Renegade Star Origins Box Set

by J. N. Chaney

  From what I could see, there was overwhelmingly more red than yellow and green. “Looks like there’s only one way out,” I remarked.

  “Hopefully it’s all passable,” said Nell, finally speaking again.

  My lips tightened into a frown. I hadn’t thought of that.

  A slight tremor shook the ground and I looked up sharply.

  “Did you feel—”

  The roar of an enraged Boneclaw echoed from the tunnel we’d just exited.

  “Break time’s over,” I said, turning to Mark. “Take point since you have an idea where we’re going.”

  He nodded and took off in the direction of the first green marker I’d seen. The rest of us followed close on his heels.

  “At least Tiberius couldn’t fit in the tunnel,” Nell said to me.

  “Maybe not him, but Boneclaws created it,” I said darkly. “At least one of them is small enough to get through it.”

  We fell into silence, trailing after Mark as he led us deeper into the darkened facility.

  “Is there any way to get the power back on?” asked Jennifer Murphy, a woman I recognized from scavenging jaunts.

  We were backtracking for the third time after hitting another dead end of collapsed rubble. I knew we weren’t lost, but with the snaking path through identical rooms, I was having trouble keeping my bearings.

  “No, Janus had the power off for safety reasons,” Mark explained.

  “How are you getting a signal then?” asked Don.

  It was a fair question and I waited to hear Mark’s answer.

  “Different system. The Eternals wanted to have a way to communicate in case they lost power, so each facility had its own tritium core. Our compound was the one that handled communications,” he said, rattling off the information as if he’d been waiting for someone to ask just that question.

  Knowing Mark, that was probably the case.

  “Which way now?” I asked when we reached a junction with three connected passages.

  He studied the map for a second then pointed left. “We came from the right. It’s a dead end behind us. That way leads to a yellow area though.”

  “Not much of a choice,” I said, waving my arms wide to indicate he should take the lead again.

  This passage took us through a series of small rooms that looked like the office portion of the production facility. The map took us through the maze of cubicles and communal areas, most untouched.

  “Anybody hungry?” Don joked after we passed a vending machine with packages of food still inside.

  Even Lambert snorted at that.

  “If you want to chance nearly two millennia old food, be my guest,” I said, then made an exaggerated gagging noise.

  The exit led to the warehouse that held the assembly line, and we entered it warily, unsure of what we might find.

  “Stay behind me,” Mark warned us. “The radiation is higher to our left and right, but if we stay on this path, it should be okay.”

  Even with the map and Mark leading the way, progress was slow. Unlike where we entered, most everything was in shambles. Judging from the wide-scale destruction, fallout from the collapse had been the worst here.

  “Watch your step,” I told the others. “Not all of this looks stable.”

  A far-off thump reminded all of us that we weren’t alone.

  We’d left the Boneclaw tunnel behind in a hurry, wanting to put as much distance between us and the enemy as possible, and gone into the large warehouse that Mark promised would lead us out. Perhaps ten minutes after that, one of the creatures ran out of the tunnel, alerting us with its thunderous steps.

  The video Janus showed us from the era when the assembly line was up and running looked nothing like the scene before us now. A few areas were blackened and burned out husks, the site of some kind of explosion.

  Robots tasked with the handling of radioactive material lay twisted and broken, their protective shielding cracked or completely destroyed.

  To my knowledge, the facility had been checked for a potential explosion, but none was found. At the time, no one wanted to risk radiation poisoning, and this was one area that had never been scavenged.

  The cores we scavenged currently were completed units that had been shipped from this facility and were already stockpiled at the other two. The Eternals had built the fusion core compound with catastrophe in mind, making sure to include a layer between it and the rest of the cave system. That way, no radiation could leak out. We had treatments of course, in case of emergency, but had never had to use them.

  The ones who survived the chaos after the Boneclaws’ escape and the ensuing destruction had opted to just close it all up, turn the power off, and forget about it. Nothing had been salvaged, including the dead.

  We discovered that last part when a resource handler named Alix Thurman squealed, making the rest of us jump.

  She stumbled back, pointing at something behind a vehicle used for transporting heavy loads of material.

  I eased over to her and shone the light on the dark lump she was staring at. It was a person, or had been once, lying facedown on the ground.

  “Nothing but clothes and bone,” I told her. “It can’t hurt you.”

  She grimaced, looking embarrassed. “I know that. Sorry, it just freaked me out.”

  “It’s okay,” I replied. “But something might have heard that. Mark, are we getting closer?”

  He nodded. “Once we get through here, we just have to go down three levels. From there, there are a number of exits that will take us to the main cave system.”

  We started walking again, only to pause once more when Nell signaled for us to stop.

  “What is it?” I asked, thinking she might have seen another body.

  She put a finger to her lips and pointed the other one at her ear. “It’s getting louder,” she mouthed.

  I went still and strained my ears. A few seconds later, I heard it: clicking noises, like Boneclaws talking, then a soft thump.

  My eyes widened. “They must be moving carefully so we don’t hear them as well,” I whispered. “Mark, you have to pick up the pace. They’re closer than we thought.”

