Authors: Michael E. Marks
A tongue of muzzle flame licked from the barrel and the glass sphere exploded from the Spider's skull in a cloud of glittering fragments. Ridgeway fired three more rounds in rapid succession, punching one fist-sized hole after another through the creature's whiplashed cranium.
The Spider pitched forward and collapsed into the lake. Ridgeway tracked its fall with the shotgun, wary of a feint. Without waiting for motion, he hammered two more rounds down the creature's centerline, starting at what he took for the base of its skull.
Ridgeway paused, breathing heavily. A ragged sound echoed from high above.
The skid wobbled badly as the auto-pilot fought to maintain its programmed location, but the slow death of the engine took a toll. The computer was not designed to compensate for such wild surges in power and the skid slammed into the stone ceiling with a screech. Bits of the bow ramp broke off and fell to the lake.
Ridgeway slapped the side of his helmet as he struggled to re-boot the TAC, but the system doggedly refused. He looked desperately for a way to trigger the Detonex before the skid lost power. He considered the shotgun in his hands and weighed the odds of throwing one round through the missing floor plate to hit the charge inside.
One in a million shot, Ridgeway thought, something even Darcy would have been loathe to try. If he hit the engine instead, the skid would fall out of the air and slam into the lake. The shock would likely set off the charge, unleashing the fury of a gravitic core breach in Ridgeway's face instead of against the ceiling.
Bad idea, Ridgeway told himself, but he had no other.
Bracing as firmly as he could atop the crumbled truck, Ridgeway raised the shotgun's muzzle. He pushed his vision as hard as the optics would allow and peered into the choking smoke, hoping to find a flat disk inside a bucking, veering hole.
One in a million my ass, he chided his own audacity, more like one in a billion.
He could see nothing but the black smoke that poured from the hole in thick, tuberculin coughs. A stalactite clipped the damaged bow and put the skid into a slow spin. Ridgeway strained to track the oscillating target.
Dammit, Ridgeway snarled. One shot, just give me one shot.
Ridgeway exhaled slowly as he drew the slack from the trigger. Riveted on the target, he never saw the monstrous tattered arm until it smashed into his legs.
CHAPTER 38
The thunderclap of the skid's detonation was overdue and Taz glanced back as he dashed across the catwalks. He was just shy of the Tower when the sounds of gunfire rang from outside the ship.
"Majah's in trouble," Taz snapped over his shoulder, "We gotta help him."
Monster answered the statement with a shove that propelled Taz even faster.
"I'm goin, I'm goin," Taz bitched. A second volley of gunfire sounded, heavy booms that came from no weapon in the Marine's inventory. The pace was quick but measured. Whatever was shooting was taking aim, and nothing was shooting back.
Taz started to turn back when a second shove sent him sprawling. Cursing madly, he rolled up to one knee. "Shit Gunny, we--"
The shape above him looked like a flattened egg on a mass of whipping tentacles. By far the smallest of the creatures, it moved with a striking agility. The oval body angled down, a dozen shimmering orbs spread across the front of its hull. Amid the eyes, a cluster of small appendages flicked in Gorgonesque fashion, one pair sparking with voltage as they touched. A flat metal bar extended like a tongue turned on-edge, the curved edge a blur of spinning chain.
Taz drove his boot-heels into the creature's underbelly, but it held fast, anchored by the grasp of a dozen prehensile limbs. It forced itself down, driving the howling chainsaw blade closer and closer to the Aussie's facemask. Taz watched the blade dip inexorably closer until a dark shape plowed into the creature's side. Monster's crushing tackle drove the thing to the deck with a loud crash.
As Taz rolled to his feet the Gatling gave a short bark that ended as quickly as it began. Monster fired from one knee, the handful of rounds left in the chambers carving a short but horrific swath across the creature's face. It flinched away, then spun back with a fury.
