Catching a glimpse of motion out of the corner of his eye, Bowie whirled about. He found himself face to face with a trio of the creatures who had entered the colony through the shattered main door. Bowie’s CASPer lunged forward, driving the blade of its right arm through one of the creatures as he popped his left. The blade on his left arm swung in a mighty arc to meet the side of closest creature’s skull. It cut into and through it, flinging bits of bone and brain matter through the air. The creature died instantly. Its body fell at his feet, and was still twitching as he stepped over it to engage the last of the three creatures that had sprung at him. Bowie brought the blade of his right arm down onto the creature’s shoulder at an angle. The blade slashed into its scales, cutting through muscles and bone alike. When the creature’s corpse fell to the ground, it was in two pieces.
Glancing in the direction of The Sanctuary’s northern entrance, Bowie could see it was already a lost cause. The creatures were coming through it in an unstoppable tide. Most of the CASPers who were jumping down from the wall were in full retreat. Bowie was thankful the colony’s civilian population had been cleared out and ordered to hole up in the massive bunker beneath its main administration building. The colonel had rushed them all there after the first attack, figuring they would be safe there until either the night was won, or the Marauders were dead.
Bowie spotted a small group of Marauder infantrymen who were still alive, though he doubted they would be for much longer. They were on the run from the creatures.
One of them stopped, turning to fire into the ranks of the beasts that pursued them. The woman’s rifle chattered as she hosed several of the creatures with a blast of point blank, automatic fire. The creature closest to her was sent reeling backward, its stomach a mess of mangled meat with long strands of intestines hanging from it. Another took a round in its shoulder, spinning it about as more of her rounds dug into its side and back, before it fell to the ground. She managed to drop five of the creatures in total before her weapon ran dry.
Ejecting the empty magazine, the woman tried to shove another into her weapon, but she wasn’t fast enough. The creatures reached her, knocking her from her feet. Claws ripped at her as razor-like teeth tore chunks of flesh from her bones in bloody mouthfuls. Her screams echoed in Bowie’s ears, despite the cacophony of the gunfire and shrieks of the monsters that continued to pour into The Sanctuary.
Bowie lost sight of the others who had been with her as one of the creatures slammed into his CASPer from its left side. Metal screeched and tore as curved claws dug into it. Bowie swung his CASPer about, its armored hands taking hold of the creature to fling it away from him. It landed on its butt several yards from where he stood, staring at up at him with burning, hate-filled yellow eyes. Bowie was ready for it as it sprang from the ground to launch itself at him again. He gut-punched it with the right-hand blade of his suit. Entrails and blood exploded from the creature’s back, where the blade emerged after cutting through its body. Blood bubbled on the creature’s lips as the glow in its eyes faded and died away. Bowie jerked his arm blade free of the thing’s corpse. He knew he had to get moving. If he stayed where he was, he was dead.
The powerful legs of Bowie’s CASPer shifted into motion, building speed as he sprinted toward the center of the colony, where the survivors of the attack on the walls were supposed to be rallying. The creatures were everywhere now. They filled the colony’s streets, jumped from rooftop to rooftop, and still more of them entered the city with each passing second.
* * *
The lieutenant was dead. That was all Hayes could keep thinking over and over in his head as he ran for his life. Gwin raced after him as the two of them darted from one alleyway to the next, heading for the center of the colony and the Marauders’ rallying point. The western wall had fallen, and they had barely escaped. Lieutenant Brooks had realized they were going to be overrun before it happened, and ordered them off the wall. That was the only reason they were still alive. The last Hayes had seen of the LT was as one of the creatures was leaping over the top of the wall to plunge its claws directly through his faceplate.
“Hold up!” Gwin shouted at him. “We’re not going to make it to the rally point before those things run us down.”
Hayes skidded to a halt to let Gwin catch up to him. They had lost the initial group of creatures that had been after them, but even now, Hayes saw a new group of the things charging toward them from the south.
