“Forget it, Gunny. There are a lot of dead and wounded here, too. And the bastards took out our shuttles. They caught us with our pants down and then castrated us!”

  Alex’s thoughts turned to Lieutenant Bale, scheduled to go home in time to see his son’s twelfth birthday party. Now, he wouldn’t be going home at all.

  “What are your orders, sir?” Alex asked.

  “Get the hell out of there, all of you,” Weathers replied. “Hopefully, you know the jungle better than they do. You can disappear there.”

  “The jungle? What about the fort? We need rifles. We need⁠—”

  “We counted eight Armadillos descending on the settlements, Gunny. That’s at least sixteen hundred troops. We can’t fight that without air support, without orbital support, without our damned elite units. It’s like they knew the perfect time to strike.”

  “Sir, I⁠—”

  “The dropships have landed, Alex. You need to get out of there alive with your unit. Live to fight another day, Gunny!”

  “What about the injured? The civilians?” Alex asked.

  “If they aren’t Force Recon, they’ll only slow you down or give you away. You have your orders, Gunny.”

  “Yes, sir,” Alex replied sharply.

  Lieutenant Weather’s head whipped to the right. “Who the hell are–” he started to say before a round snapped his head back on his neck, and his DA dropped to the floor.

  “Shit,” Alex cursed.

  “Gunny, I’ve got Malik!” Jackson announced.

  Alex looked back to where the two men stood. Malik had a gash on his forehead, blood running down over his eyes to his cheeks. Zoe was in the middle of tearing a strip of clothing from a dead civilian to use as a tourniquet. She had already done the same for Sarah, whose hastily pressurized arm hung limp at her side, still dripping blood.

  “Man, I take back everything I said about sim training being boring,” Malik groaned.

  "Scorpions, on me," Alex ordered, his voice raw and hoarse. "We're heading for the jungle. Stay low, stay fast. Move!"

  CHAPTER 19

  The Scorpions set off at a running crouch, leaving the debris-strewn passageway behind and heading for the jungle from outside the domes. Overhead, the thunder of explosions and the high-pitched whine of starfighter engines joined the sharper buzz of drones in a hellish symphony of destruction.

  “We have no cover out here,” Jackson said, eyes scanning the nearby area.

  “Look!” Sarah said, pointing back the way they had come. The spaceport was a cratered ruin, the twisted remains of the shuttles sent to evacuate them lying amidst the rubble. An Armadillo hovered above it, ground troops in apparent power armor dropping from its open hull.

  “We need to move faster,” Zoe cried.

  He gritted his teeth, a low growl of anger rising in Alex's throat. It was all he could do to choke it back. Payback later, he ordered himself as he forced his gaze back to the trees before him. Survive now.

  “No time,” Alex said. “We go back.”

  “What?”

  “We’re out of time. We can’t outrun them. We need to lose them in the domes. They don’t know their way around. We do. Let’s go.”

  Alex and the Scorpions moved swiftly through the ravaged landscape of Hut. Retracing their steps towards Miyaki’s, they found the first dome still intact, though the once bustling settlement had gone silent, with most residents likely hiding wherever they thought they wouldn’t be found. Of course, once the initial invasion was over—and it wouldn’t be long in coming—the enemy would locate every last one of them. The only question was what would happen to the civilians when they did.

  Based on the Lieutenant’s end, Alex had a bad feeling it wouldn’t be pretty.

  Alex's heart sank as they neared the dome housing Miyaki's bar. A missile strike had hit it directly, the powerful warhead leaving a gaping hole in the dome’s structure and leveling the buildings inside.

  They quickly picked their way through the broken glass covering the floor, the crunch beneath their boots a somber accompaniment to the continuing sounds of battle. Alex tried not to look too closely at the bodies strewn about, civilians caught in the crossfire of a war they had no part in.

  "This is...I can't believe this is happening," Sarah murmured, her voice thick with emotion as she cradled her injured arm. "Why would anyone do this?"

  "I don't know," Alex replied, his jaw clenched tight. "But we're going to find out. And when we do, we'll make them pay."

