by Troy Dukart
“Damnit! Strafe, we must leave!” Roya told me.
“Shit!” I jumped out pilot’s seat and went over to Brutus, “You ready to jump Mr. Wolf!?”
“That’s what Whiteclouds do Strafe!” Brutus answered.
The engine had been completely shot to garbage. I opened up the hatch and we were met by a gust of wind and loud explosions. Roya reached over to me and I pulled her over to Brutus before we jumped out. The ship we were in got shredded to pieces by a bunch of other turret fire and blew up right behind us. There was no were else for us to go other than on the massive ship.
Brutus flew straight forward, with no fear. It was challenging flying and dodging through the air as a barrage of turret-fire rained upon us. I felt a wiz-of-bullets fly past us and if it wasn’t for the God Blade, we would’ve been toast. It protected us with the same red shield like before against the Senti soldiers.
Brutus landed us on the hull and began to look for ways into the ship. One of the giant turrets near us had picked us up and began to slowly aim toward us. The chain-gun began to cycle and it fired at us. The God Blade shielded us but looked like it wouldn’t hold forever. The red shield around us began to crack and get smaller and smaller. We were about to be shred to bits if we didn’t think of something fast.
“Get low!” Roya cried.
She pulled out her sword and held it like a baseball bat. She powered on her aura and touched her sword. Magically it began to extend until it was over three-hundred feet long. Then, with one big swing she sliced the turret across its middle, toppling it.
“You are something else Roya,” I shook my head in disbelief.
“That makes three of us,” Roya smiled back.
“Strafe! Roya! Hurry!” Brutus yelled to us.
He ran ahead and found an emergency hatch. We crawled toward it while fighting the wind. I grabbed the handle and ripped it off the hinges. I let Roya in first before Brutus and I headed into the ship.
After we made it down the winding staircase, we ended up in the rafters of a gigantic hanger. There must’ve been close to thirty battleships down there along with a couple hundred soldiers. The ships were constantly deploying out to the fight.
The rafter we were on was completely unguarded and we saw a door on the far left side, straight across from us. We stayed crouched down to avoid being seen, which was a little hard for Brutus because he was so big.
“Do you think Rousseau and Zon made it in?” I asked.
“Yes, they are close. You must learn to feel their presence Strafe-Sah,” Roya said back.
“I felt that feeling earlier, but it was different. I think there is someone else here with Guardian power,” I noted.
“Hmm, you must be very close to whomever it is Strafe-Sah. Unless we as Guardians synchronize our spirits, which is linking auras so we can see each other when we close our eyes, being able to detect Guardian Power takes a great emotional tie between each Guardian,” Roya explained.
“How do we synchronize our spirits then?” I asked.
She put her hand on my chest and on Brutus’ back. I saw her aura light up and flash over to me; it felt like an adrenaline rush all over my body.
“Here, now our emotions are connected. You will know if I am close, at all times. These are the gifts we were given,” Roya said.
“What gifts?! What is the power we have!?” I questioned.
“We are Guardians Strafe-Sah and Brutus-Sah, protectors of the Eternia. You may not be from here, but your family has protected this planet before. It takes a pure heart to be chosen, although some emotions don’t look for a pure heart. These powers only appear in times of warring. My culture has devoted many resources to studying these powers, as we hold those with Guardian Powers as Gods. All will make sense in due time, but we must keep going. Dhenfen’Ce will fall if we stop!” Roya explained.
“A God is nothing without his devotees,” Brutus pointed out.
“Hmm, Brutus, not only my best friend but now philosophical God-Wolf,” I observed.
She looked deep into my eyes and I knew she was telling the truth. I had a feeling there was more to this woman than she was letting on, but I still trusted her.
“Okay, I’m with you. Let’s go!” I patted her on the shoulder and smiled.
We made our way to the door and out into a hallway. It was very illustrious and beautifully decorated in Senti colors. There were lines of purple light on the ground and staircase in front of us. We climbed the stairs and turned the corner to find a T- shaped corridor lined with rooms on each side. Surprisingly, no soldiers. We took a right.
