The Circuit: The Complete Saga

by Bruno, Rhett C.

  “Long enough maybe,” Tarsis said. “Didn’t you hear?”

  “Hear what? My comms went down after the blast until I neared the surface.”

  “They won’t block the tunnels because they want cover for themselves. We’ve got the troops they landed here surrounded. The Morastus Clan came out of nowhere with a rescue team.”

  The old man and his wretched son came to their senses, Talon thought, suddenly reinvigorated. “I guess the Pact isn’t dead after all.”

  “Guess not.”

  Another rail-gun round sliced down the center of the space. Talon yanked his head out of the way, and it tore a hole through a portion of the defenses in the galley. He glanced over his shoulder to see Yara lying just beside the smoldering mark it left in its wake. She was okay, but a handful of her people couldn’t say the same, including Captain Hadris. One of her surviving officers grabbed her and pulled her back into cover.

  “My brave people,” Yara panted over comms, “we have been given a second chance by one of our own.” Talon watched her gaze sweep across the room and aim in his direction. “The Morastus fleet is now prepared to retrieve us. Do not hesitate. Gather with those beside you and fight through the nearest docking station. They won’t be able to save all of us. To those who are left behind, we will never forget. For our home! For Lutetia!”

  Talon could hear all the fighters in his vicinity chant with her, and this time he did the same. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

  “Let’s get off this rock,” Tarsis said, grabbing Talon by the shoulder.

  “When we set off, I never thought I’d agree,” Talon replied.

  He reached up and switched on his suit’s oxygen stores, then bent to pick up a chunk of one of the refectory’s shattered tables. The plastic was light as a feather, and he pulled it close to his body like a shield.

  Tarsis copied him, and then every one of the Lakura fighters in and outside the tunnel lifted whatever they could find to do the same.

  Yara and her cohort of officers speedily appeared by the entrance to the galley. She was armed, pistol in one hand and knife in the other. “Move!”

  Talon and the others pushed off whatever they could and soared through the air toward the docks. The gunfire grew louder with every second. When they emerged from the tunnel, Talon used his feet to shoot himself forward even faster.

  Fighting raged everywhere. More Ceresians floated up by the ceiling, bracing themselves against it as they fired down upon disorderly lines of Tribunal soldiers.

  Bullet trails traced through the air, but Talon couldn’t join the fray. If he fired, the recoil would send him right back into the tunnels. His shield jounced, hit countless times. It wouldn’t last long, but it wouldn’t have to. A gaping hole in the exterior of the hangar opened up to the stars. Dozens of ships zipped by, and one familiar one hovered nearby.

  The Monarch, Talon recognized.

  “Guess they took your advice!” Tarsis laughed, his voice barely audible over the din of battle.

  “Yeah, and got caught up in this.” Talon pulled his shield closer and considered their next move, but as he did, rail-fire from a mech tore into the surface nearby.

  The blast flung him into the air, twisting and unable to stop until his back slammed against a wall. He ignored the pain and tried to gather his bearings. Tarsis floated next to him, unconscious.

  Talon dropped his rifle and grabbed the Vergent’s hand. Then he attempted to locate the mech. Two of them approached from their flank, walking as if there were gravity. Magnetized limbs.

  A sense of dread stole over him. The mechs lifted their massive arms and unleashed chain-gun fire. High-caliber rounds tore into the Ceresian ranks, and even Yara would’ve been hit if her men hadn’t placed themselves in front of her to be torn to pieces.

  Talon took up his shield and prepared to make a move when suddenly sparks shot out from one of the mech’s legs. It toppled over and was taken by weightlessness right before its leg was sliced clean off. Then the other one lost its arm.

  Talon squinted through the sparks and smoke and spotted a Tribunal soldier standing there, staring directly at him. The soldier wore a typical suit of white and green armor, but on the lower part of their right arm, that armor was shredded to reveal only gunmetal. There was a blade sticking out from it, covered in blood.

  “Run!” a woman’s voice shouted from behind the helmet.

  It can’t be, Talon thought.

