The Arcane Chronicles: The Book of Jack

Ch. 3: Darkness

Chapter 3: Darkness





I woke up to darkness and chaos. The suns had already set and I could hear shouts and gunfire all around me. I quickly sat up, ignoring the pain that shot through my right shoulder, and reached for my pistol that sat just a foot away on a small table next to my cot. I scanned the area looking trying to make out friendlies and hostiles, but the bright muzzle flashes in the night were blinding. I saw what looked like two Marines back to back nearby, so I got up and ran to them, keeping my head down to avoid getting caught in any crossfire.


Preoccupied by the attack, I hadn’t noticed that my right shoulder and arm had been immobilized in a hardened cast and sling. It was so secure I probably could’ve played football in it. Zimmerman was one hell of a corpsman.


“I need a sit rep!” I shouted at the two Marines as they came into focus.


“Multiple unknown contacts, they just came out of nowhere, sir!” one of the Leathernecks yelled at me. He fired a three round burst at a dark silhouette that disappeared as he shot. “They’re all black and they keep f***ing disappearing! I can’t see a damn thing I’m shooting at.”


“Where’s the Captain?” I tried to ask over the loud gunfire, but only received a shrug from the Marine.


“Hit the deck!” the other Marine shouted as the three of us dropped to the ground. A split second later one of the creatures of blackness leaped over us, rolled as it hit the ground and faded out of existence as it stood up. The Marines stood up and continued to fire blindly into the night, but I remained low. Determined to find the Captain, I moved in a sort of duck walk using my good arm for extra support towards the center of what I assumed was the main camp area. It was an awkward way of moving about, but my sling had made it impossible to low crawl.


I had gotten no more than ten feet from the two Marines behind me when I heard violent screams from their position that suddenly cut off in a gurgling sputter. Whatever these things were, they were vicious and clearly didn’t want us on their planet. I didn’t dare look back to check the fate of the soldiers, I knew they were dead and that’s all I cared to know.


The two Marines and I were apparently the last ones in the infirmary area as I suddenly found myself all alone in the dark watching the flashes of gunfire and tracers in the night just a few dozen yards in front of me. Everyone must have fallen back to the main camp area to the west of the crash site. Hopefully they were fortified there, but against an enemy that apparently teleports from place to place I doubted fortification would have mattered at that point.


My thoughts were interrupted as I was suddenly knocked forward. The blow sent me sprawling on my face in the low brush and I lost my grip on my pistol. I rolled onto my back as a large, black figure materialized over me, its hands on my shoulders. I screamed in agony at the immense pressure on my injury. Knowing I’d be dead if I didn’t think quickly, I tucked my knees up to my chest, rolled onto the back of my neck and used my feet to throw the creature off me. Getting to my knees, I found my pistol on the ground and brought it up to where the beast should have been. But it was nowhere to be found. I knelt stone still scanning the darkness for it when out of the corner of my eye was a blur to my right. I rolled to the side as the thing leapt over me and fired two shots where it should have landed.


Fifteen seconds passed as I waited for another attack, kneeling motionless hoping the bullets struck true. I lowered my pistol and took a squatting step towards what I hoped would be a corpse. I swiftly realized the error of my ways as a large hand grasped my face from above and pulled back till I was looking skywards at a black shadow against the stars. Peaking through its long fingers I could see a face that was long and thin with no visible features save for it’s fiery red eyes that seemed to smoke. It seemed to blur into the air with no distinct edge to its silhouette, as if it was surrounded by a thick mist.


It was clearly a bipedal humanoid, but had four arms. Four large horns protruded from its shoulders and back and curved towards its head. It was standing directly behind me, and with the pistol at my side I took the opportunity to shoot at the ground in hopes of scaring it enough to let go and “blink” away. But when I heard the creature yelp as it let go I realized I had struck its foot. I quickly stood and whirled an about face bringing my sidearm to bear and to my surprise the creature still stood. My aim landed dead center in its chest and the pistol bucked as a round buried itself into the soft flesh of my opponent. The demon-like creature roared as its body was suddenly consumed in a shadowy black flame and ceased to exist.


I absolutely had to find the Captain now. I had to get back fast, but I didn’t want to risk the Marines shooting at me if I ran towards them, so I quickly looked around for something, anything I could use. I was still near the infirmary area so there was a lot of random gear strewn about, the place was a mess from the chaos of the attack. I heard a muffled crack as I stepped near an empty cot and saw a now lit biolume stick under my foot. I holstered my sidearm, grabbed the stick, and sprinted towards the camp waving it in the air.


