by Brian Fisher
Chapter 71
Dawn broke over the mountains, bringing with it an end to the rain. T'Sula lifted her face to the new sunlight, savoring the warmth that it brought. She had traveled all night, and was near her destination.
Having just crested the hill, T'Sula could now see the old airfield with its handful of buildings jutting out of the mountain plain. The hangers were showing their age and disrepair. The tower had long since fallen in on itself, leaving only a pile of rubble in its place. On either side of the tower were ancient aircraft hangers, and on the side opposite the old road were the remnants of the airfield itself.
Rusted hulks of old flying craft littered the broken shell of the onetime heliport and airstrip. Whatever had happened here had happened before the birds could leave the ground. Ancient ground vehicles sat in heaps around the hangers, where their former owners had left them.
T'Sula cautiously investigated the different buildings, searching for what Justo had said was here. She entered the first of the hangers. Its massive doors had long ago succumb to the ravages of time and elements, and fallen to the ground.
Inside the hanger lay an array of equipment that hadn't been functional in well over a hundred years. Parts from vehicles of all shapes and sizes were scattered throughout the hanger, as if a child had thrown their toys and never put them away. The offices and rooms that lined the walls of the hanger were no different.
T'Sula left the ruined hanger and quickly walked to next. There were three in all, with the center hanger constructed out of brick. The brick being stronger, fared better over time, leaving the center hanger in better repair than its unfortunate counterparts.
There was a door located at the south end of the long, brick building. T'Sula opened it with a creak and stepped inside. Unlike the previous hanger, this one still held its giant doors, and the interior of the building had seen a few repairs over the years. Remnants of a handful of machines dotted the inside of the cavernous building, leaving the impression that they were being used for parts.
T'Sula picked her way through the hanger. Recessed into the far wall was a small door, just large enough for a man. She tried to open it, and found that it wouldn't budge. She didn't know what it was that she was actually looking for, but felt that it was worth a little more time to find it. T'Sula stepped back from the door and looked around. Breaking down the door would take some effort, but it did seem possible.
Out of the corner of her eye, T'Sula glimpsed another door. This one was set in the wall to her right, and not along the wall that she was facing. There was a clear path along the wall, so she trotted over to the other door. This door opened easily. On the other side was a small hallway with a staircase off to the left. T'Sula had just gained the top stair when the stench overcame her. There was a sickly sweet smell of rotting meat, accompanied by the biting acid of a decayed corpse.
T'Sula covered her mouth and nose as best she could, and proceeded down the long, narrow hall. Open doors lined the right side of the hall, leading into large open rooms that were covered in bodies. Men, women, and children were strewn haphazardly across the floors, instead of lying in the graves that they deserved.
The taste of bile filled T'Sula's mouth and throat as she started to run for the far end of the hall. Luckily the door stood ajar, and offered no resistance as she burst through it.
Holding on to the railing, T'Sula doubled over and vomited. She hadn't eaten anything for a few days, and was surprised when there was actually something for her stomach to empty. Still, she wiped her mouth, and forced herself to press on. The dead here were not her concern. They belonged to Justo Saint Germain, not T'Sula Mir.
T'Sula held tight to the rail as she crept down to the ground floor. At her left sat a pair of doors that held no lock. She walked up to the doors, and looked through the window. Cracking open the door, she peeked inside.
On the other side of the door was a Conex, large enough to hold several small vehicles. Beyond the Conex sat a hulking Ta'Reeth carrier.
The carrier rose up on its powerful legs and charged at T'Sula. She slammed the door shut, and ran through the short hallway behind her. The hall ended abruptly as it intersected with a larger hallway that ran perpendicular to it. T'Sula skidded around the corner to the right, and started running again.
Six Ta'Reeth warriors poured into the hallway behind her, and another six came from a doorway in front of her, effectively cutting off her retreat. They were built similar to the others that she had faced, except that these had no plasma cannons. Instead, there were talons protruding out of the ends of their long fingers. Without slowing, T'Sula launched herself into the Ta'Reeth before her.
Leaping up, she drove a knee deep into the chest of one of her attackers. T'Sula grabbed hold of its head, and rode the creature down, crushing the back of its skull against the concrete floor. Before she could disengage herself, another Ta'Reeth kicked at her from the side.
