Space Dragon Allepexxis

by C. K. Pershing

  Feln no longer winced with each robot’s destruction and the death of the pilot inside as he did when all of this first started. The fact that he was killing what used to be his friends and colleagues didn’t factor into his thoughts. He knew deep in his heart he was actually giving them a mercy killing.

  Feln thought he caught movement to his left, but it was quickly lost in the blackness of the dead section of screen. Still, he knew to trust his instincts and turned to fire the Xeiter Beam. Denxeiter’s head crest glowed and sparked as a white hot beam erupted from the crest’s center. The beam wasn’t as strong as it used to be thanks to half of the crest being gone, but despite its sputtering and noise, it still cut through three robots. Sure enough, they were trying to get him on Denxeiter’s blind side. About ten enemies were bearing down, already shooting.

  “Den Aegis!” Feln gasped out and the robot responded to his voice command by quickly swinging its cape around to intercept the incoming fire. The beams hit the cape and mostly dissipated before passing through in a much weaker state where Denxeiter’s shields could handle what was left. Where the cape’s material wasn’t as ragged, the beams bounced off into space, but there were very little of those sections left.

  Denxeiter pulled a pistol from a holster located in one of its hip armor plates. Feln quickly squeezed off a series of shots. He was rewarded by enemy bodies rupturing into a massive cloud of debris: blood, oil, body parts, all intermingled in a sickening kaleidoscope. A series of shots lanced at him from below. One of them pierced the pistol and he just barely threw it away before it could explode in Denxeiter’s hand.

  “You already got one arm, you’re not getting the other,” he ground out before firing the Booster Punch at the three attacking insects below. Denxeiter’s targeting computer had already locked onto them as Denxeiter’s forearm and fist blasted off at the elbow, propelled by powerful rockets. Maneuvering thrusters at the wrist allowed the Booster Punch to change direction at a ridiculously high speed and Feln was greeted with the sight of a Z shape of light as the weapon zigzagged back and forth, punching holes in the bodies of the insects as it went. They exploded into a bloody green mess as Denxeiter’s forearm slammed back into place at the elbow with a couple of G’s of recoil. Feln noted that one of the attitude adjustment thrusters must have gone out recently as the docking maneuver was usually smooth with no recoil.

  “Something else to keep Aaltskog busy…”

  What was Aaltskog doing right now? He smiled. Of course, she’d be watching this battle as best she could, hunched over a monitor in the colony. Due to communications in this system only being able to travel a few yards before breaking up completely, Feln hadn’t heard from anyone since a couple days after this mission began. But even with the loss of coms and the inevitable loss in visuals thanks to all the debris and shortage of functioning cameras, Aaltskog would be faithfully watching without ever having to stop to eat or sleep or go to bathroom. She was his Companion, and Companions didn’t have to worry about such things. Although Aaltskog liked to do those things since it made her feel alive.

  “Yeah, sometimes even going to the bathroom…” and then Feln burst into laughter. The idea! An android that enjoyed pooping once in a while! Feln wondered what Aaltskog’s creator would think of that. Then again, who would even think to create an android capable of doing such a thing? Who was more to blame? The creation or the creator? He’d have to ask her what she thought of all this…

  Feln was jarred awake by flashing warning lights and the loud “Danger” klaxon. Dammit, he’d fallen asleep— in the middle of a battle! He’d never done that before. He was having some kind of ludicrous dream about… something… or… someone… And then he slapped himself because he was about to fall asleep again.

  Something smashed into Denxeiter’s back and as he turned to see what it was, Feln was knocked forward by something else slamming into the front. His head would have bashed into the main console, had the reusable airbag not deployed from the console’s center. It quickly retracted back into its compartment, ready to deploy again in a similar circumstance with a burst of compressed air.

  Looking back and forth quickly, he saw that he was being held by a small group of insects. Their legs moved around Denxeiter’s body and interlocked with each other, forming a sort of cage around the robot. He spun around and twirled through a series of maneuvers to throw them off, but they were locked tight.

