The Dark Ones (The Vixen War Bride, #6), page 25
Which, to be honest, did absolutely fuck-all to injure the Dark One monster.
The creature caught the weapon in its claws and flung it down the hall. It reached up with the other claw, the one trapping Alacea, dragging her with it as it tried to kill the annoying fleshy animal that had attacked it.
Ben grabbed the alien’s arm, wrapping his arms around it in a strange hug to prevent it from being able to grab hold of him, but the other claw came around and struck him in the back, hitting the armor plate covering his back with the force of a bullet.
The Ranger grit his teeth in pain. He was sitting on top of a crab creature, his arms wrapped desperately around one arm while the other stabbed at him with razor sharp claws. The rotting face of Specialist Carson stared up at him, the stench making Ben want to vomit.
Another strike against his back, and Ben felt his ribs crack at the force. The Dark One was simply beating on him at this point, unused to and ill-equipped to fight something in such close proximity. It had evolved to fight in the water and, with the armored Ranger fighting on top of it, was simply too heavy to easily get up onto its feet again.
Alacea, meanwhile, continued to pull at the tentacle around her neck. The creature must have been panicked, because she could feel it tightening around her throat, forcing her to see spots in front of her eyes. With her Tesho holding its arm up, she had been forced into a crouch next to him. She tried to call him for help, but the words couldn’t escape her strangled throat.
She looked at her alien husband, barely able to keep one of the creature’s arms occupied while the other beat on him like a drum. Her eyes came to rest on the front of his armor and on the knife secured in the inverted sheath strapped to the front.
Seeing her Tesho’s knife spurred her to action. Reaching down to her belt with her right hand, she felt for the hilt of the mini-Kabar he had gifted to her for their wedding. The creature reared up suddenly in an attempt to throw the Ranger off, causing her fingers to slip over the hilt.
She heard her husband scream and looked over to find that the creature’s claw and struck him at his left waist, below his armor. Red blood coated the monster’s hand, but Ben still managed to keep the left arm immobile, knowing that if the Dark One was able to use the weapon grafted to it, it was over for both of them.
Alacea grit her teeth and wrapped her fingers around the knife’s hilt. Pulling it, she gurgled a scream and swung it upward against the tentacle, slicing halfway through it.
The monster’s armored shell began turning bright white and red, its version of a scream of pain, and the tentacle loosened its grip on her. She fell to the floor and gasped for breath, the knife still in her hand.
Not sparing a moment, she turned and grabbed onto the Dark One’s arm, helping Ben immobilize it. Its other claw was still digging into her Tesho’s side, scraping his hip bone and tearing into the muscles there.
But with Alacea’s help, he could finally use one of his hands for something else. Reaching down with his right hand, he pulled his sidearm from its holster. Shoving it between his body and the creature’s arm, he pointed the weapon down at the domed head and just a little lower where Fletcher had told him the brain would be.
Shoot it until it dies...
He pulled the trigger over and over again. Although the armor was heavy, the domed face mask was not as tough, and at that range the pistol was just strong enough to penetrate it.
Alacea grimaced and kept hold of the arm as the sound of the weapon deafened her again and again. She shut her eyes and endured the pain as much as she could, feeling as if someone was taking a hammer to the sides of her head. She felt some sort of liquid splash against her, and she briefly wondered if it was the creature’s blood, her Tesho’s, or her own.
Finally, she felt the creature’s arm slacken in hers. Opening her eyes, she saw several holes in the obsidian dome, clear, brackish liquid dribbling out of it mixed with dark blue.
Ben, the empty, smoking pistol still grasped in his white-knuckled hand, fell against the monster’s chest, breathing hard, painful breaths. Its other claw fell away from his hip, covered in scarlet blood.
Ben looked at her with exhausted eyes, not even attempting to get up yet.
She hiccupped.
A black dome cleared the stairwell and started to turn toward them. Ben took careful aim with shaking, exhausted hands, putting the front sight post on the helmet when a dull hum sounded and a streak of blue light followed the creature up the stairs and through its side, coming out the other as if it had gone through nothing but tissue paper.
The monster stumbled for a moment and fell face-down onto the floor. Ben and Alacea froze. They heard lighter footsteps on the stairs and then a familiar Va’Shen face with an eyepatch emerged.
