by Tony Teora
“Fuck that. We’ve only got a hundred yards, let’s run for it,” said Tucker.
“Can’t,” said Ace. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with, and if we have trouble with the east gate and have to blow it, we’ll be exposed.”
“Ace is right,” said Jimbo. “We have cover under the tree.”
“What about infra-red? They’ll see us with infrared,” said Tucker.
Jimbo shook his head. “The only good thing about this heat is that everything on infra will show up red hot except for the tree and us. The tree is cool, and if we don’t move and we shut down our comms, we might be able to camouflage ourselves under the tree until that scout lands or heads back to its mother ship.”
Everyone stood under the canopy of the tree hoping Ace and Jimbo were correct in their spectral analysis. As the craft approached, Ace’s magno-enhanced vision picked up the shape and size. “I can see it now; it looks like a damn flying saucer … about thirty feet wide and about ten feet high.”
“Love your eagle eyes,” said Jimbo, who was using his long-range scope and saw almost the same thing.
A beam of bluish light shot down to the ground, and what looked like three immensely tall, grey aliens hovered out of the craft and onto the ground. Ace knew about this type of alien; he had been briefed on them on his joining the Big Guns. They were what civilians called “Greys”. To the MJ team, they were the EBE-C3s. They were the enemy and why the Big Guns were specially created. Although Ace had never met any EBE-C3s in war, he knew from his confidential briefing that the EBE-C3s were hell bent on human extermination and closing in on Earth.
After the three aliens were dropped, the saucer moved slowly at first, but then did a hard right angle turn and then shot up in the air—possibly to reconnect with its mother ship.
Jimbo looked over at Ace. “We got company.”
“What kind of company? Are they Greys?” asked Tucker.
Ace looked over at Tucker and eyed him like an arsonist asking a question about fire. “What do you know about the Grey EBE-C3s?”
“That’s classified and need to know.”
“Really? Well, as the tactical lead, I have a fuckin’ need to know what’s goin’ on here. I need to know what we’re up against.” Ace walked up to Tucker and grabbed his shirt front and light armor and squeezed. He lifted Tucker an inch off the ground. “And I ain’t got time for bullshit, so if you don’t mind, I’d like a little bit more information on our tactical situation. Why the fuck would EBE-C3s be landing at our GEN-6 research facility?”
“Men, can we just work this out?” asked Janice.
Tucker struggled but kept his mouth quiet.
“Oh, we’ll work it out,” said Ace, eyeballing Tucker. “Won’t we?”
“You’re fuckin’ hurting me, and you’ll be in a court martial, soldier.”
Ace tightened his grip, lifted Tucker further off the ground and threw him up against the tree, still holding him in his tight grip.
“Ouch! Fuck! You’re crazy,” yelled Tucker.
“I’m only gonna ask you one more time to tell me why EBE-C3s would be here. And if I don’t get a good fuckin’ answer, I’m gonna fuck you up and leave you out here as spider snacks. We’ll go into GEN-6 ourselves. Now … last time, why would EBE-C3s be landing at our GEN-6 facility?”
Ivan pulled his teddy bear out from his side and patted him on the head. “Don’t worry, Yogi, Ace is gonna kill another bad man … just like the bad men he killed on Gamma base. We’ll be fine afterwards.”
Tucker looked at Ivan with his eyes bulging and sweat dripping down his face. Ivan smiled and used the bear’s hand to wave at Tucker.
“Earth Command should have never hired you, you’re all fuckin’ nuts!” yelled Tucker, struggling to break free. “But it probably doesn’t matter. All right, all right, I’ll tell you why EBE-C3s would be here. We thought they might come if they found out. Can you put me down? I can’t fuckin’ breathe right.” Tucker coughed for air.
Ace dropped Tucker but stood nearby, waiting for any stupid movements.
Tucker panted for oxygen and then stood up. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna try and shoot you. I fuckin’ hate jarheads, but BOT needs you idiots.”
“You mean BOT likes using us as expendable tools,” said Jimbo, standing nearby.
“Guys, I still sense danger out here. I think we should leave soon,” said Kiya.
