Welcome To The Wolfpack

by Toby Neighbors

  “Fall back slowly,” Dean said.

  “Sir, we can take the pressure,” D’Vris said. “Their guns have no power.”

  “I understand that, Sergeant. I need you to fall back so we can draw them into our kill zone. Ghost, you go with them.”

  “Yes, sir,” the lanky sniper said, still staying low behind the overlapping shields of the Heavy Armor Specialists.

  The HA Specialists adjusted the electromagnets in their boots, so they they could walk back down the corridor in a slow, tightly controlled formation. There were three of the aliens still in the fight, two behind the fallen creature and and a third huddled in a nook for cover. As soon as the HA Specialists fell back past the maintenance panel that protruded into the corridor a gap opened on their right flank and the third alien creature dashed into the kill zone. Dean had rarely seen anything move so quickly. It was sprinting like a cheetah, dashing toward the opening on the right side of the shield wall.

  “Ghost, on your right,” Dean said.

  He didn’t have time to bring up Ghost’s vid feed before the utility rifle the sniper was carrying for close range fire barked to life, firing a burst of automatic flechette fire that slammed the alien into the wall and tore great chunks from the creature’s chest, neck and face.

  “Good work, Sergeant!” Dean said.

  “Here come the last two,” Adkins said.

  The final two aliens were still behind their fallen comrade, and still firing a barrage of laser pulses at the HA line, all the while pushing the dead alien in front of them for cover. Dean waited until they passed his position and then gave the order. The other three specialists inside the maintenance corridor fired through the small slits Harper had made in the metal bulkhead with their sidearms. At close range, the smaller, pistol fired flechettes were just as deadly as the larger ammo fired from the utility rifles. The pistol reports echoed in the maintenance corridor which was essentially a metal box. Dean’s TCU cut the audio to save his hearing, and the last of the aliens died with wounds the entire length of their body.

  Blue blood and shattered weaponry lined the drive shaft hallway. Unlike the wheel sections of the space station, it was built entirely for function. The floor and walls were metal and completely unadorned. The LED lights in the overhead bulbs made the alien blood look cobalt against the dark bronze colored metal floor.

  “Wolfpack two, aliens zero!” Pimrey crowed.

  “Pipe down,” Dean said. “That was nothing more than a probing run. D’Vris, check those shields. Ghost, make sure those creatures are really dead.”

  The sniper switched his long rifle to the .50 caliber, 750 grain slugs and fired a bullet into the head of each creature at close range. The boom of each shot in the long hallway sounded like thunder, and the impact of the bullet blew the creatures’ heads apart like they were watermelons.

  “They die easy enough,” Tallgrass said.

  “Yes,” Dean agreed. “It’s hard to think that these creatures took over the space station, or the Recon platoon on the Roosevelt.”

  As if in response to Dean’s concern, a long resonate wail echoed down the hallway from the alien ship. Dean’s platoon fell silent. There was no playful banter, no wisecracks to hide nerves, or bragging about the ass kicking they were about to deliver. Instead the HA line took their positions near the end of the maintenance panel, and everyone reloaded their weapons.

  What came out of the alien ship wasn’t the same type of creature as the smaller, quadrupeds. It was much larger, and looked somewhat like a gorilla. It was covered with fur, and had short, muscular legs, long arms that it used to stay upright much the same as an ape, but that was where the similarities ended. The creature had a curved back, and a small head that was covered with what looked like a medieval knight’s helmet.

  Dean didn’t have to give an order to fire, the platoon’s training kicked in immediately. Ghost was the first to fire, squeezing off several shots that penetrated the beast’s hide, but didn’t even slow it down. The utility cannon fire and the flechettes from the specialists in the kill zone, erupted all at once; blue blood and hair flew in all directions. The creature roared in pain and fury, but it didn’t stop. It lowered one massive shoulder that was the size of an elephant’s head, and smashed into the HA line.

