Were the large rock protrusion farther away, Finnegan might not have hit it with such force. But because they were so close to it, he must have shattered something on impact. If he even survived that long.
“What the hell was that?” the WO said, leaning forward from his seat. He craned his neck as if he could see through the door. But he’d have to stand up for that and he didn’t have the energy in him to stand up.
Reyes didn’t respond and neither did any of the other Commandos. Instead, they watched Rousseau change her course and head for the injured Finnegan.
Just about to respond to the WO, Reyes saw the top of the obelisk Finnegan had crashed into. A crack ran across it and it shifted ever so slightly. “Shit!” She cupped her face with her sweating hands and shouted, “Get back. The rock’s going to fall.”
If Rousseau heard her, she ignored her. She’d probably been deafened by the blast.
Reyes watched the huge rock lean towards the team of six. The size of the shuttle at least, it took several loud pops and cracks before Rousseau looked up. She’d seen it too late.
Reyes whispered, “Damn,” as the top half of the large tower fell on them. It broke into several pieces as it toppled, but they were all still large enough to crush a Commando or two.
The impact of the boulders crashing down ran as a vibration through Reyes’ feet. Dust and sand kicked up from where they battered the ground. It hid the Commandos from her sight for a second time.
A look at the timer and Reyes’ heart kicked. Shit! She’d momentarily forgotten about it. She leaned out of the shuttle again. “You have forty-five seconds. Get back now!”
The dust cleared and some of the troops were still okay. Huat looked over at Reyes. Maybe one of the only ones in the group who could still hear her. He stumbled to his feet and moved towards the shuttle. Carlile and McTavish got up too.
Finnegan wouldn’t get out of there. He’d looked dead before he hit the ground, but Smith looked like he had a chance. A large boulder pinned his arm. Rousseau moved over to him and tried to push it away. When McTavish came over to help, Rousseau shooed him away with a flick of her hand. The leader would stay, but there seemed little point in all of them dying.
McTavish paused for a second and then took off after Carlile and Huat.
Thirty seconds left. Not that Reyes needed to tell them that.
None of the Commandos moved easily, but they were trying, the heat clearly getting to them. It already looked like too little too late.
With a few hundred metres still to travel, Reyes looked at the time and spoke to herself more than anyone else. “Ten seconds. They’re not going to make it.” A look at the WO showed he’d clearly accepted that too.
At least eight creatures filled the space between the shuttle and the three retreating Commandos. At present they were just piles of yellow rock, but that would soon change. One or two might have been worth fighting, they might have been able to distract them long enough to clear a way back to the shuttle, but with so many, they didn’t stand a chance.
Reyes nodded at Patel and he closed the door.
The lumps of yellow rock twitched and Reyes’ heart sank. McTavish, Huat, and Carlile all stopped and raised their weapons. Maybe the closing door had killed their spirit. Maybe they’d worked it out for themselves before that. Either way, they were on their own now.
The sound the creatures made when they sprang back to life reminded Reyes of the unsheathing of a powerful weapon. A whoosh that ended with a roar from the great beasts. It shook the walls of the cove, ringing louder than the explosion had.
Eight monsters moved in on the three Commandos and Reyes looked away. The slight gap in the closing door sent the Commandos’ screams into them.
The sound of ineffective blaster fire rang out, but the shots soon stopped.
Reyes winced when she looked over at Rousseau. She hadn’t fallen yet; she remained on the ground next to Smith, still trying to force the rock off him.
The creatures looked to be toying with them. They walked over to Rousseau, Finnegan, and Smith slowly. Their shoulders were hunched, their mouths spread wide. Even from her position in the shuttle, Reyes saw the stringy strands of saliva bungee from the beasts’ chins.
Instead of raising her gun, Rousseau got to her feet and looked up into the face of the closest monster. A child in comparison to the beast’s large frame, she stared straight into its crimson glare, her chin raised in defiance.
