The Apex Warriors

by Marc Stevens

  Klutch was the first to find his tongue. “Commander, the machines are ignoring us.”

  The Troop Master managed to snap me out of my daze but he didn’t settle the goosebumps crawling all over my body. I suspected the machines would continue their work if we did not pose a threat to them.

  There was a glow coming from the top of the cylinder above the rows of bodies. I pointed up at it. “Klutch, take us up there. This hellhole is close enough to the capsule, they may be connected.”

  Klutch cautiously led us upward. When we were among the rows of aliens he slowed. We spun a slow circle and viewed the morbid scene around us. The tentacles coming out of the side walls were sticking into their heads and abdomens. The hapless creatures were hanging like ragdolls from the devices invading their bodies. This was worse than the labs we found below the surface of the planet.

  Coonts had a theory as to what we were seeing. “Commander, I think they salvaged what we did not destroy, and were trying to escape with them.”

  Coonts was probably right. I knew one thing for sure, if the Prule went through all of this trouble to save these poor devils, then we were going to make damn sure they were not going to gain from their attempt. The urge to gather data was quickly fading. Something inside of me wanted to end the misery of the aliens sooner than later.

  Tria pointed to the glow on the ceiling of the chamber. The light was coming from a large control panel the was being operated by ten of the maintenance machines. The panel was on a large conduit that was attached to the nearby chamber wall. My HUD confirmed our location and the only place the conduit could lead to was the capsule.

  “Commander, should we attempt to put a data siphon on the panel?” Sael asked with obvious disgust in her voice.

  When I didn’t come back with a timely reply, Sael moved close and put her face shield next to mine. “Commander, what are your orders?”

  “No, we are putting a stop to this now,” I replied.

  Klutch did what Klutch always does when there is doubt about a situation. He pulled an anti-matter charge from his munitions pack and nodded his head in agreement. “Whatever the Throggs might be gaining from this atrocity, this will put a stop to it.”

  I tried calling Justice but was not getting an answer. He was going to be pissy with me after taking the time to get drones in here so we could communicate.

  “Anyone else got a better suggestion?” I asked.

  No one disagreed with Klutch’s solution. If I had to guess, I would say we all just wanted to get the hell out of this shop of horrors.

  I pointed about halfway down the cylinder. “Put it there, and let's get the hell out of here.”

  Klutch gave me a thumbs up and we all dropped to the middle of the tank. He activated the charge and put fifteen minutes on it. A warning lit up in the bottom of my HUD with a timer on it. He secured the charge to the maze of tubing and tentacles.

  The Troop Master pointed to the wall across from us. “That way should get us out of this scat hole and into the void.”

  I quickly waved him on. “Roger that, we need to let Justice know our status, and to get the drones off the ship.”

  He activated the portal device and got us a good hole. My strike team did not need an order from me to egress. We boosted out faster than we came in. The revulsion of our discovery hardened our resolve. It would be a lasting reminder as to why we put our lives on the line to stop the Prule. We had the technological edge for the time being, but it was obvious the Prule were trying hard to gain the advantage in ways we could never comprehend. We would do whatever it takes to keep them from making additional inroads. They had an unknown number of assets hiding in our galaxy for centuries. For them to come out of hiding, told me our discoveries were hurting their plans for future domination of the Milkyway.

  As soon as we cleared the hull of the alien spacecraft, Justice came over our comms. It didn’t take but a few seconds for him to get a read on our battle suit data.

  “Commander, I am moving to your location and will take you aboard. The drones are evacuating the spacecraft and will move toward the disabled ship near the gateway.”

  It didn’t sound like Justice was giving me a choice as to whether we were coming aboard or not. The timer in my HUD was dropping below eleven minutes. I had no problem with watching the fireworks from the safety of the Legacy’s hangar deck. I felt the tug of the tow beam grab me up. The Legacy’s open hangar suddenly appeared directly in front of me and I was pulled inside and dumped on the deck. I got to my feet frowning because my other teammates got a much gentler landing than I did. With the exception of Sael, who seemed to think it was humorous, the rest of my crew pretended not to notice. I assumed it was a penalty shot for not staying in direct comms with the AI when he made that option available to me. Rather than say anything about the rough landing, I turned back to the open hangar door and watched the countdown timer in my helmet. When it reached zero, a blinding flash flared from the pointed end of the triangular spacecraft. I hoped our maker would not look down on me in dismay for ending the lives of what were probably innocent victims of the Prule. The vegetated aliens were being data mined to the advantage of the Prule. For all we knew, their torment may have been endless. Not anymore.

  The explosion sent the ship tumbling and Justice wasted no time running it down and stabilizing it once again. “Commander, the capsule appears to have only suffered minor damage. Do you still wish to remove it from the remains of the ship, or do you want to destroy it along with the vessel?”

