Eclipse blackout book 5, p.1
Eclipse (Blackout Book 5), page 1
Blackout: Eclipse
Book 5
Daniel Young
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
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1
Captain Jackson Keogh ducked behind a crumbling wreck of what had once been a large building. He held his breath and peeked out. A group of Krakzid occupied a small square beyond the broken corner. Their indistinct black cocoons floated around their featureless geometric fighter craft.
Jackson couldn’t see how they moved around, since they had no visible limbs. They communicated with each other in raspy crackles that sounded like the farthest thing imaginable from speech.
He didn’t have time to study the enemy further than that. He had a job to do, and to do that, he had to get past these Krakzid.
He scanned the surroundings, but he didn’t see any other Krakzid. These five appeared to be alone with their two fighter craft. The aliens circled their vessels, discussing something. What were they doing here, anyway?
Jackson had never seen any Krakzid isolated from the rest of their invasion force like this. He’d encountered them more than once on Keter, during their assault on his home system of Zenith, and now here, on the Urval planet Apra. In all those confrontations, he’d only ever faced Krakzid in overwhelming numbers.
His pulse quickened to see these five so exposed and alone. Without their craft, they were completely unarmed. Why would these individuals land in such an isolated part of the capital? Something must have gone wrong with their ships.
He took one last look around, this time searching for something he could use as a weapon. He had a collection of handheld weapons he’d brought with him from the Vurlax freighter, but he needed something more.
When he glanced toward the boulevard running through the central city, he spotted a gang of Urvals crossing the broken pavement. All of them were big, burly males.
Jackson almost turned back to the Krakzid when he noticed the very last Urval in the line. This one was a female, and he recognized her.
His heart leaped, and he forgot all about the Krakzid, except to check that they didn’t see him. He dashed across a section where the shattered wall exposed his presence to the enemy’s notice. He dove behind another pile of debris, but whatever had brought the Krakzid here preoccupied them too much for them to see him.
Jackson skimmed over to the boulevard. He adjusted his course so that he circled a different building. This one appeared relatively intact. It concealed him well enough that he didn’t have to hide from the Krakzid.
He skirted the southern wall and came out on the boulevard in front of the Urvals. The large males scowled at him, and the leader curled his lip in menace. “Zenith—here! Go boil your head, little pest.”
A different male shouldered past his companion. “Wait, Ugor. This Zenith is Quort’s friend—the representative who negotiated with the royal family to drive the Krakzid out of our system.” This second Urval advanced on Jackson. “You come from Quort. Do you bring us a message?”
“Yes!” Jackson panted. “He’s in command of the offensive. He took the Vurlax fleet into orbit. We have teams attacking the Krakzid all over Apra. Now we need the Urvals to rise up and do their part.”
The others joined their companions in listening to him. The female came last, and she snarled in open hostility when she saw him. “You! You traitor!”
“I’m not a traitor, Dulag. I’m here under Quort’s command. He sent word for the Urvals to rise up and help the offensive drive the Krakzid out of Urval space. We can’t do it without you.”
“We don’t take orders from Quort,” Dulag sneered. “He betrayed his father, the royal family, and the Ruling Council to join your misguided—”
“Bragg Abbas is dead,” Jackson interrupted. “He died helping me escape from the Council before the Krakzid devastated this city. With his dying breath, he mandated Quort to lead the Urvals in the offensive. You all followed Quort in the uprising that freed you from the Vurlax freighter. Follow him now.”
The males put their heads together and murmured about what Jackson said. He didn’t tell them, firstly, that he and Quort had agreed to share the leadership of the offensive, or secondly, that Quort didn’t want the leadership at all. He wanted Jackson to take charge.
The Urvals didn’t need to know that. They’d rather follow one of their own—someone invested with the authority to tell them what to do. That person could never be a Zenith or any other foreigner. The Urvals wouldn’t stand for it.
Dulag snorted. “Pour your honeyed words on some other poor fools who will believe you. We have more important things to do than to fight your battles for you.”
“I think we should listen to him,” the second Urval countered. “He came from Quort, and if he’s right that Bragg is dead, then Quort is our leader.”
“You’re as big a fool as this scarecrow, Ogul,” Dulag snapped. “He doesn’t come from Quort. He’ll say anything to get us to protect him.”
“I don’t need you to protect me,” Jackson said. “If you want future generations of Urvals to tell their children and grandchildren that the whole Urval race rose up to throw off the Krakzid, but that you and your friends sat back and watched while others sacrificed their lives, that’s your business. I’ll just go back to organizing my own people. They don’t have any problem putting themselves in harm’s way for your sakes.”
He turned away to head back to where he’d seen the Krakzid. Ogul lunged forward and grabbed his arm to stop him. “Wait! Tell us what Quort wants us to do.”
“I already told you. You have to rally as many Urvals as you can find to attack the Krakzid.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Dulag spat. “Attack the Krakzid? That would be suicide with just the seven of us.”
