The Last Aeon

by Richard Fox

  “Did Gideon teach you nothing about the battle on Hawaii?” Nicodemus asked. “The Toth can swim—a hell of a lot better than we can. We’re looking at an amphibious invasion.”

  “No Kesaht?” Roland turned his sensors to the sky, tagging passing landers.

  “No…none of their landing vectors are coming close to this island. Why so much of a standoff?” Nicodemus asked.

  They stopped at the edge of the beach and Roland took cover behind a small copse of trees as he watched the water for emerging Toth warriors.

  “They want her alive,” Roland said. He gave Nicodemus a quick rundown on Trinia’s role in creating the human procedurals and what he saw in the lab.

  “The Toth came to Earth and demanded the tech to make their own proccies,” Nicodemus said. “If Trinia was that vital to the program…then they could force her to create their own crèches.”

  “They’d create slaves. And food for the overlord,” Roland said.

  “We can’t let that happen,” Nicodemus said. “You understand what that means?”

  Roland took a moment to grasp the implications. “She’s the last of her kind, sir. We kill her and—”

  “Save how many human lives from the Toth? I don’t like it either. The best solution is to get her off world and back to Navarre with us,” Nicodemus said. “We didn’t come here to fail the Lady, did we?”

  “Negative,” Roland said.

  Lightning flashed from a distant storm on the horizon, the clouds black and pregnant with rain.

  “That’s coming right for us,” Roland said.

  “It means nothing.”

  “Agreed. Nothing keeps us from the fight…Sir, do our Templar vows extend to human-alien hybrids?” Roland asked.

  “What the hell did you do down there?”

  “Nothing! Just a question that came up that’s nagged at me.”

  “Focus on the practical problem we have,” Nicodemus said, “such as how we defend the entire island with just us and the Nisei.”

  “Guile,” Roland said. “I have an idea.”

  ****

  Thunder rolled over the beach as curtains of rain dimmed the setting sun and forks of lightning skittered across the bottom of the dark clouds. Roland watched the approaching storm front, thinking back to his un-armored battle on Mars and just how difficult it was to fight in smoke and through pain of wounds. He developed a great deal of respect for legionnaires and Rangers that day, though he would always call them “crunchies.”

  “Hostile air inbound,” Nicodemus said. “Nisei have eyes on them from the west.”

  “Engage?” Roland looked back to the other side of the island.

  “This was your plan. What do you think?” The other Armor shifted his Mauser heavy rifle up and braced it against a tree, muzzle toward the ocean.

  “We’ll know if they make positive identification soon enough, if the Cyrgal manage not to shoot this one down.” Roland touched the magazine in his own Mauser, checking again that it was loaded firmly.

  “They aren’t the best listeners,” Nicodemus said. “Even when the instructions come from the—what did they call her?”

  “Mother of All. I can’t say how much restraint they’re really exercising right now, given our lack of training in alien theology. I just hope they play their part when it matters,” Roland said.

  “Principal in the open,” Martel sent over the IR.

  Roland’s receptors picked up the whine of Toth engines and his targeting systems triangulated the dagger-shaped fighter’s location and projected course. The fighter banked over the pathway leading down from the Aeon village to the narrow strip of water between the islands. It slowed, making an easy, tempting target.

  “Gauss or Mauser?” Roland asked.

  “Make a statement,” Nicodemus said.

  “Mauser,” Roland said and lifted the rifle to his shoulder as the Toth fighter accelerated. He pulled the trigger and magnetic accelerators launched a shell the size of a football. The fighter exploded into flames and debris rained down on the beach, hitting the sand with a sizzle.

  “You think they took the bait?” Nicodemus asked.

  Roland pulled back from the tree line and rushed to another firing position as he racked the charging handle on his Mauser to load another shell into the breach. Reloading the weapon like that, like it was some sort of antique from early twentieth-century warfare, felt like an anachronism, but the stress each shot put on the weapon was detrimental to anything as delicate as an autoloader system. A normal human couldn’t even lift the weapon, much less survive firing it.

