Annals of the Keepers: War 267 (Book 1 in the Gashnee Saga) (2 page)

BOOK: Annals of the Keepers: War 267 (Book 1 in the Gashnee Saga)
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With their primary mission complete, the team separated to finish secondary objectives within the outpost.

Kason, now alone, his team splitting up to cover individual assignments, moved through a corridor searching out his secondary mission, a
Cuukzen
scout with vital information.

Intel showed this Cuukzen was supposed to be visiting on the outpost for a few days.

His HUD located the room this Cuukzen was assigned to, but his scan of the room came up empty of any life forms.

Kason continued his search but now the Kryth had shrugged off their initial lethargy. His battle helmet pointed out incoming targets bearing down on his location.

Two Kryth were approaching from an adjacent hallway.

Kason lifted his weapon and pulled the trigger, letting off a single blue burst of plasma bolt just as the Kryth came around the corner.

The bodies fell with a
thud
.

He raised his weapon again and saw the other silhouettes of more incoming soldiers running down the hall, his HUD allowing a clear body image through the walls.

Each of his next bolts found their marks as they cleared the corner to Kason. The bodies fell one on top of the other.

Kason continued to move through the corridor until coming to a flight of stairs.

He began to descend the stairs when his targeting cursor in his helmet bleeped out nine more Kryth soldiers approaching. Six died as his targeting scope danced from one Kryth to the next. Most fell in a clatter of armor sliding down the few steps they attempted to climb.

The last three began firing up at Kason from a platform below.

Kason jumped over the railing to land in their midst.

Shattering the faceplate of one Kryth soldier, he then backhanded another who attempted to grab his rifle. Kason dropped into a crouch, hooked his left fist into the side of the second Kryth’s kneecap, the armored gauntlet smashed bone through the weaker joint armor of the soldier.

Shrieking in agony, the Kryth soldier dropped to the floor clutching his limb. The Kryth watched his two comrade’s fall wounded. The other Kryth leaped forward to engage the invader and avenge his fallen soldiers.

Kason’s black, armored boot smashed up beneath his jaw, shattering it. The force of the blow snapped the Kryth’s neck, propelling the body backwards to the floor.

Another soldier struggled to remove his helmet with the cracked faceplate and succeeded just in time to watch Kason shoot him point blank in the chest.

The helmet bounced off the floor and rolled to a stop against the leg of the one surviving Kryth soldier, slumped against the staircase, hiding.

Kason walked past the Kryth, who froze at the sight of him.

Eight shots from Kason’s weapon echoed in the corridor, as he shot each of the Kryth’s comrades in the head.

Kason’s powerful, black-armored legs stopped in front of the last Kryth soldier cowering.

“Nokarshel protect me,” Kason’s HUD translated the language.

He could tell the Kryth was gasping in terror as the soldier backed away from him terror-stricken, helpless, and unable to move.

“Mercy,” the Kryth groaned around his pain. “Mercy,” he croaked louder, Kason’s HUD still translated the Krythtinian language.

Kason saw the sweat from the soldier’s forehead slide into his eyes. But before the Kryth could blink his eyes again, the ninth shot rang out.

Kason kicked the cracked helmet aside, sending it rolling away.

With a command, Kason’s front visor rose up and a hiss of vapor escaped the surrounding seal.

“Mercy.” The plea echoed in Kason’s head.

He looked at the dead Kryth.  The light green-tinged skin accented the sharp facial features that met black pupil-less eyes.

Kason turned from the stairs speaking to no one but himself.     

“Towards none save my own, Kryth.”

Data Cell 2

A cluster of
explosive bomblets rippled across the outer hull of Dalyth outpost, sweeping across the communications grid in a bubbling wave of fire. The base of a sensor array, over one hundred meters tall, rocked under a heavy concentration of fire from a warship orbiting low around the outpost.

A second salvo from the bank of particle cannons aboard the warship sheared through the thick array supports, with grim efficiency. The array, no longer anchored to the station’s massive framework, keeled over and floated away from the hull of the outpost. 

Lintorth Sol stood with his feet out wide on the causeway, as the whole station shuddered under another barrage of energy weapons released from the unknown ships outside the outpost.

His hulking frame was larger than the other Kryth soldiers scurrying, more like fleeing, around him on the walkway.

He watched the faces of the Kryth, full of fear and panic.

Lintorth Sol continued past the fleeing soldiers with a clear expression of disdain creasing his face.

Another barrage of rounds came at the station.

The support girders holding up the causeway strained under the pressure as a dozen or more soldiers ran in panic around him. Some, with arms flailing, were pushed over the side of the rail to their deserving deaths, some 25 meters below, by his broad sweeping arm.

He’d had quite enough of such cowardice.

The causeway shook a third time. He heard weapon discharges in the distance, followed by more rumbles.

