Casserine (19 page)

“We’re within the beam for sure from here on,” Jake explained. “When we get into the cavern, fan out around the Queen, and kill anything that wanders within. Make your shots count. Don’t get excited and pour so much particle beam fire into them we end up igniting the fuel crystals.”

Jake turned and walked carefully into the cavern. Mercer and the Marines behind him quickly spread out around the cavern as they proceeded, weapons at the ready. The Queen’s signal ululated outwards in a high frequency, radiating blanket, engulfing their senses.

“Get into position, God Damn it,” Mercer screamed to the troops, as Jake continued on over to the huge thirty foot high, horde mother. “Use your helmet dampers to cut out the sound. If I want you to do anything, you’ll hear it over the com.”

Mercer watched the Marines deploy in squads, in front of the nest, leaving a buffer zone between them and Queen’s Chamber. They put away their sidearms, and covered the cavern with their two handed, particle beam rifles. Mercer walked over to where Jake stood looking over the Queen’s nest defenses.

Jake looked over at Mercer, shaking his head. “Look at the bitch pump them things out.”

Mercer saw the mass of eggs spewing out into the Queen’s birthing chamber, which enveloped a seemingly unending pool of viscous fluid. The two Marines watched the eggs on the outer regions of the pool burst apart. The Bugs hatching from the eggs were nearly one-third their normal size. They immediately began feeding on the fluid within the pool.

“That explains where those ones came from, we killed at the cavern entrance,” Jake commented.

“God, I’m almost glad we never got a chance to sightsee the last time in a nest,” Mercer replied. “There’s how they get food in here.”

Jake looked up to where Mercer pointed. Two narrow tunnel seams emptied literally into a trough like area in front of the Queen, and the birthing pool. “They must absorb the planet’s resources, and then regurgitate the morass through those feed lines back to the nest.”

“Man,” Mercer said in disgust, “that’s enough of a reason to exterminate them right there. Can we get started? I’ve had enough sightseeing.”

In her distress, the Queen had reared up above her birthing pool to a nearly three-story height. Her head wavered from side to side, as her mandibles slammed against the sides of the armored pen she had created around herself. She, and her birthing pool, lay in a solid tub hollowed out of the fuel crystal formations. The translucent armored shield around her did not budge, even as she thrashed against it. The fuel crystals glowed slightly, making the pool give off a yellowish haze, as it churned around the Queen’s eggs and growing offspring. One opening from the birthing pool connected to the outer cavern.

“Put a squad over there to cover that hole, Charlie,” Jake said, indicating where some of the growing offspring were poking their heads out into the cavern. “She may send out the small ones when I get to annoying her.”

“I’m on it.” Mercer went over, and gathered up Mendoza’s squad. He positioned them to fire on the birthing pool exit.

Jake was shedding his pack, and strapping his Gear Knife around one shoulder, so he could get his hand on the handle in front of his chest. He holstered his side-arm blaster, and re-slung his particle beam rifle, in the special pouch he had made, so it lay against his back, with the butt within easy reach of his hand.

“Don’t you want to see what happens if we try the particle beam on the shield?” Mercer asked, joining Jake again as he prepared for the assault. “We only had an early prototype when we were here before.”

“Okay,” Jake agreed, “but make it fast. If it just absorbs the beam like it did before, don’t keep firing. The damn thing radiated the excess heat to the outer walls of crystal.”

Mercer leveled his own particle beam rifle at a spot just opposite of the Queen’s head and fired a short burst. The area he hit glowed a little brighter, and then the blast seemed to dissipate throughout the shield surface. The crystal formations brightened briefly as the energy was discharged from the shield into the walls it bonded with.

“Bitch!” Mercer spit out angrily. “I guess you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way, Jake. She don’t seem to have any ledges for you to make your way up above her. What do you have in mind?”

“I’m going up right there,” Jake indicated a thread of rocky crystal, extending up the side of the translucent shield, to a point just below half way to the top.

“What you planning on doing after you get there, fly the rest of the

Jake laughed as all hell broke loose, both outside the cavern, where Bugs streamed into the nest cavern, and in his ear.

“We lost the signal, Jake,” Tokoru called out suddenly.

Mercer had rushed over to bolster his Marines as Bugs burst into thecavern.

“Remember what the General told you,” Mercer said calmly in their com units. “Use short bursts, and hit your targets. We came here to fry the Queen, not get fried.”