“We will, as soon as our BOT agent tells us what’s going on,” said Ace, still breathing down at Tucker.
“Okay, okay, look … Earth Command and Black Ops decided to work on a project studying EBE-C3s.”
“Studying them?” exclaimed Kiya. “I heard that we broke relations.”
“We don’t have relations; it’s all military propaganda bullshit for the masses who hack into defense databases. We’re at war,” said Ace. “I was briefed that EBE-C3s were the race that we heard about from the EBE-C2s that made a technology transfer deal in the ‘40s through ‘90s. But that deal went to hell.”
Tucker shook his head. “If I tell you any more, when we get back, EC is gonna either wipe your memories on this stuff or kill you in the process. They’ll probably kill me just for telling you. Are you sure you wanna hear this shit?”
“I do,” said Ace. “But give me the quick version. Kiya is correct that we have company trying to get into the east side.”
“Fine, suit yourselves,” said Tucker. “We made a deal with the smaller EBE-C2s, but that crashed and burned in the ‘90s. Those Greys were reneging on their end of the bargain and decided to manipulate some of our military. We couldn’t trust them and they couldn’t trust us.”
“It makes sense if BOT was involved,” said Ace.
“Well, it almost caused a revolution in US political circles, so we kicked them off the planet … after, of course, figuring out most of their technology. When they went back home in Zeta Reticuli, they got into a war with their brothers, the larger Greys, or what we call the EBE-C3s. The C3s are smarter, have greater telepathic abilities, and don’t want to have anything to do with us … that is, other than destroy us, because they think their brothers armed the local galactic Indians. And now that we’re colonizing … well, they consider us a competitive virus, and they started attacking our colonies … so we got a few EBE-C3s that were kidnapped by the smaller Greys during a battle and we agreed to do research for them to find a weapon to wipe them out.”
“A biological weapon?” asked Ace.
“I’m not sure,” said Tucker. “It’s beyond my clearance.”
Ace didn’t really believe that, but he had enough information to continue. “Okay, got it. We’ve got the EBE-C3s, or tall Greys, entering to find out what we’re doing to stop them. They’re probably the one’s blasting away at the Aurora. And if their technology is better than the EBE-C2s, then it’s probably better than ours. So we got big fuckin’ problems now.”
“Yes we do, so can we now get going inside the base before our friends screw things up?” asked Tucker.
“You mean, screw them up worse than they’re already screwed up? Sure. Let’s get going.”
The team walked the hundred or so yards and approached the east gate. Actually, there was no gate, per se—just a six-foot by six-foot metal door on hinges. There was a keypad and an electromagnetic card reader. Tucker pulled out a card from his pocket and swiped it. A sensor nearby went from red to blue. Tucker then typed in a code and waited—Access Denied came up on a digital screen. Tucker typed it in again. Same thing. Access Denied. “Shit, the card works, but the access codes seem to have changed … wonder why they changed the codes?”
“I have no fuckin’ clue, this is a botched BOT operation—you tell me,” said Ace.
“I don’t know … we’re gonna have to blow the doors.”
“Yogi says use C4,” said Ivan, pulling some explosives out of this bag.
“C4 it is,” said Ace, assisting Ivan with attaching the explosives to the door. There were a couple
of rocks nearby, but not really that large, only about three feet high. Ace looked over at them. “Team, get behind those rocks and lay flat. We’ll be over in a second.”
The team did as instructed while Ivan and Ace plugged in all the detonators. Ace spoke quietly to Ivan. “Ivan, I want you and Yogi to do me a favor.”
“Whatever you want, Ace. Yogi and I owe you our lives.”
Ace plugged in the last detonator. “I know I can count on you guys. Listen, I want you both to keep an eye on Tucker once we get into the base. I have a funny feeling he’s got something going on that he’s not telling us. Just keep your eyes peeled.”
“Will do, Ace. Okay, Yogi says this should do it. Let’s get behind the rocks and blow the doors.”
Ace and Ivan went back and blew the door open. It flew a good twenty feet into a dimly lit tunnel. The team assembled in front and Ace spoke. “Okay, I want people to walk in pairs. Me and Ivan will go first, then Tucker and Kiya, and then Jimbo and Janice. If you see anything or hear anything strange, you are to stop. Jimbo, I want you to keep your eyes peeled and protect our rear. Okay, any questions?”
