I needed to keep up the shock factor. If I lived through the next few minutes, I would drop the Zaens a line and let them know to add my next stunt to their sales brochure. As I got to the doorway, I leaped forward and hit my thrusters at maximum output. I was thrusting upwards in a shallow wobbling arc that would take me close to the far wall of the cargo bay. Warning lights flashed like a Christmas tree in my display and I overrode them and cleared the distraction from my view. When the warnings disappeared, I had seven red hostile indicators. My armor had very little control, so I twisted savagely and rolled myself over on my back. Forcing my arms up I fanned them back and forth sending waves of explosives up the walls and onto the catwalks. Disengaging my thrusters sent me crashing to the floor at the far end of the massive room. I slid to a stop just in front of the giant doors that sealed the bay from the vacuum of space.
There was no return fire, so I pushed myself up and took off running towards the lift. The lag in my exoskeleton was becoming more pronounced, and I needed to make it to the control room. I could see someone enter the lift ahead of me and the door closing. I hit my thrusters again, propelling myself up to the lowest catwalk. Controlled flight was no longer an option, and I smacked into the wall and fell to the walkway. There were stairs on this level that could take me up to the control room. I pulled my shotgun from its clip and searched for targets. I could only see two dead or wounded Murlak on this level of the catwalk. So far my luck was holding, or they were running low on expendable soldiers. I worked my way up to the next walkway and saw a Murlak crawling on all four towards the stairs. I ran him down and kicked him face first into the stairs. “Where is Yagess!” The Murlak was emitting an annoying screeching growl as he put his hands out to me. “I will not ask you again!” He started shaking his head no. It was a poor choice to make while I was in my current state of mind. I jerked him up from the floor and threw him over the rail to the deck below. It was not a pleasant sounding epitaph.
My ability to run was becoming more difficult due to tardy responses from my exoskeleton servos. I was only able to achieve a fast hobble and did so up the stairs to the next deck. The lift had stopped on this level and I cautiously approached the open door finding the car empty. The control room was just beyond the lift door and I could see movement inside. As far as I knew there was only one exit from the room and I limped in that direction. I had not quite made it to the lift when it felt like someone pushed me from behind and then did it again. Error warnings on my ammo pack and right side magazine feed tube started glaring at me. I dropped to the floor and spun around. A beam flashed brightly against my visor blacking it out and leaving me with a stick frame outline of the outside world. I could make out the Murlak trying his best to BBQ me with his oversize handgun. My targeting point was a little low, but it made no difference when the streaks of burning buckshot blew the Murlaks legs from under him. He lost the grip on his weapon and was laid out prone screeching on the floor. I switched to slugs and was shocked when the round blew him into numerous pieces. If it were not for the hairy mess splattered about, it would have been difficult identifying the remains as Murlak.
I struggled to my feet and looked at the walkway below me to make sure no one else was going to sneak up behind me. It sucked to be on the receiving end of another lesson in situational awareness. The outcome could have been much worse if the Murlak was carrying one of the large tube weapons. The target had been in my H.U.D. but I was ignoring the information. I had trained with my crew so much I was used to having someone watching my back. I would have Justice alter his subsystem to give me an audible for pop-up hostile targets. The opposition hailed me in Murlak. “We are willing to negotiate a peaceful cessation to hostilities! It will be very profitable for you to listen to what we can offer!” I shuffled up to the side of the lift for cover. I caught my reflection in the thick composite. The horror staring back at me would make pleasant dreams hard to come by for a while. My skeletal paint job was covered with splattered gore and I don’t know what else. I had several large starburst blast marks and burnt spots decorating the front of my combat suit. There was a good size chunk of Murlak fur stuck to my helmet. It looked like it was impaled by one of the horns Justice had painted on it. I hope the dickheads in charge were wearing their diapers.
