Xantoverse Shadowkill Read online

  SHADOWKILL

  A XANTOVERSE STORY

  C.F. BARNES

  COPYRIGHT C.F. BARNES 2014

  This edition published in 2014 by Anachron Press

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this work are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity is purely coincidental.

  The rights of the authors to be indentified as the authors of this has has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the publisher. The rights of the authors of this work has been asserted by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  CHAPTER 1

  Kina had waited for this moment for what felt like an eternity. She crouched in the dark of the Haven space station. Her heightened senses buzzed while her heart beat pulsed at the border of her comfort zone.

  This was no bad thing; she operated better when on the edge of control.

  Kina did not have the blessing of exceptional dark vision, but that was the point of this test. An assassin might not always find themselves in perfect conditions and a Wraith assassin had to be capable of doing their job in any given situation. Every sound within the dark space aided her perception, giving her locational hints of her enemies’ whereabouts. The scent of sweat on the still, musty air, added to the detail of the picture Kina built in her mind as she visualized their movements through the blackness.

  Moving with the grace of an umbra wyrm, Kina stepped to her left and slid behind a steel pillar in the old industrial plant, controlling her breathing and listening for any hint of a sound.

  The slightest shuffle of movement came from her right. A shape shifted, an indistinct blur of solid darkness in the gloom. Her two Wraith seniors had withheld the number of assailants she would face. Not that it mattered; all she cared about was that, to become a Wraith like Dzagnev and Lanat, she would have to survive.

  Failure meant death, but she had jumped at the chance, because success meant a life of wealth and position, something everyone within Haven fought for.

  Something Kina craved above all else.

  Life diminished by poverty in the ancient space station wasn’t for her. She’d grown up watching her parents scrape and struggle, running dangerous and low-paying jobs for criminal factions such as the Iron Council and Cauder Industries. When Kina was just eight standard years old, mercenaries had killed her parents while they were on a salvaging run.

  Career options on Haven weren’t exactly varied.

  If it wasn’t trading resources stripped from the graveyard of dead ships outside the Haven in Hollow Space, the pocket universe that randomly trapped unsuspecting, hyper-jumping craft, it was spying for one faction or another, trading information, drugs or sex, and moving one’s self further up the ladder, stabbing in the back anyone who got in your way.

  Kina was no information dealer.

  She didn’t have the patience to play the long game, and neither was she a great prospector like the salvagers who would pounce on any ship that found itself inexplicably dragged into Hollow Space—like her childhood friend and scoundrel extraordinaire, Tairon Cauder.

  Which left her only one real choice—join the Wraiths as an assassin for hire.

  A heavy breath came from a few meters in front and to the left of her. A shadow shift around a steel upright. A rusted chain, with links as thick as a kronac’s fist, scraped against the support beam. The sharp metallic sound echoed in the cavernous space.

  Footsteps, another halted breath, the scent of sweat stronger now, resonated from in front of her position at the rear of the plant. She waited, crouching behind an old dead generator on her haunches, graphsteel daggers in her hands, their edges recently honed and waiting for the kiss of flesh.

  A rustle of fabric from her right told her she was facing at least two assailants, but it would be a mistake to rule out more at the other end of the plant. And neither could she rule out that they might be equipped with night-vision glasses.

  The closest one was probably female, and human; the rustling cloth sounded like the cheap polymer fabric made from the waste products of the farms in the lower levels of the station. The human women of Haven wore the gaudy-colored fabric as a fashion statement—and occasionally some men.

  Still, male or female, human, kronac, vul, or dalgef, she didn’t care. They were in here for one reason and one reason only: to kill her and collect their bounty from the Wraiths.

  And with the doors locked, there was only way out: be the last alive.

  Kina placed her daggers into the loops on her belt and reached up the pillar until she found the barest of cracks. Digging her fingers in to get a grip, she pulled her slight, athletic body up, using her toes to find places from which to push.

  Chunks of the pillar had been shot out, probably during one of the many gang wars that would often erupt on the space station. These divots provided her with plenty of holds with which to climb higher.

  She stopped when she reached about three meters high. If one of her enemies was a kronac, they’d be at least two and half meters tall and she wanted enough clearance. If they were a kronac, then her task was an order of magnitude tougher.

  But then she wouldn’t put that past Dzagnev or Lanat.

  They came from a system run by the Penumbra—a shadowy organization that was reputed to run most of the known habitable galaxies outside Hollow Space from behind a curtain of secrecy. Working for the Penumbra meant you had to be the best-of-the-best.

  When they got trapped in Hollow Space like thousands of others, the two Wraiths had realized that they weren’t getting out of the pocket universe anytime soon, and that they had better make the best of the situation on Haven. The planet it orbited, Galacia, had nothing on the surface and no ship could get through the volatile atmosphere, meaning the station remained their only logical destination.

  Many didn’t survive the harsh realities.

