Terra Prime (The Terran Legacy Book 2)

by Rob Dearsley

  There was a thump as the Turned slammed into the rear of the shuttle.

  Arland snatched up her rifle aiming it at the closing gap in the ramp. “Lloyd, get us out of here.”

  To his credit, Lloyd didn’t miss a beat, letting his assault rifle swing from its harness as he vaulted the unconscious officer and ran for the cockpit. A moment later the comforting whine of engines rose and the shuttle lifted off.

  Arland let out a breath, the rifle clattering to the deck at her side. They’d done it. They were safe. Moving on autopilot, she stowed the rifle and joined Lloyd in the cockpit.

  The headrest was hard and uncomfortable, but welcome. Arland closed her eyes. The adrenaline was fading, leaving her tired and aching. She wanted nothing more than to drift off, let the world slip away for a few minutes. It would be nice if all of this was just a dream and she could wake up on the Folly, with Dannage.

  What was he doing anyway? Why had he gone off without her? In his mind, he was probably doing it for her benefit, to save her from hardship or some-such. Bloody muppet.

  After a few minutes Lloyd spoke, his voice subdued. “You worried about Hale and the others?”

  “No. Dannage.”

  Another pause. “Do we even know where he’s at?”

  She shook her head, her eyes still closed. Lloyd lapsed into silence and the rumble of the shuttle’s engines washed over them, relaxing her.

  All too soon, they arrived back at the small camp and reality.

  ◊◊

  The sounds of the Terran shipyards – the hush of the air, the ring of boots on the deck plating – were achingly familiar to Hale, and yet completely foreign. For a long time, all she’d wanted was to come back here, but now it was nothing but ghosts. There was no room for the living here, not any longer.

  She’d be glad to leave this place behind.

  “Commander, you good?” Hutch asked as they moved through another intersection.

  The group were nearly to the main control centre where, according to Hutch, Dannage and the others should be. It would be good to see Dannage again. Hopefully, the Neural Sculptor would have him back to his old self.

  “I’m fine,” Hale replied.

  Footsteps echoed down the hallway, snapping Hale’s attention forward. Hutch started to speak, but Hale waved him into silence, trying to pinpoint the location of the sound. Somewhere ahead of them, but it was hard to tell the way the footsteps echoed off the high ceilings and down the hallways. But they were getting louder, more distinct. Sounded like two people walking.

  “Eyes up. Something’s coming this way,” Hale said.

  In response, Hale and Ellis moved up, while Fyffe and Jenna stayed back with Niels and Valentine. The pair of them had their weapons up and ready, hands tense.

  “Remember we’ve got friendlies on the station,” Niels said.

  The footsteps got louder still; the owners must be just around the corner. Hutch and the others must be able to hear them by now. It was so loud. What Hale wouldn’t give for a link to the internal scanners right now.

  A pair of figures came around the corner, both human. The taller of the two had old fashioned, wire-framed spectacles. Luc and Vaughn?

  “Hold fire. Hold fire.” Hale pushed passed the SDF marines to greet the newcomers. “Are you okay? Where’s Dannage?”

  “Dannage stayed behind on the ship,” Luc said.

  “What ship?” Niels asked joining them.

  Luc and the Doc told them about the new Terran ship and how it had convinced Dannage to help it, and its relationship with the Darkness.

  “Is it real?” Luc asked, looking between them. “This darkness? It can’t be as much of a threat as Loki made out, right?”

  “We lost the Feynman,” Niels said.

  “We can still take it back,” Valentine cut in. “We have to, it’s our only way out of the system.”

  “How?” Ellis asked. “How can we take the whole bloody ship back with only a handful of people?”

  Luc’s com unit cracked and he stepped away listening to the voice on the other end, frowning.

  “What is it?” Hale asked. “Dannage?”

  “No, Jax. Another two escape pods have put down on the landing pad. They’re trapped out there.”

  “There must be a way we can get to them,” Valentine said.

  “Yeah,” Luc said, already jogging away. “Once we get back to the Folly, we can bring each pod into the cargo bay in turn.”