  The HA shields were incredibly strong all by themselves, designed to take the impact of a small object, like a bullet fired from a gun, and distribute the kinetic energy across the large surface of the shield. Behind the shield were multiple impact absorbers, shocks and struts that connected the shield to the Heavy Armor harness that the Specialists actually wore. And the men themselves were big, powerful warriors, trained to put every bit of muscle on their huge frames into an impact. The crash between Dean’s HA Specialists and the huge simian was brutal. D’Vris was in the middle of their abbreviated line. Pimrey was on his left, Adkins on his right. Neither men were as experienced or as large as Robert “Bear” D’Vris, who took the largest brunt of the impact. Somehow he held his ground, while the two Corporals were knocked backward. D’Vris was still in a defensive crouch, the huge alien collapsed in front of the HA Sergeant’s shield, but Dean’s TCU’s was sounding an alarm. Dean didn’t have to check it to know what was wrong. D’Vris’ head hung down onto his massive chest, his eyes open but unseeing. The heart and soul of Dean’s Heavy Armor line was dead, killed on impact.

  Chapter 42

  “Adkins, Pimrey, report,” Dean said, as he shuffled out of the maintenance corridor.

  The dead alien had flopped onto it’s back and was filling most of the space defended by the kill zone. There was no sense in staying at the ambush site.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Adkins managed to say, his voice shaky.

  Pimrey didn’t repsond at all.

  “You okay” Ghost said to D’Vris, who the lanky sniper had been hiding behind.

  “He’s gone, Ghost,” Dean said. “Let’s see to those we can help.”

  “Gone? You mean he’s dead?” Ghost said. “He just stopped that… that monster dead in his tracks. He can’t be dead.”

  “Impact trauma,” Harper said quietly. “His body held up, but the kinetic energy destroyed his organs.”

  “It can’t be,” Ghost said. “He saved my life.”

  “And he would be proud of that,” Dean said. “He died doing what he loved to do. And we will honor him by completing this mission. Ghost, Harper, move D’Vris’ body out of here. Chavez, get Pimrey, I’ll help Adkins. Tallgrass, you cover us.”

  Dean first had to use his TCU to override D’Vris’ armor, shutting off the magnets that held the big man rooted to the floor of the maintenance corridor. Perhaps if he had allowed himself to be thrown back he might have survived the impact with the giant ape-like creature, but it was more likely that both he and Ghost would have been killed. Dean knew D’Vris was doing what he had been trained to do, stop the enemy at all costs. Grief welled up inside him over the loss of one of his Specialists and he was shaking as he took Adkins’ arm to helped him down the main shaft corridor.

  “What happened, Captain?” Lieutenant Owens asked.

  “We found what broke through the barrier the ship yard workers set up,” Dean said, sending an image to the space station’s network so the Operators could see it.

  “Holy shit, sir. There are two different species? Which ones built that ship?”

  “I can’t say, Lieutenant. It’s big enough for a crew of those massive creatures, but I got the feeling it was all brute force and no brains.”

  “So you think the smaller, feline creatures are the Kroll?”

  “Perhaps, but something tells me we haven’t seen the Kroll, just their foot soldiers, so to speak.”

  They got to the first cache, it was a similar choke point to the first, but without the kill zone. The bulkhead narrowed on both sides, with access panels that could be removed to access the controls of the station’s HVAC system. Dean made sure the Triplets were set up at the end of the chock point in
the corridor.

  “If another one of those beasts comes charging this way, you don’t take it on,” Dean told the three HA Privates. “You step back and to the sides. We can kill it with concentrated fields of fire and the creature’s momentum should carry it down the corridor.”

  “I can’t believe Bear’s dead,” Wilson said.

  “Get your head right, platoon,” Dean ordered. “None of us are invincible. We’re strongest together and you can bet your ass there are more of those creatures coming this way. So honor our fallen, but don’t get lost in your grief. Learn from his example. D’Vris was a great Specialist and a fierce warrior. Let’s finish this fight and take him home.”

