Adrift with Kai and Friends

“Boarding a ship sinking into a gas giant,” uttered Mik. “What else will they ask us to do? Get on our hands and knees and scrub the floors of the Everlasting Salvation?”
“Hush up, Mik,” I responded. “I would be remiss if I allowed you to question orders.”
“Acknowledged.”
“But in any case, I understand your… confusion. I do not know why we are doing this, yet here we are.”
“Straighten up, brother,” said Quso. “It’s not like you’re going in alone.”
“Oh of course not. The powers that be would prefer that we are chaperoned.”
“Hah! Alright, I’ll let you call it that.”
The Phantom began to shudder slightly.
“Gods, we must’ve hit the upper atmosphere!” cried out Basab.
“Let’s hope this giant’s gravity doesn’t rip us apart,” commented Tes.
“Do not be afraid,” I assuaged. “We would have to go far deeper into the gas giant to even approach the Phantom’s maximum tolerance levels.”
“Just don’t trip,” said Mik.
The Phantom docked in what was once one of the vessel’s hangars. Both my lance and Quso’s disembarked. I took a brief moment to scan the area. Scattered signs of life were detected: Humans. The signatures were faint and weak, signifying the beings’ impending demise.
“We are not alone,” I said.
“At last!” excitedly said Mik. “Something to shoot!”
“Yes, if you are so inclined to shoot injured and dying Humans.”
“Hmph. Well, a kill is a kill, and I need to up my body count.”
The Unggoy chattered nervously amongst themselves, while Tes spoke in her species’ language with another fellow of hers. We started towards the center of the vessel. Entering creaking and moaning corridors, we were graced by the corpses of a few Humans. They seemed to have suffered severe physical injures, largely blunt force trauma by my observations, although several had significant lacerations on their faces or appendages. No doubt our forces took a grave toll on this vessel during our attack on the planet from whence it came, what the Humans called “Kholo.”
“Say, ‘Kalaree,” started Quso, “have you any notion what this ship is, precisely?”
“Well, from what I could gleam… just a moment…” We continued down a corridor before I stopped in front of some sort of interface on the wall. My command of the Human dialect of English was rudimentary at this time, but I could make out words. I manipulated the panel.
“Hold on, sir?” started one of the Minors under our command, Srak ‘Sokhunee. “Is this not blasphemy?”
“I will atone for this sin with the blood of the wicked,” I quickly replied, slightly vexed. I did not turn to even glance at the Minor, but I could feel his judgmental eyes searing a hole into my helmet. But his opinion mattered little in this moment. I gained the information I sought. “Apparently, this vessel is so named the ‘Heavy Burden.’ It is a mining vessel the Humans refitted into a ship carrying war materiel.”
“I guess that’s what we’re here for,” said Mik.
“We are here to find any Humans and kill them, then destroy the vessel,” I clarified. “We would have done so out of principle but now our purpose is even more focused.”
“Could we not have used one of our cruisers’ heavy weapons for this task?” asked Srak.
“’Could we have not –‘began Mik in a mocking voice. “Gods, you just keep going on and on!” My friend raised his voice and seemed annoyed.
“Mik, hush!” I admonished.
Suddenly, we heard voices. Alien voices. Human voices. I quickly motioned for the men to be silent and hold position. Quso did the same. I could make out some of what the Humans were saying. “Fleming, did you hear that?” one said.
“Hear what?” answered another.
“That… that noise. Sounded weird. Don’t think it was the ship, and it certainly wasn’t a person.”
“Oh Christ… they’re here.”
I looked at Quso. They know we’re here, my eyes said to him. I motioned that I would move up with my lance to dispatch the Humans. He nodded without so much as a whisper. And so, I gave the silent order to move up. My lance followed as I readied my carbine. I heard a noise, and from past experience, it was the racking of a Human weapon’s action. They were preparing. I took a glance at my HUD’s radar, and saw one Human around a corner in the corridor, which led to a large open area. I breathed in, and let out the breath calmly, then quickly moved around the corner, my carbine up and facing forward. I fired at a Humanlike shape, the blood splattering on the wall as my carbine rang out its shots, the irradiated projectiles passing through the Human as if it was not even there. The being let out a yelp then fell away from me, landing on its back, crumbling onto the floor like a dropped sack of vegetables. The Human, who wielded a shotgun, was dead before it hit the floor.
“Oh God!” cried out a Human. It crawled quickly away from, grunting, panting, and mumbling incoherently while doing so.
“Gods, that’s just sad,” mused Mik. I followed the Human, making heavy footsteps as I nonchalantly approached the being, whose crawl was pitifully low. It led us into a large open area with some sort of machine in the center being assembled. It was bipedal, and from what I could deduce, was a weapon of war.
“Hey now, let’s not let the Human near that thing,” said Quso. I agreed with that sentiment, and I raised my carbine, and then shot the Human in the head. Its cranium exploded in a splattering of red and brain bits.
“By the Prophets!” uttered Basab. “That’s an image good ol’ Basab is going to see when he sleeps tonight.”
“I apologize for adding to your nightmares,” I quipped. I looked up at the machine the Human was crawling to. It seemed formidable, and would apparently magnify the Human’s combat abilities by multiple factors. “At least we will not deal with this one, though.”
Category:The Weekly