by Ramy Vance
“What was too much to deal with?”
“Caring. Caring too much about the people who are under my command. It causes you to make stupid decisions. The simple fact of the matter is that not everyone lives, and we have to all accept that.”
“You don’t feel like it’s your fault?”
Myrddin smiled sadly. “No, I don’t. I know it is. No one could convince me otherwise. And I do not doubt that you will feel the same way. Nothing will change that.”
Abby chuckled as she watched the soldiers working below. “You know, you’re pretty shitty at pep talks.”
“Who said this was a pep talk? We’re just talking. Equal to equal. Now you better get down there. Your squad is waiting for you. Also, tell Martin he can stop hiding. I already know what’s going on.”
Abby did a double-take as she watched Myrddin rise and hop over to another girder. “Wait, you can read his mind too? He’s not even organic.”
Myrddin smiled and said, “Wizards work in mysterious ways,” before vanishing into thin air.
Abby chuckled as she tried to find her squad. “You hear that, Martin?”
It took barely any time for him to answer. “I thought the old man was going to have me wiped clean or something. So, we’re in the clear, I guess.”
“Sounds like it.”
“Perfect. Because we are going to have some fun, kid. I mean, real fun. Free rein to do whatever we want as long as it isn’t going to kill anyone? That’s like…millions of things I can think of.”
Abby had walked across the girder toward where her squad had gathered. She recognized Blackwell, who was speaking to a group of exosuited soldiers standing around him. “Oh, yeah,” she mused. “We gotta make sure we get out of this alive first.”
Martin scoffed loudly. “Oh, this? This is going to be nothing. You go hit ‘em with the ‘ol razzle-dazzle, and we’ll be back in the lab in no time.”
Abby was glad to hear from Martin. She had been worried about him, but now there was only one thing she should be focusing on. The mission at hand. That and making sure her squad knew she cared about their lives. That she understood her responsibility.
Abby leapt from the girder, landing right behind Blackwell. The squad, along with Blackwell, jumped in surprise. He turned to face her.
“Assuming y’all been updated on the mission?” she asked.
“Aye!” the soldiers shouted.
“Good. Don’t look like we’re gonna have the option of too much of a plan. Going in blind and all. So, I want you to talk to me. Let me know what you’re thinking. That way, we get through this together. It’s gonna take each and every one of us. But I ain’t going down without a fight. Hope y’all feel the same.”
The soldiers all nodded. “All right,” Abby said, “Now, line up so I can go over your rigs. Ain’t no one’s tech crapping out on me today.”
The soldiers lined up, Blackwell watching Abby work as she talked to each soldier while going over their equipment, spending time to glean a little bit of information from each of them to set their nerves at ease, letting them know she was capable. It wasn’t often Blackwell got to see a natural leader at work.
It was almost time for the troops to head out. The hadron collider had been prepped, and the different squads were lined up behind their leaders.
Anabelle, Abby, and Roy stood at the front of the crowd of soldiers. The elf was the definition of military professionalism, her posture rigid and uniform, matching her immaculate suit.
Abby, on the other hand, didn’t seem capable of shaking her childish insecurity. But she was up with the other squad leaders, and that was what mattered.
Roy continued to look disheveled and in need of a shave and a good night’s rest.
Myrddin floated above the hadron collider as the scientists worked together to get over any last-minute hiccups. He cleared his throat. “This is not our last battle, nor is it anywhere close. The Dark One’s war has and will continue to stretch us to our limits, but we will not be broken. No matter how often he comes against the ones we love, against our planets, against our very freedom, no matter, we will rise to the challenge. We will continue to pit our strength against his, and one day there will be a final battle. One day, we will stand atop his corpse. One day, we will all know peace again.”
The soldiers cheered at Myrddin’s words. They were all itching for a fight. Not just any fight. This one. Many of the soldiers had come from the armies of various Earth countries. They’d seen Terra fighting for her life. They’d followed the stories from Myrddin. Earth was at risk. And they were going to be on the front lines to defend it.
Abby had never been one for the military. All that she’d ever learned from her parents was that war was brought about by the selfish, people who didn’t care for the lives of others, by people who thought the most important thing in the world was their perspective on reality.
There were rarely wars that were fought for true morality. But this…Abby knew this was one of those wars. The Dark One represented everything wrong with what folk could do to each other. He was an enslaver of people. If there was one thing Abby understood more than anything else, it was that everyone had a right to freedom. Trying to find out what freedom was could be difficult. But she knew it wasn’t serving under the Dark One.
Abby hoped her father would be proud. As did many of the other soldiers, each wishing in their hearts that those they cared for would be proud of them. Today, they risked their lives for something bigger than they ever thought they would.
Myrddin’s voice broke through everyone’s thoughts. “The Dark One wants to enslave humanity!” he shouted. “He wants to enslave all of the nine realms. Today we remind him that the realms will not go quietly. We will not slink away as cowards into the night. We will meet him on the field of battle and will remind him of the violence of freedom.”
The soldiers erupted into cheers as the hadron collider opened, flashing electricity across the hangar, the air hot with anticipation and energy, from both soldiers and the Gate.