Monster roared, left arm pressed tight against his chest as he swung the Gatling like a massive club. The blow drove the oval body to the floor where the spinning blade threw a fountain of sparks. In a blur of ferocity the heavy gun swung down brutally again and again, sledgehammer blows that spalled metal plates from the creature's shell. When Monster paused, chest heaving, a crumpled ruin lay at his feet.
"Crikey Gunny, I think you killed it."
Monster's only reply was a looping overhead blow that crashed down with so much force that the Gatling tore away from his arm. The creature's torso cracked open and a thick, dark sludge gushed from the wound.
"Bloody hell." Taz could only whisper the words, awestruck at the display of feral violence. The fucking thing never got in a shot.
As he watched Monster back away, a second image flickered through his mind, the image of an angry young Marine who not so long ago stood on the verge of calling Monster out.
Buggar me, his lip curled ruefully, what the hell was I thinking?
A deep, heaving growl in his chest, Monster staggered to the tower door and jabbed at the dark control switch. The door refused to budge, an ill-timed decision given Monster's state of mind. The sergeant hauled back and threw his right forearm into the door so hard that the metal rang. On the third blow it folded. He sagged against the now-open doorframe and motioned for Taz to pass.
As Taz reached the portal, a hand clamped down on his shoulder. He turned to the bloodstained figure.
"Major's doin his job." Monster swallowed loudly, then huffed a deep breath. "Now I've done mine." The big sergeant leaned forward and hooked a thumb toward the turbolift just inside the door. "You find ‘em, bring ‘em home, that's your duty."
Taz tried to swallow the dryness in his throat. He only nodded and stepped through the door. The turbolift opened with a hiss and as he boarded, Taz realized what he wanted to say. He looked back at the battered figure that filled the doorway, and the dark cluster of snake-like arms that rose behind him.
Taz screamed.
The big Marine ducked as a metal arm smashed the doorframe just above his helmet. With a snarl Monster slammed his shoulder into the center of the flailing limbs. His legs pistoned madly as he drove the creature backward into the rail with such force that the metal snapped. Locked together, they tumbled from sight.
"Noooooo!" Taz ran forward as the sounds of breaking steel echoed up from below. He reached the ledge to see the ragged gaps smashed through several catwalks below. Bits of metal rained down into the pool, tiny splashes speckling the huge ring of disturbance that spread across its radiant surface. He stared down at the lake until the ripple dispersed and the broken fog closed together once more.
A scream erupted from his lungs as he turned and slammed his fist into the wall. A second blow followed, four-knuckle dents aggregating on the smooth surface. At half a dozen he stopped and slumped against the lumpy, bowl-shaped depression. Curses of vengeance gave way to tortured mutterings.
Duty, he told himself, Monster's last words. Gotta find the team. Monster, Darcy, Ridgeway; he wondered for a moment if anyone was alive to find.
CHAPTER 39
The wide blood slick extended from the turbolift all the way to the Sickbay door, stretched out like a flat crimson serpent. Streaks of dark red gleamed against the industrial greys of the hallway.
The sanguine trail hooked sharply at the door where the wide pool gave mute testament to time spent trying to get the door to open. Few motion-sensors were attuned for bodies that dragged themselves across the floor.
Once past the door the blood slick curved to the right, avoiding the damaged floor. Merlin lay in a gloss red puddle, free from the remnants of his broken armor that now lay scattered about him. The last of his blood seeped from the wounds that covered his body. He breathed, weak and shallow, due largely to the stimulants Stitch had dumped in his system.
The medic dragged himself along the far wall, activating the system that he hoped would save Merlin's life. Dozens of monitors flickered with activity as he leaned back and fumbled to load the infuser with a brain-numbing mix of narcotics and Versed. If the first failed to keep him in oblivion, the second would insure that the ghastly images would be forgotten.
"Merlin, Stitch, do you copy?" The voice on the Com was broken but recognizable.
"Taz!" Stitch could barely speak, his voice a dry rasp. "We're in Sickbay, where are you?"
"On the way."
A small sigh escaped Stitch's lips. Cavalry's coming.
