The Cull of Lions (Darkening Stars Book 2) Page 6

  “It’s bothering me too, Sir, but I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it eventually. I’ve thought about this clinical immortality, or whatever we’re going to call it. The ForeRunners lost their war with the Manta and I’m wondering whether they invented this technology as a means to keep their numbers up. If you think about it, as they lost ships all they had to do was upload the latest version of their memories into these robotic bodies beforehand and their numbers would replete constantly.”

  “I guess that makes sense, but then anything’s possible.”

  “In the meantime, Sir, I’m to report with my men to the General in the morning. It’s two a.m. here already, so with your permission I’d like to go get some rest.”

  “Your orders are online, read them. In the meantime, Captain, you’re excused. Good luck, sleep well and keep me posted.”

  *****

  Early the next morning with all the men mustered and ready, Selena inspected them and then told them to sit. She remained standing, hands behind her back, and looked them over one-by-one. Selena informed them that, at midday, half their battalion would attack one of the enemy nests and the other half a second one. At the same time Federal troops would attack the remaining two nests. It was hoped this coordinated attack would prevent each alien base from reinforcing the others. She turned to Singh, who was standing to her left.

  “Lieutenant Lacey, you were involved in a battle on Theta before it was lost to the enemy and then destroyed. Is there anything you’d like to share with us? We’ve all studied the data but a first-hand report would be helpful.”

  Singh stepped forward and addressed the troops. “As I expect you know, the enemy shields hang like a blanket over their bases, protecting them from above but leaving the sides vulnerable — hence the best way to attack them is from the ground. These bases will no doubt have anti-ship beams. The shields will drop to allow them to fire at any craft in orbit before springing back up again. Apart from those, and projectile weapons, there will be air-mines and anti-personnel darts, then there’s the Manta themselves. Don’t give or expect any quarter, the aliens have no concept of mercy what-so-ever. When you’ve shot something make sure it stays down. Keep on shooting at it until it stops moving, or I guarantee it will crawl after you and tear your legs off.” He noticed several of the troops blanche and finished with, “On that happy note, good luck. If you bear in mind what I’ve said, you’ll be fine.”

  When Singh stepped back behind Selena again she glanced at him quickly, the twinkle in her eye letting him know he’d done well, and then continued. “We need to exterminate these nests as quickly as possible. So, don’t stop to think about it, just kill anything that moves except your comrades. If we don’t do this now they’ll breed more soldiers, and we can’t afford that. For those of you who don’t know, when the Dutch Lady was on route to attack Mantis we discovered they’d captured our spy and research ship Scott. The intelligence the enemy gathered from that vessel revealed why they’d been unable to grow their crops anywhere else but on their home planet, Mantis. There was a rare element in its soil that it needed to grow. Capulet also has it, hence why they’re here, so the chances are they’re now growing those crops underground and breeding their warriors again, so we need to incinerate each and every farm they have. This way their soldiers we don’t kill in battle starve to death.”

  As Selena spoke two heavily armoured black skimmers flew overhead, slowed and landed besides them. Before she could order them to embark on the craft Lieutenant Rai stepped forward.

  “Captain, before we begin the men and I have something for you,” He presented her with a large, slightly curved knife in a skin sheath. “It’s a kukri, the fighting blade of my people. I’d be honoured if you’d carry it.”

  Stunned, Selena accepted it and attached the heavy blade to her belt. As she went to draw it the Lieutenant put his hand on her arm.

  “Ma’am, we believe the blade needs to taste blood each time it’s drawn, even if it’s your own.”

  Selena nodded her thanks, not sure she’d be happy about nicking herself with the blade each time she cleaned or sharpened it. She saw Arthur had gotten hold of a machine gun from somewhere but decided to make nothing of it. He was a damn good fighter and she needed him on board.

  “Load ‘em up people,” she said, savagely. “There’s a battle brewing and it isn’t going to wait for us.”

