Alien Mine

Chapter 19 their position was clear, fight or die.

Hello everyone, and thank you for your patience. Rhys and the girls have returned to action, and I hope you enjoy the story.

From the previous chapter

The major gave the order to advance into the darkened entrance of the Om nest. Echo squad led the way down with tiger drones well out in advance, then a two-man rifle section followed by the squad leader, Sergeant Torres, and bringing up the rear were two more men with heavy weapons. The riflemen carried a heavy battle rifle, almost what would have been considered a cannon in other circumstances.

Kiania's symbiont sorted through the many drone feeds, letting her watch all five squads. She entered the tunnel with alpha, bravo, and charlie squads through a second tunnel, descending deeper and deeper, at least fifty meters, she guessed. Bravo squad was in the lead, with Master Sergeant Garcia leading them. He was thirty-five years old, medium build, and quick as a snake. Despite his name, he was from Mississippi and spoke with a slow southern drawl.

"Nothing yet, Major, but we are coming to a split in the tunnel, and it is changing," he added, pushing an armored hand up against the soft sponge-like surface. The Sergeant had faced many dangers, but this was like being caught in a minefield, never knowing what the next step would bring.

"Charlie squad, stop and hold at the junction; bravo and alpha take the right tunnel; it seems to head down," Kiania ordered calmly, still watching the progress of Major Jack's men. Without looking over her shoulder, she knew Rhys was about ten meters behind her; he was the 'reserve' on this side. The binary was with Jack and Amanda. They would take part in the fighting when needed, but it was her and Major Jack's show right now.

"Drones are seeing a wide spot up ahead, Major," Sergeant Torres reported, his voice tight with tension.

"The drones are acting funny, strange," Captain Amanda said, almost confused.

A command appeared in Leslie/ Amancia's interlaced brain through the tac-grid from the AI, "TOUCH THE WALL," followed by orders only the nanobytes understood.

Amancia and Leslie each reached out to the tunnel wall and felt their collars dissolve as the nanobytes flowed into the sponge-like substance. The entity found the data transfer rate from the nanobytes so restricted as to be almost useless; without the direct connection, it would barely suffice. The incoming data was processed, and the results traveled back down the link. A return data stream poured into the tac-grid, and Rhys froze for a second as target points suddenly propagated, and he absorbed the information slotted into his brain. Rhys heard Kiania frantically giving orders as he broke into a run, his weapon up and firing. He had led them into a trap, and the Om were all around them.

***

"Ambush is a surprise attack from a concealed position designed to create panic, to freeze your opponent into immobility as greater forces are brought to bear at critical points until he is isolated and overwhelmed. An effective ambush will catch the unsuspecting enemies off guard, but ambushes are also a delicate strategy. If you screw it up and expose your position before you're ready, things can take a turn for the worst."

***

The rush of data into the tac-grid left no doubt about their danger; their position was clear, fight or die. It only took a second for Rhys to analyze the attack and prioritize the threats. It was an ambush but hastily designed, and they had detected it before they were entirely in the kill zone. Jack's Echo squad was the most exposed and in danger of being cut off and overwhelmed, so that's where he would go first. Kiania's mind was only a split second behind his, and he passed his orders to her while firing on full auto over her head as a Trangrod broke away from the wall. His heavy rounds blew half of it away while simultaneously mapping out a counter-attack. Kiania was giving orders to assume a defensive position, pulling back where possible, but that would leave Echo exposed. He could hear the other squads in action as cries of Trangrods and the sounds of explosions. After killing the Trangrod, Rhys shifted his fire to the walls as another emerged; Kiania added her own fire, killing the roach. "Consolidate our squads, the Binary, and I will relieve Echo. Push forward, do not remain in place to be cut off," Rhys ordered as he vaulted over the men in front, firing as he went. Two tiger drones went with him, one in front that was filling the tunnel ahead with rapid-fire, the other trailing behind with that awkward-looking movement as it ran backward, covering the rear.

Kiania's Bravo squad was in the lead, the furthest down the tunnels and the most exposed. Sergeant Garcia swore as he eased down the tunnel; his team spread out as much as possible but could still provide fire support to each other if needed. His mouth was dry, and his muscles tensed, eyes darting back and forth, looking for threats. He brought his weapon to his shoulder and activated the rifle's CPU. This part still amazed him as the rifle felt like a 3D space opening inside his helmet's display. Gracia could see ammo status, barrel temperature, and targeting. It had been one of the many changes they had to become familiar with, but he liked the most. It gave him a bit of comfort, something they all needed right now in this alien landscape.

