“Looks like they’re building up,” said the comms officer.
“Can they burrow into the ground?” the navigation officer asked.
“No way,” the SC officer replied. “That’s granite beneath them. It might be possible to burrow through, but not quickly.”
Paula Mercer had seen the swarming action of the aliens many times. It was unmistakable, but what wasn’t clear was what the build-up was for. The valley was crowded with aliens and perhaps they were making room for those on the outer edges to move and fight. Mercer feared the build-up was something worse, something that signaled a tactic they weren’t prepared for. Her stomach clenched and her hands gripped the padded portion of her command chair. The strategy she had envisioned was falling apart before her eyes and without a single Marine on the five hills having taken a shot.
“Oh man, what was that?” Brown asked.
Mercer saw it. There was a jolt that passed through the Swarm, like a ripple across the surface of a pond when a pebble is tossed in. Then she saw what looked like a dead area, not too far from the build up at the center of the Swarm. Everywhere else, there was movement, in the dead spot all was still.
Paula punched the icon for Colonel Goldman, activating the comm channel.
“Now, Colonel. The Swarm is about to break. Order your men to fire. Do it, now!”
52
Nero’s Temple, Augustan Desert,
Neo Terra, Tau Ceti system
Angel saw the build up of creatures not far from her position. It was different than the towering pillars, thicker, with more of the aliens involved. She was in constant motion, running, jumping, flipping, and diving. With facial movements she brought up the ARC’s self defense system on her HUD. She thought the look of the creatures building up were different than the other drones. Their cranial shields seemed smaller, less developed. Like a switch being thrown, her mind was flooded with the realization of what she was seeing. The Queen was building up the Swarm to protect herself.
Angel dropped to the ground and froze. She stood with her arms extended, the defensive measure on her suit’s system was ready to fire. It took nerves of steel to let the aliens converge on her position. Just knowing that she had only one emergency defensive measure made her feel weak at the thought of triggering it. She wanted to run for the edges to get away from the strange creatures, intent on destroying her. The images of the Swarm chopping her body to bits and carrying them away like ants attacking a fallen morsel of food, made her blood run cold. But she held steady, hoping she could conjure just a tenth of the valor she had seen in Staff Sergeant Cash and his fire team.
At the last second she pursed her lips, extending them as if in an exaggerated kiss. The ARC suit jerked as hundreds of razor sharp flechettes were launched from every direction all at once. Dozens of aliens all around her dropped in an instant. Around the circle of fallen drones, the others attacked the fallen bodies, ripping them to pieces.
Angel immediately raised her rifle and thumbed the selector to full auto. She aimed at the mass of swarming bodies covering the queen and fired. In the McDuall Mountains she had seen the queen’s protective swarming action, and the Trasker 51’s light ammunition did little to bring it down. The new explosive penetrating rounds she fired were different. They punched into the bodies of the drones, the kinetic energy tore the creatures apart. The magazine emptied quickly, and Angel swapped them out quickly. But as she raised the weapon, a wall of aliens began to form in front of her. Dozens jumped up between her weapon and their queen. Angel felt a sense of dread well up inside her. The plan had failed, she thought. She didn’t have the firepower to break through the wall, much less get to the queen.
Then, as if God himself had heard her prayer and was answering at the perfect moment, the Marines on the five hills threw off their camouflage and opened fire. The graceful coordination of the aliens faltered. Then abruptly the drones began to flee in every direction. Angel slapped the Trasker to her chest and began jumping and sliding to avoid the stampede of aliens. It took all her skill to avoid being knocked down.
When she glanced up, only the creatures swarming the queen remained under control, the rest were dashing back and forth through the valley to avoid the gun fire from the Marines on the hillsides. It was total chaos, and Angel was forced to move toward the queen even though she knew the Marines would soon target the swarming bunch of aliens. She flung herself into a cartwheel between two drones who slammed into one another. Almost immediately she had to dive to the side, twisting in mid-air, to avoid a warrior drone who galloped past her. She took two steps and jumped into a front salto, flipping over a trio of alien drones desperate to escape the carnage. As she landed, a crazed drone tried to leap over her, but didn’t get high enough. Angel had to dive into a shoulder roll to avoid the creature. She came up on one knee, but as she pushed up with her left leg, the inseam, weakened from the over charged battery coil in the electrical storm, split open.
