Nightfall

Nightfall

Eric Dulin

Published by Eric Dulin at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Eric Dulin

Discover other titles by Eric Dulin at Smashwords.com

Welcome to Sector 7

Metal boots hammered down the dark hallway as Mark sprinted away from his foes. The mechanisms of his suit hissed and whined with every movement as millions of nanofibers enhanced his speed and strength. The teal visor of his helmet contrasted his onyx armor as dozens of shadowy creatures scampered behind him. The thumps of his heart resonated through his helmet as his breaths matched its demands. The rotted stench of his foes bypassed his helmet’s filters, and as a high pitched screech tore through the hallway, he released the energy of his kinetic barriers to blast a stasis wave backwards at his foes.

The traction of his boots let him cut the corner as he didn’t look back. A beeping signal in his helmet warned him of his dropped shields. The majority of the mob of creatures behind him froze the moment the wave enveloped them as all kinetic motion froze. His brother and partner John motioned to him from a door at the end of the hallway as the creatures not caught in the wave continued their pursuit. Mark grinded his armor as he dove; John slammed the door shut behind him as he punched a pad.

One agile creature slipped under the door as it leapt at Mark, still on the ground. A foot long with eight thin legs and two barbed pincers, the nightcrawler’s glossy black skin reflected the light as its dozen bready crimson eyes focused on Mark. Its body thirsted for blood.

John read the attack long before it happened, activating his boot’s energy blade as he kicked it. The humming white beam seared a hole in the creature’s side as it flew through the air to the opposite wall. It thrashed in pain as Mark rolled over, pulling the trigger of his midnight black shotgun. The creature vanished as the invisible laser beams vaporized its body in an instant.

The nightcrawlers on the other side scraped and clawed at the door to no avail. The brothers looked at each other for a moment when John said, Get off your ass, we don’t have time, as he headed to the only window of the room.

Mark vented heat from his shotgun as he stood up without response. Well over six feet tall, his visor and octagonal power core in the center of his chest plate illuminated the area around him. The smooth curves of his armor grooved around him to provide maximum mobility. John smashed the glass with his armored fist, scraping away the window shards as he lifted himself out. Come on, didn’t I mention the time already?

Mark cursed under his breath as he moved onto the roof in a fluid jump, his boots keeping traction to the sharp angled surface. Activating a small spherical incendiary grenade, he rolled it into the room as they moved across the roof, the blinker timing down. After several seconds, a loud whoosh rang through the air as flames erupted from the grenade. The vicious fire licked up the walls, as though it was a feast for the impoverished while the brothers scaled down the roof.

The moment they hit the ground, Mark said, Did you already call the Viper?

John’s suit read his brainwaves, sending the signal for the speeder to start up and head to their location. Way ahead of you.

A concealed speeder started up a hundred yards away, its anti-grav thrusters lifting the vehicle off the ground by a foot as it raced over to its owners. The black paint and tinted windows of the four door vehicle made it all but invisible. Its elegant curves let it cut through the night like a dart.

Mark and John headed to the trunk of the Viper, sliding it open as John pulled out a large plasma bomb. Fiddling with the hologram keypad for a moment, John said, I’ll go deal with this, get in and get ready to go.

Mark nodded as he folded his shotgun into his armor slot and entered the driver’s seat, sliding the door upwards and closing it with a button. Turning off the automated computer navigation system, he switched to manual as he scanned for any fleeing nightcrawlers. Planted it, John said, their helmets linked to a shared communications channel.

He sprinted across to the speeder and entered the passenger’s seat as Mark gunned the thrusters. The entire house vanished in the blast as smoke and gas from superheated metal clogged the air. A pressure wave washed over the Viper as they continued driving off. Maybe I should’ve added a few more seconds, John said as he ordered his helmet to deactivate.

It folded over in several sections simultaneously, compacting itself as the flattened piece moved over his torso. Dozens of small scratches and tears embedded his armor from the previous battles in the building, already nanites were at work repairing and filling in the holes. He ran a hand through his wavy brown hair; the same color as his eyes.

The flaming wreckage vanished from sight as. Mark more deactivated his helmet as well. Years of training had made the snapping mechanisms as natural to him as his own heartbeat. The scanner and other basic features of his helmet vanished as his holovisor was deactivated, his eyes adjusting to normal sight as he entered a crete road. I couldn’t believe the shit that was down there, we haven’t had a mission like this in…a year maybe? John asked.

I’d say so. Doubt we’ll get anything this hard for a while.

Mark couldn’t have been more wrong.

§

More have landed Zorrul. How should we proceed? a booming voice asked.

