Borne On Wings of Steel (27 page)

But as he drew close he paused. Slowly, hesitantly, he made his way closer.

"Y-Yuli?"

Silence answered.

He fought the panic rising inside him. Holding his blaster, he looked slowly around, realizing that the invisible Destructor could be anywhere.

It could be right behind him.

Trag swallowed hard.

Finally, he forced himself to move closer until he came around the last crates and could see the fallen form of his friend.

Yuli lay flat on his back; his eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling far above.

Trag knew he was dead even without his sensor.

A crate over to his left suddenly moved.

Trag jumped.

He fired burst after burst at the area and all around it.

But only the flying splinters of plasti-steel and chunks from the concrete floor resulted from his mad volley.

He stared in panic first in one direction and another, trying to see the invisible monster.

But he couldn't, no matter how hard he stared.

And now he did not have his sensor; it was lost somewhere under the pile of crates behind him.

Trag knew he had to get out of there.

If he wanted to live.

He began backing slowly away, facing the area where the crate had moved. His shaking hand held the blaster as he stumbled backward over the fallen debris.

Fear gripped his entire being. Deep inside, he knew he was being hunted.

And he knew the Destructor was close—very close.

He felt it.

Trag screamed inside his mind.

In the distance, he heard the shouts and blaster fire from the others, but that did not matter now.

As he stumbled again, almost falling, he reached down to steady himself. But he slid and fell to the ground.

He immediately struggled to get up and continue his retreat. But as he pushed himself to his knees, the haunting sound came again—the gut-wrenching sound of steel talons scratching.

Trag froze.

The silence returned—except for the explosive pounding of his heart.

Trag wiped the sweat out his eyes as he strained his ears and eyes for
any
sign of the Destructor.

Anything.

Between one heartbeat and the next, he felt the invisible appendage slip around his neck from behind.

Trag opened his mouth to scream as he tried to turn and fire.

But the deadly grip tightened.

And mercifully, Trag lost consciousness.

JAAN WAS CONFUSED.

He looked up and fired a quick blast at a Harg and ducked back behind his cover.

But he stared over in the direction where the screams still echoed.

There weren't any Harg over there, and yet he plainly heard Yuli's blood-curdling scream a few moments ago.

And now, there was nothing—no movement, not any indication that either of them were there.

Or alive.

Jaan pulled out the tiny communicator and flipped it open.

"Captain,” Jaan said into it. “Captain, something's happened to Yuli and Trag."

"I think you're right. I've already tried to raise them,” Qirn answered tersely.

"What do we do?” Jaan whispered.

"I've got to get to the human girl. I can see her. But I'm pinned down."

Jaan pulled out a second blaster from its holster. “I'll cover you until you reach her and find more cover. Then you can cover for me and I'll make my way over to you."

"Then we're outta here,” Qirn's voice said evenly.

Jaan flipped his communicator closed and replaced it on his belt. He picked up a second blaster and held both barrels upright a moment.

He counted to three and jumped up—both blasters firing.

The remaining Harg returned fire, but Jaan ducked momentarily and jumped back up firing once again.

He stunned one of them squarely in the chest—the alien falling backward unconscious.

But the other two fired back with rapid bursts.

In that moment, Qirn reached the limp form of Elise.

As he reached for her a blaster bolt ripped through the air right over his head.

In one motion, Qirn turned and fired.

His instinctive aim proved true and another Harg fell stunned.

The last two Harg disappeared behind a pile of crates.

Qirn quickly pulled Elise into the shadows. He pulled out his sensor to scan her wounds. He hoped Jaan would make it to them in the next few minutes. Otherwise he would be force to leave without him.

BUT JAAN SAT frozen.

He had ducked back behind some cover after he saw Qirn drop the Harg. It had been his intention to pause only a second then begin to make his way over to his captain.

But just as he started to rise, he saw a crate move by itself—pushed by an unseen force.

His mind reeled a moment, fighting against what his eyes just saw. And in the next second it hit him—there was a Destructor here.

