by A. J. Allan
“Oh?” Irons said, assuming a faux bossy demeanor.
“Yes. You called me your fiancé?”
Irons laughed nervously, and even Lopez chuckled. Mostly, it was because he didn’t want to face the sad reality of the situation.
“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to be with her man.”
“Well, thank you,” Jordan said. “But I’m sorry our relationship has been so up and down, mostly because of my inability to be vulnerable. But you’ve stuck with me. Here we are, in the middle of hell, and we’re still together. I can’t think of any more reason to ask this question then.”
A pause came. Lopez knew what was coming, and tears formed in his eyes.
“Jenna Elizabeth Irons, will you marry me?”
A loud sob came through the tent.
“Of course,” she said. “Yes, Steve Mark Jordan. I will marry you.”
More sobbing came. Kisses came. This lasted for several seconds. Tears streamed unabashed down Lopez’s cheek. He didn’t bother to hide them. A nurse came, but quickly turned away, respectful of what was happening.
“I’m sorry it took until now,” Jordan said, his voice emotional as well.
“It’s OK, you never were good at being on time.”
“Hey! I’m always on time.”
“Just for when the CO commands it,” Irons said, but it was clear that she was teasing. “When I command it, you—”
The power went out all across Nellis base.
41
“Battle positions!” Major General Crysthal shouted with such volume even Lopez, Irons, and Jordan all heard it.
“Come on, Jordan, you’ve got to come,” Irons said.
Lopez quickly put his NVGs on. He ducked into the tent, manners damned because of the situation—and saw Irons fitting herself. Inside, Jordan had numerous needles in his body and monitors attached to him.
“I’ll only slow you down, Jenna. Go. Find the Eagle. Leave me.”
“What, you’re getting cold feet already, Steve?” Irons said. “Come on. Get your ass up. I’ve got a second gun you can use. You’re not leaving me to go for some alien chick.”
Lopez grimaced at that dark image just twisted enough to be hilarious. Jordan, with a sigh, ripped the two needles in his arm out. He ripped the electrodes and devices from his chest and put his arm around Irons.
“I do literally have cold feet right now, for the record, Jenna,” he said.
“Well, I can’t be perfect. We’ll get you boots aboard the Eagle. Mav!”
“Irons, Jordan. Come on. Let’s meet up with the rest of the squad.”
But as they moved, silence filled the air. The rest of the soldiers had squatted in the hallway across from the sick bay where they had followed Crysthal for a debriefing. They motioned to halt, and the three soldiers squatted. Lopez listened.
Far up above, the groaning of a door lifting came. They’re breaking the entrance. They’ll be here in seconds.
Lopez couldn’t wait any longer. He wouldn’t die squatting in a doorway to get pounced on by a xenoroach. Not tonight. He moved across quickly, with Irons and Jordan following.
“Soldiers!” Lt. Andrews whispered. “Fall back with me.”
He, along with the other Apocalypse Squad members, retreated backwards. In the CO’s hands was a small radar device. It swarmed with the dots of the xenoroaches.
“The bigger the dot, the closer to level it is with us. None of them are on our level. But…”
They came from all directions. East, west, north, south, the sky, the ground. They hadn’t penetrated the entrance, but that was inevitable.
“What’s the strategy?” Kowalski whispered, his voice barely contained.
Lt. Andrews didn’t say a word until they had backed up far enough.
“Crysthal wants these men to defend the base. That’s suicide. We won’t last another thirty seconds in this base when the aliens break through. We have to make haste for the hangars and find the Eagle. Once we do that, we’re getting the fuck out of here. We’re going to space and we’re gonna blow up that damn mother ship, even if it costs us all our lives.”
“So we’re going to leave these guys behind?!?” Lopez said.
“Mav, we do what we can. When you left, I yelled at Crysthal, but he won’t—”
A loud explosion and bang sounded overhead. All the soldiers instinctively raised their rifles, but no holes formed. No dust crumbled to the ground. The aliens didn’t have weapons, so how was that possible?
