Earth Force (Relict Legacy Book 1)

by Shemer Kuznits

  Warped, Level 8

  A long, spiky tongue rolled out of its gaping mouth and lashed out toward the frightened Expert.

  Lana was saved at the last second as Nathan rammed into her, sending her to the floor and the tongue missed her by centimeters.

  The three guards opened fire at the giant’s head. Their shots pinged off its skull but the streaming bullets harassed it enough to keep it from pulling itself completely in while the cargo door slowly closed. The creature withdrew its long tongue, readying it for another attack. Then the door slammed shut, severing its clawed fingers which fell to the floor.

  “Shit, that was intense,” Cattie said with a crazed grin on her face. “Gonna need something a little more serious for the next round.” The woman strapped the assault carbine she was holding across her back and pulled forward a heavy looking shotgun instead. She kicked open a box of Warped Busters and started loading the bullets one by one.

  “Get ready,” Nori’s voice came through the ship’s speakers. “We’ve reached the roof. Opening the cargo door now.”

  ***

  Bulco ran through the panicked crowd toward the sounds of screams and gunshots.

  Ten guards were standing in front of a hole in the wall, shooting at the mass of claws, tentacles, and buzz saws that were struggling to reach inside.

  Behind them, people were screaming and running as a Warped that looked like a rolling bush of thorny metal rolled over them, its spikes tearing them apart.

  Warped, level 5

  Ignoring the panicked masses, Bulco stopped and retrieved a small syringe from his belt. He took in a deep breath, plunged the needle into his neck and pressed on the plunger. His eyes instantly turned red, and his muscles rippled under his shirt, threatening to burst open his sleeves. The Engineer snarled, took out his Zapper and ran straight at the unopposed creatures, shooting repeatedly. The spiky bush-monster ignored the shots, which barely dealt it any damage. An old man stumbled into the line of fire. A beam pierced his shoulder, making him stagger, then four spikes erupted out of his chest, shredding it to bits.

  With a shout of rage, Bulco charged ahead, running through the bodies strewn around, straight at the creature. He drew back his hand, The Puncher loaded and ready. Then beast and Warped abomination collided.

  A spray of broken spikes filled the air at the impact, but more tore through the Engineer’s body, though they failed to pierce him like they did the level zero victims. Ignoring the pain, Bulco punched forward, aiming at the creature’s center of mass. Spikes exploded outward and the monster was hurled away, leaving the Engineer’s chest looking like a pincushion. Oblivious to his wounds, Bulco roared and charged again, punching the dazed monster, again and again, until nothing but broken heaps of gory metal spikes remained.

  He stumbled back, suddenly weak from the loss of blood as the red glow left his eyes. He caught himself, though, and the Tec inside his body worked feverishly to patch up his injuries. Almost as an afterthought, four slender robotic arms extended out of the Engineer’s shoulder and started pulling shards of metal out of his body.

  The shouting ceased and people stopped to stare at the hulk of a man, covered in blood and Warped bits as he stood, concentrating, while alien looking arms were removing spikes from his body.

  Bulco glanced at the ten guards blocking the entrance. Two of them had fallen, but they seemed to be holding their own. A bunch of civilians were running back and forth, collecting empty magazines and handing out reloaded weapons. Then one of the civilians pointed a shaking finger upward and shouted. “They’re coming from above!”

  Bulco barely managed to glance up before a second monster dropped straight down at him.

  ***

  Lana clutched her Zapper and stared wide-eyed as Unity’s cargo doors opened over the structure’s roof.

  At least a dozen of the smaller Warped were running across the surface looking for ways inside. Most looked like a rodent variety: mutated squirrels and rats that managed to climb the sheer walls. A couple of the bigger ones were pounding the roof, trying to smash their way inside.

  “Fire!” Cattie shouted, and the three guards opened fire.

  The male guards’ light carbines sprayed the monsters with automatic fire, hitting some, but missing most.

