“Some plan.”
“You have anything better to offer?”
Kasper kept his silence for a while. “Nope. But we can’t rally everyone before that thing reaches here.”
“We’ll make do. Do it.”
The creature was now completely out of the sand, pulling its body toward the base, using its huge, bony legs like rows. The rest of its body was like a fat, very fat person resting on countless tiny limbs, like hind legs. The monster used its tentacles as the main weapon and its feelers to grab people and throw them into its maw. Stefanu suddenly felt pathetic. The bodies flying into the creature’s mouths looked as puny as sesame seeds.
“Mercenary, we still have the other creatures to worry about as well.”
“I know,” Stefanu fired at a nearby rodent with four eyes, covered in chitin, chewing on one of the drill sergeants at the far end of the courtyard. He killed the creature before it got the soldier, but the man’s arm was done for, and he would bleed to death before long. “We won’t make it, Ga’an.” In his mind, Stefanu calculated every possible move, from tactical ones to all-out running to the shuttles. None of them seemed doable.
“Are you accepting defeat, soldier?” Ga’an grumbled.
“Look at it!” Stefanu flared. “I’m not some mere marine. I’ve been in hundreds of operations, and I know how odds work in battle. We’ll be an open buffet on that launchpad.” An ant guard appeared from nowhere from behind one of the container crates. Stefanu fired at the creature, cursing, but he ran out of ammo before he could deliver the finishing shot. “Damn it!” he jumped over the insect and hit it hard with the butt end of his rifle until the creature’s head was mincemeat.
“Sirs,” Lieutenant Commander Jong pointed at a dense cloud of fliers forming in the distance. “The creatures!”
“What,” Stefanu looked up from the massacre he just committed. “I’ll be damned,” he whispered.
The insects left humans alone and started fighting between themselves. The ant guards attacking the compound wrestled among each other. A mantis stabbed a bull with its limbs as a flier ripped one of the mantis’ eyes out.
“I do not understand.” Ga’an slowly lowered his Hydra launcher. “They are fighting among themselves.”
“Well,” Stefanu poked Ga’an with his hand, “I don’t need to understand to survive. That there’s our opening. Everyone,” he yelled, “to the shuttles!”
“We will not be able to outrun that monster.” Ga’an pointed, and Stefanu knew he was right. The rest of Vengeance’s army was occupied with killing each other, but it just meant more food for the huge creature. It was still on the move, now blocking three-quarters of their sight, rising like a huge wall before them. “Even if we reach Admiral Conway, it would catch up with us, Mr. Stefanu.”
“Anything to offer other than the bleak picture, Ga’an?”
The towering first officer looked at the monster, his jaw tightening. “Yes. I will need one of the shuttles.”
“What? Why?” Stefanu asked. “Oh no, we’ve got enough on our plates, Ga’an.”
“Do you have any other alternatives? I can reach Deviator and use her to kill the beast.” As if to prove Ga’an’s point, the monster howled again, shaking the ground with its shrieking voice.
“Very well,” Stefanu nodded. “Go up there and fire the main mortar. We’ll be out of your way by then.”
“Fire the mortar.” Ga’an nodded with a wry, rare smile.
***
“Sarah, quick,” Captain Samir called, pulling Eras up and running at the exit. “Jan-Chris, help the admiral walk!”
The ranger nodded, giving Admiral Conway a hand.
“I am all right, son. Let us be out of here.”
“What about Elaine?” Sarah looked at the rift, swirling slowly. “We can’t just abandon her.”
“If this rift is going to the Temple of Amasshan, she is with her father now. Mr. Harris has a better chance than us to fight with that insane woman.” Admiral Conway cautiously kicked one of the dead ant guards. “And there is no saying when these creatures will come to their senses.”
“The admiral’s right, Sarah.” Captain Samir’s face was covered in sweat. We have a chance to make a run for it before they stop killing each other.”
Sarah nodded weakly at Samir. She felt like she was betraying Elaine’s trust but even more that she was betraying the old man’s memory. He had given his life to stop Vengeance from taking Elaine, and now, they were leaving her behind.
