by A A Warren
She tapped the control panel next to the doors.
“SECURITY OVERRIDE K-OMEGA.” The computerized voice boomed through the speakers. It spoke in a flat monotone, devoid of all emotion or care. “INITIATING BIO-HARVESTER FIELD. PURGING ALL PERSONNEL. MAY YOUR DEATHS BRING HONOR AND PROFIT TO YOUR CLAN.”
A high-pitched whine filled the air above the control room. The remaining guards and engineers looked up. A ring of blue light filled the domed ceiling, growing brighter and brighter. The noise grew to a deafening volume. The panicked engineer dropped to her knees, covering her ears.
The security guards rushed to the door, pounding and clawing at the metal with their gloved hands. But the armored slabs remained closed as the blue ring of light descended into the room. For a moment, the screams of the trapped men and women drowned out the wailing energy field. Then their cries were silenced. The glowing light reduced their bodies to swirling chunks of organic matter.
A spatter of crimson flew across the windows. Within seconds, the blood and flesh dissolved, broken down into molecules of protein and other biological components. Then the field vanished, leaving behind a thick layer of red slime dripping from the flickering control panels.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vaki raced down the corridor, clutching the glowing blade in one hand and a pulse pistol in the other. A crowd of workers gathered behind her, following in her steps. Alarms wailed, and emergency lights spun, as the tremors rocking the complex grew even more intense.
She heard panicked cries ringing out behind her, as sparks and debris fell from the ceiling. Bracing herself, she grabbed a small child running beside her, and spun around, yanking the little girl to the side. Groaning metal sounded from above. A glow sphere plummeted to the ground, exploding into sharp fragments where the child had been standing.
“Everyone, keep moving!” Vaki shouted. “The hangar deck is just—”
Before she could finish her sentence, a burst of pulse fire careened off the corridor wall. Vaki ducked, as sparks showered down around her. Squinting through the haze, she saw a squadron of Toho security guards manning a heavy pulse cannon on a tripod. Vaki raised her pistol and fired, sending a barrage of glowing bolts into one of the guard’s chest. He screamed and fell backwards, sprawling across the floor. Another guard moved up and took his place, as the man operating the cannon swung it towards her, and opened fire again.
The high-pitched whine of energy bolts filled the air. The cannon fire tore across the corridor, sending more smoke and debris flying, and burning scorch marks across the walls.
“Take cover!” Vaki shouted. The crowd screamed, as several workers fell before the onslaught. Vaki dragged the child she was carrying to a doorframe and pressed them both against the dura-plas panels. The cannon continued to pummel the corridor with rapid-fire energy bolts.
Finally, the barrage ceased. She heard shouts and screams behind her. The crowd was in a panic, and sooner or later the men would advance on their position. But she knew the massive cannon burned through power cells… they would have to reload soon. Once they did, the onslaught would continue. Katara wanted no survivors. Anyone who might reveal her treachery to the Jotoru Emperor was a risk.
Vaki ducked around the corner and returned fire. Her shots ricocheted off the walls. One guard dragged a heavy power cell towards the smoking cannon. He dropped the glowing disk and ducked as the bolts from Vaki's pistol exploded over his head. The heavy power cell rolled across the floor, directly towards the cannon.
She adjusted her aim, lining up the battery in her sights as it crashed into the heavy weapon’s tripod. The man behind the cannon grabbed a power transfer cable, and scrambled to connect it to the cell.
Vaki squeezed the trigger. Three glowing pulse bolts screamed from the barrel of her pistol and struck the battery. The containment cylinder disintegrated, unleashing a rippling wave of energy through the corridor. The explosive blast tore the cannon into twisted metal fragments, and threw the other men backwards. The gunner slammed into the far wall, then slumped to the ground unconscious.
The cheer of the workers echoed off the corridor walls.
“Wait here,” Vaki said to the little girl cowering next to her. “I’ll be right back.”