“Shouldn’t we get some rocks and try to jam the broken door into place? It could stop any spiders from following us in,” said Jimbo.
“It’s a good idea, but frankly, it will slow us down if we need to come back this way in a hurry. I’ll have Ivan put some remotes on the entrance. We can blow it if we see any movement of spiders. Ivan, load up the entrance with a remote and a camera and then let’s get moving— unless anyone else has any questions.”
No one else asked a question. Ivan put in explosives and remote detonators around the frame of the entrance. Once finished, he and the team started down the cool and musty tunnel. “I hope there are no spiders in here—Yogi says the flamethrower will suffocate everyone because of the close quarters.”
“Then don’t use the flamethrower,” said Tucker, looking flustered.
“Tell Yogi, don’t tell me,” said Ivan.
“I’m not talking to a goddamn teddy bear! You need to get your fuckin’ head straight, soldier! And what the hell is that rotten smell?”
“Will you guys shut up? I’m trying to listen for targets,” said Ace, using his special hearing and internal infrared ocular enhancements to scan down the tunnel. The team slowly proceeded down the hundred-yard passage, and after only five or so yards, they had to cover their noses. The tunnel had a rancid smell, something like a rotting animal carcass, and the odor was getting worse. Ace and the team slowly walked down the tunnel and saw a mangled body about twenty feet from the entrance. There was a GEN-6 patch on jacket the person was wearing. Loose skin hung on the body; it was as if the body was turned into a soft, rubbery blob. The eyes stood out of their sockets. Bugs or something were decomposing the body.
Everyone stood around the decomposing body, holding their mouths. The stench was overwhelming. Janice almost brought up her lunch.
“Must have been near the door. Looks like he got blown back,” said Jimbo.
“I bet he was trying to get out, but with the codes changed, he got stuck,” said Kiya.
“Yogi thinks someone wanted to lock everyone into GEN-6,” said Ivan.
“Let’s get moving,” said Ace. “And get away from this smell.”
Everyone agreed and moved on. Up ahead a few more meters were a panel of switches. Tucker saw them and ran over and started clicking them. Lights went on down the hallway. “Hey, we got light!”
“That’s nice Tucker, good job,” said Ace.
“Wonder why the dead man shut off the lights?” asked Jimbo.
“Maybe he was trying to hide, or wanted some sleep,” said Tucker.
“Dead man got long sleep,” said Ivan, chewing on a cigar.
Ace looked down the long hallway and saw it had a five or so-degree decline with the passage going down into some hole. They were a good hundred plus yards away from the end and the entrance into the main GEN-6 facility. “Janice, leave your scanner on and look for any strange action down this hallway. I wanna make sure there aren’t any surprises.”
“Sure … actually, I left it on after the encounter with the spiders. I’ll turn on the audio scan.” Janice typed a few commands and a short, intermittent beeping sound emitted. “I filtered out everyone on the team’s motion. We should only pick up motion from ten to one hundred yards.”
“Good. Let’s get rolling,” said Ace.
Everyone proceeded carefully down the tunnel.
“Boy, Earth Command sure put a lot of work into this place,” said Big Jimbo, looking at the shiny metallic walls. “These walls look like they’re made out of stainless titansteel.”
“The whole structure is made out of titansteel,” said Kiya.
“Really? Why?” asked Jimbo.
“Because it’s strong,” said Tucker. “You don’t want an earthquake blowing up your most important war research facility.”
“No, you don’t,” agreed Big Jimbo. “You hire a bunch of crazy Marines to do that.”
Ace and Ivan laughed. Tucker frowned but kept his mouth shut and continued walking. As the team walked, they heard the constant and even-paced “beep … beep … beep” of Janice’s motion scanner. Suddenly, the beeps started to increase in volume and rate.
“What do we got?” asked Ace, stopping.
Janice looked at the scanner. “We got motion from the entrance door. It’s about fifty yards away now. Wait, I’ve got multiple targets moving into the tunnel! It must be spiders!”
