In its anger and frustration, the demon retracted its blade and deployed its gun on its forearm. Then it shot the Marine at close range. In one of the first signs of petulance and frustration observed by the Marines, the demon shot the Marine again! The Marine was already quite dead from the first shot. There was no chance of missing at such a close range. The second simply made another hole in the Marine’s body, with blood slowly oozing out of the first hole. The angry outburst of the second demon had bought the rest of the Marines a few precious seconds, and more importantly had distracted the demon.
By the time the second demon noticed more Marines jumping towards it, they were already half way through their jump. This time the demon didn’t have the luxury of waiting for its target. There were eight Marines jumping towards it from three different directions, all were anchored to their tethers. The Marines on the outside, as well as the Marines exiting the breach at the tube had finally gotten their act together. Some had anchored themselves to the wire mesh, while the ones exiting the breach had anchored themselves to the tether lines attached between the breach and the grab rails of the hatch. Behind the eight Marines in midair, there were fifteen more Marines who had jumped and many more who were in the process of anchoring themselves to jump.
Both the demons realized that they were about to be swamped by the Marines. The first suited demon forgot about trying to dislodge Desmond and started shooting at the Marines. It Managed to kill two Marines before it was rammed hard by a jumping Marine. The second demon also managed to shoot two Marines before it was overwhelmed by the rest of the Marines. It was less of a slashing and stabbing fight and more of a comical zero G wrangling and wrestling match where two big beasts were being overwhelmed by many smaller pack animals. In a last desperate bid to escape, the demons let go of their hold of the grab rails and tried to use their jets to fly out of there. By this time however, many of the Marines had managed to latch their cattle prods on to the limbs of the demons.
The fight may have appeared comical from afar, but it was a grisly desperate fight up close. Marines finally had the satisfaction of being able to saw and amputate the demons’ limbs, hack into their soft neck and gouge their eye stalks. They managed to quickly finish off the two demons, but not before the demons hacked and slashed more Marines, killing one and grievously injuring two more. In addition, almost no Marine escaped the fight without one or more painful cut or puncture on their body.
Desmond in the meanwhile had managed to grab on to the tether of one of the Marines and reached the line connecting the breach to the hatch, where he had finally been able to anchor his loosely hanging tether. That simple act of anchoring gave him such a sense of security and relief, that it was only then that he realized that he had been holding his breath for who knows how long! He looked back at the scene of the fighting and realized that his Marines had it well covered, they didn’t need his help.
Desmond proceeded towards the open hatch. He called out Lt. Sharma’s name a few times but got no answer. He listened carefully after calling out each time, but instead of any human voice he could hear the faint sound of metal on metal grinding/cutting. Desmond realized what the engineer had done. The son of a gun had walked into that sphere and his own death to cut those cables! Desmond had asked him to figure out a way, but he hadn’t meant for the engineer to sacrifice his life! He didn’t know whether to be angry or proud of that geek. He had proved himself to be an e-Marine after all.
Chapter 15
The Ultimate Sacrifice
Second Compartment, Hunting Shell ‘Ravenous’
2205
The cutting head of the cattle prod seemed to have come to a standstill, while the sphere around him seemed to be spinning wildly. Lt. Sharma realized that it was the onset of another bout of nausea. He tried to close his eyes to get some relief, but it only made his head spinning worse. He quickly opened his eyes before he threw up once again. Lt. Sharma concentrated with whatever mental strength he had left to finish the cut. The cables had been hard to cut. Harder than he had anticipated. He had finished cutting six of them and was on to his seventh, or was this his sixth cut? In his addled state of mind, he couldn’t be sure.
What he was sure of though was that it was unlikely to be enough. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on, but he doubted it would be more than a few more minutes. May be if he was lucky, he would be able to finish this cut. If Pvt. Songathorn was making similar progress, then between the two of them they would still fall short of the target he had mentally calculated when they had just entered the sphere. At that time Lt. Sharma was still in a sharp frame of mind, able to do such calculations. The geometrical spread of the cables made him believe that if he could cut as little as twenty-four, probably no more than thirty-two of the cables, then it would be impossible geometrically for any computer to compensate and keep the central structure in place. He no longer recalled how he had made those calculations.
There were moments when he even forgot where he was. Random memories of his childhood kept jumping up in his mind, things that he thought he had long forgotten. The urge to lie down and go to sleep was overwhelming. So near, and yet so far… He wished he could go back to the hatch and ask for help in cutting a few more, but he was lost. He couldn’t orient himself in any direction. It would be impossible for him in the darkness even with the help of his suit light to find the hatch any more. He was suddenly overcome by a bout of grief and nausea. Grief not at the fact that he would die here. He had reconciled to that fact before entering the sphere. He was sad because he was going to die in vain. So near, and yet so far…
–XXX–
“Where is the other Engineer? The junior one?” Desmond hollered, as the Marines slowly started gathering around him latching themselves to the grab rails around the hatch. A few of the Marines were performing the grim task of pushing their dead comrades towards the breach in the tube. They didn’t want their dead friends to be floating around. It seemed more respectful to put them inside the tube.
