by Rob May
The entire fleet was airborne now, the jets almost jockeying for position as they prepared to face the alien threat. The nose of every fighter was pointed south east. In the back of the bomber, the chief continued to refine the plan: ‘The enemy craft is divided into concentric armoured zones. It looks like each ring might be expendable, so we’ll have to get to the centre to deliver the payload. There’s something there called the star reactor. These maintenance tunnels are our best bet: these are the access hatches that you’ll need to look out for.’
A black dot appeared on the horizon. There was a blazing red glow beneath it. ‘Contact in forty klicks,’ Hewson noted. ‘Confirmed,’ came the response from one of the other jets. ‘Holy crap, they’ve set the entire plain on fire!’
The alien king’s latest weapon was a twenty metre wall of flames that ate up Salisbury Plain. As they got closer and closer to the mothership, Brandon could see that it was created by hundreds of blue laser beams spitting down in all directions. Then as they got closer still, the beams turned to shoot at the RAF. Brandon saw a Tornado, flying less than fifty metres to the right of Hewson’s bomber, get sliced down the middle by a laser. It dropped out of view in two halves.
Small attack saucers were spilling out of the mothership now and speeding towards them. They vastly outnumbered the RAF jets, but fortunately their aim was poor. The sky was criss-crossed with lasers and vapour trails.
Hewson was instructing Jason. ‘We have beam-riding missiles equipped,’ he said. ‘That joystick controls the beam: paint the target, lock the beam and the missiles will find it. You can even change target while the missile is in flight.’
‘Bring it on!’ Jason enthused. Brandon watched as Jason targeted a group of three saucers chasing down a Typhoon. He must have pulled the beam over the central saucer in the group, because when the missile hit, the explosion took out all three enemy craft.
‘Nice shot,’ Brandon congratulated him. He felt lost without weapons of his own, but as a saucer suddenly dropped into the space between Discord and the bomber, Brandon instinctively thrust forward and knocked the saucer to one side. It went spinning out of control and collided with one of its friends.
‘Thanks!’ Hewson said. ‘We didn’t even see that one!’
‘How many missiles do we have?’ Jason asked.
Swarms and swarms of fighter saucers were piling out of the mothership now, filling the sky like a cloud of angry insects.
‘Not enough,’ Hewson admitted. ‘Save some for when we get close to the big ship. I’ve got some new info about the weak points we need to target.’
‘We know you do,’ Jason said. ‘We’re not going to make it that far though. Look how many aliens we have to bust through!’
Hewson barrel-rolled the bomber to avoid an explosion that could have been a jet or a saucer, it was impossible to tell. He came out of the roll and began a series of even more complex manoeuvres in an attempt to pass through the cloud of enemy craft. Brandon wrestled with Discord’s joystick as he struggled to keep pace.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Jason said after a while. ‘These loop-the-loops aren’t getting us any closer.’
‘We’re still alive, aren’t we?’ Hewson shot back.
Then they suddenly got the break they needed. A cluster of thirty or so alien saucers simultaneously exploded, clearing the skies ahead. A large plane with long V-shaped wings arced overhead. Hewson was quick to take the chance provided and shot forward to the mothership.
‘What was that?’ Jason asked.
‘B-52 Stratofortress!’ Brandon answered excitedly.
‘Fitted with multiple Starstreak air-to-air missiles, by the looks of it,’ Hewson confirmed. ‘Looks like the Americans have decided to join the fun after all.’
But they were not the only ones. Another craft fell in beside the stealth bomber as it made a break through the gap in the alien defences. The black alien ship was just as angular and sinister as the bomber; they looked like a matching pair flying side-by-side.
‘Brandon!’ Jason shouted over the comm. ‘There’s something wrong with Hewson. He’s having a fit or something!’
‘It’s Gem!’ Brandon shouted back as he watched the stealth bomber start to drift down and to the side. He tried to focus his mind on the bionoids invading Hewson’s body. Once he had made the connection, he ripped them out and mentally flung them aside. Hewson came to his senses just in time to pull the bomber out of a terrifying spiral.
