As he waded through the mass of alien dead, Taggert found it curious that they all appeared to be Melforeans; he had not seen a single Juirean among any of defenders. If intel was right, then there should have been several thousand of the green-hair Guards to greet his forces, yet there were none to be found.
The bottom floor of the admin building was a single large open area, easily covering a hundred square meters, with the ceiling soaring four stories high. There were numerous kiosks scattered throughout the lobby area — all deserted now except for the bodies of the dead aliens, along with dozens of live Marines as they moved cautiously about, looking for any trace of resistance.
Lieutenant Jerome Corse came up to Taggert. He didn’t salute; you never did that in a combat zone. “The lower level appears to be clear, sir. Most of the aliens have exited out the other side and run for the hills. I’m beginning a sweep of the upper floors now. Echo Company is setting up a parameter outside the building in case there’s a counterattack.” The young black man glanced around the room and smiled. “I don’t see that happening, though. These things don’t seem to have much fight in them.”
“Casualties?” Taggert asked.
“Twelve dead, as best we can determine at this time, with about twenty wounded.”
“Be sure to collect the bodies, LT,” Taggert said. “We want to make sure they make it back to Earth for burial. We don’t want to leave any of them on some alien planet where no one can honor them.”
“Yes, sir, not goin’ to let that happen.”
Taggert took out a Klin communicator, a device that looked like a large cellphone. He fingered the controls. “Taggert to Command, come in, over.”
Immediately, Admiral Levin was on the link. He had been watching the events unfold on the surface through the video cameras mounted on the helmets of the Marines. “Looks like less resistance than anticipated, Owen.”
“For now, Admiral, but I haven’t seen any Juireans. Either they’ve all split or they’re waiting to hit us when we let our guard down. We’ll move further out into the city once the building’s secure.”
“Roger that. Just be careful. We don’t know what the Juireans are capable of. This is all virgin ground for us.”
“Understood. I’ll send a few of the saucers up to provide air cover for us as we-”
Chapter 17
Levin winced as a deafening screech sounded through the speakers. Others on the command bridge did the same. Admiral Nate Allen moved up beside him. “What was that?” he asked, more to the communications officer rather than to Levin.
“Communications are offline-”
“Sir! We’re picking up a massive explosion on the surface.” Levin and Allen ran to the radar station. The E-5 manning the screen looked nervous.
“Confirmed, Admiral,” said Lieutenant Morris from his console next to the second-class. “A mushroom cloud is rising above the city.” He looked up at the two senior officers, his mouth hanging slack. “It looks like they’ve set off a nuke, right there in the middle of the city. It’s huge, probably over a hundred megatons. That’s bigger than anything we have.”
Nate Allen suddenly felt his knees go weak as he struggled to breathe. The fucking Juireans blew up the entire city — along with Owen and his men!
Nate looked over at Levin, whose eyes were glassy, his bottom lip trembling. “I guess we know what we’re up against, now,” Levin managed to say. “Four hundred Marines — just like that.”
Allen placed a hand on Levin’s shoulder. “Let’s make sure these scurvy bastards pay for this, Admiral. Let’s send every last one of them straight to Hell!”
Chapter 18
Along the eastern perimeter of the shipyards ran a tall wire fence and through it Adam could see the dense, verdant boundary of the jungle beyond. There were numerous metal crates stacked high against the fence, and he and Sherri were able to easily scamper to the top of one of them. Poul, on the other hand, was not much of a climber. Adam leaned over the edge and offered the Hyben the end of his flash rifle. The large shrimp eyed the barrel of the weapon with trepidation before finally grabbing hold. Adam easily lifted him to the top of the crate.
Adam jumped to the ground on the other side of the fence and then called for Poul to follow suit; Adam would catch him. Sherri patted Poul’s back, “It’s okay, you can trust him.”
Once all three of them were over the fence, Adam led them to the tree line. As part of the normal maintenance of the yards, large mowers maintained a hundred meter buffer zone between the jungle and the fence, but with the cutbacks on personnel, the grooming had not taken place in a month or two. Now large gnarly vines snaked out of the dense forest, sending off shoots of smaller appendages which burrowed into the ground forming strong footholds in mother-nature’s relentless attempt to reclaim what was rightfully hers. Unless something was done soon, within a year the jungle would be creeping over and through the fence; in ten years the shipyard would be nothing but a ghost town of decaying and overrun buildings.
The three fugitives entered the sea of vegetation and immediately felt the temperature climb by five to ten degrees. All around them was a cacophony of buzzing and clicking sounds, which failed to cease as they moved through the jungle. Adam pulled out his blade, extending it out to its full length and began to hack his way deeper into the overgrowth. He had no fear; much of his training had been in environments such as this, yet Sherri and Poul were having difficulty keeping up.
“Where are we going?” Sherri called out from behind Poul. “It seems to be getting thicker.”
“Can’t you hear that?” Adam replied. And when Sherri tried very hard she could hear the sound of running water.
“A river?”
“That’s Jullin Creek; it runs through the jungle and empties into Luy Lake, about twenty kilometers from here,” Poul explained.
“So your plan is to escape down the river?” Sherri asked Adam.
Suddenly Adam burst through the thick barrier of man-size fronds to find himself balancing precariously on the bank of a muddy river, about twenty meters above the water. Bending his body like one of those wacky air displays at a car dealership, he eventually regained his balance and stabilized. He turned back to smile at Sherri, who was just now emerging from the jungle. Suddenly, the brittle muddy bank gave way and fell out from under his footing. Adam slid down the muddy bank and splashed into the water. Sinking under the surface, he felt a strong current begin to pull him down river. Adam was a strong swimmer, so with a few kicks of his legs, he broke through the surface and swam for the shore, beaching himself about twenty yards down from where he’d entered the river. Poul and Sherri were busily making their way along the bank above him, a concerned look plastered across Sherri’s face.
“Are you all right?” she called out to him.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said as he stood in about a meter of water.
“The vipers move within the river,” Poul offered. “I wouldn’t linger if I were you.”
Adam looked up and down the bank until he saw where the river and the bank matched the same level. He began to move downriver, staying a few meters in the water as he did so. “I need the two of you to move back into the jungle a few feet. I’ll meet you in the jungle over there,” he said, pointing to the point in the river where he would make his exit.
“What do you have in mind?” Sherri asked, as she and Poul moved back into the thick vegetation.
“I want anyone who’s following us to think we entered the river and have either crossed over or headed downstream. We’re going to double back through the jungle and take up a spot upriver, near the shipyards.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Sherri said, “but it’s going to be tough getting through the jungle without leaving a trail.”
“We’ll manage,” Adam said as he joined the other two within the canopy of vines and oversized leaves. “Besides, in a day most of the trail will be covered over with new growth.”