Null Specter Station! Chapter Ten: Trapped

Krenyo whistled, startling his two companions. “Ok, so it’s some kind of engineered virus. Nothing there that says this place was a cover for working on it.”

“That’s only the first file,” said Benu, quickly scrolling to the next one in the pad, “that officer died on board the Vector. When the team went on they pulled all the data they could find. Someone figured his notes may have been copied and so they changed the final destination.”

“Sorry to break this up,” interrupted Impy, “but we need to get moving. Make a choice boss, you want to get those imps out or just pull back?”

“We have to go up.” Benu said it quickly, adding his opinion before Krenyo could give any further orders, “we need to find the Black Intel guys.”

“Ben,” Krenyo placed a hand on his shoulder and softened his voice, “you’ve read the file, I don’t think they’re alive anymore.”

Benu shook Krenyo off and strode towards the ladder that led to the ground floor, “I’m going up there to find out.”

“Cack it, I’m with you Ben.” Impy shouldered his weapon and followed Benu out leaving Krenyo to watch them. He sighed, pocketed the data pad and caught them up. The three men moved up the dirt road to the top of the mountain and the plateau that held the sensor station. The two T1-B’s crept along with them, their powerful turrets constantly looking for anything that could threaten the safety of the group.

No-one noticed the figures that lined the tops of the cliffs towering above them. None of them paid any attention to the noise as small stones skittered down the sides occasionally. Suddenly a thundering, crashing thunder echoed from the cliff walls, Impy pushed Krenyo and Ben to the floor as a small avalanche rushed towards them. The three of them covered their heads, unable to do much more than wait for the crushing agonising death caused by tons of falling rock. The tanks were too slow to react, one was swept away completely by the falling rocks, their weight pushing it over the side of the cliff that fell away to the left hand side. The other was crushed beneath the falling rocks, the shriek of metal protesting against the overwhelming force of gravity indicated that the men inside would not survive.

Krenyo rose first, coughing and rubbing his eyes as clouds of dust hung in the air, a few stones still rolled down the mountain side and he looked up warily. Through the dust and the dark night sky he could make out a few figures against the backdrop of the Imperial station. They screamed at him before moving away from the edge and out of Krenyo’s vision.

“Ok guys,” he said, as Ben and Imp also rose from the ground, “now we’re alone, and those things are a cacking sight more intelligent than that report says.”

Impy shook his head, “That’s impossible, you think they caused this?”

The determined officer nodded, “I’m sure of it. This was planned, they weren’t going for us, just taking the T1-B’s out.” He looked back towards them, anger flashing in his eyes. “Whatever those cacking Imps did here killed too many of my men. I’m taking some of them with me.”

Benu’s heart sunk. He had no choice now but to go up there and deal with the men infected by the Imperials virus. Were they even men now? What if some of those things up there were his old friends? Could he kill them? Would Impy and Kreny kill him if he got infected too? He coughed, his pals quickly turning towards him, weapons already raised.

“Woah! Woah!” He stammered, “it’s the dust, I swear it’s just the dust.”

“Sorry buddy,” Impy said, lowering the barrel, “just a bit jumpy now. Whatever happens, we take as many as we can. Go for the head and if you get bitten, shoot yourself. If you can’t do that then we need to be prepared to raise a gun on each other, even if we show now signs, ok?”

They all agreed and steadily began making their way upwards through the night. Clouds rolled in once more obscuring the moon and stars and as they walked, each of them couldn’t but shiver at the thought of what might await them.

Slyfox reached up and grabbed a handhold before hauling himself on to a small ledge on the cliff. He almost fell backwards when something grabbed hold of his collar and pulled him up. “Samzi!” He gasped, shocked to see one of pals there.

“You alright?” asked the medic, already checking him over with practiced ease.

“As good as I can be. What happened in there? What are those things?”

Samzi shook his head, looking over to the tower that loomed over them. “I don’t know. Not human, not anymore at least. It’s something that, sounds unbelieveable, it brings the dead to life.”

Sly looked at him, nodding as if it made sense, “They were eating Gwynzer.”

“What do we do now?” Samzi ignored it, not wanting to picture the death of his friend.

“Up or down I guess,” answered Sly, “I want to avoid those things though. Can we contact the other group.”

“No, no coms on me. Hey look.” Samzi pointed as the lights of Krenyo’s rear party shone through the undergrowth far below and headed towards the landing point. “We’ll head down towards them. Maybe it’s a retreat.”

Slyfox peared over the edge and looked down at the Imperial landing position at the base of the tower. “Er..down there? What if more of those things are there?”

Samzi thought it over and nodded, “Yeah, lets keep clear of that. We’ll contour round the cliffs and then drop down to the LZ. Think you can manage it?”

Slyfox grinned, “Eaten by Imperials or falling off a cliff. Shame I didn’t pack my parachute.”

The men laughed and started out, reaching for hand and foot holds. The cliff walls were made of granite and easily bore their weight, rarely crumbling under their touch. A sudden blinding flash struck the wall near Sly, his left hand slipped and his body swung to the right, his right arm bearing all the weight. His vision blurred and spasms erupted through his muscles as electricity coursed through them.

“Samzi..”  He croaked the words out, unable to control his body and hoping his only contact with the cliff wouldn’t give out on him. Another flash struck the side, further away this time. The medic was beside him in a flash, pushing Sly back against the wall as the spasms disippated allowing him to hug the face again.

“What the cack?” he gasped, sucking air greedily as his muscles began to relax.

“They’re shooting at us. DEMP’s. We need to move fast.” They began clawing their way round as more of the dangerous electromagnetic pulses splashed against the mountain.

“Quicker Sly!” urged Samzi, as the bolts erupted closer and closer. A lone Imperial was taking aim at them from the hole they had made in the tower. His expression mindless and uncaring as he tried to send them tumbling to their death. Another blue bolt fizzled towards them as Samzi rounded the edge that beckoned to take them out of sight. He heard the bolt fizz and turned his head away from the bright energy pulses that ringed out as it struck. He heard Sly cry out and peeked round the rocky outcrop.

Slyfox was falling away, paralysed by the high energy pulse, arms and legs outstretched, his eyes closed. He struck another plateau with a sickening thud and remained still. Samzi hastened towards him, jeopardising his own safety he careened down the cliff face using his arms and feet to slow his descent. Stones and shingle knocked loose and cascaded before him, bouncing down the sides and clattering around Slyfox. The medic struck the small ledge hard, his ankle buckling and sending shooting pains up through his leg. He ignored it, quickly checking his friends vitals and pulling pieces of equipment from his pack. A scream echoed out from the Imperial service tower. “Your next.” It seemed to say. “You’re going to die.”