Eupiar’s choice to abandon her family to help was admirable in Jazz’s eyes. At least her family knew she was still alive and why they wouldn’t be seeing her anytime soon. Jazz himself wished he had had the chance to send one final message to the people he knew when he left Earth. They wouldn’t have died wondering what became of him.
“Very well, Eupiar and I will go for Hannah, then,” Destiny said. “Jazz, you take care of your mission with Vel.”
“What about fighters?” Eupiar asked. “The drone network may be down, but I’m sure UNE will send fighters to shoot us down.”
“Vel will have to stay here and pilot this, then,” said Jazz as he moved over to update her again on the last detail of the mission.
“Is she going to be OK with that?” Destiny asked.
There was nothing stopping Veloshira from taking the Silver Raven and shooting all three of them dead if she wasn’t happy with the mission results. Killing Veloshira crossed his mind, but only briefly as she was their ride out of here. And her Hashmedai speed and reflexes were deadly to say the least. The inmates from the prison riot found that out the hard way.
“I really hope so,” he said and then began to speak to her.
Chapter 28
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit
► Sol System
Chloe armed herself with an ePistol, one of the sidearms of the brig guards, who were still out cold. Shoot to wound! Shoot to wound! she constantly told herself as she took aim and faced the entrance to the brig. She overheard on the radio that two crewmen were currently en route and were just minutes away from stepping through those doors. Avearan needs to hurry the fuck up.
“This is taking too long,” Chloe said.
“Give her time,” Ella said while fidgeting with the gem in her hands.
Two UNE security personnel stepped through the sliding doors and raised their rifles upon seeing Chloe, Michei, two downed officers, and Ella holding a gem she shouldn’t have been holding. None of them wore combat armor or personal shields, as indicated by the bullet that pierced through the arm of one of the security officers. A follow-up kick to the side of his head put him to the ground shortly afterward. He’ll live, she thought as she stood over his body. The round she had hit him with was programmed to be a low-velocity shot via a smaller slug. Michei pacified the second one in the same manner as the first guard he had encountered: telekinetic push into the wall.
“Well, that’s the end of my career,” Chloe said upon realizing she now not only had broken her confinement but participated in assaulting four UNE personnel. Oh, and willfully not reporting Michei stealing the gem. “Your friend better be worth this.”
Over the radio, she heard Xavier demanding an update from the two who had just entered.
… … …
►► Port Shala, Morutrin Prime
►Morutrin System
Phylarlie stopped for a moment after witnessing Avearan undergo a strange personality switch after her hand had reached into her pouch. The assault played out as quickly as it had started: Avearan’s psionic shields flared on, protecting her and the hostages from the spray of weapons’ fire from the English-speaking gunmen. Two of them began to strafe in an attempt to avoid her psionics locking on to them. Big mistake, Phylarlie thought as her leg swiped across the floor, tripping one of them during their tactical retreat.
She plunged both of her psionic daggers through his head the instant he fell to the floor, burning two sizeable gashes into and out the back of his head. Her cloak still remained. Excellent; now where had the other two gone? Phylarlie only saw one gunman remaining. The other was…somewhere she couldn’t see, nor did she have time to search. Her invisible steps came to a halt as the hostages began to sprint toward the exit. Avearan extended her shields to protect their escape. A praiseworthy move, Phylarlie thought.
Gunfire erupted from behind an overturned dining table and splashed across the mauve aura of Avearan’s shields. Phylarlie saw Avearan’s telekinetic powers lift her body into the air followed by the table, which the gunman had been hiding behind. White fireballs shot out from her glowing arms and exploded with a thunderous burst of energy as they landed near their intended target. A target who ran fast toward another set of tables and chairs, and then another. For a human, he had the speed and reflexes of a Hashmedai, and that speed was hindering Avearan’s ability to take him down.
Phylarlie’s hands exchanged her pair of psionic daggers for her trustworthy plasma ones and then activated her jump port. A blue line of light projected her in front of the nimble gunman, and her daggers glowed green as her presence was unveiled at last. The gunman now had two targets to worry about, two targets to evade, and multitasking clearly wasn’t his expertise.
His stride slowed as Phylarlie slashed and kicked her way toward him. None of the hits landed, but he wasn’t running, either—no doubt worried that he might run into Avearan’s inferno assault or the newly erupted flames from her bombardment. The bout between the gunman and Phylarlie lasted a whole six seconds, ending with the front of his face being sliced off from her plasma dagger, exposing the bloody oozing insides of his skull.
“Enough!” shouted a voice in English toward the entrance.
Both Avearan and Phylarlie directed their attention to the source of the voice. It was the missing gunman; he held Kalis in his arms and aimed a pistol to the side of her head. “Knock my body the wrong way, and my trigger finger might slip,” the gunman said. “Telan…where is he?” Neither of the two replied. The gunman gazed at Phylarlie and said, “Don’t act like you don’t understand me. I know you speak this language very well.”
“If you want Telan,” a voice from the kitchen said, “come get him.”
