by Tom Chattle
"The fuck are those things?" one of the Marines yelled moments before they opened fire into the storm-induced night.
"Husks," Sina repeated. She lowered her stance and brought her swords to bear. "Do not see them for what they once were. They are nothing but Syrax weapons now."
"What they once were? The hell is that supposed to mean?" the Marine snapped back. Sina didn't respond, her full focus on the charging enemy.
Reading their thermal imprints through the rifle scope, Chen realized now what they were. She had seen them before in the colony world that had been attacked but had not understood then. Withered and gray, the Syrax weapons that Sina had named were once Talamar, twisted and corrupted by their enemy. Unarmored, what they lacked in protection or weaponry they made up for in numbers.
Chen gritted her teeth and jerked her finger back on the rifle's trigger, keeping her burst short and controlled as she vaguely remembered from her weapons training at the Academy. Three hypersonic slugs were catapulted from the rifle's barrel by powerful electromagnets. Their wake left ripples of heat in the dusty air on the almost instantaneous journey to their target. The chest of the former Talamar exploded in a fountain of desiccated flesh, and Chen let out a breath of triumph. Her victory was short-lived when she saw the husk keep moving—slower and badly damaged, but still in motion. Glancing at those around her, she saw they were having the same problem. She fired at another with the same effect. "Sina, they're not dying!"
"The Syrax built them to survive," she replied. "You must tear them back down."
Right on cue, one of the Marines fired the grenade launcher integrated into their rifle. The heavy round impacted in the middle of a group of the husks, and the resulting explosion caused Chen to shield her eyes, withered body parts flying past. It was certainly effective. Though some of the husks still moved, they were ripped apart and crippled—no further threat.
Two more Marines launched grenades, and the rest of them opened fire, rail rounds sizzling through the air at the wave of Syrax husks that approached. Within moments, the first had reached their position, and Sina cut it down with a brutal one-two attack with her blades. In between blasting away at their attackers, Chen admired the alien warrior's fluid grace. Not a single movement was wasted while she whirled between enemies. Her swords were a brilliant blur that sung through the air. Limbs and heads flew in every direction, separated from their owners with ferocious efficiency.
The momentary distraction almost got Chen killed. A pair of husks scrabbled over the rubble to her left and launched themselves at her, hands extended. Long, engineered claws slashed at her, but Chen rolled under one and sent a stream of rounds into the other, watching it disintegrate from the massive energy forces that ripped through it.
She turned to face the first but couldn't raise her rifle fast enough. Claws raked across her chest, tearing fabric and drawing blood. Chen staggered back, prepared for the killing blow.
- 38 -
2208.10.22 // 13:49
Altheos
Chen flinched at the incoming attack, but the husk separated down the middle when a pair of blades split it from head to stomach.
Breathless words of thanks had barely formed on Chen's lips, but Sina was already gone, back to hacking apart the seemingly endless swarm of attackers. Chen gathered herself and took position next to two other Marines, her arm rested against a block of stone. Time seemed to slow, and she fired as fast as she could at the countless targets that presented themselves.
"There's too many of them!" the Marine sergeant yelled above the din of weapons discharge. "We can't hold them for much longer."
The night rippled with the movement of more husks than she could count, and Chen couldn't find a reason to disagree. Even Sina was taking hits now. She occasionally staggered from an impact before she continued to duck and weave between the unending assault.
With no sign of relief, Chen resigned herself to killing as many of the enemy as she could. Hopefully, Scott and the rest could make it back to the shuttles with their prize; at least this would all be for something, then. A crackle in her ear gave her pause, and she covered the comm to try to hear it better. "...coming, take cover."
