by A A Warren
The cheer of the workers echoed off the corridor walls.
“Wait here,” Vaki said to the little girl cowering next to her. “I’ll be right back.”
She stepped out from her cover and advanced down the smoke-filled corridor. As the haze swirled around her, she heard footsteps, marching towards their position. The corridor shook again, and more debris fell from above. Shadowy figures emerged from the smoke.
Armored security guards stormed down the hall. Multiple squads marched towards her, their weapons charged to fire. She counted at least a score of them, ducking and bobbing as they strode through the debris.
“Everyone, move back! Now!” Vaki shouted. The crowd behind her fell into a panic. Their screams echoed through the corridor as more gunfire erupted from the soldiers. Vaki dragged the frightened child along with her as the mob reversed direction, fleeing from the armored men. They raced around a bend in the corridor, leaving the shadowy figures behind them.
As she returned fire, Vaki heard more screams from up ahead. She turned the corner and watched as the crowd parted. In the distance she saw more bodies marching towards them… a horde of pale, gaunt corpses flooded the corridor.
Muttering a curse, Vaki shoved the child behind her and took aim. She peered through the darting bodies of the workers as they struggled to find cover.
She fired once, twice… The energy bolts slammed into her targets, throwing them to the ground. But dozens more moved forward to take their place.
They were pinned down.
Vaki glanced at her pistol… the energy cell was almost empty.
Suddenly, the speaker on her wrist unit crackled to life.
“Vaki? Vaki, can you hear me?”
Vaki fired another blast, dropping a creature as it lunged towards the workers with outstretched arms.
“Talon, is that you? I thought the jammer field—”
“I’m close enough to get a signal through. Are you alright?”
“I’ve never been better! Where are you?”
She crouched and sent another barrage of fire down the hall. She could hear the footsteps of the armored men stomping closer. They were trapped… there was nowhere left to go.
“Vaki, listen. Neros is dying, and we have little time left. Can you meet me at the flight deck?”
Vaki glanced down… her pistol read empty. She tossed the weapon aside, and slid the ancient sword from its scabbard. The beam glowed to life, illuminating the curved black metal of the weapon. Its crimson glow pierced the shroud of smoke and haze in the corridor.
"Negative. I’m pinned down with some of the workers. We’re trapped between Katara’s guards and those walking corpses. She doesn’t want anyone leaving the planet alive!"
“Corpses?”
“The stalkers. Katara’s infected a small army with the dorokuma larva. She's merged her DNA with the worms, and can control them somehow.”
Talon's voice crackled back over the speaker. “Not any more she can’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t come back alone. And my new allies have a bone to pick with the queen. Just trust me… don’t get in their way.”
Vaki glanced up… the horde of shambling bodies had frozen in place. Those holding weapons dropped them. In unison, their heads rose. Milky white membranes covered their eyes, and they turned to face the security guards.
“Everyone,” Vaki shouted. “Move to the side. Let them through. Do as I say!”
The crowd of frightened workers parted, forming a clear path through the corridor. Vaki ducked into a doorway and glanced behind her. The squad of armored men marched around the corner. As soon as they came into sight, a low moan rose from the stalkers. The creatures shuffled forward, moving past the huddled workers as they swarmed towards the guards.
“What the—?” the lead guard exclaimed. He opened fire, cutting down three of the shambling creatures. The men retreated as the stalkers' moaning became a furious howl.
Vaki spun around, darting toward the distracted guards. She slashed with her sword, sending a fountain of red splattering onto the walls. A bloody helmet bounced along the ground by her feet. Spinning the blade in a tight circle, she cleaved the next armored man in two.
A pair of guards took cover in opposite doorways and opened fire. Vaki ducked. Keeping low, she charged towards them in a zig-zag pattern. A pulse bolt scorched her shoulder, but she ignored the pain. Sweeping up with the blade, she cut a crimson slash through the man’s armored chest plate. Spinning around in a circle, her blazing sword sheared off the second man’s arm at the elbow. His rifle fired as it hit the ground, sending a shower of sparks cascading from the nearest wall.
