But the odds of hitting the perfect layer on the first try? One in three hundred thirty seven. Pretty low. Yet they had done it. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Could it?

  Of course, it could. There was no rule that it had to be the fiftieth slip or the fifth. It was foolish to think otherwise. Besides, the setup wasn’t perfect. Hitting the Invernenergy array and dealing with the queen before she and her trife could come near the base would have been better.

  Was that why he had such a bad feeling about this? Maybe he should just chalk his knotted stomach up to nerves. He knew how much Yasmin needed this. They couldn’t save their Luke, but saving the Luke in this layer would at least give her some closure. Some peace. He wanted that for her, more than anything. And he couldn’t deny he needed it for himself.

  “Jennifer, how long?” he asked.

  “ETA twelve minutes, Captain,” she replied.

  “It’s going to be tight, but that should be just enough time to get boots on the ground and into the hangar behind the trife.”

  “Copy that,” Caleb said.

  “You okay over there, B?” Scott asked. “Your heart rate is through the roof.”

  Nicholas glanced at Briar’s icon on the HUD. She was listed there as Carter, since the base armor had been his. Her heart rate was nearly one hundred fifty.

  “I’m fine,” she replied. “A little nervous.”

  “A little?”

  “I don’t like flying.”

  The statement drew a tension-reducing laugh from the group.

  “I’ve got point,” Caleb said. “Follow behind me, wedge formation. Don’t block each other’s line of fire. Captain, you’ve got the rear guard. Watch our six.”

  “Copy that,” Nicholas replied.

  “What’s a wedge formation?” Macey asked.

  “Just spread out in a staggered column behind me,” Caleb said, changing formation to meet the others’ inexperience. “Briar, Macey, Scott, Yasmin, Max. Nicholas last. We can’t afford to lose you, Cap. Remember that.”

  “Copy.”

  The cabinet door behind Nicholas opened, bumping into him. He moved aside and it swung the rest of the way open, allowing Dag to climb out.

  “Negation,” Max said. “You will affect the alteration if you participate.”

  Dag lowered his head dejectedly before returning to his compartment.

  “I’m activating the hologram now,” Jennifer announced. “How do I know it’s working?”

  “Confirmation. It is working,” Max replied.

  The minutes passed slowly as the Knights fell into a nervous silence. Foresight descended so smoothly Nicholas barely felt any of the G-Forces pushing him back, though he knew they were approaching at a pretty steep angle.

  “Geez,” Jennifer said, breaking the collective silence. “I didn’t realize there were so many trife down there.”

  “That’s because a lot of them were inside when we lifted off,” Nicholas explained.

  “Are you sure we can’t use the spines?”

  “Confirmation. We do not know what the end result might be.”

  “Okay,” Jennifer reluctantly agreed. “We’re T-minus one minute, Captain.”

  “Caleb, you have command,” Nicholas said.

  Caleb nodded. “Just stick close behind me, shoot at anything that isn’t human.”

  “Copy that.”

  Nicholas glanced down at the magnetized boots of his combat armor, sensing the change of inertia as Foresight slowed to land. Caleb started toward the hatch, boots clanging on the deck with each step. The others trailed behind him.

  “We’ve got this B,” Scott said.

  “We’ve got this,” Briar agreed. “Go Knights.”

  “Thirty seconds,” Jennifer announced. “I’ve got eyes on the queen. She’s at the hangar doors.”

  “We’re almost out of time,” Nicholas said.

  “Attention Fort Hood Marines,” Caleb said, opening a comm channel to their frequency. “This is Sergeant Caleb Card. My team and I were flying overhead and noticed a bit of a mess down here. We thought you could use a little help.”

  “Sergeant Card?” Colonel Haines replied. “This is practically a miracle. I can’t believe it. Hell yes, we could use some help. Whatever you can offer, Sergeant.”

  “Just pass the word on to our fellow Marines, ma’am,” Caleb said. “We’ll hit the trife from behind, and we’d appreciate not being shot at.”

  “You’ve got it, Card.”

