Chapter 22
Taurus Prime | Fifteen years ago
There was something wrong with the mission.
Ash felt it in her bones and saw it mirrored in the tight line of Lieutenant Rush’s shoulders. But orders were orders, and they were going to follow them.
She wished Zane were coming with them. But he’d been fast-tracked to Flight, assigned to a different team. He’d always had the fastest reflexes of their cadet squad.
She missed him.
Ash was assigned to a ground team. Force Recon.
She would have to fight twice as hard for the chance to fly. Not that she’d let that stop her.
Now, they were heading down to a planet that wasn’t even populated. Had no mineral wealth to speak of. Had little strategic value.
Or at least, that was what Rush had been saying to Commander Brandt before they left. Not as quietly as he thought.
She couldn’t find much information on Taurus Prime on OpNet. Just the name and the co-ords, and basic geo-data.
“Ensign Raine,” Rush spoke to her, his voice coming through her earpiece, and she looked across the transpo to where her CO was strapped in. “You ready for your first mission?”
“Sir, yes, Sir.”
“Excellent.”
He switched to the general channel. “All right, boys and girls. Hope you brought your waders. Because we’re hitting swamp the second we land. We’re headed to a suspected Other outpost. Standard Recon, Surveil and Secure if possible. If not, we hold the perimeter until the grunts arrive.”
A chuckle went through the transpo, which was cut off as the ship hit atmosphere and rattled like it was about to fall apart.
A minute later, it smoothed out, and a minute more and the transpo hissed, hydraulics groaning as the rear door dropped like a guillotine. Swamp mist billowed in, thick and rank.
Rush released his harness and grinned.
“Show time, boys and girls. Boots down. Eyes up. Go, go, go.”
Two days in the stinking swamp and still no sign of the supposed outpost.
There were hillocks of so-called dry ground that was really just firmer mud. But most of it was waist-deep water or knee-deep muck.
If Ash never saw another swamp, it would be too soon, although she’d admit that the sun on swamp water was kind of pretty.
It was nearing sunset, and they had set up a miserable camp spread out across two neighboring islets. Rush was speaking with Command.
If Ash squinted, she could pretend that one of the first stars was their ride home.
But wishful thinking wouldn’t get them off this planet.
Rush flicked his fingers at her, ordering her over.
She stepped up to him. He had a map spread out on the ground in front of him.
“Command says to try here,” he indicated a spot on the map to the east. “Your thoughts?”
She looked at him, hesitated. Rush was a good team lead. A good mentor. But it wasn’t an ensign’s place to question orders.
“Judging by the terrain we’ve just slogged through, we’d do better circling north first. East is deeper water. Unless we feel like swimming,”
“Hmm,” he studied the map. “What was your first thought?”
“Sir?”
“You’re not wrong in your assessment, but I want to know what you actually think. Not what you think you should say.”
Ash bit the inside of her cheek.
“It’s not east.”
He looked at her. Waited.
Ash crouched and pointed. “We landed here, circled northwards. Then north-west. Now they want us to cut across directly to the east.”
“And that doesn’t make sense?”
“It’s not that, Sir. I’m sure have their reasons to order us east.”
“But?”
She looked up from the map. Looked around the swamp. One direction was as indistinguishable as the next. But something in her bones pulled sideways, soft and insistent.
She tilted a head to her left, “It’s that way.”
“Southwest.”
“Yes, Sir.”
He nodded, thoughtfully.
“Why, Ensign?”
“Gut feel, Sir.”
It was more than that, but she didn’t know how to explain it.
“Sergeant Bains said you had good instincts.”
She looked at him. He seemed to be waiting.
“Thank you, Sir.”
“We’ll try your way. If nothing else, the water’s shallower that way.”
“If I may, Sir?”
Rush nodded.
“Why?”
He regarded her, “Gut feel, Ensign.”
By mid-morning, Ash was doubting her gut and by noon, was convinced she was mad.
There was nothing here. Just stagnant water, muck, and drowned vegetation.
“One more hour, boys and girls, then we break for our delicious GRIM. In the meantime, fan out. Find us a rest spot if nothing else.”
They automatically moved out in teams of two in an arc covering about 90 degrees.
Ash was with Pottersly, a veteran recon scout and one of Rush’s core team members.
