He remained static on top of the ADC. The first group of trife vanished into the darkness, the second drawing near. Their maneuver was bringing them closer to the ADC, and Caleb realized they were planning to use the top of it as a platform to leap onto the giraffiphant.

  His P-50 lit up the area, belching bolts at the demons. The rounds sizzled into the trife, multiple bolts hitting each and knocking the right flank down before they could react. The left responded instantly to the assault, quickly switching tactics and changing targets. They charged the ADC, and Caleb swung his plasma rifle and fired, knocking one of them down. The other two diverted, vanishing behind the nearest trees.

  “Guardians, they know we’re here, and they know we’re deadly,” Caleb said.

  “Roger,” Flores replied.

  “Hal, how much longer?”

  “Almost done, Sarge,” Hal replied.

  Caleb glanced at his tactical. The remaining pair of trife had vanished. Not only that, the giraffiphants were gone, their stampede through this part of the jungle complete.

  How many trife were still behind them, trailing their prey?

  How many were already nearby?

  “Flores, anything?” he asked. The ADC’s sensors had better reach than their ATCS, and now that the other creatures were gone, there wouldn’t be as much noise.

  “Still negative, Sarge,” she replied. “The grid’s gone dark. If the bastards are still out there, they must have a stealth mode.”

  “Great,” Caleb said. “We can’t even rely on our eyes for this one, Wash.”

  Nevertheless, the other Marine was sweeping his eyes back and forth and rotating up, trying to watch all of the angles. If these trife had some sort of stealth mode, it was going to make them a hundred times more dangerous.

  “Sarge, look up!” Flores shouted through the comm.

  Caleb’s head snapped up just in time to see the branches shaking. He didn’t wait for something to fall on him, sending a burst of bolts into the canopy. They lit up the area, revealing nearly a dozen trife about to pounce.

  “Flores, the stampede is over, get us moving!” Caleb snapped. “Wash, Hal, brace!”

  Caleb hooked his foot around the base of the drone launcher, using it to steady himself as the ADC lurched forward. Washington planted himself, remaining upright, just as the trife began to fall.

  They didn’t drop the way Caleb expected. They spread their arms, revealing a thin layer of membrane stretching from their arms to their hips that guided their descent.

  “Shit,” Caleb cursed, firing at them. He only got a pair of bolts off before his ATCS blared in warning. A new group of enemies appeared on the left flank, already too damn close. He pivoted toward them, and a moment later his ATCS lit up again, revealing a third group right in front of the ADC. “Hal, we need that waveform generator now.”

  “You can’t begin to understand the complexity of the technology,” Hal replied.

  “It can’t be that complex if you’re sticking it in a human-made drone.” The AI didn’t answer. “Wash, take the front. I’ll manage the sky and left flank.”

  Washington pivoted in response to the order. The airborne trife were sinking toward them, and Caleb turned the dial on his P-50 to stream mode. He didn’t want to use up so much charge at once, but there wasn’t much choice. He held his fire, waiting for the trife to get as close as possible. The more he could hit with the stream the better.

  “Hold on, Guardians,” Flores said.

  Caleb crouched slightly as the ADC hit something on the ground and bounced sideways, slowing as it shook. The trife used the shift as their signal to move in, the flying demons adjusting their wings and swooping toward them, while the trife on the flank charged on all fours.

  Caleb squeezed the trigger, sending a fount of plasma at the trife. The blast engulfed half a dozen of them, and they screamed and tumbled behind the ADC. He pivoted to the flank, ready to hit them too.

  His ATCS cried out again, pinpointing a group of trife appearing on the opposite side, nearly on top of the ADC.

  Where the hell had they come from? He couldn’t hit them and the group on the left at the same time. The trife had perfectly coordinated the assault in a manner he had never experienced before. These creatures weren’t only bigger, stronger, and more armored than the trife on Earth. They were also smarter and better organized.

