by Ken Lozito
The main holoscreen flickered on. Part of the imager was damaged, so they could only see a small part of the screen. There were flashes of light but no sound. Connor peered at the screen and saw several people moving. They were wearing CDF uniforms.
25
Connor sprang from the chair. “I know where the crew of the Banshee went. They’re at the main hangar.”
“They’re fighting something. That could be why no one has detected our presence here,” Sean said.
The imager died with a fizzle as the aged circuitry finally gave its last breath and the main holoscreen powered off.
“Come on, we’re heading to the hangar,” Connor said.
He opened up a comlink to Reisman. “How’s the data dump going?”
“About halfway through,” Reisman said.
“We’ve found the crew of the Banshee. They’re fighting Vemus forces in the main hangar. We’re heading there now,” Connor said.
“Acknowledged. Captain Lee has just arrived with the modified warheads. They’re going to deploy them in Main Engineering,” Reisman said.
“How are they getting inside it?” Connor asked, remembering the overgrowth of hardened materials throughout the area.
“They brought plasma torches and are cutting that stuff away. I’ll send an update once we’re all set to go here,” Reisman said.
“Understood,” Connor said.
“One more thing,” Reisman said. “I’ve been poking around the ship’s systems. It’s like the entire thing has been through a major overhaul. Nothing is where it should be as far as systems go. There’s some kind of broadcast signal coming through the main communications array, but it’s using a protocol I’ve never seen before.”
“Is it active?” Connor asked.
“Yes,” Reisman answered.
“Can you shut it down?”
“I’m not able to. The only thing I can tell is that there’s an active connection—a pretty powerful one—but I’m not clear on where it’s coming from,” Reisman said.
“Keep working on it. Send what you have so far to Major Hayes. Perhaps the Vigilant can detect the signal as well,” Connor said.
The comlink closed and Connor bit his lower lip in thought. If these signals were consistently present among the Vemus fleet, it might be something he could use against them.
As they closed in on the main hangar bay, Connor and the others heard weapons being fired. He scanned the comms network and was able to find Major Cross’s signal. He didn’t open a link yet, preferring to get a better sense of what he was dealing with. Connor looked back at Sean and held up two fingers, then made a circular motion.
Sean signaled to one of the CDF soldiers and he nodded. The soldier reached into the storage compartment of his Nexstar combat suit, pulled out two reconnaissance drones, and tossed them into the air.
Connor used his implants to access the drone feeds. They flew into the hangar and separated, making a general sweep of the area. There were smaller attack craft lined up on the far side of the hangar, and the crew of the Banshee was clustered around a combat shuttle. They were firing their weapons at a group of large dark figures that stalked their way toward them. White bolts were being fired at the remainder of the Banshee crew, who scrambled behind cover. Connor zoomed in on the Vemus forces. They were massive, with some of them easily twice as tall as he was. Their skin was a deep, dark purple that glistened in the light. Their rounded heads angled to a pointed snout. Lighter-toned oval shapes could have been eyes, but Connor wasn’t sure. They had thick legs, with rippling muscles that ended in clawed feet. They staggered their approach and another group was working their way toward the Banshee crew’s flank. Between the dark shapes and how they kept on the move, it was hard to get an accurate count, even with the help of his combat suit’s computer systems.
A series of high-pitched whistles and clicks came from the Vemus forces. They moved fast and seemed to be able to move as quickly on two legs as they could when hunched over like a quadruped.
The crew of the Banshee was mixed, with some wearing combat armor while others wore a breather. Their hands and other parts of their bodies were exposed to the atmosphere. They fired their weapons in controlled bursts, halting the Vemus advance while conserving their ammunition.
Connor opened a comlink to Major Cross.
“General! They can detect active comlinks. Go to short-wave IR,” Major Cross said.
Just after she spoke there was an uptick in the whistles and clicks coming from the Vemus forces. Connor immediately deactivated the comlink and did as she asked.
