by Isaac Hooke
A teleporter? He didn’t even know the military had tech like that. Then again, he’d heard their scientists and been experimenting with alien technology captured from the last invasion…
He decided to dive behind the rubble again, just in case he hadn’t destroyed that laser turret. He slid his energy cannon over the lip of the rubble, and began searching for signs of the Shadow Hawk.
And then, just like that, the mech was on top of him.
Jason spun around, wrestling with the Shadow Hawk. It had flung both of his arms wide, and he wasn’t able to draw them inward to get a bead on the mech with his weapons—the machine was stronger than he was.
The Shadow Hawk head-butted him, three times. He felt nothing, but his Damage Readout told him his head area was suffering severe denting. If this kept up, he’d lose his front cameras.
Jason rolled his head to the side when the next head butt came in. Then he swung his arms inward in a move he’d learned from MMA grappling videos, and broke the lock the Shadow Hawk had on him. He was still operating in Bullet Time—he had to, to counter the mech’s own accelerated speed—and managed to flip himself on top of the unit. Then he rammed his energy gun into its face.
He expected the mech to teleport away, but it remained present. That told him that teleporting cost a lot of power. The Shadow Hawk was likely running under ten percent, and would have to recharge for a while before it could teleport again.
“That’s about enough,” Jason said. “You’re going to tell me who the hell you are, and why you’re attacking me.”
“I’m War Bitch,” a woman’s voice came over the comm. A small speaker symbol appeared next to the Shadow Hawk’s name on his HUD, indicating the mech was the source.
“War Bitch?” Jason pressed.
“That’s right, asshole,” the woman said. “I’m War Bitch to you.” She tried to head butt him, but he pulled back.
“Geez,” Jason said. “No need to get all touchy feely on me. So why are you attacking me?”
“What do you think?” War Bitch said.
“Well, if you’ve given yourself the name War Bitch, I guess that explains a lot,” Jason said.
War Bitch didn’t answer.
“Look, I think we’re on some shared survival trial of some kind,” Jason said. “It’s probably in our best interests to team up.”
“War Bitch teams up with no one,” she said.
“There’s also a chance this isn’t a test at all,” Jason said. “It’s possible that the military is no longer in control of this region. That the spy satellites have been shot down. And that aliens are invading.”
There was quiet on the comm for a moment, and then War Bitch burst out in raucous laughter. “Aliens? You think aliens are invading? You’re a moron. But if this is a survival trial, I’m going to win. I’m going to show the Brass that I deserve to be team leader.”
“By trashing another one of their eight trillion credit machines?” Jason said. “I don’t think they’ll be too happy.”
“Then if they didn’t want us to fight, why haven’t they intervened?” War Bitch said.
“Refer to my last comment about aliens invading,” Jason said.
War Bitch chuckled again. “You’re so dense. This is obviously a virtual reality environment.”
“It’s not VR,” Jason said. “I’ve already checked. This is the real world. Haven’t you experimented with your unit yet? There’s an option to launch a VR simulation.”
“Well yeah, but that’s simply another VR environment nested inside of this one,” War Bitch said.
“Let me guess, the next thing you’re going to tell me is, you don’t think you’re a Mind Refurb either,” Jason said.
“Oh, I’m a Mind Refurb all right,” War Bitch said. “Just not the kind that wants to make friends with my competitors.”
And with that, she vanished.
Jason realized she’d been stalling the whole time. And now they’d have to fight all over again.
His proximity alert sounded behind him. He narrowly dodged to the side as the mech’s sword plowed into the rock behind him. Evidently she’d withdrawn the weapon in time to save it from his railgun.
“Stay still!” War Bitch said.
Jason leaped onto her back as she withdrew the sword, and wrapped the crook of his elbow around her neck, and hauled her to the ground in a chokehold.
“You sure know how to treat a woman!” War Bitch said indignantly.
“Only when she’s trying to kill me!” Jason said.
She elbowed him hard in the rib cage, but he absorbed the blow. Then the sword came sliding under her arm, and slid just underneath his rib cage area, the sword digging a glancing blow into the metal there. It was on course to penetrate his upper arm, so he released her.
She swiveled her foot around in a sweep kick as he backed away, and she tripped him. But he thrust out a hand, grabbing onto a boulder behind him, and steadied himself.
War Bitch came in, sword swinging. Jason dodged left, then right. He was sorely tempted to try intercepting that sword with one of his forearms, but was worried the wicked looking blade would sever the limb. He recalled how easily it penetrated rock, after all.
“I’m not… trying… to kill you,” she said between swings. “Only cut off… your head.”
That latter statement cued him, and he ducked as her sword came in. Then he wrapped his arms around the hilt portion of her sword, and leaped upward. He aimed his energy cannon down at her body, and fired at the shoulder joint at point blank range. He ripped her arm right off as he leaped away.
“Ugh!” War Bitch said. “Now you’re going to pay.”
Jason held the dismembered arm toward her, and waved the sword menacingly. “Stay back!” He noted that the electrical bolts traveling up and down the blade had ceased, now that the weapon was disconnected from its power source.
He tossed the arm aside, and pointed both his railgun and energy weapon at her.
