Sam is quick to act, as the others are shocked to see the size of this thing up close, and unaffected by the toxin. The creature takes up the whole corridor, with no way past it. Black stripes ran over the dark blue scaly hide, and its red eyes looked like the pits of hell, full of evil intent. It stood strong on four legs and its two muscular arms looked like painted boulders. This goliath was fear. It was death, and it had come for them, thought Sam as he dug his dagger into the closest leg at the knee. The monster roared in pain, but the toxin still had no effect. The slug like creatures had stopped in the corridor. They were indeed there to stop their escape. The monster grabbed Sam by his arm and snapped the dagger off in his leg, before picking Sam up into the air and slamming him into the floor several times, denting his suits armour in the process, while the other two looked on helpless in shock.
Nova turned her flames on the creature, and Rusty blasted at the monsters face, to try to distract it from hurting Sam any more. Sam is thrown to the floor and the creature is about to stamp on him, when he rolls out of the way and punches up and blasts at what he can only think is the creatures groin area. This Blue was tough. It was bred for this and hardly flinched, its thick scales taking the blaster fire as if someone was throwing a cream pie at it. The creature once more bends down and grabs Sam by his now broken arm. Sam winces in pain and falls unconscious, as the creature beats upon him with relentless aggression, pulverising his space suit.
Nova can see the oxygen leaking from different parts of his suit, but just can’t get to him as she dodges the swinging arms of the massive creature stood before them. She begins to cry. Have her actions killed her new found love, and any hope of survival, she wonders. She stabs savagely at the Blue, and it was at least now bleeding, but it just seemed they were just playing with it. She is lifted up by a large tentacle from the creatures back and pressed into the wall. Two large fights slam down on her hard, and then she sees only darkness.
Rusty looks up at Nova, as the creature punches her body like a boxer hitting a punch bag. Nova’s limbs relax and she is lifted up in the air, along with Sam, by tentacles that Rusty had only just noticed. What I would do for a bottle of Fuzz-Fuzz now, he thought. The alcohol would give him the edge in a fight, because normally he would be shy. Rusty finds the courage to jump onto the leg of the monster, and like a knight fighting a dragon, he lifts a scale on the creature’s chest and stabs hard, deep into flesh. As the creature begins to fall backwards, he continues to stab in, over and over again. Was it luck it had found its mark in the heart of the creature or fate, he would never know. The giant falls down, defeated by this slim small human. It lies still and the tentacles release his two friends, who he rushes to help.
Rusty can see the oxygen venting out of Sam’s suit and uses some tape and then liquid metal to seal the damage, so that at least Sam could breathe. Rusty could not attend to any wounds, as it would mean death to take the suits off, so he pauses and looks down on his two injured friends, their helmets covered in blood splashes, and decides to open a spare air boost canister slowly, to create an oxygen cloud to watch over them, while he takes a look further down the corridor past the Blue. He did not want to move his friends until he found a safe place to hold up.
“What on Foloss am I doing?” mumbles Rusty, as he slowly and quietly stumbles over the dead Blue and down the corridor, hoping to find a place of refuge. Rusty slowly makes his way along the long corridor and then makes several turns which are marked on his gauntlet map, so he can find his way back. It felt to him like he has been walking for hours, then finally he can see a few doors off the tunnel. He peers through a small porthole type window into a room. The room is empty and dark, but he can just make out some chains hanging from the ceiling, which makes him think twice about opening that door, so he takes a look at the door on the other side of the corridor.
Once again he peers in, and this time a few dim lights light up the room, but the horror that lies before him is enough to scare even the strongest of warriors. Bodies are torn limb from limb, some hanging from chains, the blood drips into what he can only think of as a giant dish, with a hole in the centre of it. These Blues did not just want to kill their enemy, they wanted to torture them and probably drink their blood too.
