Emergence: Book One of the Dark Tide Trilogy Read online

  “We’re on it,” Derek replied. Platoon, with me. Southeast sector.

  Derek and his platoon descended several flights of stairs to the ground floor. They jogged through the capitol building and emerged into a crowd of panicked civilians. Derek shoved his way through the people, trying to make a path.

  “Get out of the way!” he shouted through the microphone in his helmet. “Back, get back!”

  Battle screams from Krai’kesh skitters mixed with the screams of the dying as civilians fled and soldiers fought.

  Derek passed through the sea of civilians and into a no-man’s-land of sorts in the southeastern sector. Guards from the capitol and the new reinforcements fought near the barricade boundary with the Krai’kesh. Much of it had devolved into a melee, with soldiers fighting with hands, feet and knives or the butt of their rifles. It was a losing proposition for them in such close quarters, however, for the Krai’kesh had a significant advantage once they closed on their target. It was a bloodbath. We need something better than knives.

  Derek tried to pick a target among the sea of bodies. He grunted in frustration. The enemy moved too fast and friendlies kept blocking his line of fire. He kept his rifle raised as he went. He wanted to avoid getting into the melee if he could - he would be more effective at range.

  An opening presented itself when Derek was several yards from the front line. Three Krai’kesh broke through a line of defenders. Two veered to the side to strike Federation forces from behind while the third charged toward Derek.

  Derek shot a beam of light toward the creature. The light hit the creature’s chest carapace and spread the heat across the surface. Derek fired again and again. The armor glowed red. Two more shots and the Krai’kesh was on him.

  The skitterer slashed with a pincer claw.

  Derek parried with his rifle. He stepped back several feet and tried to orient his rifle to take a shot. The creature prepared to lunge again when Derek fired a point-blank shot.

  The creature screamed as its chest plate cracked.

  Derek fired two more times, each time causing the enemy more pain.

  The enemy’s legs gave out and it fell to its knees. Derek slung his rifle over his back and pulled out his laser pistol. He stepped up to the enemy.

  “Die, you bastard.”

  He pulled the trigger. The beam of light melted through the soft palette beneath the creature’s chin and into its brain. The monster crumbled to the ground, dead at last.

  Other Marines in Derek’s platoon reached his side at that moment. “What are your orders, sir?” one Marine asked.

  “Get into the fight. Try to keep your distance but use your rifles to block the enemy claws if needed.”

  “Yes, sir,” the Marine replied.

  His platoon spread out and advanced toward the battle line.

  A commotion arose behind Derek. A Krai’kesh commander slashed at civilians as they tried to flee. Body parts flew into the air and fell to the ground. The creature stabbed a woman through the chest, then spun around and beheaded a man trying to run past. A child … Derek looked away.

  He sprinted forward, rifle bobbing, trying to get a shot at the creature. The creature bisected another woman but opened itself up for a shot. Derek fired. The beam disappeared into the enemy’s shield as he expected, but it caught the creature’s attention.

  The monstrosity faced Derek. It stood motionless as Derek fired three more lasers at it.

  Derek stopped several feet from the creature and fired a few more shots.

  The creature laughed in a hoarse, deep voice.

  Derek stepped back at the sound. His hands shook.

  “Foolish human,” the creature rasped. “You think your weapons can hurt me? My God protects me.” It walked toward Derek.

  “Do your worst,” Derek said. He advanced toward the creature.

  Derek parried the enemy staff with his rifle.

  The enemy swiped sideways.

  Derek held his gun vertical and blocked.

  The enemy swiped at Derek’s legs.

  He leapt over the blade and slammed the butt of his rifle into the pock-marked and disfigured face of his opponent. They stumbled backward.

  Derek fired two more shots at the creature, with the same effect as before. This isn’t working, he thought.

  Maybe a physical object would work? He dropped the gun and withdrew his standard issue foot-long knife. He knelt behind the corpse of a fellow Marine and removed the knife from its location at her waist.

