The old man was pulled from his wife and he called out his love and promises that they would be alright. The woman ran for her husband but hit an invisible barrier. She fell back, recoiling from the collision.
The armor was applied to her man, he dropped to the ground and took the weapon. The old man was now a Devex warrior, and he marched off through the dark oval.
Then the woman was carried forward.
Jack turned to Sam. Time was running out for them both.
“We rush the apparatus. Smash it. Ready?” Jack said.
Sam nodded.
The pair ran forward. Both hit an invisible barrier. They pushed against it as the armor was applied to the woman. With the helmet lowered into place and the new Devex warrior marching off, Jack felt the barrier give way. He rushed at the apparatus, determined to break and smash any part of it he could lay his hands on. But then he ran into another invisible barrier and fell back clutching his smashed nose. Blood dripped down his hand. The blood splattered on the pristine white floor in deep red explosions. The blood soaked away into the white floor, vanishing without a trace.
Jack looked to the apparatus and saw Sam drifting toward it with his arms out to his sides.
The Devex armor clamped down on his right arm. Jack watched in horror and then surprise as the armor fell away. Sam’s arm was a thrashing mass of gray fibers. Some gripped the needles that moved in to knit the right arm gauntlet into place. The gray fibers that had been Sam’s arm pulled the needle away from the apparatus.
And Sam’s right arm was free. He reached over and pulled away the armor plates being applied to his left arm and threw them to the floor.
Sam’s Mech arm reformed into the human shape and he punched the frame that was just within his reach. The frame shook. He grabbed it and pulled. The ridged frame buckled as Sam pulled and pushed and twisted in a frenzy. He dropped to the ground as the leg plates were moved into position. Sam punched them aside and then reached up for the helmet. He grabbed it out of the air and brought it down hard on to the white deck at his feet, smashing it before tossing it aside.
Then the blaster slid out for him to take. He grabbed it and turned to Jack.
“Want to get out of here?” he said.
Jack moved forward carefully so as not to run into an invisible barrier again. He joined Sam in the broken frame of the Devex creator machine.
The dark oval opened.
“You’re on point, Sam,” Jack said.
Sam moved quickly, Jack on his heels. They crouched low and looked into the darkness, not knowing what they would encounter, but determined not to go down without a fight.
11
Stepping out of the dark oval, Jack found himself in a cavernous space looking at an army of Devex warriors. The Devex stood in formation, rank upon rank of warriors all facing a towering white wall at the far end of the space. Dark ribs curved up the sides of the cavern, arching overhead a hundred meters above. Dark oval entrances like the one Jack had just stepped through sat between the ribs, and every few minutes a Devex warrior marched out and joined the masses.
Jack and Sam crouched against the nearest dark rib and hid. The rib separated the dark oval entrance Jack and Sam had just stepped through from the ovals on either side. Out of an adjacent oval came a freshly-armored warrior, a captive from the civilian transport now transformed into a Devex fighting unit.
Jack felt himself tense for action as the Devex marched past. Sam brought the blaster around, ready to give fire.
Realizing there was no immediate danger, Jack placed his hand over Sam’s weapon and pushed the barrel down. The Devex was ignoring them. There was no need to attract attention with a blast of weapon fire.
“They are ignoring us,” Jack said. He glanced over his shoulder to the dark oval they had walked through. No Devex were coming from that direction. With the warrior armor apparatus smashed, Jack guessed the production line at that location was out of action. At least for now, no Devex would be coming from there.
Another Devex warrior walked out of the adjacent oval and took its place in the ranks. Jack did a quick head count. He divided the massed rank into four squares and counted a line of one of the squares. A quick piece of mental math and Jack came up with a rough estimate.
“I make it just over four thousand Devex warriors,” Jack whispered to Sam, “and more arriving all the time.”
“And they are all human-sized, none of the giants here,” Sam added.
Jack nodded. It suggested that these Devex were all former passengers of the civilian transport. More Devex warriors marched out and joined the ranks. A dozen fresh Devex every few minutes.
“They’re creating an army,” Sam said.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed, “making it out of captured people. They haven’t processed everyone from the civilian transport yet. We can still try and save some of the civilians.” Jack scanned the huge square of fresh Devex warriors. “None of them resist once that helmet goes on,” Jack said, rubbing his chin. “I’d like to get my hands on one of those helmets and investigate it.”
“So you want to stick around?” Sam said.
Jack got ready to move. “Not a chance. We need to get out of here.”
He looked around the space. There were no obvious exits but at the far end, where all the Devex warriors were facing, there was a bright light at the bottom of the towering white wall.
“I guess we head that way,” Jack said.
“What about the four thousand Devex warriors in our way?” Sam said, rolling his eyes.
Jack stood up. He climbed over the dark rib he was crouching against and stood in front of the adjacent dark oval. After a few seconds of nervous waiting, the oval slid open. Out of the bright light inside came a fresh Devex. It marched straight toward Jack. Jack stepped aside to give just enough room for the Devex to walk past.
Completely ignored by the Devex, Jack breathed a sigh of relief.
“They are not fully activated,” Jack said.
