The Venerate Order

by Troy Dukart

  The King looked down at Marcio and looked back up, to which Marcio nodded over to the jury. As I looked over there, a person put down their hood and I jumped to my feet. It was that woman I took prisoner the night of the attack on Mylintus, General Taleri Ganser. She had her arm in a sling.

  “You’ve aligned yourself with the Senti!?” I asked.

  “It seems the Sorians gave us no choice, when they sent in a spy to aid in the destruction of the Crown,” Marcio replied.

  Taleri looked in my eyes with conviction and crossed her legs.

  “She is a representative from Senti. We sent her undercover as Charity to find you. Our sources told us you would be traveling with the former Prince. They’ve asked us for permission to extradite you on war charges Mr. Rocknus. One we plan to honor,” King Othen said to me.

  “Where is the real Charity?” Rousseau interjected.

  “Dead, by my hand,” Marcio snickered.

  “You monster!” Rousseau exclaimed as he slammed against the cage.

  “Enough!” King Othen commanded, a guard went over and smacked Rousseau in the back of the head, “Mr. Rocknus, continue!”

  “You are making a grave mistake! It is the Senti that were the ones who set this whole thing up in the first place out of avarice! They are gathering tools from around the world to control the Slates! I witnessed them steal one from my planet! They will turn against you!” I pleaded.

  “We have been allies for hundreds of years. I am confident in their decision to wage war,” King Othen replied.

  “Yes, this is true. Mr. Rocknus is wanted in custody in my country on many war crimes, one of them on kidnapping,” another cloaked person responded. They took off their hood, and to no surprise it was Hendrick Valender, that ass I knocked out before taking Taleri to Dhenfen’Ce.

  I laughed as I looked back and forth from the jury to King Othen and then I turned to the audience, “I see it all now! You all have been duped! The Senti are responsible for all the wrong doing that has happened in your country! They helped this joke of a King gain power and who orchestrated your forces to attack Shinjo in exchange to wage their war and get what they want! He is nothing but a puppet, and one that will. . .” I said before Marcio and some guards smacked me across the face with a baton and dragged me back to my cell.

  They then taped my mouth shut so I couldn’t interrupt. I stood there with blood dripping down from my temple.

  “Utter poison, spit from the mouth of a terrorist alien sent to destroy your beautiful country,” Hendrick said to the audience.

  “Order in the court! Order in the court!” King Othen said to Hendrick, “The jury is to stay silent until the proceedings!”

  “Forgive me King Othen,” he replied solemnly.

  Before Roya’s trial began, I could feel small vibrations shaking the castle. I looked around and saw Zon and Rousseau had felt the same. We looked around the room and witnessed the vibrations getting stronger.

  “Protect the King! Another Slate attack!” a knight screamed from the audience.

  Before anyone could move, there was a large blast that blew a large hole into the right side of the castle room from the outside. The debris knocked down Commander Vero and a few of her guards. After the smoke resided, I looked toward the blast to see the Rodin Pirates ship, the Bullrose floating outside.

  “Hot damn! They’ve got some balls alright!” I smiled.

  Pirates began pouring in through the hole and the audience began to rush toward the door. King Othen turned around and rushed through the hallway behind him, leaving the courtroom. The Pirates quickly located the Siopi Stones and shot them down with their guns as they engaged the remaining Royal Guard. Zon had already escaped his cell and began to open ours. Marcio had pulled out a rifle and jumped up to the perch the King sat from and began firing down on the pirates. I knew we didn’t have much time to escape before he would pick us off.

  As Zon opened my door, I broke free from my shackles and made a break toward the opening.

  “Strafe, wait!” Roya shouted to me, “Here!”

  The idiots had held our weapons in a crate next to where Roya was sitting. She tossed me the God Blade and I engaged with the Royal Guard as I made my way toward the ship.

