The two figures bore a resemblance to the hunter-xeno that attacked Andrea and I on the destroyer. Except these were more militant. The black chitinous armour on their form was a suit of black triangular chitinous plates. The slim gaps between the bone-like plates showed their sickly pale purple flesh.

Their helms more resembled a skull and I wasn’t entirely sure if it was actually a helmet or actual their faces. The hollow eyes were a dull purple glow that flared briefly as it settled on me in particular. Then a low hiss resounded and both of the bone-knight looking figures drew black bones weapons.

“Still aim for the head?” Nikhara retorted, and I shut my eyes momentarily to send thanks to whatever god had put this woman in my life. My heart was scurrying to pound out of my chest, and my legs wobbled weakly as the figures drew their primitive seeming weapons.

Yet something in their unsettling eyes said not to take them lightly.

The figure on the right drew a longsword, and held the weapon in two-hands. The black bone gleamed darkly like obsidian and my mind flared back to my dream, to the black skeletons on that plane.

A shiver shook my spine as the left figure drew a black bone lantern-like flail at the end of a chain connected to a mace’s head. Lanterns always reminded me of the nobility of Zarian society.

I never did understand why the higher classes liked the aesthetic of old technology, architecture, décor, and clothing. I half expected the lantern-like flail to ignite with a purple fire. But nothing like that happened. Instead, both of the strange black bone knights advanced on us. The left one began swinging the flail in slow deliberate arches, while the longsword knight charged straight at me.

His weapon low and pointed towards my stomach like a lance.

“Fire!” I barked as my rifle bucked back against my shoulder, and I braced myself. My rifle roared a whole thirty rounds as the knight advanced. Every single bullet pinged off or deadened against its chitinous armour.

The knights head snapped back as my gun breathed a measure of berinium rounds straight across the centre dome of its helm.

The skull reeled backwards, and the knight stumbled. Then I dived backwards as its sharp blade swiped through the air horizontally at me.

If my rounds hadn’t been completely ineffective against this thing. I would’ve simply taken the hit of its sword against my armour and expect to take no damage.

No, something about its armour and weapon bade me not to take any chances whatsoever. As I recovered from my dive by rolling backwards onto my feet, I snapped my gun back up to my shoulder and spat another fifteen rounds into its helm.

The skull dented inwards slightly, but the damage was nothing more than a scrape to it.

I rolled to my left narrowly avoiding its arching sword as it cleaved through the floor of the platform like a knife would through butter.

Ejecting the spent magazine, I dropped it to the ground and fished another out from my webbing. I glanced briefly to my left and saw Nikhara fairing no better than I was.

My thoughts turned to my revolver, but I expected that not even that would work.

The sword swiped just over my head as I launched myself several feet away from where Nikhara was fighting the other knight.

I rolled over my shoulder into a crouch and swivelled around. Then I gasped as the skeletal fucker jumped the eight feet in a single bound and brought his sword to bear for my throat faster than before. I leaned back and it barely missed. Then I pressed the button that racked the slid on my rifle and chambered a round.

I unloaded on the fucker at point blank as it skull helm leered down at me coldly. Its right leg reared back and slammed into the center of my armoured chest, as it covered its helm with its chitinous forearm to avoid the firing spray.

I wheezed and let out a groaning gasp, as it felt like a ton of weight carried behind its blow. Sprawling onto my back and sliding a few yards I coughed as my glitching HUD displayed a red indication over the torso of my armoured suit. My rifle dislodged from my grip, sent spinning across the platform.

“Mar- cus- ?” a staticky voice asked with some concern.

“Imma-okay,” I wheezed and coughed against the tight confines of my helmets. The display fogging briefly with my close breath and it blurred the approach of the sword swinging knight. I rolled weakly onto my side and avoided the blow from its sword.

Rolling back-in I kicked out and caught the back of its knee. The blow sent it to a crouch as its leg faltered. Then I reared back my left fist to smash it into the skull helm, but the fucker had other ideas, and backhanded me in the helmet.

I felt something snap and reverberate through my neck, as the display of my helmet crunched inwards. Closing my eyes I was sent spinning like a damsel across the platform floor to smack with a loud clang into a wall.

I opened my eyes and saw the webbing of cracks flittering across my display. Great, my helmet was totally fucked.