  They pressed on, following the passageways towards the outer perimeter of the settlement. Overhead, the aerial battle raged on, Marine starfighters engaging the enemy drones in a dizzying display of speed and firepower.

  A drone and a starfighter collided in a loud crash that drew their attention upward. Alex’s eyes widened when he spotted the two mangled craft locked together and on fire, the wreckage hurtling down directly toward them.

  "Get down!" he screamed, diving, with Sarah, beneath the roof of one of the collapsed merchant stalls just as the flaming debris smashed through the dome's roof. The resulting impact and explosion were deafening, the shockwave and heat slamming into them like a physical blow. A hot deluge of transparent metal shards rained down on them.

  Alex and Sarah both lay there momentarily, their palms covering their ringing ears. Alex cast the pain off first, pushing himself up, followed by Sarah, small bits of debris cascading off them.. The other three Scorpions, shaken but unharmed, emerged from the space under a fallen wall.

  They looked around, surveying the damage. A piece of the wreckage, now a smoldering heap of twisted metal that could have easily made what was left of this dome their tomb, had barely missed them.

  "That was too damn close," Malik muttered, brushing plastic dust out of his kinky black hair as he warily eyed the wreckage of the unsteady wall he’d just crawled out from under.

  “No shit,” Alex’s heart was still pounding from the near miss. "We need to keep moving."

  They set off again at a full run, with Alex choosing the next passageway, leading them towards the residential domes and then on to the jungle, where he hoped they would find relative safety. But what did that mean, exactly? Brix station was gone, and every jump-capable starship had been destroyed with it. Hell, even the shuttles and their dropships were in mangled pieces lying right where they’d been caught taking off or still static on the ground, never able to reach their objectives. Where did that leave Scorpion Squad? Thanks to their training, they could hide and live off the land for some time.

  But they couldn’t leave the damn planet.

  As they rounded a corner, Alex saw two figures moving towards them, their charcoal uniforms marking them as fellow Marines. Appearing younger than everyone in his squad except Zoe, they looked haggard and shell-shocked, their eyes wide with the horrors they had witnessed.

  "Gunny!" the Corporal a step ahead of a Private called out, relief washing over his tan face as he recognized the rank insignia on Alex's sleeve. "Thank God. What the hell is happening? We were in the residential sector when everything went to shit.”

  Alex held up a hand, motioning for them to keep their voices down. "We're under attack," he explained quickly, his voice low and urgent. “By whom, we don’t know. The station is gone, along with the Navy patrol ships. The enemy’s breached the fort’s defenses. We're trying to get to the jungle, find a place to regroup and figure out our next move."

  The two Marines exchanged a glance. “Fort Brix…is gone? That’s…impossible,” the red-headed Private said.

  Up close, the kid’s freckles made him look even younger. Alex didn’t think he could be any older than eighteen. “Hardly impossible,” he replied. “Just unlikely. But it happened.”

  “Damn.”

  "We're with you, Gunny," the Corporal said. "Just tell us what to do."

  Alex hesitated, Lieutenant Weather’s final order echoing in his mind. These Marines weren’t special forces, and Mark had been right; they would likely only slow them down. But now, as he looked at them and saw the desperation on their faces, he knew with certainty that his father would never leave them behind.

  He couldn’t either.

  "Alright," he said, making his decision. "But stay close and follow my orders. We don't know what we're up against out here."

  The Marines nodded, following the Scorpions as they introduced themselves. "Nick Jameson, Information Systems,” the Private said, giving Alex a quick nod.

  "Corporal Diego Alvarez, Air Traffic Control,” the second added, his voice strained but determined

  “I’m Alex Strickland. I answer to my rank or to either my first or last name. This is Scorpion Squad, Force Recon.” He pointed to each one individually and introduced them by first name only. “This is Jackson. Sarah. Malik. And that’s Zoe.” The patches above their left breast pockets already gave their last name and first initial.

  “You’re Force Recon?” Nick said. “Damn, we lucked out running into you guys.”