  I looked to see that the others were okay. We made a break for the ship but I had my sword shot out of my hand by Marcio and I felt a whip snap around my neck as I was dragged to the ground. I turned around to see Hendrick smiling and Taleri holding a Siopi Stone. Can they target specific Guardian Powers or do they not have power either?

  The Royal Guard had Zon and Roya already on the ground, along with Senti soldiers to back them up. The Pirates who had entered the castle had already been slain and we were on our own again. Things had gone from bad to worse.

  Before they could reach me, I saw Rousseau pop out of the audience and shot Marcio with his gunblade. Marcio screamed as his eye was blasted. He retreated to the same way as the King. Rousseau shot the Siopi Stone Hendrick was holding.

  “After him!” Hendrick ordered.

  Some of the Senti soldiers rushed over to catch him but he was too fast, even without help from his aura. I heard some rubble moving and saw Commander Vero rise to her feet again; Hendrick wasn’t pleased.

  “Get off your lazy ass and catch that bastard!” Hendrick ordered Commander Vero.

  “You are not my Prince, nor my ally,” she replied.

  Before they could say a word, Commandeer Vero flapped her armored wings and shot Hendrick across the room into the wall.

  I pulled the whip off my neck but I saw Taleri standing over me with a gun pointed straight at my face. Even though she only had one-hand, she was still very dangerous. She looked down at me with such conviction I’d never seen before. As she went to pull the trigger, she pulled her gun up and clicked on the safety. Before running off, she whispered, “Today is not your day.”

  Taleri ran over to Hendrick and helped him escape. I was shocked. I shook my head and ran over to Roya who was with Commander Vero.

  “You risk too much Madame Vero-Sah,” Roya said.

  “Over the past year, I knew King Othen was sinister, but it wasn't until I laid eyes on Prince Marmahere did I have the courage to rise against him,” Commander Vero explained.

  Rousseau had taken care of the remaining Senti soldiers and caught up to us. He ran over and gave Commander Vero a big hug.

  “Argenta…” Rousseau said as he looked into her eyes.

  “My Prince,” with a tear in her eyes, she put a hand on his cheek, “I’m sorry to have laid hand against you.”

  “The fault lies on the King, there is no need to worry. I am glad you are safe,” Rousseau said to comfort her.

  “I was waiting for you to come back, to come back and take over,” Commander Vero said as she hugged him.

  As we stood there, I could hear a voice coming through a speaker from the ship, “Arggg mateys! We saved ye wolf Strafe! I see ye still in one piece! If ye want to stay so, JUMP ABOARD!” Captain Cali shouted to us.

  “We need to move!” Zon said as he moved toward the opening.

  The ship was hovering about 15 feet away and slightly below us. We couldn’t miss the landing.

  “It’s too far!” I shouted.

  “This is the closest we can get me boy!” Captain Cali said through the speaker.

  “I can get you on the ship,” Commander Vero told me.

  She flapped her wings and sent me flying through the air, “AAAAAHHHHHHAHAHHAAA!!!” I screamed.

  I landed hard on the hood of the ship, right in front of the glass cockpit, “Next time give me a countdown will ya!?”

  Commander Vero helped Roya and Zon get across, leaving Rousseau alone to speak with her. I couldn’t hear their conversation, but Rousseau had been motioning for her to come with him and jumping up and down. I saw her walking back and forth until finally she nodded. Rousseau and Commander Vero escaped from my sight for a moment but then I saw Rousseau jump over by himself onto the h
ood.

  As he landed, he looked back toward the hole where Commander Vero had spread her wings and was running toward the ship. He held his hand out to catch her as she made it over. She wasn’t able to take two steps as we heard a bang. She grabbed onto Rousseau’s shoulders as he held her and then she put one hand on her stomach. Her eyes widened and she looked down to find blood dripping through a hole in her armor, she then looked at Rousseau before closing her eyes and losing consciousness.

  “NOOOOOOO!!!!! ARGENTA!!!!!” Rousseau screamed as he held her close.

