by J. N. Chaney
Chico and Franklin, meanwhile, took out the remaining two fish, firing from a cluster of boulders along the bank. They poked their MC90 between gaps in the rocks, striking the enemy before they even had a chance to spot the Marines.
With the wave of enemies put down, Magnus walked up the fish he’d hit. It was still thrashing. He fired a second round into its head, and the churning water went still. “Clear.”
Magnus examined its bulbous eyes and long teeth glistening in the moonlight. Scaly blue skin covered its blaster-riddled flesh. “Ugly as hell,” he whispered.
“What was that, Corporal?”
Magnus waved Deeks off. “Next level, boys. Up and over.”
The four of them scampered up another small waterfall, but Magnus could tell the incline was getting steeper. The topo map confirmed it, showing that the tallest waterfalls were just ahead. There was no way they were climbing those in the dark. He cursed Vanderbilt under his breath. This was a stupid line to take.
Chico started waving an arm. “Corporal,” he said, tension rising in his voice.
“What is it?”
“We’ve got…”
But Magnus saw it too. Apparently, the fish knew the Marines were climbing into a dead end.
“We’ve got six coming down the ravine, eight to the west, another eight to the east—no, wait… Make that ten to the east—”
“And we got five more on our six!” Deeks yelled. “I don’t know how they crept up on us, but they did!”
This is bad, Magnus realized. This is real bad.
“TACNET’s reading contact in forty-five seconds. Let’s take cover against that waterfall.” Magnus pointed twenty meters ahead to the next feature in the stream. The Marines followed Magnus as he slid across the boulders and stumbled over the round stones.
“I count six more to the south,” Chico said over comms.
Dammit. The Akuda smelled blood in the water; that was for damn sure.
Magnus jumped around the last boulder and found himself wading into a pool up to his knees. The waterfall above him was easily ten meters high—the tallest yet. It would at least provide cover from the ’kuda approaching from above. His fire team would also get a clear line of sight on the ones approaching from the south. The only combatants that really worried Magnus were those flanking them from the ravine edges.
“Corporal Magnus, you sure this is a good—”
“There’s no good position for this one, Franklin. The Corps doesn’t pay you to be sure; they pay you to fire.”
“Copy that.”
Magnus double-checked the TACNET map. “Contact in ten seconds. Rack a charge, boys.”
Magnus heard the energy whine of the MC90s and watched as his men took a knee in the shallows, water splashing hard at their backs. If it was to be their last stand, Magnus was proud of them. They had looked fear in the eyes and stared it down, shoving their blaster barrels in its mouth and pulling the trigger all the way to the grave. He doubted history would remember their names—hell, he doubted the Corps would even find their bodies after the ’kuda had feasted—but he would at least die knowing they’d done their best to follow orders and own the field.
“OTF, boys.”
“OTF!” they replied as one.
Magnus watched in his HUD as the red dots converged in their location, forming a solid ring around his team. Magnus’s thermal sensors showed the first ’kuda as it leaped high into the air, vaulting over the lower falls and into the rock bed twenty meters downstream. It fired wildly. Blaster bolts splattered into the waterfall behind Magnus. He squeezed two rounds and struck it center mass.
A second ’kuda jumped over the ledge and took the first’s place. This fish’s aim was far better, and Magnus narrowly missed being shot in the helmet. He returned fire with another two-round salvo and dropped it. But in that time, five more fish had climbed up and moved toward the waterfall.
Deeks, Chico, and Franklin were busy covering the flanks, firing on anything that moved. And plenty of things moved. The sides of the ravine seemed alive with otherworldly objects. Fins, sinewy arms and legs, glimmering teeth, iridescent eyes—it all scrambled down the steep sides in a slide of mud and rocks. Blaster fire lit up the narrow ravine, flashing off shiny scales and plate armor. Bodies careened through the air and splashed into the pool at the Marines’ feet. Some of the bodies still moved, the claws on their webbed hands grasping for the Marines’ legs. Magnus fired several shots into the growing piles of bodies, keeping the groping limbs at bay.
