Ruins of Talamar (Syrax Wars Book 2)

by Tom Chattle

  "Well, that looks much more comfortable than mine." Chen tugged at the strap that already dug into the side of her neck where the neural implant sat.

  "I am sorry, I do not have another one," Sina said, looking concerned.

  Chen shook her head. "Don't worry about it, I'll manage." She searched around to find where Lieutenant Scott directed his Marines and headed over to him. "How far are we from the complex?"

  Scott glanced up at the question. "About two klicks. I wish we were closer, but you saw the state of that building. It looked like it would collapse as soon as the shuttles got anywhere near it."

  "No kidding," Chen replied. "What's the plan?"

  "We'll leave one squad and a mech to guard the shuttles." Scott examined the route ahead of them. "The rest of us will spread out in a wide formation, pick our way through the rubble, and be on guard for an ambush." He turned to Sina. "Ma'am, do you have any knowledge of a preferable route?"

  "I am sorry, no." Sina shook her head. "It has all changed since the maps were drawn."

  "We'll have to find our own way, then." Scott walked over to confer with his sergeants, then the team moved out. Chen stuck close to Sina, and Bennett trailed behind them, just out of hearing range. When Chen glanced back to check on him, he was muttering into his comm, brow drawn tight into a scowl. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the city around them.

  Very different from the Syrax outpost, the architecture was clean and curved—or, at least, the little of it that remained intact. A strong gust of wind blew dust into Chen's face. Her eyes forced shut, she stepped over a shattered piece of masonry. Her foot caught, and she stumbled, prepared for a painful impact when a strong grip steadied her. She blinked her eyes and saw Sina's hand on her arm. "Thanks," Chen mumbled. "Why are the storms so bad here, anyway?"

  "The Syrax bombarded the planet so heavily that the seas boiled off." Sina skirted round a piece of rubble. "The rest became a toxic wasteland, and the virus wiped out almost all life on the surface. The death of all the vegetation dried the soil and let the winds blow it away."

  "It just seems so...unnecessary."

  "They have nothing but hatred in whatever they count as a heart," Sina replied bitterly. "Their burning desire to grow their empire is the only reason that led to war. We are a strong people..." Sina closed her eyes briefly. "We were a strong people, but all we wanted was peace."

  The wind whipped up, and Chen pulled her jacket tighter around her. "We can't let them do the same to humanity."

  "My people's time may be over," Sina said, "but I will help you as best I can to stop it happening again."

  A sudden chill washed over Chen, and she spun around. Brow furrowed, she searched the gloom. A shadow flitted between two crumbling buildings. "What was that?"

  Sina turned to follow her gaze, hand resting around the grip of one of her swords. "Where?"

  "Down there." Chen pointed.

  Sina's hand relaxed. "I don't see anything."

  "I swear something moved..." Chen rubbed a palm against her forehead. A dull throb had begun to grow behind her eyes. Maybe she hadn't seen anything and it was just a trick of the light. She tapped the comm in her ear. "Scott, have you detected any life down here?"

  "Nothing at all. Why do you ask?" The reply crackled through, distorted by the electrical storms that filled the air with the sharp tang of ozone.

  "Never mind, must have been the wind." With a long, final glance down between the ruins, Chen huddled further into her jacket and clambered over a fallen pillar, back in the direction of the research base.

  - 34 -

  2208.10.22 // 11:27

  Altheos

  "Can you open it?" Chen stared up at the huge, battered doors that towered over them. It had taken nearly an hour to pick their way through the ruins, but they had finally made it to the entrance of the Talamar research facility. Now, they just needed to figure out how to get inside it.

  Sina traced her hand across the cracked surface, then stepped over a pile of rubble to reach a partially hidden control panel in an alcove at the far side. She tapped the dark, glass screen and frowned. "I do not think there is power any longer."

  Chen searched the dust-covered surface of the entryway and grimaced. "Can we blow it up?"

  Scott pushed his way through the rest of the Marines. "Probably best not to."

  "I thought Marines liked things to explode," Chen teased.

