by Mark Walden
He gave the mental command to launch the Mothership’s entire fleet of drop-ships, streams of the sleek triangular aircraft pouring out of the hangars and screaming down towards their pre-assigned targets. Talon suddenly realised the power that the Voidborn had always had. The underlying technology may originally have been Illuminate, but the modifications the Voidborn had made in order to turn them into weapons to be used against their own creators were formidable. Their forces were powerful, vast and unquestioningly obedient, without any trace of fear. This power was magnificent.
As the first drop-ships began their attack runs, Talon saw the rippling waves of blue energy that spread out across its energy shields when the massive vessel tried to absorb or redirect as much of the destructive force as it could. There were no enemy aircraft rising from the hangars of the Voidborn Mothership and he could not help feel a slight sense of surprise. He may have had the drop on them, but if there was one thing that he’d learned from his many previous battles with the Voidborn, it was that they were never slow to react. He ignored the moment of doubt and mentally issued the command for the ground forces awaiting deployment to prepare to drop. Satisfied that everything was ready, his gaze turned back to the Mothership hanging in the centre of the view screens in front of him.
‘All batteries,’ he said with a smile, ‘open fire.’
Sam felt the first shudders of impact through the soles of his feet as he ran down the spiralling concourse that surrounded the Mothership’s central power core. He could hear the rumble of distant explosions and he noticed the huge crystal column that ran up to the power distribution hub flaring with unusually bright light as the giant ship’s core struggled to provide the energy shields with the power they required. Talon had arrived hours earlier than they had expected and Sam suddenly felt a twinge of doubt as it sank in that they were going up against one of the Illuminate’s greatest military commanders, someone who had spent most of his life fighting the Voidborn. He found himself wondering if their plan really had any chance.
There was a burst of much louder explosions from above. He kept running, finally sprinting into the hangar where the drop-ship that had smuggled them on board was sitting in the centre of the landing pad. The surrounding drop-ships slowly lifted from the ground and headed for the glowing force field that separated the hangar from the open air beyond, ready for combat. Sam glanced over at the cloudless sky on the other side of the force field and saw several enemy drop-ships streak past outside, their hulls glowing with the blue lights that indicated they were part of Talon’s forces.
Sam ran to the stationary drop-ship and into the empty passenger compartment. ‘I’m inside,’ Sam said to the air. ‘Let them out.’
Suddenly the bulkhead at the far end of the drop-ship melted away to reveal Stirling, Rachel, Jay and Mag. The false wall that Suran had willed into existence before they’d landed faded away in a glittering shimmer as the structural nanites were absorbed back into the bulkhead.
‘If I wasn’t claustrophobic before, I am now,’ Jay said. ‘What the hell’s going on out there?’
‘Talon’s here,’ Sam said. ‘We have to move.’
‘Already?’ Stirling said, sounding shocked, as the five of them headed to the hangar deck.
‘Two minutes earlier and the Voidborn would still have been in control of this ship,’ Sam said as he looked up at the four huge metallic pods that were being lowered into place at the far end of the hangar. ‘At the moment, if I’m honest, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.’
Suddenly the biggest explosion yet came from somewhere high above them and they all staggered, trying to keep their balance as the deck lurched beneath their feet. They had to take the fight to Talon now.
‘Doctor Stirling, I think Suran’s going to need your help with damage control,’ Sam said as something detonated with a bang on the surface of the vessel far above them, sending a stream of sparks cascading to the floor below.
‘I’ll head to the control room,’ Stirling said. ‘I’m not sure how much I can help him. Let’s hope I won’t have to. Be careful, all of you.’
He looked at the four of them for a moment and then gave a quick nod, and hurried out of the hangar.
‘OK, let’s do this,’ Sam said, turning to the four giant containers. A moment later, the pods slowly hissed open simultaneously. The smoke inside cleared to reveal four dormant Grendels. ‘Ready when you are.’
