Star Brigade: The Supremacy (SB3) (43 page)

She had no time for this. “Find the alpha and kill it!” she shouted over him.

That cut through V’Korram’s fury, and a sudden awareness filled his cat-like face. He looked over the doctor’s shoulder to see Mhir’ujiid tossed off the alpha jusha’s back, her makeshift weapon shattered.

“I’ll cover you!” Lily assured.

V’Korram nodded brusquely and bounded off toward the massive beast. A number of jusha beasts tried to block the Kintarian’s path, but Liliana knocked each one aside with expertly placed sound-wave blasts, protecting herself just the same.

Byzlar’s earlier assessment of the doctor’s chemistry with the Kintarian in the xephrite caves popped into her head. She snorted—despite its truth.

In an instant, V’Korram reached his target. Many didn’t tower over the six-foot-nine-inch Kintarian. In this case, Liliana gaped at the alpha jusha standing almost two heads taller on its hind legs. If the Kintarian was discouraged, he never revealed it. V’Korram launched himself with a snarl, colliding into the beast with a loud
thump
, dragging it down with him.

But the alpha countered with surprising speed, grabbing V’Korram in its meaty paws and tossing him like a rag doll. The Kintarian went sailing until a stony protrusion stopped his flight. He hit back first and hard, the impact splaying his long limbs out in all directions. He slumped to the ground in a wilted heap and did not move.

For a heartbeat, cold shock numbed Lily. The doctor couldn’t stand her Kintarian teammate, but he was still
her
teammate. She moved toward him, cursing herself for getting him injured…or worse.

But another beast charged for her.

“
Dulce Madre
.” Lily fired on instinct, blowing the jusha into gooey chunks.

The alpha jusha turned back to a still-dazed Mhir’ujiid. Then, V’Korram finally began to stir.

He rose to one knee—slowly, too slowly for Liliana’s liking. The Kintarian snapped his head up with a mask of determination. The alpha’s back was still turned as it refocused on Mhir’ujiid. The alpha jusha rose to its hind legs and howled at the moon overhead, asserting its dominance. Shaking off the wooziness, V’Korram dropped into a crouch, unsheathed his scaphe daggers and sprinted forth. He moved so fast Liliana only caught a blur of motion.

V’Korram reached his foe from behind, sliding on his knees between the beast’s legs, and swiped his scaphes forward—slicing the beast’s ankle tendons.

The alpha toppled to its knees, unable to place weight on either ankle. Its howl of pain rang out so loudly that for one moment, its cries rose far above the clamor of battle. The Kintarian pounced on the alpha again, this time wrapping his long legs around its shoulders to pin both arms.

V’Korram sheathed his scaphes to grab onto the massive beast’s jaws, and struggled to pry them open. The alpha writhed and twisted like mad, shaking its head feverishly to throw V’Korram off again. But the Kintarian was relentless, refusing to let go despite how vicious the thrashing became. He quickly and repeatedly drove a clenched fist into the creature’s jaw until the slobbery maw opened a little.

A little was all that V’Korram needed. Pulling with all his considerable strength, the Kintarian threw his head back with a bone-chilling roar. Every taut muscle bulging through his tawny fur, V’Korram forced the beast’s jaws apart and gave the neck a quick, hard twist.

There was a loud s
nap
, all but making Liliana’s stomach crawl up into her throat. And like a puppet cut from its strings, the alpha jusha beast pitched forward. The earth shook as its dead body flopped to the ground. V’Korram rose and stood imperiously over his kill with a smile. His long, ginger hair hung stringy-wet, his tall and muscular frame spattered with jusha blood.

All around the battleground, jusha beasts froze in shock, the alpha’s death rippling through them.

With an air of vicious menace, V’Korram faced down the larger group of jusha beasts with claws out. A low growl leaked through tightly clenched teeth. The standoff was tense with barely checked rage. And Liliana stood by, enthralled yet clueless at who would blink first.

Habraum approached Liliana Cortes feeling weary, wary, and perplexed. He kept both glowing fists aimed at the unmoving jusha beasts surrounding them. “What just happened?”

Cortes, covered in dust and blood, shrugged. “Jakadda killed this pack’s alpha.”

The Kintarian sneered at the jusha beasts facing him, wiping the dripping blood from one hand across his massive chest—like some gory badge of honor. Habraum cringed.
Rogguts.

Mhir’ujiid limped forward. “These jusha beasts follow a hierarchy, and without a leader, they grow…confused. So they fight among themselves until a new leader is chosen,” she stated.

