Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1)

by Kristoff Chimes

  “Captain, if we can measure the incremental changes from one extreme to the other, we can ascertain how long we have before the core collapses in on itself, and blows us all to smithereens.”

  Before deciding on the appropriate course of action, Hannibal made a mental list of the difficult or impossible questions he needed answers to.

  “How quickly can you find and defuse the device, Chief?”

  “I’ll get onto it right away,” Gonzalez said and nodded to his assistant. “But I’m really not sure we can.”

  “What if there isn’t time to defuse the device, Chief?” Hannibal asked. “Can we eject the core?”

  “And get it far enough away from the ship without causing significant collateral damage?” Gonzalez asked and shook her head. “It’s an impossible ask, Captain.”

  Hannibal beckoned Captain Argyle Valkyrie over.

  “Deploy all G-RUNT sniffer units,” Hannibal said. “Begin search and make safe.”

  “Yes, sir, Captain,” she said just a little too enthusiastically for his taste.

  “And keep it on the down low, Valkyrie,” Hannibal whispered. “No need to start a panic.”

  Valkyrie nodded and tapped away on the back of her left hand.

  Hannibal turned to his new XO. “We need to find and interrogate this saboteur,” Hannibal said. “Who is the saboteur?”

  “Engineer second class,” Dax said, “Siorus Nickel, Captain.”

  “Nickel?” Hannibal murmured.

  Where have I heard that name before now?

  Hannibal slowly turned to see an engineering assistant backing away and breaking into a trot.

  Shifty?

  Siorus launched into a full sprint and headed down the gangway into the complex machinery of the Gravity Core.

  “Detain that man!”

  CHAPTER 6 - THE CHASE

  Zen Dax’s mind filled with the screams of tortured children. He thought he’d left their ghosts far behind on Mars. But here they were, running alongside him, as he pursued the Lupos spy.

  He sprinted along the central gantry and felt fear burn in his throat. Fear of what he might do to the man if he caught him. To catch a Lupos spy in his hands was a career maker. But to strangle the life out of that man with those same hands might end his career just as quickly. And he wanted to kill him so bad it hurt.

  With each frantic step, Dax left his fear behind. He ran blindly into rage for what Lupos soldiers did to those human civilians back on Mars.

  Siorus ran ahead, some hundred feet or so. He fled along the gantry towards a figure in a bio-insulation suit swinging a long pole through the air at Siorus.

  Siorus hurled what looked like a silver cocoon at the other engineer. It burst open and spat out dozens of tiny spider bots. The metallic robots engulfed the engineer. Swarming across his protective mask, shredding his suit and devouring the flesh on his face.

  A burst of lightning erupted from the core. It struck the gantry between the mutilated engineer and Siorus. The barrier collapsed. Siorus plummeted over the side.

  Dax felt the fear of losing Siorus.

  It felt like too good a way to die. It was too easy a way out. Dax leapt through the air and thrust out his arms.

  Dax grabbed at the air and felt his fingers dig deep into the man’s arm. Siorus hung off the barrier. As Dax looked down at the man’s wide eyes he felt a crushing weight on the back of his own head. He cursed the limitations of his vertigo.

  “Give me a reason to save you?” Dax cried out.

  The man said nothing. He simply stared over his shoulder at the dark shadows crawling over the Gravity Core.

  “How can you betray your own people?” Dax shouted.

  “Your people are betraying you,” Siorus shouted. “I’m trying to save us all.”

  This made no sense to Dax. “Who do you work for?”

  Siorus shook his head. His lips moved, but Dax couldn’t hear over the noise of the Gravity Core. Dax leaned over closer.

  Siorus reached up and grabbed Dax’s throat. He hauled him over the side. Dax plunged down over the Gravity Core with Siorus and to what he knew was his certain death.

  CHAPTER 7 - GRAVITY FLUX

  Two feet above the liquid ice vats, Dax raised his arms over his face. He felt his stomach somersault as his legs flipped up into the air. His body jolted. The force ripped apart the hold the two men had on each other. Siorus tumbled backwards and away from Dax. While Dax remained hovering above the ice mist.

  “Gravity is collapsing, Dax,” Oksana shouted down to him.

