Ruins of Talamar (Syrax Wars Book 2)

by Tom Chattle

"Well, I guess that worked," Chen muttered under her breath.

  She trotted over to the door and peered inside. Electronic beeps and whistles came from the Marines' scanners, and Chen had to wait for their results, the inky black of the vault impenetrable to her eyes. When they couldn't detect anything obviously hostile, Scott nodded. "All right, ladies, let's get what we came for."

  Chen ducked down and followed Scott through the twisted opening. A fine mist rolled out across the floor, and the temperature dropped sharply when they entered into the darkness. "How is it still cold?"

  "There must be some lingering emergency power," Sina reasoned. "Keeping the contents of this vault in stasis would have been the top priority over anything else."

  Chen emerged into the vault and straightened. The room was silent, the mist in the air deadened the sound so harshly it felt to Chen like her ears were covered. Vast racks of weapons and experiments lined the walls, vanishing into the oppressive darkness.

  She clicked on a flashlight and scanned the narrow pathway immediately ahead. "Any idea where this thing might be?" she asked Sina.

  "I am not certain," Sina said, "but the archives described a central core where the most powerful weapons were kept."

  Scott pushed past them, the light on his rifle illuminating the way. "Come on, this place gives me the creeps."

  They cautiously crept through the vault, and the Marines fanned out amongst the rows of shelves. The hallway was gently curved, and it spiraled out around the outside of the broad, circular room.

  "Shit!" Chen froze in her tracks at the sight of a wall of huge cylindrical glass tubes. Inside each was a curled Syrax. Much larger than the dead warriors they'd seen scattered through the ruined building, they were all distinctly diverse in their appearance.

  "Are those matriarchs?" Chen breathed.

  Sina bobbed her head. "Yes, their leaders and battle commanders."

  Chen shivered, but not from the chill in the air. The sight of the matriarchs triggered painful memories of skeletal talons tracing across her face. Even though they were long dead, just such close proximity to the huge beasts welled anxiety within her. "I hate to think how hard it was to capture so many of them."

  "The product of many years of difficult battle," Sina agreed.

  Her chest tight, Chen peered warily the closest one and narrowed her eyes. "This one looks different from the one we faced before." She edged past it and examined the next from a healthy distance. "Actually, so do most of them."

  "The matriarchs are many and varied." Sina cast a pained look at the frozen figures. "Each is engineered for a different role; no two are the same."

  Chen shook her head and sped past them with an involuntary shudder. "That sounds great. Can't wait to meet the next one."

  Sina laid a hand on her shoulder, brow drawn tight in concern. "You should not wish to encounter more," she said. "Even warriors like us do not fare well against such powerful beings."

  "It was a joke, Sina," Chen reassured her. "I'd happily never see another living one for the rest of my life." She glanced back at the wall of alien beasts to see Bennett moving between them, intent focus on his face. The faint crackle of voices over Scott's comm grabbed her attention. "What's going on?"

  "I think we've found it." Scott took a moment to get his bearings then took a side turn that intersected their curved route.

  The two women followed the Marine through two more broad rings of storage toward the center of the room before they stopped. A wide cylinder of thick armor glass emerged from the heavy mist. It was dimly lit from within by emergency lighting and hummed with a gentle power.

  "Seems promising." Chen ran a hand across the smooth, cold glass. Her fingers left trails through the condensation. Whatever was left of energy reserves in this place focused here.

  "Yes, this is definitely it." Sina stepped forward. "What we are looking for should be within."

  Not willing to risk explosives inside the vault, it took the Marines several long, chilly minutes to force the door open with compact pry-bars. Finally open, they entered to find racks and shelves lined along the inside of the transparent room.

  Sina walked along the shelves and examined the labels on each while Chen followed her. The Talamar writing was utterly indecipherable to Chen. The script swirled and formed long, complicated strings of text that were so complex they almost strained her eyes. Focused on the labels, Chen almost ran into the back of Sina when the alien woman stopped abruptly.

  "This," Sina muttered. She peered closer at the rugged boxes on the shelf before her. "These are them."

