CHAPTER NINETEEN
Found
“Alright, listen up!”
Alex bellowed the command at the top of his lungs, just barely mustering enough volume to overcome the propeller noise of the C-130 as he walked up the ramp and into the belly of the great beast that was the massive plane. The ramp began to close even before he was half-way up it, which in a few second would actually help his current mission: being heard by the elite squad of soldiers Major Alcheck had assigned to his command for the mission to find the Xe’Tara warrior.
“I’ve worked with a few of you before…” Alex nodded at Mike Baker and Chuck Bandar, two Navy SEALs he had the honor of training with last year as part of a cross-branch exercise designed to provide advanced combat training across multiple branches of the U.S. military. “…the rest I know by reputation. You all represent the best special operators the United States, probably even the world, has to offer. Let’s hope that’s enough because what we’re about to go up against is outside the experience of any of us.”
Alex thought to himself: Well, except me. I know what we’re going to be facing: death itself. And there’s a good chance most of you will be getting intimately acquainted with death and will not be on the return flight after this mission.
But, he knew better than to be quite that honest in this situation. These were hardened, experienced warfighters. But they were also human beings, and if they knew even half of what he did about what they were preparing to face he wasn’t sure even these brave individuals wouldn’t turn tale and find a safe hiding spot. He wasn’t at all certain he didn’t want to do just that!
“Mike here is the only one, besides me, who has dealt with this creature before.” Baker had been one of the soldiers in the hangar bay when the warrior had first emerged after transforming Melissa, one of the lucky few to have survived the encounter. Alex knew that wasn’t entirely a matter of luck: Baker was a top-notch operator, even better than Alex some would say, as was Bandar. In fact, there was a good chance, Alex knew, that he may, in fact, be the least capable operator here, even though he was no slouch himself. But that was exactly the goal that Alcheck had sought to meet: put the very best men under Alex’s command that he could in short order.
The thing Alex didn’t know was whether any of that would matter one bit when they next encountered the warrior.
“This thing can go invisible, and I’m not talking about refractive cloaks like most of you have seen. No, this thing might as well not be there when it’s cloaked, it’s basically a ghost. But, it’s no less physically there, that’s the upside, at least from a certain point of view. And it doesn’t get much better when you can see it: it’s as fast and strong as a Grizzly bear but at least as intelligent as any human being. In short: this thing is designed for killing and not much else, and there’s nothing on this planet right now that’s better at that than it is.”
Alex paused a beat or two to give the weight of his words a chance to sink in. As he glanced from face to face of the members of his team, he regarded the seven men he saw in front of him. They were each hulking, dangerous men who looked like they could take an entire platoon of enemy soldiers by themselves. They looked at one another, exchanging glances that simultaneously said, “oh shit” and “we got this” at the same time.
It was the quiet confidence of fighters who had seen action but yet understood the gravity of their present mission.
Alex couldn’t help but smile just a little bit before catching himself and continuing: “Except for this team that is!”
The eight men before him began nodding in agreement. Their stoic gazes exposed confidence that came from the very best training available anywhere in the world and the experience of having exercised that training under real combat situations. There truly was no better team Alex could ask for.
He just hoped it would be enough.
“Our mission is simplicity itself: find the Xe’Tara warrior and neutralize it by any means necessary. We’re not looking to take this thing in for study, at least not alive. We track it, we find it, and we kill it, whatever it takes and however we can. Period, end of fucking story.”
Alex made eye contact with each member of the team and waited for each to nod in acknowledgment of his words.
Finally, after each man did so, he continued.
“Stow your gear and get comfortable boys, then try and get some rest. We’ve got a few hours in this transport before we land and I want everyone well-rested before we get into the shit. Grab a bite to eat too; we don’t need anyone with low energy. Any questions?”
Baker spoke up instantly.
“Sir, where are we headed?”
“Upstate New York."
“New York? Shit, I’m just a good old boy from Louisiana and I ain’t never been to New York. What’s in New York that an alien killing machine would be interested in?”
Before Alex could answer, one of the other soldiers, Joe Craft, interjected.
“Fuck man, you ain’t never been to New York? Cab drivers man! They’re probably all fucking aliens themselves! This thing’s probably out lookin’ for its mama!”
The team started laughing as another member, Chris Haywerth, said: “Yeah, and even if they’re not aliens from space they’re still aliens, if you catch my drift!”
