“These grapplers would be able to cut through those cables? They are meant to cut demon limbs!” Desmond asked incredulously.
“Unless those cables are made of some miracle material, yes I think so. The cutting blade is not big enough to cut through in one stroke, we will have to turn it around the cable and cut it along the circumference of the cable all the way round but yes, I think this should be able to cut it. Those cables are designed for tensile strength but also need to be flexible. Making the cables from hard steel would make them less flexible. I don’t expect them to be hard. Cutting the cable is not the issue sir, there is a bigger hurdle. How are we going to reach those cables to cut them?” Lt. Sharma let Desmond know in detail about the amount of radiation he had measured inside.
“Any ideas?” Desmond asked hopefully.
“None whatsoever, sir. I am trying to…” Lt. Sharma was cut off by Sha’ad.
“Bogey spotted! Coming up fast at 2’o clock!” Sha’ad realized that he and the others were floating in different orientation and didn’t have a common frame of reference to be able to figure out 2’o clock, so he simply pointed in the direction and yelled. “There!”
Desmond and the other Marines turned in the direction pointed. Initially most of them had difficulty discerning what Sha’ad’s enhanced eyes had been quick to spot. The eyes played tricks in zero G in a circular setup like the circumference of the demon ship. There is no ‘up’ or ‘down’, but the eyes made whichever way you looked ‘up’. They could see a large platform coming ‘down’ from the ‘top’ surface of the ship, with the platform hugging the compartment wall. Inside the platform were three or four demons seemingly standing upside down, sticking to the bottom surface of the platform!
It took a few moments to shake off the lies that one’s eyes were being deceived into seeing and figuring it out. The platform was basically a wall elevator, “climbing up” from the inner surface of the ship towards the central axis. As far as the demons on the platform were concerned, they were standing on the platform the right way against the gravity they felt at the surface, although as they climbed towards the axis, that gravity kept getting weaker.
It was still too far to see the demons in any detail, but from their casual stance on the platform, it seemed that they hadn’t yet spotted the Marines inside the central axis tube. Two of the demons appeared to be in suits while two appeared without them. It looked like a routine patrol that might have been dispatched to check out the noise that the Marines made when breaking a part of the central axis tube.
On closer inspection, the platform was caged and not open as had seemed initially. That made sense. Without the protection of the cage, the occupants might fly off at the axis where it was zero G the moment the platform came to a halt. The platform was moving fast and would be at the axis within seconds! There was no place for the Marines to hide. They were inside a transparent lighting tube! They felt trapped like flies inside a light bulb!
Rankel was inside the central axis tube, right next to the radiation filled port through which Marines were coming into the compartment. He had been helping arriving Marines shed heat and recover from the passage through the radiation filled tube. He hadn’t heard Sha’ad’s warning, since there was no radio to instantly warn all the Marines. He had been mentally thanking the stars that they hadn’t been noticed by the demons pouring into the compartment.
“Relax buddy, you will be fine in a few minutes. Take your time to shake it off. There is no hurry, the demons haven’t seen us coming in yet.” He spoke to encourage one of the Marines struggling with his breathing.
He spoke too soon. A thud on the central axis tube made him look up in that direction. To his shock he was face to face with a demon! He was separated from the demon only by the transparent material of the tube. This was the first time he or any of the e-Marines had seen a demon without a suit up close. There was something primal and demonic in their appearance, and it send cold shivers down his spine.
Rankel found himself shouting out – “Santa Maria! Demons! Demons! Demons!” Involuntarily he scrambled and stepped back as far away as possible from the demon ensconced on the tube, till his back hit the other side of the tube, only to feel a thud on his back. He turned around to see another demon sticking to the tube on the outside! By this time all the Marines inside the tube had been warned, and one of the shouted. “Two more on the outside. These ones have space suits on… and they seem to be operating something outside on the compartment wall… some kind of mechanism!”
