The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Read online

  Undesignated Planet, Galactic Frontier

  Only one short stop between the world they'd left behind, dubbed Sunshine by Aaron, and the destination of Enigma. The world was a decaying, half dead endless forest with distant mountains. Early afternoon was almost pleasant after Sunshine and Minu was tempted to spend a little time recovering. Of course then she might have to face more of Ted's wrath, so they got ready for the final jump.

  Ted programmed the control rod and the watched as the Portal came alive again. The scene on the other side was the interior of an industrial structure, surprisingly intact and lit from a nearby light source. “Var'at, go ahead, we'll be right behind you.”

  Var'at's fighter started up and carefully moved towards the Portal, he still piloted it with extreme caution considering the condition of the craft’s critical computers. Aaron maneuvered them around behind the other fighter and prepared to follow it through. The fighter slid through the event horizon and began to slowly turn sideways when an energy blast caught if full on from the side.

  The blast tore a great flaming gouge of metal out of the side of the craft, making it slew sideways hard. “No!” Minu screamed as a second blast hit right next to the first one. “Get us through there!” she ordered Aaron.

  “He's blocking the Portal!” he exclaimed. “If we go through, we can't deploy shields and we're toast!”

  “We have to do something!”

  The second shot was slightly less effective; its aim off slightly because of the way the first shot moved the target. Minu just saw the wavering shimmer around the fighter before the third shot hit, and splashed against the shields. “Way to go, Var'at!” she screamed as the craft righted itself, turned sideways to make room for her, and began to blaze away with its nose mounted shock rifles. Fire was pouring from one of the holes in the fuselage, and smoke from the other, but it was moving. “Go!”

  Aaron nodded and guided them through the Portal as fast as reasonable, throwing on the brakes the instant they cleared, and bringing up their shields. She'd hoped that Enigma would be abandoned and ignored, but considering what she hoped to find there, she should have known better. Their own newly erected shields flashed red twice from direct hits and Aaron brought the offensive weapons on line. Minu took the controls and looked through the targeting screens. Twenty meters away and set in the perfect location to attack anyone coming through the Portal was a pair of heavy beamcaster turrets manned by a squad of T'Chillen warriors in full combat armor. To add insult to injury, they were behind dualloy armor shielding in addition to energy shields and force fields.

  The T'Chillen pointed with their tentacle arms and the beamcasters cycled as fast as they could, which luckily wasn't too fast for the huge emplacements. “Give them everything!” Minu yelled at Var'at over the radio, not even knowing if he could hear her. She thumbed the fighter’s beamcasters to life as well and fired all the weapons in sequence. Four shock rifle shots, two beamcasters, back to the shock rifles, over and over. A second later the other fighter added its beamcasters too. The combinations of the two fighters had a devastating effect on the emplacements. Regardless of all the heavy defenses, their energy shields still relied on dumping incoming fire into EPC especially designed to shunt away the horrendous amounts of energy a beamcaster unleashed. The combination of the exotic impact of the Shock rifles and powerful beamcasters overloaded those storage sources, which exploded like bombs, rocking the room and the two fighters.

  “Can't hold it,” Aaron growled as the shock wave shoved them sideways, and into the other fighter. The shields that protected them from energy fire were worthless against physical force. The two fighters collided with a horrendous grinding of metal on metal that lurched Minu hard enough to fetch her hard up against the bulkhead. She turned just in time to see the other fighter rebound against the nearest wall, and begin to fall apart.

  It was like watching a toy made of interlocking blocks hit by an angry child. The magnetic couples that held the craft together just failed, and the fighter simple disintegrated. Aaron fought the controls with all his strength, muscles standing out like bands of dualloy, but he couldn't help but crush part of the remains between their ship, and the wall. Even through the hull Minu heard the death screams of the Rasa over the screech of rending dualloy. Their own fighter rebounded from the wall and Aaron set them down with a jerk on the floor. The doors all opened and they raced out.

