Shadows of Arcturus (Syrax Wars Book 1)

by Tom Chattle

  "Anything?" Bauer responded, tapping her foot.

  Chen's eyes snapped open. She saw the gentle flickering glow that guided them before. A smile curled the corners of her lips, and she pointed along one of the tunnels. "This way."

  The route got steadily steeper as Chen led them through winding tunnels, around corners, and across broad intersections. Not a single alien had been seen—something that worried Chen.

  "Are we nearly there?" Moreau puffed. They had reached the top of a particularly arduous section of the climb, and she rested against the curved wall with her hands on her hips while the others trudged past.

  "Well, we're back inside the main, central part of the mountain, at least." Chen looked around. All the hallways looked the same—glossy, ribbed, and extremely alien—but the ethereal guiding lights were clear in their direction. "We're definitely getting near the main route to the mountain's peak."

  They reached a narrow junction, and Bauer peered into the darkness. She stepped one foot forward and was about to keep moving when Chen grabbed her by the shoulder suddenly, holding her back.

  Bauer's head snapped around, brow furrowed. Chen remained silent and pointed up at the ceiling with her other hand. Bauer's gaze followed, and she clicked on the beam of light from her rifle and flashed it upward. A waiting Syrax tentacle trap recoiled at the bright light, hissing gently.

  "Everyone stick to the outside, and be careful," Bauer warned.

  Edging around against the cold wall, Wilde shuddered. "Those things are just plain creepy. I wonder if they're sentient or just dumb traps."

  "They developed as natural predators on the Syrax homeworld, and the Syrax further engineered them to serve their purposes. Same with the packs of hounds." Chen clamped her mouth shut, not knowing where the information had come from.

  She wasn't connected to a console like earlier, yet it had been just as easy to answer Wilde's question. She turned and saw Bauer staring at her, eyes asking the same question as Chen's mind.

  "I don't know." Chen shrugged. "It's like I can still tap into information without the console."

  "Perhaps it formed some kind of psychic bond with you while you were interacting with it?" Wilde suggested.

  "Normally, I would reject that theory." Moreau shook her head. "But it's probably the least crazy idea of the last few hours."

  A deep, echoing roar from ahead made the group freeze in their tracks.

  "What the hell was that?" Wilde whispered, edging closer to Chen.

  Bauer crept forward and crouched as the tunnel opened onto a ledge high above a vast cavern. When she stopped, Chen moved behind her, staying low. The sight before them almost took her breath away. Whereas before they had only run into the alien warriors in small numbers, the space below was full of the hulking giants.

  Some lumbered about, completing tasks Chen couldn't make out from this far up. Rows of others lined the edges of the vast cavern, still in the form they had earlier thought were just statues, silent and not yet awakened. Their smaller, agile brethren darted in between them, snapping and tussling with each other, their harsh vocalizations echoing around the vast space.

  "That's a lot of aliens," Wilde whispered next to them.

  "A lot of aliens we need to avoid if we stand any chance of stopping this transmission." Bauer frowned, peering down her rifle scope at the gathered beasts.

  The sight of so many was sobering. Chen's heart quickened at the idea of them being unleashed on an unsuspecting humanity, their troops raining down on Earth, Mars, and the rest of the planets in the UPA. "Even if we halt the transmission, what's stopping these things from fixing it? Or just attacking the nearest outpost? They must have ships of some kind laying around."

  Moreau joined them on the ledge and checked the scanner she'd somehow held onto through all the chaos. After a moment, she nodded toward the center of the vast cavern. Towering over the alien warriors, spanning the gap between floor and ceiling, sat a colossal tapered spire. At the thinnest point in the middle, a glowing orb crackled with energy as it spun lazily in place. "I'm pretty sure that's some kind of energy core. It may be part of what powers this entire city."

  "If it's anything like the power system on the Valiant," Chen muttered, "by blowing up this core, it could start a chain reaction of any other reactors they might have."

  Bauer chewed on her lip as she stared downward. "There's only so much we can do. We can't assault a force like that. We wouldn't last thirty seconds."

