RIOT DAWN_Attack of the Space Druids

by Anthony Thackston

“Are you alright, Sergeant?” Lino asked.

  Riot brought one knee up and rested her arm on it. Her chest was tight, breathing labored and sweat droplets fell from her face. “I think…Yeah,” she said. “I’m okay.”

  “What the Hell was that?” Carlos asked.

  “Effects of the mirror,” she told him.

  “Numerous reports of Soul Slide passing indicate negative psychological effects when passing through one’s own reflection,” Lino explained.

  “Then how come the rest of us are fine?” Carlos asked.

  “It didn’t get me last time,” Riot said.

  “Last time?” Lino asked.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Riot told the android. She eased her grip on the talisman. “I hope you do more for offense. Cuz you suck at defense.” She muttered, referring to the enchanted object as she put the disk away. “What did you do to me, anyway?” she asked Lino.

  “You seemed to be in an abnormal mental state. Your alpha and theta waves were crossing. I simply disrupted the signal, returning you to a natural state.”

  “I don’t know what you just said,” Riot told him. “But I’m glad you did it. Thanks.”

  “You are welcome, Sergeant.”

  “Abomination!” a voice shouted from the darkness. “Incomplete, soulless sentinel!”

  Riot’s gun rose as all of her team moved in close, back to back, forming a circle. “Who’s there?” she asked.

  “One whom you cannot fathom,” the voice said.

  “Lino?” Riot murmured.

  “Scanning.” Lino’s green eye changed to red as he glanced throughout the bottom floor of the tower. “Scans show negative origin point. However, there are numerous life signs within the structure.”

  “At least we know that,” Riot said.

  “You know nothing!” the voice shouted. “We will make your world our own.”

  “And who are you?” Riot asked.

  “I am called Sarcleexurthan. I am one of and all of the T’rfn—”

  “Sounds like another mouthful, Sarc,” Hick said, shortening the name the voice had given. “Give nicknames a try.”

  “How dare you insult me and us!”

  “I think you made him mad,” Carlos said.

  “Wouldn’t be the first time getting another worldly critter angry with me.”

  “Quiet, all of you!” Riot ordered. “You don’t like it?” she asked the unseen being. “You can turn this thing around and give up on Earth. No more insults or hard feelings if you do that.”

  “I and we will bring our world into yours. All will be one under the dark mother star. You will be clothed in the robes of My and our Drakneelor…”

  Riot and Carlos exchanged glances as Sarc continued monologuing what to them sounded like nonsense. While they were sure it all meant something, for them, it only revealed more details of the Space Druid’s plans for merging with Earth. It didn’t change their plan.

  Hick swatted at his ear.

  “What was that?” Jessica asked.

  “Musta been a Space Druid fly buzzing me.”

  “Space Druid?” Sarc asked, drawing out the words as if sounding them out.

  “Like the man said,” Riot replied, “Give nicknames a try.”

  There was no response from the invisible speaker. Only a sudden decrease in the temperature of the air surrounding them.

  Riot exhaled. It had become cold enough to see her breath. “Lino?”

  “Temperatures have—”

  “We’re all here, tin man. We know,” Carlos said. “Why?”

  “That might have something to do with it,” Jessica said, pointing at a figure wearing a hooded robe. It had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

  Riot took a single step forward but the air was even colder away from the group. Her cyber arm was perfectly still while her other arm shivered as both hands gripped her gun, aiming at the new arrival.

  “Identify yourself!” Riot demanded.

  “But you have been introduced to me and us.”

  “Sarc?”

  “The name grows on me and us. Maybe your sullied mind cannot pronounce my and our name. This will be corrected when our worlds are one.”

  Hick swatted at his ear again. “What is that?”

  “This isn’t the time to worry about bugs,” Jessica said.

  “Is it you who has been resisting my and our coming?”

  “Lately? Yeah,” Carlos said.

  “You look as the others who tried,” Sarc said. “They died, too. Much like your compatriots.” Sarc gestured to Jessica and Hick.

