Space Marine Loki (Extinction Fleet Book 2) Page 6

  Ajax recalled early in the war, watching a gunship just like Edda Five explode in midair when shriekers flew themselves through the thruster intake vents. As with the other garm organisms, the shriekers carried their ammunition within their own bodies, so when the internal organs containing their caustic projectiles were destroyed, that ammo all but dissolved the gunship’s vital systems.

  Like their pulse rifles, their resurrection, and their skill with trench warfare, the Einherjar and the forces of humanity had to adapt. Fighting without an offensive air force was something men like Ajax had been doing for years.

  The sight of the gunship filled the marines with elation, and a howl of bloodlust and victory went up among the Einherjar as the ship engaged the garm. The Edda Five was equipped with twin chainfires mounted just under its mid-section, which bellowed as they spewed hundreds of super-heated bolts scything through the enemy. Gorehounds exploded everywhere as the gunner marked his range and began to sweep the barrels of the weapon towards the Wargarm.

  Ajax pumped his fist in the air and shouted as he witnessed one of the Wargarm impaled by an eight-foot-long spike launched from one of the tubes mounted under the gunship’s stubby L-shaped wings. They were called javelins, which seemed a fitting name, as they were little more than finely crafted spears that were launched with compressed air from the ship. They were specifically designed to kill Ultragarm, and although they saw little use due to the shrieker swarms, they were still effective when they were finally deployed.

  “Work’s not done, marines! Let’s finish this fight!” shouted Jarl Mahora over the company channel, his gruff voice snapping Ajax out of his reverie at the majesty of the gunship.

  While the plan had been to make a daring assault that was so aggressive that the Wargarm were drawn out of hiding, which seemed to have worked, there were still plenty of gorehounds either active or wounded on the battlefront.

  Ajax took aim at one of the creatures and began methodically punching its thick hide with pistol bolts. By the time the beast collapsed in a wet heap, Ajax had to slide in his second and last carbon mag. Jorah was faring better with his pulse rifle and brought down two more gorehounds with cold precision.

  The Edda turned its full arsenal against the remaining two Wargarm and made short work of the beasts. Nobody wanted to fight those monsters in the tight confines of the sea caves, and it would have cost as many, if not more, marine lives than the entire assault up to this point. Better to risk losing two thirds of their forces on the island surface and hitting the Wargarm with a gunship than to make a tactical insertion closer to the base of the tower and be forced to fight the swarm leaders inside what everyone presumed was their hive.

  Jorah stepped aside and gave the thrashing form of a wounded gorehound a wide berth, leaving Ajax to shoot it in the head. Ajax usually took little pleasure in the grisly work of killing the wounded, something of the warrior in him preferring the stand-up fight of it all. However, as Ajax looked down the iron sights of his pistol, he found himself equally elated to play the role of executioner. Any kill was a good kill, he found himself thinking, and it wasn’t until he saw Jorah looking at him that he realized he’d said it out loud.

  “Rally on the tower and pull security, nothing gets out alive and nobody goes in!” ordered Jarl Mahora, and for the first time that day, Ajax could see the grim marine leading a group of beleaguered Gorgon marines across the heaps of corpses towards the tall rock formation “Manticore, hit the beachhead and advance to rally point. You still alive out there, Bloodhound?”

  “Ajax online, sir,” responded the marine as he vented the heat of his pistol before holstering it so that he could reload his pulse rifle.

  “Good to hear,” snarled Mahora, “You’re going in with the blackouts.”

  A WATERY GRAVE

  Ajax watched his fallen friend, Boone, shake with rage as the minders held him fast with their poles, the tip of each one fastened to a swift-release collar that allowed them to control the blackout. The man’s fists clenched and unclenched in anticipation of release, the sounds he was making garbled by the muzzle they’d put inside the man’s helmet.

  Blackouts were known to speak endlessly about the violence they wanted to do to the garm, and though the aliens were the enemy, it was a truly haunting phenomenon to witness.

