Death Skies (Fire and Rust Book 4)

by Anthony James

  Conway didn’t like the situation, but it was too late to do anything other than proceed. He took the left turning and the weight of the air pressed down on him with each step and he wondered if he was getting a sense of something hostile lying ahead.

  “Take care,” he warned.

  The squad advanced past two more doors and arrived at another of the piles. Conway flipped it over with his foot and saw the same thing as before – another Ragger turned into a shriveled bag of skin and bones. The next one was the same and the one after it.

  “Whatever happened here, we must hope that it is no longer a threat,” said Nixil. He indicated a rifle on the floor near to a dead Ragger. “The weapon did not protect this one.”

  Three Ragger corpses lay at the next corner and Conway was forced to stand on them in order to check the way was clear. The bodies crunched unpleasantly beneath his weight.

  “Another corridor.” A sign hanging from the ceiling had words on it. “Test Subjects,” read Conway.

  “Doesn’t sound good,” said Kemp.

  It didn’t. Conway’s helmet computer estimated the transmission source was a short distance along this new passage and he saw a total of eight doors before the next intersection. He listened.

  “It’s quiet. Let’s move.”

  The squad advanced. With each step, Conway found it harder to deny the creeping fear which was doing its best to take hold of him. He didn’t know why he hated this place so much – he’d seen the Ragger meat locker and their feeding room already, and didn’t think anywhere could be worse. Yet here he was, gripped by an urge to get the hell away as quickly as possible.

  At the first door, Conway stopped. The comms tracker on his HUD was sure the transmission source was within a few meters. Nothing about the door was different to the others in the facility – it was just a slab of metal with an access panel. Conway didn’t need to open it to know what he’d find on the other side. Even so, it had to be done.

  “Do it.”

  “This feels wrong,” said Nixil.

  Nevertheless, he thumped his palm onto the access panel. The red light went green. Conway nodded and the Fangrin touched the panel again, this time with a gentle swipe of his thick fingers. The door opened and Conway prepared himself for what he would find inside.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Contrary to his expectations, Lieutenant Conway found life, rather than death. A combined total of nine humans and Fangrin waited inside. A few were standing, whilst the others sat on the floor in the center of the room away from the walls.

  “Fleet Admiral Stone?” said Conway, his eyes searching faces.

  “Yes.” Stone wore a dark uniform that covered his body and left his head exposed. He looked physically worn, but his eyes were sharp. “Lieutenant Tanner Conway.”

  “Yes, sir.” Conway had no time to wonder how Stone knew his name. “We need to get out of here.”

  Stone smiled thinly. “I don’t know if it will be so easy, Lieutenant.”

  “Sir?”

  “I’ll explain as we go. We need to find out what the Raggers are doing here.”

  “Don’t you know already, sir?”

  “They weren’t very talkative, Lieutenant. This place is screwed up and the enemy are working on something big.”

  Conway was also curious, but his preference was to escape. He explained about the mass attack on the Ragger manufacturing planets and also the current situation. Admiral Stone nodded at the words.

  “Don’t worry – I want to get home as much as you all do. If we happen to come across something useful on the way to the surface, we’ll stop to check it out.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Conway. “This facility is built around a bunch of pillars made from solid tharniol. We looked but didn’t touch.”

  “We didn’t see those on the way in,” said Stone. He coughed violently. “Damn shit air. If we can go past those pillars on the way out, I’d appreciate it, Lieutenant.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The room’s occupants were trained military personnel and they didn’t require persuasion to get them moving. Those who were sitting got to their feet and waited for orders. Corporal Brice spoke loudly, asking if anyone needed medical assistance. No one was injured, everyone was exhausted.

  Meanwhile, Rembra approached the Fangrin prisoners and made an unusual gesture with one hand, which Conway knew was how they greeted superior officers. The aliens spoke in their growling tones, making no effort to keep their words secret. Conway didn’t bother listening in, figuring that the intel officers could do that if they wanted.

