Rift Breaker

by Tristan Michael Savage

  She went to the force field. It hissed loud like a nulla bug. She turned to her side and looked left, down the corridor, to the window of the office. The warden had disappeared. Good riddance. A spark of electricity shot into her flesh arm. She squeaked and jumped back, rubbing the point of contact.

  A clatter came from down the passage. She went forward again with her hands behind her back and peeked. Someone disappeared into the office. A voice called out.

  ‘What was the cell number?’ It belongled to the Human, Milton. He came back. The Freegu, Tazman, appeared at the cell block entrance leaning against the doorframe.

  ‘Seven two B,’ he yelled back.

  She glanced behind her at the large worn-out markings on the wall. 72B. She smiled in relief. The force field disappeared and she reverted to her steely gaze before stepping out.

  ‘Hello, lovely,’ said Tazman.

  She never would have anticipated her gladness in seeing him. Milton appeared from the office and saw her.

  ‘Let’s get out of here then,’ he said.

  ‘You came back for me?’

  ‘Darling, we like you. Don’t be dramatic,’ said Tazman. ‘I know where the ship is,’ he added. ‘It’s close so let’s get moving.’

  Tazman pointed the way through doors and hallways, asking them to read signs and look for clues along the way. Every now and then he would stop, close his eyes and mutter to himself, as if a map was tattooed under his lids.

  The gunfire was getting uncomfortably close. The trio moved to the side as a line of armoured soldiers jogged past. Their full body plating rattled and chinked. They heated their weapons. The one at the back barked orders to secure a certain section of the complex.

  ‘Right here,’ said Tazman, tail stretching to press a large button. A huge reinforced set of blast doors clunked open to Poria’s gradient sky through a curving transparent wall. The passageway hugged the outside surface of the complex body. Tazman struggled on with Milton’s aid.

  ‘We’re very close,’ slurred Tazman. He let out a moan.

  Luylla glanced back. Tazman’s head dropped forward and all his weight pressed down on Milton. Milton, trying to hold him, could not get a grip on his relaxed limbs and Tazman’s arm slipped off his neck. Luylla lunged from the front and caught the Freegu before he could hit the ground.

  ‘I have him,’ she said, bending at the knees. She transferred his weight to her artificial shoulder and hoisted him up to continue down the transparent passage.

  Shouting and gunfire erupted behind. The blast of a weapon shot past, narrowly missing her. The scorching heat trail hung in the air. She stretched her gaze around. Back in the complex, a squad of Composite soldiers, retreating down the corridor, blasted back at the end of the hallway. They took cover, ducking into doorframes, side pillars and lying on the floor.

  They held their fire for a moment and a Xoeloid warrior sprang out from behind the corner. The armour of the Xoeloid revealed them to be lean, yet muscular, creatures. It returned fire from a jagged, black, single-handed weapon that extended down its forearm and had a glowing hot blade extending out the front.

  More warriors followed behind. They moved as a single entity. Bursts of scattered Composite pulsefire landed ineffectively on the metallic mineral armour, only serving to slow the creatures as the shots sparked harmlessly on contact. The armoured body suits seemed to give them strength under fire, the hard material flexing with their movements. The first of the enemy wave laid down suppressive fire and the Composite solders took cover where they could. A second group of Xoeloid charged down the hallway, making use of the heated combat blades. They used momentum, ducking and rolling the Composite streams, landing in prime positions to slice open their enemies, executing slashes and blasts with perfect timing and technique. The last soldier stepped out and sprayed his weapon discharge with no particular aim. One of the Xoeloid dropped into a roll and thrust its blade into the soldier’s torso, lifting him off the ground. The soldier’s pulse rifle clattered to the floor.

  Milton ran back to the side of the blast doors and hit his hand on the control button. The soldier croaked and laughed, spraying blood onto the Xoeloid warrior’s face as the door sealed.

  Luylla pushed on. Around the curve, a jagged-edged warship hovered above. Its side was endowed with flat shapes with pointed ends that spanned the body. Flaps slid open on the skin and dark, winged fighters swarmed out at attack run-speeds. Laser and pulsefire exchanged between the warship and a group of Composite fighters. An explosion flared against the cylinder wall above. Luylla held tight to Tazman and a continuous bombardment followed. One heavy blast after another wore down the complex plating. Debris tumbled though the smoke and patted the glass.