  She threw down a line. He grabbed hold of it with mixed feelings of relief and terror. He climbed.

  Half way back up to the gantry, Dax spotted Siorus making his escape across the face of the sphere of the Gravity Core.

  Dax contorted his body until the line swung like a pendulum. With enough momentum building up, he let go. He landed hard against the top half of the sphere. He forced himself to look ahead and avoid glancing down.

  His feet had just enough grip to follow Siorus over the sphere. If he moved with careful, methodical steps, he’d survive the inevitable fall whenever the force of gravity violently returned. But he also knew, acting like this, he’d almost certainly lose sight of Siorus.

  “To hell with this,” he growled and sprinted across the sphere.

  A bullet whizzed by his ear and ricocheted off the sphere. Another hit the sphere by his feet. Dax lost his balance. He fell forward and smacked his chin on the surface of the sphere.

  “Are you crazy?” Chief Gonzalez shouted. “You’ll blow us all to kingdom come.”

  Argyle Valkyrie ordered her squad to desist firing their weapons.

  Dax reached out, pushed himself up and sprang into a sprint.

  A dark shadow scuttled across the sphere. Dax realized what they were shooting at. The saboteur’s device appeared to be a spider-bot. Much larger than the tiny ones in his silver cannister.

  Siorus had paused. He seemed to linger. As if baiting Dax, or delaying his escape to protect his explosive device.

  “How do I disarm the thing?” Dax called out to his people.

  “Use this to scramble the device, Commander,” Argyle shouted and tossed him a short handled rod.

  Dax caught it. He recognized a military police night-stick in his hand. He thumbed through the various non-lethal settings. He selected maximum charge. Enough to drop a charging rhino, or even a space marine jazzed up on shore-leave.

  With a flick of the wrist, it extended to the length of his arm. He shook the stick. It fizzled and crackled with a glowing red energy force.

  Siorus had hesitated long enough. He turned his back on Dax and fled.

  Dax raised the night-stick above his own head. He dived at Siorus. He grabbed the saboteur’s ankle and tugged hard.

  Siorus fell to his knees. Twisting as he fell. Dax rammed the night stick into Siorus’s chest.

  He ought to be dead. Or at least rendered unconscious. But Siorus simply laughed and leapt to his feet. His eyes dilated. They glinted with a mocking taunt. Almost smiling.

  Siorus seemed jacked-up with a powerful pain suppressor. Even as Dax registered this, he made the mistake of taking a vital second to reconsider his fight tactics.

  Whipping around with lightning speed, Siorus kicked out and drove a heel into Dax’s jaw. Snapping back Dax’s neck and sending him tumbling back down the side of the sphere. Dax felt his body smash into a pair of measuring poles.

  He instinctively reached out and hooked his arms around a pole. He raised his knees to his chest and kicked out. His momentum in zero gravity sent him soaring up over the sphere.

  Siorus wasted no time. He slid safely down the far side. He hit the ground running. He hesitated and reached inside his suit. He tossed a silver cocoon up into the air.

  Dax knew the saboteur would be lost to them in the Core’s system’s labyrinth of pipes and generators. Too many places to hide and slip away.

  Dax recklessly lunged forward.
The silver cocoon hit him square on the chest and burst open. A dozen metallic spider-bots raced up his chest and neck.

  They infested his hair. Biting him with metallic fangs. Puncturing, tearing deep into his skin. Crawling up his nostrils and down his throat.

  He knew in a matter of seconds they’d reach his organs. Stop his heart dead. Dax felt a wave of convulsions sweep through him. His mind collapsing under an unstoppable force of terror.

  He summoned the one constant thought that might save him. His hatred for the Lupos, their allies and their spies.

  He fought the panic with that one certain thought in a mind of screaming fog. One truth he could hold onto to as a guiding light. Nothing matters, but stopping the Lupos spy and saving Valiant.

  He felt his mind become a diamond sharp tip of concentration. Piercing the fog of terror with unyielding clarity. Dax shook the night-stick. He heard it crackle menacingly. This is going to feel like hell.

