“It is not here, of course.” Zaria replied. “I would not risk all the components on a battlefield.”
“But you risk your life and world by annoying me.” Anguhr said. “Give me the final component.”
“Where it lies, you cannot go.” Zaria gave a slight shake of her head. Her hair flickered in bright contrast to the Iron Work’s black surface and permeating red haze.
Anguhr held out the rod and grapnel as evidence of his power as he spoke. “I have been told this by countless people on countless worlds. Always their barriers and beliefs fall before my axe. Your barriers will do the same.”
“All those ill-fated worlds were not defended by barriers raised by the same ones as built this machine you stand on.” Zaria countered. “It is only a sliver of it that you hold as an ultimate weapon. I designed that weapon. I created the warriors that fought well against Hell's vaunted demons. And it is I who killed Xuxuhr. Do you think I know nothing of war?”
Zaria could see Anguhr’s left eyebrow raise and disappear under his helmet. Its arch lay out of sight behind its black steel.
“And, so General, do not take my words so lightly.” Zaria added.
Anguhr turned his head slightly as if the same line of force pulled his eyebrow.
“So your control is on Eden.” Anguhr said as he lowered the rod and grapnel with a nod of enjoyment.
“No.” Gin said. “Well, yes. But Eden is one aspect of Asherah. Eden, as you call it, is an ecology. A planet housed—”
“Gin!” Zaria yelled.
Gin became silent and offered only a smile and shrug to the looming Anguhr.
“I will destroy it all,” Anguhr said with a deep, certain tone.
“Petty.” Gin remarked.
“You feel conquest is petty!” Solok barked as he flew in and glared at Gin.
“Actually, yes.” Gin shrugged.
The smaller but more savage Solok back handed Gin’s across the face. A quick flash of surprise lit the demon’s face when his victim was hardly staggered.
“You are merely making my point,” Gin said.
Anguhr leaned down toward Zaria. She could see his burning eyes studying her but not glaring to intimidate. His massive right had reached up with his fingers stretched out as if to grasp and crush. They instead gathered a length of Zaria’s long, blonde hair. Anguhr watched it slip through his fingers.
‘In all his travels across the stars, has he never seen blonde hair?’ Gin sent his thoughts to Zaria across their wavelengths.
‘He can sense there is a dimension beyond where the light through it originates.’ Zaria replied along the same channel. ‘And may have a reason to be fascinated by long hair.’
“Stop talking—thinking to each other.” Anguhr spoke aloud. “I can sense more than the light emanating from you. No matter. Now, we go to your Eden.”
“No.” Zaria sneered. “I can—”
“Yes.” Anguhr said. “I would see such a legend before I burn it. I will be the first and only General to set foot on this mythic place. It will become part of my legend.”
“But if you destroy Eden, I will see that your new, precious weapon will be no better than a club.” Zaria said with a defiant sneer.
“I have an axe.” Anguhr said, calmly.
“A useless toy compared to the power of my completed weapon.” Zaria countered. “Now it is a mere explosive if pulled from the grapnel and held out too long. You need its control system. If you kill me, kill Eden, you have nothing. If you bend slightly, you may gain a weapon that makes you supreme in the galaxy. It seems an easy decision, General.”
Anguhr smiled, but then his fiery eyes glared at Zaria. “If you lie to me, I will hurl you into an event horizon, lashed to my ship at one end.”
“But that would—” Gin began, but Anguhr’s hand covered his face.
“He will not speak, anymore.” Anguhr said to Zaria as he held Gin’s head. “You will give the coordinates. Now.”
Zaria glanced at the muffled Gin and caught sight of Solok’s devilish smile. She turned back to Anguhr.
“Very well.” Zaria sighed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The ship suddenly lurched. Voltris grasped his control dais. Uruk noticed a momentary ebb in the crimson fires rolling across the bridge's bulkheads. Zahl and his recognized lieutenant Prod instinctively thrust out their wings for stability. A screen flashed on before them. The face of a demon in the cargo hold appeared. Behind him, the ruptured deck plating smoldered from the explosive escape of the Ignitaurs. They emerged from the hole amid demon rifle fire and horde members swooping down to grapple with the powerful aliens who sprinted across the deck on helical legs of steel. Uruk recognized some of his demons he left in the hold among the combatants.
