* * * *
Meanwhile, amid the bloody confusion of battle, a black, metallic, beetle like object, had attached its self to the hull of the Nova-7, after her shields had come down. Sprouting short mechanical legs it had scuttled across the infrastructure to a deserted and disused airlock. Probing the forgotten hatch with slender sliver antenna it had disabled the primitive security alarms, decoding the lock in matter of seconds. Then, after checking for life forms the other side and finding none, crawled inside the station.
It crept silently across the dusty floor of a dimly lit cargo bay. Littered with long forgotten, undelivered crates, of merchandise. Some had been broken open, by the scavengers that prowled the station, their contents tipped onto the floor and anything of use or perceived value taken. It picked its way carefully through the debris of torn packaging and discarded trinkets, accidently activating a torch with one of its stubby legs. The torch flared into life, illuminating a ragged figure, asleep on a makeshift mattress of cardboard, plastic and foam. Disturbed by the sudden flash of light, the bedraggled figure grabbed a crude serrated blade and, muttering profanities, rolled over to confront the unknown intruder.
“Leave me I’ve nothing of...” he stopped, mid sentence, shading his eyes. Confronted, by what appeared to be, a giant, metallic, man eating beetle, looming out of the shadows. “What the...”
He never finished the sentence. They were the last words of a man that the universe had all but forgotten existed. A man who, would in all probability, not be missed. A single shot, from the strange creature’s high energy laser, hit him squarely between the eyes. Burning through his skull in an instance, as his lifeless body slumped back onto the crude bed. Symbolically, it crushed the torch, extinguishing the light. Then resumed its primary task, building a nest out of abandoned packing crates, in which to unload its cargo.
Its belly slid open and disgorged three, tightly packed, windowless, matt black life pods, side-by-side. It scanned them, checking the contents for damage, and finding none activated them. The pods came to life and began the countdown to awakening their occupants. The creature scooped up the body of dead vagrant, stowing it in its now empty belly, and retreated back into the airlock. Once outside it launched itself back into space, tossing the lifeless body into the chaotic clouds of debris, swirling around the station. Then began disassembling itself, till it was lost in a storm cloud of spaced junk, radiating out from the remains of the swarm ship.
Silently, two men and a woman, formerly of the Draconion marines, climbed out of the pods. Then, checking the coast was clear, pushed them into the airlock and fired them into the heart of the debris field. They looked at each, other cocking their heads to one side in mechanical unison, briefly closing their eyes to access their computerised implants and check the location of their designated targets. They opened their eyes, nodded silently at each other, retreated back to the nest, sat on a crate and waited. The only indication of their presence, a few scuff marks, in the heavy layer of dust that clung to everything in this forgotten part of the station.
Exiles Page 47
