Berserker (Messenger Book 2) Read online

  Janice chose that moment to venture forth from the tree line. Her staff crackled with accumulating energy, then she swung it in a wide arc, firing a scarlet orb of lightning from the tip. The blood colored ball lightning flew up the slope and engulfed the second anti-aircraft battery. The turret belched smoke and sparks, then exploded as its ammunition stores detonated.

  Pierson continued strafing runs on the remaining turrets, allowing the ground forces to advance up the mountainside. As they commenced their advance, a hangar door opened farther up the mountain, allowing several VTOL drones to launch. Before the drones had even made it out of the hangar, Aksinya swooped in and downed them with a burst from her plasma guns, scattering their fiery wreckage across the hangar entrance and down the side of the mountain.

  Emboldened by the successful application of her new powers, Janice began gathering more energy. Her ultimate power source was Saris itself, its energy drawn through Chalice's hardened atmosphere by her MIND staff. Her only limitation was the fatigue induced on the human part of her physiology by channeling her powers, a limitation for which she had no regard whatsoever.

  Janice focused her newly gathered energy into heating the air around her, generating lift that pushed her a meter off the ground. The shimmering air assumed the contours of a dark angel's wings as she blazed up the side of the mountain ahead of the main group, weaving through the flaming wreckage of the destroyed turrets.

  She arrived at the fire strewn entrance of the hangar and set down on the ground, her dark figure silhouetted against the glow of the destruction outside. Just as she touched down, a pair of T-80s, black market heavy assault exosuits, lumbered out of the hangar's depths to greet her. As the nearer exosuit opened fire with its rifle, its rounds vaporized in midair with flashes of light. Janice responded by pointing her staff at the exosuit and grappling it with a scarlet lightning bolt. She pulled her staff to the left, dragging the exosuit into its partner and causing them both to fall onto the hangar deck in burning heaps, their systems shorting out from the radiation and electricity coursing through their hulls.

  The pack of Nullities loped up after Janice and gathered around her. She stroked the flank of the nearest creature, then pointed her staff at the far side of the hangar. The Nullities galloped forth just as a squad of Concord soldiers made an ill timed appearance from the far gate. The monsters rushed headlong into their foes, their claws, teeth, horns, and poisonous tails flashing, spattering the hangar with the soldiers' blood and filling it with their screams.

  The Harvester Dragoons caught up to Janice next, pausing at the entrance to survey the carnage. Several of them cast stares full of mixed fear and reverence in Janice's direction.

  “Was this all your doing, my lady?” the commander stammered.

  Janice tossed her hair and ordered, “Secure the base. Take no prisoners, unless you find Demir. I will dispose of him personally.”

  “Y—yes, my lady.”

  The Xenolist troops ran forth to storm the base. Janice followed slowly behind them, her hair billowing in the hot draft created by the flames and her eyes gleaming with a cold emerald glow.

  *

  Demir shot out of bed as soon as the alarms started blaring inside the bunker. Ignoring the whimpering of his mistress, he quickly changed into his uniform, strapped on his sidearm, and met his bodyguards outside his room. He followed them to the bunker's control center, where he was soon joined by his senior officers. He scanned the wall of consoles and saw that Tigerhöhle's automated defenses had suffered heavy damage.

  “Status report,” he barked.

  “We've lost most of the turrets,” came the frantic reply. “Composition of the enemy force is unknown, but it seems to be mostly infantry, with some close air support. We're scrambling a response team now.”

  “Is it Spacy?” Demir demanded.

  “Unlikely, sir. They aren't using Spacy equipment.”

  “Then it must be SLIC,” Demir said. Aside from Spacy, what other force would be capable of mustering so much firepower? Even then, the greater question was how they knew Tigerhöhle's location in the first place. They must have had a traitor in their midst. The thought filled Demir with rage.

  “Your Excellency,” General Worner called. “I think you should see this.”

  “What is it?”

