Armageddon's Pall

by S. F. Edwards

  Chris stalked into the room, going in the opposite direction of Zithe. A single desk sat along the wall and she made her way towards it. Sweeping her rifle side to side she checked for any hidden Gorvians. As she swung the rifle away from the desk however a Gorvian with two plaser wounds in its torso leapt out at her. Too close to bring the weapon back to bear she cast the rifle aside and wrapped both hands about the Gorvian’s thick, muscular neck. The Gorvian was strong and her suit strained to push the massive alien back as she scanned for the brain tail. The Gorvian’s left foot was massive, and the brain tail flapped about.

  Tearing her arm free, Chris aimed the embedded rail gun down at the engorged foot and fired. The distance was too short for the explosive round to arm itself. The velocity of the round made that a moot point. The foot burst like an overripe melon from the impact, launching the brain tail across the room.

  The Gorvian convulsed once and fell onto Chris’s mech. She shoved the Gorvian off before it could topple her with her right arm. The robotic left arm just hung there; the force of the attack and recoil of the railgun killing it.

  Matt handed Chris her rifle with a shrug.

  Chris bit back, snatching away the weapon.

  Zithe called.

  The pair got the point and rushed to take up covering positions by the hatch as the rest of the Blade Force rushed the room. A pulse later and Gavit, in the trail position, leapt through the hatch before sealing it shut.

  Blazer scanned the room. It looked like most of the others they’d seen, far too round, but multiple hatches marked one wall. He turned to Gokhead to find him already at the desk-mounted terminal, the dead Gorvian guard slumped near it. It didn’t take long before the doors across from the hatch they entered through sprang open.

  There was no movement at first, then Blazer activated his external speaker. “We are a Confederation rescue team. Come forth if you’re able.” To drive the point home, Blazer pulled down a ballistic cloth patch from the front of his unit to reveal the Confederation’s multi-starred and twin-sunned circular flag.

  A Lodran pilot, her skin dried and cracked from the aridity of this section of the ship slumped out. No pride remained in her limp form as she made her way towards his mech suit. Emotions he’d suppressed at the start of the mission began surface as the Lodran threw her ravaged arms around the shin of Blazer’s mech and began to weep. “Thank the stars,” she croaked.

  More of the same followed as the prisoners emerged one by one, their vacuum suits hanging off their gaunt frames. Clothes hangers would fill those suits out better, Blazer thought as a Drashig stumbled to the deck, its eyes all but hidden they had recessed so far. Did they feed them, or give them any water at all?

  “Marda,” Blazer gasped, then blinking hard, motioned her forward.

  she replied, her voice shaky even over the micomm link. Marda stepped forward and took a knee beside Blazer’s mech. She extended her hand then the unit froze, many of the prisoners turning their eyes to her. A hatch opened on the back of her MeG-CE and she climbed out, her body glove slick with green shock gel. She didn’t even bother to wipe any of it away, and rushed to slide down the arm of her suit into the waiting hand. The shock gel on her legs evaporated upon landing when she jumped down. Wasting no time, she pulled open a hatch in the shin of her MeG-CE to reveal medical supplies within.

  “Over here,” she called to the prisoners and they shuffled towards her. To her credit Marda didn’t recoil from the sight, though Blazer felt his stomach turn. It reminded him far too much of the ghoul hunter vids that he’d watched as a teen; the shambling group looked far too reminiscent of those dead walkers.

  As the prisoners made their way over to Marda, Blazer removed a pod mounted to the back of her mech and set it on the deck. Thee stabilization legs opened on contact then a small hatch between each set as well. “These are emergency egress pods,” Blazer announced. “They have enough room inside for three eight metra tall hominids. Once you’re certified fit to travel, climb aboard. The shock gel within will keep you safe.” He hesitated for a moment then continued. “Sorry for the tight fits.”

  Blazer felt impotent as he watched Marda tend to the troops and direct them towards the array of rescue pods the team had set up on the deck. He counted the living; twenty-two. He didn’t want to think about it and turned to Rudjick as he inspected the cells.

  Rudjick nodded and stepped inside one cell.

  Blazer turned to the prisoners surrounding Marda as she slapped vitamin and hydration infusion bands onto them. The image of shambling ghouls sprang to mind again and he felt tempted to scoop her up. Shaking it off, he turned back to Rudjick.

  Rudjick hesitated for a moment.

  Marda replied.

  Blazer turned towards his rescue pod. Two of three hatches had sealed already and he scanned the life signs of his two passengers. The thermal profile was unmistakable, a Terran female. But her life signs were weak: she’d be lucky to survive the escape.

