Burden of Sisyphus (Brink of Distinction book #1)

by Jon Messenger

Vance and the members of Fourth Platoon heard gunfire. The radio was alive with voices talking rapidly and the background noise of heavy fighting and screams. Vance tried to make sense of the shouts for help but the overlapping noise left all his requests garbled. As he tried to contact the other platoons, Decker and Dallis stood behind him trying the same.

  “First Platoon, this is Command,” Vance said.

  “Anyone on this net,” Decker said, “this is Fourth Platoon. Please respond.”

  The radio crackled but the words were hard to decipher and were broken by labored breathing and gunshots.

  “This is First….” A gunshot interrupted the transmission.

  “We’ve been completely overrun. They came out of nowhere. Get the hell away from me….”

  More gunshots followed, then nothing but silence.

  “First Platoon, do you copy?” Dallis asked. “Harkund, are you there?”

  “Second and Third Platoons, please respond,” Vance said.

  “This is Blythe,” a weak voice said, his words broken by sobs. “Help me. Please help me. He tore off my leg the son of a bitch. I’m bleeding. Oh, Gods, I’m bleeding bad.” His voice trailed off, followed by silence.

  The radio signal remained active as if he still pressed the transmit button. All members of Vance’s group heard a low, rumbling growl in their headsets moments before the signal cut to static.

  “Halo,” Vance said, “give me a full vital signs listing for all platoons.”

  “Michael, it’s….”

  “Just do it, Aleiz,” he said angrily.

  Data poured onto his visor, scrolling through a list of names by platoon. Most were followed by a flat, red line, indicating cessation of heartbeat. A few weak signals were still being recorded but two of them flatlined while he watched. His team and Fourth Platoon showed the most activity, having lost only a few people so far.

  His own heart rate looked like a seismograph during an earthquake. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself without success. His heart still pounded in his chest.

  Vance felt trapped. He had led his team into the heart of the city and allowed them to be surrounded. Because of his bad decisions over 100 soldiers were dead, and the beasts that killed them were coming his way.

  “Sir,” Decker said softly, so no one else heard, “we’re in a bad place here. I know things look grim but we need to move. If we stay put, we’re dead.”

  Vance nodded solemnly. “Get your men together, Decker, and get ready to move. Once we start, I don’t intend to stop until we reach the outpost.”

  Vance tried to exude confidence as Decker gathered his men, but he didn’t feel it in his heart. He was scared, not of dying but of letting so many under his command die while he watched. Nova was dead, run through and burned alive. How many more of his men would die before they escaped?

  Decker worked hard to gather his soldiers, many of whom vacated the buildings they searched when the gunfire began. Nearly a dozen were still inside and the longer they waited for them to arrive, the worse their chances of survival were. Even if they left immediately, Vance knew they had to cover twenty city blocks to reach the military outpost’s outer defenses. It took a lot of firepower to bring down the two Seques they faced. He didn’t know if they had a chance against a city full of them.

  The Seques were a mystery. Normally beasts of burden, they were peaceful by nature and difficult to anger. They were also herbivores with blunt teeth for grazing in fields. As far as he knew, none of them possessed claws.

  Something changed the Seques in the city, turning them into sinister creatures with insatiable bloodlust. He remembered how one of them hid behind Nova to use her as a shield. Not only had they become dangerous, someone or something gave them intelligence.

  “My men are all accounted for,” Decker said over the radio. “We’re ready to move.”

  Vance didn’t bother using the radio. Instead, he shouted, “Follow me! Head straight for the outpost and don’t stop. If you fall behind, you’ll be left there!”

  Activating his microphone, he called to Ainj, “I need you covering our backs, Ainj. Once we’re out of range, take flight and meet us at the outpost.”

  “I’ll send every one of the bastards straight to hell, Sir,” Ainj said angrily, the rage of watching Nova die still fresh in his mind.

  Vance sprinted up the street with the rest of the soldiers close behind. He heard Seques scraping and grunting, moving up side streets, but none approached his group as they ran.

  “Why aren’t they coming after us?” Eza asked, running beside Vance. “I can see them. Why aren’t they attacking?”

  “They’re herding us into a trap of their own choosing,” Vance replied, still running.

  “Since when did Seques get that smart?” Yen asked, joining them at the front of the group.

  “Someone changed them—their teeth, claws, ability to stand on hind legs, and especially their intelligence. Someone turned our gentle Seques into murderers.”

  Eza and Yen, exchanging knowing glances, kept running. The group finally broke from the towering skyscrapers and the scenery changed to one and two-story buildings housing either a myriad of shops or apartments filled with traveling businessmen or tourists. They were halfway to the outpost and Vance dared to allow hope into his heart.

