Bullets kicked up bits of stone around me on the floor, and I felt at least one more hit me by the time the last enemy fell. I paused a second to survey the scene. Smoke poured from the hole I had punched in the door, bathing the scene in eerie reddish light. Pain surged through me as I stood there, but I didn’t see any blood on me from the shots I took.
I kicked the rest of the debris out of the blown-out doorway and waved to the soldiers in position around the truck.
“We’re clear!” I shouted across to them. “Get in here; we’ve got to go!
They piled in quickly, and I covered their approach. Most took positions along the walls and prepared for any additional reinforcements. Lash came in toward the middle of the group and stood beside me.
“Sir,” he stated, shaken and out of breath.
“Don’t tell me you’re having problems out there,” I said, my gaze never leaving my weapon. “We’re not done here yet.”
“Roger that. What’s next?”
“We need to clear this hallway like we did on the other side.”
“Won’t that take us back to where we came from?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “I took a few turns to get here, but I don’t think it goes straight around. The whole floor is a ramp that will take us underground.”
Lash looked across at me. “How do you know?”
“It was in the record back at the fleet.” I looked back at him. “It’s where the last squad got ambushed.”
Lash turned green.
20
I did a quick check around. Everyone was accounted for, save two soldiers pulling a downed man up the truck’s loading plank. There was no reason to wait. I shouted out to the squad, “Move out, all the way down the hallway! Don’t stop ‘til I tell you!”
We started running down the main corridor, and as I expected, it began to slope downward. The exertion started to get the better of me as we moved. First, my vision began to blur, and I then started to hear static in both ears. It progressed from being a minor annoyance to seriously impacting my combat abilities. Thankfully, we didn’t encounter much resistance for the first klick or so.
As quickly as the feeling came upon me, it was gone again, and my vision instantly improved. Deeper underground, the hall opened up into a long, wide room before going off into darkness. Even with the sensor suite onboard my suit, I couldn’t make out any details at a distance.
“Grant, look out ahead,” I heard Lash speak, not more than a whisper.
I checked about and saw a scattering of objects laid out on the floor before us. I couldn’t make out what they were until we got closer. Once we got closer, it was unmistakable. They were the bodies of the last squad.
Ducking down low, I cautiously approached the nearest corpse. Spent and unspent ammunition littered the floors all around. The ground was burned all over from various blasts and most of the soldiers were still clutching their weapons. It was obvious that this was where they had died fighting. Less obvious was why they’d still have all of their equipment.
I kept going, checking each body as I moved along. All were in the same condition: shot down and left to rot out in the open. Toward the center of the group, a few of the soldiers caught my eye. They had fallen in very close proximity and nearly on top of each other. Even in the dim light, I could see a thick layer of dried blood coating the floor all around them.
All ten were missing their heads. Helmets and skulls were gone, hewn off at the neck by nothing more precise than a rusty chainsaw. Bits of metal and tissue were spilled all over the floor and had dried along with the copious amounts of blood.
“What the shit is that?” one of my soldiers asked when he saw the corpses. “Why would they leave them here this long?”
“Snap out of it! Look sharp unless you want to join them,” I growled in a hushed tone. “Circle up. We’re not getting caught off guard—” I was interrupted by screeching feedback in my radio.
“Grant, this is Reaper Gunship!” The pilot sounded out of breath.
“What do you want?” I demanded. “You already tried to kill me twice. When I get done down here you’re freaking dead!”
“No, no, it wasn’t me!” he replied instantly, “There was a software fault; the aliens hit us with a virus that damaged our targeting systems.”
My eyes opened wider, scanning the room about me. “How advanced was it?”
“Very. With enough time they could probably modify it to disrupt any of our equipment that receives a signal.”
I looked down again. The helmets were gone. They shared information between members of the squad. None of us could see shit. My brain dumped a load of adrenaline and my heart started to race.
“Men,” I started, “On my mark, I want you to switch on your weapon lamps and every other light source you have. Be ready to engage.”
Loosening my helmet with one hand, I let the other trail toward the button for my rifle’s light.
“NOW!” I shouted, tearing the shield off my head and flipping the switch in one precise motion.
Without the mask, things were somewhat brighter. With aid from the eighty or so lights from my squad, I could now see about the room. We were surrounded by easily one hundred and fifty aliens, not five meters away in some spots.
A brief silence overtook the room as each side stared at the other in stunned surprise. It only lasted an instant before every weapon lit up in a blaze of fire and smoke. The roar of shots was deafening as I engaged along with the others. I bottomed out the trigger on my rifle, blasting away in full auto, but it wasn’t enough. From my perspective, it took at least ten seconds for the rifle to chamber and fire each round.
I kept shooting into the crowd of surrounding creatures, focusing my fire in areas where my own men fell. They didn’t appear to be quite ready for us, but they still fought like hell.
As we began to take on casualties, sounds of gunfire were traded for shouts from the wounded. With no cover to speak of except for the fallen, we were in a terrible defensive position. My mind blanked out and all I could think of was the battle. Sound, conscious thought, the whole universe all fell away, leaving me alone with my weapon, taking my revenge.
