Earth Force (Relict Legacy Book 1) Read online

  He shook his head. “That would have been a good opportunity to test out the new slugs.”

  “We’ll have plenty of opportunities later,” Nori said. “Come on, let’s head to the shuttle.”

  They walked through the ship and entered the shuttle. Everyone strapped themselves to the wall, and Nori manipulated the controls. This time, the launch went much smoother.

  “You’re getting good at this, girl,” Bulco noted approvingly.

  The corner of Nori’s mouth twisted. “Practice makes perfect.”

  The monitors on the central dais flickered to life, showing the landscape below.

  “Where to first?” Nori asked.

  “I’d like to swing by the Grand Mall and catch up with Diamond,” Bulco said. “But maybe do a fly-by above Lou’s Yard first to check up on them. It’s on the way.”

  “Alright,” Nori said, working her light console. “We’ll be there in three minutes.”

  “What’s Lou’s Yard?” Lana asked. “I’ve never heard of that shelter before.”

  “It used to be a junkyard just outside the city,” Bulco said. “The survivors built thick walls from all the junk. It even has walkways for scouts and snipers. I’ve been there once before. It doesn’t have a roof like the other two shelters, but it looks like a fortress, and the survivors can take care of themselves. The other gangs left them alone, so I had no reason to visit them too often.”

  “Almost there,” Nori said. The large monitor showed a distant image of a thick metal wall.

  Lana manipulated her console. The image zoomed in, showing the place in greater detail.

  Lana’s eyes widened in horror. “Oh, no,”

  The place was a mess.

  Thick columns of smoke spewed from within the enclosure, and a large chunk of the wall was missing. A throng of Warped moved inside the enclosure, clawing and slithering over the remains.

  “Dear god,” Bulco whispered. “They were overwhelmed.”

  The shuttle flew over the destroyed shelter, and the monitor showed a condensed mass of Warped, snarling, and brushing against each other.”

  “What … what are they doing?” Lana said, her face pale.

  Bulco’s face darkened. “Feeding.”

  From the mass of Warped bodies, a head the size of a car rose up. It was a monstrous thing, covered with thick metal plates, and with a huge maw full of sharp teeth and buzzing saws. The nightmarish creature craned its head toward the shuttle. Nori manipulated the controls and they sped away.

  “Everyone’s dead,” Lana whispered, shuddering. “Those poor people.”

  “That giant Warped must have breached the wall, letting the others inside,” Bulco said grimly. “That thing must be at least level ten.”

  “Did you see the amount of smaller Warped it had with it?” Lana said weakly.

  Bulco nodded grimly. “I think we just found out why there have been fewer encounters lately. It looks like most of them congregate right here.”

  “I think you’re right,” Nori said. “When I went hunting with Martin and his crew, it took us hours to find them. But what are they doing there? They already killed everyone, why aren’t they spreading out?”

  In reply, Lana worked her console. The image wound back, zoomed in, and played at a low speed. Now that they knew what to look for, they could clearly make out the giant Warped body. It was the size and length of a small bus and dozens of smaller Warped were crawling all over it.

  “They’re …” Lana felt her skin crawling as she saw a smaller Warped jump off the bigger one’s mouth. She rolled back the video a few seconds and increased the zoom. The small Warped moved, revealing for an instant the item it had dropped into the giant mouth before it was gulped away. It was a human arm. “They’re feeding it.”

  “And it’s growing,” Bulco said sourly. “With all the food it now has, there’s no telling how much stronger it's going to get.”

  Nori’s jaw clenched. “It’s already big enough to tear through the other shelter’s walls like tissue paper. If it gets even bigger …”

  “We have to do something,” Lana said.

  “There’s nothing we can do against that thing,” Bulco grunted.

  “We can’t let it go around killing people!” The woman’s voice went up an octave. “We can use the shuttle! Drop bombs on it, or try to light it up, something!”

