Beyond the Shroud of the Universe (34 page)

“
Here goes the door, Lieutenant,
” Gunny Dantone said. “
Fire Team Two, ready on support.
” He looked around and all were sighted down the barrels of their weapons. “
Now!
” He kicked the door, and it fell inward.

The heavy door slammed down with a clatter.

“
Is this what I think it is?
” Gunny Dantone asked.

“
Yeah, it is,
” Lieutenant O’Leary said.

“
Then where are all the people, or creatures, or whatever?
”  Gunny Dantone asked.

“
Yeah, dude,
” Sergeant Jamal Gordon added, “
like, where are all the aliens?
”

“
Two doors, both sides of the passageway,
” Wolf reported. “
All four of them are damaged by the silver thermite round Ducky used. Looks like some of that shit has gone through the floor…I hope there isn’t anything too valuable down there.
”

“
Pick one and start cutting,
” Calvin said.

“
I’ll start on one of the damaged ones, if you don’t mind, sir,
” replied Big Sky. “
I’ve probably got enough juice left for one more door after that.
”

“
Go ahead,
” Calvin said. “
That will probably be faster—
”

The ship rocked as something below them exploded.

“
What the hell was that?
” Gunny Dantone asked as the ship shuddered noticeably.

“
No idea,
” Lieutenant O’Leary replied. “
The CO must be having fun somewhere.
” He looked around the open chamber. “
I’m more worried about why the damn bridge is empty. I mean, this has
got
to be the bridge, right?
”

“
You’ve spent more time on them than I have,
” Gunny Dantone replied, “
but it sure looks like all of the ones you see in the movies. Big console in the middle for the CO, lots of stations and monitors and shit on the sides. Except all of these are blank.
”

“
Not ‘dis one,
” Witch said, “
and I got me a bad feelin’ about what it be doin’ mon.
”

Lieutenant O’Leary hurried over to where Witch was standing, and she pointed at one of the monitors in the central console. The monitor had a single symbol on it. After three seconds, it switched to another symbol. After another three seconds, it switched again.

“
Yeah, I’ve got that same bad feeling,
” Lieutenant O’Leary said. He switched to the command net. “
Hey, boss, I think we found the bridge,
” he commed.

“
Great!
” Calvin replied.

“
Not great,
” Lieutenant O’Leary replied. “
The bridge is deserted, and it looks like there is some sort of countdown running. You don’t suppose they’d blow up their ship, would they?
”

“
To keep the technology out of our hands? Yeah, they might well do that.
”

“
Yeah, well, in that case, we better get the hell out of here because this thing is going to blow.
”

The ship shuddered again.

“
We might need to leave, anyway,
” Calvin replied. “
Ducky used a silver thermite round and slagged a bunch of shit down here. Some of it went through the floor, and it’s reacting badly with whatever’s underneath us. Trash the bridge and get topside; we’ll meet you there!
”

“
See you there,
” O’Leary said. He switched to the squad’s net. “
Set some explosives and let’s get the hell out of here! The ship is going to blow!
”

“
Forget the door,
” Calvin commed. “
We’re leaving!
”

“
I don’t know where you’re planning to go, but I wouldn’t recommend ‘back,’
” Staff Sergeant Zoromski commed. “
There’s a bunch of them back here. Better continue in that direction and find another ramp up.
”

“
All right, Wolf,
” Calvin said.

“
I heard him,
” Gunnery Sergeant Stasik replied before Calvin could complete the sentence. “
Going forward.
”

“
Good man.
”

“
Hey, sir, I’m through the door,
” Big Sky said. “
Looks like an engine room.
”

“
Awesome,
” Calvin said. “
Set some charges quickly if you’ve got them. If not, shoot it up and let’s get the hell out of here.
” The cyborg was obviously out of explosives as the ripping sound of a Mrowry autocannon on full auto reverberated through the hallway.

“
I’m at the end of the hallway,
” Wolf reported. “
Looks like the door opens out. I think a cyborg could knock this one down without having to burn through it.
”

“
On it,
” Big Sky said.

The autocannon firing stopped, and the cyborg clomped past Calvin in the passageway a couple of seconds later. “A cyborg’s work is never done,” Big Sky said in passing. He accelerated as he approached the end of the hallway, lowered his shoulder and smashed through the door. A ramp going up awaited behind it.

