Beyond Antares Dimensional Gates

by Edited by Brandon Rospond

  Under the harsh setting sun, a variety of drones paraded between the transport ship and the shade within the underground entrance to the abandoned civilization, transferring equipment to create a temporary encampment. Some drones proceeded to form a security perimeter, others were tasked with heading into the dark tunnels to begin mapping, and a remaining few were waiting to collect what the investigation would discover. To Kaig, it seemed that the Freeborn used far more drones and probes than he had ever seen before on a job. He mused to himself that by bringing all the tech, it would mean that there would not be much requirement for either the Freeborn or the Boromites to perform any actual work.

  Kaig regretted being correct. The multitude of drones had meant that him and his team of Boromites had very little to do. Boredom was not something Boromites experienced often, so to stave off any idle hands, he had them revert to their natural state and started excavating the area. A mini survey with a view to acquire anything that may be useful to take back to the Gilded Starlight would keep them out of trouble while the drones did most of the real work.

  * * * *

  The days passed. The automated Freeborn bots continued working and the Boromites continued with their own activity. Shim had not queried or questioned their independent project. Conversely, she appeared to be pleased the Boromites were keeping out of her way. Kaig took this to be a good sign. He distrusted the Freeborn since his discussion with Rix back onboard the Guilded Starlight, and the less time he spent in their proximity, the happier he was. The rest of the Boromites were oblivious to his personal and private situation. In conversation, Kaig had tactfully quizzed Hoz, Ergeer, and a few others in the most discreet way he could and concluded that they didn’t know anything about their faked demise. He could not and would not interrogate them in the way that he’d been trained by a previous Guild Overseer. Kaig respected his kinsmen and did not want to be the victim of a suspicious accident himself. Besides, that would probably arouse more suspicion than was needed. He could carry this burden of secrecy alone; it would not be his first and Kaig doubted it would be his last.

  The evenings were uncomfortably warm. On occasion when he could not sleep, Kaig would wander around on the surface after dark, outside the ancient underground habitat entrance. One of the bright spots of light twinkling in the sky could mark the system where his home, his wife, and his daughter were. He hated not knowing where he was. The planet and system were nameless to him. Nor did he know where that no good, troublemaking sister-in-law of his was either. In the cold of night, his misty breath vowed that when he got back to civilization, he would have his revenge. Previous roles he had held in the guild encouraged his innate ability to anticipate danger. He found this most useful when skulking around other guilds and gathering intelligence to assist with reassigning leadership, his euphemism for assassinating important members of other guilds. He was not the cold-blooded killer he used to be, but just like his kinsmen joked, Kaig still had senses like a repnitus marset.

  During the fourth evening, a new moving image had been delivered to Kaig’s digislate. He pressed his gnarly hands up against the images of his tiny baby daughter. Kaig tried to fool himself into thinking the warmth of the digislate was somehow related to the cozy infant, to bring her just that little bit closer to him. As he moved his hand from the screen to replay the image, something in the corner of the frame caught his eye. He had instinctively cropped the image to focus on his daughter. In the background of this new feed he could see his sister-in-law, which was not something he wanted to take up his time. But this was one of his gut instinct moments his wife would chuckle to herself about.

  He zoomed out and shifted the focus. He saw Bardina with a digislate; not just any digislate, but one that looked identical to the one in his hand. The image it displayed was on repeat, and it matched the image that Rix had shared with Kaig - a shuttle exploding without warning. He could also make out the arm of his wife. Grita appeared to be lying on their bed. Her sister sat next to her. The image shifted, the recording of the micromite must have moved as it swung around and focused back on his daughter. He wound the image back and replayed it again, one frame at a time. One single snapshot focused on Grita, and he could see tears streaming down her face. A chilling thought occurred to Kaig. He knew Bardina was a scheming loathsome woman, but he never expected her to be in the business of orchestrating his murder.

