by C. G. Hatton
He could do that.
From the fatigue pulling in every muscle, it was probably about all he could do.
And if they ran into any Bhenykhn anywhere, he’d have another go at finding NG.
He stood as the rest of them did. Sean looked across with a vague smile. She was taking Edinburgh. He hadn’t been trying to but he’d overheard her thinking as they’d sat there. She’d been tempted to ask if he could go with her again but something had made her resist. Duncan possibly. The thought that on the MOV he’d be surrounded by troops on a ship with hefty shields and weaponry maybe. She just wanted him safe.
He wanted her safe. And nowhere near him was probably the safest place possible.
He gave her the briefest smile in return and turned to leave, feeling Sienna fall into step beside him, checking his pouches as they walked and pushing a vial into his hand without needing to be asked.
He was pressing it against his wrist as Sean joined them, nudging herself between him and Sienna, about to ask him a question and stopping herself as she saw what he was doing.
He glanced up, awkward at being caught, but the way Sienna moved was slick, getting back to his side without touching Sean but making it clear what she was doing. “Back off, O’Brien,” she murmured, not aggressive but forceful as hell. “I’ve been keeping this kid alive since he was thirteen. You have no idea.”
“I need to speak to him,” Sean said. “LC…?”
Sienna shook her head. “Not now. We have orders.”
Sean was good at getting what she wanted, Christ, he knew that, but Sienna was right and Sean was weirdly hesitant.
“When we get back,” he muttered, breathing through the pulse of krakn.
Sean nodded and backed away with a soft, “Stay safe.”
Evelyn was watching, he realised as he looked up.
“All of you stay safe,” she said. “We’ll see you at the rendezvous.”
They gave him a seat on the bridge. Gave him a beer and told him to make himself at home. It was guild Security running the show, slick as always, the usual bad jokes as they prepped for launch. They sounded the countdown for jump through the Sensons. He heard it second-hand, no one bothering to remember that he wouldn’t get the message.
He felt that pull on his senses, the flip of his stomach as they dropped out, and reached into clear open space, only human vessels as far as he could detect.
“Clear,” he said and sat back. They were about two hours out. He popped open the beer and listened in as the crew contacted Olivia’s flagship and swapped coordinates and schedules.
It was weird to hear Olivia’s voice on the open comm, sharp and commanding as she welcomed them. Sean was there already. It made his chest ache to think of them being together and he had no idea how he was going to handle seeing them both, being with them both.
“And Evelyn,” Duncan said quietly beside him, “don’t forget Evelyn, bud.” The big man gave a wry laugh, squeezed his shoulder and moved away to talk to the captain of the MOV.
LC rested his elbows on his knees and held the cold bottle against the back of his neck. He was screwed.
It didn’t take them long to realise something was wrong.
LC looked up.
“No,” the captain was saying, “we repeat, Endeavour, we did not request this rendezvous. You requested an escort.”
“Negative, Galen, your message clearly stated the guild was requesting a rendezvous at these coordinates. You wanted us here. We verified the communication. Please confirm.”
“Negative, Endeavour, we did not…” The captain turned to look at LC.
Realisation was spreading like a chill frost.
Hal Duncan took the comm. “Bug out, Endeavour. Sean, Olivia, go. We did not request this meeting. We repeat, we did not…”
LC sat up, reaching out, reckless and wide open, and had nothing in place to resist the onslaught as the full pressure of the Bhenykhn hive crashed into his mind.
He tried to stand, knees went and he was on the floor before he could shut it out, eyes burning, only vaguely aware of the klaxons and sirens screaming out proximity warnings amongst the shouts and curses of the bridge crew.
Someone was at his side in a flash.
He got his feet under him, leaning on the back of the chair and just about managing to look up through the banging in his skull, looking for Hal Duncan, and swaying.
He flinched as the pain escalated.
“Bhenykhn are here,” he muttered. So much for early warning.
Within seconds, comms were down, shields failing against a bombardment of incoming munitions, damage reports devastating.
