side. Then, to his amazement, he watched as two pairs of transparent wings rose off of its back and it swung around, continuing to pursue the ship.
“Hold on,” Kit said, queuing up multiple locks on the ship’s ballistic system. “I think we’re in for a helluva ride here.”
11
Defenses
“I saw a medical center this way,” 49 said as he led the bedraggled group of prisoners into the center of town. He had a rifle slung over his shoulder and was carrying Ritz in his arms, careful to keep him on his side. “I’m sure they’re packed to the gills right now but it’s our best chance at saving Ritz’s life.”
The idea made sense to Raquel but it also seemed incredibly dangerous. If the monsters were created from dead flesh, then surely a medical facility would have been ground zero for an initial breakout.
“What about the Leopold?” King asked, the words coming out clipped and saturated with barely concealed pain. With his arm slung around Raquel’s shoulder, the two had developed a sort of staggered limping rhythm as they walked.
“I’ve been trying to hail the ship ever since we were captured but they’re not responding.”
“Ever since we were captured,” King said incredulously. “You got a radio built into your head or something?”
“Yes, actually,” the android responded. “It was essential in letting me control my own minions aboard the Mary. I used it to transmit a constant signal that let me reorganize dead flesh.”
“Speaking of which,” Byzzie interrupted, “Just what the fuck are these things?”
“They don’t have a name,” 49 replied, “But you can call them Necrosarks. They are dead things. Inanimate flesh rewoven by Void energy. All you need to know is that they eat and kill and that’s it. They are a truly invasive species and if their spread is left unchecked they will kill every living thing in the universe. Period.”
“How do you know this?” Byzzie asked. “Have you seen these things before?”
“No,” he replied. “No one has ever seen these before. But I recognize the pattern. The behavior. Their goal isn’t to survive like other animals, it’s to kill. Something from the Void must have ridden on the back of the Light Wire signal.”
“So you’re saying if we shut down the Light Wire, we stop these things?”
“Theoretically.”
“It worked with you.”
At this, 49 looked over at the young woman. Byzzie was battered and bruised, crusted blood mixing with sweat on her skin and clothes. She had just had her home invaded by not one but two invading forces and lost family members in the process. By all accounts, she should have been a sobbing heap on the ground, not throwing verbal jabs at the android that had just saved her.
Everything considered, Raquel wasn’t sure her demeanor was a good thing.
“Again,” 49 said after a second of consideration, “theoretically.”
“Stop!” Someone suddenly shouted from in front of them. 49 was blocking Raquel’s line of sight, but two men dressed in civilian clothing emerged from buildings on the left and right sides of the street, each of them holding energy rifles. Raquel would have bet there were more of them that she couldn’t see.
“This man needs help,” 49 said firmly. He didn’t need to gesture at the unconscious body he had cradled in his arms. “He’s been shot.”
“Shot?” Said the man in front. He stepped around to the side and as he did Raquel saw that he was an older gentleman with charcoal skin and a white head of hair. He held a large black pistol in his right hand; it was pointed at the ground but out of its holster nonetheless. “Shot is as lucky as you can dare hope for right now. I got men and women inside with their guts hanging out. Most won’t last the night.”
“If this man doesn’t receive medical attention soon, I doubt he’ll last another 30 minutes.”
The man seemed to roll that over in his mind. Then, with a jerk of his head, he motioned for 49 to come inside. “Just you two,” he said. “Anyone else who’s injured can line up right here.” He pointed at the ground just outside the door. “We have a few beds and even fewer medical staff. Most of ‘em are…well, this is a backup facility mainly for storing supplies. The actual clinic down the street is somewhere you really don’t want to go right now.”
“Are you a doctor?” 49 asked as he stepped through the doorway.
By the time the man answered, they were out of sight. But Raquel heard the answer clear enough.
“I’m the janitor.”
With King still hanging on her shoulder, Raquel looked around and thought about their current location. The supply building was dug into the side of a row of other two-story structures in the middle of a long straightaway. It wasn’t necessarily a defendable area but it could have been worse. A few of Byzzie’s injured siblings—along with a couple strangers they had been imprisoned with—had started lining up to have their injuries looked at.
“Hey, why don’t we get out of the street,” Raquel said, raising her voice and letting more than a hint of unease creep in. Then to King, “Why don’t you hop in line?”
“Let them go first,” he said. “I’ve had worse.”
“Line up alongside the building,” Raquel heard Byzzie say. It seemed as if she too was reluctant to get in line before her brothers and sisters did.
“Bullshit,” Raquel said. “I could probably fit my whole hand in that hole.”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.”
