“What do I have to do to complete the mission?” I shouted.
“The nanite wire must touch the transport ring.”
I stared at the shimmering strand of liquid silver that ran to my otherwise disconnected com-link. My eyes went back toward the ring which stood downslope.
“Standby. We’ll do that now.”
I grabbed Warrant Officer Sloan by the shoulder. He’d kept with me since the initial battle in the cavern. As he’d lost his tank, he’d joined my unit by default. I lifted a loop of the nanite strand and gave it to him.
“You want to end this whole nightmare, Sloan?”
“Damn straight, sir!”
“Here, run this down to the ring. Make sure it has a strong contact.”
He nodded, grabbed it and ran. Like kite-string, it ran out behind him. Shimmering and whipping, it reformed itself as he went, trying to keep its structure even as it was stretched further.
The Worms showed no sign of easing up. Kwon and I used the time to fire in support of the men who were now beaten back toward the base of the ring itself. I watched my men stiffen their resistance there. Having a structure at your back—any structure, and troops on your flanks helped keep spirits up. But still, we were retreating. Men left behind among the Worms thrashed and were torn apart.
“I don’t think they like us messing with their gods, sir,” said Kwon. “The Worms are pushing hard now.”
“I think they know what we’re doing,” I told him. “We only have to hold them for another minute or two. I want to see us make an orderly withdrawal toward the ring. Relay that to Roku.”
Kwon bent forward over his com-link, giving my instructions to the tank commander. I noticed the signal light was blinking on my hotline com-device. I picked it up.
“Riggs here,” I said.
“One minute has passed. The mission is incomplete.”
“Yes, one more minute,” I told them, setting down the handset again. Literal-minded bastards.
I watched as Warrant Officer Sloan reached the base of the ring. He took the wire and wrapped it around a jutting spur of the odd material. I thought to myself that if I had the time, I would go down there and investigate the structure carefully.
The signal light was blinking again. I picked it up.
“Connection detected.”
“Yes, it’s ready,” I said. “You can come through now.”
“Sequence engaged. Portal opening imminent. Withdrawal recommended.”
“Yeah, we’re pulling back to the ring now. We’ll meet your big boys as they come through.”
“Portal opening imminent. Withdrawal recommended.”
“Okay, I—” I stopped. My mouth hung open in my suit. I watched the battle for a frozen second. Six Worms reached a drill-tank. They bit the metal hull and fired streams of bursting rounds into it. The metal of the tank withered, but the head-like turret continued to swivel, burning them.
Thoughts burst in my mind like enemy explosive pellets. Macros always repeated themselves when a miscommunication had occurred, I realized. They had told me to withdraw. When I said I was pulling back to the ring, they told me to withdraw again. I wasn’t getting it. The only answer was they didn’t mean I was to retreat to the ring, they were telling me to retreat away from the ring.
What was I not understanding? Possibilities presented themselves inside my fertile mind. None of them were good. What if they weren’t sending troops, but instead a bomb of some kind? A wave of sickness rolled over me.
“Everyone get away from the ring!” I shouted, keying the command override. Every headset rang with my words. I took a step forward, then two more. I screamed into the microphone, causing my voice to distort and break into a scream. “I repeat, move all units away from the ring! Head south, to me! Priority one! NOW! Go, go, go!”
The ring began to… thrum. It was gentle at first, but grew into an undeniable force, a sound that could not be ignored. Every skull felt it, whether they had ears or not. It was a deep, forceful, brain-shaking vibration.
I saw perhaps half my tanks shudder, halt, and reverse direction. Hundreds of marines looked around, confused. Their unit commanders reinforced my orders. I could hear them, yelling at the troops and waving for them to pull back. As the ring was at their back, they had no choice. They rose up and charged the advancing Worm line. The enemy met them eagerly, but recoiled in shock as beams, knives and howling marines ran upslope into their ranks.
I experienced a moment of hope. I felt maybe they would escape whatever was coming, but my elation was a very brief affair.
A strong breeze came up next. I took another five steps downslope, toward the ring, toward my struggling troops. Kwon laid a heavy hand on my shoulder.
“We gotta go, sir,” he said. His words were gentler than his grip.
Maybe he knew what was going to happen. Maybe he’d witnessed the wrath of an alien god before. The breeze grew into a wind, then to a howling gale. My suit ruffled around me. I felt it move and shift.
“What are they sending through?” I asked.
“Nothing, sir,” said Kwon.
I looked at him suddenly. I twisted back to look. I saw the first man lose his footing. It was Warrant Officer Sloan. He’d been standing at the base of the ring, closer than anyone. He lifted up, pin-wheeling his arms for balance. He lost it and landed on his face. His body, dragged by an unseen force, began to thump and roll toward the ring. He flipped over and over, tossed about like a leaf as the force of moving air grew ever stronger and then—then he was gone. He slipped into the span of emptiness that was the gap in the arch of the ring and vanished. There was a spot of color on my vision, where it had happened. I’d never seen something go through the ring like that—not this close. It was like an… an event. A sparkling change to reality.
I knew, in my heart, that Warrant Officer Sloan was somewhere else now. Most likely, he floated in space. Perhaps he orbited a world no human had ever laid eyes upon until this moment. Or perhaps he was on the surface of a neutron star. He might have been instantly burnt to a vapor, or crushed to the size of a flat coin by unimaginable gravity. Or he might be simply floating somewhere, calling mayday to no one in a heartless void without even starlight to accompany his ending.
I grabbed up the com-device that connected me to the Macros. I could see by the glowing green LED the channel was still open. I almost broke the device in my fury and desperation.
“Turn it off!” I shouted.
“Mission accomplished. Return to base for pickup.”
“You are killing my men! Turn it off now!”
“Mission accomplished. Return to base for pickup.”
“Fucking machines!”
“Mission accomplished. Return to base for pickup.”
I destroyed the com-device. I smashed it through with my fist, and I enjoyed the sensation immensely, despite my agony of spirit. Kwon pulled me away, and I let him drag me toward the rim. We stumbled along until we caught a passing tank. Several of the drill-tanks had escaped. They were heavier than my troops, and denser. They were able to resist the hurricane force of suction that now drew everything up into a swirling tornado in the area around the ring. Worms twisted in those winds, hundreds of them. My troops drifted between the Worms. They still fired off and on, burning Worms who came too close with pencil-thin beams of brilliant light.