Extinction: The Will of the Protectors Read online

  “Once we clear this area, we will set him up as best we can before we head out. You did a great job, though.” Emily was already reloading again.

  “Thank you, Captain, but it never feels like a good job until they’re sitting up in a hospital bed and talking to you again.” Daria slung her medkit and then got into the fight as well.

  Snake came up alongside Emily and threw a grenade out towards the enemies down the hall. The grenade made a satisfying whoomph just an instant before its overpressure came back down the hall towards them.

  “Did you need something other than to throw a grenade?” Emily said to Snake.

  “Ma’am, does anyone really ever need anything other than to throw a grenade?” He smiled broadly. “But, in this circumstance, yes I do. Jeeves found a set of corridors on the base plans that will get us within five meters of the warriors’ current position.” He pointed down the hallway. “Do you see that sign on the right wall? Just past that is where the hallways will exit.”

  “Sounds like a good idea. How many people do you want with you?” Before he could answer, she added, “And don’t say that you work better alone.”

  Snake shut his mouth and cocked his head. “Fine. I’ll take Bloom and Stroth with me. Once we’re in position, you guys put a few grenades down there, focused on those two guys with the personal shields. We’ll pop out of the adjoining hallway and surprise them.”

  “We’ll hold them until you’re ready.”

  “Copy that, ma’am.”

  Snake motioned to Stroth, who fell in behind the seasoned commando. As the two picked up Bloom and then headed through a doorway, Emily thought about how Snake, and everyone else really, acted around her. Their attitude had definitely changed since her first mission with the team. They had always been professionals with her but it had been clear they were just dealing with her presence. Now, she knew that they not only accepted her as a teammate but they valued her as an officer. Emily hoped she wouldn’t let them down.

  Jeeves’ English butler accent came over the commlink. “Captain Riley, I have detected three more warriors approaching the enemy’s fortified position. Permission to launch a missile?”

  “You have missiles?” Emily was sure Bloom had not told her about that upgrade.

  “Yes, Captain. They are small, comparative to your standard ground-to-air variety, but I believe they would be useful to thin the enemy numbers.”

  “Why haven’t you suggested them before this moment?” Emily sensed there might be a good reason to not use them at this point.

  “I had previously calculated the interior overpressure that would be caused by the detonation of one of my missiles; we are less than one meter outside of the red zone. It is too narrow a margin to be taken lightly.”

  “Given their reinforcements, I gather that you have reassessed the situation and believe it is worth the risk now?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We are now down by four shooters: one medically incapacitated and three have broken off to flank the enemy position. The additional enemy troops along with the decreased defensive fire from our position will more likely than not encourage the warriors to advance on us and ultimately overrun our position. Ninety-nine percent probability, in fact.”

  Emily was aware that Jeeves had spent the better part of a thousand years in a droid storage closet playing war games inside his neural net. Those games were based on his intimate knowledge of the warriors’ tactics. Jeeves’ probabilities were not to be taken lightly.

  “Can you get in the hallway and use your shield to block some of the overpressure?” Daria put two rounds in one of the warriors downrange but they were only wounding hits.

  Jeeves took a few seconds to answer, which was akin to forever in robot terms. “I could; however, to get myself into position to be of any use to the team, I will sustain heavy fire and my shields may not hold up much longer than it will take me to fire one of my missiles.”

  “And?” Daria was not seeing the problem yet.

  “And, Chief O’Connor, I might be damaged or even destroyed.”

  Daria had to keep her temper in check, even if she was speaking to a robot. She could not let the rest of her biological team hear her losing her calm while under fire. “Jeeves, you are aware of Schneps’ status.”

  “Of course I am.”

  “Then you are aware that he took damage and will possibly die because he risked himself for the team and the mission. We are not asking you to do anything other than what any other member of this team is willing to do and has already done. If you want to continue to function, as a member of this team or even at all, then you will never again argue against a plan based on your own safety. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Chief.” Jeeves rolled forward while still maintaining as much cover as his bulky form would allow given the confines of the hallway. “I have already alerted Snake’s team to our plan. They are bunkering down now and are safely out of the blast and overpressure zone for the strike. As soon as you fall back three meters, I will move forward and block the hall with my shield while firing my missile.”

  “Do it.” Emily began a peel-off maneuver and tapped Daria on the shoulder as she passed by. Schneps had previously been dragged back to a position of cover after he had been packaged by Daria.

  As Daria moved past Jeeves, he brought his shields fully online and blocked the hallway. As he predicted, he immediately began taking multiple plasma rounds and his shields flickered with each one.

  Jeeves’ front compartment opened and a small arm with a missile on it extended from the opening. The missile launched and its contrail filled the enclosed area with blinding smoke. When the missile detonated just a few seconds later, the blast washed over Jeeves’ shields and came together again on his back side.

  Daria felt the blast first and was knocked on her ass. Stacey Vinci thought she was prepared for the overpressure but was also knocked on her ass and as an added bonus, her head knocked into the wall. A small trickle of blood came out of her left ear and left her dizzy and slightly confused.