“What about them?” Sam pointed at a pair of three-meter-tall Devex soldiers walking along the lines of the newly-created human Devex.
Jack crouched into cover. “Where did they come from?” Jack asked.
“They came from the light at the far end.” Sam pointed to the white, bright wall in front of the massed ranks of Devex.
“We are Marines, we go forward. We’ll try and escape through there.” Jack got ready to move and gave a hand signal for Sam to follow before he led the way into the rows of Devex warriors.
Sam moved into the adjacent row and the pair moved off, low and fast, keeping an eye on the two massive Devex warriors patrolling the lines.
Jack glanced up at the faceplates of the Devex warriors. Their armor was glinting in the low light. Even though it was a dull gray, it was clean and light shimmered on its edges.
The dark slit across the faceplate gave away no sign that the armor-clad warrior was watching or aware of anything going on around them. Certainly none that Jack looked at gave any indication that they had noticed him or Sam. They stood rigid, in a position of attention. Motionless. Emotionless. Waiting.
Jack made a hand signal that Sam spotted right away. The Devex warriors on patrol were crossing the rows at about halfway into the formation. Jack waved his hand down. Sam and Jack crouched behind the legs of a Devex and watched the patrol cross in front of them a few rows ahead.
With the immediate danger past, Jack waved Sam ahead. He watched for any sign that the patrolling Devex had spotted the movement, but they were moving behind the standing Devex and out of sight.
After a nervous few minutes, the pair reached the front of the formation. The bright light pouring out from under the massive white wall obscured any view beyond it. Jack squinted and tried to adjust to the bright light.
The open space between the front rank of the Devex and the opening under the wall ahead was roughly twenty meters across and a hundred meters wide. The moment Jack moved they would surely be spotted. He loo
ked over to Sam, who was watching Jack intently and waiting for the order to move. He glanced back at the two massive Devex patrolling the lines. They had their backs to them but were nearing the far end of the formation. Jack guessed they would turn and walk back any moment.
And at that moment, the Devex formation moved. In perfect synchronization, every warrior took a step forward, then another, and they marched forward, toward the wide opening at the bottom of the massive white wall.
Jack gave the signal for Sam to move. Keeping low and matching the formation, they moved toward the opening in the glowing white wall.
The space beyond the wall opened out into an even larger area where several formations of Devex warriors were forming up—thousands of Devex, including the three-meter-tall warriors Jack had first encountered. There were more of the human-sized Devex joining the formation.
At the side of the area, Jack saw lines of Devex Raiders—the sleek spacecraft often in support of the massive warships. And alongside the line of raiders were smaller fighters, they looked to be single-cockpit craft.
Jack pointed at the smaller craft alongside the holding area.
Sam nodded.
The pair moved sideways through the formation toward their means of escape.
The Devex Raiders were large, but the huge space dwarfed them. Once up close, Jack noticed how truly massive they were. Big enough to accommodate a crew of up to a dozen of the massive three-meter-tall Devex warriors. The raiders were easily as big as Jack’s frigate.
A massive flash at the front of the warrior formation caught Jack’s eye. The flash died away, and the formation marched forward, a block of a hundred Devex stepping to the front of the formation. Jack felt the low humming and rising tension, then the flash again. When it cleared, the hundred Devex were gone.
“Did they just vaporize those warriors?” Sam said. “Why would they go to all this trouble to suit up these captives and then blast them? These Devex are twisted.”
The Devex marched forward. Another hundred warriors marched ahead of the massed rank and stopped. Then came the flash of light that made Jack look away for fear of being blinded. The tingling of his hairs standing on end sent a shiver down his spine.
The warriors vanished. Another hundred stepped up.
“I don’t think they’re vaporizing them, Sam,” Jack said. “Why go to all this trouble to capture these people only to destroy them? Maybe it’s some kind of matter transport. They are sending these new warriors somewhere.” Jack looked around at the surroundings. It was more industrial than military.
“You know what this place is?” Jack said.
“A Devex warship,” Sam replied, “and we are not welcome here.”
“This is no warship, Sam. It a factory. A production facility. A Devex warrior factory.”
The matter transport flashed again and another group of a hundred warriors marched forward.
“Where are they sending them?” Sam looked suddenly at Jack, worry on his face. “Don’t tell me, you think we should find out? I don’t think that’s a great idea, Jack.”
Jack smiled. Just like Sam to read his mind and find the worst. “Maybe we should investigate, but who knows what’s on the other end of that transport? If we were suited up, it might be an idea. We don’t know if a Marine tactical suit would protect us from whatever is on the other side. I’m sure a tank top and pants wouldn’t be suitable. I don’t even have boots. We’d struggle to deal with a sharp frost.”
Jack tried to ignore the regular flashes from the front of the formation and looked to the raider, their only realistic means of escape. The boarding ramp on the undercarriage of the raider was in the lowered position. A Devex warrior marched back and forth in front of the craft, passing the base of the boarding ramp. The lines of Devex moved around Sam and Jack. Jack looked at the space he would have to cover to gain access to the ship.
Sam held up his blaster. Jack understood his plan—to rush in shooting—but he hoped a subtler plan would work.
