“Yeah?” Khai responded skeptically. “So what are you calling yourself now?”
“A gun for hire! A merc!” Brawl beamed. “The pay’s good, get to play with all varieties of toys and get to see some exciting locales!”
“How wonderful for you,” Khai growled.
“Aww, come on, now,” Brawl chided. “You’re not still all uppity over our last fight, are you?”
“No. That was a long time ago,” Khai said calmly. “I just think you threw away a good career for a life that was far less honorable.”
That swept the smile off Brawl’s face like a tidal wave sweeping a sandcastle off the beach. “You want to talk about honor?” he seethed. “What honor is there in leaving a member of your team behind?”
Khai pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Burke, how many times can I explain the same thing?” Khai asked. “We. Thought. You. Were. Dead!”
“You didn’t bother to look!” Brawl shouted back. “Had you taken a minute to look, you would’ve seen me!”
“I did take a minute to look,” Khai countered, “and all I saw was a battlefield of dead bodies, dead soldiers, good men and women! We were getting shelled from orbit! You really expected me to put the lives of the people with me at risk for the slight chance that someone—and I stress the one in someone—might have survived?”
“Like me, they would have laid down their lives to find and save one of them!”
“I know,” Khai agreed. “That’s why I ordered them not to, to run, to not throw their lives away. How selfish are you?”
That sent Brawl over the edge. With a roar of rage he took a wild hook at the side of Khai’s face. Khai’s reflex package kicked in and alerted him to the impending attack. He stepped out of the way and effortlessly batted the metallic fist past him with a tink! Brawl stumbled forward several steps from the momentum of the blow that would have surely laid Khai out had it caught him unaware.
“Give it up, Brawl,” Khai warned. “I don’t want to hurt you and we’re under the gun to get these people out. This whole place is crawling.”
The calm in Khai’s voice was both infuriating and deflating. Brawl dropped his fists and nodded. “But this isn’t over.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Khai said. “You’re still the hotheaded man you were in your youth and if a fight is the only thing that will get through to you, then so bit.” That seemed to do for the present. He nodded. “Good. Now let’s get these kids to safety and then bag-n-tag a mutated Reaper so we can call it a day.”
The all loaded up into the Bucket, the kids were strapped in and Dah pulled up off the building roof headed for the sky. They didn’t have time to take the kids somewhere safe so they brought both ships with them. They rendezvoused with the Star Splitter which was hovering above the city and transferred the kids over. Khai gave Joon specific directions to go on auto pilot and take the kids to OB 2 where they’d be safe. Once the kids were delivered, she was instructed to return to this exact spot to await further directions. After they returned to the Bucket, both Khai and Kay watched the Splitter turn and head spaceward.
Khai turned and stared sadly into Kay’s watery green eyes. His heart broke for her. In less than an hour she lost more than some people lose in a lifetime. She lost her parents twice, once when she was forced into the Agency and once to the Reapers. It wasn’t fair for someone so young to suffer so much loss, Khai knew that sting all too well.
After a moment of staring at one another, Khai nodded and moved to the cockpit where Dah was scanning the city.
“Try the Outskirts or better yet the Wastes,” Khai recommended.
The Outskirts were all prairie and farm lands. The Outskirts fed the Seryys System from Seryys One to Seryys Four, to the outlying colonies. They sprawled several hundred miles to the southeast of Seryys City. The Wastes were the inhospitable desert lands out northeast of Tanbarder. Kal’Hoom Karr Canyon ended at the beginning of the Wastes and the Great Rush continued underground from there. Almost in the exact middle of the Wastes was the gleaming Jewel of Oasis, a large city of roughly a million people built around an oasis fed by both the Great Rush from the south and Xarr’s River from the Northern Castlecade Mountains near the Northern Pole. Jewel of Oasis was the lowest point on Seryys at three hundred feet below sea level which attracted both rivers. The city itself was an impenetrable fortress surrounded by a crete wall twenty feet tall and three feet thick. Until the Reaper scourge, Seryys’ top predators lived and thrived in the Wastes and where there’s water, there’s prey. Mostly Seryys’ richest populated the enclosed city and they were highly selective about who they allowed in. Why these people chose Jewel over other cities, no one really knew. Perhaps they all got a thrill out of living in a place that was constantly under siege by ferocious beasts. Of course the city also brought some of the world’s greatest hunters. Khai spent a week in Jewel of Oasis when he was on shore leave. It reminded him of upscale Aurora in Seryys Heights with gleaming towers, marble statues, posh hotels and expensive shops. He never returned.
