“ wha… where are we?” he asked.
“ In sickbay,” Vargev reminded him.
“ No; where are we?”
“ On the surface of Gamma IV,” Nikolai replied.
“ Good, so we made it through the atmosphere then?”
“ Yes, you made it through the atmosphere, although your landing sucked.”
“ Err…yeah, sorry about that. It’s good to see you again Nikolai, it’s been a while.”
“ It’s good to see you too, old friend.”
Michael looked up at the gentle form of Kathryn tending to him, “Well I suppose it had to happen some time.”
“ What had to?” Kathryn replied.
“ You had to save me, since I rescued you on Delta base all those months ago.”
Kathryn silently smiled as she continued to tend to his wounds.
Michael was soon on his feet however, and with no small amount of arguing from Miss Jacobs, left sickbay.
The lights gradually came back on, indicating that all the backup generators had now kicked in, Nikolai unclipped his torch from his weapon and placed it back in his webbing.
Kinraid joined them, and greeted Vargev. “Hello there colonel,” he saluted, “Heard a lot about ya’, so I have.”
“ No doubt you have,” Vargev replied, saluting in kind. He was unsure about Kinraid, although he was reluctant to make any judgements about the man. He had never met him before.
“ How’s the ship?” Michael asked the commander as the three of them walked together.
“ She’s taken quite a pasting cap’n, we don’t know if she’ll fly again.”
“ She will,” Michael smiled confidently, “it will take more than a little crash landing to keep her down, she’s a tough little cookie,” he paused as he rubbed his temples, his head still throbbed, he was still feeling the effects of concussion from the crash. “Any news from the fleet in orbit?”
“ None sir, communications are still down.”
“ Damn, okay I want a full damage assessment in one hour commander; get to it.”
“ Aye sir,” Kinraid said as he left the two men alone.
“ He seems like a good man,” Vargev said as they continued along the debris-strewn corridor.
“ Yeah, he is one hell of an officer too,” Michael replied with a nod.
8. The defeat of Alax
The chatter of machine gun fire could be heard ever so faintly just outside of the ship, and then all went silent once again.
“ The other commandoes!” Vargev cried as he realised, he sprinted back towards the hatch.
“ I’ll come with you,” Michael replied as he chased after him.
Together they ran the length of the corridor to the elevator that would take them to deck 6, the lowest deck on the ship, and where the hatch was located. Soon enough the elevator deposited them, as the doors opened they sprinted down the main corridor on the deck, making a sharp right turn, about half way along, and located the hatch.
Vargev slowly crept out, keeping his body close to the hull of the downed ship. The distant echo of explosions and weapons fire was still audible from outside the loading area. The commandoes and the rest of the armoured company were putting up one hell of a fight, Vargev thought. It made him proud.
He looked around the immediate area as Michael clambered out of the hatch behind him. The raider was still intact, however along the interior of the loading bay lay the bullet-ridden bodies of a dozen or so Krenarans, freshly culled.
The commando manning the roof mounted Armschlager was dead. His head was a mangled, bloodied ruin. The other commandoes were also dead, laid amongst the Krenaran bodies.
Vargev made his way cautiously over to one of the commando bodies, picked up its weapon and ammunition, and tossed it over to Michael.
Silently, the big Russian pointed to the wide ramped corridor that led up onto the spaceport platform. Together they sprinted across the loading area to the edge of this corridor. Vargev peered around it, half expecting a dozen more to come at them.
Instead, there was nothing, no sign of movement, just dead silence. Carefully the two of them made their way up the gentle incline, and were almost halfway there when they came upon the gigantic form of the Krenaran Vargev spotted earlier. Oh, this is not going to end well, he thought.
Close up, it looked even more terrifying. Dwarfing even Axus, whom they killed eight months ago, and he had been no pushover, in fact, he had damn near killed them both.
