The 10^th Star Fortress

by G. S. Reis

Art by G. S. Reis Music by Rob Hubbard

"Nine!", I exclaimed, emerging from hyperspace and beholding the formidable silent explosion. My mission, upon whose success would depend the victory of the Alliance over the Gorl Empire, approached its end. Ten magnificent fortresses, constructed inside asteroids in the Gorl solar system itself, was the basis of its military power.

"A mass attack would attract the Fleet of Gorlak, cost many lives and fail", they said.

"But one sole ship, small and agile, might have a chance."

I had an impression of having already heard that somewhere else before...

There was just one ship, a prototype not tested yet, with qualities enough for the mission—and just one pilot.

Having the force field generator crystal restored by the energies of hyperspace, I had enough to resist again to about eight direct hits from Gorl weapons. I approached the last fortress at sub-light speed, because trying to reach its interior through hyperspace would be much riskier than confronting its defenses. The asteroid grew up on my screen, and just like the other times, soon appeared a fighter squadron: an appetizer before the main meal. With pleasure, I saw them explode under the precise firing of my energy cannons. Their numeric advantage was outweighed by a better ship with a better pilot. Some passed by me, escaping from death, and one of them passed so close that I could see the horrible face of a Gorl, through his transparent cockpit. His wide mouth filled with sharpen fangs was contorted by hatred, but the insect-like faceted eyes were hard to be penetrated.

I went safely through the fighters and dove towards the tunnel, where they would not dare pursue me, since the asteroid's internal defenses, totally automated, were programmed to eliminate any movable object, according to Alliance's spies.

Cannons shot from everywhere: from the walls, from the floor, from the ceiling. Dodging from the blasts, I took my ship to the right and, almost touching the wall, I proceeded eliminating all the batteries on that side. But I couldn't avoid a shot from the left, which drained one eighth of my force shield and pushed me against the wall, causing me to lose another part and almost collide with a battery on the ceiling. That, however, served to make my fury grows and, in a crazy zigzag, I swept out the few dozen meters until the end of that sector.

My destructive rage hadn't gone yet, when the first horde of robots popped up on my way. The marvelous sound of their explosions reached my ears thanks to the presence of a rarefied atmosphere which doesn't seem to serve another purpose.

Obstacles followed in a order I was already accustomed to. They were cannons, shifting barriers, a floating mine field and robots that varied in shape, size, weaponry, resistance and flight patterns. At the end of the tunnel, there always was a monstrous robot, created at the image and resemblance of some terrible creature from one of the numerous imperial worlds. Just before that, however, the Gorl liked to reserve an unpleasant surprise. Last time, I had almost succumbed to a swarm of suicidal spheres. Whatever was about to come, it would have to be worse. And it was.

A dense black cloud made my lights unuseful. I bumped on something and started to shoot. A metal pillar, coming from the floor up to the ceiling, was hit, but not destroyed, for a defensive field was activated, shining for an instant and provoking some kind of chain reaction in the cloud, maybe ionizing it. During that fraction of a second, my eyes could contemplate a true labyrinth formed by countless pillars. Afterwards, everything returned to absolute darkness, but not for long. I didn't stop shooting, making the pillars to show me the way. I couldn't keep them alight all the time, and sometimes I had to avoid obstacles I couldn't see. Miraculously, I completed the route without any new collisions.

Leaving the cloud, I still had more than a half of the power of my protecting field. For a moment, certainty of victory invaded me, but it was soon shaken by a terrifying sight: the guardian. Whatever was before me was no machine. That seemed to sprout from the rocky wall, penetrating into it with thick tentacles. Limbs with many articulations ended in long fingers provided with claws or in huge pincers. Six pairs of horrendous jaws opened menacingly, revealing triple rows of red curved teeth. Round eyes, in various sizes, blinked alternately, scattered among swinging tentacles that ended in wide circular openings, whose purpose I soon found out.

Even before I completed my abrupt deceleration, a glowing ball of energy came out of one tentacle straight to me. I dodged in time, but others followed. Of course my thumb was already repeatedly pressing the fire button on the top of the control lever, but the creature's viscous blue skin was obviously as much or more resistant than the armor of the guardian robots of the other fortresses.

The ship advanced at minimum speed, but still could move in other directions swiftly enough to escape from the unceasing artillery of the tentacles and to set my aim. Once more, I had to find the enemy's weak points, which was not very difficult, indeed. All I had to do was to hit the locals not coated by that impenetrable skin. I placed myself before one of the wide mouths and a scaring roar came out from the wounded throat. But it did not come alone. A cloud of small worm-like creatures was expelled in a jolt and hit me fully, reducing the energy of my defensive field to forty percent. Nevertheless, except for that unusual reaction, the dreadful guardian did not look disturbed. The jaws I had shot in between moved with unchanged vitality.

