Critical Strike (The Critical Series Book 3) (6 page)

“They’ll likely be machines on the ground. I’ll verify.”

“We’re going to be relying on you,” Charlie said, stepping closer to the alien. “Lead the way and we’ll provide cover, but think of screwing us over… well, let’s just say I’m sick of being used by aliens.”

Vingo blinked and dropped his chest in a quick movement indicating he understood.

“You okay, Den?” Layla said, checking on Denver, concerned over his leg injury. He gave her a reassuring nod, helping decrease the hopeless feeling while being chased by the clusp and hunter, with oxygen running low. Vingo provided hope—assuming he could be trusted. She didn’t forget what Hagellan had said to them about the tredeyans: they were politicians, and if they were anything like the ones back home, she didn’t expect the best. “What do these scion actually want?” she said.

“They demanded full access to our systems,” Vingo said. “It’s the same for every planet. If you don’t comply, they attempt to take it by force.”

“What’s the motivation?” Denver said.

“The scion want some lost information. I don’t know exactly what, and it will also mean nothing to you. They will stop at nothing to get it.”

“That’s a merciless way of obtaining something you might not even know about,” Charlie said.

“They think somebody is hiding it from them. Planets under croatoan influence are being targeted. They are the ancient species, so I think the scion concluded that they must have it. That brings both of our species into their quest.”

Vingo pressed the panel. A green light winked above the dull metallic door. All raised their rifles and the electronics in the suits droned in unison. The door punched open.

Bright stars spread across the midnight blue sky. The view through Layla’s visor automatically brightened, providing an excellent enhanced view of the dark landscape. A few of the rocks stood out on the field of brown scree in front of them.

Vingo led the way. They moved in an extended line, heading for a light green hill. A plume of dark gray smoke rose behind it. Aircraft lights zipped across the sky as sporadic explosions rumbled in the distance.

Layla turned and gazed at the black prism in the sky. It had gained altitude since she last saw it and only a few small craft buzzed around its pointed base. It was hopefully a sign that they were scaling down the attack, leaving the group an uneventful trip to Vingo’s village. She laughed to herself at that ridiculous notion. Like anything would be uneventful ever again. The idea of spending time at the tredeyan village excited her, but not as much as getting safely home and not having to feel like the equivalent of being strapped to an ocean floor, surrounded by sharks, with air rapidly running out.

A charcoal-colored tredeyan fighter whined overhead. It banked to the left, headed for the silhouette of a volcano, and released a missile from its wing. Seconds later, the ground shuddered below Layla’s suit, a tower of fire belched into the sky, followed by a loud boom in close proximity.

Charlie ducked to one knee and swept the area with his rifle. “What kind of forces do the scion deploy on the ground? Do they have any missiles like that?”

The explosion glinted against Vingo’s visor as he turned back. “They attempt to leave transmitters and probes. We have to destroy them quickly before they spread.”

“How long do they carry out these probing raids?” Layla said.

“This is no raid. It’s an invasion.”

Denver and Layla quickened their pace to draw alongside the tredeyan, who continued to trudge up a hill. “Hagellan said this was a scouting mission. Is it likely to succeed?” Denver said.

“We are picking up activity all over the planet. I knew this when I said I could save you. There is a good chance Tredeya will fall.”

“And if you do?” Charlie said. “Where does that leave us?”

“We have places in our village that have survived many invasions. The scion will not purge us completely.”

Charlie glanced at Layla, who shook her head. She had no idea what the impact might be. Relating the situation to Earth during previous conflicts was her only frame of reference. Villages were easy targets for invading forces.

Vingo picked up a winding dirt path between small bushes and zigzagged toward the ridgeline.

“Why don’t you give them what they want if they’re going to leave after?” Denver said.

“The croatoans and our command won’t allow it. They think once the scion have access to their networks, the universe will fall. Machines will replace life.”

The thought sent a chill down Layla’s spine, although Vingo’s version of life probably didn’t include plants and animals, only the species who ruled each planet. Vingo trudged to the top of the ridgeline and crouched. Layla joined him and looked down into a light green valley peppered with rocks and circular dark green bushes.

