The Seryys Chronicles: Steel Alliance

by Joseph Nicholson

  Once there, Sibrex was able to override the hatch and they both dropped down in, sealing the hatch immediately afterward as to not set off any alarms. They removed their helmets and got their bearings.

  “I will take out the engines so they are unable escape,” Sibrex said. “You head to the bridge.”

  “Right,” Khai said and turned to make his stealthy trek. “Good luck.”

  “Khai,” Sibrex called out, prompting Khai to stop and twist around to look back at his friend. “In your words, kick his ass!”

  Khai smiled and nodded.

  Sibrex memorized the path to the engine room. His priority was to keep the ship from leaving, and possibly create a distraction to give Khai an edge. He listened as Khai’s heavy footed steps vanished into the ship in a hurry. Sibrex warned him of the dangers of lingering too long in their current position.

  From the access passage, he took a ladder down a walkway within a gap that existed between the outer and inner hulls. From what he read about the layouts of these ships, the separation of the hulls acted as a second shielding. The outer hull was made of a metal found only on their home world, F’Rosia. It had ablative properties that absorbed incoming energy and shunted it through the empty space between the two hulls where it traversed the parameter of the ship and eventually dissipated. If the ship took too much energy at once, it had nowhere to go and that was when hull integrity began to fail. It was an extremely dangerous place to be during a firefight, so Sibrex moved quickly.

  The nearest exit point that led past the inner hull was several hundred yards away. From his dangerous point of view, the blasts striking the energy shield were soundless but the pressure was almost overwhelming, like being instantly dunked into fifty feet of water. He staggered against the railing. His ears popped and he grunted as he tried to hold himself up. After his ears popped and equalized, he continued running. Eventually he made it to the door and overrode it.

  Once inside, he stopped to catch his breath and get his bearings. He entered at the service corridor access point that ran along the spine of the ship. The corridor ran all the way to the engine room. Lucky him! The corridor was brightly lit, leaving no shadows into which to shrink. He steadily moved forward, seeking the right access port that would lead him to the service tube that ran along the port side of the engine reactor core. With any luck, he wouldn’t encounter a single soul on his journey, unless there was someone doing maintenance…

  The corridor gave way to a long catwalk suspended over what the schematics indicated were the fuel cells that powered the ship’s conventional propulsion. He had considered planting the explosives right there, but that would only stop one method of transportation. Like Vyysarri and Seryysan ships, their means of instantaneous space travel was a completely different system that could work independently from the engines. He needed to disable both to keep them from escaping. The cells were long, horizontal cylinders filled with special gasses found in many gas giants and nebulae throughout Seryys and Vyysarri space. Plus, placing the explosives there might completely destroy the ship from the inside out and he certainly didn’t want to deprive Khai of his revenge, and more importantly their own lives—there was still a chance of making it out alive.

  He moved on making it about halfway when the ship rocked hard beneath his feet. The hull must have been struck. An eerie creak echoed from far ahead. At first, Sibrex thought it was another access hatch being opened and he was readying himself for a fight when he realized the sound was something far, far worse. The floor dropped out from under him as the leftmost supports for the catwalk gave from the impact. The whole catwalk swung down and banged against the inner hull wall. He dropped and only by sheer force of will, was he able to reach out and grab the lower railing that was once the left railing. He dangled over the fuel cells several hundred feet below. With an awkward twist of his body, he was able to get both hands on the rail. From there, he started the painstakingly slow process of inching his way to the end of the catwalk a hundred yards away.

  After covering half the distance, his arms were shaking from exhaustion and he was sweating profusely. If he were Khai, he would have said he was “getting too old for this shit!” He swung his feet up and wrapped them about the rail. He hung upside down to let the blood flow back to his hands and give them a rest. He still had another fifty yards or so to go. After much exertion and cursing and grunting, he made it to where the catwalk became a corridor again. He pulled himself up and afforded himself another short rest. Since the shot that rocked the ship, the lights had dimmed considerably. He was already more comfortable.