The damned eyes! When my blasters pierced into the first of them and a deafening yell left several angry throats, I was sure those were my targets. They were hard targets, because heavy and invulnerable eyelids covered them intermittently. My next attempted was blocked by one of them. I insisted on the same eye and saw it bursts squirting a greenish-yellow liquid. At the same time, however, I received a direct impact from an energy ball which came in a diagonal trajectory. The cave was inundated by a glare and I noted, alarmed, that the defensive field gauge needle had moved almost half the way that still separated it from zero.

I had to exacerbate the limits of human skills. The enemy fire had become even more furious and my ship went from side to side of the tunnel, up and down, deceiving death and hitting every target, while approaching, slow but inexorably, that incarnation of terror. I counted three eyes still chasing me and entered in the reaches of the numerous arms. But it was another energy ball that intercepted me when I was about to achieve one more goal. The force field crystal almost burned out. I tried to correct the course, but that eye was already closing, and I drove to the nearest target, a little above. I found it wholly open and shoot it three times, although one was enough. With an irate joy, I watched the weird blood to gush, and dove between two fierce tentacles, looking for the previous target. I saw it opening before my cannons, but, on the shooting moment, claws descended quickly over me, obliging me to an evasive maneuver. I almost couldn't escape, and couldn't avoid pressing the fire button. Two blasts penetrated one of the mouths of the beast, very close, and a spurt of flying worms was released again. Sheer reflex made me revert the suicidal maneuver, but extraordinary pincers moved rapidly towards me and the crash was inevitable. My defensive field collapsed and a certain feeling of helplessness tried to overcome me. Victory, which was so close, seemed to flow between my fingers in my desperate attempt to grab it.

I obliged myself to keep calm. My end was at a simple hit. I could not make any mistakes. I resumed the approaching maneuver and, seeing the eye well open, I shot. I missed. It was very small. I shot again, and again. I left the course to avoid a shoot from the opponent, went back and saw the eye closing. I did not waste that last chance. I blinded it and fled from the arms and tentacles that hastily came from all directions.

We were both in almost identical situations now. The next strike would decide the fight. It would also decide the future of Mankind, and maybe of the entire galaxy. I felt the enemy agonizing. I heard its tormented howlings and almost felt pity. Almost! I, on the contrary, was uninjured, yet exhausted, but I had to aim at a specific target—the last eye—while to him it was enough to hit me. But the worst was that the final agony seemed to make the beast even frenzier, thus becoming a strange advantage for it.

We were so close that my eyes could see just a small part of its terrifying immensity. I looked for the last target where I had seen it before, but could not find it immediately. Energy balls crossed the way centimeters ahead my ship. My eyes anxiously searched the repulsive body and eventually met a white chink that opened slowly some meters to the right. I began approaching, in sinuous maneuvers which avoided every attack from the giant. I would not let it win. The eye was opening. It was a big one. An easy target! In a few seconds, I would be at the position... I grimed while was navigating unreachable among tentacles, claws, pincers and energy balls. Fully open, the eye was centered in my aim. We stared at each other for a very brief instant. And my thumb descended over the fire button.

But I did not see the bluish trails that should leave my cannons. Absolute darkness involved me. An oppressive silence replaced the clamor of battle. It was finished. A I had not triumphed. My body stood immovable, incapable of any reaction. A storm of feelings roared in my being, but I could only show stunned apathy.

Darkness lasted a little more than one second, not two. But my complete immobility continued. Some seconds more passed. Suddenly, I faced the indecipherable regard of a Gorl. I also saw his deformed fangs and the soldier armor on the muscular body, whose orange scales intercalated with furry parts. He was holding a heavy weapon, but was not aiming it to me or any specific place. Behind him, an arid rusty plain stretched to the horizon, where majestic peaks jagged a black starry sky, embellished by two big purple moons. That world was Gorlak, center of the Gorl Empire.

There was nothing else to do. I had not been killed, for sure, but neither had accomplished the mission. However, I had not failed. I was not guilty. What had happened was beyond my power to avoid. I had been defeated by the sheerest hazard. Or by a cruel irony of destiny, it doesn't matter.

Gloomy chords broke the silence. The Gorl warrior remained immovable, impassive, just like me. It didn't take one minute until the bass sounds changed radically to higher octaves and a frantic, thrilling rhythm. Nevertheless, that had no effect on me and even less, of course, on the Gorl. Above the distant mountains, two words were drawn, forming an English title, not original at all: "Asteroids Raider".

The joystick still lied on my hand. I put it aside. I couldn't accept the idea of having been defeated by the inefficiency of the services of the electricity company, which had permitted a brief—but disastrous—interruption of the energy supply. They had ruined my best match and also my humor. I took off the CD-ROM with the autoloading game and shut off the machine.

I would happen to win. But on another day.

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