by Kyle Noe
“You’re there for reasons other than kicking ass,” Cody said.
“Yeah, well, it’s like I’ve said before. I only know how to play the game at one speed,” Quinn said, recognizing that Cody was right, realizing she had to keep her eyes on the prize.
“Then you better find a way to shift it into higher gear. You’re close, but I’m beginning my descent in fifteen minutes.”
“We’ll meet you at dust off.”
“God speed,” Cody said, as the link went dead.
“MOVE OUT!” Quinn shouted, pushing herself up to her feet, gesturing to the other warriors. Hayden and Renner acknowledged her, but several of the others, including Mira and Hawkins didn’t move. Their posture denoted that they were Sensing the need to heighten their resolve, Quinn panthered the space in front of them.
“We’ve taken out more Syndicate drones than ever before, but that’s not what we came for!” she shouted. “We didn’t come here to do battle, we came to take something from the enemy! We came to secure our future! If we stop now, if we leave with nothing, we’ve failed!”
No one spoke up. No one questioned her. No one supported her. Her words echoed and then fell silent. “Aye,” Milo finally said.
A moment passed.
Then Hayden raised a hand. “Aye!”
This time, Mira nodded and raised a hand.
“Aye,” she said, and several other resistance fighters joined in.
“Aye,” Milo said, again, and this time, the rest of the Marines agreed and repeated in unison, all at once.
“I only need a few,” Quinn said, “But I’ll take all you bastards!” Her voice rose as roars erupted from the warriors. They’d only been waiting for her to be sure of herself, and now she was. She could lead them. She could win. She could take what was needed. And it had to happen. Or nothing else mattered.
The warriors tumbled down the ridge line’s reverse side, sliding down a wall of compacted soil. They slid onto what looked like a dry river bed. The ground here was soft and they ran in a single line down a slope, between banks of what appeared to be multi-colored sand dunes.
The river bed dropped several degrees and soon the warriors were dashing by sinkholes and unquenchable fires that erupted from fissures in the ground. Quinn was on point, leading them into a kind of natural tunnel that dilated into a high chamber.
Eli fought to keep up, heaving as he ran. But Mira and Hawkins took turns helping him along. Mackie, meanwhile, swift and built for endurance, kept stopping, looking back, and making sure the rear was still safe. Keeping a watch on everyone’s six.
They emerged from the chamber and slithered through a psychotic warren of stones that were sharper than razor blades. They bypassed forks and false paths and juked beyond a menagerie of colossal bones and petrified body parts that were larger than cedar trees. They reached a chasm bridged by a pillar of fossilized ice and lava and crossed, only to be met by a cliff with a stupendous overhang.
At the bottom of the cliff, beyond a slope, was a plateau and in the middle of it was what appeared to be a vast, industrial complex. The warriors picked their way down a cliffside, some sliding, others tumbling down into the plateau. Quinn jogged with heavy legs through the outskirts of the complex. She nosed around rusted machining equipment and oversized industrial gadgetry and power stations and what looked like solar-powered generators. Here and there were alien-crafted warehouses and manufacturing areas, bays laden with parts and tools that appeared to have been abandoned.
“I don’t like this place,” Renner said.
“Seriously bad ju-ju,” Hayden replied.
“Looks like a fucking ghost town,” Hawkins said.
Quinn checked the map on her HUD and she realized they were close to where the temporal totem was buried. In fact, the totem appeared to be just up ahead, on the other side of a raised strip of a material that resembled asphalt. She calculated that this was the spot where the Syndicate landed and offloaded the self-replicating drones that had built much, if not all, of the site. But what the hell had happened to everything?
Quinn mounted an embankment aside the airstrip and gasped. On the other side was what looked like an immense boneyard, a field of parts and equipment and machines that lay strewn about, stretching almost to the horizon. She could make out the forms of myriad drones and other equipment, and even a few Syndicate landing craft along with the skeletons of at least two arc gliders.
“Let me be the first to ask the obvious,” Milo said. “What the fuck happened here?”