After a macrom or so, the jusha began slowly retreating from Star Brigade and their allies.

“I’d rather not give them the time for that while we’re still here.” Habraum strode past V’Korram. “Get behind me,” he rumbled. V’Korram quickly stepped back.

They all retreated in the same direction, giving the Cerc an idea and a chance to deal with them permanently. “Khrome, toss me at them.”

The Thulican, not alone in his disbelief, greeted this order with a stare. “Captain, why—” he began.

“Disobeying all my orders, then?” Habraum snapped. “
Do it
.”

Khrome stiffened and did as ordered, hoisting Habraum up and chucking him forward like a football.

The Cerc hurtled toward the retreating jusha, letting the biokinetic energy inside flood every blood vessel, limb, and extremity. Soon, as he began to descend, the air around him rippled with energy.

Just as expected, the jusha beasts halted their mass exodus and dashed over to where the Cerc would land—biting and clawing to reach their next meal. That was exactly where Habraum wanted them.

He dropped into a ring of snapping jowls and swiping claws, barely holding in the flood of kinetic power.

Then Habraum stood up and forced it all out—a bright crimson biokinetic explosion from every iota of his body. The Cerc could count the times he unleashed his powers like this—always taxing, scary, exhilarating. The shockwave’s radius never reached CT-1, but its expanse was extensive.

As soon as it started, the biokinetic shockwave ended.

Habraum fell to his knees, exhausted but satisfied. He looked up at his handiwork. Every jusha beast in the blast’s wide range was destroyed, the closest disintegrated into sparking dust motes. Khrome floated a few feet above him. He glanced at the carnage of Inorskii Fields them, lacquered with hundreds of gooey and shattered carcasses. “Show-off,” the Thulican teased.

Habraum glanced at his tech officer. “Says the guy who catches ships like beach balls?”

Khrome smirked.

“UYULL?!” Fiyan’s scream catch Habraum’s ear, even from afar.

Without being asked, the Thulican snatched his field commander up and flew back to where CT-1 waited. When they arrived, the source of Fiyan’s distress was as clear as day. And Habraum’s heart ached.

A few metrids away, Corporal Uyull’s massive body lay sprawled on a patch of earth soaked in his own blood. Closer inspection revealed chunks of his right arm were missing and his left leg torn off at mid-thigh. He twitched and spasmed, spouting blood oozing from multiple puncture wounds. And Habraum didn’t need a closer look to see how the jusha beasts had made such gruesome work of Uyull’s face. Byzlar kneeled at Uyull’s side, frantically trying to staunch his comrade’s cartoonish blood loss.

Khal stepped back looking sick. “I pulled as many jusha off as I could, but...it was...” he trailed off.

Liliana was already on her knees at the Nirandian soldier’s side. “Vaas, go support his head,” she ordered calmly, all business. So caught up in the gory scene, it took Habraum a moment to realize that “Vaas” was Byzlar’s first name. Liliana tapped the sleeves of her uniform, immersed her hands in a pair of forcefield gloves, and pulled vials of aguasalve from her utility belt to stop the bleeding. “Marguliese, my kit—” she began.

The Cybernarr spun and sprinted back to the ruined transport. Less than two macroms later, she emerged with Liliana’s medical-supply case. The Star Brigadiers and Fiyan watched silently as the doctor calmly yet urgently worked. Anyone could see she was in her element, saving lives. Cortes pulled out several jagged pieces of carapace with large tweezers and patched over the puncture wounds concisely before moving to the next injury.

Habraum heard Uyull’s ragged excuse for breathing, sounding like razors were lodged in his lungs. He ignored his rising unease, placing faith in Liliana.

Byzlar panted with dread, the only noise that could be heard besides Uyull’s pitiful wheezing.

Somehow, the young Aesonite held it together as he followed Liliana’s orders, continuing to slather aguasalve over Uyull’s chest and the bloody stump that used to be his left leg.

But as more bleeds sprouted up from other wounds on the Nirandian’s ruined body—and there were several—Habraum’s heart began to sink, seeing how little their help actually did. Uyull now spasmed violently, his wet, strangled coughs telling a gruesome tale of asphyxiation.

“Fluid buildup around the lungs is crushing them,” Cortes quietly stated to Byzlar. The doctor grabbed a laser scalpel from her tools and made a small incision into his chest at the site of the fluid swelling. In her other hand, she directed a needle in to drain fluid from out of the cut.