Its heavy mechanical legs hissed and crackled with power. With heavy footfalls that pounded the very ground, this behemoth of a Krenaran slowly, ominously advanced towards them. Its huge triple barrelled cannon levelled straight at them.
This monster regarded them as though they were nothing more than little inconveniences, to be crushed by his merest whim, “I am Alax, overlord of the Krenaran race, and you had better pray to whatever deities you believe in, because only they can help you now!” The aliens voice boomed across the length of the corridor.
The sight of this massive lumbering Krenaran triggered something in Michael’s mind, suddenly he went back to that time eight months ago, trying to remember something important, damn it, he couldn’t remember what it was.
Reality rapidly snapped him out of his reverie when three simultaneous beams shot forth from Alax’s weapon, they both dived in opposite directions as the shot flashed past them and blasted a sizable crater out of the concrete floor.
They both let loose with their Armschlagers, the roar of weapons fire was deafening around the deserted corridor; the weapons juddered as round after round pumped into the oncoming leviathan, spent cases tinkled and danced off the hard floor. A transparent yellow haze formed around this lumbering beast of a Krenaran, and the shots simply ricocheted off it.
“ He’s got some sort of god-damn energy field!” Michael shouted in desperation.
“ No shit! Like I didn’t know that!” Vargev retorted.
Another blast shot past the Russian and they retreated, stumbling down the corridor and back into the wider loading area.
Slowly, inexorably, as though death itself; Alax followed after them.
“ We have to get to the raider, it’s our only chance!” Vargev shouted.
They ran further into the loading area, with Alax in pursuit. The only advantage they had was that for all his power, all his brute force. Alax was slow on those mechanical legs of his, although it wasn’t much of an advantage.
“ Now I remember!” Michael said, as his mind returned to that time eight months ago.
“ Remember what!” Vargev shouted over the increasingly loud footfalls behind them.
“ Eight months ago, when we fought Axus,” Michael said breathing hard.”
“ Yeah, what about it?” Vargev replied as they raced towards the safety of the parked raider.
“ Axus said that he had a master, and he was going to deliver us to him.”
“ And this guy must be it.”
They almost made it to the raider when three blindingly bright green energy beams shot past them and smashed into the vehicle. Vargev and Michael both dived out of the way as the sheer force of the impact smashed the 4x4 onto its side, its engine caught fire and began churning out thick black smoke.
“ I have wasted enough time with you pitiful humans, prepare to die!” Alax said, with such an evil uncaring tone to his voice, these Terrans were nothing to him, weak insects to squash at his merest whim.
Both Michael and Vargev were down, as the force of the blast had momentarily dazed them. Their heads were swimming as those heavy, pounding footfalls continued to close, there was a kind of grim finality to those ominous footfalls, maybe this was one enemy they couldn’t defeat or escape from.
Together, both of them picked up their weapons and opened fire at the hulking great Krenaran in one last valiant attempt to bring it down, its yellow energy field blazed into life once again.
It was at that point that Vargev accepted his fate, t
his enemy was simply too powerful, too strong, they were hopelessly outmatched and deep down he knew it; there was just nothing he could do against an enemy of such power.
The battle at the main gate had intensified, the constant chatter of heavy machine gun fire and intermittent buzzing of pulse rifle shots, met the powerful ‘wuu-doom’ of Krenaran energy weapons. Both humans and Krenarans were dying in equal measure in the bitter fighting.
The wreckage of a blazing apollo main battle tank, and a dominator assault walker was spread out across the road. Surviving commandoes and infantrymen were using it as a kind of makeshift barricade.
The Krenarans were continuing to press the attack, throwing everything they had against this gate despite the horrific casualties the E.D. F troops were inflicting on them.
A shot from a Krenaran weapon blasted apart the head of a heavy machine gunner, the crimson spray of blood and brain matter coated the nearby sandbags in a deep red sheen. A dozen Krenarans tried to charge the sandbagged position, but were mercilessly ripped apart as the heavy assault cannon of big Bertha roared its anger.
