The God Mars Book Five: Onryo (11 page)

We hunker down in the cold. The rocks are slick with
a glazing of ice.

Nothing happens.

While we sit in the silence, I look up. I can see
more stars in the sky through the green now than I could when we
went to bed. The leaves of many of the species do close up at night
to resist freezing. And that means whatever visual cover the forest
provides has gotten more transparent. But an enemy would still need
night vision to…

I hear the distinctive whistle of a bullet, followed
by an impact on metal, followed by a clattering thud, somewhere to
my right. Someone got hit, probably a Katar. The muffled twang of a
bow answers back, then another.

More bullets come our way. I can see muzzle flashes
in the dark, giving me a sense of their positions. Straker steps
out of cover, stands up in plain view, her Blade in front of her. I
expect she can easily see whoever’s shooting at us with her Modded
eyes. And she can do another trick. First one bullet, then another,
bursts and flares against her Blade. I’ve seen this before: If
something’s coming her way, her Blade will draw it in, consume its
energy and materials. That means behind her is a pretty safe place
to be.

“Rashid, Ishmael, fire past me,” she orders. “Targets
in the rocks, sixty meters…”

We get our rifles up, switch our scopes to night
vision, scan the forest. It takes Straker eating four more rounds,
but then I catch a glimpse of Unmaker Heavy Armor in the rocks
about where Straker said they’d be. I find a reasonably exposed
helmet, send a shot, miss. Rashid scores one. I aim again, and see
something amazing: my target gets hit by an arrow that finds a gap
in his plate at the neck. It hit him at a fairly extreme angle, as
if lobbed over a high trajectory, catching him over top of his own
rocky cover.

But there are a lot more to keep firing back. I see
at least two dozen armor shells, and they’ve had plenty of time to
set up their positions.

Straker makes her eyes glow bright. She’s
intentionally making herself a tempting target. But the
Unmakers—Keepers—are smart enough to stop wasting ammo on whatever
she is and pick at targets that are more vulnerable.

I hear the distinctive bang and see the flash of
Murphy’s revolver, see him rolling away from his position as soon
as he fires to keep from being targeted by the flash. An enemy
helmet bursts from an HE round. I hear a much larger caliber gun
bang from our line—that would be the Ghaddar. She’s somewhere way
up-slope and forward, firing down on our attackers.

Another of my targets gets taken by an arrow
first.

Then our shelters explode. Grenade.

I shift my scope down-slope, see a fire team of
Keepers moving up on us. I put a round through one, but then
another lobs a grenade at us. Straker manages to swat it back at
them.

“Move back!” she orders us. “Now! I can cover
you!”

No.

That’s the first thing that flashes through my head.
I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m already locking another Keeper,
and shoot him clean through the visor. And another. I’m totally
clear, totally focused, but also totally flooded with rage and I
don’t know why. But running is no option. Every one of these
animals has to die.
Every
one…

“
Run!
” Straker is yelling at me. My father
tries to reach me, but Rashid is pulling him back, firing for
cover. I hear him scream my name over gunfire, but I don’t
care.

I empty the rest of my magazine, kill six more
Keepers—it’s like my gun is doing it for me. They start pulling
back, dropping down under cover.
Cowards.

Straker swats a sniper round headed my way.

“
Fuck!
” she’s shouting at me. “
MOVE IT, YOU
DUMB SHIT!!
”

Good idea.

I get up and run and leap, forward, down-slope,
bounding off rocks on the way down. They fire back at me—I can
see
it coming—and I drop behind a boulder, reload, let them
waste a few bullets against stone. Then I reach down, lift, pry,
and send the boulder and a few of its fellows tumbling at them as a
slide. I run sideways while they’re busy with that, picking off an
animal that tries to run (wielding my rifle with one hand!). I’m
laughing, giddy. One of them gets his legs pinned under my
landslide and screams. I like them screaming, but I put a round in
his back anyway.

“
MURPHY!
” I hear Straker shout. I think I hear
him yelling back, something about leaving him and getting the
others out. I know I should care, but I don’t. I don’t care about
anything but killing these monsters.