  "Really?" Chen tapped the closest chest and frowned. "They're kind of underwhelming."

  Sina flipped the latch on one, and the lid opened with a sharp hiss. Chen leaned in to examine the contents. Thick, clear tubes with heavy metal bracing sat inside, filled with a pale, murky liquid. Bulky control units capped them off, no doubt to secure the dangerous contents within.

  "Do not underestimate them," Sina cautioned. "The virus the Syrax unleashed is brutal and devastating. I cannot imagine what changes were made to it by our tech-seers."

  "Okay, we'll grab as many of these crates as we can," Scott said over their shoulders. "Get them back to the Valiant, let the scientists figure the rest out."

  Chen and Sina began to pull cases off the shelves and hand them back to Marines who shouldered them. It didn't take long to clear the shelves, and Chen spied something much larger through the empty space. While Scott organized the transportation of the virus, Chen slipped behind them to examine it.

  The object—a dull metal crate nearly four meters long with thick ribs that protected the ends and middle—took up the entirety of the low table it rested on. A dark display panel sat on top, next to a small pane of glass frosted from the cool air. Chen wiped it off with the palm of her hand and tried to make out what was inside. A missile, perhaps? Whatever the box contained was cylindrical, and possible guidance fins protruded from the central body.

  Chen jumped slightly when Sina spoke behind her. "I did not know they had developed any of these."

  "What is it?" Chen asked.

  "Nagalesh," Sina responded. "You would call it a torpedo, perhaps. The warhead rips apart space the same way your ship's drives do." She ran a hand across the dead control panel. "Our ships use them, but I have never seen one so small—they are usually five times this large."

  "A rift warhead?" Chen whispered. "Our scientists have tried to perfect them for decades, but they were never able to. The explosions were too unstable."

  Sina shrugged. "I do not know how it works, but the technology has existed for centuries."

  Chen grinned. "No need to brag." She turned and waved to Scott. "Lieutenant, check this out."

  Scott glanced at her and finished talking to his sergeant before he joined them. "Well, that looks powerful. I thought this place was for viruses."

  Sina tilted her head. "They designed many powerful weapons here, of all types."

  "Can we keep it?" Chen widened her eyes and batted her eyelashes.

  Scott chuckled at the show. "Might be tricky to haul out, but if we can get it back to the outside, the mech can carry it the rest of the way to the shuttles." He stared down at the device and prodded it. "Are we sure it's stable?"

  "Of course." Sina nodded. "They are completely inert until armed. That much, I know."

  Scott took a moment to consider it. "Might come in useful. I'm certainly not going to turn down a bit of extra firepower in a pinch."

  It took several minutes and a few muttered curses from the Marines, but they finally extricated the weapons crate out of the vault's core.

  On the way out, Chen saw Bennett gathering whatever items he could from the shelves and thrusting them into the packs carried by his two guards.

  He caught her staring at them. "What? This technology could be invaluable to Naval Intelligence."

  She shook her head and followed the Marines, retracing their steps back out of the dark, frigid r
oom with the crates of virus and warhead in tow. Halfway out, Chen noticed a flicker of red light out the corner of her eye. She started at it and squinted. "What's that?"

  Sina followed her gaze, and Chen could have sworn her pale lilac skin turned several shades lighter. "We must leave, now."

  Hearing her tone, Scott span back to face them. "Sina, what's going on?"

  "The light, it is a silent alarm." Sina's eyes darted around the darkness. "There must be an intrusion defense system."

  "What are we talking about here?" Chen asked. "Gun turrets like we saw outside?"

  "No," Sina muttered. "That was to keep attackers out." She met Chen's gaze, brow furrowed. "The defenses inside would be to stop anything from escaping."

  "Okay, let's get a move on," Scott urged. "I don't want to find out what Sina's people left for us."

  They hurried back through the rows of shelved experiments, but a low hiss became apparent from somewhere in the darkness above them. "Gas?" Chen shuddered at the thought of being asphyxiated in a cold alien tomb.

  "Seems that way," Scott confirmed.

  Sina shook her head. "No, that would not be enough. They would want to purge any trace of biological compounds in the case of a breach."

