They took several more steps as the door opened wide enough to see inside. Six soldiers, pointing automatic weapons in their direction, stood ready to shoot. A man, dressed in navy-blue dress slacks and a pale blue shirt, tentatively approached from behind. When he saw the four standing there, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open. Composing himself, he rushed between the soldiers. “Oh my God … Lower your weapons! Oh my God, Madam President … We thought you were … Come in! All of you come in!”
In a matter of seconds, all sorts of people began to appear inside the wide-open blast door: three medical personnel, service men and women, as well as highly-ranked officers from every branch of the military.
Nan held up a hand, bringing the man in the blue shirt to a halt. “Please, just answer me this: Is Captain Reynolds still alive? We both need to know.”
“I’m sorry, we don’t know for sure. We think so. But there are other developments you need to be brought up to speed on. For one thing, the Craing fleet has entered our solar system. Five thousand warships have amassed near Neptune.”
“Let’s get inside and you can bring me up to speed,” Nan said.
“Hold on, ma’am,” a medical attendant said, “you’ve got a pretty nasty bite on your shoulder that needs attending to.”
Chapter 49
Traveler phase-shifted to the coordinates Grimes provided him. He stood on the mesh that spanned across and above the inside walls of Chrimguard, perhaps a good half-mile in diameter. Suddenly aware of how high up he was perched, he held out his arms as if to steady himself. He’d underestimated the size of the inner city below and, more important, the size of the black material that was toughly spread to the distant high obelisks in the distance.
He bounced his girth up and down a few times, testing the mesh material’s support of his weight. There wasn’t much give. It was still dark outside and the soft light coming up from inside Chrimguard was visible through the lattice-type material below his feet. He heard the captain’s voice in his helmet.
“Billy, you in position?”
“Aye, Cap. We’re just now reaching the first floor. Battle droids are all over the place. Don’t think they detect us.”
Ricket’s voice came on the line: “Not with the signal-suppression provided on our battle suits.”
“Copy that, Billy … thanks, Ricket. Traveler, you in position?”
“Yes, Captain, I am standing above Chrimguard.”
“Copy that, Traveler. Hang tight. Grimes, my team’s also in position. You ready?”
“Aye, Cap,” Grimes replied. “Target in position … firing now.”
Traveler watched as the obelisk directly in front of him received intense blue plasma fire. The stone pillar was turned to sand and dust within seconds. The mesh below his feet sagged as he moved forward, no longer attached to a structure. Traveler had to tread carefully; his footing along the edge was becoming difficult. He grabbed the loose mesh piece in both hands, pulling it into his arms.
He’d no sooner taken three steps back when the next obelisk was hit. As that one too crumbled, Traveler began rolling up the excess, detached, material; the weight on his arms had doubled.
For the plan to work, Traveler was told he’d have to move quickly. He’d have to keep up with Grimes’ systematic destruction of the obelisks. He was trying his best. Now, with three stone pillars obliterated, the combined weight of the three rolls of mesh material on his arms was taking its toll. As obelisk number four fell away, Traveler was thrown off his feet and dragged several yards forward. Without letting go of the now substantially larger mesh roll, Traveler managed to find his footing and turn around in the right direction; by digging in his heels, he stopped his forward slide.
An alarm klaxon shrieked from below. Traveler saw movement: small Craing beings moving into position—seconds later, their plasma fire came up from below.
“Are you all right, Traveler?” Grimes asked over comms. “Sorry, I’ll slow it down … wait for you to get your balance back.”
Like rolling up a circus tent, Traveler continued his laborious work of pulling and rolling, pulling and rolling. Then, awkwardly bent over, he told Grimes, “You can continue. I am ready.”
As center obelisk number five came down, it became impossible for Traveler to stand upright. He fell again on his butt, and was on the verge of falling into the city, hundreds of feet below.
“I think that will do it, Traveler,” Grimes said. “If you can manage it, get all that mesh thrown over the far side of the city wall …”
But Traveler was already sliding uncontrollably down the sloped material. As he began to drop feet first, falling toward Chrimguard below, a white flash appeared and he was instantly back on board the Streamline.
“Good job down there, Traveler,” Grimes said, looking back from the cockpit.
“I did not complete my mission.”
“I’m looking at the compound now; with the exception of one small corner, the mesh is out of the way … no longer a problem.”