  The Wraith’s way was to run contracts as though they were still working for the Penumbra. And it seemed business was good, hence Kina’s audition. They needed to expand and hire more assassins to fulfill their clients’ desires.

  And that meant being able to take down a kronac if someone wished.

  Hanging to the pillar, Kina closed her eyes and focused her hearing, straining to make out each and every click and shuffle. There were various bugs and beetles scurrying in the corners too, which didn’t help. But she was certain, mostly from the ruffling of the clothes, that a female human was nearing.

  The footsteps were slow and deliberate, but the soles, rubber probably, made the merest of squishing sounds as they gripped and slid against the rusting metal deckplates that gave the station its gravity.

  Closer now, the sounds grew more distinct.

  Kina opened her eyes and looked down to her right. The pressure on her fingers and toes increased, threatening to cramp her muscles, but this was the time.

  A definite shadow moved to within a meter of the pillar.

  From the size she estimated it was either human or dalgef—the latter being bipedal like humans but with large rolls of loose skin. In the darkness they’d resemble a large human.

  No problem for her. Her double-edged blades would rend flesh regardless of species.

  Kina breathed in through her nose and got the scent of sweat. Pungent and sweet, she knew they were definitely human. Conditions on the station meant most people didn’t shower or bathe very often in order to conserve the water.

  Over time, she learned how diffe
rent each species smelled.

  They were right beneath her now. Kina’s vision made out the shape of a shotgun, or perhaps a rifle, in their hands, pointing forward. A bulky apparatus hung from their head, giving them a square aspect.

  Night-vision.

  If they looked up…

  She freed her right hand and drew her dagger silently then pushed away with her feet, letting go of her left hand. She fell behind them, drew her second dagger, and buried the twin blades into the sides of the person’s neck, severing multiple arteries. She hit the ground and bent her knees to absorb the near-silent fall.

  She ripped the blades free, dropping them into her belt loops. Blood spurted from the target’s neck. She wrapped a hand around the person’s mouth to silence them. A brief struggle turned into stillness as they bled out. Kina supported their weight and slowly lowered the body to the floor, taking the gun for her own use.

  Placing the firearm in a sling over her back, she bent down, removed her daggers, and cleaned the blades on the cheap polymer jacket.

  Despite working in near silence, the roar of her pulse, fueled by the brief injection of adrenaline, made her paranoid that everything had been heard. She took the night-vision goggles from the body and placed them over her eyes.

  Using special photomic algae that the kronacs grew, the goggles made the scene before her light up in shades of green. The image was blurry, but she could now see basic detail and blocks of shapes that made up the plant. She saw two other figures moving slowly toward her location: one human and one kronac—the arboreal creature’s feathers, lizard-like face, and four arms were the obvious giveaway.

  She sighed inwardly, but wasn’t surprised.

  They had flanked her position—the human was slowly stepping forward to her left and the kronac to her right. The former carried a Lawkeeper’s shock-stick while the latter wielded a Napier designed auto-shotgun.

  The weapon Kina had taken off her first attacker was a rather disappointing and likely-to-misfire Haven-made shotgun.

  It would be useful as a distraction at best. Even from close range it wasn’t guaranteed it would hit anything. The barrel being made from an old scaffolding pole and the stock cut crudely from scrap metal did not afford the weapon any degree of accuracy or reliability.

  Which told her just how desperate some people were to try and take the Wraith’s money. She doubted the others would be so lacking in class. It seemed from their movements that they were telepathically linked, and that cost a small fortune to have done.

  These were bounty hunters, pure and simple.

  Not good.

  She only knew of one kronac bounty hunter: Reaper—on account of his preference for duel-wielding sickles. With his massive strength, he’d literally cut people in two. This meant that the one on the left was definitely human, and his partner in crime: Denious Chang—an ex-Crown Central senator and a bloodthirsty maniac.

  Really not good.

  Kina cursed the Wraiths for her predicament and tried her best not to feel like a trapped rabbit. She reminded herself that she was in control here. She was what they were after, and that gave her the power over the situation.

  First things first: get rid of Chang. He was mental, unpredictable, and could be easily influenced. Reaper was too cool for any tricks. He’d been around the block for a few centuries.

  She rummaged quickly over the body, running her hands through the pockets. She found a single Credit coin. Perfect. The hunters were just five meters from her position now. She stayed low behind the large generator as she threw the coin up and over toward the front of the plant.

  It clanged against an old workbench before chiming against the floor. Chang spun round and dash back. Reaper remained on course as expected. Kina studied the infrastructure. The pillars climbed at least ten meters high to a mezzanine floor. Steel gantry sections ran lengthways on either side, leading to a pair of spiral staircases near the entrance of the plant.

  She didn’t want to just run out from where she was. She’d still be flanked, and with Reaper closing in, he’d have her rear. Only one option: climb. Not that that would stop the kronac; they lived in trees and climbed as well as any creature she’d ever seen.

  Still, waiting around to engage in combat would be suicide.

