by C. W Tickner
‘So we go in then?’ he asked.
Veel nodded.
‘Take a group,’ Vax said. ‘We’ll get you as close to Harvest Ten’s headquarters as possible, but It’ll be heavily guarded. You must find a way inside and obtain the reactor piece. If you are able to, you must bring down Grakka.’
‘If Damen has anything to say about it,’ Harl said, ‘he’ll bring the entire building down.’
Chapter 25
I decided to skip making a vegetable garden and went straight for the hydroponics. The core room’s irrigation works a treat, shame I forgot about drainage. Next up, entomology and ecosystem design.
An Aylen transport vehicle took them across the mainland until they reached a dead expanse of flat terrain.
Harl hadn’t managed to say a proper goodbye to Sonora, he had tried but she had turned from him and not replied. But what could he do? Everything he had worked for would be lost, including Sonora if he just gave up. Maybe they could avoid it for a few years but could he look Elo in the eyes when she was grown up and tell her he had decided to let Grakka continue his destruction of the human race? He sighed and scanned the video feed on the screen in front of them. They were in the cargo section of an Aylen transport vehicle, behind a door that separated them from the drivers cockpit. The back section was a wide armour-encased rectangle that was big enough for several Aylen to sit in the seats that lined opposite sides. The rear of the vehicle was a folding ramp that acted as a door and would be wound down when they reached their destination.
Several giant screens were mounted on swivel hinges, so any Aylen in the back could see through the cameras fixed to the outside of the vehicle. The rough image showed a flat featureless land with clear blue skies above.
Forming an artificial backdrop was a building too big to fit in the screen and looked like something had been placed in front of the camera to block the view.
Harl wondered about the stupidity of attempting this mission with nothing to go on. They had no map of the place and no idea where the reactor would be. It was entirely possible that Grakka was still at the northern pole, pretending to care about the planet or that he’d moved the reactor. What ever happened they would attempt to repay some of what was owed. He wished he hadn’t left Sonora on such a bad note, if only he could use the radio on the vehicle to-’
Damen groaned loudly, holding a hand to his bruised head and an empty bottle in the other. He was slumped between crates, bundled into one corner of the vehicle’s huge cargo bay. Surrounded by all their equipment, he had been alternating between methodically checking every weapon for faults and finding the bottom of some spirit bottle.
He’d looked demonic as he’d stomped up the ramp and inside the transport vehicle, passing the twins with barely a glance as Rose cradled the pair of babies. He had a rifle slung over each shoulder, a brace of pistols wedged into a belt around his heaviest chest plate. His short sword was gripped in one hand with the other encased in the black gauntlet given to him by Sorack at the switch-on ceremony.
Troy had slept most of the journey and Harl had noticed how haggard he looked. Even for Troy he was skinny and at times, when they had a chance to talk, his eyes had momentarily glazed over mid conversation. Harl wondered if Dana had noticed but throughout the journey she had been stealing glances at Kane as he toyed with some device. Every time he caught her looking he’d stuff it back in his backpack, only to pull it out again a moment later. It seemed to Harl that Dana was amusing herself with Kane’s reaction, rather than an actual interest in the small antennae riddled device. Harl wondered if it was the same thing Damen had demanded after Yara’s death. He’d seen Damen peering up once in a while as if weighing whether he should relieve Kane of it.
Harl hadn’t brought much for himself. Other than his sword, pistol and rifle he had only Tess’ medical pouches that she’d insisted they carried. He knew Kane was sitting on a box of his grenades and it would be another gifting day before Harl chose to carry such dangerous weapons. The memory of the dead in Gorm haunted him. Perhaps if he was face to face with Grakka he would risk it. Until then the mad scientist could look after the explosives.
The vehicle slowed and the five of them jumped up. They all knew the risk of being caught en-route and this might not be the final stop. When the ramp began to lower Harl guessed the plan had worked so far. Sunlight streamed in through the widening gap.
