This time the images were grand and sweeping, generations of memories from the Jykarr’s K’teth flashed before my eyes in mere moments as they were shared with the Dynnara. I couldn’t say how much of what I saw belonged to the elderly symbiote and how much had been passed down to him, but the sheer magnitude of it all was staggering. It started with great ships ascending into the sky above an alien world. I couldn’t say for certain, but something told me it was Tel’c.
The images blinked blurred and suddenly I was watching through the eyes of the unnamed Qharr as he ran toward the great tower. Again, I witnessed him mourn the loss of the Phyrr Lesch who so resembled a human before the image flashed again. More visions coalesced inside my mind until they resolved themselves into that of a dimly lit room.
A Qharr child lay on the ground atop a bed pad as a slender figure knelt over her. This time the images were disjointed, broken even, but the meaning behind their words was fairly clear even if their exact translation was lost to me. Once again, I was seeing through the eyes of another, a Qharr from the distant past. The woman, the child’s mother, had features, just a little too soft for one of her kind, though much more harsh than Gyff. There were a pair of breasts on her chest, but their prevalence was such that they could have been easily overlooked. It was clear that she had the same Phyrr Lesch ancestry as the other woman. Perhaps, she was a daughter or a grand daughter.
The child spoke, she wanted to know where they had come from. The mother answered in a soft soprano, far softer than any Qharr voice. She spoke of the Phyrr Lesch in hushed tones, but there was an undertone of anger that spoke volumes. They were the creators, she told her daughter, they had created the Qharr to bring peace to the galaxy. They were…
It was so difficult to decipher, but the meaning behind the words slowly became evident as she continued. The Qharr had been created by using a primitive relative to the Phyrr Lesch as a template. These primitives were similar to the creator species, in that they could interbreed, but the creators were more advanced, more intelligent. Some of the meaning behind her words was lost on me, but I got a sense she was relaying something that had a deep spiritual meaning for her.
When she spoke of the Phyrr Lesch, there was the barest hint of contempt, but when she spoke of the other species, the so called primitives there was a feeling of reverence and awe. The creators were great and powerful, but they had abandoned the Qharr. They did not deserve their reverence, but their hatred. The ancestors were more worthy, and by exploring their origins it was believed that they could better understand their true purpose and not the one in which their creators had forced upon them.
Her neck craned around and I got the sense she was speaking to whoever’s eyes I was seeing through before everything faded to black and new images flowed through my mind.
Many were angry that the Phyrr Lesch had abandoned them, but others believe they had departed for reasons beyond their understanding and that they would one day return. Their society devolved becoming more tribalistic and fractured. Soon the two factions were even fighting amongst themselves, and as time passed knowledge passed into myth. The Qharr’s religion became more dogmatic and their society more xenophobic. Once, they explored the stars with the technology left to them by the Phyrr Lesch, but centuries of war consumed them, much of their knowledge was lost and they no longer had the means to touch the vast expanse of the galaxy.
Millennia passed and the wars continued until finally one rose up from the ranks of an insignificant Qharr clan and became their leader… their Prime. He saw and understood that the destructive path his people had taken would lead to their eradication. It took him more than twenty years, but he managed to unite his people under one banner. He became the first Prime Ascendant, under him the infighting amongst his people ceased and for the first time in many centuries, they began their first successful campaign against those now called the Gieff.
The Gieff lost. They’re population was decimated and they were driven into the more isolated regions, the islands and deserts of Tel’c. There they were hardened and gained a reputation as fierce warriors. Centuries passed and the hatred between the two Qharr clans softened, but never died out completely. The Qharr rediscovered what had been lost, the technologies of their creators, but the Gieff chose to remain isolated and apart. They remained tribalistic and sought to live a simpler life while the Qharr sought dominance of the stars.
