Arachnosaur
Page 22
The missiles lived up to their names. The already pounded countryside exploded again as the copters soared away to avoid shrapnel. Then, even before the dust settled, all four choppers came back to strafe the area with their door-loaded M60 machine guns and GAU-17 miniguns.
“Not so low!” Rahal cried. “Tell them not to come in so low!”
But, incredibly, one of the sailors, apparently high on hope, faced her with an assured expression. “Don’t worry, ma’am, our boys know what—”
Lancaster furiously grabbed the man’s swivel chair and spun it around to face the screen, just as an arachnosaur leaped from the smoke like a demon from the pit and slammed into the side of a Sea Hawk.
“Holy shit,” the sailor shouted, scrambling for the send switch of his comm. But it was too late. Everyone on the Nexus already knew.
“I’m a fool,” Rahal gasped hollowly. “Of course they can perform every basic function any spider can do. All modern spiders evolved from them.”
Before Lancaster could question what that meant, Key’s voice was in their ears. “They can hunt on land or water. They can jump.”
He stopped when the helicopters started flying in a specific pattern of alternating teamwork, each targeting specific creatures and pumping bullets at them.
“No, get them away,” Rahal yelled. “We haven’t seen the worst yet.”
The sailor who had turned spoke intently into his mike, then fell silent, listening. When he turned back to them, his face was haggard. “Captain Logan said ‘Stand down. Stand down and shut up.’ He says, ‘they know what they’re doing.’”
General Lancaster went very still as tears dropped slowly out of Rahal’s eyes.
“My God,” she said. It was a realization.
“What?” Lancaster snapped.
“The webs,” she said. “We haven’t seen the webs yet.”
They didn’t have to wait long. Just as the dust settled again, a silky, gleaming strand shot out into the sky and slapped onto the circular rotor compartment of one of the copters. It suddenly became the end of a swinging club.
“’Capture blob,’” Key said miserably. “Bola spiders hunt by snagging prey with—”
He was cut off by the searing, shredding sound of the helicopter crashing into the ground. Its rotors shredded, tearing into the arachnosaur that downed it.
But no one celebrated. Landing craft was already belching from the Leon’s gut, the forward sections filled with female soldiers.
“Fall back,” Rahal choked. “Retreat.”
“We can’t,” Lancaster said quietly. “No matter what, we can’t let them reach the sea.”
They watched in silence as the remaining helicopters landed at the beachhead, and a small unit jumped out to await the others. As soon as the humans appeared, the inland arachnosaurs began to congregate.
“They have enhanced eyesight,” Key informed them.
“What are they doing?” One sailor gaped.
“I recognize it,” Lancaster said grimly. “They’re getting into formation.”
“They’re displaying hive mentality again.” Rahal groaned as if she were intoning a death knell.
A long row of creatures at the back turned, and, almost as one, their opisthosoma rose.
“I…I believe they’re going to shoot their webbing,” Rahal said.
“From that distance?” The sailor moaned.
Rahal didn’t need to answer. The monsters lifted their abdomens higher. Since the weight of the webbing was greater than that of a normal spider, it would have to travel farther, with greater propulsive force. The display was something vile and dark, confident, contemptuous of any other life-form.
“Like tanks getting ready to fire,” Lancaster said with fear and awe.
A spreading mesh of webbing erupted into the air, creating a lace roof over the countryside. It drifted upward like spray from a lawn sprinkler, then began to descend like a net.
They watched as, obviously on orders, the women soldiers ran forward, bringing their M249 SAWs, fifty-caliber machine guns, eighty-one millimeter mortars; and M203, MK19, and M32 grenade launchers to bear.
“Flamethrowers,” Rahal whispered. “Don’t they have flamethrowers?”
“They were phased out in 1978,” Key said gently.
They all fell silent again. Logan smugly ordered, “Unleash hell.”
Lancaster closed his eyes and shook his head.
The landing force opened fire, and, again, the countryside near the sea exploded with lead, explosions, and flames. The rear line of monsters remained, but the rest, as if they had nothing else to lose, charged at top speed toward the firepower. But they did not go directly. They dodged and weaved faster than the assault troops thought possible.
The Cerberus unit watched from the air and sea as the creatures, as well as their webbing, got nearer and nearer the troops. Soon, the men didn’t care about their orders. They refused to stay behind. They joined the women on the front line, targeting and firing fiercely. As the pincers and mesh got ever closer, they, too, seemed to feel they had nothing left to lose.
Lancaster had experienced defeat before. Then, as now, he saw what was going to happen. Here, the women would be ripped open while the men would explode apart. The enemy would reach the water, floating on a bridge of blood.
“Leon!” Key blurted. “General, you’re on the Leon?”
“Of course I’m on the Leon,” Lancaster bellowed. “What are you—”
Key was already telling Gonzales, “Fly directly into the web net from the side. Like clearing a doily from a table.”
Lancaster was opening and closing his mouth in confusion when the sergeant major returned his attention to him. “General,” he barked. “LaWS!”
Lancaster was stunned by the revelation. “Yes!” he barked back, and was already racing for the door. “Of course!”
