Ember of War

by Stephan Morse

  “Uh huh.” Bill nodded but kept his eyes on the screen. Literally hundreds of creatures were swarming the soldier like angry red ants. He tracked blasts which carved out paths that closed up quickly. As far as he could tell, it didn’t matter how many Lee killed. There were always more.

  “He called them noisemakers, job doers and shit kickers. My dad said the noise makers were distractors. You set them out and let them pull away from the real sneaky types trying to get shit done. Then you had the shit kickers.”

  “I’m wit you so far.” Bill nodded.

  “Lee’s a shit kicker, and those assholes make the noise makers look like choir boys while getting the job done, then laugh and sign up for another tour. Dad said they all should die young.”

  “Sounds like a right peach your da’. Bet he and old man Custer woulda got along swimmingly.”

  “He was a good man and thought of himself as a job doer. But I doubt he would have gotten along with Lee. By the end my dad hated soldiers after serving his time and coming home to die.”

  “Fancy dat, so did Lee’s da’,” Bill said with a smile.

  Becky hummed while studying the monitors. “I think Lee would have scared the shit out of my father.”

  The idea made her happy. Lee continue his stomp of destruction while many colonists stared in awe at the satellite feeds. Blasts raged almost unendingly from the ex-soldier’s gun. It ran on a power core whose only drawback was needing five seconds to cool off if fired too many times. Like a well-trained soldier, Lee didn’t even need to count down the seconds. He fired before his heads up display even notified him of the cooldown.

  The mass enlarged, coming in from all over. One hundred, two hundred shots went off and Lee’s face dripped with sweat. The inside of his suit didn’t do well without being open to fresh air. Soldiers of the United Planets were trained to fight for hours at a time. Lee had pushed past three hours and the tide hadn’t slowed.

  The air hung heavy with mist as Lee backpedaled over miles of land. Trees caught on fire as grazed blasts spit from the gun’s front end. Lee held the nozzle away from his body to minimize the heat. His suit could only do so much.

  “They’re at the colony!” Becky shouted. “Lee! Get back here!”

  Lee had made his way nearly all the way back, firing repeatedly then letting five seconds pass while running to a new position. The horde of single minded creatures showed no signs of slowing. Parasites didn’t care about losses, only violently removing opposition.

  Body counts didn’t matter to Lee, only the pulse of the completing his mission. He’d bought a large amount of time. Their ship should be ready. All the engines would fire, lifting the solid building into space while burning an ungodly amount of fuel to keep the reactor running. He hustled straight for the main four buildings without pause.

  Once between the two, he heard a sound that made his battle happy brain halt. He turned, mid blast of an oncoming monster toward the sound of a high pitched wail. There he saw Bell, squished into an alcove corner of the building with her hands pressed tightly against her ears and a small pad in her hand.

  Part XI

  The only upside to her hiding space was an easily defended location and clear line of sight against oncoming enemies. His tactically sound mind also told him that in a few minutes there’d be a pile of bodies and gore so high that even if they did use the hole—maggots would pour over the building tops in search of new hosts.

  She’d have nightmares. Bill would have more targets and irreconcilable differences with his superior officer. He commanded the motorcycle with its turret equipped back to take a point in the middle of the buildings. The four structures would create a narrow tunnel to be attacked in and provide cover.

  “Bell? What are you doing out here?”

  “I wanted my book. They said it had to stay behind,” she wailed.

  Creatures writhed and buzzed while Lee did something he swore he wouldn’t. He fired the gun one handed into a crowd of monsters. Recoil painfully impacted his arm. The other hand grabbed Bell and hefted her under a shoulder.

  His display flashed warning signs about improper use of a weapon. He ignored it and ran with Bell to the door of their main pod. He made it halfway across the courtyard before his motorcycle arced out with another round of lightning. It’s targeting misfired, blasting into one of the four major buildings. White squirming creatures freed from their hosts squealed as the lightning splattered.

  He fired twice more. The small girl screamed.

