Chapter 9: The Guardian

Aster increased the magnification on her rifle scope.  The mercenaries still hadn’t moved.

“They’re not dead,” Ishtar whispered for the third time.

“Then why aren’t they moving?”

Ishtar looked away from her scope to Aster. “I’m going in.”

“I’ll cover you,” Aster said. 

The hills grew tall around Ishtar. Rifle ready, tucked in her harness with her aura slightly glowing; on any other world she would have seemed a colossus. Here on Bindu Prime, with the derelict merc freighter looming silent over its frozen crew, the dreamy sky now dark and empty of life, she seemed an ant invading a spider’s web. Aster kept her finger on the trigger.

“What do you see?” She asked when Ishtar leaned over the closest of the mercs. The smoke from their vessel had drifted around the perimeter of the crash site, cutting most of the crew off from Aster’s view. She felt a bead of sweat forming on her brow, instantly evaporated by her skullfort.

“I know why we didn’t hear the crash,” Ishtar said. “There’s traces of a powerful sonic dampener.”

“Same tech as ours?”

“Yeah. Only far more advanced.”

The knot in Aster’s gut tightened. “And the bodies?”

She could see Ishtar from the waist up, vanishing into smoke when she crouched down. Her shoulders moved, indicating her examination of one of the mercs. Aster felt slightly relieved when Ishtar stood again.

“They’re in some kind of stasis.”

“Some kind?” Asked Aster.

“I don’t know what’s happening to them. Physically they appear dead, with the most intense rigor mortis I’ve encountered. But only the bodies that are intact read as still alive. Although…” She held her arm up and peered down at her vam. “Their readings are… changing. I can’t explain.”

“I’m calling this in.” Aster tried to reach Sensus but the comms  dead. “Is that dampening field still active?”

“Negative.”

Aster’s gut tightened again. “Mid-range comms  down.”

“Try long range. A stronger signal might break through whatever interference you’re running into.”

Aster entered the command on her vam. A loud, screeching howl like metal on metal pierced both of their ears. She turned it off as quickly as she could. “We better fall back on… Ishtar!”

The nearest merc shot up to his feet and grabbed Ishtar by the shoulder. Aster put a round in his skull, but another two had risen before he hit the ground. Ishtar decapitated one with her knife, sheathed the blade, and shot the other. In that time there were a dozen at least on their feet and moving toward her. They ambled at first, but were soon gaining speed. Between the two Harbingers, the mob was quickly put down, but more kept rising. Ishtar’s aura pulsed and she vaulted into the air, putting ten meters at least between her and her attackers. As soon as she landed Aster rose from her prone position on the hill, and they made a wall of fire with thermite grenades before running full tilt towards Solomon’s grotte.

They found traversing the ground at high speed on foot. The pebbly ground was slick and gave way beneath them. They ended up jumping more than they ran, and had to be careful when they landed not to lose their footing altogether. Their pursuers were somehow more surefooted, catching up to them constantly.

“How many of them are there?!” Aster asked after recycling her power cell. She’d brought a rifle that fired quick and could store an ample amount of rounds in reserve. But they were small caliber, and the power drain on the weapon’s ammo printer were intense under sustained fire. She was wishing she’d brought something heavier.

Ishtar had holstered her rifle and was wielding her shotgun. “They keep coming! You gotta dismember them!”

Aster chanced a glance at Ishtar and saw that she was aiming for their legs.

“… come in!”

“Captain! We’re under…”

She heard the screeching sound again. 

A row of silhouettes appeared, thickening to dark and sinewy bodies as they closed ranks. The Shadow Children had weapons like their own, though even when they fully manifested, they looked as if they were submerged in another plane. They fired blasts of energy that punctured the bodies of their pursuers, and they aimed precisely at their feet, then the necks at the base of their skulls. When their attackers were all dispatched, one of the Shadow Children spoke.

“The Knight is here.”

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Aster worried over the fear in the Shadow Child’s voice.

“I can't reach the captain,” Aster said, mostly to Ishtar.

“The Knight won’t let you speak.”

“We need to get back.”

“No. We need to survive.”

“Do what you want,” Ishtar said. “We’re regrouping with the others.”

The Shadow Child hissed, but remained. The others in its company faded into nothingness.

“They will help.”

Aster nodded. “How do we avoid the knight?”

“You run.”

 they ran, and jumped, and slid, at all times keeping to the low ground between the hills. They the grotte, and for a moment Aster felt relieved, but then a trio of shadows rose atop the surround hills and shot them with long barreled guns that clapped like thunder along their firing lines. When the projectiles hit, both Harbingers were sent flying. 

“I am Sandow!” the Shadow Child shouted as he stood his ground. He bought them time to gain their feet, but when Aster had her rifle to bear Sandow dispersed in a cloud of black flame and was gone.

He had wounded one of the foes, and the other Shadow Children came at that one from behind, leaving the other two for the Harbingers. Aster focused her mind while she fired volley after volley of suppressing bursts, gathering her radiance around her brow. The whisps of shadow and distorted air that clouded her enemies vanished from her sight, and she saw their bullets and the knives of the shadow children missing their bodies and limbs entirely.

“Sync!” She commanded. 

Ishtar reached over to her vam and entered the command, linking their rifles, and Aster aimed their shots at the heads of both assailants. The beasts growled and withdrew, giving them a chance to regroup and get their bearings. 

One of the Shadow Children stooped over the enemy they wounded. It was slowly writhing, its form flickering in and out of clear view. The Shadow Child pointed to a distorted protrusion on its left shoulder.

“Looks like an antenna,” said Aster. 

Ishtar took a plastique out of her belt pouch and stuck it to the creature’s maw. After the plastique detonated, Aster tried the comms again.

“They found us, Cap,” she said.

“Thank Eno! We heard weapons fire. Who are you fighting? Is it the Archeus?”

“Negative. Three of his soldiers. Sol’s merc friends are dead. You better tell him.”

“I’m right here, Aster,” said Solomon.

“I’m sorry, Sol.”

“We have to leave before the Archeus converts the dead I’ve interred,” he said. “Hurry back. I’ll take you to my ship.”

They ran faster than they ever had, dodging fire from their foes and not even bothering to shoot back. The mercs who still had legs closed in on either flank. A few of them had guns and one landed a few shots on Aster’s pauldron. Her arm seized up, but the healing gels picked up where her armor left off.

Ishtar also took a hit, and one of the Shadow Children died from a stray shot meant for Aster. The others then sacrificed themselves to slow the attackers, giving Aster and Ishtar a chance to turn around and join the line with Solomon and the rest of their team. They and the last dozen Shadow Children turned their attackers into slag.

“On me!” Solomon whirled about and ran. They followed as quickly as they could, but he was much more accustomed to the shifting ground and was hell ahead of them when he finally stopped. They ran to the top of the hill he perched on and his ship, a small and slender corvette, swooped down from within the cloud cover and hovered over them. He spoke more commands into his vam, summoning the bay doors in the ship’s belly to open and a long, narrow ramp to extend. All of them leapt onboard, and Aster, bringing up the rear with Revol and the Captain, saw the robed mechanical beast approaching with an army of risen corpses.

She felt her knees quaking while she watched the Archeus through the closing bay doors. It was eight feet tall at least, with four arms and powerful legs. Its skin, though made of scales, looked like water moving inside a shifting mold, dappled with the reflection of their vessel’s running lights. And all the hollow hill was emptied. The gutted corpses were filled with fibrous chords like serpents that held their splayed forms together. And though they were dead, they called out the names of their loved ones as the ship turned and fled.

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