Azarin cleared the stairwell and quickly checked the hallway and closest prayer room with his rifle at the ready before finally rushing toward them.
With Azarin and Alacea’s help, Ben cut open his uniform shirt on the left side, fully exposing the wound. The priestess hiccupped at the sight of it, and Ben tried not to think about it as he slapped the Insta-Clot patch against it, hearing the familiar sizzle as the chemical in the patch fused the wound closed.
Ben nodded absently and jammed the Go-Juice injector into his thigh. It was the second time in only a couple of months that he used Go-Juice, and he knew the effects would not last forever. They would, however, linger long enough to get to the bridge and over the river. After that, he could collapse all he liked.
The pain in his ribs and back faded away, and the wound in his side became little more than a throbbing sensation. His eyes cleared, and he felt his energy return.
Alacea began to argue.
Azarin grabbed her arm and looked into her eyes, his ears beginning to fold downward.
That is why it did not kill me, the priestess realized. If that was true, then her very life presented a threat to everyone around her.
She took a breath. She did not want to leave the injured behind, but if she left, she might be able to draw the Dark Ones away from them. As long as she remained, the temple would continue to be a target.
Ben, meanwhile, had found his rifle and picked it up, checking for any damage that might make it dangerous to use.
Azarin told them, heading for the stairs.
Ben told him.
They followed Azarin down the stairs to the demolished first floor, and the two soldiers checked down the deserted hallways for targets, but it seemed Azarin was right. They headed for the door to the garden and were about to exit when they saw a Dark One standing on the road outside the garden.
Alacea gasped, and the three of them ducked back inside the temple, but the creature saw them and turned, raising its arm to fire.
It paused suddenly, its attention diverted by a new sound approaching. It turned just in time to see an LTV turn the corner and run right at the stunned alien.
The LTV’s driver must have seen it, but instead of turning away, the vehicle leapt forward as the driver slammed on the gas. The Dark One, faced with a choice of shooting or diving out of the way, did neither for a critical second, and the vehicle rammed into the alien at full force, driving it into the low stone wall that surrounded the garden and crushing it at the waist, pinning it there like a butterfly in a case.
The driver-side door crashed open, and Ramirez hopped out, raising his rifle and firing three shots into the creature’s helmet at close range without even a pause.
“Yeah, how’s that bumper taste, asshole?” he asked it.
Burgers’s towering figure emerged from the passenger side as the LTV began to smoke and hiss from the damage it took ramming the walking tank and the garden wall. The Texan climbed up and began removing the M-270 machine gun from the turret’s mounting.
“Baird?! Ramirez?!” Ben called from the temple door. “What the hell are you two doing here?!” he demanded angrily. “You’re supposed to be over that river!”
Ramirez strolled toward them as casually as if he was at a day at the market. “Hey, Sir,” he greeted, ignoring his commander’s angry tone. “El-tee told us what was up, so we came to give you a ride ou...” He stopped short and quickly looked at the LTV, the engine of which had just caught fire and was now burning merrily. He turned back to them. “We came to walk you out,” he finished.
Burgers joined him a moment later, the light machine gun looking almost small in the man’s hands. “Everyone else is over the river,” he reported to Ben. “Captain Turan has some of his guys sniping at their... um... big snails... to keep the route open, but it’s not gonna last long.”
“I’m gonna Article 92 both of you,” Ben promised without heat.
“Hell, Sir,” Ramirez said with a grin. “One more of those, and I get a free crockpot!”
“All the way, Sir,” Ramirez replied, trotting in the direction of the bridge.
“Baird, watch our asses,” Ben instructed.
The group set out, following behind Ramirez while Ben and Azarin stuck to either side of Alacea like an honor guard. Alacea was shocked at the sight of her village. A haze of white smoke filled the air as houses burned nearby. Some homes had collapsed, including many of the buildings built for the Garan’Sel villagers, barely a month old. In the distance, she could hear the other-worldly screams of the armored snails as commandos peppered them with harassing fire.
And there were the bodies.