The team laughed even harder… all but Alex. He appreciated the humor and was glad the team was loose. It was good before a mission to stay loose. There would be plenty of tension to go around once their boots hit the ground. For now though, this little bit of comradely and laughter could only help the team by offering the mental reprieve they needed from the inevitable, crushing stress of impending battle that even hardened, professional soldiers invariably felt.
Felt perhaps even more than those who had never experienced battle.
Unfortunately, his desire or, he feared, even his ability to enjoy humor may well have been beaten out of him by the events of the last few days. So Alex just watched, stone-faced, emotionally closed off from the men he’d have to rely on in the hell that he knew was coming.
The laughter died down quickly though as Baker realized Alex wasn’t participating.
“Sir? You all right, sir?”
Alex didn’t respond and instead just stared at nothing in particular. The team couldn’t have known it, but inside, Alex’ mind was racing with the knowledge of where they were going and what it meant, what they were preparing to face.
Baker gave him a few more seconds to respond, but Alex never did.
“Sir? What’s in upstate New York?
This time, the words snapped Alex to attention, and he looked around and saw a new look on the face of the team - his team - the best hope for the future of humanity at this point. It was a look of concern. He sensed they were starting to have some doubts about his leadership, so he smiled in an effort to calm their nerves, not to mention his own.
“If I’m right, hope.”
——————————
Tree branches snapped as it forced its way through the dense underbrush, each step awash in agonizing pain. The damage it had sustained in the last battle was significant, though nothing that wouldn’t heal given enough time to repair the damage. Already, repair mechanisms had been triggered and were even now rebuilding the microscopic structure, sealing puncture wounds and dissolving the chunks of metal the primitive beings of this world threw around as a form of weaponry. It was almost amused by the irony of a species capable of creating the X-100’s drive system still using such arcane weaponry. Its amusement was dulled, however, by the fact that one of them had, with the assistance of the merged entity, been able to wound it so grievously, even if only temporarily.
In any case, it knew this place. The memory of the now purged personality matrix it had subsumed told it so. The Melissa entity had spent much time here in her youth. It also knew that it was abandoned now and would, therefore, serve as the perfect location in which to allow its repairs to be carried out undisturbed before it resumed its singular mission. The repairs would take significantly longer expected thanks to the attack coordinated by the Melissa entity in conjunction with the human it knew was named Alex Wakeman, but they would be completed eventually, and at full strength, it would complete its mission.
A few feet away, birds fled in fear as the Xe’Tara warrior disturbed the tree they were perched on… or more precisely, something disturbed the tree. The birds wouldn’t have been able to see anything if they had thought to look; for all the damage it had taken, its invisibility subsystem was still fully functional. That simple defense mechanism alone meant it had little to fear from any creature on this world. The human race simply did not have the means with which to detect it when cloaked.
Except for the one named Alex. Somehow, he was able to detect it, and it did not understand how that could be. It was currently expending vast amounts of processing power trying to formulate a theory to explain this unexpected problem. It was, in fact, redirecting some of its resources from repair to the solving of this problem, slowing down those repairs somewhat. It was sure Alex couldn’t detect it from great distances, so it knew it was safe from detection here, but it suspected that another encounter with Alex was inevitable and it would need an answer before then.
Even if that encounter wasn’t necessary, it frankly wished for it now! Curiosity was getting the better of it! No creature had ever been able to detect a Xe’Tara warrior before based on its vast store of knowledge about past encounters, and very few have ever been able to mount even a remotely credible attack on a Xe'Tara warrior. Alex had very nearly bested this warrior in combat, which was, in fact, an even bigger point of amazement to the creature! The knife blow he had landed was perfectly placed, aimed directly at a critical organic component and, had its shielding been weakened further, very well may have destroyed the biologic body.
It had a very difficult time believing this was just blind luck. There had to be a critical piece of information it was missing.
The warrior was beginning to suspect that nothing short of another encounter with Alex would provide the answers it was seeking. The considerable processing power being put to answering these questions in lieu of such an encounter was thus far proving fruitless. It was, in fact, preparing to shift those resources back towards repair work, viewing the negative outcome as being inevitable now.
It staggered briefly as the processing resources were redirected, biologic control functions momentarily going offline as data pathways were shunted. The warrior leaned up against that same tree which had just moments ago been home to a happy family of Mourning Doves, shifting its weight as repair work began on its dorsal spine array.
