“In that case, make note that this is a very old Krixis world, perhaps one of the oldest.”
“You think it could be their original home world, Ana?”
“We have no idea where that planet was, only that it is not their current home world, and this place is sacred to them, so who knows?”
She was closing on her enemy fast. She might even catch up to him before he reached the temple.
The red dot in her locator suddenly stopped moving, but was short of the temple entrance.
“Ana, force shield!”
She raised her left arm in front of her body and ducked her head down behind her force shield. An electro-pulse slammed into the shield at an oblique angle, glanced upward off of it, and struck the top of her helmet. The impact knocked her backward.
She hit the ground and rolled into a prone position, her head and body tucked behind the force shield. She checked her vitals to be certain, but the hit hadn’t penetrated her helmet.
Five pulse shots lit up the tunnel as they flashed above her. A spray of needles from his pistol followed. But none of the shots came low enough to hit her.
“The tunnel rises slightly from this point on, Ana. So he cannot hit you from here, as long as he stays where he is and you keep your head down.”
A crack was now spreading down the visor, and her breath was steaming up the glass on the inside.
“Helmet status? It’s getting a bit stuffy in here.”
“Air filtration system temporarily offline, Ana. Attempting a reboot. The flashlight is damaged. Failure imminent. Light enhancement capability is offline, manual repairs needed. And the helmet’s integrity has been compromised in the form of a crack that’s going to keep growing. It is unlikely to split open, however.”
“What’s the air quality down here?”
“Poor, Ana, but it is not going to kill you…unless you spend a few weeks down here.”
She retracted the helmet into her armor. There was no point trying to use it, and the crack was going to impair her ability to see anything clearly.
“Deploy a spy-fly drone and turn on firefly mode. That should get me enough light to work with.”
“If that is your intention, Ana, then I would deploy three.”
“Make it so.”
Three dragonfly-sized drones flew out from a box attached to her belt. Sensor, video, and audio data for each popped up in windows within her HUD, but she minimized them. One took up a position directly above her while the other two went ten meters ahead, one to each side of the tunnel. Each began to emit a soft, orange glow.
“By the way, Silky, you are off your game. I should not have needed to ask for a status update on the helmet, and I had to read my vitals report myself.”
“Sorry, Ana. I have taxed my processors trying to decipher those anomalous energy readings I am picking up from the temple. I have simply never seen anything like them.”
“I have more immediate problems.”
“Yes, Ana, and I am working on those. But you are capable of reading your HUD and figuring things out on your own, even when you’ve been injured. If those temple doors are opened though, you will be exposed to energies I do not recognize. Figuring those out is something only I can do. Besides, I’ve also picked up some possible life form readings nearby. Strange ones at that.”
“Fine. Whatever.” She popped up and fired her plasma carbine in full-auto mode. “Wait. Did you say strange life forms?”
“That’s what I said.”
The insurgent darted into a side tunnel, and the shots struck the temple door at the end of the tunnel. Damn.
“It may not be wise to shoot that door, Ana.”
“Too bad.”
A single howl pierced the tunnel behind her, then dozens more.
“I do not like the sound of that. Those the life forms you mentioned?”
“Yes, Ana.”
A dozen red dots lit up suddenly in her locator. Six of them rushed up the tunnel behind her. Six more charged out ahead of her, three each from two side tunnels not far ahead.
“I think you are about to meet the temple guardians, Ana.”
“Yay me.”
“I hope this is not going to be Dalren VIII all over again, Ana.”
“I told you to never bring up that mission again—ever.”
Chapter Sixteen
Eyana Ora
Eyana’s empathic senses picked up the nearest of these new enemies, and she had no idea what to think. It seemed as wild and mindless as a rabid wolf, and yet there was something distinctly Krixis about it.
With her shield still active, she drew her neural disruptor with her left hand. “Bring up a targeting triangle for me, align it to my disruptor then lock onto the nearest…whatever it is…to my left.”
With her plasma carbine, she squeezed off a burst toward the “beasts” on the right. Several of them fell back, wailing, but none of them went down. She had no idea why. It was impossible to tell where she’d struck them.
Then she raised the disruptor, aiming at a target she still couldn’t see. When the pistol’s yellow dot in her HUD matched up with the blue targeting triangle and turned green, she fired the disruptor. A white, ring-shaped blast thrummed through the darkness and struck her target precisely.
The red dot staggered backward, then surged forward, along with the ones she’d hit with the plasma carbine. Damn it! This was going to be Dalren VIII all over again. She didn’t even want to remember that experience, much less relive it.
Backpedalling, she holstered the pistol. “Switch targeting to the carbine.”
“Ana, the ship captain did mention the insurgents might have a way of countering the guardians here.”
“I noticed they are charging me and not him.”
“Ana, you’re going to get pinched between these two groups very soon.”
“You still have that flashbang prepped?”
“Roger that, Ana.”
“Fire it into the midst of the ones ahead.”
With a thwump, the flashbang launched out of the shoulder mount and struck the ground twenty meters ahead.
“Blink!” Silky told her.
Her smart lenses protected her eyes, but they could only do so much, and the flash was going to be incredibly powerful in the tunnel’s darkness.