A Murlak started hailing me again, and it sounded a little more desperate. “If you do not want to negotiate, I will be forced to destroy this facility and we will all die!” I don’t know if he was bluffing or not but at the moment I didn’t care. I changed mags on the shotgun and with great effort stomped my way over to the control room view screen. There was five Murlak and a Grawl in the control room with two Sitch standing by the air lock doors. All of them backed away from the screen. Bless the Grawl’s little heart, he turned the palest shade of white I had ever witnessed out of a Grawl. Two of the Murlak were the big ones like the one that canned me in the lab. It was almost comical when one of them pulled the shorter Murlaks in front of him. I could not contain the sinister maniacal laugh that escaped my lips. “Go ahead you cowardly piece of sewage blow this cesspool into hyperspace. “I DON’T CARE!” I slapped my shotgun to its retention clip, and I stomped to one side of the screen then back again. My leg servo was balking at my tirade and was rewarding me with the incessant blinking of a warning light. I drew my Tibor fighting knife and stuck the point against the composite view screen and let it screech its piercing note as I stalked back and forth. “My aura will search the void until it finds your home worlds and then I will feast upon your infant offspring! The screaming of your females will be heard across the galaxy!”
One of the tall Murlaks worked up enough courage to speak. I am the Overlord of this facility and I can pay you extremely well to insure our safety. Twenty million credits will be yours if you leave this station and cause no further damage. I looked at the big Murlak. “Open the doors.” The looks on their faces said, “Hell no!” My anger was almost blinding. “If you make me say it again YOU WILL DIE!” One of the smaller Murlak being used as a shield bulled forward and hit a switch on a panel and the doors slid open. The look he was getting from his comrades was murderous. I stalked into the control room and knew from experience I did not want Sitch behind me or in front of me. I pulled my left arm up and gave it a point blank two second burst from the needle gun. Lucky for the rest of the sewage in the room, the Sitch standing next to it soaked up the piercing blast of needles. They both went crashing to the floor in a thrashing heap. In the time it took the second one to die, it managed to gruesomely decorate the occupants of the room. I focused my anger back on the cowering aliens. The two biggest Murlak were crushed back into the corner of the control room and the Grawl was attempting to force his way behind them. I wasn’t sure how long a Grawl was capable of maintaining such a pale pallor but I bet this was some kind of record.
“Where are Xul and the rest of the scientist?” The Grawl and the Murlak were looking nervously at each other. I pointed to the Murlak that opened the airlock doors. “Tell me where they are and you can leave.” The Murlak stepped forward and pointed out into the cargo bay “They are being held in a hidden storage area under the hangar deck!” I knew exactly where they were. It was Rak’s hidden weapons locker. It was a pressurized chamber so as long as it was locked they were safe. If all of the Grawl scientist were in there, it had to be very close quarters. I looked back at the Murlak. “If I see you again, I will kill you.” He took off running and never looked back. I put my fighting knife away and pointed the needle gun at one of the smaller Murlak. “Do you want to live?” The Murlak pulled away from the others. “Close the control room doors and open the cargo bay.” Without hesitation the Murlak closed the control room doors, and I saw the flashing warning lights in the dock. An alarm blared then stopped. Clouds of debris went flying to the gap in the doors as they opened. I caught sight of a flailing Murlak as it was sucked out the door. The Murlak I let go must have thought hiding in the cargo hold was a good option, it was not. The doors had
hardly opened when Justice came over my comms.
“Are you injured Commander?”
“I will survive Justice. Have you picked up any transitions from hostile ships?”
“Negative Commander, Are you ready for extraction?”
“Not until we evacuate the Grawl scientist. They are being held prisoner in the cargo bay. I will need you to land in the cargo hold for recovery operations.”
“On my way Commander!”