  The last seconds seemed like an eternity to him as they waited for Foresight to touch down. When Jennifer reached ten seconds, Caleb hit the control to open the hatch, allowing warm air to sweep into the hold. Looking out, Nicholas spotted a sea of trife gathered around the queen, all of them trying to break the defenses and get inside.

  “There you are, you bitch,” Yasmin said, stepping up to the hatch.

  Caleb didn’t wait for Foresight to reach skids down. He jumped out when it was still two meters above the ground, landing easily. Nicholas glanced at Yasmin. They nodded to one another and jumped out together, landing smoothly behind Caleb with the help of the synthetic muscles. They pulled their rifles from their backs and waited while the others disembarked, following Caleb as he charged into the mass of trife.

  He didn’t waste any time on the regular trife, firing a pair of bolts into the back of the queen’s head. She paused her attack on the blast doors, looking back at him and opening her mouth in a sharp hiss. Immediately, the entire back half of the mass of trife turned and focused on Caleb.

  “Impression,” Max said. “Bad idea. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “Plasma rifles to stream,” Caleb ordered sharply. “TIghten up, run straight through, keep the gas flowing.”

  “Copy that,” Scott said.

  Nicholas turned the dial on his rifle to stream, glancing over his shoulder to make sure their six remained clear. The trife were all in front of them at the moment. Only Foresight sat behind them, disguised as a larger, more squared atmospheric dropship.

  Caleb finally unleashed hell from his plasma rifle, swinging the gout side to side and blasting any trife who tried to get too close. The others moved up behind him, following his lead and sticking close together, burning away handfuls of the aliens with each slowly passing second.

  Nicholas covered their backs, twisting at the waist, his stream of plasma preventing the trife from circling around behind them. His legs complained from the effort, but this was no time to give in to aches. They drove through the demons, surrounded by gnashing teeth and flailing claws.

  “Let’s go, Knights! Don’t slow down!” Caleb shouted over the comms.

  His words had the desired effect, motivating the group to continue plowing forward. The trife swirled around them like an angry sea, desperately trying to get close to fulfill their instinctual desires to kill humans. One managed to get a claw on Nicholas’ armor, scraping the hard chestplate and leaving a deep scratch before its head melted beneath the heat of his plasma bolt. A second trife smacked his arm. Scott’s stream took it down a moment later.

  “Thank you,” Nicholas said.

  “De nada,” Scott replied.

  Nicholas lost track of Foresight in the midst of the alien horde, which continually grew more cautious in the face of their assault. More and more of the demons began backing away to the edge of the stream’s short range, waiting more patiently for the kill. It didn’t matter. These trife weren’t the problem. They were just nuisances in the way of the real target.

  Nicholas lifted his eyes to the hangar blast doors. The queen had damaged one of the outer doors badly enough that it had jammed open, leaving a gap for the trife to enter the hangar. He couldn’t find her near it, which meant she was already inside.

  “Caleb, we need to pick up the pace,” he barked into the comm.

  “I’m getting through them as fast as I can,” Caleb replied.

  “We aren’t going to make it,” Yasmin hissed.

  “We have to use the spines,” Briar said. “Jennifer can open us up a path.”

  “Negation,” Max replied. “Hesitation. Here comes the cavalry. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Nicholas didn’t know what the Intellect meant until he looked over his shoulder. A half-dozen APCs came around Foresight’s flanks, charging hard toward the hangar. Their heavy machine guns opened fire, ripping into the trife surrounding the group and reducing pressure on the Knights.

  “Captain, there are a lot of trife coming up behind me,” Jennifer said.

  “Get off the ground,” he replied. “Dropships are a lot more delicate, and the trife will go after them if they catch them skids down.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Knights, we’ve got rides incoming,” he announced, waving to the APCs as they approached, Foresight launching into the air behind them.

  Two of the APCs slowed between them and the trife, and Nicholas jumped onto the side, the magnetic locks holding his boots to the machine. Yasmin and Briar jumped on as well. Max, Scott and Macey jumped on the second one, both gunners swinging their machine guns around to spew rounds into the slick, mowing them down like blades of grass.

