With a heavy heart, I moved through the bulkheads, judged distances and very carefully eased my ghosted visor toward the last wall.
I eased out of the wall with the visor until I saw faint ghostly images of long control panels built lower down to the deck than normal on a Lokhar ship. Slithering across the deck were blob creatures—Plutonians. They moved like fast snails or slugs might. Their locomotion revolted me.
I heard nothing yet, just saw these ethereal images.
My heart pounded worse than ever, but I didn’t know why. I debated finding a place on the bridge where I could hide and fully phase in. I needed footage of these creatures. I had to warn—
I frowned as the pounding of my heart increased. It dawned on me that that was wrong. I’d been on plenty of harrowing missions while out of phase and in ghost mode before. I’d never had this reaction.
What could be causing it?
I blinked several times. I… I… Sweat stung my eyes, making me blink worse than before. That caused me to inhale sharply. Suddenly, I felt nauseous. Maybe I’d been out of phase too long.
There were stories about agents who hadn’t been able to get back into phase. Even when their generators failed, they had remained stranded in the ethereal reality. They had wandered for a time, their bodies lasting longer out of phase because…
I don’t know why.
I drew back into the bulkhead. Maybe if I didn’t have to look at the gross Plutonians I’d gain my bearings again.
The opposite happened. I became more nauseous and the chest pounding grew. Was I having a heart attack? That couldn’t happen to me. I was Creed, the fittest human in history.
I’d bested everyone sent to kill me. I’d defeated—
I frowned as even more sweat slid into my eyes. An overwhelming need to tear off the helmet filled me. I had to phase in and get my bearings.
With stumbling steps, I maneuvered through the bulkhead, through a corridor, more bulkheads—I began to run, panting, cursing with a desperate need to free myself of the restrictive phase suit.
This was killing me. I would die in seconds if I didn’t tear off the suit. I’d been a fool to come here. I would lose. I would lie moldering on the ground for animals to gnaw. Abaddon would haunt my soul—
I halted abruptly, and as I stood there with pounding heart and sweat-stung eyes, I realized these thoughts were not mine. I had never been so defeatist in my life. These were alien thoughts. These were—
“Orcus,” I whispered.
In that moment, I realized he was on the mauler and he knew I was here. More than that, the Abaddon clone was attempting to lure me to him so he could do unspeakable things to me.
“Not happening,” I said through clenched teeth. Instead, I was going to find Orcus and kill him.
-44-
I shed the Shrike Lord Phase Suit, setting it against a wall. It felt good to wipe my eyes, run my hands over my head and breathe deeply of Lokhar ship-air.
I was still aboard the OT Mauler Iron Boulder. Now, I was only wearing my Effectuator metallic garb with the added feature of thick metal cuffs around my ankles, wrists and lower neck. I had a blaster attached to one hip and a longish handle with buttons attached to the other.
I was in a bright large chamber with an altar to the right. Various stained-glass-window types of figures stood as if in alcoves. They were representations of tiger saints in their strict Creator worship.
At present, the chamber was empty.
I did some stretches and flexed my fingers. I was going to kill Orcus—
The main hatch opened and three hulking Lokhars walked in. They did not wear combat armor. Instead, they wore flowing orange robes. Each gripped a long poleaxe-style weapon. The one difference was that instead of axe heads, they ended with flexible claw-like, movable hooks. Guide wires moved the hooked claws, which the bearer operated with a glove-like device attached to the lower end of the pole.
The weapon was a raker, a uniquely Lokhar weapon beloved by the Shi Feng.
I hadn’t expected them to show up.
Lastly, Orcus strutted into the worship chamber. He wore a dark garment and possessed various tools at his waist, including several laser pistols that jangled as he walked. He’d healed nicely and seemingly totally from his previous damage, proving that I had to kill him in order to get rid of him. I didn’t know if he had a stasis tube like me, innate healing abilities or some other kind of medical tech.
“Commander Creed,” Orcus said in his booming voice. “Are you here to kill me?”
