Forging Zero (78 page)

“Maybe
they think everybody knows how to open the doors now,” Maggie said.

The
sound stopped suddenly, leaving the entire barracks in a wave of whispers.

Outside,
an explosion sounded, rattling their rifles in their lockers.  Two more
followed, one right after the other.

“What
is it?” Maggie whispered. 

“I
don’t know,” Joe said.  “But everybody get your biosuits on.  Right now.”

They
heard no more commotion while they suited up, but as they were gathering their
gear, an explosion knocked them off their feet.  It was followed by a deep,
powerful rumbling.  Joe’s heart skipped a beat.  He’d heard that sound before,
in school.  His teacher had spent the week studying the Andes Mountains and
she’d shown them a film documenting the perils of mountaineering.  The sound
outside was the sound of an avalanche.

Joe ran
to the door and punched in the code to open it.  As soon as he did, he stepped
outside onto the balcony and froze.

Half of
the barracks was missing.  It had sheared off from Joe’s half and lay in an
enormous black jumble on the ground.  Below, over the jagged edge of the
balcony where it sheared off beneath his feet, Joe could see an arm sticking
out from the debris.

“Everybody
out!” Joe screamed.  “Get down the stairs! 
Move!”
  He ran back inside
and grabbed his rifle and his gear.  As Libby ran out and took in the situation
below, he went to the closest barracks door, Ninth Platoon’s, and opened it.

The
kids were still in their big circular beds, trying to sleep.

“Get
your biosuits and get out of here!” Joe shouted.  “The barracks is caving in!” 
He continued his circuit around the remaining half of the barracks, opening
those doors that remained on his level.  Some of the kids were ready, waiting
to be released, but most had simply gone back to sleep.  Joe got them all up
and ushered them down the stairs, stopping when he reached the jagged edge of
the other side.  Fifth through Ninth platoons had collapsed in the explosion,
along with dozens from other Battalions.

“Zero! 
Get the recruits off of the seventh level!” a familiar Ooreiki voice shouted
behind him.  “I’ll get the eighth!”  Joe had just enough time to see Commander
Lagrah before he disappeared up the stairs at a run.  Below him, he heard the
wet
thwap
of gunfire and hesitated.

Libby
can handle it.

As soon
as he had the thought, he charged up the stairs to reach the next battalion. 
More of them were awake than the last battalion, some already dressed in all of
their gear.  Joe rushed them down the stairs and went back for more.

“It’s
falling!” Lagrah shouted at him, wrenching him away from another door.  “Zero,
get down the stairs!”

Joe
hesitated and Lagrah bodily dragged him down the switchback stairway. 
Immediately, wet plasma rounds smacked into the stone behind their heads.  Joe
flinched and looked back.

Instead
of simply staining the wall a glowing blue, as recruit rounds would do, the
side of the wall was dissolving under the plasma, disappearing as if it had
never existed.  Lagrah grabbed him by the arm and yanked him down behind a pile
of rubble.

“That’s
live fire,”
Joe cried, still unable to believe it.

“It’s a
war, Zero.  As soon as the commanders got together for their meeting, the
Huouyt blew up the space station and everyone in it.  Nebil and Bagkhal are
dead and that Jreet-loving Na’leen has taken control of the weapons stores.”

Joe’s
first thought was of anger. 
They were my friends.
  Then a cool,
simmering rage began to build in his stomach.  “What do you want me to do?”

“I know
you were associating with the rebels, Zero.  Where are they?”  Lagrah gripped
his jacket, his pale brown eyes narrowed to dangerous slits.  “Tell me or I’ll
kill you right now, damn what Kihgl said.”

What
Kihgl said?

“The
abandoned
ferlii
on the edge of the city,” Joe whispered.

“They
wouldn’t have their command post so close to Alishai,” Lagrah snapped.  “Where
else?”

Joe
thought back to the hidden weapons cache Yuil had tried to show him.  He
remembered the wet stain on the floor, the Ooreiki flashlight.  “There’s a spot
in the forest.  A small black door set in the side of a
ferlii.”

Lagrah
released him suddenly.  “Did you see them enter this place, Zero?”

Joe
nodded.

