Critical Strike (The Critical Series Book 3) (13 page)

Contorted bodies of the dead and injured lay around the square. Fires blazed and crackled in three different locations, lighting up the night sky. Croatoans and humans dashed around like headless chickens. One pointlessly carried half a bucket of water toward a flaming charred shuttle.

Augustus balled his fists and seethed. Unity had gotten the jump on him. It had to be them, which meant his scout who reported their lackadaisical state earlier today was wrong. The scout had been compromised.

He took a deep breath and considered his options as all around him panic and chaos ensued. Now was the time to keep his cool. Show his neophyte soldiers his leadership. This attack would be a good lesson to them. They needed hardening to allow courage to grow.

Zoe staggered toward him with a blackened face. She hunched down, placing her hands on her knees, and took a few deep breaths. He remained silent, waiting for her to take the initiative.

“There were two of them, sir,” Zoe eventually said, wheezing between every few words. “One human, one croatoan. They attacked two hover-bikes, our guards and bombed a shuttle.”

Augustus clenched his teeth. Two, against his army! “Show me.”

Maria peered around the breeding lab door. He gestured her over. The information she provided earlier on Mike was next to useless, but being flanked by two women while carrying out an inspection of the damage would foster the right kind of image: one of power and control.

Maria scurried over and bowed her head. “What do you want, Augustus?”

“What do I want?” Augustus let out a sarcastic laugh. She couldn’t comprehend what he desired. The height of her ambition was to be ruled. How could he expect her to understand he wanted the world. “I would like you to accompany me while I survey the damage.”

“Um, okay, sure,” Maria said and shuffled to his side.

Zoe glanced across and narrowed her eyes. He enjoyed her jealous streak, but would keep an eye on her to make sure it didn’t turn physical. Maria was a useful pawn in his game of chess. The Jacksons were finished, but he wondered how Mike and Mai would react when he had her on her knees outside Unity, with a knife against her delicate throat.

“If you’ll follow me, sir,” Zoe said. “They took us by surprise.”

“Who was responsible for posting the sentinels?” Augustus said.

“Excuse me?”

“Guards, sentries, don’t you know anything?”

Zoe looked back toward the square and fidgeted with the buttons on her camouflage jacket.

“I saw Zoe placing them earlier,” Maria said.

Zoe snapped her head back and grimaced at Maria.

Augustus liked both responses, but it wasn’t time to humiliate his senior officer. “Who is your second in command?”

“It’s a croatoan called Triplan. He’s placing out fresh guards to give us better protection.”

He thought for a moment. “Have Triplan and the scout arrested, and erect two crucifixes in front of the surveyors’ warehouse.”

“Are you sure?” Zoe said. “Triplan’s one of the better croatoans.”

Augustus stepped toward her and leaned down, placing his mask inches from her face. “Am I sure?”

“Yes… of course… right away,” she stuttered.

“Good.”

Augustus thrust his elbow out toward Maria in invitation. She glanced at him with fear in her eyes and gently linked arms, wrapping her dainty fingers around his wrist. This would be punishment enough for Zoe. Triplan would pay for her incompetence. She would answer later.

Zoe approached the site of the first fire. Croatoans had beaten it out with blankets from the storeroom and stood around the charred remains of the two hover-bikes.

Losing transport was a blow, but as long as he still had some, it only meant that more of the army would have to travel on foot. That would teach them to be on their guard all of the time. Augustus learned this the hard way at the battle of Adrianople, when the Visigoth cavalry made a surprise arrival and split his ranks, leading to the ultimate defeat of his army.

“What about the other two fires?” Augustus said. “I saw a man carrying some water toward the shuttle bay. You’re not telling me we’ve lost them?”

“Not all of them,” Zoe said and led them to the open hangar.

Augustus quickened his pace and yanked Maria along. She stumbled in the dirt. “Careful, my dear. We don’t need any more casualties tonight.”

She remained silent and wiped her hair away from her face.

