by Al Shield
Unless of course they wanted to be seen, albeit briefly.
But what would the purpose of being spotted outside the fortress bring? The alarm would be raised, the soldiers on high alert and patrols would be sent out to investigate, making it more difficult to sneak onto the grounds.
Roaming patrols would be sent out...everyone would be looking towards the outside for an attack... but not so much inside.
‘There must be one inside!’ he spoke ‘The one outside is but a distraction! Inform al-’
The razor disk flew out of the shadows and severed the chain holding the communication crystal, where it dropped to the floor. Barrax instantly threw his arms up and shielded his face as more of the whirling disks were flung at him, only causing shallow cuts.
Dashing forward silently, the assassin quickly followed up the missiles by slashing her long blade at his exposed legs. Even though the blow was glancing, Barrax roared in surprise and hurled a fist at her which she easily danced around. Emerging behind him she stabbed at his broad back twice quickly before rolling away as he spun around with a vicious backhand.
He could see now that it was indeed one in Screaming City garb. Lithe with pale white skin behind the lustre of the black armour plate, her features were hidden by a mask of pure onyx but it was her very familiar curled horns that made Barrax stop in his tracks.
‘You!’ he spat.
The assassin nodded as she moved into a different battle stance.
‘They told me you died. You were killed in the war of the outer circle! They presented me with your broken order spear!’
‘They presented you with a broken spear but you were too stupid to realise it wasn’t mine.’ Nex spoke from behind the mask. ‘With you thinking I was out of the picture, it was one less thing you would be focussed on.’
Barrax went livid with the revelation. He withdrew a short knife from his belt and advanced slowly. He would have much prefered his fabled axe and shield but both were stored in his chambers. So his knife and skull helmet would have to suffice.
‘I should have strangled you like I did your mother moons ago. Do you honestly believe you can best me in single combat? I taught you so much as a child.’
‘That you did. And truth be told, it’s doubtful I could match you directly.’
He paused as he gave her a quizzical look. ‘Then your death is a given.’
‘Death is, but not mine.’
A small green stone appeared in her hand. Barrax had seen them before - poison stones, favoured by the dark monks of the Eternal Brotherhood. First you got the victim to ingest the poison powder somehow and then when you were ready, you crushed the stone to activate it. Death was usually only minutes away from that point.
His two hearts both skipped a beat when he realised that her disks and blade must have been coated in the powder.
‘You would dare?’
‘I would.’ and without a further thought she clenched her fist and crushed the stone. Instantly Barrax felt something course through him and his legs and arms start to stiffen, he gripped his chest instinctively. He went to step forward but his movements had become very sluggish, his mind screaming commands but his body very slow to respond. Nex easily danced around his clumsy stagger as she plunged another small knife into his arm, a feeling of chilling cold emerging from the wound and starting to flow through his system.
‘Normally the powder would kill you but I had my son K’Dian modify it. For all purposes it will look like you were slain in this hall but you will still be aware of what is happening to you as they carry you away to be mourned.’
He went to speak but his mouth refused to open so he let out a small moan instead which was cut off as his throat stopped. He now stood as still as a statue.
‘Hush. Your usefulness isn’t at an end yet. K’Dian has some grand plans in store that he cannot wait to try out.
Barrax couldn’t blink, he couldn’t make a sound or even move his now glazed over eyes to look at her.
‘It’s a shame that you couldn’t meet him before now but knowing you, you’d probably have him killed on the spot.’
She pushed him over and he toppled to the ground, still affixed in the position he was in when the poison took control.
‘We’ll be seeing you again shortly...father.’ She called out as she disappeared down the hallway. ‘Although this has to have been one of our most pleasant of meetings..’
‘It isssss done?’ Istron spoke into her mind as she entered the feasting hall.
‘He has been taken care of’ she replied.
‘Your plansssss with him now?’
‘He will serve me for a very long time to come.’
‘But will he sssssuffer?’
‘Greatly.’
‘Of this I am glad. Now, before you are discovered you must carry out the next sssstep.’
‘Surely there must be another way. Perhaps sorcery could restore you to your for-’
‘What issss done cannot be undone’ he interrupted. ‘I am a mere sssshadow of the warrior I once was. I cannot return to my former glory. Best to end on a blade than live like this for eternity.’
‘I think you for your guidance. Not only tonight but when I lived here. You taught me far more than he ever could.’
‘You are most welcome little one. The dark lady guide your hand.’
Her long knife pierced through under the chin and right into the magical centre of his brain. In moments the magical blue light of his eyes faded to a dull lifeless brown. As the sounds of soldiers running down the halls having found their fallen lord filled the air, Nex slipped quietly into the shadows and away into the night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
In all of his distinguished career as a medical examiner, Dr Patterson had never seen anything as intricate or nearly as terrifying as Unit M, laying prone on the table before him. It was a very hard task working out where the strange creature ended and the machine began. Strips of flesh were woven over, under and through metal constructs as if someone had sliced him up and then weaved him into the machine as if he was a craft project. Pipes and hoses of all shapes and sizes similar to those you’d find assisting a car or plane engine circulated between armour plating that had buckled under heavy munitions fire. Patterson couldn’t work out if it was the heat from the explosives or something else that had fused the plates to the body. His face was most parts metal with one lens and one flesh eye, an eye too bulbous to be even considered as human. Strange rubbery coil similar to insulated wire ran across all parts of the creature, entering and exiting various sections.