  Another set of blast doors was sealed over the other side of the walkway. Luylla reached over for the clearance card dangling from Tazman’s neck and slid it though the reader. The doors unlocked and began to part. She looked back and spotted Milton running up from behind. He stopped abruptly and glanced to the side.

  The walkway frame caved. Glass and metal scattered as an out of control Composite fighter crashed through. It flipped and crumpled against the complex wall with a screech and puff of flame. The craft spun away uncontrollably, exploding below. Hot gas and the smell of burning fuel wafted up to the gaping hole left in the walkway.

  Howling winds and the noise of battle flooded the soundwaves.

  The blast door opened. Milton put his hands to the sides of his mouth and howled something.

  ‘Say again,’ she yelled back.

  ‘Cenyulone! That’s the planet they’re going to attack next. You have to go there and warn the Composite.’

  Milton’s side of the walkway shifted downward. She hesitated.

  ‘You know what has to be done,’ Milton added. ‘Go!’

  She nodded and said a prayer for him as she turned to answer the call of her ship.

  Twenty-one

  Another glass pane imploded and the tube walkway shifted down the complex wall. Milton’s path steepened. He slipped to his knees and spread his palms on the floor to increase surface contact. Clicking vibrations resounded through the crumbling hollow. Glass and bits of framing rattled down the sloping walkway, tumbling past Milton to the windy drop behind.

  He sprang to his feet and ran. Something snapped. A whipping cable slapped against the top of the walkway, breaching the glass above and sending splintering cracks down the wall.

  Milton swung his arms and stepped up. His boots began to lose grip. He dived and grabbed the ledge at the blast door. The walkway dropped vertical.

  Milton lifted and swung his leg onto the ledge. He rolled up to safety and palmed the door button. With a deafening snap and spring, the walkway broke off, flipping out into the air. Wind blasted him; he pressed firmly against the door with his body sticking halfway off the edge. It started to open; he slipped though the emerging crack.

  He backed into a body-littered hallway. The Xoeloid soldiers had moved on. Superior communication had made them efficient infiltrators. A takeover of the Reconotyre would not have required many troops. Bursts of gunfire pumped in the distance; the noise was starting to get less frequent. As the fighting died Milton could only deduce most of the Composite soldiers had too.

  He crouched to take a weapon from one of the deceased. The dead, gloved hands held tight, as Milton twisted the rifle to pry it loose. He stood and ducked under the strap.

  A shadow closed over the mouth of the passage. Milton spun to a Xoeloid craft hovering outside. He dropped facedown and slid up against two of the dead. Holding his breath, he peered over a man’s chest armour.

  The ship, made of the black mineral of the safe haven, was a lightweight fighter with a refined aerodynamic shape. Spots of reflected sunlight glinted across sharp, angular wings. Its front edges sheathed back and two long spines extended with glowing white tips. The ship swivelled to face the hallway. Milton sank into the floor and moved his hand to the trigger of the rifle, unsure of t
he weapon’s effectiveness against a starship.

  The craft paused. The weapon tips lit the hallway with a searing glow. Milton froze. A full quanut passed before the craft rose out of view. Milton stood and left quickly.

  He held the gun tight across his chest and jogged aimlessly through the hallways. He came across a mobile barricade that had been laid across the passage, made of heavy, portable shielding. He climbed over to find a cannon mounted on a three-legged stand, surrounded by dead Composite soldiers. Their recent blast wounds were still smoking. Milton swallowed hard.

  Further down the same path, a rumbling hiss from the right pulled his attention. He turned to a door. A line of blast holes dotted its surface; its busted control panel had caught in the trail. A small heated bubble expanded from the door, left of centre.

