E.D.F Chronicles : Eye of the Dracos

by Ian. J. Smethurst

  “You know, I think I’m going to miss this world,” Vargev said from behind them.

  “You have got to be joking!” Kathryn retorted, finding the colonel’s remark in mildly poor taste, after what she experienced on the surface.

  “Actually; I am, I hate the place, its cold, windy, there’s no breathable air. I have to admit, apart from the muddy, rain soaked battlefields of Gamma IV, this has to rank as one of the worst places I’ve ever been assigned, the place is one utter shit hole.”

  “Ditto,” Michael replied simply, as he took the craft into a dive as it neared the planets atmosphere. The hull began to heat up quickly, flames and super-heated plasma began trailing across its bullet-like hull. A thick contrail of smoke followed the craft as it plunged ever deeper.

  Inside, the occupants were jostled in their seats as the craft rocked and shook from the effects of atmospheric entry.

  Once the shuttle glided through the thick methane cloud cover, Michael set the craft to atmospheric flight mode, and the ubiquitous delta wings emerged from underneath the main fuselage once again, the small winglets slid out from either side of the cockpit, the twin tails lifted up and the shuttle gently flew on course for the Eye of the Dracos.

  Another beam of intensely bright orange energy surged skyward heralding another release from the Dracos installation, it burst through the cloud cover with ease and careered off into space. The brightness of the energy burst almost blinding the occupants of the approaching shuttle.

  The E.D.F craft gently set down a few minutes later, near to the remnants of the devastated Dracos assault landers, its small landing lights illuminating the ragged twisted black metal of the downed craft.

  ***

  While the shuttle was on the surface, the four Dracos imprisoned within the Eisenhower’s brig had plans of their own in mind. Their suits only had another twenty four hours worth of power left in them, and they did not wish to waste it being confined to this primitive vessel’s detention area.

  They had lost their uplink to the Blade of Rhovanion when it departed the system, so they were alone, and although the E.D.F guards had removed their eviscerator rifles, wrist blades, and silencers. They were not altogether unarmed, one of them looked up, seeing a small grille supplying fresh air into each of the cells. Using the still functioning magnetic properties of their suits they slowly, quietly crawled their way to this grille, and, taking the greatest of care not to make a sound, opened it. The lone guard hearing nothing untoward, continued to stand with his back to them.

  The four Kallan silently crept out from their cell, and made their way along this tiny air duct, barely large enough for them to crawl inside.

  There was an opening to the main walkway of the ship’s brig, where the guard, still unknowing, stood below them, weapon in hand.

  The Dracos though, had more than just wrist blades, as the guard would soon learn to his cost, one of the warriors flicked out two small, yet incredibly sharp blades from the front of his boots. The warrior waited for the perfect opportunity, as the guard scanned the walkway and corridor beyond, for just the instant when the hapless soldier would look away. Eventually he did so, and immediately the Dracos warrior sprang into action, bursting from the grate in a blur of black bodysuit, he swung from it with both hands, before launching himself, and slamming his feet hard into the startled soldiers chest. The blades bit deep, the victim hardly had time to even blink as he fell backwards in a spray of blood from the impact.

  He took the troopers weapon, sidearm and passkey, while the unfortunate soldier was still convulsing and gurgling on his own blood, much to the delight of his assailant. With a gentle whisper of “shush now,” the Kallan placed both hands either side of the man’s head and twisted sharply, the sickening crunch of neck snapping rang out loudly, the victim lay silent, and the Dracos had found a new hunting ground.

  ***

  Michael, Nikolai, and Kathryn emerged from the just landed shuttle, donning full breathing apparatus and flanked by the four E.D.F commandoes accompanying them.

  They made it rather quickly to the now blasted hatch, the wind howled around the giant focusing pylons, the one on the far side of the aperture partially blotted out the sun, casting them all into shadow. Michael could feel the cold wind through his combat fatigues, he shivered and wondered why in the world would the Dracos build such an important facility on such a blatantly inhospitable world, probably just down to desperate measures, he guessed. The thought intrigued him as he pressed on, following the others down the dark flight of steps and into the bowels of the facility once more.

  “Okay comrades, nows the time to remain focused,” Nikolai said, speaking into a tiny microphone inside his breathing gear.

  The lights were all still out, and the illumination from their torches cast strange shadows along the length of the dark shaft, just as they did when they first ventured down.

  “Kathryn, are you okay?” Michael asked with genuine concern.

  “I’m fine.” She lied, as she continued to descend, helped in part by Nikolai. No-one wanted her to aggravate the injury to her leg. With each new step she took, she shuddered just a little more. Not from the cold winds blowing in from the surface, but from fear, she was descending back into her nightmare. Both Michael and Nikolai were worried for her, and neither had really wanted her to do this, but she was the only one who knew the location of that main control room.

  “We have to keep descending, it’s on the third floor,” she said, her voice betraying only a little of her pent up emotions.

  “We’re right behind you Kathryn, lead on, we are with you every step of the way.”

  The going was painfully slow as they descended the long dark steps built into the now defunct lift shaft. After another half hour later, they came upon an opening which signified the first of the three floors. Pressing on slowly, they passed the entrance to the second floor.

