Sleeping Angel

Arcing above the Fallax, she managed to put two magna-coil slugs through each of the creature's scaly heads. She landed in a tuck and roll as each monster slammed down to the ground.

John, following close behind, caught two Fallax now approaching Julia from her left flank. He let loose a flurry of bullets from his pulse rifle, grunting in satisfaction as he made contact with both aliens.

Turning his attention back to Julia, he found her with her pulse rifle drawn, aiming directly at him. His heart rate accelerated and he immediately dropped to the ground. He felt the tungsten projectiles whizz over his head as the sound of Julia's rifle cracked through the air.

A ear-splitting howl erupted from only a few meters behind him as a Fallax's chest exploded, its sticky blood splashing onto the back of his colonial uniform. The blood seemed scalding hot but he continued forward, following Julia as she continued her stride towards the transport ship.

The immediate wave of Fallax surrounding the pump station had been dispelled but echoing screeches in the distance made it clear that more were coming.

John caught up to Julia as they continued their run towards the Ascendant, "You were amazing back there!"

"Thanks John. I was built for many purposes. Combat is one of them." She turned her head and winked at him, "Pleasure is another."

"Hey..." John's retort was cut short as three Fallax came into view on their right flank. "Fuck."

"I'll handle these three. You keep running." Julia yelled.

He reluctantly complied and their trajectories diverged.

He watched as Julia sprinted towards the approaching monsters. Her strides were meters long as each step explosively pushed her through the tall grass.

John winced as he saw the three Fallax converge on her simultaneously.

She sprang into the air just as the middle alien struck with its clawed appendage. Julia tucked her head down in midair and planted her boot in the monster's neck. Her momentum toppled the beast backwards and she rode it down before rolling underneath the left-most Fallax. She ripped open its exposed belly with a burst from her pulse rifle, pushing herself out of the way as it collapsed into a steaming pile of organic mass.

Jumping to her feet, she dodged the remaining set of claws that whipped at her, but her spatial detection suite was a microsecond too slow to react to the creature's sweeping tail. It crashed into her sternum with a deafening WHACK and sent her tumbling.

A slew of minor hardware errors flashed across Julia's HUD, but an analysis subroutine concluded that her chassis' combat effectiveness was only marginally diminished. She sat up and grabbed for her pulse rifle to find only its stock and loading chamber attached to her back, the rest having been sheared in away.

Her programming adapted to this new variable and finished calculating a modified course of action just as the Fallax loomed over her. She ripped the pistol from her holster and put three slugs into the beast's chest. It staggered backwards and half-turned away from her. Julia sprang to her feet and leapt towards it, dagger in hand. She caught the unsteady alien's neck between her legs and slit its throat. It screeched in agony and bucked under her as steaming blood gouted from the wound. Julia rode it into the ground, finishing it off by plunging the electro dagger through the back of its head.

John rounded a rubble pile and spied the transport ship in front of him, about 250 meters away. He began sprinting, gulping breath after labored breath to carry his body to safety.

He looked back and saw Julia running towards him with a pack of Fallax close behind.

"Oh fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck!" John cried out as he willed his feet to carry him even faster.

Julia intercepted him as they were about 100 meters away from the ship. She wrenched her arm backwards and fired off six quick shots of her magna-coil pistol before throwing it to the side.

"What!? What did you do that for?" John spat out in-between breaths.

There was a harmonized shrieking from behind them; John looked back and saw one Fallax completely immobilized and another limping. The remaining four were still hot in pursuit and they were gaining ground fast.

Julia reached her hand out, "Give me yours. That pistol was out of rounds."

John thrust the butt of his pistol into her hand as they ran shoulder to shoulder.

"How many shots are left in this one?" Julia asked.

"Didn't know I was supposed to keep count!"

Julia holstered the weapon, "I'll need your rifle too. They disabled mine."

John slowed as he wrestled the long weapon from his back and tossed it to Julia. He began running again instantly. She did the same, albeit while securing the rifle on her exploration suit's magna-pads with a ballet of movements meticulously choreographed by her main processing unit.

"I need you to startup the ship's engines and its auto-turret. Both are button activated with green switches just beneath the central console. You can't miss them."

John stared at her, his eyes ablaze, "No! You're coming with me!"

"I have to stay behind to hold off the remaining Fallax or neither of us are getting off this planet."

She put her hand on his shoulder as they ran, comfortingly pushing her fingers into his muscles. Her voice softened. "I'll be in right after you, I promise. I need you to do this so that WE can get out of here, okay?"

Frowning, John reluctantly agreed, "Okay."

They were only 50 meters from the ship now. He could feel the thumping of the Fallax's hooves behind them. How close he didn't dare to guess.

"There's an autopilot feature built into the ship. If I don't make it aboard, I need you to promise that you'll use it. It's located right at the base of the flight stick under the orange switch protector."

"You're coming with me!"

"John! I need you to promise me that you'll take off without me! I'm expendable. You're no..."

