Revenant

by Raymond Bayly

  By the sixth machine she thought she had located it, it was an archived file that was huge as she opened it and poking around, she found audio communication files as well as text files,

  what she would expect to see from a com backup array. Elvera smiled and began copying the data into a drive on her hip. However, what she missed was the small device that was sticking out of the back of the machine, it had a slow pulsing red light on it.

  On the Revenant Kree almost fell out of his char,

  he had been concentrating on the fleet that he had nearly forgotten about the archive array on the planet until a warning came up indicating someone was copying the data from the server.

  Kree had to think fast, the captain was still alive and about to fight a hell of a battle,

  so, who got through and who was copying the data. It didn’t matter, it had to be stopped now.

  Kree closed his eyes and virtually entered the systems. As he scanned around, he found and turned off Safety protocols, fans, cooling systems, he increased the power to all the boxes and started all drives, modules, and programs causing the servers to begin to heat up.

  Elvera felt the room start to get hot and cocked her head, any place with this many servers should never get this hot. She looked around and confirmed the guards were out and she was still alone. The Air handlers might have gone offline because of the fighting she thought and continued to copy files. Within minutes the room was baking, now she knew something was wrong but didn’t know what.

  She was a field agent, not a computer geek.

  She put her hand on the squat box and quickly took it away, it was boiling,

  Elvera began to get nervous, she had never seen a computer get that hot, something was very wrong, but she didn’t know what.

  She took a breath and continued copying files,

  she had to complete her mission.

  Kree on the ship watched as the temp gauges on the machines rose and rose and rose until they were all at critical levels. He didn’t know who was down there, but he pitied anyone in that room,

  and he adjusted the power flow to the boxes and increasing it 100-fold. He didn’t know how much data had been copied, but he had to ensure it didn’t leave the room. As soon as he set the power spike loose, every warning and emergency system began to complain loudly in his mind, but Kree ensured that on the server’s they all stayed silent.

  Elvera still glancing around nervously though she had it under control as the temperature was hot but seemed to stabilize.

  Then all hell broke loose, every machine began to suffer a critical failure, and their power systems exploded, sending shrapnel out from the boxes. One after another they turned into flying debris,

  As the box, she was in front of exploded Elvera was thrown back as shrapnel slammed into her body and punctured and cut her from head to toe,

  she screamed all the way to the ground as her world faded to black.

  Blake and Team – Temple Entrance THIRTYdfgegqeergwekbjhg

  Blake heard them coming before he saw them,

  the shuffle of hundreds of boots as they came on like a deadly herd. Blake tensed and tightened his grip on the gun looking over he could see the same thing from his team, the end of this was near and one way or another it was going to end.

  The Soldiers crested the hill of bodies weapons pointed and began firing as soon as they saw them. The Group led by Blake laid down covering fire trying to keep the group back,

  Suddenly the soldiers switched targets and began shooting at the ground.

  Blake was confused at first but as they shot large puffs of dirt shot into the air making it hard to see. They were using their guns to create the effect of smoke grenades.

  Blake still firing yelled to Rom and Xera

  “Take them out, they are trying to create cover for the soldiers.”

  His shooting increased, the rapid firing began to effect his accuracy. And before long the ground in front of the group was a massive smoke screen. Soldiers began to jump into the hole with them.

  As the smoke began to creep into it as well.

  Blake snarled with frustration and dropped his carbine, he pulled the knives out of the sheaths in his lower back and launched himself into the smoke. His enhanced vision adapted,

  seeking out shapes his eyes would identify them as soldiers and as they did Blake would lash out and slide a blade into the soft parts between the armor.

  Soldiers began to fall one by one, but as one fell it would instantly be replaced by another,

  Blake could see the dot for Rom and Xera as they too entered the smoke and were taking out soldiers, but it was not fast enough,

  more and more were coming.

  Soon Blake felt the pinch of pain as something cut his side, then again and then his arm was sliced sending a burning pain down it,

  no matter how fast he was, they had numbers.

  He continued to try and remove as many as possible,

  but it was a losing battle.

  Finally, a shot pierced his side into his lung,

  and he collapsed to his knee,

  unable to breathe, he couldn’t continue.

  He noticed the ground was a different color and it took him a second to realize he was standing in a pool of his own blood.

  Kneeling in the fog made him hard to find,

  and Soldiers seemed to shuffle past without realizing he was there.

  Blake hit the com in his ear and wheezed as loud as he could

  “Fall Back, Alpha Position, everyone”

  That small phrase had taken a lot out of him,

  and he was starting to black out.

  He moved and pushed past Soldiers who lashed out competently with short blades,

  slashing and stabbing,

  sending more pain through his body.

  Blake took three dozen steps and came out of the obscured dusty air and collided with the other side of the hole that Rom had created.

