by M. R. Forbes
“Max, anything?” Caleb asked.
“Negation.”
Something is down there, Caleb. It’s blocking me from the Collective.
Caleb didn’t like the sound of that. Anything strong enough to keep he and Ishek off the Collective promised to be a lot to handle on its own, never mind whatever backup was preventing Ishek from being able to sense it.
“Keep trying,” he said. “Alpha, Beta, Ishek says there’s something down there.”
“Can you be more specific?” Nathan asked.
“No. But I don’t think it’s anything we’ve seen before.”
“Fascinating,” Nathan replied sarcastically.
“Alpha, I’m pulling out,” Isaac said. “Heading east to the other side of the mountains.”
“Roger, Parabellum,” Hayden said. “We’ll meet you there.”
Assuming we survive.
Watching the ground approach, Caleb ignored Ishek’s pessimistic comment. Two thousand meters to go. They were angling toward the center of the city, but he wanted to do more to make a difference. “It would be nice if you could give me a location, Ish.”
It will hurt.
“Just do it.”
The sudden pressure nearly caused Caleb to lose consciousness. He began to spin in the air, falling instead of diving, his body momentarily going limp.
“Caleb?” Max said, noticing immediately.
The pressure vanished almost as quickly as it had come, but a lingering burn spread across his body. He struggled and failed miserably to regain control of his limbs, tumbling off course across the sky.
“Caleb!” Max shouted, watching the human tumble out of control across the sky.
Caleb could hear the Intellect, but he couldn’t respond. His mouth was numb. What the hell did you do to me, Ishek?
It was a defense. I couldn’t defeat it. I’m sorry.
Caleb’s heart pounded and he gritted his teeth, trying with everything he had to reacquire control of his body. The city was getting large below, and if he hit the ground at this speed, even the Advocate couldn’t save them.
But Max could.
The Intellect wrapped its arms around him, pulling him violently around to face him. He wrapped his arms around Caleb’s arms and his ankles around Caleb’s.
“Activate the Skin,” Max told him. “Or we’ll both be destroyed. Hahaha. Haha.”
Caleb froze for a moment, his mind still a few seconds behind. Then he squinted his eye, navigating the Skin’s menu to the new deployment.
The top layers of nanocells along the Skin began to reconfigure, forming into a thin film that stretched from the top of his wrists down to his ankles. The film caught the air and held it, the extra surface area suddenly slowing their fall.
“Good. Now pick a landing spot.”
Caleb eyed the city below. No movement. No sign of the enemy. Nothing on his HUD. But something was down there.
And thanks to Ishek, he realized he knew where.
53
Nathan
Nathan and the Centurions moved through the streets, having swapped their leapfrog for a diamond formation, with Lucius facing the rear. It was a slower, safer approach, one that left them covered no matter where the enemy appeared.
“Alpha, I’m pulling out,” Isaac said over the general comms. “Heading east to the other side of the mountains.”
Sheriff Duke responded, so Nathan didn’t bother. A quick check of his HUD showed Nathan the dropship was leaving the theater, heading off to hide from the coming storm.
Rico had come to Earth to warn them that a Relyeh assault was imminent, but Isaac had said ships. Plural. This wasn’t the warship they were all expecting. The warship that would be days ahead of schedule if it arrived now. This was something else.
A preemptive strike? Or had Krake or Hanson gotten word to Vyte that they were in trouble, and this was the result? Either way, they had twenty minutes to make something happen, and then they were going to be in deep shit.
“General, look,” Jesse said, motioning with her hand.
Nathan looked up, spotting the small shapes of Caleb and Max as they dove through the sky, headed for the center of the city—still a couple of klicks ahead. The original plan had called for them to jump in once the fighting had already started, landing in the greatest area of need and taking the enemy by surprise. The arrival of the ships had scrapped that idea, forcing them to jump early and leaving them as a tertiary part of the regular attack force.
“Oh no,” Jesse said as one of the shapes lost the smoothness of its dive and began rotating in the sky, tumbling and falling awkwardly.
Caleb.
At first, Nathan thought the Marine was unconscious, but the ATCS registered him as green. Awake and alert. He kept watching as Max changed its vector and streaked across the sky, grabbing Caleb and holding fast. Then they vanished behind one of the buildings.
“Let’s find them, Centurions,” Nathan said, adjusting the plan. He hadn’t seen the outcome of the landing, but considering Caleb’s unexpected situation there was a good chance he was in trouble.
The Centurions stayed with him as he angled to the southeast, following the marks of the two members of Delta Squad on his HUD. Caleb’s status was still green, indicating he was okay, but Nathan had already seen Caleb suffer for reasons completely unrelated to anything physical.
“Nathan.”
The voice came from the alley to Nathan’s left. Nathan turned toward it, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the figure standing in the shadows.
“What are you doing here, Nathan?” James said, stepping out of the darkness. He was wearing powered armor similar to Nathan’s own, though there were score marks and burns along the outside of the shell, in the exact spots where Nathan had once created them.
“James?” Nathan said, coming to a stop in the middle of the street.
“General?” Spot said. “What’s going on? Why did you stop?”
