“I can’t get a clear shot,” said Lowe, taking a couple of paces sideways, his shoulder launcher in a firing position.

  “Sergeant Maxwell, talk to me!” Lopez ordered.

  Maxwell cursed the situation. The alien was about to attack his soldiers, yet what was happening over the lake – in the opposite direction – was of far more importance to the Human Federation. He turned his head quickly, switching the night vision on and off as he attempted to keep an eye both ways.

  To the west, projectiles spewed from the Kijol battleship’s turrets, as what seemed like a hundred of its Dasor turrets began firing at the near-black spaceship. The paths of the slugs created green lines across Maxwell’s vision.

  “The second warship – it’s a type I haven’t seen before,” said Maxwell. “The Eternus is trying to bring it down.”

  A dozen sounds reached Maxwell in rapid succession as the planet’s air carried them across the lake. He heard the crack-rumble of sonic booms, overlaid by the bass of the battleship’s engine, then came the whump of underwater detonations, followed by the rushing of displaced water.

  The Eternus’s Olin missiles struck the still-rising alien warship, and the explosions were monumental in size. Wreathed in flame, the unknown vessel continued its vertical climb. Meanwhile, the Kijol battleship banked with physics-defying ease and matched its opponent’s altitude, all the while subjecting it to a nonstop barrage.

  Now, Maxwell could hear the metallic beat of Dasor turrets, and the heavier clanking of Axar guns. The twin propulsions seemed to make the air dense and difficult to breath.

  “Sergeant!”

  Maxwell spun at the urgency in Corporal Fine’s voice, turning off his night vision as he did so. He spotted the alien, sprinting fast towards the beach. Gauss shots thudded into its body and then it turned south, running just inside the treeline in front of the soldiers. Despite the poor light and the jumping shadows, Maxwell got the clearest view yet of his opponent, as if it had only now decided he was permitted to see what it was.

  The alien was near black, with skin that glistened faintly. It was bipedal, with overlong and powerful-looking legs and a huge, broad torso. It ran hunched and Maxwell guessed it would be at least nine feet tall when standing upright. Maybe as much as ten feet. He couldn’t see much of the alien’s head, which it kept low and hidden between its enormous rising shoulder blades. The creature’s arms were also out of proportion, being long and spindly in comparison to the torso.

  Maxwell knew those arms were strong, because the alien was carrying a body in each, its long fingers gripping tightly to its trophies.

  “Corporal Valerio and Private Fleming,” said Maxwell, recognizing the HF combat suits cladding each of the corpses. A fury such as he’d never known made the blood thump in his temples. “Private Lowe, turn that bastard to ash.”

  By now, Vaughan had his repeater exactly on target and its slugs tore into the alien. Even in the poor light, Maxwell could see chunks of flesh being ripped from the creature’s torso, the pieces dry like its body contained no blood whatsoever.

  The coils of Lowe’s shoulder launcher whined. Before the rocket was ejected from the tube, the alien gave a sudden, jerky flick with an arm, casting one of the bodies halfway down the beach. Twisting as it ran, it threw the other with tremendous force, landing it even closer to the waterline.

  “Rocket out.”

  The missile sped across the beach and into the trees. Lowe had aimed well and the rocket exploded at the alien’s feet. Maxwell averted his eyes until the flash had faded.

  When he looked again, a couple of trees were ablaze and, a few metres from the centre of the explosion, a mound of something burned on the jungle floor.

  “Right at the bastard’s feet,” said Lowe with cold anger.

  For a time, the soldiers continued firing into the dead alien until Maxwell called a halt. He turned back towards the lake, switching his night vision on again. As he stood there, a low wave rolled past him, bringing the algae with it. In a couple of seconds, the water was up to Maxwell’s shins.

  “Shit, the swell from the Marauder’s debris,” he said. “Quick, back up the beach.”

  Maxwell offered Vaughan his hand and hauled the man to his feet.

  “Damnit my ribs,” said Vaughan, his face twisting.