“In here!” Gwin yelled as he kept moving past Hayes and threw his shoulder against the door of the building to their right. The panel burst inward, and Hayes followed him inside. The building had no power. Its lights were out, but Hayes could tell it had once been a general store.
Gwin dove behind the counter and turned to cover Hayes as he raced to join him. One of the creatures came bounding through the store’s front window. The glass shattered, covering the floor with shards that glinted and gleamed in the starlight. The creature landed in a crouch, readying itself to spring, but a burst from Gwin’s rifle smacked into its skull, snapping back its head and splattering its brains into the air behind where it crouched.
“We’re going to be trapped in here!” Hayes shouted as he brought up his weapon to fire at another creature that had followed the first into the store through its shattered window.
“This whole colony is a fragging death trap, buddy!” Gwin screamed. “At least in here we have a chance of holding those things off. Out there, we were dead, and you know it.”
Hayes didn’t see any point in arguing. In the next few minutes they would both be dead regardless of what they did. Hayes wasn’t going out without a fight though. He was determined to take as many of the blasted monsters with him as he could.
Several more of the creatures had gotten into the store and were charging the counter. He and Gwin lit them up, emptying their weapons in the process. The bodies of the monsters twitched on the floor in growing puddles of their own blood as the two men tried desperately to get their weapons reloaded.
The break in their fire opened the way for another of the creatures to come charging through the store’s front door and reach the counter. Hayes’s magazine clicked home, and he raised his weapon, but it was too late. The monster vaulted over the counter onto Gwin, slamming him into the wall.
Hayes heard Gwin’s bones snapping from the impact. Red was already leaking from the corners of Gwin’s mouth as the creature leaned its head in to tear his throat open. When its head rose, Hayes could see shreds of Gwin’s flesh protruding from the creature’s mouth as it chewed.
Squeezing his rifle’s trigger, Hayes fired a burst that punched a fist-sized hole in the creature’s forehead. Its body slumped forward to rest on top of Gwin’s corpse. Hayes spun about to face the ever-growing number of creatures entering the store.
“Die, you mothers! Die!” Hayes wailed as he held his rifle’s trigger tight and hosed them with a stream of high velocity rounds. One creature wailed as his bullets punctured its guts. Another flopped sideways as bullets shredded the top of its left leg. Still another shrieked as its ribs splintered inside its chest, and Hayes’ rounds exited its body through its back.
A creature came skittering across the store’s ceiling with blinding speed to drop onto him as Hayes’ rifle clicked empty again. The air left his lungs as he and the creature hit the floor. His fingers clawed at the butt of his pistol, trying to free it from the holster on his hip. He jerked his head to the right, and the creature’s claws sank into the floor where it had rested a fraction of a second before.
His pistol slid free of its holster. Hayes shoved the cold metal of its barrel into the creature’s side and fired off three shots. The creature gave a high-pitched squeal as the bullets entered its body and blew through it. It flopped over him, dead. Hayes shoved the creature from him, trying to get to his feet. The last thing he saw was starlight gleaming off razor sharp claws before they met his face.
* * *
Lieutenant Blair watched f
rom behind the hastily set-up firing line as a few more CASPers came straggling in to join those rallying in the center of the colony. Colonel Travis was still in the command center, and Major Evans was dead, torn apart by the first of the monsters to reach the meeting point. That left Blair in charge until Major Bowie arrived on the scene. He didn’t want the job, because being in charge meant that you were responsible for lives. Given the way things were going here on Durin II, that would mean a lot of blood on his hands if he somehow managed to get out of this alive. Blair was just a paper pusher when you got right down to it, and he was well aware of his limitations. Still, there was nothing that could be done about it. Bodies were falling like wheat beneath the scythe, and he was one of those who hadn’t yet been harvested. He was the senior officer present, and that meant it all fell to him to figure out.
The data pad he carried gave him the ability to monitor the remaining CASPers. There were twenty-two of the mobile combat suits left, most of them the Mark VI versions. The bulk of the surviving CASPers had already reached the center of the colony and formed a defensive circle about it. Their MACs and belt-fed Gatlings thundered as they blazed away at the creatures closing in on what was left of the Marauders.
