Ben caught the movement first. He squeezed the trigger of his heavy machine gun to send a salvo of rounds down the passageway and into the chest of a gun spider that had been attempting to flank them by clinging to the ceiling during its approach.
The marines followed Samuel's lead as he sprinted forward, keeping his rifle at the ready, not wanting to be caught in the kill zone and suffering the same fate as the gun spiders that first attacked them. The squad poured out of the passageway and into a smaller chamber, also covered in glyphs from ceiling to floor. Ben's heavy machine gun cleared out two more gun spiders as the rest of the squad bracketed them with rifle fire and drove them into Takeda's cone of fire.
There were two archways leading out of the chamber, one sloping up and another sloping down. Samuel paused in his advance to study the glyphs, hoping that he could find something more to go on besides which way was up and which was down. As he pondered, another gun spider attacked from the downward sloping passageway, managing to score a few grazing hits on Hondo before Ben's heavy gun tore it apart.
"Prybar?" asked Bianca in between bursts of fire. She and Hondo drilled a gun spider that burst, gun firing, from the shadows of the upward sloping passageway.
"Tricky room to get caught in if they come at us with more than one or two at a time," Samuel spat.
"Aye, Boss," agreed Hondo through gritted teeth as he swiftly injected himself with stimulants and emptied a tear-away packet of sealant over his minor wounds. "Not enough guns to hold it from two sides."
"Down it is, then," grumbled Samuel, annoyed that he was essentially making a flip of the coin as to which passage might lead to the center. Now that they were inside the ziggurat the angles seemed all wrong, going down felt like it might actually be up. His body was betraying him, and he could see it in the posture of his squad, the physics was wrong here.
They encountered more gun spiders as they traversed through a number of smaller chambers. As they went deeper into the ziggurat it felt to all of them as if they'd fallen into a whirlpool of sorts. The deeper they went, the more they felt they were going on a lazy spiral leading them towards the center, but not necessarily downward. It was as if the ziggurat was tremendously larger on the inside than it was on the outside.
After a grinding journey and multiple minor injuries, they felt they had finally reached the bottom, or at least the core; their senses could no longer be trusted. The passageway emptied into an enormous, high ceilinged chamber.
It became obvious to Samuel as he stepped out, that apparently all the passages ended at this chamber as other marines appeared in the openings that ran around the perimeter of the huge room. Fewer marines exited the passageway system than had entered it, and there were several more walking casualties like Harold. Samuel assumed the other groups encountered just as much resistance as his squad had. Samuel could see that Harold had taken some hits on his side and shoulder, though the rest of the squad looked none the worse for wear.
On the opposite side of the chamber, Samuel could see that many of the other squads had emerged from the passages and in moments three platoons of Reapers closed in on the center of the chamber. For a moment they all just stood and stared, every marine frozen in horror at the sight before them.
Hundreds of stone tables, made of the same material as the rest of the structures in the city were lined up across the floor, and upon each table lay the broken corpse of a penal legionnaire. Protruding from each of their clavicles was a thin black cable that snaked down the tables and across the floor in dozens of neat rows.
“What the…” Someone’s voice crackled in Samuel’s com-bead.
Samuel, Bianca, Hondo and Ben moved down the rows, aiming their weapons first at the tables, then the walls and ceilings. Samuel looked to his right and saw Boss Ulanti and Spencer Green moving up as well. Further down the line were Harold and Jada Sek, the former of which had slung his heavy machine gun and was holding his service pistol.
To a man, every eye followed the lines of cables, every weapon gradually aiming toward the raised structure they led to.
The cables leading from the legionnaire corpses flowed up the terraced steps, slowly merging with each other until there were no more than a few dozen larger cables that reached the center of the platform.
Atop the platform, made of the alien stone, was an item that could only be described as a throne. Seated in the chair was a humanoid machine that appeared to be made of an amalgamation of wires, metal plates, and pale flesh. Its face was bestial and savage looking, and disturbingly, reminded Samuel of Ben's grim visage, a death's head image that he knew would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.
