Chapter 64

When a PI is More than Just a Private Dick

Maniacal Laughter.

You ever hear sandpaper grind against metal? No, well you are probably lucky. If you have, then imagine that decibel of noise driven up to eleven and you might understand the pitch being produced by the now exposed Prolaxian Infiltrator (PI). Then to make matters worse, the PI after cackling like a villain, then begins to monologue like one as well.

“I am a herald, here to signify your inevitable death.” The PI states with murderous glee, as it stares at Goldie. Goldie of course is caught mid-swing. Her mighty hammer stopped mid-descent by one of the monster’s outstretched appendages.

As for me, I never stopped moving, but my lower attributes and weaker mechanoid unit make it so I arrive to the battle fashionably late.

“Hello Herald, I’m Kyle.” I yell out, as I wind up and punch the monster.

The monster is either aware of my presence, or quickly able to react to my strike as my fist too is caught mid swing. In hindsight, this should have been an obvious outcome, as Goldie was stopped mid swing as well, and her attributes are far beyond my own. Still, I had a plan. Using my heat and grappling plates I begin to try to exert pressure on the monster, while still spinning and striking out with my still free right hand.

“Gah!” The monster cries out, as grasps my hand tightly before flinging me across the room.

Crunch.

Wham!

I look up to see that my mechanoid left hand is bent beyond repair. Fortunately, this does little for me other than make the hand utterly useless for drawing weapons and firing.

Sparks of light in the darkness.

I am a little dizzy from the throw and subsequent smash into the wall. By this point Goldie has broken free herself and is now firing a short-range blaster with one hand, while swinging a secondary dagger with her other. My mind is left wondering where the hammer is, but then I feel a sense of danger. On reflex I quickly reach out with Telekinesis-X and grab the twirling weapon from the air.

“That was close.” I mutter to myself, as I begin to get up to my feet.

As I look, I see that Goldie is making headway. Blisters are forming on the monster’s right side.

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

She fires the mini-blaster rifle that looks comically small in her mechanoid hand. Each shot hits the monster, but nothing seems to happen.

Seeing the blisters forming on the monster, I am reminded of how I managed to use Pyrokinesis on the last one. Well not the last one, that one I didn’t fight, and instead sent it through a portal. But the one before that, the Endarian secretary of defense, a person that doesn’t exist in this universe, I checked, that one I burned. The flames didn’t do much, but I did manage to burn away its green eye sacks.

With that in mind, I tried using the same method. Only to realize that there was still a sphere of protection around this monster. Something that prevented me from targeting the monster directly with my Psionic powers.

Realizing I once again had to get close, I took in a deep breath, put on my mental-big-boy-pants, and charged forward. I really hate Prolaxians, or scourge, or heralds, or whatever else they want to be called. In any name, they are annoying.

As I got close, I could feel an invisible barrier pass over me. The feeling was hard to describe, other than I felt a thrum of electricity come over me. As soon as I entered a few things happened all at once. First, I was far too slow to be of any real help in direct combat. Second, the blisters that had previously formed on the skin of the monster began to bubble and boil like they were being steam heated. Then third and most telling, the monster let out a loud “Hiss” of pain. Going so far as to break all eye-contact with Goldie and turn its full attention on me.

This was good, as it let me know my plan was working. The only thing was, I was burning the monster without using Pyrokinesis-X. I could use Pyrokinesis-X now that I was within its protective bubble, but from all appearances the monster looked like it was already being burned, but how?

Something was off, but I couldn’t exactly tell what. The monster also seemed to be at a loss for a split second before it decided to act and charge forward. Fortunately, Goldie took the moment to strike.

Shink.

A gold-plated plate of hardened adamantine and mithril poked through the neck of the monster. A blow that would have easily been a killing blow on any other race, only caused the enraged monster to turn its head back, thus cutting even more wiry tendons. Still despite the self-mutilation, the monster didn’t seem to care as it moved to strike.

Fortunately, I too moved on instinct. I lunged forward and gave a flying tackle to the monster. My attack did little, other than distract the monster once again for a second. It raised up one mighty fist to pummel my mechanoid suit. That was all the time Goldie needed to finish.

Slice.

The blade cut through the remaining tendons, letting the head with its two glowing green eyes fall to the ground. Even now I could see that the sacs were bubbling if only slightly.

I let out an involuntary sigh of relief.

Wham!

Apparently, I was too impatient in my relief, as I was struck by the limb of a monster that was now spinning and gyrating erratically. Wild overhand swipes, legs whipping out wildly in all directions, trying to strike at any and everyone.

With that one hit, I felt the metal of my suit bend and buckle inward. But still I held tightly.

With the head removed, a green noxious gas seemed to be released from the open wound. Once sealed tendons now poured out glowing green liquid. Liquid that seemed to bubble and his almost immediately, causing a green cloud of steam to form overhead. I once again was thankful that the mechanoid suits were self-contained, as the gas being released and dispersed into the air around us looked corrosive as all get out. Also, who really thought glowing green mist is in anyway healthy for you?

It was clear that the body of the now decapitated Prolaxian infiltrator was going through some form of rigor mortis. Muscles turned and undulated. Below the head of the monster snapped and gnashed its teeth wildly. Still, I knew now was the time to act. Focusing on the head and the torso, I generated two distinct yet powerful geysers of flame. Pyrokinesis-X was being used liberally.