  Emily had had a better position of cover and felt the overpressure wave wash over her but that was the extent of her exposure to it. “Sound off, people.” After her team checked in, Emily motioned for Jockey to take Daria’s place while the corpsman was tending to Vinci’s injuries.

  “How is she, Doc?” Emily turned her visor to thermal mode so she could see through the smoke that filled the hallway.

  “Ruptured eardrum, nothing major. I can seal it and she’ll be good to go.” Daria rooted through her pack to get the correct instrument for the procedure. “But I will need at least ten minutes before she can fight again. I have to give her a pill that will counteract the dizziness and nausea associated with a ruptured eardrum. It needs a little time to reach its full effective levels.”

  “Copy that. I have the two shielded warriors on thermal. They are still standing so we are not going anywhere in the next few minutes anyway.” The smoke was clearing but the thermal imaging cut through it as though it was not there in the first place. “Snake, what is your status?”

  “We felt that missile but we’re fine.” His breath was a little faster than normal, so they must have been running at a good pace to get into position. “We are approaching the door to the hallway now. We had to bypass a lot of threats on the way here but it did not appear as though the warriors had access to or entered this area we have been moving through. I just want you to be aware that we did not clear any of this area yet, so there could be warriors that we passed and will pop up behind us later.”

  “Understood.” Emily knew that in a structure this size, there was no possible way to clear it completely without having a few hundred soldiers with you, and even then probably not completely. “Based on what we have seen so far, your initial assessment is probably correct: they have not been in those areas and we will be fine.”

  “Yes, ma’am. We’re ready for the assault whenever you are.”

  Emily turned to Jeeves a
s he rolled by her to get back towards the rear of the team. “How long until your shields are fully recharged?”

  “I have sustained damage to my secondary power unit and my recycler. My shields will not work until I can work on them. The repair will take four point two hours.”

  “Understood. Thanks for risking yourself for the team.”

  “I do not believe I had a choice. The chief made it quite clear that my continued existence depended on whether or not I would risk that existence.”

  “We will talk about that later, but I still thank you, Jeeves.” Emily paused mentally to go over that idea in her head. Daria had threatened Jeeves’ existence if he didn’t follow her orders. Was that right of her to do? Would she have done it to a biological soldier? And if so, was that right?

  Outwardly, Emily continued without skipping a beat. “Chief, Jockey, and Mitra: you guys move up with me and get ready to toss one grenade each towards the shielded warriors. We will advance if Snake needs us to once they exit their positions from the other hallway.”

  Vinci hung back as she waited for the medication to take effect. She was already feeling better but still a bit woozy, though she was professional enough to know when she was out of the fight, regardless of how pissed off that made her. “I’ll stay back here with Jeeves and the rest of the team and cover this other door that Snake used when he left, just in case they did miss something.”

  Good girl, Daria thought to herself. “Vinci, you have no idea how much I appreciate a cooperative patient. You just made my mission.”

  “No problem, Chief.”

  Daria moved up to position and ducked as a plasma bolt shot over her head. At the speed the bolts traveled, ducking was a pointless gesture. It either hit you or it didn’t. If the warrior aimed well, there was no way you could move faster than six thousand feet per second and get out of the way. Some reflexes were useless in combat but they evolved with us for a reason; and they were hard to control, even if they didn’t help.

  “The smoke is clearing and they’re starting to move.” Daria pulled out a grenade.

  “We are ready; it’s on you, Snake.” Emily tensed as she saw the two large shielded warriors head her way. “Wait! They are headed towards us. I’ll let you know when they are past your position and then you can enter the hallway from behind them. Their shields are still up so you’ll need to get in close or use an edged weapon.”

  Snake was not sure how close the enemy was or whether they could hear him or not, so he tapped his commlink twice so Emily would get two small bursts of static to signal that he understood.

  Emily’s team had learned in their first encounter with the shielded warriors that if you got the barrel of your gun within five centimeters of the warrior’s body, your muzzle would be inside the shield and effective against the warrior. Likewise, a relatively slow moving object, such as a knife or sword, was not stopped by the shield and could be used as though they weren’t wearing one. Though, the warriors’ large size and extra arms made hand-to-hand fighting a very risky proposition for most humans, no matter how skilled they were with a bladed weapon.

  As the warriors passed the sign Snake had earlier pointed out to Emily, she got ready to give the word. Emily fired a few rounds into the warriors, knowing that their shields would stop the bullets, but she wanted to keep the focus on her team and not the door they were passing.

  A few more steps…

  “Now!” Emily watched the three grenades sail towards their targets.

  The warriors egotistically kept moving forward, with no attempt to avoid the grenades at all. The personal shields protected them from grenades and bullets but each hit and explosion drained their power and made them weaker. The shields could regenerate, as could Jeeves’, but that took time and right now the shields were dangerously close to coming down all the way.

  Snake, Bloom, and Stroth felt and heard their cue as the grenades detonated in the hallway outside their door. Snake turned the door handle and pushed but was immediately stopped in his tracks. He tried again. “Help me.” Bloom added his shoulder to the attempt. “Shit.”

  “Captain.”

  “I was kind of expecting you to come out and kill these bastards.”

