He thundered up the ramp, the metal wobbling worryingly under his weight. The door was open, a massive thick metal thing hanging on enormous hinges. Metal wheels lay on both sides, the opening mechanism. Michael was oddly disappointed. If he was going to die on some random spaceship the least he was owed was a swishing automatic door. He ran through the doorway, turning to press his back against the frame. Despite Aileena’s instructions, he peered out, watching the others.
The mercenary Aileena had called Brekt was falling back towards the ramp, screening the smaller bird-like alien with his body. He was firing wildly with the rifle in his hands. His blasts, like the trooper’s, were striking the wall, but rather than bouncing off were passing through, emerging on the other side uninterrupted. A shot slammed into one of the soldiers, bright green sparks spraying off in a dramatic arc. The trooper collapsed to the ground for a moment, before standing back up, a wide black circle and noticeable dent in his chest plate. Michael was slightly shocked, years of science fiction movies had primed him to expect armour to be comically useless. The trooper was winded, taking cover behind one of the scattered crates, but the shiny red plating had done its job.
Aileena herself was running towards the ramp at full sprint. Her arm was twisted behind her, shots blind firing from her pistol randomly. They slammed ineffectively into the grass, sending chunks of greenery flying into the air.
“What did I say about stopping to look! Get inside! You too, Mellok,” she said pointing at the skittering rainbow alien. “Brekt, cover us.” The taller alien replied something in his own tongue, his words rough like gravel. He took up a position at the bottom of the ramp, lowering to a crouch. He snapped off a few more blasts at the oncoming attackers. Another shot hit, this time lethally, shattering the reflective gold of a trooper’s faceplate and exploding from the back of his helmet in a shower of gore. The trooper slumped onto the crate before him, head lolling to the side. Michael stared at its face. The flesh was mangled and torn, but still clearly human.
“Those are humans! What’s going on here? Why are my own people shooting at me?” Michael was stamping like an angry toddler.
“I’m afraid that’s a story for another time,” replied the feathered alien Aileena had called Mellok. For the first time, Michael realised he wasn’t wearing a translator. He was skittering through the doorway on his strange legs, Aileena following behind. Brekt was walking backwards up the ramp, still firing. He barked in his stony language. “Our friend says that the Council troopers are flanking around the shield. I’m afraid we will have to leave. Aileena I know it isn’t in your contract, but can you fly the ship?”
“What do you mean fly the ship?! Is this not your ship?” Michael grabbed Aileena by the collar, releasing it in embarrassment as she stared at his hand.
“Nope. Not my ship, not my job. Deliver you to Mellok here, that was my contract. He was supposed to have his own crew ready.” She turned her withering gaze to Mellok, his beaked head looking down at the floor.
“Ah, well, they didn’t arrive. It would seem prudent to assume that the Council have them.” Several of his feet scratched nervously. Brekt gave a guttural bark as he pulled the door shut and began turning the wheel to seal it. “He does have a good point Aileena.”
“Fine. Yes, I can fly this junker of a ship. Beats getting dragged off for re-education.” She walked across the small entry chamber towards a set of doors. They were lined in what Michael assumed were hazard stripes, though they were green and white rather than the colours he was more used to. Large glass windows ran the length of them. Aileena gripped the side of a small compartment on the wall next to it, a selection of buttons and levers behind it. Strange alien glyphs were scrawled across the glass. It didn’t move, so she raised her pistol, smashing the glass with the butt.
“I… I had the key,” Mellok said in faint protest.
“No time,” Aileena said gripping one of the now exposed leavers. She pulled it and the door slid open. At least I got my swishing door, Michael thought. “Everyone out of the airlock. Except you human, push that button before you step out, the big red one by the door.”
Michael did as he was told, he sensed he had pushed the alien’s patience as far as he could. He turned and pressed the button, a massive oval thing that depressed with some resistance. There was a faint whine from behind him, and he spun to see two screens had sprung to life on the opposite wall. On them he could see the troopers advancing, having taken the long path around the energy wall. It took him a moment to realise the view was from the underneath of the ship.
Trooper Forest ran forward, rifle in hand towards the ship before them, boots stomping deep impressions into the pitch. A low whine had started, engines firing up. Readying the ship to take-off. In his helmet orders crackled through commanding him to fire on the vessel. He came to an abrupt stop, the servos in his armour doing most of the work. Forest crouched, shouldering his weapon and aimed at the ship. He pulled the trigger, the rifle releasing a loud crack and a bright green flash, but no recoil. That was still something he wasn’t used to. The invisible pulse, though his mind still thought of it as a round, sailed through the air and plinked off the outer hull with a brief sparking. He fired again, the other troops joining him, a cascade of firepower striking off the ship in waves. Then something caught his eye, objects dropping from the bottom of the hull, swivelling towards the firing line.
“Turrets!” Trooper Forest screamed, his helmet transmitting the words to those around him. It was too late. Incandescent beams of purple light lanced out from the turrets, sweeping across the line of troopers, slicing through armour and bone like butter. The grass burnt where the beams struck it, the smell of singed grass filling the air.
Aileena stepped back through the airlock door, tapping the shocked Michael on the shoulder. He stood staring at the screens, barely comprehending the devastation his single button press had wrought.
“There we go,” Aileena said, a sly smile on her lips. “Now you’re complicit. Haven’t got much choice but to come along now eh? At least you don’t have to make that decision anymore.” She lifted her hand from his shoulder. “Not that you had the choice, to begin with. Not really.”
Chapter Four
Aileena walked through the short corridor, emerging into the ship’s control room, large for the size of the ship. It was split into two distinct levels. An upper raised section with two oval chairs behind blinking displays. A short ramp led to a lower area, just a few feet down. It had two further chairs, behind much smaller consoles that were studded with levers and switches. Across the back wall of the upper area, on either side of the door were two couch-like seats. Straps hung limply, waiting to be clipped around a body.
Michael stormed in behind her, rage slathered over his face, tainting it a bright fuchsia. He followed Aileena down the ramp, stomping with every footstep.
“What the hell?! What is your problem? Those were people. My people! You tricked me.”
“Wow, you really are an idiot,” Aileena said, taking her seat in the left front seat. The nose of the ship sat before her, curved glass giving a view of the blasted football pitch outside. “Don’t be such a TRANSLATION ERROR. Ask yourself why they were shooting at one of their own kind? They wanted you dead. You were just returning the favour.” She pulled a strap from each shoulder of the chair, clipping them together. A third ran between her legs, clicking into the others. “Get strapped in. Take one of the seats up top. The one on the right as you face the door.”