Third Player

by Warren James Palmer

  The marines looked at him in awe. They’d heard of their young leader’s psycho-kinetic powers but had never seen them employed before. It’d been rumoured that Moss had lost his talents after the ‘battle of liberation’. That particular rumour had now been disproved in a very dramatic fashion. Only Jennifer realised just how much such action took out of Moss. She watched his hunched, exhausted back, but said nothing. Now wasn’t the time, nor

  the place.

  Lieutenant Miller ordered his marines to stop gawking and move forward, which they promptly did, taking up positions that gave the seer, child and doctor the maximum protection. Which was just as well, because as soon as they came back to the junction of the three corridors, they were intercepted by a horde of crustaceans. The marines immediately opened fire, they weren’t about to let what happened to those other poor bastards happen to them! Cannon fire and concussion grenades poured onto the horde, who gave out the most horrendous screams. Their shells disintegrated and green body fluids gushed like fountains. The bastards may have exterminated the Heligsion people, but they were no match for decent firepower, Miller thought to himself, as another of his concussion grenades exploded with a satisfying ‘crump!’

  The crustaceans were advancing from one of the other passageways, happily leaving the way to the surface clear. Moss herded Dauphne and the child in that direction whilst Jennifer and the marines lay down a withering hail of fire, retreating all the time. Something probed Moss’s mind—it attempted to break through his mental barriers in a harsh and essentially alien manner. Until this moment, none of them had been able to feel the minds of the crustaceans. Knowing what he did now, Moss reckoned it was because the Heligsion minds had been completely swamped in the metamorphosis. They were automatons—drones without any volition of their own. Until now, that was…

  ‘Jennifer, did you feel that?’ Moss asked, turning around, trying to pinpoint the source of the attack from the mass of creatures filling the other corridor.

  ‘Felt what?’ she responded, concentrating on keeping the horde at bay while retreating in an organised manner.

  Moss glanced at Dauphne, her attention was entirely upon the little girl. She was only partly aware of what was happening around her, a mixture of grief and paternalism clouding her mind. So, the mental probe was aimed solely at him! There it was again! The harsh probe, trying to force its way past his mental barriers once more. This time he was prepared, he pinpointed the source of the attack quickly. It came not from the corridor filled with a growing mound of carnage, but from the third passage. There it was, half hidden in shadow, peering at him with multi-lensed eyes. It was taller than the drones, covered in heavy armoured plating and stood on four insectoid legs. Unlike the wretched creatures it controlled, this beast had a pair of arms attached to a massive shoulder, but the digits of its hands were small, almost delicate. There was no doubt that this thing was some sort of overseer, controlling the smaller crusties. This thing was one of the bastards behind all this destruction, this genocide, and Moss was going to get his hands on it!

  For the third time a mental thrust was delivered at Moss, but this time, instead of merely blocking the attack, he countered with one of his own. Although the creature’s mind was totally alien to his own, Moss was able to attune his own attack to the frequency of the insectoid and deliver it with devastating accuracy. His opponent screamed and leaped into the air, its four legs kicking wildly. Then it fell in a heap on the stone floor unmoving. What the…?

  Moss was confused—his response to the probe was harsh, but certainly not life threatening. So what the hell had happened to that bastard? It looked for all the world like the damn thing had short-circuited and blown a fuse. Well, they needed one of the damn things to study and here was their chance.

  ‘Miller! With me!’ he yelled and ran toward the unmoving crustacean, firing at a drone blocking his way. It exploded in a mass of shell and gore which Moss ignored, ploughing his way to the alien overseer. Miller arrived right on his heels swearing as he nearly lost his footing on the slippery, gore-swamped floor. The other marines seeing what they were up to ran over to help.

  Moss gave the pile of multi-jointed legs and exoskeleton a good kick to see if it would move. It didn’t, which meant it was either dead or unconscious. Whatever, the bastard was theirs. The marines grabbed a leg each and unceremoniously began dragging the insectoid toward the exit. Moss moved in front, covering them with his assault rifle.

