Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (26 page)

“Hey, there
are some kind of wormy looking things that have come onto the surface of the asteroid,” Foxy said.

“Can you tell what they’re doing?” asked Exit.

“They look like they’re waving to us,” Foxy replied.

“How can they see us?” asked Exit. “Aren’t we still stealthed?”

“Yeah, as far as I know we still are,” Foxy replied. “I’ve got no idea how they can see us, but it sure looks like they can. Wait...they’re motioning for us to land...what the hell’s going on?”

Foxy paused. “Oh, wait, there’s one of our guys,” he
added after a few seconds. “The wormy things must be all right; he’s telling us to land, too.”

The
inside of the shuttle resounded with a ‘
bong!
’ as a piece of the battlecruiser bounced off of it. “I was wrong,” said Exit. “We do still have to worry about that stupid battlecruiser. Hurry up and get them onboard. There are a lot of pieces of the battlecruiser flying around; I’d hate to see any of those things skewered by one.”

“Roger that,” agreed the WSO.

“Bombs are set, sir,” Master Chief said.

“Good,” Night replied. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Wraith, you’ve got point; get us back to the airlock as quickly as you can. Randolph, you’ve got our backs.”

“Roger, sir,” Randolph said, moving to rear guard. Wraith didn’t say anything; she just silently took the point and headed out.

“You’re with me,” Night said to the Hooolong. “Try not to get lost, OK?”

“I will stay by your side,” the creature agreed. “I do not have a weapon, so I will not be going off on my own.”

“Do you want one?” Master Chief asked, pulling out one of his backup pistols. On their previous mission, the platoon had been hit by an electromagnetic pulse that wiped out all of their electronics; now, just about everyone carried some sort of backup mechanical pistol.

“I do not know how to use
that,” the Hooolong said. “I would be just as likely to hit you as I would the Drakuls.”

“Never mind, then,” Master Chief said, putting
the pistol back in his pocket holster. “Just stay close.”

The squad started off down the corridor. Once again,
the hallways were strangely quiet. Where were the Drakuls?

After about 30 seconds, there was an explosion from behind them. It wasn’t the bombs they had left going off; that would have been far more catastrophic to them.

“What was that?” asked Night.

“They must have gotten into the ops center,” replied Mr. Jones. “Irina and I left some booby traps.
I’m guessing that was the bomb in the intercom transmitter. The next person who goes in the room will have a hard time using the transmitter...or anything within about 10 feet of it.”

“
Movement from the rear,
” commed Staff Sergeant Randolph. Night could hear the cyborg’s pistol fire several rounds. “
Looks like they may be massing for an attack.
”

“
Wraith?
” asked Night.

“
I heard,
” she replied. “
I’m going as fast as I can.
”

“Where the hell is Yokaze?” asked Calvin, coming through the door. “
The squad in the operations center is done. We need to get the hell out of here!”

“I don’t know,” Mouse replied. “He was right behind me, but when I opened the door and turned around, he was gone. Two of the Drakuls went down the passageway; he must have followed them.
”

“Dammit, we don’t have time for hide and seek,” Calvin said. “
Yokaze, where are you?
”

“
I am freeing the prisoners,
” the ninja replied. “
If you would continue down the passageway, you’ll find me. Hurry! They are coming.
”

Yokaze didn’t say who the ‘
they’ were, but from the tone of his voice, they weren’t friendly. “Let’s go,” Calvin said to the remaining members of his group. “Quickly!”

They charged down the passageway, which turned to the left after about 50 feet. Rounding the corner, they found the first dead Drakul, a throwing knife in its right eye. “Well, at least we can follow the
trail of bodies,” Calvin said.

“Yeah, hopefully it doesn’t end with Yokaze’s,”
Mouse said.

The passageway turned back to the right
, and they came to a hallway with a large number of doors down both sides. 100 feet further down the passageway, they could see Yokaze fighting four or five Drakuls, his swords flashing in the harsh glare of the passageway’s lights. Although Yokaze continued to give ground and weave back and forth across the passageway, it was only a matter of time before one of the Drakuls grabbed him. The Drakul sitting behind the group wouldn’t be grabbing him any time soon; the creature was missing both of its hands and was trying to stanch the flow of blue blood coming out of them like a small fire hose. The Drakul seemed perplexed that it couldn’t figure how to do it without an opposite hand.

“Open fire!” Calvin ordered, aiming his rifle.
The Drakuls stood more than four feet taller than the ninja, so the Terrans had a good view of their heads and upper chests; within seconds, the Drakuls were down.

