Berserker (Messenger Book 2) Read online

  “What the hell,” she cried in elation. “You're late, you stupid bastards!”

  “The enemy is reeling,” Tinubu transmitted. “All units, form up on me. Let's finish them off!”

  The surviving elements of the coalition force rallied and struck back at the shattered remnants of the Xenolist army. The orbital strike had inflicted enormous casualties on the Xenolists and destroyed their command and control structure. All that remained were stunned pockets, scattered and leaderless, waiting to be picked off one by one. The coalition forces waded into the desolation and mopped up the remnants almost unopposed. Many of the survivors panicked, throwing down their weapons and fleeing in terror. Even the brush fire was reduced in threat, with the fuel-air warheads having consumed much of the oxygen that kept it burning.

  As the coalition forces mopped up their remaining foes, a fireball appeared in the sky and descended over the battlefield. While it was still a several kilometers up, it fired powerful retro rockets to slow its descent and the outer capsule fell away, revealing a hovering optical communication module. Omega broke away from the fight to establish contact with the module.

  “Admiral Wyburn sends his regards,” he transmitted to Tinubu. “He apologizes for the delay. It seems there was a mutiny on the Hydra, and by the time it was suppressed, the ship had overshot the target zone. The mutineers sabotaged the engines, so it took extraordinary measures to swing back into range.”

  “I'll be damned,” Tinubu said. “Whoever would have thought a Spacy commander would go the extra mile for us?”

  “I take back what I said earlier,” Cena said. “If I ever meet that commander, I'll give him a big, wet kiss.”

  *

  Soon, the coalition forces had taken full control of the territory. Tinubu declared the area secure and deployed the remaining drones in a wide perimeter as an early warning layer against enemy reinforcements. Then he ordered the demolition team to blast open the main entrance to the Garden. He and Cena, still in their exosuits, gathered at the entrance. Shortly thereafter, Vic, Celeste, Omega, and Valentin landed their suits next to Cena and Tinubu. Together, the six exosuits descended a wide ramp into the subterranean bunker. An elite infantry squad and a team of small battle drones followed them.

  The bottom of the ramp terminated at a large metal gate. Tinubu gave the gate a blast from his rifle, then he and Cena took turns smashing it with their Rusalkas' whips until finally the gate succumbed and fell inward. The opening was too small for their exosuits to proceed, so all of the pilots and their gunners disembarked and waited for the infiltration team to join them, except for Valentin who stood watch in the Blossom. Vic, Astral, Cena, and Tinubu crowded around Celeste to offer her congratulations on her recovery.

  Tinubu drew his sidearm. “We're still not finished yet. We need to secure this bunker and scour it for intel.”

  The others drew their sidearms and followed the infiltration team through the destroyed gate. On the other side, they found an enormous hangar that had until recently housed hundreds of battle drones. Now it lay empty. Adjoining the hangar, they discovered an enormous subterranean training ground that included a shooting range, obstacle courses, a running track, and racks of equipment. Like the hangar, it was now empty, but a barely perceptible, fetid mist hung in the air.

  At the back of the group, Celeste fell into step beside Omega. Seeing the emblem on his chest, she whispered, “So, you're an augment.”

  Omega glanced at her briefly before returning his gaze to his surroundings. “So?” he whispered back.

  “I was an augment too, until recently,” Celeste said. “You know, there's a lot more to your training than you think there is.”

  “Oh?” Omega said without interest. “Like making the candidates kill each other?”

  That brought Celeste up short. “How did you...?”

  “Just a guess,” he said. “Some things make a lot more sense that way.”

  Hector dropped back next to Omega opposite from Celeste. “Oh, we got a bright lad here,” he said. “What's your call sign, kid?”

  “Omega. What about it?”

  “Omega?” Hector's good eye flashed. “SAL reserves terminal call signs for those augments they think represent a strain's ultimate form. You know, with the Union falling apart, Chi could very well be the last strain of augments ever. As the final product of the last strain,” his eye narrowed, “that should make you humanity's greatest warrior, shouldn't it?”