  Sage was right there, right in front of him again. The woman who’d killed Vellish, crippled Ulson, and damned him to spend the rest of his pitiful life on a solar-ark. There was no doubt about it.

  His heart raced and his hands sweat. He went to push off towards her, but as he did, he caught a glimpse of Tarsis’ closed eyes and froze. Leaving him behind would be a death sentence. Tribunal soldiers were closing in quickly with the Ceresians now retreating.

  As he deliberated, Sage grabbed one of the mech’s dismembered arms and flung it toward a pack of Tribunal soldiers shooting at Yara. Then she pushed off the floor toward another group, spiraling headfirst with her blade out in front of her. It burrowed into the chest of another Tribunal, and she grabbed his rifle to shoot down three more.

  Talon had never seen anyone move with such speed and grace. From soldier to soldier she darted, floating globs of blood strung along her path like ribbons. It bought Yara the time needed to gather her people and continue toward the rift in the docks.

  “Run!” Sage screamed again.

  Talon looked back at Tarsis and swallowed hard. He dropped his shield, grabbed the Vergent with both arms, and pushed off to follow Yara. The opening was wide enough for all of them, and they shot out into space. A bullet grazed Talon’s leg before they were out, but fortunately glanced off his armor and didn’t expose him to vacuum.

  The only sound he could hear was his own heavy breaths within his helmet. Scraps of metal were everywhere, dismantled fighters from both sides floating between them. He could see the distant silhouettes of Ceresian soldiers flying toward other waiting transports all around the bright string of docks wrapping Eureka. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. One of the faraway transports exploded, stranding those it was meant to save.

  Talon stopped staring and looked forward to where the Monarch waited. The ship got as close as it could; its cargo bay was wide open and ready to catch survivors.

  He wished he could go faster and make sure that the Monarch didn’t suffer the same fate as some of the others. He closed his eyes, held his breath, and squeezed Tarsis’ hand tightly. Explosions flashed all around them.

  A pair of hands came out of nowhere to grab his shoulders and pull him down. It was Captain Larana, attached to a tether and fastening the other survivors to the floor of the Monarch. Other members of her Vergent crew were helping her do the same. One by one, every Lakura combatant nearby was pulled to safety.

  “Go, go, go!” Larana shouted.

  The cargo bay began to close, and just before it shut completely, one last person sped through the opening. Sage. A Vergent grabbed her and laid her down, and then the Monarch shot forward.

  “Good seein’ you again, Talon Rayne,” Larana said.

  Talon was too blinded by rage to respond to her. He rolled over on top of Sage. Her armor was so bloody that it was difficult to tell which faction she belonged to, but the green of the Tribune was impossible to miss. He ripped her helmet off. At first, he was shocked by what he saw. Her red hair was as short as his, and her pale skin was covered in grime. She was huffing for air, but her bright green eyes were wide open and staring at him.

  “Talon?” she whispered. “But you were sent to an ark.”

  “I escaped,” he bristled. He grabbed her by the throat, squeezed as hard as he could, and barked, “I should kill you!”

  Rage fueled him. He couldn’t let go even if he wanted to. She didn’t fight it. He knew she could’ve used her artificial arm to rip him off and throw him clear through the hull of the
Monarch, but she didn’t. She just kept staring.

  Everyone else in the hangar crowded around them and watched, perplexed.

  He clenched as hard as his weak muscles would allow. The battle, the war, everything faded into the background. It was because of her that he never got a chance to return and say goodbye to his daughter. The Tribune did as they had always done, but she made him open up, then betrayed him.

  “She… Sh… She’s alive,” Sage struggled to say. “Eli… Elisha.”

  Hearing her name made his grip loosen just enough for someone to rip him off her.

  “Enough, soldier!” Yara barked. “This traitor saved our lives, and I want to know why.”

  “So did he.” A Lakura henchman spoke up. Talon immediately recognized him as the man who’d held the map on their way down into the heart of Eureka. “He’s the one who destroyed the gravitum generator. I saw him go down there myself.”

