Ilox Saga 1: Eris Monroe: More Than Human (26 page)

Eli, T’sell, Sev and Lia had reached the
previous control room just as Eris was engulfed by the swarm. More of the miners rushed on towards the squad as Eris was being mauled by half a dozen of them. Taking cover behind the mining consoles, each member of the squad took deliberate aim using automatic fire, felling the dozen miner’s that rushed on before they could do harm.

“Get to Eris!” shouted T’sell.
The headache had never left her and it was a splitting nail of white agony in her mind. She couldn’t take much more of the pain.

“We have to help her!” Eli felt useless in this fight as he fired, hitting one of the miners in the leg with his laser pistol. It slowed, but continued on. He was an adequate shot with a pistol but never learned to use automatic assault rifles all that well and was not on a par with anyone else in the squad with his gunnery skills. His talents lay elsewhere and he cursed the luck that
they faced organic enemies instead of robotic antagonists.

Before ten seconds had elapsed, all of the onrushing miners had been felled by the squad’s tremendous outpouring of fire
power. The unthinking assault of the disfigured miners led them to their doom. If they had used tactics or weapons other than their hands, it would have ended in all of their deaths. T’sell was moving towards where Eris was still surrounded when she heard the unmistakable sound of a sniper rifle and one of the miners fighting Eris slumped to the ground unmoving. She took careful aim herself, trying to hit one of the five creatures and not the woman underneath the pile. It was difficult as they were moving and thrashing all about, trying to rip Eris to shreds with their claws. Just as T’sell squeezed the trigger, felling another adversary, a shot rang out from ahead, and another enemy fell. She finally saw that the Arrasian had emerged from behind his kinetic barrier and come down the sloping ramp, sniper rifle in both hands, and was helping to dispatch the few remaining miners.

Eris had been struggling
to free herself beneath the pile of bodies that had fallen atop her prostrate form. The K’Tosk that had knocked her down had her in a bear hug and was crushing her. He seemed stronger than a K’Tosk had a right to be, but Eris couldn’t get enough leverage to free herself. She was in a fight for her life. She knew that some of the creatures had torn through her combat suit; she felt pain in her side and smelled the metallic odor of her own blood through the suits air circulation system.

T’sell had drawn her
Darisu
, fully elongating the sword with the press of a button. With several elegant swift strokes she killed the final miners that had pinned Eris to the floor. There was little chance she would hit her Captain. Heads rolled down the slope grotesquely and blood spattered on the walls and floor. The Arrasian had lowered his weapon and was walking towards T’sell. She knew that the Arrasians were a bipedal winged humanoid species that had gained star-flight at roughly the same time as the Zari. As far as she knew, they could only fly short distances. They were seldom taller than one hundred and twenty centimeters and weighed no more than forty kilograms - this one was no exception.

“A rescue party?
No…that does not seem likely. You are wearing the insignia of Furnace Mining and Metals, but I perceive that you are more than you seem. Miners typically do not carry carbon nano-fiber swords and are not knowledgeable in advanced hand to hand combat techniques.” He paused as Eris slowly rose from the pile of bodies.

“Who are you and what are you doing down here?” Eris said, wincing as she saw her suit had been compromised
and blood was seeping from her side where she had been grabbed and held down. The claws of those
things
were sharp enough to penetrate heavy plasteel. She opened one of the containers she wore on her weapons belt and took out a self-adhering armor repair patch and slapped it on the gashed hole in her armor. Micro-sized nanomeks proceeded to mend the hole. Within five minutes the hole would be sealed and her suit could withstand the pressures of space once more. She glanced at the Arrasian as the rest of the squad hurried over. He had shouldered his weapon and put his hands up in the universal gesture of peace.

“Who might my rescuers be?”
The small Arrasian was wearing plasteel combat armored colored a dull orange. He also wore a tools kit harness and carried a gauss weapon clipped to his back – it was tailored to his small stature.