I shouted for the Captain when I was near, quickly scanning the wildly firing Sailors and Marines for him. Black shadows leapt and dashed in every direction around us, blinking in and out of sight. Tracers streaked the night’s horizon, crisscrossing as they all missed their targets. I saw a lone Marine ahead of me explode in a bloody mess as one of the creatures materialized in the exact place the Marine stood. It happened so fast the Marine wasn’t even able to cry out in pain before the mass of his body was violently displaced by the alien’s.


The momentary lapse of concentration as the beast gave a victorious howl gave me just the right opportunity to barrel shoulder first into it. Now sprawled on its back, I quickly shoved the biolume stick into its vulnerable fiery eye. Within seconds, the creature evaporated like the first I had killed. They may have been fast and vicious, but strangely frail at the same time. Every opponent has a weakness, no matter how strong they seem.


Before I had found the Captain, the fighting suddenly stopped and even though screams could still be heard from several wounded men and women an eerie silence washed over the camp. The mysterious creatures had all vanished. What seemed like hours of battle was little more than a five-minute skirmish. Vigilant marines slowly scrutinized the perimeter of the camp, fingers resting on their triggers ready to fire at anything that moved.


When I had finally found Maxwell he was already accounting the casualties from the recent attack. He was sitting at a makeshift desk made of empty ammo boxes. The grim look on his face told me we lost more than he expected.


“Sir!” I stood rigid at attention when I stepped up to his desk.


“At ease, Commander,” Captain Maxwell was emotionless and his eyes never left the figures on his desk. “Another eighteen dead, Jack. We’ve barely been here over twenty-four hours and already been attacked by the locals without so much as a greeting. None of our scout parties ever saw civilization, or even wildlife for that matter. These guys came out of nowhere, and disappeared to nowhere. They killed eighteen of us, and as far as I can tell they took no losses. I’ve got no reports of bodies other than our own. I don’t know how we can fight anything like this. Not with our weapons.” The Captain leaned forward on his elbows and pinched his temples with his thumb and middle finger. He looked as if he had already lost all hope.


“I beg to differ, sir,” I piped up, sly grin on my face. “I successfully killed two of them. They have a weakness we may be able to exploit.”


Maxwell removed his cover, rubbed his palms over his eyes, and looked up at me. He looked exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept since we crashed. “I’m listening.”


“Their ability to teleport themselves short distances is difficult to counter, but if we can catch them by surprise it doesn’t take much to kill them. Distractions may work as well to catch them off guard long enough to pop a few rounds into them. They seem to be very frail, and a few shots should be sufficient to take them down. We just need to find some way to distract or lure them for a short time otherwise if they are in a sound state of mind, they will blink and evade our fire.”


“Then I guess you’ve got some planning to do,” the Captain said blankly. “I’ve already got enough to do as it is. You can work on coordinating our defense. There’s still eight hours till sunrise, and if I were you, I wouldn’t take any chances assuming these things won’t attack again.”


“Aye, sir,” I snapped to attention as best I could with the bulky cast on my shoulder, and left the Captain to his work. I had a plan up my sleeve already, so I figured the best place to start was with the CO of the company of Marines that had come with us.





* * *





Just over an hour after the attack, the entire camp had moved back inside the wrecked Armstrong save for a small force of Marines that hunkered down about two hundred meters from the base of the ship. To our luck, the emergency reactor was still in operation and thus provided us with an artificial gravity inside. I had been hoping on that being the case, and if I had been wrong my plan would have had a few kinks in it. One of the hangars had been even with the ground, and was the biggest point of entry to our makeshift fortress, so after we found that the bay door was jammed open I garrisoned the bulk of our able personnel inside. The clutter of supplies and various aerial craft that had broken free and were strewn about gave us plenty of cover. The only issue was the disorientation of looking outside and seeing a vertical horizon due to the ship standing almost completely on end. We took the wounded and all non-combat and essential personnel and holed up in the nearby galley.


The meat of my plan though was outside. The Marines had fortified themselves under a large piece of hull plating that had broken off the ship. The meter thick slab of metal, buckled into a horseshoe shape from the impact, had been blown two hundred meters from the crash, and landed in such a way to form a sort of alcove that the Marines hid inside of. Their job was to stay hidden until the demonic creatures attacked again, and ambush them from behind as they tried to get into the hangar. I only hoped the Marines were well hidden enough for the creatures to ignore.