The Marine sergeant looked over at her—he had obviously heard the same distorted message. At his direction, the Marines fell back further into cover, firing as they went. Chen called for Sina at the top of her lungs, then backed away after the Marines. The alien woman finally heard and disengaged with a flurry of slashes then charged after them. She rolled into cover next beside Chen moments before the night sky lit up in fury. A barrage of rockets screeched in and exploded above the heads of the husks, shredding them to pieces in a lethal cloud of targeted shrapnel. Those husks that remained paused, and lifeless eyes searched the dark to find their new targets. Before they could, quad streams of heavy rail-fire lanced in from up the road. They swept up across the remainder and obliterated them in a cloud of dust.
Chen almost laughed in relief when the two mechs stomped into view, weapon arms swathed in fire while they routed out the last husks. She patted the Marine sergeant on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go."
"Never thought I'd be so happy to see the clunkers," the man grinned.
The group moved out, the wounded slung between them. The two mechs watched over the shadows while they met up with Scott and most of the rest of the Marines.
"Where the hell did you go?" Chen demanded of Scott.
The man gave her an apologetic shrug. "We thought you were ahead of us. I'll fill you in later. Right now, we need to get back to the shuttle. I left a handful of Marines with Bennett. They won't last long if the Syrax find them first."
They moved as fast as they could with the rough terrain and wounded troops. Nearly back at the landing zone, Chen grunted in pain and slapped a palm to her head. "The Syrax are here."
Walking backward to protect their rear, one of the mechs suddenly opened fire at something unseen.
"What are we dealing with?" Scott asked. "More of those things that had you pinned earlier?"
Chen massaged her temple and shook her head. "No, these are true Syrax, and I doubt they'd send just the hounds back after us."
"Shit," Scott muttered. "Okay, tactical withdrawal, cover in waves."
The Marines broke into teams. One mech led the way, surrounded by a team of Marines, while the second mech and the remainder covered them.
Chen, Sina, and Scott scanned the night, prepared for the inevitable. The mech continued firing sporadically, its sensors far more powerful and able to pierce the darkness than the humans' eyes. Dark shapes moved in the shadows, much larger than the husks. A flashlight beam from one of the Marines played over a shiny, curved shape on the move, and Chen sucked in her breath.
A tall Syrax warrior emerged from the rubble, and its heavy energy cannon spit out a beam of violet light. More followed it, their heavy carapace armor weathering the bombardment the humans sent their way with little damage. The mech had more luck. The larger rounds of its weapons felled several warriors, smoking holes punched straight through them.
The Syrax recognized the threat and redirected much of their fire toward the mech. More aliens lumbered forward, and the mech was forced to back up and find cover from the savage onslaught aimed toward it.
Chen and the Marines took advantage of their distraction and increased their fire. "Aim for their sides," Chen called. "They have more weak spots than up front."
No sooner had she said it than another wave of Syrax warriors broke cover on their flank. Sina let out a deep battle cry and charged toward their line. She ducked and weaved through their fusillade of energy until she was among them. Her swords sang, slicing almost effortlessly through the armor that so effectively deflected the human weapons.
"I've got to get me one of those," Scott yelled to Chen between bursts of fire.
"They sure are effective," Chen acknowledged. Sina had probably dispatched more of the Syrax warriors in the short time she'd been battling them
than the Marines had since the battle started, mech notwithstanding. It was doing a fine job, its squat form hunkered down, piles of Syrax warriors scattered before it.
Between the mech and Sina's swords, the wave of alien beasts seemed to dwindle. Even the few hounds that darted around their ankles were being dispatched with regularity. Scott gave the order to fall back under cover of the first wave that had taken up defensive positions behind them, and Chen felt a rush of hope that they were going to make it out of this mess after all.
A beastly bellow from the dark ripped that hope from her aching mind. The noise reverberated around the buildings, and the ground itself shuddered.
Sina buried her swords into the chest of a Syrax warrior, and her head jerked around. The fear in her amber eyes stole Chen's breath from her lungs. Without hesitation, the woman ducked under a clumsy swipe and hurtled back toward Chen and the Marines. "Run!"
