Undying Mercenaries 2: Dust World (21 page)

“Go up there and steal a few pieces of their equipment. I’m flying buzzers toward it right now—they don’t even seem to care. I’m getting such good vids. Should I share them with your helmet?”

“If it makes you happy,” I said, shutting my eyes. I could see things flash and flicker on the other side of my eyelids. Damn, I was tired.

I passed out for a time after that. When I woke up, Natasha was standing next to me. Her foot withdrew, and I realized she’d kicked me awake. That wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Wearing heavy steel armor protected us from things like a friendly kick. The thumping had probably awakened me rather than any sensation, as I could barely feel her boot slamming against my hip.

“What’s up?” I asked, coming awake with a groan.

“I can’t believe you can sleep at a time like this. They’ve reached the catacombs. Our units are falling back from them, letting them march forward. Check it out.”

I stood up wearily and dialed up my scope. Things had indeed shifted on the battlefield—if that’s what it really was. The ship had unloaded a great deal of equipment. Most of it I couldn’t even recognize. There were big crates, small ones, a few in between. They had devices that were conical, spheroid and even flat black planes that were left lying on the ground.

Around me there was more activity as well. Most of my unit had been revived and was now guarding the lifter in an expanding circle.

Anne Grant had set up the revival machine in a secluded spot away from the lifter. In retrospect, it seemed like that precaution was unnecessary now that the colonists weren’t attacking but, on the other hand, keeping the revival unit safe was even more important now that our cohort had been cut off from the rest of the legion.

“Look!” Natasha said, pointing across the lake. “They’ve reached the
fallen rocks. Our people aren’t fighting yet—I wonder what they’re waiting for?”

I frowned in concern. I looked back and forth from the ship to our line of retreating troops. I could tell what was happening.

“The primus is pulling back,” I said. “She’s going to let the aliens march right into the caves the colonists set up.”

“Yeah, so?”

I made an exasperated sound. “She’s screwing them!” I complained. “They made a deal with us, and she’s double-crossing them.”

“No she’s not,” Natasha said in concern. “We agreed to stop shooting at them. That’s all. If the invaders want to attack them that’s their problem.”

Technically she was right, but I wasn’t happy. I’d hoped this arrangement would lead to open fighting with the invaders on one side and us standing with the colonists on the other.

“First off,” I said, “the primus bombs holes in the colonists’ cliffs exposing them to fire. Then she backs up so the enemy can roll right in. She’s screwed them. They’ll die like rats in there.”

Natasha looked at me. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“No,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Because the colonists are
our
people. We shouldn’t be killing one another. We should team up and chase these freaks off the planet.”

Natasha stared at me critically for a while. “You know what I think?” she said. “I think you’re in lust with that half-naked wild girl you’ve been talking to. I think she’s warped your thinking.”

I felt a pang. Was it guilt? Outrage? A little of both, I guessed. I went with the outrage as it was a better cover.

“Jealousy?” I demanded. “Now? There are hundreds, maybe
thousands
of lives at stake here, Natasha. These people are just defending their home, where they’ve lived all their lives. What if these three meter tall pricks landed in your hometown tomorrow? Wouldn’t you want a little help?”

She lowered her eyes. “Sorry,” she said. “Too bad we can’t do anything about it.”

I didn’t answer. I was scanning the scene. The enemy, marching in their perfect squares of nine, were climbing up the fallen boulders now, where I knew there were mantraps and ambushes every meter. Now I knew why the colonists had built such an elaborate defense.

Then I panned upward, higher and higher, searching for the wobbling little craft that Della had pointed out to me earlier. I finally found it in a new location. It was hovering over the lifter.

“Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch,” I said, looking almost straight up.

“What?” Natasha asked, craning back her neck and staggering to look above us.

“There they are, watching us. They’re probably wondering what the hell this lifter is doing here and whether or not it’s a threat to them. I can see three figures riding up there. What a strange little ship. Seems unstable in the air. It flutters, falling and rising again.”

“Maybe it was built with underwater travel in mind,” Natasha said. “After all, they come from a planet covered in oceans.”

“You know, I think you’re right,” I said, sighting on the craft carefully. “Natasha, would you like to get a good look at that aircraft?”

“Oh yes,” she said, sighing. “I’ve never seen true alien tech. I mean, the Galactic stuff we can buy seems so well-known and generic.”

I reached up and cranked the aperture on my weapon to its narrowest setting. The lenses inside shifted with a tiny whirring sound.

“Could you turn on that little scrambling unit you used earlier?” I asked her.

“What for?”

“Just to make me happy.”

Frowning, she activated her jammer. I knew it didn’t have much range, so I stepped a pace closer to her. It was supposed to scramble the vid output from our suit cameras as well as making us untraceable on the net.

“What are you doing, James?” she asked.

Such innocence. She was the kind of girl I’d always dreamed of back in school. Smart—but not in the wrong way.

“I’m going to give you a closer look at some alien tech,” I told her.

I fired my weapon without further delay. The beam punched a hole into the bottom of the odd, wobbling aircraft above our heads.

