Thirty of them–an entire hunting pack. Massacred in mere seconds. Then the enemy bodies began to dissolve.
Naero shuddered slightly herself. Baeven and Gaviok were indeed The Destroyers.
With the enemy completely slaughtered, Baeven and Gaviok shrank back down to their normal sizes. Gaviok reverted back to a bluish-green color–and apparently–he normally stood shorter than Naero.
S’krin set her down; Naero ran up to Baeven.
“They’re after Shalaen!” Naero said.
“They’re after all of us,” Baeven told her. “The enemy wants anyone. Any being who can channel Cosmic energy in any form.”
“What for?”
Baeven shook his head. “I’ve yet to learn that. But I think we shall discover shortly. Come, the enemy has breached the mountain stronghold close by. Already they seek to enter the bunker and seize your half-Yattai friend.”
Even as they spoke, a battle royal erupted down below in the forest between the entrenched Ejjai shock troops and Walker’s advancing Spacer Marines.
Then Naero felt blasts of air press down on them from above.
Out of nowhere, a hatch in the sky opened up.
Baeven turned quickly to Naero.
“More enemy fleets have arrived. They’re attacking the planet with mass drivers and fusion missiles.”
“They’re trying to wipe us out with atomics?”
Baeven nodded.
“Jia says we must help shoot them down. S’krin, with me. Danjen, stay with Gaviok and Naero. Don’t let the enemy take her or the half-Yattai girl. If you find Adept Hashiko, try to rescue her. Be careful. I sense the enemy is tormenting her in some strange way nearby. Their strengths and abilities are unknown–even to me.”
“You have our word,” Gaviok said. “We shall defend them all with our lives.”
Baeven grinned. “I’m sure that will suffice, my brother.”
S’krin flew up into their invisible ship. Baeven leaped up within and the invisible hatch sealed behind them.
Naero and the others felt more blasts of air as Baeven’s unique ship sped away.
Danjen held a scanner out.
“Now that I understand their energy signatures, I’ve got a lock on the enemy’s coordinates,” Danjen said. “Just a few klicks southwest of here, around the mountains…that way.”
“No time to waste. Let’s go,” Gaviok said. He sped away at a high rate of speed, his insect legs churning up the ground as he ran.
Danjen went bounding right after him.
It was all Naero could do to keep up with the pair.
And she thought the Tua could run.
42
They cut down a few dozen Ejjai in their path, left behind to guard the Dakkur tunnel bored through the solid rock of the mountain.
The Ejjai clones were no match for the three of them.
And Gaviok fought on a level that only Baeven seemed capable of matching.
Naero still worried about Shalaen and her people. Yet strangely enough, she yearned to find Hashiko and free her even more.
The enemy did not have Shalaen yet.
But they did have Hashi.
And Baeven said they were torturing her in some strange way.
What was the enemy doing to her? Why did they want to capture them all so badly?
To do the same thing to all of them? To serve what purpose?
And Baeven was correct. What were these strange, scary energies she sensed as they drew closer? Energies that made her very flesh crawl.
They raced into the dark tunnel. Questions and fears flooding her racing mind.
Danjen studied his scanner. They could hear the Dakkur far up ahead, half a kilometer, churning and ripping through the solid stone.
Then the sounds stopped.
Danjen called out quietly.
“I think they’ve breached the bunker, through an abandoned mining shaft. That’s what they were aiming for.”
Shocks of explosions and sounds of weapon-fire lit up the area ahead of them moments later.
Naero felt ice-icicles shoot up her veins.
“The miners are trying to defend themselves. They won’t hold out long against a pack of Dakkur.”
Gaviok sounded somewhat concerned as he spoke.
“Something else awaits us up ahead. I sense a power of some kind that none of us has ever faced before. Something much more formidable than the Dakkur spawn.”
If this new threat had Gaviok spooked, it sure had Naero’s attention.
Like him, a growing feeling of great uneasiness grew as they approached the battle.
They caught the first whiffs of toxic Dakkur gas.
Danjen and Naero put on their respirators.
She glanced over at Gaviok.
“I’m immune to their stench,” he said. “But that is not what worries me. You are an adept of the powers Cosmic, just like my battle-brother and I. I can see it in you. Do you not sense something strange and terrible up ahead?”
Naero focused, finally able to re-open her third eye.
Danjen drew back slightly. Even Gaviok seemed surprised.
Naero concentrated her perceptions.
She gasped.
“Yes, I sense two very different Cosmic powers. Warring with each other. One I know to be Shalaen. The other also seems familiar, but I can’t identify it. It has been…tainted and twisted somehow. Almost beyond recognition. Its very nature is corrupted, foul in ways I cannot begin to fathom. Almost an anti-energy, some kind of negative power, and it is incredibly strong. There should be no power such as this. It makes me want to vomit.”
“Then you see our foes truly for what they are. You are correct, spacechild. Such power should not exist, and yet it does. This is the naked might or our true enemies. All else are but their slaves and puppets.”
They breached the mining shaft and raced within.