She raised her remaining arm into the air. “I surrender.”
“Good,” Jason said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“So you say,” War Bitch told him. “You only, uh, ripped my arm off. That’s not hurting me or anything.”
She lowered her remaining arm, aiming at him. The laser turret folded away, replaced by what looked like a launcher of some kind. A formidable looking steel tip protruded from it.
“I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice,” War Bitch said.
“Wha—”
Before he could answer, the steel tip erupted from the launcher, and rammed him in the chest. It was a harpoon, connected by a steel chain to the launching unit.
War Bitch dashed past him, scooping up her severed arm, and then turned around and set off at a run.
“Stop!” Jason said, but he was dragged to the ground almost immediately as the chain grew taut.
He tried to get up, but couldn’t. The different rocks embedded in the sand crunched into his armor. An alarm appeared on his HUD, and the chest area of his mech highlighted repeatedly on his Damage Readout to indicate the different dents that were appearing.
He aimed his energy cannon upward at the chain and fired. But just as he squeezed the trigger, he hit another rock, and it threw off his aim. He lifted the weapon to try again, but then the chain went slack, dropping to the sand.
The harpoon end dug itself out of his chest piece, and retracted.
“Thank you,” Jason said, scrambling to his feet. He aimed his two weapons at her. “Don’t do that again.”
But she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was directed behind him.
He felt it then. A strange rumbling. Turning around, he saw dust on the horizon. It was sourced from a stampede of some sort of incoming quadrupeds.
He zoomed in.
These were unlike any quadrupeds he’d ever seen before.
Alien bioweapons.
4
Jason stared at the incoming creatures.
They looked a little like wolves covered in greenish fur, except their heads had been replaced by what could best be described as that of a T-Rex. He decided to mentally refer to them as Rex Wolves. From their lips dripped an acidic saliva that dissolved the ground underneath them.
Each of them was about the size of a small house.
“Uh,” War Bitch said. “They look friendly. Doggy?”
“I don’t think they want to be friends,” Jason said.
“Where the hell did those come from?” War Bitch said.
“They’re mutants from the uninhabitable zone,” Jason said.
“Well, at least you didn’t blame aliens this time,” War Bitch said.
“They were originally made by aliens, yes,” Jason said. “Who knows, these ones could very well be the byproducts of a new invasion.”
“If only you could see me roll my eyes right now,” War Bitch said.
“You know, that’s not something I miss about the human experience,” Jason said.
“What, rolling your eyes?” she asked.
“No, seeing a chick named War Bitch rolling her eyes,” Jason replied.
“Har,” War Bitch said. “You know, it looks like they’re coming straight for us.”
“That’s because they are,” Jason said. “Hurry, this way!” He took off at a run to the east.
“Why should I follow you?” War Bitch shouted to his back.
“Fine, stay there then!” Jason said over his shoulder. “After all, this is all VR, right? According to you…”
He raced toward one of the intact rock buttresses. It towered about forty-five meters above the ground.
Suddenly the Shadow Hawk appeared on top. “Ha! Beat you to it. Look who’s following who now.”
Jason took a running leap, making use of the instructions he’d read in the manual to amp up his servomotors beforehand, and he launched well into the air. He grabbed onto the buttress about thirty meters up. His first handhold broke away, but the second held. He climbed, hand over hand, toward the top.
When he reached the uppermost edge, War Bitch slammed her sword down on him, forcing him to let go.
“My buttress!” she said. “Find your own!”
Jason crashed to the ground thirty meters below. He scrambled to his feet. There was no time to find another tower: the incoming creatures were almost upon him.
He backed against the rock, and aimed his weapons toward the Rex Wolves. He fired his railgun, drilling into the creatures. He repeatedly unleashed bolts from his energy weapon at the same time, striking Wolves in the heads and bodies, causing either body part to explode in a pleasant rain of gore.
But the creatures kept coming.
He kept firing, switching exclusively to the energy cannon, and forming barricades of dead bodies. Some of the Rex Wolves behind the fallen tripped over the bodies, and he took them down as they slid across the ground.
But more Wolves always came.
He wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer; he glanced at his ever-diminishing power supply: he’d have to pause to recharge his batteries soon.
So far War Bitch hadn’t contributed. He’d destroyed her only ranged weapon, after all; well, the only one he knew of: the laser turret. And her harpoon wouldn’t be much help against these things.
Finally Jason had to stop firing: his battery levels had fallen far too low. He couldn’t fire his energy weapon, or his laser. And he’d used up all of his railgun ammunition.
The Rex Wolves closed, surrounding Jason. Their acid saliva dripped onto the rocky ground, sending up fumes of green smoke as the minerals below melted, promising destruction when those jaws enveloped him.
The beasts formed a half circle in front of him and slowly sealed the noose. They snarled at any in behind that tried to shove past them: this was their kill. Other creatures among them, meanwhile, leaped at the sides of the buttress behind him, snapping at the top, trying to get War Bitch.
One of the Rex Wolves abruptly lashed out toward him. Jason still had enough power left for Bullet Time, so he activated it, and dodged out of the way. He slammed his fist into the creature’s big eye, causing the ball to explode.
