Eclipse: Book Two of the Dark Tide Trilogy

by Dayne Edmondson

  Another wave of lasers fired from the ships in low orbit eclipsing the sun. A wave of energy inundated one behemoth, causing its armor to glow a bright red which could be seen even from the fortress. A missile followed, causing a concussive wave and cracking the red-hot carapace wide open. Then a single railgun projectile slammed through the remnants of the broken carapace and slammed through the creature’s body, causing green blood to spurt into the air as it died. The ground shook as it fell.

  A different looking transport ship descended and landed in the assembly area. Soldiers in black armor with white adornment descended the ramp. At their head was a soldier with golden adornment instead of white. “Who is that,” Derek wondered aloud.

  John turned and followed Derek’s gaze. “That is my son. Ethan Edgerton. Commander of the 101st.”

  “Did you know he would be here?”

  “Yes.” He did not elaborate further.

  Ethan approached John and Derek, his face hidden by a helmet. His dark visor looked first to John, then to Derek.

  Derek saluted. “Lieutenant Derek Jamison at your service, sir.”

  “Heya kid,” John said.

  Ethan returned Derek’s salute but ignored his father’s words. “It looks like you were in dire straits here, Lieutenant. Looks like we got here just in time.”

  “Yes, sir, you did. We are relieved to see you.”

  “Pull your men back, take a breather. The 101st will take it from here.”

  Derek saluted again. “Yes, sir.”

  Ethan turned his head toward his father. “Father,” he said, before brushing past him and leading his squad of soldiers toward the front lines.

  John made a shivering motion. “Brrr, anyone else cold?”

  “What happened between you two, sir? I don’t have children, but I wouldn’t expect my children to act in such a manner toward me.”

  John looked down. “It’s a story for another time.” No witty quip this time. “Ask me again if we get out of this alive.”

  “Yes, sir.” Derek made a mental note to hold him to that promise. He turned and watched as Ethan and his soldiers entered the fray. Ethan wielded two swords and cut through the Krai’kesh skitterers with ease. He threw fire and one skitterer to blind it, then stabbed it in the chest with both blades. The Krai’kesh flew off his blades as if blown by a gust of wind and Ethan parried claws from a second Krai’kesh. That Krai’kesh flew into the air and Ethan threw his blade straight into its chest.

  The other soldiers in his squadron fought with equal ferocity, some with magic, others without. One soldier wielded dual coil pistols and seemed to float around the battlefield to stay out of harm’s way. Another wielded a whip of fire and a sword of fire and burned the enemy. One soldier climbed the ramp to the top of the ramparts and assembled a sniper rifle with which they provided fire support, hurling coilgun shells at high speed through the heads of skitterers and Krai’kesh commanders.

  Ethan’s skill caught the attention of the Krai'kesh commanders, for two of them tried to attack him from both sides. He danced with them, black swords meeting two staffs in a battle to the death. He hurled fire at one of them, but it was absorbed by their void shield. His next move summoned earth to hold their feet. They struggled to move while Ethan stabbed them through the faceplate. The second commander fled to find easier prey.

  Three of the five behemoths were dead, while the other two were under heavy assault. One of the two behemoths were closing on the walls. If it reached the walls it could tear them down and cause mass human casualties, regardless of how many reinforcements there were.

  Derek opened a link to the Marines who had accompanied the Dauntless to the surface, whether in separate transports or aboard the vessel itself. “All Marines from the Independence battle group, fall back to my position. Let the 101st take the lead. Take a breather, tend to our wounded and then we can regroup and get back out there.”

  ***

  “Raptor One making strafing run on behemoth two,” Selene announced. She fired burst of coilgun shells into its carapace but most deflected. She jerked her flight stick to avoid being swatted by a claw, then spun in mid-flight and fired a pair of missiles at the same spot. The missiles exploded and left a red after-glow but did not pierce the carapace.

  “Dragon Squadron, divert attention to the remaining behemoths,” a female voice came over the comm. “Raptor Squadron, divert your attention to the Krai’kesh ground forces. Your weapons are better suited for that.”

