Elsa stared at her. “I have a hunch you’re not telling me everything.”
Kira laughed. “You’re right. There’s over three TS years of history that I can’t share in a five minute talk.”
“More like fifty,” Fiona grumbled.
Kira smirked. “Okay, I get it. Let’s go. Up here we can see any threats coming, it’s as safe as we’re likely to find. But you’re right, the more time we waste the less time we have to confuse the spitters and keep our people safe.”
“And try to make contact with the Desperado,” Elsa said.
“Yeah, that too.”
Elsa hid her frown. She’s learned to trust her gut over the years and it was telling her Kira’s concerns had little in common with hers. She wasn’t just a Marine, she was a Marine FIST. If she had to go the extra mile to achieve her mission she’d do whatever she had to.
Chapter 9
“It’s been three days?” Elsa stared down from the top of the pass at the devastated plains below. The mound she’d witnessed with Tarn had a portion of it turned into a crater. They could see shapes moving across it, rebuilding it before their eyes.
Elsewhere on the plane the wreckage of starfighters and transport ships lay strewn recklessly about. The grasses on the plain that she and Tarn had used for cover were burned to the ground in places. Elsa wasn’t surprised to see that green shoots had broken through the blackened patches of destruction. There was no greater example of the cycle of life after death than what Vitalis offered on a daily basis.
“The closest is a shuttle that crashed not far from where you found us the first time,” Fiona said.
Kira turned, her gaze sweeping across the terrain. She nodded. “Let’s go, but from here on out no more talking. Be silent and be ready.”
Both of the Marines nodded. Fiona led the way down the pass. Elsa stayed as rear guard, her bow held at the ready. The plant life remained constant but other forms of life were absent. The unnatural stillness was marred only by a gentle breeze that blew from west to east.
Fiona called for a halt several times, using hand gestures that Elsa was familiar with. Kira fell in, acting like another soldier. Elsa filed her behavior away for later, when she could ask her without endangering their lives. She wasn’t sure she bought the multiple personality explanation. How could somebody just get over that all on their own?
She turned around after checking behind them and nearly ran into Kira. Ahead of them lay the remains of a shuttle. The hull was split open like an egg broken open. Kira signaled that she’d stand guard while Fiona and Else investigated the shuttle.
Fiona fitted an arrow to her bow. Elsa studied the wreckage and slipped her bow over her shoulder. The Marine grabbed her spear instead then took the lead heading towards the wreckage.
Elsa’s path took her downwind of the shuttle. She stopped, her nose scrunched as she caught the full smell of the burnt shuttle. She blew the choking stench out of her nose with a snort, then allowed herself to breath as shallow as possible. She’d smelled all manner of destruction and decay in her military career but nothing had even been as potent. Vitalis at work again?
The inside of the shuttle looked much like the outside, broken and in complete disarray. Apart from evidence of dried blood on the floor and bulkheads, there was no sign of human life, including a complete lack of dead bodies.
“There should have been twenty three people in here,” Elsa whispered. The cockpit was smashed almost beyond recognition, only faint signs of blood remained. Scattered about, both inside and outside the hull, were the weapons and even pieces of armor left behind. Elsa was certain that some of the Marines had survived the crash. The evidence showed they had not survived what came after.
“Leave the weapons,” Fiona whispered. “If they’re not useless now they will be soon. Probably when you need them the most.”
Elsa scowled but agreed. Her rifle had held up for a while, but it died when she needed it. Then her knife. Only her grenades had remained, but she didn’t see any sign of those in the wreckage.
Fiona put away her bow and motioned towards the hatches in the bulkheads. Elsa moved to a gaping hole in the rear of the shuttle and crouched low, watching for any sign of the four legged creatures that had already cleansed the vehicle of anything organic.
