Geeze, is this guy going to run out of ammo any time soon?
Then again, it was probable that Cole had raided the Scout ship armory on his way out. If that was the case, he had almost unlimited ammo. Especially since Tully was on the clock, and this fight was eating into time he didn’t have. All the more, the ground rattled almost in concert with the barrage of Cole’s gunfire. Tully was left fighting a war on two fronts. He knew enough about World War II from history class to know he couldn’t win.
Unless I can use one problem to solve another.
It was a crazy idea, but Tully was already running on fumes. Crazy was all he had. Tully stood up and started to run. He could feel Cole training his sights on him from the moment he stood up, but thanks to the earthquake, Cole’s aim – adequate on a good day – wasn’t an issue. Still, Tully heard the crackle and thaw of ice behind him as Cole opened up behind him, sending shards of snow, rock and ice flinging through the cavern as a result. Tully kept running until he saw the ship in full view. The earthquake made it hard to run, but Tully didn’t need to beat the bullets or outrun Cole.
All he needed to do . . . was drop to his feet. He did exactly that as the bullet passed over head and struck the ship head on.
Cole yelled out in a mixture of rage and anguish. He rushed to the ship’s side, temporarily ignoring the downed Tully as he caressed the side of the ship. The strange tin foil substance making up the ship’s hull was only punctured in one spot and barely scratched in another. Still, Tully could feel the earthquake intensify, only for the quakes to slowly level off. Whatever this thing was, it was wounded.
“I didn’t mean it, baby. I didn’t mean it,” Cole said, placing his hand along the ship’s damaged hull. “Tell me what I can do to make it better.”
Cole was making a strange gurgled sound. At first Tully thought the Marine was wounded, but then he realized he was actually sobbing. Tully sighed to himself. He should have known this was going to get weird.
“Please be okay,” Cole cried. “Please be okay.”
Tully felt Cole’s posture shift. He didn’t need to look up to know that Cole’s eyes were burning into him. Now came the hard part. He had taken the alien spacecraft out of the fight, albeit temporarily. Now he had to deal with an enraged Cole. The fanatic had proven a handful so far. He felt the Marine’s foot hammer into his side.
“Get up, Lance,” he said. “I know you’re still alive. You hurt her. I’m going to make you pay.”
“Funny,” Tully said. “I was thinking the exact same thing.”
Eleven
Tully twisted around and then entangled his feet with Cole’s. The zealot let off a barrage of gun fire which skidded off the ground nearby, but Tully pressed his advantage, using his momentum to topple Cole altogether. The fanatic hit the ground with a thud and Tully swept the gun aside. The battle rifle was a distraction at best, and hardly consequential to his true objectives. He started pummeling Cole’s faceplate, but the mad Marine raised his arms to block the incoming blows.
Killing Cole, as tempting as it was, was never anything more than a secondary objective. Tully knew he was on borrowed time, and engaging Cole had cost him enough of it already. Instead of continuing his assault, he burrowed his hands deep into the pockets on Cole’s midsection in search of the one item he needed for his plan to work.
“Hey, easy, fella!” Cole barked. “I’m a one-woman guy.”
“No, you’re a nutcase with a ship fetish,” Tully said as he retrieved what he dearly hoped was the object he sought. Being alien tech, Cole couldn’t be sure he had retrieved the detonator and not just a screwdriver.
I guess it’s down to a leap of faith. Or a button of faith in this case.
Tully fired one more punch to Cole’s head. He knew he hadn’t shattered the visor, but he hoped the Marine would be down at least long enough for Tully to see his plan through. He returned to his feet and drew away from Cole. Tully scanned his HUD for the locations of the charges he had set throughout the cavern. He had to make sure he was clear of the blasts when they went off.
That’s when Tully heard the click behind him. He turned to see Cole leveling the battle rifle at him. He had hoped that Cole would be down for the count, but apparently he had underestimated Cole’s resilience.
“Drop it, Tully,” Cole instructed. “You think I didn’t notice you take that.”
