“What do you know of honor human? You are lost creatures who live their lives empty of direction or cause.” She leapt toward me slamming a fist down toward my head.
I caught the blow, but only just barely and the strength of it forced me against the wall. “I know enough about honor to know that the Qharr Ascendancy is corrupt. I know that the Sub-Ascendant has been hiding a truth about my people that is so shocking it could very well destroy the foundations of Qharr society.”
“Why is it that you continue to speak? I wish only to fight.” She yelled and sent her fists crashing down toward me. Fortunately, I managed to lunge out of the way just in time and they went slamming into the wall instead.
She roared and spun around to face me, but before she could attack Khala’s voice rang out. ‘This truth is relevant even to you, Dynara!’
Apparently, the Gieff woman had enough of a reputation that Khala had heard of her, but I could say at the moment if that was a good or a bad thing.
The Gieff stopped dead in her tracks and studied me without making a single movement or gesture. “What relevance would that be, spawnling?”
‘”The humans are the progenitors!'”
Dynara’s reaction was not at all what I would have expected. She didn’t speak or utter a word, but simply turned away and went dashing through the corridor until finally disappearing up the stairway.
“The fuck?” Beckman said stepping forward scratching at the back his neck.
I almost ran after her, fearing that she might raise the alarm and jeopardize our mission, but something told me that she wasn’t a threat to us any longer. I let her go and instead turned away putting my mind on the task at hand. Perhaps, it was a stupid decision, but she had disappeared so fast I would have had a hard time finding her anyway.
Chapter Fifteen
I stepped up from the stairwell and ducked around the corner of the adjoining wall right alongside the others and placed a hand on the shoulder of Sandler, a young clone who had the eyes of a veteran despite his fresh face.
“Trouble?” I didn’t speak aloud, electing to mouth the word instead, but he seemed to understand.
He nodded and threw his thumb at the wall where presumably the trouble I had inquired over was brewing. Considering our location and our present predicament it wasn’t exactly a big mystery what was waiting on the other side of the wall, but I had to get a look nonetheless. I crept forward on my hands and knees and once I’d gotten close enough I risked a peak around the corner.
The was the usual cluster of guards, but had it been just them I wouldn’t have seen it as much of a reason to worry. Unfortunately, two of the guards happened to be Edant K’teth.
“Shit,” I cursed and gritted my teeth.
“It can never be easy,” I repeated my previous protest and gritted my teeth before holding my hand out to Teadman. I didn’t even have to speak the words. He slipped the item in question into my hands and I only hesitated a moment before taking action.
I jumped out into view of the guards, and raised my weapon. I had three rounds, but only one hit its intended target. The first Edant K’teth died the moment my bullet pierced her heart, but I wasn’t so lucky with my next two shots. I hit the other joined Qharr in the shoulder, but the third shot whizzed past and hit an un-bonded guard in the side, downing him.
I cursed and dropped the coil gun, tossing it at the second Edant K’teth as he came zooming toward me. It didn’t have much effect, other than to draw an annoyed grunt from my attacker, but it distracted him just enough that I was able to get the first blow in. My attack didn’t do much more to make him angry, and he was pretty damn quick to retaliate, hitting me across the face with a blow that had me seeing stars. Fortunately, I managed to shake it off in time to block his next strike.
“Damn you,” I cursed pummeling him with blows across his abdomen. He staggered back and I pressed the bastard swinging a fist up to hit him across the jaw.
He recovered and swung a massive fist at my head, I managed to duck just in time, but he slammed me into the wall with a second blow before I could even blink. I dropped down as he swooped in for another attack and I swept my foot out from under him. He collapsed and I leapt up on top of him, repeatedly slamming my fist into the wound on his shoulder.
Everything had happened so fast that his symbiote hadn’t quite managed to heal the injury, but it was starting to close up. Fortunately, my attack had the exact opposite effect. He howled and tried to fend me off, but I braced myself against his swinging fists and just kept hitting him. His attacks grew more and more frantic until one of them managed to do the trick. I was thrown off him and into the opposite wall with damn near enough strength to knock the wind out of me.
He was on top of me before I could recover and grabbed me by the shoulders sending me slamming into the wall with bone-breaking force. I could feel my bones pop back into place as he pulled me free, but before they could set he slammed me into the wall again. The others tried to help, one soldier even grabbed a coil gun and tried to shoot him in the back, but my opponent swung around using my body as a club. The attack sent him tumbling to the ground and the Edant K’teth slammed me into the wall again. I screamed and struggled to break free, but the more I writhed in his grip the more it tightened.
That might have been the end of me, but I had a trick up my sleeve, literally. I elbowed him, thus freeing my arms and slipped a hand inside my sleeve. The pain was pretty intense, since my left arm was broken, but I gritted my teeth and let out a victory cry as my hand found purchase on its intended target. I slammed my hand out and stabbed the bastard in the chest.
He let out a startled cry and dropped me. The impact sent shooting pains through my whole body, but I managed to climb to my feet with more than a little effort. Bones popped into place and wounds closed in on themselves as Khala absorbed energy from one of the reserve power cells strapped to my thighs. I wasn’t completely healed and frankly, if I were in a situation that I could afford to step back and call it quits for the day I probably would have, but hell I didn’t really have that option, did I?