Several minutes later a tap on Elsa’s shoulder alerted her. She twisted and saw her fellow Marine had a plasteel cargo pack in each hand, a testimony to her strength. Another one lay on its side near the less damaged wall. Several open hatches in the wall lay open, their contents strewn about. Elsa rose up and glanced at the damaged equipment Fiona had passed over. She nodded in appreciation of Fiona’s judgment, then picked up the remaining case.
She motioned towards the exit. Fiona nodded and let Elsa lead the way out. They both looked around, Kira had disappeared. Elsa sat her case down and reached for her bow, then spun when she heard something hit the ground behind them.
She fumbled to draw an arrow from her quiver as she spun. The unfamiliar movement of nocking and drawing the bow messed her up. She considered dropping the bow and drawing her spear, all in the time between heartbeats as she twisted around. Her surge of adrenaline was unfounded, Kira rose up from where she’d squatted as she landed. Her bow was in one hand, an arrow nocked, and her other held a single finger to her lips.
Elsa glanced up, Kira had managed to climb on top of the wrecked shuttle for a better point of view. Thanks to the furrow the shuttle had dug in the ground and the crushed nature of the hull the drop had only been fourteen feet for her. Kira took her hand away from her lips then pointed to the north where the ground began to rise towards the hills. Tall grasses still grew where she pointed.
Fiona stepped beside Elsa then sat her cases down beside her. Elsa frowned, then nodded after Fiona gestured for her to carry all three cases. It pissed her off, she was an elite Special Operator, damn it! The job of pack mule belonged to a private fresh out of boot camp. The fact that here on Vitalis she was effectively a private only pissed her off more.
She slipped the cord wrapped around her spear off and lashed the cases together in short order. With Fiona’s help she slipped her arms into loops in the rope then stood up. She was off balance and the ropes dug into her shoulders painfully, but the added weight wasn’t as bad as she’d expected. Her quiver she’d switched so it lay across her chest. Her bow she held in one hand and her spear in the other. If she needed either she’d have to drop the other, but she reasoned that a Marine never leaves their weapon behind.
Kira slipped through the grass like a ghost. Even the whispers that had attacked Elsa would have been hard pressed to duplicate the women’s stealth. Fiona moved after her, parting the grasses from a different vector and leaving no sign of her passage. Elsa waited a moment, then followed after them, picking a route between the two so she could be certain she wouldn’t lose both of them and be stranded with only the spitters for company.
Elsa saw her new teammates again only moments later. She emerged to see them both standing and looking down at something in front of them. She walked up, shifting her shoulders to try and relieve the pressure from the cords digging into her skin, and gasped when she looked down.
A Marine lay on the grass. He was half on his side and staring at his hand as he slowly flexed and opened his fingers. His armor was torn and dirty and his helmet missing. His weapons, grenades and spare utility packs were absent as well.
He turned slowly when Elsa came close enough to cast her shadow on him. Kira and Fiona had stayed back enough to avoid alerting him. His eyes settled on her but it took several seconds before he displayed a reaction. “I’m fucked up,” he muttered.
Elsa knelt down, her load sending her off balance and nearly making her tumble forward onto the wounded Marine. Between dirt and damage to his armor she couldn’t make out his name or rank. “Marine, what’s your name and rank?”
He laughed, a simple chuckle at first then it grew louder and more maniacal.
&nbs
p; “Shut your hole, Marine!” Elsa hissed at him. “This is hostile territory and you’re giving away our position!”
The laughing continued to get louder.
Kira was there, making Elsa gasp in surprise at the woman’s sudden presence. Her hand drove into his throat and stayed there, squeezing his laugh out to less than a wheeze. He struggled, his hands coming to her arm and tugging at it. She didn’t budge in spite of the strength his manic frenzy gave him. He slowed, his eyes rolling back into his head and his hands slowing.
Elsa reached for Kira’s arm and pulled on it. She found the woman’s strength inviolate. It was as if a bar of steel built to hold up starship was connecting his throat to her shoulder. She looked up at Kira and saw the woman glaring at her. Reluctantly Else let go. Moments later the fallen Marine went limp. Only then did Kira remove her hand and check the body for a pulse.