  “What about us?” Fyffe asked, gesturing to the others and their lack of spacesuits.

  “We can hook up to a docking port and grab you guys,” Luc said and he and Vaughn snapped their helmets closed, the heads-up displays winking to life.

  Hale caught sight of the Terran space-suits hanging in the airlock. “Or we could all suit up.” She pulled one of the bulky suits down and climbed into the legs.

  Hutch and Ellis began passing the suits around. The Terran scale suits looked comically large on the others, but they’d get them across to the Folly.

  A few minutes later, they were jogging across the landing pad. Hale could see Feynman crewmembers watching them through the escape pod’s small portholes.

  Overhead, Terra Prime spun on, impassive. The Space elevator was coming around again as the capital city fell into night. She’d thought the Imperium would last forever. They all had. But look at it now. Faded, broken. Dead. A monument to things past.

  They hurried up the ramp and into the Folly. Vaughn hit the close for the cargo bay doors while Luc and the others made for the bridge.

  “I’ll stay here and man the doors,” Hale said. As much as she liked the Folly, she had no desire to cram herself onto the ship’s small bridge with all the others.

  “I’ll stay too,” Vaughn said. “They might need medical attention.”

  Everyone else bundled into the bridge, and a moment later the Folly’s engine’s rumbled to life.

  It didn’t take long for them to rescue the people from the escape pods. Fifteen men in all, none with any serious injuries.

  They all gathered in the cargo bay, the only room in the Folly big enough for the large group.

  “We need to retake the ship,” Niels said, addressing the group from the top of a stack of containers.

  “How?” one of the men asked. “It’s too big for us to take.”

  Luc stepped forward. “You said more escape pods made it to the surface. We should make contact with them.”

  “Even so, Ellis said. They’ll have a couple of hundred at most. We can’t retake something the size of the Feynman with so few people.”

  “Maybe,” Valentine said as he put a mini holo-projector on the deck at his feet. At his touch, a large holographic wireframe schematic of the Feynman sprang into life. Blue light from the hologram played across the faces of the crowd. They were battered and more than not were barely hanging on. The only thing keeping them going was this flickering hope of getting home. And Valentine and Niels were doing their damnedest to keep that flame alight.

  Valentine tapped a control and the hologram’s engine module brightened. “We’ve been thinking about that and maybe we don’t have to take the whole ship.”

  Twenty-Seven

  (Terra Prime)

  Arland followed her nose to the back of one of the shuttles where a pair of young enlisted were doling out MRE ration packs. Arland took one of the plastic baggies and cracked the chemical heater in the base. She moved away from the shuttle, looking over the people. Most of them were walking wounded of some form. Some were in even worse shape, and there were a couple – like the officer from the crashed escape pod – who were under constant medical supervision. They were a rag-tag bunch if she’d ever seen one. Battered but not broken. They were still here and for now that was enough.

  She found Lloyd stirring his MRE, perched on a shuttle’s landing gear, out of the way of the others, but in sight of the main camp, watching the others work.

  “Do you really think they’re alive?�
�� He gestured to the sky with his plastic Spork.

  Arland dropped down next to him, inhaling the generic savoury scent of what the packaging assured her was ‘Beef Stew’. “They have to be.”

  He placed a hand on her shoulder. “If they’re still up there, we’ll find them. And then we’ll find a way home.”

  He sounded so sure of himself. So confident they could make it. Arland only wished she could be so sure. All that was waiting for them up there was death and darkness. It was all that had ever been waiting in the stars, fallen empires and the monsters they’d created.

  The stew didn’t exactly taste good, but it was warm and filling, and that was enough.

  After a time, Lloyd spoke again. “I’ve got you a pilot and shuttle. The engineers have rigged it with a second long-range com, so we’ll be able to stay in touch.”

  Arland nodded, and they finished their food in silence. The sun dropped behind the city, and overhead, the stars began to appear. Or maybe they were the Feynman’s running lights. Given the amount of debris in orbit, she was surprised they could see any stars.

  It was comforting to know that, even here, the stars still looked down on them. It reminded Arland of an old song. Without thinking, she started to hum the refrain.

