Aberrant

Chapter 63

Tearing heat and force. A swathe of agony and a deafening tumult—crashing and clanging debris. Kaplan struggled to differentiate his pain from that of the injured Xykeree around him, victims of a rocket-propelled grenade launched right into their midst.

At the edge of his awareness, more deaths tore holes in the hive's psionic network: further explosions, all over the Hydra. Human minds flickered in the chaos. One held position right outside—

Kaplan swore and covered his head.

A thrump and whoosh—a second RPG launched through the bay's entrance.

Another shattering blast. More flaming chunks of exskel slammed down across the bay, sending Xykeree toppling. The crackle and boom of battle droid guns roared over the shrieking bells in his ears.

The hive's psionics lost resonance.

Kaplan bared his teeth. Kro, right that second, would be realising the problem with enslaving every Xykeree on the Hydra. None had been left to harvest the non-psi troops on board.

The survivors were now carrying out the orders he'd given Tras: multiple, simultaneous attacks; maximum hive disruption. The Xykeree, still caught in their master's thrall, were defenceless, hundreds now dead or dying.

But a small non-psi team with limited ordnance, spread out over a large vessel, could only do so much. The deployment bay alone housed thousands of Xykeree. Too many for a few RPGs and droids to take down.

More than enough for the Qua-zi to regroup.

That couldn't happen.

Kaplan tried to right himself—failed and nearly threw up. Kro's last assault had done damage, the alien not happy to have him subvert its plan to use Jinx. Her unusual, vivid memory had allowed him to find the Qua-zi's psi nexus before Kro could force a link. He'd sensed Shau for a brief moment, but didn't know if she'd received and understood his 'pathed warning. But regardless, he had to get his legs back under him. The attack on the hive was already losing momentum; sounds of gunfire now, not explosions. Any moment—

The hive's psionics snapped back from chaotic to a thrum of power.

Nearby weapons fire fell silent, except for the boom of a few battle droids.

Then the violence stuttered back in sharp bursts: Kro regaining enough power to turn non-psi against one another and Coalition droids.

Kaplan lurched to his feet.

A skull-splitting telepathic blow knocked him back down. He blindly lashed out with his own telepathy, but he was out gunned, even with the hive's integrity damaged. A second psi strike hit like a hammer. The next confirmed Kro was no longer interested in preserving him for study.

Everything went black ... then ebbed back on a shallow, grey tide. Kaplan struggled against its inevitable final retreat. The moment he went down, Kro would focus back on the surviving non-psi. The alien would escape with its Rha Si lab subjects, would abuse and kill them. Jinx didn't have the training to survive. She'd have no chance—

A flash of light. A violent crack of noise—then a sharp but distant clatter.

The assault on his mind cut off. His vision reeled.

Flashes of blue fire.

He clawed back his wits, feeling like his head might split open. Alerts flared across his mask's HUD—not all health warnings.

E-mag readings. Unstable but consistent with shield tech.

Another flare of energy.

He forced his head up, pain spearing skull to spine.

Hot blue light—a half-dome of it, spiked with plaz discharges—glowed by the Qua-zi ship's ramp. A plasma-barbed personal shield. Cutting-edge tech still in R and D because of radiation issues, instability, and limited charge life.

A shadowy figure knelt behind it: Jinx looking punch drunk. The shield projecting from her left wrist wavered wildly, auto-adjusting to her movements as she pushed to her feet.

A few metres from her, Kro's large mech form smouldered amongst a twitching pile of Xykeree, taken down by a shield burst.

Kaplan hauled himself onto his hands and knees, fear igniting with hope. The Qua-zi wasn't dead, just concussed inside its armoured tech. He had to get to it—to Jinx's pistol. The weapon lay on the deck near the Qua-zi ship's ramp—

An explosion outside the bay rocked the deck, jolting him back onto his side. Dozens more Xykeree minds went dark.

And hundreds of others slipped their leashes.

A surge in aggression. A sharp whine: weapons tech coming online.

Understanding drove Kaplan to his feet. He lunged for Jinx just as dozens of red dots came to life like a hell swarm of bees.

Xykeree targeting lasers.