  “Damn these things…” he said as he noticed one in back opening its mandibles. A spiked tube began to emerge. Oh no, not that! That was how they got in, how they took over. That was why half of the enemies he was fighting used to be his friends.

  “That’s not happening!” he yelled. “You bastards aren’t taking me! You don’t know who you’re messing with!” He knew that they didn’t care about his rantings. But it made him feel better as he scrambled to think of a way out of this. The spike reared back and struck. Denxeiter’s armor held, but he saw that its integrity had decreased by 20%. Four more hits before it got through if he was lucky. But three might be all he’d get… Some more enemies had appeared in front of him, silently waiting for their compatriots to finish their work.

  He couldn’t use the Xeiter Beam on the insects holding his front because one had managed to wedge a claw under Denxeiter’s chin to keep him from looking down. The insects were too close to be able to shoot them with the beam cannons on the arm— their shotgun effect would damage Denxeiter’s own body; the Booster Punch was still recharging and wouldn’t be ready for another twenty seconds. Too bad he had already used up all the shots of the Burst Slammer last week, since it emitted from Denxeiter’s chest and would have instantly vaporized the insects… not only the ones attached, but the other ones that were waiting. The drones could have easily picked these things off but they were lost long ago. The Smasher Blade? No, again they were too close, hugging him so tight, they were almost buried into every crevice of Denxeiter’s front and back. And even if he could use it, it would undoubtedly drain whatever power he had left. The spike hit again.

  Ugh, he had stop thinking of what he couldn’t do, and concentrate on what he could. He glanced at the integrity rating. Sure enough, it was down another 40%. So he was right in thinking he’d only get three chances.

  Then he noticed that shield strength was still at 100%. The shields couldn’t protect against physical attacks, they were meant to protect Denxeiter’s body from any beams that managed to get through the Den Aegis— but they would need time to recharge after getting hit. Since Feln had managed to avoid any direct beam shots in the last few minutes, the shields were charged and at the ready.

  “Overload shields!” he said.

  “Warning, overloading shields will result in them being rendered inoperable,” a deep voice (Denxeiter’s? Feln had wondered) boomed out.

  “Do it!” Feln yelled as he watched the spike quivering about to strike.

  Electric blue lightning erupted across Denxeiter, and arced across the bodies of the insects. A high-pitched squeal vibrated through Denxeiter’s body as the insects were roasted alive. The sound and vibration made Feln feel like his teeth were going to burst. The insects were screaming.

  Feln laughed hysterically, “Burn you bastards! I told you! I told you, you damn bugs! You don’t know who you’re messing with!” And then he suddenly grew sober, “I’ve really gotta get some sleep…” But he couldn’t help but giggle as he blasted off straight up and saw the insects’ charred bodies fall away.

  He had to focus, get a grip. He needed some psych meds. He opened the small panel in the right console that housed the meds, but it was empty. Of course it was empty! He knew that already. “This is too much.”

  The group of enemies that had been waiting were now speeding up toward him. He quickly looped over and dove down to intercept them. Now that his shields were dead, he had to be even more careful since the Den Aegis couldn’t guarantee full coverage and even a medium energy beam could now do some real damage to Denxeiter
. The Xeiter Beam crackled to life and fired, killing a couple of enemies, before finally sputtering out for good— not to be used again until it could be repaired.

  “Booster Punch!” Feln fired the recently recharged weapon and it once again screamed through space, killing the rest of the group. It slammed back into place even harder this time, and he got a warning saying that it was wedged in place and couldn’t be fired again. Yeah, the attitude adjusters were definitely shot. To make matters worse, overloading the shields had apparently also overloaded the beam cannons on Denxeiter’s forearm.

