The Cyber Chronicles V - Overlord (19 page)

"With a
laser."

"But if they're
as fast as you, why didn't they dodge the bolts like you do?"

He smiled. "I
told you, the control unit predicts weapons’ trajectories. In
tests, an armed cyber won every time against an armed Corsair, but
in unarmed combat, the cyber succumbed to the venom when he was
bitten. The techs spent three years developing an immunisation for
it."

"So you won't
die from their venom?"

He shook his
head. "But it will make me pretty sick."

"Corsairs are
basically toxic," Tarl explained. "The poison they use in their
guns is their females' milk mixed with their urine, which is acid.
Their blood is poison too."

"Then why did
the gas kill them?" Tassin asked.

"They breathe
oxygen, same as us. That gas binds with oxygen, making it
unusable."

She shuddered
and turned to Sabre, rubbing her arms. "Where are the ones who are
still on this ship?"

"After they
left the hold, they spread out to search for us, so they know
someone killed their comrades. When their ship left they moved back
to the docking port, and they're still there."

"What do you
think they'll do if Fairen destroys their ship?"

"Probably hunt
us again."

****

Fairen spread
his hand towards the Corsair's face, pleased that the creature now
seemed placid. Perhaps they knew to respect an Overlord, and fear
had inspired this one's prior struggles. Yet he showed no sign of
it; his wide blue eyes met Fairen's gaze boldly. The emotions
seeped into his mind, and he closed his eyes.

Searing hatred
mingled with malicious joy at the deaths of humans and a lust for
blood and suffering. Fairen snatched his hand back and recoiled
with a curse, swinging away to clasp his brow. The cold tang of the
Corsair's mind stayed with him, evil and corrupted with loathing
and a longing for the taste of human blood again.

"Foul savage,"
he said in Andrae, his mother tongue.

Pulling his
glove back on, he turned to face the strangely beautiful golden
monster. "I judge you to be guilty. Execute him, and destroy his
ship."

The Corsair tensed, whipcord muscles on his arms bulging as he
strained at the shackles. The metal creaked, and then the chains
snapped with a dull
plink
. He snarled and leapt at
Fairen. A dozen poison darts hit the alien in the back, enough to
kill a small army, but it did not even make him stagger. The impact
sent the boy sprawling, the Corsair on top of him.

The guards
froze for an instant of stunned disbelief, then charged forward to
protect their master. The Corsair bent his head to menace Fairen's
throat with bared fangs, forcing the men to halt. The alien hissed,
and his mouth worked as if he strived to speak human words, but
what issued was a snarl.

Chapter Thirteen

Sabre tensed as
the cyber flashed a warning in his mind and turned his head to scan
the ship for danger. He stepped back as his bones tingled, glancing
down at himself.

Tassin looked
alarmed. "What is it?"

"I don't know.
I -"

The cabin
vanished, and a dark, dizzying vortex engulfed him, combined with a
complete loss of equilibrium and intense cold that prickled his
skin. Before he could react, the sensations vanished and he landed
on a polished black floor. His training took over in a flash, and
he dropped and rolled, his armour clattering. A volley of missiles
skittered off the floor where he had been.

"Hold your
fire!" someone shouted.

Sabre crouched,
glancing around at Fairen's command centre. A dozen guards aimed
their weapons at him. Fairen lay on the floor several metres away.
A Corsair straddled him, fangs bared. The young Overlord had lost
his hood, and stared up at his captor with frozen eyes. Acid saliva
dripped onto his cheeks, making red marks on his pale skin.

Sabre's first
instinct was to draw the lasers strapped to his thighs. Quick
though he was, however, he knew his movement would make the Corsair
attack Fairen. He leapt up and raced towards the alien, who
straightened to meet his charge, the boy forgotten in the face of
Sabre's challenge. The impact sent them rolling across the floor,
and Fairen rose to his feet as his guards ran to surround him.

The Corsair
ended up on top, and his hands shot up to grip Sabre's wrists in a
vice-like hold, pinning him to the floor. The alien's long legs
whipped around the cyber's thighs, clasped them powerfully and
trapped his lasers. This was Corsairs’ preferred fighting method;
brutal close combat, a tactic that had proven effective against
cybers in the past. The alien lunged at Sabre's neck, and Sabre
jerked up his arm, his wrist guard clattering against the Corsair’s
fangs. The alien recoiled, his claws scraping on Sabre's armour as
he struggled to force the cyber’s arm aside and expose his
throat.

