Space Wars!

by Max Chase

  ‘Twelve seconds,’ Selene warned. ‘Eleven . . . ten . . .’

  ‘Preparing to dislodge vent cover,’ shouted Peri. ‘Firing sonic pulse . . . Now!’

  The shockwave blasted the vent panel into space. Peri’s pod wobbled from the explosion, but he wrestled the Nav-wheel to keep it steady.

  ‘Five seconds . . . four . . . three . . .’

  Peri hit the hyper-brakes. The pod curved around into the ventilation shaft like the winning goal in a spaceball game. But the shaft was shorter than he imagined. There was barely enough room for all the pods before it narrowed into smaller ventilation ducts. ‘Emergency brakes!’ he screamed.

  Peri slammed into his astro-harness as the pod halted an atom’s breadth from the end of the main ventilation compartment. Diesel, Selene and Prince Onix followed a nanosecond behind him. Otto’s pod had just cleared the opening when the computer announced, ‘Cloak failure.’

  ‘We made it!’ Peri gasped over the radio, releasing his astro-harness. ‘The Meigwors mustn’t discover we’re here, so we need to be quiet, super-stealthy!’

  ‘The Meigwors are always stealthy!’ Otto’s voice growled back.

  ‘Let’s go!’ Peri said and pressed his hand against the wall of his. A silver light spun around the inside surface, then the pod cracked in half.

  Hiiiissssss. Two things hit Peri as the pod opened. First, a wave of noise flooded his ears – machinery thumped angrily as turbines whined and rattled. Above the sound of clashing metal, the tannoy blared computerised commands and warnings. Second, a foul stench assaulted his nose. The hot damp air reeked of rotten, nasty animal odours.

  The other pods all began to crack. The Phoenix crew exited them and huddled around Peri. Diesel slipped a wad of Eterni-chew up his nose to block out the smell. ‘What was that about making no noise?’ Diesel shouted. ‘We could have a space-rock concert and no one would hear us!’

  Peri led the crew down one of the smaller ventilation shafts. It was a circular tunnel made from overlapping segments of a strange pink and silver metal. The walls were covered in a thick layer of dust and grime.

  ‘What is this stuff?’ he asked.

  Selene pulled a scanner from her belt and aimed it at the wall. ‘Meigwor skin cells, crushed bugs and . . .’ Selene dry-heaved as she hastily put the scanner away. ‘You don’t want to know what else.’

  As they moved further down the ventilation duct, the shafts got narrower and narrower. Otto was the first to have to crawl on his hands and knees, but soon everyone was shuffling through the grime. Ahead, light streamed through the narrow slits of a vent cover in the shaft floor. Peri peered down between the gaps into a dimly lit corridor. He signalled to the others to stop. ‘I’ll see if the coast is clear,’ he said.

  Selene passed him a Swizaser and Peri vaporised the rivets around the cover. He pushed the cover aside and ducked his head down.

  The stench was almost unbearable. The long circular corridor was dingy and hot. It was big enough for four Meigwors to walk side by side, but it was also filthy. The walls were blackened with slime. Strands of a glow-in-the-dark green moss hung everywhere with tiny little crab-like creatures clinging to its surface. Their glowing red eyes added to the corridor’s eeriness. But there was no sign of any Meigwor soldiers or guards.

  ‘All clear,’ Peri said, stuffing a wad of Eterni-chew in his mouth. It did nothing to hide the reek as he jumped down into the corridor, brushing past the thick strands of rotting moss. His boots crunched unpleasantly as he landed on the bugs feeding off the dirt.

  He took up the cosmic-combat position and watched the corridor for Meigwor guards. The others dropped down one by one. Otto was last. He stretched and twisted, then took a deep breath. ‘Ah!’ he boomed, ‘Fresh air!’

  ‘Which way, Otto?’ Peri asked.

  Otto splayed his elbows out in a Meigwor shrug. ‘The vipers have reconfigured themselves to create the Extractor, but I’m not sure how they all fit together.’

  ‘Let’s keep moving,’ Peri said. ‘Otto, scout ahead. Diesel, follow up at the rear.’

  Peri went after Otto. They kept as close to the walls as they dared, but the small crabs living in the moss snapped their claws at them if they got too close. It was slow going, waiting at the end of every corridor while Otto went ahead to stop them stumbling across a battalion of Meigwor guards.