“We have teams of other species sabotaging the Krakzid all over the planet. They’re weakening the Krakzid on several fronts. Even so, the seven of you wouldn’t have to attack and fight the whole Krakzid invasion force. There are five of them grounded right over there. We can ambush them, kill them, and steal their aircraft.”
The Urval males exchanged glances again. Dulag guffawed in Jackson’s face. “A likely story!”
“Go see for yourselves if you don’t believe me.” Jackson jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I was just scouting out how to attack them myself, but I’ll have a much better chance if you come with me.”
He sauntered away in the direction from which he’d come. Ogul and Ugor looked at each other, and then the band followed Jackson. They kept a safe distance to see what he would do.
Dulag rolled her eyes to heaven, but when the others joined Jackson behind the gap in the wall, she hurried over to join them too. Jackson peeked out. “They’re still there,” he whispered. “They seem to be having some malfunction with their craft.”
Ugor raised his head to take a look. “What’s wrong with them?”
Jackson yanked him down. “Don’t! We have to get across this gap. That corner over there gives us a much better angle to surround them. Ogul, you and Dulag stay here so we can—”
“We’ll stay nowhere,” Dulag hissed. “If anyone will attack them, we will. You can sit back and pretend to direct us.”
“He means we’ll stay here and flank them,” Ogul told her. “He wants to surprise them from both sides at once.”
“Smart move,” Ugor rumbled. “Fewer chances for the Krakzid to see us sneaking across here.”
“Actually,” Jackson explained, “I was thinking that Ogul and Dulag could attack first.”
“Attack first!” Dulag almost bellowed. “The two of us against five Krakzid wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“These Krakzid are unarmed. If we’re right that their craft are malfunctioning, they might not be able to fight at all. Even if they can, they’ll see only two of you. They’ll turn this way and we can surprise them from behind. With any luck, we can have them down before they even know what hit them.”
“Brilliant,” Ugor murmured. “Perfect. You are fit to serve as Quort’s deputy.”
Dulag huffed under her breath, but she didn’t argue.
Ugor motioned to some of his friends. “Get across as quickly and quietly as you can. Look. The enemy is going around the other side of their vessels. Go now!”
He shoved three of his comrades into the gap. They dashed across it and hunkered behind the wall where Jackson had first observed the Krakzid.
The three males got into position, but the Krakzid reemerged before Jackson and the others could move. That left Jackson, Ugor, and one more male still not in position.
The Krakzid approached a single fighter craft. They all turned their backs on the hiding friends, concentrating everything on the craft itself. Now Jackson knew for sure that something had gone wrong with the vessel.
Jackson and Ugor went through a pantomime of commands and gestures before Ugor and his comrade plunged across the gap. Jackson dove in with them just as the Krakzid turned around again.
Their raspy voices cracked louder. For a moment, it sounded as though the Krakzid were coming straight toward the breathless group. Ugor swung forward a giant cannon that hung across his back, and his companions also drew their weapons.
Jackson took out two of his handhelds and checked their power supplies. They had never been used, so they both hand full fuel cells.
Ugor raised his head just enough to take a look at the Krakzid. They floated over to their second craft, turned their backs to Jackson’s location, and went into another confused debate about the vessel.
Ugor caught Ogul’s eye as the big male sneaked a glance over his own wall. The two friends shared a nod. Ogul and Dulag both stood up.
Ogul propped his cannon across the wall, and Dulag took aim at the unsuspecting Krakzid with matched hand weapons. Her expression hardened, and she narrowed her fearsome eyes at her enemies’ undefended backs.
Jackson’s grip tightened around his weapon. A shiver of tension went through the Urvals around him.
The next second, Ogul and Dulag opened fire. They plastered three Krakzid. Two crashed against their vessel. The third dropped. The others whipped around to face the attackers, exactly the way Jackson had predicted.
In a flash, Ugor and the rest vaulted out of their hiding place. They barreled into the square, laying down a steady barrage of fire. They mowed down the last two Krakzid. One of those that banged into the fighter craft bounced off and almost rallied, before the attackers felled it with one shot.
By the time the Jackson and the Urvals reached the Krakzid, none of the enemy remained alive. Jackson slowed and trained his weapons at the fallen creatures, but they didn’t move.
Ogul and Dulag advanced from the opposite direction. Dulag kicked the nearest Krakzid. “Vermin! You’ll all meet your deaths here.”
“Not with only seven of us.” Ugor turned to Jackson. “What are these teams you say you have weakening the Krakzid?”
“We don’t have time for that,” Ogul interrupted. “Let’s hijack these ships and get out of here. We’ll be able to do more damage with these than on foot.”
“I don’t know how to fly one of these,” Jackson admitted. “Do you?”
“No one does.” Ugor ran his hand over the fighter craft’s outer surface. “We don’t even know how to open them.”
“Maybe we could press some part of the Krakzids’ bodies to the hull,” a different Urval suggested. “Maybe that will trigger some opening to release.”
