Star Rebellion

by Alicia Howell

  That had gotten their attention though.

  The guy who had spoken said something else in Russian, and everyone started moving. They were charging me. Why the freaking hell were they charging me when they had guns!?

  I darted to the side, nimbly staying out of reach. Rocks clacked together as all seven of them skidded to a halt and turned to face me. What I assumed was the captain of this group started calling out more orders, cornering me to the side I was on. I looked over my shoulder and slightly cursed. There wasn’t a building there, just a drop off.

  I looked back at them and noticed that only six people were there now. One of them must have been sent down to tell someone about my appearance.

  Their four seconds were more than over now.

  I calmly undid the strap that had held my sword onto my back and set it on the ground at my feet. I didn’t have to look up to know that they were all warily watching me, needing to know what the crap I would do next.

  I’m sure they could have easily guessed.

  One of my hands brushed against a pocket, inconspicuously checking to see if what I was planning was where I had believed it would be. Yup, definitely there.

  I undid the zipper that closed that pocket within my cargo pants. I could literally see the sweat beading on their foreheads. Damn they had heard a lot about me, but what could that possibly entail? No one here knew of my Calsh activities except for Darkstar, and I knew he wouldn’t breathe a word to anyone.

  I wrapped my right hand around the hilt and pulled the gun out. I could see all of their chests deflate as they saw what looked to be an ordinary pistol.

  I’m sure you have all heard the saying ‘never judge a book by its cover.’ It’s one of Waterstar’s favorites, in case you were wondering.

  I turned the gun on its side, the barrel facing the man on the far left. With one fluid movement of my elbow, I swept the gun in an arc, firing all along the way.

  Some of the bullets missed, and by the time that I was pointing it toward my right, the bullets had run out. I tossed the gun over the edge of the roof behind me. When Arctic had said they had managed to make a machine gun inside of a pistol, I had been expecting something a bit more dramatic.

  This was disappointing.

  I looked out in front of me. Three of the men had gone down, none killed. Well wasn’t that just fantastic. I had wasted a machine gun pistol on pretty much nothing. Those terrorists grunts would still be operating within a week, plus I still had three guys to fight.

  “Well that’s just great,” I muttered before picking up the bastard blade on the ground in front of me, letting its sheath drop back onto the rocks. If these guys weren’t going to use their guns then I wouldn’t bother to either. I didn’t like how noisy they were and my ears were already ringing from that useless gun.

  I ran forward with the tip of my blade dragging on the ground behind me. I imagined I looked like one of those badass Samurai from the Earth movies.

  The first guy I attacked didn’t have a chance. He was trying to backpedal when I pulled the blade up with both of my hands, cutting him diagonally across the chest. I pivoted around and saw that the other two standing men were actually pointing their guns at me. Looks like someone had grown up.

  I didn’t drop my blade, didn’t reach for another weapon. The fact that they weren’t firing already showed that they weren’t planning to. They had probably gotten orders to apprehend me at all costs besides injury.

  Well, whoever wanted me alive would just have to wait. I liked to take my own damn time about things.

  “Come on, guys. We don’t have to add more blood to this,” I dryly said, shifting in the rocks. I’m sure the bottoms of my boots were stained.

  One of the men shook his head. Nope, no English. Oh well, didn’t have time to waste on playing charades.

  I literally threw my sword at the guy who had shaken his head, expecting it to do a cool whirling in the air and stick him dead center in the chest.

  After one revolution though, the blade fell to the ground and landed on its hilt, clattering onto the ground. The guys and I looked at each other for a moment, then they shouted and charged at me again.

  Well that hadn’t gone as I had hoped. Maybe I should go back to pretend Samurai school.

  I dodged around them once more and flung an arm out, catching one of them by the neck and flipping him down. His gun went flying toward the edge of the roof and I punched in his throat. Before I had looked away, I could see the blood rushing from his crushed jugular. That wouldn’t be a quick death, and I felt a little bad about it.

  I had other things to deal with though.

  It was just me and one last gunman now. I could hear the groans of the five men who were still alive around me. This is why it is a good thing to kill people within a deadly fight such as this. Then they aren’t living through the pain.

  I faced the guy, shaking out my hands. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he dropped his gun and kept his hands raised in the universal sign for mercy.

  I nodded to him. I wasn’t going to be coldhearted. He surrendered, I would consent.

  “Rope,” I said, finally resorting to charades.

  The guy watched my motions for a second then nodded his head, complying immediately and pulling out a length of rope from his bag. I also motioned for him to throw his bag far from him before I came anywhere near. I didn’t need for him to suddenly produce a grenade and manage to kill me.

  I took the rope from the man and bound his hands behind his back before I placed him in the corner furthest away from anyone else. I faced him so that he was looking over the edge toward the sun, unable to see anything really that would be of importance.

  I retrieved both blade and sheath and buckled it back onto my back. I wasn’t even sure why I was still carrying it around besides the fact that it made me look tougher. I think.

  I went through the roof access on this building, already wary of what would be at the bottom of the metal ladder. On the first building with Markus, someone had been waiting on the floor below. I sure as hell hoped that wasn’t the case here because I really didn’t feel like fighting any more idiots. It was becoming tedious.

