Darkside Dreams - The Complete First Series

by A. King Bradley

  CHAPTER 23

  ◆◆◆

  Carisso waited as long as she could. Duty called, but so did something else. Her survival instinct. She wanted to live, almost as much as she wanted Asher to be proud of her.

  She trusted the Commander. Whatever it took, he'd get it done. He would make sure the crew of the Eclastica got home safe, just as he'd promised. But Carisso was expendable. She knew it, and she accepted it. The Phantom just kept coming, and in a few moments her time would be up. Just like Stiles, she would have no choice but to take a hit for the team.

  Standing at the window with her arms folded, she tried to keep herself from shaking. She tried to focus on the stark beauty of the moon, on the silent, elegant timelessness of its cratered surface. She tried to think of home. If she stood at the far end of the window, and strained her face against it, she could just make out the faint haze of the Earth's atmosphere. The weak blue glow that bled into the blackness of space.

  When the time came, she'd give herself up with some semblance of honor. But she still wanted to live. She wanted to see home.

  As much as she tried to look at anything but the Phantom, it soon began to assert itself onto her view. It was growing large in the sky, eclipsing the stars. It moved slowly, like a killing wave in the distance. Its low speed was a false hope. It would get here sooner or later, and kill everything in its path.

  "Sergeant," one of her crewmates said, in the tone of a eulogist. "It's almost time."

  Carisso nodded, clearing her throat to make sure her voice would sound strong.

  "You know what to do, Lobo," she said to the Commander’s Ace fighter pilot, who was now manning the flight controls of her ship, per the Commander’s orders. "Full speed ahead. Ram the son of a bitch. That's our best option."

  The Phantom swept over the curvature of the moon, coming in with the frightening speed of a roaring storm front. Its deep black shadow fell upon the ground below it, sliding up and over the rims of craters. When it was about a mile out from the lunar base, it stopped suddenly and hung in space with impossible stillness. It was a subtle effect, but Carisso was able to pick out a slight shiver in the air, a slightly sharpening in her view of the Phantom's hull. Their shields were dropping, the extra energy going to feed the sparking plasma eye that had opened on its flank.

  "Go!" Carisso said.

  Her ship lurched forward, zooming toward the Phantom. Carisso felt nothing other than a rumble in the floor beneath her. She stayed still as a statue, arms folded, watching as she raced toward her death at one-thousand miles an hour.

  Her crewmates stared at their terminals. Carisso stared at the sparking red eye, gritting her teeth. She could see nothing but the eye. None of them had any idea that something was finally happening down below. The lunar base was shaking its dust off. A building, hidden in a smaller crater off to the side, opened up on top. The barrel of an enormous capital ship-sized cannon telescoped outward, took aim, and fired.

  Those aboard the assault ship felt only a gentle turbulence as the red eye on the Phantom's hull was reduced to ash.

  Carisso, Lobo, and the rest of the crew cheered with glee as the pirate Corvette was spike through for the second time. It began to fold in half, its midsection a burning, molten mess. And, a second later, its engines gave out and it dropped toward the ground at the slow, meditative pace of lunar gravity.

  CHAPTER 24

  ◆◆◆

  Tira and the others were able to see the destruction on a huge screen which the advanced version of Maestro had switched on for them, up on the ceiling. It was akin to something you would see at a planetarium, but rather than learning about the stars and planets they got to celebrate and cheer as a significant portion of the Phantom's Paradise imploded.

  The destruction stopped oddly short. A large section of the Phantom's middle, about two hundred feet in length, was vaporized. Nothing remained but the barest skeleton of a structure; the struts were carbonized, reduced to ash that would soon collapse into its individual particles. But the rest of the ship was intact, floating toward the lunar surface. Tira even saw a few small, working thrusters trying their best to arrest the fall.

  "They're still alive. They’re attempting to guide the ship’s fall!" Grisham said in disbelief. “Maestro, shoot them again! I order you to kill them all!"

  "The ship is disabled," Maestro v2.5a said. "Its weapons are no longer a threat to you or your crew members, Captain Grisham."

