“I’ll read it on the way back to the bridge.” The Lieutenant flexed his fingers within the black glove and then made a fist, giving a satisfied shrug. Regarding his stepdaughter’s suit, he asked, “Fit well?”
“Perfectly,” she said. “Cool how the ‘one size fits all’ rule applies to these. Probably makes things easier on the manufacturer, too.”
“Yeah, probably. Now, let’s get back up there and see what’s going on.”
Alana was glad to see he was enjoying himself a bit more, and she was even happier to see that his anger had diminished. He’d stopped whining and complaining about working with his enemies and hadn’t uttered a single insult about the Ship Commander in almost an hour.
Sadly, she knew it wouldn’t last long. He was an argumentative personality, as was she at times, but she could stow her anger whereas his was doomed to escalate.
The two soon returned to the bridge where they saw the Ship Commander kneeling on the floor with a sleek silver case in front of him. It was large, probably about five feet in length and bedecked with orange lights. Mist seeped out as the warrior popped the case open, and when it cleared, it revealed a long-barreled weapon—maybe a sniper rifle, but definitely not like any Alana had ever seen.
Levian delicately lifted the firearm out of the case, water dripping through his fingers as the thick coating of frost began to melt. The weapon’s lights flickered on, glowing a brilliant gold; like the twenty-odd ammunition capsules that still sat snug in their icy padding.
It look as if the case had a lower compartment built into it as well—perhaps that was where the rest of the ammunition was stored.
“That’s a fancy piece of weaponry,” the Lieutenant observed, leaning back against the holo-table with his hands on his hips. He tipped his head sideways, examining the gun from afar.
“This, Lieutenant,”—Levian straightened and inspected the weapon—“is Alkastoran’s Fire. It is a model of remarkable craftsmanship, bestowed upon an individual who has achieved greatness in the eyes of Her Majesty.”
“Your queen? The one who betrayed you?” Knoble asked, as if he couldn’t believe the Ship Commander would see possession of this weapon as a privilege now that his ruler had revealed her true motive.
“She was honorable once,” the warrior hissed.
Knoble just laughed in response.
“Cut it out, Lance,” Alana muttered disapprovingly to her stepfather, who gave her a look that said, I didn’t do anything wrong.
And in his mind, he may not have—but why was it so hard for him to see that this attitude of his wasn’t helping to keep this barely-there alliance from falling apart? Was it really that difficult for him to work with these Drocain?
Luckily for you, Levian gets the importance of this mission, as does Kenon—so you won’t have to worry about either of them slitting your throat while you sleep.
However, the same could not be said about the other warriors on the ship. For all she knew, any one of them could be plotting to murder every human onboard.
Alana hadn’t predicted how dangerous this alliance could get, but risks would have to be taken if they were going to make any progress in figuring out what the Calypsis Project was.
The carrier lurched forward slightly and the engine’s shrill whine faded away. Alana turned to the viewscreen.
The Legacy of Night had settled in the midst of the massive tunnel hundreds of feet below the planet’s surface.
A dim light with no visible source illuminated the cool gray walls surrounding the ship and cast shadows that told the Corporal the tunnel split into two smaller passageways thirty meters ahead. It was eerie, strangely quiet, and there were no signs of enemy activity.
Knoble was raring to go. “Awesome. Let’s get the festivities underway,” he said.
It took forty-three minutes for everybody to gather their supplies together and assemble outside the assault carrier. They had a decently sized group here—eleven Drocain pulled from the mountain hideout, Kenon and Levian, the five soldiers of Alpha Team, and the two tagalongs from Echo.
But did they have enough firepower to go up against the hundreds—or thousands—of alien machines that sought to exterminate them?
Spotting her teammates among the group, Alana stormed over to confront them, having not had the time to do so earlier. Her armored boots clacked loudly on the floor. As she got closer, she saw Second Lieutenant Allen Carter tap his partner in crime, Corporal Parker, on the shoulder to alert him of her approach.
