Extinction (3 page)

Daria had beaten many marines in fights
before but even in her depressed state, had no desire to kill one. So she
decided to end this quickly and struck out with her right foot; she made
contact with his knee, causing an audible “pop-crack” that was heard throughout
the bar.

She decided not to take any chances with
the marine still sitting at the table, so with a deftly placed axe kick, she
hit the side of the table nearest her, which popped up the other side, cracking
him on the chin and breaking his jaw. Before the table or the marine’s body
could fall, she side kicked the now vertical table, sending it into the poor marine,
whose only crime was to choose the wrong buddies to have shore leave with. Both
table and marine fell to the floor, both broken in more than one place.

Daria looked around and, seeing no other
threats, took her seat next to Davies and asked the bartender to call a corpsman.

“Aren’t you a corpsman?” he asked as he
reached for his comlink.

“Not tonight I’m not,” she sighed. “Not
tonight.” She knew she hadn’t caused any life-threatening injuries. Picking up
her beer and taking back a long drink while she heard moans and whimpering all
around didn’t cause any moral dilemma for Daria tonight.

Although feeling partly responsible for
the carnage lying around the bar, Davies decided that even if he had warned
them, they probably would’ve still made the same mistake. He could see a small
grin to either side of the bottle as Daria drank her beer, and Davies knew he
had made the right call.

The rest of the night was filled with
silence between them while the rest of the bar recapped the action to one another
as new friends walked in. As the alcohol levels rose, so did the number of
injuries Daria inflicted, as well as the number of marines she inflicted them
on. Yes, this was exactly what she needed right now.

Planetside – Intel Gathering Mission

Seth couldn’t believe how hot it was so
early in the morning. He had awakened in the middle of the night so that he
could not only travel in a blanket of darkness to conceal his movements, but to
also keep himself out of the blistering sun, which was threatening to show its
full self shortly.

He had been hunted by his enemies for
the past three days and had run out of water at the start of the second. He
wasn’t sure how long he could avoid capture but he had to try to complete his
mission. Every other member of his detachment had met with an unfortunate fate
and, unaware of how the rest of the task force was faring, he had to push on in
case he was the last surviving operative left to complete the mission.

Although the vast prairie he traveled
through had tall grass to hide in, it was also very dry from a recent drought
and Seth cringed at the noise he made as he walked through it. He had to find
water soon. He was heading toward a tree line that seemed to have a shade more
green than everything else around him and he prayed that it meant water.

At a hundred meters from the tree line,
Seth froze in his tracks. He knew that this planet had indigenous life but
hadn’t even thought that a predator of another sort might also be using the
tall grass for cover.

He was nearly face to tail with what
would pass, much too closely, for a tiger on Earth. The creature had a long
tail with a bulb at the end, in which many six-centimeter long spikes were
imbedded. Not to mention the eight claws on each paw that seemed larger and
sharper than his field knife. The ears were almost non-existent but that would
be expected on a thin atmosphere planet and was much to Seth’s advantage. This
tiger probably hunted with sight and scent and didn’t rely too much on hearing.

Seth was upwind of the brisk breeze
swaying the grass. All marine-issue uniforms had a uniquely designed cloth that
absorbed body fluids and retained them, cooling the wearer and also negating
any scents that would normally be present with any hardworking soldier. As an
extra bonus, each soldier had a water-recycling unit that was attached to an
outlet in their field blouse. This device allowed all of the liquid output from
the wearer to be recycled into drinkable water. Unfortunately, Seth’s had been
damaged during the initial attack three days ago.

Earth had been in a war three hundred
years ago with a species known as the Shirkas. Their culture had never passed
beyond the hunter/gatherer stage and throughout their scientific and
intellectual advancements, they kept to the old ways that had never failed to
provide for them. Consequently, Earth was faced with an enemy that could hunt
down their soldiers and defeat them almost effortlessly on any battlefield. The
government created and used a biological weapon designed specifically for the
Shirkas, which destroyed their home world and many settlements before they
finally surrendered.

Seth, and every other marine, was now
wearing a uniform designed by the Shirkas, which allowed him to be invisible to
any heat or pheromone detector known to exist. And now for the first time since
he joined the Marine Corps, he was glad to be wearing the scratchy cloth that
was probably the only thing saving him from being lunch for the creature that
now crouched before him.

He realized that the muscular cat was
too interested in his current prey to notice him anyway. And then he saw it: a
watering hole with some six-legged herd animals cautiously drinking. He also
saw his objective. The enemy had decided to secure the watering hole for
themselves and had set up their primary post twenty-five meters from the
water’s edge. What luck!

Now, all he had to do was steal the
battle plans from an enemy camp with about two hundred armed soldiers
surrounding it and get back to the extraction point.
No problem!
he
thought sarcastically. Of course, now there was the problem of an eight-fanged
feline hunter who decided to take notice of his presence.

Seth pulled his field knife and prepared
for the worst. The cat had enough length in his arms to rip Seth’s throat out
without him even being able to get close to the beast with his knife. The cat
let out a spine-chilling growl and pounced. Seth ducked but it didn’t matter; the
cat hadn’t jumped at him but rather over his head.

He twirled on his heel and saw the cat
on top of an enemy soldier. The beast had already started pulling the limp
carcass away before Seth could help.
What a terrible way to die
, he
thought,
becoming a meal to some creature on an out-of-the-way planet while
washing off at a watering hole
.