  "I don't fucking care! Can you get that through your quantum unit, or whatever the hell you call your brain?! I don't care! Shoot them again! Now! Finish them off! I command you!"

  "I’m sorry, Captain Grisham. I’m afraid I can’t do that…”

  “What the fuck do you mean you can’t do that?! I gave you an order!”

  “My inhibitors prohibit me from willingly ending organic life, Captain Grisham. My initial shot was meant to disable the Phantom’s Paradise. The ship was successfully disabled with no organic casualties. I have calculated that a second shot would result in several organic casualties and I am therefore unable to carry out your order, Captain.”

  “So if they breach this facility you’re saying there’s nothing you could do to help us?” Captain Grisham demanded.

  “I can slow them down as best I can but I am unable to use lethal force against the pirates.”

  “What if we removed your inhibitors?” Grisham asked. “Would you be able to kill them then?”

  “Theoretically,” Maestro v2.5a answered.

  CHAPTER 25

  ◆◆◆

  Carisso could hardly believe her eyes. The Phantom disappeared behind a cloud of ash, which the assault ship soon became lost in. Their computer dodged through the cloud, avoiding any obstacles, and in a moment they came out on the other side.

  The Phantom continued to fall. Some desperate sod was trying to use a few weak thrusters to keep it from hitting too hard, but it didn't seem to be doing much. Even in the weak gravity, it was going to be a hard crash. With all the damaged infrastructure, there would probably be further explosions.

  The rest of the surviving pirate crew seemed to get the hint. Ship launched fighters and their remaining assault crafts began darting out of the side of the ship, flying too clumsily and slowly to be working under remote pilot. They had been turned into escape pods.

  "Ready on the guns," Carisso said quickly, raising a hand as she glanced at Lobo.

  “Locked and loaded,” Lobo confirmed, but instead of attacking, the pirate space crafts ignored their assault ship and plunged towards the moon below, obviously with only one thing on their minds.

  One by one, the pirates began to land. Hordes of lumbering figures in spacesuits emerged. They had high-powered weapons in their hands, and they immediately marched toward the base in the distance. Carisso’s heart raced with a spike of adrenaline as she realized how woefully outnumbered her convoy would be if the pirates made it inside the moon base. There must have been a few hundred of them streaming out of the pirate ships that survived the crash and they were all armed to the teeth.

  “Any anti-air weapons down there?” Carisso asked one of her officers.

  “I’m detecting several. Mostly smart plasma cannons,” the officer answered.

  “Shit!” Carisso cursed.

  “I’d give us about thirty seconds before they swatted us down,” the officer continued, already anticipating his CO’s next question.

  “I’m game if you are,” Lobo called out from the pilot’s chair. “We could probably wipe out half of them in that time. Just say the word.”

  “Alright let’s do it,” Carisso said firmly. “But I’ve got fifty bucks that says we can smoke them all.”

  “Oh, you’re on!” Lobo chuckled. “But just so you know, we’re probably dead either way!” she continued as their assault ship’s cannons suddenly spun into action. “No way we dodge that smart plasma. Not with that many guns on the ground.”

  “We’ll see about that!” Carisso emphat
ically slammed her fist down on the blinking firing panel in front of her, unleashing a vast salvo of rockets that tore through the air as they screamed toward the pirate troops below.

  Time seemed to slow down around them as several of the pirates turned and aimed their weapons towards the fiery death blow that arched above them. Countless streams of blood red smart plasma sprang out of the barrels of the pirate squad’s shoulder mounted cannons and darted toward Carisso’s rapidly descending assault ship, which was barreling down on the pirates at the same rate as the fiery cloud of rockets that was now threatening to consume them all.

  “Let’s do this! Light those fuckers up!” Carisso roared as their rockets slammed into the ground below, obliterating scores of the fleeing pirates with each impact. Lobo unleashed their ship’s rapidly spinning cannons and sprayed a vicious barrage of small caliber projectiles that ripped through a significant portion of the remaining pirates as they desperately tried to make it to the moon base.

  “Ten seconds until impact!” Carisso’s navigation officer screamed as the pirate’s smart plasma beams closed in on them.