“My name is Eris Monroe, and these are my companions Eli Bowman, T’sell T’savri, Sev Tariv and Doctor Lia Xinhao.
We’re…security guards…from FMM. The Valdren device, you had it with you behind that kinetic barrier…”

“The Precursor?
Yes, I was keeping it safe. Of course, I didn’t know how long it would be until someone came. My power source would not have lasted another day more and I fear the transformed miners would have killed me once my barrier collapsed. Ah, my apologies, I must make amends and properly introduce myself. My name is Professor Gelkar Ruz’zel, a member of the Science and Exploration League,” said the Arrasian in a stilted and formal manner.

Eris thought that
she knew who he was the moment she saw him. Her eidetic memory brought up the file that Dominic Gray had supplied her.
It was really him
…
it’s my lucky day
. The Arrasian scientist continued speaking, his hands moving with each word. While intently listening, Eris had begun to take off some of her outer armor plate components so that Doctor Xinhao could bandage up her numerous wounds.

“
It is good that you came when you did. But you are not really from a mining company – certainly not Furnace Mining and Metals. Who are you really?” The Arrasian scientist certainly was astute.

“Let’s just say we want to get you safe,” said Eris warily.
She didn’t fully trust him
.
Too many unanswered questions remained
.
What was he doing down here
?
The Intel that Gray had supplied indicated he was in a different system, so when did he come here and who is he working for?

“You called the Valdren device ‘The Precursor’…precursor to what exactly?” Eli was talking excitedly, his curiosity piqued.

“I will answer all of your questions…but first I believe we should vacate these mines before more of the changed humanoids appear. They are quite mindless and do not hesitate to attack.” Gelkar was becoming agitated and his wings
buzzed
momentarily. Eris nodded. Doctor Xinhao was busy attending to her wounds and had unpacked her medical supplies from the backpack she carried. Eris stood while the Doctor patched her up.

“Yes, we’re going to leave
…but not before destroying that artifact.”

“What?
” The Arrasian was flabbergasted. “It is a priceless Valdren treasure! It is actually functioning! Do you know how rare that is?”

“It won’t be functioning much longer,” said Eris with steel in her voice.
“Our mission is to destroy the device.” She unsnapped the holster carrying her gauss pistol nonchalantly. “You’re welcome to come back with us to Platinum City…we can offer you protection…” Eris used the link in her suit to contact her team and ordered them to proceed. She had kept with her a small device, a Thermite TH-16 incendiary grenade that would burn through any metal known, including Valdren materials. She had two of them that should be able to destroy the ancient artifact. Lia Xinhao completed bandaging Eris and stepped back, satisfied for the moment.

“
That should do it. Captain, try not to exert yourself or the synth-flesh bandage will rupture and you’ll begin to bleed again,” said Lia Xinhao with genuine concern in her voice.

T'sell cried out in pain and doubled over holding her stomach
and began to collapse. Eli was closest to her and reached out with his telekinetic ability to keep her from hitting the ground. He gently set her down.

“T’sell! Doctor,
check her to see if she was wounded!” exclaimed Eris.
I don’t want any more surprises
… Eris began to make her way back up the ramp to the room containing the device. Sev Tariv and the Arrasian scientist, Gelkar, came with her while Lia and Eli rushed to T’sell.

“I am truly grateful for your help,
Eris Monroe. If I can reciprocate and be of any assistance to you, let me know,” said Gelkar.
He was too close to her and she began to become irritated but stifled the reaction
.

“Actually Professor, you
can
help me. I know that you are an expert on the Valdren…and I would like to recruit you as a member of my team. There are missions we are undertaking that could use you and your valuable experience.” Eris was moving slowly, limping from the wounds she had taken from the claws of the transformed miners. As the trio approached the alien artifact, Eris detached a themite grenade from her weapons harness with a
click
. The Arrasian professor tilted his head as he answered her.

