Xero Chronicle

by Ross Buzzell

  “Who is your leader!”

  Xero calls out, keeping his voice stern and commanding. His thoughts are ever on his team while his eyes; hidden by the helmet, dart for an exit that is not the way they came, but to no avail. A loud voice rings out from the crowd; the translator alters his voice to a language Xero understands.

  “I AM!!! Who dares set foot on my rock without permission!”

  The booming voice yells as one of the four armed giants emerges from his squad, its reddish/orange skin marred with scars from previous battles. Xero sees his face and his heart nearly stops. He had seen it before. It was that of the bounty he had passed on a few days ago. ‘This was a mistake, we should not have landed.’ Xero thinks to himself as he takes a step forward.*

  “I am Xero, Prince of Boron; I assure you we meant no hostility. This region of space is new to my people. We are only here to explore, scan and bring the data home. We do not wish for violence.”

  The leader gives off a laugh. It was only then that Xero notices a large rolled up cigar in his mouth. The end burns like a small star with each inhalation. There are four massive guns he is armed with, one in each hand and from the looks of it a hammer on his back. He stands there, almost taunting Xero with his silence, the prince continues.

  “We have achieved the scans we need. I request that your tanks stand down and we will leave, no further disruptions need to happen.”

  The leader pulls the cigar from his mouth, exhaling a puff of smoke before he takes a few steps forward.

  “I’ve heard of your kind, Boronian isn’t it? Think you’re the sheriffs of the galaxy. Well, I don’t like that. And seeing as you’ve found our base world, I can’t exactly have you leave. Your ships will fetch a good price.”

  Xero notices his glance at both E and Ja. He fights every impulse to raise his rifle and begin firing.

  “Judging by that armor you have a few women with you, again I hear they are the most beautiful in the galaxy. They should fetch a fair price WHAT DO YOU SAY BOYS!!!”

  With that, the entire contingent gives a loud roar of support. Xero’s heart fills with rage as he threatens Ja and E. He hears a voice in the back of his head telling him to reduce the leader to ash. He attempts to resist.

  “Leave them be!”

  The leader slowly begins to walk toward Xero. Getting chest to chest with him he blows some smoke into the face-plate of Xero’s helmet.

  “Make me.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation Xero slams the butt of his gun into the leaders gut sending him staggering back. A light catches Xero’s attention. It was one of the cannons preparing to fire. Xero puts his hand up and forms a small force field inside the mouth of the cannon; as it goes off the tank backfires and the entire thing explodes. Blue light begins to flash past Xero as Ja and E begin firing at this rabble of reprobates. It was only then that Xero noticed glowing red slugs’ wiz right by him.

  The leader rights himself and begins to fire at Xero who does not put a shield up. His attention was shielding Ja and E. He had formed two pieces of cover for the women to duck behind. In the blink of an eye, Xero disappears as the glowing molten slugs hit the ground where Xero would have been. Coming to a sliding stop Xero drops down to one of his hips and with his right leg folded under him and his left leg outstretched, he kicks the feet out from under what he only assumed was a ‘pirate lord’. Drawing his blade from his back, Xero quickly cuts two of the guns in half as the other two had fallen away from the giant when he hit the ground. His opponent rolls and gets to his feet, surprisingly nimble for such a massive being. The second tank tried to take aim but holds its fire as the battle had raged too close to E’mellor and should it take out one, it would likely kill all three.

  Ja keeps the platoon pinned down as she unloads a barrage of blue light rounds accurately at her opponents. E plays cover for Xero, killing anything that even remotely looks like it’s about to take a shot at him. She glances up and notices the tank has begun to aim its cannon at Ja. Placing her weapon on her back E’mellor pulls a metal square from her side and throws it into the air above the tank. Taking a few steps back she gets a running leap and launches herself above Xero and over the tank’s position. The metal square unfolds forming into a large mallet and while dropping down she slams the mallet onto the tank’s barrel causing it to fire directly into the ground killing most of the pirates there.

  Xero continues to fight the leader. His opponent moves fast, almost as fast as Xero does. The scans from the HUD show massive cyber-tronic augmentations aiding him in his fight. He gets lucky and places a closed fist into Xero’s helmet. The prince flies backwards and skids to a stop with a cloud of dust being kicked up behind him. As Xero rights himself, his bell rung hard, he had never felt a hit quite like that. He notices a massive crack in his helmet severely obstructing his view. He could see a wall of red charging him but could not tell exactly where he was; knowing that this would be the end if he did not think fast. Xero rips the helmet off. Instantly the pressure of the atmosphere nearly crushes Xero’s throat. In a split second the shielding being used to cover Ja and E dissipates as blue light forms around his throat to protect it. The sensation that his exposed head was being crushed begins to cause Xero to have a massive migraine but he sees the beast of a man barreling down on him.

