Frozen Enemies (8 page)

High above, water poured down the sides of the stasis cube. As the ice melted, students goggled. A small flood, bigger with every passing second, began gurgling around their feet.

“What did you
do
, Tarz?” Lishtig whispered in disbelief.

Emmie didn’t answer. Her face was grey, her navy-blue eyes fixed, unblinking, on the scene before her.

John, too, was unable to take his eyes off the exhibit. The Omega-bots forgotten, he stared as streams of water turned into a continuous rushing fall along the entire length of the stasis cube.

Somewhere in the distance an alarm blared. With a clash of metal, the Omega-bots’ claws released Emmie’s arm. The two machines moved to take new positions further back from the cube, a short distance from each other. Neither gave any instructions to the students around them.

Still staring wildly, Emmie walked towards the ice, hand stretched out to touch the gushing water. “No,” she whispered. “This is
not
happening.”

A few metres from her, Kaal hadn’t moved since his warning shout. Like the rest of the class, he seemed to be rooted to the spot.

Water rushed past John’s ankles, threatening to knock him off his feet. He heard a long, blood-chilling shriek that drowned out the sirens in the distance.
What’s going on?
he wondered. Another scream rang out, followed by the sounds of blasts and explosions.

It was a battle cry.

The stasis cube was now less than three-quarters of its original height.

John gasped, as freezing water passed his knees. A split second later he forgot all about the cold: the scene before his eyes was much more chilling. As they emerged from the ice, the Goran and Subo warriors that had been on the highest ground were now resuming their fight exactly where they had left off.

Most of the soldiers in the bogs below were still trapped but, as John watched, a Goran lunged at the closest Subo. “Die, Subo!” it howled in triumph. The Subo thrashed its supple body, desperate to escape the ice. It failed. Caught in the Goran’s pincers, massive wounds opened up along its neck. The enraged Subo twisted in the Goran’s grip, screaming as its laser-horn flickered to life.

A jet of light flashed. The Goran howled as one of its pincers was lopped from its body. The Subo was now free of the ice and able to slither towards its enemy. It closed in for a fresh attack, shrieking.

The cube was now half melted. Water gurgled and swirled around John’s thighs. Jagged blocks of ice swept past.

Across the melting ice, thousands of warriors were coming to life. In the distance, John could see a hill that looked like a command post. He heard a roaring voice giving commands, massively amplified so that seemingly every soldier could hear.

“This is General Klort, Commander of the Subo forces. Attack the Goran. Show them no mercy. Kill them.
Kill them all
!
” A great cheer swelled in the Subo ranks. As if answering their general, devastating charges that had been frozen on high ground for thousands of years began to fall once again upon enemy ranks below. Subo and Goran slid across the ice in killing lust. Explosions burst into life again, splattering the scene with great gobs of mud and broken bodies.

As the ice melted, the roar of battle became deafening. Somewhere, the alarm was still sounding, but John could barely hear it. He watched, fascinated, as lines of laser fire were exchanged for bullets and exploding bombs. Giant pincers met the deadly points of laser-horns. Here, a Subo went down, squealing under a tank-like Goran, never to get up again. There, a Goran howled its last as it was cut to pieces by laser fire.

John’s eyes moved across the scene. Neither side seemed to be winning. In one place, a Goran line collapsed under the weight of attacking Subo in one place. For a moment, John thought that might give them the advantage. Then, seconds later, the same happened to a line of Subo soldiers.

There was no order to the chaos: General Klort roared orders, but most of her troops were too bogged down to respond. The entire battle was one vast, bloodthirsty brawl. Kill or be killed. Horrifying in its violence, but at the same time mesmerizing.

“
John
. Get out of there!”

Lishtig splashed past him, through water mixed with battlefield mud. Beside him, Queelin Temerate slipped and fell. Lishtig caught her by the arm. Half crawling, half dragging each other, the two students moved away towards the Omega-bots. The students were fleeing.

John heard a whining noise fifty metres to his right. Suddenly, an explosion flung him onto his knees. Choking on the icy mud, he lifted his head as realization flooded through him. This wasn’t a 4-D movie or one of Archivus Major’s amazing replicas. It was a war.

And it was happening right in front of him.

Most of his classmates had made it to dry ground past the Omega-bots that had restrained Emmie only a few minutes before.

Now, more of the great droids were arriving – hundreds of them buzzed through the air and clanked to a halt in a line at the edge of the battlefield. Quickly, a ring of Omega-bots was forming around the entire exhibit.

John took a step towards the metal guardians of Archivus Major and then stopped. Kaal and Emmie were still standing where he had last seen them, right next to the melting stasis cube. The battle was raging just metres from where they stood. Water was halfway up Emmie’s thighs and as high as Kaal’s knees. He could see Emmie’s gaped mouth as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing, what she had done. Kaal was simply staring, lost in the action unfolding.

