The Shadow Among The Stars: Book One of the Dread Naught Trilogy

by Dylan Sanchez

  She spotted an Omukade on the edge of the jungle, its dual cannons firing upward at the Lancers as it scuttled along the edge of the clearing. She adjusted her sight, breathed, noted her armor’s calculations for wind speed and bearing, and fired. One of the creature’s antennae was struck as intended, the sensory structure sagging and damaged by the jet of molten metal. Instantly, she saw the creature’s aim go wide as it was forced to compensate for the partial loss of one of its major senses. She pinged the Omukade and sent the coordinates to one of the Qixing tanks by the gate. The vehicle’s lean missile launcher swung about, taking new aim and dispatching a pair of anti-armor missiles up and over the wall. Only a moment later the Omukade was wreathed in flame, one of its shell sections somersaulting a dozen meters into the air.

  Nicadzim slid back from where the barrier he was located, manifesting his spike-ball gun and jogging at a crouch back toward the main tower. The shells and rockets of the vehicles flew overhead, ceaseless in their bombardment of the enemy. He wound back out of the field of fire until he passed beneath the sniper’s roost and headed inside the tower. Bel’Wa had descended down the nearest ramp, jogging with her shield held close to her body. The upper left corner of the shield bore a new scar from a deflected Omukade bolt, but she was otherwise unmarred by the battle so far.

  Just inside the tower, the twenty-four-strong Sentinel squads Iuth’Qo and Ki’Yun’Sia waited. Bel’Wa made a hand gesture, at which point the soldiers fell in behind her. Nicadzim and Bel’Wa ran down the long ramp toward the Stone. During the descent they received a report of a second mapping drone being destroyed, this time not by a claw. The cause was uncertain, but the last frames seemed to show a jet of some sort of liquid incapacitating the machine. The great Stone had been secured with stakes, cables, and weights to try and keep the Dreaded from taking it.

  The Marine Engineers had set clusters of offensive charges some distance inside each tunnel in order to buy them time to set the larger explosives that would isolate the central chamber. Bel’Wa told the Sentinels to disperse among the tunnel entries, resulting in ten Sentinels at three of the tunnels, and nine Sentinels at each of the other two. Nicadzim and Bel’Wa each took position so that an equal number of soldiers defended each tunnel. The assembled soldiery was arrayed in cover at the sides of the tunnel itself, or behind the totem pillars. The oppressive aura of the massive Stone felt like the breath of a nocturnal predator on the backs of their necks.

  A wet, sussurant noise oozed from the cthonic darkness of the catacombs. The choking coughs of Gugalannas and the squawking cries of Rabisus became clearer and clearer as they drew near. The Sentinels’ helmet filters cast the tunnels in dark blue and purple tones, and The Dreaded would appear in light gray. The enemy arrived near-simultaneously at each vast corridor, leaping and sprinting toward the Stone. The Sentinels poured fire down the corridor in neat bursts, conserving ammunition to prevent ill-timed reloads. Bel’Wa fired her shield cannon at a steady rate. She loaded bursting rounds into her arm cannon, each shot releasing a bright flare of ionized gas that consumed four or five Rabisus at a time. Nicadzim wielded his spike-ball cone, the hissing darts glowing brightly in the dark catacombs as they burned their way through the mass of monsters in the hall.

  The engineers were behind them in cover, directing drones to plant and wire the demolition charges two tunnels at a time. They had prepared two corridors for collapse already, but to avoid unwanted structural failures all of the corridors were required to be collapsed at once. The presence of the defending Sentinels fortunately drew the enemies’ attention away from the small bomb drones hovering overhead in the high tunnels. The mass of The Dreaded meant that, despite the organized defending fire, they were drawing closer to the Stone chamber.

  Bel’Wa waited until the enemy came within about twenty meters, then signaled the Marine engineers. The first of the four sets of mines exploded, shredding Dreaded along the length of each hall in a storm of shrapnel. The few survivors were rapidly dispatched by the whizzing, corkscrew bullets of the Sentinels. A moment later, more Dreaded came from the depths of the catacombs in a swarm just as solid as the first. Several fireballs splattered against Bel’Wa’s shield as she resumed firing.

