“Kraxis, not you. It is you I wish to speak with,” said Kreeto. Turning, she stepped behind the dais to another door which was for her use only. She beckoned him with a finger to follow. One of her guards went ahead of her; the other waited, guarding the rear.
As Kraxis caught up with her, she removed her helmet, handing it to the nearby attendant who waited in the antechamber.
Her green eyes looked at him. There was some amusement there.
“Walk with me,” she said. It was not a request. The guards stayed where they were, but he fell into step next to her. They walked down a corridor; through the viewing ports to their left, the blackness of space could be seen. The desert planet was visible, appearing as large as a fist against the darkness. There were various ships, both Vardosi and the Algoryn vessels that they were aiding. In the distance, unable to be seen by the naked eye, were the Ghar vessels. They were gradually being beaten back. The Vard, Kataleena Kreeto, spared the ongoing battle only the occasional sideways glance as if it was already won and far from her mind.
After a time, Kraxis decided he should break the silence. He felt he had waited long enough for his commander in all things to speak first. “I am honored by the gifting of my first command.”
She chuckled at this. He knew her voice was the right tone that many found seductive. “It was well-earned. You passed a great test and showed them all you were ready. You survived, where many would have failed, and you were very resourceful. No one would dare question my decision.”
“Who would dare?” He asked, knowing to do such could mean death.
“You have much to learn, my son,” she chided him, turning to cup his face in the palm of one of her hands. “But you best learn quickly,” she added, nodding to the viewport. A new ship in every sense of the word appeared off their port side. She was smaller than the flagship, less than half her size, but easily housed several hundred men, all his to command. It had been fortuitous to see it arrive, or so he thought, as, looking at his mother, he realized the real purpose he had been asked here was for this very reason.
“What will you call her?”
He thought for a minute, biting his bottom lip. He’d always been jealous of his brother’s ship, Temptress. Seeing as she no longer existed, and as a fitting reminder of her: “The Spirit of the Temptress,” he said.
She smiled at this, revealing perfect teeth. It was a rarity to see her smile. He only saw her on the odd occasion, and he had been all but brought up by others onboard another ship. It was also a measure to stop them all being killed in one fell swoop if anyone was to prove treacherous, or through some hazard of space travel. He realized how much she sacrificed for them all and the weight of that responsibility. A responsibility he too could find himself inheriting one day. Especially with his eldest sibling now deceased.
“You best take command of her then.” Kataleena Kreeto added.
He nodded and started to make his way back to the main chamber before stopping and turning. “Could I request a couple more things?” He asked sheepishly. She was his mother but was more like a stranger to him. He didn't want to push his luck and be stripped of this opportunity, but he had to ask.
She tilted her head to one side, regarding him coolly, placing her hands on her hips. In her armor, even without the helmet, she looked imposing. “Proceed.”
“Tzar and the woman… Lexi. I would like to take them with me.”
The Vard looked puzzled. She folded her arms across her breastplate, raised her eyebrows in exasperation, and shook her head. “The savage and a lowborn? Whatever for?”
“Can I have them?” He asked, not wanting to explain. He doubted that she would understand, but he felt he could count on them more than most within the vardos not to stab him in the back. He thought she would think it weak.
She nodded and turned away. His heart soared as he headed off to find his ship and his new crew. As he went, he reflected that his brother’s demise had possibly been one of the best things that could have happened to him. He smiled coldly. Next in line to lead the vardos, captain of his own ship. Yes, with brother Naki out of the way, the future possibilities were endless…
Psychosis
By Brandon Rospond
The Tenacity's Virtue, one of the PanHuman Concord's tens of thousands of war vessels, hurtled through space at a constant speed. The senior strike leader of the C3 forces aboard the ship, Kyrrto Var'zyle, stood on the bridge, staring at the vast blackness as they traveled through the system that the gates of Antares had brought them to. His arms were crossed as his teal eyes looked around the cabin, his helmet resting in his chair. There was no need to watch the crew, except out of boredom; the nanosphere aboard the ship told him each member was performing as they should. The bridge was quite spacious, spanning several yan wide, even with the added personnel of his five squadmates and two strike leaders, Maxol Dahrius and Thaniel Aelthris.
