Stackpole, Michael A - Dark Conspiracy 03 (26 page)
Read Stackpole, Michael A - Dark Conspiracy 03 Online
Authors: Evil Triumphant
"This isn't going to be easy, guys." Will gave them a half-smile and got nervous grins in response. "I'll soften them up, then you've got to take them down. You can used the sledges to break heads or crack backs. Belly
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button to sku
ll, front and back, those are your killing zones. These guys have some sort of armor on—real
fanati
cs."
One of the guys waved Will's last remark off. "You don't need to lie to us, bro. Tadd gave us the word—we're a long way from home, and something out there opened a gate to Hell."
"Okay, you're up to speed." Will ducked his head as gunfire started crackling down in the ravine. "They're coming, and they're not human. Kill all you want, they'll make more."
The gun-thunder rose to a crescendo that filled the broad valley with deafening noise. Will strained to hear any screams, but he could hear nothing in the confused explosions. He tried to concentrate enough to push his mind out so he could see how the battle raged, but the fear from his men and the staccato popping distracted him. By the time the noise began to die, a great crashing sound began to build. Echoing from north to south and back again, the crashing grew louder as it came closer and told Will who had won and who had lost down below.
Even having seen the troops Ryuhito had raised did not prepare Will for the spectacle of their arrival in the compound. Trees shivered and shook, then fell toward the
compound as if being knocked down by a gigantic steamroller. When the last tree toppled, the enemy
front line paused for a moment at the edge of the clearing.
Tall and thick-limbed, the heavy creatures in the front line stared back at the human defenders with
piggish eyes full of hatred. Their blocky fists ran with blood and plant juices, and a number of the
creatures bled from open wounds. One by one they raised their muzzles to the sky and let out with a
blood-curdling howl, then hunched their shoulders and charged.
Their wide line narrowed toward the middle of the spike field, and Will opened up with his machine-
pistol, ft started to rise with the recoil on him, but he brought it under control and it came around in a tight little circle. It shattered the armor plate on one of the massive monster's shoulders. Armor fragments and more bullets minced the flesh beneath and blew apart the shoulder-girdle. As the monster twisted
around with the impact, its arm dangling by a thin strip of bleeding muscle, another charging creature hit it from behind and drove it into the stakes.
Four sharpened wooden shafts pierced the lead monster's body, but three others snapped off when they hit
armor. The body, propelled forward by the momentum of its charge and the impact from behind, started
to roll and flatted yet more stakes. Dead even before the heavy hooves of its companions stomped it to
pulp, the creature Will had shot all but cleared a path through the stakes.
Will hit the tab at the rear of the grip and slammed another clip home as the spent one dropped away. He
felt the ground tremble as he brought the gun up again. A second monster, this one shot in the knee by
Tadd, went down and opened a hole through the stakes. Leaping above him, the first of the behemoths
started sprinting forward and his fellows followed in a tight arrow formation.
Will tried to pick a target as the shaking ground toppled
some of his sandbags.
We are done!
Ready to consign himself to death, his eyes narrowed, and he burned a clip at one of the approaching monsters. It fell, and he reloaded again, fully believing until he saw movement
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in the c
omer of his right eye, that he had two more seconds to live.
From back behind the lines, having built up speed on a dead gallop through the center of the compound, the Plutonian Phantom Masons blasted into the monsters' line like Cathaginian elephants crushing a Roman
square. Will saw one of the behemoths lifted up and tossed like scrap paper through the air. The snapping sound of armor plates being crushed beneath titanic legs filled the air, and an acrid, cloying stink washed over the battlefield.
Vetha, a bone-pale death-goddess, rode perched atop the lead Plutonian. Bursting through the behemoth line, she faced an immediate attack by the secondary troops. Will saw scale-stars flash through the sky and ricochet from her ivory form. One of the creatures leaped high in the air to attack her, but she speared a forelimb through its chest, then discarded the body before he had even reached the apex of his jump.
As the Plutonian charge carried on through the behemoths, scattering them like mobile homes in a tornado, the smaller creatures poured through the openings. Will heard things whizzing through the night air and heard a gurgle as one of his men went down with a chitin-star in his throat. "Down, down!" he shouted. Raising his gun enough to clear the sandbags, he tracked a prolonged blast against the front.
Twisting around with his back to the sandbags to reload, he saw two more of his six men down with the
throwing stars embedding in their bodies. More importantly though, coming on the heels of the Plutonian
attack, the Japanese cybeminjas poured into the battle. "Yee-ha!
The Cavalry has arrived!" he shouted, then laughed insanely when he realized what he'd actually said.