An explosion rocked the vehicle making them all stumble as the crates around them collapsed and the voice of Aylen driver crackled through on their radio.
‘-discovered! Go.’
Kane hauled up his crate, and tucked a flyer under an armpit.
‘Got enough?’ Troy asked him as the wind gusted inside and the ramp slammed to the ground.
Muffled booms became deafening as red lines of weapon’s fire streaked past the exit and hammered into the ground around the tracked vehicle.
They snatched up everything they could and charged outside before the vehicle left. The machine blocked their view of the attackers but as its tracks spun and engine roared, it left them in a cloud of dust and sped away. The red shots followed the moving target.
The sound of gunfire faded as the attacker attempted to chase the tracked vehicle across the flat desolate ground. In the distance they could see the Aylen in its mech suit running after the vehicle.
Harl coughed to clear the airborne grit from his lungs and turned his attention to the building through the settling dust. It was rectangular, grey and big. More than big, judging by the scale of the Aylen vehicles parked at its base it was immense.
‘The rent of that place must be a bit steep.’ Troy said.
‘Fascinating,’ Kane said. The flyer slipped from his armpit and he tore his gaze away to pick it up. ‘It mush be two stories tall.’
Harl hadn’t noticed it but something like windows dotted the huge rectangle high up where it disappeared into the low wispy clouds. Every building he’d seen was like a garden shed in comparison. The closest buildings were the banker’s pyramids that had floors dug down below ground level, but on sheer above ground scale, it was as wide as the Aylen world meeting hall.
Kane cast a worried glance at the Aylen still trying to chase the trespassing vehicle.
‘Let’s get clear before they come back to investigate,’ he said. His flyer was already on and hovered just above the ground as he opened the crate of grenades and cautiously lifted a belt of them over one shoulder.
Damen stomped over. ‘Got more?’
Kane handed up another belt laden with explosives. He cringed, recoiling as Damen threw it around his waist and jumped up and down to shift it in to place.
Dana had skipped onto her drone as if she refused to stay on solid ground too long and was rocking the drone back and forth under her feet to test it, her black cloak flapping in the arid breeze.
Damen wobbled as he tried to balance with all his weaponry on his own. Harl looked around as the hunter scowled down at him.
‘Troy?’ Harl said.
Troy was staring around at the fading vehicle. He shook his head as if to clear something.
‘You alright?’ Harl asked.
‘Fine, just a tad dizzy. I shouldn’t have slept so much on the way here. Naps and explosions don’t mix. Here.’ He stooped and picked up a flyer, handing it to Harl before stepping onto his own.
‘You should take it easy,’ Harl said.
‘You mean have a lie down when the bombs start exploding?’
‘You know what I mean,’ Harl said.
Damen led the way over the flat terrain zipping towards a huge archway at the base of the building.
Two mech-suited Aylen trudged left to right while another pair patrolled the dark building’s perimeter.
Damen slowed ahead, hovering twenty paces above the dusty ground and held up a fist, signalling them to stop.
‘What is it?’ Kane asked.
‘Humans,’ Damen said. He pointed his sword to the base of the entrance w
here a group of men were hovering on flyers.
They were tiny in comparison to the Aylen, like flies buzzing around the giant’s ankles. Like insects, they swarmed away from the arch, joining one of the Aylen that patrolled the exterior of the building.
Dana sped directly for the entrance, pulling up and leaving them behind.
‘What has she seen?’ Troy asked as they followed her lead.
They were heading straight at the building, heedless of being spotted by the Aylen waiting at the archway.
Harl followed, trusting that she knew something the rest of them didn’t.
The dark metal sides of the building encompassed Harl’s entire view and in a stroke of luck, the mechs guarding the door turned their backs to them just as he spotted where Dana was heading.
It was a flickering circle twenty metres across, set above the arched doorway. Closer up, the scale became obvious. It was an air vent set between the two floors and a perfect entry point.