  She connected her comms to Bryluen’s private channel and spoke in a tone of wistful calm. “Storm Mother Belzxilenth’Wa speaking. Unless the engineers can accelerate their work, and assuming The Dreaded maintain their current numbers, we will require reinforcement in about two and a half minutes. If at all possible, I would suggest Kirby or Vort as our first addition; vehicle-scale firepower would extend our time table significantly. After all: from what he has told me between salvos, Nicadzim can only be present in so many places at once.”

  “Operative Branok speaking. Recommendation noted, Storm Mother.” Bryluen’s voice faintly betrayed a slight strain.

  At that particular moment, Bryluen was on foot near the gate. A trio of Ur-Rabisus had managed to force enough of the gate open to allow a stream of Dreaded to enter. Focused Omukade firepower had eliminated one of the weapon emplacements over the gate and badly damaged the other. One Ur-Rabisu was already eliminated, struck down in a harrowing fight with a Ninurta. The second was being pieced apart by several walkers at once, and Bryluen was sprinting toward the third from behind. She stepped between the Ur-Rabisu’s legs while the large beast dodged and weaved shots from a nearby Ninurta. The Dreaded hurled fireballs from three of its arms as it side-stepped, two of them striking the Ninurta’s armor. The thick plates of the chassis held, but were scorched and cracked by the impacts.

  Bryluen slid her whip’s dial to extend its length. “Repeat, vis a vis Nicadzim?”

  Bryluen lashed her whip upwards, catching it around one the beast’s upper arms. She pulled herself up onto the Ur-Rabisu’s lower back. The wire cut into even this monster’s thick flesh, but she would need to plant her feet to pull hard enough to draw it through.

  “He’s ... blinking between corridors to shore up problem areas,” Bel’Wa stated matter-of-factly.

  The Ur-Rabisu staggered as a spray of plasma caught one of its petals, pausing just long enough for Bryluen to brace herself and pull with a shout. With a gout of black fluid and a loud tearing sound, the whip removed the Ur-Rabisu’s arm. Bryluen spun and landed on her feet as she fell off the monster. The loss of an arm caused the thing to pause for one fatal moment of comprehension before a Ninurta rocket decapitated it. She held up the handle of her whip as the wire stiffened and reeled back inside.

  Bryluen moved the dial back down to a more normal length. “Nicadzim is a very useful man, is he not? I’ve set a timer, and Vort will be sent down to you when needed. Alert me should conditions change.”

  The second set of charges was soon used to prevent The Dreaded from reaching the defenders in the Stone chamber. Bel’Wa and Nicadzim both had slain several Rabisus in melee, and for the most part the only real problem was the finite sets of explosives. Vort arrived as the second and third corridors were readied for demolition, his elemental bursts easing the defense of the tunnels in great gouts of flame and lightning.

  Soon afterward as the flying alien lent his firepower to the battle, and the fourth and fifth corridors were being prepared for collapse, one of the creatures from the catacomb inscriptions became all too real and present. The first sign was a tight jet of acid instantly incapacitating one of the Sentinels with a loud hiss. The creature responsible would later be dubbed an Ogumo.

  They were roughly radial creatures that propelled themselves in rolling motions using a number of thin, flexible limbs spread out across their surface. An Ogumo’s uneven central mass was roughly as high as a man, and a series of orifices between its limbs were responsible for the jets of acid it could produce. The first Ogumo was rolling alongside the wall meters above its compatriots, the adhesive ends of its limbs allowing it to easily scale vertical surfaces.

  Bel’Wa immediately alerted Bryluen, knowing the increase in enemy firepower would endanger
the defense. Two more Ogumos rapidly appeared at other corridors, forcing the Sentinels back into cover more tightly than before. The creatures were fairly tough, though their true strength did seem to lie in maneuverability and firepower. Bel’Wa loaded anti-armor rounds into her arm cannon and sent one of the flailing, tentacled creatures crashing downward with a trio of shots. The third set of anti-infantry explosives had to be used earlier than anticipated as the acid jets from the Ogumos wounded several more Sentinels.

