Into the Void

Chapter 13

Nate was crammed into the chilling confines of the supply crate. There was a small heater in the cockpit area, but it only brought the temperature up to barely tolerable levels. He was wrapped in his exo-suit, trying to take slow calming breaths of the suit's slightly metallic tasting air supply. He booted up the simple computer, watching as a grainy visual feed appeared on the tiny display screen. A yellow line was drawn across the screen, arcing down from the nose of the crate towards a small planet below.

The alien world was covered in deep blue ocean, smeared with swirls of thin white clouds and studded with snaking chains of small green islands. Looking down at the uncharted world, Nate's excitement overcame his fear and he triggered the crate's engines. The rocket ignited, slamming him back into his seat and driving the ship down towards the planet below. After a half hour of bone crushing thrust, the engine coughed, wheezed, and died quietly, letting the ship drift until gravity plucked it from the void and drew it down to surface

Gravity returned slowly as the ship dropped closer to the planet. With a bone jarring thump the crate plowed into the atmosphere, bucking and shaking as it plummeted towards the ocean. The main display was wreathed in flame, showing nothing more than an eye searing fireball. He hoped the heat shield would hold together. His heart raced as he bounced in the pilot's seat, the restraint harness biting into his shoulders. Taking the control stick in a sweaty, shaky grip he fought to keep the crate on course as it dropped through the atmosphere trailing a stream of bright orange flame. Suddenly the turbulence stopped and the flame engulfing the ship died away, leaving him gliding pleasantly through a fluffy white cloud.

He dipped the nose down, watching a mountain range pass by below him. jagged crags the colour of dried blood clawed at the sky, with deep, sandy valleys studded with patches of pale ghostly green between them. He flew the crate towards the ocean, gliding lower as the cerulean sea came into view on the horizon. The glistening waves reflected the gleam from the system's sun, turning the sea into a dazzling field of sparkling blue. As he flew closer to the ocean the mountains gave way to patchy forests, full of tall spindly trees and fields of pale grass. He hauled back on a stiff lever next to the pilot seat, sending a pair of parachutes billowing out of the back of the crate. The crate slowed, smashing him against the safety harness, and drifted nose first towards the sea.

The crate smashed into the ocean, ceramic nose cone shattering against the waves. The safety harness tore, spilling Nate out of his seat and sending him crashing into the main display. His head bounced off the inside of his helmet and stars drifted across his field of view. Dazed, he struggled to pull himself back to his seat but the floor of the crate was pitching up and down. The crate jerked, sending him tumbling back towards his chair. He reached out with his right arm, alloy fingers digging into the seat's soft foam and held on with all his strength. The crate bucked and spun as something plucked it from the waves and lifted it into the air. With a tremendous crash the crate was dropped onto a solid surface. The blow slammed Nate against the floor driving the air from his lungs. As he lay there, curled on the floor struggling to breathe, something tore open the doors at the back of the crate, flooding the cramped space with blinding white-orange light. A hand gripped the collar of his suit and dragged him, kicking and squirming out into the daylight. Nate rolled onto his back staring up into the face of a bleached, grinning, skull.

His breath caught in his throat, blinking in shock up at the skeleton. The monster reached toward his faceplate with a spindly white hand, wiping a layer of dust and dirt off the helmet. Nate let out a long breath as the blurred skull resolved into Rowan's smiling synthetic features. The Construct patted him on the shoulder.

"We thought you were a goner for a second," he said. "Do you feel okay?"

Nate shook his head, sending a wave of dizziness rolling over him. "I hit my head," he mumbled. "What happened?"

"One of your chutes didn't unroll properly, you hit the water way too hard. Now I know you don't think highly of my flight experience, but you're god damn lucky that catching supply crates and hauling them around is a specialty of mine. You'd be sunk to the bottom of the ocean right now if I wasn't so damn good at ferrying cargo and dropping it on planets."

Nate struggled to sit up, moving slowly and groaning as nausea flooded into him. "Where's the rest of the crew?" he asked.

"Still pulling on their exo-suits. Me and Onyx were the first ones out of the ship. One of the many perks of not needing to do foolish things like breathe air or worry about catching an alien flu."

"You saved me?" said Nate, scowling, his concussed brain struggling to come up with a reason why a Construct would save a Human.

Rowan smiled. "We sure did. Why don't we try to get you on your feet and move over to that grassy hillside there, we'll need you out of the way while we set up the stuff from the crate."

The Construct pulled Nate gently to his feet and walked him across a stretch of coarse orange sand. The crate and the dropship were sitting on a narrow stretch of beach between the deep blue waves and a rolling plane of tall green grass so pale it was nearly white. He sat heavily on the small hill, watching as the rest of the crew filed out of the dropship and started unpacking the equipment.

Something crashed into Nate's back, claws tore into his exo-suit, tangling in the ballistic fibers. Onyx sprinted towards the hillside, pulling a long heavy rail gun off his back. The war machine skidded to a stop, firing the rail gun. The shell flew over Nate's left shoulder with an ear splitting crack. A drizzle of warm pink gore pattered down onto the hillside, soaking the back of Nate's exo-suit.

A pale skinned beast leapt out of the tall grass, springing high into the air and gliding towards them on loose leathery flaps of skin stretching from its outstretched arms to its hips. The creature slammed into Onyx and bore the machine to the ground with the screech of claws grinding against metal. With a mighty shove, Onyx threw the monster off of himself and came to his feet. Nate clambered clumsily to his feet and turned just in time to see another one of the pale predators leaping towards him with a high pitched wail. The creature had large bulbous yellow eyes and a long snout with a slit running up the middle, like someone had taken its mouth and rotated it ninety degrees. The thing smashed him to the ground, lips curling back. Its snout was simply two elongated muscular lips that pulled back until they stood out to either side of its head. The inside of each lip was covered in hundreds of small curved teeth and a long barbed tongue reached towards Nate's face.

Nate kicked the thing in the stomach trying to throw it off of him. The beast forced him down harder, claws digging into the reinforced fabric of his exo-suit and pinning his arms down. He turned his head away from the monster's gaping maw. Its long slimy tongue slithered over the faceplate of his helmet. The creature let out a low rumbling growl as he struggled to wriggle free of its iron grip. The beast reared back, raising one claw, preparing to slash down towards his throat. It shifted enough for him to pull an arm free. He struck the monster in the stomach, it was like trying to punch through a wall, the thing was all hard muscle. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Onyx crouch, raising his rifle.

Onyx fired. The heavy slug crashed through the beast's shoulder, shattering bone and sending a pink mist up into the air. The creature limped backwards. Nate scrambled out from underneath it as Onyx fired another round. The heavy shell struck the creature in the chest, tearing a hole through it and sending a spray of pink gore and fragments of bone out its back. Another scream split the air and Nate whirled in time to see another pale skinned creature leaping towards the Construct.

The towering war machine caught the creature by the throat in his right fist, the beast's claws scrabbling in vain against the plating on his forearm. A wide blade slid out from the machine's left wrist, gleaming in the sunlight. He slammed the point in just under the beast's rib cage and ripped the blade downwards, sending long ropes of steaming viscera spilling out into the tall grass.

The blade slid back up into Onyx's forearm with a click. The war machine turned towards Nate, the smooth metal of its faceplate was cracked and had a hole on the left side, revealing an array of lenses and sensors beneath it. The sloped plating covering his chest and arms was just as damaged, covered in long gouges and bite marks.

"Are you all right, Nathan?" asked Onyx.

Nate patted down the front of his suit, making sure the slashes across the chest hadn't torn all the way through. "Yeah, I think I'm okay," he said, his voice shaking.