  “Fear not This Night?” Lloyd asked, surprised. “I haven’t heard that in years.” He joined her in the chorus, his voice rich, if slightly off-key. She’d not expected him to know the old lullaby.

  When they’d finished their food, Lloyd led her over to a shuttle. A dark-haired pilot waited at the foot of the ramp, her helmet in the crook of her arm as she finished her own ration pack.

  Lloyd made introductions. “Shauna Arland, this is Lieutenant Johansen. She’s a first-class pilot.”

  The pilot bristled. “I’m the best in the fleet, sir.”

  “But I’m not in the fleet.” Lloyd clapped her on the shoulder and went to join the other command staff in the coms shuttle. “Stay in touch.”

  Arland couldn’t help but chuckle. The competition was the same in all branches of the military. No-one wanted to think they were anything less than the best.

  “Come on.” Johannsen hooked her thumb at the shuttle’s cockpit. “Let’s roll.”

  In the cockpit, Johannsen dropped into the pilot’s seat. “Grab a chair and buckle up.” Knowing what was going on behind them must be a skill pilots picked up. Stars knew, Dannage was good enough at it.

  Arland dropped into the seat and slipped the harness over her shoulders, clipping it shut over her chest.

  “Helmet’s on the side,” Johannsen said without looking up from the console.

  “Thanks.” Arland grabbed the helmet and pulled it on. It was a bit on the large side but was otherwise okay. She flicked her own console to life and brought up communications and scanner controls.

  The whine of the engines grew as the shuttle shot into the night sky. It felt good to be heading back into space. Arland had always been a spacer kid. Both her parents had served in the military. She loved the freedom, the verity of living on a ship. It was part of the reason she’d first signed on with the Folly – anything to get back into space.

  Arland didn’t realise she was smiling until Johannsen glanced over. “What you thinking?”

  “About Dannage.”

  “The Folly’s captain? I heard he was a good pilot.”

  Arland nodded. “One of the best.”

  Ice crystallised on the windows as they rose up through the cloud layer and into space. Arland’s console chirped. The shuttles short range scanners were picking up the bulk of the Feynman above them.

  “Careful,” Arland warned. “We don’t want to get into CQC range.”

  “No worries.” Johannsen was focused now, her hands flowing over the controls, her attention on the heads-up display.

  Arland felt the harness tugging against her as they left the planet.

  “Sorry,” Johannsen said. “Forgot to mention, we took a hit on the way down. Gravity systems are offline.”

  Arland shrugged, the move bouncing against the chair.

  “You know pilots find gesturing really irritating. Can’t watch you and what I’m doing.”

  Despite the offhand nature of the chastisement, Arland blushed and focussed on her console to hide it. “Sorry.”

  “No worries. What’s the range on trip-A batteries?”

  Arland flicked through feeds on her console. The anti-aircraft artillery guns were close in weapons, range just over two-hundred meters. They were the ones that had killed the most escape pods on the way down. Arland threw the info onto the main HUD.

  “Thanks.”

  Outside, the massive super-cruiser hung there, dark and inert. Not even regular blinking of running lights. No signs of movement from any of the weapons batteries. The com chirped, Arland hit it without thinking. “Shuttle Five, Arland here.”

  Lloyd’s voice filtered over the com, tension filling his words. “It works. Good. Make contact and get back here. I’m getting a really bad feeling down here.”

  “We’re on it.” Arland glanced over at Johannsen.

  “Geostationary orbit established, you’re good to start broadcasting,” Johannsen replied, her attention going back to her console.

  “You hear that?” Arland asked Lloyd.

  “Good luck. Stars be with you.”

  ◊◊

  Lloyd cut the com channel and went out into the fresh, earth-scented darkness of the evening. Dark came quick out there. Floodlights from the shuttles illuminated the small camp. Men moved along the shadowed perimeter keeping watch.

  The others clustered in the light talking in hushed tones or just sitting looking out into the night. The tension around the camp was palpable, they were all waiting for the hammer to fall. Turned, shadow-forms, wildlife? There was too much on this planet that wanted them dead. The sooner they could get out of Dodge the better, as far as Lloyd was concerned.

