Suicide Mission: Unity War Book 2

by C. G. Michaels

  Dark had fallen, and he wanted to sleep, but now would be the time to keep moving, when the desert had lost its relentless heat. He ate a small meal of MRE’s (worse than the food on the Takarabune; Temple would be appalled), took another drink, rested a moment longer. Then he refilled his canteen and dropped a purification tablet in it, put on his night vision goggles, and set off once more.

  He continued following the tire tracks, although by now the hangar had turned on a few lights, and these he could see easily in the starry night. But the truck’s tires went past the hangar, and it was the truck that interested him for the moment, because it was a truck that had come looking for him; it made sense that same truck would have picked up Jaden, An, or Fault, if they had been unable to resist.

  Morning arrived, a spectacular sunrise of pinks, oranges, peaches, and gold. Garner had passed the hangar in the night, careful to avoid anyone seeing him. Now he came to an area less flat, with more of the strange, dark plants that populated the alien desert. Garner paused to examine one, mostly because he needed to rest, but also out of curiosity. The dark leaves, so deep a green they were almost black, were shaped kind of like holly leaves, with little spines on each point. The base of the plant, a dark greyish brown, had deep grooves in the bark. He didn’t touch it in case it was poisonous, but when he knelt to get a closer look, he smelled a faint, sweetly spicy scent emanating from the leaves.

  As he sat there, he heard a small sound, or rather several: a quiet chunk chunk chunk, as of metal striking dirt. He was headed up a particularly high dune, and now he got down on his belly and crawled to the top, from where he could hide and better assess the situation.

  Thick scrub grew here, further concealing his presence. He put his pilot’s gloves on and carefully parted some leaves.

  Below lay a large expanse of dark, sandy dirt lined with vibrant green crops. That and a good section of the surrounding area stood bordered by barbed wire that gleamed viciously in the sunlight. At various points around the garden stood armed Snapper guards dressed in dark blue; one paced not ten meters from where Garner now lay.

  But what interested Garner the most were the people. Human people, squatting in the dirt and harvesting crops, their hands and knees filthy, their hair clinging to their sweat-soaked faces. Whenever one of them paused for too long, one of the guards poked them with a metal rod that buzzed and cracked when the guard activated it. The rod must have sent out a bolt of electricity, Garner supposed, because the tip of it would flash bright white, and the victim would cry out in pain.

  The aliens had made slaves out of the human prisoners. Anger closed a fist around Garner’s heart. So the aliens planned to conquer and enslave the human race, perhaps for the simple reason that they could. He wanted to burst out of the scrub and shoot every Turtle there.

  Then a familiar face caught his eye: high cheekbones, supple lips, dark hair that fell in waves around her shoulders. Jaden. She dug in the dirt, pretending obedience; but her gaze bounced from guard to guard, and to all the possible escape routes. She was biding her time. Beside her, Fault did the same. Garner scanned the farm over and over, but he didn’t see An. That concerned him, but it would have to wait; first, he had to free Jaden and Fault.

  He took off his emergency pack and stashed it in the sand near one of the shrubs, then began crawling soundlessly under the scrub, keeping his eye on all the guards. He had his Beretta out, but he knew it would do little good against the number of guards posted.

  He had to creep slowly, edging past guards, taking his time so he wouldn’t make a mistake and get spotted. After a bit, the scrub grew up against the barbed wire fence, and now he had to dig under the wire, forming a trench deep enough and wide enough for himself and each of the others to fit in. They’d have to go under one at a time; he didn’t dare chance making a wider trench, not with the guards so close.

  After he dug the trench, he slipped into it, grinding sandy dirt into his uniform and skin as he worked his way under the fence. At one point the barbed wire caught at his jacket, holding him there; he had to work his way backwards to get free, then start again. At last he crawled out from under the fence; here he ran out of cover and had to come out into the open. He chose a moment in which none of the guards had an eye in his direction, then slipped out and down the slope towards Jaden and Fault. He put away his pistol then, because if anyone saw him with a weapon, they’d know he wasn’t one of the slaves. He hoped none of the guards watched too closely.

  One of the slaves saw him and nudged Jaden’s elbow with her own. Jaden looked, saw Garner, and immediately checked on the guards. Then she and Fault quietly closed the distance between themselves and Garner.

  “Are you guys okay?” It was his first question, hushed and anxious. Despite himself, he looked at Jaden when he said it.

  “We ain’t dead yet,” Fault said. He had a garish bruise on one cheekbone and a black eye.

  “We’re just trying to get out of here,” said Jaden. Garner handed her his canteen, which he had slung over one shoulder. She drank thirstily, then handed the canteen to Fault.

  “Greedy,” he said. But it sounded more like teasing than an insult, and Jaden blushed. A pang of jealousy stung Garner’s pride.

  “Where’s An?” he asked.

  “We haven’t seen or heard from him,” Jaden said. “Wherever he is, he either isn’t in this compound, or he’s too hurt to work; and somehow I doubt the Snappers would keep him around if he couldn’t work.”

  Garner glanced around at the guards; so far, so good. “Let’s go, then,” he said quietly, and began leading them out the way he had come in.

