“Argh!” To be smacked to the floor by the heavy metal of the tail, momentarily seeing stars as his jaw hit the cold floor underneath the water.
“Pfft-splgh!” Dane was being held nearly under the water by the tail of the creature, and he was pushing and squirming as hard as he could to raise his head and shoulders over the water’s lap and churn.
Sssss! Suddenly, he was illuminated by the bright glare of lights. The thing had turned its head straight toward him, and that surely meant that it would be diving at him with those large, bladed scissor jaws to sever limbs from his body.
Dane could still see the lip of the shell gun just a few feet now from one of his outstretched hands. It disappeared under a violent ripple of water and then reappeared once more.
“Augh!” With a growl through clenched teeth, Dane braced his hands against the floor and pulled himself toward the gun. Although he was very unlucky that he was almost chest deep in water, it was also his savior, as it allowed him to squirm and slip against the smooth metal scales. He shot out a hand, grabbed the edge of the shell gun, and turned around—
SSSS! The light was racing toward him, blinding him, only a couple of yards away at the most, maybe . . .
“I’m not. Dying. Here!” Dane pressed the trigger button again and again as he felt reverberations of kickback surge up his arms and into his shoulders. The purple-white bolts of superheated plasma exploded into sparks against the ceiling and walls, until Dane was surrounded by his very own blinding firework show.
And at the same time, there was a flash of light and a wave of heat as his blasts hit the head of the Exin’s drone snake. He heard the metal motors inside of it choke and protest in a pained screech of metal.
And suddenly there was a heavy crash at his side as the “head” of the creature slammed against the wall, hissing and clicking in the dark until it stilled.
“Ugh . . .” Dane’s eyes were still watching the afterimage of the bright sparks, and it took him several breaths of listening to the dying, hissing sounds of internal engines slowly giving up before he realized that the thing was dead. When he could blink again and recover some of his normal vision, he realized that his surroundings were almost pitch-black, save for the nearby green glow coming from underwater.
The device! Dane realized, pulling and kicking at the thing’s body where it still trapped one of his feet. With a growl, he freed himself and snatched up the Exin handheld device from where he had dropped it underwater. Then he turned to admire his desperate handiwork.
The drone snake was indeed destroyed, and now the air was starting to smell of steam and burning electrical components. The thing had been huge, and its coils fully covered nearly fifteen feet of the tunnel.
“Dear heavens . . .” Dane steadied himself against the wall, before seeing that the tunnel just beyond was met by two more, to form a natural T-junction of circular arched avenues. “I guess this was some kind of security measure,” he muttered to himself in the dark and then decided that talking to himself was probably a bad idea.
As was staying around here, he considered. This snake had been a drone. And an Exin defense against infiltration? All of which meant that the drone itself might have had sensors, scanners, and a real-time connection to some Exin security post or guard station somewhere. They might know he was coming . . .
Dane’s theory was almost instantly proven correct when he heard a different sound coming straight up the central tunnel. The unmistakeable splashing of movement out there somewhere in the dark.
Frack!
It could be another of the drone snakes. Or several of them. Or some other hellish form of defense that the Exin protected their port town with.
Dane looked at the two tunnel openings to the left and right, swore lightly under his breath, and then quickly decided to take the left-hand one, for no other reason than that he thought the air smelled a little fresher coming from that side.
He switched off the light, knowing that his pursuers would probably see that long before they could see him—and, moving as fast as he dared in the total dark, he kept going.
14
Hunted
Dane huddled in the freezing cold water in the dark and prayed that they wouldn’t see him.
That his pursuers didn’t have sensors.
That they didn’t have night-vision adjusted devices.
That they didn’t have fifteen-foot-long metal snakes that they could release on him.
And, for once in his whole ordeal—his prayers were answered.
Dane had moved quickly down the left-hand tunnel as the sounds of his pursuers drew closer behind him. He heard the splashing of water and the thumps and slaps as feet hit metal, but other than that, he heard no chatter, no croaking or clicking or hissing from the Exin warrior caste.
These guards must have been trained well, he thought with tight jaws as he pressed himself into his hiding spot.
His left-hand tunnel had led him to this, a sudden wide-open space before his hands, but one that dimly lit up with soft, watery-pale daylight. Because of that light, Dane could see that the left-hand tunnel continued on, but opened on one side to a large chamber with a vaulted ceiling filled with the same foot and a half of water. It was also occupied by vast metal pillars like metal drums that reached up from floor to ceiling, each many yards wide. The light came from distant vents in the ceiling, but the light appeared to grow thinner and weaker the further into the earth it traveled, and from where Dane stood, it was no more than a moonlike glow.
Dane had ducked into this chamber quickly, figuring that there was more opportunity to hide in here from his pursuers. There could even be a means of escape.
He could make out ladders leading up the sides of the metal drums to the vents. Perhaps this was the foundation of the Exin town above, or gas silos, or waste, or a hundred other industrial features that a fully-functional advanced civilization like the Exin’s would need.
