Pull (Deep Darkness Book 1) (23 page)

We heard Addax scream and eject from his ship. We couldn’t see it but it was
unmistakable. A Skrav fighter came out of nowhere and hit him from behind.
It was only because of Friday that he managed to eject. No human could have
responded to that kind of an attack quick enough.

He was weightless for a minute maybe more but instead of
flying into the
vacuum of space Addax who was more machine then man used his
momentum to scrap his arms and legs into the Skrav starship’s metal hull
tearing away his skin. A metal coated his bone and the same metal gears
autons used had replaced his muscles. His veins burst spheres of blood
floated into the cold but he continued to move. Pieces of flesh burned away
from the radiation that surrounded him but he was immortal. The only
human parts he actually had left were his heart, brain, a few nerves here and
there and bits and pieces of his spine and they were all encased inside metal
strong enough to survive the void. He moved slowly but he was still fast
enough to take out a few Skrav drones with an assault rifle he carried with
him. We could still hear him through the comms. Duv’Mir retreated back to
pick him up followed by Trevor who was just getting back to the fight for
cover. A part of being on our team meant no man goes it alone. Addax was no
different then an auton or caretaker in that he could latch himself onto
Duv’Mir’s ship and hitch a ride but he was still human heart and mind and
that made him one of us.

It felt like we were racing. Hayden and I were side by side on our way to the
finish line - the hub, first to destroy it wins. I had done this a hundred times in
my head. Both of us had played this out a dozen times in simulation. We
would fire at about the same time then break off in two different directions
watching from behind as the hub exploded in a mass fireball that spanned in
every direction. There would be no sound. This entire battle had been silent
aside from what we imagined in our head. The fireball would expand out
engulfing any Skrav that decided to give chase. We would then clear out and
watch as the Erebus and Aelita fire endlessly striking the monster in the heart
tearing it limb from limb. The archangels will split the demon and rain fire
down from heaven above wiping the world clean.

We shot at exactly the same time just as we practiced and watched as the hub
broke into several pieces. It didn't scatter. It stood there mocking us almost
completely intact. All around us drones continued to swarm. There was no
explosion, no fireball. It had to be a fluke. We must have missed. We slowed
to a halt and regrouped circling around and taking a second shot. There was
nothing. We had been set up. The hub was a decoy, a distraction.

The Skrav vessel began to turn on its side like a crocodile tearing apart its
prey. Hayden and I barely had time to grind our ships to a halt on the surface
of the dagger. Hundreds of human and Skrav ships were fighting along the
trenches and edges of the Skrav starship when it turned on its side forcing
hundreds who couldn’t react quick enough to crash into the metal hull.

We began our retreat. The truth was our bodies could only handle so much
force from being thrown around before we would collapse of fatigue. It would
be easier for another pilot to replace us then for us to keep fighting. As soon
as Hayden and I were certain the Skrav weren’t going to turn again we
moved. Even when they shifted we made sure to compensate or fly low
enough to the hull we could land. Slowly at first but then we picked up the
pace. We flew side by side again taking out a few drones here and there but
none of the Skrav fighters even bothered with us. We were too far from the
Erebus so we made quick plans to land on the Aelita. Each ship acted like an
independent nation before and now the borders were lifted. Duv’Mir and
Addax (who was hanging on to Duv'Mir's ship with his cybernetic arms)
were still flying around the Skrav dagger looking and analyzing it trying to
find a weakness. Trevor’s ship had become damaged and he retreated towards
the Erebus along with Meddix and Brecca.

Half an hour passed. We were moments away from the Aelita when we saw
their hangar open. The hull of the Aelita was badly damaged. Fluid leaked
from the immersion core along the outline of the hull like black blood. It was
like an animal lay before us in the distance hurt, bleeding wanting to scream
but mute. Skrav ships swarmed around it like sharks to the carcass of a
whale.

From the bowels of the Aelita we saw it open up. The Aelita was spilling its
guts. From inside the hangar we could see hundreds of black ships pour out
as if the doors of hell had broken and let loose the spawns of Satan. The
Scourge had been released.

The Scourge, inhuman clones bred born and made for war. They each share
the same collective consciousness and that makes them one hell of a force to
reckon with. Created onboard the Aelita hundreds of years ago they have
always been a last resort too dangerous for most skirmishes. The last time
they were used was the Battle of Colony 5544 where they lost control and
couldn’t differentiate Skrav and human from one another. That or as some
had come to believe they held a grudge for the way we treated them. The
ones that survived that battle were hunted down by cyborgs and augmented
humans like Addax and Lore and either killed or recaptured. There were
hundreds descending upon us now - far more then what histroy books said
had survived. Their ships looked like demons - small swords strapped with
devil wings. Maybe this was the Aelita’s idea of ridding the human race of
their kind forever. If we were lucky both the scourge and Skrav would kill
each other before we even set foot onboard the orbital. We had let loose the
rabid dogs of war and now any pilot out in the open such as myself and
Hayden had become fair game.