When everyone had been secured in the ship, I made my way to the observation deck with a few junior enlisted Sailors I could use as runners if I couldn’t reach someone by radio. The eeriness of the empty ship was amplified by the red glow of the emergency lights as I meandered through the still smoky passageways. I was used to the bustling p-ways of the normal working hours. There were no junior Sailors around to yell “gangway” anymore.


Parts of the ship were still on fire, so I had to steer clear of the passages and rooms filled with thick smoke. I prayed the observation deck was still intact. When I finally reached the observation deck after wandering through the most roundabout route, I found luck to be in my favor. I activated the power when I entered the observation deck and the nine screens scattered about the room hummed to life. There were about thirty cameras all over the outside of the ship, so I entered the camera number I wanted on the central control panel and a sideways view of the night horizon appeared on the large center screen. Reorienting and repositioning the view, I found the large shell of hull plate the Marines were under. Tapping in a few other numbers I activated three other cameras, the two on either side of my main view and one near the open hangar.


“XO, are you there?” A familiar voice crackled over the loudspeaker.


“I’m here Weps, what do you need?” I replied.


“We may have an advantage now.”


“Oh yeah?” I had a feeling what he had up his sleeve. Whatever it was would make things much easier though.


“I decided to take a stroll down to weapons control and guess what I found?”


“Please say what I think it is.”


“All forward and midships weapon systems are still intact and in working order,” Weps paused a moment for dramatic effect. “Including the point defense grid.”


“Yes!” I murmured under my breath as I pumped my good fist in the air. Lieutenant McKinley, whom we usually referred to as Weps, had a thing for theatrics. The only thing that could rival his love for big guns and explosions was his need for the unnecessary dramatization of just about everything. I guess I could understand where he came from with it though. Being in the weapons division on one of only fifty or so space-faring military vessels from the entire planet meant the only action he saw were the same old boring drills. Someone had to liven it up a bit.


“There’s one more piece to the puzzle though,” I replied. “If the automated targeting system is still functional we will be set. Bring those cannons online and sit tight for now. I’ll let you know if we have the green light for targeting.”


I turned to the Sailors standing at ease behind me, “One of you go find Chief Warrant Officer Garland and tell him I need him to check the Intelligence Core and let me know which systems can be brought online. He should be at the galley with the rest of the essential crew.”


“Aye, sir!” one of the Seamen snapped to attention, about-faced, and jogged away.


“XO, Marines are in position. We’re cocked, locked, and ready to rock,” a new voice came over the radio.


“Roger that, Dishes,” I answered. “Stand by to stand by. We may have a change of plans here if Warrant can get his AI to work. Give me just a second and I’ll patch into your helmet cam. A second set of eyes may do you well.” I said with a chuckle.


Captain Udicious, the Marine CO that acted more like a grunt than any other officer, was the epitome of the barbaric Marine stereotype. The burly man was the kind of guy that ate bullets and shat nails. He hated his nickname too. Any self respecting Marine would hate to be called Dishes. Nobody ever called him that except Max and me. Not sure why he hadn’t torn us apart yet. Perhaps it was the rank, or maybe respect of superior strategic knowledge. Now I’m not calling him dumb by any means, well, yeah, maybe I am... He had a good head on his shoulders, but if he didn’t have someone on his helmet cam and talking in his ear he had a tendency to let his Marine bloodlust take over. We always made sure we had somebody looking out for him during both real combat and training. If not, somebody usually wound up getting more than they bargained for.


I pulled up Dishes’ vision on one of the auxiliary screens and took in his surroundings for a moment to get oriented while I waited for a response from Garland.


“Sir, the intelligence core is partially functional. Looks like most of our systems are still green. Luckily they didn’t fry from whatever zapped us up there.”


“Just tell me the AI can still target our point defense cannons, Warrant,” I pleaded.


“Just a sec, let me find it…” Garland paused. “Yeah, let me just send a ping to Weps and I’ll sync up the core.”


“Thanks, Warrant. You’re the best!” All the pieces were falling together nicely. Now I just needed to form a decent plan with our extra firepower. I pulled up a timer on the central console and set it for ten minutes. The weapons systems should be synced by then and I wanted to have a solid strategy by the time our defense grid could come online. And then the waiting game began. I had a gut feeling we weren’t done with those demonic creatures yet. Six hours till sunrise meant there was a large possibility of their return. And I wasn’t even entirely sure the sunlight would stop them either.