“I haven’t got time for this,” Lintorth said.

His stride grew longer as he moved off the causeway through a high-arching doorway, as his crimson red cape rippled behind him.

“Strange,” Lintorth pondered.

Another explosion punctuated his thought.

Someone was attacking the Domain. This attack was far worse than the skirmishes across the vast territories of the Kryth Mahr. Most were ill-advised attacks by sector raiders against unescorted cargo ships.

Even these minor raids were rare because all races knew of the terrible retaliation that would fall upon any aggressor fool enough to challenge the rule of the Kryth Mahr. Even the Vrae Javril, who controlled an empire as vast as the Kryth, and their military equal, would not attack.

Lintorth Sol contemplated the enigma that had been thrust upon him.

He ruled out the attack as the beginning of a campaign.  None of the Kryth Mahr’s enemies had the capabilities to mount a war. The Vrae realized that a stalemate existed between the two mighty powers for a good reason.

This all had to be a diversion, but a diversion from what? From whom? Lintorth’s mind whirled, trying to calculate what was happening.

Why hadn’t his well-placed spies warned him? Had they been compromised?

Impossible!

Glass crunched beneath his feet. Lintorth passed a burning maintenance console, the wires from the power conduit crackled with energy.

Just then, a troop of Kryth soldiers rounded the corner, their boots beating rough against the deck plates. The flurry of bodies did not slow as they veered around Lintorth, jostling him in their hurry to escape. 

Lintorth roared at the fleeing troops, commanding them to stop. When none heeded his command, his arm shot out, grabbing a recruit, slammed him into the bulkhead. 

Already in a dangerous mood, the show of cowardice by his soldiers fueled his outrage.

“From whom do you run,
Tuuka
?” Lintorth demanded through clenched teeth.

Struggling, with fear making him oblivious to Lintorth Sol's rank, the young soldier begged, “Let me go! They will kill us all!”

Small arms’ fire echoed down the corridor, punctuated by screams of the dying.

Lintorth focused his flat, dark eyes on the youth. “Then run, coward.”

He threw the soldier’s rag-doll body to the ground.

The soldier scrambled to his feet and continued his escape down the hallway. 

Lintorth glared down through the low lit corridor from where the screams came. The shadows on the walls contorted and changed as the overhead lighting flickered on and off from the waning power.

He entered an intersection of walkways leading deeper into the interior of the outpost. His nostrils were assaulted by the bitter smell of burnt plasma passing through the air. He could make out the smell of burnt flesh, as the bodies of dead Kryth soldiers around him attested to.

Picking up his pace, Lintorth moved through the debris, past exposed hanging wire conduits as they
crackled
and
popped
.

Just as Lintorth entered a corridor to a larger room, he heard weapons’ fire and more screams.

He lowered into a crouch.

Lintorth could discern the sound of Kryth weapons’ fire.

He paused and listened.

A second sound caught his keen hearing. This sound was not of Kryth make, nor was it any weapon sound he was familiar with. This weapon had a piercing roar to it.

The screams of fallen Kryth punctuated the corridors once again after the unknown weapon ceased firing.

Lintorth proceeded to the opening of another corridor adjacent to the room he was in.

Another, closer blast issued from this weapon.

Lintorth rolled on his side, debris crunched beneath him. He got into a better firing position. He reached for his side-arm.

Damn! In his haste, he had left it in his room.

He looked around the floor among the dead and spotted a K-6 pistol. In one fluid motion, he scooped it up and armed the plasma chamber.

The Kryth bodies that were laid out in front of him were at impossible angles, mangled and not distinguishable as Kryth soldiers. The body armor was thrashed and torn, as if chaffs of grain were struck asunder by a horrible serrated blade.

With his weapon in his left hand, Lintorth reached out with his right to inspect the damaged body armor of the fallen Kryth nearest him. Plasma bolts he noted- four to be precise--had pierced this class-four body armor. The charges pulled the armor to the inside of the wound to Lintorth’s dismay. He reached in farther to coat his finger on the edge of the cauterized wound.

He brought his finger to his nostril and sniffed, looking for clues. The residue from the compound was plasma but one he could not place.

Many races across the Domain used plasma weapons, such as the
Baentar,
Vrae
, and
Mrektalon
to name a few, he thought.

What caught Lintorth’s sight next was most displeasing.

A Kryth soldier had five bolts grouped on the chest no larger than his out-spread palm. He knew that plasma discharge placed great stress on weapons even those of superior Kryth Mahr technology.

This was most disturbing to Lintorth.

He could not believe how a small raiding party managed to get onboard and wreak such havoc. This group had knocked-out the shields surrounding the outpost, along with the defense systems, and got a small contingent of soldiers onboard undetected.

If it weren’t for his anger, Lintorth would be well-pleased if his own commandos dared such a raid.

