Breathing Fire (Drakonian Chronicles Book 1)

by B. D. Snowden

  The two men spent the next half hour gathering information and weapons. There weapon stores were minimal. This was a research facility and not a military outpost after all. Tugarin made note that They would need to begin fortifying their properties more as long as Fafnir remained a threat.

  Ladon had sent one update about fifteen minutes ago stating that he had not found the enemy but there was a large amount of smoke rising in the distance and he was heading that direction. Ryuu confirmed that the sensors recorded that the whole ship had crashed. Which added another thing they would have to take care of, hopefully before the human authorities could get there.

  Finally, Alexis returned from speaking with Cadmus. The grim look on her face told Tugarin that whatever she had been told wasn’t a good thing. His supposition was confirmed when she described what Ladon would be facing. Tugarin was certain that given time he could figure out a way to take care of the abomination that Fafnir had created. But one thing they didn’t have was time.

  After hearing what Ryuu and Tugarin found, Alexis came up with a plan. It was bold and might get them all killed, but it was better than just sitting there.

  45

  “Are you sure we should have left Cadmus in the control room?” Ryuu asked for the third time as they trudged through the snow towards the black smoke rising in the sky.

  “He willing let me into his mind, Ryuu. He was as much a victim of Fafnir as you were.” Alexis stumbled in a particularly deep snow bank. It was slow going without the sled and dogs. But the sled still needed to be repaired before it would be usable again.

  As they got closer the air became more thick with smoke. Alexis was worried that when they found the remains of the ship that they would only find a burned-out husk. They needed to know if any of the remaining crew survived, especially Fafnir’s Frankenstein.

  Over the last ridge of snow, they found the smoldering remains of the Drakonian ship. It was actually much smaller than Alexis had assumed it would be, covering the area of a New York high rise if it was laid on the ground instead of in the air. She had assumed that a vessel meant for deep space travel would have needed the space of a city.

  “Looks like a newer version of the military’s rapid response vessels,” Ryuu said as he crested the ridge of snow to look down on the ship below.

  “Makes sense considering how quickly they got here from Drakos,” Tugarin added. “Let’s go see what we can find.” He called as he was already sliding down the slope towards the ship.

  The ship had cracked in two when it crashed. The front part taking the most damage. That was where the flames had been confined. Alexis and two walked around the rear of the vessel until they found the hatch. They reached out with their nano machines, only to discover that the ship was dead and wouldn’t respond. They used and area that had been sheared away in the crash to crawl through to enter the ship. It was a fairly easy fit for Alexis but the two dragons struggled to squeeze through. When all three were in the ship they turned on the lights they had packed in from the research facility.

  Alexis gasped at what she saw. The interior of the ship was a bloody mess, literally. Body parts flung hither and yon, blood splattered not only on the floor but the walls and ceiling as well.

  “Did the crash do this?” Ryuu asked as he raised the light to get an idea of what lay further ahead.

  “No. If the crash had killed them the bodies would still be mostly intact.” Tugarin leaned down to look at a severed arm. “Whatever did this ripped the crew apart. I doubt they were alive when they crashed.”

  “The monster got loose.” Alexis looked around at the carnage. “Maybe the creature died in the crash.”

  Tugarin stood up and pulled a laser rifle from its holster, “We can certainly hope.”

  “Let’s see if we can locate a body. If we can, then we can call Ladon back.” Alexis carefully picked her way through the gore to head deeper into the ship.

  They passed the mess hall and moved through the bodies they found near the recreation area. Nothing living stirred in the darkened ship. Alexis was beginning to feel like she was in a horror movie. With each turn in the path her heart jumped expecting the villain to jump out to slaughter them. But despite her mounting fear she trudged on. She had to find out if Ladon was still in danger. The need to protect him overrode any fear that she felt.

  They were going through what appeared to be the sleeping quarters of the crew when a faint pounding sound could be heard. Ryuu put a finger to his lips signaling the others to be quiet. The two dragons naturally sandwiched Alexis between them for her protection. They followed the sound to a broken door at the end of the hall. Behind the door they could hear a faint voice calling for help.

  Tugarin lifted his gun and nodded to Ryuu who wrenched the door open. They found a young Drakonian who was missing a couple of limbs, raising a weapon at them with a shaky arm. He had tried to stem the flow of blood by using wires from the ship to create tourniquets on the missing arm and leg, but he was still bleeding out. The effort to hold the gun was too much and it clattered to the ground as the young man dropped his remaining arm to the floor with a groan.

  “Go ahead…kill me,” the young crew member gasped between ragged breaths.

  “We have to help him,” Alexis cried as she rushed forward.

  Tugarin pulled her back with a shake of his head.

  “But we have to try, he’s just a kid.”

  With a sigh, Tugarin handed Alexis his weapon and kneeled next to the young man. He already knew that the boy was dying because he had lost too much blood; but he sent his nanos out to diagnose and ease his pain.

  The strain around the young Drakonian’s eyes eased at Tugarin’s touch and he closed his eyes with a sigh. Still blood poured from his wounds. Every passing second he became more pale and his breathing more raspy. Even Alexis could see that they weren’t going to save him. Tears fell down her cheeks as she tried to rationalize that at least they were able to ease his pain.

