Swarm, Part 2

Part 2 �" Stranded

 

On the Moon…

 

Eron came to with a splitting headache.  A bright light was shining in his face and he could see the form of Caledonia standing over him.  She was screaming something, but he couldn’t quite hear her for the blood pounding in his ears.  She reared back and slapped him across the face hard.  Good Lord, that woman could hit!

 

The world came sharply into focus.  He could hear the crackling of electric lines that had been broken and commotion as his team worked quickly to don their environmental suits.  A hissing sound let him know that the hull was compromised and SoulSearcher was slumped forward over the controls to Eron’s left.  Caledonia, still standing over him, shoved a helmet into his face and said “we’ve only got a few minutes of air left.  Put this on NOW!”

 

He turned back to assess the damage.  Cassandra was busy using a canister to seal cracks in the hull, but it was of little use.  There we so many that her ears were dripping blood for lack of pressure.  She dropped the canister as it ran out of sealant and began putting on her own suit.  Her efforts saved the team but time was still running out.

 

He looked out of the cockpit window, which had miraculously survived the impact, to see the desolate landscape before him.  Feeling the air begin to noticeably thin, he donned his suit and locked his helmet into place.  A few quick commands into the wrist computer on his suit and it pressurized.  That gave him about 6 hours worth of air. 

 

SoulSearcher leaned back in his chair and rolled his head towards Eron.  His hair was matted to the side of his face with blood.  “Well, at least we’ll walk away from this one!  I’m not going to live this down, am I?”  Eron couldn’t answer. 

 

SoulSearcher had managed to set the craft down in the Shajn crater on the northern hemisphere of the Moon, the bottom of which was mostly dust buffeting the rough landing.  Even with one engine out and the other only partially functional, he had managed to skillfully guide the craft and keep them alive, yet at a cost.  A large chunk of metal had torn off of the command module in front of him and was now lodged in his torso.  Caledonia was tending to him, attempting to remove it before they had to put on his suit.  Time had run out though and she had to cut it off at skin level to get him in before the air ran out completely.  They set to work getting SoulSearcher into his suit.

 

Zidoran was nowhere to be seen.  Apparently he had been flung from the craft as it fell to the planet.

 

SoulSearcher flipped a switch and the oxygen flow into the cabin ceased.  All was silent with the exception of the comm.  Akkadian Knight spoke up, alerting the team that the sensor equipment was still operational.  The team crowded around the display panel as he pulled up the surrounding landscape. 

 

Caledonia pointed to the map of the surrounding area, and said “Isn’t this around the area where the Crazy 8 team set up base about 3 years ago before they disbanded?”  Eron chimed in “yea, I think it is.  Akkadian Knight, focus in on this area just outside the lip of the crater to the West.  It must have been abandoned years ago when they faced Quantum Force in that duel.  I hope it is still intact…”

 

Akkadian Knight panned the equipment array around to focus on that area.  Sure enough, there was a structure on the surface of the Moon.  He looked back at Eron, “do you suppose it still has functional life support?”

 

“We’re going to find out.  Someone get that airlock open.” was Eron’s reply.

 

Somewhere above the D’Alembert crater…

 

Quantum Elemental revived as Vexator approached the northern pole of the Moon.  Vexator had seen the Defender careen off this direction, but didn’t know exactly where it had landed.  He was searching the landscape looking for it, but was having little luck.  He looked over at his friend, and telepathically said, “you know, you really need a better name than ‘Quantum Elemental’.  How about ‘Quan’”? 

 

Quantum Elemental hadn’t spoken much since his transformation.  Within days of the actual event, he had taken on a human form, well as much of one as he could manage.  He didn’t know exactly why he did it, but it was as if he was looking at the world anew.  He looked back at Vexator, not having telepathy himself, and simply nodded assent. 

 

“Quan it is…” Vexator said with a smile.  “We have to find the rest of the crew.  Can you sense life forms down there?”

 

Focusing on the landscape below him, Quan could indeed sense life forms.  One group was walking along the surface just south of them.  Another solitary form was in a dusty plain a few miles south of them.  He motioned to Vexator and the two flew in that direction.

 

Back on the surface…

 

The journey to the edge of the crater was tougher than the team thought.  Only a few could fly and moving SoulSearcher was a challenge.  He had passed out from the pain about a mile ago, mercifully.  When they reached the lip of the crater, the team saw an impressive sight. Below them was an abandoned base formed from 3 bio-domes and a central spire.  Two of the domes were blown wide open, with debris spread all over the surface around them.  The last one appeared to be still intact.  The central spire was about 12 stories high and an empty launch pad was visible on the far side of the base.   The whole facility was dark. 

