Into the Void

Chapter 17

Nate looked up to see Vance snapping a chemical light stick to life. Vance dropped it down the hole. The tiny stick hit the bottom with a small echo, followed by a tremendous boom that roared through the cave so loud and deep Nate could feel it in his chest. As the boom faded, the tiny fireflies stopped, hovering mid flight and the tiny lights they cast shifted gradually from blue to red. Nate looked around in the bloody light, slowly shuffling backwards to stand closer to the rest of the team. A soft ringing sound was approaching from one of the tunnels, like a million tiny bells being struck all at once. The sound echoed throughout the cave, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. As the ringing grew steadily louder the team readied their weapons. Armed with a variety of laser carbines, pistols and railguns the team formed a loose semi-circle around the obelisk.

Suddenly, the ringing stopped, and a single small form leapt from the tunnel to the left of the one they’d entered though. Its metallic hide glinted in the light of the fireflies as it flew towards the ground, slowing its descent with tiny pillars of flame from four miniature rocket engines. The thing landed with a harsh thump and took a cautious step towards the team. The creature was a three foot tall, robotic ant, with six legs and three distinct torso segments. A sensor dish unfolded from its head as Vance stepped forward, rifle hanging on a sling and arms spread wide in surrender. The ant pointed the sensor dish at Vance and as the short man took another step forward a long cylinder extruded itself from the ant’s midsection and sent a beam of blood red light into Vance’s chest.

Vance stumbled back as his electron barriers wreathed him in a corona of pale blue static, dissipating most of the laser beam. Damon opened up with a repeating laser rifle, sending a long burst of energy crackling through the air and blasting the drone apart. The drone exploded with a sharp crack sending fragments of orange glowing metal and thick viscous gobs of melted rubber raining down over the cave floor. 

The ringing began again and hundreds of drones poured in from the tunnel entrances. A tide of insectoid terrors drifted down from the upper level, surrounding the crew. Onyx stepped to the front of the group, his armoured plates shifting, realigning to best deflect weapons fire and a trio of small missile tubes extended from each shoulder. The rest of the crew scrambled backwards looking for cover as the air lit up with hundreds of tiny laser blasts. Onyx weathered the storm of incoming fire and replied in kind. Six trails of smoke and flame flew out from the Construct’s missile launchers sending rockets curving high towards the ceiling of the cavern. At the apex of their curve each rocket detonated with a violent crack, sending a shower of white hot incendiary gel raining down on the drones. Onyx sent a three round burst from its railgun into the horde after the rocket attack. Each slug was designed to punch through light vehicles and they sent long strings of drones flying backwards into the cavern wall. The ants were smashed to dust from the impact, sending arcs of glittering shrapnel flying through the air.

Nate had never been in a battle on the ground before. In space fighting was silent, and detached, and there was always a significant amount of armour between you and your enemy. On the ground, battle was chaos, He huddled crouched low to the ground as the world exploded into a torrent of harsh sound and blinding light. With only a few scant centimeters of armour protecting him, he dared not move. He sat shaking, drowning in the cacophony, until a hand picked him up by the drag handle on the back of his suit and lifted him to his feet. He stood staring into a scarred mask of featureless green metal, with one baleful red eye peering out of a hole in the glossy surface. It took him a moment to realize he was staring at Onyx. The war machine shook gently by the shoulder.

“Nathan!” Onyx shouted, its booming voice cutting through the din of battle. “We are performing a fighting retreat, this position is untenable.”

Nate saw the rest of the crew moving towards the hole Vance had found, the engineers and flight crew were running headlong towards the opening while the security team walked backwards, firing their weapons into the horde of drones. Nate shook his head, memories of live fire drills in basic training drifting to the forefront of his mind. He hunched low, sprinting towards the hole as crimson bolts boiled the air around him. He stumbled and fell as a beam struck him in the left shoulder blade. His electron barriers flared, absorbing the blow and expending half their charge. He rolled to his feet and flew towards the opening in the floor. He hit the hole without slowing, one moment he was running furiously across the stony cavern floor, the next his legs were pumping wildly against empty air. He fell for a long moment and landed in a heap of moist, loosely packed soil, sinking to his hips in the dirt.

“Sound off,” said Vance over the radio, his voice laced with static. “Anyone hurt?”