  Chapter Four

  The alien nest was shaped like a small concrete volcano and lay under a cloudy, threatening morning sky in a forest clearing several hundred meters across. They could just see a few of the buildings scattered around it were egg-shell white, while others a transparent yet opulent blue or emerald-green. Some were shaped like bubbles resting on the ground. There were also tall pyramids and even a few that looked like rectangular jewels balanced insanely on one corner, suggesting to the onlookers that they were going to fall over at any moment. Above the building lay a shimmering transparent cover that Selena instantly recognised as a shield.

  “I’ve had nightmares for years about the last one of these Bryn and I attacked,” Singh commented, as a wind smelling of rain rose slightly sending waves through his short hair. “You’d think the powers-that-be could have come up with some kind of plan to fire a missile into the middle of the enemy base, rather than waste lives.”

  “They’ve tried it. Their defences just take them out, even salvos of them. Soldiers are better, they fight back,” Selena replied, double checking the magazine on her weapon and her grenade launcher were full. “The only proven way is a ground attack, we fight our way in and plant a thermal bomb and get the hell out. That’ll turn this whole place into glass.”

  “Just as well we brought some with us then, otherwise they might have been tempted to use nukes and they’ve been banned planet-side for decades, ever since the terrorist attack on Rigelon Prime which killed thousands of colonists,” Kes said. “You’d think the powers that be would want to capture at least one of the Manta bases. You never know what we might learn from them.”

  “No way, there could be eggs or young ones hidden anywhere. It’s better to glass everything, rather than have them bursting out of the walls when we least expect it.”

  Selena reported over the battle-net they were ready and turned to her troops. “Once we’re in close enough, I’ll send a signal to drop the gravpacks and proceed on foot. They’ll hinder us otherwise, and we can collect them once we’re done.”

  “There’s a lot of air mines,” Singh reported with a low whistle, as he looked through his binoculars, watching the small spheres patrolling the enemy camp.

  “Shouldn’t be too bad, the droids have been ordered to take them out,” Selena replied quietly, taking cover beneath a large, wide-leaved bush as soldiers slipped through the trees around them. She took another look through her binoculars.

  A few minutes later the order to attack came and the droids rose and launched themselves towards the enemy base, guns blazing.

  “Go!” Selena shouted and all around her troops shot into the air and swarmed towards the enemy’s installation.

  Beams from the circular battledroids flashed towards the enemy mines, which exploded with mind-numbing explosions but not before many of them already locked onto and were arrowing towards the humans. The blasts scattered body parts in all directions. The air-mines totally ignored the droids, leaving them to the blaze of gunfire coming from the alien dwellings. Then homing-darts slipped from the structures and sped towards the troops. Despite all efforts, the human losses began to mount. Short, rapid beams of fire scythed through the human ranks and also battered the attacking droids.

  “Forget everything else, focus on the mines!” Selena bellowed, her machine gun juddering in her arms as they flew over the ground towards the enemy base. The mines exploded in their hundreds, scattering shrapnel in all directions, and she breathed a sigh of relief when the last she could see detonated.

  “Charge!” She yelled, increasing the velocity on he
r gravpack. Her unit rocketed towards the enemy base, shooting at everything that moved and hosing fire at the weapon emplacements. Suddenly the Manta boiled out of the top of the nest, spilling from dark tunnels on its side and raced towards them like a tide of black ink.

  “Gravpacks off,” she ordered. Slowing, she landed and shrugged out of her own gravpack, her gut wrenching in disbelief at the sheer number of Manta streaming towards them. All around her the men landed and followed suit. They knelt or lay down in the dirt, took what cover they could, and let rip with their weapons. Another volley of homing darts sped towards them but the droids took these out easily. Then the enemy beam weapons began to focus solely on the droids, whose heavy weapons were now trying to take out the enemy emplacements. The droid for Selena’s century exploded like a bomb only a short distance away killing two of her men, chunks of its armour plating narrowly missing her. Next to Selena a soldier cried out and she turned her head to look, as a dark-red stain spread over the woman’s tunic. Selena’s eyes rose to the woman’s face before the dart that had buried itself in her chest detonated, ripping her apart like an over-ripe fruit. Selena wiped something warm and wet from her face and turned back to face the enemy and carried on firing.