We made it to the heart of the ship and saw a grand, circle shaped door at the end of the hall. We began to make our way down when Brutus stopped and turned around growling. At first, there was nothing there but a familiar invisible outline of a person who stood in front of us. As they became visible, I recognized it was the same guy from the cave back in New Santa Barbara. They still had their helmet on. I point my finger at them, “Asshole.”
Soldiers came from behind him and aimed their rifles at us.
“This person, they have power Strafe-Sah. I can feel it,” Roya whispered in my ear.
“You know, it suits you to be invisible. Only a coward is afraid to show his face,” I taunted the mysterious figure.
They shook their head and pulled off their helmet. When I saw who was standing in front of me I almost dropped my sword out of shock. It was Gain.
“Gain!?! What are you doing?!” I uttered.
Gain had his head down at the floor, looked up and chuckled sarcastically, “What does it look like Strafe? I’m here to bring glory to the mighty empire of the Senti nation.”
“Are you crazy!? You’re from New Santa Barbara, just like me! What the hell?” my skin turned white.
“Nobody ever gave a shit about me. I always felt invisible growing up in that damn town,” Gain said as he strolled back and forth with his arms folded.
I looked at Roya and back at him, “What happened to you Gain? Why are you doing this? Where is Yessa?!”
“For too long I could never get what I wanted. Tiras promised me great things and so I did what I did. He saw the potential in me when I discovered I had the Power of Despair. Maybe if society hadn’t thrown me to the gutter I wouldn’t have drank the blood from their skulls. Yessa is where she needs to be. She helped plan this attack you know,” Gain said coldly.
“I can’t believe what you saying! Thousands of people are dead, our home is in danger, and now you have Yessa as a prisoner?! You were the brother I never had. How could you turn your back on your real family?” I snapped back. I had no idea I was screaming at him.
“Shhhh,” he put a finger up to his lips, “She is being taken care of. You should’ve died in that cave Strafe,” Gain said.
He saluted with two fingers and turned invisible as he walked away.
“Gain,” I reached a hand out to him.
The soldiers had their weapons up and were ready to fire; we were like fish in a barrel. I looked down to the God Blade and the orb was dull black. It wasn’t recharged enough from deflecting all that turret fire from before.
“Quickly! Behind me!” Roya said to us.
Roya expanded her sword to form a shield of her own, and Brutus and I hid behind it. Bullets began ricocheting off her blade like rain drops on an umbrella.
“Let me help you!” I said.
I began to push us toward the soldiers as she protected us. They wouldn’t be able to mess with us in close quarters. As we were making our way down the hall, I heard someone scream and the firing stopped. Then there was a sharp clinking sound and I saw something roll behind us. They looked like soda cans but it said “EXPLOSIVE” on the side.
“Shit! Grenades!” I screamed.
“Get them gone Strafe-Sah!” Roya exclaimed.
I grabbed two of them and threw them toward the round door as quick as I could but there was one in front of us I didn’t see. The grenades exploded and ran
g my ears pretty good. For such a small can, it sure did pack a punch! It shot us all back about ten feet and we landed all on our butts. My head was spinning and I couldn’t hear anything. I laid on the ground holding my head and squeezed my eyes shut.
The soldiers began their advancement toward us; I could see their outlines through my blurry vision. Through my dizziness, I reached toward my sword and tried to get to my feet. Brutus was stumbling too and Roya was still on the ground. I held out my sword with whatever cognitive ability I had. One soldier smacked the sword out of my hand while two others pinned me down and kicked me to the ground. I couldn’t make out what was going on, all I could feel was the sharp pain in my ribs from the kicks.
“Aim! Fire!” the officer said.
I could smell the gun powder from the gun’s barrel in front of me. I closed my eyes and took a big breath, trying to put myself at peace.
“Momma,” I sighed.