-20-

My beam lanced up from the ground to stab right through the aircraft overhead. I could tell right away that the crewmen aboard her were surprised. Two of them fell off, spinning and twisting all the way down until they splashed into the lake.

Twin white fountains of water shot up, such was the impact of their fall. One of the figures vanished in a churning spot of bubbles that quickly subsided. The other, however, seemed to be alive.

I was impressed by the hardiness of the enemy. If they could live through a fall like that—it had to be a five hundred meter drop.

“James? What did you
do
?” Natasha asked. Her voice sounded like she was out of breath.

“What did I do? I fired on an enemy combatant that was threatening our lifter.”

“You didn’t have orders to do that!”

“Sure I did,” I said. “Leeson told me to guard this ship. I’ve been standing on guard duty out here for hours. I recognized a threat, and I eliminated it.”

Natasha looked up. “It’s not falling. It’s leveled off.”

I sighted on the ship again. It was harder this time as the ship wasn’t holding still. It was flying in a circular pattern, directly above the lifter.

Before I could get another clean shot, a smoking object fell from the aircraft. I frowned at it. The object looked like a glass sphere full of a pitch-black substance. A spiraling tendril of gray smoke trailed behind it as it fell.

“Incoming!” I shouted over the general unit channel.

“McGill?” Leeson’s voice answered. “What’s going on out there?”

“Close visors!” I shouted. “I think its gas, sir!”

I fired my weapon but missed. The glass sphere fell nearby and popped. Roiling vapors exploded in every direction, obscuring my vision. My visor was down, as was Natasha’s.

Not all our troops were so fortunate. Caught by surprise, a few of them slumped, crawled then stopped moving entirely.

The fluttering aircraft moved away then, scudding back toward the enemy ship. I fired twice more and got lucky on the last shot. I missed the ship, which was flat from this angle, but I hit the last of the three crewmen. He pitched off the platform. The aircraft, unguided, slid sideways and slammed into a cliff face. A gush of orange fire brought a smile to my face.

A heavy gauntlet slammed down onto my shoulder. I half-turned and was half-hauled around to look into Harris’ bulging eyes.

“What did you do, Specialist?” he roared.

“I brought down an attacking aircraft, sir. It was an amazing shot, if I do say so myself.”

Harris looked out toward the cliffs, where a spot still burned brightly. Then he eyed the vapors that were hugging the ground stubbornly, refusing to disperse.

“What about the enemy crew? Any survivors?”

I pointed out to the water. We all looked, and my mouth twisted into a grimace.

The pilot who had fallen into the water wasn’t having a good time of it. The rock-fish had gathered around, sensing an injured, helpless victim. I could barely see the man anymore. He looked more like a hump of wriggling flesh. The rock-fish, with their wart-encrusted bodies glinting wetly, were feasting.

“How can he still be alive?” Harris asked.

I lifted my weapon again. “Permission to put him out of his misery, Vet?” I asked.

“Since when do you ever ask permission to fire your weapon, McGill?”

I just looked at him.

“All right,” he said, sighing. “Do it.”

Fire lanced out of my tube, and the water steamed. The splashing stopped until fresh, living rock-fish came up to finish the task their dead comrades had begun.

“Guys, look,” Natasha said. She had a scope out and was examining the far side of the lake. We both joined her.

The situation on the rock-pile had changed. The troops that had been laboriously climbing the stones and occasionally falling into mantraps had halted and reversed themselves. They were now marching toward the verdant line of flowery growths along the west side of the region.

There was a moment of calm—then Legion Varus did what they had to do. They fired upon the advancing enemy.

I watched with interest as the armored squares of troops rocked backward, taking the shocks in stride. The laser rifles my comrades were equipped with didn’t seem to be having much effect. Each hit staggered a trooper—but a moment later he was back in perfect stride with his brothers.

“The primus shouldn’t play around with these boys,” I said. “They look pretty serious.”

“Why don’t you call her and tell her how to handle it, McGill?” Harris suggested. “I bet she’d like that.”

“She’s got to use her mortars, or at least her plasma cannons. I’m just saying.”

As if I was a fortuneteller, my fellow weaponeers stepped up the assault. Lasers weren’t penetrating, so heavy beams lanced out taking down troopers with each shot. Sometimes, two fell to a single beam. They rarely got back up.

At that point, the battlefield shifted again. I got the feeling both sides had been hesitant, feeling out each other’s capabilities to inflict harm. Now, the littermates were convinced.

Just as Della had intimated to me, the armored enemy didn’t take kindly to watching their brothers die. They changed demeanor suddenly and completely as if a switch had been thrown.

They’d been marching in precise order, lockstep, almost methodical in their movements. Now their calm melted and turned into wild rage. Their slow, measured steps became sweeping bounds. Their limbs, once quiet at their sides, came up and formed gauntleted claws.

“Holy shit,” Harris whispered at my side.

The troopers charged. It was a berserker thing and an astounding rush of metal-encased flesh. The beams coming out of the flowery embankment ahead of them increased to an almost frantic level of fire. Energy beams were released steadily but struck the ground as often as armor, forming glassy patches on the sandy soil and smoky holes in armor.