  “You sure did,” Jackson replied as the expanded group made their way through to the next dome. Composed of clothing stores and simple eateries, its layout targeted the residents of Hut rather than the military visitors, meaning they had almost made it to the outer domes.

  “Residential Dome Twelve is just through the passageway there,” Nick said, motioning to the exit. “If the jungle is where we’re going, we can get to open air through the unused connector at the far side.”

  “Then that’s our move,” Alex said just as a shadow fell across them.

  “Well, hell,” Malik cursed.

  An enemy dropship hovered directly overhead.

  ”I think our luck just went from shit to explosive diarrhea,” Malik continued.

  Alex cursed as he realized what was about to happen. “This way!” he yelled, leading the Marines between two of the buildings just as the dropship released its payload. The charge detonated against the dome's apex, blasting a hole through the reinforced material, the next sending a shower of debris into the center of the dome.

  Immediately, enemy soldiers began to drop through the gaping wound in the dome's roof, their powered armor glinting in the light.

  “Is that Kikko armor?” Nick said, watching the enemy from the alley.

  “Kikko?” Jackson replied.

  “The Kurata armor replaced it,” Alex explained. “That’s last generation, just like the Armadillos. It’s like someone raided a military trash bin for their gear. Come on, we can’t stay here.”

  They crept forward, using the buildings and structural supports as cover while the enemy soldiers fired jets to slow their descent. Touching gracefully down inside the dome, they immediately began spreading out, first to cover the exits and then to search the structures and alleys.

  “They know we’re here,” Zoe whispered.

  “They know someone’s here,” Alex corrected. “They don’t know where. Stay close.”

  He led them behind the building to a maintenance entrance, which was locked—not for long. He pulled out his DA and placed it against the security pad. With a couple of taps inside his military-issue door-cracking software, the door clicked open. Alex waved everyone through, disappearing inside just as one of the enemy soldiers came around the corner.

  “Who the hell are these guys?” Malik repeated in a whisper while they waited for the soldier to sweep past their position.

  “All that gear was supposed to be scrapped or melted down and repurposed,” Alvarez replied. “Seems like someone was siphoning it somewhere else. Probably selling it to black markets. It happens more than you think.”

  “How do you sell a starship on a black market?” Zoe asked. “Especially a decommissioned military starship.”

  “I don’t know,” Alvarez admitted. “But it’s a big galaxy. I bet it happens.”

  “I’m going to check the door,” Alex said.

  “Gunny, here, take this,” Malik said, pulling a small pistol from under the back of his shirt.

  “Nice job, Corporal,” Alex replied, accepting the gun.

  “Always prepared,” Malik answered.

  Alex turned the door handle slowly, pushing it open just a crack. The enemy soldier had his back to them, sweeping further up the back alley. The other direction was clear.

  He signaled his team out into the alley as the enemy fighter went around the corner. They stayed tight against the building, moving as fast as they could toward the far end. A scream echoed as one of the soldiers found one of the civilians. Alex braced for a gunshot that thankfully never came.

  Tense minutes passed as they crept through the alleys, doing their best to stay one step ahead of the enemy soldiers while they headed for the passageway to the next dome.

  He was sure they were going to make it.

  A gunshot behind them killed that thought as quickly as it sprouted. Alex spun, his blood running cold as he saw Nick hit the synthcrete, half his skull blown off when he passed an intersecting alley.

  Knowing the soldier would advance to check on the fallen Marine, Alex waved the others to continue forward while he retreated, getting closer to the corner with Malik’s weapon in hand. A single Marine like Nick sneaking behind the shopping units didn’t warrant calling for backup. Alex had an opportunity to take out a lone enemy, and he didn’t want to pass it up.

  The enemy trooper reached Jameson’s body and knelt beside it, reaching out to turn the dead man’s face so he could get a better look at him. Alex couldn’t help noticing the Marine insignia etched into the armor, infuriating him even more.

