by Craig Allen
Cody’s comm crackled. He did a quick diagnostic on his suit, which showed no problems. It wasn’t someone else’s suit. The crackle came from somewhere else.
Bodin grinned and pumped his fist. “Goddamn cavalry. About time.”
A voice that didn’t belong to any of the crew popped over the comm. “This is Washington Hera Three, calling Spinoza survivors. Do you copy? Over.” “Hera” was the official designation for a hopper.
“They brought the Washington?” Deveau asked before the coughs kicked again. He gestured at Sonja while trying to recover from his gagging fit.
She nodded. “Copy, Hera Three. This is Gunnery Sergeant Sonja Monroe. Do you have our position? Over.”
“Affirmative, Gunny. This is Lieutenant Carl Leads, call sign Badger. I am inbound, ETA ten mikes. Prepare for hop upon arrival. Over.”
“They ain’t gonna get here in time,” Bodin said.
“Sonja.” Cody pointed at the fliers as they fluttered their wings in alarm. “That hopper could cover their escape.”
Sonja waved him off.
“Be advised,” Badger said, “you have incoming from east, southwest, and northwest. Looks like locals and… Christ, are those G-1s?”
“I copy that, Badger,” Sonja said. “We could use some help here.”
“Roger that. Care package inbound, ETA… about now. Over.”
“I have incoming.” Deveau sounded as if he’d been gargling glass.
Cody’s suit’s motion sensors tracked the object as it sailed in from the north a hundred meters above the plateau. It circled, spiraling downward. The fliers continued to panic and started to take off. Cody ran in front of them, waving his arms. “Wait! It’s friendly!”
The fliers backed away as the cylindrical object, which was big enough for a person to fit inside, glided in. The fliers shivered and squealed. The object’s gravity-based propulsion system might have interacted with the magnetic fields on the planet in such a way that overwhelmed the fliers. It was all Cody could do to keep them from taking off. As soon as it touched down, the engine on the cylinder shut down. The fliers calmed down, at least a little.
Sonja ran to it and tapped the edge of the featureless cylinder. A slit appeared down the center, and it popped open. Cody couldn’t make out the contents from where he stood, but the smile on her face indicated it would be useful. “Tango yankee, Badger. Appreciate the favor. Hoping I could ask for another. Over.”
“Roger that, Gunny. Care to explain? Over.”
“We have friendlies at our location,” Sonja said. “They can get away on their own, but they need covering fire. Proceed to engage tangos coming from the east. We’ll take care of the rest from here. Over.”
“Negative,” the voice said. “Orders are to pick up—”
Deveau cut in, his voice rough. “Lieutenant Leads, this is Major Kevin Deveau. I’m sending authentication. Over.”
“Copy. Wait one.” A few seconds later, the word “shit” drifted over the comm. Badger then responded, less calm than before. “Roger. Sir, roger. Over.”
Deveau gagged for a moment then composed himself. “You are to follow Gunnery Sergeant Monroe’s orders to the letter until you have space under you. Do you copy? Over.”
“Uh, roger, Major. Wilco. Gunny, what is the nature of your friendlies? Over.”
“They look like giant turkey-buzzards,” Sonja said. “Clear their path to the east.” Sonja pointed at the fliers and then east. “Once hostiles on the ground are cleared, escort friendlies until they attain an altitude above the cloud layer. Then return for evac. Over.”
“Cloud layer’s four thousand meters above the deck, Gunny,” Badger said. “Are you sure your turkey-buzzards can achieve that altitude? Over.”
“Yes, they can.” Sonja pulled a thick vest from the container. “Proceed as ordered. Over.”
“Copy that, Gunny.” Badger didn’t sound convinced. “Diverting course, as ordered. See you soon. Out.”
A roar came from somewhere in the distance. Cody focused his HUD on the position. The hopper approached from the south, its airfoils unfolded. Its grav impellers squealed like banshees as it banked east.
Sonja went to the fliers as she put on the vest she’d retrieved from the cylinder. She pointed at Bodin. “The toads are going to try and flank us. When they get into range, waste them.”
