The Circuit: The Complete Saga

by Bruno, Rhett C.

  The mech’s legs finished running through routine checks, and she turned around at the hip toward Kitt. Standing beside him, eyes glued open in horror, was Elisha.

  “Don’t move!” Sage yelled to them.

  I’ll get your father back.

  The entire mech rattled and Sage could feel a light pressure building in the center of her chest. It wasn’t the Monarch. The Hound’s Paw was beginning to move.

  She signaled the cockpit to close and pressed forward. Sparks shot out as the mech squeezed through the tight berth of the ramp. When she emerged, she promptly grabbed the Monarch’s ramp with the mech’s colossal hands and swung it shut.

  Bullets ricocheted off her vehicle’s plating. The Ceresians were completely unprepared. A cluster of gunmen in Morastus armor fled straight away from her, and she mowed them down. More flooded the hangar from its various entrances, some wearing Lakura colors as well—all met the same end.

  Flames from improvised Ceresian explosives licked at the feet of Sage’s mech, but they were too weak to pierce it. Muzzles flashed in every direction, but she spun, picking them off with the gun controlled by her human arm. It was the first time she could remember when it was the more proficient limb. The fighting didn’t last more than a few minutes before the few survivors retreated into any corridor they could find.

  She quickly scanned the inside of the cockpit. It’d been a few years since she was in a mech, and that had been a slightly older model, but it didn’t take long for her to remember. She took aim at one of the passages branching off the hangar and fired a missile at it. The ceiling caved in, plugging it up with a pile of smoldering metal shards. She did the same with every other possible means of entering the room except for the one corridor leading to the command deck.

  When she was done, she thought about using the mech’s rail gun to blow a hole through the hangar’s airlock so that the Monarch could escape, but that would merely make it easy for reinforcements to be transported in.

  So Sage piloted the mech over to the command deck’s corridor and planted it right in front. It was much too tall to fit, but she stuck its chain guns through and tore into the gunmen waiting at the other end until the HUD flashed red that her ammo stores were low.

  It didn’t matter now. She punched open the cockpit with her artificial hand—it could manage that at least—and hopped down.

  Her lower torso stung as one of her stitches popped out, but she was finally getting used to pain. Instead of ignoring it, it fueled her. Drove her onward.

  Groans from the dying met her ears. Failing systems sparked throughout the hangar, and flame crackled by ruptured exits. She heard the sound of armor scraping across metal and checked right to see a soldier crawling for his pulse-rifle. His right arm was missing at a stump.

  She placed her foot over the gun just before he reached it.

  “Please… don’t…” he begged.

  She bent, grabbed the gun, then stared down her nose at him. “You’re nothing to me.”

  He breathed out before starting to cough from what had to be unimaginable pain, and she stepped over him. Sage held the rifle with her artificial finger on the trigger as usual, but focused more on allowing her human arm to guide its aim under the stock.

  The wide corridor was lined with bodies, and at the end stood the sealed hexagonal entrance of the command deck. One of the mech’s shots had ripped a fist-wide hole in the half-a-meter-thick metal.

  “Do you realize what you’re doing?” Zaimur Morastus shouted through it as she approached. “There’s no way you get out of this alive! You’re surrounded.”

  “Where’s Talon!” Sage yelled back. She crouched and peered at a safe angle through one gash in the door, watching for shadows.

  “He’s not going anywhere until you stand down.”

  “Let him out and we’ll leave.”

  There was a hesitation. It dragged on for a few seconds, and Sage caught one of the guards inside straying too far from his post. She fired through the hole and hit him square in the chest. Zaimur shrieked a curse.

  “Now!” Sage demanded.

  “You know I can’t do that, Agatha,” Zaimur answered, voice cracking. “I don’t know what this is about, but lay down your weapon, return to your ship, and we’ll see if we can come to some sort of agreement.”

  Everything about his tone overflowed with deceit. Cassius, Benjar, him—she’d been around her fair share of liars, and though it took her too long to recognize them, she was getting more proficient. The last part of her training. Now she knew. Ceresian, Tribunal—it was irrelevant. Some people just couldn’t help bending the truth.

