The Complete Void Wraith Saga

by Chris Fox

  He climbed into the cockpit, sliding his feet into the stirrups, and slid his hands into the gauntlets, tapping the left thumb to close the cockpit. The view screen sprang to life and scrolled through the startup sequence.

  “Twenty-seven seconds until we’re operational, Captain,” Kay provided. Red dots appeared on the mini-map, a level above them. “I cannot identify the approaching targets, but I suspect they’re hostile.”

  “Good guess. Edwards, move to intercept. Burke, Nuchik, sniper positions. Hold the fort until the mechs are up and running.”

  Edwards pounded through the garage, skidding around the corner in a shower of sparks. Nolan hated sending him in alone, but if the enemy hit them with their pants down this would be a very short fight.

  He scanned his ordnance reading, drilling down to see the rest of the squad. They were down to less than sixty missiles, total. Every mech had at least light damage. Nothing critical, but it was exactly the wrong way to begin a battle with superior forces.

  “Come on, come on,” Nolan muttered, watching the startup indicator bar slowly fill.

  The heavy whine of enemy plasma weaponry sounded above, followed by the staccato of rapid missile detonations. He needed to get up there. Now.

  34

  Think Like the Captain

  Edwards skidded around the corner, coming up short next to a toppled pillar. “Uh, Captain, you’re not gonna like the look of this,” he said into his comm. “I’ve got a pack of them lizard aliens, but they’re backed up by the armored apes. I count, uh, eleven so far.”

  Plasma flowed from the reactor to his cannon, superheating the particles within. Edwards raised the weapon at the lizards, squeezing off a low-intensity shot. It scattered them into the shadows, but the little bastards moved quickly enough to dodge.

  The lead ape bellowed something in a weird language, then raised a sword with a much thicker blade than Edwards had ever seen. Part of him itched to ignite his plasma sword, but he knew Hannan would yell at him. He needed to kill these guys quick, and didn’t have time for a duel.

  “Wait for it,” Edwards muttered to himself. He let the ape get about forty meters closer, then shot him in the face. The ape wore a comically puzzled expression, right up until its face melted off. Its sword clattered to the ferrocrete, echoing loudly.

  That sent the rest of the apes into a frenzy. They charged forward, several bringing ranged weapons to bear. They fired a volley from their stocky black rifles, peppering Edwards with scarlet plasma fire. He fell back, plastering himself against the wall to minimize his profile. “Captain, I’ve taken some hits. There’s a lot of these guys. I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep ’em busy all that long. You’d better get moving.”

  “Acknowledged. Do what you can to slow them, corporal.” The captain’s voice was calm, helping Edwards focus. He wasn’t all that bright, and he knew it. But he was better than most when it came to a scrap like this.

  “Yes, sir.” Edwards sprinted down the ramp, dropping into cover next to a rusted vehicle. The mob of apes came around the corner, yelling and screeching in their bizarre language.

  He commanded the mech to fire a full spread of piranha missiles, fully half his ordnance in one shot. Hannan would have called the move reckless, but in situations like this he found big explosions were quite helpful.

  The missiles corkscrewed toward the enemy, breaking into dozens of smaller missiles a few meters from their targets. Explosions bloomed up around each other, becoming an impenetrable wall of fire. Edwards instinctively raised an arm to protect his face, a holdover from his days as a flesh-and-blood soldier.

  The flames died down to scattered fires, the stone glazed black with superheated ash. Two charred forms lay near the center of the explosion, but the rest of the apes were still moving. If they’d looked pissed before, now they were positively rabid.

  “Oh, shit.” Edwards leapt to his feet, sprinting deeper into the garage. The captain was one level below, and he needed to keep the Ganog from going down there before they were ready. He paused to yell at the pursuing apes: “Yeah, that’s right. I killed yer buddies. What are you gonna do about it?”

  He sprinted into the darkness, his floodlights banishing shadows. The far wall was coming up fast, no more than thirty meters ahead. There was no more room to run. Edwards skidded to a halt, putting his back to the wall.