  “We’ll know in a second…contact.” Roland marked dark spots in the ocean and sent the targeting information to the rest of the Armor. Threat icons appeared on his HUD from the other side of the island, all converging toward the channel.

  Roland spotted a lizard-like head peek up between waves and fought the urge to open fire.

  “Not yet,” Nicodemus said. “They need to commit.”

  Behind him, he heard the sound of Morrigan and the colonel stomping down the pathway. He activated an optic on the back of his helm and saw Trinia through the trees, struggling to keep up with the Armor.

  A ten-foot-tall wave reared up from the ocean, the wall full of dark blotches, each a Toth warrior.

  “Here we go,” Nicodemus said as the wave crashed against the beach.

  Toth in crystalline armor, wielding halberds tipped with energy weapons, spilled out of the wave with an almost fluid grace. Their battle ululation sent a chill through Roland’s body. A dozen had arrived with the wave, and the next whitecap building in the sea carried even more.

  The warriors galloped forward on four legs, each ending with obsidian-tipped claws. For creatures so large, they moved with unnerving speed.

  “Weapons free,” Nicodemus said.

  Roland fired his Mauser, obliterating a Toth and punching up a cloud of sand that enveloped a pair of the attackers.

  Nicodemus’ shot blasted a warrior in half and knocked a second off its feet. The report of Nisei Mausers from the other side of the island echoed around them.

  “Mortars. Fire plan Bravo,” Nicodemus said.

  Roland racked his weapon and fired from the hip, killing a Toth, the force of the round’s impact in the sand tripping up a second. He raised an arm and smashed through the trunks of a pair of trees, clearing the air above him as they fell.

  A shell soared out of the tube on his back. The variable launcher in his Armor kept pumping rounds into the air. A blue bolt of plasma streaked out of the surf and just missed his shoulder, igniting a bush into a torch. Roland held his ground until his HUD signaled rounds complete.

  Not a single shell had landed on the beach…yet.

  Roland dove to one side as three plasma bolts converged on his old position. He rolled to one knee and put a double shot from his gauss cannons into a charging warrior’s chest. Crystal shattered and sprayed out, mixed with yellow blood. The warrior pitched forward and landed face-first in the sand, sliding to a dead stop.

  Dozens more Toth emerged from the ocean, all keening their battle cry.

  It was then that the mortars struck. Using a launch force for each shell, the Armor brought every munition into the fight as one. Half impacted in the surf, sending up geysers and blasting a shockwave through the water that crushed Toth to death. The other half exploded seven yards over the beach, sending showers of shrapnel into those that had made it to shore.

  The ululations died away with the passing explosions.

  Roland shot a Toth crawling through the sand, watching as its yellow blood drained into the ocean. Dead Toth rolled ashore with the next wave, their armor riven with cracks.

  “Lazy way to fish,” Nicodemus said. “Fall back to the channel.”

  “Moving.” Roland fired his Mauser into a Toth in a distant wave, blasting a gap in the wall of water and sending tiny bits of the warrior flying out the back. He ran through the jungle as plasma bolts stabbed out at him
from the ocean.

  “Need targeting data,” Araki sent over the IR.

  Roland queued a recon drone to launch out of his mortar, but got an error message on his HUD.

  “Tube’s too hot.” Roland reached around and a drone popped out of a housing and into his hand. He chucked it into the air and quad rotors popped out of the drone as it cleared the jungle canopy and then zipped into the sky.

  A green plasma bolt burst through a tree trunk and sent a shower of sparks over Roland.

  “The Cyrgal are firing from the other island,” Roland said into the IR net. “Who has positive comms with those idiots?”

  “Principal’s coordinating,” Murayama, the fourth Nisei, sent. “You probably look like a Toth to them through all that jungle.”

  “Tell them to cease fire!” Roland rolled to one side and into a patch of sand as a Cyrgal bolt snapped past his head. “They need to fall back!”

  A ripple in the jungle air moved toward him.

  Roland brought his Mauser up and braced it overhead as a Toth halberd materialized and bit into the weapon. The Mauser bent, pinning the blade inside it. Roland twisted the wrecked weapon aside, yanked the partially cloaked Toth warrior off its feet, then dropped a shoulder and sprang forward. The blow pinned the Toth against a tree and the cloak dissipated.

