Star League - The Last Zomban

SL-TLZ Chapter 6 Magorr

Fifteen bodies appear from thin air. So many Magorr hidden behind invisibility shields in such a small space causes the air inside the salvage bay to distort with a ripple effect. The unsuspecting crew has no idea what is coming but Donnos does. He can't warn them either because communications are being jammed. The monsters are huge in comparison to the humans, taller by a foot and a half and broader shouldered. They wear dark grey e-suits with blackened visors. .

Donnos knows them to be simian with near human qualities. They stand fully erect with fur covering their bodies from head to toe. Their heads are bushy with thinning fur that outlines their smooth skinned faces. But it is their eyes that make all the difference. They look so much like human eyes, as are the nose, chin, and ears. Except for all the fur and brute strength, it could be argued that the Magorr are closely related to humans. It is taught in school that humans may have evolved from apes. If that was true then the Magorr and humans are very close cousins. There is no love between humans and Magorr.

Even with no gravity, the Magorr’s attack is quick. They can move fast in zero g because of their stronger muscle mass. They descend quickly on the crew, slaughtering them without mercy. All around the bay, the salvage crew laid dead or dying; One is snapped backward over a taut cable; two more are impaled on the removed door strut; others die by suffocation, either by cut air hoses or broken visors. Donnos watches from the air lock helpless to do anything.

****

Boot is caught unaware and yanked around to face his captor with such force he nearly dislocates his shoulder. Thinking it is one of his self-proclaimed superiors, he swings his big wrench to hit his attacker in the head. He has been tormented by these bullies ever since he came aboard this ship and he has had enough. He should have fought back long ago. Where there should have been a head, the wrench hits someone tall in the upper arm. He looks up and finds himself face to face with a Magorr. Hatred radiates from his captor. He wants to look away but finds he cannot; Terror freezes him in place.

The Magorr growls and brings him back to his senses. Then, to his surprise, the alien’s hardened features turn into a big toothy smile, his brown eyes take on a kind look. Boot starts to think he’s going to be ok when he reaches behind the human with a large hand and plucks out his oxygen feed lines.

The hiss of his precious oxygen causes Boot to panic with fear for his life. The Magorr shoves him away to flail, hopelessly trying to reach the feed tube that is beyond the reach of his arms. Seconds later, his oxygen runs out and his lungs implode, and death comes instantly.

****

Alone on top of the drift, Vicky watches as the cracker searches for the correct code to unlock the door. She is oblivious to what’s going on around her. Normally a welcomed distraction, she found the comm chatter annoying and shut it off. She needs to think about the next stage of her life. The information provided to her by Krag is accurate. Her husband is guilty of attempted murder. He will go to prison for a couple of years and she will not be there when he gets out. She won’t be with Donnos either. She will take her boys and leave, maybe go home to Earth, maybe not.

She checks on the device. Two out of ten numbers are set and soon three. Suddenly, a giant hand smashes the cracker into the metal it rests on. Vicky screams and jumps to her feet and draws her pistol in the split second it takes her to do so. It is ripped from her hand by invisible hands that grip her arms tightly. Her heart is racing. Two Magorr appear on each side of her and a third in a black and dark brown suit holds her in the sight of a massive rifle. Vicky is surrounded.

****

Deke feels a hand push him out of the open bay door and into space. He desperately reaches for anything to catch himself on but there is nothing. His anger peaks. He hates jokers. Someone pushed the wrong guy over the edge. Someone is going to die. He activates his boosters and returns to the bay. He drops to the deck feet first ready to beat the expected laughing jokers. What he finds instead takes him by complete surprise.

Before him is a huge Magorr who holds his nephew’s writhing body against the open electrical box, the high electrical current frying his body. Aware of Deke’s impressive entrance, he drops the young man’s body, rips a heavy conduit off the wall and walks toward him. For the first time in his long life, Deke feels fear creep through his body. For every step the Magorr takes, he takes a step back, sizing his enemy up for the fight of his life. He knows the Magorr. He knows where to hit them. If he can get a jab in just the right spot, his attacker will drop like a rock. Deke backs into something solid where there shouldn’t be and realizes too late he made a big mistake.