I turn, punch a round through another armored suit. I
barely feel something hit me in the chest, smacking my armor hard
and sharp below my heart; feel a shockwave like an explosion in my
ribcage, kicking the air out of me. I don’t stop. I leap for one of
them before he can look up and see me coming, tackle the suit of
armor, tossing my rifle and drawing my sword and stabbing it
between his helmet and neck guard, twisting it in meat and bone. My
body feels shaky, electric, almost like when I grabbed the
Companion Blade at the Barrow.

I cough. Taste blood. A lot of blood. I can’t get a
full breath in. My chest is full of fire and knives. Spots form in
my vision.

I don’t care.

I drag up the armor suit I’ve just killed, and use it
as a shield as they shoot at me. It should be too heavy for me to
lift, especially if I’ve taken a bullet through my left lung, but
it isn’t. I feel rounds smack into the laminate suit, then feel one
tear at my left calf, making my leg go numb and dead halfway below
the knee. I almost fall, then throw the armored body at them,
keeping its weapon, and empty first the magazine of AP shells and
then the grenade cylinder. I realize I’m screaming even though I
can barely breathe. I throw away the empty weapon, get my sword
back from the neck of my kill, head…

I get slammed in the upper right chest, feel
fragments from my chest plating tear into my face, feel it hit and
shatter off the armor on my back on the way out. It takes what’s
left of the wind out of me, leaves me gasping like I’m in near
vacuum, unable to fill my lungs. Now all my limbs become liquid. My
legs go completely, then the rest of me. Still I try to keep going,
keep running forward, but crash face-first into the rocks before I
manage one more step. My own blood surges up my throat, sickening
and final. I know I’m dead. I know it.

“
KID!!!
” Straker screams. From where I’m
sprawled, weak and broken and useless, I see her fly down into the
rest of them, see her do what I couldn’t: Hack and hack and fly, so
fast. Her Blade cleaves them like nothing, just like my Nagamaki
would. If I only had my Nagamaki. Or even my Sixgun… I’d…

There’s a flash of bright light. Flares. Lots of
flares. They light up the forest, let me see my kills. Let me see
the rest running, retreating. They’re still cowards. That hasn’t
changed. I see a few taken by the skinny natives’ arrows. That
makes me happy…

Sorry, kid…

Voice in my head. Maybe. But I can tell it’s not
sorry, not at all. Neither am I. Except that I didn’t finish
it.

I can’t get any air into my lungs. It feels like
they’ve been crushed and set on fire. My mask is full of blood.

Then I feel the wave, washing over top of me. It
surges. I see it catch one of the Katar, up in the rocks, watch it
strip his armor off of him, crumbling it to dust along with his
weapons.

The fucker would do the same thing to his flesh if he
could figure out how to break the safeties on the thing…

The vulnerable Katar gets shot in the chest and
head.

He’s here.

What…?

Someone
is
coming, walking towards us out of
the forest, casual like there isn’t a battle going on, like he’s
not stepping over dead men.

He never cared about them. The animals are still too
stupid to see it.

My vision is blurring, spotting over as I go into
shock, but I can see him: Wearing a long black robe, carrying a
bright white staff. Thin. Dark skin over a face as sharp-boned as a
skull. Short stubble of frosted hair cleaved by scars. I know him.
How do I know him?

He has a funny name.

His eyes glow like Straker’s, only golden. On the top
of his staff is a ball, shiny metal, the size of a…
Sphere
.
He has a Jinn Sphere.

Arrows fly at him, but dissolve in midair before they
get within a meter.

Straker steps in his way, sword ready.

Idiot. Why is she just standing there? She needs to
cut him down now. Cut him down NOW!

“And what are
we
?” the dark scarred man sings.
“Are
we
like
me
?”

He points his staff at her, and she seems to engage
it, even from a distance of several meters, struggling.

“First Lieutenant Jak Straker, City of Industry Peace
Keepers,” she declares herself, holding her ground. The dark man
grins like this is amusing.

“She’s one of yours,” he calls back over his
shoulder. “Distant cousin, anyway. Sister in arms. You should throw
her a party.” He looks at Straker with his glowing eyes, seems to
be able to push her with his staff. “Me, I don’t care who you are.
It’s what you
have
that interests me. Where did you get
yours, girl?”