As the warrior steadied its stance, it looked beyond the next line of trees, a hundred feet or so off in the distance, and it saw its destination, the memories of it beckoning the creature in, safety awaiting its presence.
Locomotion subsystems activated the enhanced muscle strata in its legs, willing it to overcome the damage being repaired and moving it towards the place of sanctuary where it could complete repairs and return to full strength.
It would not take long, and then it could complete its mission without delay.
——————————
Alex raised his right arm to form an L shape as he closed his hand to form a fist – the standard small unit tactics signal for “Stop!” The team behind him did exactly that. In an instant, they were motionless, ceasing all noise they had previously been making as they moved through the forest. They were experienced operators of course, so that sound was minimal to begin with, but now, only the sound of the wind blowing through the trees could be heard.
Their level of awareness jumped up as well as they all instinctively scanned their surroundings. They silently adjusted the straps on the M-X carbine rifles, bringing them to a ready position.
They were still getting used to these weapons, experimental guns that Major Alcheck had provided them before the team had left on their mission. They were a newly developed weapon that had only recently begun field testing, but Alex knew they would have to risk taking a largely untested weapon into a battle situation if they were to have any chance because the M-X packed quite a punch. It was the first plasma-based rifle in the U.S. arsenal. It used magnetic fields to propel a super-heated ball of plasma at a target rather than a metal projectile. The power it put on its target was orders of magnitude greater than any conventional metallic round. Perhaps more importantly, it used a reservoir of highly compressed ionic gas to create the plasma balls which resulted in it having a much higher round count: each M-X was good for nearly 500 shots before the reservoir had to be swapped out, and each member of the team carried two additional reservoirs.
They would not be wanting for ammunition, that was for certain. If it had the intended effect, then they might stand a chance. Alex wasn’t entirely sure even the M-X’s power would do much against the creature, but he was anxious to find out.
First, though, he had to reach the cabin, and that was assuming his hunch was right in the first place.
Alex thought back to his conversation with Major Alcheck.
“Major, I know where this thing is going.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
Alex paused, organizing his thoughts. He needed to convince himself as much as he did Major Alcheck, and he knew it.
“Well, because Melissa was in there.”
Tears began to well up in Alex’s eyes, but he willed them away. There would be a time for crying later, he knew, but now was not the time.
“In… in there? What do you mean in there? In where?”
“That thing, that probe… it blended with Melissa. It… subsumed her. Her consciousness, it was transferred to the technological part of the creature. Somehow it, I don’t know the right word… digitized? Yeah, I think that’s it: it digitized her. She became, basically, a program running in its computer.”
“That… Alex… how is something like that possible? And more importantly, how do you know?”
“Well, you know me, I’m not the techie type…”
“You sure sound like the techie type lately Alex…”
“…yeah, well, that’s the thing: I know she was in there because she touched me, or touched my mind I guess is more accurate. I sensed her consciousness. I could almost talk to her, Brendan. I think she found a way to take control of the nanotech, even if only for just a few moments, and communicate with me through a link between the nanotech in me. But, that was a weak link, and she needed a stronger one, a more powerful one. I think it was her that directed me to attack the creature with my knife. It sounds crazy, but I believe that was less an attack and more of a way to communicate more data to me. She was able to dump a lot of knowledge directly into my brain thanks to that brief connection, and I suspect it was a lot more data than I even know right now. I have a sense that she put a lot more into me that my brain is working to access.”
Alcheck wanted to say something, but he couldn’t make his mouth form the words. His mouth, agape, moved as if to form sounds, but nothing came out.
“Most importantly, I got a really clear picture of something that I haven’t seen since I was a teenager: a cabin in upstate New York.”
Alcheck finally willed himself to speak.
“A cabin? Why would you see a cabin?”
“It’s a place that Melissa and I used to go to every summer when we were dating. It was a very special place for us, a very safe place, away from all the trials and tribulations of growing up. Brendan, that’s where we fell in love.”
“Well, I don’t mean to sound dismissive Alex, but while that’s a nice story, what’s it got to do with our present situation?”
“It was a safe place for us Major, the safest we maybe ever knew together. It was like the entire world faded away and it was just the two of us, no problems, no stress, nothing. It’s also been abandoned for over a decade because her parents, who owned it, couldn’t afford to maintain it anymore, so they just let it go.”