“You guided me here,” I said.
He smirked satanically. “I’m impressed. I didn’t realize you knew it was me.”
“I didn’t know right away, but it became obvious after a time. I remember how I drove you away once already while in the Tau Ceti System. You fled because we had seriously injured you. I liked giving you pain, the more the better, I say.”
His eyes seemed to burn with power.
I grunted, as a weight struck my mind. Then I staggered backward until I thumped against a wall.
His eyes seemed to burn with even greater ferocity. “Kneel before me, you gnat,” he said.
I’d always been a stubborn kid who became a stubborn man. It was one of my key traits. The Curator had said it had more to do with mere mulishness. I was one of those rare individuals, he’d told me, who possessed stronger than average willpower. By that, he meant I could resist those with domination powers.
Abaddon had been able to dominate others with a look or a gesture.
Orcus likely had the latent ability, but needed to grow in inner stature before he could do, with the same ease, what Abaddon had done in his prime.
Was this power unique to First Ones? I did not know. The Curator had taught me a few skills, which—he claimed—strengthened my native willpower. What I’m trying to explain is that I could resist Orcus’s newfound strength. I don’t know if Orcus knew that yet.
I debated trying to trick him by acting meek and humble until I could get in close for a deathblow. The thought made my gut crawl with revulsion. Instead, I stood tall and shook my head.
“Last time is going to seem like a picnic,” I said. “Are you a good screamer?”
The ferocity in his eyes hardened into something much worse. That struck against my will like a proverbial ton of bricks. I gritted my teeth, trying to shake off his domination. It proved difficult but intensely rewarding. Using the brick-pile analogy, I tore them away until I climbed up on top of them to stare challengingly at Orcus.
Abruptly, the ferocity in his eyes dimmed. He seemed puzzled with me. Then, he smiled evilly.
“This is for the better,” he said. “I will enjoy breaking you over time, bending you to my will particle by particle so you can see it happening and know that you are helpless to stop it.”
“Not going to happen,” I said.
“Oh? And how will you don your phase suit in time to escape from here?”
I pointed at the Shi Feng acolytes one at a time and finished by pointing at Orcus. Finally, I pointed at the floor.
“What does that signify?” Orcus asked.
“Your deaths,” I said.
“You, a puny gnat, will kill me?”
“And the three buffoons with their sticks,” I added.
“How do you propose to do that?”
I smiled.
“No,” Orcus said. “It is time you learned the error of your arrogance. I thank you, though, for I have need of the phase suit. I’m glad you brought it to me.”
“Why didn’t you have your butt-boy Visconti hand the suit to you earlier?” I asked. “He could have had Ella take it out of the GEV and bring it to him while I was in the stasis tube healing.”
“That was too risky at the time,” Orcus said. “Her hypnosis might not have held with such an order. You see, I have bigger plans afoot than just gaining your suit.”
“You desire the destruction of Earth Force?” I asked.
“That, and
the annihilation of your pesky planet,” Orcus said.
“Plutonian ships are headed here?”
“You do realize that I am going to inflict even more pain upon you because you think you are tricking me into telling you my secrets. That is a vain conceit, Creed.”
“Are you Jennifer’s slave?” I asked.
Orcus frowned, and he spoke to the Shi Feng assassins. “Bring him to me.”
The three tigers leapt at me as they roared, bringing their rakers to the fore.
I drew my blaster.
“I think not,” Orcus said, fast-drawing one of his laser pistols and firing.
That’s when I activated the cuffs around my ankles, wrists and neck. They did not sheathe me in a protective force field. Instead, they acted like the suit I’d worn ten years ago when I’d fought Abaddon in his courtroom. The metal loops speeded my metabolism to an intense degree and allowed me to move at heightened speed. Naturally, I saw quicker and thought at hyper-speed as well.
The use of such a suit taxed an individual to an inordinate degree. It was one of the reasons I seldom used it. I had brought it along this time because I’d suspected something like this could happen.