  As they passed the other corridor he saw to his surprise, that the drone crusties were now milling around aimlessly. They thrashed their claws and mandibles randomly, walking into walls and each other. They weren’t even aware of the presence of one another, let alone Moss and his group. Without an overseer to guide them, they were useless.

  ‘Stanfield do you copy?’ Moss called on his comm unit.

  ‘Go Moss!’

  ‘Are the ships on their way?’

  ‘Roger that!’ the marine major responded. ‘ETA seven minutes. The Flyships are going to make a couple of strafing attacks first to clear the way for the assault ship.’

  ‘We’ll be with you in three minutes,’ Moss told him. ‘What’s your situation?

  ‘We’re under a lot of pressure here Moss!’ Stanfield told him in a strained voice. ‘There are thousands of the bastard’s! As soon as we slaughter one lot, another bunch come at us. I’ve lost a few people to those claws of theirs and it ain’t a nice way to die!’

  ‘Listen Stan, this is very important!’ Moss told the major urgently. ‘Can you see any taller insectoids? They’ve got four multi-jointed legs, big bug eyes and shed loads of armour!’

  There was a pause as Stanfield scanned the battle-zone, then he came back on-line. ‘Roger Moss!’ he responded. ‘There’s a couple of the bigger bastards standing on some construction equipment to their rear. They seem to be gnashing their antennae around a lot.’

  ‘Okay, good! Those insectoids are overseers—they’re controlling all those drones that are falling over themselves to get at you. Take those guys out and the rest will start walking into each other. The drones are useless without a director to guide them!’

  ‘Thanks for the advice Moss!’ Stanfield said genuinely. ‘We’ll get right on to it, but the sooner you get out of there, the happier I’ll be!’

  ‘We’re on our way!’ Moss told the major and cut the link.

  As promised, they emerged from the subterranean levels a few minutes later, the marines still dragging the crusty overseer behind them. They had to climb over the shattered and mutilated bodies of drone crabs, which were piled high in the entrance to the cone. Moss could see that Stanfield had been very busy, ensuring none of the creatures pursued them down into the underground chambers. Among the pile of drones he saw the shreds of jungle fatigues and a bloody, severed limb. There’d clearly been casualties among the marines defending the entrance. Stanfield was right, it was a bloody awful way to die.

  They ran for the cover of the vegetation and collapsed in a pile next to the other company of marines just as the first of the twin suns appeared over the horizon. It cast a yellow beam of light over the alien site throwing the half completed cones into stark relief. Doc Patterson gasped as he saw clearly for the first time the carnage all around them. ‘Shit!’ he exclaimed, ‘just how many of those things are there?’

  In front of the defences set up by the marines were hundreds, maybe thousands, of drones all blown apart by heavy weapons fire. The ground underneath them was soaked in the strange pink and green body fluids, the bodies piled high. Here and there the odd claw still moved weakly, but for the moment at least, a deathly silence had descended upon the battlefield.

  Moss crawled over to Major Stanfield and drawled in dry understatement, ‘Been a bit busy?’

  The marine major grinned at him, his white teeth standing out in stark contrast to the sweat, grime and camo-paint on his face. ‘You could say that Moss! Glad to see you made it back in one piece!’

  Stanf
ield’s smile faded when he realised the Heligsion survivors they’d come for weren’t appearing from the underground chambers.

  ‘No survivors?’ he asked.

  ‘Just one,’ Moss answered shaking his head sadly. ‘It’s a long story that had better wait until we’re back on Excalibur. What’s the situation here?’

  Stanfield rubbed his eyes tiredly then said, ‘Well, we took out those lanky crusties like you suggested and the drones started walking into each other. So, thanks for that! We reduced that lot to crab meat and it’s been quiet for the last few minutes. Not that I imagine for an instant they’re calling it a day. I reckon they’re reorganising themselves once more, before trying to swarm all over us again.’

