Chapter 94

Chapter Ninety-Four

It wasn’t quite the stampede of hooves Connor imagined a herd of Earth animals would make, but with easily fifty of the giant bugs tearing up chunks of moss as they skittered headlong toward him, he thought he could feel the ground vibrating.

Their coppery stench preceded them, carried by the wind.

That was the smell of death.

He swallowed and took the camp in with a desperate glance. Bright orange canvas flapped, eerily louder than the murderous aliens.

But there was no cover anywhere, no defensible position. Whoever had chosen the site for the camp hadn’t understood how critical that was. Or, Connor admitted, they hadn’t understood the threat this world presented.

He waved everyone in tight in front of the endmost tent. “Form here! Firing ranks!”

It was the last thing he would ever want to do in a regular firefight, especially if an enemy had explosives of some sort. Pack the targets in close, and you made things easier for the other side.

Against the monstrous beasts, it gave the team a slim chance.

Tom tossed Connor’s backpack onto the ground. “Full up.”

Of explosives.

Connor motioned for Aubriella and the Moon twins to go prone at the front rank, alongside Lem. The second rank would be on their knees: Selen, Yemi, and Martienne. Connor, Vicente, and Kalpana would be the rear rank.

When Mosiah’s mouth opened, Connor pointed to the rear. “Behind us. You, too, Elise.”

But she wasn’t there.

Connor looked around. The bugs were charging. He needed to know where everyone was, to protect his team.

He stepped away from the formation. “Elise!”

Selen’s head came around. “Forget about her.”

Then the archaeologist came jogging from around the weapons shack, holding up the Orion Home Protector Connor had given her.

There was no time to argue or chastise. He pointed at Mosiah. “Stay with him!”

Weapons clacked and popped as people conducted a last check.

Their bullets were too powerful, the flesh of the monsters too soft. Maybe hydrostatic shock didn’t apply to bug-like things. But if they tore the bodies apart with concentrated fire…

He brought his Asp up. “Tear a hole through their ranks. Fire!”

With the huge bugs already at the outer tent, the guns erupted in a cacophony of thunder. Smoke rose up, and the acrid tang of gunpowder rose in the air.

Two of the front bugs collapsed with a bizarre wheezing squeal.

The bugs behind them stomped on their fallen comrades and kept coming, pointy appendages dragging out ichor and flesh.

Three more fell, legs torn away, a head exploding.

But the bugs were halfway down the path between the tents. They were coated in gore, mandibles flashing, the air filled with their foul reek.

Two more collapsed less than a meter in front of the first rank.

Martienne stopped firing and twisted onto her side, fighting with her weapon: a jam.

It seemed impossible. They all maintained their weapons and never skimped when it came to ammunition.

She fought through it, and a round popped out.

Then it was Yemi’s turn. He popped the magazine out, cleared the round, then slapped another magazine into place.

Next was Lem.

Efficient. Fast.

But they were losing precious seconds, and the bugs were on top of them.

Selen growled as she slapped another magazine into her weapon. “This isn’t working!”

One of the bugs rose up over Lem, who calmly fired a burst into its center, tearing it in half.

Another bug struck at Tom, cracking against his armor.

He screamed, but his brother finished the bug off with two quick bursts.

Connor wheeled around as bugs flanked to the left. He focused on the closest ones, blowing off legs as they reared up to jump over the tents separating them from the human formation.

Screams came from behind him. He backed up, placing himself between the unarmed pair at the rear and a bug that hadn’t gotten all the way around.

The bug rammed into Connor, shoving him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him.

At least they’re not as dense as we are, he thought.

Elise backed away from the thing and brought her rifle up, then put a short burst into center mass.

That brought the bug around toward her; it raised up.

And she blasted its head into a mist of its dark ichor.

It wasn’t enough, though. The formation was crumbling, with individuals desperately rolling away from blows just to survive.

For an instant, the space around the back line was clear.

In that momentary respite, Connor dug into his backpack and pulled out one of the explosives packs and affixed a blasting cap to it, then took out a radio controller.

The red light indicated the explosive was armed.

One of the creatures struck Martienne with a forward appendage, piercing her through the back, then lifting her up. She kicked and screamed horrifically.

Tim swung around to blast the bug, but another had already stabbed a pointed leg through the pilot’s gut.

With a terrible wrench, the bugs tore her in half.

Her scream turned into a wet gurgling.

Connor got to his feet, fighting back the urge to vomit.

There was a clear mass of the bugs off to his left, moving to flank.

He tossed the explosive into that group, uncaring that he didn’t know the potential blasting power.

They were close to being overrun.

When the brick arced down and disappeared from sight behind the bugs, he hit the switch.

A concussive wave took him off his feet and slammed him into a brick wall.

That must have been Vicente, because the wall collapsed as well.

Rain spattered onto Connor’s helmet visor, and the horrifying shrieks from the attack were blotted out by a deep ringing.

The rain was thick and blinding, and it smelled like rusty metal.

Then someone dragged Connor up and swiped a hand across his visor.

It was Selen. She was talking—or at least her lips were moving. Ichor covered the left side of her body.

Finally, it sunk in: The explosion had deafened him.

Selen was pointing to the retreating bugs—the few still alive.

Elise was at the front, firing shoulder to shoulder with the Moon twins and Lem, smoke rising from their guns.

One of the bugs fell.

Vicente stalked forward and sprayed his machine-gun in an arc, and the last of the bugs went down.

Someone laughed. Then someone else let out a deep whoop.

Lem was at Tom’s side, checking him.

But the twin seemed all right, waving the android off as they smiled at each other, jubilant after surviving certain death.

Until Connor knelt beside Martienne’s torso and closed her eyes.