by Dante King
“I’m about to do something stupid,” she warned. “Hang on!”
I gritted my teeth and held on to my harness. She hadn’t been kidding. We stopped mid-air and turned completely around. I only had a second to grab the yoke and pull the trigger. A second was long enough.
There’s nothing of their humanity left, I thought. The pilots of those Xeno vessels are the enemy, they’ve died and their powerful, disciplined bodies are being exploited by those parasites.
The crescent-shaped ship chasing us had trouble stopping, but as it slowed, it exposed its belly, increasing the profile of our target. Several guns fired at once and tore the ship into pieces, but not before the pilot jumped from his disintegrating craft and leaped for ours.
“Holy shit!” Nyna exclaimed. “Was that a human?”
I’d hoped they wouldn’t have noticed during the battle. We had to remain focused on our goal, these bodies were beyond saving, but the Xeno were not beyond defeating.
“It was,” Reaver said, her voice mournful. “And it was one of our crew. The fuck is he doing, Jacob?”
I heard a thump on the top of the ship followed by several more sounds. The creaking, snapping noises told me he’d survived his jump and was up to no good.
“Right now,” Nyna said, “he’s taking the ship apart. He’s pulling antennae off! Oh, there goes a sensor. I don’t think I needed that one, a ground surveyor. But shit, quick, someone do something!”
“Spin the ship!” Beatrix said.
“Can’t,” Nyna answered, “got to run. We’ve got another one inbound!”
I turned my gun but didn’t have a shot. I could hear him breaking things, but I couldn't see my target.
“Does anyone have a shot?” I asked.
Nobody did.
I glanced around the pod looking for something, anything that could help me get rid of the invader before he properly damaged out only ship. I found a short, handle-like rod. I squinted at it, and smiled when I realized what I was holding.
“Slow the ship,” I said.
“If you say so…” Nyna replied uneasily.
She slammed on the brakes, and we took three hard hits from the last crescent ship as it buzzed past us.
I unstrapped my harness, turned the handle, and a hatch irised open above my head. I drew my pistol, squeezed one shoulder out, and took aim at the human clinging to the top of our ship. He was badly burned, and, though I didn't know his name, I did recognize him and the logo on his shoulder. He’d been part of the engineering team aboard the Revenge, our stolen Xeno ship that was supposed to have taken us all the way to a Xeno world. Now, his purpose was to kill me and my companions, to aid the Xeno’s plan of universe-wide domination.
He noticed me, turned toward me, and removed all doubt as to his loyalty. He opened his mouth, and two very Xeno-like mandibles stretched it grossly out of shape. I squeezed the trigger. The top half of his body vaporized. The bottom half bounced across the deck and fell.
I quickly pulled myself back into my harness and closed the hatch.
“I got him!” I said. “Go!”
Nyna turned up the speed and sent us corkscrewing away from the last crescent ship as it turned to take another run at us. The maneuver sent us straight at the Xeno carrier, though. It was at least ten times the size of the crescent fighters, which made it at least five times our size. Nyna saw the threat and began to jerk her controls as randomly as possible to avoid the incoming enemy fire.
I saw an opening, though—a flaw in the carrier’s design—and came up with a plan.
“Head toward the carrier!” I ordered. “Put us on top of her, right where those two big bulges meet near the rear!”
“You got it,” Nyna said with a grunt as we took another hit from the big ship. “Coming in hot. Hold on, everyone.”
“Skrew,” I said. “The second we land, I need you to make your way to the belly-gun behind Nyna. Move as fast as possible. We’ll keep the other ships off us. Tell me when you get there.”
“Skrew is scary,” he whimpered.
“You can do it,” I said. “You’re the only one skinny enough to fit. You have to do it.”
“Skrew will try,” he said.
It’s all I could ask him to do.
