Blackout Series (Books 1-2)

by Adam Drake

“I'd certainly be checking my six before making the final leg to my cache of goods.”

  “Here's hoping you're right,” Femke said. “What's he doing now?”

  Ash eased the scope up, again. This time, Stacks was no longer crouched at the overhang. With some panic Ash panned around and found the him climbing down the ledge back to his bike.

  “Let's go, Ash. He's going to get out of range, again.”

  “Okay, okay,” Ash said as he slid away from the edge and then hustled down the rocky shoulder. “I've got a very good feeling about this one. His stash is close. I can feel it.”

  As he approached the bike, Femke slid forward into the driver's seat and gripped the handlebars. She glared at Ash, daring him to complain.

  Ash knew better than to make a fuss. “All yours, honey. Just don't drive us into these damned spikes.” The moment he hopped on the back Femke kicked it forward so fast he nearly fell off. “Hey!”

  “Sorry, honey, but you're slowing progress.” Stacks's red blip was moving again, continuing on to what she hoped would be their financial salvation.

  They sped into the valley following the dust trail Stacks's bike had left. In moments they approached the spot he'd parked.

  “I know what he could be hiding,” Ash said.

  “What?” Femke said, slowing a little as she took the turn.

  “Photon injectors. You know the kind you can only buy on Jorduss Prime or-.” Ash didn't get to finish as something suddenly exploded beneath them.

  Then passengers and bike were sent vaulting through the air, pinwheeling end over end.

  ****

  “Okay, that was unexpected,” Ash said with a groan.

  The sand-mine had sent the hoverbike into a cluster of pods where its mangled remains burned white in the Jorduss atmosphere.

  Thankfully, both Ash and Femke fell into banks of deep sand, with Ash bouncing off a boulder first for good measure.

  “You should have watched him longer,” Femke said as she pulled herself out the impact crater she'd created. Orange sand slid off her suit like water. “At least until he'd left. We would have seen him plant the thing.”

  Ash stayed on his back where he landed, staring up at the angry clouds racing overhead. “You wanted me to hurry. Can't watch him and run away at the same time.”

  Femke dusted herself off then walked over to him. She glared down, hands on her curvy hips. “Well, the situation is the situation. No point arguing about it.” She looked him over. “Are you paralyzed? Don't tell me I have to drag your sorry butt all the way back to town.”

  “Nah, I'm just enjoying the view, since it's pretty much guaranteed it's all were going to see for the rest of our lives.” He sat up, legs splayed before him in the sand. “That was our last shot, Fem,” he said, sulking.

  “There will be another mark, there always is,” she said, offering her hand. “Come on, get up.”

  Ash let himself be pulled to his feet with ease. Femke's strength was incredible, a trait which had its advantages. He tried not to let it hurt his manly pride, too much.

  They looked over the destroyed hoverbike with its cracked powercell hissing out white plasma.

  “We have one heck of a walk back,” Ash said. He checked the chronometer on his HUD. “And it'll be nightfall in less than an hour.”

  Femke walked over to Ash's rifle which had speared itself into a pod. She wrenched it out then handed it to him. “Yeah, nightfall would be a bad thing, right now. We're armed, but I don't think it would be enough for dealing with the night time critters.”

  Most of the nasty creatures which called Jorduss Three home were nocturnal. Large and ferocious, they made no distinction between hunting each other or the invader humans who cowered in their settlements. It wasn't uncommon to hear reports of entire trade convoys being overrun and devoured.

  The only safe places to be at night were behind the monitoring guns of a town, or ensconced within a bunkered building. Or better yet, not being on Jorduss Three at all.

  Ash wiped purple slime off the rifle with disgust. “So, walk back to town as far as we can go, then hunker down in a defensible position and try to survive the night while being attacked by alien monsters. This is more fun than our honeymoon.”

  Femke shook her head causing a curl of silver-white hair to reveal itself through her goggles. “Nah, our honeymoon was much more fun. No cyborgs under the control of rogue AI this time.” She looked at the map on her HUD and found Stacks's tracker blip had long vanished out of range, not to her surprise. “I'm thinking we keep going.”

  “Keep going? Deeper into this insanity?” Ash said, waving a hand around at the frightening landscape. “This place is like a bad trip on Dust.”

  “You've never taken Dust before, honey.”

  “No, but I'm thinking now would be a good time to start.”

  Femke pointed in the direction Stacks had sped off. “His stash is that way. We just need to follow his trail until we find it. Shouldn't be too hard.” A deep groove in the sand marked the hoverbike's passage leading off through the purple and orange wastes. “I'm thinking he isn't coming back because who would be crazy enough to make a return trip to town at night? No, his intention is to stay the night out here, safely in a bunker.”

  Ash kicked sand off his boots then gestured at the rocky overhang above which Stacks had crouched next to. “That would make a defensible position if we used what daylight is left to get it ready. Wandering out now would guarantee we'd be jumped as soon as it got darker.”

