Metal Boxes - Rusty Hinges

by Alan Black

  Stone closed his eyes quickly, trying to remember where the shot had come from that knocked the marine off his feet. Up and angled. He looked up and spotted a high control room at the far end of the hangar. Hyrocanians inside the room were remote controlling a pair of gatling-gun cannons mounted high on the bay’s bulkheads. The clear shields over the control room must have been special plexiglass as the Hyrocanians inside were targeting specific marines even though everyone was camouflaged. Major Numos’s fireteam spotted the control room at the same time he did. They reacted quicker. Each fired at the plexiglass with whatever weapon they had at hand, but nothing even scratched the plexiglass.

  A Hyrocanian spotter jabbed fat stubby fingers at Numos. A gun operator swung the cannon using its back arms to rotate the machine while its front arms depressed the muzzle and hit the trigger. A long stream of bullets splattered against the deck. Numos and two of his team were gone before the bullets reached the spot. The fourth marine was slow. She disappeared in a pink mist amid a swirl of broken, twisted suit.

  Stone pointed a finger at each of the bulkhead mounted cannons and fired by squeezing the ring finger of his other hand against the palm. A pair of pencil-sized mini-rockets streaked upward from the middle of his chest. Before they were halfway across the open space, he pointed his finger at the plexiglass and squeezed a finger three times. Three quick jolts pushed his arm backwards.

  The mini-rockets slammed into the cannons at the same time the much faster bunker busters hit the plexiglass with a splat. The mini-rockets blew deep cavities in the bulkhead, ripping the Hyrocanian cannons into tangled masses of useless metal. The mini-rockets provided a clear trail from his chest directly to the cannons, giving the Hyrocanians a clear view of who had shot at them.

  The bunker busters plastered across the plexiglass, spreading out like spit-wads on a window, blocking the Hyrocanian’s view. They glared at him from around the blobs blocking their view. Using his enhanced suit optics, he saw a fat Hyrocanian shouting at another. Another cannon slowly lowered from the ceiling of the hangar. The fat alien pointed at Stone and shouted something at its companions. Stone smiled and waved goodbye as the three bunker busters finally melted their way through the plexiglass, blasting the interior with heat and a shockwave that pulled the whole control room away from the bulkhead. It crashed to the hangar bay deck. The interior of the plexiglass was painted with blood. It was undisturbed except for three tiny holes. Stone nodded in satisfaction. He’d learned the suit functions in a sim and was pleased they were easier to use in reality.

  Hearing a screech, he turned and saw Peebee throw a Hyrocanian to Bea. The Hyrocanian was trying to get into its combat suit, but was only partially covered. Bea ripped it the rest of the way out and drove her armor-tipped bone spike through its skull.

  Peebee shouted at Tee and Ell. “Training, girls. Block that hatch and do not get ahead of your teammates.”

  Stone nodded. Peebee had learned. The first time … no, the second time they’d invaded a Hyrocanian ship, she and her sister had raced so far ahead some people had died trying to keep up. He shook his head at the thought that this was actually his fourth time inside a hostile alien ship. That was crazy. What was a rich kid like him doing such things for!

  He glanced up and chuckled. “At least this is inside.”

  Catching movement out the corner of his eye, he turned and watched Bea jump into a knot of Hyrocanian’s trying to get through a small maintenance hatch. Most were too fat to fit through the hatch more than one at a time. She scattered them and yanked the hatch shut. The Hyrocanians, suddenly faced with an enemy they could see, yanked knives and wrenches from hidden spots in their hideously colored trousers.

  Stone said, “This is stupid.” He leapt into the middle, covering the thirty yards in one distance-eating shallow leap. He triggered the welding flame on the suit’s left wrist and flexed out a double-edged dagger from his right gauntlet. Grabbing the nearest Hyrocanian, he killed it before he could squeeze his hand into a fist, the high temperature of the welding torch burning into its brain. His right hand jabbed into the eye socket of a Hyrocanian trying to jump on Bea.

  Bea grabbed a pair of Hyrocanians and threw them to her mother. “Oh, like, you know. Tag you’re it.”

  Peebee only caught one with her hands. The other she skewered with her tail spike before it hit the deck. Rather than keep the one she caught, she threw it on to her other daughters, turning back to charge into the knot of aliens surrounding Stone and Bea.