  It seemed to easy; and it was. They made it all the way to the edge of the scrub when suddenly three guards stood in front of them, rods and weapons at the ready. One of them held Garner’s emergency pack, and he realized with a sinking feeling that they had let him penetrate their compound on purpose, so as to capture him like the others.

  He drew his gun—too late. One of the aliens swung a rod; it cracked against his face, opening his lips and making his jaw come alive with pain. Blood spilled; a spray of it darkened the sand and dribbled down his chin.

  The humans, on all fours, had a further disadvantage: none of them except Garner had a weapon, and Garner had just dropped his gun. Fault dove for it, but the aliens proved faster and jabbed him with the business end of one of the rods. The rod buzzed and cracked, its end turning brilliant white; and Fault went down.

  Jaden had taken Garner’s knife from his leg sheath and now sliced one of the guards’ hands open, sending dark blue liquid flying. The injured Turtle cried out, a sound as piercing as it was inhuman. Garner grabbed its wounded hand and squeezed, drawing another anguished cry from it, and it released the rod it held. Garner snatched it up, but had no idea how to work it.

  Fault got up, still clearly in pain, and made a grab for the nearest guard’s weapon. At the same time, Jaden lunged for a second guard; but the third alien raised its gun and fired between Jaden and Fault, only just missing either one of them.

  “Stop,” it said. But the fact that it now aimed its weapon straight at Jaden’s face did more than its words could. They all froze. One of the Turtles snatched up Garner’s knife and pistol, stashing them in its belt, then took the rod Garner held. The Snapper with the wounded hand narrowed its round eyes, its mouth turning down in anger. Garner had time to think that it was a strangely human expression when the alien chose to kick Jaden in the face.

  Garner felt the blow as if it had been he who had been struck. Jaden’s head rocked back; blood spurted from her nose and mouth.

  “You son of a bitch!” Fault went for the offending guard. Garner grabbed him, not because he didn’t agree with Fault’s reaction, but because the guard with its gun raised now had the weapon aimed at Fault. “Let go!” Fault twisted in Garner’s grasp. When he managed to break free, he glared at Garner. “Coward!”

  Garner wanted to take Fault’s head off for that remark, but he forced him
self to stay still. The guard with the gun watched closely and did not alter its aim.

  Two more guards had trudged up the hill. These guards also had rods and guns, and one of them now touched each of the humans in turn with its rod. Pain jolted through Garner, and he cried out. The alien with the injured hand kicked him in the jaw, sending stars sparking in his vision. He dropped to the ground, angry at Fault, angry at the aliens, and angry that he had just bitten his tongue.

  Three of the aliens kept their guns trained on the humans. The other two took turns beating and kicking their captives, something they did with such relish that Garner had to wonder if the entire race were bloodthirsty or if it was just a select few. He tended to think the former.

  When the aliens had had enough sport, they dragged the humans to their feet and taken down to the cell block. They walked for a bit in the cool of the building, although the walking the humans did was more like stumbling. At last they came to a satisfactory cell and were dumped in, all three of them. Garner felt the hard floor hit his aching body and groaned, but stayed put, even though he was lying on his sore right arm and a mass of bruises. It felt too good to stop moving to start again now, even if it was to get in a more comfortable position.

  A hole at the top of the cell let sunlight in. Aside from that, all lay dark.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  On the alien planet

  The Snappers paced back and forth above, their blue uniforms melting into the growing darkness, their sidearms glinting in the pale light of the dual alien moons. Fault kept catching glimpses of them as they passed in and out of his range of sight, both of them expressionless but alert. He wondered what they were thinking, and if they thought at all like humans.

  They must think a bit like humans, he figured, because they clearly understood them and knew their weaknesses. So maybe they had some of the same weaknesses.

  “Maybe we could climb the walls,” Garner said, quietly enough that the guards wouldn’t hear. His split lips made his words sound swollen.

  “Already tried that. They’re too sheer.”

  “Maybe in your last cell. It looks like there are some pretty big cracks in these stones that we could grab onto.”

  Fault got in Garner’s face. “An’ what are we gonna do when we get up there, genius? They’ll hear us comin’ an’ shoot us down before we’re halfway up.”

  Garner’s bruised jaw tightened. “You’re so smart, what do you suggest?”

  “I dunno, but there’s gotta be a better way than that!”

  “Look—!”

  “It’s your fault we got beat up, it’s your fault we got captured, an’ it’s your fault we’re in this goddamn hole! If you hadn’t been chasin’ after your stupid girlfriend—!”

  Garner punched him in the mouth for that, smashing his lower lip between his tooth and Garner’s fist and sending a spatter of blood flying. Fault lunged, and then they each had one another’s shirt fronts and were wrestling for the upper hand.

  “Enough!” Jaden forced her way in between them—not an easy task, as close as they now stood to each other. She placed a palm on each of their chests and pushed, glaring fiercely at both of them. She looked awful, Fault thought, with her puffy nose and mouth all covered with dried blood from where the alien had kicked her . . . but he still wanted to kiss her, even like that, even with her yelling at him. “We have to work together. Now shut up and let me think.”