T'Sula rolled with the force of the blow. She kept rolling until she kicked out at the side of the knee of the nearest Ta'Reeth. Her kick landed with a snap of tendons and ligaments, sending one of her assailants toppling to the ground. Grasping the creatures head with both hands, T'Sula cleanly snapped its neck.
With two opponents down, T'Sula scrambled to her feet. Ten Ta'Reeth still faced her. The Ta'Reeth probed her defenses, slashing and jabbing, as they tried to drive her into a corner.
T'Sula wearily stepped back in an attempt to distance herself from her enemies. Slowly, the noose of the Ta'Reeth closed around her. Her escape route cut off, T'Sula found the second doorway that the Ta'Reeth had used to engage her. She slipped through, and found herself facing a cage to her front, and an armored door a few meters to her right.
The Ta'Reeth stormed through the door behind T'Sula, slashing and clawing as they fought to overtake her. T'Sula screamed as one of the Ta'Reeth managed to slash her back from her shoulder to her hip.
Angry and hurt, T'Sula turned and grabbed the nearest Ta'Reeth. She rolled onto her back, and using her legs, thrust the creature up, and against the armored door. Springing to her feet, T'Sula stepped into a spinning back kick that crushed the Ta'Reeth's armored chest.
Another Ta'Reeth rushed forward with its talons flashing through the air. T'Sula dodged the razor sharp claws, and used the creature’s momentum against itself. She grabbed the Ta'Reeth, and spun it headlong into the door. The impact forced the hinges to crack. Before the creature could react, T'Sula kicked it in the face, snapping its neck, and sending it crashing through the armored door.
On the other side of the door was a small room filled with weapons. A thick layer of dust covered the otherwise pristine firearms. Assault rifles lined three of the walls, with pistols lining the other. In the center of the room sat two small crates, next to on old tripod mounted railgun.
T'Sula saw the contents of the armory, and sprinted into it. She grabbed a rifle off the wall as she ran, and quickly checked it over. The power supply still held a charge, and there was still matter in the rifle's MRU.
Shouldering the rifle, T'Sula stepped forward and opened fire. With each squeeze of the trigger, microscopic iron particles erupted from the barrel at nearly the speed of light. Each of the Ta'Reeth warriors crumpled to the floor as their heads disappeared in clouds of red vapor.
After dispatching all of the enemy, T'Sula turned her attention to the armory. She strapped the rifle to her back, then quickly found a belt with a holster and placed it around her waist. Next, she took one of the pistols from the rack, inspected it, and shoved it into the holster. Nearly satisfied, T'Sula opened up the crates in the center of the room.
Laid neatly in the crates were rows and rows of bayonets. T'Sula smiled as she pulled the first gleaming blade free of its scabbard. The blades had been properly cared for, and after all of these years, were still combat worthy. She selected two of the bayonets, then another pistol with a holster, and fastened them to her belt. One pistol rested on each hip, with a bayonet scabbard tied
below it on each of her thighs.
T'Sula eyed the tripod-mounted railgun as she thought about the Ta'Reeth carrier, then dismissed the thoughts of trying to move the weapon by herself. Unslinging the assault rifle, T'Sula brought the rifle stock up to her shoulder, and stepping over the pile of bodies, left the armory.
She retraced the route that had taken her away from the stairs, methodically clearing any danger. T'Sula readied herself to face the massive creature on the other side of the wall. Taking a deep breath, T'Sula steadied herself, and kicked the door open. She burst through the door with her weapon up and searching for the Ta'Reeth carrier. The Conex blocked her view of the hanger, so T'Sula cautiously moved past it. She slipped by the edge of the Conex, turning the corner quickly, and coming face to face with the monster.
Before T'Sula could squeeze the trigger, the Ta'Reeth carrier lashed out at her with the back of its massive pincers. T'Sula grunted as she slammed into the brick wall behind her. Blackness crept in around the edges of her sight as the Ta'Reeth advanced. Its pincers grazed the side of T'Sula's face as she jumped out of the way.
T'Sula leapt clear of the attack, bringing her rifle to bear on her aggressor. Squeezing the trigger, T'Sula fired at the Ta'Reeth's head. The shots that were killing the soldiers were doing nothing more than ricocheting off the carrier's heavily armored body. Still, she kept firing as she moved, trying to gain an advantage.
