by T S Weaver
Everyone, including Stone, watched her. Faces sober.
“We have a job to do, and he wouldn’t want us to linger. Not on his behalf. He’s no longer with us in body, but you can bet, no matter what your beliefs, he’s watching us. I, for one, have no desire to have a disappointed Gunnery Sergeant chasing me down because we let him down.” A band wrapped itself around her heart, tears tried to spill, but her voice remained steady. “Let’s get this done.”
“Oorah.” The reply came from all of them, including the civilians.
“Got the rifles, Sergeant.” Walker held up the bundle.
“It’s a start.” The weapons would give them an edge. Under normal circumstances, anything which might damage the dome wouldn’t be used, but it no longer mattered. The dome no longer held oxygen in place, and the only reason they hadn’t floated off into space, or at least were still able to run, move and hide with their rate of pace was because the gravity units worked, at least for now. Not being a tech, she had no clue how it worked when the dome had been damaged, she merely accepted it did and continued on with her work. She activated her comm and double checked the channel. “We’re heading out in ten minutes. Will be there soon. Stay tight.”
“Understood.”
She closed the channel. The kids were smart enough not to engage in chit chat on the open line. Better than many adults she’d dealt with.
“John Clarkson?” Had she remembered the name?
The pale skinned, nervous civilian lifted one trembling hand. “Yes, Sergeant?”
“I need you to stay with Walker, he’s trained with the rifle, and can help you if you need assistance.” She inclined her head in Walker’s direction. “Stone, you’re with me.”
“Oh, thank God,” he said as relief chased away the shadows across his eyes. “Thought I’d have to figure it out on my own.”
“Not how we work, Clarkson.” No one else needed special assistance, not from the small amount of information she’d been able to gather from the civilians. Liam Somner had weapons and explosives experience, and Virgil Power had time spent in private security, though going by his gut he was more a desk man of late. Harvard inclined his head and tapped the rifle he held. Navy or not, the man had enough training to fall into line.
“I won’t let you down.” Clarkson offered a weak smile.
“I have faith in you.” More than she had in Stone.
Full suits waited for the group. With practiced ease Cora stepped into the environmental suit, closing it up as she went along, but waited until the others were ready before she reached for one of the rifles, slid the energy pack in place and checked the weapon. The skin between her shoulder blades itched, and she didn’t have to turn to know Stone had joined them. Meant she wouldn’t have to drag him out. “There’s a suit for you, should fit.” She gestured to the remaining ones. “We’re leaving in five.”
He grunted but didn’t argue.
The man was a problem. Sooner or later they would get into it, beyond a single thrown punch. As long as he waited until they were safe to throw his punch, she didn’t care. The fight would settle things between them. But this wasn’t the time, nor place, for a full out brawl. He wouldn’t fight fair either, not that she planned on fighting anything but no holds barred. She was, after all, a marine, and there were always those who wanted to cause problems. Fighting by the book you kept to the ring. Any other time, you fought as if your life depended on it because one day it would.
“We stay alert. Any sign of alien life you alert me. We can’t ever forget we’re no longer alone. What they want with us, why they’re here, none of it matters. We get to the Rooster, find the survivors, and bring them back. If we stumble across information, we can send back to Earth, great, but it’s not our primary goal.” She let her gaze move over the assembled men. What had happened to the other marines in the colony? Where they fighting back? Or dead? A hundred questions rolled through her mind. She pushed the voices away, locked down the questions, and refused to follow them down the dark alleyways such ideas always led to.
“Sergeant, if there’s one group of survivors, there have to be others. Maybe at the base,” said Walker.
“We don’t know, and until we do, we act as if this group is the last knot of survivors in the colony. Got it?”
“Yes, Sergeant.” His gaze flickered in Stone’s direction, then away.
“All right, let’s get this done. Stone, you’re with me.” She’d told him once, but he hadn’t replied. Merely given her a hard glare.