The creature moved so quickly its actions turned into a blur. It clamped a hand on the head of the Marine, gripped, twisted, and ripped it clean off.
As Rousseau’s body dropped to the ground, blood spraying from her open neck, her torch went off. The bright square of light on her flak vest—even bright against the glare of the powerful sun—lit up and shone into the creature’s face.
Two more of the beasts closed in on Finnegan and Smith, but Reyes watched the one Rousseau had come up against. It had fallen into a pile of rocks. The two hottest minutes of the day had passed, yet the creature had just turned to stone.
Chapter 15
Now. Thirteen dead.
If the creatures turned to stone like Reyes thought they would, everything would work out. She watched the Commandos pick up the spare torches and clip them to their guns. They all had one on their breast already. The WO handed his over and she attached it to the end of her weapon. They were no good for shooting, so it made sense to use the range of the long barrels to push the light as far out as it would go and stretch the perimeter as wide as they could. Hopefully it would be wide enough.
“Have you checked the supplies?” the WO said.
“For what?” Reyes asked.
“More torches.”
Unable to reply without sounding like an idiot, Reyes walked to the back of the shuttle and opened the small cupboard with the spare flak vests in it. It seemed so obvious now he’d said it. Despite her worry about dazzling everyone in the dark shuttle, she flicked her breast torch on. The magnesium glare elicited several wails of disapproval from the blinded Commandos, but it helped her see into the cupboard.
After Reyes had removed three more torches, she flicked the one on her breast off and returned to the WO. “Seems quite obvious now you’ve pointed it out.”
The WO took the two torches she handed to him. He refastened one to the breast of his flak jacket as he said, “Like taking more than a shovel into battle?”
“I didn’t realise …” Reyes let the words die. How could she defend the indefensible? Silence swept through the shuttle as she fastened the extra torch to her helmet.
The Commandos returned to clipping the torches to themselves and their weapons. When Singh—as the last one to finish—had attached her torch to her gun, the silence returned. They had no more reasons to delay what could prove to be their violent deaths.
The WO moved across the shuttle with a heavy gait, his limp slamming down against the metal floor of the vessel as he made slow progress. Very slow progress. One last glare at Reyes before he picked up the radio and pressed the talk button.
Both dark and silent in the shuttle, the hiss of the radio’s static punched through the atmosphere like an explosion. Singh yelled out at the abrupt sound. Her reaction seemed to speak for everyone’s nerves.
“Shuttle Eight Seven Four to Crimson Destroyer,” the WO said, his voice sombre as if he were reading their eulogy. “We’re leaving now and will be at the LZ in about five to eight minutes at the most. Over.”
“This is Crimson Destroyer. No problem, Shuttle Eight Seven Four, see you soon. Over,” the female voice replied.
“And,” the WO said, “please be prompt, it’s as dark as the devil’s arsehole out here and we don’t want to be hanging around. Over.”
“Copy, Shuttle Eight Seven Four. Good luck and see you soon. Over and out.”
The first to turn her torch on, Reyes flicked the switch and lit the place up again. The other Commandos copied her, lighting the shuttle like a star. Re
yes had to stare out of the small window to avoid being dazzled.
“Patel,” Reyes said. She listened for the click of the manual door handle. To look at him and his torches would temporarily blind her.
The second a gap opened in the door, the fresh night air flooded the shuttle and the beasts in the cove ran over to them. To see the onrush of the creatures sent a surge of adrenaline through Reyes and she pulled in a deep breath to stop herself from jumping back. The silver light of the moon ran a highlight over their monstrous frames. Witnessing their pace without the protection of the shuttle dared her to tell Patel to close the door again. But they were committed now. Better to die trying something.
After she’d pulled down a dry gulp, Reyes stepped forward into the cold night, the torch on the end of her gun thrust out in front of her.