  Sael thought I needed her opinion. Before I could tell her I had already made up my mind, she gave it to me anyway. “Commander, all of the information collected from the aliens, was being channeled into that enclosure. It is either being stored or transferred to other Prule assets. It would be worth investigating before you make a decision to destroy it.”

  It was pretty much in line with what I was thinking. Rather than reply, I told Justice to remove it intact if possible, if not, oh well we tried.

  Tria commed me as Justice moved in close to the disabled ship. “Nathan, I think the first ship that left the underground complex may have been a decoy.”

  I looked over at her and nodded. She was thinking about things that I should have already considered.

  She pointed at the spacecraft we just abandoned. “I think the Prule were trying to lure us away so they could give this one enough time to escape.”

  Klutch gave me a no-shitter. “Commander, if you were being purposely sacrificed, wouldn’t you want to take as many of your enemies with you as possible?”

  My teammates gave me two very good reasons not to risk our lives boarding the first ship that tried to escape the planet. As far as I was concerned, we had been blown up enough for one day. We were still upright and breathing and pushing our luck any further could lead to a disastrous outcome.

  “Justice whenever you are ready, extract the capsule.”

  Justice closed the hangar doors and put a view screen up on the bulkhead near the ready room. We gathered around it and watched as he used the Legacy’s rail cannons to surgically tear the Prule ship apart. His third burst severed the remains of the forward end off of the wrecked vessel. The shattered fragment containing the capsule was sent spinning off into the void. When it was a good distance from the rest of the wreckage, Justice fired a single shot from our anomaly weapon. The remains of the ship disappeared into a cloud of gas and dust. Justice turned the Legacy hard over and in the blink of an eye caught up to the nose fragment. He corraled it with the tow beam but didn’t waste any time trying to arrest its spin. He made a course correction and then came to a full stop. I wasn’t quite sure what he was doing until he reversed the tow beam and sent the spinning fragment flying at a high velocity toward the distant gate.

  “I will reverse the gateway prior to the fragment reaching that location,” Justice commented.

  If Prule machines were roaming the inside of the capsule, they were in for one hell of a rough ride
. The capsule was probably spinning at more than fifty revolutions a minute. The transit through the gateway back to the hub would take several hours. Justice must not have liked what he saw from our armor video any more than we did.

  “Justice, collect our drones and destroy that ship.”

  “Affirmative Commander. I recommend you allow me to start the repairs to your armor.”

  We went into the ready room and stepped down out of our armor. Justice put another view screen up on the wall. The first view was of the ship fragment containing the capsule. I don’t know how far we were from the gateway when Justice threw the fragment at it, but Justice’s aim was excellent. The ship fragment passed through the exact center of the huge opening. The view then shifted to the disabled ship floating near the gate. Justice targeted it with the anomaly weapon and in a flash of brilliant light, the ship disappeared.

  “Commander, the DEHD core will be charged and ready for another deep space transition in approximately eighty-six minutes. I am requesting the presence of the Troop Master in the med bay for a thorough examination.”

  Coonts smiled and Klutch grimaced. He looked over at me. “I was just banged around a little, that’s all. I am fine.” He replied.

  I hooked a thumb over my shoulder. “Med bay, Troop Master.”

  Coonts snickered, and when Klutch got up to leave. he went by the Grawl and gave him a shove. “I don’t know what you are laughing about, you still owe me a hundred thousand credits.” He grumbled.

  Coonts just frowned at Klutch’s comment and made a circling motion with his finger near his bulbous head. “Justice needs to make sure you still have a brain rattling around in your head. It is you that owe me the credits.”

  I doubted if they owed each other anything. I think the two just liked to argue. Justice made it a point to ease the Troop Master’s grumbling with another request.

  “I will require all members of my crew to make a stop in the med bay for a physical evaluation prior to any upcoming combat missions. Until then, all crew members should take a rest period.”

  Sael pulled the weapon she had collected from the alien ship out of her armor’s munitions pack. “Justice, this is one of the weapons that was used against us.” She pointed to her armor. “I took a close-range hit that almost penetrated into my nanite reservoir. I will leave it in the science lab so you can study its capabilities.”

  “Thank you Senior Operative, I will let you know my findings.” Justice Replied.

  Sael Nalen was quickly becoming a valuable asset. Her insights and combat experience were a welcomed addition to our strike team. She adapted well when things seemed to be constantly going down the crapper.

  We took Justice’s advice and went to our cabins for some much-needed sleep. We managed to get almost four hours of rest before Justice woke us with some startling news. He had made the DEHD core transition back to the gateway hub outside of our galaxy. He was making preparations for our next insertion when one of the gates suddenly deactivated.

  “Commander, I suspect the Prule have determined that we can control the gates. I do not believe they possess the technology to turn off a gateway. That only leaves one logical conclusion. They destroyed the gateway superstructure on its exit point to prevent us from following them.”