“Thank you,” said Yokaze. “That
was a couple more than I wanted to handle by myself.” He pulled out a key card from his pocket. “I took this from the cook; it seems to open the doors.”

“Great,” said Calvin. “Hurry up and get the
m open. We need to get the hell out of here. Zoromski, you and Mouse go to the end of the hallway and set up a perimeter while we get the hostages out.”

“Yes, sir,” the two troopers said, turning to
jog down the passageway in the direction indicated.

Calvin turned to see one of the giant spider creatures coming from the doorway that Yokaze had just opened.
They needed to get the hostages moving before they blocked the passageway. “Tiny, BTO,” Calvin said to the sniper and spotter, “you guys show the hostages where to go. Let’s get them moving. Fast!” Calvin turned to look down the hallway as a grenade blast was heard from the direction of Zoromski and Mouse. “The faster, the better.”

* * * * *

A doorway opened as
Staff Sergeant Randolph went past it, and the cyborg went down as six or seven Drakuls poured out, tackling the cyborg to the ground. The rest of the Terrans wanted to fire, but were worried about damaging the cyborg. Before they could decide what to do, holes began appearing in the Drakuls as Randolph fired upward through the pile.

Staff Sergeant Dantone walked up and shot
one through the head and pulled it off the pile. Most of the Drakuls had been shot several times by this point, and the rest of the squad joined Dantone in administering killing shots.

Randolph pushed the last couple of bodies off and stood up. He was a mess, covered in blue goo and missing
a number of chunks of his artificial flesh. He stood up, stomping on the head of one of the Drakuls that twitched.

“The stupid things were biting me on the bottom of the pile,” Staff Sergeant Randolph said
, sounding disgusted. “Really?
Who tries to eat a cyborg?
Stupid Drakuls.” He ejected both magazines from his pistols and slammed new ones into them. He turned around and shot one of the dead Drakuls lying on the floor in the head. “Stupid Drakuls.”

“Maybe they were iron deficient?” asked
Sergeant Hopper.

Randolph snorted. Night had never heard a cyborg snort before. It sounded like the air brake on an 18-wheel transport truck. “Well, I know one thing for sure,” Randolph said. “They just got their fill of lead.”

“
Zoromski, Mouse, fall back,
” Calvin commed. “
We’ve got all the hostages, and we’re out of here!
”

“
Roger that,
” Zoromski replied. “
Looks like lots of them coming.
” Calvin heard two grenades explode from down the hall, and then Zoromski and Mouse came running toward him.

“
Now would be a good time to be leaving, sir!
Zoromski commed. “
Fast as you can!
”

Calvin turned and began running back toward the airlock, following the mass of prisoners.
They weren’t going to be moving fast. He had a bad thought. “
Hey, Master Gunnery Sergeant,
” he commed, “
Are there any spacesuits for all of the aliens that we have coming? There are at least 10 of the Hooolongs, three Archons, four or five of the giant spider-looking things, three things that look like pteranodons or whatever the hell the flying dinosaur was, and two or three other things that I can barely even describe.
”

“
Stand by, sir, I’ll ask,
” Kinkead replied. Calvin hoped it was the comm system; she didn’t sound very well.

Calvin caught up with the hostages as
they reached the cross passage where the Gordon brothers were standing, firing grenades down the hall into the auditorium. The passageway looked like it had seen better days; it was charred, and smoke filled the air.

“Hey, sir,” said Bad Twin, “can we go take a look at the auditorium
? We were kind of curious how many Drakuls were in there.”

“What?”
Calvin asked. “No! Do you see these hostages? We’re leaving! This isn’t the time to count who killed the most aliens. Help Zoromski and Mouse with rear guard. Let’s go!”

“
Lieutenant Commander Hobbs, Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead,
” the return call came, “
that’s a negative. There are no suits for the alien life forms. We already used the suits that the Drakuls had here. Apparently, this is a one-way trip for most of them. They only had a few suits for some of the techs that had to go out on the surface of the asteroid. Unless they are Hooolongs, Smetlurge says there probably aren’t suits for them.
”

“
Understood,
” Calvin replied. “
Just how the fuck did he think we were going to get the hostages off this rock, then?
”

“
He said he wondered how long it would be until you realized that,
” Kinkead replied. “
He also said there was no reason to bother you with that detail until you actually rescued the hostages. Since you were successful, he says that you need to have the shuttle pull around into the second shuttle bay from the top of the asteroid.
”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Calvin said, earning a curious look from Good Twin, who continued to fire grenades into the auditorium as the last of the soldiers went past.

