Vitalis Omnibus (39 page)

“Okay, so they evolve and they’re smart, otherwise they wouldn’t be looking for us. If we kill them they’ll know this is closer to where we are,” Elsa pointed out.

Fiona’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the animals that were more than fifty feet below them on the floor of the ravine. Kira nodded. “You’re right. Come, let’s find some other ones to kill.”

“You really like killing things, don’t you?”

“Mercy and compassion aren’t traits that Vitalis admires.”

“Okay, but going out of your way to find a fight is kind of self-destructive.”

Fiona shook her head slightly but Elsa ignored her. One of Kira’s lip curled up in a smile. “It does look that way. Get to know me and this world, then ask the question again.”

“Fair enough. So what now?”

“Now we visit the wreckage and find some spitters to kill.”

They backed away from the edge of the cliff, crawling and sliding across the rough ground. Elsa clenched her teeth as she felt her skin scraped and cut, but by the time they stood up she found no open cuts on her body. Fiona led the way, heading along the ridge towards the higher ground that marked the separation of the range that served as a boundary for the plains beyond.

They hiked across a ledge until Fiona led them to a chimney in the rock they could climb up. The jagged rock had a way of finding the most tender spots of Elsa’s naked feet with every step up the fissure. At the top she sat down with a grunt and grabbed her foot to examine it. “Why are they after us?”

“All the other animals are smart enough to stay away from them,” Kira said. She knelt next to Elsa and put her hand on the Marine’s foot. Elsa glanced up at, surprised. “You’re feet are getting tougher already. The rocks didn’t even draw any blood.”

Elsa nodded. “Is this your idea of shock training?”

Kira smirked. She let the woman’s foot go and stood up. “Come on, this isn’t a good place to rest. Fifi, how much farther?”

“Fifi?” Elsa gaped.

Fiona shook her head.

“Just letting her know she’s still number one,” Kira winked at Fiona.

“Gee, thanks.”

Elsa climbed to her feet. “Either there’s some psychotropic chemicals in the air here or you’re right.”

“If I were a betting girl I’d bet on me every time,” Kira suggested.

“All right Miss Smarty Pants,” Elsa said. “Oh wait! Maybe it’s Miss No-Pants?”

“Anything to avoid a tan line.”

Elsa snorted. “People talk about you like you’re bad news. I hate to admit it, but you seem kind of fun.”

“Live hard, play hard. Remember?” Kira said. “Besides, there’s only a handful of humans here, we have to stick together.”

“Seems like some of the others aren’t so concerned about that.”

“Not as much, and sometimes I’ve got to be a bitch to get them to do the right thing. I like you; you’re still alive after spending days here by yourself, so that means you’re competent. You’re not whining, and Tarn’s got a thing for you.”

“You’re being nice to me so I don’t hook up with Tarn?”

Kira grinned. “No, I’m expecting you to hook up with Tarn. You, me, Fiona, and that medic of yours, Jess, are his type. Me and Fifi aren’t interested. Jess doesn’t seem hardcore enough for him. You…well, you’re perfect.”

“Perfect for what, being his fuck-buddy? You trying to pimp me out to keep him happy?”

Kira laughed. “Not at all. You can fuck whoever you want. I just want you to hear my side of things before you hear his.”

“And you want me to keep an eye on him and tell you what he’s up to?”

Kira grinned.

“I’m thinking that the others might be onto something about you,” Elsa’s tone shifted from the forced casual banter to something accusatory.

Kira’s smile never wavered. “Protecting our lives and this planet are the only things that really matter to me. Tarn’s more than competent, but I can’t forget how he used to be and some of the things he’d done in the past.”

“People change,” Elsa pointed out. “You said it yourself, everybody has a history.”

“Girls, this isn’t the best time or place for this,” Fiona pointed out.

“Tarn might be a good guy who just left a bad taste in my mouth. I hope he is, for all of our sakes,” Kira said, ignoring Fiona. “Or maybe Klous is trying to get him to see things his way so that one day he can try to take over and turn Vitalis into something it was never meant to be.”