Then it clicked.
“They just knocked the control tower into this building,” Lopez said. “Lieutenant Andrews, the ceiling here, is it fortified from the level above it?”
Andrews bit his lip.
“Move!”
42
Lt. Andrews led the way. He pushed past dozens of soldiers and toward the hangar entrance.
“Lieutenant!” Major General Crysthal yelled. “Pull back and join—”
“I am not sending my men to die needlessly today!” Lt. Andrews shouted back. Lopez just moved as his commander ordered. He may not have particularly liked Irons’ uncle, but he hadn’t steered them wrong so far, dammit, and that wasn’t about to change. “Your men need to follow and get on the Eagle! That’s our only shot!”
“We are not dead yet, and if you run like a co—”
All hell broke loose moments later. The ceiling collapsed, killing at least one soldier who screamed as he was crushed by the debris. Before the dust had settled, the horrifying, all-too-familiar sound of alien screeching filled the air.
“Move!”
All of Apocalypse Squad ran into the hangar. A door had automatically shut when the power went out, and Lopez cursed.
“Stay back!” Lt. Andrews shouted as he pressed through. “Cover!”
Lopez, Kowalski, Li, and Lake set up in the hallway, firing at any alien that dared advance in their direction. The sounds of gunfire, screaming, death, bloodshed—it became a brutal, ugly symphony that filled the air, unending in its brutality, vulgarity, and cruelty toward humanity.
About two seconds later, an explosion rocked behind them.
“Always carry C-4,” Andrews shouted. “Move! Cover and move!”
Their biggest problem, though, was that the hangar, like the rest of the base, had no power. And with about a dozen ships to choose from, it would take them far too much time to locate the Eagle before the aliens came.
“Which one’s the fucking Eagle?” Irons shouted.
“Hey! This way!” an unfamiliar voice said. All eyes turned to the lone figure standing there, a black man with a thick Nigerian accent. “My name is Obi Abayomi, just call me Bullets. I’m a pilot here, was just inspecting the Eagle. Come! I’ll take you!”
“Is the damn ship operational?!?” Lt. Andrews yelled.
“Yes, but it does not have much fuel, so—”
Something loud screeched near the door.
“It’s gonna come!” Irons shouted. “We have to move!”
All of the soldiers, even Jordan, took up their positions and fired upon the aliens that entered, slowly retreating with Lt. Andrews and Private Abayomi.
All, that was, except for one lonesome soldier, moving slowly, with a limp, and numerous bandages around his head. The lone soldier did not retreat. He did not cower. Instead, despite his scars, his wounds, and a bloody end awaiting, he advanced upon the hallway, creating an alley of death for any alien that wanted to advance.
Everyone watched in horror. The soldier had no intent of joining them. He planned to die keeping the rest of Apocalypse Squad safe.
“Jordan!” Lt. Andrews shouted.
“Steve!” Irons cried. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!?”
“If those aliens break through, they’ll attack you from all angles,” Jordan said, his voice finding its baritone, authoritative tone, perhaps one last time. “I’ll have them in a bottleneck here and I can take them out. You guys get on the ship.”
; “Steve!”
“Private Jordan!”
“Silencer!”
“Don’t worry about me!” Jordan said. “You got me this far. I’ll get you to the next step.”
“Steve!!”
“Jenna… I love you! I love you so very much. Blast these fuckers out of the sky for us!”
“Steve!”
Lopez grabbed Irons’ arm. She resisted and lurched toward her fiancé, but Lopez had her wrapped up tight.
“Steve! No!”
“When you guys finish,” he shouted. “Visit my parents. They’re in North Carolina, near the border of Virginia. Tell them I love them and I fought for them every day, even if I didn’t show it. Jenna. I love you.”
Irons fought, but then went weak.
“I love—”
But an alien reached him and pushed him back. Jordan roared as he made his final stand behind his gun. Several aliens let out dying cries as Jordan killed more aliens in a sequence than the entire squad had up to that point. His abdomen bled out, and if he had any hope of survival before, it had now vanished.