* * *
Following behind Jason, Rizzo and Gomez moved down a narrow curved stairway to the lowest elevation. Alarms had started blaring minutes earlier and Craing security forces were scurrying into position to defend the acting-emperor and the high priest overlords.
“Don’t forget, prolonged plasma fire from a battle droid will end you. Use phase-shifting as a defense … be smart.”
Rizzo and Gomez both answered, “Aye, Cap.”
According to his HUD, there were five battle droids in relatively close proximity. All of them were on the move, patrolling.
Jason gestured down the hallway: “Okay, we’ve got one coming up the hallway to our left about forty feet out. Engage it when it comes into view. Keep its attention while ascending the stairs backwards.” Jason checked Chrimguard’s layout on his HUD, plotted in new coordinates, and phase-shifted away.
He phase-shifted back into position in the same hallway, some twenty-five feet behind the battle droid. Just seeing the thing raised his heartbeat. Damn, I never wanted to be anywhere near one of these things again. And now they were facing twenty of them. Jason scrolled through the list of available multi-gun munitions on his HUD readout. He’d had luck with the rail-gun munitions option, but it was the Expansion Gum option that worked best before by causing a viscous stream of brown sludge to spew out in short squirt bursts—gumming up the droids’ spinning mower blades.
Jason hung back and waited.
“Here it comes, Cap. Engaging now,” said Rizzo.
The noise from Rizzo and Gomez’s plasma bursts filled the hallway. The battle droid slowed, then compensated by phase-shifting sections of its own body segments in and out of the multiverse. As planned, Rizzo and Gomez backed their way up the stairway, maintaining a downward barrage on the big droid. Once it reached the foot of the stairs, Jason attacked it from behind.
Squirt squirt squirt. He shot the viscous liquid over every inch of the battle droid. Its shimmering spinning blades, now a gummy-brown mess, ground to a halt. In an instant, it changed direction and came for Jason, utilizing a combination of rail-type munitions and plasma fire. Jason felt himself being hammered backward. In the five seconds he’d been driven back, his HUD readings showed his phase-shift shields were already on the verge of failing. An alarm signal began strobing noisily inside his helmet, while three different warning messages flashed on his HUD.
I need to get the hell out of here! Jason phase-shifted around a corner, further down the hallway. He leaned against the wall to catch his breath. Most of the plasma fire he’d been hit with was to his chest. He recalled the eruption of painful heat blisters the last time he’d fought one of these things.
Plasma fire continued on the stairway. Jason phase-shifted to his last position and saw the battle droid advancing up the stairs. Changing to rail munitions, Jason joined the fight. Again, the battle droid slowed and this time seemed to be faltering.
“Don’t let up, guys,” Jason said, now on th
e stairway. As he rounded the corner he could see the droid, Gomez, and Rizzo. Jason was being hailed by Ricket, but, focused on the droid, he ignored the hail.
Both Gomez’s and Rizzo’s battle suits were glowing red. Jason knew from experience their skins were blistering underneath.
“Shift away, both of you!” Jason yelled.
Rizzo did as ordered but Gomez was already too far gone. He’d stopped firing and was trying to run up the remaining stairs. He stumbled and fell. The battle droid moved in for the kill—firing relentlessly, until Gomez ignited into a raging ball of flame.
Jason found Rizzo’s life icon and phase-shifted to his coordinates. He found him seated on the floor, his back to a wall. Jason knelt down next to him. “You okay, Rizzo?”
“I’m okay … nothing the nanites won’t repair over the next few hours. Gomez?”
Jason shook his head. “Sorry, he’s gone. You need to be looked at just the same.”
Again, Ricket was hailing him via his NanoCom.
“Go for Captain.”
“Captain, I’ve been analyzing the structural elements of Chrimguard—”
Jason cut him off. “Ricket, I don’t have time now … hold on for a second.”
He hailed Dira.
“You need me there?” she asked.
“Yes, Rizzo’s down … needs some medical attention. Gomez is dead.”
Dira said, “I’m on my way.”
Jason, keeping a close watch on his HUD, noted only one battle droid had been destroyed by Billy’s team and that they’d lost Thomason. Both Dira and Ricket flashed into the hallway. Dira had already opened her medical satchel as she knelt down next to Rizzo.
“Hold on. You’ll need to wait until we’re clear, Dira. We’ve got company coming: four battle droids.”
