“No! You don’t understand. They are all around us! Traitors! They want the Krai’kesh to win, I know it!”
“Sir! Please calm down. There is no great…”
The man jerked as three bullets struck him in the chest. Derek tracked the trajectory of the shots with his HUD to a woman in the crowd. She trained her rifle on Derek.
Derek jerked his pistol around and took aim. He fired as she fired. The laser from his pistol hit her in the arm, while two bullets struck him in the chest plate, causing him to stumble back but not penetrating his armor. The nanites in his armor absorbed the bullets moments later and his chest plate repaired itself.
More Marines had arrived and were trying to keep the situation under control. A pair of Marines took the woman into custody, while others pinned the bomber and surrounded him until the bomb squad could arrive. Some people tried to rush the area, while others stampeded away.
What the hell is going on? Colonel Sherrin asked over the battalion channel.
Sir, this is Lieutenant Jamison, Derek said to the Colonel on a private channel. We have one man, one woman wounded and another man dead at Herzig Square. I suggest we tighten security, sir, as the man who died warned of insurgency.
Lieutenant, we have hundreds of Krai’kesh skitterers and who knows how many of their commanders and who knows what else heading toward us and you want to suspect our own citizens as terrorists?
Derek sighed. Sir, we need to face the fact that one man is dead and two are wounded, one with a bomb vest on. I think it would be prudent…
You may not report to me, Lieutenant, seeing as you’re the “special liaison” to those Eternals you’ve befriended, but do not presume to tell me what is prudent. I oversee this defense, not you. Understood?
Derek swallowed his retort. Understood, sir. Derek waited until the bomb squad arrived, then he returned to the perimeter around the Dauntless. “Any change with Ashley yet, John?” he asked through the comm channel.
“Nothing yet.”
The flood of refugees and troops continued for several minutes before a warning came over the battalion channel: Krai’kesh inbound from the east. Then, Krai’kesh inbound from the west. Three minutes passed then, Krai’kesh inbound from the south.
We’re surrounded, Derek thought to himself. We could retreat into the capitol building but that’s it.
Flashes of light from lasers lit up the haze of smoke that still permeated Herzig Square. The battalion channel became inundated with reports from the forces at each of the perimeters. They were holding.
At first.
Boom! An explosion near the western barricade caused the earth to shake beneath Derek’s boots. The Krai’kesh don’t use explosives, he thought.
Bomb, bomb, they’ve got a … BOOM! Another explosion racked the western front. Two more explosions came from the south and east.
Derek stepped forward. His first instinct was to run toward the explosions and help his fellow Marines. But then he remembered his mission. Remain vigilant. Maintain the perimeter. Don’t allow civilians or unknown military personal near the Dauntless, he said to his platoon through his link. Please hurry and wake up, Ashley, he thought.
***
Selene felt satisfaction as the last of the Krai’kesh fighters shattered beneath her coilgun barrage.
All but two of the troop transports had made it to the surface while the Federation fighters distracted the Krai’kesh assailants.
“CAG, this is Raptor One. What are our orders?” Selene asked over the flight group channel.
“All Federation fighters are to assist in the ground defense at Herzig Square. Coordinates are being transmitted now.”
Selene grimaced. Federation fighters could enter atmosphere, but they were much slower and pilots had to take precautions with maneuvers. G-forces from zero-point turns in atmosphere could flatten a fighter pilot, even with their inertial dampeners.
“Raptor Squadron acknowledges,” she replied.
***
“Sir, the Krai’kesh are firing again. They’re targeting the smaller vessels that were fighting in the center.”
“We have no choice, Zigana,” Captain Martin Rigsby said. “Move the Independence and the rest of the fleet into position between the Krai’kesh fleet and the remaining Federation forces. We should protect them with our increased armor and mass. Create a virtual firebreak.”
“Understood, sir. Plotting course for the fleet.”
Martin accessed his implant and tried placing a call to his wife. There was no answer. Damn it, Felicity, where are you?
***
“Sir, the capitol!” one Marine maintaining the perimeter around the Dauntless said to Derek Jamison, pointing toward smoke billowing up from the capitol building.
“Shit,” Derek said. To the squad, he said, Shandy and York with me, the rest of you maintain perimeter. He set off toward the capitol building with Archard Shandy and Dreogan York as support.
Some other Marines were entering the building, while civilians ran out of it.
Derek and the two Marines entered with their laser rifles ready. The building resembled the traditional dome-top style legislative building common among the outer rim planets he had seen. Their boots thumped on the marble floor. A mosaic occupied the central area but was covered with blood and bodies.
A squad of Marines came up behind Derek and his companions. Derek turned to them. “Do you know what’s going in here?”
The squad leader, a sergeant by his insignia, shook his head. “No, sir. We received reports of a breach on the upper levels of the building and our lieutenant sent us to help.”
“Well, you’re with me now. Let’s go.” He headed into the central area and up one of the large staircases toward the second floor. The rest of the Marines followed. Derek slipped multiple times in pools of blood but did not fall. Bodies of guards, soldiers and civilians littered the stairs. Most had stab wounds or marks from claws, some had bite marks, while a few had more narrow stab marks consistent with the staffs of the Krai’kesh commanders Derek had faced before.