The response was a forceful spout of blackish blood, more potent than from any other wound.

“
Jesus!
” Liliana swore not so quietly. She dropped everything and clamped both hands over the gusher, but that barely impeded the dark blood from leaking through her gloved fingers. Habraum heard Fiyan’s breath catch. Khrome, still hovering in the air, recoiled at such unchecked bleeding.

The peaceful night carried a stink of death—the ruined jusha carcasses littering the field had already begun to reek terribly. But no one cared.

Uyull let out another pathetic gurgle, and went silent. Cortes applied more aguasalve over the incision to finally stem further blood loss.

“Start compression on the middle of his chest,” she ordered Byzlar. “I’ll…” The doctor went silent.

To Habraum’s surprise, Cortes then let both hands slide off her patient’s torso and stopped trying. Byzlar, engrossed in pumping his friend’s chest vigorously, seemed oblivious. But Liliana just stared down the length of Uyull’s ruined body in muted horror. A moment later, she seemed to visibly deflate. Habraum frowned in confusion, until he noticed Uyull no longer even twitched, involuntarily or otherwise. The Nirandian’s eyes were glazed over, worms of dark blood flowing steadily from his eyes, nose, and ears.

Then the Cerc knew. He knew before Liliana stood up, turning to him and Fiyan, looking sick as she shook her head subtly.

Habraum’s breath rushed out in a pained groan. As Fiyan absorbed the fact that her subordinate had died, she turned a sickly pallor. The Nnaxan regained a modicum of composure and mutely stumbled off in the other direction. Her craniowhisks hung limp with unspoken grief.

Uyull, who served with Fiyan and Byzlar for years, dead.

Another soldier under my command, dead.
“Fiyan, I’m so sorry,” Habraum murmured, but she was beyond hearing.

Marguliese stared at the dismal scene, her gaze unusually blank. V’Korram and Tyris both looked weary and winded. The Star Brigadiers all looked shaken in varying amounts, despite not knowing Corporal Uyull well.

But Specialist Vaas Byzlar was the only one who didn’t grasp it, who wouldn’t accept this.

“Doctor Cortes, DO something!” The Aesonite stubbornly kept pumping his friend’s broad chest. “He’s dying…”

“Vaas,” Liliana said quietly, maintaining her calm as she addressed the soldier, “Uyull is gone—”

“He’s not!” Byzlar shook his head stubbornly and kept compressing Uyull’s chest, hysterical. The Aesonite fought the truth from sinking in. “We have to keep trying!”

Liliana, despite her composure, reached out to stop his CPR attempts. “It’s
over
, Vaas.” The doctor removed the Aesonite’s hands from the corporal’s body, remaining firm but never raising her voice. “His injuries were too massive to handle without a legitimate medical facility.”

For a long moment, Byzlar stared at her like she were the vilest thing. When he noticed everyone’s rueful looks, he could no longer deny the truth.

Lily could not mask her pain either as she added gently, “I’m so sorry.”

The Aesonite slowly stood up, eyes glazed over. Lily rose with him. He took a few steps away from Uyull’s body, away from all the eyes witnessing his grief—and doubled over. He clutched at his chest, his gasps coming out in tortured noises. Habraum had to turn away. The youngster’s reaction to this loss hit too close to home. Memories of the team he had lost almost two years ago chaffed at his resolve.

When he looked again at a shaking Byzlar, Liliana was tenderly rubbing his back and speaking soft words of comfort that Habraum couldn’t make out. V’Korram watched the pair with an odd, fixed expression. From the corner of his eye, Habraum spied Mhir’ujiid moving away from the group, staring into the dark. But the Cerc’s primary concern was to move the rest of his team out of Inorskii Fields. He looked up at Khrome hovering above the grisly scene. “Khrome…”

The Thulican understood before the order was issued. “I’ll call for an extraction team—”

“NOOO!!” This time Mhir’ujiid was the one who screamed, but more from anger than fear. Whatever frightened her also caught V’Korram’s attention. The giant Kintarian took one look into the darkness and roared ferociously, making Habraum’s skin prickle in shock.

“Jakadda, wha—ARRRRRGGH!!” An intense ringing punctured both ears before Habraum could finish. He covered his ears, which did nothing to halt the ringing wherever it came from. The next thing he knew, Habraum lay crumpled on the ground. A brutal, omnipresent sound consumed all thought, reducing him to a singular feeling of agony. Through his blurred vision, Habraum saw Marguliese sprawled beside him, shuddering as if electrocuted.