“So, what the hell are you guys doing here?” Alana demanded, raising her visor.
The pair exchanged a look and Parker swore under his breath. Carter gave his red-headed Korean buddy a sharp nudge, urging him to speak first.
“Let me try to put this simply,” Parker began. “We overheard Corporal Bennett talking to Knoble over the radio and wanted to know what was happening, so we kind of followed Alpha team to the carrier.”
“Overheard or listened in?”
“Why can I not lie to you and have you believe me?”
“Because I’m too smart for that crap,” Alana told him. “Also, you don’t look at me when you lie. It’s kind of a dead giveaway. You should work on that.”
“’Kay, so we eavesdropped on their conversation,” Lieutenant Carter admitted. “But look on the bright side: you’ve got some more muscle on the team now.”
“You guys shouldn’t even be here! And where’s Jenkinson? Why isn’t he with you?”
“I don’t know, Carmen, probably still out searching for your pretty little ass. Maybe Sarge took him away someplace else, to the Rain of Fire even.”
“He was searching for me?”
“Yeah, doi. You disappeared, what else was he supposed to do?” Corporal Parker said.
Carter chuckled. “Anyway, Carmen, it looks like you’ve gone and gotten yourself wrapped up in one hell of a shitstorm. So I’m afraid you’re gonna be stuck with us for a while.”
Alana gave Carter a hard punch to the shoulder. He was right, she had vanished on them—and she hadn’t even had the courtesy to contact them over the radio and inform them of her whereabouts.
Not that she didn’t have a good excuse.
When she was on her way back to the Hornet’s Nest after her visit with Dr. Chambers, the Leh’kin Ship Commander had turned up unexpectedly and requested her assistance, telling her that Kenon was in grave danger and that he was walking straight into a trap that’d been set by none other than Her Majesty the Queen.
Still, maybe she should have left some form of a message for them to find later.
“Well, fine. Welcome to Chaos, boys. I hope you enjoy your stay,” Alana said, then headed to the front of the crowd when she heard her stepfather’s call and looked to where he stood atop a supply crate beside Levian. He still appeared ridiculously tiny next to the alien warrior; it was almost comical.
“Gather ‘round, people! We don’t have time to kick back and relax.” Knoble carried on once everyone had stopped their murmuring. “First off: we are heading into unexplored hostile territory. Due to the lack of available hands, we will have limited munitions and supplies, so pack accordingly and keep your radios on—report anything you find.
“Second: as of now, we are trapped inside Calypsis. Keep your eyes open for a way out of here. We are definitely going to need it.
“And lastly: the Ship Commander and I have come to an agreement to split the group into two separate teams—Black and Green. We’ll be able to cover more ground this way. He and I will lead one team, Corporal Carmen and Kenon will lead the other. Divide yourselves as evenly as possible, gather your equipment, and then we can be on our merry way.”
The next couple of hours of walking felt twice as long as they should have, and thus far nothing of interest had been discovered. No equipment, no vicious machines, and no way out—just endless, empty gray tunnels.
Alana assumed the situation must have been the same for her stepfather. She hadn’t heard anyt
hing from Green Team since they began their trek through the bowels of the planet Calypsis.
Hell, there’s not even much in the way of sound. It’s quieter than my grandma’s house down here, she thought. The only things she heard were occasional murmurs from her teammates, the click-clack of their boots on the ground, and one other noise she couldn’t identify. It came from above her head and sounded like rushing winds on a stormy day, but she couldn’t feel the slightest breeze.
She was thankful for that, though—it was cold enough down here already; -10°C and dropping. Alana’s breath came out in clouds; she recalled the last time she’d been exposed to such low temperatures.
It was early in the year 2432—back when she was still working with Alpha Team. They had been stationed on Calypsis in Cu d’Plas, Osklov during one of the coldest winters that area had ever experienced; -22°C, with heavy snow and insane windstorms.