  The APCs sped up again, trampling any trife that got in their way and charging hard into the hangar. An echoing screech sounded as one of the first APCs to enter was smashed aside by the queen. Dumped on its side, it went skidding across the floor and flipped twice.

  “Caleb, where are you?” Nicholas asked.

  “I’m going for the queen,” he replied. “Try to circle her and keep her under fire.”

  The APCs squeezed through the broken hangar door. Nicholas found the queen right away, his chest clenching in anger at the sight of her. She screeched and lunged forward, rushing Scott and Briar’s ride.

  Scott grabbed Briar’s arm and pulled her off, rolling on the floor just before the queen’s shoulder smashed into the vehicle, throwing it across the hangar with Max still attached. If Scott had the microspear, he might have been able to stick it in her clawed foot right as the queen turned toward Nicholas’ APC.

  “Off!” Nicholas shouted, dragging Yasmin with him as he bailed. The queen ducked beneath the machine gun as it turned toward her. Digging her claws beneath its front end, she heaved it up and over, flipping it onto its back. The truck would have hit Briar if Max hadn’t tackled her, the pair tumbling out of the way.

  “Nick, look,” Yasmin said, pointing.

  Nicholas followed her finger. Luke. He and this layer’s Briar were pushing a cart loaded with ammunition toward one of the fixed machine gun batteries. They didn’t get very far before the queen darted across the hangar and slashed the gunner, tearing the gun out of the floor and throwing it aside. She turned on Luke.

  “No!” Yasmini shouted, firing plasma bolts into the queen’s side. She screamed and turned away from the unarmed humans. “Yeah, that’s right. Come on!”

  Nicholas joined her. The plasma bolts seemed to upset the queen more than bullets, her fury obvious as she rushed them.

  “Keep her busy!” Caleb yelled, jumping onto the side of a downed APC, the microspear in hand. “I’ve got her.”

  Nicholas didn’t stop shooting, standing his ground while the queen neared. He saw Caleb out of the corner of his eye as the Marine leaped toward her, microspear ready to thrust into her flesh.

  The queen’s tail snapped out from behind her, hitting Caleb squarely in the chest. The blow stopped his momentum cold, turning him around like a baseball off a bat. He crashed into the side of the APC he had used as a springboard.

  Nicholas got the impression the Marine had seen the blow coming, at least at the last second, because the microspear fell from his hand at the same time the tail hit him, landing on the floor right next to the queen.

  And right next to Briar.

  She dove for the alien weapon, scooping it up as the queen looked down at her, as if she knew what the microspear was and what it could do. Considering what Max had told him about the Relyeh Collective, she probably did know.

  Yasmin and Nicholas continued firing on the queen, their plasma rounds sizzling through her tough hide and beginning to draw blood. Even so, she ignored their assault to face off against Briar, who held the microspear, crouched and ready. Nicholas didn’t doubt she was scared out of her mind. He would be, too. But she didn’t show any hint of fear.

  The queen lunged forward, stopping short of her as she thrust the weapon forward. Her tail whipped around from behind, but Briar saw it coming and dove agilely out of the way. She barely had time to get to her feet before the queen was on her.

  “Scott!” Briar shouted, taking her eyes off the trife to toss the microspear to him.

  Nicholas hadn’t seen Scott approaching. Neither had the queen. Her head snapped forward, teeth stabbing into Briar’s chest and sinking in. Briar cried out in pain as the queen lifted her off the floor.

  And then she dropped her, a wailing scream exploding out of the bitch as Scott drove the microspear deep into her leg. Her head turned toward him, and she tried to hit him with her claws only to find her strength already depleted. She collapsed on her stomach and convulsed, blood spilling from her mouth as she died.

  “B!” Scott shouted, running over to Briar. Both Nicholas and Yasmin hurried toward her as well, Nicholas dropping to a knee beside her.

  All around them, the trife seemed to lose their will to fight, stunned by the loss of their queen. The remaining Marines didn’t waste the opportunity to rally against the demons. They broke from cover, firing single rounds into the aliens until they realized how meek they had suddenly become. Combat knives appeared in hands, and the real slaughter began. But Nicholas and Yasmin were only vaguely aware of the scene around the fallen Knight.

