30
Liam regarded Nix incredulously. “You mean this ship is modeled after the carvings at the temple, the creature of myth?”
“No. She is the creature of myth. Every myth has an origin.”
Once Liam came to understand the ship seemed to gurgle from within, perhaps the sound of building up more of the napalm-like mixture. In between the metal panels overhead Liam saw purple light flowing along the seams. The more he looked at it the more it looked like blood coursing through the ship. His heart began to race. All at once he felt a sense of claustrophobia as he came to the realization that he was inside some manner of creature.
“Pay attention,” Nix shouted, jarring Liam from his thoughts.
Liam focused out the window at the Kraven flagship. Nix spun The Garuda around over the top of it, yelling at Saturn and Ju-Long to continue their fire. His eyes snapped back to the console in front of him and he examined the readouts. The engines, which were nearly fried on their descent, were running at optimal efficiency. The ship seemed to grow faster and stronger the more they flew. A warning light shined down from up above his console.
“What is it?” Nix asked, focusing on avoiding Kraven laser blasts.
“Several Kraven vessels are moving to defend the leader,” Liam said.
“Tell those Ansaran ships to distract them!”
Liam opened a channel and ordered the closest group of Ansaran fighters to get between the leader and the approaching Kraven vessels. A grouping of five Ansaran ships swung around to help. Laser bursts tinted the sky as hundreds of shots clashed. The Ansaran vessels focused their beams on a single Kraven ship, slicing it clean down the center with a chorus of explosions erupting out from the long gash. The five Ansaran fighters passed by the broken ship and were quickly cut down by the crossfire.
Nix used this time to approach the leader from underneath. The flagship could easily have fit five of the other Kraven ships inside of it. Its massive hull was held aloft by countless thrusters, burning blue even under the yellowed sky. When they were right under the ship Nix pushed his control handle forward putting Garuda into a dive. Liam braced himself against his console, cursing after the sudden maneuver.
“Ju-Long, power up your weapon and standby to fire,” Nix instructed.
Ju-Long toggled his controls and said, “Ready.”
Nix slowly leveled off the ship and began a rapid ascent. This time the whole of the Kraven flagship’s underbelly was in their sights. Green flashes of light rained down on them from the enemy vessel. Nix spun The Garuda around, taking several of the hits in the wings but seemingly coming out all right. Nix called over his shoulder, “Target the thrusters toward the front of the ship. Fire!”
Ju-Long held down on the trigger. The next few seconds passed far too slowly for Liam. As the ship built up its power the bulkheads seemed to creak, in danger of buckling. Nix straightened out The Garuda and the blast was released. The electric fire was released with such force that the stream was far thinner than the previous one, but when it hit the Kraven ship it spattered over a dozen thrusters. The mixture corroded the jets until the turbines broke off from the ship, igniting the fuel in a chain reaction of explosions.
A whole deck of the ship was left bare under the ship. Small figures fell out of the sky, too small in the distance for Liam to clearly see. Nix turned the ship to avoid the backsplash of their blast. The Kraven ship tilted downward as the rear thrusters continued to fire despite the loss of the ones in front. The Kraven flagship hurtled through the sky, falling quickly toward the sandy surface below.
Nix turned The Garuda around and accelerated toward the remaining Kraven ships. To Liam’s surprise, the Kraven ships had begun to ascend back into outer space. The Ansaran fighters broke off their attack and formed up in groups circling over the colony at ten thousand meters. Liam peered out the window and saw several smoke trails coming out of the ground where the Kraven ships had crashed along with the flagship still falling, the rest of its engines faltering.
“It appears the Kraven lose their spine without their leader,” Nix observed.
Liam pointed toward the crashing ship, “The flagship is the one that came through the wormhole. We need to board it and find that device.”
Nix hesitated with his mouth ajar. Finally, he nodded and said, “I’m taking us in.”
