Nighthawks at the Mission: Move Off-World. Make A Killing.

by Forbes West

  Finally, you find Botha as he runs through a chain link gate at the back of the station. It leads to a grassy bank of the fast-flowing river that pours out to the Super Sargasso. The lighthouse ship is in its dock a few hundred yards ahead; its flashing and swirling light stretches out across the empty grasslands.

  You fire into the air, one loud shot, and Botha stops in his tracks and turns. He puts up his arms. “Okay! Okay, I’m done! I’m done here. I’m done here!”

  You advance past the open gate, keeping your gun on him. The river gurgles in front of you, its current slower than it was when you were wandering out here, alone. Botha backs up, positioning himself right next to the flowing river.

  “I don’t want any more of this,” Botha says. “I just want to go back to South Africa.” Botha drops his baton to the ground. “I don’t want to die. I just did what I had to because I didn’t want this place to end up how my country ended up years ago. I’m sorry. I am sorry. But if we hadn’t done what we did... People shouldn’t be here, colonizing this place. We don’t need to export our shit, you realize that, right, Sarah? If we do, thousands of Ni-Perchta will be enslaved and die, and for what? For big companies? For Wall Street? What in Christ’s name are we doing here? I’m sorry for all who have died, but there is a reason why that needs to happen. We never did it for money!”

  You can’t say anything in response. Pity grips you. Botha turns as he sees you hesitate and dives into the river. You watch him swim across, the current pushing him forward a little. Botha is a strong swimmer, and he is making a good distance.

  You take a bead on his head, putting the sight over his skull.

  You fire once, and his body sinks beneath the waves, disappearing under the reflection of the seven moons above.

  You holster your pistol and sink to the ground, right on the riverbank. You sit there for a good while.

  Eventually Guy calls your name, and you limp back over to where he is.

  Chapter Nineteen:

  What the Thunder Said

  Guy, Treena, and you help each other that night, fixing injuries with the orichalcum you have on hand, reducing your physical wounds to nothing though unfortunately leaving the emotional wounds fresh and tender and biting you still. You all hold each other for a moment.

  “Been through a lot together in the last few days,” Guy says to the both of you, looking pretty deeply into your eyes. “You alright?”

  The three of you sit outside in front of the ruined part of the station. The bodies have been thrown into the river, unceremoniously, by Guy. You personally disposed of the doctor’s wife. You think of what happened to Winniefreddie briefly as the scene reminds you of her demise.

  Treena finds a couple lawn chairs, covered in dust, in the back storage room, along with an old radio. You and your friends are quiet, shaky, and unable to speak more than a few sentences to each other. Everyone looks as if their eyelids have been peeled back a tad, and darkness encircles all of your eyes.

  “... update you on the special flash storm warning for the Sargasso region. Any and all persons within five kilometers of the center of Sargasso-3 must take immediate shelter underground. We repeat, this is a flash storm warning for the Sargasso region. Any persons within five kilometers of the center of City Sargasso-3 must take shelter underground... The storm is expected to commence in two to three hours...” the radio announcer says.

  * * *

  It is nearly three o’clock in the morning. Treena, Guy, and you are sleeping outside, waiting in the cool night air for Jaime to come. You’re holding your shotgun in hand, and Guy has his hand stuffed down his pants like Al Bundy. You awake when you hear a hum. You nudge Guy with your foot.

  “Guy. Guy wake up.” The hum is a little louder now; the air is still and windless. Guy wakes up with a belch.

  “Waz up?” he says.

  Barely visible in the night sky is Saki’s old Tri-Skysurfer, which lands nearby. “Jaime’s back.”

  He comes out of the darkness, looking mystified. “Holy shit,” he says, seeing the blood and the destruction all around. “You three kids alright? Everything’s all done here, yeah?” He surveys the damage, then tosses you your special little ring. “It worked great. If anyone is following the Crue, they never saw me get off.”

  You put it on your finger. “No Mathias and Petty,” you tell him, disappointed. “We searched the damn station. Nothing, nada.” Guy and Treena nod.