Fire licked around the roof of the closest shuttle. Electric sparks shot from the cockpit and engine. Relief washed over Augustus when he saw that the raid only managed to damage a single craft. They still needed them for rapid troop transport, high-level reconnaissance of Unity, and his transport.

“Do we have any other losses?” he said.

“We’ve just started treating the casualties in the middle of the square,” Zoe said. “There’s plenty of supplies here, so we’re doing the best we can to save them.”

Medicine had made wondrous advancements during Augustus’ time on the mother ship. What used to kill a person could now be treated with tablets, to an extent.

Despite how clever the modern humans thought they were, just before the invasion, they still hadn’t found a cure for a metaphorical knife in the back. Aimee gave him that, and he would cure the pain by returning the compliment with a physical version.

One of Zoe’s commanders approached them. Augustus gave her a stern look. The man carried a strange white pistol with a silver disc around the front.

“Do you have something to report?” Zoe said.

“I found this in the old workshop. I didn’t think anything of it, until I pulled the trigger.”

The response piqued Augustus’ interest. He thought it was nothing more than a child’s toy. “What happened?”

“The alien next to me… He just dropped to the floor, clutching his support system.”

Zoe squinted at the pistol. “Is he dead?”

“Showed all the signs of suffocation. I couldn’t do anything for him.”

Augustus leaned forward and snatched it out of his hand. “Thank you. Get back to your duties.”

The man looked at Zoe, who nodded. He jogged away.

“That’s one of Mike’s prototypes,” Maria said.

Augustus crushed her arm between his bicep and forearm. “Is it now? You never told me about his exotic guns.”

She winced and tried to pull away. “It’s the only one he had. I think he called it a directed energy weapon. It targets the life support control system. That’s all I know.”

“It’s a little more than you told me earlier.” Augustus turned to Zoe. “Take me to see the casualties.”

Zoe returned to the square. Open medical packs were littered around four humans and eight croatoans, each receiving individual assistance from a member of their own species. It made sense to Augustus, but at some point in the future, they’d have to learn how to patch each other up in the field.

He walked to the nearest croatoan. A shuttle pilot crouched by his leg and wrapped a bandage around a calf wound. Augustus tapped her on the shoulder. “Stand to one side.”

The pilot glanced up, her face barely visible through her tinted visor, and clicked a few times.

“She says she hasn’t finished treating him,” Zoe said.

“Tell her to move to one side,” Augustus said. “I need to carry out a test.”

Zoe’s eyes widened. “You’re not thinking about using—”

“Just think of it as putting down a wounded animal,” Augustus said, and waved her to one side with the pistol. “I need to see it working myself, as part of my assessment. I can’t take the word of a grunt.”

She lowered her head, took a deep breath and turned away. The depth of feeling she displayed for the wounded croatoan didn’t surprise Augustus. Zoe had no concept of strategy. If this gun worked, the chances were that Mike and Mai had built more and would use them against his army. This brought a new dimension.

After securing a bandage, the pilot headed back toward the shuttle bay. Augustus aimed at the injured croatoan’s helmet. It clicked and scrambled a couple of meters, unable to stand. He took a stride forward and pulled the trigger.

The pistol kicked back in his hand and made a yawning noise. He held it in position for a few seconds, just to make sure, then dropped to one knee and closely observed. The croatoan reached around and gloved the back of its own helmet. Its skin crinkled and condensation built on the inside of its visor. Seconds later its body went limp. Maria gasped and cupped a hand over her mouth.

A shot of adrenalin surged through Augustus. He couldn’t believe how easily and effectively the thing worked. He kicked the croatoan’s leg to make sure it was dead.

Zoe looked from the croatoan to Augustus. “Do you need to test it again, sir?”

“No. Arrest Triplan and Kevin. Erect two crucifixes in the square and nail them down. Call a parade in thirty minutes. I expect them ready to be hoisted after my speech.”

He let go of Maria’s arm. “You can help her. It seems like you both get along.”

Zoe crossed the square, followed by Maria. She called out to a group of aliens around the hover-bikes, and they grabbed their rifles.

Augustus had a lot to consider after firing the weapon, and needed the quiet of his office to decide on the best way to proceed.