  Maybe if someone was capable enough to fight me I would have fun with this. It’s just that gunfights cannot get that intense.

  DARKSTAR

  Something that really was starting to bother me was that once I was unconscious, everyone reverted back to speaking in Russian. Erik was doing a good job at pretending he didn’t understand. Well, as far as I know. I was just going off of the fact that I couldn’t hear his voice among all of the other ones, though I guess he could have been nodding or shaking his head.

  I also hadn’t heard the sounds of a fight starting yet either. They were taking their time about this, which kind of surprised me. Then again, they weren’t pressed to be somewhere by ten o’clock that night. Which reminds me, I wonder what time it was. It had to be getting late, we had been in there for a while. Plus the drive here wasn’t short or anything. I would guess five o’clock. That sounded about right.

  I focused my attention more inward to where I was. It definitely was the same cavern as before, though this time I had been able to locate the walls. Last time had just been a vast empty space.

  I could still hear everything that was going on outside, too.

  But pressure in the place still made it seem like I was inside something, and like last time, I was unable to see anything in the darkness, which was highly unusual for me. Darkness was normally my friend. But then again, this wasn’t a normal circumstance.

  I sat down to ponder some things, since it is pretty obvious that I wouldn’t be able to do much else besides run around and bang on the walls, yelling to be released. I don’t know who would be able to release me, because I am pretty sure that I was actually within the reaches of my mind.

  Not one hundred percent sure though. Where else could I be? Well, if I was only in a spirit or essence type form, then I guess I could
be anywhere. How would I still be able to hear what was happening outside where my body was then? Simple, I would still have a connection to my body because if I didn’t then I would be dead. Detached from my body. That was not a pleasant thought.

  This was all assumption of course. I had to ask my fellow comrades if they had ever been in a similar place. All I know is that this place didn’t feel normal, didn’t feel like something that belonged to Earth or Calsh.

  Or I could just be going crazy. Who knows? Waterstar could be contagious.

  I let myself focus back on what I was hearing from the outside. It sounded like the fight had started.

  I felt bad for Erik. He was screwed.

  FIRESTAR

  I had yet to come across anyone else here. I guess they thought seven men on the roof would be enough to keep anyone from intruding. Plus there was that one guy who had run down here. Hadn’t he found someone to tell about the notorious Firestar yet?

  Well if so, they better hurry up and get up here. I was starting to get bored.

  I sighed and put my hands behind my head. Now I remember why I had convinced Ice, Forest, and Sun to go with me last time. Solitary missions were boring as crap, and I turned into an even more boring person. I just couldn’t get as heated up as usual.

  Real boring.

  I sighed again and looked in front of me, hoping that someone had appeared in the hallway I was walking down while I had let my mind wander. Nope, still no one there. They should tighten security here.

  I looked at my watch. Almost five o’clock, that wasn’t good. I had spent three hours here already, which kind of surprised me. I guess it had taken longer to move across all of those buildings and fight the guys earlier. Who would’ve known?

  I kept walking at a pretty even pace. I wasn’t even trying to be stealthy anymore, though I didn’t feel like hurrying. I’ve ran headlong into fights before, and it wasn’t anything I had enjoyed. Last time I did that, I had been swatted like a fly by Lucifer. Damn had that been a pain in the ass.

  I wondered if he actually was dead. I mean, the guy had been revered like a god, and shouldn’t it be next to impossible to kill a god? I mean, we technically didn’t kill him. Vladimir did. We had all been knocked unconscious, thanks to Ice and I, but according to Kuro we had managed to paralyze Lucifer, that had to count for something, right?

  I turned another corner and met the stairwell. Guess I should start going down again now. I hope they hadn’t had a chance to move Darkstar and Erik anywhere else. I did not feel like searching through this entire building, nor did I think I could within the necessary time frame.

  Three hours.

  Three hours to get them out, make sure we weren’t followed, collect Mr. Beijing, and get on a plane to Rome.

  My fists clenched briefly before I kicked the door open. Someone on the other side stumbled backwards and the door shut itself once more from the force of the rebound. Immediately I had a pistol in hand. I would edge the door open slowly this time.

  The guy on the other side was covering his nose with both hands and swearing around the blood that was seeping between his fingers. At least found someone else in this freaking building. Took me long enough.

  Another few minutes passed by before the guy had enough sense to look up at me, and then realize I wasn’t part of the terrorists. He started speaking in fast paced Russian and I shook my head. I motioned with the gun at him and he shut up.

  Some things were just a universal signal.

  “Where is your boss?” I asked slowly and clearly, probably enunciating the words more than I ever had in my life. Hopefully he could speak English.

  The guy looked at me blankly and worriedly. Apparently not.

  I sighed. How the hell was I going to charade a terrorists boss?

  At first I thought of a few different techniques I could try, but shook my head after discarding them. I wasn’t going to act a fool during this.

  I took a step closer and the man looked down the stairwell. Maybe there were other members further down, I thought almost hopefully. This guy wasn’t too entertaining; I mean, he wasn’t even reaching for a weapon. Who the hell had trained him?

