Jungle (Colony Book 2), page 128
Something inside her head snapped, anger rising in her chest. No. It came again. “No,” she said aloud.
“What?” It was Jake. She took a deep, almost shaky breath as the door in front of her buckled once more, giving way to the now almost constant battering it was receiving from the other side.
“No,” she said again, clenching her fists as she turned toward the common area. “I’m not going to die like this. If we’re going down, we’re going down fighting. Ikeda, get everyone to the reactor module.”
“What?”
“It has one door, and it’s the most armored holdout we have left,” she said as she walked into the commons, all eyes turning to her—including, she noticed, Jakes. Some were wet with tears of fear, others just despondent. “So that’s where we’re going.”
“Won’t they still be able to get us?”
“They will,” she said. “But it’ll give us time to overload the reactor. I’d rather have everything go out in an instant than be torn apart by one of those things.
“The reactor,” Wells said, sitting up. “The reactor!”
“That’s right,” Anna said. “I know it’s not the best, but we might as well go out with—”
“No!” Wells shouted, jumping to her feet, her eyes wide. “The reactor! We all need to get to the reactor now! I know how to stop them!”
For a moment the entire common area was silent, and then a loud bang echoed from behind Anna as the airlock failed. She spun without thinking, both her Rezzer and her thrower spitting death down the hallway as Wells’ words seized in her mind. “Then go!” she shouted as the first panther went down beneath a flurry of fire and flechettes. “Move!”
She worked the thrower back and forth, coating the hallway in flame and trying not to flinch as a burst of spikes shot over her shoulder. Someone screamed from behind her. There was no time to see who it was. She dropped to one knee, presenting a lower-profile target as she fired again and again, perforating the lead panther’s body with every shot from the Rezzer she could, until its forward body was little more than a mash of mutilated muscle. It fell to the ground, burning and blocking the lower half of the hallway. Another of its kind was already trying to crawl over it.
She fired again, working flame and flechettes across the next, only for the Rezzer to click empty. Without her hud, she hadn’t even noticed how quickly she’d fired.
“Reload!” Jake said from beside her, and she handed the shotgun to him, the strap digging against her body as he tried to open the weapon’s magazine.
“Ammo?”
“Right pouches!” she called, still not risking a glance in any direction. Another burst of spikes shot through the flame, missing her head by inches. The expedition was shouting and screaming from behind them. Hopefully it meant that they were filing into the reactor.
And hopefully Wells wasn’t lying about having a plan, she thought as the fire from the end of her thrower began to sputter. The tank was almost empty already, and a quick glance to her side showed that Jake hadn’t quite finished loading the Rezzer. She dropped the thrower, letting it swing against her hip as she drew her rifle, lining up a shot on the still oncoming blackened monster.
Gunfire erupted from her left before she could fire, bullets chewing into the panther’s charred and blackened skin, and Lankiss stepped up alongside her, one of the armory rifles clutched in her hands as she tapped the trigger again and again. Anna added her own gunfire to the mix, flesh tearing from the panther’s body as they loosed a deadly barrage. It fell, but as before there was another behind it, and they switched targets.
“Loaded!” Jake shouted, and she took the Rezzer back in her hand, adding its fire to the mix and startling the next panther into slamming its mouth shut before it could cough. A full barrage of spikes burst through its skull and jaws in a spray of orange ichor, some of them managing to tear free with enough force to punch into the ceiling.
“Neres! Tames! Lankiss! Get in here!”
“Go!” Anna said, jerking her head at Jake. Another panther began to claw its way over the bodies of its fellows, mouth already open. A burst of shots from Lankiss struck it in the throat, and it closed its mouth with an eerie shriek. “Go!” Jake rose and scrambled for the reactor causeway.
“You too!” she said, firing again. There were only a few rounds left in her rifle, and the Rezzer had to be close to empty.
“We both go!” Lankiss replied as her magazine ran dry with a sharp click. “Now!”