  “Pretty much,” Omega said, without any trace of pride.

  “If you know what the Union did to turn you into this,” Celeste interjected, “then you might be interested to know that it's possible to break free—”

  “Are all you SLIC types this chatty?” Omega cut her off. “Shut up and focus on the task at hand.”

  He went forward, leaving Celeste and Hector behind. Celeste noticed Hector watching Omega with a look of great intensity, but she couldn't discern what it meant.

  *

  Beyond the training ground, the infiltration team entered a labyrinth of dark, concrete hallways. The fetid air grew thicker the deeper they proceeded into the bunker. Suddenly, one of the quadrupedal, reptilian monstrosities that they had encountered aboveground appeared around a corner behind them, let out a wet howl, and loped toward them at great speed. All those in the rear spread out and fired their weapons at the oncoming horror. Steaming blood spewed from countless wounds until finally the monster fell and slid to a halt just a few meters from their feet. Astral came forward and knelt next to the creature's corpse.

  “Astral, be careful,” Vic exclaimed.

  Astral reached out and placed one hand on the monster's mutilated side. “It's a vessel,” she whispered. “They've created an empty receptacle for the Xenowave. That must be what led to such drastic mutations. It's almost like the Messenger of lower life forms. It has intelligence, but no soul.”

  “Let's keep moving,” Tinubu said.

  They proceeded deeper into the bunker, where they found an empty mess hall and a barracks overflowing with hastily discarded possessions, including a few pocket computers. Tinubu ordered them to gather up the pocket coms for later inspection, although he didn't expect computers held by enlisted personnel to contain any revelatory intelligence.

  As they continued onward, a ceiling tile broke away and a prehensile tail tipped with a wicked stinger lashed down and impaled one of the soldiers through the chest. The tail pulled him up into the ceiling, where a bloodcurdling scream issued forth and a river of blood poured out of the missing tile.

  The entire infiltration team aimed their weapons up and fired into the ceiling. A few seconds later, the ventilated tile broke apart and another monster fell to the ground with a wet thump, bleeding from a hundred holes. It was holding the mangled corpse of the soldier in its claws. Several members of the team let out horrified curses.

  They resumed their exploration, intending to come back for their comrade's body later. They kept their gazes everywhere now: walls, floor, ceiling; in front, and behind. After another couple of bends in the passage, they encountered not another abomination, but a team of security personnel. A brief firefight ensued, and the security team was soon dispatched by fire from the infiltrators' battle drones, with no casualties.

  Tinubu stopped at the door behind the pile of dead security guards. “They might have been guarding something important,” he said. “Let's check it out.”

  They broke the door down and tossed in a flashbang grenade. They rushed inside and found a control room filled with walls of computer consoles, all destroyed, along with a handful of stunned technicians. One of the technicians wore what looked like the regalia of a high ranking officer. The infiltration team immediately moved to take the technicians into custody.

  “You're too late,” the apparent leader sneered. “We've already scrubbed the data banks and then we destroyed all the terminals, just to be sure. All the information is gone forever. You sustained heavy casualties to secure this bas
e for nothing.”

  “Then there was valuable information here,” Tinubu said. “Maybe you scrubbed the data banks, but we can get it out of your mind just as easily.”

  The leader smirked at him. “I don't know what you have in mind, but I assure you, our mental protection is greater than any kind of probe or truth serum you can throw at us.”

  “We'll see about that.”

  Tinubu stood aside and let Astral approach the prisoner with her MINDs floating beside her. The lower ranked technicians stared at her with uncomprehending bewilderment, but Tinubu detected a flash of recognition in the leader's gaze.

  “A heretic Messenger,” he gasped, his eyes wide with fear.

  “You guessed it.” Astral reached out with one hand. “Time to cough up what you know.”

  “No!” The technician writhed with such force that two more soldiers had to come forward to restrain him. “No, get away from me, you monster!”

  “You sicced your monsters on us,” Astral said. “It's only fair that we sic ours on you.”