Well, if Cole’s worried about this, it’s probably an alien detonator.
“Why should I?” Tully shrugged as he raised his arms. “You’re going to kill me any way.”
“This isn’t me. This is her talking,” Cole said. “She forgives you for making me shoot her.”
“Oh, I think you did that all by yourself, Cole,” Tully said. “Maybe there’s some Marine in you after all.”
“Shut up!” Cole snapped. “She forgives you. I don’t. But she still thinks you can be useful to our cause. She says you displayed resourcefulness, which would make you valuable to us.”
Cole turned around for the briefest of moments. “But I displayed resourcefulness. I planned this from the get-go. I brought down a whole Scout ship and more, a Marine squad, but I guess that’s not good enough . . . it’s never good enough!”
“Hey Cole?” Tully said, his arms still raised in the air.
“Huhh?” Cole turned to him.
“You wanna just focus on me for the time being?” Tully said. “I don’t need to hear about your dirty laundry.”
“Right,” Cole replied. “This is it. Your last chance. Join us or die. Choose your words carefully.”
Tully really hoped he had grabbed the detonator and not something else by mistake. It would be really embarrassing if it was just a strange looking grenade, and Tully exploded on the spot. Even if he didn’t explode, Tully would wish to rather than die of embarrassment before Cole’s battle rifle cut through him.
Still, Tully made a show of thinking it over. He whispered to himself and even tried to make a mental list of pros and cons, but he couldn’t think of any pros to living his life in servitude to Cole and an alien spacecraft, so it was a pretty easy decision.
“Quit stalling. Time’s up!” Cole growled. “What’s your answer?”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I think I’m going to have to pass,” Tully said. “But just so you know . . . I’ll see you both in hell.”
“I won’t say I told you so,” Cole took aim with his battle rifle. “But I did tell you so.”
With that, Cole pressed the button to what he desperately hoped was the detonator. If it was anything but a detonator, nothing would happen, and Cole would fire on him at point blank range. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about bleeding out – exposure and suffocation would kill him far quicker.
Take it away, faith button, Tully thought.
At first there was nothing.
Cole laughed at him gleefully. “That was your big plan? You might as well go ahead and die then!”
Suddenly a cacophony of shudders ripped through the chasm. The ground began to shake beneath Tully’s feet. At first, he was worried the spacecraft was causing quakes again, but then he saw the explosions in the distance.
The charges had detonated.
“What did you do?” Cole hissed. “What did you do?”
“I hit back, asshole,” Tully grinned.
This time, not just the ground was shaking. Tully guessed the spacecraft could isolate the tremors to a specific location – more specifically, his own. His charges, however, had uncoupled the entire cavern. He watched with grim satisfaction as the next explosion rattled the ceiling, sending large chucks of stalactites spiraling down onto the ship.
“No! No! No!” Cole cried.
The ship could clearly withstand gunfire to an extent but being impaled by an imploding cave was a different story entirely. A strange green liquor poured out of the seams holding the ship together, while the lights on the ships seemed to blink with a distressed frequency, before fading altogether.
�
��You . . . you killed her,” Cole cried.
“It’s not just her I’m aiming for,” Tully said as he knocked the battle rifle out of Cole’s hands and tried to lock him in a choke hold. Even within the protective case of armor, there were ways for a Marine to suffocate another Marine. Drummer had taught Tully this move in case of infiltrators or mutineers. Tully never thought he’d have to use it.
But he was wrong about so many things.
Cole gasped for air as Tully’s arms reached through the weak points of the armor and began to slowly close his wind-pipe. Cole continued to choke, and Tully felt his arms go limp at his side. He let go of the now-dead Cole, only to feel a trickle of movement within Cole’s frame just as he let go.
He should have known Cole would fake it. The crazy Marine was more squirrely than a ferret on caffeine pills. He realized far too late that Cole held something in his hand – Tully saw the glint of metal seconds before the knife struck him in the chest, piercing his armor.
Now it was his turn to gasp.