“Master Voltris!” The demon on screen barked. “The Igs show treachery! They escape and attack! We—”
A sudden red flash cut the transmission.
“What is this?” Uruk demanded. “What are Igs?”
“Ignitaurs—Igs!” Voltris screeched. “They are captured aliens used by our Lord to make his chains.”
“What? Why?” Uruk bellowed. He turned and motioned to the rest of his force standing on the bridge. The lead demon, Sond, nodded and then flew into the left passageway to join the cargo hold battle followed by his unit.
“I am loyal! I do not question!” Voltris bared his teeth.
“Suppress this insult!” Uruk pointed in the direction of the cargo deck. “Send your strike units to the hold! Send Triat!”
“The strike teams are deployed across the ship. Our main force is on the weapons deck.” Voltris spat.
“Ridiculous!” Uruk roared. “Order your main force to the hold, or the incursion will spread! Secure the ship! Now!”
“You wish me to redeploy the sentries?” Voltris screamed. “Of course! Then you can call in reserves from your horde and take control!”
“It would matter not!” Uruk butted Voltris. “We now all follow Lord Anguhr. I am his Field Master. Obey my commands!”
“No! You have caused this!” Voltris grasped his link fragment. “The Ignitaurs never rebelled until you arrived! I will not follow you!”
“You doom your demons with these delays!” Uruk barked.
“It is you who are doomed! By the Dark Urge!” Voltris railed. “It is Anguhr’s axe that severed my Lord Xuxuhr’s head. It was Anguhr that killed him!”
“No!” Uruk slung his rifle and drew his sword. “This ship is insane. Alter the command codes to recognize me, or die!”
“How else—” Voltris began.
“Silence!” Uruk grabbed the cord attached to the link Voltris wore and pulled it tight around his throat. “It was not Lord Anguhr that killed General Xuxuhr! It was an alien warrior, just as aliens now beset this ship! If you defy Lord Anguhr, your death will be for nothing!”
“No.” Voltris gripped Uruk’s wrist with both hands and choked out his words. “I still serve the Dark Urge by avenging the death of my Lord who must have been her favored child. I will steer my ship to Hell and—uurrggk!”
Uruk slid his sword back out from Voltris. He thought of his headache from the now failed diplomacy, and thrust it back through again. Voltris fell from the sword with a look of shock on his thorny face. The link he wore hit the deck plate with a loud rap.
Zahl looked at Voltris’ corpse. “Now how do we steer the ship?”
“I can steer it,” Uruk said calmly as he flicked off blood from his sword and replaced it in the scabbard. “I just need to solve the command code lock. Or interface directly with the ship. “If I can persuade—”
“You cannot!” Triat bellowed and hurled the head of Sond at Uruk and Zahl. Prod leveled his weapon at Triat, but glanced first at Zahl. He nodded. Prod’s opening volley punched through the edge of Triat’s wing as he escaped through the right passageway. A burst of return fire covered Triat’s escape, but only struck the bulkheads.
“Death to all!” Uruk cried out in rag
e.
“We will be over run on the bridge!” Zahl barked. “Send the word and we will retreat into space.”
“No,” Uruk breathed and regained control. “We’d be cut down by the ship’s guns. Our chances are better against demons. They have chosen to fight us. They must be cut down.”
“But how do we survive an entire horde?” Zahl asked. “No planet we have ever conquered has—”
“Think strategically, Zahl!” Uruk yelled into his lieutenant’s face. “There is a force unleashed below decks that challenges this horde.”
“How is that possible?” Prod asked as he aimed his gun at the passageway. He darted his gaze to the left entrance.
“However it is occurs, the Ravager’s horde is now our enemy.” Uruk said. “The rebel aliens are our allies. They likely have limited tactical knowledge of this ship. We know all they would need, but will use them to take control. We can direct their campaign to spare critical systems. We can still bring this ship to Lord Anguhr!”
“We follow, Uruk.” Zahl nodded. “With pride, we obey.”
