by James Somers
The group of aerogores moved quickly to the end of the maintenance corridor. The door clicked as a manual release switch engaged through the actions of someone on the other side. The door opened and a man with a hand held light moved just inside the door. As his light illuminated the group of aerogores in the corridor, he tried to scream, but he wasn’t allowed the time.
The aerogores pounced and the first kill was made. They were inside the main compound now. The group of reptilian predators surged forward in great numbers. There were people everywhere, all waiting to be plucked by the deadly beasts, but to feed was not their purpose. They moved swiftly into the populace. Screams began to flood the corridors of the underground base as the aerogores spread out in every direction they could.
☼
ALEC was at the north entrance to the conference room trying to finagle the manual door control to get it open. Two soldiers acting as his personal bodyguards were with him as the door unlocked and slid open under the manual release mechanism he had activated.
Suddenly, as he stepped into the doorway, a gaping maw snatched him up ferociously. Rows of hot knives pierced his body as he screamed and then the reptilian beast rent him in two, tossing the remains across the room. Alec’s bodyguards immediately fired at the nightmare as it stepped into the room, barely visible in the low emergency lighting.
Tiet and Wynn had their blades drawn and ignited—Grod activated his plasma glove. The beast launched a burst of flame at one soldier as another of the monsters sailed over the first into the conference room, pinning the other man to the floor and tearing away his life in an instant. A spicor from Wynn’s hand caught the first animal in the side of the head; disintegrating a large enough portion to drop it dead. Tiet deftly carved an arc of light into the second as it was busy dismantling the bodyguard pinned under its foot.
Multiple screeches coming from the room beyond the open doorway were cause enough for Tiet to back away from his kill. There were more of them; a lot more.
“Aerogores!” shouted Grod. “Just like the ones we faced out in the city.”
“Or those same ones have tracked us down here,” said Wynn.
Behind them, an ellipse of light carved through the other locked doors. The piece fell into the room and Kale and Emil entered.
“Not these things again!?” said Kale
More of the creatures were beginning to move into the room; sniffing at their dead ones and glaring at the burning corpse of the first bodyguard that had been attacked.
“Tiet, I don’t think this is a fight we want to have right now,” said Wynn.
“We’ve got to get everyone out of here!”
Tiet tapped on his communicator pin. “Mirah, evacuate the facility. You’ve got to get to the ship now and get out of the base.”
“I can’t leave. My patient, Ramah, is too weak.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sending the boys down to help.” He turned to them. “Boys, get down to the Med-lab and help her get the girl to the ship. Tell everyone you come across to get to the ships and evacuate the base immediately.”
Grod blasted one of the beasts standing in the doorway with his plasma glove. It writhed in agony and after a few seconds, moved no more.
“And be careful,” said Wynn. “They may have entered the base through more than one entrance.”
“Come on guys!” said Juli, terrified, from just beyond the portal they had cut to gain entrance.
They obeyed without any argument; stepping back through and heading away quickly into the darkness with the glow cast by their ignited blades as their only light.
Flame erupted from one of the aerogores as it peeked inside the room from behind the two dead in the doorway. The men could hear many more writhing and screeching in the darkness beyond.
“Maybe we can hold them here,” suggested Tiet as Grod fired more bursts of plasma energy at the creatures trying to enter through the doorway.
Pounding from above drew their attention. They looked up only to find another aerogore smashing its way through the mesh grille that covered the ventilation conduit in the ceiling. It fell by its own weight into the room, just in front of them, and recovered quickly; springing into action against them. Tiet was the closest and bounded away from its lightning fast strike as Wynn hit it broadside with a spicor disc. It howled and fell over going wild from the pain of having a quarter of its abdomen obliterated by the resulting dispersion burst.
Heavy steps were heard again from above as more of the monsters filed through the conduit and headed into the room. Tiet leapt over the one still writhing on the ground and followed his companions out of the conference room using the portal cut by the boys. There was almost no emergency lighting visible at all in the corridor. They hoped they were alone for the moment. The lack of light gave the animals a definite advantage.
“I don’t sense anything out here,” said Wynn cautiously.
Behind them, multiple aerogores were pounding away at the locked doors. The cut portal was much too small for any of them to fit through, but they were denting the door noticeably and it was quickly giving way to the abuse.
“They’ll be through that door in seconds,” said Grod.
“Come on, we’ve got to warn everyone we can to get out of here before the place becomes overrun with those things,” said Tiet as he ran off into the dark corridors ahead with the others taking up pursuit.
☼
KALE, Juli and Emil moved quickly through the darkened corridors of the base. They entered one of the junction areas with a larger chamber and other corridors heading off in different directions from it. It contained a service hall that normally would have had people eating inside, but the place was abandoned at the moment.
Emil’s foot bumped into something as they made their way through the area. He lowered his ignited blade and saw the upper portion of a woman’s body lying on the ground at his feet. He stepped back in disgust; her lower body was nowhere to be found.
