Arkana (ESS Space Marines Book 4)

by James David Victor

  Jade climbed down the ladder, having managed to exit the top hatch without either of them having heard her. She had her weapon holstered and moved to the ground both cautiously and quickly along the gleaming white vehicle.

  “The tank is out of commission, Major,” she reported with a sharp nod. “I made sure that even if they put another driver in there, they won’t be able to get it going again. At least I think it is.”

  Andy took a moment to look her over. Adrenaline had her emerald green eyes sparkling, and the major could see where blood from the driver had spattered back on her to be wiped off with her gloved hand. She looked anxious in the eyes, but the rest of her was solid and alert.

  “Good work, Martin,” Andy said.

  Jade smiled slightly. Andy looked to Roxanna, who nodded back at her. They were done and ready to go.

  “We have to get back to the line before they realize that their big gun has gone quiet,” Andy ordered, nodding for the three of them to start moving. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be here when they figure that one out.”

  Chapter 15

  The three Marines got back to their original positions without being spotted by the enemy. They shifted through the foliage and traced along the line of the building until they got back to where Dan and Anallin were holding things down.

  Andy first noticed that the Hanaran was no longer in the tree.

  “Report,” she called as she returned to the line of fire, adding her weapon to the still steady barrage.

  “Fell out of the tree, Major,” Anallin replied without looking away from the enemy targets.

  “Got shot out of the tree, more like it,” Dan supplied, standing on Anallin’s other side. “I did a quick field exam but didn’t see any serious injuries.”

  “I’m fine,” the Hanaran declared. If Andy didn’t know better, she almost would have said that the tone was petulant...but petulance wasn’t usually in the Hanaran makeup. Unless Anallin really had been spending too much time around humans. “I can still hold the line, Sir.”

  “I have no doubt that you can,” Andy replied sincerely.

  They had to reach the end of enemy soldiers at some point, didn’t they? Without the tank to provide any sort of cover fire, they were out in the open while the Marines had the trees and buildings to try to keep themselves concealed. They had to run out of soldiers at some point.

  Andy ordered that they ease up on their firing, to conserve energy and ammunition while they no longer needed to be a distraction.

  It wasn’t much longer, however, until the Arkana picked up on the fact that the tank wasn’t firing anymore. Although it surprised Andy that it seemingly took them as long as it did. Their weapon fire slowed and even from where they were, Andy thought she could hear shouting from the enemy. The reduced weapons fire made it easier to hear. She couldn’t make out the words themselves, but they were clearly agitated.

  “I think they found my handiwork, Sir,” Jade supplied with a small smile. It wasn’t an expression with any great amount of mirth, but still, her grace under fire was improving.

  “I think they have, Martin,” Andy had to agree. “Hold fire, but keep your weapons ready.”

  They stopped firing while they watched across the field, waiting to see what the Arkana would do. She could see two of them standing on top of the tank, looking highly agitated. She was about to order the Marines to open fire again and take out the last of them when the two on top jumped to the ground.

  It was just a moment before the remaining group had come together and then turned their attention back on the Marines.

  However, instead of opening up weapons fire again, the remaining Arkana straight out charged. Without having to keep it slow in order to remain alongside the tank, they just tore straight off and ran at the Marines.

  “Fire,” Andy ordered.

  They took out a few before the Arkana reached the line, but their long, lithe bodies were remarkably fast when they chose to be and they covered the ground quickly. Also, moving at that speed made them hard targets to hit. As they neared, Anallin was able to take down two more but that still left just over half a dozen for the Marines to deal with on a hand-to-hand basis, now that they were too close for the long-range weapons.

  Jade managed to pull her sidearm again and use that, but Dan, Andy and Roxanna were caught in close-quarter combat. They were the front of the line, and Anallin shifted behind them. Andy couldn’t watch everything, but she knew the Hanaran would move around until it could get better shots and take them out quickly.

  Andy and the others let the fight shift them back enough to use their surroundings to prevent any Arkana from getting around and flanking them.

  Andy ducked and let a wild swing fly over her head, coming up with her fist leading the way into an Arkana soldier’s gut. The other woman grunted and coughed once, but it wasn’t as effective as it might have been once because the Arkana had started wearing a type of armor. It wasn’t enough to stop the Marines’ bullets, but it did help in other types of combat against ESS Marines.

  Upright again, Andy slammed her head forward and broke the alien’s nose. She cried out in shock and instinctively held a hand to the spurt of blood that was now the center of her face. Andy grabbed the front of her uniform, and drove a knee up into the same spot she had hit just seconds before. Even with the armor, it was still tender and likely bruised, so a second shot—especially from something hard like a knee—was even more painful.

  Coughing and sputtering, the Arkana tore herself out of Andy’s grip. She looked like she was about to throw herself bodily onto the major, but before she could see this plan through, she suddenly dropped.

  Andy looked quickly to the side and saw Anallin, rifle aimed at the now crumpled body. She nodded her thanks before turning back to the fight.