  “I like the bunker idea. We'll do that,” Femke said and started walking, following the hoverbike's trail.

  “Can't we vote on this?” Ash asked.

  “We just did.”

  Ash watched Femke's figure move with catlike grace. Frowning, he jogged to catch up to her. “Why did I marry you, anyway?”

  “Because my dad would have spaced you if you didn't,” Femke said. He heard the smile in her voice.

  “Oh, right.”

  They moved quickly through the wastes, mindful of spiky vines and deep crevices. Several times they had to stop and relocate the hoverbike's trail, the wind conspiring to erase it from existence.

  With the sun masked behind the clouds they had to rely on their chronometers to tell when dusk approached. The world around them began to darken.

  The landscape barely changed. It either had a lot of deadly purple plants, or it was completely choked with them. Both slowed them down, especially when the trail terminated at a cluster of plants where Stacks had simply flown over them.

  As it grew more dark, Ash became increasingly nervous. “Maybe we should call for help?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Femke scoffed. She had her pistol out, watching the trail ahead. “The Jorduss Constabulary are the worst of the bunch on this moon. They'd sooner kill us and take our stuff than rescue us. They might even thank us first.”

  Ash held the rifle at the ready, pointing it at shadows. “Beats getting eaten alive, I think. We might get lucky and get a nice Constable.”

  Femke didn't dignify that with a response. She switched her goggles to night vision and looked over the bike's trail. “He slowed down here,” she said, pointing.

  “Smart mark,” Ash said. “Less likely to trip a sand-mine that way.”

  Femke resisted the bait. Instead, she said, “I think we're close. See the way the sand doesn't splay out as much? I think he stopped somewhere ahead, around that bend.”

  Ash switched to night vision then gasped, raising his rifle. Something moved through the foliage a couple dozen meters away.

  “Don't fire!” Femke said, moving to stand beside him. “Stacks might hear it.”

  The thing moved past them, tall as a man and almost as long as a transport. Thousands of legs helped propel it along at an alarming speed. Orange nodules glowed on its dark armored skin emulated the flowers which occasionally bloomed in the region.

  “A waste-worm,” Femke said, unnecessarily. Everyone on Jorduss knew wh
at these night stalkers were and rightfully avoided them.

  They waited patiently as the colossal thing snaked by through the plants. Then it was gone from view.

  “Maybe it didn't see us,” Ash said sounding hopeful.

  “Or maybe we're too small to bother with,” Femke said. “Come on. Let's climb up to that ridge and see what's on the other side.”

  Ash followed her up the steep slope, keeping close. If one of those things decided they weren't to small to eat, he wanted his wife right beside him. She'd be their best bet at surviving such an encounter.

  They climbed to within a few meters of the ridge and then crawled the rest of the way.

  Ash kept checking behind, expecting to find a giant worm slinking up to them, death carried along by thousands of legs.

  “You worry too much, honey,” Femke admonished as she paused to adjust her suit's thick kneepads. Crawling on the ground with them on made it awkward. “If it wanted to eat us, then we'd already be dead. Those things can move a lot faster than that.”

  “I feel so much better now,” Ash said.

  When they were directly at the ridge, Femke said, “Here, let's switch.” She motioned to his rifle.

  Although unhappy about it, Ash gave it to here and took the scatter-pistol. “I like my rifle,” he said.

  “I like it more,” she said and moved its scope above the rocks.

  The image feed on their HUDs showed a wide clearing with only sparse patches of plants. On the other side were high stone cliffs which stretched along the length of the clearing. One section of rock formed a large natural cave.

  “Oh, nice!” Ash said as Femke zoomed in closer.

  Within the cave, and protected by the rock's overhang, was a spaceship. Next to it was a small oblong bunker carved out of the ground.

  And next to the bunker's door, a hoverbike was parked.

  “The stars are smiling down on us,” Femke said with a grin. “We just found his stash.”

  “Never mind the bunker,” Ash said, eyes wide. “Check out the ship.”

  His HUD ran the spacecraft's profile through its database and spat out a schematic labeled Vesta-Transport 11AX.

  “Beautiful,” Ash whispered.

  “That old thing?” Femke said, turning to look at him. “Why would you even think-.”

  She caught movement at the edge of her goggles. Spinning around, she leveled the rifle at the waste-worm racing up the ridge toward them.

  The huge creature moved with shocking speed, its long body slithering through the undergrowth like a massive millipede. A row of black pitted eyes lined the blunt front of its head. Dozens of articulated mandibles quivered and reach forward from a triangular mouth. It hissed as it closed in for the kill.

  Femke fired, shouting with surprise over the comms. The white plasma charges bounced of the thing's curved armored skin leaving deep scorch marks, but didn't slow it down.