  “He is, is he?” Yara released him and backed away, the creases on her face relaxing. She recognized him from their verbal spat earlier in the Eureka refectory. “You saved a lot of my men today, what was it?”

  “Talon Rayne, and this woman is with me. She was…” He looked back at Sage and clenched his jaw. She was coughing, staring at Yara with a look of bewilderment. Talon knew he could hand her over to Yara and never see her again, but he wanted to deal with her himself. To put a bullet in her head, the same as she’d done to Vellish. “Undercover during the battle.”

  Yara placed her hand on Talon’s shoulder. “Another one of your unexpected moves?” she asked.

  “I suppose so.”

  Yara slapped him on the back. “Well, I hope you saved some more for the next battle.” She took a step further into the hangar before she noticed Captain Larana. “So Zaimur’s got Vergents working with him now?”

  “Just us,” Larana replied. “Cap’n Larana of the Monarch, at your service.”

  The ship lurched violently.

  “Missile fire!” Kitt shouted frantically over the ship’s comms. “Just missed us!”

  “We’re not clear yet!” Larana said. “All of you, follow me to the cockpit. You two, carry him.” She signaled toward Tarsis’ unconscious body, and two of her crew members quietly ran over, lifted him, and rushed him out of the room.

  “All right, everyone, you heard the Vergent!” Yara turned to Talon and nodded. That was when he noticed something in her expression that he didn’t think she was capable of. Something she struggled to mask through all of her bluster. Fear. The fear of a commander who knew she was mere moments away from losing every soldier who’d chosen to follow her.

  Talon returned the gesture, and then Yara immediately turned to follow Captain Larana out of the room. A couple of her closest Lakura grunts trailed closely behind them.

  Once Talon and Sage were alone, he walked over to a stray pulse-rifle on the floor and picked it up. He faced Sage. She sat up now, covering her mouth with her artificial hand as she still struggled to gather her breath.

  “Thank you for—” Sage said before Talon interrupted her.

  “I didn’t lie to Yara for you,” he said as he aimed the rifle at her head. “Not so pleasant from this side, is it, Agatha? Or should I say Sage? Whatever the hell your name is.”

  Sage gathered her breath and looked back into his eyes, as if the gun weren’t there. She swallowed hard. “I didn’t know.”

  Talon got his finger comfortable on the rifle’s trigger. “And why should I believe you?”

  “They executed them. Like animals of Ancient Earth. None of them will ever have the chance to hear the Spirit’s calling. None of them.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “They will do the same to all of you. And to her.”

  “Who!” Talon snapped. He pressed the barrel of the gun against her forehead. “Don’t you dare lie to me!”

  Sage didn’t flinch. She reached up slowly and rested both hands on the side of the gun, as if daring him to shoot. Then she began to rise.

  “Elisha,” she whispered.

  Talon jumped back. His finger squeezed the trigger to the point right before it would send a bullet corkscrewing through her skull. “Liar!”

  “I am… was an executor of the Tribune. My eyes were unknowingly theirs, but not anymore. If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have pleaded for your life.”

  “Tell that to Vellish!”

  “I had no other choice. His Eminence Benjar was…” She paused and hung her head. “I don’t ask for your forgiveness. I only want to fulfill the promise I made to you and help you see your daughter again.”

  “My daughter died on Kalliope. She’s dead because of your people!”

  “She’s not! I’ve seen her imprisoned on the Ascendant. They’re holding her there to get to me, Talon, but she’s still alive. I swear it.”

  Talon’s heart felt like it was going to burst. He pushed her backward with his rifle. “You’re lying.”

  Sage dropped to her knees and pressed her palms flat against the floor. She then lowered her head, showing Talon the ugly scar running up the back of her neck where her long hair used to cover.

  “I swear it on all of the Ancients,” she said. “I swear it on the Circuit and the Spirit itself. Elisha is alive.”

  The pulse-rifle slipped out of Talon’s grip. He too fell to his knees, tears welling. She’s lying, he told himself, though he couldn’t help but hope for the opposite. If Sage was still an executor, there was little she could learn about the Ceresian war strategy from working beside a mercenary in his position. And if she wasn’t lying, that meant Elisha really was alive—that, somehow, she’d escaped Kalliope.

