Chapter 1
“The Simpson Line has been declared.” Danny lowered the radio. He ripped the battered hat off his head and tossed it to the ground in frustration. The gray stockman’s hat had seen better days. After over a month and a half in the scrub and desert, all of the six-man team had been better. Their uniforms and boots were scuffed, ripped, or just missing and replaced with whatever they could scrounge in the deserted towns. They were all rough around the edges, gritty with sand, and doing their best to follow the mission to the end when every instinct told them to run.
Or maybe that was just Josh.
He scratched at his beard, then took a swig from the bottle of rum they’d found in the house. Another empty town, not even a dog left behind. Most of the time, there wasn’t even a possum left up a tree. The silence was unnerving. He took another drink, then passed the bottle to Beau.
Beau accepted the bottle and paused from repacking his gear. “What does that mean?”
“We left home without our passports.” Josh Rayne glanced up at the pink and orange hued sky. Another gorgeous sunset, the kind tourists had once written home about. There would be no more campaigns trying to bring tourists to Western Australia. Western Australia no longer existed. Which meant they were no longer in Australia. It was a damn waste to hand it over to the Geckos—what the humans had started calling the tall, tailed, and lizard-like invaders.
The aliens had landed and set up without asking for permission. Satellites had gone down the same day. He’d been recalled from leave, and here he was. His gaze tracked the blood stain over the porch and down the steps. The drag marks in the dirt were faint but still there. He wanted the bottle of rum back just so he could drink to oblivion and pretend this wasn’t happening but given that he was in charge, he had to act like it. “Any word on the mission and exfil?”
Danny picked up the hat he’d stolen at the first homestead they stopped at and jammed it back on. He wore it all the time, even though they only moved at night. “That was a courtesy call. Nothing has changed.”
“It’s all fucking changed. We haven’t been able to raise the other two teams in over a month. Don’t they give a shit?” Did the Army understand what they were finding, or not finding, out here?
And now this.
Australia had called it quits on defending half the country. What the hell was happening in the rest of the world? If not for a weekly check in from HQ, it would be easy to believe there were no other humans left on the planet.
Josh closed his eyes and tried not to remember the echo of the screaming and yelling in the middle of the fire fight. Then nothing. He’d hoped it was because Bravo’s radio had been shot to pieces.
Xavier was dead, and Josh had to keep going like it didn’t matter.
He opened his eyes and drew in a breath. This time, he avoided looking at the blood stain. It was harder to ignore the bullet holes and scorch marks where the occupants had tried to fight off the invaders.
“Apparently not.” Danny licked his peeling lips but didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to. The way he looked at Josh was enough. They hadn’t looked at him the same after that last call they’d received from Bravo.
For the first night, he’d held himself together, focused on walking and refused to let grief consume him. He hadn’t wanted to believe that Xavier was dead.
Then they’d reached what had been a settlement. Three small houses and a whole lot of blood. There’d been so much blood but not a single body.
It wasn’t where Bravo team had been killed, but it might as well have been.
He’d broken and cried and wished he was dead too.
Since then, the other five men in his team had kept an eye on him. They couldn’t afford a weak link out here. He’d never been that man before. He’d done three tours in the Middle East, and he wasn’t going to let any gunned-up Gecko stop him from getting home—was Perth still home when it wasn’t part of Australia?
He breathed out; he’d peel open the hurt when he was on the ship with a cold beer in his hand and Xavier’s personal effects in the other. He ran his fingertips over the grip of his pistol.
Geckos died and bled like any enemy. And now each one that he killed was for Xavier.
“Where are we, Chris?” Josh asked. For the moment, he was still in charge. They hadn’t removed him, and they were still a team. But now they knew their boss had been screwing another soldier in his spare time, and they just looked at him like he was a head case.
Maybe he was.
He’d known it was a bad idea to get involved with a soldier—hell, he knew he was no catch—but it had happened anyway. Xavier was a survivor, same as all of them.
Had been a survivor.
Fucking Geckos.
Chris held the map that had plotted their course through the outback, they were supposed to round up civilians and get them headed toward the coast, toward the waiting Navy ship. Perth was too far south for them to walk to, and Geraldton no longer existed. It had been bombed to little more than a crater the week before they’d been deployed.