“Understood,” he said.
Grunts and obedience were safer than arguments.
“Keep low, keep tight, and no comm chatter. Emergency communications only.” She pushed the helmet in place, slammed the face plate down and punched in the security code.
It was time.
“Wake up.”
Small hands patted his cheeks. The same person who’d spoken? He didn’t recognize the voice. Had he fallen asleep at his station again? He tried to ignore the voice. He didn’t want to wake up, not even if being caught asleep would get him in trouble. Which it would if he was at work. And where else would he be?
“Mister, you need to wake up.”
Zac groaned and opened his eyes. A pair of young pale blue eyes stared back at him. Soft brown curls added an air of innocent to the pre-teen, and he tried to remember what a kid was doing in the comm room. “I’m awake. Don’t tell Laura, will you.” Sleep, what was wrong with grabbing extra naps when he had the chance. Not as if anything happened out here. A few traders, new colonists, and the occasional asteroid. “Few more minutes, Laura doesn’t need to know.”
“Who?” The girl frowned.
“He’s confused, give him a minute.” An adult male, or at least one whose voice had broken. “Takes a bit to come around after a blow.”
“Don’t want them coming back before he’s awake. Wouldn’t want one of them to be the first thing you see.” A second man
A voice he knew. No, not know exactly, but he’d heard it before. Where though? Them? Memory crashed back into being. The attack. Laura and Haden dead. The dome fractured. His hands moved to his chest. No suit. Where the hell was his environmental suit? He sat up, hands still patting at his chest and legs. “What happened to my suit?”
“They remove them when we’re transferred from the cubes to this,” the girl explained. “Charlie told me they stripped a few of us at first, then changed to taking only the suits and any tech.”
“Charlie?”
“That would be me,” the man who’d spoken before explained. “Kid is Iris. Other bloke is Matthew. He came in with you. You’ve been out for a while now. Couldn’t tell you how long. They take anything tech from us.”
“I’m stuck here because I tried to save his stupid ass instead of taking care of myself,” Matthew replied. “Should have known better. Civilians don’t know how to deal with all of this crap. Should have stayed hidden.”
“You’re outnumbered here, Marine,” Charlie explained, his voice steady.
“For now. There’ll be others on their way. If they know there are survivors, they’ll be working on a plan. We won’t be left on our own. You watch, when the Marines kick ass, there’s nothing of the enemy left in our way.”
Zac rubbed his eyes and tried to ignore the banter. “Hazy.” Did Matthew know what he was saying? No, nothing but bluster. He’d dealt with Marines before, often drunk after spending a few days leave trolling their way from one bar to another, most of them only quasi-legal at best.
“Will be, you were hit with a stunner. Least, I’m assuming it’s what they used. Not like they explain anything to us. Energy. Knocked us out. Wake up sluggish and with a shadow across our vision. It fades though, in under an hour.” Charlie sat on the plain white floor, his back to a matching wall. “You were in comm when this went down?”
“Yeah,” he tried to see the man, but he was too far away to be more than a man-shaped blur. “We didn’t stand a chance. One minute they
were on the edge of the screen, the next they were close enough to hail.”
“And did you?”
“Of course, but we got no response. By the time we realized they lacked transponders and were heading for us, it was already too late. They were on us. I swear, less than five minutes between them appearing on the scanners and launching their first strike.” He turned his head, slowly, uncertain how his stomach would react to any sudden movements. A dozen other figures sat or leaned against a wall. One lay on the floor in the far left corner, and Iris sat close to the right. “Iris, where are your parents?”
“Don’t know. I woke up and couldn’t find them. Sirens woke me.” Her bottom lip trembled.
No, he didn’t need a crying kid. “They’ll be fine. Maybe they’re in another cell?” A cell with no entrance or exist. Only bare walls, floor, and ceiling. He strained to listen, hoping to hear signs of life from nearby cells. If there were any others close at hand. Shit, he didn’t know. “Don’t give up hope.”
