Burning Bright

by Michael-Scott Earle

  They stood on the ramp for a few minutes and watched the door. Other men appeared from the tall grass and from behind the APC, and the group moved back to the base of the ramp so they could all speak to each other. Now that I wasn’t in the heat of combat, I could see the attackers were all wearing simple leather moccasins, loose fitting pants, and each carried either a club or small axe tied to a belt. The pants and their bare chests were painted with a yellowish-gold color and some brown stripes which really let them blend in perfectly with the field. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I knew enough about body language to guess they were trying to figure out if they should force their way into the ship and kill me, or just take the women and leave.

  After a few more minutes of debating, the men moved to the tables where my friends were unconscious. I guessed they would toss Zea’s transponder on the ground before they abducted her, but a snarl of anger escaped my throat when the painted men began to take my friend’s clothes off.

  “Shitttttt,” I growled with a mixture of anger and fear. I’d been through enough battles to know what often happened to women who were taken prisoner, and my stomach dropped when the group of men finished stripping Zea’s flightsuit off her lean body. She was naked, obviously unconscious, and lying on the grass while the group of men who undressed her stood near her feet. They looked down at her naked body, and then the men glanced at each other.

  Their faces wore pleased expressions.

  I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I just felt my insides knot up a thousand times while the creature I kept caged in my soul screamed in my brain.

  The men seemed to look at Zea for almost a half a minute, but then someone must have barked an order. They flinched, and the group moved to take the suit off Paula next, then Eve, and finally Kasta. My terror increased with each woman who was undressed, and I couldn’t help but feel as if this was my entire fault. I should have never let them come with me. I should have shot one of the bulls, dragged its carcass back into Persephone’s hold, and then we should have lifted back into orbit. We were safe on Persephone, and I’d risked my friends’ lives when I didn’t need to.

  The women were all naked, and the men arranged them on an area of non-blood soaked grass as if they were dolls on a display shelf. The group of men stepped back a meter or so from the women, and began to talk amongst themselves. During the conversation, they pointed to the hatch door and the naked bodies of my friends.

  “Persephone, I don’t suppose you could give me the audio?” I asked, but there was no answer from the ship, and I didn’t hear what the men were saying.

  After a minute, they seemed to reach some agreement and moved toward my friends. The largest of the men each bent down to pick up one of the women and lifted them up in a fireman’s carry. The group then moved to the right part of the screen, and the view panned in that direction so I could observe them leave. I watched the images of the men shrink on the screen, and even though I knew the camera could zoom in, I didn’t care to watch after a few minutes. They were heading northwestward, and it was where the nearest settlement was to us. We’d thought it was a small village, and a good twenty kilometers away, but they must have seen us fly over the plains where we landed, and sent out a hunting party to attack us.

  They would have been victorious if they hadn’t let me escape.

  “Persephone, can you show me a map of the settlement to the northwest?” I asked, and the screen shifted to display a still image I guessed she saved when we flew over it yesterday. I only saw five structures that looked to be made out of stucco walls and simple tile roof. But as I studied the picture, I realized the village was backed up to the face of a cliff. We really didn’t have the correct angle of approach, but I wondered if there were more dwellings carved into the wall there. It would explain how they would be able to get thirty men to run some twenty kilometers and attack us.

  I sighed and rubbed the palm of my hand across my oily face. I was a genetically engineered super soldier who could turn into a fucking tiger-man. Eve was a vampire psychic who could read people’s minds and trick them with magic illusions. Zea was the best damn hacker on her planet and was amazingly clever. Paula was no doubt one of humankind’s greatest AI programmers and engineers, and her twin sister was a perfect android replica.

  Yet we’d just been taken down by a group half-naked savages with blowguns.

  “I’m going to go after them,” I said as I rose from the navigator’s chair. Persephone didn’t answer me of course, and I wobbled my way back through the bridge and to my room.

  The faint scent of Eve and Zea filled my nose when I entered my room, and I forced the memories of them out of my head so I could focus on gearing for the mission. The armor, clothes, and weapons I’d used on Queen’s Hat were still on the floor of my room, and I thought about Zea again when I sorted through it. She’d been about to take it out of my room, but I’d stopped her. Then we talked. After our talk, Eve had joined us.

  My head started to spin with the memories, but I also felt a wave of nausea cannonball into my stomach. I still wasn’t over the drugs yet.

  “Fucking focus,” I growled at myself as I pulled my weapons from the armored chest piece, leg guards, and clothes.

  There was a pair of pistols and the submachine gun I took from Juliette’s armory, and the carbine and sniper rifle I’d taken from Elaka Nota’s soldiers. I preferred the larger caliber pistols I currently wore to the ones Juliette gave me, but the submachine gun would work well against a large group of unarmored opponents. The carbine used armor piercing rounds, so it wasn’t a good choice to bring. My eyes fell on the sniper rifle, and I considered it for a few moments.

  The bullets the weapon used were massive and would be all sorts of overkill for the men I was going up against. Then again, the sight on the rifle was advanced technology, and I did like the idea of killing a bunch of these fuckers from a few kilometers away.