Raising the sword, Vaki stood tall as the injured man sprawled across the floor.
“Tsuvi ao narasta!” she bellowed. “Who’s next?”
Several of the guards stared at her in awe, then turned and bolted. The horde of undead shambled past her, grabbing the straggling rear guards, and wrestling them to the ground. The ravenous creatures paid her and the workers no mind as she led them down the corridor.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Talon flipped a row of switches, and the controls of the cargo skimmer blinked to life. The bank of glowing lights lit up the cargo bay of the ore-slicer, casting a soft glow in the dark, empty chamber.
Outside, dull thuds and muted weapon fire clanged against the armored shell of the slicer’s hull. The noise of battle echoed in the distance, as though it were happening kilometers away, rather than just outside the doors of the vehicle.
B’Turo grunted as he slouched down in the pilot’s seat. “Damn, I’m getting too old for this, kid. Why do they make the chairs so uncomfortable in these things?”
“I don’t think comfort was their—” Talon winced in pain. His crimson eye flared to life, casting a faint red glow through the cargo bay.
Talon… we are here. There is not much time. This world’s end draws near.
The dorokuma, he thought. Their minds… so powerful. So vast. He sensed there were several of the giant creatures nearby. Their thoughts are as one, and threatened to drown his mind, sweeping him away like a tidal wave crashing onto a beach.
He screamed in pain, clutching his head as his eye glowed even brighter.
B’Turo grabbed his shoulder. “Hey, you okay kid?” He drew back his hand. “By the haunted stars! Your skin… you’re burning up!”
Talon could not hear the man’s words. An ocean of sound surged through his skull. The creature’s thoughts rang out again, softer this time.
We forget… human minds are not used to such bonds. You are unique, Talon. Not all could survive linking with us in this way.
"We don't have much time!" Talon heard his voice as if he were speaking, but he knew he was not. He was communicating through the bond. “We’re going have to hurry and find a ship. I don’t know if we can fit all of you on—"
We are not leaving. This was never about us. Our time has come. We will end, as this planet ends. But the future awaits our children.
Talon’s head snapped back… His eye blazed brighter than ever before, flooding the room with crimson light. An unstoppable torrent of images rushed into his mind. Stars… billions of them, one after the other. Blazing white-hot pinpoints of light burned into his mind. The distances between them were so vast… Talon’s mind reeled as he struggled to comprehend it. He saw star-paths… a web of crisscrossing lines, etched through the mind-boggling depths of infinity. The glowing trails led to a single orb of light, nestled in the luminous gas of a nebula.
A planet.
The universe is vast, Talon. And we are many. Through the dark energy bond we share, we see our brothers and sisters, scattered through the cosmos. Just as you speak to the woman, Salena, and your mentor Orex Griff… we speak to them. They will be waiting.
“I don’t understand, what is it you—”
We have gathered the last of our larva. Our remaining children, untainted by Katara’s
evil, gestate in the black jade. They are all that matters. Their light will shine throughout the galaxy, long after we are gone.
They are the future. And we have entrusted them to you. You will know what to do.
Then the thoughts vanished, receding into blackness, like the collapse of a dying star. The sudden silence hit Talon like an electric shock. A cold, black emptiness filled the void left by the broken bond.
He lurched forward in his chair, gasping for breath
“Kid, you okay?” It was B’Turo. The old man squinted at him as he threw the remaining sequence of switches to power up the skimmer. The lifter field hummed to life beneath the squat, bulky transport vehicle. “Don’t go to pieces on me now… we still have to get off this ice ball!”
Talon glanced up. He brushed his sweat-soaked hair from his face and nodded. “I’m fine. I just… I know what we’re fighting for now.”
B’Turo chuckled. "Speak for yourself, kid. I’m fighting to save my skin. What about you?”
Talon slapped him on the back. “I’ll tell you later. Assuming we survive. He pumped the charging lever of the pulse rifle he held in his hands. Then he drew his axe and powered up the blade. He turned to B’Turo. "Open the cargo bay door."
