“Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown.” The PA in the hallways suddenly started up. The word was repeated three times in the military fashion. I recognized the voice. It was General Turner, clear and calm. His voice was audible through the suite and bedroom doors, but I had heightened hearing. I doubted either Linda or Eddie heard his announcement. I opened my eyes, checking the alarm clock next to the bed. One minute after midnight. Then the display winked out.
Suddenly, the base shook. Something had impacted the top of the bunker with incredible force. I threw the blankets aside and stood, already halfway to the dresser with my uniform. I heard Linda stir, and looked back. She looked so peaceful in the darkness, somehow still visible despite the complete absence of light. I closed my eyes, seeing the orange of her light flicker as she started to wake. Red flashed far above, and I craned my head back to look.
The red orb descended languidly, impacting something far above. Everything shook again, and this time Linda woke up.
“Wh⸺” she started. A third impact shook the base, causing dust to cascade down from the ceiling. She blindly groped around for the light switch, and ineffectually flipped it a few times.
“I think the power's out, babe.”
“What's going on?” she said, panic tinging her voice.
“I don't know. I need you to gather Eddie and hide under the bed. With the reinforcements, it should be safe from just about anything. I'm going up to the surface to find out what's going on.”
“Be careful babe...” she said. I heard the concern loud and clear.
“It's not me you have to worry about.”
With that, I turned and walked swiftly out of our suite.
Chapter 21
Darkness +36, 2033
Greater Seattle Area, Washington, USA
Location Undisclosed, Base 13, Project Osiris
-65°F
0002 Hours
Klaxons were blaring in the hallway. Amber lights had descended from the ceiling, bathing the hallway in strobing yellow. An automated voice was talking soothingly over the public address system.
“Shelter in place, shelter in place.” The voice was soft, almost feminine, yet still had a hint of robotic stiffness. I guessed it was an AI. I ignored the advice and started to sprint down the hallway. Some doors had cracked open from the repeated quakes, others were held open by people who watched in amazement as I ripped past. Doorways flashed by, blurring together.
I had a hard turn to navigate, and slid on my side until my feet contacted the wall. Instead of absorbing the impact, I acted as if it was a floor. I leapt forward, allowing my inertia to carry me through the corner at nearly full speed. A moment later, I arrived in the main elevator cavern. The amber lamps were joined by strobing red lights. The elevator was out of service. I stepped to the guard rails, looking up. The arboretum was mostly dark. I could see all the way up to the surface level tunnel leading to the hangar. I knew I didn't have time to climb hundreds of stairs.
I climbed onto the railing, then coiled up. With one explosive surge, I jumped as high as I could. I felt the railing cave under the sudden force, and my jump was robbed of power. I flailed slightly in the air, my hands barely reaching the rock. I drove my fingers into the rock on the side of the elevator shaft. Powdered rock and dust floated down as I hung from my fingertips. I started to climb, hand over hand, embedding my hands to make my own way up. Once my feet could be secured, I jumped again.
Thirty feet flew by in the blink of an eye. I snagged one of the few support beams, swinging myself higher. With a combination of jumps and grabs, I ascended through the arboretum to the tunnel above. It took mere seconds. I could hear the faint echoes of gunfire and screams. When I crested the tunnel lip, I started to sprint down the tunnel. I pushed myself as hard as I could, covering the full mile in less than two minutes.
As I drew closer I could smell blood, death, fire, and gunpowder. Chaos reigned in the hangar. The blast doors were still glowing a faint red, with a massive hole torn through the base. It was more than ten feet high, half of the height of the doors themselves. At the base it had to be eight feet wide, big enough to allow most cars through. The hideous snake creatures we had named the Naga were flooding in through the breach.
Dozens of soldiers were in various states of readiness, some in full armor and others in just their night clothes. Rifles barked, spewing lead at the Naga. Their natural resilience meant they were able to shrug off the rifle rounds as they closed in and killed soldiers by the handful. For each Naga that fell, three or more soldiers were torn to pieces. Still the Naga swarmed through the shattered doors.