  Garner and Fault both stepped back, Fault glad she didn’t try to make them apologize or shake hands or something. He probably would have done it for Jaden, and he didn’t want to. He went to the door and peered out, but everything lay in blackness beyond, without so much as moonlight to brighten it.

  He was wondering if they could trick a guard into coming into the cell—maybe pretend one of them had passed out and wasn’t breathing; if one of them could hide behind the door and attack when the guard came through, maybe the others could knock it out. But with what? They didn’t have anything heavy to use, and the Snappers were too tough to get knocked out with a punch, even a solid one. Maybe, instead of knocking it out, they could tackle it, then take its weapons . . . It might get suspicious when it didn’t see all of them, though. Maybe—

  The guards at the top of the hole started shuffling about. “Hear that?” one asked. They spoke again, too low for Fault to hear properly, but the jist of it was that they’d heard something moving nearby and were splitting up to check it out. They left their posts and went off elsewhere. Now would be the time to climb up and out of here, Fault thought, only he still had doubts they could to that.

  Garner apparently had the same idea, however, because he was already trying his hand at clawing his way up the wall, and Jaden joined him.

  “Psst!”

  They all exchanged glances. None of them had spoken.

  “Up here!”

  Fault and the others looked up. At the edge of the hole crouched An’s silhouette, the moonlight limning his shape so there was no mistaking he wasn’t a Snapper. “An!” Garner said. “Can you get us out?”

  “Here.” An dropped one end of a length of sturdy rope, the kind they all had had in their packs when the mission began. He’d tied a loop in it, like a hangman’s noose, for them to step into. “You first, Jaden. I’ve got this end wound around a tree, but you’re lighter, and it’d be easier for me to bring you up fast.”

  Jaden stepped into the noose, wrapped both fists around the rope. “Ready.”

  An drew her up as quickly as he could, Garner and Fault spotting her in case she should fall, and then the two of them followed suit. Fault impatiently climbed part of the way up the rope himself, but the process still took several minutes, and by the end, he had to wonder how they’d managed it. “Where are the guards?”

  An grinned. “I made some noise out in the brush over there. Then I waited with this”—he hefted a good-sized rock with a suspiciously red splotch on it—“and knocked them both out. They should be coming around any time now, though, so . . . ”

  Jaden gestured with a nod. “There they are now.”

  Fault gazed in that direction. The two aliens had emerged from the scrub that stood between the farm and the barbed wire fence on one side, both of them jabbering and looking unsteady. One of them put a hand to the back of its head and came back with a bloodied glove.

  “I don’t think they’ve figured it out yet,” An said. “They must still be woozy. Come on.” He gathered the rope and stuffed it in his pack while they ran, keeping their footfalls quiet as they’d been trained to do, and moving in the opposite direction to where the two guards stood.

  Fault’s ribs ached with every step from where the guards had played soccer with his body, but he ignored the pain, focusing instead on evading any other Snappers’s attention. It wasn’t easy; a few of them patrolled the farm even at this hour, although Fault couldn’t figure out what they were guarding against—escaping prisoners, he supposed, or possibly some form of dangerous wildlife. There didn’t seem to be anyone on the planet, at least not in this area, other than the Turtles and their captives.

  “That way.” An pointed out a small shed at the periphery of the farm. Fault could just make out the building in the light of the dual moons, a squarish storage place made out of stone and having a sloping, curving roof. A single guard stood next to the door. “That’s where your weapons and packs are being stored,” An said.

  “Should be easy enough to take that one out,” Fault said of the single guard.

  “I’ve still got this.” An held up his rock. “You go around and distract the Snapper so that it turns, and I’ll take it down.”

  “Why don’t you distract it, an’ I’ll take it down?” Fault was in the mood to hit something.

  “Whatever. Here.” An handed him the rock, and Fault tested its weight, balancing it for the best grasp. An sneaked around to one side, while Fault went around the other way, creeping up as close to the guard as he dared without letting himself be seen or heard. When
he was in place, he signalled An by whistling like a bird, and An began rustling about in the undergrowth like an animal . . . or possibly an escapee.

  The guard took the bait, swinging its big, round head in An’s direction, leaving itself vulnerable, and Fault brought the rock down on the back of its skull with a disconcerting crack!, drawing blood and toppling the alien, who went down without a sound. Garner and Jaden joined Fault and An, Jaden keeping lookout while An rummaged through the guard’s pockets and came up with an electronic key card. This he slid into a slot next to the shed’s door. A green light ran over the card, reading it, a click sounded, and the door opened.

  “An, you’d better keep watch from the back of the shed,” Garner said. “We can’t afford any surprises.”

  “I’m on it.” An left, and Jaden stayed where she was, while Fault and Garner went inside to retrieve their things. Laid from one end of the room to the other were Star Force uniforms, packs, personal belongings, guns, and the like. Where their own things lay in all this was anybody’s guess.

  “You start over there,” Garner said. “I’ll start over here. Pick up anything you think might be useful.”

  Fault pawed through some uniforms, discovered some packs hidden underneath, and separated four of them; they were all empty, but the team needed something to put supplies in. He found some all-purpose knives, too, and he strapped one to his leg right away, glad to have a weapon on him again.