  The blood lust became so great that when a marine ‘blacked out’ his mind was all but consumed with the thirst for war and violence against the alien enemy.

  Boone was no different, and Ajax could see that the man was barely restrained. It was only the combination of the minders and the knowledge that he was about to be released into enemy territory that kept the berserker even moderately manageable.

  Ajax missed Boone, and though he knew little of the man, like so many of his other friends, there had been some spark of a connection. The thought of his band of brothers made Ajax look around him, and his eyes fell on Sharif and Rama, the only two grunts to survive the ground assault. Somewhere behind them were the savaged bodies of Ford, Silas, and Yao, each of them destined to be reborn days later in the body forge.

  Hart too had survived the assault, as Ajax had spotted him speaking with Skald Omar once the gunship landed to deploy several of the special forces operators. Ajax had not seen much of the enigmatic sniper, though given the warrior’s new place amongst the skald ranks, it made sense that the man would live and work somewhat apart from the rank and file infantry. Ajax might be the Bloodhound these days, but he was still a grunt. Despite his newfound abilities, those in command, from Jarl Mahora to Skald Wallace and his advisors, insisted that he remain part of Hydra Company. Considering how easily he could have been killed during the ground assault and yet how critical Skald Omar seemed to think his individual decisions might be, there had to be some deeper stratagem at work behind the decision to allow Ajax to remain a simple rifle. For the most part, he was fine with that, trusting in his jarl and command to wage war as they saw fit. It was the secret keeping that he vehemently detested, though orders were orders, and he was nothing if not a soldier and servant of the All-Father.

  “Ajax, you’re up,” said Jarl Mahora as he marched up to Ajax and his comrades, “Once I release the blackouts we give it a three count and you advance with squads from Manticore.”

  “I’m ready,” said Ajax as Skald Omar approached from behind the jarl and held up a small datapad.

  “We’ve identified three points of ingress to the sea caves,” stated the skald as he brought up a three-dimensional image of the caves with each of the entrances highlighted, “After the ground assault we are right at half strength. Gorgon Company took a beating to be sure, but Hydra Company is down to a handful of men. Manticore is fresh and spoiling for a fight, so we’ll put them at the vanguard of the cave ops. We need you to tell us where to put you.”

  “We’ll drop a hell of a hammer into the other two caves, but you know as well as we do that the one you pick is the prime target,” growled Mahora, “Whatever is down there ain’t gonna die easy, but if it’s you that finds it then that’s more weight behind this whole Norse saga theory Command is playing with.”

  “While your jarl may be skeptical, Ajax,” snapped Omar as he looked sideways at Mahora, “The skalds are not. Thanes we can send into all three entrances, but our Beowulf must choose his ground, and once you do, I have no doubt that there you will meet our monster.”

  “Jormungandr,” scoffed Mahora, “Another beast from your stories.”

  “Grendel was real enough, sir,” observed Hart as he joined the group, “I remain skeptical myself, though if we indeed find a relative of the beast here on Kai Prime, the evidence in favor of Skald Omar’s hypothesis would mount significantly.”

  “Well let’s get on with it then. Even if it’s just a bunch more Wargarm down there they still need purging,” grumbled Mahora before speaking over the command channel, “Marines in position! Blackouts on the ready line!”

  Ajax shared a nod with Hart and then went to take his
place a few steps behind Boone. The minders were having a harder time controlling him now that it was clear the violence was about to begin. A third minder approached Boone and Ajax could see that the man held the auto-pistol and sharp sword that were the iconic weapons of the blackout berserkers.

  Ajax squared his shoulders and took in a deep breath as nearly one hundred marines took up positions behind him. According to the briefing, they were to enter the cave in waves, just like the ground assault, moving in loose squads of ten men at a time. The chemical makeup of the stone and coral were expected to interfere with short range communications, so it was unlikely that once inserted the fire teams would have much contact with each other over the company channel. Jarl Mahora wanted to stagger the insertion just in case any sort of counter-attack appeared on the surface, while still ensuring that they could fill the sea cave network with rifles.