  Stone’s suit reported added weight on his back. A pair of Hyrocanian hands wrapped around his head, blocking his faceplate. He was about to activate the counter-attack switch when the hands and the weight disappeared. He spun around in time to see Dollish put a boot against the creature’s neck, pinning its head to the deck. The spacer put a quick bullet into its brain.

  Tuttle patted Dollish on the back as she and her two companions strode past him, nearly knocking him to the ground. She slapped Stone on the back of his helmet. The suit protected him from damage, but the clanging rang loudly in his ears. “I’m supposed to be your support, Ensign. You get ahead of me again like that and I’ll tell the LT you asked me to give you a blowjob because you didn’t think she was any good at it.”

  She, January, and al-Julier waded into the rest of the Hyrocanians struggling to run away. Her voice took a different tone as she put a fist through a Hyrocanian throat — in one side and out the other. “I’ll do it too, sir. Don’t keep testing me.” Gripping a Hyrocanian under each arm, she stopped and looked back at him. “Wait. I mean I’ll tell her. Not the blowjob thing.” She twisted and dropped the two bodies to the deck. “Wait. I mean, I’ll do the blowjob thing, but I won’t tell her if you want. But if you get ahead of me, then I’ll tell on you.”

  Allie’s voice popped onto the comms. “Private Tuttle. I’m listening in. What did I tell you about propositioning Stone?”

  Tuttle chuckled, “Sorry, LT, but it’s Corporal Tuttle.”

  “Not if you keep trying to get into Ensign Stone’s pants. Now shut up and go kill something.”

  Stone turned to the maintenance hatch as the knot of Hyrocanians dwindled to a few panicked stragglers. His welding torch was still lit, so he melted the hatch closed with a quick tack of liquid metal. It wouldn’t hold long, but he didn’t need it to hold long.

  Before he could comment about the women not fighting over him, Numos announced over the comms, “Hangar bay is secure. All hostiles eliminated. Marines, stand by.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Stone was privy to the rest of Numos’s conversation as a member of the officers comms net. The major said, “Rusty Hinges bridge, are we still a go?”

  “Butcher here, Dash. Whizzer and Kat say yes, you’re still a go. No one on the warehouse ship knows we’ve captured their hangar bay. They think there was a minor explosion, but the hangar deck crew has it under control and they’ve locked the bay down for safety reasons. The rest of the ship is busy running around filling out a flurry of phony warehouse orders. The number of supply requests Whizzer and Kat sent should empty their stores completely.”

  Numos said, “Phase two is a go.”

  Looking back up at the shuttle they had arrived in, Stone watched a torrent of piglets, both in armor and unarmored exit and surround Jay and her daughters. An armored piglet pointed at a life support grate set high in a bulkhead.

  Shorty typed a quick command into his virtual dataport keyboard. His simulated voice said, “I want up there.”

  Stone hadn’t recognized Shorty in his armor. Jay grabbed the piglet around the waist and lifted him as high as she could. He reached up, grabbed the grate, and pulled. It popped away so easily he lost his balance, falling backwards. Jay prevented him from hitting the deck. She then inserted him into the gaping hole. He dropped a flexible ladder allowing half a dozen armored piglets to climb up to him. They disappeared into the ship’s life support system followed by a dozen unarmored piglets, each carrying
a full bag of tools.

  An armored piglet pushed Stone. It pushed with all its might, but he didn’t move.

  Jay said, “Mama, he says you’re in his way and to move your bloated human body so he can go to work.”

  Stone stepped to the side. The piglet cut the tiny weld away from the hatch, yanked it open and disappeared into the bowels of the ship followed by a couple dozen of its companions.

  Anne shouted after them, “Like, you all be careful, you know?”

  Emily said, “I wish I was small like them, for sure. I mean, like, then I could fit through these small holes. Do you think I have a fat butt?”

  Anne wooted, “Of course you have a fat butt, but, like, it matches your fat head.”

  Charlotte plunked down on the deck and hung her head, “Should have stayed with the marines. We didn’t get to fight Hyrocanians, like Peebee and her girls.”

