A short time later, the soldiers received an update and this time the news was worse than bad.

  “Sergeant – a Kijol Eternus has exited lightspeed in proximity to Xaros,” said Barkley. “The Marauder is running south to avoid detection.” He paused. “It gets worse.”

  “Tell me.”

  “The destroyer is down, but all one billion tons of it landed in the lake. In less than three hours this area of the jungle will be under fifty metres of water.”

  “What about the first wave? The one caused by the debris.”

  “A few armour plates landed in shallow water. They’re going to cause a swell, but probably nothing for us to worry about.”

  “We’re blind down here,” said Maxwell, his anger returning. “We need recommendations, not just warnings. And what about our pickup?”

  “Captain Grisham is working on something,” said Barkley. “Lieutenant Lopez will let us know the details when the time is right. Aside from that, we’ve been given advice and orders, rolled into one. We’re to stay close to the beach and head south. About twenty klicks from here, the land rises near the lakeshore – it should be high enough to keep us safe.” Barkley gave a would-you-believe-it kind of laugh. “At the same time, we’re to provide intel on the Kijol battleship. Captain Grisham expects it to park over the CES compound. We’re to confirm that, as well as advise the Marauder if the Eternus goes elsewhere.”

  “Let’s hear it for the boots on the ground,” said Lyles.

  “This thing that Captain Grisham is working on,” said Vaughan. “It definitely involves extracting us from this jungle, doesn’t it? Just so I’m sure.”

  “That’s the impression I got,” said Barkley. He shrugged. “I reckon Captain Grisham is on our side. As much as any other officer we’ve served under.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Lowe.

  Maxwell called a halt. “Back to the shore it is,” he said. In a way, he was relieved that he’d soon be on easier terrain. “A twenty-klick run and a climb up a hill in three hours is manageable.”

  “Yeah, a bit less than three hours, Sergeant,” said Barkley. “Two hours fifty is what we have.”

  “Then let’s get going.”

  Maxwell urged the soldiers back the way they’d come, so they could take advantage of the trampled undergrowth. They didn’t have far to travel and soon they were once more on the beach. For a moment, Maxwell stared into the distance at where the compound was located. He could still see the light from the flames, but there was no sign of a Kijol battleship.

  Setting off south, Maxwell kept to the edge of the beach closest to the trees in order that he could take advantage of some cover rather than none. Here, the dry soil was more uneven than the sand, but the plants were few and not much more than knee high. Maxwell quickly fell into a rhythm and jogged at a speed both he and the soldiers could maintain for the full distance. It would be tough, but an incoming fifty-metre-high wall of water was plenty of motivation.

  “Sergeant, the battleship!” said Chau.

  “Quickly, into the trees,” said Maxwell, heading directly left.

  Twenty metres into the undergrowth, he hid behind a tree and looked out. Through a gap between two trunks, he had sight of the compound. In the air above it, a vast warship hovered motionless, like every HF commanding officer’s worst nightmare. Maxwell had seen a few Eternus battleships in his time, but this one was bigger than the others. While the Kijol destroyer would have comfortably fitted within the compound’s walls, this warship wouldn’t even come close.

  “What the hell is that doing here?” asked Corporal Fine. “It’s way too much hardware to bring for one security controller and a data array.”

  Maxwell was beginning to have a few ideas on the matter, but he kept them to himself. “Private Barkley, let the Marauder know we have a confirmed sighting of the enemy battleship.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And we should keep moving,” said Maxwell.

  Having been reminded of the colossal threat presented by a Kijol battleship, his faith in Captain Grisham’s as-yet undisclosed plan wasn’t high. This continued to be a one step at a time mission and that meant getting to the hilltops before the incoming wave reached the shore.

  Maxwell led the soldiers on. With the looming presence of the Eternus, he didn’t dare return to the beach.

  Caught between two equally unpalatable options – death by drowning, or plasma incineration – Maxwell did his best to walk the line by staying ten metres inside the jungle. Here, the canopy offered some protection, while the ground foliage wasn’t so dense as it was deeper in.