Dravid Karkor’s ship sped ahead of them. Brandon tried to pull the bionoids in towards him, but Gem was closer to them and her mind won the mental tug of war. ‘Follow them!’ Brandon yelled. ‘If we can get close enough again I can take back control of the bionoids!’
Karkor’s ugly ship dived almost vertically, then pulled up directly underneath the mothership and flew up the central shaft.
‘I can’t follow him there,’ Hewson said. ‘Jason, get ready to take out the hangar entrance.’
Jason went back to the joystick and painted the guidance beam over the outer rim of the mothership. He marked one spot at the right side of the hangar entrance, dragged the beam along, marked the left side, and then fired.
Two missiles shot forward; two explosions framed the hangar entrance, but the way in was still blocked by the barrel-like airlock which had come loose but had not fallen away. There wasn’t time to fire another missile. The bomber hurtled towards it, and Discord was seconds behind. Brandon took a deep breath …
The nose of the bomber hit the airlock dead-on and ripped it free from the weakened support structure. The rest of the bomber piled though after it and crashed down flat on the hangar floor, skidding and spinning until it was finally halted when it hit the opposite wall.
Brandon put Discord into a tight swerve and slammed on the landing thrusters. His touchdown was a lot more elegant than Hewson’s.
‘And we’re in,’ he said.
‘Again,’ Jason amended.
There was no time for Brandon to catch his breath. The massive hangar was empty one minute, and then swarming with balak soldiers the next. They came from all directions, roaring as they fired their laser guns. Brandon ran from Discord’s cockpit; when he made it to the exit ramp, a full-scale fire fight was in progress.
The rear hatch of the downed stealth bomber had opened, revealing a deadly array of automated weaponry. Two machine guns had pivoted out on multi-jointed metal arms and were making short work of the enemy. Between them, a wicked-looking MK19 40 millimetre grenade launcher scanned the hangar slowly and deliberately, then lobbed explosives at the densest groups of balaks. Finally the marines emerged, and Lucky’s minigun led the way in mopping up the remaining aliens.
When the chaos finally died down, Brandon walked across the now silent hangar to join the squad. Jason was standing with them all, pulling off his helmet. Brandon was conscious of the fact that everyone else was wearing military garb, and he was still in his dirty, ripped T-shirt and jeans. The chief looked up and noticed them both for the first time; his expression turned hard for a moment, and then softened.
‘Did you get bored of our hospitality back at the base then?’
Jason shrugged. ‘I just remembered that I left my wallet here last time we came.’
The chief turned back to his troops ‘I’m not going to ask who let this pair join the mission.’ He stared at Tank. ‘They’re here now and there’s nothing we can do about it, so let’s just get on with things.’ He took a deep breath and launched into the speech he must have been rehearsing in his head on the flight over: ‘Alright, this is it, marines! One final push to the reactor and we turn this alien frisbee into a new sun. You’ll be heroes to your families. The bastards killed all my family, so I guess that I’m nobody’s hero. Let’s hope that what’s left of the planet appreciates what we do today. Move out!’
He leaned over to Brandon and Jason. ‘You kids say you’ve been here before, so make yourselves useful and lead the way.’
They moved cau
tiously down the wide, straight corridor that led deep into the mothership: twelve intruders, most of them trained soldiers with readied weapons. The enemy had wisely withdrawn, but to make life difficult for the invaders they had killed the lights. A low blue glow emanated from floor-level grating, but that was all: the light didn’t reach as far as the ceiling. Brandon glanced apprehensively upwards as they moved. The marines switched on their mobile LED light sources. The shadows that they threw up were just as scary as the darkness.
Jason walked close beside him, toting a laser rifle that he had looted from a dead balak. ‘Are you getting any sort of feeling?’
He was referring to Brandon’s mental awareness of the bionoids. ‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘I think I’m going to have to split from these guys if I’m going to find Gem and the cylinder before they nuke the ship.’ He handed Jason a bundle of wires. ‘Here, take this.’
‘What is it?’