Chapter Seventeen
The vision didn’t fade away, it simply blinked out and I was back in the real world staring at the Gieff woman as her chest heaved. Dynnara lurched back and she fell to her knees, but her eyes never left me. Her companions jumped forward weapons at the ready to scorch us with their phase rifles, but she held her hand up and climbed back to her feet.
“No!”
She stood there in the silence eyeing me up and down before a slow, but steady shiver ran up and down her body. She turned to the other Qharr and her face cracked into a smile that looked damned peculiar on her alien face.
“She spoke the truth.”
Dynnara drew close again and placed both her hands on my shoulder bowed her head and touched her forehead to mine. “You are progenitors, the heirs to the race from which we sprung. You must not be cast down as Jykarr Bynd has done. Forgive us.”
I took several steps back and let her hands fall away. She remained were she was standing, studying me with her trio of eyes.
“I’ve lived a lifetime under the thumb of the Qharr.” I shook my head and bit back tears. “I’ve watched my parents, the woman I once loved, and my own sister fall by your people’s hands. I-I can’t forgive those things. Not ever.”
She bowed her head and took three steps back. “Then I will help you. At least in some way the mistakes of the past can be undone. Earth belongs to you, let us fight the injustices of the Qharr people. If we can bring others to our path and fight against those who seek to continue your enslavement–”
“You’re talking about civil war!” Lily said her voice trembling as she stepped forward on trembling legs, bracing herself on the counter of the communications console. “Would you really betray your own people?”
“The Gieff and Qharr have warred with one another for as long as any of us can remember. I will shed no tears over the death of those who would turn their backs on the first race.”
I cleared my throat and glanced over my shoulder, a sob escaping my lips as I looked upon my sister’s corpse. Max moved forward, wincing with each step, before stopping and putting a hand on my shoulder. “We’ve done our part here. Lily needs medical attention and she damn well isn’t the only one.”
I gritted my teeth and nodded, unable to form the words, but even through the tide of grief and anger I knew she was right. I just wish I could see a way of us getting out alive. I shook my head and turned back to her and clenched my fists at my side. I took a deep breath before managing to force out a reply. I didn’t voice my concerns instead I looked around the room, careful to avoid lingering over Becca’s bloodied form.
“You have a suggestion?”
“If I can contact the Valiant, I think I can convince them to send down a drop ship, but they won’t risk an extraction in the middle of a firefight. So, we’ll need to put some distance between us and the action.”
Lily bowed her head taking in a deep breath of air before turning to me. “I-I don’t think I can make it. I can barely walk as it is.”
“I’m not leaving you… or Becca,” I clenched my hands at my side and walked to my sister’s body with slow deliberate steps.
Dynnara brushed past me and leaned down beside her body. “I shall carry this husk.” She slid an arm around Becca’s waist and turned to me as she hefted her up in her arms. “I will treat it with all due reverence and respect.”
I wanted to believe Dynnara was completely on the level and that should would do as she said, but her use of the word ‘husk’ didn’t fill me with the most confidence. A part of me wanted to force Becca’s body from her arms and carry he
r myself, but I bit my lip and turned away grabbing Lily by the shoulder as one of Dynnara’s hunters held the door open for us to pass through. I didn’t like it, but the Gieff was our best bet of getting the fuck out of there alive.
The Kylthash which coated the walls of the communication room had also granted the place a measure of sound resistance, but the moment I stepped through the doorway my ears were assaulted with the sounds of explosions and the much fainter sound of screams. The sheer intensity of the roar from the fighting was almost overwhelming and we hadn’t even made our way outside.
I pulled Lily close and felt a cold shiver trickle down my spine. I’d always hoped and dreamed this moment would come, but, until recently, a part of me hadn’t quite managed to believe it ever would. Humanity had suffered for decades under the rule of our oppressors and finally it was our time to fight for our freedom. Finally, the battle for Earth had begun.