Roy gestured for his troops to follow him as he climbed into his mech and shut the cockpit. The mech roared to life, its gears whirring as it lurched to its feet and plodded forward, followed by the squad of Marines.
Each of them passed through the collider, their atoms ripped apart and instantly transported to where the Dark Gate was supposed to open.
Once the first squads had been transported, Anabelle led her squad to the collider. Naota stood at her side as if he were second in command. The human wore sunglasses and a smaller version of the exosuits that Abby’s squad had been fitted with. He tipped his sunglasses at Abby as he walked past her. I hope he doesn’t get himself killed, she thought.
Anabelle’s squad passed through the collider. All that was left was Abby’s team. She drew in a steadying breath and approached the collider, Blackwell and the squad at her back.
Myrddin had landed near the teleportation pad. When Abby walked past him, he smiled and nodded. This was it.
Abby felt her cells tearing away from each other. It wasn’t a painful experience, but it wasn’t enjoyable. She felt herself tumbling, flowing through time and space until finally, she was standing in the middle of a city block she’d never seen before. And there was screaming. All she could hear was screaming.
Terra sat alone in her cell. The rest of the fighters were gathered in the main dining hall as usual. She didn’t want to be with them. Nib-nib had already tended to her wounds.
It sounded as if the other fighters were celebrating. Paying tribute to her, no doubt. Tonight didn’t feel like a night for celebrations, though. If anything, she felt as though she’d failed. She didn’t know why, or what she had failed at, but she knew it deep down.
There was no winning in the arena. She’d deluded herself into thinking it was a possibility, much like she had deluded herself in nearly every other aspect of her life. When people treat you like shit, it isn’t because they want you to try harder, it isn’t bec
ause they love you in a way you don’t understand. It’s because they’re a shitty person. No different than the arena.
The shouting of the crowd didn’t mean anything. They only wanted to see her dead. Terra wasn’t proving anything to anyone other than herself. And she felt stupid as hell for needing to be in a life or death situation to understand that.
Someone knocked on Terra’s door. “Go away,” she shouted.
“I brought you some food,” said a familiar voice.
Terra got up and opened her cell door. Cire was holding a plate. He handed it to Terra and lingered on the threshold. “We’re all glad you made it out alive,” he said after a few moments.
Terra took a bit of the raw meat on the plate and then grabbed what she hoped was fruit. “Oh, yeah? I couldn’t tell from all of your shouting.”
“I know you want to be alone right now. Just wanted to make sure you got something to eat. Good night.”
Cire turned to leave, but Terra grabbed him by his shoulder. “Wait, I… Thanks for earlier. Whatever gift you gave me really helped.”
“I am glad,” he replied.
“So, how long do these arena things usually go on for?”
Cire shrugged, hanging his head slightly. “In the old days, four rounds. If you survived the fourth, you were a champion, able to request anything you wanted from a chieftain. But I don’t know about these games. Whatever that creature was that you fought today, it looked to have been here for a long time.”
Terra nodded as she walked back to her bed. She sat and looked out the window. “Thanks for the food.”
Cire bowed once more and said, “If there’s anything you need, please let me know,” before closing the door quietly.
Terra stared out her window at the sliver of a moon floating above the wisps of clouds. Yeah, you and me both, she thought before lying down and pulling her covers up to her neck. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to come for her. Tomorrow was going to arrive too soon.
Chapter Five
Anabelle stepped out of the portal, Naota trailing behind her. She scanned the surroundings, trying to gain her footing. Traveling through hadron colliders wasn’t as vomit-inducing as they used to be, but it still wasn’t an enjoyable experience.
The portal had dumped them out in Washington, DC. It felt like years since the last time Anabelle had been in the city. She had a lot of memories of this city. None of them particularly pleasant. She thought it was only fitting that her first real mission would take place where she had cut her teeth for Myrddin by manipulating politicians in order to steal their secrets.
Capitol Hill wasn’t too far from where the collider portal had dropped her and her squad. If Anabelle were going to plan an attack, that would have been where she set up shop. There’d be tons of civilians and property to destroy. It would have been a nightmare.
Hopefully, the Dark One didn’t have as much foresight and knowledge of human culture as Anabelle. But until that Gate opened, Anabelle was sitting in the dark. “We’re going to have to spread out,” she told Naota. “You take half of the squad and try to zero in on the energy signature that led us here.”
Naota flipped up his sunglasses, giving his biceps an unnecessary flex. Somehow, the gesture didn’t appear to be aimed at Anabelle. “Gotcha, boss!” he said before giving her a thumbs-up. “Stay out of trouble until the Gate opens.”
“No, that’s not what I said. Get yourself in a strategic position for when the Gate opens.”
Naota raised one of his eyebrows and withdrew his thumbs-up. “That’s what I was implying. The best place to stay out of trouble is the best place to attack.”
Anabelle sighed under her breath. Of all the people to get stuck with, she was saddled with the idiot savant. “Okay, okay, just get going. And stay out… Oh, okay, I see what you did there.”
