Inside the manhole they crawled into a large sewerage tunnel, which was tall enough for the both of them to stand up in.
It was gloomy, however some light was provided by the bulkhead lights fitted to the walls at regular intervals. The air absolutely stank. Michael had to seriously restrain himself from retching, however Vargev was barely fazed by it.
The two of them continued walking up the tunnel for what seemed about a mile. The tunnel slowly opened out into a larger, wider chamber, and on one side of it, there was a slightly raised platform. There three other soldiers were sat on upturned crates playing a game of poker.
They stopped their game as the two of them walked in, and in his customary Russian twang the commando announced, “Welcome to my new home Lieutenant,” Vargev and the rest of the soldiers laughed. Then the big Russian turned to Michael, an intense look in his eye.
“Do you know you could have killed out there, you stupid Navy bastard! Do you know what those aliens are capable of, they will blow your head clean off.”
“I know, I saw them attack the landing party I was with, we should go back for them,” Michael replied.
“Forget it, there all dead,” Vargev replied dismissively.
“You don’t know that Major!” Michael retorted.
“I know enough not to go looking for them and wind up dead too Lieutenant. We are holed up down here for a reason, the aliens haven’t come searching down here yet, they don’t think there is anything down here,” Vargev replied.
This got Michael thinking. “They mustn’t have the same drainage systems that we have wherever they come from. By the way the aliens are called Krenarans.”
“Whoop de doo, now that the pleasantries are over with, I say the only good lizard head, is a dead lizard head!” a soldier shouted, as he high fived another.
“Quiet!” Vargev shouted sternly.
“You’re all commandoes, right?” Michael asked.
“Yeah, so,” Vargev replied.
“You’re a long way from home; you’re based at bravo base, Alpha Centauri.”
“Yeah, we were sent on a training mission here a week before the attack on the Montfort. The whole colony went crazy, riots all over, people fighting and dying just to try and get off the damn planet, and then amongst the craziness those Krenarans attacked.” He bit into his lip as he remembered the carnage, before speaking again. “They seemed to have attacked at just the right moment to cause maximum casualties, with the troop division and the colony police trying desperately to keep a hysterical population in check, they were easy pickings,” he sighed. “To them we are only two things; slaves and food, it’s that simple. If the slaves co-operate they live; if not, they are fed amongst the others.” Vargev said with a genuine hint of sadness.
“How do you know this?”
“I’ve seen them in action, the population gets rounded up into slave chains, hundreds of meters long, then those ships come down and cart them off to god knows where. If any resist they are simply shot and left to rot,” Vargev replied shaking his head sadly.
“Not an end I would like,” another of the soldiers replied.
“How come you guys survived?” Michael asked.
“My detachment was 27 men strong when we arrived. We accounted for 44 of those lizard headed fuckers, then we were overpowered, started dropping like flies; constantly pushed back, until we arrived here, only ten of us made it, those Krenarans you call them don’t come down here, the other six died conducting lightning raids, so that’s it; just the four of us, nice and cosy.”
“How did you manage to kill so many of them?” Michael asked again.
“Got a lot of questions haven’t you navy boy, because we are tough sons of bitches! And because of our weaponry; we all carry the Armschlager. 44 calibre heavy machine gun. For some reason their armour seems to be vulnerable to solid ammunition; what have you got?”
Vargev walked over to Michael and checked out his weapon. “It’s one of those new fangled pulse rifles, which is absolutely useless; unless you hit them in the head.”
The Russian walked over to the rear of the platform and picked up another Armschlager that was leant against the wall; handing it over to Michael.
“Take this, it was Karllsons he was a good man; so take good care of it.”
Michael silently took the weapon, “so how long have you been down here?”
“Eight days,” Vargev replied nonchalantly.
“Eight days!” Michael repeated amazed, “how have you survived? What about food and water?”
“For food, we take what we can while out on raids, as for water there is plenty down here, Jackson has a purification kit in his pack.”
Michael tried to contact the Ulysses from his wrist-comm. blissfully unaware of the events in orbit. There was no reply.
“No ones answering”
“Forget it; they’re all dead, I saw the wreckage burning up in orbit just before I found you. Looked like a bunch of smoking meteors,” Vargev said without emotion.
“So I’m the only one left; Dylan, Captain Wainwright, all the other crew and the friends I served with all dead; damn this stupid fucking war!”
Vargev stomped over to him, “snap out of it soldier, its war, people die! Do you think I like being in this hell hole, drinking water that tastes like piss, day after goddamn day! I’d rather be sipping vodka in the motherland, but I’m not; the reality is we are here, and unless we are very careful, we might all fucking die; am I clear!”