Quinn stopped in front of the rusted carcass of a Reaper drone. The thing lay on its side, covered under a fine sheen of dust. How long it had been lying here she couldn’t tell, and it didn’t really matter. What concerned her was the drone’s turret. The bubbletops had been pried off. Quinn leaned in and noticed indentations near the bubbletops. What looked like … teeth marks?
“Please tell me that ain’t what I think it is,” Hawkins said.
“That’s just weathering,” Quinn lied.
“Weathering my ass,” Mira replied. “Something destroyed this place and ate the fucking drones for lunch. They popped the tops off the big ones like they were eating clams.”
The warriors formed a circle and studied the ghostly complex. Nothing stirred. Quinn could sense the fear and paranoia spiking in those around her, particularly the resistance fighters. She cued the communications link in her HUD, but was unable to raise Cody.
“Be cool,” Hayden said, panning with his rifle. “Everyone be real cool. We are close to the target.”
Quinn turned and pointed to a spot in the distance near a metal tower. “It’s right there!” she shouted.
Without hesitation, she plowed across the boneyard, her HUD signaling that the temporal totem was just up ahead, close enough to toss a rock at. She smiled. The end was in sight. All they had to do was secure the totem and then drop down over a switchback and they’d be at the spot where Cody would extract them. They’d come this far, there was no way they’d fail now.
She took another step and checked her map. She was standing in the spot where the totem should be. Then she peered down at the sand around her feet and realized it was here. It was somewhere, buried just under their feet.
“WE’VE GOT A SPIKE!” Renner shouted. “WE ARE NOT ALONE!”
Quinn didn’t slow, didn’t even really process what this meant, she was too busy looking for something, anything, some sign of a passage that led down into the ground. She stumbled forward without recognizing that the ground in front of her was shifting, opening up.
A swirling vortex emerged in the sand out of which rocketed the head of some monstrous form with a gaping maw that opened, flashing crude, metal teeth the size of small swords. The mouth opened and slammed and seemed to hiss at Quinn. The thing was so ghastly looking that it didn’t seem real for a few seconds. Quinn just stared at the thing in stunned silence, not recognizing that she was moving forward. The ground around her feet was shifting, the sand rippling. She was falling forward and threw out a hand to stop her forward progress, but it was too late. Quinn felt herself plunging down into the sinkhole when something grabbed her back. Hands clutched the scruff of her neck, the area between her armor and helmet and Quinn felt herself being lifted up and pulled through the air as gunfire broke out.
Quinn hit the ground and looked up to see Hayden peering down at her.
“We got company, lady,” he said.
She nodded. “I heard.”
“And it is one ugly motherfucker.”
Hayden pulled her to her feet as the creature emerged out of the sand like a sea serpent. The monster appeared to be partly biological and partly mechanical. It was the size of a school bus with a long tail and legs made from polished metal that Quinn surmised had been pried loose from the deserted manufacturing facility.
What looked like tentacles fashioned from a metal conduit blossomed from its bloated torso that appeared taken from some living creature along with its multiple heads. Quinn could
see that the skulls had been divested from the bodies of various alien creatures who’d been unlucky enough to venture past the thing’s lair.
The metal and flesh were yoked together via lengths of wire and tubing, everything held together by some kind of webbing that snaked over everything like a hungry vine. Quinn assumed that this thing had somehow been created and had run amok, destroying everything else at the site. It was also, standing between the warriors and the temporal totem.
The warriors continued to fire at the construct, their rounds chewing into its soft midsection. Black gore spewed from the gaping wounds as Quinn worked around the side of the thing. She watched it unfurl its tentacles, snapping the metal conduit like bullwhips, knocking Hawkins back on his ass.
Quinn kept her head down and dashed through the sand, careful of slipping into the sinkhole. She consulted her HUD and dropped to her knees and that’s when she saw it. Shimmering in a hole at the back of the spot where the construct had been hiding. A staircase, an opening that led down into the ground. She could see that there was something in the sand, some metallic chute that curled down toward what looked like a structure. That’s where it was! The aliens had hidden the totem in some secret facility in the ground.