Despite their best efforts, however, Magnus knew they wouldn’t walk away from this fight. His HUD showed more reinforcements filling in from all corners. Even if his fire team had enough energy magazines and accuracy to take down the current wave, there was no way they would have enough to fight off the second.
“Don’t let up!” It was all Magnus could think to say. That and: “OTF!”
Deeks and Chico mumbled a response between shots, but Franklin didn’t answer at all. Bodies were falling down on top of them, and their MC90 barrels glowed white in his HUD.
This is it, Magnus realized. This is our last stand. Damn ’kudas.
Magnus fired on several more that crept up the center stream. His energy mag went flat. He reached for a new one on his hip and slammed it home, then he unloaded on two ’kudas crossing the pool. He drilled both of them. But it was the third and fourth that he didn’t have time to shoot. They flew through the air, claws and teeth bared in the moonlight.
A blast of water erupted behind Magnus and pushed him forward. He would have slammed into the oncoming ’kudas were it not for the fact that they, too, had been thrown away from the waterfall. His HUD went bright white as several trails of light and smoke propelled enemy bodies a dozen meters over the stream before consuming them in a massive explosion.
Magnus pushed himself off the pile of corpses and strained to look behind him. He was blinded again, however, when a sputtering strobe of blaster fire spewed from the waterfall and raked no fewer than eight ’kudas. Magnus watched in awe as limbs flailed, heads snapped, and teeth shattered. Finally, a projectile so massive it could only have been fired from a Gauss cannon blew out from behind the waterfall and struck the streambed. The sound spiked his audio sensors; even with them temporarily muted, the thunderclap still made Magnus’s ears ring. The concussion decimated ’kuda bodies, flinging dozens of them skyward while Magnus and his Marines were thrown into the waterfall.
Magnus felt a hand grab his shoulder and wrench him down. His body hit something hard—the ground, he was pretty sure. His HUD flickered from the impact, and he could feel his armor’s servos dim.
What in the hell was going on?
Whatever hand had grabbed him let him go. Magnus rolled over and looked up. There, standing over him, was a… Is it a teenage boy? Magnus blinked then activated his external speakers.
“Kid, what are you… what are you doing here?” Even asking such a thing felt surreal. To be talking to a teen. In a cave. Behind a waterfall. Holding a…
What the hell are those?
In his hands, the teen was holding what looked to be arms. Robot arms. With weapons on them. Magnus saw micro rockets, along with the guts and barrel of what looked to be a prototype XM31 blaster.
Magnus blinked several more times. How bad was I hit? He couldn’t be sure. Maybe this was just some weird version of the afterlife.
“You’ve got to get up,” the young man said. He looked maybe seventeen or eighteen. Small. An islander with narrow eyes. Maybe a Nimprinth? He was wearing a backpack overflowing with odd metal parts. “That won’t keep them away for long. You’ve got to move, soldiers.”
Magnus grabbed his MC90 and gained his feet. His helmet bumped into the low ceiling. Deeks, Chico, and Franklin had been blown into the cave entrance too, but each of them was standing.
“What the hell is going on, Corporal?” Deeks asked, his voice sounding as bewildered as Magnus’s had. “What’s this splick about?”
/> “Seems we found our first survivor, Deeks.”
The other men looked at the teen; Magnus could practically guess the expressions on their faces as they took in the thin young man and his assortment of robot parts and black-market weapons.
“What the—”
“Come on!” the kid said, motioning them toward a small tunnel. “This way!”
“Fine by me,” Chico said. He darted after the kid, followed by Franklin and a still-dazed Deeks.
“Keep on him,” Magnus said over TACNET. “Seems to know his way around here.”
“And around an XM31,” Chico added. “I like this kid.”
Magnus switched to optical sensors and turned on his armor’s exterior shoulder lights. The rounded tunnel looked as though it had been carved by hand. Magnus followed Deeks’s rear end, hunched over, boots plodding through ten centimeters of water. The tunnel meandered deeper into the mountainside until it opened into a vaulted room. As soon as Magnus had stepped in and straightened his back, a door slammed shut behind him.
