Abyss Of Savagery

by Toby Neighbors

  “Alright, that’s good enough. Come on, we’re heading down to the maintenance area.”

  Chapter 41

  There were times once a plan was set in motion that it quickly passed the point of no return. Dean was waiting in one of several workshops on the maintenance level. The doors to the tentacle arms were still closed as the ship made its way slowly toward the planet below them. And even though nothing had happened yet—not even the first tremble of turbulence as they entered the planet’s atmosphere—Dean could feel things moving in different directions.

  The Moses was speeding toward the outer reaches of the system in one direction, and the Dodge City was moving in the opposite direction. The ring portion of the harvester ship Bushido was relaying comms and telemetry data. If a Kroll ship popped up on one ship’s radar, the other vessels would know about it, even if they weren’t in a position to immediately do something about it.

  The ship around Dean began to tremble, and he knew they were closing in on their target. Rescue missions could be incredibly dangerous. The need to move quickly often meant skipping ahead of any intelligence that would warn of enemy positions or possible ambushes. No mission was perfect, and nothing Force Recon did was safe, but Dean knew that the only Kroll left in the system at the moment were those on the planet; but were they frightened by the slaughter of their ships in orbit, or anxious for revenge?

  “Good to have you back, Staff Sergeant,” Adkins said, slapping Chavez on the back.

  “Yeah, it’s about time you got off your ass and did some real work,” Ghost added.

  “Leave him alone,” Harper said. “He isn’t cleared for duty yet.”

  “That’s right,” Landin said. “You really shouldn’t be here, Staff Sergeant.”

  “He’s fit enough to give orders,” Dean said. “Chavez stays on the ship and keeps the Urgglatta moving. I don’t want us planet-side any longer than we have to be.”

  “Dean,” Parker said, opening a private channel between the two of them. “Would you like me to step aside?”

  The sound in her voice was painful to Dean. He could tell she didn’t want to be sidelined, but she also didn’t want to overstep her bounds. Technically Dean was still the officer in charge of the Wolfpack platoon, but Parker had been running things for most of the trip from Sol.

  “Absolutely not,” Dean said. “We’ll run this op together. You have direct command of the platoon.”

  “Yes sir, thank you,” Parker said.

  Dean switched back to the platoon channel.

  “I want this done quickly and efficiently. There’s no telling what kind of shit we’re stepping in down there. I don’t want anyone taking unnecessary chances or trying to play hero. We’ll rescue as many Urgglatta as possible and ensure that we have their archives on board, and then we are getting out of atmo as soon as possible.”

  “Bogeys!” Dean heard the radar officer shout over the command channel. “Eight…birds, I guess, flying this way.”

  “That’s the Kroll,” Dean said, pulling up the vid feeds from the ship’s external cameras. “Deploy the tentacle arms.”

  Dean could hear the big outer bay doors opening nearby, although the maintenance ring was completely sealed off from the tentacles. On the vid feed Dean saw a group of Kroll approaching. They looked like a cross between dinosaurs and bats. Their bodies were covered in tough, leathery skin with dark-colored stripes that reminded Dean of a tiger. Their bodies were plump, almost as if they were overweight. Their heads were long and angled down toward their snout. As they closed in, Dean could see flashes of large teeth and their knobby tails waving behind them.

  The ship was continuing to move down through the clouds. Dean could hear the chatter from the operators as they took control of the tentacle arms. He hadn’t really kept up with how the tentacles worked or where the manual controls for them were, but he watched on the vid display as half of the flock of Krolls was batted away. The remaining four soared upward. Dean guessed the fastest way into the ship was through the bottom, where the tentacles were located, but perhaps there were other ways in or even other ways to damage the ship.

  “Ten thousand feet,” Esma said. “ETA is one minute.”

  “Roger that,” Dean replied. “Recon platoons standing by.”

  The Kroll swooped toward the vessel from above, their huge talons extended as they approached. Dean saw them hit the hull and take hold. They held their bodies close to the ship for several moments, but as the vessel slowed they began to scrape and claw at the ship.

  “We’ve got four bogeys on the hull,” Dean said.