  The service corridor stretched on for an eternity, or so it seemed, but his stop was coming up. Along the way, he passed the life-support systems, ships refuse storage—which was not pleasant at all for his keen sense of smell, other subsystems and finally, finally he found the access hatch that led to the service tube. He knelt and crawled into the tube. Though spacious for an access tube, he still had to shoulder his way through the twists and turns to get to the spot where he needed to make his exit… and by make his exit, he meant physically make an exit. From his vest, he removed a small cutting laser of Vyysarri design, much more effective than the Seryysan cutting torch.

  He cut a small oval hole in the side of the tube and gingerly removed it as to not make any unnecessary noise. He slid the panel aside and eased himself out onto a small catwalk that skirted the perimeter of the inner reactor core. His target was the main power conduit at the aft-most section of engineering that was a direct feed to the power regulation and allocation module. From there, the power was dispersed to all sections of the ship, including both means of propulsion and many other systems that would help Khai get to the bridge.

  With the charges set—though they weren’t actually explosives, per se, they were small miniature explosives that splattered two compounds together. The two compounds were harmless enough alone, but when combined created an acid that could eat through anything, even Ti’tan’lium. It was yet another Vyysarri trade secret when infiltration and sabotage were a necessity.

  With the charges set, Sibrex quickly and quietly climbed back up into the service tube, replaced the panel and welded it back together. Eventually they would come to investigate the failure in the engine room and he wanted to make sure he erased as many of his fingerprints as he could. Now all he could do is wait to make sure that it did enough damage to stop the ship from making it out…

  Khai heeded Sibrex’s warning about lingering too long within the gap between the inner and outer hull so he ran as fast as his feet could carry him to the nearest service exit. Sibrex also told him to wait until he had done his part to try getting to the bridge. Yeah! Like that was gonna happen! He made it to the service corridor that ran the length of the ship, the same one that Sibrex was using to get to the engine room. The same corridor ended five decks directly above the bridge. The hardest part was going to be climbing the five decks to the service hatch that led to the crawlspace below the deck of the bridge.

  He trotted to conserve energy. He was going to need it in the fight that was sure to come. He passed many systems on his way. He neither knew nor cared what they were as they came and went. His goal was not sabotage, but good old-fashioned revenge; revenge for the millions—if not billions—of Seryysans that had lost their lives in the attack. He reached the end of the corridor that ended in a ladder going down into the ship. The ladder that led down to the crawlspace was before him.

  “Aww to hell with it!”

  He used his cutting torch to cut a hatch open and let it drop loudly into the hallway. The sound immediately drew the attention of a poor, unsuspecting F’Rosian who knelt down to examine the hatch.

  It was apparent that the hatch was cut with a cutting tool of some kind and when the soldier looked up, he caught two boots and the full body weight of a solid Seryysan in the face. The force of the attack instantly snapped the soldier’s neck, killing him outright. Khai left the body, but took his side arm, a handh
eld laser pistol, and tucked it under his belt in the small of his back.

  He continued on, blatantly walking out in the open. He rounded the corner and nearly walked face first into two F’Rosian soldiers. They were so stunned to see a man walking free within their ship, that they stared in disbelief long enough for Khai to pull the knife from his belt, drive it deep into the throat of one, yank it out the side of the soldier’s neck and strike the other in the throat, collapsing his windpipe. Both fell at the same time, but one was already dead when he hit the ground and the other gasped for breath for a few minutes before dying—though Khai didn’t even bother to stick around to watch, he simply stepped over them and continued on with no remorse.

  He found the lift that would take him to the bridge. He hit the button and waited for the lift to get there. The doors separated in the middle and swished open to reveal another F’Rosian standing there, staring, mouth agape, at Khai who was covered in blood holding a bloody knife that was dripping on the gray floor. Again, taking soldier’s shock to his advantage, Khai struck with the same knife. He drove it deep into the stomach, twisted the blade and pulled it out. The F’Rosian instantly coughed up blood and groped at the wound as Khai grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out of the lift, throwing him to the floor and leaving him there to die.

