Europa (Deadverse Book 1) (27 page)

Within moments, Paul had unloaded the nine shot clip and was already aiming his other weapon, the equivalent of an assault rifle, modified for vacuum combat. The rover continued to speed as fast as it could around each tower of ice, throwing Paul back and forth on his seat. He unclipped himself and moved to the rear seat, set his legs forward to pin himself against the rear of the rover and took aim with the rifle. Multiple shots began to fly off towards the approaching sphere, once again, to little effect. Each bullet splashed against it, splattering small green globs against the ice. As Paul unloaded one clip, he reached down to get the next one and saw the two others spheres spinning some ways behind the first one.

“This isn’t good,” Paul muttered.

“Don’t say shit like that.” Thomas said, not daring to take his eyes off the ice and towers in front of him to look.

Paul clipped the next mag in and took aim, when he noticed what looking like a tentacle forming out of the spinning orb.

“Yup, that’s not good either,” he grumbled again.

There was a white flash and a three foot shard of ice smashed into the side of ice just as Thomas turned the rover right, nearly missing them. The impact exploded shards of ice that splashed all over the rover.

“What the hell was that?” Thomas shouted, his heart racing.

“It’s shooting back at us,” Paul said.

He took careful aim, and fired his shots, this time trying to hit the ice firing weapon.

“Shooting?” Thomas asked. “Oh great.”

“Just keep driving, and turn in and out of as many of those ice towers as you can.”

There was nothing else he could do. The ice tower field didn’t clear up for nearly another six miles. Shards of ice continued to explode around him as he turned. Thomas shouted in surprise every time. Paul tried firing at the tentacle like weapon, but the bumpy ride never allowed him to get off good shots.

“At least they aren’t catching up on us,” Paul said, emptying his last magazine.

“Oh, yeah, good for us,” Thomas replied.

Paul attempted to set the rifle down, but a small bump launched it clear off the rover. The soldier watched in dismay as the weapon floated off and was then gone behind a tower. He shook his head and reached down for his last weapon.

“How far are we from clearing the field?” Paul shouted.

Another ice shard slammed into the ice cliff. A fist sized chunk of ice splintered off and hit Thomas directly in the face plate, nearly knocking him off the rover. He pulled hard on the wheel to keep himself in the rover, but in turn, spun the vehicle nearly into another tower. Paul was thrown sideways and nearly lost hold of the small cylinder he was holding. The rover smashed off the side of the tower as it kept driving.

“There,” Thomas shouted, pointing. “There’s the base.”

Then it dawned on him.

“Oh shit, did we just bring them straight to the base?”

Paul pressed two buttons on the cylinder and looked back at Thomas.

“Just tell me the moment we clear the field.”

Thomas saw a direct path through the next couple of ice spears and pressed down on the accelerator. The small rover picked up speed, barely hanging on to the ice. It exploded out of the ice field like a bullet.

“CLEAR!”

Paul pressed a third button and then threw the cylinder as hard as he could out of the back of the rover. The black cylinder bounced off the side of an ice tower and landed with a soft floating thud on the ice ground. The green glob was just behind it.

“That should do…” Paul started to say when the explosion lit up the dark moon night.

The alien object vanished in a flash of blinding white light and the whole line of ice towers began to crumble. The power of the bomb was far greater than even Paul had expected. The concussion ripped up a layer of ice ten feet deep and sent a shockwave out towards them. The wave of ice hit the rover, launching it off the ground. As it flew into the sky, it spun, throwing both of the men clear of the vehicle. In slow motion, the two men and the vehicle went flying off in opposite directions, crashing nearly five hundred feet from where the shockwave had hit the rover.

Thomas stood up, and for the first time, noticed a crack in his helmet. He touched it quickly with his gloved hands, panicking. He dropped to a knee and reached into a pouch he had on his right thigh. In it he found a small metallic tape, and quickly unrolled a three inch piece. He tore it off and applied it direction over the crack. It blocked his view partially on the right eye, but he didn’t care.

“You OK?” Thomas asked into the comm.

“Thomas?” Ben’s familiar voice echoed into his helmet.

Surprised, Thomas replied, “Boss? Man am I glad to hear you.”

The engineer scanned the damage. The entire ice tower field had collapsed and the once smooth ice surface had cracked and crumbled a good four to five feet under. The rubble of the ice tower a few hundred feet high, and there was no sign of the alien pursuers. The rover was almost two hundred feet away, on its side, its wheels severely bent and damaged, but still trying to spin. Thomas kept turning to try to spot the soldier.

“Paul, you there?”

“Almost at the base. You gotta get in here now, Thomas.”

Thomas turned around and saw Paul’s suit moving quickly. He was nearly at the outer hatch on the central dome. Thomas began to move, pushing himself forward with quick jumps. Paul ran past the hatch, and toward the damaged engineering dome. They hadn’t bothered to repair it since they weren’t going to use it anymore.