I kind of miss those days.
Black Team slowed their pace as they rounded the next bend and were at last able to heave a sigh of relief.
The end of the tunnel was finally in sight. It stopped at an engraved wall adorned with markings which appeared to form a much larger emblem—or perhaps the image of a planet.
Geometrical patterns and symbols covered the globe, changing color from blue to gold. It vaguely reminded Alana of Calypsis, but with a different arrangement of landmasses.
On either side of the team were several short passageways with doors set inside them—roughly fourteen feet high and eight feet wide. Outside each of these were holographic control panels.
Alana halted and raised her hand for the rest of the team to do the same; putting two fingers to the side of her helmet, she accessed TEAMCOM. “Black One to Green Two,” she said. “Do you read?”
“This is Green Two. I read you,” the Lieutenant responded absentmindedly. “I was actually just about to contact you. Did you find something?”
“Dead end. Kind of,” she reported. “The tunnel stops at some sort of huge mural, and we’ve got four smaller tunnels left and right. No hostiles detected . . . actually, there’s no sign of any defense systems at all.”
“Funny, that’s what we found, too.”
“Have you figured out what you’re going to do?”
“Yeah. We’re going to take the fourth passage on the left. It seems like our best bet since it’s already open.”
“It’s open?”
“I take it all of yours are closed?”
“Yeah. You didn’t tamper with the control panels at all?”
“One of the Drocain warriors approached it and it opened—simple as that. Just this one, though. The rest aren’t responding to us.”
“Weird. We’ll try out a few of these. I’ll get back to you if we have any problems. Black One, out.” The Corporal ended the call and gave the order to the rest of her team to check every entrance. “Don’t touch the control panels, just walk up and see if anything happens,” she said.
Private West soon called out to alert the others that the third gate on the left had opened. The group hurried over to her with their weapons raised and cautiously entered a steely gray room. Like the tunnels, it was faintly lit.
A ramp sat to the left, leading up to a walkway that ran around the upper walls. There were three gateways on that level, and one at the back of the room on this level. However, it looked like the three on the walkway were locked.
The center of the room dipped down into a shallow bowl and in its center sat a baseball-sized golden sphere of light. Above the sphere was a holographic image, and with a closer look Alana saw that there were ten pulsating red dots within a rectangle.
The dots must represent us. This is a map! She could see the four gates on the image; the three locked gates were marked with orange tags, whereas the fourth was blue.
“Is that a map?” Corporal Parker asked.
“If it is then it ain’t a very helpful one,” Carter piped up. “We need to know what’s on the other side of these gates, but this retarded thing’s only telling us where we are right now.”
Kenon stepped forward and tilted his head in fascination, then reached out to the map and tapped the blue tag with a finger. A low ping rang out and the image shifted to another area which sloped downward, turned a corner, and then stretched on for about ten feet before fading out of the map’s range.
“Whatever lies beyond these other gates is irrelevant,” the Drahkori said to Carter. “This is the only path available to us.”
“Let’s get moving then.” Alana headed for the gate.
Black Team advanced down the slope behind the Corporal and came upon another gateway. It had been bent inward and its rim was charred and glittering with embers, indicating that something had forced its way through recently.
Alana entered the room cautiously behind the young warrior and turned her head to the ceiling, only to see that there wasn’t much of one. A ring of pillars supported a partial ceiling that curved upward near the center into a long, dark shaft. She couldn’t see where it ended—there was too much steam.
Is this a ventilation chamber? she pondered.
There was a set of heavy doors on the opposite side of the room, larger and more elaborately detailed than any of the others the team had come across thus far, but they were sealed tight.
Alana heard a crackle in her headset and put her hand to her earpiece. “Black One receiving.”
“We’ve got enemy contact—they’re not robots!” It was Knoble who had radioed her in a panic, gunfire popping in the background and making it difficult for her to hear him.