He looked across the room at Merlin and keyed the mike. "Taz, how long before--" The sound of movement in the hall cut short the medic's question.
That was quick, he thought with clouded amazement. The sound in the hall fell suddenly silent and a ripple of uneasiness crawled up the medic's spine. Too quick.
Stitch set the infuser on the floor and reached up to the lip of the the console. Cursing against the pain, he dragged himself up the wall. His left leg hung rigid in a cast of carbon armor.
"Taz?" The heavy scrape that came from the hall was not the sound of a man in motion.
With a lurch, Jaws dragged itself around the corner, leaving behind its own trail of fluids. Whips of smoke still curled from the holes burned in its shell. The mangled creature's eyes locked on the medic and its mandible extended weakly. The sawtooth grin snapped only once.
Stitch tried to lean from the wall but could no longer balance on one leg. His chest rose and fell as the twin climbing spikes snapped out on both arms, edges glinting in the light. The medic took a deep breath and steeled himself for what he knew would be his last fight.
"All right motherfucker," he spat, "you're in MY house now."
The legless hulk gnashed its teeth with renewed defiance as Jaws heaved itself forward like a walrus on land. Thudding forward one heavy wet slap after another, the toothy slug squished along on a slick of its own leaking goo.
Stitch raised the spikes to chest-level as the creature slowly closed. He spoke into the Com, a steely urgency his voice. "Taz, if you're coming, you'd better come quick."
The creature was only feet away when Taz's voice came back across the line. "I'm on the lift, almost to your level. Crikey it's a bloody mess in here"
Two more wet, heavy flops moved Jaws ever closer. The glistening teeth yawned wide, so close that Stitch could see the carrion scraps of human meat that dangled from each serrated blade. The creature drew itself in for the lunge that would bring those teeth down on his own immobile form. Stitch threw a wild, roundhouse right, swinging the heavy blade for all he was worth. As his arm swung wildly, he knew.
Missed.
Sick, tired shock flooded his mind as the blow whistled through nothing but air. Stitch looked up to see the metal maw snapping inches from his face like a blood-frenzied shark, unable to comprehend why the beast slid backward.
"Not on my watch, you bloody shite."
Even grunted with such exertion, the accent was unmistakable. Stitch looked up to see Taz, both of his own blades buried in the creature's flank. The Aussie heaved backward, his feet scrabbling for purchase on the blood-slick floor.
Another powerful grunt marked a second rearward lurch before Jaws seemd to grasp the change. It folded back, teeth swinging wildly aft as it snapped in the air. Taz lunged to one side, refusing to let go with what struck Stitch as a determination worthy of his namesake.
The medic winced as one blade tore free and Taz was whipped around in a bull-riders nightmare, avoiding not horns and hooves but a bite the envy of any Great White to swim the Barrier Reef. Taz held on doggedly, kicking aside the bloody jaws as they chomped ever closer. His feet caught floor and he heaved once more, throwing his full weight into the pull. The climbing blade snapped at the hilt and Taz launched back toward the door.
Stitch felt his heart sink as Jaws flopped on one side like a beached fish. The rough crumpled texture of the damaged floor beneath its belly helped it turn toward Taz. Stitch pushed himself forward, sprawling to the floor as his leg gave out beneath him.
"Game over, motherfucker" The words from the right side of the room were laced with wet derision.
Jaws swung its head to the bloody wreck of a human being sprawled beneath the console. A severed piece of cable lay pinned beneath the shattered arm, a matching piece clutched in his bloody left hand.
Merlin spoke through bloodstained teeth clamped down on a strip of electrical tape as he brought the exposed ends together.
"Cannonball."
With a caustic thrum, power surged and the damaged gravitic coil threw itself into overdrive. A massive spike of artificial gravity slammed down like a piledriver and crushed the uncomprehending Jaws into the floor.
CHAPTER 40
Ridgeway knew the shot went wide before the muzzle flash dissipated. Blindsided by the flailing limb, he sprawled across the roof of the truck. The shotgun skipped off the hood and disappeared with a splash.