The first Grendel flared into life and stepped towards Sam. He swallowed nervously as it looked down at him. A moment later the Grendel’s chest opened like a clam shell to reveal a large cavity. Black tentacles slithered out and wrapped themselves around Sam’s waist lifting him into the air and placing him gently inside the cavity. Sam watched as the other Grendels followed suit, lifting his friends up gently and placing them inside their armoured shells.
A moment later the Grendel’s chest cavity hissed closed again and Sam found himself in perfect darkness, the only sound his own breathing. He felt a warm sensation creeping up his legs then up past his waist and over his chest. Suran had warned him what to expect, but it didn’t make it feel any less weird. Then he felt the warm, sticky gel that he was suspended within ooze over his face, filling his nose and mouth. He fought to control a rising tide of panic as the liquid filled his throat and then his lungs. Every instinct screamed at him to get out as he felt a horrid momentary drowning sensation and then his senses flared back into life. He was standing in the hangar bay, his viewpoint unusually elevated. He lifted his hand and looked at the massive razor-clawed fist in front of his face. A grin spreading across his face, he took a step forward and felt the thudding impact of his own footsteps as the Grendel that was now just an extension of his own body stepped out of the storage pod. They’d known that the Voidborn had twisted the Illuminate colony ships to suit their own sinister purposes, but it was not until Suran had explained the Grendels’ true purpose that what Suran had planned made sense. The Grendels had not been created as the monstrous warriors they had become – they had been designed to allow the Illuminate manning the colony vessels to explore planets with extreme hostile environments. They were never intended to be soldiers – they were meant to be suits of armour.
‘This . . . is . . . wicked,’ Jay said in Sam’s ear as the Mothership hooked up their communications net.
‘And to think that I spent all that time trying not to end up inside one of these things,’ Rachel said.
Sam turned and watched as the other three Grendels stepped out of their pods and looked around the hangar. Sam couldn’t believe how intuitive his control of the Grendel felt; it really was simply an extension of his own body.
‘Thought I’d already had my quota of weird for the week,’ Mag said, flexing the massive claws of her Grendel. ‘Looks like I was wrong.’
‘OK, Mothership, we are ready for launch,’ Sam said.
‘Understood,’ Suran replied, ‘manoeuvring us into position now.’
Up in the control room Suran gave the Mothership a series of commands. He felt the enormous vessel’s anti-gravity engines fire, pushing it slowly towards Talon’s ship, the energy shields flaring as the other Mothership’s barrage of fire intensified. They only had seconds until the primary shields gave way.
Down on the hangar deck Sam’s Grendel stomped towards the force field at the other end of the bay as more drop-ships shot past overhead, zooming outside to join the battle. He approached the edge and peered out at the breathtaking scene beyond. The air was filled with drop-ships locked in life-or-death dogfights, streams of cannon fire reaching out and filling the sky with black clouds of spinning debris. They manoeuvred as only digital pilots could, pulling off impossible turns and rolls as they fought to bring their weapons to bear on one another. To Sam they looked like massive flocks of birds swooping through the air in ever-changing clouds, lit from within by the flares of explosions and weapons fire.
Talon’s Mothership was now less than two hundred metres a
way and only fifty metres below as Suran pushed their Mothership upwards, climbing to get above it. The torrent of blue energy bolts that streamed from the gun emplacements all over the upper surface of the Mothership intensified, splashing against their own ship’s energy shields, which flickered just for a moment and then suddenly gave way. The hail of enemy fire tore into the superstructure of their ship and the series of explosions that followed sent massive blazing chunks of the superstructure tumbling towards the city below.
‘Go, now!’ Suran said in his ear. Sam looked down at the fifty-metre drop to Talon’s Mothership below and took a deep breath. Then he jumped. The Grendel dropped like a stone, in freefall for just a couple of seconds before slamming into the Mothership, the black hull cratering beneath its massive clawed feet. Sam took two strides towards the energy cannon next to which he had landed and ripped it from its mounting with a grunt, flinging it with as much force as he could at a nearby gun emplacement, smiling as it hit home with a crunch. Beside him the other three Grendels landed with a shuddering impact that would have killed any of their pilots inside if it were not for the impact-absorbing gel in which they were all immersed. Sam looked up at the central spire that dominated the superstructure of Talon’s vessel. That was their target, about two kilometres away.