The flak vests had been too much during the day, but now they provided a layer of warmth against the biting chill. Although, not that much extra warmth; the drop in temperature ripped gooseflesh along Reyes’ arms and she clenched her jaw to stop herself from shivering.
The creatures skidded to a stop about three metres away. They rose upright on their hind legs. A militant line, they stood strong and stared at the Commandos. When Reyes thrust her torch in their direction, they all jumped back a step.
As Reyes shuffled forward—her attention on the creatures—she listened to the rest of the team follow her out. They had to take it slow so the WO could keep up, and they stayed close enough to one another to keep from opening up any spaces in their illuminated perimeter. The horrible beasts remained in front of them, their red eyes dipped against the bright glare of the torches.
From the clumsy steps behind her, Reyes recognised the WO had made it out of the shuttle. She breathed a relieved sigh, worried that the slight step down to the ground might have been too much for his injury.
“You’d best be right about this, girl,” he said when he walked up behind her, peering over her shoulder at the beasts in front of them.
“If I’m not,” Reyes said, “you can punish me in the afterlife.”
Chapter 16
Eleven hours ago. Eleven dead.
The planet looked like hell. Scorched, barren, and crawling in creatures that seemed to want to destroy just for the sake of it. Reyes had stared out of the window for hours at the monsters beyond. They did nothing new to what she’d already witnessed. They stalked around the cove, their large heads swinging from side to side as they took in their surroundings. The fiercest sentries she’d ever seen.
Every few minutes, Reyes looked back at the spot where Rousseau had fallen. Nearly an entire day had passed since she’d watched the slaughter of the six Commandos and seen Rousseau’s torch turn on and reduce one of the hulking beasts to a pile of rocks. She’d thought about it long and hard and had opened her mouth several times already to say it. But she’d stopped every time. Until now. “We’ve got to go out at night.”
The lazy atmosphere in the shuttle changed and the Commandos all stared at Reyes. The WO screwed his face up as if her words had given him a foul taste in his mouth. “What are you talking about?”
Silence waited for her to respond.
“Rousseau’s torch,” Reyes said, her voice shaking from the attention on her. “It went off when she was fighting one of them and the thing turned to rocks. I don’t think it’s the heat that pulls them into their shells. I think it happens at the brightest point in the day rather than the hottest.”
The same silence of a moment ago met her statement, so Reyes stared out of the window again. The creatures might have been vulgar to watch, but at least they didn’t look at her like she was an arsehole. They didn’t care that much about her.
The sun outside shone bright and Reyes squinted against its glare. But it would get brighter. If her theory was correct, they had a few more hours before it reached its zenith. The temperature and sun peaked at the same time. A look at the thermometer. It hadn’t even hit forty degrees outside yet.
Still no reply, so Reyes continued to stare out of the window. “We won’t find any hiding spots out there, so we can’t get to the LZ in stages. We can’t fight them, and we’ve established the Crimson Destroyer can’t kill them without killing us.”
“So your plan is to go out when they’re at their most active?” The usual impatience rode the WO’s words. The same silence came from the others. “Have you seen them at night?”
“Of course. I’ve done nothing but watch them since we’ve been here.” The numbers of creatures had thinned since yesterday. Where there had been about forty, Reyes could now only see ten to fifteen. Maybe they’d finally realised they didn’t need an army to beat the Commandos.
“If we go out in the middle of the night,” Reyes said, “our torches will be the most effective they can be. They won’t have to compete with the glare from the sun and will be much more likely to turn them to stone.”
Silence again.
“Look,” Reyes said, “if I’m right, we can dazzle them with our torches and maybe keep them at bay. Set up a light perimeter around us and move to the LZ without being attacked.”
“A light perimeter sounds like the stuff of fairies and unicorns,” the WO said. A couple of the Commandos giggled. “If we’re lucky, Gandalf will ride in on Fairfax and save the day like a deus ex machina.”