  Bulco shook his head. “You misunderstood me, girl. I meant to say there’s nothing we can do against it now. But we still got a little time. By the looks of it, those Warped are in no hurry to leave, they’re getting cozy up in there, feeding and getting fatter. We can use the time to mobilize against them. We need to expedite our plans. Make as many cartridges as possible, arm everyone from the shelters, surround this place and blast it to bits.” His face clouded. “That won’t help the poor suckers who died down there, but at least they’ll be avenged.”

  “That’s too dangerous,” the dark-haired woman objected. “What if we don’t make it on time? What if your ammo doesn’t work? What if we can’t convince the people in the shelter to help us?”

  “Calm down, Lana,” Nori said. “Bulco’s right. We were fortunate to get advanced notice. Now that we know what we’re up against, we can prepare for it. Martin will help us, I’m sure. And Bulco’s ammo will work. They have to.”

  “It’s still too dangerous,” Lana argued. “Even if everything works out as we planned, you still want to take hundreds of people out of the shelters and put them in the open. They’ll die out there. Why not just let Bulco come up with an explosive device we can drop from the shuttle? Turn this whole thing into a smoking crater?”

  “Because, I have no idea how long that’s going to take, or even if I can do that,” Bulco said. “It took me fourteen hours to come up with, I’ll be honest with you, an alien-alloy slug with a fancy lamp on top. Making a futuristic bomb might be beyond me. My instincts tell me we need someone with a Path dedicated to explosives to accomplish that, and none of my own men fit the bill.”

  “Neither do Martin’s people,” Nori added. “Unless we can think up a better idea, I think we should stick to our original plan.”

  “Then let’s head up to the space station and get an alien cannon mounted on the shuttle,” Lana argued.

  Nori nodded. “The thought had crossed my mind too. We’re heading up there anyway, so we can ask, but to be honest, I doubt it’ll work. Better to have a backup plan in place.”

  Bulco nodded. “Let’s head out to Grand Mall. I hope the people there are still in one piece.”

  They continued the rest of the way in silence, each contemplating the troubling images they had just witnessed. The Warped were horrible creatures, but up until now, they were just unthinking killing machines with no real intelligence or purpose to guide them. The new, super-Warped and its army of obedient monsters was a game changer. It was starting to look like the Warped weren’t just getting stronger - they were evolving. The mood in the shuttle was bleak. If they, with their advanced shuttle, couldn’t find a way to win, what chance did the rest of humanity have?

  “Approaching the Grand Mall,” Nori said, several minutes later.

  Lana worked the console, and the main monitor zoomed in on a large, box-shaped concrete shopping mall. They sighed in relief as they saw the place was intact.

  “Let’s get down there,” Bulco said. “Diamond needs to hear what we found, and we need several zero-levels to test out the guns.

  Nori guided the shuttle gently to an open spot in the mall’s parking lot. As they started their descent, the shuttle hull started giving off low metallic pinging.

  “What’s going on?” Lana asked. “What’s that sound?”

  Nori frowned, and her eyes scanned her personal monitor. “I’m not sure … everything looks fine. Wait a minute … one of the thrusters just lost ten percent integrity. Now it’s fifteen. What the hell?”

  Bulco unhooked himself from his harness and opened the door. He reached out through the openi
ng with his hand, then pulled back sharply with a curse. “The assholes are shooting on us!”

  His hand was bloody and a large hole appeared below his wrist. With the door open, they could all clearly hear the telltale sound of gunfire.

  “They’re destroying the shuttle!” Nori cried. “Hold on.”

  Bulco grabbed the door and the shuttle took off and immediately came back down. The gunfire continued, but the pinging sounds stopped.

  “Good girl,” Bulco said, letting go of the door frame and inspecting his hand. Fine silvery threads were already visible through the blood, knitting his flesh together.

  “What did you do?” Lana asked, wild-eyed.

  “I put us behind one of the parked buses,” Nori said gruffly. “Should have done so from the start. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Not your fault, girl,” Bulco said darkly. “I’m going to make Diamond eat his own teeth for that.”

  “It’s not his fault,” Nori shook her head. “What would you have done if an alien spaceship suddenly landed in the parking lot right next to you?”

