Lieutenant Rembra and Hacher preferred the killing power of their chain guns and they directed concentrated bursts of tharniol bullets into the Sekar. Each slug created a hole the size of a human head and within moments, the exposed part of the enemy was a churned-up mess.
Still the creature didn’t relent and it pushed harder against the opening. The split kept growing and kept on getting wider, revealing more and more of the Sekar outside.
“Big bastard,” grunted Lockhart.
“Let’s put it out of its misery,” said Torres.
A massive four-fingered hand pushed its way talon-first through the ripped part of the casing. The opening wasn’t quite large enough and the intrusion buckled the wall. Conway saw the Sekar’s flesh shriveling where it contacted the tharniol. He expected the creature to pull away. Instead, it tried harder, straining to get through.
Rembra changed aim and sprayed the hand and emerging wrist with chain gun bullets. The shots tore right through the Sekar and impacted on the casing behind. The damage was terrible and the three-meter hand became unrecognizable. Pieces fell off and dropped to the ground, decaying from their contact with the projectiles.
Just when Conway thought the Sekar would never die, it slipped away from the opening and vanished, leaving a severed, ruined hand wedged in the torn tharniol. Without a sound, the remains of the hand dropped to the floor, crashing against the edge of a command console.
“Let’s move.”
Conway dashed for the opening, wary in case the Sekar wasn’t finished. The light from outside was harsh and intense, and he blinked to clear his eyes. With his free hand, Conway vaulted onto the edge of the cannon hole opening and advanced cautiously. The trench was only a few strides to his left and the Sekar had fallen that way. At the edge, he looked down and saw an unmoving black shape. It was huge – bigger than the enemy which had come for the squad when they landed.
“It’s dead.”
The HUD timer was halfway to zero and Conway urged his soldiers outside. They spilled from the building and followed him up the side of the rubble mound. It was harder going up than it was coming down and Conway dislodged several pieces of stone. He didn’t dare spend long watching his feet, since the Sekar controlled the facility and at least three of them were heading towards his squad.
“For once, we might be early,” said Kemp, panting his way up the slope. “I reckon we’ll have a full sixty seconds waiting for the shuttle to get here.”
“Look at the size of these bastards,” said Barron. “No way we can take them all.”
Conway knew it too. Worse than that, nobody could see what lay on the far side of the rubble. It could be that another dozen Sekar were heading this way. For a moment, he considered ordering a retreat into the flight control building. The safety it offered was superficial – an extension of life in exchange for confinement within its walls. The big Sekar might not be able to get inside, but Conway was sure there’d be some smaller ones on Dominion.
On top of the rubble, Conway had a better vantage. The three Sekar he knew about were the closest, with another four intent on making up the ground. They were identical types – the humanoid giants he’d first seen from the shuttle - and they charged between the abandoned spaceships or clambered over the shattered buildings. One simply walked right through the piles of rubble. Beyond the immediacy of the looming encounter, a vast piece of Dominion’s surface detached from the edge of the Sekar rift and sped into the sky.
“Focus, kill, onto the next,” Conway ordered. “Hit my target.”
He took aim and fired into the nearest Sekar’s chest. The rubble beneath his feet suddenly shifted like it was about to slide out from under him and Conway steadied himself, still firing his gauss rifle. The mound didn’t collapse, but a vibration was apparent, running through the stone.
“What’s that?” asked Kemp.
“Don’t ask me.”
Concentrated fire from ten guns was enough to finish off the first target. Without any drama, the Sekar’s body stopped functioning and it fell headlong to the ground.
“New target.”
Conway changed aim and shot at the next Sekar. A third was going to reach the base of the rubble before the second was dead. Meanwhile, the vibration intensified and this time pieces of stone skittered down the slope.
The second Sekar was struck by so many bullets that it exploded into chunks of darkness. Conway didn’t stare – a third was at the base of the slope and it surged towards the soldiers. The vibration in combination with the creature’s weight made the rubble unstable and the Sekar skidded, ending up face down in the debris. Up it came, driving its claws into the stone and using its strength to haul itself onwards through the hail of tharniol.
The gauss rifle magazine held a lot of slugs, but it ran dry and the gun no longer fired. Conway dropped it to the ground and unslung his Gilner. The assault rifle felt good in his hands and he emptied half the magazine into the Sekar.
“Ah shit - look what’s coming,” said Lockhart.
Conway turned his head left for a split second and he saw what had got Lockhart worried. An eighth Sekar was on its way and this one dwarfed the others. The creature’s strangely malformed head was visible over the top of a Hantisar light cruiser and Conway guessed it must be seventy meters tall.
“What the hell…?” said Torres, feeling the same sense of disbelief.
The Sekar on the slope finally succumbed to the gunfire, less than twenty meters from the squad’s position. Conway chose his next target. This one was already at the bottom of the rubble and his heart fell at the sight. The timer was at zero and Conway requested a channel to the shuttle.
“Sir, we’re neck deep in it. What’s your ETA?”
“I am within ten kilometers of your position, human. A shower of ejected rocks forced a diversion.”