  “It’ll be okay, Bell. The door’s right over there.” Lee sighed and fired again. “Door! Bell’s—” His words barely made it out before the door opened. Becky grabbed the little girl.

  “We’re launching now! Can you get in?” she shouted.

  “Negative! The turrets are down, my bike can’t fly. Plus those birds will knock you out of orbit! I seen it done before!” Lee pointed up and yelled into his face mask. The colonists, who had unwisely turned off the mute, winced in unison. Ed and Ted grumbled loudest of all while clutching a set of kitchen bowls.

  The motorcycle continued firing off shots. Parasites saw only aggression and swarmed the vehicle. Lee slammed his fist on the external lock, sealing away Bell and Becky. Their ship rumbled and the fresh noise enraged a swarm of monsters.

  “I ain’t going down that easy!” Lee yelled while firing away. The motorcycle was battered and immobile. Half its shots went wild and the targeting systems were covered in gunk from a hundred dead monsters.

  His first few blasts scattered a mess of creatures. They rippled like a pack of birds trying to escape a raptor. He fired again into a mass. Wings melted into goo and birds fell, hitting others in a domino effect. Each confirmed kill made Lee chuckle.

  The colony leader dashed to the front chairs and strapped her daughter into one. She pressed buttons on the display to bring up a visual of the outside. Their cameras were covered in muck and gunk. “What’s going on? We’ve lost visuals,” Becky demanded across their voice line.

  “Nothin’ special. There’s just a lot o’ dem,” Bill said. His voice sounded shaky. “T-too many for him.”

  “He’s drowning in parasites. They’re swarming. Even a Soldier can’t take that kind of beating forever,” Ed and Ted said, their faces white.

  The vessel jerked as the engines kicked into high gear. Bell screamed and Becky spun around to soothe her daughter. The lights flickered as power rerouted to keep up with the engine’s demand. Ed and Ted’s face changed from white to green, sickened by the movement. Only Ted had a hand clasped over his mouth. Ed’s eyes rolled and he passed out.

  Outside, Lee’s shots were slowed. Care had to be taken not to hit the fleeing ship. He targeted a large bird being trailed by a smaller swarm. They were blining straight for the main building. His blast knocked them out of the air and sent the pack scattering. Lee had stayed behind to do what he did best, kill the enemy and buy his colony time to escape. They had enough altitude.

  He fired two more blasts at aerial enemies. The sound of popping could be heard and his muscles formed a smile that was locked into place. A pile of ground based creatures tackled his suit. Their wounds piled on top of a long line of bruises that would leave the soldier gritting his teeth for a month. He skidded across the ground, grinding his arm against the ground to shake off a clinging creature. Teeth nicked the edge of his finely made equipment doing little damage. The motorcycle sent a few more bolts into the mass on top of Lee.

  He couldn’t see a damn thing. The headset targeting equipment wasn’t sorting fast enough. There were too many attacking. He elbowed, kicked and clamped his teeth to avoid biting his tongue.

  “Listen… Becks,” Lee said while fighting off a gathering of infested dog-like creatures. The motorcycle gave one last surge, buying him room but not visual clarity. He fired blindly along the ground trying not to hit his escape pod.

  Lee glanced over each shoulder, searching for a more defensible location. There were none. The main ship had
begun lifting as soon as Bell went inside.

  “Lee! Lee, get your goddamn ass to the escape pod!” Becky’s voice was loud. Lee winced and wondered if she even needed the microphone.

  The escape pod lay face up on a solid pad to launch. The engine was pointed in the wrong direction. Loading into it now and blasting off would put him over the hills, but not into space. He fired twice more then ran to the heavy equipment. His muscles strained to get it upright. The entire time Lee made his peace, in case.

  “I’m sorry about Bell. I ain’t never meant to put her in danger out there. It’s my fault we got into this. I should have just left them alone and sent in a report for the army.”

