Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

like a hungry bird in a nest. He stretched out, covering the grassy plains. His range was limited, compared to what it had been before the mind techs got their hands on him, but he pushed those limits as hard as he could. He needed to feel like he was a valued member of the team. He didn't want anyone to think they were carrying him. He wanted Finlay to be proud of him. So he pushed and strained, defying the ache already building in his brow, and suddenly he made contact. Two of them, just on the other side of the horizon, heading toward him. But he was damned if be could tell what they were. They were quite definitely alive, their minds shining bright and clear, but they were like nothing he'd ever encountered before. Intelligent, focused, but not human. He could sense the minds, but he couldn't read them. And yet there was a familiarity to them, as though he'd known them before somewhere, but couldn't place them, like the faces you see in dreams. Julian pulled back, alarmed on an almost instinctual level, and his mind suddenly jarred on something else, so close at hand he'd overlooked it before.
    The shock jolted him back into his body, and his head fell forward into his hands as he groaned aloud. Evangeline moved quickly in beside him.
    "What is it? What did you see?"

    "We're not alone here," he said thickly. "There's another ship, about twenty feet away. Buried under the grass. It's full of death. Tell the others."
    In the end, it took all of them working together the best part of an hour to dig down to the buried ship's airlock. The lock was closed, its power depleted, and they had to crank it open with the exterior manual override. Inside it was dark and gloomy, all systems dead, and they had to wait impatiently while Finlay went back to the cargo ship for flashlights. None of them felt like going in without them. Julian was still muttering about death.
    They moved slowly through the dark interior, the ship gradually giving up its secrets to the bobbing lights. It was an Imperial pinnace, presumably sent down from the orbiting starcruiser. Something had shot the shit out of it, but it had still made a safe landing. The rebels searched the pinnace from stem to stern, but there was no sign of life anywhere. What they did find was blood. Old, dried blood. Dark and heavy and splashed over most of the interior. Given that the inner hull was still intact, despite the battering the pinnace had taken, it seemed clear that whatever happened did so after the landing.
    "These bloodstains are long dry," said Toby. "Whatever went down here, it's over. Guess the war must still be going on."
    Finlay unloaded the memory crystal containing the pinnace's log, took it back to the cargo ship, and ran the last few entries on the viewscreen. Everyone crowded together before the screen, but the log didn't have much to tell them. The pinnace had been sent down by the Quarantine starcruiser, the Deliverance. It had carried a crew of twenty, all trained marine elite reconnaissance troops.
    They'd tracked Harker's beacon to the escape pod and put down beside it. There were no more log entries after that.
    "They had the same idea we had," said Toby. "And look what happened to them."

    "We don't know what happened to them yet," said Giles testily. "We don't know what happened to anyone yet."
    "None of this makes sense," said Evangeline. "If the recon team were all killed, where are their bodies? And why bury the ship instead of them?"
    "More mysteries," said Giles. "I hate mysteries.
    According to our sensors, there's some kind of building or structure just over the horizon, due east of here. I say we go and take a look. Maybe we'll find some answers there. Or at least some clues."
    "What about the two contacts I made?" said Julian. "They were definitely some kind of lifeform, heading this way."
    "If you see anything that isn't us or Harker, you have my permission to shoot first and ask questions afterward, if at all," said Finlay. "The one thing we can be sure of is that we don't have any friends here. This particular part of Haceldama may seem quiet and harmless, but that doesn't mean you can trust it an inch. Stay alert, all of you. This place kills people."
    And so they set off across the grassy plain. Anywhen or anywhere else, it might have been a pleasant stroll. The gentle slope was just enough to stretch their legs, and the air was full of the smell of freshly cut grass. The day was warm enough to make them feel pleasantly loose,