The Complete Clockwork Chimera Saga

by Scott Baron

  Craaxit looked grim but resolved. “Try not to harm them if you can. The ones not engaged in the fight.” He paused as he mulled the reality of the situation. “But, Daisy, far more rides on this than the lives of a few innocents. This mission is more important than any individual, or even all of us combined.”

  She nodded in solemn agreement. “You ready?”

  “Yes. Wait for our signal. And good luck.”

  The Chithiid moved startlingly fast across the perimeter to the building, slowing to a casual walk when they came into view of the security cameras. They had split into smaller groups and were staggering their approach so as to not draw attention, their weapons hidden in grime-covered work bags.

  Daisy activated the portable comms unit and sent a message to the moon. “We have begun. Awaiting the signal and ready to move in.”

  Five minutes later a delayed reply came through.

  “I read your signal, Daisy,” Sid said. “Our fleet launched an hour ago, and most are already drifting hidden in the debris field as you hear this. The attack on the communications hubs begins in ten minutes, as per the plan.” The communication ended.

  “Okay, you all. This is it. Move to the perimeter of the monitored zone and stay under cover until my go. And remember, conventional weapons and explosives stay shielded in the Faraday material. Only pulse rifles in the open until the scanners are disabled.”

  The humans scurried forward into position while, the cyborgs hung back, hiding within a nearby building out of scanning range until the scanners were down, enabling their entirely metal frames to approach the heavily guarded building undetected.

  The Faraday suits were good, but seeing as they were entirely made of metal, not that good.

  Drifting in the debris field, Captain Lars Harkaway sat comfortably in the Váli’s pilot’s seat, the command pod having been somewhat retrofitted for the attack run. A pleasant nervousness flooded his body.

  Been a long time, old man, and finally, after all these years, you’re going to get your revenge. The determined smile on his face would have required a power grinder to remove.

  Gustavo sat in the navigations chair, which had been heavily modified to allow additional connections for him to guide and control a portion of the remote-control decoy ships. While he normally jacked in to the Váli’s guidance systems via a single one of the several ports hidden under his hairline at the base of his skull, for this particular mission, he had utilized every last one of them.

  A braided loop of fine cables was now running from his head to the massive AI storage and processing mains of Mal’s home in the heart of the ship. The system had been massively fortified in the lead up to the attack, and Gus was more tied in than he had ever been in the past. For a man who spent every working shift with his mind jacked into a computer, that was really saying something.

  “I have them dialed in and ready,” he mentally signaled Mal, still a bit unnerved that vocal communication was no longer necessary.

  “All of your vitals are in the green, Gustavo,” the ship’s AI replied. “You’re doing great.”

  Despite any reservations he may have had at the beginning of the mission, Gustavo reveled in the new sensations that engulfed him.

  “This is amazing, Mal. I never realized it could be like this.”

  “Don’t get used to it,” she replied. “I’m routing you directly through the additional AI processors and looping back into the backup data stores. This should boost your reactions a few thousand percent.”

  “I can feel it,” he marveled.

  “Good. Now stay focused. We are about to begin.”

  Captain Harkaway looked around at the rag-tag team of scrappy survivors about to launch an all-out assault on the invaders who had conquered an entire planet in a matter of days. There they were, just a handful of hopeful warriors, about to run headfirst into the grinder. It was madness, but a sense of pride filled his chest just the same.

  “Commander Mrazich, watch your starboard, you’ve got a big one floating your way,” Donovan’s voice crackled over their shared comms.

  “I see it,” Mrazich replied, hitting his maneuvering thrusters and slipping out of the path of the enormous piece of debris.

  “Oh,” Harkaway said, an idea forming in his mind. “Oh my!” he said and began to laugh.

  “What is it, Captain? Is everything all right?” Donovan asked over the air.

  “Oh yeah. In fact, it’s more than all right. I just had an idea, and I think you’re going to love it.”

  “Lars, what the hell are you talking about?” Commander Mrazich asked.

  “Inspiration,” he replied. “And thanks to you, I might add. Okay, everyone, listen up. Change of plans.”

  “You can’t change plans. The mission is underway,” Mrazich growled.

  “For this, yes, we can. Everyone find the biggest piece of scrap you can and position yourself against it. All the drones too.”

  “What are you thinking, Lars?” Mrazich asked, more than a little confused.

  “We’re going to use every ship we’ve got to rain down debris onto those comms stations, following behind in the very rear. It’ll look like another destabilized cloud of space junk falling out of orbit, and they’ll be so busy trying to knock down the pieces heading their direction with their cannons, they won’t even know we’re coming. By the time we start our actual assault, we might even be able to catch them with their ships still on the ground. Then we blast the ever-loving hell out of those bastards and take back our planet.”

  A long silence hung in the vacuum over the open radio channel.

  “Goddamn,” Commander Mrazich finally said with an amused chuckle. “Now that is something different. I like the way you think, Captain.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The massive Ra’az research facility sat near the water in the leveled waste of what was once San Francisco. The entire region had fallen early in the attack, a target of high value due to its richness of plunder, thanks to the efforts of Silicon Valley over the years.