  “You gonna make a move there, skippy?” Hick asked, taunting Sarc.

  “A move? Let me and us see.”

  Suddenly the space surrounding them heated up like a furnace. It was a more pleasant change than Sarc had intended but Riot knew it was just a matter of time before they would be sweating buckets. And dehydration was not on her list of ways to go.

  “Will this fit a move?” Sarc asked as a blast of blue flame erupted from his outstretched hand straight for the team.

  Chapter 17

  Lino charged forward, shoving the others out of the way. The searing hot blast hit him, burning off his shirt and curving in on itself like a jet of water striking a boulder.

  “External coolant, activated,” Lino said.

  Suddenly a foam spray burst from his torso, dowsing the flame. Lino kept the extinguishing chemical going as he charged at Sarc.

  Android hands clasped around Sarc’s throat but they didn’t stay there for long. The Space Druid vanished before Lino could squeeze tight.

  “A non-living being,” Sarc’s voice echoed through the tower. It appeared above them, floating. “You are unworthy of my and our embrace.”

  A rush of cold air slammed into Riot. She held her cyborg arm up, trying to block what she could. “Shield!” she yelled. The arm did nothing.

  Carlos fired off several rounds as the robed assailant floated around the inner-space of the citadel. Its hands wove the spell of freezing wind that pummeled Riot. Jessica and Hick joined Carlos in shooting but their bullets seemed to go right through the druid as it continued to freeze Riot.

  Her teeth chattered as she tried to step out of the path of the wind but it only followed her. The biting cold blasted right through her uniform. The only part of her that wasn’t numb was the metal arm. It was a strange sensation considering it was artificial.

  Suddenly, the cold lessened. Riot lowered her arm to find Lino’s back to her. His arms were spread out and vents were open on his back, blowing waves of heat in her direction. Her shivering stopped and she could finally feel her own extremities again.

  “Thanks, Lino,” she said.

  “It is my duty, Sergeant.”

  Riot poked her head from around Lino’s torso and fired up at Sarc as he continued moving above the floor.

  “Fitting that the incomplete abominations are together,” Sarc said. He stopped the spell casting and dropped toward the floor. A billow of fog came out from the bottom of his robe. Carlos continued firing but this time his bullets bounced off as Sarc spun like a whirlwind, throwing the fog out till it filled the bottom floor.

  “Everyone, stay alert!” Carlos yelled, blinded by the dense fog. “This damn fog is blinding me!”

  “No kidding!” Hick yelled back. “Sarge?”

  “Still alive!” Riot shouted. “Everyone, stay put! Can you clear this out, Lino?”

  “Unknown. Activating forward vents.”

  The heat vents at his back closed and Riot could hear the sound of air blowing from the other side of the android. She stepped next to Lino and could just barely see the particles of fog swirling around. It was useless, Lino was doing nothing more than shifting the fog around.

  Riot tried to activate her scanner but the only reading she could get was on her team. There was no life sign of Sarc. She closed her fist thus closing the scanner. It was possible that was just another malfunction. Either that or Sarc had found a
way to mask himself.

  Jessica waved her hand in front of her face, trying to clear the fog. A wisp of air flew behind her. Jessica spun around, gun up. Another wisp of air flew past her.. She glanced over her shoulder, certain she had seen something dark pass her by. The young woman turned again. The dense fog and the spinning were throwing her orientation off. It was hard to tell which way she was facing.

  “Denier,” Sarc’s voice whispered in her ear.

  She spun to the side but saw only more fog. “Anyone else hear that?”

  “Talk to me, Jessica!” Riot shouted.

  “He’s still here!”

  “Need a location!” Carlos yelled. He aimed his gun down as something crawled across his boot. “What was that?” he said. Blinded as they were, their ears were the only thing they could trust.

  Something tapped his shoulder and Carlos fired into the air.

  “Hold your fire!” Riot ordered. “I don’t wanna risk friendly fire!”

  “This thing is playing games with us,” Carlos said, peering through the fog for any sign of movement. But all he got was an intense burning in his eyes from the effort.

