It was easy to spot; there were several SCATT members lying on the ground, some writhing in pain, some not moving at all. Whatever was down there, it had done a number on the team. Suddenly, Barr came flying out from a window at the front of the house, firing his sidearm the whole time. It wasn’t long at all before whatever he was firing at came leaping through the window after him.
There were only a few moments in his life when Dah actually froze with fear.
This was one of them.
The beast he was seeing was the spitting image of a hologram he had seen before, a few years prior at his brother’s mining facility. With its pale white, shiny skin; its tall, slender, but muscular build; elongated, eyeless, teeth-filled head; canine-like legs and long talons on each of its four-fingered hands, it was clear; this thing was a Reaper!
Adrenaline immediately started coursing his circulatory system. His senses keen, his heart racing, he landed the hover car and leapt from the seat. Once he was aware of that one, he became aware of several. Being a former military man, he had the skills, the strength and the courage. But these things were ten times scarier than any Vyysarri could ever be. The one that chased Barr out of the house was almost on him. Dah jumped up to the roof of his car for a better vantage point.
He lined up his crosshairs on the first monster and squeezed the trigger. Half a magazine later, the beast finally fell over dead in a pool of thick purple goo that must have been blood. Barr pushed the dead beast off of him and looked at Dah. His face was full of relief for an instant, then concern as he looked past Dah. Dah spun as one of those beasts tried to claw its way up the car from behind. Dah barely had enough time to point the muzzle of the gun in that direction before he opened fire. The ammo ran out with several clicks and the beast slumped down on the car causing it to dip on its hover pads. Dah ejected the magazine and loaded another from his belt in a split second. He spotted another Reaper chasing down a civilian. He lined up the shot; led the target; thumbed the semi auto switch; slowly let out his breath and loosed one bullet. That bullet passed through the Reaper’s head. It stumbled forward, but kept going. Astonished, he tried to compose himself for another shot. It went right. The beast was on the screaming woman. Dah popped off two more shots and both of them found their marks. The beast collapsed to the left of the woman, who got up and ran straight for another house.
By that time, there were hundreds dead and more screaming. The screams seemed to be coming from everywhere, echoing down every alley, off of every building. A Reaper leapt from the roof of another house to the ground and screeched so loud, Dah’s ears rang. Two more were clawing their way up a tree after a child. Dah clicked his gun to three-round-burst mode and opened up on them. Three bullets to the brain seemed do the trick and they fell.
After that, Dah spotted more on the horizon coming from the eastern prairie beyond the city. He tapped his radio.
“Dah to dispatch!”
“Dispatch, go ahead.”
“We need military backup, ASAP! There are Reapers out here!”
“State your name and rank.”
“What? Didn’t you hear me? I need backup yesterday!”
“Officer, stay calm and state your name and rank.”
Dah growled with frustration. “This is Captain Dack’Tandy-fucking-Dah of SCATT, your boss. We have Reapers running free within the city limits!”
“Please wait, patching you through to my superior.”
“I am your superior, you stupid – AH!”
A Reaper knocked Dah off the top of the car with a leaping rake. They hit the ground with the Reaper on top of him. The jaws snapped inches from his face as he struggled for the knife at his side. With one hand wrapped around the throat of the beast keeping those jaws at bay, the other hand found the pommel of his knife. He popped the button at the hilt and pulled on it. Before he could get it out of its sheath, a handful of claws found their way through Dah’s flak jacket. He growled in pain as the claws tore into him.
With a great effort, Dah pulled the knife out and with a battle cry jabbed the knife into the thing’s neck. Purple blood gushed out, running down Dah’s arm and spurting in his face. Dah spit the blood out of his mouth as the monster screeched and writhed. Dah twisted the knife and then pulled it out prompting even more hemorrhaging of the rank, purple blood. The creature instantly got off of Dah and began flopping about, screeching and clawing at the air.
“… is your situation?” a voice came over the radio.
“In a word? Fucked!” Dah snapped back. “There are Reapers everywhere!”
“The government doesn’t recognize the existence of Reapers, Captain Dah. You must be mistaken.”
“Bullshit! I’ve got their purple blood all over me! I know they exist, they were discovered by my brother at his mining facility! Don’t give me that deniability crap!”
The line went dead as Dah dropped another Reaper with four well-placed shots. Damn it!
“Dack, is that you?” another voice came into the conversation.
“Prime Minister!” Dah was both surprised and relieved to hear his voice. “We need military help right now!”
“We are assembling teams now. But I need you to stop throwing that ‘R’ word around. If there are civilians listening in on this channel, we’ll have mass hysteria on a planetary scale. Evac as many of those people as you can and the get the hell out of there! I’m sending a chopper your direction right now.”
“Tell the pilot to look for the red smoke!”
“Roger that. Puar out.”
“Barr! We have evac coming! Get these people corralled and set up a defensive position. Stick to headshots if you can.”
The remaining SCATT members started jumping into action, picking their targets and protecting civilians. There were five SCATT members left. Within ten minutes, all the civilians were corralled into a huddled circle. The five officers were surrounding them facing out and firing at the monsters quickly approaching.