For some reason, fate had always been on my side during times I was so close to death recently. The soldier aiming at me grunted and then screamed. I looked over to see he had been dragged across the hall and was now impaled on Zon’s sword. The other soldiers turned and began to rain fire toward him. My vision had started to return as I watched the battle, and I’d never seen anybody move like Zon.
His hair and eyes were midnight blue. There must’ve been seven soldiers all firing at him and none could hit him. Any bullet that got close he would deflect with his blade, but that wasn’t the thing that blew me away. He could teleport himself.
Zon was like a ghost, moving around the floor. One second he was facing the soldiers on the floor, the next he was on the ceiling drawing their fire somewhere else. Zon then teleported to side of the wall and jumped toward the opposite side. He began spinning in mid-air and as he did he threw sharp-looking daggers at the soldiers. They hit them in the knees and arms, and one across the eyes.
Taking advantage of this, I saw Rousseau run into the hallway but had to back-peddle to slow himself down. He fell on his butt but got up quickly. He then began unloading laser shots on them from his gunblade. The energy blasts downed all the soldiers, effectively ending the battle and saving our asses.
As the smoke cleared, I saw them walk toward us, Zon with a blank expression and Rousseau with tongue out and high energy. Opposites attract I guess? Roya had walked over and helped me up. Brutus got up and shook his body, shaking the dust off. I rubbed his face to make sure he was okay.
“Ha, you guys were almost toast! No need to thank us,” Rousseau joked sarcastically.
“Next time back me up when I go in instead of hiding. In battle, there are no second chances,” Zon said coldly to Rousseau. Rousseau frowned. Zon chucked the blood off his sword, spun it around, and sheathed it. He walked straight ahead towards the door, not acknowledging him. Rousseau looked embarrassed.
“Maybe I’m not meant for this after all,” Rousseau replied quietly.
As I looked into his eyes, I could see pain, but not of the physical kind. Something had happened to him in the past, and he was still fighting his demons. Roya walked over and put her hands on his shoulders and then face to comfort him.
“You are a brave one Rousseau-Sah. You saved Strafe-Sah, me and the mighty Brutus-Sah. For that, my thanks are forever,” she said to him. She leaned in and gave him a hug. I walked over and patted him on the shoulder too.
“Dude, that was awesome!” I said.
Rousseau looked back at us with a frowned smile and held his head high.
“Tell me Strafe, have you ever held a sword before?” Zon asked me.
“Not really. I’m a pilot; I’ve never had to worry about this stuff before. War is a thing of the past where I’m from,” I picked up a rifle from one of the Senti soldiers, “Besides, wouldn’t one of these rifles make a better weapon since they are all using them too?”
“100 guns can never match a true warrior. You are not ready; you are a novice. I won’t be able to babysit you forever. I hope you all will develop an edge to match your God weapon,” Zon said as he walked away. What the hell is his deal?
Zon had knelt down by the door and picked up some of the debris. He sifted it through his fingers, smelt it and let it fall to the floor. Then he looked up to us and shook his head, “This is a trap. I can feel it.”
“Can’t you go inside the ship Rousseau-Sah?” Roya asked.
“You mean hack the ship? I could give it a try,” Rousseau replied.
There was a computer terminal next to the door. After trying to hack it he shook his head,
“That’s going to be no use mate, the door is encrypted by DNA scan.”
Zon grabbed the head of a fallen soldier and looked at him.
“They unfortunately need to be alive and breathing there chum,” Rousseau explained.
I walked over and out of curiosity touched the hand scan. It glowed green and said, “Welcome Barzakh.” The large door opened.
“You aren’t Senti are you?” Rousseau asked me.
We made our way into the open room cautiously and found ourselves in the bridge of the ship. There was a huge glass window and a bunch of computers and chairs, but strangely no Senti soldiers. It had two floors and was pentagon in shape. Suddenly it felt as if the temperature of the room dropped drastically. Down my spine ran a cold shiver; the same feeling I felt when I was on the battlefield and in my dream. He was close.
“Why are the Senti absent?” Roya observed as she used a computer.