For moment she was startled, unsure of what to do. Then she had to jump to avoid another drone. She used her thrusters to propel herself forward toward a gap in the Swarm, but when she landed the impact jarred her. It rippled up through her legs, making her knees buckle and hips ache. Her spine compacted hard, and she cried out in pain as she fell. She caught herself on her hands in a prone position and immediately had to roll to the side to avoid being trampled by a stampeding alien. She heard the sharp, shovel-shaped forelegs digging into the ground, grinding on rocks, as the creature hurtled past her. The realization that those menacing forelegs could have been tearing through her flesh and grinding against her bones was like a bucket of cold water being thrown into her face.
Scrambling up, she jumped backwards out of the way of a charging alien. The reflexive soles on the feet of her suit still worked, just not as well as before. A red warning was flashing in the HUD, but she didn’t need the system to tell her something was wrong. Suddenly, the feed from the cameras mounted inside the helmet flickered and went dark. She grabbed the latches and pulled them violently. Before she managed to get her helmet off, she was clipped by an alien’s cranial shield. It was only a glancing blow, but it sent her sprawling, her right elbow suddenly throbbing with pain.
She found herself so close to the swarming creatures covering their queen that she was temporarily shielded from the chaos of the terrified drones. She tugged at the Trasker, pointed it at the swarming creatures who were crawling all over each other, constantly in motion, as they surrounded their queen. Squeezing the trigger felt familiar, but the small rifle jumped in her hands. Without the ARC suit’s impact absorbing technology to minimize the recoil, she found holding the weapon steady to be nearly impossible. The barrel rose upward as eight explosive penetrating rounds ripped through the Swarm.
The immature drones blew apart, flinging gore in every direction. Angel corrected her aim, took hold of the gun with both hands, and gave the trigger several light squeezes. The rifle bucked, but she constantly corrected its direction, trying to focus what little fire power she had left in one direction. The Swarm moved away from Angel, but she followed, staying close. It was safer than trying to avoid the throng, and if anyone was targeting the queen from the mountainside she hadn’t noticed.
One of the young drones jumped at her, but Angel swung her rifle like a club and batted the creature away. A second later she fired again, pumping every round she had left into a small area. Without warning the swarming horde around the queen broke. Everything seemed to slow down around Angel. The drones became sluggish. Many of the immature creatures dropped to the ground and rolled onto their backs, their legs curling in the air. They were dead without a single wound.
Stumbling forward, Angel found a creature smaller than the rest. The body had no exoskeletal covering. A ragged, bloody hole was torn through one body segment and several of the delicate looking legs were obviously broken. The creature’s head was larger than the others with several stalky protrusions that Angel thought were antennae. She picked
up the body and waited. All around her was chaos.
53
Mobile unit designated Drover One,
Augustan Dessert, Neo Terra, Tau Ceti system
Cash had waited impatiently, listening to the radio chatter on the command channel. He’d heard with excitement the orders from Jupiter Overwatch to spring the trap and he wondered mildly if Colonel Goldman would resent the Naval commander telling him his business. When the Marines laying in ambush were ordered to attack, Major Hammond moved the Drover units forward. It was only a matter of seconds before the first of the aliens came running from the gaps between the five hills.
The mobile units consisted of special forces teams, all of them veterans with experience. None hesitated to target the aliens, Cash not the least among them. His war cannon was best utilized close in, but he picked off anything that came within range. Fighting the Swarm was always a strange event. When the aliens were moving together, it felt as though any fool could hit them. It reminded Cash of the buffalo herds in the American west during the nineteenth century, when the bison had numbered in the millions. There weren’t millions of aliens, but the Swarm was large enough that it seemed impossible that a person wouldn’t hit one if he shot toward the herd. As they scattered in panic, the aliens were harder to target. They moved erratically, sometimes dashing forward, sometimes scurrying sideways. Cash even saw some sprinting backward.