And still the beasts came…
“Higgins! Watch your nine o’clock!” Blair shouted through the comm. The CASPer pilot heard him, and swept his heavy Gatling around to engage a cluster of creatures that were trying to hit the weak point of their circle. The Gatling’s barrels spun, sending a barrage of high velocity rounds into the beasts. Higgins mowed down the creatures as Blair turned his attention elsewhere. Another group of the monsters were moving in from the east to join the multitudes already wreaking havoc on the CASPers.
“Clark!” Blair yelled, pointing at the creatures inbound from the east. “Take those things out!”
Shouldering the rocket launcher he carried, Clark took aim at the approaching creatures. The infantryman dropped to one knee before he fired the weapon. The RPG flew into the mass of creatures and exploded among their ranks. The blast pulverized the monsters closest to where it hit and sent the rest scattering away to regroup.
Blair breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Major Bowie’s CASPer making its way up along the colony’s streets toward the defensive circle he’d set up. Bowie’s suit was covered with gore. Blood and guts from the creatures were smeared all over the suit’s arms, head, and chest. The major had his trademark blades deployed, and was hacking his way through any of the creatures dumb enough to try to block his path. Blair’s heart skipped a beat as he watched a creature come bounding across the rooftops that lined the street above Bowie’s position. He was sure the major didn’t see the thing as his attention had to be focused on the monsters emerging from the alleyways around him.
“Major Bowie! Above you, sir!” Blair cried out over his comm.
The creature flung itself from a rooftop at Bowie’s CASPer. The major must have seen it at the last moment, because his CASPer rolled its right shoulder around to meet the monster. The monster thudded against the suit’s heavy armor, its claws raking over it and leaving deep grooves in their wake. The impact appeared to stun the creature though, and it flopped onto the street, looking up at Bowie’s CASPer.
Bowie’s left arm blade entered its forehead and erupted from the rear of its skull, killing the monster instantly. Unfortunately, the effort to do so took Bowie’s attention away from the creatures in the street with him. They took advantage of the moment, moving as one to swarm his CASPer.
Black, scaled bodies slammed into it from every direction, trying to pull the heavy mobile suit off its feet. Bowie’s blades slashed at the creatures, severing one’s arm and killing another as the major struggled to break free from the crowd that had gathered about him.
Blair raised his own rifle to his shoulder, taking aim at the monsters around Bowie, but he was afraid to open fire. Rationally a part of him knew that his rifle wasn’t going to hurt the major’s CASPer, but he still couldn’t bring himself to shoot.
One of the larger creatures, standing nearly ten feet tall, shoved its way into the crowd surrounding Bowie and came at the major’s CASPer from the rear. Its scaled hands caught Bowie’s arms from behind, and its fingers wrapped around them just below where the suit’s swords extended. The monster roared as it held the arms of Bowie’s suit with all its strength, allowing the other creatures to close in on the front of the CASPer.
Something snapped inside of Blair as he realized he was about to watch a legend die. Adrenaline surged through his system as he found his courage and opened fire at the major’s position.
His rifle bucked against his shoulder as he emptied its magazine into the monsters surrounding Bowie. Bullets slashed their way up the back of one of the creatures. It howled in pain and fury as it died. Two more dropped with their intestines sliding out of the holes Blair’s fire opened in their bodies. All of them were on the outer edge of the circle around Bowie, their deaths protecting those closest to the major’s CASPer.
Blair could hear Bowie cursing the monsters over his comm, even as they tore his CASPer apart in a berserker-like frenzy. There were so many of the things around Bowie that Blair lost sight of the major’s CASPer as the monsters finally managed to pull it from its feet. The major’s raging curses turned to bellows of pain and then fell silent, and Blair looked away from the grisly scene.
Major Bowie is dead, Blair admitted to himself. He staggered a step as if someone had punched him in the stomach. It was hard to imagine, but he’d seen and heard it happen—there was no denying the truth. He looked around at the remaining CASPers and the few surviving infantry troops. Shell casings clattered from ejection chambers to the ground all around him as they continued to fire into the mass of creatures pushing in from all directions. Shocked and in a daze, Blair let his rifle slip from his hands. He didn’t want to die, but it seemed like more of an inevitability than just a possibility.
