by L H Whitlock
“Gods, Alyssa,” Brock murmured.
Alyssa found she didn’t have the strength to respond. She snuggled closer in his arms as her eyelids slowly shut.
37
Creaking stirred Brock from a light sleep. Alyssa was nuzzled into the crook of his arm. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead; she responded with a breathy sigh, still deep in sleep.
He eased her off his new mechanical arm and stood. He took a moment to watch her peaceful face and swore, with great pride, that she was still flushed from his affections earlier. He rotated his shoulder and felt the familiar pop and pinch of his nerve from the heavy, bulky arm. He glanced down at his metal fingertips and closed them into a fist. Sure, it wasn’t the highly advanced upgrade that Alyssa had wanted him to have, but it was perfect for him. The weight of it felt reassuring, familiar.
He slipped on his slender suit and ducked behind the curtain. Bixom was flattened against the side of the hut and glancing outside.
Brock raised his eyebrow and Bixom waved at him, mouthing at him to ‘wake Alyssa.’
Panic had him stumbling back through the curtain. He dropped next to Alyssa and shook her. Her eyes fluttered open, showing flashes of emerald green before dropping again.
“Alyssa,” Brock hissed. “Get up and get dressed, something’s wrong.”
“What?” Alyssa said with a groan and hefted herself onto her elbows. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t know.” Another creak sounded, seemingly from right outside. Alyssa froze and stared at the wall for a moment before rolling to her feet and darting for her slender suit. She had just gotten the zipper up when Bixom called out to them.
“Shit! Run!”
An explosion tore through the wall, hurling metal, wire, and debris in to the room. Brock rushed forward and covered Alyssa as the material rained down on them.
A mob of angry, dismembered, half-machine, half-humanoid forms rushed at them. They wielded a mixture of enhanced weapons, guns, and knives that their arms and legs could transform into, and those who did not have an advanced upgrade swung rusty swords, broom handles, metal poles, and an assortment of other materials.
Brock transformed his mechanical arm into a machine gun, aimed, and fired. “What the hell do you guys want?” Brock yelled.
A surge of angry cries responded, then the mob rushed forward. Brock fired, splattering the crowd with bullets. They clanged, ricocheting off metal while the sickly dull thud of flesh followed other hits. But it did nothing to slow them down.
Responding bullets were fired and Brock turned, grabbed Alyssa, and sprinted from the room. He nearly ran into Bixom on the other side of the curtain where he was battling his own army.
“Shit!” Brock cursed and open fired at the angry cluster of flesh and metal.
Bixom held out his hands, focused, and created a ball of glowing bio-energy. He launched it at the Developers, managing to take a few out.
“There’s a fuck ton of them!” Brock Said.
“Thank you for the obvious,” Bixom snorted.
Brock gritted his teeth and clotheslined a passing Developer. “Don’t be an ass.”
“Don’t be an ass? Your little girlfriend got us caught!”
“I did not!” Alyssa defended.
“This was clearly that guy’s doing.”
“How was I supposed to know I was being followed and that they would catch on to what we were doing?”
Bixom didn’t respond. He formed another ball of bio-energy and launched it at the Developers.
The Developers circled them. One aimed a gun and fired, and a net flew from the barrel. Brock pushed Bixom out of its path and the net tangled around two Developers.
“I got it! Duck!”
Brock turned in Alyssa’s direction and found a grin plastered on her face. She shoved the tips of her fingers in her ears and ducked. The ground ruptured, tearing a hole in the metal base.
Bixom jumped into the gaping hole and landed in the sloshing water below. Alyssa followed, and Brock took up the rear.
The sheer coldness took Brock’s breath away as his body slammed into the frothy water. Darkness engulfed him, and he swam between the maze of beams holding the huts up. Boats filled the canals and torches basked the Developers’ mismatched faces in an angry glow.
Above him, yells and creaks and bangs sounded as the army rushed across the walkways. Some dropped onto their hands and knees to peer into the water.