Individuals soon became groups. The creatures poured from the ambush site, and Cash found himself in a serious fight. He moved back beside Hammonds who only carried a standard side arm. Two more members of the platoon joined Cash to protect Hammonds when the rest of the unit was bowled over and trampled by a stampeding group of aliens.
“I guess we should have kept the drop ship closer,” Hammonds said.
“How the hell are so many escaping?” Corporal Ewings asked.
“They’re hard to hit,” Cash said, pulling the Trasker 51 from his suit and handing it to the Major.
“Thank you Staff Sergeant,” Hammonds said.
They fought hard for several minutes. Cash ran through the second bandolier of ammunition for the war cannon, dropped it, and pulled his side arm.
“There’s too many to stop them all,” Hammonds growled.
“Stay alive to fight another day,” Cash replied.
“So much for a decisive battle,” he argued.
And suddenly, with no warning, the drones slowed. Cash noticed the change and didn’t complain. When some dropped the ground, rolling onto their backs and curling their legs, it was obvious what had happened.
“I guess we got the queen,” Cash said, with a sigh of relief.
“I believe you’re right,” Hammonds said, handing the rifle back to Cash.
The Major was soon busy on the radio, and Cash joined the other Marines in helping the injured. There was a surprising number of them. The aliens hadn’t bothered consuming the humans. But their large cranial shields made perfect battering rams, and their sharp forelegs had slashed through flesh and bone alike. When Bolton found Cash, he had news.
“The Swarm broke as soon as we starting firing, but apparently some rushed up the hills in panic. We took a lot of casualties,” Bolton said.
“What about our team?”
“I’ve seen Vancini but not BJ.”
“Any word on the lieutenant?”
“Nothing, Staff Sergeant.”
Cash didn’t like not knowing what had happened to Angel. He knew the risk was high, but the attack had worked. As far as he could tell, the Swarm was completely wiped out. Although, truth be told, more died after the queen was killed, than were shot.
“Well, I’m going to find out,” Cash said.
“I’ll go with you,” Bolton said.
By the time they reached Nero’s Temple, both Vancini and BJ had joined them, along with Thriller, Fozzy, and Princess. They wound their way between piles of dead aliens, which were being stacked by the Marines who had laid the ambush. They also passed a long row of fallen Marines, each covered with pieces of bloody clothing. It was a horrific and depressing sight, but none of the fallen had ARC suits and Cash did his best to remain positive.
They were all tired and hungry. When they passed a group handing out protein bars, they stopped long enough to eat the bland snacks. There were ships flying overhead, and groups of Marines doing various jobs, from digging latrines to gathering weapons and gear that had been left by those too wounded to carry them. They passed a trauma tent that had been hastily erected and quickly swamped with the wounded. Cash saw that many had lost or would lose limbs. The victory had come at a high price, he realized.
Eventually they found Lieutenant Jin “Zilla” Mi, sitting beside a rock. She didn’t notice them until Cash squatted next to her.
“Lieutenant, you okay?”
She looked up, surprised to see them and had to think about the question.
“I’m... fine,” she decided.
“Have you seen Lieutenant Murphy?” Cash asked.
“Or Captain Nance?” Lieutenant Charlotte “Princess” Evalynn asked.
“They’re at the command post,” she said pointing.
Cash felt a wave of relief. Surely Angel was okay if she was at the command post. He got to his feet and hurried toward a pavilion. What they found was more shocking than the alien Swarm.