  Peebee and her daughters had scattered with their marines. Charlie Platoon reforming near the doors. 2LT Escamilla’s Delta Platoon was disappearing into a second shuttle parked in the bay. 1LT Vedrian’s Bravo Platoon was swarming up into a third shuttle. Both platoons would ensure no Hyrocanians were hiding in the shuttles.

  Jay said, “Easy girls, we aren’t done yet.”

  Emily said, “They stink like they need to be killed.”

  Anne asked, “Mama, is it true they eat us?”

  Stone signaled his team to follow him. They joined up with Charlie Platoon and a growing contingent of piglets. Most of the unarmored piglets had disappeared through various maintenance hatches, even cutting into the decks to disappear into the bowels of the ship.

  Stone said, “Ell, it’s true that these creatures eat drascos. If we don’t stop them, they will cut off your tail spike, tie your hands, and cut chunks out of your bodies to eat while you watch.”

  “Ewwww, gross.” He wasn’t sure whether it was Anne, Charlotte, or Emily who responded, but he had to agree.

  “They eat humans and piglets, too.”

  Emily said, “That’s like, not right, you know?”

  Stone couldn’t agree more. Jay said, “Girls. Remember your marine training. Stay with your assignment. Remember to use your comms when talking with any human except Mama.”

  Jay’s daughters spread out, each paring up with a small group of piglets. Jay slid into place next to Peebee. The two sisters hung their heads close together. They didn’t like being assigned to different spots even for a short time. For the initial phase Jay had been assigned to the piglets, more to ride herd on her daughters than interpret, and Peebee had been assigned to Charlie Platoon with her daughters as shock troops. Being separated was hard for them and Stone had to agree. Jay and Peebee would remain with Stone for the next phase of the operation.

  If either Jay or Peebee was killed, the remaining drasco would begin the conversion to male. No one wanted that. They could lose any one of the drasco trios, but having two killed would be disastrous. Males were known to be raging, raping idiots. The prevailing theory was that drascos always came in threes. When one of the triplets died, the remaining two would grow to a larger size like Jay and Peebee. If one of the remaining two died, the last of the trio would begin the conversion to male. No one knew how long the change would take. Various scientists wanted to test the theory, but during Stone’s tenure as governor, he had steadfastly denied permission for those scientists to capture three wild drascos and kill them off one by one just to see what would happen.

  Shorty’s voice boomed in Stone’s ear through the comms, “We’re at the bridge and engineering will lose all power in five mikes.”

  Stone keyed his comms for all marines and the Rusty Hinges bridge to hear his relay. “Shorty reports Phase Two complete in five minutes.”

  Stone expected the gathered assault troops to get ready, then he realized they were all in place and ready. At Numos’s call Baker and Delta Platoons came swarming back from searching the two shuttles, their numbers swelling the ranks of marines, drascos and piglets all waiting for Shorty to give them the go signal.

  Shorty’s gruff voice simulation shouted, “Go.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Stone shouted, “Go.”

  Soon every marine NCO was shouting “Go. Go. Go.” Marines blasted through hatches, spreading into the ship, flowing like water from a broken dam seeking every nook and cranny. Piglets followed behind, digging into every bit of technology they could find: shutting down this, turning that off, and putting locks on the other.

  Tee raised up on her hind legs, wonking excitedly, pounding on a wide hatch. Two Charlie fireteams clustering behind her raced past her when the hatchway gave in. The eight marines entered the bay with weapons blazing. Tee followed on their heels. Suddenly, a Hyrocanian flew out of the hatch to the far side of the corridor, slamming into the opposite bulkhead. It crumpled to the deck in a broken heap. Tee stuck her head back out of the hatch and with what looked like a typical human reaction, spit on the lifeless body of the dead alien. However, considering drasco physiology and their fertilization method, the spitting thing probably had a different meaning to Tee.

  Peebee said, “Left, Mama. Down that way.” Rather than point, she raced away from the bulk of marines.

  Jay shouted, “Yes. Yes. There.”

  Stone raced after his girls. He was confident Dollish, Tuttle, January and al-Julier were following him. Peebee crashed into a wide hatch, the thick metal door giving way under her weight. She jumped high, almost flying through the open hatch while Jay, only half a step behind, slid beneath her.

