“Pull back, you have to pull back now,” Wesley ordered the pair of mechs, even as we reached the gate exit of the settlement and the waiting dropship.
There were three Order dropships, all with their rear hatches open. Ours was on the left; the two the mechs were dropped from ones on the right. The thick cable tow lines were ready to connect to them and lift them to safety.
“Mandy, let’s go!” Jeff screamed over the comms as his mech started for the exit.
“I’ve taken too much damage. My leg’s not working right. I can’t move. You go, I’ll catch up!” Mandy ordered.
The tone in her voice told me all I needed to know. Mandy had no intention of catching up. She was going to die in her mech.
I’d seen enough death. I’d caused enough of it to last me a lifetime, but I wasn’t the kind of person who was going to run to safety with my tail between my legs while others did my fighting and dying for me.
“Here take him,” I yelled to Cassie as I transitioned Jax’s free arm over her shoulder. “Get him on board.”
“What are you going to do?” Cassie shouted.
“I’m going to take care of our bug problem,” I yelled over the explosions still coming from the mech and bug. “I’ll be right back. I’m invincible, remember? It can’t kill me.”
I knew that wasn’t the truth. I knew I could die, but right now to put the others at ease, it felt like the right thing to say.
We had made it to the rear gates where Wesley and the other Order soldiers inside the dropships provided us cover from the approaching Voy.
I turned and took a knee next to Wesley, who crouched to the left gate firing his pulse carbine into the Voy horde.
Jeff hadn’t taken Mandy’s request to heart. Both wounded mechs kept battling it out with the bug. It was like watching a heavyweight match where both sides were exhausted but refused to give in.
“The bug’s exoskeleton is too thick,” X said, scanning the creature’s anatomy through my eyes. “The mechs are doing damage, but every time they puncture the armor, the wound is shallow and superficial. You need to get something inside the creature. Destroy it from the inside out.”
“Don’t go back in there,” Wesley said with a shake of his head. “They’ll be fine. We’re boarding up and going now. The mechs will follow.”
I crouched there, watching the fight go on, the Voy army barely held back by the weapons fire from the Order soldiers defending the rear gate.
My mind raced for an answer. For some reason, I thought about Atilla. That Order son of a gun who tried to be the one to lead. I thought of him and his weapon. That rod, always fighting from a distance.
That gave me an idea.
“I need whatever explosive you can give me!” I yelled in Wesley’s ear. “Whatever’s the smallest and will give me the biggest boom. Hurry, that’s an order.”
Both my eyes and Wesley’s went large for a moment as we stared at one another. I felt like a child talking back to his parent. Never had I ordered Wesley to do anything.
He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.
“You chose me to lead for a reason, because I lead from the front,” I said before he could argue. “So let me lead.”
Wesley closed his mouth and reach to his belt. He handed me a cylinder no larger than my hand.
“Thermite bomb packs a punch like you wouldn’t believe. I was saving it for our exit,” Wesley said handing me the surprisingly light explosive. “Hurry!”
I accepted the thermite bomb from Wesley with a nod.
“Tape, I need tape!” I yelled to anyone who could hear around me.
“Attacked by aliens and this freaking guy wants tape,” I heard one of the armored Order members say to his companion.
“Here!” Cassie said, grabbing something out of the rear of the dropship where she placed Jax. She hurled a black cylinder through the air to me. In another life, she could have played professional sports. The lady had an arm.
I wasted no time in plucking the tape out of the air. I secured the thermite bomb to my axe and was off at a sprint.
“Cover me!” I yelled back.
“I just want to point out how insane this is,” X said in my ear. “I’m with you to the end but this is not what sane people do.”
I saved my breath for running, but I had to agree with X. This plan was so simple, there was no way it could work. But I had to do something.
Mandy’s mech was completely down now. The giant robot sat on its butt as if it had too much to drink the night before. Her arms were still working, and as such, she discharged her flamethrower at the beast and swiped at it with the blade on her right gauntlet.
Jeff stumbled against the beast, his armor filling the air with black smoke from different sections of his unit.
The Voy to my right saw me sprinting for the creature and took aim. With the arrival of the Order extraction force, the Voy had been more reluctant to full-out charge us again. Now they took up positions in buildings, and behind whatever debris they could find.
Lucky for me, I was their new favorite target.
I put everything I had left into making the run, sprinting across the sand. My superhuman biology helped me to practically fly. No matter how fast I was I wasn’t going to outrun an army of Voy sighting in on me with their weapons. Laser rounds scorched the ground around me.
I felt something take out my right leg.
I slammed into the ground hard. I held on to the axe on my right hand, refusing to lose the grip on the weapon no matter how intense the pain I felt. My leg screamed at me as if it were on fire. I looked down to see a smoking charred section on my leg.
“Don’t look at it,” X said in my head. “You have to keep going.”
I gasped, pulling myself to my feet. Providing the Voy a stationary target even for a moment was a bad idea. They were horrible shots, but with so many rifles on me, one was bound to hit.
I felt something like a baseball bat hit my right shoulder, then torso and hip. I was off at a run, the armor protecting me from the rounds. I accepted the pain of the rounds battering my body.