  “Not like that!” Cattie shouted angrily. “Aim before you shoot! Use semi-automatic fire with short, steady bursts. You, guy!” she shouted at Nathan. “Reload our magazines.” She braced her shotgun on her shoulder, aimed carefully, and shot at a cat-like Warped that charged straight at them. The bullet hit the small creature mid-air and the 50 caliber Warped Buster slug tore its body to shreds.

  The other two guards steadied their aim, picking out specific creatures. With Unity hovering several meters away from the building, they could afford to take the time to line up their shots in relative safety.

  Lana fired her Zapper, her shots going all over the place. She only connected every third or fourth hit, and it took two or three hits to kill the low-level monsters. She and the two male guards were doing a decent job at reducing the Warped population, but Cattie was in a league of her own.

  The woman didn’t miss a shot. The Warped she aimed at disintegrated into a spray of blood and gory metal every time she pulled the trigger on her shotgun. Twenty seconds after the doors had opened, all the Warped were dead, half of them by the Sharpshooter’s slugs.

  “We made it.” Lana sighed in relief, seeing no more monster movements.

  “No.” Cattie clenched her jaw. “One of them made it inside.”

  Lana looked away from the grizzly, bloody scene, meeting the other woman’s somber gaze. “Oh, no, those poor peo--” She froze as her eyes darted to the ground below them. A hoard of at least fifty more Warped had just reached the shelter walls. Most were of the larger variety, some even bigger than horses.

  Cattie looked down grimly, her jaw tightening even more. “That was just the vanguard. Their heavy hitters have arrived.”

  ***

  Bulco barely managed to shield his eyes when a dog-sized Warped landed on top of him, biting and snarling.

  “I …” Bulco’s other hand shot toward his head, grabbing the creature, “... hate …” he yanked the monster off him, ignoring the bites, “... you motherfucking …” he grabbed the creature with both hands and with the exoskeleton humming in exertion, tore it in half, “... freaks.”

  “We got more incoming!” One of the guards standing near the wall shouted. “Big ones! One of them has a--”

  His sentence got cut short. A huge clawed fist punched through a walled section and grabbed him. Hooked metal claws pierced the screaming guard's body, then the hand pulled back, tearing his head and legs off through the narrow hole.

  Bulco winced at the horrific sight and wiped the blood from his forehead. “That’s not something you see every day.”

  ***

  Nori expertly and delicately maneuvered her fingers, turning the ship around, bringing it closer to the ground. With a single thought, the holo-controls disappeared from her hands and the ship hovered in place. She nearly tore herself from her chair, not waiting for it to unfold on its own, and ran to the cargo hold.

  She came to an abrupt halt at the scene that unfolded.

  Unity was hovering ten meters above the ground and twenty meters away from the shelter. A sea of Warped in levels ranging from five to seven, with a couple of eights, were pounding at the walls. The concrete wall was giving way. As she looked, a giant beast, three meters tall, punched straight through the wall and drew out a piece of bloodied human torso. The hulking creature brought his catch up to his mouth and dozens of sharp metal teeth and buzz saws hacked it apart. The monster visibly grew a few centimeters as it gobbled down its gory meal.

  Lana and the three guards were shooting like crazy into the throng of monsters, but their shots seemed to do little damage to the bigger creatures. Nathan was sitting on the floor, desperately reloading the magazines they threw back at him.

>   Cattie shot three times in rapid succession, bursting the head of a level five Warped like a ripe melon. “I’m out!” she yelled. “Reloading.”

  She bent down to the ammo case, just as a flying Warped burst into the cargo hold. It missed the ducking woman by a hair’s breadth and struck one of the other guards instead. The guard fell to the floor, yelling in fright, trying to fight off the bat-like creature with his rifle. The creature let out a piercing shriek and spread its leathery wings. Before anyone could react, the monster launched itself and its prey out of the ship.

