Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (23 page)

“
No! Our orders are to get to
safety.”

O’Hara shoved the barrel of his sidearm into
the young, Thewl’s face.

“
Let us out,” he grunted.

The Thewl nodded and came to a halt.
“O’Hara,” the agents yelled.

Shaking their heads, they all ran for Swain’s
vehicle. One of the Thewls leered overhead at the impending doom.
The cacophony of searing lasers, exploding plasma, screeching
Lokians, and crashing ships thundered all around. The ground shook,
people screamed in their earpieces, bright flashes forced the eyes
shut. All manner of ships flew at top speeds, firing, dodging,
skidding off the ground as waves of white stone went sailing.

Mere yards away, an upside down rover sat
still. It was badly damaged. Scorch marks covered the doors. Two
laser beams had nicked it, causing the frame to melt. All the
protective fields had disengaged. Adams and Franklin remained as
calm as possible, surveying their surroundings. The driver of
O’Hara’s vehicle took the gun in vein.

“
There’s movement,” Nandesrikahl choked
as he tossed rocks from the vehicle. “Anybody, this is Nandy. Zak,
Swain, someone talk to me!”

Martinez tried to climb out when Thewls
pulled rocks from a window. He was breathing erratically, retching,
and grasped Nandesrikahl’s arm tightly for just a second. Then, he
went limp.

Adams and Franklin circled the vehicle to
find O’Hara desperately trying to pull people from the wreckage.
Zakowski had not survived. His mangled corpse lay still, his face,
lifeless.

“
Oof,” Swain grunted when O’Hara pulled
Zak free. “He-help me.”

Swain was pushing DeReaux and Fitzpatrick
through a cramped space. Once the window was cleared, Nandesrikahl
rushed to check them. The sniper and spotter were unconscious, but
they were breathing. No one else survived.

The third and final rover of the initial
eight pulled up right then. O’Hara was shocked by its condition.
All the fields were out, and most of the roof was sheared off.

“
It’s Korit. Copy?”

“
Jesus, we copy. We have to get to
safety,” the captain mumbled.

O’Hara’s driver pulled up next to Korit’s
rover. Its crew piled in. Swain, and Fitzpatrick and DeReaux, who
were then conscious, entered Korit’s. They exchanged glances,
wondering where the rest of his crew was. After noticing blood and
pieces of armor on the seats, it became apparent.

Finally, the rovers sped off. What remnants
of their air support remained covered them as they penetrated the
darkened crevice carved into the cliff side.

“
Ah, shit,” O’Hara cried. “Lokians
followed us in.”

Men took the guns. Plasma blasts hit the
Lokians, who countered. A laser hit Korit’s rover, blowing his door
off. It ricocheted off icy walls in a spinning craze. Swain cringed
as he watched the chunk of steel come right for them.

“
Get down!”

The captain was unaware of the predicament;
he had his eyes glued to the falling enemies. Someone dragged him
to the floors and everything went dark. Crunching steel made a gut
wrenching noise.

O’Hara turned to find the agents had thrown
their weight on top of him. He wriggled free and leered at a door
wedged into the vehicle. Three, Thewlian warriors had died.

“
Oh, my God,” he whispered.

“
We gotta’ go-oh,” Swain
yelled.

When the captain got to his feet, he saw one
more enemy in hot pursuit. Korit’s rover was nowhere to be seen, so
he reached over the wedged door to grab the cannon. The enemy’s
laser carved swaths into the cavernous wall. The blast was inching
closer, but he squeezed the trigger, releasing all of his pent up
rage at the enemy. Bursts of plasma hit their mark, freeing them
all of the final threat.

“
Captain,” Day’s voice was alarmed.
“Did you make it?”

He didn’t know how they were communicating,
but assumed channels had been switched. He was both shocked and
relieved to hear her voice, yet he didn’t know what to say; he had
made it, but not everyone.

“
S-some of us….”

“
Be careful, Riley,” she
whispered.

“
You too…stay alive.”

By then, the rover came to a halt. Crews
exited their vehicles, shaking their heads in bewildered amazement.
The damage they took was beyond belief. Korit’s rover was little
more than a scorch marked frame. Swain’s fared no better with the
extra door and dead men. Without thinking, O’Hara tried to pull the
door away. He wanted to check the Thewls.