  Without gravity, it only took one person to move the wounded and dead. Chavez took Pimrey up to the control section. Adkins was able to follow on his own, but he was clearly suffering from a concussion. D’Vris’ body floated just behind where Ghost, Tallgrass, Harper, and Dean were checking their weapons again.

  “This is bullshit,” Ghost said. “We can’t just stand around and wait for them to come at us.”

  “He’s right, Captain,” Tallgrass said.

  “Let me send a drone into the alien ship,” Harper pleaded.

  “That’s a good idea, Sergeant,” Dean said. “But I have a feeling once it’s on the other side of that hatch we won’t have a signal anymore.”

  “So we go in there with it,” Ghost said. “We aren’t going to rescue any hostages by hanging back. We need to take the fight to these sons-a-bitches.”

  “He might be right,” Tallgrass said. “We would be helpless if the aliens decided to leave this system.”

  “Alright,” Dean said. “If that’s what you want to do I’ll back you.”

  He knew going into the alien ship was risky, but his gut was telling him it was the right thing to do. They had defeated the first two waves sent against them. That gave them an advantage and Dean didn’t want to squander it.

  “We’re going into the alien ship,” Dean told the Triplets. “We can use your help but I won’t order you to do it.”

  “You won’t have to,” Wilson said, speaking for all three HA Privates. “We’re in.”

  “Don’t you go without me, Captain,” Chavez said.

  “I’m sorry Chavez, but I need you to stay behind with Tallgrass.”

  “What?” the fierce Demolitions Specialist said in shock.

  “If we don’t make it back here,” Dean explained, “You blow the charges.”

  “What charges?” Chavez asked.

  “Sergeant Tallgrass has set explosives in the main shaft between the first and second wheel sections. It should blast the large section of the space station free. Lieuteneant Owens?” Dean said.

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Once you’re separated from the alien ship, use the tug drones to move away.”

  “We can do that,” the Australian Lieutenant said. “Good luck, sir.”

  “I don’t like this,” Tallgrass said. “I should stay with you.”

  “You have your orders Sergeant.”

  “These orders suck, Captain,” Chavez argued. “No offense sir, but I should be going in, not you.”

  “We all have important jobs to do, Staff Sergeant. This is just the how the game played this round. Take care of Pimrey and Adkins. If all else fails grab the rations and get to one of those sight seeing shuttles.”

  “There is no escaping from this threat,” Tallgrass said.

  “Then die shooting, Sergeant,” Dean said, before turning to the others. “Let’s go.”

  They moved past the huge carcass of the simian beast. Dean was amazed at just how small the creature’s head really was. It wore a plain metal helmet, which had fallen partially off and had sympathetic facial features. He couldn’t imagine what types of beings would use such an obviously innocent creature to wage war, but he knew he would find out soon enough.

  They sent the MSV into the alien ship ahead of them, but just as they had guessed the connection between the drone and the rest of the platoon was lost as soon as it crossed into the gravity well. Dean went through the hatch first. He had been drifting in the space station but he suddenly felt the weight of gravity pulling him down. It made him feel weak, which was a feeling he despised. The MSV was on the floor of the alien ship just ahead of him. Dean picked it up and moved forward a few paces.

  Harper came next, then Ghost. They were in a large, square shaped corridor with metal plate flooring and walls that looked like thick, dingy glass set in metal frames. They looked like they were right off the set of a horror movie about the criminally insane. The Triplets followed and Dean moved them into a defensive line in front of everyone else, while Harper sent the MSV rolling down the wide corridor.

  Everything in the alien ship was quiet. The wide corridor seemed deserted, which Dean guessed was fortunate, but he felt like he was missing something important. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he knew he needed to get his platoon organized and moving. They couldn’t just stand around and wait while Dean wracked his brain to figure out what he was forgetting.

  “Captain,” Ghost said, tapping Dean’s shoulder and pointing toward the glass wall on his right side.

  Dean looked over and he could just make out movement.

  “Cover me,” he said, before stepping over the to the wall and trying to see through.