  Aaron stayed at the controls, keeping the craft’s weapons batteries trained on the far end of the smoking chamber, knowing that such a horrendous explosion would bring reinforcements before long. Minu was last out, her head spinning a little and wiping blood from a cut above her right eye. Rasa were already pulling dead or dying comrades from the remains of the fighter. “Oh, God,” Minu moaned, horrified by the loss of life and fearing even more that her friend Var'at was among them. Then she recognized his particular form, the crest behind his head sporting a half-moon burn scar that she had given him years ago when they were still enemies. Cherise, Ted and Bjorn were already tending to those that were still moving, assisted by a surviving Rasa medic.

  “What can I do?” She asked Var'at who was kneeling next to a still form. It wasn't easy to tell them apart, but she guessed it was his lieutenant on this trip, an old and trusted friend.

  “There is nothing much to do,” he admitted, turning a turreted eye back to regard her, “we were lucky any of us survived. Your friends have devised a truly powerful vehicle.”

  She did what she could as they quickly stabilized those that lived, and said good bye to those that were gone, hoping they wouldn’t be quickly joining them. Var'at left Bellatrix with a standard sixteen lizard squad. Eight survived, and three of those were injured. The uninjured quickly sifted through the debris for what equipment could be salvaged and they were all loading back into the last fighter less than five minutes after the mishap. The last two Rasa soldiers were climbing the ramp just as a trio of T'Chillen riding their own versions of broomsticks appeared down the hall behind the smoking enemy emplacement.

  Aaron took out the first one with a precision shot from the fighter’s shock rifles. Return fire splashed against their shields as he took the second one out with the added firepower of the beamcasters. The third one executed a dizzying series of spins and loops ending with it dodging around the corner they'd just appeared from. Aaron tracked it with shots all the way but only scored a couple glancing blows with the beamcasters. “Sorry boss,” he said as she slid in behind him and into the co-pilot seat.

  “Not a problem,” she said and took over the weapons controls, “they were sure to know something was up after the ground started shaking.

  They lifted off and started flying the craft down the same hall the T'Chillen broomsticks had appeared in, it was the only way out. As they passed Minu glanced at the twisted and smoldering remains of the T'Chillen guards who'd manned the gun emplacement and thought of something. “Hold up,” she said and headed to the rear.

  “We don't have much time, boss!” Aaron reminded her.

  “I know,” she said. As she moved through the crowded crew compartment she saw the huddled Rasa soldiers, all looking at her expectantly. There was Var'at, helping Cherise and his medic tend to the wounded. Ted and Bjorn were both checking Pip's capsule. They both glanced up as she came rearward. “Can I borrow that beamcaster, soldier?” she asked the Rasa, knowing her words would be translated for her.

  “Yes, commander,” he nodded and handed it to her. The design was similar to the human scaled models, with a shorter stock and forward pistol grip, but the rest was identical. She dialed it for medium beam and power then smacked the rear door controls. It began to drop quickly.

  “Don't be long,” Aaron said over the radio, the worry evident in his voice.

  “Will do,” she said and ran down the ramp even before it was all the way down.

  “What the hell is she doing?” Cherise asked Bjorn and Ted.

  “The other fighter had two pairs of shock r
ifles,” Ted told her, “we don't know if they survived the impact.”

  “We don't want the snakes getting our secrets,” Bjorn agreed.

  “They're just damned guns,” Cherise snarled and smacked a hand against the floor.

  “No,” Aaron said from up front without looking back, “they're our only card in the game right now.”

  Minu walked down the ramp, casting another nervous look at the wrecked emplacements. Piles of charred, smoking debris and coils of dead armored snakes. She swallowed and sped up to a trot. The bloody debris came up fast, and she angled towards the mostly intact nose of the cylindrical fighter. The whole thing banked slightly to one side before her fighter hit it, pinning and crushing it against the wall. The cockpit was cracked like an egg, and she could see the edge of the two beamcasters poking out underneath. They weren't her concern; it was the four Shock rifles installed between the beamcasters. She smacked the nose of the fighter experimentally, and a piece of armor fell away. “Okay, the hard way then.”