“All praise the Dark Urge!” Prod added.
“Praise to Lord Anguhr!” Uruk barked. “Now all we need do is the impossible for him to praise us.”
Uruk reached for the ship controls. A cascade of grenades hurled from inside the right passageway exploded across the deck. Uruk was knocked against the throne as Zahl ducked. Voltris’ body blasted across the bridge chamber. The ship’s control dais blew apart. Zahl flicked out a fragment from his cheek and returned fire.
Prod defiantly cut down the demons storming the bridge with sustained rifle fire, but was quickly hit by several devastating salvos from farther down the passageway. He fell back into Xuxuhr’s coiled chain. More rounds punched through his body and ricocheted against the links.
Zahl shielded the stunned Uruk and shot controlled bursts into enemy demons advancing up the passageway. Several fell. Uruk shook his head and drew up his weapon and joined Zahl in returning fire. Uruk motioned for Zahl to fall back. Zahl took a position behind the throne and fired. Uruk slid next to him, and then hurled a barrage of his own grenades into the passageway. Zahl threw another group into the left entrance for good measure. The blasts obliterated the surviving demons to the right side. Zahl and Uruk felt an increasing pull against the deck plates as the ship began to veer. They looked over at the shattered column where the ship’s controls had stood.
“One wonders if some demons ever think strategically,” Zahl remarked.
A row of generation chambers exploded. The demon Tana shook the mephitic amniotic fluid from his head. His unit of Uruk’s strike team supported the first counter attack against the invaders who erupted from the bilge deck. Tana had stormed several planets from their skies. This was the first attack he attempted to repulse, and one that came from a position below him. The fighting felt reversed. It was odd, but it was battle. What was truly strange was who was shooting at him now.
“Did demons just shoot at us?” Tana barked. “Are they confused or stupid?”
“They came from the weapons deck. And did fire on us!” Tana’s unit mate Karo yelled over the explosions and rifle fire as the Ignitaurs advanced on the late arriving forces from Xuxuhr’s ship.
“Then, are these bull things our allies or our enemy?” Karo shrugged as rifle fire knocked the embryo demons from their spear points.
“Those are aliens!” Tana jabbed his snout in the direction of a renewed onrush of Ignitaurs. He slung his rifle and grasped several grenades from his strap. His pitched his arms back and readied to throw them. “They fight demons! Then they are enem--! Wait! Com from Uruk. No! They are allies!”
Tana hurled the grenades at a squad of Xuxuhr’s demons snaking towards their flank. A group of closing Ignitaurs halted and glanced at each other in confusion as pieces of those demons were blasted over their heads from Tana’s assault.
“This is not war! This is pure carnage!” Zahl yelled as he and Uruk arrived at the passageway junction above the cargo hold and peered down.
“It is mindless revenge on both sides.” Uruk said as he watched Xuxuhr’s demons gather for simplistic massed attacks. “We must assert leadership.”
“Over what faction?” Zahl asked. “Do you still think the aliens are our allies?”
“They are now a distraction,” Uruk growled. “It would appear neither side would allow us chance to parlay. So my plan is as successful as General Xuxuhr’s last mission.”
“And so we now escape into space?” Zahl asked.
“No!” Uruk roared. “First we regroup our own forces.”
“Then flee into space?”
“NO! Our mission is unchanged!” Uruk lurched up to glare at Zahl. “We will use this mayhem to seize this ship!”
“A ship that plummets towards the Iron Work or worse?” Zahl’s left hand released his rifle for a second to allow his whole arms to shrug.
“If we take the main drive I will stop it from incinerating in the Red Giant.” Uruk countered.
Zahl opened his mouth to reply.
“But if you say another world, you will burn in the star!” Uruk’s grip vibrated against his rifle.
“I hear and I obey, Field Master.” Zahl nodded as bullets flew into the junction. “Do not mistake my desire to live with a lack of fight or disrespect. I will kill all who challenge us, alien or demon.”
“We will have many of both, Zahl.” Uruk crept closer to the edge of the junction and barked an order audibly and over his demons wavelengths: “All my demons, withdraw! Withdraw!”
