by Erica Rue
At least three Vens, loose in the town, looking for victims. Most people were secured in the Temple, but if these people were anything like the folks back home, some would have stayed in their houses, unwilling or unable to leave, even in the face of a disaster. These were the Vens’ first targets.
Lithia’s team exited the woods just in time to meet the two other teams, one Aratian, one Ficaran, who were coming to investigate. As they passed, Will tossed one of the Aratians a bottle.
“Use that to seal up the gate before any more Vens can enter,” he said.
“Gate?” the Aratian replied.
Jai gave them directions to find the secret gate, and the Aratians hurried into the wooded area.
In minutes, Lithia and the others reached the market. Empty stalls cast eerie shadows, and she expected the Vens to pop out from behind the counters at any moment. She heard another crack of gunfire.
“They’re moving toward the houses,” Victoria said, “but I got a second shot in. One has slowed down near the west market entrance. If you move now, you can get to it.”
“Why doesn’t she just finish him off?” Cora asked.
“They’re conserving ammo,” Lithia said. Victoria tried to play down how much ammo they had already used, but she knew that the Ficarans had been given strict orders. The armor complicated things. Head shots had been the most effective way to slow Vens down, but now their chests were the next vital zone.
Cora rushed for the west entrance, and the others followed. It wasn’t long before they caught up to the injured Ven.
Aside from Lithia and her stun rifle, Melanie was the only one with a gun, a mere pistol. All of them had pila swords.
Now that Lithia could see it for herself, the new armor presented a major challenge. It covered the plate gap on their backs and made it more difficult to kill them. That was the point of armor, though. Still, there were other plate gaps they could take advantage of.
“The back is covered, but try for the gaps at its leg joints.” If they could bring the Ven down, they might be able to bypass the armor. The trick was avoiding those sharp Ven claws.
Five on one were good odds, especially when the one was oozing from its chest wounds. Two high-caliber bullets to the chest, and it was still swinging. Unbelievable. Will moved in for an attack, but the Ven swung and connected, just barely, leaving a shallow, bleeding scratch on his arm. In that moment, Jai and Lithia lunged for both of its legs. Jai’s strike was true and deep. The Ven bent to one knee and bellowed in pain. Lithia’s blow missed, and she dodged a claw swipe.
Cora surprised her by coming in next and aiming for one of the straps that kept the armor in place, slicing through the material.
Great idea. “If you can’t get the legs, aim for the armor straps!” Lithia called, playing off of Cora’s move. “All we need is an entry point.” She and Jai made another attack, but the Ven was ready for them, and they had to pull back. Melanie stood with her gun trained on it, ready to fire if the tide began to turn but reluctant to waste even a single bullet on an already disadvantaged opponent.
Will and Cora moved forward, and this time Will sliced through a strap on the other side. The Ven moved back to his feet, but stumbled on his injured leg. In that moment, Lithia burst forward and shoved her pila sword up its back plate. The effect was immediate. The green monster fell forward, face on the ground, dead.
As they caught their breath, Lithia assessed that the kill was relatively easy for one reason. This Ven did not have backup. Its companions were looking for victims to send into a frenzy. When the rest of the Vens arrived, they would not wait on the sidelines while a team of humans slowly wounded and killed one of their own. They had to find the others before they found any victims.
Lithia’s head pounded with adrenaline, but before she could calm down, Victoria was back on her manumed. “The other two are headed toward the Residential Quarter. They’re among the houses now. I can’t get a shot.”
Victoria and the other two snipers had set up on the tallest building in town after the Temple, the Beacon. It was mostly ceremonial, but at times in the past, it had served as a guide back home for lost Aratians. According to Evy, it also attracted lost machi. The Beacon was not lit tonight.
“Let’s go,” Lithia said. “If we can lure them into the open area in front of the temple, Victoria will have a shot.”
“They won’t follow us. They’re not looking for a fight,” Will said.