The next 30 seconds were filled with grunts, groans, and the sound of something tearing loose, bouncing along the outside of the hull and disappearing. I hoped it wasn’t anything important. Then, we landed on top of the enemy ship, which began a slow roll as it tried to throw us off.
“Skrew, go!” I ordered.
I heard the vrak whimper, scramble out of his weapon pod, and make his way across the ship. Two of us opened up on the last crescent ship as it attempted to find a way to shoot us without hitting its mothership. It was too far away for accurate fire, and our bolts were keeping it from getting any closer.
“Skrew is here,” the vrak gasped. “What is to do?”
“Shoot the big ship,” I said.
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
Our hovership shuddered as Skrew unloaded the belly-gun into our enemy. Soon, he was narrating his adventure.
“Oooh, big pow! Hello, ugly enemy. Skrew has present. Oh, didn’t like present? Is sad, yes? Now, not sad. Is dead. Ha! Try to run but not faster! Now is not running. Is dead. Oooh, what that? No matter—is dead. Oh! Um… Uh…”
“What?” Nyna said.
“Skrew broke ship,”
“You broke our ship?” Reaver asked, panicked.
“No, broke they ship. Maybe fly away now before goes kaboom?”
Nyna didn’t need to be told twice. She jammed the accelerator forward, shooting us off the back of the vessel like a bullet. A half second later, there was an enormous explosion, and we were sent spinning through the air, but Nyna soon regained control.
“Wow,” she said. “One ship left.”
She banked hard, and the last crescent fighter came into view.
“Wait!” Reaver said. “Cease fire!”
“What do you see?” Beatrix asked.
“Awww,” Skrew said. He sounded genuinely sad.
“Look at it,” she explained. “It’s not running or turning to fight us. It’s just coasting like it doesn’t have a care in the world.”
“So?” Nyna said.
“So, why?” Reaver said slowly. “Why isn’t it fighting us?”
It was a good question. Even as we approached close enough to see details in the ship’s construction, it didn’t change course, speed up, or slow down. I suddenly realized what happened.
“It doesn’t know what to do,” I said. “It’s not like it’s waiting for orders; it literally doesn’t know what to do. We destroyed the carrier. Something or someone on the carrier was controlling the other ships. When that ship was destroyed, the link was broken.”
“A hive mind,” Beatrix whispered.
“Are they operating like bees?” Reaver asked. “You know, where they have a Queen or something?”
“Sort of,” I told her, “but it’s more than that. In a true hive mind, one truly does all the thinking for the others, so all the others are absolutely dependent. It could be a situation where the bugs are controlled in small groups, like squadrons or platoons.At the top could be a single Queen, who delegates to platoon leaders.
“But bees and ants think for themselves. It seems like a hive mind because they all operate with a single, common purpose. But in a hive mind, that purpose can change, and, like we saw—kill the controller, and the rest have no idea what to do.”
We sat in silence as we watched the crescent ship drift lazily through the air in front of us. In a few minutes, it would reach the badlands between Brazud and Thaz’red. It was too close for comfort.
“Jacob?” Reaver said tentatively.
“Destroy it,” I answered immediately. “If another controller bug comes within range, we’ll have to fight it again.”
I heard a shudder rattle through Reaver’s breathing. We di
dn’t need to exchange a single word to know why this was difficult. But she knew just as well as me that these weren’t the companions we’d trained with, the ones we would have died for if our lives had gone differently.
A moment later, she opened up on the craft and blew it out of the sky. I heard a sniff and a somewhat frantic, grunting cough as Reaver tried to get her emotions under control.
“Turn us back toward Brazud,” I ordered. “It looks like the liberation of this planet starts today.”
“Oh, boy,” Nyna groaned.
“What do you see?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “Just twenty more Xeno-bug ships headed our way. Looks like we got their attention with our little show.”
I sighed. Every battle we fought on the way gave the Xeno a chance to reinforce their defenses and make more preparations for our arrival.
“What’s their configuration?” I asked. “More of the same?”