  Rama and Sharif shouldered their way past several Manticore marines, seemingly determined to stay by the side of their comrade. Ajax knew better than to insist that they did not need to be on the front line again after fighting so relentlessly to seize the beachhead. The men of Manticore did not protest, nor did those of Gorgon, as Hydra Company had earned itself something of a reputation after the conflict on Heorot. It made sense to the marines that warriors from Hydra would be at the tip of the spear. There was something of a poetic rightness to it, so much so that Ajax found himself even more suspicious that Skald Omar and his followers might be right about narrative stratagems. Unless, he realized, it was Hart who was correct, and they were on some journey of self-fulfilling prophecy. Ajax smiled to himself at the fact that Jarl Mahora would insist that it didn’t matter so long as a sufficient amount of garm ass was kicked.

  Boone stood in front of Ajax, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he flexed his shoulders and hefted the weight of pistol and sword. This was Boone’s first engagement as a blackout, and Ajax found himself wondering if there was enough left of the man he knew for Boone to be aware of the novelty.

  With a shout from the jarl, whether it was the first time for Boone or not ceased to matter, as the minders released their hold on the berserkers.

  For an instant, Ajax felt the psychic pressure of the enemy swell, a marked difference from the relative absence once the Wargarm had been slain, and he knew that something was preparing itself for the coming fight.

  Boone surged forward, no doubt screaming himself raw into the muzzled helmet, and rushed into the darkness of the cave entrance.

  The hole was sizeable, the aperture large enough for a tank to drive through, and it was only the near horizontal position of it at the bottom of a dip on the rock that had made it difficult to see from a surface perspective.

  Ajax took a deep breath and began tapping his finger against the metal of his pulse rifle just above the trigger guard, counting out five taps before letting his air out and taking another breath. Before he’d released the second breath the shooting began somewhere down in the caves as the other fire teams engaged the enemy. He could both hear the screams of dying beasts and feel their passing in the shadowy depths of his consciousness.

  Ajax sucked in his third breath, dug in his heels, and then launched himself into a sprint as he let it out. The marine’s low lumen body lights generated an ambient glow in the tunnel as he ran, and the light mounted on his pulse rifle cast a tight beam that sliced through the gloom ahead.

  He had only run for a few moments before he began splashing through salty water that got deeper with every few steps he took. It wasn’t long until Ajax was wading in water up to his waist. If this continued he and the rest of the marines would have to activate their re-breathers.

  The Einherjar had a variety of armor upgrades that could be toggled depending upon the needs of the environment. The aquatic upgrades were simple enough, as each marine had mesh webbing between their fingers and their re-breathers had been fitted with small ox canisters. The canisters were good for roughly an hour, and Ajax was happy to have the upgrades, as there was no telling just how much further down the caves went.

  Soon the thunderous sounds of combat erupted inside the tunnel, and the marines rushed towards it as the tunnel opened up into a larger chamber with a multitude of side tunnels and several large rock outcroppings. Boone stood in the center of the chamber, firing wildly down one of the tunnels, the water around him churning with unidentifiable carnage. Already, the berserker appeared to have sustained a number of grievous wounds, though his rage would carry him through for at least a short time more. As Ajax emerged from the tunnel he witnessed the waves crashing as something large moved just beneath the surface of the water towards the berserker.

  Ajax raised his rifle to fire just as the beast launched itself out of the water towards Boone. Ajax hesitated for a split second, his eyes and his mind filled with the sight of the nightmare creature. It was a garm unlike any he had seen before, which in itself added to the mental shock.