“What’s your status, Major?” Connor asked.
“I saw the drones. As you can see, we’re pinned down. Every time we try to move, they press the attack. We were trying to use one of these shuttles to get out of here,” Major Cross said.
“Is the shuttle operational?” Connor asked.
He saw Sean gesturing to the CDF soldiers. They were moving into position just inside the main hangar behind a barricade to provide covering fire. The drone feeds cut out at the same time. They’d been shot down.
“Negative, sir. None of shuttles are operational. I guess sitting in the hangar for two hundred years depleted their power cells,” Major Cross said.
“We can provide covering fire. Can you make it to us?” Connor asked and shot an IR laser, marking their location.
There was bellowing from the Vemus forces. Connor peered past the wall and saw several of the enemy scrambling toward them.
“Take them down!” Connor shouted.
The CDF soldiers unleashed the might of their weapons, cutting into the Vemus as they charged toward them. The Banshee crew fired their weapons at the Vemus force’s exposed flank, and the colossal giants started to fall. Dark liquid burst from their bodies. Connor and the rest of the team fired their weapons, scattering the Vemus forces, who scrambled to cover, where they returned fire. A CDF soldier next to Connor took a white bolt to the chest. His armor absorbed the blow and the soldier knelt back into cover. In a short span of time, they’d cut the Vemus forces in half.
Connor opened a short-range IR channel to Major Cross. “Now’s your chance. Come on.”
“You don’t understand. Those things aren’t dead—”
A loud ringing tone sounded and Connor was forced to cut the connection.
“Why aren’t they coming?” Sean asked.
Connor glanced over the wall, looking at the fallen Vemus. “She said they aren’t dead.”
Sean frowned and looked over the wall. His eyes widened. “Some of them are starting to move again!”
Connor fired his weapon at a rising Vemus, but the standard round for the AR-71 had little effect. He accessed his weapons systems and changed it to fire incendiary rounds. When the nano-robotic ammunition had changed over, Connor aimed his weapon and fired. Flashes of superheated rounds burst from the barrel, and he caught the Vemus soldier in the chest. The scorching rounds burned a massive hole in the creature’s chest. The Vemus soldier didn’t so much as cry out in pain as it flew back onto the ground. Connor took several more shots, cutting up the remains. The rest of the CDF soldiers nearby updated their nano-robotic ammunition for their weapons to incendiary rounds.
“Lay it on them,” Connor said.
He opened a comlink to Major Cross. The Vemus already knew they were there, so there was little risk at this point. “This is your chance. We’ll provide covering fire and you make your way toward us. That’s an order, Major.”
Connor fired a grenade into a cluster of Vemus forces, blowing them apart. The crew of the Banshee burst from cover and Connor and the others provided covering fire. The Vemus forces whipped up into a frenzy. They charged out after the fleeing crew, heedless of the weapons being fired at them. They snatched a few stragglers, taking the CDF crew down to the ground. They hovered over them, tearing off masks and helmets. The Vemus opened their wide mouths and spat thick black liquid onto the CDF soldiers’ faces.
Connor aimed for a Vemus soldier’s head and fired. He watched as a struggling Banshee crewmember’s body went into convulsions, their entire face covered in blackish goo.
Fallen Vemus soldiers began to rise again.
“What the hell is it going to take to kill these things?” Sean said while firing his weapon.
The Banshee crew was being picked off by the emboldened Vemus forces. Connor fired several more grenades, figuring the explosive impacts would slow them down.
“Bringing down the hammer!” Sergeant Woods cried.
The heavy weapons soldier fired a tactical missile, and the hangar floor behind the fleeing Banshee crew was engulfed in flames.