Rusty gets a sick feeling and has to hold back from vomiting inside his suit. He looks away, but the images are burned into his mind and are now playing again and again for him to cringe at. He does not need this. He needs to concentrate and get everyone out of here and fast, but how. Braving the next window, he can see a creature inside hanging from chains, swinging slightly from side to side as it tries to free itself. He feels sorry for it and tries to open the door, but it is firmly sealed. The creature turns to look with begging eyes at Rusty. Never in his whole life has Rusty felt so useless, and with his small metal cutter he begins to try to cut the door. The laser is quiet and does seem to cut the metal well, and the alien hanging from the chains looks on with hope of a rescue.
A few minutes pass with Rusty looking up and down the corridor and cutting his way in, and finally the door metal falls into the room with a thud. Rusty’s plan is to release the creature and hopefully work with it to help his crew and escape. As Rusty approaches the hanging alien, the alien opens its eyes wide. It can’t speak, it has no mouth, but Rusty gets a voice in his head to turn around. So quickly he turns, only to see a seven foot tall, slender figure standing before him. It has light blue skin and floats into the room on a boat of green gas, its eyes glowing orange, and then it points at Rusty.
Never has Rusty felt as scared in his life. He stands stiff with fright, and as the figure approaches, his only thought is to blast the crap out of it. Snapping out of his trance, he opens fire on the creature before him, but his blaster fire glances off the creatures shield as he glides closer. Rusty backs into the hanging alien and continues to fire. A few ricochets hit the walls and then thump, he backs himself into a corner. The undeterred creature stands face to face with Rusty. Rusty stops firing and looks into the orange eyes of hatred. They burn into his soul, gripping his heart and making it beat faster, the sweat beading on his head under his woolly hat in his suit. Metal fingers reach up to Rusty’s helmet and gouges lines downwards, making a horrid screeching sound, like nails on a blackboard. This thing means business. All Rusty can think to do, when he is in a situation like this, is to knee the enemy in the balls and hope for a quick getaway. He raises his knee sharply towards the groin, but it only bounces off the creature’s force field.
“Ok, we can talk this over, if you prefer. I don’t want to get angry with you, so what do ya say?” The creature lifts its metal fingers once more, and this time pierces a hole in the side of Rusty’s helmet. Its metal fingers go unharmed, and through a hole in the tip of its claw, green gas begins to pump inside. The creatures second hand had already removed Rusty’s air boost canister and thrown it down the hole in the dish part of the floor. The green gas pushes the oxygen slowly out of his suit, replacing it with the gas which smells like rotting flesh, as Rusty now struggles to breathe, flailing his arms at the Blue stood close to him.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Megan looks through a gap in the broken building as the first pod smashes into the ground. A door is flung open and a large four legged Blue charges out expecting a fight, and then stops to sniff the atmosphere around him, a green mist surrounding him like a comfy coat.
“That one is as big as Lori,” whispers Megan to the Tarkon commander. “I am so sorry, I have not introduced myself yet. I’m Megan, by the way, and you are?” A proud introduction is returned.
“I am Tarkon Commander Elden Jaro of the Thunder Hammers.”
More and more drop pods land around the city, making craters and expelling there cargo. The first Blue to land turns and heads towards the part of the wall that Lori had begun to destroy, its aim to try to tear down the city walls. It clears the chasm with ease and ploughs into the wall, cracking the stone. Blaster fire is heard from the other side a
s the Almak troops begin their assault and concentrate their firepower on that section of the wall also.
“They are going to get in, aren’t they?” questions a worried Megan. “We can’t fight two armies. We need to think about getting on a ship and out of here.” Jaro looks at Megan and then at the Blues gathering in the large courtyard. He had always defended the Gulmeds, it was his destiny, but now that they had gone deep underground, he needed a new destiny, and after a few moments thinking things over he answers.
“The Gulmeds are safe in the deep fortress. We have nothing to defend here apart from each other, and I go where you go,” smiles Jaro.
Megan’s hood display pops up over her eye and she can see Titch. “Nova and some of the others have been captured. Captain Pace and Talia are currently repairing the Invictus, it has no power, and Anc is almost with you. The ship is good to go, I have adapted its files and now know how to pilot it. Update over.”