“I’m out!” one yelled.
“Here!” Dah shouted back, tossing a magazine. “Make ’em count!”
There were close to fifteen closing in on their location. They were coming from all directions, now; from alleyways, from inside houses, streets, even coming down from the roofs of houses.
“We’re boned!” another shouted dreadfully.
“Not yet!” Dah countered, trying to rally his troops. “Just keep firing! Help’s on the way!” I hope, he thought as he threw out the gas canister. The bright red smoke billowed up into the air.
Click-click-click! Dah ran out of ammo, slung his machine gun and switched to his sidearm.
“Out!” Barr yelled, doing the same as Dah and switching to his sidearm. The monsters were tightening their circle around them when Dah heard a voice cry over the radio.
“Yeeeeee haaaaaa!” he bellowed so loud the radio distorted.
A chopper, with its dual blades—one embedded in each wing—swooped low, blazing its high-powered cannons and ripping through the horde of Reapers. The chopper banked recklessly to the left and swung around for another pass. The crete road exploded in pockmarks everywhere as the cowboy unleashed hell on the monsters again.
Once there was a safe place to land, the pilot did so. He leaped out of the cockpit with a larger-than-life machine gun that was probably illegal on at least ten worlds in the Seryys Space, including Seryys. He wildly sprayed the remaining monsters with more bullets than all of the SCATT members had combined.
“Get your asses in – now!” He yelled, waving for them to hurry. “I’ll cover you!”
The civilians all scurried for the chopper with the officers in tow covering their retreat.
Once they were all packed in there, the pilot got back in and took off so hard that they all were sucked into their seats. Some of the civilians got sick.
“Ah-ah!” the pilot shouted over the hum of the rotors with a smile. “Not in my baby!”
Dah had never seen someone who loved their job so much. D
ah realized that this was the same pilot who had dropped him, Khai and the rest of the original SCATT team into the middle of a riot when all hell broke loose before the war ended.
“First I drop you off into a sticky situation, now I’m pickin’ you up from a sticky situation. I guess that makes us square!” he said with the slightest hint of regret.
“Funny how things end up, isn’t it?” Dah mused aloud.
“Yep!”
“Where you taking us anyway?”
“Shark Stadium!” the pilot shouted back. “Got it barricaded up good and tight. Most of the refugees are there and farther into the city. So far, the line has been drawn at about a mile in-city from your last position. They have officers, military, barricades, artillery, even air support. For now, they’ve been able to keep them monsters from getting any farther into the city, but there’s a whole shitload of them! In other cities too!”
“I need to get there now! Can’t this thing go any faster?”
Without saying a word, the pilot kicked it up a notch. Dah had to hold on for dear life as the maniac weaved between buildings, dipped under pedestrian walkways and over bridges. Even Dah started feeling a little green around the gills as the chopper shuddered, banking against buildings when there really wasn’t enough room to bank as hard as he was.
Still, not soon enough, they reached the stadium. The pilot swooped down in low, barely missing another chopper taking off and breaking so close to the ground that everyone gasped. Despite the speed at which he descended into the bowl of the stadium, he brought the chopper to the turf as if it were a feather. He didn’t even feel the skids touch the ground. Dah had to admit he was impressed with the pilot’s skill, but the civilians were less than impressed and would most likely file a complaint with the police department that Dah would have to deal with later. But for now, they were safe.
“Thanks for the lift!” Dah shouted.
“Anytime!” he said with a cocky grin. “In the meantime, I got more people to save!” And terrify, Dah thought.
And with that, he lifted off and soared for the sky at reckless speeds.
Dah worked his way through the refugees to the access way that led up to the communications center for the facility. By the time he got there, it had already been converted into a command center for the whole operation. A stressed-looking general with a creased forehead was orchestrating the whole thing and getting completely overwhelmed. Dah could hear chatter from the SCGF (Seryys Combat Ground Forces) and the SCDF (Seryys Combat Defense Fleet) coming through here and there.
“Ah! Captain Dah,” the general said. ”I’m relieved to see you got out all right.”
“I did, but a lot of my men didn’t,” he said coldly, coming to the realization that the government might have already known what was going on when Dah dispatched his team.
“Never gets any easier, son,” the older general said as sadness and weariness crept across his seemingly-aging-at-that-moment face. “The Prime Minister is on the com for you. Says it’s urgent.”
Dah took the com unit. “Captain Dah.”
“Dack! Thank the Founders you’re all right. When I saw that you personally went in, I feared the worst.”
“Why wasn’t I told before I sent my men in?” Dah demanded, not caring that he was talking to the most powerful man this side of the galaxy. “I could’ve had them better armed for the situation!”
“Regrettably, we were trying to keep panic from gripping the streets. We were already dealing with racial riots and adding a mythical creature attack to the mix would’ve made things exponentially worse. I am truly sorry that it was your team that got sent out. But by that point, most of our normal forces were already engaged.”