  “I wouldn’t open fire, that’s for sure,” the man grumbled. “Finding a parking spot can be a real bitch sometimes, it’s no reason to shoot someone for it.”

  Lana giggled and Nathan grinned.

  “Come out, you green bastard!” a voice called from the outside. “We’ll make you pay for what you did to us.”

  “Here we go,” Bulco said. He cautiously peeked through the door, then put his hands to his mouth. “I’m black, not green, you racist motherfucker. Get Diamond over here or the Warped are going to be the least of your troubles.”

  “It’s Bulco!” another person shouted. “I recognize the voice. Get Diamond.”

  They waited for a few moments, then a new man’s voice, deep and urbane called out. “Bulco, is that you over there?”

  “Who’d you expect? E.T? You know I don’t allow other gangs to operate around here. That applies to alien gangs too. Now tell your men to ease up on the trigger, we’re coming out.”

  He looked at the others. “It should be safe now, but you might want to stay in the shuttle until I make sure everyone’s got their shit together.”

  Nori nodded. “We’ll wait here.”

  Bulco nodded back, took a deep breath, and exited the shuttle. The others relaxed when no new gunfire was heard, then they heard Diamond.

  “Damn, man, where the hell did you find that sweet ride? Don’t tell me you know how to hotwire alien ships now.”

  Bulco chuckled and approached the barricaded mall. It was an old structure. Windows dotted the second floor, all boarded up. The place was ideally suited to sit out the apocalypse. The reinforced main gate, which used to serve as a truck entrance, opened, and an elderly heavyset black man stood in the center with crossed arms.

  Bulco shook his head. “Not me, man. That would be Nori’s shuttle—she’s the pilot, and a damn good one too, for a kid. Is there somewhere we can talk? I have a bunch of news to tell you and it ain’t all good.”

  “What is, these days?” Diamond grunted. “Sure, come on in.”

  “Are your guys calm enough for the others to come in? I’d like to avoid an accident in case one of them has an easy trigger finger.”

  “Everyone here is cool,” the elderly man replied. “They were nervous when they saw an alien ship. But they’ll behave now. I didn’t order them to open fire, by the way.”

  Bulco nodded. “Didn’t think you did. You’re too level-headed for that.”

  He turned his back to the man and called. “You can come out now, kids. It’s safe.”

  Nori, Lana, and Nathan emerged from the shuttle and headed toward the gate.

  “Welcome to the Grand Mall,” Diamond greeted them, eyeing Nori’s exoskeleton with interest. “Sorry about the misunderstanding earlier.”

  “Your goons damaged my shuttle,” Nori said accusingly.

  Diamond’s large smile faltered. “People are nervous, rightly so. It’s been hard, just staying alive day after day. Not everyone can fly away from trouble in their shiny spaceship.”

  Nori crossed her hands, though her expression softened. “That’s why we’re here.”

  “I gathered as much. Follow me, I’ll show you to my office.”

  They followed the man inside, and the guards closed the shelter's gate behind them. Lana noted the murder holes in the gate and the giant crossbeam that was lowered to reinforce it.

  They followed Diamond into the mall. The large open area was converted to a habitat. Hundreds of small huts and lean-tos had been built from any material their occupant could come up with: metal sheets, blankets, boxes. It was a veritable maze of passages, but the shelter’s leader pressed ahead with sure steps, often nodding to the other survivors as they passed them by.

  They passed on into the second floor. The place had changed tremendously. The shop windows were gone, opening up even more space, and supplies were packed in the corners and guarded.

  Diamond noticed his guest's looks and nodded. “At first everyone just took whatever they needed, making a whole mess of it. One of the first things I did when I took charge was to put everything back together and ration it. Thank god food isn’t such a high priority now, but people still need clean clothes and without power, it’s been a real hassle to find something to wear around here.” He gestured at another windowless store, where several men were cleaning guns. “We turned the sports shop into an armory. The Warped try to get to us occasionally, but a few gun volleys from the roof is usually enough to send them packing. Ah, here we are.”

  He opened the door to a barber shop that still had its front windows and led them inside.