  Roland retracted a fist into his forearm housing and rammed a punch spike into the Toth. Armor cracked and the Toth clawed at Roland’s shoulders and helm. He stabbed it twice more then pushed the limp body away.

  His Mauser lay on the ground, broken in half and smoking. He gave the fallen weapon a quick salute and continued toward the channel.

  “Got cloakers in the jungle,” Roland sent through the IR.

  “Roger,” Nicodemus sent and an icon popped up on his HUD’s map. “Link up here.”

  A flurry of Cyrgal plasma bolts erupted through the jungle to Roland’s left as a tree blew free from its roots and slammed across Roland’s waist, taking him off his feet.

  “Tell…those idiots…” Roland gripped the tree’s bark and sent splinters flying out from where his fingers met the wood. “To stop shooting at me!”

  He thrust the trunk away and it bounced against something with a crack of glass.

  Roland rolled to one side just as an ax blade bit into the ground where he’d been lying. He activated his rotary gun, spinning the barrels so fast they blurred, then twisted around and opened fire, spraying a circle of small-caliber shells around him.

  The bullets careened off hidden Toth, disrupting their cloaks and exposing more than a dozen of the massive warriors.

  “That’s what they were shooting at,” Roland said.

  The Toth turned to face Roland, hissing and jabbing at him with their halberds as they spread out to surround him.

  Roland returned the rotary gun to the shoulder housing and then pulled free the sword hilt locked to his thigh and activated the blade.

  It was still unfolding when he leapt toward the largest Toth warrior.

  “Ferrum corde!” Roland reversed the grip on the blade and drove it into the Toth’s face. He landed next to the warrior and dragged the body up to one side where it intercepted a halberd that cracked through the flank armor and embedded deep in the alien’s flesh.

  Roland ducked and ripped the blade out of the dead Toth, slicing it across another warrior’s forelegs, severing them at the knees. He drove an uppercut into the wounded Toth and shattered its helm and skull in a spray of crystal.

  A Toth brought its weapon up and angled the energy gun down toward Roland. The Templar swiped the flat of his blade through the air and knocked the weapon to one side as it fired. A bolt flashed past Roland and impacted another Toth in the chest.

  Roland grabbed his blade and stepped toward the Toth, driving the tip into a seam in the crystal just above the neck. Yellow blood sprayed out against the inside of the armor and Roland twisted the sword free.

  He fired his gauss cannons at a Toth charging at him, its weapon lowered like a lance. The rounds hit and the alien stumbled forwards.

  Roland drove the tip of his sword into the ground and seized the Toth with both hands. He lifted it off the ground and used its momentum to hurl the warrior into a pair of aliens with a satisfying crack of armor and bones.

  He reached for his sword just as an axe blade struck his wrist. The blade passed through and his hand went limp as sparks shot out from the servos.

  Roland planted a kick in his attacker’s chest that launched it into a very quick flight against a tree. The Toth’s spine snapped as it nearly wrapped around the trunk. With the crack of gauss cannons, Roland whirled around, grabbing the hilt with his other hand.

  Nicodemus stood over the last of the Toth. He drove the tip of his sword into the throat of a warrior pinned beneath his boots.

  “You missed linkup,” the Templar said.

  “I’ll do better in the future.” Roland twisted his hilt, snapping the blade back into the handle, and then joined Nicodemus as the older Armor ran toward the channel, boots crunching through fire-blackened bush and fallen branches.

  They burst onto the beach where Martel and Morrigan stood back-to-back at the channel edge, firing at Toth as they closed toward them. Trinia was crouched between the Armor, her arms covering her head. Araki and Kataro emerged from farther down the beach.

  “Toth are pushing on you,” Murayama sent over the IR as target icons flooded onto Roland’s HUD, like a red tide rolling toward their position from the east and west.

  “Fire when ready,” Martel sent.

  “Principal says Cyrgal are still in the danger zone,” Murayama said.

