“We’ll smash into each other at these speeds without navigation lights,” Broad protested. “It’s suicide.”
“We’ll have to track each other by radar,” Hamilton replied. “Monger’s right, let’s go to stealth. We’re getting creamed out here. Anything’s worth a try.”
Hamilton hastily relayed the suggestion to the Shenyang and Firehawk teams.
Red and green port and starboard lights across the Earth Defence Force fighters’ wing tips extinguished. Almost at once, the enemy fighters’ patterns became erratic, their packs splitting apart.
“Excellent call, kid,” Hamilton said, watching Nori close on the star portal control room. “You just bought us a slice of time. Skunks, protect the control room. Nori’s almost in.”
*****
Nori pushed off his bike and angled towards the control room airlock. He gripped a handhold tightly and yanked the release lever. A puff of internal atmosphere released and he slipped inside.
“Reece, you read?” Nori said, closing the external door, sound folding around him as oxygen hissed into the airlock. “I’m in the control room.”
“Don’t suppose you’re calling to say the threat’s been neutralized and we can go home?”
“Unfortunately not. Get moving. I’ll be triggering the EMP in five minutes. Watch out for lightning around the space station. It’s deadly. You’re gonna have to duck and weave all the way in. Don’t get struck. It’s already downed multiple friendlies.”
“Copy that. Heading for orbit. Here goes nothing.”
*****
The Shinrai punched through clouds and streaked towards space, Earth’s horizon curving round on itself, the atmosphere shrinking to a thin blue line. As the sky darkened, it seemed the entire expanse between the earth and the moon was filled with engagements, fire blossoming everywhere, laser-fire crisscrossing the sky. Reece aimed towards the space station, across which thousands of drones were crawling, like ants on a pineapple. The only area not bristling with fighters was a letterbox shaped opening halfway down the structure.
“We’re never getting through that,” Scarlet came. “There’s no way. They’re everywhere.”
“There’s always a way,” Reece said. “I’ll get us in. You just provide cover.”
“EMP imminent,” Nori said over the intercom. “Get ready for the ten second warning.”
“Gotta hustle,” Becca urged.
“Okay, I know, I heard.”
“Just saying.”
“It’s cool, I got this.”
Reece dipped the control column left, trying to roll the Shinrai through the lightning, but there was no response. Confused, he waggled the stick. Still, nothing happened.
“Well that’s not fair,” he said, trying to tamp down his rising panic. “I got no control. What’s happening?”
“You have no…” Hadley began, his voice falling silent.
The monitors and control switches across the dash blinked and shut down, plunging the cockpit into strobing green darkness, whips of lightning cracking ahead.
“What’s happening?” Becca said, voice full of dread.
“I dunno,” Reece answered, flicking switches. “It just went dead. Come on, work you useless pile’a… come on, no fair…”
The lightning ahead abruptly ceased and the crafts buzzing around the space station stopped dead, their green glows fading to black. The Shinrai was still moving forwards, the landing bay ahead expanding rapidly. It was clear a force beyond their control was guiding them in.
“Anyone get the feeling this thing wanted us to come?” Hadley said from the cockpit doorway.
Reece could hear the other Renegades dashing towards the cockpit.
“Power’s out,” Schweighofer yelled from down the corridor. “What’s going on, why have they stopped attacking?”
Inhuman hands, pale as moonlight, began pressing from within the screens across the Shinrai’s monitors. Daisuke growled and lifted his head, teeth bared.
“Oh, shit,” Fang said. “We’re in trouble.”
*****
Noticing the glare of explosions and laser fire outside the control room dimming, Nori pushed off from the mainframe console and drifted weightless to the nearest porthole window, overlooking Earth. Everywhere, lights across the enemy crafts were extinguishing, and the flames of destroyed fighters were expiring. The lightning bursting from the Hive had also ceased. Everything was fading to black.
One light remained, however, a steadily winding point originating from the Hive. The object’s thrusters lit the hovering Skunk squadron as it careened past. The fighters’ cannons fluttered between light and dark, but their offensive gesture was too little too late. Nori realized what was happening immediately. He pushed to the corner of the control room, where the structural integrity was most robust. The homing missile struck, detonating in a ball of jade fire, shredding the small habitat as easily as a bear savaging the canvassing of a tent.
