Shadows of Arcturus (Syrax Wars Book 1)

by Tom Chattle

  ***

  Over an hour later, they approached the base of the mountain. What little light there had been was now almost entirely gone, and the towering structure seemed dark and menacing. Up close, it was clear the mountain was not a natural geological feature; intricate ribs, towers, and ledges crisscrossed its facade, bridges, and platforms hanging between them like huge, engineered vines.

  The forest of spires that loomed either side of them receded, and the landing team entered a wide plaza. Ringed by platforms and squat towers, it must have been a kilometer across easily. Chen glanced back along the main thoroughfare they had traveled up and examined the edges of the plaza. The stubby towers were unlike the surrounding spires and were interspersed with plinths like those the statues had been seated upon along their path. These were empty, though, menacing around the perimeter as if blocking all other exits.

  While it could have been designed for ceremonies or other gatherings, perhaps, the layout and clear lines of sight had Chen wondering if the broad space had a more nefarious purpose. Shivering from a cold feeling that wasn't entirely from the wind that whipped whirling dust bunnies across the perfectly flat ground, Chen squinted through the gloom to try and make out the features at the other side of the plaza. Burrowed into the mountainside, five colossal gates sat open, their dark, cavernous mouths easily dwarfing even the alien statues from earlier.

  "Well, this could be a problem," Bauer muttered. She turned to Moreau. "Clearly two possibly wounded civilians didn't scale the outside of this mountain. Any idea which entrance we should take?"

  The ensign consulted her scanner for a moment, before looking up apologetically. "No, sorry. They all point in the same general direction."

  They marched across the plaza and drew closer to the cavernous openings. The Marines spread out, searching for any clues as to which of the giant tunnels Wilde and her colleague might have taken. After a few minutes, one of the Marines spotted something discarded on the hard ground to the side of the far entrance.

  "Hey, LT, there's a pack on the ground here. Looks like someone dropped it." Makati picked it up from the dirt, opened it, and dug around inside as Bauer and Chen made their way over.

  "Good find, Makati." Bauer nodded. "Anything in there?"

  "Couple of empty food wrappers, a medical kit... Not a whole lot."

  "They must have been in a hurry if they discarded a perfectly good med-kit," Chen worried. "Any other signs?"

  The Marine sergeant shook his head. "No ma'am, this was it."

  Bauer stared up at the huge entryway beside the abandoned pack. "Well, I guess scant evidence is better than none at all." She turned to address the gathered Marines. "Kaufman, you take fireteam Alpha in first, I'll follow along with Bravo, and fireteam Charlie will cover the rear."

  "Sure, send me into the dark, creepy alien tunnel first," Kaufman growled, shaking his head as he checked his rifle.

  "Just do your damn job, Kaufman," Bauer snapped, obviously tired of the Sergeant's unhappiness. Grumbling under his breath, Kaufman moved into the dark. The rest of the Marines deployed as ordered, and Bauer glanced at Chen. "I really hope Wilde is in here somewhere."

  Taking a deep breath, Chen followed Bauer into the deep, oppressive blackness of the tunnel entrance.

  - 18 -

  2208.02.19 // 22:35

  Alien mountain, Arcturus b

  The narrow beams from the flashlights built into the Marines' weapons speared through the darkness, illuminating tantalizing glimpses at the inside of the immense passage. Perfectly circular, the walls were covered in continuous ribbed rings, reminding Chen of the inside of a giant intestine or something equally unsettling. There was a gradual uphill slope, barely detectable with no frame of reference in the dark.

  "I thought the city was creepy, but this is a whole next level of weird." Moreau's head turned back and forth, checking the readout of her scanner every few seconds.

  Her words echoed down the silent shaft, only adding to the disturbing aura the place gave off.

  "I want to know what the purpose of this tunnel is and why we haven't come across any side entrances or rooms yet," Chen mused.

  Bauer scanned the dark with her lamp. The beam of light seemed to struggle to pierce the gloom. "I don't like it. It feels like we're being funneled into a trap."

  "Don't be so worried." Chen patted her on the arm. "This entire world is long dead. There's nothing here to ambush us."