“What?” Rahal asked as Gonzales’s jet began to come around the edge of the beachhead. “What?”
“The Leon field-tested the AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System three years ago,” Key all but yelled. He pronounced it “Ann-sec-three.”
“The US Navy reported that it worked perfectly.” Lancaster ran onto the deck, scouring it for the telltale planetarium-shaped turret. “There,” he boomed, spotting it at the crown of the bridge, and racing toward it.
“But how can it help us now?” Rahal demanded helplessly.
“Light, Eshe, it’s concentrated light. We’ve all seen the webbing. We all saw what it can do. Even fire might not destroy it, but—”
“Light,” Rahal said. “Yes, it could work!”
“No time for chain of command,” Key said. “Have flight traffic control ready ’cause we’re about to be flying blind.”
Rahal was initially confused by Key’s last comment, but then Gonzales’s plane flew into the east side of the canopy of webbing, and pulled it along like a pole sliding aside a curtain.
CJ couldn’t clear it all. Some strands broke off and floated down just as the first few arachnosaurs reached the front line.
Rahal had to look away as even some soldiers who managed to unload their weapons directly in the faces of the creatures were flayed open. More soldiers pumped lead into the monsters, but the beasts seemed to compartmentalize the damage, like a stricken ship closing off compartments. Their legs still swung and spasmed, ripping open flesh with every twitch. And unlike the humans, there was no sign that these creatures felt pain. There was just the punch and brief delay of the gunfire and then they moved again.
“Now hear this, now hear this.” The announcement went through every inch of the Leon. “All LaWS personnel report to your stations immediately.”
Rahal couldn’t tell whether it was the retired general’s voice or the ship’s commander. It didn’t matter. She turned back to the screens just in time to see som
e of the male soldiers start to shake uncontrollably.
“Sergeant Major,” Lancaster said. “Order or no order, we’re ready here. What do we target?”
“Wait,” Key said tightly, trying to find any place on the jet’s windshield that wasn’t completely obscured by the webbing.
“If that shit gets in the engine—” Gonzales whispered to Faisal. “Prep the parachutes.”
“Don’t bother,” Daniels said from the cockpit door. He was wearing one and holding three others.
On the beach, the first soldier’s head exploded.
“Wait for what?” Lancaster demanded.
“Look!” Rahal pointed at the screen. “The back line of beasts is preparing to shoot more webbing!”
“Of course,” Lancaster said through a wide wolf’s grin. “Hive mentality. You got rid of their last net, so—”
“Wait until all their webs first intersect,” Key said, standing between the pilot and copilot’s seats. “As soon as they do, light the fuse.”
Lancaster looked down at the lone man in the overalls that bore an octagonal LaWS patch. He sat in a cushioned office chair before three computer monitors, holding a joystick in his lap, his right thumb on the top of it.
“Can you do that?” Lancaster asked the young sailor. The sailor just smiled like a kid who had just set a new videogame’s high score.
Two more soldiers on the beach tore open from within themselves. They looked like they were being ripped inside out by unseen claws. Rahal wanted to turn away again, but could not, as more soldiers, both men and women, blasted at the creatures while their flesh was shredded.
“Come on.” She fumed at the back row of arachnosaurs with their rear abdomens in the air. “Come on!”
As one, the rear row started spraying webbing. The organic lattice coursed into the sky and then, at a uniform high point, their ends started to spread and interweave.
“What is it, sentient fucking web?” Lancaster boomed.
Inside the small LaWS control box, Lancaster found he was holding his breath as the laser sights tracked the infrared movement of the webbing—each entwining from left to right, one after another.
“Come on,” Lancaster joined Rahal’s underbreath chant. “Come on!”
The last web linked. The LaWS tech’s left thumb tapped once.
Everyone who could looked skyward as the entire web lit up, then, like individual lightning bolts, lanced back to their sources. The entire line of arachnosaurs—a hundred strong—exploded as if they were humans touched by their own webbing.
Chapter 31
Gonzales landed blind.
He had a choice: ditch the jet and parachute out, or land it on the rocking deck of the USS Leon by instruments alone. Actually, not quite alone. Virtually every pilot onboard the amphibious transport dock was willing to talk him in after what he and the others had done. Even General Lancaster was on his way to air traffic control to lead the way.
“I know CJ better than I know myself,” he had said. “After all, I haven’t stuck my face or fingers into my own guts. So guess what I’m doing?”
Key, Daniels, and Faisal stayed onboard with him, although the sergeant looked at the parachutes with just a touch of disappointment. Daniels would have bungee-jumped into hell just for the, well, hell of it.
Once they landed on the abbreviated flight deck of the Leon—Gonzales having made it look easy, although they all knew how hairy it actually was—the four stepped out into a mop-up confrontation. After the bulk of the arachnosaurs had been destroyed by the web-igniting laser weapon, the remaining creatures were digitally targeted and physically hunted down with a vengeance. Logan practically exulted in every image of a bullet-ridden creature dancing its death throes. After a hard-fought half-hour, the situation seemed to be under such firm control that the captain was hurrying to a surviving chopper to supervise the remainder of the rout himself.