“He’s alive, just unconscious,” she whispered. She turned to Fiona. “Pick him up and head back. I’m going to look for other survivors and lead the spitters away. Especially if they heard his cackling.”
Fiona moved over, arranging her bow over one shoulder before she grabbed the sleeping soldier. She picked the limp body up with an ease that impressed Elsa, then hung him over her other shoulder. “You lead,” Fiona said to the FIST.
Elsa rose up and looked around. She spotted the pass they’d came through, then realized heading in that direction was far from prudent. She twisted to the west, spotting the distant peaks and passes she and Tarn had used. It would add time to their travel but she judged it a necessary risk. Especially if the survivor had alerted the animals around them. The only problem with her plan was crossing through the plain that the spitters had made their home.
Elsa turned back towards the hills. Visibility and cover were better that way. She started off, not bothering to check and see if Fiona was behind her. Her senses told her she was alone but she knew the other Marine was only paces behind. The hills first, then west to the higher passes. Loaded down as they were she expected they wouldn’t make it back to Treetown for a day, perhaps two.
With the potential threats between them and safety Elsa hoped Fiona had a fraction of the skill with her bow that Kira had, because Else knew she’d be lucky to hit the broad side of a starship and that was if she was standing inside of it!
Chapter 10
Elsa and Fiona made slow progress with their awkward loads. Much to her surprise the persistent discomfort of the ropes didn’t turn debilitating over time. Normally that kind of irritation wore away at a person—even a Marine. Vitalis at work again.
Moving slowly and waiting whenever Elsa suspected one of the enemy creatures was ahead of us, they finally made it to the cleft in the ridge that Elsa and Tarn had first climbed up. It was only half a week ago but it felt like a lifetime. This time she planned to avoid the valley the screechers had been in. Dinosaurs were supposed to be stupid animals with tiny brains. The monsters on Vitalis she’d learned not to underestimate. If mama screecher remembered what had happened to her babies she didn’t want to be anywhere near her.
The Marine paused at the top of the natural pass and looked back on the plains behind them. “Any idea where she went?” Elsa asked.
Fiona studied the plains, noting the unnatural way some of the grasses moved against the wind. “No idea,” she said, adjusting the heavy load on her shoulder. “I thought she was crazy when I met her. Sometimes I still do, but I’ve seen her do things no human being should be able to do.”
“All this talk about Vitalis makes me wonder if she’s gone off the deep end,” Elsa risked. Marine to Marine or not, she didn’t want to overstep her bounds and alienate herself.
Fiona tried to nod then glanced at the unconscious Marine on her shoulder. She scowled at him. “Sometimes I think she’s got so much Vitalis in her she is Vitalis,” Fiona admitted. “It scares me a little, but the others that have been here just as long aren’t like that. I won’t speak for Kira but I will tell you that she’s a very dedicated person. When she latches on to something there’s not a force on this planet that can stop her.”
Elsa looked up at the afternoon sky above them. An occasional flying reptile passed in the distance ahead of them but otherwise only a rare wisp of cloud marred the perfect blueness. “Unfortunately there are things coming that aren’t on this planet.”
Fiona nodded. “I know. An expeditionary force is one thing, but the volume the TCS can bring to this planet can’t possibly be stopped.”
“You think the planet defended itself too?”
“What else could it be, Gunny?”
Elsa smiled. “We’re never going back, ranks don’t mean much anymore.”
“Old habits,” Fiona smiled. “I was a Lance Corporal. I’ve accepted that we’re stuck here, but I still hold out some hope, you know?”
“Give it up. I’ve changed enough already to know. The last mission before this one I had a broken back that left me a paraplegic. Modern medicine took care of it, but the pain never goes away from something like that. Now my scars are gone and my body feels incredible. Even the ones in my head are fading.”
“Scars in your head? You said you broke your back?”
“I meant the emotional ones. The memories of what happened. You know, the lessons you learn from mistakes you made.”