LC breathed through the fog and kept his eyes closed, trying to ease away the shakes with every trick he’d ever been taught. They had limited telemetry, the entire space between them and Olivia’s fleet filled with alien fighters. The MOV was taking a battering but it was Olivia’s flagship that took the brunt of the attack, losing integrity fast.
It was like Erica all over again. Only this time he could see it all right inside his head. The Bhenykhn knew they were there, they’d been expecting them and they’d sprung their trap with perfection.
“Negative,” someone shouted from across the room. “Jump is not an option.”
LC felt the realisation of the situation hit everyone in there as more stats came in. Olivia wasn’t going to make it, it fast becoming apparent that the Wintran flagship was stricken beyond any possibility of escape.
“Take it down,” someone muttered, willing them to take the huge deep spacer into a controlled descent to the planet before it broke up, and they watched as what little telemetry they had showed they were doing just that.
LC tried to reach out to Sean, to see if he could sense her there but the overwhelming barrage of dark void was threatening to pull him under as more and more human vessels were destroyed.
The MOV took another hit that sent them lurching.
“We can’t leave them,” he said, cold nausea fighting with his internal temperature that was rising fast.
Klaxons started to scream.
Someone grabbed his arm and steered him out, Duncan he reckoned, confirmed as the big man said, “You’re with me.” He shouted to Hilyer, something about the TCs, and hustled out into the corridor to merge with the grunts from Security, yelling them to mobilise to drop ships. They had a full guild recon and rescue unit with them, extraction teams and Security. It’s what they hadn’t had on Erica. It still wasn’t going to be enough.
They ran the rest of the way, reports flooding in of the deep spacer falling fast, and being chased down to the surface by a torrent of smaller Bhenykhn ships. The MOV was compromised, hull breached, AG failing and a call to abandon ship sounding over the comms.
LC let Duncan herd him onto a drop ship and sat, crossed his arms over his chest and clutched the harness as they broke free and dropped, fists clenched, breathing tight, struggling to anchor himself in the deception that this was just another tab.
The g-forces were beyond painful. He shut down his mind and closed his eyes.
Chapter 14
“There is still a breach.” The Man sounded calm.
Sebastian leaned forward, incredulous. “Did you not hear what I just said? The Bhenykhn knew they were going to be there. The Bhenykhn. There’s a breach and someone was not only working against the guild, they were feeding intel to the Bhenykhn.”
He walked back to the centre console and leaned his hands on its cold surface, staring at the Man intently. “Humans working against humans is par for the course. It always has been. They kill each other. You’ve seen the Most Wanted cards. The ridiculous bounties. It’s laughable. Pathetic. In all this, humans still strive to profit. But to sell out their fellow beings to an alien invader? Even I struggle to comprehend how low they would have to be prepared to stoop to see that as acceptable.”
•
Multiple explosions sent them rocking, tumbling at one point, as they dropped, hard and fast. Hi
s stomach was somewhere up in orbit still as they hit the atmosphere and plummeted, klaxons screaming and more impacts hitting hard as they were targeted by enemy fighters.
Olivia’s ship must have crash landed ahead of them. He felt an immense punch of darkness and curled up against the chill pain. They landed badly, the drop ship skidding to a halt and having to use grapples, slinging them sideways. LC banged his head, crunching into the seat support, biting the inside of his lip and tasting blood. There was shouting then, some yelling that they’d made it, they were right on top of the Endeavour itself, bangs as they hooked on and used shaped charges to create an ingress straight through the hull of the grounded deep spacer. There were yells to move out.
LC fumbled the harness open with fingers that were shaking, trying to scan ahead, shutting out the presence of the hive and the call of oppressive darkness that was like a banshee wailing, blanket coverage, no single individual punch of void, more like a vortex of agonising release as so many died, trapped in the wreckage or getting shot down by an alien aggressor that was faster and superior in every way.
He managed to stand, gripping his rifle and leaning on it, using it as if it was a crutch. His chest hurt. It was hard to filter, tough to separate out each life form to search for the ones he was looking for. He stood there, eyes closed, until someone took hold of his arm and pulled him forward.