  Such thoughts disappeared into an ear-splitting animal scream that made the entire group slide to a stop in the road. Before them was a massive Seque, even by their large standards, standing on his hind legs in the middle of the road, roaring and pounding his chest. Lowering his head, he made eye contact with the startled platoon.

  The Seque snarled ferociously and barked at the trio in front. Its barks formed strange syllables, sounding like language. Though Vance couldn’t understand the words, he didn’t need Yen’s psychic abilities to know the undertone—hatred. Like slaves casting off their yokes of oppression and turning on their masters, the modified Seques flooded the city with the goal of destroying all those who kept them in servitude.

  The Seque growled after it finished speaking and other Seques hiding in the shadows took up the growl. The large beasts emerged from rooftops around the soldiers, who backed toward the center of the street for protection. Red eyes glowed from alleyways as more of the creatures advanced on the trapped Alliance troops.

  Behind them, the already bloodied Seques emerged from the side streets, having feasted on the remains of the other three platoons. In front of them, behind the alpha male, more of the creatures filled the wide street. Dozens of pairs of red eyes glowed in the darkness of early night.

  Nervous soldiers pointed their rifles at any Seque they could see, trying to keep them from advancing farther. Their flashlights reflected off glistening white fangs and elongated bone claws. As they stood in a tense showdown, more and more of the creatures emerged from nearby roads, creating a tight circle around the soldiers.

  “Everyone keep calm,” Vance told the soldiers. “No one give them a reason to charge.” He changed to his team’s internal communications channel. “Everyone still here?”

  “Yes, Sir,” Ixibas said. “Tusque and I are at the back of the group. Our Oterian may be big but he’s not a fast runner.”

  “All of you need to be ready to run when you get the signal,” Vance whispered.

  “What’s the signal?” Yen asked, standing beside Vance.

  “Believe me; you’ll know it when you see it.”

  Vance, looking at the hundreds of Seques gathered around them, felt hostility pouring off them in waves. “Halo, you there?” he asked quietly.

  “Watching your every move.”

  “Make a hole for us between our position and the outpost. Bring down the fire from the heavens.”

  “Let them be cleansed with holy flames,” she finished.

  On Goliath’s belly gun ports opened, revealing primed rockets aimed at the planet’s surface. They launched silently into the void of space, hurtling toward the atmosphere. Burning through at i
ncredible speeds, they trailed a line of fire miles behind them.

  Their fiery tails arced over the night sky as the rockets finished accelerating through the atmosphere and penetrated the thin cloud cover with a deafening sonic boom. Automated onboard systems took control, directing the rockets over the planet, angling toward the city. Boosters firing, the missiles lined up with the main road. Just before reaching airspace directly over the Alliance soldiers, the warheads burst open, spilling their payload of tiny spheres into the air.

  Vance watched the trail of fire arc toward them through the air at supersonic speeds. Waiting patiently, he turned on his radio when he saw the small explosions in the sky above, knowing the rockets were pouring explosive death onto the street just ahead.

  “Everyone, find cover!” he screamed, diving behind a nearby car.

  The small spheres plummeted to the ground, the first ones striking before the giant Seque and continuing a path of destruction up the street toward the outpost. On impact, the spheres ignited in a plume of blue and purple plasma, scorching the ground and sending shockwaves that tossed aside loose debris.

  Dozens of Seques caught on the street were consumed by the superheated flames. Gray skin boiled and melted away, cracking and bursting in the heat, spilling internal organs onto the molten concrete ground. The concussive blast sent shrapnel tearing through thick hides, stripping away skin and blowing off limbs.

  Heat and smoke washed over Vance as he huddled behind the ruined automobile. He covered his ears and shut his eyes in anticipation of the bombing. As the heat receded, he risked a look.

  Though smoke hung thickly in the air, he saw the street to the north lay in ruins. Concrete was lifted and shattered in a massive upheaval, leaving slabs of stone jutting at awkward angles. The blast leveled many of the nearby buildings, some of which still burned, casting a soft, red glow in the night air.

  Coughing, he looked at the stunned soldiers still hidden behind cover. His eyes fell on a severed, clawed hand in the middle of the road nearby. The index finger pawed the air involuntarily, spasms still rolling through the separated stump of the arm. Green blood oozed from it, pooling on the ruined ground.

  All around them, a new sound added to the crackling fire and rumble of collapsing rubble from ruined buildings—a sea of infuriated growls. From alleys and buildings, glowing red eyes of Seques emerged. One by one, they took up a howl of angry defiance and vengeance.

  Vance stood and picked up his rifle. “Halo bought us time!” he yelled to any soldier who could hear him. “Now run!”