‘I ripped the ear-pieces and mics out of two of Discord’s flight helmets. We can use them to talk. You stay with the group and let me know what they’re doing. You might have to stall them if they get to the reactor before I can get to the cylinder.’
Jason grunted, which Brandon took to mean that he agreed with the plan, but couldn’t bring himself to say it. They both shoved the ear-pieces down their external auditory canals. ‘I’ll test it,’ Jason said, falling back to the end of the line of soldiers.
A few seconds later: ‘You getting this?’
‘Loud and clear,’ Brandon whispered.
‘Okay, well I’m right behind the chief. I take it that the nuke is in the metal case he’s carrying?’
‘I guess so.’
‘Well, just so you know: he’s chained himself to the case with metal handcuffs.’
Not for the first time, Brandon wished that Hewson was leading the mission instead. As if reading his mind, the MI Zero agent fell in beside Brandon. ‘When do you think that there will be a chance to regain control of your alien technology?’ Hewson asked.
‘Probably when we get closer to the centre of the saucer,’ Brandon replied. ‘Karkor and Gem will go straight for the alien king to take him out, I reckon.’
‘Well, let me know if you need Operation Tempest to suddenly fail. I am rather fond of your idea of leaving this ship alive.’
Brandon nodded. Hewson went on to clarify his point: ‘Brandon, trust me. I’m on your side. There are no shadowy MI Zero bosses pulling my strings anymore; if I’m working for anyone now, it’s you.’
‘I trust you,’ Brandon said. ‘You’ve got us out of some sticky spots more than a few times now. We wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for you!’ Brandon paused. ‘I’m sorry—I didn’t mean—’
They both laughed at the same time. ‘It’s okay,’ Hewson said. ‘I know what you mean. However we got here, however it ends, we’re in this together now.’
They briefly grasped each others’ wrists in a macho handshake. ‘What’s your full name?’ Brandon asked.
‘Lieutenant Richard Hewson.’
They had arrived at a T-junction: to the left and right a curved corridor took off around the circumference of the ship. The soldiers spread out to cover all directions that the enemy might attack from. Hewson peered off into the darkness with his night-vision goggles. ‘Nothing,’ he reported. ‘We’re clear—’
The suspense was shattered as the corridor that they had just come down suddenly shot off to the left as the whole outer disc of the saucer spun around anticlockwise. In the next instant, a new corridor slotted into its place: similar to the last one except that this one was full of aliens with laser guns. Two marines were killed before the others could return fire. Lucky’s minigun quickly mowed down the brutes. They had no cover to hide behind; their whole plan must have been simply to cause as much damage as they could before they lost the initiative.
Brandon patted himself down, half expecting to find laser holes somewhere on his body. That attack had been so random and deadly that it made him shake when he realised how close he had come to being killed.
‘Brandon, come on!’ Hewson said, pulling him out of his daze. Rather than going left or right, the team had found a hatch that led to one of the narrow service corridors that led them straight towards the centre of the ship. Soon the squad was creeping in single file down a cramped tunnel that was even darker than before.
‘How many did you kill?’ Lucky was asking Tank.
‘Five, I think.’
‘Is that all? I got twenty-six in the hangar, and about thirteen just now.’
‘I got the five most important ones!’
A shoot-out in the tight corridor never happened, thankfully, and the team made it to another hatch that opened into a small circular room. They all crouched under the low ceiling. ‘Dead end!’ the chief stated, giving Brandon and Jason an accusatory glare.
‘No, it’s not!’ Jason countered. He reached up and pulled down a panel above him. ‘Bottom of the lift shaft!’
The squad climbed up into the lift one by one. Brandon hit the button that he guessed would take them to the very top. The lift shot up … and then almost immediately began to slow down, coming to a halt a few floors below where they wanted to go. The doors opened and they were faced with another shifting sequence of scenes flashing by as the separate rings of the saucer once more rotated.
The marines all aimed their weapons, expecting enemies to appear in front of them at any second. But when the rotation slowed, it was a dark empty space that faced them. Hewson stepped out into it. ‘Stay alert,’ he ordered. ‘They wanted us to come this way. No doubt there’s some surprise in store.’