  There was definite movement, but Dean couldn’t make out what was in the room. Then, as the being on the other side of the wall came closer, the dinginess seemed to clear somehow and Dean saw a bovine creature. He was shocked at first, but then realized it was an Urgglatta. The advanced race that had warned them of the Kroll looked very much like dairy cows. The creature shook its head and made a noise but no sound penetrated the thick glass.

  “Well, that’s encouraging,” Dean said.

  “How so?” Kliner asked.

  “That is an Urgglatta,” Dean said. “This is clearly not their ship, so they must be hostages. And if these aliens took the Urgglatta hostage, then it stands to reason that they took our people too.”

  “So we find them then we blow these monsters to hell,” Ghost said.

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” Wilson said.

  “Captain, it’s possible that this is the main corridor of their ship,” Harper said. “It’s very long.”

  “Any sign of the aliens?”

  “No sir,” she said.

  “Alright, let’s move people. Static formation, weapons hot, shoot first and ask questions later.”

  “Now we’re talking,” Ghost said with a smile.

  They moved several hundred feet down the corridor. There were more Urglatta behind the thick glass walls. Finally, after several tense minutes, Harper spotted something with her MSV.

  “Wait, she said. “There’s movement.”

  Where?” Dean asked.

  “Between, us and the MSV,” she said.

  Dean brought up the vid feed and saw that Harper was already steering the little drone back toward the movement she had seen. Even with the high definition picture it was hard to see the creature clearly. It appeared to be a large robot but the image was distorting. Then a flash of light and the vid feed ended.

  “What the hell!” Harper said.

  Before Dean could explain that her drone had been destroyed the entire platoon heard heavy footsteps. It sounded like the mechanized boots of a Heavy Armor Specialist, only one much larger.

  “Platoon, bring weapons to bear and begin firing on my order, while shuffling to the left side of this corridor.”

  They all acknowledged Dean’s order and as soon as he saw the huge figure in the distance he gave the order to open fire. They sent a barrage of bullets and flechettes at the creature and began shuffling across the corridor. Yellow bolts of light came shooting toward them, impacting the HA shields like massive hammer blows.

  “Hold the line!” Dean shouted, raising his rifle and firing an automatic burst at the figure. “Keep moving!”


  They could make out the tall, upright figure. It was either a robot or a creature in a large, mechanized battle suit. It shot powerful energy beams from what appeared to be its forearms. It had two legs, with reverse articulated knees, and a wide chest, but no head to speak of.

  “Harper, use the AAVs!” Dean shouted.

  Their steady fire had brought the figure to a halt, especially the belt-fed utility cannons from the three HA privates, but the barrage had not done any visual damage to the figure. The two Aerial Attack Vehicles sped from Harper’s shoulders, crossing the space between the two groups of fighters in seconds and dropping several of the low yield warheads. The concussion from the bombs made the entire group of Recon warriors duck and cover. Dean’s audio cut out, and when it came back on he could hear the tortured whine of ruined servos.

  “It’s down!” Wilson shouted.

  “Approach it slowly,” Dean said.

  Harper’s AAV’s circled overhead. The Fast Attack Specialist was just reaching up for one of the drones when she was nearly knocked over by the sudden, violent movement of the ship. She piloted the drone back up with a deft movement of her free hand just before it crashed into the deck and set off the remaining warheads.

  “That was close,” she said.

  “What the hell was that?” Ghost asked.

  “I don’t know, but we better make sure that mechanized fighter is down for good before something worse comes along.”

  “How come each thing they send at us gets bigger?” Wilson said.

  “Captain!” Chavez’s voice crackled through Dean’s TCU.

  “Staff Sergeant?” Dean said. “I told you to say on the-“

  “Sir!” Chavez interrupted. “The alien ship is releasing the space station. It’s preparing to leave.”

  “He’s right, Captain,” Tallgrass said, as the pair of them came sprinting up the corridor. “We have to go back now or we’ll be stuck here.”

  “We can’t leave without the hostages,” Dean said.