  ‘How much ammunition have you got left? Enough to keep them at bay until the fighters turn up?’ Moss asked worriedly.

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe,’ was the reply

  ‘Major!’ one of the marines yelled out, pointing to a heaving mass approaching from the far side of the construction site. The drones poured out of the incomplete central cone making a deep beating, clacking, sound. This time the Insectoid overseers weren’t to be seen anywhere. They’d become wise to the situation and were organising the attack from hidden vantage points, out of sight of the marines.

  ‘Oh shit! Here they come again!’

  The front ranks of drones, which reached from one side of the clearing to another, were just coming into range of the marines weapons when from out of the climbing suns, appeared the silhouettes of two Flyships. They dived toward the advancing horde, their chain-guns rattling, spewing explosive cannon shells into the crustaceans. Two containers fell from each fighter and tumbled toward the ground. Each one exploded on impact, the napalm igniting with a heat-searing whoosh! A wall of flame stood between the beleaguered marines and the advancing drones who screeched in pain and agony as they mindlessly clattered into the flames.

  The Flyships continued to strafe the site, keeping the hordes at bay as the assault ship descended and landed as close as possible to Moss and the troops. The rear bay door dropped open and the crew beckoned for them to climb aboard.

  Stanfield got up and ran for the ship, literally hauling his marines up by the scruff of the neck as he went. ‘Come on let’s get the hell out of here!’ he shouted at the marines. ‘Leave the heavier equipment! Get your arses on-board that troop carrier! Come on move!’

  Moss and Jennifer took the seer by an arm each and carried her up the boarding ramp. Doc Patterson jumped on-board with the little girl securely held in his burly arms. The marines, dragging the still inert insectoid, took up the rear. As soon as the last trooper was inside the pilot rotated the vectored thrust and applied full power. The assault ship leapt into the air like a frightened animal, lifted its nose and shot toward the heavens. As the flames from the napalm finally began to die out, the horde climbed over the cremated remains of fallen drones and dashed to where the ship had sat only seconds before. Their claws snapped at thin air and in their hiding places, the overseers howled in frustration. The Flyships made one last pass over the frenzied crustaceans, then sped back toward the safety of Excalibur.

  As the assault ship rapidly gained altitude Moss watched the alien centre of horror disappear behind them, anger and frustration still a palpable force in his heart. In all the fighting between the Terrans and the Dyason never had he seen such abuse, such calculating evil. That place had to be removed. It had to be…sterilized. The rest of Heligsion would recover from the alien invasion. For whatever reason the other native species, the plants and animals, had been left alone. The destroyed cities would disappear into the jungles and forests. Who knew? Perhaps one day the few survivors of the peaceful Heligsion race on-board the Valvia could return to recolonise the planet. But none of this would happen for so long as that diabolical temple remained like an open sore on the planet.

  Moss waited until the blue sky faded to black and the stars began to show. Then he pressed the button on the small box he carried in his pocket. The detonators in the small cylinder, buried in the chamber of horrors, fired and the radioactive isotopes collided. A flash of light and a fireball hotter than the interiors of the Heligsion twin suns spread throughout the crustaceans’ nest, melting and devouring everything it touched. Somewhere in the heart of the site, in the mind that controlled the domain, there was only time for the briefest micro-transmission of surprise, before it too was swept aside in the nuclear maelstrom. A vast mushroom cloud rose into the morning sky broiling and spreading as it did so.

  The marines in the assault ship felt nothing but relief at the explosion of the hydrogen bomb. The horror of what they’d seen was written all over their faces. These were hardened men and women who’d been in the worst of the fighting for the liberation of Earth. However, none of them had been through such a terrifying and harrowing experience before. Jennifer looked around the interior of the troop carrier and thought to herself, that there’d be a lot of people suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome at the end of this trip. She looked at Dauphne who sat huddled in one corner of the cabin, the child in her arms still sobbing. The seer had closed her mind, drawn herself into her own horror and grief. Jennifer began to wonder if they would ever be able to bring her back to the real world again.