“Which body part?” Ogul asked. “They don’t have body parts. They’re smooth black all over, just like their ships.”
Ugor turned away. “It’s hopeless. Let’s go meet Vurgus. He’ll know how to rally the others to go after the—”
He started to move off from the fighter craft. The instant he pulled his arm away from its smooth surface, something clicked inside the vessel. A hatch opened and dropped noiselessly to the ground.
The friends stared into the dark interior. From here, Jackson couldn’t see anything inside. These aliens might interface with their technology by telepathy, for all he knew.
“What did you do, Ugor?” Ogul whispered. “How did you get it open?”
“I didn’t do anything! You saw me. I didn’t even see any trigger mechanism. It just opened on its own.”
The others inched forward. Everyone bent forward to peer inside, but no one dared to enter. When he got near enough, Jackson made out panels of smooth black glass covering the vessel’s interior walls. Round pads dotted the floor at strategic positions in front of these panels. This must be where the Krakzid stood to control their ship.
“What is it?” Ogul husked.
“You can see,” Jackson replied. “The ship is nonoperational. Something is wrong with it. I thought there must have been something wrong for them to ground in this part of the city. The Krakzid never leave their bases except in numbers. Their ships must have stopped working, so they had to make an emergency landing.”
“Why didn’t they call in some help?” Dulag asked. “They have hundreds of ships all over Apra.”
“They couldn’t communicate,” Ugor told her. “That should be obvious to anyone. How would they contact anyone with their technology out of action?”
Dulag grimaced at him, but Jackson turned away. “These craft are useless to us. We might as well leave them here. We don’t know how to work them anyway. Who’s this Vurgus you mentioned—the one who can rally the other Urvals?”
“He lives on the outskirts of the city.” Ugor followed Jackson out of the square. “The Krakzid largely ignored Vurgus’ part of the city in the bombardment. He’s sure to be there.”
The group left the Krakzid where they were. They returned to the boulevard, and Ugor motioned toward the north. “This way.”
The party fell into single file. Jackson relaxed now that he’d found some friends who wanted to help him and the offensive. He took a position between Ugor and Ogul, and resigned himself to follow where they led as long as it got him to his objective.
The group covered three blocks. The capital lay in ruins around them, but more Urvals moved around with every passing hour. Those that survived the bombardment had taken courage since the city had fallen quiet. Not even the Krakzid occasionally buzzing overhead deterred the residents from rebuilding their lives as far as possible under the circumstances.
Scattered footsteps disturbed the glacial quiet that enveloped this once-thriving city. When Jackson had first landed on Apra, the capital hummed with thousands of voices. Continuous activity enlivened the breezes with the constant noise of daily activity.
Now the city sounded eerily quiet. Jackson jumped at every sound, only to slump when he realized it was only the residents searching the rubble for any scavenged materials they could use.
He heard a faint rumble in the distance, but when it didn’t continue, he discounted it. The wrecked buildings must still be crumbling after the bombardment.
He turned his attention back to his mission, but a second later, he heard it again—louder this time. He paused to listen. Ogul almost collided with him from behind. “Clumsy Zenith!”
“Do you hear something?” Jackson strained his ears.
“The weakling is hearing things!” Dulag taunted.
“It’s getting louder. Don’t tell me you don’t hear it.”
Finally, Ugor stopped and turned around. As soon as he did, another rumble vibrated the ground beneath Jackson’s feet. The whole group froze.
No one could deny the noise now. It boomed from the west, but the friends could still see nothing. The sound escalated to a distinct pounding rhythm, coming closer all the time.
Ogul spun back to look around. “Where is it coming from?”
“Take cover!” Dulag yelled.
“Where?” Ugor countered. “We might run straight into them.”
Jackson grabbed Ugor’s elbow. “Get off the boulevard! Get under cover.”
He towed the big Urval toward the nearest ruin. The other Urvals followed, still searching for the source of the disturbance. Jackson’s stomach twisted in knots, anticipating his worst nightmare coming true.
He shoved Ugor toward the building. At that moment, smashing footsteps thundered around the destroyed palace and dozens of Grocit charged onto the boulevard.
The Urvals dove for the cover of the building, but the Grocit overtook them in seconds. The shaggy lumbering monsters bellowed in a mindless stampede. More and more appeared every second, barreling straight for Jackson’s party.
Jackson blinked at them in astonishment. Where had so many of them come from? He knew for certain he hadn’t dispatched this many on the planet’s surface to sabotage the Krakzid. He thought the Grocit involved in the offensive were the only Grocit on the planet, but that must have been wrong.
In a split second, the Grocit flooded the boulevard. Jackson couldn’t see the palace anymore. He couldn’t see the back of the Grocit horde, either. Their enormous bodies blocked out all else.
They lowered their heads and rushed the friends cowering before them. Ugor grabbed Jackson to yank him out of the Grocits’ path just in time. The group dove for the building again, but the Grocit ran straight into it.