The cables plugged into the back of its monstrous head, making it appear to have a flowing mane of hair instead of cords connecting it to all of the dead legionnaires.
Samuel was the first to reach the platform and as he placed his boot on the first step he could see a pulse of green hued energy pass through the stone steps and up to the throne.
The cyborg's eyes snapped open and burned a brilliant yellow, as if its eyes were actually heat vents for some furnace deep within its body and not lights at all. The marine felt as though it stared straight into the core of his being, and had heard his inner dialogue.
Opening its mouth, an inhuman, ear splitting sound roared from it, causing the marines to cover their ears and draw back.
All across the chamber the hundreds of cables attached to the legionnaires broke loose, falling to the floor with a clatter and every corpse sat up in unison. The cyborg's voice boomed once more and the animated legionnaires climbed from their tables and stood.
The machine stood from its throne, the segmented cables breaking away with angry hisses, as the monstrosity rose to its full height, towering over the Reapers at nearly ten feet tall.
The corpses stood motionless, the aim of the marines wavering between the legionnaires and the cyborg.
Samuel could not tear his eyes away from the burning gaze of the cyborg. He knew that he stood in the presence of intelligence both ancient and terrible, one beyond human comprehension.
Wynn Marsters broke the tension with two powerful words, and unleashed a storm.
"Kill it!"
Half of the marines were frozen in place, their minds too shocked by the chamber full of animated legionnaires and the titan machine to react, but the other half opened fire and in seconds the chamber thundered with the sounds of the battle.
Samuel felt as if his limbs were made of lead. No matter how much his mind screamed at his body to obey his commands he stood frozen in place, his gaze held by the machine. All around him marines shouted and fired, some at the cyborg and others the standing corpses. Dozens of rounds pinged off of the metal plating of the cyborg's body, a few managing to sink into small patches of exposed flesh or unprotected cabling, but they appeared to have no effect.
The cyborg roared once more and the corpses suddenly exploded into action, surging forward as one body to engage the marines hand-to-hand.
The sound of Bianca’s shouts and her gun firing behind him finally snapped Samuel out of his fugue.
A legionnaire collapsed in a bloody heap as Bianca riddled him with bullets. Samuel joined her in gunning down a second one as the legionnaires charged up the steps. The marine was shocked at how many rounds it took to bring the already dead hostile to the ground. He could see that several Reapers had been overpowered by the reckless berserkers.
The marines were screaming as the legionnaire corpses crawled over them, overwhelming them with sheer numbers, stripping away their armor with bare hands so that they could rip into the flesh beneath with clawed fingers and teeth. Samuel saw a legionnaire pick up a marine's discarded rifle, raising it to his shoulder and shooting through the melee at other Reapers.
Corpses wielding firearms was more than Samuel could handle, and a primal hate rose up from his belly and raged in his brain. This was unnatural, unknown, and an abomination. More than anything he wanted to do as he w
as told and kill the filth.
Kill all of them.
Samuel snapped his own rifle to his shoulder and began firing with his iron sights, letting his instincts take over and allowing his training and experience with the weapon do the work. The marine had never fully recovered psychologically from the events downspire on Vorhold, and he rarely used his digital scope. Plenty of marines in the chamber with him, standing on the platform steps above the general melee, were using the scopes to devastating effect, yet he could not bring himself to trust it.
More noises joined the cacophony as Ben and the two heavy gun operators from Gamma and Whiskey platoon cut loose with their rigs, spitting streams of high velocity rounds that schythed through the legionnaires.
The gunners, all veterans and masters of their weapons, knew better than to attempt to engage the enemy while there were so many hostiles in close quarters engagements with the first firing line of marines. The heavies shouldered their way through the rapidly forming Reaper battle lines so that they could pour on the firepower without much risk of hitting any friendlies.
