Terminus (Fringe Worlds #1) (21 page)

Chapter 28

Maker and his squad lay low on the sand several hundred yards away from the gaping mouth of a monstrous desert cave. For the first time since arriving on Terminus, they were decked out in their full battle armor, although they really didn’t expect to encounter trouble. After all, their mission was merely to locate the Vacra, not to engage.

It had been several hours since Wayne had casually dropped the bombshell that he could trace where the Vacra armor was broadcasting to. In Maker’s mind, that location had to be the base for the insectoids. Thus, upon leaving Quinzen’s suite, he had quickly decided that they were going to recon the area in question. They had raced back to camp, donned their gear and headed out.

They’d taken the dropship, landing it a few miles from their ultimate destination. Leaving Fierce with the vessel, Maker and the other five members of his unit had then taken hovercycles to their present location.

It was still somewhat before dawn, and inside his suit Maker struggled to stifle a yawn. At this point he had been up just about an entire day (not counting the time immediately after he was stung by the jwaedin), but the same was true of everyone else. Fierce had issued stim shots for them to take in order to remain alert, but Maker had passed.

Maker activated his comm. “Tinker,” he said, remembering to use Wayne’s chosen call sign, “are we confirmed on this being the location?”

“Yes, sir,” came the response. “The signal is going to that cave.”

Maker stared at the entrance to the cave. The visor on his helmet had automatically switched to night vision based on the ambient light available. Ergo, he could see almost as well as in daytime.

The cave opening was enormous. Although nothing like a battle cruiser was going to be able to fit inside, there were a lot of other spacefaring vessels that could.

As to location, the cave had actually been found along the path where they had been directing their daily drones. Wayne had estimated that they probably would have come across it in another two weeks or so on their own. Whether or not they would have realized there was anyone inside it was another story.

Maker magnified the view through his visor, getting a close-up look at the cavern. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t see very far into the interior.

“Switching vision to infrared,” Maker announced over the comm, knowing that the others would follow his lead.

The view through his visor suddenly changed, becoming a mixture of odd hues of various colors, like orange and purple. Looking at the area around them, he could see various bugs and small animals scurrying about on the desert floor, their bodies appearing as amalgams of orange and red.

Turning his attention to the cave, Maker could now perceive bodies in motion inside. There were about two dozen of them, all apparently Vacra based on the images he was receiving: six-limbed, segmented bodies with wavering antennae.

“Jackpot,” Adames muttered over the comm, echoing Maker’s own sentiments. “I guess this one’s a wrap.”

Maker reluctantly agreed. It seemed like an anticlimactic end to the mission considering everything that had happened thus far. (Not to mention that he’d failed to achieve a personal ambition on this mission, which was to at least set eyes on Skullcap again.)

Oh well, everything can’t always be fun and games
, he thought. He was about to order them back to the dropship when Wayne called his attention to something.

“Sir, I’m getting an odd visual,” the younger Marine said. “Can you look towards the right of the cave, just beyond the entrance?”

Maker did as he was bid, wondering what had caught Wayne’s eye. As before, he observed a number of Vacra wandering about the place, including the area in question. He was about to ask Wayne to be more specific, and then he saw it. The image was clear, unmistakable – especially in the presence of so many others that were so radically different in form.

There was a human being in there with the Vacra.

Chapter 29

It was a relatively easy decision as far as Maker was concerned: there was no way in hell he was going to leave another human being to the Vacra’s tender mercies. (As if in confirmation of Maker’s assessment, he saw one of the insectoids seemingly speak to the person – who appeared to be a man – and then roughly shove him, knocking him down.) Thus, it was only a few seconds after realizing that there was a person in the insectoids’ hideout that he ordered his squad to prepare for assault.

“Our goal is extraction of the person in that cave,” he said. “I know it’s outside our initial mission parameters, but that was before we knew that they were holding a human being – presumably as a captive.”

“What type of ammo?” Adames asked.

Maker spent a moment considering his response. Despite his feelings about the Vacra, he really wasn’t a bloodthirsty savage. From what he could see via the infrared, most of those in the cave were only carrying small arms, and none appeared to be wearing battle gear. Thus, his group probably already had the edge in terms of weapons and armor. Assuming they could maintain the advantage of surprise, the outcome of this encounter was unlikely to be in doubt, but there was no need to turn it into wholesale slaughter.

