The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Ava turned to her team. “Jess, Katy, find a way to lock down the doors. Riddick, Danvers, rig the shit out of the external corridor. I want to hear explosions before any Shay even touches the door’s controls. It won’t put them down but at least it’ll give us more time.”

  Roland halted his exploration of the control room when he reached the lip of the pitted tier. The stations and consoles were tangled in black strands of nanocelium, all of which snaked back into the centre, where a single cube was sitting.

  “Oh, shit…”

  Naydaalan joined him by the edge. “A cube. C-Sec theorised that there might be more.”

  “Did they theorise what we do when we find one?” Roland asked sceptically.

  “Not touching it came up a lot,” Naydaalan quipped.

  “Fair enough.” Roland had seen what had happened to Professor Jones and Malek, the last people who had interacted with the cubes. “Len, any idea how we steer this big bastard into the nearest black hole?”

  “What are you still doing there?” Len shouted frantically down his ear. “You just found a cube! You should be running back to the Rackham!”

  “Sounds like someone’s blood sugar is a little low…”

  “I’m serious, Roland. If that thing has its tentacles in the Starforge’s systems, there’s nothing you can do.”

  Roland inspected the strands attached to the cube’s bronze plating. “Nothing technical at least.”

  “That’s a terrible idea!”

  The bounty hunter tapped his earpiece and put the brakes on Len’s rant before it could get started. “Okay, if this thing is piloting the Starforge, we just need to take its hands off the wheel.” The Raiders returned from their duties and surrounded the cube on all sides of the pitted tier. “Aim for the strands,” Roland directed. “We don’t have anything powerful enough to dent that shiny plating.”

  As one, the team opened up with every weapon they had, filling the large chamber with the smell of ozone and smoke. The consoles were ripped to pieces and the strands of nanocelium were severed, their tentacle ends writhing about between the stations.

  As the soldiers ceased firing to reload, the Starforge groaned and the floor under their feet vibrated. Roland turned to the viewport, but in the vastness of the Solian Way it was impossible to determine speed with the naked eye.

  “Len?”

  “The Starforge is slowing down.”

  “Great. Let’s—”

  “But it’s also powering up the three Starrilliums on its outer hull.”

  Roland didn’t like the sound of that. “Isn’t that what it does when it’s about to open a wormhole?”

  Len sighed in his ear. “You’re an idiot.”

  The vibration under their feet grew stronger and consoles all over the control room came to life. Explosions reverberated through the main doors and the panel on the wall sparked.

  “They’re coming!” Riddick warned.

  “I think you’re right…” Roland’s eyes were still fixed on the viewport, where giant bolts of purple lightning were running around the crescent’s hull.

  The tips of the station lit up with a light as bright as any star, banishing the void beyond. The frequency of the lightning increased and began firing across the gulf between the crescent’s ends. The vibration under their feet reached its crescendo and the light forming in the gap of the Starforge’s limbs came together and expanded across the entire station, filling the circular hole with white light, edged with every colour of the spectrum.

  The control room was overshadowed when a ship, colossal in size, emerged from the wormhole, eclipsing the light. The Starforge’s enormous proportions suddenly made sense to the bounty hunter, who watched in disbelief as the alien ship slid through the gaps in reality, its sides only metres from the station’s limbs.

  “What is that?” Katy asked.

  “It just keeps coming,” Danvers commented absently.

  Colonel Matthews was the first to recover. “Take up positions around the door. Prepare to repel a breach.” It took an extra second for the Raiders to interpret their orders and actually move.

  Roland felt almost dazed by the sight. “Len, are you getting any readings from this thing?”

  “Scanning it is proving quite the task,” the Ch’kara replied. “I’ve seen moons smaller than this thing.”

  Roland lifted his arm and looked over the data Len was feeding through to his coat’s screen. The Rackham was building an image of the ship as it took shape in real space. It was a monster that dwarfed the Sentinel or even the Gommarian. Black as space, its hull was bristling with pointed angles and writhing snake-like bodies. It took several more minutes before the end pulled clear of the wormhole and the Starforge shut down.

