Prominence - Redemption
Page 13
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Tinesh was working feverishly at the shield generator. He rushed from one side of the dome to the other checking and rechecking the two jury rigged shock sticks that he had set up to overload the shield. Del was pacing back and forth trying to bite his tongue and let the lad work. On the other end of the spectrum Alpha stood motionless in front of the shield dome in what looked like a staring contest with the elder one. Neither made any gesture or any sounds, but Del had the impression that they were communicating.
“Alpha are you still peaceful?” asked Del concerned that the Elder was trying to gain control of Alpha.
Alpha did not respond initially but then slowly turned to face Del.
“The elder one wants me to kill you. The elder one does not understand why I cannot. When the shield goes down he will attempt to kill me first. I am unholy because of what your scientists did to my thoughts.”
"I hope you are almost done sir because we have significant ground troops inbound on our location. I will try to keep their heads down with sniper fire, but I doubt I can buy you more than thirty minutes at best," reported Ceeda through his neck communicator.
"How much longer Tinesh?" demanded Del.
"Just about ready to go sir," he replied as he moved into position to fire the first shock stick.
"Remember that the elder one is very aware of us and what we are doing. When the shield is removed the elder one will defend itself," said Alpha.
“Borda, get ready with your shock stick. We need to immobilize this thing as soon as that shield is down. Minimum settings only, we cannot afford to knock it out for too long," ordered Del.
Del gave Tinesh the signal and the corporal fired both shock sticks one after another. They were set to run a continuous cycling voltage until either they burned out or the shield generator did. It took a few minutes, by which time both shock sticks were smoking and threatening to lose the fight, when the shield generator finally succumbed and the shield around the elder one fizzled out.
As soon as the shield was gone the elder one snapped out of its trance, retracted its flower like structures and made a move for Alpha. Before it could reach him however both Borda and Del launched into it thrusting away repeatedly with their shock sticks.
The elder one reeled under the repeated and relentless attacks. It let out high a pitched screeching sound that pierced the ears as it thrashed about. Finally it fell backwards into a heap on the ground and stopped moving and making noise.
"Let's get those damned restraints on this thing double time!"