The old miner moved his hand across a glowing panel on the skimmer’s control console. A harsh, metallic grinding sound filled the dark chamber. A towering metal door slid open. Light and sound flooded into the cargo bay.
“Orion’s blazing bow!” Talon muttered.
The scene on the flight deck was chaos. Glowing pulse bolts crisscrossed back and forth through the air. Deafening roars shook the ice, and explosions lit up the dim cavern. Katara’s security forces had turned their attention from the ore-slicer to the marauding dorokuma worms, and the horde of animated corpses they controlled.
Three of the titanic creatures raged across the flight deck. Talon watched as one of them clamped its fanged maw around a beam-skater ship. The armor plated worm towered fifty meters into the air. It whipped its head side to side, tossing the crushed vessel like the carcass of a slain animal.
The ship arched through the air, crashing into the deck a few meters away from the ore-slicer. It tumbled across the metal floor, crushing a squad of security guards to a bloody pulp. A wave of heat rippled through the air as the fuel tanks of the mangled ship ignited.
Another squadron advanced on the towering creature, bombarding it with high-powered plasma projectors. The creature shrieked as the burning projectiles scorched its scaled hide with molten fire. But before the men could advance further, a dozen shambling corpses emerged from the shadows. The pale, gaunt stalkers swarmed the men, battering them to the ground amidst a chorus of shrieks and screams.
Talon glanced at B’Turo and grinned. “Battle awaits, old man. Victory or death.”
The wizened old miner pulled his goggles over his eyes and gunned the throttle. “You said it, kid.”
The skimmer launched forward, rushing to join the battle outside.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Talon gripped the side of the cargo skimmer as another explosion rocked the flight deck. B’Turo banked the vehicle sideways, darting around the burning wreckage in their path.
As they flew above the battlefield, a pulse bolt struck the side of the vehicle, throwing a plume of glowing sparks in the skimmer’s wake. Talon glanced down at the scorch mark running across the passenger side wall… the shot had missed him by just a few centimeters. Gritting his teeth, he pivoted his rifle, taking aim at the guard. He fired, and felt the weapon kick against his shoulder. Three glowing bolts struck the guard, knocking him backwards into a pile of empty cargo pods. They clattered and rolled across the floor, as his smoking corpse lay still on the ground.
Another ship exploded in their path. Talon winced, and felt a wave of heat rise beneath them. Fragments of glowing metal whipped past the open-air cockpit of the skimmer.
“Look out!” he shouted. He grabbed B’Turo's head and slammed it into the dashboard as a sharp metal plate buried itself into the cargo container behind their heads.
The vehicle dipped and hopped as B’Turo lost control. “Hey, I can't see where I’m going!” he shouted.
Lifting his head, the old man glanced at the trail of smoke, and the still glowing fragment jutting out where his head had been. “Oh… never mind.”
Talon squinted, peering at the burning wreckage streaking by beneath them. He glanced up, and spotted an intact ship at the far end of the hanger deck, half obscured by smoke and haze. It was a medium sized transport vessel, and its rear cargo bay hung open.
He grabbed B’Turo’s shoulder and pointed to the ship. “There… that one's big enough to hold the three of us, plus our cargo.”
They swerved around another plume of fire that erupted from the flight deck. Talon ducked, as more pulse fire screamed across the skimmer’s hull.
The old man nodded. “Sure… assuming we can get there in one piece.”
Talon spun around and aimed his rifle. As he lined the guard up in his sights, he saw a glowing line of red, slashing at the man from behind. As the guard crumpled to the ground, a shadowy figure merged from the haze.
It was Vaki!
Talon watched as she swung the glowing sword in a powerful arc. Two more men fell. She stabbed backwards, impaling a third, who had been sneaking up on her from behind. A crowd of about fifty workers in torn, filthy clothes followed behind her as she swept across the flight deck.
Talon narrowed his eyes… he could see two more squads of armored men, advancing towards her position. The smoke on the ground obscured their movements… Vaki couldn’t see them closing in.