The blasted bodies piled up so fast, the Bugs had to burst through piles of their own horde to move forward. Mercer watched in awe as Jake ran up the small ledge, and then leaped the intervening fifteen feet. Mercer talked to the surface.

“Jake’s on his way. Tim, how you doin’, boy?” Mercer asked, as he added his firepower to holding the cavern.

“Little busy right now, Sir,” Dougherty’s strained voice said. “Drop Ship reinforcements still stuck at the habitat. We’re slaughtering them, but if you all ever get out of there, you may have to swim in Bug soup to the ship.”

Mercer chuckled. “I’ll use my backstroke. Colonel Conger, how are things looking from your end?”

“We’re holding, Charlie, but I’m damn glad the General had us clean the area after you guys descended. How’s the General doing?”

Mercer looked up as Jake had to throw himself back over on the cavern side of the shield as the Queen’s mandibles smashed the spot where his right leg had been hanging over into the birthing area. “He’s had a minor set back. You getting this, Colonel Tokoru?”

“I’m watching through your helmet cam,” Tokoru replied. “The picture’s good, but she’s on to him now.”

Jake hung precariously onto the top of the shield as the Queen continued to pound the area opposite of where he lay against the shield on the other side. Mercer shouted as Jake dropped his right hand down, thinking Jake had lost his grip. Instead, Jake drew his sidearm, and pulled himself up one handed, until he could reach over the barrier with his blaster. The Queen flailed frantically, but Jake managed to open up a steady stream of fire that cut one mandible off as it reached for him.

The scream of pain resonated out so powerfully, it stopped the attacking Bugs, who halted in confusion. The Marines wiped them out, as no more entered the cavern. The entrance could no longer even be seen. Mercer pumped his fist in triumph, as he listened to Tokoru’s satisfied yelp, watching the show from the habitat.

“He bit the Bitch that time,” Mercer called out. “Jake’s on his way up onto the top of the barrier, Colonel Conger. It won’t be long now.”

Tokoru watched the show on the screens set up at the habitat. The picture, transmitted through Jake’s helmet cam, although shaky, relayed a terrifying image. Tokoru heard him grunt with effort as he pulled himself up atop the shield, after holstering his sidearm. The Queen twisted desperately, trying to reach Jake with her other mandible.

Just as Jake pulled his particle beam rifle from its pouch, the Queen in a last ditch effort, threw herself against the shield surface separating her from the birthing area. Twisting higher than before, she slashed across Jake’s helmet, and then his upper left torso as he had turned to fire at her. He had been straddling the shield precariously with his legs. Her blow cracked his helmet in half, and laid open his armored left side as if it were silk. Jake had managed a blast just before he was torn from the wall and into her birthing chamber. The particle beam tore a gaping hole through the Queen’s upper most segmented section.

Her scream of pain resonated in the closed chamber in a deafening crescendo. Jake fell into the shallow liquid in her compartmented chamber, holding on desperately to his rifle. He landed on his back, still cradling the rifle, as the pool broke his fall. Blood coursed out of the slash on his left side, and the fluid in the pool burned as it filled the gaps in his suit. Struggling painfully to a sitting position, Jake brought the particle beam rifle up to fire, noticing for the first time his cracked helmet blocked his view.

The Queen rocked back, and slammed into the far wall, her wound causing her to tear partially from the egg sack extending back into the birthing area. Her high pitched screech deafened Jake as he tore off the damaged helmet. He desperately tried to shut out the reverberating sound sledgehammer, blanking all of his senses. Nearly helpless with pain, the Queen ducked toward the source of her misery with one mandible and her gaping jaws.

Jake fired as she struck at him. The blast tore the upper side of her head off, but could not prevent what remained of her lower head and upper body from smashing into him. He lost consciousness for a few moments. Coming to in a mix of birthing fluid and Queen Bug matter, Jake heaved the carcass off him, spitting and vomiting the vile mix. He regained his feet, and still spitting, Jake fired with abandon, blowing the Queen to bits of matter cascading down the walls of the shielding material.

He could not hear anything, even though silence reigned within the chamber. Turning once more, Jake retched again. Limping through the opening left when he had exploded the Queen’s lower extremity, extending into the birthing area, Jake fired into the egg chamber at everything still moving. Mercer led Mendoza’s squad through the underdeveloped Bugs guarding the other exit. They did not pause until all they could see was churning, chunky liquid in a rainbow of colors.