“Steve!”
With a strong yank, Lopez pulled Irons away from the battle scene. He carried her toward the Eagle, a massive ship on the right side, four back. He tossed her onto the loading dock as it closed up. He got one last look.
Making his final act as a soldier, Jordan stood. His rifle had overheated. He pulled out a grenade. He looked back at the ship as he pulled the pin. He dove into the hallway.
Seconds later, the grenade exploded, and Jordan’s sacrifice and life had ended.
43
“NO!”
Irons’ cry approached hysterics. Who could blame her? She was engaged for less than a couple of minutes before witnessing her man sacrifice himself so that she and the rest of the crew could live. Irons probably would have traded the rest of the squad just to have Jordan back at that moment. And Lopez couldn’t blame her.
“Irons…”
Irons screamed. Lopez came to his own senses. They were still fighting. They hadn’t escaped the danger yet.
“Irons!”
He grabbed her and shook her.
“You have a job to do right now, soldier,” he said. We all do. We can mourn this later. “Get the hell up to the cockpit and help your uncle get this bird off the ground.”
Her eyes still watered, but they hardened. They narrowed, and her muscles tensed. She nodded curtly.
“Thank you, Mav,” she said, and she quickly ran in the other direction, looking for a lift or stairs or a ramp to the cockpit. She found it moments later when she circled around. Mav looked for a spot to fire guns, but found nothing. The closest he found were “BV1” and “BV6,” but a quick glance showed they were not gun stations. Boarding vehicles. He cursed and ran up to join the rest of the crew.
At the cockpit, which looked more like a bridge of a ship than a cockpit, he found all of the crew plus the new guy, Bullets. Everyone, that was, except Silencer. Who will remain silent forever now. Jordan…
“Let’s get this ship outta here!” Lt. Andrews yelled. “Lift her up!”
The sound of engines roaring filled the soldiers’ ears. The rattling of lift off followed. Ahead, the bay doors… remained closed.
“Dammit!” Lt. Andrews said. “Bullets, can this ship slam through that thing?”
“I wouldn’t advise it, sir, I—”
But they were interrupted by a loud thud on the glass of the cockpit. An alien had slammed into the window and was smashing its head into it, trying to break through.
“Hang on tight, boys and girls!” Lt. Andrews shouted.
The CO gunned the ship forward.
“Are you crazy?!?” many people said at once.
“Better hope the nose breaks this wall before we do! Brace for impact!”
No one had time to position themselves in a chair or strap down, so everyone threw themselves to the ground. The hit that came sounded like an asteroid colliding with a city, the impact violent, ear-shattering, and feeling like an earthquake. As he got tossed in the air, Lopez noticed the alien which had tried to break through the ship had been thrown off, but it was of scant relief given the situation.
Amazingly, though, the ship continued forward. Though it moved slowly, its thrust pushed the nose of the ship through the bay doors. Around the old ship, aliens crawled, but the debris of the breaking doors knocked them off.
“Hang on!” Lt. Andrews yelled.
Suddenly, like it had lurched free from out of water, the USSF Eagle broke through the bay doors, launching into the dark evening sky. The CO let out a cry of celebration as the heavy vessel slowly but steadily moved through the atmosphere and to the stars.
“Yeahhhhhhh!” Lt. Andrews screamed.
The soldiers slowly rose, in disbelief that the escape plan had actually worked.
“Well, I am glad that you did not listen to my advice,” Abayomi said.
“Irons, what’s the shield damage on this thing?”
Irons looked down at the data as Lopez came over, curious to read whatever she was examining.
“Only about 15 percent for the fore shields, sir.”
“15 percent, that move would’ve blown up just about every ship in the UGM,” Lt. Andrews remarked. “Goddamn, this thing is truly a beast.”
For a fleeting moment, space was beautiful once more. Earth had become a hell hole, an unrecognizable world full of monsters which had displaced humanity on the food chain and the natural hierarchy. Here in space, at least for the moment, the enemy’s home ship was not visible. All Lopez and the crew could see were stars, the blackness of space, and each other. Instead of terrifying emptiness, it contained possibilities, worlds to escape to, and places in which to start over.