There were feelings through the shard of his strike force that despite his urging of calmness and levelheadedness could not be mistaken, resonating softly in the back of his consciousness. Fear. Anxiety. Uncertainty. Worry. They were minuscule compared to the overall sensation of cohesion his squadmates shared; but if he could sense it, he was sure the others could as well. He dreaded this mission more than the others, dreaded the potential outcome if they failed their primary objective, but he pushed his personal feelings deep to the back of his thoughts, well away from the collective mind of the shard.
The almost shaved-head senior strike leader exhaled deeply as Gorymol came into view. The planet felt foreign to him, even at this distance. Just staring at the agave-colored orb millions of kiloyan away, he knew nothing on that planet would welcome them; not even the stranded Concord unit.
“Can we try and establish a connection with the shard of the squad planetside?” Var'zyle addressed Golaj J'ul, the head officer on deck.
“Senior Strike Leader, you know the quantum of making a successful connection is zero,” a baleful, almost monotone, voice spoke from beside him before J'ul could respond.
“I'm well aware, Mandarin Xarten.” The Concord soldier turned to address the long, lavender-haired sentient before turning back to the officer. “Can we try it anyway, J'ul?”
“We can try, Senior Strike Leader, but as the mandarin has noted, it is highly unlikely to succeed. But we will try.”
J'ul ordered for them to try and establish a link between Tenacity's Virtue and the forces on Gorymol, but each time the attempt failed. Eventually the officer ordered the communications officer to stop, and Var'zyle felt the NuHu giving him a cock-eyed look.
“Our shard is denying my attempts, Senior Leader Var'zyle. It refuses to risk a security breach.”
“Denying?” Dahrius scoffed from the back right of Var'zyle. “Security breach? Those are our own people down there. Can it even do that?”
“It is as the IMTel has suggested,” Xarten's mild voice seemed elevated as he stepped forward, eyes locked on the orbital map. “There is something on the planet that is causing the Concord forces to believe that we are enemies. Our shard is not willing to risk being contaminated with whatever has infected our forces on Gorymol.”
Var'zyle felt just as confused and angry as his two strike leaders, but he forced the feelings of calm through the shard, as not to alert the other soldiers who were already anxious enough. They had all known the situation going in; a strike force had gone to Gorymol to secure it for future Concord settlements, and all that returned was a heavily contaminated ship, Glorious Determination. The few bodies that returned aboard were not killed in traditional combat; some had their opticals eyes stabbed out with bloodstained trails running down their face, some had died from headshots and their own security protocols overridden, and others had marks down their faces from where they profusely clawed at their own skin.
After the ship had been fully decontaminated and reintegrated to the IMTel, the opticals onboard showed there were still Concord soldiers alive on Gorymol. The vi
suals also showed that the forces that tried to escape had killed themselves from hysteria.
Var'zyle had seen the footage. He knew most of these men. In more recent years, they had fought alongside each other on Xathenien against the Isorians, and again on Palior against the Freeborn that had somehow managed to fortify themselves with the aid of native Boromites. Despite that the IMTel only picked the best, the stranded Concord forces were good soldiers, veterans and each one loyal to their leader. Whatever drove them to madness must have been truly terrifying.
“That shouldn't stop us from trying, Mandarin. I know these people. We need to save them.”
“I am well aware of this, Senior Strike Leader Var'zyle. The IMTel ordered for the extraction and reintegration of the Concord soldiers present on Gorymol because they are all valuable assets to the Concord Combined Command. Your friendship and field experience with these soldiers is certainly why Strike Commander Irotaxol chose your strike force for this operation.”
