Part One by Kevin Hiley
They were everywhere! Shining metal forms moving about slowly and methodically menaced every corner of his vision. Chinon made another panicked run for cover, throwing his body carelessly and painfully under another cluster of construction materials.
The compound was done for. Gunfire once rang in his ears constantly, now he barely heard any. The mopping up had begun, and he was one of those waiting to be cleaned away. He writhed in pain from the dive but he dare not make any more signed by crying out. He bit his own hand savagely, blood drawing from the teeth wounds he had inflicted on himself. He looked down at his foot. He must have twisted it, or worse still broken it. Whatever it was it hurt like hell. Great. Now how was he going to get out of here?
He huddled under his improvised cover, large pipe sections and stacks of metal girders. He crawled under more girders which would mask his presence better. It was also a little warmer. The evenings on this planet were bitter and it was pitch black now. He lifted his gun and examined it. The suspension tank was half empty. He rested his head back, daring himself to breathe a little and analyse his situation.
They had come swiftly, and in deadly force. hundreds of ships, overwhelming the ground forces in minutes. What was so important about the compound he wasn't sure. Chinon was just a construction worker, drafted in by the Corps. to build a new hangar wing. His contract had never specified attack by Cybermen.
Gunfire alerted Chinon's senses again. Cyberguns of course. Killing more innocent workers. They didn't really care who the human was. Women, even children were a target. How he had managed to evade death was a miracle. Chinon felt that his continued breathing was only to be short lived anyway. Soon the Cybermen would be totally in control here. But then what? The military never tell you what they are up to, they just pay your wages.
Chinon fiddled with the strap of the gun nervously. He had prized it from the hands of a dead soldier outside the workers wing. It was a Glittergun, clumsy looking spray guns that fired gold particles in some sort of magnetic containment field. In the half filled tank was probably half a planets gold reserve, but it was deadly to Cybermen and sometimes people do seek to live over their profit. Chinon couldn't help wondering how he would spend the money from the contents of the gun if he survived. Get one of those Orbit runners, buy the wife one of those weird body bepple kits she kept on talking about. He thought about her for a moment, he really didn't think he would ever see her again. Would she know what happened to him? Would anyone know what happened to people here? Would it just become another statistic on the Cyber border wars list.
The Glittergun bleeped quietly. Chinon looked at it but was not sure what the tones meant. He examined a small panel mounted on top of the gun. An arrow indicator pointed to his right and flashed distance numbers. Chinon guessed it was a Cyberman detector. These military weapons were clever pieces of kit. Didn't help them though did it?
The numbers decreased. Something was getting closer to him. He tried to peer out at the end of the row of girders but could not see what it was. He scrambled painfully into one of the pipe sections and caught glimpse of a silver foot at the other end. He aimed the gun unsurely. He felt the searing hot stinging from his own ankle and looked vengefully at the Cyberman's feet. How nice it would be to even up the score. Chinon wasn't so rash though, partly because he couldn't tell if more were around him, but mainly because Chinon was already terrified for his life.
Slowly he crawled up the pipe, getting nearer to the motionless Cyberman which stood outside. He took it slow, crawling as quietly as his thick overalls would allow, gun poised in his hands ready to fire. One problem with Glitterguns is they were loud, and distinctive. Fire it and he may just bring an army down on him.
Chinon reached the mouth of the pipe. The Cyberman was barely metres away and oblivious to his presence. He had switched the detector off because it made too much noise. If there was a way to mute it, he had not discovered how.
He tried to look about. It was a mudded clearing of a building site with prefab huts and metal framework of a new command centre. It was now cloaked in darkness, smoke billowing from power sources. It also seemed to be clear for the moment. The Cyberman stood with its back to Chinon, watching the building site. He pointed the glittergun at the Cyberman. He couldn't miss from this range. Chinon knew little about guns and this was the first time he had ever been in a position to use one. He felt strange sensations. He felt powerful, safe, maybe even exhilerated. Above all the terror and pain, the adrenalin in his system made the whole experience a morbid thrill. Chinon grinned and squeezed the trigger.
A bright stream of glittering gold molecules exploded from the nozzle of the weapon. They fused against the back of the cyberman, penetrating its armour and flames and green fluid sprang out in a grizzly display. The Cyberman roared in what sounded like pain. It swung around but was too confused and damaged to aim. Something was wrong. the Glittergun should have killed it surely? But an alarm was buzzing on the gun and the stream, although still activated did not seem to be damaging the Cyberman anymore. Chinon froze in panic and confusion. There didn't seem to be any gold projecting from the gun. He shook it and kept pressing down the trigger but it was useless!