  Armed with two knives, Derek looked up to see the Krai’kesh approaching him, this time with more caution in its step.

  “Here goes nothing,” he muttered. He jumped up from beside the corpse and met the Krai’kesh.

  The creature stabbed at him. Derek swatted the staff aside and sidestepped it. He swept by the creature’s right side and scored a strike on its organic armor with his left knife. He passed the creature and spun, striking it in the back with the knife in his right hand. Then he ducked to avoid a spinning staff strike from the enemy.

  Derek crossed his knives and felt his muscles ache from the impact as the enemy’s overhead strike met his blades. He leapt aside, and the staff slammed into the ground where he had been.

  Okay, this isn’t working either, he thought.

  The Krai’kesh warrior removed a circular orb covered in green goop. Derek recognized it from the encounter hours earlier with a Krai’kesh in the hangar bay. A grenade. The creature tossed it toward him. Derek ran, bracing for an explosion and acidic goop hitting his back.

  Instead of an explosion, however, he felt intense heat on his back. He turned around to see the grenade engulfed in flames.

  “You didn’t think we’d leave you on your own, did you, Lieutenant?” Ashley said as she emerged from the crowd a short distance away. She summoned another fireball and launched at the Krai’kesh warrior. The enemy void shield absorbed the fire. “I want to test a theory,” she said as this time clumps of dirt rose from the earth. “Pure energy, or in this case heat, doesn’t work against that personal shield, so let’s try something more physical.” The clumps of dirt floated up to chest height on Derek and formed into sharp shards of rock. Ashley made a “go forward” motion with her arms and the shards flew toward the Krai’kesh warrior at high speed. They flew through the void shield and lodged in the hardened carapace covering the enemy’s chest.

  The enemy roared in pain and disbelief and … was that fear?

  “Much better,” Ashley said. She smiled. She raised her hands high and a much larger clump of dirt and stone rose and formed into a single large, long spear of black stone. She performed another casting motion and the spear flew toward the enemy at high speed. Again, it flew through the void shield and this time pierced the enemy’s chest armor, impaling the creature.

  “Im … possible,” the creature gasped. “God protect…” its words cut off as a death rattle escaped its lips.

  “There’s only one God,” Ashley said. “And he’s not on your side.”

  “Thank you for the aid, ma’am,” Derek said.

  “My pleasure, Lieutenant. Let’s help clear out the rest of these bastards, shall we?”

  “Of course.”

  Chapter 9 - Black Box

  “Sir, we’re receiving reports from the Serpentis III capitol. It’s secure.”

  Captain Martin Rigsby let out a sigh of relief. “Excellent. Did we capture any of these bastards alive?”

  “Not that I know of, sir. However, we have plenty of corpses available for dissection.”

  “That’ll do for now. Have any enemy corpses sent up here for autopsy and analysis.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “Did the acid get neutralized?”

  “Yes, sir. The mages burnt the acid material to prevent it spreading.”

  “So, we could use chemical flamethrowers, yes?”

  “Theoretically, sir, but mages have control of the flames they produce. Flamethrowers don’t.”


  “Excellent point. Any word from sector HQ?”

  “No sir. We have received no response to our hails from the Eligar system since we departed.”

  Captain Rigsby felt a sinking feeling in his stomach but said, “Okay, keep me posted, TC.”

  “Of course, sir.” Zigana paused for a moment. “We have retrieved the black box from the flagship of the Serpentis defense force. It’s ready for viewing.”

  Martin looked around. The crew looked tired from the battle, and demoralized from seeing so much devastation, training or no training. “I’ll view it in my quarters.”

  Zigana gave him a look that told Martin he understood and nodded. “Of course, sir.”

  Martin made his way to his quarters and sat at his desk. He smiled at the holo of his family sitting on the corner before turning to the wall display. “You may play it now.”

  The wall display lit up, and a recording played. It showed first contact near the edge of the system some twelve-hours earlier. The Krai’kesh had moved to engage the Federation forces around Serpentis. Their first action had been to destroy the shadow antenna and shadow gate, which explained the cut off communication they had received earlier that day.

