Earth Force (Relict Legacy Book 1)

by Shemer Kuznits

  A loud noise of things getting broken came from further inside the library.

  “Follow me,” Bulco whispered. He stepped into the building with his revolver leading the way.

  They passed the lobby and entered the library’s main floor. Most of the bookshelves were moved to the sides and center was filled with camping equipment, a makeshift kitchen, and scattered weapons. The noise sounded again, coming from the direction of the toilets.

  Nori frowned. “What is he doing there?”

  Bulco set his jaw firmly. “Getting in over his head. I promise you that.”

  They crept forward silently until they were standing right against the door. Sounds of footsteps followed by more noise of crushing equipment came through. They carefully peeked through a crack in the door, seeing a figure in white body armor examining a glass item, then throwing it at the floor.

  Fle'gak, Inthidlon, Level 9, Faction: Inthidlon 3rd fleet

  “Shit, he’s destroying our lab!” the Engineer hissed.

  “Your what?” Nori whispered with surprise.

  The large man ignored her question. “On the count of three. One, two--”

  “Wait!”

  “Three!”

  Bulco kicked open the door and jumped into the bathroom with his gun leading the way. The Inthidlon pilot turned to face him immediately and a helmet instantly materialized around his head. He was still wearing the same gold and white body armor as when they had met him on the station.

  The gun barked, followed by a metal ding. The alien Scout looked down at the bullet, crumpled against his chest piece. The angry man fired, again and again, until his gun ran dry. The Warped Busters pinged harmlessly off the alien’s armor without even leaving a dent. Nori stood at the entrance with her Zapper extended, not sure what to do.

  The alien casually lifted his arm and a small golden pistol materialized in his hand out of thin air.

  “Nori!” The large man took a step back. “Shoot it!”

  “Damn it! I said to wait!” the Navigator cursed. She was out of options, either she attacked, or the Inthidlon was going to shoot her partner. The Zapper barked three times, sending three, needle-thin rays of energy at the creature’s head. A bubble of force shimmered into existence around the alien, stopping the shots before reaching his body.

  The Scout’s helmet unfolded, revealing his head. “A Zapper? You shot me with a Zapper? What am I? A level one Ezz? Even your friend’s primitive projectile weapon packed a stronger punch. At least it was slow enough to bypass my armor’s force shield. You should have used your Dart Launcher, it might have actually scorched my armor.”

  “I didn’t want to kill you, but I had to do something,” Nori said with clenched teeth, her gun still aimed at the creature’s head. “You were going to shoot him.”

  Fle'gak waved his small golden weapon. “This is just a stunner. It wouldn’t have killed--”

  “You killed my men!” Bulco exploded into action. Taking advantage of the short distraction, he charged at the alien. His fist shot forward and The Puncher triggered, adding to the force of the strike.

  The Inthidlon brought up his free arm and caught the fist that was aimed at his head. His armor hummed and the golden lines glowed as he was forced back a step, but the force of the attack was absorbed. With a grunt and shove of his own, the Engineer was sent flying against a wooden table holding several vials. The table shattered and Bulco crashed into the ground in a shower of wooden splinters and broken glass.

  Before Nori could intervene, the alien’s pistol fired. A blue pulse hit the struggling Engineer and seemed to dissipate harmlessly.

  “Well, that’s surprising,” Fle'gak lowered his gun. “That pulse was enough to immobilize every human I encountered here. Ah, I see now—you are both level seven. Very admirable. You were level five only a solar day ago.”

  Nori partially lowered her Zapper. “Are you saying you didn’t kill anyone?”

  He shook his head. “No. I followed your flight path from the station. When I got above the city, I got into range and picked up signals from one of my packmates’ comms. When I came in to investigate, the humans here started shooting at me.”

  The alien was standing with his back to Bulco who was still grunting in pain. Through the wreckage, Nori could see the large man holding an unbroken beaker, and he was reaching for something inside his jacket.