“
No time, Captain. We have to press
forward,” Korit ordered.

Chapter Fifteen

The tunnel was too narrow to continue by
vehicle. Everyone flipped on their gun lights. An uneasy moment
past between the crew.

“
We should turn back and try to help,”
Fitzpatrick complained.

“
No, our goal was to get here,” Korit
said. “Finding–”

“
Finding what?” DeReaux shouted. “More
of your people just died.”

“
We have orders. Searching this place
is all that matters. You must focus on our goal, or everything was
in vain,” the driver admonished.

Whether they agreed or didn’t, they all grew
quiet. Jogging through the narrow corridor, gun lights bounced,
reflecting intricate patterns. They kept pace for thirty minutes
before the adrenaline wore off. Exhaustion wracked their bones, but
they spotted a wide opening ahead.

When they moved beyond the corridor and into
an empty extent supported by numerous, natural pillars, they crept
carefully, turning, pointing their lights, gawking in awe at
stalactites. “Better drop a light,” the driver said.

The cavern lit up. The lighting device, like
the one Korit had employed too recently, revealed more, giant
pillars of ice, frozen ground, and a ceiling fifteen feet above
them. Where ever they were, they didn’t see any walls, just shadows
of pillars and then darkness. Korit tossed another light, but
still, they didn’t see much more than an intricate network of
natural, supporting posts.

“
Let’s spread out,” O’Hara
suggested.

“
Agreed,” Korit said.

While he joined the captain, the agents
meandered off. Nandesrikahl kept stride with Swain and the
driver.

“
I’m Swain,” he said, extending a hand.
“This is Nandesrikahl. Mostly, we call him Nandy.”

“
Jor-Tune,” he replied and enveloped
Swain’s hand for a shake.

Another Thewl introduced herself as Sirt. She
ambled about with Fitzpatrick and DeReaux. Minutes of roaming
mindlessly stretched on. As time passed, one person groaned,
stretched their neck, rolled their shoulders, or muttered
obscenities regarding their backs, their enemies, their dead
friends.

“
Hey, Frenchy, take a look,”
Fitzpatrick shouted while aiming her gun light.

The beam bounced off icy cracks. DeReaux
walked over, but didn’t see anything remarkable. He turned to ask
her, but she shoved him back towards the formation. He pointed his
light. It wasn’t a frosty, stone pillar; it was all ice, and there
was a face frozen inside it.

“
Guys,” DeReaux screamed.

The others ran over to observe the discovery.
The ice distorted shining beams, so it was tough to discern what
they were seeing, but there was a beastly figure encased in the
formation.

“
Crikey,” Nandy whispered. “It looks
like an ape.”

“
This couldn’t be a traveler,” O’Hara
said, looking to Korit, who placed a hand on the pillar.

“
I, I have no idea….”

“
Look for more,” O’Hara ordered and
took off.

Nandesrikahl followed. Seconds later, and a
few pillars away, he found another. Korit found one more.

“
This, this is them,” Korit stuttered.
“They’re here. They’re all here.”

“
They may or may not be the travelers,”
Adams was skeptical.

“
Well, how do we get them out,” Sirt
asked.

“
Not sure,” Korit replied.

All the men turned to face Adams and
Franklin. “What,” Adams asked.

“
We don’t know,” Franklin
added.

Glances of disbelief and anxiety passed.
Minds were rattled. No one dared to risk harming the creatures.
Whether or not they were alive wasn’t even debatable; they needed
to figure something out. In the end, Korit decided to leave such
matters alone.

“
We found what we were looking for,” he
said. “I’ll just call the admiral. He can decide.”

O’Hara lowered his gun, pressed his visor up
to the ice, and looked at the beastly man. It didn’t look too much
like an ape, but more like a furry man with bulging lips, a large
brow, and a flat nose. It was alien, but not as alien as Thewls or
Lokians.
Is this worth it?
O’Hara wondered.
Will these
travelers help us to solve everything? Are they alive? Maybe, it
doesn’t matter. They’re here, and that means their tech could also
be here, which explains why the Lokians came, too…but they got here
just after we did…now, I wonder if they’re chasing us.