  The ship began to veer away from the castle and Rousseau had grabbed her in his arms and rushed her into the ship to get treatment. I looked back at the hole to see Hendrick standing over it a rifle and a smirk on his face. As we began flying toward the horizon, he pointed the gun toward the ship and pretended to fire a round.

  “Bang,” I read across his lips.

  Chapter 31/

  Direction

  Taleri

  Mission accomplished. . .

  Since we attacked Dhenfen’Ce last month, our strategic goals have been easy to achieve. We punched the enemy in the mouth, and they were still hurting from it. I always loved that taste, when the corner of your lip gets bloodied, and you have to lick it off with your tongue. Unfortunately whenever someone was able to hit me, they would’ve died shortly after.

  Ever since my father commanded us to embark on this mission of gathering Guardian Keys, our nation had flourished. We were united in the quest to unlock the heavens and bring order to this world of separation. Soria had been the strongest nation on the planet for decades, now they were putting together the broken statues of their former leaders while we continued on. We weren’t stupid though, and knew they were preparing for war.

  This holy mission to save humanity wouldn’t be stopped in my father’s eyes, but even as a ruthless warrior, I questioned our methods at times. Taking people, using them for experiments and imperialism; these are things I’d never imagined being part of a way to save humanity. I was fighting for my family’s and nation’s honor, but when I would look at the people we took over or defeated and left them hungry and dying, I felt it would stain our legacy as a nation forever.

  It’d been a while since I’d seen that man from Earth, Strafe. He looked stronger, but still innocent. He hadn’t killed yet, I knew the look it made on a person. It seemed he was travelling with others who possessed Guardian power, but he was the only alien. A weakling of a Prince, a homeless girl, a renegade assassin, a giant mutt and a boy from another planet; what a crowd. I could’ve killed ALL of them in the courthouse, but there was something in my heart that told me not to. Something told me to let them live. Something, when I looked into Strafe’s eyes, made me want to be by his side. He was no warrior, but his passion was intoxicating. Whenever he was around, it made me feel warm with compassion.

  Ever since that day he “kidnapped” me, I knew what we were doing was wrong. It wasn’t right to lie, cheat and steal from another, no matter how great the calling. We weren’t doing God’s work. Fate, as it seemed, had picked people from around the world to determine humanity’s destiny by instilling Guardian power among all of us. I was excited to see who would win, us or them.

  It’d been a few days since the court-hearing and Yuwheria was a mess. Hendrick had planned for the Slates to appear in the stadium, a plan my father blessed. My father, our Supreme Commander, had become aware of the Guardian power from a while back, when he found it in me. My mother was a part of a lineage who inherited the gift, and when she died in child-birth, she passed it down to me. At times he would get furious at the fact she gave it to me instead of him, but as I grew up and trained into our military, he saw the uses. He became very close with me through battle; all I wanted was for him to accept and be proud of me.

  Once he knew I could sense “others” with power, he sent our intelligence agencies to investigate. We had the entire list of those who carried the power and were monitoring them closely. Sometimes I could feel the cameras keeping a close eye on even myself. It seemed we were extremely valuable.

  One of the reasons we teamed up with the Yuwherians were to keep tabs on Zenith and Prince Aeileo. Our plans were to take them over once we had retrieved their Guardian Key. Their country lied in an extremely strategic position on the map. I was cleaning the blood off my gun in their weapons workshop underneath the castle when that slime ball Marcio walked up to me.

  “Hey baby, need any help with that?” he said as he tossed his new mechanical eye on the table. Machines all around him started to disassemble his eye and replaced it with the new one; it was disgusting.

  “If I needed any help, I would ask a man, not a broken machine who runs away,” I cocked my unloaded gun while cleaning it.

  “Baby, baby! You got me all wrong, I wanted to make sure I look good for you when I saw you again! I was just playing around with those cockroaches and slipped up. I’m sure even you’ve got caught with your pants down, am I right?” he chuckled as he adjusted to his new eye.