Orcus’s laser beam flashed at me, but not until I’d fractionally moved to one side. The laser pulse moved at the speed of light, too fast for it to make any difference to my heightened senses. A bullet would have moved slowly to me, but lasers weren’t bullets.
Now, I used my drawn blaster, firing at each barely moving assassin. One by one, I burned out their eyes, frying the brains inside their skulls. As I charged across the room, their forward momentum changed as they twisted slowly in the air.
To me, they were out of the fight, images that wouldn’t hit the floor until I had either won or lost.
I aimed the blaster at Orcus, firing at him.
The beam stopped centimeters from his skin. He had a force field this time. I don’t think he generated it—as Abaddon had done, through force of will—but had some mechanical device to do it for him.
It was a clever move on his part, but it wasn’t going to save the clone of the First One.
In my speeded state, I moved past the dead and almost-still Shi Feng assassins. Orcus moved the pistol, the laser flashing with repeated firings, meaning he held the trigger down as he tried to sweep it toward me.
As I raced at him, I slapped my blaster back onto my hip. I took the longish handle from my other hip, pressed buttons on the thing in the correct sequence, and watched a red force axe sprout into existence.
This had been Abaddon’s weapon once when he’d fought me over ten years ago. My force blade—a gift from the Curator—had been destroyed in the fight, although I’d wounded Abaddon in the process. The Curator had collected the force axe after our victory, putting it in the Museum. I’d liberated the axe before my departure. It was probably the most sacrilegious of my thefts.
Orcus moved in slow motion compared to me. However, as a clone of a First One, he was one of the most dangerous and unique individuals in the galaxy. His thought process was likely swifter than others. He also had an ability to teleport. It was a natural phenomenon, just as an electric eel could generate an electrical charge and zap a creature.
Could Orcus teleport out of danger before I could reach him? I gave that a high probability. It would have been better if I could have caught him napping.
I ran at him. He attempted to raise his pistol into position. In regular time, my motion happened almost as fast as the blink of an eye.
I noticed a change on Orcus’s face. It was subtle at first, but it was there. His eyes actually changed color, going from deep black to a sinister toxic green like chlorine gas. His brow furrowed, and I could see him start to concentrate.
I had to reach him. I had to kill him. If he could teleport away, he could order the Lokhars to attack us. I had no doubt now as to the nature of this trick. Orcus was likely waiting for three or more Plutonian ships to show up through a dimensional portal. Then, as the OT Fleet and Earth Force converged on the three Plutonian vessels, the tigers would backstab us and obliterate Earth Force, and afterward, the human homeworld.
It was a diabolical scheme—given that I was right about it.
I raised the force axe, the red glow shimmering with power. This was an ancient weapon, a piece of Forerunner technology. I began to swing and Orcus began to fade. I’d never witnessed anyone teleporting while I was at hyper-speed.
“No!” I shouted, swinging the force axe, hoping to reach him in time.
Orcus faded more, sparkles appearing in his body. That was a crazy cool image. The light brightened to an intense degree even as I kept swinging.
I wasn’t sure. I thought I felt the slightest resistance to my swinging blade. The force axe produced wicked energies; reportedly able to slice through anything known in existence, including force fields. That’s why I’d used such a weapon ten years ago against the almost-invincible Abaddon.
I tried to see what was happening, but the sparkles in Orcus’s body were blinding me.
The force axe completed its arc. I thought I could see faint golden ichor splash from the vicious cut. Then I was stumbling through the spot where Orcus had just been.
The clone of the First One had successfully teleported away. Had I wounded him before he’d left? I felt sure I had, but I had no idea how badly. If I’d struck deeply enough, I might even have killed him, maybe lopped off his head.
Surely, if I’d chopped off his head, he would have quit teleporting. But then again, I knew nothing about his inborn ability other than that he possessed it.
Orcus was gone. I did not see any golden ichor on the floor. It might have teleported away with the giant clone. The First One might even now be telling others to go on high alert.