  I motioned with my gun for him to put his hands up higher and then I riffled through his pockets. I uncovered a few papers and briefly scanned through the handwritten, Russian letters.

  Looks like he was a messenger. I guess I would give him some slack for not trying to fight back. But only a little.

  I shoved he messages into my pocket. I would have Erik translate them later, assuming I could get him and Dark out.

  No. Not if. I would.

  I was feeling merciful at this point and sent a flip kick to the guy's stomach. He double over coughing and I proceeded down the staircase, hoping that mercy didn’t bite me in the ass like it did for most people. I had enough ass biting on my hand right now.

  The stairwell ended at the third floor. It hadn’t helped me progress down that much, which was pretty damn depressing. Two floors did not seem like that much right now, considering the three I had left to rummage through.

  I entered the third floor hallway and looked around. My gun was still in hand, though I was relaxed. I would rely on instinct to take over if someone came charging at me.

  I walked down the hall to my left. The staircase access had been in a corner of two intersecting paths. There wasn’t really a particular reason that I chose left, really, besides the fact that I could see natural light streaming through the windows, as meager as it was. The sun was still a ways away from the horizon, but if I remember the one geography class I had taken a while back, it would stay daylight here for almost twenty hours at this time of the year.

  The hallway eventually dead ended after a few turns, and I hadn’t seen any separate halls during the entire length. I cursed to myself and jogged back to where the staircase was and noticed that the door was slightly ajar. I debated kicking it open when someone behind me coughed.

  I whirled around and took a step back into the hallway that dead ended. I wasn’t keeping my back to any area I hadn’t been, and yea, there were doors behind me, but I would just have to hope people weren’t in them.

  “You are the Englishman?” The cougher was male, probably only a few years older than me, and had surprisingly tan skin for this climate.

  I was, naturally, suspicious of him immediately. It wasn’t like I would find an innocent bystander in the midst of the Russian terrorists headquarters.

  “I’m not English. I speak English.” Natural defense mechanism one: sarcasm.

  The man shook his head, an amused smile lightly lifting the corners of his mouth. “My master hadn’t told me you would be rash.”

  “How is that rash?” I asked with my brows furrowing. This guy was of the breed that normally pisses me off, apparently. Thinks he is better than the world for no solid reason whatsoever. I liked to kill guys like him.

  “You clearly are in the underhand position. If you were smart and cunning, you wouldn’t say anything that could be perceived as rude.”

  I rolled my eyes. He didn’t know what Calshians were made of. “What makes you think I’m in the underhand position?”

  “I have four other men here with me.”

  I shrugged. “And I took out six others on the roof.”

  His eyes narrowed. I’m sure he already knew this tidbit of information, but I bet he was hoping I wouldn’t bring it up.

  His voice was still level, and I had to give the man credit for being able to keep a pretty solid poker face. “They were vermin. Terrible fighters. My master only put them there because he had doubted that anyone would try something as mental as going through the roof. Apparently he had underestimated his stars.”

  “I’m not his star.” I kind of liked being referred to as a star. Made it seem like we had some grand scheme with destiny going along behind our every step. We became exotic with that name. I just wasn’t this ‘master’s’ star.

  “We’ll see about that. I, b
y the way, am Dmitri.” I wasn’t given a chance to say anything else. Dmitri lunged forward and I pivoted around, easily dodging his first attack. I knew it wasn’t supposed to be an attack, just a way of testing me. His hands were in the wrong positions for him to actually do anything.

  We kept moving, almost making a dance of this. He would suddenly go forward and I would match him pace for pace. Dmitri increased the speed, but I never fell behind. I didn’t try and take the offensive yet, either. I would see how this all would play out.

  Another reason that I let it keep going this way was because of the foretold other men here. As long as Dmitri believed he was winning, he wouldn’t call for reinforcements. Hand-to-hand combat would be a bit more interesting with five opponents versus gun fighting six.

  I ducked under Dmitri’s first real punch, but hadn’t moved fast enough for the second that came swinging in from the left, catching me in the temple. I retreated back a few steps, angrily glaring at him. Dmitri had predicted the way I would duck, or had fast enough reflexes to react to my movement. I had been told before that only Calshians had those kind of reflexes.

  Either he was smarter than I was giving him credit for, or this guy was not from Earth.

  I took a tentative step forward, then another. Dmitri stayed where he was, his arms calmly folded across his chest. His back was to the stairway door, mine was to the hall I hadn’t been down yet.

  I wasn’t sure who was closer to his back up goons.

  I paused a moment, then burst forward, feinting to right, left, and then kneeing him in the gut. It was a low move, but he hadn’t expected it. The Rebellion hadn’t taught us to fight honorably. It had taught us to survive.

  I retreated back down the hallway that I thought was safest. The dead end hallway, for those of you who had already forgotten, and only a few steps.

  I was honorable enough to let the man catch his breath before we resumed this dance of ours.

  “That was low.” His remark was obvious as he stood back up, one hand still over his stomach.

  “Survival of the fittest.” Yes, we were taught Darwinism on Calsh. That planet is practically the epitome of his theories.