  Just as his opponent reaches him, Xero leaps as hard as he can. In a bout of acrobatics, the likes of which he had never attempted before, Xero flips over the pirate lord. His hand catches the would be slave driver’s collar and as the warrior prince lands on his feet, he uses all of his force to fling the fiend into the clearing’s rock siding so hard a shockwave blasts past him. Without a moment’s hesitation Xero dashes to the now weakened being, rage filling his heart, not thinking, only reacting; Xero grabs his opponent by the face, slamming it into the rock wall again so hard he feels the wall give way some.

  “This isn’t becoming of a Boronian.”

  he sputters from behind bloody lips, his chin and head soaked in the beings thick crimson blood oozing from his injuries.

  “You threatened my people. This is on you.”

  Xero growls, his face so close to his opponent’s he could feel the heat of the fallen enemy’s breathe. Feeling the rage grow even more within him, Xero begins to shake with anger as something seems to take over the prince, something dark. His hand begins to heat up; a soft sizzling sound fills his ears followed by the screams of his victim. The stench of burning flesh plagues Xero’s nostrils. He knows he needs to stop but something deep within him pushes him on. A bright flash of light engulfs Xero’s hand as it begins to burn like the Boronian day sun. At that point there is nothing for his hand to do but pass through its target and into the stone wall as it reverts back to its regular form. The headless body of his opponent falls lifeless to the ground as ash is blown away in the wind. As the rage slowly begins to subside, Xero turns to see Ja and E facing him, loosely holding their weapons. Their helmets cover their faces but their body language says everything. They are clearly in shock.

  A glowing round passes right by the two women who instantly turn and make a run for the gap from whence they came. Xero follows suit. The stunned survivors begin to right themselves and attempt to take vengeance on Xero for killing their leader. As Xero enters the thin corridor he shoots the entrance which causes rocks to collapse, sealing them off from their would be pursuers. The three rapidly get to the clearing and head towards their ships. Xero hears E’mellor scream over the comms.

  “What the hell was that Xero!”

  Xero runs into his ship. He starts to begin the launch sequence as he retorts.

  “He was a criminal. I saw his bounty. He was wanted dead in thirty six different star systems. Had he somehow found a way to capture you two, he would have turned you into slaves… the kind only you two could be.”

  With that the three ships begin to lift off and accelerate toward space as fast as they can. Xero hears a loud warning beeping over the near deafening whine of th
e engines. He looks back to see a massive projectile heading towards the last ship, Ja’Sanfur’s ship, and it was coming fast.

  “Ja, you have incoming! Deploy defensive armaments!”

  “I cannot, the ship is using all of its power to get free!”

  As the round gets closer to Ja’s ship, knowing the impact would kill her due to the resulting explosion, Xero decides to do something almost just as dangerous in this part of the galaxy. Throwing two hands out back to back Xero begins to struggle to pull them apart; as he does a very unstable wormhole begins to open as his electron displacer is pushed to its absolute peak. Blue light begins to flair off of Xero as he begins to dump all of his reserves into the portal just to keep it steady for a few seconds. He feels blood begin to trickle down from his nose as he pushes his body further than ever before. Ripping his arms completely separate the portal opens wide enough for Ja to leap through. She sees it and takes advantage. Ja jumps through the portal just as the projectile impacts her ship, the resulting explosion launches her toward Xero, he drops his arms to catch Ja as her ship begins to fall to the ground. Upon impact a blinding white light encompasses the pirates below them with the resulting explosion hitting the other two pods with enough force to launch them into space.

  As the two remaining pods silently drift in the darkness of space while automated repairs begin to initiate once again, Xero feels his body begin to weaken. Through gradually blurred vision he sees Ja stand up, rip her helmet off and kneel next to him. She is saying something but it is far too muffled for him to hear. Gradually darkness begins to creep into the edge of his vision. The last thing he sees is E’mellor running through an opened doorway after docking the ships together and racing toward him. Everything goes black.

  Chapter: 7

  Light begins to fill Xero’s vision. His head is pounding as if he were dehydrated but in reality it was because he had almost no energy left in his system. The empty aching burning every cell in his body; his vision slowly comes back. Xero notices the beautiful night sky above him filled with stars. Ja is passed out on his chest, her hair falling before her face, gently moving with each soft breath that leaves her. E’mellor kneels by his side as she takes scans and readings of Xero. A sensation of warmth begins to fill Xero as he feels himself slowly begin to rejuvenate; this made no since. It was night with no evening sun in the sky. The ships were not close enough to be pumping energy into him and as powerful as he was Xero was unable to feed off of other Boronians’ powers.

  A soft light begins to glow around Xero. His eyes scan to see the area around him slowly fill with tiny white lights that wisp in the cool night air like dandelions in the breeze. Gradually Xero feels the soft ground beneath him, the fuzzy, soft moss that has been made his bed. As he feels his strength begin to come back he notices a look on E’s face, one of excitement as she turns her attention to Xero. She gives Ja a quick shove which wakes her up. Upon seeing the prince, her face lights up brighter than Boron’s daytime sun. This brings a happy sensation to Xero. In an instant Ja has her arms around Xero and her lips pressed against his, not that he minded. He welcomes the affection and gently reciprocates. After a moment of the two passionately embracing one another, Ja slowly pulls away allowing Xero to sit up. A mild throbbing in the back of his head causes Xero’s hand to be placed on the side of his skull as he groans a little.