  Now the area where the wharf used to be was covered by an enormous building, the surrounding land nothing but piles of unsalvageable debris and churned-up soil.

  Interestingly, the old tunnel connecting the East Bay with the ruins of the city was still intact. Daisy had made careful note of the long-silent access points, just in case a hasty egress was required.

  “Come on. Not under the bay. There’s got to be a better way, Daze.”

  It’s only a last resort option. Stop freaking out, she silently replied, settling in to ride out the uncomfortable wait.

  “Waiting is the worst part,” Vince whispered, reading her mind. “The fighting could be intense, but this sitting around, the anticipation is killing me.”

  The sky darkened momentarily as a massive vessel passed overhead. It appeared to be a barge-like craft, and was piled high with what had to be the choice technological plunder scavenged by the Chithiid slaves.

  A trio of huge beings came into sight on the rooftop moments later. Much taller and tougher-looking than even the Chithiid, which, given the size of their four-armed servants, was really saying something.

  “Oh my God, that’s what we’re fighting?” a stunned human gasped.

  The Ra’az were bipedal and had only two arms. Two massive arms. Their hands possessed what appeared to be four fingers instead of five, but Daisy couldn’t quite see from their position.

  One of them raised its arm, a thick loop of energy flashing out close to forty meters and wrapping around a support strut on the barge craft. With a series of tugs, the Ra’az helped guide the ship slowly down onto the rooftop landing platform four stories above.

  “Makes your whip band look like a pea-shooter.”

  I know. Did you see the reach on that thing? And the power it must require to pull a barge that size? No wonder they don’t give those to the Chithiid.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Daze.”

  Damn right, she replie
d with a quiet chuckle. I sure as hell want to get me one of those!

  Daisy put the thought of adding the new toy to her arsenal aside and turned to her team.

  “Okay, so now we know what we’re dealing with.”

  While the team sat and quietly listened, not a one running for cover, the men and women’s faces nevertheless showed their true feelings.

  They were freaked out.

  “Okay, yes, they’re big,” she continued. “And yeah, they’re strong too. Fine. But if these weapons can take out a metal-encased cyborg or blast through a solid door, it will take down a Ra’az just the same.”

  “Daisy, the attack has begun,” Sid’s voice said over the encrypted comms device. “We are on a tight timeline now. The delay has been reduced to ten seconds, only. I will notify you the moment all three units are disabled.”

  High above, the barge settled into its resting position as the Ra’az landing team returned inside the facility.

  Come on, Craaxit, hurry up. Daisy realized she was bouncing her foot nervously and willed the limb to stop. Come on, come on, come on.

  “Scanners and security feeds are down on the southern side. The access door will be left ajar,” the small comms unit in her pocket said. “It appears we can only block the external scans and loop the video feeds for five minutes. Go now.”

  “You heard the man,” Daisy said.

  “I heard chattering gibberish,” Vince said, “but I assume he said it’s time.”

  “Yes. Systems are down on the southern side. Let’s move!”

  The team took off at a run, the cyborgs hiding on the periphery but prepared to follow as soon as they saw the movement and Daisy’s signal. They would have no problem catching up with the slower humans.

  Once inside, the building would be a safe haven for them. An oversight on the Ra’az’s part, they never set their scanners to face inside as well.

  The attack team paused at the door. Two Chithiid with the tell-tale red armbands opened it and gestured them in.

  “It is clear. Come now!”

  Daisy waved her team forward, and they were quickly safe inside the building. She checked her countdown timer.

  Two minutes and twenty seconds ahead of the cutoff. Not bad.

  The two Chithiid looked over the group, nodded once, then took off the other direction.

  “Okay, you know what to do. Pair up, humans and cyborgs. Plant the bombs on communications arrays and any non-warp craft. Remember, do not place bombs directly on warp ships. Disable them only. The Chithiid rebels with us have to scatter. They will support us as they can, but they can’t be seen with us or the jig is up. You all got it?”

  The assembled group nodded.

  “All right. Good luck. I hope to see you all in one piece when this is over.”

  She knew not all of them would return. Hell, they’d be lucky if any of them did, but today, she was counting on luck being on their side.

  The building was massive, but sparsely staffed from what Craaxit’s insiders had reported. Most of its functions were automated, and the key scientific projects were handled by the Ra’az themselves rather than their Chithiid underlings.

  The emptiness of the corridors made Daisy a bit uneasy, but as they pushed farther forward into the facility, she began to feel more at ease. Like she knew what to do. Given the knowledge crammed in her head, it was very possible she did.

  Daisy and Vince teamed up with a woman named Kate and a cyborg named Steven. They quietly took the left-hand corridor at the next junction, while the other teams continued on, splitting up and fanning out, covering as much ground as possible.

  Footsteps echoed in the empty hallway. Loud, heavy footsteps, and a gurgling, guttural chatter.

  That’s a Ra’az. He’s going to check some scan errors.

  “How do you know he said that?”

  Daisy realized there was no way she could have downloaded the Ra’az language. No one had even heard them speak until that precise moment.

  Don’t know. Doesn’t matter!

