“Then…let’s try to ruin their party, as only we can.”
“I agree.”
They attempted to penetrate the enemy’s layered Darkforce shield spheres containing them, drawing them closer to the enemy base or landing site.
Their initial attacks were merely disrupted or simply absorbed. They swept even faster toward the epicenter of the enemy position. The darkened, semi-opaque shield spheres made it difficult to make out anything within.
Their cloaking fields collapsed, and they became visible to the enemy’s scans, hidden defenses, and myriad minions below as the exposed scouting team passed on overhead.
They drew intense weapons fire, until Jia and Om could get the cloaking back up.
“They can’t see us again,” Jia said, “but they know we’re still contained within their concentric defenses. Let’s bore into that mountain range that is full of heavy metals. We’ll be better off going in after the waves pass. They might think our ship was vaporized, and we’ll still have it hidden as a way out.”
“Great. Let’s do it,” Gaviok said eagerly.
“Either that or the energy waves will kill us all,” Baeven noted.
Naero raised her hand. “Yeah, let’s all vote against that outcome.”
Their plan kind of worked.
They ordered their nearby ship concealed in the mountain range, so that it wasn’t destroyed.
But the energy waves swept the four of them along, even when they tried to use their gravwings. Like a gigantic cyclone, it sucked them in to the center of the Cosmic vortex.
Naero sensed him as they drew closer.
“I’ve got a lock on Danner. I’m going in.”
Baeven shook his head and tried to grab her.
“Don’t just charge ahead alone. That didn’t work before. We need to go in together, smart and united.”
“Trust me. I’ll break Danner free and be the distraction. The rest of you fall upon them with the element of surprise and finish them off, while they’re all focused on me.”
Even Jia yelled at her. “No, Naero, don’t. Wait!”
They were out of time. Naero translocated as close to Danner’s position as possible, sensing high level foes nearby as well.
The larger and more improved, Darkforce energy generators were like Cosmic beacons. The enemy was sucking their hosts dry in order to help them increase and expand their energies, and summon their new invasion force through the enormous wormhole, all at the same time. Perfect coordination.
With all of the energy flows near critical, Naero couldn’t spot or pin-point their locations precisely.
But she did spot Admiral Korleth Tulkas, bloated with Darkforce energy and warped by it, right as he smashed into her.
Korleth laughed as he smacked her around, glancing about and checking the area as he did so.
“Just the Spack runt? Really, a stealth mission? And here we were fully prepared to capture your entire strike force, for use in our generators.”
Naero stopped him in his tracks with a mindforce blast. Then she drove him into the side of the gigantic Dakkur hordeship with a sonic roar.
“Sorry to disappoint you!” she yelled.
Korleth recovered and rose into the air once again. “This is going to be simple. Seize her, my siblings. Keep her alive. Cram her into the new generator specially prepared for her. Activate it immediately, and her power shall become part of our own.”
He grinned, baring all of his great teeth. “We’ll use her to bait the others, and seize them when they come to rescue her.”
Hundreds of G’lothc possessed Dakkur phazed in all around them from being cloaked.
They tried to ensnare her in energy chains and nets of Darkforce power.
They herded her toward an advanced, Darkforce generator capture pod. Just like the one they custom made for Danner and someone else–trapped within another one on the other side of the device yawning open to receive her as its new power source.
Dark energy tentacles ending in weapons writhed toward her and fired.
They would take her in a matter of seconds.
She had no choice.
Naero filled the air around them all with orbs and bubbles stuffed with startapped Cosmic energy. Until they covered and obscured everything within view.
Then she detonated them all in one massive air burst, transporting away at the last instant
She had hoped to use such a gigablast to tear Danner free.
Now she was forced to use up her best new trick in a last ditch attempt to save herself, before they overwhelmed her.
And…at the very beginning of their all-out battle.
Her explosion obliterated the inert device meant for her, and severely damaged the ones containing Dan and the other mystery host.
The blast waves flung her back, and scattered her foes far and wide, or crushed and splattered them against the hull of the Dakkur hordeship, that nearly flipped over, and now lay on its side with its keel exposed.
Naero could barely get back up to her feet. She activated her gravwing. She raced in and used her swords to hack the mystery host free from its ruined generator.
It had a glowing blue energy form–exactly like Shalaen.
Holy Ka-Rap! It was a Yattai!
This Yattai looked to be in very bad shape, close to death, even. She pulled him or it free and carried him away, her own reserves fading fast.
Her brief, massive assault left her almost completely drained.
Admiral Korleth and his surviving minions recovered and closed in on her again. Until she regenerated, Naero had no way to fight them off. She struggled to keep going, just to not black out.
The Yattai placed his hands on her, filling her with Cosmic Power.
Thank you…she heard him say within her mind.
Then he vanished, most likely back into his own dimension
Wait until she told Shalaen she met another Yattai–and even rescued him. It. Whatever. She’d tell Shalaen just that–if she lived long enough to have the chance.