  She saw two coming at Roxanna from either side, and she dove in. She grabbed one by the back of its hair and yanked, sending it wildly off balance and stumbling backwards. She lifted a fist to hit it in the face, but the alien managed to twist away and get out of her grip. The silky white hair that had been in the ponytail slipped through her fingers, leaving nothing but a few strands in her otherwise empty hand.

  Andy was forced to jump back a couple of steps as the enemy soldier lunged for her, apparently ready to all-out brawl. He had his hands up like an ancient Earth boxer and leaned back slightly in a defensive posture.

  “Do you guys just materialize out of thin air?” she asked with no small amount of annoyance for the fact that they weren’t done with them yet. She had her hands up, ready to defend as well.

  He shifted easily from defense to offense, lunging forward just enough to take a swing at her, which she deftly avoided by hitting his incoming hand with her own and sending it off course. This slipped her into his guard so she could take a hit of her own, but hers landed because she was closer than he’d been.

  The Arkana tried to wrap his arms around her, grab her in a sort of bear hug and pin her arms to her sides, but she brought her knee up too fast and caught him right between the legs.

  All the air rushed out of his lungs and he staggered back. A gunshot pierced the air not far from her, though it wasn’t destined for this soldier. He was half bent over, lurching to one side as he tried to right himself and come back for her. She had already grabbed her rifle and used the butt to drive into the back of his head.

  He fell to the ground and didn’t move again.

  “Major!” Roxanna called.

  Andy spun around in time to see an Arkana soldier breach their line and take off down the street that had been behind them. Anallin got off a pair of shots, but the soldier was already around a corner and onto another street.

  Chapter 16

  Instead of pursuing a solitary enemy soldier on the loose, Andy immediately opened a channel to the leader of Theta Squad. Theta had been given a more mobile assignment as a secondary line of defense, for situations just like these.

  “Dolan to T
heta Squad Leader,” she called, pressing the button on her earpiece. “There is a single runner who got through Alpha Squad position, heading east on the interior streets.”

  “Acknowledged, Major. We’ll find him.”

  The channel closed, and she knew that she would just have to trust that Theta Squad would do its job. And she did. For now, she had a lull in the fight at her position and her own squad to take care of.

  Ahead of them, the sabotaged tank remained stuck in the dirt. Pale white bodies lie all around it. Those that had come upon them near the buildings were either laying on the ground or being dragged into a pile and bound as prisoners of war. Like all those caught before, except for one, Andy had little hope that they would survive to be questioned or held, but time would tell. It was not their job, morally or professionally, to execute people once they were defeated.

  Anallin was sitting down on a large piece of debris, inspecting wounds where the body armor hadn’t provided full protection. The armor itself looked to have taken one hell of a hit.

  “Damn, kid,” Andy said. “Just how hard did you get shot out of that tree?”

  “Kid?” Anallin replied, looking up with erratic eye-clicks.

  “Never mind,” she said with a faint laugh, kneeling in front of the Hanaran and pulling out the small med-kit that she carried in the cargo pocket of her uniform pants. There wasn’t much to it, since there wasn’t a lot of room, but Andy had enough to get things started. “Now that your body is calmed down from the fury of battle, do you feel any more serious injuries?”

  Anallin clicked. “No, Sir. All my limbs are functioning and I don’t feel any wounds losing blood at a significant rate.”

  Andy nodded as she used a disinfecting sealant on the cuts that she could see, the Hanaran cooperatively holding out each arm in turn. “Need to keep all of us in our best shape, right?”

  “Human colloquialisms still sometimes confound me,” Anallin admitted. “How could I be in any other shape so quickly?”

  “I’ll re-phrase,” Andy said with amusement. Anallin seemed to lose grasp on human idioms and concepts when stressed or distracted. “We want to keep all soldiers in the best state of health possible.”

  The Hanaran inclined its head. “Yes, Sir,” Anallin agreed, holding out the other arm.

  From behind her, she heard, “Is there a line for medical care?”

  Andy glanced over her shoulder to see Roxanna with her uniform sliced open, with a long, thin gash uncomfortably close to her neck.

  “What happened?” the major asked.

  “One of them had a knife and got in too close,” the Selerid answered, almost with embarrassment. “I know, Sir. I’m lucky that I didn’t get my throat cut.”

  “Saves me some time,” Andy said. She turned to finish what she was in the middle of with Anallin, but didn’t wait long to stand and turn to Roxanna. She examined the wound closely and thought that in different circumstances, it probably would be better served by stitches, but she knew she didn’t have that kind of time. Instead, she carefully applied the sealant like she had with Anallin, but more of it.

  By the time she was done, her own med-kit was empty, but the “line” was done. The others looked to be in good shape.

  She stepped away from her squad for a moment and pressed the channel button on her earpiece twice, which sent out a “status request” tone. Anyone who was able to reply would do so and let her know the situation.

  The next few moments were balanced between incoming calls and waiting. Some squads reported that their positions were quiet but they could hear combat from other sections, while others reported contact. Some didn’t report at all, and she chose to believe that they were engaged in combat at that moment, rather than the alternative.

  Andy blew out a breath and took another look around her.