He pointed the ship downward, The Garuda’s wings creating an updraft that let them glide toward the Kraven leader. The lead ship skidded across the sand toward the rocky projection just outside of Garuda Colony. Sand wafted up hundreds of meters when the Kraven ship hit the surface, clouding Liam’s vision of the crash site. Through the dust he could see parts of the broken ship fly past them.
The Kraven vessel hit the rocky outcropping at low speed, creating a boom that echoed all around them. Nix moved their ship toward the surface and prepared to set down fifty meters away. Liam toggled a switch and released their landing gear. A few moments later they were on the ground, their landing struts sinking into the loose sand. Most of The Garuda’s systems shut down automatically, though Saturn kept her finger on the trigger of her gun, light still shining through her console.
“Saturn, it’s fine,” Liam assured her. “There’s no way anyone survived that.”
“You sure about that?” she replied.
Nix unstrapped himself from his chair and stood up, steeling himself for what lay ahead. His hesitation appeared to be gone for the moment, as confidence once again filled his broad chest. He reached for the gun on his hip and began charging it. “There’s only one way to find out.”
31
Liam pulled his weapon from its holster as he and the crew approached the crashed Kraven ship. He pulled a pair of goggles down over his eyes to avoid the settling dust. Through the darkened lenses he could make out the coarse metal hull, bits of jagged metal splintering out everywhere he looked. He turned his gaze skyward. He was beginning to see the top of the ship come into view through the sandy haze.
The Kraven vessel was easily a hundred meters tall and a couple kilometers long. The ship was alive with sparks as wires and power conduits lay broken and stripped. Fires sprung up along Liam’s left where the rear engines had crumpled. Liam and the crew approached the side of the ship near closer to the front, where an opening two stories tall was cut out from the hull. His auburn cloak swayed in the breeze, flapping around his knees when he stopped to marvel at the impressive vessel.
Nix pointed a claw toward the front of the ship and said, “If we’re going to find anything, I think the bridge would be a good place to start.”
Liam nodded and started toward a massive opening in the side of the hull. Bars of metal jutted down from the top of the hole like a broken cage with tendrils of steel bent awkwardly up and away from the hull. Liam stepped through the opening, avoiding all manner of debris on the ground, and entered the dilapidated ship. Saturn, Ju-Long and Nix followed close behind him, their weapons pointed out in front of them.
The opening led into a cavernous center hallway that ended abruptly where they’d blown out the lower levels. Their footsteps echoed against the cold metal walls as they stepped across thick grates that served as the flooring. The metal was dark, nearly black in color. It was hard to say whether it was made that color or if it had seen too many years of use. Liam removed his goggles and kept his eyes peeled for bodies. So far there’d been none. A fact that worried him.
He moved cautiously toward the front of the ship, winding his way through corridors that seemed unnecessarily tall and wide. Liam remembered the figures falling from the vessel. From so far away it was hard to say just how big they were.
Liam stopped and turned to Nix. “What do you know about the Kraven? Have you ever seen one?”
Nix swallowed hard, showing far more fear now than his earlier confidence would suggest. “Not exactly,” he replied. “Only stories.”
Liam continued to walk down the dank hall, lit only by the energy pulsing at the end of his weapon.
He asked quietly over his shoulder, “How do the stories go?”
“It is said that the Kraven were an offshoot of the Ansaran and Dinari races, but they were cruel, horrid creatures. Their tribe was banished to a faraway world where they evolved over tens of thousands of years into what they are today. Monsters. Seven meters tall with flesh suited for their cold and dismal world, hardened against the frozen tundra. There are tales of them eating the Ansarans and Dinari alike, ripping their flesh from the bone in their fury.”
“Lovely,” Ju-Long remarked.
Saturn turned toward their rear and shined the light from her weapon down the enormous hallway. “Is there any truth to these tales?”
“Who knows,” Nix said with a shaky voice, tightening his grip on his weapon. “But if anything is left alive in here I suggest you shoot first and spare yourself a painful death.”