  * * * *

  Sleep had not come easy for Kaig the night before, and his body and mind felt the repercussions as he toiled away. There were only two days left of the mission and the Boromites were still uncertain of their purpose there. Their surveying had found some useful metals that usually found a good price with the right buyer. Extraction was reasonably easy too. The previous civilization must not have seen the value in it. Either that or they were so advanced that they had no requirement for it; and based on what Kaig had seen of the items that had been recovered, that civilization had probably been progressive.

  Abruptly, Kaig saw the few Freeborn crew in the vicinity take to their feet and hastily head toward the surface entrance, drawing their sidearms in the process. The Boromites slowly stopped working and lowered their equipment. Puzzled looks greeted Kaig as he watched the Freeborn leave. He walked a few paces in that direction, but then he stopped and turned. “Was it something you said?” He peered in Hoz’s direction with a smirk.

  “I didn’t put them off earlier when that gornwit almost kicked the case of implosion grenades.” Hoz grinned back. “Do you want us to carry on here while you find out what they're up to?”

  Kaig was about to suggest that whatever it was that spooked the Freeborn, it would need to be an imposing threat to cause concern to the Boromites. He never got the chance. One of the Freeborn poked their head back into the workroom, before heading back out. “We’re evacuating.”

  Kaig waived a dismissive arm toward the exit. “Okay lads, off we go. If you’re not holding it, just leave it where it is. I’m sure our hosts know the name of this planet and can help us get our stuff back at some point.” It seemed a shame to Kaig, leaving perfectly good equipment, although much of it was being gathered by some of the Freeborns’ compactor drones before they too made good their leave.

  The Boromites hurriedly made their way past Kaig; he was always the last one out of any situation. He figured the last person out was most likely to meet with death, and if that happened to one of his kinsmen he would find it difficult to forgive himself. With that logic he also considered that if he died then he would not be able to feel any guilt. It was a win-win in his mind.

  Moving toward the entrance of the cavern, the flow of drone traffic making its way past the lumbering Boromites had ceased, the drones having made their way back to the transport ship. The sound of weapon discharges from up ahead had piqued Kaig’s interest. The Freeborn were not shooting at him or the Boromites. Kaig wondered if Concord forces had shown up already. At the mouth of the entrance, four of the Freeborn were pinned down by incoming enemy fire. Kaig hastily joined the Freeborn at their position, followed by his Boromites. “What’s the situation?”

  “Heavy fire coming from the ridgeline.” Kaig recognized the voice as belonging to the Freeborn who had ordered the evacuation. A twang of responsibility passed through the rock father; perhaps had this Freeborn not alerted them, then they would have already made it back safely to the transport ship. “There are three heavily armored Ghar suits cutting the route between here and the ship.”

  “Do we know where they came from or how they found us?” inquired Kaig. The more information that was available would help him in planning a favorable solution.

  “We didn’t think of asking them, no.” The caustic response from the Freeborn cut the air.

  A hail of small arms fire erupted from the transport ship, directed toward the ridge. A frenzy of movement next to Kaig ensued as the four remaining Freeborn took to their feet and sprinted toward relative safety, also discharging their weapons toward the ridge. Kaig didn
’t take a second thought. “Go!” He urged and pushed the nearest Boromite toward the transport. Five yan never seemed so far. The remaining Boromites darted out from the cover of the entrance, also pouring whatever weaponry they could attempt to engage the enemy with as they rapidly made their way to the ship.

  The first of the Freeborn was at the bottom of the embarkation ramp when the foe returned fire. A hail of flashes danced across the transport ship, each raising a shower of sparks when impacting against the metal. Some flashes danced across the back of one of the sprinting Freeborn. They dropped to the floor face first, unmoving. Not far away from safety, yet not close enough to survive.