  Raising an eyebrow, Scott shrugged. "I'm just saying, it's probably better we don't collapse this entire building before we get what we came for."

  "Fair point." Chen scratched the side of her neck. "Any other suggestions?"

  Scott spun in place and waved his hand. Farther down the street, the mech that had accompanied them turned. Its sensor clusters focused, then it stalked toward them. The armored behemoth crunched through the rubble, and its powered limbs whined. When it reached the doorway, the pilot raised its arms and the weapon barrels slid back out of the way with a hiss. Stubby fingers reached forward and smashed into the thin, dark gap that bisected the otherwise monolithic doors. The mech braced and its legs widened; its posture lowered. A low hum indicated a buildup or power in its mechanical limbs, but nothing happened for agonizing seconds.

  Chen thought it was about to give up, but then the doors rumbled apart a few centimeters, and they soon widened to maybe half a meter once the pilot readjusted the mech's grip. "All right, that definitely worked better than my plan." Chen eyed the mech. "I didn't realize they were good for anything but shooting things."

  The pilot obviously heard her because the mech turned and threw her a mock salute with its thick, stubby arm. Its weapons locked back into place, and it resumed a defensive posture.

  Chen and Sina followed Lieutenant Scott through the narrow gap. Chen paused inside to wait for their vision to adjust to the darkness within, but Sina seemed to suffer no such problem. The wind gusted through the gap behind them to disturb long-dormant piles of dust that swirled through the otherwise still room. The air had a stale, musty scent, and it took Chen a few seconds to realize that many of the misshapen piles were the desiccated remains of warriors—both Syrax and Talamar.

  Sina knelt by the nearest Talamar body and bowed her head. She brushed her hand across what remained of the being's skull and muttered a few, quiet words, then glanced up when Chen moved next to her. "They died defending their people to the last. They rest in the halls of Karesh now."

  "Karesh?" Chen crouched and copied Sina's deferential bow.

  "It is where all warriors go when they die in honorable combat," Sina replied. "Do you not have such a place?"

  "Uhh, sort of, I guess." Chen twisted her mouth. "Or, at least, some cultures do."

  Sina tilted her head, orange eyes boring into Chen's. "What about you?"

  "I didn't grow up religious." Chen shrugged. "My grandparents practiced Taoism, but I guess it didn't pass to my dad much."

  "Strange." Sina stood. "You are a warrior with no culture." She pursed her lips. "Maybe you can learn Talamar culture."

  Chen smiled. She wasn't opposed to religion. She'd just never been brought up with it in her life. "I'd like that."

  "I'd advise against getting any deeper into weird, alien stuff," Bennett muttered from the shadows behind them. "You're already in enough trouble."

  Rage exploded inside Chen, and she took a step toward the NI officer. "Fuck off, Bennett."

  "Watch yourself," he snarled. "Or you'll stay on this godforsaken world."

  Sina stepped between them before Chen could respond. "You watch yourself." She narrowed her eyes. "This is a Talamar world."

  "Excuse me if I don't feel threatened by a failed race." Bennett scoffed and pushed Sina out the way to storm off.

  A feral growl rumbled from her throat, and Sina slid a hand to her sword. "I should cut his head from his shoulders."

  Chen raised a hand to placate her. Given how calm she seemed most of the time, it was easy to forget that underneath
was a warrior fighting for the survival of her species. "While I'm not totally opposed to that idea, it would probably cause more trouble than it solves."

  Sina lowered her arm. She sniffed and curled her lip to reveal sharp canines. "He should not desecrate such a place with his foul words." She turned to Chen. "Why do you put up with him?"

  Scott's voice over the comm cut off Chen's response. "Chen, Sina, get up here."

  She turned to locate where the Marine lieutenant was, then motioned Sina to follow her. "Come on, Scott wants us."