The mechanism the other two demons were operating became obvious within a few seconds as a sheath started emerging from the wall slowly encasing the transparent central axis tube in it. The sheath looked like it was made from metal wire grid. It seemed flimsy, but that notion was soon disabused when the two demons sticking to the tube, nimbly jumped off the tube and on to the sheath, which took their impact without buckling. The demons could walk surprisingly well on that wire mesh like surface with all their six appendages being able to either hook or stick to it securely on impact and being able to disengage from that mesh just as easily.
Lt. Rohit Sharma had spent a few idle moments wondering how the demons serviced the central axis tube when they had to repair or upgrade it. Now he knew. The sheath was the scaffolding used for maintenance work on the axis tube, but at that moment it was being deployed as a means of easy access from the outside by the demons. While the two suited demons were yet to get on to the deploying sheath, the other two demons were on it, riding it as it deployed, headed straight towards Lt. Sharma and the Marines on the outside of the tube near the hatch of the sphere.
When the two demons approaching the Marines on the outside realized that the hatch of the sphere was open, their body language seemed to change immediately. Their demeanor switched from riding the sheath patiently towards the Marines to an agitated impatience to reach their quarry. One of the demons gave a blood curdling banshee like scream so loud that it nearly split the eardrums of the Marines over a hundred meters away. The Marines had been briefed about the demons’ banshee screams, which they seem to give off as an instinctive cry when in stress, surprised or agitated. Knowing about the screams of the demons and hearing it in real life were two different things. Shivers ran down the spine of all the battle-hardened e-Marines.
The sound was so loud that it was sure to have been heard all the way down to the surface of the Goliath ship, although the scream was not the primary means of setting off the alarm. The technologically advanced demons had far more sophisticated ways of setting off the alarm. The demons had already activated the alarm through their computers embedded within their shell. The demon version of the neural interface to their embedded computer was continuously broadcasting all sensory inputs that the demons were seeing and hearing. It would be a matter of minutes before hordes of demons ascended to the axis tube from all directions.
“Figure it out lieutenant. The mission depends on it. We will try to buy you as much time as we can.” Desmond said hurriedly to Lt. Sharma before jumping off the sphere in the direction of the tube at the point where it had been breached by the Marines. He wasn’t aiming for the breach though. He wasn’t trying to get inside the relative safety of the tube. Instead he had aimed for the outside surface of the central axis tube towards the approaching demons riding the sheath!
“Protect the engineers! Stop the demons from reaching the hatch and the engineers at all cost.” Desmond shouted as he bumped on the external surface of the central axis tube. He steadied himself by tugging his tethered harness so that he wouldn’t fly off too far from the tube. While the approaching mesh wired sheath gave the demons riding it a firm grip on the outer surface of the central axis tube, Desmond had no such luxury at the point on the surface of the tube he had landed. It was shiny smooth offering no purchase.
Desmond didn’t fail to notice though that the approaching wired mesh sheath would provide and equally excellent tethering opportunity for his harness once it reached t
he spot he was currently floating over. If he had to fight on the outer surface of the central axis tube, he would need to be tethered. Without thrusters, if he floated away from the central axis tube, he would be worse than out of the fight. The artificial gravity would eventually catch up and slowly send him spiraling towards the surface at ever increasing velocity where his remains would have to be scraped off the ground.
Despond eyed the approaching demon. He was aware that there was another demon riding the wire mesh sheath diametrically opposite end of the tube, who wasn’t clearly visible through the tube and the sheath. If the demon wanted, surely it could have shot the hell out of Desmond, but it hadn’t! So, the demon must be following their demon hunting code that the Marines had been briefed about! The demon will not fire at Desmond until he fired at the demon. That suited Desmond just fine, because he didn’t have a functioning gun on him! The demon would try to tear apart Desmond up close and personal in a hand to claw combat. Desmond didn’t relish that prospect either, but it was better than being shot to hell before he even had a chance to put up a fight.