"Help him!"
Fairen shouted.

Five soldiers
left the ring around him and rushed to join the fray, grabbed the
Corsair's arms and tried to pull him away. The alien swung around
and bit one man, who released him with a curse and retreated,
clasping his bleeding arm. The rest grappled with the Corsair, who
sank his fangs into another soldier. Sabre was dragged along the
floor as the Corsair held onto him, his claws hooked into the
cyber's armour.

The man who had
been bitten first collapsed with a groan, writhing, and the second
released the Corsair as he realised that he faced the same fate.
The Corsair twisted in the grip of the remaining three soldiers and
snapped at one. Sabre hit him on the side of the head, his blow
weakened by the fact that he had to overpower the alien to move at
all, but he prevented the Corsair from reaching his target. The
second man collapsed in convulsions, and someone shouted for a
medic.

The alien
snarled and lunged at Sabre's throat again. The cyber overpowered
him and smashed his armoured forearm into the Corsair's mouth,
causing blood to ooze from his crushed lips.

"Kill him, you
idiots!" Sabre growled as he held the Corsair at bay. A soldier
punched the Corsair in the back of the neck in an attempt to break
it, while the others kicked him. Apart from their useless dart
guns, the guards were unarmed, and a Corsair was far too tough for
a normal man to kill with his bare hands. Sabre could not reach his
lasers while his wrists were trapped, and the Corsair hung onto his
arms for that very reason. The guards could not reach the weapons
either, while the alien had them pinned to Sabre's thighs.

A brave soldier
gripped the Corsair's head and twisted, trying to break his neck,
but the alien ripped free and bit the man's hand. The soldier ran
to seek help from the four white-suited men who had entered the
room, and they clustered around him. The remaining two men beat on
the Corsair's back, but were afraid to take hold of him now.

"Help him, I
said!" Fairen yelled.

Another ten men
rushed into the battle, but they were as useless as the first two,
since they were also unarmed and unwilling to tackle the Corsair.
Sabre glared into his foe's bright blue eyes, read the hatred in
them and knew the alien meant to sell his life dearly. Neither of
them was winning the battle for supremacy. Sabre held the Corsair
at bay, and the alien prevented him from using his hands. The
Corsair was larger than Sabre and heavier, and used his long legs
to pin the cyber's, preventing him from twisting free or throwing
him off. He also had the advantage of being on top, and used his
weight to aid his attempts to reach Sabre's throat.

Sabre switched
his glare to the men who beat on the Corsair's back and snarled,
"Get a laser!"

"No lasers are
allowed on Overlord -"

"Then a dagger!
A knife! Something sharp!"

Two men ran
off, and the rest continued their futile bid to beat the Corsair to
death with their fists and boots. The alien grunted and turned his
head to hiss at them, making them recoil. Sabre writhed, seeking
purchase on the polished floor, but his boots skidded on the slick
surface and the Corsair shifted his weight to keep the cyber
pinned. The alien lunged at Sabre's face, and his fangs brushed the
cyber's cheek as he jerked his head to the side. Sabre heaved,
almost throwing the Corsair off, but the alien absorbed the push
with his arms and retained his position.

The Corsair
snarled and spat. The saliva hit Sabre in the face, and some went
into his eyes. Pain lanced through his skull, making him grunt and
screw them shut. The cyber's infrared vision appeared in his mind,
mixed horribly with the image from the tiny camera in the brow
band. His face burnt and his eyes were on fire. A red warning
flashed in his brain and an amber analysis scrolled past, several
words blinking red as the cyber identified the poison and started
countermeasures. Tears flooded his eyes and streamed down his
cheeks, flushing out some of the toxin. Fortunately, Corsair blood
and saliva, while venomous, were not as acidic as the fluids they
used in their ammunition. He writhed again, desperate to free
himself and kill the Corsair before the venom blinded him.

