“What the hell was that? Flash grenade?” Savo asked, looking back.
“No, me,” Irons said as the door cycled fully open. Another Dilgarth was on the other side. It was surprised by the cycling door and turned just in time for it to fully open. Before it could get a claw over the hatch combing though Irons had put it out of its misery.
“We're taking casualties!” Adam said, leaning over the fallen rear guard. He looked up just in time to see a Dilgarth's massive scythe take his helmeted head off.
Yvonne screamed as she fired at his killer. Adam's body crumpled, falling on top of the fallen guard. She rushed forward but Savo grabbed her. She tugged on his arm but his simian strength held her back.
“He's dead. They’re both dead. Forward,” he ground out. He used his free hand to fire into a Jeffery tube. Something squealed inside. They could hear thrashing and banging in the tube. “Gotcha you bastards,” he growled triumphantly “Come on! You want to die here like them?”
Two more people were killed before Irons could react. He had to focus; he had to blow through the aliens to the other team. Soak up the damage and dish out a hell of a lot more pain. Shock and awe, which was the only way to get through this. Defender brought up his shields as spines were fired into the open hatch. They pinged off his shield. “Admiral, power reserves are dropping,” Proteus warned.
“Tap the generator, I'm busy here,” he replied, firing off another shot. Its intended target jumped out of the way. The shot kept going down the corridor in a blinding flash before running into a pack of alien raptors. The lead one disintegrated in surprise, spraying it's fellows with bone shrapnel. That made them duck and cover or squeal and hiss as they took damage. He was down to three shots left before he drained his shields completely.
The admiral felt Proteus reach out with nanites and then build a cable in between Irons and the generator. He grunted as his power reserves started climbing again. “Good,” he said, turning as a Dilgarth reached out from the side of the hatch to spear him. Had he not seen it coming on his sensors and had he not had shields he would have been gutted. He let the scythe bounce harmlessly off his shield and then leveled the plasma gun. One shot blew the alien's head off.
The hover bot was firing as well; it staked out a pair of Jeffery tubes and was taking turns swiveling back and forth between the two. Irons nodded as he checked the surviving team behind him. They had all the openings covered now. Good. Four dead, two wounded. Not so good.
“Damn these things are everywhere!” Savo yelled firing around the corner blindly. He took a chance to peek and then leaned back. “Clear.”
Irons could hear the click and clatter of claws retreating on the metal decks. He checked his HUD. They were retreating. Good. “They are retreating,” he said.
“If we're going to do something we better do it now,” Derrick said. He was holding his left arm. A spine was sticking out of it. He winced. “Suit's compromised and so am I damn it.”
“Sorry man,” a guard said. He reached over to pull it out but Yvonne batted his hand away.
“Don't, it's plugging the hole for now. Derrick you okay to move?” she demanded.
“Yeah,” Derrick gasped out. He nodded getting into motion. His left arm hung at his side uselessly.
“If we're going to do something we better hustle and do it now!” Savo said.
“Working on it,” Yvonne said, looking at Irons. He nodded.
“Sprite sitrep. Fire one off to Kiev and...”
“Let you know that Barry, Al, and three of his team are still alive. Two are wounded.”
“Shit,” Irons said, turning away from the distress written all over Yvonne's face.
“They are barricaded in a supply closet with a Dilgarth outside. Something's off. They are more aggressive than normal,” Sprite said.
“Fresh meat,” Yvonne said.
Irons turned until he spotted a trunk down the way they were going to go. It had a life sign inside. From the read out, human. “Hang on, I think you miscounted,” he said moving forward.
“I'm an AI, I don't miscount,” Sprite said as a probe past over his shoulder. “What the heck?” she said as it bobbed over the trunk.
“See?” Irons said, lifting the lid. He caught a brief glimpse of a human child covered in scaly armor and hair before it flashed a set of yellow teeth and brandished a claw covered hand. It slashed at him, making him back away instinctively.
Before he could stop the kid it was out of the box and had dived down the nearest Jeffery tube. “Shit!” Savo said watching it go. “And you let it go?” he demanded.