Dana leant back suddenly in a panic as the flickering became the spin of fan blades, sucking air inside. Kane peeled left and Damen broke right before they hit the whirling blades but it was too late for Harl and Troy. Like Dana, they were near horizontal, with the soles of their feet facing the blades, trying to slow the flyers.
The noise mimicked the blades of a helicopter and Harl tensed, waiting for the metal to slice him like a carrot through the fan. Dana flipped around as she managed to stop and when Harl and Troy glided past she grabbed them, slowing them to a stop within arms reach of the deadly beating blades.
Harl squinted in terror and turned his head from the flicker of death.
Slowly, Dana pulled him away and the suction lessened.
‘Thanks,’ he said.
‘Hate these things,’ Troy said a moment later, tilting back in a wobble as he tried to stop the subtle suction from drawing him inwards.
She glanced down at the returning Aylen and then back to the spinning blades.
‘Who wants to be diced first?’ Troy asked. ‘A perfect snack for an Aylen, I imagine.’
Kane fished in his bag. ‘Perhaps we can utilize a grenade to-’
Damen manoeuvred past them and his flyer knocked into theirs, forcing Kane and Harl aside until he was against the wall beside the fan, just around the corner from its suction.
He put his hand in front of his face and clenched the black gauntlet. The sound of the fan did not drown out the clink of metal as he flicked his wrist and the plates locked together. The gaps in the gauntlet sealed until no lines were visible, as though molten metal had been poured over the fist.
Damen grinned like a maniac and sunk his hand into the blurring blades.
Harl looked away as the hand was cut off.
Instead of Damen screaming in pain, the fan clattered like a child clacking toy, slowing until the hand wedged it still. Damen grinned at the gauntlet, which had not suffered a scratch as it stopped the deadly spin.
‘Trouble,’ Dana said, looking down under her flyer.
Far below, a solo flyer was rising up towards them, a man perched on top.
‘He heard,’ Kane said.
‘Quick,’ Damen said, trying to squeeze through the gap, slowly turning his hand as he ducked through the opening between the blades. Standing on the other side with his hand still trapped he hurried them through.
Kane, Dana and Troy, slipped past as Harl looked down. The man was still struggling to make his flyer rise vertically. Harl edged through the hole, hoping the man hadn’t yet seen them.
Damen tried to yank the gauntlet free but it was wedged in too tight. The scout rose up level with the fan and almost toppled from his flyer as he saw Damen standing in the fan. He came closer as if unable to believe the sight.
Unable to get his hand free, Damen ducked outside again, and before the man could fly backwards, Damen grabbed the front of the man’s white suit with his free hand and pulled him towards the blade as he pivoted back inside. Damen roared and tugged the gauntlet free, falling back inside the air vent as the blade pinned the scout. He tried to scream as the blade pressed on him before it carved clean through the chrome armour plates on his white body suit.
Harl stepped down from his flyer as the body parts were blown inside the tunnel. He was almost thankful as he wiped blood splatters from his tunic. If it had fallen outside and down to the Aylen guards patrolling the entrance below then they might have been discovered.
If they were found wandering around Harvest Ten’s headquarters the Compassionates would surely disown them.
‘Well we’re in,’ Troy said, staring ahead at the long tunnel. ‘No going back now.’
Chapter 26
I have finished my crash course in robotics and I have been able to program a bot to maintain my work. It should fix any electrical or plumbing issues in the core while I’m busy elsewhere. If only I could program AI, I might get some decent conversation.
The air duct was round, forming a tunnel twenty metres in diameter and constructed of smooth shiny metal. It was ribbed at intervals where the huge piping had been joined in construction but was otherwise featureless.
Harl looked again at the body on the floor. The man was not human, well not entirely. Across his pale face was a visor, and judging by the pink scars around the outside of the device it had been welded to his skin.
Kane dismounted and knelt beside the head. ‘Some sort of communication or vision enhancement.’ He flicked a bony finger tapping an old crack that ran across the lens. ‘No wonder he couldn’t see us until he was so close.’
‘Who would do that?’ Troy said, shaking his head.
