Star Scavenger: The Complete Series Books 1-5

by G J Ogden

“You must go, Liberty…” said Morphus, weakly, before its female form became an anonymous mass of shimmering gold. The alien metal flowed through Liberty’s hands, and it was gone.

  Hudson’s head dropped low. He knew Morphus still existed inside the ship, but it still felt like a death had just occurred. However, there was no time to grieve – the swirling purple vortices were creeping closer, and if they reached the Revocater, they would be thrown across the galaxy, and lost forever. Morphus – as usual – had been correct. They had to leave, immediately.

  “We have to get back to the Orion,” Hudson shouted, stuffing his jacket pocket with additional ammo, “come on, let’s move!” Liberty was on her knees, pressing her hands to the spot where Morphus had vanished. Hudson dropped down beside her, and met her eyes. “Mourn Morphus later, Liberty. If we don’t go now, there won’t be any of us left to remember her.”

  “You called it ‘her’,” said Liberty, managing a feeble smile.

  “Well, Morphus is a damn sight more human than most humans I’ve known,” replied Hudson, not even realizing his slip. Then he spoke more determinedly again, and held out his hand. “Come on, Liberty; while we still have time…”

  Liberty took Hudson’s hand, and together they rose up. Checking on the others, Hudson saw that Tory was already aiming the Winchester at the door, standing guard while the others gathered their senses.

  Hudson then glanced at Tobin and saw that he wasn’t armed. “Here, you’ll need this,” he said, offering Tobin his pistol.

  Tobin smiled and waved Hudson off. “Thanks, but I already have one of my own,” he said, lifting up his right arm. His skin suddenly became golden, like Morphus, and his hand turned to a glowing, amorphous mass. When the luster had died down, Hudson saw a shimmering pistol in Tobin’s hand. “My recent augmentations have some advantages,” Tobin added, still smiling.

  “That’s a pretty nice trick,” said Tory, looking genuinely impressed. “I have an idea,” she added, before pointing to Tobin and then Liberty. “How about you two cyborg super soldiers go first?”

  Suddenly, the end wall collapsed inwards, and three seed drones pulled themselves inside the navigation hub. Tobin reacted even more rapidly than Tory, immediately shooting the first with his alien weapon. The blast burned a hole straight through the drone’s triangular central mass, and it dropped to the deck, as if Tobin had just flipped an off switch.

  Liberty drew the alien tonfas from her belt and charged at the other two. She lashed out with the whip-like enhancements that emanated from the ends of the martial-arts weapons, hitting both in quick succession. Within seconds, the seed drones all lay destroyed on the ground.

  “I second Tory’s plan,” said Hudson, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the ferocious display of aggression from the young duo. “You two should definitely go first…”

  Liberty and Tobin smiled at each other, then moved out ahead into the corridor. Hudson and Tory followed, and again they saw the illuminated pathway.

  “Thank you, Morphus…” said Hudson, glad of the entity’s continued assistance. Then he called out, “Just follow the lights; they’ll lead us back to the Orion!”

  Suddenly the hole in the wall that had been cut out by the seed drones was sealed by a curtain of glowing metal. Morphus was using all the strength it had remaining to give them the opportunity to escape. Hudson knew it would act true to its function, until the very last.

  Liberty and Tobin again led the group, as another seed drone clattered out of an adjacent corridor to confront them. Tobin shot it without hesitation and pressed on, with Liberty at his side. The pair had barely made it ten meters, before the ceiling of the corridor suddenly collapsed in behind them. Three seed drones dropped down, separating Hudson and Tory from Liberty and Tobin.

  Tory wasted no time, dispatching the closest alien machine with two precisely-aimed shots from the Winchester. Hudson cocked the six-shooter and fired, hitting the next one in its body. However, the drone still advanced, and Hudson was forced to duck as it swung its scythe-like leg towards his head. The sharp metal dug into the corridor wall, and was momentarily stuck, giving Hudson just enough time to pull back the hammer again and fire. A shower of sparks burst out from the triangular body, and the seed drone stopped moving.