John watched in horror as claws burst through the front of her exploration suit in a shower of fiery orange sparks.

Julia smashed into the ground beneath the Fallax's hooves with a sickening THUMP.

His savior, his sleeping angel, had been stabbed through the chest.

He didn't dare look back. He ran. His body was on fire as he strained every last muscle fiber to propel him faster than he had ever ran before.

The telltale sounds of magna-coil slugs and pulse rifle fire erupted behind him as he made his way up the ship's ramp.

Julia was still fighting back.

-- --

IX. Ascendant

Stumbling through the darkened ship, John managed to make his way into the cockpit. Following Julia's loose description, he quickly found the center console, which was confirmed upon his discovery of the 'Engine/ACTIVE' and 'Auto-Turret/ACTIVE' switches placed immediately underneath.

He mashed both buttons simultaneously and fell into the console as the machine lurched forward. The familiar sound of turbo-pumps spooling up resonated through the ship. John could feel it coming to life all around him.

At the same time, the center console began to chirp angrily at him.

With keen eyes, John looked on as lines of text populated on the screen:

AUTO-TURRET TARGETING PARAMETERS

I. FOREIGN ORGANIC LIFEFORMS DETECTED // II. HUMANOID ROBOT DETECTED //

A - TARGET/FIRE BOTH I. & II. B - TARGET/FIRE ONLY I. C - TARGET/FIRE ONLY II. D - TARGET/FIRE ELSE I. & II.

John smashed option B, pivoted 180 degrees and began running out towards the back of the ship. He could feel the turret spinning up above him. It roared to life just as he reached the ship's ramp.

On the ground, he looked up to see a torrent of blinding yellow shots streaking through the air.

The turret pounded its targets with a relentless barrage, kicking up a thick smokescreen of dirt that made it difficult for John to see. The howl of the weapon was deafening. John plugged his ears as he rushed into the dust storm, praying the turret's sensors were judicious enough to avoid turning him into ground meat.

Entering the dust cloud was like going behind a thick curtain. Sounds faded except for the occasional cracking thud of nearby hits. He could barely see past the ends of his hands. He stumbled and slipped through shredded heaps that had once been Fallax with a strange, stoic calm filling his being.

The sound of the Fallax's screams was deadened but he could still feel them. His ribcage shook with them as the auto-turret ripped through their bodies.

A fallax lunged at John, trailing streamers from the swirling wall of dust in front of him. Its serpent-like arm whipped towards his chest. But, just as its claws were about to slice into him, the creature slumped to one side and its head exploded in a mist of blood. The claw at the end of the arm whistled past inches from his side and shattered a head-sized stone on the ground.

The explosion wasn't the result of the turret; John looked down and spotted Julia pinned beneath a different downed Fallax.

Her left arm was kinked awkwardly with the magna-coil pistol still in hand. How she had managed to make that shot he had no idea.

"Julia!"

He ran to her as the turret's fire tore the air all around him.

Julia looked up towards him, a smile forming at the corner of her lips, "John. Wait-wait-wait-wait!"

John didn't hesitate, immediately working to push the heavy Fallax off of her frame.

His heart sank as soon as he had shifted the body.

Julia's lower torso and legs were almost completely disconnected from the rest of her body. Only a tangle of cables and her partially crushed synthetic spinal column held the halves together.

Her right arm was in even worse shape, having been completely severed from her shoulder socket. It sat in a puddle of fluid, the frayed wires that poked from the end weakly sparking.

John kneeled down next to Julia and collected her in his arms. Her suit and chest had been torn to shreds, allowing him a deep look into her complex internal electronics, many of which now sparked or were charred.

"John! John! John! J-J-J-J-ohn!"

With her upper and lower halves in his arms, he waddled over to pick up her disconnected arm. Then, he turned towards the ship and shuffled back as fast as he could without dropping her.

The turret never stopped firing. The Fallax never stopped screaming.

Out of the dust cloud his senses returned. He could hear the thumping of Fallax hooves and the screeching of their voices as more approached from every direction. He knew they'd soon be overrun. He had seen it before. The Fallax would keep coming until everyone was dead and everything was destroyed.

At the top of the ramp, John hit the 'CLOSE DOOR' button with his shoulder. With a loud hiss, it retracted upwards. Slowly, so slowly!

He walked into the cockpit and, carefully as he could, set Julia down in one of the flight seats. He was able to fasten both her chest and legs tight with one harness, albeit the flexibility required from her would have been impossible for any human.

He wedged her loose arm into a gap in the harness and strapped himself into the pilot's chair. He flicked up the cover on the 'Auto-Pilot/SEEK' switch, again located exactly where Julia had described, and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

He watched her eyes trace over his face.

"John...thank-thank-thank-thank you. You saved-saved-sav-sav-saved me."

Grimacing, John flipped the switch forward and was thrown back into his seat by the engines' thrust.

"You saved me, Julia," he shouted over their roar, "You saved me."