  “Let me talk to him,” Sage said.

  Again came a long pause. That was all the answer Sage needed to confirm her suspicions. This wasn’t a hostage negotiation. This was a standoff.

  “Just drop your weapon and I’ll open up,” Zaimur said. “Nobody else needs to get hurt.”

  Another lie. Sage wasted no time. She used her artificial arm to grab onto the ceiling and pull her body up. There, she balanced with her legs, keeping her weapon aimed down. Her thighs shook as she held the position. Sweat dripped down her forehead.

  The command deck’s door slid open before she even answered, and a host of guards stormed through shooting. They didn’t have time to readjust their aim before Sage mowed them down from above. The only one who managed to get out of the way was a woman in a golden-yellow tunic, who Sage immediately recognized to be Yara Lakura.

  Sage swung through the opening, using her outstretched artificial arm to launch herself across the command deck. Bullets trailed behind her, and as she soared, she picked off a few more gunmen on the catwalk circling the room at the height of its viewport.

  “Kill her, Yara!” Zaimur demanded.

  Sage landed and took cover on the other side of a round table projecting a map of the Circuit. Just by using her ears, she counted only four or five combatants left who actually had firearms. The rest of the Ceresians, other than Zaimur, were techs and engineers helping pilot the ship.

  She extended her artificial arm as far as it could manage, using her other arm to get it all the way. Then she gripped the edge of the holotable and flung it with all of her might. Yara Lakura dove out of the way before it crushed two guards against the far wall and provided cover for her to roll out into the open and shoot down two more.

  “Yara!” Zaimur screamed.

  The Lakura leader sprawled forward, evading the rest of Sage’s magazine. She too had run out of bullets, and before she could pick up another of the many guns scattered throughout the room, Sage was upon her. Yara evaded a few swipes from Sage’s human arm and then drew a knife.

  “You traitor!” she growled.

  She thrust forward with the blade, forcing Sage to have to use her artificial arm to block it. She couldn’t move it quickly enough any longer for it to be of much use in hand-to-hand combat, but all she needed to do was find an opening and land one powerful blow.

  They bobbed and weaved across the floor, and as they did, Sage kept one eye on Zaimur. He’d picked up a gun, but she made sure to keep Yara between them so he couldn’t get a clean shot, not that she was sure he wouldn’t be happy to shoot Yara in the back.

  Before long, Sage’s back neared a wall. She baited Yara by feigning fatigue. The Lakura leader lunged with her knife hand, allowing Sage to catch it between her arm and side. She twisted, ripping it out of Yara’s grip and pulling them both to the ground. There, she wrapped her artificial arm around Yara’s neck and raised her body to guard from Zaimur.

  Suddenly, a powerful force slammed into Sage’s side, tearing her off Yara like she’d been hit by a hover-bike in New Terrene. Zaimur’s hound was upon her.

  Sage held it back by the neck with her human hand as the claws on its front legs scratched along the chest plate of her armor. Yara pinned back her artificial arm, and in its distended position, Sage couldn’t gain proper control of it. The knife lay loose beneath it.


  “Now you die!” Yara snarled.

  Yara went for the knife, leaving Sage with no other choice. She pushed the dog down, angled her body, and allowed its fangs to sink into her collarbone. A sharp pain shot through her upper body, and she stifled a scream. However, the move allowed her to roll enough to regain motion in her artificial arm. Once she did, she seized the dog by the scruff and tossed it across the room toward Zaimur. The hound bowled him over on its way to slamming headfirst into the wall.

  Sage rolled out of the way of Yara’s knife. As she came around, she swung her arm as fast as she could. The metal fist slammed into the side of Yara’s head with such force it broke her neck. The knife was inches from sinking into Sage’s side before slipping through Yara’s limp fingers and clanking on the floor.

  Glancing up, Sage saw Zaimur was still scrambling to get his incapacitated dog off him. It took a great deal of effort to get to her feet, but she limped toward him. Her bullet wound had completely reopened, blood oozing out. The dog bite seared. Never in all her years as an executor had she been so damaged, but still, she walked.