  Naydaalan looked down at Roland. “We need to warn C-Sec immediately.”

  “Agreed. Let’s get back to the Valkor.”

  Ava gestured to the cube. “What should we do about that? Or this whole place for that matter? That thing will regain control soon enough.”

  Roland licked his lips. “Len, how are the repairs coming along?”

  “We’ve still got a little while until the Rackham’s back to full health. I don’t think we’ll be able to launch the Planet Killer yet.”

  The bounty hunter hated the truth of their situation but there was no alternative. “We don’t have the firepower to destroy the station and disabling it will prove impossible as long as the cube’s plugged in.” He sighed, resigned to their only option. “We leave and warn the others. Agreed?”

  Both Ava and Naydaalan nodded their heads. Running wasn’t familiar to any of them, but a moon-sized ship of pure nanocelium had just entered Conclave space and was heading for a core planet.

  “Wait…” Len’s voice came over their shared comm. “Something’s happening. It’s… it’s breaking up.”

  “Breaking up?” Roland repeated. “In a good way or a bad way?” It was too much to hope that travelling through the Starforge had damaged it in some way.

  “Definitely bad,” Len said. “The Rackham’s counting thousands of smaller ships detaching from the whole. Each one is bigger than any ship at C-Sec’s disposal.”

  Another explosion rocked the main doors, putting the Raiders on edge.

  “I think that’s the last of our mines,” Riddick called back.

  Roland gripped the Chem-roller a little tighter. “Anyone feel like going up against an army of Shay zombies?”

  Naydaalan cocked his head. “What are zom-bies?”

  The bounty hunter made his way over to the main doors. “Today, they’re a pain in the ass…”

  The Raiders prised the doors apart, revealing a corridor of smoke, blood, and body parts. Every surface was charred and cratered from shrapnel and weapons discharge.

  Roland took the lead, pausing briefly to tap his earpiece. “Len, fire up the engine. As soon as the hatch closes I want us off this station.”

  “On it.”

  The team moved as one organism in a wedge formation, one eye on the colonel and the other watching for any sudden movements. Using the ladders again, they descended back through the many levels, deliberately choosing a new route back to the hangar, a standard military tactic by Roland’s recollection. The bounty hunter could see the Raiders’ orange visors scanning the red-lit corridors, an effect mirrored by the implants in his eyes. It was better to see in the dark than give themselves away with torches.

  “Target!” Ava’s warning sounded at the same time as her weapon, which let rip into the oncoming Shay.

  More mercenaries, all coated in nanocelium, poured out of the side doors. Their expressions were absent of intelligent life signs despite their aggressive attack. Roland kept his finger down on the Chem-roller’s trigger and fired round after round of explosive Intrinium. The Shay burst apart with enough force to inflict damage on those around them.

  “Keep moving!” Ava screamed, pushing the team forward.

  “They’re flanking!” Jess shoute
d from the rear of the group.

  The team was divided between firing ahead and behind now. Roland ducked into an alcove to swap out the magazines, a motion he had mastered over the decades, before swapping paces with Lieutenant Danvers and adding his explosive rounds to the rear.

  “They’re slippery bastards!” Roland stated as the Shay began to use every surface like spiders.

  “Jess!” Katy’s alarm was a moment too late to stop her from getting shot.

  Roland glanced at the woman, who had dropped to the floor with a glowing thigh. Jess’s armoured plating had prevented any loss of limb, but the Intrinium had still burnt through to the muscle. Katy rushed to her side and Roland stepped in to cover them, allowing Lieutenant Wilson time to administer pain meds. Jess gritted her teeth, doing her best to keep a lid on the pain, but the occasional scream couldn’t be helped.

  “We need to exfil, now!” Katy yelled.

  Naydaalan scooped up Jess in his lower arms, the only one among them who could carry her and continue to fire his weapon. Colonel Matthews led the push through the stark corridors, their formation one of aggression now. Roland was the last to enter the hangar and so he was the last to see what was coming for them. He unleashed his Chem-roller, with no concern for accurate targeting, and hoped they could get off the ground before the horde swarmed the ship.