Phylarlie saw an older Rabuabin man step forward from within the kitchen; it was indeed the chef of this restaurant, Telan. He had short light-brown hair and wore an outfit similar to the cooks’, though his had red stripes across the sleeves. His hands spread out to show that he was unarmed and willing to surrender.
The gunman faced Telan, while still holding his daughter, Kalis, captive. Phylarlie could tell the gunman was planning his next move by the way his eyes darted around and how his lips curled. Kalis was thrown to the floor, and the gunman removed a second pistol from his side and began to charge toward Telan in the kitchen. Both of his dual-wielding weapons shot a torrent of high-velocity rounds, ripping apart kitchen equipment and Telan’s body in the process.
Avearan used her powers to drag Kalis away from the combat zone, behind some knocked over tables that weren’t on fire. After Kalis was safe and secure, Avearan’s psionics attempted to deal with the charging gunman, but his speed was too great. A similar fiery display unfolded, a barrage of white fireballs exploding behind or off to the sides of a running gunman but not hitting him.
Phylarlie moved inside the kitchen via a well-timed jump port and then shrouded her presence with her cloaking device, waiting for the last remaining gunman to enter. She kept her body prone to avoid the last bit of weapons’ fire that was still zipping above her head, during which she noticed something odd about the situation: Telan’s body was nowhere to be found. A large square-shaped device was on floor where he had been standing. She creeped over to examine it closer; it was a holo emitter. Why would a chef need one of these?
Her answer came as the gunman leaped into the kitchen to confirm the kill. Like Phylarlie, he was shocked to see no body, only a holo emitter. Telan stormed out from the stand-up fridge in the corner, armed with a kitchen knife. He plunged it into the heart of the gunman and then shoved his head into a large vat of boiling oil, drowning and cooking his face in the process as smoke rose up from his now lifeless body.
One well-done gunman, extra crispy.
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit
► Sol System
Chloe saw Ella’s body shake suddenly for a few seconds. She almost lost her balance and fell on the force field to her bri
g cell. As she came to, she addressed both Chloe and Michei. “You’re welcome.” Her accent sounded Russian.
… … …
►► Port Shala, Morutrin Prime
► Morutrin System
Ella’s mind was once again pulled across space, landing inside of Avearan’s body. Smoke filled up the dining area of the restaurant as massive flames engulfed a lot of the furniture. It only took a few seconds of digging through Avearan’s memories to get an update as to what had happened while she was gone. She smiled upon seeing Avearan go out of her way to protect the lives of non-Hashmedai people, especially Kalis. It was almost as if Ella’s sense of empathy toward all life was affecting her judgment.
Telan, the real one, that is, walked toward her to offer his thanks; his thanks, however, wasn’t what Ella needed. “You must be very passionate about this place,” she said to him. “But Michei needs some answers from you, agent one-one-five-five.”
A confused frown stretched across Telan’s hardened face. “Michei…you know him?” he asked.
“Kind of. He sent me here to speak with you.”
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit
► Sol System
“What exactly do you need to know from him?” Avearan asked Michei while in control of Ella’s body.
“Fiesei!” Michei yelled. “Everything he has on him. Let him know that he’s here on Earth and has triggered a chain reaction of events for a reason.”
… … …
►► Port Shala, Morutrin Prime
► Morutrin System
Avearan’s thoughts relayed the message to Ella, who in turn asked Telan and briefly updated him on the current situation facing Earth, Michei, and Chloe.
“I wasn’t able to get much out of the order with my time here,” Telan revealed. “A human posing as a Linl named Jazz has been tracking down the order for the last year and was recently sent to Earth to assassinate the president and a soldier in retaliation for an attack on the empress, an attack that was planned by Whisper agents loyal to the Celestial Order.” Telan’s body rushed toward Kalis upon seeing she was shaken up by the ordeal. As he embraced her trembling body and tear-filled eyes, he added, “Tell him he needs to prevent that at all costs. The downfall of the human president will trigger the human population to get closer with Radiance, something the order wants more than Radiance itself.”
Take out Jazz, save the president, easy enough, Ella thought. Avearan relayed the thoughts back to Chloe and Michei.
“And don’t kill Jazz. He has some damn good intel on the order—more than he thinks. And most of what I told you came from his files.”
Oh, and we can’t kill him. Let them know that too, Ella’s thoughts projected toward Avearan.
The body of the first dead gunman still rested on the floor with a small stream of blood gushing out from the back of his head. “They spoke English, a human language,” Ella said to Telan. “There’s no way humans made it this far into the galaxy. Jazz was the exception since he traveled out her during the invasion.”
Telan mumbled some words to Kalis in the Rabuabin language then walked toward the body of the gunman while Kalis made her exit from the nightmare. “I was hoping you had an answer to that,” Telan said, and then he placed his hands around the dead gunman’s neck, squeezing hard. “Because as you can see…” The gunman’s appearance melted away and shifted from human to Javnis as Telan released his hold. “He’s not human anymore.”
“Holy shit,” Ella whispered with a horrified look on her face. She slowly stepped backward until her body become bound, gripped tight by an invisible set of arms.
“Tell Jazz if he goes through with this, he’ll never see a cup of Rabuabin citrus tea again,” Phylarlie’s voice spoke directly into her ear.