  Who is that? Selene wondered. She checked her HUD and saw it was Victory One. That didn't answer her question, though. Her voice sounded familiar. "Raptor Squadron acknowledges," Selene replied and relayed her message to the other pilots of her squadron.

  Selene turned her weapons on the ground-based Krai’kesh. She fired small bursts of coilgun shells, for she found the higher caliber fighter-based coilgun projectiles packed much more punch than hand-wielded weapons and it only took a projectile or two to pierce the carapace of a common skitterer. She even scored a strike on a commander, though she didn’t know if she killed it or not.

  Raptor Squadron was accompanied by Victory Squadron’s fighters. Victory One flared across the battlefield firing here, spinning, firing there, spinning, firing at another location, spinning and firing a pair of missiles before moving on to another sector.

  Selene saw one of the mechs in trouble. It was facing off against two Krai'kesh commanders, and one was on the back of the mech stabbing at its internal components, not the pilot yet, with its staff. The mech tried to remove it but couldn't. Selene zeroed in on the commander. She couldn't risk firing for fear of piercing the hull and hurting or killing the pilot, so she came in close and knocked the commander off the mech with the corner of a wing. The commander was sent flying and no sooner had it landed then the mech turned it into a bullet sponge with a hail of coilgun shells.

  “Thanks for the assist,” came a direct link from the mech.

  "Anytime, friend," Selene said. She sought more targets.

  ***

  Derek stood beside John and Ashley atop the walls of the fortress as the fury of the Federation rained down upon the Krai’kesh. He estimated several thousand surge troops had landed, dozens of fighters flew in the sky and fire support from on high kept the Krai’kesh from bunching up in large groups.

  Still the Krai’kesh fought tooth and nail. They moved in close to strike at the Federation soldiers rather than staying back and risking being hit by fighter or capital ship weapons. The battle was turning into a melee, with the bodies of human and Krai’kesh alike littering the battle and piling up.

  “Quite a sight, ain’t it, babe?” John asked Ashley.

  Ashley’s eyes were wet. “It’s good to see our babies again.”

  John hugged her tight. “It sure is.”

  Chapter 13 - Cry Havoc

  “Did you notice any Krai’kesh commanders among the skitterers?” Isabelle asked.

  Kimberly searched her memories. “I saw none in cryo-stasis, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

  “That’s what worries me.” Isabelle activated her communicator. “Ambassador, how goes the evacuation?”

  The nervous voice of the Ambassador came over the channel. “The first transport is away, ma’am. We are almost ready to launch the transport you so generously lent us. But still, we have over two hundred people in our embassy, including family members of our staff. It will take time for the evacuation to be completed."

  Isabelle rolled her eyes. “Just get it done.” She closed the link. “Captain, what’s our status?”

  “My Marines are in position ma’am, and we were provided two dozen more security personnel by the Ambassador.”

  “Not much of a defense force.”

  "No, ma'am, but we have the advantage of holding a small opening. There is only one way to the embassy. If we can hold this small space, ma'am, we may be able to fight the Krai’kesh one or two at a time.”

  “Don’t make the
mistake of underestimating the Krai’kesh, Captain, or their human allies.”

  The captain nodded and bowed. “I should see to my men. If you’ll excuse me.” He departed stiffly.

  “Awe, did I hurt his pride?” Isabelle said sarcastically once he was out of earshot.

  “Men don’t like being told they are wrong or making a mistake by doing something. After all, even in space men don’t like to ask for directions.”

  “My father being the one exception,” Isabelle said. “He was a ship’s captain back on Tar Ebon when ships sailed exclusively on the seas instead of among the stars. He could navigate by stars alone without the aid of instruments. Even with the stars obscured he claimed he could tell by the wind and waves what direction we were going. I never quite believed him.”

  “Your father, he is still alive, is he not?” Kimberly asked. She liked to think she would have heard if an Eternal had died.