‘Let’s move!’ Sam yelled, glancing up at their Mothership. Secondary explosions flared all over the heavily damaged sections. Time was running out.
Talon smiled as he saw the Voidborn Mothership’s shields finally give way. He had expected a more concerted counter-attack. He supposed that the last thing they had expected was anyone on this backwards planet who would be capable of fighting back. Today they would learn the error of their ways.
‘Stop this, Talon.’ The incoming transmission came from the Voidborn Mothership. A moment later a blue semi-transparent hologram of Suran appeared, hovering in the air in front of him. ‘Please, we already have enough blood on our hands.’
‘Why have you done this?’ Talon asked, realising immediately what had happened. ‘By taking control of that ship, you’ve doomed yourself. I have no choice but to destroy you.’
‘Of course you do,’ Suran replied. ‘This is madness. Destroying the Voidborn and slaughtering another species in the process won’t bring our people back. You must see that.’
‘Our people are long dead, Suran – you know that as well as I do,’ Talon said. ‘All that remains is duty. Duty to the memory of the Illuminate and to seeing that justice is done. The Voidborn die this day.’
‘You know I will die before I let you murder billions of innocents again,’ Suran said, shaking his head.
‘I know, old friend,’ Talon replied. ‘I will mourn you. Goodbye.’
With a quick mental command, he severed the link.
‘Launch all ground forces,’ Talon said. ‘Attack the central control node – this ends now.’
‘So how the hell do we get up there?’ Jay asked, looking at the crystalline spire towering above them.
‘We climb,’ Sam said, slamming the claws of his Grendel’s right hand into the surface of the spire and dragging himself upwards. ‘Come on.’
Around them the swarming dogfight between the two Motherships’ air forces lit up the sky with energy bolts and the sudden bright flares of drop-ships exploding into clouds of tumbling, burning debris. Talon’s Mothership continued its barrage of fire on Suran’s vessel. The return fire seemed weaker now, and the shields on Talon’s ship continued to absorb it, meaning it was sustaining minimal damage. The battle seemed to be tipping decisively in his favour.
Sam tried to climb faster, but the Grendel was not built for speed. Sam winced as the surface of the spire exploded in a shower of glinting fragments just a few metres above his head. An enemy drop-ship rocketed past, its other shots going just wide as it banked round for another pass. Sam let go with the Grendel’s left claw and swung across the spire, losing his grip for an instant before his claws again found purchase, leaving long scratches in the surface of the structure as he slid downwards a couple of metres. A split second later the spot where he’d been hanging just a moment before was reduced to a glowing molten crater as another barrage of fire from the drop-ship slammed into it. The ship came round again, more slowly this time, floating towards the four climbing Grendels, bringing its weapons to bear as it drew to within ten metres of them. They were sitting ducks.
‘Screw this,’ Jay said under his breath, and he leapt from the tower, slamming into the drop-ship, his Grendel’s claws fighting to hold on to the smooth armoured skin of the aircraft. The drop-ship lurched crazily as Jay slashed at its hull, digging through the armour in an attempt to reach some of the more vulnerable components that lay beneath.
‘Jay, get out of there!’ Sam yelled, watching as the ship began to spiral out of control, dropping away from them.
Jay felt the vessel tip beneath him and he clung desperately as it rolled over on to one side, spiralling downwards at terrifying speed. The superstructure of the Mothership vanished from beneath them as the fatally damaged drop-ship shot out over the city far below on a wildly erratic and uncontrolled trajectory. It suddenly flipped one hundred and eighty degrees and the single claw by which Jay’s Grendel hung on lost its purchase. He reached desperately for anything to grab on to, but gravity had him now and there was a sickening lurch in his stomach as he tumbled in freefall towards the city below.