“
Quickly! Up the ramp!
” Calvin ordered. He switched to the squadron net. “
Ghost, Mays; either of you up?
”

“
Yes sir,
” said
Shuttle 02’s
WSO, Lieutenant Thomas ‘Mays’ Yilmaz. “
We’re standing by.
”

“
We’re about 200 yards away from the ship,
” added his pilot, Lieutenant Miguel ‘Ghost’ Carvalho. “
There were some extraterrestrials on the side of the ship when we got here, but they’ve all gone back inside. We can swoop in whenever you’re ready for extraction.
”

“
Roger that,
” Calvin replied. “
We’re on our way out for immediate evac. It looks like they’ve set the ship to self-destruct.
”

“
Well then, hurry on out, sir,
” said Mays. “
We’ll be waiting.
”

“
We’re hurrying. Calvin out.
”

“
Hey, Mays,
” Night commed. “
You can see the alien ship?
”

“
Yeah, we’re alongside.
”

“
And there aren’t any aliens?
”

“
No; they all went back inside.
”

“
Then why the hell are we sitting out here? Do me a favor and
get us the fuck over to it!
People are dying over there, and Yokaze and I can help!
”

“
You want us to land now? Before the Skipper is ready?
”

“
I want you to land
right fucking now,
or I will come up there and land this fucking tub myself.
”

“
Well, why didn’t you say so? We’ll have you there in 30 seconds.
”

“
About damn time!
”

“
I think I’ve got the skipper’s group coming from beneath us on the ramp,
” Staff Sergeant Park ‘Wraith’ Ji-woo commed. “
Sounds like a damn cyborg’s stomping up the ramp, anyway.
”

Wonderful, Lieutenant O’Leary thought. At least they didn’t have to go looking for them. “
Ground Force, be advised we’re above you at the top of the ramp,
” he commed. “
Space Force, don’t shoot them as we link up.
”

Within seconds, O’Leary heard the heavy footfalls of the cyborg, too, and then the Ground Force reached the top of the ramp. “
Good to see you, sir,
” O’Leary said as Calvin approached. “
We hold one of the openings to the roof and will start falling back to the shuttle. It’s going to be a bit dicey for the last couple of folks out; we’re holding off a bunch of them on this level. Since we’re already in place, why don’t you leave me Big Sky and take your squad to the shuttle?
”

“
Sounds good,
” Calvin said. “
Ground Force, to the shuttle. Big Sky, you’re with the Space Force for covering fire.
”

“
Dark’s down,
” Staff Sergeant Jones said as several explosions were heard. “
We need a medic and a little help down the passageway. They’ve got some kind of explosives launcher.
”

“
Lucky, go check out Dark,
” O’Leary pointed down the passageway. “
Big Sky, get them out of there,
now!”

“
Good to see you,
” Staff Sergeant Jones said as Big Sky and the medic arrived. The former CIA operative pointed at the ramp, just visible through the smoke. “
Sky, I need you to keep them off us while we pull back, and then join us on the run. Got it?
”

“
Sure thing, Staff Sergeant,
” the cyborg said. He took cover in a doorway and fired at movement on the ramp. Several blasts of plasma erupted from the ramp, narrowly missing him. “Damn,” he said as he reflexively jerked backward out of the line of fire.

“No shit,” Staff Sergeant Jones said. “Watch out for the arrows. They blow up. That’s what got Corporal Minion.”

“He’s dead,” the squad’s medic, Corporal Shaun ‘Lucky’ Evertson, said.

“Fuck,” said Staff Sergeant Jones. “Jonny was a pain in the ass, but he was still one of ours.” He shook his head. “
Fire Team Two, fall back to the shuttle. Lucky, you too. Big Sky will cover us and then fall back.
” He stepped up behind the cyborg and slapped him on the shoulder. “Got it, Sky?”

“Yeah, hurry it up,” the cyborg replied. “I’m starting to run low on ammo.”

“Okay, I’m gone. Give me three seconds, then follow me.” Big Sky fired several rounds into the ramp well to cover Staff Sergeant Jones’ departure, then threw his two remaining grenades. As the first one detonated, he turned and ran down the passageway after Staff Sergeant Jones.