  Ash had the presence of mind to aim the scatter-pistol at its front legs and shot as rapidly as the gun could handle. His bolts penetrated the thinner armor, but the thing kept coming, hissing louder.

  “The eyes!” Femke said as she altered her aim. Ash did the same.

  The speed of its movement coupled with the motion of its body made getting a clear shot on the small eyes difficult.

  Cursing, Femke quickly unhooked a plasma grenade from within her suit.

  Ash wanted to shout a warning. At this range the grenade would kill them both as much as it would the worm.

  She pulled her arm back, grenade ready to be thrown. “Stop shooting!”

  “What?” Ash said, confused, but did as she said even if it meant they would die right then and there. His trust in her went beyond his own understanding.

  Sensing a meal close at hand, the beast roiled forward, the mandibles of its mouth spreading outwards revealing countless rows of curved black hooks within.

  With stunning speed, Femke threw the grenade. The movement was so fast, Ash barely registered it before he realized she'd tossed the live grenade directly into its mouth like a cannon shot.

  “Get down!” Femke said, jumping onto Ash who tried to protest.

  The blunted head of the waste-worm suddenly glowed white from within as the grenade activated. Then its massive head exploded in a hot flash of light.

  Their goggles barely filtered out the intensity of the explosion, causing them both to shut their eyes.

  Although missing its head, the waste-worm still had momentum. The thing's body propelled forward as it coiled into itself.

  Ash suddenly realized he was being carried by Femke out of range of the worm's thrashing body. She deposited him behind some rocks. They watched the creature's final death spasms which resembled a derailing grav-train.

  Soon the decapitated monster stopped thrashing, but with some legs still moving.

  Ash, stunned to be alive, gave Femke a hug. “You did it, honey!”

  “We did it,” she said with a smile. But her face became serious again. “I hope Stacks didn't hear all of this racket.”

  Suddenly, a low flying ship appeared above the hilltops from the direction of Karro.

  Its hull lights revealed an insignia of a fist surrounded by gunports.

  “By the stars!” Femke said in disgust as the ship sped toward them. “The damned Constabulary!”

  The Constabulary ship flew over them and flicked on its search lights. But instead of shining on their position, it pointed at the ground next to the bunker.

  “They're not here for us,” Femke said as she and Ash watched from the ridge line.

  “Is this a raid?” Ash said. He kept looking from the Constabulary ship to the writhing form of the waste-worm. “Those clowns are beating us to the stash.”

  The ship slowed to a hover then gently landed in the clearing, kicking up clouds of dust which looked gray under night vision.

  Femke shook her head, rifle at the ready. “I don't think so. If this was a raid, they'd have come in blasting to give any defenders second thoughts about putting up a fight.”

  Once the ship had settled, the landing lights dimmed and were replaced by less intrusive area illumination. The engine cells brightened briefly then dimmed as they cooled down.

  “They didn't see us,” she said. None of the gunports were pointed in their direction.

  “Well, at least we have that going for us,” Ash said, barely hiding his sarcasm. “Now we just sit here and wait for the friends of that thing to come finish the job.”

  “You can watch our six, honey, if it makes you feel better,” Femke said.

  “I will,” Ash said and positioned himself to watch their flank. “I don't think my suit can handle absorbing my reaction to another surprise. Bio-recyclers can only take so much.”

  “Classy,” Femke said. She sighted the ship with her scope, but not before double checking that the rifle's laser sights were off. That would most definitely trigger a response from the ship's sensors.

  It was a standard Constabulary scout, third or fourth generation judging from its profile. Not that this information was terribly important. But she did need to know how many crew could be inside.

  Area lights winked on around the bunker building and its main door irised open. A man stood illuminated in silhouette inside.

  “Stacks,” Ash said, watching the scope's feed at the corner of his goggles.

  “Mm-hmm,” Femke said, zooming in. Stacks was armed with a pistol which was holstered on his hip.

  “Guess neither the cops nor that maniac driver know we're here,” Ash said. “Hard to believe considering all the noise you made.”

  “I only made enough to get the job done,” Femke said. She moved the scope back to the ship which now had its side hatch open. A man was climbing down a short step ladder. He wore a standard issue Constabulary uniform with silly looking fist emblems on the shoulders. “Looks to be a captain.”

  “Not a captain, but the captain. Karro only has the one now,” Ash corrected. The Constab
ulary lost two captains during a failed raid on a rebel garrison in the northern sector. At least that's what the press reported. They could very well have been culled because they didn't pay their higher-ups enough in bribes. But it was best to show them going out in a blaze of glory defending the populace.

  “Klayd?” Femke said. “He's the last man standing now is he?” She eyed the two men as they approached each other and shook hands. “Looks like a lucrative position to be in.”

  “Figures,” Ash said.

  Both men talked, with Stacks gesturing wildly while Klayd stood immobile.