“If nobody can leave the planet, there’s not too much of a threat of that.”

Kira shrugged. “Maybe not, but that’s the kind of thing that scares me. It scares me more than the thought of dying or losing Eric. This place,” Kira turned, gesturing randomly at the landscape around them, “got into me deep. It changed me for the better. Healed me more than just physically. I’ve got a purpose in life now and I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

“Zealots can be dangerous,” Elsa pointed out. She saw Fiona nod out of the corner of her eye.

“You’re damn right,” Kira’s smile was extra toothy. She let it fade before she walked over put her bronzed hand on Elsa’s pale shoulder. “I’m not being creepy or trying to sleep with you, I want you to know I do like you. I want you to be a part of our team. You’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of you, but we need you. I need you. Honest.”

Elsa stared at her. “I have a hunch you’re not telling me everything.”

Kira laughed. “You’re right. There’s over three TS years of history that I can’t share in a five minute talk.”

“More like fifty,” Fiona grumbled.

Kira smirked. “Okay, I get it. Let’s go. Up here we can see any threats coming, it’s as safe as we’re likely to find. But you’re right, the more time we waste the less time we have to confuse the spitters and keep our people safe.”

“And try to make contact with the
Desperado
,” Elsa said.

“Yeah, that too.”

Elsa hid her frown. She’s learned to trust her gut over the years and it was telling her Kira’s concerns had little in common with hers. She wasn’t just a Marine, she was a Marine FIST. If she had to go the extra mile to achieve her mission she’d do whatever she had to.

Chapter 9

“It’s been three days?” Elsa stared down from the top of the pass at the devastated plains below. The mound she’d witnessed with Tarn had a portion of it turned into a crater. They could see shapes moving across it, rebuilding it before their eyes.

Elsewhere on the plane the wreckage of starfighters and transport ships lay strewn recklessly about. The grasses on the plain that she and Tarn had used for cover were burned to the ground in places. Elsa wasn’t surprised to see that green shoots had broken through the blackened patches of destruction. There was no greater example of the cycle of life after death than what Vitalis offered on a daily basis.

“The closest is a shuttle that crashed not far from where you found us the first time,” Fiona said.

Kira turned, her gaze sweeping across the terrain. She nodded. “Let’s go, but from here on out no more talking. Be silent and be ready.”

Both of the Marines nodded. Fiona led the way down the pass. Elsa stayed as rear guard, her bow held at the ready. The plant life remained constant but other forms of life were absent. The unnatural stillness was marred only by a gentle breeze that blew from west to east.

Fiona called for a halt several times, using hand gestures that Elsa was familiar with. Kira fell in, acting like another soldier. Elsa filed her behavior away for later, when she could ask her without endangering their lives. She wasn’t sure she bought the multiple personality explanation. How could somebody just get over that all on their own?

She turned around after checking behind them and nearly ran into Kira. Ahead of them lay the remains of a shuttle. The hull was split open like an egg broken open. Kira signaled that she’d stand guard while Fiona and Else investigated the shuttle.

Fiona fitted an arrow to her bow. Elsa studied the wreckage and slipped her bow over her shoulder. The Marine grabbed her spear instead then took the lead heading towards the wreckage.

Elsa’s path took her downwind of the shuttle. She stopped, her nose scrunched as she caught the full smell of the burnt shuttle. She blew the choking stench out of her nose with a snort, then allowed herself to breath as shallow as possible. She’d smelled all manner of destruction and decay in her military career but nothing had even been as potent. Vitalis at work again?

The inside of the shuttle looked much like the outside, broken and in complete disarray. Apart from evidence of dried blood on the floor and bulkheads, there was no sign of human life, including a complete lack of dead bodies.