Thankfully, not as many as there could have been had this attack occurred before the evacuation, but enough to break the vixen’s heart. Most of them were commandos; Pelle’s, Kar’El’s or those from the other refugee communities. A few were human, and she looked at her Tesho’s face to see his reaction to them, but the Ranger captain remained focused on the mission at hand. There would be time, he knew, to mourn and whip himself for not doing more to prevent their deaths. But that time was not now.
There were quite a few Dark One corpses, most of them riddled with the neat, burnt holes from hardlight rifles. Some were blown apart by explosives and chewed apart by heavy machine guns. As with the bodies of their own people, the group passed by them in silence.
They were nearly to the bridge when Ramirez stopped and threw his fist up, ordering everyone to stop. Ben grabbed Alacea and pulled her down next to the brick wall of the building they were walking past. Ramirez was checking around the corner of that building, looking toward the bridge.
They all turned as the sound of a snail tank screaming came from behind them.
Close behind them.
Down the street, three buildings behind them, the slimy, armored head of a giant snail peered at them from around the corner. Several Dark Ones dashed across the street from it to take up cover.
“GO!” Ben ordered, raising his rifle. “BRIDGE! GO!” He and Burgers began laying down suppressing fire while Ramirez led Azarin and Alacea around the corner. The river was on their left now with the bridge perhaps 100 yards away.
The snail screamed and came around the corner, following them as the Dark Ones around it fired at the two humans.
Ben and Burgers broke cover and ran around the corner after the other three, hauling ass toward the bridge, which could now be made out through the smoke ahead of them.
Just as Ben thought they were going to make it, a massive explosion threw the five of them onto their backs. A thick cloud of dust and smoke rose from the river ahead of them where the bridge had been a moment before. Burning wood and blasted stone rained down around it, smashing into buildings and splashing into the river. To make matters even worse, the responding screams from several giant snails ahead and to their right, hidden by the nearby buildings, underlined just how screwed the group now was.
“Shit!” Ramirez cried, climbing to his feet.
“They must have been right on top of the bridge,” Burgers reasoned. “El-tee wouldn’t have blown it otherwise.”
The scream of the snail tank approaching behind them answered that question for her.
“I think it might be Alamo time,” Burgers commented.
“We’re going to have to swim for it,” Ben said, grabbing Alacea’s hand and rushing toward the river. They changed course and made directly for the riverbank, stopping at the edge and looking down. Burgers turned and took up a firing position, waiting for the Dark Ones and the snail to clear the corner.
Unlike the Odoro River south of them with its calm and gentle current, the Cora was wide, rough and swift.
“That’s a long swim, Sir,” Ramirez remarked dubiously.
“Not much choice,” Ben said, removing his helmet and undoing the straps on his armor. Ramirez followed suit, and as soon as he was done, he traded places with Burgers so he could prepare as well.
Ben turned to Alacea.
the frightened priestess told him. She took his hands in hers and squeezed, searching for some kind of comfort. The Dark One forces were getting closer, and the sound of another armored mollusk approaching from the other direction filled her ears.
Ben turned and saw it as well. “GO!” he ordered. “GO! NOW!”
Just as they were about to jump, the snail in front of them screamed, its armored shell shattering and its greyish flesh ripping apart as if shredded. The building next to it began collapsing as well as chunks of stone flew apart and partly buried the dying creature.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT!
The familiar sound, loved by ground troops everywhere, followed a second later, causing Ramirez to whoop in joy as an Air Force F/A-202 attack aircraft flew over them, its 25mm cannon having turned the snail into chunks of broken shell and mush.
“I LOVE YOU, AIR FORCE!” Ramirez screamed as another jet made a gun run on another Dark One position.
“We’re saved!” Burgers cried with a laugh. He quickly changed his tune as the buildings near them began to explode as other approaching fighters dropped bombs nearby.
“Nope!” Ramirez cried, running by him toward the water. “Still boned!”
“INTO THE RIVER!” Ben cried, pushing Alacea and Azarin toward the water again. He knew that, without the benefit of communications with the ground, those jets probably had orders to destroy anything moving on the ground in Pelle and command would sort it out later. He didn’t know how much ordnance it would take to destroy the Dark Ones, but he knew how much the Air Force was going to use.
Every bit of it they had.
Ramirez and Burgers dived into the water and started swimming hard against the current. Azarin and Ben each took one of Alacea’s hands and prepared to jump.