At the second floor landing, they went down the first hallway on the right. The smell of smoke hung heavy in the air, though they saw none. They reached a traditional wooden door at the end of the hall. Derek tried the door handle but it wouldn’t open. He threw his shoulder into it and it opened a smidge. He stepped back and kicked the door and the door shattered.
Derek felt thankful for his helmet as he looked upon the carnage in the room. Instead of full-flesh bodies, corpses with their flesh burned away by acid and their bones dissolved littered the floor. Derek heard one Marine deactivate their helmet and wretch in a corner, only to wretch more as the smell of decaying bodies and acid-burnt innards assaulted them.
“Behind us,” one Marine shouted.
Derek spun around, raising his rifle. The other Marines turned also.
A cluster of Krai’kesh skittered down the hall. Derek counted four of them.
“Don’t just stand there,” Derek snapped. “Fire!”
The eight Marines plus Derek fired their laser rifles. Beams of light slammed into the carapace of the creatures, causing one of them to stumble, but the other three continued unabated.
Derek dropped his rifle and drew his blade as the first of the Krai’kesh slammed into a Marine.
The Marine from the other squad was holding his own, using his rifle to absorb the brunt of the strike from the claws. Two more Marines fired point blank at the face of the Krai’kesh, causing it to lose its grip. The Krai’kesh relied on speed and strength to execute fast kills, so when they faced resistance they lost their momentum and were easier to slay.
Derek’s implant picked up a near-field communication. This is Captain Grimshaw of the Shadow Watch guard detachment assigned to the capitol building. We are cut off from outside communication and are barricaded in the sub-level of the capitol building. We are protecting Governor Rigsby. Requesting support for all available forces. We are holding our o
wn for now but losing soldiers.
This is Lieutenant Derek Jamison. I have a small detachment of Marines. We will make our way to the sub-level to assist in extraction.
Understood, Lieutenant. Please hurry. Captain Grimshaw out.
Derek moved toward the front of the group of Marines. He stabbed a second Krai’kesh in the face, then slashed toward the first one, decapitating it.
The remaining two Krai’kesh were forced to charge as the Marines poured more laser fire into them. The first Krai’kesh leapt into the air and soared toward the line of Marines. Lasers struck its carapace but did little to slow its momentum. It crashed into a Marine and carried him to the ground. It then slashed at his armor, causing deep gouges.
Derek tried to get to the fallen Marine, but the second Krai’kesh was upon him before he could get there.
The second Krai’kesh slashed with its claws toward Derek. Derek blocked the strike with his black blade, then stepped back and thrust his blade toward the creature’s midsection. The enemy batted the blade aside and swiped at Derek’s head with a pincer. Derek ducked and withdrew his blade, weaving a defense for several more strikes until he had another opening: he performed an overhead strike which, at the last moment, converted to a side swipe, severing the right arm of the skitterer.
The Krai’kesh skitterer screamed in agony.
Derek took advantage of the skitterer’s momentary lapse to thrust with his blade. The night black metal slid through the chest carapace of the creature and into its heart. He withdrew the blade and the creature toppled to the ground.
The Krai’kesh on top of one Marine lay dead, a hole melted in its chest.
Derek sheathed his sword and recovered his rifle. “Let’s go,” he said aloud. “We have a governor to save.”
Chapter 15 - Darkness before Dawn
“Impact,” Zigana reported. “Three frigates and two corvettes destroyed, sir.”
“Damn it. How long until we are position to block the enemy shots?”
“Ten minutes, sir.”
“Any word from the ground teams?”
“Last we heard, Captain Edgerton was waiting for Ashley to awaken after her actions in the asteroid field. There is also the matter of the civilians crowding Herzig Square.”
Martin slammed his fist on the arm of his chair. “We have to get those railguns activated.”
“I am afraid there is no one else who could unearth them, sir. Not in the time we have left.”
“We can’t take many more shots from those capital ships, and we can’t wait for Ashley to wake up.” An idea came to Martin. “What if we fire through the gap the Krai’kesh create right before they launch their projectiles? Could that work?”
Zigana cocked his head to the side as he calculated. “I could try to calibrate the sensors to detect the gravitic anomaly preceding such a launch, sir. But with travel time of railgun projectiles, it’s possible the enemy projectiles would already be in the tunnel created by gravity manipulation and our railgun shells would hit those instead of the capital ships.”
“Hmmm, so we need to be closer then?”
“The closer we get, sir, the harder the enemy projectiles will impact us when they hit.”
“The alternative is to sit here like ducks waiting to be shot. Gather our capital ships together, both from the planetary defense force and our own fleet. We’ll move together toward the asteroid field.”
“As you say, sir.”
***
Selene sped through the skies above Herzig Square. She fired a volley of coilgun shells at a cluster of Krai’kesh on the ground to devastating effect. She checked her ammo count. She couldn’t maintain her rate of fire for long, a disadvantage of using physical projectiles over lasers.
“Watch out above,” one of her pilots warned over the squadron channel.
