The Zenoth monster thrashed about, bucking from side to side, trying to dislodge Riot from its back and head. Green blood spurted from the wound as Riot fought to stay atop the beast. Hot green gore and blood painted her armor.
The noise it made was ear-piercing. It, along with the rest of the Zenoth, went into a frenzy. The Zenoth foot soldiers surrounding Riot and their champion rallied to his aid. The large insects mounted their comrade’s back and tried grabbing Riot around her legs and back.
Riot felt her right leg clamped by a pair of pincers. Another pair wrapped around her left arm.
“Raw!” Riot ripped her hammer free from the skull of the giant Zenoth below her. She swung the weapon down onto the Zenoth clinging to her leg. She struck his skull like a hammer slamming into a pumpkin. More green blood sprayed through the air all around her.
The other Zenoth trying to pull her down by her arm received similar treatment. Riot hefted the war hammer right next to the heavy front of the weapon and brought the steel head down onto the black eyes of the Zenoth over and over again.
The monstrosity Riot was standing on bucked so hard, she nearly fell into the sea of eager pincers all jumping to grab ahold of some part of her body. Riot fell to her knees atop the beast, driving the blaster end of her war hammer into the oozing green wound she had already inflicted.
“Eat this, you ugly son of a—”
Riot’s words were lost as she pressed the button on the weapon’s staff that released a trigger by her right pointer finger. Riot pressed down on the trigger.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
The Trilord weapon discharged round after round of yellow energy into the top of the creature’s skull. By the third shot, the weapon had worked its way through the creature’s brain matter and out the bottom side of the Zenoth’s chin.
The monstrosity fell with a shudder.
Riot was thrown off the creature, rolling as she hit the hard cave floor. Despite Riot’s success in taking down the giant, the Zenoth had reached the Marines and fighting had evolved from weaponsfire to hand-to-hand combat.
To her right, Ketrick bellowed a war cry, severing a head of a Zenoth in front of him with his long war hammer’s sharp edge. He brought the weapon around in wide circles, keeping them at bay. One unlucky Zenoth got too close, only to have his skull caved in by the hammer side of Ketrick’s weapon.
On Riot’s left, Rizzo and Wang were fighting the Zenoth off Vet’s unconscious body. Rizzo had a Zenoth by the pincers, a hand on either side as he drove it backwards. Wang opened up his molten blade and stabbed a Zenoth who grabbed Vet by the foot, trying to drag him back into their ranks.
“Hold the line!” Riot roared into her headset. “Together! Hold the line!”
Riot jumped into action, shoulder-checking an oncoming Zenoth and bullying it backwards. Next to her, Rizzo was taken to the ground by a pair of Zenoth. Their pincers tore at his armor.
Wang got there before Riot could, slamming into the Zenoth like a linebacker. War rage had taken over the Marine. He was acting in desperation, attacking without a plan. All he saw was his brother needing his help, and nothing else mattered.
The Zenoth horde took advantage of this act, surging forward on their side once more. Pincers reached for the Marines’ faces, seeking to end Rizzo and Wang at once.
This is it, Riot thought as she prepared to charge. This is how I go.
Riot lunged forward, thrashing at the Zenoth on Rizzo and Wang. Her hammer was getting heavier and heavier to heave by the moment, but for those dozen strokes, she was death incarnate. Everywhere Riot placed her hammer, she ended a Zenoth’s life.
Her chest burned as she pivoted in all directions, keeping the Zenoth off her Marines for as long as she could. Her arms ached. Green gooey blood coated her weapon. The sticky substance covered her armor to the extent it was more green now than anything else.
Right when Riot didn’t think she had anything else to give, as the never-ending Zenoth horde swelled and rushed again, help came in the most unexpected form.
21
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Zenoth body parts flew in the air, accompanied by sprays of green blood. Riot sank to her knees as the Zenoth grabbing at her with their steel-like pincers gave way to meet this new threat.
“Leave my friends alone!” Doctor Miller screamed over the comms. “I didn’t want to come on this mission anyway! I just wanted to be part of the team! You’re gross and bug-like, and you want to take over the galaxy by spreading to different planets. You should be ashamed of yourselves!”