She stepped out from her cover and advanced down the smoke-filled corridor. As the haze swirled around her, she heard footsteps, marching towards their position. The corridor shook again, and more debris fell from above. Shadowy figures emerged from the smoke.
Armored security guards stormed down the hall. Multiple squads marched towards her, their weapons charged to fire. She counted at least a score of them, ducking and bobbing as they strode through the debris.
“Everyone, move back! Now!” Vaki shouted. The crowd behind her fell into a panic. Their screams echoed through the corridor as more gunfire erupted from the soldiers. Vaki dragged the frightened child along with her as the mob reversed direction, fleeing from the armored men. They raced around a bend in the corridor, leaving the shadowy figures behind them.
As she returned fire, Vaki heard more screams from up ahead. She turned the corner and watched as the crowd parted. In the distance she saw more bodies marching towards them… a horde of pale, gaunt corpses flooded the corridor.
Muttering a curse, Vaki shoved the child behind her and took aim. She peered through the darting bodies of the workers as they struggled to find cover.
She fired once, twice… The energy bolts slammed into her targets, throwing them to the ground. But dozens more moved forward to take their place.
They were pinned down.
Vaki glanced at her pistol… the energy cell was almost empty.
Suddenly, the speaker on her wrist unit crackled to life.
“Vaki? Vaki, can you hear me?”
Vaki fired another blast, dropping a creature as it lunged towards the workers with outstretched arms.
“Talon, is that you? I thought the jammer field—”
“I’m close enough to get a signal through. Are you alright?”
“I’ve never been better! Where are you?”
She crouched and sent another barrage of fire down the hall. She could hear the footsteps of the armored men stomping closer. They were trapped… there was nowhere left to go.
“Vaki, listen. Neros is dying, and we have little time left. Can you meet me at the flight deck?”
Vaki glanced down… her pistol read empty. She tossed the weapon aside, and slid the ancient sword from its scabbard. The beam glowed to life, illuminating the curved black metal of the weapon. Its crimson glow pierced the shroud of smoke and haze in the corridor.
"Negative. I’m pinned down with some of the workers. We’re trapped between Katara’s guards and those walking corpses. She doesn’t want anyone leaving the planet alive!"
“Corpses?”
“The stalkers. Katara’s infected a small army with the dorokuma larva. She's merged her DNA with the worms, and can control them somehow.”
Talon's voice crackled back over the speaker. “Not any more she can’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t come back alone. And my new allies have a bone to pick with the queen. Just trust me… don’t get in their way.”
Vaki glanced up… the horde of shambling bodies had frozen in place. Those holding weapons dropped them. In unison, their heads rose. Milky white membranes covered their eyes, and they turned to face the security guards.
“Everyone,” Vaki shouted. “Move to the side. Let them through. Do as I say!”
The crowd of frightened workers parted, forming a clear path through the corridor. Vaki ducked into a doorway and glanced behind her. The squad of armored men marched around the corner. As soon as they came into sight, a low moan rose from the stalkers. The creatures shuffled forward, moving past the huddled workers as they swarmed towards the guards.
“What the—?” the lead guard exclaimed. He opened fire, cutting down three of the shambling creatures. T
he men retreated as the stalkers' moaning became a furious howl.
Vaki spun around, darting toward the distracted guards. She slashed with her sword, sending a fountain of red splattering onto the walls. A bloody helmet bounced along the ground by her feet. Spinning the blade in a tight circle, she cleaved the next armored man in two.
A pair of guards took cover in opposite doorways and opened fire. Vaki ducked. Keeping low, she charged towards them in a zig-zag pattern. A pulse bolt scorched her shoulder, but she ignored the pain. Sweeping up with the blade, she cut a crimson slash through the man’s armored chest plate. Spinning around in a circle, her blazing sword sheared off the second man’s arm at the elbow. His rifle fired as it hit the ground, sending a shower of sparks cascading from the nearest wall.
Raising the sword, Vaki stood tall as the injured man sprawled across the floor.
“Tsuvi ao narasta!” she bellowed. “Who’s next?”