“There should have been twenty three people in here,” Elsa whispered. The cockpit was smashed almost beyond recognition, only faint signs of blood remained. Scattered about, both inside and outside the hull, were the weapons and even pieces of armor left behind. Elsa was certain that some of the Marines had survived the crash. The evidence showed they had not survived what came after.

“Leave the weapons,” Fiona whispered. “If they’re not useless now they will be soon. Probably when you need them the most.”

Elsa scowled but agreed. Her rifle had held up for a while, but it died when she needed it. Then her knife. Only her grenades had remained, but she didn’t see any sign of those in the wreckage.

Fiona put away her bow and motioned towards the hatches in the bulkheads. Elsa moved to a gaping hole in the rear of the shuttle and crouched low, watching for any sign of the four legged creatures that had already cleansed the vehicle of anything organic.

Several minutes later a tap on Elsa’s shoulder alerted her. She twisted and saw her fellow Marine had a plasteel cargo pack in each hand, a testimony to her strength. Another one lay on its side near the less damaged wall. Several open hatches in the wall lay open, their contents strewn about. Elsa rose up and glanced at the damaged equipment Fiona had passed over. She nodded in appreciation of Fiona’s judgment, then picked up the remaining case.

She motioned towards the exit. Fiona nodded and let Elsa lead the way out. They both looked around, Kira had disappeared. Elsa sat her case down and reached for her bow, then spun when she heard something hit the ground behind them.

She fumbled to draw an arrow from her quiver as she spun. The unfamiliar movement of nocking and drawing the bow messed her up. She considered dropping the bow and drawing her spear, all in the time between heartbeats as she twisted around. Her surge of adrenaline was unfounded, Kira rose up from where she’d squatted as she landed. Her bow was in one hand, an arrow nocked, and her other held a single finger to her lips.

Elsa glanced up, Kira had managed to climb on top of the wrecked shuttle for a better point of view. Thanks to the furrow the shuttle had dug in the ground and the crushed nature of the hull the drop had only been fourteen feet for her. Kira took her hand away from her lips then pointed to the north where the ground began to rise towards the hills. Tall grasses still grew where she pointed.

Fiona stepped beside Elsa then sat her cases down beside her. Elsa frowned, then nodded after Fiona gestured for her to carry all three cases. It pissed her off, she was an elite Special Operator, damn it! The job of pack mule belonged to a private fresh out of boot camp. The fact that here on Vitalis she was effectively a private only pissed her off more.

She slipped the cord wrapped around her spear off and lashed the cases together in short order. With Fiona’s help she slipped her arms into loops in the rope then stood up. She was off balance and the ropes dug into her shoulders painfully, but the added weight wasn’t as bad as she’d expected. Her quiver she’d switched so it lay across her chest. Her bow she held in one hand and her spear in the other. If she needed either she’d have to drop the other, but she reasoned that a Marine never leaves their weapon behind.

Kira slipped through the grass like a ghost. Even the whispers that had attacked Elsa would have been hard pressed to duplicate the women’s stealth. Fiona moved after her, parting the grasses from a different vector and leaving no sign of her passage. Elsa waited a moment, then followed after them, picking a route between the two so she could be certain she wouldn’t lose both of them and be stranded with only the spitters for company.

Elsa saw her new teammates again only moments later. She emerged to see them both standing and looking down at something in front of them. She walked up, shifting her shoulders to try and relieve the pressure from the cords digging into her skin, and gasped when she looked down.

A Marine lay on the grass. He was half on his side and staring at his hand as he slowly flexed and opened his fingers. His armor was torn and dirty and his helmet missing. His weapons, grenades and spare utility packs were absent as well.

He turned slowly when Elsa came close enough to cast her shadow on him. Kira and Fiona had stayed back enough to avoid alerting him. His eyes settled on her but it took several seconds before he displayed a reaction. “I’m fucked up,” he muttered.

Elsa knelt down, her load sending her off balance and nearly making her tumble forward onto the wounded Marine. Between dirt and damage to his armor she couldn’t make out his name or rank. “Marine, what’s your name and rank?”