Then came the command from Kiania; formation three sixty, high low! They had practiced it, but he had hoped never to have to use it. The order meant the Trangrods were on both sides, probably front and rear, as well as above and below. He felt his own fear start to rise at the command; The Sergeant had been in combat several times, a few of which he had not expected to survive. But that was against human opponents. Moving into what was clearly an alien base took another kind of bravery and determination. Squashing his emotions, he forced himself to remain calm, breathe in, breathe out, then give orders as calmly as possible.

Bravo was deploying into the defensive formation in response to his command when his tactical display inside his helmet lit up like a Christmas tree with targets, and their armor picked up a new ominous sound. Tick tick, clang clang, the noise like a metal garbage can rolling on a hard surface, but getting louder. "What the fuck is that?" someone said over the squad comms as they heard frantic cries from the other squads. "Trangrods, Trangrods!" someone was yelling above the noise. Sergeant Garcia could see the red enemy dots in front of his eyes and realized the implications and the danger of their position. "Bravo is surrounded; Trangrods are attacking from all directions," he reported calmly, even though the approaching menace seemed to freeze his blood. He'd had his first glimpse of combat against the Om just an hour ago and knew how relentless they would attack, disregarding any casualties. They were positioned one hundred meters ahead of everyone else when the firing began, and the walls started to move.

Then there was no more time to think as there was movement all around him. "Hostile! Hostile!" yelled Sergeant Garcia on comms, as dark shapes came through the walls, followed by weapons hammering as Bravo engaged. "Fire on targets, watch your assigned fields of fire, maintain spacing," he ordered, trying to remain calm while bringing his own weapon up and firing into the ceiling. The blue dot from his arms computer lined up with the red dot of a Trangrod above him. He opened fire even though he had no visual, relying on tac-grid for targeting as his rounds ripped through the tunnel wall. He concentrated on his target, then another, hearing the rest of his squad begin firing. He didn't have time to assign targets, but they had trained for this too, and the heavy weapons ripped into the passageway seeking their targets. Then one of the Trangrods came up through the floor and was among them.

Reynolds' blood-curdling scream sounded over their comms as the Trangrod ripped at his armor, shredding it and his body while firing its weapon point blank into him. Before the others could react, a tiger drone leaped onto the Trangrod, Drans metal fangs and claws digging into the Om horror. Then two bird drones became meter-long monoblades, plunging themselves deep into the alien bio-machine, but it was too late for Reynolds.

"Help is on the way; defend and hold," Rhys told the sergeant as he sprinted down a tunnel toward them.

"Steady," Kiania said to Alpha squad as they came under fire, and she hit a Trangrod with two grenades as it tore its way through the wall, just meters from the soldier at the rear. It shifted attention to her, and bullets raked the formation before another grenade blasted it back through the wall, showering them with shrapnel. The attack had come from both sides of the tunnel and above. The Trangrods were moving through the walls from adjacent tunnels. Now that she could see them, it was easier to defend. Alpha squad fired through the walls, the heavies raking and shredding the honey-comb-like material. Grenades had blown holes into the sides, and they could see into the other tunnels, a complex maze of pulsating corridors that looked like giant blood vessels to Kiania, but instead of blood, they carried alien bio-machines. The attack on her squad was light, but they had two wounded, all walking. The ground was littered with parts of Trangrods.

She could see they were holding for the moment, but Bravo squad was the furthest down the tunnel, and the Trangrods were concentrated around them. Bravo had taken more casualties, three men wounded and one killed. If they didn't do something quick, they would lose the entire squad. Her tad-grid showed an incredibly detailed 3-D representation of the Om tunnels and the locations of all the Trangrods. There was a lightning-fast consultation between Rhys, the Binary, and those in the shuttle, and battle plans shifted. But before Kiania could issue warnings, their tac-grids flashed a message. BURN THE WALLS. The walls must be vulnerable, Kiania thought, but they didn't come prepared with anything except the hand flamers they used against the parasites. They would have to do.