“They’re down there!” One shouted, and Brock forced his body to swim faster. The mechanical arm was heavy and each stroke felt like it was ripping his arm out of his socket.
Decay filled his nostrils; oil clung to him like a web. An object brushed against his leg, then darted away. Brock clenched his eyes shut as fear momentarily overtook him. He took it back, he didn’t like swimming at all. He fucking hated it!
There was a splash, then a hand dug into Brock’s back and a body climbed on top of him. Metal scraped against his side and a hand covered his face, clawing at his eyes. Brock reached behind him and tried to grasp the person on top of him, but he was dragged backward and beneath the cold water. He opened his mouth to yell but water sloshed inside, burning the back of his throat with piercing cold and the brassiness of oil. He thrashed against his attacker and managed to kick free. The moment his head broke the surface he gasped for air. His eyes searched the area for Alyssa or Bixom but he only found darkness. A hand tangled in his hair, yanking him back into the water.
His lungs burned and his movements became sluggish. Despite the wobbling of his arms and legs he continued to thrash. Reaching around, he clawed at his assailant’s face. His fingers snagged on a piece of sharp metal and he ripped it loose. His attacker reared back and thrashed. Brock surged to the surface and gasped for the air he desperately needed. He coughed and sputtered for several moments, then opened his fist and stared at the metal plate with the red eye in the center, which had just been his attacker’s face. A chill shot down his spine.
There was movement behind him. Brock spun and punched, connecting with the Developer just as he breached the surface. Blood ran down the Developer’s face where the enhancement had once been. Bits of his skull gleamed a pearly color in the dull light. Brock reared back and punched again, landing his attack in the eye socket. The Developer jolted back and sunk beneath the dark waters.
Brock gasped and choked for air before retching up some of the filthy water. “Alyssa!” he called out, his voice horse. “Bixom!”
“They got her!” Bixom yelled back. “I tried… I tried, but they are everywhere and—”
“Bixom... Bixom?”
Brock swam, pushing pieces of metal, boards, and trash out of his way. Metal scraped against his leg and he was yet again thankful that the slender suit had a built-in armor or he was sure he would have been torn to shreds by now. He rested his hand on one of the wooden posts and peeked out into the canal. The thin waterway was filled with rafts with dozens of Developers propped on top.
Several men balanced on one of the makeshift rafts used a long pole with a snag to drag Bixom’s unconscious body up. Brock was about to react when several hands grabbed him from behind and slammed him into the post. His head collided with a thud. Spots filled his vision and a throbbing overtook his skull. As his vision blacked out he felt a pinching around his neck and was ruthlessly dragged from his hiding spot.
38
Lily’s shoulder slammed into the wall. She didn’t have a chance to feel the pain, though, as the Developer who had attacked her dropped on top of her. He spun her around, each of his six arms clasped onto her, and he slammed her face-first into the wall. She cursed as she tried to regain her bearings, to free a limb, to land an attack, but she couldn’t seem to connect with anything. Her nose throbbed and blood ran down her face. She coughed against the coppery taste.
The Developer’s fingers ripped into her flesh as he was forcefully pulled off her. Lily collapsed and immediately wiped at the blood streaming from her nose. B
roken? Probably not, but definitely painful.
Ulrick hefted her to her feet and cupped her face. He narrowed his eyes and growled before brushing a gentle finger over her face. She winced, and he stormed off in pursuit of another Developer to mangle.
Everything had been clear throughout the journey through the Developers’ ship, but the moment they entered the Bridge all hell broke loose. Developers seemed to come out of the seams of the ships, having been hiding within the walls themselves. Gustavo hit them with the Electro-beam, but the weapon jammed before he was able to get another strike in. Currently the team was trying to delay long enough for Gustavo to repair the weapon.