  “Thing?” Sarc asked from above Carlos. “You dare to call me and us a thing?”

  The Marine’s head shot up but there was nothing there. “Keep messing around and see what happens.”

  “Foolhardy and arrogant,” Sarc said from behind him.

  Carlos swung around and fired off two shots. The fog spiraled as the bullets spun through it.

  “Ouch!” Hick yelled. “Who shot that?”

  “I said hold your fire, dammit!” Riot yelled. “Hick, where are you hit?”

  “Just the leg! Seems to be fine, now!”

  Riot frowned. She didn’t know what he meant by being fine. But that was three times, now, that he’d taken injuries that could cause major damage and shrugged them off like he’d just stubbed his toe.

  “Were we and I right about you?” Sarc asked from behind Hick.

  The soldier didn’t bother turning around. “That depends,” he whispered. “Right about what?”

  Sarc’s voice floated side to side as if on a surface of ice. “You heard me and us from before. You returned from the after.”

  “That was you buzzing my ear?”

  “Words not well received.”

  Hick casually turned around to find himself face to face with the Space Druid whose features were covered by the hood. “Sometimes you gotta speak up.”

  “Hick?” Riot yelled.

  Keeping his eyes on Sarc, he called over his shoulder “All good on my end, Sarge! Jessica?”

  “I can’t see anything!”

  “Me, neither,” Hick lied. “So what’s a guy gotta do to get rid of all this? Cuz I gotta say, unless you’re fumigating for mosquitos…”

  “Lino,” Riot said. “How many scans can you perform?”

  “I am equipped with X-ray, thermal, night vision, foreign objects and—”

  “Anything that can cut through this fog?”

  “I have performed a scan on all bands but the fog has interfered with the light sensors necessary for a complete reading.”

  “Guess it’s not totally redundant, then,” she said, patting her cyber arm.

  “Sarge?”

  “Nothing. Keep trying. Let me know when you see something.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Diaz! Can you make your way to my voice?”

  “Probably!” Carlos yelled back. “Let’s see how well you know your ABC’s.”

  “Jessica,” Riot yelled. “Make your way toward me and Lino if you can!”

  “On my way!”

  A single gunshot rang out, briefly lighting up the intrusive fog. Riot brought her gun bearing forward. Her eyes moved constantly but to no avail.

  Suddenly the fog began to move away from her and Lino as if it were being sucked up by a vacuum. The first sight she took in was the green luminance of the dim citadel lights casting their eerie glow on Carlos who had made it to within five feet of them. Next was Jessica who crouched, her gun aimed forward.

  They all watched the wall of fog condensing and finally flowing underneath the same robe it had come from. A robe that now lay on the floor with Hick standing over it.

  “Got him,” Hick said.

  Riot motioned for the others to follow her as she approached Hick and the apparently dead druid.

  “Well done,” Riot said.

  “How’d you get the shot off?” Carlos asked.

  “He was there, now he’s not,” Hick told him. “Who cares, we got the guy. Now we gotta do the same for the others.”

  Riot crouched down at the dead Sarc. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.” She lifted the hood and was repulsed at the sight underneath it. The Space Druid had two mouths, one above the other. The bottom one had a long and thin tongue still sliding out from it. Its nostrils were two, side by side, vertical slits. Both of them looked as though they were constantly producing slime or mucous. But its eyes were the worst of all. They looked melted. And the eye sockets were like hacked up tree trunks. As if a hatchet or axe has gone to town on the skull, leaving the scars of poor woodwork behind. There was no hair on its head, leaving only raised veins poking up from under what she guessed was its skin.

  “That is one ugly looking sucker,” Hick said.

  “And this place could be full of them,” Carlos added. “We need a better plan than just sweeping this thing.”

  “You heard Axel,” Riot said. “This is a search and destroy mission, lady and gents.” She looked up. The tower was just like the one in Russia, wide at the bottom and thinner at the top, with seven floors to scour. Only this one was attached to a rock housing lower chambers.