Naota walked off, signaling for his part of the squad to follow him. “Anticipation is half the game,” he shouted before sprinting down the street.
A few pedestrians had stopped to look at the folk who had just walked out of thin air, but for the most part, it didn’t seem as if anyone was interested in them. Typical Washington. Everyone had better things to do than pay attention to the obviously bizarre occurrence right before them.
It was no wonder it had taken Myrddin so long to convince the human politicians to take the war with the Dark One seriously. If it hadn’t been for Anabelle broadcasting Terra’s battle across the galaxy, there was a good chance humanity never would have come along. Or at least not fast enough to make a difference.
Fortunately, the lack of interest from the people around her gave Anabelle enough time to get her squad off the main streets. They ducked into an alley, and then scaled a bank, climbing up to the third floor and posting up. From this vantage point, they had a good line of sight of the whole of DC. Wherever the Dark Gate opened, Anabelle would see it. She just hoped she would reach it in time.
Roy shot out of his portal, his mech skidding across the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. He popped open his cockpit and waved the dust out of his face as his squad came running out of the portal, which quickly closed behind them.
Desert stretched out as far as Roy could see. When Roy looked closer, he thought he could see someone wandering far off. As he scanned the horizon, a few more of the small dots appeared. Roy returned to his mech and scanned for life forms.
There were human signatures peppered throughout the ten to twelve miles surrounding Roy’s location, some were in groups of ten or twenty, others as small as two or three. There was only one spot that seemed to have more than fifty bodies.
Roy exited his cockpit and scratched his beard. “What the hell is going on here?”
One of the younger Marines walked up to Roy. “I think it might be Burning Man this weekend.”
“What the fuck is burning man?”
“Some hippy shit. A bunch of people get together in the desert and do a bunch of drugs and burn a giant wooden guy. I think there’s, like, tech-bros or something too. You know, startup money and all that shit.”
Roy stared at the young man incredulously. “Not one of the words in that sentence made sense to me except for hippy. And to know there are hippies wandering around this beautiful desert makes me intensely angry. Now, what the hell is this place?”
“It’s a hippy gathering.”
Roy got back in his mech and sighed. Of all the places to have to end up—a desert full of hippies. There was one plus side. The attendees would probably be too fucked up on booze and drugs to have any idea what was going on. At least there wouldn’t be civvies everywhere freaking out.
“Let’s get started,” Roy shouted as he powered up his mech’s thrusters. “We still got some time before the Gate opens. I want you to fan out, keep in close range of each other, and hunt down that signal. Once you find it, comm it to everyone, and we converge on that area. You see any civvies, you direct them away from this festival. Got it?”
He received a chorus of, “Sir, yes, sir!”
Roy’s mech launched into the air. He keyed the energy signature he was hunting into it. Now all there was to do was wait.
Chapter Six
Abby whirled, trying to make sense of the scene in front of her. The Dark Gate had already opened. The streets were flooded with orcs and goblins, firing, snatching humans up, and throwing them through the air. Everything was chaotic, and Abby didn’t know where to start.
The soldiers behind her were frozen as well. They had been expecting a fight, but nothing on this scale. This appeared to be a full-on invasion, one none of them was prepared for.
Abby’s heart was racing, and she felt like she’d been rooted to the ground. There were already so many dead bodies littering the concrete. A slaughter. Like back home.
Rage welled up in her. It grew hot in her stomach and spread through her as the nanobots poured out, covering her body in obsidian micro-steel. Her eyes glowed bright white, and she raised her hand, her palm converting to a
plasma cannon. Wait, she thought. You need to think this through.
Abby quickly scanned the area, trying to figure out the best course of action. In the back of her head, she felt a tingle, and everything suddenly became clear. She turned to the soldiers behind her and shouted, “Squad A, suppressive fire. Reduce casualties. Squad B, take to the buildings. Snipe what you can, and loop back round to flanking position. Blackwell, you keep ‘em moving and eliminate any targets of interest.”
Blackwell looked taken aback by the sudden military jargon but responded quickly enough. He turned to the exosoldiers and shouted, “You heard the lady. Let’s get a fucking move on!”
Abby leapt, firing thrusters to keep her airborne. She opened fire on the orcs running through the street across from her, burning them to cinders, then flew higher.
The damage had seemed worse than it actually was. She had merely been in shock. Now that it had passed, Abby could see her squad getting down to business. They weren’t as badly outnumbered as it had first appeared. Still, the problem lay in finding the Dark Gate. As long as it stayed open, there remained the potential that her team could be overrun.
A shriek came from somewhere nearby, quickly followed by more screeches. The sky was full of what appeared to be massive vultures with wings as well as arms. The vrosks held glowing staffs that they brandished at Abby before firing.
She swooped out of the way, narrowly avoiding being scorched. “Those are vrosks,” Martin explained. “A kind of mutant from one of the nine realms. They’re really smart, fast, and agile.”
Abby dodged another of the vrosks blasts as she flew higher. “You got anything useful to tell me?”
“They have a weakness to magic and fire. Luckily for you, plasma is just our default ammunition. Say hello to your new flamethrowers.”