54
Command Post, Nero’s Temple,
Augustan Desert, Neo Terra, Tau Ceti system
Angel had carried the lifeless body of the Swarm queen, back to the command post. Most of the of the Marines were busy with the wounded. Angel hadn’t noticed during the chaos that hundreds of alien drones had actually fled up the hill sides, some leaping so high they actually jumped over the Marine units. When she reached the tent, Daniels rushed to her side and helped with the strange looking creature.
“Holy hell, Lieutenant, is that what I think it is?” Daniels asked.
“The queen,” Angel replied, nodding.
“What happened to your helmet?”
“I lost it,” Angel said.
They set the body of the alien on a table, and Angel showed Daniels the rip in her ARC suit down the left inseam.
“It must have severed the power system,” Angel said. “I lost visual on my HUD.”
“Are you hurt?” Daniels said, finding a camp chair and helping Angel onto it.
“I’m sore, but I don’t think anything is serious. I got clipped by a drone. It hurts but it isn’t swelling or anything.”
“Better get you checked out anyway,” Daniels said.
She hurried off and soon Colonel Goldman returned. He looked grim. He moved toward Angel until he saw the alien on the table nearby.
“What is this?”
“The queen,” Angel said.
“Get a containment unit, on the double!”
For a full minute the Colonel did nothing but bark orders to his various aides. When he finished, he turned to Angel.
“Well, no one expected that,” he said grimly. “We lost over half of the ambush force.”
“She sent the drones up the hills?” Angel asked.
“As far as we can tell. She was willing to sacrifice the entire Swarm to escape. Lucky for us, you were there.”
“I got lucky, sir. That’s all there is to it.”
“No, Lieutenant,” Goldman said, annoyance making his voice hard. “It isn’t. You weren’t just lucky. I could have told the Command Staff that putting flyers in the ARC suits was a bad idea. Lieutenant Mi only lasted a few minutes and never really penetrated the Swarm. Captain Nance, ran. He’s being held for dereliction of duty, cowardice under fire, and desertion. I will personally see to it that he is removed from command, the brass will have to give me that much, although I doubt they’ll see today as a real victory.”
“Sir, we stopped the swarm,” Angel said. “How is that not a victory.”
“Oh, it’s a victory, but there are plenty of errors to hang on me. I should have foreseen the resul
t of the Swarm moving up the hillside. It nullified our advantage and cost us a lot of good Marines. I’ll have to live with that, I suppose. You’re the real hero of the day. It was your attack that turned the tide. And here you are with the carcass of that monster to show for it.”
He gave her shoulder a reassuring pat.
“Excellent, work, Lieutenant. You make me proud to be a Marine.”
He walked away just a Daniels came back with a medic.
“Sorry it took me so long,” Daniels said. “I got roped into helping get Captain Nance out of his ARC suit. The coward doesn’t have a scratch on him.”
“You saw what happened?”
“Damn straight. He didn’t even get to the Swarm before he stopped and started shooting like a fool. When the Swarm countered he ran. Can you believe it. He actually ran away from the battle.”
“I can’t believe it,” Angel said.
“We should have known he wasn’t fit,” Daniels said.
“He told me he wasn’t going to die today,” Angel said. “I guess he was right.”
Daniels helped her get the ARC suit off, and the medic did a visual inspection. She was bruised but nothing was broken. A little food and rest was all she needed. The medic went off to help where she could, and Angel saw Nance escorted to a corner of the pavilion by two enlisted men. He looked furious, but refused to meet her eye.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in?” Daniels said.
Angel turned and saw the rest of the ARC platoon approaching. The look on Cash’s face was pure relief. She couldn’t help but smile.
“You made it, LT,” Vancini said.
“She killed the fracking queen!” Daniels told them.
“Outstanding,” Bolton said.
“Well done,” Thriller added.
“You all survived. That’s what I care about,” Angel said.
“What happened to your suit?” Cash asked.
“The inseam tore,” Angel said.
“It was weakened during the electrical storm,” Daniels said, “but there was no way to fix it. Not here. She’d have to take it back to the fabricators on Earth.”
Battle ARC: ARC Angel Series Book 2 Page 25