A group of fifty tredeyan ground troops moved under the cover of starlight, darting from tree to rock at the bottom of the slope. White-hot flashes burst from their muzzles and the hollow crackle of alien gunfire echoed in the valley. They headed for a six-meter-high square black machine hovering above the ground among a lone cluster of trees. A rod came from its under-section and planted in the ground.

“The scion mech’s trying to break past our shield and hack into our lines,” Vingo said, almost with a resignation of the inevitable. “We need to find cover and wait for things to quieten down.”

“Let’s get the hell away from here,” Denver said.

“The mech might detect our movement. Wait for a moment.”

The troops halted fifty meters short and continued firing. One held a bulky piece of equipment on their shoulder, broke cover, and fired. A blue bolt shot along the ground and exploded against the mech’s side. Smoke drifted into the air. A double-barreled gun on the mech’s side rose on a circular arm and fired. Light blue bolts sliced through the air like tracer rounds and ripped out large chunks of ground around the tredeyans. They scrambled for cover behind rocks.

A scion fighter appeared over the horizon and headed for the position. Its engines screamed as it descended and approached at low level. Three spherical pods dropped from its underside into the valley and it roared over the group’s heads.

The pods burst in the air before they hit the ground, throwing out a cloud of glowing red vapor that spread in all directions, shrouding the valley’s surface.

When it cleared thirty seconds later, half of the troops were down, large sections of their suits degraded by the orb’s load. A beam of light shot from the front of the mech and searched the ground for targets. It advanced, rotating in the air and firing bolts, meeting little resistance as it neared the first bodies of its opponents.

“I want to be as far away from that thing as possible,” Charlie said.

Denver edged away from the ridge. He raised an arm, and his gauntlet clanked against Layla’s shoulder plate. She smiled through the visor at him, appreciating the gesture. She wondered if he shook with fear inside his suit as much as she did.

“This way,” Vingo said. “I’ll take you to a temple in the forest.”

***

The group cut right and descended into a dark ravine. The suit auto-corrected when Layla thought she’d lose her balance. The visor’s night vision enhanced further, giving their surroundings a green tinge, creating a sharp edge around the fauna and rocks that littered the slopes.

Layla resisted the temptation to grab the trunk of one of the squat trees or the thick stems of the oversized pink ferns as they cut their way toward the sound of flowing water. Her confidence grew when she realized the sure-footedness of the suit in adverse terrain.

A shallow stream ran along the bottom, gushing over smooth rocks. Vingo splashed through the middle of it, crunching over the pebbled bed, away from the sound of gunfire.

The sparse steep hills on either side of the stream dropped until dense undergrowth covered either side. The forest ahead appeared to be an impassable dark mess of trees, vines and plants.

“How’s your leg, son?” Charlie said.

“I’ll live. The suit helps,” Denver said, although Layla could hear the strain in his voice. “Are there any wild clusps living in the forest?”

“Yes,” Vingo said, “but it’s unlikely they’ll attack four of us with weapons.”

Charlie just grunted and kept his rifle held high.

As Layla closed on the edge of the canopy, her visor switched to infragreen vision, giving her a clear view through the forest. Small rodent-like creatures with long snouts huddled around a group of spiny yellow plants. When Vingo waded toward them, they scattered deeper into the undergrowth.

“These helmets are amazing,” she said, viewing other small creatures shuffling around the forest floor.

Denver paused and scanned the immediate area. “I need to take one of these back to Earth.”

“You don’t have a wireless reactor or filters,” Vingo said in a matter-of-fact kind of way. “They also require regular maintenance from skilled engineers.”

Nobody replied. Layla knew it wasn’t the time to discuss cultural differences.

The stream thinned to a crack in the ground as Vingo cut to his right. He thrashed through ten meters of clustered spade-shaped leaves with his rifle. Charlie followed, sweeping them out of the way. They snapped back against Layla’s suit and visor, but the power in her arms and legs allowed easy passage.

On the other side, a winding beaten path cut through the forest. Vingo trudged along it, sweeping his rifle from left to right.