One of the Marauders’ APCs was parked in the middle of the defensive circle just outside the building that served as Colonel Travis’ command center. The gunner on its top was concentrating his fire at a large group of the monsters streaming in from the west. Blair ran for the APC’s open side door and dove into the vehicle, slamming the door closed behind him.
Noticing the APC’s driver’s compartment was empty, he headed for it. Apparently, the gunner up top was the only one onboard. Blair had no idea where the other two members of its crew were. Contact had been lost with APC Bravo 1 when the monsters came over the wall and started spilling into the colony’s streets. He slid into the APC’s sensor tech seat and took a look for APC Bravo 3’s position. His eyes bugged as Blair saw it was approaching the rallying point at high speed. He accessed the exterior cameras of the APC and tried to get a visual on Bravo 3.
Blair finally spotted Bravo 3 roaring up a side street toward his position, its gunner laying down a heavy rate of fire on the massive pack of creatures chasing it. More of the things clung to Bravo 3’s sides, their claws sunk into its armor plating. They were trying to climb up to its top and reach the gunner there. Bravo 3’s forward windshield was cracked and smeared with the same alien blood that coated its entire front.
As Blair watched, a small group of creatures raced into Bravo 3’s path. Its driver didn’t slow—Bravo 3 plowed straight through the creatures, knocking some of them aside and splattering the blood of the rest before they disappeared beneath it.
The monsters in the streets weren’t the only ones after Bravo 3. Scores of the things moved about the rooftops, both ahead and behind it, watching the vehicle closely as they sought a means to strike. A few of the monsters hurled bricks and other pieces of debris from the rooftops. They pounded the APC, but bounced off harmlessly.
As Bravo 3 continued to speed up the street, dodging the ravaged remains of off-line CASPers, one of the creatures on the rooftops leaped onto it. The gunner tried to bring Bravo 3’s weapon around in time, but couldn’t manage. A swipe of the th
ing’s claws reduced his face to a mangled mass of red and torn flesh. The creature grabbed a hold of the gunner’s corpse, pulling it up and out of Bravo 3, and flung it into the street. Snarling, the creature started into the opening but drew back as small arms fire erupted upward through it.
With the topside gun out of commission, there was nothing to hold the bulk of the creatures in the street at bay. They closed in on the APC in impossible numbers, with dozens of the monsters giving up their lives to jam up the tires with their bodies and puncture them with their claws. Bravo 3 crawled to a halt as small arms fire continued to fly through the open turret at the creatures gathered there.
Blair had to look away as one of the things finally made it inside the vehicle. As he turned his head, a second creature made it into Bravo 3. Blair shut down the camera feed and wept openly.
His sobbing was interrupted by an explosion that shook him in his seat. He spun his chair around to stare out the APC’s forward window at the fireball Bravo 3 had blossomed into. Either the creatures who had gotten into it had somehow set off some ordnance, or the surviving crewmembers had detonated it in an attempt to take as many of the monsters with them as they could and avoid being eaten alive.
The monsters were beginning to break through the Marauders’ lines and get in among the last of the CASPers. Blair saw a CASPer wrestling with one of the monsters. The two giants slugged it out in hand-to-hand combat. The monster’s claws sliced through the metal armor of the CASPer’s right hand, severing it from the suit. The move left it open though and the CASPer delivered a punch to the side of its skull that shattered and caved in bone. One of the creature’s eyeballs dangled on strings of bloody sinew from its socket as the CASPer lifted its corpse into the air. The CASPer hurled the creature’s body at two more of the monsters racing toward it.
Blair wiped the tears from his cheeks, taking heart from the CASPer pilot’s determination, continuing to fight even as the two monsters reached him, and six more rushed to join in. Blair brought Bravo 2’s engine online. It revved as his foot pressed the fuel pedal.
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