  With barely a second to breathe, another seed drone smashed through the carcass of its fallen companion, knocking Hudson to his back. It raised its bladed leg, ready to impale Hudson through the heart, and he tried to pull back the hammer again, but fumbled. The metal leg dropped, and he threw out his hands, desperately trying to fend it away, but instead of stabbing through his flesh, the sharp metal impaled into the deck, inches from his head. He looked up and saw Liberty, poised underneath the drone. She had struck the leg away at the last moment, and was now following up with another sequence of strikes from the glowing tonfas. Each blow smashed off one of the machine’s metal limbs, as if they were nothing more substantial than balsawood.

  Hudson scrambled away, as the drone slumped down across the corridor wall, crackling and fizzing with residual energy.

  “I’m getting really tired of these things…” said Hudson, as Liberty helped him up.

  “You and me both,” replied Liberty, glancing ahead to check on Tobin, “but we’ve not seen the last of them yet.”

  Hudson then saw Tory rapidly firing at a new group of seed drones that were approaching from the rear. “Try to clear a path to the Orion,” Hudson said, turning back to Liberty. “I’ll get Tory.”

  Liberty cocked her head, “Remember when I said she’d be the death of you?”

  “What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment,” replied Hudson, before slapping Liberty on the shoulder. “Now go do your ninja, Kung-Fu stick thing.” Liberty smiled and shook her head, before running along the corridor to assist Tobin.

  Hudson ran in the opposite direction and fired two of the six-shooter’s three remaining rounds at one of the pursuing drones. The machine fell, and the crack of Tory’s Winchester soon finished off the last two. The corridor behind them was finally clear.

  “Liberty and Tobin are clearing the route ahead,” Hudson called over to Tory, as she cocked the rifle again. “We only have a few minutes to get out.”

  Tory rushed to join Hudson, and together they ran along the corridor, following the illuminated path. Hudson clambered over the broken remains of seed drones that had already fallen victim to the augmented humans, and charged into the chamber where they had landed the Orion. Feeling a swell of relief, Hudson rushed on, but then another seed drone smashed through the deck from below. It clawed itself up, like some sort of hideous mechanical undead spider, and blocked their path.

  Tory stepped forward, aimed the Winchester, and fired, but the weapon merely clicked.

  “Shit, I’m out!” she cried, scrambling in her pouches for any more of the alien ammo.

  Tory was still scrabbling to get her fingers around one of the alien cartridges when the seed drone charged at them. Without thinking, Hudson clicked back the hammer of the six-shooter and fired. The round penetrated the drone’s arrow-shaped body in the dead center, and the machine crumpled to the deck, as if stepped on by a giant boot.

  “Hell of a shot!” said Tory, smiling, “though I bet you couldn’t do it again.”

  Hudson shook his head and laughed, “How about we not wait around to find out?”

  Clambering over the bodies of more destroyed drones, Hudson and Tory ran up to the Orion. Liberty had already lowered the rear ramp, and she and Tobin were holding off the remaining drones. Hudson hurried inside the ship, while Tory remained outside to lend a hand, using the last few alien cartridges she could find in her many pouches. He reached the living space, then to his horror he remembered the damage the ship had suffered before landing. However, when he reached the semi-circular couch, the self-healing alien alloy had sealed the hull ruptures, leaving just the scar cut through the interior.

  “She’s still going to kill me when she sees that,” Hud
son muttered to himself as he winced at the gash cut through the couch, before racing past it and into the cockpit. Waving his arm in front of the console, the Orion’s reactor sparked into life and the engines fired.

  “We’re inside, and the ramp is closed!” shouted Liberty, speaking through the intercom from the cargo hold. “Get us out of here!”

  Hudson lifted the Orion off the deck, and aimed the nose towards the next wave of seed drones flooding in. The ship still felt squirrely and out of sorts, but the damage control panel showed they at least had pressure. He activated the weapons systems, and waited for the targeting reticules to lock on.

  The door to the cockpit opened and the others all rushed in and strapped into their seats, as Hudson unleased a burst of energy bolts at the drones. The powerful blasts destroyed four machines instantly, and created a shockwave that knocked a dozen others over like skittles.