With blurring speed, the old Valdan swings a pry bar at the nearest of the two giants behind him. The hooked end catches material and with the sound of a hiss tears a foot long gash in the attacker’s space suit. His partner pays too much attention to the ripped suit. Deke smiles at the hairy beast’s sudden mistake. With the pry bar in his right hand and just his left fist, he slams the unsuspecting Magorr on both sides of the neck simultaneously. The creature drops like a rock. Deke cheers and feels the Magorr behind him too late. The giant hits him across the back with the piece of conduit so hard it ignites the jetpack. Deke flies out of control along the smooth rounded surface of the drift and into the ceiling above.

****

Vicki looks up the barrel of a Kirshul pulse rifle, the most powerful hand weapon created by the Magorr. It was built to inflict serious damage. Period. She has seen with her own eyes what the weapon can do at long distance. The result was not pretty. She has no intention of discovering what would happen at a range of ten feet.

It was the Magorr are responsible for jamming the bay door so that they could easily get in and out of the bay. She droops her shoulders in defeat and curses herself for letting her defenses down, a stupid mistake that could cost her life. The deck crew must be dead. If that is so, why are they allowing her to live? She thinks quickly of her family, her boys, and fears for the safety. Are they are still alive? Her heart says they are while her brain plays out many painful scenarios. They are alive. She needs to believe that. She needs to keep her head clear so she can think her way out of this.

The Alpha Magorr stares at her, into her eyes, into her soul. She feels they have met before on some other battlefield but she cannot see into his visor to be sure. She stares back at him believing to be looking into his eyes, trying to get a feeling of who he is, but the only thing she feels is slight mixture of fear and respect for her. He is her greatest adversary; she must have outsmarted him sometime in the past. He’ll kill her; it’s only a matter of when. He is savoring the moment, anticipating…

A smaller Magorr exits the ship carrying a one by four rectangular metal box. She can tell he is a technician by the color of his e-suit. He eyes her warily and growl talks to the Alpha Magorr. He growls back and he drops over the edge with an armed guard. However they communicate, he told them to take it to their ship, where ever it is. They have what they came for. He will kill her now. He lightens the tint of his visor, showing her the hardness of his eyes, hatred and respect. She was right. They have met before. He raises the rifle.

The whoosh of a small rocket engine and an explosion overhead startles him. Vicki takes advantage of his mistake and boosts away. He quickly aims the rifle again as the after burn from the rockets wash over his suit. She flies into the explosion, mindful of the falling debris. The orange hot flame, she thinks, must have been a jetpack malfunction. This is typical of the faulty equipment in her husband’s operation. Though she hopes that no one was attached to it, she is thankful for the distraction.

The alpha Magorr throws his rifle down and boosts after her and nearly catches her at the ceiling. She quickly twists out of his reach and flies for the air lock. She spies Donnos still inside. And then spots her son pressed against the window to her left. She suddenly grows cold. In her mind she can hear him hitting the glass with his hands, crying, calling out her name over and over.

“Vicki! Get out of there!” Donnos’s voice screams over her comm when the static starts to clear.

"They took something from the drift!” she says desperately. “They don’t need it anymore!”

Donnos is almost in tears. “Fly out the door!”

“He’s coming!” Krag screams.

The alpha slams up into her, locking his huge arms around slender body. The alpha twists her around and grabs her by the throat. He looks her in the eye as he holds her at arm’s length. He cocks his arm back, elbow and fist even with his shoulder. In one swift movement, he punches her visor into the back of her helmet, blood and brain tissue spray out of every available opening. He pulls his fist back and what’s left of her head comes with it. He shakes it off his hand and pushes her headless body away, blood droplets spraying from her severed aortas.

