The effects were dramatic. Just off to our west was Manfred’s unit. The monster in front of them was blasted, catching five star-fall shots almost at once. Steam and dark blood exploded from the impact points, and huge chunks of cooking meat fell in a rain. The monster staggered, swaying from one side to the other. Then, it pitched forward.
Manfred’s unit, who had been backing away as the monster loomed close, cheered wildly at first. They thought they’d seen their doom approach, and then watched it get blown apart.
But very quickly their jubilation shifted into screams and croaks of dismay. The monster was falling—and it was falling toward them.
So great was its mass, the wave of dying flesh slapped down on top of the men. They were buried and crushed under countless tons of flailing limbs.
“Fall back!” I shouted. “Pull back by squads, maintain fire, and—”
That was as far as I got with that little speech. Not only had my troops begun to flat-out run for it, but the monster itself had changed its mode of operation.
Ever since the first moment we’d laid eyes on the thing in the clear light of day, it had moved at a significant, but relatively slow pace. It appeared to be walking up onto the beach—although it’s walking pace was about the speed which a normal man might consider to be a dead run.
I could think of a dozen good reasons for this. After all, it was about the size of a small asteroid. Maybe that was as fast as it could go.
But when our monster saw its nearest neighbor go down in a flopping heap, it decided to change its act. Firstly, it released an unearthly howl of fury. At least, that’s what it sounded like. If I hadn’t been wearing a helmet, I might have been deafened. As it was, I got an immediate case of mild tinnitus. My ears would probably ring for days, I could tell from experience.
That howl... Damn, it was loud. What’s more, it sounded pissed.
After making that single tremendous noise, the monster charged. It picked up its tentacles and came up the beach at us like a gray-green tidal wave of sushi.
My unit broke entirely at that point. There was no semblance of an orderly withdrawal. We scattered, racing off in every direction at once. Seeing as I was the commander, I didn’t run straight uphill for high ground like most of them did. Instead, I moved west, toward Manfred’s unlucky group. If anyone caught my retreat on video, I hoped to claim I’d seen a few survivors that could use some help.
Any such story would be a sheer fabrication, of course. I was spooked, and I don’t mind admitting it. There was no way in hell or high-water that we were going to bring this monster down with snap-rifles or bolts from our morph-guns. The mere idea would have been funny if I was in a laughing mood—which at the moment, I wasn’t.
-49-
In the end, it was my reluctance to embrace sheer cowardice that saved me. Taking an indirect route toward Manfred’s unit—or what was left of it—meant that most of the humans in the vicinity were going in another direction. They ran directly inland, away from the beach. The monster followed the majority—and it caught up with them, right-quick.
After shambling straight over our 88s, along with whoever wasn’t fast enough to get away from what amounted to a tidal wave of stinking burnt flesh, it squatted in the midst of my fleeing troops.
That’s when the smaller tentacles came out. They slid out of the other, bigger tentacles. It was like watching snakes vomit up smaller baby snakes. These smaller ones weren’t weak, however. They were each as thick as a big man’s leg and ten to twenty meters long. Squirming all over the place in a frenzy, they caught up with running humans and crushed them. A lucky few were lifted up to be consumed in a gulp.
This welcome distraction—the wholesale devouring of my unit—kept the monster busy while I skedaddled the hell off that beach. When I got up to higher ground, I found the star-fall crews in a near panic as well.
Jenny Mills was the centurion in charge. When I spotted her, I stood and admired her form. Even in the midst of a pitched battle, she was as pretty as these alien monsters were ugly.
Right now, however, Jenny looked like she’d seen happier days. I couldn’t say that I blamed her. The artillery unit she was commanding had turned out to be the only thing that was effective against these monsters. That naturally meant that every unit commander on the island was either demanding or pleading with her to aim at their zone of the beach.
“How’s tricks, Centurion?” I asked her.
She glanced my way and shook her head. “I don’t have time for anything, McGill. Step aside, please.”
“Of course, no problem.”
Jenny quickly ordered her battery of star-falls to switch to a new target. She zeroed a monster that was roaming up from the south side.
Looking around, I had to mark myself down as impressed. Of the forty-odd behemoths that had attacked the island, at least twenty were down. They were either vast heaps of death or flopping around injured. Several of those who’d been hit were dragging themselves toward the ocean again, retreating.
“Some of them are getting away! They’re headed back into the water!”
Jenny whirled, staring to where I was pointing. She bared her teeth but shook her head. “I can’t do anything about it. Taking down one of the monsters requires about ten direct hits with a star-fall, and we miss half the time. I