“Yes Major”
“Am I fucking clear!” the Russian snapped.
Michael stood rigid, “yes sir.”
“Good.”
Later that day Vargev showed Michael how to operate the Armschlager, and not to waste his shots as ammunition was very limited.
He also explained that the average Krenaran was nearly 8 feet tall, and weighed approximately 400 pounds. “I’ve seen one of their punches snap a mans neck; so going in hand to hand is a no-go, instead we’ve got to pick our targets and out shoot them. We need to stay in cover. Our Armschlagers have a far greater rate of fire and are more accurate than their weapons, so we have the advantage, however theirs are much harder hitting.”
“I’ve seen what their weapons can do to a person.”
Later that night; Michael ate a ration pack, drank some of the purified water, and slowly drifted off into an uneasy sleep wondering how the hell did it all come to this?
Next morning he awoke to the sound of a shouting Vargev, “get up Lieutenant, we have work to do.”
“wha…What time is it,” a groggy Michael replied rubbing his eyes.
“Its 6.15 in the morning, scope has just located another slave chain, and we are going to free them.”
“Who’s scope?”
“That’s Jackson’s call name,” Vargev said pointing to the dark skinned man covered in camouflage drapes.
“The other two are hunter and piranha, I’m simply Vargev, and you shall be called.” Vargev stopped short thinking for a brief moment; “fodder,” he said with a mischievous smile.
He turned towards the other soldiers and said. “Now, let’s move out!”
In an instant the other soldiers were awake, had their weapons and were ready for action. Vargev handed Michael two magazines for his weapon.
“These are 30 shot magazines; so you have 60 shots in all, remember what I told you and make them count.”
“I will.”
“Oh, and one last thing; don’t try and be a hero out there, I know you’ve lost people you care about and your angry, but now is not the time to be like the Terminator; we don’t want to have to carry your sorry ass back as well.”
Michael wondered how the Major knew, but simply replied “yes, sir.”
The four of them headed out at a steady pace. Within minutes they were at the manhole cover.
Hunter slowly and silently lifted the cover; just enough to slip a mirror through the gap, turning this mirror he checked for any signs of lurking Krenarans.
After a few seconds he whispered, “clear.”
Quietly he crept out of the manhole, and allowed Vargev, Michael, and Piranha to do the same; before slowly and quietly closing it again.
Silently they made their way through the dusty desolation that had once been the Agemman colony. Far off in the distance Michael could hear weapons fire and small explosions; must be some other resistance cell, he thought.
As they carried on their seemingly endless journey, Michael grew more and more amazed at the skill the other commandoes were showing. Barely a sound was made as they moved through rubble and dust; always taking care of their footing and always keeping off the roads; silently but quickly moving from one building to the next.
Hunter held out his palm to the other commandoes, and then waved to the ground. The other commandoes flattened to the ground and stopped still, Michael followed suit.
One of the dark, evil looking stealth ships gently glided overhead, its wedge shaped black and silver form casting a deep shadow over the ground where they lay. Its engines resonated with a distinctive low pitched ‘thoom’ noise. Within a minute it was gone; lost over the horizon.
The soldiers slowly got back to their feet and pressed on with their journey. Michael was sweating under the hot, dusty conditions and took a drink of water from a flask he was carrying. They kept on moving for what seemed like an hour before Hunter stopped them again.
A Krenaran patrol was passing in front of them; the commandoes quietly crept into cover and trained their heavy armschlagers on them. Michael counted eight in total. The patrol was 200 yards off and getting closer. The commandoes quietly readied their weapons; the aliens continued to close, and were now just 70 yards off.
Michael could pick out their bright red eyes and black pupils; a bead of cold sweat slowly ran its way down Michael’s face, he dared not even breathe. One of the Krenarans seemed to look straight at him; and he thought they had been spotted; he almost brought his weapon up to fire, until at last the Krenarans carried on their way.
“Kuray al Vorkrosht,” one of the aliens said.
Once they were sure the Krenarans were out of sight, they pressed on. Half an hour later they met up with scope, who had travelled on ahead.
Carefully they crept up to his position. He pointed at his eyes, and then pointed directly ahead of him, signalling the Krenaran position. Vargev propped himself up just above a mound of rubble, catching a glimpse of the slowly moving slave chain in the distance.
The Russian dropped back down again and held out eight fingers to Hunter; the commando nodded signalling his understanding. Vargev then stuck his fingers into the dust and made eight depressions. Two at the front, two in the middle and two at the rear, silently they all nodded again.