  Kaig wanted to ensure no more lives were lost. He could see one of the tripod-like battlesuits begin to move toward the vessel. Unthinking, his plasma pistol was unholstered and ready in his hand. Among his first salvo, a lucky shot saw a plasma bolt slam into the back of the leading enemy. Flickers of bright blue static ran along the spine of the infernal machine before its movements completely ceased up. The two other adversaries jerkily turned their weapons toward Kaig, who was flung to the floor by a blast striking the rocky exterior of the labyrinth entrance, showering him in sharp fragments of stone. He had done what he needed to do. From his prone position he could see that everyone else had made it to the transport. The plasma pistol lay by his side, powered down. It had become unsharded, the incoming shot had stripped it of its powering nanites. He took a deep breath and looked around for something that could help him fight. Getting to his feet he saw an equipment box. He hoped there would be something in there. Time was running out to escape.

  * * * *

  Hoz winced as he saw Kaig thrown to the ground by a blast. He turned to Shim. “We can’t leave him here, we have to do something. Does this thing not have any weapons?” His eyes darted between the distant image of Kaig, moving away from the entrance and deeper into the caverns, and Shim. She was busy with a control panel in front of her, checking the inventory of what they had already discovered in the labyrinth and what they had managed to salvage in their haste.

  “It’s a transport ship.” Shim stated firmly, “Not a battleship. There is reasonable shielding, but even that won’t hold for long. If those Ghar suits are able to get a shot through the open ramp, we’re all done for.” She gestured toward the only path of safety available to Kaig. “He doesn’t have long. Looks like those battlesuits are making their way between us and him.” She broke off and glanced toward one of the other Freeborn crew. “Prepare emergency lift off. We’re not going to have much time. And get an encrypted message to Rix, we’ll need picking up much sooner than planned.”

  The two remaining battlesuits were closing in on Kaig. Hoz wanted to do something, but he knew that to leave the safety of the transport ship could be fatal. He was all too aware that Kaig would not want that to transpire. He looked at the faces of the others around him. Many of the Freeborn were busy working at console stations in anticipation of extraction, but the Boromites looked angry and frustrated. They had not felt part of the mission and all they wanted to do was help Kaig, but they were powerless to do so. They were caught between knowing the transport ship could leave at any moment and the desire to help one of their own. Their hopes all fading as the Ghar started firing into the open transport.

  * * * *

  The equipment box contained a few implosion grenades and a remote detonator. These were usually applied during mining operations, but like all Boromite equipment, they could also be used for combat. He considered the remote detonator would be of no use to him if he were to be killed, so instead Kaig took a grenade in each hand and primed them both for ten seconds. He hoped that would give him time to plant a grenade on each of the enemy and put enough distance between himself and the explosion. He paused for a moment in the relative protection that the entrance to the cavern offered. He had been in desperate situations before, but he had never had a daughter to worry about. A daughter he had only seen by virtue of a digislate because of some nefarious plot by his sister-in-law to have him done away. He took a deep breath and hurried cautiously toward the twin machines of destruction. They were not far away from him as they turned, firing toward the transport ship. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the ship’s ramp closing. His targets had almost managed to position themselves to get a clear shot through the transport’s ramp. Part of him was pleased that the others were safe. The instant the door closed and the lift engines ignited he focused on the immediate matter of saving his own life.

  He covered the distance to his targets almost unnoticed. It was only in the final yan that the armored tripods began to swivel toward him. Each of the hulks brandished an undignified firearm, each discharge bringing a mixture of nausea and destruction, and a mechanical claw, used for personal defense.

  Kaig had no intention of stopping to carefully place the implosion grenades in a calm and measured manner as he would normally do. He mentally plotted a course between the two targets, which were close to each other. Kaig ducked underneath a swinging mechanical claw and attached the implosion grenade to the back of the machine. He had ten seconds before it detonated.

  Kaig felt his heart pounding in his chest as he dodged the clumsy attack of his next target. Frustratingly for Kaig, the enemy’s attack placed the front of the suit to where he could reach to plant his remaining grenade. His arm reached out, placing the primed implosion grenade in the less than ideal location. He rolled underneath a swipe of the suit’s firearm, which was unable to be brought to bear on him at such close range. With detonation imminent, Kaig swiftly glanced around for an escape route. A combination of rolling and running put a short distance between him and the pending explosion. The distinctive bleeps of the countdown timer on the grenades were barely audible over the noise of the machines’ servos and pistons as they struggled to land a meaningful blow on Kaig.