  More swarmed in, intent on killing the one piece of defiant prey that remained. Lee threw himself into the pod and ordered his cycle to overload. He let go of his gun for the second time since being reunited with the weapon. One hand fumbled for a cigar as blue arcs washed over the colony grounds. Many went down, but not enough to buy him room.

  He pressed buttons on the gun, his favorite gun; his baby since joining the military nearly three decades ago. The core of his blaster went into overload. Lee dropped the weapon to his side and let it hang by the strap. Lee held the primed core in one hand and his cigar in the other. He threw the explosive then stuck the cigar in his lips.

  He pulled the pod door closed then clutched The Gun. His cigar didn’t light and that annoyed him more than being forced to retreat. Then he saw the crack in his escape pod’s seal, likely from the fall or an errant blast. It didn’t matter, it was enough to let out all the air.

  He pressed the button anyway, and a countdown started. Lee’s bones rattled and skin tingled from the rush. There were creatures coming closer, attracted by the warming up of his tiny escape vessel.

  Up in the main ship Becky screamed into a microphone. Their visuals were a mess and nothing could be seen aside from a mass of wildlife intent on bringing down one man. They looked like giant bees teeming over a bearish man. Her eyes were wide and Bell clutched her mom’s hand from the next seat over.

  “Lee! I don’t want your apologies! I expect you to follow orders! Launch. That. Pod!”

  Lee’s voice, on the other hand, was amazingly calm. He sounded happy. That confused a number of the colony members but they kept quiet. “I’m a good soldier, Becks. I always do what I’m told, right?”

  The line broke with static then Lee’s voice clicked across the line once more. “In case this pods goes sideways, you and Bell be good. Tell Bill, I hope he drowns in Heart Throb girls. And someone punch those assholes Ed and Ted for me.”

  “Lee!” Becky yelled. Their video surveillance showed Lee’s pod being overwhelmed. Parts of it cracked under the weight of a dozen long ribbon creatures bending it backward.

  Beneath the vessel, light from the rockets flared red and white.

  His eyes closed as the weapon’s core exploded. Lee bellowed; loud and defiant—the kind of scream he hadn’t uttered since the day he and his father forcibly parted ways. A blast of pure green crackled across the landscape. The burst blinded the projection everyone watched.

  The rocket lifted into space, while its protective casing sat cracked, unable to seal and defend the solitary passenger against oxygen absent void.

  Part XII

  Becky hung near a small port window, body floating slightly from the canceled gravity. Turning it off made calculations easier for the system and every bit of processing power had to be saved for the long trip home. They would be charting the course soon, now that Lee’s body had been returned to the ship.

  They captured the pod, which had gone off course due to the explosion and barely made it out of orbit. Once recovered, they turned on the gravity and people gathered. She, and several remaining colonists stood in the cargo hold waiting for the pod’s door to move.

  It didn’t.

  “I’ll make sure we’re on route and check to see if the old sleeping rotation will still work,” Johnson said. He cradled one arm which had been burned during the evacuation.

  “It won’t.” Becky’s words were tired. “We’ll run out of hours, and the stasis pods will only house so many. Create a new rotation, take the wounded into account. If we need to drop gear to make room let me know. I’ll approve the cuts so it’s not on you.”

  Johnson’s face kept twisting then smoothing back out as he reined in emotions. The escape pod which housed Lee didn’t show signs of life. Instead, the longer they stood there—the more people realized a crack had formed along one side. It looked worse after the explosion of Lee’s weapon. Becky had been the first to realize all the soldier’s oxygen would have escaped through the hole, leaving him without support in the void while waiting to be retrieved.

  “Get out,” she said.

  Johnson nodded then herded away the few others who had assembled. Both cooks had enough sense to look downcast at seeing Lee’s damaged vessel. They shared a glance then exited.

  Mother and daughter stayed behind in the cramped storage room.

  “Mama? Where’s my bed?” Little Bell’s tone twisted around itself. The young girl rubbed one eye and yawned. Her eyes had bags under them, much like everyone else’s.