“How do you like it, asshole?” Cole grinned deviously. “Get ready to die!”
This is bad. This is really, really bad.
He stumbled back, as Cole stood victorious, cackling ad nauseum about how he had avenged “her” demise. Of course, Cole didn’t know he was slightly presumptuous. Tully guessed Cole had never had his armor stabbed before. Tully had. He knew what would happen next. Cole presumed such a blow to be catastrophic.
Close, but no cigar.
Twelve
Already, he could feel the suit’s primitive nanites treating the wound as best they could. The wound would be cauterized and bandaged. It stung like a motherfucker, but it wouldn’t be the end of him. No, suffocation would get him first. His armor was now leaking air, which meant less than forty-five minutes’ grace to get back to the ship.
During a normal space-walk, this wouldn’t be a problem. But Tully was about an hour from the Scout ship. He had to leg it. It was time to dispense with the pleasantries. He simply approached Cole, tapped him on the shoulder, and then punched him in the faceplate. To his disappointment, his faceplate remained intact, but the Marine dropped to the icy ground like a sack of potatoes, nonetheless. Cole’s hands gripped the battle rifle, but Tully bent the barrel, rendering the weapon effectively useless.
“You’re a lot tougher than I thought,” Cole managed.
“I’m a Marine. Never underestimate a Marine,” Tully advised through gritted teeth.
“Fair point,” Cole said, now reclining on the ground. “You ready to die together?”
Tully regarded the madman, resting his head on his hands, luxuriously stretching out on the moon’s icy surface. You’d think Cole was relaxing on a beach rather than inside an icy, collapsing cave. All around them, icy spires crashed to the ground below. The cavern was folding in on itself at such a rate, it was practically raining ice. Yet Cole remained as calm and relaxed as a tourist on vacation. Nor did he seem particularly downed by the death of his “lover”, which had been reduced to a cracked and bleeding eggshell behind them.
He’s insane.
“I’ll pass,” Cole told the resting Marine. “Enjoy the view.”
He opened a private channel to the Scout ship.
“Tact, are the weapon systems online?” he asked.
“Correct, Private. Also, I detected a puncture in your suit. Please return to the ship at once,” Tact replied.
“Working on it,” Tully said. “I’ve sent you coordinates. I need you to fire in on my command.”
“Understood,” Tact replied.
“Now!” Tully barked.
“Who are you talking to?” Cole’s voice penetrated the chain of command Tully had built with Tact. He looked back to see the Marine still lying in the same position, regarding him with a bored but curious look on his face.
“You aren’t the only one who made friends,” Tully shrugged.
That’s when the cavern wall exploded. Tully could see streams of tracer fire explode past the fallen rubble. Tact had come through after all.
“Thanks, Tact. I’ll be there soon,” Tully said.
“With your puncture wound, you have less than forty minutes of run-time before your air runs out,” Tact reminded.
“Thanks again, Mom,” Tully said, and this time he closed the channel before Tact could reply.
He gazed through the opening in the wall. The Scout ship’s long plasma cannon had cut a cylindered slope down through the cavern, leading up to the surface. Tully smiled when a shaft of light fell upon his visor. It was good to see the surface. If he stayed in the cavern much longer, he’d probably wind up as crazy as Cole.
Speaking of which . . .
“It’s not fair!” Cole cried. “It’s not fair.”
The Marine was now launching himself onto Tully’s back like an angry spider-monkey. Tully struggled to stay on his feet. Finally, he managed to grip Cole by his collarbone and thrust him over his shoulder. He fell to the floor with a dizzying crack. Tully kicked him in the side, but he did not attack beyond that.
It was pointless to kill Cole – and it had proven damn near impossible so far. Doing so had only made his life more complicated. Sure, Tully wanted to avenge his squad, but he wanted to survive even more. It would have been nice for Cole to stand trial for his crimes, but that clearly wasn’t in the offering. Leaving Cole to his fate – whatever that might be – was the best he could do right now. After all, he needed to survive – and there were plenty of obstructions to that without accounting for insane Marines and their alien spacecraft lovers.