The carrier turned and faced T'Sula. It blinked its large black eyes at her, and then scrambled across the smooth concrete on its six monstrous legs as it attacked. Two heavy pincers swung sharply across its body as it ran, forcing T'Sula to dive out of the way. As she dove, the creature kicked at her with its powerful legs, grazing T'Sula's wounded back.
Hitting the floor hard with her shoulder, T'Sula rolled away from the Ta'Reeth. She brought her weapon up, and fired at the beast’s underbelly as she rolled. Her barrage struck the creature at the upper leg joints, cracking the armor. She fired again at the same spot, but the beast had already healed.
Angered, the Ta'Reeth kicked T'Sula. The blow caught her in the stomach, knocking the breath from her lungs, and sending her skidding and tumbling across the floor. She lost hold of her weapon as she tumbled, and finally came to rest against a broken old workbench. T'Sula covered her head with her arms an instant before the tools and parts on the bench came crashing down on top of her.
T'Sula picked herself up and pushed through the pain as she healed. Blood covered her face, stomach, arms, legs, and back. She wiped the blood from her eyes in time to see her rifle being crushed by the heavy feet of the Ta'Reeth. T'Sula grimaced, and then slowly smiled as a plan came to her mind.
Drawing one of her pistols, and a bayonet, T'Sula charged the enemy. She fired at the creature's underbelly as fast as she could pull the trigger. The Ta'Reeth flinched and reared back at the ferocity of her attack. T'Sula saw the opening that she needed, and made her move. She set her pistol's power supply on overload, and ran the bayonet through the trigger guard.
Before the Ta'Reeth could react, T'Sula drove the bayonet as deep as she could into one of the creatures upper leg joints. When that was done, she ran as far and as fast as she could. T'Sula tried to reach the safety of the Conex, but never made it.
The blast picked T'Sula up, and hurled her against the hard steel wall of the Conex. She lay against the cold concrete floor for a moment as her broken bones knit back in place, then groaned as she pushed herself back to her feet. She drew her other pistol as she walked back to the writhing Ta'Reeth.
The blast had not killed the beast. Half of it body was gone, and the other half crippled. It slipped upon the bloody floor as it struggled to turn and face T'Sula.
With no emotions showing on her bloodied face, T'Sula fired relentlessly into the Ta'Reeth. She could see it slowly healing from the massive wounds, and refused to let this creature return to slaughter more innocent lives. T'Sula drew closer, firing at point blank range, until the armor on the creature's forehead cracked.
T'Sula set her pistol's power supply on overload, and ran her other bayonet through the trigger guard. She brought her fists back, ready to drive the bomb home, when she felt a hard clamp across her ankles. She glanced down, and saw the Ta'Reeth's pincer clamped across her legs.
T'Sula snarled at the beast and thrust herself forward. As she moved, the Ta'Reeth hurled her away. T'Sula flew through the air and struck a heavy steel rafter as her overloaded pistol exploded.
Smoke curled out of the crater in the center of the hanger floor. T'Sula Mir crawled forward on her hands and knees, making sure that her enemy was indeed dead. She hadn't been sure if she had managed to plant her bomb, but now she was. Nothing remained of the hulking Ta'Reeth but a smoking crater.
Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, T'Sula allowed her eyes to close for a moment as she rested. She couldn't sleep, but lying down on the cold, hard floor felt good to her aching body.
When she could no longer allow herself to lay still, T'Sula forced herself to her feet. She slowly walked back to the armory and selected new weapons. With a rifle, two pistols, and two bayonets strapped to her body, T'Sula walked back to the hanger. She took her rifle and shot the lock on the Conex, and opened the doors.
Inside the giant storage container sat a nicely preserved hover cycle. T'Sula grinned as she ran her hands over the sleek machine. Its paint had faded a little, but she could still read 'Buell' emblazoned across the blue and black power cell.
T'Sula flicked the power switch, and was rewarded with the bike easily rising off the ground. She maneuvered the vehicle out through the hallways, and through the nearest set of doors that led outside. The bike was outfitted with an array of instruments, including a compass. T'Sula climbed on the bike, admiring the craftsmanship, and sped off, heading southwest.
