by Andrew Gates
“Use rockets to slow our descent! Keep them on low power!”
The squad re-activated their rockets, this time to propel them up, not down. Their descent decelerated fairly quickly.
The damaged rebel freighter continued falling. It zoomed past the now slowed Kreed Marauder on their left side as it careened downward towards the lunar surface. The freighter was completely aflame. It looked like an enormous ball of fire.
A final wave of debris followed. It was the thickest yet. Ikharus did his best to avoid all of it, though his injured arm did not help. A few pieces collided with him. At one point he was knocked so out of place, he completely spun around. Ikharus readjusted and continued his descent, brushing it off like it was nothing.
“Status!” he said.
“Unhurt,” Evirak replied.
“Unhurt,” added Ukhrani.
“My left hind leg was scathed, along with my right shoulder. The suit is unharmed though. Everything else is nominal,” Khreznor explained.
“Most of the debris has passed now,” Evirak said.
“Yes, I believe it has. Now prepare for landing!” Ikharus replied.
The freighter was almost to the moon’s surface now. The falling Kholvari watched in awe as it neared closer and closer to the landmass below. Within just a few seconds, it smashed against the ground in a fiery explosion. The world shook. Dust flew up everywhere. In an instant, it was almost impossible to see.
“Visibility is minimal. Rely on sensors!”
Ikharus tracked his descent on the HUD, making sure he maintained a proper speed. According to the data, they were getting close to the bottom.
“Full thruster power on three… two… one!”
Ikharus and his team cranked the rockets to full power. He jerked in his suit a bit as they practically came to a full stop in the air. According to the HUD, they were still descending, but it was slow.
The squad leader felt something touch against the bottom of his pointed feet. He pressed down against a solid surface and looked to the ground. Beneath him was the moon.
They made it.
So far this team has proven themselves.
Ikharus turned to make sure his squad arrived safely. They all landed around the same time and shut off their rocket packs.
“Nominal?” he asked.
“Nominal,” the others replied in unison.
Good.
“Kal Khreznor, give me a reading on the location. How close did we land to the target?”
“Close. The main docking port is there,” she said as she pointed off in the distance. It was hard to see anything with all the dust. “Which means Prisoner Station 4 is nearby. You did an excellent job plotting our course in, sir.”
“Spare me your compliments. Proceed to the station.”
Now was not the time for petty comments. For someone who had been so quiet along most of the journey, Ikharus found it odd that she would try to say so much now.
The squad leader held his claw over the magnetic holster on his right hip. The holster demagnetized as his glove magnetized, sending the pistol into his grip. He held onto it tightly, keeping it raised. Danger could come at any second.
Kreed Marauder proceeded forward for almost a minute before they encountered a large boxy structure. Part of the structure had been badly damaged by debris from the destroyed rebel freighter. Its roof had an enormous gash through it and the left half of the building was completely gone. Anyone there without an oxygen suit was dead. Ikharus hoped Soh Saratti was not one of them.
“This is it,” Khreznor said.
“Marauder, let’s find a way inside.”
Before they could search for an entrance, rebel soldiers appeared. Their suits were bulky and a few generations old. It seemed like they could hold oxygen, but they did not appear to do much else. These rebels were basically unarmored. They dropped down from the roof of the building, firing as they fell.
Ikharus dove away from the blasts, spun around and fired. He hit two lunar rebels directly in the head, killing them instantly. His team promptly took care of the others. Within seconds, nine rebel bodies littered the ground. All four members of Kreed Marauder stood unscathed.
They took a second to catch their breaths, but then got right back to it.
Evirak pulled out a glowing orb from his suit.
“This shall provide us with an entrance,” he declared as he activated the grenade and tossed it toward the wall.
Marauder took a step back as the bomb went off, blowing a clean hole in the side of the building.
“Excellent. Let’s proceed,” Ikharus instructed. The four of them made their way through the hole and into the structure.
The walls were narrow and low. It reminded Ikharus of some of the smaller warships he had been on like Undeniable Truth or Fruitful Spring. Lights flickered on and off. The temperature around him felt cold. It was as if the heater were not working at all.
“This is Prisoner Station 4, correct?”
“Affirmative, sir. Now we just need to find the target,” Khreznor answered.
“What if Soh Saratti is dead?” Evirak asked.
“Then the mission is a failure. We return back to base, covertly.”
“And what if he’s no longer here?”
“Then we find him.”
Ikharus kicked in the first door he found. The door came off relatively easily. It was almost as if it had already been damaged. He proceeded inside. The room was small. He could see everything from where he stood.
Nothing. Empty.
He turned around and faced his team.
“Split up. Search every room.”
Kreed Marauder spent minutes looking through the rooms. Most were just abandoned offices. With each dead end, Ikharus grew frustrated. He was beginning to worry that this would take a lot longer than expected. But after a few more minutes, Ukhrani called in over the comm.
“I may have found something!” she said.
She was not far. Ikharus and the others joined her only a few seconds later.
“What is it?” he asked as he arrived.
“The sign. It says prisoner cells,” she answered, addressing some foreign writing on the wall.
“You can read Sorrevahni?” Ikharus asked, surprised.