He had only taken three steps when a plasma bolt hit him in the back of the right leg.

The servo mechanisms failed, and his leg went out from under him. Big Sky crashed to the floor, his momentum slamming him into the bulkhead on the right side of the passageway. He looked down at his knee and saw a two-inch hole through the section where his control wires ran. Crap. That wasn’t going to be fixable.

“
I’m hit and down,
” he commed. “
My right leg is inop; I’m going to need assistance to get out.
”

“
On my way,
” Gunny Dantone replied, the only remaining member of the team able to lift the cyborg.

“
Lucky, go take a look, too,
” Lieutenant O’Leary ordered.

Big Sky sat up and began pushing himself backwards down the hall, firing a couple of rounds every few seconds to keep the Shaitans’ heads down. He had covered nearly half the distance when Dantone arrived, followed immediately by the medic.

“What’s up?” asked Dantone, firing at movement from the stairwell. A blast of plasma burned past his head in reply. “Oh? You want to play?” he asked. He dropped his pulse rifle, allowing it to hang from the magazine on his back, and unhooked his trident. Selecting the 50 nanogram setting on the antimatter projector, he fired a single round into the ramp well. The size of a small bomb, the antimatter round destroyed the upper section of the ramp, with the shockwave from the explosion pushing them several feet down the passageway. “That ought to keep their heads down,” he added.

“Can you do anything?” Big Sky asked the medic as he continued pushing himself down the passageway.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do,” Lucky said. “I’m a corpsman, not a damned auto mechanic. I didn’t even
take
shop in high school.”

“Well, let’s get him up and out of here before they come back,” Dantone said. He clipped his trident to his back and reached down with both hands to lift Big Sky up onto his good leg. “I’ve got him,” Dantone said; “you can head up to the shuttle.”

“No,” the medic said. “You don’t have anyone to cover you. I’ll stay, just get going.”

Big Sky put his right arm over Dantone’s shoulders and the cyborgs began awkwardly walking down the passageway to where Wolf waited for them, firing in the opposite direction. “Hurry!” he called; “lots of them coming from this way.”

“No shit,” Lucky muttered. He ran forward to join Wolf, firing furiously at the approaching cowtaurs.

“You need to eat a salad,” said Dantone, grunting for effect as he boosted Big Sky up to the overhead exit. “Heavy fuck.”

“You need—” Big Sky said. Several plasma rounds cut off the rest of what he was going to say, along with most of his head, and the cyborg fell over backward, overbalancing Dantone. Both cyborgs crashed to the floor.

“Shit,” said Wolf, diving out of the way from a hail of plasma. He looked back to see Lucky collapse, with several holes through his chest. Wolf knew he was screwed. He couldn’t get up without getting shot; there were too many of them coming. He continued firing, the counter on his battery rapidly approaching zero. He hoped the stupid cowtaurs would at least give him a chance to swap out the battery…although the next one would be his last.

An enormous cowtaur, bigger than any he had seen before, emerged from the smoke. It had to be an important one; it had a sash running across its upper half filled with shiny emblems. It also carried a bigger gun than anything even the cyborgs carried.

Wolf sighted on the creature’s head and pulled the trigger. A weak bolt fired; the end of the battery. The laser bolt only succeeded in singing the Shaitan’s fur, and the cowtaur roared. Its weapon came down to point at Wolf as he struggled feverishly to change out the battery; Wolf knew he didn’t have enough time.

Wolf was close enough to see the creature’s claw start to tighten on the firing mechanism and gathered himself to dive out of the way.

The creature exploded as Night’s first antimatter round struck it in its bovine chest, painting the passageway with its purple blood. Night landed in front of Wolf and continued firing his trident into the mass of aliens until nothing in the corridor moved.

Wolf slammed in the new battery and searched for additional targets, but all that remained were pieces of aliens; there wasn’t a whole one visible. “
Glad you could join us,
” he commed. “
Thanks.
”

“
I couldn’t let you guys have all the fun,
” Night replied. “
Now let’s get the hell out of here before this damn ship explodes.
”

“
Yes sir
!”