His entire body froze with panic.

Jaan barely breathed, still staring at the crate. He held his two blasters with barrels pointing upright and ready. But he could not will himself to move with the recognition of the terrible thing he knew now hunted him.

As he sat there, he heard the sound he dreaded—the faint sound of scratching claws moving ever closer.

Death, sure and terrible, came for Jaan.

The Iraxx warrior gasped breathlessly.

He felt a rush of adrenaline shoot throughout his body with the pounding of his heart. But still he remained frozen, his mind somehow detached from his body in its blizzard of thoughts.

Another crate moved ever so slightly against the weight of some invisible thing.

The Destructor was less than a meter away now.

Jaan's mind snapped.

In his heart, he knew he'd never kill the invisible Destructor.

But he could take it with him.

And everybody else in the warehouse.

He fired directly into several oversized crates marked ‘Extremely Powerful—Careful.'

Jaan screamed as the explosions and missiles erupted.

He rose and fired into more boxes, sending more missiles whistling into the air as dozens exploded into a shower of lights. Explosion after colorful explosion ripped the air, the quickly growing number of missiles making it seem as if it were raining fireworks from the sky.

The intensity and number grew exponentially as the warehouse started to fill with showers of multi-colored explosions.

Suddenly, against the constant flash and sparks, he saw the outline of the Destructor coming for him.

Jaan screamed again as he aimed for the crates all around the vague shape of the Destructor.

Powerful explosions erupted and Jaan was blinded.

But he'd seen that faint outline of the Destructor thrown down and partially consumed by the power of the blasts all around them.

Still, while he watched in horror as the now unstoppable barrage of exploding fireworks increased, he saw the shadowy outline of the damaged Destructor lifting itself up.

A steel claw reached out for him.

Jaan fired furiously.

As he screamed, the chain reaction of explosions grew together in rapid succession until it detonated every box in this one section of the warehouse.

The Destructor continued to reach out while the Iraxx warrior pumped blast after blast into its reinforced tritanium steel body, sending chunks of its armor plating into the air where they became plainly visible once separated from its cloaking field.

Even as Jaan felt the Destructor strip him of his blasters and take him into its deadly embrace, the expanding reach of the explosions finally engulfed them both.

Jaan screamed one last time.

QIRN HEAVED ELISE over his shoulder with one motion while the air filled with flying missiles and explosions.

He knew the explosions had started from the area where Jaan had suddenly started firing like a madman. He assumed the worst for his fellow Iraxx warrior as the explosions increased.

An especially powerful explosion ripped the air, almost knocking him down.

The room filled with missiles streaking in every direction and exploding with bright, blinding colors. More crates erupted from hits by these fiery missiles, their contents also shooting out in every direction and adding to the ever-growing array of colorful, deadly displays within the confines of the shielded warehouse.

The chain reaction had started.

More and more crates erupted and sent their fiery contents skyward with screaming cries. In only a few seconds, a blizzard of missiles filled the cavernous warehouse.

Just above the roar of the flying missiles and explosions, Qirn heard the screams of the last two Harg behind him as they fled for the same exit.

Qirn carried the human female as best he could. Again and again he stumbled and almost fell. Again and again he forced his body up, shouldering the limp form as he ran amid the blinding missiles that came at him from every direction.

He knew it was almost too late.

The explosions quickly grew in both number and intensity.

He was almost to the exit door, but he was so exhausted from the weight he carried he felt he couldn't go another step.

Still, he willed his body to obey.

He gasped desperately for breath as he steeled himself for one last burst of energy to escape.

All at once, Qirn felt somebody else beside him.

Rab stood beside him, panting and streaming sweat down his face.

"I couldn't wait outside any longer, not once I heard the powerful explosions growing. I came to help.” He grasped Elise to help carry Qirn's load.

They ran for the exit.

Just as they reached the door, the myriad of small explosions finally grew together into a single, powerful blast.

In that instant, the titanic fireball reached out with its explosive power and ignited everything else left inside the reinforced warehouse.

