A distinctly Novaarian voice called out, “I hope you have a plan if you intend to take this station in one piece.”
Ja-lax sighed. “Commander Norvak, is it?” He gestured with one of his robotic arms for the team to take up assault positions around the door.
“You must be another Protocorps lackey.”
Ja-lax checked the ammunition level on his Splicer. “If you’re hoping to stall us I’m afraid there are no reinforcements coming to help. No signal gets off Shandar without going through someone on the Protocorps pay scale. They still own this planet, Commander.”
The Novaarian grunted. “Then neither of us are going anywhere, it seems.”
Ja-lax licked his dark lips. “Time is kind of a factor for me. So, I’ll tell you what: why don’t you and I have a chat, no guns, and we’ll come up with a way that sees you and your team walk out of here. There’s no need for you all to die.” The Shay sent a worded message across their neural net to his team, instructing them to get ready to breach.
“You think I am stupid enough to trust the word of a mercenary?” Norvak replied.
“I wasn’t always a mercenary, Commander. Once, I was just like you; a good little soldier who did as he was told.” Ja-lax cracked his neck, readying himself for action. “Now, I’m coming out,” he called, throwing his Splicer X1 into the control room. His robotic arms hugged his body, blending with his armour while maintaining a grip on the Rollers.
“The moment your hand touches anything but air, you are dead,” Norvak warned.
“Fair enough,” Ja-lax agreed.
The Shay stuck both of his semi-organic hands out first, followed by his beaming smile and the rest of his body. Once his new eye had clocked every member of the strike team, his internal targeting system linked up with his robotic arms. With his hands still in the air, both robotic arms shot out, pulling free his holstered Rollers, and fired off half a dozen shots before the first C-Sec soldier could return fire. At the same moment, the rest of his team exploded into the room and fired short accurate bursts, being careful not to destroy the workstations.
Blood went everywhere and the smell of ozone soon filled the control room. An Intrinium round caught Ja-lax in the leg and he used the blow to drop into a roll and come back up with his Splicer in hand. Two of his four were already down, both picked off by Commander Norvak, but the majority of the Novaarian’s strike team were now lying dead over consoles. Three quick bursts from the Splicer sent three jagged crystals into the side of a Tularon’s furry head.
Undeterred by his team’s demise, Norvak leapt over a bank of monitors and swiped his staff across the face of one of the Shay, knocking her aside and opening up a clear shot at another.
Ja-lax took his shot.
A blue crystal, the size of his hand, whistled through the air and impaled the commander’s neck. The Novaarian crumpled against the wall, struggling to breathe with red blood filling his throat.
“If it’s any consolation, I never planned on having a chat.” Ja-lax shot Norvak one last time, putting a crystal in his brain.
The control room was a bloody mess, much like the rest of the installation. The two surviving Shay went about clearing the bodies from the consoles while Ja-lax searched for the activation panel. By the time he had powered up the Crucible and entered the codes Councillor Nu-marn had given him, Vo-den and his team had returned, minus one. The casualties were more than acceptable in Ja-lax’s eyes; they each got a bigger cut, after all.
“Alright. Let’s turn this thing on and get out of here.” Ja-lax hit the final key and sat back as the Crucible came to life. The ground shook slightly, but it didn’t appear to be getting any worse. He calmed the rest of the team down and instructed them to wait. They weren’t leaving until they knew it was working.
“Now what?” Vo-den asked.
Ja-lax watched the holographic readouts, curious himself as to what would actually happen. There were towers all over the planet’s surface reading as active, though their connection to the installation remained a mystery to the mercenary.
“Can you hear that?” Vo-den shouted in the quiet control room.
The Shay was clearly experiencing discomfort, quickly followed by others on the team. Most of them dropped their weapons in favour of grabbing their heads. Vo-den almost collapsed in pain before Ja-lax began to feel something. It was a buzzing in his ears at first, followed swiftly by dark spots in his vision. His bony hands cramped up and he dropped the Splicer, though he barely registered the sound it made as it clattered on the floor.