We quickly countered as the Scourge
fired at us. Already they had decided
anything not a part of their hive mind was to be exterminated. Hayden
managed to take one or two out while my shots were dodged instead raining
down on the Aelita. I prayed no one was watching. We no longer had a way
to fall back. The Aelita began to move closer and closer to the Skrav dagger
dragging us along for the ride as its gravity pulled our ships. Caretakers on
the Aelita began to let go and disappear into the darkness as if they were
giving up. Some were attempting to kamikaze either scourge or Skrav but
most simply disappeared into the vacuum.

The Aelita was throwing everything it had at the Skrav while the Erebus
retreated further and further away firing from a distance onto both ships. We
were caught between visible rays of light, fire, and invisible beams of energy
that only our ships could track and warn us about seconds before our atoms
would be ripped apart. Both the Skrav and the Aelita continued move closer
and closer. It was like being caught between the blocks of tetris. It was
obvious they were going to touch. That had been the Aelita’s plan all along.
Even if the Skrav ship was destroyed by the collision the debris would tear
apart the Aelita. During the battle we had moved so close to the orbital there
was nothing neither could do. Both ships would lose but the Aelita could
crash-land and still survive. Hayden and I had no choice but to follow suit. If
we were going to crash we had to do it all on our own terms.

We pushed our ships to their limit setting the computer to make an
emergency jump into the immer that would last less than a second. It would
be enough to take us through the orbital’s atmosphere and hopefully disable a
few Skrav or Scourge near us.

For one small moment in time everything seemed to stop. The world around
us twisted and blurred the blackness of space became the immer and then we
were in the clouds. We were on the orbital falling through the air surrounded
by snowy mountains. Below us we could see trees and forests covered in
snow. No longer a dream, I couldn't help but wonder if I had blacked out and
none of this was real. I could never forget this moment. The moment I looked
upon Eden. It looked like Earth.

I remember the clouds and before that the blackness of space all
around. It was as if time itself had slowed just long enough to show me the
beauty of the world I would be leaving behind. I must have been unconscious
for several hours. Hayden hadn’t crashed very far from where I had been
buried nose first in the snow. Both ships had activated a distress beacon but it
wasn’t likely anyone would come looking. Once I dug my way out of my
cockpit I could move towards him more then likely though he would track
me. He was always much more acute to that then I had ever been. I was more
then lucky to be alive. The Aelita and the Skrav ship came crashing together
falling into the atmosphere above the orbital melting together and then sliding
down mountains and hills. It was like I was standing in front of them as they
hurled themselves towards me twisting and bending as they changed from
one geometric shape to another. They must have been thirty miles away. I felt
like I was watching two great cities fall from the sky.

I remember falling through the clouds and the seeing the mountains and
snow. Sensors and drones from the Erebus told us we could breath here but I
didn’t see a single tree near where I was. I had seen a few on the way down of
course but not nearly enought. This place was like Errikus. Buried under the
ground there must have been several plants and biomass emitting just the
right amount of oxygen and nitrogen creating just enough natural gasses to
create the perfect atmosphere held together by gravitational drives and
exactly the right amount of force.

“Aira was on the Aelita,” I cried no one around to listen. It had been years
since I had spoken to her. I hadn’t even seen her since Errikus and now she
was gone. The three children of Errikus were down to two. Constantly I had
dreamt of finding her once we were no longer chained to the stars. When we
were young there were days she would get Hayden, Dom, and I to play
house. Her and I were husband and wife and they were our children. Even
Hera knew the lengths I would go to save a friend. I had told her how if I
could go back and rescue Dom or somehow stop Aira from being forced
aboard the Aelita that I would. “Hera,” her name flew out of my mouth. I
could feel tears beneath my eyelid but I didn’t cry. My body was too cold for
that.

I could see my re
flection in the shield that surrounded me light from the
horizon from where the stars were setting. The horizon was curved in a
strange way that the land seemed to raise itself upwards as if I had fallen
down inside a well. All around me red and yellow light saturated my eyes. It
had been years since I had seen a sunset. My eyes burned, I had adapted to
life onboard the Erebus and forgotten how it felt to stare directly into a star.