“Non-lethal rounds,” Maker said after a few seconds, almost reluctantly. “Engaging in two.”

*****************************************

In the course of his military career, Maker couldn’t recall ever being part of a mission that went one hundred percent according to plan, and this one was no different. Their ad hoc rescue strategy centered on using their hovercycles to get to the cave as quickly as possible, and then surging inside with an impressive and overwhelming display of force, grabbing the hostage, and then leaving.

As with most missions, it looked good on paper so to speak, but execution was an entirely different story. Somewhere between their initial hiding spot and the cave entrance, while on their cycles, the group apparently hit some sort of proximity sensor. (Although Wayne had scanned for and disabled a number of them before their squad initiated the assault, he had clearly missed at least one.) All of a sudden there was frenzied activity in the cave and they could hear what sounded like an alarm as they got closer.

Beyond that, however, it was essentially a textbook operation. The Vacra didn’t even have guards posted outside (perhaps to avoid even a chance of being seen – or a display of overconfidence in their hiding spot). Thus, Maker’s unit was able to ride right up to the mouth of the cave completely unmolested. They quickly dismounted, leaving their cycles to the side of the cave entrance, and charged the opening.

At that juncture, however, some of the insectoids reached the grotto opening and started shooting. It was the first time Maker had seen one outside of its armor and he couldn’t help taking mental notes.

The Vacra’s segmented bodies were about six feet tall on average and a deep red in color – probably more like maroon. Their large, compound eyes were creepy – expressionless black ovals that dominated a large portion of their faces. Their hands, ending in three lengthy digits, angrily squeezed the triggers on their weapons.

As anticipated, it was small-arms fire and couldn’t penetrate their armor. Nevertheless, they instinctively ducked behind a large outcropping of rock nearby.

Snick, the last to take cover, laughed as a couple of rounds hit him, saying, “That tickles.”

“Stay sharp!” Adames snapped over the comm. “You can bet that somewhere inside, someone’s grabbing a weapon with more firepower.”

“Let’s make this quick,” Maker said. “On my mark. Go!”

They rushed forward, and the battle was child’s play from that point on. The ammo that Maker’s group was using, although designed not to penetrate, had devastating impact – typically shattering bone upon contact. (In fact, although designated as non-lethal, a headshot from one of those rounds could indeed kill.) In no time at all, the Vacra at the cave entrance were down.

Inside was a madhouse, with the insectoids insanely scrambling in all directions – some obviously seeking cover, others trying to engage the invaders of their erstwhile home.

Near the back of the cave, not unexpectedly, was an alien ship. Based on the size, it was clearly not a long-range spacefaring vessel, but something more in league with their dropship.

Maker’s team fired almost indiscriminately, the ammo routinely knocking their adversaries off their feet and leaving them incapacitated. However, the Marines scrupulously avoided firing too close to the area where the human hostage was.

Weapon at the ready, Maker made his way towards the man, who was crouching near what appeared to be a table. Maker was so focused on his target that he almost overlooked a Vacra who was standing near the man.

This particular insectoid was a little different than its fellows. It was a little bigger, and its coloring was just a shade lighter. Moreover, where the others had a full set of fully-formed middle arms, this one didn’t. Instead, one of its middle arms appeared stunted, deformed – perhaps some kind of birth defect.

Almost completely still, it stared at Maker from about ten feet away, the only movement coming from the pinchers around its mouth. After a moment, its head tilted slightly to the side, as if it found Maker somehow interesting. Suddenly, its head snapped back and its antennae began wriggling wildly. It yelled, some sort of mad chittering coming from its mouth, as it charged at Maker.

He fired, hitting the Vacra dead center in the thorax, sending it flying backwards. It hit the ground with jarring force, so hard that – non-lethal or not – Maker thought that it might be dead.

He turned his attention back to their whole reason for being here: the man crouching nearby. Maker took a moment to look the fellow over.

He was dirty and disheveled, with a thick, matted beard and wild, unkempt hair. His clothing, consisting of some type of uniform that seemed oddly familiar to Maker, was practically rags. All in all, it was pretty clear that grooming and hygiene had not been a priority for this fellow in quite some time, and Maker could tell just by looking at him that the guy probably smelled quite ripe.

Maker walked over and reached out a hand, intending to help the fellow up.