  He then walked past me and grabbed my ass. There had never been a time I was quicker with my knife to a man’s throat.

  “Scum,” I yelled as I slammed him into the wall, “I could kill you right now and not even your father would care. You are nothing but a freak with a gun. You don’t deserve Guardian power. And if you ever touch me again, I will find the cord that runs you and cut it.”

  “Woooahhh! Hahahaha! I came on too strong, I’m sorry! Good thing your squeeze didn’t see me, right?” Marcio laughed.

  “Hendrick would have had you melted down for bullets if he saw this,” I threatened.

  “No, no, no no no no, I’m talking about that boy you let get away, the alien. It kind of made me question who you are really in love with, hehehe!” Marcio smirked.

  I wound up my fist and struck him across his mouth. There was the sound of clinking metal when he hit the floor. If he weren’t the Prince, I would’ve killed him, regardless that he was an ally.

  “Ohhh! I was right,” he chuckled as he licked the blood from his cut lip.

  He propped himself up with his arm but I pushed him flat on his back, “How dare such a creature as you make such a judgment. If you ever talk to me when it is not mission related, it will be the end of you, do you understand my Prince?”

  “Oh yes my love, it was wrong of me to say so. Please, hehe, I will take my leave,” Marcio said with his arms folded out to show he surrendered.

  I pushed him to the ground and heard a thud. I began to walk back toward my quarters. Out of the corner of my eye, there was a bug flying near my ear. I was about to swipe it away but a knife flew right by my head and cut the bug in two. I looked back and saw Marcio with a bunch of knives in his robotic hand retracting, and a big smile across his face.

  “Tell Hendrick that if gets angry and shoots at my sister Argenta again, I eat his flesh with a fork and knife while he is still breathing,” Marcio sinisterly remarked. He turned around and walked out the room. He was watching us, like we were watching him.

  +++

  After I received orders from Sentium, I arranged to meet with the King to discuss our joined-forces battle plan. We met in the Gallery of Kings, a meeting room for discussing sensitive manners. The room was small and dark, hidden in a secret part of the castle. My body was scanned by a machine with a green laser for any recording material or weapons. After I was cleared, I joined Hendrick with the King and his son along with some of their aids. We sat at a metallic grey roundtable surrounded by busts of former Kings of Yuwheria. They were carved in stone and displayed them in battle armor. There was even a bust of a former Queen.

  “We thank you for coming here,” King Othen welcomed.

  “It is our pleasure, your Majesty,” Hendrick greeted back, “Your hospitality is greater than what is spoken.”

  “Thank you Sir Valender, we owe each other a great deal I suppose. Setting up the attack on the Shinjin village and the late King’s assassina
tion was no easy deal for you. I never thought this would turn out such splendor,” King Othen raised his glass to salute Hendrick, “We need to discuss moving forward.”

  “Yes, your Majesty,” I said, “My father sends his regards and well wishes for your reign. As you know, the war is spreading and Soria and her allies are gathering in mass. We are close to collecting all of the Guardian Keys, but the Federation is having trouble getting the last few. The more Guardians who activate, the easier they will be to track.”

  There was a silence in the room as the King drank his drink and wiped his mouth. Hendrick and I awaited his response.

  “Very good General Ganser, I will help support your war efforts as long as Sentium honors their agreement to share access to Heaven with me. My nephew is still alive. Bring him back to me. He will die by my hand. You may leave now,” King Othen stood up and motioned us to leave.

  We both bowed to him and made our way out. After we got back on our ship heading to Sentium, Hendrick came over to me, “It is done. The King will have two months, max, to live. I put enough poison in his drink to guarantee so.”

  “Who the hell authorized that? You are trusting that scum Marcio to follow through with his father’s agreements? Let alone be a King?” I shoved Hendrick into his seat, “EXPLAIN!”

  “My lady, it was your father who gave me the assignment personally. He didn’t share it with you?” Hendrick asked with a raised eyebrow.