  “I’ve got your gun. Now move!” said Maxwell, grabbing the XR repeater by its handle and lifting it out of the water.

  Then, he joined the others as they splashed towards the treeline, aiming south of the fires created by Lowe’s plasma rocket. The smoke carried scents of resin along with sharper odours of scorched soil and burning wood.

  At the top of the beach, Maxwell slowed enough that he could look over his shoulder. The water had come halfway to the treeline but, to his relief, it didn’t rise any higher. In fact, it was already receding.

  Maxwell was under no illusions about what would happen when the wave generated by the destroyer’s impact hit the shore. He and his soldiers either had to keep running south or hope Captain Grisham would make the pickup.

  “Lieutenant Lopez, are you still there?” asked Maxwell.

  “I’m still here. Tell me what’s happening, Sergeant?”

  “One moment, I’ll find out.”

  Maxwell looked west to find out what was going on in the engagement between the Eternus and the unknown alien vessel.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The manoeuvrings of combat had carried the two warships high above Xaros. Even with his helmet sensor on maximum zoom, Maxwell couldn’t see much. The unknown alien warship was burning like a star, yet somehow it hadn’t broken up yet. A hundred kilometres south, the Eternus was also ablaze along much of its visible flank.

  Now that he wasn’t focused on the alien attacking his soldiers, Maxwell’s senses picked up the sounds coming from the two warships. Even from so far, their propulsions were clearly audible, as were the booming of explosions. The delay in the noise reaching Maxwell detached the sights from the sounds and made the combat seem peculiarly remote.

  “The battleship and the other vessel are exchanging fire, ma’am – about two hundred klicks west of my position.”

  “The Eternus hasn’t won yet?” said Lopez.

  “No ma’am.” Maxwell stared upwards. He wasn’t trained as a warship officer, but he didn’t need to be to have a good idea which way an engagement was going. “But I reckon the Kijol will come out on top. Are you going to pick us up?”

  “How fast can you and your soldiers make it up the Marauder’s boarding ramp, Sergeant?”

  “In about a half-second, ma’am.”

  “We’re going to take a chance and hope those two warships have no spare launch capacity to fire on the Marauder,” said Lopez. “Stay where you are.”

  Confirmation of the pickup came as more of a relief than Maxwell had expected, as if his subconscious mind hadn’t quite believed it would ever happen.

  “Yes ma’am. Thank you,” he said. “How long?”

  “Less than four minutes. Keep me informed.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Lopez cut the channel.

  “Listen up,” said Maxwell on the squad comms. “The Marauder is heading our way. In four minutes, we’ll be out of here.”

  He didn’t add the obvious as long as those two warships up there don’t blow our ride into pieces. Nobody else mentioned it either.

  Maxwell looked once again to the west, just as a salvo of missiles – Olins, he suspected, given the size of the blasts – struck the unknown vessel. The alien craft had taken tremendous punishment and surely it couldn’t withstand much more.

  If it holds together another four minutes, I’ll be happy.

  Meanwhile, Corporal Fine and Private Chau approached the body of the alien. The plasma flames had died, but dark smoke continued rising.

  “That’s vile,” said Chau, choking as he caught the scent.

  “What did you think it was going to smell like, Chau?” asked Lowe. “A summer barbecue?”

  Maxwell turned off his night vision for a moment and looked over. He was sure somebody in the military would be interested in the corpse, but he was damned if he was going to try dragging it onto the Marauder – not in the circumstances. Even burned as it was, the alien looked like it weighed three hundred pounds. The bodies of Corporal Valerio and Private Fleming were a different matter. They were coming home with everyone else.

  “Less than three minutes until extraction, if the Marauder is on time,” said Barkley. “Damn I’ll be glad if we make it away from here.”

  “The debrief for this one is going to take a whole week,” said Diaz.

  “And then we’ll be sent out again. Another planet, more Kijol,” said Lyles.