  Feln spun around ready for the next attack but it never came. He was alone. It was over. He collapsed back in his seat. Thank God! He didn’t really have any more weapons at the ready except for one, and there was no guarantee that it would even work. He’d fight them off with punches and kicks if need be. He sobered as he realized that it was only a matter of time before more of them showed up, and punches and kicks would be exactly what he’d have to use. Well, if that’s what it took…

  The space in front of Denxeiter started to distort and shimmer as something uncloaked in front him. He sucked in a breath of air in shock and then anger as a purple robot around the same size as Denxeiter appeared. While Denxeiter had a male appearance, this robot had a female design. Feln’s teeth gritted as his screen flashed the words: FRANCESCAN IMPERIAL STAR NAVY ULTIMATE FLEET ESCORT HYPER BATTLE MACHINE #40: “GANXEITER”

  What had once been a beautiful robot was now a twisted monster of nightmares. Things that at first seemed like small distortions on its body, Feln realized, were actually wriggling tentacles emerging from cracks in its armor. Like Denxeiter, this robot, Ganxeiter, was also missing its face shield, and what once looked like a beautiful woman’s face sculpted in porcelain was now deformed into a rictus of laughing evil. Its eyes were rolled back, darting back and forth as more tentacles emerged from the corners and what looked like green blood was oozing out. Where Ganxeiter’s mouth used to be was now a giant gash with a long scaled tongue dangling out, dripping more ooze down onto a chest covered with what looked like pus and vomit. Strange symbols had been carved all over its body and Feln tried not to stare too long at them because when he did, they seemed to dance.

  “You…” Feln said.

  Ganxeiter advanced, drawing a rusty rapier covered with filth and with more symbols carved on the guard. Feln narrowly dodged an incoming attack as Ganxeiter jabbed at Denxeiter’s head. Ganxeiter held the rapier up in a mockery of a salute and came at him again. Feln feinted left and spun around down the length of Ganxeiter’s outstretched arm. He whirled around and brought Denxeiter’s foot up into a crescent kick that connected with Ganxeiter’s head. There was a sickening crunch as Ganxeiter’s neck snapped sideways and the head almost came off. But more tentacles shot out of the neck and pulled the head back on tight. Ganxeiter slashed out and cut into Denxeiter’s right shin.

  “Damage?” Feln asked.

  “No sign of infection,” came Denxeiter’s reply. Good. On smaller robots, he’d seen the same type of damage result in the robot filling with pus and exploding seconds later. Truly a terrifying weapon, but the Blessing in Denxeiter’s construction seemed to keep it safe. Still, Feln didn’t want to test just how strong the Blessing was.

  While Feln was considering this, a mass of tentacles suddenly shot out of Ganxeiter’s chest. Feln dodged some, but not all and he found himself ensnared and being flung into a piece of colony debris floating nearby. He felt like his neck was going to snap from the impact embedding Denxeiter in place and no sooner had he caught his breath than Ganxeiter was on top of him. The tentacles shot out again, pinning him to the debris with limbs outstretched.

  Ganxeiter’s eyes rolled forward and stopped darting to focus on Denxeiter. Inside, Feln felt as if the thing was looking into his soul. The space around Ganxeiter began to distort as a deep hum started to emanate from deep within. Feln clenched his teeth as the hum rattled the cockpit, making the air itself seem to vibrate and some of the portions of his monitor shattered in response.

  Through the hum and vibration Feln saw an incoming transmission appear on his window. It read, “Transmission from Lt. Katashka Nonn, Francescan Imperial Star Navy Space Knight Rank AB7”. The thing that appeared in the transmission was once indeed Katashka Nonn, but not anymore.

  Katashka, once a beautiful young woman, was now a monster in the purest sense of the word. Where her eyes used to be were now open gashes with small tentacles flailing around. Her head was tilted back and her mouth open in a permanent, silent scream. Out of that mouth were jutting two large mucous-covered stalks with eyes at the tips.

  The eyes stared intently at Feln and through the hum, a woman’s voice— Katashka’s— emerged, “Feln, why are you still fighting us? We're all waiting for you. The Empire has forgotten about you and the others. Come with us…”

  Blood was starting to come out of Feln’s nose and ears thanks to the hum, but he still managed to grin, “You’re not Katashka. And who in their right mind would want… that anyway?” He closed his eyes and laughed.

  The eyes on the stalks narrowed, “Idiot, this is just a vessel. Join us and see the real me and be connected in more ways that you can imagine." The voice became more solid and clear. "I'll make every one of your dirtiest dreams come true…”

  Feln felt something on his lap and opened his eyes to see Katashka there, naked, the girl he knew. She never looked more amazing than now. Her blue eyes even more clear and sparkling than he remembered, her lips so red and pouty that his already-compromised grasp on sanity was now ridiculously starting to get turned on.