  The apes charged through the darkness, their faces twisted and bestial. Edwards was at a loss. There was still a whole mess of them. There was nowhere to run. No bottleneck to limit their approach. How the hell was he going to deal with this? What would the captain do?

  Edwards squeezed off a shot from his rifle, but the Ganog dodged to the right. His missiles had finished loading, but he only had a single volley. That might kill a few, but it wasn’t going to stop them all. Unless you were the captain. He’d find a way to take them all out. Or most of them at least.

  The garage shook from an explosion below. Rust showered Edwards. He looked up.

  That was what the captain would do.

  Edwards took a step toward the apes. “Come and get me, you hairy bastards. You don’t scare me.”

  A pack of apes outpaced the others, leaping at Edwards. He fired every missile he had left, directly at the ceiling. The explosions peppered them all with shrapnel, and a moment later the levels above came crashing down on them all.

  35

  Duel

  Nolan’s engine rumbled to life, and he guided the mech into a lumbering run. Hannan was already moving, but Annie was a little behind. He considered waiting, but there wasn’t time. Edwards was dealing with the whole assault force, and they needed to relieve him before he got himself into real trouble.

  He passed Burke and Nuchik, who’d taken cover behind one of the many pillars. Both had rifles out, with clear lines of fire to the ramp leading to the next level. Even a single elite would wipe them out. “Annie, stay with Burke and Nuchik. Hold the line. T’kon, you with us?”

  T’kon stood behind them all. His fur was a mixture of yellow and black. Conflicted emotions, maybe? “I am with you, Captain.” His nostrils flared, and he began a series of deep, rapid breaths. Then he began to grow. Muscles swelled, and his armor grew to fit his increased size.

  Nolan had suspected that T’kon could shift, but the confirmation couldn’t have come at a better time. They needed all the help they could get.

  He kept his mech moving, rounding the corner to the next level. Hannan was unloading a salvo from her particle cannon. It caught one of the elites in the back of the knee, severing the leg.

  The largest and fastest elites were charging after Edwards into the far corner of the garage. They surrounded his mech, riddling it with plasma shots. Edwards ignored them, calmly aiming his missile tubes at the ceiling above him.

  Nolan’s mouth went dry. He urged his mech to greater speed, but he already knew it was too late. “Edwards, no!”

  The missiles detonated, sending a wave of fire and debris in all directions. The garage shook, and Nolan’s mech was thrown to the ground. His sensors were blotted out by the heat, and when they cleared, he growled wordlessly.

  The roof above Edwards had collapsed, burying him and several elites under many tons of rubble. Seven surviving elites turned in Nolan’s direction. He charged.

  “You hairy bitches are gonna pay!” Hannan roared. Her missile tubes opened, and a dozen missiles corkscrewed into the enemy. The missiles detonated around two of the elites, flinging their bodies backward. They were near the ramp to the level above, which gave the flames a way to vent. By some miracle, no more of the ceiling caved in.

  Nolan reversed course, servos grinding as he moved away. The five surviving elites were closing the gap quickly. Nolan took a half-step back, charging his particle cannon. He unleashed a shot at the closest elite, catching him in the shoulder. The shot arrested the elite’s movement, giving Nolan a split second to ignite the plasma knife on his mech’s right wrist.

  He g
lided forward, ramming the blade into the elite’s throat. It sliced through the armor, punching out the Ganog’s neck in a spray of blood. Nolan brought up his mech’s knee, slamming it into the elite’s groin, then pivoted, using the dying elite to block a barrage of plasma from two more elites.

  Hannan opened up with her particle cannon, driving those two back into cover. Another pair rushed her from the side, but T’kon stepped silently behind the one on the right. He brought his axe down in a humming arc, severing the elite’s head.

  The surviving elite tackled Hannan’s mech, slamming it into a pillar. The pillar cracked, exposing something similar to rebar. Hannan grappled with the elite, fighting for control.

  Nolan didn’t have time to respond. Three Ganog were closing in, all wielding melee weapons. Nolan flung the dead elite at the pair on the right, then charged the one on the left. This one moved differently from the others, more fluidly. His eyes bore an unwavering intensity—not hatred, just pure focus.

