by Marc Stevens
We made a left into the ready room. Justice had our Zaen battle armor crates open and waiting for us. We stripped down and quickly put on our suit liners. I stepped up into my armor and it closed tightly around me. Looking at my HUD, I verified that my munitions backpack was at maximum capacity. Justice had selected one hundred and fifty rounds of high explosive and another hundred and fifty of anti-personnel ammunitions. He was not going to give me any chance at killing myself or my crewmates. The loadout did not include a single round of anti-matter munitions. I went to my weapons locker and started arming myself with the tools of my newfound profession. Reaching out, I pulled my double-barreled assault shotgun from its rack. I picked up a twelve-round magazine of explosive buckshot, slapping it in place on one side of the weapon. Reaching into another bin, I grabbed a mag of explosive penetrator slugs for the other side. On a shelf were several loose rounds. I loaded each barrel to bring the weapon to full capacity. I swung the weapon over my shoulder, clipping it to the mag lock on my munitions backpack. Pulling the handle grip of my Tibor fighting knife, I made sure it was secure in my lower leg scabbard.
I could feel the beast stirring. He was invading my subconscious thoughts. It yearned for combat and was willing me to do the same. My crewmates had been quiet and calm throughout the chaos of the last several hours. Now there was tension in the air and I already knew why. The last time I was in armed conflict, I had given myself over to the Oolaran soldier lurking inside me. The remorseless monster cared only for battle and the deaths of all who stood against it. It was indifferent to survival and oblivious to civilized rules of engagement. With the help of my crewmates, I would use all of my willpower to leash the beast and bend it to my will. Although I abhorred the manifestation’s bloodthirsty ambitions, it was still a weapon that had served me well.
My crew was checking their loadouts and making sure all mag pouches and weapons were secure. They in turn did the same to each other. Tria walked up to me and smiled. The beast scurried to a dark place in the corner of my mind. She tugged on my kit then stepped in front of me.
She placed her hands on both sides of my helmet and I did the same to hers. “Nathan, you must use caution. There will be many friendlies engaged in combat. Do not let the other who resides in you strike indiscriminately.”
I nodded to her and tried to smile, but it was a gesture she knew to be false. Her helmet blacked out. The Halloween horror Justice had stenciled on each of our armor suits appeared on her visor. The A.I. fully embraced the concept of psychological warfare. Our enemies would cringe when they witnessed the morbid specters confronting them.
Looking at my crewmates, I knew my next request would not be met with enthusiasm. “I need a volunteer to take the assault shuttle and clear the hull of Quill troops. If re-enforcements attempt to board behind us, I want you to dissuade them from doing so.”
Tria stepped to my side, leaving Klutch and Coonts eyeing each other. When Coonts turned to say something to me, Klutch gave the Grawl a generous shove with his elbow. The Troop Master had a huge toothy smile on his face and quickly stepped to my other side. The look on Coonts’ face was less than amused. His helmet blacked out to the ghoulish jack-o’-lantern Justice had adorned the helmet with. It replaced the pissed off look on the little Grawl’s face that was not much better. We walked out into the big corridor and stood just in front of the hangar access hatch. Justice secured the pressure doors behind us and closed off the lift tubes. I got a rapid pressure drop warning in my H.U.D. and then the hatch opened with a small burp of atmosphere.
We no longer had to wonder why the hanger could not retain atmosphere. Sticking through the hull just to the side of the hanger doors was a giant spine from a Quill ship. Justice had not informed us just how close our engagement had actually been. Apparently, our last scrape with the Quill was literally that. We were fortunate the Legacy had hangar doors on both sides of the ship. After running out of colorful comments, Coonts ran to the shuttle and boarded. In very short order, the landing pads retracted and Justice spit the shuttle into the void with the tow beam. The Legacy may have been dangerously low on expendable munitions, the assault shuttle was not. It had never seen combat and had a full loadout. Coonts had forty thousand projectiles for the smaller rail guns that were designed for close support. He also had twenty-four Coram designed anti-ship missiles and two medium sized Galactic energy beam weapons. The shuttle had four additional point defense beam weapons for close-in engagements. We paid extra for shield and weapons upgrades that had not been tested in combat yet. We would find out the hard way if we got ripped off on those purchases. The reality of the situation was bleak. The shuttle would normally be used for close support in friendly-dominated areas of operation, and that was not the case now.
