FICTION | SCI-FI | FLASH

Last shuttle in Hangar 84

The Thorazion’s last hope

“Hu — man — s!” An Erelithi shrieked in cracking psionic waves above the evacuees.

It pulsed a burst of defensive spores, signaling others to do the same seconds before the hangar’s bulkhead imploded. Panic surged through the crowd as the invaders stormed through the breach, lighting the space with their fire-spike rifles.

But the spores held long enough to draw enemy fire.

An image of the shuttle and waiting evacuees genereated by author.

The battleship around them lurched to the right, sending everyone to the floor. “This is the end,” thought Xal’tai after regaining its balance. It flexed its appendages. Bioluminescent veins had already shifted from a calm violet to a burning white. Above its slender exoskeleton, an intelligence core shaped as a cranial halo still hovered intact.

“You fucking Thorazions.” A tangled jargon of human words was received by Xal’tai’s consciousness through the mayhem, but they made no sense. “We’ll kill every last one of you!” Some Bruskari had charged the humans, brandishing jaws and jagged bone-plated horns. Once, their ornate horns produced raucous harmonies. Now, they were sharpened for war. Tem’Nulaki, distant cousins of the Erelithi, also joined the fight. Waves of flesh-eating spores were released from their sacks and…