  “They were warned.” Martel fired over Roland’s shoulder as he slid to a stop next to his lance commander, spraying Trinia with sand. Staying on one knee, Roland unfurled his shield from his left forearm housing. The Templar lance and half the Nisei formed a circle of iron around Trinia. Gauss cannons snapped as Toth warriors advanced through the hail of fire.

  Plasma bolts from Cyrgal on the other island knocked Toth off their feet or exploded in a ball of steam against the ocean.

  “They’re not firing on us,” Araki said.

  “They need her alive,” Martel said, “and they have bodies to spare.”

  Roland doubled-checked his HUD as his cannons reloaded. The drones he and the other Armor had launched tracked thousands of Toth converging toward the channel.

  “Shot in three…” Murayama sent.

  Roland stomped a heel into the sand and his anchor spike telescoped down into the sand. An error message flashed across his HUD: the anchor hadn’t found purchase.

  “Got an issue here.” Roland drew the spike back, shifted over a few feet, and tried again. Same result.

  Nicodemus reached an arm under Roland’s shoulder.

  From their perch higher up the mountain, two Nisei fired their rail guns. The shells broke the sound barrier as they accelerated just beyond the ends of the twin firing vanes. Thunderclaps tore down the mountainside and the jungle swayed as if hit by a sudden hurricane.

  The rail gun shells sliced through the sky, leaving a trail of burning air as they angled toward the ocean just beyond the wave line. The shells, designed to punch through capital-ship Armor, shot through the water and exploded against the ocean floor.

  Roland watched as an enormous bubble of steam rose from the ocean and a tidal wave rolled toward him and the rest of the Armor. The shock wave crushed Toth warriors, picking them up and adding them to the force of nature bearing down on Roland.

  Toth on the shore looked back at the oncoming destruction. Most didn’t even bother to try to outrun the inevitable.

  Roland rammed his anchor heel into the sand again and felt the drill bit hit home, but a HUD icon flashed amber—only the tip had found purchase. The tidal wave grew closer, rising almost twenty feet as it reached the shallows just off the beach.

  Roland braced his shield against his body just as the tidal wave hit. The impact felt like he�
�d stepped in front of a truck and his systems went mad with warnings. He felt the strain in his anchor and realized it wasn’t going to hold.

  The drill bit snapped apart and Roland bounced off Morrigan’s shoulder as the water swept him away. The world rolled over and over and then went dark.

  When he didn’t feel like a leaf in the wind anymore, he lifted his helm up. Sand fell away from his optics.

  The lower section of the island was a war zone of broken trees, scattered foliage and dead Toth warriors all around him. The ocean was flat, but frothy with sea foam.

  “Roland. Status report,” Nicodemus asked through the IR.

  “Recovering.” Roland pushed himself up and his damaged wrist gave out. Rotating the rest of the servos, he heard the squeal of sand against the joints.

  A Toth floundered in the sand, its tail kicking up dust until it righted itself. With much of its crystal armor ripped away by the wave, the Toth sniffed the air then dragged itself toward a lump in the sand.

  Trinia sat up.

  “The principal!” Roland brought his gauss cannons up and the ammo line flopped free from the housing on his back.

  The Toth swiped at the Aeon…but the claws passed through her head and shoulder.

  Cannons snapped and exit wounds burst from the alien’s chest, spraying Trinia with yellow blood. Trinia’s form flickered and shrank down to Marc Ibarra, his face covered with viscera.

  “Nope!” Marc tried to wipe himself clean and struggled out of the wet sand. “Done! All done being your bait!”

  Roland looked back to the Armor, all of whom were covered in a thin layer of wet sand.

  “It worked.” Martel lifted his anchor out of the surf and snapped the spike back into the housing. “Got the Toth to mass where we could hit them with the big guns. Why are you complaining?”

  Marc nudged the eviscerated Toth with his foot, and it ripped at the sand in death throes.

  “Nope!” Marc turned and ran back up the mountain to the village.

  “Nicodemus, Roland,” Martel said, “back to the Aeon and provide security. Rest of us will sweep the beach for Toth survivors.”

  Roland looked down at his broken anchor and withdrew it back into his leg. Nicodemus, who looked little worse for wear, helped him to his feet.