“Thomas, what is going on out there?” Ben’s voiced echoed again. “Is it another quake?”

“Worse,” Thomas said through his heavy breathing. He retold, as best as he could, everything that had occurred, from Glorin, to the Alien ship and the green spheres.

“Thomas, are you in the dome yet?” Paul asked. Thomas couldn’t even see him anymore. Last he had seen him was near the engineering dome vehicle hatch. It was the only part of the dome that had remained intact, surprisingly enough.

“Um,” Thomas glanced up and saw the entrance hatch to the central dome not far ahead of him. “Almost.”

He reached the hatch and begin punching in the command to allow access. As the inner chamber decompressed, Thomas stopped and looked back at the rubble from the explosion. His heart nearly burst as he made out two green forms slowly oozing over the top of the rubble.

“Ben,” Thomas began to say, but the base commander was already talking.

“What on earth is that?” Ben said. They had already trained the cameras back towards the ice field and were observing from inside.

“Thomas, get inside. I will deal with this.”

Thomas turned instinctively to look towards the destroyed dome, just as the vehicle hatch opened up. A mist of air and vapor fogged into the moon sky and a large mech appeared within the dark opening. It was Paul, inside one of the drone mech suits. With two leaps, he took off towards the ice debris.

- Ben –

Ben sat at the console with Jenna and Connie behind him, hunched over him. All of the cameras on that side of the dome were on multiple screens in front of them. What they were seeing was too stunning to be described in words. Horace came crashing through the door to shouts of ‘what’s going on?’ but got no response. He moved towards them and immediately saw the action on the screen.

It was a battle between man and alien and it was unlike anything they had ever seen.

The two blobs had slowly moved over the ice debris, nearly shapeless, like gelatin pouring over glass shards. The mechanized form of Paul had dashed out to meet his enemy and had covered the mile in nearly two minutes. The first blob dropped onto the ice ground in front of the wall of debris and began to slowly take shape, forming back into a sphere. Paul made one final leap, and midair, launched several small rockets and sunk and disappeared into the alien object. The small bombs exploded within it with blinding light. When the cameras could focus on the being again, large bubbles were oozing smoke, like a pus filled blister.

Paul landed on the ice floor, propelled by bursts of gas. The deformed sphere didn’t make a move, but a long tentacle began to take shape next to it. Paul leapt towards the sphere and with a swing of his arm, lopped the tentacle off, splattering green matter all over the ice ground. Paul looked up and saw the second glob slowly coming down off the debris. He pulled something off from his suit and pushed it into the first glob. It towered over Paul by nearly twice his size, so he put the device squarely in the middle of it. He pushed off the ice and with a gust of gas, he flew off into the moon sky. Another flash of light blinded the camera feed and when it darkened, the green sphere was no longer there.

Paul landed several hundred feet away. The second sphere had already taken shape and was starting to spin towards him. Paul aimed again, and several rockets fired off from his arm towards the sphere. But the sphere had learned. It formed holes in its bodies and the rockets flew harmlessly through it, exploding in the ice far behind him. It began to pick up speed, and as it spun, a ring formed around it, digging into the ice.

Paul switched his weapons around, and a long black rifle appeared on his left arm. He took aim and began to pour bullets into the sphere. The explosive rounds tore small chucks of green ooze from the sphere, but barely made a dent. The sphere continued to build up speed as it bore down on Paul. The ring had now formed teeth, like a saw blade, that allowed it to dig into the ice and go faster. Paul stood his ground and continued to pour out explosive rounds into the sphere. Just as the sphere was about to run him over, the mech leaped into the sky, flying hundreds of feet up above it. The sphere lost its shape and pancaked out into the ice, spinning past where Paul once stood. High up in the sky, Paul continued to fire his weapon. The glob reformed into a sphere, and when Paul realized he would float right down into it, he activated a burst of gas and flew off towards the base.

He landed hundreds of feet away, but the glob had already reformed itself and was spinning towards him. Paul continued to fire, taking only small moments to reload the weapon. Three tentacles formed out of the side of the sphere, two on the right and one on the left. Shards of ice began to fly at the mech, their impact not deadly, but clearly damaging the suit. Paul leapt back into the air and there ensued one of the oddest scenes Ben had ever seen.

The sphere could not fly or jump it appeared, while Paul was apparently quite adept at flying and jumping in the low gravity. It was like a trapeze act, with Paul flying around from jump to jump. The sphere continued to speed towards wherever he would land, and Paul would keep jumping. Each would continue to fire at each other with their weapons, but neither appeared to be able to make any damage to the other. And so they went, jumping and moving, like a 3d game of chess.

“How long can he keep this up?” Jenna asked.

“I have no idea.” That was Thomas, who had joined the rest of them up in the central command room.

They watched as Paul tried switching weapons. The sphere dodged all the rocket attacks, so Paul started attacking the ground around the sphere. The explosions bounced harmlessly off the form of the sphere, but the craters that formed seemed to throw off its own attack precision. As the being threw off tiny spears of ice into the sky, Paul frenetically used his own gas bursts to dodge them, while at the same time trying to return his own gunfire.

