by Dan Decker
I counted no fewer than six blasters in its hands as I spread my feet and dropped almost down to the mountain before correcting and skating forward, all while keeping the trigger of my blaster down and bringing it around at the last moment to aim it at the nearest lurker. This time it was a direct hit.
I got it in the head, sending it spiraling down to the mountain. It made a massive oomph when it crashed.
As I turned, I saw that several of the grenlings were up at the top of the cliff with their heads peeked over, watching the battle. One of the grenlings crept forward and snatched something away from the dead lurker.
It pointed the dead lurker’s blaster at me, and despite the small size in the grenling’s large clawed hands, it somehow managed to get off a blast. I had already depressed my trigger as I flipped around to point my hand at the grenling. The blast came a moment later, ripping into it and sending it over the cliff with the blaster flying free.
Hoping that none of the other grenlings would be so bold as to try the same move, I turned around just in time to receive a blast in the chest. Like before, the suit lit up, but right afterward, a red flash in the corner of my eye lit up as well.
“Roth, there’s a flashing red light in my eye. What’s it mean?”
Assuming that it meant the suit’s shield was down, I pushed my toes down and shot into the sky, not slowing until I was five hundred feet above the closest lurker. I then pushed my toes open to increase the distance between them and me, lining up my hand with the nearest creature while pressing the trigger. Five eternal seconds later, the laser shot from my hand, ripping into the creature and killing it.
“I only have two lurkers left, but the flashing light is not going away. Please advise.”
There was no response.
And both lurkers were angry at how I had taken down their comrades.
From my perch in the sky, I caught a good look at Camp Myers and saw that there were hundreds, if not thousands of suited soldiers fighting with lurkers on the ground and in the air. I only got a glance before I had to engage the oncoming lurkers.
42
Rather than coming at me from below like the others, these two had gone high and came from above. I had not seen them during the last couple of minutes, so it seemed like something they had been working on while I had been dealing with the other lurkers. The flashing light in my eye made me far less cavalier.
“Roth, are you there?”
No response.
I imagined her grappling with the grenling below, and while I doubted the grenling would get the best of her, I needed her help now.
I twisted and turned, skating backward as I did, even though they were not yet firing their weapons. They spread out, first by about twenty feet, but it was soon over a hundred. It appeared they were positioning so they could come at me from two directions at once. I didn’t have any idea how much they knew about the vulnerabilities of our suits, but they knew more than I did. They did not seem phased by me or my actions in the slightest, and their approach was methodical.
The ravine below was still as full of grenlings as it had been before. There were no grenlings in the air. They had latched onto the cliff to watch what was happening with me.
Considering how they had scampered away when the lurker had appeared, I was surprised they had stuck around to watch this battle.
I didn’t know how the lurkers communicated—from my perspective, it did not look as if they had radio equipment—but when one started firing, the other did too, in the exact same moment.
I spread my feet and dropped, widening them so that I fell faster than the pull of gravity. I was about a thousand feet above the top of the cliff when I started. When I got close to the peak, instead of slowing to go a different direction, I widened my feet even further and plummeted down, disappearing into the ravine in what I hoped would be an evasive maneuver the lurkers would not match.
The grenlings were shocked by my sudden arrival but hardly missed a beat. The ones that could fly launched into the air, I was soon dodging them as well as blasts from above. A hail of boulders came my way as if initiated at the command of a leader. I spread my heels even further as I fell, zooming out of the nasty storm.
I came out of my fall and flew through the ravine at a speed far faster than I cared to think about, while I waited to see how the lurkers responded. Even more grenlings now came after me, throwing clubs and rocks again like they had before, swooping like crazed flying squirrels.
Most of their missiles missed me by miles, but too many came close. I twisted and turned out of the way as best I could, but a basketball-sized rock hit me in the chest, and even though it was smaller than some of the others I had been pummeled with, this time, I felt it.
The red flashing light did not change. I hoped that the suit had not been further damaged by the rock. I was suddenly more aware of the precariousness of my situation. When I turned back to locate the lurkers, they had come down from their perch in the sky but were still out of range of the grenlings.
They were waiting for me to come out of this madness, something I was tempted to do if only that red flashing would go away.
I flipped around, doing my best to avoid the flying grenlings.
It wasn’t ten minutes ago, that dealing with the barely sentient monsters had taxed me to the fullest, and now it seemed a far easier thing to deal with these creatures than the lurkers up above.
I could deal with bruises and bumps from the grenling’s unsophisticated weapons, but the lurkers could kill me with one shot if I was not careful.
A nearby grenling launched from the cliff as I passed. It missed me by mere inches, twisting so its claws scored the feet of my suit.
I lurched and feared that it might have affected my anti-gravs, but I righted and continued on my way as if I had just come out of some turbulence.
The lurkers now hovered just above the ravine, staring past the swarming grenlings at me. I twisted and turned and dodged and dove, sparing every glance I could toward the lurkers to see what they were doing.