Var'zyle nodded. The mandarin was hard to get a read on; he spoke plainly in facts, not many thoughts or opinions. He was a bit more bland than some of the other NuHu he had encountered, but that did not stop him from commanding technology like any other of his kind.
“So, we move to Plan B?” Aelthris called attention back to the situation from the other side of Var'zyle. “We go in and try to subdue them? We know their last location, but they seem to always be moving.”
The senior strike leader turned back to face his two leaders, and the rest of his own squad who lined the back wall. “It seems so. Thane, Max, get your units in order and prepare to drop into Gorymol. My team, I shouldn't even need to say it; you know the drill. Lock and load and prepare to enter a combat zone.”
The members began to file out one at a time, except for Aelthris. 'Thane', as he was nicknamed, was Var'zyle's second-in-command. There was a time when he was the most talented and dedicated member of Var'zyle's squad; it was both a bittersweet and joyful moment when he was promoted to a strike leader. Var'zyle nodded as the younger man walked beside him.
“Thane.”
“Kyrrto. This... is going to be a tough one.”
“Don't I know it. But these are our boys, and I'll be damned before I let them suffer down there with whatever's driving them mad.”
“I read the reports. The drones can hardly get a scan planetside before they're taken down, so we're in the dark on what's causing our troops to go mad... How are we going to handle whatever's going on down there?”
“IMTel seems to think that for very brief amounts of time, exposure to the planet won't affect us – a few hours tops. The forces there had barely been able to get anything built before whatever frenzy took hold of them, despite orbital readings that the planet's atmosphere should be inhabitable.” Var'zyle noted Aelthris's doubtful expression. “And for good measure, we have an Iso-Drone going down with us to make sure should we do survive the time there.”
“Good.” Aelthris walked beside his leader for a few more moments before speaking again. “It seems Odiwing is commanding the forces down there now.”
“It seems so,” Var'zyle nodded. It wasn't a question; Odiwing had been among the troops sent during the first expedition. The last vitals recovered from Glorious Determination showed the strike leader being the highest ranked soldier still alive.
“I hope we can bring him home.”
Var'zyle thought for a long few moments before answering. “I certainly do too.”
Silence fell between the two as they kept walking down the corridors. Var'zyle had known Tykus Odiwing since his academy days. The two had fought in the same squad for more years than Var'zyle had been a strike leader, and that had even been for quite a while. The IMTel was wise enough to often pair the two commanders up for large-scale missions, but for whatever reason, Odiwing was sent to Gorymol, while Var'zyle had been ordered on a different mission. Had the IMTel known the dangers? Had it kept Var'zyle in reserve just for this occasion – to bring Odiwing back?
He felt Aelthris staring at him, probably the overflow of the thoughts in his own mind seeping through the shard, and Var'zyle hurried his pace. “Let's bring our boys home.”
* * * *
The dropship rocked as occasional plasma fire struck it in its descent. Var'zyle held onto a handrail and cursed loudly.
“Doesn't look like they're going to be giving us a chance to talk!” Dahrius said over the shard from his ship. “Not exactly the warmest welcome!”
Var'zyle tried to stay calm as he exhaled from his nose. The last known location of the Gorymol Concord soldiers were several kiloyan away from where they were landing. Var'zyle had chosen this spot to try and fortify a base, as it was one of the few formerly inhabited areas that orbital scans showed; there was a lengthy trail of ruins that must have been some sort of capital at one point across the ages. Odiwing's troopers didn't seem to remain in one spot for long; Var'zyle had just been hoping they wouldn't move so far, so fast.
“Xarten, get me an analysis! How are the dropships holding up? Are we taking too much damage?”
“Negative, Senior Squad Leader Var'zyle.” A drone was hooked into a spot on the floor, a blue light on its mechanical eye flashing as the NuHu spoke into the shard. Not willing to test how susceptible a NuHu's body was to whatever plagued this planet's atmosphere, Mandarin Xarten was only present in the form of a drone commander. Not quite as large as a combat drone, but not as small as a buddy drone, Xarten's artificial presence was hardly unusual among the armored C3 troopers. “We should be impacting Gorymol's surface in mere moments.”