“Could… use a hand… here,” I coughed and saw that Nikhara was moving just fast enough to stay out of the flailing knights way as it swung at her.

“I’ll- try,” she grunted and ducked the flailing chain and lantern-like head. Then the orc-dryad lunged forward and tackled the knight around its waist. I had to refocus my spinning mind back on my own opponent.

The knight before me raised its sword to thrust for my abdomen, but I managed to divert the blow aside and it instead scraped along my right arm and into the wall. I lunged with both of my legs and wrapped them around its waist and wrapped my arms around its left arm.

I tightened my grip and jarred slightly as the knight seemingly stood without effort and swung my dangling body into the wall. I smashed solidly against it and flopped to the ground. My head and neck stinging with sharp increments of pain. I pressed both of my feet flat against the wall and pushed off, shooting myself across the floor by a few feet.

The action buying me mere seconds of reprieve. I rolled left, and left again, as the tip of its sword thrust into the ground. And slid free with ease. The knight’s dull purple eyes flared in its helm with what I could only guess to be impatience.

My hand closed around the grip of my revolver, and I frowned in irritation. I was like a bug to thing. It had time to spare. And was using it to whittle me down.

Well I was done playing mouse. I felt my wounds itch with the tell-tale signs of my regenerative ability. And I climbed unsteadily to my feet.

“These are distractions,” I intoned that man’s words. And letting go of the holstered revolver, I unsteadily wove my way over to knight.

My fists clenched at my side.

Then I blinked, not having realised I was charging the knight.

Everything seemed to slow for the barest of a moment. And through my damaged helmet I heard the loud roar of whirring propellers. I slid to the left, and the focused spray of laser fire pass me by.

Behind it, whirred Andrea’s drone. It was now a sapphire blue, and the white paint on the side said: Blue Bitch -Mk1.

Then the knight in front of me was lit alight with a burst of a hundred laser beams. The short flare of intense orange light blinded me as it slowly impacted the knight and torched him up.

I squinted and looked away briefly.

I had expected the laser fire to work at least, but I wasn’t surprised when the smouldering knight shrugged off the laser fire. Though it did shield its helm, and looking I saw the barest hint of a crack along its surface.

“Andrea, help Nikhara. I got this,” I shouted at the drone, after it finished the firework display. The drones external camera settled on me briefly and I gestured in Nikhara’s direction. It swivelled and with a roar of a thousand bees it followed my instructions.

I blinked against my glitching HUD, as it blurred in and out of focus and decided it was best to remove the helmet. The extra armour would be helpful, and I worried about bits of debris flying off and hitting me in the eyes. But the helmet was useless if it itself was the debris.

Reaching up I snapped the clasp of my helmet and twisted it partially to the left and threw it off. With a deep intake of slightly gritty air, I charged the knight as it strolled almost leisurely towards me.

Ducking it arching sword swing, I threw two quick fire punches into its gut. I felt the impact reverberate down through my knuckles and into my wrists. The blows ached my hands smartly, but when I looked at the chitinous plating over its stomach I saw pale green cracks radiating from where I’d hit it.

I guessed that blunt force was the key to damaging its plates. But that whole notion felt wrong and incorrect. I side-stepped its cleave and leaned away from the back-hand it tried to send my way as a follow up. It was as if I was countering his moves before he even made them. Its grip on the sword shifted hand over hand, and I reasoned that he was going to swipe a diagonal slash at me.

I darted forward and slammed my fist into the crook of its elbow. That halted the movement long enough for me it kick the flat of his blade to the side, the motion extending his arms out straight. Then I launched myself forward and clasp his right arm in my grip before I brought my knee baring up to smash against it.

Light cracks splintered through the chitin as it endure more blunt trauma.

The knight stumbled backwards, and I jumped up to launch a strike into the centre of its forehead. For a split second it seemed as if pale green fire had enveloped my hand. Then my right fist struck the centre mass of its skull helm, and it crunched loudly beneath my blow.

The knight shook as it tumbled away from me, and I saw the area of it chitinous skull web with deep cracks. Then the helm crumbled away, and I gasped at the visage beneath it. It was human. Or, at least had been. The dark obsidian skin almost as black of its chitinous armour. It was bald, and without ears. The mouth sealed shut, as if sown by some demented hand. The eyes were hollow sockets that still retained the dull kindle of purple fire in their depths.