Riot’s lungs were still recovering as she looked up behind her, where Doctor Miller had taken up a stance on top of a stalactite. She held both Wang’s and Riot’s pulse rifles, one in each hand, as she unloaded a barrage of fire.
“Remind me not to piss her off.” Wang pulled Riot to her feet.
BAM!
The Spartans succeeded in blowing the third engine that pushed the massive Zenoth ship skyward. A wave of heat hit Riot for the third time. The ship was aflame as it tipped front end first and began to plummet to the cavern floor.
“Out—now!” Rippa screamed over the comms. “It’s going to blow!”
Riot and her Marines hightailed it back the way they had come. Ketrick bled from a dozen different wounds across his upper arms, legs, and neck, but he refused help as he hefted a limp Vet over his shoulder and ran for the tunnel. Wang helped a limping Rizzo.
“Go, go, go!” Rippa yelled. “It’s our turn to cover you. Spartans, switch to flame throwers.”
Doctor Miller still stood atop the fallen rock, pumping round after round into the oncoming Zenoth. Riot couldn’t see her eyes due to her visor, but she imagined they would be wide with a mixture of fear and exhilaration.
Riot jumped onto the stone next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Stop. Let go now. You saved us. It’s time to go.”
Doctor Miller’s chest heaved. She finally let go of the triggers, looking to Riot for meaning to a feeling she had never experienced before. “I just killed. I mean … I’ve killed so many of them. They deserved it, right? It was us or them.”
Riot felt some long-buried emotion surge within her. It was a question everyone struggled with when taking a life. Apparently, this emotion even extended to bug aliens on faraway planets.
Riot could feel Doctor Miller shaking underneath her hand. Her actions had rocked her moral compass so hard, it was spinning. As much as Riot wanted to tell Doctor Miller she had done the right thing, there was no time. The Zenoth craft was seconds away from imploding on the ground. The Zenoth aliens still surged toward them, only kept at bay by the flames warding them off by Rippa and her Spartans.
Doctor Miller came to her senses long enough to follow Riot off the rock. The two women followed Ketrick and the rest of the Marines as they ran for the tunnel that would take them to the hive entrance.
Riot chanced a look behind her before they rounded the corner. Rippa and her steel giants formed an impenetrable wall. They walked backwards. From their right hands, flamethrowers erupted into the Zenoth lines that still surged forward.
Any Zenoth who braved the flames and charged was met with three metal claws that sprouted from each of the Spartan’s fists. The metal claws were as long as swords. They came from housings located between the armored giants’ knuckles.
Riot and her crew were around the corner in minutes. Ketrick carried Vet on his shoulder as if he weighed no more than a newborn kitten. Riot grabbed Rizzo around his other arm, opposite Wang, as they ran with him up the slopping tunnel hall.
“Run! Run! Run!” Rippa yelled over the comms. “Impact in three!”
Riot braced herself for the explosion she knew would be strong enough to come around the corner. Ketrick was the only one of them who didn’t have armor. Sure, he had in him the nanites that would eventually heal him, but he would feel the full weight of the burn as it scorched his skin.
You idiot, Riot thought as she looked at Ket
rick’s exposed shoulders, arms, and neck in front of her. You’re wearing armor next time we enter the field.
“Bubbles,” Riot said, motioning to the stunned doctor who still traveled beside her. “Take Rizzo’s arm.”
Doctor Miller numbly obeyed, draping Rizzo’s arm over her shoulder and aiding Wang in taking the large man up the slope.
BOOOOOOOM!
The whole cavern shook once more. Riot raced toward Ketrick. The impact of the crashing Zenoth ship was enough to shake the floor itself. Stalactites rained down all around them. Flames from the explosion raced around the corner and up toward the tunnel and hive exit looking for a way out.
Riot was hurled through the air, lifted by the shock wave of the explosion. She tackled Ketrick to the ground, shielding as much of him as she could.