For the next several minutes, the only sounds in the corridor were their footsteps and the pulsing of their energy weapons. Liam stopped at the head of the hallway. The hull was crumpled all around, blocking their path. The grated floors were now covered in sand seeping up from the surface.
Nix stepped up to what Liam guessed was a ladder, only it was far too large for that to be possible. Each rung was the size of Liam’s biceps. The hands that would have to grip those would be bigger than his head. Nix pointed his weapon up the shaft, lighting it with its faint blue glow. “I guess we go up.”
Liam moved toward the ladder but stopped short. He heard a noise behind him; the sound of dripping water. When he turned around his eyes widened. He lit up the wall with his weapon’s glow to confirm it. Deep purple fluid dripped down the wall, emanating from the grates above. Now that he was aware of it, Liam noticed the metallic scent of blood wafting down from the ceiling.
Ju-Long made a high-pitched noise and mumbled, “Great. Just great.”
Liam put a hand on his shoulder, making him jump. “Stay focused.”
Saturn snickered and approached the ladder, putting a small hand on the giant rung. After she’d begun her ascent she asked the crew in a denigrating tone, “Are you boys coming?”
Nix looked distraught in the half-light. Liam wondered what had changed since they were on The Garuda. Ever since The Sand’s Edge Nix had seemed confident in his surroundings. Now he was visibly terrified. The contrast was palpable.
Liam put a hand over a pipe-like rung of the ladder and said to Nix, “Look on the bright side.”
“What bright side?”
“We could have been eaten by Xara. At least if we run into the Kraven our deaths will be quick.”
Liam started up the ladder before Nix had a chance to contradict him. Ju-Long tried to crack a smile and commented, “I guess that’s staying positive.”
Ju-Long climbed up after Liam with Nix close behind, clearly not wanting to be left alone in the dark Kraven vessel. When Liam reached the next level he saw Saturn cautiously peering down the hallway in each direction. The dripping blood was louder on this level, echoing off the cold steel around them. Liam could hardly hear his own footsteps over the sound as he stepped away from the top of the ladder.
When Nix made it up to the top the crew continued on toward the front of the ship. Nix continually checked the rear, growing more edgy the farther they walked. The corridor bent around several times, becoming smaller as they approached the bridge. Finally, the hallway straightened out and they were faced with a circular hatch more than twice Liam’s height.
Liam used his weapon’s blue glow to check the outside of the door for a way in. Saturn used her free hand to feel around the frame of the hatch. When she touched it the door reacted with a shooting burst of orange light that made its way around the frame and then penetrated the center forming a dozen thin triangles in a wheel and spoke pattern. In an instant, they broke apart and retreated into the frame, folding away like they were never there.
Saturn held her hand aloft for several seconds after the door opened, fascinated by the unfamiliar technology. Through the hatch the bridge was black save for a few blinking green lights on a few of the consoles. The glow of their energy weapons weren’t very useful in the room due to the high ceilings and the distance between the walls. There were a dozen platforms with consoles for the Kraven crew, raised to varying heights around a central circle that was raised a meter off the floor.
Liam stepped through the doorway with his weapon pointed out in front of him, treading cautiously, his eyes alert for any sign of movement. Saturn and Ju-Long fanned out to the left and right while Nix followed close behind Liam, watching his rear. When Nix was a few meters past the hatch the frame glowed orange once more and the dozen metal triangles shot toward the center point, fusing together when the light faded.
Saturn approached one of the workstations and tried powering on the console. The screen flickered and then slowly grew in brightness until the light shined on her face. Liam’s eyes hovered on her figure for a moment, until she matched his gaze and he quickly looked away, becoming occupied with another console.
“I think I found something,” Saturn said more to herself than to anyone else.
“What is it?”
Saturn pointed to her console and said, “Here.”
