Caedus Chronicles #2

Caedus Chronicles

The Caedus Chronicles pick up where last week’s left off with our hero in danger.

Using his thumb he cycled through his rounds, choosing the low impact kinetic round. Dropping to a crouch, weapon raised, he slipped into a room just off the main corridor. Some old hydroponic system littered table tops, broken carniculture vats spread wildly across the space. Caedus knew that the satellite had been rapidly abandoned, but StarCon wouldn’t have allowed this destruction, even 200 cycles ago when resources were far more abundant. Whatever was registering on his radar obviously had run of the place for some time, another curious piece of information.

“Caedus, there’s an energy drain on all sub systems, lighting and environmental systems will be the first to fail”

“Check that, prepare for CQC, once engaged I want a data drive search of what’s in here with me”

“Movement detected at east exit to this area”

 

Caedus swung round and loosed three rounds, blasting fist sized chunks out of the prefabbed walls whilst the lighting faded out. A swift jump and the creature cleared the floor, fastening itself to the ceiling just across from Caedus. Raising his pistol, a blast of pressure hit, throwing him off his feet. As he slid to a stop, the creature launched towards him landing on top of Caedus and seemingly trying to pry off his filters. Clenching his fist, Caedus fired a blast of scatter shot through the head of the heavy creature on top of him. Sparks and smoke rose from the corpse as it toppled over, allowing Caedus to rise. Loading a round into his wrist screen, he checked the first round had cleared the eject port. Scanning the creature that lay in front of him he realized that this wasn’t an organic in the strictest sense of the word, it was a machine hybrid, a StarCon Screamer. A bell of recognition rang but before Caedus could inspect it, his radar alerted him of another mass of these screamers rushing towards him.

Re-holstering his rail pistol Caedus reached across himself to withdraw some flat, matte black metal discs from his armour.

“V.I, set 1 through 5 to magma flare, leave the last as hollow display”

“Confirmed”

A thumb swipe across the top primed the discs and with a flick of his wrist he deployed the mag-mines in an arc. He nodded to himself when they magnetized and attached themselves to the metal fittings of the room. He armed the last mine and dropped it at his feet. Pulling himself onto the desk behind him he levelled his particle beam rifle at the door, ready for the approaching fury of the Screamers.

 

 

Quickly checking his radar, he could confirm two masses, one entering from the same door as the last whilst the second split away and seemed to be heading into the air circulation system. Just as the first three Screamers leapt through into Caedus’s kill zone he switched the mines to a trigger rather than proximity, catching all three mechanoids with a quick blast from his rifle. The charred husks hit the deck, crumpled and ruined, filling the room with a rank burnt ozone smell. He knew the Screamers would track the energy signature of his weapon, so he dropped onto the floor once more, slowly moving to the cover provided by a bench in the center of the room. As predicted the Screamers leapt straight to his previous location, but the clear lack of his presence distracted them for a brief second. Popping up out of cover, Caedus opened fire. Violet flashes lit the room once more as he finished off the second batch. Dropping his now spent rifle he swiftly activated the hologram, which started blasting sound and light at random, drawing across the last of the horde. Drawing his rail pistol once more, he keyed into its grip for  dart tipped rounds. A rush of air announced the volley of shots, littering the seething mass with seemingly no effects. Once Caedus had cleared their range explosives in the dart, heads detonated. A flat series of explosions rocked the room, followed by a hollow clattering as the scorched remains of the horde scattered across the floor.

“V.I, Screamers approaching through the circulation still?”

“Confirming… Yes, they are seconds out from a possible entry point.”

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