Earth Force (Relict Legacy Book 1)

by Shemer Kuznits

Diamond has joined your faction

  Cattie has joined your faction

  Noah has joined your faction

  Nicolas has joined your faction

  …

  …

  After the nearly forty people joined, Nori spoke up. “Now spread out and touch the Warped remains. When asked if you want to share the Tec with your party, say or think yes.”

  “Do it,” Diamond ordered.

  “And quickly,” Bulco said. “Or the Old Stadium might not be there when we arrive.”

  Several people hurried back out through the platform and started running around the corpse-strewn ground. A moment later increasingly bright flashes of light erupted out from the dead Warped and flowed into each Earth Force member.

  Lana squinted at the slew of messages.

  Extracted 0.03 Tec

  Extracted 0.06 Tec

  Extracted 0.3 Tec

  Extracted 0.04 Tec

  ...

  …

  The lights and messages continued for several more moments before finally dwindling down.

  “Alright,” Lana said. “In total, we each got about four Tec.” She looked at the excited people. For most, it was the first time gaining a level. Several of the guards even made it to level four, allowing them to use the Warped Buster rounds.

  “That’s all the bodies we could find!” one of Diamond’s men shouted as they returned to the ship.

  “And we got the last batch of magazines on board,” Bulco added.

  “Alright, everyone, sit tight, I’ll get us to the Old Stadium,” Nori said and hurried to the bridge.

  Lana approached Diamond and presented the shelter’s leader with a thin piece of metal. “You should put this on.”

  “What’s this thing?”

  “Communication implant,” she explained. “Each one of us has one. You ought to have one too.”

  The elderly man frowned. “You want to implant me with an alien knickknack?”

  “It’s safe, I promise, and we are going to have a way to keep in touch. Besides ...” She pursed her lips. “You’re already kinda full of alien Tec anyway.”

  He furrowed his brow but the dark-haired woman returned his gaze with an assuring smile.

  “Oh, alright,” he grunted. “Do it quickly before I change my mind.”

  Lana held the implant to his temple and it oozed in easily, settling as a thin silver strip behind his ear.

  Diamond blinked rapidly. “That’s it?”

  “Yep.

  “Huh, easier than I’d thought.”

  “Alien knickknacks tend to be like that.”

  He chuckled. “You’re funny, girl. It’s a good trait to have in battle.”

  The cargo hold door closed and the freighter gently took off.

  ***

  Nathan was already strapped into his capsule back at the bridge, his visor once more opaque. He was not comfortable with all the clatter that was going on in the cargo hold. Instead, he busied himself with diving into Unity’s warm and secure embrace.

  With practiced moves, Nori gently guided the ship on its course.

  “How does this thing work?” she heard Diamond's voice speaking directly into her ear.

  “You just think of who you want to talk to and you talk to them. The implant does the rest,” Lana’s voice answered.

  “Guys, please keep it down, I’m trying to concentrate here,” Nori said. She pushed her fingers forward and the ship accelerated, speeding toward their next target.

  19 - Shooting Gallery

  “ETA - three minutes,” Nori said tensely into the ship’s internal comms. The Navigator glanced to Lana who was working the ship’s sensors. “What do we have?”

  Lana frowned. “It’s weird. The Warped are assembled a few hundred meters from the Old Stadium. Looks like they’re just standing still.”

  Nori’s face clouded. “Damn, that’s bad.”

  “Why? By the looks of it, we’ll be able to engage them in time.”

  “At the Grand Mall, they trickled in slowly enough for us to fight them off. If they attack Martin all at once …”

  Lana felt a chill run down her spine. “Then they’ll all die,” she whispered.

  Nori nodded grimly.

  “We have the cannon though,” Lana said. She opened a new light console and studied the monitor above it. “Hmm, looks like it uses an electromagnetic coil to propel Mithril-tipped projectiles at extremely high velocity,” she said. “Wait - I know what it is, it’s a rail gun! If I’m reading this correctly, the kinetic energy transference is enormous. No wonder it’s used against asteroids. It can make them go poof whereas an energy-based weapon would just burrow through.”