***

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori—a Roman phrase which when translated into English meant it is sweet and right to die for your country. Augustus always thought the translation lost the true meaning. It would be sweet and right for the army to die for him, and that’s exactly what a lot of them would do when they invaded Unity, but it was all a question of timing.

Two options were available. Wait, and train his incompetent force into a more deadly killing machine. That would risk Unity building up its defenses, leaving Mike and Mai time to create more of the pistols. They would be aware of his location after their raiding party returned to base, and would ramp up their operations.

The second option would be to attack as soon as possible. This would only give Unity a short space of time to react to the news of their impending doom. Thinking back to how Aimee ran the place like a backwater slum, they wouldn’t get a lot done in the time it would take to reach the outskirts of the godforsaken place. His army wouldn’t be well trained, and the casualties might be heavy, but ten thousand to two thousand made it a ratio of five to one. Augustus could afford to lose six thousand and still rule the place with good numbers.

Zoe gave her signature knock at the door. “I’ve got the army formed up and the crucifixes are ready.”

“Thank you, Zoe,” August said, feeling in a slightly more generous mood, now his mind was made up. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

Jackson and his entourage would be rotting on an alien planet. The universe would be a better place after being cleansed of the unholy trinity. The father, the son and the scientific bore. Augustus resisted the urge to activate the prism and find out. Instead, he would make his final decision known to his army.

He straightened his mask and robes in the mirror and left his office.

Croatoans and humans were formed up in smart rows of fifty, covering most of the farm’s central square. A hundred flickering torches surrounded them, casting shadows of strength on the warehouse walls. Augustus strode along the gap in the middle of them to the front.

Two crucifixes lay on the ground at the front of his parade. A man and a croatoan had been nailed to them with earth spikes the surveyors used to use for testing. Blood dripped from their hands and feet. Seven soldiers stood behind each, ready to hoist each wooden beam into its posthole on his command.

Augustus turned to the vast array of expectant faces. “Tonight has shown you what our enemies want to do with us. Even now, as we mourn our losses this evening, plans are being made in Unity to wipe us off the face of the planet.”

Augustus paused and swept his hand across the humans and aliens. “You are the ones who will turn Earth into the Promised Land. I consider you all my brothers. We will not stand idly by and let them destroy the last chance we have for a peaceful civilization. Where we choose enlightenment, they choose darkness. We strive for freedom, they crave oppression. We move tonight and will strike a decisive blow. It starts with two Unity spies I found tonight.”

He held both arms aloft. “Victory will be ours.”

The soldiers cheered and clicked. Augustus glanced over his shoulder and nodded. Both crucifixes were raised on either side of him. They thumped into their postholes.

His army’s enthusiasm drowned out the screams and clicks of the fools that failed him. He would show less mercy to Aimee, Mike, and the rest of the northern upstarts.

They would regret the day they defied the last true Roman.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Denver stood in the middle of the temple, every muscle twitching as his rage smoldered and grew. He let out a piercing scream and lifted part of the scion prism, launching it across the temple. It smashed through a filthy window with a clatter.

Standing behind him, Layla rested a hand on his shoulder and through their intercom said, “Den, listen to me. Charlie’s resourceful, dogged. Let’s just be calm, think about this rationally.”

Rational! How could he be rational when they were stuck on an alien planet with diminishing resources and threats seemingly at every turn, not to mention a goddamn invasion going on by a species that could seemingly change form at will?

No, this was not the time to be rational.

“It’s all fucked,” Denver said, stepping away from her and kicking out at a wooden bench.

It toppled backward and thumped against the stone floor.

He switched his focus to the room in which they had first encountered the croatoan priest.

Crimson light bled through the shattered window as the sun was setting. The slice of red brightened the temple’s dark interior and illuminated the detail on the floor that caught Denver’s eye.

“Do you see that?” He stalked closer and crouched onto his haunches. Layla joined him.

“What?” she said.

Denver slung his rifle over his back and pointed to a pair of faint tracks in the dark monochrome of the floor’s stone slab. “Drag marks,” he said.