by Dan Davis
“Sir,” Fury said. “The Hex aircraft is now circling at five hundred meters about a klick away. I can’t make a shot.”
“It’s just watching the town?” Ram asked, glancing that way, the black outline and blue glow from the engines just discernable through the swirling snow.
“Gonna see us at that distance,” Stirling said, turning to look at it. “They’ll see our armor, they’ll know we’re not from around here. They’ll attack.”
“Maybe they’ll call reinforcements,” Ram said. “We should go before then.”
“But if they just came to watch the firefight,” Flores said, “maybe they’ll go away if we win.”
“I doubt—” Ram started but a massive explosion behind him cut him off.
The tank had blasted through the east wall in an enormous cloud of dust that was thick like white smoke. Through the swirling smoke and with his suit enhancing his vision, Ram could make out a section of the wall crumbling into a mound of rubble on both sides. Beyond, half the raiders swerved away from their assault on the gate and instead charged toward the new breach in the wall.
“Flores,” Ram said. “With me to the east, cover the breach. Sergeant, stay here and keep them off the wall.”
Ram moved through the northeast tower along with dozens of others and took up position on the undamaged section.
He shot at the advancing raiders, killing them as they pressed forward on either side of the tank. Half were heading toward the gate and the others were coming for the breach.
“Sir!” Flores shouted. “The tank—”
It fired.
Ram saw the incoming shell before he turned to run. But the ground seemed to disappear from under his feet and then he was falling and tumbling, the world around him turning to a swirling cloud.
13.
The impact knocked the wind from him and his suit flashed and pinged warnings. He rolled to get up but slid down again, rolling until he came to a stop in front of a dead body, crushed beneath a large stone.
Half of the dead woman’s head had been crushed, distorting what remained of her face horrifically. Still, he recognized her as the one who had chided him earlier.
It’s us or them!
Ram scrambled away and got to his feet. Someone was shouting at him.
“Sir! Sir!”
“I’m alright,” he said, though his voice sounded strange. “I just fell off the wall.”
“You’re injured, sir.”
“No, I’m alright, I just…” Ram’s suit was flashing at him. He pulled the strap around him and found that his rifle was attached, intact and appeared operational.
“You are injured, sir,” Stirling said. “Your leg.”
His team could see the reports from his suit just as he could and Ram’s AugHud snapped into focus once more.
“My leg… it’s broken? My suit’s ruptured.” He looked down, wiped the dust off his visor, and saw that the armor around his left leg was in tatters. It was a twisted mass of material. “The fibula and tibia are broken and the patella is… gone.”
Ram took a step and fell down again, rolling over to look at his leg. He was aware that his suit had immediately injected him with analgesics along with prophylactic antibiotics but he must have hit his head or lost a lot of blood, too, because he seemed to be in an altered mental state.
Then he caught a glimpse of his foot.
“I think I lost some toes.”
“Sir, you have to get out of there,” Stirling said.
Ram got to a knee and realized he was halfway up the pile of rubble where the section of wall used to be. Climbing over the top and down the rubble came a group of raiders, bulky in their winter clothing. Snow swirled amongst the falling dust. One man pointed at Ram, shouted, and raised his weapon.
Still on one knee, Ram pulled his rifle up and fired at them. His large caliber rounds ripped the first man apart and burst through the head of the man next to him. Ram fired in bursts, killing a half dozen before the rest fled beyond the top of the rubble and Ram changed his magazine.
“Sir?” Flores said. “I’m coming to get you.”
“No, cover the assault.”
“I’m coming to save you, sir,” Red said. “Almost there.”
Ram turned to see the giant wheelhunter emerge from the garden of the nearest house and roll up to the base of the rubble with his weapons whirling in each long alien hand.
“I’m fine,” Ram said, making his way down the rubble in a series of hops and slides, wincing with every half-step. “Go and cover the assets.”
Red aimed his pistols at Ram’s head and fired while Ram threw himself flat. For a moment, Ram thought the alien had tried to kill him before he realized Red was shooting at the raiders swarming over the top. The men fell dead and the others scrambled away beyond the breach again.
“Thought you couldn’t kill humans,” Ram said, limping to the wheeler.
“I have broken my solemn word to the human authorities. I will accept any punishment that you or they deem suitable.”
“No, it’s… thanks, Red.”
“Merely doing my duty, sir, to the best of my ability, which is quite considerable, as you are now able to appreciate.”
“Come on, we have to find cover and protect this breach, and the other further along.”
“You appear to be badly injured in the lower leg area, sir.”
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
“Sir?” Stirling said. “They’re breaking off on the north, sir.”
“And the east,” Flores said, though she kept firing at the fleeing men.
“South, too,” Fury said.
“Thank God,” Ram said. “What about the Hex?”
“Circled away to the east,” Fury said.
“They’re gone?” Ram could barely believe it.
“Two klicks southeast, holding position right now.”
“Must be our lucky day, sir,” Red said.
“Don’t say that, Red, for God’s sake,” Flores muttered. “Don’t jinx us.”