As the fire diminished, Connor heard the strange, high-pitched whistle coming from the Vemus forces caught in the blast, and the call was taken up by the remaining Vemus that were beyond the blast zone. Several flaming figures crawled away, only to collapse and stop moving. The remaining Banshee crew sprinted toward them. There was only a fraction of them left. Several CDF soldiers kept firing their weapons at the Vemus forces. The ones on the far side of the hangar started to regroup. They barreled into the flames, heedless of the heat, and their long strides carried them across the hangar despite Connor’s efforts to stop them.
Major Savannah Cross came around the wall. Connor could hear her gasping.
“How did you hold out for so long?” Connor asked.
“We had to keep changing the type of ammunition we were using. Only when they’re blown completely apart do they stay down,” Major Cross said, gritting her teeth. “They don’t ever stop. They just keep coming.”
Connor heard shouting from down the line of soldiers. Sergeant Wynn was down. Blue bolts were arcing through his combat suit. The sergeant screamed, and nearby CDF soldiers tried to take his armor off. The power armor was unresponsive and Sean used the manual release to pop the chest cavity. Connor peered at Sergeant Wynn’s blackened chest as the man writhed in pain. Wynn looked as if he were struggling to say something, and then the dying soldier let out a gurgling gasp.
More blue energy bolts fired toward them and one hit Sergeant Anders. The CDF soldier screamed as he went down.
“Take cover!” Connor shouted and dove behind a barrier.
The Vemus forces had changed their tactics. They had weapons that could disable their power armor and kill the person inside. They had to get out of there, quickly.
“Sergeant Woods, do you have anything to cover our escape?” Connor asked.
“You bet, sir. I have a portable MS-Hydra,” Sergeant Woods said.
The MS-Hydra was a robotic mini-turret capable of firing millions of high-velocity darts a minute, devastating to an ordinary attack force. They would soon find out how effective it was against the Vemus.
“Take it to the end of the corridor and get ready. We’ll buy you some time,” Connor said.
Sergeant Woods called one of the other CDF soldiers over and they ran down the corridor.
The rest of them continued to fire on the Vemus. There was a mix of ammunition being used, from blistering incendiary rounds to armor-piercing rounds and small grenades. Connor ordered them to fall back, and the CDF soldiers began to quickly move into the corridor. The Vemus forces detected the decreased rate of weapons fire and began to press forward.
“Time to go, sir,” Sean said.
Connor backed away from the wall, and they shuffled down the corridor, firing their weapons in controlled bursts as they went. Soon after, they turned around and ran as fast as they could.
Connor reached the end of the corridor where the MS-Hydra sat on a tripod of thick legs that were drilled into the ground. The Hydra mount was a metallic, rectangular box and inside were thousands of high-velocity darts capable of piercing armor and destroying flesh.
“The Hydra is ready,” Sean said.
“Good. Enable the sensors to fire on the targets when they’re within two meters,” Connor said.
He glanced down the corridor at the hangar beyond. The dark, colossal shapes of the Vemus forces started gathering at the corridor entrance.
Connor went toward the front and began leading his team back the way they’d come. High-pitched whistles and clicks seemed to echo all along the corridor.
Connor opened a comlink to Reisman. “Wil, what’s your status?”
Reisman grunted. “Ah, data upload is complete.”
Reisman sounded as if he were straining with something. “What’s wrong?” Connor asked.
“Captain Lee planted the bomb, but something happened to them inside Main Engineering. They’ve been cut off,” Reisman said.
Connor urged the soldiers in front of him to move faster.
“Are you hurt?” Connor asked.
“No—uh, just get back here. Watch out for that brown sludge on the walls. It’s creeping into the computing core,” Reisman said.
The CDF soldiers ahead of him checked the corners and then cleared them to proceed. Connor was about to tell Reisman to get out of there when an ear-splitting shriek sounded from behind them. The MS-Hydra had fired its payload.
Connor and the others quickened their pace. They had to make it back to the Vigilant or they were all going to pay the price.