  Isabelle snorted. “If you count practically living inside his laboratory on Tar Ebon living then yes, he is still alive. But as for doing things real living people do, well…let’s say he hasn’t been the best father in the past few centuries. He and mother argue over moral and ethical questions, and my mother always wins, which causes my father to bury himself further in his work as a way of sticking his head in the sand.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Kimberly said. At least your father is still alive.

  “He was a good father, once. When we sailed the seas as a family he worked in the hold of the ship, yes, but he talked and showed me his work. He taught me what magic he could, though my strength is minor compared to him, and always protected me. Why there was this one time I ran off in the port of Tera Leon and met the…” she trailed off as proximity alarms placed in the hallway leading to the embassy entrance chimed. “Baillidh?”

  Baillidh looked up from his datapad. “We’ve got company, ma’am. I’m counting two dozen Krai’kesh, at least one commander and another two dozen human allies.”

  “Captain,” Isabelle shouted from the barricade they stood behind. “Get your men ready!”

  “Weapons hot!” the captain shouted. “Fire upon sight!”

  “Why are so many humans allying with the Krai’kesh?” Kimberly asked as they waited.

  “Power, greed, dissatisfaction with the way things are.” Isabelle shrugged. “Throughout the history of the Federation despots have risen and gathered followers to them. I’ve lost count of the number of coups and rebellions the Federation had to contend with over the past two thousand years.”

  “All for this one moment,” Kimberly mused.

  “Indeed.”

  “Incoming!” the captain called out. Laser fire erupted from the Marines and security forces gathered to stall the Krai’kesh. Corbin fired his weapon while Baillidh watched events on his datapad.

  “Baillidh, what are you doing?” Kimberly demanded.

  “Controlling my drones, ma’am,” he replied, turning the datapad so she could see. “They’ve joined the fray.”

  Kimberly nodded and leaned out from behind the barricade. She watched a stream of Krai’kesh heading down the hallway toward their location.

  “Now!” the captain shouted. The blast doors leading to the embassy closed, but not before Corbin pulled the pin on a grenade included in a bundle of grenades and hurled the bundle through the doorway. The blast doors clicked shut just in time, for moments later Kimberly could hear a huge explosion from the other side which shook the entire area where the Federation forces waited.

  For several moments, there was silence, but then came a clanging on the blast door. “Well, it was a long shot,” Isabelle said. “We didn’t get them all. Baillidh, can we get a feed from that hallway?”

  “Coming up,” Baillidh said. Moments later a hologram showing the hallway emitted from his datapad. “It looks like they were expecting something like that. They’re bringing up plasma torches to cut through the door, and that explosion likely weakened the integrity of the doors.”

  “How much time does that translate into?”

  "Twenty minutes tops ma'am."

  “All right, continue surveilling them. Let me know if they try anything out of the ordinary.”

  "Such as ma'am?"

  Isabelle sighed. “If half of them disappear and you can’t account for them, let me know. It’s likely we don’t know all of the ways into this embassy and if the human conspirers know the location, then we are at a disadvantage."

  Kimberly gasped. “Sloane.”

  “What, you see him?” Isabelle asked.

  “Yes, I just saw him. He’s hanging near the back of the group and letting the Krai’kesh go in front of him.”

  “Too bad the Cult of Rae didn’t kill him if he became no longer useful to them once they were compromised.”

  “Are we going to capture him?” Kimberly asked.

  “That’s not our primary mission,” Isabelle intoned. “But I can make an exception. If you get a chance to capture him, take it, but otherwise, he's better dead than alive."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  The sound of plasma torches firing up echoed through the blast doors and into the entrance to the embassy. “Here we go,” Corbin said. “You ready for this, lass?” he asked Kimberly.

  “Do I have a choice?”

  Corbin thought for a moment. “No, no ye do not. Sorry, lass.”

  "Then why ask if I'm ready?" she asked. She hated when people asked inane question.

  “To help make myself feel better prepared,” Corbin admitted.

