Epic: Book 02 - Outlaw Trigger (33 page)

When his eyes traced the sound, he finally saw it. Its fur-covered back was hunched over as it crunched on a green, leafy fern. It was a black-fur. Though rarer, they were particularly nasty. They even stunk worse than their brown-furred counterparts. They smelled like a fermented horse.

Canrassis were omnivores. But it was a well-known fact that they preferred meat. They preferred to eat something that ran.

“
Contact,” Scott whispered. He slid from tree to tree, gliding through the cover of the forest as he got in position to fire. His eyes never once left the beast, whose attention was averted away. Canrassis weren’t overly intelligent, and their fierce appetites gave them an odd tendency to ignore nearby threats. When separated from the aggressive leashes of their masters, they became solitary to the point of a fault. They became dumb.

Snap.

Scott froze. The sound hadn’t come from the canrassi. It hadn’t even come from him. Whipping his head to the north, he covered himself behind the thickness of a nearby larch tree.

He knew what the sound was immediately. The snap wasn’t nearly as loud as the canrassi’s. “New contact—Bakma,” he whispered. “No visual.”

“
Where?”

“
Eleven o’clock from the north,” Scott answered.

“
Nothing on infra.”

“
Then look on the ground.” Scott eased his field of vision back to the canrassi. It was still hunched over, its back to him, devouring the fern thicket. Oblivious. Or not yet threatened enough to be concerned.

“
I’ve got the Bakma,” said Becan through the comm. “Thirty meters from your position, Remmy.”

“
I don’t see him,” said Galina.

“
Then stay down,” Scott said. “I’ll take care of him.” Shouldering his assault rifle, he unholstered his sidearm and stood.

Then it came.

Plasma fire seared the air behind him—from the opposite direction. Immediately, his teammates dove for cover.

“
Second Bakma contact!” shouted Max, as he rotated to face the foe behind them. As if on cue, Becan and Oleg opened fire.

Scott didn’t see the second Bakma. But he didn’t have to. He had his own Bakma to take care of. And his own canrassi. His attention returned to his side of the forest, where he scanned his enemies again. He froze as soon as he did.

The canrassi was gone.

He backed against the tree and fell quiet. After a moment, the sound of return fire stopped.

“
Got him,” said Oleg. “One Ex down.”

“
Anyone got visual on that canrassi?” Scott asked.

No one answered.

“
Scott,” whispered Galina. “Where is the Bakma?”

There was only one way to know. With a canrassi running loose, there wasn’t time to wait for the Bakma to appear. There was only time to press the attack.

Bursting from the cover of his tree, Scott readied his M-19 and dashed forward. As anticipated, a flash of white plasma followed his moves. Rolling behind cover to avoid it, he once again pressed his back against bark.

“
I got a bead on it,” said David.

No
, Scott thought.
It’s mine.
Bursting from cover again, he swung out his sidearm to aim. Once again, plasma followed his wake. Scott tumbled forward, aimed in the direction of the blast, and searched for his target.

He saw it. The Bakma was partially visible behind the brush of a thicket, its plasma gun firm in its hand—and preparing to fire again.

But not fast enough. Scott fired a series of rounds, and the Bakma toppled backward to the earth.

“
I said I had it!” exclaimed David.

Scott ignored him. “Going for the canrassi.”

“
Do you even see it?”

It didn’t matter. He’d hear it as it charged through the brush. There would be no mounted plasma blasts to dodge. Stepping furiously forward, Scott holstered his sidearm and regripped his e-35. Holding it at the ready, he pressed through the thickets and twigs.

He heard it the moment it roared. Scott’s head quickly turned to the left, where the spider-eyed beast was reared up. It wasn’t even ten meters away. Scott hurried to lift his assault rifle, and he opened fire.

Bullets tore through the bearlike beast’s flesh. It hunched forward, as its massive hind legs churned for Scott.

Scott’s knees braced in place. His eyes narrowed and he held down the trigger.

Snap! Crash! Crack!

The canrassi lunged forward, saliva spewing from its jaws. Scott tumbled to the left to avoid it. The canrassi snapped its jaws and turned to pursue.

Scott never relented his projectile assault as he trained his bullets at the canrassi’s head. The beast’s face exploded with blood. It toppled straight down to the ground.

“
Scott!” David yelled as he and the others hustled toward the lieutenant.

No time to answer. He unloaded a round into the fallen beast’s head, then leapt over it to find the Bakma’s body. He had to make sure it was dead. Dashing through the brush, he uncovered it. The instinct of assurance took over. He aimed his gun at the alien’s head and pulled the trigger. The Bakma erupted with red.

A moment later, the others were on him.

“
Scott, what in the hell was that?” asked Max.

Scott shouldered his rifle. “Targets down.”

“
About ten times as recklessly as they should’ve been!”

Scott matched Max’s glare. “They’re down. Is that a problem?”

“
Scott,” said David as he approached, “work
with
us, not against us. We’re not the enemy.”

Max turned to relay their status to Clarke.

“
I was the closest operative to it,” Scott said. “Letting anyone else go after it would only have put them in unnecessary danger.”

“
But we didn’t need to
go after it
, Scott. We have guns!”

“
What are our orders?” Scott asked, turning from David to Max.

Max finished his dialogue on the comm, then shouldered his rifle and looked east. “First plan is the same plan. Triangle formation, we move together. Then we wait for Clarke’s word to move in.”

“
We’ll need to attack them fast.”

“
We’ll see when we get there.”

“
Clarke wants to be patient, but that won’t work. They’ve heard our gunshots. They know their soldiers are down. Every second of patience we give ourselves is one more second for them to get prepared.”