  Screeches and cries of terror echoed back out of the cabin. A pair of obese Hyrocanians ran out of the hatchway into the corridor. Their tiny eyes were wide with fear. Spotting the advancing humans, they turned and fled the other way. Fat folds wobbled as they ran.

  Tuttle said, “January and al-Julier.”

  Without waiting for a command, the two marines raced after the runaway aliens. January took great bounding leaps while al-Julier actually managed one long shallow bounce. He killed both Hyrocanians before his wife could catch up to him.

  Not rushing, Stone stepped into the bay through the wide hatch. Jay and Peebee had eliminated a pair of exceedingly fat Hyrocanians; officers from the size of their waistlines. Jay wore a deep cut across her face. Her chosen target had been holding a long knife when she attacked. She had stomped him into little more than a puddle.

  Peebee was methodically backing a Hyrocanian pair into a corner. The long-bladed knives they held in each hand whirled and swirled as the eight blades clanged against Peebee’s tail spike. She hunkered low to the ground, attempting to spear either or both of the four-armed freaks.

  Angry and in pain, Jay held a Hyrocanian in her arms. She was slowly pulling its arms out of its sockets one at a time. Stone understood her feelings, but he couldn’t condone torture. A quick bullet from his suit put the creature out of its misery. Jay wonked angrily, shaking the dead body in frustration.

  Tuttle reached around Stone and shot one of Peebee’s cornered hostiles through the chest. Peebee vaulted on top of the remaining alien, crunching bones and breaking parts. Her angry, triumphant wonk was so loud Stone’s suit dampened the noise to protect his ears.

  Stone recognized the dead remains in the middle of the cabin. Bloody pieces were scattered carelessly about. The remains were human. He raised his arm to shoot this last officer. The Hyrocanian, the fattest one they’d seen to date, held a long-bladed knife. The creature was poking its blade through the slats of a cage set against a bulkhead.

  A blur sped past him. Dollish leaped into the arms of the remaining Hyrocanian, blocking Stone’s shot. The Hyrocanian caught Dollish in mid-leap with its back arms while still trying to jab his knife into the cage. The weight of Dollish’s suit caused them both to crash onto the deck with Dollish on top. Pulling knives from hooks at his waist, the spacer shoved them deep into the Hyrocanian’s neck nearly decapitating him.

  With all the hostiles dead, Stone turned his
focus toward the cage. Three naked humans huddled in the cage. One of the two women was more than a little pregnant. The male was cut across his hands and forearms from trying prevent the Hyrocanian’s knife from reaching the women. Blood dripped from his arms, splattering the bottom of the cage.

  Stone flipped up his faceplate. “The emperor’s forces are here. Take it easy folks and we’ll get you out of here as quickly as we can.”

  The women started babbling, but the man just stared. Stone grabbed the door to the cage and yanked. The lock gave away with a creak and snap as the metal twisted. “Let’s get you out of there.”

  The man pointed at the drascos. “What kind of hell-spawn demons are those? Are they dangerous?”

  Stone looked at Jay and Peebee. “Yes, they are, sir. However, they’re on our side.” He pointed at the dead Hyrocanian under Dollish’s blade. “I’m sure you’ll prefer their company to that.”

  The man nodded, “Of that, I have no doubt, sir. How many are you? How do we get —”

  Stone interrupted, “One moment, sir.” He turned from the man to make a comms call. “This is Ensign Stone. The Hyrocanian database was wrong. We’ve found more humans on board. My locator is on. Please send medical corps to my location, asap. We have three civilians in hand, one injured.” He looked around. “January, can you and Private al-Julier see about getting first aid —”

  Dollish interrupted, “I got it, Boss.” He made the man sit down next to the women. Pulling a pair of thermal blankets from some deep pocket in the thighs of his suit, he covered the women. “Sorry, sir. I’ve only got two covers. I do have a first aid kit, so let me see what I can do for those cuts.”

  Stone said, “Thanks, Tim. January and al-Julier, please backtrack and make sure we get medical safely in here as soon as we can.” The two marines got a confirming nod from Tuttle and bolted out of the cabin.

  He keyed his comms, “Major Numos, I think we stumbled into an officer’s banquet. Pardon my language, but the fat bastards had four humans on the menu. We were too late for one, but we have three civilians with us now. I suggest we keep our eyes open for more humans and piglets.”