  While the former prisoners prepared for departure, Conway glanced around the cell. The room itself was basic – it contained no chairs, no tables, no beds, and only a crude-looking food station to sustain the occupants. He didn’t like to imagine what sort of crap it vended. A ceiling duct with a grille blew cold air that was more or less breathable as long as you didn’t mind a few carcinogens mixed in with your oxygen.

  What caught his eye most of all was the mesh of thick, silvery wires which were embedded into the walls. His suit detected flowing energy, without being able to tell him what it was. Normally Conway accepted that he didn’t understand everything. Today, the lack of answers was pissing him off.

  The squad hadn’t brought spare rifles, though a couple of the soldiers had sidearms which they offered to the prisoners. When that was done, Conway announced through his chin speaker that it was time to leave. He wasn’t the most senior officer by a long shot, but he was damn well going to take charge until someone told him otherwise. It seemed like Admiral Stone agreed.

  “Admiral Lontor, Governor Wrekstin,” he said. “This man should lead us out.”

  “It is no time to argue rank,” said the older of the two Fangrin. “If this man has your confidence, I will follow.”

  “He does.”

  Conway was keen to get on with matters. He used the comms boosters to hunt for a direct connection to one of the AF2 warships. Everything was grey. Lieutenants Sawyer and Ashby were still in the officer’s channel and he updated them on the situation.

  “Do what you can to send a message to the fleet,” he said.

  “I thought you had permission to broadcast an emergency code that will bring every warship this way?” said Ashby.

  “I do. One moment.” Conway exited the channel and explained his concerns to Admiral Stone. “Sir, if I broadcast with us so far from the exit, our fleet might put themselves in danger by coming too early.”

  Stone bared his teeth. “I agree. Hold the transmission for now. We’ll send the distress signal once we’re on the surface.”

  Conway passed on the information. Neither Ashby nor Sawyer sounded especially happy and it wasn’t a surprise – they’d lost plenty of soldiers and they were hiding out on the upper level, hoping the cavalry would arrive and put a few plasma missiles into the Ragger transport vehicles and any exposed enemy troops who showed their faces. It wasn’t to be – not yet.

  They exited the cell and Conway gave brief orders about the formation. His squad would be front and back, with the escapees in the center. Not one of the prisoners was dressed for an engagement. A combat suit might deflect a couple of shots, but a standard uniform offered no protection.

  The air in the corridor was heavier than before. Conway’s environmental sensor didn’t detect unusual pressure and the combat suits were normally enough to shield the occupant from atmospheric conditions. With each footstep, the feeling of oppression grew and a few of the squad commented on it.

  “Giving me a damn headache,” said Kemp through his speaker.

  “Yeah, me too,” said Torres.

  “When did you start feeling it?” asked Lieutenant Kristen Mathis. She was one of Stone’s team and this was the first time she’d spoken.

  “It’s been here all along, ma’am,” said Kemp. “Didn’t you notice it in the cell?”

  “No,” she replied. “It feels completely different out here than it did in
that room.”

  They came to the first turning along from the cell and Conway went through his routine of glancing into the passage to check for hostiles. It was empty. He was about to advance to the next intersection when it struck him what was wrong.

  “No Ragger corpses.”

  “Sir?” asked Barron, second in line and just behind him.

  “We passed a bunch of dead Raggers along this way. They’re gone.”

  Conway didn’t believe that any living Raggers gave a damn about cleaning up their own dead, but he couldn’t think of another explanation. He asked for silence and listened out for footsteps. It was quiet and he swore.

  “What’s the delay, Lieutenant?” whispered Admiral Stone. His comms unit was a broadcast-only implant and he didn’t have any way to join the squad channel.

  “This place is screwed up, sir.” Conway gave a brief explanation of what they’d discovered. “Maybe you’ve spent some time guessing while the enemy had you locked up?”