  ‘This way,’ Otto said. ‘Quick! There are guards coming from the other direction.’

  Halfway down the corridor, they found a large rectangular box. Masses of bugs swarmed inside and batted against the clear windows. Otto licked his lips.

  ‘What the prrrip’chiq is that?’ Diesel gasped.

  ‘A bug-o-matic!’ Otto replied. ‘Our brave warriors need fresh bugs! You can’t fight on more than one empty stomach!’

  ‘Gross,’ Diesel muttered.

  ‘Look!’ hissed Selene, before Otto could respond to Diesel’s taunt.

  On the wall beside the bug-o-matic was a large touch-screen map of the Extractor. Peri’s fingers darted over it, scrolling the map one way, then another. It was covered in bizarre symbols and strange pictograms. None of it made sense.

  ‘Otto, I need a little translation,’ Peri said, pointing to the map.

  ‘We’re here,’ Otto said, pointing to a symbol. ‘Sector ß-õ-8-ð-Þ.’

  ‘Hurry up,’ Diesel said, motioning down the corridor towards the sound of insects being trampled. Crunch, crunch, crunch. ‘We’re going to have company.’

  ‘The control room is located three sectors over,’ Otto said, pointing to the nerve centre.

  Peri traced the route across the Extractor. ‘It shouldn’t be too hard to get to.’

  The crunch, crunch, crunch, was getting louder. At least three guards were heading their way!

  ‘Come on!’ Peri ordered. They raced away from the approaching guards, turning blindly around one corner and then the next. ‘We need to turn left at the junction.’

  ‘No, we need to turn right,’ Otto boomed. He was about to say something else, when a strange noise echoed down the tunnel.

  Clunk. Clunk-Clunk. Clunk-Clunk-beep-beep-whoooo-beep.

  ‘Peri!’ Diesel screamed.

  Peri spun around and gasped. Plodding across the ceiling towards them were two gigantic crab-like robot-guards. The crab-bots had two clawed arms that swung down in front of their six metallic legs and gripped massive laserpulses. At the end of five antennae dangled the robot’s illuminated eyes. They swept purple beams of light across the corridor ahead of them. Peri didn’t want to find out what happened when the beams finally saw something that shouldn’t have been there.

  ‘W-w-what d-d-do we do n-n-now?’ Prince Onix stuttered.

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Peri said. ‘Run!’

  Chapter 4

  Clank-clank-clank.

  The crab-bots scuttled after them, their metallic feet pounding against the ceiling.

  Zap-Zap-Ssssizzz. Zap-Zap-Ssssizzz. Laserfire snapped at Peri’s heels like Martian piranha-rats.

  ‘Activate your Expedition Wear armour!’ Peri yelled, jabbing a button on the belt of his suit. The surface instantly became hard and shiny. A Plexiglas helmet encased his head in a transparent bubble. He was just in time as a laser blast punched the back of his suit throwing him forward. Otto pulled him up.

  ‘Keep going!’ Peri yelled as a shot zinged off his helmet and exploded ahead of him. He knew their armour couldn’t protect them for ever. When he saw a split up ahead in the dingy corridor, he shouted, ‘Everyone go right!’

  They tore around the corner into a junction between six corridors. ‘Quick, this way,’ said Peri, choosing one at random. There was no time to lose. ‘We keep turning until we lose them.’

  ‘That’s crazy!’ Otto boomed, before another blast lit the corridor behind them.

  ‘No time to argue,’ Peri panted and started running. They hung another left, twisting and changing directions wherever there was a turning.

  ‘We’v
e lost them,’ Selene wheezed. ‘I think.’

  Peri skidded to a halt. He listened but couldn’t hear the crab-bots’ metallic feet against the ceiling.

  Diesel’s hair was bristling and his face was as red as a solar-flare. ‘Stop being such a lamizoid, Peri. We should stop and fight.’

  ‘If we did, they’ll raise the alarm and then . . .’ Peri started, but before he even finished his sentence the crab-bots were screaming, ‘In-troo-Dah! In-troo-DAH!’ over the ship’s tannoy systems.

  An alarm sounded. Eeeee-raaaa, eeee-raaaa!

  ‘In-troo-Dah Alert!’

  ‘Now the Meigwors know we’re here too!’ Diesel swore. ‘I told you we should have blasted those crab-bots while we had the chance.’

  ‘No more running like Milky Way minnies!’ Otto said. ‘We lie in wait – like mighty Meigwors!’