There was something else all around I could hear such familiar sounds. The
world felt chaotic. The most familiar of which was a sound I knew from
Errikus; a sound from my childhood. It was the sound heard outside the walls
late at night and sometimes during the evening. The sound that would have
us lock doors and sit by our guardians or play inside simulations when we
were so afraid the only thing we could do was lock out the world around us.
The Eek never feared anything. It was one of the reasons they decided to put
a colony on Errikus in the first place – aside from the fact there was plenty
left to build on. They were afraid of one thing though - the sound of
nightmares of animals that were part wolf part dragon with hair that matted
and dreaded and ran down their backs across their black and grey bodies.
Beasts that hunted with several eyes on either side of their face and sharp
jagged teeth across their long snouts. The sound of a hellbeast.

Animals that stood on two legs or run on six and stood between eight and
twelve feet as adolescence and forty sometimes fifty feet as mature adults
covered in eyes and sharp spines. Like dragons bred with demons their tails
alone could whip and kill a man. The walls on Errikus were built solely to
keep them out along with drones and automated turrets but every once in
awhile their would be one or two that would break in and kill several dozen
Eek, even the Arr7 had a hard time standing their ground against them.
Monsters without weakness. The were the top of the food chain on Errikus.

I remembered one night my mother and I had to lock us inside the basement
of one of the trade offices owned by an elderly Pok, a furry little guy named
Talvor. We heard the sirens and hid away in the dark. We were there for
several hours before Talvor went above ground to try and see what was
happening maybe even find help. The sirens continued to blare. I never saw
Talvor again but soon after he left the sirens stopped. Eek security forces
gunned down the single hellbeast that made its way into the city.

The Seraphim was the worst creature I had ever seen on Errikus but it was a
creature of the immer displaced and afraid. For all it knew it was fighting for
its life against a world that was trying to swallow it whole. The hellbeasts
were the worst thing on Errikus. Why were they here? Why would the Lethe
or whoever had made this place move them here to an orbital when they were
bad enough on one planet? Again I heard the hellbeast howl and this time it
was unmistakable. The beast was coming closer and closer. Hayden’s distress
beacon was a few miles away. I could make it there before morning once I
gathered my gear. As far as the hellbeast was concerned we probably weren’t
that interesting but if one of us – if Hayden was bleeding that would draw its
scent.

I tore the material that made up my seat and made a makeshift jacket and
hood. I also had some of my space suit and facemask still left intact. I had
created something out of junk and wreckage like this before it was something
Duv’Mir had taught me and showed all of us several times how to do one
night out of boredom. Now it was saving my life. The spacesuit hood and
jacket would keep me warm and allow me to survive. My M44 rifle and
rations had survived the fall well enough I wouldn’t be searching for food or
fighting with my bear hands. That was good considering I had no idea what
would be out there in the cold. Hellbeasts would hunt day or night but this
was a new world. If hellbeast were here from Errikus what other horrors had
become displaced?

I grabbed what I could and then started to move towards Hayden’s signal
making sure to download all I could from my XA-2 into my wrist PDA. Both
of us must have seen the Aelita crash. If we were lucky we could get there in
a few days and maybe there would be survivors. At the very least it was in the
opposite direction I had heard the howl. That was good enough for me.
Without Balkava or Duv’Mir I had to give myself the orders, my personal
mission, “Find Hayden and get to the Aelita.”

I made my way closer and closer to Hayden’s beacon falling down into a
trench. It was like something from World War 2, it felt just like something I
had seen through the eyes of Joseph Everett but it was still so very alien.
Along the walls I could see small hieroglyphs etched into the rock and stone. I
couldn’t decipher any of it and didn’t recognize it as anything we had come
across. Holding my rifle in front of me I made my way through crossing
corners and watching my back. Then I heard the hellbeast. It wasn’t a howl
this time it was a growl. I had crossed its field of vision and been found. A
shadow jumped over me for a second. The Earth once had monsters in the
shape of giant reptiles and birds and dinosaurs – Errikus had the hellbeast. It
was hunting me from above leaping over from one side of the trench to
another. I could feel my right eye twitching as if I had been staring at a
monitor for too long. The cold breeze hit my face making my teeth hurt and
my cheeks feel numb. Any moment the Hellbeast would reveal itself.
Hellbeast were a conceited predator always staring down and toying with
their prey the way a child would play with food.

I continued walking through the trench. My eyes were heavy now. I wanted
sleep. How nice it would be to just lie down and let it all go. As far as anyone
knew I died in the space fight far above the clouds and the surface. The snow
would probably preserve my body just like these ruins and years from now
some expedition human or otherwise would find my corpse in perfect
condition. I could be the scientific discovery of a century. The man frozen in
ice trapped in time it would be an ironic end for someone who has seen into
the passages of time. - Likely though I would just be another meal a feast for
one night probably not even enough to stave away the beast’s hunger.

