Casey

 

I glanced over my shoulder to see Erin running towards the enormous form of the alien walking machine that would have made H. G. Wells proud. She looked like she meant business and my heart did flips which ended in a dull ache in my chest.

The robot itself carried on doing whatever it had before, completely ignoring everything that we’d thrown at it so far.

We were gaining distance on it, jogging back the way we’d come, though way too slowly for my liking. Sebastian was lagging a little behind, and Mika and I had to slow down for him to keep up with us. At first, it had been hella funny that he lugged his guitar around everywhere he went but now that it was slowing us down I was getting frustrated.

If we were going to get to a safe distance then we needed some hustle. As I turned to look ahead of me once more, I stumbled to a halt. The way forward was littered with a few more of those little arachno-droid fuckers.

They’d already noticed us and were congregating into some kind of battle formation as we approached.

The road around us was littered with debris, both from abandoned vehicles and other wind-blown junk. That included road signs, tree branches and even half a tire just sitting there in the road.

My annoyance at having to constantly deal with these asshole things boiled over, and I ignited a ball of glowy death in each hand.

Even though it was starting to tire me mentally, all of this fighting we’d been doing today had really improved my focus to the point that I found it near second-nature now. Poor, beautiful Erin still needed her music, though, which was going to get her in a whole bunch of trouble sooner or later.

The drones darted towards me all at once, but I’d seen this trick before. I side-stepped the attack, elongating the glowing orbs into blades that slashed through two before they’d even landed. The three survivors came at me from different directions, trying to flank me.

Out of nowhere, one of them crumpled into a heap as Sebastian stabbed it down with his own attack. In one moment he had stepped forward and lanced it with some kind of spear of light. Where had that come from?

It evaporated from his hands almost as soon as he’d used it, but I’d have to ask him about that later. Death and destruction now, please.

The last two were target practice for me, lasting approximately as long as it took for me to flick the blades of plasma at them. They sparked and sputtered then collapsed into heaps of razor-sharp legs and exposed wiring.

I was tempted to head back now that Sebastian and Mika were out of trouble, but if I got Erin hurt by distracting her at some important moment then I would never forgive myself.

The winds were picking up again, and I had to clear my hair from my eyes. It had all fallen loose at some point since we’d dropped from the chopper but I was only just noticing now.

We took stock of our situation. I could see that we’d recently passed a spot I recognized even in the dim light.

Signs for fast food restaurants and department stores were landmarks as good as any other, especially to an American. There were also a couple of army trucks I distinctly remembered, with their doors wide open and abandoned by the side of the freeway. Sebastian had already checked them the first time we’d passed but he was doing it again. The result was no different this time, either – he still didn’t find anyone injured inside.

Tilting my head a little to the side, I caught the whine of engines approaching. Initially, I had mistaken it for the sound of the wind as it howled through the trees but it was growing louder. We turned, looking back in the direction we’d been heading. I could see the distant flashes of dimmed headlights as vehicles trundled towards us but it was too dark to make out many details.

There were a lot of them, though, and they were all heading this way.

“Who is that?” Sebastian asked Mika, glancing at the woman with his eyebrows raised, but she shrugged her shoulders.

“I have no idea,” she replied. “There were a few of us near here but they were pulling out. Not this many though.”

More and more of them came into view as we watched and I stood, mesmerized by the sight. There were lines of trucks interspersed with columns of tanks that were clanking and screeching their way along the freeway towards us.

I stepped into the path that the vehicles would be following and – using the trick that Erin had invented that one time – created a ball of brilliant light in my hand. The area around us was bathed in a clean, white glow almost as if I’d lit the mother of all flares and was casually walking around with it in my hand.

If I wanted them to see me then I decided to go all-out and be hella obvious. I didn’t feel like getting quite literally hit by a truck in the darkness.

As they approached I noticed that the first five or so trucks pulled over near us. The tanks that were trailing didn’t stop, though, and instead skirted around the little cordon that the trucks had made.

The rest of the vehicles behind them didn’t stop either, and I pressed my lips together in annoyance. It was all I could do to not scowl in frustration at having been mostly ignored. 

I glared at the passing mass of military vehicles for several moments until a door opened on the nearest of the transports. Someone familiar hopped out, and I noticed the disgruntled face of the General that had dismissed us so readily back in Austria.