“Nope,” she said, “not this time. We’ve got fifteen little ones, smaller than the last ones. They’ve got little wings facing forward. Bigger wings facing back. Kind of weird-looking, you know? Tear-shaped, with the pointy end in front.”
“Fast-attack ships,” I said. “The forward-facing wings make them more maneuverable.”
“Four are the crescent ones like we fought before,” Nyna continued. “But one is huge. About three times the size of the last one, all triangle-shaped and super slow. The little ones are swarming around it like angry bees. They could easily leave that thing in the dust, but—”
“But they’re protecting it,” Reaver interrupted. “They know we know about the controllers. We can’t go around them, Jacob.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And they can’t go around us. Let’s go kick their asses.”
Chapter Fifteen
Thaz’red stood in the crosshairs of Xeno attack ships. I knew full well from my experience with these fuckers that the huge controller ship could aim with sufficient precision to shoot somewhere in the city, though they might not have been able to aim at specific neighborhoods or buildings. If we failed to destroy all twenty ships, the Ish-Nul and the people would be killed or enslaved. Not to mention Brazud and all the other cities, towns, and villages on Druma.
I focused my attention on our enemy. No mercy.
As we closed with the new group of ships, I took a little time to coach my team and help them mentally prepare for what was sure to be a tough battle.
“Remember,” I told them, “treat the little ones as targets of opportunity. Don’t waste your time chasing them if you have a bigger one in your sights.”
“They’re going to come in fast. They can’t have huge weapons, but there’s fifteen of them, so we’re not getting out of this one unscathed. Just remember—don’t give up. They won’t let you surrender peacefully. If they don’t kill you, you’ll end up as one of their zombie slaves. And I think we’d all be happy to never find out how exactly they turn their captives into… that.”
“Skrew is scary,” the vrak whined.
“We all are,” Nyna said.
It wasn’t true, but I didn’t want to argue. Shared experiences helped build camaraderie among troops. But I wasn’t frightened. I was angry, but I had it under control. I had no intention of showing these bastards any mercy. They hadn’t shown my crew any when my crew had been enslaved and pressed into attacking us. These creatures were ruthless, completely devoid of any sense of right and wrong, and unworthy of kindness.
I’d learned a valuable secret about the Xeno—the fact that they used a hive mind to control their troops. If I could get back to Mars, I could share the information with the government. They could use it to find a way to jam whatever signals the Xeno were using to communicate. Then, we could roll into a fleet of them, destroy the few ships with free-minded pilots, and take our time with the rest.
I checked my little screen. I’d figured out how to read most of the messages and icons during the last fight, though some of it was still a mystery to me.
“Contact in 30 seconds,” I said. “Don’t forget to lead your targets. Shoot far ahead of the little ones to catch their line of flight. Otherwise, focus on the big ones.”
“Here we go!” Nyna cried out, speeding up.
Mere moments later, a dark, swirling cloud appeared in the red sunset. It looked like a flock of birds, the way it swirled and flowed. A moment later, we were among them. They were silent blurs, indistinct shapes. The impacts from their weapons fire sounded like someone was smashing a hammer against an ancient steel trash can.
Our ship rattled and vibrated when we opened up with our guns. All we could do was fire into the cloud and hope for the best. Two small explosions followed by corkscrewing lines of fire told us we’d hit two of the little ones.
“Gah!” Skrew wailed.
He emerged from a belly-gun as a powerful breeze began to blow little bits of dust and debris around the cabin of the ship.
“Stupid bug make Skrew’s gun break! Did pop hole in ship! Is very win! Will kill ugly bug!”
“That’s the spirit!” I laughed.
A second later, the wind died down and stopped.
“I sealed the busted gun off,” Nyna said. “Shit, there’s another one. But we can’t lose any more. We don’t have any spares, and they’re all occupied now.”
She grunted and began to fly erratically.