Their weapons were equal to Domain technology and their warriors even more so, as the mangled bodies of Kryth soldiers once again attested to.

Lintorth heard sounds farther down the corridor. He moved with renewed caution, and respect, for this new unseen enemy.

As he approached the entrance to a medical lab, he saw two Kryth soldiers run from around the corner and in to the room.

Before he could issue any order, the whine of the foreign weapon pierced the shadows, sending one of the soldiers flying back through the door he had entered.

A horrible scream replaced weapons’ fire, and then a loud thud issued from the lab. The second Kryth soldier, no doubt.

Lintorth found a small, dark corner to kneel in.

There was one swaying light fixed above the door to the medical lab.

He aimed his plasma pistol at the doorway. How he wished for a heavier assault weapon now.

“No matter,” he thought, as he had been in worse situations before with less.

He knew he had to make the plasma round count if he was to not end up like the other twisted bodies. He would hold the chamber open to full capacity and make one large shot. He would then proceed to count on his trusty keslar blade strapped to his side to finish the work.

With his free hand, Lintorth began to remove his cape for better movement. He was in the process of disengaging a metal clasp when he saw the being step into the doorway of the medical lab.

The towering figure’s helmet just missed brushing the lower ceiling arch. Its shoulders were broad with a deep, powerful chest. The two arms and legs were large and just as massive as his were.

The dim light above did not reflect off the dull, black armor that encased the invader. 

The molded armor enclosed its entire body. Heavy armor plates overlapped the molded armor on the torso and the shoulders, adding more girth to the already- impressive invader.  The upper arms were sheathed in heavier armor and the hands were covered with strong gauntlets, armored cuffs flaring up past the forearms. Lower down, black boots appeared to be made of the same material. Greaves protected the shins and the thighs were covered with heavier armor. Intricate, overlapping plates concealed the joints on both the arms and the legs.

Kneeling in the shadows, Lintorth contemplated his next move as he watched in silence.

One of the metal clasps on his cape freed itself from his shoulder, scraped across his back armor, and struck the deck, betraying his position.

The invader snapped its head around fast, looking directly at Lintorth.

Not wanting to meet the rush head-on, Lintorth stood up holding the plasma chamber open.

The invader closed the gap with amazing speed.

He thought a close round to the head would do it. He held the chamber to the last moment before the creature was upon him and let the trigger go.

A
puff
of plasma came out but, no plasma bolt. The chamber was empty.

Lintorth let out a curse as the invader closed.

He had no time to react, as the creature’s gauntleted hand struck his weapon from his own hand followed by a bone-sickening crunch from the invader’s knee to his chest, crushing ribs beneath.

The air fled Lintorth’s lungs as he doubled over in pain.

Lintorth knew what was coming next.

He rolled to his side as the double gauntleted fists of the black-armored being were coming down towards the back of his neck.

The invader was caught off balance as his hands swung, only finding air.

Not hesitating, Lintorth swept the being’s legs out from under it. The invader thundered with a crash on the metal plated floor.

Lintorth thought that it had been too long a moon since he had been last defeated.

It would not happen today.

In an instant, he pulled his blade from its holster and slashed straight down to the invaders head.

Just as quick, the lightening reflexes of the invader’s hand had caught the blade in its gauntleted gloves, twisting and knocking the blade from Lintorth’s grasp as it clattered and careened off the deck.

The invader repelled Lintorth through the air with its powerful legs clear across to the other side of the room.

Lintorth’s erratic flight ceased as he came to a stop on a pile of Kryth corpses.

His keen eye spotted a plasma rifle under one of the bodies. Without hesitation, he lifted up the rifle and warmed the chamber.

The invader was already on its feet and approaching him.

Lintorth fired three plasma bolts.

Anticipating the shot, the armored creature dodged to its left, and the charges found the wall behind.

Lintorth fired another volley that also missed.

Pausing just for the briefest of moments, Lintorth fired the last shots.

Impact!

They struck in a flash of green against the invader’s armor.

The first rounds hit the black armored torso of the being but did little to slow its advance towards Lintorth. The last volley grazed the upper arm with no effect.

Just as the invader reached Lintorth, two wicked-looking blades issued from atop the right gauntleted glove.

Driving at Lintorth, the being found the rifle-butt as Lintorth dodged and used it as a shield, driving the blades into the metal wall behind them.

Lintorth spun the rifle around and shot at the creature’s head.

With astonishing speed once again, the invader had already thrown itself on the deck floor, anticipating Lintorth’s move.

The armored being struck the rifle from Lintorth’s grasp, sending it flying away in two pieces.

Lintorth, with his own speed, leaped out of the range of the spikes protruding from the invader’s knees as it swept them in his direction.

BOOK: Annals of the Keepers: War 267 (Book 1 in the Gashnee Saga)
8.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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