  "Something killed that poor women earlier," Bauer muttered. "Unless you think Wilde's gone feral and did it herself." Rolling her eyes, she pushed ahead, and the lights of fireteam Alpha seemed to come to a halt. "What is it, Kaufman?"

  "This godforsaken tunnel narrows, but it looks like it opens up ahead," Kaufman called back.

  "Okay, keep moving, but slow your pace. We're too strung out."

  The tunnel indeed gradually narrowed the further they walked uphill. It was becoming claustrophobic, but faint purple light gleamed from an opening at the end.

  Cautiously, the team fanned out through the door. The cavern that opened up to greet them was vast, the ceiling invisible in the darkness, the floor curving down into a circular pit. An angular column descended from the void above and terminated a few meters above the floor. Piles of dusty debris radiated from the center, expanding out to where the landing team stood on a broad ledge that ran along the edges of the space.

  "Well, this is different," Chen muttered.

  "What is it?" Bauer asked, moving forward to one of the rubble piles. She kicked the indeterminate mound with the toes of her heavy boot. Something rolled out from the center, and she recoiled.

  "Oh, God..." Moreau whispered. "Is that a skull?"

  Kneeling in the dust, Chen peered at the object. "Yes, but not like any skull I've seen before."

  Narrower than a human head, it was at least much more familiar than the bizarre alien statues they had seen before. The top of the skull arced back gracefully, and smooth ridges curled on each side where the ears would be, running back to gather at the nape of the neck. Large canines protruded from the jaw, while the eye sockets were wider than those of a human.

  Bauer drew away and stumbled over another pile. More skulls and bones spilled out of it as she regained her balance. Her nose screwing up, she peered down at the mess. "Are these all full of skeletons?"

  Moreau held a curled hand to her mouth, looking decidedly queasy. Dust rolled away from the disturbed remains, cascading down toward the center of the room in a miniature avalanche. She gagged. "Please don't move them. The dust is probably the rest of the bodies..."

  Chen straightened, wiping the film of dirt from her hands. "This place is like a charnel house, and these aliens are definitely not the same species as the statues."

  "Great, two long-dead races instead of one. I'm sure the astrobiologists will wet themselves in excitement." Bauer sighed, shaking her boot clean. "It doesn't help us find Wilde."

  "Maybe it does." Chen pointed at two pairs of human boot prints in the sooty film that covered the ledge. "Looks like they skirted around the outside."

  "Well, what are we waiting for?" Bauer set off, casting wary glances at the pile of alien corpses.

  "What do you think this place is?" Moreau whispered as they followed the Marines.

  "I don't know." Chen frowned, taking in every detail of the space. "It's almost like they were marched up the tunnel into an execution chamber." She pointed at the column in the middle of the cavern. "Could that be some sort of weapon?"

  Moreau pointed the scanner toward it. "Maybe. It does have some residual power readings. Why would the other aliens kill these ones? There must be thousands of bodies in here."

  "Exterminating their enemies, perhaps? Feels awfully like genocide to me." The idea made Chen uneasy. A race that had the power to destroy entire civilizations could pose a massive threat to humanity.

  The team tracked the footprints around the perimeter of the room, leading them to a series of broad steps. They a
scended and reached a balcony overlooking the chamber, with a dark, open doorway recessed into the wall. Alpha team forged ahead into the darkness, flashlight beams stabbing into the gloom.

  Before following, Chen turned, glancing back down at the dusty, heaped piles of corpses. The thought of the towering aliens watching the slaughter below made Chen shiver.

  She shook off the feeling and entered the tunnel after the Marines. This one was far less grand than the last, and it had a simpler, more utilitarian feel to it. It was probably an access passage to the execution chamber behind them.

  Chen was trying to imagine other uses for the shaft when a female scream from ahead jerked her head up and sent her heart pounding. A wild burst of gunfire followed by more screaming drove Bauer sprinting forward into the darkness.

  "Fuck! Tanner!"

