Annals of the Keepers - Deception

by Christiaan Hile

  Just then, Captain Nevlen came in over comms, “We are at the center chamber door. It looks to be heavily shielded. We are preparing for entry now, over.”

  Droe was concentrating on the room at the bottom of the station this secret corridor lead to.

  “I’m picking up an engine signature of a small craft. Damn! They’re trying to move him!” Droe cursed as she ran out of the room, following the secret passage below her feet.

  A few of her team members followed her.

  “I’m picking up another, larger signature . . . a Comondon!”

  Droe turned to her team member. “Assist Nevlen with the chamber door. I’ll take Trooper Selinsk with me,” she ordered as she continued to follow Ramek’s path below her position.

  She moved down the hall and came to a grate in the floor. “Here!”

  She set the scan device down.

  Kneeling down, she removed the grate.

  The trooper responded, “Not much room to get down, Commander.”

  “I know. Enough for me, though.”

  The trooper looked at her as if the thought of her going down alone was crazy.

  “Captain Nevlen, what’s your ETA to the chamber, over?” she queried.

  An explosion rocked the station as a flat bastard detonated.

  “Captain Nevlen, come in, over?”

  Nevlen’s rushed voice came through, “Give me two more minutes. The shield is stronger than anticipated. A couple more flats should do the trick, over.”

  No time, she thought, “I’m going down. The shaft should lead to the hidden corridor below.”

  She began to remove her helmet and torso armor. The trooper assisted.

  “I won’t be able to assist you, Commander, if something should go wrong. I can’t fit down there,” he said.

  “What could possibly go wrong? I’m jumping down a dark shaft in my under-armor with a single pistol.” She smiled at the trooper. “Wish me luck.”

  She jumped in, sliding down the duct and curving out of sight of the trooper’s stunned gaze.

  ∞∞∞

  The Reavers were just about to the access panel of the bridge. Their boots beat against the metal maintenance deck plating within the corridor as Keelen spoke over comms.

  “Set bastards and prepare to breach. There are ten Kryth on the bridge. Gyro-rounds set for flash. Cut them down.”

  The door was set. Maddox detonated the devices attached to the panel’s frame. The access door blew inwards, showering the bridge with fire and debris.

  The air soon filled with gyro-jet rounds bursting in a blinding flash. The Kryth had no chance. They were guarding the two main doors to the bridge, assuming an assault from the main hallways. Their bodies lay strewn throughout from their slow reactions and miscalculations.

  “Seal the main bridge doors so they can’t override them,” Keelen ordered his men. He turned to Maddox, “Can you navigate this thing?”

  Maddox laughed, “Was your mother a test tube?”

  Keelen grinned under his mask. “Get it done. I’ll look for an escape route.”

  Maddox approached the center flight console and removed a cylinder from his waist pouch. He placed it on a socket; it turned and lowered down into the console.

  The device relayed clicks and beeps before popping back out.

  “I only have maneuvering thrusters. All other controls are locked out,” Maddox reported.

  “Move it away from the station,” Keelen responded.

  Maddox entered a few commands on the console, “My Krythtinian is a little rusty. For all I know, I could be giving commands to cycle their laundry.”

  The destroyer nudged forward before a vibration rolled through the hull.

  “What’s happening? We moving?” Keelen questioned.

  “We are, but–” Maddox said.

  “But what?”

  “It looks like we are still connected to the station by the docking boom.”

  The ship began to quake more as the connector between the station and ship held. It didn’t last long, tremors giving way to wrenching metal.

  The Exendoth destroyer lurched forward as it tore the boom away at the connection point on the ship. A final snap was heard, and felt, as the ship broke free from its mooring.

  “We’re moving, if you want to call it that.” Maddox looked at Keelen, “See, I know how to drive this thing. What about you? Find our escape route?”

  “I have. It looks like more Kryth are advancing this way. Maddox, lock out the helm. Everyone else, get back in the access tunnel. Let’s move!” Keelen ordered.

  The Reavers ran back down the access corridor.

  Keelen brought up his HUD’s map of the ship layout.

  “Make the next left and stop at the access panel on the starboard corridor,” Keelen ordered.

  The team came around the corner to the panel.

  “This is where it gets messy,” Keelen said.

  “What are we doing, boss?” Maddox asked.

  “Beyond this panel, straight ahead, is an outer hatch. About fifteen meters past the corridor.”

  Kercy came in through comms, “You notice the Kryth gathering at the bridge door a few meters down?”

  “I saw that. We also have them coming up the access walkway,” Keelen responded.

  “They’ll be here in a minute,” Maddox said.

  “Okay. This is what we are going to do. We blow down this panel and make it to the adjacent corridor. Once through, we will be at a safety check door. There is a smaller access corridor and then the final hull door.

  “And then?” Maddox toned.

  “That’s the messy part.”

  Keelen looked over his men, “We will use our tethers to anchor to each another then blow the hatch.”

  “You mean, get sucked out?” Kercy voiced.

  “It’s that, or stay here and wait for the ship to detonate. Which, by my readings, is in about two minutes,” Keelen responded.

  “Just what I signed up for,” Maddox remarked.

