“No way,” said Hawkins, “He did it. The main engines are off.”
“That’s good new?” Kallias asked.
“Well, it means we’re gonna lose height.”
“Yeah,” laughed Kallias, “And it means we’re gonna die.”
The ship shuddered again for a split second.
“Novas,” said Lieutenant Fletcher, “We hold this breach, no matter what comes for us. They cannot restart the engines.”
“Why not just blow the controls?” Kallias asked, “Then nobody can get them back online.”
“What controls? The entire system is virtual. The Engineer says he’s got it locked down. The minute he goes offline, the system can be controlled from somewhere else.”
“Then we hold the breach,” said Valentine.
She leaned out from the side and took aim with her rifle. More and more shapes swarmed inside from the far end and continued to rush forward.
“Let’s bring ‘em down!”
She opened fire, and the others quickly joined in. Small arms fire and cannons blasted swathes of the enemy, but more came on. Then the return fire slammed into the breach entrance and the broken statues of the massive beasts. On and on they came, with the living clambering over the dead. Most were the poor enslaved soldiers, rushing forward with no concern for their lives.
“Hold the line!” Lieutenant Fletcher said.
The seven struggled to fire while not exposing themselves, but the numbers were simply too great.
“Outside!” said the Lieutenant, “Shield wall!”
Valentine gulped but did as ordered. The small group lined up at the top of the steps even as the shots hit around them. A small number of marines took their places and fired from behind what cover they could find.
“Everything you’ve got. Do not stop!”
Valentine gritted her teeth, tracking left and right as she blasted away. Body after body fell, but the return fire still hit around them. Alexis took hits to the body that knocked her down. Valentine looked back to help her as the next wave hit. They swarmed over the line and tried to get inside. Valentine threw one to the wall, and then blasted the second. She turned around to see scores of bodies. More Ski’ligs charged at the line, blasting and stabbing away. Three Novas were dragged down, and Kallias had to blast their wounded bodies with gunfire to drive off the enemy. The trio were alive but badly hurt.
“We’ve got this,” said the marines behind them as they struggled to drag the wounded Novas back inside.
Valentine moved to the middle of the group and then almost choked at seeing only Kallias and Sergeant Jablonsky were still standing. Alexis leaned against wall of the breach and took aim. A howl rang out inside the hall, and then they came at them once more. Valentine looked down at the pools of blood and spotted one of the fallen enemies. She bent down and lifted the rifle that was still attached to his body. She took aim and fired. A pulse of light punched through half a dozen of the enemy, exploding them with ease.
“Holy crap!” Sergeant Jablonsky said.
He grabbed one of the firearms and joined in while Kallias went to work with his quad rifles. Dozens of enemies fell before them, and Kallias started to howl as he slaughtered the enemy. The ship continued to shake, and Valentine quickly checked the data on her visor to see what was happening.
“We’re entering the atmosphere. It’s working!”
She looked back and spotted Captain Olik engaged in combat with thirty or more Ski’ligs. More fell from above, but it looked like he could handle them as he blasted away and smashed his Thumper at them. The other Novas were all engaged, filling the command centre with fire and flame.
The ground shook violently, and then the remaining Ski’ligs scattered like rats. Moving behind them was a single shape, one Valentine knew only too well. It was large, and black in the smoke and fog of battle.
“Val, you seeing this?” Kallias asked.
“Yeah, there’s always one of these bad boys.”
“No. Make that three.”
Valentine’s eyes opened wide as she watched them enter. Scores, perhaps hundreds of regular Ski’ligs remained at the back, waving their weapons and wailing as the elders approached. The one in the middle was significantly larger than the others, and carried a long two-handed blade longer than a Human soldier. To the others’ surprise, Valentine stepped forward and moved halfway down the steps. She still carried the alien rifle, and due to it being attached to the Ski’lig soldier, it dragged behind her.
“Val. We can’t end one of them on our own. Three is impossible.”
The ship continued to shake, and now it became continuous. Something exploded, and then they looked back. The command centre began to fall apart. Olik was nowhere to be seen as beams and gantries collapsed down around them.
“Let’s burn ‘em!” Valentine said.
She pulled the trigger and hit the first creature. The impact caused it to flash bright white. The thing screamed and wailed, and then broke in a slow run. The others followed even as the beams struck them, and Kallias showered them with shells. Valentine kept firing until the weapon ran dry. She then stamped on the power cables and held up the weapon like a spear.
“Okay,” she said angrily, “Who dies first!”
Ski’lig warriors charged forward behind the towering elders, many firing as they went. Spikes struck Valentine, but she ignored them, and waited like some great armoured sentinel. Kallias moved down to her side, and Sergeant Jablonsky did the same. The creatures were now so close she could almost feel the heat.
Tex, give me everything you’ve got to my legs, I mean everything!
You have already sustained…
Not the time, Tex. Overload them. Maximum power!
Warnings sounded in her head as the reserve cells were drained to boost her motive function. The other two Novas fired one more, but Valentine waited until the last moment, and then leapt from the steps. The extra power split her left leg open, but not before the actuators had thrown her high in the air. She rose up almost four metres in total, and as she reached the apex, she brought the spear like weapon down towards the Ski’lig elder’s head. Taken completely by surprise, she crashed down onto it and stabbed the weapon down into its skull. The alien blade punched through, and she remained there atop the beast, even as it began to topple. The thing came down hard, throwing her to the ground. The other two stopped their charge and watched in amazement as Valentine climbed back up to her feet and moved towards the fallen beast. Her leg was a ruin and dragging behind her, but in her hands was the alien weapon.