“I heard a story in my country of how certain snakes like to hunt. Instead of wasting up all of their energy hunting, they lie and wait, releasing pheromones to attract their prey. The snake lies completely still and acts as if it is dead. By the time the prey realizes the snake is not dead. . .,” Zon told us eerily before being interrupted by a shadow.
As if on cue, I saw a black flash out of the corner my eye. I turned around to find a person standing above us, dressed in completely dark garb. They had a hood on, and a black mask that covered their face. The mask had pink dots decorated like drips of blood drawn on it, falling from the lonely red ruby eye. They had on silver gauntlets and a red bandana dangling by his waist. There was a pulsing dark pink light emanated from their fists. The mysterious man stepped forward and put their hands on the guard rail and let out an eerie hiss.
“What a fitting story,” the masked man announced.
Their voice had a macabre distortion which sounded like a mix between a snake and cyber robot voice.
“Are you the snake or are you a ghost?” Zon replied with a hand on his sword.
“I am the only thing you will find waiting for you between a nightmare and a dream.”
He looked down upon us as he slid his hand across the rail. Wherever he touched it melted, like lava. There was something very sinister about him. I could see he was trying to size us up as he stood completely still. His head passed back and forth until he looked at me.
He looked at my pendant, a memento from my parents and flinched when he saw it. He looked confused but shook his head.
“It’s time to end you,” the masked person said to us.
“Who are you!?” I asked.
He turned and held his palm straight up us and hissed, “ Barzakh.”
You, you were the person from the battlefield. All I saw before being blasted out the window was a flash of pink light. It felt like someone punched me in the chest with a burning fist. My skin felt like it was on fire and the blow back knocked the wind out of me. When we hit the glass window, my head smacked against it, cutting me badly across the back of my scalp. Barzakh shot out the glass and we were sucked out of the ship into freefall.
We flew past the ship’s nose and underneath the belly. My sight hadn’t all returned due to the flash, but as I kept blinking, my vision returned. I noticed an energy storm forming beneath the ship’s underside.
“Oh shit,” was the first thing out my mouth.
The mega cannon was charging and looked ready to fire. If t
he rumors were true, this could glass a hole through a mountain one mile long. The energy forming in the cannon looked like a lightning storm; there was electricity and dark gas forming all around it. I was tumbling through the air and I could feel it pulling us toward it.
Moments before we would be engulfed, I felt a warm, glowing light all over my body. I’d never felt so good in my life. The others were glowing akin to me, even Brutus. Just before we got pulled in, we came together and formed one big ball of light. The cannon had began to spin and then there was a flash. We had lined up in the way of the shot and all I could remember is that I heard a deep voice in my mind tell me, “SWING YOUR SOUL!!!”
I swung my sword toward the cannon and a huge white beam of energy shot through the ship so far that I could see the sky peaking through. It was too late though and the cannon fired and hit us directly. Everything went white and noiseless.
Chapter 14/
The one who knows
Strafe
I woke up in a dream, lying in a familiar place.
An aroma hit my nose; it’s of ginger and lilacs. I found myself face down on a patch of multi-colored grass. There was a city down the hill and the ocean in the distance; I was back home in New Santa Barbara. There were flowers of all colors everywhere around me. I pushed off my palms and again off my knee to stand up. I felt at peace. My fingers brushed against the God Blade, which made me cautious.
It was nighttime and the moon reflected beautifully on the ocean surface. The sky was cascaded with an aurora, which is usually impossible in California because we’re too far away from the north and south pole. Regardless, I basked in the beauty as it glimmered across the sky like sand on a beach. I could smell the ocean in the air. There is a wishing-well near me, so I went over to investigate.
“Damn, I’m thirsty!” was the first thing out of my mouth.
As I looked down into it I could see it went deep underground. As I saw my reflection, the water started to ripple. I thought it was going to overflow, but, someone jumped out of the well instead. The water blinded me for a second, but when I dried my eyes and looked back, I saw the same little boy in black from my earlier dream.
