Forging Zero (79 page)

Libby’s
biosuit deflected the fang and reddish poison spilled over her leg, dribbling
onto the branch beneath them.  Unfazed by her brush with death, Libby slammed
the butt of her rifle into the Jreet’s diamond-shaped head.

The
Jreet snapped around like a whip and slammed its upper body into Libby,
knocking her clear off the
ferlii
branch.  Joe heard a startled cry as
she fell over the edge.  The Jreet made another eardrum-piercing
shee-whomp
cry and found another target.

Recruits
everywhere were running from the monster in their midst.  The Jreet was nearly half
the length of a school bus, built like a massive python with a nearly humanoid
torso.  It lashed out again, jabbing its spear-like shaft into another
recruit’s back.  She fell and curled into a ball on the ground, never uttering
a sound.

Rat had
retreated fifteen feet and was back on one knee, aiming her rifle at the
Jreet’s flickering head.  It disappeared again before she could fire.

Joe
backed away, heart pounding in his ears, knowing he wouldn’t be able to see the
thing until it struck again.  “Everybody keep your eyes open!” he shouted,
hoping his command would draw the Jreet’s attention to him.

“He’s
right
there!
” Scott screamed, spinning and pointing at thin air.  A kid
that had taken refuge in the entrance suddenly collapsed in silence, a red
shape disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.

“There’s
two of them!” Rat shouted at him.

“Yeah,”
Scott shrieked.  “
Two
!”  His head was swinging back and forth, like he
was watching two different grim reapers stalking towards them.  He brought his
rifle up and fired, coating something invisible in red Jreet poison.

Joe was
busy twisting the
fahjli
grenade, activating it.  He threw it at the
spot where the Jreet had disappeared.  It hit something in the air and bounced
to the ground, closer to Joe than he would have liked.  He ducked, flinching.

There
was a brief blue flash, then nothing.

“They
don’t work!” Joe shouted.

“Rifle
rounds aren’t working either!” Rat shouted.  “I’ve hit that asher twice and he
keeps on going!”

“Are
Jreet immune to Jreet poison?” Joe cried.

“How should
I burning know?!”

Joe bit
his lip as another recruit crumpled, her biosuit punctured by the Jreet’s
powerful strike.  “Keep your rifle pointed at him, Scott!” he shouted, running
back to the haauk
.

“Where
the ashes are you going?!” Rat demanded.

“I’m
getting rid of them!”  Joe climbed onto the haauk
,
raised it off the
branch, and twisted it around to the spot where one of the Jreet was whipping
its tail through the recruits, slamming them to the ground.  An unfortunate few
went careening over the edge, screaming.

Scott
continued to point out the Jreet with his rifle, though he was backing up,
now.  “It’s coming at me, Joe!” Scott cried.

“Just
hang in there!” Joe shouted, then he sighted down Scott’s line of fire and
crammed the accelerator forward.

The haauk
hit something invisible head-on and a Jreet flickered into being, snapping its
fang against the armored plating of the ship.  It tumbled a couple yards, its
crimson-and-cream body whipping back and forth like an angry earthworm.  Joe
held on and rammed the haauk into its middle with all the speed the ship could
muster.

Both
ship and Jreet went sliding down the ferlii branch, leaving a blue streak of
Jreet flesh and blood along the way.  Screaming its shee-
whomph
cry, the
Jreet wrapped its body around the haauk’s bow and held on, bluish fluid leaking
over the
ferlii
branch beneath it.  Joe was maneuvering the haauk and
its unfortunate victim over the edge of the
ferlii
when something like a
hammer slammed into his back.

The
second Jreet had found him.

The
Jreet grabbed Joe by the head and threw him out of the haauk
.
  Joe hit
the ground in a roll, the edge fast approaching.

Someone
caught him and jerked him to his feet.

“You
okay?” Maggie asked.  “I saw him hit you with his fang.”

Joe
felt his back.  “I’m all right.  Where’s Rat?”

Maggie
pointed to the haauk
.
  Rat was wrestling the Jreet inside, ramming her
combat knife into its throat over and over.  The Jreet had long since stopped
fighting.  The Jreet trapped under the haauk’s bow was being similarly
dismantled by Carl and the rest of Fourth Platoon.