  “One of the small privileges I allow myself for running the place,” he smiled and gestured for them to take a seat. “Is to keep my own shop intact.”

  “This is your shop?” Lana looked around in surprise. “You were a hairdresser?”

  He frowned at her. “It’s my place now, and I’m a barber. Don’t give me that young-age hairdresser crap. Those pansies don’t know the first thing about cutting hair properly.” He looked at Nori’s hair appreciatively. “Those dreads look good on you, girl, but it can get risky in these dark times. You don’t want it to get caught on anything when you’re running away from the Warped. Would you like a haircut? It’s on the house; your money is no good here.” He chuckled to himself. “Literally.”

  Nori smiled faintly. “Thanks, I’ll pass. You might want to sit down for what we’re about to tell you.”

  Diamond arched his brow and looked at Bulco. “I thought you’re in charge. You’re taking orders from kids now?”

  Bulco shrugged. “Didn’t have much choice. That kid nearly beat me down hand to hand, and she can fly her own spacecraft. We’re all part of the same faction now.”

  “I see.” The rotund black man turned to Nori. “Brute strength doesn’t translate to smarts. Bulco made sure the old gangs took that lesson to heart. It says much that he defers to you, but I’ll reserve my judgment until we’ve concluded our talk. So speak up, what is it about?”

  “First, has anyone in the shelter managed to level up?”

  He shook his head. “No, and I’m quite keen to learn how y'all did it. Bulco is one thing, I watched the man rip apart a Warped with his bare hands, but how the hell did a bunch of scrawny kids manage that?”

  Nori nodded. “I thought so. Very well, here’s the short version: the Tec is an alien type of nanobot that infuses both people and technology. They’re the reason we can’t use any of our own tech—not until we’ll reach higher levels, at least. An alien ship crashed down and we took control of it and managed to fly its shuttle. We learned that alien weapons can kill the Warped, and we’ve already finished off a few. There’s an alien space station in orbit around the planet, we went up there and brought back a bunch of basic alien weapons. I’ve already trained several people from the Old Stadium to use them, and they started hunting the Warped in their area. You’re keeping up
with me so far?”

  Diamond’s knuckles whitened as he clutched his chair, but he nodded slowly. “Everyone assumed aliens were behind the Calamity. Seeing you flying that shuttle was the final confirmation. Why did they do this to us? What do they want? Why unleash the Warped on us?”

  Nori grimaced. “We’re not sure. We asked those questions as well, but Alzigo, that’s the alien who owns the space station, claims he doesn’t know. According to him, Infused worlds go through a slow transition period that allows the natives to adjust. Nothing like what we’ve been through. The only good thing about the Warped is that killing them is a great way of gaining Tec and leveling up. You need to be at least level one to operate the simplest technologies. You can also extract piTec from dead Warped, which can be Infused to gain more Tec, but it's much more efficient to use it as currency. Apparently, everyone in the galaxy uses it for that purpose. You might want to keep that bit to yourself though, people might start acting up if they knew how valuable it is.”

  Diamond closed his eyes, and for a moment, Nori feared the elderly man was about to faint. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and smiled bitterly at her. “Aliens, space stations, galactic currency … I’m too old for this shit. I’m starting to understand why Bulco defers to you. Young people adjust more easily to new situations. You’re talking like you’ve been born to this reality.”

  Nori shrugged. “I do what I need to survive. And to help out.” She gave the older man a pointed look. “Which is why we’re here.”

  He sighed. “I sense we’re getting to the core of the matter. Lay it on me gently, girl.”

  “The Warped destroyed Lou’s Yard,” she said. “There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of them inside the walls now.”

  Diamond’s hands shook. “I thought I asked you to lay it on me gently.” He got up. “This is a disaster. I can’t believe it; their walls were stronger than ours.”

  “You better believe it,” Bulco said in his thick voice. “There’s a giant mother-Warped out there now, and the others are feeding it, making it grow even larger. Once they’re done with the place, they’re probably going to turn their attention to the rest of us … and then everyone will be having a really bad day.”