  Sometimes overkill was the correct answer to a problem.

  These fuckers took my friends. I would ensure that it was the worst decision they ever made.

  I picked up all the weapons and the bulky armor. Then I carried them out of my room, down the elevator, and to the armory. The chestpiece and leg guards I’d taken from Juliette’s station would be fine against firearms, but there were too many spots where my arms and legs were exposed. I set the equipment on one of our many racks, and then I moved to grab the locking armor plates that connected with my flight suit. It took me five minutes to attach all the pieces, and I strapped back on my gun belts, harness, and weapons after I was suited up.

  Sniper rifle, submachine gun, long knife, twin pistols, and the massive chrome revolver were the weapons I picked. I checked the ammo on everything, grabbed two flash grenades, a smoke grenade, and two concussion grenades. I stared at the wall and considered taking another rifle, or a shotgun since the submachine gun folded up so neatly on my hip. I wasn’t going to be able to use the sniper rifle if I moved into the town, but I also wanted to be able to sprint, and the submachine gun was surprisingly accurate while running.

  I was feeling a bit stronger, so I ran out of the armory toward the hold. It only took half a dozen strides to lose my balance, and I pinballed off Persephone’s walls three times before I tumbled onto the ground. The world spun for what felt like half a minute, and I had to wait for it to pass before I could climb up the wall and stand.

  I walked carefully now, and returned to the hold just as another wave of nausea ripped through my stomach. My legs were feeling stronger, and the task of putting on my armor and guns felt therapeutic for my brain and muscles, but the fall in the corridor and my queasiness convinced me that I still wasn’t anywhere close to a hundred percent.

  It didn’t fucking matter. My friends needed me.

  I pushed the button to open the door and readied my submachine gun. The doors spun open almost instantly, and I peeked around the side. The dawn light was only casting the faintest hints of glow, but my eyes w
ere sensitive enough to make out the APC and tables at the bottom edge of the ramp. There was a slight cool breeze flowing over the long grass, and I spent a few moments watching the plainsland sway. I saw no other movement, so I carefully advanced down the ramp.

  I inhaled the scent of grass, the coppery blood from the butchered cow, and the scent of decay. Flies were buzzing around the meat on the table now, but the rancid smell wasn’t strong. I was worried I might have slept a whole day and a half, but the state of the meat on the tables made me think I had only been unconscious through the late afternoon and night.

  I found Zea’s transponder attached to her suit, and then I picked up the women’s outfits. I brought them back to Persephone, threw them into the doorway, and then found the outside panel control that closed the hatch. After closing the doors, I walked back down the ramp and inspected the APC. I was a bit surprised the men didn’t take it, but it was possible that they had never even seen a vehicle before, and the controls were a bit complicated. Just to make sure it was safe to drive, I checked the undercarriage, back storage area, and engine compartments for explosives.

  When I was looking at the engine, I spotted a pile of bodies four meters from the front left corner of the vehicle. They were the painted men I killed, and the sight of the haphazard stack of corpses made me believe they had been in too much of a hurry to bother burying their dead, or taking them back to camp.

  It forced me think the Magate Order might be visiting this side of the planet much sooner than I expected.

  I quickly returned to my inspection of the APC. I didn’t see any sort of explosive device, so I jumped into the driver’s seat. I’d forgotten about the assault rifle I’d used to shoot the livestock; it sat on the bench. I was surprised, and thankful that our attackers hadn’t taken it.

  I started the engine and rolled the APC around to face northwest. I slowly increased my speed until I was traveling about forty-five kilometers per hour. It was still an agonizingly slow pace, but I didn’t want to turn on my lights and going any faster raised the noise level significantly.

  I’d get there in half an hour, and I prayed I wouldn’t be too late.

  Chapter 10

  I stopped the APC two kilometers from where my transponder map said the edge of the village was. The plains had been flat where we landed Persephone, but they’d turned a bit hilly the farther northwest I traveled. I was parked on the top of one such hill, and I estimated that I was outside the range of any guards they would have around the village.

  But they wouldn’t be outside the range of my sniper rifle.

  I climbed onto the roof of the APC and took a prone position with the long rifle. The sight of the weapon zoomed in on the distant buildings, and I was able to see all the structures clearly with the advanced optic system. I also picked up the thermal image of the scouts positioned around the edges of the city, and I did a quick count.

  There was a main road on the north side of the village, and four men walked around a small fire built there. On the south side, closest to me was another fire, and three men sat around it while another eight hid in the long grass. They were facing in my direction, so I guessed the group was concerned I might not have died from their overdose of poisoned darts.

  The cliff face was on the southwest side of the town so I couldn’t see all of it from my position. I did see a bit of what I expected, though. There were homes carved into the cliff face there, and the compact nature of the ones I did see made me think this wasn’t really a village, but a town with a few thousand occupants.

  Shit.

  I turned my sniper rifle to my right and looked across the gentle hills. There was another hill five hundred meters to my right, and I decided to drive over to it so that I’d have a better angle on the cliff face. The trip took me only half a minute, and I climbed out of the APC and took the same prone position on the roof. I now saw more of the cliff face, but the sight didn’t make me feel any better.