  “Hal!” Caleb shouted as three trife leaped onto the roof of the ADC. He spun to blast them, knowing the group from the left would be on his back the moment he did.

  “Done!” Hal said.

  “Flores, fire it up!” Caleb shouted, hitting the attacking trife with plasma and knocking the newest group down.

  The group on the flank reacted as expected, and he felt the first one hit his back and push him forward, driving him off the edge of the ADC. He fell, hitting the ground with the demon still on his back.

  He would never have known the drone was active, except the trife over him didn’t dig its claws into the back of his neck. It froze, giving him plenty of time to buck up and throw it from his back.

  He rounded on it. The trife was still, it’s small eyes dark, its mouth hanging open. It didn’t follow the waveform, but it was confused by it. Caleb quickly swapped his P-50 for his MK-12, putting the muzzle to its eye and pulling the trigger. It collapsed instantly.

  They had evened the odds, but the fight wasn’t over. They would have only seconds to kill as many trife as they could before the creatures recovered.

  Washington was doing his best, having swapped plasma for projectiles. He fired single rounds into weak spots in the trife flesh. Hal was active too, grabbing the trife on the ADC and smoothly snapping their necks despite the added protection. His show of strength was both incredible and frightening.

  The ADC came to a stop, and the drone lifted into the air, staying close to the vehicle as it rotated in the direction of the trife. The forward gun began to fire, cutting them down in a hurry.

  The trife finally broke out of their confusion. They hissed but didn’t attack, instead choosing to run from the Guardians as quickly as they could manage, vanishing into the brush in the opposite direction of the herd.

  Caleb exhaled heavily, thankful to have made it through without injury. He checked Washington and Flores’ vitals before returning his rifle to his back and scaling back up the side of the ADC. The drone pivoted and dropped smoothly into its launcher, still humming slightly.

  “Nice job,” Caleb said to Hal.

  “Adequate,” Hal replied.

  “The trife are here on Essex.”

  “Obviously.”

  “That’s bad for us.”

  “Very.”

  “They aren’t like the ones on Earth.”

  “No.”

  “I was hoping you might be able to elaborate. Our scientists believed the trife asteroids came from this part of the galaxy. But you were supposed to be an early warning system for the Relyeh before they ever made it to this planet. Now we have confirmation that the Relyeh have been here, and they have trife here, and they’re a newer and probably better version than what they sent to Earth.”

  “A mostly accurate assessment, Sarge.”

  “Why only mostly?”

  “Because the Relyeh should not be here now. It is counter to their conventional expansion patterns.”

  “What exactly does that mean?”

  “I don’t know yet. I have decided we require a solution to the Axon quantum waveform problem.”

  “You think your upgraded model is a bigger threat than the trife?”

  “I don’t know. I have come up with two potential avenues of consideration. One, the Relyeh have broken our operational encryption scheme and gained control of the Axon AI. Two, the Axon AI have gained control of the uluth, similar to how I seized control of the hybrids. The disappearance of the Axon on this world suggests the first, but neither explains the change in strategy.”

  “Some people on Earth thought the trife were sent because we developed technologies that would allow us a greater degree of freedom beyond our atmosphere. Near-FTL engines, fusion reactors, artificial gravity and so on. Could that have anything to do with it?”

  “The Relyeh do not attack life forms until they have proven themselves to be sufficiently advanced. But they also do not circumvent such worlds. They can afford to be patient.”

  “Except in this case.”

  “That seems to be true.”

  “And the trife are here, and the Deliverance is here, and who knows what kind of trouble the colony is in.”

  “I care not for your colony. The Axon are missing. If the Relyeh have already prepared this world, my mission to inform them is ever more critical. I require you. You have value to me.”

  “I love you too, Hal,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “But I need to go back to the Deliverance and tell them what we found. We need to find some way off this planet.”

  “Your ship is catastrophically damaged.”

  “Then maybe there’s another way. How are you going to tell the Axon what you’ve learned if they aren’t here?”