The middle-aged soldier eyed me up and down, appraising me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking – he was far too experienced at hiding his emotions for that to be possible – but I strongly suspected that he was putting his asshole hat on just for me.

“General Schulz,” I called out, my voice curt and not entirely welcoming. At least I'd used his real name.

“Miss Kowalski,” was his gruff reply. “Where is your little girlfriend?”

 

Erin

 

I had to hold on tightly as the machine pulled its leg up to walk and I felt the agony of my arms threatening to rip free of their sockets as we slammed back down into the ground.

This was such a dumb idea. Why did I think that climbing up one of the limbs it used to walk would work?

I’d reached about halfway up by now, managing to find tiny footholds or melting my own into its thick outer casing. Somehow Muse or Athena was able to help me in such a way as to stop me from melting my own hand. Honestly, with some of the things that I did, I was amazed that my clothes were still unburnt and in one piece.

‘Focus on climbing, Erin,’ the aforementioned alien symbiote told me over my music. ‘This is more dangerous than it may seem.’

As if to prove her point, a tiny aperture slid open a couple of meters above my face, revealing an articulated arm holding several lethal-looking turrets. All of them twisted and pivoted in unison until they were pointing directly at me. I swore under my breath, reflexively whipping a super-dense bundle of highly-energetic sub-atomic particles in its direction.

The arm was cut clean through, serrated edges glowing a vivid red while the rest tumbled down to the ground below. I dared not follow it with my gaze otherwise I’d see just how high up I was. So instead, I gritted my teeth and pulled myself a little higher.

Even though the tiny aperture slid closed, it didn’t stop me from melting into it and gripping it with my fingers as a makeshift handhold.

I felt the change in momentum as the leg began to rise into the air once more, and I pulled myself in tight, hanging on for dear life.

But this time was different. Instead of swinging that leg forward, it remained suspended in the air.

Twisting, I turned to look at the central core of the machine. Something was clearly different and I wasn’t certain that it was different in a good way. My blood chilled as I noticed several larger doors opening along its flank, the weapon emplacements within turning to point directly at me.

That was definitely not a good way.

With adrenaline pulsing through my veins, I heaved myself upwards and sent a whole bunch of energy into my limbs. With that, I leapt the remaining distance up to the top of the first joint in a matter of moments, leaving me just enough time to place the translucent barrier of the Aegis between myself and the lasery death that awaited me there.

The beams were invisible to the naked eye, but the air that they passed through glowed faintly just beyond my shield. Where they collided with its surface, the glowing intensified until it was almost too bright to bear.

Just lovely. I bet Casey wasn’t having this trouble.

 

---

 

Casey

 

It took me far longer to explain to the General why he should listen to me than it should have, and in the end, I had to recruit Mika to talk to him instead. Clearly he only respected the military’s opinion on these matters, not little ol’ me.

They discussed various plans for what should happen next, Mika refusing to rise to the bait that he placed for her with his insults and underhanded compliments.

Eventually, he stepped back into his truck and began to give orders to the driver. At least I assumed that’s what they were – he was too far away and the wind was howling too much for me to stand much of a chance on hearing him.

Mika stood watching him with her hands on her hips, the gashes in her uniform exposing the flawless skin beneath. Whatever Sebastian had done, it had worked wonders – you’d never even know that she’d been injured.

My thoughts turned to my Erin, imagining her bare skin and how it would feel under my fingers.

The Swedish woman must have seen me watching her with a vacant expression because she gave me a nod and headed our way. “The General is working on a new plan. I told him that he should not send the armor alone, and he has agreed,” she told me.

I nodded, although I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant.

“You can ride in the back. Kowalski, with me,” the General shouted out to us, the steel in his eyes telling me that he wasn’t happy about the idea of that one bit. Well, the feeling was mutual, shithead. I’d rather walk than have to sit in his presence any more than I absolutely had to.

The three of us glanced at each other, trying to gauge each other’s intentions. I was all in favor of heading back without this jackass, but Mika made her move first. She dashed around to the back of the truck, pulled up the canvas sheeting that protected its occupants and slipped inside. Sebastian shrugged his shoulders, gave me an apologetic smile and followed after her.

I rolled my eyes, uttered some cusses under my breath and opened the door to hop in alongside the middle-aged German officer. He gave the order to drive on and we began to accelerate towards the inevitable skirmish that was to come.

“What do you plan to do?” I asked him once we’d been moving for a minute or so.