There wasn’t much sense in arguing. Anna rose as two more panthers poked their heads over the pile, jaws open wide. One of them convulsed, coughing as it looked right at her—
And Lankiss slammed into her side, shoving her out of the way and catching a full barrage of the deadly spines across her face and chest. The world seemed to slow as the projectiles tore through her, perforating her suit and blowing bloody holes out of her side and skull. Blood spattered across the common room, the few spines that had made it all the way through without losing velocity embedding themselves in the far wall.
And then it was over, the geologist’s body hitting the ground with a thud as Anna scrambled back, firing her last few Rezzer shells as Lankiss’ killers loped forward. A glance at the common area showed the cause of the scream from earlier—though not the source. Kombes was lying on the ground, a cluster of spines sticking out of her skull and pinning her head to the inside of her helmet. The doctor’s sightless eyes were staring upward, her mouth still open in a round ‘o’ of surprise.
Anna continued scrambling back, squeezing the trigger of her Rezzer even when it stopped firing. Someone’s hands grabbed her shoulders, and then she was yanked backward, through the causeway and into the reactor module, landing on the deck atop whoever had grabbed her. Silva slammed both hatches shut, a look of utter horror and shock on his face. At least he’d had the sense to keep moving.
“We’re in!” Anna scrambled off of her rescuer—Ikeda—as the door shook. “Whatever you’re going to do, Wells,” the commander continued as Anna pulled her up. “Do it now!”
“Got it …” Wells said, her face screwed up in concentration as she worked at a large display. “I need Lankiss,” she said, turning. “She was the one who …” Her face fell. “Oh.”
“I might be able to help,” Silva said, his voice shaky but not giving out. “What are you trying to do?” He stepped up to the display alongside Wells, and the motion drew Anna’s eyes to the thick, heavy wall past it. The outer layer of the reactor.
“I need to vent the reactor,” Wells said quickly, punching at the settings. “These things think with their XNA. And what screws up XNA better than anything around?”
“Radiation!” Silva said, his eyes opening wide. “Of course. Vent the reactor—”
“And they either die or all that cohesion goes right out the window,” Wells finished. “If I could just—”
“Here!” Silva said, stabbing at the display at the same time as the hatch vibrated under another blow. The lights inside the small reactor control room shifted, alerts sounding. “And then here, and here,” he continued, stabbing at the screen. “Normally, this would probably kill everyone in the hab, the amount of heat, toxins, and radiation we’re about to unleash—”
“Will it linger?” Anna asked, and his eyes jerked toward her. The hatch shook again, ringing under the impact. “I want to be able to get out of here.”
“Not for long,” he said, bringing his attention back to the controls. “But it will be pretty hot out there for a few minutes. This will be short-lived but violent stuff. We’re shielded in here.”
“Good.” The door shook again, and Anna took advantage of the moment to reload what she could, dropping the empty magazine and fuel canister on the ground.
“Just a few moments more …” The door let out an alarming creak.
If that seal breaks, we’re as good as dead, one way or another, Anna thought as it shook again. If he doesn’t—
“Got it!” There was a sudden roar from behind the wall, the module shaking as all the alarms came to crescendo, and Anna looked over to see the words “VENTING” flashing across the display in bright red letters.
The hatch shook again, and Anna spun. “Give it a minute,” Wells said before she could say anything to the contrary.
“We might not have that,” Anna said as the hatch shook again. The rushing sound died away, the words “VENTING COMPLETE” popping up on the display and the lights dimming.”
“Well, it’s done,” Silva said. “We’re on backup batteries.” The hatch rattled again … but the impact seemed lessened. The next time something hit it, it barely seemed audible.
“I think it’s working,” Ikeda said as the banging faded. “I wish we could tell.”
“I … Uh, I might be able to,” Jake said, stepping over to the console. “We’re still connected to the hab’s systems, right?”