  Demir stalked over to the video feed Worner had indicated. It was from a camera affixed to one of the pop-up turrets, pointed skyward. The mocking face of Saris glowed with eerie green light from the camera's night vision. The image shook as the turret discharged a volley shells into the sky. Scoring no hits on its cloaked target, the turret began scanning back and forth for signs of its foe when a writhing orb of energy flashed into view for an instant before striking the camera. The image cut off into static.

  “And then this.”

  Worner pressed a button on the console. The feed switched to another camera on the mountainside. Amidst the glow of flames and weapons fire permeating the darkness, another heat source flew up the side of the mountain. Worner froze the video and enhanced the view. The warm glow resolved into the silhouette of a woman carrying a staff, hovering slightly over the ground, surrounded by shimmering wings of energy.

  “This was just moments ago,” Worner said.

  “What is that?” Demir wondered. “It's too small to be an exosuit. Is it some kind of battle armor?”

  “I don't see any powered armor,” Worner replied. “Do you?”

  “Then is it... I don't know, some kind of jetpack?”

  “I don't see any sign of that, either. I think we're dealing with something new here.”

  “Your Excellency,” one of the operators exclaimed. “Our drone squadron was shot down trying to launch from the hangar. I've also lost the signal from Kodiak One and Two. The enemy is penetrating the base!”

  Demir was silent as he evaluated the situation. The enemy force did not appear to be great in number, but they had seized the element of surprise to inflict massive damage on the bunker's defenses. The security detail could hold them off for a while once they stormed the interior, but the base's fall seemed a foregone conclusion. Even if they staged a miraculous reversal, the wreckage of battle would likely attract the notice of Spacy's aerial observers. It was time to abandon Tigerhöhle.

  “Have my personal guard ready my escape vehicle,” he ordered. “My staff and I are evacuating the base. The security detail will hold off the enemy and cover my escape. If defeat seems inevitable, deploy the bioweapon stores. Then at least you can take these bastards down with you.”

  Demir stormed out of the command center and strode briskly through the concrete corridors toward the lower garage, accompanied by several members of his personal guard. An explosion shook the bunker, causing the lights to flicker, and he decided against using the elevator. As he headed for the stairs, he heard the sound of automatic weapons fire, followed by a wet howl that made his blood run cold and a cacophony of agonized screams. His brisk stride quickened into a run.

  Demir and his guards reached the stairwell and made their way down several floors. As soon as they reached the garage level, his guards threw open the door and ran in first, their rifles at the ready. He followed them in and stopped to gape at the scene of carnage lying before him. The stench of fuel mixed with the reek of burnt flesh and fresh death assaulted his nostrils. All that remained of the vehicles in his personal convoy was fiery rubble, spewing smoke that was swallowed by the ventilation system. The corpses of two of his generals and an entire squad of his elite guards littered the floor, some of them burnt into charred skeletons and others torn limb from limb.

  While Demir stood frozen in horror, a young woman emerged from the flames, clad in black body armor and carrying a long staff. Her mouth was curled into a smile of exaltation, and her green eyes glowed with unholy light. A pair of monsters, all teeth and claws and sharp appendages, took position at her flanks.

  Demir's guards opened fire with their automatic rifles, but their bulle
ts exploded in mid-flight before they could reach the woman or her monstrous allies. Two of the guards pushed Demir back into the stairwell and slammed the door as the monsters pounced. Demir could hear his men's screams behind him as he fled back up the stairs, his boots pounding against the metal beams.

  He didn't make it up even one level before a ball of crackling lightning flew past him and detonated against the stairs over his head. He staggered and groped at the railing for support as the stairs buckled and fell apart. A piece of falling rubble struck him, causing him to tumble over the railing. He fell on the concrete landing and let out a cry of pain as his leg snapped under him.

  A shadow fell over him. He looked up and saw the smiling face of the black witch flanked by her monstrous pets, their fangs and claws glistening with the blood of his guards. The monster on the right brought its face within centimeters of his. It bared its needle-like teeth and its rancid breath washed over him in a humid wave. It opened its mouth to rip his face off, but pulled back when the witch placed one hand on its haunches.