****

Krag vomits in his helmet, the bile quickly mixing with his oxygen. He panics and pulls at his helmet seals. Standing at half his size, Po bounces up and grabs his hands, but Krag swats him aside and pulls at his seals again. The Dwelf quickly rebounds and kicks him behind the knees. Krag goes down and Po pins him to the floor, the whole time telling him to stay focused.

Donnos is oblivious to what his crew is doing right now. His eyes are pools of water. Losing Vicki hits him hard. He starts to cry for her but quickly packs the emotions away. He won’t cry for her or anyone. While the lifeless bodies of his crew float below, he stands alive and helpless, trapped inside a slow cycling air lock. It’s true that he has seen death before, but this kind of savage butchery leaves a hardened impression on him. What bothers him still is the fact that it only took the Magorr less than two minutes to murder everyone in the bay. It’s as if they trained for it. He’ll learn who the alpha that killed Vicki is and kill him. Where is the alpha? He looks up at a trail of jet wash.

Above and to the right the alpha hovers staring down Johnny who stands defiant to him. The four year old boy should be cowering in fear is instead threatening to kill the Magorr. Donnos smiles in spite of himself. But he doesn’t like the way the Magorr is approaching Johnny’s window. There is something not right in his posture. He’s gonna break the glass!

****   

Johnny screams. The Magorr looks at him as if he heard him through six inch thick glass, taken by surprise. Instead of folding like a normal four year old, the boy stands his ground and defiantly stares down his mother’s murderer. He points at him, hits himself in the chest and points at him. The Magorr smiles, the meaning clear. I’m gonna get you!

****

Donnos screams at the Alpha, banging on the glass until he has his attention. His companions wonder why he is drawing attention to them and yell at him when the alpha approaches. He grabs Vicki’s helmet and swings at Donnos’s head. Contact with the glass sends spider webs outward from the impact zone. His heart stops. With fast reflexes, he checks that his own visor did not crack. The alpha rears up to strike again when he looks away. He drops the helmet and boosts out the open door, becoming invisible before he reaches outer space. Everyone is relieved but the horror of the situation is still there before them. The glass enclosure is cracking and the air car is pressurizing. They are stuck inside.

****

Jolan Oakraider’s blood runs cold. The Magorr and Felline have started a shooting match with his son’s ship caught in between. “Jal, cut the bay loose and get out of there you fool!"

“I can’t! I have people on board!”

The rest of the Magorr fleet appear and join the battle. With all the laser fire out there Jal is lucky the battle is slightly above his ship but it will only take one stray shot to destroy the Scowl. He can’t shake the sense of dread that his son isn’t going to make it out of there alive but he’s not going to let it happen if he can help it. “All ships move in!” He will shield the Scowl with his own ship. “Get both flagships on screen immediately! I want to speak to both Malak and Hiss immediately!"

Both leaders ignore his call. Instead he hears screaming on the open comm channel from the Scowl that there are Magorr soldiers in the bay slaughtering the crew. Jolan is unable to do anything about it. Jolan quickly grabs the hair behind his head and pulls. A lone Felline vessel breaks off from the rest of the fleet and targets the Scowl.

"Aganon!" he shouts, silently asking his old friend for supernatural aid. Aganon is already one step ahead. Anticipating the needs of his old friend to save his family, he began incantations and spells. As Jolan speaks his name, the Psyen wizard points his index finger at the Scowl. Particles of psychic energy burst from his finger at an alarming speed. It engulfs the Scowl. Aganon opens his hand palm down and closes it again. The Scowl vanishes just seconds before the laser bolt sizzles through the area.

Aganon spins on his heels one hundred and eighty degrees with his arm still extended. He opens his glowing fist and deposits the Scowl behind the Akledian fleet.

****

Jal shakes off the effects of the psychic energy and gets his bearings. He realizes they are at the rear of his father’s fleet. He is looking at Akledian ships.

"We're out of it!" Jal says. “Donnos? Is there anyone alive down there?”