by Scott Moon
Can I cover that angle of attack from this position? I better move, keep an eye on the trooper ahead of me and behind me. Work together, get the job done.
The weapons he carried were toys compared to the heavier weapons mounted on FSPAA frames. Dog kept him in the middle of the formation because his lack of defensive firepower made him a liability. His connection with Droon would draw the Reapers' wrath, as though they didn't have enough problems with Solaa and her hunters.
Kin thought of Raker and his questions. The counter-intelligence officer had all but accused him of being non-human and did accuse him of being a traitor. Droon had ended the man's life as the Battle for Crater Town began, right before Westwood fled Crashdown. Kin wished he could have interrogated the interrogator. Would Raker have guessed Kin would find himself on Hellsbreach with Jojo and the others?
“What are you going to do with the ship when we find it?” Kin asked. According to Jojo, the vessel wasn’t as new as Eagle’s warships and he doubted he could find one of those. Denying knowledge of a wormhole jumper only added strength to their conviction that he could find it. So he played along and looked for familiar terrain on a planet that hated him.
“That depends on how big it is,” Dog said.
“It won't be big enough to evacuate everyone from Hellsbreach,” Dwarf said. “We take the ship and run. That's all. I didn't sign on to be a hero and neither did you.”
Dog's face was unreadable. Jojo, to Kin's surprise, was an open book. He wanted the ship for whatever secret mission Lt. Raker's counter-intelligence division had assigned him ten years ago. Kin had to give the man points for persistence.
He checked his weapons and leaned on a boulder. Reapers howled in the distance. A wolf yelped in pain. Lightning streaked through distant clouds of dust.
“Dwarf, take us to the nearest shelter. Kin's going to fall out and get us killed if we push him,” Dog said.
“Don't worry about me,” Kin said.
“I'm not worried about you.” Dog helped him to his feet. “I'm worried about getting overrun because you're slow.”
The concrete bunker was one room with a toilet in the corner and a lock box full of vacuum-sealed rations and water purification tablets. There were even three vials of what Dog called “Reaper Juice.” Kin slept in the corner. He hadn't meant to close his eyes but woke up as Dog, Dwarf, and Jojo talked quietly on the other side of the room.
“Just because he helps us find it, doesn't mean he makes the decision. He'll do what we say, or he'll get left behind,” Dog said.
Kin closed his eyes and attended to the sound of each voice. His hearing had always been exceptional, even before the Reaper infection changed him. Good ears were as valuable as ammunition on Hellsbreach. He knew what to listen for. In the desert, he could identify the sound of feet sliding across sand. In a cave, he could find the source of water dripping. In a camp full of enemies, he could hear their lies.
“Fair is fair,” Dwarf said. “He left us, we leave him.”
“We don't leave him unless we must,” Dog said.
“Kin stays with us, even if one of us has to stay behind. There is a lot more at stake than getting off Hellsbreach. He has a secret, and I will learn the truth of it,” Jojo said, his voice soft. His words came in a peculiar rhythm as though he knew Kin was listening and thought to confuse his ears.
He's a counter-intelligence operative. I don't know half of his tricks. Kin needed water and a dose of Reaper Juice to help his metabolism but remained motionless.
“I'm not giving up a seat for him, and neither is Dog. You watch yourself, Jojo. We've got the big guns,” Dwarf said.
Is that fear in his voice?
The conversation stalled. Kin heard them preparing food and cleaning weapons. He made a decision and worked out a plan. His time with Dog's squad was over.
Standing to stretch his back, Kin reached his hands toward the ceiling. Dog, Dwarf, and Jojo looked up from their meal. Feigning the effects of deep sleep, Kin wandered around the small room, trying to wake up, yawning and stretching.
He stood behind Dwarf, opened his pants, and pissed on the back of his neck. The heavily muscled man whirled to face him, standing and diving for a tackle in one movement, cursing as he took the stream of urine across his face.
Kin stuffed the takedown attempt and scrambled free, wondering if his memory of Dwarf's skill was accurate. They tumbled across the small room, punching and eye gouging until Kin's back was smashed into the corner. He worked for leverage, snaked one arm under Dwarf's thick leg, and heaved him up and away.