“Five days from Gecko Base One,” Chris said. “I think we’ve got enough fuel to get there. There should be an Aboriginal community on the way.”
Danny groaned.
Josh pressed his lips together. They all knew there would be no one there. “There’s no point in stopping there.”
The closer they’d gotten to the base, the older the signs of life had been. They’d stopped hoping to find survivors after the first two homesteads. It had gone from rescue and recon to recon only. The last part of their orders was to get eyes on the base and report back.
Then pray the promised ship would still be there when they reached the coast for extraction from what was now Gecko country.
“Right then. Let’s pack up and head out. The sooner we get eyes on the base, the sooner we can go get that cold beer.”
They’d spent the day at this once nice homestead. They’d raided the cupboards, had made damper, and eaten cereal with long life milk. They’d thrown tins of fruit and baked beans in the ute for later. The ute was borrowed from the first empty town. No one was going to report it missing.
After securing the site, they’d filled up all their water containers from the nice full tank and siphoned off fuel into their stolen jerry cans. Then they’d slept in beds and showered.
A small reprieve from what was waiting for them. Knowing that the government had ceded half the country to the invaders just made it all that much more futile.
Eyes on the base. Since the Geckos shot down anything that could fly, it had to be done the old-fashioned way. They had to creep up on the base. But it was so fucking quiet some nights, it was hard to believe the Geckos didn’t hear them coming.
Maybe they were already preparing a welcome committee.
Josh climbed into the tray. Danny joined him while the other four sat in the cab. Rolling around the back of the ute were some of the metal bits Josh had pulled off two dead Geckos. There was what looked like a robotic arm and something that had been on another’s stomach. The two Geckos scouts had gone down pretty easy, and it had been nice to see them bleed.
When the blood had stopped flowing, the metal parts had been easy to lift off. Beneath the metal had been a raw stump of an arm and what appeared to be an open gut wound, something that should’ve required major surgery, not robotics.
Tomorrow, they’d hide the ute and make sure it was ready for the drive to the coast, the ship, and then home…or at least safety. They were on schedule to get eyes on the base.
So far, the Geckos hadn’t worried about ships. Drones, missiles, planes, satellites—anything that flew—were all gone with in the first couple of days. And Australia wasn’t the only country to be invaded. Josh had seen that on the news before getting the recall to base.
He'd argued with Xavier on the drive back. The knife in his heart twisted. He shouldn’t have.
“What are you thinking about?” Danny nudged Josh’s boot.
Josh lifted his gaze. Moonlight glinted off the metal cab. Tonight didn’t feel like a good night to be out. “Do you think the rest of the world is still out there?”
Danny nodded. He had a wife and two kids back in Perth. “They’d have sent everyone east.”
“Evacuated Perth and stuck’em all on the train before cutting us off,” Josh agreed even though he wasn’t sure it was the truth.
“Yeah.” Danny nodded again. “You think they kicked the Geckos out of Nevada?”
“Of course.” There was no Vegas anymore. The lights had been turned off the day the Geckos had landed. Last he’d heard, the US was fighting hard for Nevada, but that had been six weeks ago. Had the US given up? Was that why Australia had given up? There wasn’t much out here, but that wasn’t the point. Now the Geckos had a toehold. What happened when more arrived?
The ute bounced, making his teeth rattle.
The short burst of radio comms they got wasn’t enough to ask for a global update. What about North Africa? And Saudi Arabia? It was pretty clear that anywhere with a decent hot desert was now hosting intergalactic pests.
Aliens.
No amount of training had prepared anyone for this. Those that said it had were lying.
Danny narrowed his gaze, and it looked like he wanted to say something. Josh looked away. He didn’t want to talk about it. He’d fucked up. He shouldn’t have gotten involved with Xavier, but they were on different teams and they’d been ignoring the attraction for well over a year before they’d given in while in Afghanistan. They’d kept it quiet for three years.
“Bravo disappeared when they got eyes on,” Danny said.
“I know. Don’t think about it unless you want to join them.” Three teams. They were supposed to take it in shifts to get close. They all had different areas of civilians to clear out.