Saturn toggled a hard switch and the circular pedestal in the center of the room lit up, projecting a holographic image of a planet above it. With its tan color and sparse topography Liam was sure it was the planet Garuda. Saturn fiddled with a few of the settings and the image zoomed in, several smaller images populating. They were ships. Dozens of them swarmed around Garuda Colony as though unsure of another attack. She zoomed in again and they saw The Garuda perched close to the downed Kraven ship, dwarfed by its massive size.
Nix and Ju-Long made their way toward the center projection, examining it closely. Nix was particularly interested in the image. Liam wondered if the Kraven technology was as foreign to him as it was to them. His golden eyes glowed in the light from the projection, like two golden orbs of sunlight.
The image was zoomed in enough now to see the actual cross-section of the Kraven vessel, nearly true to life with its holographic representation. Liam walked over to Saturn and took a look at the console. There were dozens of commands with indicators written in a language that seemed oddly familiar, clearly related to the writing system of the Ansarans and Dinari. He tapped a button on the touchscreen that looked like a ‘T’ with four notches up the stem.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Saturn asked him.
“Do you?”
Saturn tightened her jaw and looked up at the projection. The holographic image zoomed in toward the front of the ship, only fifty meters in any direction of the bridge. Four orange dots populated where the bridge would be, followed by a fifth, blinking along with a faint beep to match. Liam thought it must be broken, so he hit the side of the console and a sixth appeared. Soon there were ten. Twenty. A hundred pulsing dots all around the bridge, the beeping noise growing in intensity with every new dot. Liam’s heart pumped harder and adrenaline shot through his veins.
“Shit,” Liam cursed, raising his weapon.
32
Liam scanned the bridge for any sign of movement. Through the relative darkness he saw none. Nix and Ju-Long stood back to back near the center projection, eyes wide in anticipation. If Nix could sweat he would have been drenched by now based on his jittery demeanor. Ju-Long meanwhile glistened in the yellow glow of the hologram. He rubbed at his eyes with one hand while keeping his weapon aloft. The beeping had reached its peak intensity, the only noise left in the room.
The dots stopped moving on the projection, hovering there, all around them. Saturn was focused on the console, mashing several buttons fruitlessly.
“What are you doing?” Liam asked over the beeps, keeping his head on the swivel for the Kraven.
“I’m trying to get some light in here,” she replied. “Wait, I think I’ve got it.”
Dozens of small lights lit up the workstations whi
le overhead pot lights rained down from the ceiling. The coarse material of the bridge was far too industrial to be considered elegant. In contrast, the workstation’s tech was impressive. Despite the lights, the bridge remained fairly dim, the dark metals of the room doing little to reflect the beams. Along the walls Liam could see that the room was damaged, but the many thick supports cradled that section of the ship, so its ruin couldn’t compare with the rest of the ship. Only a few workstations were affected and they shot blue sparks from the consoles.
Liam turned around several times, taking in every inch of the room. The bridge was empty. He lowered his weapon slightly. “Do you think that machine is busted?”
Ju-Long eased up his shoulders and dropped his weapon to his side. “Had me going there.”
Saturn tightened her grip on her weapon and backed away from the console, keeping her back toward the side wall. The many dots on the image began to move once again as though writhing all around the bridge. She began to charge a mass of energy at the tip of her weapon. She whispered, “Why is it still beeping?”
“This doesn’t feel right,” Nix declared.
Ju-Long nodded, regaining his defensive stance. “I’m with Nix, this place creeps me out.”
“You know Ju-Long, with all that muscle you’re still afraid of your own shadow.”
“Don’t start, Saturn. You weren’t so collected when faced with Xara and the Disciples.”
Saturn raised her voice, “For good reason.”
“Quiet. All of you!” Liam called. He put a hand up in the air and said, “Listen.”
Over the monotone beeps of the holographic projection Liam could hear a faint hiss, growing in volume until it began to sound like a growl. What started as one became a dozen, two dozen, more, until the bridge was filled with the reverberations of the guttural sound. The crew gathered near the center of the room, back to back with their weapons facing out.
The Corsair Uprising Collection, Books 1-3 Page 15