At least a dozen of my men were on the deck by the time my rifle ran dry. I switched magazines while standing before the line, never ceasing my attack. Somewhere nearby, a grenade exploded and caught me in the front of my head. Twisted metal glazed over my forehead and scalp, ripping away a deep line of skin as it passed. It only felt like a tickle while we were fighting, and I refused to let the blood dissuade me.
Seconds later, another blast ripped into our line, sending four soldiers flying. Before the aliens could move to attack the opening, I stood in the gap and covered the zone. I easily took out another six more before looking toward the men beside me.
The tide was beginning to turn. Despite our heavy losses, the enemy forces were dwindling, and I even spied several breaking away in the shadows to retreat. I decided they weren’t going to get the chance.
Sprinting forward, I dove over one of their makeshift barricades and rifle-checked one of the now cowering defenders. I sneered back at it as I pulled my rifle into position and put a .50 caliber slug into its stomach. The sheer force blew the corpse in half and split the barrier.
I spun around and took a knee, carefully placing the retreating aliens into my crosshairs. I went down the line, checking them off, giving each one a single shot to the center of the back. They dropped like stones, and I shifted my attention to the ones who were still engaging my men.
My position behind the barricade put me in place for flanking the remainder. I moved quickly and precisely between the low stone walls, taking out every one of them that I came across. I reached the end of the circle, and the last few aliens stood to return fire before I could reload and engage them.
Shots rang out from my men and tore the last three apart. I stood over their crumpled masses and dropped out the spent mag, sliding in a new one with my rif
le posted on my hip. One still groaned and moved its eyes about. I put my rifle down onto its head like a pry bar into loose soil, smashing it to bits and liquefying its contents.
Standing stone still, I looked out around me, searching for anyone that survived. As the bloodlust waned, I felt my focus pull back to reality. All around me, I heard the shouts of my men. At least half had been hit; the rest were tending to them. Blood was pouring from my scalp down my face. There was no way we were moving anytime soon.
I switched my radio on and called up the commander. “Renault, we just took a beating over here. We’re gonna need some help.”
“Sergeant, I’m already on my way. Your men on the surface called me twenty minutes ago. I’ve got a hundred soldiers and a dozen medics with me. We’ll be there soon. Hold on.”
The officer’s words didn’t do much to dull the pain. There were no aliens left alive, so I began to look around the long dead soldiers. I found three dead medics still with all their gear, which I returned to mine. I tossed them in front of the medics who were working on others but kept my eye on the surroundings, not trusting that the aliens were gone.
As I dropped the bag before the last medic, his patient gave up the fight after losing what looked like half his blood through a series of chest wounds. The medic threw his tools down, cursing, before moving on. He briefly looked up.
“Thank you, sir. Give me five seconds and I can fix your cut.”
I nodded and he produced an instrument resembling a staple gun.
“Hold still,” he ordered and proceeded to punch a dozen stitches into my head, closing the series of lacerations from the blast’s shrapnel. The procedure didn’t hurt much more than the pain I was already in. The whole operation took less than a minute before he continued on.
Wiping the blood out of my eye, I could finally see a passage on the far side of the room. I kept an eye on it even as the commander’s personal army approached. They came into the battleground and took positions around me. Turning back, I pointed out the doorway.
“Keep an eye out there. Don’t let them sneak in.” As I spoke, something caught my eye among the bodies.
I pulled an alien corpse away only to find Sergeant Lash with a broken visor, a hole clear through his neck and a look of pure terror on his face the likes of which I’d never seen.
“Gaddammit,” I muttered, and kneeled briefly. I shook his dead hand. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna win this,” I told him and swiped his last two magazines.
Renault himself stood at the doorway.
“See anything yet?” I asked him.
“No. I think you got them all,” he replied. “Hold on; I’ve got this one.”
The commander waved his men on, and together they moved out and cleared the next room. There was only the clamor of their boots along the floor. I counted off thirty-five seconds before I heard a single burst of gunfire. There was a five second pause before I heard the commander speak.
“Grant, we’re clear. Get in here!”
I checked to the sides as I walked through the short hallway to the next wide chamber. Far ahead, I could see the lights from Renault’s men. All around them were dozens more of the black alien crates.
Renault was checking them over, running his fingers through the carved runes on their surfaces.
“What do you make of this?” he asked.
I looked along with him. “It’s what I expected, but I don’t have a clue what it means,” I answered. “What was this place used for?”
He stopped his inspection and turned to me. “We never knew for sure. We thought it was a research facility because nothing else fit.”
“What was their behavior like?”
“We never saw them do anything. They’ve stayed underground since we arrived. They transmitted high-powered signals on occasion, but we’ve been able to jam out most everything they’ve tried.”
“This is their only installation on the whole planet?” I asked. He nodded.
None of it was making any sense to me. One way or another, everything surrounding the ordeal was unique, vague, and generally discomforting. I mulled over the circumstances, turning things about in my head.