“You have a Companion,” she decides. “How do you have
a Companion?”

“I do. And I didn’t actually know what they were
called, so thank you for that. But I did ask my question first, so
I should get my answer first. And I have more than a
Companion.”

He pushes. I see her uniform ripple, as if under a
strong wind, but it doesn’t dissolve. This seems to impress
him.

“It’s changed more of you than just your body and
mind,” he declares. “You’ll have to teach me the trick. If you
are
Peace Keeper, we’re on the same side. I’m sure we can do
amazing things together.”

“I’m here to warn Eureka!” she ignores his offer,
calling past him to the Keepers who are holding back to the
shadows. “Asmodeus, the immortal: he’s a monster! He’s infected at
least one of your people already, Sergeant Forbusco, with something
that ate his brain and took his body! He’s…”

Straker gets slammed backwards. The ground under her
comes apart, and she falls into the resulting hole, sand swallowing
her up to her knees, slowing her down.

The dark man lets out a theatrical sigh.

“Ah, so you’re one of
those
… We were warned
about you. A benefit of our alliance. One of many. It looks like
this one just came in quite handy.”

Straker tries to get out of the shallow pit, but the
ground erupts in her face, knocking her back and partly burying
her. She tries to get up, but he advances on her, and more dirt and
rock gets dumped on her.

“You would be as strong as me, I expect, but I have
one edge. Literally. One edge. That’s a geometry joke: Spheres only
have one edge. They’re the only three dimensional shape that
does.”

He’s rambling, all ego. Then he levitates a large
stone and flings it at her. She tries to block it, and does, but it
seems to hurt her. A bigger stone—almost the size of her
torso—follows right behind. This one knocks her Blade out of her
grip. The dark one’s levitation power catches it in mid-air, pulls
it toward him, out of her reach. Carefully, curiously, he reaches
out his empty hand, tries to take hold of the Blade. Then he jerks
his hand back—contact with it seems to hurt him. The Blade drops to
the ground, landing heavy as a body. He scowls, then sends another
rock to smash Straker in the head, knocking her out.

Things get quiet. The flares begin to die out. Or
maybe it’s just my vision, fading.

“Leave the dead, take the living,” he tells his
Keepers, who finally get brave enough to advance. “I have questions
to ask. Especially to this one. This one is
my
toy.”

I want to kill him. I
need
to kill him. I have
to k…

I can’t…

I…

Jonny?

Jon-Boy? Is that you, lad?

I…

You’ve grown up. Turned into a man.

…can’t…

You need to be a man now. Be a man now for me. Show
me how strong you are.

…move… can’t…

I need you to move, Jonny. Come on…

I can’t …

Just a little ways. Come on.

Rocks feel cool on my face…

None of that. I need you to move. I’ve managed to
patch the big holes, but I can’t fix you. There’s too much
lost.

Shot…

Yes. Shot. You were shot. Now move. Just crawl. Hand,
then leg, then hand… Not far…

Who…?

Stories later. No time now. Move. That’s it…

I realize it’s day. Bright.

I can barely raise my head. My chest is crushed and
on fire. I can’t breathe. My mouth is full of thick, sticky
blood.

My mask is gone. So are my goggles.

So is my armor, my weapons, my boots…

Start with a hand…

I reach, grab ground, pull. It hurts… It hurts so
bad…

That’s it… That’s good…

I try to move my left leg. It screams in pain. I
drop, banging my face into the rocks. The rocks are nice and cool.
I want to just lay here.

I feel a shock go through my body.

No sleeping, now. No time.

I push with my other leg, get up on my elbows. Crawl.
Every few centimeters feels like a klick. Without oxygen.

It’s not far. Just over that rock. You can do it. You
can…

I get to the top of the rock, look over…

There’s a body. A Keeper. I think. He’s been stripped
of his heavy armor shell, left in just his shirtsleeves. His skin
is pale. Dead. Holes through his torso. Wedged in a rut between
rocks.

They just left him there. Left their own dead like
enemy dead.

That’s it. Just a little more. Get up over the hill
and just fall in. Let gravity do the rest.