Mere seconds later, the contents of the warehouse erupted into a single, glowing ball of total destruction.

KRINIA POINTED HER scanner forward while her fingers danced over its controls. She tuned it for higher sensitivity as she slowly scanned the area around her.

Obviously, a fierce struggle had recently taken place here on the path.

She and Jysar had followed the signs of Elise and her Harg captors this far using her scan unit. But they froze upon entering this spot where the grass and bushes were bent and snapped—telltale signs of a violent encounter.

Jysar worked his own scan unit over at the other end of the path. He suddenly gasped. He knelt and picked up something that at first seemed invisible to Krinia's eyes. Jysar turned, holding it up for her see.

"What?” Krinia peered harder. “I can't see anything."

"Point your scanner."

Krinia complied. She nodded as the display revealed what her eyes could not—it was Elise's Hair Lighter—not invisible, but translucent.

"Well, we—” Jysar began.

Suddenly, Krinia and Jysar staggered like drunken traders as the ground shuddered and the air reverberated with a mighty explosion.

Regaining their balance and dazed by the overpowering noise, they stared wide-eyed a moment at each other. Above them, leaves and other debris swirled in lazy circles—blown from trees by the titanic force.

"That was close by!” Krinia exclaimed, coming to her senses.

Their communicators beeped simultaneously.

Jysar grabbed his first.

"Jysar here."

"This is Mother. The strong explosion that just registered on my sensors is very close to your current position. I fear for Elise."

Krinia swallowed hard. She looked at Jysar with a pained expression on her face.

Jysar sighed. “Yes, we just found her Hair Lighter. She's somewhere close.” He looked up the trail before them. “We're on our way to the source of the explosion now. We'll communicate with you then.” Jysar snapped the communicator shut and replaced it on his belt as they both broke into a full run.

Five minutes later, they topped the last hill and came to a dead halt because of the magnitude of the destruction before them.

Flames leaped from the misshapen building; black, acrid smoke boiled into the clean, lavender sky from thousands of holes in the bowed roof. But the building fulfilled its purpose, the main brunt of the terrific explosion captured and directed upward by its reinforced walls and carefully designed roof.

Originally, the two-story structure resembled any large, rectangular warehouse on any planet. But now, its appearance resembled the cap of a huge mushroom: the walls bowed outward in a series like the segments of a giant worm—the ribs beams. And the once flat roof now curved to the sky, thousands of holes blown open as designed to direct most of the blast skyward.

Still, the heat blasted Krinia and Jysar intensely even a hundred meters away. They stood, not daring to move closer, their eyes transfixed on the expanding columns of smoke rising like a harbinger of doom.

In the distance, alarms wailed as Mejadic firefighters drew near in their hovercraft. Jysar glanced at Krinia with a sorrowful look in his eyes. They both saw the footsteps at the same time—human footsteps dragging the ground surrounded by those of two Harg, leading toward the building.

Slowly, Jysar scanned them.

It only took a moment to confirm their worst fears.

"They are Elise's,” Krinia choked out as she looked at the Hrono's scanner.

Jysar shook his head sadly. “How are we going to break this to Mother?"

"I don't know,” Krinia whispered hollowly. “Let's wait until the Mejadic fire units confirm if anyone was inside that inferno."

"They'll be burned way beyond recognition with the heat of that fire. It may take days before they can make a final determination if the bodies are burned too badly."

Krinia turned away as she covered her tear-filled eyes.

TWO HOURS LATER, Jysar approached the Mejadic fire fighters for the hundredth time.

"Any word yet?"

The blue and green Mejadic looked solemnly back at him. “Yes, we have confirmed several bodies—several in the middle of the building. But two or more were found near one of the exits by our sensors—it's hard to tell. They'd almost made it out.” He looked with concern at Jysar a moment. “We still can't get to them because of the fire, but we know they're badly burned. We'll have to take the remains back to headquarters in order to identify which race they are, let alone individual identity."