  Milton stepped back and raised the pulse rifle. The bubble exploded. Drops of molten slag and a stream of sparks gushed forth. The cutting flame travelled across the door at neck height, then turned downward. Milton jogged down the hall and turned a corner. He pressed his shoulder to the wall and peered out. The flow of sparks ceased. The squared opening was then kicked in by a black leather boot. A large soldier sidestepped into the hallway. Milton slid down the wall. Thick plates of burn-ridden armour suited the soldier’s chest and muscled legs. He expelled a snort from large nostrils and curled his mouth, which was situated between two tusks. He pointed his pulse rifle up and down the corridor before taking position in the hallway. He flicked his head and with it his dreadlocks, signalling to others behind him.

  The next soldier to appear wore a black armoured uniform with a visor helmet that concealed its face. The new one covered the hallway in the opposite direction. Another with the same armour appeared, minus the helmet. The creature had grey scaly skin with a back-pointing skull.

  The forth soldier to arrive wore a light chest plate over his base uniform, a matching jacket and pants. His face was pale green and he had ridges down the back of his bald skull. A lady came out next wearing the same kind of uniform. She had blue skin with wispy white hair tied back neatly. Commander Raegar followed. He shouldered a rifle in his top set of arms and swooped the barrel back down the corridor. He turned and scanned in Milton’s direction. Milton froze and gradually inched back. The commander sidestepped with his weapon sight locked onto him.

  ‘Show yourself,’ barked Raegar.

  The rest of the team turned with a scuffle of boots. Milton lowered his pulse rifle, took a breath and turned the corner. The eyes of all soldiers focused down their weapon sights with barrels pointed at Milton’s chest. Milton pulled his hands off the rifle and slowly raised them from his sides.

  ‘Surrender your weapon,’ said Raegar. Milton went for the strap. ‘Slowly,’ the commander added. After a slight pause Milton shed the gun and placed it on the floor. Raegar nodded and Milton pressed his boot to the butt and kicked it towards the squad. The green one snatched up the weapon.

  ‘Were you lying about Cenyulone?’ Raegar asked, his voice echoing down the hall.

  ‘Absolutely not,’ Milton replied, turning his chin up.

  ‘Then you will testify at the Ministry of Defence.’

  The armoured soldier with the helmet frisked Milton for weapons. Once Raegar was satisfied he gave the signal and the squad advanced down the hallway past him.

  ‘Get going,’ Raegar ordered, coming up the rear.

  Milton smiled awkwardly and turned in the direction of the group.

  The complex foundations rumbled with a frightening sound of something heavy breaking away. The lights above flickered in unison. The soldiers advanced in arrow shaped tactical formation. The dreadlocked grunt led the way. The two wearing the combat suits jogged cautiously behind. The last two in base uniforms covered the rear. Milton was somewhere in the middle with Raegar breathing down his neck.

  They closed in on a steady pulsing — the sound came from behind the immediate wall. The corridor gradually curved left. The group passed a shutter door marked with a symbol. The logo was a coloured circle surrounded by small outward pointing triangles enclosed with a square.

  Ahead, the corridor faded into obscuring blackness. The dark crept over the big guy then the next two. Milton’s steps became smaller as his vision obscured. He felt a sudden shove in his midlower back; apparently Raegar could see fine. A soldier’s night visor was activated with a barely audible click and a rising pitch.

  Something shuffled in the dark. The team shouldered their weapons. The sound was too far ahead to come from the big guy. A heavy scrape. An orange blade glowed. Someone yelled. Another cursed. The corridor lit with pulsefire.

  Shadows ahead dipped and dodged among the flashes. Raegar grabbed Milton and shoved him to the side. He dropped against the wall. An enemy shadow closed in on the big guy. Glowing blue shafts appeared from nowhere. They flipped apart and spun in a whirl of light. The rotor thrust forward. Its glow defined the big soldier’s body. His howling screams roared out over the fighting. The green guy stood from his kneeling position and cried out, charging forward, spraying pulse haphazardly.

  Raegar touched his hand to the wall near Milton’s head, activating a green square. ‘Verification acquired,’ said a croaky automated voice. The wall at Milton’s back shifted up. He turned. The shutters rose into one another. Purple light and frosted air spilled out.