  “I don’t know why the signals led you here,” she said, lowering her weapon completely. “Your packmate is obviously not here. You made a mistake.”

  “Did I?” the alien said in a dangerous tone. The small pistol disappeared from his hand, and he reached down to his belt, drawing one of his twin pistols. The weapon looked like Nori’s old Disruptor, only bigger and meaner. Fle'gak trained the gun at the Navigator and kicked an object on the floor toward her. It rolled on the floor, stopping at her feet.

  Nori looked down. It was a piece of equipment, obviously alien in design. She looked back up.

  “This is a piece of an Inthidlon mark-3 escape pod,” the alien declared. “Just like the freighter I’m looking for used.” He pointed his gun at Nori’s face. “Now you’re going to tell me where my packmate is, or I’m going to shoot. This is not a stunner, in case you were wondering.”

  Nori raised her arms. “Wait, please. This is all just a big misunderstanding. An escape pod did crash on Earth, yes. Bulco’s team found it, and they scavenged the wreckage, but they didn’t find a body.”

  The gun fired. A dark blue beam passed next to Nori’s head, exploding a hole in the wall behind her. “Lies! Then why do I still detect my packmates communication implant? He’s here somewhere! You’re hiding him from me!”

  Nori lowered her arms and the Scout’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as he followed the movement. Behind him, Bulco was doing something with the beaker. A bloody jar was lying empty on the floor next to him.

  Nori looked with amazement at the hole the gun had made in the wall. The alien’s eyes followed hers. “Yes, you should be afraid. A hit from the Talon is enough to vaporize your head. And if you don’t tell me--” He stopped abruptly as he noticed the same thing the Navigator did.

  “There is something behind this wall!” He hissed and moved closer to inspect, his gun still pointing at the Navigator. With his other arm, he drew out a small beeping device. “I see … a shielding wall, very clever. But it will take more than that to fool a Scout. I just need to find the right frequency and … got it!”

  The wall moved. It extended outward, then split in the middle and the two halves slowly moved to opposite sides, revealing a small secret chamber behind it.

  A metal surgical bed took most of the space.

  And on it, was a dissected body of a naked Inthidlon.

  Fle'gak eyes widened to twice their normal size. “No ... “

  Bulco grunted and shifted on the floor, sitting up.

  Nori looked at the Engineer with horror. “What have you done?”

  The large man barked a short laughed. “What have we done? We did what we had to, to get stronger, to survive.”

  The alien whirled around and pointed the Talon at the large man. “You savage brutes killed him. You desecrated his remains. You’re nothing more than animals.”

  “You alien motherfuckers came to our planet, infected us with a high-tech plague, killed millions, including my entire family, and you have the nerve to say we’re the animals?” Bulco spat at the floor in disgust.

  The Scout didn’t seem to register the words. “You cut him open ... you butchered him … you … you …”

  “Yes, me,” the Engineer cut him off. “Your pal’s arrival was just the thing we needed to turn things around here. We were trying to fight off the Warped, but more and more of us died every day. Then the pod crashed and we found him. We used your technology to power our own. We experimented on your friends’ body and learned some interesting things. For example, did you know that with the right mixture of your people’s blue juice and a bit of Warped
gland, you can make quite an effective performance-enhancing serum? Was really helpful in battle, let me tell you that, gave us the edge we needed.”

  “You kept his body so you could extract his essence? Animal is too good a word for you. You’re nothing more than a more coherent variant of Warped.”

  “And you’re all just a bunch of murderous scum for all I care. I have no problem ending all of you. We could use a new source of blue juice.”

  “Bulco,” Nori said. “You have to stop, you’re making matters worse.”

  The two males ignored her.

  “And how are you planning on accomplishing that?” the alien asked, waving his weapon. You're about to become just another dead human in a world full of dead humans.”

  Bulco grinned and lifted a bloody syringe. “The Warped glands we harvested had varied potency, you see. The higher-level ones had a stronger effect. And I just mixed up a batch using a Broodmother’s gland.” Without waiting for a reply, he plunged the needle into his neck.

