Edge of War (The Eternal Frontier Book 2) Read online

  “The odds of us succeeding against their numbers and weapons are rather low,” Alpha said. “Would you like to know the numbers?”

  “No,” Tag said. “Here we go. Three.”

  Coren grimaced, his single working golden eye narrowing in determination. Tag’s pulse raced in his ears as the blood rushed through his vessels, carrying with it the invigorating elixir of adrenaline.

  “Two.”

  Alpha’s servos whined. Tag could practically see the calculations running behind her beady eyes, measuring the best course of action in a battle they seemed to have already lost.

  “One.”

  Tag led Coren and Alpha from behind the car. Time seemed to slow as bolts of pulsefire crossed his path, and his vision focused on the targets standing meters from him. His finger squeezed the trigger of the mini-Gauss, and each shudder of the rifle in his hands, each electric hum of the magnetic coils charging and releasing, traveled through his body with an energy that almost calmed him, made him ready for whatever the fates had in store now. He watched in brutal satisfaction as the slugs punched into the armor of one Drone-Mech, sending the spindly alien careening backward.

  But one Drone-Mech down didn’t turn the tide of the oncoming forces. Pulsefire rained down on Tag like a blizzard on Eta-Five’s surface. Even he wasn’t suicidal enough to continue forward, and he prepared to retreat again, to find a modicum of shelter for his last stand.

  Then a smattering of hisses sounded from one of the Drone-Mechs. Black liquid dripped from freshly shorn holes in its armor. Some of the Drone-Mechs started to turn, drawing their attention away from Tag, Coren, and Alpha. But they too were plastered by an unseen force that cut them down from the tree line. Tag took advantage of the momentary confusion and fired at the remaining Drone-Mechs bearing down on them, with Coren and Alpha joining his counterattack until the last of their enemies fell. A determined giddiness swept through him as he found himself on the winning side again.

  Branches and bushes at the tree line moved, and Tag turned, facing whatever dared confront them next. Instead of Drone-Mechs, G and Sumo emerged. A shockwave of confusion muddled Tag’s thoughts until Sumo explained.

  “Those damn shields work great,” Sumo said. “The pulsefire knocked the air out of me. Might’ve lost a few brain cells hitting the ground. But I’m alive!”

  G swiveled around, not sharing in the same joy. Sweat beaded down his forehead, visible through his visor. “There’s going to be more. Got to be more,” he said, his nerves tingeing his voice with trepidation.

  Those worries were answered by a pulse round flying into his chest. His fingers splayed, and he almost lost the grip on his rifle as he flew backward. But the round never pierced his armor. Instead, it fizzled in electric-green sparks on the energy shield the Mechanic engineers had installed.

  Sumo hooted in excitement, aimed, and fired on G’s attacker. “Bet you xeno scum didn’t see that coming, did you?”

  “Come on!” Tag yelled, opening the hatch to the air car. A cool wave of relief coursed through him as he boarded the vehicle with Sumo and G still alive and well. But there was no time for celebration now. “We need to get to the others!”

  Alpha and Coren spilled into the front seats, with G and Sumo hopping into the back.

  Bull’s voice crackled over the comm line. “Captain, it’s getting bad out here. I could use some support!”

  “On it!” Tag replied, settling into the driver’s seat. The controls hissed as they moved toward him, and he grabbed them, ready to jockey the air car again.

  “Old friend, you and me have been through some rough times,” he muttered as he punched the throttle and the car took off. “Hope you’re up for more.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Tag leaned forward in the driver’s seat. It wouldn’t help him speed down the meager trail through the Forest any faster, but he couldn’t help it. Luminescent plants and trees whipped by in a psychedelic fury of visual stimulation that threatened to distract him at every twisting turn. Even amid the dissonance of colors, it didn’t take long to locate Bull, Gorenado, and Lonestar. The trio was caught in a raging storm of pulsefire. Blazing azure rounds pierced tree trunks, cutting through a swathe of the Forest like an overzealous logging operation.