  Katashka shifted slightly, feeling him underneath her and giggled, “Oh! Heh. You were always such a dirty boy. Well, I can take anything you can come up with and come back for more. You can be as rough as you want with me, you know. I won’t break.”

  She giggled some more as Feln’s eyes rolled back and he leaned back in his seat. As she started to kiss his neck, Feln’s eyes opened and looked past her at the monstrosity still visible on his screen. Its eyes were glazed, obviously concentrating on producing this… what was this exactly? It was certainly more than an illusion because Feln could feel Katashka’s body against his, her hot breath, and kisses on his neck. Well, whatever it was, it wasn’t real. The thing on the screen was. He looked down at the fantasy on his lap.

  “Katashka…”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m so sorry this happened to you. I’m really sorry. I’ll never forget you and I will avenge you.”

  Katashka started to say something in gentle protest but then her eyes— and the eyes on the stalks— widened in horror as Feln yelled, “Durandal!”

  With a colossal boom that shattered the debris Denxeiter was pinned to and knocked Ganxeiter back, the giant sword, Durandal, suddenly materialized in Denxeiter’s open palm. As the robot’s fingers closed around the grip, a shockwave burst out that sent Ganxeiter tumbling and the false Katashka on his lap disappeared with a shriek. The image of the monster on his screen went blank and the hum disappeared.

  Feln knew he had to act fast and shot forward, following in the wake of the shockwave. With a growl of anguish, he made a downward slash that sliced Ganxeiter cleanly in two from head to waist. The edges of the corrupted robot’s armor was melted in the wake of the cut, and Feln could see cauterized tentacles and what looked like organs burning. Ganxeiter exploded.

  Denxeiter drifted backward slowly. Durandal was the only weapon Feln had left, but bringing it into battle always required energy— energy that after two weeks of constant fighting was now exhausted. Durandal dematerialized and Denxeiter froze, all systems powered down except life support.

  “Oh, well, it was enough,” Feln said as he wiped the blood from his nose. He looked at the debris field that had once been Ganxeiter. “Goodbye, Katashka.” He started to cough and tasted blood on his lips. The warning klaxon went off and Feln could see another group of enemies tentatively approaching. He knew this was g
oing to happen and was prepared. “Divert all power from life support to self-destruct charges.”

  “Warning: There is not enough power to self-destruct and eject the escape pod.”

  “I know. Do it. Self destruct on my order.”

  “As you wish. It has been an honor.”

  Feln certainly hadn’t expected that. He knew that Denxeiter possessed a rudimentary intelligence, but this was something more. He’d heard stories about other Hyper Battle Machines evolving and developing feelings, but always just assumed those stories were wild gossip. And now he was witnessing something amazing moments before his death.

  “The honor was mine,” he said, “And thank you.”

  He was hoping for an answer, but none came. Had Denxeiter actually spoken to him? Maybe in his current state of mind, he’d just imagined it. Of course, that was it. As if things weren’t crazy enough, preparing to give the signal that would cause his own death had obviously sent him over the edge.

  The enemies cautiously grew closer and Feln waited. With Ganxeiter’s destruction, they probably wanted to possess him and Denxeiter even more than before. A Hyper Battle Machine’s main engine was a source of massive amounts of destructive energy even in the weakened state Denxeiter was currently in. When Denxeiter self destructed, it would be more than enough to wipe out the enemies approaching now and almost anything else in a two mile radius.

  Just as Feln was about to give the signal to unleash that destruction, a hail of laser beams came from above and destroyed the enemies closest to him. The rest scattered as a group of robots and space fighter planes screamed after them.

  As this new group made quick work of Feln’s would-be assailants, Denxeiter was engulfed in shadow. Feln looked up to see the assault carrier, I.F.S.N. Tannhauser, hovering over him. The Tannhauser was his home. Feln collapsed in relief, “Disengage self destruct and restore life support.”