  Having receded once, the water rose up the beach again. This time, it came as far as the treeline and Maxwell watched it circle his feet, before it receded silently. Though the pull of the water wasn’t strong, it dragged the bodies of Corporal Valerio and Private Fleming further down the beach. Maxwell sighed. He knew he should look. He knew he should pay his respects to the dead, even though they would know nothing of it.

  “Let’s haul these bodies into the trees,” Maxwell said, beckoning Lyles to give him a hand. “So they don’t get washed away.”

  “Do you think there’ll be any more of these waves, Sergeant?” asked Lowe.

  “Maybe,” said Maxwell. “I think the Marauder’s crew was too occupied to count how many pieces of its armour plating fell into to the lake.”

  He strode onto the beach, his boots crunching into the wet sand. Five metres from the waterline, Maxwell heard a shout of alarm.

  “We’ve got a second alien!” yelled Fine. “North.”

  Maxwell spun in that direction. Through a gap in the trees, he saw another of the creatures, standing motionless about fifty metres away. It was facing the soldiers, but the dwindling light from the burning trees wasn’t enough to reveal its face. Motionless as it was, the creature appeared even more hulking – more menacing – than the one Maxwell and his squads had destroyed a short time ago.

  “Kill it,” said Maxwell, lifting his rifle.

  As if the alien heard and understood the order, it turned, quick as a flash and sprinted east. It soaked a few gauss shots, but not enough to bring it down and in moments it was little more than sensed movement between the trees. Then, the darkness swallowed it up.

  Maxwell opened his mouth to give an order, when a shape rose in the periphery of his left eye. He turned, stepping back as he did so, and already knowing what was there.

  The corpse which had once been Private Fleming was on its feet. His chest and abdomen had been torn open and the cavernous wound glistened redly. Through the soldier’s intact visor, dead eyes were open and fixed upon Maxwell. The body of Corporal Valerio was on its feet too, a few paces closer to the waterline, and with the spear of wood still embedded in its side.

  Hating everything about this planet, Maxwell pulled the trigger of his gun. Fleming went down before he could attack, but Valerio lunged forward. Two shots from Lyles stuck the corpse and it fell onto the beach.

  Sometimes, words weren’t enough. Lyles met Maxwell’s gaze, but neither spoke of what they’d done.

  Just inside the treeline, the soldiers had set themselves for another attack, and Vaughan had deployed his repeater at the top of the beach. On the squad channel, Lowe was cursing that he’d failed to get off a shot at the second alien. Either nobody had seen what happened with Valerio and Fleming or they didn’t want to talk about it.

  “One minute to extraction,” said Barkley.

  “Come on, come on,” said Fine.

  Switching on his night vision, Maxwell focused his gaze in the direction he’d last seen the Kijol battleship. Now, the skies were empty, even when he set his visor zoom to maximum.

  “Damn,” he said.

  “Are those two ships still fighting, Sergeant?” asked Lowe.

  “I don’t know,” said Maxwell. “I think the engagement has moved over the horizon. Or just too far for me to see it.”

  The seconds went by, and the alien didn’t show itself again. Nor did the two warships reappear.

  Three minutes and fifty seconds after Lieutenant Lopez had confirmed the pickup, the Marauder appeared low over the horizon. It was travelling fast and Maxwell thought it might overshoot. Instead, Captain Grisham decelerated at just the right moment and the warship came to a halt over the lake, greasy smoke drifting lazily from its friction-heated nose section. A glowing missile crater was visible close to the Marauder’s stern, and a million tons of armour plating looked as if it was about to fall off.

  The forward airlock opened and the boarding ramp extended. It struck the ground halfway up the beach and about forty metres from where Maxwell was standing.

  “Move!” he yelled.

  “What about our dead?” asked Fine.

  “We’re leaving them,” said Maxwell.

  He joined the soldiers in a sprint for the ramp. The first soldiers climbed rapidly. Maxwell didn’t always have to be first man in and last man out, but this time, he waited for everyone to climb ahead of him. Lieutenant Lopez or Lieutenant Bishop must have been watching through one of the hull monitors and they retracted the ramp piece by piece as Maxwell dashed upwards. They didn’t know about the second alien, but they clearly weren’t taking risks.