“Let’s check out the rest of the place and find anything we can that could give us a clue. Do you think we can cut one of these blocks open?”
“We’ve got a demolition team on the ship. They can handle it if you think it’s the wisest decision.”
“You’re leaving it to me?”
“Sergeant, you know as much as I do at this point. The worst you can do is blow us all up, but even that’s better than sitting forgotten in the desert playing babysitter for another five years.”
21
I couldn’t have agreed with him more. The rest of the soldiers moved out to clear the other rooms, but for the first time, I stayed behind. The blocks stared back at me as if laughing at my attempts to decipher their meaning. Even as I studied them all as a whole, I still couldn’t make any sense of the runes. Thankfully, the demo team arrived shortly to give me some answers.
Their first pass with a saw broke their blades. The next with a cutting torch went slow but did have a noticeable impact. Under the extreme heat, the material slowly evaporated into nothingness.
The operator drilled down about a decimeter before getting any effect. Some type of dark fluid began to flow from the hole despite the presence of the flame. Reaching out to touch it, I let it flow over a finger. It had the consistency of corn syrup and looked like oil mixed with blood.
As I stared down at my hand, an entire panel suddenly came loose from the block, spilling liters more of the liquid all over. Along with the oil, out washed a pile of alien corpses. I was standing right in the wrong place, and one fell straight into my arms.
They caught me off guard, and I was frozen place trying to make sense of it while the other men around me jumped back, shouting and cursing.
Including its spindly legs, the creature was only 60 centimeters or so long. I would have described it as a child, left to die and incredibly thin and light. I could only guess at its skin texture due to the thick coat of blood or oil, but it did have multiple extra appendages. The head was almost insect-like, with at least ten eyes arranged around its face.
The crowd of soldiers quieted down and began to inch back to inspect what I was holding. It was nearly silent when they formed a ring only an arm’s distance away. Then it woke up.
Its jet black eyes came to life and it let out a bloodcurdling shriek. Its partner awoke and screeched in turn. The soldiers again jumped back, shouting as well. They scrambled to pull their helmets off, and I could hear why. Emanating from every one of the helmets was enough audio static to blow their ears.
I met the alien’s gaze as it began to struggle, writhing in my arms. I reacted on impulse: I reached over, grabbed its head, and snapped it around 180 degrees. I heard a pop and the creature went limp.
A gunshot from the soldier beside me took the other alien’s life. The noise died off and the men regained their senses.
“What. The. Hell,” I spoke slowly.
“Is everyone alright?” I looked about the group.
One spoke up. “Our ship just intercepted a powerful signal. It was all they could do to jam it out.”
My gaze hit each of the other soldiers in turn. They were silent. Turning to the boxes, I could almost make out a pattern between them. “It’s a transmitting array. Somehow they’re using these to send messages.”
“What would they be sending?” another asked. I didn’t have an answer for him.
Others offered solutions but one stood out. “Distress call.”
Instantly, my mind locked on. It made sense.
“That’s it. They’re calling someone else for help.” All the men fidgeted. Fear had gripped the room.
I laid the body on the deck and brushed the oil from my hands. I knew I had to relay this to command, but I didn’t want to hear their reaction.
“Box that thing up and ge
t it ready for transport. Let’s make sure the rest of the place is clear before we roll out. Destroy the rest,” I ordered the group.
The medics were still evacuating my wounded from the outer chamber when I walked through. My dead still littered the ground. It’s not that I felt remorse for their deaths; they did what had to be done, but something still pained me.
Up on the surface, the truck stood beneath the massive bulk of Renault’s ship, now docked right beside our entrance. A light wind was blowing as the sun set in the distance. There were about ten of my soldiers sitting on the loading ramp. They were the only ones who escaped injury, and like myself, they were utterly exhausted. I approached them and they stood in turn.
I looked between them. “Thank you for doing this. I know you didn’t have to.” I could easily tell through their visors that their eyes were bloodshot and blank.
“You were right. It had to be done,” one responded.
I smiled and nodded in agreement. “Go ahead and get packed up. We can rest once we’re on board.”
After my men were retrieved from the surface I paid a visit to the flight deck and updated Renault on the situation.
“What are we doing from here?” I asked.
“Well, since you blew up your ship, you guys are stuck here with us,” he answered. “But you’re in luck. With their base destroyed, we’ve been given clearance to return to the fleet.”
“Are you really certain that they’ve all been neutralized?”
“Quite. We didn’t just sit here idle for the last two years. Between the gunships, bombers, and fighters on board our ship, we conducted an extensive survey of the entire planet.”
“And you found nothing?”
“We found a few sites and razed them without a fight. Compared to the base here, they had no defenses at all. We’ve checked the areas several times since then, but nothing’s moved.” He paused. I didn’t reply.
Both of us momentarily stared out through the front glass screen, facing down the darkening landscape beside the burning alien compound.
MissionSRX: Confessions of the First War Page 16