You can do this, I told myself. One foot at a time.
An explosion went off right behind me that flung me forward. My head cracked against the stone rear wall to my left.
Twenty-Eight
Darkness came for me.
I told the darkness, No. I still had work to do.
Blood poured down my face from a deep laceration on my hairline. The comm channel was going crazy.
Somehow I fought back unconsciousness and pushed myself to my hands and knees.
“Get up!” X said. “I’m coordinating a plan now to get you some cover. Just get up. The axe landed in front of you.”
Blood fell from my forehead in droplets, painting the sand underneath me. I looked up to see the axe buried to the hilt in the sand a few meters in front of me.
I wasn’t sure if the Voy thought they killed me, but no more rounds were being sent in my direction.
Hard metallic pings captured my attention. It was Mandy’s mech. The sounds were the Voy firing on her.
Legs inoperable, Mandy used her mech’s hands to drag herself across the sand to my location. She used the mech’s body as a barrier between me and the Voy. The length of the mech would cover the rest of my run to Jeff and the bug.
“Hurry,” Mandy shouted through her comm. “He can’t hold on much longer.”
I knew she was right. Even as we spoke, the bug bullied Jeff backward, causing him to trip and fall on his back. The bug pressed its advantage, opening its gruesome mouth with long pincers to rip through Jeff’s chest plate as if it knew where the pilot was located.
I gritted my teeth. Maybe one day I’d be too battered and broken to not fight on. But that day wasn’t today.
I willed my body up and started my run once more. Pain accompanied every stride, but I was past pain now. I was solely focused on grabbing the axe and sending it at the bug.
&n
bsp; “Jeff, open the bug’s mouth!” I bellowed, grabbing the hilt of my axe as I ran. “As wide as you can.”
“What!” Jeff asked, panicked. “This thing is trying to rip through my chest and you want me to give him a dental exam?”
“Just do it!” I screamed, pressing the detonator on the thermal grenade. “Trust me.”
X overlaid an augmented reality arc with a broken blue line that showed the curve of how I’d need to throw the weapon.
To my right, Mandy kept me covered, but the safety she provided was running out. Soon I’d reach the feet of the mech, then once again be open for the Voy to play target practice.
“Up!” I yelled, already reaching back to hurl the weapon. “Jeff, I need you to point the bug’s mouth up!”
“Daniel, you have to throw now!” X warned me. “The detonator is only primed for ten seconds!”
Jeff obeyed, tilting the bug’s mouth skyward for the briefest moment.
With a silent prayer, I followed X’s instructions and sent the axe not at the alien bug but instead in an arc toward it.
Time seemed to slow as the weapon spun end over end with the thermite grenade attached to the axe head.
The weapon came down like a raindrop right into the bug’s open mouth.
Jeff shoved the creature back and rolled out of the way.
The alien bug swallowed. He looked pissed. Giant black eyes swung toward me as if somehow he knew what I had done. There was hate in those eyes the likes I had never seen.
“Sorry, it was you or me,” I said with a shrug.
The explosion that ripped the bug’s head into a thousand pieces sounded like a wet thud more than a grenade detonating. Gore and brain matter rained down on me like the heavens had provided a meat shower and I was the only one in attendance.
The bug’s headless body fell to the ground, quivering in its death throes. Bright green blood painted the entire area of the inside of the settlement.
“Hahaha!” Jeff screamed in joy as he maneuvered his smoking mech to provide cover for Mandy, who exited out of her own. “It worked! How crazy is that? It actually worked!”
“Daniel, you’re a madman,” Mandy said as she moved out of her mech to join me on the opposite side of the piece of armor. “That was brilliant.”
We retreated back to the rear gates under the protection of Jeff’s mech. I wasn’t sure we even needed the protection, the Voy seemed stunned. Quiet even. Only a few weapons discharged toward us.
A wail from the Voy’s throats that was the most horrible thing I had ever heard lifted toward the sky. I wasn’t sure how they viewed these bugs. Like gods or something, but they were definitely sad I had just given it a thermite pill to swallow.
We reached the waiting dropships amongst cheers and yells from our own side as we loaded in.
I boarded with Jeff and Mandy, taking one of the other dropships. The rear doors closed and we were off.
“What happened back there?” Angel asked. “I mean, I know what happened, but why did they give up like that?”
“No idea,” I replied, looking down at my armor that dripped with the bright green blood of my enemy. The stuff was everywhere. In my hair, ears, and somehow had gotten into my nose.
“Maybe they respected the creatures,” Cassie mused, looking up from a seat where an Order technician worked on her forearm. “Maybe they couldn’t believe someone actually took one down.”
“We’ll have to take down a lot more,” I said as a sick feeling touched my gut. “The other ones might be larger.”
“What makes you say that?” Angel asked.
“In my vision,” I answered. “I had a feeling they could get a lot bigger. I think they could fly.”
“So, what,” Cassie asked, looking up from her seat. “That was a baby?”
“I think so,” I answered.
The dropship shuddered with turbulence. I steadied myself before walking over to where Jax lay on a few seats near the back corner of the ship. The seat’s arms had been folded up to give him plenty of room to lie.