  “It’s only about twenty rungs to the third floor now.” Kathryn announced, her left leg felt painful from the constant stresses and strains the descent placed on her newly operated on muscles and tendons.

  Eventually the small group found the entrance to the third and final floor, the howling winds gave off a type of eerie groan to the place, and each footfall seemed to echo into the darkness beyond.

  The pain was beginning to get too much to bear for Kathryn, “I have to rest a moment.”

  “No problem, take all the time you need.” Michael smiled through the darkness at her.

  Nikolai signalled to his commandoes to fan out, forming a half sphere of protection to those within, while the Russian himself took out a small plastic canteen of water, offered it to Kathryn, who gingerly took a few sips, then to the others, before guzzling some himself.

  Logameier was perusing the control panels of the security station, as well as the hieroglyphs adorning the walls, “you know for three hundred year old technology, this is remarkably advanced.”

  “That’s what Kalschacht and Gomez thought.” Kathryn replied between gasps of pain.

  “I bet in their day, these guys where a real rival to the Solarians. No wonder their attempted coup scared the bejesus out of them, and they went on to chase them out of their territory.”

  “What I don’t get is; if these Dracos were so powerful. Why didn’t they just create their own empire?” Nikolai asked.

  “Because the Dracos were already severely weakened by their failed coup, and the Solarians chasing them through their territory made it worse, any empire the Dracos may have made wouldn’t have lasted long before the Solarians came calling again. So the Dracos used the only option they had left at the time; they went into hiding.”

  “It sounds a little like a coward’s way out to me,” Nikolai replied as he shone his torch over the interior of the security booth.

  “Not really, don’t forget their entire race was under the threat of extinction, by going into hiding, they ensured that they at least survived.”

  “Perhaps; I’m glad
I’m not a president, just a soldier, I have an enemy and I kill it, nice and simple.”

  His reply raised a few smiles from the accompanying commandoes who were trained in exactly the same way.

  “Okay, I think I’m ready to go on again now,” Kathryn said, “at least its level ground from here on in.”

  The group continued on their long walk through the three kilometre long, third floor, passing the barren Dracos chief scientist’s office. The gentle tap of Kathryn’s walking stick echoed through the long deserted dark corridor.

  They came to the science maintenance stores, where Rachthausen had cunningly rigged up that small laser welder. He was so proud of himself at the accomplishment; the thought gave Kathryn a warm smile. Although it felt kind of strange, almost as if the spirit of Rachthausen was still with her as she soldiered on, willing her to finish this, to put the nightmare to rest. She dismissed it as little more than wishful thinking.

  They carried on until they came upon the next room, Kathryn immediately froze, terrified as she relived the horror that went on in there. It was the briefing room, blood spatter still coated the walls, and stained the floor from the now removed bodies of the dead scientists. The wall directly opposite to the doors was studded with dozens of tiny craters from pulse rifles and pistols used in the desperate last defence of the men and women inside.

  It was almost as if she could hear their dying screams, the swish of a Dracos blade scything down another of her team, her friends. “Noooo!” She cried out, unable to cope with the flood of awful images this horrific place assaulted her mind with.

  “It’s okay Kathryn, we’re here,” Michael said.

  “No! It’s not okay Michael, this is where they died, you didn’t hear their screams, the screams of agony, and the Dracos enjoyed it. They fucking enjoyed it! Hacking my friends down like dogs!”

  “I know, it must have been horrible.” Michael tried his best to comfort her, although he was growing more worried by the second.

  “No you don’t know! You weren’t there! You weren’t there……you….bastard!” She sobbed uncontrollably as she thumped Michael weakly on the chest. Collapsing into him, as all the raw emotion came pouring out of her.

  “I’m here now Kathryn, I’m here.” Michael replied as he consoled her.

  ***

  The four Dracos warriors continued their silent creeping throughout the air circulation ducting of the Eisenhower, they spied a room that piqued their interest, and using the nearest vent, dropped down into it.

  They quickly sealed the door shut from the inside, and consulted a computerised layout of the whole ship, they found they were located on deck twenty four of the thirty four deck cruiser.

  “We need to retrieve our weapons,” one of the escapees said.

  They consulted the deck plan further, “the weapons storage facility is on deck twenty one, three decks above us.”

  “How will we get there?” A third Dracos asked.

  “These ships have an elevator system that runs throughout the ship, we can ride it until we reach that deck, retrieve our weapons and then capture the bridge.”

  “We’ll be seen as soon as we exit the elevator.”

  “Calm yourself Taneth, we are Dracos, the undisputed masters of moving unseen remember. We can do this.”

  “We all die if you fail Kallos, remember that.” Taneth retorted.

  The four Kallan all climbed back into the ducting, quietly replacing the vent as they found it, they continued on their silent creeping towards the elevator stop. Checking to see the corridor below leading up to it was clear, one by one, they slowly dropped down into the corridor itself and sprinted into the elevator, lest anyone should see them.

  The doors slowly closed around them, sealing them off from anyone who may chance upon them.

  “Deck twenty one,” Kallos spoke into the elevator speaker.