  “A pleasant evening to you, Premier.” She gave a mock curtsy. “I've come to express my appreciation for the hospitality you've shown me and my fellow citizens. Thank you ever so much for the false charges of treason and the delightful stay in that lovely prison.”

  Demir rasped, “Who the hell are you?”

  “Goodness me, what an honor to have the consideration of the premier himself.” The woman's mock courtesy vanished, replaced by a look of pure hatred. “I am death incarnate, and I've come to deliver you straight to hell, you worthless scum.”

  Despite his pain, Demir managed a defiant laugh. “You might have gotten me, you little bitch, but I'll be taking you with me. My men are unleashing a massive store of bioweapons as we speak. You're all dead, and you don't even know it.”

  “Oh, that.” The witch rolled her eyes up at the ceiling. “I sort of had my little pets slaughter everyone in the command center before I came down here, so I don't think your men will be unleashing much of anything except the stench of their disemboweled guts. Sorry about that.”

  At that, Demir felt true despair. That was it, then. There was nothing left but to deny this bitch the pleasure of torturing him to death.

  He drew his sidearm. The witch raised her staff and the monsters prepared to lunge.

  Demir jammed the muzzle into the side of his head and pulled the trigger.

  *

  The premier's lifeless body slumped to the floor. Reacting to Janice's fury, the Nullities leapt upon the corpse, devouring the choicest bits of flesh and tearing the rest to pieces. Janice could only watch the gore for a moment before turning away and walking back into the garage.

  Several Harvesters came toward her, having entered from the same alternate stairwell that she had used to descend to the garage. General Worner followed behind them, looking slightly queasy at the carnage littering the chamber. He glanced through the door into the stairwell behind Janice, blanched, and quickly turned away.

  “Is that...?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Janice replied. “Demir is dead. Once he saw that he had lost, the coward put a bullet in his head. Well, he's not going to leave a very pretty corpse once the Nullities are done with him.”

  “You've done us all a favor with his death,” Worner said. “I'm only sorry that I couldn't stop him from unleashing the Messenger pandemic. At least I was able to provide the information that let you put an end to his madness. That is some small consolation.”

  “Yeah, well don't wait for me to break out in applause,” Janice said. “That wipe ruined a lot of people's lives, and you didn't do jack to stop it.”

  Worner cast another frightened glance at the Nullities in the stairwell. Despite his protected status as a Xenolist informant, he seemed unnerved by Janice and her entourage.

  “I have to admit,” he said, “I had my doubts when the Xenolists first approached me. But after seeing your powers for myself, I have no choice but to believe. You truly are an emissary of the Xenowave, aren't you?”

  “Not an emissary,” Janice replied with a smile. “An executioner.”

  Worner had no reply to that.

  Janice thrust her staff at the commander of the Harvesters. “Contact the Gigant,” she ordered. “Tell them to send in the cargo hauler and secure the Messenger spores. And make it quick. We want to be far away from here before Spacy notices we blew up half the mountain and sends a team to investigate.”

  Twenty-sixth Escalation

  and blackened from the fire

  Upon returning to the Spacy encampment where they had borrowed the utility vehicle, Hector composed a report on what had transpired in Al Hufayr and cabled it to Aqualung H.Q. To his surprise, the connection was stable enough that a response arrived overnight while he was sleeping. The message said that the inhabitants of Al Hufayr did not meet the criteria for priority inclusion in the evacuation shelters, which Hector expected; but he was surprised again when the message added that Al Hufayr would be placed on the list of towns to receive airdropped relief packages.

  They must really be desperate to maximize the number of survivors, Hector mused. Or maybe they were thinking ahead and trying to get as many people as possible on their side so that they would have more support when they tried to take over after the crisis passed.