Something inside myself made me move forward. Perhaps I should give
myself more credit. I wanted to persevere. My instincts pushed me forward as
I entered a small dark tunnel. If I weren’t being hunted it would have been a
perfect place to settle in for the night. Snow fell to the ground like ash.
Perhaps that was what it was, small pieces of the Aelita and the Skrav ship
that broke off during the battle burning up inside the atmosphere.

I made my way inside a cave. It was something that seemed dug out but the
inside was huge. I had never heard of hellbeast on Errikus burrowing but this
world was different and if that was what this one did I might be walking right
into its lair. It didn’t matter. I needed immediate shelter at least till I could get
my thoughts together. I could smell something akin to rotten meat the
moment I stepped into the hollow. My theory was correct. I had walked into
a nest, the beast's lair. The light from the rifle revealed the soft porous eggs
six seven feet in diameter stuck to the wall. This wasn’t like Errikus. The
hellbeasts on Errikus would lay eggs but they were never larger then two
maybe three feet and they didn’t stick to surfaces like this. The eggshells were
soft and covered in small veins. Moving closer I could see through the opaque
surface and inside to the multiple eyes and claws that were forming along soft
tissue. Each claw was longer then the length of my hand. If even one of these
hatched it could tear me in half. If I had any sense I should destroy them now.
Destroy them before they grow old and hunt us down. They were so fragile. I
would probably give myself away but I would ensure the protection of any
survivors. Any creature human or otherwise these beasts snare would be on
my hands for not putting a stop to them. It probably wouldn’t matter. If I
destroyed the nest here the creature hunting me would know exactly were I
am. I would probably infuriate it sending it into a rage. Once I was gone it
would just pick up were it left off and lay another batch of eggs to hunt, kill,
and maim. We were so low on the food chain I needed to kill the creature
now or risk it hunting me forever.

I had one charge tucked away inside my suit. I was small no bigger then the
palm of my hand. I could set it and run. The explosion would cause the
hellbeast to run to its spawning ground and in its moment of anger I would be
ready to strike my M44 should have enough of a charge to send the beast to
it’s grave. Even if it didn’t die I knew its weak spots; the eyes and joints just
above the legs. I could maim it enough it would bleed out into the snow. I
would end this threat once and for all.

I no longer felt the sense I was being hunted. Perhaps the hellbeast had
decided I was too easy a prey or it had found something more interesting.
Maybe it was still tracking me curious as to what I am, even if I was edible.
Errikus had been full of poisonous drachmae and bannerol – animals that
resembled giant spiders and insects – that the hellbeast would hunt but
certain types those marked with black stripes or red marks were always
poisonous. The meat on drachmae was very much the same as the meat found
in a cow full of protein. Humans for the most part couldn’t stomach it but the
Eek and the Pok ate it all just fine. The drachmae poisons were occasionally
sold or traded in the black markets almost like currency. The bones of the
bannerol were so strong they could be welded together and used on the front
of exotic ships and star fighters. Some Drok even fashioned weapons swords
knives and bows from the bannerol bones.

Thinking about Errikus seemed to take away the pain the cold was causing. It
must have been twenty maybe thirty degrees below at this point and it was
only going to get colder.

I put my plan into action. The charge blew. Shards of egg whistled through
the air the smell of rotten and burning flesh was everywhere and the smoke
rose sixty seventy feet before it was too thin to see. The hellbeast screamed
and howled. It was cursing me. Cursing all. I was hidden up on a ledge. Just
enough cover so it wouldn’t be able to see me right away. I could see its
silhouette in the smoke. It seemed different then the ones on Errikus. Its arms
seemed to stretch out more as if it had wings. Through the smoke I could see
tumors on its side glowing with red and yellow veins. It seemed strange
against its black and brown reptile like skin. I got two maybe three shots from
my rifle into its knees and another into what looked like a wing. The beast fell
to the ground wailing.

I took too much pride in my victory. The moment I thought I was in the clear
the beast came charging through the fog and snow. I could see the red
pouring from its eyes as if it was crying blood instead of tears. When I could
finally see it clearly it was obvious this was no ordinary animal. It did have
wings and it was flying towards me. I took off as fast as I could through the
ice and snow. The ice carried me several yards away as I slid through the
trench and out the other side into a small ravine. Out of the corner of my eye
I saw what must have been a repulsorlift. I was right, this trench was a
graveyard. A Skrav skimmer was buried in the snow by another crashed
dropship. They must have sent several scouts down to this world before we
arrived. I could see dried blood on along the steering panel and valves. The
Skrav used skimmers (hover cycles) to float several feet off the ground; they
were capable of traveling up to two hundred miles per hour.