The Sac'a'rith by Vincent Trigili Read Free Book Online Page A

and launched myself at the one on the right.
    Our attack caught them off guard, which made it easy for both of us to strike the first blow. The creatures let out a horrifying scream as our knives sliced through whatever their bodies were made of, fatally wounding them. As I pushed through my target I hit the floor in a roll, coming up ready to fight whatever came next out of the door, but nothing came.
    I looked back to see Narcion picking up my gun. “Never leave a weapon behind. You may not get a chance to go back for it.”
    “Sorry,” I said. I wanted to kick myself for being so stupid.
    He slowly moved towards the door and I hung back a few steps. As he neared what was left of the door he pulled out another grenade, this one much smaller than the others, and tossed it into the room. Instinctively I flattened myself against the wall, using what was left of the doorframe to shield me from the blast. It must have been a concussion grenade because I felt a tremendous shockwave come out of the room, but there was no heat this time.
    Just as it passed us, Narcion yelled something and charged into the room. I counted to three as he had trained me and then followed him in.
    “Clear,” he said as I entered.
    Looking around I saw no sign of any enemies. “Where are the rest of them? And why have we not encountered any walking dead?”
    “Both very good questions,” he said. “Let’s see what the computers can tell us. Guard the broken door while I work.”
    I moved to what used to be a door but was now more of a large gaping hole, and watched the hall. Narcion worked away at the computers for a while. Eventually I heard him say, “This is Engineering, calling Central Computing. Can anyone hear me?”
    “Yes, sir!” came a reply.
    “Great. With whom am I speaking?” he asked.
    “Private Milstone, sir!” was the response.
    “Excellent. Private, can you give me your status?” asked Narcion.
    “Yes, sir! There are fifty-three of us here. A magus has been using his shields to secure this area, but we are under heavy assault. None of our weapons seem to work on the three beings that led the attack, and most of the forces seem to be made up of walking dead versions of the crew of this station, sir!”
    Well, that answered my questions, at least.
    “We sent Sergeant Sunto back to you. Has he arrived safely?” asked Narcion.
    “No, sir. We have not heard from him or his partner since they went to check on a landing, sir,” said Private Milstone. “But, sir, there is no way they could make it back. We are completely surrounded.”
    “How many magi do you have left?” asked Narcion.
    “Three, sir, but they are all tied up with the shields. I do not know how much longer they can hold out,” said Private Milstone.
    “Do you have sufficient firepower to handle the walking dead if the other creatures were taken care of?” asked Narcion.
    “More than enough, sir,” said Private Milstone.
    “Excellent. We will be there soon. We can handle the leaders, but we will need you to take care of the others. I will contact you again on this channel when we are ready to attack, assuming we have time. When we take out the leaders, make your move on their troops. Understood?” asked Narcion.
    “Yes, sir!” he said with no small amount of excitement in his voice.
    “Engineering out,” said Narcion.
    “Narcion, isn’t odd that he never asked who you were?” I asked when the channel was closed.
    Narcion chuckled and said, “No, he is a private. He got a call on the proper channels from Engineering and it never occurred to him to question the source.”
    “Seems foolish to me,” I said.
    “Good, because I expect you to know better,” he said with a smile. “Now, let’s move. We need to get there before their shields fail.”
    “How do we know this is not a trap, though?” I asked.
    “We don’t,” he said as he took off down the corridor.
    I was sure he was not telling me everything, and that was starting to