  There were no signs of enemy activity near their position, leaving them to recover and ready themselves for whatever else may come...and then wait.

  The urge to run off to one of the other positions was strong, but she knew that she couldn’t be everywhere at once. What location would even be the priority? And did they even need the help or was it hubris? Of course, any unit in active combat could use backup, but she wasn’t going to fall onto contingencies unless it was absolutely necessary.

  In the distance, she could hear the sounds of gunfire and shouting. It was indistinct, but she knew it for exactly what it was. She wondered if this was what it was like for her ancestors on Earth, fighting in the wars they saw. The ESS hadn’t seen true war for decades, certainly not in Andy’s lifetime. But now, here it was. Did it compare to how it used to be? Did time change anything? Or was war always just...war?

  Her earpiece chirped and pierced through her musing. She answered quickly.

  “Sergeant Kavar here, Sir,” the leader of Theta Squad reported in. “We have captured the loose Arkana soldier.”

  “Good work, Sergeant,” Andy replied. “Bring him to our location to be placed with the other prisoners.” She heard the acknowledgement and the call chirped to an end. At this, she cast a glance over at the group they had bound and saw that, so far, they were all still alive. This was curious to her and she wondered if it would last, but she couldn’t afford to give it too much thought.

  For now, it just was what it was.

  It didn’t take long for Kavar and his squad to come into sight, bringing a restrained Arkana along with them. Luckily for them, though perplexing in its way, the Arkana was walking without giving them too much trouble. Maybe they thought the ESS wouldn’t be able to hold them off, in the end, so being captured wouldn’t matter. They would be freed when the rest of their people were in control of the planet.

  Andy was determined to disappoint them.

  As the prisoner was added to the pile, there was another chirp and another call for Andy to hastily answer. This time, it was from the 21st. The voice was almost lost amid the sounds of active combat right around the speaker.

  “Major, we have a problem!”

  Chapter 17

  Andy wasn’t sure if it was irony or not—that being a concept she had never been sure she understood completely—but just minutes after determining that she did not want to change plans unless it was really needed...well, it became really needed.

  The 21st had been positioned where Andy had thought it was the least likely they would need a heavy defensive line. This had been true through the initial onslaught that the 15th and 33rd had to face, but it didn’t last. Eventually, the Arkana had moved to that position with enough troops that the 21st couldn’t hold.

  Theta had been her contingency, and she left Kavar and his squad to hold Alpha’s former position while they—as the closest to where the lines had broken for the 21st—rushed to aid their fellow Marines. The 21st had managed to hold after the initial onslaught, but a full group of Arkana had broken through and were now loose in the city.

  A group of Arkana loose was a problem, and Andy didn’t want to let them get too deep into the city where they could start taking over critical systems.

  Andy knew which direction they had been heading so she angled Alpha Squad’s path to reach where they were likely to be headed rather than trailing them. It was an educated guess at best, but it was their best chance.

  She called them to slow from their run as they drew toward the likely intercept point, signaling for them to spread out slightly and start looking down every street and checking in every building. She didn’t imagine the Arkana were going to try to hide, but she couldn’t rule it out. They might try to conceal themselves to lull them into the idea that they were gone.

  Andy wasn’t going to let that happen.

  They looked everywhere, and tried to listen to everything. Combat still echoed in the distance, but it was quieter here. Other noises began to intrude as they slowly made their way forward, very slowly. It felt a lot like hurry up and wait, even though they were still moving.

  One by one, they passed buildings, checking d
oors and windows, but almost all were sealed and showed no signs of tampering. The occasional one that seemed to have been opened was thoroughly checked out by a pair of Marines while the others kept watch from the street, waiting for the all clear. Each building they looked at was given an all clear.

  The further along they moved, the more the “other noises” began to intrude. Soon they realized they were moving more into an industrial area of the city and while the populace had cleared out, many of the automated systems had been left running to keep the city and the planet running, even during the battle.

  “I feel like they are here,” Roxanna said in a low voice beside her. “But it’s hard to pick out anything specific. Emotions are running high from every being on the planet, and it’s difficult to separate the Arkana from the Marines and citizens that are still in the city. I don’t think they are far from here, though.”

  “Thank you, Sergeant,” Andy said just as quietly, without looking at the Selerid.

  There was as much noise for the ears as for the empathic senses, apparently. Even though Andy didn’t have those kinds of senses herself, she could imagine that it was a lot more difficult to differentiate in a city than it was on their ship. There, she knew everyone on board well enough to pick them out. Here, it would be different. She knew they couldn’t rely too heavily on the Selerid to warn them of an ambush.

  They would just have to stick with their own senses, and the power of being a group.

  When Alpha Squad reached an intersection of streets, Andy called them to a halt and she looked in all directions. Since even as recently as that morning, it had been a busy street, there were no discernible signs that would tell which way the Arkana went, or even if they had come through the area at all.

  She inhaled slowly and let her dark eyes roam. There were three different ways that they could proceed from where they were, and she knew that two of them would lead toward the city center where all the “important stuff” was. It was assumed that the Arkana were going to try to head there, since that was the entire purpose of being on the planet.