  He was done, he couldn’t climb and couldn’t breathe, looking down he noticed his black trench coat was wet, wiping his hand across it,

  it came away red with his blood,

  must have been nanite sharpened blades to piece the vest he thought, even if only one In every ten had pierced, that still was a lot of cuts,

  He needed to give the others time to get to the rendezvous putting his back against the wall Blake let the wet and bloody knives drop from his hands, and with an effort he lifted the shotgun from the sling under his coat, putting the butt of the gun against the wall behind him,

  he began to pull the trigger over and over,

  ensuring not to aim at the green dots that were his friends, Blake watched as Red Plasma rounds basted the troops in front of him some falling and others flying back as the foot-pounds of pressure did their job,

  he smiled as his world began to fade from loss of blood.

  Suddenly two huge hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up. Blake yipped and tried to twist around, He caught sight of Red Skin and massive arms, He sagged a bit with Relief as Rom laid him down and crouched over him.

  In between wheezes and labored breath, the Captain managed to get out

  “I will have you know that was a very manly sound I made, kind of a battle cry.”

  Rom cocked his head,

  “You mean that baby call you just did”

  and he smiled.

  “Come on captain I am getting you out of here.” Blake coughed up blood and turned his head to spit it in the dirt. He couldn’t see his body,

  but he knew it wasn’t good.

  Blake could see punctures and cuts as well as plasma and energy burns over Rom.

  He didn’t seem to notice as he hoisted the Captain up and fireman carried him to the cover of the rocks. As he laid him down Blake motioned for him to come close.

  His vision was swimming,

  and he could barely make out Rom or anything else for that matter.

  Rom leaned closer, still keeping both eyes toward
s the area where the soldiers were

  Blake took a shallow breath

  “did Xera make it” and then she was there,

  she looked better than the two of them did,

  Blake guessed it was that warrior instinct,

  she was better at dodging then they were apparently.

  Blake motioned her close and tried to speak

  The only words that were legible were Stay and Down, Blake reached into his jacket and pulled out a small black device, he dropped it

  and Rom picked it up and placed it in his hand.

  The Captain couldn’t feel it but knew it was there. He pressed a button on the side of the device and then with a long wheeze laughed until he passed out. Rom cradled the captain while Xera kept an eye out, anytime a Soldier got too close she would shoot them, filling the hole with bodies.

  It was only a matter of time before they came out of the smoke to overwhelm them.

  Then in the distance, Xera could hear drums and some other noise. She cocked her head

  “Rom, do you hear that” she asked the big bull tilting his head and listening and then a moment later he nodded.

  “What is that,” he asked as the sound grew louder, the soldiers seemed to stop in the fog and glance around.

  And as the opening riffs of AC-DC’s Back in Black began to play the Specter shot out from above the canyon and began dropping bombs over the area just beyond the rocks.

  Rom and Xera hit the deck,

  Rom covering the captain with his body to protect him from flying debris.

  “Yaaaahoooo!” screamed Shira as the ear-splitting music resonated from the loudspeaker attached to the hull. Davi’s little toys were doing their job,

  as she dropped the bombs, they hit the ground and exploded like napalm,

  decimating the ranks of Soldiers.

  Shira banked left hard as shots rang up from the field, as she passed over, she released another salvo hitting the troops trying to target the Specter.

  Shira barrel rolled the ship and lined up for a final pass along the canyon.

  She could see the troops massing into the smoke to set up for a charge.

  She came in low and hit the maneuvering thrusters scattering the dust cloud the soldiers had created and sent them flying backwards,

  she shot through the canyon dropping ordinance as she went. In the console camera, she could see the fire envelop the soldiers as if a molten lake had been drained into the crevice below.

  She smiled, that should thin them out.

  Shira had been sitting about a mile away waiting on the signal from the Captain.

  He had planned it perfectly, wait until they almost overwhelm them and then call in the cavalry. Once the munitions were expended Shira banked the Specter back towards her staging point to await the second signal for pick up,

  she desperately hoped she got it.

  Shira said a silent prayer as she looked on at the destruction, hoping that Rom, Xera, and the Captain had made it to safety before the bombs dropped.

  Rachart in his rage flipped the command table and bellowed. He watched as his plan was coming together and then in an instant fall apart.

  His troops were decimated, what he had left were still in the canyon and trying to move forward. There were still about two hundred Soldiers left,

  he was not defeated, but he had lost over sixty percent of his force in one afternoon,

  never had this happened, so many soldiers lost by three lousy beings, over some data.

  Rachart seethed as he yelled commands that were relayed to the troops with a special authentication code just for this type of emergency.

  He formed them up into a unit and pressed them forward. He could see even the wounded soldiers trying to form and advance, and he felt pride stab through his anger.