It was less than thirty seconds when I noticed a small amount of debris floated around and then the Legacy materialized as Justice uncloaked in the hold. I turned back to the Murlak and the Grawl. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. The Grawl and the two larger Murlak had their arms stretched out with stacks of credit vouchers in their hands. Reaching over my shoulder I yanked my shotgun free of it mounting clip. I pointed it at the short Murlak that had opened the cargo doors he looked like he would faint. I gestured towards the outreached hands and he promptly grabbed the vouchers and cautiously approached me. “Put them on the console and close the cargo bay doors.” He quickly complied and the doors closed. “Pressurize the hold!” The warning lights ceased flashing. Walking forward I picked at the vouchers then glanced up at the three crowded in the corner. Putting the vouchers in my shotgun ammo pack, I looked at the Murlak that had complied with my orders. “You can leave.” The Murlak opened the airlock doors to the control room and disappeared out into the cargo bay. I did not think he would be stupid enough to hide in the cargo bay after seeing how well it worked out for his fellow trooper. I looked at the others. “Take me to the scientist!” They all attempted to talk at once, their hesitation and excuses made me morally flexible. I drew my combat knife as my anger came to an almost blinding crescendo. In a display of otherworldly violence, I slashed the head from the Murlak bodyguard they were pushing out in front of them. I stood shaking and shocked at the unbridled aggression I could no longer restrain. The corpse fell against the three in the corner and pumped fountains of blood all over them.
The Murlak that had wedged himself in the corner blurted out. “I am Kergan clan sibling of Eiger the most feared pirate in the galaxy. If you harm me, there will be no safe place in the universe for you to hide! He will hunt you down and let you slowly burn over our ancestral fire pit!” That tidbit of information saved the cowards life. He might prove to be the bargaining chip I needed to secure the DEHD core for the Legacy. I thought about it for another second then laughed into his face. “It was I who destroyed his outpost! I fear only my creator and it is he who has unleashed me on festering filth such as you!”
My exclamation was a hammer, and it smashed any hope the three had garnered from the Murlaks hollow threat. They slumped to the floor in the corner with the still bleeding corpse. I shoved my knife into its scabbard then reached down and grabbed the Grawl pulling him up to the Halloween horror that was my helmet. I could see he had encryption keys around both wrists. “Take me to the scientist now!” I shoved the Grawl towards the open airlock doors and waved the Murlaks in the same direction. Pulling my shotgun from its clip I used it to prod my unwilling prisoners. When they stopped in front of the lift and were hesitating to enter, I gave Kergan a violent kick in the ass knocking all three to the floor of the lift. I stood over them with the big twin barreled shotgun staring pointblank into their faces.
The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach had little to do with the swiftly falling transport car. The welfare of the scientist weighed heavy on my mind as the lift doors opened on the deck below. I waved the three up and out of the lift then pointed them towards the other side of the Legacy. Justice was surprisingly quiet. I was sure he could feel my concern for the scientist and the searing rage that filled me. My three prisoners were shocked when I marched them to the hidden storage area. I looked at the Grawl. “Open it now if you hesitate I will rend your arms from your body!” The Grawl hastily complied. The deck slid back, and a light appeared on the ramp that descended to the inner pressure door. “You will answer for any harm that has come to them!” The inner door opened and I could see the scientist sitting on the floor packed in tight to each other. Off to the side were several of the Grawl laid out prone with makeshift bandages on them. My rage came clawing its way out once more and I kicked my Grawl captive down the ramp. The two Murlak stepped back from me hoping to escape my brutality. I proved them wrong when I turned and knocked both to the deck. It was all I could do to keep from executing them on the spot. “Justice, can you send your gurneys this far away from the Legacy?”
“Yes Commander, they are capable of autonomous battlefield evacuations.”
“Send ten with water and emergency nanites for treating Grawl casualties. I will let you know if we need more!” The scientist pushed back away from the Murlak as they regained their footing. “You will help the scientist out of there, if you cause them any additional suffering I will cut your hands off and feed them to you!” The gurneys started arriving. Several of the Grawl got up on shaky legs and took water bottles from the gurneys and passed them out to those who couldn’t stand. I went to the Grawl that were lying on the floor. I did not know how I knew because they looked so much alike but I could tell that it was Xul laying on the floor in front of me. He looked like he had been beaten almost to death. One of his arms was badly broken in two places. I picked him up, and he moaned softly. Putting him on the nearest gurney it turned away then rapidly headed for the Legacy.