- 39 -
2208.10.22 // 14:19
Altheos
Before they could react, a violet glow flared in the night. It built to a painful brightness before a massive beam of energy shot out and bisected the mech while its guns still hammered away at the Syrax threat.
For a moment, Chen thought it was fine, but then the dust cleared; she gasped at the sight. The entire upper right half of the mech was gone. What was left of the pilot hung limply out the machine, and his metal tomb sizzled with energy. Explosive ammunition began to cook off from the extreme heat, and the remains of the war machine were hidden in a cloud of fire
"What the fuck!" Scott turned to search for the source of the devastation.
The ground shook, and a shape emerged between the shattered ruins of two buildings. The titanic creature was terrifying in its size. Hunched over and heavily armored—almost beetle-like in appearance—it still towered far above the snarling Syrax warriors that swarmed around its feet. Thick arms folded around its back armor, each mounted with a huge cannon that fizzled and dropped energy. Its third chest arm had developed into thick support to counteract the massive length of the cannons.
"What the hell is that thing?" Chen demanded when Sina skidded to a halt next to them.
"Titan," she breathed. Her chest heaved from the constant exertion of battle. "The largest of the Syrax breeds. It is too powerful. We must run."
"Well, we just lost half our heavy support," Scott shouted. "What's stopping that thing from blasting us all to hell?"
"It is slow and must recharge," Sina replied. "We must go now. We may get far enough before it can fire again."
Without much choice, they waited for a brief lull in the stream of fire and sprinted from cover. Chen dodged between ruins while the Syrax warriors resumed their barrage. Violent violet explosions threw dirt and rock through the air, but Chen could see the running lights of the two shuttles blink through the murk. The whine of the idling engines waxed and waned over the brutal howl of the wind. A low, dissonant hum and a flare of light under the overcast sky from behind them spun Chen and Sina around.
"Everyone, find cover!" Scott bellowed and dived off to one side. Chen joined him, but her shoulder jarred against a jagged piece of concrete when a second beam lanced out from the titan. The blaze of light sucked the breath from her lungs when it passed overhead, the air behind on fire.
A massive explosion rocked the area, and a ripple of secondary blasts followed it when ammunition and fuel exploded.
"Shit," Scott snarled, "one of the shuttles just got toasted."
Chen risked a glance, and a weight settled in her chest when she saw the result of the alien weapon. The left shuttle was now a gutted wreck, one of the high-mounted wings cleaved straight off by the weapon. Flames poured from inside, and it tilted precariously to one side before the wrecked landing gear gave way with a torturous screech of strained metal.
"We have to move." Scott leaped over the rubble that had protected them, and his rifle blasted away, held in one armored hand. He landed and strode forward. In no mind to disagree with his assessment, Chen scrambled after him. She tossed away the heavy rifle that now blinked with red warning lights—an indicator it was out of ammunition.
She ignored the cuts and scratches from the sharp debris that the wind whipped in every direction and kept her head down. The sky around them flickered with shadows, the clouds awash with the intensity of the Syrax bombardment.
"It's preparing to fire again!" Sina shouted over the wind from somewhere behind.
Chen glanced back at the lumbering shadow, and her heart dropped.
"We can't let it hit the last shuttle or we're all dead." Without it, they had no way off this rock. If the Syrax were here in such force, it seemed unlikely the Valiant wasn't having similar problems in orbit, hardly able to mount a rescue mission against such odds.
The pilot in the last mech must have come to the same conclusion. It let out an electronic bellow and accelerated forward into a run. It thundered through the rubble toward the Syrax titan, and its weapons blazed. A handful of remaining cluster-missiles shot from the launchers on its back and arced forward. The ripple of explosions annihilated the swarm of enemies ahead, opening the way to the titan.
Fire from the Syrax warriors smashed into the mech and layers of ablative armor burned off. Within moments, sensors and auxiliary weapons were reduced to slag, but the pilot pushed on.