  "So, fire then," Chen groaned. "Fantastic." It made sense for anywhere that stored such powerful bioweapons. The potential disaster involved if one of them spread to the city that surrounded the Talamar scientific center would have been far worse than the loss of their research.

  They charged toward the exit while the hiss continued to grow in intensity.

  "We're not going to make it." Scott slammed his shoulder into the wall when he took a corner at speed.

  "If the place is supposed to blow, why haven't the defenses fired yet?" Chen puffed, the broken vault door now visible in the gloom. She regretted the question as the moment she asked it. A fusillade of clicks echoed from above them—no doubt ignition switches for whatever the Talamar defenses had been pumping into the vault.

  The defenses continued their furious ignition attempts along the final stretch to the destroyed door. Chen ducked through it after the last Marine and stumbled out into the facility. A terrible roar erupted behind her, and caustic heat washed over her back. A heavy impact bowled her over, and she was sent sprawling across the dusty stone floor.

  She coughed and struggled to move with the weight on top of her. Suddenly, it released, and a hand reached down to help her up.

  "I am sorry," Sina said when Chen grabbed her arm and pulled herself up. "The explosion was powerful."

  Chen dusted herself off and glanced back to the hole in the vault door—now smoking steadily. "Are you okay? I guess the igniters finally worked?"

  "It seems that way," Sina nodded. "And I am fine."

  "And I'll live, thanks for asking," Scott grumbled from behind them, adjusting his helmet.

  "Hey, at least you have armor." Chen reached a hand behind her. "My back feels like it's still on fire."

  Bennett picked himself up next to them and dug through the packs of his guards, seemingly more worried about the technology they'd been carrying than their own health.

  "Armor which I'd like to get out of here." Scott coughed to clear the dust from his throat while he turned to supervise the loading of their gains onto the back of the mech that had remained on guard outside of the vault.

  The landing team picked their way back out through the ruined research center. They neared the exit when Chen staggered—a stab of pain shooting down the left side of her head.

  Sina grabbed her by the shoulder to steady her. "Aurichen, are you okay?"

  Chen waved her off and nodded. "Yeah, I think." She blinked away the stars that sparkled across her vision and turned to Scott. "Have there been any reports of activity from the Valiant?"

  "Not that I've heard," Scott replied. "Why?"

  "It's probably nothing." Chen frowned. "Can you hail the Valiant?"

  Scott motioned to his comm tech. The woman activated the bulky communications unit attached to her exo-suit. Chen couldn't hear what she said, but after nearly a minute, she looked up at Scott and shook her head.

  "Could be nothing," Scott reasoned.

  "Could be," Chen sighed, "but I'm not that lucky."

  Scott checked his rifle and started in the direction of the shuttle. "Either way, we need to move. Eyes open, everyone."

  - 37 -

  2208.10.22 // 13:44

  Altheos

  The next minutes were tense. Weapons trained on every scrap of dust that blew across the otherwise empty street. The mech led the way, and Scott followed closely behind it, bracketed by Marines. Bennett trailed them, while Chen and Sina took up the rear with the rest of the Marines.

  Something stopped Chen in her tracks, and the Marine behind almost plowed into her. A muffled clatter from a side alley drew all of their attention.

  "Chen, what the hell was that?" Scott called from ahead.

  She waved him to be quiet and squinted into the darkness around them, trying to ignore the dull throb that now filled her head. She heard a quiet rasp from beside her when Sina slowly drew both her blades. The woman held one level in front of her and reversed the grip on the second to keep it ready at her side. "Do you see anything?" Chen asked the alien.

  "No." Sina's voice was level and calm. "But we are not alone."

  A gust of wind howled, and dust blew across the road, debris from the ruined buildings clattering around. Chen and Sina backed up toward the closest Marines, and the wind dropped suddenly. Something was wrong, but Chen couldn't put her finger on it through the constant hammer blows in her skull. She turned to Sina, and her eyes widened in realization. The wind had dropped, but the howling grew ever louder.