The words of Graximus Greyfore suddenly came back to John: “We will never know how the battle would have ended.”

“Wanna bet?” he muttered to himself as he stepped through the sludge. “
KAAAAAL
!
” he yelled at the top of his lungs, fear giving his voice an urgency that caught the Derrilian’s attention, even through the noise of battle.

Kaal turned. Wading more quickly now, John pointed towards Emmie.

Suddenly, Kaal became aware of the danger they were in. Shaking his head, he unfurled his wings, flapping them to help drive him through the muddy water.

They arrived by Emmie at the same time, each reaching out to pull her away.

Eyes fixed on the fight, she struggled. “My fault,” she hissed. “This is
my
fault.”

“No, it’s not!” John yelled. “Come on, we’ve got to get away from here.”

Emmie turned towards him, her face streaked with mud and tears.

“It’s not your fault, Emmie,” John repeated as gently as he could with the battle just raging a few metres away. “Just run for it.
Please
.”

“Let’s go, Tarz. That’s an order!” Kaal shouted. This time, she didn’t struggle. Glancing over her shoulder in horror, she allowed them to drag her over the drenched ground.

“Quickly,” panted John, as they waded through the cold gloop. “The Omega-bots can handle this.” They were close now, the water shallower as they clambered up a low hill. “Just a few more steps, Emmie.”

With a last effort, the three friends hurled themselves towards a gap in the line of metal droids.

Suddenly, there was a fizzing noise and a surge of energy.

Together, they were thrown back.

“What on Earth—” John began. Catching hold of Emmie’s arm once more, he threw himself forward.

And again, a charge of energy threw him back. “Aarrgghhh!” he screamed.

“It’s a force field!” Kaal shouted. “The Omega-bots are acting like fence posts in a ring of force surrounding the battlefield.”

John looked up. On each side of the Omega-bots’ heads, green eyes glowed with power. He put his hand out and yanked it back quickly, his fingertips smarting. Kaal was right. There was an invisible wall between the tall robots.

John waded over to the closest robot and slammed his fist against its metal casing. “Hey, you!” he yelled. “We’re trapped in here. Let us out.”

The Omega-bot remained perfectly still, and perfectly silent.

“I said—”

“It’s no use, John.”

John looked back to see Kaal pushing against the force field. It hadn’t budged.

“But they’re supposed to be protecting us.”

“No, they’re not,” Emmie cut in, her voice thick with misery. “They’re supposed to protect the exhibits, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. They won’t let anything out.” She paused for a moment, then held out the Comet Creative. “I’m sorry, this is all my fault. I must have pressed the wrong button.”

“It wasn’t you, Emmie,” John replied. “I realized Greyfore must have been up to something just as you pressed the button. Why did he want to keep the Comet Creative a secret? Why give it to a student at all? Looks to me like he planned this. I think he
wanted
it to happen.”

Emmie looked up at him hopefully. “You mean it wasn’t—”

“I hate to interrupt, but just to remind you, we’re kind of fenced in with two hundred thousand warriors,” Kaal interrupted. “Pretty soon, one of them is going to wonder why they just woke up in a block of ice on a different planet.”

“Good point.” John waved his arms, standing as close to the invisible barrier as he dared.

On the other side of the field, Lishtig’s head turned. John saw his mouth moving, but no sound made it through the invisible barrier between them. The purple-haired student turned back to his classmates, apparently shouting. A few moments later they were running towards their side of the barrier. Lishtig arrived first and began banging his fists against it. When that failed, he, too, tried to attract an Omega-bot’s attention.

“It’s no good, they’re programmed to contain any disaster,” Kaal panted. “The Omega-bots will maintain the force field for as long as they can.”

“So, we’re stuck in here?” John tried to keep the terror he felt from his voice.

Kaal nodded. “Unless we can either fix the battlefield or disable the Omega-bots.”

John glanced at the battle. It had taken five specially built
Peace Stars
to freeze it 30,000 years ago. He returned his gaze to the unmoving line of Omega-bots. Each was heavily armed and built to fight off anyone or anything trying to interfere with Archivus Major’s exhibits.

John’s shoulders sagged in defeat. “There’s no hope, then?”

“There’s always hope. Emmie, give me the Comet Creative.”

Emmie didn’t reply. Standing stock-still, she stared ahead of her.

John and Kaal followed her gaze.

From the corner of his eye, John saw his classmates beating against the force field with even more urgency. He didn’t move, didn’t even breathe.

A massive Subo warrior had fallen from the ice and was staring at them with its dark, beady eyes. It looked along the line of Omega-bots, then lifted its head to gaze at the sky above. With a snort of angry confusion, it looked back at the three beings who had no business on a Goran–Subo battlefield.

“Who are you? What is this place?” it snarled.