I roared as I entered the hangar, catching everybody off guard. It even startled me, since I loosed a sound louder than I had ever heard a human make. It reverberated through the massive cavern, causing a brief moment of silence. Then the fight resumed. I ran past two soldiers that were firing at one of the snakes as it charged them. I grabbed the creature by the throat, slamming it into the ground as I ran. It never even made a sound as the head separated from the body in a spray of blood. I approached the doors, just in time to see a fireball arc down, almost casually floating into the opening. The blast tossed me back ten feet, scorching my skin and hair.
Several of the Naga were killed outright by the blast, but still more piled in. I began to strike at them with wild abandon, blowing ribcages apart and using torn limbs as makeshift weapons. In less than a minute, I was coated in black ichor, bits of snake flesh dripping from me. I was clearly a vision of horror, as the humans and even the Naga back away. I stomped on the chest of the Naga next to me, causing it to vomit out organs and goo. I kept my foot on its chest, and used the extra leverage to rip its arm free. I used the arm as a club, killing another five in as many seconds.
Within moments, all of the Naga inside the hangar were dead. I turned to survey the damage, when a shout rang out.
“Infected!”
Several soldiers were facing me, rifles pointed at my torso and face.
“Fuck off, I just⸺” before I could finish my sentence, three of them opened fire. I raised my arm to shield my face, feeling the impacts like sharp stings.
“Hold your fuckin' fire!” Shouted Bazua. He had clearly arrived shortly after I did. “He's a friendly. His condition makes him immune to the infection.”
I shot him a look, but his glare was clear enough. Shut the fuck up and let him talk. So I did.
“He's on our side, cleared for duty by myself and Doctor Doore.”
Just then, a massive hiss shook the air, somehow a low roar and high piercing whistle all at once. I turned and found one of the larger Naga blocking the blast doors. It nearly filled the gap, with arms as big as trees and a torso the size of a sedan. It's yellow, slitted eyes locked on mine. It hissed again, clearly in challenge. Lesser Naga filtered in around the massive one, making a ring around the two of us to face off. They made no challenge to the soldiers, only holding them back. None of them attacked, and the soldiers held their fire. It was clear this was a fight for the large one and myself.
I squared up to the Naga, readying myself. It towered over me, rearing back to ten feet tall. More than a dozen feet of tail were extended behind it. It closed the gap, and the ring closed around us. I had a feeling that only one of us would be leaving the ring alive. It may have had size, but I wasn't about to let it win.
I looked the creature over. Its head was higher than my own, standing at roughly eight feet from the floor. The tail was long enough that the end was lost in the darkness outside. Scars covered the scaled flesh, with massive claw marks across the belly and arms, as well as one nasty scar that had narrowly missed on eye. It hissed again, then something I had never expected to happen, happened.
It spoke.
“Chossen,” it said with a raspy voice, heavy with sibilance. Stranger still was the vaguely feminine quality of the voice. It met my eyes and stared seemingly straight through my soul. It flexed one hand, claws nearly glittering in the light. Then it w
aved toward me.
“We musst know the name of ssuch a powerful warrior. Thiss one iss Hatch Leader Sshaa.”
I paused, still ready for an attack. It waited, patiently. I nodded, not relaxing in the slightest.
“I am Dante DeWisr.”
It nodded, a strangely human motion on such an alien monster. It spoke again.
“We fight now.”
Without any further warning, it launched at me. The tackle caught me around the waist, and drove me through the line of Naga into a car. I nearly vomited as the breath was forced out of me. I could feel one of the lesser Naga squirming under me. Sshaa reared back, drawing its arm back for a slash. I held my arms up to protect my face, and the claws dug furrows down the outer arm. I felt my arm flay open, probably exposing the bone. A chuff escaped from the massive enemy, almost sounding like laughter.
“Thiss is the champion?”
It paused then. I could feel the blood running down my ruined arm. I let them fall to my side, then extracted myself from the ruined vehicle. It was a Humvee, or HMMV in military terms. The side had been lightly crushed by my body. The twitching remains of a smaller Naga were embedded in the side. I shook my arms to regain some sensation, and saw Sshaa looking at the wound. I looked as well, and my jaw dropped. The slash was completely gone. I looked back at my enemy, and smirked.