Riot grabbed him around his arms and pressed her helmeted head against the back of his neck. Orange flames raced all around them and toward the surface. In an instant, the flames were gone, but the cavern rocked and quaked like a dying man in his death throes.
“Rawwwww!” Ketrick roared at the pain.
“Get up,” Riot screamed at him, even as she regained her own feet. A quick look at his body told her she’d had minimal effect in saving his skin. Angry red splotches grew over his legs and feet, though his upper body was slightly less burned, thanks to her effort. “Pain later! Get up!”
Ketrick grunted as he pushed himself back on his feet. Without asking for help, he grabbed Vet’s still body once more and swung him over his right shoulder.
A quick look behind her told Riot the others had been saved by their armor and were already on their feet. Beyond them, the Spartan mechs had turned from their position fending off the Zenoth. That close to the blast, the Zenoth on the ground were either dead or in no shape to give chase.
“Hurry,” Rippa said as she ran toward Riot and her wounded Marines. “The hive is going to come down any second.”
As if to punctuate her words, more rocks fell from the ceiling. The floor below their feet rocked and quaked once more.
Dodging the falling debris, Riot led her unit to the relative safety of the chamber they had first descended into when entering the cave. Riot looked up past the bright blue luminescent glowing walls to see tiny specks of sunlight from above.
“Mount up!” Rippa shouted as she transitioned her mech down to one knee. The three other armored units did the same.
Riot helped Ketrick lift Vet onto Rippa’s unit. Wang and Doctor Miller aided Rizzo on Ragnar’s back before climbing up, themselves.
“Hang on,” Ragnar said over the comms.
Riot held on tight to Rippa’s mech’s helmet as she transitioned to a standing position. The thrusters under her unit’s boots roared to life and began carrying them to the surface.
There was no question that the hive was coming down. Rocks ranging from the size of Riot’s fist to Rippa’s mech unit fell from the sides of the walls and rained down on them like a storm of hail.
Riot was struck violently, but managed to hold on. One particularly large fragment hit her in the back of her head, sending stars dancing across her vision.
“Almost through!” Rippa said to the team.
A moment later, they were past the worst of it. The tunnel below them collapsed, burying the Zenoth ship and any Zenoth survivor. Riot looked up to see the edge of the hive only a few hundred yards ahead.
“Prepare yourselves,” Ketrick yelled over the comms. “The fight is not yet done.”
“Wha … what are you talking about?” Riot looked over at Ketrick, who rode on the shoulder opposite her. He held on to Vet with one hand and his weapon in the other. “The ship is destroyed, so we completed the mission.”
Ketrick’s red eyes were a mask of stern severity. He shook his head and was about to say something, when Rippa started to talk.
“Our feeds were down while we were underground, but I’m getting word from the Dreadnaught now.” Rippa was quiet as she took in the information. When she came back over the comms a few moments later, her voice was strained like a cord about to break. “Get ready. The other strike teams sent to take out the other two ships haven’t been heard from. We have to expect the worst.”
Riot was full of questions, but before she could ask any of them, the Grovothe mech units crested the edge of the hive. Riot blinked while her helmet adjusted for the severity of the scorching sun.
Vikta was flapping her massive wings overhead as she flew in a circle over the exit point. The constant vigil she had promised over their escape route had remained intact.
Out in every direction, the desert-like planet was a sea of red sand. Too small to see with the naked eye but made visible by the technology in their heads-up display, a hive mound rose to the north. At the same time, a shadow approached from the east.
Rippa lowered as steadily as she could, along with the rest of the Grovothe on the sloping hill of the hive. They bent their knees and dropped the Marines to the ground.
Riot’s heart plummeted as the realization of what Ketrick had meant gripped her. Rippa’s words were made clear, as well.
A Zenoth ship, an exact duplicate from what they had been successful in destroying, was traveling to their location from the east.
“I’m opening the line,” Rippa said over her comms as she shouted orders to her Spartans. “Laser cannons need time to recharge. I know you’re low on ammo, but conserve what you have in your gauss forearm blasters.”
