Imperium: Contact

by Kabbabe, Malek

  They stopped in their tracks.

  “Don't move,” came Visha's voice from behind them.

  There was a slight thud, as she dropped to the floor.

  “Turn around, slowly.”

  Slowly, they turned around. The armored figure was standing about ten feet away from them, her pistol pointed straight at Harbid.

  “I told you, you wouldn't get away,” she said in her artificial sounding voice.

  Katie swayed on her feet and Harbid had to brace her to keep her from falling.

  “She's hurt, bad,” said Harbid.

  “I can see that,” replied Visha, still pointing her pistol at him.

  “I need to help her.”

  “What you need to do, is stay where you are,” Visha corrected.

  “Unless you also want to get shot.”

  Harbid glared at her.

  “If she dies,” he said in an icy voice.

  “I'm going to kill you, I don't care what happens to me in the process.”

  Visha laughed.

  “I like your style Lieutenant, but don't worry, I have no intention of letting her die. The bounty on you two specifically states alive.”

  “So, you're a bounty hunter?” Asked Harbid.

  “I am whatever makes me money,” replied Visha.

  “Today its bounty hunter, catch,” she added reaching down and taking something out of her armor's equipment belt.

  She tossed it to Harbid who caught it one handed, it was a set of binders.

  “Place Ensign Smith on the deck and then put it on,” Visha ordered him.

  Harbid gently lowered Katie onto the ground and placed the binders over his wrists. They looped themselves around, binding his hands in front of him.

  “Now, take ten steps back.”

  Harbid did as he was told.

  Visha put away her pistol and walked to where Katie lay on the ground.

  “I'm going to help her now,” she said.

  “If you try anything I won't be able to, understood?”

  “I understand,” said Harbid.

  Visha knelt down next to Katie and removed a tiny medical drone and a form fitting bandage from her belt. The drone hovered over Katie for a few seconds, then beeped.

  “The slug penetrated her abdominal cavity,” she said.

  “Looks like a through and through, it also missed any ribs. But she's got serious internal bleeding.”

  “So do something about it,” snapped Harbid.

  “I am,” Visha assured him.

  “Like I said, I want you two alive.”

  She reached down and put a hand on Katie's shoulder.

  “Katie, can you hear me?”

  “Ye-yes,” replied Katie in a weak voice.

  “Good, Katie I'm here to help you. I've got a bandage here that I'm going to put over your wound. But first I need you to move your hand out of the way.”

  Slowly, Katie slid her hand away from the wound. Visha placed the bandage over it, which just lay there for a moment. Then it slowly turned into a long thin strip, which pushed its way into the wound. Katie winced as the bandage entered. Once it was inserted, the small part still protruding flattened itself to form a tight seal against her skin.

  “There,” said Visha.

  “The bandage will stop any internal bleeding, at least until the medical nanites can repair the damaged blood vessels.”

  The medical drone lowered itself over Katie's shoulder, it beeped and its injector hissed.

  Visha recalled the drone and clipped it back onto her belt. She got to her feet and pulled out her pistol again. She took a few steps back, then pressed a button on her armor's wrist pad. Harbid felt the binders loosen and fall to the ground.

  “Come over here and help her up,” she said.

  Harbid walked over to Katie.

  “How are you?” He asked as he knelt down beside her.

  “The pain's gone,” said Katie.

  “I still don't think I can stand though,” she added.

  “Hang on,” replied Harbid.

  He slung her left arm over his shoulders and grasped her under her right armpit. Slowly, he helped her to her feet.

  Visha raised her pistol in their direction.

  “Now, we’re going to the airlock and we're going to borrow Administrator Suun's ship.”

  “There's no way for us to access the ship without Suun's authorization,” lied Harbid.

  “Oh don't worry, I'm sure we'll manage,” replied Visha.

  “Suun, is he dead?” Asked Katie.

  Visha shook her head.

  “No, just unconscious.”

  “Who put the bounty on us?” Harbid asked.

  “I'm done answering your questions,” Visha told him.

  “Now move.”

  Harbid and Katie made their way towards the airlock at the far end of the cargo bay. Katie was still quite pale and leaning heavily on Harbid as they walked. Visha walked a few paces behind them, her pistol still pointed at their backs. They reached the airlock and came to a halt.

  “Move aside,” she ordered them.

  Harbid and Katie stepped aside and she approached the airlock control panel. She held her wrist pad up to the panel. Nothing happened for a moment, then it beeped and the airlock doors slid open.

  The airlock itself was enormous, there were magnetic cargo rails built into the floor and walls. At the far end of the airlock, there was an equally large door.

  “Move,” said Visha, gesturing with her pistol.

  Harbid and Katie walked to the far end of the airlock, Katie still leaning heavily on Harbid.

  “What are we going to do?” Katie whispered as they walked.

  “I don't know,” Harbid whispered back.

  “For the moment at least, I don't think there's anything we can do.”

  “No there isn't,” Visha said from behind them, making them both jump.

  “And you would be foolish to try.”

  “How?” Katie began.

  “Never mind how I heard you,” Visha cut her off.