“This way,” the young man said, continuing to motion Magnus’s fire team forward.
Magnus marveled at what he saw. Aside from a small bed mat and cooking area that doubled as the young man’s heat source, the rest of the room was littered with racks and work benches. Every square centimeter of space seemed overtaken with wires, cables, tools, and parts. How the young man had acquired so much stuff Magnus had no idea. That he’d gathered it in this peculiar place was astounding. The kid must have been a genius—a savant. That is, of course, assuming he’d built something notable. But if the display of firepower at the waterfall was any indicator—he had.
“Hurry! You have to keep moving!” The kid stood at the far end of his hovel, pointing toward an exit tunnel.
“What about you, kid?” Magnus asked.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
“I’d really feel better if you lead the way.”
“No, no. I have to do something here. This tunnel is easy to follow. I’ll be right behind you.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. Now, go!”
Magnus nodded at Chico, who then ducked into the tunnel, followed by Franklin and Deeks. Their shoulder lights waved back as they ran in a crouch. The ground was dry, and Magnus felt the cave begin to head downhill. Whoever had carved it—presumably the kid—had done a masterful job. And it had probably taken a very long time, even with the right equipment.
The tunnel snaked through what Magnus figured was the north side of the mountain. His TACNET link had gone offline when he entered the cave, and nothing but local sensors were feeding data to his helmet’s AI. Audio sensors continued to feed the clip-clop of their boots and the scuffing of their armor against the tight walls and low ceiling.
After several minutes of back-breaking running, Chico finally said, “I think I see something up ahead. Looks like… like ferns or something.”
The tunnel expanded little by little as the path leveled out. Finally, the tunnel opened up into a dense jungle covered in ferns and palm fronds. A TACNET link was established, and with it came several incoming messages from command.
“Looks like Vanderbilt’s been worried about us after all,” Chico said.
“Nah.” Deeks shook his head. “He was worried about the scourge he’d take for sending four Marines on the dumbest mission of his short career.”
“Copy that,” Franklin said.
“Listen, we’re not going anywhere until that kid comes back.”
“Copy that, Corporal,” Deeks replied. “He saved our asses back there.”
“And we’re gonna make sure we save his by getting him off this pile of splick.”
As if summoned by their talk, the young man was yelling something from down the tunnel. Magnus boosted his audio sensors and leaned his head back into the cave. He looked and saw the boy swinging a flashlight wildly.
“What’s he saying, Corporal?”
“He’s saying ‘run.’”
“You think those ’kudas broke through?”
“Dunno, Deeks. But I’m guessing we’re in for another firefight. OTF, boys.”
“OTF!” they replied, racking charges in their MC90s.
Magnus watched as the kid closed the distance, still carrying the robot arms and a backpack full of parts. “He’s coming in hot. Stand back.”
The young man blew from the cave like a blaster bolt, tearing into the ferns without breaking his stride. He was placing some sort of device in his mouth… maybe a rebreather? Magnus and the others knelt to point their weapons down the tunnel, their high shoulder lights cranked to high intensity, piercing the darkness.
They waited for the ’kudas to round the far corner. And waited. And still waited. But nothing came.
“I told you—run, Marines!” came the kid’s voice from farther in the jungle.
Magnus turned to see him waving his rebreather in the air.
“Run! Get to the water!”
“Anybody else get the feeling this isn’t about no ’kudas?” Deeks asked.
Then an idea struck Magnus. If this kid was some sort of tech savant, why else would he hang back in his mountain fortress then make a run for the ocean?
The kid shouted something that snapped Magnus from his thoughts.
“Binary bomb!”
“What’d he just say?” Deeks asked.
“Ah, splick! It’s the ocean!” Magnus exclaimed. “He’s heading for cover! Let’s get out of here!” Without another word, Magnus was on his feet and chasing after the boy. His fire team followed. They charged through the ferns like a pack of Boresian taursars, high-kicking all the way down the hill. They gained so much momentum that Magnus feared his legs wouldn’t be able to keep up. But whether by adrenaline or sheer force of will, he managed to keep his feet beneath him.