“I just need to be kept in the loop from here on out, okay?”
“You have my word,” Prime Minister Puar paused for a moment. “Now, for the reason I’m calling. With our Navy coordinating with the ground forces and acting as air support and the rest of our Navy on patrol in case the resistance from either side decides to make a move during our crisis, I have a favor to ask.”
“You want me to call my brother and have him check out the supposed weapons cache,” Dah finished.
“Yes. I need some intel, and now is the opportune time to do that with most of my manpower engaged. Have him report his findings to you in three days. I’ll make it worth his while, too.”
“I’ll contact him immediately and then I’m going back out there to fight and help with the evacuation.”
“I couldn’t stop you if I tried.”
“You’re damn right!”
“Good luck, Dack. Be careful. I can’t afford to lose good men like you.”
“I will, sir. Thank you, sir.” Dah handed the com unit back to the general. “Can I hitch a ride with someone back the precinct? I need to get something.”
“I’ll have a shuttle waiting for you on the roof in two minutes.”
“Thank you, sir. Good luck. You’ll be hearing from me soon.”
As per the general’s promise, a sleek, fast-looking shuttle was hovering on its hover pads waiting for him. “Captain Dah?” the driver asked.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“I’ve been ordered to take you wherever you need to go.”
“Thank you,” Dah said as he dipped his head and got in.
Five minutes later, Dah was stepping into his office. He sat down at his desk and composed himself. Then, he dialed in his brother’s secure communication channel. A few seconds passed, then his own face answered.
“Little Brother!” his older twin brother by mere minutes said with a genuine smile on his face and with equally genuine surprise. “To what do I owe the honor?”
“A couple of things,” Dah said with the look of a man who was about to be hanged.
The pleasant smile vanished, replaced with concern. “What’s the matter?”
“Reapers,” he said.
“What? How?”
“I was hoping you would be able to answer that.”
“I don’t have an answer for you!” he said as he started plucking away on his keyboard. “All my security features show it to be clear. No intruders of any kind! I’ll get down there right now and see if they did indeed get through that door.”
“No!”
“No?”
“Too dangerous.”
“You know I have my own security force, especially after what happened a few years back.”
“And I have another task for you.”
“What could possibly be more important that this?” he demanded.
“A request from the Prime Minister. I’m sending you the details now.”
“Okay…” A few tense moments passed and Dah watched his brother’s face morph form confusion, to astonishment, to almost glee. “Is this for real?”
“Yep.”
“The Founders? Really?”
“It’s looking that way, yeah.”
“So what’s my part in this?”
“Prime Minister Puar can’t trust anyone in his staff right now. I’m sure you’re aware of the battle between the Vyysarri and the Hellfire.”
“Well yeah. It’s all over the news.”
“Khai and Sibrex made it out alive, but the Prime Minister is suspicious of Sibrex at the moment. But with both myself and Khai vouching for Sibrex, he is also looking into his staff. We needed a person and ship that were not involved even indirectly with any of this. I vouched for you.”
“So you want me to fly my ship out to these coordinates and do what?”
“Look around, see if any navy or Vyysarri ships show up and report back to me in three days. Your personal ship is more than equipped for this voyage. It will take you probably four jumps with a rest period between to recharge your Eve’Zon Drive. The sensor package on the Savvy Merchant should be more than adequate. And you will be compensated.”
“Okay. I’ll depart today.”
“Thanks, brother. I owe you one!”
“No. Pu
ar owes me one!”
“That’s true! Though technically, Puar owes me one for getting him in touch with someone who he can trust… and then he’s paying you for your trouble… so technically, you owe me.”
“Keep dreaming, little brother!”
They both shared a good laugh, said their goodbyes and cut the channel.
After his conversation, Dah got up and strode off to the subfloor garage where his ship, the Bolt Bucket, sat waiting for him. It was a heavily modified bulk freighter that had been confiscated from a smuggler. Dah originally “commandeered” it from one of the police impound lots. Prime Minister Puar let him keep it after the last crisis was over. The ship was large and shaped like an over-sized flying saucer with a hover bus at its center topped with spoiler-like wings.
He started up the ship and she thrummed with power. Keying in the passcode to the garage door, he angled the ship to leave. Once the door was open, he punched it sending the ship out into the open air where she belonged. Dah scanned the emergency broadcasting channel for cries for help, and with the current events going on, it didn’t take long. Once he had a destination, it was time to gear up. Dah put the ship in hover and moved to the aft section of ship where the armory was located. From there, he suited up in full riot gear, grenades across his chest in a bandoleer, three pistols (two in thigh holsters and one in a shoulder holster), three knives (one with each pistol in the thigh holsters and one in his boot sheath), and his trusted machine gun that he kept from his stint in the SCGF.
“Time to save some lives,” he said to himself, and sent the Bolt Bucket into a nosedive.
Chapter Nine
“I’ve had it!” Khai growled. “I’m not just gonna sit here and wait for nothing to happen.”
The Seryys Chronicles: Of Nightmares Page 7
