Isolation (Forgotten Vengeance Book 2) Read online

It was all too much.

  There was no more time. No more space. Only the moment. Only the pain. He didn’t know how long it lasted. He had no concept of reality.

  And then the glowing embers of anger slowly began to fuel a fire.

  He lowered Natalia back to the ground, eyes narrowing as he stared at her corpse. His hands clenched, his body tensing as he looked at her, and then over at Hallia’s carriage.

  The wailing faded. The sobbing faded. The tears dried up. The hurt remained, but it found a new place inside him. A new purpose. A new strength began to rise from the ashes of his misery, burning white-hot.

  He had thought he lost Natalia once before, and the not knowing had nearly driven him mad. This time she was lost to him for certain, and a different madness was taking hold.

  This time, vengeance would be his.

  16

  Nathan

  The garage was sealed as they had expected, a massive steel gate planted across the entrance and anchored in extra-thick concrete. There was a control pad to the left of it, but it was useless without power, leaving the gate stuck in lockdown.

  It wasn’t a bad thing in this case. There were signs the xaxkluth had tried to pry it open. Some of the bars were slightly bent, and the slime the creatures left behind was on the street and sticking to the metal. Nathan noticed Isaac take a moment to touch the dark, fibrous material before shying away.

  The Relyeh had given up on the entrance, but Nathan wouldn’t. They needed to get inside.

  “How many do we have left?” he asked, as Lucius and Drake finished manually placing nearly a dozen grenades.

  “I’ve got two full mags,” Drake said.

  “Me too,” Lucius said.

  Twelve each. It sounded like a lot, but they would go fast once the real fighting started again.

  “Clear the area,” Nathan said, urging the other Centurions to take cover against the walls on either side of the building. “Fire in the hole.”

  He launched a grenade at the first stack and triggered it to detonate. It set off a chain reaction that shook the whole street, the explosives tearing the concrete apart and causing the gate to fall inward.

  “Hurry,” Nathan said, waving the Centurions forward. The noise had alerted the xaxkluth to their proximity, and a quick check of his HUD showed the creatures closest to them had changed direction in response, all now heading their way. It was a necessary evil if they wanted to get inside.

  And more importantly, if they wanted to get what was inside, outside.

  The Centurions descended to the first floor of the garage. The motor pool was intact, the gate equally effective at keeping things in as it was at keeping them out. A handful of modified, armored cars and a pair of motorcycles sat on the left side of the garage, while the artillery Hicks had mentioned rested on the right.

  “Sheriff Duke didn’t show me the tank the last time I was here,” Ike said, looking at the machine. It was a Frankenstein’s Monster of a vehicle, patched together from the remains of similar armor, barely small and light enough to fit inside the garage. A large turret was mounted to the top of it, with smaller automatic machine guns mounted on either side.

  “Tell me that thing works,” Lucius said.

  “It does,” Hicks replied. “The APC too.”

  A United States Space Force APC rested behind the tank. It had been modified and enhanced from its original square, squat, treaded form. Additional steel plates and spikes now formed a spiny shell over the top of it, and a turret with a heavy cannon occupied the center of the roof.

  “Boom!” Lucius said excitedly.

  “Jesse, Spot,” Rico said. “Take the APC. General, do you know how to drive a tank?”

  “I do,” Hicks said. “That one, anyway. I need a volunteer to operate the guns.”

  “I can do it,” Drake said.

  “Go,” Nathan said as the floor vibrated slightly and a soft groan echoed from the ramp. The xaxkluth had seen the door was open, and they weren’t about to wait outside.

  Rico, Ike and Pyro sprinted toward the stairs at the back of the garage while the other Centurions went for the vehicles. Nathan turned back toward the ramp, raising his rifle and walking toward it. The entrance was too small for any of the larger xaxkluth to get in, and with the ramp being a bottleneck of sorts it would keep them grouped together, slowing even the smaller xaxkluth.