His thoughts were broken by Nandesrikahl’s
voice. He claimed he saw movement. Korit ordered everyone to spread
out.

“
O’Hara, come with me back towards the
opening.”

“
Why there?”

“
That is the only entrance we know for
sure exists,” Korit said.

The agents flanked the crew leaders, and
Swain, Sirt, Jor-Tune, and Nandy followed. Fitzpatrick and DeReaux
pressed their backs to pillars, and tried to spot a sign of
anything. Adams darted past Korit, saying he saw shadows whisk
by.

“
I didn’t see anything,” O’Hara
mentioned.

“
Nor I,” Jor-Tune added.

“
Listen…don’t you hear that,” Franklin
asked. No one heard anything. “It’s like hissing. I hear…two, no,
three…wait.”

“
Found it,” Sirt screamed.

Her gun light stopped right over a hulking,
bipedal Lokian. Heavy, metal plates covered its body, and mesh
tubes pulsated throughout legs, hips, the torso, and four arms. The
creature dashed behind a pillar when another one ran in the
opposite direction, saliva, or some substance, dripping from fleshy
mandibles.

“
What the Hell are these things,” Swain
blurted. “Did you see? F-four arms, turtle shells?”

“
Stay cool,” O’Hara
breathed.

His heart was skipping beats. He had gotten a
pretty good look at the creatures, which made him wonder if their
weaponry was going to be effective; not only were their bodies
armored, but so, too, were their heads. Nandesrikahl unleashed a
heinous scream, freezing everyone in their tracks.

O’Hara spun around to find his friend pinned
beneath one of the brawlers. The Lokian turned, a slit in its face
gear glowed bright red before it stood, flung Nandy at the crew,
and took off into the network of pillars. Swain started to give
chase, but O’Hara called for them to halt.

“
If we go running off like assholes,
they’ll get us. It’s what they want,” he said. “Snipers, see
anything?”

“
Just that thing dash by, but it
vanished in the dark,” Fitzpatrick said.

Rhythmic breathing sounded through comms. No
one said anything for a moment. Swain had helped Nandy to his feet.
He wasn’t hurt, just scared.

A brawler leapt from behind a pillar, spat a
voluminous glob of goo, covering O’Hara’s visor, and bowled through
the friendly formation. The thing was so big and strong, it knocked
over Thewls like they were toys. Then, another ran through them,
snatching Sirt up with pincers. She kicked and screamed, but
positioned over the Lokian’s head—nearly twelve feet off the
ground—she had no way to fight.

Korit fired his rifle, and a burst of plasma
made the Lokian stumble. It spun, flung Sirt into a pillar, and
bore down on the crew like greased lightning. O’Hara opened fire.
The Swainium ammunition did minor damage, knocking bits of alloys
off the brawler’s plating, but it reached the crew, took the
captain to the ground, and when the snipers emerged to take shots,
another one slung them into the distance.

“
Holy crap,” O’Hara cried
out.

He puffed and groaned, and what little he saw
through a smeared visor, scared the bajeezes out of him. Something
stunned the enemy, giving O’Hara time to scramble to his feet. He
saw the brawler nab Nandy, it made to cut through his arm, but when
a blue burst washed over its head, it turned, spotted Jor-Tune, and
threw the Human at him. As they tumbled over each other, O’Hara
fired. To his dismay, the brawler leapt to a pillar, latched on,
and scurried up into the darkened ceiling.

“
Shoot the tubes,” DeReaux
yelled.

Between him and Fitzpatrick, they had managed
to slow one down by pumping holes throughout the strange hoses. A
rusty material oozed out, which greatly affected the beast. It not
only slowed, but it deflated, losing its strength, speed, momentum;
it was bleeding out.

Unfortunately, aiming for tubes the size of
golf balls moving at seventy miles an hour was easier said than
done. O’Hara took a knee to aim for the apparatus of a brawler
wrestling with Swain, who kept his rifle pressed against its
face.

“
Shit, Swain,” O’Hara muttered. He was
scared to miss the alien and hit his comrade. “I’m
coming!”