But that would come another day. For now, they still had a mission. The Churchill was beyond saving. No one inside Nellis could possibly have survived. Their readings inside the base showed only those in the most remote areas of civilized Earth remained, and who knew for how long.
That still left something to fight for, though. And even if it didn’t, even if Earth had become the xenoroach home base, the men and women of Apocalypse Squad had each other to fight for. Abayomi had his fallen comrades from Nellis to fight for, along with who knew what else.
And if nothing else, Lopez wanted to see the senior leadership of the UGM one more time so he could give them a piece of his mind.
“We have about half an hour before we’ll make contact with the enemy vessel,” Lt. Andrews announced. “I want all of us to gather around so we can discuss our best strategy. Once we come to a consensus, we’ll take a brief break before making contact. You can do whatever you want in that time. But first, let’s figure out how to squash these bugs.”
44
“If there’s one thing that’s become apparent to me so far, it’s that we are terrible at defeating these guys in space, and slightly less terrible at defeating them in close range combat.”
No one could disagree with the CO on that count. No statistics or experience they could draw from could disprove what he had said otherwise.
“Which explains part of the reason why I chose the Eagle to make our final stand. It contains boarding vehicles down below which we can shoot at the enemy in order to get you guys on board their vessel. I’ll have to get us as close as possible before I fire you guys, since the thing absorbed our laser attacks, but I’m hoping that since we’re firing physical projectiles, it won’t be able to absorb the attacks.”
“Once you get inside, your task is simple: take out the enemy ship from within. Prevent it from launching more of that space pollen toward Earth. My hope is that if you take it out, it will weaken the rest of the xenoroaches and we can get the UGM to come assist on clean up. Unfortunately, this is all conjecture. I cannot say what you will find inside the enemy ship. I can only say that you will each have your own BV so you can do what you can.”
“One of us needs to stay behind to pilot this ship first
to the enemy and then to make a high-tail away from the enemy. We—”
“Wait, hold up, wait,” Li said. “You haven’t mentioned a recovery strategy.”
“That’s because, Loose,” Lt. Andrews said, taking a deep breath. “There is no recovery strategy.”
And there it was. The moment when death went from a possibility to a certainty. The thought that everyone would have to die mattered very little to Lopez. He wasn’t even 30 yet. He hadn’t even tried to make a change to the Pence Protocol. He hadn’t even gotten outside Earth’s orbit yet. And yet here was his CO asking him to carry out a mission to the death.
“When you all joined the UGM, you were expected to commit to giving your all to the military, and that includes your lives. Unfortunately, the time has come in which I am asking you to give your lives to the military. Now. I will say that it is not necessarily a certainty that you commit the ultimate sacrifice. These BVs are capable of detaching and then landing on a planet with a parachute system. However, you’re still expected to carry out the mission to destroy this ship however possible.”
Everyone waited for Li to break, or for him to at least argue or present an annoyed and exasperated expression. It’s what Li did.
But he just simply said, “Understood, Buck.”
It still wasn’t completely on the level of normal military talk. But from where he had come, it was a far better outcome.
“Good. Now then, to make myself clear, I am not asking you to do this so I can live. I am going in with you guys.”
Everyone’s eyes widened in surprise and respect. Lopez felt slightly better about the mission, knowing that Lt. Andrews would lead the charge in.
“I am going to bring with me a nuclear bomb that is in the armory on this ship. If we have to use it, we use it. If we don’t, well, frankly, I’ll answer that question when I get there. But someone will still need to pilot this ship. I am going to have the ship AI randomly pick a crew member. There is to be no complaining based on whoever gets picked. Understood?”
No one disagreed with the proposal.
“Good. USSF Eagle, please select at complete random one name between Matthew Lopez, Jenna Irons, Michelle Lake, Eric Li, Fred Kowalski, and Obi Abayomi. Do so without giving weight to any name.”