 

  Blazer watched Marda help the last prisoner into a pod, several other team members kneeling in their MeG-CEs and helping the injured aboard. After checking the webbing harness was secured on the one-armed Otlian prisoner, she looked up at Blazer and tapped her nose.

  Blazer opened a private link as Marda proceeded to check the rest of the rescue pods.

 

 

  Marda remained silent for a moment, looking over her shoulders as if to check if anyone could hear her.

 

 

  Blazer couldn’t even find the words as he watched Marda slip back into her MeG-CE. Blazer switched over to the squad’s open channel.

 

  Packer Unit Gorvia Prime

  Gondish soared over the surface of the Planet Slicer with fas packer unit, each of them an elite soldier, skilled in the use of their backpack-mounted plasma rockets. Leading the team was the most freedom that Gondral allowed the Gorvian heir. Gondish had earned dozens of kills during fas travels throughout the Dondick space to inspect the Strike Corvette fleet. Even the recent Battle of As’Tril garnered fam another ten destroyed Dondick fighters. It would have been more if Gondral had allowed me more than two sorties.

  “High Lord,” a wing mate called. “We’re approaching the area where that Dondick ship crashed.”

  Gondish looked over at the wing mate. The crablike Gorvian was not to fas taste, so Gondral had already decided to never mate with mor, but moe had proven the most capable warrior of the group. Fae’d considered mating with mor just to afford mor such an honor for the grea
t service, but Gondish kept a strict policy against impregnation within the Packer Unit. It was one that even fae wouldn’t break, and had no problem enforcing. Gondish had even offered two pregnant members of the team up to Gondral for Consumption when they’d defied the order and impregnated each other.

  Gondish looked down at the surface. Multiple work crews toiled to repair the damage, but something looked off. Gondish flipped about to make a braking thrust and allowed the Planet Slicer’s gravity to pull fam to the surface. “Follow me.”

  Gondish landed with enough force to shake the deck plating, and when the servicing crews turned to look, they bowed in reverence. Gondish ignored them as fae inspected a long sheet of hull that had peeled back. It looked like the Planet Slicer had begun to molt, but such a thing was impossible. There were several other areas like this one, and others that had twin gashes instead. Nothing about it seemed right.

  “What is it High Lord?” an eight-limbed member of the unit asked after landing.

  Gondish looked toward the bow of the Planet Slicer; found that the gashes were almost perfectly perpendicular to it. Turning towards the aft end of the ship, Gondish signaled to the leader of the repair teams. The Gorvian turned, making mor mind known and Gondish forced fas way inside.

  Much to the Gorvian’s surprise, mor team was the first to arrive on the scene. Word had gone out that an alert team had reached the area first and was to be honored for their diligence and motivation. Gondish pondered that, wondering why. Fae probed deeper: while the team had been close to the site of the damage when it had occurred they’d heard movement on the hull, as if another unit had already been there. Gondish did fas best to determine the direction that the sounds had headed, but the Gorvian’s mind yielded little in that regard other than aft.

  Gondish pulled out of the Gorvian’s mind and focused on the distant rising hills of the central engine bank. Fae then turned towards fas unit. “Short-range communications only. We may have infiltrators.”

  “Are you sure High Lord?” the fourth unit member asked. The tentacle-legged Gorvian was new to the unit; earning entrance after downing a Dondick bomber which had broken through to engage the Planet Slicer directly.

  “Yes, but do not let command know yet. Our enemies might be listening in and we don’t want to alert them.”

  “Where should we look High Lord?”

  Gondish pointed aft. “There are a number of airlocks to the rear, but the ones near the main engines would be the most likely candidates for an insertion.”

  Air Lock, Block Q-98

  Despite their best efforts, the Blade Force’s return to the airlock took twice as long as their ingress. Gorvian patrols had increased in the area and they’d had to divert several times to avoid them. The airlock itself remained unguarded and they made their way to the surface without incident. They’d left the surface abandoned but that was no longer the case. Blazer’s thermal scanner lit up with numerous Gorvians near their initial landing zone. They were far enough away that they might not detect the group until after they’d departed, but it still forced him to push their plans ahead further.

  Blazer informed the team.

  Zithe stepped up.

  He turned to Marda, then back to Zithe.

  Zithe drew back, looked around, nodded.

  Before Blazer could reply plaser fire racked the deck, destroying the shuttle nearest to him. Out of instinct, Blazer dove out of the way and raised his rifle to the sky. At first, he spotted nothing but then his thermal scan revealed four inbound contacts.

  Blazer fell back as the rest of the Packer group opened fire, raking the hull with plaser fire. His instinct was to find cover behind one of the shuttles, but doing so now would only doom the prisoners. The shuttles were their best bet for escape. Blazer switched tactics. While they were close enough to the airlock to fall back there, it was a choke point. The defensive stalks were too far away as well, and any maneuver he made while flying to meet the packers might kill his passengers, despite the shock gel.