The soldier had apparently gone down to
the watering hole to wash up and had taken off his shirt, which allowed the cat
to smell his presence. His scent was obviously more appealing to the beast than
Seth’s scentless body, which was mere meters from the cat’s tail. He couldn’t
do anything for the soldier now, so Seth decided on his course of action.

Locating the fuel dump and weapons
locker, he decided that the best plan would be to blow up the entire base. He
knew that even if he did retrieve the battle plans, he’d be shot before getting
two hundred meters from the compound, much less back to his own base. If he
couldn’t have the plans then no one could.

Crouching low, he approached the edge of
the water with the idea of swimming quietly up to the outer edge of the base where
concealment was waiting behind two armored personnel carriers. As he slipped
into the water, he realized, much to his dismay, that the water was only about
two feet deep and not very concealing.

Angrily, he slithered up the muddy bank
and grabbed a hold of a sapling’s small trunk to help himself out of the mud.
The tree began to move backward. Confused, he looked up only to find one of the
six-legged pack animals staring at him with a dumbfounded look. It then began
licking Seth’s forehead. Seth tried to breathe but couldn’t. Was the animal
trying to figure out what he was or what he would taste like?

He couldn’t believe that he had made the
same mistake twice, and in less than ten minutes of the first one! With a sigh
of relief, Seth began to breathe again as the animal let out a soft cooing
noise that he decided was a sign of affection. The animal nuzzled Seth’s
forehead and licked him again.

Then the light went on! Why not use the
animals to hide behind to get to the compound? He crouched behind the huge
bulky body and found he was able to get the animal to go wherever he wanted
with some minor pushing here and pulling there. He headed back to the herd and
was able to start ten of the herd animals towards the enemy compound.

Apparently the moving herd was not an
unusual sight for the enemy because they were not at all alarmed. Some took out
cameras for photos to send to whoever might be missing them back home. A couple
joked about making steak the special for tonight’s menu. He hoped no one
followed up on that last comment.

He got to the depot and although
unguarded, it was locked. He pulled off the key panel and hot-wired the
circuitry. Not too difficult a feat for someone who had an advanced degree in
electrical engineering.

Seth could still remember the way his
mom cried for weeks after he joined the Marine Corps. She couldn’t figure out
why he would want to go off and die somewhere out in the galaxy during some
stupid battle that no one really cared about. When instead he could work for a
big corporation with his talents and make big bucks back on Earth.

His dad was also upset but more for the
fact that he spent a lot of money on Seth’s education. His father repeatedly
told him that if he wanted to be a marine, he should’ve done it before so much
money was spent on his schooling.

He got the door open and found exactly
what he was looking for. He decided to select only one rifle because he knew
he’d be dead after placing the explosives anyway so he wanted to travel light
for better speed.  A smile played across his face as he picked up the beautiful
weapon that hummed to life with his touch.

The weapon fired a caseless, powderless
12mm projectile with or without an explosive tip that used jet fuel as a
propellant. This allowed the weapon to be fired in a complete vacuum or
underwater. It had a side mounted, electro-magnetic (EM) pulse laser that
disabled most personal electronics and even some of the more heavily shielded vehicle
electronics.  It had a grenade launcher under the main barrel, which he filled
to its six-shot capacity and then grabbed ten 12mm one hundred-round magazines,
stuffing nine into his pockets and slapping one home into the magazine well.

He found antipersonnel and antitank
mines and decided that two small personnel mines would be enough for the fuel
depot while four antitank mines would surely destroy the command bunker.

He heard a shuffle behind him and
whirled in a small arc while dropping to one knee and bringing his weapon to bear,
only to find his new friend softly cooing at him from the entrance of the
weapons locker. With a shaking finger, he gave the animal a cross look and
added, “Don’t ever sneak up on me again. You could have gotten yourself shot.”

Gathering up his cache, he ventured out,
using his friend for cover. The grass near the door enticed the nine other
animals he brought along: they had just decided to stay for lunch and were now
seemingly very unhappy about Seth’s plan to move them once again. After a
little bit more nudging, they grudgingly headed towards the fuel dump.

At the fuel depot, he deposited the
mines in such a way that hopefully the blasts would be omnidirectional, sending
everyone nearby for cover. Too many people were near the command tent and he
didn’t think that he would be able to sidle up next to it as easily as he had
the fuel depot.

He decided that a small stampede near
the bunker would divert everyone’s attention just long enough to set the mines
and then blow them all. He was a dead man, anyway, so he might as well give it a
shot. It was his only hope. He set the mines to explode in sync with one another
and put a dead man’s switch between his teeth so if he went down, they would
all go off anyway.

He aimed the small herd at the bunker
and then began whipping them on their rumps with a small metal rod he found by
the fuel canisters. They really didn’t like that and the nearest of the animals
reared on his four front legs and kicked Seth straight in the chest. He went
back, knocking over a small pile of fuel cans just as the ten animals started
to run into the camp.

Someone heard the commotion and saw Seth
but before the soldier could yell a warning, he was knocked over by one pissed-off
six-legged deer. Soldiers went flying in all directions—some unconscious, some
just bleeding.

As a xenobiologist would later record,
these pack animals didn’t stampede when frightened but instead spread out
almost an even five meters from one another and began kicking at anything that
was in their way.