Phylarlie has a personal message for Jazz as well.
“And watch your back,” Phylarlie’s voice spoke into her ears once again. “You and I are not finished.”
Then let’s finish this, Avearan thought.
Let’s not, Ella thought.
“My sister might be walking a path with the Celestial Order. These people know quite a bit about them…And so do you.”
“Do I?”
“I was doing some research about the Dark Star before I followed you here,” Phylarlie said. “Does the ship Crimson Arrow sound familiar to you?”
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit
► Sol System
“The brig may have been compromised. Send a fire team to check it out!” Xavier’s voice roared across the radio.
Chloe noticed one of the first guards to get attacked started to slowly come to and crawl across the floor. Her feet kicked his radio into the wall as she approached Michei, who was fixed on Ella’s body. She was once again shaking, her thoughts returning to her body.
“They’re on to us. We need to go now,” Chloe said.
“It’s me,” Ella said as she came to. “Look, there’s one last bit of info about the attackers it seems—”
“Save it for later. We gotta boogie,” Chloe said as she shut off the force field and took the gem out of Ella’s hands. “I’ll take that.”
“But—”
Chloe’s hand punched in the command to reactivate the force field, and then she made a perfect 180-degree turn and ran toward the exit along with Michei. She looked both ways before running down the halls with her ePistol aimed toward the floor.
“We should take her with us,” Michei suggested as they started to run faster.
“I don’t even know where we can go at this point,” Chloe said and then stopped at a four-way intersection in the hall. Her head peeked behind them, then left to right once again. Coast was clear. “Besides, if they see that she’s gone, they’ll rip this whole ship apart to find her.” They were mobile once again, running through the halls. “We need less people searching the decks right now.” Which brought up in her head what to do next. They couldn’t keep running like this; someone would find them. And the president…goddamn it. They needed not to be on the Winston Churchill, period. “Let’s head to the armory,” she said and made a slight change in their trek through the halls toward it.
“I’ll teleport.”
“No, everyone is on edge now and actively scanning for anything out of the ordinary. We need to get there on foot and then off the ship via a transport.”
… … …
Chloe and Michei entered the elevator connecting the habitat ring to the main section of the Winston Churchill after a quick raid in the armory. She was fully equipped, sporting her protect suit and magnetic rifle. Her shields were already activated in preparation for their final push toward the flight deck. The elevator descended while light from the sun began to shine in. Earth was visible from the window. She glanced at its blue beauty and pondered if she’d ever get a chance to see it again from this high up, for if she and Michei failed, they’d either be dead or serving twenty-five years to life in prison.
Their bodies became weightless, a sign the elevator ride was concluding, and she waited in anticipation for the doors to slide open, fully expecting a group of marines to be waiting for the very same elevator to take them up to the ring to search the brig. The doors opened; no one was there. They must have used the other three elevators, thank god.
The two floated their way down the circular corridor, shoving aside maintenance workers and crew personnel on their way to other parts of the ship. Their cover was officially blown; no turning back now. The flight deck entrance was just a few more meters away. Chloe’s arm reached and gripped a handlebar to stop her propelling body from overshooting the entrance to the flight deck. Inside, they saw fighters and transports all neatly lined up, with workers aided with holo pads performing various system checks.
She pointed toward the nearest transport for Michei to see. “There, that’s our ticket outta here.”
“Let’s go!”
The jets on he
r suit fired and launched her body onto the flight deck. Michei followed behind, using his psionics to float his body. There was a lot of chatter among the crew below them as Chloe and Michei swam past toward their destination. Michei’s psionic mind merged with the transport’s systems and forced the doors to unlock and open right as they were about to crash into them. Instead, they slammed into the interior walls of the transport as the doors quickly slammed shut.
… … …
Aboard the bridge of the Winston Churchill, the crew frantically tried to sort out reports of people seeing Chloe and Michei traveling together. Security cam footage was useless; naturally, Michei’s psionics were shutting them down as they neared.
“Captain! Major Vaughan and Michei are,” Lieutenant Junior Grade Sterling reported from his computer station, “stealing a transport!”
“What the hell,” said Benally. “That explains the issue at the brig.”
Sterling added, “Labs are now reporting that someone has attacked them and the gem has been stolen.”
“Send a security detail to the flight deck at once!” Xavier ordered with rage in his voice.
“No use, sir,” said Sterling. “They’ve already taken off.”
“Where are they heading?” Benally asked.
The central hologram shifted to a projection of Earth and a transport heading toward it from the Winston Churchill. “Europe, by the looks,” Xavier concluded. “Contact Sergeant Boyd and Sergeant Vaughan. Have them and a detachment of marines meet on the flight deck and pursue in a transport.” His focus shifted toward Earth via the forward bridge windows. “I want them brought back alive, if possible.”
… … …
►► Geneva, Earth
► Sol System
Emergency air raid sirens began to blare as reports that Earth Ship One was having major problems. The defense drone network had gone haywire as well as a report of a ship of unknown origin speeding toward Geneva was made public. The sunny and lively day descended into a moment of panic and hysteria in the streets of the capital of the UNE.
Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2) Page 41