My opponent charged straight at me, but I leapt to the side and grabbed him by the shoulder as he passed. I slammed him into the wall, with damn near the amount of force he’d used on me. It definitely left the bastard dazed, so I did it again, and again. I was more than a little satisfied to hear his bones crunch, but I knew that his symbiote was probably a whole hell of a lot better fed than mine and would probably heal up just fine. So, before he recovered I plunged my knife deep into his heart letting him collapsed to the ground at my feet.
That did the trick, and by the time I returned my attention to the remaining guards I was more than a little relieved to discover that just one of them remained standing and even then he didn’t prove much of a threat. I stepped forward, his eyes grew wide and he booked it down the corridor.
“Coward,” I said, letting out a deep breath of relief and slipped my knife back into my sleeve. The path to the building’s communication center was just a stone throw away. Maybe, just maybe, we could make it.
Despite my previous optimism, the route to the control room was not an easy one. We encountered three more groups of guards, but only one more Edant K’teth. She put up a damn good fight, but I guess I was more determined than her. Unfortunately, the resulting fight left me separated from the group. There was nothing to do, but continue on and hope Rayland could get the remaining members of the group out of this mess alive.
By the time I reached the communications room, I think it went without saying that I was feeling pretty ragged. The doors clanged shut behind me and I got my first good look at the room. The sickly green color of the walls and floors suggested they were made from or were given a generous coating of Kylthash, a sort of organic substance that while soft and malleable in it’s natural form, could not be broken or torn once processed without an insane amount of force which went without saying was beyond that of even a
host to a K’teth. There were two sets of doors the first were the ones we just entered and the second were across the chamber on the opposite wall, but given that they were made from the same substance, they looked pretty damned impregnable.
I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise as I cast my eyes about again. I put on all the speed I could muster, moving toward the doors so fast that I slammed right into them. I tried to pry them open with every bit of strength Khala could give me, but they wouldn’t budge. I rushed across the room to the other side, but the other set were sealed just as tight.
“Dammit,” I cursed glancing back as I stepped toward the communications console in the center of the room.
By then it was pretty obvious that I’d stepped into a trap, but my trip to the communications console pretty well confirmed it. The screens were dead and none of my attempts to activate the computer system did any good. Clearly the sub-ascendant had been prepared for our arrival which meant…
My head snapped around and I made another run at the door as a single figure stepped inside the room, but it slammed shut just seconds before I could reach it. I spun around, turning to face Lily who looked like she’d been through a meat grinder.
“Dammit!” I cursed grabbing Lily by the shoulders. “Where’s the rest of your group?”
“We got separated. We ran into a few Edant K’teth on our way here,” she shook her head and stared up at me with wide eyes. “I drew them away on a merry little chase to protect the others. I barely survived the resulting fight and eventually made my way here.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think we’ve walked into a trap. The walls are lined with Kylthash and the doors too. I can’t break through no matter how hard I try.”
“What about the console?” Lily didn’t wait for me to answer, but instead dashed across the room toward the object of her inquiries. Her hands zooming across it’s dark surface with such speed that even I couldn’t make out her movements, but when she stopped and let out a long string of curses I knew she’d come to the same conclusion as me.
She returned and knelt down, her form falling out of sight as it slipped behind the control surface. I couldn’t see what she was doing, but she popped back up just a few seconds later, her face creased with a frown. “There’s a biolock on this thing. I’ve never seen one this sophisticated. Give me a few weeks and I might be able to bypass it, but even then, this thing has three factor authentication… it would be damn hard, maybe beyond my abilities.”
I can’t say I was surprised. Why lure us into this trap, with a big juicy communications array as bait if they were just going to hand us access? We’d been had, and as much as I hated to admit it, there was only one conclusion I could come to, we’d been betrayed.
My mind raced as I spread all the possibilities out in front of me. Who among us could possibly want Earth to remain in the hands of the Qharr? We’d done so much and fought so hard, I couldn’t imagine any human who would want to stop what we’d put into motion. Then it struck me, any human, but not all of our allies were human, were they? The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, but I shook my head fighting back tears.
There was only one non-human who could have been in the position to betray us. I shook my head, and gritted my teeth. The doctor could not be responsible. I refused to believe it. There had to be something else at work, but try as I might I couldn’t unravel the mystery.
I’m sure, given the chance, that my mind would have supplied itself a thousand different theories, each less believable than the last. In a way it was fortunate that I didn’t have to put myself through that, but it was only because of the catastrophe that followed. The furthest set of doors swung open and a figure was thrown through the air landing a half-a-dozen yards away from me.
I rushed toward her and had just enough time to identify the unconscious form of Max before a massive figure burst into the room with a form that looked absolutely tiny in his bulging arms. The sub-ascendant had found us wearing a typical stone-faced Qharr expression, but for someone who’d spent years living amongst and serving gray skins his body language spoke volumes. Jykarr was consumed by rage and hatred to the point that I kind of doubted he was operating at a very rational level.