Tria, Klutch and I boosted out of the hangar bay and immediately saw two flashes from each side of our assault shuttle. Coonts was targeting the Quill ship that was drifting uncomfortably close to our position. The two Coram anti-ship missiles impacted the heavily damaged rear of the Quill ship. What was left of the star drive nozzles on the enemy ship erupted in bright, flak-laden clouds of debris. The ship started an end over end spin that was rapidly putting distance between us and the target. We flew low over the hull of the Operative’s flagship. Our target was the severed umbilical tube. We would attempt to flank any Quill forces that had managed to board before Justice intervened. There were Quill crawling on the hull in several places. Coonts was now maneuvering in close and picking them off with short bursts from his rail guns. If the Operative was still alive, she was going to have to forgive us for any additional damage we were inflicting on the once beautiful starship.
We took positions on each side of the Quill umbilical tube. My first peek inside was shocking. The Quill had used their casualties to block the end of the tube. It was an unmoving mass of broken and dismembered bug bodies. The uncertainty I was feeling quickly vanished as the beast inside of me started wresting control of my emotions.
I linked with Tria and Klutch. “Take cover on the hull.”
Without hesitation they both moved well below me and sheltered behind what was probably a shield emitter. I backed off an acceptable distance for my H.U.D. warning to go from red to yellow. I fired a beam shot into the end of the tube. It blew outward like the petals on a flower. The beast was egging me on and I gave it another shot. This time a large section of the tube flared out and tumbled away from the truncated tube.
I could now see down into the large hollow spine embedded in the Chaalt ship. I felt contact on my back and turned to see Tria and Klutch taking up station on either side of me. They had their forearm-mounted weapon muzzles pointed down into the darkness. Klutch bulled his way in front of me. Tria wrapped her arms around mine, pulling my beam weapon down so it was not being pointed at Klutch’s back. I willed the Oolaran soldier to quiet its grating cackle.
We followed Klutch into the depths of the spine. There was light at the end of the more than ninety-foot-long spine. There were Quill troops moving to block the now open breach. Klutch would have none of it and sent several HE rounds to welcome them. We were peppered with shrapnel and Quill body parts. Klutch did not seem to notice and kept advancing on our only entrance. I was fixated on what was in front of us and was surprised by a flash from just behind me. Looking up in my HUD, I saw Quill body parts twirling rapidly out of the spine into the void.
Tria slapped me twice on my shoulder and I continued moving forward. We were nearing the end of the spine. Klutch sent a few more gifts through the breach to any Quill that might have felt they were somehow left out from our surprise party. I could see body parts scattering everywhere and I cringed, noticing not all were Quill. Since there were no signs of an active battle, I could only hope the Chaalt were already deceased. Klutch held up a fist. Tria and I waited until the Troop Master took a quick peek out the end of the spine. He waved us forward and disappeared into the Chaalt ship.
We had no way of knowing how many Quill had boarded. A
ll signs indicated it was probably a shit load. When my feet hit the deck, I knew we had gravity. It was a positive sign the spine had not pierced into any vital engineering spaces. Since the ships atmosphere was not shrieking past us to the void, we also knew there was an intact pressure door somewhere ahead of us. Klutch was kneeling at a blown-out hatch peeking out into a corridor. The specially designed valves on Klutch’s armor were actively venting his warriors scent. The twin orifices just below his munitions back pack were sending steamy streams of his stench out into the void. I tried to link with the Operative and was getting nothing in return.