‘Damn it,’ Jay said in Sam’s ear, his voice strained. ‘Go get him, guys. See you on the other –’
There was a sudden burst of static and then silence.
‘JAY!’ Sam yelled, but there was no response. His friend was gone.
‘Oh God, no,’ Rachel whispered in Sam’s ear.
Sam felt a moment of overwhelming grief, but still he knew what had to be done. He swallowed the gut-wrenching loss mixed with rage and stared at the top of the spire fifty metres above him. Talon was waiting for him up there and Sam was going to make him pay for everything he’d done.
Talon watched with satisfaction as the first drop-ships carrying his ground forces began to leave their hangars. Once Suran’s Mothership was defeated, there would be nothing to stop his assault on the primary control node. When that fell, it would mean the end of the Voidborn for ever. He understood the cost to the humans and their planet, and it was still a price he was happy to pay.
He closed his eyes, allowing the three-dimensional map of the city to form in his mind’s eye, and plotted the routes of his forces’ advance.
A sudden noise caught his attention and he opened his eyes just in time to see the massive shape of Sam’s Grendel loom in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the other side of the control room. The Grendel drew back its massive fist and smashed it into the reinforced glass, sending a spider web of cracks dancing across its surface. The massive figure punched the window again and it exploded inwards, thick chunks of glass scattering over the control-room floor.
The Grendel ripped aside the tattered remains of the window, ducking under the frame and stepping into the room. Talon gave a mental command and the cables that connected him to the control pedestal disconnected and slid away, slithering back under the platform. He took a single step towards the Grendel as two more of the monstrous machines climbed into the room behind it.
‘It’s over, Talon,’ Sam said, his voice amplified by the Grendel’s systems.
‘Do you truly believe that?’ Talon said with a smile. ‘I have fought the Voidborn on a hundred worlds. I have seen them lay waste to entire star systems. Do you really think you can threaten me, boy?’
Talon’s shape began to shift. He grew a metre in height, his armour thickening, the plates sliding over each other and interlocking as a smooth, white, featureless mask closed over his face. His right forearm grew longer and longer, stretching into a two-metre-long blade that crackled with blue energy.
‘Suran was a fool to send you here,’ Talon said, taking another step towards Sam’s Grendel. ‘Nothing can s
top me now, certainly not you.’
‘We’ll see,’ Sam said, swiping at him with the Grendel’s massive claws.
Talon ducked, bringing his blade up in a sweeping arc that sliced the Grendel’s hand off cleanly at the wrist. Sam staggered backwards, instinctively grabbing at the severed stump that was now squirting green-black liquid. He knew logically that it wasn’t his hand, but his neural connection to the Grendel made it feel all too real, despite the lack of pain.
Mag came at Talon from the side, moving faster than Sam and dealing Talon a vicious backhand blow, which struck him in the shoulder and sent him flying across the room. He slid to a halt and leapt to his feet in one fluid motion, raising the blade in front of him defensively as Mag came after him, her Grendel’s stomping feet leaving shattered footprints in the deck. Talon ran towards her, sliding under the stampeding bio-mechanical machine as its claws slashed through the empty air where he had been standing just a split second before. He brought his blade round in a glowing arc, slicing through the exposed muscular cable on the back of the Grendel’s leg. Mag’s Grendel dropped to one knee, instantly crippled, her momentum carrying her forward and sending her slamming face first into the ground.
Talon stepped towards Mag’s fallen Grendel and lifted the blade high above his head, ready to deliver a killing blow. Sam raised his one good claw and willed the suit’s systems to respond. A black tentacle shot across the room and wrapped round Talon’s wrist, tightening as Sam yanked his arm back hard. Talon staggered backwards, turning towards Sam as a shorter glowing blue blade materialised on the back of his free wrist. He brought the blade swinging upwards and sliced through the tentacle with one slash, the severed end slipping from his sword arm and falling twitching to the floor.