Before Samuel's rifle clicked dry he could see that the marines had managed to close ranks and form a crude battle line at the base of the platform. Several marines had been torn to pieces by the legionnaires or been gunned down using scavenged rifles. Now that they had a firing line and three heavy gunners, the tide was changing from a pitched melee to a veritable slaughter. Samuel had already emptied his first magazine, so the marine took a knee and fished out another magazine.
"Reloading!" shouted Samuel as he slotted in a magazine while Patrick moved to stand between the kneeling marine and the battle in front of them.
When Samuel raised his head and stood, he saw the horrific conflict occurring at the center of the platform. While he and most of the other marines had been focused on holding back the grim tide of reanimated legionnaires, a handful of others had pressed upwards to engage the cyborg.
Samuel knew he'd turned to face the corpses out of fear of the creature before him, and it was only once he saw the corpses fighting and dying that he had found the power to lash out. Most of the other marines had reacted like Samuel, turning from an unknowable and mind-numblingly powerful enemy to battle a lesser, though no less horrific, enemy.
A select few Reapers had instead, mounted an attack against the titan machine, for all the good it had done.
The cyborg had fully detached itself from the cables and held both of its arms up, clawed fingers spread out to generate what appeared to be some kind of energy force field.
Jada Sek and Boss Ulanti stood shoulder to shoulder as they took turns slamming the shield with sustained burst fire, one shooting while the other reloaded. Boss Harker was on the opposite side of the platform, peppering the shield with single shots, probing different parts of the spherical shield, searching for a weak point. Virginia and Boss Marsters, along with two marines from Whiskey Platoon, were also pouring on the firepower.
A lone marine from Gamma Platoon was pressing forward, firing only intermittently. Just moving was a struggle the closer any of the marines got to the cyborg and its shield. Boss Marsters began to march forward as well. As if they had all been waiting for his command to join the lone marine, the entire group pushed forward. They were buffeted by the energy wash of the shield. To Samuel, it felt as if they were trying to march through a heavy wind, using all of their strength to push on.
The cyborg's shield shuddered with impacts as the power of their weapons hit it harder and harder the closer they got, giving the swirling sphere of energy less time to react and demanding that it expend more and more power to keep the projectiles at bay.
Suddenly the cyborg lowered its left hand and the sphere was bisected as the entire left side dissipated. Several rounds struck the cyborg, most bouncing off of its metal skin, but some tearing away at the exposed flesh. In the blink of an eye the titan’s left arm shot straight up and its fist clenched.
The gesture seemed superfluous until flashing spheres of energy emerged from the air surrounding it and shot away shearing four marines, including Boss Harker, into cauterized hunks of armored meat. The grisly spheres crackled with energy as they ripped through the marines, leaving the bodies to fall into pieces on the platform before the balls of light blinked back out of existence.
The cyborg opened its left hand and the shield was whole again. However, now all of them could see that whatever energy source the creature was accessing must be running low, as the shield was wavering.
The marine's advance did not slow, a testament not only to their training, but to the horrors they had witnessed in their many years of service. Every Reaper on the mission was a veteran and they kept shooting as they closed in.
Twice more the cyborg opened its shield to obliterate marines with the deadly spheres even as its body was punished by hails of bullets every time it lashed out. They were paying with lives to damage the creature.
It seemed incapable of adapting its tactics, as if the willingness of the marines to press on despite their grievous casualties did not register in its mind. It simply seemed incapable of comprehending the willing sacrifices that the Reapers were making to grind down its defenses and tear at its body, a few bullets and a life at a time.
With a blast of energy that knocked all of the marines back a step, the shield finally gave out. Samuel bumped into Bianca and Patrick, surprised, not realizing they had followed him up the steps.
With another bellowing roar, the titan straightened both arms and fisted its hands. Dozens of crackling spheres burst from the platform in a nightmare swarm, tearing through legionnaires and marines alike in an explosion of screams and blood.
