Fey’s voice cried out, “Telarrek! Behind you!”
The Novaarian didn’t hesitate to spin around and bring the butt of his rifle to bear. He struck the attacking Shay across the head, knocking it back enough to allow him to level his pistol and shoot the alien in the neck. The force of it was enough to disintegrate its entire neck, leaving the head to roll away.
“We can’t hold them off forever!” Fey yelled over the sound of her own pistol.
Telarrek dared to steal a glimpse at the data streaming over the glass screen behind him. They needed the Crucible to be destroyed, now. Noting the rising number of casualties was unfortunately all Telarrek had time for. Three Shay had scrambled through the gaps left by the fallen honour guards and leapt the rest of the distance to reach the Novaarian. He raised his rifle, all too aware that he hadn’t reacted quickly enough to repel them. Between their metallic fingers and sharp teeth, the High Councillor feared that these were his final moments.
All three of the Shay were hammered by Intrinium rounds mid-flight and sent rolling across the consoles. Another Shay dashed over the top of an honour guard, only to be equally riddled with super-heated bolts of energy, saving Telarrek once again.
The High Councillor turned to the main door and found his son Naydaalan charging the control room with high-powered rifles in both pairs of arms. His long muscular legs kicked out, breaking bones and launching Shay into the crossfire of the honour guards. His tendrils whipped through the air as his head turned to clock every target leaping around the room.
“Naydaalan!” Telarrek called his son to his position.
The young Novaarian put down three more Shay and easily leapt over the row of consoles to reach his father and Councillor Fey. “There are more outside,” he said. “They are heading towards the hotels on the other side of the ring. They are going for the humans.”
Telarrek levelled his rifle and unleashed devastating Intrinium into a cluster of infected aliens. Others behind the cluster were finding their shapes again and steadily rising, preparing to continue their assault. This wasn’t a fight they could win. The Novaarian dared to remain standing and attempted to punch a series of commands into the console. He needed to make sure the central AI alerted their enemy to the humans’ movements.
“Take Councillor Fey to the top level. There is an emergency transport up there. Get her back to her people and see them through the Starforge.” Telarrek turned to Fey. “I am afraid we cannot wait for a full report from the Regis. If you stay here, the Shay will stop at nothing until you are all dead. We need to move on to the next phase of the plan while we still can.”
“Come with us!” Fey pleaded.
Telarrek shook his head. “We must take back the command tower!” The Novaarian looked at his son. “Take her, now! Go!” The High Councillor didn’t wait to hear any protests; there were Shay to kill.
Li Fey knew she had mixed emotions about leaving Telarrek and the other councillors behind but, between the screams of the Shay and the rounds leaving Naydaalan’s rifles, the old captain didn’t have time to process any of them. Instead, she followed closely behind the Novaarian and kept her pistol levelled with both hands.
“This way!” Naydaalan escorted her to the emergency stairwell, where they ascended to the top level.
“It’s locked,” Fey observed upon sighting the red light on the touchpad beside the door.
Naydaalan fired a single round into the pad. “Cover me,” he ordered.
Fey turned around and focused her eye along the length of the pistol, noting all the vents. Screams echoed from down the stairwell, though not all of them belonged to Shay. A glance over her shoulder revealed Naydaalan using all four of his hands to separate the two halves of the door.
“Quickly!” he hissed, hurrying into the emergency hangar.
Barely two minutes later, they were both strapped into the cockpit and taking off. The ceiling opened up and the light of Clave Tower flooded the hangar, along with a mob of Shay, who had been crawling over the roof. They dropped on to the small transport and immediately began slamming their cybernetic fists into the glass around the cockpit.
Fey lifted her pistol and squeezed the trigger, making every shot count. The Intrinium melted through the glass and continued through the aliens’ heads, causing them to slip off the hull. One particularly feral Shay thrust its fist into one of the Intrinium holes and snatched at the air in an attempt to steal her gun.
“Hold on!” Naydaalan warned, shifting the control stick all the way to port.
The Shay were thrown from the transport, including the one with its arm sticking through the jagged hole. The force of it tore the alien’s body away from its limb, which dropped into the cockpit at Fey’s feet. She instinctively kicked it and stomped on it until she plucked up the courage to pick it up and throw it into the cabin behind them.
It took several minutes to traverse the distance from one side of the ring to the other, especially with all the C-Sec transports flying past them, heading towards the command tower. Naydaalan brought the ship down beside the warehouse, where a trail of humans could be seen making their way inside. Hopefully, Fey thought, they would have the Starforge up and running by now.
“Look! Over there!”
Fey followed Naydaalan’s eyes to the dark mass of infected aliens climbing up the levels to reach the human population. They didn’t have long.
The pair ran from the transport and entered the warehouse through a side door. Inside, the Forge was a swirling vortex of colour and white light. People were walking through but it wasn’t fast enough.
“Li!” Captain Holt left the control panel beside the Forge and ran over to meet her. “What’s going on? We received a message from the command tower telling us to leave as soon as possible.”
“The Shay are coming!” She burst out. “They’re right behind the precession!”