  They would win this day.

  Rom saw them advancing and knew it was the end. There were still too many troops, and he couldn’t move the captain yet, he needed to be stabilized first, but there was no time.

  He cradled the bleeding mass of flesh that was his captain on one arm and raised his rifle with the other. With a bellowing war cry, Rom snarled and began to fire. He would go down like a warrior.

  As they advanced the troops began to fall faster than he was shooting,

  Rom was confused and then felt the tapping at his arm.

  He looked and then followed Xera’s gaze to the top of the canyon. There on both sides of the upper ledge were the beings who resided here,

  firing down on the soldiers and killing them in bulk. He could see the woman Catherine standing and bellowing orders to her troops.

  As they renewed their attack on the Soldiers below, sweeping up the last of them from their positions.

  Rachart could not believe his eyes,

  he watched as the last of his troops were slaughtered in the canyon, this was impossible

  the mission was easy, routine even but they had lost and worse,

  he had lost his entire battalion of soldiers.

  He refused to accept this, never had he been so utterly defeated. The com officer grabbed the Colonel's arm and led him to the drop-ship,

  it had prepped for launch and was ready to go.

  A small figure covered in blood limped into the ship with them.

  “I was not wholly successful,” said a battered and bloody Elvera as she handed the damaged drive to Rachart. I don’t know if what’s on there is any good, I was stopped before I could finish”

  she said wincing in pain. Rachart took the drive, trying not to let the personal concern and worry show for his would-be mate,

  he was drained, slumping in the seat Rachart told the officer to get the ship moving, and they were spirited up to the fleet ships, his defeat fully realized.

  The Noises those buffoons on the screens were making was driving Craylor mad.

  For the last hour, the same track of these three idiots had played over and over. The technical staff on the flagship still were not able to get the ship back under control. He paced the bridge screaming at them to restore the ship's functions. And then that damn video would start, and the three idiots would hit themselves and each other and sputter nonsense.

  The sensor officer turned to the com officer after Craylor had passed and whispered,

  “I like the curly haired one, I think he is in charge.” The sensor officer shook his head

  “no, no the bald one is, see how upset he gets

  when the others talk and the funny-haired one hits him, he is definitely the leader.”

  Craylor passed back behind them on his return pace, and they resumed sitting in silence.

  Finally, after what seemed like forever the screens came alive with data, as did the rest of the consoles on the bridge.

  Craylor rushed to his chair and looked over the data, His stomach dropped at what he saw, one drop-ship speeding up to them,

  the canyon full of smoking dead soldiers of the Empire. He tried to reach the Colonel but couldn’t yet as that functionality was not available.

  He slammed his fist down and gave a withering look at the engineers still working on the consoles. Suddenly an alarm went off, and Craylor snapped his attention to the screen.

  As he watched multiple Slip-space windows opened close to the third planet and began to dislodge large black ships.

  Within moments a second fleet had appeared,

  and they were forming up. Ten ships in all

  “What are the capabilities of those ships?”

  Craylor snapped off to the captain,

  who was looking over the sensor readings.

  He looked up and shook his head.

  “I can’t get a reading on them, the sensors must not be functioning properly, but from a visual inspection I would say more than a match for us, they hold more firepower per ship then we do.

  The Com officer suddenly sat upright,

  “Your Eminence,” he said,

  “there is a message coming in from the new fl
eet. Would you like me to put it on the screen?”

  he asked. Craylor nodded, interested to see who this was and whether they meant him harm.

  On the screen, a small furry creature stood smiling. “Greetings, I am Grand Chancellor Seafu of the Galactic Rangers, you are in this system under hostile intent and will remove yourself and your fleet or face destruction,

  there will be no negotiation,

  there will be no parlay,

  you have 30 minutes to depart then we will begin firing.” The screen went blank, and Craylor sat there stunned, who would dare face off against an Empire fleet much less make demands.

  Captain target a ship out there and blow it out of the sky” Craylor demanded,

  now fuming at the audacity of these creatures.

  The captain nodded and began to power up weapons and shields, but before he could even truly start to do it. Two of the enemy fleet fired and destroyed two of Craylor’s escorts.

  “Power down the weapons captain, now”

  Craylor hissed fear coming into his voice.

  Not only were they demanding, but they would also carry out their threats.

  Craylor took the hint, they would pay,

  but not today

  “Captain get the transport aboard and then move the fleet out, do not power weapons or shields, I want to be out of this system as soon as possible” he said after he regained some of his composure.

  Thirty minutes later Seafu watched from the bridge as the fleet picked up its lone transport and headed out of the system without even a goodbye. Seafu turned to the crew of the ship

  “Let’s get people down there, I need to know the status of the Revenant and her crew!”

  CHAPTER

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