The people did as they were asked, lining up single file to have their injuries looked at. The armed men who had come out remained where they were, looking nervously up and down the streets. Raquel scanned the windows in the nearby buildings and was able to spot more than a few barrels sticking out.
“At least go lean up against a wall,” she said. “I’m not exactly looking forward to dragging you down the street when we’re ass-deep in neck sharks or whatever the hell 49 called those things.”
“That I can do,” King said, easing his arm off of her shoulder. “Just don’t forget about me if I pass out.”
“I don’t think anyone should be passing out just yet,” Byzzie said, walking over to the two of them. Her gaze was fixed on something over Raquel’s shoulder.
“Ah shit,” King said, still hobbling over to the
wall. “Can’t get a fucking break.”
Raquel unslung her rifle as she turned to look behind her. She had been expecting to see a wave of monsters skittering towards them but what she actually saw may have been worse.
Walking four abreast was no less than thirty armed PUC soldiers coming down the street.
It was clear that they had seen some action recently but by the looks of it they all had working arms and legs. Raquel glanced at the armed men on either side of the street and saw them step back into the shadows.
She nodded at them, gripping the handle of her rifle. The troops were about 200 feet away now and Raquel turned to face them.
Wood and metal splintered as the doors to the spire room blew inward. Everyone had been so focused on the monsters above them that no one was prepared when five of them exploded into the room from the main hallway, immediately cutting down three of the soldiers who had been standing within range.
Vanessa leaped to her feet as fire and chaos erupted around her. Pushing the pain to the back of her mind, she dove behind the pulsing spire, and as she did the severed limbs of at least two soldiers followed her along with a shower of fresh blood.
The screams of men and women mixed with the alien shrieks of the creatures as both human and monster died. Curling up into a ball, Vanessa gathered herself, her mind racing as she tried to find a way out.
A burst of rifle fire came from just around the edge of the structure Vanessa was hiding behind, followed by the boots of a woman walking backward as she emptied her magazine. Frozen in place, Vanessa watched as the soldier pulled the trigger again and again. Before the gun clicked dry however, two serrated legs suddenly pierced the woman’s abdomen and she cried out, blood gushing from her mouth.
Before she could think about what she was doing, Vanessa raced forward and yanked the dying woman’s sidearm from her holster. The monster tried to hoist its kill into the air so it could stab out with one of its other legs, but before it could, Vanessa dropped into a shooting stance, flipped the handgun’s safety off, and drilled nine rounds into the thing’s insectoid face.
The creature fell backward gurgling and thrashing as the woman had, and as it did, Vanessa reached up and pulled the soldier away.
The woman’s face was pale, dead eyes staring up at the ceiling. Pushing away any feelings of remorse for the moment, Vanessa stuffed the pistol into her waistband, quickly searched the body, and came up with two fresh energy rifle magazines.
The urge to look around her was incredibly strong, but she knew if one of the things were closing in on her she wouldn’t be able to outrun it. Now was her only chance to arm herself and escape and if she didn’t take it she was as good as dead.
More bursts of gunfire erupted around her along with the pock-pock-pock of a handgun. The noise was deafening though not nearly as deafening as it had been 20 seconds ago. Vanessa picked up her pace, ejecting the nearly-empty mag from the rifle and slamming a new one home. She pulled the bolt, felt the weapon hum to life in her hand, and then snapped it up to her shoulder.
One second later and she wouldn’t have made it.
Just as the front sight of the rifle lined up with the rear one, the snarled shape of one of the creatures skittered into view. Its face was streaked in black blood and it was missing at least two of its limbs. For all the damage it appeared to have taken though, it still moved with frightening speed. Its beady eyes quickly locked onto Vanessa and it sprinted forwards.
The gun pounded against her shoulder as a spray of blue energy bolts sawed the thing’s body in two. The creature recoiled with the hits, stumbled backward, and then its left side fell away from its right with a sickening wet squelch.
Before she could celebrate, she heard a shriek come from the other side of the spire. Quickly sidestepping around it, she fired two quick bursts at another one as it sliced a retreating man in half. Most of the rounds went wide, but two or three hit home, sending it reeling.
Feeling as if she had spent too much time in one place, Vanessa turned to run. The smashed doorway was less than 50 feet away at this point and as far as she could tell, the path was clear of both PUC soldiers and the insectoid creatures.
She took two running steps forward and nearly tripped over a body. Stumbling to a halt, she threw a quick glance behind her and almost stopped.
Minister Clark was forcing himself to his knees, eyes staring at the ground. In his left hand was his sidearm, the slide locked back in the empty position. The gun shook noticeably in his hand and as he tried to stand, Vanessa watched as his intestines spilled out of a deep wound in his lower abdomen like a bundle of grey fisherman’s ropes.