What Desmond and the other Marines didn’t know at that time was that their assumption was completely wrong. The demons didn’t fire at the Marines because firing antimatter weapons in the central compartment housing the core was strictly prohibited. Even the Lord of the Hunt would never order firing of antimatter weapons out here so near the core, and risk irreparably damaging the very things that the demons were trying to save. The fact that this constraint gave the demons the excuse to engage in close quarters combat (CQB) was a bonus for the demons, because that is how they preferred to hunt!
Desmond glanced around the spot he was floating till he found a broken portion of the tube, where a small wedge shaped broken shard was sticking out. He positioned one of his boots on that shard as purchase for the next move that he was planning. Desmond had discarded his helmet for freer movement and to be able to see and hear better. The helmet was worse than dead weight, it impeded the Marines from talking to each other.
The sound through the helmet was muted. Desmond still retained his suit though. Without power, the exoskeleton was useless as a strength booster and to that extent the suit was a dead weight too, but it provided armor protection to some degree against the slashing and clamping claws of the demons. More importantly, the tethers were attached to the suit.
When the demon was less than five meters away from Desmond, he surprised the demon by lunging headlong towards the demon. Using the purchase where he had placed one of his boots, Desmond dived low, aiming towards the first pair of limbs of the demons that had gripped the wire mesh sheath. The demon had clearly not anticipated this move from Desmond, and in its surprise, it instinctively rose on its hind limbs, letting go of the wire mesh sheath from its fore limbs to get them out of the way of the spot Desmond had dived towards.
For a second the demon stood on its rear limbs like a rearing horse before realizing that Desmond hadn’t aimed for its limbs at all! Instead, Desmond had reached for the wire mesh sheath, to which he had deftly snapped and anchored his spare tether and in one fluid motion had released his primary tether which had been attached to the line connecting the breach to the hatch of the sphere. Desmond was now tethered to the outside surface of the tube with all his limbs free to fight!
As his opening gambit, Desmond caught his new tether close to the point it was anchored to come to a quick halt from the dive and at the same time let his feet plant themselves firmly on the wire mesh sheath. Once his feet were planted, he sprang back up, this time aiming squarely for the raised underbelly of the demon. He gave his leap all he had, all the strength his enhanced leg muscles could muster. If Desmond was lucky, he might be able to knock the demon off the wire mesh sheath while it was still surprised. Crashing into the demon was like crashing into an armored Rhino! Despite Desmond’s reinforced bones and synthetically augmented muscles, it knocked the wind out of the big African’s lungs.
Far from being able to dislodge the demon from its perch, all that Desmond managed was to anger the demon while at the same time putting himself in a wild uncontrolled spin. He desperately tugged on his tether to orient himself before the demon could land a blow at him. Fortunately for Desmond, he had bounced away and out of reach of the demon. Instead of trying to hit Desmond, the demon lunged towards a more dangerous direction.
The demon was trying to reach for Desmond’s tether at the point where it had been anchored on the wire mesh. The demon would try to cut the tether and doom its opponent without having to fight at all! Despite appearances, this was no angry beast looking to tear its opponent apart. Desmond realized that he was fighting an extremely intelligent and skillful being, adept at CQB. The demon had kept its wits while fighting, it could not be baited like a wild animal.
Desmond pulled his tether desperately, trying to reach the same anchor point before the demon could reach it. The demon reached the spot first and clamped on to the tether with its claws. The tether was made of Kevlar, reinforced with strands of Titanium and Aluminum wires. It was not easy to cut, but it wasn’t inconceivable that the demon would be able to snap it eventually if it tried hard enough. Having reached the spot a fraction of a second too late, Desmond used his own claw like weapon to clamp on to the forelimb whose claws had clamped on to Desmond’s tether.
The rod with opposing claw like structures at its tip clanged on the hard exoskeleton of the demon, and the opposing claws snapped, holding on to the forelimb of the demon close to where it connected with the demon’s claws. Desmond used his other hand to fumble for the switch on the rod that started the rotary cutting head mounted at the tip. The moment Desmond managed to switch on the cutting head, the demon jerked back a little in surprise or perhaps in pain. It didn’t let go of the tether from its claws, but the other forelimb of the demon, which was squarely headed towards Desmond to deliver a smashing blow or a slashing cut changed its direction and instinctively clutched on to the rod of the weapon that the Marines had started calling ‘Cattle prod’.