The mining guards put up a valiant fight, but they had been ripped apart. All of their heads missing.
Near could feel the shocks from the cosmic battle up ahead of them as they drew closer.
“I cannot obtain my full battle-size in these confines,” Gaviok warned them. “But I will crush the Dakkur drones. They cannot stand before me for long. Once I begin my assault, I will create an opening for you and Danjen to charge forward and help your friend. Go to her. She slowly loses her fight from what I can tell. If only she were a full Yattai.”
Naero nodded. “We have to help her. Please, get us in there!”
Seconds later, Gaviok swelled in size and turned bright glowing red with Cosmic energy. The Dakkur hissed in horror and fell back at the fury of his onset. Gaviok tore into them, literally shredding them.
Danjen and Naero saw their chance and raced past, toward the fierce Cosmic battle being fought up ahead.
At last Naero regained enough energy to form one Chaos katana, and gripped it tightly in both hands, summoning all of her prowess. She called upon Om. Hold on, Shalaen. We’re coming!
43
The weird Cosmic forces up ahead suppressed all light within the tunnel.
The dark powers Shalaen fought against appeared to absorb even light.
Naero and Danjen held back, trying to assess what they were up against as they crept slowly forward.
Three dark shapes constantly closed in on and hurled themselves at Shalaen, who flared and blazed with blue-white power.
Her face looked scared, yet determined.
The enemy seemed shapeless at first, shifting, and yet they bristled with what looked to be slimy, black glowing tentacles of all shapes and sizes.
They tried to ensnare Shalaen with them.
These appendages were even more dangerous than the ones Naero had fought against inside the ion cannon control room.
Shalaen fought for her very life against these dark, shifting horrors. She blazed against them and glittered like a small flickering star, striking at them with waves and flashes of pure energy that melted and sliced off their ten
tacles. The flailing appendages whipped forward like snakes to strike and constrict around her.
She cried out in pain and fear whenever they struck or touched her.
Shalaen remained much as Naero recalled her since their last meeting. Perhaps slightly older. A slender young woman with glistening, deep-blue ageless eyes.
Yet Naero had never seen such doubt and terror on Shalaen’s normally serene face before. And with good reason.
Naero sensed it close up as well. Full force.
These horrific things weren’t just fighting her. They fed on Shalaen somehow. Not just injuring her, but draining her Cosmic energies and converting them into their own dark, twisted power with each attack at the same time.
She grew weaker.
While they grew stronger. With each second that passed.
But these frightening dark horrors were definitely not Dakkur or Ejjai. They were maddening to look at. So unnatural.
What in the hell were these things?
Another alien life form? The masters that the Dakkur spoke of?
Om spoke up, feeding her info.
They are machines. Living machines of foul and ancient origin and intent. If you can even call them life. Abominations. They exist for one purpose: to feed upon all natural energies–even pure Cosmic energy–and convert them all into the Darkforce. An anti-energy that only exists to destroy all else.
Who could make such things?
These nightmares were the foul creations of the G’lothc, the mortal enemies of the Kexx and the Drians. Masters of the Kahn-dar and the Dakkur, and other mighty servants.
What hope was there against advanced tek such as this?
Naero perceived exactly what the foul things were in her mind, thanks to Om’s Kexxian-born knowledge, and her own returning teknomancing abilities.
“They are machines,” she said aloud. “They’re Darkforce generators.”
Danjen turned to her, looking stunned. “How do you know that? I’ve never seen or fought anything like this. They make my flesh crawl just watching them. How do we fight something like this?”
They are still machines. Despite their formidable defenses, they can still be damaged and destroyed, and cease to function. Then they will self-destruct. Either a tremendous explosion or implosion.
Which one?
I’m not sure yet.
Naero shook Danjen. “I’m sure Gaviok will come help us soon. We can’t just stand here in fear. That’s my friend. They’re hurting her. Trying to capture her. Then they’ll do something even worse to her. We have to damage them enough so that they will stop functioning. We have to attack.”
Danjen nodded, still hesitating. “All right. I’m with you. But these things really creep me out.”
“Me too.” she patted him on his furry shoulder. “Let’s try concentrating all of our attacks on one of them and take it down first.”
“Okay. Good plan. I think.”
They drew their weapons and picked the one closest to them.
They cut loose and blasted it.
At first the dark thing reeled and shuddered, as they blasted pieces of it away. Then it turned on them.
“Naero!” Shalaen nearly sobbed.
Shalaen took heart, relieved at only having to fight two of the things now, instead of all three.
She went on the attack, driving the other two back. Smashing them with fists of pure blinding light. Knocking them off balance. Keeping them from feeding on her.
Naero and Danjen kept up their fire, hoping to gun the writhing horror down.
But it seemed to adjust its defenses against their attacks, and soon their shots didn’t do any harm to it at all.
It shuddered and shrieked and convulsed, rapidly regenerating all the surface damage they had done to it.
Naero holstered her blaster pistol and gripped her Chaos katana with both hands once more.