The marine gritted his teeth as he stayed on the opposite side of one of the drums and heard the splashing feet drawing closer. His eyes were fixed on the vents up there. If he dared, he knew that he was close to at least one goal. Up there could be a ship. Could be a navigational array. Some way of contacting home?
But right now, the sound of his pursuers had grown suddenly loud as they must have reached the entrance to the vault room.
“Skrekh!” He heard the unmistakeable rasp of an Exin, and then the sudden splash as more feet moved.
How many are there? How many do I have to defeat? he thought with the cool strategy of a marine, all the while knowing at the same time that his best bet would be to hunker down and to stay out of sight. If he could avoid them seeing him, then he had a chance not to call the entire town out to find him.
But surely they’ve already found the blasted-open body of their defense mechanism snake by now? a rather unhelpful part of Dane’s mind considered. They might even have him on camera. The Exin surely knew that he was here already and wouldn’t stop until they found him . . .
“Skrar!” Dane heard a cough of an alien voice on his right and edged quickly around to the left. There were three such container pillars in every row, and three rows of three in total. He knew that as long as he kept moving, and if they didn’t cover every avenue past the pillars, then he might be able to stay unseen.
He hoped, anyway.
Dane froze, pressed low against the metal, when two Exin warriors padded past the last of the pillars on his row. The marine hitched his gun a little tighter and felt his breath still.
Don’t look this way. Don’t look!
The two Exin guards were of the warrior caste, he saw. That meant that they had four arms and that they were wearing some version of the Exin battle plate. That made the normally seven-foot-tall aliens a good eight feet, with backward-jointed legs and with heads that ended in mandibles. Dane saw them clack and chitter at each other as they stepped out of view around the end of the final row of pillars. The Exin warriors were walk
ing around the edge of the vault room, checking the corners and trying to get an eye on every angle, Dane realized.
Just keep the obstacles in the way, Dane told himself as he eased himself around the circumference of the pillar. Then he heard more movement a little behind him, but on the left.
There was another team of them, cutting him off from the other side of the room!
“Krrr-krrr!”
But this time, the noise was different from the sounds of the Exin. Dane blinked in confusion. That sounded almost like . . .
“Chh-krrr.”
Dane glimpsed a trio of movement as he froze, low to the water, and saw the unmistakeable gleam of bright, rounded, yellow eyes like a lemur or a gibbon. It was a team of three of the little alien folks that had saved him, but they appeared to be working for the Exin.
And they don’t seem to be very happy about it, either. Dane stayed low in a patch of darkness where the pillars blocked the vent light. He hoped that the night vision of these collaborator aliens wasn’t as good as that of their forest cousins.
It wasn’t. The trio walked slowly and seemingly worriedly up the far-left aisle of the vault room. Dane could see how their fur was curiously mottled with blank, bald patches that appeared to be from burns or healed wounds.
They flinched and looked warily around them, not with the same grace, confidence, or rage as the ones in the wilds had shown.
And each one appeared to have a midnight-blue collar about their neck that looked as though it barely gave them room to breathe or to swallow past the uncomfortable brace.
They are slaves, Dane thought in horror. Not only did the Exin hunt their wild family (and apparently slaughter their ancient towns, if his suspicions about the ruins were correct) but the Exin must also use this planet to capture them and get them to work for them too.
No great empire was built on fair play. Dane remembered another old saying from his Military History 101 class that he had taken a lifetime ago at Boot Camp in Fort Mayweather.
One of the small alien’s lambent eyes flashed past him, and Dane swore that he saw it freeze in shock for a moment . . .
No, please don’t!
And then the alien was hurrying to catch up to its fellows, as the two Exin warrior caste fighters at the far end of the room turned and started to cross back from the far side.
“Skrargh!”
“Skrekh!”
Dane heard them coughing and snarling at the three captives, and he took the opportunity of the noise cover to slide half way around the pillar once more, putting them behind him.
“Tk!” He heard a chitter, then a sudden squeak of pain as one of them was struck by their overlords, then a quick wail of small voices.
“Skrargh!” An angered Exin shout, and they fell silent before the Exin turned and headed back the way that they had come toward the exit, to continue their search down the rest of the left-hand tunnel, presumably.
The Exin splashed ahead of their three charges at a brisk pace, seeming not to care if they kept up or not, or even if they got lost down here in the dark. Dane waited for the sounds of splashing to subside before he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Chk?”
To be suddenly disturbed by a shape moving out of the darkness next to him, rounding the other side of the same pillar that he was hiding behind. The shape was momentarily illuminated by a shaft of light from one of the vents above.
It was one of the slave aliens. The same one that had spotted him, Dane was sure. It stood stock still as it looked at him with large, terrified eyes. Dane could see the heavy metal collar around its neck, as well as the way that its fur was torn and bald and its body (especially its arms) ruined with many old and fresh scars.
Is it going to sound the alarm? Is it going to turn me in to its masters!? Dane panicked for a moment.
“It’s okay, I, I come in peace!” Dane said hastily, realizing that he was still holding the Exin gun.
The slave looked at him doubtfully. Dane could see the way that its thick metal collar reached from chin to collarbone.