“
Does it even matter if we’re all attacking at once anyway?”

“
Yes.”

Max turned to face him. “You need to get a grip, Scott. He’s in command, not you.”

“
I never said I should be,” Scott answered. “But nonetheless, we’re moving too slow.”

“
I think he’s righ’,” said Becan. “They know we’re here, no question. Let’s hit them while they’re brickin’ it.”

“
Look, I just work here,” said Max. “What do you want me to do?”

“
We have to move,” Scott replied. “We have to be aggressive.”

“
Let’s move, then. Come on.”

As Max’s team made their way toward the Coneship, Galina tried her best to match Scott’s pace. It was like trying to keep pace with the wind.

“
Scott, please slow down.” It was phrased like a plea for help.

Scott’s legs eased enough for her to catch him.

“
Thank you, Scott. I am trying.”

“
I may need you to shadow me further,” Scott said.

“
What?”

“
When we get to the wreckage. If they’ve left a chink in their armor, I’m going to hit it.”

“
What does that mean?”

He continued to press ahead. “It means if they have a gap, if they have any sign of weakness, I’m going to rush them.”

She furrowed her brow and kept up. “But…did Captain Clarke not say to be patient—”

“
Clarke is wrong.”

“
Oh.”

“
It’s a mistake not to move in fast.” And it was. He knew it. But Clarke didn’t. The Bakma weren’t stupid. They were aware of the fights around them, and they’d fortify. It was a basic military tactic—defend one’s position. The longer the Bakma had time to prepare, the more confident they’d become. The harder they’d be to break. Right now, they were anxious. Gunfights had broken out all around them, and they’d lost contact with their dispatched soldiers. EDEN had fear on its side. It was stupid to let that dissipate.

“
What if the others do not charge?”

“
They will.”
Or at least the Nightmen will
. Scott knew that without question. Nightmen were aggressive. They attacked with fear. They probably thought Clarke was wrong, too. Regardless of the fact that he hated them, he admired their sense of relentlessness.

By the time Max’s team reached the Coneship, Clarke and Dostoevsky had already relayed their positions. When Max gave the captain word of his arrival, a plan was quickly set forth.

“
Stay with the tree cover,” Clarke said over the comm. “We can barrage them with a constant assault. Surround them by all three sides.”

“
Surround the Coneship with a cone,” thought David out loud.

“
I count eleven total,” said Dostoevsky through the comm as well. “As Brooking predicted.”

Clarke affirmed. “We can almost see them all from our position.”

“
Anyone see the hatch?” asked Max.

“
Yes,” answered Dostoevsky. “It is on the top of the vessel. The ship is rotated on its side.”

“
So the other door is buried against the ground.”

“
Correct.”

Scott surveyed the scene. The Bakma warriors were unaware of his unit’s exact location, but not oblivious to their general presence. There were six in his immediate view. According to Esther’s earlier report, two were at the point, and three were on top of the ship, by the hatch. Five were out of sight.

The Bakma looked skittish. Vulnerable. The time to strike was right then.

“
On my mark, open fire,” said Clarke. “Hold your positions and maintain cover. We’ll have them completely besieged.”

That was wrong. Besieging them wasn’t the answer. They had to press against them with force. “Remember what I told you,” Scott said to Galina.

“
Scott, I do not know,” she replied. “I do not think I can do this.”

“
You can do it. You have to want to.”

“
Please Scott, let us just follow the plan—”

“
Mark!” Clarke yelled.

Without a moment’s delay, Scott propped up his rifle and fired. The others on his side did the same.

The Bakma collectively jumped as projectile fire rained around them from all three sides. Over half of the Bakma fell before they returned fire. And even their return fire was off target.

They were frightened.

“
Now,” Scott said, as he adjusted his comm. “I’m charging the ship.” Before anyone could protest, he leapt to his feet.

“
Remington!” shouted Clarke. “What in God’s name are you
doing
?”

The Bakma turned their attention to Scott as he broke to the clear. He could sense Galina behind him. A moment later, he could sense Max and the rest of the team.

“
We are charging as well!” Dostoevsky said through the comm.

“
Wait one bloody minute!”
erupted Clarke.

Plasma fire whizzed past Scott’s shoulder. He could feel its heat as it brushed him. But the assault of projectile was too much. The Bakma withdrew their fire and retreated for the hatch, dropping to assault rifle fire along the way. By Scott’s count, only two made it inside.

The only thing left was to storm them. Storm the ship. Bring them to their knees in their moment of panic. Now Scott could sense Galina’s absence behind him. She’d fallen back. But the Nightmen in front of him were still moving in.

They charged up the point of the Coneship, where Scott joined them in mid-effort. Dostoevsky flung the hatch open. Scott leapt inside.

Three Bakma pushed back to the wall. They were the only three Bakma that remained. As soon as Scott was inside, and two of the slayers had joined him, the three aliens threw down their guns.

“
Grrashna—”

Scott raised his rifle and fired. The slayers behind him did the same. The Bakma collapsed to the floor.

Far down the cockeyed hallway, an Ithini rounded the corner into view. Before it could open its mouth, Scott peppered its body with metal. The wide-eyed alien dropped hard.

The Nightmen took the initiative immediately. They spread out down the central corridor of the ship, flashing their guns around every corner. The sweep didn’t take long.

“
Ship clear,” said the slayer named Auric.

Dostoevsky met Scott with a nod. The mission was finished—as quickly and efficiently as Scott wanted it to be. It was a success.

“
Travis! Veck, Travis!”

The panicked voice came over the comm channel. At first Scott didn’t recognize it, but when it emerged again, it became clear. It was Max.