“Over there,” Charlie said, jabbing his weapon to his left.

Denver spun and aimed. A clusp tracked them twenty meters away in the forest. It stopped. Its two muscly tentacles writhed on its back.

“Ignore it,” Vingo said. “One followed us when we entered the forest.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Layla said.

“It wasn’t important; it would be a needless fight. They’re not dull-witted creatures. It’s probably just tracking us, making sure we don’t threaten its young.”

She thought it was, especially after seeing what the creature could do once close. The creepy rumbling noise it made sent a shiver down her spine.

“We should kill it now so it doesn’t pose a threat later,” Denver said.

“Save your ammunition for when you need it,” Vingo said.

Denver sighed through the comms system. Layla surveyed other parts of the undergrowth in case other beasts were circling.

Charlie kept his aim on the clusp and moved off. Layla knew he wouldn’t pause if the thing got within striking distance. She couldn’t take her eyes off it either. It continued to shadow them but never got any closer, like a hyena stalking wildebeest, waiting for a weak one to detach from the herd.

The track split in two directions. Vingo headed left. The unrecognizable luminous green data at the bottom of the visor kept changing.

“What are the visor measurements?” Layla said.

“The one in the corner measures your filter life,” Vingo said. “You only need to worry when it gets down to one unit.”

“I’m at four bars,” Charlie said. “Are you sure it’ll last two days?”

“Yes. The one next to it measures calibration. Each section of the circle is a part of your suit. Let me know if one turns red.”

“What about the symbols?” Denver said.

“Our coordinates on the planet. It means nothing to you, but I can teach you back at the village.”

“Why not teach us now?” Layla asked.

“We haven’t got time,” Vingo said and gazed up.

A lone scion fighter, with its distinctive blue rear engine, powered over the track, rustling the canopy leaves on either side of them. Small insects dropped out of the trees and scurried back up the trunks.

Vingo led them into a fifty-meter-wide clearing.

Layla’s visor switched back to the regular night vision. A round stone building with a domed roof sat in the middle. If it had been painted in stripes, it would’ve looked like a prehistoric circus tent. “What is it?” she asked.

“This is the temple of Tangus,” Vingo said. “She is our god of creation.”

“How many do you worship?”

“Thirty, and there’s a temple dedicated to each around the planet.”

A crack of light seeped from the middle of two solid wooden doors. Vingo paused and peered through his sights.

Charlie aimed at the door. “I take it you know the owner?”

“I heard a croatoan priest moved in, but I don’t know them personally. We stopped going to the temples after the croatoans came. We didn’t agree with their views on existence.”

“You expect the priest to welcome us with open arms?” Denver said.

“The priests are duty bound to provide shelter.”

A metal clank came from inside the temple, followed by a whirring like an electric drill. Vingo slowly advanced. Denver moved to his left, Layla covered his right, and Charlie swept the undergrowth, ensuring a clusp couldn’t spring a surprise attack.

“That doesn’t exactly sound like the regular activities of a priest,” Denver said.

“Wait,” Vingo said. “Let me look. It sounds like a…” He eased the metal door open with his rifle’s muzzle.

A black prism hovered over a table in the center of the gloomy temple, surrounded by circular benches on the outer area. It rotated in the air, firing white and red lasers down at an electronic device that appeared to be building in size.

Layla froze, concerned that even the slightest movement might attract the prism’s attention away from whatever it was currently doing.

“Everything all right in there?” Charlie said.

“What the hell—” Denver said.

Vingo fired a burst. Tredeyan rounds sparked off the sloped edges of the prism and ricocheted around the temple. Layla pulled her trigger. The rifle kicked against her shoulder and she felt its judder through her gauntlets.

Sky blue lights flashed around the midsection of the prism. The lasers stopped and it shot to the side of the room.

Denver hunched around Vingo and fired. Dust puffed off the wall around the scion machine as the rounds hit a decorative painting of a large tredeyan in a golden robe.

“What’s it doing?” Layla said as the prism circled around the far end of the temple and headed back toward them.