“But Skrew wants to smash!” the vrak wined through his mech’s external speakers. “Skrew has metal fists for to smash, and if not smashing is waste! Pleeeeeeease!”
The tone of his whiny voice made my eye twitch and my teeth itch
“Skrew,” I said slowly, “we already talked about this. If the people see a mech, they’re probably going to lose their minds and panic. Also, we stole that machine from the guy who runs the city. There’s a good chance he knows it’s missing, and if you roll up in it, there are going to be a lot of questions and a lot of guns pointed at us. I want you to stay here until you’re needed. Then, you can come in and smash stuff. But not before. Tell me you understand.”
“Save some smashing for Skrew?” he said.
“Of course, buddy. Now, stay out of sight as much as you can, but if you’re attacked, I expect you to smash your enemies into pulp. Pull arms and legs off, shove square pegs into round holes—all the good stuff, okay?”
A second later, the hum of motors stopped, and the mech slumped into a squatting position. Skrew had powered it down into standby mode. I hoped that meant he’d wait for our call.
“Radio check,” I whispered. The comm devices were far more sensitive than I’d expected. The fact that whispering was sufficient would be helpful.
“Lima Charlie,” Reaver responded. “Bravo Team is ready to move out.”
Bravo Team, as we decided to name it, consisted of Reaver, Yaltu, Enra, and Skrew. They were backup and overwatch. Their job was to observe, remain as clandestine as possible, and watch the back of Alpha Team.
Alpha Team was myself, Beatrix, Nyna, and three Ish-Nul: Timo-Ran, Enra’s cousin Neb-Ka, and Tila, an older Ish-Nul female who seemed to make Timo-Ran a bit nervous. She carried two short-handled axes at her belt with long cords with loops at the ends. I wasn’t sure what, but she carried them like she knew exactly how to use them.
“Head out,” I ordered. “Establish overwatch. We’ll try to come in on your left, depending on the terrain. Good luck, and—do me a favor.”
“What’s that?” Reaver asked.
“Don’t get dead,” I said. She didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. It was an order both of us knew she would do her best to obey.
Overwatch was the military term for covering not only someone’s back, but also their front. Reaver would find a place for her team to remain as hidden as possible while keeping an eye on Alpha Team’s surroundings. If she saw anything we couldn’t, because we were too close to the action, chaos, or danger, she’d let me know or take care of it herself. Though she only had a pistol, I trusted her aim.
I nodded to my team and, without a word, we started walking.
The city came into full view as we crested the final large hill, and all I could think was, What a mess! I’d participated in wars against the Xeno and had even seen the aftermath of their attacks against far-flung Martian colonies. I’d seen what happened when a city or outpost had been left to rot, but nothing compared to the chaos before me.
The skyline looked like a giant mechanical beast had fallen from orbit and, over the last hundred years, had been picked clean by metal-eating buzzards. Twisted lengths of metal columns reached for the sky like there was hope of escaping the chaos underneath.
As my eyes drifted downward, the scenery became even more confusing with broken, bent, and corkscrewed girders creating a layered spiderweb-like nest underneath. Little columns of smoke were the only apparent signs that the city was occupied, though if someone had told me at the time that the fires producing the smoke had been burning for generations, I would have believed them.
At the center of it all was another building, the only one with a distinct shape. It looked like a stadium from back home. We only had two, as buildable land was precious and the resources it took to maintain such a construction on the red planet were so high.
The closer we got to the city, the worse the soil looked as well. The city of Thaz’red, it seemed, had grown from its center and spread like a noxious weed, consuming and corrupting everything it touched.
The lush carpet of green and purple grasses and thin vines became paler, drier, and eventually bare. It was as if nature herself found the place abhorrent and unworthy of her touch. The city was an under-fed tumor that sent tendrils out to suck the life from the land and the people. The closer we approached, the more squalor and depression we witnessed.
Most cities would have commerce, farming, or entertainment at the edge of town. There was usually room to expand there, and property was usually less expensive. That wasn’t what I saw, though. Instead, the deeper we delved into the town, the more chaotic and hazardous the conditions became.
Rusty pipes that had broken ages ago stuck out from the ground, reaching for exposed ankles. If there had ever been a building on top of them, it was long gone, probably turned into another eyesore somewhere else.
Small mouse-like things scurried from under large, twisted sheets of metal, and I saw more than one eating the remains of its own kind. It was the same with the city, in a way. It looked like it was in a constant state self-cannibalism.
The outskirts of the city appeared to receive less attention than the interior. The buildings were sparse, with some built of small and medium-sized stones from an unseen quarry. Others were colorful shades of wood, though some were pained, mostly plain white. Most were welded, riveted, rusty metal structures