  Blood began to pool when the doors slid shut and the lift started moving down. Two of the five decks down, the lift stopped and the doors parted. Yet another surprised F’Rosian appeared in the doorway. Though this one got over his surprise much faster than the others, he still wasn’t fast enough. Khai grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and violently dragged him, stepping aside and driving the soldier’s head into the wall of the lift. The doors slid shut and Khai pulled his knife.

  The doors to the lift parted on the bridge. Vor’l lazily look back to see who was coming in. His energy had been spent on the fit of rage, at his most humiliating defeat, causing him to literally beat his tactician to death. He stood, the tactician’s collar still in Vor’l’s hand and the other hand drawn back, balled into a fist. The rest of the bridge crew stood perfectly still, mouths agape as their Alpha bludgeoned the poor officer to death. In his rage, he barely registered the officer go sliding on the glossy floor onto the bridge and stagger to his feet, clutching his stomach as blood gushed between his clawed fingers.

  “What is the meaning this?” Vor’l demanded.

  The officer was vomiting blood, clearly both scared and trying fruitlessly to explain the danger that was coming. Vor’l dropped the limp body of his former tactician and stomped up to the officer.

  “I said: what is the meaning of this?”

  To his surprise and rage, the officer shoved Vor’l so hard, that he fell and slid back into the tactical station.

  “How dare—” he began to say, getting up when he was knocked down again from a blast so violent that it nearly disintegrated the wounded officer in a vapor cloud of blood and left a divot in the floor. Also, it killed six bridge crew members at the same time. The shove had saved Vor’l’s life, though he was too rage-filled to think honorable thoughts of the officer.

  In the tense, quiet moments after the explosion, Khai stepped out from the lift, blood-covered and smiling. “Hello!” he said cheerfully. “I’m a little lost. Is this the bridge?”

  “GET HIM!” Vor’l yelled through clenched jaws.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The rest of the bridge crew attacked at once. Some with firearms, while others simply charged in, blinded by rage. The first wave of F’Rosians was gunned down by friendly fire as Khai dove for cover. The next wave was far more cautious. They approached slowly, guns drawn. Khai peeked out from his cover spot and instantly counted eight, five on his right, and three on his left. He leaned out, squeezed off three rounds from his trusted pistol and shrank back into his cover spot. He heard three satisfying thuds just before a rain of laser fire sparked over his head. His cover was steadily shrinking as the laser blasts chewed multiple holes into the console behind which he was hiding. He looked around for another place from which to shoot and found none. A hole appeared in the console just beside his head and that was when he decided to make a run for it.

  With a roar, he charged from his cover, firing his gun wildly. Despite his run-and-gun attack, he was able to drop two of the remaining five enemies before he caught a laser bolt in the shoulder. The force of the blast knocked him back against a console and he growled with rage. As they moved in for the kill, Vor’l shouted, in Seryysan, “Stop!”

  Khai wasn’t surprised by this at all. He knew this commander would like to, at the very least, deliver the killing blow if not get some information out of him first.

  “You seem a little upset,” Khai observed. “Battle not go the way you expected?”

  “To say the least,” Vor’l growled. “It was good fight, to be sure, but you cannot expect to win.”

  “I think we did,” Khai shot back. “My plans rarely fail.”

  “You were the tactician for this battle?” Vor’l asked, clearly surprised that a master tactician would do any dirty work.

  “Yes, sir.” Khai said with a mock salute. “General Khai’Xander Khail at your service! And you must be Vor’l, the commander that defeated our fleet at Alpha Centauri.”

  “You were there.” It wasn’t a question.

  “I was.”

  “And you lived.”

  “Apparently.”

  “You found the Alpha Centaurian ships and destroyed two of my vessels in the process.”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  “I shall enjoy killing you,” Vor’l said with a toothy sneer.

  “You can give it your best shot,” Khai said, “if you don’t mind fighting fair that is.”

  “Oh no,” Vor’l said. “There will be no fair fight. I will execute you right here on the bridge of my ship and broadcast it on all channels so that everyone will see your death.”

