The Veil (42 page)

In the darkness I couldn’t see what it was, but my fingers identified it quickly. A sob of relief washed over me as I felt the smooth flat edge and the hooked ridge at the end.

A lock pick.

26

Alex

My heart thundered in my chest as I stared up at the Hydra.

The beast lowered its nine serpentine heads and stared right back at us, its yellow eyes glowing like torch beams. It opened its nine mouths, exposing fangs the size of streetlamps. I’d never seen one in the flesh, or even read about one, but one thing was clear – beyond The Sorrow – it was the biggest and most intimidating creature I had seen in my time as a Guardian, dwarfing even the Ogre we had fought at Atlantis. As we all stared dumbfounded at the Hydra, its spawn rose upwards and began to swirl around its head in a storm of wings. I stared down at Crimson, which suddenly felt weak and insignificant in my hand.

I’m still recovering from the battle in Fenodara; I’m not ready for something like this.

Captain Garrat’s voice boomed over a speaker from within the control deck. “All mounted gunners, concentrate your fire on the Queen Hydra, but do not attack her heads. I repeat, do
not
attack her heads! Aim for the chest and limbs.”

“God dang idiot!” cursed Del. He glanced over at us. “Get prepared for another shitstorm.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Captain Garrat only got it half right. I’ve read about these things. Sure, you don’t attack a Hydra Queen’s heads – everyone knows that. But you also don’t attack her friggin’ chest either!”

“Why?”

All of the Lightwardens seated on the mounted Ion cannons swivelled around, and a series of deafening whines filled the ship as they built energy.

BOOOOOM!!

A shuddering shockwave rolled through I’orin as the combined force of thirty Ion cannons released their payload at the same time. The fading light was temporarily ignited by a blinding red glare as the energy beams smashed into the Hydra Queen’s torso. The creature gave a hideous roar and shrank backwards as yawning holes bloomed open from the bottom of her throat to the top of her stomach. A moment later, I watched in horrified disbelief as countless more Hydra Spawn started to push their way out of the holes, swarming down towards the warship.

“That’s why.”

Like a cloud of arrows, the birthed Hydra Spawn arced down towards the warship. At the same time the Queen Hydra dipped down with several of her heads, snapping at those firing her. Those she didn’t kill instantly were coated in a thick yellow venom, and I watched with disgusted shock as it burned through her victims like acid, dissolving their uniforms and skin, until there was nothing left but bubbling bones and a pile of gore.

Damn, how are we supposed to beat something like this?

“Come on,” shouted Danny. “We have to help the others!”

   We rushed towards the Vengeful, who had thrown themselves back into the battle with the ferocity of seasoned soldiers; spinning their gunpikes around them like deadly batons, knocking over the mini Hydras who had touched down nearby, and shooting off the wings of the ones still airborne. At the same time, the Gargoyles burst from the clouds overhead, swooping into the fray and snatching up the creatures from the cloud with their huge claws and tearing them to pieces. As we charged closer, I pulled a cocktail round gun from my Kapre belt and took a few pot-shots at the cloud of diving spawn. The bullets punctured holes in their wings and three of the spawn crashed into the deck.

“I got em!’” yelled Danny, running next to Hollie – who was rapidly unleashing arrows from Animus at the enemies – and speared the grounded Hydra with Penance.

Out the corner of my eye I saw a Lightwarden manning a machinegun turret get torn in half by two Hydras and his body parts tossed overboard. “Make a circle with the Vengeful!” I yelled to the others as I split off from them. “Back to back!”

“Where you goin’?” Delagio shouted back.

“To thin the heard!”

I sprinted across the deck, sliding under claw swipes and hopping over Lightwardens, who were scrambling around with the spawn on the deck, popping bullets into the creature’s heads as I moved. I glanced over my shoulder to see Delagio grab the helmet of one of the mounted gunners near the Vengeful and pull him close, shouting something over the racket.

