Assault on Ambrose Station: A Seth Donovan Novel (43 page)

“Fools!” it bellowed, “Gods have spoken! Protectorate will know folly.”

As it said these words, it spun about and thrashed another bank of consoles, tearing one completely free of its housings. Seeing my chance, I turned and dashed to the blast door controls. Gripping it with both hands, I got it half way through a full turn before the Sectis smartened up to what I was doing and lunged at me.

A great weight smashed against me, cracking my ribs and causing me to call out in pain. It flung me aside, I slid and crashed into the wreckage of a console.

Drawing my sidearm, my trusty PX-2, I snapped off a shot. The Sectis seemed to twitch, then disappeared from view, leaving behind a cloud of robotic insects and mist. I whirled about, desperate to find it again. I saw it too late – a trio of black arms struck out and sent me tumbling over a console and down to a lower platform. I held on to my weapons, somehow, and rose on one knee to fire off several blasts in the direction it had come from, but suddenly it was above me. I had enough time to see two claws stabbing down at me before I rolled away, sparks flying where the claws struck the deck. I fired off two more shots back the way I had come, but it was no longer there. I dived forward on instinct, then rolled away again. Each time, I heard the clang of blows where I had been. I heard it moving across the deck, like dragging a heavy chain across the deckplates. The flare died out, sending the compartment into darkness once more.

I moved around behind another console and quickly holstered my sidearm. I drew another flare from a utility pouch and struck it against the console, averting my gaze. Another blow knocked me to the deck and the flare flew from my grasp.

The compartment was lit by red flare light, and I could see the layout better. I could hear a thud thudding on the blast door, the rest of my allies trying to get in. I had to get to that winch. I saw the creature rearing up for another strike, but this time I sidestepped and swung with my
lurzak
, connecting with an arm as it came down. A bright flash erupted from the contact and it screeched in pain. I was grimly satisfied to see a thirty-centimetre section of claw fly away as it reared back.

I drew my sidearm again and tried to shoot it in the face, but it flickered, and vanished, appearing metres away to my right.

What the hell,
I thought,
it just translated!

It leapt towards me, vanishing as it did so. I immediately translated towards the blast door, lunging for the winch in desperation. I almost got a good yank on it but had to back away again as it came for me.

I had to keep it occupied for just a moment while I forced open the blast door. I translated to the far end of the bridge and started firing wildly at the Sectis. Each time it translated, I also translated, turning to face where I had been and firing in that direction. After several times of doing this it stopped translating and crouched down, hissing at me.

“Come on, I can do this all day!” I shouted at it.

It suddenly emitted a loud cacophony that blasted my ears, affecting me as if a bomb had exploded nearby. I reeled, gripping my ears in pain. It stretched out an arm and crackling electricity played over the tip before shooting out like lightning towards me. I held out my
lurzak
, instinctually manipulating my nanites similar to the Stun Paradigm, but in reverse. As my nanites met the lightning, they tried to bleed the charge into the air around it. It almost worked.

A ball of lightning struck me square on the chest and I convulsed while screaming in pain. The fact that I couldn’t release the grasp I had on my weapons if I’d wanted, kept them from flying away as I flung my arms wide.

Through blurry eyes, I saw the Sectis rushing at me from the other side of the bridge, arms raised to strike. I fell to my knee, suddenly weak from pain, but used the momentum to roll forward and tucked my head under my chin as I did. The Sectis bowled into me, crashing over my body and into the bulkhead behind me. I was flung aside like a ragdoll. Dazed, I looked up from the deck to see the Sectis trying to untangle itself from torn cables and debris from a rent in the bulkhead. Seeing my chance, I translated to the blast door and grabbed the winch with both hands. I noted with concern that my exo-rig was non-functional, and a stabbing pain in my side made me cry out as I used all my strength to operate the winch.