The Russian then pointed at Michael and then pointed towards one of the depressions at the rear, Michael nodded; I’ve got the guy at the rear. He pointed at Piranha and pointed to the front depression, then pointed to himself and pointed to the other first depression. Finally he pointed at scope and gave a signal resembling a sniper.
Scope nodded, hefting his exotic looking sniper rifle; and fixed an infrared scope to the sight. He stayed where he was and covered himself and the rest of the weapon in desert drapes, making him virtually invisible within the surrounding dust and debris.
The rest of the unit split up; Michael mimicked the movements the other commandoes were making as they gradually crawled their way closer to the rear of the slave chain. While Vargev and Piranha moved ahead of the formation; Hunter crawled over to Michaels’ position.
Scope silently rested his weapon onto a small mound of rubble; switched on the infrared sight, and flicked the shot selector switch on the side of the rifle to single shot. Breathing lightly he peered into the scope, and adjusted the focus.
Vargev was now in position; the rest of the squad were just finishing getting into position also. A Russian voice came over the helmet radios, “now!” it said.
First into action was Scope. He squeezed the trigger, a muted crack, and the middle Krenaran fell, a gaping hole punched into the side of the aliens head spewing white ichor onto the ground.
In an instant he had sighted the other middle Krenaran, another dull crack; and the alien joined his friend; the force of the impact snapping its head back and exploding its skull like a melon.
The rear Krenarans spun towards scopes’ position, and were mercilessly chopped down by the rapid gunfire of Michael’s and Hunters Armschlagers; three high powered rounds slammed into each of the Krenarans chests ripping their mid sections apart, both were thrown backwards in a spray of white ooze. Simultaneously, Vargev and Piranha popped up from their positions in front of the chain, their weapons bucking as multiple rounds smashed their way into the final two Krenarans, who also fell backwards; white ooze flowing out from huge holes ripped through their armour.
The slave chain was in a state of total panic, with no idea who their attackers were, and driven half mad by their experiences; men and women desperately tried pulling on the chains to get away from the sounds of the weapons fire. They quickly calmed when they realised they were E.D. F troops.
Hunter searched out a pair of bolt cutters from his pack; one by one, he cut the manacles shackling the slaves and set them free. One of them was desperately begging Vargev to take them with him; the Russian repeatedly refused, finally with a stern “no.”
The man dressed barely in rags ran away and rejoined the other fleeing slaves.
Michael walked up to Vargev and asked, “why couldn’t we have taken them with us?”
“Because we don’t have the resources to take proper care of them; plus they are a liability, they would slow down our operation too much.”
“Major, they are human beings!”
“We’ve done what we can; now it’s up to them.”
“But Major…”
Vargev cut him off, “that’s my final word on the subj…”
Suddenly an energy blast smashed apart a piece of rock very near where they were stood.
“Take cover!” Vargev screamed at the top of his voice.
Both Michael and Vargev sprinted for all they were worth towards the ruins; more energy blasts thumped into the ground as they ran, throwing up great plumes of dust.
Piranha spun round to bring his weapon to bear, however he was hit directly in the chest; the force of the blast throwing him through the air, before slamming him into the dust convulsing; then he was still, a gaping crimson hole blasted into his chest.
Hunter was also caught out in the open; desperately he ran for cover, blast after blast ripping into the dust around him as he ran for safety; before finally a shot slammed into his leg blowing it completely off at the knee. The force of the impact sent him sprawling into the air; he landed flat on his back with an almighty thud, crying out in absolute agony and clutching at his ruined, bloody stump of a leg.
With adrenaline pumping he managed to pick up his weapon and kept the trigger pressed; the heavy machine gun bucked and swayed as a hail of heavy calibre slugs tore into two of the on-rushing Krenarans. One was almost sawn in half by the hail of hot lead. It collapsed into a bloody mess; entrails unfurling into the dust.
A second aliens head completely disappeared in a white froth; the headless body slumped forward onto the ground next to its comrade. The rest of the commandoes were all giving covering fire, and were shouting desperately for hunter to get into some sort of cover.
Michael was almost deafened by the fierce fusillade of gun fire; Scope switched his weapon onto full auto and began pumping shots into the advancing Krenarans, three more of the armoured reptilian brutes fell; one clutching its ruined face, yet still more came on, their shadows appearing over a mound of rubble some twenty feet high.
Hunter was still desperately crawling for cover; his stump of a leg leaving behind a crimson smear across the ground as he heaved himself closer. He was barely three feet away from a small patch of rubble when a shot slammed into his back; the impact smashing him face down into the dirt and forcing him to spit out a great gobbet of blood.