  “I see them,” Captain Ortega responded.

  “What the hell are they trying to do?” Captain Parker asked.

  “Get inside would be my guess,” Dean replied. “As soon as we’re in the dirt I want them taken care of.”

  “Affirmative,” Ortega said.

  “Ghost, get moving,” Parker said. “We’re close enough to landing that we can open the inner bay doors.”

  “Two thousand feet,” Esma said. “Landing grid is clear.”

  “I have movement,” said an officer Dean didn’t recognize. “Coming in from the north, by the mountains.”

  “Is that the Urgglatta?” Matsumoto asked.

  “No sir,” Dean replied. “They’re moving too fast. That’s got to be the Kroll feline soldiers. We’ll deal with them.”

  “Thank you, Major,” the admiral replied.

  Dean switched back over to the combat channel. “Vipers, Wolfpack, we have enemy coming from the north. Ortega, let’s swap duties. We’ll hold off the enemy, you find the Urgglatta and get them moving.”

  “Yes sir, Major.”

  “Chavez,” Dean said, the wind beginning to whip past the platoon as the bay doors opened, revealing the flailing tentacles. “You secure this doorway. If the Kroll get past us, you shut this down and order the admiral to take off.”

  “We can’t leave without you, Major,” Chavez replied.

  “If the enemy gets this far, there won’t be anything left of me to leave behind.”

  “Yes, sir,” Chavez said. “Just make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

  “No promises in combat,” Dean said, toggling on the combat channel of his comlink. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re in for a fight, and I for one am damn glad. The navy roasted those bastards in orbit, but now it’s our turn. Force Recon!”

  “First in the fight!” the Viper and Wolfpack platoons shouted. “Tip of the spear!”

  Ghost didn’t wait for the inner bay doors to open completely. He slipped under the door just as Esma called out that they were five hundred feet from the ground. A few seconds later Dean saw Ghost use his jetpack to fly up the side of the ship, his Vandemere long rifle strapped to his back and his EMR rifle held ready. He landed on the ship right beside one of the cameras that were welded to the hull. He braced himself and fired.

  “One bogey down,” he said calmly as he took aim at another.

  “Can you tell what they were doing?” Dean asked.

  “Not from here, sir.”

  “As soon as they’re clear, scramble up there and take a look.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Touchdown in five, four, three…”

  “It’s time, people—let’s move!” Dean shouted.

  “Go, go, go!” Parker added, leading the charge from the ship.

  Dean couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his platoon hurrying into battle. They weren’t whole without Staff Sergeant Chavez, but they were fearless. Dean glanced over at Chavez, who gave Dean a thumbs-up, then Dean followed the rest of his platoon.

  “Concave, Beak, Engage!” Parker shouted as Dean ran down one of the main ramps that led up into the ship.

  The Heavy Armor Specialists, including Sergeant Emile Owando who was in new armor that had been brought over from Space Base 03 before EsDef destroyed it, lined up in a slightly curving line, their shields overlapping, their shoulder-mounted utility cannons swivel
ing around to target the enemy.

  “Holy shit, that looks like a thousand of those damn cats,” Adkins said.

  “I’ve never seen so many,” Wilson said.

  “Hell, no one has,” Landin said.

  “They’re fast,” Kliner added.

  “Not faster than a bullet,” Tallgrass said calmly.

  “Or a bomb,” Harper added.

  Dean heard a shot above them and looked up. Ghost had taken out the Kroll on the hull and was targeting the feline creatures racing toward the platoon.

  “Harper, Loggins, get your AAVs in the air,” Parker ordered.

  “Target their flanks,” Dean added. “Let’s crowd them together as much as possible.”

  “Everyone hold fire until they reach two hundred yards,” Parker said. “Don’t waste ammo.”

  “Use your utility rifles,” Dean said. “Pick off the front runners using three-round bursts. Wait until the HA cannons kick in to go full auto. Tallgrass, Landin, be ready to reload the—”

  Before Dean could finish, the first low-yield warheads from the AAVs dropped. Geysers of turf, flesh, and alien blood spewed into the air as the prairie was rocked by the sound of explosions.