“I would never knowingly jinx us, Private Flores, and I can only apologize for my thoughtless jinxing of the entire team.”
Ram limped toward the house and leaned his back on it.
“Don’t worry about it, man.”
“I must reiterate, Lieutenant Seti, that you appear to require urgent medical attention,” Red said.
Ram gritted his teeth. “Are you a medic, Red?”
“I am terribly sorry but I must admit that I unfortunately find human physiology to be equal parts revolting and perplexing, sir.”
“That’s a no, then.”
“I’m coming to you, sir,” Stirling said, breathing heavily.
“I’ll just wait here,” Ram said, flicking through his team’s feed.
Cooper was still welding sheets of steel to the trailer of the truck along with a group of men.
From her elevated position atop the southwest tower, Fury scanned the tree line all around and the air above. Flores watched the tank closely and Ram wondered if it was out of shells entirely or if it was waiting for another assault to begin before firing.
Stirling arrived, moving quickly despite his size. Behind him, Mayor Fraser approached.
“My God, you’re hurt, Lieutenant.”
“I’ve had worse,” Ram replied. “Looks like we’ve sent them running for the hills, at least.”
“For the moment but I’ve never seen an assault so determined.”
“How are your people?”
“We lost some and we have many injured. But it would have been far worse if not for you and your team and for that I am grateful.”
“So you don’t think it’s over?”
“Don’t know. We killed a lot of them and there’s more out there, wounded. Maybe they’ll ask for a truce to take their injured men off the field and if that’s what they want I’ll demand they withdraw. They might accept or they might come again. We have three breaches on the east wall now and one
badly damaged tower. I can’t believe they brought a tank. Must have brought it on a barge upriver, maybe? Damn them.”
“What the hell do they want so badly in here? What could possibly be worth losing so many men?”
“Women, probably,” Fraser said, shrugging. “They want to kill us and take our women.”
“Your women?” Ram shook his head. “How have things fallen so far so quickly?”
Fraser brushed it off. “This is the natural state of things. Civilization holds this at bay.”
“I can’t believe that. I just can’t believe it.”
“Before the invasion I wouldn’t have believed it either but after a while you can’t deny reality and stay sane.” He turned to one of his people behind him. “Get the most vulnerable to the outpost elevator and start sending them down in batches.”
“Are you sure?” she asked him.
“I’m told there’s supplies that will last decades and infinite power, plus all kinds of drugs and medical equipment. If we all die out here, some of us will survive. The town will go on.”
His people nodded and rushed off.
Stirling slapped Ram’s shoulder. “I’ve stopped the bleeding but we’ll have to get you proper medical attention or you might lose that leg.”
“We have to get out of here,” Ram said. “The weapon has to get out of here, that’s all that matters. Cooper? How’s the truck coming?”
“It’s ready, sir.”
“Alright, we’ll be on our way now, Mayor Fraser. I hope that the—”
“Incoming!” Fury shouted.
Ram cursed and scanned his Hud. “What flank?”
“It’s the Hex!” Fury said. “Three aircraft, coming in fast from the east.”
“Three?”
Ram patched into her feed and watched the three Hex aircraft coming in low through the swirling snowstorm.
“That one’s going for the tank!”
The foremost aircraft swerved low for a moment and fired a chain of white plasma fire at the tank. The plasma smashed and burned through the armor, turning the surface of the turret to molten slag and blasting the interior with liquid fire. It erupted in a shower of plasma and glowing shrapnel and white smoke, destroying it utterly. The men around it fled in full panic as the Hex craft flew through the debris cloud toward the town.
“What are they doing?” Stirling shouted.
Ram grabbed Mayor Fraser’s shoulder. “Have the Hex ever attacked you before?”
“No!” Fraser said, his eyes wide. “Never!”
“Then they’re here for us,” Ram said. “Fury, start shooting. Aim for the engines, if you—”
“Sir?” Fury said. “They’re landing.”
Ram checked her feed and watched the three crafts land in formation just fifty meters beyond the wall. Behind them, the shattered ruin of the tank spewed smoke into the sky as its fuel burned. There were no human attackers in sight and Ram imagined they would be running back to wherever they had come from as quickly as they could.
“Do we fire?” Stirling asked.
Getting unsteadily to his feet, Ram snapped out his orders as he limped up the rubble slope. “Everyone, your AP or HE rounds. Sergeant, you target the left aircraft. Flores, the center. Fury, you target the right. The engines are the most vulnerable. If we can ground them, we might have a chance. But hold your fire until I give the order.”
“Enemy units disembarking,” Fury said. “Four from each craft.”
Two hex, in their grey-black combat suits, emerged from both sides of all three landed aircraft with weapons in their hands and slowly advanced.
“I see them. Still target the engines first.”
But just as Ram spoke, so did the enemy.
An amplified voice called out, surprising them all.
“UNOP Marine forces!” the human voice projected from the grounded Hex craft. Even through the howling wind, it was incredibly loud. The townsfolk winced. “UNOP Marine forces, you will surrender to us immediately or we shall open fire on the town. We shall leave no survivors.”