After that it was a merciless brawl. Blood and curses flew in every direction.
Dog jumped in, sprawling across both men like a blanket of restraint, holding them down like the gravity of Crashdown.
Kin's plan wasn't going to work unless he made Dog as angry as he'd made Dwarf, so he grabbed a handful of the Reaper vials and smashed them apart.
“God damn it, Kin! We'll die without the serum!”
“You'll die. I'm half Reaper. Don't you remember?” He aimed a kick at Dog's groin and nearly connected.
Dwarf flew at him. Kin ducked and moved. Dog tackled him from behind. Kin reversed the takedown, causing Dog to land face first.
The fight took longer than Kin had planned. He was surprised when Jojo agreed to kick him out of the shelter. After what the devious little man had said as Kin feigned sleep, Kin believed he would see through Kin's plan easily.
The three men tossed his gear on the dirt and retreated to the doorway of the shelter.
Jojo took a step forward. “You're on your own, Kin. I wish you'd seen things our way, but I see now the stories about you are true. Once a traitor, always a traitor.”
“Yeah, it's bad when not even Jojo trusts you,” Dwarf said.
“Maybe the next time someone is dying of thirst and loneliness, you'll think twice about pissing on them,” Kin said. He moved as though he would fight his way inside the shelter and grunted in satisfaction when the door closed in his face. Everything was a farce. Moments ago, Jojo had claimed one of them would be left behind on Hellsbreach rather than leave Kin behind. He couldn’t believe he was escaping them, especially not Jojo, but he pressed onward with his plan.
The shadows of Hellsbreach reached for him. Reaper songs filled the night. Rolling pain from his neck, he hefted his backpack, checked his rifle and pistol, then moved up the trail.
I'm better alone. With careful breathing and walking meditation, he lowered his heart rate back to normal. I can’t believe Jojo or Dog fell for that.
Struggling up a steep slope, Kin hugged a gnarled tree and squirmed to avoid its teeth. Carnivore trees had been part of the Hellsbreach briefing, during a segment on local plant life that had rookies and veterans alike swallowing hard and muttering prayers. Most of the fighting had been on the open plains and in the canyons, where Earth Fleet engineers buried the largest World Breaker Nukes.
Now, after leaving Dog's squad behind, Kin encountered a carnivore tree for the first time. Tiny mouths full of teeth like shards of glass opened and closed. He’d never needed to touch one like this. There was a smell and a hissing sound he hadn’t expected, but at least he was too big to be eaten. What looked like a mountain rat scurried up the side to steal a bright purple fruit and learned he was just the right size to provide a meal.
Ignoring the squealing rodent, Kin worked his way higher and peered across the narrow valley behind him. No sign of Dog or the other humans.
Solaa and her followers came across the deadly landscape in hunt mode, more terrible than any Reaper war party on Crashdown. This was their home world. It resonated for them.
Reapers darted behind rocks, looking for Kin in the last place he had allowed himself to be seen. Droon squatted on a ridgeline opposite of the war party, wolves flanking him, Clingers squirming on his back. Loneliness swelled with surprising force as he thought of Dog’s strange reaction to Droon’s name, yet the memory centered on another lost opport
unity for camaraderie. Hellsbreach was a lonely place.
“You could catch me, Droon,” Kin muttered. “Why are you holding back?”
Kin waited until he was certain he had thrown Solaa and her warriors off his trail, then climbed down and disappeared over a ridge. He studied the map stolen from Jojo. Morning light cast an orange-yellow sheen across the page.
The counter-intelligence agent had spent hours on each section of the map. Kin admired the detail, though he wondered how devious the man could be. Stealing the map had been difficult, as would be expected of such a valuable document. The detail of the landmarks Kin located and confirmed gave him hope, but here at the end of the trail, he found only the punchline to Jojo's joke.
Notes on the side of the page and various drawings of winged women convinced Kin that Clavender waited at the wormhole opening with the mystery ship, or Jojo thought she did.
He looked across the stream. Each rock and tree matched Jojo's drawing. He confirmed his elevation and checked the location of stars when the flat dust clouds overhead cleared.
