Shadow Warrior: Destiny of a Mutant (37 page)

The
Eyrie

Serrano was outside on the gangplank of the Krelian when Will’s starship abruptly disappeared without warning. Upon seeing this, Serrano immediately ran up the gangplank to notify Hauser.

“Captain! The Colonel’s ship just disappeared!”

“What do you mean it disappeared?”

“I mean it just vanished into thin air. Kind of like it did when it first appeared - out of nowhere.”

Tah’soon had heard what was being said and informed Tal’pun, who gave his opinion of what had happened.

“Tal’pun said that the Guardian must have needed his ship and summoned it to him because otherwise it would not have vanished. It is nothing to be concerned about,” translated Tah’soon.

As Hauser was about to speak, gunfire erupted outside of the ship.

“Captain! Hoffman and his men must have been waiting and watching nearby and when they saw the Colonel’s ship disappear they figured we were sittin’ ducks,” exclaimed Hess.

“Shit! I think they’re right. Tal’pun, can your shields hold off their bullets from hitting this ship?” asked Hauser.

“At their current power levels, they can but only for a few minutes,” he answered

As soon as Tal’pun said that, the ship shook from explosions outside caused by Hoffman’s men throwing hand grenades near the ship. Several of Hauser’s men and Krelian crew stumbled and almost fell. He knew the shields wouldn’t hold much longer.

“Damn! If we could take Hoffman out of the picture, his men might not be willing to kill him to get to us.” Hauser then thought for a minute. “Hess, can you see where Hoffman is?”

Hess looked out towards where Hoffman’s men were firing from behind cover about thirty yards away, and quickly spotted Hoffman standing behind them giving orders.

“Yes, sir. He’s standing behind his men about twenty-five or thirty yards at our eleven o’clock,” Hess replied.

Hauser thought for a couple of seconds and then asked Tal’pun a question.

After hearing Tal’pun’s answer, Hauser said, “Hess. Serrano. Come here. I have an idea.”

Twenty-Five Thousand Feet and Twenty-Five Miles from the Eyrie

The pilot estimated they were less than seven minutes from their target location.

“Open bomb bay doors and standby,” he ordered.

The
Eyrie
, Tenth Level

Hoffman had still been seething inside to learn that the Americans had been able to free the Nazi scientists, but he knew there was nothing he could do as long as the spacecraft belonging to the phony general was protecting the Americans and the other ship. He and ten of his men had quietly made their way to the tenth level using a secret passage that only Hoffman knew existed. Once there, they had secreted themselves and waited for any opportunity that might present itself.

He was deep in thought when one of his men informed him that the bogus general’s ship had just vanished. Hoffman was elated, as he knew the other ship was unprotected for the most part, so he ordered his men to open fire with everything they had.

As he was watching his men throw their grenades, he was vaguely aware of a slight shimmering of the air and movement behind him. As he was about to turn around to see where it was coming from, he felt strong hands grab him from behind and the barrel of a gun being pressed to his temple. In German, someone had quietly ordered him in his ear not to move or his brains would be blown out.

Hauser and his men had used the Krelian transporter device to appear behind Hoffman and his men. As soon as he had Hoffman under control, he used his communication device to contact the Krelian ship.

“We have him. Bring us back onboard. Now!” said Hauser urgently into a communication device the Krelians had given him for this short mission.

As they started to disappear, Hess and Serrano unleashed a deadly volley of machine gun fire, killing more than half of Hoffman’s men. Hoffman’s men were completely dumbfounded to see Hoffman and three of the Americans disappear in front of them.

Once back aboard the Krelian ship, Hoffman was secured with handcuffs and locked in a separate holding area.

Tal’pun was then hailed by his engineers to let him know that the ship was repaired enough to at least get them out of the mountain. Tal’pun let Hauser know immediately.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Tal’pun nodded in agreement and ordered Lieutenant Jae’nol to bring the engines online and airborne. At first the engines were sluggish and unresponsive, but on the third attempt to activate them, they came to life! Everyone onboard cheered. Hauser, who was standing next to Erika, reached over and hugged her without thinking, and she hugged him back. After a few seconds, he pulled back and they both looked a little embarrassed by the contact. Erika blushed and turned away.