  He was larger than the other elites, and carried a wicked-looking axe in one hand. His armor was more elaborate than the others’ as well, with stylized golden sigils covering the edge of the shoulders. He stalked closer, moving with the kind of grace Nolan had only seen from masters like Fizgig.

  The elite slashed at Nolan with his axe, which hummed through the air as it lashed out. The weapon had to be immensely heavy, but the Ganog swung it like it was plastic. Nolan hopped backward, using a slash from his plasma blade to knock the axe away. The Ganog reversed his blow, and this time Nolan was too slow. The weapon carved a fiery furrow in his mech’s left arm, severing the end of the cannon.

  Diagnostics went red, and the weapon was flagged as inoperable. A quick glance showed that Hannan was still tussling with her opponent. T’kon had moved to engage the elites on the left flank, so at least Nolan didn’t need to watch his back. He could focus on this opponent—which was a good thing, since he was getting his ass kicked.

  “Nolan, be wary,” T’kon roared, delivering a wicked slash with his axe. It forced his opponent back, giving T’kon room to flank him. “Your opponent is Krekon himself. He is one of the most feared duelists in the Imperium.”

  “Yeah, I kind of gathered that,” Nolan yelled. He fell back a step, knocking away another blow. The mech was fast, but the Ganog was faster. Each blow came a little closer to landing, and it was all Nolan could do to keep Krekon off of him.

  “Is that you, T’kon?” Krekon roared, launching another slash that Nolan just barely parried. “I never thought I’d hear your voice again. I don’t know how you arrived here, but I promise you I will take this treachery out on your clan. You think the Azi have suffered? When Takkar learns of this, he will burn your home world.”

  Krekon never slowed, his gaze locked on Nolan as he taunted T’kon. Nolan was outmatched, and he knew it. He needed a way to even the odds, to put Krekon off balance.

  Yeah, that might work. Nolan grinned. Somehow Krekon understood English. He popped open the tubes to his missiles, engaging his mech’s speakers. “Get clear, get clear.”

  As he’d hoped, his opponent disengaged. Krekon dove behind a pillar, clearly anticipating the missiles’ destructive force. Nolan fired two missiles at the base of the pillar, to Krekon’s right. The detonation sent up a spray of shrapnel, but Krekon hid safely behind the pillar.

  Nolan circled left, slipping in behind the elite. The Ganog spun to face him, but too late. Nolan rammed the plasma blade at where he hoped a Ganog heart was. The blade pierced the armor, but Krekon rolled with the blow. He tumbled backward, blood flowing from the wound.

  “You are skilled, human,” the Ganog growled, backpedaling. “More skilled than any I have faced from your world.” He lanced out with his foot, knocking Nolan’s arm out of alignment. Then he lunged with his axe, but Nolan fell back far enough to use the pillar as cover. The blow went wide, drawing a line of sparks as it skittered off the pillar. “Stay your attacks a moment, and I’ll do the same.”

  Nolan took the opportunity to risk a glance around the battle. Hannan had finished her target and was climbing to her feet. T’kon had finished both of his opponents, and was circling back into the shadows.

  Only three Ganog were standing, including Krekon. No wonder he wanted to talk.

  “How do you speak our language?” Nolan called through the speakers. He directed a scan at the corner of the room where Edwards had disappeared. There was still an active power source under all that stone. That was a good sign.

  “I took your tongue from the human who led your 1st Fleet. After I delved into her mind, I feasted on her flesh. She was delicious,” Krekon taunted. He stepped from behind the pillar, twirling his axe lightly in one hand.

  “You’re losing, Krekon. You’re playing for time,” Nolan taunted back. “Why shouldn’t we just wipe you out?”

  “What color is your honor, human?” Krekon called back. “I stopped the combat, because I want to kill you myself. Let us fight, just us. If you win, my men will take their own lives. If I win, your men do the same. Your pet Azi will attest to my word. Tell him, fallen one.”

  “He speaks the truth,” T’kon admitted. “If you do battle and win, his men will honor the arrangement.”