Tears streamed down my face as I held Lily close to me. She’d lost consciousness sometime during our flight, but I could still feel her chest rise and fall. I fought my way through the tangle of Qharr with one hand. Firing off shots, as best I could weighed down by her inert form. It severely limited my ability to fight but I would not abandon her. Lily would get to safety and Becca would receive a proper burial even if it brought about my own demise.
It was all just a blur, phase bolts and bullets whizzed all around, but none of it mattered and I continued on somehow avoided any serious injury from the coil guns. I must have been hit maybe a dozen times, but most were from far off and all healed.
As we battled out way out, more of our friends joined us, but their faces were a blur and were soon forgotten as I continued onward. Lily was the only presence that registered and even then it was a vague nebulous presence. Farris cries when he saw my sister were enough to call up my attention, but even then it didn’t last long.
Finally, we reached the courtyard and the fog that had fallen over me finally lifted as I looked up to witness something I thought my eyes would never see. A destroyer, but not one of Qharr make, it was a human vessel reigning phase fire down on Qharr ships which were attempting to launch. Other ship’s joined it, some were recognizable as human, but many of the smaller ones were not. The ship’s were a hodgepodge of designs and colors, suggesting that the ERF had allied themselves with a number of different alien cultures.
“Thank God!” Max’s voice called out beside me. She clasped a hand over the left side of her throat and spoke. “Rodriquez to Valiant. Requesting extraction.”
She paused and I got the sense that she was listening to a response. I never heard one, but she must have had a comm implant. “Confirm, Sergeant Maxine Rodriquez, M-O-S Sixty-Eight Whisky Two, five-niner-bravo-seven-six-charlie-delta.”
She turned to me and glanced up at the one of the great skyscrapers. “We need to get higher, there’s too much weapons fire this close to the ground. They won’t risk bringing a drop ship down this close to the fighting.
“Farris!” I screamed out forced to raise my voice in order to be heard over the roar of the battle. “Take Lily!”
Farris did as he was commanded silently and reverently slipping my lover’s body out from my arms. I felt tears well up in my eyes at the sight, but I fought them away. I could mourn later… for the time being I had to keep my head.
“This way,” I called to the others just before I took off, running toward one of the great structures.
A wave of Qharr bodies swarmed through street in every direction. An endless sea of gray which stretched as far as the eye could see. We fought our way through the throng of beings headfirst, with all the grit and force of will that we could muster, but it was difficult going since the torrent of aliens seemed intent on making their way in the opposite direction.
No gray skins stopped to challenge us, but they seemed intent on getting out of dangers way. Few Qharr would cow to the threat of death, but like any species they had more than a smattering of common sense. An aerial battle taking place overhead with stray phase canon blasts and flaming debris plummeting toward the ground could end a life rather abruptly. Death while fighting an enemy was one thing, but death by falling wreckage or friendly fire wasn’t exactly the most heroic or honorable way to die.
We were less than a dozen meters away from our destination when we were finally confronted. Three hunters stopped, peeling away from the throng of fleeing Qharr and trained their weapons on us. Normally, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but those weapons were coil guns. I raised my weapons and opened fire killing the first two with a couple well-aimed shot to each of their chests. The third opened fire before I could do him in and I was forced to dodge out of the way. Fortunately, my companions scattered and Dynnara took the bastard out with a single shot to the head.
I expected that to be the end of it, but I should have known better. Instead of warriors we found ourselves confronted by an angry mob of civilians. I guess they didn’t take too kindly to us killing the warriors. There wasn’t a hunter among them, but they were still part of a culture obsessed with the warrior’s way. They might not have the training of a soldier, but most of them would still probably be better fighters than the average human.
“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath and lurched forward letting out a long stream of curses and insults in Qharr.
I holstered my weapons and held my hands up. It was time to try something a little different. I glanced back at Dynnara, cleared my throat then choosing my words slowly and deliberately I began to speak to the Qharr in their own language. “Brothers and sisters. Too much violence has been done between our two people. You are angry and understandably so. You have been lied to. We are not your enemies.”