  Engineers struggled to keep the ship’s systems going since the firefight had damaged so many consoles in the command deck. One tech attempted to make a run for a loose gun, but Sage flicked one up to herself with her foot and shot him through the chest.

  “Do you realize what you’ve done?” Zaimur groaned. The dog was stuck on his legs. “I needed her!”

  Sage didn’t respond. She merely continued to approach him. The engineers had all stopped working. None dared make a move. When she was closer, she saw that Zaimur wasn’t looking at her, but to her side. With her peripherals she followed his gaze and noticed a familiar boot sticking out from behind a console.

  “Talon, is that you?” she questioned. There was no response.

  “All of this for him?” Zaimur asked, incredulous. “Some Ceresian you are. You’ve betrayed us all.”

  “I’m not Ceresian!” Sage hissed.

  She rounded the corner and her heart stopped. The rifle fell from her grip. She hadn’t felt such a pain in her chest since the day she lost her arm. Talon’s body was tucked against the console, slumped over and with a gash in his ribs.

  “Talon…” she mouthed. She climbed over his legs and checked his pulse. Nothing. “Not again. No, no, not again. Talon!” She slumped onto her elbows over him, body heaving.

  All the color had left his cheeks, making his bright blue veins even more pronounced than they’d ever been. Back on New Terrene she’d seen a few statues carved from marble hoarded from Earth. He looked just like one of them.

  Sage’s throat went dry. Her lips began to tremble. Even breathing grew difficult.

  She ran her human fingers through his messy hair and over his forehead. His skin was as cold as Mars’ polar caps. She knew death better than probably anybody in the Circuit except Cassius, and she knew it then. Talon Rayne—heretic, mercenary, Ceresian, and a man she’d come to care for against all odds—was gone.

  The blue death had been cheated of its prey by a knife to the lung.

  “I know you didn’t believe,” she sniffled, “but you are with the Spirit now. I know it. I feel it.” One of her tears splattered on Talon’s cheek. She wiped the blood pooling in the corner of his lips. She leaned down and pressed her lips against his.

  The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, but she held them there until she heard a foot sliding across metal. She quickly turned and saw Zaimur, almost free of the dog’s weight.

  Sage’s eyes narrowed. She’d killed many, for many reasons. Because it was asked of her, collateral. But never had she wanted to kill someone and done it.

  She didn’t bother to pick up the gun. Catching up to the injured Morastus leader with ease, she grabbed him by the collar and tore him free.

  “What are you doing!” he howled as he slid across the floor.

  “Did you kill him?” She clutched his throat with her artificial arm. Then, as much as it hurt to do so, she lifted him into the air. She stared into his petrified eyes as she began to squeeze.

  “Did you kill him!”

  “He… left… me no… choice,” he rasped, barely able to get the words out she clenched so hard. And hearing that only caused her to squeeze tighter. “If you kill me… this all ends… The war… everything!”

  In the reflection on Zaimur’s enlarged pupils, Sage saw the blue of Talon’s veins. It was then that she remembered exactly why he’d stepped onto the Hound’s Paw. That she remembered why Zaimur would be willing to murder one of his own in cold blood.

  And then Cassius will win, she thought.

  Her grip loosened and Zaimur crumpled to the floor, gasping for air and clutching his bruised neck. Most of the engineers left on the command deck were attempting to approach while Sage wasn’t looking, but she picked up the rifle by her feet and kept them at bay. Then she aimed it at Zaimur, fighting every fiber of her being not to pull the trigger.

  “Tell me where we’re headed,” she said, more a growl than anything.

  “Or what?” Zaimur spat. “You’ll kill me either way, just like Yara and my beautiful Magda.” His gaze turned to the dog. “She was worth more than you’ll ever have in your life!”

  “I would love to kill you, trust me. But even though you may have held the weapon, you’re not the reason Talon’s dead. He was right. I’m going to have that face-to-face with Cassius Vale, and I’m going to end this.”