A chorus of negative responses flooded the radio as a pair of strong white hands pulled Nate from the pile of dirt and onto a damp stone floor. He staggered to his feet and took stock of his surroundings. They were in a long stone tunnel with a rushing river on their right. Looking left he jumped back with a yelp as he saw row after row of elongated four eyed skulls grinning out at him. The rest of the team was already moving forward, led by Damon. Behind Nate, Izzy knelt in the mound of dirt taping a small square device to a spare fuel tank for a blowtorch and burying it.

Nate set off down the tunnel at a jog, catching up with the rest of the crew. The tunnel curved gently to the left and opened into a deep multi-tiered chamber with wide walkways curving around a pool of black water at the center. Squinting, he could barely make out a metal staircase on the far wall. A whooshing explosion came from the tunnel behind them. Vance and Onyx pushed to the front of the group. Izzy knelt and affixed a small bomb to the mouth of the tunnel they had just left.

The crew ran towards the stairs. Izzy pushed a button on her tablet, the cavern was lit briefly by a flash of white light followed by a thunderous crack and the rumble of stone sliding against stone. Nate looked over his shoulder as he ran, watching the mouth of the tunnel collapse. Looking forwards again he saw a wave of chrome launch itself off the ledge above him. Sliding into a crouch he shouldered his repeater and fired a burst into the descending horde of drones. The repeater shrieked, sending six laser beams bouncing off the drones armoured shells. Vance fired a long burst from his laser rifle, knocking the drones to ground with a storm of ear splitting cracks as the lasers superheated the air around them.

Ten drones hit the ground alive and readied their weapons. Nate pressed himself flat against the curving wall as a long burst of red flashes screamed past him with a series of harsh snaps. Rowan moved too late, as the construct leapt for cover, Nate saw a ruby beam of energy splash across his chest. Rowan’s barriers died with a flash of blue light and sarp pop. Another laser slammed into him, knocking him off his feet and sending a spray of molten metal arcing into the air. Without thinking, Nate leaned out into the line of fire to drag the Construct into safety. His fear was gone, replaced by a calm numbness. He could almost hear the harsh voice of his old drill instructor telling him what to do as he drug the heavy Construct to safety.

Another fusillade of laser fire split the air around him. His barriers died and a fist sized section of his chestplate was blasted to steam, the force of the impact knocking him off his feet. Lying on his back he fired the repeater one handed, scooting back towards the wall. A sharp rush of synthetic pain tore through his arm and a damage report scrolling across his heads up display. He scrambled to his feet as Damon leaned out and sent a long burst of automatic laser fire into the drones.

     With the drones continuing to retreat under the withering laser fire, Vance and Onyx stepped out of cover blasting the drones to scrap as more metallic foes leapt off the ledge above them. They ran forward, drawing closer to the staircase. Nate looked over his shoulder and saw Rowan struggle to his feet, clutching his chest, and labouring to catch up with the rest of the crew. He slowed to help the wounded machine and was knocked off his feet by a sledgehammer blow of expanding air. He fell to his back, hemet bouncing off the stone with a crunch. Dazed, he rolled to his knees as dust and flaming pieces of rubbled clattered to the ground around him. Numbly he struggled to his feet, repeater still held loosely in his right hand and saw a huge wide bodied drone standing atop the staircase on a pair of long reverse jointed legs.

Nate nearly fell as a hand grabbed at his ankle, He looked down and saw Vance lying in a pool of blood. A jagged piece of stone had torn free of the wall and crushed his legs. Nate knelt, butting his shoulder up against the boulder and forcing with all his might. The boulder wouldn’t budge. He changed his grip, shoving at the boulder and for the first time wishing he had more strength in his prosthetic arm. Something in his right arm gave out and a long stream of sparks spewed out of the servo motor in his elbow.  He looked over the top of the boulder to see the drone atop the staircase brace itself and send a hail of bullets down towards the crew. He threw his damaged prosthesis up in front of his face as bullets tore into the stone sending shards of rock bouncing off his armour. A fine red mist splattered up over the rock, falling over him like a warm shower, staining his Exo-Suit and running in crimson rivulets down his faceplate. Nate staggered back as bullets sparked off his arm, stumbling over a loose piece of rock he fell, and slid over the ledge, tumbling end over end into the freezing black water below.