“Chrrr-tk-kt?” The alien made a small, wondrous sound and reached up with its long, prehensile fingers, several of which were clearly broken and misshapen, toward Dane.
Dane froze, and then realized that the alien was lightly touching the stalk whistle that the elder had given him just this morning.
“Do—do you want it?” Dane whispered, but his voice broke whatever spell was enthralling the slave, as it suddenly shook its head, looked up at Dane in horror, and then turned to run back through the water to the tunnel opening.
What did that mean!? Dane was cursing himself for getting caught. It really didn’t seem like the reaction of a friend or a potential ally. Did it mean that it was going to tell its fellow slaves—or the Exin guards—about the dangerous infiltrator it had seen hiding down here in the dark?
“Dammit!” Dane swore, hooking the Exin gun into his belt and turning to haul his dripping and soaked body up the nearest metal ladder, toward the vent in the roof.
15
The Chr-At
The marine was met by a snarl of heavy noise as he held himself at the top of the metal ladder and looked up into a dim world.
The vent above his head was wider and longer than he was, but secured by metal strips. Luckily for him, there was a rounded crank handle on the inside that appeared to allow him to open it from down here.
“I guess that the Exin never thought that they would have infiltrators coming up from under their feet!” Dane whispered to himself with a savage grin.
But his enthusiasm was tempered by the sight above. It was gloomy up there with the fading evening lights casting a red pall over everything. It wasn’t just the lateness of the day that made it dark, but also the platforms of large metal shapes that formed gridded avenues over his head.
The platform’s on stilts, Dane presumed, turning as much as he could on the rung of the ladder. Right next to him, multiple metal tubes sprang out of the earth from concrete or metal foundations to the thirty-foot-high platforms above. He guessed that the tubes must be anchored into the vats down here, and he wondered if it was a power supply.
The floor nearest to him was a mixture of stone slabs and rough earth. It was filthy with discarded rags, corners, and bits of machinery everywhere. Smaller collections of metal boxes like the Exin equivalent of containers and cargo crates were stacked here and there into avenues according to some alien need. Dane saw creatures the size of cats or dogs nosing about in the rubbish—giant millipedes or insects—and a flock of the ape-birds pecked and teased at some of the rubbish down here. It also stank—the reek of gasoline and fumes and industrial effluent.
As if the wild aliens didn’t already have enough reason to hate their overlords, Dane thought, as he placed one hand against the wheel and started to pull. It resisted for a while before he broke whatever rust was holding it, and it started to squeal and shift open . . .
Dane froze at the noise, but not even the ape-birds appeared to pay any attention to it. There was also a plethora of thumping and crunching sounds above him, booming into the night from above and around him. Dane guessed that this Challenge Planet of the queen’s was not merely a place to kill other civilizations and wild creatures, but also some kind of mining facility.
CRACK! With a sudden release of pressure that threatened to fling him off the ladder, the vent hatchway folded inwards on large hinges and clanged against the rim. Dane clutched onto the metal rungs as his footing slipped. He breathed and then hauled himself over the edge to the dirty understory of the town.
And straight into the rising, leaping shapes that flew at him.
“Tk-Tk-Tkrrr!”
The slave aliens surrounded him en masse, tearing the gun from his fingers and flinging it to one side as they clutched onto his arms and legs with a strength that was incredible for their size.
“Hey, wait!” Dane gasped, looking up to see that the usually wide and innocent eyes of the native
inhabitants of this planet were now narrowed and fierce-looking. The dying gleam of red light flickered off their pointed, sharpened teeth.
“I’m not your enemy. I mean you no harm!” Dane managed to say as he struggled to move and found that he was caught firm. There was a scrape as a shard of metal, clearly some piece of junk that had been crudely fashioned into a knife, was pressed up against his throat.
Dane froze and didn’t even dare to swallow, certain that one gulp from him would sever his jugular.
The aliens around him were all slaves, all with collars that stretched from collarbone to neck, and all of them with a myriad of scars and ugly burn marks all over their arms and legs. Several even had more serious injuries that Dane could see, such as missing fingers or entire limbs.
“Tk-krrr!” One of them pushed their way through the throng and loomed over Dane, their eyes glinting hard in the reflected light. At their approach, the dagger was lifted just slightly from Dane’s throat to allow him to breathe.
“I—I met your people in the forest!” Dane whispered, and the alien responded, much to Dane’s surprise, in human language.
“Shut up,” the alien said. When the creature turned its head, Dane could see that they had one of the same bright green translation jewels that the Exin wore, implanted into the mantle collar about their neck.
“You can understand me. That is excellent,” Dane said in a rush, about to explain how he had fought alongside and in defense of their community in the wilds. He never got the chance, as the alien leaned forward to put their face within a few inches of Dane’s own, snarling with sharp, white teeth.
“Which part of ‘shut up’ don’t you people understand?”
Dane opened and closed his mouth and understood.
His captor leaned back, eyes alighting on the whistle that Dane had been given by the alien elder. With one fast movement, they snatched the item from Dane’s throat and held it up to look at it more seriously.
Metal Warrior: Steel Cage (Mech Fighter Book 6) Page 9