‘So let’s see what it is,’ the chief said impatiently. He unclipped a mobile LED block from his belt and tossed it into the void. It skidded across a vast expanse of floor and came to a halt by a wall of glass. The other marines all turned their lights back on and slowly spread out into the room. Brandon started to get a sense of their surroundings. He heard Jason’s nervous voice in his ear: ‘This is going to be fun.’
They were in the same section of the saucer that they had passed through on their previous visit: the bio-engineering zone. It was a different room this time—a bigger space—but contained the same sort of glass tanks filled with greenish fluid. Jason approached the biggest tank. Brandon followed him and they peered into the thick opaque gunk that filled it. There was something in there: a dead thin creature that looked as if it had wasted away.
The squad had spread out about the room. They identified exits to the left and right. They really needed to go straight ahead though to reach the star reactor. ‘Floor’s wet here,’ Lucky pointed out. Hewson knelt to examine it: ‘Sticky,’ he said, wiping his fingers on his trousers. The chief split the squad and ordered them to check both exits. Brandon and Jason followed Hewson as he opened the door on the right. The next room was similar, but the floor was flooded and the tank in the centre …
‘Broken,’ Jason said, ‘like something smashed its way out.’
Brandon was getting anxious. I haven’t got time for this, he thought. He had to get to Gem fast, and preferably before the marines reached the reactor. He remembered from last time that they had to climb upwards in order to find the control room. Maybe there was a way up the banks of computer equipment here. He clambered up onto a wheeled cage of glowing machines. Above him, but over nearer the centre of the room, he could make out a service panel in the ceiling. ‘Push me over there,’ he instructed Jason.
Jason started to push, but had to leap out of the way suddenly when something big came crashing into the room. Brandon was too busy hurtling out of control on his ride to see what it was. He concentrated on the ceiling above him, and as he passed under the panel he leaped upwards and grabbed some cabling that was running alongside it. Kicking up with his feet, he kicked the panel open and swung up into the crawlspace above.
Below him, something large, greenish and reptilian was charging about on four legs. A dinosaur? Some kind of alie
n beast? He heard mad gunfire and shouting and what sounded like the creature slamming into a wall and groaning in pain. Brandon scurried down a tight access tunnel and left the chaos behind.
Except … here in the near-darkness, in a maze of tunnels that ran directly above the strange alien breeding labs … he discovered that he wasn’t alone. Turning a corner, he came face-to-face with a pair of horrible red eyes. Twenty metres away, crouched in the tight space, was the most alien thing he had seen yet: a dinosaur with a humanoid form, possibly a velociraptor crossed with a balak—who could say?—leering at him with a dumb hunger, licking its long red tongue over its finger-sized teeth.
Brandon froze in horror. He was looking at his death. Turning around would be pointless. ‘Help,’ he gasped.
Jason’s voice came over his earpiece. ‘What’s up?’ he said. ‘We just took down the biggest, ugliest mother—’
‘Is the girl with the big gun there?’ Brandon asked, his brain thankfully keeping pace with his terror.
‘Lucky? Yeah, she’s right here!’
‘Tell her to fire at a spot’—Brandon quickly worked it out—‘forty metres from where I went up into the ceiling, towards the centre of the ship. Hurry!’
Jason didn’t waste words with a reply. Seconds later, a storm of bullets hammered up underneath the hybrid alien, turning it to pulp before it had even taken a step in Brandon’s direction.
‘Did she get it?’ Jason asked.
‘Yeah, she got it,’ Brandon replied, making his way over the sticky remains. ‘Look out for—’ he began, but his warning was cut off by the sounds of renewed battle below. Over his earpiece he could hear Jason’s running commentary of the action: ‘Eat this! And this! Tank, behind you! Taste hot lasers, you Jurassic Park rejects!’
The wires and pipes that lined the narrow tunnels were soon replaced by hot banks of computer equipment. Brandon guessed that he was in the main server space of the mothership, somewhere near the control room. He could feel the bionoids brushing at the edges of his awareness. He couldn’t quite reach out to take control of them, but he knew that Gem must be close.
