Rift Breaker (25 page)

The craft paused. The weapon tips lit the hallway with a searing glow. Milton froze. A full quanut passed before the craft rose out of view. Milton stood and left quickly.

He held the gun tight across his chest and jogged aimlessly
through the hallways. He came across a mobile barricade that had been laid across the passage, made of heavy, portable shielding. He climbed over to find a cannon mounted on a three-legged stand, surrounded by dead Composite soldiers. Their recent blast wounds were still smoking. Milton swallowed hard.

Further down the same path, a rumbling hiss from the right pulled his attention. He turned to a door. A line of blast holes dotted its surface; its busted control panel had caught in the trail. A small heated bubble expanded from the door, left of centre.

Milton stepped back and raised the pulse rifle. The bubble exploded. Drops of molten slag and a stream of sparks gushed forth. The cutting flame travelled across the door at neck height, then turned downward. Milton jogged down the hall and turned a corner. He pressed his shoulder to the wall and peered out. The flow of sparks ceased. The squared opening was then kicked in by a black leather boot. A large soldier sidestepped into the hallway. Milton slid down the wall. Thick plates of burn-ridden armour suited the soldier's chest and muscled legs. He expelled a snort from large nostrils and curled his mouth, which was situated between two tusks. He pointed his pulse rifle up and down the corridor before taking position in the hallway. He flicked his head and with it his dreadlocks, signalling to others behind him.

The next soldier to appear wore a black armoured uniform with a visor helmet that concealed its face. The new one covered the hallway in the opposite direction. Another with the same
armour appeared, minus the helmet. The creature had grey scaly skin with a back-pointing skull.

The forth soldier to arrive wore a light chest plate over his base uniform, a matching jacket and pants. His face was pale green and he had ridges down the back of his bald skull. A lady came out next wearing the same kind of uniform. She had blue skin with wispy white hair tied back neatly. Commander Raegar followed. He shouldered a rifle in his top set of arms and swooped the barrel back down the corridor. He turned and scanned in Milton's direction. Milton froze and gradually inched back. The commander sidestepped with his weapon sight locked onto him.

‘Show yourself,' barked Raegar.

The rest of the team turned with a scuffle of boots. Milton lowered his pulse rifle, took a breath and turned the corner. The eyes of all soldiers focused down their weapon sights with barrels pointed at Milton's chest. Milton pulled his hands off the rifle and slowly raised them from his sides.

‘Surrender your weapon,' said Raegar. Milton went for the strap. ‘Slowly,' the commander added. After a slight pause Milton shed the gun and placed it on the floor. Raegar nodded and Milton pressed his boot to the butt and kicked it towards the squad. The green one snatched up the weapon.

‘Were you lying about Cenyulone?' Raegar asked, his voice echoing down the hall.

‘Absolutely not,' Milton replied, turning his chin up.

‘Then you will testify at the Ministry of Defence.'

The armoured soldier with the helmet frisked Milton for weapons. Once Raegar was satisfied he gave the signal and the squad advanced down the hallway past him.

‘Get going,' Raegar ordered, coming up the rear.

Milton smiled awkwardly and turned in the direction of the group.

The complex foundations rumbled with a frightening sound of something heavy breaking away. The lights above flickered in unison. The soldiers advanced in arrow shaped tactical formation. The dreadlocked grunt led the way. The two wearing the combat suits jogged cautiously behind. The last two in base uniforms covered the rear. Milton was somewhere in the middle with Raegar breathing down his neck.

They closed in on a steady pulsing — the sound came from behind the immediate wall. The corridor gradually curved left. The group passed a shutter door marked with a symbol. The logo was a coloured circle surrounded by small outward pointing triangles enclosed with a square.

Ahead, the corridor faded into obscuring blackness. The dark crept over the big guy then the next two. Milton's steps became smaller as his vision obscured. He felt a sudden shove in his midlower back; apparently Raegar could see fine. A soldier's night visor was activated with a barely audible click and a rising pitch.