  “B,” Scott said, falling to his knees beside her. He tried to remove her helmet, but Max came up behind him and grabbed his hand.

  “Negation. You can not reveal our identities.”

  “What?” Scott hissed. “She’s hurt.”

  “Negation,” Max repeated.

  Nicholas looked at Carter’s name on his HUD.

  Briar wasn’t hurt.

  She was dead.

  “Damn it!” he shouted, slamming his hand on the deck

  Yasmin seemed to notice her HUD at the same time. “Oh, no.”

  Caleb and Macey joined the others around Briar. Caleb put his hand on Scott’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  Scott kept his head bowed, and while Nicholas couldn’t see his face, he was sure tears streamed from his eyes the same as from everyone else’s. “She would have made a terrible Marine,” he choked out. “But she was the bravest of all of us. She stuck with us and kept fighting no matter how scared she was.”

  “Then she would have made an excellent Marine,” Caleb replied.

  “Consideration. We must go,” Max said. “Duplication. The same will happen to all of you.”

  “Excuse me.”

  Nicholas lifted his bowed head to look at the speaker. Luke. He thought his heart would burst, hearing his voice again. To see him alive. This layer’s Briar stood beside him, sweaty and tired. Seeing her both dead and alive made it hard for Nicholas to figure out what to feel.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Luke asked. “I saw her fighting that monster.”

  “No,” Scott said, keeping his head down. “She didn’t make it.”

  “Oh.” Luke’s face fell. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Luke!”

  Nicholas turned his head again, his emotional stability taking another battering ram dead center to see this layer’s versions of himself and Yasmin running across the hangar to their son. Aaron Grimmel trailed behind them.

  “Desperation,” Max said softly in the comm. “We must go now.”

  “Luke, are you okay?” the layer’s Nicholas asked as the layer’s Yasmin threw her arms around her son, squeezing him tight.

  “I’m okay,” Luke replied. “Thanks to these Marines.”

  “Thank you,” the layer’s Yasmin said, turning her head toward them before noticing Briar on the floor. “Oh. I...I’m so sorry.”

  “She died the way any Vulture does,” Caleb said through his armor’s speakers. “She died a hero.”

  “Yes, she did,” the layer’s Yasmin agreed.

  “Vulture?” this layer’s Nicholas said. “You’re Caleb Card?”

  “Yes. We got here just in time. But now we need to go. We’ve got orders, and we can’t afford to be late.”

  “Of course,” the layer’s Nicholas said. “Thank you for saving my son. Hell, for saving this base. It’s a miracle.”

  “We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. If you’ll excuse us.” He switched the comms to internal. “Scott, can you carry Briar back to Foresight?”

  “Absolutely,” Scott replied. He scooped his arms beneath her, lifting her easily.

  “Caleb Card!” Grimmel said, finally catching up to the group. “What a surprise! I certainly didn’t expect to run into you here. Haha!”

  “Who are you?” Caleb asked.

  “Aaron Grimmel.” He put out his hand. “Owner and CEO of Grimmel Corporation.” He paused. “So strange you should be here. I was wanting t–”

  Max stepped between Caleb and Grimmel. “Sarge, we really need to get moving. General Soto will have our asses if we don’t make it to the launch site on time.” He looked at Grimmel as he spoke. The other man stared back, his expression falling flat.

  “Of course,” Grimmel said almost robotically. “Well, it was an honor to meet you. All of you. Perhaps we’ll see each other again sometime.”

  “You never know,” Caleb said. “Vultures, let’s go.”

  Nicholas and the others turned to leave. Yasmin broke from the group and approached Luke. Max turned back to retrieve her, but he grabbed the Intellect’s wrist to stop him.

  “Luke,” Yasmin said, deepening her voice to disguise it.

  “Yes, ma’am?” Luke replied.

  “I just wanted to tell you that I’m proud of you.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

  “One day, maybe you will. I just don’t know if you hear it enough.”

  Nicholas saw the layer’s Yasmin flinch at the statement, a spark of embarrassed anger in her eyes. Of course Yasmin knew exactly how to piss herself off, and motivate herself to do better.