“We can’t let it reform itself. Try cutting it apart!”
Danjen drew his own energy blades.
They attacked it again, hacking and slicing off pieces and chunks.
The severed parts either disrupted or merely got re-absorbed back into the whole.
Then Naero realized that it stood upon two stout legs.
She attempted a leg sweep, but the infernal device was far too dense, and too close to the ground.
Then she cut through the thick legs with her Chaos Katana, even though the thing absorbed her energies even as she cut it down.
Her sword vanished.
The vile machine fell onto its back, shaking and hissing like a nest of vipers.
One tentacle wrapped around her ankle and immediately stung her with eye-popping agony.
With her battle blade she chopped her way free, feeling the relief as the stinging pain dissolved away.
But even as damaged as it was, the infernal device seemed to relish the brief taste of her energies that it had gotten, and focused all of its attacks on her. Shooting all of its remaining appendages at her in an attempt to overwhelm and constrict her.
Naero screamed in pain and fear, hewing at them, slicing through them again and again.
Danjen bravely leaped on top of the thing and stabbed it repeatedly with his blades.
Gouts of hot steaming fluid and sparks of disrupting energy gushed and sprayed out, like oil or some kind of foul blood.
A tremendous Darkforce shock charge pulsed out from the damaged body and nailed Danjen. It flung him against the far wall where he hit hard and slumped down, smoking and stunned.
These things packed quite a punch. And with no warning.
Naero felt only a fraction of that massive shock charge, but it still left her hands and arms numb.
How were the machines generating these huge bursts of power?
But her and Danjen’s combined attacks cut away the tentacles, revealing a hatch or panel underneath. Naero spotted a large, clear round sensor eye or view screen.
She smashed at it with all her might.
It cracked and buckled.
She hammered and struck at it repeatedly, shattering it. Tearing both the machine and her battle blade to pieces.
Another pulsating explosion of Darkforce energy.
Bolts of black lightning erupted and lashed out at the very air like energy whips.
One of them scorched her, flinging her aside.
Om barely managed to shield her from its effects.
She slammed into the wall not far from Danjen, who still lay twitching and groaning.
Naero struggled to recover and regain her feet.
Shalaen screamed and went down under similar attacks.
The other two machines had her helpless, draining her powers each second.
Gaviok rushed in, instantly launching himself at the two infernal devices. Even he cried out as they attacked and sapped his energies. Yet he grappled with them unchecked, battering and tearing them apart.
Naero watched in horror as the third device that she and Danjen had almost taken out convulsed and attempted to regenerate–right in front of them.
She crawled toward it. Collecting what weapons she could.
If the third device came back online, they were all lost.
Even Gaviok might not be able to take out three of these horrors by himself, before they sucked him dry of his Chaos energies.
“Danjen. We must finish this one off while its down. Get up, damn you. Help me or we’re all dead!”
Danjen nodded and crawled toward it with her.
Naero got to it first and hacked at it with her blades. She shot it with her weapons. She picked up rocks and smashed them on it.
It grew weaker again, but it kept wriggling.
Danjen pointed to one of the dead miners.
“Explosives,” he said, sniffing the air.
Naero staggered over and cut the satchel of mining charges from the dead man’s back.
She shoved the charges under the alien machine and set them.
“Take cover.”
A flash and an ear-splitting explosion tore through the shaft.
The alien generator slammed up into the top of the tunnel, back down, and burst open.
As the smoke cleared, Naero and Danjen came closer to see if it was finally wrecked.
They glanced over at Gaviok. He looked weaker too, but he took turns slamming first one of the machines and then the other into the battered walls of the tunnel, again and again.
He had them both on the ropes.
Something still glowed inside the ruined alien generator. Perhaps its power source.
They pulled the panel open slowly, ready to fight.
Naero lifted a battle blade in her other hand.
Danjen lifted a heavy rock over his head, ready to bring it crashing down.
Naero glanced inside and gasped.
It took all of her strength to hold Danjen back.
“No, don’t!” she screamed.
Danjen dropped the heavy rock to one side, breathless.
“What?…Why did you stop me from smashing it?
Naero pointed.
Hashiko lay curled up inside the ruined device. Blistered and scarred and battered, in a crushed and shattered pod of ruptured, oxygenated fluid.
But she still lived.
Naero reached in and yanked her comrade free of the vile machine. Despite getting stung by all of the smaller feeding tentacles that were still attached to Hashiko’s body like ravenous, devouring worms.
Still feeding off of her energies.
They hissed and shrieked once detached from their host.
Naero ignored her own pain.
She could only imagine what the torment had been like for Hashiko.
First Naero set Hashi down, safely away from the convulsing generator. Then she steeled herself and quickly examined the remains of the fell machine with her teknomancy.
Its construction and purpose disgusted her and Om. They both perceived and understood its foul workings much better now. It was in fact, primarily a generator. One that produced immense amounts of destructive Darkforce energy. The accursed thing had fed off her comrade constantly, stepping up her stolen energies a hundred fold. Perhaps even beyond that.
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 29