  Jaime shakes his head. “Well, at least…”

  On the highway behind he, the yellow Xs pulse in the late night air, silently but constantly flashing that neon yellow.

  “Something coming this way,” Treena says, following your gaze. “See how it’s flashing fast? Something very quick is coming this way. I can’t tell how far off—they could be flashing for something miles away. The road can be sensitive this far out from all civilization.”

  “Something wicked this way comes…” Guy says.

  Suddenly you hear laughter right behind you.

  “Actually, Mr. Farson, something wicked is right here.” Charles Mathias’s eyes flash green for a second as he steps out from the shadows and into the orange-bathed night. There is a low crack of sound as Jenny Petty emerges from blue whiffs of smoke that carry the scent of ozone throughout the air.

  Mathias has that odd-looking M-16-meets-flashlight gun in both hands, Petty a mean-looking and stubby orichalcum baton. Armored Ni-Perchta, armed with swords and bows and arrows, surround you on all sides. Mathias calls something out in Perchta and laughs.

  He looks at you with those scary, oddly flashing green eyes above his weird red half-mask with the yellow jaws. “Your sister is quite the woman—and I use that present tense very appropriately. She’s declared herself the true Witch-Lord. These are her warriors.”

  “It is prophecy, they say.” Mathias nods to Petty. “Which I believe as well.” He takes his mask off, revealing himself to be Boston. “This is the fourth time we’ve met...” he says in Boston’s voice, before returning to his true form. “I’m sorry we had to meet this way again.”

  He calls out to the Ni-Perchta, who open fire with their ori-batons and arrows, slaughtering all of your companions. You stand there surrounded by the lifeless and bloodied bodies of your friends, and fall to the ground, so shocked you don't know what to do, what to say. Your mind slams shut and becomes a white void.

  “Thanks for getting everyone together for us. And for taking care of the others back there. Poor people had their covers blown somehow. Poor friends of ours,” Petty says.

  “Your sister really loves you, you know that?” Mathias says almost tenderly, without the usual brutishness in his voice. “You’ll come with us to meet her.”

  The mention of your sister makes you think of meeting her in the cave and the memory snaps you back to reality. So the meeting in the cave was real. She lives. She was there when Saki’s family was murdered.

  The presence of the Ni-Perchta reminds you of something else. The savage custom they have. The Oberon custom. You stand up slowly, and reach deep into yourself for something a little more. Just as Petty comes over to grab you, you speak up.

  “I challenge you!” you call out. “I challenge you to a duel, Mathias, right here, right now!” You don’t even know what you are saying at this point. All you know is that everything you have been through, experienced, and fought for in the last few days cries out against you just standing there and letting this vampire take you to her, your living sister. The ghosts of a thousand recent, painful memories all roar out against it.

  Mathias turns very slowly, a smirk on his face. The Ni-Perchta watch from the sides, all weapons pointing at you as you rush towards him.

  “I challenge you. Over what you’ve taken from me. From all of us. I don’t have to follow you anywhere, you fucking murderer.” A simple coldness comes over you, powerful and enticing. It wells up inside. You repeat the word you think is for duel again and again in Perchta, hoping the watching crowd understands. Yo
u heard the word in the aftermath of Mathias’s attack on the lobby and you are pretty sure of its meaning.

  Mathias walks over to you, and, inches away from your face, speaks quickly in low tones. “You know, your sister, our people...we aren’t doing this for the money. Do you understand that? Your sister is the most honest woman I know. The best of all of us. All the people we’ve set up to be killed, the salvagers, the station managers, the Counters, it’s murder, we know that. But we are only murdering the exploiters of this world. We’re trying to stop the colonization here. The oppression. The collective will to turn this place into another Africa. We don’t kill unless we need to. We could have burned the Mission to the ground and killed everyone there. Our people have lived inside for months; we could have conducted a massacre but didn’t. We even allowed you and your friends to live. We just applied pressure, and managed to get four thousand people packing to Perth and Long Beach.”