“Read it and speak it without a translator chip, yes,” she replied.
The skillset of this team grows more and more.
“Good. Let’s get inside,” he said.
Ukhrani kicked down the door. The others followed behind. There were five cells on each side of a long hallway. The first two on each side were empty, as was the third cell on the left. The third cell on the right had a corpse in it.
The team stopped to let Ikharus through. He moved to the front and inspected the body. This was a female. He turned and walked to the end of the hall. There were more corpses in each of the remaining four cells. Ikharus inspected them all. None of them were Soh Saratti.
“He’s not here,” the squad leader concluded.
“Kho Ikharus, look here!” Evirak said.
Evirak stood by one of the empty cells. Ikharus joined him. Though he had not noticed it before, this cell’s door had been tampered with. The lock was broken clean off. This door was essentially wide open.
“Do you think this find is worth something?” Evirak asked.
“I do,” Ikharus replied. “This cell must belong to the one we seek.”
Ikharus looked at the door Ukhrani had kicked open to get into the cell bay. It looked like it had been tampered with too.
“Follow the trail of clues! This shall lead to our prize!” he said.
The squad leader led his team out into the hall. He searched around, trying to determine the next move. If I were an escaping prisoner, where would I go next?
“The sign there, it says atmosphere suits,” Ukhrani explained, motioning to a sign with an arrow pointing left.
Ikharus led his team to the left until they reached the end of a hall. The doorway at t
he end had been forced open. It looked fresh.
He pushed the door open and walked inside. Transparent cases holding atmosphere suits lined the walls of this stuffy excuse for a room. One was empty.
“Curse the Empire! If he has a suit, he could be anywhere,” Evirak spat in frustration.
“Do not be so hasty to make such claims, Kho Evirak. The prisoner is old. He cannot move as fast as us. I do not believe he would have gotten far,” Ikharus retorted.
“Sir, we have bigger problems,” Khreznor interjected. “I’m detecting something heading our way. It’s big and it’s fast.”
“From which direction?”
“Above.”
Ikharus glanced at the motion tracker on his own HUD. Sure enough, something big was coming. It was the largest thing he had ever seen on the tracker. It had to have been the size of a warship.
“It’s a ship from the battle in the sky! It’s crashing on top of us. We need to evacuate, now!”
“I’ll provide a quick exit,” Evirak announced as he revealed another grenade.
Using the same trick as before, Evirak used a bomb to open a hole in the nearest wall. The team jumped through the hole and landed on the lunar ground.
The gravity made moving around particularly difficult on this barren world, so they activated their boosters to help propel them forward. They ran away from the building as fast as they could.
Ikharus looked up as they sprinted across the lunar surface. He could see the ship coming down, covered in fire. It was directly above them. To his surprise, this was a Sorrevahni vessel, not a repurposed rebel freighter.
“How much time remains?” Ikharus asked as they made their way to safety. He looked forward again.
“Hardly enough! Impact is imminent!” Khreznor responded.
Ikharus could now feel the heat from the ship above. He did not need to look up to tell it was closing in.
“I’m detecting something ahead!” Evirak reported.
Ikharus saw it too, but he could not tell what it was from here.
Ukhrani pulled out her long distance rifle and held it to her helmet, looking through the scope as she ran. Then she brought it back down.
“There’s a skirmish up ahead. The Sorrevahni have tanks. The rebels are using what looks like repurposed mining trucks,” she explained.
“If these fools do not perish from each other’s hands, they will surely die from the craft above,” Ikharus said. “If they were wise, they would fall back.”
“I don’t think they’re very smart,” Evirak added. He pulled out another grenade as he ran.
Ikharus lifted his pistol. Ukhrani drew her rifle once more. Khreznor revealed her pistol too.
Within a few seconds, they could see the skirmish ahead. Ukhrani was the first to fire. She got a few shots off before the combatants took notice. Some of the fighters on both sides turned to face the approaching Kreed Marauder.
Evirak tossed a grenade forward. His reach was impressive. Ikharus had never seen someone throw so far. The grenade landed near one of the Sorrevahni tanks. It promptly erupted into a ball of light. It did not destroy the entire vehicle, but it seemed to knock it off its wheels.
The lunar rebels took advantage of the tank’s paralysis and climbed atop it. They bashed at it and pulled until they removed the top of the vehicle. The rebels promptly opened fire on the drivers inside.
Ikharus was close enough now that he could shoot at them as he ran. He took out a few rebels as he continued forward. Khreznor did the same.
Another tank and a repurposed lunar vehicle both turned their weapons to the approaching Kreed. Evirak threw more grenades at them, but that did not stop them from getting a few shots off first. Ikharus had to drop to the ground as the tank blasts went straight above his head.
That shall cost me valuable time, he thought as he got back up and continued his run. By the time he stood up again, the grenades went off, destroying both vehicles instantly. He was behind the rest of his team now, but not by much.
The other three were now in the skirmish itself. Ikharus observed his squad as they dodged blasts from both sides, but did not stop to engage the enemies. It was amazing to watch them work. It was like art the way their bodies moved, sliding out of the way of enemy fire, while still pushing forward. Their sheer talent was remarkable.