  “We’re pushing it for time now, Sergeant,” said Corporal Fine.

  “I know.”

  “Maybe we should cut inland and take our chances.”

  “Any other time, I might have agreed with you, Corporal.”

  “The alien?”

  “I don’t think the destroyer killed it. If it comes for us, I’d rather face it on the beach than in the trees.”

  “It would have attacked by now,” said Fine, though it sounded as if she were trying to convince herself.

  Maxwell didn’t say anything else on the matter and Fine didn’t either.

  Ten minutes later it was clear the soldiers were behind the pace. Maxwell believed they’d cover the twenty kilometres, but without leaving any time to climb a high hill at the end of the journey. Since the Kijol battleship hadn’t moved from the compound, a return to the beach would result in certain detection and then death.

  “How’re we going to change this, Sergeant?” asked Fine.

  Maxwell didn’t know. “Private Barkley – get on to the Marauder. Whatever Captain Grisham is working on, I’d appreciate it if he’d let us know.”

  Barkley came back with the information a short time later. “Captain Grisham is planning to fire Ghosts using the positional data we provide - the same as last time,” he said. “The battleship will leave the compound to hunt, leaving an opening for the Marauder to come pick us up.”

  “If a plan worked once,” said Maxwell.

  “Why do we have to wait?” asked Fleming. “Launch the damn missiles and get us out of here.”

  “I think Captain Grisham is hoping that battleship will leave of its own accord and then he can come for us without the risk of having the Marauder blown into pieces,” said Barkley.

  “It’s hard to argue with the logic,” said Maxwell. “How long is Captain Grisham intending to wait?”

  “I think he’s playing it by ear, Sergeant.”

  “Well, I’m not intending to slow our pace in hope that the Marauder comes before the tsunami,” said Maxwell.

  Once more he set off to the south. Given the fine margins between success and failure, he pushed the soldiers to their limits. His body temperature climbed. The recycled water from his combat suit did little to quench his thirst, while his stomach craved more nutrients than those injected into him by the suit’s life support unit.

  After twenty minutes, Maxwell accepted that the soldiers weren’t going to make it to high ground unless they returned to the beach. The undergrowth was making progress so difficult that the distance counter in Maxwell’s suit was already predicting they’d be more than two kilometres short at the end of the remaining time. Last time he’d checked, the Kijol battleship hadn’t moved and the beach itself was exposed for many kilometres.

  Calling a halt, Maxwell headed for the treeline both to confirm the position of the Eternus and to see if the terrain to the south offered any hope. The battleship remained over the compound, so he turned his attention to the lakeshore.

  “I reckon the shore heads east again a few klicks from here,” said Maxwell. “Maybe it’ll be safe for us to travel the beach for a time.”

  “We’re not going to make it, are we?” said Lyles. “This is just going through the motions.”

  “If something happens to the Marauder, I’d rather we’d put in the effort now, Private,” said Maxwell. “Even if it turns out to be not enough.”

  “Lyles never did like exercise,” said Chau. “That’s why she’s complaining.”

  “I can run twice as far as you and in half the time, Chau,” said Lyles. “But I’d rather see the inside of the Marauder than another seventeen klicks of jungle.”

  The soldiers resumed their journey south. As time passed, the prospect of reaching high ground remained tantalisingly out of reach, but not so much that failure was inevitable. With each tangled foot and each resisting frond, Maxwell cursed the jungle and he cursed everything which had brought him to this position.

  Still, some hope remained. A few kilometres on the beach would be enough to claw back the time, assuming the lakeshore did indeed cut east as Maxwell believed.

  “Captain Grisham isn’t coming for us until the last possible moment, is he?” said Private Vaughan. “We’re going to run through this jungle until that tsunami is fifteen minutes from shore and then he’ll start launching missiles.”

  “Would you do anything different, Soldier?”

  “Hell no, Sergeant, but that doesn’t mean I can’t complain about it.”