Juli screamed up ahead, next to Kale. It was another grisly discovery. As he joined them where more clusters of emergency lighting pods made the visibility better, Emil could see that there was a great many more people slain in the area.
“It smells terrible in here,” said Juli.
“Yeah, unfortunately we’ve smelled it before,” said Emil.
Then they all heard screeching echoing down the corridors. It was hard to tell which direction the noise was coming from, but it was getting louder.
They were standing next to a large fountain with a base and a tabletop style edge. The water was no longer flowing due to the lack of power. Kale led Juli over to it and said, “Get down here under the edge.”
“What’s happening, Kale?!” asked Juli fearfully as she crawled down beneath the marble top and scooted in next to the base.
Kale squeezed her hand and said, “Trust me. I won’t let anything harm you.”
The screeching seemed to come from all directions and then the aerogores were in the chamber with them. Kale and Emil brought their backs together. “Keep safe, my brother,” said Emil.
“And you don’t take any chances,” said Kale.
They each leapt away as chemical fire came down on their position. Juli screamed from beneath the fountain pedestal. She couldn’t see what had happened to the boys when the flame came down where they had been standing.
An aerogore came down near the fountain and spotted her under the pedestal. It screeched and rushed for the girl. Kale came across over the fountain’s bowl of water and swiped his ignited blade across the top of the aerogore’s head. He landed behind the beast as its legs folded under its body and it skidded dead across the floor under its previous momentum. A quick glance at Juli reassured them both that the other was still alive.
There was more screeching and Emil sailed through the air behind him dispatching another one of the reptilian predators in flight. Kale leapt away again as the boys took the fight to the creatures. The two warriors were deftly moving back and f
orth across the room trying to disorient the attackers and disorganize their pack-like patterns of killing.
Kale landed on the ledge of the fountain and an aerogore surprised him. The beast snapped at him as he sliced across its face. It reflexively knocked him away with a heavy paw as it felt the sting from Kale’s weapon across its mandible. The blow sent him flying back into the water. The aerogore jumped up on the ledge with its upper body and let go of a chemical spray that ignited in the air on its way toward Kale. His thoughts brought the majority of the fountain’s water volume up to shield him from the fiery blast, and then he sent the water into the aerogore, carrying the predator away in the flood across the floor. Emil came down on the beast as it washed up near him.
Another one of the aerogores shot down at Emil from the sky. He seized it in flight with his mind and sent it reeling away through the glass wall of the service hall. As the creature recovered, Emil pulled up the glass shards and pieces of steel supports with his mind and sent them as deadly projectiles at the aerogore.
Kale’s kemstick flew into another of the beasts heading for Emil and pierced its breast. When it fell to the ground dead, the boys realized they were alone in the area again.
Kale recovered his weapon and walked back through the aerogore bodies to retrieve Juli from her hiding spot. When he knelt down to where she was, he found her shaking uncontrollably with her hands over her ears to drown out the screeching of the aerogores. She jumped when he touched her, but she practically leapt out from under the fountain ledge to reach him when she opened her eyes and realized it was over.
Juli wrapped her arms around Kale and kissed his face, happy to see him. Tears were running down her cheeks—she was scared to death.
“Are they all dead?” she asked through trembling lips.
“At least the ones in here,” said Emil.
Kale asked Juli, “Are you alright?”
She nodded, but the experience was traumatizing her.
“We had better get moving toward the med-lab,” said Emil. “We’ve still got to get Ramah and your mother out of here.”
Another quick glance at the damage they had done and the trio headed away through the adjoining corridor leading to the medical facility.
EIGHTEEN
THEY had managed to set off the alarm system along the way to the med-lab, sending out an evacuation order throughout the entire base. Hopefully everyone was on their way to get out by now. Juli and Mirah were in the front office getting supplies together that might be needed. Fortunately, Ramah was the only bedridden patient in the facility. The others had already left under their own motility. The Hangar was very near, with an access corridor right off of the med-lab into the main departure area in case of medical emergencies that might be arriving.
“Kale, Juli, help me get these supplies to the Equinox,” said Mirah as she heaped equipment and boxes into their arms and sent them toward the access corridor.
“I should check on the girl, don’t you think, Dr. Soone?” asked Emil, glancing back down the darkened corridor toward the patient suites.
“Yes, Emil, that’s a good idea. She should still be sleeping with the sedatives I’ve given her. We’ll get these things loaded on the ship and come back to help get her ready for transport.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Mirah headed off after Kale and Juli with her own load of supplies and several totes of medical equipment slung over her shoulders, as Emil headed back toward the patient suites.
☼
THE drugs Dr. Soone had given Ramah were beginning to wear off. The catatonic fog was lifting and she could remember why she was in this bed. Ramah had passed out after the escaped the fields of the Agonotti. She was hurting still, but she was glad to be free.
Ramah opened her eyes slightly, viewing the room in the very low lighting coming from the hallway beyond her room. It was odd, but not enough to stir her consciousness out of the drug induced funk her doctor had her in. She blinked slowly, not really opening her eyes beyond a slit’s width.