  Bel’Wa received a brief notification from a third mapping drone. It was a short video of one of the many dark corridors in the network of tunnels. A shape, far larger than any Dreaded yet seen, passed beneath the drone. The video was accompanied by a size estimate that caused her eyebrows to raise.

  “Operative Branok, I’ve confirmed a post-Heavy Walker contact approaching the Stone at speed. Recommendation?”

  “Storm Mother, I’m dispatching the remainder of Dread Naught and myself. A contact capable of traveling through the catacombs will be able to exit the main tower into our midst, and a contact that size could likely dig through a collapsed tunnel to take the Stone. We need to single it out and kill it down there. We’re on our way; use grenades and the remaining charges to make time, and send the Sentinels back up to cover for our absence.”

  Kirby was next to come stomping down from the main tower. Her large quantity of explosives allowed her to stand back near the Stone and pivot toward each corridor, powering rockets down each in turn. Runner followed shortly after, and as the team was entirely assembled Bryluen came striding downward, firing her liquid rifle. The Sentinels had unleashed their grenades in thirty second intervals, eight departing up the ramp with each round. By the time the last eight Sentinels left, a member of Dread Naught stood at each corridor. The ground soon began to shake, and the advance of The Dreaded slackened and ceased for just a few moments as if making room for the new arrival.

  Nicadzim pulled his icy fly-wheel from the chest cavity of an En-Rabisu, then sighed as he looked up and saw a huge monstrosity coming down his corridor. “Central corridor, and very, very large.”

  The engineers had wired the last demolition charge and withdrew toward the tower to await Bryluen’s signal. Bryluen had considered trying to collapse the tunnel on the beast, but the slightest error in timing would leave it alive and able to dig through with an army behind it. The best option was to take advantage of the momentary pause its approach had caused and isolate it. Bryluen called the team to gather back in cover by the Stone. Though the following wait lasted mere moments, the air was tense with expectation.

  Kirby whirled her heavy hammer with one gauntlet, the huge weapon making a whooshing sound as it spun. “All right, folks: let’s kill us a biggun.”

  29. Almighty Aeshma

  In the aftermath of the battle at Gru’Thiall, the towering beast would be dubbed an “Aeshma.” At the moment, however, all Dread Naught knew was that the gigantic abomination looming from the shadows was vastly larger than anything they had yet fought. The Aeshma was a hulking, hunched shape more than three times Kirby’s height. As it crouched and sidestepped through the entry into the stone chamber, Dread Naught immediately recognized the gargantuan thing from the catacomb inscriptions—and its artistic rendition was every bit as terrible as the reality.

  It was a centauroid behemoth, tripod claws the length of a person anchoring each of its massive legs. A short torso as broad as a battle tank supported two clusters of rope-like tendrils that wrapped tightly about each other, conglomerating into two flexible appendages large enough to grapple a heavy walker. The monstrosity’s flattened head was seemingly eyeless, and dominated by a huge distended jaw ringed in twisted tusks. Within its maw were irregular rows of bony ridges that appeared far better for maiming than chewing. The entirety of its body was thickly coated in a dark coral-like material, uneven and bulging as if the monstrosity had been sprayed with expanding foam.

  Bryluen raised a fist, and the ground shook. The engineers simultaneously triggered the remaining anti-infantry explosives as well as the demolition charges. All five tunnels simultaneously collapsed just behind the Aeshma with a great roar, cutting it off from the wave of Dreaded following just behind it. With utter finality, the monster was sealed in the chamber with Dread Naught. Either the abominable creature would be slain, or the battle would be lost. The huge Stone— which had been unmoved by the previous Dreaded attacking the chamber—twitched and jerked beneath the cables binding it. Each motion produced a loud grinding sound as the multi-tonne object thrashed against its restraints. The massive monster looked back for an instant as the tunnels collapsed, then let loose an atonal shriek as loud as an artillery cannon as it charged forward.

  No words were exchanged and no time was wasted on reactions beyond brief, wordless exclamations. Dread Naught opened fire on the beast at once: Bryl’s liquid metal rifle sought weak points, Runner’s energy cannon directed blasts against the Aeshma’s head, and Bel’Wa unleashed screaming anti-armor rounds from her wrist. Nicadzim let loose his cluster launcher against the oncoming thing, while Kirby fired a spread of small remote charges from her missile rack. Vort sang forth a harsh lightning storm, causing the ungodly Dreaded to flinch as the bolts wracked it’s body. Though this barrage left long rents across its outer surface, the Aeshma continued unhindered.