  "Perhaps when we disable the communications array, the same console will allow us to overload the reactors?" Wilde wiped a strand of red hair from her face. "Could that be a thing?"

  A quiet, derisive snort escaped Moreau's lips. "There's no chance two major systems like that would be closely integrated enough to have such a devastating effect."

  "No need to be a dick about it," Wilde retorted a little too loudly, earning a scathing glare from Bauer.

  Moreau's cheeks reddened, but she didn't burst into apology like Chen would have expected. Ignoring the two women, Chen closed her eyes and tried to glean some type of information about the systems in front of them.

  "Actually," Chen started, the information flowing more freely to her this time, "it does seem possible that overloading the communications array could ripple throughout the rest of their systems. Everything seems connected."

  Moreau closed her eyes and grimaced, shaking her head. "How a race could conquer half the galaxy and have design flaws like that in their systems makes no sense." She paused, sighing wearily. "But then what about any of this does?"

  "We can debate the infrastructure weaknesses of alien species later," Bauer hissed, nodding down into the cavern. "In the meantime, we need to get past those things."

  The ethereal guide light flickering through Chen's vision indicated a winding path that took them out along dark gantries crisscrossing the open space, looping past the reactor core toward the ceiling. "It's wanting us to cut directly through the center."

  "It?" Bauer queried, obviously still wary of Chen's new-found abilities.

  Chen shrugged, not knowing what else to call it.

  Bauer hesitated, glancing from Chen to the proposed route. "How do we know we're not being led into a trap."

  It was a valid question, but Chen just knew it felt right. "I don't think the mountain can keep me out. I'm not sure how, but it feels like I can access almost anything." She met Bauer's gaze. "I would know if it was a trap."

  Bauer held Chen's stare for a moment then nodded. "Not like we have another route, I suppose."

  Silence fell over the group as they searched for a way to avoid detection.

  Moreau pointed along the wall a distance. "Maybe if we follow this ledge around until it crosses under that higher walkway, we can boost each other up?"

  Following her finger, Bauer narrowed her eyes and nodded. "If nothing else, the higher path is darker so they're less likely to detect us."

  With no better suggestions, they slipped along the ledge, hugging the glossy, ridged wall and staying low. It seemed unlikely they would be seen by the alien warriors down below, but Chen didn't know what kind of visual abilities they had. None of the ones they had seen even had eyes. They skirted clusters of humming equipment, and it wasn't long before they found themselves below the perpendicular path that wound upward to the center of the cavern.

  Chen gazed up at it with apprehension—it was much higher than it looked from afar. "Can we even make that?"

  Bauer shuffled forward. "Of course." Voice brusque, she motioned up. "Someone helps me up, then I pull up the next person. Standard basic training stuff." She eased up, casting a wary eye toward the aliens below. "Come on, boost me. We want to get out of here before any of those things decide to look up."

  Chen exchanged glances with Moreau and Wilde. Moreau was far smaller than Bauer, and even if Wilde hadn't been weak from her endurance stay on this planet, her physique was more that of a model than someone who could lift the Marine lieutenant.
Chen let out a resigned puff of air and nodded. "Okay, let's do this." She shuffled over to Bauer, squatted, and laced her fingers so her palms made a platform. "Be quick about it."

  Bauer slung her rifle across her back and tightened the strap, cinching it close to avoid her weapon swinging and making noise. "Ready?"

  Biting back a snarky response, Chen nodded. The heavy boot that planted on her palms drew a grunt, then Bauer launched off the floor with her other foot and Chen used all her strength to straighten her legs, pushing her hands up as high as she could. It took everything she had to not let out a cry of exertion as time seemed to stand still, Bauer's full armored weight pressing down on her locked arms. Relief arrived quickly when the burden lifted—Alex must have gained a handhold above.

  Peering up, she saw Bauer haul herself over the edge of the walkway. Arms burning, Chen sat on the cold ground, puffing. "Jesus, Alex, how much do you weigh?"

  A pair of gray eyes peered back down. "It's called muscle, armor, and gravity."

  Chen waved a dismissive hand and took a deep breath. "Probably should have remembered we're on a high-grav world. Guess I started to get used to it. Okay, who's next?"