What was I supposed to do now?
-45-
I started with dropping out of hyper-speed. With a gasp and a lurch, I crashed onto the floor. The force axe flew from my weakened grip. It sizzled with power as the blade chopped into the floor.
I barely managed to scramble up in time. Cramps hit some of my muscles, but I ignored them, grabbing the handle and pressing switches.
With a whomp sound, the red force axe disappeared. The sizzling stopped, although a fierce stench billowed up from the burnt deck plating.
After that, I rolled onto my back and clutched a calf muscle. It didn’t help much. I had to roll the other way and work myself up onto my feet. Then I pressed down with all my weight on the foot, forcing the cramp to subside.
That left me panting.
The metallic cuffs had energized my body to speeds it had never been designed to go. My mind felt sluggish, and my body was utterly fatigued. While in the hyper-state, the ankle, wrist and neck cuffs had supplied me with a numbing force by feeding off my body’s natural fuel sources.. I could literally have run myself into the ground while wearing the hyper-suit. I could have killed myself if I’d stayed speeded-up too long.
Now, like an old man with age-withered muscles, I limped across the room, wheezing, coughing and feeling at least twice my age. Ten years ago, I’d had a complete hyper-state suit and been able to last longer without negative side effects. This time, I’d seriously strained my muscles. In fact, I wasn’t sure how long I could keep going. I needed to sleep for days in order to recoup from the brief ordeal.
I could possibly pop some stims to help me, but I didn’t want to risk a cloudy mind. Instead, I would use my sleepy, exhausted but still unclouded brain. The key was in knowing I was exhausted and prone to making bad decisions, and trying to compensate.
With great deliberation, I donned the phase suit. I didn’t gloat over the dead assassins nor did I worry that Orcus’s mind-slaves might even now be rushing to capture me.
I raised my head.
“Don’t be a fool,” I muttered. I couldn’t afford to let anyone capture me. Earth could not afford my getting captured just now.
I’d just found out the worst. Earth Force and
the planet were in deadly peril from an OT backstab. A Plutonian attack should commence soon. If Orcus had survived my force-axe blade, he could still pull this off, having the OT Fleet help the Plutonians against us at the worst possible moment.
I finally pressed together the last suit seal and clicked it on. I phased out before any Orcus slaves appeared.
In an exhausted state, I began to backtrack my former route. What should I do? It really depended on Orcus. Was he dead, badly wounded, giving warnings—or out of the picture for the time?
I didn’t know.
“Right,” I muttered to myself.
I found a small, unoccupied place, phased in and sat down on a tiger cot. I stared at the bulkhead for a time and suddenly jerked up my head.
I’d dozed off. I stirred, and my joints felt stiff and sore. How long had I been out?
I checked a helmet chronometer. I’d been out for twenty-two minutes. That was bad. I was giving Orcus time to recover if I’d only wounded him.
“All right, you smarmy bastard,” I told myself. “It’s time to walk the last mile. Until you’re dead, you keep moving.”
I thought about getting off the bed, but simply couldn’t do it. My mind wandered until I remembered a day many years ago when I’d been deep inside the portal planet. The assault troopers had had to go the last mile, and many of them had simply quit. I’d goaded them. Maybe it was time to goad myself.
“Are you a pussy, Creed?” I whispered to myself.
Somewhere deep inside me an old resolve stirred.
I pushed off the cot and swayed where I stood. I had a mission. I had to get it done. I’d given the finger to the Curator so I could save my planet from annihilation. Now—
I moved one foot ahead of the other. I did it until I reached the bulkhead, and then I walked against the bulkhead, thumped against it hard and stumbled back onto my butt on the deck.
I stared at the wall, finally realizing I’d forgotten to go out of phase. I climbed up onto my feet and did that now. Then, I tried it again, pushing through the faint bulkhead as I trudged through the OT Mauler Iron Boulder.
Target: Earth (Extinction Wars Book 5) Page 17