  The praying mantis-like aliens were now only a short distance away. Their mechanical top set of eyes were each scanning different directions, while their four organic purple plum-sized eyes lay below them, reminding her of those belonging to a blowfly. Despite their massive losses the Manta kept coming. They simply climbed over their fallen comrades, stretched talons and mandibles towards their human prey and ran at them, uttering shrill keening cries that Selena hadn’t heard before. Multi-coloured bandoliers brimming with armament festooned their chests, and each claw held a separate weapon which they fired in all directions. It was utter bedlam, a blood-splattered screaming madness that only the insane could imagine.

  “Grenades!” Selena yelled. Setting the shotgun nestling beneath her machine gun to grenade launcher, she pulled the trigger and launched a stream of the powerful projectiles straight into the enemy ranks, grimacing as the explosions tore them to pieces. Besides her, those with slicers or microwave lasers pulled homing grenades from their belts, tugged at the pins and lobbed them towards the enemy swarm. Automatically the grenades ‘friend-or-foe’ kicked in and their small drives drove the weapons straight at the enemy, exploding and scattering body parts to all sides. More grenades followed, like a flock of deadly birds, and between these and the assault rifles hammering and flashing the enemy ranks dwindled.

  “Forward,” Selena shouted, climbing to her feet and running towards the nest, firing as she went.

  She leapt over fallen bodies of the enemy, Singh, Kes, Arthur and the others at her side. Lieutenant Rai was smashed backwards in mid-stride, a gaping hole where his chest had been. Then a fresh surge of Manta poured from the tunnels at the base of the nest, only to be slaughtered in their thousands as the humans’ sustained fire slammed into them. Besides her Arthur knelt down, a machine gun held tight into his shoulder blazing away. A piece of shrapnel tore his cheek open, but he ignored it and carried on shooting. Then he was up, running besides her, firing as they went. To her right a soldier leapt over a fallen Manta, only for the nightmare beast to snatch her out of the air. Screaming and struggling the soldier pulled her knife and stabbed the Manta repeatedly, until the creature bit her head clean off and spat it out to roll away over the grass. Selena dived, rolled and came back to her feet with her weapon in her arms hosing rounds into the deadly creature.

  Selena led the others into the tunnels, shooting at anything non-human moving and only pausing long enough to reload. They spilled out into a large chamber, filled from wall to wall with wide transparent platforms, one above the other. They brimmed with interlocking purple-veined, bluish-green plants stretching up a web-like material from one platform to another and then up to the roof tapering off far above them. Each platform supported the one above it with a multitude of thick transparent beams through which a strange and noxious looking liquid pumped. Those platforms were like layers of mini forests through which little could be seen.

  “Braxis, Kes, get over here!” she bellowed. As they panted up to her she fired more grenades into a band of the enemy that peered from around the platforms and took pot shots at them. She grinned with satisfaction as she blasted them from their feet and their gore splattered the walls behind them. “Kes, use your microwave laser. I want all the vegetation incinerated. Braxis, use your slicer, burn the lot.”

  The alien crops were soon sheets of flame, crackling and roaring while black smoke whipped towards the ceiling and then away, drawn no doubt by some kind of vent. More soldiers fell as the aliens attacked again and again. The Manta streamed from unseen tunnels around the humans, desperate to save their crops. Then, quite suddenly, they were no more and the guns fell silent.

  *****

  The soldiers slowed their breathing, picked themselves up and patrolled back and forth, searching. Their guns barked occasionally, as they found enemy survivors. Then, with the perimeters secured, Selena finally counted her men.

  “Thirty, is that all?” she asked. “Where’s Harding?

  “He got minced,” Braxis replied, wincing. “He was standing right next to me once minute and was a cloud of blood the next. He couldn’t have felt a thing, it was so damn quick.”

