Alien War Trilogy 1: Hoplite

by Isaac Hooke

  “Well, after you’re shot in the arm, you fight your first instructor,” Rade continued. “If you win that, then they spray you with OC-40, and you fight again. Bleeding away, unable to see through the burning tears. Definitely isn’t for the faint of heart.”

  “No, I imagine it isn’t,” Vicks said.

  “I actually enjoyed myself though.”

  “That’s such a stereotypically MOTH thing to say,” Vicks responded.

  “I suppose it is. But that qualification is the one chance we have to get even with the instructors for the weeks of cruelty they’ve inflicted upon us. I enjoyed kicking the ass of one particularly mean bastard.”

  “While you were shot, and sprayed?” Vicks said, the disbelief obvious in her voice.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Rade replied.

  “You MOTHs are even crazier than I thought,” Vicks commented.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Rade said.

  The mech party reached the first life pod, and Rade had the Hoplites assume a defensive formation around it. He and Facehopper moved closer to the pod, and knelt so that their passengers could disembark.

  Harlequin clambered down from Bender’s mech to join them.

  “Harlequin!” Rade shouted. “Get back to your position, soldier!”

  Harlequin hastily complied. Bender didn’t bother to kneel his Hoplite, forcing Harlequin to climb. To his credit, his movements were quick and agile, and he was back in the passenger seat half a second later.

  Parnell and Vicks entered the lifepod. The pair emerged a moment later. Parnell seemed troubled.

  “These pods have been sitting out here for over a year,” the commander said. “What are the chances we’ll find any survivors? Their oxygen supplies would have run out in the first month. The food and water, gone by the second, if they rationed carefully. Assuming everyone survived the landing.”

  “If they’re dead, then where are the bodies?” Trace asked.

  “That’s the mystery, isn’t it?” Parnell replied.

  “It’s conceivable the survivors were able to create solar powered oxygen extractors, with equipment salvaged from the John A. McDonald before they jettisoned,” Vicks said.

  “And what about the food and water situation?”

  “Same thing,” Vicks explained. “Water reclaimers could have given them purified drinking water. And while the atmosphere and land aren’t natively conducive to Terran plants, the soil does have some nutrients—the alien foliage we’ve witnessed in the distance is testament to that. With proper hydroponics, I see no reason why the survivors couldn’t have grown food.”

  “Fine,” Parnell said. “But tell me something then: if you were stranded on this world, where would you take shelter?”

  Rade studied his overhead map. He had some ideas, but Vicks spoke before he could voice them.

  “That alien jungle is one option,” she said. “Though the more likely option is those rock formations, to the west. It would be far easier to set up an oxygen environment inside a closed cave system than in the middle of an open-air jungle. Besides, it would protect them from the elements, and any native inhabitants.”

  Facehopper had earlier warned the platoon that alien animal life had been detected on the surface: the shipboard telescopes had reported flocks of grazing animals, and the predators that hunted them, some of them very large. The hope was that, because of the mechs the platoon piloted, Rade and the others would be left alone by the native wildlife. No signs of any higher forms of life had been detected, however, nor anything else that would denote an advanced civilization.

  Parnell turned toward Facehopper. “Chief, let’s get half of the HS3s to perform an exploratory run on those formations. Let the others finish scouting the remaining pods.”

  “Aye sir,” Facehopper said. “Bender, direct half of the HS3s toward the rock formations.”

  “On it,” Bender replied.

  A rumbling abruptly resonated through his helmet, as picked up by the Hoplite’s external microphone. Rade’s cockpit seemed to shake, too, as the inner actuators mimicked vibrations detected by the hull sensors.

  “What the—”

  His gaze was drawn toward the distant jungle. From it, two large missiles soared skyward.

  “Spread out, people!” Rade said.

  Rade scooped up Lieutenant Vicks and secured her in the passenger seat, then he dashed from the pod. On his overhead map, the blue dots of the other Hoplites scattered. Parnell was aboard Facehopper’s mech once again.