“I can’t do this,” Jenna said, getting up and rushing out of the door.

“Jenna,” Thomas shouted after her.

“What are we going to do?” Connie asked.

“If Paul can’t beat that thing back?” Ben replied. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe we can hide in the underground tunnels,” Horace suggested.

Ben shook his head. He watched as the sphere hit Paul several more times with the ice shards. His gas bursts weren’t nearly as strong. He was running out of the pressurized oxygen he used to fly around. Paul returned fire with some rockets, which the sphere easily dodged. The explosion of ice pieces covered the sphere in a fog, and for a moment, it stopped still. Ben waited in anticipation, but as the ice fell out, he saw it still there. The three tentacles had formed into a larger one and it began firing far larger shards of ice. The first hit Paul square in the chest, sending him into a spin. The second hit one of his legs, and gas began to vent quickly, sending him crashing into the ice ground.

“I think we need to get underground now,” Ben said, standing up from his chair, but keeping his eyes on screens. He looked around quickly and noticed for the first time that Jenna had left.

“Jenna?” he said, tapping into his station wide comm. “Come in.”

Everyone began backing away towards the door while keeping their eyes on the action on the monitors. The sphere continued to launch three foot sized ice shards at Paul’s mech. He was able to dodge most, but as the sphere slowly rolled closer to him, it became harder and harder to avoid them. The impacts sent him reeling backwards.

It was a losing battle. One shard hit the upper left shoulder, and his suit began to vent more gas. Paul fired rockets quickly at the ground in between himself and the sphere, creating a haze of miniature ice flakes. The large mech hand came up and slammed something down on the venting gas and stopped the leak, but he was having trouble moving. Paul stumbled back slowly as the sphere rolled slowly through the cloud of slowly falling ice crystals. The large tentacle split once again into three as it rolled ever closer to the mech. Paul tried firing back with his rifle, but he was out of ammunition.

Ben watched with a grim anticipation as the tentacles reached out and grabbed the nearly immobile form of the mech, lifting it off the ice with ease. Paul swung around with his arms, hitting at the tentacles, but several smaller ones formed, lashing out against his arms and legs, holding them taut.

“Oh, no,” Connie gasped.

“We have to go. Now,” Ben said, turning around and taking Connie by the arm towards the door.

Thomas remained behind, watching. He shouted in shock and Ben spun around. The monitors were white.

“What’s going on?” Ben asked.

“It just happened.”

Ben rushed back to the console and began switching camera views. Most were blinded until he found a lateral view, the entrance hatch camera. It was Jenna. She had brought out one of the plasma drills and tipped it on its side. As the other monitors readjusted to the sudden increase in light, he could see she had aimed the blast from the drill at the alien sphere, disintegrating it in an instance. A ten foot deep canyon of melted ice had formed from the drill to the sphere and nearly a mile past.

“Jenna?” Ben barked into the comm. She looked back up at the camera and gave a thumbs up.

Ben tapped through a few more monitor feeds, trying to find Paul, but couldn’t located him. Where the sphere had once been, green matter lay splattered over a wide radius, steam venting quickly into the frozen moon like mini geysers.

“Jenna, I can’t find Paul,” Ben said into the comm. Jenna looked back up at the camera. Why she didn’t respond he didn’t know, but she gave another thumbs up, and after pulling the power from the drill, she began jumping out towards the battlefield.

“Be careful,” Ben advised, “that thing looks dead, but we have no idea.”

Again, there was no response from Jenna.

Everyone had gathered around the monitors again, waiting. They watched Jenna’s form move slowly away from the base, growing smaller and smaller. She dipped in and out of the smooth semi-circular canyon that had just been carved out by the plasma drill. At times, she hopped cleanly from one side to another, but she kept on that path until she reached the remains of the alien sphere. She began looking around and then spotted something, because she leapt twice very quickly. She stopped and knelt down beside a large pile of green matter, reached in, and pulled out a mech arm. The soldier had been buried in the stuff.

Ben zoomed the camera in as far is it would go, which was not much. Jenna was shoveling the green matter from off the mech until she had cleared the upper part of the machine, then with two good hoists, had the soldier back on his feet. She motioned back to the base, but Ben couldn’t see what she was doing. Everyone let out a breath of relief when the saw Paul’s mech begin to walk slowly. Jenna walked beside it, keeping it from falling over. The damage was substantial, but there didn’t appear to be any leaks.

“He is going to be banged up,” Connie pointed out.

Ben stood up again. The last ten minutes had been the most intense he had ever gone through, and he had only watched the action. There was a lot to take in, but first, they had to help the soldier. The stranger had nearly given his life for them.

“Let’s get down to the hatch,” Ben ordered, rushing towards the door.

He stopped to let everyone go past him when he realized that someone was missing.

“Where is Charles?”