“Will do,” Bodin said. He nodded at Deveau, and both of them took up position along the northwest edge.
“Gunny.” Deveau’s voice had grown even worse. “They better take off now before the toads get closer.”
Sonja nodded. “Agreed. Doc, kick ’em in the ass.”
Cody nodded and looked at them. “Time to go.” He pointed in the air. “Our friends are up there. They’ll help you escape.”
They shook their heads and held up the viewer.
No we stay together or we not see again. We want to go with you.
Cody didn’t know what to say. Could they take the fliers with them on the hopper? They would have to come back for all of them eventually. If only they could…
He snapped his fingers. “Major, I need one of the trackers.”
Deveau pulled the container from his pack on the ground and tossed it to Cody, who caught and opened it. He pulled out a tracker and activated it, making the fliers jump. Cody handed it to one of them. The flier took it, holding it as if it might bite. Cody couldn’t blame them. Their sensitivity to magnetic waves might make the tracker stick out like a sore, and very loud, thumb.
“I know these things are loud to you,” Cody said, “but you can’t lose this. We can find you as long as you carry it. We’ll find you and come to you.”
Asylum asylum!
“I know you want asylum. If you have this, we can find you no matter where you are. Understand?”
The flier passed the tracker to another, and then reached for Cody with its central arm. It placed its claw on his shoulder in a very human gesture. Cody put his hand on the claw. “We’ll come back. I swear.”
One by one, fliers took to the sky. The mother with the three hatchlings held them to her breast and soared forth behind three others. The rest came up behind, keeping the mother in the middle.
One flier hobbled toward Deveau and Bodin. It patted them both on the shoulders with its central claw.
Bodin gave it a quick nod. “Have a good flight, pal.”
The last of the fliers dove off the plateau and sailed into the sky, gaining altitude quickly.
“What about them?” Deveau nodded toward the beetles. His words sounded forced, as if speaking were difficult.
In the distance, a sound like popping popcorn punctuated the air. He zoomed in to the east. A few kilometers away, the hopper hovered over the area as it released another blast from its coil cannons, kicking up billowing dust, and then the hopper proceeded farther east.
“Here they come.” Deveau coughed. “Hit ’em.”
Bodin and Deveau opened fire. The report of the rifles rolled across the countryside. In the distance, dust puffed up around the toads. They moved with phenomenal speed, not even bothering to dodge the rifle fire. After the dust cleared, they kept coming. Bodin fired another burst. Cody zoomed in on his HUD. Coil fire pounded the group of approaching toads. The rounds had hit—there was no question of it—but the toads had absolutely no reaction.
“Goddamn it,” Bodin said. “Major?”
“Yeah, I see it,” Deveau said. “Gunny, they have inertial screens. Our rifles won’t work, at least at this range. You got that thing working yet?”
“Just about.”
Sonja clicked a button on the front of the vest. It unfolded, covering her arms and legs with a mesh of fibers. During the war, Cody had seen a demo of something similar. Those fibers were thick enough to stop most coil gun rounds, but that was just a back-up defense. She knelt and picked up what looked like a nightstick, which she attached to her right hip. It, too, unfolded bit by bit. As it grew longer, cooling coils unfolded and w
rapped around a central barrel. The tube became a coil gun larger than the G-1s the toads carried. Six barrels pointed outward in a circular pattern from the central housing attached to her hip. Sonja maneuvered the gun with ease.
She tapped her wrist, and the suit’s primary defense came online. An invisible bubble surrounded her, kicking away small rocks and dust as it spread open. Based on grav technology, the bubble killed the inertia of anything entering, even coil gun rounds traveling at hypersonic velocities.
Bodin grinned. “Now we’re talking.” He looked over the edge of the plateau. “Just in time, too.”
Cody peered over the edge. The toads had already reached the base of the plateau and started climbing. Two set up G-1s at the bottom of the cliff, while another group carried theirs up the side.
“Get back!” Bodin pulled Cody aside, just as the G-1s opened up on them. Gunfire ripped through the cliff edge. Cody pushed himself back as a section of the cliff broke apart and fell away.