Mayor Fraser turned to his people. “Get as many people as you can into the shelters.”
“What about—”
“Do it!”
“Movement, sir,” Fury said. “Center craft.”
The figure stepped out and the two hex soldiers there moved aside to allow him to come forward in front of the aircraft. He wore long robes that flapped madly in the wind.
“It’s a human,” Flores said. “That traitor asshole from before.”
“The collaborator,” Ram said. “The Wayfinder.”
“He’s…” Stirling started. “He’s holding a white cloth. A white flag.”
The flag whipped and snapped in the air as the collaborator approached the town on foot, alone. Behind him, twelve hex soldiers stood beside their vehicles.
“Didn’t he demand our surrender?” Flores said. “Now he wants to surrender to us?”
“He wants to talk,” Ram said and hesitated for a moment while weighing his options. “Cooper? You and Red load up the package and make for the target site.”
“Now, sir?”
“When you’re ready.”
“We’ll leave through the back door in a few minutes, sir.”
Limping, Ram stepped up to the top of the pile.
“You can’t be serious?” Stirling hissed. “Sir, it’s a trick.”
“You take out those craft first, do you all hear me? And then those hex. Whatever happens to me or anything else, you must protect the assets all the way to the target site.”
“You’re going to get killed, sir.”
“All that matters is that the assets launch on schedule. None of us matter except to protect that launch. You all know that, right?”
“Yes, sir, but you could stay up on the wall and speak using your suit to amplify—”
“I’m just buying what time I can,” Ram said. “Buy time for the assets to get away and maybe for the townsfolk to get to safety.”
“Don’t do this, sir,” Stirling said. “Don’t throw your life away. We can just have a firefight from here.”
I don’t want to die, he thought, but I died already.
“Every minute we can drag this out is a minute more for the assets to reach the launch site.”
He made his way out of the town toward the hex.
14.
Ram limped down the loose pile of rubble. Snow was already lying on the surface of the tumbled stones and filling the gaps between them. He slipped and jarred his leg, making his head swim as the painkillers were pumped into his system again.
“It’s just pain,” Ram muttered as he advanced over the plain toward the advancing Wayfinder. “It’s just a body.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“Nothing.”
The collaborator came forward, his white robe whipping in the intense wind and the bitter snow whipping into his face. Even so, the man smiled as he stepped closer over the frozen ground.
They drew to a stop.
“You are a big fellow, aren’t you,” the collaborator said, still smiling. His hair was dark and he had a substantial nose and bulging dark eyes.
Ram looked at the Hex arrayed behind him, each team standing ready.
They were bizarre to look on, up close and in person. It was unpleasant and uncanny, and Ram felt an urge to flee or shout at them or to simply start shooting.
You killed millions of my people. You are all my enemies.
“Your ship crashed, didn’t it,” the collaborator said. “We found the wreckage. You came in off-world, didn’t you. How did you do that?”
Ram looked down at him. “What do you want?”
The man smiled. “I’m sorry to see that you hurt your foot. It looks painful.” He held his arms out. “I am here to offer you a very simple deal. You and your, ah, teammates, give yourselves up to us and I will refrain from annihilating the town.”
“How can you do that? How can you kill so many
of your own people?”
He frowned. “My own people? Sadly, that is not the case. My own people are those who have embraced the Way of the Engineers. If only they had contacted us when we had asked, they would not find themselves in this position.”
“You’re a traitor.”
“I deny your accusation.”
“You betrayed your race.”
“How can I betray what I never promised? The only oaths I have ever sworn have been to the Masters.”
Ram pointed at the hex soldiers. “Your masters are aliens. That sounds like treachery to me.”
“No, no. They are not the Masters. My brothers here are servants just as I am. Our Masters have opened my eyes to the truth. Your fear is understandable but it is misplaced. Once you come to understand—”
“You understand these squids?”
His smile faltered. “Our honored friends have acquired this planet in the proper legal fashion as commanded by the Masters and have since shown remarkable restraint during their stewardship of it.”
“Restraint?” Ram said, feeling the urge to rage against the little traitor. But something felt wrong.
Ram had come out to speak with the collaborator in order to buy his team extra time to evacuate the assets and withdraw to the west to the launch site.
The collaborator had made his offer and then had allowed Ram to divert the discussion and seemed happy to be so diverted.
“Why are you even…” Ram started and then broke off.
Thoughts rushed through Ram’s mind.
The Mayor had said the Hex had never shown up to a raid before. Perhaps they were watching the whole area, looking for signs and that had brought them.
Or perhaps the raiders had a mole who had contacted the Hex. Perhaps the raiders were in league with the Hex.
Were those raiders actually made up by humans who had embraced the worship of the Orbs or whatever the alien religion was about? If that was true then that meant the raider attack had not in fact been beaten back. The raiders might not have fled at the sight of the Hex firepower after all and even the destruction of the tank might have been choreographed.