At the last moment, a line three ranks deep of our own heavy troopers rushed forward. They carried the banner of the wolf’s head emblem, and Legion Varus’ best rushed to meet the maddened enemy.

The two lines crashed together. We were too distant to see the details, but I could tell our men were using force-blades for the most part. They were sawing and hacking limbs from their larger opponents. The enemy was not helpless, though. They had large pistols, which they used to great effect at close range. In hand-to-hand, they wielded heavy sabers to hack and hew. I wished I could have been there with my comrades.

Outnumbered four to one, the
massive berserkers could not win. But they did reap a terrible toll. Before the struggle was over, dozens of our silver-armored legionnaires lay in the mud.

“Not one of them broke—did you see that?” Harris demanded. “Not one of those big bastards would turn tail and run. They all fought to the death. They fought until they were chopped apart.”

I didn’t say anything. Neither did Natasha.

Harris hit me then, slamming his fist into the back of my helmet. The blow didn’t really hurt, but it did cause my head to ring.

“Did you want to add something to that, Vet?” I asked.

Harris glowered at me. “If I find out that you started this fight, so help me McGill, I’ll kill you myself.”

“You’d be well within your rights, Vet,” I said calmly.

“Don’t think I won’t do it, McGill. I’ve done it before.”

“You have indeed, Vet. I haven’t forgotten.”

For several long seconds, we had ourselves an old-fashioned stare-down.

“I’ve been tired of your bullshit for nearly two years now,” he told me. “I can’t wait until you muster out.”

“Haven’t you heard? I’m re-upping. Planning to become a lifer.”

Cursing and muttering, Harris disappeared into the ship leaving Natasha and me at the bottom of the ramp.

Natasha looked after him in concern. She put a hand on the back of my helmet.

“He dented your helmet,” she said.

“That’s legion property, too.”

She gave a small, nervous laugh. Then she spoke with me in a hushed, worried voice.

“James, what if he finds out what you did?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think he will. I think he’ll have plenty of better things to worry about from now on. Look.”

She followed my arm and gasped. Fresh troops were marching down from the huge ship. These new enemies looked different. They weren’t all standing in perfect nines, either.

“Are those—squids?” Natasha asked.

“Looks that way.”

A group of cephalopods had emerged for the first time. They were the same size as the human troopers they’d bred for war. I realized that now. I wondered if they’d tried to make them in their own image, growing them and altering their genes so they were the same size and weight. There was something creepy about that. This species was a cold people, and I found I liked them less with every passing hour.

“They might have made a mistake,” I said hopefully.

Legion Varus hadn’t been slow to react to this new threat. They fired a barrage of heavy beams toward the cephalopods. But the beams didn’t reach the enemy. Instead, the energy splashed and flickered as each beam was intercepted by a shimmering field of force.

“They put a
shield up!” Natasha breathed. “A shield big enough and strong enough to cover their entire ship.”

I nodded thoughtfully. The squids had just moved up a few notches in technical prowess in my estimation.

“How are we ever going to get through to their ship if they have shields with that kind of range?” Natasha asked.

I didn’t reply because I didn’t have an answer. I watched as the squids calmly rummaged in the equipment they’d piled outside their ship. No wonder they hadn’t worried about protecting it from fire. They were in no danger from our weaponry now that they’d shielded the region.

While we looked on, the fresh troops kept flowing down the ramps. Before they were done, there were twice as many as there had been. They all stood in calm, perfectly-formed squares of nine. Their black armor gleamed like star-studded space.

As we watched, a protuberance began to slowly lift from the crown of the great ship. It was oblong, sleek, and quite large. By my estimation, it was at least thirty meters in length.

“What the hell is that thing?” Natasha asked.

“Looks like a big weapon,” I said. “Or it could be a sensor of some kind.”

As we watched in growing concern, the object began to swivel coming around slowly.

“It’s got to be some kind of cannon!” I shouted.

I reported in—but it was hardly necessary. Half the people in the valley had seen it. The threat was unmistakable.

Across the lake, the legionnaires who’d been busy removing valuable equipment from their dead comrades stood up and bolted into the forest of flowers. I heard the tactical chatter and tuned into my overall unit chat. They’d been ordered to withdraw and scatter.

For several seconds, as the giant turret traveled, I felt certain it was going to fire on the troops who were fleeing certain death. But it didn’t.

The big weapon kept turning, slowly, coming around until…

“Run!” I shouted. Natasha was right behind me. We didn’t really have anywhere safe to go,  so we ran to the lakeshore. I leapt out into the water just before the air grew blindingly white and a tremendous beam of power flashed out.

The beam cut into the lifter and tore her apart. There was no chance for anyone aboard to escape. I was sure of that. Harris, Leeson and whoever else was still aboard—they were all dead.

I knew as I crouched in the water, pushing away rock-fish that kept yawning, trying to get a grip on my armor that Leeson was going to be mighty upset when he was revived. Nothing made a man feel like more of a loser than to die twice in the same day.