  Mark started speed walking. I jogged a little to catch him so he had the light to see by. He almost tripped over some debris.

  “Steady,” I told him.

  We had almost cleared the warehouse floor when a crash came from behind us. A loading door crumpled inward with the force of something smashing into it then started to tear away from its track.

  A hairy white arm stuck through the opening and swiped with its clawed hand.

  “Go!” I yelled.

  Mark ran first, checking to make sure the rest of us were behind him, then sprinting forward again. We followed him through piles of ruined building as the Boneclaw screeched and broke through the rest of the door.

  I was out of breath, dragging in great gulps of air when at last the end of the warehouse came into view. Everything hurt and my lungs were on fire, but we were too close to stop now.

  “It’s there!” Mark yelled, pointing at a wall coming up fast.

  As we drew closer, I could see what he was talking about. A derelict elevator stood half open, as if it had been trying to close when the power went out. That wouldn’t do us any good, but where there was an elevator there had to be stairs.

  Scanning, I saw the emergency sign to the left of the elevator, its red arrow pointing the way to a manual door. If we could cross the fifty meters to it, everything would be fine. There was no chance in hell even the smallest Boneclaw could make it in there.

  A transport lift sat to one side, along with a few overturned cases of fusion cores, but not much else. If we kept to one side, it would only take a few seconds to cross.

  “Wait!” Prime Lambert was waving his hands frantically and yelling to get our attention.

  I skidded to a stop, searching for the source of his concern, and saw it immediately.

  The expanse of floor we stood on shoo
k and groaned. At first, I thought that was what he was warning us about. Then Lambert pointed at the ground and I saw it.

  A fusion core lay there. It wouldn’t have been a big deal under normal circumstances. The core housing had been designed to be safe to handle without protective gear, which we did regularly. Unless the protective casing was damaged, as this one appeared to be. Whatever had happened to break the casing had also torn through the floor. The metal sagged and groaned with every step, and the glowing core rattled with every motion.

  “It’s okay,” Mark said, pushing his hands down in what he probably thought was a calming gesture. “No sudden movements. Ease your way around it.”

  Everyone did as he asked. I barely dared to breathe, and I guessed we were all thinking the same thing.

  Please don’t go off.

  Nell had just made it around to the other side of the damaged core and Alix was moving centimeter by petrified centimeter past it when a Boneclaw stomped around the corner. Alix froze, too terrified to move as it barreled toward her.

  I watched, horrified as it reached the edge of frail ground. It seemed to realize immediately that it was in danger because the Boneclaw attempted to leap backward, but it was too late.

  The floor began to crumble, and the broken fusion core disappeared into a deep fissure.

  17

  Mark had the door to the stairwell open and was guiding those nearest to him in first. I left him to it and focused on Alix, who still hadn’t moved.

  Without knowing which part of the floor might be safe, if any, I tested every step before putting my full weight down.

  “Alix! Snap out of it!” I yelled, trying to get her attention.

  The girl finally looked around, her eyes widening as she took in the disintegrating ground beneath her. “I don’t think I can do it,” she said hoarsely.

  I held out my staff like a lifeline. “There, that’s almost two meters you don’t have to go,” I told her, forcing my voice to stay calm.

  Alix nodded and took a step toward me. Then another. Her features were pinched in fear and concentration as she crept along at a maddeningly slow pace.

  I was almost about to urge her to move faster when the Boneclaw fell through the floor where it stood, catching itself on the firm ground it had come from.

  This threw Alix off balance and she tipped back, then leaned forward again, flailing in an attempt to right herself. One foot came down hard on a cracked portion of paneling, splitting it open. She scrambled to climb the falling section as it went vertical but couldn’t do more than hang on as it fell into the now wide-open crevasse.

  Her eyes met mine, wide with terror, then began to slip out of view. Her scream echoed from the dark below then was suddenly cut off.

  I wanted to rush headlong after her, but I knew it would be useless.

  Forcing myself to turn away and head for the stairwell, I spotted Nell. She’d fallen a little way from safety and struggled to stand back up.

  The Boneclaw roared and kicked, doing everything in its power to not fall into the now gaping hole behind it. Every movement sent vibrations through the already weakened flooring and almost sent me toppling.

  I ran the last few steps to her and hauled her up. It wasn’t pretty, but she got her footing again and stumbled her way to where Mark still held the door open.

  Another rumble sent me to my knees, and I used the staff to push myself back up. It jerked me back a step and I looked down in confusion to find that the bottom had gotten wedged into the shifting floor.

  “Lucia, don’t be stupid!” Nell yelled from the door. “Leave it!”

  She was right, the staff was a material thing and not worth dying over, but most of the floor was already gone and I just needed a second to get it loose.

  It popped free and I grinned triumphantly despite the situation. My success was short lived though, because in another spectacular instance of bad timing, an explosion rocked the area from underneath us.

  As I was falling, I had a moment to grasp that the unstable fusion core had gone off, no doubt from being jostled and having a ton of falling concrete land on top of it.