"Sergeant," Kiania said, "I am going to send the drones to disrupt the attack, Have the heavies direct their fire where the drones go. This should keep them busy, prepare to move your men forward; we will leapfrog Charlie and relieve Bravo. Charlie, follow and provide rear cover." Kiania said calmly, and new targets flashed across the faceplates of the men. She and the others with symbionts had immediately fallen into combat mode when the tac-grid had propagated. That meant she had several seconds more than the unenhanced humans to grasp the situation, and even the Trangrods seemed to move slower. Massive firepower was the only way for the squads to counter their speed, though normal humans, even with enhanced weaponry, were not nearly as quick. At least the attack on Alpha was lighter than what Bravo and Echo were experiencing. "Have the men use their flamers to burn the walls as we go," she added. At the same time, several of the tiger drones tore through the walls of the passage to attack Trangrods that were gathering to attack. Auto-cannon and chain guns roared as the Sergeant led the men further into the maw of destruction.

As the wave of tac-grid information hit, Rhys immediately realized the danger they were in, but also the opportunity. This was far more than he had anticipated, and trying to pull back now would be disastrous. Sprinting forward, Ryhs began firing. His speed didn't give the Trangrods time to target him, and he fell upon the ones attacking Charlie squad in the rear before they could react. He rapidly fired grenades as he ran and saw multiple strikes, metal limbs coming apart as he moved forward. His two tiger drones attacked one of the Trangrods in front of him. Rhys' weapon was heavier than the ones carried by the soldiers and almost two meters long. It wasn't an auto cannon, but it was close, a Trangrod killer, and much more effective than earlier designs.

He paused long enough to fire a burst into the one his drones were attacking, smashing it into pieces, then looking around for others. Directly ahead was an opening in the floor, and he put a grenade through it as he passed, blasting one back down the hole. Charlie squad was just in front of him, and he called out a warning to the men in the rear. "Above you!" he shouted over the comms while firing on full auto at another Trangrod attacking from above. Rhys fired two grenades at another that was taking the men under fire from the tunnel wall, blowing it into the side where his drone finished it off. Heavy rounds from his weapon followed, killing two more. A quick twenty-meter leap, and he drove his monoblade into a roach that had one of the men in its clutches.

Standing over the wounded soldier, he added his fire, focusing on the ones trying to attack from above. "Sergeant, reorganize your sections; help is on the way," he said as the attack faltered for a moment. "Leave the dead for now; keep the wounded with you if they can walk. Alpha will be here momentarily," he ordered. "The walls, the ceiling, and floors are alive," he added ominously, "burn them as you go." Then he jumped five meters up through a hole in the tunnel's ceiling and was gone.

Despite the sudden attack, the men in Charlie squad responded to Rhys' commands. They had lost two men in the first rush to Trangrods coming through the top and below, and two more were wounded but walking. Heavies "deploy forward, take out the walls as we go," Sergeant Chadha ordered. The squad moved like a well-oiled unit, drones advancing in front and feeding vision and scans back to them, all showing nothing in front of them. Despite that, it wasn't the sides that worried the Sergeant but the intersecting tunnels above and below. He trusted his tac-grid, and they were clear for the moment; however, Bravo was getting hammered. "Move faster," he shouted, picking up the pace; if they didn't hurry, there would be no one to help.

Major Jack's Echo squad was leading the way into the southern entrance when the order to hold and take a defensive formation came. "All squads, this is the Major; reassemble on my position," Jack ordered. The Major's blood ran cold as he realized their danger. Jack had been ambushed before, he knew the helpless feeling of being pinned down or surrounded by the enemy, but this was different, an unknown foe that was alien in every sense of the word. Sarge yelled at Command Squad to assume a defensive formation around him and the Captain. The Major heard the roar of gunfire over comms, then explosions, shouts and yells, garbled screams, and a screech of metal on metal. Jack wanted to yell at them to report, but the tac-grid was swarming with enemy markers on every side of his lead squad.

Distracted though he was, Jack was alarmed when Amancia and Leslie cut through the wall and disappeared with blinding speed. "Move your squads forward to relieve echo," Kiania ordered; "Rhys and the Binary are attacking their flank. The walls are alive; burn them as you go." A new display appeared on his visor, a complicated schematic showing the tunnels and the positions of the Trangrods.