I surveyed my surroundings and was shaken by the grisly scene. It was not because we were standing almost knee deep in body parts, but because of what I saw just across the big machine filled room. Stacked up like cord wood, filling one whole side of the chamber was the bodies of both Chaalt and Quill troopers. Several of the Chaalt troop’s bodies had been ripped apart. Exposed flesh on several of the cadavers was steaming and blistering in places. There was a yellowish-brown viscus fluid splattered on the open wounds, and it appeared to be some kind of corrosive substance. I did not know what to make of it and assumed it was the result of Quill weapons fire.
Tria pulled me away from the morbid pile. She cleared her visor. The horror on her face turned to steely eyed determination. She nodded in Klutch’s direction. We pulled our shotguns from our backpacks and went to where the Troop Master was kneeling.
Klutch linked with me. “Commander, there are at least twenty Quill troops at both ends of this corridor. It appears they are guarding access to the spine. The hatches they are covering are far enough from our location I do not know if stealth will conceal our presence long enough to surprise them. It might not be wise to attack with explosives; they may be guarding the airlocks to these spaces.”
Klutch was politely warning me not to let my inner beast do anything stupid that might further cause damage to the Chaalt vessel. We had our needle guns. The compact rail weapons were usually less destructive to the inside of a starship than the rest of our armament. I looked back at the wall of corpses. Walking over to it, I chose a spot that was laden with an abundance of bug bodies. I gave them a shot of hypervelocity needles. The impact knocked several of the dead Quill off the pile and showered the room with reflected fragments. The heavily ridged carapace deflected most of the projectiles. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the ball-type joints on the bug carcasses were bristled like cactus from the needles imbedded in the pivot point. It was a small weakness, but a weakness nonetheless.
Linking with Tria and Klutch, I relayed my plan to them. “Tria, Klutch and I are going to step out into the passage and empty our needle guns into the troops at each end of the corridor. When we come back through the hatch, we will get clear. I want you to wait until a Quill soldier shows up. When they do, I want you to put a burst of HE into the passageway. Make sure to angle your fire so it will not reach the pressure doors at the end of the corridor.”
She gave me a thumb’s up and stepped toward the back wall. She turned and pointed to the hall. Klutch and I jumped out the doorway and sprayed nine thousand needles each into the unsuspecting Quill. I wanted to gape at the awesome display of sparks and fragmenting needles engulfing the enemy troops. Several fell to the floor prone, and the rest went into a frenzy flailing at everything around them. I had never unloaded a full magazine of needles before. I waved my arm in small circles for just under a minute before the coffee cup sized magazine went dry. I was jerked from behind by Klutch pulling me back through the door.
The beast was cheering me on, and there was a good chance I was about to blow the shit out of everything before Klutch intervened. My plan must have been old news to Tria. When the first Crit made it to the hatch, Tria expertly dropped her aim to the floor and bounced a burst of high explosive rounds off the floor, up the wall, toward the ceiling in the corridor. The detonations knocked us all sprawling to the floor. Tria was up in a flash before Klutch and I could regain our footing. The corridor wall I was facing was now bulged inward. She charged into the hallway and put some rounds of buckshot in one direction then spun doing the same in the opposite direction. She leaped back into the room with us and I jumped up to repeat her actions. I made it to the hatch and collided with Klutch as he bulled his way to the corridor. I was knocked to the side, face first into the door frame, and found myself once more back on the floor. I could feel the rippling vibrations of explosive buckshot just outside of the doorway. Tria reached down and helped me back to my feet.
Klutch walked calmly back through the doorway, replacing his spent magazines. He gave me a big, toothy smile. “All clear, Commander!”
I made it a point to clear my visor so he could plainly see the displeasure on my face. He was becoming immune to the expression. I tried to link with the Operative again and got nothing. I had grown to really like Sael Nalen but now feared she may have been killed in the Quill incursion. The Oolaran inside of me screamed out for revenge. I was going to throw it a bone.
12
“Tria, where do these passages lead to?”
She looked at me and I could tell she was deep in thought. “I have never served on this class of vessel. Judging by our entry point, I would say down the corridor to our right would have to be the engineering spaces; to our left, the lifts to the bridge and command spaces. That is where we will find Sael Nalen.”