  On their approach, Tag hit a button to open the hatch on the roof so the marines could fire out of the car. Sumo and G popped out of the top, firing into the ranks of Drone-Mechs who had thought their battle against the isolated marine squad was already won. Kinetic slugs tore into their armor, and returning pulsefire raged against the air car. The vehicle was tough, but Tag was reminded of his first trip on Eta-Five when an unlucky shot had debilitated it. It could only take so much abuse before they would be stranded here, too.

  With a path cleared from the marines to the air car, Bull stood. A barrage of pulsefire slammed into his position, and a few rounds caught him, knocking him over, but dissipated in his energy shields. He scrambled to his feet with Gorenado and Lonestar leading the charge. Coren threw open a side hatch, and they tumbled in, the heavy weight of their power armor shaking the vehicle. Their labored breathing sounded through the public comm channel as they settled into positions and opened portholes around the vehicle.

  “Time to turn this little pony into a goddamn bronco!” Lonestar yelled. She peppered one of the Drone-Mech’s positions with a burst of kinetic slugs, kicking up dirt and chunks of plants. Each hit plant flying up from the impacts rippled with color as if it were on fire.

  Tag shoved the throttle forward, and the car took off, leaving a wake of leaves curling into the air. The bursts of blue pulsefire around them became more sporadic as they accelerated away from the Drone-Mech foot soldiers. With a little more distance between them and the enemy, Tag’s medical officer instincts overrode his adrenaline-fueled warrior rage.

  “Anyone hurt?” he asked. “We’ve got autoheal gel and med packs in the first aid kits.”

  “Think we’re all good, Captain,” Bull said gruffly. Then his voice dropped lower. “Hate to say it, but the xeno tech saved our asses.”

  The corners of Coren’s lips twitched as if to suggest a slight grin. “That is certainly no surprise.”

  “Mechanic shielding technology is far superior to that of human energy shields,” Alpha said.

  “Thanks for the support,” Coren said.

  “I’m merely stating a fact.”

  Bull shook his head as if he already regretted the reluctant compliment.

  Tag swerved the car hard to the left, avoiding a fallen tree he had barely noticed in the aggressive glow of the foliage. Now more than ever, he wished he had Sofia piloting them out of this mess, and that made it all the more important to get to her soon.

  “Sofia,” Tag said, “we’re on our way.”

  “Hurry!” Sofia said. “Forinths are reporting Drone-Mech activity all over the Forest. They’re spreading out, forming a dragnet to catch you guys and the Mechanics.”

  “Understood.” Tag switched channels. “Bracken, we’re two minutes out. Where are you?”

  The screams of pulsefire a few hundred meters to his right answered before she did. A plume of fire and black smoke stretched into the air like the fist of a demon erupting from the three hells. Screeches from Mechanics and unseen animals alike rent the air.

  “We’re taking casualties,” Bracken said. “There are too many.”

  Coren bowed his head at the news of his brethren’s deaths. “The machine remembers, brothers and sisters.”

  “Copy,” Tag said. He dug through his mind for something else to say, something else he could offer her. He had returned to the Mechanics promising an escape from the planet and seemed to bring with him only their massacre. If Bracken shared the same thought, she at least didn’t express it.

  “We will do the best we can,” she said. “Whoever is responsible for doing this to our people will pay.”

  The venom and malice in her voice shook through the comm line. In his mind’s eye, T
ag saw her eyes narrow and her snake-like nostrils flare.

  Ahead of him, a familiar shimmering marked an area of rising heat in an open plain. The undulating air emanated from a protrusion in the ground, one of the many budding volcano-like holes that heated the Forest of Light. Near the edge of it, Sofia was ducking into the rise of the volcano. She fired at a squad of Drone-Mechs with her pulse pistol, but the cobalt rounds flying from her pistol were hitting the Drone-Mechs impotently, shredding against their energy shields as they advanced.

  “Suck on these, you zombie bastards!” Lonestar yelled.

  The marines opened fire on the Drone-Mechs, catching them by surprise. Most went down in the first salvo of kinetic slugs, while others scrambled for cover. A few pulse rounds crashed over the plain near the air car, but the marines fought back the lone Drone-Mechs that had survived the initial attack. Sliding through the air near the volcano, Tag slowed long enough for Coren to whip open a hatch and grab Sofia’s arm. With his help, she jumped aboard.

