Parts of the station fire had died to embers, chemical smoke and heat but no flame. Jess and Lara moved as far as they could into the mass of debris, the wreckage seeming to stretch forever. They’d found a large, jutting piece of blackened deck to stand behind, shielded from the open jungle—but it was too hot to lean against, and as the moments ticked past, Noguchi nowhere to be seen, Jess felt his energy failing. They heard animal sounds, screams, bugs and something else from somewhere not far away, but he couldn’t find the desire to care. He blinked, rubbing at his burning eyes—
—and suddenly, Lara was supporting him, holding him up, Jess fighting off a wave of vertigo and nausea.
“Jess? Are you okay?”
He let himself lean on her as much as he thought he could, smiling wearily at the look of worry on her smudged face. A couple of weeks ago, she’d been his boss, contracted Company on the H/K Max team he’d been serving time on. Hard to believe how much had changed—and he felt a sudden rush of love for her that was entirely pure, a feeling of connection that had nothing to do with sex or power or their positions in life. This woman, this person, had backed him up when things were bad, and continued to do so, because of who she was.
Me, too, Lara. As long as I’m able, you got what I have . . .
There weren’t enough good words to express such a depth of camaraderie—and besides, it was cornball. He shook his head, thinking that human beings surely were a messed-up bunch; it was no wonder Noguchi had opted to fly away with a bunch of aliens.
“I’ll survive,” he said, then grinned. “Then, it isn’t really up to me, is it?”
Lara grinned back, opening her mouth to reply—
—and they heard Noguchi’s voice less than a meter away, startling both of them. “Were either of you hurt?”
She stepped around the hunk of burnt deck as noiselessly as she’d approached, removing her mask as both of them shook their heads, Jess wondering again who the hell this woman was.
“I’m sorry, I ran into a Hunting group,” she said. “I led them back toward the drones, but I don’t know if they engaged; we’ll have to steer clear of both, hope for the best.” Her lightly sweating face was as calm as if she’d just told them what the weather was like.
“The Leader—one of the Hunters has a ship, maybe two kilometers that way,” Noguchi went on, pointing west. “It won’t be guarded . . .”
She trailed off, and Jess realized that she was studying him, her sharp gaze taking in his stance and the bruises on his face. “Will you be able to walk?”
He didn’t give her a knee-jerk response, realizing that a macho “yeah, of course,” while good for his ego, wasn’t going to help all that much if he collapsed in the jungle.
Jess took a deep breath, feeling the aches from Keene’s beating, from the run-in with the Hunter, from the station’s crash—and nodded, knowing that he could go on.
“I’m good. Not for long, maybe, but I’m still good,” he said.
Noguchi watched him a moment longer, then nodded, slipping her mask back on. “We’ll pass back by
where your friend was lost, then on to the ship. Stay close to me, both of you.”
Jess and Lara exchanged a look of understanding at her words, of mutual unhappiness and a reluctant acceptance. By unspoken agreement, they hadn’t talked about the kid, about what they were going to do if they couldn’t find him, but Noguchi had just said it for them. If they couldn’t find Ellis, they’d have to leave him behind.
We’ll find him. And if we don’t, we can come back, do flybys until the sun’s up, we’re sure to see him . . . He held on to the thought, promising himself that they wouldn’t leave Bunda without Ellis. Or Ellis’s body.
Following Noguchi, they moved out from behind the broken deck, stepping carefully through the smoking pieces of the station, heading back toward the deeply shaded jungle. And then Jess heard something he’d heard before, in his nightmares and in the field, and felt his gut clench, felt his hopes for all of them dwindle to nothing. A monstrous shriek of animal fury, of hatred, of power and darkness, spilling out of the trees and enveloping them.
Queen.
The bug mother stepped out into the open from their left and screamed again, and at the sound of her terrible voice there was a crashing through the brush all around, hisses and trumpeting calls, her sleek children coming to join her.
As one, they raised their weapons—and heard and saw a band of giants glide out of the dark to their right, armored and masked, Noguchi’s Hunters. Most held bladed staffs and all stood as warriors, silent and faceless, watching the trio of humans and giving nothing away.
For a beat, nothing moved. It was just enough time for Jess to take aim, and then everything exploded at once.
Brrrp-BOOM, Lara felt the burner heave up in her hands, the shot hitting a drone in front of the queen, the blast echoed by Jess and then Noguchi as they fired—
—oh fuck what a mess—
—and they were falling back, Lara firing again, swinging the weapon over to the charging Hunters, the bugs shrieking, Noguchi screaming words she couldn’t hear. Noguchi’s alien soldiers had flown into the group of drones, stabbing and howling, at least two of them firing burners of their own.
Lara stumbled, firing, hitting another of the bugs as it threw itself in front of its queen, dozens of drones pouring out of the jungle like a plague, surrounding their mother and lunging for both the Hunters and their own tiny group.
Noguchi spun and fired, fired, the strobing explosions of her burner taking out bug and Hunter alike. Jess shouted something and a blast from a Hunter’s weapon blew past Lara close enough for her to feel its heat, deck shrapnel slapping at her lower back from the explosion. Lara swung her burner, found the warrior, and watched its masked head fly apart, the huge body hesitating headless in the air before crumpling—
—and another Hunter was scooping up the burner, firing it in their direction as a drone flew at him, clawing him to the ground, its grinning skull jaws tearing into his hidden flesh.
The queen continued her bursts of screams, all but hidden by a mass of her minions, bugs jumping into battle as more came out of the dark, running at the Hunters, the Hunters dancing and cutting like samurai—and both alien groups slowly, steadily, gaining ground on the three humans.
Lara didn’t think about it, couldn’t, aiming and firing and aiming again, the bugs blasted into acid-splash as the Hunters dodged and fought and somehow managed not to die—
—CLICK CLICK CLICK—
—and Lara heard Noguchi’s weapon go dry, even over the screams and explosions, the sound as chilling and terrible as the queen’s fury. Lara stepped forward, jabbing her burner at Noguchi as the woman dropped the dead one, taking hers—
—and in the half second that Noguchi wasn’t firing, the tide of the slaughter drew closer. Lara fumbled for her handgun, not enough, they’ll all go dry, we’re dead.
They continued to back away but there was no denying that it was a matter of minutes, seconds before they were overrun. To turn and flee was certain death, by burner or by bug, and Lara found a Hunter’s masked face and fired, the bam bam bam of the semi adding a tempo to the bloody battle, firing because it was that or give up—
—and suddenly, so suddenly that Lara didn’t understand for a moment what was happening, Hunters and drones alike began to collapse, the sound of rapid fire dull thunder to her ringing ears. There was a stuttering light washing across the falling bodies, across all of them. It was the muzzle flash of a pulse rifle, M41 or ’56, and Lara’s uncomprehending gaze followed the flashing bursts to their source, to their right and behind—
—and saw Max. Standing in the midst of the ocean of debris, small fires licking at the suit’s giant legs, bright tongues against the matte orange of its armored body.
Max took a step toward them, still firing,” one mighty, quad-tread foot crunching down through a layer of broken station, its left arm sending a constant stream of armor-piercing death into the fray.
“Ellis,” she whispered, the sound lost in the rain of bullets and the queen’s screaming retreat, her brood swarming around her like a living veil. The Hunters, too, melted back into the jungle, leaving their fallen behind, the crush of bodies smoking from the wash of drone blood.
Max continued to fire and Lara felt Jess’s hand on