In the loading area, the battle was every bit as intense, as Michael and Vargev raced past the huge Krenaran, trying to use their speed to their advantage, their lungs burned, patches of sweat, blood and grime marked their skin.
The enormous trunk like fist of Alax tried to swat them as they sprinted past, but only whipped through fresh air.
Michael spied a covered metal box at the top of one of Alax’s mechanical legs, a small light blinked at the top of it. Michael had an idea what this was.
“ Aim for the shield generator at the top of its leg!” he shouted to Vargev, pointing to this box.
Alax opened fire with his weapon again, the Russian barely had time to jump out of the way of the blast as it narrowly missed turning him into crimson froth. The shot blew a large hole in the metal clad wall behind with a loud explosion.
He hit the ground hard; face first, his weapon skittered away across the floor. The thunderous footsteps came closer. Vargev, now winded was breathing hard desperately searching for some kind of weapon, anything he could use.
“ Move! Get out of there!” a desperate Michael shouted over to him.
It was too late; Alax had him. With one enormous hand hefted Vargev high into the air, and held him close to the aliens face, the colonel could feel his hot breath on his face, as those evil crimson eyes bored into his own, “you have troubled me enough, and now I will crush you like the bug you are.” Then flung him like a rag doll into the corrugated steel wall behind. The Russians body smashed against the hard cladding with such force his body went limp.
“ Bastard!” a desperate Michael shouted, as he let rip with his weapon. Blood and sweat trickled down the Liberty captains face.
A returned shot from Alax’s weapon made him dive for cover to his left as the shot barely missed him. He hid amongst the burning wreckage of the raider.
“ Face it Terran, you cannot defeat me, surrender and I’ll end this quickly.”
Michael was fast running out of options, there had to be something, anything he could use against this thing.
Then he spotted it; the damaged dominator. Its cockpit glass was shattered and the pilot was dead, but it looked reasonably operable. It was the only thing even capable of hurting this monstrosity.
The thump, thump of heavy footfalls were slowly getting nearer, he needed a distraction.
Vargev gradually came to, and quietly got back woozily to his feet, he was in agony, his ribs felt busted, he blinked as his vision slowly cleared and looked over to Michael, Alax was almost on top of him and he was keeping cover amongst the wreckage of the raider. He noticed he was pointing towards something, as though trying to tell him something, Nikolai looked to where he was pointing; the damaged dominator, and instantly knew what Michael was thinking.
“ Keep him busy,” he whispered hoping Michael could read his lips.
“ Easy for you to say,” the reply came.
Michael continued to play cat and mouse amongst the burning raider, Alax was slow and easily evaded. He was desperately tired though and wondered just how long he could keep it going.
Vargev removed the bloodied remains of the pilot from the dominator and strapped himself in, wiping the gore from the instruments. The machine was in fairly good condition, a status panel was showing damage to the frontal armour plates, and that the glass was indeed shattered making it open to the elements. Nevertheless, other than that it was okay. The weapons and hydraulic systems worked fine anyway.
He had never piloted a dominator in action before, and had only trained on one a handful of times. Slotting his arms into the weapon mounts, and his legs into the leg mounts. As he moved the machine accentuated his movements via the hydraulics. He managed to get the thing to roll onto its front so it could right itself, no mean feat considering this thing weighed nearly four tonnes.
With a noticeable whine, the machine managed to get back onto its legs again. Alax immediately turned towards this new threat.
“ Hey asshole, time to pick on someone your own size!” Vargev shouted through the smashed glass with an evil grin.
He clicked a trigger with his left hand, and the assault cannon unleashed a hail of rounds into the Krenaran, its energy field glowed brightly as it deflected the furious salvo, bullet holes riddled the roof and walls from the deflected rounds. The rapidly spinning barrels of the dominator’s assault cannon glowed red hot as Vargev pumped round after round in a hailstorm of bullets. The status display flashed a warning at him as it registered a danger of overheat on the weapon, Alax staggered backwards under the fusillade, digging in his metal claws on the hard concrete.