  “Maddox, leave some bastard friends behind here for our incoming guests. We all ready?” Keelen asked.

  With a nod, the Reavers prepared to make the bound across the corridor and to the last set of doors for their escape.

  ∞∞∞

  Droe slowed herself the last few meters of the vent shaft by pressing her feet and hands along the inside. She was a foot away from the grate to the secret tunnel.

  She heard footfalls approaching.

  Looking through the grate, she saw the large Comondon pass by, pushing a wheeled cart. On it was a large, draped form.

  It was Ramek.

  She reached for the Lancer pistol on her side. “Here goes nothing.”

  She let go of the walls with her feet and dropped through the grate, landing hard on the floor.

  The sound stopped the Comondon in his tracks.

  He turned.

  Droe was up holding her pistol dead center on the bull-beast.

  “That’s as far as you’re going, big guy,” She said in broken Krythtinian.

  “Who are you?” the bull snorted.

  “Hands up. Let’s see them.”

  The bull chuckled, “You tiny Human. I smash you.”

  “You’re not smashing anything but your face into that wall there. Now turn and face it, ugly.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Just as Droe moved her finger to the trigger, a sharp pain radiated from her shoulder.

  The Tiwil assistant had jumped up on her back and stabbed a knife down into her. The blade pierced through the tight, black under-armor she wore.

  She yelled and barreled over.

  The bull charged, grunting as he raced towards her.

  She reached over her shoulder and pulled the knife out.

  Spinning around, she threw the knife, and the Tiwil rat still attached to it, in the direction of the rapidly approaching Comondon.

  The bull swatted the incoming rat-projectile away, bouncing the lit
tle rodent and knife off the wall and to the floor behind.

  The beast punched at Droe, who slid under the legs of her towering assailant. The Comondon found only air and lost his balance, stumbling.

  Droe spun back around and kicked the back of the bull’s left knee, sending the beast tilting back to collapse.

  She grabbed his forehead and slammed it backwards, which sent the creature’s body to the floor.

  Droe dove over him, tucking into a roll.

  She quickly found her pistol and, spinning, fired a blast just as the Comondon was sitting back up from his miscalculated melee of the smaller Human female.

  The round impacted the thick-boned forehead of the bull, sending his bloodied scalp back to the floor.

  Droe slumped down on the deck.

  Breathing hard, she put her hand to her forehead, “Well, that was fun.”

  She wiped her hair to the side and caught the little rodent scampering to the knife lying on the ground.

  The Tiwil stopped before the knife, noticing she had spotted him.

  Droe shook her head. “Don’t even think about it, rat boy.”

  A shrill squeak issued from the Tiwil. He scooped up the knife and bound for Droe.

  He never made it a foot in the air as the plasma bolt impacted, showering the corridor with fur and body parts.

  A splat of rat goo landed on Droe’s cheek, turned from the burst airborne varmint.

  She wiped the gunk from her face.

  Boots beat the deck from behind her.

  Captain Nevlen’s men ran up from the other end of the corridor.

  “You okay?” Nevlen asked, “It took us a bit to get through the shield.”

  Droe lifted herself off the ground. “Yeah, never better. Check Ramek and let’s get to the Mercador.”

  Nevlen’s troops approached Ramek to assist.

  “What happened here?” Nevlen asked.

  “A rat exploded.”

  “A what?”

  Nevlen looked around at the coated walls with a perplexed look.

  Droe walked back up the tunnel, never answering the captain’s question.

  ∞∞∞

  “Ready? Now!” Keelen ordered.

  The wall panel blew outward and the Reavers followed, bounding through the corridor towards the next hallway.

  The Kryth soldiers amassed at the bridge blast door, turning upon the explosion to their rear.

  Weapons’ fire came blazing down the corridor at the leaping Reavers.

  Green rounds impacted walls, showering the corridor as energy flashed and impacted.

  The Reavers made it to the next door.

  “Close it behind us and lock it. Start connecting tethers,” Keelen said.

  Maddox dropped the door down at the control panel and began splicing.

  Each Reaver began to unwind a micro-wire tether from their front belts. They attached them to the waist at the back of another Reaver, forming a line.

  “How’s the door?” Keelen asked of Maddox.

  “Just about . . . got it!”

  The door clanked with a lock.

  Maddox then attached his lifeline to Kremage in front of him.

  A pound came at the door from behind them.

  A Kryth officer looked through the small port window in the door.

  He voiced something inaudible, then backed away from the sealed hatch.

  “They’re going to blow it,” Maddox said.

  “Too late,” Keelen responded.

  Keelen turned the two release locks on the outer hatch.

  Klaxons whooped and red lights flashed above the airlock door.

  With a final turn and pull on the security handle, the outer hatch blew into space.

  The Reavers were sucked out into the darkness, away from the moving destroyer.

  Their bodies flayed about in different positions uncontrollably, tugging on the tethers and bounding against one another in the vacuum of space.

  “Grab a hold of the lines and pull together,” Keelen ordered.

  Each Reaver began to reel themselves in from the gap between the lines.

  “We need to get into a ball. We only have a few seconds before that thing blows,” Keelen said.