  ‘Move,’ Raegar yelled. Milton scrambled to his feet and entered the room. Raegar stood inside the doorway, covering the exit. Three of the soldiers, the two suited and the blue lady, emerged, shooting back into the darkness.

  Raegar pushed the door controls again. Shutters dropped one by one over the doorway. A bloodcurdling cry rang out from the corridor. Raegar darted through. A heated moment passed. Black flashed with blue. He came out firing madly and dragging out the young green guy. The last few shutters reached the bottom and sealed in front of an advancing Xoeloid.

  The wounded guy panted. Milton darted to assist. With the grey skinned one on the other side, he tucked Green’s arm over his neck and lifted him to his feet. The soldier let out a piercing howl. Steam rose from the burn hole in his chest.

  Milton’s exhale turned to vapour. He stood on a frost covered metal bridge over a huge drop. The chamber was a colossal circular shaft with no visible end above or below. In its centre, where the bridge led, stood a cylindrical column. Higher up inside it, protected by a force field, a molten ball of engine core dwelled. The miniature sun burned bright purple. Its tongues of fire licked at the surrounding protective field.

  The bridge was one of four others on the same level, leading from different entrances to the room. Five more extended across on a level above and another five below. Sharp stalactites of ice hung down from their undersides.

  An explosion burst from above. Black smoke seeped from the edges of a distant door. The soldiers raised their weapons in alertness.

  ‘They can talk to each other by thinking,’ said Milton. ‘They all know we’re here.’

  A muffled scraping came from behind. Raegar turned back with intense, narrowed eyes. The tip of an orange blade thrust through the door and twisted against the metal shutter.

  ‘Find another way,’ ordered Raegar.

  The group filed across the bridge. Milton gripped Green’s arm and stepped forward. The soldier’s boots scraped along the floor as both helpers took all of his weight. The lady ran ahead to another exit but skidded to the ground when another explosion blasted the door from its opposite side.

  Milton reached the centre. The platform circled around the column with a safety railing on the edge. Two of the doors on the upper level breached and Xoeloid rushed out. Short controlled bursts spewed from their sleek weapons.

  A blast whizzed past Milton’s face and Green’s weight suddenly dragged him down. The grey-skinned soldier’s head slammed against the engine column with a smoking hole in the side. The green fellow cried out and Milton set him down. The soldier shoved a bloody pulse rifle to Milton’s chest. Milton took th
e gun and sided around the column.

  Across the chamber another door breached. Its shutters were sliced apart and ripped away. A Xoeloid soldier charged though the smoke. Raegar shouted from the column’s reverse side and his pulsefire nailed the creature.

  Milton raised the heavy rifle and pulled the trigger. The gun’s recoil jolted his aim. His shots sparked off heavy armour. Before the creature’s body fell, another Xoeloid darted in from behind and grabbed his comrade, taking cover behind the fallen Xoeloid warrior. It then threw the body off the side and walked up at a steady pace, shooting away. The shots forced Milton back into cover. The lady backed up next to Milton. She fired at enemies on the above bridges.

  The implant began to throb.

  ‘No,’ Milton cried.

  Pain injected his head and lined the inner wall of his skull. He cried through gritted teeth and gripped his hair. He backed up and continued to blast the enemy. Excruciating electric spasms waved down his spine. He drained his lungs with a scream.

  His eye caught a Xoeloid calmly staring up at him from below. He blasted. The rifle was louder than ever; he felt every discharge hammer on his brain. The Xoeloid ducked from his sights. Dizziness overcame him. Raegar came round behind and helped the lady collect Green.

  The squad chattered around him. Apparently two additional entrances on the same level had been breached or were in the process of being breached. His heartbeat pounded in his ears. Weapon energy rained from above and below.

  He fired again at one of the doors. His blasts scattered. The Xoeloid ducked back into cover. He laid the gun on the railing to shoot those below. A sudden, more concentrated pain pierced him and sent him falling back against the engine column.

  He slammed his hands to his ears with no relief. He turned his head. Then he saw his reflection. In the shiny smudged panel on the column, his eyes had no whites, and no brown, simple black hollowness, then a tiny sparkle, appearing and disappearing like a tiny flickering star.