“Then we might be able to …” He backed through systems, the group gathering around him. Anna kept one eye on the door. “Hang on. Aha!” An extremely fuzzy image appeared on the screen, showing a view of what looked like steam mixed with smoke.
“The drones,” Jake said. “I don’t think we could take off—that radiation’s really messing with them—but …” The image swiveled. “Look!”
It was the titan, staggering back as if it were drunk. No, Anna realized. It’s under attack! Panthers were leaping on it and spitting spikes. And attacking one another. Others were simply laying down and dying.
“It worked!” Someone let out a cheer of excitement. “It worked! We’re alive.”
We are, Anna thought as she watched the titan skewer a panther on its claws. Maybe it was because it was bigger, but it seemed to be resisting the effects of the radiation better than its smaller siblings. But for how long? We just put things off again. It won’t be long before more of these things come, or the quakes get us, or …
“Holy frick.”
Her eyes snapped to Jake as he spoke. His eyes were locked on the display. “What?” she asked, tensing. “More of them?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head as Morel stumbled back, good hand attempting to cover his mouth and colliding with his visor instead. “I’m getting a signal. It’s a distress call. UNSEC navy.”
His eyes locked with hers. “We’re not the only ones in this system.”
Chapter 39
For a moment both squads were silent, staring at the orange tendrils growing out of the back of the containment unit. Nido was the first to speak.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “If you’re all thinking what I think you’re suggesting, you’re crazy. No, not a chance.”
“Yeah, well there was no egg in that sample jar when we helped deliver it,” Quiin said. “At least, not one we could see. And yet …” He poked the membrane with the barrel of his gun. “These things attacking everyone had to come from somewhere. As well as that stuff growing through the ship.”
“I agree with Sergeant Nido,” Lieutenant Valdez said, shaking his head. “That’s something out of a horror game. Not the real world.”
“And the hole?” Quiin asked. “The missing sample? The egg?”
“It could be poorly-timed coincidence,” another marine suggested. “Or a deliberate one. Something from the planet’s surface gets loose despite the containment, and rather than tell anyone about it, they just let the problem grow.”
Sweets eyes widened. “That’s possible,” he said quickly. “This was being covered up.” Almost a dozen visors snapped to him, and he almost shied back.
“What do you mean?” Valdez asked. “How?”
“Well …” Now that all eyes were on him, the holes in his theory leaped out at him. But I already spoke up, and Jake or Anna would keep going. “I haven’t been here that long, but does it seem odd to anyone how much maintenance there’s been?”
“What?” one of the solis protested, but another shook their head.
“No, he’s got a point,” they said. “Think about it. How often does something really go wrong with the ship?”
“All the time,” Nido said. “It’s a ship. Technicians are always running around to do something to it. That’s why they’re aboard.”
“No,” a marine said, shaking their head. “Not always. Just every so often. And half the time they’re just keeping an eye on things so they don’t need maintenance. That’s different. Except for the last few weeks. They’ve been running around everywhere.”
“Yeah, fixing little things. And then there’s the heat.”
“Exactly,” Sweets said before someone could speak up. He nodded at the open freezer. “Someone was supposed to be monitoring this, right?”
“Maybe?” A marine shook their head.
“Not our department,” Valdez said. “Get to the point. We need to move.”
“I’m just saying,” Sweets said. “What if that … stuff, or whatever it is. Roots, whatever. But that stuff growing through the ship was causing all these problems. Someone would have found it by now.”
“Unless someone didn’t want it to be found,” Quiin said, shouldering the boxy-looking rifle he’d swiped from the downed exoskeleton. “Like Varus.”
“Or that someone got to Varus first,” Sweets added. “And overrode him somehow.”
“So the sample could be a distraction?” Nido asked.
“I don’t know,” Sweets said, holding up his hands. “It could have just been convenient. It’s not like UNSEC doesn’t have any enemies.”