‘Grakka,’ Damen said and kicked the half torso, splashing Kane in droplets of fresh blood.
‘Hey-’ Kane said smearing the blood as he tried to wipe his white coat.
The man had also been dressed in white, although the clothing was a tight fitting suit layered with chrome armoured plates highlighting vulnerable areas such as the pectorals, stomach and thighs.
‘Stand out a bit,’ Troy observed. ‘At least when they’re not coated in red.’
‘But at least the Aylen can see them at a distance,’ Kane said, attempting to heave the visor off the man’s face. His hands slipped and he rolled over backwards, making Damen step aside.
‘Leave him’ Damen said, hopping on his flyer.
Harl followed suit and spun to face the tunnel. The sooner they found the reactor the sooner he could get home.
The only thing in the strangely hypnotic tunnel as it stretched away was the diced remains of a hiver that had strayed inside.
The fleshy chunks had rolled down, forming a heap at the base of the tunnel.
Harl stopped ten paces from the carcass and held up a hand for the others to do the same. He didn’t know why he did it but the hairs on his neck were standing on end as if he was beside a power source in Kane’s lab.
‘Wait,’ Harl said, looking around as he stepped off the drone and tried to figure out what unnerved him so much.
The cuts along the hiver looked smooth and blackened as if they had been cauterised. Had someone used a melting sword like his own to his to kill the creature?
They were at a join in the piping and unlike the others the connection was not flush with steel on steel. A thin clear strip ran around the tunnel like a spacer.
‘What is it?’ Troy said and stepped closer to the monster. Harl thrust his hand out as Troy passed and pulled him back by his collar. Troy choked as he was strangled and coughed when Harl had shoved him back behind him.
He needed something, the larger the better.
‘Dana,’ Harl said, ‘can I borrow your cloak?’
She eyed him with suspicion but unclipped the black cloth from around her neck revealing the multitude of pockets and armour plates sewn into the black suit beneath and held it out to him.
Harl shuffled a little closer, stopping before the clear glass ring spacer and wafted the cloak in front of him. A crackling hiss issued from the cl
oak and the smell of brunt material puffed out with a fizz of smoke. Stumbling backwards, he kept a hold of the fabric and held it up against the light from the vent at the end of the tunnel. Lines had been scolded through the black material, dividing it in to shredded sections.
‘Fascinating,’ Kane said, reaching out to touch the fabric.
‘Witchcraft,’ Troy said, taking a step back.
Dana’s hand shot out and snatched the shredded garment.
‘Sorry,’ Harl said.
She frowned.
Troy put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Be dead if he didn’t use it.’ he said.
‘They have built in lasers,’ Kane said. ‘It’s lucky we had the hiver to give it away or we’d be diced for Grakka’s diner.
‘What do they need them for?’ Troy asked.
Harl chuckled. ‘You’ve laid enough mouse traps in barns, Troy.’
Kane studied the lines. ‘The question,’ he said, ‘is how do we get past?’
Dana had managed to re-attach the ragged cloak. ‘Fire,’ she said.
Troy laughed and she scowled at him until he stopped. He shrugged under her glare. ‘Metal don’t burn.’
‘She’s right,’ Kane said.
‘I may not be an engineer,’ Troy said, but I know fire don’t-’
‘Smoke,’ Harl said, remembering the ruptured oxygen tanks when they were fighting the drones in space. The lasers the drones used had burst oxygen tanks and in the resulting gas the lasers had seemed to glow.
‘Get on with it then,’ Damen said, staring down the tunnel and unscrewing a small bottle before taking a deep swig.
‘We need something to burn,’ Kane said and eyed the tattered cloak around Dana’s neck.
She shook her head.
‘It’s only a cloak,’ Kane said. ‘What’s left of it.’
Her free hand drifted down to the circle of sheathed knives around her thigh and she shook her head again.
‘Point taken,’ Kane said.
Troy fished inside his pack and drew out a roll of bandages. ‘Here.’