Now it was Ikharus’s turn. He ran through the skirmish. Tank fire erupted over his head. He ducked, but continued running. Rifles shot at him from two directions. He altered the angle on his booster, propelling him upward instead of forward. The shots traveled beneath him, hitting targets on the opposite sides. He then refocused his booster forward again as he landed on the ground and passed a destroyed tank. A Sorrevahni soldier popped up from the destroyed tank’s cabin, catching Ikharus by surprise. The soldier grabbed onto his left arm. It stung. His arm still hurt from the debris.
“Die, pale scum!” Ikharus shouted as he lifted the end of his spear-like foot into the air and pushed it forward, right through the non-believer’s neck. The Sorrevahni squirmed in pain as blood filled his suit, clogging up his lungs, drowning the heretic in his own disgusting detritus.
Ikharus pulled his foot back and started running again. He was losing too much time.
After dodging a few more shots, the Kreed successfully made its way past the skirmish, leaving the remaining aggressors to their fate.
Ikharus was still behind the rest of his team, but at least he was past the fighting now. He dared glance at his motion tracker as he ran. To his horror, the crashing ship was right on top of him. It was too soon, way too soon.
“Brace for impact!” Ukhrani shouted over the comm. “Three… two… one!”
Ikharus grabbed onto his thruster pack’s power regulator and yanked at it. At first it did not move, but after a few strong pulls, he managed to rip off the regulator entirely and cast it aside. He then emptied all the remaining power he had into his thrusters. He flew forward like a cannon blast, passing the others. They all seemed to catch on and promptly did the same.
The ground trembled as if it were coming alive. Dust and smoke clouded everything. Debris fell down around them like cannon fire. The heat was unbearable. It felt like Ikharus was going to explode in his suit.
The rocket pack carried him far, but it eventually ran out of power. He dropped to the ground and slid, landing mostly on his already damaged left arm. He cried out in pain. His team traveled a bit farther past him and fell to the ground.
Ikharus found the strength to stand up. He felt weak, but he knew he had to keep going.
“Status!” he coughed through the comm.
“Power is drained in my pack. Moving is going to be difficult,” Ukhrani answered. “I landed hard on my chest. I may have internal bleeding.”
“Aside from my pack, systems are operational,” Evirak answered.
“My left hind leg may be fractured. My shoulder may be badly damaged as well,” Khreznor responded. “If I may, sir. I know you don’t favor compliments, but that was smart thinking maxing out our thrusters like that.”
“Stow that kind of talk, Kal Khreznor,” Ikharus said, getting that out of the way first. He took a deep breath and walked to the rest of his team. “Our survival is most fortuitous.” He turned around to face the crash site. The ship was not even a five second sprint from where they now stood. It was a true miracle that they were still alive.
“The shockwave must’ve created a crater,” Khreznor said.
“We must be in that crater now,” Evirak responded. “If we didn’t have the suits, the shockwave may have killed us.”
“Then let us praise the Chiefdom for its technology,” Ikharus added.
“This battle is permanently altering the surface of the moon,” Khreznor continued. “The lunar colonists may not even want to stay here after everything is over.”
Ikharus shrugged.
“That is not our concern. The lunar rebels and the Kholvari may share the same enemy, but that does not mean w
e are allies,” he explained. “That is only for Supreme Chieftess Kal Khtallia to decide.”
For a moment they all stood silently. This was the first time they could catch their breath in a long while. Then Ukhrani turned her head and faced out into the distance.
“What is it, Kal Ukhrani?”
“I saw movement on the motion tracker. It was faint, but it was there only for a moment. Then it disappeared.”
She took out her rifle again and looked through the scope. She studied the sight for a few seconds and then lowered the gun. She turned to her squad leader.
“This news is sure to surprise,” she began with a tone of optimism, “but I think we may have found our missing prisoner.”
Ikharus could hardly believe it. He calmly walked up to her. She handed him the gun and he accepted it. The eyepiece magnified his vision 50 times, but that did not help much with all this dust and smoke around.
“Here, let me show you,” Ukhrani said. She pressed some button on the rifle’s scope and the imaging changed to infra-red. Now Ikharus could see through the dust and smoke.
Sure enough, a lone male could be seen limping along in the distance. Ikharus could not make out much more than that, but it was enough information to go on.
“That may be our target,” he agreed as he lowered the scope. “Once again, we have been met with a most fortuitous circumstance.”
“Are you certain it’s him?” Evirak asked.
“Negative, but it’s worth investigating.”
Ukhrani reached out her claw. Ikharus handed the large weapon back to its rightful owner.
“Kreed Marauder, let’s move,” he said as he started walking.
The walk was long and slow. Moving in the moon’s gravity was not easy. If Ikharus got lazy and tried to walk normally, he would find himself thrown completely off balance. He almost tripped a few times, but was able to stabilize his body each time. That was the beauty of having four legs. He could always prop himself up somehow.
It didn’t help that they were walking uphill. Moving on flat ground was hard enough, but this hill made it all the more challenging. Ironically, the slope had not been there when they had started this mission. The new crater that defaced the moon was proving to be quite the inconvenience.