It was then that Major Alcheck realized what Alex was saying
“That’s where it’s going! The safest place it… that is, that Melissa knew… a place it can lick its wounds and plan its next step.”
“Exactly! By subsuming Melissa, it gained access to all her knowledge, so it would surely know about that place…”
“…and how safe it is.”
“Right! We’ve got to get there, and quick. That thing, with that nanotech in it, can repair itself, pretty much any damage it can fix given enough time. We can’t give it any more time than we have to!”
Alex crouched down now, watching the horizon before him. Although he hadn’t been here in probably twenty years, and although the inexorable march of nature had changed the landscape in significant ways, he still recognized the major landmarks. He noted the rise of a ridge off to the west; an outcropping of rocks to the east; and the large tree about 100 feet in front of him that was just on the perimeter of the property that the cabin was on. It was the same tree he and Melissa had carved their initials into, surrounded by a heart, as young adults.
He opened his still raised fist and rose now, beginning to move towards the tree. The rest of his team followed suit, moving in unison like one massive, well-coordinated organism.
As the tree came within arm’s reach, he could now see the roof of the cabin in the distance. He paused at the tree and signaled for Haywerth and Sam Jackson to join him as he began to whisper.
“It’s just ahead, maybe 300 feet or so through this brush. There’s a wishing well on our right flank. Haywerth, you take Stykes and move towards it. Set up a fallback position with the full-autos on tripods. Jackson, you and Craft will flank left towards the side of the house. You’ll find a window there, which is the only way in or out of the cabin aside from the door in front. That’s where Bandar, Baker and I will be headed. Once everyone’s in position, Jackson and Craft, you toss gas through the window, circle around the front and meet up with us as the three of us breach. Haywerth, you guys hang back unless we call you, but your real job will be to cut that thing down to a bloody pulp if it gets past us with those big-ass .50-cal machines. It’s too big to get through the window so it’ll have to come through the door if we can’t stop it. Anything comes through that door that isn’t us, you don’t stop shooting until you’re completely out of ammo. We’ve already seen how it can pretty much shake off regular bullets, but I’m hoping we can damage it enough with these new toys Major Alcheck gave us, and that plus a barrage of .50-cal auto-fire might be enough.”
“Roger that," came the eager reply from Haywerth. “Copy," said Jackson as he quietly called out “Craft, you’re with me.” Craft quietly made his way to Jackson’s side. Haywerth waved and called out “Roger, on my six," pointed towards the vine-covered wishing well where he and Roger Stykes met up. Bandar and Baker began moving towards Alex, both correctly suspecting what their place was.
“See that door guys? That’s where we’re headed. Standard breach pattern, I’m through the door first.”
Both Stykes and John responded with a node and a quiet “Hoo-rah!” as Alex climbed over the brush in front of him and began towards the front of the cabin.
——————————
A quick system checked revealed that its primary systems still had a long way to go. Primary power was below 60%, and damage repairs were taking longer than anticipated. The biological portions of the creature needed sustenance, but none was available right now. It knew that even though its defensive systems were nearing full capabilities, the offensive subsystem was still lagging behind. It was in the safe place though, so it was not currently feeling anxiety.
Still, it needed to eat, one of the few weaknesses it had in this form. It was time to find something it could consume to replenish the energy requirements of the biological components. The artificial had no such needs and it sometimes wondered why its masters had programmed it to function in this way. It knew the answer though: it was the only way a merging could be accomplished, and that was necessary to fulfill its primary functions.
It raised itself off the dirty floor of the cabin, noting the broken and empty cabinets which it knew used to contain foodstuffs. There wasn’t too much else here now - the owners had cleared it out for the most part when they last visited a decade ago, as the stored knowledge of the Melissa entity now informed it.
It moved towards the door, beginning to catalog the flora and fauna it had observed on the way in. There were berries just a few dozen feet outside the door and small game animals were easy to find and capture without much trouble. Its cloaking subsystem wasn’t fully operational yet however, and it knew this would complicate procuring such animals a bit harder than usual. Still, between the berries and insects available everywhere on this world, it might not even matter - a small animal like a rabbit or perhaps a turtle would almost be a bonus.
As it opened the door, its visual sensor systems immediately noted the glare of sunlight that temporarily overloaded its visual processors. The light of a star, on any world, was always an impediment, even to its advanced technology!
As the visual processors began to filter out the light bands it didn’t need it quickly became aware of a data point that it did not expect.