Lagrah’s
sudah began to vibrate.  “And you didn’t tell anyone?”

He
shook his head.

“At
least now we know where they’re getting their weapons.  Get your platoon.  Grab
a haauk and take what you need from the armory.  Gokli’s inside.  Tell him you
need Jreet poison rounds and
fahjli
grenades.  Find that door again,
Zero.  Get inside, whatever it takes.  This is
real,
you understand? 
Bagkhal was wrong.  This isn’t a few furgling teenagers.  The one you called
Yuil was Na’leen’s assassin, Zol’jib.  They’re
Huouyt,
Zero.  Every one
of them.  They’re making a grab at this sector of space.  Na’leen’s been
planning it for turns.”

Joe
nodded, feeling ashamed and angry.

“Go!”
Lagrah shouted, shoving him.  “If you’re anything close to what Kihgl thought
you were, you’ll find a way inside that depot.  You’ve got to do it fast, while
they’re still distracted with the takeover.  I’ll follow with whoever I can
find.”

Joe
ducked his head low and hurried between the debris piles, trying to ignore the
bodies buried underneath.  He found Libby with the rest of his platoon, holding
their position behind a sheer wall of half-crumbled diamond with their recruit
rounds as the rebels fired back with real plasma, slowly dissolving their cover
out from in front of them.

“Did
you see Lagrah?!” Libby cried.  Behind her, the barracks let out another
explosion and the rest of it imploded, sending up a cloud of black dust that
blotted out all sight of the enemy.

“He
told me to find you,” Joe said.  “We need to go attack their base.”

“Who
are
these guys?” Maggie cried.  She was holding her gun tightly, hiding behind a
chunk of rock, stark terror in her eyes.

“Is
this a drill?” Scott said, peering through the black dust.  “Is that real plasma?”

“It’s
real,” Joe said.  “Don’t let it hit you.”

“Why do
we
have to attack their base?” Maggie cried.  “Joe, I’m scared.”

“This
is just like the hunts, Mag,” Joe said.  “Now let’s go get a haauk before the
dust clears.”

Maggie
whimpered, but followed him and Libby as they charged through the smoke to the haauk
depot.  In the dust behind them, a kid let out a startled scream that turned
into an unending, agonized shriek. 

He’s
dying,
Joe thought, terror creeping into his
veins. 
That’s real plasma and he’s really dying.

Joe
grabbed a haauk big enough for the entire platoon, one with armored plating
used to drop off attackers in the hunts, and made everyone get on board.

At the
armory, Battlemaster Gokli and his platoon were holding off a group of attackers. 
Rat was firing from the roof, picking off rebels with a laser rifle while Tank
and Bailey fought them off on the ground.  As soon as Joe landed, he ushered
his group inside.

“Zero! 
Get rid of those recruit toys and man the walls.  Send your best snipers to the
roof with Rat, your skirmishers outside.”

“I’m
not here to stay,” Joe said.

“Furgsoot! 
This is a real firefight and you’ll—”

“Commander
Lagrah said we’ll need
fahjli
grenades and Jreet poison rounds,” Joe
interrupted.  “We’re going after their base.”

Battlemaster
Gokli narrowed his eyes at him.  “Where is that bastard?  I thought he got
blown up with the others.”

“He’s
directing the surviving platoons on the ground,” Joe said.  “They’re fighting
rebels over by the barracks.”

“Then
he’ll be here soon and I can hear it from him,” Gokli said.  “Until then, take
up positions to guard the armory.”

“We
have to go
now,”
Joe said.  “I know where to find Na’leen.”

“You’re
recruits,” Gokli snapped.  “Lagrah’s insane to send you off by yourself.”

“My
platoon’s got the best rankings on the hunts,” Joe said stubbornly.

Gokli
gave him a long, piercing glare.  “You realize this isn’t a game, right Zero? 
They will kill you and all of your friends and not even blink.”

“I
know,” Joe said.

Gokli
swiveled and led him deeper into the armory.  “
Fahjli
grenades,” he
grunted, shoving handfuls of little black discs that resembled bottlecaps into
his arms.  “Twist the two halves in opposite directions and toss it at the fire-loving
Huouyt.  It stuns them like a flash grenade, except it only works on Huouyt.”

