The Phoenix Rising (43 page)

“
No,” said Calvin sternly.
“We
have
to take
out those weapons. No. Matter. What.”

The storm of footsteps grew even louder as
the mass of Remorii approached. Calvin couldn’t even hear the wind
and rain anymore.

“
He’s right,” said Alex.
“You all know it.”

Part of Calvin didn’t want to compel the
others to stay. But if he released them, and some chose to escape,
that lessened the odds that the mission would succeed. And this
mission was far too important to jeopardize. Even though it would
probably cost them everything. Ordering people to their deaths was
a fact of command—but not something he’d ever been comfortable
doing.

Calvin silenced the rush of anxiety growing
inside him, weakening his joints, and instead he grit his teeth.
“Move!” he shouted, raising his weapon. He charged out the window
into the storm.

The others followed closely behind. Knowing,
like he did, that their fates were sealed. And few of them, if any,
would ever leave the planet alive.

***

“
Still no sign of the
Nighthawk,” reported the ops officer.

Nimoux frowned. He was disappointed but not
surprised. “How much longer until we’ve swept the rest of the mine
field?”

“
With only the Desert Eagle
and the Rhea participating in the sweep... at least another twelve
hours, sir,” said the ops officer.

Nimoux was a patient man, he’d learned a
long time ago the value of taking a deep breath and not rushing
things. He’d gladly wait twelve more hours, even a hundred hours,
if that meant completing his mission and recapturing the Nighthawk.
But he knew twelve hours was being overly optimistic. Because,
truthfully, the Nighthawk could evade them forever. By hiding in
patches of mines that had already been searched. His strategy was
flawed—he could admit that—which meant it was time to try something
different.

“
We’ll have to do something
else,” said Nimoux. “Something more severe.” He regretted the risks
his new idea implied, but there was no alternative.

“
What do you recommend?”
asked the XO.

“
We gave them a chance,”
said Nimoux. He stood up and approached the window, folding his
arms as he gazed out at the dark planet. “Now we’ll have to smoke
them out. Begin detonating the mine clusters. One group at a
time.”

“
We might destroy the
Nighthawk,” said the defense officer.

“
Yes, I know.” Nimoux
lamented that possibility. He didn’t want more loss of life on his
hands—not to mention the loss of intel that could have been mined
from the ship and crew post-capture. But he doubted it would come
to that, believing the Nighthawk would surrender before risking
destruction.

“
Destroy the mine clusters
in a random pattern so the Nighthawk can’t predict which patches
are safe. As more and more mines are destroyed, Mister Cross will
be putting his crew in increasing danger as his safe haven shrinks
away.”

“
Brilliant, sir,” said the
XO.

Nimoux shrugged off the compliment. It
seemed more wasteful than brilliant to him. But these were old
mines that were probably due for replacement anyway, and given the
situation he could think of no other plan that was as likely to
produce results. “Hopefully we don’t get too lucky with our first
shot,” he said.

“
The computer estimates the
probability of destroying the Nighthawk by detonating a random mine
cluster is currently… barely more than one percent,” said the
defense officer.

“
I can live with those
odds,” said Nimoux.

“
Of course, the longer the
Nighthawk hides, and the more clusters disappear, the odds will
increase very rapidly,” said the ops officer.

“
Let’s hope they see reason
then,” said Nimoux.

“
First cluster targeted,”
said the defense officer.

“
Fire
.”

***

The rainstorm beat down hard, soaking them.
Calvin removed one hand from his carbine to wipe water from his
eyes.

“
I don’t see it!” he yelled
over the pounding of feet, rain, and thunder.

“
He said it was this way,”
Alex pointed.

They sprinted through the fog. Hoping they
were going the right way.

“
Look!
There it is
,” said Tristan, pointing.
No doubt his superior Remorii eyes allowed him to see the silo
before anyone else. As they neared, Calvin eventually caught sight
of the large cylindrical frame hidden in the fog, like a ghostly
silhouette.

“
I see it,” said
Calvin.

The pounding of feet stopped abruptly. And
all that could be heard was the rain.

“
What’s going on?” asked
Pellew.

“
They’re here,” said
Tristan.

Everyone raised their weapons and formed a
tight defensive circle. No one could see more than a few meters
away.

“
We can’t afford to stop,”
said Calvin. “We have to keep going.”

“
He’s right,” said
Pellew.

An unnatural, bone-chilling moan sounded on
their left. It was joined by other agonized voices. A slowly
approaching choir of tormented creatures shuffled toward them. The
silhouetted figure of dozens of humanoids became partially
visible.

Tristan snarled.

Shen panicked and opened fire. Draining all
thirty rounds of his magazine in mere seconds. One or two of the
approaching figures dropped. But others quickly took their
place.

“
Oh
shit
,” said Pellew, getting a sense of
how useless their firepower would be against this enemy.

There was something almost mesmerizing about
the gruesome humanoid horde as it approached—dozens and dozens of
figures all together, fierceness in their sunken eyes, with a
purely unified one-mindedness. Like zombies. Some now close enough
to see clearly. Injuries and deformities covered their corpse-like
bodies. If they weren’t moving, Calvin would have believed them
dead.

“
Aim for the head; conserve
ammo,” said Pellew. Red-laser dots appeared as everyone marked a
target. “
Fire at will
.”

Everyone opened fire. Calvin let one of the
Remorii have it with a three round burst. The bullets cut into his
target’s face, ripping through the head. The Remorii staggered a
bit, stunned by the injury—but somehow didn’t die. Calvin couldn’t
believe it! He squeezed the trigger again. This time his target
dropped, its head completely destroyed.

All around them the Remorii fell, but for
each that went down it seemed like two more took its place. As they
neared, the zombies accelerated—charging them. Calvin fired his
clip dry. So did many of the others. He dropped the empty magazine
and reached for another but, before he could grab it, a Remorii was
upon him. The sunken, deadened eyes seemed to stare past him, not
at him.