  ‘Get in!” he quickly ordered as the Rackham’s ramp descended.

  Behind them, the infected Shay burst through the doors and filled the hangar with Intrinium fire. They appeared somehow more ghoulish than before, many of them having been reassembled out of different parts after being blown up multiple times. It seemed the nanocelium didn’t care which parts went with what, as long as the host could move and fire a weapon.

  Roland dropped into his pilot’s chair, hating every sound the impacts against his ship made. Proximity alarms popped up across his holographic display, warning the bounty hunter that foreign bodies had been detected on the hull. Above him, Roland could hear the cybernetic hands and feet of the Shay crawling over the Rackham’s hull.

  “Can these things survive in space?” Len asked.

  Roland pushed the thrusters to maximum. “Let’s find out.”

  The Rackham shot out of the Starforge’s hangar like an Intrinium round from a gun. Every Shay clinging to its hull was dragged off by the momentum.

  The bounty hunter took what felt like his first breath in some time, happy to see the wide open aurora of the Solian Way. The beautiful view was tarnished, however, by the sight of the colossal ship that had just emerged from the Starforge, which had come to a stop. The ship’s incredible bulk had split into pieces and was spreading out until all the smaller vessels were facing a different direction. After they shot away, piercing subspace, the largest one came to life and began to hurtle down the Solian Way. Checking the nav-system, Roland could see that it was still on course for Arakesh.

  “Can I suggest we don’t get any closer to them?” Ava asked from behind his chair.

  Roland input the coordinates for the Valkor and activated the subspace drive, happy if he would never again have to see those ships or the Starforge and its infected crew.

  9

  Telarrek kept himself to the side of the main stage, not wanting to be caught on all the cameras, as Elondrasa and the rest of the Highclave gave their speeches. He was pleased with the turnout across the capital city, with so many coming to see the councillors take the next step on their journey around the core planets. Novaarians filled most of the streets, but Nova Prime was home to a mixed population of Conclave species. It always pleased Telarrek to see so many coming together to celebrate the same thing.

  The old Novaarian caught the eyes of the Starforge’s engineers, a small team of Ch’karas, and asked a silent question with his expression. The little Ch’kara nodded back, confirming the Starforge’s readiness. A responding nod from Telarrek gave the team the order they had been waiting for.

  “So now we take, quite literally, our next step into the future of Conclave transportation!” Elondrasa’s last words had the masses cheering, their applause almost loud enough to drown out the Starforge’s activation.

  Telarrek adjusted his long robes, ready to follow behind the Highclave and make his first journey through the event horizon. The Novaarian reminded himself that the councillors had already passed through it once and prior to that it had been vigorously tested. He reminded himself of that three more times before he stepped in line behind Councillor Brokk.

  The cheers continued but Telarrek heard a distinct difference in their applause. Shock perhaps? The Novaarian looked out over his capital city with an edge of concern creeping into his gut. Scattered throughout the crowds, many of the cheers were turning into screams and shouts of terror. Then they heard the weapons fire. The Highclave’s personal strike team responded immediately and closed in around them, their staffs and guns aimed at the masses around them.

  “What’s happening?” Councillor Lordina asked.

  Telarrek peered over the shoulder of the closest Novaarian soldier and saw the chaos that was taking over the crowds, with people climbing over each other to reach safety.

  The old Novaarian broke away from the strike team and called to the engineers, “Cycle through to Clave Tower! We need to get the councillors back to the capital!”

  The Ch’karan engineers sprang to work, shutting down the Forge and reactivating it with the new coordinates.

  “What’s happening?” Brokk asked. “Are we under attack?”

  “It must be the protestors,” Ch’lac replied.

  The warrior instinct that would forever live inside Telarrek told him otherwise. This was something far more dangerous than a few anti-human protestors, and the Novaarian couldn’t shake the feeling that they didn’t have much time. The screams were getting closer, as was the weapons fire. The strike team was forced more than once to step out of their defensive ring to push a fleeing citizen away from the Highclave.