  “Thanks,” she said, almost wheezing. “Wasn’t sure how much longer I’d make it there.”

  “Glad to have you,” Tag said, “because I’m getting tired of driving.”

  He relinquished the driver’s seat to her. She jumped into it, spitting into her palms and rubbing them together.

  “Oh man, feels good to be in here instead of running my ass around out there,” Sofia said.

  “Before you get too comfortable,” Tag said, “I need you and Alpha to plot us a way out. Bracken’s on the way.”

  “Can do. Only problem is, I, uh, don’t know the exact locations of the exit tunnels. Just a general approximation. A guess, you know?”

  “A guess?” Coren asked, his voice shaking slightly. “Our only escape route is a guess?”

  “I’m an extraterrestrial anthropologist, not a cartographer!” she said.

  “I don’t care what you are as long as you find us a way out of here!” Bull yelled.

  Bracken’s voice came through again. “We’re almost—”

  The sounds of exchanged pulsefire cut her transmission short.

  “Bracken?” Tag asked, fighting the surging panic climbing up his throat. “Bracken? Are you there?”

  “We—hold on!” she said.

  The trees and plants on the plain’s perimeter started to shift. Sofia rotated the air car around so they could get a view of the approaching Mechanics. A few burst through the woods, but they didn’t wear the worn suits of Bracken’s people, nor did they drive the sleek vehicles she was using to evacuate them. Drone-Mechs, Tag realized, his stomach dropping. Foot soldiers poured out along all the edges of the plain, cornering the air car. They started taking shots as they crossed the plain in an all-out charge. Even with the advantage of the volcanic cover and the marines firing back with a deluge of kinetic slugs, they would soon be overwhelmed.

  “This is what the Forinths warned about,” Sofia said ruefully. “We can’t hold up any longer. We’re going to have to run.”

  “And leave my people behind?” Coren said, anger tingeing his voice.

  “We can’t. We just can’t abandon them,” Tag said, staring out the windshield. “But what choice do we have?”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The sounds of battle echoed around the plain, and the heaviness in Tag’s gut thickened. “Bracken, where are you?”

  “We’re pinned down and cut off by the—”

  Her line went silent again, and Tag turned to Coren. Where the Mechanic’s face had once showed as much expression and emotion as a boulder, now something else played across his visage. Something akin to horror. Maybe the realization that the last free members of his species were dying—or already dead.

  “We have to go back!” Coren yelled. He forced himself between the marines and laid down a stream of fire at the approaching Drone-Mechs. The marines joined him, but their salvos only delayed what Tag saw as inevitable.

  A voice sparked over the comm line again. “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!” Bracken.

  The marines ceased firing, but incensed, Coren still poured out his anger in a fusillade of powerful pulsefire.

  “Hold your fire!” she repeated.

  “Coren!” Tag yelled, urgency threading his voice. “Coren! Stop!”

  The Mechanic seemed too caught up in his own fervor, and Tag had to tug on the alien’s shoulders, pulling at his suit to get his attention. Snarling, Coren turned, his fingers quivering and the short fur across his face bristling.

  “Don’t hurt the Forinths!” Bracken said. Her voice sounded almost gleeful, a far cry from the panic that had shaken it before.

  Tag was about to ask her to clarify why they would hurt the Forinths. Then he heard the reverberating humming from the tree line. Sofia perked up in her seat and leaned toward the windshield.

  “They’re here,” she muttered. “I didn’t think they would. I told them not to...but they’re here.”

  “My biosensors are detecting new life-forms within the ranks of the Drone-Mechs,” Alpha said, “but I see no new targets in the visible light spectrum.”

  “Just...watch,” Tag said.

  A few dozen Drone-Mechs continued firing on the air car. Their shots mostly hit the budding volcano Sofia had parked the vehicle behind, and dirt and mud flipped through the air. One Drone-Mech started to crest the volcano. Its armor shimmered in the heated, sulfurous air escaping the vents, and it aimed a rifle directly at the air car. Before Bull or another marine could so much as squeeze the trigger, the Drone-Mech’s neck split. Dark, black fluids intermingled with blood as the Drone-Mech’s body collapsed, twisting and plummeting into the volcano. The head, still in its helmet, rolled back down the incline.