“You shouldn’t be here, brother,” James said. “This is no place for you.”
Nathan stared at his clone-twin. In his logical mind, he knew James was dead and couldn’t really be here. But his logical mind suddenly wasn’t guiding him.
Something else was.
“General?” Jesse said.
“This is a place for the dead, Nathan,” James said. “A place of death. I’m dead because of you.”
“I had to,” Nathan said. “Sheriff Duke—”
“Sheriff Duke?” James hissed. “Really? You picked some crazy Earther over your own brother?”
“You were trying to bring the Others to enslave us.”
“That would’ve been better than what you’ve got now, don’t you think?”
“General,” Jesse said. “Whatever you see, it isn’t there.”
“Hallucinating,” Spot said. “But the Axon isn’t here yet.”
“Unless there’s another one nearby,” Lucius said.
“Yeah, but where?” Jesse said.
Nathan didn’t notice what they were doing, but he could hear their questioning voices behind him. He was hallucinating. Part of him knew that. But he couldn’t help himself.
“You can’t be here, Nathan,” James said. “This is a place for the dead. Unless…”
James trailed off, his eyes dropping suggestively to the magazine of grenades connected to Nathan’s rifle.
“No,” Nathan said. “You aren’t real. I’ve dealt with this shit before. I’m not going for it.”
He closed his eyes. This wasn’t real. He could beat the weapon if he stayed focused. The hallucinations were powerful, but they weren’t unbreakable. He could overcome them.
He had to overcome them.
He opened his eyes. James was still there, laughing at him.
“Screw you,” Nathan said.
“No, Nathan,” James replied. “Screw you.”
“Reaper!” Lucius shouted behind him.
Nathan spun around, reacting to the call.
<
br /> Except his HUD was clear.
He faced Lucius, who had his rifle pointed at him. “Reaper!” he shouted again, finger moving on the trigger.
Nathan took a subconscious step back as Lucius started shooting, his rounds hitting Nathan’s armored shell, which flared with blue energy as the shields Max had given him activated, deflecting the bullets without letting them even scuff the alloy.
“Reaper!” Spot shouted, adding to the chaos by jumping away from him as if a reaper had suddenly appeared in their midst. She started shooting too, her bullets pounding the energy shield.
Nathan lunged toward Lucius, reaching for the Centurion’s rifle with his free hand. Lucius swung away, trying to retreat.
“Reaper!” Spot cried out again. Only her aim had changed. Her bullets ripped past Lucius, a few of the rounds hitting his armor.
“Damn it,” Nathan growled. He tackled Spot, dragging her to the ground. “Stop!”
“General,” Jesse said softly. Nathan looked up. Jesse wasn’t facing him. She was looking at something else in the distance. Something that caused her to drop her rifle and reach for her helmet.
“Jesse, it isn’t real,” Nathan said. “Buckets on, Centurions!”
She grabbed her helmet in one hand and dropped it to the ground. Her other hand was reaching for her sidearm.
Spot writhed beneath Nathan, trying to pull herself out from under him. From under the reaper she believed he was. Lucius rose from cover, aiming at him. Jesse continued to raise her sidearm toward her head.
“Help me,” she said softly.
Nathan’s heart pounded, his head throbbing. He could still see James near the alley.
“You had your chance, Nathan,” James said.
“No,” Nathan replied. There was one way to stop the neural disruption. It was temporary, but maybe it would be enough.
He activated his armor’s external speakers, cranking them up and coughing. The sharp sound caused the speakers to squeal, and the sudden noise neutralized the neural disruptor, causing the hallucinations to fade. James disappeared while Jesse lowered her hand, turning her head toward Nathan with a terrified expression on her face.
She was right to be terrified, but for the wrong reasons.
Nathan slowly pulled himself to his feet, looking around. His HUD was suddenly active. Very active.
The hallucinations had been a distraction. A means to an end, not an end in itself.
Nearly two dozen real flesh and blood reapers surrounded them, ready to pounce.
54
Hayden
Hayden was looking back at the city when Caleb and Max broke through the clouds. He checked the time, and then his HUD, matching the positions of the various units and trying to estimate how the inception was going to play. The incoming alien ships were a complication he would never have expected, making an already stressful situation all the more intense.
According to Isaac, the Axon was still on the move, driving up the highway toward the ruined city right on schedule. It was due to pass Bennett’s position within the next two minutes, while the alien spacecraft were still fifteen minutes out.
That would leave them twelve minutes to stop Krake, take back the interlink and get somewhere, safely undercover before the ships arrived. There was no question they were headed for this position. No doubt they had timed their arrival with Krake’s.
But why?
It didn’t make a lot of sense. If there was a portal in the city, Vyte didn’t need ships to ensure the interlink made it off-world. All Krake had to do was step through it and shut it down, and both the Axon and the interlink would be completely out of their reach.
Maybe he was wrong. Maybe the ships weren’t here specifically for Krake.
Maybe they were just the start of something else.
Something bigger.