Several of the Blues are now roaming the city, so a retreat to the hangar will be a hard battle. Jaro quietly signals to Megan to follow him as they crouch down and walk out of the building and walk behind a wall, parallel to two smaller Blues, who are about to come into range of one of the golden defence towers. They carry on past the two Blues and up some steps into another building for cover, and view the awesome power of the defence tower. The two Blues turn the corner and approach the tower, and are instantly vaporised before their eyes. The companions had not noticed three more that had tracked them to the building, and the three Blues charge into the building, only to meet a long glowing golden spear and a crushing blow from a fire hammer. Two of the attackers lay dead and the third, swiftly realising certain doom, spins around and bounces off a wall and back out of the door.
“I guess they know we are here then,” grins Jaro, and he communicates with the rest of his men to meet them at the palace. The sky sounds like a massive thunder storm has hit. It is full of engines burning, slowing down the drop pods, and Megan wonders if she will even make it to the palace, as she steps outside the building with Jaro, noticing Blue hides before them in such great numbers, it was just like seeing a swarm of angry bees, only blue. Several Blues are jumping at them, in an airborne display that would rival a trapeze act. Megan jabs upwards and brings to the floor one of her attackers, and swiftly decapitates it as it wriggles on the floor in pain, and then spins her spear around her back and upwards once again to impale her next victim.
Jaro has crushed several Blue skulls into the ground, making a flower petal design on the floor with their bodies, and then swings near Megan at a Blue that was dropping down from the building’s roof, thinking it would just creep up on them. Megan is grateful. She had seen the creature on her heads up eye screen on her hood, but could not move fast enough to get him.
“Get ready to run. Hold on to something, this will be something to remember,” yells Jaro, as his warhammer glows even brighter as the droves of Blues come running at them.
Megan grips onto a nearby statue of a Gulmed and looks on with interest. Jaro brings his hammer downwards and slams it to the floor, and the ground turns into a tidal wave of fast moving earth. It reminded Megan of when she was a kid and her mum would give her duvet a good shake before watching her climb into bed, only on a much grander scale. The hundreds of Blues in the area were sent flying up into the darkened sky, shocked at what had happened. As they landed back down onto the ground, they were met with flames. The ground was burning with a furnace like glow and hundreds try to get to their feet and run, but there is nowhere left to run, at least not in a mile radius anyway. Buildings began to topple over, crashing to the floor and killing Blues with tons of heavy stone and metal. It was a shame to see the city being destroyed by war. It must have been a haven in its day, thought Megan, letting go of the statue which had now lost its head in the quake.
“Now run, get to the palace,” shouts Jaro, his hammer smouldering with heat as he ran behind her. His attack had bought them a few minutes to make their escape. In the courtyard stood hundreds of Blues ready for revenge. They stood waiting for the wall of flames to die down. This was an intense fire, it would have been like trying to walk on a sun.
Still hearing thunder in the sky all around them, a pod drops down in front of them. It hits the ground and spits up rock into the faces of Megan and Jaro, who slow their run and slide across the ground to stop, and then continue to kill the Blues that emerge from the pod, until the last one is lying in its blood screaming for help. The bodies are quickly stepped over and they continue to run for the palace, which is not far now.
Megan looks back to see if Jaro is still behind her. He gestures to keep running, but looking up, amongst all the drop pods floating down like seeds on the wind, Megan can see two ball ships dropping downwards from space, and then they begin to target something on the ground. There are several explosions as blaster fire connects with buildings and some blaster fire is returned by the few Tarkon warriors that had survived.