Selene looked up and saw a large object falling from the sky. It landed east of the city. She turned her fighter to investigate. Why launch projectiles toward empty fields instead of the populated city center? she thought.
A large crater occupied the ground east of the city center. The object at the center of the crater burned from the entry into the planet’s atmosphere.
The “rock” cracked open. It continued to break apart but instead of cracking open like an egg, the outer shell became the armor of a gigantic creature. “Holy shit,” Selene said. The monster towered a good twenty meters high per the sensors on Selene’s fighter. It stood on four pointed legs and possessed two huge claws at the end of long arms. A wide maw formed its mouth, with layers of teeth and pincers on either side of it. It reminded Selene of a larger version of the Krai’kesh skitterers. Selene streamed her sensor data to fighter command. “CAG, you need to see this,” she said over the air group channel.
The CAG was silent for several moments before he said, “All fighters, move to the east to attack the new creature. We can’t let it reach the city center.”
Selene did not wait for the creature to move. She fired a barrage of coilgun shells right into it. Unlike the skitterers, where coilgun shells fired from a high powered coilgun mounted on a fighter could rip through with ease, the shells slammed into the armor of the creature and didn’t make so much as a mark. “Shit,” she said.
She flew past the creature and performed a lazy turn, coming around again for another sweep. The creature moved toward the west. This time she triggered a missile. It slammed into the creature and exploded, causing a puff of black smoke, but it did not faze it.
Other Federation fighters joined in the attack on the creature. Lasers and coil gun shells fired into it and missiles exploded against its hard carapace but the creature did not slow or stop, but did become annoyed. It lashed out with a claw, smashing a fighter right out of the sky and sending it careening into a skyscraper. The creature’s second claw caught a fighter in its grip and crushed it before tossing it aside like a child tossing aside a toy after growing bored. It acts like we’re gnats, she realized. Just as she might swat at a fly or mosquito, the creature was swatting at what it saw as minor annoyances.
“All fighters,” Selene said over the air group channel. “Go for its legs, try to immobilize it. Avoid its claws at all costs.”
With each step the creature neared Herzig Square with its refugees and soldiers. They had to stop it.
***
Bodies littered the sub-level of the capitol building in much the same way as they had at ground level, except most of the bodies belonged to soldiers or security forces. Derek heard laser fire mingled with shouts, screams and roars coming from further down the hall.
He and his Marines came around a bend and stopped.
A pair of blast doors at the end of the hall stood open. Krai’kesh milled about outside them, waiting their turn to enter. A Krai’kesh commander stood at the rear, holding its spear with the butt in the ground as its minions did the grunt work. It barked harsh-sounding commands in an unknown tongue.
They’re quite lazy, Derek thought. The commanders were game-changers wherever they appeared, so why was it holding back?
Derek held up a fist to keep his Marines from firing. He lined up his sights and motioned for the others to do the same. Maybe if they could all fire at once…
One Marine fired, with the shot being absorbed by the rear void shield of the commander.
Shit, Derek thought, pulling the trigger as the Krai’kesh commander turned to face them. The beam twisted as expected into the commander’s void shield. Derek fired again, trying to buy time to think.
The skitterers maintained their position and continued pushing further into the bunker, but the commander moved toward them with a measured calm which made Derek more afraid than if it had run toward him and his men.
Derek dropped his rifle and drew his black blade. “Stay behind me,” he ordered. He stepped in front of his fellow Marines.
The sight of a blade did not cause the Krai’kesh commander to pause. It lifted its staff high, poised to bring it down hard.
The creature counter-attacked but Derek blocked. It pivoted the staff around and the blunt end of the staff hit Derek in the side of the head. Derek stumbled backward, ears ringing and eyes blurred.
Instead of an impaling or decapitating blow, he found a Marine in front of him instead, holding up his rifle to defend him.
Derek shook his head, then stepped around beside the Marine and got behind the Krai’kesh commander. He swung his blade and the Krai’kesh pivoted to block it. The other Marine dropped his rifle and withdrew his belt knife. He stepped forward and stabbed the Krai’kesh in the back. The commander stumbled just enough that Derek could overpower it and slash with an upward strike to decapitate the commander.
The creature dropped to the ground and its staff clattered to the floor. The effect on the Krai’kesh skitterers was immediate. They milled about in a confused state of sorts.
Derek and the Marines shot the Krai’kesh skitterers in the back. A few creatures turned and charged, but most died before reaching the Marines. Derek cut down two which made it.
The last Krai’kesh died and a female voice came from within the room. “Who’s out there?”
“My name is Lieutenant Derek Jamison,” he announced as he sheathed his sword. “We received a request for help from Captain Grimshaw.”
“Thank God you’re here, Lieutenant.” A slender figure in black Shadow Watch Guard armor exited the room and removed their helmet, revealing a woman with red hair, green eyes and a scowl. She spotted the corpse of the commander. “I saw one of those cut down ten men. How did you defeat it?”
Derek tapped the hilt of his blade over his shoulder. “A sword helped.”
Captain Grimshaw smiled. “I’ll have to get one then.”
“Is the governor alive?”
Emergence: Book One of the Dark Tide Trilogy Page 12
