HEV Dudes, by Matthew Pash.
The low whine of the large teleporter filled the whole room. “On my orders proceed into the portal in a orderly manner.” James looked at his MP5; he didn’t know why they were issued with these weapons. They had yet to come up against any resistance, and they had run dozens of ‘collection’ missions. Today they were looking for a pack of Houndeyes. For some reason they were special because they exhibited ‘group co-ordination’. This meant nothing to James, but he didn’t study those things. He looked over to where William, their species capture expert, and Mark, their location manager, were stood talking. He was the team leader, and the head of team security; it was his job to shoot to kill. He wished they were let out more often, and allowed to speak to people off-site about their work. He felt sure that ‘I’m in charge of killing any dangerous aliens’ would be a hit with the ladies. “Come on ladies.” He shouted. “Or we’ll have to wait for the next portal out of here.” He could hear their laughter over the group communication link.
“Quickly, I can’t hold this portal much longer.” The scientist looked worried, but then they always did. Damn egg-heads he thought as he jumped.
* * *
He normally serene landscape of Xen was shaken by the appearance of the three humans. James looked around him and activated the group-radio. “Okay people, we have arrived, we have precisely 30 minutes to bag us some Houndeye’s. Understood?” William and Mark droned their agreement over the radio. James made a mental note to tell the engineers to fix that. All the suits had a tendency to make your voice sound very nasally. Raising his MP5 James looked through the scope. It had cost him money, not the research base. He scanned the surrounding area before he spotted a group of Houndeyes by a waterfall. They were dancing around each other in that playful way that made them look cute. He knew this was wrong. He personally had seen the first person to be killed by those things. He had been sent in to find out what had happened, and to bring back the body. Despite this particular grievance he wasn’t going to kill them, unless they started to get aggressive. He liked his job and didn’t want to loose it. With a well-rehearsed precision they swept up the hill towards the waterfall. As he ran James marvelled at the stupidity of those things. How many hundreds of creatures from this dimension had they taken, and they stilled remained friendly.
William walked forward to where they were playing and offered his hand out to them. Chiruping quietly they bobbed around him. Getting in close before running away again. Behind William Mark took a small sample of the pool and put it into a pouch attached to his HEV suit. Carefully William pulled out a small box, it was a green grey colour and was backed with an adhesive that would stick to the Houndeye. Playfully one of the Houndeyes bobbed up to William and focussed it’s attention on the box. Slowly William placed it on the things back. “One down, three to go.”
Mark nodded and started taking photos of the landscape. “Beautiful isn’t it?”
James could take it or leave it, at least there wasn’t any cover for attackers, not that they had any either. “Twenty minutes left.” William nodded and started to attach the transporter beacons quicker. Another five minutes passed and they began their return journey. Slowly they trudged back to their arrival point, Mark taking soil samples as they went. Their jobs done they waited for their portal home. William pulled out a locator device, it was like a GPS device, but instead of tracking around from a collection of satellites it tracked their position relative to their point of arrival. “I wonder how big this place is?” Commented Mark, looking around him in wonderment. There was a pause before James answered. “Fucking vast.”
The portal opened with a buzz and James, Mark and William landed in the reception room. Walking briskly away from the large machine behind them the heard the abrupt sound of the portal closing behind them. They walked away from the machine and towards the airlock. The doors closed behind them and sprays began to pump a strong disinfectant over them. “Another everyday mission.” James commented as they stepped out of the other side and slotted his MP5 into it’s place on the rack. “When’s our next shot?” He looked over to the large door that he knew led into the vast room housing the teleporter.
They removed their HEV suits and pulled on the blue ‘away team’ jump suits. In silence they left the preperation room and walked to the lounge area.
There was a repressive air as they stepped in to the room. Scientists sat at desks and tables reading or making notes while drinking coffee. In the corner there was a soda machine. James walked over to it and shoved 50 cents into it. Nothing. “Damn machine, they still haven’t fixed it.”
A pair of nearby scientists frowned as he picked the machine. “No wonder it doesn’t work. With you kicking it all the time.”
James smiled at the scientist sarcastically:
“And they still haven’t given you the Nobel Prize for science?” The scientist glowered and turned back to his notes. William sat down on the couch and looked at James and Mark. “How long ‘till the next shot?” He looked around as he waited for an answer. None came so he stood and walked over to the time sheet. “We’re due for another one in about three hours time.”
“God.” James groaned. “What the hell do we do for the next two-and-a-half hours?”
“Play cards.” Mark picked up a pick from where he had left it on a low desk. After two hours, and several straight wins for Mark they decided that hey should go to the target range and get in a few minutes practise. Their disappearance was hardly noted.