  A moment later, Nathan’s HUD outlined the first alien up the ramp. He didn’t hesitate, squeezing the trigger of his railgun and sending dozens of rounds into the creature, which was too compressed to defend itself. The flechettes tore through its eyes and mouth and into its brain, causing it to drop on the ramp in a heap.

  “Shit,” Nathan said, taking a step back. They couldn’t afford to kill the enemy before it made it all the way in. They would end up barricading the exit with their corpses. “Hold your fire until they clear the ramp.”

  A second xaxkluth appeared behind the first. This time Nathan held his fire, still backing up as the alien made it all the way into the passage. It accelerated when it saw how close Nathan had let it come, rushing toward him, tentacles reaching out to grab or bite.

  He blasted the first limb that got too close before springing back on the strength of the powered armor, ending up closer to the middle of the floor. The xaxkluth kept at him, tentacles writhing as nearly a dozen stretched out to grab him at once.

  A heavy crackle sounded to his right, and the xaxkluth’s head shattered beneath the sudden assault from the APC’s cannon.

  “Got him,” Lucius said.

  “General, we’re ready to roll,” Hicks said.

  “Rico, what’s your status?” Nathan asked. They weren’t going anywhere until she made it to the bunker to contact the survivors.

  Rico didn’t respond. Nathan glanced at his HUD, only then realizing his ATCS had dropped Rico, Ike and Pyro from the network. What the hell?

  “Bennett, do you copy?” he said, trying to raise the Parabellum on the comm. “Bennett, are you there?”

  Nothing.

  He smacked the side of his helmet. “Bennett, come in.”

  Still no reply.

  “We lost them,” Hicks said.

  Nathan growled softly as the next pair of xaxkluth registered on his HUD. There was a slim possibility his comms couldn’t reach the dropship from underground, but there was no chance it couldn’t reach Rico a few floors down. Someone or something had to be jamming them.

  The APC’s cannon whined as it unleashed its fury again, rapidly turning the two xaxkluth to a pulp. Clear for a moment, Nathan spun around to move closer to the stairs.

  He froze as Hayden came through the door, Natalia right behind him. She had Hallia propped against her shoulder, a revolver in her other hand.

  “It’s about time you got here,” Hayden said.

  17

  Isaac

  Isaac tailed Pyro and Rico into the stairwell, bringing up the rear as the trio descended from the first floor of the pyramid’s garage.

  It felt strange to be back here again, and even stranger to be back under these circumstances. His short time in Sanisco had convinced him the settlement was reasonably secure. Sheriff Duke was more than capable, and the city had enough people and weaponry to repel any ordinary attack from human or trife.

  But there was nothing ordinary about these creatures. Their size alone made them frightening, and their agility, speed and intelligence only added to the threat. His brief look at the city on the way to the pyramid had proven the destructive nature of the creatures. It was as if the people hadn’t even tried to fight back.

  How did an army of large aliens approach a city without anyone knowing? Where were the lookouts? The guards? The alarms? Why couldn’t anyone contact Sheriff Duke?

  They reached the landing for the second floor. Isaac knew it led to the Law Office. He wanted to duck his head in and see if there was any sign of a mounted defense, but Rico was moving fast to reach the bunker, and he didn’t want her to lea
ve him behind. He glanced at the door on the way past and continued descending, keeping an eye on the stairs above for any intruders.

  “General Stacker, we’ve reached the second floor,” Rico said through the comm. She waited a second, but there was no response. “General?”

  Isaac glanced at the semi-transparent HUD displayed in the corner of his helmet. He had always wanted to test out the Space Force combat armor but had never thought it would come to this. He was impressed with the technology, but he hated the need to use it.

  “They’re off the network,” Pyro said, right before he noticed the system had dropped the rest of the Centurions, leaving only the three of them connected. “They all are.”

  “We’re only one level down,” Rico said.

  “Something’s not right,” Pyro agreed. “This has to be why we lost communication with Sheriff Duke. And why nobody called out for help. But the link was up. I’m sure of it. Something’s jamming the signal internally.”

  “I have a hard time believing tentacle monsters are carrying signal jamming tech,” Isaac said.