Mercer ran up to the gasping and spitting apparition at the far end of the chamber, covered from head to toe in the now foaming liquid. “Hey Jake, how’s it hangin’?”

Jake started to laugh at the tinny sound of Mercer’s joking inquiry, but vomited again instead as he bent at the waist. He looked up finally, when the spasm ended.

“Thanks a lot, you uncaring prick,” Jake croaked. “Lead me out of this shit, before I turn inside out.”

Jake followed his friend, warning off Mendoza and the other Marines whose first instinct was to run up and grab him. “Stay back boys. This gunk can kill you. I have some immunity to it from the last Godforsaken time me and Charlie visited here.”

Chapter 18 

Trip Out of Hell

Mercer had pulled his water container from his pack. He threw the contents of it straight into Jake’s face, washing some of the thick bile off. The other Marines followed his lead, managing to clean most of the mixture away from Jake’s eyes and mouth. Jake looked at them gratefully through bloodshot eyes. Mendoza poured some into his mouth, which Jake gargled and spit out.

“Thanks, I cannot tell you how much better that feels,” Jake told them, his voice still a rasping whisper. “That Bitch tastes worse than she looks.”

“I don’t know, Jake,” Mercer retorted. “It looked like love to me, right boys.”

Jake nodded painfully as the others laughed. He gestured for them to lead the way, and he fell in behind them until they cleared the birthing chamber. Jake set his rifle down along with the remainder of his damaged upper body armor. Mercer handed him one of their spare com units, which Jake slipped on. Tokoru was the first one he heard.

“Did you get me a souvenir?”

“How’d the visuals go, Yuri?”

“Fine, until she smashed you in the head. We thought you were dead,” Tokoru answered. “The Bugs have started arriving from the other nest. Something’s jamming the signal from the Gallant. I.”

“Shit. Jas this is Command Alpha, do you read?” Jake rasped haltingly.

“I’m here, Sir,” Major Peters acknowledged for the first time. “I was cut off from the Gallant for a while. Bug Daddy’s projecting some kind of beam at the Gallant. I can read you loud and clear, but am getting no readouts from the Gallant, ship to ship.”

“When will it be in range, Jas?”

“Very soon, Sir, but I wanted to make sure it didn’t have a clue until I could really hit it, so I’m continuing to run silent.”

“Excellent. Do you have anything other than energy weapons on the Fighter?” Jake asked as he looked at the shield.

“I have full size planet killers loaded into torpedo husks,” Peters replied. “They have an anti-matter base, bonded to crystal fuel technology.”

“Take no chances, Jas. Don’t use the energy weapons. I think they may have some mutated kind of shielding, and I don’t want you finding out the hard way. Vaporize the bastards.”

“Aye, aye, Sir. I’ll let you know how it works. Peters out.”

‘Yuri, hold your own until we hear back from Major Peters. Colonel Conger, stay where you are. The horde from the other nest will probably be making its way to you. Clean up the area while you can. Tim, I want you to lay MAG50 fire between the ship and the nest entrance until I tell you to stop. We have some casualties, and I don’t want to play with the Bugs on my way to Alpha.”

After he heard the acknowledgements, Jake signed off, and went to a place where he could shed the rest of his contaminated outer suit. Using his own pack water, he bathed the wound on his chest, and Mercer added an analgesic laced dressing to cover it, from his pack. The other Marines, who were hurt in the nonstop attack on the cavern, let their buddies apply splints and dressings to their wounds. They were back on their feet even before Jake joined them, with only minor injuries, mostly caused from falls. Only two of the Marines had been sliced by the attacking Bugs, and their armor had saved them from serious injury.

Jake put his headset back on and checked in with Tokoru as he wiped off his rifle, and other weapons.

“General, we have scanned movement coming at you from under the ground,” Tokoru said urgently. “Can you get out of there now?”

“Thanks for the warning, Yuri, but we’ll be going up hill over a long distance. I think at this point, it may be a good idea to wait here where we have rocky terrain. If they catch us between the surface and here, the Bugs will wipe us out.”

“Understood, but we have heard nothing from Major Peters,” Tokoru informed him.

“Uh oh,” Jake rasped. “Jas, this is Alpha Command. You there, buddy?”

When he repeated the call over the next few moments without a response from Major Peters, Jake gave up for the moment. “Did you reestablish contact with the Gallant, Yuri?”