  “Here’s the plan,” she said. “Lino, you stay here. If a bunch of these guys show up, I figure you have the best chance of taking them out. At the very least, you’ve got enough defenses you won’t get killed.”

  “I am complete with forty-two defensive capabilities. Would you like a listing of them?”

  “Unnecessary,” Riot said. “I’ll take the second floor. Diaz, you’re on three, Hick, four and Jessica, five. The minute you’ve swept your areas, I want you right back here. Whether you meet any resistance or not. We’ll re-strategise and clear out the top two floors after that. Everyone clear?”

  They all nodded in the affirmative.

  “Good. Move out and watch your six.”

  Everyone moved on to their respective floors. As they left, several lights emanated from Lino, filling the entire inner circumference of the bottom floor. They swept the walls up and down, searching for any sign of threats.

  Riot noticed Hick looking up the stairwell, watching the others walk up. He swatted at his ear.

  Chapter 18

  Riot stepped cautiously along the walkway of the second floor, her gun aimed forward. The same otherworldly lights from the first floor lined the second, casting their green glow on Riot. Unlike the tower in Russia, this one had rooms on the floors. Riot swept her gun through the first one she passed. Inside were fauna types she had never seen before. It was obvious they didn’t belong in the Space Druid citadel but it was also clear they weren’t from Earth. A single large flower growing from a dirt mound turned its face to follow her, its petals reaching out as if it wanted to go with her. It was both eerie and somehow sad.

  Riot continued forward, making her way to the next room. She was shocked at what she saw in there. Whatever the beings were, they weren’t Space Druids. Two of them lay on the floor, unmoving. Riot could only see one half of each of them. It was as if their other sides were fused to the floor or had been cut off straight up the middle. She stepped inside to check if they were still alive, though the answer was obvious from their stillness.

  The rest of the room was covered in a shiny metal surface. It was vastly different from the stone in the rest of the tower.

  “This is merging,” she said. It was possible that the tower they’d brought down
had parts of Earth in it. Maybe even soldiers from the war that they just hadn’t seen.

  Riot shook her head and stepped to the walkway railing. She peered over it and saw Lino still scanning the bottom floor. “Everyone, check in!” she yelled.

  “Still clear!” Jessica shouted.

  “I got nothing!” Carlos reported.

  “I can see my house from here!” Hick said.

  “Detecting several life signatures, Sergeant,” Lino said.

  “Where?” Riot asked

  “Everywhere,” Lino said as he fired into the dim light.

  Riot spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. She twisted just in time to see the same type of beast that had killed Stavros lunging at her. Its strange crescent jaw open, ready to clamp down on her.

  Terror struck her but Riot didn’t hesitate. She swung her gun around but it was knocked free from her hand as the creature bowled her over.

  She fended off the first bite with her metal arm and quickly went on the offensive, driving her real fist right into the beast’s head. It was a solid hit that stunned the monster, giving Riot enough time to get back to her feet and assume a stronger defensive stance.

  “Artificial!” a druid said as it flew past Lino, enveloped in a ball of fire. It hit the android, spinning him around and bringing him face to face with another.

  “Impure!” the second one said, slamming an electrified hand on Lino’s chest.

  “Insulation holding,” Lino said. “Redirecting.” The same electrical strike from the druid shot back through its arm, lifting it backwards in the air.

  A panel on Lino’s chest opened and three rockets blasted out from him. Each rocket homed in on a druid. But like Sarc before them, the rockets passed harmlessly through the robed beings and into the wall. The explosions were considerable, blasting chunks of the citadel and dirt into the space, creating another cloud of fog. Only this one was less dense.

  More druids poured in from a side tunnel and surrounded the android.

  “Registering many sorcery signatures. Primary directive activated.” Lino’s arm morphed into the same energy cannon from his initial activation. The orange glow grew brighter as the yellow strands of light flowed into his hand. “Firing.” Lino shot a yellow orb at three of the druids. It passed through them and hit the wall on the other side.