More shots slammed into scopes position throwing up plumes of dust and masonry; one of which sliced across his right eye, several other razor sharp pieces of debris cut into his face and upper body. Blood spurted out from the ruined eye and ran down his face; trying his hardest to ignore the searing pain, he levelled his weapon and opened fire again; spraying the oncoming Krenarans in yet more lead. Two more of the vicious aliens fell; one was hit half a dozen times in the chest, tearing it apart in a spray of white blood and heavy bone matter. The second one’s head was torn open as two slugs ripped into its forehead, spraying more blood and shredded brain matter into the dust. Both fell simultaneously.
However the wounded sniper was greeted by a returned shot; the force of which smashed him into a ruined wall behind him, his bleeding ruin of a face lolled on his back, his neck snapped in two, he finally collapsed into the dirt with a sickeningly wet thud.
Now only Vargev and Michael remained, and the Krenarans were right on top of them, they both tried to bring their weapons to bear again; but the towering warriors simply swatted them aside, both heavy machine guns landed with a loud clatter on the ground.
They went to punch their Krenaran adversaries; the aliens caught their fists in a vice like grip, and hurled them both to the ground, letting out a dull roar as the humans fell; Michael gasped in pain as he felt a rib crack.
“That’s enough!” Roared another Krenaran approaching from a little way off, this one was visibly larger than the others; Michael thought he must be approaching ten feet tall. He was broader and more muscular than any of his comrades, and gave off an air of smug supremacy over the surrounding Krenarans.
Both Michael and Vargev were dumbfounded that the Krenaran spoke English; even more than they were in awe of his sheer size and power.
“Did you not think we had deciphered your language?” This huge Krenaran looked down on them with a sadistic grin.
Michael and Vargev simply nodded a no.
“Of course we did; we simply choose not to use it. Since the Krenaran language is naturally superior,” the Krenaran said laughing sarcastically.
The two men just stared; amazed that this huge being was even speaking English, especially since the translators were having such a hard time deciphering their language.
The Krenaran pointed a green reptilian finger at Michael. “You are a pilot, part of a landing team that touched down yesterday are you not?”
“Errr… yes,” Michael stammered.
“And you are Major Vargev; yes?”
Vargev simply nodded.
“Your reputation proceeds you Major; your raids have grown quite famous on this worthless lump of rock you call a planet,” the Krenaran hissed.
Vargev simply raised an eyebrow and smiled menacingly, “glad to be of service.”
After a brief pause, the huge Krenaran spoke again, “Where are my manners; my name is Axus, second in command of the Krenaran military. My orders are not to harm you but to present you as trophies for my master.”
“And who is your master?”
“Oh, you will find out soon enough,” Axus replied with a wicked smile.
The Krenaran waved to his closest comrades, “bring them.”
Axus strode out in front, while the other guards took up positions behind them, their weapons constantly trained on the two small human captives.
They all started walking; neither Michael nor Vargev had any clue as to where. Michael began favouring his rib as he walked, the pain built up until it was almost unbearable.
Eventually he let out a loud gasp of pain. Axus immediately spun on the spot; looking the little human up and down.
“What is wrong with you?”
“It’s my rib, I think it’s broken.”
“When did this happen?”
“When your guards threw us to the floor!” Vargev shouted.
Axus turned and viciously cuffed one of his guards sending the burly 8 foot tall warrior sprawling to the ground; a thin smear of white blood trickled from just above the warriors’ brow.
“Al orash mulv krel lok ev kriladeth!”
The injured Krenaran simply bowed his head, saying nothing. Axus pressed a small catch on his shining wrist armour and a small cover slid open, inside there was a small black box. The Krenaran opened it, and within was what resembled a small scanner, and some tiny medical instruments.
Michael was still favouring his ribs.
“Remove your hand,” Axus said as he passed the scanner over Michaels’ mid-riff. The Krenaran studied the results; before taking out another rather scary looking implement; Michael backed off slowly.
“It’s okay,” Axus said as softly as his booming voice would allow.
Nikolai nodded approvingly at Michael; however the Lieutenant was not so sure.
“This may hurt a little,” Axus said as he plunged the device deep into Michael’s ribs. He screamed aloud in absolute agony as his ribs were consumed in a searing pain; like fire coursing through each bone. Then suddenly there was nothing; no pain, no aches, nothing. Michael gingerly felt his ribs, none were broken.
Axus removed the bloodied implement from his body without any pain whatsoever; a very small laser at the end of one of the tips of the instrument cauterised the wound. The huge Krenaran wiped the blood soaked device down and placed it back into the small kit, before returning it to its previous hidey hole inside his wrist armour.