“Then we make them,” Melanie said, brandishing her gun.
Cora was already running in the direction of the Vens with no hesitation, and they all followed. Lithia snorted. I thought I was supposed to be the reckless one.
She could see them at the end of a long, narrow street. The houses here were very close together. The two Vens moved together gracefully. They seemed to be looking for any stragglers. Lithia heard a baby’s wail, and at the same time, the Vens rushed off in that direction.
“Hurry,” she said. They had to move. No one else was coming to help that family.
The Vens were already inside the home when Lithia got there. A man and a boy, presumably his son, had already been bitten, and were turning on the women in their family. Lithia needed to get a shot with her stun rifle now, but the Vens blocked the doorway. The Vens turned to face them. They seemed energized. Excited, even. They didn’t engage, though, and rushed on to the next occupied house.
The man and boy were punching the woman who was crying and using her body to shield her daughters and the baby. A few quick shots from Lithia’s stun rifle, and they were down. The woman was still sobbing.
“Cora and Will, can you take them up to the temple? Tell them to monitor the boy closely. They can’t stay here, and we need to stop the other Vens,” Lithia said.
Cora had tears in her eyes, but she nodded. They were unlike any tears that Lithia had seen Cora shed before. She was crying for someone else. Jai, however, glared at her, not thrilled that Cora would be leaving with Will.
“I should go with them,” he said.
“Melanie and I need your help,” Lithia replied.
More screams. The Vens had found someone else, and there was no time to argue. “Come on!” Lithia rushed off into the night, moving as quickly as the narrow streets would allow. The Vens would barely fit through them.
The next house held a young couple. Both had been bitten. Lithia stunned the woman, but the man had already disappeared out of her line of sight, running toward the gate where all the lights and fighters were. He would either attack everyone or be killed. Probably both.
“I’ve got him,” Jai said, climbing up a rain barrel onto the flat roof. The houses where close enough together that he could jump from one to the next.
Lithia called Benjamin who was leading the force at the gate. “Jai’s chasing one of the Ven-bitten your way. Don’t shoot him.”
Another shot rang out in the night. Victoria was back on the line. “They’re moving toward the Temple. Only got it in the arm. There’s a group of people headed that way, but the Vens are holding position. I don’t know what’s stopping them.”
The group of people had to be Cora and Will with the family. Had this been the Vens’ plan all along, to find a way to get into the Temple? She could believe it, especially after Dione told her about the blue Ven, how he had waited until she input the code to get to the engine room on the Calypso.
Lithia was getting tired. All this running and adrenaline were wearing her out quickly. How did proper soldiers do it, fight continuously for hours at a time? Now it was just her and Melanie. Finally the Temple doors came into view.
Lithia could see, up ahead, that the Vens had reached Cora and Will just before they reached the Temple. The goal had been to keep the fighting away from the Aratian stronghold for as long as possible. They handed off the man and boy to the women and directed them toward the Temple. Cora and Will raised their pila blades, ready to fight.
The two Vens loomed, dark green monsters undaunted by
children with sticks. One’s arm was oozing, though Lithia smelled it rather than saw it. Her nose wrinkled in disgust, and she tightened her grip on her own pila blade.
Melanie aimed her gun and fired twice, once in the chest, once in the leg. The injured Ven whirled, and both lunged at her in unison. Melanie barely dodged out of the way, and they lunged again. This time, one managed to scratch her leg. She cried out in pain.
Lithia ran forward as a distraction, but they were set on Melanie. Her next dodge cost her. She lost her grip on the gun, which now lay on the ground. Lithia saw terror in Melanie’s eyes. She couldn’t keep this up much longer.
“Come on!” Lithia shouted to Will and Cora, and they charged in. Lithia aimed for the already weak leg, and the other two aimed for the armor straps. All of them failed to hit their targets, but their united attack accomplished one thing. One of the Vens turned to face them, leaving the injured Ven to Melanie. That’s the best we can do right now, Melanie.