  “Lucky for us,” Nori added. “It also makes the Warped go poof quite well. How many rounds do we have?”

  “From what I’m seeing here, it works much like your dart launcher. The cannon generates rounds on its own and coats them with a molecule-thin layer of Mithril, so it never runs out. Its firing rate is limited though, about a shot every three seconds.”

  “That’s still pretty amazing.”

  “I guess,” Lana said, frowning.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t shoot it. The prerequisite states I have to reach level twelve to use the cannon. I guess an Expert isn’t meant to operate heavy weapons.”

  “We’ll get Nathan to do it, then.”

  “I don’t know,” Lana said with a worried frown as she glanced at the silent, partially covered man. “I don’t think it's good for him; did you see how pale he was afterward?”

  “I know,” Nori said grimly. “But if he’s the only one who can shoot …”

  “You’re right, I know.” Lana sighed. “I just hope he comes out of it alright.”

  “Approaching the enemy,” Nori spoke through the ship’s internal comms. “Everyone, get ready. The Warped are massed together, away from the shelter. We’re going to hover above them and use the cannon. The rest of you, open the hangar door and shoot down any strays. Keep an eye out for the flying ones. We have to be quick; we can’t allow them to attack the shelter en masse.”

  The ship sped forward, the ground a blur below them on the main viewscreen. A small amusement park came into view ahead of them.

  “Nori, look!” Lana exclaimed.

  A group of at least a hundred monsters had amassed below the Ferris wheel. The smaller Warped were trying to scale the steel scaffolding, and the larger ones were banging and shaking its foundations.

  “Up there,” Lana pointed at the top of the wheel. The picture zoomed in, revealing a dozen people in the highest chairs.

  Despite the ship’s lousy sensors, they were close enough to see the people’s faces and Nori instantly recognized who they were. It was Martin and the guards she’d helped level up. They were shooting down at the climbing Warped. The ground below them was already littered by the remains of the lower level ones. But the larger beasts seemed to shrug off the blasts of even Martin’s powerful Disruptor.

  “Nori, what are we going to do?” Lana asked. If we fire the cannon, we risk taking down the entire wheel.”

  “We’re going to have to try,” Nori said.

  Diamond, Bulco, and a few of the higher-level guards entered the bridge.

  “Nori, what are we looking at?” The Engineer asked while the newcomers took in the alien looking bridge with awed expressions.

  Nori pointed at the Ferris wheel. “That’s Martin and his crew. Looks like he’s pulling the same old trick again. They lured the entire Warped horde here, away from their shelter.“

  Bulco shook his head. “We’ll have to try the cannon. Without it, they don’t stand a chance.” He walked to Nathan’s pod and put one meaty palm on his shoulder. “You can do it, kid. Try firing a single shot at the perimeter of the pack.”

  The upper part of Nathan’s head was still covered by the pod’s helmet, but he could clearly make out the Engineer’s voice. He took a deep breath and nodded. There was a brie
f moment of an energy buildup, then a low thud ran through the ship as the cannon fired. Unlike before, they were a good distance away from their target and the ship was sealed, so they barely felt the cannon’s concussive force.

  The shot hit the ground, at least fifty meters away from the assembled Warped, reducing a hotdog stand to a smoking crater.

  “Damn,” Bulco cursed. “The kid can’t shoot for shit.”

  “He did a good enough job taking down those two Warped at my mall,” Diamond came to his defense.

  Nori shook her head. “That was from twenty meters away, while we were holding steady. And he still missed a shot. On top of that, this cannon was designed to shoot at giant space rocks, it’s not a precision, anti-Warped weapon.

  “It’s not Nathan’s fault,” Lana glared at the large Engineer. “We don’t even have a proper targeting system, and Nathan isn’t exactly a certified gunner.”

  One of the guards who was wearing a bright red shirt stepped forward. “Why don’t you let me have a go?”