Michael stood dumbfounded, before managing “wha…what the hell was that thing?”
“It is a gulthrops, roughly translated it means, bone fixer.”
“I wish we had one of those, the closest thing we have is the laser scalpel.”
“You pitiful humans; you fly around with your huge, cumbersome, slow ships. You have your observatories and deep space telescopes probing the stars; yet you are still blind, and you still have much to learn about the universe. It is a shame that your people will never get the chance to learn it,” Axus replied laughing sarcastically once more.
“I will remind you of that, when your head is at the foot of my boot; comrade,” Vargev hissed back at Axus.
“I doubt it.”
The big Russian looked across at Michael shaking his head in dismay at his apparent girly screams, but said nothing.
They carried on walking for what seemed like twenty minutes; and then suddenly the party stopped in a wide open clearing.
Another Krenaran passed Axus a small black device, and he spoke into it. “Selden al ariath kan ularieth,” he said, then passed it back to the other Krenaran.
They waited for what seemed like another twenty minutes before a familiar black shape appeared on the horizon and quickly glided towards them.
The shape of one of the monstrous black and silver stealth ships slowly glided into view overhead, then hovered in mid-air, barely 100 feet directly above them.
Michael saw that up close the enemy ships seemed to be made of a non reflective alloy; underneath the vessel was a dizzying array of conduits which trailed out from a small half orb which was again made of the same alloy, this orb-like structure was located in the centre of the craft. Michael assumed that it must be the vessels main plasma drive system.
Slowly the vessel began to descend, throwing up huge clouds of dust into the air; both Michael and Vargev had to shield their eyes from the deluge. They coughed and spluttered, as they could hear the whirring of powerful hydraulic landing legs lowering into position, and then a deep thump as the vessel set down. There was a final dull drone as the vessel powered down its systems.
An almost invisible black hatch began to open, and a lit up boarding ramp extended to the ground in front of the party.
The other Krenarans gently pushed their human prey in the direction of the ramp; this time taking care not to damage their apparently precious human prisoners.
“You should feel lucky,” Axus exclaimed. “Not many Terrans get to see the inside of a Krenaran cruiser.”
“We call them stealth ships,” Michael corrected; almost stumbling as the other Krenarans pushed him on.
“Aptly named,” Axus replied with a smirk.
“Where are you taking us?” Vargev asked suspiciously, breaking his silence for the first time.
“To the holding area,” Axus answered matter of factly.
“So we are prisoners then?”
“Of course,” Axus laughed. “You don’t think we would give you free reign of the ship do you?”
“Of course?” Vargev smiled wanly. That’s all I need to know, he thought.
“What is to become of us, once we are delivered to your master?” Michael asked, suddenly with a bit more confidence in his voice.
“That is for my master to decide, he may use you as his personal playthings, slaves, or he might use you as sport. He might just chew on your frail little bodies though I can’t think why, there’s not much meat on you,” Axus said, looking them both up and down.
“Great,” Michael replied, feeling suddenly sick.
They rounded a gloomy corridor which entered out into a row of crowded cells. They contained humans and aliens of all shapes and sizes; the whole area stank.
Both Michael and Vargev noticed that two Krenarans were guarding the area. They were escorted to a cell containing only one other alien crouched in a corner; they had absolutely no idea who he was.
The blue-white haze of a force field appeared before them; one of the guards reached out and pressed a button and the force field disappeared. They were both shoved forcefully inside, the guard pressed the same button; and the haze of the force field re-appeared. Within a split second it had become transparent and invisible once more.
Michael ran to try and put his arm through the opening of the field. The haze appeared directly in front of him again; and with a crack a bolt of electricity shot into his fingers. Michael shuddered and was thrown backwards a pace or two, gripping his fingers in pain.
On the other side of the field Axus said laughing, “I would be careful if I was you, that is a pressure sensitive electric field. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” And with that; he and the rest of the Krenarans, except for the two guards, left the area.
“We’re trapped like fucking rats,” Vargev said.
Michael turned to face the other alien in the cell, “so, how long have you been here?”
The alien spoke; it was an unnerving sound, a little disconcerting. It was very soft, and had a slight echo to it, as if many voices were speaking all at the same time.
“Nearly a month,” it said.
“A month!” Michael gasped; shocked.
He noticed that the alien looked almost human, although with a slightly blue-ish tinge to its skin. It was bald and thinner than most humans; yet taller when it stood on its slender, thin legs, which almost looked like they couldn’t support the alien’s weight, yet strangely they did.
Vargev was watching the guards intently, while Michael continued to speak to this new alien.