  “We are principled,” Mathias continues, again sounding nothing like himself. “We just want the exploiters to go home. You don’t need to do this. We don’t need more blood on

  our hands.”

  You look at Mathias. “You won’t have.”

  Mathias cocks his head, as if listening to something. “I refuse your challenge.” He walks away. The Ni-Perchta stare at him from all sides, their red eyes fixed on him.

  “I challenge you again,” you say, loudly. The Ni-Perchta speak among themselves. Mathias exchanges a look of regret with Petty.

  One of the Ni-Perchta calls out, a sort of anguished shout or question. Others join in, crying out to Mathias. They turn their weapons on him. To your surprise, one of the Ni-Perchta even hands you Winniefreddie’s shotgun.

  “Then I have to face you,” he says with a frown, looking at the Ni- Perchta. He puts on his odd and demonic-looking half-mask. “I cannot refuse you again. Otherwise I will be branded a coward, and my life and belongings would be forfeit according to the custom. Sarah, you cannot beat me. This is your death if you keep at this. I’m sorry.”

  You rack Winniefreddie’s shotgun, and Mathias nods. You stand ten yards away from each other, on a yellow X. “I’ll make it quick,” he promises. One hand inches towards the inside of his blue leather jacket.

  You pull your shotgun barrel upwards and fire, then immediately hit your invisibility ring. Mathias moves with such speed that the gun blast misses him, only a few bits of flame hitting his side. He throws a knife at you, striking you despite being invisible. The six inch stiletto hits you in the right side, so sharp and sudden you can’t feel a thing at first. Warm blood trickles down your side, and when the wave of pain hits you, you play it up as something more to lure him in. You become visible again, then disappear and reappear again. The ring must have been damaged, and you know you can’t count on it anymore, so you drop to your knees, releasing your shotgun. Mathias walks over, pistol out.

  “Yield, Sarah Orange.”

  You snap out your ori-baton and telekinetically slam him against the yellow X road, hard. He drops his pistol.

  You stand up quickly and jump out of the way as he shoots out twin bolts of lightning. Pulling out your reloaded small semi-automatic, you shoot six times. The first five bullets slam into Mathias’s energy shield and knock him back a few steps. But the sixth shot hits him in the stomach as the shield fails. You then strike with a blast of lightning that pushes him far down the highway. Your stomach turns when you smell his hair burning.

  Mathias holds his stomach, and you see something you didn’t expect—a glimmer of fear flashes behind green eyes that turn back to blue. Then the glimmer is gone, and the lack of emotion is back.

  Petty intervenes, shooting her own submachine gun at you, getting off a blast that barely misses. A Ni-Perchta warrior grabs her and punches her twice in the stomach, dropping her to her knees. The Ni-Perchta are enraged. They rush over en masse and restrain Petty by slapping and striking her.

  “I didn’t ask for her to interfere! Hold!” Mathias manages to exclaim, putting his hands up as if it is time out in a basketball game. Then he clips a little box onto his shield belt, and you wonder if he is recharging it.

  “Come on!” you say, feeling your blood thumping its way through your head and heart; pure hate fills you. You can taste them. You pull out your revolver, pain rippling down your side from the stiletto still in you, just as Mathias changes into a creature—a sixteen foot white creature with tentacles coming out of its face. He’s become a hellish half-lizard, half-octopus killing machine with webbed feet and a long, almost fish-like tail.

  Some Ni-Perchta scurry away from the horror coming down the highway. Treena screams, startling you badly. She’s been playing dead; she limps quickly away from the scene.

  You fire at the creature but the shots are completely blocked by the new energy shield. Petty is still being restrained; she’s fighting and cursing at the Ni-Perchta, and you aim your baton and drag her out of their arms and towards you. Her petite frame slams into you, and you accidentally touch the bracer she has on.

  You both appear somewhere in Sargasso-3, the empty and dead city. The windy necropolis is lit by multiple moons. Miss Jenny oh so Petty pulls your hair, but you rip out the stiletto from your side with a scream and stab her in the throat. She crumples to the broken asphalt, flips onto her side and disappears in a crackle of static and thunder. A small grenade with the pin still in it falls off her belt before she teleports. You are alone in the wastes, still bleeding.