  “We’ve spotted the Urgglatta,” Captain Ortega said. “They’re coming out of a cave on the southwest side of the prairie, about half a klick from the Bushido.”

  “Get them moving,” Dean said. “We won’t be able to hold off this many aliens for long.”

  “Roger that,” Ortega said.

  The bombs from the AAVs slowed the rushing horde. Many moved away from the edges and toward the middle of the throng, causing some to stumble and the entire pride of aliens to slow their advance.

  “I’m out,” Loggins said.

  “Put the AAVs in hover mode,” Parker said.

  “Eyes up,” Dean added. “I want motion detection on the sky.”

  “Yes, sir,” Loggins said.

  “I’m out too,” Harper said. “Should we deploy MSVs?”

  “Send all you’ve got,” Parker said.

  “Two lines on either side of the center,” Dean said. “About two hundred and fifty yards out if you can get there in time.”

  “Going hot,” Harper said.

  Dean watched the line of small, RC all-terrain vehicles go rushing toward the enemy in a straight line.

  “Almost there,” Loggins said.

  Ghost was continuing to fire from high up on the ship. His Vandemere long rifle sounded like thunder; the reports rolled across the prairie and echoed off the mountains. When one alien went down, it tripped several others, almost causing a domino effect until those behind jumped. The feline aliens were merciless, stampeding over their dead and wounded without any sign of remorse.

  The first MSV went off and sounded like a balloon popping. Several cats flipped upward, but there wasn’t the same carnage as caused by the AAV warheads. But the MSVs killed dozens of aliens and crowded even more toward the middle, once more slowing the advance.

  “Rifles,” Parker said.

  Even Dean stepped up to the line, checked his safety, and took aim with his TCU. The reticle held steady on the head of an approaching alien, the distance meter ticking downward. As soon as it hit two hundred yards, Dean pulled the trigger at almost the same moment as Harper, Tallgrass, Loggins, and Captain Parker. Landin quickly joined the shooting, and the feline creatures began to drop at a steady rate.

  “When do you want us, Captain?” Adkins called out, his voice carrying through the battle armor speakers that were filtering out most of the utility rifle reports.

  “One hundred yards,” Parker said.

  Dean smiled. His platoon was performing just fine without Dean needing to call the shots. Taking down the feline aliens was satisfying, but it made Dean nervous. He couldn’t help but feel like the creatures were merely a distraction.

  When the HA cannons opened up, the nature of the attack changed dramatically. For the first time, Dean saw individuals peeling away from the main pack and retreating as hundreds of the creatures were slaughtered.

  “We’ve got incoming,” Harper said. “From the east.”

  “Ghost?” Dean asked, knowing their sniper in overwatch would have the best view of the new wave of attack.

  “Oh my god in heaven,” Ghost said. “Looks like at least two hundred Kroll, sir. Coming in fast.”

  “Captain Ortega, what’s your status?”

  “We are rounding up the stragglers,” she said. “Ten more minutes and we’ll be done.”

  “We don’t have ten minutes,” Dean said. “Kroll are incoming from the east. Have your platoon form a static line with EMRs ready and HA focused on defense. Remember, they will spew that substance that will pin down whatever it touches. Have your Fast Attack Specialists get their AAVs in the air to disrupt their flight paths.”

  “Roger that,” Ortega said.

  “They ain’t stopping,” Adkins said, referring to the feline aliens.

  “Tallgrass, Landin, use your concussion grenades,” Parker said.

  “Hold this line, Captain Parker,” Dean ordered. “Don’t let those aliens through, no matter what. Harper, Loggins—you’re with me. Ghost, get off that ship before you get pinned down up there.”

  “On my way, Major,” the sniper said.

  Dean could hear the Urgglatta stomping up the loading ramps. They made huffing and chugging sounds, like overweight humans climbing stairs. Dean kept expecting to hear them moo, but they weren’t cows—they just bore a strong resemblance to bovines.

  “I want two of you here,” Dean said, pointing to one side of the ramp the Urgglatta were scrambling up. “Ghost and I will take the other side. Use your EMR rifles. Don’t let anything get close. If they pin the Urgglatta to the ramps, we’ll have a hell of a time getting them closed.”