She chewed on the inside of her lip, then nodded. “I won’t. Charlie said the same thing. Unless we see a body, they could still be alive.”
“The Navy,” asked Charlie.
“Hah, you want to rely on the flyboys? If they saw what was going on, they did nothing to help us. Not like the rest of the marines, if they are still alive, then they’re fighting.”
He struggled to recall what he’d seen. “One ship on the ground, not a big one. Wasn’t on duty when it landed.” He kept out of what the Navy was doing when he had the choice. Laura had been better at handling interactions with the Navy crews. “Another two vessels in close orbit. I didn’t see what happened to them. We got the alert out, might be they caught it, or they were fighting the new arrivals. Three ships against one wouldn’t be easy. Three against a ship they outmatch in speed and maybe weaponry? Odds aren’t in our favor.”
“Least we can hope the navy got the word out to the UTG.”
“Marine, Navy, civilian. I don’t care who got the word out, as long as Earth’s been warned. These creatures took out the colony in less than what, two hours? If that? With what, three ships? Shit, they’ll be able to do the same with the rest of the colonies, and then they’ll turn their attention toward Earth. We better hope the UTG is ready for this because we weren’t.” Matthew scowled as he leaned against the wall. “They could take out the entire infrastructure back home before we have the manpower in place to strike back.”
“Hope. Damn, you’ve been throwing that word around a lot.”
Charlie shrugged. “It’s all we’ve got. Might as well put it to use.”
Stone kept his comments behind clenched teeth. Diving into it with Lawbook wasn’t going to happen any time soon. No, they’d settle their differences when they were far away from Pluto and the aliens. If she died along the way, so be it. He’d win. Life, after all, was the biggest prize. Lawbook wouldn’t survive long. She was military, they put themselves in danger in order to save the lives of others. And she no longer had Gunny to act as a sounding board, or pull her back from the brink. He wasn’t going to take the dead man’s place by trying to give her advise, not the type of mistake he would ever allow himself to make.
She wouldn’t listen to him regardless.
No, instead he’d let the sergeant get away with hitting him. But the men he knew from the darker circles he moved in, wouldn’t have left the matter at the first punch. Why hadn’t she finished it? With the Gunny’s death, she had to feel something about his loss and would need an outlet to clear her head and heart. God knows he would want to beat a target to a pulp if he’d lost a good friend. Or a man he respected.
Was she human?
Or one of those people who buried emotions until they had a safe outlet for it?
Not that he wanted to be around when she blew up. Tears. He couldn’t stand a woman crying. They used it as a weapon.
He moved into position with Walker, silent as he allowed his mind to go over what had happened. His cheek ached, jaw complained, but he hadn’t lost any teeth. More than could be said about the men he’d hit, most of them walked away with a mouthful of blood, blacked eye, couple of cracked ribs, and spitting teeth.
Women didn’t give up after one blow. They came back, never let you forget what you’d done wrong. He’d been around enough of them to know you didn’t assume everything was calm because they’d had the chance to say their piece. Which means he’d be the on the lookout for her next attack. Anything she might use to disrupt his life. It was how women worked and why he’d never married.
In twos, the group made their way through the airlock, then clambered one by one up the ladder. Moving in the suit wasn’t as easy as it had been in the emergency suit he’d worn on the way down, but neither was he now worrying about the cold setting into his bones. His muscles no longer complained, the ache under control. The grey and green suits weren’t bulky for the most part. His arms and legs, with the covering, felt wider, and the helmet had space in front of the mouth and nose to reduce the feeling of claustrophobia. He doubted the suit would cause a problem if they were in a tight space.
“Remember, once we’re out of here, keep the comm chatter down. We don’t know if they’re listening. Don’t worry about the suits, they’ll stand up to scrapes and pressure. Projectile weapons will damage them, but unless it’s a high velocity round, you should be fine. The suit will alert you if there’s any damage.”
