The Sac'a'rith (21 page)

“Here, I’ll get that,” he said as he opened the door the rest of the way for her. She thanked him and walked off.

“
Come through before someone notices,
” he sent and we walked through the store and into the garden through a service exit. “
Now we need to find one of your hidden nooks like the last time, and hide until we hear from Narcion.
”

He was very afraid of something, but I didn’t understand what was going on. I led him into the trees. Like the last time I’d been there, I could feel power flowing around the room, making me stronger and more alert. I took off my gloves and laid my hand on a tree so that I could see the entire garden. “
This way
,” I sent, “
and keep yourself invisible to their sensors.”

The trees showed me a safe place to hide deep within what appeared to be a neglected section of the garden. It could not be seen from the walkway, so it was likely to have been forgotten about. I sat in a small clearing, leaned my head on the tree and used the garden to look around. “
No one is looking for us. We can call Narcion,”
I sent.

I clicked my helmet back on so that I could contact Narcion without making any audible sounds. “Narcion, are you there?”

“Yes, brother. What is your status?” he asked.

“We are safe, hidden in the garden,” I said.

“Good. Stay there and do your best to sweep the station. There are undead on board now, searching, probably for us,” he said.

“Is that what we felt?” I asked.

“You felt the portal being opened and them rushing in,” he said.

“So what is the plan?” I asked.

“We both stay hidden. They can’t come aboard this ship, so if they do not see you on the station they will assume we are all over here. Just sit tight. They will act soon, no doubt,” he sent.

We sat there in silence. After a few hours, my communication device lit up with the alert signal. I responded and Narcion said, “Walking dead have been spotted; the enemy is on the move.”

“Any wraiths yet?” I had not sensed any, but I did not entirely trust my powers yet.

“No, but go into the station and meet up with the defense team. Help them to establish a viable defense plan as we spoke about, and see if you can find the source of the walking dead,” he said.

“Understood,” I said over the comm. “
It is time. Let’s move,”
I sent to Crivreen.

I pulled on all my armor and assembled my assault rifle while Crivreen built his blasters. Even as police officers, we were not allowed to carry weapons on the station, so once again we had them disassembled and hidden on our person. We quickly moved into the station where everyone was in a panic. The sight of us in full battle armor and carrying weapons seemed only to increase the panic.

“Now, how are we supposed to hook up with the station defense in this?” Crivreen asked.

“The civilians will be running away from the battle lines. We just need to head towards where they are coming away from,” I responded.

We fought our way through the crowds and eventually found some of the station security directing the flow of people. They were yelling orders to everyone about reaching their appointed area of sanctuary.

“Sir! Turn over your arms and head to sanctuary!” ordered the guards as we approached.

I pulled out the second ID we had from the government and said, “Which way to your command?”

He looked at the ID and said, “Sorry, sir! Down that way and turn into corridor thirteen. Follow that until you see them, but I should warn you, sir: it’s a live-fire zone.”

“Understood, thanks!” I said aloud, then over our intercom, “Remind me to check that ID too, when we get a moment to breathe.”

“Did you not check any of the IDs we were given?” asked Crivreen, as we ran in the direction indicated.

“No, why should I? I was told when to use each one. What else do I need to know?” I asked.

“Maybe that the ID you just showed him marks you as an elite special forces commander,” he said.

“I like the sound of that.” He was probably right; I really should learn to accept less, and investigate more.

It was not long before we had covered the distance to the front lines. The station defenders were behind portable barriers firing nonstop into the masses of walking dead.

I did not know how to read their ranks so I just called out, “Commander!”

As I expected, a man turned around and said, “What?”

“Sir, those are ‘walking dead.’ Shoot the heads. It will take them down faster,” I said.

He hesitated, then took his rifle and shot one in the head. It fell over instantly. “Men! Aim for their heads only!” he ordered.

“I hate to say this but, if you lose any soldiers, shoot them in the head too. That will prevent them from standing up to fight against you,” I said.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“My name is Zah’rak. I am here with Narcion,” I said.

“Are those names supposed to mean something to me?” he asked.

“Call in to your command and ask,” I said.

“I think I will. Jackson, keep an eye on these two,” he said, then marched off.

“Narcion, we are at the front lines trying to establish contact with the command here, but it seems no one was briefed about us,” I told him over the comm.

“Typical, but do not worry. A message is on the way out now,” he said.

I heard the commander yell, “What?” in the distance, and I figured that he had received the good news.

“I have just been informed that your team is taking command of this station,” he said, obviously displeased.

“Sir, the situation will get much worse very fast. I am not familiar with your protocols, but we need to get everyone to shielded areas as fast as we can. The walking dead is only the first wave; what is coming after them is worse,” I said.

“What is coming?” he demanded.

“The dead do not get up on their own, Commander,” I said. “Wraiths cannot be far behind.”

He visibly paled at that. “What do we do?” His whole demeanor had changed with that revelation. He went from being angry at our presence to being scared and grateful. I did not know what stories he had heard, but I was grateful for them.

“Energy shields will stop the wraiths. We need to get everyone into completely shielded areas. Evacuate everyone possible onto ships, but anyone still on the station will need to be shielded or they will end up as walking dead,” I said.

“Commander, I suggest you move everyone to the docking arms. That will be the easiest place to secure with shields, and will make evacuation easier,” said Crivreen.

He barked orders into his communicator, and men started moving.

“Also tell all your magi to stand down. Use no magic right now, none at all,” I said.

“But why? They bring a lot more firepower against these masses,” he asked.

“The only weapon you have that will hurt the wraiths is their spells. We need them at full power when the wraiths show themselves,” I said.