“You mean Pvt. Songathorn, sir?” Someone asked to clarify.
“Yes, him.” Desmond affirmed.
“I think he followed Lt. Sharma inside, sir. He was here when the demons arrived, but he wasn’t here when the first suited demon jumped towards the hatch. I don’t think he fought with the demons. He was extremely dedicated to Lt. Sharma, and would have followed him anywhere. I think he went inside as well.” The Marine replied.
Desmond digested the information. Two of his engineers were inside trying to cut cables with cattle prods. They were unlikely to last much longer, and whatever damage the two engineers may have done inside till that point didn’t seem to have made a difference. Then a counterpoint struck Desmond. How could he tell if the engineers had made a difference or not? They didn’t even know what the sphere did, so how would they know when it had been sabotaged? He didn’t have any answers and missed Lt. Sharma even more at that moment. “Damn it lieutenant! I needed you most right now.” Desmond said under his breath.
With his heart rate and his mind calming down after the adrenalin rush of the battle, Desmond recalled the curious fact that the suited demons sacrificed the lives of their comrades. Instead of coming to their aid, they jumped to prevent humans from entering the hatch. They even tried to pull the engineers out of the hatch in vain. Was Lt. Sharma on to something? If protecting the hatch was worth sacrificing two demon lives, surely it must be important!
Desmond’s thoughts were interrupted by events that all the Marines had been dreading, but knew sooner or later had to come to pass. “Elevators active! Coming from all directions!” Desmond heard a Marine shout. Another Marine, probably with enhanced sight, shouted. “Elevators on the far wall of the compartment also active! The demons are climbing from both the walls of the compartment. They are going to come at us from both ends of the tube!”
Desmond knew that hordes of demons would descend upon them sooner or later, although he was hoping it would be later. Yet, watching th
em come filled him with a sense of dread and an ominous foreboding of the inevitability of the Marines’ fate. There were eight lines of elevator radially spread on each of the two walls of the compartment that could bring elevators up to the central axis from the surface below. The elevator lines were evenly spread at an angle of forty-five degrees. Desmond could make out two and in some cases three elevators rising on the same line one behind the other. Such train of elevators were converging towards the axis from all eight directions.
Each elevator seemed to have between four and six demons, although it was hard to tell the exact number from their current distance. Desmond knew that the flow of demons from those trains of elevators wouldn’t ebb. Hundreds, and if needed thousands, of those demons would descend upon the Marines. The end game of their daring raid on the Goliath ship was upon them, and there was no path that led anywhere but to the complete slaughter of the Marines.
Could he retreat to the previous compartment? There wasn’t enough time. Even if they had the time, their suits were no longer prepared for the passage through the radiation filled tube connecting the two compartments. Most Marines would perish trying to cross over to the previous compartment. Even if they managed to evacuate back to the devastated third compartment, then what?
The demons would still have a reasonably functioning ship. They would eventually move out to the devastated compartment and systematically wipe out the Marines there. The Marine invasion of the Goliath ship would have been for nothing! Worse than that fact was the fact that humanity had no more cards to play. No more counterstrikes possible. This would be the end of human resistance, and possibly the end of humanity! His life and the lives of the Marines were immaterial given the terrible consequences of failure.
He couldn’t retreat. He had to double down and play his card, and right now there was only one likely ace that he had in his hand. It was a blind game, he couldn’t be sure about the cards he had, but he had no other option than to play it!
“Major Winston, as company commander and the ranking officer out here, you will be the CO for the fight here. We defend this hatch at all costs. Get more Marines to double time through the radiation filled passage. If you are incapacitated during the fight, the command will flow down the chain of command. Is that clear?” Desmond asked the big blond Marine near him.
“Sir, yes sir!” She replied in regulation military style. Her steely eyes not betraying the fear that she felt inside. Then softly she asked Desmond. “Sir, how long do you think we will be able to hold of those demons?” It wasn’t a challenge to Desmond, but more of a plea. The e-Marines were the toughest of the tough, but going up against that many demons was clearly madness.
“Long enough Major, long enough!” Desmond replied with confidence that he didn’t feel in his heart. Then he shouted out loudly at the steadily gathering stream of Marines. “I want as many volunteers as I can get to follow me into that hatch. I want you to know that you won’t be coming back. So, should any one of you choose to follow me, make your peace now. Oh… and I need one of your cattle prods, I lost mine in battle.”
“Sir, you are needed here for the fight! I should be leading them inside the hatch!” Major Winston protested.
“No Major. Fate has brought us to this situation and assigned specific tasks to all of us. Your destiny is to lead the Marines in this battle. It is my destiny to lead them into the hatch. You should know why.” Then softly he continued replying to Major Winston. “We need as many volunteers as possible, which is why I have to lead in there. I hope you understand. I am not one to run away from a battle, especially not one that promises to be as legendary as this one. I hope you understand Major.”