  "Send Wilde up," Bauer whispered.

  Groaning, Chen pulled herself off the ground and positioned herself again. "Come on, Wilde."

  A delicate eyebrow raised skeptically on her pale face. Wilde mimicked Bauer's actions from before. "So, I just jump up with this foot while you push?"

  "Pretty much." Chen nodded.

  A quick movement later and Wilde was grasping onto Bauer's dangling arms. Much lighter than the Marine, she was hauled up within moments.

  "Okay, Moreau, your turn."

  Once the ensign had joined the others above, Chen took a breath. She could hear Bauer whispering instructions in the darkness.

  "Both of you grab my suit here. I'm going to lower my top half off the ledge so I can grab Lieutenant Chen when she jumps." Several shuffling sounds followed as the women maneuvered. Bauer's head and chest appeared, bending over the edge, arms extending. "Ready, Auri?"

  Chen stood slowly and raised one hand, judging the distance to Bauer's grasp. "Let me just get my trampoline out."

  "Just get a good jump and I've got you."

  Aching pain still through Chen's arms. She flexed them, tucked Moreau's plasma pistol into her waistband, and bent her knees. She sprang into the air, fingers outstretched. They passed just barely below Bauer's. Chen fell back to the floor with a thump and swore.

  "Come on, Auri. I thought you wanted to jump into my arms."

  Chen could practically hear the smirk on Bauer's face. She grumbled and tried again. This time, she latched on to Bauer, and the Marine pulled her up. Chen clawed for grip on the surprisingly rough edge and managed to hike a foot up and roll onto the walkway with a last tug from Bauer.

  Lying on her back, she turned her head sideways to take in the long, narrow gantry that stretched out ahead of them. They were now almost level with the pulsing energy core that floated in place, paths forking around it. Chen screwed her eyes shut, blinking away the glare from the glowing orb. With her vision clearing, she could once again see the faint flickering trails of light that guided them—clearly it automatically adjusted their route after their shortcut.

  Crouched beside her, Bauer patted her on the shoulder. "Come on, let's move." Turning to the others, she held her hand low. "We need to keep down, stay down. This route is thinner, so keep in the center of the path so we're less likely to be seen from below."

  Bauer took the lead, and they ran in an awkward hunch, trying to keep as inconspicuous as they could. Chen almost thought they would make it undetected when a cold prickle washed over her skin.

  - 34 -

  2208.02.20 // 06:42

  Syrax power core, Arcturus b

  Out of nowhere, a low, mournful alarm began to wail, and strobes of light washed across the walls from deep below them.

  Chen clapped a palm to her temple as a stab of pain shot through her mind. "Warriors. On the way," she spat out, a coppery taste spreading through her mouth. Steadying herself on the ground, the sensation threatened to overwhelm her.

  Bauer snarled and pulled the rifle from her back, checking the ammo levels. "Forget the stealth. Now we go with speed." Without a further word, she jumped up and moved off in an urgent jog toward the energy core.

  Chen ran after her. A blinding alien cannon beam hissed past. Chen ducked just in time and almost lost her balance on the narrow walkway, if not for a guiding hand from Moreau. More fire followed, and the searching lights focused on their location. The air around them fogged with a shimmering barrage of energy. With the crackling power core growing ever closer, the weapons fire stopped abruptly.

  "Why did they stop shooting?" Wilde asked breathlessly, slowing her gait.

  Moreau raced past her. "Does it really matter?"

  Now, Chen had to squint at the blazing light being emitted from the approaching core. She nodded toward it. "Maybe they don't want to blow up their main power source?"

  They reached a wide platform ringing the energy sphere, and the group slowed, ducking into cover between towering banks of alien computer consoles and the core that loomed over them.

  "Okay, catch your breath," Bauer ordered, "but we can't rest here long. Can't give them time to organize."

  A shaft of light appeared at the far end of the gantry they had just traversed. "I'm not sure they're going to let us have a breather," Chen muttered.

  Haloed by the door, three alien warriors stomped into the cavern, surrounded by a pack of their small hound-like relatives.