Nori found himself hurled into the vacuum of space, his severed legs tumbling alongside, systems across his DENTON unit failing. He lifted an arm to run a diagnostic. It wasn’t there. He lifted his other arm. Success of sorts. The glow of his faltering mouthpart and eyes was weak and flickering against his poorly articulating digits. He was mortally damaged and cartwheeling helplessly out of control, Earth, the scattering Skunks and the star portal rotating in and out of his failing vision.
Horror-struck, Nori realized the star portal’s solar panels had been destroyed. They were now tumbling clouds of glinting bronze micro-particles. Thrusters across the portal’s ring structure were firing indiscriminately, both destabilizing its orbit and straining the ring’s integrity. Soon, it would fail and the star would collapse, and with it the gateway home.
“We failed…” Nori croaked, realizing that even if the mainframe console was still intact, he had no means of returning to activate the EMP before a catastrophic failure occurred. His communication systems were offline, so he couldn’t even contact the Renegades to warn them. Worse than that, every soul on modern-day Earth was about to be overwhelmed by a hellish escalation of destructive ideologies, mindsets rocketing apart in their perception of truth and justice, binding themselves in celebrated hatred, dismissing all balance and compromise, violent impulses building until they became unleashed with gleeful, righteous wrath. The demented slaughtering the demented.
All this scourge would be coupled with nightmarish visons enough to topple even the most resilient of minds. Their fates were sealed and unlike the Venutians, the people of Earth had no means of escape. The technologies required didn’t exist. They were doomed.
“I’m sorry. All of you, please forgive me…”
Grotto of Madness
T he Shinrai was being steadily drawn into the Hive, becoming helplessly devoured. Reece imagined he could see a moist carpet inside the gaping maw ahead, motile cilia hairs, fleshy pink, rhythmically pulsing like the lining of a living lung, inhaling them into the unknown lifeform.
“Did Nori trigger the EMP already?” Fang said, staring out of the cockpit windows. “There’s still ships moving out there? I thought everything was supposed to shut down.”
“If he had, whatever’s in there wouldn’t be sucking us in,” Reece said, abandoning his attempts at regaining control of the craft. “Anyone else getting the feeling this thing might’ve learned since the last time people tried to put it in a box? I think it’s pissed and we’re about to get…”
“NO!” Scarlet cried, “The star portal’s… oh,no… NO, LOOK!”
“Nori!” Commander Blake roared, watching the star portal’s control room explode. “Nori, come in, Nori, do you read?”
“It’s drifting, destabilizing,” Scarlet cried, noticing plasma tornadoes tearing across the micro-star’s surface, flares erupting and dashing against the containment field, then falling back across the listing inferno as plasma rain. “Oh, no, it’s gonna blow!”
“Does that mean we’re stuck here?” Hadley
said, his voice dripping with terror. “Does that mean we’re not going home? Did we just lose? We didn’t have a chance.”
“Home was always secondary,” Commander Blake said, watching the dying star rage against the dying of the light. “We need to finish this. Just because home’s off the table, it doesn’t mean we can give up on everyone back on Earth.”
Scarlet laced her fingers through Fang’s. The pair exchanged an embracing glance. Reece hung his head and sighed. Becca rubbed his back. Things were falling apart before they’d even begun.
“We can still do this,” Becca said. “It’s not over until it is.”
“I know you asked me to take the lead on this one,” Schweighofer said to Commander Blake, “but we need you. We need you back. If this is to be our final push, we need you leading the charge. Help me find, Molo, please. I need you to help me, I’m begging you.”
“She’s right, Commander,” Fang said. “Don’t give up on us. Not now.”
“Schweighofer’s more than capable,” the Commander replied, his voice full of gravel. “She was ready a long time ago.”
“Maybe that’s true,” Schweighofer said, “but I don’t care. Please, Commander, you can’t give up on us.”