  Maxwell laughed and was about to reply when he heard a rustling sound of breaking undergrowth coming from somewhere to the north-east. He stopped and spun that way, his gun ready. The other soldiers had heard it too and they stared into the jungle.

  “Wildlife?” asked Vaughan.

  “What do you think?” asked Diaz.

  “I don’t think it’s wildlife.”

  The rustling came again – closer this time. It was loud, as if something fast and heavy was hurtling through the undergrowth.

  “Damnit, I can’t see anything,” said Maxwell, peering through the trees.

  He glanced around. Each of the soldiers was still as a statue, grey figures in the undergrowth, their rifles steady and aimed north-east. Movement came suddenly from behind one of the trees about thirty metres away and the foliage parted as if something massive was forcing its way through.

  Still Maxwell couldn’t see anything, but he fired his rifle, hoping to hit whatever was staying low beneath the plants. The other soldiers fired too, and a fusillade of gauss slugs punched through the leaves.

  Whatever was inbound, it didn’t die. At ten metres, it changed course, heading straight for Private Fleming. Unable to get a clear shot through the soldiers, Maxwell stepped to his right, while Fleming stood his ground, firing with increasing desperation.

  Remembering his earlier thoughts about the alien, Maxwell switched off his night vision and activated his helmet flashlight. The yellow beam illuminated a hulking shadow just as it collided with Private Fleming. The soldier went down with the force of the impact and disappeared soundlessly beneath the undergrowth.

  The alien didn’t stop and it changed course with incredible agility, heading north. To Maxwell’s horror, the alien had picked up Private Fleming and it carried him in one of its long arms.

  Private Fleming: Life signs at zero.

  Snarling with fury, Maxwell shot the creature time and again. With each successful impact, the alien flinched as if the gauss slugs were no more irritating than biting insects.

  Several of the other soldiers had by now turned on their own flashlights and they kept them trained on the creature as it headed into the night. Many more shots struck the alien, but not enough to bring it down. A few short seconds after it had killed Private Fleming, the enemy disappeared into the jungle.

  Maxwell had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before it returned.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Turn off your night vision!” ordered Maxwell. “Flashlights on!”

  The combined beams did little to push back the darkness and from the way they jumped about, Maxwell could sense that his soldiers were right on the edge.

  “It got Fleming,” said Lyles. “I shot the bastard a half-dozen times and it didn’t go down.”

  “What are we going to do, Sergeant?” asked Chau.

  “We’re going to be steady,” Maxwell growled, casting his gaze around warily, while his mind hunted for a solution.

  A withdrawal to the lakeshore would offer the best chance against this opponent, since the beach provided ten metres of open ground in which the enemy had nowhere to hide. Unfortunately, the beach was within the sensor arc of the Eternus, though maybe the Kijol wouldn’t be looking too closely in this direction.

  The destroyer put holes in the jungle not far north. Of course the Kijol will be looking.

  More rustling sounds came from the east - not close, but not far away either. Maxwell took a chance.

  “To the beach,” he said. “Our gauss rifles didn’t slow that alien much. Maybe Private Vaughan’s repeater will give it something to think about. If the Kijol detect us, then this our day to die.”

  “Am I holding fire with this tube, Sergeant?” asked Lowe, patting his shoulder launcher.

  “Yes,” said Maxwell. A thought came. “Maybe. Hold with the launcher for the moment, Private. I think it’s time I pushed Captain Grisham. Let’s see how far he’ll go for us.”

  As the squad forced their way through the undergrowth, looking behind often, Maxwell requested a channel to the Marauder. Lieutenant Lopez accepted at once.

  “We’re in the shit again, Lieutenant,” said Maxwell. “That alien from the compound took Fleming and it’s coming back for the rest of us. Bullets don’t hurt it much, so I’m planning to see if fire works better.”

  “That’ll bring the—” Lopez stopped herself. “You want us to launch the Ghosts.”

  “Yes, ma’am. My soldiers will die if that Eternus catches sight of us. Maybe this alien will kill us anyway, but I know which opponent I’d prefer.”

  “One moment – I’ll get you an answer.”