  Suddenly, a loud thump rocked the ship. The young crew member’s eyes opened wide and the last thing he gasped before breathing his last was, “Run!”

  *****

  Ladon had scoured the area and saw no sign of the enemy. He saw the ship enter orbit and crash, but so far he could see any sign of anyone leaving the crash site. If they were lucky everyone would have perished in the crash. But Ladon’s instincts were itching the back of his neck like being watched by a predator. The last time he had this feeling was in the middle of skirmish on Axion Prime. Listening had saved his life then and he is not about to dismiss his instincts this time around.

  He took to the sky to cover more ground. He kept a sharp eye out for anyone moving away from the crash site. What he found was a small group trekking towards the crash site. Part of him wanted to rage at Alexis and the others. He had left them at the research facility to keep Alexis safe.

  Ladon’s dragon groaned. If Alexis decided that the course of action she should take was the right one, no one would be able to stop her. At least Ryuu and Tugarin were armed. He should be thankful for small things he supposed.

  Ladon swooped in and out of the black smoke that filled the sky. He opened all of his dragon senses. Underneath the bitter smell of the burning shift there was the coppery tang of spilled blood…a lot of it. He lost sight of the trio as they found a way into the downed vessel.

  Ladon landed and shifted into his humanoid form near the front of the ship. It was where the Drakos traditionally built the control center. It was engulfed in flames. Ladon sent out his nanos creating a bubble around him in which he could control the surrounding temperature. He climbed into the command center for the Drakonian ship. Inside he found the bodies of two of the bridge officers. The fire had desiccated their bodies to the point that no clues were left to what had happened.

  Drakonian ships had several layers of safety protocols. It might end up floating dead in orbit, but it should have crashed to the Earth. There was nothing left to discover in the comman
d center. They might be able to pull some information from the central computer if other parts of the ship were in better shape.

  Ladon climbed through the debris and flames until he could muscle open the hatch that lead to the rest of the ship. It was around that area that the ship had split in two upon impact. The break had contained the flames to forward part of the ship. The rest had minor damage by comparison.

  Ladon picked his way through the twisted metal. The further away he got from the flames the stronger the smell of blood became. When he got past the tear in the frame he slipped on something wet. Looking down he could see a dark pool surrounding the remains of a severed limb. Ladon called upon his dragon half to partially shift his eyes so he could see in the darkened interior. As far as he could see down the vessel’s hall was body parts and blood. It looked like the set of a horror movie.

  He looked down at the leg that was lying next to his foot. Ladon frowned, there was something odd about the limb. He picked up the leg so he could examine it. There was the torn tissue one would expect from a limb that had been ripped from the body. But there was also bruising around the ankle that looked like a large clawed hand. Upon closer examination dragon teeth marks surrounded areas of torn flesh.

  Ladon frowned. Just what the hell had happened on this ship?

  Ladon’s instincts were screaming at him that the danger was still present and he needed to get to Alexis. He tuned his nanos to their shared connection and started to move quickly through the carnage. The dead were the dead and nothing would bring them back. They could deal with funerary rites later. Ladon was more concerned with the state of the living.

  He followed the pull of his nanos to track Alexis through the maze of the ship’s interior. As he searched for her Ladon couldn’t stop his mind from speculating about what happened on this ship. Every scenario he came up with turned his blood cold.

  The closer he got to Alexis the more signs he saw that something besides them was alive on this ship; something that was eating the dead.

  Ladon turned was last corner, Alexis was very close. He could feel it. He stopped when a loud thump rocked the ship. He crouched into a fighter’s stance and slowed his forward movement. He pulled two retractable blades from his uniform pack. A projectile weapon might have given him the advantage of distance; but no one had ever been able to best him when it came to close quarters combat.

  He crept up to the next bend in the hall. He could hear grunts and heavy breathing. He rounded the corner prepared to attack. What he saw froze the blood in his veins. A huge deformed monster stuck somewhere between dragon and man had his face buried in the bloody stomach of young soldier who couldn’t have been long out of the educational system. Thankfully the blank eyes of the young man’s body told Ladon that his spirit had already passed from this realm. Still the sight turned his stomach and Ladon wasn’t able to completely suppress his gag as his stomach rebelled.

  The creature slowly turned his fevered gazed to Ladon. His fanged mouth curling into a bloody smile.

  “Warm meat…” it rasped as it stuffed the dead soldier’s entrails into its maw of a mouth.

  The creature slowly stood and Ladon understood just how large that thing really was. It nearly filled the spacious hall and had to stoop to prevent its head from hitting the ceiling. Ladon knew that he would not be able to maneuver in this space with something that big.

  He turned and started looking for a way out into the open. Hopefully his dragon form could take on that creature.

  The monster’s roar filled the entire ship. If Ladon had been less of a warrior that bellow alone would have defeated him. This wasn’t like any battle he had fought before. He had to find that thing’s weakness fast or none of them may survive.

  46

  Alexis stopped when a roar shook the ship from where they had just come from.