  Chen heard Kaufman bellowing in the dark, and another flash of weapons fire lit up the tunnel. Bauer and Chen pounded along the hard surface and arrived at the scene just in time to see the soles of Private Tanner's boots disappear into the inky blackness above. Still clutching her rifle in one hand as she screamed, Tanner triggered a burst of fire toward the ground, scattering those below.

  Bauer hit the tunnel floor hard and rolled to one side, while she flashed her light into the dark.

  Chen gasped at the sight. Tanner was being swallowed whole by a large maw anchored to the ceiling by three sets of claspers, two sinewy arms pulling the woman up into its gaping, tooth-filled mouth.

  Bauer sighted her rifle and sent a whining pulse of fire into the side of the creature. Tanner's screaming stopped abruptly. The creature screeched with pain and spat out Tanner, sending her plummeting back to the ground.

  Chen dodged the falling guts of the ceiling monster, rushed to the private's side, and rolled her over. What greeted her was not pretty. The skin was flayed from the Marine's face, her eyes rolled back into her head.

  Kaufman crashed onto his knees beside her, knocking Chen out of the way. "Damnit, Tanner." Cradling the private in his arms, he yelled over his shoulder. "Strahovski, get your ass over here!"

  Fireteam Alpha's medic was there in an instant, but a few seconds with Tanner's limp body and she shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Sarge. There's nothing I can do."

  Kaufman growled in rage, then lifted his rifle and blasted a burst of rounds into the ceiling. He stood and stalked off into the darkness.

  Chen picked herself up, staring at Tanner as Strahovski examined her. A sudden cold touch on the back of her neck made her start, scrabbling backward against the wall.

  Bauer stepped over to push one of the limp, bladed limbs of the creature away with the muzzle of her rifle before offering Chen a hand up. "Perfect ambush predator."

  Catching her breath, Chen hauled herself off her butt and followed Bauer's gaze upward. The dangling arms were thin and flexible, almost tentacle-like in their function, superbly evolved to grasp prey from above. "Yeah, but was it something that just lived there—or was it a defensive trap?"

  Bauer pointed at the ceiling. "See how it's set in a perfectly sized recess up there? There's no way that wasn't intentional."

  "How could it have survived here with nothing to eat, though?" Chen shook her head. None of this made sense.

  Moreau emerged from behind the gathered Marines. "Maybe its metabolism is very slow? Some species back on Earth can go months or even years between each meal."

  "Yeah, but I find it hard to believe it could go hundreds or thousands of years without eating," Chen replied. "Which means there must be something running around here for it to snack on."

  "Like whatever killed Wilde's crew member back outside, you mean?" Bauer sighed. "This planet just keeps getting better and better." She took a long, sorrowful glance at the remains of Private Tanner, and the hurt on her face made something inside Chen ache. It was clearly Bauer's first combat loss, and it seemed to be weighing heavily on her.

  After several moments of silence, Gunnery Sergeant Haynes stepped close to Bauer. "LT, it's best we bag her up and keep going, find the objectives, and then gather her on the way back," he said, his voice low.

  Bauer nodded stiffly. "Of course." She turned to the somber Marines and swallowed, composing herself before speaking. "We're all trained for losses—it comes with the job. We have to push on and complete the mission, as Private Tanner would have wanted." She cleared her throat and turned to Chen, her voice softening. "Did you see where Kaufman went? He and Tanner were particularly close."

  "Only that he went off that way." Chen jerked her head in the general direction she'd seen the man storming off.

  Bauer glanced up the tunnel and sighed. "Okay, let me go talk to him. Follow on in a few." With one last look at Tanner—who was now being carefully placed in a lightweight body bag Strahovski had withdrawn from her medical pack—Bauer turned and moved off to find Kaufman.

  Chen watched her disappear, then looked back to find Moreau, who was standing very quietly, watching the grim task the Marines were undertaking, heads bowed over their lost comrade. "You okay, Ensign?"

  "Hmm? What?" Moreau snapped out of whatever daze she was in and faced Chen, her eyes flicking back to the body bag as Strahovski closed it up. "Yes, ma'am, I'm okay."

  Chen suspected she was putting on a brave face in front of the Marines, but there was nothing she could do to change what had happened. Even though they'd already found three dead bodies this mission, the fact that Private Tanner had been alive just a few minutes before made it feel much more real. Loud shouts from a male voice in the distance pulled her from her thoughts.