Joe jogged
over to Rat and helped pull her out from under the alien’s body.  “You okay?”

“Fine,”
Rat snapped.  She looked him up and down with disdain.  “You?”  The old rivalry
was back.

“Dude,”
Carl said breathlessly.  “Guys, I think we just killed two
Jreet
.”

“They
were little ones,” Rat grunted dismissively, at the same time Joe said, “Don’t
get cocky, those were babies.”  He turned to the haauk.  “Help me here.  We
need to block the door.”

With
Rat’s help, he pushed the Jreet corpses over the armored railing and moved the haauk
to block the entrance.  Once they were sure no more Jreet were going to sneak
up on them, Joe took a moment to stare at the devastation.  No less than twenty
kids lay dead on the
ferlii
branches, with a dozen more missing.

“Now
what?” Rat demanded, eying the haauk
.
  “How are we getting home?”

“We’re
not.  Lagrah told us to go in.”

“
Burn
that,” Rat spat.  “Are you crazy?  We’ll all die.”

“If Zero
says we go in, we go in.”

Joe
turned at Libby’s voice, unable to believe it.  She was alive, and standing
over the flagellate body of the dead Jreet.  “Libby, how—”

“I hit
another branch, about a hundred feet down.”  She stood, shouldering a dead
recruit’s rifle.  “I had to find my way back.” 

Even
Rat looked impressed.

Libby
scanned the branch and her confident smile suddenly faded.  “Oh no.”

Joe’s
eyes caught on Maggie, who was sitting by a body, her knees up to her chin,
rocking back and forth.  “Maggie, get over here.”

Maggie
shook her head and continued rocking.

Still,
it took Joe a moment to realize the body was Scott’s.

CHAPTER
37: 
Into the Lion’s Den

“No,
Joe,
please.
  Don’t make us go in there.”  Maggie was sobbing, hugging
him.  “What if you and Libby die, too?  I’d be all alone, Joe.”

“Grow
up, Mag,” Lib said.  Her face had hardened after her initial shock, and now she
only looked angry.  “We’re not gonna die.”

“Joe,”
Maggie sniffled, ignoring Libby.  “Please.  I’m scared.”

Joe
winced.  First Elf, then Monk, now Scott.  Maggie was watching the only family
she had ever known drop like flies.  “We have to, Mag.  Lagrah will bring
more.”

Maggie
looked up at Libby, then tugged Joe’s arm, pulling him away from the others. 
Joe stiffened, thinking she was going to try and act cute to get out of the
fight, but once they were alone, she simply stared at him.  “Are you really
gonna ruin Congress, Joe?  Is that why we’re fighting?”

Joe
suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe.  He glanced at the door, his eyes
raking in all the dead recruits, the dead Jreet, and the dead Ooreiki
Peacemakers. 

“No,”
Joe said, taking a breath.  Saying it hurt and at the same time was a relief. 
He knew what he had to do, but he also knew that doing it would mean giving up
on getting home.  “I’m not. 
That’s
why we’re doing this.  We’ve got to
stop Na’leen.”

“But
the Trith said—”

“Forget
about the Trith!” Joe snapped.  “I’m fighting for Congress.”

“No,”
Maggie wailed.  “You’re lying.”

Joe
stared at her.  She was his
groundmate
and she didn’t believe him?

Maggie
clung to him.  “Don’t go in there, Joe. 
Please.”

She was
making a scene and Joe knew he had to end it before her fear spread to the rest
of the recruits.  Sharply, he said, “Libby’s right.  Grow up.  You’re a
soldier, not a baby.  Start acting like it.  This is what we
do.
  If you
don’t like it, sit out here and cry.  The rest of us are going in.”  At that,
he wrenched her arms from around him and stalked toward the haauk
.

In
front of it, Libby, Bailey, and Rat dropped to a knee, preparing to fire into
the entrance.  Joe climbed into the haauk and, once he was sure the others were
ready, moved it away from the door.  Immediately, Libby tossed a smoke grenade
inside and they waited.

“Nothing,”
Libby said as purple smoke issued from the hole.  “Or if there is something in
there, it’s not moving.”