A shadow passed by in the hallway between the curtains over her rooms viewing window and the low lighting beyond. She supposed it must be Dr. Soone checking up on her again. She liked the doctor. She was kind and comforting to her, especially after the ordeal she had just been through as a slave to living nightmares. Now, she was safe with the rebels and the Barudii king.
The door began to creak open a little and someone was coming in. The light cast upon the figure for a second and Ramah managed to blink through the fog her mind and vision were under. She screamed as the dim light animated a nightmare pushing through the doorway. The fowl beast reared its head at her cry and returned a horrible loud screeching that terrified the girl even more.
The beast began to charge into the room in a bloodlust as Ramah grabbed for the rails of her bed but did not possess the strength to remove herself from it. She heard another scream—the scream of a man, like a battle cry, as the viewing window to her room shattered inward. A dark human figure pounced upon the creature’s left shoulder area with an energy weapon of some kind in his hand, driving it home into the beast. It thrashed its powerful head at the blow, slinging the man away into a supply cabinet across the room.
The beast continued its thrashing, trying to remove the weapon lodged in its shoulder area. It smashed into Ramah’s bed with enough force to push it back, bouncing her out as the bed slammed against the wall behind her. She was now on the ground between its thrashing head and her battered patient bed.
The man recovered almost as quickly as he landed against the supply cabinet, reaching out toward her, but too far away to grab her. The beast spotted Ramah on the floor and started to strike with terrible rows of teeth, but the bed behind her, seemingly moving by the movement of great invisible hands, rotated over top of her in a move that scooped her under and pushed her toward the wall with the bed landing on its side against her. She was protected temporarily as the creature’s strike slammed into the under framing of the bed.
An invisible force, apparently under her rescuer’s control slammed into the creature, sending it hard against the racks of medical equipment that had been monitoring her beside the bed. His weapon dislodged of its own will and bounced back to the mysterious man as he launched his self again at the monster. Several quick blows with his energy sword silenced the beast once and for all.
“Who are you and what was that thing?!” she asked frantically as the man began to lift the tortured bed frame and mattress away from her.
“It’s an aerogore; very deadly. We’ve got to get you out of here, now.”
“Thank you for saving me,” she said as he scooped her limp frame up off of the floor into his arms.
“I’m Emil. Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you, Ramah.”
Somehow, those were very comforting words. The dead beast on the floor helped to bolster that feeling that he meant every syllable of his statement. She could tell he was dark skinned even in the low lighting and handsome. He seemed quite strong for a young man and he was soon heading quickly but cautiously down the corridor with her in his arms.
“Where are we going?” asked Ramah.
“We’ve got to evacuate with the others,” said Emil. “We’ve got a ship waiting.”
She hung onto his neck, but she was still weak from the intoxicating effect of the medications. Their hold on her was beginning to take over again as she slipped in and out of consciousness while the young man carried her off into the darkness toward his ship and safety.
☼
THE warrior trio, Barudii and Horva, watched ships in the main hangar leaving without them. They were able to see, but not able to get to those escaping the horrible infestation of the rebel’s Sector City base. Ships were rising off of the tarmac as fast as their crews could ready them for take-off.
“How many do you think?” asked Tiet.
“At least two hundred smaller vessels,” observed Grod, “Maybe thirty larger cruisers.”
The warriors and their king had managed to make it safely to the observation lounge nearly ten stories up from the hangar bay’s main level. They had seen many people along the way that had been killed by the aerogores—left lying in pools of their own blood: men, women and children. The beasts were obviously not hunting for food but for service. This was a planned attack by a master of the elements—a master of evil.
“Can you see the Equinox?” asked Tiet.
“There are too many to pick it out,” said Grod, “It may be all the way down on the other end where the ships all seem to be heading. Perhaps they have found a way out without the transgates.”
“Wynn? What are you doing over there?”
The elder man was studying a schematic up on the wall behind the control desk.
“I think you’re right, Grod,” he said without taking his eyes off of the chart. “If I’m reading this right, there is supposed to be an escape tunnel big enough for the larger ships to be able to get through. It looks like there is a barrier, maybe a gate. They will have to open it to get out.”
“Where does it lead?” asked Tiet. “Do they come out in the plains where that army is?”
“No. It looks like they will come out in the city…near the airbase for Sector City.”
“That should provide them some cover then; maybe enough to get away from the cruisers they have stationed out over the plains,” said Grod.
“Look!”
Down in the hangar, aerogores were beginning to come into the massive underground chamber in great numbers.
“There must be hundreds of them,” said Tiet helplessly.
They could make out people being attacked outside of their ships as they tried to ready for departure. Some of the smaller vessels were being attacked also as the aerogores hurled great blasts of chemical fire at the vehicles. Others had several of the beasts clinging to them and ripping away at the armor plating to get inside at the human occupants. They continued to unleash hundreds of bursts of flame at the ships. Some of the smaller personal craft were completely engulfed in flame and then suddenly one nearby the observation window exploded before them. The heavy shrapnel clanged into the blast proof transparisteel, but did not penetrate.