  Nori walked toward the edge slowly, as if daydreaming, and watched as the flying creature dropped the still-screaming man to the sea of monsters below. The poor man was instantly ripped apart and devoured, then the flying Warped turned around for another bout.

  Nori lifted her arm and pointed at it. A single dart materialized above her metal bracer. She launched it just as the creature was about the enter the cargo hold and the ensuing explosion tore it apart, raining blood and pieces of torn wings at its allies below. The other monsters didn’t care and devoured their friend’s remains with the same gusto they gave to the humans.

  The sound of gunfire from inside the shelter intensified as more and more people grabbed weapons and rushed to defend their sanctuary.

  The creatures were still widening the gaps, but finally, the combination of shots from within and above seemed to be diminishing their numbers, injuring them faster than they could regenerate.

  More and more monsters fell, the level fours and fives first, with the level sixes taking longer to die. Nori shot one more missile, tearing the leg off one of the largest beasts, then, in an effort to conserve her remaining two darts, she grabbed and unstrapped Cattie’s unused carbine.

  The hail of bullets continued as the humans shot hundreds of bullets every few seconds. A minute later, the horde was mostly taken down. Mostly.

  The two hulking, level eight monsters remained. The smaller caliber bullets pinged off their hardened skin, doing little to no damage, and even the Warped Busters rounds shot by Cattie only caused shallow wounds that healed up almost instantly.

  “This isn’t working!” Cattie shouted. “They’re too strong for that. We need more firepower!”

  A shudder ran through Unity’s hull and Nathan’s head snapped upward, his expression full of wonder.

  The young man stood up, leaving the opened case of ammunition on the floor and walked toward the open cargo door as if in a trance.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Cattie shouted at him. “Reload damn it, or we’re all dead.”

  The young man ignored her and continued walking.

  “Nathan?” Lana asked hesitantly. Her own Zapper ran out of energy long ago. “What are you doing?”

  He flashed her a reassuring smile and walked over to the edge of the door. He looked down at the two huge monsters, each carved a large hole in the wall and were working their claws to enlarge it to get inside, ignoring the occasional gunshot to their faces.

  Nathan squared his shoulders and looked down straight at the taller of the two creatures. He narrowed his eyes and brought his arm up, his fingers folded as if holding an imaginary gun.

  “The kid’s lost it,” Cattie said. She bent down, reloading her shotgun as quickly as she could.

  “I don’t think so,” Nori said softly.

  Nathan drew in a steadying breath and pulled his trigger finger.

  A thundering sound tore through the air. The powerful blast sent shockwaves through the air, hurling everyone on their backs.

  “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?” Cattie screamed.

  Nori was still close enough to the exit to see the upper half of one of the monsters simply evaporate. Its lower torso fell to the ground, quivering. She glanced to a small monitor on the wall and smiled at the four simple words written across it.

  Asteroid Cannon upgrade completed

  “Oh, no.” Lana moved to the edge and was looking down. The single shot did more than simply blast apart the monster - it also took off a large section of the shelter's wall behind it. Luckily, the downward angle of the shot prevented it from blasting through the whole building. Instead, a two-meter wide crater appeared at the edge of the wall.

  The remaining level eight monster was also thrown away by the blast, but flailing tentacles and grasping claws quickly restored its balance, bringing it up for another round.

  “Nathan, shoot it before it reaches the breach in the wall,” Nori shouted.

  Despite the young man’s dislike of weapons, he liked the Warped even less. He hastily brought up his hand and fired again. But somehow, the monster dodged. The shot hit the ground in a spray of stone and dirt, opening up another crater. Everyone was hurled off their feet again, the monster included.

  It snarled upward at the ship hovering just outside its reach and scrambled back to its feet, throwing itself at the open shelter wall.

  Bulco stepped into view, blocking the opening. The giant Warped paid no attention to the insignificant human and charged, limbs outstretched forward.