  Diamond frowned at him. “Noah, what do you know about operating space weapons?”

  The sandy-haired man grinned and pointed at Lana. “She just said that kid’s not a gunner. It just so happens I’m a level four Gunner, so why not give me a try?”

  Diamond opened his mouth to object but Nori cut him off. “He’s right, we should’ve thought of checking if someone else has a compatible Path.”

  Lana winced. “I guess we just got used to doing everything around here ourselves.”

  “Noah, grab a chair and show us what you can do,” Nori ordered.

  “All the chairs are currently occupied,” he pointed out.

  Bulco rolled his eyes and nudged the man forward. “Just reach out with your hands and open your senses. You’ll know the spot when you reach it.”

  “Use the force, got it,” Noah said with a smile. He raised his arms and hesitantly stepped forward.

  “Better hurry up,” Diamond grunted, pointing at the Ferris wheel. “It doesn’t look like it’s gonna hold much longer.”

  The Gunner’s eyes opened wide as he reached the side wall. “I can feel something here.”

  Before he could say anything else, a chair sprouted from the floor, wrapping his entire lower body. The startled man cried in surprise. “Ugh! Holy shit, what’s going on?”

  “That’s your chair, apparently,” Bulco answered.

  Noah’s eyes widened even more. “Yes … yes … I can feel it. It’s right ... over … here.” He pressed his elbows to his sides, reaching forward with his forearms. Twin holographic controls materialized around both his arms, covering them entirely up to the shoulders. A holo monitor sprang into life in front of the Gunner’s eyes.

  “Jesus Christ, this thing is crazy,” he blurted. “I got a crosshair here, and I can see everything around the ship. And I just barely qualify to meet the requirement: Gunner score ten.” He twisted his arms and his entire body swerved along with the chair as if he was manipulating an imaginary mounted cannon. “Locking onto the biggest ugly brute,” he said. “And … fire.”

  Another low thud ran through the ship and everyone turned to look at the main viewscreen. An explosion hit the center of the amassed Warped. Several monsters were instantly vaporized and the rest were scattered by the concussive force, leaving behind another smoking crater. The entire Ferris wheel shook unsteadily.

  “It doesn’t look too sturdy,” Lana said. “Don’t hit near its base again.”

  “Just one more,” Noah said. “There’s a single level nine Warped out there if I don’t take it out I doubt our personal weapons will.”

  “OK,” Nori said. ”One more shot.”

  “Aiming …” the gunner said, his attention instantly focused on in his monitor. “And … fire!”

  A second explosion tore through the monsters and the largest of them, a four-meter-tall behemoth fell down with a crater nearly severing his chest in half.

  “Nice shooting, man,” Bulco said, clapping Noah hard on the shoulder.

  “Thanks,” the gunner said, wincing in pain.

  The Ferris wheel swerved unsteadily and several of the cables holding it snapped.

  “It’s not going to hold much longer,” Lana said.

  “I’m putting us down,” Nori said.

  “What? No!” Diamond protested.

  “Don’t worry. Have your people form a line at the cargo hold’s exit. Once we’re down the Warped will charge us. Mow them down as they approach. That should buy Martin and his people enough time to get down before it crashes. If the Warped get too close, I’ll just fly up and we’ll do it again.”

  “Not a bad plan,” Diamond grunted in approval. He looked up to his men. “You heard her. Line up at the hold’s exit.”

  “Bringing us about,” Nori said. She piloted the ship away, putting some distance between them and the monster army before lowering them down to the ground.

  ***

  Bulco stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the guards, grasping a borrowed automatic shotgun loaded with Warped Buster rounds. He gave a silent prayer of thanks for the Tec that made the bullets compatible with any weapon of the same caliber.

  The cargo door lowered to the ground, revealing the Warped barely two hundred meters away. Monstrous heads and eyestalks were looking their way, then the entire horde charged at them with murderous eagerness.

  “FIRE!” Bulco yelled and the world erupted into a cacophony of gunshots.