Below the jaw, the skin tone changed drastically to a sickly pale purple.

“What … are you?” I panted out. Yet it couldn’t answer me. Then I heard the scrape of its black bone blade as it tried to raise its sword at me. Pulling my revolver from its holster. I realised a round was already within the cylinder. Shrugging, I cocked the hammer on my handgun, and aimed barrel straight into the dull purple light of its left eye.

The sword stopped a split-second before I pulled the trigger on my gun, and buried an visceral hole in its dark brain.

“Six rounds left,” I breathed without thought.

“A little help over here,” Nikhara shouted to me through her suits external speakers. And I swivel to see her and the drone narrowly avoiding the flailing knight.

“Why hasn’t Andii shot it yet?” I groused back questioningly. But then the reason hit me the same time Nikhara grunted a reply through her external speakers.

“I’m too fucking close is why. I tried to get… some distance… but it just stay’s on me.”

Frowning I looked at my empty revolver and fished out the spent casing, placing it in my webbing rig as I holstered my gun. Bending over I retrieved the dead knights sword and picked it up.

Or at least tried to pick it up. The fucking thing must’ve weighed over half a ton. I may be exaggerating a little, but it was damn heavy. I grunted as I managed to get the sword a few feet off the ground. Then I was dragging it behind me as I stumbled towards Nikhara back as she dodged the flailing knight trying to hit her.

“Niki! Can you fuckin’ lift this thing?” I growled and felt all the blood rushed to my face and neck. The orc-dryad swivelled to her left and effortlessly sidestepped the swinging lantern flail as it breeze past her to thud into the platform floor.

She reared back and then stomped forward, planting her foot squarely into the side of it hips and sending it sprawling. Then Blue Bitch -Mk1 spat a stream of laser-fire. Nikhara spun around to spot me, her helmeted gaze flicking briefly past me to the dead knight. Then she saw what I was referring to as she sprinted over quickly and took the sword from me with a tired grunt.

She swung it up and propped it against her shoulder and jogged back to the flailing knight, which she promptly rammed through the back with the sword after she charged it. The knight had been so intent on trying to batter Blue Bitch that it hadn’t even notice Nikhara returning.

At least not until the black bone sword exploded out through its chest. Then I heard Nikhara emit a low feral growl and she grunted as her armour strained nosily. I watched tiredly as my wife then crouched and dead-lifted the sword upwards, the flailing knight still speared on the tip. Then she tossed it aside as the flail clanged to the floor.

Without missing a beat she stepped over to it and thrust the swords point through the back of its skull helmet and penetrated into the floor beneath.

She looked around herself, spotted me on my ass. I hadn’t realised I’d sat down until Nikhara ran over to me and skidded onto her knees and hugged me. The action was a little awkward in our suits, but I appreciated it none the less.

“Holy fuck. That was an intense fight,” Nikhara breathed out, then laughed lightly as she removed her helmet and placed it on the floor.

I was about respond when the orc-dryad’s lips clashed with mine and we moaned breathily into each other’s mouths as our tongues entwined.

“That … was intense,” I agreed with her as we parted and pressed our foreheads together. “If there’s more of these things. I don’t know how we’ll cope.”

“You seemed to handle your end just fine,” she noted archly and cocked a thin dark bluish-green eyebrow at me. I shook my head. I had no answers as for why punching it had suddenly worked whereas the fifty or so rounds I’d spent on it, and the laser fire from Blue Bitch had only warranted a slight chink in the armour.

“That chitin is super tough though,” I said and avoided answering her probing gaze.

“I think I’ll hold onto the sword for now then,” she suggested, and I nodded at her. “Do you want the flail?”

“Depends. Is it as heavy as the sword?” It was in fact heavier than the blasted sword. It must’ve weighed an actual ton. I couldn’t for the life of me, understand how these xeno-knights could wield it. Their builds had been no different than mine or Nikhara’s. Speaking of which, Nikhara could lift it as easily as she could the sword.

“Do you think it’s magic?” I whispered to her. I knew the orc-dryad had at least seen some form of magic a long time ago when she had lived with her mother.