“Why that far out?” Brawl asked. “I reckon we have quite the honey pot right here.”
“That’s the problem,” Khai countered. “That’s why you failed in catching one. You were overwhelmed every time you tried to bag one.”
“Jewel hasn’t reported a single Reaper sighting yet,” Brawl argued.
“Exactly,” Khai said. “If there are any mutated Reapers in the Wastes, they haven’t made it to Jewel yet. We can easily spot one with infrared and they’re probably few and far between. That eliminates their numbers and makes it easier on us to focus on restraining and sedating.”
“I hate it when you’re right,” Brawl growled.
“Well, I didn’t make it to General by making bad decisions,” Khai said.
“No, you did it by leaving people behind,” Brawl spat.
“Enough already with the woe is me routine!” Kay snapped. “You were left behind, you survived to become a stronger person and you’re alive now! Get over it!”
Khai grinned. Kay was not to the type to let people feel sorry for themselves.
“So which do we choose?” Dah asked. “Outskirts or Wastes?”
“My vote is Wastes,” Brawl said. “There are probably still survivors in the Outskirts. Going into the Wastes would minimize collateral damage, I reckon.”
“I agree,” Khai said, prompting a surprised look from Brawl.
“What about those survivors?” Puar asked. “Shouldn’t we go there and see if we can help them and get a Reaper at the same time?”
“Most of those in the Outskirts can take care of themselves,” Khai said. “Hell, some of them don’t even use electricity. They’re a hardy bunch.”
“So the Wastes it is!” Brix said. “Let’s get going!”
Dah set a course and they soared for their destination. Three hours later, the greenery below gave way to the tan and yellow dunes of the Wastes. Scanning with the infrared scanners, they weren’t having much luck. They weren’t getting any more than normal fauna.
“Maybe they just haven’t made it out this far yet,” Kay offered.
“Or they have, and have already starved to death,” Dah added. “We’ve seen the way these things eat.”
“Well,” Brawl said. “I’d sure like to the last three hours of my life—”
“Abnormal heat signature detected,” Amber interrupted.
“That’s it!” Khai said, pointing at the bright orange blob on the radar. “Head for it!”
Dah banked to the right and headed straight on for it. Within minutes, they found their target. A particularly large Reaper chasing after some pray. The Reaper was nearly ten feet tall with a dark pink complexion. Dah brought up the targeting system on the Bucket.
“Wait!” Brawl shouted. “Are you nuts? Blasting the thing will kill it!”
“I came prepared,” Dah snooted and fired.
Tranquilizer rounds pelted the thing’s back. It arched and
spun, looking balefully at the ship.
“Yep,” Brawl said dryly. “Tried that already.”
The Reaper screeched and slammed its giant fists on the ground kicking up sand and dust. The skin along its back split open revealing darker flesh beneath and purple blood oozed out everywhere staining the sand. The skin came off in clumps to reveal a blood-soaked Reaper that Khai could have sworn was five feet taller. It writhed about for moment and found a large boulder. With both hands it picked the rock up.
“Um,” Brawl said apprehensively, “I do reckon it intends on throwing that at us!”
“What’s a boulder going to do?” Brix asked with scoff.
“Dah, take evasive,” Khai ordered.
But it was too late. The Reaper threw the boulder with tremendous strength and speed. The boulder struck the belly of the Bucket disabling two of the four of hoverpads. The ship sagged and listed to the left. Warning bells began to ring in the cockpit as a damage report scrolled down a screen to Khai’s right.