  The AI’s conclusion made me shake my head in frustration. “That seems to indicate they have some form of deep space comms and have warned other Prule bases.”

  “That is a likely Commander. Prule forces most probably lost communications with the location of your last strike mission, and correctly assumed it was destroyed by hostile forces. It could also be a response to the considerable damage we have recently inflicted to their manufacturing and intelligence gathering facilities. It is only a theory, but I believe the destruction of the supercarrier and the subsequent destruction of the massive Hivemind occupying it, was a major blow to Prule operations in this galaxy.”

  There was nothing we could do about the gate closure. If I were in their shoes, I would do the same to the last gateway as well. We already knew that you did not want to be caught in a gateway when one of the exit points is terminated. We escaped that fate once by the narrowest of margins. The possibility of having it happen to us again was giving me second thoughts about going through the last gate.

  “Justice, what are your thoughts on sending some of our drones through the gate to see if we can secure the exit point?”

  “It was going to be my recommendation Commander. It would be ideal to send twenty through the gate and then have them send an IST transmission to see if we can locate their destination. I would also advise reversing the gateway once we receive the IST signal and have one of the drones return with video and scanner intelligence. If the remaining drones engage in combat and are destroyed, or we fail to receive an IST signal, we will have some recoverable data to examine. In the event there is no opposition at their location, they can secure the gate and wait for our arrival through the gateway or by DEHD core transition.”

  Justice’s plan had no negatives that I could discern. It made good sense and posed the least amount of risk to my crew and me.

  “Okay Justice, move forward with your plan.”

  “Affirmative Commander.”

  Justice moved close to the remaining active gate and aligned the Legacy’s torpedo tube with it. In less than a minute he launched twenty drones through the center of the gateway. Now it would be a waiting game to see what the results turned out to be.

  “Justice, what is the ETA of the Prule capsule?”

  “Approximately four hours Commander.”

  “How long till our armor is back to one hundred percent?”

  “The Troop Master’s armor requires extensive repair. I am in the process of using parts from his primary battlesuit to speed up the restoration process. All armor will be combat-capable within four hours.”

  “Roger that, please keep me informed.”

  “Commander, I have additional news to report.”

  I was going to the galley to eat, but stopped in my tracks at Justice’s statement.”

  “What other news Justice?”

  “A fleet of Chaalt warships have transitioned to the location of Alpha Base.”

  “What? Did you get a report from Jaran stating why?”

  “Yes Commander, Jaran has reported that a delegation led by the leader of the Chaalt people, Chandra Maring, contacted him with the news of your demise, along with that of Sael Nalen’s. Council leader Maring presented video data showing the siege of the Scrun held planet. She also transmitted video evidence that you entered the underground excavation and that Sael Nalen’s strike team joined you. Her data ended with the explosive collapse of the tunnel, and planet’s ocean flooding into the excavation.”

  “What did Jaran say to that?”

  “Jaran requested further evidence if it was available. He also told Council leader Maring you have been in situations like that on several occasions and it is not uncommon for you to be out of communications for long periods of time.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. Jaran was telling the truth, but strategically skirting the facts. “What was the council’s response to that bit of ambiguity?”

  “The reply included the data on the entire engagement. They sent their condolences and told Jaran your probability for survival and that of Sael Nalen’s was but a single digit. Jaran stated he would review the data carefully. Chandra Maring told Jaran that when he was done reviewing the intelligence report, he should consider bringing the facility under Chaalt control since it was already registered as a Chaalt scientific installation. She assured him he would remain in charge of all operations, but the base would be under full Chaalt protection.”

  I could not blame the Chaalt for wanting to get their hands on Alpha Base. We did, after all, destroy their secret research facility after rescuing Maring and the surviving Chaalt council members.

  “What did Jaran have to say about Maring’s offer?”

  “He to
ld the Chaalt delegation it would take time to analyze all the data presented. He further stated that after discussing it with his peers, he would give careful consideration to her offer. The Council offered to set up a defensive blockade of the star system, but Jaran declined the offer until all of the scientists came to a consensus.”

  I smiled at the Grawl scientist’s tact. He was a smooth operator and gave nothing away to the Chaalt. I was going to make it a point to commend him and all of our staff, for their astute insight.

  15

  We had gathered in the galley to eat and have a group meeting on past events. We discussed the Chaalt and other topics, including Klutch’s health. Justice gave Klutch a cautionary medical release from the med bay. He said the swelling and fluid buildup around the Tibor’s brain had eased. He was now combat capable but went on to say that another serious blow to the head, would remove him from active duty for an extended period. Needless to say, Klutch’s medical report left a scent in the galley’s air that made us abandon it until Justice could recycle the atmosphere.