The micro-grenade burst with such intensity that even with her eyes shut, a glow penetrated her smart lenses and lit up her eyelids as if someone had just shined a flashlight onto them. The loud bang she had little protection from, but it wasn’t ear-busting, even up close. That was okay though, because the primary function of a flashbang was surprise. She wished she could have used a neural stun grenade, but those couldn’t be reduced to micro-grenade size.
All of the beasts staggered in surprise, and several howled in irritation.
She opened her eyes, aligned the dot to the targeting triangle, and fired at the nearest one. At the same time, she charged forward. The hit struck the beast in the head, and it went down. They could be killed. That was comforting to know. Only five meters away, she brought another down with a perfectly aimed shot.
As she neared the beasts, who seemed to already be recovering from the flashbang, she switched back onto full-auto mode and swept the carbine back and forth, firing indiscriminately, the power meter draining rapidly, the tip of barrel beginning to glow.
Illuminated by the spy drones and plasma shots, she could at last see the things trying to kill her.
A hitch interrupted her stride as she stumbled out of control. Bile rose into her throat, and she choked it back as she gathered her composure and kept going.
The beasts were Krixis but gone wrong, horribly, horribly wrong—as if they were direct clones misshapen by accident and then exposed to tremendous bursts of radiation, resulting in extreme scarring and hideous mutations.
No two were alike. Some had tentacles sprouting off their chests, some large thorns protruding from their genitals. Others had pulsing sores, open wounds, and
mutations so bizarre and disturbing she could hardly take them in. And the smell…the smell was beyond terrible and utterly indescribable. She nearly deployed her cracked helmet to avoid the scent, but she was afraid she’d vomit inside it.
One of the ones she’d blasted in the head sat up, despite the crater in its skull that gushed blood and exposed purple brain matter. Meanwhile, the other one she’d thought she’d killed started to climb to its feet.
“What the hell?!”
An uninjured beast attempted to step into her path, but she slammed her force shield against it. As she dodged around it, another swatted her from the right, clipping her shoulder and ripping through her armor with razor-sharp claws that raked across her skin. She lurched off-balance but still managed to break free from them.
As they turned in pursuit, the six who’d been coming from behind caught up to them.
“Ana, I am not detecting any poison from those claws. Damage is minimal.”
“I still think I’m going to throw up.”
“I did notice a hitch in your step and an odd spike in your vitals when you first looked at them, Ana. And then, of course, you cried out. So what’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter? Seriously? Didn’t you see them?”
“Yes, Ana. I saw a dozen Krixis warriors with lifeless eyes, encased in some sort of full-body, crystalline armor that blocks my scans.”
“Crystalline armor? What on Terra’s holy soil are you talking about? They weren’t sheathed in anything! They were horribly mutated!”
“Ana, are you okay? I’m not detecting any toxins or injuries, but you seem to be hallucinating.”
She stretched her right arm back and loosed a few shots with her plasma carbine, hoping to slow them. It didn’t work.
“Are you telling me they weren’t horribly mutated?”
“That is exactly what I am telling you, Ana.”
She started to fire a few more shots, then realized she was wasting energy and only slowing herself down. The red dot representing the insurgent leader remained in the last of the side tunnels just before the entrance to the temple.
“Well, great. They must have some sort of telepathic ability that’s making me see terrible things, and I’m only picking up on it because I’m an empath.”
“If so, Ana, imagine what it would do to another Krixis.”
She shivered. “The ones I struck in the head…”
“You broke through the crystalline sheathe, Ana, but the shots only then caused minor face wounds.”
“Silky, I am not going to be able to trust my senses when it comes to those things. I’m going to have to rely on you.”
“Understood, Ana. I’m now analyzing the two with damaged armor.”
She was only twenty meters away from the side tunnel, twenty meters away from being caught between a hard place and an avalanche of boulders. She was going to have to ignore the latter and take on the rock first. She had to neutralized the insurgent leader. He was the priority. If she killed him, the Benevolency, and maybe the Krixis Empire as well, would be safe. If in the process of taking him out she died because of the beasts, then so be it.
“Ana, I am detecting an odd energy source radiating from the insurgent leader. I have never seen anything like it before, which seems to be our theme of the day. The closest thing I’ve seen to compare it to would be the emppy’s dampening field that keeps you hidden so that the Krixis won’t pick up on your ability.”
Ana smiled. “That’s how he’s getting past them. That device is either hiding him from their sight or repulsing them somehow.”
“I think repulsion is a possibility, Ana. I have completed an analysis of the Krixis warriors encased in the crystalline armor. They have been genetically altered and surgically bonded to their armor. Their body chemistry is unlike that of other Krixis, and they have tumorous brain implants that I suspect govern their behavior. Also, the armor likely prevents them from aging, keeping them in a suspended animation when no intruders are down here. They’re more like biological automatons than living beings.”
“So they’ve probably been down here for centuries protecting this temple.”
Eyana redeployed her helmet and her refraction cloak.
“Target on the insurgent leader.”
“Acknowledged, Ana.”