  “Nu-marn?” Elondrasa’s concerned tone had Telarrek focusing on the Shay councillor.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Lordina took a step back.

  Nu-marn was covering both sides of his head with his hands, his face a canvas of pain and suffering. The Shay dropped to his knees and began clawing at his own face. His cybernetic augments twitched frantically before stopping as suddenly as they had started, and he crumpled lifelessly to the floor

  “Nu-marn?” Elondrasa bent down to check on the still body of the Shay.

  Something inside Telarrek told him that was a mistake and that his councillor was in grave danger, but he was too slow to act. Nu-marn exploded with energy and managed to leap up from a prone position. His cybernetic hands clamped around Elondrasa’s head and twisted, severing her spinal column and killing the councillor instantly. The shock that they all felt was swept aside by the adrenaline that had Telarrek and the councillors trying to escape the mad Shay. The circled strike team, however, prevented any from pushing past as they kept the chaotic mob at bay.

  “Kill him!” Lordina screamed.

  One of the strike team turned around in confusion, but the threat was clear to see. He let loose a single bolt of Intrinium, but Nu-marn, now more animal in his movements, dropped to the floor and scurried over Elondrasa’s body. His next leap saw him taking down the Novaarian guard by jamming his thumbs into the soldier’s eyes. The Shay could have gone on to kill him, but Nu-marn was only interested in the soldier’s weapon.

  “Get down!” Telarrek warned.

  Nu-marn’s first shot killed the soldier next to him, dropping the Laronian with an Intrinium round to the face. The three remaining councillors took no heed of Telarrek’s words and simply ran, offering themselves as easy targets. Ch’lac took a bolt to the back of the head, killing him before he hit the floor. With Brokk and Lordina out of the way, the strike team opened fire on Nu-marn. Three rounds took the Shay to the floor, one of which blew a good portion of his face away, but the councillor fired bac
k, apparently oblivious to the fact that he should be dead.

  Despite those trying to kill him, Nu-marn continued to aim at Brokk and Lordina, the only surviving councillors.

  “Take him down!” Telarrek shouted over the chaos.

  Pieces of Nu-marn were coming off in burning chunks yet still the Shay concentrated his fire on the councillors. Brokk yelled in pain as two shots impacted his stony back, sending him tumbling to the floor. Lordina didn’t bother to stop, her scaly legs taking her straight for the Starforge.

  Telarrek wasted no more time and picked up the assault rifle dropped by one of the dead soldiers. Together they unloaded their weapons into the Shay councillor and didn’t stop until there wasn’t enough left of him to pose a threat. A hundred questions were swimming around Telarrek’s mind; chief among these was the question of how anyone could still be alive after taking that much damage.

  The violence among the masses finally found the staging area and boiled over with dozens of Shay climbing over the other citizens in a bid to reach Lordina. There was nothing any of them could do when the Laronian councillor was pounced upon and torn to pieces by cybernetic hands. The pack of Shay only lingered long enough to ensure she was dead before turning back and attacking anyone close enough to be reached.

  Telarrek could feel the shock of events trying to seize his limbs, but the ambassador fought for control and began ordering the remaining strike team members to gather the councillors’ bodies, abandoning Nu-marn’s, and take them through the Starforge. C-Sec gunships descended from the clear sky and fired their non-lethal rounds into the attacking Shay. Every round from their cannons enveloped the manic aliens in green sap, immobilising them. To everyone’s dismay, those who were only partially trapped in the sap tore off their limbs to break free and continue the onslaught.

  What could drive any being to such madness?

  “Ambassador!” the strike team leader called, beckoning him to pass through the Starforge.

  Telarrek was hesitant to leave his home world, eager to uncover the cause behind this attack. A moment later, he was robbed of options when two members of the strike team came up behind him and ushered him into the wormhole. In the blink of an eye he went from seeing the glittering vistas of Nova Prime to the towering surroundings of Clave Tower.