  “Sure, let’s do it,” Nolan lied. He didn’t care how this played out. If he lost, Hannan would finish the job. He keyed in text instructions for her, copying Annie on the transmission. “You’ve already killed one of my friends today. It’s time for a little justice.”

  36

  It's Over

  Sissus slowed his pace, dropping a bit farther behind his clutch of red-scales. They accepted him, and his leadership, without question—yet if they glimpsed his true scales, they’d turn on him without hesitation.

  “Move with care,” he yelled. “They may already be entrenched.” The warning was more for the humans than his own men.

  Red scales darted around the corner, and there was a flash of blue light. A Saurian body was flung back into his field of view, still smoking. Sissus smiled grimly.

  “Attack them, you ka’tok,” he roared. His men ran around the corner, charging an entrenched position. It was a suicidal assault, with little risk to the defenders.

  Sissus withdrew a pair of pulse grenades. He tossed each at a knot of Saurian defenders. His men, focused as they were on the enemy, had no chance. The pair of explosions cut down the last real defense, and Sissus finished off the wounded with a few well-placed plasma shots.

  He trotted around the corner, willing his scales to change color. He raised his rifle in the air, walking slowly toward the glorious war machine. It was a little smaller than an elite, but the humans had shown them to be every bit as dangerous. Humans were close enough in size that it might be possible for a Saurian to use such a device.

  A female voice boomed from the speakers. “Yer one of the lizards the captain made friends with, right?”

  Two shadows detached from the wall, both humans. One was male, the other female. Both had strange reddish hair, suggesting they were from the same clutch.

  “Come quickly,” Sissus called. He released his rifle with one hand, pointing back the way he’d come. “The battle rages. You must assist your captain, or Krekon will certainly slay him.”

  Another explosion boomed above, and the walls shook. The thunder of crashing rock came from above. Sissus crept quickly back up and plastered himself to the wall at the corner, peeking around to size up the combat.

  Saurians could be deadly, and they could go places elites could or would not, yet wise Saurians survived by avoiding fights between giants. Fights like the one he now witnessed.

  Most of the elites were down, and the humans had only lost a single war machine. One of the mechs had squared off against Krekon, and seemed to be holding its own. The other mech was wrestling with Joko, one of the few close to Krekon’s level of combat prowess.

  Joko dropped his shoulder, ramming it into the mech’s midsection, a move that would have knocked the breath fro
m a living foe. Armor crunched, but the mech pilot was unfazed, and rammed a crackling blue plasma blade through Joko’s temple.

  T’kon had seized one of his opponent’s blades, and was using the thick-bladed weapon to keep a pair of opponents at bay. At first, Sissus wondered why he wasn’t pressing the attack, then realized that T’kon was slowly edging his way toward Krekon.

  That was hardly surprising. Sissus knew the role Krekon had played in T’kon’s downfall. Ganog honor demanded that he retaliate.

  T’kon reversed his motion, lunging with the sword. It caught his opponent in the neck, parting armor and bone. T’kon released the blade, ramming his elbow into the second opponent’s face.

  Sissus was impressed. The move toward Krekon had been a ruse. He turned his attention back to the battle between Krekon and the mech that he now guessed belonged to Captain Nolan. Krekon had backed off, and was talking with Nolan. Sissus was unsurprised. Nolan had stood far too long against him, and Krekon, no doubt, wished to savor the death of such an opponent. He’d want no interference and a clean kill.

  The garage rumbled as the war machine from below pounded past Sissus, moving to join T’kon and the pilot who had killed Joko. That must be the tiny human female with the straw-colored hair.

  The copper-haired warriors came in the wake of the war machine. They trotted in Sissus’s direction, taking up covered positions on either side. No accident, that. If he turned to engage one, the other could easily eliminate him. Sissus approved.

  He turned back to the duel, mildly surprised that Krekon hadn’t executed Nolan yet.

  Krekon took the offensive, slashing at Nolan’s mech with his broad axe. The mech blocked the weapon with its plasma blade, a shower of blue sparks illuminating the combatants. Krekon pressed the attack, driving the captain back. He launched blow after blow, and the mech frantically struggled to keep them from connecting.