It was not alone.
——————————
The door slammed shut as Alex immediately recognized they had been spotted.
“Shit, it saw us! We gotta move! Craft, Jackson, forget the gas, we’re breaching! NOW!”
Alex, Baker and Bandar, giving up the notion of surprise in favor of brute force, rushed towards the door, Baker with the breaching gun at the ready.
Alex felt a twinge of fear enter his mind. It knew they were coming now, and that would only make this already possibly impossible task that much harder. He pushed that feeling aside as quickly as it came on though. Alex hoped the door, or what would be left of it, might slam into the creature and maybe give them a momentary advantage, but he wasn’t counting on it.
The breaching gun announced itself with a crack as loud as thunder and the door was at once blown to splinters, shards flying into the cabin. The spray of wood expanded in a cone shape until it hit the back wall of the cabin, save for one spot, off to the right, about six feet from the door, where they seemed to stop suddenly as if hitting a brick wall, and fell to the floor. Alex saw this as he charged through the door and immediately trained his weapon on the spot, knowing that’s where the Xe’Tara warrior was. As he cleared the door and pulled the trigger, electric sparks seemed to emerge from empty space where the shards of the door had met the invisible barrier. Bandar followed Alex immediately through the door, realized what Alex had seen and began firing in the same direction. They both now moved in opposite directions to flank the creature while Baker barged through the door opening, ascertaining the situation and quickly bringing his M-X to bear on the now semi-invisible adversary.
The sparks created by the impact of the plasma were now so pronounced that they began to form a silhouette, an outline of the creature. Its head nearly touched the ceiling, towering over the men by a good two feet, and it seemed wider than a man could be too.
Bandar hesitated just a split second before firing, momentarily entranced by what he was seeing in the corner of the room.
But a moment was all it needed.
Suddenly, the plasma emerging from Alex and Bandar’s rifles began impacting the wall opposite each of them. Had they been exactly opposite one anther they likely would have hit each other, caught in their own crossfire. Fortunately, their training was good enough that they knew better than to get into that situation: they were at about a 70-degree angle from one another, so all they hit were the side walls, near the back corners.
Baker, however, wasn’t so lucky.
The warrior moved swiftly towards him and just a fraction of a second before he pulled the trigger, it struck. Sparks flew everywhere as its cloaking mechanism began to fail from the impacting of all the plasma. Coupled with the force of the blow it delivered to Baker’s skull, it was now becoming visible, as was brain matter from the massive hole created in his skull. He was dead before his body hit the floor of the cabin.
“Baker!” Bandar yelled in horror, as he began moving towards the warrior. It was now fully visible, though still oddly obscured somehow: the failing cloak now looked like heat was rising all around it, the same effect as over a hot road in summer. It was more than enough for Bandar to attack though.
He turned to face the creature, his rifle rising towards its head. Body shots were apparently having little effect on the thing other than weakening its protective shielding, and now he wanted to see what a headshot would do. His first shot left the barrel as the creature began moving towards him. The creature was fast - too fast: the ball of plasma sailed past its head, missing by just a fraction of an inch.
Before Bandar could get his sites on the target again, it was upon him.
It slashed horizontally across his body, contacting his throat. Blood immediately spewed from the slice like a water fountain. Bandar’s head flew back from the force of the blow, revealing the depth of the gash: only the tattered remnants of his spine and the skin of the back of his neck kept his head from leaving his body entirely. His already lifeless body flew back into the wall behind him, blood painting a final picture of death on it.
Alex realized the opportunity afforded him by the warrior’s focus on Baker and Bandar and he took advantage as best he could, if for no other reason than to make his comrade’s deaths mean something. Alex moved as quickly as possible and leaped towards the creature, its back turned to him. Before it could turn around, he landed, knife in hand, and plunged it into the creature’s back, just below its neck. Alex noticed, from his new close-up vantage point, that some damage had been done by the plasma: blood was oozing from multiple holes now, though he suspected they weren’t severe enough to be considered mortal wounds. He was actually surprised that the knife had penetrated as well as it did. It seemed that the M-X plasma rounds had done its job: its cloaking capabilities were all but gone now and it appeared that its protective shielding was failing too, if not completely down now.
His amazement didn’t last very long though, as the creature let out an agonized cry that cut through Alex’s mind like a table saw through wood as it wretched its back in pain, throwing Alex off. He crashed to the groun