by John Foster
West, gasping for breath nodded and said, “I’m going to try to pin some of them down before they reach this room or they’ll overwhelm us.” There was a movement at the gap in the outer wall and a storm trooper jumped into the room and sprayed the interior with a plasma beam weapon that he played back and forth. West raised his weapon and fired at the helmet of the man which caused the soldier to fall backwards and out the gap he had just jumped through his helmet now ablaze. West shook off Volkums’s hand and ran into the room along the remnants of the outer wall and took up a position along the inside and fired as another trooper leapt into the room also spraying beams wildly trying to suppress any opposition. Too late, he realized that West was behind him and he died as he turned to fire.
A grenade was then tossed in and West fell to the floor throwing himself under part of a fallen partition as it exploded and shot shrapnel down and around him skewering everything in sight including parts of the wall. West was dazed and could barely hear but backed out of the niche where he was sprawled just as another trooper jumped through the hole where West had been and stepped directly on West’s back, knocking the breath from him and causing severe chest pain that West knew had to be from a broken rib. The trooper didn’t seem to notice West and kept firing into the room as his compatriots had before him. The trooper whirled left, firing through the tower door at something he saw there, and then, with a quick glance behind him to make sure there was no one there, started to fire with short bursts at the opening into the adjoining Tower. The soldier advanced slowly using some type of burst fire mode that apparently conserving his weapon’s power and suppressing any return fire. West raised himself on one elbow and fired his laser rifle into the back of the trooper who flung up his arms and dropped forward on some rubble, a neat hole through his back.
The heat splash effect from the Sovar beam weapons had created an immense heat wave in the room and West knew that any flammables would soon burst into flame. He wiped his face and could see blood on his hands and in a small pool forming below him. He scrambled to his knees with his weapon up and was amazed to see the sky above him. The missile had completely blown off the roof and spread it across the courtyard and into the north building which was also in ruins and on fire. West weaved a bit and moved as if he were drugged. He gripped his side where he could feel blood from a wound? He realized that it must have been shrapnel from the grenade that had hit him after all. He almost fainted, the light from the hole in the roof was on his face and he thought he could see someone or something above him moving about. He heard the crunch of something large behind him and looked up to see a large black armored trooper above him reaching out to knock him down with the butt of a plasma rifle and he couldn’t find the strength to move as it swung towards him in a painfully slow motion. The butt didn’t reach him but just held still in front of his face as if it were part of a statue. It occurred to West that he might be dead and what he was seeing was the last thing his alive mind had seen. He was suddenly amused that he would have to die seeing the serial number on a plasma gun for the rest of eternity. He blinked his eyes, surprising himself that he could. Then he heard faint noises as his hearing returned and the trooper in front of him toppled forward falling over and then around West who fell over as well. Immense pain spread over West as pushed the arm and leg of the downed trooper off. West’s vision cleared for a moment and he could see several small slender darts sticking out of the top and back of the helmet. West blinked again, then looked up through the hole in the roof and could see Amal looking down at him, gesturing towards the south. West pulled himself up and crawled towards the gaping hole in the wall, he looked down at his weapon as if remembering he should be ready to use it but had trouble remembering why, and then he was at the hole and looked through it towards the outside. Before him were several Sovar troopers who were firing at piles of sand that seemed to be creeping towards the soldiers. West seemed to remember the sand piles and couldn’t reconcile what they were doing here. Got to get out of the sand box he decided, and with that conclusion, he slumped down along the wall, his eyes closed, and he then fell over, his laser rifle dangling from his hands.
It took a while for them to revive West. He had lost a lot of blood and even with the brown stuff as it was now affectionately known, it had been touch and go to see if he would live. The shrapnel had cut an artery and he had been bleeding continuously during the last part of the battle and it was only through the quick thinking of Volkum and the presence of the brown stuff in Rae’s knowledgeable hands that had pulled West through.
He came around slowly wondering where he was. His vision was blurry but he could see several people looking down at him. He slowly started to recognize them and then his memory returned with a snap. He jerked up with the last moments of memory seared into his head. Rae was bending over him and saying something, her mouth was open and he could see she was talking. West shook his head and the sounds started to make some sense as he looked around again, checking to see if any of the troopers were there. He didn’t see any and looked relieved. Rae smoothed his forehead wrinkles and then he could hear.
Theo kneeled down next to him and looked at him with concerned eyes, his face covered in dirt and soot. There was pain etched into his face too and then West remembered the dead crew in the south wing and then finding the strength asked, “How many did we lose?”
Theo nodded his head slowly as if confirming that he knew what West would ask first. “We lost six, Curt, David, Terri, Donelly, Johnson, and Wilson. Most of the rest have been wounded but most of the injuries aren’t life threatening, thanks mostly to the brown stuff. It would have been a lot different if the sand creatures hadn’t arrived.”