“Draw the thing off!” Quinn shouted.
“How the hell do you advise we do that?!” Mira screamed in return.
“Improvise!” Quinn replied.
Hayden waved his arms and the construct jerked out of its spider hole. The beast flopped onto the ground and wildly struck out at the warriors. Quinn measured her breaths and then dropped down the side of the sinkhole. She kept her heels planted in the sand, careful not to lose balance. She prayed that she’d have enough time to reach the staircase before the monster noticed what she was doing.
The sand was up to her knees, but Quinn didn’t stop. She rode the edge of the sinkhole down even as the walls around her began slowly tumbling down. It felt like she was in the middle of an hourglass and the grains were collapsing all around her. If she didn’t react quickly, she might lose sight of the only way down to wherever the totem was. That, or she’d simply be completely swallowed up by the sand.
Quinn jumped and reached out a hand.
Her fingers kissed the edge of the staircase.
But she couldn’t grab it.
A wall of sand fell sideways, partially blocking her view. She could hear the sound of gunfire, the metallic scream of the sand serpent, and the shouts of the others as they battled with it. The din was overwhelming, but Quinn smashed her hands into the sand and felt something. She grabbed blindly and pulled herself forward to see the edge of the staircase.
Turning back, a wave of sand fell atop her and for a moment she was blinded. She couldn’t see and the sand’s weight was overpowering. Even with her helmet, she felt suffocated, the sensation akin to heavy weights being placed across her chest.
She kicked and punched her way through the sand which continued to spiral down. Quinn realized she was at the bottom of the vortex. She slammed her rifle into the sand and used this as a kind of crutch, torquing herself up. She stood on the staircase and that’s when the monster turned back toward her.
The metallic serpent was bleeding profusely and was missing parts, but it was still very large and very angry, and exceedingly deadly. Quinn took a knee, balancing herself against the staircase. She emptied out her rifle, blasting apart the construct’s many heads and tentacles until the thing collapsed on the ground, just over the rim of the sinkhole. Its severed appendages whipped around like a headless snake.
She watched Renner mount the back of the beast and jam his last sticky-bomb inside one of its wounds. Everyone took cover as the bomb exploded, shredding its remainders, and sending flaps of metal and flesh high into the air.
The blast subsided and Quinn rose. Her adrenaline was beginning to ebb, but she was relieved to see that the sinkhole had stopped collapsing. She signaled for the others to join her and they did, sliding down the sides of the hole, all of them save Milo who stayed atop the hole, keeping watch.
“IT’S DOWN UNDER US!” she screamed. “WE HAVE TO FIND THE WAY IN!”
The warriors used their rifles as shovels, digging at the sand. Renner and Hayden tunneled down as Mira, Hawkins, and Eli pushed the sand back. Slowly, very slowly, something emerged underfoot. A circular slab of metal with what looked like a turn-wheel bolted on top of it.
“We’re in!” Hayden exclaimed.
He grabbed the wheel and began wrenching it. Milo started shouting and Quinn looked back to see him waving his hands. “THEY’RE COMING!”
Quinn struggled up the edge of the hole. She dropped to the ground and followed Milo’s line of sight back in the direction from which they’d originally come from. The cliff and the slope were full of Syndicate drones, hundreds of them.
“Goddammit! Do those thing ever give it a rest?” she asked.
She wheeled around and slid down the side of the hole where Hayden finally loosened the turn wheel. He pulled back violently and a hatch opened into a chamber buried under the sand. There was no time to hesitate, no time to debate and so Quinn brushed past him and grabbed the edges of the metal and traded looks with Hayden.
“We got no idea what’s waiting for us down there,” Hayden said.
“But we know what’s waiting for us up above,” she replied, pointing back toward the advancing drones.
Hayden nodded. “Fuck it.”