The gunner nodded and then shouted into his coms bracelet. I turned back to face the machinegun turret just in time to see a Hydra stamp down in front of me. Its five heads snapped out at me in quick succession and I hopped from foot to foot, dodging and deflecting with my blade. Seeing it couldn’t win playing fair, the mini Hydra arched two of its heads at me from either side. I stepped towards one and lobbed off its head with an upwards arc, moving out of the way of the other head, which snapped its fangs together only inches from my back. The creature stumbled backwards and shook its remaining heads, as if dazed. The appendage on the floor gave a final hiss, and then turned to stone.

Unlike the mythological versions,
these
heads didn’t grow back.
Although I’m guessing the queen might be a different story.

The Hydra jerked two more heads towards me. I stepped to the side and grabbed them under my arm, heaving forward and flipping the creature right over onto its back. It scrambled around like an upturned beetle, falling still when I thrust my sword deep into its heart.

I holstered Crimson and then jumped onto the gun’s seat, which was still slick with the blood of the dismembered Lightwarden. There were a number of options written on a screen in Qi’lern – different round sizes and fire rates. I just took hold of the trigger handles either side of the car-sized weapon, and squeezed.

The gun jackhammered my body as it released a deafening storm of bullets. They punched upwards, glancing against the Hydra Queen’s rightmost head as I struggled to control the devastating weapon.

No, no, no, don’t come off!

The queen snapped the head away and released a loud hiss of fury.
Oh thank god.
I dragged the convulsing, buzzing gun diagonally downwards until it was aiming at the spawn cloud. The bullets tore through them like they were made from wet paper. Some fell to the deck or into the ocean, others simply exploded in a burst of yellow gore, pouring down from the sky like rain. The queen cast all of her eyes towards me and then made a discordant screeching sound.

All of the Hydra Spawn came for me. 

My stomach lurched as a torrent of the creatures bombed towards me. I turned the gun in their direction and started firing, but there were
so
many. At the same time I could hear the whine as the Ion cannons wound back up for discharge. I kept firing, and a pile of Hydras started to build up on the deck as I peeled away those at the front of the storm. But dozens more followed up behind, diving towards me like kamikaze pilots.

Shit, shit shit!

“
Alex, get down!” shouted Delagio from somewhere nearby.

I ducked down in the chair and saw him running towards me. He thrust both hands to one side and let out a roar of exertion. In response a nearby Ion cannon wrenched around on its axis, confusing the hell out of its operator.

BOOOOOM!

The Ion cannons all released their beams, but the one Delagio had telekinetically moved, punched right into the cloud of Hydra Spawn. The glare of light was so close and so bright that I was temporarily blinded. I shielded my face and blinked away the red spots that appeared behind my eyelids. When I dropped my arm and opened my eyes again, the indistinguishable parts of several dozen Hydra offspring were slapping down onto the deck.

“Holy crap!” I breathed. “Thanks, Del.”

“No problem, bud.” He wiped a stream of blood that was seeping from his nose away and then pointed up into the air. I followed his gesture and saw that a couple of the Hydra Spawn were still airborne, missing limbs, heads and parts of wings, flying around and bumping to each other in their daze. I fired the machinegun back up and finished them off.

There was another powerful shockwave as the Ion cannons were fired once again, this time targeting the arms and wings. The Hydra Queen gave an ear-destroying roar as most of a wing and several of her claws were blown off completely. The hulking beast fell forward onto I’orin’s bow, tipping the ship violently downwards.

I was thrown off my feet and tumbled like a crash test dummy down the deck towards her writhing heads. I saw handfuls of Lightwardens ahead of me fall right into her open mouths, where they were swallowed whole. I scrambled around as I slid furiously down the metal deck, trying to find something to stop me. I grabbed a dangling section of container rope, feeling it unravel on its large, mounted reel. As soon as it hit the end of its run, it broke off uselessly in my hand. I kept flipping and sliding down the sharp angle, snatching out for anything to slow me down.

“Take my hand!”

A Lightwarden holding onto a machine gun turret reached out towards me but was battered away when another Lightwarden collided with him. They both flailed and screamed as they fell overboard.