  Despite the differences in their size and appearance, Chen could now see the signs of their shared heritage. Five limbs, no eyes, armored head... They truly acted like a trained wolfpack; scouting and harrying the warrior's prey. Somehow, she could sense their eagerness to find the humans, to rip them to shreds as they had done to Wilde's crewmate.

  Bauer immediately sighted down her rifle as they approached and squeezed off a burst of rounds that ripped through the air, sparking off the alien's armor plating. A second volley shredded one of the smaller creatures, and a mournful howl echoed from the rest of the pack, sending a sympathetic stab of pain through Chen's chest. The brutes didn't shoot back, rather they formed a single file line, their bulk taking up most of the width of the gantry. The warrior in the lead hunkered its head down, extended armored plates from its forearms, and held them up as a shield.

  "God damnit," Bauer snarled, sending another burst downrange for good measure. "I don't have the firepower to punch through all that."

  "We have to move on!" Chen called, snapping off a few shots before motioning to one side of the ringed platform with her pistol.

  Bauer lowered her rifle and nodded. They ran, watchful eyes cast behind them at their pursuers. The power of the energy core over their shoulders sent an intense prickle across Chen's skin.

  They were halfway around the central core when Chen stumbled, her vision swimming. Her perspective shifted, far too low to the ground to make any sense. She scurried across the decking and sighted in on the back of someone fleeing. A surge of excitement ran through her as the prey came within range, and powerful muscles in her hind leg tensed to pounce.

  Chen gasped in pain from her shoulder ramming into a piece of machinery she hadn't seen. Her vision was back to normal, and she paled as she realized what it meant. She spun around and saw the danger that had gained on them far faster than they had expected. "Katrina, watch out!"

  Running ahead of their huge masters, the remaining Syrax hounds were almost upon them. At the shouted warning, Wilde glanced behind her in terror. She spun to one side as a hound pounced, blades slashing through the air.

  It leaped at her. Wilde stumbled and hit the deck hard, almost rolling off the edge. With no time to think, Chen charged back to her, and slammed into the armored head of the compact beast. She grunted in pain, and it squealed, jaw gnashing at Chen when they hit the floo
r. Chen punched up into the underside of its throat and felt something crack. The creature staggered back, flailing. Kicking both feet at it, Chen winced as the edge of the carapace cut into her ankle, but the hound skidded back, scrabbling at the edge of the walkway. She raised her plasma pistol and sent a cerulean blast of energy screaming at it. The fiery impact tossed the hound into the abyss with a harrowing scream.

  There was no time to take a breath; Chen rolled over and tried to push herself up, but a shadow passed over her. Another hound pouncing. She thrust a hand up to shield herself, but the creature never landed. A burst of gunfire shredded it, tossing its broken corpse to the floor.

  Bauer strode back toward them and placed two more bursts into the now retreating hounds. Then she leaned over to pull up Chen. Chen glanced behind them and saw the warriors still advancing, but at least their smaller brethren were dealt with for the time being.

  Chen turned and saw Wilde picking herself up, visibly shaken from the close call with the hound. "Katrina, are you okay?"

  She nodded hesitantly, wincing as a chorus of beastly roars echoed across the cavern—a reminder of the danger they were still in. "I am, for now, let's go."

  They rounded the other side of the pulsing reactor core and set off across a curved, uphill walkway. Chen led the way, following the visual guides that were still present in her mind despite the chaos. The alien warriors had now made it to the platform surrounding the core and fanned out. With clear sightlines to their targets, they raised their heavy energy weapons and pulsed shots across the upper reaches of the cavern toward them.

  Bauer stopped behind a thin support column that barely provided cover and pointed into the darkness. "Keep going! There has to be a door or something."

  Chen slowed as she passed the Marine. "What about you?"

  "I'll be right behind you," Bauer replied. "There's only one thing that's going to stop these big bastards at this point."

  Bauer kept behind the column as best she could and unclipped an ion grenade from her suit. She pulled the safety tab and depressed the charging button. Chen snatched hurried looks behind her and could see the Marine waiting for the alien brutes to lumber ever closer along the gantry. It took all she had to not yell for Bauer to run.