* * *





I heard the gunfire before I saw anything. I had been staring at the observation screens for so long I was nearly asleep. I checked my watch, then remembered that Zulu time meant nothing here. Judging by the faint glow on the horizon I guessed there was still about an hour till sunrise. I tore my eyes away from the strangely beautiful sight and focused on the dots of muzzle flashes below.


“Contact! We have contact, sir,” I heard Dishes shout over the rattle of automatic fire. “They came out of nowhere. Please advise.”


I turned to the helmet cam and was immediately immersed in battle. Black figures darted from side to side in front of the Marines, phasing in and out as tracers completely missed their targets. I was waiting for the creatures to blink inside the Marines’ cover, but they simply mulled about just outside the shell of hull dodging bullets. I started developing a theory and had to test it.


“Cease fire, Captain,” I shouted.


“Say again, sir?”


“Again.”


“Damn it, sir! Now is not the time!”


“Sorry, I couldn’t resist," I chuckled. "Cease fire. They can’t get at you under there. Trust me.”


The light from the muzzle flashes died away and the screen went dark. Faint outlines still sat at the edge of the alcove waiting. Suddenly I saw a deep violet glow growing in front of a small group of the demonic creatures that had huddled together. My feeling of hope suddenly sank in my gut as the ball of purple light doubled in size.


“Take cover!” I shouted.


As the words left my mouth, I saw the ball of shadow unleashed at the Marines. Dishes dropped behind the overturned table he used as cover as the darkness rapidly approached his position. He was knocked backwards as the ball smashed into the table, throwing it to the back of the alcove and leaving him face up on the ground yelling obscenities.


“Weps, come in Weps! I need those cannons, now!” I called to McKinley.


“Point defense is online, sir. Nothing but Marines on the infrared.”


Shit, manual targeting won’t work either. Too much chance for friendly fire, I thought.


“Warrant, I need a reprogram on the targeting system,” I wondered what might be able to see black targets in the night. Most of what we had was infrared based. Damn it, I don’t have the time to think about this, I said to myself. I looked back at the helmet cam. The Marines had re-engaged. Tracers whizzed by for covering fire to keep the enemy at bay while they returned fire with tiny bolts of violet death. I had to get those Marines out of there, and I suddenly had an idea. “Can you overlay the visual camera onto the infrared, and tell the AI to target movement with the absence of heat?”


“Yes, sir. Just need a minute or two.”


“Sir, I need support down here,” I heard Udicious over the din of gunfire and explosions. I watched him glance over a pile of rubble and toss a grenade at the group of silhouettes. A mere second before the grenade detonated the figures faded away unharmed.


“Sit tight for just a minute longer, Dishes. I’m about to dish out some indiscriminate justice. Get ready to make a run for the open hangar,” I tried to sound confident about my plan, which had already come across some kinks. Garland needed to hurry up. The Marines couldn’t last alone against that kind of power for long. “Warrant, how much longer?”


“I’ve almost got it, sir. Point defense targeting will be green in about thirty seconds.”


“Weps, stand by to fire on my mark,” I tapped a thirty second timer up on the console.


“Standing by, aye!”


“Captain, get your men out of there now!” I shouted.


“Suppressive fire, now! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” I heard on the helmet cam’s audio. Grenades flew and a mass of tracers zipped towards the entrance of the alcove as Dishes and his Marines climbed over their cover and made a mad dash for the ship two hundred meters away.


I glanced at the timer, five seconds left, “Weps, bring the rain in three… two… one… mark!”


Muffled pattering echoed throughout the hull of the ship as the point defense cannons pelted the ground with armor piercing rounds. Plumes of dust flew up around the Marines as they ducked and dodged past the demons who had begun their pursuit. One appeared mere meters from Udicious and immediately burst into shadowy flames as a 50 caliber round impaled its chest. The creatures leapt and swiped at the Marines as they ducked and rolled to avoid both demon and defensive fire. Inhuman screams of agony could be heard as more of the creatures dissipated into the night in flames of darkness, their reaction speed too slow to avoid the massive spray of lead coming from the side of the Armstrong. I could see silhouettes of the hangar defenders as they reached out to the approaching Marines, screaming words of encouragement. They were almost to safety.


The Marines were no more than twenty meters from the base of the ship when the cannons stopped firing. I heard Weps on the 1MC, “All hostile targets eliminated. Kill count is tallied at thirteen.”


I could hear the cheers from aft all the way on the observation deck. Hopefully we had deterred those bastards from coming back.