An alert flashed over his internal network, a private alarm that only he could see. The operating implant, inserted into his brain as a child as it had been in almost every Shay, was breaking down. The implant, a Protocorps design, was there to bridge the synaptic gaps between his organic body parts and artificial augmentations. He could see the mesh in his mind’s eye breaking apart from the inside and a dark liquid flooding his brain, multiplying in size and spreading through both his veins and circuits. He wanted to cry out but he was losing all motor function and his jaw refused to open.
The dark spots in his vision grew until the shadows consumed him…
Chapter 8
Roland gave Ava the nod and the colonel activated the hack on the hangar’s security systems, unlocking the internal door. Guided by hand signals alone, the Raiders and Naydaalan had assumed their positions around the opening door and were ready for whatever might greet them. Despite Ava’s leadership over the team, the colonel respected Roland’s past and accepted his advice and suggestions, especially since he had far greater knowledge of the Conclave. Only once or twice had she objected to his carefree tactics, but those objections were probably the reason he was still alive…
It had been decades since the bounty hunter was part of a team and, thanks to copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, he couldn’t say he remembered much of it. Of course, the training was hardwired into his brain now and would accompany him to his grave. Falling into their manoeuvres had felt like putting on an old uniform and he hated to admit the enjoyment he found in working with them. There was that one time, however, when he had got drunk and told Len of his kinship with the others, Kalian and Li’ara included.
“You just like shooting stuff,” Len had said. “And now you have friends to shoot stuff with!”
Roland couldn’t disagree with that; even Naydaalan had an aggressive streak in him that proved not all Novaarians were peace-loving tree huggers.
Ava tapped her earpiece. “Len, has the Rackham linked in with the Starforge yet? How much resistance can we expect?”
The team cautiously moved through the first few corridors of white walls and polished floors. Roland had his trusty Tri-rollers in both hands but Len’s hesitation to reply spoke volumes to the bounty hunter.
“Len, what’s going on?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” the Ch’kara replied. “The nanocelium tether connected to the nearest port as usual, but this time something bit back.”
“Explain,” Ava said.
“Something tried to corrupt the Rackham’s nanocelium. I had to cancel the link and pull back the tether.”
Roland stopped just short of the next corner and hugged the wall, checking it was clear with a quick glance before turning back to look at Naydaalan’s swirling eyes. “There’s only one thing that can stand up to nanocelium. More nanocelium.”
The Novaarian agreed. “There must be a source on board controlling the Starforge.”
“Without Len’s hook up, we’re blind to what’s ahead,” Lieutenant Riddick warned.
Ava crossed Roland and took up position on the other side of the corner. “Then we just do it the old fashion way. We move as one and clear out every corridor.”
“Effective but slow,” Naydaalan said. “The Starforge’s internal network is too vast to cover in the time available. We have to sabotage the station before it reaches Arakesh.”
Roland double-checked the three hundred rounds o
f Intrinium in each Tri-roller. “Big guy’s right. We need to make for the heart of this place and give it something to worry about. Len, didn’t Kalian once hand over schematics from the last Starforge?”
“Yep. I’ll send them through.”
Roland swiped the screen built into the sleeve of his hide coat. The control centre was in the middle of the present station, several levels above them. The bounty hunter sent the schematics to the rest of the group, ensuring that if the worst was to happen, they would all know how to reach the centre.
“Move out,” Ava ordered.
The team made to continue down the next corridor only to be blinded by the flashes of Intrinium gunfire. Roland instinctively ducked and rolled, narrowly avoiding two bolts of super-heated energy. The wall behind him exploded and covered his long coat in debris. Before he could get back up, the Raiders were firing over the top of him, forcing the Protocorps mercenaries into hiding. The mercs weren’t fast enough. The bounty hunter jumped and unleashed his Tri-rollers, catching two of the Shay squarely in the chest.