  The alien looked at him in bewilderment.

  Bulco’s eyes instantly turned bright red and his muscles bulged and swelled to grotesque proportions. He punched the ground, rising to his feet, leaving cracks on the floor. Fle'gak recovered and his Talon fired once. The dark beam hit the Engineer and burrowed a shallow hole in the center of his chest. With two huge steps, Bulco closed the distance between them. His arm lashed out and grabbed the alien’s hand, crushing his bones and the weapons he was holding, while his other hand grabbed at his neck. With hardly any effort, the beefed-up man lifted the blue alien from the floor and started to squeeze.

  “Bulco, no!” Nori ran at him and threw her entire weight at his immensely powerful arm. For all her effort, she might as well have tried to move a tree trunk. Even before the injection, the Engineer’s strength was much higher than hers. Now his grip could probably crush stones into dust. His exoskeleton wasn’t even straining to maintain the hold. “Leave him! As your captain, I command you.”

  “No, Nori,” Bulco said with a deep voice full of rage. “If these assholes hadn’t turned up, we would still have our old life. I would still have my wife and daughter with me. He will pay. They will all pay.”

  The alien was feebly trying to release the human’s hold on his neck with his free arm, the bristles on his face were turning into a deep purple.

  “You’re right!” the Navigator said desperately. “You had justification for the first one, but Fle'gak here wasn’t responsible for any of this, he just came looking for his family. You can sympathize with that, right?”

  The large man’s red eyes dimmed and the bulging muscles on his arms settled down a bit. “I … I … I guess you’re right.”

  With the pressure around his neck somewhat reduced, the alien’s free hand dove to his side and returned holding a metal disc. “You’re monsters,” he spat. “Your whole wretched race. Die.”

  “It’s a grenade!” Nori shouted, catching a glimpse of the item’s description, and jumped on Fleak’s arm, trying to wrestle the device away from him.

  Bulco’s jaw clenched. He was still holding the alien’s neck and other arm, but despite the alien’s precarious position, he was still stronger than the woman and his fingers were probing along the sides of the item.

  The Engineer gritted his teeth and his eyes suddenly shone with new light. His forearm muscles bulged even more than before. Fleak’s eyes, previously full of determination and hate, suddenly filled with fear. His fingers probed desperately at the grenade and then, with a sickening snapping sound, the Inthidlon’s neck twisted to an unnatural angle, and he went limp all over. Bulco released his grasp, letting the body fall to the floor. His red-shot eyes found Nori’s. “I gave him a chance, girl. He didn’t want to take it. And you know why? Because this is war. They are coming for us, and we better as hell make sure we’re ready for them.”

  The Navigator took a step back from the towering man, slowly shaking her head. “This can’t be how we do things. We can’t go around killing every alien we encounter. More will come, then what will you do? Kill them all?”

  The Engineer looked at her quietly. His bulky mass was slowly returning to normal, and the red in his eyes dimmed. “No. But I will hunt down everyone who had anything to do with the Calamity.”

  Nori frowned. “We can’t just run around, killing indiscriminately.”

  “It's inevitable,” Bulco said calmly. “You know we have to find the ones who gave the order. We must know what they have planned for us. And along the way, we are bound to encounter more aliens who had a hand in it. I’m not going to let them go away quietly.”

  “What makes you think I’ll be taking you along then?” Nori shot at him.

  Bulco chuckled. “Please. You need me. I’m probably the only Engineer around, and definitely the highest level one.”

  “I can find another,” she said. “Take him hunting. Level him up.”

  “You could.” He nodded. “But that would take time. And you still need me for one more thing.”

  “And that is?”

  “The ship this guy came in is parked right outside, and I claim it as spoils of war. Unity’s void tunnel drive is still busted. I know I can take out the Scout’s drive to replace ours. So if you want my help, I’m still a part of the crew, same as before, nothing has changed.”