  “What was that?” Sumo asked.

  Lonestar whistled. “Is that...is that...”

  The air seemed to undulate where the Drone-Mech had been. If Tag squinted, he could make out the cephalopod-like shape of a Forinth. It vanished again as it utilized its camouflage to disappear like a wraith, and again another Drone-Mech went down. Then another, and another. The number of Drone-Mechs diminished faster than a ship escaping into hyperspace. Bodies fell, cut apart by invisible forces leaving long gashes in flesh and power armor.

  Coren slumped into his seat, watching the massacre play out. The only gunfire was that of the Drone-Mechs firing blindly at the unseen predators that were ripping them into so many ribbons of meat and armor.

  “Goddamn if I ain’t glad they’re on our side,” Lonestar said.

  All the while, the haunting wail of the Forinths carried up around the forest. Tag shivered uncontrollably, and for no particular reason, he felt ready to break down in wracking sobs. The Forinths’ language played on his human emotions like a pilot controls a ship. He was helpless to the chorus.

  “What...what are they talking about?” Tag asked.

  A wet sheen had formed over Sofia’s eyes, visible beneath her visor. “They’re mourning the loss of life. They’re singing prayers to welcome the Drone-Mechs into their version of the heavens.”

  “You got to be shitting me,” Gorenado said. “Those bastards are out there ripping us apart, and the Forinths think their souls are going to some kind of alien paradise?”

  “That’s exactly it,” Sofia said. “All forms of life are sacred to them, and they see life as a precarious balance. Having to destroy so much of it at once is hurting them. They didn’t want to take sides in this war, but I told them what the Drone-Mechs were.”

  “They are, more or less, walking corpses of my people,” Coren said.

  “I guess that actually convinced the Forinths to help protect us,” Tag said. Then, as an afterthought, “And Bracken, too.”

  A stray blast of pulsefire caught one of the Forinths. The creature wailed in a tone and rhythm that hit something deep in Tag’s chest, squeezing it with an almost palpable force. He watched the alien writhe. Its tentacles whipped, and its colors changed in shades more dazzling than the bioluminescent foliage around it. W
hen it settled, its body turned a dreary gray, all color draining from it except for the crimson-and-black blood congealing on the curved blades protruding from the end of each serpentine arm.

  Soon a cadre of black air cars and smaller vehicles that looked to Tag like hoverbikes spilled from a path in the Forest. A few lumbering personnel carriers trailed them. Smoke wafted from several of the vehicles, and gashes in the armor showed where they had barely survived the Drone-Mech onslaught.

  “Hold your fire!” Tag said, raising his fist until the marines lowered their weapons. “It’s Bracken’s forces.”

  Tag counted the vehicles as the convoy lined up near the air car. He guessed at least a half dozen or so were missing. Already they had taken heavy casualties trying to hold the Drone-Mechs back. Somewhere in the distance, mechanical thumping echoed through the trees, while debris still sprinkled from the vast cavern’s ceiling.

  “Do we have everyone here now?” Tag asked over the comm line.

  “We are prepared for departure,” Bracken replied.

  “Good,” Tag said. “The plan is to leave together. There’s at least one exit Sofia thinks will fit our vehicles. We’ll aim for the closest one. Worse comes to worst, plan B is to go on foot.” He saw Sofia shiver at the prospect of hiking all the way to the Argo and the Stalwart. “But I don’t want to do that. Getting caught with our pants down in the middle of a blizzard with Drone-Mechs on all sides doesn’t sound appealing.”

  “No, it most definitely does not,” Sofia said.

  “We can handle anything,” Bull added. Tag nodded but still thought the man was overestimating their prowess against the Drone-Mechs. They had survived mostly on luck, the benefits of Mechanic shielding technology, and some unexpected aid from the Forinths so far.

  Tag chinned off his comm line. “Coren, you coming with me or Bracken? This might be your only chance to change ships until after our hyperspace jump.”

  “Captain,” Coren began, “I believe you are stuck with me. No one here, besides yourself, has weapons experience on the Argo, and you need an engineer aboard that ship now more than ever. No one here can do what I can for the ship.”