Zahl looked at his Field Master with confusion.
“We will allow one side to prove itself stronger,” Uruk answered Zahl stare. “Then we will give the deciding blow with our demons. Until then, we move to take strategic control. We will take the main drive!”
Zaria wondered what other means of transport Anguhr used in his conquests. A small burning chariot suited him to speed between the comparatively close if truly distant sites on the Iron Work. Yet a transport ship like the one used by Xuxuhr did not suit him for departure from the solar cage. Anguhr wanted something on a grander scale. His ship was the only thing that fit the task, even if it was dwarfed by the titanic machine he stood on. His ship looked as another red star on a collision course as it approached. Closer to Zaria and her captured forces and Anguhr and his combined demon crew, it appeared as an inferno of steel skeletons set to crush them. It filled the entire sky above them with a more intense and rolling crimson inferno. Sporadic energy arcs shot from the burning hull to the power absorbing properties of the black plane it hovered near.
“You appreciate ostentatious acts, General,” Zaria raised her voice over the roar of the ship’s fire and crack of the arcs. “Yet I wouldn’t stay here long!”
“We leave now,” Anguhr said. “Just recall what I command.”
And who shall command you? Zaria thought. She allowed herself a smile as the ship came even closer.
One demon sentry stood at the hatchway to the portside secondary battery. Uruk sneered. If Triat was issuing commands to his demons, he had yet to call in all his forces to suppress the Ignitaur revolt. It was a show of arrogance or incompetence. Uruk would kill him for either, or simply because he felt like it. Even for a demon, Uruk was in a bad mood. The sentry caught Uruk and Zahl’s unit entering from the outside hull, not the passage from inside the ship. He swung his rifle towards them, but then caught the full bursts of their fire. His body became pieces ricocheting with the bullets.
“There will be a conduit I can interface with inside the guns’ reactor room.” Uruk said as they entered. Radiation bled away from the cylindrical reactor thrust into the hull. It crackled along the machines metal skin as it became part of the ship’s aegis, although there was no need to shield the demons from the excess radiation. Thick power lines coiled from the reactor’s closest end. Uruk selected one with a distention near the gun dome nested inside the burning beams.
“Hold this pos
ition.” Uruk handed his rifle to Zahl. “I will interface and take control of the weapons.”
“Understood, Master Uruk.” Zahl nodded.
The word interface was an old term for the means of entering commands into machines. The direct, demon method of linking was even older than simple machines. Uruk opened his jaws as wide as he could to expose all his serrated teeth. He grabbed and bit into the distended node. There was a massive spark. Zahl jumped back. Uruk’s body quivered. Zahl wondered if he was now Field Master.
Uruk expected the world of the ship’s systems to be one of heat and darkness. However, his perception was immersed in white light as his mind became part of the information and control channels. More surprising was the wet sensation. Uruk saw what he hoped to be the circuits for the weapons systems. The appeared as fibers within a stream without shores and buffeted by the current. He grabbed them mentally. And then he realized he was not alone.
Uruk’s mind searched for the other presence. He saw it as a large, black and inscrutable eye looking back at him. His own presence was a demon’s serpentine eye. The two orbs circled each other. Both minds were wary, but curious.
‘I am Uruk, Field Master. I claim this ship.’ Uruk thought.
‘I am Not Uruk, and a master of many arts.’ Came the reply.
‘You are an alien.’ Uruk stated.
‘Yes.’ The black orb replied. ‘An Ignitaur. A creature born to use flame. You are a creature born to rain fire.’
‘There is a difference?’ Uruk asked.
‘We Ignitaurs build. You destroy. Makers of steel. Makers of ash. Opposite sides.’
‘How did you penetrate into this system?’ Uruk was determined to gathering intelligence. He simplified the Ignitaurs identity to Not.
‘Physically, I have horns to ram. But I can adapt. I merely slipped inside.’ Not answered.
‘How? How?’ Uruk repeated. He steadied his mind to stay ready to strike.
‘Phased spells are much like complex equations.’ Not’s mind answered. ‘Most intelligent species develop and then rely on one or the other to interact with environments, physical and ethereal. My species is good at both.’
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