  “Captain,” one of the perimeter guards called, waving Lloyd over.

  “What is it?” Lloyd asked as he joined the elderly engineer.

  “Take a look.” The man passed Lloyd his night-vision scope.

  The scope painted the world in shades of lurid green. Trees surrounded them about a hundred metres out, but nothing moved.

  “What am I looking for?” he asked.

  The engineer guided Lloyd’s arm until he was looking at a small coppice of trees growing out of an old two-story building. Still-

  Something flashed between the crumbling walls. Too fast to make out, but what else could it be but Turned. Another flicker of movement, then another and another. Lots of Turned. Bloody hells.

  Then they broke cover, running full out. Hundreds of the creatures sprinting across the clearing.

  “Oh crap.” He kept the scope to his eye as he spoke. “We need to…”

  As he watched a, Turned tripped and was trampled underfoot, crushed by his comrades’ desperate charge. But they weren’t coming any closer. In fact, some had already disappeared into the opposite tree-line.

  They weren’t charging the camp. They were running. They were bloody running away from something.

  Lloyd passed the scope back to the engineer as he back-stepped toward the camp. Stars. They were running.

  “Get everyone in the shuttles. We’re leaving, right the hells now.” Lloyd grabbed the engineer and ran toward the command shuttle.

  Something had the Turned running scared and he sure as all hells wasn’t going to stay around to find out what.

  ◊◊

  Niels looked over the officers crowded into the Folly’s small cargo hold. Shocked murmurs rippled through the group at the revelation of Valentine’s plan. To be fair, Niels had workshopped it with the commander he still thought the plan to retake the Feynman was crazy.

  “You think we could cram everyone in the engineering compartment and eject the main hulls?” Hale asked.

  “Depends how many other survivors there are,” Valentine said. “We don�
��t need to stay long, so we can pack people in if we have to, and if we dock the Folly and the remaining shuttles, we can use their space and life-support.”

  “You mean leave the airlocks open?” Fyffe asked. “Is that safe? What about shear-forces?”

  The overhead speakers cracked and Jax’s voice filtered through. “There’s no shear during the jump as, technically speaking, the universe is moving around the ship.”

  Niels looked up at the overhead. “Thanks, Jax.”

  “So, we retake the engineering hull and unhook the primary hulls?” Ellis said. “Sounds easy when you say it like that.”

  Before anyone could respond, Jax came on again, her voice filled with excitement. “Guys, I’ve got a com signal. It’s Arland.”

  “Patch it through,” Luc said.

  “This is Commander Arland transmitting in the blind to any SDF survivors. Please respond.”

  She and Lloyd had gotten clear. Niels relaxed for a moment, thanking the Stars for this turn of events. Hopefully, they had more of the crew with them. “Arland, good to hear from you. How many people are with you?”

  “Admiral, glad you made it. We’ve got just over a hundred survivors and four shuttles made it to the surface. Look, Lloyd needs us to get back and help evacuate the surface. Do you have a plan to retake the ship?”

  “Yes,” Niels said, gesturing to Valentine. “We’ll transmit the plans on this frequency.”

  “Thanks.” There was a pause. “Lloyd wants to know if you can get the Folly down here. Otherwise, we aren’t going to have the space.”

  Luc started up the ladder to the bridge. “We’re on our way.”

  ◊◊

  Dannage walked through the concentric circles of consoles to Loki’s tactical station. The curved console came to life at his touch. Most of the weapon systems were still offline, but he already knew that. The ones he needed were on standby, ready for his command.

  Weapons of mass destruction, bigger than anything the SDF had ever used. System killers, true weapons of last resort.

  “Why weren’t these used?” he asked. “From what you showed me, it was obviously a losing battle.”

  Overhead speakers crackled to life, a gruff man’s voice filtering through the address system. “This is Emperor Alexis IV, broadcasting from the Yggdrasil. We have received word the rebel fleet is inbound. Our colony ships are ready and being loaded as we speak. We must hold the line.