Delta was also coming under attack, but the heaviest concentration of Trangrods was centered around Echo. "Command squad, move forward, heavies in front, and burn the walls as we go," the Major ordered. He took out his flamer and turned it on the wall as he ran. It was designed to kill the parasites, but it worked well enough at short ranges on the tunnel's walls. As his men turned the walls red with fire, he felt the walls and floor move in response to the damage.

Anthony was in the lead with the auto-cannon, and William brought up the rear with the chain gun. Sarge called incoming a second before the ceiling exploded downward, with command squad splitting in all directions. Isaac pulled the Major out of the way as the Trangrod landed in the middle of them. Jack was shoved to the ground as Anthony cut loose with the chain gun, the rounds passing through the area where the Major had been standing as alien roaches fired through the wall. The Captain sent bird drones in all directions; they weren't strong enough to tear through the walls, but the flying drones could go through the holes used by the Trangrods to attack them. What Kiania saw would have terrified her if there was time; there were more tunnels just like the ones they were in and more Trangrods that appeared to come out of the walls. She killed as many as possible with the bird drones but watched with growing concern as more seemed to separate themselves from the walls where they were embedded.

"Use the chain guns, " the Major told Sarge, and the targets were suddenly highlighted on his grid.

"Move and fire," Sarge ordered and directed his rifle section to swing around and cover the way up ahead. The drones and the auto-cannon bellowed as the surrounding walls came apart, revealing more bio-machines but fewer in number now. Then one came up through the floor before anyone could react and was inside their formation.

Amanda saw the enemy close up for the first time; at least six limbs, armored, half ant, half grasshopper, was her immediate reaction, but all alien. A large weapon mounted on its thorax spitting fire while an armored head tracked her movement. It slashed and spun in all directions, the metal blades on the front legs reaching for her. Instead of moving or firing, she froze in place and could not make herself react as the weapon swung toward her, and she realized she was about to die. Mike, a former marine, shoved her down and fired point blank, but the Trangrod was faster, and one of the blades sliced straight through Mike's armor, almost severing his ankle. Then Anthony hit it with the auto-cannon, and the alien nearly disintegrated in the concentrated fire.

"God Damn it," Mike shouted, holding his ankle. There was little blood, the armor sealed over the wound, binding tight to his ankle.

"Head back to the shuttle," Sarge said, looking at him.

"Fuck you," Mike replied; I'm not going back by myself; besides, I can keep up," he said, moving down the tunnel.

Sarge nodded, "Ok, Isaac, take point; come on, let's move before the rest of them hit us."

"Move forward; we need to catch up with Delta; Amanda, use the drones to cover us. Let's move, Now!" The Major added.

Amanda shook herself mentally, angry that she had frozen, letting herself become a liability. She gripped her weapon tighter as they moved, trying to get herself back into the correct mindset. "Come on," she told herself, "You have practiced this; now do it." Practice was one thing, but seeing the alien monster looking directly at her and thinking she was about to die was another. The Trangrods were so fast; if not for their armor, it would have killed them all with little effort. Fear threatened to overwhelm her, but she fought it down; there was nowhere to go but forward.

Sergeant Torres was leading Echo when he heard Kiania's warning and immediately shifted his squads alignment, tiger drones spaced throughout and covering his rear and the area forward. There wasn't a lot of fancy maneuvering you could do stuck in a tunnel, so his men took up defensive positions as best they could. He could hear from the comms that the other squads were already under attack. His version of the tac-grid propagated, and the area around him was filled with red dots, some advancing toward his position.

"The fucking wall is moving," shouted someone behind him, and chaos descended. A flurry of gunfire, and suddenly his soldiers were firing all at once. There were explosions in every direction as Trangrods burst through the tunnel's walls, including the floor and ceiling. Sergeant Torres was too busy trying to survive to organize resistance as a Trangrod came up through the floor between his legs. His tiger drone attacked as the Trangrod's fore legs came through, the ones equipped with sharp blades capable of cutting a man into pieces. The Trangrod shifted its attack to the drone giving him time to react. Torres swung his long rifle down, repeatedly firing into the floor, hypervelocity rounds tearing into the metal carapace. The Trangrod came apart, but one of his men wasn't so lucky. He heard a scream and looked up to see a soldier being pulled into the ceiling; his screams cut short as two others with heavy weapons cut loose, killing him and the Trangrod.