The ship slowly lifted off the hydraulic lifts it had been sitting on, and Jae’nol gradually began moving towards the bay doors at the end of the cavernous room.

As Hauser looked out through the forward viewing screen, he said to Tal‘pun, “How are we going to get through those doors? Can you activate the opening mechanism from here?”

Before answering him, Tal’pun asked Jae’nol the questions that Hauser had asked, and a couple more.

“No. But there should be enough power in our weapons to make our own exit.”

As the ship slowly approached the huge bay doors, Tal’pun gave Jae’nol the order to fire his laser weapons. But they weren’t fully charged and didn’t punch a big enough hole in the bay doors! They were trapped!

Twenty-Five Thousand Feet and Five Miles West of the
Eyrie

The co-pilot had spotted the target and advised the pilot. The pilot got on the intercom.

“On my mark. Five…four…three….two…one. Bombs away! Bombs away!”

On the pilot’s order, the bomber crew released their deadly cargo.

“Okay, Lieutenant. Let’s get the hell out of here!”

The pilot and co-pilot then turned their plane one-hundred eighty degrees as quickly as the big lumbering bird could go.

Two Miles West of the Eyrie

Schultz, Brunner, Wakefield, and Becker were starting to get worried. They had not heard from their teammates since they had entered the
Eyrie.
They hoped everything had gone okay. They did not want to leave without them or at least knowing what had happened to them.

Just then Schultz heard the distinctive sound of a B-29 bomber approaching from the west. Schultz brought it to Brunner’s attention and then looked towards the mountain where his team was and saw a huge hole appear in the side of the mountain out of nowhere. Schultz then looked back up at the bomber in time to see the bomber’s bay doors open and an object fall from its belly.

“Oh shit!” he exclaimed. “Why the fuck are they bombing our guys?” he said.

Brunner was equally as shocked. “Jesus! What the hell are they doing?”

Wakefield chimed in as well. “I have no idea. But, what kind of damage do they think one bomb is going to do to that mountain?”

A second or so after their comments, a huge hole appeared in the side of the mountain and a strange looking ship exited the hole very slowly. It appeared as if the ship was having trouble gaining altitude.

Brunner was the first to see the Krelian ship and was completely dumbstruck.

“Holy fuck! Guys, look at that shit!”

“Oh dear God,” said Becker as he crossed himself.

“Blimey! That’s the bloody spaceship the Colonel and the rest of our mates came to take back from the Nazis! I can’t believe the damn thing’s flying,” exclaimed Wakefield.

“It looks like it’s having trouble gaining altitude,” said Schultz.

“Yeah and it looks like that damn bomb’s going to hit it as well!”

Krelian Research Vessel

The Krelian engineers had managed to amplify the power to the weapons system so the lasers could punch a hole big enough to get the ship, but at the cost of draining the engines to the point where they were having a hard time getting airborne.

“Lieutenant! We’ve got to gain altitude before we crash this ship again!” said the Captain.

“I’m trying, sir! But the weapons system drained a lot of engine power because we’re not at a hundred percent power yet!”

Tal’pun then hailed the engineers. “Sal’chan! I need all power transferred to the engines so we can get some altitude!”

“Yes, sir. But I’ll have to put our life support and shielding systems on auxiliary power and hope we don’t have any problems.”

“Do it! If not, we’re dead anyway!”

Through the forward viewing screen, Hauser saw the approaching B-29.

“Oh shit! We have another problem now! The bomber the Colonel warned us about with the atomic bomb is…Fuck! It just dropped that damn bomb! If we don’t lift off from here now, we’re all dead!”