“Val!” Kallias screamed, “Get back!”
Shapes came swarming past her and towards the steps. The last two standing Novas continued firing, moving back one step at a time. Valentine remained where she was, somehow ignored by the rampaging horde. She stopped next the head of the elder and noticed it was still alive. The ship shook so badly she could barely remain upright. Fires roared far off to the right, and parts of the metal fabric of the ship split apart to reveal more fire.
“So, you’re their leader, right?”
She looked to the other two and smiled.
“Well…Welcome to Hell!”
She swung the weapon over her head and down on the creature’s head. At the same time, the remaining two screeched in agony and came for her. As the blade met the beast’s neck, the hallway ripped apart in a massive implosion of broken metal, diamond rock, and blood. Fires tore through the broken wreckage, but the battle was over. The Novas had won, and the ship was a broken hulk, shattered upon the icy mountains of Ekati Alpha.
EPILOGUE
Ekati Alpha, The Ski’lig Territories
General Rivers stepped off the ramp of the Jackal dropship and moved out onto the broken ground. The burning remains of the ship were so vast they covered two of the mountain peaks, with the bulk of its hull cracked and broken between them. He waited there and shook his head as General Gun moved to his side.
“They did it,” he sa
id happily, “I knew they could.”
The two locked arms, and General Rivers then groaned, almost dropping to one knee. Gun held him there as two marines rushed to his side.
“It’s okay,” he said, evidently in pain, “I’m really getting too old for this.”
“Marines don’t get old,” said Gun.
“My friend, I wish that were true. One of these days…”
He then stopped and lifted his outer visor. Coming towards them from the fiery inferno of the ruined ship were a dozen warriors. All but three were Novas, and they moved slowly. Leading them out of the ruins was a single tall warrior. A party of marines were hastily erecting an Alliance flag to the right, and they watched with satisfaction when it began to blow in the gentle breeze.
“Olik,” said Gun as they moved closer, “You crazy bastard.”
The column of bloodied and exhausted warriors moved closer, and the General’s entourage did the same, meeting over the ruins of a partially destroyed Alliance fighter. General Rivers moved up onto its wing and looked at the Novas.
“Captain Olik. Your warriors did the impossible.”
“They did,” he answered. But all attention shifted towards one of the Novas. It was Valentine, and she dragged a shattered leg behind her while carrying a large object under her arm. She stopped in front of the General and then tossed the decapitated head to the ground. It was as big a small boulder and rolled twice before stopping at his feet.
“What is that?”
They looked to Olik to answer, but instead he turned to Valentine.
“It’s your kill.”
She laughed and then stabbed the butt of her captured weapon into the ground.
“That is the head of their commander.”
“You killed their commander, in hand-to-hand combat?” asked a surprised General Gun.
“Yes, General. There were two others, both killed in the crash. This one…this one is mine.”
Lieutenant Fletcher moved to her side and placed a hand on her spear.
“The Novas went to hell and back, General. But this one, she tackled their commander head on, and took its skull as a prize.”
General Rivers was positively stunned to hear that. General Gun reached down and lifted the thing’s skull. It was larger than his, and with a snout and teeth like some kind of ancient demon.
“We will not forget what happened here today, and we will always remember the story of the heroes of Ekati Alpha, and the warrior that took the head of our enemy in battle.”
He then handed the skull back to her. Lieutenant Fletcher winced and nodded towards it.
“Lance Corporal. Consider your promise fulfilled.”
Valentine felt relief wash over her, and even as her armour began to lose power, she felt a wave of euphoria as if a great weight had been lifted. She’d slain the beast, one of the creatures that had been the cause of the deaths of so many of her friends. And she had fulfilled her promise to her dying mother.
“This is coming back with me,” she said, nodding to herself, and then tried to walk away.
“Did I hear that right?” General Rivers asked.
Captain Olik shrugged, but Lieutenant Fletcher answered him.
“The Lance Corporal had been on a long journey, like all of us. This is what she needed. Vengeance was hers, and God help anybody that gets in her way again.”
General Gun reached out to help as Valentine’s systems began to fail, but then Sergeant Jablonsky and Private Kallias grabbed her, taking the weight.
“It’s okay,” said Kallias, “She one of us, we’ve got her.”
They limped away slowly towards the waiting dropships. Leaving the commanders standing before the burning remains of the enemy ship.
“Another glorious victory for the Alliance,” said Captain Olik.
“Perhaps,” said General Rivers, “Let us hope this final battle brings an end to this war. There’s something an old Earth general once said about a battle such as this.”
“Spartan? He always had something to say after a fight.”
“No. It was a British general called Wellington. After a long and tortious battle, he said two things. The first was that the battle was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life."
“He was not wrong about that,” laughed Olik, “We very nearly lost this one.”
“And the second?” asked an intrigued General Gun.
General Rivers’ visor flickered red as explosions wracked the broken ship, perhaps killing many more of the survivors trapped within. He adjusted his posture and then looked back to his old friend.
“Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.”
THE END
Star Crusades Page 28