The channel went dead and Conway swapped a new magazine into his rifle. At the same time, he witnessed the sight of the largest Sekar hauling itself onto the upper section of the light cruiser which was barring its way.
The creature lifted itself to full height and Conway saw with horror that countless smaller Sekar clung to it. What seemed like hundreds of them dropped away and landed on the spaceship. At once, they swarmed towards the squad, falling from sight behind another of the Hantisar vessels.
With the smaller Sekar no longer hanging from its body, the host was revealed a grotesquely spindly creature. It was unmistakably Ragger – or at least a warped interpretation of a species which was already repulsive – with overlong arms and legs and a featureless skull which had been stretched out of all proportion. With a jerky leap, the alien sprang off the spaceship and disappeared for a moment behind the next. Then it reappeared and Conway knew that even without the other Sekar, this one was beyond him and his soldiers.
“This is not happening,” said Torres.
Except it was happening and Conway didn’t know how to turn the situation around. All he could do was keep on shooting and hope that Captain Isental got here in time. While his hands changed in another new magazine, Conway turned once, briefly. With no atmosphere, the planet’s sky was black despite the blazing light from the sun. Wherever the shuttle had got to, it wasn’t here.
Chapter Twenty-Five
One of the giant Sekar died halfway up the slope. Two more began the climb, with another on its way.
“Plenty more incoming,” said Lockhart. “Three north and five north-east.”
“And south,” added Rembra. “I count seven.”
The numbers didn’t really matter anymore - the Sekar had enough to wipe out the squad several times over.
“They must be hungry,” said Kemp.
“Starving if they think we’re going to make a good meal,” said Torres.
Conway dropped out his newly empty magazine. Firing on automatic burned through ammunition at a tremendous rate and he was going to run out, through probably not before the Sekar got him.
The nearest Sekar came to t
he top of the rubble and raised an arm to scythe through Private Kemp and Corporal Barron. Instead, the alien was struck by a high caliber tharniol shell fired from the Nullifier’s shuttle. The creature was killed instantly, its body ripped apart by the impact. Unrecognizable pieces tumbled down and Kemp had to throw himself aside to avoid being hit by a chunk that may have been a shoulder or part of a torso.
“Next target,” said Conway.
“We never did find out the reload interval on that nose cannon,” said Barron.
The reality was not long. Another of the big Sekar took a shell dead-center, producing a second messy shower of torn flesh.
“Have that, you asshole!” yelled Kemp.
“The shuttle is overhead,” said Rembra.
Conway tipped his head and his image enhancers picked out a metallic grey dot high in the sky. Isental was bringing it in fast and the speck became rapidly larger.
“Come on, come on!” said Torres.
The Ragger-Sekar emerged from a gap between two of the spaceships and began its lurching sprint across the open ground leading to the rubble. It came fast, but not so rapidly that Captain Isental was unable to put a tharniol shell into its chest. The massive Ragger was thrown backwards by the impact and Conway caught a glimpse of the vast hole going through its body. The alien thrashed violently, its long arms and legs kicking up clouds of dust and sending stones flying.
Conway half-expected it to rise, like it was destined to kill his soldiers come what may. Instead, its thrashing ended and it lay still. The creature’s death was welcome, but the danger was far from over. The giant Sekar seemed to multiply with each passing second and the smaller aliens raced across the debris-littered ground.
“Leave the big ones to Captain Isental,” yelled Conway, just as a tharniol shell smashed clean through one of the giant humanoids.
The smaller Sekar were numerous and fast. They didn’t cluster, which made them less vulnerable to incoming fire. Conway aimed, fired, aimed, fired, putting two bullets into each. Dozens of them fell, but it wasn’t enough and they hurtled up the slope. A few stumbled on the loose ground, while the others came like an unstoppable tide.
The shadow of the transport passed over Conway and he sensed its shape in his periphery. Captain Isental growled into the squad open channel, his message welcome.
“Come. Now.”
“You heard him!” shouted Conway. “Move!”
His second-last magazine hit zero and he let it fall to the ground. He slotted the new one home at the same time as he glanced over his shoulder. The shuttle was on the ground with the side door open. Private Lester threw himself headfirst into the opening and Hacher sprang after him.
Step by step, Conway made his way over, with Barron, Lockhart and Kemp nearby. The slope was gentle enough that the heads of the approaching Sekar were still visible and Conway put a bullet into one and then another. He saw more of the enemy die from shots that weren’t his.
“Come on!” urged Torres from the shuttle.
“Barron – pick up my gauss rifle and go.”
The first of the Sekar appeared on top of the mound and were met by tharniol-coated bullets from the soldiers on the ground and those who were inside the shuttle.
“Last mag,” said Kemp.
Sergeant Lockhart sprinted for the doorway and was dragged inside by willing hands. The shuttle was only a few paces away and Conway killed the nearest of the Sekar. He had twenty bullets left.
We’re going to make it.
“Private Kemp, your turn!”
“Roger that, sir,” Kemp replied, cool as you like.
The soldier turned and sprinted for the doorway. To Conway’s utter surprise, a Sekar head and torso emerged from the rubble, right in Kemp’s path. A long arm followed and then claws.