Several of the guards stared at her in awe, then turned and bolted. The horde of undead shambled past her, grabbing the straggling rear guards, and wrestling them to the ground. The ravenous creatures paid her and the workers no mind as she led them down the corridor.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Talon flipped a row of switches, and the controls of the cargo skimmer blinked to life. The bank of glowing lights lit up the cargo bay of the ore-slicer, casting a soft glow in the dark, empty chamber.
Outside, dull thuds and muted weapon fire clanged against the armored shell of the slicer’s hull. The noise of battle echoed in the distance, as though it were happening kilometers away, rather than just outside the doors of the vehicle.
B’Turo grunted as he slouched down in the pilot’s seat. “Damn, I’m getting too old for this, kid. Why do they make the chairs so uncomfortable in these things?”
“I don’t think comfort was their—” Talon winced in pain. His crimson eye flared to life, casting a faint red glow through the cargo bay.
Talon… we are here. There is not much time. This world’s end draws near.
The dorokuma, he thought. Their minds… so powerful. So vast. He sensed there were several of the giant creatures nearby. Their thoughts were as one, and threatened to drown his mind, sweeping him away like a tidal wave crashing onto a beach.
He screamed in pain, clutching his head as his eye glowed even brighter.
B’Turo grabbed his shoulder. “Hey, you okay kid?” He drew back his hand. “By the haunted stars! Your skin… you’re burning up!”
Talon could not hear the man’s words. An ocean of sound surged through his skull. The creature’s thoughts rang out again, softer this time.
We forget… human minds are not used to such bonds. You are unique, Talon. Not all could survive linking with us in this way.
"We don't have much time!" Talon heard his voice as if he were speaking, but he knew he was not. He was communicating through the bond. “We’re going have to hurry and find a ship. I don’t know if we can fit all of you on—"
We are not leaving. This was never about us. Our time has come. We will end, as this planet ends. But the future awaits our children.
Talon’s head snapped back… His eye blazed brighter than ever before, flooding the room with crimson light. An unstoppable torrent of images rushed into his mind. Stars… billions of them, one after the other. Blazing white-hot pinpoints of light burned into his mind. The distances between them were so vast… Talon’s mind reeled as he struggled to comprehend it. He saw star-paths… a web of crisscrossing lines, etched through the mind-boggling depths of infinity. The glowing trails led to a single orb of light, nestled in the luminous gas of a nebula.
A planet.
The universe is vast, Talon. And we are many. Through the dark energy bond we share, we see our brothers and sisters, scattered through the cosmos. Just as you speak to the woman, Salena, and your mentor Orex Griff… we speak to them. They will be waiting.
“I don’t understand, what is it you—”
We have gathered the last of our larva. Our remaining children, untainted by Katara’s evil, gestate in the black jade. They are all that matters. Their light will shine throughout the galaxy, long after we are gone.
They are the future. And we have entrusted them to you. You will know what to do.
Then the thoughts vanished, receding into blackness, like the collapse of a dying star. The sudden silence hit Talon like an electric shock. A cold, black emptiness filled the void left by the broken bond.
He lurched forward in his chair, gasping for breath
“Kid, you okay?” It was B’Turo. The old man squinted at him as he threw the remaining sequence of switches to power up the skimmer. The lifter field hummed to life beneath the squat, bulky transport vehicle. “Don’t go to pieces on me now… we still have to get off this ice ball!”
Talon glanced up. He brushed his sweat-soaked hair from his face and nodded. “I’m fine. I just… I know what we’re fighting for now.”
B’Turo chuckled. "Speak for yourself, kid. I’m fighting to save my skin. What about you?”
Talon slapped him on the back. “I’ll tell you later. Assuming we survive.” He pumped the charging lever of the pulse rifle he held in his hands. Then he drew his axe and powered up the blade. He turned to B’Turo. "Open the cargo bay door."
The old miner moved his hand across a glowing panel on the skimmer’s control console. A harsh, metallic grinding sound filled the dark chamber. A towering metal door slid open. Light and sound flooded into the cargo bay.