“Understood, sir,” he said and then barked more orders that I could not quite follow. He said to me more quietly, “Are we going to make it?”

“This is the first time we have been deployed before a station has fallen, Commander, and I mean to make sure it does not fall,” I said. Working with Narcion had given me a confidence in the battlefield; it had also taught me that attitude was everything. I needed to project confidence to maintain control over the situation.

He nodded, fielded some questions on his orders, and asked, “We fall back, and then what?”

“We need to figure out how they are getting onto the station and cut them off there,” I said.

“That will be tough. The most we can tell is that none of these dead were on the station before the attack, and no vessels have docked that could have dropped them off.”

“Commander, we will need your codes so we can link up our communications,” said Crivreen.

Once that was done, I said, “Get your men to safety. We are going deeper in.”

Before he could respond, I led Crivreen over the barricades and right into the waiting line of walking dead. Our upgraded armor was more than sufficient to ward off their attacks. Crivreen followed close behind, letting me ram our way through the line of bodies.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Walking dead are brainless and hard to control from any distance. If we follow this line backwards we should find their controller soon,” I said.

It was getting harder to keep pushing through the bodies; there were just too many of them. I broke out of their line to one side. Once free of the line I turned back to watch them; they were marching forward and did not seem to notice us at all. “Odd.”

“Brother, how is it going?” asked Narcion.

“Well … ” I said and briefed him on what happened so far.

“Excellent plan. Felix and I are aboard, too. We will track this group of dead back. You do the same there and keep your eyes peeled for wraiths,” he said and closed the channel.

I turned to Crivreen and asked,
“We can’t rush directly up the line, so what are our options?”

“Well, they appear to be marching along a fairly straight path, so we can take one of the parallel corridors and cut back over from time to time to make sure we’re still on track,” said Crivreen.

“Lead on,” I said.

We jogged down the corridors for what seemed like forever until we found the end of the line of walking dead. The line just ended with no sign of where they had come from or of their controllers.

“We should continue back up this corridor,” I said.

“Why? The line ends here,” said Crivreen.

“Yes, but logically they must have come from somewhere and walked to here. If we continue in the direction they came from we might find something,” I said.

“All right,” he replied and we continued down the corridor.

Meanwhile, I listened in on my equipment as the security forces on the station retreated to the docking arms. These were not elite troops, merely station guards, and their fear was obvious. They had all heard the stories of what had happened to other stations. I was worried they would not keep it together long enough to save this station.

After continuing down the hall for a while, we eventually hit a dead end. “Now what?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Crivreen.

“Let’s double back then, and check some of the side corridors. Maybe they made a turn somewhere,” I said.

We had not got far before things became much worse.

“Commander Zah’rak,” came the call over the comm.

“
That means you,”
sent Crivreen.

“
Commander?”
I sent back, then replied, “Yes?”

“The dead here, sir, they all just fell over. They’re not moving. We are about to go and check them up closer,” he said.

“No! Wait! Triple-check your shields; make sure they are locked down tight. Then wake up your magi,” I said.

“Sir? The enemy is all down,” he said.

“Yes, and that frees up the wraiths to attack. We are on our way to your position. Hold tight,” I said.

We quickly ran through the corridors as more reports came in of the walking dead falling over. All around the station the defenders were getting ready to come out of their shields, and it was all Narcion and I could do to keep them from celebrating the victory that was not yet theirs.

“
We are getting reports from every area of the station.
W
hich way should we head?”
I asked in bewilderment.

“
Control over much of the shields that are protecting those people would be focused in their central command center and their main engineering section. If I were attacking, that is where I would concentrate my attention,”
sent Crivreen.

“Narcion, we are heading to Central Command to see what is going on there. I suggest you go to Main Engineering,” I sent over the comm.

“Wise plan, brother. We will proceed there,” he replied.

“Lead the way,” I said to Crivreen. He seemed to know his way around far better than I. While we moved on to Central Command, I updated the station’s defense forces on the change of plan and continued to warn them to stay in shielded areas.

“
I wonder if this is how they do it,
” sent Crivreen.

“
What do you mean?”
I asked.

“
Well, they send in the walking dead, which forces everyone to fall back into tight groups. Once everyone is packed in, they are easy pickings for the wraiths,
” he replied.

“
Maybe,
” I sent. I wondered how he knew so much about this kind of things. I would never have thought of him as one to grasp strategies on the fly.

“
Central Command is up ahead
,” he sent.

I looked down the corridor and saw a heavily-shielded door guarded by sentry guns. Even without the shields and guns it would have been impossible to reach the door due to the large number of bodies piled up around it. It appeared the walking dead had made an attempt to breach the shields and had been cut down by the defenses.

“Central Command, what is your status?” I asked over the comm.

“Secure, sir, all shields holding. All is quiet in the halls,” came the reply.

Before we could do much with that information a message came in: “Sir, we are under heavy attack here!”

“Where?” I demanded.

“Docking Arm 71M, sir,” came the reply.

“
Why a seemingly random docking arm?”
asked Crivreen.

“
Distraction,”
I
said.

“What is attacking you?” asked Narcion over the comm.

“Sir, I am not sure you are going to believe this, but they appear to be skeletons. They have armed themselves with blasters from our fallen troops and are trying to blast through the shields,” he said.

Soon more reports of skeletal warriors came in from around the station. These creatures were unlike the walking dead in that they moved as fast as a man, and seemed to be at least intelligent enough to work together. Narcion had told me about them, but they had always used more primitive weapons in his experience.

“
Now what?
” Crivreen asked.