“I can’t stop thinking about it. I want to go home, boss.”
“We’re going to get home. We’ll sweep the base and head for the coast. It’ll be fine, mate.” Josh didn’t believe his own damn lies.
Danny nodded, but Josh could already see that he was no longer thinking about the job. He was thinking of home.
He kicked Danny’s boot. “Get your head on.”
“How do you do it?”
Josh closed his eyes. By not thinking about it. By pretending that Xavier was still alive and waiting for him. He’d deal with the reality later. That one crack had been all he could show, and it had been enough for the others to treat him like glass for a week, watching and waiting for him to lose it.
The ute stopped with a jerk. Josh opened his eyes and scanned the dark.
Danny moved, searching for a target through the scope of his rifle. Josh would have to watch him…and himself.
Silence. The engine ticked as it cooled.
Josh jumped out and walked around to the driver’s side door. Crickets chirped as though all was right with the world. “What did you see?”
He hadn’t seen anything, but he hadn’t been paying attention. They’d only seen one scouting party and that had been near a settlement. If Danny hadn’t been talking, he’d have been sleeping.
“I thought I saw a flash,” Chris said.
“Gecko fire?” Or dingo eyes?
Danny jumped out of the back, rifle in his hands, still watchful.
“Blue flash.”
“We’ll check it out.” Getting closer to the base, there would be more of the almost see-through skinned freaks roaming around. “How far to the settlement?”
“Five klicks, north.” Chris pointed to his right, orientating Josh. “Base is two hundred west.”
“You and Linc stay with the vehicle.”
“Yes, boss.” They were both already moving to defend the vehicle and their supplies. While they could hunt for food, the lack of water would kill them first.
The four of them slid away from the ute and into the scrub. The stars weren’t this bright in the city, and he’d always hated coming home for that reason. Now when he looked at the stars, he wondered how many other aliens were waiting to claim a piece of Earth.
They moved quickly, weapons ready in case they got the chance to kill a few more Geckos. He’d never fancied a pair of lizard skin boots before; now, he wouldn’t mind a whole fucking coat. A trench coat made of their pearly white skin. Fuck it, he’d have a whole outfit and travel accessories.
Josh held his hand up. Ahead, black armor gleaming in the starlight, was a Gecko. Tall and lean with a tail like a whip, the Gecko moved much like they did, sweeping the area, gun ready, creeping with soft steps.
Josh’s breathing was too loud in his ears.
They didn’t know enough about the aliens. The helmet hid the head, their large dark eyes, and a mouthful of pointed teeth. That much they did know. How well they saw or heard was a mystery. How their tech worked was another unsolved mystery. Maybe some boffin on the east coast had it all figured out.
If the people at the top knew more, they hadn’t shared it. His team needed to get some good intel to make this whole botched up mission worthwhile.
He watched the Gecko. Why was there only one of them? They never travelled alone.
Clicks and whistles filled the air. The Gecko he could see made a hand gesture. Telling the other to shut up? Josh almost smiled.
Beau pointed to the left. Crouching down was another Gecko, only ten meters away.
The smell of fresh blood drifted through the night.
The aliens looked trained, like they knew what they were doing. They weren’t the animals that the movies of his youth had promised. Though those movies didn’t hold up to inspection. How could a mindless animal intent on only eating create and fly a ship capable of space travel?
Even though Josh was standing in the shadows, the standing Gecko seemed to stare right at him.
Josh exhaled slowly. For all he knew that helmet could read heat signatures. Whatever it saw, something had given them away; they’d been made. He was sure of that.
He indicated for Beau to take the crouching Gecko to the side, then Josh opened fire on the one that was staring at him.
The body armor protected the invader. He staggered back, then returned fire with his silent gun. The only give away was the blue muzzle flash. Heat singed the hair on Josh’s arm. He took a breath, steadied himself, then aimed straight for the face plate. It shattered, and the Gecko fell.
Josh searched for the other Gecko and saw him flat on the ground, unmoving.
Was there just the two? His heart was pounding as he scanned the scrub. Only his team moved. Danny clutched at his gut. His fingers came away dark in the moonlight.
