Ocean of Stars: Where the Sun Sails [1]

XIII

She whirled. Though she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between the two neomorphs, the fully grown ogre that now rose up on two legs behind her wasn't the same one she had seen burst from the broken body of Sergeant Hallet. It parted pale, bony jaws to reveal a full array of even, sharp teeth as it launched itself toward her.

Crashing into the white body, Walter staggered it even as he rebounded to one side. Letting out a shriek, the creature turned from Aspen to attack the synthetic. As Walter threw up his left arm to protect himself, the powerful toothed jaws struck repeatedly, savaging his arm and shredding his uniform. Life fluid sprayed from the ragged wound.

Responding to the attack, the security team rushed to their aid, but it was hard to take aim and fire without hitting either Walter or Aspen. With a single arc of its tail, the furious neomorph brought the point around, down, and right through Ankor's skull. The private's eyes rolled back in his head as the tail was withdrawn, whereupon he dropped his weapon and collapsed.

Moving with incredible speed, the creature next slashed sideways at Cole, sending the man flying half a dozen meters into the bush. Meanwhile Rosenthal began firing madly, unleashing burst after burst from her F90. Instinct and experience finally succeeded in shoving Lopé's anguish aside and he joined Rosenthal in blasting away at the creature.

With the neomorph still raging in the midst of them, they couldn't shoot freely. Every one of them was in danger of being hit by close-quarters friendly fire. It was complete chaos in the grass, made all the more dangerous because fear and panic prevented anyone from giving orders or making rational decisions.

Unarmed and unable to help, Walter, Aspen, Daniels, and Oram did their best to dig into the ground and stay out of the line of fire. Meanwhile, despite the pain from his rough landing, Cole had lifted himself up and added the thunder from his weapon to the general spray of ordnance. For his trouble, he got clipped in the shoulder by a stray round from Rosenthal and went right back down.

Now as large as a small ape, the back of its elongated skull having narrowed to a point, the neomorph that had burst forth from Hallet exploded out of the tall grass to join the fray. As Rosenthal spun to fire in its direction, the tail whipped out to knock her legs from under her. She went down hard, still firing, as the tail slashed in her direction again and again. Though blood began to stream from a cut on her forearm, she continued blasting away in her assailant's direction.

The creatures were so dang fast. Wondering what she could do besides throw rocks, Aspen spotted the fallen Ankor's carbine. Trying to watch both attacking beings simultaneously, she scrambled on all fours in the weapon's direction, succeeded in grabbing it, and rolled to fire at Rosenthal's attacker. She was certain she hit the thing. At this range it was almost impossible to miss, but her shots only succeeded in driving it off into the darkness. At least, she reflected, she'd kept it off the wounded private.

Her actions only served, however, to attract the attention of the larger, more mature neomorph. As it lunged in her direction, teeth clacking and long powerful fingers fully extended, she struggled to swing around the weapon she had picked up in order to get it between them.

A sudden bright light overhead caused her to blink, then squint. Raising a hand to shield her eyes, she tried to locate its source. Descending via chute, the intensely vivid flare was accompanied by a high-pitched ringing sound. As the light began to pulse, the ringing reached a crescendo.

A concussive shockwave expanded outward from the flare. At the same time the light achieved its maximum intensity. Momentarily rendered deaf and blind, Aspen couldn't even find the wherewithal to fire her weapon— not that she could see a target anyway. Or anything else, for that matter. Murderous beings, her colleagues, the immediate surroundings, everything was wiped out in a dazzling tsunami of light and sound.