“Hoverpads one and three are down!” Khai announced.
“I told you!” Brawl growled. “How the hell do you think I got stranded back at Seryys City, hmm?”
“We need to get to Jewel before the other two hoverpads overheat,” Dah said.
Another boulder bounced off the side of the ship making a horrible banging sound. Dah hit the throttle to full, sucking them all into their seats. Jewel was at least another hour away, forty-five minutes at full speed.
As they flew, they saw more Reapers, though they were few and far between. All they had to do was get to Jewel and replace the damaged hoverpads and get back out there. The glint of the sun off the glass windows of the high-rises signaled their impending approach to Jewel of Oasis.
Khai clicked on the radio. “Jewel of Oasis, this is General Khai’Xander Khail aboard the Bolt Bucket on approach requesting permission to land.”
Nothing.
“I repeat, General Khail aboard the Bolt Bucket. We have entered your airspace and are requesting permission to land. We are on official business.”
Static.
“Do we turn around and try to make it to Ruukaan?” Kay asked. “It’s another two hours from here.”
“Nope,” Dah answered definitively. “The ’pads are already red-lining as we speak. We won’t make it. It’s already going to be a rough landing as it is.”
“Try again, Khai,” Brawl said.
“General Khai to Jewel port authority, come in please.” No response. “We are in need of repair and are landing soon. If you can hear me, have a repair team waiting for us.”
Dah fought the controls the whole way down. They cleared the wall on the southern edge of the city where the main port was located. Khai watched the scanners and saw no heat signatures. “No Reapers that I can see.”
“Maybe their communications are down,” Puar offered.
“Well,” Khai said, taking a deep breath and releasing with a sigh, “we’re about to find out.”
They approached from the wall nearest the port. As they fumbled over the port, they could see ships grounded in a majority of the docking bays but no repair crews; in fact there were no crews of any kind. It was deserted.
The Bucket came to a wavering stop above an empty bay. As Dah eased back on the power to the hoverpads, the ship would drop erratically little bits at a time. Just as the ship was about to plop down hard enough to destroy the landing skids, Dah pushed the ’pads to full power and dropped to the ground roughly, but not so rough as to cause more damage.
They sat in the cockpit looking out the canopy at the quiet port. A deafening silence fell over the group. Finally, Brix broke the silence, prompting everyone to jump.
“Well,” he said in a mocking tone. “Maybe they are having radio trouble.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” Kay said ominously.
“Me, too,” Dah agreed.
“You’re sure there aren’t any other cities nearby?” Puar asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Dah groaned.
“All right,” Khai said with a resigned tone and standing, “quit your belly aching and let’s gear up.”
They geared up and cautiously moved down the loading ramp to the ground.
“This is damned weird,” Dah murmured.
“I agree,” Brix said, waving his dual-mag machine gun around at every little noise.
“First place we’ll check is flight control, then the Port Master’s Office,” Khai said, pointing his gun about.
As a unit, they moved through the quiet port, covering each other’s rears and finding nothing. As the team moved into the Jewel Space Port administrative building, it became apparent that there had been quite the struggle. Evidence of small arms fire was everywhere. Bullet holes riddled the walls and windows. Office furniture was overturned here and there. This particular office appeared to be a last stand point. The doors leading out into a long corridor was poorly and uselessly barricaded as whatever came through those doors was able to move the barricade aside fairly easily. It screamed Reaper, but with no heat signatures to verify that fact, he was just guessing about what could do this. Unless…
“Fall back!” Khai whispered intensely.
They followed orders without question and reconvened back at the entrance to the building.
“What’s wrong, Khai?” Kay asked once they were clear.
“Maybe they’re in the buildings,” Khai offered. “That would mask their heat signature.”
“But if they encountered Reapers,” Brawl started. “Why didn’t they call for help?”
“Maybe they couldn’t,” Khai countered. “Maybe they hit so fast they didn’t have time.”