“I’m not giving up on you, I’ll be with you all the way. Why would you want me to lead you? I’ve failed you, Fox, Razak, Aroon. I was supposed to keep them alive. They’re dead because they followed me.”
“If we’re gonna die anyway…” Schweighofer appealed. “And you didn’t get anyone killed, you haven’t failed us. We all chose this, no one forced anyone to come. We all know how this works. We all know the dangers of what we do.”
Daisuke trotted to Commander Blake, nuzzled his thigh and licked his glove. Actuators in the guts of the Shinrai whirred as the landing gear automatically descended. The ship shuddered as it set down in the alien space station. There was another mechanical sound, which Reece guessed was the cargo ramp opening.
“So, these weapons,” the Commander said, rotating the wrist of his spacesuit and examining the mounted twin blasters. “Bend your wrists and ball your fists?”
“Yup, according to Nori,” Reece said, nodding. “He also said something about Einstein’s corset, I didn’t really get it, freeze rays basically.”
“Freeze rays, huh?”
The Commander fell still, deep in contemplation, eyeing his blasters. He slowly nodded and stared around the cockpit at the hopeful faces looking his way.
“Why not,” the man said, turning towards the cargo bay. With his face turned he raised a hand and wiped his face. Becca noticed a spot of moisture on his glove as his hand dropped to his side. “Up and at’em slugs, we have a man to find and a score to settle. This just got personal.”
“And he’s back,” Fang said. “Let’s go put this sucker back in its box.”
“Hoo-ahh,” Hadley cheered. “I like the way you talk.”
The squad filed behind the Commander, boots chomping, Reece and Becca following at the rear. Their strident demeanour was immediately dampened by a sound like an out-of-tune church organ flooding the Shinrai, chords stabbing like a demented toddler was loose at the keys.
“Please tell me it’s not just me hearing that?” Scarlet said, slowing up, causing the snake of people behind her to bunch together.
“I thought the Shinrai had shielding, protection,” Fang said. “We shouldn’t be hearing that, right?”
“She’s got no power and we’re nearing the source,” Commander Blake replied. “It knows we’re coming. Spectral radiation’s gonna start affecting us more as we go. Stay strong. We knew this would happen. You know your minds, people, don’t let them be stolen. Resist as long as you can. Your thoughts are your own. Stay as a team and look out for each other.”
“Your grenade,” Scarlet said, looking down at Commander Blake’s waist as they entered the cargo bay. “It just turned amber.”
“Mine too,” Becca said.
“Me also,” Fang chimed.
“Five-hundred meters,” Hadley breathed. “Thing’s right outside.”
“Don’t let it steal your minds,” Commander Blake repeated, stepping onto the loading ramp. “If it moves and looks like an asshole, shoot it in the face.”
Gingerly, the squad filed behind the Commander. Daisuke paced out in front, ears pricked, scanning for movement. It quickly became clear the pulsing carpet Reece had imagined were hairs in an alien lung, was in fact a corn field. The bizarre crop stretched into the fleshy gloom.
“It’s field,” Hadley said, “corn. Why corn?”
“Is it real?” Scarlet said. “We got no helmets, no protection. It could be a hallucination.”
“And there’s air,” Becca added. “We can breathe. There’s an atmosphere.”
“Sure is,” Hadley replied, “and it’s creepy as hell. This is so weird.”
A dirt track cut through the corn field, leading towards a wooden shack, warm lights spilling from its windows, almost inviting. Half way down the road, poking above the corn, Reece spotted a scarecrow with a pumpkin head, uneven eyes and ragged mouth flickering candlelight.
“Stay alert,” the Commander urged in a low voice, scanning the corn, pointed arm tracking his line of sight. Here and there patches of the corn shook, ears, husks, and leaves rustling.
Becca imagined she could see shadowy forms moving in the corn, too fleeting to snatch a proper look at, always at the edge of her vision. Each time she turned, they’d vanished into the undergrowth, which fell back into place.
“There’s definitely something in there,” Schweighofer whispered.
“Things,” Fang corrected. “More than one. I can’t get a good look. Anyone see what they are?”
A voice in the darkness cracked like a whip, electrifying the Renegades, who leapt in fright, Fang’s high-pitched string of elaborate profanity bursting loud.
