Science Fiction Short Stories

Incoming

I checked my troops were properly outfitted as they fastened the seals on their Saturn IV Stealth Combat Boots: stealth suits, body armor, survival gear, weapons locked and loaded. Saturn IV offers the best protection against Canthans in hand-to-hand. Their fangs can't bite through the armor and their poisonous mucus can't penetrate it, most times.

For Canthans, complete elimination of the enemy, that's all humans, is victory. Nothing less will do. They'd been pretty successful the first 57 years of the war; then we developed better methods of warfare and began the bloody slog to victory. Nineteen years next Monday.

We lost more than half our planets. Operation Destiny, the war to destroy Canth, their last stronghold, begins tonight. They can't win in the end, but the end is expected to be eight years away. Most of us won't survive.

Can't call the Canthans cannibals, exactly. They're something like the old Earth myth of zombie. They'll eat the brains and spines of every enemy, when possible. Dead or alive. Every human is their enemy.

Warren "Chino" Rider, my first sergeant, came to me. He is perhaps the best soldier I've ever known. I smelled tobacco on him. He'd been sharing cigarettes before battle, a custom from his planet. He saluted. "Company B is ready, Ma'am."

My com turned red as the transport entered the drop zone. The docking clamps clanged once. The count began. Five...four...three... two...one.

The jump light turned green. Paratroopers jumped in a steady stream, activating their glide jets to coast to our position.

I landed near a sealed tunnel. Chino was already herding the Company into position. I signaled for support and we lasered open the gate to the tunnel.

Empty. Not really. The Canthans were luring us inside. Cpl. Ndebe sent in a drone. His monitor lit up with Canthans. I took a deep breath. "Shields!" Four soldiers carrying reinforced shields joined them together and entered the tunnel. Two soldiers with rifle lasers put their barrels through slots between the shields. Chino was right behind them, and three other soldiers carrying handguns were with him.

I ran to check the next tunnel. A group with shields and lasers had entered already. There were five tunnels in all. By the time I checked the fifth tunnel, smoke from the lasers blew out the first tunnel. The tunnels were usually only a hundred feet long, linking to the alleys to the Canthan hive. I ran back to tunnel 1 with medics and relief soldiers.

My troops left the tunnel. Two casualties, no bite marks. Saturn stealth armor worked. Chino and a private dragged one Canthan with them.

"One Canthan survivor, Ma'am," said Chino. "Twenty-nine Canthans down.

This Canthan was dying. Yellow streaks marred its orange skin, a sure sign the Canthan was teminal. It wheezed and gasped for breath, and that toxic mucus drooled from its thick lips. It spit at me, its horizontal pupils narrowing. The alien coughed and its pupils expanded till its eyes were black. Dead. Puzzling.

"What killed it, Sergeant?" I asked.

"Some sort of unknown poison. This happened on Dexon II, a few times."

I nodded. "This doesn't add up." I looked at him. "Did any of the others die this way?"

"Seven of them."

I shook my head. "It makes no sense." I motioned a medic over. "Send the body for autopsy, Private."

By nightfall, we had cleared our tunnels of Canthans and destroyed them. We set up camp, posting guards with drone surveillance because Canthans would attempt stealth attacks by night.

Chino offered cigarettes around, and I took a few puffs. Terrible smelly stuff, tobacco. I handed the butt to Chino, as I watched the tobacco smoke hover in the windless night air under the bright light of Canth's two moons.

Cpl. Ndebe shouted, "Incoming," as  the earth opened and Canthans swarmed out. Underground tunnels. New, and clever. Soldiers rushed to the tunnels and fired at the Canthans, but several of them attacked Chino. I fired at them, knocking two of them down. A Canthan leaped on my back, and I fell to the ground hard. I said a last prayer as its fangs closed on my skull.

A fang broke on my Saturn armor, a sound I'll hear in my nightmares. The weight lifted off me as Chino and Ndebe pulled the Canthan off. It struggled, spitting mucus at us. Chino killed it with his laser. I joined the fight and knocked a Canthan off its feet into the drifts of tobacco smoke. It coughed again and again and lay there.

By now we had taken control of the underground tunnels, and killed the Canthans, except for the one I knocked into the smoke. It was wheezing and gasping. Yellow streaks appeared around its mouth, spreading across its face.

Chino looked over my shoulder. "Tobacco."

"What?"

"Tobacco, Ma'am. And the smoke. It must be lethal for them. We smoked before the battles on Dexon. I saw this happen, but I didn't know why. Tobacco smoke seems to be quicker than when ash on our suits gets on them.

I stared at him. Tobacco smoke. Nicotine, maybe. "How much tobacco do you have left, Sergeant?"

"A pound here, Ma'am. A few pounds on the troop ship."

"Ndebe! Contact Command and tell them that tobacco and tobacco smoke are apparently lethal to Canthans."

Ndebe reported their answer. "Command will check it out immediately. They have the body you sent for autopsy."

"Thank you, Corporal."

I turned to Chino. "Get that tobacco out, Chino. We've got tunnels to clear.