 

Within a half mile of the base, the team made a gruesome discovery.  Lying in the dust and rocks was the charred and burnt form of one of their attackers.  It must have landed here when the ion drive exploded.  Eron motioned towards it and Caledonia and Wrathius picked it up.  The team continued towards the base.

 

Another 20 minutes passed and the team was standing at the foot of the spire.  The airlock door was dimly lit with a luminescent glow, indicating that the facility still at least had emergency power.  Akkadian Knight went to work on the door controls and it took him a matter of seconds to open the airlock.  Crossing their fingers, the team went inside and set the controls to re-pressurize.  Much to their relief, the chamber pressurized with cold air. 

 

Inside, the team took off their suits and set both SoulSearcher and the remains of the beast down in the hallway.  The air was cold and stale, but the team was thankful for the chance to breathe and didn’t notice much.  Eron gave some quick orders to the team and they split up, looking for anything that resembled a medical facility.  It wasn’t long before Cassandra found it and SoulSearcher was moved.  Fortunately, it was equipped enough to begin work taking the remaining fragments out of his body.

 

While Wrathius and Eron searched for a way to turn on the power and get more out of the facility than just emergency lighting, the remainder of the team crowded around the fallen beast.  It was definitely alien, apparently silicon based rather than carbon based.  It had no eyes but had a large array of teeth arranged in rows similar to a shark on Earth.  Its tail was hollow, and apparently it generated the balls of sticky, exploding matter from within itself which it had projected towards the ship. 

 

“I’ve seen creatures like this on earth, although they were Zigonian pets,” Caledonia offered.  “They were drones used for rote tasks and had to be directed in everything they did.” 

 

Akkadian Knight ran a hand across the top of the beast, noting how smooth the skin that wasn’t burnt was.  “Do you suppose they operate on the same hive-mind that the Zigonians use?”

 

“Probably not the same one, but given the formations in which they flew, it is likely they used something similar,” Cassandra added. 

 

The lights flickered on and lit up the room.  An intercom crackled to life and the team could hear Wrathius’ voice, “Akkadian Knight, head to the airlock and open it up.  The rest of you not tending to SoulSearcher, come up to the top of the spire.”

 

The team dutifully obeyed.  Upon reaching the airlock, Akkadian Knight found Vexator and Quan outside supporting a beaten Zildoran.  She let them in and hugs were exchanged.  “I thought you were gone for sure!”  Zildoran quickly responded that it would take more than that to take them out.”  As they headed up to join the rest of the team, the lights flickered and dimmed dramatically just before going out once again.

 

They arrived in the control chamber as Eron managed to restore power to the chamber itself.  Nothing else was on.  He spoke to the team.

 

“Here’s the situation.  The communication equipment is down.”  He pointed outside to a shattered satellite disk about 100 meters away.  “We can’t warn Earth and we have no transportation.  There is one functional boom tube which could teleport someone to earth, but there isn’t enough power left in the lithium cells that run this place to send someone and maintain life support.  The Swarm is already half the distance to Earth according to the last readings we got off of the Defender and not even Quantum Elemental can fly fast enough to beat them.  We have a decision to make.”

 

“There’s no decision at all,” Caledonia stepped forward.  “Send me.  I’ll use my own teleportation ability to enhance the boom tube and allow you to send me using less power.  That provides a little more for life support.  Have Quan and Vexator fly behind.”  We’ll send help as soon as we can.”  The entire team concurred and the decision was made.

 

SoulSearcher limped through the door, supported by Cassandra.  “If you do that, you’ll need this.  He handed Vexator a memory card.  It contains the data on our combat with the three creatures.  I also had Akkadian Knight scan the one downstairs into a data file.  Give this to Fleet Admiral Knoah.  He’ll figure out what to do.”

 

Minutes later, the boom tube was activated and Caledonia was off.  Vexator and Quan left through the airlock and took off as quickly as they could.  As the tube powered down, a surge went through the aging wires and there was an audible boom as the facility shook.  The lights in the room exploded into a shower of sparks before burning out and the computer terminals went dark.  The lithium batteries had melted down and breached the hull of the spire.  Spring loaded emergency doors slammed down all over the spire, sealing the team in the command room and preserving what little oxygen was left.  Time was once again running out...

 

On Earth…

 

Back on Earth, Admiral Knoah was helping authorities clean up after a battle with $Robbers Inc.$ left a full city block in ruins in southern SHC.  An alarm went off on his wrist communicator and Admiral Raizo Hattori appeared on the display.  “Sir, Caledonia just teleported into our base and gave us an update on the Akkadian Knights progress.  We have a serious problem.”

 

To be concluded…