  The last of the ten seconds expired.

  Explosion ripped through the first machine, sending it spinning on its unbalanced remaining two legs, the third landing a distance away. This first explosion was followed almost immediately by an unexpected secondary explosion; the power core of the armored suit had exploded due to sudden stress and overloaded. This explosion was much larger than the first and knocked Kaig off his feet, flinging him across the ground. Unconscious, Kaig never heard the detonation of the second implosion grenade.

  * * * *

  The first sensation that returned to Kaig was that of being thirsty. His mouth was dry and he was slightly wheezing. Thirst was quickly followed by a feeling akin to having his head being pounded by mining equipment. He tried to move his arm to comfort his head. Pain playfully danced along each of his limbs as he tried to move. His body steadfastly refused to cooperate. He almost regretted waking up. For a dead man, he was in considerable pain. He struggled to open both eyes, but eventually his right eye obeyed to reveal the scorching heat of the day dazzling his vision. Blinking slowly, the harsh brightness of the sky became more bearable. His left eye felt glued together. He concluded that he had to move himself or die in the exposed heat. He tried rolling onto one side, but agony welled up within him and threatened to explode. He was not certain if he had cried out or not. Lying stationary, he tried making a sound again. He could hear it in his head, but not very well through his ears.

  An unexpected shadow fell across Kaig’s vision. He blinked his good eye open to see a short, sickly pale, hairless humanoid creature rummaging through his auto-tool belt. It moved its deep-set bulbous eyes close to Kaig’s face. It appeared to be speaking, but Kaig could not quite make out the sounds or any noise the creature was making. It abruptly stood up and Kaig felt the impact of its foot against his body. Again and again the despicable thing kicked him. Kaig lay there, immobile. As swiftly as the kicking started, it stopped again. Kaig watched the creature looking around, nervously. It darted off in the direction of the entrance of the cavern complex. Kaig took a deep breath as best he could, and closed his eye once more.

  Wi
thout warning, he felt his head and shoulders being lifted off the ground. Kaig snapped his eye open again. The creature began dragging Kaig toward the sheltered shadow of the labyrinth entrance. The journey was not far, but each step the creature took compounded the agony shooting through Kaig’s body. With his head and shoulders lifted, he saw the damage that had been done to him. Blood had congealed in patches on his legs and torso. Fresh scars had appeared on his gnarly arms. He hoped the pain was muscular, it did not seem to him that anything was immediately broken.

  Nearing the shadowy entrance, Kaig cast his blurry eye toward the two smoldering wrecks. He had done a great deal of damage to them while inadvertently damaging himself. His vision turned toward the first mechanical monstrosity he had disabled with his plasma pistol. He was not certain, but Kaig thought that something about it had changed. It appeared to Kaig that part of the armored hull had been removed, with no trace of the occupant inside. He mused about this potential optical irregularity as a faraway movement caught his attention. In the distance, Kaig saw a number of figures moving. Kaig found it difficult to gauge how far away they were, what direction they were traveling, how quick they were moving, or what species they belonged to.

  Kaig’s head hit the ground hard, the rancid creature had dropped him with only short distance to go to get to the shade of the entrance. He craned his neck to see where it had gone, but there was no sign of it. The cavern was the only option. Kaig grimaced as he braced his body to help himself stand. Awkwardly, he managed to turn onto his side without vocalizing the agony. He took a few more deep breaths and heaved himself onto his hands and knees. He paused, panting. Kaig was pleased there were no broken bones, just severe lacerations and deep tissue damage. He shuffled along the ground, sandy dust being kicked up as his limbs scraped across the rocky surface. He maneuvered against the wall forming the entrance to the caverns and carefully reached an almost standing position.