  “Bender,” Facehopper said. “Have the Raptors triangulate the position of those launches, and return fire.”

  “Raptors are firing,” Bender returned.

  Rade glanced over his shoulder as he ran. He spotted smoke billowing from the jungle.

  “Did we get them?” Facehopper asked.

  “I believe so,” Bender replied. “The targets appeared to be mobile silos of some kind.”

  When Rade had attained a distance of two hundred meters away from the pod, he dove to the rocky surface and spun around to face the jungle. He tracked the missiles with his scope. The objects continued skyward. He studied the computed trajectories his HUD provided.

  “They’re not targeting us,” TJ said, coming to the same conclusion Rade just had. “But the Raptors.”

  “Have the Raptors blow those missiles from the sky,” Facehopper said.

  “The missiles just separated into eight individual units each,” Bender replied. “The Raptors won’t shoot them all down in time.”

  “Get as many of them as you can,” Facehopper said.

  Rade watched as four of the red dots that represented the missile pieces on his display winked out. The remaining four reached the Raptors, two each, and all the airborne dots vanished.

  The Raptors would have launched chaff, and their own equivalents of the Trench Coats that the mechs possessed, but apparently it hadn’t mattered. In place of the Raptors, two fiery meteors descended from the skies.

  “We just lost our air support, people,” Bender announced.

  The earth began to tremble around Rade. He felt the vibrations far more keenly than those of the missile launch.

  “Anyone else feeling that?” he asked over the comm.

  “Feeling what?” Manic returned.

  In his mad flight from the missile attack, Rade had unintentionally maneuvered closer to the purple jungle, so that he was about five hundred meters from its eaves. The trees along the periphery appeared to be swaying.

  The rumbling grew more intense, and then from the edge of that purple foliage a long line of darkness burst forth. He zoomed in, and realized a herd of alien beasts had broken free; the creatures were either spooked by the missile launch and the subsequent attack against the silos, or the hidden assailants in the jungle had purposely dispatched the beasts.

  Well, in that particular moment in time, the cause didn’t really matter. Because Rade was directly in the path of a large portion of that herd.

  eight

  Hang tight, ma’am,” Rade said.

  He began running away from the jungle and the incoming herd. He checked his overhead map. The blue dots representing the rest of the team were spread out in front of him. He was the only one that close to the creatures.

  “Smith, take over!” Rade said.

  “Autopilot engaged,” the Hoplite’s AI responded.

  “Switch my video feed to the rearmost camera,” Rade said. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

  “Done,” Smith replied.

  Rade found himself staring at the retreating jungle once again. He zoomed in on the dark mass flowing onto the plains. He began to make out individual entities in their midst. They ran on all fours, but given the size of their rear legs, he thought they also had the ability to walk upright. The incoming herd stretched from one side of the jungle to the other; the ranks flowed ceaselessly outward from the depths, seeming endless. It wasn’t a herd, but a swarm.

  “Retreat to the rock for
mation, people,” Facehopper’s urgent voice came over the comm.

  Rade zoomed in further, focusing on one of the creatures. The head reminded him of a hammerhead shark, and the insectile body was vaguely reminiscent of a skinny Tyrannosaurus Rex—while it possessed the size and menace of the extinct carnivore, it lacked the girth. The tail was long and segmented, and covered in spikes; the sharp tip could be readily utilized as a weapon, Rade thought. The thin body was covered in a tough, spiky carapace. Closer to the head, from the shoulder region, a protective plate of long, bony horns formed a vague crest behind the broad head. A pair of small, gripping arms with fingertips capped by talons were located in the center of the torso, underneath the head. The front legs were bottomed by pads from which flashed the tips of sharp, retracted claws. From the head, a central mandible extended outward, locked in a perpetual snarl to showcase the rows of razor-sharp teeth harbored within.

  “Chief, you getting this?” Rade asked over the comm.

  “I am,” Facehopper replied. “Retreat to the rock formation!”