The little fluid they could withdraw out of the of some of the remaining flesh couldn’t be identified by any of the high powered equipment in the complex lab. The substances leaking out from some of the pipes damaged in the blast seemed a mix of unknown minerals but had the same density and feel as motor oil.
The metal that most of this monster was made from? Unidentified so far - nothing seemed to come close to anything noted on the periodic table. It seemed very strong and had absorbed a lot of damage in the attack.
Normally Dr Patterson loved a good thriller, a mystery that would keep him guessing right to the very end - but this thing was a mystery of nightmarish properties. Even though it was inert, it still gave the doctor deep chills and made his heart beat twice as fast when he got anywhere near it - an effect he far more unerving than any time he had been attempting battlefield surgery in the middle of a chaotic warzone.
Whatever it was, it shouldn’t be possible. Something like this with the marvels of modern technology simply shouldn’t exist and yet here it was. Studying it fully would take decades, possibly even a lifetime and while he was feeling slightly unnerved in its vicinity, his assistants were verging on visible panic.
‘Steel yourself!’ he had warned. ‘We are probably never going to get another amazing opportunity to study something as unique as this, so focus!’
Thousands of pictures of it had been taken already from every possible
angle. Dr Patterson would focus on a particular area and his verbal notes would be recorded while assistants with cameras worked around him, all while being filmed and streamed through the cameras above - watched by many at the top level of the group.
It was slow, tiring work, grueling work. But as he had said himself - when would they get an opportunity such as this again?
He had been focussed on a series of x-rays brought in - growing frustrated at the fact that they couldn’t penetrate past the armour plating and completely missed the sound of something clicking quickly. However Dr Korg his assistant had heard it and ordered silence in the theatre.
Another click. Slightly softer this time. It seemed out of place in the buzzing and humming of the machinery around them.
‘Move all the instruments back, I want to make sure it’s nothing on our side!’ Patterson ordered. There was a flurry of activity and all of the scanning tools, trays and wheeled carts were dragged out the way quickly. The soldiers assigned to keep watch during the proceedings stepped forward and aimed their rifles at the prone body.
A voice beeped out of the intercom.
‘Dr Patterson, an update please.’
‘We have heard a noise. We’re trying to isolate the source.’ he replied back.
‘What kind of noise?’
‘A metallic “click” Dr Korg added.
‘And you believe it is coming from the creature?’
‘At this stage I am ruling nothing out’ he said nervously as he moved closer to the prone body. As far as he could see, nothing looked out of place from a few minutes ago. He looked up and Dr Korg shrugged her shoulders.
‘Would it be on tape?’
‘I don’t think it would have been loud enough to be picked up.’ She said.
‘Then we wait and hopefully we can isolate it again this time.’
So the theatre waited quietly. Even the voice on the intercom realised the tenseness in the room and remained quiet as the minutes past.
Five minutes. Then ten. The room felt hotter with each passing minute as tensions became frayed. Then fifteen.
Finally after a few minutes more, Dr Patterson spoke.
‘Surely we should have heard something by now. Alright, back to work people. This mystery isn’t going to solve itself and we’ve barely scratched the surface here.’
The theatre rushed back to work mode but a little more wary this time. However whatever caused the strange noise originally remained silent. Perhaps everyone had been working so hard around the clock, they imagined it? They rarely took breaks and when they did, it was only a momentary pause for breath and maybe a sip of water - perfect conditions for a mind to play tricks on you.
Deep down he didn’t believe the notion for a second.
‘After you leave the old man in the car, what did you do next?’
‘We felt it unwise to continue to stay where we were. More scouting parties could arrive.’
‘You were scared of more numbers?’
‘Not scared for us little meat’ Dar'kannag viciously grinned. ‘We were always up for more sport. However time was wasting and we were no closer to finding a way back so we decided to find someone in power who might now.’
‘I see. And who would that be?’
‘We’d know when we met them. Either they would would give us what we wanted to know or we would crush them.’
‘And after they gave you what they knew?’
‘We would crush them all the same’ he laughed.
Omega sighed. He’d read all the reports of the sightings and occasional carnage the four had caused on their way to the small town of Coffsville. Cars run off the road, fleeing drivers shot or run over. Even the occasional cow or horse had been used as target practice - they were obviously testing the weapons they’d gained from the biker bar. But he needed to hear the full story from the beast anyway to fill in the blanks.
‘You theorized that people who might now would reside in larger towns?’
‘We did. So far we had only met cretins with no knowledge of other realms whatsoever.’