  “Oh.” Kimberly hadn’t thought Corbin could be ill-prepared. He was always prepared.

  “Don’t tell Baillidh I said that, though, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  Kimberly smiled. “Your secret is safe with me, friend.”

  For several minutes the FIA operatives, Marines and security forces watched as the plasma torch cut through the blast door. At last a hole large enough for a Krai’kesh to pass through was cut out. Something large slammed into it once and then twice. On the third impact the cut-out section burst inward, sliding across the floor, and a Krai’kesh fell into the embassy entrance.

  The Marines and security forces fired at will, killing the first Krai’kesh. Moments later, however, two more had surged through the opening. The laser fire was divided and while one fell the second attacked one of the security guards, ripping her throat out with its mandibles.

  Two more Krai’kesh came through. This isn’t working, Kimberly thought. They would still flood the entryway, even if it were a slower trickle.

  Isabelle shifted and re-appeared in front of the two newcomers. She fought them with her dual black daggers, killing both in short order, then shifted back even with the front line of Marines, dismissed her daggers and summoned her coil pistols. She fired at two more Krai’kesh coming through the entrance.

  Kimberly fired her sidearm at the Krai’kesh coming through, to little effect.

  Before the first two Isabelle fired at were dead, two more had entered the embassy entryway and were upon the front line of Marines. The Marines tried to repel them with their rifles but they were poor melee weapons and one Marine died before the Krai’kesh absorbed enough fire to finally die.

  Another surge of Krai'kesh came through the door, resulting in the death of two more Marines. The remaining Marines on the front line fell back to a secondary position. One Marine tried to drag a fallen comrade back behind friendly lines, but a Krai'kesh leapt on them and shredded them to pieces. Kimberly was forced to look away from the carnage.

  “We can’t keep this up!” Kimberly shouted to no one. “They’re picking us off one-by-one.”

  “We have to buy more time!” Isabelle shouted as she fought two Krai’kesh at once. A claw which would have bisected a normal soldier passed through her body as if she were mist, which wasn’t far from the truth. In that moment, she would have shifted part of her body away to allow the claw to pass through her.

  Corbin shouted, “fire in the
hole,” and tossed a grenade toward a cluster of the Krai’kesh. It exploded, piercing the carapace of three of the creatures and killing one.

  The pile of Krai’kesh corpses slowed down the rush of enemies by causing them to trip over their fallen comrades at first. But it didn’t last long, for soon the Krai’kesh corpses were little more than piles of green guts and ruined flesh and the Krai’kesh coming through the gap passed right through the spots where the corpses were without any hardship.

  One Krai’kesh leapt on the back of another skitterer and soared through the air. They crashed into the now second-line defenders comprising the few dozen security personnel conscripted for the defense of the embassy. Screams rose from the area as the Krai’kesh set about slashing at any defenders in reach. It took several moments of concentrated fire and four dead security forces before the Krai’kesh died.

  Kimberly continued to fire at any Krai’kesh making it past the first line, which was deteriorating. Without Isabelle’s presence, they would have already been dead.

  Isabelle stabbed another Krai’kesh in the face, fired a shot from her coil pistol into its brain, then leapt back to avoid the corpse crashing to the ground and searched for her next victim.

  A humanoid figure stepped through the gap. It was followed by a second identical figure. Krai’kesh commanders.

  Their presence was not lost on Isabelle, who stepped back and eyed them both with caution. “Had to bring a friend, eh?” she asked.

  They both spun their bladed staffs and advanced toward Isabelle. Any lasers fired at them were absorbed by their void shields.

  Isabelle fired a pair of coil pistol shells at one commander but one was deflected by a spinning staff. The second hit home, striking the commander in the shoulder and causing their spinning staff to wobble for a moment.

  The commanders split up, attempting to flank Isabelle. It was clear she was their primary target here.

  “You must do better than that to defeat me,” Isabelle said.

  “You will die, human,” a male voice rasped from inside the armor of one commander. At his words two more commanders entered the entryway. Isabelle was now up against four commanders.