  “Ladon…”

  She pushed her consciousness through the nanos that connected her and Ladon and Screamed when her vision faded and she was surrounded by what Ladon saw. The thing pursuing him was straight out of a nightmare. She felt that Ladon was trying to find a way out of the ship. She forced his eyes away from the creature and to look around.

  I don’t have time for you to take over my mind, Alexis. She heard Ladon growling in her mind and ignored him. He was near where they had entered, she recognized a particular piece of twisted metal that looked almost like a bow.

  About three meters up ahead, there is a tear in the hull. It is difficult to see if you don’t know it is there. That’s where we came in. It will be a tight fit, but big and ugly won’t be able to get through. She pushed the images of what she relayed into his mind.

  Fine. Get out of my mind and get your ass back to the research facility.

  Love you too, asshole.

  She severed her connection to Ladon and turned without a word to the worried looking men following her. They had to get off this ship she wasn’t going to stay around to be that things next meal.

  The group made it to the rear hatch of the ship. This had been the cargo area. Crates and equipment were thrown everywhere. In one corner, they found a macabre shine created with the severed heads of the crew. The creature had stacked them like a pyramid on a crate next to an area that looked almost like a nest.

  Alexis’s stomach heaved and she turned away from Ryuu and Tugarin to empty what little had been contained within. It was one thing to the carnage of severed limbs and blood. It was an entirely different thing to see the faces of the victims frozen in screams of horror.

  Tugarin rubbed her hack as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “We need to get out of here. Are you able to continue?” Tugarin asked gently.

  “Get us out of here.” Almost as soon as the words passed Alexis lips she grabbed her head and cried out.

  Help me…

  An unfamiliar voice was invading her mind. It was faint buried underneath the clawing pain she recognized as Fafnir’s control mechanism. But the pain wasn’t directed at her. She knew that she should cut off the connection but something in the despair of the voice in her mind kept her from shutting it off.

  Tugarin scooped up the incapacitated Alexis. He nodded at Ryuu who used the large area of the cargo space to transform into his midnight dragon. Ryuu then used his great strength to rip the rear hatch open. He returned to his human form and the three rushed out into the soviet tundra.

  They ducked behind what little scrub was in the area as a large shadow passed over them. Alexis looked up and saw the sparkling red dragon that was Ladon. A second shadow passed over them and the pleading voice got louder.

  The second shadow was a monstrous creature that was more machine than dragon. It was easily twice the size of Ladon and was covered in undulating mass of nano machines. There were so many of them that they could be seen with the naked eye. The sheer mass of them made even Tugarin gasp.

  “By the gods, what has that demented dragon done?” Tugarin lowered Alexis to the ground without taking his eyes off the creature trailing Ladon.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Ryuu asked.

  “No wonder that thing has gone mad. With that many nanos he must be in tremendous amounts of pain…they would have to be using his own body for energy and raw material.”

  “It’s not the pain that is driving him mad,” Alexis commented while rubbing her temples. “It is being trapped within your own body, seeing all the horrors first hand and not being able to do anything about it. Not even being able to die to stop the horror of your life.”

  “You connected to that thing?” Tugarin glared at her. She knew he was angry because he was afraid of her being in danger.

  “I didn’t do it on purpose,” Alexis sighed.

  Before Tugarin could lecture her, the creature caught up with Ladon. Ladon’s dragon shifted in the air to face his enemy with a massive battle roar. The creature answered him in kind.

  Ladon tucked his wings and shot towards the monster. As he closed he distan
ce, Ladon extended his claws to shred the underbelly of the beast. He was quicker and more maneuverable than the massive monster. He scored a solid hit and blood rained down on the snow, staining flowers of battle in the pristine white landscape.

  Ryuu whooped because that kind of blow should down a dragon. But it quickly became clear that he had celebrated too soon. The moving mass of nanos quickly converged on the wounds repairing them midair at a speed that shocked the other dragons.

  Ladon circled and dived shredding the creature with claws and burning him with flame. The thing roared in rage with each hit. The nanos kept the creature from going down. But Alexis watched the battle closely. She knew like the others that Ladon could keep up his attacks for only so long. She was so intent on the battle that she was the only one to notice that Fafnir’s experiment was learning from each attack.

  The creature’s movements were less clumsy. Its movement was beginning to match Ladon’s. The nanos that controlled the creature were copying the moves of its opponent. No wonder Cadmus was so certain that this thing was certain death.

  Alexis couldn’t swallow the cry of horror as the monster crashed into Ladon, latching on with claws and enveloping him with its wings. The creature looked directly at her with a snarl.

  Please, help me.

  She rubbed her temple as the pain washed through her.

  Let Ladon go and we will help you. She was fairly certain that the voice in her head was the mind of whoever had been used to create the thing now battling Ladon.

  I can’t…The voice wailed in despair.

  “Look!” Ryuu pointed to the sky. Ladon and the monster grappled. Blood from both rained down. Ladon reached up to shred the creature’s wings. As the nano machines rushed to heal the wounds of Fafnir’s abomination they continued swarming towards Ladon.