  The Engineer smiled coldly and brought up his revolver. He fired when the monster was almost on top of him and the large caliber bullet did what the long-range shotgun couldn’t, piercing its skull. The creature howled in agony, three of its limbs flying up to his face, while the others shot forward toward the human. Bulco shot, again and again, each shot hitting the creature’s head, sending sprays of bone, metal, and blood. The monster stumbled backward, still on its feet and clutched at its face, howling in anger and pain.

  “Now, Nathan now!” Nori shouted.

  This time the young man didn’t miss.

  The ship’s cannon, a weapon designed to blast away stray asteroids, hit the Warped dead center. Everyone was hurled away again by the blast, and the monster simply disappeared, a red mist filling the spot it previously held.

  “Phew, that was close,” Bulco called from below, getting back to his feet. “Nori, bring the ship down. Diamond will give us some people to go help Martin’s shelter. Hurry up.”

  Nori rushed back toward the bridge.

  Cattie stood staring at the young man and shook her head. “Damn nice shooting, kid.”

  Nathan looked down, not meeting her eyes.

  Cattie frowned. “What?”

  “It’s nothing.” Lana stepped forward. “Nathan just abhors violence.”

  “Hard to avoid it these days,” the woman commented dryly.

  Unity lowered to the ground, landing in front of the torn walls.

  The Sharpshooter shook her head. “Damn, those Warped did a real number on the shelter. They’ll have to find someplace else to hole up now.”

  “No.” Diamond stepped into the cargo hold. Thirty armed men and a dozen civilians followed him in. “This ends, now.”

  “That’s right.” Bulco stepped inside. Looking backward he shouted. “Hurry up and get in, the Warped won’t wait for us forever.”

  “What’s going on?” Lana asked.

  “Reinforcements.” Bulco flashed her a savage grin. “First, we’re going to help the Old Stadium with their Warped-pest problem, then we’ll go deal with their mommy.”

  ***

  “What’s the holdup?” Cattie demanded. “Martin and the rest of my shelter won’t last long without help.”

  “We’re gearing up to go as quickly as possible, girl,” Diamond answered in his thick voice. “I know it’s hard, but going in unprepared won’t be doing your people any favors.”

  “What are you doing here anyway?” Lana asked the impatient woman.

  “Martin sent me to bring a message to Diamond,” she answered shortly. “I got here just before the first Warped arrived.”

  “We’re nearly done,” Bulco declared from the entrance. “The last batch of loaded magazines is almost ready.”

  “Shouldn’t we bring more people?” Lana asked nervously. Despite the shipping containers taking up most of the space, there was easily enough room for at least twent
y more people.

  “Can’t,” Diamond said. “We don’t have enough people who are good enough with a gun to leave behind to defend the place if we do that.”

  Nori came from the bridge and took in the determined faces around her. Some of the guards were level one or two, but most of them, along with all the civilians, were still at level zero.

  She shook her head. “That won’t do. We need to extract the Tec from the dead Warped as quickly as possible. The extra levels will give us a huge advantage for the next battle.”

  “How do we do that?” A guard asked.

  “It’s easy,” Nicolas, the level two gunslinger answered him. “You just touch a dead body and you get its Tec.”

  “How do we decide who gets how much?” one of the other guards demanded. “I got injured defending the place, I should get more than those who stayed back and shot from safety.”

  A chorus of angry yells followed his words.

  “I took out a monster before it managed to jump at you, you asshole!”

  “I helped bring down at least a dozen!”

  “Everyone, shut up!” Diamond roared. Despite the heated atmosphere, everyone instantly obeyed.

  Lana felt a small urge to keep her mouth shut as well, but she resisted the impulse. “There’s no need to argue,” she said. “We need everyone working together to get us through this. There’s a simple solution. We need to form a party. Join our faction. We’ll extract the Tec as a group, everyone will get their share.

  “Huh, I just got a message asking if I want to join the Earth Force,” Diamond mused. “I hope you know what you’re doing, kid.”