As she reached the side tunnel, rather than springing around the corner or brazenly charging in directly, she slid in at an angle, feet first with her shield up in front of her and her carbine held under it.
Kicking up dirt, she skidded to a stop just within the tunnel, her gun spurting a torrent of plasma bolts as she fought to keep the yellow dot matched up with the blue targeting triangle.
At the exact same time, the insurgent leader unleashed a hail of fire, apparently having sensed her attack. Electro-pulses crackled and poisoned needles thwipped over her head.
For a moment, Eyana rejoiced, knowing she’d nailed the bastard, but her hopes fell as her plasma shots spattered against a strong personal force field he’d waited to deploy at the last second.
“Damn.”
“Sorry, Ana. I was so busy analyzing the warriors and his telepathic energy emitter that I missed the force field.”
Hardly listening to Silky, she pinned down the trigger, shots blasting continuously into the insurgent’s force field.
Just as his field failed, two, well-aimed electrical pulses struck her shield full-on, knocking it out. Another glanced off her plasma carbine and spattered into the ground near her legs. Poisoned needles pelted the tunnel around her. Then two needles connected, one slicing across her cheek and another piercing just under her left jaw.
One of her plasma bolts struck his electro-blaster, another his chest, burning through his armor. The weapon exploded in his hand, blasting away fingers in a miniature lightning storm. He cried out as the force of the explosion knocked him back against the wall, a halo of sparks sizzling around him.
Pain lanced through Eyana’s jaw. She imagined this was what it would feel like to be injected with acid. At the same time, a fuzziness spread through her brain. She pulled the trigger for another plasma burst, but her gun failed. She shook the weapon and clumsily tried again, but to no avail.
“Your rifle is functional but temporarily ionized, Ana. It will be back online in approximately twenty-seven seconds.”
She only then noted the warning signal in her HUD that had alerted her to the gun’s status.
“The last of the anti-toxin agents from your implant have been released into your system, Ana. You are going to need a direct injection from your medkit.”
Head swimming, she climbed to her feet, tossed her carbine aside, and drew her neural disruptor.
“The beasts are almost on top of you, Ana. Close in on him. That’s your best chance to avoid them. Go now.”
As she staggered forward, firing at the wounded insurgent, he unleashed a burst of needles. He ducked under her poorly aimed shots, and she dodged haphazardly and nearly fell. Needles tore across her scalp and peppered her battlesuit.
Overwhelmed by the both the pain from the toxins and their soporific effect, she collapsed, writhing and crying out in agony even as she fought for consciousness.
Clutching his mangled hand to his body, the insurgent leader staggered over and loomed over her. The beasts that had just reached the side tunnel entrance peeled back as he approached. She could feel him gloating, a mix of hatred and amusement, as he looked down on her.
She projected thoughts toward him, along with as strong a feeling of retribution as she could manage. “Your people are coming for you. They will be here soon. You cannot win.”
He cocked his head for a moment, as if he might have discerned her meaning, but she couldn’t be sure. She could hardly think clearly, so she may have only projected nonsense toward him.
He aimed his needle pistol at her forehead.
This was it. This was the end. She only regretted that she had failed this mission, perhaps the most im
portant one of her life. The insurgent leader was wounded, but not badly enough. The shot to his chest had penetrated his armor but had only lightly burned into his flesh, and though his hand was ruined, that was hardly going to kill a healthy Krixis warrior.
She managed to choke back a scream and focus her mind for a final message to Silky.
“Goodbye…old…friend.”
The Krixis leader glanced up at the beasts as they slinked away, then looked back at her. Despite her pain, vertigo, and drowsiness, she had no difficulty picking up the hate he felt for her. He noticed her glancing toward the beasts. His eyes smiled as he holstered his pistol and stumbled away.
As if trapped in a nightmare, she watched the bestial warriors bolt away from him then shuffle back as he moved on. They stopped at the side tunnel entrance, turned, and headed toward her.
Chapter Seventeen
Gav Gendin
As Gav raced through the dark corridor, he wondered if the rest of the ship’s rotting structure would hold. The collapses behind him had stopped. He slowed and listened. There was a rushing noise as dirt poured in, filling the former cargo bay. But everything else was quiet. Then a boom rocked the vessel as another section caved in. A cloud of dust billowed into the corridor and swept along ahead of him at knee level.
“Any chance you’ve mapped the structure yet?”
“I am seventy-two percent certain this is the main corridor.”
“You don’t say. Anything else?”
“A section has fallen in behind you.”
“I noticed.”
“And the entire structure is incredibly unstable now.”
“I am shocked.”
“You should not be. All of the evidence points to—”
“Shut it.”
The creaking vibrations calmed, again giving way to a pouring sound. He knew how this would go. The weight of the soil surging in would put pressure on the interior walls until they collapsed, setting off a cascade effect. The entire structure was failing, and it wasn’t going to take many more section failures before the entire thing caved in. Its demise was inevitable. The ship had been rotting away for over a century, and falling into the chasm created by his blast had probably damaged every centimeter of the outer hull.
Forbidden System: A Benevolency Universe Novel (Fall of the Benevolence Book 1) Page 12