Clavender wasn't here, and if there were a mystery ship capable of interstellar travel previously unknown to Earth Fleet, it wasn't here either.
“You're a dirty bastard, Jojo.” Kin crossed the narrow valley and climbed as high as he dared. He tied himself on a ledge and watched the Reapers pass under him as he rested. The Hellsbreach sun swam across the sky, promising to reveal who else was following him.
Near dusk, he saw the glint of a distant riflescope. Dog and his squad were back there waiting for him to find Clavender and lead them to the ship.
Good job, Kin. You should have known they let you go to easily.
DON’T close your eyes in the sun of Hellsbreach. Every trooper knew the rule. Don't close your eyes, perchance you'll dream.
Nightmares held no terror for Kin Roland, the Enemy of Man, the Traitor of Hellsbreach. Betrayed general of the Mazz Imperials. Protector of Crater Town. Lost soul. Broken man.
He blinked crust from his eyes and ran his tongue over his teeth. A lone Reaper prowled the rocks below his hiding place. Spikes, ropes, and carabiners held Kin in a tight hammock. Sleep tingled in his left arm. Nausea boiled in his gut.
Never had the sight of a Reaper made him hungry, yet he thirsted for the blood of the creature. “It's your bad luck to be alone. Better run back to your queen. Get your friends. You'll need them.”
Kin scanned the terrain for Jojo and the others. The poison in Kin’s veins sickened him. Physically, there were chemicals and endorphins dancing madly, toying with his mind, turning him into a beast. Emotionally, he wanted to jump off the ledge and put an end to the taste in his mouth and the fear of things he imagined doing.
No Reaper nightmare had ever been this evil.
Calm down, Kin. He took a deep breath, held it, and forced his eyes away from the young Reaper sniffing at the base of the cliff. He thought of anything and everything that reminded him of humanity. The last thing he needed in his head was the memory of Droon's voice. Kin-rol-an-da!
Once, before the Fleet departed for Hellsbreach, Kin had separated Dog, Dwarf, and Jojo to test them individually.
“They'll hold back, avoid hunting each other,” Orlan had said.
“Want to bet?” Kin asked. He agreed with his sergeant. Earth Fleet had mandated the most rigorous training regimen in history to prepare for the planetary assault of the Reaper home world. Dog and his friends stayed together in every contest, helped each other, destroyed rivals with ferocity belonging only in live combat.
How would they do as individuals?
Would they turn on each other?
“No one is that loyal,” Orlan said.
Kin shrugged. “Speak for yourself.”
Orlan snorted, laughed, and faced Kin — leaning down like a bear about to eat a child. “Not sure I like your tone. Are you doubting my loyalty?”
“The concept doesn't apply to you, Sergeant. As long as I'm winning, I know where you will be,” Kin said.
Orlan nodded at Dog Rolston. “He's a Class V Weapons Master. Only one on active duty.”
Kin ignored the comment.
Orlan leaned close and whispered. “Don't be jealous.”
“Take notes. Keep score of the exercise — flags captured, casualties, prisoners captured,” Kin said.
“The computers do that.”
“Your notes better be more detailed,” Kin said.
“Or what?”
Kin didn't answer. He watched Dog leading a squad, Dwarf taking point in a different squad, and Jojo ranging far and wide on his own in search of the enemy.
“They take the same jobs they do when they're together,” Orlan said. “Dog leads a squad. Dwarf takes the most dangerous assignments. Jojo does a bunch of spy bullshit.”
“You don't know he's a spy,” Kin said. He had expected Orlan to laugh and swear. An uncomfortable silence followed.
“I can't prove he's a snake,” Orlan said. “And neither can you, until he bites you.”
JOJO had all but planted the map in Kin's hands, he understood that now. There had to be a reason. He had to be close. He saw Clavender's silhouette on a rock, stared at it, and realized it was a shadow, a trick of his imagination. The omen prepared him to search the night for the Sun Princess of Crashdown and the Ror-Rea.
