The Sac'a'rith

by Vincent Trigili

  “No, why should I? I was told when to use each one. What else do I need to know?” I asked.

  “Maybe that the ID you just showed him marks you as an elite special forces commander,” he said.

  “I like the sound of that.” He was probably right; I really should learn to accept less, and investigate more.

  It was not long before we had covered the distance to the front lines. The station defenders were behind portable barriers firing nonstop into the masses of walking dead.

  I did not know how to read their ranks so I just called out, “Commander!”

  As I expected, a man turned around and said, “What?”

  “Sir, those are ‘walking dead.’ Shoot the heads. It will take them down faster,” I said.

  He hesitated, then took his rifle and shot one in the head. It fell over instantly. “Men! Aim for their heads only!” he ordered.

  “I hate to say this but, if you lose any soldiers, shoot them in the head too. That will prevent them from standing up to fight against you,” I said.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “My name is Zah’rak. I am here with Narcion,” I said.

  “Are those names supposed to mean something to me?” he asked.

  “Call in to your command and ask,” I said.

  “I think I will. Jackson, keep an eye on these two,” he said, then marched off.

  “Narcion, we are at the front lines trying to establish contact with the command here, but it seems no one was briefed about us,” I told him over the comm.

  “Typical, but do not worry. A message is on the way out now,” he said.

  I heard the commander yell, “What?” in the distance, and I figured that he had received the good news.

  “I have just been informed that your team is taking command of this station,” he said, obviously displeased.

  “Sir, the situation will get much worse very fast. I am not familiar with your protocols, but we need to get everyone to shielded areas as fast as we can. The walking dead is only the first wave; what is coming after them is worse,” I said.

  “What is coming?” he demanded.

  “The dead do not get up on their own, Commander,” I said. “Wraiths cannot be far behind.”

  He visibly paled at that. “What do we do?” His whole demeanor had changed with that revelation. He went from being angry at our presence to being scared and grateful. I did not know what stories he had heard, but I was grateful for them.

  “Energy shields will stop the wraiths. We need to get everyone into completely shielded areas. Evacuate everyone possible onto ships, but anyone still on the station will need to be shielded or they will end up as walking dead,” I said.

  “Commander, I suggest you move everyone to the docking arms. That will be the easiest place to secure with shields, and will make evacuation easier,” said Crivreen.

  He barked orders into his communicator, and men started moving.

  “Also tell all your magi to stand down. Use no magic right now, none at all,” I said.

  “But why? They bring a lot more firepower against these masses,” he asked.

  “The only weapon you have that will hurt the wraiths is their spells. We need them at full power when the wraiths show themselves,” I said.

  “Understood, sir,” he said and then barked more orders that I could not quite follow. He said to me more quietly, “Are we going to make it?”

  “This is the first time we have been deployed before a station has fallen, Commander, and I mean to make sure it does not fall,” I said. Working with Narcion had given me a confidence in the battlefield; it had also taught me that attitude was everything. I needed to project confidence to maintain control over the situation.

  He nodded, fielded some questions on his orders, and asked, “We fall back, and then what?”

  “We need to figure out how they are getting onto the station and cut them off there,” I said.

  “That will be tough. The most we can tell is that none of these dead were on the station before the attack, and no vessels have docked that could have dropped them off.”

  “Commander, we will need your codes so we can link up our communications,” said Crivreen.

  Once that was done, I said, “Get your men to safety. We are going deeper in.”

  Before he could respond, I led Crivreen over the barricades and right into the waiting line of walking dead. Our upgraded armor was more than sufficient to ward off their attacks. Crivreen followed close behind, letting me ram our way through the line of bodies.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “Walking dead are brainless and hard to control from any distance. If we follow this line backwards we should find their controller soon,” I said.

  It was getting harder to keep pushing through the bodies; there were just too many of them. I broke out of their line to one side. Once free of the line I turned back to watch them; they were marching forward and did not seem to notice us at all. “Odd.”

  “Brother, how is it going?” asked Narcion.

  “Well … ” I said and briefed him on what happened so far.

  “Excellent plan. Felix and I are aboard, too. We will track this group of dead back. You do the same there and keep your eyes peeled for wraiths,” he said and closed the channel.

  I turned to Crivreen and asked, “We can’t rush directly up the line, so what are our options?”

  “Well, they appear to be marching along a fairly straight path, so we can take one of the parallel corridors and cut back over from time to time to make sure we’re still on track,” said Crivreen.

  “Lead on,” I said.

  We jogged down the corridors for what seemed like forever until we found the end of the line of walking dead. The line just ended with no sign of where they had come from or of their controllers.

  “We should continue back up this corridor,” I said.

  “Why? The line ends here,” said Crivreen.

  “Yes, but logically they must have come from somewhere and walked to here. If we continue in the direction they came from we might find something,” I said.

  “All right,” he replied and we continued down the corridor.