Something shuffled in the dark. The team shouldered their weapons. The sound was too far ahead to come from the big
guy. A heavy scrape. An orange blade glowed. Someone yelled. Another cursed. The corridor lit with pulsefire.

Shadows ahead dipped and dodged among the flashes. Raegar grabbed Milton and shoved him to the side. He dropped against the wall. An enemy shadow closed in on the big guy. Glowing blue shafts appeared from nowhere. They flipped apart and spun in a whirl of light. The rotor thrust forward. Its glow defined the big soldier's body. His howling screams roared out over the fighting. The green guy stood from his kneeling position and cried out, charging forward, spraying pulse haphazardly.

Raegar touched his hand to the wall near Milton's head, activating a green square. ‘Verification acquired,' said a croaky automated voice. The wall at Milton's back shifted up. He turned. The shutters rose into one another. Purple light and frosted air spilled out.

‘Move,' Raegar yelled. Milton scrambled to his feet and entered the room. Raegar stood inside the doorway, covering the exit. Three of the soldiers, the two suited and the blue lady, emerged, shooting back into the darkness.

Raegar pushed the door controls again. Shutters dropped one by one over the doorway. A bloodcurdling cry rang out from the corridor. Raegar darted through. A heated moment passed. Black flashed with blue. He came out firing madly and dragging out the young green guy. The last few shutters reached the bottom and sealed in front of an advancing Xoeloid.

The wounded guy panted. Milton darted to assist. With the
grey skinned one on the other side, he tucked Green's arm over his neck and lifted him to his feet. The soldier let out a piercing howl. Steam rose from the burn hole in his chest.

Milton's exhale turned to vapour. He stood on a frost covered metal bridge over a huge drop. The chamber was a colossal circular shaft with no visible end above or below. In its centre, where the bridge led, stood a cylindrical column. Higher up inside it, protected by a force field, a molten ball of engine core dwelled. The miniature sun burned bright purple. Its tongues of fire licked at the surrounding protective field.

The bridge was one of four others on the same level, leading from different entrances to the room. Five more extended across on a level above and another five below. Sharp stalactites of ice hung down from their undersides.

An explosion burst from above. Black smoke seeped from the edges of a distant door. The soldiers raised their weapons in alertness.

‘They can talk to each other by thinking,' said Milton. ‘They all know we're here.'

A muffled scraping came from behind. Raegar turned back with intense, narrowed eyes. The tip of an orange blade thrust through the door and twisted against the metal shutter.

‘Find another way,' ordered Raegar.

The group filed across the bridge. Milton gripped Green's arm and stepped forward. The soldier's boots scraped along the floor as both helpers took all of his weight. The lady ran ahead to
another exit but skidded to the ground when another explosion blasted the door from its opposite side.

Milton reached the centre. The platform circled around the column with a safety railing on the edge. Two of the doors on the upper level breached and Xoeloid rushed out. Short controlled bursts spewed from their sleek weapons.

A blast whizzed past Milton's face and Green's weight suddenly dragged him down. The grey-skinned soldier's head slammed against the engine column with a smoking hole in the side. The green fellow cried out and Milton set him down. The soldier shoved a bloody pulse rifle to Milton's chest. Milton took the gun and sided around the column.

Across the chamber another door breached. Its shutters were sliced apart and ripped away. A Xoeloid soldier charged though the smoke. Raegar shouted from the column's reverse side and his pulsefire nailed the creature.

Milton raised the heavy rifle and pulled the trigger. The gun's recoil jolted his aim. His shots sparked off heavy armour. Before the creature's body fell, another Xoeloid darted in from behind and grabbed his comrade, taking cover behind the fallen Xoeloid warrior. It then threw the body off the side and walked up at a steady pace, shooting away. The shots forced Milton back into cover. The lady backed up next to Milton. She fired at enemies on the above bridges.