The Cyberman looked at him, its back a mass of flame and burning metal. It moaned inhumanly and staggered unsurely. It raised its gun and fired a badly judged shot which blew bits of plastic fibre into Chinon's face. He yelped and made a leap of courage at the Cyberman to try and overpower it. He was flung aside like a rag doll. Even this hurt, it was almost unstoppable. It aimed at him again, this time only missing because Chinon had rolled over to look up. He tried to get up quickly, his ankle was hurting so badly that he was dizzy, his judgement almost as impaired as his opponents.
The Cyberman fired again and Chinon felt the heat of the blast at his feet. steam from the mud rose sickly from the point the energy weapon had struck and for a moment it blocked the Cyberman's view. Chinon used it to grab a piece of construction equipment, a bolt ram. It had no power but it made an effective club. Staggering through the steam came the Cyberman, gun trained on Chinon's chest. He swung the Bolt ram into the Cyberman's arm.
The sound of metal hitting metal was heard and Chinon dropped the ram, but the Cyberman had also been knocked off balance. Chinon dipped down to pick up the ram again. He flourished it over his head to smash it down on the prone Cyberman. It was not quite so eager to give up however and it kicked out at him, the force of the blow on his hurt leg was more pain than he could bear and he collapsed to the floor, tears streaming from his eyes.
The Cyberman rose to its feet and stumbled over to him, gun raised. No weapons in reach this time. Chinon spoke a silent prayer and said goodbye to his wife. The Cyberman fired, but instead of Chinon's vital organs being boiled in his own chest, the gun exploded in the Cyberman's hand. It must have been damaged in the fight! Unstable electricity arched across the Cyberman and its arm sparked and exploded. Now unable to function properly it lumbered about blindly, burning and smouldering. Strange green fluids ran down its legs and sizzled in the mud. Chinon got up through sheer will power, picked up the ram and slammed it down on the Cyberman's head.
In a bright burst of flame, and with a blast of sound, the head exploded, small interior components and vestiges of what might have once been human brains scattered onto the floor. The Cyberbody fell to the ground wriggling and struggling. Slowly the flames took hold and it ceased moving, sickly vapours rising from it. Chinon stood there unsure what to do. He had won, he had killed it. He nudged the remains with the ram, even with a Cyberman there was the strange lifelessness, like with all corpses, something that was once living, was now just scrap metal and synthetics.
Chinon made his way slowly to one of the building site huts for shelter. The night was now freezing and silent. Four moons shone their eerie light over the compound. The Cybermen now owned this planet and Chinon may well be the only survivor. He could not hope for rescue. But he was not going to die without taking more of these monsters with him! He thought of his wife again, and vowed that he could not never let them reach their home world. For every one of these frelling metal freaks he killed, it was one less the forces would have to deal with later. Chinon sat in the darkness, and plotted his revenge.
Part Two by Jennifer Yanta
The cold night air blew in through a broken window, cooling Chinon's hot face. Looking around the interior of the hut, he saw the usual collection of gear for a construct-team. The place looked like a blast zone, but then he remembered that it was. He crawled through the debris to the bunk beds that lined one wall and found the lockers that he knew would be there. With a length of iron that must have once been part of the ceiling, he pried one open.
Construct teams weren't always the brightest collection of minds around, but they knew what they needed and any self-respecting laborer always had the basics. Rummaging around the interior, he gave a satisfied sigh as he found what he was looking for, the handyman's secret weapon, good for fixing everything from a leaky water pipe to reattaching pieces of land rover-a full roll of heavy duty duct tape! Starting at his toes, he began wrapping his boot with the tape. Working his way up his ankle, he immobilized his foot as best he could. He knew he was a dead man, but at least now he was a dead man walking.
Going through the other lockers he managed to gather together two more rolls of the duct tape, a small toolkit, a flashlight, a length of rope, and surprisingly a small handgun. Apparently construct workers weren't the most honest guys either. He stuffed the gun into the waistband of his trousers and threw everything else into a small backpack.
Glancing out the doorway, he saw that two of the moons had set already. Creeping out of the hut and hoping the Cybermen were out of the area he made his way through the shadows towards the hanger he had been assigned to. It was almost complete and Chinon knew every crack and corner in the place. He knew that certain power lines to the hangar were routed through the main military building. With luck he could gain access to that building through those shafts. If there were any big guns or explosives on this godsforsaken rock, they would be there.