Chen gasped when a heavy impact rocked the machine. It staggered, and she feared the damage had overcome it, but moments later, the pilot continued his charge. There was only one possible outcome for the Marine inside the suit, and a mix of sadness and pride surged through Chen. The Marines around her cheered the mech on, but she felt the anguish at such a necessary sacrifice roll from their minds.
The Syrax titan saw the threat that approached and shifted its huge, clawed feet. The massive cannons began to adjust downward, but the colossal creature was too slow.
Weapons barrels glowing red hot from the constant barrage, the mech slammed into the titan's support leg and hammered at it with heavy metal hands. The huge beast roared in pain and tried to smack the human technology away, but the mech sidestepped the clumsy swipes, blasting away at the underside of the titan.
Warriors rushed to the aid of their heavier relative, but to no avail. Deadly rail fire burned up through the weak armor under the titan's sloped head, and it shuddered. A last angry roar turned into a squealing groan, and its support leg collapsed from under it.
The titan crashed to the ground and ponderously rolled to one side. One weapon barrel dug into the ground and deformed violently, plasma spilling out in fiery spurts.
Whatever hope Chen had held that the mech pilot may have survived was dashed when the damaged weapon exploded. A huge cloud of purple fire washed outward from the fallen beast, and the psychic shock wave of the titanic beast's demise slammed into Chen like a hammer blow. She was knocked to her knees, and Sina had to grasp her upper arm and haul Chen back to her feet. The alien woman supported Chen, and they sprinted away from the expanding fireball.
Scott swore at the loss of their last mech, but the remaining shuttle was now right before them. The pilot's distressed face peered at them through the dusty cockpit canopy, prepared to leave. With no heavy weapons to quickly destroy the craft, the Syrax warriors lumbered forward slowly, but even carrying their injured, the humans were much faster. Chen raced past the handful of Marines guarding the shuttle ramp and skidded past Bennett, who skulked in the protection of the craft's hold. She ignored his curled lip of disgust and fell into an empty jump seat. A sharp tug pulled the harness down over her, and she made sure Sina did the same.
Moments later, the few Marines who had survived the battle were aboard, and the engines screamed to full power. The shuttle leaped from the ground with such force that Chen's stomach felt like it was going to fly up through her throat.
She grabbed hold of her seat harness when a wind shear slammed the shuttle aside. Weapons fire from the ground joined in, but they were soon high enough to escape it. Her bo
dy heavy with fatigue, Chen took stock of their situation.
The fact they had landed with two full shuttles and now fled in one said a lot about the casualties the Marines had taken in the brutal ambush. All the seats were full of stricken, angry faces and several badly injured Marines had to lie on the metal floor while a corpsman tried to treat their injuries as best she could.
The sight of one Marine, blond hair plastered across a face twisted in pain, brought agonizing memories of the escape from Arcturus back to the fore of Chen's mind. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. Now was not the time to get lost mourning for Alex all over again. She twisted round in the restrictive seat to look at Scott. "How long until we reach the Valiant?"
"We still haven't been able to raise them," he replied. "But we'll break atmo in about thirty seconds."
Chen gritted her teeth and shoved herself back in the seat. How could this have happened again? The Syrax always seemed one step ahead of them.
The violent rattle of the shuttle diminished when the atmosphere thinned and then vanished completely once they made it back to orbit. There was no immediate sign of the Valiant out of the small sliver of space Chen could see through the porthole opposite her, but a flash of reflected light caught her attention. "What's that?"
"What?" Scott craned his neck to see what she was looking at. His eyes narrowed slightly before they widened when a flare of light sped toward them from the unknown object. "Evasive maneuvers! Now!"
Without any further prompt, the pilot threw the shuttle over into a tight turn. Chen was pushed back into her harness, and the Marines sprawled across the deck hung on as best they could while the grav-generators struggled to compensate. Lethal Syrax energy beams streaked past where they had been moments before.