  Entering the airlock, Maxwell turned and slammed his hand onto the activation panel. He stared through the fast-closing door, wondering if he might see the alien watching from below. Wherever the creature had got to, it wasn’t visible from here.

  The outer airlock door clunked into place, and Maxwell felt the suppressed acceleration of the warship, at the same time as its propulsion rose to a deafening thunder. Maxwell and his soldiers had escaped Xaros. Now they had to wait and see if they would escape the Kijol Eternus.

  End

  The Marauder sped north-east and low to the surface of Xaros. At what he hoped was the right moment, Captain Grisham pulled back on the controls and the warship climbed through the planet’s atmosphere, its velocity increasing.

  Neither the Kijol battleship nor the mysterious alien vessel appeared on the warship’s sensors. Grisham was more than relieved – however close to destruction the Eternus might or might not be, he didn’t want to face it.

  The Marauder tore through the upper reaches of the Xaros atmosphere and out into space. Grisham gave it everything and the velocity gauge climbed towards its maximum.

  “Sir, look at this!” said Lopez. “On the rear feed!”

  Grisham turned an eye to the bulkhead screen. A speck of orange had appeared on Xaros, not far north of the CES compound. Just as the first speck grew, a second speck appeared, then a third and a fourth.

  “Incendiaries,” said Deneuve.

  The fires created by the weapons expanded at incredible speed and Grisham couldn’t take his eyes away. A vast area of the jungle was soon blanketed in flames.

  “If we assume the Eternus came out on top, that means the Kijol are responsible,” said Lopez. “What the hell are they doing?”

  The battleship deployed more and more incendiaries, as if the Kijol intended to reduce the entire northern continent of Xaros to ashes. Eventually, when the planet was far behind, the fires stopped expanding and Grisham guessed the enemy had called a halt to the attack.

  “Keep watching for that Eternus,” he said. “Now they’re done with Xaros, maybe they’ll come looking for us.”

  An hour passed with no sign of pursuit and Grisham brought the Marauder to a standstill.

  “This is far enough,” he said. “Now we wait.” The crew already knew what he intended, but he repeated it anyway. “There’s an HF warship inbound and I want to be here when it arrives, so it doesn’t run into the Eternus - assuming the Kijol don’t leave beforehand. Also, that gives us a few days to find out if Sergeant Maxwell’s soldiers have been affected in any way by that alien they encountered on the planet.”

  “I’ve spoken to Sergeant Maxwell, sir,” said Lopez. “I don’t think we need to quarantine.”

  “We’re staying to warn our backup anyway,” said Grisham.

  He tipped his head and stared at the bridge ceiling. The mission to Xaros had been unexpectedly challenging and, while he deeply regretted the deaths of Corporal Valerio and Private Fleming, it could have ended up much worse.

  Whatever alien species had been hiding under that lake had no doubt murdered everyone in the CES compound. Having watched the Kijol lay waste to the land all around, Grisham was sure the enemy had run into these new aliens before.

  What this meant for the Human Federation, he had no idea. Time would tell.

  * * *

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  Other Science Fiction Books by Anthony James

  Survival Wars (Seven Books) – Available in eBook, Paperback and Audio.

  Crimson Tempest

  Bane of Worlds

  Chains of Duty

  Fires of Oblivion

  Terminus Gate

  Guns of the Valpian

  Mission: Nemesis

  Obsidiar Fleet (Six Books – set after the events in Survival Wars) – Available in eBook and Paperback.

  Negation Force

  Inferno Sphere

  God Ship

  Earth’s Fury

  Suns of the Aranol

  Mission: Eradicate

  The Transcended (Seven Books – set after the events in Obsidiar Fleet) – Available in eBook, Paperback and Audio

  Augmented

  Fleet Vanguard

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