He reached the hangar and slipped in through a large hole that had been blasted through the wall. The interior was black. Chinon leaned against the wall and listened for any sign of the metallic monsters. Hearing nothing he risked his flashlight and made his way to the back of the building. Moving along the back wall, he located the access panel he was looking for. It was a grate set into the floor just large enough for a person to crawl down. Originally meant for general maintenance, it now became his avenue in.
Reaching down, he got a grip on the grate and pulled up hard. It slid cleanly out of its place. Just like it was supposed to do, Chinon thought. He smiled feeling a strange sense of pride at his team's work. Dropping into the shaft, he grimaced at the pain in his foot as he climbed down the ladder to the bottom. A tunnel ran from the bottom of the ladder in the direction of the main building. It was only about 5 ½ feet high so he had to duck to keep from banging his head. His footsteps echoed back to him creating a hypnotic cadence leading him onward into the dark. Soon his breath was coming hard and sweat was rolling down his face. He kept the light pointed a few feet ahead of him hoping to avoid any obstacles that would further injure his already throbbing foot.
So he didn't see the low hanging pipe until he was already lying on the ground with his ears ringing from the impact of steel on his cranium. Moaning and grasping his head he could feel a lump forming and blood slowly oozing out of a gash. Lying back on the ground, he looked up at the ceiling, just barely visible in the low light. "This day gets better and better," he muttered.
"What do you think boys? Rest for a few minutes?" he asked no one in particular, pausing as if expecting an answer. "Good idea," he finished. The boys, his crewmates, Jon, Freddy, Azba. All dead now, he thought. All destroyed at the merciless hands of the Cybermen. He closed his eyes to say a silent prayer…
The park. How he knew this he wasn't sure, but he felt surrounded by warm greens and browns. Flashes of color seemed to be flowers although he couldn't focus on them clearly. Other livelier flashes of color bobbed to and from the flower colors and soared in the sky. He heard a low murmur and realized it was his wife. She was talking to him. She was always talking, he thought, always had something to tell him, but this time her words made the sunlight dance.
They must be on one of her picnics. Chinon had always thought they were a waste of time, he always had something else better he wanted to do, but here lying in the dancing and twirling sun he couldn't think of anywhere else he wanted to be right now. He gazed at his wife, at her beautiful green eyes, at the line of her jaw as she smiled at him. He ran his hand through her curly hair, that beautiful wild hair that always went crazy in the wind. He laughed at the thought and then gasped as a clump of that hair fell out as he pulled his hand away. As he stared at the shock of hair he held in his hand, he could feel the sunlight fade. He could hear thunder in the distance and knew that the unthinkable had arrived - the Cybermen had found his planet.
He looked back to his wife, but now she had pulled away from him. She was still looking at him, but her face was silver and the silver was leeching into the rest of her body, running through her veins and creeping into her skin. Jerking back from her, he looked desperately around for help. The park was gone. In its place was a flat plain with a dark sky above. Nothing lived here in this wasteland, nothing could. He felt the pain back in his foot and looked down. His foot had become a silver boot. The silver started to move up his leg. A hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Where his wife had been, now stood a Cyberman, except that the Cyberman had green eyes. His wife's eyes. Chinon screamed…
…and sat full upright. Someone was screaming. He grabbed the flashlight and pulled the gun from his trousers as he struggled to his feet. He gasped for air and the screaming stopped. He swung the light beam wildly around searching for the demons in his dream. His dream…it had only been a dream, a horrible nightmare. Realizing he was still alone, he hunkered back down against the wall cradling the gun in his lap as if it would ward off anything he couldn't see lurking in the dark. Slowly his breathing calmed and his hands stopped shaking.
Standing up he continued down the tunnel. He couldn't waste anymore time. He had a job to do - his wife was counting on him.
Part Three by Kevin Hiley
Getting out from the subterranean passages had become a problem. Most of the hatches were either sealed or buried under something. Probably corpses. Like a rat in a sewer, Chinon scurried through the darkness trying to pry one of them open. He was moving further away from the military stores, the place where he really needed to be. He stopped at the intersection of one of the concrete passages when he spied a red service light still operating. Rich blood like colours illuminated a ladder up to yet another hatch. Chinon paused cautiously. Surely all the power had been cut off? Unless this had been kept intact for some reason. He was as good as lost in the maze of underground tunnels and looked about him for a location plate. Being unable to spy one in his vicinity he approached the light and stopped at the base of the ladder, craning his neck up to listen.
Nothing.
Chinon followed the line of the lights power cable and it led further down into the blackness of this passage way. From what he could remember of the plans, this didn't seem to be going anywhere, just out into the grey deserts of the planetoid. He began to amble up the tunnel slowly, feeling the cable every step of the way trying to make sense of the blackness about him. He had a small torch but how long its cell charge would last for he didn't know, so he used it as little as possible. His ankle still needed attention, it throbbed and complained but the adrenalin in his system was the best pain killer he had for now.