  “You and him with Cassius Vale.” Zaimur cursed. “I’m the one in control here, girl. Me!”

  Sage knelt and pressed the barrel of her rifle against his chest. “Then tell me what he’s planning, and I’ll let you live.” She knew she couldn’t guarantee that she’d be able to do that after what he’d done, but she was sick of being the only one on the wrong end of lies.

  He crawled on his back, but there was nowhere to go. She had his life in her hands, and he knew it. And he hated it. No more picking on sick men. No more paying servants to treat him like a god.

  “We’re going to take Earth back from the Tribunals and force them into a fair treaty,” Zaimur said. He seemed proud, as if it were actually his idea. She knew it couldn’t be.

  Earth, Sage realized. Where he believes he was betrayed, he’ll complete his betrayal.

  “That can’t be it,” she said. “The Tribune will crush your fleet there. What else?” Her grip tightened near the trigger of the rifle and she shoved it into Zaimur’s forehead. “What else!”

  “That’s it!” he squealed. “I swear in the name of the Ancients, that’s it. We threaten the gravitum mines and force the Tribune to see things our way.”

  “There’s got to be more.”

  Sage thought back to when they were approaching the Ceresian fleet. As it stood, she imagined it was large enough to take Luna and then swarm Earth successfully until the bulk of the Tribunal fleet arrived. For the mines, the Tribune might give in, but there had to be more to it than that. Cassius had already orchestrated one treaty between the Circuit’s two greatest factions in the Reclaimer War. He wasn’t about to do the same thing all over again. She knew there had to be more.

  “Can you contact him?” Sage asked. Zaimur hesitated, and she smacked him across the jaw. “Can you?”

  “I can! But there’s no stopping it now. Kill me. Destroy this ship. Earth will still fall. We’re on our way now, and Cassius will be there. He’ll be arriving on this ship at the same time the Tribune does to discuss terms. Yara…” He swallowed as he glanced over at her, her neck so sharply angled the ridge of her spine pushed against the flesh. “I was hoping she’d think the Tribune was behind Cassius’ survival and take his life the moment she saw him. Of course, neither of them would survive that. Leaving me in the vacuum. I suppose I’ll have to think of a new way to dispose of them now.”

  “Earth will rain fire on all of you for this,” Sage snarled. “But that’s not my concern. You’re going to contact Cassius and tell him that the situation is resolve
d and to proceed normally. Tell the rest of your fleet as well. You want peace with the Tribune, fine. There’s enough blood on both your hands. But if Cassius is coming here, then I intend to be here when he arrives.”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “You don’t.” Sage hoisted Zaimur up and dragged him over to the ship’s command console. “First I need you to tell your people to unseal the hangar and open comms with the Monarch.”

  Zaimur grimaced as she shoved him against the controls. “You heard her!” he shouted up to his engineers. “Open it!”

  Sage grabbed his shoulder and flipped him around. She glowered straight into his eyes. “Try anything, and you die. Send for help, and you die. You will never escape my sight, no matter how many days it takes. I was an executor of the New Earth Tribunal, and nothing would bring me more pleasure than watching you die.”

  Zaimur blinked. For a moment he looked stunned; then a shit-eating grin smeared across his face.

  “I knew from the moment I saw you in that hangar on Ceres that there was more to you,” he said. “An executor all along. So that’s why Talon was so intent on stopping me. You were both with them all along!”

  “I am with nobody!” Sage slammed her fist down beside his head. He turned away and closed his eyes. “Now, open the transmission!”

  “Anything for you, my dear.”

  He pulled up the holoscreen and keyed the commands. Trembling fingers betrayed his attempt to pretend like he was still in control.

  “There you go,” he said, crossing his arms. “Won’t do you any good. As soon as this is over, I’ll have them hunted to the other end of the Circuit. I’ll make sure you watch as—”

  Sage punched him across the mouth. It wasn’t her artificial hand, but it was hard enough to make him spit up blood.

  “Captain Larana, can you hear me?” Sage asked when the transmission opened, careful to keep her gun pointed at Zaimur.

  “Sage? That you?” Larana answered.