  It had the overall appearance of a ripper drone, though its body appeared to have been radically adapted to an aquatic environment. It had webbing across its armpits and between its claws, and a spined dorsal fin ran from the base of its skull to the bottom of its spine. The eyes were different, larger, and bulbous somehow, the sight of it reminded him of the angler fish that often resided in the crushing depths of ancient oceans. It kicked off with what Ajax could only presume were webbed feet, launching itself at the berserker with claws and scything blades bristling for the kill.

  Boone, however, did not hesitate, when the beast’s lunge brought it within striking distance, the berserker made his move.

  As the drone roared and brought its limbs down towards him, the blackout spun on his heels and lashed out with his greatsword. The sharp blade cleaved the beast neatly in two. Before the pieces had sunk beneath the dark waters, Boone raised his pistol and pointed it at the marines who were at the tunnel entrance.

  Ajax’s blood turned to ice in his veins, as it looked like Boone was about to turn his fearsome weapon upon his comrades, then, as the berserker squeezed the trigger, a scream of pain from above said otherwise. The bloody corpse of a ripper splashed into the water in front of Ajax and snapped the marine out of his shock at the sight of new garm organisms.

  The garm adapt.

  Marines overcome.

  More drones came howling out of the various side tunnels, and Ajax, along with Rama and Sharif, took a knee and began squeezing off rounds. Manticore marines shouldered their rifles and fired over the heads of their kneeling comrades, lending six or more pulse rifles to the fight.

  The drones poured out of the tunnels, all seemingly fixated on the blackout, the nearest and most obvious threat.

  Despite the marine’s punishing fire, for every ripper they blasted, another splashed into the water and jetted towards the berserker.

  Boone stood at the center of the watery chamber, his pistol discarded, and swung his greatsword with a two- handed grip. The berserker was fast, though not as fast as the garm horrors, but he was precise in his movements, and beast after beast fell to his blade.

  Ajax thanked the stars that the lower garm swarms were so single-minded in their assault. They were so focused upon Boone that the majority of them ignored the marines fire team.

  Ajax paused to vent the heat from his rifle, and as he did so, he witnessed one of the rippers slip under Boone’s slicing blade. Before the berserker could step aside or bring the sword around for a parry, the garm’s own bio-blades tore through armor and flesh. No sooner had the first spilled blood, then another emerged from under the waves and impaled Boone through the back. In the blink of an eye the mighty slayer disappeared beneath the churning waters.

  “Push in!” shouted Sharif, taking charge of the firefight now that one of their own was no longer downrange.

  The marines behind and above Ajax paused in their firing to allow the crouching men to stand and press into the chamber. Soon marines were rushing into the battlespace faster and in more
numbers than the garm.

  Ajax fired ten rounds in rapid succession into the water near where Boone had been taken, and the plasma bolts filled the watery chamber with steam as they vaporized the gory liquid. Next to him, Rama followed suit, and the marines were rewarded by the sight of a thrashing and dying pair of drones that came to the surface.

  Ajax vented the heat of his rifle and cast his sight around the chamber, realizing that it was significantly larger than he’d thought. He looked up and could see the tiny rays of light from Kai Sol, the solar body that gave light and life to the system, cutting through the darkness above.

  They found themselves in the main chamber beneath the tower. Ajax readied his rifle again and fired three times in rapid succession to end the life of a ripper drone that attempted to crawl out of a side tunnel above them and drop down into the melee. The drones kept coming, but in smaller and smaller numbers, until soon they came no more.

  The engagement had been more of a slaughter than a battle, but the marine force had not escaped unscathed. The sheer number of drones combined with their suicidal ferocity had indeed claimed a handful of Einherjar, though the tactic of sending the blackout in first and the vantage point of the tunnel that turned the chamber into a shooting gallery had heavily favored the marines.

  There wasn’t enough room in the chamber for the several score of marines who had come this way, and though they could hear the thunderous echoes of other fire teams elsewhere in the cave system no doubt facing similar battles, these tunnels needed exploring. It was difficult to move through the chamber, as the water was now clogged with bodies.