“Look out!”
Kemp’s eyes were behind, in case he needed to stop and help Conway. He didn’t see the arm as it swiped around towards him.
“No!” yelled Conway. He was too slow to turn and shoot. The Sekar’s arm passed through Kemp’s combat suit at stomach level and emerged from the other side.
Private Torres was in the doorway covering the escape. She fired three times after the Sekar struck Kemp. Each shot landed, killing the alien and leaving it half in and half out of the ground.
To Conway’s amazement, Kemp didn’t slow. He jumped up the steps and was dragged inside. Three paces behind, Conway followed, unable to believe what he’d seen.
“Close up! Get us out of here!”
Captain Isental was waiting for the confirmation and he took the shuttle straight up into the air, accelerating south as he gained altitude. Fighting the forces pressing against his body, Conway stumbled away from the door which he saw closing behind him. Several of the squad were in their seats, whilst others crowded around Kemp.
“How are you, Private?” asked Conway.
“I’m fine, sir.”
“Corporal Brice, plug in that med-box and check him out.”
Brice was on the case already. The violent acceleration didn’t help and she almost dropped her med pack as she brought it over.
“You took a hit from a Sekar, Private,” said Conway. “You should be dead.”
“Frankly, sir, I feel pretty good.”
“You have no right to feel good,” said Torres, looking distinctly agitated.
Brice impatiently waved everyone aside. “Let me plug this in.” She jammed one end of a medical probe into the chin port on Kemp’s helmet. The results didn’t take long. “Well, he’s alive,” she concluded. “No medical problems detected whatsoever. Private Kemp is the picture of health.”
“See, I knew it,” Kemp declared. “That Sekar didn’t even hit me. I didn’t feel a thing and here I am talking to you all, so it missed. It must have done.”
Conway looked into the man’s eyes and saw fear and uncertainty.
“Don’t worry, Private. We’ll look after you.”
“You always wanted to be special, Kemp,” said Freeman. “And now you got your chance.”
“Yeah, the only living organism in the known universe to take a hit in the guts from a Sekar and live to tell the tale,” said Brice.
“Hey, shut up, all of you!” said Kemp.
“The significance of this cannot be underestimated,” said Rembra. “From your planet Rundine, not one person amongst billions survived. Now this.”
“Come on, let’s give the man some room,” said Conway. “We need to think about this.”
“What’s to think about, sir?” asked Freeman. “Private Kemp here could be the savior of humanity and the Fangrin. Hell, he could save the entire universe!”
“Or he could be nothing more than a total anomaly, never to be replicated,” said Lockhart. “Now like the captain said - give the man some room.”
Lockhart’s tones were dangerous and menacing. The squad knew what it meant if they didn’t listen and they stepped away from Kemp.
“To your seats,” said Conway. “We’re not out of here yet.” He turned to Kemp. The soldier’s fear hadn’t gone and if anything, he looked on the verge of panic. “If anyone wants to speak with you, they have to come through me first. You understand?”
Kemp nodded once. “Yes, sir.”
“Find a seat and stay in it.”
With that done, Conway requested permission to enter the cockpit.
“Come,” said Isental. “See what we have accomplished.”
The Fangrin wore an expression of great concentration. One hand was tightly wrapped around the neural interface bar and the other moved from place to place on the controls.
Conway sat on the edge of the second seat and stared at the sensor feeds. The shuttle was still over the Dominion base but had gained enough altitude that a large area of it was visible on the center screen. On the extremes of range, the widest part of the Sekar rift snaked across the planet’s cusp before vanishing from sight.
“Adjust the sensors, human. Target the place we departed.�
�
“Let’s do that,” said Conway with a confidence he didn’t feel.
He made what he hoped were the necessary alterations to the sensor panel. To his relief, the sensor array adjusted, zoomed, locked and focused right on the place he intended.
“Shit,” he said.
The entire area around the flight control building was a seething mass of Sekar. They were beyond counting and they crowded so closely together that Conway was unable to make out their individual forms. Amongst them, he saw shapes he thought were much larger than the others – larger even than the Ragger-Sekar which had come for his squad when they were waiting for pickup.
“A timely escape,” said Isental.
“Don’t I know it. Where did they come from? They weren’t there on our first pass over the facility.”
“They emerged from the ground, Captain Conway.”
“An underground rift.”
“That is the most likely explanation. Did you scan for power sources?”
“No. I’ll do that.”
Conway made a change to the sensors and suddenly, large areas of the facility were covered in a blotchy red.
“The Hantisar fleet,” said Isental. “Now those ships are no longer linked to the flight control computer, the Nullifier has been able to activate their propulsion systems.”
“We felt the ground vibrating,” said Conway. “That must have been the cause.”
“Following the good news is the bad. Alter the sensor feed so that it focuses on the ground directly below the shuttle.”
Conway did as he was asked. The transport was high above the surface, yet not so much that the feed quality was significantly deteriorated. He saw the Dominion base was now behind them and they were flying over the planet’s surface.
“Sekar,” he said.
Nullifier (Fire and Rust Book 6) Page 20