He didn’t reply at first, seemingly happier to ignore me than engage me in conversation. Fine, if he wanted to play that game then we’ll see who helps him when the time comes.

“We are going to gather everyone that we can and overwhelm it,” he said, finally, not looking me in the eye.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“That’s it? That’s your ‘revised plan’? Tell me there’s something else you haven’t shared yet,” I growled at him. There was frustration eeking into my every word now.

“You have seen this machine,” he countered, anger reddening his cheeks as he finally turned to look at me. Explaining himself to others was clearly something he wasn’t used to, nor that he enjoyed. “You are aware that if we cannot contain it here then we will have no choice but to take a more serious approach. Do you want that, Miss Kowalski?”

His eyes bored into mine and I had no doubt that what he was referring to with his ‘more serious approach’ was the use of WMD. I could only imagine what kind of political shitstorm that would create if another country nuked Sweden’s capital city. Not only that but if it became common knowledge that we couldn’t defeat the aliens even when they’d only sent a single scout to our planet then morale would plummet and our world would be doomed.

No, he was right. We had to defeat it here and now, or who knew what would happen.

I had to look away from him, though, refusing to give him the pleasure of hearing me admit that he was right.

 

Erin

 

Shit. I was really struggling with these lasers.

I’d only managed to score a single hit on one of them and that was only because the angle had worked out in my favour. Now I didn’t have the space to go on the offensive any more without exposing myself to too many of their lethal attacks. Heck, how many of them would it take to fry me anyway?

‘Unfortunately, while I can absorb some of their energy, a single one of them is powerful enough to incinerate your body within seconds,’ a voice whispered in my head.

Thank you. That is really comforting to know right now.

I felt the limb beneath me begin to shift, making my legs wobble slightly. Curses escaped my lips and I allowed myself to collapse down until I was prone and I clung on for dear life. Right now I was questioning every single decision I’d made that had led up to this moment – I really wished I was anywhere but here.

The shield barrier was angled to keep me protected while I cowered down, and I squeezed my eyes closed for a few seconds.

My music was jarringly inappropriate for the situation I found myself in: all heart-thumping basslines and hurried tempos. This most definitely didn’t feel as energetic as my playlist was trying to make me believe and I was sorely tempted to rip my earbuds out in annoyance.

Lightning began to flash in the sky around me, but my platform started to fall yet. This was confusing me. If it really wanted to shake me off then all it really had to do was stomp hard.

A tremendous gust of wind tore through my hair and buffet my clothes accompanied by the bright flash of explosions, and vibrations that ran through the hull that I could feel in my bones.

There wasn’t enough time for me to figure out what had happened as another tremor ran through the machine and the leg I had been clinging to began to finally drop.

Through gritted teeth, I uttered some choice words of frustration and scrambled to stay attached to the robotic spider, seeking footholds and places where I could wedge my fingers. It hadn’t been as forceful as I’d expected, but I still felt myself sliding. I found the edge of a panel and curled my fingers tightly around its frame to give myself some purchase.

I could feel the machine tilting as it turned, all six of its legs working together to change direction – although I couldn’t tell exactly what it was turning towards. Vertigo hit me when I tried to twist to look, so I closed my eyes and held on tight.

As the mechanical leg underneath me finally rose up again, I wasted no time in pulling myself to my feet and launching myself blindly towards the central thorax section, using the energy I contained to boost me the extra distance I needed.

I held the shield in front of me and yelled, fully prepared to defend against whatever counterattack it launched at me.

But there was nothing.

As I gracefully arced through the air, my vision was filled with the sight of smoking, twisted stumps of metal where the emplacements had been. I tucked into a roll as I landed, being careful not to cut myself one of the jagged shards of metal that littered its once-sleek back.

When a whole bunch of defensive cannons appeared, popping up from yet more concealed hatches, and swivelling into place, I ducked back down behind my shield. Thankfully, I wasn’t their target and they tracked something in the sky before they sprayed bright streams of glowing light heavenward. Whatever ammunition they were firing was barely perturbed by the gale that was whipping around us.

‘The weakest point in its outer shell lies between the two ridges to your right,’ Muse told me. I desperately tried to see where she was indicating, but the whole back of this thing was ridges and lumps.

“Right here,” Athena said now, snapping her fingers and then gesturing enthusiastically at a spot several meters more central than where I currently stood.

My cheeks flushed with embarrassment that she felt the need to be so obvious. She could have been a little more descriptive.