The Rex Wolf howled in pain, withdrawing, just as another snapped at him.
Jason ran toward it, and ducked underneath those jaws. He straightened his fingers and held them together, stabbing upward as he continued underneath the creature. His fingers met resistance, but he continued to shove upward, until he penetrated the skin to the hard muscle tissue underneath. He ran all the way to the rear of the animal, slitting open its entire underside. He hadn’t penetrated through to the organs underneath the transversal muscle tissue, but he’d definitely injured the creature, and it was losing a lot of blood.
It howled just as badly as the other Rex Wolf, and quickly ran away.
He shut off Bullet Time, because his power bar was beginning to flash ominously. Without warning one of the creatures bit down on him. His body protruded from either side of its mouth as his HUD reported an immense pressure on his chest assembly. The acid was etching through the surrounding metal, further weakening his structure. If he didn’t break free soon, he was gone.
A blur of motion drew his gaze upward. War Bitch had leaped off the buttress. She held her severed arm in hand, with the sword still extended from the forearm. It struck the Rex Wolf that had him, cutting off its head.
Jason fell to the ground and broke free.
Another beast snapped at her, but she teleported away before it grabbed her. The Rex Wolf shrieked, and then toppled forward with green blood oozing from its maw: War Bitch was on top of it, her sword penetrating its neck.
She withdrew the arm and, ducking, swung at another creature that dove at her. The sword ripped through its neck.
She continued to fight with her severed arm, the sword at its tip soon becoming steeped in green blood. Even though the weapon wasn’t electrified, it readily took down any Rex Wolf that came at her.
Jason grabbed one of the severed limbs she’d cut off, and used it as a cudgel to strike at the other Rex Wolves that came at him. The wicked crescent moon talons at its tip readily sliced into those wolves he targeted. Those he didn’t kill usually backed away to nurse their injuries, while the dead began to form a big pile in front of them. So big, in fact, that the wolves began coming at them from the sides, and then from the top of the buttress.
Finally, the attack ceased.
Jason shoved his way through the dead bodies, toppling them. There were several living Rex Wolves beyond it, nursing their wounds. Some weren’t wounded at all though, and Jason had the impression they hadn’t attacked. They backed away when they saw him: many of them lowered their heads. One thing that stood out immediately regarding these surviving beasts: they were all smaller than the others.
“What are they doing?” War Bitch asked.
“Not sure,” Jason replied. He began wiping the blood off his body using the fur of one of the nearby corpses—he didn’t want to block his solar panels. His power cell indicator was still flashing.
War Bitch meanwhile waved her severed arm and sword, and shouted: “Get! Get!”
The nearest wolves ran away for a bit, but then stopped, and ducked their heads, coming back.
“What’s wrong with them?” War Bitch said.
One of the Rex Wolves broke away from the others. It kept its head down, and its mouth closed so that it wouldn’t drip acid.
“I don’t know,” Jason said. He finished wiping the blood off his body, and stepped into the sun. He was relieved when his power indicator began to climb. “Maybe they’re confusing us for alpha members of the pack?”
“How could they possibly confuse us for alpha members of the pack?” War Bitch said.
“Well, look at how small their eyes are, relative to the rest of their bodies,” Jason said. “My guess is they utilize their senses of smell and hearing to navigate more than anything else. With the former taking precedence, at leas
t in a social context. We’re smeared in the blood of their brethren. Or you are, anyway. You smell like them.”
“I smell like their insides, more like,” War Bitch said.
“Maybe,” Jason said.
“What about you?” War Bitch said. “You just wiped off all that blood onto one of them, transferring its scent to your hull.”
“Yeah, but they were acting this way before that,” Jason said. “Either way, we’ve killed all their alphas. And for some reason, that’s caused them to bond with us.”
“I don’t think so,” War Bitch said. “I used to run a kennel when I was a human. And I know dogs. Look at how small all of these beasts are, at least compared to the others. They were born only recently. Probably in the last few days. And they’ve bonded with us as their mothers, now that we’ve killed off their real family.”
“Oh, wonderful,” Jason said. “Just what I need, a bunch of baby Rex Wolves following me around, thinking I’m their mommy.”
“Rex Wolves?” War Bitch said.
“That’s what I’ve taken to calling them,” Jason said.
“Not sure I like it,” War Bitch said. “But whatever. I’m going to try mimicking their sounds.” Via her external speakers, she played back a recording of a shriek one of the beasts had made earlier.
The Rex Wolves lowered their reptilian ears and crouched slightly in alarm.
“Nicely done, scare them won’t you?” Jason said.
“Hmm…” War Bitch said. “How about…” She emitted a gentle low that sounded a cross between a puppy and a dinosaur.
The Rex Wolves perked up slightly.
“What was that?” Jason asked.
“Exactly what it sounded like,” War Bitch said. “I took one of their earlier howls and merged it with the low of a real puppy.”
She approached the closest creature, holding out one arm. It let her come right up to it, and she petted it underneath the chin. Its lip curled back slightly in pleasure.
“It’s going to need milk,” Jason said.
War Bitch backed away, and gestured toward the pile of bodies.