  “Sheriff Duke was afraid an Axon was loose in the city,” Pyro replied.

  A chill ran down Isaac’s spine. “That would explain it. That would explain a lot.”

  “Would it?” Rico asked. “Why would the Axon be working with the Relyeh? Especially against Earth? Either one could take the planet on their own with just a little more effort. They don’t need to team up.”

  “Something is going on here we haven’t figured out yet,” Isaac said. “Maybe it’s been going on for a long time.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Rico said. “First things first. Stacker’s waiting for us to reach the bunker. We can’t comm back our status, so we need to stay on our toes. Ike, as soon as we’ve made contact with potential survivors I want you to relay the message back up to the General.”

  “Roger,” Isaac replied.

  They bypassed the lab on the third floor, dropping two more levels. The landing at the bottom of the fifth floor was different than the others, clearly added long after the first four. It was hewn into the bedrock. Layered with concrete, it led into a three-meter deep tunnel and up to a small, filthy steel blast door—the same kind used for bank vaults. A small intercom was mounted beside it.

  “Look,” Pyro said, pointing at the floor. Spots of dried blood stained the concrete. “Somebody made it down here.”

  Rico hurried to the intercom, pressing the button. She wasn’t sure it would function without power, but it clicked on. “Hello. Can anyone hear me? My name is Major Rico Rodriguez. I’m a friend of Sheriff Duke. Hello.”

  The intercom was silent.

  “Damn it,” Rico said. “Hello. This is Major Rico Rodriguez of the Centurion Space Force. We’re here to help. Is anyone there?”

  Silence. Again.

  “We can’t waste too much time here,” Isaac said. “If nobody made it or they don’t want to answer, there’s nothing we can—”

  “Hello?” a man’s voice said through the intercom. “Major Rodriguez?”

  Rico returned to the speaker. “I’m here. Who is this?”

  “My name is Bale. I’m the stablemaster. Is Sheriff Duke with you?”

  “No. How many people are in there with you?”

  “I don’t know. A few hundred? We didn’t take a headcount. Shit, we barely made it down here before those monsters cut us off. It seemed like they came out of nowhere, just popped up right outside the perimeter. It was the old tunnel lines, I bet. They came through the tunnel lines. Sheriff Duke, he collapsed them inside the perimeter, but not outside. He didn’t think we needed to worry about outside.”

  “Bale, calm down,” Rico said. “It doesn’t matter how they got here. We need to get you out.”

  “We’re safe here.”

  “You aren’t. They know you’re down there. They won’t leave, and you’ll starve. We want to try to get you out.”

  “Try? That’s not much of a promise, Major.”

  “No, it isn’t. But it’s the best any of us can do.”

  “We wouldn’t be in this spot now if you Centurions had done a lot more to help us out when you had the chance..”

  Rico looked back at Isaac. “A little help here?”

  Isaac moved forward to the door. “Bale, this is Sergeant Isaac Pine, United States Space Force. Do you remember me?”

  “Ike? You’re that Marine that was lost in stasis, aren’t you?”

  “That’s right. Listen, Bale. Rico and her people are good folks. They’re trying to help. But we need to move fast. We’ve got a window of opportunity, and it’s closing fast.”

  Bale didn’t respond right away. Isaac could picture the gruff man talking to the other civilians on the other side of the door, arguing about what to do.

  “We have to go now, Bale!” Isaac said. “Or you’ll get left behind and starve to death. I guarantee it.”

  There was a clunk behind the door, and then the sound of someone turning the heavy wheel that activated the thick bolts. It clanged again as it came free, and then Isaac was forced to back up as the door swung open.

  Bale was in front of the group. He had an MK-10 in his hands and a bloody, filthy bandage around his forehead. The people behind him were equally distressed. They were equal parts men and women, with a handful of children and a few uniformed deputies who averted their eyes in shame as Isaac looked them over.

  “Ike, tell Stacker I’m sending them up,” Rico said. “Then meet us in the lab.”