  Doc Patterson was tending to the marines who’d been almost overrun by the crustaceans. Their wounds were mainly rips and gashes in the flesh caused by claws and mandibles. In all, Jennifer counted eight missing marines, lost to the metamorphosed Heligsion people. Eight Terran lives—if there was any doubt before, those lost lives removed it. The forces of Earth would fight until the creatures responsible for all this death, were destroyed—she knew that for certain. One look at Moss’s face as he stared out of the cabin window at the mushroom cloud falling away below them, was enough to confirm that. He wouldn’t rest until the Heligsion had been avenged and where he went, others would follow. Her stomach tightened and for a moment she felt ill, because Jennifer knew that as the crusade lined up behind Moss, he would slip away from her. What really scared her, was the thought that one day, she might lose him completely.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Excalibur

  As soon as they were safely in the landing bay of Excalibur medics rushed the wounded marines along with Dauphne and the little girl to the medical centre. The crustacean was removed to a secure isolation unit where it could be analysed. It was still unmoving, completely inert and possibly dead, but the scientists would examine it in detail anyway.

  Moss and Jennifer stopped off at their quarters to shower quickly and change before going on to the debriefing. As Moss stood there in the cubicle, washing the sweat, gore and grime slowly away, Jennifer joined him in the shower. He embraced her firm, well-proportioned body and without saying a word began washing the dirt from her face and limbs. They both desperately needed to reaffirm their love for each other; to wash away the worst of the horrors they’d seen. Twenty minutes later, their tender love-making over, they headed for the briefing room, their bodies cleansed. The cleansing of their minds and souls would take a lot longer, but at least they’d taken the first step towards purging themselves physically. Jennifer wondered what it would take to heal the wounds of the seer and the little girl.

  They never made it to the briefing room. Their comm units bleeped and an urgent voice asked them to make for the bridge just as the battle-stations klaxon sounded. They ordered the turbo-lift to change its destination wondering what was happening now. When they got there they found Black anxiously examining reports divulged from Excalibur’s sensor array. Jennifer made straight for her workstation and Moss strode over to Black.

  ‘What’s the problem?’ he demanded.

  Captain Black pointed to a reading on the astro-navigation monitor. ‘I think we’re about to have company Moss. There’s a space anomaly opening just fifty thousand klicks from here. It looks like a wormhole is opening and my guess is that something is about to enter the system.’

  The now almost
familiar image of an opening wormhole appeared on the main viewer. It appeared as a swirling mist of multi-coloured vapour rotating around a central point in an anti-clockwise direction. Tendrils of gas reached out from a broiling central mass. Moss watched as once more, the spinning motion increased velocity and an area of pure darkness emerged at the epicentre of the anomaly. Once again, it appeared as if someone had pulled the plug and everything was being sucked into the centre of the wormhole.

  ‘There are three ships leaving the wormhole!’ Jennifer called out, her eyes glued to the screens of her workstation. Moss watched the main viewer as three vessels of a design he’d never seen before shot out of the heart of the wormhole, re-entering normal space.

  ‘Bring main armament on line!’ Moss ordered. ‘Scramble two squadrons of Flyships!’

  The weapons officer leapt to comply, his hands flashing across the armament panel, ordering the power-up of the massive main laser cannon, and several smaller batteries. The air-officer commanding ordered his pilots to their ships and the small fighters prepared for launch.

  ‘The displacement of each vessel is about twenty thousand tons. Design unknown, but the material of their construction is similar to our own. Great usage has been made of composite structures and their powerplants are artificial singularities, the same as our own,’ Jennifer stated, giving them as much information as possible. ‘They’re about the size of the new cruisers we’ve been building back home, slightly smaller.’