Looking over at Klutch I blacked out my helmet. “Klutch, go left. Let’s move out!”
Klutch went out the door and left, weapon up and ready. Tria slapped me on the shoulder and gave me a push. She was going to cover our rear whether I liked it or not. I headed out the door with her right behind me. Klutch was kneeling down in the hallway, holding one of the Quill weapons. I stopped next to him and Tria stood ready for any surprise visitors.
“What have you got, Klutch?”
“Commander, the Crit’s weapon is fed by this pack strapped to its thorax. I am mystified by the tube that connects the weapon to its proboscis.”
Klutch pulled his fighting knife and hacked at the tube twice before it parted. The yellow-brown fluid we had seen burning the flesh on the Chaalt corpses squirt out of the tube onto the floor. The coating on the deck plating started to boil up. Just when you think aliens could not get any weirder, you see shit like this. The freaking Crit was producing some kind of acid in its body and injecting it into its weapon. The projectiles in the weapon were obviously being coated in the corrosive substance. We had yet to be shot at because we were killing the bugs before they had a chance to. We could not count on that luck holding for much longer. I hoped Zaen battle armor could hold up to corrosives as well as it did against projectiles. Klutch wiped the acid from his blade on the creature’s body and we again moved down the passageway.
We had not encountered any resistance and reached the large pressure door unimpeded. It would be foolish to think the atmospheric lock would not have a number of troops protecting the strategic choke point. We stacked at the door and Tria hit the access control. The door opened and two Quill soldiers were inside facing away from us. The Troop Master did not hesitate. He ran forward jumping onto the first Crit’s back. As the Crit fell into its companion, Klutch shoved his shotgun against the creature’s head and blew it in half. His momentum carried him over the first bug and he leapt feet-first onto the head of the second that had stumbled and fell to the floor. The Crit’s head fractured under Klutch’s weight. He jumped up and completed the kill with a landing that crushed the bug’s skull.
Klutch did not look back when he called to Tria and I. “Their carapace does not protect their skull well. We should target this weakness.”
The Troop Master was in the zone, and his combat focus was laser precise. Any resistance would be met with maximum force. He was not giving my inner demon any chance at wanton destruction. We again stacked with Klutch low, me over his shoulder and Tria over mine. She hit the door control and atmosphere pressurized the chamber, and the door
opened. The passage was full of Quill soldiers. They were in the process of stacking the dead from both sides. We poured a fusillade of fire into them. Klutch went left, I went right and Tria sent a stream of nonstop anti-personnel rounds into the bugs. She dove to the floor beside me. I hoped the bugs had sensitive olfactory receptors. Klutch’s armor was venting overtime.
Klutch yelled out. “TAKE COVER, H.E. OUT!”
I rolled on top of Tria as Klutch took a chapter from the Chaalt’s playbook. He bounced a burst of high explosive rounds off the ceiling into the rear of the Quill troops. The staccato blasts bounced us off the floor. Quill soldiers were blown on top of us and several were still alive. Tria was pinned under me but not for long. I was jerked from the floor by one of the bugs. It promptly spits a generous amount of the acid crap they used in their weapons, down the front of me. The Crit had two interlocking mandibles that opened and clamped down on my shoulder. Even through the armor, I could feel the pressure increasing.
I could feel the Oolaran soldier take charge as servo warning lights started flashing in my visor. My fear subsided and calm determination took its place. A small smile formed on my lips. I smashed my fist into the bug’s large egg-shaped eye, fracturing the clear hard covering protecting it. I struck savagely at the covering until it collapsed. The Crit released its grip on me. I reached out and grabbed one of the mandibles, wrenching at it with everything I had. It ripped from the bugs head, slinging acid and dark red, almost black fluid with it. The creature was letting out loud screeching chirps that sounded a lot like a cricket. The bug’s lower thorax exploded and I fell backwards to the floor. Looking up, I saw Tria was against the wall with her shotgun up and making precision shots on anything that moved. The explosive penetrator slugs were devastatingly effective.