“It wasn't a Dilgarth. It was human,” Irons said, trying to replay that last scene.
“No time to figure it out, where are the others?” Yvonne asked, voice dripping with anxiety.
“That way,” Irons said, pointing straight and then to the left. “One hundred fifty meters.”
“We need to get to them.”
“We need a plan. I don't want them to hit again. They didn't go far, I can see them around us,” the admiral said.
She stopped and looked around. She knew better than to go walking into an ambush. “Great. What do we do now?” she asked.
“Work on a plan,” Irons said.
On the bridge of the Kiev the captain went pale when he heard the news. Sprite sounded grim as she tallied the dead.
“Dilgarth?”
“They are alien raptors captain. Smart and vicious when they devolve.”
“I know that,” the captain said testily.
“Sorry. They were sentients at one point. A steady diet of alien meat and no supplements or plant material turned them feral. Devolved them into... well this,” Sprite said helpfully. She didn't have the bandwidth to show them but they were pretty sure they knew what the team was up against.
“How bad is the situation?” Warner asked. He looked at the captain. “Should we prep another team?”
“I'd advise it. Also put the medics on standby. On another note, we've got a human survivor here as well. Feral child. Female from the pheromones,” Sprite reported.
“Oh,” the captain said. He didn't really care about that. He sat heavily in his chair. How was he going to tell the families of the fallen that their kin were dead? He rubbed at his face.
“Dilgarth eat meat right?” Warner asked.
“I think I just said that.”
“I know. I... I'm just bothered by them eating our people,” he said quietly.
“They are trying to stay alive. Believe me,” Sprite said dryly.
“Get them to put the dead in a safe place. I... I don't want them to be eaten,” the captain said.
“Captain...” Sprite said cautiously.
“Just do it,” he said grimly. “That's an order.”
“I'm not in your crew but I'll pass it along,” Sprite replied with a sniff.
The medic is busy with the wounded. Irons checked behind him. He wanted to move forward but they have a three wounded and several dead to deal with. There was no way he was going to leave them behind to be eaten; the captain was right about that. He'd thought he had two wounded but apparently Derrick had been nicked in the leg. That would slow them up even more if the injury was serious enough.
“Dilgarth, why did it have to be Dilgarth?” Yvonne muttered. She looked at the relay from Barry. She saw Art's vitals and her eyes clung to them with determination. He had to make it. He had to. She'd find a way to get him out of this mess. She should never have let him come. Never.
Irons was thinking about the Dilgarth as well. He wasn't sure why they were here on the station, but he had a hunch they were the descendants of the station's security force. Dilgarth made lousy soldiers but moderate mercenaries and adequate security. The sight alone of one of them was enough to cow most would be trouble makers.
Dilgarth was really a misnomer. Oh it was their name now, but it wasn't their species name. They were the Garth, Sentient raptor predators from their home world of the same name. The Dil meant they were
devolved. If a Garthian ate a diet of alien meat something in the diet did bad things to their brain and body. The meat acted as some sort of prion, attacking the brain and lowering their higher brain functions while boosting their predatory ones.
Of course that was the theory. He wasn't sure about it. He was pretty sure malnutrition was only one factor. A second was social. They were predators after all. Sure they would act as proper omnivores in civilized society, but they were well known to cling to their old pack ways of the hunt.
Even in his time the Garthians were known to hunt sentients. They of course had been disciplined over it repeatedly. Their position in the predator union had made it difficult if not impossible to discipline their species as a whole though.
A Garthian sentient came in two genders. VilGarth, which were the males, and Hilgarth, the females. They also had subset cultures and cults just like Terrans. Some clung to the old ways while others employed the Ynari to reform them into new more dangerous forms.
These had been sculpted. He looked at a body closely. Garthian's normally weren't an off white with purple raccoon bands on their body. They had tridactyl hands of course, two stubby thumbs and a meter long scythe index finger. The finger blade was deadly.
There was a classic big raptor claw on the index toe matching the index finger claw on the hand. The body was well muscled, with spines and tentacles on its flanks and rear.