  “The Raggers called it the transport lab. At first, we thought they were researching propulsion systems, but that doesn’t add up.”

  “I don’t think they’re researching propulsion here either, sir.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  Conway shrugged, uncomfortable that his hunch was being questioned. “Just what I feel, sir.”

  Stone narrowed his eyes. “Nine-point-nine-five score for intuition. The highest recorded in the ULAF.”

  “Sir?”

  “If you don’t think it’s propulsion, then it’s something else, Lieutenant.”

  More confused than before, Conway set off along the empty passage. The pressure increased and pain built behind his eyes. Not only that, he detected a presence in the air. It was like the bass of a heavy lifter engine, too deep to hear, yet threatening, like it was almost at the right frequency to scramble his insides.

  “Think this noise is what killed those Raggers?” he asked on the squad channel.

  “Sonic waves can kill,” said Corporal Brice. “I don’t think they can do what happened to the Raggers down here, sir.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  A few seconds later, the pressure lifted. It was like a valve had been opened somewhere, allowing everything to return to normal. Conway breathed out in relief and the pain in his head receded.

  They hurried on, wary for the presence of Raggers in stealth suits. Hacher was carrying the zapper and Conway made sure he was up front and ready to activate the device. The central room was still a short distance away when sensation of pressure returned. Conway swore under his breath and kept moving.

  “The pillars are up ahead, sir,” he said quietly to Admiral Stone. “They had control panels that might tell us something.”

  “Lieutenant Park may be able to get something out of them,” said Stone. “I believe Governor Wrekstin has a suitable background in alien tech as well,” he continued, not elaborating on what this suitable background entailed.

  Corporal Freeman wasn’t trained, but he seemed to have the knack of extracting information from the Ragger kit simply by pushing buttons until something happened. Conway didn’t mention that, though he was sure Freeman would shortly be poking his nose where it probably wasn’t wanted.

  The journey to the central room passed without incident. None of the other dead Raggers had vanished and, though Conway wasn’t a man to blame his imagination for the unexplained, the incident had become less of a concern.

  At the entrance to the central chamber, he held the squad for long moments while he scanned the room. The space was too vast for him to detect stealth-cloaked Raggers if they were determined to remain hidden, but he figured they were likely to be mobile, especially since they were hunting intruders.

  Conway checked behind him. He saw the concerned faces of Admiral Stone and his staff. Aside from Stone, these officers probably didn’t have much frontline experience. They were coping admirably so far and he hoped they’d keep it together. Further back, the Fangrin officials crouched against the wall, their expressions inscrutable.

  Eventually, it was time. “Private Kemp, you’re coming with me,” said Conway. “Everyone else, wait here until I give the order.”

  The two of them dashed into the room, aiming for the nearest console. No shots came and Conway got no hint the Raggers were anywhere close by. At the console, they stopped and crouched. One other entrance was visible, along with the lift door adjacent to the corridor they’d come from.

  “Seems clear,” said Kemp. He had a good instinct for it.

  “I agree,” said Conway. “And one way or another we have to get out of here. That won’t happen if we sit on our asses all day.” He got on the comms. “Lieutenant Park and Governor Wrekstin can move up.”

  A moment later, they emerged from the passage, accompanied by Corporal Freeman, Private Torres and Rembra. The others were to stay put until Conway decided otherwise.

  In the short time it took the second group to arrive, Conway had a look at the console to see if there was anything he recognized. It was a big piece of kit with room for several operatives. He saw what looked like a power switch in the center and thought about flicking it into the on position.

  “Best leave it, Lieutenant,” said Park. She was much younger than Governor Wrekstin and arrived a few paces ahead of him.

  Conway was happy to oblige. He shuffled sideways, while keeping low. Another console was close by and it looked the same as this one. Conway raised himself, ran across and crouched behind it. This console offered a slightly better view between the pillars and he could now see two other exits, including the one through which they’d entered on the way in. Both were closed and even a Ragger in a stealth suit would need to open a door in order to get into this main room.