  “Look, the way out is clear!” shouted Tory, peering up through the canopy. Morphus was opening their doorway out into space, giving no more regard for the safety of the Revocater. Hudson knew, just as Morphus had done, that the Revocater would not survive this final battle.

  Hudson engaged the ventral thrusters and surged the Orion upwards. His focus was laser-precise, but half way up the long vertical tunnel, a seed drone dropped down onto the ship from outside.

  “Damn it, if that thing ruptures the hull, we’re done for!” shouted Hudson. The drone’s spidery metal legs dug in, and it prepared to activate its cutting beam.

  “If ever you were to have a genius moment of inspiration, Hudson, now is the time!” cried Liberty.

  “Hang on!” Hudson shouted. He then flipped the Orion over by ninety degrees, and teased the ship closer to the wall of the tunnel. The seed drone was squashed against the surface, but desperately tried to cling on, using its scythe-like legs to bite deeper into the hull. However, the Orion’s upgraded alien armor resisted its hold.

  “Get off, you spidery asshole!” Hudson yelled, pushing the Orion harder against the wall. The drone’s body tore away from its legs, leaving the metal scythes impaled in the hull, like a crown.

  “Okay, you’re officially a genius!” cried Liberty, slapping the arms of her chair as the Orion blasted out into space.

  Hudson put some distance between them and the Revocater, before turning the ship to face the two giant alien vessels. They were still locked in their epic contest, and Goliath was prevailing.

  Silence fell over the cockpit as they watched the glow of the Revocater’s engines darken. Cracks began to surface in its armor, and glowing golden light bled out. A console in the second seat chimed an alert, and Liberty hurriedly checked it.

  “It’s a Shaak radiation spike,” she said, her voice ragged and fearful. “It’s bigger than anything I’ve ever seen…”

  The glow through the Revocater’s fractured hull plating grew more intense. The Shaak pulse was now so powerful that it was distorting gravity in the space around the ships, shaking the Orion like it was a raft on turbulent seas. However, whatever it was that Morphus was doing, Hudson could see it was working. The swirling purple vortices were not only pushing back towards Goliath, they were growing larger by the second.

  Suddenly, all of the remaining seed ships broke away from their attacks on the fractured remains of the CET armada. Forming up, they raced towards the Revocater, each one impaling itself into the surface. It was like Goliath was trying to deal death by a thousand cuts.

  Still no-one spoke as seed ship after seed ship thudded into the Revocater’s hull, chipping away at its alien metal like a thousand chisels. The Revocater surged on, glowing more intensely by the second, and still the swirling purple vortices accelerated towards Goliath.

  Hudson could almost sense the desperation of the great ship, as hundreds of seed ships reformed into infiltrators. Ten of the diamond-shaped weapons then began to cut into the Revocater’s hull, but it was already too late. With one final, immense push, Morphus overpowered Goliath’s portal.

  Free from any resistance, Morphus’ portal raced towards Goliath and enveloped it, like a titanic black hole consuming a star. The great ship began to disappear, as kilometer upon kilometer of its gigantic hull was swallowed by the purple vortex. Then, in a matter of seconds, Goliath was gone.

  The second purple vortex also fizzled to nothing, and the gravity distortions ceased. With their master gone, the remaining seed drones and infiltrators all lost power, and began listing in space, like flotsam on the ocean.

  “Morphus did it…” said Hudson, speaking in barely more than a whisper. “It’s gone.”

  There was no sense of elation. All eyes were now turned to the last Revocater – to Morphus. The glow from the ship had faded to nothing, and its mighty engines remained dark. Powerless to resist the pull of Earth’s gravity, the Revocater sank towards the planet. Not knowing what else to do, Hudson followed it, desperately hoping that the alien entity would regain power and halt its descent, but in his heart, Hudson knew that Morphus was already lost. It had given everything it had to fulfil its function, and now it would come to its end in System 5118208, on the planet it was entrusted to protect, millennia earlier.

  Morphus had succeeded. It had saved them all, but the cost had been great.