A soldier found
enough courage to grab the Corsair around the waist and try to drag
him off. The alien's grip on Sabre's forearms and thighs was too
strong, however, and once more Sabre was dragged along the floor.
The Corsair lunged at Sabre's face again, scenting victory now that
the cyber was blind. Sabre jerked his head forward and smashed the
brow band into the alien's bloody mouth.

The Corsair
recoiled with a hiss, spraying blood onto Sabre's face and neck.
Sabre twisted his arms to try to free them from the alien's grip,
which bruised him even through his armour. The Corsair, apparently
frustrated by the stalemate, sank his fangs into Sabre's left hand.
The steel mesh glove grated on his teeth, and he worried at it,
trying to pull it off. Sabre clenched his hand to keep the glove in
place, but the alien tugged it away from his wrist.

A soldier
kicked the Corsair in the side of the head, breaking his hold on
Sabre's hand. The blow jerked the glove down further, however,
exposing a slither of skin. The kick had little effect on the
Corsair, whose brain was encased in a centimetre-thick skull and
protected from impact by a latticework of bone that held the brain
in place. Corsairs had few weaknesses. Their dense, thick bones
were far stronger than a human's, and their ribcage ran the length
of their torso, making it rather inflexible, but also immune to the
beating the soldiers were inflicting upon it.

In a bid to end
the conflict before he was bitten, Sabre let his left arm fall with
a clatter, and, at the same instant, pushed with his right. The
Corsair lost his balance, and Sabre used all his strength to roll
on top, scattering soldiers. They grabbed Sabre and tried to pull
him away, but the Corsair hung on.

"Let go!" Sabre
shouted.

The Corsair
hissed, spraying saliva into Sabre's face again. It made little
difference who was on top, but it did take some of the strain off
Sabre's arms. The soldiers tried to pry the Corsair's legs from
Sabre's thighs so they could reach his lasers, but the alien's grip
was still too strong. Sabre smashed the brow band into the alien's
mouth again, wondering why it was taking so long for the soldiers
to find a bladed weapon. The Corsair spat blood at him, and Sabre
straightened. Pulling his arms together with an immense effort, he
pitted his strength against the Corsair's and found them evenly
matched.

On impulse,
Sabre bit the Corsair's hand. The alien gave a soft shriek and
released the cyber's wrist. Sabre yanked back his fist and smashed
it into the Corsair's face. The bone broke with a dull bang, and
blood and brains sprayed across the floor as the alien's head
exploded like a rotten fruit. The Corsair convulsed, bruising
Sabre's wrist and thighs with the power of his death spasm, then
went limp. Sabre jerked free and rolled off the dead alien,
gasping. Sweat ran down his face and trickled inside his armour.
Steam rose from him as he lay on his back and ripped off his gloves
to wipe the venom off his face.

"Medics, help
him!" Fairen cried. "Save his eyes!"

The medics
reached Sabre before he could touch his face, and grabbed his
wrists to try to stop him. They were no match for him, however.

"No! Don't rub
it, you'll make it worse!" one yelled. "Lie still!"

Although the
need to wipe off the venom was overwhelming, Sabre lowered his
hands as the medics sprayed his face with scented liquid.

"Open your
eyes!" one of them ordered.

Someone gripped
Sabre's face and pried open an eye. Sabre wanted to fend off the
medic, but stopped himself, even though his eye burnt twice as much
when exposed to air. The medic sprayed stinging liquid into it, and
Sabre growled and grabbed the man's coat to pull him away. Two
medics straddled him, and one called the soldiers to help them.
Four more men joined the tussle and pinned Sabre's arms as the
medic pried open his other eye and sprayed liquid into it. Sabre
cursed and writhed, threw off the medics and jerked free of the
soldiers. Rising to his knees, he pawed at his eyes. A medic
gripped the brow band and raised Sabre's head, then shoved a finger
into his eye, smearing it with ointment.

"Don't bloody
fight us, you idiot cyber," he muttered as Sabre shoved him away.
"We're trying to save your sight!"

"That damned
well hurts!"

"Keep still;
almost done."

Sabre growled
again when the medic smeared ointment in his other eye. Two
soldiers gripped the cyber's wrists to prevent him from shoving the
man away again.

The medic
muttered, "Since when do cybers complain about pain? Where's his
owner? Is he one of Ramadaus'?"