  “Is it far enough from the station?” Kercy asked.

  “We can’t do much if it isn’t. We bought them time,” Maddox replied.

  The Reavers grabbed a hold of each other’s arms and pulled tight into a ball.

  “Activate the personal suit shields and let’s hope they work.”

  Each man activated the personal shields from their HUD within their visors.

  Blue bubbles blinked around each Reaver.

  “Will these things hold from this distance?” Maddox asked Keelen.

  “We’re going to find out together,” Keelen said.

  “Cozy,” Maddox joked.

  The ship was only about eight thousand meters from the station before her interior began to flash.

  One flash after the next, the destroyer exploded into a massive shockwave emanating from her detonated reactor core.

  The wave continued to expand from the epicenter.

  “Hold on,” Keelen voiced.

  The wave struck the Reaver-ball and tossed them like an asteroid being flung out of its planetary orbit.

  The heated energy from the blast surrounded the Reavers, engulfing them in its wake.

  Pieces of metal and debris shot by on all sides in a raining torrent of wreckage.

  The suits’ shields lasted for only a brief moment, but long enough for the armor to absorb the rest of the blast as the wave passed.

  The station was next.

  The wave struck the old outer layer, bombarding it with chunks of destroyer remains.

  A large section was torn away from the station, sending it to the cratered moon it orbited.

  The wave moved past and dissipated over the vast distance of space before it.

  “Are we alive?” Tershin asked.

  “No. You’re in Reaver Heaven,” Keelen said.

  “Or Hell,” Maddox chimed in.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Kremage remarked.

  “That was awesome!” Kercy yelled.

  The Reavers began to laugh in their triumphant survival.

  “That’s one for the Annals, I think,” Keelen said.

  Maddox blew his held breath. “That was off the charts.”

  Keelen caught his breath from the excited jubilation. “I wonder if they made it out on time.”

  “Yeah. My sensors are offline, I can’t tell,” Maddox said.

  “What do we do now?” Kercy asked.

  “What can we do, but float and hope they made it,” Maddox responded.

  As the Reavers held on to one another, they drifted against the backdrop of stars.

  Without another word spoken from the group, appearing right above them was the bow of the Flashpoint.

  A crackle came over comms, “Anyone need a lift?” Commander Takkar’s voice asked.

  Cheering ensued as Keelen responded, “That we do, Flashpoint. It’s good to see you.”

  “Likewise, Reaver Lead. The Mercador is on her way. Ramek is safe onboard and is in stable condition.”

  Keelen smiled inwardly.

  He placed his hand in the center of the floating group.

  They each looked at their leader and placed their hands on top of his.

  There was a moment of silence before Keelen spoke, “For the fallen and never forgotten.”

  DATA CELL 5

  “The Assembly is now in session. We have concluded our break and the first phase of our hearing. We will continue the final questions before the voting pertaining to Precept Number 1401, regarding Kason Bender’s guilt or innocence in the matters at hand,” Assembly Leader Mordon Tallis recited before those present.

  The viewing guests sat back in their seats as the Assembly Mount came to order.

  The Assembly Mount was built on the highest mound of layered rocks in the
center of the city, Evoke. The platform of the chamber was carved from layers of natural rock. Hues of brown and gray intertwined the deposits in various patterns. Everything was carved and polished from the same rock formation on the mount, with man-made glass and steel surrounding.

  The chamber itself was oval. One end was used for raised, staggered seating for those in attendance. The other was for the Assemblymen.

  The Assembly’s seats were carved from the same stone as well. The high-backed and ornate seats were etched with carvings of Human governments and judicial bodies of Earth’s past.

  There were eleven seats in all. Five chairs on each side with short steps running up the center. The eleventh and last chair was lower-center of the stairs.

  A low speaking podium stood in front of the eleventh chair, occupied by the Assembly Leader, Mordon Tallis. The others were staggered two below the outer three.

  Behind the Assembly chairs ran the rest of the rock formation to the top of the glass, arched ceiling, over ten meters high.

  A large, round emblem was carved in the center of this rock, overlooking the entire Assembly Mount.

  The Earth was at the center of this symbol. Two justice scales sat on top of the planet. The left scale had six scrolls in a pyramid: three on the bottom, two in the middle, with the last one on top. The right scale had the same number of bullets in the same layout. Two half justice wreaths arched one over the top, and one around the bottom of the Earth, with written text that ran in between the two.

  It read. . .

  The Annals teach us not to forget. The Precepts teach us law and order. The Scales of Justice teach us the balance of both.

  Tallis continued his opening remarks before the podium,

  “Commander Parejas, we are here because a soldier under your command, former Captain Kason Bender in question, broke a Precept by his actions, which resulted in the deaths of several Humans and any chance of peace we were to garner under this Precept at the Conference of Races.” Tallis paused, looking at both Shenta and at Kason.

  Commander Parejas and Lieutenant Kason Bender stood behind a large stone-cut table in the center of the room, facing the Assembly in their formal black uniforms.

  Tallis continued, “Shouldn’t Lieutenant Bender be charged and face a penalty by this Assembly, separate of Ordinance jurisdiction, Commander Parejas?”