“No, no!” the man pleaded, leaning away.

Maker switched on the external audio in his armor. “It’s okay,” he said, gripping the man by the upper arm and hauling him up. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

“No, no!” the man said. “You have to leave me!”

He tried to yank himself free of Maker’s armored grip but failed. He probably couldn’t have done it even if Maker wasn’t wearing a battle suit – the fellow was essentially skin and bones.

Frustrated, the man beat ineffectually at Maker with his free hand. Intending to calm him, Maker gave the man a light tap on the side of the head. However, either Maker overestimated the amount of force needed or the man was a lot weaker than he realized, because the blow knocked him out.

“Great,” Maker muttered sarcastically, and then slung the man over his shoulder. He was so light that carrying a child would have caused more exertion.

Maker caught movement in the corner of his eye and turned to see the Vacra with the stunted arm staggering away, clearly in pain. He was tempted to shoot it again, but decided against it.

“Hostage retrieved,” he said over his comm. “Prepare to move out.”

Moments later, they were all at the mouth of the cave, with Maker’s companions laying down suppressive fire as he exited. On impulse, he looked back inside. Almost all the Vacra he could see were on the ground, incapacitated in some fashion. As Adames had predicted, a few had gotten their hands on more powerful weapons, but were firing from behind poor cover and didn’t have a good angle.

Something resembling a gun turret on top of the alien ship swiveled in their direction, but Maker barely noticed. Instead, his attention was captured by another sight.

Back in the cave, he saw the Vacra he had shot just a few minutes earlier, recognizable by his deformed middle arm. In one of its primary arms, it was holding something Maker recognized – a long, lance-like weapon that Maker had only encountered once before: on a derelict ship in the Beyond.

The Vacra with the maimed arm was Skullcap.

Maker’s mind was racing. The deformed arm… Lots of insects can regrow limbs. Skullcap’s body had obviously attempted to do so, but the trauma at the wound site must have been too much for the arm to regenerate properly. Thus, he’d ended up with a stunted limb.

“Take him and get out of here,” Maker said, handing the man he was carrying over to Snick as he watched Skullcap board the Vacra ship.

“That goes for all of you,” Adames said to the others. “Get back to the dropship on the double!”

Not needing to be told twice, the other four members of their unit jumped on their cycles and took off, with Snick also taking their rescued hostage.

Now unencumbered, Maker took a step back towards the interior of the cave just as the gun turret fired. From where Maker stood, the sound of the blast was almost deafening; inside the cave, it must have bordered on painful. In addition, the entire cavern shook from the combination of vibrations from the recoil of the gun turret and the echoing report, causing stalactites to fall from the ceiling.

Simultaneous with the gun turret firing, something swished over Maker’s head at high speed, and a moment later there was an explosion in the desert behind him. Glancing back, he saw a deep, smoking crater where an explosive projectile had obviously hit the ground. Off in the distance, he was relieved to see Snick and the others still safely retreating in the direction of the dropship.

“Holy crap!” Adames said, bringing Maker’s attention back to the activity in the cavern. “They’ve literally pulled out the big guns.”

The gun turret began swiveling again, the barrel starting to angle down towards where Maker and Adames stood. Even more, there was a high-pitched whining that he couldn’t quite place, but immediately identified as an engine coming on line after he saw the alien ship start to rise. On the cavern floor, Vacra seemed to be running pell-mell all over the place.

Maker ground his teeth in frustration. The one Vacra he desperately wanted to go toe-to-toe with was on the alien ship, which had more firepower than his entire squad could handle, let alone just him and Adames. At the same time, this was his best – and maybe
only
– opportunity to have a crack at Skullcap. In the grip of indecisiveness, he stood there, frozen, as the Vacra ship cleared the ground and started to come forward.

“We have to move!” Adames shouted. He pulled a handheld grenade launcher from a holster on his armor. “Move!” he yelled at Maker once again, giving him a shove towards the cycles to get him going. Then Adames raised the grenade launcher and fired at the ceiling right at the cave’s entrance.

The grenade exploded on impact with an earsplitting boom, sending tons of rock cascading down, effectively blocking the entrance. There was no way the Vacra were coming after them now; the aliens would be digging themselves out for quite some time to come. Somewhat disappointed, Maker mounted his cycle and left, with Adames flanking him.