“An intriguing proposal indeed…more information would need to be processed before I accepted, but at this point, I am inclined to answer ‘yes’.”
The ancient device was standing upright behind a control console and emitted a dull green glow that seemed to be coming from the metal itself.

“It
appears to be fully functional, Captain, it is a shame we don’t truly know what it is capable of,” said Sev Tariv with admiration in his tone. Eris looked at him with a sidelong glance. “We have our orders. The Alliance has been trying to get to this thing for months, perhaps years…” Whatever instinct warned her to dodge out of the way saved her life. A small flying combat drone silently flying through the air roughly twelve meters distant fired at Eris with deadly bursts of energy but hit only the mining controls. The drone was flying erratically near the ceiling four meters high in the air – it appeared to be equipped with twin pulse lasers. Gelkar Ruz’zel was stunned into immobility but was unhurt as the drone had been targeting where Eris had been standing a second before.

“Take
cover Ruz’zel!” Eris shouted at the stupefied Arrasian scientist who
flew
up into the air and away incredibly fast. She had only seconds to act. She rolled out from behind the console gaining partial cover from the Valdren artifact and in one fluid motion activated the thermite grenade and threw it towards the drone which dodged nimbly out of the way. The grenade bounced once off the wall behind the drone, then opened and the chemical contents spread out in a flaming mass that engulfed the drone. It futilely attempted to maneuver but fell in a melted heap of slag with still burning bits landing on the deactivated shield generator.
Drones have sensors that scan sixty degrees in an arc before them…it didn’t detect the threat from the grenade as it bounced off the wall and came from behind it
. As the drone continued to burn, Eris saw Sev Tariv point his gauss assault rifle directly at her head. In her haste to destroy the lethal drone she had exposed herself at point-blank range to her engineer.

“Sev, don’t…”
Eris knew she couldn’t move fast enough to gain any cover. He was too close to her.

“I knew it wouldn’t be easy. The
great
Eris Monroe - Hero of the humans – time to die,” Sev had the same blank expression he wore on his face all the time. What emotion he was feeling was impossible to ascertain. A barely audible
click
indicated he had depressed the trigger but the weapon did not fire. When he looked down briefly at the gauss assault rifle, Eris ran at him full force with a flying kick, hitting him squarely in his chest plates. As he fell she rolled out gracefully to land on her feet - she drop-kicked him in the head as hard as she could. He began to bleed from the small slit the K’Tosk used as a nose. She didn’t want to kill him, though she didn’t mind if he wound up with a massive headache. K’Tosk were very difficult to hurt with their chitonous plating and Sev was still moving…though barely. He was reaching for his pistol when Eris body slammed him – knocking him into the hard rock of the mining tunnel ground. He finally appeared to lose consciousness.

Eris bent down and checked to make sure Tariv was unconscious. She saw Eli down the ramp smiling at her.
He must have disabled Sev’s rifle
. The buzz of wings meant that Gelkar had returned to the area – the scientist hovered right above the Valdren device.

“Is he…is he dead?” asked Gelkar incredulously
, while buzzing in the air hovering two meters over the floor. His wings made a constant and loud hum in the closed-in space of the mining tunnels and control complex. The Arrasian had never seen such violence in humans before – at least this close and personal.

“No
, he’s not dead…I want him alive. I want answers from him.” Eris was still breathing hard, and she was sure that her exertions had un-done the medical work of Doctor Xinhao.
She could feel the wound in her side seeping blood again. She had escaped death once more.

“
Nice work, Eli,” said Eris. “How is T’sell doing?” Eli had rushed up the slight slope to stand beside her. He had never used his sidearm.

“Uh, she’s better. Doc Xin gave her some meds that blocked her pain. She was having the same kind of symptoms
and spasms that I was…” Eli looked at the unconscious Sev Tariv to Eris and then over at the Arrasian scientist Gelkar Ruz’zel. “I hate to bring this up, but the pain is getting worse again, and I want to get out of here.”