“Maybe they thought they could handle it,” Puar added. “I mean this place houses some of the best hunters in the system. The game beyond the walls brings them in from all over.”
“Whatever the case may be,” Khai said, handing out specs to everyone, “set these to infrared and stay alert.”
The specs were Seryys Combat Heads-up Display Spectacles or SC HUD Specs. They had multiple settings including night vision, infrared and sonar. Through the HUD in the glasses, the team could see the whole heat spectrum from black to yellow based on cold to hot and select if they wanted one lens to display infrared and the other to display night vision, or sonar, normal vision, or overlapping fields. In infrared, they could see through walls up to twenty yards. They also had a function where sonar could act as radar and paint a visual model of what was in front of them and far beyond. That coupled with the infrared option, they wouldn’t miss much. They also had a compass at the upper center and a ticker at the bottom right. The specs could connect wirelessly to newer guns and the ticker told them how many rounds were left in their magazines. Of course, the specs couldn’t connect to Khai’s old trusted assault pistol, but he could count to ten, so he wasn’t worried.
As they moved back into the building, now ready with their new advantage, they proceeded into the corridor. Khai opted for his right-eye lens to display overlapping sonar and infrared and his left-eye lens to give him a clear regular visual. The corridor was a mess. Splattered blood painted the walls from floor to ceiling. A particularly large pool of blood fed into a long smear that ran the length of the corridor into the flight control office as if someone had been killed right there and then their body dragged off.
Those utilizing only infrared would have missed that detail, but the consecutive gasps from behind him let Khai know that he wasn’t the only one wanting a natural view of things. So far there was no movement within the corridor or the flight control room and no obvious heat signatures. They forged forward swinging open the double doors leading to Flight Control. More carnage greeted them. There were body parts without owners here and there and the smell of decaying flesh assaulted their noses.
They pushed through into the next room where things only got worse. They made it all the way through the administrative buildings with no clues as to what happened shor
t of a complete bloodbath.
“This place is a tomb,” Brawl whispered. “We should get the parts we need and get out before this happens to us.”
“I have to agree with him,” Puar said. “Something bad went down here and I’m not sure if I want to find out what that was.”
“We could probably scavenge a few hoverpads from another ship,” Brix added.
“Or take what we need from the Port Authority Garage,” Kay offered. “I’m sure they have a shop here to maintain their patrol craft.”
“Okay,” Khai said. “Let’s split up. Puar, Brix and Kay: go to the shop and get the parts we need. Dack, Burke—”
“Brawl,” he interrupted. “I don’t go by Burke anymore.”
“Fine,” Khai said, annoyed. “Dack, Brawl and I will go to the town hall and try to figure out what the hell happened here. Understood?” He got nods from everyone. “Good. We’ll meet back at the Bucket in two hours unless otherwise instructed.”
Without hesitation, Puar, Brix and Kay ran off in search of the garage while Khai, Dack and Brawl headed north into town. Jewel of Oasis was not a big city in terms of square mileage. Population density was the name of the game. Dozens upon dozens of high-rises touched the sky, housing thousands. There was little in the way of parks other than the Oasis itself which was on the north end of town.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Dack said, walking in between Brawl and Khai. He could tell there was some tension there, though it didn’t take a psychic to realize one couldn’t cut it with a Kit’Ra. And it was no accident that he was positioned in the middle.
It was just about forty-five minutes into their walk when they had reached downtown. The town hall was a gleaming tower of glass and metal taller than all the others around it. It had been their navigation beacon for the last twenty minutes. It was still west of their location by a couple blocks. Khai made a move to head west down the next street and froze dead in his tracks, jaw gaping wide and eyes nearly bulging.
Brawl made a scrunchy face and said sarcastically, “Oh, did I forget to mention the Roamers?”
It wasn’t hard to find the shop once they found a kiosk with a map. There they were able to find a dozen hoverpads and several that would fit the Bucket. A small hovercart sat to off to one side. Brix hefted both ’pads and plopped them down on the cart.
The Seryys Chronicles: Steel Alliance Page 11