The Subo lowered its laser-horn and began moving forward on short, flipper-like hind legs. John looked around desperately, but there was nowhere to go.

The Subo opened its mouth. “This is Goran trickery. You are enemies of the Subo race,” it growled. “All enemies must die.”

The Subo reared up, preparing to charge the three students.

Suddenly, a laser beam exploded from the Subo’s deadly horn. John tried to leap out of the way, but the laser caught his sleeve. Before John had a chance to recover, another battle cry filled the air. Kaal shrieked as he tore past his friends in a blur of frantically beating wings.

“Kaal,
NO
! It’ll kill you!”

The Derrilian ignored Emmie’s terrified shout. Diving to avoid the Subo’s laser-horn, he closed in on the beast, his yell mixing with the howling of the alien warrior.

Kaal hit just below its bulbous head, where its thick neck widened into powerful shoulders. The force of the blow toppled the Subo. Its massive bulk fell into the water, a muddy wave drenching John and Emmie. Kaal dived on the Subo like a hawk attacking its prey. Wrapping strong arms around its neck, he sank his sharp fangs into the Subo’s blubbery flesh.

A howl of pain ripped through the air. Bucking and thrashing beneath him, the Subo tried to bring its horn round to stab its attacker. The laser began firing randomly, bursts of burning light slamming into the force field wall close to John and Emmie.

“Get down!” Emmie commanded, pulling John into the mud.

Another flash of laser fire hit an Omega-bot behind them. The droid cracked and fizzled, its metal casing spitting sparks. The energy wall flickered and then stabilized again.

The Subo was bigger and heavier than Kaal, but the tall, heavily muscled Derrilian was faster and his thick, green arms were strong. He also had the advantage of flight. Every time the Subo lunged at him, Kaal flew beyond the warrior’s reach and then dived back to attack again. With a grunt of effort, Kaal grabbed the Subo’s laser-horn with one hand and clamped his legs around the warrior’s back. Lying in the mud, John watched helplessly as his friend grappled with the warrior, his face showing the strain.

There was a sharp crack and a spray of sparks. The laser-horn snapped. Shouting in triumph, Kaal raised it high and plunged the deadly tip into the Subo’s flesh.

A hideous screech of rage filled the air. “I’ll tear you apart!” raged the Subo. Screaming in agony, it erupted beneath the Derrilian, thrashing to rid itself of its rider. Kaal was forced to leap away before he was crushed beneath the Subo’s weight, but the warrior’s head smashed into Kaal’s stomach as he jumped. John gasped as Kaal was thrown into the water. His friend fell forward, face down into the swirling, frozen lake.

The Subo’s scream of pain turned to one of conquest as it saw its enemy helpless. Twisting its bulk around, it reared once again.

“No you don’t, you ugly freak.”

A large chunk of ice smashed into the Subo’s head just above its eyes.

“He shoots, he scores!” John shouted wildly, desperate to keep the Subo’s attention away from the motionless Kaal. Reaching down, his fingers found another block of ice. He threw it with all his strength, dancing from one foot to another as it shattered against the creature’s snout.

With Kaal forgotten, the Subo turned its bulk towards John. “Tiny creature,” it sneered. “You won’t last ten seconds against one of General Klort’s elite warriors.”

Despite its words, John noticed the Subo was moving slower now, black blood pumping from the wound in its shoulder where Kaal had stabbed it. Roaring a battle cry, the beast charged at him.

“Think you can take both of us?” Another chunk of ice hurtled through the air, smacking into the Subo’s blubbery neck. Following John’s lead, Emmie was throwing whatever she could lay her hands on.

Confused, the creature’s head weaved from side to side, trying to watch both its new enemies at once as they waded towards it, hurling lumps of ice and rock. The Subo threw itself towards John, forcing him to stagger backward until his back was almost against the force field. Seeing the danger, Emmie renewed her attack. Her missiles bounced off the Subo’s skin. Still it charged, straight towards John.

“Don’t worry about me, help Kaal!” John yelled at Emmie. He scrabbled in the mud for something, anything, to throw.

The Subo dodged as John rained chunks of ice upon it with all his strength. John’s fingers were throbbing with cold, his strength dwindling, but by aiming at the creature’s tiny eyes and keeping up a constant barrage, he managed to hold off the Subo. Behind it, he saw Emmie shaking Kaal back to consciousness and dragging the Derrilian to his feet.

“Kaal, take Emmie.
Fly
!
” he bellowed, slipping on the mud.

Seeing John fall, the Subo again charged forward. “Now you are
mine
!” it bellowed, its great bulk cutting off John’s view of his friends.

John tried to wriggle backward, one hand searching for anything else to throw. His fingers closed around a small rock. Panic rising, John flung his arm back, taking aim. Just then, Kaal hit the Subo like a green comet, pounding a fist into its head.