“Shit…” Holt looked down the length of the parade.
“Where’s Kalian?” Fey asked.
“He already went through with the Gomar,” Jed explained. “They went to make sure Evalan was safe.”
Fey couldn’t hide her despair. Kalian and the Gomar were the only ones powerful enough to not only put the Shay down, but also to make sure they didn’t get back up again.
“Okay…” she said, assessing the situation. “I don’t mean to start a panic, and I realise that some might be hurt in the process, but these people really need to start running.”
Jed nodded in agreement. “Commander Vale! We need to get these people through this Forge ASAP! We’ve got enemies closing in!”
Samantha Vale clapped her hands and roused a group of UDC soldiers. Her orders were simple: head down the line and tell everyone to start running forward. When they reached the end they were to hold off any enemies until they could step through the Forge themselves.
“I will help them,” Naydaalan said, hefting his two massive rifles.
Fey knew she would be of better help coordinating the flow of people running through the Forge. She hurried over and helped two people get back to their feet before ushering them forward again. A child’s wail brought her attention to the small boy standing to the side of the trail, his wet eyes searching the rushing throng for any sign of his parents.
“Commander Vale!” Fey shouted as she scooped the child up in her arms. “Take him and get him through the Forge! Find his parents!”
Intrinium fire erupted in the distance and Fey recognised the sound of Naydaalan’s rifles. The captain did her best to keep the people calm and moving forward. That became increasingly difficult as the weapons fire edged ever closer to the warehouse doors. An explosion rocked everyone on their feet and Fey instantly worried what had become of the UDC soldiers and Naydaalan.
“Keep going!” she yelled.
The wall behind her was shredded by Intrinium fire, forcing those who had not yet passed through the Forge to drop to the floor. The screams increased tenfold as bolts of Intrinium tore the wal
l to pieces and impacted the floor around the Forge. That couldn’t have come from any of the rifles wielded by the soldiers or Naydaalan.
“Go! Quickly!” Fey pointed at the Forge while helping up people who had stumbled and fallen and ushering them onwards.
With her pistol in hand, Fey made for the exit to see what was going on. They were down to the last hundred passing through the Forge now, prompting her to ensure the soldiers made it through. Every human life was precious.
The doors slid apart to a world on fire. The Shay were everywhere, crawling over every surface, killing any who were unfortunate enough to get in their way. The source of the Intrinium bolts cutting through the warehouse wall was clear to see, if somewhat horrifying.
Hovering out of control, a C-Sec transport assault ship was being overrun with Shay, some of whom had punched their way through the glass, creating chaos inside the cockpit. The transport spun this way and that before finally slamming into the level above in an explosion of fire and black smoke.
Fey covered her eyes from the flare, but she was forced to take aim with her pistol when a group of Shay dropped away from the wall and came at her. The first one was hit by enough Intrinium rounds to put it down for a while, but the second and third were too close to finish the job. The captain side-stepped the first infected alien to lunge at her and brought her foot up to boot the second in the chest, pushing it back enough to give her space. The Intrinium rounds to its face gave her some reprieve and a chance to turn around and face the last Shay.
“Shit!” she yelled, seeing the crazed alien abandon its attack on her to enter the warehouse.
Fey glanced at the soldiers and Naydaalan, checking they were all still alive as she ran back into the warehouse. The Shay was running on all fours like an animal in pursuit of its prey: the last of the civilians. Li stopped running and aimed her pistol with both hands. If she missed, the bolt would hit one of her own people. With only a couple of seconds before the Shay was close enough to pounce, the captain took her shot. The Shay’s head exploded from the back as it jumped up, perfectly in line with the Intrinium.
There were more screams when its mangled body hit the floor and slid towards the last of those fleeing through the Forge. Fey took a breath, more thankful than ever that the nanocelium in her blood had reversed her age and sharpened her senses.
Fey looked to the technicians by the side of the Starforge. “There’s just a few more! Hold on!”
Running back to the exit, Fey intended to pull everyone back and get them to Evalan, where they had the protection of Kalian and the others. Outside, things were only getting worse. The soldiers had been pushed back to the door and Naydaalan had been forced to drop one of his rifles, a sputtering mess of sparks at his feet. More Shay were appearing from every crevice, railing, and doorway, with just as many rising from the dead, amalgamations of their comrades’ bodies.
“Get back to the Forge!” Fey ordered. “You too, Naydaalan! It looks like you’re coming to Evalan as well, I’m afraid!” Knowing of their plan to be bait for the harvest ship, the captain felt as if she might be condemning the Novaarian to death, along with the rest of her race.
As one, they sprinted into the warehouse, firing blindly over their shoulders. Naydaalan reached the Starforge long before any of the humans did and dropped to one knee, picking off any Shay who came too close to making contact with the running humans. The captain felt hot blood spray her back and neck more than once, thanks to the Novaarian’s aim.
“Go!” Fey gestured for the technicians to run through the Forge as well. Anyone still alive in this warehouse after the wormhole had been shut down could not boast such a feat for very long.