They waited.
Perhaps they wanted to see if the grenlings would get me.
A large stone bounced off my head, jarring me and almost sending me into a tailspin. The grenling that had flung it was getting another ready to send my way. I brought up my hand while holding down the trigger, intending to take him down, but instead, I turned it towards the waiting lurkers and fired off a shot. My laser went right in between them, doing them no harm.
It was apparently the invitation they needed, because they descended into the ravine, firing their blasters indiscriminately.
The grenlings did not fare well and started falling out of midair. One unlucky grenling was hit in the shoulder, distracting him as he was about to land on a cliff, sending him instead careening into it headfirst. I caught a glimpse of him as he fell to the bottom of the ravine, his head crushed. It was not a pretty sight.
By the time the lurkers were down in the middle of the ravine, at about the same elevation as me, the grenlings were no longer flying. I expected the grenlings to disappear, but instead, they took up their chant again, reminding me of some cheesy movie I saw as a kid of people chanting while sacrificing a woman to a monstrous beast.
A cheer came from the grenlings when a blast almost hit me in the head.
I had counted on the grenlings to give me cover, but the lurkers had put a quick end to that.
Even with the flashing red light still glaring in my eye, I charged the lurkers, pushing beyond what was safe as I headed toward them. I had hoped they might forget about me in all the chaos, but if they were determined to follow me, I had no choice but to face them.
I brought up my hand, pressed the trigger, and spread my heels apart so that I lurched forward while adjusting my aim so that my weapon was aligned with the nearest lurker.
When I had turned to face them, there had been a reprieve in their blasts, but they now started up again. I zigzagged as best I could, feeling lik
e I was about to throw up when I took two hits in rapid succession.
My suit flashed as the blasts were absorbed. Instead of having a hole the size of a pumpkin blown into my chest, as I had feared, it seemed my suit’s shield still held.
Another flashing red light joined the first in the corner of my eye. I did not know what that meant but assumed the next hit would be my death.
“Roth, I could really use some help,” I said, bringing my hand to bear on the closest lurker while pulling the trigger.
There was no response from her.
When my weapon finally discharged, the lurker moved so I hit its wing instead of ripping its torso in two. It stopped using that wing but didn’t suffer otherwise.
The other lurker was now fifty feet above my head, its blasts coming dangerously close to hitting me.
I pushed my toes down and zoomed up. Once I was parallel with the creature, I grabbed hold of a wing and mounted it like a horse, my legs spread wide over the creature’s thick body. I held onto the wing, brought up my weapon hand, and pulled the trigger, aiming it at the other lurker, which had flipped around to come back at me.
There was a brief pause when I thought that it might not fire at me because of my position on the back of its fellow lurker, but the blasts came, heedless of its companion.
I ducked down using the lurker as a shield while I kept my hand in the general direction of the oncoming lurker, hoping the blasts wouldn’t hit me. My laser finally came though—it seemed to take forever—and it cut through the last half of the lurker’s body, almost severing its lower abdomen.
The lurker I rode like a horse roared as I brought my hand around to keep it aimed at the now wounded lurker, which had passed by to the other side. I pressed the trigger while ducking to avoid the worst of the enemy fire. Many blasts went into my ride’s body, but it absorbed them without a problem.
I counted the seconds and brought my head up right before my weapon was about to fire, adjusting at the last moment to hit the other lurker directly in the head. The laser went from the middle of its head down through the rest of its unsevered body, cutting it in half lengthwise like I was deboning a fish.
I feared it could still fly because its wings worked, but it could not maintain flight and sunk to the bottom of the ravine.
The grenlings shrieked and howled. No fewer than a dozen leaped off, clubs in hand as they descended with bloodcurdling cries.
The lurker’s fall seemed to have awoken the grenlings from a trance. They started jumping again, coming for the remaining lurker and me.
It had been my intention to kill this lurker after I had dispatched the other, but I now brought up my hand, pulled the trigger and waited the long five seconds while aiming in the general direction of the flying grenlings. When it finally went off, I was rewarded to see five of them fall out of the air.
Now that was satisfying.
The lurker moved erratically, apparently hoping to knock me free from its back so that it could finish me off. The blasts from its hands were going everywhere as they tried to twist far enough around to get me. I hung on with one hand while pointing my other at another group of flying grenlings. I had pressed the trigger right after I last used it so I didn’t have to wait long.
The laser went off, killing at least three grenlings and wounding half a dozen more. Rather than make them back off, it only seemed to infuriate them. More grenlings jumped from the cliff, trying to land right beside me on the lurker. One succeeded, before he had a chance to take hold and sink us, I kicked him off.
The lurker spun in midair and sent me crashing into the side of a cliff. Three nearby grenlings took advantage of the opportunity to leap on top of us. Just like before, only one managed to land.