“Danny’s hit.” Josh moved closer, relying on Beau to cover him if one of the lizards twitched. He got Danny on the ground and ripped open his body armor and shirt, exposing the wound. The scent of cooked meat assaulted him. The Geckos’ guns weren’t anything like what he’d seen, and the injury they left wasn’t a bullet wound as much as a burned hole. He cut the bottom of Danny’s pocket open, knowing where he kept his emergency kit. What good was any of it out here? But he still went through the motions, pouring on the wound sealer and placing a bandage over the top like help would arrive in the next hour.
Danny grabbed his wrist. “Don’t let me die.”
“You’ll be right, mate.” He jabbed Danny with morphine. He was fucked. There was no medivac out of here. Any helicopter that tried would be shot down by the Geckos.
Two shots punctuated the night. Beau had ripped off the helmets and put a bullet through each of the lizards’ heads. Not even they could make a metal mod to recover from that.
The mods.
“I need the ute,” Josh called out.
“How bad is it?” Danny asked.
Josh squeezed Danny’s hand. “Help’s on its way.”
The rumble of the engine filled the air. Beau came over to help lift Danny.
Josh shook his head. “You know the tech we lifted? I want the plate.” While it was a square plate, it was segmented like an armadillo. They’d pulled it off a Gecko with a gut wound. Hopefully it would help Danny.
Beau hesitated. “You’re not going to—”
“Just get it,” Josh snapped. Danny was dead if he did nothing.
This time, Beau obeyed and came back with the metal plate. He held it out like it was a dead thing. Maybe it was as it had no blood supply. Maybe it was dormant. Josh had no idea. He should. He was the medic.
“You’ll kill him,” Beau said.
“Or save him. What would you do? I can’t do nothing.” He glanced over his shoulder at the ute and his other team members. “Anyone else voting no?”
“You do what you need to, to get Danny on his feet,” Chris said, but he didn’t sound sure.
“What if he becomes one of them? We don’t know what it will do.”
“Only one way to find out.” Josh lined up the plate over Danny’s stomach, getting it central over the wound. He hesitated. The mods only came off when the blood stopped flowing. This would be permanent. If it worked.
And if it did wake up and turn Danny against them?
Fuck
He wasn’t going to lose a man.
The others were watching.
Would he do this if it were Xavier who was wounded and dying? Risk using the alien tech?
He pressed it to Danny’s skin, holding it there waiting for the metal to do something.
For several heartbeats, nothing happened. The tech was useless. Why had he even expected it to work?
Then Danny started screaming. Josh clamped his hand over Danny’s mouth. Fear that there were other Geckos around to find them made him hold his friend down. The other’s watched, rifles at the ready, scanning the night. Danny twitched and writhed beneath him as though being electrocuted. What had he done?
He shouldn’t have used the untried tech. But he wasn’t letting the Geckos take any more lives.
The screams became a groan, and the twitching subsided.
“No more Geckos?” Josh asked.
“Clear.”
Josh eased his hand off Danny’s mouth; there were teeth marks on his palm. “I guess it was just two.”
“Or if there was a third, they ran home.”
No one lowered their weapon.
Josh’s heart was beating hard, but he knew the adrenaline rush would fade soon. “Strip the bodies, and let’s get out of here.”
Danny groaned again. He was alive, so Josh took that as a good sign.
He fingered the edge of the plate, but it wouldn’t lift. Was that a good thing?
With Beau’s help, they lifted Danny into the tray of the ute.
“There’s three dead roos. I think they were hunting. Do we want a roast?”
“Yeah, why not? One last hot feed at the rendezvous point.” Then it would be a few days of walking to the base and a week of watching. As far as he knew, no other team had made it that far. He shoved down the memory of Xavier’s death as it would do him no good.
Chris put a roo in the tray with them. “All good?”
“Yeah. Travelling in style.” Josh gave him the thumbs up.
“You’ll have that skinned and ready to be roasted by the time we get there, right?” Chris’s gaze was on Danny, his face serious despite his light tone.
Josh patted Danny’s shoulder. “Don’t drive too rough. Don’t want to damage the meat.”