Quinn snapped a light on the side of her helmet and swung her body down into the opening and let go. She fell several feet and hit a floor, falling sideways. Panning her helmet, she saw that she’d fallen into a room whose roof, walls, and floor were comprised of a shiny metal. The space was completely empty and for that, Quinn was thankful. She checked the map on her HUD which provided a schematic of what she could now see was a vast network of chambers and tunnels running under the sand.
She pulled back the firing bolt on her rifle and moved toward a circular opening on the far wall as the other warriors dropped down after her. Hayden was the last one down, making sure to close the opening and retighten the turn-wheel.
Quinn navigated via her HUD, setting off down a metal pathway that sloped into the ground. Her helmet provided some light, although there was a strange bioluminescence, a string of what looked like purple pearls that ran on either side of the pathway.
The map revealed that the totem was up ahead, perhaps two hundred yards. The pathway curled down and around, spooling to a colossal antechamber that was lit by more of the bioluminescence. The antechamber was several hundred feet wide and its ceilings were somehow fifty feet above the floor. The space was littered with banks of dormant equipment and a large machine that was connected to piping that ran up toward the surface.
There was sufficient light to allow Quinn and the others to see that the large machine was ten feet by ten feet, and comprised of a shell of olive-colored metal with a translucent door. A conveyor belt stretched between this machine and an even larger device that resembled an oversized hopper. Mounds of raw materials were visible in the hopper, lengths of metal and other alloys and what looked like plastics.
“This is where they did it,” Milo said.
Quinn looked back to see Milo admiring the large machine. “This is an industrial printer. This is where the drones were able to make more of themselves.”
“What? Like them broomsticks in that Mickey Mouse cartoon?” Renner asked.
Quinn nodded. “‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.’” She remembered the movie well as it was one of the few animated movies that Samantha enjoyed. Of course it was also one of the scariest, which is why Samantha probably liked it.
“So where are they then?” Hayden asked. “If they built all these self-replicating machines, where the hell’d they go?”
“Maybe that monster upstairs ate ‘em,” Renner offered.
“Yeah, maybe,” Quinn replied, trailing off, something telling her that that was not at all what had happened.
&n
bsp; “Yeah, this is all very interesting,” Mira interjected, “but I’d like to know where the totem is so we can get the hell out of here.”
Milo nodded. “I second that.”
Quinn scanned the map on her HUD. The totem was on the other side and down what looked like a short flight of stairs. They were almost there. She took a step and froze. What the hell? She ceased all movement and something moved peripherally. It was almost as if … the darkness itself was shifting. She closed her eyes and opened them. The ceiling was indeed shifting, the entire goddamn thing seemed to be alive.
“Up,” she said, softly at first. Then, with more vigor, “Look up!”
They did and wished they hadn’t.
The roof of the antechamber was covered in drones that were chattering and beginning to dislodge themselves from their hiding places.
“So that’s where they went,” Renner said.
A few heartbeats and then the shooting started.
17
Hail Mary
“RUN!” Quinn screamed, while firing her rifle at the ceiling.
Gunfire echoed off the walls as the drones dropped like spiders from the roof, whizzing down on metal leaders. The machines were octagonal, matte-black, and had raised, mini-turrets grafted onto four hydraulic legs that gave them the appearance of armored crabs. Arms emerged from the sides of the drones as some continued their descent, while others skittered down the walls on either side of the antechamber.
One of the resistance fighters, a young girl, was instantly snatched up into the air. Quinn fired at the drone that seized her, but was too late. She watched the girl shrieking, windmilling her arms as the drone ascended up into the murk near the ceiling. There was nothing that could be done to save her as she was eviscerated by the machines that immediately swarmed all over her. Quinn turned away as the girl’s final, strangled cries faded.
“The bastards,” Quinn hissed, aiming, shooting down three more of them.
They moved collectively across the antechamber, firing at the attackers. Quinn blasted down four of the drones as Renner, Mackie, and Hawkins formed a circle, emptying out their rifles. The blasts from their weapons whipsawed the machines back across the antechamber until the ground underfoot crunched with drone debris.