“No Sir,” Tokoru answered, “and we are under full attack from the other nest. The Bugs heading your way underground will arrive under the nest entrance in about an hour.”

“Crap,” Jake exclaimed. “I don’t think we could get more than half of the way out of here by then.”

“Permission to attack the other nest, Sir,” Tokoru requested.

“Denied,” Jake stated, coughing up some more of the material he had ingested. Mercer handed him some water, and Jake took a long drink. “You’d lose a regiment even getting down to the nest without a blocking signal. When we hit the nest without a blocking signal the last time on

Omaha, we got away with it because a bunch of Marines died decoying them away. Let’s give Jas another ten minutes. Anything from the Gallant?”

“They beamed an old com signal down. We picked it up because we were monitoring everything,” Tokoru explained. “It carried a lot of static, but Colonel Stavros said they and the Tennyson are doing fine. They didn’t even find out about the signal not working until they tried contacting us. I told them Major Peters had been trying to get updated information from them too. Stavros…holy crap…wait one, Sir.”

Jake listened intently, as he continued cleaning his equipment. Mercer stood next to him with his particle beam rifle at the ready. Finally, a relieved Tokoru came back on line.

“I am in full contact with the Gallant, Sir,” Tokoru announced. “I saw something out the habitat portal. A couple of the Marines outside the habitat came running in, announcing a flash of light, momentarily filling the sky. The isolation signal is back on, and the attack from the other nest has ceased.”

“Jas, Alpha Command here,” Jake tried immediately. “Jas, you readme?”

“Sir, if that was a planet killer, the anti-matter resonance will keep him off line until he can retreat back near the Gallant,” Tokoru broke in.

“He must have nailed it, but we won’t take any chances. We’re starting up now,” Jake replied.

“We are cleaning house for you. Hurry out, Sir.”

“Will do, Yuri,” Jake agreed. He turned to Mercer.

“Let’s get the hell out of here, Charlie. They have the beam working again. I’ll take up the rear. You lead. Kill anything you wander across.”

Mercer smiled and nodded. He turned quickly, jogging to the cavern entrance, where they would have to clear their way through the remnants of their attackers to get to the tunnel beyond. He gestured to the group nearest him.

“Use your particle beam rifles to clear this shit from the exit. I want you five out in front, rifles at the ready. Kill anything in our path. The rest of you draw sidearms and watch their backs. Be ready for anything. Mendoza, you take your squad and bring up the rear with the General. Follow the flares, boys. We’ve got to move fast, but lets not make it such a killer pace we’re too burned out to fight if we have to.”

Mercer moved out of the way, and the five Marines in the front vaporized the gory mess blocking the cavern exit. When they could work their way through the hole, they led the way, three abreast, with two watching the sides. Mercer followed with the rest of the company. The wounded were relegated to the middle of the formation by their squad leaders. Mendoza stripped off his undershirt and gave it to Jake. When all of the others were on their way, Mendoza’s squad followed, with Jake in the rearmost position.

Suddenly, Jake noticed fluid seeping out of the bottom of the Queen’s chamber as he looked around for a final time. “Hold up for a moment, Charlie.”

“Quit grab assin’ around back there,” Mercer joked. “We’ve got a bunch of Bug stragglers, wandering around up here.”

Jake walked stiffly back to the outer surface of the Queen’s armored shield, and bent down to take a closer look at the cracks and seepage at the base. Where the concentration of her black tinted blood was the greatest, the shield was cracking outwards in a spider web of cracks. Jake picked up a rock nearby, and smashed it into the wall above the leak. It shattered in a small area. He pulled free a small section of the shield material, and stuffed it inside one of his utility pockets on his belt. Jake dropped the rock and hurried out of the cavern to where Mendoza waited.

“Okay Charlie, move ‘em out.”

The climb to the surface took them two hours, as they killed any Bugs they came across. When they came within sight of the entrance to the nest, Mercer called in.

“Cease fire, boys. We’re comin’ out with our hands up.”

“Come ahead, Charlie,” Colonel Conger said.

“Hey Tim,” Mercer added. “Keep an eye out. This is a long stretch of open ground.”

“Will do,” Dougherty acknowledged. “We’ve cleaned a path, but you’ll still be getting your boots dirty.”