He was abnormally silent as they waded forward. She nudged him with her elbow and raised an eyebrow.
He looked around them warily. Gave the hand gesture for be alert.
She nodded, pulling her Plasma Caster off her back, and letting Pottersly take the lead.
The pace he set was glacial. The water barely rippling as they waded through it.
To their right, there was a sharp yell that cut off suddenly, and the familiar zap of a plasma caster sounding. Once. Twice. Then nothing.
Ash and Pottersley waited, but there were no comms. Which meant one pair was either dead or disabled. Grief stabbed at Ash, and she shoved it down. Away.
This is war, cadets, Drill Sergeant Bains’ voice played in her head, people will die, and unless you want to be dead too, you mourn them later.
Pottersly jabbed a hand in the direction of the fire.
Unlike the infantry grunts, force recon did not go charging in. Too many unknowns. They’d be converging slowly.
There was no sign of Jiang or Govender. Not even any blood in the water.
Six soldiers now stood at the assumed last point of contact, and five were silently looking at her.
Crap. She was the officer. Technically.
She scanned the surrounding swamp. By now, the rest of the team would be with Rush, somewhere to their right.
She nodded to continue in the direction they were going. Took point with Pottersly a bare step behind her.
They’d gone about a hundred meters when there was a sharp crack and a splash to the left, followed by eerie silence.
Nothing for it.
She gave the signal to split the team—half to investigate, half to provide back up.
She wanted to be with the investigators, but it had been drilled into her: sometimes you lead from the front. Most times, you lead from the back. Because when everything goes south, they’re counting on you to get them out.
The minutes ticked by, slow as syrup.
The three men reappeared. Nothing. She heaved a silent sigh of relief.
Then something surged out of the water, landed on Hank Cortez, and dragged him under.
Fuck!
They automatically fell into fighting positions. Back-to-back.
It hadn’t looked like an Other. But it sure as fuck felt wrong.
Pottersly’s PinPoint gave a high-pitched whine as it charged, and he shot a rail dart into the water where it rippled as something moved through it at speed. He must have missed, because a creature launched itself at them.
It was over six feet long and looked like it was made of glass. Giant and scorpion-like, but designed for swimming, not scuttling.
Three Plasma Casters sounded at once. The creature fell, just as four more joined the fray.
Pottersly’s warning shout echoed across the water, then cut off too suddenly.
Ash spun. Sighted, shot, sighted again. The weapon warmed in her hands.
Something grabbed her foot and pulled her under the water. She let go of her gun, grabbed her knife from its sheath and stabbed the creature. Over and over.
It didn’t let go.
They were moving at speed, approaching something that hummed, vibrating the water around her.
Her lungs were burning. She needed to breathe. This wasn’t how she was supposed to die, damn it!
The vibrations felt like they were tearing her apart. Black spots danced in front of her eyes and without meaning to she opened her mouth to take a breath… Delete
“And that’s the last thing I remember.”
Hound’s eyebrows were drawn together, his eyes bright.
“So, you see, Lieutenant Vorsk, you didn’t lose eleven good men on that mission. Between us we lost twenty-two.”
He nodded, slowly. “We’d had no intel there were Tarrascoids on Taurus Prime.”
“Neither did we. May I ask where you found me?”
He looked at her. “On this island. Bigger than any of the others. My whole team had been taken out by those bug-like fuckers. I’d called for extract, but was told your LIFE unit was still active. They made me continue.”
LIFE units, or Live Individual Field Emitters, were worn by all ground forces.
“You were half dead. Just lying there next to this weird pile of rocks.”
“Weird?”
“Large black rocks. Three of them. Never seen anything like them, not before or since,” he was silent a moment, then, “They didn’t belong.”
A flicker of memory danced across Wraith’s mind, too fast to grab onto, but unsettling, nonetheless.
“Then the fucking comms wouldn’t work, and I had to drag your ass back through the swamp or they would have left me there to die.”
He didn’t spit, but Wraith knew he wanted to.
She nodded slowly, stood, and saluted him.
“Thank you, Lieutenant. For saving my green ass. And my condolences on the loss of your friends.” She paused. “And mine.”
He just stared at her—like the ground had shifted beneath him and he wasn’t sure whether to salute or sink.
She didn’t wait to find out which he chose. Gave him a final, curt nod and stepped out.
The silence heavy behind her.