  She closed her two normal eyes, placed her hand on the technician's forehead, and her third eye glowed with crimson light. At first, the technician's contortions became even more violent; then, after a few moments, he grew still. Silence descended on the control room for several minutes while Astral probed the depths of his mind.

  Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she recoiled from the technician, her hands at her mouth. “Oh my god,” she gasped, tears forming in her eyes. “What have they done?”

  “What is it, Astral?” Tinubu asked.

  “We need to get to Halispont,” she cried. “Right now!”

  “Astral, calm down,” Vic broke in. “Tell us what's going on.”

  “They've made a horrible weapon,” Astral stammered. “It's a spore that releases a variant of Messenger syndrome. They've taken it to Halispont. Their attack force left shortly before we got here.”

  “God.” Tinubu reeled. “Everyone, back to the surface. Now.”

  *

  The infiltration team sprinted back to the main entrance, whereupon the pilots boarded their exosuits and returned to the surface. Tinubu opened a channel to Omega.

  “Is the Hydra still in range of that communication capsule?” he demanded.

  “They deployed a chain of optical capsules to create a direct link to a comm satellite,” Omega replied. “We can still contact them.”

  “Patch me through,” Tinubu ordered.

  A minute later, a fuzzy feed of Wyburn's face appeared on Tinubu's viewscreen. “Where is Colonel Lane?” Wyburn asked, confused.

  “Killed in action,” Tinubu replied. “I'm Captain Tinubu, the acting commander. Admiral, we have a major crisis on our hands.”

  Wyburn was nonplussed. “What's wrong? Don't tell me you still couldn't take the base, after all the firepower I rained down there?”

  “No, you pompous—” Tinubu checked himself. “We took the base, all right, and we obtained critical intel. The Xenolists have launched an attack on the Halispont atmospheric processor with a payload of Messenger spores. You know what that means, don't you?”

  Realization flashed on Wyburn's face. “The bioweapon,” he hissed. He turned to someone off screen and said, “We've got a battalion guarding the processor, don't we? Do you think they could hold?”

  A deep woman's voice answered, “They took Demir's bunker and almost wiped out our combined attack force until we blew up most of their army with an orbital barrage. I don't think counting on their ineptitude is a good policy at this point.”

  Tinubu went on, “I'm loading up what's left of the attack force on the Skyfish. Once everyone is on board, we're heading for Halispont immediately. We can be there in about two hours. But after the casualties we sustained taking the Garden, I don't know whether we'll be able to take whatever they've got at Halispont. What kind of support can you give us?”

  Tinubu could see the admiral's mind racing. “I could blast everything around the processor into oblivion—”

  “Admiral, no,” the woman's voice said again. “Bombarding the processor would risk unleashing the bioweapon into the atmosphere.”

  “Damn.” Wyburn put a hand to his chin. “I can scramble another squadron of Slayers immediately. I'll broadcast an emergency message to every unit on the surface and tell them to send all available forces, but I can't make any promises about a timely response. We're heavily committed everywhere, just like you.”

  “Shit.” That was not what Tinubu wanted to hear. “Then we'd better hope they don't have much of a force guarding the processor. Admiral, how long does it take to deploy a payload from the processor? Do you know?”

  “Well, first they'd have to load the bioweapon into the silos,” Wyburn said. “Then transfer a payload from the silos into a dispersion capsule, and finally, launch the capsule. It's a complicated process, but heavily automated. If they know exactly what they're doing, they can probably be ready for first launch twelve hours from the time they captured the processor. Do you know when they attacked?”

  “Shortly before we launched our own attack. If only we'd deployed a little earlier, we could have stopped them,” Tinubu said bitterly. “They could have taken the processor roughly six hours ago.”

  “Then we have six hours to stop them.” Wyburn narrowed his eyes. “The Hydra's current orbital period is 90 minutes. I'll alter our course to take us directly over Halispont. If your forces succeed in averting the threat, then deploy a green smoke capsule. If I see that capsule, I'll have the Hydra break off. Otherwise, if on the fourth pass over Halispont we still haven't seen the capsule, I'm going to nuke the processor and hope we vaporize all the spores instead of sending them flying into the atmosphere. Any objections?”