‘And so you went looking for someone in Coffsville.’
‘Was that the village's name? Such terribly fortified area. Have your creatures truly no knowledge of war?’
‘Tell me what happened when you drove into town?’
‘Word had spread. Your people were waiting.’
‘And?’
‘We got to engage in our favourite past time once again!’
Word had reached the residents and authorities long before the wagon rolled into town. A surviving driver run off the road along the way had put the alert through and with more terrified sightings calling through shortly after the small local police department had taken no chances. Clad in fresh riot armour that they hadn’t had a need of up until now and armed with high powered rifles they had put the town on high alert and set up nearby cars as they could to form a barricade through the centre of the town. Additional forces were called in from other towns and the small army training centre nearby also scrambled to bring additional forces to bear.
The callers had been on the edge of hysteria and so the spooked locals were taking no chances. A small army gathered in the quickest time possible and as soon as the terrible wagon rumbled into sight, they opened fire.
‘Our reputation precedes us!’ Nex giggled as the bullets bounced off the protective screen. She was very keen to return fire via the window but Dar'kannag had cautioned her.
‘Not until we understand the full extent of their attack.’
‘Scanning now.’ Unit M buzzed, immediately acting on his words. In just a few moments his report came back. ‘Of all weapons, only three in the group ahead pose significant threat to this vehicle. Two large calibre elongated firearms, one cannon like device mounted aimed skyward with capacity for large shells.’
‘Then the first two are the main priority. Get close enough and they run the risk of the third causing damage to themselves. Nex, silence the ones with those weapons. K’Dian, you and Unit stay with the wagon.’
‘But I can help!’
‘You will not. You are nowhere near ready.’
‘But..’
‘ENOUGH!’ Dar’Kannag barked. ‘I have given you orders, I expect them to be carried out!’
‘Orders understood.’ Unit M chirped back. K’Dian just sighed and refused to answer.
While the forces seemed to be pooled directly in front of them, Dar'kannag didn’t believe for a second that there wouldn’t be more hiding in the outlying buildings on the edges of the village. The chances of more heavy ordnance with the pocketed snipers were less though and he quickly spun the wheel and the vehicle lurched to the right, racing behind an old stone building. There was huge boom and an explosion just behind them - a lucky guess with the mortar that sent bits of the blasted road bouncing off the back of the war wagon. Had Dar'kannag kept his course straight..
Before the wagon came to a screeching halt, Nex dove out of the window gracefully rolling forward to come to move up to a running position and with her rifle in hand, sprinted off into a nearby laneway to get closer to the congregation.
Dar'kannag reached into the centre console for his hand cannon. It had been an age between uses but it could come in very handy here. He checked the load, nodded to his son and stepped out to join the fighting.
Without further instruction K’Dian and Unit M also barrelled out and took up guard position near the wagon, the look on K’Dian’s face one of utter contempt.
‘We should take the fight to them!’ roared one local as he watched the vehicle narrowly miss the mortar hit and disappear from view behind the building.
‘Thinking like that will get you killed you idiot! They want this place so bad, they can come to us and try and take it’ another one added. He’d been an army reservist and knew the importance of fortifications. While the hastily moved cars wasn’t the greatest cover, it was better than nothing.
‘No one goes anywhere’ the captain
of the soldiers who had been on march nearby ordered. He too was wary of the reports until he had seen first hand the terrible vehicle racing towards the town. And then when he sighted through his binoculars what was driving it...the further away the occupants of it stayed away from him and the town, the better. ‘We hold position.’ He thumbed the call button on his radio.
‘Turner, Fitzsimmons - give me eyes. Where are they now?’
‘Nothing on this side captain!’ Fitzsimmons communicated back from his position spotting from the right side of town.
‘The vehicle has stopped right outside the old mechanics institute.’ Turner spoke. ‘The skinny white thing in the black armour jumped out and ran down Harrigan’s lane. The big purple ugly one is tracking wide. He ran down Cottage road and I lost him going into Jericho Street. There’s two left, some ugly ass robot looking thing and hrrrrk!-’ The transmission suddenly cut off.
‘Turner respond. Turner...’
But he couldn’t on account of Nex’s stiletto like blade that had pierced the back of his neck and slid seamlessly through his throat.
‘Damnit Turner, respond!’
The Captain turned to the two men occupying the mortar nearby.
‘Shell that same area. But bring the area of effect closer to your left. Two of them are lurking around, I want them taken out.’
‘Sir, we might end up damaging the building.’
‘That’s irrelevant now sergeant. We don’t blow those things to hell, the building is the last of our worries.’
He spun to the rest of the agitated group.
‘Two of them are weaving their way through this side’ he motioned to the buildings nearby. ‘Small arms at the thin one and save the anti tanks for the purple one.’
‘What the fuck are we fighting here army man?’ one of the local police members called out ‘Aliens?’
‘Wish I knew what the hell was going on here.’ He replied back. ‘But I think we’ll find out in a moment..’ he said quietly to himself.