Magnus opened an emergency channel to Lieutenant Vanderbilt over TACNET. “This is Corporal Adonis Magnus”—he double-checked the topo grid in his HUD—“on the island’s north side, with a credible ABSB threat.”
He could hardly breathe. He double-checked the IFF markers—identify friend or foe—to see just how many Marines might be in whatever blast radius the kid’s ordnance might envelop.
“Corporal Magnus, I need threat confirmation. Are you actually seeing…”
Magnus heard the disbelief in the LT’s voice. Not that he blamed him. But for all the mystics, there isn’t time to explain!
“An antimatter binary sini-trex bomb?” Also affectionately known as “a big splickin’ bomb” off the record. The weapon’s modulated antimatter was one half of the explosion, and the sini-trex was the other. When combined, the two created one hell of an explosion. And as simple as it seemed, the safest place to avoid the initial blast and the subsequent fallout was under water.
How this kid had gotten his hands on such a device, Magnus had no clue. But he also didn’t have a clue as to how he’d survived for what must’ve been a year or more, on his own, in a hole under a mountain.
“Yes, Lieutenant. Found a survivor, and we have reason to believe—” He couldn’t gulp air fast enough, even with his suit working overtime to hyperoxygenate his blood. His feet pounded ferns into the soft soil, his leg armor breaking small branches in two. “We have reason to believe he’s booby trapped the mountain.”
“Booby trapped?”
“Affirmative.”
“Ah, splick.”
Magnus hoped the LT was taking him seriously. Seriously enough to expedite his intel. Lives depended on it. There wasn’t time to argue. He prayed to the mystics that his superior would do the right thing.
What was taking so long?
Up ahead, Magnus could see the glimmer of moonlight on countless waves stretching to the horizon.
Finally, an all-comm channel opened, filled with Vanderbilt’s voice. “Attention, all units in the AO of Lima Kilo Niner. Exfil to the closest-point ocean entry. Credible ABSB threat confirmed. I repeat: Get off the island and s
ubmerge for cover. ABSB detonation imminent.”
Maybe the LT’s not that bad, after all, Magnus thought.
If the kid had planted an explosive, it was going to be big—at least if his display back at the waterfall was any harbinger. Magnus looked at the grid again and started to notice Marine icons moving toward the island’s perimeter. There you go! Come on! Keep going!
Magnus and his fire team had made it to the sand. The surf was another twenty-five meters ahead. The kid had already disappeared into the black water. They were going to make it.
For whatever reason, Magnus looked over his shoulder. Maybe to make a visual inspection of their retreat, or maybe out of habit to not leave anyone behind. He didn’t know. But in that moment, a light as bright as the sun flashed in his HUD. For a split second, there was no sound. Just pure white energy. But when that split second was up, a sound as loud as a starship colliding with a planet blew into Magnus and sent him flying.
A fissure ran across Magnus’s HUD as the concussion of the binary explosion sent him hurtling a hundred meters out to sea. It felt as if his head, arms, legs had been ripped from his body. He slammed against the water like a child’s toy skipping across concrete.
When the energy finally decided to let him go, Magnus felt his limp body melt into the waves, swaying gently into the cool embrace of the ocean. He blinked as water trickled through the crack in his visor. It tasted salty, like the sweat covering his face. But it was cool, cool enough that all Magnus wished for was to take a long bath in it.
Farther and farther he sank, wishing to shed his armor and just swim. He stared up at a strange light that shimmered over him, far above the water’s surface. It reminded him of the military parades back home on Capriana Prime. Of fireworks. Of weapons displays. Of fighter flyovers. He could smell the festival foods, the late-night campfires, and the scent of perfume and alcohol. He heard music and people laughing. It was as if he could simply step into that world. If he could only climb up to it… But it was just too far away to reach.