  “Roger,” Isaac replied. He nodded to Bale and then turned and started sprinting back up the steps.

  18

  Nathan

  “Hayden?” Nathan said, surprised by Sheriff Duke’s sudden appearance in the garage. “Shit. I was worried about you.”

  “No reason to worry,” Natalia said. “We’re here.”

  “I sent Pyro to the lab with Rico and Ike. We’re going to take the neural interlink.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Hayden said. “But you can call them up. We’re a step ahead of you.” He turned slightly, revealing a large duffel slung across his back.

  “Comms are down. Didn’t you notice?”

  Hayden tapped on his face beneath his eye. “Lost my glasses to a xaxkluth. No comms.”

  “We need to go,” Natalia said. “It breaks my heart, but the city’s lost.”

  Hayden started toward the modboxes on the left side of the garage.

  “We’ve got the APC powered up and ready to roll,” Nathan said. “We can take the interlink in it.”

  “No,” Hayden countered. “Too big and too slow. We’re safer with something more maneuverable.”

  He continued to one of the modboxes—a long, wide car with chained tires, spikes across the grill and baseboards; extra armor plating over the doors, hood and roof; and steel bars protecting the windshield. He opened the large trunk and dropped the duffel inside.

  “At least let me take your daughter,” Nathan said. “She’s safer in the APC.”

  “She’s safest with me,” Hayden replied. “Don’t argue, Nate. I’m not in the mood.”

  Nathan bit his lip to keep from snapping back at the comment. “Fine. We’re planning to make a corridor through the city the survivors can use to escape.”

  “What survivors?” Hayden asked. “Have you been outside? Sanisco is dead. The city is lost.”

  “The interlink is our best chance,” Natalia said. “I don’t know if it’ll be enough.”

  The conversation was interrupted as another xaxkluth tried its luck entering the garage. Nathan whirled on it, joining Lucius in the APC in cutting in down. It collapsed beside the other two.

  “What are we waiting for?” Hayden asked.

  “Rico,” Nathan replied. “And the survivors from the bunker down below. Don’t you want to get them out, Sheriff?”

  “I’ve been down below. I told you, there’s nobody left. We need to move, Nate. A few more of those tentacle monsters come down and
we’re going to be blocked in here.”

  Nathan stared at Hayden for a moment. He was acting a little strange, but then again, he knew how the losses were probably eating at him. They had gotten nearly five thousand people out of Edenrise. If Hayden was right, the two civilians he had met outside might be the only two left to save.

  “Roger that, Sheriff,” Nathan replied.

  “I’ll take point and get out ahead of them,” Hayden said. “If they try to chase me, you shoot them in the back. If they don’t, we make it out with the interlink.”

  It was a solid enough plan. “Roger. Centurions, get ready to roll.”

  Hayden opened the driver’s side door.

  The stairwell door flew open. Isaac burst through it, his eyes shifting from Nathan to Hayden.

  “Sheriff,” he said, coming to a stop. “You’re here.” His gaze went from Hayden to Natalia. “Where’s Ginny?”

  Hayden’s expression shifted. Only for an instant, but Nathan noticed the change. A look of confusion, like he didn’t know who Ginny was.

  “I—”

  Isaac started shooting before Hayden could finish responding. The bullets slammed into his chest, where webs of blue energy deflected them. The projections dropped. Hayden, Natalia, and Hallia vanished, leaving the Intellect behind.

  It wasn’t like the other Intellects Nathan had seen. They had been nearly identical to humans. This one was more alien, its featureless head more elongated, its hands ending in three fingers, its limbs longer and leaner. He recognized the shape, though. He had seen it before, at the USSF facility in the Nevada desert. He remembered how it had watched him and James leave the area.

  This one was an Other. A true Axon, or at least an Intellect molded in the shape of the aliens, rather than the shape of humans.

  It thrust out its hand, and a blast of blue energy flashed toward Isaac. He would have been killed by it, but a dark blur came through the door and tackled him, dragging him to the ground before the beam could strike.