As the Marines emerged from the nest entrance, all of them drew their rifles again. Conger’s regiment had extended their perimeter towards the nest, but a few places could be seen where Bugs had surfaced under them. Without the Queen’s signal to guide them, they were easily dispatched, but the experience had made the Marines leery of extending too far beyond their landing zone.

As Mercer reached Alpha Drop Ship, Conger met him with a salute and a handshake. “Man, I am happy to see you, Major. Can we get the hell off of this anthill now?”

‘Tea,” Mercer laughed. “Start boarding, and I’ll make sure the Queen killer gets on board.”

“I’ll load your guys in first,” Conger waved the Nest Marines on the ship, while Charlie walked back in the line to where Jake trudged along with Mendoza’s squad.

To Mercer’s eye, Matthews looked like hell. He could tell Jake was struggling to keep up, and have his weapon at the ready. Mercer fell in alongside of him, and Jake looked up at him with a tired smile of relief.

“Good Lord, Charlie, it’s good to be out of that hole.”

“Yea, well we could have been out a lot sooner, but for us having to wait for your sorry ass.”

Mendoza and the Marines within hearing, laughed at Mercer’s remark, and in relief at being in the open once again. Jake just smiled and nodded at the jibe as he plodded along now. When they came abreast of Conger, Jake shook hands with him, and paused with Charlie as the rest of the Marines quickly boarded.

“You’re out of uniform, son,” Conger cracked.

Jake and Charlie burst into laughter at Conger’s surprising adlib of a familiar phrase coming at a very familiar time. Jake clapped Conger on the back. “Hey Charlie, the Colonel’s got some Deke Larsen in him after all.”

“Tea,” Mercer agreed. “Omaha brings it out in you. Say, Colonel, all kidding aside, do you have a ventilated place where we can stow this smelly Jarhead away from the rest of us. I don’t think I.”

“Why you.” Jake reached for him, but Mercer ducked out of his reach and jogged up the ramp, still pointing at Jake. Conger was still laughing as they boarded Alpha for the trip back to the habitat.

The other four Drop Ships were on their landing zones, with a full regiment of Marines guarding them, when Alpha landed. Jake had dozed off on the way back, and did not stir even when they were landing. Mercer motioned Conger and the rest of the Marines off. Corey walked back through the ship towards them with Tim Dougherty, and her co-pilot Todd Remmings. They all paused, as Mercer gave them a little wave.

“I hope he feels better than he smells,” Dougherty commented witha grin.

Jake’s eyes had popped open at the change in movement, as he noticed the absence of engine hum. “I heard that Chief. Hey Sara, Todd, nice trip, but the scenery sucked.”

Sara nodded as she ran a hand over his shoulder. ‘Tuck it up, big boy. We still have one more of these sightseeing tours to go. C’mon, and we’ll get you cleaned up. I saw the video. What do you think that ooze you were in is doing to that wound on your chest?”

“The bandage helped, but I need to get her poison off of me,” Jake admitted.

“Don’t let him fool you, Sara,” Mercer cut in. “He was drinking the shit when we found him. What was that Jake, some kind of blood rite?”

Jake had scrunched his face up, thinking about the birthing chamber fluid, and having had it in his mouth for the last three hours. “Oh man, stay off of that road, will you please.”

The others laughed, and Mercer helped him up. Jake walked stiffly towards the hatch exit, knowing he would be hard pressed to make another mission without some rest. “Did Jas check in while I was out?”

“He’s on board the Gallant right now,” Corey replied. “The other Command Wing Fighters will be here by tomorrow.”

“God, that’s good news,” Jake said quietly, as he trudged toward the habitat entrance. “I’m glad Jas made it. I thought maybe he was caught in the blast.”

“If we would have had to walk out uphill with those Bugs coming on the Queen’s command, there wouldn’t have been enough of us left to talk about it,” Mercer added, shaking his head. “I owe that boy a drink.”

“I heard he did pretty well on Bougainville too,” Jake offered. “You were there when the Bugs hit, Charlie. His hair didn’t get dyed white.”

“Major Peters took it hard,” Mercer acknowledged. “You have to remember they made it inside before we knew it. He saw them feed, but he was right with us to the end, when Deke had to kick his butt ahead with me and a few others to clear off the escape ship. We were still flying around almost an hour later, with the colonists freaking in the back. I went into the cockpit, and Major Peters had his hands locked on the controls, weaving that big bird back and forth with the front guns blazing. The com was shouting at him for a report, and he just kept blasting.”