  The enemy had surrounded the planet, destroying the planetary ring and dismantling the orbital defense force, which had no physical weapons to fight the enemy with.

  At last the haggard recording of the captain appeared. “Captains log. The Serpentis system is lost. They came out of nowhere. Our ship has taken critical damage.” He looked off-screen. The screen shook. He looked back at the camera. “We found no discernible weakness, but it was like they knew what to hit. They disabled our communications and mass transit capabilities to isolate us. It’s as if they mapped everything out ahead of time. Captain Reynard, signing off…” the video ended.

  Martin rubbed his eyes. He returned to the bridge. “Not much useful information there, is there, Zigana?”

  “I could extract battle data from the recording - how much damage each ship took, enemy ship movements, planetary invasion patterns. We may might use this information if the enemy attacks again.”

  What is happening on Eligar II? “I have a feeling we will meet this foe in battle again.”

  ***

  Corpses of humans and aliens alike littered the ground around the capitol building on Serpentis III. Soldiers and security forces carried human corpses to a tent before being placed in a mass grave. Other soldiers in hazmat suits lifted Krai’kesh corpses onto hover sleds to take to transport ships.

  “How did your platoon fare?” Ashley asked.

  Worse than I had hoped. “Eighteen dead from my platoon, three wounded. Four of us sustained minor wounds.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Without you, it would have been worse.”

  Ashley waved her hand dismissively. “It was nothing, but I have an idea for the future for how to fight those Krai’kesh commanders and their skitterers or whatever they are.”

  “Oh?”

  She pointed to the knife sheathed at his belt. “Go back to swords. Think about it, when the enemy is up close what good is your rifle?”

  “Piss all.”

  “So,” Ashley said, picking up the second knife Derek had used earlier, “what if you had a dedicated melee weapon that could help even the odds?” Dirt and rock floated up from the ground. It swirled around the knife, obscuring it. The rock and dirt formed into the shape of a longer blade. A thump, thump reverberated and the material further condensed. Then fire appeared around the blade, burning white. Derek stepped back. When the fire subsided, a black blade shone in Ashley’s hand. “I’ve gotten better at that. You should have seen me the first time I did that. Passed out and everything.”

  “A nightblade,” Derek said, remembering the ancient stories of Dawyn Darklance.

  “Correct. They’re not so rare as the stories claim - I made hundreds of them during the first Rakosh War - but many of them, like many stories from that age, are now lost, melted down or collected and hoarded through time.”

  “I see.”

  “Hey, honey, check this out,” John shouted from the boundary fence. He hefted one of the Krai’kesh staffs aloft then flowed into a series of exercises with the staff, thrusting and swinging. “Oof,” he said, dropping the staff to the ground. “I’m all right, I’m all right.”

  “Boys,” Ashley said. She looked at Derek. “Let’s get back to the ship, shall we?”

  ***

  Selene Artois flew through the wreckage of a Federation frigate, searching for signs of life, friend or foe, with her close-range sensors. “Sector twelve dash two, clear,” she reported.

  “Acknowledged, Raptor One, proceed to the next sector,” the voice of the CAG said over the air group comm channel.

  “Roger that,” Selene responded.

  Few survivors were found in the wreckage. Sure, a few were hidden away in isolated areas, but many who survived the explosions or decompression died from hypothermia or asphyxiation. Still, they had to search.

  She came to the dilapidated husk of a Sierra-class medium transport. The vessels, capable of carrying a few hundred people, moved at a crawl and possessed light weapons. They didn’t stand a chance.

  Selene’s sensor pinged as she passed over the hull. Must be a glitch, she thought.

  Ping, the sensor sounded again. She stopped her fighter and turned around, going over the area again at a crawl.

  A heat signature flashed on her sensor, then disappeared. She moved her sensor over that area again and the heat signature flashed for a moment.