One of the bullets must have found its mark as the Krenarans shield generator crackled and sparked, its energy field shut down. However Vargevs weapon had overheated and jammed, damn it, he thought.
Alax looked at him and smiled an evil smile, calmly levelled his own weapon and fired. The shot tore into the assault cannon, blasting it apart in a hail of razor sharp shrapnel. The machine staggered backwards, and almost toppled over. Nikolai screamed in pain as his left hand burned, barely managing to keep the thing from falling.
He moved his legs, coaxing the machine into a clumsy parody of a jog. The dominator bore down on the equally huge Alax, the massive machine and the Krenaran overlord slammed into each other, rolling end over end, grappling and wrestling with one another.
Alax tried to shove his weapon through the cockpit glass in an effort to blast Vargev apart at point blank range, however with the hydraulic ram attached to the hard point on the other arm, Vargev repeatedly smashed aside the blow.
The Krenaran gripped and tore at the frontal armour, rending steel with his bare hand in a furious effort to get to Vargev, Alax became crazed, frothing at the mouth, his reptilian features contorting in pure fury. He roared his rage.
Ultimately, the dominator unable to withstand the furious assault fell backwards in a deafening crash, the Krenaran heaved itself on top of the machine, pounding down upon it with its fist, blow after blow smashing into it.
Lying face up and being violently thrown about by Alax’s assault, Vargev clicked another trigger in his right hand; Alax froze. Where a mere split second ago there was an enormous tussle raging, now there was serene calm.
Vargev had activated the hydraulic ram in the right hand weapon mount, when he pressed that trigger he released four thousand pounds per square inch of pressure, forcing the solid titanium tipped ram forward with such a force that it tore right through the Krenarans body.
The Russian simply laid there, totally exhausted and in extreme pain from his badly burned hand and broken ribs. The dominator torn and mangled from the machinations of Alax, damaged now beyond repair.
Michael hurried over to his position, and gently helped Vargev out of the battered machine, the Russian winced as his broken ribs sent shooting pains across his right side.
“ Well I guess we are even n
ow.”
“ Even, about what?”
“ Well, I killed Axus and now you finished off Alax.”
“ The hell we are.” The big Russian coughed.
Michael pushed a button on his wrist comm. “Alexander to Med-bay we need a medic down here pronto.”
“ Received, we’ll get one to you now.” The voice of Kathryn replied.
As the two of them waited for the medic to arrive, Vargev spluttered, “listen.”
“ What for?” Michael replied, his brows furrowed, trying to decipher anything out of the ordinary.
“ The weapons fire has stopped,” Vargev replied as he favoured his ribs. “The battle must be over.”
“ Or all your men are dead, and those Krenaran bastards will come marching in here any moment.”
There was a faint buzzing sound coming from behind them, Michael looked around trying to locate the source of the strange sound. It slowly increased in its intensity, finally he realised it was coming from the fallen body of Alax. Small arcs of energy were discharging from his body in vivid flashes.
“ It’s some sort of self destruct, it must have activated when his heart stopped, we’ve got to get out here now!”
Michael supported the injured Vargev, as they tried to make a break for it, the Russian tried to run, however, whenever he did agonizing pains shot across his mid-section.
Michael pressed his wrist comm. again. “Michael to Liberty, transfer any power you have left to the gravitic engines, and get the hell out of here; fast!”
“ Copy, gotcha cap’n,” Kinraid replied.
The crippled Liberty slowly began to power up. On the battered bridge, Kinraid asked. “How much power do we actually have?”
“ We have ten percent reserve power remaining, nowhere near enough to break orbit, even if we were in any condition.” Johnson Logameier, the chief engineer replied.
“ Okay, divert whatever power we ‘ave left, and set us down on that field we crashed in.”
E. D. F resurgent (e.d.f chronicles) Page 9