  There were entry arches, doors, and obvious hallways across a good three hundred meters of the cliff face. Guard outposts were strategically set every fifty meters or so, and each of these had three or four men stationed in them. They were holding bows though, not firearms, and my armor would laugh off any damage they could inflict. I couldn’t just walk in there without a plan though, I’d still get killed from an arrow to the face, and these fuckers still had my friends.

  Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta could have been anywhere inside of the caves of the cliff face.

  The sight of my sniper rifle gave me the wind reading, adjusted itself based off distance, and displayed the thermal signatures of the men guarding the outskirts of the settlement, but I was too far away from the buildings and dwellings in the cliff wall to know what was inside. I guessed my friends were here, but I really didn’t know for sure. The only hints I had were that the assholes took them in this direction, and the men guarding the flank where they thought I might come from.

  I pulled out the sniper rifle magazines, set them on the roof of the APC next to me, and reviewed my plan. I had more than enough ammo to take out all of the men on the outskirts and the ones guarding the walls of the cliff, but killing the latter group would put the whole compound an alert. They would then prepare for my arrival, or maybe even consider killing my friends. My best option was to kill all the fucks on the outskirts of the camp, hope the fuckers on the cliff wall didn’t hear me and then sneak inside the perimeter of the town. I’d try to avoid the guard stations and find my friends without detection. Once I’d figured out where Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta were, I could kill the rest of these assholes, or escape without notice.

  I set my sight on the first target stationed a bit away from the rest of his companions and put one of the massive bullets through his body.

  The sniper rifle wasn’t silenced, but it did have some flash and noise suppression. I’d killed the men closest to me first, and while I believed they heard the shot, they didn’t seem to realize the sound meant a gun. The last one of the fuckers died staring at the headless corpse of the man I’d just killed, and my next bullet took off the top half of his chest.

  I reloaded and then pointed the rifle over at the next group of men. They were staring at the sky, and I imagined they thought the gunshots were thunder.

  Maybe they were right. My weapon made me the god of thunder, and these people were going to feel my wrath.

  I blew through half of my clip, easily killed the remaining men, and then turned the sight back to the guards on the cliff wall. The optical feed on the rifle said they were 2.6 kilometers away, and their relaxed stance made me think the breeze across the hilly grassland prevented them from hearing my rifle.

  I stood up on the roof, put the magazines in my ammo pouches, and then jumped down to the grass. My legs went numb as soon as my boots touched the dirt, and I was suddenly staring at spinning stars. Nausea returned with an angry vengeance, and I rolled over to puke into the grass. It felt like I threw up twice the volume of meat I’d eaten yesterday, and I spent a few more precious minutes dry heaving once my stomach was cleared.

  I was still incredibly dizzy, but I forced myself to stand and then I leaned against the side of the APC while I gulped down air.

  Fuck. I was a mess, and I debated shifting into my tiger form. The monster might be able to shake free of the effects of the drug, but I still didn’t know for sure if my friends were being held prisoner here. They probably were, but if I shifted now, stormed the place, killed all opposition, and didn’t find them, I’d have to sleep for six-plus hours before I continued my search.

  I could do this without shifting. I just needed to go slow, be careful, and not take any risks; none of which were strategies I was particularly good at.

  I put the sniper rifle in the cab of the APC and climbed into the driver’s seat. Now that the men along the perimeter were eliminated, I felt comfortable taking the vehicle a bit closer to the edge of the cliff face. Dawn was fast approaching, but I managed to find the bottom di
vot of a hill off to the southeast corner of where the cliff edge started. It was about four-hundred meters from the perimeter of the town, and I guessed the guards on the wall wouldn’t be able to see me.

  They would see the corpses of their friends when the sun rose, so I needed to get in, find my friends, and get out in twenty-ish minutes.

  I let out a thankful sigh when I didn’t stumble getting out of the APC, and then I unfolded my submachine gun as I moved through the long grass at the edge of the cliff. My friends could be anywhere, but the sky was still dark enough to conceal my movements. I figured that hitting the five buildings in the middle of the town would be easier now than after I began to explore the homes in the canyon, so I angled my walk toward the nearest one. It was a dome shaped building and made from adobe. It was some twenty meters in diameter and four meters high. A thick wood door was attached to the opening, but I didn’t see any guards around it, so I guessed this wasn’t where they were keeping my friends.

  I did have to start my search somewhere, so I glanced up at the cliff face to my left. I waited for the four men sitting on the ledges to start whispering to each other, and then made a crouched run to the far side of the building. They had a two-second window where they might have seen me if they glanced at the spot where I ran, but their conversation didn’t stop, so I knew they hadn’t noticed me pass through the shadows.

  I moved to the door of the building and leaned into the wood. I didn’t hear anything inside, so I pushed on the handle. The door didn’t move, it was barred from the inside. Someone had to be in there.

  I checked around the edge of the circular building again and saw that the guards on the wall nearest to me were still talking. I could break the door easily, but they would hear it, alert the city, and then everything would turn to shit.

  I would have to wait until I finished exploring the other buildings and the caves on the wall.