  Then the moment passed, and I had to focus on not dying. I thrust the staff forward, trying to find purchase on something, anything, but it slid off uselessly.

  The single stroke of luck I had was that where I’d been standing broke off in a large slab and dropped straight down rather than tipping back like with Alix.

  On the other side of the room, the Boneclaw was losing its fight as well. It hung perilously onto the edge of the hole by only the claws of one arm when the material gave way and crumbled under its weight. The animal and I fell almost at the same time into the darkness below.

  Not again, I thought when I opened my eyes to a pile of broken rock and darkness. This was becoming an all too familiar feeling. The first thing on my to do list when this was all over would be sleep without getting knocked out.

  Forcing myself into a sitting position, I checked for injuries. Aside from another layer of cuts and bruises, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong, though my previously injured arm ached in its cast.

  Rock shifted around me and the sound of falling water came from somewhere nearby. I felt around in the darkness, afraid the staff had been thrown out of reach. If it had, I might never find it in the total darkness.

  Then my hand brushed the familiar etched metal and I closed desperate fingers around it. The staff moved but didn’t come away in my hands. The shaft glowed at my touch, a beacon of something not quite hope, but close. It revealed a few small rocks I easily moved, then the staff was in my grasp once more.

  I turned the light up as bright as it could go and got to my feet. Turning in a slow circle, I studied my surroundings. It was an underground cavern filled with slabs of broken floor and rubble. The warehouse lift had fallen in and now lay on its side, a hunk of twisted steel and shattered glass.

  All the debris in one area had been completely pulverized. From the fusion core, I guessed. It would explain why the blast hadn’t killed us all when it exploded. If it had been under a pile of heavy rock, that would have blunted the worst of the blast.

  Looking up, I judged the fall to have been about twenty meters. The piece of floor panel I’d been on had landed on an already high mound of debris, which must have broken my fall.

  I clambered up the mound, backsliding on some of the less secure bits as they came loose. Once I reached the top I called out above.

  “Mark! Nell! Anyone up there?” I yelled, cupping my hand around my mouth to project the sound.

  No one answered. I hoped that meant they were in the safety of the stairwell and not dead.

  A groan cut through the silence and I whirled around, thinking it was Alix, but didn’t see her.

  “Alix?”

  No response.

  I tracked left to right with the staff, moving around the area where she might have fallen. Its light fell on an outstretched hand and I almost tripped over the loose stone in my haste to get to her. When I reached Alix’s broken, lifeless form, I knew the noise hadn’t come from her.

  She lay half buried under the wreckage. No one could have survived the damage her body had sustained, not even the immortal Eternals.

  Something shifted behind me and released a heavy breath that lifted the loose strands of hair on my neck. Moving slowly, I pivoted on my heel and came face to face with the Boneclaw.

  “Not Alix,” he whispered.

  I backed up several paces until out of its arm’s reach and cocked my head at him. “Not Tiberius. Yet you speak,” I returned, trying to keep my composure.

  This was not at all what I had expected.

  A long scar on one side of his face looked familiar. Had I seen this Boneclaw before? He didn’t have Tiberius’ size or human-like hands. He had eyes, but they were milky and unseeing. I wondered fleetingly if they all had the ability to talk but we had never realized it.

  So much for Tiberius being the only one, I th
ought. This Boneclaw seemed younger, and I wondered who he was to Tiberius.

  “Are you here to finish me?” the creature asked, ignoring my statement with a note of derision in his voice.

  “No. I fell down here, just like you. Besides, you chased us, not the other way around,” I pointed out.

  He jerked a shoulder in a decidedly un-Boneclaw way. “After you attacked us in the cavern.”

  I spread my hands in a peaceful gesture, forgetting for a moment that he couldn’t see it. “A misunderstanding. I wasn’t trying to hit anyone, only cause a distraction for my people to escape.”

  “You can’t escape what you’ve done,” he replied harshly. “I know who you are. Your scent was on her. I recognize it now.”

  Who was he talking about?

  It hit me like a blast of cold water. The Boneclaw from my first hunt. He’d known her, had been to the kill site. I stared at him in horror when it clicked. The four Boneclaws who had come running to the gorge.

  “She was my mother,” he finally said. It was unnerving to hear what I could recognize as grief in his voice.

  “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I mean that. Our people...We didn’t know—”

  “That we are intelligent?” he finished for me. “Why should that matter? You kill life. You destroy.”

  “Your kind hunts the frost horn, don’t they?”

  He didn’t respond.

  “We hunt to survive, just like you. We fight to defend ourselves when in danger. Your people have been that danger. You’ve killed us, too.”

  The Boneclaw fell quiet again and I got the feeling he was thinking over what I’d said.

  “What’s your name?” I asked. “I’m Lucia.”

  He scoffed at the question, then moaned when the movement caused him pain.

  “You’re hurt,” I said, trying to get a better look at him without getting too close.

  One of his legs bent out at an odd angle and a claw from his right hand had been torn out. A gash on his chest bled freely, the green streaming down his white fur.