  He jabbed a finger into the corridor wall. A door swung out, revealing a strange kind of storeroom filled with shelves and crates. Peri glanced back down the corridor; no one was in sight yet, but it wouldn’t be long before the place was crawling with guards, both Meigwor and robotic. ‘Quick, inside!’

  Otto flicked a switch as he pushed the door shut behind them.

  ‘Klûu’ah,’ Diesel exclaimed, as a bright light came on. ‘Look at all these weapons.’

  Peri had never seen so many weapons in his life. The wall nearest the door was covered in racks of electromagnetic zapsters, seventeen-barrelled blasters and laserpulses. There were four sets of shelves, each packed with cases of ammo and more weapons, from jellifiers to petrifiers.

  Otto had brought them to the Meigwor armoury.

  Selene slid out a drawer from under the jellifiers. Rows of silver probes, lasers, space-wrenches and ultra-sonic pliers gleamed back. She grabbed a few tools, tucked them in her Expedition Wear and hastily shut the drawer. ‘You can never be too prepared,’ she said.

  Prince Onix was standing in front of a row of diagrams pasted to the wall. The posters showed the best ways to terminate a range of alien species, while others had cooking instructions. He stared at the diagram of a Xion as though hypnotised. ‘Best slow roasted?’ he murmured.

  ‘Very tasty,’ Otto grunted back. He was swapping his two blasters for what looked like newer, bigger versions of the same weapon.

  ‘Otto,’ Peri said, ‘how come this room wasn’t locked? It’s full of deadly weapons.’

  Otto laughed. ‘Meigwors love war! Why would we want to lock ourselves out of the armoury? It just doesn’t make sense!’

  Diesel picked up a laserpulse. He tested it in his hands, trying to see if he could aim with it. ‘We should stock up. These are much better than the double-barrel blasters we have.’

  Selene had her ear against the door, her legs shaking nervously. She stiffened and put her finger to her lips. ‘Shhhh . . .’

  Peri pressed his ear against the door too. Outside the room, he could hear the crab-bots getting closer. Clank. Clank. Clank.

  Keep going, Peri thought. Keep going.

  But the crab-bots slowed as they got nearer. Clank. Clank . . . Clank . . . Clank.

  Even with his Expedition Wear’s auto-cool function working at the max, Peri felt sweat run down the inside of his suit. He held his breath, not daring to make a noise. He glanced around. Diesel’s narrow band of hair had turned bone-white. Otto had blasters in each hand. Prince Onix was backing away from the door.

  Clank . . .

  Peri glanced behind the prince at an ammo crate sticking out from the shelves.

  Onix was heading straight for it. If he bumped into it, the noise would give them away.

  ‘Behind you,’ Peri hissed.

  Onix twisted around in horror as if he was expecting to find the whole Meigwor army behind him. He knocked the crate and sent it flying.

  Craaaashhhh!

  Instantly, the crab-bots outside screamed: ‘In-troo-DAH! In-troo-DAH! In-troo-DAH!’

  Peri heard Meigwor guards pounding down the corridor. He swore silently to himself. There was no way out of the armoury without a fight, which meant they had no chance of reaching the nerve centre undetected.

  ‘Where are the intruders?’ a guard boomed.

  ‘Arr-MORE-ree,’ the crab-bots screeched. ‘OH-pen DOOR! WEE Diss-TROY!’’

  ‘Stupid machine! We destroy! Get out of the way!’ the guard ordered. ‘We haven’t had the chance to shoot anything for ages!’

  The crab-bots clunked away from the door. Fear crackled through Peri’s circuits. Once the guards open the door, he thought, we have a zero per cent chance of surviving and a hundred per cent chance of being blown to pieces.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Prince Onix whined.

  Diesel grabbed a Meigwor weapon and started flicking switches along the side. ‘I’m going to lock and load,’ he hissed. ‘We should fight our way out!’

  Otto snatched the weapon from Diesel with one hand and, with the other, pushed him into the corner. Before anyone could react, he pushed Peri, Selene and Onix next to their half-Martian friend. Otto raised the weapon at them and ran a finger across his sinewy neck.

  ‘Step back!’ he growled under his breath.

  Peri’s body turned ice-cold. How could he have been so stupid? He had even persuaded Otto to come along on the mission, and now the Meigwor was planning to betray them.