  Despite the vaunted speed and agility of the Hoplites, nature seemed to be winning out: the front line of aliens was slowly closing, and the nearest creatures were about fifty meters behind him by that point. Their shrinking proximity from him only seemed to spur them on. The rumbling had grown commensurately.

  “But what about the booster rockets?” Manic asked. “Our trip home...”

  “Too far to the south,” the chief replied. “We won’t make them in time.”

  “We’re not going to make it to the rock formation either!” Rade said. More softly, he added: “I’m not, anyway.”

  He took a running leap and fired his jumpjets. Unfortunately, the activation proved a waste, because he covered the same amount of distance he would have on foot alone. Maybe even a little less.

  The creatures in the forefront began to break away from the front ranks, converging into a line headed straight toward Rade’s fleeing mech.

  “Chief, request permission to open fire,” Rade said.

  Facehopper didn’t answer.

  The aliens grew closer.

  “Chief...” Rade said.

  “If they were spooked by the launch of those rockets,” Trace said over the comm. “Then there’s nothing we can do to stop them. Once a panicked herd runs toward a cliff, they’re going to jump off that cliff, if only because of the pressure exerted by those coming behind them”

  “What if they weren’t spooked,” Lui said, giving voice to Rade’s earlier doubts. “What if they were sent by whoever launched those rockets?”

  “Either way, I doubt we’ll be able to scare them off,” Trace said.

  “If they were spooked,” Rade transmitted. “Wouldn’t they at least be trying to leave me some space? Even just a small berth? Instead of funneling directly toward me?”

  “Hey, they’re headed directly toward me, too, you know,” Bender said.

  Rade glanced southward, and from the horde he saw another long line breaking from the front ranks. Bender’s Hoplite sprinted there, located only a little farther from them than Rade.

  He glanced at the overhead map. Trace was the next closest, thirty meters ahead of them, followed by Tahoe. The remaining members of the platoon retreated from random positions beyond them. The rock formation was still a kilometer away from the closest member.

  “Chief, I ask again, do I have permission to fire?” Rade pressed.

  Facehopper didn’t answer immediately. Finally:

  “Bender and Rage, take out those nearest you,” Facehopper returned. “Try to maim, not kill.”

  “Thank you,” Rade said. To his local AI: “Keep running, Smith.”

  He switched to the forward camera and swiveled his torso all the way around while Smith maintained the Hoplite’s current heading. Rade rotated his cobra mounts into place and aimed for the legs of the closest creature. He fired the infrared lasers.

  The alien fell with a squeal that Rade found strangely gratifying.

  Not unexpectedly, the others in behind merely trampled the body.

  He unleashed the cobras again and again, hamstringing more of the creatures, but those in behind either leaped over the fallen or trod over them.

  Rade rotated the grenade launcher into either hand and launched frags into the swarm. Aliens exploded in satisfying displays of gore, but the horde didn’t slow. Flying body parts to the south alerted him to the fact that Bender had given up on his lasers and was using grenades as well.

  “Ain’t working,” Bender said. “We’re going to have to stand and fight. Rage and I, anyway.”

  “Bender,” Rade said. “Rendezvous with me here. We’ll buy the others as much time as we can.”

  He marked off a location on the overhead map, a position eighty meters ahead and halfway between both of them. Based on the estimates his Implant provided, the leading aliens of the swarm would overrun them shortly after they arrived.

  “Will do,” Bender returned.

  “I never gave the order for anyone to stay behind,” Facehopper said.

  “Neither did I,” Commander Parnell intoned.

  “Don’t think either of you have much of a choice, sirs,” Rade said. He could imagine Facehopper bridling at being lumped in with the officer as a sir. “Bender and I are going to be overwhelmed.” When no reply came, he sent a message to his charge. “Lieutenant, are you okay with this?”

  “I’ll fight from the passenger seat with my blaster,” she replied. “For as long as I can.”