Naydaalan stood up and slowly advanced on the Shay, pressing his attack at the last minute to give the humans a chance. Fey caught his eye as she ran past, noting the Novaarian’s determination to kill every Shay who meant them harm. He was a warrior through and through but, in Fey’s experience, they tended to be the ones who died for others. In that split second, she had to make a choice, and had it been the lives of any other race she might have reached out and dragged Naydaalan with her. But the ugly truth was that the lives of these soldiers were more important than his.
Fey ran through the event horizon, her thoughts too chaotic to consider the fact that her atoms were momentarily pulled apart and reassembled thousands of light years away. The captain ran out into the heat of Evalan’s sun, leaving the air conditioned warehouse behind in a second.
Fey skidded to a stop and turned to watch the Forge. “Come on…”
The technicians on Evalan’s side were waiting for the order to shut down the wormhole.
“Wait!” she commanded, hoping to give the Novaarian as much time as she could.
“What’s going on?” Li’ara Ducarté fought her way through the last of the crowds to reach the captain. “Is everyone through?”
“Not everyone…” Fey replied, her pistol half raised.
Li’ara noted the captain’s stance and drew her own sidearm. They waited for another second before a wild Shay burst through the wormhole, missing an arm and half of its face. Still, it charged them with murderous intent. Both women aimed their weapons but the Shay was split in half, struck from behind by an Intrinium bolt fired from a high powered rifle. Naydaalan strode towards them with smoke rising from the barrel of his rifle.
“Do it!” Fey shouted at the technicians.
Naydaalan turned around and fired a dozen more shots into the wormhole before picking up and throwing the dead Shay back through the Forge. A second later, the light of the wormhole vanished, leaving them all panting and covered in sweat and blood.
“That was too close,” Fey commented, patting Naydaalan on the arm. “Thank you.”
The Novaarian tilted his head in the nod of his race. “We will only survive this if we fight together.”
Fey agreed, though she was tired of only surviving. When would they be able to live again?
Chapter 24
After searching the solar system for any sign of a threat, Kalian and the Gomar boarded ALF’s Starforge at his request, which was now capable of travelling at faster speeds thanks to the extra nanocelium. Every time they passed through its corridors, the station was different in its design and even its layout. Kalian’s perfect memory found more than a few corridors and walkways were simply gone, replaced with walls or new rooms.
“What’s going on ALF?” Kalian asked as they entered the control room. “We were going to head down to the planet.”
ALF was standing over one of his consoles with his hand pressed to the surface. Nanocelium strands wriggled free and connected to the console, which, in turn, brought up a collage of holograms across the glass wall. The AI appeared somewhat distracted, an odd sight for someone normally cool and collected.
“ALF,” he prompted again.
The AI finally turned to regard them, his crystal blue eyes scanning all thirteen of them. “You are all quite the sight,” he commented. “Those new exosuits look much better than your old ones.”
“ALF,” Kalian said with a firmer tone. “Why have you asked us on board?”
“Ah, yes. Sorry to divert you, I’m sure you want to check on the populace. They all made it through the Forge, you’ll be glad to know. A few injuries but no losses.” The AI turned away again, his expression almost pained.
“What’s going on?” Vox asked.
“Talli has let slip our current position, as planned, but the Kellekt are trying to probe further into the AI hubs. I’m just offering Talli a few solutions that might see them repelled.”
Kalian glanced at the Gomar, noting their acclimation to the news that their enemy had a name. He had already shared with them the true origins of nanocelium and their human masters. Most had made a joke of the name, but Kalian had sensed it was a way of dealing with the truth. Indeed, Kalian himself had found it hard to stop thinking about the perpetual cycle humanity seemed to find itself in. From the dawn of time they
had been finding new ways to kill each other, regardless of the distance between planets or even galaxies. How many other species had been wiped from the universe because they invented nanocelium?
Looking at the images flashing up on the glass screen, that question had an ever-changing answer. Hundreds of Conclave planets were under attack and at the mercy of nanocelium ships or infected Shay. The harvesting ship had already claimed two planets, brought one of the core races to the brink of extinction, and destroyed the Sentinel in a single attack.
A star chart situated on the left of the glass screen showed the harvesting ship to be on course for the capital, having abandoned its next feast and leaving Sordomo to the Shay. The battle over Shandar wasn’t going the way he had hoped. The nanocelium vessels were proving too hard to bring down, unlike the goliath Marillion, which appeared to now be a smoking crater on Shandar’s surface.
Kovak stepped forward from the group. “Why are we here?” he asked. “That sounds like your side of things, not ours.”
ALF stood up straight. “You’re here because there’s nothing more to keep from you. The Three are trying to make contact with me…”
Kalian looked from the apprehensive faces of the Gomar to ALF. “Why would they try to communicate with us?”
“You have to remember,” ALF explained, “the Three are not entirely nanocelium. They retain their intelligence from their time as humans. They have personalities, needs, wants, desires. The problem we have is that they’re still on course for the capital, despite learning of our exodus. They probably want to threaten us with their increasing size.” The AI looked at them all with a sly grin. “I thought it was about time that we threatened them. Talli, connect us through the AI hub on Evalan.”
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