The flames only caused the boils that were forming on the beast’s skin to bubble and hiss faster.

Wham!

I was struck by yet another solid strike. This one sent me to the ground. My mechanical grip suddenly released as my machine had reached a critical point of resistance.

I was on the ground, and the burning skull of the beast was wildly spinning and biting as it rolled its way closer to me. For a moment I felt I was in one of those horror movies, one where you know the monster is going to win no matter what. Then, she happened.

SPLAT!

A giant golden hammer slammed down into the flaming cranium before me, showering me with glowing-green blood and viscera. Even now, I could see the way the glowing blood seemed to hiss and dissipate quickly into the air. Something was odd, as this creature was not acting like the other, I had fought. For starters this one didn’t even attempt to summon forth reinforcements. Secondly, I don’t remember the blood of the monster glowing green or dissipating into green mist.

Whack!

Before I could do much more than try to knock some of the gooey blood off my windshield, I felt a kick from a mighty foot. It took me a second to realize I was being trampled.

Fortunately, again, Goldie was there.

Whack, whack!

She brought her hammer around in a spinning strike that first brought the monster’s body up off the ground. Then while the monster’s body was rising, she executed her next attack, which was a 360-degree reverse strike that caught the monster as it was on its way up, only to slam it back down into the hull of the ship.

BOOM!

With that strike, the electrical field that had been surrounding us suddenly stopped. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck slowly begin to lose tension. It was the calm after the storm, the moment you realized you could take a breath and relax.

With the weird electromagnetic field dropped, mechanical whirring began to kick in across the command deck.

Vrr. Vroom.

Suddenly the emergency power generators kicked on, illuminating the command portion of the battle cruiser. I was just thinking that we might be able to drive this ship away as a trophy of war. To my mind, it made sense, we had been attacked. We conquered the battle cruiser, and even managed to beat one of the monsters. Well, Goldie did, I could do almost nothing against the monster.

Just as I was thinking we could possibly manage a profit, from confiscating the battle cruiser and selling it for parts, we received a communications hail.

Chirp. Chirp.

Apparently, whoever was calling had override capabilities for the ship, as their communication was allowed through almost instantly.

With that the image of a second Prolaxian Infiltrator filled the screen.

“Ah. It seems that you two somehow managed to take out the good Admiral. No bother. I had hoped that we would at least be able to salvage the ship. But it seems that will have to be collateral damage.” The second Prolaxian Infiltrator said.

“What?” Was all I eloquently managed to get out before warning sirens began to blare around the ship.

“Warning, multiple war heads approaching. Shielding has been disabled. All personnel are to evacuate immediately.”

Hearing the message, I was stunned. “You overrode the safety protocols?” Goldie asked.

“But of course.” The second PI said, with a hissing slur of its words.

My head was spinning, as I tried to understand what was happening. My ship. They were going to destroy my warship. Was all I could think.

“We need to get out of here.”

“Malfunction detected. All escape pods have been jettisoned.” The ships onboard computer explained.

We were screwed. Well, no we weren’t. We still had mechanoid suits that could survive in space. The only problem was, we needed to be able to survive a barrage of incoming missiles.

“Second wave of incoming missiles detected.” The ship’s not so helpful assistant stated.

“Shit.” Goldie said.

I paused, then looked at her.

“What?”

“I never heard you curse.” I said.

“I used to curse all the time.”

“Yeah, but that was before.” I explained, or at least tried to. It was true, this was the first time I had heard her curse as a female. It was sort of cute, but at the same time something seemed off about the whole thing. Jess never cursed. Then I realized why I was having such a problem, this wasn't Jess. I was about to wonder why I was thinking of Jess at a time like this, when circumstances dictated that I focus elsewhere.

WHAM! THUD! BOOM!

The ship rocked and swayed violently.

“Hull integrity at 12%.” The ship assistant said.

Zap, crackle.

The crystalline sub-structures of the command deck all began hissing and breaking. Waves of energy were being released as the energy that had been powering the ship, now had nowhere else to go. It looked like even without the known second wave of missiles coming, we were likely to die due to internal combustion.

There was only one thing to do. In an act of desperation, I ran forward and wrapped my mangled mechanoid arms around Goldie.

“What?” Goldie exclaimed. Then I could see her eyes grow wide from within her suit as she realized what I was about to do.

“I love you too.” She said.

Okay, it was official, she didn’t know what I was about to do.

To be fair, I didn’t even know if such an act was possible. But I did a lot of things all at once. First, I assigned the still free Attribute point to Power, putting me at 40. This caused a burning sensation to form in my brain, as I felt warm fluids begin to flow from my nose at the sudden pressure. Then I closed my eyes and imagined the first place I could imagine clearly.

Focusing on the spot, I imagined activating one of my most elusive powers. Simultaneously, the next wave of missiles impacted the hull of our ship. The room we were in began breaking apart, as ripples of explosions began to erupt all around us. For a moment, it seemed as though time froze. All around us, I could see waves of kinetic, thermal, and photon energy firing towards us.

Still, I focused, and then realizing we couldn’t wait any longer, I did what I had to do. One second there was impending danger all around.

The next second, we were swallowed in a sea of endless white light.