If silence was this important, why hadn’t either Lawbook or Gunny said something earlier? Had the chatter drawn the aliens to them? No, couldn’t have. Or they’d be dead. Captured. Locked up in the box Lawbook claimed to have seen. Regardless, they wouldn’t be able to fight back.
Only the sergeant had seen the box. What if she’d been wrong? Hadn’t seen survivors in the grasp of the aliens at all. They hadn’t been spotted, or if they had, the aliens hadn’t deemed them worthy of attacking. It didn’t make sense. Were the attacks focused on specific targets? High volume marks first? Take the large blocks of people, then hunt down the rest. He glanced at the woman ahead of him. No, whatever he believed, the woman didn’t come across as a liar. More like a woman who could be too honest. Clung to old beliefs of being truthful even if it bit her in the ass.
The world before him, once they made their way to the front of the building, remained the same. A mass of rubble, broken buildings, discarded transport, and pieces of humanities existence. Still, no survivors or bodies. Which suggested the aliens had grabbed anyone they could find, including the dear and injured. Perhaps they were the main course?
He shuddered.
Aliens. Unknown creatures with desires he had yet to fathom. Old dark tales of creatures living on the edge of the system, preying on humanity to fulfill their need for soft human flesh served on the dining table.
Horror stories.
Whatever had drawn the aliens to Pluto, he couldn’t imagine it being the desire to feast on humans, alive or otherwise prepared.
Lawbook indicated she’d go first. Tapped her chosen partner on the shoulder, then turned away.
The first pairing headed out into the ruins, minutes later Stone and Walker did the same. He cast a quick glance at his companion, then focused on what they were doing. Booted feet carried him across to the next set of cover. Away from the safety offered by the supply dump. Only the insane would leave safety to head into the unknown, but he’d never believed anyone in the military could be called sane.
Now he was confident they were all lacking in the common sense department.
Moving from one set of cover to the next left little time to talk, but plenty of time to see the damage done to the colony. Few buildings remained intact. A couple were lightly damaged, but the majority had lost their upper floors, windows, and anything of a more delicate nature. More substantial buildings, ones built to withstand the loss of the dome, were in the center of the colony. Same with the base. Everything else had been constructed after the base. An odd arrangement for one who had grown u
p on earth and seen how the original cities had been created. Out here, beyond Earth, colonies had focused on the base, strong buildings, safe holds beneath in case domes broke, or unsuspected troubles waited for the colonists.
The helmet reduced his peripheral vision but offered better protection from the zero oxygen environment. Dust hung above the more recent victims of the attack. Structures crumbled as he stared at them and in the distance, a figure on two legs, with an odd hump at the back where its wings lay folded, moved through the destruction in search of who knew what. He tapped Walker’s shoulder then pointed in the direction of the alien. The young marine inclined his head, and passed the word to the sergeant.
Until the alien was out of sight, they waited.
Waited in silence.
The ground vibrated, not as violently as before. He frowned, trying to work out the direction it had come from.
The center of the colony. Near the Rooster.
And she was leading them into the heart of the problem.
Which gave him far too much time to think.
Small sounds filtered through into his awareness. The creaking of stone, plastiboard, and moisture working its way through the caves, it all combined into a low background noise Jakob could ignore unless he tried to rest. Then it changed, turning louder than he could cope with, as a nagging screech at the back of his mind formed. Nails on boards scraped across metal covered plastiboard. His jaw clenched as he tried to ignore the growing cacophony vibrated through his mind.
This wasn’t going to work. Between the soft chatter of the others and the noise from the walls, sleep wasn’t going to be a friend anytime soon. He rolled onto his side and tried again. He was exhausted, but his mind raced, ideas, and fears flitted through his mind in equal numbers. Random images of people he knew, men and women he’d seen over the past day, darted into the mix only to vanish before he had time to make sense of what was going on.
He stood and glanced around before moving through the chamber.