“Orion’s blazing bow!” Talon muttered.
The scene on the flight deck was chaos. Glowing pulse bolts crisscrossed back and forth through the air. Deafening roars shook the ice, and explosions lit up the dim cavern. Katara’s security forces had turned their attention from the ore-slicer to the marauding dorokuma worms, and the horde of animated corpses they controlled.
Three of the titanic creatures raged across the flight deck. Talon watched as one of them clamped its fanged maw around a beam-skater ship. The armor plated worm towered fifty meters into the air. It whipped its head side to side, tossing the crushed vessel like the carcass of a slain animal.
The ship arched through the air, crashing into the deck a few meters away from the ore-slicer. It tumbled across the metal floor, crushing a squad of security guards to a bloody pulp. A wave of heat rippled through the air as the fuel tanks of the mangled ship ignited.
Another squadron advanced on the towering creature, bombarding it with high-powered plasma projectors. The creature shrieked as the burning projectiles scorched its scaled hide with molten fire. But before the men could advance further, a dozen shambling corpses emerged from the shadows. The pale, gaunt stalkers swarmed the men, battering them to the ground amidst a chorus of shrieks and screams.
Talon glanced at B’Turo and grinned. “Battle awaits, old man. Victory or death.”
The wizened old miner pulled his goggles over his eyes and gunned the throttle. “You said it, kid.”
The skimmer launched forward, rushing to join the battle outside.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Talon gripped the side of the cargo skimmer as another explosion rocked the flight deck. B’Turo banked the vehicle sideways, darting around the burning wreckage in their path.
As they flew above the battlefield, a pulse bolt struck the side of the vehicle, throwing a plume of glowing sparks in the skimmer’s wake. Talon glanced down at the scorch mark running across the passenger side wall… the shot had missed him by just a few centimeters. Gritting his teeth, he pivoted his rifle, taking aim at the guard. He fired, and felt the weapon kick against his shoulder. Three glowing bolts struck the guard, knocking him backwards into a pile of empty cargo pods. They clattered and rolled across the floor, as his smoking corpse lay still on the ground.
Another ship exploded in their path. Talon winced, and felt a wave of heat rise beneath them. Fragments of glowing metal whipped past the open-air cockpit of the skimmer.
“Look out!” he shouted. He grabbed B’Turo's head and slammed it into the dashboard as a sharp metal plate buried itself into the cargo container behind their heads.
The vehicle dipped and hopped as B’Turo lost control. “Hey, I can't see where I’m going!” he shouted.
Lifting his head, the old man glanced at the trail of smoke, and the still glowing fragment jutting out where his head had been. “Oh… never mind.”
Talon squinted, peering at the burning wreckage streaking by beneath them. He glanced up, and spotted an intact ship at the far end of the hangar deck, half obscured by smoke and haze. It was a medium sized transport vessel, and its rear cargo bay hung open.
He grabbed B’Turo’s shoulder and pointed to the ship. “There… that one's big enough to hold the three of us, plus our cargo.”
They swerved around another plume of fire that erupted from the flight deck. Talon ducked, as more pulse fire screamed across the skimmer’s hull.
The old man nodded. “Sure… assuming we can get there in one piece.”
Talon spun around and aimed his rifle. As he lined the guard up in his sights, he saw a glowing line of red, slashing at the man from behind. As the guard crumpled to the ground, a shadowy figure emerged from the haze.
It was Vaki!
Talon watched as she swung the glowing sword in a powerful arc. Two more men fell. She stabbed backwards, impaling a third, who had been sneaking up on her from behind. A crowd of about fifty workers in torn, filthy clothes followed behind her as she swept across the flight deck.
Talon narrowed his eyes… he could see two more squads of armored men, advancing towards her position. The smoke on the ground obscured their movements… Vaki couldn’t see them closing in.
“B’Turo, Vaki’s down there… I have to help her.”
The old man nodded. “I’ll load up the cargo and get the pre-flight going. Don’t be late!”