“You okay?” Sienna murmured into his ear.
“Yeah.” He was trying to breathe.
He found Sean with Pen Halligan, the big man’s presence unmistakable.
“Sean’s here. And Pen. They’re in the command deck citadel,” he muttered, switching to direct thought and repeating it. Yani was with them, others that LC recognised and more that he didn’t.
No sign of Olivia. Anywhere.
“I can’t find Olivia,” he said, looking round and catching Sienna’s eye, looking for Hal Duncan. “She’s not here. Or she’s dead.” Nausea twisted in his stomach as he said it.
‘We’ll find her,’ Duncan sent calmly from his position at the airlock where he was directing each unit that dropped through the hole.
Only half the troops were in full powered armour. That was becoming a rare commodity. The rest were in combat fatigues with light infantry kit.
LC flinched as Sienna nudged him forward.
She bopped him on the head, planting his helmet firmly into place. She didn’t trust him to keep it on and if she hadn’t been watching he would’ve ditched it already.
“Stay close,” she said. “You ready?”
He wasn’t but he didn’t argue.
He jumped down, feeling the engines of the drop ship starting to increase thrust even before they were clear. He landed, stumbling, on a bulkhead that was leaning at a crazy angle, slick with water and shifting as he moved. He raised his rifle to his shoulder as he moved out of the way and used his right hand to steady himself.
The ship was on its side, partly crushed, partially broken up, the shock of explosions reverberating through every surface he touched. He could sense from the hive that the Bhenykhn were targeting the ship’s fuel banks and reactors, ground troops already beginning to sweep through the command decks of the stricken vessel, taking prisoners or killing without discretion.
A steady cold downpour of fire suppressant water was mixing with a chill breeze, drafts coming in through the breeched hull, making the air cold, damp, the combination of fear from one side and exhilaration from the other making him tremble. Sienna moved up close and held onto his shoulder as two Security guys in powered armour moved past them, Hilyer next with a squadron of the tiny Hailstones buzzing close. They signalled back and she nudged him into moving, two more guys in the chameleonic armour following.
It was stifling. A million miles from the freedom of running a tab.
They moved fast but cautiously, other units spreading out to flank the bridge and provide cover.
LC kept half an eye on the corridor they were in and half his mind scanning ahead, mouth dry, muscles aching. The back of his neck was prickling. He was having to check in three dimensions, all directions. They had corridor openings above them, gaping holes in the bulkhead they were walking on, broken struts and debris blocking the way.
He slowed, finding it harder and harder to ignore the headache that was building behind his eyes. He could hardly see, getting overloaded.
He muttered, “Wait. Sienna, Hil, wait up,” not exactly sure what he was sensing until the squad of Bennies was right above them. He yelled, blasting their energy pods, and firing his rifle even as the huge alien warriors dropped down into the broken hull, more rifle fire bursting out all around him. The Hailstones flew in, fast and vicious, hulking alien bodies hitting the deck.
Sienna grabbed his arm and dragged him into a run.
‘Okay, buddy, you have their attention,’ he heard Duncan send as they moved. ‘Clear us a way into that citadel then split. You copy?’
He thought he thought back some kind of affirmative, vaulting over a beam of twisted, charred metal and sliding down into cover as more gunfire erupted around him. He shifted his position to rest on one knee, hugging close to the bulkhead and bringing up his rifle, firing steadily, one shot after another, splitting his concentration to take out energy pods as fast as the bastards were appearing.
The citadel was still some way off. The butt of the rifle was resting right against a sore spot in his shoulder, every kick of recoil the compensators couldn’t suppress stabbing deep.
Sienna yelled them forward and he moved, pushing upright with no let up in that pull of the trigger, until a Hailstone flew at him, nudging his shoulder as it shot past. He turned, eyes following it, heart thumping, and was hit by the full weight of the hive, orange eyes flaring out of the darkness right behind him.