  Nori closed her eyes. “I could just fly to the space station and ask Alzigo to fix it for us.”

  “You can’t, you know that. He has to order a new drive unit from another star system and who knows how long that will take. Besides, I’m betting the cost will make the core casing seem like pocket change. Do you really want to waste weeks or months hunting Warped for money when the solution is hovering right outside?”

  Nori took in a deep breathe. “You thought it all through, didn’t you?”

  “I told you before I was going to kill that blue freak when I saw him next. I’m a man of my word, but I did give him a chance - because you asked me to.”

  The Navigator breathed out. “Alright, I can work with that. You can come along, but I have conditions.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Once we take the drive engine from the scout ship, she goes to either Diamond or Martin. They can use it to speed up restoration and help other faraway shelters. It also has real cannons and that could be really helpful if they encounter any more Broodmothers.”

  “I’m cool with that.”

  “Second condition: I am the captain. If we’re going to do this, I don’t want any more misunderstandings. Whatever I say, goes. If you’ll go against me, I’ll boot your ass off the ship. And I’ll make sure we’re in space when I do it. Are we clear?”

  “Crystal. I have no problem with that, Nori, we still want the same things. The only exception, my own condition, is that if we find someone who had a hand in the Calamity, he dies. That’s not debatable.”

  Nori hesitated. “Okay, but you have to agree to hold off until we have irrefutable proof they were willing accomplices. Fle'gak didn’t deserve to die.”

  “It was either him or us. He was about to take us down with him. But I see your point and I agree.”

  “Then it's settled. We won’t tell what happened here to the others—they don’t need this burden.”

  Bulco nodded. “Sure.”

  Nori exhaled. “Crap. Okay then. I’ll go tell them. What about the body?”

  “I’ll get my guys to handle him.”

  Nori winced at the unspoken implication, but she kept her thoughts to herself. She left the man in the toilets and returned to Unity.

  Lana jumped to greet her. “How did it go?”

  Nori hesitated, looking at Nathan who was standing behind the young woman. “The Inthidlon scout attacked Bulco’s men. We had to kill him.” She wasn’t lying, but having to hold out the full details from her crewmates gnawed at her.

  Lana’s eyes bulged, and Nathan's face fell at the news. “What? But he was so nice when we met him, and he was reall
y worried about his friends.”

  “I guess he was just fishing for information.” Her heart felt even heavier for misleading her friends.

  Bulco entered the ship with a relieved grin. “My men are waking up, they’re alright. A few broken bones from falling, nothing major.” He caught the worried expression and chuckled. “I guess Nori told you the good news?”

  Nathan frowned. “Good news?”

  “Follow me.”

  The Engineer led them out of the ship and into the open square, stopping in front of the sleek, needle-shaped scout ship. “This baby is all ours now.”

  “Wow,” Lana said. “This is like, the third alien ship we found this week.”

  Nathan frowned “Third?”

  “I’m counting the shuttle as well.”

  “Can you open it?” the large man asked.

  Lana approached the back of the hovering craft and ran her fingers along its hull. “I can’t find any consoles to interact with.”

  “I’ll do it,” Nathan stepped forward. The young man closed his eyes and raised his arm. He could feel the signals coming from the smaller ship, calling out to their real owner. He reached out with his senses, and felt Unity aiding him, directing his mind to grab at the signals, convincing them to bend to his will.

  An opening appeared at the ship’s aft. A part of the hull liquefied, turning into steps leading up to it.

  Nathan opened his eyes. “There was an anti-intruder system in place, but I disabled it. It’s safe to go in.”

  Waves of light came out of the library, soaring into the four companions.

  Extracted 1.2 Tec

  “What was that?” Lana frowned at the notification.

  “My men are handling the body,” Bulco said. “It's a bit of a shame about having to divide it between the twelve of us, but at least all the remaining zero levels will level up now.”

  “Lana, can you go check the ship’s logs?” Nori said. “See if you can figure out what that guy’s real story was. And who else can we expect to come here.”