It had a short stubby tail and hunched over appearance. The knees, flanks, elbows, shoulders, and muzzle was calluses and be speckled with parasites similar to Terran barnacles. The front lip was split over two fangs.
Two eyes, the usual sunken ears... Not much different than a stock... no wait. His toe touched the forearm. He saw a hollow above the wrist. Interesting.
They had organic spine launchers on their long forearms. Flex the clawed hand just right and it shot a ten centimeter long spine dart. The dart was made out of something like bone. He was hopeful that it didn't have any sort of poison in it. From the look of the tip... He picked one up. No, no such luck. It was hollow. Hypodermic. Great.
He turned his head slightly to view the medic patching Derrick's leg. “Doc they have a hollow in the darts. Expect a poison. Fast or slow. Most likely slow. A neurotoxin of some sort. Possibly a paralegic.”
Mal looked up and over to the admiral. He frowned. “You sure?”
Irons held up the spine in his hand and pointed to the hollow tip. He went over to the medic and showed him the dart with the light from his suit. Mal frowned and looked at his patient. Derrick grimaced.
“There is some signs of... I don't know, necrosis in the tissue but I'm not sure. I thought it was due to exposure to the atmosphere in here.”
“I doubt it. Not this quickly,” Irons said. He could feel Proteus direct nanites into the dart. After a moment the AI had the answer for him and projected it onto his HUD. “According to Proteus it's a complex neurotoxin and slow acting paralegic. There is some necrotic toxin in it too boot.”
Mal scowled. “Lovely. Why slow acting?”
“Garthian's love to hunt. Killing the prey to quickly is against their religion. They like long drawn out hunts.”
Mal's face worked, as did everyone else nearby as they heard that over the radio. Yvonne bit her lip.
“So we're in for more of them?” Savo asked.
“Probably,” Irons said.
“I'd say that's a definite,” Barry said over the radio link. “Why you may ask? Cause we've got some parked outside our door trying to get in right now. You wanna hurry it up over there?” he demanded.
“We're on it Barry,” Irons said turning back to the path.
“Should we split up?” Yvonne asked, helping Xander to his feet. The man limped and was slow but he could walk under his own power. Derrick apparently could too. Xander hadn't been injured; he'd just tripped over his own two feet during the attack and twisted an ankle. That was a relief.
“No,” Irons said. “Defeat in detail,” he said. “There is safety in numbers. Old herd mentality. Circle defense.”
“We're on it,” Savo growled. “But I ain't going to be any damn raptor's hamburger so let's get the hell out of here. Fast.”
Finally they worked their way around a detour to get to Barry's trapped team. Yvonne rushed in past the admiral just as they chased off the last Dilgarth.
“We're here! Stay calm, we'll be with you in a minute!” Yvonne said. “Art are you okay?” she demanded.
“I'm fine sis,” Art replied testily and then the lock turned unexpectedly. Irons spotted motion off to his left on his HUD and turned. There were a pair of Dilgarth at the corner, they had stopped and returned while he had finished off their pack mates. He turned to engage them but it is already too late, they were firing darts.
Art opened the door in time to get his helmet and throat pierced by a spine. Yvonne stared in shock for a moment as Art started to crumple. She started screaming no, shaking her head in anguish. She rushed forward, trying to hold him as he slumped into her arms. She took his helmet off as he gurgled, looking up at her helplessly. His hand reached for her face and then fell as if his body suddenly lost its puppet strings. His eyes rolled back. Her vision swam as tears fill her eyes and drop onto her visor.
“Medic! Mal get your ass over here!” She screamed rocking her son and clutching at him.
“Just a sec, let me patch this,” the medic called, putting a clamp onto a bleeder. Somehow in the confusion Kyle had taken a hit in the abdomen. He looked up at her and then to Art and his face tightened. The look of helplessness on Yvonne's face was too much to bare. He looked down at his patient and then back to her.
“Go doc,” Kyle told him through the biting pain. His hand shifted to cover the wound. When it did the clamp failed and blood squirted anew. He gasped in shock and surprise.