“The other two units haven’t responded since their attack, but with the emergence of the ships, we can assume they have failed,” General Tricon’s firm voice said over the comms. “I’m ordering the Dreadnaught in to take on the ships that have broken through the surface. Your job is to keep them preoccupied. Buy us enough time to get there. Don’t let them enter orbit.”
“He said two ships had broken through to the surface?” Riot scanned the horizon searching for the second. “I don’t see—”
To the north where the other hive was just barely visible, the ground was undulating. A Zenoth transport ship’s bulkhead broke through the sand.
“You had to say something,” Wang said from his position where he checked on Vet and Rizzo. “You just had to say something.”
“How is he?” Riot looked down at Vet. Wang had removed his helmet and was checking his vitals. More than anything, Vet looked like he was sleeping.
“That blast hit him pretty hard, but his armor protected him from the majority of the damage.” Wang bent down and hit a few buttons on Vet’s forearm control panel. “He’s unconscious, but his nanites are already at work. He’ll be fine once he wakes.”
Riot wanted to do more for Vet, but right now, there was no time. She turned to Rizzo, who sat with his helmet on next to Doctor Miller. “Rizzo, you ready to rock and roll?”
Nanites kicked in. Let’s do it! Rizzo said in big red letters over her heads-up display.
“How are we going to take the one in the sky as well as the one breaking through the ground?” Ragnar asked in his excited hyperactive tone. “We were barely strong enough to take down one.”
“We’ll find a way,” Rippa’s resolved voice answered back. A crack in her confidence showed as her next phrase came out a bit stressed. “We have to.”
22
“Let me and Vikta go.” Ketrick looked up to Rippa’s mech. “We can keep the airborne ship at bay until the Dreadnaught arrives.”
“What?” Rippa looked over at Ketrick.
“You heard me.” Ketrick was already motioning for Vikta. The dragon obeyed immediately, digging into the side of the hive hill with massive talons. “You showed the strength of your people, as did Riot and her Marines. Let me show you what the Trilords are made of.”
“Well, I guess we don’t have to much of a choice, since you have the only airborne asset at the moment.” Rippa looked over to Riot.
“If he says he can do it,” Riot said, hating the words coming out of her mouth, but understanding this w
as the only way, “then he can do it.”
“I still don’t like you, giant,” Rippa said over her comms. Her tone was lighter now as if she had a grin on her lips. “Go and make your people proud. If you come back, maybe we’ll let you dine at our tables.”
“Whatever you say, dwarf.” Ketrick climbed onto Vikta’s back. He looked to Riot and give her a wink before Vikta rose into the air, kicking up a maelstrom of sand.
In a flash, Ketrick flew off to meet the Zenoth ship headed in their direction. If Riot estimated correctly, it was no more than three klicks away.
“That leaves us with the ship breaking through the surface,” Riot said, pausing to give Rippa the space to lead the mission.
“Any ideas are welcome,” Rippa answered back, sensing the reason for the hesitancy in Riot’s words. “Now is not the time to be prideful. If you have any ideas, I’m open.”
“How long are those claws?” Riot asked, motioning with her chin to the three sword-length points that had receded into each of the Spartan’s fists. “The Zenoth won’t be able to travel in space if there are multiple holes breaching their hull.”
“I take your meaning,” Rippa said, already shouting orders to her unit.
Riot ignored Rippa’s shouts to her Spartans for the time being. She had her own unit to worry about.
“Weapons check,” Riot said, reaching over her own shoulder to unclip the war hammer from her back. “What do we have left for round two?”
Wang held the handle of his molten blade in his hand, along with a Destroyer T9 he had recovered from Vet who used it as a secondary weapon to his rifle. Rizzo produced a Cannon FP290 from his hip holster.
Doctor Miller still seemed stunned. She opened her hands, showing she had nothing.
“This will be enough,” Riot said. Hands on her hips, she worked out the details in her mind.
“Oh, almost forgot,” Wang said, reaching into the sides of either boot. He pulled out four throwing knives. He was an expert marksman with the blades and never left on a mission without them. “I’ve got the trusty foursome with me, as well.”
Click Click Boom (War Wolves Book 2) Page 14