“Like your friends back on Pisces?” One of the marines took a step forward. “For all we know—”
“That’s enough of that,” Valdez said, his voice brokering no argument as he stepped between them. “Whatever the reason, and whatever’s going on, we have our orders. Clear?” He took a quick look around the room, waiting until he’d gotten a nod from each of his marines before relaxing his stance. “Good. Quiin? Best route to the AI core from here?”
“Through that hatch and past a couple of twisty corridors,” Quiin said, nodding at the back hatch of the room. “Varus’s core is packed behind some pretty heavy security shielding, but if he’s down, the automated systems will be down as well. The only thing we’ll have to worry about is more silverbacks or those creatures.”
“What about engineering control?” Nido asked.
“One deck down, actually,” Quiin said. “And further aft. Shipwrights didn’t want two key systems that close to one another.”
“That makes sense,” Nido said. “But how long can we stick with you?”
“Well …” Quiin went quiet for a moment. “If what I remember of the systems is accurate, most of the way, as long as you don’t mind taking a roundabout route. You want to get there directly, and you’ll need to break a lot sooner.”
“Lieutenant,” Nido said, turning her visor toward Valdez. “If at all possible, I’d like to stick with your team as long as possible. Safety in numbers.”
“Agreed,” Valdez said, nodding. “If we get Varus online quickly enough, you might not even have to worry about—”
A hissing sound erupted all across the room, weapons snapping up as the already twitchy solis and marines spun around, searching for a threat. A moment later the hiss turning into an electric screech, and some of the soldiers relaxed.
“Damn intercom,” one of the solis said. “Nearly scared the shit out of me.” The electric squeal faded, breaking back into a dull hiss that then died out.
“That should be our cue to get moving,” Valdez said. “Sergeant, can you and your team find your way to engineering control once you’ve split with us?”
“We just follow the white line on the wall,” Nido replied. “Finding our way there isn’t what I’m worried about.” A thud from the door they closed behind them brought several weapons up, and Nido nodded as the sound underscored her point. “It’s those. And the armor.”
“With luck, we’ll have Varus online before long,” Valdez said before looking back out at the rest of the group. “All right, let’s get moving. Same as before. Quiin, you’ve got point; take—”
“Alone, sir,” Quiin said. “I won’t get far enough ahead that the rest of the squad can’t back me up, and none of you are recon.”
“Fair enough,” the lieutenant replied, before snapping his attention to Sweets. “You. The middle of the group. Don’t stop unless we say. Team, breach that door. Textbook!”
“Expecting trouble?” Nido asked as Sweets moved to the indicated position. Valdez’ marines were taking up positions around the hatch to engineering, weapons at the ready and covering a multitude of angles.
“I’d rather expect trouble and be ready for it than not expect it and be surprised,” Valdez said. “Team ready? Move in three, two—”
The intercom hissed again, this time quickly jumping to the electric squeal and then devolving into an amalgamation of distorted sounds and tones that both echoed and overlapped with one another before fading.
“Whoa,” one of the marines said. “That actually sounded like someone trying to talk. You know, in like a spooky, creepy voice, but still …”
“Who was it that said this was like a horror game?” someone else said. “Nice one.”
“Quiet,” Valdez hissed. The hiss returned, this time skipping the electrical squeal and jumping right to the mishmash of noise.
It does sound like a voice, Sweets thought, the piercing tone making his skin crawl. And the modulation sounds a bit like someone playing with one of those old radios. Maybe it’s the bridge?
“Focus people. Breach, assess, and move fast. Got it? Three, two, one—”
With a heavy clunk, one of the marines threw the hatch open, and Quiin rushed through, the boxy rifle held at the ready. Two more marines followed, flanking him as they jumped through the opening.
“Clear!” Quiin called, and Valdez motioned the rest of the group forward. The first hadn’t even made it through the hatchway when there was a sudden cry of “Contact!” and a burst of spitting gunfire echoed from the hall along with what sounded like several grenades going off. The marines leaped forward, diving through the entryway with their own weapons at the ready. “It’s down! Grab its weapon.”