  “The felines are scattering,” Parker reported.

  Dean raised his EMR and fired a round, wounding one of the Kroll who spiraled toward the ground. He wasn’t sure how dangerous the creatures might be on the ground. His platoon had slaughtered them on the Bushido because they were too gorged on human flesh to fly, but these Kroll wouldn’t be incapacitated, just unable to fly.

  “Spread out,” Dean ordered Captain Parker. “Keep the HA focused on anything moving toward the ship on the ground, including fallen Kroll. The bovines may seem scattered and confused, but the Kroll can still force them to fight, so don’t let down your guard.”

  All around Dean, Recon Specialists were firing their EMR rifles. The pop of the electromagnetic rail gun was completely different from a traditional firearm. There was no explosion of flammable powder or gas—just a simple electrical charge that sent a plunger rushing down the hydrogen metal rails to fling a tungsten projectile out at speeds of close to forty-five hundred feet per second. Each shot sounded like plastic popping against metal. The reports weren’t loud, but they were very distinct, and with two platoons firing in rapid succession the weapons almost sounded like applause.

  The Kroll banked first one way, then another, some diving, others peeling off and veering away from the fight. They were targeting the Urgglatta, concerned more with keeping their food source than defeating an enemy, but the Recon Specialists were holding most of them back. The entire prairie was a shooting gallery.

  “Ghost, we’ve got a group of aliens on our six,” Dean said, snapping his EMR rifle to his chest armor and swinging his utility rifle up.

  The utility rifle had a full magazine and was set on fully automatic. Dean squeezed the trigger and the weapon erupted with flechettes, blasting away at the charging felines. Ghost joined Dean and they turned back the charge, only to have one of the Urgglatta pinned to the ground by the goo of a passing Kroll.

  “Captain Ortega, get your people back to the ship right now!” Dean snarled. “We’ll be overrun if we stay here much longer.”

  “Almost there, Major,” Ortega said, her normally calm voice sounding strained.

  “Dean, if we take off we’ll
be helpless from above,” Esma warned him. “We’re ready to go, but I don’t trust those animals not to find a way to bring us down.”

  Dean knew that crashing on the Urgglatta planet would be a death sentence. Too many of the Kroll had already made their home there. They would be overrun before help could arrive, even if the Moses and the Dodge City could fly in atmo.

  “I have an idea,” Dean said, his heart racing at the very thought of what he was planning.

  The Bushido was vulnerable from above, and the only way to defend it meant putting Recon troops on the ship’s hull. Dean switched to his combat channel and took a deep breath before explaining his plan.

  “Vipers, Wolfpack, we have new orders,” Dean said. “Climb the outside of the ship. I repeat, get up on the hull as quickly as possible. Use your utility rifle shoulder straps to tie on and take aim at any Kroll moving toward the ship with your EMR rifle. It’s the only way we’re getting off this rock alive. HA, get inside and help with the Urgglatta. Everyone else, find a way onto the hull.”

  Ghost had moved around the ramp leading up into the ship. He grabbed Harper and ignited his jetpack. It carried the two of them up and onto the side of the aviary. Ghost continued shooting while Harper strapped them safely onto a pipe that ran along a section of the hull.

  “Follow me, Loggins,” Dean shouted as he ran up the ramp beside the line of Urgglatta and jumped for the top of the railing where the ramp would close.

  Pulling himself up made his injured forearm ache horribly, but he managed to get his elbow onto the hull above the ramp opening. Loggins caught one of Dean’s boots and pushed him upward. Dean scrambled onto the hull and then turned back to help Loggins. The FAS private made the jump and was pulling himself upward when he screamed and dropped. Dean peered over the edge of the opening and saw one of the feline aliens ripping into Loggins’ leg. Dean aimed his EMR and fired a single round that punched through the top of the alien’s skull and blew out the other side, spraying Loggins with blood. Dean wanted to help the young specialist, but Loggins wasn’t moving, and a warning siren was going off on his TCU.

  “Loggins is down,” Parker announced.