Tal‘pun replied, “Then, we’re dead, Captain! This ship will never get the altitude it needs in the few seconds before that bomb hits us and…”

Hauser interrupted, “Wait! What the hell is that?”

As Hauser spoke, Will’s ship arrived and positioned itself above the Krelian vessel. Will had teleported outside of his ship as it arrived and quickly flew towards the bomb while he scanned it quickly with his vision powers.

Shit! There’s only fifteen seconds left on that timer. I’ll have to be careful so it doesn’t go off prematurely,
he thought to himself.
Will carefully caught the bomb, halting its fall in mid-air only a hundred feet from the Krelian vessel and started flying into the upper atmosphere and then into outer space as fast as he could safely go without exploding the bomb prematurely. Will then quickly contacted Tal’pun.

“Tal’pun, my ship will assist you now. I have ordered it to take you to a position two-hundred miles above the planet so you can finish your repairs.”

Tal’pun acknowledged Will’s message and as soon as he did, Will’s ship captured the Krelian ship in an entrapment beam and started taking it to its new position two-hundred miles up.

Two Miles West of the
Eyrie

As Brunner and the rest of his men watched in horror as the bomb plummeted towards the Krelian ship, they were shocked upon seeing a second, smaller ship appear and position itself above the larger ship. They were more in shock when what looked like a man in a black suit appeared out of nowhere and caught the bomb in mid-air and then flew straight up into the air with it.

Their mouths hung open as they then observed Will’s ship appear to tow the Krelian vessel with it as it also started heading into the upper atmosphere.

At first all of them were too flabbergasted to speak. Becker was the first one to utter a word.

“I can’t fucking believe what I just saw!”

“Yeah. That makes two of us,” said Brunner.

“Where did that second ship come from?” asked Wakefield.

“No fuckin’ idea,” said Schultz.

“I wonder where the hell the Colonel and the rest of our guys are? You don’t suppose they’re on that damn ship do you?” asked Becker.

“No way,” said Brunner. “I mean. Shit, I don’t know what I mean.”

“Well, what do we do now?” asked Wakefield.

“I guess we wait here for a few more minutes. If we don’t hear anything, we’ll try and make radio contact with the Colonel. If we still don’t get nothin’, then we start walkin’ to the extraction point.”

Brunner got nods from all around.

Krelian Research Vessel

Tal’pun ordered Lieutenant Jae’nol to turn on the forward viewing screen so he and the others could watch what was happening with the bomb. The spacecraft was rising rapidly to the altitude that Will’s ship was towing them. They watched Will pass them like they were sitting still and were amazed as Will entered outer space with the bomb. He soon became a dot in the distance even though the magnification of the forward viewing screen was at its maximum.

Serrano asked Tah’soon to ask the Captain how far the Colonel was from them, which she did.

“He said the Shadow Warrior, or the Colonel as you know him, is approximately 10,000 miles from here.”

“10,000 miles? How the hell is that possible?” asked Schechter.

“Nothing surprises me about that man anymore, Lieutenant,” said Hauser.

Just then, a tiny bright light appeared where they had seen Will a few seconds before.

“I think the bomb just exploded,” said Hess.

“No shit, sir” said Robbins.

“You think the Colonel survived that?” asked Serrano.

“I don’t know how anyone could have survived that - not even the Colonel,” said Hauser.

Just then a voice behind them said, “I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Captain,” said Will, who had just teleported inside of the ship.

All of them were dumbstruck to see the Colonel in his Guardian uniform. He partially morphed out of it so they could see his face, while the rest of the uniform stayed visible.

His men then let out a cheer and began clapping him on the back. After a few seconds, Will stopped their revelry and said, “I believe we’re missing a few people, Captain.”

“Who?” he asked as he looked around. “Oh shit! Brunner, Schultz, Wakefield, and Becker. Those poor bastards are still on the ground near the mountain. What are we going to do?”

“I’ll go and get them. I’ll be back in a few seconds,” Will said as he disappeared in front of them, but not before morphing back into his bullet riddled Nazi uniform.