“Where did they come from?” asked West and then remembered them appearing out of sand piles within the courtyard next to the south building. “Wait, a couple of them appeared next to the south building wall and started to put out fires,” said West. The others looked at him questioningly. “Put out fires?” said Theo his forehead wrinkling.
“Yeah, a couple of the sand creatures were putting out fires on the south wing. I don’t remember what happened after that.”
Amal who had also knelt down by West looked up at the others and said, “It’s true, these creatures appear to be part of windblown sand piled up in the courtyard and seemingly oozed out of it when the fires started. I saw one here from my vantage point in the tower,” pointing to the ruins of the south building, “putting out fires by smothering them. I didn’t realize they were dangerous until I saw them attacking the Sovar forces. They can pry open one of those armored suits faster than a high-density laser. The sand creatures seem to be attracted to high heat signatures and that’s why they attacked the Sovar who were firing plasma weapons that have a heat splash effect on the surrounding area.”
“Wait we didn’t use plasma weapons at the red building when we first ran into them and yet they attacked us,” said Theo.
Amal looked at Theo, and said, “Then I don’t know why they would.”
A small timid voice from behind Cesar spoke up, “We didn’t use beam weapons but lasers. They didn’t attack us, they just moved towards us and we fired at them and then ran back to the Paradig,” said Madison sitting down against the wall, her head bowed and shoulders slumped over, her voice weak and weary.
“And then we massacred them,” said Theo remembering what had happened. “My god what did we do?” They all looked downcast at the implications.
“What happened to the Sovar?” asked West breaking the downward beat of the conversation.
“They were being attacked wholesale by the sand creatures and they couldn’t seem to kill any of them so they eventually ran back the way they had come. After the sand storm hit we couldn’t see anything more,” said Cesar who sat against a wall looking tired. Kal sat next to him holding her hand. Cesar considered what he had just said and then added, “How would you like one of those sand creatures coming out of the dark at you in a sandstorm? You’d never
even know it was there.”
They all nodded grimly at the thought.
For all he had been through, West felt surprisingly better than he looked. Theo stood and gave West his hand to pull him up, “Let’s get some food in you and then make some plans to take the attack to the Sovar.”
FIGHT IN THE TOWER
The next morning, West felt well enough to walk about and asked Theo to join him. He insisted on going up into the tower, even though the winds and sand were blowing hard around them. Portions of the tower walls had collapsed revealing segments of the interior stairway where a Sovar missile had hit the side of the tower. The only way up into the tower was by climbing on the rubble that was collapsed on it. Theo and West slowly made their way up to the top. There were piles of broken wall, crushed and burned, and all manner of materials that had been displaced or moved. “What happened up here?” asked West.
Theo gave a little laugh, “That was Amal’s doing. She kept shooting them with her little arrows or spears as she calls them and apparently the Sovars didn’t care for all the attention that she was giving them. They fired up here, lobbed grenades and all she did was to dance up and down and rain down those little spears. She took out at least six of them that we’re aware of. We weren’t able to really tell because the sand storm prevented us from checking them out in the streets. The one that almost got you was a close thing though, Amal said that the helmet was the hardest part of the armor and she was putting down a world of hurt on that trooper that tried to bash your head in. She got one spear in and that was enough to kill him.
West started to rub his head at the mention of it and then stopped self-consciously. West looked out and could see nothing but the reddish blowing sand.
Theo looked over to him, and asked, “What are you looking for West?”
West turned to him putting down his hand and said, “A solution to this mess, but I still don’t know what it is.” As if resolved, West said, “I think we need to split up again,” said West looking at Theo.
“Oh no, you’re not going to leave me again with the whole crew as my responsibility! Look at what happened last time, I lost the Cyclops. You want that to happen again?” Theo’s face turned red and he leaned against the wall, his body sagged as if he couldn’t hold himself up. “Frankly, I don’t know that I can, after losing those six people, geeze they were like family to us.” Theo paused, his face sagged and said, “Oh, my god, what are we going to tell their families? I had forgotten that they even had a real family,” Theo’s face screwed up and his jaw worked up and down.
“We were their real family,” said West, his hand going up on Theo’s shoulder and resting there. The wind whipped around them, tugging at their shirts and the deep scent of the red sands filling their noses.
“We should go down and make plans. Tomorrow is going to be difficult,” said West quietly.
The next morning was dark and while the storm had abated, visibility was limited.