Deveau held his coil rifle over the edge and blindly fired a burst. “Gunny, they’re flanking us.”
“No shit, sir.” The inertial screen of her armor pushed dirt and rocks aside as she marched straight for the edge of the cliff, heedless of whatever was below. Coil rounds ripped at the edges of the plateau, but the projectiles froze in midair when they hit the inertial screen. Devoid of their momentum, they fell to the ground.
Sonja smiled at them and depressed the trigger.
The coil gun barrels spun in a blur as they spat out ten thousand rounds per minute. Toads at the base of the plateau vaporized as gunfire poured over them. The heavier rounds traveled much faster than the smaller rounds from their coil rifles. The gun ripped apart even those behind the inertial screens, rendering them into chopped meat before their G-1s fell to the ground.
Marines called the weapon a chainsaw because of how it sounded and what it did. Designed for taking out heavily armored vehicles, the full-auto gauss rifle cut through the toads as easily as it sliced the air around them. Many tried to run, but they only died mid-stride. On their world, the toads were lords. But on that plateau, Sonja was a god.
When the dust settled, little was left that could be identified as having once been alive. Sonja waited just long enough to make sure nothing moved, and then she proceeded to the western ridge just as two toads climbed over the edge of the plateau. They fired their G-1s at her. The rounds sliced partway through the field and bounced off her armor. She swung her cannon around, and they dropped out of sight behind the ridge of the plateau. Sonja pulled the trigger. The hypersonic rounds sliced through the rock and into the toads. A pink mist filled the air as Sonja cut them to pieces.
In five steps, she made it to the edge. Cody peered over the edge. There had to be half a dozen gun emplacements down there, along with about a dozen other toads holding conventional coil rifles. One group fired on Sonja. She returned fire, obliterating them. As she engaged them, others moved around the edge of the plateau, surrounding it. She could take them one on one with ease, but she couldn’t engage all of them at once. It was only a matter of time before some of them reached the top.
Bodin lay next to Deveau, looking down the northwestern edge of the plateau. “Doc, get your ass over here!”
Cody scrambled over. “What do I do?”
“Fire on that shit.” Bodin pointed not at the toads, but a large outcropping of rock on the edge of the plateau. “Aim at the base, closest to the wall.”
Before Cody could respond, Bodin and Deveau opened fire. Cody joined in with his coil pistol. The outcropping was huge, but the rounds chewed through the rock. After a few seconds, it gave way. The massive boulder fell quickly in the high gravity. It impacted several more outcroppings, knocking them loose, as well. The resulting rockslide crashed onto the toads below. Those toads not under inertial screens died right away. The screens, designed to stop gunfire, resisted the massive boulders for a split second. The screen then short circuited under the pressure, and the boulder crushed those under it.
Deveau stood, staring at the carnage. “We got ’em on the northwest, Gunny, but we could still use…” Deveau choked. “Oh… oh, shit.”
Deveau pitched back and forth violently before spitting up something black and red. The chunk of phlegm climbed up the inside of his helmet.
“Oh, Christ.” He dropped his coil rifle. Bodin started to help, but Deveau pushed him away. He placed his hands on the edge of his helmet and twisted it off. The suit hissed as the seal broke. Deveau dropped the helmet, and it rolled a short distance away. The thing inside the helmet, a smaller version of the beetles, hopped out and crawled to the other beetles.
The beetles surrounded Deveau. They jumped for joy, forming words as they danced.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
“You little bastards.” Deveau tried stepping on them, but they were too fast for him. He stumbled and fell to his knees. “Oh, God.”
“Major.” Sonja turned from the hillside. “What—”
Deveau’s infection had reached its peak. He jerked back and forth. He opened his mouth as if to scream, but he made no sound. His jaw cracked as it came unhinged. Out of his throat poured hundreds of tiny beetles, which chattered and squealed as they made their exodus from his body. Deveau fell over, clutching at his mouth as the smaller beetles chewed their way out from inside. They consumed his cheeks, his tongue, and then the rest of his face.