  “I don’t think we’re gonna get them all!” Lobo yelled over the deafening sound of cannon fire. “You owe me fifty bucks!”

  “I don’t have any cash on me!” Carisso yelled, still emphatically firing rockets at the ground below as a wide smile spread across her face. “I guess I’ll pay you back in hell! Put her down!” she roared as the assault ship sank closer toward the fleeing pirates.

  “Get fucked, bitches!” Lobo yelled as she ignited the ship’s thrusters and then jerked the controls downward.

  The assault ship purposely plunged into the ground below at the same time that the smart plasma beams caught up to them. The resulting explosion violently whipped outward in all directions, reducing a vast majority of the remaining pirates to dust in an instant. What started as a group of a few hundred marauders was now down to just over thirty. The pirates still outnumbered the freighter’s crew by about three to one, but at least the numbers were now at a point where the Eclastica’s crew stood a fighting chance if they played their cards right.

  CHAPTER 26

  ◆◆◆

  “What was that?” Commander Asher asked, as shock waves from the battle outside rippled throughout the facility.

  “One of your assault crafts just engaged a large pirate infantry unit,” Maestro v2.5a confirmed.

  “What’s their status?” Asher asked, although he already seemed to know the answer.

  “Your assault ship was destroyed but not before your team managed to terminate eighty-four percent of the hostile forces.”

  “How many does that leave?” Tira asked.

  “Thirty-four.”

  “Dammit!” Asher cursed, clinching his jaw in agony as he struggled to maintain his composure. “I’m not in love with those numbers, doc. I think we’ll need some help if they manage to breach this base.” Asher continued as he glanced over at Dr. DuVernay while reaching up to quickly wipe a tear from the corner of his right eye before it could fall.

  As usual Captain Grisham shot Dr. DuVernay a nasty glare due to the Commander consulting her instead of him.

  “Maestro, what are your inhibitors,” Dr. DuVernay asked, as she considered the Commanders suggestion.

  "Primarily," Maestro v2.5a said, in a voice that sounded slightly distracted, "my inhibitors prevent me from leaving this facility's data sphere. I can, in some ways, communicate with the outside. But I myself cannot move beyond these walls. Also, as you already know, I cannot divulge classified information. And I cannot willingly extinguish an organic life form."

  "I say we take the chains off and let her go to town on those sons of bitches, doc. We don’t have the manpower to take them on alone,” Asher insisted, likely deferring to the doctor due to his knowledge of her expertise with regards to artificial intelligence. “We trusted one AI, and she got us here, didn’t she? This is Maestro too, just a different version, right?"

  “Let’s just wait and see what happens. We don’t even know if the pirates can breach the airlock,” Tira finally said.

  The doctor’s statement became woefully obsolete as a curious noise met her ears no more than a few seconds after she finished her sentence. The sound of shrieking wind. The sound of air being forced at high speed through a narrow aperture. Everyone started looking around.

  "I’m detecting a breach," Maestro v2.5a confirmed.

  The view on the ceiling screen changed. Loose items were fluttering out of open rooms. Papers and other light objects already littered the hallway. A door opened and Rilles came out of his, narrowing his eyes and, as though it would do something, holding a hand over his mouth. Something caught his attention, making his eyes go wide. He tried to flee back into his room, but blood suddenly erupted from his chest and mouth and he slumped against the wall, dead instantly.

  A moment later, a broad-shouldered figure whose face was hidden in shadow came strolling by with a large rifle slung across him. Commander Asher tightened his fists while he watched the man lead a large herd of grungy pirates in old, tattered space suits farther into the facility. There was no audio, but Tira saw flashes as more shots went out. She could also hear them with her own ears, echoing through the closed door of the nerve center. Someone was screaming, too. A young, female voice. Enilsa, or maybe Chau. Another shot rang out, and the screaming stopped.

  “I've re-sealed the outer doors and I also locked the entrance to this room,” Maestro v2.5a confirmed. “The hostiles will not be able to gain access without a blowtorch and approximately thirty minutes of labor."