  “Ra’az!” Daisy hissed. “Quick! In here!” she whispered urgently, yanking open the nearest door, providing an unexpectedly required escape route.

  The others hurried through, Daisy at the rear, closing the door behind them with a quiet click. There was a door at the far end of the sterile-looking research space.

  “Out there. Go!” The others hurried across the room. The door was unlocked. Vince cautiously cracked it open and peered out while Daisy kept her ear pressed to the one they’d just come through. The footsteps were getting louder.

  “All clear,” Vince whispered.

  He opened the door, and Kate and Steven hurried through behind him. Daisy stepped away from the entry door and had just turned to join them when she heard the footsteps stop outside the door just behind her.

  Shit!

  “No time, Daze. There’s a lab door to the right. Through there!”

  Sarah didn’t have to tell her twice, and Daisy quickly slid through the lab door, just as the Ra’az pushed its way into the room, stopping where she’d just been standing mere moments before.

  “The others are clear. I saw them close the door.”

  Thanks, Sarah. You read my mind.

  “I’ve been known to do that from time to time.”

  Daisy kept her finger ready but off the trigger of her pulse rifle as she surveyed the strange instruments scattered throughout the room she had taken refuge in. There were scanning devices, what appeared to be damping linkages, and even a few pieces she recognized from her old shuttle.

  Sitting in one of a dozen slight divots on the table was a baseball-sized sphere, glowing a faint blue through an otherwise jet-black shell.

  “What is that?”

  Don’t know, Daisy quietly replied. She reached in her pouch and pulled out a portable radiation scanner.

  Safe. Looks like it’s not radioactive, but I’m getting some really strange power readings. High, but also low at the same time.

  “I think it’s an energy source they power the warp ships with,” Sarah posited.

  Maybe, Daisy agreed, pocketing the orb. Mine now, she said with a little chuckle. I’ll figure it out later, when we have the time.

  “If we live that long.”

  Pessimist.

  In the adjacent room, the Ra’az sounded as if it was either destroying a waste-disposal unit, or was building a metal shed with a hammer. Whatever it was, Daisy had no desire to stick around and find out. She only hoped the closed door at the back of the room led to a hallway and not a storage closet.

  Locked.

  Just my luck.

  Daisy quickly pulled her tools out and disconnected the security panel from the wall, working fast, trying to bypass the mechanism. While the configuration was alien, the components, like much around her, had been salvaged from Earth.

  “You’ve got this, Daze.”

  “Check it out,” she whispered pointing to a logo on one of the power-lock switches. “This mechanism came from a bank. I wonder if there’s a giant pile of cash around here somewhere.”

  “Not that it would be worth anything anymore.”

  “I don’t’ know. Kindling, maybe?”

  Mid-banter, the door clicked unlocked.

  Nice, she thought with a smile.

  She poked her head into the quiet hallway and listened.

  Nothing.

  Okay, let’s go find the others and disable those ships.

  The fighting across the continent in New York was intense, and the steady barrage of anti-aircraft fire was thick as it attempted to knock the incoming space junk from the sky. Likewise, the Sydney and Tokyo facilities were deflecting the debris as best they could.

  On the ground, the attack teams had been successful infiltrating the building, with the help of the Chithiid rebels, and the communications arrays were down for the count in New York.

  As Donovan and Bob sped toward her to retrieve her team, Shelly only hoped the other teams had
achieved the same success.

  It appeared that Captain Harkaway’s brilliantly unconventional plan had worked wonderfully, startling the complacent defenses with what appeared to be a random shower of debris. It was only when the first explosive-laden ship blasted into the buildings that the Ra’az realized their mistake and tried to launch their ships.

  It was too late.

  Gustavo, Bob, and Mal steered the remote-guided craft in suicide dives directly into the vessels parked outside the three facilities and the hapless Ra’az pilots racing toward them.

  Only a few managed to make it into the air.

  Though the ground defenses were firing at them hot and heavy in the skies above Sydney, the Váli dove through the flak behind the remote drones to retrieve the waiting team.

  Despite shedding most of her pods for the mission, Mal was still fighting hard to maneuver the sizable ship in the Earth’s atmosphere. Captain Harkaway was continually providing manual assistance, helping guide the craft when needed so Mal could divert attention to launching countermeasures or directing a remote ship on its path to destruction.

  Sydney hadn’t fallen as easily as New York, but the remote location of the continent had given the team attacking it an advantage. Once the Ra’az had eliminated the Aussies, they simply couldn’t comprehend any situation where a fighting force would come at them from the ground. It was a giant, empty continent, and they felt totally safe.

  They couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Finn and Reggie’s team tore through the facility as soon as the Chithiid rebels had given them access. A pair of bomb-wielding cyborgs managed to take out most of the ships that were fueled and parked nearby, detonating their payloads before the desperate Ra’az pilots could ever take off.

  Inside, the secondary power source was permanently destroyed, and given the speed in which they had achieved a total routing of the invaders, the team decided to set to work not only destroying the comms systems and power supplies, but the entire building in which they were housed.

  “Better safe than sorry, right?” the silver-fingered man had said with a jolly laugh as he triggered the remote detonation.