“Fuck! Ivan, blow the entrance. Cover your ears, everyone.”
Ivan clicked his detonator and a loud explosion rattled through the tunnel. Soon afterwards, the lights started to flicker.
Janice looked at her scanner. “We still have motion coming our way. Looks like five objects. Some got inside.”
“Shit. Me and Ivan will go down and take care of the problem from the front. Jimbo, set up a scope and cover us in case something slips by.”
Ace and Ivan walked back in the direction they came while Big Jimbo set up a tripod sniper. He sat on the ground, zooming in on their location. The tunnel lights continued to flicker and eventually just shut off. Which meant they were in a dark, enclosed metal tunnel, with spiders approaching. Sounds of horned feet rattled off the metal floor and sent shivers down the backs of most of the team.
Ace spoke on his comm to the other members. “Don’t panic. Everyone push up twenty yards toward GEN-6 and wait for me and Ivan to take out the hostiles. Once we’re done, we’ll come back and hook up and go to GEN-6 together.”
Tucker heard the comm but decided to make a run for it. He turned on his flashlight. “Fuck twenty yards! Let’s go all the way to the GEN-6 entrance. Screw this, we got spiders approaching.”
Kiya shook her head. “I’m gonna fight. I think we should listen to Ace.”
“Fuck that,” said Tucker. He looked over at Janice. “You’re coming with me. I need you inside. That’s an order.”
Janice wasn’t sure if any location was safe, but she was told to follow Tucker’s instructions once inside GEN-6, and they were basically inside, or close to it. Tucker pulled her by her jacket and they both ran toward the east side entry door.
Kiya radioed Ace. “Tucker is taking Janice to the GEN-6 entrance. He doesn’t want to wait. Should I try to stop him?”
Ace heard a lot of static and could barely make out the message. “We got a lot of static in here. If you can hear me, the answer is no,” said Ace. “But follow them in case they get into trouble. I doubt he or Janice could fight their way out of a paper bag. Confirm receipt.”
“Got static on my end, too, but I can still hear you. I will follow them as instructed. Over and out,” said Kiya, turning her radio off. She quietly and carefully pushed toward the flashlights of Tucker and Janice.
Ace looked over at Ivan. “You still got that oc implant from Gamma?”
“Sure do. Good for seeing stars and night animals.”
“I
thought so. You see what I see,” said Ace. With his two night vision ocular implants, and Ivan with his one, they didn’t need any flashlights, as they had built-in night vision. In the distance, spiders marched like army ants looking for food. They seemed bigger or fatter than the ones met earlier, like spider pigs.
“Yogi says we have freak show who want to kill us.”
Ace saw that what initially looked like a pig head was actually a pair of human heads growing on the front of the spider pig’s body. Ace and Ivan looked at each other with a what the fuck look before simultaneously firing away. Spider parts and goo splattered against the walls. One spider jumped over Ace and ran down the tunnel toward Big Jimbo. Ace commed him. “We got a strange bug coming your way, Jimbo.”
“Already got him in my sights … what the hell? It’s got a human head attached!”
“Hurry up and shoot the fuckin’ thing, don’t stare at it.”
A shot rippled. “Got it,” said Jimbo.
Ace was too busy to say “thank you” as a pig spider jumped onto Ivan’s back. It was about to sting with its scorpion-like tail, but Ace slashed it with his side knife. An angry head turned almost a one eighty and looked at Ace. It screamed just before Ivan stuck his combat knife through its neck. The spider’s body went limp and fell to the ground. Ivan looked at it and said, “Ugly fuckers.” He then looked at Ace. “Thanks.”
“No worries, buddy, just returning a favor. Let’s get back to the team. That idiot Tucker is going into GEN-6 with Janice.”
“Tucker not team player,” said Ivan.
“No he’s not, Ivan.”
Ivan and Ace met up with Big Jimbo, who was inspecting the head he’d just shot.
“This is some strange shit,” said Jimbo, quickly loading up his rifle.
“It sure is, my friend.”
“What’s going on with the others?”
“I don’t know. Let me comm them.” Ace clicked on the team’s channel. “This is Ace, can Tucker, Kiya, or Janice please respond?”