  "Watch out!" Chen yelled. Before she could explain further, the shadows around them exploded into movement, and Syrax hunter hounds darted from the ruined buildings with terrifying speed. All too familiar from their Arcturus mission, they were quick, brutal allies to the much larger warriors they'd seen the corpses of.

  Unable to react quickly enough, two Marines were already down. The lethal scythe arms of the three-legged, wolf-like alien beasts slashed through weak joints in their armor, and they screamed in agony.

  With no weapons, Chen skidded into cover behind the closest pile of rubble. She watched Sina bisect a leaping hound in a single fluid motion, the edges of her swords alight with incandescent energy while they cleaved through the creature's armored head. Chen hunkered low and peered through the dust and darkness. There was no sign of Scott, but a group of his Marines used the rubble that had once been the entryway to a building as cover. She called to Sina, pushed herself up from the dirt, and charged across the road to join up with the Marines.

  Halfway across, she saw one of the Marines wave frantically at her. Chen heard a guttural snarl behind her and spun to face it. A Syrax hound leaped at her with bared fangs. She stumbled and fell sideways to the ground while the beast recovered from its leap. It swung the heavy shield that covered its skull and gnashed its jaw, preparing to pounce on its vulnerable prey. Chen flinched and threw her hands up on instinct. When the attack never arrived, Chen glanced up. The beast was gone, vanished into the thick haze while luminous tendrils of violet energy dissipated before her eyes. Confusion filled her mind, but she had no time to analyze where the creature had disappeared to. She scrabbled up and fled the last few meters to the Marines. The stony wall the Marines sheltered behind offered some safety, and she skidded behind it, her breaths labored.

  "You okay, ma'am?" one of the Marines called.

  "I'm still alive." Chen reached up to wipe dirt from her face, but all it accomplished was to smear it across her sweaty forehead. "Thank you to whichever of you shot that thing away from me."

  The Marine glanced away from his rifle at her. "Wasn't us, ma'am. Didn't have a clear shot with it coming up behind you like that. Just saw some flash of light, figured it was one of their weapons."

  Chen opened her mouth to
object, but she couldn't find the right words. Sina's arrival stopped the need. Dark, amethyst blood dripped from a wound down her arm, and her swords sizzled with Syrax guts. "We have to leave," she spat. "These are just the scouts."

  In total agreement, Chen tapped the comm in her ear. "Scott, do you read?" Nothing but static crackled back over the airwaves. "Marine, can you reach Lieutenant Scott?"

  "No, comms are jammed," he growled before he leaned round the wall and sent a burst of fire screaming into the dust storm. A howl of pain indicated his shots had hit their target.

  Bennett's dogged refusal to allow her any kind of weapon on this mission left Chen powerless to fight back. But with the man nowhere to be seen, Chen searched her surroundings for anything she could use. Spying a rifle next to an injured Marine, she grabbed it and hefted it to her shoulder. Heavier than it looked, she remembered it was packed full of high-density kinetic rounds. "Guess it's okay if you have an exo-suit," she muttered. She sighted through the targeting array and scanned for targets. The dust had now turned so thick it might as well have been night; what little light it allowed through barely enough for Chen to see where she was. A few Syrax hounds darted through the rubble, but they seemed to be holding their ground now, perhaps tempered by more resistance than they had expected.

  "What are they waiting for?" One of the Marines pushed her visor up to wipe sweat from her eyes.

  "Reinforcements," Sina replied darkly. "If we're lucky, it will just be husks and not warriors, or worse."

  "Husks?" the Marine sergeant asked, brow furrowed. "What the hell are they?"

  "You've seen them before," Sina answered. "There were some remains in the research complex. The Syrax use them to overwhelm enemy positions they are—"

  Her words were cut off by a screech that rasped from the darkness. A chill ran through Chen, and she nuzzled the cold, synthetic rifle stock against her cheek. Her arms shook, but she tried to bring her breathing under control. Since the hounds had retreated, the constant pain in her head had dulled, yet they were still surrounded by enemies. Whatever stalked the night now felt different to her mind; only faint traces of Syrax powers covered them. The shadows that lurched into view soon explained why.