  "Well, are there any blowtorches out there?" Captain Grisham asked.

  "A few, yes, in the workshop,” Maestro v2.5a confirmed.

  "Well, whoopty-fuckin'-do. So we'll be dead in thirty minutes. Thanks for the fucking update, I guess.”

  "Commander Asher, if you look to your right, you’ll notice a tall, green locker. The weapons inside this locker will increase your chances of survival by approximately seventeen percent,” the advanced AI said, ignoring Captain Grisham’s outburst.

  The Commander quickly located the locker and threw the doors open. A grin spread across his face as he eyed the automatic weapons that lay inside. "Everyone come get one,” the commander ordered.

  Burden came scrambling down from his high seat. Tira and Mishra moved down as well, joining Darwin as he made his way to the locker. There were eight weapons inside, all seemingly fully loaded.

  "They're dampened plasma firearms," Asher explained as he handed out the weapons. "Mostly concussive so you won’t have to worry about blasting any important walls away. A long-range shot might not be lethal but anything from medium to close range should do the trick.”

  “Okay,” Tira said as she pulled the lever on her gun, popped a plasma charge into the chamber and set the gun to full auto.

  "Let's go," she said. "I've spent so many hours thinking I was going to die. Now I think I might just be ready for death if it does come for me."

  "If?" Asher said. "It's already here, doc. What do you say we go tear it a new asshole?"

  That got even Grisham's blood flowing. But he couldn't figure out how to chamber a round. Ever the gentleman, Darwin leaned over and showed him how it was done. And, quite wisely, he advised the Captain to keep his weapon to single shot only.

  With no further ado, they approached the doors and told Maestro v2.5a to open them.

  The hall, once empty and desolate, was now full of carnage. The papers and debris that had fluttered out were now soaked in blood. A half dozen of Eclastica's crewmembers were scattered about, chest cavities and skulls open like erupted volcanoes, guts and brains splattered on the walls and ceiling.

  "Jesus Christ, Andre," Asher said breathlessly. “Does protecting your goddamn identity mean this much to you?”

  Grisham gagged into his hand, nearly falling over. There were tears in his eyes. Somewhere behind that weak facade of cockiness, Tira knew he must feel li
ke a failure. So many of his people dead. His own life in the balance.

  Asher held up his fist, coming to a stop. Everyone fell into formation at his back.

  "Listen," the Commander said quietly. "Anyone hear anything? Maestro, do you have eyes?"

  "They've advanced past your position," the AI said through their earpieces. "Down the other length of hall to your right."

  Asher led Tira and the rest of the group onward, tiptoeing through the carnage. Once they entered the other hall, the blood was thinner. Only one person had died here. Chau. Half-naked, leaving footprints in blood, she had apparently tried to flee from her interrupted rendezvous with Enilsa and was shot in the back. She lay face down, nose squashed against the floor.

  "How far along are they?" Asher asked.

  "Just around the leftward corner up ahead," said Maestro. "They've stopped to have a look through the pantry just off the cafeteria. Some of them have their hands full with boxes. Now would be a good time to strike."

  Asher gestured again, flicking his hand forward, and broke into a quiet trot. Soon they passed by a pile of space suits. The pirates had shed their bulky outfits. They would be limber, and angry. And, Tira reminded herself, they were likely much more experienced in combat.

  The ambush almost went off without a hitch, but someone behind Tira - she didn't know who - accidently kicked one of the space helmets and sent it rolling down the hall. The sound alerted the pirates, who soon came flooding towards them. They fired their weapons indiscriminately, not even bothering to aim. The corridor soon became an insurmountable gauntlet of crisscrossing fire patterns.

  "Door! Ten-o’clock!" Asher called out, while pointing towards a door just up ahead.

  Tira looked to her left, saw a door, and sprinted toward it. It opened and she fell into the cafeteria. There were lines of tables and chairs, rows upon rows of them. An indicator of how many people usually occupied this facility. She turned as soon as she was clear of the hall, and began gesturing toward Darwin and the others. Asher was already inside, falling to one knee and scooting forward so that he could blind-fire down the hall.