  Minu slung the beamcaster and dug through the piles of debris, looking for a solid piece, and eventually found a meter long solid dualloy beam. Pulling it from the other junk, she clamped down with her right arm and swung at about half her maximum strength. Chunks of armor flew in all directions with a satisfactory crunch. The beam reverberated through her cybernetic arm, jarring her flesh and blood shoulder painfully. Gritting her teeth she increased the power. Two more cracks and one of the shock rifles was visible.

  “Sorry,” Minu said to all those who'd worked and died to develop the weapons, and she put two blasts into the gun itself, then another into the mount. “One down, three to go.” She slung the gun and went back to work with her improvised demolition tool.

  A dozen meters away, vertical slitted eyes watched her work with barely controlled malevolence. When the Portal defense module exploded, he'd been partially protected from the blast by his personal shield. Very little of the terrible energy flash wave affected him, and his armor absorbed all of that. The shield, of course, was gone now. The real problem was the flying debris for which a shield was no defense. A whirlwind of razor sharp dualloy tore through his crew, instantly killing all except himself. He'd been hit a slew of times, but none of them lethal. His armor was keeping him alive until help could arrive, but he had no interest in rescue. He'd seen the human trundle by and his blood raged. A puny human, a slave of the dirt digging Tog? How dare they? Such incredible gall to even be out here! His armor said his spine was severed at the fourteenth mid vertebrae, so he couldn't motivate, but he could still hold a gun. With slow, patient movements, he slithered two of his snakelike arms into the debris partially covering his ravaged body, searching for a weapon.

  Minu hammered at the cockpit over and over again, chunks of hull and armor flew and bounced off her as she worked the club with methodical power no human arm could duplicate. Aaron called for a nervous update. “Almost there,” she huffed as the club finally exposed her objective. A couple more grunting crashes of the club and the shock rifle was visible. “About damn time,” she said through clenched teeth as she brought the gun around and gave this one the same treatment as the other three. All the guns were now smoldering slag. “Got them, on my way back.”

  “Don't take your time, they've already sent a couple of bots around to get a look. Frankly, I think we've got them confused.”

  “Not as confused as we are,” she joked and trotted back towards the waiting fighter. Cherise stood in the back, urging her to hurry with a sweeping arm gesture. Minu gave her a quick thumbs up, and it saved her life.

  Chapter 9

  January 14th, 522 AE

  Unknown Space Station, Enigma Star System, Galactic Frontier

  A beamcaster bolt tore at her just as she raised her right arm to wave, the beam hitting her in the forearm and splashing around and through the limb. Stray bits of the particle accelerator beam hit all over her torso and were mostly absorbed by the gauss net, a weave of superconducting dualloy throughout her uniform.

  Assailed by a thousand pinpricks of lightning pain, the majority of the impact slammed into her arm and spun her around like she'd been hit a hammer blow, throwing her into the wall then the floor in a heap. Pain tore throughout her body and in her arm with such intensity as she'd never felt before. She struggled against consciousness as she landed in a heap, her vision swimming with red halos. A single T'Chillen warrior rose slightly from the wreckage of the gun emplacement, obviously severely injured, but still holding a beamcaster and aiming at her.

  Dodging was out of the question. She was half leaning, half lying against the base of the wall. All she could do was fall over sideways as the second shot splashed against the wall where her head was a moment ago. Energy splash burned her in still more places, and this time her gauss net was worthless, the capacitor burned out from the first hit. The snake used its spare arm to pull itself a meter closer, then raise up to aim carefully. The barrel loomed like an approaching tunnel. Minu lay on her side struggling to breathe, and prepared for the final shot.

  Her left arm was just fine. After sliding sideways to the floor, Minu fought the pain and stretched over her shoulder. The T'Chillen hissed at the awkward movement, then gasped as Minu's flashing sword bisected its body. Cherise' Enforcer boomed once into the aliens side, and the two parts slid apart with a slippery meaty sound to plop to the floor, cut cleanly in half by Tamara's new wonder sword.

  Cherise raced down the ramp and to Minu. The electrical shocks of the stray accelerator splinters were lessening, allowing Minu to breathe deeply and sit up against the wall just in time to warn her friend away before she was injured by the sword. “Careful,” she croaked and sat the blade aside.