  The pair navigated through the dimly lit entry hallway, passed a reception desk, and turned a corner to catch up with the Marines. The hall opened into a wide, circular room, and the dirty walls stretched up to a cracked glass dome in the center. What filled the space was far more interesting, though. Dried shells of gigantic alien plants twisted and rose through to the light above. Their foliage was long since dead—taken by the gusts of wind that whirled through shattered pieces of glass. The trunks that remained tangled among themselves and vestiges of huge, curved spines faintly remained.

  "What is this?" Chen turned to take in their bizarre surroundings. They were much like the plants that grew around Sina's home but on a much grander scale. "Some kind of arboretum?"

  "I do not know that word." Sina drew level with Chen. "This is a place of reflection and calm. Or, at least, it was. Our worlds used to be lush with life—harmony with the wild is important to our people." She ran a hand along the dust-covered remains of a branch that crumbled beneath her touch and let out a long sigh. "The Syrax virus was so thorough that anything not sheltered in some way was obliterated."

  The limited shelter the dome provided had only helped so much. Even the faint air movement from the ground team's movements caused some of the plants that remained to crumble where they stood.

  "I assume there's no longer any risk from the virus, right?" The thought had only just occurred to Chen, and she eyed the dead plants with caution.

  Sina shook her head. "No, their virus didn't need to survive long. Everything was dead within days or weeks." Unfocused, her eyes gazed across the room. "This world died quickly."

  - 35 -

  2208.10.22 // 11:38

  Altheos

  More dead warriors were scattered between the twisted plant stems. A large battle had clearly taken place throughout the building, but its focus must have been the broad central room in which they stood. Chen stared at the desiccated husk of a Syrax warrior—a hole punched clean through its armored head—and a thought tugged at her mind. "Why were the Syrax on this world, anyway? Why didn't they just deploy the virus from orbit and be done with it?"

  "They did on so many worlds," Sina said. "Perhaps they found out about the work being done here and tried to gain it for themselves."

  "Looks like they gave up eventually." The titanic struggle that must have taken place here was humbling. Even back on Arcturus, the battles had been small affairs—skirmishes between a handful of combatants. Here, there had been dozens of deaths in this room alone.

  Sina's eyes flicked to the closest corpse. "The warriors defending this place fought well."

  A hiss rose behind them—like coarse sand poured down a long slope—and they both whirled around. Across the arboretum, Bennett backpedaled away from one of the huge alien trunks that had twisted up to the central dome. It disintegrated down to the floor in a pile of gray dust, and desiccated bark billowed out across the room.

  "What the hell is going on?" Scott demanded, jogging over to Bennett.

  "That goddamn plant attacked me!" Bennett panted. He pulled up and bent to rest his hands on his knees while he puffed.

  Chen snorted. "Attacked you? These things have been dead for hundreds of years. Maybe you should keep your hands to yourself."

  Bennett reached into his jacket, an ugly snarl on his face. Before Chen could react, a jaw-clenching bolt of pain shot through her, and she was forced to one knee.

  "Sir!" Scott objected, his hand thrust out to rest on Bennett's shoulder. "This is not the place for that."

  "Remove your hand, Lieutenant," Bennett snapped. He straightened and pushed Scott away. "Or I'll write you up for assaulting a superior."

  Scott's mouth dropped open for a moment before he snapped it shut. "Of course, sir."

  Bennett dusted himself off and stormed away across the arboretum, muttering under his breath. Scott held out a hand to Chen. "Sorry about that, ma'am."

  "Not your fault, Lieutenant." Chen coughed. She took the Marine's hand, and he hauled her up. "Bennett just kind of hates me."

  "May I ask why?" Scott asked.

  "You've heard him talk." Chen ran a hand through her hair. "I'm an abomination to him, tainted with Syrax DNA."

  Scott hefted his rifle back across his chest. "Well, I don't know about all that, but you're all right with me. I know some of what happened with the Marines on your last mission, and I know it was a tough situation."

  Chen met his eyes for a moment, then bobbed her head in gratitude. "Thanks, Scott."

  The Marine jerked his head toward the other side of the room. "Come on. I don't want to spend one second longer down here than we have to."