It moved, rotating slowly as I desperately pulled on the wheel. With a grinding screech, the blast door began to slide away. The angry red glow of the flare was obliterated by a bright torrent of hardlight bullets lancing through the hatchway. Naga Team stormed the bridge, splitting to port and starboard as they did. I half fell against the bulkhead, then saw my rifle resting a few metres away. I dove for it, my fingers curling around the grip. Tears of pain clouded my vision, but I could make out the writhing form of the Sectis on the far side of the bridge as the squad advanced on the creature. I braced my rifle on a console, connected a telescoping cable from my suit’s reactor and opened up in full automatic.

Our shots were hammering into the alien, but the insectile devices around it were moving to intercept the bullets.

“Reloading!” called Renthal, his battery cell clattering to the deck. He hastily slapped another cell into his rifle and kept firing. Another call came out, another cell was replaced. Still the thing did not die.

My rifle barrel glowed a warm orange, and I tossed it to the deck. The acrid smell of heated metal filled my senses as I pulled myself to my feet, wincing in pain. I drew in my breath and with a defiant cry, flung out my arms and let loose with a lightning arc of my own. The brilliant plasma played out over the Sectis, splashing over the thousands of insect drones. The effect was immediate – they simply flew apart and clattered to the deck, inert and motionless. Unimpeded, the hardlight bullets drilled into the Sectis as it screamed in agony.

“Cease fire!” called Kekkin, seconds after the beast stopped screaming. Moments later, the only sound was the heavy breathing of the squad.

Then I fell down in pain.

68.

Geko helped me to my feet as I struggled to breathe, accepting a pain killing injector from Kekkin. I waited for a few moments, my eyes closed, until the drugs started to work and the sharp pain in my ribs reduced to a warm numbness instead. I worked my shoulder, stretching my side. I could feel the damage to my body, but for the time being I was operational. A quick pick-me-up in the form of a Repair Paradigm boosted my stamina.

“How are we doing?” I asked Kekkin, indicating the twitching form of the Sectis.

“It lives. For how long, don’t know.”

I hobbled over to the thing, my lip twisted in a grimace. Harris and Renthal were standing over it with their still smoking rifles pointed at it. The damage was immense. Several of its limbs were severed and a full half of its torso was a bloody mess. The long, snake-like lower section of creature was fully visible and I could make out thousands of tiny apertures along the sides. I could see a slow trickle of the tiny insect robots fall from many of them, while a dark grey ichor oozed from others. The ichor matched the blood of the Sectis.

The humanoid mouth bubbled with bloody foam while it worked its jaw, clearly in pain.

“How many of you are there?” I asked it, kneeling by its broken form.

It gasped for air, eliciting a cough before answering. “Sectis knows it. Ghantri marked it for death.”

I regarded it, noting the similarities with the Ghantri soldiers. The flesh of the Sectis held the same rubbery texture, but this one’s body had been heavily augmented with cybernetic attachments. Now that I could see it closely, I saw that the extra limbs and lower portion were flesh-coated cybernetics. All that remained of the creature’s original body was the upper torso, neck and lower face. The rest was built.

“We’ve come for the people here, to take them home.” I said finally, peeling back a damaged section of cybernetic plating to peer at the wound.

“So have we…” it hissed.

“Why? Why not use your own people as soldiers? Why take these people?”

It made a convulsing motion, coughing again. It was trying to laugh. The creature coughed again weakly, spittle and blood falling from its mouth.

“Why?” I asked, slapping aside a limb reaching out weakly for me.

“Our cage is no more. The stars are open to us and your worlds will be consumed. The Ghantri will bring about the return of the world eaters, your Protectorate blood will be ours. You are nothing before…”

I shot the thing in the head.

I rose, turning to face the others. “I already had what we needed from it.”

“See if it has a neural interface.” said Harris, “Where the memory is stored from its cybernetics.”

“Good thinking,” I said, digging my lurzak into its head. Sure enough, the Sectis had an interface overlay implant, just like we did. There would be valuable intel stored on here. I pried it free of the grey matter it was lodged in. “Tac can hack this. We’ll get it back to the university.”

Kekkin nodded and was about to say something, but then grabbed his helmet. I could hear the short wave comms unit inside it barking out Alexander’s voice.