  “The Axon city will have communications equipment.”

  “Will it also have starships?”

  “No.”

  “You went to Earth on a starship. Your species has them.”

  “The creators do not use them.”

  “So how do the Axon get from one planet to another?”

  “I require you.”

  “I saw what you did to those trife. I’m not sure how much you need us.”

  “I require you.”

  “So if we stay the course, you’ll help me get the colonists somewhere safe?”

  “I will accept the mission. You do not understand the gravity of this outcome.”

  “Believe me. I do.” Caleb glanced at the AI. Then he looked back at the trife he had shot. Then he looked back at Hal before pointing. “That one is about the same size as Sho, give or take.”

  “You want me to use an uluth as a capsule?” Hal replied.

  “You already agreed to it, remember? I didn’t say the capsule would be combat armor.”

  “I won’t be able to speak.”

  “Even better. But I have a feeling you’ll find a way.”

  “And the claws? I can’t manipulate anything with those.”

  “You grew tendrils out of Sho’s hands,” Caleb said, getting annoyed. “I think you can manage.”

  “No.”

  “You said you would. As a machine, are you capable of not keeping your promise?”

  “In certain circumstances.”

  “Is this one of them?”

  “No,” Hal admitted. Then it jumped off the ADC, landing beside the trife. It looked up at Caleb again, as though beginning him to change his mind.

  “Go ahead,” Caleb said. “I’m not going to watch.”

  He turned away. He didn’t want to see how the AI shed Sho’s skin and took the trife’s. It would only upset him more. He could still hear it. The splitting open of flesh, the shifting of the bodies, and other noises he couldn’t align to an action. He focused on their surroundings, watching for more trife.

  He knew it was done when Hal tapped him on the shoulder with shortened and rounded trife claws. He almost wished he hadn’t asked the AI to take the creature as a capsule when he looked into the demon’s silver eyes. It was as unsettling to be so close to something he considered an enemy as it was to look at Sho.

  “Washington. Flores. Hal has a new host. Help me give Sho the send-off she deserves.”

  “Roger, Sarge,” Flores said. “On my way.”

  Caleb jumped off the ADC, kneeling beside Sho. He had learned to manage seeing Hal in her form. He could barely stand to look at her now. Lifeless. Empty. Cold. He reached out and touched her face, remembering her last words.

  I did it for you.

  He held back his pain as Washington joined him on Sho’s other side.

  “Damn,” Flores said behind them. “It’s like Halloween.” She came up behind Caleb, putting her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Sarge.”

  “She’s been gone for days,” Caleb said. “This really is just a shell. A capsule. She’s someplace better now.”

  “Roger that,” Flores said. Washington nodded somberly. “Sarge, the trife —”

  “I know,” Caleb said, cutting her off.

  “And the colony —”

  “I know.”

  “What do we do?”

  “What Sho would have wanted. We keep fighting.”

  Chapter 36

  Sam rolled onto her side and glanced at the display on the nightstand. Two in the morning, Metro time. She pondered that thought for a moment. Metro time. What did that even mean anymore? What did Metro mean? What did it stand for? What was it going to become?

  The start of a new human civilization?

  Or the end of the old one?

  As long as Governor Stone was running things, she was too sure it would be the latter.

  She flopped onto her back, staring up at the top of her cube. When the Governor had told her he wanted her to be a Colonel in his new military, she had been elated. In that slice of time, she had thought it would be a chance to help mold the defense of the colony and ensure Sergeant Card’s ideas would be implemented. She believed in Caleb and his plans, and she agreed their best chance of keeping the citizens safe was to be as prepared as they could.

  Even Governor Stone agreed, at least now that he had the full firepower of the hidden armory at his disposal. He had put all of Caleb’s ideas into motion, prioritizing the communications systems and the training of guards and law officers in the new weapons, as well as putting a framework in place to secure not only the city but the entire broken starship from a possible outside attack. What he had accomplished in eight hours was impressive. The Governor worked tirelessly to get everything in motion, calling in numerous people and barking orders at them with practiced ease. It was hard not to respect him for everything he had decided to do.