  Sina fell into step behind them and leaned in close to Chen. "He is a true warrior, like you. Perhaps join with him to remove Bennett as a threat."

  Chen sighed. "Again, I can't just duel the guy, Sina. It doesn't work like that."

  "A shame."

  They exited into another part of the research complex. Labs and storage rooms branched off either side, each one dark and badly scarred from whatever battle had taken place here long before. The walls were pock-marked from gunfire, doors and windows in pieces—in many cases choked up with bodies of the defenders who must have made their last stands there.

  "We must be close," Chen noted. "The fighting seems like it was fiercer here."

  Sina pointed to the far end of the broad gallery. "There."

  Chen followed her finger, and her brow raised. "Yep, that must be it."

  The Marines converged on a heavily armored door. The surrounding frame and wall looked far thicker than anything else they had passed in the building. When they drew closer, Chen noticed the tattered remains of automated gun turrets recessed in the ceiling around the entryway. The thick door itself was covered in dents and impact burns, but compared to the rest of the facility, it seemed relatively unharmed.

  Scott already had Marines examining the door with powerful scanners when Chen and Sina caught up. He turned to them and pushed his helmet visor back to scratch his cheek. "Looks pretty solid. Any ideas on how to get through?"

  Sina bared her teeth, and her eyes roamed the door for clues. "Like the outer door, it seems to have no power." She flicked the command panel with a long finger. "Even if it did, I do not think I would have any codes that might work. The Tech-Seers and Warrior-caste did not mix much, and it is hundreds of years old."

  "What the hell is a Tech-Seer?" Scott asked while he accepted a datapad from a Marine who approached him.

  "Those who make our weapons and our technology." Sina tilted her head. "What do you call them?"

  "Scientists, I guess," Scott replied, reading the screen while he talked. "I like your name better—sounds fantastical." His head rose, and he looked to the door with a frown. "This thing is at least a meter thick and has no visible weakness. Even if we could get the mech in here, I don't think the same plan would work on this as the last door."

  Chen rapped a gloved hand against the door. "Can we blow this one up?"

  Scott narrowed his eyes. "Maybe we can. The building is a lot more sturdily constructed here." He motioned to one of his Marines who came running. "Wiseman, you think you can crack this open?"

  Wiseman raised his rugged face to peer at the door, lips pursed. "Pretty sure a decent shaped charge would get us through enough to work with." He turned back to Scott. "Would have to be a big bang, though."

  Scott nodded. "Do what you have to do, just try not t
o bring the entire place down on top of us."

  Wiseman threw a casual salute. "Aye, aye, sir." The Marine detached a pack from his armor and dug through it.

  Scott turned away and ushered Chen and Sina back. The rest of the Marines took shelter through side doors. Chen stepped around the remains of an eviscerated Syrax warrior, and they entered a gloomy room. Scott kept an eye on Wiseman from the door, while Chen and Sina examined their surroundings.

  Sina kicked at a slight, unarmored corpse with the toe of her boot. The charred remains crumbled from the contact. Her lip curled up in a snarl, and she spat on the pile of ash that was her enemy.

  Chen leaned back against the wall and watched the alien woman. The hatred she had for the Syrax was understandable, of course. Chen hoped she never had the same reasons to despise them as the Talamar. Hopefully, what was contained inside the research vault was the answer they were all looking for.

  "All right, take cover and get ready," Scott warned from the door, crouching down behind the wall.

  Following his lead, the two women did the same, moments before Wiseman's voice echoed from outside. "Fire in the hole!"

  - 36 -

  2208.10.22 // 12:09

  Altheos

  The explosive shock wave rolled over Chen moments before the sharp crack of the detonation smashed into her eardrums. The walls rumbled, and dust washed off everything. Shrouded in a dirty fog, it took several seconds before the thin cloud began to settle.

  Scott was immediately up and out of the door. Chen worked her jaw to equalize the pressure in her ears and jumped up after him. She couldn't initially see the results of the charge, but when the dust cleared, the success became apparent. A broad hole tunneled through the gap between both sides of the door, each half bowing out slightly from the impact.