Still clutching his rock, John ran towards Emmie, eyes widening in shock as he realized the stasis cube had now melted completely. Every warrior was free, the combat more intense than ever.

“Cut them down, soldiers of Suboran!” screeched General Klort. “Cut them down and history will never forget your names.” Soldiers were spreading towards them. With a sinking heart, John realized that they might, possibly, be able to defeat one Subo between the three of them, but within a few minutes hundreds of Subo – and Goran too – would be right on top of them.

He looked back. The Omega-bots hadn’t moved a centimetre.

There’s nothing we can do.

John’s fingers tightened around the rock, preparing to rejoin the fight. Its shape jogged something in the back of his mind. Whatever he was holding wasn’t a rock. Glancing down, he wiped away some mud.

The Comet Creative.

Emmie must have dropped it when she attacked the Subo.

John stared at the technology in his hand, his brain whirring. The small machine had caused this disaster. Perhaps it could fix it too. His own knowledge of advanced technology was pitiful, but Kaal spent many evenings in their dorm room tinkering with whatever bits of technology he could lay his hands on.

John knew what he had to do. Through knee-deep water, he waded back towards the Subo. The creature was standing on stubby back flippers, snaking from side to side as it tried to land a blow on Kaal. The Derrilian was swooping about its head, lashing out with his fists and feet whenever he saw a chance.

When John reached the Subo, he leaped from the ground, aiming a flying kick at the warrior from behind.

The creature whirled. “You were lucky before!” it screamed, spotting John. “But not this time.”

“What are you doing? I’m OK. Get out of here!” Kaal yelled as the creature shifted its bulk to attack John again. Its movements were much slower now, but the massive creature was still dangerous.

“I can take care of it!” John yelled back. “See if you can do anything with this.”

The Comet Creative spun through the air. With a flurry of wings, Kaal dived sideways and snatched it. John was already stumbling backward through the water, tossing more chunks of ice and rock at the Subo. “Call yourself an elite warrior?” he shouted. “I’ve seen better fighters in nursery school playgrounds.”

With a grunt, the Subo summoned what was left of its strength, charging John with unexpected speed.

John looked up into a massive jaw edged with knife-like teeth. Dropping to the ground and rolling away, John splashed through water and jumped back onto his feet by the Subo’s side, reaching out for the laser-horn that was still sticking out of the warrior’s skin. With a fleshy sucking noise it came free, making the Subo scream in pain. Black blood spattered across John’s face.

The Subo writhed in pain. John risked a glance towards Kaal. Close to the Omega-bot barrier where the water was more shallow, the Derrilian worked on the Comet Creative with his ToTool.

Raising his new weapon, John prepared to throw himself at the Subo again.

“John! Be careful!”A rock hurtled through the air. Emmie. It missed the Subo and clattered behind John.

She’s got a great throwing arm, but really bad aim.

The thought was interrupted by a low snarl. Heart frozen, John spun around. A Goran was staring at him through one great eye in the middle of its shell. Between huge pincers it held the rock Emmie had thrown.

For a single moment everything was still. Then the Goran opened its pincers, letting the rock fall into the water that swirled around its short, heavily armoured legs. “You are not a part of the Goran army, small alien,” it said. “Therefore, you must be with the Subo. You are my enemy.”

At the same time, John heard a roar behind him. He spun around again. Blood dripping from its wound, the Subo glared at him with hatred in its eyes. It seemed so intent on revenge against John that it had forgotten its original enemy.

John looked from one alien to another.

“
RUN
, JOHN!” Emmie screamed.

The sound drove both creatures into action. The ground beneath John’s feet rumbled as they rushed towards him.

Running was useless. John was caught between two terrifying aliens, his only weapon a broken laser-horn.

Emmie shouted again, her voice cracking with a sob of fear.

Neither alien took any notice. Both were focused on their prey. They knew it could not escape.

John squared his shoulders.
Might as well go down fighting
, he thought. Trapped between the oncoming warriors, he brandished the laser-horn in the air. On one side, the Subo reared up again; on the other, the Goran’s huge pincers reached out to tear him apart.

John stood his ground. “Come on, then!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

The Goran was closer. Leaving himself open to attack from the Subo on the opposite side, John swung the laser-horn with all his might. It smashed into the alien beast’s pincer with a sharp crunching noise. The tip of its claw snapped off and flew into the mud. John yelled in jubilation as the creature shrieked in pain.

His moment of triumph was short-lived. One pincer was damaged but the Goran had plenty more. It leaped at John, claws clacking in fury. At the same time the Subo fell upon him, its mouth roaring for revenge. It was so near, John could smell its foul breath.

He tried swinging his weapon again. It was no good – the aliens were right on top of him. Instinctively, he ducked and squeezed his eyes closed as a giant claw thrust at him. The shrieking Subo snapped at his head.

John steeled himself for what was to come. He hoped it would be quick.

This is it.