Lithia tried to pass the Ven to get to her friend, but the Ven blocked her every time. It wanted to keep her isolated. Lithia kept trying, waiting until Will and Cora attacked before trying to rush past, but it intercepted her with a swipe of its claws. It was doing this on purpose. She tried watched its torso for telegraphed movements, just like she would in a hylaball game, but even knowing where it was going only allowed her to react more quickly in her own dodges, not her breaks. She thought she saw flashlights in the distance, but didn’t dare look more closely.
Lithia heard a cry from Melanie and looked over. She was on the ground, scrambling backward. There was no time. Lithia saw Melanie’s gun and broke for it. She felt the sting of claws on her back, but she had known that was coming. She grabbed the gun and fired into the Ven’s lower torso, stopping it for just a moment so Melanie could get back on her feet and out of the way.
That was all she needed. What Lithia had assumed were flashlights were actually headlights. A sickening crunch followed by a more sickening smell signaled the end of Melanie’s attacker. It was Zane and a young Aratian man, driving a large tractor.
“I didn’t even hear you!” Lithia said.
“Battery-powered,” Zane replied.
They all focused their attention on the last Ven. Zane pinned it to the ground with the tractor while the others sliced through its armor. Melanie did the honors and shoved a blade into its brain.
For a moment, Lithia felt hopeful. They had stopped the advance scouts from getting to the Temple. Then someone called over all their communication devices. “They’re pouring through a breach in the wall.”
The Aratian patrol had failed to seal the wall. They were probably all dead.
“There are still some Vens outside the gate, but I’m sending most of our men to hold them off from the Temple,” Benjamin said.
Lithia thought he sounded afraid, and she couldn’t fault him. This is it.
36. ZANE
After saving Lithia and the others, Zane had left the tractor to Diego and hurried back to the barn. He wanted to try out the monstrous tiller he’d spent the day repairing. He thought he could probably mow several Vens down with it.
He rushed there while Lithia and the others moved back to join the main force that was coming up to meet the invading horde.
The tiller had a safety bar to prevent anyone from getting caught under the blades, but since that was the whole point of his plan, he had removed it. He thought it would make a good weapon.
He was certain he’d left the safety bar leaning against the toolbox built into the seatback, but it now lay across the seat. He was probably imagining it, but he felt his stomach do a nervous flip.
He started her up and headed out into the chaos. The tiller was loud compared to the battery-powered tractor Diego was driving around. He heard a strange banging sound and worried that something had gone wrong with his repairs.
No matter how many times you test something, it always seems to get performance anxiety. He decided he would just roll with it. If she broke, well, hopefully at that point he would have killed a few Vens.
He heard the banging again, and realized that it was coming from the toolbox, which doubled as the back rest for the seats.
At that moment, his heart filled with fear. He knew what was inside that box even before he opened it to reveal Evy.
“Evy, you’re supposed to be in the Temple!” he said.
“I’m coming with you. I want to help,” she said.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? I’m taking you back,” he said.
But it was too late. The Vens were beginning to fill the area. Floodlights were being moved from the gate to illuminate the battleground they had chosen. Soon, there would be too many people to use the tiller to mow down Vens. He thought about closing Evy back up in the toolbox, but if something happened to him, he didn’t want her to be trapped there.
“If anything happens to me, hide in the toolbox.” Evy nodded in compliance.
Zane felt more glee than he probably should have in such a situation. Vens were pouring from the trees, their dark green bodies like shadows moving toward the men and women taking a stand against them.
“Get down,” he told the girl. He powered the machine forward, catching a Ven underneath it. It made a sickening crunch that Zane found strangely satisfying. He had no sympathy for these monsters in his heart. If he could press a button and remove every last Ven from the galaxy, he would. For now, he would settle for running a few over.