“Oh, you mean fear?” Fiona said with a grin.
Elsa returned the smile. “Yeah, exactly. Fear comes from surviving and realizing what could have happened. I had it pretty bad when my screamer crashed but the training keeps you going. If I’d have made it back to the fleet with my armor and recorder intact I bet I would have been kicked off the FIST teams. Oh I’m still a bad ass, I just wasn’t fearless anymore. It slowed me down and made me question myself.”
Fiona shifted her load again after a chuckle. “Kira likes you, that means you’re still a badass. I feel sorry for you. She’s going to beat you black and blue a hundred times.”
“What?”
“Being on Kira’s good side comes at a price. When she’s through you’ll probably be the second or third toughest thing to kill on this planet, but getting there is going to hurt.”
“Can’t wait,” Elsa muttered. “Let me guess. She’s the queen bitch and you’re number two?”
“Close. Nobody picks a fight with Kira. Nobody. Number two is Tarn. Nobody messes with him either.”
“That’s right, he used to be a FIST. He got old and lazy though, Captain Sharp said? What was that all about.” Elsa wasn’t sure she wanted to be Kira’s double agent. She needed to know a lot more about the man first. More than just that he looked like he had the medicine she needed to chase away a lot of loneliness.
“I don’t know.” Fiona turned to look away from the dangerous plains and back to the wide shelf to the north where massive animals still roamed.
“You’re lying,” Elsa observed.
“Yes, I am,” she admitted. She sighed. “Look, Tarn’s a cocky son of a bitch but he’s been a good man with the right priorities, as far as I’ve seen. The original crew all give him a lot of shit and he lets them. I expect there’s a history there. I’ve heard a few things second hand but I’m not going to pass them on. I seen how you looked at him and I saw that look in your eyes when Kira told you what she wanted. You talk to Tarn yourself – get it straight from the source. He may be a braggart and a pervert, but I never seen him do anything but shoot straight with people.”
Elsa nodded. “That’s fair. Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“We need to get going. This guy’s not getting any lighter and we’ve got a long ways to go. You picked a good path, coming this way, but it’s going to take a while for us to get back to Treetown. Do you know the way from here?”
Elsa shook her head.
“I’ll right, I’ll lead. It’s a ways off but there’s another cache of supplies Kira and I hid on the way. We can get some clothes there.”
Elsa glanced down at herself and barked out a laugh. “I’ll
be damned, I forgot all about it!”
“Bet you never thought that would happen, did you?”
“We have to go naked in our FIST armor. Took some time to get used to but I guess I’m not all that surprised. Happened quick though. I blame it on the post traumatic stress!”
“Now you’re a commando going commando.”
Elsa groaned and followed her fellow survivor down from the peak towards their new home.
Chapter 11
“Coral, get Wes, we found a survivor!”
“The vet? Get Jess, she’s a medic.”
“Get them both. He’s messed up.”
The ‘he’ in question was the Marine who walked with them. Elsa kept correcting his course through the jungle with nudges and prods. He was distracted the entire time and occasionally given to fits of talking to imaginary friends. At other times he would stare at Elsa or Fiona and grin so broadly drool would run down his chin.
The women were glad he hadn’t woken up until after they’d stopped at the cache Fiona led them too. Now they wore hide vests and skirts that Elsa found irritating and constricting in spite of how short they were. Each step grated on her nerves as the material rasped against her skin. She understood the attitude Fiona and Kira had towards clothing, even if it did go against the social norms she’d grown up with.
Vitalis was a chance to start over. More than an opportunity, it was a requirement. Her very survival required she adapt and accept her environment and new lifestyle. Even her chosen career path was only a building block to move forward from.
Coral, a maintenance woman that had survived the destruction of the research outpost, slung her bow over her shoulder and hurried back to Treetown. Fiona and Elsa followed her, shepherding the delusional Marine between them. He’d said his name was Private Azarin Irons, but they hadn’t been able to get a straight answer out of him about what had happened to him.
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