Finding Darkness

Chapter 13 Landing

The first sign that something wasn't right was when the drop-ship lurched to port, its starboard side dipping.

"What was that pilot?" Silvar was out of his tiny seat in the corner of the cockpit and behind the pilot in two of his long strides.

"Unknown, sir, but we've lost contact with drop-ship nine." The copilot flipped several switched and a wave of static filled the compartment, punctuated by high-pitched cries of alarm.

"We've lost nine!

"By the seven moons, what is that thing?!"

"It's coming straight at us!"

"Dive you fools, it's right on top of you!" The shrieking of metal, then a muffled explosion dominated the sound feed, until another voice cut in.

"That thing ripped drop-ships nine apart. How could something that small do something like that?"

From where he stood Silvar could see spread out before him, drop-ships two, four and seven. They were in step down formation, each lander at a slightly different altitude so the formation could stay packed together.

Out of the corner of his eye, Silvar watched a tiny red dot streak into his view from port to starboard. At first, he thought nothing of it until the pilot gasped.

"Sir, that thing is putting off more energy than every drop-ship in this formation, combined."

Silvar watched it with more precision after that. It dropped onto the hull of four, but distance was such that none of them in the cockpit could make out what it was doing. A few buttons were pushed by the copilot, and the entire front view screen magnified to show Malachi standing on the hull of lander four.

"It's human?" Silvar breathed. Then watched as a blood red sword formed from the tiny human hand.

Malachi slashed once, twice, then three times, each stroke accompanied by an outpouring of blazing red energy. The energy pulses cut deep into the lander, severing control surfaces, fuel lines, engineering spaces. For a few seconds, black smoke began to pour out of the rents in the hull until the highly volatile fuel began to oxidize into the atmosphere. The explosion that erupted when that fuel air mixture reached the heavily damaged engineering spaces blew the entire port side of the drop-ship apart, and sent the rest falling end over end towards the ground like a leaf falling from a tree.

"Whatever that thing is, it can't be human. No human can do that." Silvar backed towards the passageway, back to his troops as he spoke. Then, to his horror he watched the things head turn an instant before lander four was blown into scraps, its flaming eyes seemed to fix their gaze on him and him alone.

For a few seconds, those eyes held him in place. He couldn't look away. He was pinioned in place. Then they were gone, and the tiny figure bounding out of the debris field and onto drop-ship seven. The red blade carved a small circle in the metal of the hull and the figure disappeared inside.

"It's on your hull, get your troops ready!" Silvar faintly heard his pilot screaming into the inner ship channel, trying to warn lander seven's crew. He knew it was too late. Within seconds of the figure disappearing, the drop-ship belched greasy black smoke out of what seemed like every port or seam it had. Its running lights faded, flickered, relit for an instant, then the huge saucer shaped craft tilted onto its port side and followed its brother in a lazy end over end roll towards the ground.

It was then that Silvar saw the tiny dot leap off drop-ship seven. It took him a second to realize the figure was growing larger. Reaching over the pilot, he shoved the control yoke to the forward stops, and an instant later found his back slammed against the overhead. When he'd pushed the controls fully forward, he'd sent the drop-ship into free fall, but it'd had the desired effect. With a roar they could hear through the hull, Malachi flew within inches over the lander.