Adam Christopher by The Devil in Chains

Author:The Devil in Chains
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8. A Blazing Light

I WAS sure at that point that the science desk of the Gazetteer would be advertising for a new correspondent in the not too distant future, and closing my eyes I made what I felt was my final journalistic deduction. There was no mutiny. The army on the isle had been infiltrated by a horrific alien intelligence, using the bodies of the dead to replicate a workforce to carry out whatever foul plans of domination the evil master force - sequestered at the accident site and disturbed, it seemed, by the government scientists - required.

The sergeant barked the command to fire, and my eyelids were lit with a brilliant white-orange glow. However brave I considered my posture to be, I was unable to avoid an instinctive flinch, assuming the blazing light to be the microsecond prequel to instant death by solar ray. But instead, all in the space of one or two seconds, there were more shouts and I found myself knocked to the ground by a push of bodies. I opened my eyes to find our group caught in an intense spotlight, the soldier-creatures milling in confusion. There instantly followed a tremendous rush of air and howl of engines as a rigid dirigible airship descended swiftly towards us. Dazzled by the searchlight, I was unable to make out any features apart from a great ovoid black shape which marked out the dimensions of the craft. The distinctive size, together with powerful lamp, spoke of another military craft, similar to the one docked around at the base yard. This was confirmed by the ear-popping rapport of solar rifles being fired, not by the soldiers on the ground up toward the new arrival, but from the silhouettes of men dangling over the sides of the rigid; a dozen crack sharpshooters picking off the ground troops with remarkable efficiency. Seeing I was in the line of fire, I immediately rolled towards the darkened walls of the base, losing my glasses - which were quickly trampled by a booted foot - in the process. As I spun on the ground back towards the men, I saw airbourne troops descend from the airship on ropes, leaping down upon the remaining soldiers and quickly dispatching them with bayonet and black dagger.

It was then that the odd smell reached me, at once both acidic and carbonised, but possessed of a peculiar, almost spiced nature. I realised with a jolt that as each dead soldier-thing fell to the ground, the body collapsed in on itself in a puff of acrid and luminescent pink smoke - entirely as the Lambert creature at the farmhouse had when Gef launched his own frenzied attack. I was right - the entire base staff had been interloped by the alien force which meant, presumably, that the sky-raiders were the genuine military affecting a reclamation of their barracks.

The battle - loud and bright - was short, and within minutes all that remained were the landed troops, scuffing their polished, knee-high boots in the patches of pink dust that lay in the grass.

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