The big man nearly fell off the impromptu bench from the bulk of his muscle mass. He was attached to a series of wires and tubes that fed him intravenously as well as monitored his vitals.
Jax’s eyes opened, a heavy bandage secure over his midsection. His shirt had been torn open with what looked like a knife.
“You going to make it?” I asked, taking the seat across from him. “You look horrible.”
“Oh you know, just had my belly sliced open by a four-armed alien.” Jax winked at me, trying and failing to mask the discomfort he felt. “I’ll be fine. Wish I healed as fast as you.”
“You’ll be up and ready for the fight when the Voy come,” I reassured him. “We’ll need you.”
“I heard the chatter on the channel and everyone cheering,” Jax said, changing the topic. “What did you do? Give that bug a headache?”
“The worst headache of his life,” I said with a grin.
“My man,” Jax said, moving his right arm forward, fist closed.
I bumped it with my own closed fist.
“Will you two stop flirting? It’s getting awkward,” Angel said, sitting in the seat next to me with a flask to her mouth. She took a long pull then sighed heavily. “So what’s the plan now? Regroup, hoping the GG are on our side?”
“They have to be,” Cassie reasoned, joining us. Her left forearm wasn’t sparking anymore. A new dark metal vambrace was positioned on the limb. “They saw what the Voy are and what they aren’t. They won’t be allies.”
I stayed quiet, thinking of the events that preceded this moment. Amongst the many things to digest was the man named Nemesis. Where he had gone was a mystery.
“Hey that guy the one they called Project Nemesis has to be dead, right?” I asked everyone. “I mean, there’s nothing but desert for kilometers in every direction. If he was going to make it to a city he’d need transportation.”
“I don’t know,” Angel said, taking another swig from her flask. “What I do know is that if I’m going to start dealing with flying guys shooting magic out of their hands, I’m going to need a bigger flask.”
“Did you notice how much he looked like you, Daniel?” Cassie asked with a frown. “I mean, not a spitting image, but a strong resemblance.”
“I mean, a bit, I guess.” I thought back to the bald man. “He was older, not as ruggedly good-looking.”
Jax barked out laughter.
Cassie rolled her eyes.
Angel drained her flask.
Twenty-Nine
One Day Before the Voy Invasion
We slept in the dropship, arriving back at Dragon Hold the next day. I couldn’t be sure exactly what time it was, but the sun was up and already beginning its downward descent. If I did my math right, the Voy had promised to attack the very next day.
The Hold was alive with activity. Every corporation that agreed to stand with us was present, directing their units and assets to the area just beyond the city where we decided to make a stand.
After a shower and much needed food, I was as good as new. My wounds were already healed.
I was just coming out of my room when I heard galloping down the hall. Butch rounded the corner and didn’t stop. The next second, I was attacked with a series of slobbery licks and heavy pants.
At the same time, Butch nosed me, smelling around my body all the alien insect smells I hadn’t been able to remove in the shower. It seemed along with the bug juice came a pungent odor that took time to set in.
It smelled like something spicy mixed with a dull vomit blend.
I rubbed Butch’s ears and the side of her head and back. I didn’t have to bend over, she was so big. Her furry head came up to my chest.
“I could have used you out there,” I started then thought about the damage she might have taken and her inability to heal like me. “On second thought, maybe it’s better you’re right where you are.”
“The GG has made contact with Wes
ley,” X reported in. “We have their support. They’re regrouping now. That’s just the tip of the iceberg on what’s going on. You want the long version or the short?”
“I’ll take the short,” I requested.
“Corporations are using the Hold as a command center. They’re directing their troops outside of Athens for the moment until we can get a bead on where the Voy will strike,” X rattled off. “Everyone who’s said they’d come has. Public is still in the dark for the time being. GG has removed the kill order on Immortal Corp.”
“All good news,” I said, giving Butch one last ruffle on the back of her neck. “If there wasn’t an alien invasion about to take place, we’d be in a great spot.”
“If only,” X agreed. “One more thing, Commander Shaw brought Echo from the vault on Earth. Echo’s been pleading to redeem himself. The commander thinks you should have the final word on that.”
I thought back to the man who had tried to kill Amber. He was ordered and he had failed but did that make his crime any less?
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Angel’s talking to him now in the cell block,” X answered.
“This place has a cell block. Why am I not surprised?” I rolled my eyes. “Lead the way.”
X showed me to a stairwell that not only led to the ground floor but one level below it. Every face I passed I didn’t recognize; every corporation was there wearing their sigils from Hyperion Industries to the Overlords and Apex.
The house was teeming with conversation as dozens of tasks were being conducted to prepare for the war. I could feel an electricity in the air I actually liked. As much as I knew I shouldn’t, I was eager for the fight to begin.
I was ready to get this over with, and to be honest, I still wanted to get my hands on the Voy torturer named Dall who had cut me open.
Butch padded behind me, causing more than one look of awe and fear in our direction. One man actually crossed to the opposite side of the hall to give us a wide berth.
I couldn’t blame them, having an extinct wolf animal brought back from the dead that was four feet tall was something to see.
Vendetta: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 4) Page 18