“It's going to take a hell of a lot more than that to stop me.”
It started to rear back and hiss, but I beat it to the punch. Literally. I loosed a roar and sprinted the ten feet into it's gut, pulling the same move it had just used. I slammed it into the still glowing doors, feeling the heat radiate off of the splintered steel. Its hiss changed from pissed to pained. It swung at me, and I dodged the blow. I caught the arm as it sailed over my head, and slammed my arm against the back of it. Bone splintered, slicing through the bicep.
The hiss of pain doubled in intensity. I could smell the cooked scales and leaking ichor. Sshaa's right arm hung limply, dangling by muscle fiber. I held my hand rigid like a blade and slashed at its belly. Fresh ichor sprayed out from the wound, more than an inch deep and eight inches wide.
“Yo!”
Bazua's voice rang out, distracting me for a split second. Sshaa slashed at me, returning the favor of the wound. I could see my sternum through the tissue of my opened chest. I reached out, catching the pipe that Bazua had thrown. I lunged forward, using the pipe as leverage. The snake like creature was bowled backwards, tail flipping around, trying to regain stability. I shoved it into the same spot on the HMMV that I had been thrown into. The frame crumpled, screaming steel wrapping around its torso. It tried to swipe at me with its left arm, the three claws shiny with blood. I smashed the forearm with the pipe, then hit it again at the elbow. The arm flopped down, broken in two places.
Still, it hissed at me, and tried to bite me with its large mouth. It even looked like the jaw unhinged, despite the fact it clearly had teeth. I back handed the creature with all of my strength, then drove the pipe through its belly and into the frame of the vehicle. I bent the end of the pipe to prevent it from worming its way off. It let out a pitiable sound, wiggling its broken arms in a futile attempt to reach me. I stepped back, ready for another attack. Every Naga still alive turned toward me. I could sense their hostility, but still none attacked.
Chapter 22
Darkness +36, 2033
Greater Seattle Area, Washington, USA
Location Undisclosed, Base 13, Project Osiris
-65°F
0018 Hours
Silence took over. Only the rustling of scales on concrete, clothes on people, and fires crackling could be heard. Sshaa coughed out a gout of blood, catching my attention again. It slumped, seemingly dead. Then screaming erupted. I turned saw one of the soldiers begin to berserk. I saw the nametag on her shoulder, which read 'Wolfe'. It was a flash as she leapt straight into the line of Naga, a small slick of black ichor visible on her cheek. The fight was brutal, but short. She fired her gun with one hand, using her K-Bar with the other.
Three of the lesser Naga fell before she was seriously wounded. Still, even missing her right arm, she continued to slash with her knife. It had been less than ten seconds, and she was already completely covered in the ichor. Her blood pumped out of the ragged wound at her shoulder, and still she fought on. A fifth Naga fell to her attacks, but slashed her throat as she slashed its own. Her head lolled back from the deep wound, body slumping to the floor.
Gunfire erupted. I was peppered with dozens of rounds, and held my arms over my head. Thirty seconds of thunder passed by. When the last gun clicked empty, I stood and looked at the devastation. Every remaining Naga had been cut down, bodies blown apart by the gunfire. One soldier stood absolutely stock still near me, red blood on his face. It seemed he had been like that for a while, because other soldiers were gathered around him, trying to evoke a response.
I stepped over, and his eyes met mine. He said one word.
“Fated.” Then his eyes rolled up so far only the whites showed. He spasmed, then crumpled. I knelt next to him and checked his neck for a pulse. It was still. He had died before he hit the floor. His vest read 'Thompson'.
“What the fuck?” I half shouted.
“Everybody back up. Watch out for any blood or ichor.” Bazua was in command. “Dante, you okay?”
I looked at where I had been wounded. Even my clothes had healed up.
“Yeah, I'm fine. I think this guy just died. This is fucked!” I spit through my clenched teeth.