  “Just remember that I did and my warning, now keep moving.”

  They approached the outer airlock door and halted. Visha ordered them to move aside once more as she got the door open. With a low hiss, it slid down into the floor. They stepped inside what Harbid assumed to be the cargo bay of the ship. It was a large, empty compartment, with many tie-down points for cargo running along the deck. Small strips of light running along the ceiling illuminated everything in a soft red light. There were two doors leading out of the bay, one at the opposite end and another to their left.

  The ship's airlock door slid shut behind them.

  “Head for the door on the left,” said Visha.

  As they approached it, the door opened to reveal a narrow hallway. There were two doors opposite one another, on the right and left a few meters down. There was another door, straight ahead of them at the far end.

  “Take the one on the right,” Visha told them.

  They did as they were told. The door slid aside as they approached to reveal what Harbid assumed were the ship's living quarters. There were four bessra sized bunks, stacked into the far wall. To the right, there was what appeared to be a food preparation area. To the left, a thin sliding door led to some sort of bathroom. In the center of the room stood a large round table. It was unusually high with equally high chairs, designed to accommodate long, thin bessra physiology.

  “Make yourselves comfortable,” said Visha.

  “You're going to be here a while.”

  She backed out of the room, the door sliding shut as she left.

  Harbid, who was still supporting Katie, threw a dubious look at the chairs in the center of the room.

  “Over here,” he said, leading her to the lowest bunk.

  It was long and narrow, but he managed to lower her onto it and she fit reasonably well. As he did so, the slight rumbling of the main engines reverberated through the ship.

  “We're movin
g,” said Katie, trying to sit up.

  “You stay there and rest,” said Harbid, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

  Reluctantly, Katie lay back down.

  “We need to get out of here James, we both know who hired that bounty hunter.”

  “I know,” replied Harbid.

  “And I don't much fancy meeting Jones again, but one thing at a time. You need to stay still and let the nanites do their job.”

  “And what are you going to do?” Katie demanded.

  “I'm going to see about getting us out of this room,” he replied, pulling out the data stick Suun had given him.

  Chapter 39

  Anna ran as fast as she could. Up ahead, loomed the enormous square shape of the metal refinery. The group of danek ahead of them, raced towards an open door in the side of the building.

  “There!” Shouted Major Clark, pointing at it.

  The danek raced through and into the building, the door slamming shut in their wake. A flash of motion to her right caught Anna’s eye. She turned just in time to see Andrew burst ahead of them. In less than a second he had closed the distance to the building. Not bothering to stop, he simply slammed his shoulder into the door. It flew off its hinges and he disappeared into the building.

  Anna glanced behind her in time to see two of the shuttles finishing their landing sequence. Their sides slammed down into ramps, disgorging blue and gold armored marines. Half of them swarmed around the Twilight, while the rest set off towards the refinery.

  “We’ve got company, move!” She shouted and despite her protesting lungs, picked up the pace.

  The others glanced over their shoulders, then followed suit.

  They were now only twenty meters from the entrance. Andrew appeared in the door way, waving them in.

  “It’s clear,” he announced over the com.

  They hurtled through and found themselves on a landing, with stairs leading both up and down.

  “Get away from the door,” Andrew told them.

  He moved up against the side of the door frame and popped his head around for a split second.

  “We’ve got incoming, I count two full squads.”

  He brought up his rifle and popped out again, firing two quick bursts. They heard a shout in the distance, slugs flew through the open doorway. Andrew crouched down and whipped out again, firing another burst. A hailstorm of rounds answered, whizzing through the opening, pock marking the wall beyond.

  Andrew hefted and primed a grenade. Without looking back he said.

  “Go, head further into the building. I can hold them off here and give you some time.”

  “Sergeant,” Graham began.

  “No time, move!” Andrew cut him off.

  Saskill brought up his own rifle and headed up the stairs.

  “The Sergeant’s right,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Come on, we must hurry!”

  Anna and the others filed in behind him, hugging the wall. As they moved up, they heard an ominous sizzling and sputtering as the grenade detonated.

  The next landing had a metal door, presumably leading further into the facility. Saskill tried the handle, but it was locked.

  “Force our way through or keep going?” Anna asked.

  Major Clark was about to answer, when an explosion thundered up from below them.

  “Sergeant, you still there?” She asked over the com.

  “Wait one,” came the reply.

  They heard three more bursts of gunfire.

  “I’m still here Major, just keep moving.”

  “Come on,” said Saskill.

  “Let’s keep going up.”

  Cautiously, they made their way further up the winding staircase. The next landing was identical to the previous one.

  “Locked too,” Saskill announced as he tried the door.

  They continued their ascent, Saskill trying the doors of each landing they came to, but they were all locked.

  “What do we do if all the doors are locked?” Graham panted.

  “Worry about that when it happens Lieutenant,” Major Clark gasped.

  There were more shouts from below, then something slammed into the side of the building. The walls and floor shook, followed by the sound of crumbling concrete.

  The group froze.

  “What the hell was that?!” Aziz demanded.

  “It sounded like a gauss cannon,” Graham replied.

  Aziz opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by the sound of another impact. The stairs beneath them rattled and groaned.