“
On the good side, he says it’s not far from here,
” Kinkead added. “
We can meet here and go in one group.
”

Great, thought Calvin, an even bigger clusterfuck. He switched to the plat
oon comm channel and added the shuttle crew to the network. “
Everyone, listen up. There’s been a change of plans. We have a bunch of friendlies that don’t have spacesuits. We are going to join up at the airlock and go to the shuttle bay. Break. Break.
Shuttle 02
, did you copy that? It’s the second bay from the top.
”

“
Roger, boss, we copied,
” replied the shuttle’s WSO. “
We’ll go take a look.
”
 

* * * * *

Night checked the map in his head.
Their pace had slowed considerably after the Drakuls started attacking them, and he realized they were in danger of getting bogged down and not making it back to the airlock.

The end was in sight
, with only two big cross passages to go; unfortunately, the cross passages were where the Drakuls seemed to be hitting them the hardest. Lacking central control with the destruction of the ops center, the Drakuls somehow still seemed to be getting the word that they needed to stop the Terrans.

They made it through the intersection
, although there was a definite increase in incoming fire. The rear guard, Staff Sergeant Randolph, continued firing as he walked backward down the hallway. Reaching the intersection, he came up short. “
Damn it,
” he commed, “
I’m broke.
”

“
Talk to me, Randolph,
” Master Chief replied, “
What do you mean, ‘you’re broke?
’”

“
Something must have happened to me when I got dog-piled by the Drakuls earlier,
” Randolph said. “
I ran a diagnostic, and there’s something wrong with my primary motivator. No kidding, I can’t move, and I’m hard down if you can’t do anything.
”

“
I think I’ve got one,
” Sergeant Hopper commed. “
They had extras at Sierra Army Base before we left, and I picked up a couple.
”

Sergeant Hopper looked out at the cyborg standing in the middle of the passageway as laser bolts flashed off of him. One of the
groups of Drakuls had gotten smart, and all of them were shooting at the same spot on his left knee. Wisps of smoke and the smell of burning rubber filled the passageway as they melted off the pseudo-flesh that wasn’t supposed to melt. The metal underneath glowed red hot. It wouldn’t be long until the metal failed; even if it didn’t, the Drakuls would probably bring up something heavier soon, and then the cyborg would be dead.

But t
hey needed the cyborg’s weaponry.

He made up his mind. “
Cover me!
” he commed as he ran out into the passageway. It seemed like World War III had just broken out as the rest of the squad came back to pour fire down the three separate passageways. Realizing what was happening, and that the cyborg must be important, the Drakuls increased their fire, hoping to take it out before Sergeant Hopper could fix it. Even though he had the cyborg’s bulk for cover, Hoppy was still hit several times in the arms and legs, although most of them were glancing shots that barely penetrated his suit.

Willing himself to ignore the pain of
a laser bolt that had caught him in the left leg, Hoppy popped open the access plate on the back of Staff Sergeant Randolph. “Fuck,” he said under his breath. “
The rod is bent, and it’s catching as it spins,
” Sergeant Hopper commed. “
It got caught on a couple of wires and yanked them out.
”

“
Can you fix it?
” Master Chief asked.

“
Yeah, I can fix it,
” Sergeant Hopper replied. “
But it’s going to take me a minute.
” He paused a moment as another laser bolt singed his right leg. “
Think you could push them back a little? It’s hard to-fuck!-concentrate when you keep getting zapped.
” He looked down and saw his suit was smoking or charred in several new places since the last time he had looked. The laser bolt that hit his right arm had penetrated and
hurt
. A lot. He triggered another pain killer from his pharma and all of the rest of his nanobots.

“
Stand by,
” Master Chief said.

“
I’m not going anywhere,
” Hopper said. “
Hey Randolph, how about you?
”

“
Nope,
” agreed Randolph. “
All systems are pretty much stopped here.
”

“
COVER!
” Master Chief yelled after a moment. Hopper plastered himself to the back of Staff Sergeant Randolph. He was sure he’d take some ribbing for the way he was up against the cyborg later when they got back. If they got back.

There was a pause
, and then two antimatter grenades arced down the left passageway into the heaviest concentration of enemy fire. The detonations were enormous in the confined space, and the cyborg rocked to the side. Hopper braced himself and pushed the cyborg back up as two more grenades went down the hallway to the right and two more straight ahead. Hopper locked his suit and was able to keep the cyborg vertical in spite of the blasts.

Fire from the Drakul
s slowed noticeably.

“
Thanks,
” Sergeant Hopper commed. “
That’s a lot better.
” He pulled one of the wires out. “Now maybe I can get some of this shit fixed.”