  While Hector and Celeste slept, the mechanics had refueled the utility vehicle and packed it with several extra canisters for the long journey ahead. After packing up their gear, Hector and Celeste climbed in the vehicle and drove back into the wilderness.

  The journey to Gemdrop took the better part of a day. There were no roads to speak of, just endless orange dunes occasionally broken up by outcroppings. The fact that they were driving in darkness, during the night waking interval of Chalice's activity cycle, made it even more difficult to maintain their bearings. But the Sunderland desert was familiar to Hector. By keeping an eye on the compass and using the low light vision of his cybernetic eye to watch for distinctive rock formations that he used as landmarks, he was able to stay on course.

  At last, they arrived at the labyrinthine canyon system that sat over the subterranean settlement of Gemdrop. Even though he hadn't been back in three years, Hector's muscle memory still guided him along the correct path. He parked the utility vehicle on the side of a rocky slope, then he and Celeste disembarked into the dry, chill air of the desert night.

  “There's a hidden entrance right around here,” Hector said. “We used to use it for deliveries. Hopefully it hasn't been closed up.”

  After a moment's searching, Hector found the entrance, masterfully concealed to look like part of the rock face. He pressed a hidden switch, and part of the stone surface came away with a clang. He swung the secret door up, revealing a pitch-black corridor descending into the earth.

  “Even my vision isn't good enough to see in that.” Celeste got out a flashlight and flicked it on.

  “Silent as death itself in here,” Hector remarked. “Doesn't look like this entrance has been used in years. I hope Kasim wasn't bullshitting me about Doc Fingers holing up in here.”

  They followed the tunnel down into the depths. The corridor soon branched into side passages and wound in confusing turns, but Hector made his way forward with confidence. They were far beneath the surface by the time the odor of smog and garbage alerted them that they were drawing near their destination.

  A minute later, they emerged in an enormous cavern that housed an entire town. The underground city left no room for doubt that it was still inhabited. Flickering lights provided a dim fog of illumination punctuated by clouds of dust that the unreliable ventilation system removed too slowly to prevent their buildup. Fresh piles of garbage rested against the sides of the buildings' graffiti covered walls, and nearly every block in sight was dotted with the flashing neon signs of bars, casinos, and strip clubs.

  “Ahhh.” Hector took a deep breath. “Now there's some nostalgic air for you.”

  Celeste cast h
im a disgusted look. “Don't tell me you actually like this reek.”

  “Hell no,” Hector replied. “Never could stand this place. What a miserable dive. I'm glad to see it's still inhabited, though. I guess Colonial Admin decided it was too much trouble to clear out the dregs after your little raid.”

  “It doesn't look like breaking up your drug gang improved the town's ambience any,” Celeste observed.

  “Why would it?” Hector said. “I told you before, these wipes will find ways to fuck up their lives with or without outside help.”

  Celeste's expression showed plainly enough what she thought of Hector's philosophy, but she said nothing.

  “Anyway,” Hector went on, “I think it'd be best if you let me do the talking. And whatever you do, do not let anyone find out you were a member of the strike force that tore this place to shreds three years ago.”

  “No kidding.”

  Hector led the way into the town. The residents were split between toughs who wandered the streets in packs and malnourished ghouls who stared hungrily at passersby from shrouded alleys. Significant proportions of both populations stumbled in a haze, stared with glassy eyes, or ranted and raved under the influence of various illicit substances. Hector tried probing some of the more lucid inhabitants for information about Dr. Fingers, but they either brushed him off or claimed not to have heard the name.

  Hector sighed. “This is going about as well as I expected. We might have to hit one of the bars and get somebody liquored up.”

  “I'll defer to your judgment.” Celeste cast a wary gaze from side to side. “I'm not exactly in my element here.”

  They entered the nearest tavern, a poorly lit dive with a thumping bass line rumbling through the speakers and sputtering neon silhouettes of naked women for decoration, and found an empty pair of stools. Hector ordered a vodka and Celeste, not trusting the water, ordered a glass of the weakest spirit on offer.