It is already over. All we can do now is stop more from coming, and hopefully the humans can contain the parasite.

But what it they can’t? You and I both know what it can do. Are we leaving this planet to its doom? What if it spreads?

Do not worry Azrael. We will do what we can. But for now we must wait, for I fear the Damned have delivered more than the parasite.

So be it, brother.

A New Threat

Mark opened up a new file from his holopad. A dozen hologram files floated above the dining table in their apartment in a small town called Copel. Sector 7 always had work to do somewhere on Salvadon, home to over a billion people, and they were wherever Sector 7 needed them. Two days had been more than enough time to repair and restock their equipment, and now they had their next assignment.

John had left to get lunch, leaving Mark to analyze the briefing. Dancing across the hologram keyboard with his fingers, he searched through the multiple folders of the briefing, composed by one of the local scouts who requested a team to investigate the area for alien presence. Between the exterminators and scouts, they formed the backbone of Sector 7, tasked to eradicate dangerous alien life forms near or in human settlements. Many species coexisted well with humans, but when they didn’t, force was required to extinguish their presence.

Sector 7 was established throughout the entire Republic, across dozens of different worlds in need of its services. The government both funded and protected Sector 7, giving it many privileges to complete their assignments with as much freedom as possible. Mark and John had entered Sector 7 to follow in their father’s footsteps, who had been an exterminator for over twenty years. The job was a natural calling to them, and the government was more than happy to oblige such a career.

Mark scanned through dozens of pictures of missing people who vanished on a local roadway, stretching sixty miles from Copel to another town called Westwood. The Enforcers had gotten involved, but after no results and the rapidness of the incidents, they called in Sector 7. The road remained open, but the police advised people to exercise caution to strangers and to avoid the road if possible. There was something stranger with this mission, for disappearances were rare in such number due to a government regulation.

The government implanted universal chips in all adults that satellites could detect to help reduce crime, locate people, and for medical applications, but it was possible to deactivate the device through a simple procedure or from electric shock. That meant either two things: experts kidnapped the missing people or they consumed by something in Sector 7. Both possibilities didn’t sit well with him.

Mark rested his head back against his white thybron chair, a hard white synthetic material used in all furniture, flooring, and architecture. Stretching his arms around as he rolled his neck, he glanced around before he returned to the mission. Two black couches were perpendicular to each other, facing a holovision on the opposite wall. Rain pattered on the windows, but the powerful ceiling orb kept the entire room illuminated as though it were day. Excluding the rain, it was the same environment Mark had grown accustomed to for years. A smudge on his white and blue suit caught his eye as he wiped it off before returning to the briefing.

Before he could get started again, an icon popped up on the screen, displaying a video several months ago when John and he where at a nightclub, a life he had now left behind while John continued to participate in it. Mark tapped the icon with his finger and said, John?

Almost home. Can’t believe this dammed rain won’t stop pouring. Been going on ever since we’ve been here.

No kidding. Didn’t know it could rain so much.

Same. What does the mission look like?

Haven’t gotten too deep yet, it has a lot of intel.

Leave you to it. We could do some scouting after dinner. It’s twelve thirty, so we’ve got some time to check it out.

I’ll explain what I know when you come inside.

Alright, I’m a few minutes away. Dude, there was this hot blond at Jason’s, and she’s got a friend if you’re interested.

No, I’m fine.

Damn man, you gotta get out more. Why don’t you tell me your type? I know you’ve got a thing for brunettes…

Don’t worry about me.

More for me then…

Mark hung up, not giving John a chance to try to persuade him. He wasn’t sure why he declined John’s constant offers; he wanted something more than anything John could offer. It wasn’t impossible, but so far he hadn’t found a woman who he’d even think of proposing such an idea with. On the other hand, John was fine with one night stands; it was just his nature and what he enjoyed.

He looked through a few area and topography scans, but there wasn’t anything to look at. The only notable thing across the entire sixty miles was an intersection around halfway through. They would have to inspect the area for anything suspicious.

The entrance door beeped and slid open as Mark opened another file. John stepped inside, holding a boxed meal from Jason’s Burgers, one of their favorite fast food restaurants. Small droplets glistened off of his black and maroon suit as the strong waterproof fibers kept him dry and warm. A small gauge on the base of his neck monitored the internal temperature of the suit based on his preference along with basic medical readings while his light, detachable boots were silent as they walked across the thybron flooring.