  He took a deep breath and rammed the night-stick into his own mouth. He screamed out as the shock pulsed through him. His tongue felt like it was exploding with fire. His stomach convulsed violently. He vomited up the spider-bots and stamped on their charred carcases.

  Satisfied they were all dead, he scanned the vast engineering complex below.

  He spotted Siorus running along a narrow corridor of pipes. Dax pushed off the sphere and dove across its far side.

  He felt a wobble in his flight. His gentle gliding motion gave way to a violent shudder. He dropped like a stone.

  He spotted the spider-bot bomb. It was significantly larger than the tiny spider-bots that had almost killed him. He angled his body for a one-time strike.

  The back of his head slammed into the sphere. A fraction of a second later, his body followed, ramming his cox’s bone so hard the shooting pain convinced him he had snapped his spine.

  He struck out with the night-stick, but the spider-bot leapt away. It then hesitated as its Artificial Intelligence algorithms considered the optimum defense tactic. Dax lay on his back. His entire body numb and unresponsive.

  The spider-bot leapt onto his chest. It raised itself up on its hind legs as its jaws opened. Three inch fangs jutted out at him. Dax felt a twinge of pain in his arms. Thankful for any kind of sensation, he summoned all his reserves for one final response. The do, or die reaction.

  He rammed the night-stick between the jaws of the spider-bot. The jaws clamped down and snapped the night-stick in half. Sparks flew into Dax’s eyes, blinding him. An electronic squeal tore at his ears.

  He felt the spider-bot’s legs collapse under its body. His vision returned with a painful squint. He lashed out and flung the dead spider-bot aside.

  Dax felt himself slide without control down the sphere. Winded, unable to breathe he managed to raise his knees ready to take the punishing contact with the floor. His eyes closed up with pain. He forced them open with the smallest squint. Just in time to see that no actual floor presented itself. Only one giant vat of liquid ice.

  Panicking, he snatched at more measuring poles. Deflecting his descent just enough to land on the lip of the vat. His feet slipped on the icy lip. He felt his ankle scream out as it turned unnaturally under the duress of his frantic adjustment.

  He kicked off and rolled. His shoulder landed on the smooth floor. Hard.

  Only one thing concerned him. The saboteur. But Siorus had vanished.

  Only the unforgiving madness that was the rush of adrenalin gave Dax the ability to stand. He ran on unsteady feet, down the dimly lit, long and twisting maze of pipes.

  In his peripheral vision a giant shadow of a figure leapt down at him. Dax instinctively brought up the night-stick and lashed out. The shadow countered his strike and gripped his wrist. It squeezed hard until a lightning jolt of pain forced him to drop the night-stick.

  Dax gripped his wrist to quell the spasms and looked up into the surgical scars of the half human, half robotic face.

  “Apologies, Commander,” said Sergeant Van Cleef. “Nice job defusing the spider-bot.”

  “Get out of my way, man,” Dax shouted.

  Van Cleef gripped Dax’s shoulder tight, pushing him to the ground. “Can’t do that, Commander.”

  “Unless you want me to bust you to private...”

  “Orders, Commander,” Van Cleef said and unhooked his belt from a line suspended from the gantry above.

  “What in hell are you talking about?” Dax shouted.

  “My orders, Commander Dax,” a female voice called out from above.

  Dax whipped around to see Argyle Valkyrie abseiling down a line from the gantry. She was flanked by three marines.

  Dax felt consumed by frustration and anger.

  “He’s getting away, damn it,” Dax shouted.

  A young marine leapt off his line and landed on the far side of Van Cleef. “Commander’s right, Captain,” the young marine said, “we’re letting that scum off the hook.”

  The young marine straightened up and bounded down the dark corridor. He glanced over his shoulder at the others. “What are you waiting for?”

  Van Cleef’s eyes popped wide. He spun around and shouted, “No, son, it’s a trap.”

  An explosion ripped along the narrow high corridor. Flames and smoke tore along the pipes. Van Cleef threw his body over Dax and Argyle, forcing them to the ground as he shielded them from the intense heat and flames.

  Dax thought he detected the scream of sirens through the ringing in his ears. He struggled to stand and find his bearings.