  Meanwhile, I listened in on my equipment as the security forces on the station retreated to the docking arms. These were not elite troops, merely station guards, and their fear was obvious. They had all heard the stories of what had happened to other stations. I was worried they would not keep it together long enough to save this station.

  After continuing down the hall for a while, we eventually hit a dead end. “Now what?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Crivreen.

  “Let’s double back then, and check some of the side corridors. Maybe they made a turn somewhere,” I said.

  We had not got far before things became much worse.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Commander Zah’rak,” came the call over the comm.

  “That means you,” sent Crivreen.

  “Commander?” I sent back, then replied, “Yes?”

  “The dead here, sir, they all just fell over. They’re not moving. We are about to go and check them up closer,” he said.

  “No! Wait! Triple-check your shields; make sure they are locked down tight. Then wake up your magi,” I said.

  “Sir? The enemy is all down,” he said.

  “Yes, and that frees up the wraiths to attack. We are on our way to your position. Hold tight,” I said.

  We quickly ran through the corridors as more reports came in of the walking dead falling over. All around the station the defenders were getting ready to come out of their shields, and it was all Narcion and I could do to keep them from celebrating the victory that was not yet theirs.

  “We are getting reports from every area of the station. Which way should we head?” I asked in bewilderment.

  “Control over much of the shields that are protecting th
ose people would be focused in their central command center and their main engineering section. If I were attacking, that is where I would concentrate my attention,” sent Crivreen.

  “Narcion, we are heading to Central Command to see what is going on there. I suggest you go to Main Engineering,” I sent over the comm.

  “Wise plan, brother. We will proceed there,” he replied.

  “Lead the way,” I said to Crivreen. He seemed to know his way around far better than I. While we moved on to Central Command, I updated the station’s defense forces on the change of plan and continued to warn them to stay in shielded areas.

  “I wonder if this is how they do it,” sent Crivreen.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Well, they send in the walking dead, which forces everyone to fall back into tight groups. Once everyone is packed in, they are easy pickings for the wraiths,” he replied.

  “Maybe,” I sent. I wondered how he knew so much about this kind of things. I would never have thought of him as one to grasp strategies on the fly.

  “Central Command is up ahead,” he sent.

  I looked down the corridor and saw a heavily-shielded door guarded by sentry guns. Even without the shields and guns it would have been impossible to reach the door due to the large number of bodies piled up around it. It appeared the walking dead had made an attempt to breach the shields and had been cut down by the defenses.

  “Central Command, what is your status?” I asked over the comm.

  “Secure, sir, all shields holding. All is quiet in the halls,” came the reply.

  Before we could do much with that information a message came in: “Sir, we are under heavy attack here!”

  “Where?” I demanded.

  “Docking Arm 71M, sir,” came the reply.

  “Why a seemingly random docking arm?” asked Crivreen.

  “Distraction,” I said.

  “What is attacking you?” asked Narcion over the comm.

  “Sir, I am not sure you are going to believe this, but they appear to be skeletons. They have armed themselves with blasters from our fallen troops and are trying to blast through the shields,” he said.

  Soon more reports of skeletal warriors came in from around the station. These creatures were unlike the walking dead in that they moved as fast as a man, and seemed to be at least intelligent enough to work together. Narcion had told me about them, but they had always used more primitive weapons in his experience.

  “Now what?” Crivreen asked.

  “We should stay here. I am certain they will attack at this point,” I sent back.

  We did not have to wait long before the skeletal warriors came marching fearlessly down the hall towards the door. They opened fire with their borrowed weapons and focused their fire on the sentry guns, using the walls and other obstacles for cover. They were attacking from all directions at once, and they did not show pain or any other reaction when the sentry guns hit them. If they were damaged too greatly by the guns, they merely fell over and the others stepped over them and carried on. There was absolutely no emotional reaction to the events around them; they might as well have been robots.

  They were light brown in color and had absolutely no flesh on their bones. They appeared to be skeletons of various races, but the only one I thought I recognized was human. There was no decay on their bones, nor did they have any obvious signs of injury at this distance. The skeletons moved naturally as if muscle and tendon were still connected to their bones. In the sockets where their eyes should have been there were red, glowing orbs.

  On their hips they had short swords, but I could not make out the style of the swords from where we were crouched. In their hands they held government-issued blasters and rifles that everyone assumed they had picked up from the fallen station guards, but even to my inexperienced eye there were too many for that to be correct. The weapons, like the walking dead, must have come from somewhere else.

  “There are too many of them. We need to pull back,” I sent.

  “Too late, we’re surrounded,” he replied as more came up behind us.

  We dove for cover behind a pile of bodies and began firing on them. Soon wraiths appeared and began to fly towards us. I sensed Crivreen beginning to get nervous. “Forget them, they can’t hurt you, but those skeletons can. Keep firing.”

  “What if the new armor fails?” he asked.