  “Oh God,” Cherise cried as she slid to a stop on her knees next to Minu. Minu was holding up her right arm which was smoking badly and dripping liquid metal on the floor. The limb was shot through halfway between the wrist and elbow. She could bend the elbow still, but the wrist and hand didn't respond to her commands. The entire limb ached like a pain she couldn't touch. Cherise looked at her friend, covered in a thousand little burns and her arm on fire, and cried. “You look like shit.” Bjorn was looking over the T'Chillen with an eye towards samples.

  “Thanks,” Minu said and reached with her left hand, “get me up.” A Rasa medic was skittering over along with Var'at and a couple other soldiers to be sure no other T'Chillen were playing dead. “Save it,” Minu said and waved the medic off. “Get the gun,” she pointed at the beamcaster she'd dropped, “and my sword, then get aboard. That includes you, Bjorn.”

  “Is she okay?” Aaron yelled over his shoulder as they bundled everyone up.

  “Far from it,” Cherise snapped, “get us the fuck out of here.” One of the Rasa, having seen what the sword did to an armored foe, carefully retrieved the weapon and slid it back into the sheath on Minu's back. She nodded her thanks as the doors began to close.

  “Where?”

  “Down the hall, around the corner, guns blazing. We need to find an exit to this facility so we can find the stash the Squeen talked about.”

  Cherise used a couple of quick spurts from a fire extinguisher to stop the fire in Minu's forearm, and even that hurt. But at least her arm wasn't burning any more. “Are you in much pain?”

  “Depends on your definition of much.” Cherise jabbed her in the leg with an ampule of Boost and Minu felt the buzz hit instantly, and the pain decrease. “God that stuff feels good.”

  “It’s supposed to. Any idea what's ahead?”

  “Probably deeper and deeper shit.”

  Aaron piloted the fighter around the corner fast, all guns blazing just as Minu had ordered. The turn swept the hallway from side to side and caught dozens of T'Chillen by surprise, sending many flying in bloody spins to the ground. A few retreated farther down the hallway, firing back with handheld beamcasters as they went. The light weapons were ineffective against the fighter’s heavy shields so Aaron punished them every meter of th
e way. Only a couple made it out alive.

  “Keep ‘em on the run,” Minu said as she dropped back into the co-pilot’s seat. Aaron spared her a quick glance before resuming his attack. “Stay on the guns buddy; I've only got one hand for now.”

  “You got it,” he said and blazed around another corner. The slaughter continued for another minute with Aaron turning corner after corner, pursuing and killing T'Chillen, and ambushing reinforcements that were coming to help the others. Suddenly they turned from a multiple branch intersection to find themselves in a vast chamber full of dozens of T'Chillen units. Aaron and Minu looked around, their eyes wide in wonder and shock. All work in the chamber came to a sudden stop as the fighter appeared. “What do I shoot first?” Aaron said in a hushed voice, not even sure why he was whispering. Against the nearest wall, two massive armored combat suites stood, their operators halfway through slithering up their tree like mounting ladders.

  With a steady hand Minu pointed at the suites. “Shoot them,” she said.

  “Gladly,” Aaron said and turned his weapons on them. Once manned and at full power, the two suites would withstand even the firepower of the single fighter. Standing still with operators trying to get inside, they were sitting ducks. Aaron moved the joystick from side to side and chewed the suites, operators, and technicians into bloody smoldering rags.

  “Spread it around,” Minu told him, pointing out targets of opportunity. The chamber erupted in panic as soldiers tried to respond to the rampaging fighter and technicians slithered for their lives. As weapons fire erupted in all directions the scene quickly devolved into complete pandemonium.

  “What is that thing?” demanded a high ranking commander on the far side of the chamber, “And why is it firing on us?” He slithered up on top of the vehicle he'd been supervising for a better view, his sub-commander followed obediently behind. He listened to radio reports as he climbed.

  “It came through the out-system Portal a few minutes ago,” a scout informed him as he activated image enhancements in his powered armor helmet and observed the alien craft. It was heartily strafing a line of equipment containers behind which soldiers and non-combatants alike were taking refuge.