“We try and stay out of its field of view,” Jack said. “We wait until it turns to its left and we’ll approach it from behind.”
“We won’t stand a chance,” Sam said. “I say we take the guard down and rush in.”
Jack shook his head. He waved at the lines of Devex warriors all around, ignoring the two of them sitting in the lines.
“They are ignoring us for now. If we start shooting, they might decide to pay us some attention. The last thing we want now is their attention. It will surely be over for us then, old friend.”
Sam shook his head. “So you want to just walk over there and take the raider? It’s not the craziest plan you’ve ever come up with.”
“Really?” Jack said. “Remind me of a plan that was crazier.”
“Okay,” Sam conceded. “It is the craziest. So, do you want to go first or should I?”
“We go together.” Jack stood up. The lines of warriors marched forward. Jack timed his step. He called out his order to Sam.
The pair stepped out of the formation and marched directly toward the raider and the Devex warrior marching in front of it. Sam was looking up and around, studying the huge space.
“Eyes front, Sam,” Jack said. He marched with a confidence that he didn’t feel. Every step took him closer to the massive warrior, every step bringing him closer to capture and death, or worse.
The Devex warrior reached the end of its short patrol pattern and was just about to turn around. Jack hadn’t expected to get this far. The fact that the Devex had ignored them suggested they were in some programmed pattern, but he was sure the guard at the base of the raider was aware.
With only a few steps to go and increasingly uncertain of how to proceed, Jack whispered to Sam marching along on his left.
“Hurry, Sam. Before that Devex guard turns around. Up the ramp. Let’s hope we can fly this thing.”
Sam handed the blaster over to Jack. It was surprisingly light for a weapon of its size and power.
Sam moved suddenly and dashed toward the guard.
“What are you doing?” Jack hissed.
Stepping up behind the Devex, Sam reached up and grabbed it by the upper arm. Sam’s Mech hand began to unravel. The fingers became a series of fine gray threads, then the hand and the wrist followed. The threads were so fine they appeared as a mist. Jack stepped onto the Devex Raider boarding ramp and took a knee. He swung up the massive blaster to cover Sam.
“What are you doing?” Jack said again in a harsh whisper.
“Seeing if I can learn how to fly this ship,” Sam said.
The Devex warrior collapsed to the deck. Sam’s hand reformed into the familiar human shape. Jack looked at the gray metallic hand. It was as if Sam wore a skintight glove, but Jack knew Sam’s right hand, his entire right arm, was no longer human. Sam was some sort of Mech hybrid.
Sam grabbed the blaster from the fallen warrior and moved quickly to join Jack on the ramp.
“It’s clear,” Sam said, pointing up the ramp. “No Devex inside. Do you want to get out of here?”
Jack took one last visual sweep of the massive Devex formation before turning and running into the ship.
The interior was completely unlit. Jack could barely see his hand in front of his face. He followed Sam, who appeared to have no trouble finding his way around the ship.
The flight deck was large but had only two seats, clearly designed for the giant Devex.
Sam held his hand over the flight console, and it unraveled into a mass of metallic threads. The threads slipped under the flight console cover.
The deck lit up—buttons and control panels flashed on all around the flight deck.
“Closing her up. Ready for departure,” Sam said.
The view screen in front of them showed the marching hoard of Devex warriors. Then the raider began to move. The view rotated.
“Bringing her about,” Sam said.
The view turned away from the center of the hangar to face the side bulkh
ead. A small hatch cover slid aside, and the raider began to move into a long tunnel. Lights around the tunnel began to move past rapidly, gaining speed.
“You know what you’re doing?” Jack said.
“No,” Sam replied. “This is all automated. Think I’ll have control once we are out of the ship.”
The view changed suddenly, and the flashing lights of the tunnel were replaced by the dark, deep void of space.
“We can’t leave all those people in there,” Jack said.
“They aren’t people anymore, Jack. They are Devex now. There is nothing we can do for them.”
The view changed as the ship swooped around. The screen showed that the warship was still clamped on to the civilian transport, the dark puncture arms jabbed in through the outer hull at regular intervals along both sides. Even now, Jack knew, civilians were being taken along those puncture arms, away to be transformed into Devex warriors.
“But we can save the people still inside the transport,” Jack said.
“I knew you’d want to try,” Sam said.
“Good, so put us on top of the transport near the command deck and let’s get back inside.”
Sam appeared in a trance, his hand meshed with the Devex flight console.
“Raiders launching from the warship. Fighters too,” Sam said. “I’m getting us out of here.”
“No, Sam. We have to board the transport. We must attempt to retake the ship.”
But Sam didn’t seem to be listening, and the raider was accelerating away from the Devex ships and the civilian transport. Jack grabbed Sam by the shoulder.
“Sam, do you hear me? Return us to the transport. Now.”
12
Jack shook Sam hard and called for him to turn the raider around. Sam pushed him into the chair next to his, and Jack fell into the seat. The large seat straps deployed automatically. They just about held Jack in place as the ship evaded the pursuing Devex.
Sam gripped the flight console with his left hand while his right remained threaded into the console.
Escape (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 3) Page 7