  CHAPTER 30

  Ma brought over the next round of drinks from the bar and set the tumblers and beer bottles down on the table. Ma had chosen the venue; a dive bar on Market Street, between 14th and 15th. Even though it wasn’t her place, Ma still liked playing host, and seemed perfectly happy and at home serving up the various drinks. Besides Ma, the table was occupied by Hudson, Tory, Liberty, Tobin and Commodore Trent, although he wasn’t in uniform, and preferred everyone to call him by his given name, Elias.

  It had been just over forty-eight hours since Goliath had been cast through the portal. In that time, the Revocater had fallen through Earth’s atmosphere and crashed into the Gulf of the Farallones, along the shoreline of Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco. Reports had described the titanic ship’s descent as a ‘controlled crash’. Hudson had no way to know, but he believed that Morphus had used what little life it had left to ensure its own demise did not harm any corporeal life.

  Once the Revocater had come to rest, Hudson had landed the Orion on its now fractured hull. Together with Tory, Liberty and Tobin, they had climbed inside the new wreck and found their way to the navigation hub. Hudson had reactivated Morphus once before, and he had desperately hoped he could do it again. However, once inside, they had found the human female form of Morphus sitting in the pilot’s seat of the replica VCX-110 cockpit. The entity’s eyes were open, staring out at what was now a featureless metal wall. However, the unique, golden glow shining inside them was gone, and whatever life energy Morphus had possessed within its circuits was absent too.

  Trent had arrived some hours later; his flagship had been one of only three CET vessels to survive Goliath’s onslaught. Three out of five hundred. With his help, and the assistance of the planet-based CET aircraft, they had moved Morphus’ body to a secure facility.

  Trent had assured Hudson that the entity would not be dissected or experimented on in any way. Hudson had wanted to lay the entity to rest, but Trent had argued that to leave Morphus in the Revocater, or bury it, as he and Liberty had requested, would have merely attracted future hunters. Similarly, the crystal recombination chamber, and the now-fractured remains of the crystal, had also been removed and placed in secure storage.

  A Shaak radiation perimeter was quickly established around the wrecked Revocater to ensure nothing else was taken. Even Hudson and the others were scanned before leaving the ship. Trent had apologized profusely for this, but insisted that more research had to be done on the vessel’s technology. Humanity had been reckless in its use of the alien relics, and too eager to venture into the stars. Trent wanted to ensure that humanity’s reach no longer exceeded its grasp.

  “Come on, this is supposed to be a celebration, not a w
ake,” said Ma, spreading the glasses out in front of everyone. “We won, right?”

  Liberty was probably the most downcast of them all. “I’m still too angry to be happy,” she said, producing confused frowns from the others around the table. She picked up the glass of whiskey and downed it, before noticing the bemused looks on the faces staring back at her. “You know what I mean,” she added, with an eye roll.

  “If anyone should be angry, it’s me,” said Ma, before pointing a finger at Tory. “I’ve still not forgiven you for taking me out of the game, young lady.” Tory smiled and held up her hands in surrender. Then Ma leant in closer, and whispered, “Though if you can get me a couple of those silent takedown buzzers, I might let it slide.”

  Trent coughed. “Such devices are highly illegal on Earth.” Ma and Tory sat back, met the Commodore’s eyes and held them, both looking distinctly unimpressed. “Though, with so much to do in the aftermath of the invasion, one might potentially overlook such things,” Trent swiftly added.

  “I’ll drink to that,” said Ma, raising her glass, before swallowing the contents and wincing. “I’ve had enough of this crap, already,” she added, before ducking under the table and pulling a square bottle out of her bag. She placed it on the table, then proceeded to pour all the other glasses into her empty tumbler.

  “I don’t think you’re allowed to bring your own booze in here,” said Tobin, though in truth he had been thoroughly enjoying Ma’s eccentricity and hilarious relic hunter anecdotes for the last couple of hours. A bald man who was as wide as he was tall then began to amble over from behind the bar. “See…” said Tobin, pointing at the enormous man, “you’re going to get us thrown out.”

  The bald man arrived and slipped a credit scanner onto the table in front of Ma. She picked it up, but Trent hastily intervened.

  “Oh no, please allow me to pay for the drinks,” he said, looking embarrassed that Ma had picked up the scanner. “It literally is the very least I can do.”