The crew had set up their quarters in the west wing, which had sustained the least amount of damage. The smell of ozone and the ashes and embers from the recent fire permeated the place and dim lights had been placed to give the minimum of visibility. The darkness was oppressive and fit the mood of the team. Theo in particular was in a foul humor and wouldn’t speak with anyone. West watched him and sighed with the realization that his main supports were becoming fractured, first Madison and now Theo. Was it hopeless? Were those lives lost in vain? Was it all vanity? Was West the reason six of their crew were now dead and most of the rest injured? He realized that he needed to take action and give his people something to do so they could take charge of their lives and not allow events to shape them.
The crew assembled in a circle with several standing guard on the perimeter. “We’ve been able to hold back the Sovar but at great cost,” he began, looking out over them, each face frozen in sorrow and heartbreak for their fallen comrades. “We have to take back the initiative and recapture the Cyclops. There are two great impediments that hinder our accomplishing this goal and that is lack of knowledge about what the weapon is and secondly, how to fly the Cyclops out of here and back to Terra. We have to assume we have limited time to accomplish this in that the Sovar, while having been set back, will eventually get reinforcements and we won’t be able to escape them again so easily. To accomplish this, I’m splitting the crew up again, with Theo leading the main crew back to the museum to find the data repository that Madison sighted when we first got here. That observation remains our best hope for both flying the ship and determining what the nature of the weapon is. I’m going with a smaller crew to sabotage the Sovar camp, destroy their fighters, and try to force them out of the Cyclops so we can retake it before reinforcements arrive. Any questions?”
Volkum raised his hand, and West acknowledged him. “How are we going to force the Sovar out of the Cyclops? And keep them out?” asked Volkum.
“We’ll destroy his fighters and that will even the odds immensely, taking away his ability to scout us to assess our strength and position. His ships are scattered about but I’m quite sure they’re still operational and once we blow one up, they’ll realize what we are doing and attempt to block us. That will give Theo and Madison additional security in that their leader will siphon more men to look for us and reduce any patrol he may have inside the Cyclops. It’s possible that his men may also excite the sand creatures again and that may even the odds even more. Any other questions?”
A voice from the back said, “When do we start?” and Theo walked into the gathering slinging his laser rifle over his shoulder as he walked forward. For a brief moment, West and Theo’s eyes locked in acknowledgement of what Theo was doing.
“Okay, let’s move people. Get this show on the road and kick some Sovar butt,” yelled Theo, moving around pulling people to their feet and directing them to start assembling supplies and gear for the upcoming action.
Tuslo had returned to the caves after reestablishing contact with the vapor creatures. He now waited at another tunnel entrance where the Nafti land their ships for supplies in preparation for raids. He knew that the Terrans had escaped but had not harmed any more of his precious vapors. The Sovar troopers had chased the Terrans but had suffered casualties at the exit and had been forced to make their way back through the caves to the entrance they had originally entered. On their way back, they had briefly investigated the crypt where the unfortunate Thomas had given his all. Tuslo smiled at the thought. Unfortunately, the Sovar had destroyed quite a few of the vapors even though they had no idea of what they were doing. He was sure that if the patrol had any gleaming of what the vapors were trying to do, the whole complex would be in ruins by now.
Tuslo waited impatiently for Zerg and his advanced party of Saars. Zerg was the war leader and would seek out the Terrans and Sovar and soon Tuslo would have more tools to use in his growing arsenal of flesh and blood. The hum and gentle “thump” indicated that one of their ships had arrived and as the cloaking system was powered down, the ship became visible. Zerg swaggered out of the ship followed by 10 of the largest Saars that Tuslo had ever seen. There had been rumors that Zerg had a laboratory where he was manipulating genetic materials and Tuslo could see that it had apparently been successful. The largest of the Saars was supposed to have an intelligence that was far in advance of any others. Tuslo realized that this was Cerix who had fought in the passages under the Kaa’s ship. After the failed battle Zerg had taken Cerix and a few other Saars back to the Nafti home world for what he called ‘enhancements’ and further training. Zerg approached and bowed to Tuslo and, with a turn, his cape swirling about him, he gestured to the lizard men who accompanied him. “These are my new and improved claw fighters and you will see that they are now armed with the latest in plasma beam weapons. No longer will they be forced to rely on teeth and claws. Now we will utterly destroy the Terrans and Cerix will lead them.” Cerix puffed up and showed his fangs to Tuslo who clapped his hands for this vain and repulsi
ve monster. Tuslo felt that Zerg had gone too far increasing the intelligence of the Saars. They were a crafty and unreliable race and couldn’t be trusted for long under the best of circumstances, but to make them smarter and skilled enough to use advanced weapons might prove to be a costly mistake. Tuslo held his own counsel, knowing that Zerg was vain as well, and didn’t take kindly to any criticism.