Seeming not to notice, Seamus Clark turned to look at her. His eyes were cold, his lips tight. He wore the same expression he had worn not minutes ago as he had approached her and raised his gun to her head. She was nothing. A bug. A barrier between him and his ultimate goal.
She turned and ran, leaving him to die.
“Don’t shoot.”
The man who gave the order was tall and grim-looking. He was close enough now for Raquel to make out the crisscrossing of scars on his arms and face. She had seen the pattern before and recognized it. At some point in his life, the man had been tortured by a militia group. Probably Kingsbane.
“Are you talking to my soldiers or yours?” Raquel said, her voice steel.
“All of them,” the man replied. He had been carrying a rifle but he deliberately slung it over his back. “I’m calling for a ceasefire. No one else needs to get shot today.”
“Yeah?” A voice called from one of the building’s windows. “And are you gonna leave too? Or do you plan on sticking around to stand trial for all of the war crimes you’ve committed since you arrived?”
The PUC commander hesitated. “Let’s deal with what’s in front of us first.”
“What do you propose?” Raquel said hastily, making sure an argument didn’t erupt. The last thing she needed right now was to be caught in the middle of a firefight standing in the middle of an open street.
“Most of the creatures are regrouping. We saw it as we passed the medical center. They’ll be coming soon though. I think we should be ready to meet them.”
Raquel found that she didn’t exactly disagree. “What do you mean by ‘regrouping?’” She asked, trying to buy time to think.
The man started walking forward, gesturing for his men to do the same. Raquel winced, expecting gunfire to rain down from the rooftops at any second. She saw a few of the shadows in the windows above her sway nervously, but they held their fire. The man stretched his hand out when he reached Raquel.
“Colonel Hutchens,” he said.
She took it carefully with hers and shook. “Raquel Fisher.”
Hutchens nodded. “Raquel Fisher, I don’t know what these things are, but I know they don’t care what side we’re on. I’m here on a job and as far as I can tell, that job has gone belly-up in a big way. Now, not everyone I landed with feels the same way—or didn’t land with,” he said rolling his eyes. “Most of the brass still up in orbit are confused why we’re not all back home already eating dinner with our families.”
“And what do you think about that?” Raquel asked.
“I think they can come down here and see for themselves.” Hutchens straightened up. “Now you asked me what I meant by ‘regrouping.’ I don’t know exactly what these bug-eyed bastards are doing, but I know they’ve pulled back and I know they’re congregating near the medical facility. I’ve been in a lot of fights and I know what regrouping looks like. So believe me when I say this: we’re about to be going toe-to-toe with those things. And I don’t mean a few of them.”
Then, as if on queue there was a shout from one of the windows.
“They’re coming!”
“Shit,” both Raquel and Hutchens said in unison, facing opposite directions. Each of them spun around in turn to see the advancing horde coming from both ends of the street.
The army of monsters looked
less like an invading force and more like a hurricane of long knife-edged limbs. They crawled over the ground and the buildings and even each other. The sight stirred something wretched in Raquel and she felt herself involuntarily gag. There was something about the way they moved. Like a swarm of insects.
The people waiting in line to have their injuries assessed were now trying to funnel through the tiny door without trampling each other to death. King had limped to the entrance and was ushering them through, making sure they made it inside safely.
“Raquel! C’mon!” Byzzie yelled over her shoulder as she ran to follow her brothers and sisters.
Energy bolts gushed from the windows in blue and green streaks of light. Some of the creatures were cut down but immediately replaced by three more. They moved so fast up the street that Hutchens’ platoon almost didn’t have time to react. Almost.
“Opposing firing formation,” cried Hutchens as his soldiers raced to their positions. Groups of seven and eight soldiers lined up kneeling on the ground while another seven to eight stood standing behind them. One of the formations faced the creatures coming from the east and another faced them from the west. Almost as soon as the last soldier had taken up position, Hutchens yelled, “Fire!”
The standard PUC energy rifle carried 50 rounds and a single magazine could be exhausted in just under three-seconds of continuous fire. The soldiers were disciplined however, even in the face of certain death. Running to the door, Raquel watched as the standing soldiers opened up on the incoming horde with tight, well-aimed bursts, making every shot count.
Then about four-seconds later, the kneeling soldiers began to fire as well. At first, Raquel didn’t understand why, but soon the soldiers who had started shooting first began to run empty and reload. They conducted the motions almost like machines. When a soldier ran dry, they would quickly eject the mag, drop it on the ground in front of them, and then replace it with a fresh one. The whole procedure took under three-seconds, and the staggered fire made it so that there was a wave of blue pulverizing death constantly blanketing the field of fire.
Shattered Light Page 13