They reached the atrium where the name Indianapolis in all its faded glory adorned the wall. Vemus forces appeared on the decks across from them. Connor and the others took turns firing their weapons to hold them off. These forces were much shorter than what they’d encountered in the main hangar bay, and they tracked from the other decks like a pack of rabid wolves. Shooting at them only seemed to ignite their ferocity. The Vemus weapons fire was a mix between the white stunner bolts and the armor-disabling blue bolts. Connor and the others made it to the corridor that would take them out of the vast atrium. He took one last glance at the Vemus forces. Some were attempting to jump across the distance to the deck he stood on. Several dark-skinned bodies missed and plunged down.
The Vemus stopped and clustered across the way.
“General, we have to go,” Sean called out to him.
Connor took a step back but couldn’t tear his eyes away. The Vemus forces were huddled together in a mass, their bodies quivering. Finally, one of them emerged and leaped onto the railing of the upper deck, stretching its arms wide. Connecting the creature’s wrist to its feet was a thick layer of leathery skin.
“General!” Sean called again.
Connor aimed his AR-71 as the Vemus soldier leaped from the upper railings. The creature glided across the atrium, flying straight toward him. Connor fired his weapon, aiming for the creature’s head, and then adjusted his aim and tore through the wings. More of the Vemus emerged from the mass that huddled together. They vaulted from the upper deck.
At last Connor turned around and ran, catching up with Sean.
“What did you see back there?” Sean asked.
“They changed forms,” Connor said.
Sean glanced behind him for a moment while they ran. “Shape-shifting?”
“No . . . well. Not quite. Only partially. It’s like they can rapidly adapt. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Connor said.
The weapons the former Banshee crew carried were depleted of ammunition. CDF soldiers from Sean’s platoon shared their spare ammunition, but it was tough going while they were on the run.
Connor glanced behind him. He could hear the Vemus, but they hadn’t come down the corridor yet. The team ahead of them stopped outside the computing core. Connor saw a webbing of hardened vines that stretched across the ceiling from Main Engineering to the computing core. He looked over at the workstations where Reisman was working and gasped. Hanging from the ceiling to the floor was a wall of the brown sludge that had hardened into an exoskeleton.
“Connor?” Reisman called out, and his voice was coming from the other side of the pillar.
Connor took a step into the room. “I’m here,” he said and circled around the workstations, careful not to get too close. Reisman’s combat suit look
ed as if it were partially submerged into the exoskeleton. Connor could see his friend’s face through his helmet. He took a step closer, but Sean held him back.
“Probably a good idea,” Reisman said in a mild attempt at humor.
“What the hell happened?” Connor asked and glanced around. “There were some plasma cutters around here. Go find them.”
Sean repeated the order.
“There’s no time for that. It’s inside my suit. I can feel it working its way up my legs,” Reisman said, and his face crumpled in pain.
Connor glared at the other CDF soldiers. “Damn it! Where are those cutters?” He looked back at his friend. “We’re gonna get you out of there.”
Reisman shook his head and gave him a solemn look. “Not this time, sir. You have to listen to me.”
Connor glared over at the CDF soldiers who were scrambling to find something that would help, but they couldn’t find anything.
“Fine,” Connor said and checked his AR-71.
Deep in the corridors, the high-pitched whistling sound of Vemus soldiers could be heard. Connor saw several CDF soldiers take up positions on either side of the corridor, keeping a watchful eye on the way they’d come.
Connor set his ammunition to high-heat incendiary and aimed his rifle.
“No, you can’t!” Reisman cried.
Connor paused with his finger on the trigger. If he could just cut a line on the edges of the base, Reisman could get free. “This will work,” Connor insisted.
“It won’t work. It’s in my suit,” Reisman said.
“Sir, perhaps we should listen to him,” Sean said.
Connor clenched his teeth. The sounds of the Vemus forces came steadily closer. He opened a link to Reisman’s suit computer, which quickly provided the current status of the suit. The last line of code felt like a punch in the stomach.