  “Base, this is Raptor One. I might have something here,” she reported. “My sensor is picking up an intermittent heat signature. Sending the data now.” She triggered the data dump with her implant.

  “Received, Raptor One.” The line was silent for a few moments. “We don’t believe it’s a sensor malfunction. Can you go EV and investigate? We have a retrieval crew several minutes out but…” the CAG left hanging in the air that if someone were alive in the wreckage, every second counted.

  Selene brought her ship up to the wreckage. She activated the magnetic lock and her ship clamped to the bottom of the transport. At least this time she would choose to go EV.

  “Acknowledged, CAG. Going EV.”

  She activated her helmet, triggered the exit procedure, and the canopy slid open after a brief flashing of red lights warning of imminent de-pressurization. She connected the tether of her flight suit to the hull of her ship and undid her restraints, floating out. She oriented herself “up” and headed toward an opening in the wreckage.

  An intact blast door stood between her and where her sensors had detected the signature. She placed her glove on the door and her suit emitted a high powered ultrasonic pulse. The pulse emanated through the door and into the room beyond. It reflected and came through the door. She studied the image. There was something inside the room.

  “Base, this is Raptor One. I’m at an intact blast door. I’m picking up an object or person inside the room.” As she spoke she activated another pulse. This time she picked up a thumping sound, almost like someone walking. Another pulse and the image showed something in front of the door. “It appears to be moving. I’m showing something right on the other side of the door now.”

  A tapping came at the door, sending a chill up Selene’s spine. It could be a Krai’kesh for all she knew.

  “What are your orders, base?”

  “Can you open the door?” the CAG asked.

  “I can try.” She withdrew her blaster and approached the unpowered door control terminal. She opened a flap on her wrist-mounted display and pulled out a power cable, attaching it to the jack on the door control terminal. Her suit sent a jolt to the door and it slid open.

  Selene exhaled. Not Krai’kesh. Two small figures stood in front of her. They each wore child sized sealed space suits. “Children,” Selene breathed over the comm. “Base, I’ve found two children.”

  “Ch
ildren?” the CAG asked in disbelief.

  They stared at her with wide eyes through the masks in their suits. A short-range comm burst crackled from the taller of the two suits. “Who are you?” a girl’s voice asked.

  “I am Lieutenant Selene Artois of the Federation navy,” Selene said through her own comm. “What is your name?”

  “My name is Clemence,” she said. “This is my brother, Ben.”

  “Where are your parents?” Selene asked.

  “We don’t know. They sent us in here and shut the door. We heard lots of explosions and the ship shook. The power died and we couldn’t get through the door. Maybe they escaped?”

  Selene swallowed. She didn’t have the heart to tell them the truth - that they were the last survivors of their transport. “Maybe, honey. We’ll see,” she said. She muted the channel to the children and spoke over the air group channel again. “Yes, sir, two children. Their parents put them in space suits and locked them in a room, saving their lives.”

  “Rescue ship is two minutes out. Are they okay?”

  “For now. I haven’t told them their parents are dead yet.”

  ***

  “Sir, we have good news to report,” Zigana said. “A pilot rescued two children moments ago, from the wreckage of a transport.”

  Captain Martin Rigsby sighed in relief. “That is good news, Zigana. Have them brought aboard and treated.”

  “Already in the works, sir.”

  Martin smiled. “You have a knack for predicting my every move, don’t you?

  “That is my job, sir.”

  “Remind me never to play chess with you.”

  “I will, sir. Also, the CAG suggested retrofitting a squadron of fighters with coil gun batteries. Our techs are working on it in the hangar, for Raptor Squadron.”

  “Good. Make a note that when we get to a manufacturing center we need to retrofit more than just our fighters.”

  “I will do so, sir. There is one other thing. We recovered Krai’kesh corpses from the wreckage of the Krai’kesh ships. Dissections will begin soon. The lab hopes to have something in the next day.”

  “Excellent, keep me posted. Can we hail fleet command?”