  “None of us will make the rock formation in time,” Facehopper said. “You’ll only delay part of the swarm, Rage. The rest of us are going to be overtaken not long after that. Look at them. The far edges of the front line are already curling inward. They intend to outflank us all. So no, Rage and Bender. We stand together. And we retreat together. It’s the only way. Everyone, make for the coordinates Rage marked on the map.”

  Rade sighed, but he knew Facehopper was right. He and Bender might be able to delay a small portion of the horde, but there was no way two Hoplites would be able to stop the hundreds headed toward the remaining mechs.

  He neared the rendezvous point and swung his torso forward to face his direction of travel.

  “Smith, grant me full control,” Rade said.

  “Yes, Rage,” the AI said. “Good luck, LPO.”

  “Luck has nothing to do with it,” Rade said.

  Bender’s Hoplite reached the muster point first, and Bender turned around to fire at his pursuers.

  Rade bounded several steps, took a running leap toward the rendezvous point, and then spun about in midair.

  He launched an electromagnetic grenade before he landed.

  As he slammed into the alien soil, the grenade landed. Electrical bolts traveled outward in all directions, disabling five of the hammerheads at once.

  The following beasts hurled themselves forward, leaping at him and Bender. He managed to kill two more with his infrared laser, but one of the dead bodies struck Rade and he was thrown to the ground by its weight.

  Others were quickly on him and claws dug runnels into his hull. He couldn’t get up.

  The rumbling around him was at thunderous levels by then.

  “Vicks, are you all right?” Rade asked, worried that he had crushed her, or that an alien had gotten to her.

  He thought she said something back, but he couldn’t hear above the roar. He glanced at her vitals overlaid on his HUD. The data indicated she was fine, though her heart rate was through the roof, unsurprisingly.

  “Smith,” Rade said. “Can you filter that goddamn noise?”

  Instantly the roaring thunder of the passing horde subsided. He heard only the continual scrapes and thuds as the alien claws worked on his mech.

  “Done,” Smith said.

  “Vicks—”

  “I’m fine,” she said. Her voice sounded like it came from between gritted teeth.

  An alien’s head exploded beside him, and he real
ized she had shot it at point blank range with her blaster. She was still buckled in, apparently, though he understood it would be a tight fit back there, given her proximity to the ground.

  Body parts exploded above him and Rade realized Bender had tossed a frag near the beasts pinning him down. The weight pressing into him vanished.

  He grabbed one of the bodies and swung it in a wide arc as he scrambled to his feet, using it to cripple three more incoming creatures at the same time.

  Another four raced toward him...

  He tossed aside the body, bent his knees and activated the Hoplite’s jumpjets as he unleashed the pent-up potential energy of the mechanical legs. Three of the horde leaped and managed to grab onto him before he could clear them.

  Because of the added weight, the jump was far weaker than he had hoped, and he only rose three meters.

  He managed to shake off two of the aliens and thrust again on the way down, boosting his mech to an altitude of five meters. The lone alien hanging onto him continued to whale on his cockpit.

  Rade wrapped his hands around the creature and squeezed; some of the spikes on its carapace embedded in the arms of his Hoplite, but he managed to crush the thing. He tossed aside the still-squirming body and the spikes slid from his hull.

  “Damage alert,” Smith said. “Right arm actuators.”

  Rade test swung the arm and saw that its movement was jerky. The limb was still useable, however. For the moment anyway.

  “Could use some help here, boss,” Bender said.

  From his vantage point in the air, Rade spotted Bender’s Hoplite buried under a mass of the creatures.

  Rade unleashed a frag at the aliens, setting the proximity fuse to detonate a few centimeters above them—he didn’t want to damage Bender’s mech.

  The grenade exploded and alien pieces flew in every direction. Bender was on his feet a moment later, in fighting form.

  Rade descended toward the seething ground and launched two frags to clear the area directly underneath him. He landed amidst flying alien body parts.

  He grabbed one of the alien corpses and swung it like a bat, swatting aside the incoming horde members. After taking down around ten of them in that manner, the legs of his makeshift weapon abruptly tore away and he was left momentarily defenseless.