The NuHu was spot on; almost exactly after it spoke the words, Var'zyle's dropship trembled fiercely as it met the ground. The enemy fire seemed to stop, but all hands were on their weapons; the shard carried across all troopers were ready. The ramp dropped down and Var'zyle led his men out onto the alien world.
They had landed just on the edge of the ruins – not more than a few yan away – but the strange humming noise fell on them almost immediately. Var'zyle recognized the quiet, high-pitched buzz, and his shard identified the incoming targets; the forces planetside still had a few operational vehicles. Interceptors.
* * * *
Plasma rounds exploded and tore gouges out of the blue-tinted ground around Aelthris's strike squad as the Interceptors sped past. Between the troopers' shielding and the combined assistance of the shield drones that accompanied the three units, the Concord troopers took no more than a glancing blow; the purpose of the attack seemed to be just to test Var'zyle's forces.
Aelthris tried to hone in on the bikes as they whizzed past, but his weapon and optical enhancements would not focus on the opposing forces. He frowned, not even sure that he wanted to be able to target people that should be his allies, and continued pushing his squad forward as Var'zyle came across the shard.
“Aelthris,get your squad up to secure cover in the ruins! If they sent Interceptors, then the rest of their force shouldn't be far behind; we don't want to get pinned from both sides! Dahrius, get that Iso-Drone moving as quick as you can! My squad will stay back to cover.”
Thaniel Aelthris pumped his legs as fast as they would carry him, Petriz and Leonid on one side of him, Jayce and Sullidar on the other, the squad buddy drones trailing behind. Once they got into the outskirts of the city, Aelthris's eyes darted all around them, still doing his best to keep the pace.
“Eyes open – we're looking for something we can use as a suitable base.”
“Over there!” Petriz called. She highlighted the building in question so it was outlined in yellow for her shard. “Tall enough, doesn't look too damaged.”
“Good eyes, Petriz. Senior Leader Var'zyle, I think we-...”
“Enemy sighted!” Sullidar called as he raised his weapon.
Plasma fire rained in on Aethris's squad from multiple angles. There was one squad coming at them down the other end of the path, and it seemed there was another scattered group covering them around the ruins. A
ethris pulled his squad into the cover of a demolished building, and they spread out to try and mark their targets.
Aethris peered out and spotted one of the soldiers crouched on an exposed landing on the second floor of a building across the way. He brought his plasma carbine up to fire, but nothing happened. He couldn't target the opposing Concord soldier, nor could he pull the trigger. Beyond that, the coloring of the trooper’s armor caused Aelthris to hesitate. It didn’t blend in with the current surroundings, but instead was colored completely white, casting the trooper in a ghostly visage. He cursed and then pulled back into cover.
“Var'zyle, we've got trouble!”
“What's the issue?” The senior leader's voice buzzed into his ear as if he were beside him.
“We can't target the other Concord soldiers! The shard still registers them as friendlies!”
“Hold tight. Xarten, what can you do about that?”
“I can disable the security protocols while on Gorymol, but that will cause the plasma carbines to not work as properly as they should.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Jayce called from Aelthris's right, just before ducking as the rubble above him was blown apart.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Make sure those shield drones are working at full power, Jayce! We don't need our cover being destroyed while we're leaning on it!” Once the trooper turned his attention back to the drone and keeping himself covered, Aelthris focused back on the conversation with the NuHu. “What does that mean, that the carbines won't work properly?”
“You will not be able to trigger rapid fire; only single shots with less power than normal. Your guns will also not be able to recognize members of your shard or strike force. Turning this function off works uniformly for both ally and opposition units. Despite the reduced lethality, all Concord troopers should exhibit utmost caution that they do not step in the way of plasma fire, as continued fire can still result in death.”
Beyond Antares Dimensional Gates Page 23