“This way,” Jan-Chris took point. He had a nasty bruise on his head, but he seemed unaffected by it. “We can make way to my village hidden inside one of the valleys deep in the desert.”
“Will we be safe there?” Admiral Conway asked, moving after the young ranger.
“Safer than here,” the man shrugged.
On the surface was a bloodbath. The fog had cleared, revealing a huge, circular area as far as the eye could see. Hundreds of creatures lay dead, some of Admiral Conway’s men among them, their bodies mutilated. The sky was still full of fliers, but they were engaged in a fierce, savage battle. The creatures bit, clawed, sprayed their acid at each other without any hint of remorse.
“This is our chance to make a run for it. Move it, people,” the admiral barked.
“Move where, ma’am?” Samir asked. “We’d be open season for those things out in the desert. The boy’s in no shape to fight or flee.” He was helping Eras walk. The young eremite’s face cramped from pain, and he limped badly. The arm Vengeance had broken hung lifelessly at an angle. “You go. I’ll hide with the boy until you send help.”
“Don’t be stupid, Samir. They’ll kill you both,” Sarah refused.
“Well,” Samir gave a sharp reply, “it’s better to lose two than five. Ranger boy here can guide you to his village.”
“Samir…”
The experienced soldier sighed. “Sarah, you can’t save everyone in battle. It doesn’t work that way.”
“Maybe this time we can, Captain.” Admiral Conway lifted her left hand to block the sun. “There. Shuttles,” she pointed.
Sarah and the rest of the band turned to look at the shuttles. “I’ll be damned. Who knew we were here?”
At least a dozen shuttles flew toward the group, maneuvering madly to avoid delving into any skirmish with the frenzied fliers. The insects ignored the aircraft, fighting among themselves. Periodically, shuttles fired a few rounds from their defense cannons to clear a path, but they were left alone.
“Mr. Stefanu and Mr. Ga’an. So, the diversion worked.” Admiral Conway started waving her arms, and the others followed, signaling the shuttles.
One of the shuttles circled them and landed roughly, some thirty meters away, and lowered its boarding ramp. A bloodied, middle-aged man holding a rifle appeared on the ramp and saluted. “Admiral, we really need to get out of here.”
“It is good to see you again. What is it, Mr. Stefanu?”
The man shook his head. “Things got a bit complicated.”
Sarah and the others didn’t have to ask why as a sky-piercing howl shook the ground beneath their feet, and a huge blurry shape became visible at the horizon.
“What in oblivion’s name is that?” Sarah shrieked.
“Not the time to study biology,” the soldier Admiral Conway addressed as Mr. Stefanu grimaced. “That thing’s eating anything in its path. Move it.”
“No need to tell me twice!”
***
Ga’an maneuvered the shuttle with ease. He wasn’t sure if he was good at flying a human shuttle or if his iron will and stubbornness gave him the edge he needed. It didn’t matter. A few precision bursts from the shuttle’s cannon, and he had a clear path all the way to the upper atmosphere. Perhaps fate is smiling on us for a change. He didn’t believe it for a second. The odds had abandoned them, especially Ga’an, a very long time ago.
The shuttle’s engines roared, grumbling against the stress as Ga’an pushed them to the maximum. He didn’t care
how the craft fared. This was a one-time journey for the thing. And for himself.
“There you are.” Ga’an grinned as his ride cleared Tarra’s atmosphere. The engines’ mumbling died as he cleared the moon, and silence took over. He didn’t care about any of those. His target was before him, looking nothing like the home he had come to know. “You defiled my home.”
Deviator hung in the dark of space, mirroring the bleak aura of the infested Bunari. The superdreadnought was now completely covered in alien tissue. Anyone who didn’t know its original shape could never guess the meat blob had a huge battleship hidden inside. Huge veins now wrapped the ship like a snake from bow to stern. Ga’an saw the veins throbbing in equal intervals even from this distance, pumping something into the system.
He wondered if he could land on the mutated warship and if he could even make it to the bridge. His best bet was to use the captain’s yacht hangar located topside of the command section. From there, the bridge was but a few decks below. Ga’an had never seen Admiral Conway use the yacht, but he knew that Deviator had one for ceremonial occasions. Since he met the admiral, it was constant war.