The Raiders scattered, taking advantage of the alcoves and side doors for cover. Roland holstered one of his weapons and crouched in front of the dead Shay, propping his body up to use as a shield. A second look at the corpse in his hand gave the bounty hunter pause. The Shay’s pale skin and cybernetic augments were subtly shifting with wriggling strands of nanocelium.
“What the fu—”
The dead Shay opened its eyes and snapped a hand around Roland’s wrist. The bounty hunter whipped his Tri-roller up and put a round in the alien’s head, blowing both brain matter and circuitry out the other side.
“What was that?’ Ava shouted over the gunfire.
With no cover, Roland leapt across the floor and scrambled to reach the nearest alcove. A stray Intrinium bolt struck the Callic-Diamond armour over his chest and pounded him into the alcove wall. The armour was tough enough to keep the bolt from killing him, but it still felt like a gut punch.
Out of the corner of his eye, the Shay he had just shot through the head sat up and reached for its fallen weapon. The second Shay he had caught in the chest was already finding its feet and returning fire at the Raiders. Seeing his enemies bounce back from mortal wounds was as baffling as it was astounding, but more than anything it just pissed off the bounty hunter. Roland peeled himself off the wall and levelled both Tri-rollers at the mercenaries. Round after round reduced their alien bodies to slag, blowing off limbs and turning vital organs to soup, yet still they fired their weapons.
“What the shit is this?” Danvers called.
When there wasn’t enough left of the Shay to even pull the triggers, Roland could see their various body parts moving across the ruined floor. Strands of nanocelium pulled the limbs and viscera together, slowly knitting the mercenaries back together.
Roland pulled his head back into the alcove when the Shay further down the corridor took aim at him. He didn’t have long, however, before the two in front of him were whole again and ready to fight.
“Screw this! Nayd!” The bounty hunter removed a grenade from his belt and held it up for Naydaalan to see. Of them all, the Novaarian had the longest throw and he could hurl more than two at a time.
“Retreat!” Ava ordered, after seeing their silent conversation.
Naydaalan used his two upper arms to retrieve a couple of grenades from the straps across his chest. While his upper limbs primed the bombs, his lower arms continued to pour Intrinium fire down the corridor.
Roland stole a glimpse at the re-forming Shay. “Do it now!”
The Novaarian threw both of his grenades, his accuracy perfectly placing the bombs at the feet of the distant mercenaries. Roland took his opportunity and ran to meet up with the retreating Raiders, dropping his own grenade behind him as he did. In the same moment that Naydaalan’s grenades exploded, the re-forming Shay were subjected to an implosion that took both sides of the corridor with it, as well as the ceiling and floor. Had the bounty hunter not jumped at the last second, his body would have been pulled in with the other victims.
“What the hell is going on?” Ava asked as she pulled Roland to his feet. “Can Shay do that?”
“No,” Naydaalan answered. “Nothing should be able to do that.”
“Their bodies are infected with nanocelium,” Roland explained.
Lieutenant Wilson blew her dark hair from her face and reloaded her assault rifle. “Why do I suddenly want to get off this station?”
Roland holstered his Tri-rollers and heaved the Chem-roller strapped over his shoulder. The two-handed weapon was equipped with multiple settings, including his favourite explosive rounds.
“Let’s find an alternate route,” he suggested.
“Shit…” It was Jess who had sworn, her eyes locked on the corridor they had torn up. “The mercs at the end are getting back up.”
“Move out,” Ava ordered.
Choosing to use the emergency hatches and avoid the Translifts, the team moved slowly through the station, managing to avoid alerting Protocorps to their exact whereabouts. They succeeded in progressing through six levels before the next firefight broke out. Having learnt from their first encounter, the Raiders took turns lobbing grenades down the corridor. On their way through the smoking ruins, the team emptied whole magazines into the fallen Shay, doing their best to keep the body parts from re-forming.