“Say again?”
“Goddamn it! Bennett, Stanford: cover that doorway!” the Lieutenant barked to his teammates, then responded. “We’ve been ambushed by an unidentified alien force! You need to—” he broke off abruptly and then another voice came over the radio, rasping and spiteful:
“When will you vermin learn your place in this galaxy?” it said. “Though you thwarted our plans before, you will not do so again! And by the order of the High Lord Sol D’Vare, we will be the end of your pathetic race!”
Static overwhelmed the channel.
Black Team didn’t utter a word. They’d all heard the transmission through their own headsets and were stunned into silence.
. . . What have we gotten ourselves into?
Alana heard a rapid clicking sound, tipped her head back again and gazed up into the darkness above, then caught sight of movement in the shadows.
Black Team weren’t the only ones in here.
Three sets of gleaming red lights appeared and a pack of the animalistic machines crept down the walls, stretching their mechanical jaws wide as they let out a horrible earsplitting screech. The team opened fire the moment the defense AIs touched the ground.
Alana aimed at the robot closest to her and pulled the trigger. The bullets ricocheted off the silver armor on its head and shoulder plates, leaving it unscathed.
Why do I never have a shotgun handy when I need one?
To her left, the largest of the three mechanical creatures was advancing on Private West and a Jahoran warrior. The thing opened its mouth, lower jaw folding in on itself, and a gun barrel extended from the back of its throat. Streams of golden spikes burst out.
West’s shields broke and she jumped out of the way, sliding behind one of the pillars. The Jahoran, however, did not make it to cover in time and the shards pierced his skin, taking his life in a heartbeat.
The two Khael’hin warriors flanked the robotic creature and opened fire. It writhed around and stamped its feet—not sure which warrior to attack first. The hot crytal burned through the AI’s thick armor before it could make up its mind and it fell to the floor, orange fluid pouring from its wounds.
The other warriors were occupied with a machine that was trying to shove its way between two pillars to get to Parker and Lieutenant Carter, who were both peppering its wide head at pointblank range.
Someone was missing.
Where was Kenon?
Just as the thought crossed Alana’s mind, her Drahkori friend charged forward. Launching himself at the AI, he planted his feet on the side of its body and pushed it to the ground, then stabbed the machine in the head. It thrashed about on the floor for a moment, then slowed and finally stopped.
“Humans, your conventional weapons cannot penetrate their armor,” Kenon said. “Aim for the joints—those are their weak spots.”
The damn things move too fast! What are we supposed to do, stand by and watch while these Drocain one-up us? Just like they’ve always done?
Carter walked up to one of the machines Kenon had killed and jammed his rifle into a gap in its carapace, then held down the trigger until he’d exhausted the entire clip. When he was done, he kicked the thing and swore loudly.
They must have really taken him by surprise for him to be so angry.
Parker looked at the object of Carter’s rage and crossed his arms. “Congratulations,” he said. “You just killed a dead robot.”
Damn it! We have no idea where we’re going. How many people are we going to lose before we get out of this place? she wondered, hoping her stepfather and the rest of Green Team were still in one piece. Maybe it was a bad decision to split up into two teams . . . What’s done is done, I guess.
“We should keep moving,” she addressed the remaining seven and they nodded in agreement. Before they could leave, however, a noise sounded out from behind the large double doors. It was a repetitive beep like that of a bomb.
. . . Like a bomb, she repeated in her head.
“Get down!” she screamed, bringing her arms up over her head and diving behind one of the pillars just as the doors blew open. Shrapnel flew everywhere, punching holes in the walls and floor.
Once the noise died, Alana rose from cover and brought her weapon to arm, watching the smoke flow into the room. But as it began to dissipate familiar figures emerged from the busted entranceway and she lowered her aim, signaling for the rest of the team to do the same.
The Calypsis Project Boxed Set (Books 1-2 - The Echo-Alpha Duology) Page 17