  Blazer ordered and fired ahead of the Packers. If he could slow them down, the Planet Slicer’s gravity would become as much of a hindrance to them as to his team. The rest of the squad followed his orders, firing ahead of the Packers. It slowed and brought them down, but their descents were controlled and they evaded the team’s fire. Then Blazer saw that the descents had turned into aggressive dives; the packers wanted to get in close.

  A Gorvian with squid-like legs dove towards Blazer and he scrambled to get away before a high-powered plaser round shattered the Gorvian’s rocket pack. The plasma cells vented, slamming the Gorvian to the deck before they exploded. Matt called.

  Blazer replied and moved away from the smoldering corpse.

  Just then, the biggest Gorvian Blazer had ever seen landed before him. It was twice the size of any other and of his MeG-CE. Even through its space suit he could tell that it was hideous; smaller extra arms extended from its torso and four brain tails wriggled in the darkness as if they possessed their own consciousnesses. Blazer took aim, but the Gorvian’s reach was immense. It knocked the weapon and his hand away. Sparks flew from the stump as the Gorvian brought up its gun. A hail of plaser bolts sailed between the pair; shattered the weapon.

  The explosion scorched the Gorvian’s suit and threw Blazer back. He fired his suit jets to stabilize himself and found the massive creature flying towards him. With no other option, Blazer raised his left arm and fired the embedded railgun. The weapon was a last-ditch holdout, and held only five rounds. Three shots found purchase before the massive Gorvian slammed Blazer to the deck. A cloud of grey-green blood flowed over Blazer’ MeG-CE as massive hands punched at him. Blazer couldn’t get free. Despite its injuries the Gorvian was just too strong.

  Metal strained around him, and the medical readouts of his passengers flared; the heavy sedatives wearing off.

  Arion shot back over the micomm chatter.

  Blazer extended his monomolecular cutter and looked up at the Gorvian; the view froze him to the very core. Through the monstrous faceplate Blazer swore that the snarling beast was smiling. That smile was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Even Bichard’s twisted attempt at one wasn’t as frightening.

  The Gorvian smiled again, as if in response, giving Blazer an idea. “Kill the micomm link,” he called. “This Gorvian can spy on it.” The Gorvian didn’t respond and Blazer twisted his arm to bring the blade into the hull. The edge cut into the skin of the ship with no effort, the tip of the blade slipping between the molecules of the hull. Blazer still couldn’t lift his arm against the force of the larger Gorvian but if he could pull it free, he might stand a chance.

  “Lead, keep your head down,” Zithe called. The tip of Zithe’s blade appeared through the great Gorvian’s face.

  The beast roared back in pain and Blazer swung his now freed arm through the monster’s neck. The body tumbled away as the head flew free of Zithe’s blade, tumbling into space. Panting, Blazer turned to Zithe and the scene beyond. The engagement turned in an instant. Leaderless, the remaining two packers seemed to lose focus and the Blade Force overwhelmed them. Blasts from multiple angles tore the pair to shreds as Blazer kicked away the massive body at his feet. “Thanks for the save.”

  “Is it just me or did that get easier once the big guy went down?” Rudjick asked.

  Blazer reengaged his micomm.


  Gokhead shook his head.

  Marda interjected.

  Blazer turned back to the team. He had a plan, and none of them were going to like it. Blazer turned to Bichard.

  Bridge, Planet Slicer

  Gondral stormed onto the bridge in a rage. The wail of alert klaxons had woken the Gorvians’ leader, igniting a torrent of rage. The horrid dream that had preceded the interruption hadn’t helped. “Status!?”

  The Ship Lord made a clumsy bow away from the throne; gestured towards the main screen. “We’ve detected an explosion and brief firefight on the surface near Sector Q-98. Then three Dondick shuttle craft appeared and began moving away from the Planet Slicer.”

  Gondral stared at the sensor plot, fas face contorting in rage. “There were Dondick aboard my ship? Where were the security patrols, the packer units?”

  “Unknown Lord of All,” the Ship Lord replied.

  “Why have the defensive batteries not opened fire on them?”

  The Ship Lord took a knee and raised fas throat in supplication. “The automatic batteries are not designed to engage targets heading away from the Planet Slicer. We are sending crews to manual override stations. But by the time they arrive, the shuttles will have cleared the ship.”

  Gondral slapped the Ship Lord hard enough to tear the head free of the neck. The lifeless corpse collapsed down to the bridge tiers below. Even through fas rage Gondral could sense the pain, then the lack of any sensation that the Ship Lord felt, and the utter shame.