The blood hit Mal as he started to get up. Immediately he turned. “Damn it!” He said turning back to the patient in front of him.
Irons looked from one to the other. The medic is busy and had made the triage call. But there had to be something that could be done. He could see Yvonne rocking the red haired boy, crying softly over the team push. Most of the team were looking around helplessly, not sure what if anything they could do. The boy's readings were fading fast.
“Mal!” Yvonne cried. “Do something! Someone!” Yvonne's anguish is heart breaking. He had to do something. He looked at Mal. The medic was up to his elbows in blood. His face was set. He was making the hard call. Savo darted a look at the boy, so did Teela. Teela turned away, eyes stinging. She should have been the one to open the door, not the boy. She'd told the kid to wait but he hadn't listened. Damn it. Damn the luck, she thought. She grimly turned to watch for more attackers, turning her back on the drama unfolding. She was actually hoping something would attack so she'd have something to kill.
Irons pushed Yvonne away. She tried to push him back but he reached in with his right hand. He pulled her hand gently away and then wrapped his hand around Art's throat. She clawed at his hand but he ignored it. “Proteus do it,” he growled.
“I... I'm not sure what to do,” Proteus said. “I am not a medical AI admiral. I keep telling you I'm not programmed for this!” Despite the protests the admiral could feel nanites moving to his hand and fingertips.
“Same as an engineering repair just with organic components. Pretend it's a broken water line. Patch the blood vessels. Do your best. Use plastic to sheath them if you have to. Something to keep the blood flowing to the brain. Do that now, then his air way,” the admiral ordered. If they could keep the brain alive...
“Understood admiral,” Proteus replied. Nanites flowed through Irons. His hand morphed around the boy's neck sealing it.
Yvonne stared at the hand, her right bloodied glove going to her mouth but stopped by her helmet. It left a red smear on the plastic. Art gasped, trying to breathe. Irons focused on Proteus's work, tuning out the exterior world... It's rough and crude, the AI wasn't a medical AI. Proteus
patched the blood vessels and the wind pipe and then withdrew.
Art gasped, still breathing as the admiral withdrew his hand. The spine fell away. Yvonne looked at it and then her son. Art is still breathing, eyes closed. She can see his abdomen moving. His fingers curl. She looked at Irons in raw appeal. “Is he going to live?” she demanded, ashen. Mal and the others turned in surprise.
“He's in rough spot. I've done what I can. We need to get him to the infirmary stat,” he said grimly. He knew the kid would be lucky to live much longer. He had lost a great deal of blood and there was also the shock and the threat of blood clots to consider.
“My bird is closest,” Barry said. He was holding a spine in his leg. Irons looked it over. “Think you can do that to me?” he asked hopefully. Al was propping himself up, injured as well. Teela was hovering beside him.
“I don't know. But if I don't you'll slow us down,” Irons said. He reached over and let Proteus go to work.
When the admiral was finished he grunted. “The best I can do is meatball surgery. Stop the bleeding. You need to get to the doctor.”
“Don't I know it,” Barry gasped. “Damn couldn't do anything for the pain?” he asked.
“You want me to disconnect your nerves in your leg?” the admiral demanded. The poisons were gone but there was still damage.
“Um, no, I might need them,” Barry grunted.
“Thought so,” Irons straightened. He looked at the medic.
“We've got the others admiral, they are stable,” Mal said, checking Art over. Unfortunately he was out of blood.
“All right. Let's get them mobile then. Rig a stretcher. Five minutes and then we move out. Someone find Barry a crutch.”
“I've got an idea on that,” Savo said looking up and over to Irons and the knot of people around Art. “Think we can find a hover pallet?” he asked. Irons slowly smiled.
They used the generator to power a cargo pallet. Irons was their best deterrent, his presence made the alien raptors flee in abject terror. They loaded up the pallet with the wounded and gear and moved off, Gus pushed it down the companionway as fast as his short legs allowed. Irons cautioned him to not push too fast or he'd lose control. Gus had a few steering issues at corners making even Barry wince as he held on for dear life.
Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) Page 39