  A sick display of holograms dance across the buildings. Human and Ni-Perchta gladiators fight in the street with orichalcum powers and swords.

  You sit on a curb, reload your gun and put it away. You snatch up Petty’s grenade with trembling, bloody and sticky fingers.

  The tentacle monster formerly known as Mathias appears a second later, and you pull the pin and chuck the grenade, which blows with such force that you feel a thousand tiny needles and a hot wind slam into you. The blast shreds the tentacles off the creature’s face and blows out his energy shield. He changes back into his human self and ducks into the open lobby of a massive temple guarded by a headless statue that holds a book in one hand and a globe in the other. Within seconds, Mathias comes back out healed and ready, and throws a fireball at you. It explodes only a few feet away and envelops the side of one of the ancient buildings in blue flames. You shoot a bolt of lightning his way, burning a mark in the marble pillar next to him.

  You limp-run away from the scene, shooting back at him. A rumbling sensation blankets you, and something like groans or cries come from the sky. Discordant warning alarms echo throughout the empty streets. The sky light ups, red, then blue, then red again, and then turns a fiery orange.

  “Oh no.” You check your Casio watch, the one Guy gave you. It is dead, completely blank. You look for shelter. Rings of blue and white dance all around the city, some coming out of the sky and some going into the sky, over and over.

  “I don’t mind the storm, Orange! I can leave any time! Can you?” Mathias cries out, his voice barely audible over the sounds of the flash storm. Green lightning shoots in all directions, and the feeling of static electricity is overwhelming. The air pressure thickens all around you.

  You look around, searching for shelter. The sky is now full of clouds that look like dipping funnels, and flashes of white come from all sides. You see what the phrase “flash storm” truly means—white cascades of energy shoot from vortices that appear and disappear all over. Plant life disappears in a second. A tree vanishes when zapped by one of the downward energy blasts, leaving only brown earth behind. Purple rings occasionally shoot out from the sides of the white, downward energy blasts and bounce off the buildings.

  The only shelter anywhere around is the temple and possibly an empty skyscraper’s lobby across from it. You have no choice but to get back to the temple and finish Mathias off. Taking a deep breath and holding your side, you summon all your strength and energy and run back to the square just outside the temple.
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  Mathias comes out next to that headless statue. You pull it down with your ori-baton. The sixty-foot behemoth smashes onto the ground, barely missing Mathias, who runs across the street, just barely avoiding the downward energy blasts. He constantly looks up to the sky, dodging this way and that, trying desperately to survive.

  He shoots back at you again and again, the slide of his pistol blowing back and forth, lead casings shooting out. The rumbling increases, like a thousand voices crying out. You can barely hear the gunshots, but you feel them pass by your head.

  You follow him into the street, hoping desperately not to be vaporized into nothingness. You throw your own ball of lightning at Mathias, something you didn’t even know you could do, and barely miss him. It scorches what is left of the façade of the skyscraper Mathias is heading into. You feel wildly excited for having pulled this off. Your entire body tingles with fire and electricity. You send another lightning ball at Mathias. It misses, but hits a window above him. Glass blows out and rains down as sharp little daggers that pierce his body. As he stumbles backwards, you whip out your pistol and shoot him four times in the chest. He falls onto the lobby floor.

  “God!” he cries. He’s ghostly pale as his blood drains away. He tries to stand, but only manages to prop himself up on one elbow. He spits out blood. When he sees you, he kicks his legs out as if trying to scurry backwards like a crab.

  The storm rages behind you; the energy introduces itself into every corner of the empty lobby. A huge, vault-like door sits in the middle. A nighthawk sign is spray painted on it. A rectangle with a dot in it.

  “Yield!” you say, sick of people dying.

  Mathias makes a throwing gesture and telekinetically, with a scream of metal, rips the vault door off its hinges, then throws the entire door at you. You dive to the ground, but not before part of it tears a chunk out of your back. It crashes out into the street with a clang.