Several of the strongest prisoners were helping others, and it was apparent no one would let Yagess get anywhere near them. He would approach the Grawl and they would push him violently away. One corner of the room was filled with excrement and other waste. My rage peaked, and I moved through the crowd of emaciated Grawl. Yagess saw me coming and screamed. “NO! I WAS ONLY FOLLOWING ORDERS!” I open hand slapped him to the floor. Reaching down, I grabbed him by the leg and dragged him to the waste filled corner. The Grawl all stopped and watched what was about to happen. I pushed Yagess face into the excrement and held him there while he thrashed wildly then finally went still. The scientist still did not realize who I was. They were just thankful the horrific specter that came to help had not turned on them.
Some of the Grawl must have made it up the ramp and recognized the Legacy. There was a loud murmur running through the crowd of prisoners. Someone shouted out in Grawl. “Mr. Myers has come back for us!” That seemed to get even the weakest Grawl moving up the ramp. Some were just crawling, and I reached down and picked them up and put them on gurneys. Justice had a line that reached back to the Legacy. Kergan and the snow white Grawl were in the back corner of the store room. No one wanted their help. The Grawl scientist would rather accept help from my excrement covered caricature than be touched by the likes of the two in the corner.
After the last of the scientist were all evacuated to the Legacy, I walked up to Kergan and the Grawl. They both shrunk down on their knees in the corner. I grabbed the pale white Grawl and stripped him of his encryption keys then turned my back on them as they begged not to be left behind. I closed the door and shut off the lights then walked up the ramp and closed the deck cover. “Justice I will need decontamination of my armor before I board the Legacy.”
“Affirmative Commander, decontamination systems are set up at the base of the personnel boarding ramp.”
“Is Xul going to make it Justice?”
“Xul is still in critical condition but stabilizing. The nanites I have introduced into his system will significantly speed up the recovery process. I have set his broken bones and have begun the carbon fiber lamination process. His prognosis is good and he will suffer no further ill effects from his incarceration. Graf and several of the senior scientists were badly beaten by Yagess and his body guards. The rest suffer from malnutrition and dehydration. All are expected to make a full recovery. Many are in the galley replacing lost nourishment. I have introduced additional supplements into the food rations to bolster their immune systems. Several have told
me of their ordeal. The Grawl locked in the storeroom is Dema clan sibling to Arn. He came to visit his sibling and found there was a change in leadership. He made inquiries and when he did not receive satisfactory answers, he made calls to unknown persons. Shortly afterwards Kergan’s frigate transitioned into the system. Kergan dispatched two assault shuttles with troops to secure the facility and installed Yagess as the new Overlord. Rak’s clan immediately told Yagess what really happened to Arn and Rak which led to Raks clan being put aboard Kergan’s frigate and everybody else beaten and imprisoned. Kergan and Yagess were awaiting a freighter so they could remove Xul and the rest of the scientist to a destination unknown to them. Many believed they would be exiled as Coonts once was, many feared much worse. All thirty seven scientists spent four days without food or water. Xul and some of the others would not have survived another day.
“Thank you Justice. As soon as I get decontaminated and out of my gear, I will address the Grawl in the galley.” I walked up to the high pressure nozzle Justice had extended on a boom out the personnel hatch. I was engulfed in clouds of steam that had a strange brown color to it. It stopped momentarily while a thin flat beam of light walked up and down my armor. The cloud of pressurized disinfectant worked me over again and this time the color was gray. The wash stopped and pressurized air blew my armor dry. I walked up the ramp and took the lift to the ready room. Stepping into the armor crate, I hoped the additional artifact 699 I traded for the upgrades could repair the amount of damage my suit had sustained.
I missed my crew and the calming effect Tria had on me. When I was attacked I no longer felt my reactions and emotions were my own. Somewhere inside of me a burning rage would come to light, and once unleashed it would be the end for any unlucky combatant to cross my path. Tria had said, it was my maker who set me on this path. I hope when my time for judgment comes, he will be able to forgive me because hell was going to be severely overpopulated.
First of my Kind Page 44