Their automatic rifles lipped flame in controlled bursts that sent the smaller creatures reeling. Moving up in fire teams, they covered each other and directed withering amount of fire into the boiling mass of bodies.
Their concentrated effort ground the enemy advance down and started the tide to ebb.
Witt rose to one knee and poked the snout of his machine-pistol over the sandbags as one of the behemoths rose up two feet from him like a titan. The monster raised both of its fists for a crushing overhand blow, and Will started to fall back away from what would have been ground zero for the blow. He knew, as he fell and weakly kicked out to propel himself backward, he could not escape.
Suddenly someone grabbed Will by the collar and yanked him back. Tossing him clear with the lower pair of arms, the Yidam stepped up and stuffed the muzzle of an improbably huge rifle up under the behemoth's chin and pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash shined out of the creature's mouth and nostrils. A little fountain of blood spurted up out of the top of the monster's skull, then the beast fell backward, crushing two of the smaller attackers beneath its bulk.
Crowley pulled Will to his feet and shouted in his ear. "These are what you saw, right?"
"Yeah, but more and different things might be coming through." Will snapped off two bursts at the first creature to reach his former shelter. It went down, and one of his men pulped its head with a sledgehammer before breaking and running back behind the Japanese line.
"Coming through?"
"I told you, they were coming through in a circle of termite nests."
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The Yidam
joined the two of them and shouldered his incredible rifle. Longer by a good bit than Will
was tal
l, the rifle spat out a two-foot flame and the recoil half-slewed the Yidam around. Will s
aw another
of the behemoths jerk upright, then fall lifeless.
"What the hell is that, an antitank rifle?"
"It is, and aren't you glad he's carrying it." Crowley pointed off back toward the hill. "Will says there is a dimensional gate up there. We have to shut it down or he'll have reinforcements in a second."
The Yidam nodded. "Ryuhito will not like that."
"Agreed." Crowley grabbed Will by the back of the neck. "Let's go."
"But wait..." Will looked back and through the smoke he saw Tadd go down. "They need us..."
The battlefield vanished in a gray haze as Crowley tugged him backward. "No time, Will. We have to
stop the troops from coming through or everyone dies." The shadow man half-carried him forward and
up, then parted the gray mist with a knife-like chop of his hand. "Look sharp."
Will brought his gun up and swept it toward the circle of termite mounds to the south. He was about to
pronounce the way clear when one of the smaller creatures popped up and scrambled toward them. He
fired a burst that started the beastie spinning, and Crowley hit it with another that stitched a line of holes across its chest. It went down and did not move.
The Yidam raised an eyebrow. "They appeared much more vital than that to me before."
Crowley grunted as he knelt beside what looked like a firepit and dirt clearing surrounding it.
"Chlorophyll, remember? They're feeding off Ryuhito, and in the darktheir batteries run down. He has their metabolism cranked, so in the dark they're dormant. Chances are he doesn't really
realize this."
Crowley fell silent as he studied a set of eight shallow holes scooped out of earth. Set in two rows of four, each hole had a small pile of pebble? in it. He poked at a couple of the stones, then glanced back at the termite mounds. He shrugged and thumbed two stones from one hole and pitched them into the
depression opposite their original home.
Will squatted down beside him. "Owari?"
"Close. It's the control mechanism for the dimensional gate." Crowley picked a red stone out of a hole and tossed it away. As Will watched, the stone reappeared in the hole. "Primitive, but effective. Now I've set it to block more things from coming in."
"Good." Will let the distant sounds of gunfire punctuate his sentence. "Now we can go back and help the others." He stood and checked his last clip. "1 have a dozen bullets left to nail those things."
Crowley shook his head. "We can't go."
"Why not?"
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The Yi
dam shouldered his rifle by its sling. "We have to wait."
The peaceful finality of both men's voices acted like a heavy blanket to smother the vengeful fire in Will's soul. "We have to wait here to make sure no one reopens the gate, right?" As both of them nodded, will continued, "Which means we're waiting for him."
Ryuhito, riding a helios-disk, streaked up and over the lip of the hill. "Who are you that dares thwart a god?" The Japanese prince landed and strode forward, the solar glare lighting the hilltop like a halogen lamp. "Your friends are dying below, and I will kill you here."
As Ryuhito strode casually into range, Will threw a punch at him. The prince parried the blow with little effort, tossing Will aside like a toy. Where Ryuhito's forearm
touched him, Will felt a searing pain. Hitting the ground, he clutched his burned arm to himself and rolled up onto one knee.
Ryuhito laughed at him. "I am a god, little man. It is not allowed for you to touch me."
The Yidam lunged forward and grabbed Ryuhito's wrists in his powerful upper hands. He lifted the prince