In build, John was more muscular than Mark and stood a few inches above him. They both shared a similar shade of tanned skin and their fathers brown hair. Aside from slight facial differences, Mark’s sky blue eyes and his short, cropped hair set him apart from his brother. John was twenty seven, a year older than Mark. It didn’t instill any sense of dominancy.

Hey. You still don’t want to hook up with her friend? She’s not as hot, but she’s pretty cute.

Again, I’m good.

Sometimes I wonder if you’re my real brother…

John headed into the kitchen, pressing a button on a cartridge placed several inches above the thybron counter as it deployed plates onto an anti-grav pad. Why? Because I exercise a sense of self control?

Life’s not for control. You’ve got to live a little.

And I do. You overkill it.

There’s no such thing as overkill when you’re with a woman.

You keep saying that. Pass me my meal.

One day I’ll bring you back. You can only miss out for so long.

Shouldn’t we be talking about the mission?

Man, you’re all work and no play. You’re a workaholic.

What? Because I don’t have sex every chance I get?

Well…that’s one reason…

Seriously? I don’t work all the time, all I’ve done was overlook the briefing.

I was just kidding about that…sort of, but anyways just talk. About the mission.

Mark gritted his teeth, spitting out the briefing as he started on his meal. Saliva built up in his mouth as he licked his lips, unwrapping his meal as he took a bite out of the succulent burger. The garlic seasoned bun, melted cheese, and juicy meat mixed together in perfect unison in his mouth. He imagined the damage it was doing to his heart for a moment before breaking away in fear of what he’d see.

After several minutes of explanation, John said, It could be incubai. They fit everything.

Mark winced from unseen pain as he remembered an old encounter with an incubai that nearly cost him his life, leaving an eight inch long scar across his chest. They were by far the strangest creatures Sector 7 had even documented, capable of reconstructing their appearance to an object on a molecular level in mere minutes after absorbing the molecular structure of their prey. They were subterranean, nocturnal creatures which ate everything. So do vampires, they both can pull it off, Mark said.

Vampires were a quick reference to both humans and animals infected by a disease, capable of passing from the host to victims through body and fluid contact. It damaged the marrow of the host, rendering them incapable of sustaining without transfusions of blood every couple of weeks. They were one of the most dangerous beings to fight because the possibility of infection makes even the slightest touch a possibility of death. Mark was glad for the rarity of vampire missions as Sector 7 held a strict kill rule for vampires that could only be broken on rare occasions.

Yeah. It’s gonna be one of those two or one deranged but smart psychopath.

Mark took another bite of his burger. So when do you want to scout the area?

Let’s hang around here until eight or nine, maybe this damned rain will let up.

Sure, Mark said as he finished his food and threw them in the laser incinerator.

John flicked the holovisor on with the remote as the small box projected a forty inch wide hologram that began playing the news. He tilted the screen, changed the volume, and magnified the view with a few hand motions in the air, the holovisor’s sensor reading the movements. Flipping through the channels with another wave of his finger, he came up on a weather forecast. We’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of it dying down, but I say we should still wait it out. If it’s even intelligent it knows not to do things midday.

It’s fine with me, Mark said.

After a brief pause, John said, Oh I forgot to say, I’ll be borrowing the place tomorrow night.

The conversation before he came flashed to Mark’s mind. Sure, I don’t care.

You sure you don’t—

I’ll pass.

Shaking his head, he said, I don’t know how you do it…maybe if you saw her first…

Neither of them could come close to what they were about to uncover.

§

Like the last two days, the hours flew by as Mark and John prepared for their trip. They had their armor and equipment repaired after the last mission, and they equipped their suits before embarking the Viper. John plugged in their destination to the navigation console as the Viper drove them to their destination, its sleek black surface cutting through the still relentless rain like a blade through air. The lone road they came upon was as deserted as they expected it to be, and with the darkness surrounding them with the thick rain, it would be the perfect conditions for something to go wrong. That’s what they hoped for.

This looks like fun, Mark said as he gave a cursory glance to the woods, parallel to the road.

The dark green forest which surrounded the road for miles held a sense of mystery as he tried to gaze through its depths. The trees were ancient and worn by time, their thick roots entangled across the ground. Shrubs, grass, and small bugs lived in enormous patches with one another, undisturbed by humanity. The rain and wind pushed most of the larger wildlife into hiding. It’s not too bad, remember that time we were tracking that guy and he hung out at a park for about four hours?

We’ve tracked down quite a few guys; you’ve got to tell me a little more than that.

You know, the one guy we thought was stealing bodies. He had a weird black hat, a long beard…no?

Not a clue.

It was your turn to sleep, damn. It sucked for me; at least this isn’t as bad.

That would explain a lot.