Tully began his ascent. Unfortunately, the hole that Tact had produced was steep and icy. His first attempt saw him lose his footing and simply slide back. He redoubled his efforts, driving his boots into the icy floor below with every step. It wasn’t a particularly large tunnel, so Tully also to duck on his way out. He took one step after the other – until someone grabbed his foot.
“You wouldn’t leave your old pal Cole here,” the persistent madman accused. He was threatening to drag Tully down to the bottom. If he put up a fight, Cole could drag Tully all the way down, causing him to lose precious time in the process. To make matters worse, Tully risked getting trapped in the collapsed cavern if he wasn’t careful. Still, taking Cole with him wasn’t an option either. He’d betray him the first chance he got – or maybe even sooner, if he felt so inclined. Cole had been nothing but trouble from the start. He turned to Cole to see the Marine feverishly wrapped around his leg.
“Leave no Marine behind,” he said. Cole looked up hopefully.
“But say good-bye to the Missus first,” Tully said before kicking Cole off him. The Marine slid down the slope like a child on a slide.
“Tulllyyyy!” he cried all the way down. Tully heard a loud crash at the bottom of the slope. With any luck, Cole had just been impaled on an ice spire. Secretly, however, Tully knew he wouldn’t be that lucky.
Thirteen
Tully continued his trek, one foot after the other. He had to maneuver around several stalagmites, undamaged by Tact’s beam. It further impeded his progress, because Tully now had to squeeze deep into the wall while placing one foot after the other. Still, he continued his trek up the slope. The light at the end of the tunnel grew brighter and brighter until Tully at last reached the top. With one final push of exertion, Tully exited the cavern and took his first step onto the surface in hours.
No sunlight greeted him. No fresh air wisped through his nostrils. He was greeted by only starlight dotting the night sky over the barren moon. For an instant, it was the most beautiful sight Tully had seen in a very long while. Tully knew what he needed to do next.
His situation reminded him of the age-old debate of running in a rainstorm. Does one get more or less drenched in the process? On one hand, one can get inside quicker, but on the other hand, running through the rain only caused one to become more soaked. Tully was in a very similar situation – only his had life-or-death consequences. On o
ne hand, running would get him to the Scout ship quicker, but on the other, he would expend more oxygen in the process. Whatever doubts Tully had about this decision vanished quickly. He had to meet the Astraeus. He had a schedule to keep. Any deviation from that schedule could have disastrous results.
Tully felt his boots pounding along the snowy drifts on the icy moon. He checked his clock. He only had thirty minutes of air left, but an hour to go. He needed to move faster. He emptied his pockets of flares and the alien detonator. He would no longer require either. He also dropped his rations and the spare ammunition that was rendered useless since he was without a weapon. He also figured that food probably wouldn’t do him any good if he suffocated before making it to the Scout ship.
Considering the leisurely walk he had taken away from the Scout ship, it was logical that Tully would make it back if he double-timed it at a good pace. But even if he made it back in time, he still had to affect some minor repairs before he could lift off. Either way, time was a luxury he could no longer afford. He could make it to the Scout ship and still die somewhere out in space if he missed his window with the Astraeus – or he could simply suffocate before he even reached the ship.
Tully felt his breathing become more labored as he reached the top of the tallest hill in his trek. The air was growing thinner. He now had fifteen minutes of air left. The oxygen reserves were growing thin. If he pushed himself too hard, his lungs might burst.
In the distance, Tully saw a black dot on the horizon, less than a mile away. He activated the magnification. It was the Scout ship, still standing on the ice in all its triangular glory. Since Tully was going downhill, he could move faster without too much exertion. He was going to make it. He felt his heart race and his spirit rise and he started to descend the hill, walking in the shadowy cliffs below. He raced towards the Scout ship in as straight a line as possible, while being sure to avoid any icy spires that stood in the way.
Lone Marine Page 6