  “Destination confirmed,” came the reply from the elevators onboard speaker system, as it whisked them onto the next phase of their plan.

  Once it arrived, the four Kallan warriors quickly exited and dove into a side room, it appeared to be some form of laundry area. There were strange uniforms and camouflaged clothing piled high on racks of shelves. An attendant whirled around quickly; startled, to face the four intruders. Before the woman even had time to react, two pulse rifle blasts tore a large bloodied hole straight through her chest and flung her into a row of shelving, before she collapsed, motionless.

  “Go!” Taneth shouted, as they climbed up through the air circulation ducting again, and began to make their way across this new deck.

  A klaxon began to wail loudly, easily audible through the thin aluminium ducting of the ventilation system. As they passed by another grille, they saw red flashing lights coat the rooms below in dark crimson, enemy soldiers and naval officers were running hither and thither. The four hidden Dracos all thought the same thing; they must have found the body of the guard.

  They refrained from quickening their pace however, to the Dracos this was inconsequential, it would not affect their ability to hide, or creep around the ship.

  “What the hell is going on! Who ordered a red alert?” Commander Fontain barked.

  “The Dracos prisoners have escaped, there are reports that one guard is dead, two stab wounds to the chest. He has also been relieved of his weapons,” Maddox replied.

  “Damn it! I want a full deck-by-deck search; find them, prepare to seal off the bridge.”

  “Aye commander,” Maddox replied as he relayed Commander Fontain’s orders to the search teams fanning out through the other decks.

  Despite the constant hurrying back and forth of the Eisenhower’s crew below, the Dracos continued on their inexorable, silent creep toward the weapons storage facility. Two guards were stationed at the door to the weapons room. Predictable, Kallos thought, these aliens whom he had come to learn were called the E.D.F from the deck plans he had studied, almost always prepared for a frontal assault.

  The problem with that was, the Dracos almost never attacked from the front, not if it wasn’t advantageous to do so. He crawled onwards through the ducting, and sure enough there was another vent that provided access to the inside of the armoury, and their weapons.

  The four of them gradually climbed down into this rather cramped room, the interior looked like a maze of weapon racks, ammunition cases, and dusty old grenade boxes.

  Taneth switched his helmet to thermal imaging mode in an effort to see if the guards on the other side of the door had noticed anything untoward, they were stood still guarding the entrance as if nothing had happened, blissfully unaware that their staunch guard had utterly failed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  After a short period of searching, Kallos and the others found their confiscated weapons, there was a crate containing three eviscerator rifles, an eviscerator pistol, two silencers and their wristblades.

  Kallos kitted himself with the eviscerator pistol and silencer option he had used on the surface, while the others all held eviscerator rifles. They attached the weapons to the backs of their suits and fixed their blades and silencers into position on their wrists. Kallos smiled, the second phase of their plan had been successful, now they were fully armed again, and ready. “The hunt must continue,” he said to the others.

  ***

  “I’m okay,” Kathryn said as she struggled onward through the gloomy corridor, past the awful sight of the briefing room massacre. Just the gentle tap, tap, of her walking stick kept her company now, as they ventured onward through the dark confines.

  They passed Dracos corpses that had fallen, looking like bizarre black mannequins in their environment suits, the red glow of their eye slits, so terrible in the darkness, now long since faded away.

  She led them to a small room, its doors once again crumpled and full of blast marks, this was the auxiliary energy monitoring station, the place where they had first activated the station. “This is where it all began, perhaps it can be shut down from here too?�
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  Logameier was first into the room, eager to get to grips with the alien machinery, what he found dismayed him. Much of the delicate electronics and terminals were smashed in the fighting. He glanced over the various controls, studying them intently.

  “I’ve had enough experience working on Solarian technology on the Liberty, this is crude, but not too dissimilar, in-fact I recognise many of the controls.”

  Kathryn’s heart leapt with joy, “so you can shut it down, right?”

  “Not by the looks of it; not from here anyway, Kathryn this is just an auxiliary control station you see, used to monitor the collider, and the flow of energy from the planets surface through it. In an emergency it can be used to re-initialise the base, which is likely what has happened. But it cannot be shut down from here; that can only be done from the primary control station, elsewhere.”

  “I know where it is, I’ve been there, follow me,” Kathryn replied a little deflated, but anxious to get this all over with.

  The team all filed out of the room, the crunch of broken glass from the various smashed displays echoing loudly underfoot.

  Eventually they came to a set of giant blast doors, “I shut these behind me, I guess that alien scum must have opened them again,” Kathryn pointed out rather acidly.

  The deep thrumming grew steadily louder once again, as the facility prepared to hurl another blast of energy far out into space.

  The group continued onward, “see how this corridor is semi-circular, it must be following the walls of the aperture, we’re not far from the collider itself.” Logameier pointed out excitedly to Michael, to him, this was a voyage of discovery, learning about new and alien technology, the secrets it unlocked was all very fascinating.

  “We don’t need a running commentary lieutenant,” Michael whispered, as he pointed to the forlorn figure of Kathryn trudging ever onward, reliving her own personal torture step-by-step.