The implant began to throb.

‘No,' Milton cried.

Pain injected his head and lined the inner wall of his skull. He cried through gritted teeth and gripped his hair. He backed up and continued to blast the enemy. Excruciating electric spasms waved down his spine. He drained his lungs with a scream.

His eye caught a Xoeloid calmly staring up at him from below. He blasted. The rifle was louder than ever; he felt every discharge hammer on his brain. The Xoeloid ducked from his sights. Dizziness overcame him. Raegar came round behind and helped the lady collect Green.

The squad chattered around him. Apparently two additional entrances on the same level had been breached or were in the process of being breached. His heartbeat pounded in his ears. Weapon energy rained from above and below.

He fired again at one of the doors. His blasts scattered. The Xoeloid ducked back into cover. He laid the gun on the railing to shoot those below. A sudden, more concentrated pain pierced him and sent him falling back against the engine column.

He slammed his hands to his ears with no relief. He turned his head. Then he saw his reflection. In the shiny smudged panel on the column, his eyes had no whites, and no brown, simple black hollowness, then a tiny sparkle, appearing and disappearing like a tiny flickering star.

‘This way,' Raegar shouted.

Milton crawled to the edge on his knees and pulled the trigger again. The recoil rattled the gun against the railing. Someone
grabbed his upper arm, pulled him to his feet and guided him towards the retreating squad.

Milton found himself running. The guy with the helmet hurried next to him, but then dropped. The soldier screamed and rolled to his back, firing erratically into the air with a steaming hole in his left shoulder.

Milton turned and joined his efforts but his shaky arms could no longer hold the weapon. The gun shook and flipped from his grip. He found himself short of breath. Dropping to his knees, he lost all focus; the gunfire and screams muffled. All he could think about was getting a warning to Cenyulone, the place he'd seen so vividly in his dream.

A tiny floating speck of light drifted past his face. He raised his fingertips. The speck reacted to his hand and circled in the air. He looked up. More of them drifted about the room having appeared from nowhere. Attracted to each other, they gathered before him. Milton opened his palm and the glittering matter began a clockwise swirl.

The Human stood tall. He pushed his palm out. The stars flared and grew in density, moving together and spinning to a single point. A bubble of blue and green spread out from the centre. It dilated to Milton's size. Before him lay the Tranquillian Composite logo, only it was not a logo, it was a picture of the real Cenyulone: blue sky, green rolling hills and the tower.

Raegar rushed to the last remaining exit. Two orange blades stabbed through. He lost his temper. An invader above demanded his attention. He ducked, rolled into an aiming crouch and returned fire. His pulse rounds pounded at its chest armour. He altered their course to its head. The invader twitched and fell off the bridge.

He turned back to his troops. Then he saw the anomaly, a circle of liquid light. Milton Lance staggered into it. His form blurred and rippled inside the bending image. The unmistakable smell of Cenyulone grass tinged his nostrils.

The Human returned with black, sparkling eyes. ‘This way,' he yelled.

Raegar's soilders looked back for orders. The commander was stunned. He blinked; then gave the command to follow the Human. Lance helped the wounded. The remaining members of his team crossed into the swirling window. Then they were gone.

Raegar grunted. He took up an extra pulse rifle — one on each side. His adrenaline pumped. The fleet commander turned and let loose on the engine core.

His trigger fingers clamped down. Muscular arms held the rumbling weapons on target. Dual streams of pulse shattered against the protective field. Ripples of failing energy waved over the core. Loose streams of electricity sparked. Panels on the engine column burst open.

Raegar sidestepped to avoid the sights of an above enemy. He crouched and dodged a blast from below. The field fluctuated.
Tongues of flame leaked out, burning the surrounding metal. The room heated. Stalactites broke apart. Smoke seeped from the top of Raegar's guns. The housing of the force field cracked open. Raegar bolted, taking the plunge into the swirling circle. His feet landed on soft grass.