  Maybe Julius got her on a shuttle, he wondered. The thought was enough to make him smile through his tears. One last gift from his closest friend.

  “Kill me after if you must, but let me help you first,” Sage said. “We can get her out, Talon. She doesn’t deserve any of this.”

  Talon did his best to steady his breathing. He was propped up on his fists, staring down at his own pale reflection on the shiny floor, at the blue eyes he shared with his daughter. It took all his willpower to summon the strength to form words, and even after he did, he could only manage one.

  “How?”

  Book Three

  FALLING EARTH

  1

  Chapter One—Talon

  Talon Rayne’s fist pistoned into the shopkeeper’s rib cage, the sound of bone crunching drowned out by muffled screams. He had been stronger back then, years before the gravity generator exploded on Kalliope and his hand was striated with the vibrant lines of the blue death.

  “I’m not going to ask again,” Talon’s level voice said. “Where did Mavik go with the parts you gave him?” Mavik was a former runner for the Morastus Clan who’d disappeared along with spare parts destined for Zargo Morastus’ personal service androids.

  “I told you I don’t know,” the shopkeeper groaned. His hands were bound behind the back of a chair, and he’d lost the energy to try to yank free early on in the interrogation.

  “Sure, and all of that pico just magically found its way into your account?”

  “He said they were for Mr. Morastus. I swear!”

  Talon threw another fist into the man’s cheek, causing him to spit up a gob of blood. “C’mon, how long has he provided you protection? You know you got a higher rate than he’d ever give you.”

  The shopkeeper coughed. “You’re right… Instead, he pays me with you.”

  “I’m not here to negotiate new terms. Now, if you want to hold onto this dump, I suggest you start talking.”

  Talon gestured to the surrounding shop, within a small hollow carved in one of the Buckle’s towering hangars. Rusty parts were stacked against the walls, organized by their function. After the Earth Reclaimer War, robotics production facilities had all been left in cinders, and Ceresians were too frightened of annihilation to construct any in secret and defy the treaty they’d signed with the New Ea
rth Tribunal. Executors were also in hiding.

  Keeping the remaining androids running was left to those who’d managed to scavenge enough spare parts and had the knowledge to install them.

  “I wouldn’t lie to you,” the shopkeeper said.

  “You must think I enjoy this.” Talon wound up to hit him again, and the man flinched.

  “Stop!” he shrieked. “I’ll tell you what I know, but you have to promise to leave a guard or two here after. They’ll come after me.”

  Talon wiped a drop of blood off the chest plate of his Morastus armor. The navy-blue suit was riddled with scratches and dents, but somehow it still retained its luster. He always kept it polished.

  “Who’ll come after you?” he asked.

  “Do I have your word?”

  “Do I have yours that you’ll stick to the contract you agreed to from here on out? If Zargo has to send me here again, I won’t be as polite.”

  The man’s cheeks went pale. “Fine… Whatever you people want.”

  “Good call.”

  After a long pause the shopkeeper took a strained breath. “Look. All I know is that Mavik sold Madam Lakura the parts Zargo purchased. She gave him quite an offer to turn sides, and he seemed eager to do it. Not surprising if this is how you treat your employees.”

  Talon grabbed the man by the jaw and glared directly into his eyes. “The Lakura Clan? You’re sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure!” The shopkeeper pulled his face free. “The idiot wouldn’t stop bragging about it. Even tossed me a few extra pico credits to keep quiet. Said he’ll be off this rock before anyone can find out.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s all I know.”

  Talon walked behind the man and made him sweat for a few seconds before unfastening his hands. “If I find out you’re lying, well… You’ll see.”

  Talon didn’t look back as he left the shop, but he could hear the man swallow hard. The hatch closed behind him, and the din of the Ceres Buckle greeted his ears. Traders, whores, and everything else one could imagine filled the lofty hollows. Two Morastus guards waited for him outside, pulse-rifles in hand and making sure everyone knew the parts shop was temporarily closed.