  “What happened?”

  he asks with a painful groan in his voice. His eyes coming into focus to see that the three are in the middle of a massive forest. The ancient trees drip with moss as they grow unevenly out of the ground; the air is cool yet humid as if the area is covered in some form of marsh land. As Xero’s eyes further adjust to the planet, he sees that his senses remain true. There is tall spikey grass that shoots from the wet, muddied ground as far as the eye could see. The wispy lights continue to appear and float towards the Boronians just as far. Taking in this strange yet beautiful world Xero’s attention is forced back at Ja as she moves in front of him.

  “The answer to the question, ‘what happens if we try to use electron displacers?’ You held that portal open for maybe three seconds and it took almost every ounce of your power just to do that, even then it was not stable.”

  “You had burned through so much power that not even the ship’s energy storage systems could bring you back. So we had to set down on the next planet in this system; it is a marsh world. But the inhabitants agreed to bring you back and give us any information we need about them and their planet, if we helped them.”

  E adds. Xero swivels his head, looking around to take in the beauty of this world even though it was dark.

  “And what are we going to be doing for them?”

  Xero asks as he slowly pulls himself to his feet feeling his strength return to one hundred percent.

  “You are going to purge our world of a darkness that has been festering in the great wound for eons.”

  This is a different voice, one he had not heard before but it was soft, friendly and had an odd yet satisfying accent as the female voice spoke. Xero slowly turns to see the source of the voice and is nearly staggered at the sight of such an appealing being. Her skin is pale like the moon that is high in the sky above them; her lips pouty yet plump with two golden orbs punctured through the skin below the lower side edges of those lips. Her hair is silver like his cousin’s armor and has tight small braids on the sides with loose larger braids on top which fall down her torso over half way. Her hair is decorated with golden circlets which obviously help pin it back. The same kind of circlets are wrapped around the top of her slightly pointed ears which are connected to tiny chains that attached to small golden hoops which are pierced in her earlobes. Her eyes are white with only a soft gray to indicate where her pupils are and her dress is loose fitting and light showing off every curve of her strong slender body. The last thing Xero notices, should have been the first, a glowing circle of white light that has formed on her forehead, the same kind of light the Wisps give off.

  “Who are you?”

  Xero is tentative, cautious, as what had happened upon their last first encounter still burns his nostrils. Slowly the woman opens her arms and looks around at the floating lights which glide across the air like jellyfish in the sea.

  “We are the Wisp, a peaceful race who gave you our own energy to bring you back from certain death.”

  “And I thank you for that… But why do you have a body and the others do not?”

  Xero asks on edge. He is grateful that they had saved his life but if what the knot in his gut was telling him is true, then he may have just been compromised. He slowly reaches to his blade in case it was needed. Ja places a hand on Xero’s as she speaks in defense of the woman before them.

  “They are unable to possess a living being; her body arrived on this planet long ago and died upon impact. Their leader took over the dead body and re-animated it for her own use for communication purposes… E tracked their energy the entire time, no Wisp attempted to take over your form so you can relax.”

  Xero listens to her and slowly lowers his hand. He takes a few steps toward the woman before him, scanning her appealing form as he does. Clearly the re-animation process has some sort of stasis affect on the body.

  “I am grateful for your assistance and will honor the agreement my people made with you. What is this festering wound that you speek of and where is it?”

  “I still remember like it was yesterday.”

  The woman says as she looks to the skies.

  “Near the beginning of our time a great war broke out in the heavens by two races that do not belong to this universe: the Seraph’s, who were peaceful and good, and the Dark Bringers who only wished to corrupt and destroy all life. Their battle was largely fought in the heavens but every once in a while a planet would be unfortunate enough to have a fight on its surface. For us we only had a piece of the weapon known as the Corruption fall to us. We attempted to remove it but it would corrupt any who got near it, which for our pe
ople meant instant and painful death. So we put up a barrier to contain the infection, the piece of the Corruption and whatever fell with it. The barrier has begun to weaken and the darkness is seeping through, poisoning our planet, killing our people. We saved you so that you could save us.”

  Xero pauses for a moment as the story is being told. Her voice is like a lullaby, flowing like a river around any obstacle in its way. The way she spoke paints a vivid picture in his mind of the battle, the falling of the Corruption piece and even the ‘infection’ itself. Xero slowly draws his blade as he nods in agreement to what this Wisp Queen had said, glancing back at Ja and E who both had already armed themselves.

  “Then show us the way. We will cure your world.”

  The woman points into the darkness of the swamp. Slowly her finger dissipates into a white light, in a cascading effect the rest of her body vanishes as if it were just a shell. Her light begins to flow through the air like a ribbon on a string and she moves fast. Xero glances over at E who nods to him; the three take off after the light in an all-out sprint.