Page 67 of May the Stars Have Mercy
“Vroz are known to party.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight:
Sleepwasglorious.Shefloated in her mind, peacefully bobbing up and down in the abyss within her skull. It was short lived. Aphrodite woke up to the rumble and jumble of the ship as it rocketed off the surface of Orvian. Gasping for air, she lurched over the side of the bed. Glancing down at Xexis’ bunk, finding him already half out of it.
“Kern!” her mate roared, legs jumbled as he raced through the bunk room. Aphrodite and Buddy flopped out of the bed, everything shaking. The crew was in a mess of limbs and armor.
“Buddy,” Aphrodite cried out as she was slammed back into a sliver of wall. “Engage armor!”
His muffled chirp was followed by an electronic scream as he ripped his metallic orb body from the sheets he’d been buried under. Her armor platelets slapped into place as she used the bunks for leverage. From one bar to the floor, to the next bunk, she jungle gym crawled her way out of the bunk room. The ship lurched and she was slapped into the bridge railing over the belly of the ship.
“Stabilize the ship!” Rexna begged from somewhere behind her.
Aphrodite clawed her way to the command deck. Xexis held onto handlebars within the command deck as Kern swerved the ship once more. “What’s going on?”
However, she didn’t need a spoken answer. The moment she stumbled into the back of the pilot’s chair, she saw what was wrong. On the nose of the ship, three corpses were latched onto the metal with their bloody fingers. Human corpses, skin ashy and lacking life. Their eyes were bloodshot and leaking crimson ooze, their bodies lined with dark veins that pulsed with each movement. Boils were burst and crusted over with ooze as the corpses shrieked at the front shield. Foam formed in their mouth as they crawled lizard-style up the front of the slick metal.
Xexis clamped a hand around her as Kern ripped the ship around in a circle. The humans howled as they slipped off the nose of the ship. Something crunched in the belly of the ship, but everyone was still shouting from the bunks as pressure from the gravity systems engaged roughly.
“Where did they come from?” Aphrodite gasped for air as Kern launched the ship forward before swinging around.
“Kill on sight, Kern!” Xexis barked. “They crawled out of the earth beneath the ship. Our sensors went off, and Kern had the good sense to get us off the ground before checking it out.”
The windshield finally faced the empty dust cloud where the ship once was. Instead of an orange circle of spongy earth, there was a massive crater filled with human corpses crawling out. The spotlights of the ship made them practically glow. Like fire ants spilling from their nest, there were at least fifty humans all lunging and snapping at a ship they couldn’t reach. Kern flipped a switch on the dashboard. There was no crack or boom, nor was there a hiss or whoosh. No sound passed as a missile flew from the front of the ship. The windshield flipped to a forest green shade asthe ground exploded in light. Shaking the ship, the explosion rattled Aphrodite to her core.
“What about the Orv?” She glanced around the shield for any indication they were around.
“It’s still night here, they live under the sun,” Xexis panted for air, also searching for any sign. “They should be on the other side of the planet now.”
The screen cleared. Nights on Orvian weren’t like nights anywhere else. There was nothing but inky abyss surrounding them. Wind yowled around them, knocking againsdt the ship as Kern tried to keep it steadily in the air. The light finally subsided from the explosion. She could finally study the ground and they found the crater crumbling inward. It seemed the humans dug through the night to get up and under the ship.
“Kannatch?” Grooug asked, stumbling into the Command Deck.
“Have the pack prepared to hunt. We won’t let them get far!” Xexis pulled his helmet up and over his own head. “Kern, drop us over the hole, then find somewhere safe to land. I want a nose to tail scan of the ship. Ensure they didn’t get in the cracks.”
Aphrodite’s heart hammered in her chest as Xexis whisked her from the Command Deck and into the lower belly. In the cargo hold, the doors craned open large enough for them to step off but not enough to allow anyone access. Kern hovered the ship over the hole. It was still a fifty-foot drop to the hole and then another who knows how far drop to the inside of the planet.
Engaging her thrusters, she glanced up to Xexis as he pulled out the helmet they’d left in the trunk for her. Sliding it over her head, his hands clamped hard over her helmet. “We hunt, My Mate.”
She nodded, wrapping a hand around the back of his helmet. They rested their visors together for a moment before she pulled back. Buddy dropped down to her shoulder and her data pad lit up as he prepared. The pack stepped around her and Kern angled the ship to have the tail pointed at the ground.
Xexis bound out into the air first, Aphrodite flying after him. Her thrusters roared to life as they slowed her descent into the dark cavern. The second she passed the surface level of the crater, all light died. Only the soft glow from her helmet and Buddy’s scans lit her way. Her feet touched some earth as her thrusters steadily cut off. The gravity enforcers in her boots were fluctuating as they worked to figure out what was going on around her and what was solid ground.
Once the pack was on the ground, their visors switched and she saw the scanners flicker onto the walls around them. In an odd, green haze, the cavern loomed over them. Aphrodite engaged her extra claws and stepped down into the hall. The walls were crumbling and with every step, she used her thrusters to keep her full weight from being put against the earth.
Buddy’s map grew on her data pad as they floated from chunk of earth to chunk of earth. The pack moved quietly and swiftly through the major tunnel before coming upon a fork with multiple roads before them. Xexis point at Grooug and the far end tunnel, Kiefgr and Reevar in the middle, Aphrodite and him in the right side. Aphrodite bound through the air, not touching the ground of the crossroads till she was clear into the other tunnel.
Every inch of her body broke out in goose bumps as something shifted in the air.
Hands broke through the crackling, dry earth and clawed at her. Aphrodite bound up into the air as Xexis slid through the tunnel,blades out. Slicing hands from their forearms, dried out husks of bodies came bursting from the earth.
“Buddy!” she cried out, grabbing the blade at her side and burying it into the forehead of the closest body.
Her drone zipped through the air, light impact against the forehead. As Aphrodite removed her weapon from the corpse, Buddy zapped the hole left behind. Something close to mucus leaked out of the hole, sizzling and flopping to the ground.
Pest.
She ducked away from flailing arms, rounding their back and pinning the corpse to the ground. Stab after stab, Aphrodite would crack open the skull and Buddy would fry the Brexzkit.