“My boys will keep them busy. Look forward and keep running,” yells Jaro, as he looks back and then grabs the side of his helmet, obviously commanding his troops. Behind Megan, a war rages. The Tarkon warriors are engaging the ball ships and the golden defence towers begin to fire, as the flames from the hammer blow begin to die down. The noise is tremendous. Megan can see the palace and Anc running towards her. She feels relief inside her until she is hit in the back from a ball ship. The blast destroys her force field and she is sent forward onto the ground, skidding on her belly and face. Lucky for her, the face mask still worked, so she could breathe. Her back was warm from the heat of the blast, but she was still in one piece, for now anyway. Anc reaches Megan and helps her to her feet, taking several hits from the second ball ship on its bombing run. Anc’s shields hold, as they were designed to go on a ship. Jaro reaches them and they all look back to see two of his men running toward them, only to be mowed down by ball ship fire.
“I am the last.” Shaking his head, Jaro believes he is the last of his men and possibly his race. The anger rages its own storm inside of him. Megan grabs his arm.
“Let’s go, come on.” Megan can see the thousands of Blues crawling towards them like ants on sugar. They cover the buildings and ground and now Megan had no shield either. Anc realises this and hands her a large bracelet that was a light blue glowing colour.
“Arm shield generator,” Anc tells her. Megan presses the red glowing button on it once she has fixed it on her wrist, and a light blue round shield forms in front of her. It was a smaller version of what Anc carried, as it was his spare. It was great timing, as the ball ships had turned in the air and were just about to make another attack on them.
“Interlock shields,” shouts Jaro, thinking he was ordering his men. The three shields were formed tightly and the blaster fire from the ball ships bounced of like tennis balls. The golden towers were now working overtime, and looking to the right of them, the outer wall had fallen too and two large vehicles drove into the city, stopping before the chasm, not able to cross.
Chapter Forty-Eight
“The Almak are in the city now too. Look over there,” points Megan, overwhelmed by the amount of aliens that wanted to kill her now. The Almak General steps outside of his rover, adorned with bone and holding a glowing spear in his hand, he plunges it into the ground, which activates the bridge. How was this possible, Megan thought, he was not Gulmed, and the spear looked out of place in his hands as he got back into his rover and began to move in their direction. The day had just gotten worse, and even though they had an escape vessel ready to lift off, they would have to now help Pace rescue Nova and the crew which would be a battle in its self.
“Let’s get inside and barricade that door,” insists Megan. Jaro nods, unable to speak at the moment as he grits his teeth and his face fills red with anger. He had lost all of his troops and did not know if any of his kind were still alive, but he was aiming to get some payback before the day was over. He swung open the door to the palace
and closed it firmly shut behind Anc, who was the last to walk in. Anc quickly wields the door shut, and Jaro finds a small security console behind one of the large paintings in the hallway. He operates the palace’s defence systems and the window shields slam down with an earth moving thud, dust blowing off the window sills as they rest. With no one left wandering the city to rescue or defend, Jaro operates the city’s other secret defences. As he presses buttons on the security console, large spikes shot upwards outside of the palace, impaling Almak and Blues and then shooting back into the ground, waiting for their next victim to stand in place. The spikes rose up and down like a wave lapping at a boat.
The attacking force was being depleted, but the Almak Master drove through the spikes, bending them over, like a trodden on flower, with his rover’s deadly bumper, followed by his troop truck and then Blues and Almak once the path was cleared. The defence had whittled the force down to half its size and had killed thousands by the time the rover reached the palace.
Jaro and the others walked calmly through the palace, until they reached a door that opened a tunnel to the hanger. It was a secret door and as it opened they were met by Drax, standing proud in a golden suit of armour, his helmet visor lifting to show his face, so as to not startle the others. Jaro saluted Drax with honour.
“Commander Jaro, I know you have lost your men, but I am sure you will be glad to know that I have made contact with a couple of outposts in the sector, so you are not the last of your species. Here are the coordinates, should you need them.”
Jaro grins and downloads the details. Megan is looking Drax up and down, admiring the beautiful designs on his ornate armour of gold. It reflects the light like a mirror and Megan is astounded by its beauty and craftmanship, and then she wonders why is he wearing this.
Titan Fleet: The Robur Page 19