  Over thirty Tec-Infused guns and automatic rifles shot hundreds of bullets per second, mowing down the first ranks of the charging Warped. As they closed the distance the shotgun holders joined in, raining even more death and destruction. The smaller Warped stumbled under the heavy fire, only to be trampled to death by the stampeding horde. The larger, stronger Warped accepted the hail of bullets and charged on.

  Then the railgun fired.

  The deadly projectile hit the center mass of the horde and blasted a wide corridor through them, instantly killing one third and injuring the rest.

  The following shockwave threw most of the humans to the floor, temporarily halting the storm of bullets. They struggled to their feet even as the remaining Warped snarled and charged on, broken limbs and torn appendages flailing, ignoring the pain in their desperate need for human flesh.

  “FIRE!” Bulco shouted again, and the sound of automatic fire resumed. With fewer monsters to shoot at, the defenders were able to concentrate their attack, felling one beast after the other, but the distance between them kept shrinking.

  The rail gun fired again, taking a heavy toll on the monsters. Only twenty of the strongest remained and they were all injured to varying degrees.

  The monsters charged on, oblivious to their regenerating injuries.

  The human defenders recovered and kept on shooting, with more of them concentrating on single monsters as their number diminished.

  At twenty meters away, only ten of the monsters were still on their feet and still charging.

  “Close the door!” one of the guards shouted in panic.

  “No!” Bulco yelled. “Martin’s men just made it down, if we close up now, these Warped will turn around and massacre them. Keep on shooting!

  The distance was quickly reduced and more and more Warped fell to the defender’s bullets.

  At barely ten meters away, the defenders’ accuracy increased, the bullets finding their targets easily. Three more fell, leaving only the two biggest and strongest beasts remaining.

  Warped, level 8

  Warped, level 8

  The twisted mutants shrugged off the hail of smaller bullets and only seemed to take light damage from the higher caliber Warped Buster. They were almost at the humans, claws extended, spiked tails ready to lash out and mow down fleshy victims.

  Then Nori was there.

  The Navigator raised her arms and two small missiles materialized over her bracer. They shot forward, each connecting with a different monster. The following expl
osion halted their charge, forcing them to take a few steps back. They were injured, with large chunks missing from their bodies where the missiles had hit, but they were still alive. Still dangerous.

  But the extra seconds the Navigator bought them didn’t go to waste.

  “Everyone, target the left one!” Bulco roared.

  The humans adjusted their aim and hundreds of bullets instantly tore into the many-legged beast, finally bringing it down.

  The last remaining creature raised its head and let out a terrible shrieking roar. It contorted violently, jagged metal spikes appearing on its body, then it clenched.

  The spikes flew in all directions, like a nail bomb, hitting the ground, the ship, and the humans inside. The cacophony of bullets instantly dwindled to a trickle. The monster roared again, accepting the biting bullets despite its many bleeding wounds

  “Shit, it’s about to charge again! Quickly--”

  Bulco didn’t get to finish the sentence as the huge monster’s head suddenly exploded in a spray of blood, bone, and metal.

  The body dropped to the ground before the stunned fighters, revealing a person holding a Disrupter aimed at the dead beast’s head.

  “Martin!” Nori exclaimed.

  The Justicar grinned at her. “Nori! You guys got here right on time. The Zappers weren’t cutting it against that horde, and the Disruptor almost ran out of energy. You’re making a habit of saving my ass at the last second.” He stood back and looked appreciatively at the freighter. “And you keep showing up in bigger spaceships. I’m looking forward to next time.”

  The rest of Martin’s fighters approached, looking bloody and tired but alive.

  The shelter leader frowned as he looked at the injured defenders on the ship. “Looks like you guys got it worse than we did. We’ll help.”

  They sorted the wounded together. Two people were dead, one had been decapitated by a flying blade, and another was struck by a spike that shredded his heart. The rest of the injuries were not life-threatening—just some punctured lungs and severed legs. The shrapnel was removed from the wounded and they were laid down comfortably to rest and heal. About a dozen uninjured fighters remained.