Further Conflicts by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: NewCon Press
Published: 2011-05-10T21:00:00+00:00

***

Five minutes later Karrie and I were suited up. I broke out three rifles from stores and handed them out. Ella moved towards the exterior hatch.

I stopped her with a hand on her arm. “What about–” I began.

“I don’t need a suit, Ed.”

Behind me, Karrie snickered.

Ella said, “We’ll move away from the ship, gain high ground. When the spiders show themselves...”

We cycled through the airlock and stepped onto the buckled deck, to be greeted by a chiaroscuro panorama of black shadow and golden sun glare. The vista was disconcerting. The brain is soothed by order, neat lines and precise geometry, but the blow-out had rendered normality chaotic. What should have been the interior of a prime class cargo vessel was a blasted travesty of order, a haywire tangle of metal and machine parts. The spacer in me was troubled.

Ella gestured, and I made out a twist of metal rising like a spiral staircase to a section of horizontal decking: a perfect vantage point.

She took off, sprinting and leaping and covering a couple of hundred metres in about ten seconds. Karrie and I gave chase, using our thrusters to assist us over the uneven deck and up the jagged rise of metal. A minute later we crouched behind a scorched radiation baffle and stared back the way we had come.

My ship sat directly below us like a contented toad. Five hundred metres away, the Interceptor perched daintily akimbo on thin magnetic stanchions, twinkling in the sunlight.

As we watched, movement showed towards the rear of the Interceptor. A gaggle of spider-drones jetted from their ship and took cover behind scraps of metal.

My heart thudded.

“Did you see exactly how many left the ship?” I asked.

Ella’s reply sounded tinny in my helmet. “I counted four. That leaves five in the ship. I’ll take out the four, then tackle the Interceptor.”

Down below, a spider broke cover and jetted towards my ship, its domed carapace twinkling in the sunlight. In a couple of eye-blinks it reached A Long Way From Home.

The spider landed on the side of my ship and clung on, one tentacle directed towards the viewscreen. I wondered if it was scanning for life...

I glanced at Ella, gesturing at my rifle. She shook her head. “Don’t want them to know where we are. We’ll wait till the other three show themselves.”

The first spider climbed across the skin of my ship. Karrie touched my arm, gesturing back towards the Interceptor. The other three spiders were breaking cover and jetting towards the first.

Ella said, “I’ll take out one and two. You take number three. Karrie number four, okay? Fire when I fire.”

Heart pounding even faster, I nodded. Karrie gave the thumbs up.

I arranged myself on the edge of the deck, gazing down at the floating spiders.

Ella lifted her rifle, aimed and fired. Two quick blasts took out the drone beside our ship and the leader of the follow-up party. I aimed at the third drone and squeezed off two rapid shots, surprised and elated as the spider exploded in a dazzling blast.

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