  Except…

  He had to throw a wrench in her excitement. He had to exact his revenge against her for helping Caleb in the hospital. He couldn’t forgive and forget. He couldn’t put it aside. That wasn’t his way, and while Sam was expecting something punitive to come, she had thought it would take the form of Stone’s brother. She was single because she was more interested in her job than most of the men in Metro, and it was against protocol to marry someone in the same line of work.

  He was single because he was a lazy, unintelligent, adult baby.

  As a Colonel reporting directly to the new Governor-General, she should be passing orders down the chain of command, not preparing to be one of the first Metro citizens to leave the confines of the ship. She should be overseeing the organization of the defenses, not getting ready to abandon it.

  But that wasn’t how the Governor wanted it to be. He wanted to show her who was boss and put her loyalty to the ultimate test. He wanted to make her do something he knew she didn’t want to do.

  Kill Sergeant Card?

  She wasn’t sure she could even if she wanted to. He was a trained Marine who had extensive experience in all kinds of hostile environments, against all kinds of opposition. She was a Sheriff who had never seen anything but Metro before the Guardians arrived. She didn’t know the first thing about surviving beyond the metal walls of the city, let alone how to get the drop on a real warrior.

  But that was the point, wasn’t it? To let her think she was back in the Governor’s good graces, and then drop the hammer when she least expected it.

  The look on her face when he gave the order was probably priceless. She hadn’t said a word in response. She couldn’t say anything in Caleb’s defense without looking like a sympathizer. She couldn’t question Stone’s orders. Not now.

  And Stone damn well knew it.

  He had put her between a rock and a hard place and left her there to be crushed. There was no easy way out of it, and just in case she managed to figure something out, he had assembled her team instead of letting her select the law officers she believed were most qualified for the job. On the one hand, it was probably better that way. She didn’t want the Guardians hurting the people she cared most about. On the other, it made it much more challenging to avoid the confrontation in the first place.

  Damn it.

  She rolled over again, sliding out of bed. Stone had given them ten hours of free time to rest up, figuring Caleb wasn’t going to get all that far in a day or two. At least not far enough to get away. One of his directives was to send deputies to every corner of the Deliverance to look for more ‘goodies’ as he called them and take inventory of everything they found. A few of the areas were still locked down. Others were destroyed. Deputy Klahanie had gone as far as he could into the ship’s systems, and he had managed to clear the safeguards put in place to keep the trife out of Metro. But he had reached a dead end when it came to opening Research. The area was locked down tight, the security controls on the subnetwork sandboxed away from the primary systems. Sam had a feeling she knew who, how, and why.

  The expeditions had proven fruitful. Not long after Chief Engineer King got the comms up and running, an exploratory group led by Sheriff Zane had discovered a third area through a heavy blast door behind the rows of Daggers behind the smaller hangar in the ship’s bow. That hold contained a half-dozen transports, cigar-shaped vehicles with stubby nacelles attached to the sides. Zane had dubbed them FPs because of their head-on profile. Stone was amused by the term but rejected it as the official name for the vehicles, which had FCT stenciled on the sides.

  The transports could carry eight passengers and a pilot and could skim the surface of the planet at heights of up to two hundred meters. Sam didn’t know how they were used on Earth or if they had ever been used on Earth at all. They had both the perfect environment and a definite use for them here, even if the intended use turned her stomach.

  The first step was to determine which direction the Guardians had traveled. They had already trained a few deputies on the Governor’s flight simulator, giving them just enough experience that they knew how to launch and fly one without driving it directly into the ground. The machines were intentionally easy to use in a fundamental way and much harder to use for more complex maneuvers. All the Deliverance Defense Force needed them to do was follow a straight path so they could look down on the landscape.