But not alone. Lancaster was snapping at his heels, his set expression informing Key that the retired general was ready to bite the heads off wickets. Once the jet quartet neared, they could even hear the men’s combative conversation.
“You have no right to ask anything of me,” Logan yelled over his shoulder. “I keep telling you that you have absolutely no authority here. You keep not hearing me! You gave that up when you retired, remember? But even that’s not the important thing. You’re lucky I don’t have you thrown in the brig for the illegal seizure and use of military property.”
The words might as well have been sea spray for all the effect they had on Lancaster. “I’m lucky?” he snapped, not slowing a bit. “Without that seizure and use, the only thing you’d have authority over would be the worst disaster in human history. Now are you giving us”—he motioned at Rahal behind him and the four men from the jet who were approaching from the other direction—“a ride to the beach or not?”
Logan stopped in his tracks and faced the retired general. “One thing is debatable and one isn’t,” he said. “Worst disaster? I, for one, have, and had, supreme faith in my troops to turn the tide, with or without your self-proclaimed, illegal, help. As for hitching a ride on an official US Navy transport?” He stuck his forefinger in Lancaster’s face. “You are not official US Navy personnel. You are not official US military anything.” He looked at all of them. “None of you are. Not anymore.”
“We’ll see about that,” Lancaster said, looking at Logan’s finger like it was a corn dog.
“Yes, I’m sure you will,” Logan replied defiantly. “But not today, and not now. So if you’ll excuse me, civilian, I have an operation to complete.” Logan hopped aboard the Sea Dragon, and all but gave them the finger.
Every other soldier and sailor onboard looked at them with expressions that shouted, “We would if we could but we can’t,” as well as other things that were just too profane to translate.
The copter lifted off.
When the rotor noise finally subsided, Daniels said, “What. An. Asshole.”
The general shook his head and turned back toward the bridge, the others right behind him. “Just misguided,” he said almost sadly.
“Ambitious.” Gonzales sighed.
“Frightened,” Rahal suggested.
“Insecure,” Key added.
At the base of the bridge ladder, Lancaster stopped and faced them. “We’re on the same side, but have different goals.” He looked off as the Sea Dragon swept down toward the still active beachhead. “He wants to get ahead. I just want to save my country.”
“Yeah.” Daniels summed it up for them. “He wants to kiss ass, and you want to kick ass.”
Lancaster chuckled, despite the situation, then turned to Gonzales. “You still got that whirly thing you patched together to airlift Private Nichols out?”
The mechanic shared a look with Faisal, who nodded conspiratorially. “Yeah, we hid it below decks, with, I might add, the enthusiastic cooperation of the crew.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Lancaster demanded.
They were airborne within minutes. There was no problem getting permission. Logan may have been commander of the attack force, but the USS Leon’s commander wanted to give Lancaster a medal. Since Gonzales had created the heli-thing to transport four men and the captive private as well as a metal coffin, carrying the six-person Cerberus team was not an issue.
They landed off-site of the main battleground, at about the place the jet would have ditched if the mechanic had decided to do that. Before they hopped out, Faisal opened a long metal box behind the seats and handed each man a M240, and gave Rahal, in deference to her size, a Glock 26 automatic. She accepted it without a word of protest.
“The spider has a central nervous system made up of two cords that run below their abdomens,” she told them as they started along the water’s edge. “With nerve cell clusters as control centers in all their limbs. Their
brain is made up of several nerve cell clumps set both ahead and behind their mouths.”
“So avoid the legs if they come at you,” Key added, “but aim at, and eradicate, their snouts.”
“But we’re not here for bloody revenge,” Lancaster said over his shoulder. “We’re here for intel.”
“And eggs,” Rahal said.
“Yeah, those fucking eggs,” Daniels said. “That shit they dump into the bodies of whoever they tear open.”
“Logan will definitely try to get all of them,” Lancaster warned. “He still wants to have his DoD cake and eat it too.” By then they all knew Logan’s main goal was to make sure any weaponized creature would be Department of Defense property. “So do what you have to, short of getting arrested. We still need all of you, no matter what happens here.”
They soon saw the bulk of the assault team cleaning up the beach head. If their professional behavior was any evidence, the heat of battle was over. But the crowning clue was Logan, who stood amongst them, beaming like Patton on the Western Front. Lancaster even saw him trying to arrange a picture with him putting one foot on a fallen arachnosaur, until saner heads convinced him it would be a mistake.
The four men and one woman scoured the area, but could find no untended arachnosaur, or human, corpses.
“Well, I’ll give the son of a bitch one thing.” Lancaster growled. “He came prepared.”
Already there were more hazmat-suited figures on the beach, and across the countryside, than there were soldiers in tactical gear.
Rahal found she was biting her lower lip as her eyes focused on the landing crafts being filled with the wounded. To her dismay, and building anger, the hazmatted figures far outnumbered the medical staff. She felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but was surprised when she turned, to find it was Gonzales.
“No, no,” he assured her. “That’s a good sign. More dead monsters, less dead us.”
She nodded, then stopped looking for unguarded arachnosaurs, and started looking for a missing member of the Cerberus team.