Gloria shot at Developers with her E-gun. She somehow managed to maintain her shield over Gustavo at the same time, something Lily wouldn’t have thought possible weeks before. Ulrick focused his bio-energy and threw blasts at the hordes of Developers. The machines combined their body masses when approaching Ulrick to try and get closer, to become a single unstoppable being. It worked, as one of the Developers wrapped his many limbs around the powerful Hilian. Ulrick flung the machine off with one hand, shot two balls of energy at him, then tore another in half as it lunged at him. Tally and Evin worked as a team. They stood back-to-back, firing at the approaching machines. Blood mixed with Tally’s lime green hair and the woman swayed.
Alberta sat at a control board, protected by Gloria’s shield, trying to get the warship to cease the Harvest. Sometime during the previous battle, the ship had restarted its weapons and once again collected the life force of the planet. The planet would only ever be a shell of its former self. The problem with just shutting down the weapon was that the Developers had a very advanced security system protecting the controls. Alberta was currently working on hacking into the program.
A skeleton-like Developer lunged at Lily. She ducked out of the way, pivoted, and shot him in the back with an energized bullet. It exploded, ripping the spine of the machine apart. Wires sparked and for a moment she thought he was going to continue attacking, but instead he crumpled to the floor.
Mangled machinery littered the room. A smear of blood shone bright against the silver floor where Tally had hit her head.
“I thinks I gots it!” Alberta yelled. The hum of the weapon stopped for a moment before restarting again. “Never minds,” Alberta mumbled.
“Allie! Figure it out!” Gloria yelled. The woman had lost her natural pigment, making her colorful makeup look harsh against her pale face.
“Whats you thinks I trying, Blondie? I not bullshitting.” Alberta ran her fingers through her mohawk. It lay limp on the side of her head from her brushing through it too many times.
“Behind you. Pay attention,” Ulrick’s voice boomed over the battlefield.
Lily spun just in time to narrowly miss a Developer’s attack. His momentum toppled him over and Lily shot him with an energized bullet. She reached down, hefted the metal body up, and tossed him at two approaching machines. Metal screeched as they collided, but the two Developers continued surging forward. One transformed his arm into a device with several blades in a circle; the other opened its mouth wide and a rush of flames billowed out.
Lily dove. A shield illuminated around her, the edges shimmering against the room’s fluorescent lights. Lily instinctively stayed crouched low in case Gloria lost her concentration. The moment the shield faded Lily jumped up, shot the Developer with the knife attachment, and then grabbed the Developer’s arm and jutted it toward the fire-breathing Developer, managing to slice his chest. She took a step back as he opened his mouth to breathe another stream of fire, but his chest erupted, sending pieces of metal scattering over the room.
“Nows I gots it!” Alberta announced as the ship’s weapon once again powered down. Alberta turned and looked out the floor-length window just to be sure the glow of the Harvest was gone. Lily followed the pilot’s gaze. The planet had deep, fiery gorges in its surface, and it looked like the gray surface would shatter at any moment. Golden wisps, left over from the weapon, slowly dispended in the vacuum of space. The planet seemed to bask in a new darkness, like its own star abandoned it, knowing it could never be anything more than a rocky asteroid. Maybe, if it were lucky, the planet would become part of another’s ring system and live a second life.
Alberta cursed under her breath. If Lily knew the pilot at all, she would bet the woman was upset that it took her so long to figure out the Developer’s system.
Lily stood, cocked her E-gun, and laid an entire round into the nearest Developer. The machine’s body jolted with each hit, but he continued forward. The last shot struck the base of his neck and the machine crumpled.
“Sorry everyone,” Gustavo mumbled.
Before Lily could process what he had said or why he had said it, an electric pulse radiated through her body. Her muscles stiffened from the spasms and her breath rushed out of her lungs. Her jaw clenched and hands closed into fists. Around her the clangs of the Developers collapsing rang through the air like a symphony. Just when Lily thought she would pass out from lack of air, the pulses stopped and she dropped to the floor, wheezing for air. Gloria swayed and threw up, catching herself against the wall. Tally and Evin sunk to the floor, each lying on their backs, their chests rising and falling frantically.