  Another round slammed into the building, followed by two more in quick succession.

  “Move!” Clark shouted.

  They pelted up the stairs. A continuous stream of impacts rattled the building as they ran. Anna could feel the stairs beneath her feet begin to sway back and forth. The impacts were slowly moving up the building, drawing ever closer.

  They were almost at the top the stairs now, Anna could see the uppermost landing. Just like the others, it ended in a metal door. A colossal explosion erupted over their heads. She clutched her hands to her ringing ears. Dust and debris rained down on them. Anna felt something strike the side of her head, nearly knocking her off her feet. She swayed, blinking rapidly to try and clear the stars swirling through her field of vision.

  By the time she managed to regain her wits about her, the dust had cleared enough to see the landing above. Something, a gauss cannon round most likely, had torn through the building. It had continued on, obliterating the door on the landing. Anna turned and looked at the building’s outer wall behind them. A jagged hole lined up with where the door had once been, the planet’s sky visible beyond it.

  Anna felt something hot trickling down the side of her head. Gingerly, she brought up her hand and pressed it against the wound.

  “Anna!” Saskill exclaimed.

  “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” she assured him.

  “You’re bleeding like crazy,” said John, making his way toward her but Anna waved him away.

  “Never mind me, we need to keep moving.”

  The sound of another explosion rattled the building.

  “Move!” Major Clark snapped.

  She scrambled up the stairs and through the demolished door. Anna and the others clambered after her and found themselves in a dark room filled with storage crates. On the far side, a large hole marked the gauss cannon round’s passage. Off to the left, a sort set of stairs led up to a hatch in the ceiling.

  “Over there,” said Major Clark, pointing at it.

  “That probably leads to the roof.”

  Saskill ran ahead of them and up the stairs. He pushed open the hatch with one hand, holding his rifle through the opening with the other. After a quick scan of the area, he pushed the hatch all the way open and clambered up. When the others followed him, they found themselves on a flat metal roof.

  Another explosion and a flash of light made them all reflexively duck. Anna looked out over the edge of the building. She could see the dark, angular shape of the Twilight in the distance. Seven shuttles were now parked in a rough circle around the ship, along with a defensive perimeter of marines and hover tanks.

  There were a total of five tanks and as Anna watched, they maneuvered to fire at something near the base of the building. The launchers on the tanks fired and a second later, five spheres of plasma erupted in a blinding white flash. Plumes of smoke rose into the air from the crater left by the impacts.

  Suddenly, a marine standing next to one of the tanks jerked and collapsed in a heap. A split second later, three more marines fell to the ground. Their comrades took cover behind pieces of debris, or the nearest hover tank. The gauss turrets on the tanks scanned from side to side, looking for a target. As far as Anna could see however, there wasn’t one. She had no idea where those shots had come from.

  A flash of movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was Sergeant Williams and he was sp
rinting towards the nearest hover tank. Turrets whirled around to track him, but he had already reached his target. Not bothering to stop, Andrew simply threw his right shoulder into the tank’s side. The vehicle flipped end over end, coming to rest a good ten meters further away. It was lying on its side, with the side Andrew had hit pointing up. Anna could see a large dent where the Sergeant’s shoulder had hit it.

  The remaining tanks and marines turned and fired, but Andrew was already gone. He charged straight at the next hover tank and leaped into the air. Triangular blades appeared just above the wrists of his armor. He landed on top of the next tank and drove both blades deep into the hull. Sparks and smoke poured from the wound, as the remaining forces scrambled to adjust their aim.

  Andrew leaped off the tank and sprinted towards a group of marines. They leveled their rifles and fired. Slugs peppered the Invictus Legion assault armor and simply bounced off. The three remaining tanks were backing away, trying to put some distance between the Sergeant and themselves.

  Andrew closed on the remaining marines and began slashing away with his blades. He moved in one single fluid motion, never breaking stride. He rolled flipped and jumped from one marine to the next. He stabbed one in the mid section, his blade penetrating clean through the soldier’s chest plate. He rolled and sliced clean through another’s leg, then leaped up and drove one of his blades through a third marine’s face plate.

  The hover tanks fired, but Andrew threw himself behind a pile of debris at the last second. Bits of metal, stone and dirt flew into the air as the gauss cannon slugs impacted. Before the debris had settled, Andrew was on the move. He sprinted at the nearest tank and halted, the other two tanks and the remaining marines opened fire. The tank he had been standing next to shuddered under multiple hits. A plasma charge exploded next to it, gouging a hole in its side. Andrew however, was nowhere to be seen. For a second Anna thought they had finally hit their mark, but then another tank exploded.

  The remaining forces were starting to panic. Marines broke from their cover and ran, while the lone remaining hover tank backed away as fast as it could, firing wildly. One of its shots hit a parked shuttle, smashing a hole in the thing. The crew of the tank clearly had no idea where their attacker was. One of the shuttles took off into the air, turned and flew straight at the hover tank. Anna saw the cockpit canopy shatter, as Andrew leaped out. A moment later, the shuttle smashed into the tank and both erupted in a massive explosion.