Dammit!

I kept scrambling around as I tumbled over and over, spiralling down the deck. My fingers connected with something and my shoulder jerked violently backwards as the object held fast. I craned my neck up and saw that I was dangling from a securing net that had been fixed over a storage container.

Thank god.

I held on fast, trying desperately to catch those who tumbled past me, but each one missed my outstretched fingers.

Where are the others?

I looked around frantically but couldn’t see them.

What I did see was a Vengeful who had become separated from his group rolling towards me from above. Swinging as hard as I could against the netting, I thrust my leg across his path and he grabbed hold of my boot. One hand was clasped around my ankle, the other holding his gunpike that dangled by his side. His gaze caught mine as he desperately clung on, and I saw the faintest glimmer of fear in his young face. 

I’ve got you.

I heard a hiss and saw a Hydra Spawn flying up towards us, its five mouths open wide, and fangs ready to bite. “Ni’ha dehen ete!” I shouted at the boy in Qi’lern.
Pull the trigger!

He didn’t question my decision, just pumped the trigger on his gunpike. The blast hit the creature square in the chest and it tumbled backwards, pinballing off containers, radars and guns, before finally hitting the edge of the boat and pinging off into the waves.

“Ki’leh dehen est O’mai!” I ordered.
Hold the weapon up to me.

The Vengeful did as he was asked. I had no choice but to grab the top of the gunpike, wincing as the searing heat of the discharged beam lingered in the weapon, singing my skin. I heaved upwards on the gunpike and the boy came with it. He grabbed onto my jacket and then my neck, scrambling up until he was clinging onto the netting beside me. I passed him his weapon, which he deftly holstered onto his back.

The Hydra Queen’s pain had turned to fury, and as she struggled to push her massive frame back upright, she snapped out at those who had been unlucky enough to tumble into range. I held fast and searched around the deck, my stomach tightening as I saw our dwindling numbers.
We’ve lost at least half the Vengeful and about twenty Lightwardens. And where the hell are the others?

I scanned around, searching desperately and then felt a wave of relief when I found them. They were further down the ship, crouching with their backs pressed to a large storage container – which had pretty much become the floor at the sheer angle I’orin was facing.

The Queen Hydra recovered, lifting from the ship and sending it crashing back down with enough force that the boy and I were both thrown ten feet into the air. I landed awkwardly on my side, letting out a gasp as the air was forced from my lungs. The Vengeful landed much more gracefully, hitting the ground and dropping into a roll to deflect the impact. He gave me a quick nod of thanks and then sprinted off to re-join his peers. A series of groans filled the ship as the scattered forces dragged themselves to their feet.

The Hydra released another screaming command to her kin, and the remaining spawn came at us with frenzied energy. The Protectors did what they could to help – gouging, biting and spewing flames, but there were just so many. I jumped to my feet and unsheathed Crimson, running to join the other Guardians. Already, a dozen or so mini Hydras had them pinned between the container and the side of the ship. One of them had reared upwards, and was bearing down on Danny.

With a yell, I pounced into the air and came down hard on the Hydra, piercing my blade deep into its back. Danny stepped forward and stabbed Penance down the throat of its central head, finishing it off. I jumped up and came face to face with Hollie, who was aiming an arrow right between my eyes. 

“Move!”

I jerked my head to the side and she released. I spun around to see a silently approaching Hydra crumble to the deck and turn to stone. Hollie snatched the arrow from its chest and stuffed it back into her diminishing quiver. I turned my attention to Delagio. He had four guns hovering in front of him, each one spinning around and firing out dozens of bullets at the creatures as he played conductor. Danny had re-positioned himself next to the Kinesist, and was twirling Penance, around his body, carving up the creatures with the skill of a dancing butcher. I joined the fight, chopping the head off one with a heaving slice, and then slashing open the belly of another – releasing a foul set of smelling guts that quickly turned to stone. Whilst I was dealing with a third, I heard a sound like a waterfall and glanced up at the Hydra Queen.