They immediately rushed forward and I slammed my shoulder into the foremost attacker as she came at me. “Well, fuck. Fat lot of good that did.”
I raised my phase pistols prepared to open fire, but they were ripped from my hands. I screamed and ducked down as a fist soared toward me. I smashed the offending bastard in the face and moved on to my next victim, a rail-thin Qharr woman with the worst under-bite I had ever seen. I made short work of her and slammed my shoulder into a third who tried to come up on me from behind.
For every one Qharr I took down, three more took his or her place and it wasn’t long before I myself surrounded by more opponents than frankly I knew what to do with. How exactly was I supposed to fight several dozen opponents at once? They’d win by sheer numbers alone.
Farris was the first to collapse against the oncoming onslaught. He tried valiantly to fend them off, but the burden of Lily’s unconscious form was simply too great. Max fell next and one of the few remaining ERF soldiers was the third. I couldn’t tell if they were alive or dead, but I did hear a few screams from Dynnara before they closed in on me. Vakrexid’s tall bulbous head, which towered over that of even the tallest Qharr, was the last thing I saw before the weight of the bodies forced me down to the ground.
A squirming dogpile of writhing Qharr collapsed on top of me and I pressed back. I tried vainly to break free, but when I thought I might finally push through, the weight suddenly doubled. I screamed out and collapsed to the ground, unable to do anything but let myself be pulled the rest of the way to the ground.
“KHALA!”
Khala’s distress squirmed around inside my mind like a serpent slithering across my skin. It was probably the strangest sensation I had ever experienced and I wasn’t sure whether it was a good sign or bad one. Her emotions were so wrong that they almost seemed to have taken on a physical form, but they faded away just as quickly. They were replaced by a sudden influx of energy that burst out from my body and exploded into my attackers sending them flying away in all directions.
At first, I assumed that this was yet another application of Khala’s gravity manipulating abilities, but this felt different.
‘The Tyrsh!’ Khala’s voice was full of awe and wonde
r and I reached out to her with my mind. There was an instant connection, for a few seconds our minds became one and I understood. The Tyrsh was an ability said only to be available only to K’teth joined to the first hosts. It happened when the bond between host and symbiote was at its strongest. It was an energy discharge that could stun hundreds of enemies at once. Unfortunately, it didn’t make any distinction between friend or foe.
Knowledge of the Tyrsh wasn’t the only thing that came to me. A flood of memories and experiences, I knew everything there was to know about Khala and her previous hosts. Our consciousness was joined in a new way, a way that was so complete so intimate that there was no differentiating between me or her. We were united in a way that I never would have believed possible until that moment.
Dozens of Qharr came running across the distance, treading on the fallen bodies of their co-patriots. Dynnara, was the only one unaffected by the Tyrsh and we stood together as the oncoming onslaught. I had hoped to use this new ability again, but it had nearly drained me. There was simply no way, I could hope to call it up again without a massive energy intake.
I didn’t realize how weak I really was until the bastards were on top of us. I swung my fist at an opponent and didn’t seem to do much of anything except piss him off. He grabbed me by the throat and slammed me and slammed me down to the ground. None of my blows seemed to do a damn thing. It was as if the Kytash had drained away all my enhanced strength and reflexes. I called out for help, but Dynnara was a little busy.
I screamed out in defiance, but even that was an exercise in futility. The world seemed to slow down to a crawl and I thought that the end might finally come. There was no hope of rescue, there was no hope of survival. At least I could die knowing that the ERF might have a fighting chance.
I heard screams, and shouts followed by the sounds of struggle. My attacker was ripped away from my body and I felt a pair of hands pull me up from my feet. I blinked and looked upon my rescuer, unable to fathom what had happened and I couldn’t have been more surprised. Dynnara, looked me in the eyes and she smiled. Damn, I was never going to get used too that.
Battle For Earth Page 66