Ga’an gave a sigh of relief as he approached the superdreadnought. The creatures were tangled in an impossible battle here as well. It was total chaos as if two insect hives were fighting for dominance. It gave Ga’an the perfect opportunity to sneak by and dock the hangar. The hangar doors were half covered in that same, flora-like chitin as on the bridge, but a few cannon rounds cleared a path enough for him to pass the ship through. The hangar doors, unscratched from his cannon fire, opened lazily like a flower waking from a night of long winter sleep. A few pieces of the alien coating broke away, slowly disappearing into the dark of space. Ga’an sent a prayer for the ship’s automated systems to still be active under all that organic infestation.
The hangar was eerily silent. It wasn’t pitch dark; the alien chitin glowed, illuminating the surroundings enough for Ga’an to see. Ga’an was sure a human eye would be completely helpless in darkness without their helmets and gadgets. He looked at the lift doors and quickly ditched the idea of using the elevators. It wasn’t even possible to make out where the wall ended, and the elevator began behind all that crust. “Stairs, it is.”
He took careful steps, awaiting a challenge to find him, but nothing happened. The stairs were empty. No mantis creatures, no ant guards, no flying bees, or infested humans. Nothing. It was strange, and Ga’an didn’t like the unknown.
His curiosity was satisfied when he reached the main bridge doors. A mantis guard, dead, had one of its tibial spines sunk into an ant guard’s head, nailing it to the now-chitin-covered metal wall. Another ant guard lay on the floor, one of the mantis’s feet crushing its armored body. The mantis had vines covering its tarsi, grounding the creature. Huge spikes from the branches were stung into the creature’s body, trapping it in a dead cell. Under different circumstances, it would have made an epic statue to commemorate the battle.
Ga’an was past his time when he cared about art. He wondered when that was. Cycles of war were his only memory. Even after being thrown away in time, he was still battling. “Imha, Ran, Ni’a,” he whispered the names of his sons lost to his war with Baeal. He wondered how his wife and daughter lived after his passing. If what Sim’Ra had told him was true, his people lived on after the final battle. He wanted not to believe the black-hearted Baeal, but temples and murals humans found suggested the prince told the truth. Perhaps he was angry at being left behind by fate. Being alone.
He wondered if his daughter became a councilwoman as she always wanted, and Anno, his wife, still baked his favorite morning dish after his disappearance. Ga’an smiled, memories of a lifetime long-lost rushing at him. He reached Admiral Conway’s command console and cleared the infesting vermin. After revealing enough of the holographic interface projectors, he entered his executive officer codes.
“Executive Officer Ga’an,” his own voice welcomed him.
“Good.” He nodded in satisfaction. A part of him was still afraid the control systems would be dead, and he would have to find another way to stop the monstrosity on the surface. “Command override, Commander Ga’an, executive officer. Second in charge.”
“Command override denied. Fleet Admiral Rebecca Conway is on active duty.”
“Roster update. Fleet Admiral Rebecca Conway, killed in action. Second in charge assuming command.” He held his breath. If ship sensors were operational still, they could easily locate Admiral Conway’s signal among any other essential personnel, from the skin-embedded chips they all had, and he would be locked out of the system.
“Enter verification code.”
Ga’an said the letters and numbers, activating his command. He sent another prayer to his gods when the computer acknowledged him as the ship's new captain, buying his input for Admiral Conway’s death. Of course, if he could finish his mission with success, she and the rest of the humans would be. Still, it felt good to see the crust had disabled some of the superdreadnought's systems. Perhaps it had to do with the crust covering Deviator’s sensors. Perhaps not. He didn’t dwell much on it.
“Disable landing and docking safety measures.”
“Safety measures disabled.”
Ga’an found it weird and made a note to himself not to change a ship’s computer voice in the future if he ever lived again. It made him feel crazy, talking to himself. He smiled. For the first time since… forever, he felt free of burden.