  So they had to go up against a dangerous enemy with a badly weakened force and little prospect of support; and once they arrived at Halispont, they would have a time limit of four hours before the Hydra vaporized them all. Tinubu felt the controls of his Rusalka growing slick as his palms started sweating.

  “No objections, Admiral.”

  Thirty-first Escalation

  away from me

  Of the 120 Union battle drones that had been deployed to capture the Garden, 77 of them had been rendered inoperative. 28 of 100 SLIC soldiers had been killed, with another 18 too wounded to participate in further battle. Three of six A.P.C.s had been destroyed, and two of six Rusalkas. That left them with 43 battle drones, 54 soldiers, three A.P.C.s, four Rusalkas, two Sylphids, the Tsubasa, the Blossom, and of course the Skyfish itself for the assault on Halispont. They had no time for a complete casualty count of the enemy, but the Garden's defense force had lost at least 200 drones and 500 soldiers, mostly to air and artillery fire and the Hydra's orbital bombardment.

  The few remaining Union drones returned to their carriers while the rest of the coalition forces, including Omega and Valentin, boarded the Skyfish, where they rearmed and refueled while the vessel took off and blazed toward Halispont at top speed. En route to the processor, a fresh squadron of Slayers descended from orbit and took up an escort formation around the Skyfish and the drone carriers.

  As they drew near the atmospheric processor, storm clouds formed in the sky and a light rain began to fall. The Skyfish deployed its aerial exosuits, which joined the Slayers' escort formation. Nearly two hours after the coalition force departed from the Garden, Halispont's giant conical spire and ring of towers appeared on the horizon, surrounded by lakes and forests.

  Something flashed near the processor. A second later, a volley of railgun slugs slammed into the Skyfish's starboard side with a giant fireball. The ship began listing and losing altitude as smoke belched from its damaged hull.

  From the cockpit of his exosuit, Tinubu contacted the bridge. “Bridge, what just happened?” he exclaimed.

  “We've been struck by heavy triple-A fire,” came the answer. “The starboard engine is toast. I can't keep her airborne. I'm going to try to ditch in one of the lakes. All hand
s, brace for impact!”

  Tinubu opened a line to the squadron. “Viper One to all aircraft. Find the source of that anti-air fire and put it out of commission!”

  “Lightning One, roger,” Omega responded, pressing the switch on his wrist to inject himself with performance enhancing linkage fluid.

  While the smoking Skyfish veered off toward one of the lakes, the aerial squadron altered course toward the origin of the flash. As they approached, several black silhouettes rose around the processor and flew toward them on an intercept course. They recognized a pair of vespine Asuras accompanied by a squadron of skeletal Revenant drones.

  “Multiple contacts,” Omega transmitted to the rest of the squadron. “We'll have to shoot our way through them to get to that anti-air battery. Prepare to engage.”

  Spike warnings trilled as each side acquired missile locks, then masses of thin contrails flew past each other and erupted in gardens of blossoming fireballs within the opposing formations, downing a handful of drones on both sides. Following the initial exchange, the two squadrons smashed into each other and the conflict rapidly devolved into a scattering of individual dogfights. The aircraft looped and maneuvered around each other in a complicated aerial dance, filling the air with tracer rounds from rotary guns, ruby lasers, azure particle beams, glowing plasma bursts, and contrails of guided missiles.

  Vic drew heavily on Astral's predictive abilities to maneuver through a rain of fire from a swarm of enemy drones. He evaded a series of missile locks and gun bursts seemingly at will, then downed one of the Revenants with a single shot from his particle cannon. Celeste took up position at his side and fended off a pair of drones closing in on the left flank, shooting one of them down with a missile.

  Vic's precognitive maneuvers allowed him to penetrate almost effortlessly to the far side of the enemy formation when, without warning, a burst of plasma rounds swarmed over him from above. He executed a frantic spiraling maneuver that evaded most of the rounds, but one of them struck his suit's left leg. He turned his suit onto its back to get a clear view of the Asura descending on him.