He threw, the crumpled form in his arms aside and slammed the door shut behind him. I couldn’t see her face, but her blue hair was enough to tell me it was Becca. I scrambled across the room toward my sister, but the sub-ascendant intercepted me, picked me up and grabbed me by the throat. “This is the end, but before I destroy what’s left of your resistance you should know that you’ve been betrayed.”
I gasped struggling to draw air in as I wheezed out my response. “Already came to that conclusion. You overgrown mother… humping bastard!”
His grip tightened and I clawed at his hands, but as I’d come to expect from the bastard he was just too damned strong. He pulled me close and I could feel his breath on my throat as he spoke again. “It was one of the most recent of your friends to enter the room. Care to guess which one?”
He threw me back through the air and I slammed into the opposing wall with so much force that I felt something snap. In the past I’d felt bones crack and even break, but this was different. This time, it was my spine. There was an odd absence of pain and I was very afraid at the implications. Was it Khala’s doing or was it a sign that something was seriously wrong? I got my answer and it sure as hell wasn’t the one I wanted.
I slid back down to the ground collapsing into a useless heap. I tried to climb to my feet, but didn’t exactly get the sort of response from my limbs that I was hoping I would. My arms seemed to work just fine, but where anything below my waist was concerned I couldn’t even flex a pinkie toe.
‘Khala!’ I cried out.
Her reply was more than a little testy. ‘I am working on it! Fixing spines isn’t like healing stab wounds or mending bones! If I do it wrong, I could seriously damage your body to the point that it would be beyond repair.”
‘Fix it!’ I replied twisting my upper torso to get a better view of the fight between Lily and the sub-ascendant which had broken out sometime after he’d flung me away. I even tried to climb onto my feet again, but without cooperation from my limbs my efforts proved futile.’I don’t care if I never walk again after today! Just get me up! I won’t watch that bastard kill the woman I love!’
‘I will do what I can,’ Khala replied. Her voice was neutral, but I got the sense from our mental bond that she was not very receptive of the idea at all. Frankly, I didn’t care if she liked it or not even if she was trying to protect me. I had to get back into the fight.
Lily was doing a fantastic job at keep the sub-ascendant occupied. She was faster than me and was using her speed to her advantage, dancing around the bastard as he swung his massive paws at her tiny little frame. Even so, I knew what Jykarr was capable of and I worried that sooner or later he would find a weakness and exploit it.
Lily seemed to have worked out a system, running around him and making quick jabs before speeding away again. The sub-ascendant made any number of counterstrikes, but each time Lily dove out of the way. She kept at it. No matter how long the two battled Jykarr just shrugged off Lily’s blows. The problem was that he was too powerful and the Qharr’s superior stamina meant that the longer she kept him busy, the better chance he had of subduing her once she started to tire.
I cursed and crawled forward, but soon gave up. A sob escaped my lips when I saw Jykarr grab Lily by the shoulders and sent her hurdling away. She was quick to get back onto her feet, but judging from her ungraceful landing I kind of doubted it had been easy. She seemed a little sluggish from that point onward and I worried what would happen if Jykkar managed to hit her again. Lily was fighting hard and was doing damned admirable job, but it was growing more and more obvious that even though she was doing her best, she was no match for him.
I clenched my fist and pounded the floor growing more anxious by the second as I watched Lily s
truggle against her massive opponent. Khala drained away another reserve power cell and within moments I felt a change. Finally, I could feel my feet, but when I tried to climb up onto them I flopped back down to the ground. Muscles, twitched and it was almost like a light had fluttered on. I could move again. I let a smile form on the corner of my lips as I slowly crawled back onto my feet. I crept forward, a new purpose in my steps as I made my way toward Lily and the sub-ascendant. They were on the other side of the room and Jykarr had his back to me which was exactly what I needed.
I gritted my teeth and leapt forward. I threw my arm around his neck and started clawing at the flesh around his spine. He might have had superior strength, but he was still just a flesh and blood being like any other Qharr. I tore through several layers of skin, as Jykarr hopped around attempting to dislodge me from his back. I swung and slid around trying to find good handhold, but his berserk movements didn’t exactly make it easy.
Finally, I managed to stabilize my position by clawing my way up his back and tightening my hold around his neck. When I started to tear at his flesh again. It was a little disheartening to discover that it had already healed up, but I didn’t let it keep me from continuing. He screamed out and before I even realized it he’d managed to slam me back down into the ground.
Given my recent injury, getting back up proved to be a little more difficult than it should have been. I tried climbing to my feet, only to collapse, yet again. My face smacked right into the Kylthash and I gasped and clenched my fist as a shadow fell over me.
I crawled onto my knees, but Jykkar grabbed me by the shoulders and hurled me away before I was able to stand. I slammed into the wall and fell down to the ground face first. I pushed myself up onto my elbows, and tried my very hardest to launch myself back up, but each time I was knocked down it was even harder to get back onto my feet. I heard footsteps and I turned my head fully expecting to see the sub-ascendant come to finish me off.
Battle For Earth Page 63