He was smaller and nimbler than the others, only standing at about twelve feet tall. I brought my hand around and hit him in the face, hoping to knock him off; instead, it grabbed hold of the same wing that I held and headbutted me.
It was more jarring than I expected though it didn’t hurt, it forced me to take a moment to recover my orientation, but even as I did I pulled the trigger and brought my hand around, punching it in the face and then holding my hand there until the laser obliterated its head.
It also cut through the lurker, severing a leg and cauterizing the wound in the process. The lurker roared, turning again and knocking me up against the cliff, allowing three smaller grenlings to jump on. The grenlings were fearless, I would give them that.
It was too much weight for the lurker to handle, and we started to plummet.
I pushed the trigger again and held my hand so that it was aimed right at the lurker’s head while I kept a close eye on the fast approaching bottom of the ravine. When the laser finally went off, the lurker screamed as its skull was pierced. Its wings stopped working and it fell like a rock.
I released my hold, stood on top of its hardened lobster-like body, and then leapt up, flying into the sky.
The grenlings were still out in full force, but I sped through them like a battering ram, knocking them out of the way, heedless of what it was doing to me or my suit. I was ready to be done with these creatures and unlike before, the lurkers already knew where we were so there was no need for secrecy.
The flashing red lights had continued during this whole time, and thankfully, once I was at the top of the ravine with the grenlings all below me, I had not added any other warnings.
I stopped when I was a hundred feet in the air above the ravine.
Roth had warned me to stay low to keep off of their radar, but it was too late.
I could already see a lurker ship headed our way.
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“Roth, are you there? We have an incoming ship. We can’t waste anymore time on this bunch.” I moved until I hovered just over the ravine but received no response. I slowly descended until I hovered an inch above the vegetation.
“Roth?”
Nothing.
I had just started to go into the green depths below when Roth came zooming up, bringing six grenlings with her. I did not have time to jump out of the way before one snatched my foot and fell backward, trying to drag me into the ravine.
I pushed down with my toes and lurched into the air with the grenling holding on. I was surprised Roth had not done something like this when she had been taken captive, but perhaps more grenlings had latched onto her, making it challenging to perform the same move.
“It took you long enough,” I said to Roth, who stared at the oncoming ship, “where have you been?”
“I told you to maintain a low profile, couldn’t you do that one thing?”
I was taken aback.
She thinks this is my fault?
“I was trying to survive. I didn’t go into the air until the lurkers showed up. If you have a problem with how I handled things, you could have come up at any time to help me. I just took down five lurkers by myself, not to mention dozens of grenlings! The least you can do is give me some credit—”
“Credit is for dead men.” Her voice was cold.
I ground my teeth as I pointed my hand down at the grenling, pulled the trigger, and waited the obligatory time period. I snarled when the laser finally killed it, causing it to release my foot.
Despite Roth’s words of admonition, she was fifty feet in the air. If she was hoping to avoid their radar, she was not doing a good job herself. I came down until we were on the same level.
She was irate, but this was not my fault.
Given how quick the lurkers had shown up after she disappeared, they must have already been on to us. It was that or a patrol had stumbled upon us.
“Maybe if you had given me—”
Roth cut me off. “It was a mistake to give you as much as I did. You just put our mission in jeopardy, soldier. I told you to stay put and to keep your head down, you did neither of those things.”
It was difficult to not attack her, but I somehow managed it. Instead, I clenched my hands into a fist, which had a similar effect o
n my suit. I wanted nothing more than to knock some sense into her.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but a grenling just tried to pull me down into the ravine,” I said, “all I had to do was put my toes down and I brought it up. You could have done the same thing.”
“I was trying to stay off the radar,” she said through clenched teeth. “I figured that taking the time to handle the situation, rather than leaping into the air, was the right call. If I would’ve known how reckless you are, I would’ve done things differently.” She had turned towards me during her tirade, but she now turned back to the oncoming lurker ship, heedless of the swarming grenlings underneath us. They were no longer hiding and seemed to only grow in number as more came up from both ravines.
“You’ve really messed this up.”
I said nothing. I was not going to apologize.
Without another word, she spun while igniting her propulsion and left me in her wake.
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To: Lieutenant General Regina Adams
From: Brigadier General Katrina Roth
Log date: 00429.211-15:42:19
Re: The asset
General Adams,
The asset is as safe as I can make him for the moment. You will be happy to hear that he is proving himself beyond what we hoped.
Brigadier General Katrina Roth
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The fury that ran through my veins like burning gas drained out of me as I watched her disappear, moving so fast that the lurker ship did not seem to notice she had left. It did not alter course and still came my way.
I could understand that Roth was mad, particularly because she worried that the mission had been put in jeopardy, but this was not my fault. She should’ve listened before flying off in a huff.
“Roth, what are you doing?” I asked, not expecting a response but thinking I ought to start up a dialogue.
A memory came back to me of her cackling like a madwoman while shooting grenlings.