“
Bayonets!” yelled Calvin.
He thrust the knifepoint of his barrel through the throat of his
attacker repeatedly. The zombie still managed to take a swipe at
him before falling dead. A blow that narrowly missed striking
Calvin hard in the cheek with bone-shattering force.

A melee broke out as a score of Remorii
descended upon their defensive circle, swiping and clawing. Their
line broke. In the chaos, Calvin and several others were forced to
retreat back several meters.

The Polarians showed their quality. Their
thick skin sustained severe blows from the Remorii and their
awesome strength shattered skulls and ripped arms from their
sockets. Many pulled out their ceremonial knives and slashed
through Remorii bodies while others swung their rifles about madly.
In one instance, a carbine was broken against a Remorii head.

Perhaps fiercest of all was Tristan who
managed to rip through two or three of their foes in mere seconds.
His movements were swift and flowing, his muscles swollen, and his
extended claws were a force to be reckoned with. But even he took a
beating as powerful blows connected with his body and he was
surrounded on all sides.

It was a bloody, gory mess. The rain poured
down, soaking their bloody clothes and making the pale naked bodies
of the Remorii glisten. A terrible smell arose and the sounds of
bones twisting and cracking, and flesh being ripped apart were
almost more than Calvin could bear. But adrenaline made him focus
and he managed not to think about it. Forcing himself to ignore the
corpses piling up around them. After what felt like hours of
fighting—but couldn’t have been more than minutes—they had a
respite. The attacks stopped.

Calvin was dying to catch his breath. He
took the opportunity to reload his weapon, his carbine was more red
than black now. Poor Shen leaned heavily on his knees, wheezing.
Clearly not in any condition to keep up with such physical demands.
Miraculously, he seemed uninjured.

There were a lot of cuts and bruises, and
everyone knew they couldn’t take many more attacks like that. But
most of their group had survived. Only two hadn’t been so lucky.
Both were Polarians. They lay on the ground, broken and savagely
maimed. One had deep lacerations across his back and neck and was
surrounded by a pool of his own blood. The other had been beaten
senseless and had major bone fractures all over his body. He lay
face up, expressionless, eyes still. Calvin leaned down to check
his pulse.

“
Leave them,” said Rez’nac.
Shrugging off a wound on his left arm.

Calvin looked up at him. The steel in his
eyes showed neither sorrow nor fear. Only single-minded
determination.

“
There’s nothing we can do
for them,” said Rez’nac. “They are with the Essences
now.”

“
Come on,” said
Pellew.

Calvin got to his feet and the group quickly
closed the distance to the silo. Alex used his charges to blow open
the door.

“
Pellew and Shen, you come
with me to destroy the weapons,” said Calvin. “The rest of you,
stay here and give us cover. No matter what, you
have
to buy us enough time
to plant the charges. Nothing else matters.”

“
Understood,” said Rez’nac.
He ordered his men into a defensive posture.

“
We should not be here,”
said one of the Polarians. The blue of his skin was among the most
pronounced—not a trace of the faded grey, and he was one of the
youngest. Calvin recognized him as Rez’nac’s son Grimka. “We should
leave this place. This is the humans’ concern, not
ours.”

“
You WILL fall into line!”
said Rez’nac, with a stunning force behind his words. His deep
voice seemed ready and willing to answer any challenge.

“
This is not an honorable
death,” insisted the young Polarian. “The ancestors...”

“
I am of Khalahar!” said
Rez’nac. “
I
will
speak for the ancestors. We have a sworn duty here and we will
honor it!”

The young Polarian looked upset–afraid even.
Clearly he wasn’t made of the same steel his father was. Calvin
left Rez’nac to handle the situation and followed Pellew inside the
silo. It was dark so he switched on his IR goggles.

In the shadowless green he could see several
medium-sized missiles carefully raised on special scaffolding
throughout the large room. He counted fifteen weapons.

“
Split up,” said Calvin,
taking off his tactical pack and withdrawing some of the explosive
canisters. “Make sure to get them all.” He fixed two charges to the
head of the nearest missile—where its payload of sun-destroying
isotome was.

The three of them ran throughout the room.
Fixing two charges to every missile—moving as fast as they possibly
could. No doubt handling the deadly explosives with less delicacy
than was recommended.

“
That’s the last of them,”
said Pellew, affixing the final charge.

“
Leave the extra charges
here,” said Calvin, placing his final two canisters on the ground
next to one of the missiles. In all, there was enough explosive
firepower here to blow the silo sky high. “And set the timer. Two
and a half minutes.”

“
Done,” said
Shen.

“
Let’s go!” Calvin led the
way.

Back outside, the storm hadn’t let up.
Puddles of heavy rain coated the hard ground, and streams of blood
ran everywhere. The Polarians, Tristan, and Alex were engaged in a
severe fight with another large group of Remorii. At least one more
had been killed and several had fresh injuries, including Alex
whose forehead was bleeding.

Calvin and Pellew threw grenades into the
horde—far away from their allies. The frag explosions were more a
distraction than anything else, but they did stall the next wave of
Remorii.

“
Charges are planted,” said
Calvin. “We gotta move, now.”

“
If we break formation,”
said Rez’nac, “they’ll cut us down.” He’d cleverly organized his
men into a fighting line that was proving successful at repelling
the unrelenting waves of Remorii coming down viciously upon them.
More corpses were scattered on the ground, torn and pulverized. Too
many for Calvin to count.

“
We have no choice,” said
Pellew. “That whole place is going to blow in less than two
minutes!”

“
Not to mention if we stay
in one place for too long, we’ll be hopelessly surrounded,” Calvin
added.