  Haynes strode forward, jaw clenched on a steely face. "All right, boys and girls, that's our cue to move out."

  By the time they had reached Bauer and Kaufman, the man had stopped yelling, though anger still rolled off him in waves. As soon as the remainder of fireteam Alpha arrived, he vanished ahead of them again, hands clamped to his rifle.

  "Everything okay?" Chen asked, drawing level with Bauer.

  "He'll be fine," Bauer replied brusquely. "He just has some reservations about the direction of this mission." She stared after the disappearing Marine before shaking her head. "Let's find Wilde so we can get out of the place." Moving out, she called over her shoulder. "Everyone pay special attention to the ceiling. Who knows how many of these things there are."

  - 19 -

  2208.02.19 // 23:27

  Alien mountain, Arcturus b

  Another half an hour of navigating the narrow tunnels had Chen on edge; the chilling, muted silence of the alien catacombs felt more dangerous at every turn. They'd only come across one more of the ceiling creatures. The thing had almost tagged Moreau as they shuffled past. Everyone ahead somehow missed the danger before Haynes put a single shot into the beast's maw moments before the oily tentacles could wrap themselves around Moreau, sending guts and slime dripping down around the shaking ensign. It had taken another ten minutes just to calm the woman down, much to the irritation of several Marines.

  Chen's eyes darted around nervously as they rounded another corner, and she almost ran into Moreau when she stopped and held up her hand, palm out, peering at her scanner. "The two life signs are just up ahead." She squinted her eyes and tapped the side of the device. "That's weird."

  "What's weird?" Chen asked, watching the dark, distant ceiling in distrust. Who knew when they'd run into another of the lurking, alien traps?

  "The second life sign keeps fading."

  Bauer turned her head toward them. "You mean, the scanner is failing?"

  "No..." Moreau frowned. "I don't think so. The other signal is tracking strongly."

  "But that means..." Chen caught Bauer's gaze, and the Marine's eyes widened in realization.

  Without hesitation, Chen and Bauer broke into a run, charging down the dark passage, flashlights bobbing across the walls as the rest of the Marines and Moreau followed them. Without warning, the tunnel broadened into a wide cavern, flickering purple lights illuminating the area from far above
. Tall alcoves were recessed into each wall, long, elevated surfaces standing before them, surrounded by stacks of dusty crates that towered up against the walls. Empty racks cast spidery shadows across the room, making it hard for her eyes to focus. If Chen had to guess, this place had been an armory, long abandoned.

  They slowed to a halt, and Bauer shoved Chen into one of the alcoves as three loud barks echoed across the cavern. Ricochets exploded near where they'd been standing.

  "That sounded like an old-fashioned revolver," Bauer muttered. "Who's shooting at us?"

  Another shot rang out, followed by a frustrated female scream.

  "Katrina Wilde?" Chen called out, rubbing her shoulder where it had crashed into the rough wall. "This is Lieutenant Chen of the starship Valiant. We were sent here to rescue you."

  There was a long moment of silence before a weak voice cried out from the darkness. "Come quick, my producer is dying."

  Bauer darted out from her protective position at the mouth of the alcove. "Move out, Strahovski, and get your med-kit ready."

  Chen jogged through the cavern after the Marines until they reached the far corner, where a pale face framed with straggled, red hair peered out at them with a mixture of suspicion and panic. Bauer approached her and gently pried the antique revolver from her hand, not meeting with any resistance.

  Next to the woman, a large man lay against the wall, his face ashen and blood pooling beside him from a gaping belly wound that had been open long enough to become badly infected. Strahovski dropped down beside him, set her med-kit down, and pressed two fingers to his neck, the sensors in her gauntlet scanning. The Marine glanced back at Bauer and shook her head subtly.

  Wilde caught the gesture and put her head between her knees and sobbed.

  Never a big fan of emotional displays, Chen cleared her throat awkwardly, but Wilde continued crying, holding her face in her hands. Bauer jerked her head toward the woman, raising her eyebrows at Chen.