Jonathan Maberry - SNAFU - An Anthology of Military Horror

Gilbred squeaked something incomprehensible. Jax stepped around the science officer, his lips tight in barely suppressed fury. He stopped behind the man and leaned in close to his head. “If you had left his body behind, I’d damn well make sure you spend a week in a pain chamber… of my choosing.” Jax straightened, his hands clasped behind his back, chin lifter. “Why do you science guys always think you know what’s best?”

Gilbred shook his head. “We knew the Gimps were in the area, but they had been so docile before. We didn’t think they’d…” His voice, already high and strained from fear, trailed off as Jax turned, a scowl pulling his face into deep fissures.

Gilbred hung his head. Jax smiled and patted the man’s shoulder. “You didn’t think. Don’t worry. That’s what we do… and that’s why we told you we needed to accompany you on your jumps.” He snorted. “But you knew better.” Jax growled. “Yes, you brainy types always knew better.”

Gilbred lifted his head. “I can show you where…”

Jax’s voice was so loud Gilbred nearly fell out of his chair. “Shut the fuck up; you’ve done enough.” He exhaled loudly. “The burners do not corrode, erode, or malfunction — we designed them that way. This thing will be in operation for a quarter of a million years.”

He sighed and placed both hands on Gilbred’s narrow shoulders, leaning in close to one ear. “Do you know what will happen if those Gimps get that technology? Next time we drop in on them they’ll fry us.” Jax pushed back off the man and walked around in front of him.

“We need to find it.” He stopped and stared down at the cowering man. “You need to find it. We can’t go back to the same zone twice, so you need to locate the lost burner’s xenon radiation trace and then follow it back up the event slope. Give me a place and a date, and we’ll go get it ourselves.”

Jax’s voice became soft. “A warning, though. Make sure you’re accurate. It costs a small fortune to open those portals, so we better find it before the general finds out… or it’ll be all on your head.”

The chronometer indicated the unique radiation traces had appeared again, many millennia after Gilbred had lost his weapon, and in a time they were loath to visit. As a further complication there were many traces showing. Somehow, the burner had infused objects around it with the xenon particles, and now they were spread over a large area. Jax and his team had to check every damn one of them.

His Cleanup crew was a good one — tough and brutal, and all professional zone-jump soldiers. Jax knew they’d need to be. Coming to this type of zone was not recommended. It was too dangerous. The Gimps had evolved a base intelligence, a hunter’s smarts to add to their monstrous muscle power.

Jax was first though the portal. He stepped into the dark space, only just remembering in time to snap down his faceplate. The air was foul, and the gasses would quickly sear his lungs. Only the giant Gimps, with their enormous bellow-like breathers, could absorb the mix of primordial gases.

He looked around. So fucking big , he thought. Even though he was a veteran of the class and gender wars, and as battle-hardened as they come, these creatures scared the shit out of him. Each stood three times as tall as his biggest man, and most Gimps could literally tear him or his men to pieces.

Jax circled his finger in the air, and his team started their search. There were familiar radiation vestiges, but they were faint — the burner had been here. His team examined, probed and searched their way across the dark expanse where the initial trace was detected.

It only took them a few minutes to return. Nothing on scanners, nothing on visual. Arcad, his lead Cleaner shrugged. “Not here. Might have been once, but not now. What do you want to do?”

Jax thought for a moment. “Broaden the search area. If it’s not here, I want to know what happened to it. Let’s do a quick check in the outer areas.”

“Outer areas?” Arcad’s head snapped up. “There are indications of current habitation.”

“That’s right soldier… and that’s why they pay us the big bucks.” Jax moved to the entrance of the large space and froze, holding up one hand as he heard a sound from outside. He and the team froze.

Arcad eased up next to him. “Go or no go?” He looked over his shoulder to the portal gateway shimmering in the darkness behind them.

Jax held up a hand and waited, listening. He placed his ear to the entrance, and then shook his head. “Nothing.” He half turned to his second in command. “I don’t like it either, but we're here to do a job. So… we do it.” He pulled the huge barrier back towards him. It opened easily, with only a faint whine of protest.

He was first through, his team stacking in behind him. Jax was the most skilled Cleaner in Euronesia and as soon as he orientated himself he knew there was danger. He sensed rather than saw the Gimp as it loomed over them. The sound that smashed out of the darkness made them all want to cover their ears and flee. The greats beast’s maw was open, a near perfect circle, and huge teeth framed the ear-shattering screech that smashed at them like a physical force.

The Gimp raised one colossal arm. Jax didn’t wait to see if it held something dangerous, he lifted his burner, set to wide beam, and fired. The beast shimmered for a moment or two as the beam struck it, the sound of its terrifying call shutting off as it disintegrated.

“Shit, shit, shit.” He had no choice. They were loath to remove Gimps from this zone as they had strong social bonding. Too late now , he thought. “We need to move quickly. Give me a thorough search, and then let’s get the hell out of here.” He bristled. Those assholes back home better find him the right zone next time, or he’d personally feed them to the Gimps.

It took them only a few more minutes to confirm there was no sign of their missing burner. Jax herded his team back to the portal, taking one last look around. He had sealed the entrance, and was sure he had left no evidence from his team. The other creatures would find the remains of the giant beast soon enough, but as long as the crew wasn’t there, the Gimps would be as clueless. Primitives , he thought. And no burner, either. Waste of fucking time. He stepped back through the glowing portal and it immediately snapped shut behind him. The surroundings rapidly cooled, and silence settled once more.

Monroe drank his beer and watched Raptor, his second in command, bring the man down over his knee, the man’s backbone making a noise like a snapping tree branch. He let the jerking body slide to the floor. Monroe knew Raptor didn’t care whether his opponent walked again, or died right there at his feet. Neither did Monroe.

Raptor’s opponent had been big, beefy, and knew how to throw a punch. Probably won plenty of fights in his time. From the minute Monroe and Raptor had walked in through the doors, the asshole glared, sized them up, and then to the delight of his drinking buddies, decided to get in their face. Monroe told him to walk away. The redneck chose not to. Raptor had gotten to his feet and on his way up, had collected an almighty uppercut under his chin. That was Beefy’s last mistake.

Monroe grinned and shook his head, watching Raptor stand like a bloody colossus looking around the bar — blond crew cut, pale blue eyes were so light they almost looked alien. Both men stood six foot three, and were as solid as iron from their special forces training. But Monroe was athletically long-limbed, and Raptor was a human bulldozer.