“You’ve come…” Aleksi’s sinister voice boomed. “Welcome to your nightmares. I promise to make your stay uncomfortable.”
Down the path ahead, a figure walked out of the corn, shrouded in a sack-cloth robe, tied at the waist with a length of twine, a hood pulled over a lowered head.
“It’s him,” Becca said, lifting her arm and aiming her blasters. “No second chances this time. Kill the snake.”
“Wait,” Schweighofer said, pushing Becca’s arm down. She shouted towards Aleksi. “Where’s Molotov, Aleksi, please?”
“Patience,” Aleksi hissed. “Little goats have come to pasture, come to suckle at truth’s udders, to taste the bitter milk of virtue. I’m going to save your souls, my flock, by teaching you to suffer.”
“Flocks are for sheep,” Fang jeered. “If you’re gonna make a speech, here’s an idea, at least make sense. We’re a herd, goats united, and we’re here to mess you up, psycho-tard.”
“Silence!” Aleksi shrieked, the room quaking.
The church organ bellowed a ghastly chord and a vaulted ceiling lit with crimson light, tortured gothic gargoyles protruding from the rock, smoke venting from their mouths and nostrils, goo dribbling from their fangs. Above the stone aberrations was a bizarre galactic whirlpool of sparkling light, winding to a dark center that filled Reece with abysmal dread. He felt as though he was staring into an abscess of pure evil. Visions of horror spilled through his thoughts, murderous things, the death of love, insanity, and as though in sympathy with the invading evil, the smoke pouring from the gargoyles’ many mouths turned blood-red.
“Come back, snap out of it,” a voice was saying. He found Becca shaking him and slapping his face. “Don’t look at it, focus on me. Look at me, that’s it… come back...”
“I saw…” Reece breathed, panting feverishly. “I saw…”
“Kill it!” Fang cried, tearing her grenade from her belt and twisting the top. “Stop it, I won’t do it!”
“Fang!” Commander Blake roared, wrestling the grenade from her grasp “It’s too far. Don’t waste it.”
“Scarlet, where’s Scar
?” Fang cried, turning frantically on the spot. “Scar!”
“I’m here,” Scarlet said, rushing to her side. “It’s okay, I’m here.”
“It showed me… I can’t…” Fang wheezed, trembling, her chest tightening, staring at her palms then looking back at Scarlet. “It made me... It was in my head. I couldn’t stop it. It used my hands! It wasn’t me. You know I’d never…”
“It wasn’t real,” Scarlet reassured, kissing Fang and caressing her face. “I’m right here. It didn’t happen. See. I’m fine.”
“Resist, It’s trying to steal your minds,” the Commander growled. He twisted Fang’s grenade back to the neutral position. “Keep your eyes down, don’t look up.”
“How are we gonna get up there to throw the grenades?” Scarlet said. “There’s no way. It’s too high.”
“We’ll find a way. I’ll climb if needs be.”
“None of us could make that.”
“I got enough darkness in me that this thing’s like pussycat playing with the live wire. It’s messing with the wrong person. I’ll get up there, don’t you worry about that.”
The organ bellowed again, smoky waterfalls pouring from above, falling across the corn and rolling through the stalks, seeping across the dirt track. Aleksi was gone. Wisps of unsettled smoke were gently rolling back into the spot where the maniac had been standing.
“Where’d he go?” Hadley whispered.
The corn continued to rustle. Unidentifiable shapes slinking just out of sight.
“Mama says I can play now,” Aleksi said, giggling with demented menace. “Let’s play chase, little goats. I want to watch you run.”
The corn suddenly erupted with skeletal attackers, decomposed animals, badgers, deer and foxes, all charging the Renegades’ position, trailing their putrid innards, eyes dangling against their cheeks, bouncing as they ran, jaws hanging loose or grinning perpetual horrific smiles where their skin was rotted away. The squad fired on the approaching horde, freezing the skeletal phantoms, which tumbled and shattered across the floor. The morbid icy debris began dissolving into smoke that snaked back into the corn.
Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set Page 60