  The room was now brightly lit, energy and projectiles of various colors illuminating the dire Stone chamber. The storm of fire left numerous small wounds on the Aeshma, but failed to meaningfully slow its advance.

  The moment before it became a direct danger to Dread Naught, Kirby detonated the charges she had planted across the creature’s surface. The force of the detonation rocked the behemoth and managed to halt it for a moment, allowing the team to disperse. Runner used his grappling hook to launch to the top of one of the pillars, and Vort took flight with a loud beat of his wings. Nicadzim and Kirby rushed toward another pillar further to one side of the monster, while Bryluen and Bel’Wa sprinted into better cover on the other side. As hard chunks of the beast’s flesh began to rain down it shrieked again, lunging toward Kirby and Nicadzim in pursuit of the largest and most obviously threatening targets.

  The Aeshma pursued Nicadzim and Kirby along the outside of the ring of pillars, it superior length of stride propelling it at a surprising speed. The Aeshma swung one arm downward toward Kirby, forcing her to pivot aside. The creature’s wide swing destroyed a neighboring pillar, sending chunks of totem flying. Kirby almost immediately counterattacked with a sideways hammer strike against the tendril-limb. With a bang, one of the tendrils was almost completely severed. Kirby stepped backwards past the nearest pillar, firing rockets at the creature’s chest as she did so. It loomed forward, only to feel a cold impact against one of its rear legs. Nicadzim’s flywheel passed through the monster’s flesh at a shallow angle despite the strength of his two-armed strike. The being lifted its foot in an attempt to kick him, but Nicadzim blinked out of the way and gave the same treatment to the foot opposite the one he just struck.

  Runner immediately shot the first wound Nicadzim had created with a focused bolt from his energy cannon. The wound was widened slightly in a flash of energy, but no blood was drawn. The creature began to turn leftward to confront Nicadzim, when an anti-armor round from Bel’Wa’s arm cannon struck the creature in the right side of its face. Its chin jerked aside from the impact as if it had been punched. The monster shook its head, then swept both limbs along its flanks in an attempt to swat Nicadzim. Nicadzim managed to blink outside of the creature’s reach before he was struck, and resumed firing his cluster launcher into the creature’s back. The Aeshma turned to regard Bel’Wa and Bryluen across the chamber, and received a gout of liquid metal against the roof of its mouth in return. Vort swung low behind the monstrosity, pummeling it with another jagged lightning cluster.

  The creature roared and raised one arm, tracing Vort’s flight path. The tendrils tightened into a long tube—Kirby swung back aro
und the pillar, recognizing a weapon barrel when she saw one. With a heavy swing, she struck the nearest knee with her hammer. A great bang sounded from her weapon, and the force was great enough to cause the Aeshma’s aim to wander. A luminous bolt of orange energy flew from its limb, leaving a pit in the roof just behind Vort. Various exclamations burst from the mouths of the task force members. The Dreaded brought its other limb down to strike at Kirby, but she met it with her hammer. Again, the concussive force of the explosive forced its limb away and damaged more of its tendrils. Kirby braced for another attack, but the beast side-stepped her reach and swung an arm toward her again.

  An explosive pulse from Runner’s energy cannon and a steaming shot from Bryluen altered its swing and allowed Kirby just enough time to spin out of the Dreaded’s reach and counter attack with a rocket burst. Bryluen shouted a command over comms, and the team began to focus exclusively on the tendrils. Kirby continued to spar and swing at the monster, her large armored form best suited to attempting to occupy the thing. Another close strike from Nicadzim caused the thing to try and backhand him, at which point he blinked to its other side. Taking a less predictable course of action, the monster lunged toward Kirby and attempted to clap its limbs around her. She hopped backwards and made a defensive swing. The explosion forced most of the tendrils away, but she received a glancing blow which left large dents on both sides of her cockpit. She momentarily mused how fortunate it was that she had upgraded her armor, before again firing her missile rack into the thing’s lowered face and stepping backwards.