At the range they pulled on the required PCVs and picked up their weapons from the guard that was on duty. Mark picked up a metallic revolver and loaded it with magnum ammunition. Next to him Mark picked up a Glock pistol and several clips. James picked up an MP5. “Sign here please.” The guard slid a form forward for each of them. Detailing who had taken what and how much ammo.
After hastily scribbling their names and signatures down they advanced on to the range. After cocking their various weapons they levelled their weapons and fired. James emptied half of his magazine at the target in a couple of seconds. A healthy sprinkling of brass on the floor and support of the range. Mark fired the whole drum of his massive revolver in to the target and smiled satisfied. Next to him William emptied a clip of ammunition at the target in a few moments of frenetic firing. “This is the life.” James smiled and fired the rest of his magazine at the target. William fired another clip at his target and shrugged. Gathering up the two remaining clips he returned them to the guard with the pistol. The guard signed them out and made a few changes to the form. “Sign a lot back in, don’t you?” William nodded and turned back to the other two. “Shall we gear up?”
They sprinted back down the corridor, their gear rattling in it’s respective pockets and slots on their suits. “We never seem to have enough time. No matter how early we leave.”
“C’est la vie.” William spoke absentmindedly. He was obviously thinking bout something else.
“What?” James looked at him as he cocked his MP5 and checked the safety catch. “That’s life.” William still sounded absent. Suddenly he seemed focussed and looked hard at James.
“I think I know why we’ve been called in early.”
“Why?”
“There’s some sought of trouble going on and they must want us to check it out.”
“How’d you figure that one out?”
“Our suits, they’ve already been charged up.”
James looked quickly at the charge monitor, William was right; they each had 30 charge. “What the hell’s going on?”
“My guess is that the shit just hit the fan.” A large warning sign blared out and they watched as a portal appeared in a room adjacent to the corridor. The scientists screamed as the alien slave rampaged around the room for a few minutes. The calls of the caged animals took on another, more sadistic pitch. William puked down the wall as the screams died away.
“It must be a retalliation.”
“What?”
“They’re retaliating for the attacks on their population.”
“Shit.” James looked around and ran towards the main door to the portal generator. As soon as they stepped into the room they were greeted with calls from the personnel that were assembled there.
James could see several people already dressed in HEV suits and one or two wearing jump suits. The scientist looked around.
“Gentlemen. An unfortunate situation has occurred. An experiment in the Anomalous Materials Lab went wrong approximately one hour ago. We only received a communication from the surviving memebers of the science team near the office complex twenty minutes ago. We have assembled you, our most experienced HEV suit operators to give you a vital mission: You must go through the portal to Xen and must find and destroy what ever is controlling this invasion, and destroy it.”
“Destroy it?” James looked surprised, terrified and happy all at once. “We don’t even know what it is, let alone how big it is. How are we meant to fight it?”
The scientist looked woeful. “I regret that I cannot give you any answers to your questions. I wish we had more time.” Rapidly they were issued with weapons and given canisters containing equipment, although they weren’t told what each contained.
In the vast chamber they waited nervously for the machine to power up. There was an un-Earthly silence as they waited. Normally there would be a constant barrage of chitchat and the scientists would be trying to keep them quiet. Now they were desperate for noise, for something to distract them from what they were doing: Sending an army to war. James waited for the time to come. Waited for the order to jump to be issued. In one arm he carried his trusty MP5, and slung across his back was a large RPG launcher, he had two more rockets in pouches attached to his suit. Ahead of him the energies flickered and coalesced to form an increasingly bright ball of light. He had never really been that interested in either art of science. But now he suddenly appreciated both, and all in that portal. He smiled inwardly and checked that the RPG launcher was secure on his back. As a new surge of energy hit the portal the order came. “Jump!” Another secondary comment followed it. “And God bless.”
Quickly the whole group had jumped through the portal and it was closed off. No mention had ever been made of a return portal. Professor Alibek was glad no-one had asked. There was no intention of ever receiving any survivors. The group would be split up in to ones and twos and scattered across the various important Xen areas.
Alibek climbed down from the generator and walked over to where Doctor Baker was stood. “So you really believe that Freeman will make it?”
“He has to.” Baker looked wistfully at the large generator. “If he doesn’t then we’ll all die.” Slowly he turned around and walked back to the area where just a few minutes previously he had delivered his speech to the personnel that they had just sent to there deaths.
“I’ll get back to my cabin.” Alibek turned and returned the way he had come. “What have I done?”
William was killed by a pack of Houndeyes, his last words were: “Retaliation.”
Mark was killed the Gonarch, he had just emptied one container to find it full of batteries. He never found out what the other container had in it.
James was killed fighting the Nilinath, the last thing he saw was the Nilinath recharging from the crystals.
When Freeman appeared he was sent through to an uncertain fate. The scientists were killed by Xen masters before they knew whether Freeman’s jump had been successful.
Dedicated to the pioneers of travel in Xen the 'world beyond'.