“B’Turo, Vaki’s down there… I have to help her.”
The old man nodded. “I’ll load up the cargo and get the pre-flight going. Don’t be late!”
Talon shouldered the rifle and glanced over the edge of the skimmer. “Take us down, as low as you can.”
B’Turo adjusted the altitude. A few guards glanced up in surprise, as the bulky cargo skimmer streaked over their heads.
Talon perched on the edge. He took a deep breath and jumped.
He sailed through the air, then slammed into the ground. Dropping into a forward roll, he popped back up to his feet, and unleashed a torrent of pulse fire. Vaki spun around, holding up her sword in a defensive position.
Sparks flew from the advancing men, as Talon’s pulse fire punched glowing holes in their chest plates. “Get your people down,” he shouted. “There’s more of these dogs on your right!”
“Everybody, take cover!” Vaki cried. She spun around and charged through the smoke, as the workers huddled on the ground, or ducked behind the landing gears of nearby vessels.
Talon spotted the men, emerging from the billowing smoke that filled the flight deck. As they aimed their rifles, he charged towards an overturned cargo pod. He leapt up onto the pod, dodging a barrage of glowing energy bolts that flew across the deck plates.
Still moving, he somersaulted through the air, landing behind the advancing men. He crouched as his feet struck the ground, absorbing the impact with his knees. He swung his plasma axe in a low, wide arc. A scream rang out, as one of the men's legs skidded across the floor. Talon whirled the fiery blade in the air, slashing the barrel of the nearest guard’s rifle in half. As the weapon shattered in the man’s hands, Talon drove the blade down into his helmet.
The guard's eyes rolled into the back of his head. Then he toppled over and fell to the ground.
Suddenly, a pulse bolt erupted from the smoke behind him. He winced as it grazed his shoulder. Spinning around, he saw a third guard standing a few meters away. The armored man lined up Talon in the sites of his rifle. Talon swung his axe, hoping to block the man’s shot, but he felt a cold, sickening feeling in his guts… he knew he was too late. He kept his eyes open. If death wished to claim him, he would stare it in the face.
He saw a flash of light. A pulse bolt, he thought… or perhaps a trick of the light
?
The guard stood before him, unmoving. A trickle of blood appeared, just beneath his helmet.
His head toppled from his body and bounced across the floor. His rifle clattered to the ground as his corpse toppled over.
Vaki stood behind him, her crimson blade casting a glow across her face.
“Talon!” She rushed to him, throwing her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. “I was starting to worry… I thought I would never see you again.”
Talon chuckled. “Do you mean that? Or are you just hiding another transmitter on me?”
Vaki pushed him away and slapped his chest. “Hey, I had to make sure I could trust you. I’m not the one who got all cozy with Queen Katara, remember?”
Talon grimaced. “Believe me, it’s a decision I regret.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, you have no idea. That’s what you get for thinking with your—”
The flight deck shook as a massive tremor rippled beneath their feet. The metal deck plates buckled, and the support beams surrounding the chamber groaned and twisted.
Talon eyed the crowd of workers. “We have to move. B’Turo is prepping a ship for takeoff, but I don’t think it can fit everyone.”
Vaki turned to the crowd of workers huddling in the wreckage behind her. A few smaller passenger transport ships were still standing, parked off to the side of the flight deck. Workers from other sections were racing towards them as chunks of ice and debris fell from the roof.
“Listen up people! Can any of you fly?”
Two of the miners pushed their way to the front of the crowd. A tall, lanky man and a plump, stocky woman stood before her, each wearing grease-stained coveralls and work gloves. The woman peered out from under a dented miner’s helmet.
“I can fly. I’ve trained on Kaiju class Ore Haulers. A personal transport should be no problem.”
The man nodded. “Same here.”
Vaki pointed at the row of transport ships. Their ramps were already open, and a mass of engineers and workers were pushing their way onboard. “Get to those transports. When you’re full, you close up the ramp and take off. Don’t wait for clearance, just power up your thrusters and go!”