“Lock speed. Constant velocity.” He had to limit the damage. If the descent was too fast, he would annihilate a lot more than the creatures on the surface with the sheer force of the blast. “Target…” he opened the navigation menu and picked the Omar base.
“Warning, warrior, the programmed course is a collision vector. Diversion is advised.”
“I know.” Ga’an laughed out loud, leaning back in the command chair, not minding the chitin. “I know.”
***
“What!”
“He’ll fire the mortar from above to take it out.” Stefanu signaled at the pilot to take off. “Kasper’s team evacuated as many as they could. We’ll make it for the villages deep inside the valley.”
“Mr. Stefanu,” Rebecca sighed. “He will not fire the mortar.”
“What?” Stefanu’s eyes bulged. “He can’t be thinking…”
Rebecca pointed at the sky.
“Ga’an,” Sarah whispered.
“Ga’an, you crazy bastard,” Samir whistled. “I suggest we leave this area as fast as we can. Things will be pretty hot here.”
It was a sight for sore eyes, as beautiful as it was terrifying. At first a small dot, it grew in constant motion. Everyone could soon see the infested Deviator coming down hard, the organic tissue covering it in flames as she entered the atmosphere.
It was then a huge ball of fire, dwarfing even the insect monstrosity, still advancing on the shuttles. The ground before them was full of battling creatures—thousands upon thousands rising out of the earth and pouring from the hills, all the way to the horizon.
“Punch it,” Rebecca yelled at the pilot, and the shuttle throttled at maximum, hurling everyone on board against the consoles, fleeing the battlefield and followed by the other surviving craft.
Rebecca took a seat with some effort and pressed a button to bring up the holographic display. She panned the camera and leaned back slowly, watching her home ridden into its final voyage, her friend riding it like the angel of death. I hope you find your family. Now you rest.
Deviator reached the ground with devastating force and sound, ramming into the gigantic monster. They couldn’t hear any of the creature’s screams, but the explosion was blinding. A bright glow filled the view, dazzling the camera, and the shock wave hit the shuttle a few seconds later with a deafening boom.
“Everybody, hold on,” the pilot shouted over the noise, trying to stabilize the craft. They were already some fifty kilometers away from the blast zone, but still, it was a forc
e to be reckoned with. When the blinding light died out, a huge mushroom cloud rose from where Deviator had met its end. Around the blast zone, the ground was scorched as far as the eye could see.
“Do you think he took out that monster?” Sarah asked softly, her voice trembling at each word.
“I don’t think anything could survive that explosion.” Stefanu panted as if the mercenary had just realized how tired he was. “Son of a…” he shook his head, laughing. “They don’t make many like him nowadays, eh?”
“No, they don’t,” Captain Samir concurred. “He was one hell of a soldier.”
“And a good friend,” Sarah added.
“He was our comrade. He never belonged here in his heart, and at last, he is where he always wanted to be. With this family.” Rebecca released her belt and stood up, still looking at the mushroom cloud, now at least ten kilometers high. She straightened up and gave a formal salute to her friend, “May you find peace in your eternal sleep, Commander Ga’an. Your watch is over.”
SINS OF OUR MOTHERS
Bolts of light scattered from Ray’s hands into the temple depths. Racing thoughts dizzied his senses. Memories upon memories of things he had never experienced flooded his brain, most of them completely alien.
“What’s going on!” he screamed in his thoughts.
“We are merging, Lohil.”
“It feels like my head’s ripping apart!”
“We did not follow any rituals and ignored all safeties in our actions. The process will be… savage. I can now reach my children through your power. Vengeance still controls some of them, but I am countering her forces on your plane. You save your daughter.”
“How?”
“You and I are one. You can now see the strains my code creates to the tiniest bits and pieces. Separate Elaine’s own from Vengeance, and she will be free of the stain.”
Ray held his head and screamed in agony. If he could remove his head like a helmet, he would, and for a moment, he really thought of trying it. The idea, thankfully, disappeared as fast as it came.
Elaine was trembling but unconscious. Insects poured from her mouth, and her body was almost completely covered in the alien chitin.
Balance of Power: The Blackened Prophecy Book 2 Page 31