The passage just kept going, straight, narrow and horizontal. No lights, no sign of any ways out. He must have travelled a fair distance by now. Chinon stopped to rest. He blinked his useless eyes at the blackness. This plan was not going very well. He ate from a ration pack, sat resting against the concrete walling.
The forest filtered out the bright rays of the sun, casting brilliant speckled shadows across the leaf laden ground. The air was light and warm, with a gentle breeze rippling the branches above them.
"We're back again my Love" said Chinon calmly.
"Always, this is our place." She replied softly. They walked through the glade together not speaking, just being together was enough.
"When do you leave again?" She asked suddenly. Chinon turned to her.
"I don't know. I think I shall stay this time. Too many months are spent away."
"You'll return." She smiled.
"Always." grinned Chinon. He embraced her, holding her tightly for a moment. She pulled away from him, her eyes were moist.
"I have to go now." She was turning to leave him.
"But... I thought we could-" She turned back to him and put her finger to his lips. She smiled kindly.
"Shhhhhh" she said softly, and was gone.
So was the forest. Chinon opened his eyes to an oppressive darkness. He breathed heavily trying to clear his mind. He closed his eyes tightly for a moment wishing he could return to the dream, but all his sense could feel was pain and cold. Even down here the temperature was low. His head was pounding. His injury must have caught up with him. he felt his head with his hands and rose unsteadily to his feet. picking up the pack, he continued his journey through the blackness.
He did not have far to go either. The passage widened, and became impossibly large. Chinon could reach the roof before if he lifted his arm high enough, now it could not. by his reckoning he was in some vast chamber. He took out his torch and checked the powercell. It really was low. He switched it on and the dull white illumination swept over the area.
Less than eight feet in-front of him was a chasm. The whole place had been mined out and prepared for something. The chamber roof was at least a hundred feet above him, and about the same width. The chasm was in the centre, about thirty feet wide and circular. He approached it cautiously shining the torch down it. It illuminated nothing. The chasm must be hundreds of feet deep. He stepped away tentatively and looked for some sign of purpose to this chamber. There was something very unearthly about the chamber. The material was not standard concrete, but made from a smooth plastic, or maybe it was metallic? It was icy cold to the touch. The passage he had travelled in through was standard earth military, but this he would hazard was alien.
To Chinon's relief he found another passage, it was inverted trapezoid in shape with the roof being wider than the floor. It was made from the strange metal/plastic alloy. It felt as if the walls had been moulded in place because Chinon detected no joins. He kept flashing the torch from time to time to keep track of his position. Then he shone it at a shape on the floor. It was a body. Bending down he examined the corpse, or what was left of it. The unfortunate trooper was little more than a skeleton, bones and dust leaking from body armour. He was an Earth soldier alright, name and rank was etched into the chest armour. "Aelfric 10/10/5562." Chinon felt around at the base of the jawbone with unease, but he found what he was looking for. A chain from around his neck with an ID badge and a data card that all soldiers wear. The material was near indestructible so it was often the last remains. Chinon pressed the pad and a small low resolution holograph of the soldiers head appeared. A man in his mid 30's from Denmark. blonde hair and a large nose. narrow eyes made him look quite a fearsome individual. He certainly didn't look like what little was left of him. Chinon glared at the date. This man had been born a century ago. Whatever had killed Aelfric had killed him some 60 years ago.
Aelfric did offer some use. Chinon located a medikit in his pack and had applied treatment to his leg and the front of his head. Medikits even decades ago were miraculous, injecting cell reconstructors. Tissue regeneration was fast. There was also a gun. a large Meson rifle which was still fully charged. It probably wouldn't do much against Cybermen but it had a better use right now. He activated the gun's floodlight which was many times more powerful than his torch and looked with horror at the corridor ahead of him.
There were more bodies, many more... scattered about and contorted in various gruesome shapes which led Chinon to believe they died very unpleasantly. But it was the walls that Chinon was shocked the most by. Everywhere there was a common image, a stylised symbol of a Cyberman head. Chinon was inside a long abandoned Cyber-control centre.
Part Four by Jennifer Yanta
Suddenly Chinon understood. The attack wasn’t a random act. The Cybermen had been here before, set up a base and were now back to resume business as usual. The realization of where he was made Chinon’s skin crawl. If eluding the Cybermen had been harrowing before, walking into their lair was nearly unthinkable. Every shadow now held a monster. Every sound he made was now a thunderous claxon, alerting the enemy to where he was. Shaking his head, he took a deep breath to clear his thoughts and his fear. Taking one last look around to reassure himself that he was alone, he continued down the corridor through the doorway.