“Steer if you need to,” I told her, “but stay on course. The little ones want you to try to outrun them. That’s their purpose. They’re going to try to scare you and ruin our attack so that they and the others can pick us apart. Don’t fall for it!”
Nyna growled and jerked the ship hard toward the triangular vessel, veered off-course, and put us back on course again.
I twisted my gun around as I searched for a target but didn’t find any besides the controller ship, which was still out of range. “Where are they?” I asked.
“They’re all behind us,” Nyna said. “Turn around and re-engage?”
“No, keep going. We’ll make a strafing run against the controller ship and see what it’s made of. With any luck, we’ll destroy it on the first pass.”
I didn’t think it would happen, of course, but my job wasn’t to play for the other team. It was to motivate my own.
“Here we go!” Nyna said.
A moment later, all four remaining guns opened up and began peppering the surface of the target. I shot at anything that drew my attention. Little bulges and divots along the top of the ship’s hull could be anything from a manufacturing flaw to a nerve center of the organic vessels. Rows of raised ridges could be just that—ridges—or they could be veins carrying vital nutrients and energy from one part of the vessel to another.
In a second, it was all over, and Nyna was turning to line us up for another pass. The Xeno, however, had other plans in mind.
“The little ones are coming back,” Nyna warned. “Crescents are right behind them.”
We turned and took several more small hits from the little ships as they flew past us. Two of the larger ones maneuvered directly into our path as our yellow hyphens split the darkening sky among them.
“They’re playing chicken!” Nyna said.
It was true. The two crescent ships that had put themselves in front of us hadn’t changed course. Green beams of energy struck our ship, and yellow bolts answered. The one on the right was smoking, but it was far from being out of commission.
I had to think fast. Why are they flying right at us? What do they expect us to do? Are they really willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy us? I thought the latter was probably true. However, if they were willing to sacrifice two ships in order to take us out, why not all four?
“Target the ship on the right!” I ordered. “Nyna, slam us right into it at the last possible second!”
She didn’t respond, but I felt the ship begin to drift slightly to the right as our guns opened up. And as the crescent ship came apart, Nyna jerked us hard to the right
while rolling in the same direction. The impact was hard enough to let us know we hadn’t completely destroyed the crescent ship, but we’d survived, which meant it had been enough.
“We took a lot of damage on that one,” Nyna said. “I’m seeing systems down all over the place. The fires are out, but power is down by ten percent. There’s a rattle somewhere, too.”
“Keep fighting,” I ordered my team. “Take us back to the controller!”
Nyna pitched the nose of our ship down hard and to the left as she drove us straight for the enemy vessel. All four guns opened up, and though we were still far away, little explosions on the enemy’s hull told us we were close enough.
I held the trigger of my gun down and thought about the Lakunae. If they were watching out for me—or intervening on my behalf—I hoped they’d hear my thoughts and guide my hands and my crew. We needed the triangular ship destroyed. It was the only way to achieve peace on the planet.
I watched the temperature gauge on my little screen increase. I wasn’t sure how hot the thing could get before it shut itself down, slowed its rate of fire, or exploded, but it didn’t matter. If the controller ship didn’t go down, we didn’t have a chance anyway.
Nyna pulled up at the last minute, and I was left without a target, wishing we still had the second belly-gun. Skrew would have had a field day peppering the ship every time we passed. When Nyna turned the ship and prepared for another pass, we found ourselves in the thick of it again.
There were thirteen little fighters left, but the way they were swarming, it felt like a thousand. They didn’t seem to be targeting us anymore. Instead, their goal was to get our pilot to panic and flee, but Nyna was made of tougher stuff than that. Three more explosions announced three more dead Xeno, and when Nyna saw the opportunity, she rolled our craft to the left and took one out with the edge of our ship.
The impact was hard, but we emerged from the swarm and found one of the crescent ships drifting below us. Nyna turned us toward it and gave all the gunners a clear shot, which we took, shredding the vessel into confetti.