“All
right, everyone get ready.”

“Joe…”
Maggie whispered, the whites of her eyes showing under her biosuit.

“Stop
your whining, recruit!” Joe snapped.  He tried not to look at her, knowing how
much his words would hurt.  It lanced his soul just to say them.  “Let’s go.”

#

Joe
stopped in the crossways, his every muscle tense and buzzing with adrenaline. 
Behind him, his comrades came to a reluctant halt.  Their small group was
breathing hard, panic from the last Jreet attack still hot in their lungs.

“This
isn’t a good idea,” Libby said, staring down the four-way corridor in the dim
red light.  “We should go back and wait for Lagrah.” 

Their
group was huddled together in the convergence, their rifles jerking from spot
to spot as they nervously scanned the tunnels before them.  They had
encountered two more Jreet and seven Huouyt.  Only a third of their original
number had survived.  Those that had now used plasma pistols they had taken off
the Huouyt.  The Jreet rounds, they had confirmed, did not work on Jreet.

“We’ve
gotta do our best without him,” Joe said.

“Everyone’s
dying,”
Bailey said.  He, Tank, and Rat were the only three that Gokli
had given them that had survived.  Their friends had all fallen.  “She’s right,
Zero.  We should go back.”

“You
scared,
Bailey?”

Bailey
scowled at Libby.  “I wasn’t scared when I was crawling through sewers in San
Diego with Rat and I’m not scared now.  Are
you
scared, bitch?”

Joe
slammed the muzzle of his plasma pistol between Bailey’s eyes, pushing him into
the wall.  Into his face, he shouted, “You burning shut up or I’ll cut out
your
tongue, you fucking ashsoul!”

Bailey’s
eyes went wide under the biosuit.

Quietly,
Joe added, “You touch any of my friends again and you’ll be puking out your own
guts.  I should kill you right now for what you did, in front of everybody.”

“She
started it,” Bailey whispered.

“Furgsoot!”
Joe roared, shoving the gun further into Bailey’s face.

“Stop
threatening my recruit,” Rat snapped.  “He’s right.  This is stupid.  What the
hell are we supposed to do down here, Zero?”

Joe
lowered the pistol, still glaring at Bailey.  “Lagrah told me to come.” 
But
they’re right.  It’s crazy.  We’re just recruits.  We shouldn’t be here.

“Lagrah’s
a sootbag furg,” Libby said.

“He is
not!” Rat snapped.  She looked ready to throw down her rifle and fight Libby
for insulting her Prime.  “If he said to do it, then he must’ve had a reason.” 
Still, she looked unsure as she gazed down the four long corridors.

“Like
what?” Libby demanded.  “There’s an entire
planet
rebelling.  How’s one
little hidey-hole gonna make the difference between—”

The
plasma shot hit her rifle head-on and splattered over the two closest
recruits.  Libby dropped her rifle and stared down at herself, stunned. 
Somehow, the plasma hadn’t hit her.

“Get
your biosuits off!” Joe shouted at the two panicking recruits.  Libby picked up
one of their rifles and began spraying the corridor with Jreet poison.  Along
with what seemed like a hundred moving shapes in the far corridor, they saw
predatory aliens on six legs with way too many teeth.  Several kids around Joe
let out little whimpers and began to bawl even as they fired their rifles.

“Careful!”
Joe shouted.  “At least they’re not Jreet.  We can kill them!”  He threw a
fahjli
grenade down the corridor and watched the monstrous-shaped Huouyt scatter. 
Several got hit with the blue flash and their bodies reverted back to their
squid-like form with a colorful flutter.  They fell to the ground and remained
motionless as the children around Joe pelted their bodies with Jreet poison.

Then
they saw a real Jreet—its head held almost fifteen feet off the ground, hunched
over in the low corridor like some monster in its dungeon—and barely had time
to flinch before the massive thing was on them, bowling them over like they
were made of cardboard.  It caught Bailey and pinned him against the floor with
a huge tail, and only his biosuit kept it from crushing his chest.  Its
poison-tipped appendage unsheathed under its head and it reared back to slam it
into Bailey’s chest.