The demon tried to use its claws as well as the hand like structure it had on its other forelimb to dislodge the clamp of the cattle prod from its other forelimb. While the demon jerked and tugged at the cattle prod wildly, Desmond desperately held on to the cattle prod with both his hands, pushing it harder into the limb of the demon, letting the rotating cutting head do its job. The immense strength of the demon was apparent from the way it almost managed to bend the hardened steel rod of the cattle prod. In its pain crazed state, the demon finally let go of the tether and swayed the front portion of its body wildly, while still being firmly anchored with its four walking limbs on to the wires mesh.
The jerking motion was so violent that Desmond had to let go of his grip of the cattle prod. He was flung outwards, his motion arrested by his tether. Desmond reeled himself in, back towards the Demon. The demon had the forelimb hung in a position such that the cattle prod was no longer pushing into its exoskeleton. This probably gave it some relief as the rotary cutting head would no longer be cutting into its bone. With the hand like appendage on its other forelimb, it had gripped the other end of the cattle prod, trying to figure out the mechanism to release the cattle prod from its limb.
Desmond didn’t want to give up the small advantage he had managed to gain by being able to clamp the cattle prod on the demon’s limb. His briefing about the demons had mentioned that it was extremely difficult to clamp the cattle prod to a demon’s limb in battle. Desmond had managed it because the demon had been distracted in trying to cut his tether and thus had kept his limb steady in one place. Before the demon figured out how to dislodge the cattle prod, Desmond charged it with the only other weapon he had – his sword.
Purists would have sneered at the weapon carried by Desmond being called a sword, but it was designed to perform a similar function. The swords carried by the Marines were not crafted by swordsmiths, they had been fabricated on machines by Engineers on board their ship based on intelligence on
demons sent from Earth. What they lacked in craftsmanship and form was made up by what they had in terms of function.
The swords were designed primarily for stabbing and poking through overlapping armor plates of a demon exoskeleton. The swords weren’t designed for slashing blows to the opponent, although it did have sharp edges on both sides. As a result, they looked like another sword in history that was designed with similar objectives – the Roman short sword, the Gladius.
The swords were also short, just like the cattle prod because there was a maximum stipulated length set by the Marine commanders to the Engineers. It would be too cumbersome to carry long equipment for the Marines, who had many other equipment and weapons to carry on this campaign. The tip of the sword, which would take maximum abuse was hardened using Tungsten-Carbide alloy, and to keep the weight of the sword light, it was mostly made from Titanium.
Desmond slammed the tip of his sword at the fleshy hand like appendage that the demon was using to figure out the mechanism on the cattle prod. It was one of the rare flesh exposed parts of demon other than its neck and its eye stalks. The demon had been distracted again trying to free itself from the cattle prod, it noticed Desmond approaching only at the last moment. Desmond was surprised at its lightning quick reflexes, although he shouldn’t have been since he had been briefed about it in the intelligence dossier.
The demon managed to move its fleshy hand appendage out of the way of Desmond’s thrust, almost. The tip of Desmond’s blade still managed to find the tip of the fleshy appendage, managing to inflict minor damage to some of the digits that looked less like fingers and more like bulbous outgrowths. One of those digits distinctly reminded Desmond of human penis. If he hadn’t been in a life and death situation, he would have rolled with laughter at that sight.
The demon didn’t wince or make any sound at the injury, which was curious given the fact that it could otherwise scream so loudly. What Desmond couldn’t know was that the demon had already radioed its buddy riding the sheath on the other side of the tube for help. It was mildly irritated that its buddy hadn’t come to its aid yet, and was now radioing the two suited demons operating the deployment of the sheath for help. What the demon didn’t know was that its buddy riding the sheath on the other side of the tube couldn’t come to its aid because it was busy fighting its own battle with two Marines.
Game Reserve: Earth (Shaitan Wars Book 5) Page 30