Joe
passed the grenades to the other members of his platoon, then followed Gokli
further down the endless rows of weapons.

“Jreet
rounds,” Gokli said, shoving packs of bright red canisters at him.  “Use it
like your fake plasma, except this stuff will really kill you.  It’s the only
poison a Huouyt bastard can’t neutralize with a shape-shift.”  He began taking
the stuff off the shelves, handing packs of it to Joe and his groundmates. 
“Didn’t exactly plan on fighting a war with the Huouyt, so there’s a limited
supply.  Good thing is, though, it only takes one hit to kill them.  Even a
spatter will do.”

Once he
was finished, Gokli hesitated, scowling at Joe.  Finally, he said, “Take Rat
and her squad.  I can fight off the rebels with the rest.”

“I
don’t think—” Joe began.

“Do it,
Zero.  You’ll need the help.”

Joe
collected the others and passed out the new rounds to Rat and her friends.  Joe
caught Libby’s cold look when she handed Bailey his portion of the new
weaponry, and an image of Libby sprawled in her own blood, a lump of dirty
flesh laying in the dirt beside her returned to Joe’s mind.  Bailey, in turn,
gave her an anxious glance as he snapped the chamber closed over the new
rounds.

He
did it,
Joe thought, suddenly furious. 
He’s
the one.

“Get
out of here,” Gokli shouted.  “Before the Huouyt blow up your haauk!
”

Joe and
the others clambered aboard the haauk as the remnants of Second Battalion
covered their retreat.  Then Joe fired up the haauk and they were soaring above
the chaos, shooting eastward, looking for a needle in a haystack.

Three
hours later, they had still not found the door.  Back in Alishai, silence had
descended upon the city.  For hours, they had anxiously listened to the battle,
jerking at every explosion.  Now, the stillness seemed ominous.  Lagrah still
had not appeared with his promised assistance.

“So
where is it?” Rat demanded.  She had been angry that Gokli had made her leave
the fight, even angrier to find out Joe didn’t know where he was going.

“It’s
somewhere around here,” Libby said.  “Just shut up.”

“I’m a burning
battlemaster.  If I want to know why I’m riding around with this loser when my
friends are dying, I’m gonna find out.”  She turned her hawkish gaze on Joe. 
“So why
do
you know where this place is, anyway?”

“Lagrah
showed me once.”

Rat
gave Joe a narrow look.  “Right.  Find that door or I’m going back.”

“Then
you’re gonna have to find out some way to fly, because Joe’s the only one who
knows how to use the haauk,” Maggie said.  Her tone of voice added,
Bitch
.

“Listen!”
Joe shouted.  “It’s around here somewhere.  The last thing I need you guys to
do is fight.  Rat, if you wanna go back, I’ll put you on the ground, but I’m
not flying us back.  Commander Lagrah told me to find this place, and I’m going
to.”

Mention
of the Prime Commander made Rat’s face sour.  “Just hurry up.”

They
found the entrance twenty minutes later, the door wide open.  Three dozen dead
Ooreiki lay on the
ferlii
branch outside, their brownish faces contorted
in pain. 

“Soot,
Joe,” Scott whispered to him.  “I think there’s something big moving down
there.”

Joe
drew closer, frowning at their blue Peacemaker uniforms.  One of the closer
ones held a scaly, cream-colored lump of flesh in a death-tightened tentacle. 
Beside him, almost falling off the branch, a small Jreet lay with its
cream-colored throat torn open, the fanglike appendage in its chest unsheathed.

One
moment, Joe was staring at the dead Jreet, the next a recruit behind him cried
out and fell, convulsing.  His biosuit was even then sealing over a puncture
wound in his chest.

“Jreet!”
Joe shouted.  “Look out for Jreet!”

Rat
dropped to a knee and raised her rifle at the same time Libby jerked, then
flipped around and smashed a boot into thin air.  Around them, the
ferlii
suddenly
vibrated with an ear-splitting
shee-whomp,
the sound of an aircraft
engine gone awry.  A huge reddish figure shimmered in front of her, then
slammed a fang-tipped appendage down at her leg with all the strength in its
powerful central limb.  Joe’s heart stopped.