  Lopez muted the channel but left it open. This wasn’t something she could agree without speaking to Captain Grisham first. As he was waiting, Maxwell heard another rustling sound of disturbed foliage from the north-east and it was distinctly closer this time.

  Lopez unmuted the channel.

  “We’ll launch our Ghosts and come pick you up,” said Lopez. “You’ll need to provide us with positional data. When the battleship realises it’s under fire and takes off, it’s your job to let us know.”

  “That’s something we can do, ma’am. How long between launch and detonation?”

  “Two minutes. We’re launching from a long distance. Chances are the Eternus will go high after the attack, aiming for the best view of the planet. The Marauder can’t be anywhere within sight. When the battleship finds nothing, we’re hoping it’ll go looking blindside of the compound. That’s when we’ll aim to make the pickup.”

  “You won’t know where the enemy is located when you come for us,” said Maxwell, gaining a greater insight into why Captain Grisham hadn’t been eager to put the plan in motion while there was a chance the Kijol might leave of their own accord.

  “We’ll be relying on guesswork,” Lopez confirmed. “However, we’re planning to detonate a couple of nukes a few thousand klicks from the compound. Maybe they’ll draw the Kijol in for a closer look.”

  All the while he talked, Maxwell didn’t slow, and he stopped on the treeline. Corporal Fine had taken charge and she’d ordered the soldiers to the water’s edge where they stood with weapons ready, their flashlight beams dancing on pale sand. Private Vaughan was in the centre of the line, prone on the beach, his repeater aimed into the jungle.

  Acting fast, Maxwell turned on his night vision and used the sensor in his suit helmet to gather positional data for the battleship, which he then transmitted it to the Marauder.

  “Positional data transmitted,” he said, walking carefully backwards down the beach so he could watch the jungle. “Please confirm receipt.”

  “Data received,” said Lopez.

  Maxwell glanced north-west, just in time to see the entire CES compound explode like it had been struck by a hundred high-yield warheads. A moment later, the Eternus began a vertical climb. Maxwell guessed the warship was under maximum thrust and its acceleration was incredible.

  “The battleship is moving,” he said urgently.

  “Which way?”

  “Straight up.” As Maxwell watched, the enemy vessel rotated smoothly in the air, revealing more of its bladed hull. “Now it’s heading south. Shit!” He switched out of the channel and yelled at the soldiers. “Turn those damned lights off!”

  The lights went out, though Maxwell wondered if it was already too late. He sprinted towards the lake, keeping his eyes on the battleship. If he was going to die, he wanted to face death as it came.

  The battleship wasn’t heading for the eastern shore. It raced over the lake at a ten-kilometre altitude, firing missiles from its underside launchers. Those missiles plunged down and, though the planet’s curvature denied Maxwell sight of their impacts, he guessed they went into the lake. Two seconds later he saw the results of the detonations when immense fountains of water, steam and plasma appeared on the horizon.

  “What’s going on, Sergeant?” said Lopez.

  For a moment, Maxwell had no answer to give. Then, an immense shape erupted from the lake, bringing millions of gallons of algae-glowing water as it rose. It was a warship, its hull dark and with an overall shape Maxwell couldn’t discern, either because of the distance or his viewing angle. It was a huge vessel, though nothing like the mass of the Eternus. Up it rose, plasma burning upon it in many places and water pouring away in a cascade.

  “Holy crap,” said Fine, twisting to look over her shoulder.

  “Sergeant Maxwell!” said Lopez, commandingly this time.

  “There was a spaceship in the lake,” said Maxwell in disbelief. “Hidden beneath the algae.”

  “Oh crap, what kind of spaceship?”

  “Sergeant, there’s something moving in the trees!” shouted Corporal Fine. “Fire!”

  With little choice, the soldiers turned on their flashlights once more. Gauss rifles fizzed with discharge and Vaughan fired a short burst from his repeater. The gun produced a dull sound which had always reminded Maxwell of a drill turning at low speed. There was nothing low about its rate of fire and it spat a torrent of slugs into the undergrowth.