“Motherfucker.” Bodin turned his rifle on the still squirming Deveau. Cody didn’t even try to stop him. Deveau was better off dead anyway. Bodin squeezed the trigger, and Deveau’s head burst like a melon. The beetles poured out of his neck and swarmed over the body. The beetles bounded forth into the swarm, helping their children consume what was left of the major.
Her mouth open, Sonja let her hand fall from the trigger mechanism. For the first time since they’d been on this world, she looked absolutely petrified.
~~~
Badger had never seen giant frogs with arms growing out of their backs. And to make matters worse, they were armed. Half a dozen hastily arranged coil gun emplacements all prepared to fire on him. He sprayed each emplacement with his gauss cannon, reducing each location to a crater. He kept the grasers offline. Firing-induced gamma ray pulses in the atmosphere would have detrimental effects on the buzzards and anything else nearby.
Toads fled in all directions. Many turned and opened up on him with coil rifles. A few managed to hit the hopper’s thick hull, but did nothing. Badger slowed and altered his course so his secondary coil guns could achieve the best firing pattern as they peppered his attackers. In no time, he reduced every armed frog to vapor. The rest exhibited the better part of valor and ran as if the devil had their number.
The flying creatures hovered about a hundred meters off his starboard. He zoomed in on them with the hopper’s HUD. Gunny was right. They did look like giant buzzards. They each had a single limb along their underside. One of them clutched three baby buzzards, holding them as close to its belly as possible.
Just before the buzzards entered the cloud layer, one flew within twenty meters of him. It made a motion with the fingers on its right wing. It looked like a thumbs-up.
~~~
Coil gun rounds ricocheted off Sonja’s armor. She spun around and locked on. She squeezed the trigger, and the weapon roared. The toads, and the Gus Ace at their position, disappeared under the hail of gunfire. “Bodin, report.”
“Checking.” Bodin scrambled for the edge of the plateau and peered over. “They’re holding position.” Gunfire passed over their heads. Bodin returned fire, but Cody couldn’t tell if he’d hit anything. “They’re not getting closer, at least.”
Cody stared at Deveau’s body. The beetles continued to consume what little was left of him.
A voice came over the comm. “Gunnery Sergeant Monroe, this is Washington Hera Three. Over.”
“I copy, Badger,” she said. “Over.”
“Your buzzards are safe. We are now in
bound, east of your position. ETA one mike. Mind if we dust off now, Gunny? Over.”
“Affirmative. Ready for evac. Be advised, we still have hostiles to the northwest. Over.”
“Roger that,” Badger said. “Do you require assistance? Over.”
“Negative,” she said. “Stand by.”
Gunfire ripped across Sonja’s armor, this time coming from the northwest. The rounds passed through the outermost part of the plateau and slammed into Sonja. Her inertia field slowed the rounds, and her armor stopped them altogether. All they managed to do was piss her off.
“Fuck this.” Sonja stormed toward Bodin’s position. Bodin wisely slid out of her way. Coil gun rounds ripped into her screen and armor, but she didn’t blink. At the plateau edge, she angled the massive weapon downward and depressed the trigger. When the dust settled nothing was left.
But there were still more of them. For whatever reason, the reeds had returned in spite of the awful racket of gunfire, though they maintained a respectable distance from the plateau. The toads hid among the reeds as they fled, popping their heads up, firing, and then moving again. They converged at an opening to a small canyon against the hills several kilometers distant.
“Sonja,” Cody said. “They’re leaving.”
“Yeah, I see it. Bodin, how many cherries we got left?”
“One.” Bodin pulled it out immediately. He must have been holding on to it all that time. “It’s a class three, Gunny.” He tossed it to Sonja. The inertia field caught the cherry, suspending it in the air. Sonja snatched it from the field without taking her eyes off the retreating toads.
“Wait.” Cody zoomed in on the toads. Most had gathered at the valley entrance and started to disappear into the hills. “They’re running away. Why don’t we let them run?”
“With all of those G-1s?” Sonja shook her head as she opened a port on the side of her weapon. “They’re gods on this planet with those guns. They can kill anything.” She nodded east. “Including our new friends.”