“He was exposed to your blood. I watched it happen- when your chest was slashed.”
“Fuck. So I'm just like these assholes?” I waved at the corpses of the Naga all around.
“No. You're here to protect us, not conquer the planet.”
“And what about her?” I asked as I pointed at the nearly headless corpse of Wolfe.
“Amber. A good woman. She was obviously infected, and as deadly as she was... she'll be remembered. Elias is the one you're checking. He was new, joined up as a survivor. Wanted to do his part.”
“I won't forget them. Ever. They died so we could survive.”
Thunder rumbled in from outside. Flashes lit the gap in the doors. I ran over to the doors, and watched the stream of light impact a shape in the sky. Suddenly, the cloud wisped away, reavealing one of the alien craft, boxy and looking more patched together than a competent space ship. It lurched, then dropped out of the sky. A fireball bloomed on impact, two hundred feet from where I stood. The heat was intense, hot on my skin even at that distance. Metal shone in the firelight as the explosion died away.
I stepped out of the doors into the deadly cold beyond. Steam rose off of me, sweat sublimating in the frozen atmosphere. The ugly alien craft lay in ruins two hundred feet beyond the doors, off to one side of the entrance drive. I saw two more flying away rapidly.
A hiss sounded from far above, not unlike the one Sshaa had loosed. A bright light followed a dark speck, and a moment later one of the other ships bloomed into an explosion. A few seconds passed, then a shockwave broke over me, bringing an incredible sound with it. I blinked and regained my footing.
The third went beyond my vision, below the horizon. I turned back to the hanger and walked inside. Crystallized frost broke off of me as I walked back into the relatively warm hangar. A breeze tugged at me, obviously due to the difference in temperature.
“Let's get this closed up. Someone find plastic or something we can place over the hole. We've got a lot to do.”
“Chossen...” said a weak, raspy voice. Rifles all immediately pointed at the HMMV I had left Sshaa embedded and impaled in. I stepped in, noting the wounds still hadn't sealed shut. Its arms hung limply by its side.
“Why are you attacking us?” I asked of the creature. Its all too human face was twisted in pain. It met my eyes.
“We are the⸺” and it said something guttural, heavy with sibilance.
“We call you the Naga, like a creature out of our le
gends.”
“Yess, that will do. We are the Naga. We travel sspace... we gather stars and the best warriors. You will be ourss. You will fight for uss.”
“Not a chance in hell. What do you mean you gather stars?”
“Sstarss are fuel. We take fuel, harvest planetss, and move on.”
“Why? Why destroy everything like this?”
“Life. We move on forever.”
“How do you do it?”
“Sstarss given sshell, absorb all energy and sstore for later. For time between sstarss.”
“Like a Dyson sphere? Is that what's been causing stars to blink out?”
“We have need of much power. We have a desstination, and it will take many cycless to get there.”
“How many?”
“Thoussandss. Maybe millionss.”
“Why? Why do all of this? What can you tell me about you?” I heard the desperation in my voice. The mindset of these aliens was so far from anything we could comprehend.
“Thiss one Sshaa, thiss one wass hatch leader. Female, stronger than the maless. This one laid many hundreds of eggs over what you call years. This one was to be made Matriarch ssoon.”
She spasmed, coughing blood out. A glow seemed creep around her like an aura. Her eyes glazed, and she looked up through the roof of the cavern into the sky beyond. She spoke once more.
“Thiss one hass met the Chossen. This one hass fought, thiss one hass losst.” Her eyes closed, and she slumped. I shook her shoulders, but she moved limply.
“Dead. FUCK! I don't understand anything!”
“Neither do I. Like what the fuck just happened. What were you doing?” Bazua was close, nearly within an arm's length.
“What do you mean? I was questioning her.”
“Her? What? Dude, you were just hissing like one of them.”
“No, we spoke in English. She told me a few things.”
“Yeah, like what?” Asked Bazua. He crossed his arms. He looked incredulous and impatient.
“She was a hatch leader. Female- I gathered these little ones are male.”
Darkness Trilogy (Book 2): Death In Darkness Page 14