  Alex launched himself at the soldier, tackling him in a tangle of limbs and armor. They grappled, Alex straining to gain the upper hand as the trooper fought back with armor-enhanced strength. He had no chance of beating the fighter in a brawl, which wasn’t why he’d tackled him.

  Gritting his teeth, Alex tugged at the soldier’s helmet, jamming the muzzle of the pistol into the gap between the man’s helmet and the body of his armor. The protection muffled the sound of the shot, and the trooper's body jerked once before slumping to the ground beside Nick’s body.

  Alex rolled off the fallen soldier and back to his feet. He retrieved the soldier's weapon, as familiar as the armor, and quickly caught up to the others.

  “Target neutralized,” he announced, receiving soft oorahs in return before he saw Diego looking back at Nick’s Body. “Sorry about your friend,” he said, squeezing Diego’s upper arm.

  “Oh, we weren’t friends. We just ran into each other leaving housing, but still…”

  “I know, but you have to shake it off. Right now.”

  Diego’s attention snapped back to Alex. “Yes, sir. I hear you. Uh…” He looked around. “The corridor to residential is just past this building ”

  “They’re sure to have stationed guards there,” Alex offered, handing Jackson Malick’s pistol. “I want you to count to thirty, then go around the corner and start shooting.”

  “This peashooter of Mal’s won’t penetrate their armor,” Jackson whispered.

  “No, but it will get their attention.”

  “Copy that. Don’t hang me out to dry, Gunny.”

  “Never,” Alex replied, clapping the man on the shoulder. “Thirty seconds. Start counting.”

  Thirty.

  He used his DA to unlock the maintenance door to the building and slipped inside, keeping the count in his head.

  Twenty-five.

  Climbing emergency stairs to the second floor, he advanced down the corridor. The upper level contained smaller apartments. He chose one and tried to open the door.

  Twenty.

  Locked.

  Fifteen.

  He wasted five seconds cracking it open and pushed his way inside. A couple cowering in the corner with their young child drew his attention. He quickly put his finger to his mouth, hoping to keep them quiet, but the child cried out in fear.

  Ten.

  Alex rushed across the apartment and up the stairs to the second-story bedroom near the front corner. Circling the bed, he reached the electrochromic window, which was currently opaque.

  Five.

  He raised the rifle butt. Timing was everything.

  One.

  Gunshots crackled down below as Jackson came out of hiding, firing on the guards with the sidearm. Simultaneously, Alex smashed the rifle butt through the window, the sound smothered beneath the echoing reports. Flipping the weapon back over and shouldering it, he spotted the two guards turning toward Jackson, rifles moving to firing position. He had only three seconds at best to cut down both fighters before they shredded Scorpion Three.

  He needed only two.

  Crack. One heartbeat. Another crack.

  The two rounds from the rifle Alex had seized punched through the less-protected rear panel of their helmets, penetrating metal, bone, and brain. When both soldiers collapsed, Jackson and Zoe rushed towards them to collect their weapons.

  Malik looked up at Alex, using hand gestures to signal more tangoes down the street. Alex took a breath and backed up a step before surging forward, throwing himself through what was left of the window. He tucked his shoulder as he fell, hitting the ground floor of the dome in a well-practiced roll that reduced the impact. It still hurt to hit from that height, but he bounced up at once, ignoring the pain.

  Gunfire rang out, the enemy opening fire on them as they sprinted for the connecting passageway. Jackson and Zoe laid down cover fire, quickly expending the ammunition in the rifles to hold back the invaders and allow Alex to catch up. He continued shooting back at the soldiers until his weapon went dry, too.

  By then, they were racing down the connecting passageway, headed for the next dome.

  CHAPTER 20

  Alex and Scorpion squad raced through the connecting passageway, the air thick with tension and the smell of smoke from the smoldering spaceport. Behind them, pursuing footsteps echoed, a reminder of the enemy forces hot on their heels. Their hearts pounding, they pushed themselves to their limits.

  As they burst into the next dome, another ominous shadow of a dropship moved overhead. For a heart-stopping moment, they braced themselves for the blast of its weapons, but to their surprise, no attack came.