“Bullets aren’t always the way, you know?” Reyes’ sharp reply wiped the mirth from the faces of the giggling Commandos. No one spoke to the WO that way.
A narrowing of his eyes and the WO said, “What do you know?”
“More than you give me credit for.”
Reyes and the WO glared at one another. Everyone else seemed to hold their breath. If he’d had more mobility, maybe he would have stood up at that point. Instead, he shook his head and sank back against the wall of the shuttle.
“We’ve seen we can’t outgun them,” Reyes said. “I think the light will work.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“We have to try to find a way out of here. We have no water left, we have no food, and you won’t last much longer. Do you have anything better to offer?”
A defensive wipe of his sweating brow and the WO clenched his jaw. Most of the Commandos sweated in the stuffy shuttle, but the WO perspired like someone with a fever. Someone with an infection. If he didn’t get proper medical care soon, he’d be screwed.
To save him the energy of replying, Reyes said, “And the Crimson Destroyer will leave in the next few days. What we’re doing at the moment isn’t working. We need to try something else.”
“Even if it kills us?” the WO said.
Reyes shrugged. “If we don’t try something, we’re already dead.”
Chapter 17
Now. Thirteen dead.
Reyes watched Patel as he stepped off the shuttle. He drew a deep breath, shook his head, looked around the moonlit cove, and said, “We’re dead.”
After turning away from him, Reyes looked at the creatures in front of them and the cove beyond. “Stay tight to one another and keep the WO secure in the middle. Whatever happens, don’t do anything rash. This will only work if we keep our heads. I’m talking to you, Patel.” Although she imagined him flipping her the bird, she didn’t turn around. She had far more important things to look at.
The creatures maintained their distance as the group stepped forward. They stayed about three metres away from the Commandos. Fanning out, they surrounded them, stalking up and down in the torches’ weaker glow. Their heavy stomps sent vibrations through the ground. One slip-up and they’d tear every one of them apart.
Despite her words to the group, the desire to run balled in Reyes’ taut muscles and her heart pounded. She felt tension shimmer through the bodies behind her. “Remember,” she said, fighting against the wobble in her words, “stay calm. Any rash movements could put everyone at risk.”
The creatures stared at Reyes and the others. They stood with their backs hunched, their square chins jutting forwa
rds. Bared teeth, they breathed hard enough to rock their large frames. Thick saliva hung from their maws. They glared a detached disregard through their blood-red gaze. Not a single life mattered to them. When Reyes looked down, she saw them open and close their large fists, clearly desperate to grip another human head and separate it from a weak body.
Reluctant to take her eyes off the creatures in front of her, Reyes continued to watch them. Not that she needed to look at the other Commandos, she could feel their fear. Like leading a pack of nervous horses through a field of hungry wolves, she had to keep her head so they didn’t lose theirs.
“Remember, your guns won’t do anything out here,” Reyes said. “All we have are our torches. Trust in them and we’ll get to the Crimson Destroyer.”
At that moment, one of the creatures roared at the side of the pack. Patel screamed and opened fire, the blasts sinking into the creature’s face and dropping it dead to the ground.
“Patel!” Reyes shouted and spun to look at the man. “What the hell are you doing?” The WO directly behind her flinched away from the strong glare of her head torch.
Reyes watched Patel lower his weapon. The creatures rushed at the dipped light. “Patel! Lift your torch, now!”
Patel snapped it up in time to turn the lead creature into a pile of rock. The others halted before the same happened to them and they stepped back again, slowly returning to where they were before.
“Jesus, Patel,” Reyes said, “keep your damn head. If we start fighting them, we won’t be able to keep the light all around us. The second the light perimeter breaks, we’re fucked.”
What sounded like sobs stuttered from Patel. He offered no more of a reply than that. As angry as Reyes wanted to be with him, they were all close to the edge. Someone had to fall over it. As the one who’d gone out the least, other than the WO, it made sense it would be Patel. She should have predicted it.
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