“We’re under fire! The camp went berserk a few moments ago – they’re going crazy out here!”

“What is human’s situation?” asked Kekkin.

“We tried to fall back undetected but a bunch of them came across us, we killed several of them but now they’re all attacking. We retreated to the hill overlooking the camp and have slowed them down, but they’re pushing through our fire!”

“Have them fall back.” I ordered, “Get tell them to make their way back to the university, we’ll push out and engage to buy them some time.”

As Kekkin relayed this, the others grimly readied their gear once more for a fight.

“Contact!” shouted Triptych from the passageway. Half a second later a loud bang blasted through the compartment as the anti-personnel mines by the stairwell detonated.

They came in three waves, making a rush for the top of the stairwell and trying to push into the passageway. As we joined Triptych, adding our gunfire to his, they poured up through the access hatch and died in a hail of hardlight bullets.

We wasted no time, making our way down to the corridors below and secured the airlock we had used to enter the wreck. No more drug-crazed berserkers attacked us inside.

Once outside, we could see the Gossamer star beginning to crest the edge of the ring and daylight flooded the land around us. The camp was a chaotic mess of berserker corpses and torn apart lodgings as the last vestiges of the Sectis drove the remaining soldiers mad with blood lust. Bright flashes from the hill beyond told us that Alexander and his men had not heeded our commands, and even as we watched we could see many dozens of the enemy swarming up the slopes to reach them.

“Heavy weapons fire! On the ridge!” I ordered.

Renthal unslung a pack he carried and tossed it to the ground, then activated a keypad on his arm. The pack unfolded to reveal a small turret that telescoped out of a housing. Immediately, the turret began tracking targets and a bright red beam of super-heated light shot out of the barrel. The beam swept across the ridge, pausing briefly on each target, burning them to a crisp.

“Geko, Harris, right flank. Engage when in enfilade! Trip, Kekkin, with me.” I ran at a sprint across the camp, snapping off shots as I went.

Those halfway up the slope halted their advance, turning to face us running up at them. Renthal’s beam artillery hammered at the enemy at the top and the energy weapon shots from Alexander’s team ceased. Hopefully they had turned to run.

We dug in as soon as the front ranks of the berserkers reached us, very few of them had ranged weapons, but many of them were armed with primitive throwing weapons such as spears and rocks. With their added strength, a lucky throw could pierce our suits. Kekkin used his lurzak to dispatch those who got close to us, while Triptych and I fired into their ranks. Just as the main bulk of them reached us, Harris and Geko opened up on them from their flank. With little cover, and the majority of them lined up along their axis of fire, the pair were able to inflict staggering casualties.

I lost count of how many times I reloaded, tossing each spent cell to the ground. When it was over, the dead were piled about us three or four high. Kekkin climbed to the ridge and scouted ahead, and I was glad to hear that Alexander had made it out. He had lost two of his scouts during the fighting, but the rest had fled in time.

I joined Kekkin on the ridge and looked out over the landscape. He handed me a pair of binoculars and pointed in the direction of the university, here we could see a long plume of black smoke rising.

I could see the battle raging, the horde of marauders throwing themselves at the university outer buildings. The enemy was dying by the dozens, but they came by the thousands. The walls would not hold under such numbers.

We had to get back and get that Jump Gate open. It was as simple as that. There was no time for rest, no time to tend to our wounds. We had not finished our last fight unscathed, either. A group of the berserkers had rushed Renthal while he guided the beam cannon. During the fight, he had taken a spear to his left shoulder. Triptych, during hand-to-hand fighting, had been knocked down and cut across the scalp. Geko was nearly killed when their position was overrun. Kekkin had leapt across the battlefield and pulled the assailants off him as he curled into the foetal position.

It was a crazy fight, one of the closest I had ever been in. Most of it was a blur, a repressed memory or compartmentalisation to protect my fragile psyche. None of that mattered – we all knew what was at stake. We shouldered our rifles and made off at a jog. We had hours to go and were unsure if we could make it in time.

We had to try.