“Captain, I need to speak with you …”
“What is it, Ricket?” Jason snapped.
“We can bring down the compound.”
“What does that mean?”
“The obelisks were more than ornamental—they were significant structural elements. It wouldn’t take much for the upper structure to fold in on itself and fall onto the lower floors. Bring everything down on their heads.”
“Is this something we can do here, from within the compound?”
“No … Grimes can do it from the Streamline.”
Jason wanted to pick up the little Craing man and kiss him. “You just saved our lives, Ricket. What would we do without you?”
Jason patched in to his team’s comms. “Listen up, everyone. We’re getting the hell out of here … like right now. Grimes, standby, we’re on our way back to you.”
* * *
As the overlords carefully lowered Ot-Mul down onto the raised pedestal, his eyes took in the cacophony of strange, seemingly ancient, mechanical—as well as other, much more advanced—devices surrounding the platform. He felt his naked flesh come in contact with the cold, hard, surface, beneath him.
One of the high priest overlords approached. In his left hand he held a metallic six-inch-long needle. A needle with a hose attached to its other end. Ot-Mul took in the priest’s smile and then his ridiculous cone headdress. No less than six other overlords stepped in closer around the pedestal.
The high priest told Ot-Mul to relax. The others began to softly chant.
“Where are you putting that needle?” Ot-Mul asked, doing his best to sound indifferent.
The priest’s eyes quickly darted to Ot-Mul’s lower extremities. The old priest’s smile wavered. “This will be … somewhat uncomfortable, my Lord.”
The quiet stillness of the Grand Sacellum was suddenly shattered by an ear-piercing alarm. All of the high priests stood upright, looking nervously all around them. Ot-Mul sat up. There was no doubt about it, Chrimguard was under attack.
Ot-Mul had been planning his escape from the transformation of eternity procedure, and that six-inch needle, even before he heard the thunderous plasma fire coming from above. He catapulted himself off the pedestal. It’s amazing what a natural instinct for self-preservation does to a crowd of scared old priests, he thought, watching them frantically scuttle off in all directions. He found his robes and headed back into the main chamber. He motioned toward the back of the chamber and within moments he had four of his battle droids rapidly advancing.
“You will get me out of here, out of Chrimguard, even if you have to blast holes in the walls to do so. Go!”
With two in front and two behind, Ot-Mul and the battle droids quickly fled the chamber of the Grand Sacellum.
To be continued …
Thank you for reading The Great Space. If you enjoyed this book and would like to see the series continue, please leave a review on Amazon.com – it really helps! To be notified of the soon-to-be released next Scrapyard Ship book, Call to Battle, contact [email protected], Subject Line: Call to Battle List.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the ongoing support I receive for the Scrapyard Ship series books, as well as for the other books I’ve written. This book, number seven, came about through the assistance and combined contributions of others. First, I’d like to thank my mother, Lura Genz, for her tireless work as my first-phase creative editor and a staunch cheerleader of my writing. At 83, she’s still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to editing the clunky, odd sentence. I’d like to thank my wonderful wife for her endless support of my less-than-routine profession, with its crazy hours, demanding timely schedules, and putting up with my perpetual complaints about my ever-aching back. I’d like to thank Mia Manns for her phenomenal line and developmental editing … she is an incredible resource. And Eren Arik produced another magnificent cover design. I think it’s my favorite so far. I’d also like to thank those in my writer’s group who have brought fresh ideas and perspectives to my creativity, elevating my writing as a whole. Others who provided fantastic support include Lura and James Fischer, Sue Parr, and Chris DeRrick.
Other books by Mark Wayne McGinnis:
Scrapyard Ship
(Scrapyard Ship series, Book 1)
HAB 12
(Scrapyard Ship series, Book 2)
Space Vengeance
(Scrapyard Ship series, Book 3)
Realms of Time
(Scrapyard Ship series, Book 4)
Craing Dominion
(Scrapyard Ship series, Book 5)
The Great Space
(Scrapyard Ship series, Book 6)
Mad Powers
(Tapped In series, Book 1)
Copyright © 2014 by Mark Wayne McGinnis All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by:
Eren Arik
Edited by:
Lura Lee Genz
Mia Manns
Published by:
Avenstar Productions
ISBN: 978-0-9903314-8-3
www.markwaynemcginnis.com
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The Great Space (Scrapyard Ship Book 6) Page 26