The enemy fiends began to shift form, merge, combine, twist together, and tried to fall upon her.
Naero whirled and kicked and fought, wreathed in blue-violet lightning. The daughter of the Invincible Cyclone, unleashed within a sea of lethal foes.
They fell upon her in waves, again and again.
Om poured out a fury of last ditch KDM defensive measures that slammed into the foe, driving them back.
Om’s final energy pulse negated and disrupted all Cosmic energy in a short radius–including the Darkforce. Korleth’s possessed minions dropped out of the air and in their tracks like dying birds, convulsing as if stunned, sapped of all their might.
That’s all I have, Naero. That last wave of mine couldn’t hurt us, because we were already on empty. Now we’re both completely drained.
Yet somehow, the enemy admiral was the only one who could pop back up, ready to fight.
Even the damaged megagenerator containing Danner twitched, sparked, and withdrew, limping back through a hatch and into the Dakkur hordeship, dragging with it the pieces of the empty machines Naero had shattered and destroyed.
Korleth stalked toward her.
Naero backed away like a breathless crab, scrabbling to get away.
The other possessed Dakkur continued to shake themselves and attempted come around and rise back up.
Korleth hissed. “My master said that you could be troublesome, Spack runt. Inconvenient indeed, but the megagenerators can be recharged and re-constructed. You’ve only succeeded in delaying our plans–not stopping them–and now, we still have you. No force or power remains that can save you. You friends are already retreating; they are not going to come to your rescue this time. Surrender.”
“Never!” Naero screamed.
The Flying Dagger uncloaked and roared in.
Her flagship rammed into Admiral Korleth and his goons, crushing and scattering them.
The rear loading bay snapped open.
/> Zhen and Tyber stood there with Naero’s crew, bristling with autoguns and heavy weapons–ready to repel all comers.
Naero desperately crawled toward them, screaming. “Get the hell out of here. It’s all a trap!”
“Not without you!” Tyber yelled. Zhen and Ty zipped out with their gravwings to rescue her.
They floated back with her toward the cargo bay “Baeven and the others were cut off,” Zhen said. “Now they’re retreating, blasting a way out of the enemy shield spheres with Alala’s help. They sent us in to get you. We’ll only have seconds to shoot through before those barriers close up on us again.”
“You guys have to get out of here!”
“Shut up,” Ty said. “We’re getting you out, or nothing.”
Her crew unleashed hell from the starship and their packed weapons in the bay. The intense volley of fire drove the enemy hordes back again.
“Time to go!” Tyber yelled “Nothing will hold these things back for long. Grab her, Z!” He fired right into the swarming hordes.
“I can’t even walk,” Naero moaned.
Zhen scooped her back up. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you, N.”
She shot up toward the loading bay, blasting foes licking at their heels.
Zhen flung Naero over her shoulder with surprising strength.
Naero drew her blaster pistol and tried to help cover their retreat.
“Stop squirming!” Zhen screamed. “Let me rescue your dumb ass!”
“Get ready to punch it, Enel,” Ty shouted. “We’ve got them both!”
“This is gonna be close,” Tarim said, pouring fire into the foe.
Zhen flew into the loading bay, dumping Naero into the arms of the waiting crew.
Then she screamed.
Korleth shot into the loading bay from below, stunning and flinging the others back with the force of his massive, dense body.
His razor-sharp tail impaled Zhen wide-eyed and gaping on its glowing length.
“Aww…too bad,” Korleth rasped. “So very close.”
“No!” Naero screamed.
She tapped without thinking and ripped herself open, trying to unleash her Dark Beast and keep control of it.
Moving faster than thought, she severed the long tail with her blades.
Concussive beams from all three of her eyes punctured Korleth. A mindblast crushed and deformed one side of his hyperdense skull. Her sonic scream slammed into the huge Dakkur. The force punched Korleth out of the open loading bay as the dock as the doors closed and the starship swept away.
Paralyzed and grief-stricken, even Naero’s Dark Beast failed and shrank back in weakness, brought on by her intense, overwhelming grief.
Naero fought off blacking out, Cosmic glowing ichor and blood streaming from her orifices.
She somehow crawled over to Zhen and placed her hands on her dying friend.
No power in the known universe could heal such a horrible, mortal wound.
“No, no,” she muttered over and over again, sobbing. “I’ve got you, Z. I’ll save you. I’ll make it right somehow.”
Zhen stared up at her, her eyes starting to glaze over. With the last of her strength, she reached into a pouch and pulled out a small metal cryo case, pressing it into Naero’s hand.
“My babies…N. Ty…protect–”
Zhen was gone.
Naero pulled Zhen’s body off the gigantic Dakkur tail blade.
A torrent of blood rushed out everywhere. Zhen’s small torso was nothing but a gaping hole.
Naero still struggled with biomancy to heal such an impossible wound, even though doing so remained utterly hopeless. Not even Shalaen could do so.