  Van Cleef stood and covered the charred corridor with his assault rifle. A large shadow loomed over Dax. He looked up into the glowing red eyes of a heavy armored bipedal robot. A ‘G’ class Rapid Uncertain Neutralization Technology or G-RUNT. Coated in rusty yellow, scratched and dented high-impact armor, it stood nearly ten feet tall. Someone had stuck a blond wig on its square block head.

  Argyle moved Dax aside.

  “Make way for Curly, Commander.”

  As the great hulking robot walked down the corridor, it raised its arms. Jets of foam shot out of its palms and it sprayed the flames. It halted halfway down the corridor. Turning its head from side to side as if looking for something.

  The smoke cleared and they stood staring at a pair of marine issue mag-boots. Charred flesh and bone up to the knees dripped with fire extinguishing foam. Dax had seen worse, and those memories came rushing back to him.

  Beams of dark-light shone out of the G-RUNT’s eyes. Dax squinted. His Interactive Reality lens applied a range of filters and focused on an intricate criss-cross lattice of laser trip beams. Their path was blocked.

  “Take a few minutes to defuse all the devices along here,” Argyle said solemnly.

  Dax turned to Argyle and felt impressed by her stern and calm exterior. He stared into Van Cleef’s eyes, red with grief.

  “I owe you both an apology, Van Cleef,” Dax said. “What was the marine’s name?”

  Van Cleef shook his head. “The kid was living on spit, polish and borrowed time,” he said.

  “Private Olsen,” Argyle said. “Fresh out of Boot Camp. Since the war ended, the glamor of a marine life’s gone out like a damp spark. No one wants to join up. Gets harder and harder to find a trigger finger with a functioning brain cell.”

  “That’s harsh,” Dax blurted out.

  “But honest,” Argyle said.

  It flashed across his mind how badly he had needed someone of her caliber back on Mars. Cool, calm, and always focused on the mission. Her outward lack of compassion probably meant she was hated by her marines. But at least with her in command they stood a chance of being alive to hate her.

  Dax found that despite his rash judgment, he liked her. Even so, Olsen’s death felt like more fuel to the fire that raged inside him.

  “My apology stands firm,” he said.

  “Accepted,” Argyle said. Van Cleef only nodded. Unable, it seemed, to look Dax in the eye.

  “Don’t blame yourself, Sergeant,�
� Argyle said.

  “I promised his mother I’d keep him safe,” Van Cleef mumbled and collected a pair of scorched dog tags. He stood straight and let out a deep sigh. “Be ready for you in five, Captain.”

  Dax rubbed his ribs and looked up at the overhead gantry some two hundred feet above him. He spotted Gonzalez.

  “Chief, is the Gravity Core under control?” he shouted.

  “She’s gone critical. We’re balancing on the hair of a gnat’s uncle, Commander,” Gonzalez shouted as she punched at a console.

  “Captain Grint,” Dax shouted, “do we evacuate?”

  “There’s no time,” Hannibal shouted. “Who knows how many traps are waiting in life pods? We need to know now. Captain Valkyrie, deploy your bomb disposal squads along on all main artery emergency routes. And find Siorus!”

  CHAPTER 8 - CONSPIRACY

  Colonel John ‘Jeb’ Rage always preferred to dine with the ranks. He hated dining with Hurricane Grint at the Captain’s table. And for that matter, he hated dining with the other officers. It made no difference whether here in the dining hall, or in the Captain’s dining room. It always gave him the feeling he was out of touch.

  It was important to Rage to keep his fingertips on the pulse of any ship he sailed. Just keeping it real, he would say. And there was another reason. Something he would never divulge to anyone.

  Keeping tabs on the ones who shared his secret. Checking there were no cracks. And if there were cracks in their resolve, then making sure they could resist the Tectonic pressures pulling at the fissures of their consciences.

  So long as there was only one dissenter at a time, he could rally the others to help stop the tremor of dissent becoming a full blown quake.

  He paused at the table containing bridge crew members. He nodded to Weapon Specialist Wesley Jackson. A large, imposing black man. His hand to hand combat skills rivaled Rage’s own mastery. Jackson’s tactical battle brain was second to none. They also had one other thing in common. Something they never spoke of, until perhaps now.