  “It won’t,” I said. I knew we needed to do something fast or he would lose his nerve. “We are pinned down here. Can you toss some lightning in their midst to buy me a few seconds?”

  “Sure. What are you going to do?” he asked.

  “Cast!” I ordered and then watched as lightning arced through the advancing skeletons. That distraction was all I needed. I leapt over the barrier of bodies we were hiding behind and sprinted towards their position as fast as I could. As I got close I jumped into the air, spread my arms wide, and slammed into their ranks.

  My plan worked perfectly. The front line of skeletons collapsed under my weight. I quickly rolled off that pile and sprang to my feet as the rest of the squad charged in. I was in the middle of their number, so they could not use their blasters without hitting each other, and thankfully they were smart enough to know that that was a bad idea.

  They drew the swords from their sides and moved in to attack. As the first one swung, I caught his wrist and pulled hard while spinning in the direction he was swinging. To my surprise his arm came off in my hand as he went flying by me.

  I kept the sword and threw his arm at another attacker. I was able to use the sword to fend off their attacks and occasionally get a hit in myself. At one point in the fight two attackers swung at once. I dodged back and their swords slammed together in front of me. I swung my sword to decapitate the one, and yanked off the arm of the other to claim his sword. That gave me two swords and a much better chance at survival. I was fighting for all I was worth. I used every trick Narcion had ever taught me, but they kept pushing me back. There were just too many of them.

  Then out of nowhere multiple lightning bolts slammed into the ones closest to me and I heard Crivreen yell, “Quick, I’ll cover you! Teleport out of there!”

  I cursed furiously, as I had forgotten that was an option. I teleported clear of their number and beyond their reach. Crivreen soon joined me as they turned to charge us. We ran down the corridor and quickly found cover, but they did not pursue.

  “Narcion, there are too many attacking at Central Command. Crivreen and I are pulling back,” I said over the comm.

  “Do you think we should head to Engineering and help them?” sent Crivreen.

  “What about Central Command?” I asked.

  “If they fall, control of the station will be transferred to Engineering. We can’t help them. I think our best chances are to join up with Narcion and Felix and see if we can keep control of Engineering,” he sent.

  “That makes sense, but Narcion wants us to find out how they are getting onto the station and stop them, so that is what we are going to do,” I sent.

  “They must be opening portals in random places around the station, and there is nothing we can do to stop a portal,” he sent.

  “What can be done, then?” I asked.

  “Felix can block the portals with his shields, but he can’t come close to covering an entire station,” he sent.

  “But surely the station’s shields are up, right?” I asked.

  “Normally I would assume so, but if they were they should have stopped the attack,” he sent.

  “Command, what is the status of the station’s exterior shields?” I asked over the comm.

  “They are down, sir,” he said.

  “What? Why?” I asked.

  “We cannot evacuate the station with the shields up,” he started.

  I cursed and said, “Get those shields back on line, now!”

  “Yes, sir!” came the response.

  “We’ll follow
your plan and go to Engineering,” I sent.

  I called Narcion, but he did not respond. I figured that meant he was under fire, so we moved as quickly as we could through the station, heading to Engineering. “How long will it take them to get the shields up?”

  “Not too long. It’s a question of any ships that are in the way needing to clear out,” he sent.

  I listened over the intercom as the skeletons pushed hard against all the shielded positions of the station. So far, the positions were holding, but I did not like their chances.

  “Command, we need sentries out here! Where are they?” I sent over the comm.

  “What we have is out there, but we don’t have much to work with,” came the reply.

  “What? There is an entire battle fleet less than a jump away! Get more sentries here now!” I said. Sentries were robotic defenders that were heavily armored, mobile, and packed a lot of firepower. They were slow, but if we could get a decent number of them deployed they could systematically sweep the station and start clearing out the walking dead and skeletons. They would be useless against the wraiths, but as they were not alive they would also be immune to their attacks.

  “Yes, sir,” came the reply.

  “Why didn’t they think of that?” I sent to Crivreen.

  “I imagine that they did not know there was a fleet out there to call on. I am not sure you were supposed to let that be known,” he sent back.

  “What sense does that make?” I asked.

  “It’s the government. Making sense is not part of the package,” he sent back.

  “If we don’t get some sentries in these halls those skeletons will eventually take down the shielded locations and we will lose the station,” I sent.

  We continued to run, and there was still no word from Narcion. I was starting to get worried, but tried really hard not to think about it.

  “Commander Zah’rak, the station shields are up,” I heard over the comm.

  “Excellent. Keep them up. That should prevent the enemy from getting reinforcements,” I replied.

  “They will have to lower them to get the sentries,” sent Crivreen.

  “The only time you should lower them is when the ships arrive with the sentries. Do everything you can to minimize the length of time the shields are down. We can’t save the station if the enemy can continue to reinforce its troops here,” I said over the comm and then sent, “Thanks, Crivreen, I forgot about that.”