The Hailstone impacted against the first one, full on, sparks flying as it hit the energy shield. LC froze, feeling the awareness of the hive sharpen, fury mingling with curiosity and a realisation that he was there. They knew it was him. They wanted him. And they wanted him alive.
The massive Bhenykhn warrior loomed close, grabbing the Hailstone and crushing the tiny sphere in its fist, its leathery mouth creasing into a smirk, eyes narrowing.
LC couldn’t bring the gun round fast enough. He felt the hive take hold of his mind, chest constricting, as the Benny tossed the stricken Hailstone to the side with a roar. The huge alien lurched forward, lightning fast, and took hold of his throat, talons digging deep.
Time slowed.
LC closed his eyes, poison pulsing into his bloodstream.
No.
He blinked, fought back, instinctive, and yelled, ‘Fuck you’, loud and clear to the whole hive, throwing out a blast of energy that destroyed its alien brain. Blood sprayed from its eyes and nose, and it fell, full weight on top of him.
Damn, it was heavy. The helmet took the brunt of the impact as his head hit the deck, but the armour did nothing to protect his chest from the crushing weight, breath driven from his lungs as black void hit hard.
There were more of them incoming, right behind it. He drew every scrap of energy he had and blasted every Bhenykhn he could sense.
The pop of void that resounded back at him that time was like a star imploding in the centre of his chest, a consuming darkness that felt like he’d been hit full centre mass by a warship. He lay there, beyond numb, squashed by the mass of a stinking, heavy as hell alien body, in the chill, wet wreckage of a crashed deep spacer, and the only thing he could think was that he wanted to know where Sean was. Desperately wanted to know where Sean was.
And he wanted to know how the hell they’d been set up so badly. They’d been blind-sided. And he couldn’t think how it could have happened.
He winced as a hand grabbed his arm and pulled, the weight of the Bhenykhn lifting. He was too wiped out to move, the virus fighting the toxin as best it could but he’d used up every last ounce of energy he had. His side was throbbing again.
His throat was dry, r
aw, but he managed to whisper, “Poison,” recognising Sienna close by, Hal Duncan and one of the grunts pulling off the alien body.
Sienna dragged him clear and helped him sit, taking his hand and pressing a vial against his wrist.
“Holy shit,” she said, checking his pulse and wiping something off his cheek. “You took out a whole deck level of them.”
She peeled the guard from his neck, cursing at the blood and the damage to his throat, and wrapped a field bandage tight, popping another shot in there while she was at it.
He mouthed a thank you, wanting to roll over and sleep. His helmet was askew, half covering his eyes. Sienna straightened it and tugged the strap tight, holding her hand against his cheek to steady him. “You good to go?”
He was shaking but the paralysis was wearing off already, the virus buzzing from the krakn. He nodded.
She pressed a flask into his hand, top off, keeping hold of it, wrapping his hand with hers and helping him raise it to his lips. He managed a couple of sips, aware that his heart was thumping way too fast already.
He glanced up. They were surrounded by troops, everyone checking equipment, checking positions. Hilyer was crouched at the alien body, rifle balanced and ready, prising a kill token off its glistening armour.
“This is yours,” Hil said, wiping it on his sleeve. “You want it?”
LC shook his head, murmuring, “No,” queasy, watching as Hil tucked it into a pocket. He couldn’t figure out the look on Hil’s face. Unsettling as hell.
Duncan was standing watch, rifle up, communicating with Sean, he realised with a pang.
‘Can you do that again?’ the big marine thought, glancing back as Sienna pulled LC to his feet and pushed the gun into his arms.
Honestly? He felt like he could crumple and turn to dust but he sent back, ‘Yes.’
Duncan passed him a fresh magazine. ‘Good. We’re gonna need you to.’ He turned to Sienna. ‘Do whatever it takes.’
One of the grunts started shouting, hustling everyone to get their asses into gear. Duncan clapped LC on the arm and moved out, taking point. They were going for the citadel. The whole level was clear but the Bennies were regrouping and closing in. They had maybe ten minutes before they were cut off. They needed to get in, rescue whoever was left, and get out again.