  “Communications!” he shouted in F’Rosian. “Channel override. Make sure everyone sees this!”

  Dah had sent the command to stop firing on the F’Rosian ship—since Khai and Sibrex were aboard—after one volley found its way past the shields and stuck the hull almost an hour ago when his communication console flickered on and showed a particularly menacing F’Rosian.

  “What the hell?” Puar asked.

  “What the hell?” Prime Minister Puar asked from the observation platform in the situation room. “Who the hell is this?”

  “I don’t know,” the communications officer offered. “He’s overridden all communication protocols.”

  “This is Supreme Alpha Vor’l, commander of F’Rosian Flagship Fur’l,” he said. “You have fought well and though my fleet may be vanquished, I possess something that belongs to you.” Two F’Rosians entered the view restraining Khai, who, oddly enough wasn’t struggling to break free.

  “Ah shit,” the Prime Minister said.

  “Ah shit,” Puar said in the cockpit next to Dah. “What did I say? Suicide mission!”

  “Uh-uh,” Dah said definitively. “He’s got something up his sleeve.”

  “Yeah?” Brix asked. “Why do you say that?”

  “Where’s Sibrex?” Dah asked rhetorically. “And why isn’t Khai fighting back?”

  “Oh no,” Kay whined.

  “What?” Brawl asked.

  “He wanted to get caught,” Dah finished Kay’s thought.

  “Why?” Brawl asked.

  “Because he was hoping to make this public,” Braac answered Prime Minister Puar’s question.

  “This broadcast is being sent out as far as our spysats can detect,” the communications officer said, picking up Braac’s suggestion.

  “And all the way back to F’Rosian space, I’ll bet,” Puar added.

  They all stopped talking long enough to hear the last words of Supreme Alpha Vor’l. “… and to show how serious I am, I will now execute your General Khail before your very eyes.”

  Vor’l t
urned from the camera and brandished a particularly vicious-looking knife, waved it in Khai’s face and relished the moment. As he went to drive the knife into Khai’s throat, the lights on the bridge dimmed. “What was that?” he asked.

  Khai heard someone barking out something in a language he didn’t understand, but he certainly understood the urgency in his voice. Inwardly, he grinned. Outwardly, he grimaced and breathed in sharply through his teeth. “That doesn’t sound good,” he remarked.

  “Silence!” he barked at Khai. Suddenly the floor beneath their feet rumbled violently.

  Khai scrunched his nose and frowned. “Mmmm,” he hummed. “Neither did that!”

  From outside, the crew of the Merchant saw a blossom of blue and white fire burst from the portside aft. They all laughed uncontrollably for a good three minutes. This did not bode well for Supreme Alpha Vor’l.

  When the ship rumbled, Sibrex grinned, knowing his job was done. He waited at the hatch to the gap between the hulls for Khai.

  Vor’l’s rage was apparent on his whiskered snout. Without warning, Khai brought the two F’Rosians that were restraining him together with great force, cracking their heads against one another. Their multi-jointed legs buckled at once and they crumbled to the floor. Khai quickly pulled the knife from his boot and threw it. The knife spun end over end into the only remaining bridge crewmember alive, other than Vor’l.

  “I guess I don’t fight fairly either,” he said with a shrug.

  With a roar of rage, Vor’l charged the General. An extravagant match of fisticuffs ensued with flailing hand strikes, blocking, grappling—Khai was out of knifes and his gun was out of bullets, plus it had been taken when the others apprehended him, otherwise he would have simply shot Vor’l in the face. It resulted in Vor’l having both of Khai’s fists balled up within his clawed hands. Khai brought his head and thrust it forward into Vor’l’s snout. With a growl of equal parts surprise and pain, he stumbled back a few steps. Khai didn’t waste any time; he lunged forward to tackle Vor’l, grabbing him around the waist. To Khai’s surprise, Vor’l didn’t go down, he took a few steps backward and pounded down on Khai’s back with a two-fisted smash. Pain shot to every nerve ending in Khai’s body, but he didn’t let go.