There was a hint of moisture in her eyes as Major Winston nodded her understanding.
“Pvt. Ningoyo, you severely injured and badly hemorrhaging!” Desmond objected as he saw the injured Marine prepare to wriggle into the hatch.
“I know that sir. How long do you think I have to live? I cannot fight, but I can cut! Please let me die fighting, sir!” Pvt. Ningoyo pleaded.
Desmond understood and nodded. In any case, at that moment he would take any volunteer he could get. They would give Lt. Sharma’s idea the best shot of success by cutting as many of the wires as possible. If it didn’t make any difference, then at least the Marines would have died trying. A total of five volunteers including Desmond entered the hatch. The last of the Marine entered the hatch just as the first onslaught of the demons descended upon the Marines defending the hatch. Desmond said a silent prayer for his Marines. It was going to be a slaughter. May his Marines give a good account of themselves before they died.
The strategy of the Marines was simple. They would fight next to the hatch, anchored near it. That way, the demons were less likely to fire their guns at the Marines and risk damaging the sphere. The Marines would not give the demons the opportunity at any cost to be able to position their backs towards the sphere and face the Marines outwards. If the demons managed to do that, then they were much more likely to shoot their deadly needle guns and decimate the Marines, who didn’t have weapons to fire back.
From a distance, the area around the hatch of the sphere looked like a beehive, with tiny bee sized Marines swarming all around the hatch a few layers deep. Steady stream of Marines emerged from the central axis tube to take up positions in and around the already crowded hive. When a demon jumped on to the Marines’ position, the imagery of a hive was reinforced further.
From far, each demon seemed to initially create a ripple on the surface of the massed Marines. The demon would soon be swamped by Marines. It would seem as if the hive had swallowed the demon, only to be spit out after a minute or two, dead and floating away towards the surface. There would be a Marine or two who would have perished along with the demon, but being anchored the bodies of those Marines would float and bob around the hive, adding to the dense mass of human bodies and creating more confusion for the attacking demons.
As long as the demons attacked in small bunches, a few pairs at a time, the Marines had a relatively acceptable formula. They were killing and stopping demons. It couldn’t last forever, because the Marines were losing a similar number of their own, but the Marines could hold their position for a reasonable time at the current attrition rate. After the first few batches of slaughtered attackers, the demons realized this fact as well. They stopped jumping on to the Marine hive immediately on arrival. Instead they stood at the edge and gathered together, assembling a larger mass of their own attackers.
For the first time the demons were treating their human adversary with respect and approaching them with a healthy measure of caution and circumspection. They had come to realize that these human invaders were different from the humans they normally encountered on Earth, whom the demons looked down with a certain amount of contempt for being so weak and vulnerable. These humans were stronger, faster and they did not fall so easily even when badly injured. Yet these humans were just as cunning as the humans on Earth. It made these humans potent fighters to be accorded both respect and caution while fighting. The demons realized that they were fighting the human equivalent of ‘Super Hunters’. Yet the demons were impatient. The first lot didn’t wait long enough.
The demons waited till there were about twenty of them gathered at the edge before they jumped. It wasn’t enough. The ‘hive’ of over two hundred Marines could absorb them. Although it was tougher, and most of the Marines had to get into the melee, but they could dispatch the group of demons in a similar way as the smaller groups before, suffering similar losses as before.
Having learnt their lesson, the next lot of demons waited. The demons waited till they were well over a hundred of them in the group before they launched their next assault. The wait had given time for a few more of the Marines to join the hive but it wasn’t enough. This was the decisive assault from the demons that would break the human hive. Even if the Marines could kill many of the demons, they would not be able to kill them in time to tackle
the next wave. As if sensing this, the next wave of demons didn’t wait to form larger groups. Instead they reinforced the assault by jumping in groups of five or ten.
This was the definitive assault that would manage to slaughter each and every Marine in the hive, and it wasn’t going to take the demons too long either. It would be just a matter of a few more minutes. In the heat of the battle, when it was every man for himself, struggling to stay alive while slowly watching fellow Marines fall and the human hive being decimated, the fighting Marines didn’t notice an amazing development till all of them were literally hanging from their harness. They were no longer weightless!
Major Valerie Winston wasn’t sure of what was happening. She wasn’t sure of anything for that matter. Everything was a haze. In fact, it took a few moments for her to realize that she was alive! She shouldn’t have been alive, she was on the foremost layer of the hive. She should have been long dead along with her many fallen comrades. Yet, here she was, alive and being able to contemplate her condition. Thinking about her condition wasn’t a good idea. She couldn’t even begin to count the number of places she had been injured. Any movement caused searing pain, and now having to hang from her tether forced her to twist her body inflicted a bitch of a shooting pain on her back.
Game Reserve: Earth (Shaitan Wars Book 5) Page 32