The xaxkluth had been the first wave, made to remove the competition in the form of the trife. Ordered to take out the largest human threats and the biggest and more powerful settlements. Not only Edenrise and Sanisco but wherever they were around the world. With that done, they could begin to terraform the planet. To start weaving webs of hardened ichor and prepare the world for the coming of the Hunger.
The Relyeh didn’t have unfettered access to Axon portals. Even Vyte couldn’t send entire armies through the doors. He had to have those armies in a place with a portal to send to a place with a portal. The ships were the second option. The other method of transportation to a planet.
First, the Hunger subdues the planet.
Then they enslave it.
The ships were carrying the next wave. Now that pockets of survivors were more isolated from one another than ever, a new, more intelligent Relyeh race could begin to harvest those pockets, rounding up survivors as resources to feed into their universe-spanning machine.
The thought made Hayden’s blood run cold. They would need a lot more than a couple dozen ships, but what if there were a lot more out there, either further behind the vanguard or spreading around the planet, preparing to strike?
After two centuries of clinging to survival and fighting for hope, would Earth crumble within a matter of days?
Not if he could help it.
“Sheriff, I’ve got a visual on the car,” Bennett said, his sharp voice breaking Hayden out of his reverie. His head whipped back to the south. He couldn’t see the car yet, but it had appeared on his ATCS, marked through his helmet as a red dot in the distance.
He moved over the pile of discarded wrecks, getting even closer to the road. Timing was everything. They had fourteen minutes from now to finish the mission and get the hell out.
And then what?
Could they get the data they needed and find a means to make the interlink work for them? Could they use it to destroy the xaxkluth the way they had planned? Would it even matter? The xaxkluth were only one Relyeh race. They would have to do more than that.
But it was a start, and he wasn’t going to give up. He wasn’t going to let his family die for nothing.
“Alpha Squad, get ready,” he said into the comm. “The package is in the zone.”
He expected a series of confirmations to follow from Alpha, but no one replied.
“Alpha, do you copy? Confirm ready.”
Nothing.
Hayden glanced at the situation map. Drake, Rico, and Bennett were still in position. They were available on the network. Why weren’t they responding?
Then Drake moved suddenly, his mark on the map going forward, too close to the edge of the raised highway where he had perched. Hayden swung his head back to get visual on the position.
Just in time to watch the Centurion leap from the platform, fall ten meters, and crash into the rubble below. His body rolled down the side of the debris, his status marker turning red in Hayden’s helmet.
What the hell?
“Rico,” Hayden said. “Do you copy? Come in.”
He spun around, looking for signs of the enemy. Drake was hallucinating. It was the only thing that made any sense. But Krake was still too far out to use neural disruption as a weapon, and there was nothing else here. Or was there? If Rico and Bennett were affected, there would have to be at least two or three Axon in the area.
“Damn it,” he cursed, looking back down the road. Krake was still bearing down. Getting closer.
“Hayden.”
Natalia’s voice stole his attention, forcing him to turn again. He saw her there, in the middle of the road in full combat armor minus the bucket, rifle in hand and ready to join the fight.
“Nat?” he said.
“I thought you could use some backup.”
“Nat, you can’t be here.”
Natalia smiled. “I can’t let you do this alone. They killed Hallia, Hayden. They killed Ginny.”
Tears sprang into Hayden’s eyes. “I know.” He stared at her, soaking in her face. “I’ll make them pay for that.”
“We’ll make them pay,” Natalia corrected, raising her rifl
e and swinging the muzzle toward him.
Hayden’s eyes narrowed. He glared at Natalia, a tide of anger rising within him. This was a trick. A damn, dirty trick. He had dealt with the Axon hallucinations before. He wasn’t immune to them. Not really. But he was sick and tired of their bullshit.
“No. Whoever you are, I’m coming for you, you son of a bitch. I’ve just got some other business first.”
Then he pivoted, turning south and drawing his revolvers. The anger increased his blood pressure. It released adrenaline. It made his head pound, interrupting the signals the Axon were flinging to make him see things that weren’t there. He couldn’t get rid of them, but he could identify them for what they were.
The modbox was directly ahead of him now and closing fast. Too fast. Hayden opened fire, a dozen rounds loosed from the pair of guns inside of three seconds, each of them punching into the cage wrapped around the car, four of them piercing the windshield beyond the metal and powering through. One of them hit the Axon driver, too surprised to activate its shields in time. The round hit the edge of its face, leaving a deep gash through its Skin and drawing blood from its face.
Krake didn’t flinch, the car roaring as it accelerated a little more. Hayden dropped his guns and jumped, tucking his shoulder as the modbox barreled into him. His augment slammed into the cage over the windshield, crumpling the metal bars inward until physics pushed him up and over the roof. He spun in the air, the vehicle continuing beneath him as he reached out in a desperate grab.
He grabbed onto one of the spikes protruding from the trunk and held on as tightly as his augment would allow. He was jerked to a sudden, painful stop, the momentum wrenching at the already damaged control ring and threatening to rip the limb away.
The physical pain was worse than anything he had ever felt before, and it intensified as his body swung down and hit the back of the car, the spikes there scraping against his combat armor, one of them punching through and impaling his leg.