Behind him, Bianca grunted as she collapsed to the steps, her right leg completely removed at the knee and her left shoulder simply gone, her arm hanging loosely by a few strands of cooked muscle. The wounds smoked as they were cauterized by the raw power of the energy spheres that had caused them.
Samuel leapt back instinctively as his combat rifle was melted in half by a sphere directly in front of him. The heat damage sensors in his helmet blared alarms as much of his armor bubbled and peeled away. Next to him, Patrick was silent as the pieces that were left of his body smacked wetly upon the platform steps.
Samuel gaped at the smoking corpse of his friend and comrade of the last six years, then back to Bianca as the woman he’d grown to love went into shock convulsions. All around him marines were dying or already dead.
Without conscious thought, Samuel ripped his boarding knife from its sheath and charged straight at the cyborg.
Before the titan machine could react, Samuel plunged the wide blade deep into an exposed area of flesh in the creature’s side.
The cyborg howled in what Samuel hoped was pain. It attempted to rake him with its claws, only to have its attack interrupted by Boss Ulanti slamming into it from the back, ramming her own knife into its body.
As the two marines repeatedly stabbed at the creature, Jada Sek leapt into the fray and began slashing it with her knife. More marines joined her, all of them clinging like burrs, despite the titan’s efforts to dislodge them. All of them hacking and slashing and screaming, in a frenzy of anger that was almost madness.
The lone marine who had first started up the steps fell to his knees as the cyborg used its claws to tear his mid-section into ribbons. The titan opened its mouth, but before it could make a sound, Boss Marsters appeared atop the heap of attacking marines and drove the point of his blade through one of the beast’s eye sockets.
The pulse of energy powering the creature ceased instantly, collapsing the mighty machine and sending the marines tumbling down the platform with it.
The remaining legionnaires collapsed in boneless heaps to the floor.
Samuel was unconscious when he landed at the base of the platform, tangled in the body of the titan with the other marines. By the time he started to come around the Reapers had been reinforced by more marines, who worked quickly to attend the wo
unded and secure the area.
Samuel lay on his back as an unknown medic pulled away his armor, skin and body glove melted to the armor in places, and began treating the burns. Samuel rolled his head to the side and saw other marines carrying Bianca away on a stretcher. She was horribly mangled, but Samuel was able to slip back into unconsciousness knowing that she was at least alive.
TERMINAL INJURIES
Once back aboard the tug, much to their disappointment and frustration, the battle weary Reaper cadre was bluntly informed during their debriefing that Grotto Corporation had determined, based on intelligence and evidence gathered, that the Reaper force was not to be deployed on extended salvage duty of the alien site.
It had been decided by the Board of Executives and their advisors that further study was required before any salvage ops were to begin. Surprisingly, though the marines had been denied the several months of hazard wages performing the salvage, each marine was awarded the promised completion bonus. The Reaper fleet was en route back to Baen 6 within the hour
It was hard to absorb, but Samuel finally had the money to wipe out his debts, a wife to remarry, expatriate from Grotto Corporation, and still have enough left to stake a homestead somewhere on the frontier. Despite the joy and relief this brought him, after stripping his armor away and cleaning up, rather than celebrate his good fortune, he went to begin his vigil in med bay.
Samuel was there when Bianca Kade awoke from surgery. He knew from experience that a familiar face was important when a marine first returned from the black. Boss Marsters had once again exercised his privilege as their platoon leader to make medical decisions for one of his troopers.
The doctors had installed a high end Augur brand prosthetic knee joint. However, keenly aware of the tremendous financial impact of non-covered procedures, Wynn opted for Bianca's actual leg prosthetic to be the basic metal and synth-flesh limb covered by the Reaper health plan. He had done the same for her arm and as Samuel held her human hand while she slept, he couldn’t help but think of Mags as he looked at the crude machine arm. It reminded him of the cyborg hostile they'd defeated planetside, Patrick's grisly death, and the horrible deaths of so many others.
Dead Worlds (Necrospace Book 2) Page 13