  Becky’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Bell. The mother then pointed to a small pile of blankets in one of the open crates. Bell brightened, grabbed two of the sheets, found a corner then pulled the blanket over her. It served as a testament of her daughter’s exhaustion that mere moments later snoring echoed from between the crates.

  Becky didn’t speak. She believed yelling was only useful when the other person might learn a lesson. The pig-headed man had died buying her people time to escape. Raising her voice to chastise a man for doing his job, much less saving her daughter’s life, would be poor manners.

  She walked closer to the pod. It looked like an old tomb might, with hardly any room for a normal person to breathe. Lee’s body lay stuffed inside. His armor and weaponry made the fit even tighter. The side of the pop displayed what Becky had already learned. Former Lieutenant Lee had perished.

  She popped open the lid. Air trapped behind his large body hissed. Fog formed as temperature and moisture adjusted. Becky waited four minutes before checking over his equipment. The fuel cells to his gun were gone and the rifle sat locked inside frozen fingers. He wore a smile on his face that had the same maniacal grin a Happy Patch addict might have. An unlit cigar sat between his lips.

  “Thought you soldier boys were tougher than this,” she muttered.

  Becky slowly pried out the smoke then, despite all the safety warnings, put it to her lips. Its end flared from self-starting mechanisms. Quietly sizzling ash flaked and softly dropped to the ground. The ship’s engines rattled as their course slightly corrected. She paid no mind and held on to the cigar’s end with one hand, crossed her legs then leaned back onto the crates. Becky said nothing and what she thought was for her alone.

  Darkness occupied the hangar’s crevices, only obstructed by three illuminations. A single lantern sat on a box above the sleepy girl long past her bedtime. Bell’s gap-toothed mouth hung open in exhaustion. The second soft light brightened inside the capsule around Lee’s body.

  Becky ground the third light source—embers from a still burning cigar—against the cold skin of Lee’s hand. She tucked the extinguished remains back between his lips. Becky then clicked off the capsule light, picked up her daughter, and left.

  Epilogue

  The doorway closed and darkness swallowed the room. Their engines’ hum rattled the ship. Footsteps slowly traveled down the hall as former colony members went about their duties.

  “The fight goes on, soldier,” a deep, mechanical voice said in a worn-down tone. “Rise and thank the United Planets for investing your continued existence.” It belonged to the system housed in Lee’s combat suit.

  Lee’s body jerked as mechanisms within his suit attempted repairs. His arms flopped outside the pod and one leg jerked free. He hung like a butterfly of wanton de
struction half emerged from its too tight cocoon. Another ripple passed through causing his leg to uncontrollably twitch. A brief red glow suffused his skin as temperatures were righted.

  The half spent cigar relit.

  “Rise and thank the lab geeks in R n D for their foresight,” the voice said again before jolting Lee’s body around once more. “A true soldier of the United Planets never dies.”

  The cigar burned, ash spilled down into Lee’s face resulting in a twitch of annoyance. Lee’s gun flopped to one side, hanging off the pod’s edge by a strap. A stiff arm moved. Thickly gloved fingers rose to the cigar. Sore chest muscles lifted to suck in a lung full of the nastiest tasting air to ever pass through his lips. He let it puff out slowly as smoke swirled in the darkness.

  “Fuck a duck,” he said. Lee laughed, a horse wet sound.

  Afterword

  If you enjoyed the ride, even a little, please consider leaving a review. Every one helps, and like most indie writers, I pay more attention to reader feedback than anyone sanely should.

  As for Ember of War, this marks my first attempt at a real short story. I overshot the goal by a few thousand words and extra chapters, and even then it still feels short.

  It was almost my first purely third person work. Like any writer during the first few years, it’s all about trying new stuff and finding a proper voice.

  Anyone who’s read my other works may see some nods to Continue Online’s world setting. I won’t tell you where though, so good luck!

  That being said, I had a lot of fun with the setting. It’s very possible I’ll come back to Lee’s story and explore more of an outer space future.

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