  Kemp knew what was expected and he found himself a place next to one of the smaller pillars that allowed him to see a third exit. Once Torres got there, she helped out. Freeman was clearly itching to see what he could do and Conway let him down gently.

  “No pissing about, Corporal. Get over that way and watch the entrances.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Anything I need to hear about, Sergeant Lockhart?” asked Conway on the squad channel.

  “I’ll holler.”

  Lieutenant Park didn’t stay at the first console for long. She liked the look of the one Conway was hiding behind and came over, leaving Governor Wrekstin poring over the first one. Within seconds, Park had the power on and her brows lowered while she figured out how everything worked.

  “Pressure’s building again,” she said. “I can feel it.”

  “Yes.”

  Park tried to suppress a series of coughs that sounded like they were bringing up chunks of her lungs. “If I’m not dead within five years, it’ll be a miracle,” she said, clearing her throat.

  “Any idea what these pillars are for?” asked Conway. He alternated his attention between the console and the exits. Whatever Park was doing, she was confident about it.

  “I don’t know. Could be anything. We haven’t even begun exploring the potential uses of tharniol. That’s what comes from not having any spare.”

  Conway’s headache returned, worse than before. Park was feeling it too and she grimaced. “I think it’s cyclical,” she said. “It’ll build to a certain point and then release again.”

  “Best place for us is out of here.”

  “Yeah,” she said distantly, her thoughts back with the console.

  The pressure snapped and almost instantly built again. Whatever was causing it, Conway felt it wasn’t going to stop. He watched Park, to see if he could understand what she was doing. It didn’t make sense to him.

  “These menus reference a transport hub,” said Park. “It’s many levels below us and I can’t find out what it means.” She swore.

  “What is it?”

  “I think I’ve found out what’s happening,” she said. “Take a look at this.”

  Conway took his attenti
on away from the exits and found Park tapping one of the screens with her forefinger. He saw a number of bars on a chart, some at one hundred percent, others at zero.

  “I don’t know what these represent,” he said.

  “Control systems and power,” said Park. “This facility gets its power from two sources – a main one somewhere on site and another backup supply from elsewhere.”

  “That backup supply might not be operational any longer.”

  “It certainly isn’t connected. That probably wouldn’t be a problem – the issue is this.” She tapped one of the bars at zero. “I think this facility was linked in with some others. Maybe they did the same thing as what this place was meant to do, or maybe they were all just connected to some big mainframe that monitored this area of Qali-5. However the Raggers had it set up, that hardware is no longer tied in to this site.”

  “Meaning?”

  Park looked worried and it made Conway worried too. “If you think about something basic like an oil refinery. You have all these pipes and tanks which turn the crude product into a refined one. Most of those side products can blow up if the levels get too high, or if a valve jams or the pressure builds too much. Everything is kept in check by control hardware and software.”

  “And when that fails, the plant breaks down,” said Conway.

  “Maybe not breaks down so much as blows up, killing lots of people,” said Park, not taking her attention away from the console.

  “That’s going to happen here?”

  “I don’t know what the consequences will be, Lieutenant. However, I can say with absolute certainty that I don’t want to be here to witness them.” She lifted a hand and pointed at the nearby tharniol pillar. “I don’t want to think about how much potential energy is stored within that thing.”

  The pressure was almost at its peak and Conway waited for it to release. This time it kept building and the pain in his head climbed with it. He clenched his teeth and groaned.

  “We need to leave,” he said.

  “I’ve got it!” said Park.

  Conway didn’t feel capable of asking what she meant. He struggled to keep focus and thought he might black out. Next to him, Lieutenant Park bowed her head and then her knees buckled. She collapsed to the ground, nearly catching her forehead on the edge of the console on the way down. Conway tried to reach her and found he couldn’t move. He tried to access the comms channel to request backup. His voice either wouldn’t work or he couldn’t hear it.