As powerful as the machine was, the Vens were much faster. After the initial few failed to get out of the way, they caught on. They directed their attacks toward him, and by extension, Evy. The Aratians and Ficarans caught on quickly and did their best to keep the Vens off him, wounding them so that he could back over them with the tiller blades spinning. Soon Diego arrived on his smaller tractor, which was much more maneuverable. For a while he was driving circles around Zane, sending Vens hurtling back through the air, but he was lower to the ground. On his third pass, his luck ran out. A Ven rammed into the side of his tractor and knocked it over, pinning his leg underneath.
“Help Diego!” Zane shouted to the teams on the ground. “He’s pinned!”
No one heard him in the chaos, but no one would have gotten to him in time anyway. Zane watched in horror, helpless, as another Ven lifted his club and brought it down with impossible force. Zane barely knew him, and even in the midst of all the death around him, Diego’s death sent a chill through his whole body.
This was no place for Evy. He needed to get her out of here. The area was becoming too chaotic anyway. Soon he wouldn’t be able to maneuver around the humans, putting them in danger of getting crushed or torn to pieces.
“Look out!” Evy said.
Before Zane realized what was happening, a clawed hand, wet with blood, dragged him out of the tractor and threw him on the ground. A Ven loomed over him, ready to finish him off, but something stole its attention away from Zane. An Aratian melee team appeared, making cuts, trying to force it to the ground. It turned and smashed one of its attackers in the head with its club. With a sharp crack of breaking bones, the Aratian went down.
The Ven was not alone. Its pack arrived, trailed by another Aratian team and a Ficaran team who were following their marks. In the time it took for them to reach Zane near the tiller, another Aratian and Ficaran were dead at Ven hands. Humans might outnumber them three to one, but the Vens were built for murder and survival.
The heavy safety bar thumped to the ground next to him. Thanks, Evy, he thought. He grabbed it with two hands, just in time to deflect a blow from a Ven club, but he wasn’t strong enough. It knocked the bar back into him. The bar struck painfully across his chest. He was dazed, but grateful. If it had been the club unchecked, he’d be dead.
Zane got to his feet and prepared to join the others against this pack. His earlier glee having now vanished, he felt sick with fear. He had never intended to be in the thick of the battle. His talents did not lie
in the physical brute force required to kill a Ven, but a quick glance at his companions told him that he was not alone. Most of these people did not have the necessary skills or training to fight, but they didn’t have a choice. He was just like them. There was no escape. His fate was tied to that of these colonists, and they were dying, one after another all around him, crumpling like paper under Venatorian clubs.
The communicator of a dead man crackled to life at Zane’s feet. “They’re at the gates, trying to break through!” His heart sank. There were even more Vens out there.
Zane tightened his grip on the heavy bar and watched the Ven for patterns in its attacks as he dodged. Patterns he could handle.
37. LITHIA
Lithia looked into the fray and felt almost hopeless. Even in teams of four, the colonists struggled to take down one Ven. Some just weren’t fast enough, and eventually they missed a dodge or fumbled an attack. One mistake, one misstep, and that was it. She tried to block out the intermittent screams of the dying.
One group, however, appeared to be taking Vens down systematically, coming to the aid of their pinned-down comrades. What was this group doing differently?
Six people. Four Aratians, two Ficarans. The Ficarans were not afraid to use their weapons, but Lithia watched carefully when they fired. Whenever one of their Aratian teammates was in trouble, they fired another round into the Ven plating, aiming for the legs. This distracted and injured the Ven long enough for the Aratian to recover, and even allowed an attack from another Aratian.
“Victoria, Benjamin,” Lithia said into her manumed, “call a retreat to the gate and regroup. You need to put people into mixed teams of Aratians and Ficarans. Whenever a Ven is about to land a blow, the Ficaran fires. That is the only way to win this. It’s not enough for the Ficarans to fire a few bullets into the Vens and hope they are badly injured. They have to shoot at just the right moments and keep the Vens off-balance.”