  She stepped over the body, keeping the pillar between her and the encroaching hunters and climbed, slowly and deliberately so as to make as little noise as possible. One thing in her favor was that although the kronacs possessed many abilities, their hearing wasn’t one of them, having evolved to make out their strange whistling and clicking language at the higher frequencies. Lower bass tones didn’t register with them half as well.

  Up and up, Kina climbed until she arrived at the gantry. A metal railing attached the gantry to the pillar with a plate and heavy bolts. She threw he leg over and straddled the railing while she got her breath back and waiting for her fingers and toes to regain feeling.

  Reaper was rounding the generator below. He’d see the body any moment.

  Chang had doubled back, having realized her location due to the ruse.

  Not wasting any time, she threw her other leg over and carefully placed her weight on to the gantry’s surface. Like the rest of this old engineering place, the metal had decayed and rusted. It creaked beneath her weight despite her care.

  Reaper didn’t notice, but Chang looked up, trying to find the source of the noise. The cavernous ceiling of the plant helped mask the location, thankfully.

  A high-pitched whistle and the sound of duel sickles scraping against each other told her Reaper had found the body.

  The game was on.

  She ran down the gantry as three consecutive shotgun blasts blew out the surface just inches behind her footsteps.

  No voices came—they didn’t need to talk with the telepathic link.

  Freck, this wasn’t go well.

  She reached the end, but instead of climbing down the spiral staircase, which would be assured death, she clambered over the side and climbed another pillar and onto the ceiling beams. Squeezing up, she just managed to get inside the half-meter crawl space. Dragging herself across on her knees and elbows, she reached the centre of the plant and stopped for a quick look. Both Reaper and Chang had taken up positions within the shadows of the far edges and were moving forward, their weapons aimed up and to the left.

  Kina carried on crawling. The sweat started to drip from her forehead and dampened the back of her nanoweave suit. She reached the other side of the plant and stopped.

  There’s no way she could get all the way down from here without them spotting her, and she couldn’t reach to the central beam that ran lengthways down the plant. There was only the right-hand gantry or to turn back.

  Neither option appealed.

  Time for a distraction.

  Kina climbed down from the beam until her feet hovered over the gantry railing. She eased herself down and crouched into the corner, above the staircase. Reaper moved forward with purpose. Chang lurked somewhere below the mezzanine level.

  As she reached behind her to remove the shotgun, a hand shot out of the darkness and smacked into the side of her face, knocking her down the staircase. She dropped the weapon and reached out to grab an upright, stopping her fall.

  Above her, a human male, yelled to the others and jumped forward ready to stomp her into the steps. She let go of the upright and tumbled legs-over-head backward down the staircase until she rolled out on the plant floor.

  Her head and shoulders throbbed with pain, but she tensed her muscles and got ready to move. The shotgun clattered next to her, having been kicked by the on-rushing male.

  Her night-vision goggles had been lost in the fall.

  But she didn’t need them to see the large man reaching down for the crude weapon. Kina flipped up on to her feet and flashed out a kick, catching the man square in the ribs. He sucked in a breath and fell back against the staircase. In one fluid movement, Kina pulled the daggers from her belt and s
liced him across the throat and the belly, spilling his internal organs to the floor.

  A pistol fired from her right. The round ricocheted off the steel just inches from her head. She backflipped into the shadows beneath the gantry as Reaper’s auto-shotgun pealed out a four-round volley, each shot slamming into the wall behind her, sending up a cloud of rust and debris.

  Using it for cover, Kina dashed toward the heavy steel door and tried the handle. No luck. She checked the control panel and realized the wires had been pulled out. That gave her an idea—if she has enough time.

  She reached into the control panel and felt around for the mechanism. Over the years, she’d done her fair share of breaking and entering hulks with Tairon Cauder. If she could just… wait, the door mechanism was melted. It was smooth to the touch.

  Another explosion erupted from behind her. They were firing blind while the dust settled. One bullet grazed against her leg, slicing through the nanoweave fabric and making her shudder and wince with the burning pain.

  Heavy footsteps of the kronac pounded nearer—as did the maniacal laughing of Chang as they sought to trap her.

  Frek!

  She ran her hands around the wires hoping to find some contacts left—but wait, the power core was good, the transformer still warm … of course!

  Kina grabbed the insulated part of the severed cable and jammed it against the contacts on the power transformer. With her free hand she pulled the power lever—not for the door, but for the …

  With a stuttering flash, the overhead algae lights bloomed bright, dousing the plant in bright yellow light. Kina squinted against the sudden change and spun round, drawing her blades.

  In front of her, both Reaper and Chang were fumbling for their night-vision apparatus, the extreme contrast of light blinding them. Not taking any more chances, Kina darted forward, clenching her jaw against the pain in her leg, and buried one of the daggers directly into Chang’s chest, piercing his heart. He dropped the shock-stick with the fall.

  Kina picked it up and threw it like a spear into Reaper’s back.