  Looking at him she could see blood and bits of human flesh adhering to his uniform, and noted a few shudders from those around her. To Selena’s relief Singh, Kes and Arthur made it, although Kes had a large tear in his chest Singh was patching with a battle dressing and Arthur had a rip in his cheek they could see his teeth through. She left her men under Singh’s command, as he in turn sat in the dirt having a shrapnel wound in his arm tended by a medic. With Kes, Braxis and a couple of heavies in tow Selena went to a meeting called by Colonel Matthews, in the central chamber of the nest. Above them were the platforms that once housed the alien crops, but were now filled with nothing but drifting ash.

  “Hello, Dillon,” the colonel said, holding out his hand. “Glad you made it. That was fine work back there. Your prompt action with the grenades broke the enemy’s back.”

  His genuine smile relaxed Selena. She was quite taken by the man’s warmth. His round face was framed by silvery hair. At five foot eight he was short, stocky, spoke in brusque tones and was the typical image of an army officer.

  “Thank you, Colonel,” she replied. “Do you know how the other attacks went?”

  His smile faltered. “We succeeded at two of the other nests, but one of the regular army units was over-run and destroyed. I’m told there are no survivors at all. Luckily for us, the enemy chose to stay and defend the nest rather than send reinforcements to this one.” He paused and looked around, before saying even more loudly, “Now you’re all here, come with me. There’s something I want to show you, but I warn you it’s not pretty.”

  The colonel led them down several floors, and as they went a horrible stench began to assail their senses.

  “God, what’s that?” Selena asked.

  Matthews neither answered nor looked at her, as they turned a last corner. The officers stopped mid-step and stared. In the wide open space there were hundreds of pens, all filled with transparent maggots of some kind that were as long as Selena’s leg. They had thick leather-like skin and countless cilia, which writhed constantly. Their little dark mouths took chunks out of the pieces of plant trundling through the pens on conveyor belts. As the huge maggots chewed and gulped the food, it could easily be seen entering their bodies, bunching up in what could be termed a series of stomachs, before finally being ejected from their bodies in a dirty, watery stream.

  Several of the officers besides Selena averted their eyes.

  The colonel led them to a group of soldiers standing on one side of the room. Then he turned to them. “Prepare yourselves.”

  He led the way to the centre of the room, where they found themselves staring i
nto a charnel pit filled with the bodies of cows, horses, dogs, cats and even Manta. Then to their despair they saw human bodies there too. It was all being fed into a mincing machine of some kind, the resulting mush being forced up through tubing, which led towards the platforms housing the alien crops.

  “Christ,” Selena said. “They’re feeding both their dead and ours to their crops to make them grow, then eating the results.”

  “Actually, Ma’am,” one of the other officers replied, “in many ways it makes perfect sense. If they lived a borderline existence on Mantis, as we suspect, then they’d have to make use of every nutrient they have, including their own dead. We can’t blame them for that, particularly when we do something similar. If you think about it our ships on deep-space voyages recycle everything, even human remains and waste, and feed them to the hydroponic tanks too.”

  Selena noted in some of the pens the maggots had turned into deep-red, leathery ribbed chrysalises. About the room they were in dead Manta lay scattered, their arms filled with the chrysalises. “I guess they’ve been carrying them into other enclosures where they probably hatch and mature into adults, but where are they coming from?” she asked, staring into the writhing masses.

  “Bellow us is yet another floor,” the colonel replied. “We found worker Queens there giving birth to swarms of these things, live believe it or not. It’s like they were shitting worms. At least we now know a lot more about the enemy than we did before. It’s time to get the hell out of here, that thermal bomb’s been planted and it’s all set to blow.”

  *****

  They were a mile away, when the bomb detonated. There was a blinding flash, and they all shielded their eyes as the ground shook with a deep growl-like rumble.

  “Just like nukes but without the fallout,” Arthur said, with a smile. “God, I love those things.”

  “You must have been a bundle of fun, as a kid,” Singh observed, dryly.