  Chapter 5

  Otto shoved Peri backwards with the tip of his blaster and reached for the door handle. As he opened the door, he swept Peri, Diesel, Selene and Onix against the wall.

  Double-crossing long-necked freak! Peri cursed silently. Bounty hunters never change.

  Selene shook Peri and pointed to her eyes, then to the door. It was blocking their view. They couldn’t see the guards or the crab-bots – which meant the guards couldn’t see the crew of the Phoenix either. They still had a chance to do something.

  Selene pulled a small laser from the belt of her suit and pressed it against the open door. She fired. There was a faint whiff of vaporised metal. As the smoke cleared it left behind a perfect peephole.

  Peri peered through the hole as Otto slapped his hands over his head in salute. Compared to Otto, the two guards were short and stocky, although still taller than Peri. The guards levelled their blasters at Otto. Charrrruupt! The sound of a laser blaster charging up sent a chill through Peri’s circuits.

  ‘What are you doing?’ one of the guards boomed.

  There was a long silence. Peri’s heart was pounding so loudly he feared the Meigwor guards would hear it.

  ‘I wasn’t happy with my weapon!’ Otto boomed. ‘I wanted a bigger one that could do more damage!’

  It was the first time in his life Peri had been so happy to hear someone tell a lie. Otto wasn’t betraying them after all!

  ‘With big weapons, we will all be victorious today,’ the guard replied, although he didn’t sound pleased. ‘Not that we will need them with the Extractor working.’

  ‘Cheer up!’ replied the other. ‘We’re hunting intruders! If we capture them, we can slow roast them and pickle their fingers!’

  Peri looked at Diesel. Blue sweat had plastered his narrow band of hair against his head. Prince Onix was keeping silent. But there was no way to hide his nerves – with each bead of sweat came a strong fishy stench.

  Surely the Meigwors would smell him soon.

  ‘Don’t let me delay you!’ boomed Otto. ‘Go ahead! I’ll grab some kit and join you soon!’

  ‘Hold it!’ the other guard shouted. ‘The more I think about what you said, the more I realise . . .’

  Oh no, thought Peri, pressing his eye to the door, they don’t believe Otto.

  ‘What?’ Otto demanded.

  ‘I wouldn’t want an intruder to laugh at my blaster being so small!’ the guard said. ‘I need a bigger one!’

  The guard stepped forward to come into the armoury, but Otto stepped in front of him. ‘No!’ Otto shouted at the puzzled guard. ‘Take my blaster! Get after those intruders!’

 
; ‘Good thinking!’ The guard snatched the blaster from Otto’s hand and licked his lipless mouth. ‘All that talk of pickled fingers is making me hungry! We’re going to eat well tonight! Come on, this way!’ he shouted, leading the crab-bots away.

  The clank-clank-clank faded as Otto closed the door.

  ‘Wait until they’ve gone, space-monkeys! Then we go!’ Otto growled.

  ‘That was close,’ Diesel said. ‘I thought for a second you were going to give us away.’

  Otto made a strange noise in the back of his throat, like a strangulated cough. It sounded deeply uncomfortable. The lumps on his throat twitched. ‘Never mention it again!’ he boomed. ‘You may not be so lucky next time!’

  Peri gulped. It must have been difficult for Otto to betray his own people. He changed the subject before Otto reconsidered. ‘Otto’s right. We won’t be so lucky next time. Diesel, we’ll need more weapons to make sure we can defend ourselves. Otto can help.’

  Diesel looked like a kid in a sweet shop. His band of hair fluttered with excitement, flickering electric blue as he grabbed the nearest metallic crate from the shelves. It was a case of zirconium grenades. But as he opened it, Otto pushed him aside and started stuffing them into his Expedition Wear.

  ‘Hey! I found them first,’ Diesel objected, reaching for them.

  Otto swatted him away. ‘I need to restock! Worry about the others!’

  Diesel’s eyes flashed yellow, but he snatched a different case and unbolted it. He found a set of weapons in snug grey foam. They looked like snakes, curled ready to attack. He pulled one out and examined it in his hands.

  Suddenly, to Diesel’s surprise, the top of the weapon lurched forward like a cobra, spitting out a fierce tongue of laserfire.

  Shhhaaablam! It exploded centimetres from Otto’s backside.

  Otto spun round. ‘Watch it!’ he boomed as the black patches around his eyes darkened and he reached for a weapon on his belt.