“We need to keep moving and stay ahead of them,” Roland said, squeezing the Chem-roller’s trigger one last time. The mercenary’s head caved in and worms of nanocelium wriggled over its charred remains.
“Watch out!” Naydaalan closed the gap between him and Roland before the bounty hunter even perceived a threat.
From the shadows of the nearest alcove, a Shay survivor had jumped out at Roland with a blade in its hand. The bounty hunter stepped back, a reactionary movement, but also unnecessary. Naydaalan caught the Shay mid-jump and pinned it to the wall with his upper arms while his lower limbs worked the assault rifles in his hands. The cacophony of weapons fire erupted across the Shay’s midriff and didn’t stop until the alien’s legs fell to the floor, leaving its torso pinned to the wall. Still, its top half squirmed, desperate to lash out and kill the Novaarian.
‘Finish it and let’s get the hell out of here!” Ava was already directing the Raiders down the next corridor.
Naydaalan lifted his assault rifle and pressed the barrel under the Shay’s jaw. One squeeze of the trigger blew off the top of the alien’s head off, decorating the ceiling with blood and nanocelium.
“Thanks, big guy.” Roland patted the Novaarian on the shoulder.
Ava led the group down the next corridor, the final corridor ending with the double doors of the control room. It was unmanned but ominous in appearance, the largest of all the doors in the station. The group cautiously approached, checking every corner and alcove with levelled weapons and fingers on triggers.
“Let’s see what’s inside,” Ava said, commanding Riddick to access the panel on the wall.
With a hiss, the doors parted to reveal the enormous chamber beyond.
Having briefly read the report Kalian gave about his encounter with Malek on the Helteron Starforge, Roland could see that the control rooms were identical. The room was a large cube, with two tiers above a pitted level in the middle. The control room itself was situated in the widest part of the crescent and raised above the surface of the hull. Being off-centre from the rest of the station, the viewport, which took up a whole side of the chamber, offered a majestic view of the Solian Way, framing the arching limbs of the Starforge to the right which, from this distance, seemed to almost meet making the crescent into a ring.
Ava turned to her team. “Jess, Katy, find a way to lock down the doors. Riddick, Danvers, rig the shit out of the external corridor. I want to hear explosions before any Shay even touches the door’s controls. It won’t put them down but at least it’ll give us more time.”
Roland halted his exploration of the c
ontrol room when he reached the lip of the pitted tier. The stations and consoles were tangled in black strands of nanocelium, all of which snaked back into the centre, where a single cube was sitting.
“Oh, shit…”
Naydaalan joined him by the edge. “A cube. C-Sec theorised that there might be more.”
“Did they theorise what we do when we find one?” Roland asked sceptically.
“Not touching it came up a lot,” Naydaalan quipped.
“Fair enough.” Roland had seen what had happened to Professor Jones and Malek, the last people who had interacted with the cubes. “Len, any idea how we steer this big bastard into the nearest black hole?”
“What are you still doing there?” Len shouted frantically down his ear. “You just found a cube! You should be running back to the Rackham!”
“Sounds like someone’s blood sugar is a little low…”
“I’m serious, Roland. If that thing has its tentacles in the Starforge’s systems, there’s nothing you can do.”
Roland inspected the strands attached to the cube’s bronze plating. “Nothing technical at least.”
“That’s a terrible idea!”
The bounty hunter tapped his earpiece and put the brakes on Len’s rant before it could get started. “Okay, if this thing is piloting the Starforge, we just need to take its hands off the wheel.” The Raiders returned from their duties and surrounded the cube on all sides of the pitted tier. “Aim for the strands,” Roland directed. “We don’t have anything powerful enough to dent that shiny plating.”
As one, the team opened up with every weapon they had, filling the large chamber with the smell of ozone and smoke. The consoles were ripped to pieces and the strands of nanocelium were severed, their tentacle ends writhing about between the stations.
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