“Whats fucks?” Alberta groaned. Trickles of blood ran from her ears and she leaned over, bracing her hands on her knees.
“What is wrong with you? You could have killed your team.” Ulrick snatched the weapon from Gustavo.
Gustavo took several steps back, his hands patting the air. “Sorry, man, I swear. You know I would never hurt my team, but I had to get rid of the Developers. They were everywhere. Gloria was about to be overtaken. More were appearing out of nowhere. I mean, look at this place.” He motioned with his arms. “You think we could have taken all of them one at a time?’
Ulrick snorted. “You could have given everyone a warning.”
“I didn’t have time! I programmed it so it would be just strong enough to mess with the Developers, but not completely fry the system or kill anyone.”
“Trues, system not fried.” Alberta sat and began tapping away at the control station.
“Why were the Developers Harvesting a planet?” Gloria asked.
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask,” Tally said sarcastically as she dragged herself into the nearest chair. She slumped in it and rested her head in her hand. “You know, I really didn’t want any part of this.”
Ulrick pulled Lily up and sat her gently on her feet. He then ran his hands over her arms as though checking to see if she were okay. Her Hilian markings danced as his fingers glided over them. Lily squeezed his forearm in reassurance.
“Does the ship still work?” Gloria asked.
Tally, Evin, and Gustavo wandered over and each leaned over Alberta’s shoulder.
“Here,” Evin said, handing Lily a jar.
Ulrick took the wounsalbe, a cream used to heal superficial injuries. Before Lily was able to grab it he unscrewed the top, dipped his finger in, and gently applied it to Lily’s face. The cream was cool and refreshing against her hot skin and she instantly felt the swelling go down and the pressure disintegrate. Ulrick took his time smearing in the ointment. Lily’s face flushed and she found herself lost in the depths of his midnight eyes.
“You two done?” Tally asked.
Embarrassment scorched Lily’s cheeks.
“Founds somethings. Wait… no, that’s not right.” Alberta leaned closer and squinted. “It looks like Developers in orbit around a red giant.”
“We know this already,” Ulrick said.
“I was getting to its. The red giant unstable… very unstable.”
Gustavo looked over her shoulder. “Oh! You don’t just mean unstable like it will implode in a few hundred thousand years, that thing is ticking away. It could literally go at any moment.”
Alberta nodded, her hair bouncing stiffly from leftover gel. “Any moment nows. This report says the Develope
rs need 35 M/SyL units stabilize it, but even then, only work temporarily.”
“How much Synthnic is that?” Lily asked.
“Depend on size of planet, probably twenty large, more if size like this one.”
Lily touched her fingers to her lips. That was why the Developers didn’t have any reinforcement with them, they needed so many planets Harvested, and fast, that they were forced to spread out. The Developers were Harvesting the planets Synthnic, it’s life energy or bio-energy, then feeding it to their star to try and prolong its life. But did something like that actually work?
“According to these readings, the Synthnic isn’t really helping the situation. It’s causing the hydrogen to burn more rapidly.” Gustavo’s thick golden eyebrows narrowed with concern.
“We need to get Brock out of there and get him fast,” Gloria said.
“We do not even know where he is. We have the coordinates for the Developers’ home world, but once we get there he could literally be anywhere. He may not even be alive.” The last word tore from Lily’s lips in a pained crack. Ulrick’s hand rested on the small of her back, offering her strength.
“Don’t say that,” Gustavo reassured. “He’s alive. Brock doesn’t die that easily, we would only be so lucky.”
Lily glared at him.
Gustavo released a breath and held up a hand. “I’m just trying to lighten the mood, he’s fine. I just know it.”
“We need to stop Developer from Harvesting, so many…” Alberta murmured as she scrolled through the victims.