  “Yeah, so were we. Those grenades must have crimped the edges of the door frame or something. We’re stuck for the moment. We’re working on it, but you may end up engaging them on your own.”

  “Understood.”

  Daria looked around. “We can’t really fall back at this point. We need to weaken their shields by pouring on the rounds.”

  All four operators opened up and sent rounds downrange into the warriors and their shields. The shields sparkled as the ballistic projectiles harmlessly bounced off and away. The warriors decided to speed up their advance as their shields took more damage.

  The lead warrior was on their position in short order. He punched Daria square in the chest and she sprawled backwards, the wind and consciousness almost knocked out of her. The warrior’s lower arm reached out and grabbed Mitra by the front of his uniform and easily lifted him up.

  Mitra kept his cool in the face of his extremely overmatched enemy. He pushed the muzzle of his gun into the warrior’s face and pulled the trigger. The barrel was within the area between the shield and the body it protected, but the warrior’s other hand was faster than Mitra’s fingers. It grabbed the barrel, pointed it away from his face and towards his right upper shoulder.

  Mitra had still fired his weapon but instead of a kill shot, the rounds ripped through the warrior’s upper arm and destroyed it. The warrior still had three arms left and the one holding the barrel of Mitra’s gun ripped it from his hands and tossed it down the hall.

  Mitra pulled his field knife and brought it up just in time to skewer the warrior’s left upper hand as it reached for Mitra’s skull. His strength was no match for the warrior’s but he still tried to force the hand back with his knife.

  Mitra was losing his fight but he had delayed the outcome long enough that Jockey had been able to get his own knife up and under the warrior’s jaw and into his throat. Jockey thrust upward and in and moved his knife back and forth in a sawing motion, cutting through half of the warrior’s neck before he showed any signs of slowing down. He was dead but his body wasn’t aware of the fact yet. Finally his body got the message and slowly slumped to the ground, taking Mitra with it and landing on top of him.

  “Ooomph!” Mitra gasped as all of the air in his lungs was forcibly expelled from his body.

  “Get you out in sec, buddy,” Jockey promised as he turned his attention to the second warrior that threw Emily around like a ragdoll. “Hold on, Captain!”

  Before Jockey could do anything, a sword neatly cut through the warrior’s neck and he stood still for a moment, trying to determine what exactly had happened. His head was still on top of his thick, muscular neck, but it wasn’t attached anymore. Finally, he too realized he was dead and toppled forward onto the deck.

  Stroth stood behind the warrior; his sword had the faintest tinge of blue blood on its blade. Detrill were short people as galactic standards go, and warriors immensely huge; so Emily’s first thought was how in the hell did Stroth get high enough to cut through the warrior’s neck? At this point, she didn’t care: the first wave of defenders was dealt with and the team could take a brief moment to gather themselves before the next inevitable encounter with the warriors.

  Chapter 6

  Seth was doing his best not to breathe too loudly but he was winded and there was no way he could hide it entirely. He did take some solace in the fact that the Shirkas also breathed more heavily than normal, even if it was only a little bit.

  Their mixed team of six Coalition soldiers and six Shirka commandos had reached their destination. They saw the warriors eating live game they had captured. The sounds the little animals made as they were being torn and broken apart were heart-wrenching to Seth. Seth looked over to the first son and to his surprise, the Shirka had his teeth bared
in anger.

  “They have no honor,” First Son spat. He saw the look of surprise on Seth. “We, too, hunt, but we do not dishonor our prey as they do. Respect should be given to the animals that provide you and your family with life. To eat them in this fashion is grothiwgrrr!”

  “I’m guessing there’s no good English translation of that last word?”

  “No. There is not. But our actions will be all the translation you will need to understand its meaning.” First Son then made a few guttural noises and Seth heard a response from somewhere on the other side of the warriors.

  The plan had already been made and First Son relayed to the rest of the Shirkas that it was ready to be implemented.

  Seth’s team had suppressors for their weapons and the warriors weren’t wearing personal shields, so Seth put forward the idea of his team dispatching the enemy from covered positions. He knew First Son would not like that idea at all but it was the most tactically sound idea and he had to suggest it.

  In the end, they agreed that Seth’s team would use his plan on two of the warriors while First Son’s team would handle the other two on their own terms, namely with hand-to-hand combat.

  First Son slipped away from Seth to get into position for his part of the plan. Seth gave a solid sixty-second count before he signaled his team into action. Seth set his countdown timer to five seconds and activated it. The rest of his team heard a computerized voice in their commlinks counting down at a steady rate.

  Five-four-three-two-one-Fire

  The unemotional command to fire was given and three shooters put a single round through one warrior’s head and the other two shooters did the same to their target. The two blue monsters went slack and dropped to the forest floor.

  The remaining two warriors did not need time to evaluate the situation. They instantly knew they were under attack. They dropped their still-screaming meals and drew their bladed weapons.

  Seth watched as First Son and his sister dropped from above the warriors and landed squarely in front of them. As Sister dropped, she raked one full hand of claws down the face and body of her opponent and opened his flesh like tissue paper. Blue blood spurted across her fur and both creatures roared at each other, feral beasts both.