“I’m… unsure,” Nikhara murmured back. Magic always seemed to be discussed in hushed tones. Some thought the subject as laughable nonsense. That magic didn’t exist. I’d seen enough dread and wonder in the galaxy to know better.

Magic was real. Even if I had never seen it.

“If magic is at work here. If it none I have never heard of before.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked her curiously, this was the most I’d gotten out of her on the subject in a long time.

“There is only one known form of magic. Some species of xeno have traits and abilities that may seem magical but in truth aren’t. Your regenerative properties as an example, are likely a trait of your heritage whatever that may be. Magic on the other hand pulls at the very essence of the universe, whereas ability and traits pulls on the bodies’ essence. Or at least that’s what my mother told me when I was young.”

“Uh-huh,” I said after a moments pause.

“You have no idea what I’m on about do you?” Nikhara said teasingly as she arched a fine eyebrow at me.

“I don’t really know much of anything on the subject,” I shrugged at her at her question.

“Well I might have to take you to visit my home someday.” I blinked as the orc-dryad sauntered pass me and collected her helmet off the ground.

My HUD was glitching up a frenzy.

“Is Andrea okay?” I asked her with a note of concern. Nikhara placed her helmet on her head and replied a few seconds later.

“She’s fine. Just annoyed that our neural-link without the suits has a limited and crappy range. She’s also pissed off at you for not telling her your implant was glitching again.”

“God. When doesn’t she have something to complain about?” I questioned rhetorically. “Don’t tell her I said that by the way.”

Nikhara’s helmeted head shook in amusement and she brandished the black bone sword onto her shoulder as she scooped up her rifle and stuck it to the rig on her back.

I retrieved my own rifle and checked the mag. I had thirty-five rounds in the magazine left and another two clips in the webbing rig around my waist.

“Do you want the honours?” I asked Nikhara suggestively as I motioned with the barrel of my rifle at the closed elevator doors.

“Sure,” Nikhara agreed, and walking over she slammed the tip of the black sword into the slim seam between the doors and yanked to her right. A minute of the orc-dryad shimmying the door open passed, and we both peered at the dark tunnel leading down.

“Ugh, now I really wished I’d brough flares with me,” I grumbled, then looked at the Blue Bitch drone and got an idea. “Nikhara, can you asked Andrea to send her drone in first. And if she has enough range to see how far down this shaft is?”

A few seconds past as Nikhara relayed my questions to the android.

“Andrea, said that the drone has a good four - five kilometres left on the range. She hopes that’s enough but can boost the signal up to seven if she diverts some of the Erebus’s power.”

“I nodded along, and then frowned. I stuck my head my head through the open doors and looked down into the pitch-black shaft. I really hoped it wasn’t anything more than a sixty metres down. I scanned my eyes across the to the adjacent elevator shaft and nodded idly.

“Tell Andii, to send Blue Bitch down first and to see if the adjacent elevator is nearby,” I told Nikhara and she repeated my words to Andrea.

“What’re you thinking, Marcus?” Nikhara asked tentatively as we watched Blue Bitch slid through the gap of the open doors side-ways, then it rotated and started to hover downwards. A brief flash of light emitted from a swivel cam on the drone. A second later a bright cone of light shone forth, illuminating the walls of the shaft.

“I’m thinking that maybe the other elevator is hopefully just stuck on another floor. That this one…” I waved, gesturing at the dark shaft before us. “… was actually used. And whoever left those knights up here, is holding the elevator hostage down there somewhere.”

“Knights?” she asked me curiously.

“The sword and flail xeno-things,” I answered and shrugged. For some reason that description stuck with me, like hunter had for the one Andrea and I’d fought on the destroyer.

“It’s an apt name,” Nikhara said agreeably. “We really need to-- oh, hang on,” she held up her hand and her helmet tilted a bit as she listened. I looked over my shoulder at the discarded remnants of my own helmet.

I felt bad leaving it there, but I couldn’t exactly drag it around with me. We seriously needed some upgrades and tech overhauls.

We needed far more variety of weaponry. A shuttle craft we could store in the Erebus cargo-bay. Better armour, improved implants, and maybe it was time to recruit a few new crew members.

“The second elevator is about one kilometre down.”

“Uggghhh,” I groaned loudly. “This seriously sucks.”

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]