The next room contained banks of computers. Moving to one of the computers, he was able to bring up a schematic of the area. All the corridors seemed to converge onto a central area.
That must be the control center, he thought. That was where he could do the most damage.
The now familiar bodies of long dead soldiers littered the area. A cursory glance around their gear revealed nothing useful until his eyes lit upon a small box cradled in one corpse’s arms. Picking up the box his expectations were correct. He now held vengeance in his hands. The box was in fact a powerful bomb. The last resort weapon of the military. Obviously the previous owner hadn’t had time to use it. As Chinon lifted it into his arms and continued his hike into hell, he hoped that if the time came he would have the courage.
How long had he been moving? Seemed like forever. His gun was heavy, the bomb was heavy, his feet were heavy. His head was hurting again and when he lifted his hand to it, his fingers came away with blood on them again. If he could just rest for a moment, then maybe he could find a way off this gods-forsaken rock. Finding a secluded corner, he hunkered down. It wasn’t long before his eyes drooped and his head nodded.
Light and warmth.
Laughter.
Like rain falling on bells.
Chinon basked on both. He had been so cold and so lonely for so long. He missed his Nessa.
He turned his head and saw her smiling at him. He couldn’t help but smile back.
They knew he’d have to leave soon. Work always took him so far away. She was always understanding about these trips but he knew how hard it was on her. He took her hand and squeezed it gently. She laughed again and he reached out to touch her face.
Silver.
Suddenly she looked at him, with eyes fulled with hurt. What was wrong?
Silver death.
She pulled away from him and started to cry.
Terrified, he realized that his hand was silver. He tried to cry out but all that came out was a noise like static.
She screamed at the sound and turned to run.
No! He thought.
Nessa, it’s me!, he screamed but that infuriating static was all she could hear. In desperation he reached out and grabbed her. To his horror he saw silver hands go around her neck. He felt her pulse through her skin. The static filled his head. As it became louder he could feel his hands tighten on her neck. He could hear her coughing and struggling to breathe.
He couldn’t control himself. The more he fought it, the louder the static became and the harder his hands squeezed.
No! Stop, he screamed static and his hands clenched one last time. She fell to the ground and he watched the life go out of her eyes. He watched the only joy he had ever known whither under the force of the silver gloves. He was alone now. Forever.
Chinon shook as he lay in the dark. He didn’t notice the tears running down his face. All he could think of was keeping the Cybermen away from Earth, away from his wife. He couldn’t let the disaster of his dream become reality.
He picked himself up and continued his trek. Soon his effort was rewarded. He could see a pulsing(He could feel it through her skin) light issuing from a doorway. Turning into the room, Chinon could see a kind of flat-topped pyramid with a glowing orb suspended above it. He approached the device to get a better look. Reaching out to touch it he was surprised when the interaction triggered a holo-map. The map shifted views and coordinates until it settled on a small bluish planet. It was Earth(she had always loved the park). Had it already been invaded or was it still safe? There was no way of telling. (Silver death.)
He had to destroy the base and he now held no hope of survival for himself. His despair had taken him far beyond that foolish notion. Laying the bomb at the foot of the pyramid, he set it for 30 seconds. That would give him enough time to make a quick peace with his Maker.
A noise from the doorway distracted him. Three Cybermen had entered the room. Chinon quickly pushed the bomb farther behind the pyramid hoping to hide it from their view and grabbed his gun. Firing as the Cybermen advanced, he used up the last of its charge to no effect.
Ducking behind the monolith he quickly activated the timer and then waited to be killed. After a few seconds he realized that the monsters weren’t approaching. Hoping to expedite the process, he stepped out into the open. He smiled at the leader knowing that the end was rapidly approaching.
“Chinon,” the leader spoke. “I once knew you.”
His smile evaporated. How could this thing know his name?
The creature reached up to its mask and unfastened the faceplate.
Chinon’s mind exploded as he saw what lay beneath. His love, his life. His wife’s face stared at him from under that mask. Her skin was ghastly pale and her eyes dead(she had been coughing and struggling to breathe). He could see a thick fluid coursing through the veins in her face–it didn’t remind him of blood, but more like hydraulic fluid.
He was too late. He screamed at the monstrosity that used to be his darling Nessa. All the pain and all the sadness of the universe fell in on him pushing him down to his knees. Suddenly he could hear the ticking of the bomb behind him—
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