Reapers and other predators hunted in the starlight. Droon and his kind were the dominant race on this planet and barely tolerated other hunters, treating them like the prey they were. There were exceptions. Droon revealed more than he knew when he had slipped into Kin's dreams. The Reaper stoked the terror of victims using images of creatures more ravenous than his Kindred, which meant somewhere on Hellsbreach, there were killers even Droon feared.
For the first time, Kin marveled at the residue of Droon’s mental invasions. The nightmares answered questions he hadn't known needed answers. Like Jojo’s serum. Kin hated the idea of feeding on fear and blood like a Reaper, but he realized his dreams had been full of such things.
They had also shown Dog Rolston and the others. After the Battle of the Bleeding Grounds, his dreams had been full of his current situation. Holding the concepts of time in proper order became more difficult as Hellsbreach embraced Kin. He hated the sensation. It was like trying to claw through a zero-gravity environment without momentum or anything to hold. Try as he might, changing course or even understanding his direction was impossible.
He dared not travel during the heat of the day. Rations and water wouldn’t sustain him long, thanks to his abrupt break from Dog’s squad. Thanks to Jojo's injection, moisture from other sources would give him a few more days, depending on what he was willing to do to get water. Kin doubted Dog and the others killed Reapers for their blood, so there had to be another piece to the riddle. If there wasn't, his days were numbered. He thought of the small oasis of their early meeting and wondered how he might find another such place.
Jojo, Dog, and Dwarf needed the Reaper juice to survive the injection that both kept them alive during long missions and threatened to kill them. Kin realized he didn’t need the juice to use the venom, but his craving for the blood of Hellsbreach monsters was greater than anything Jojo and the others could have endured and remained sane.
A vivid daydream of Dog and the others terrorizing a Reaper as they ate it alive caused his stomach to rebel. Shaking his head to clear the image from his mind, he stumbled as he imagined the sounds of humans feeding like animals. Hellsbreach was no place for humans. What had happened to the people the Fleet left here so many years ago?
He found a young carnivore tree and cracked it open. Inside were the half-digested remains of small mammals, insects, and snakes. He ate the little monsters raw, one careful nibble at a time.
Is this why they seem monstrous to us, because they do what they have to in order to survive? Kin had eaten worse. But I don't like it as much as Droon does.
The meal drove him half crazy, but he felt better — except for a headache that g
rew in the base of his skull and climbed through his brain until he thought his eyes would pop out of his head.
Wormhole headache. Blinding pain drove him to his knees twice an hour. When he could stand, he staggered into a rare stream and followed it until the water was deep. Bobbing on the current, he sipped from the flow and spat dirty scum as soon as he tasted it.
Reapers didn't like water, yet he'd seen Droon dive into a Crashdown river to claim a victim. He hoped the current would keep him safe as day approached. Inexperienced troopers often relied on one technique to shelter them from Hellsbreach predators. Kin never did the same thing two days in a row. The ledge worked yesterday. Tying himself to a rock in a deep river would have to work today.
He didn't sleep. The water pulled at him and the headache grew until it was the worst wormhole pain he'd ever experienced.
A young Reaper came to the water to drink, though it was looking at something in the distance. By the sound, this wounded wretch was following Solaa's group; or perhaps it was stalking Droon, trying to decide if Droon really was the King of the Reapers. Did he know? Was he a Hellsbreach native or had he come from Crashdown via the Ror-Rea? Something had bitten away part of his face and he cradled a broken arm. The injury had to be severe. Reapers healed quickly and rarely slowed down for pain.
Orange eyes scanned the distance, then moved across the water as his nostrils flared. Agitation caused the youth to hop back from the river.
Silence. Stillness. Their eyes locked.
The wounded stranger didn't seem helpless now. Kin watched him study the water and consider options. A noise caused it to turn, then flee silently into the night.
Kin lowered himself under the surface until only his eyes were exposed. Drifting into the shadow of the rock, he watched Dwarf lead Dog's squad along the river. The trooper inspected the Reaper's footprints, then signaled the others.
“I think the Reaper saw something in the water,” Dwarf said.
Dog moved closer and swept the river with his gaze. “I never felt comfortable hiding like that.”