Naero still struggled and fought against the undeniable with her weak, feeble efforts, drenched with her abani’s gore. Her hands and forearms were stained dark red.
Zhen’s long, light brown hair lay spread out, soaked in her own blood.
Naero nearly went mad herself, sobbing and babbling.
“No, stay with me, Zhen! I’ve got you. You’re not going anywhere, you quack. I swear to you. I’ll find some way to make this right!”
The others of her crew began to come around and pick themselves up.
When Ty saw what had happened, he really did go insane.
It took six crew to hold him down.
Finally, Naero curled up together with him around Zhen’s slender, still form, until the two of them wept and passed out.
47
Naero remained in the medical bay.
She stayed with Ty as he mourned over Zhen’s lifeless body.
Ty wept for the longest time.
Naero wept with him.
Ty took his beloved in his arms time and time again, and sobbed and convulsed with gut-ripping sorrow.
And like him, Naero felt she might go mad with grief. So helpless.
Losing her parents had been horrible beyond belief. At times, when she thought about it all too much–it still was. All the loss everyone suffered during the Annexation War, and ever since.
And yet somehow, all of that and–even losing Gallan–had not been this bad. And Naero did not know why.
She and Z had been like sisters, but they were completely different people.
Perhaps she felt responsible for Zhen’s death.
For being too weak to protect her.
Maybe it was just the last straw.
Perhaps seeing the horrific effects on Ty made things even worse.
Then Naero spotted it clearly. A small bright point of light.
She knew what it was: Zhen’s soul–her essence–dispersed from her ruined body and about to escape.
Forever.
She was the only one who could see it. Ty had passed out again.
Naero lunged and reached out. She barely caught it, cupping the glowing soul orb in her hands. Then she sealed it within a small globe of pure Harmony.
Just as she had done with Jia’s essence, Naero kissed the soul orb and breathed it deep within herself, in order to keep it safe.
Oh, Z. My sister…I have you.
She even heard Zhen’s voice deep inside her, calling out in fear and confusion. “Where am I? What is this place?”
With her force of will, Naero put Zhen’s soul into a deep sleep, to comfort and protect her, in the safest place she could find. It was very similar to controlling one of her replicants.
Naero kept her vigil of mourning with Ty, unsure of what to do next. She was always stumbling into unknown territory. She needed time to think.
Baeven and Jia. Everyone from the rest of the crew–even Gaviok, filed in to pay their condolences as the hours passed, and tried to comfort them both.
“We need to speak to you, Naero,” Baeven said. “We sent out a distress call. All of your–former allies are coming to help. But they won’t be here for days. The enemy hasn’t fled. We hurt them, but we haven’t beaten them. They’ve regrouped and entrenched their position. Their energy fortress seems impregnable for the time being. It’s like they’re waiting for something else to happen.”
Something tried to click in Naero’s mind, but she could not tell what it was. Her thoughts were still too broken and distracted.
Baeven went on. “We’re researching another way to negate the enemy’s defenses and get at them to shut down the rest of those Darkforce generators. Come to us when you’re ready, Naero. We need you.”
Danner. Her family, and the rest of her friends, would have to deal with Danner. And Admiral Korleth–with or without his deadly tail.
And anything else their vile enemies threw at them.
Naero’s eyes felt as if they were on fire again.
More of the people she cared about could die–very quickly and easily–if she did not rise up, and fight the enemy again, with all her heart and soul.
It was at that moment that Naero suddenly realized how sick of fighting she truly was.
What were their foes waiting for?
Baeven was right. It didn’t make
any sense. Naero knew that she should somehow know the answer, but everything in her head was clouded, both by grief, and a growing desire–for vengeance.
She struggled to come out of her fog and think rationally. Her people needed her at her best.
Naero stepped out of the medical bay and called to Baeven. “I’ll be there. Count me in. How soon do we move?”
Baeven looked back and smiled. “Week to ten days. Plenty of time to plan and prepare. We’ll time our assault to begin as soon as help arrives and starts to pour in. That way, we can do what we need to do, and bug out when we have to, to make good our escape. We can crack their defenses without being destroyed. And by then, we’ll have plenty of help, despite all of the enemy’s current forces.”
Jia tried to find something positive. “At least we shut that big wormhole down when we disrupted the generators on the planet surface. The enemy can’t bring any more of their fleets through.”
“For now,” Naero said. “Admiral Korleth let slip that their generators could repair themselves, given time. We already knew they could regenerate. Then they’ll open the wormhole again, and their invasion hordes will continue to pour through.”
“You said we took out the megagenerator they had a Yattai in,” Jia said. “We’ve relayed that knowledge to Shalaen. Maybe we can take the other generators down before they can find any more hosts.”
“Maybe this, maybe that,” Baeven said. “That’s too many maybe’s.”
Ty snarled suddenly from back inside Medical. “My Tisa’s still dead, and she’s not coming back!”
Nobody knew what to say when he lashed out like that.
Ty was still like a madman. So they just let him work through his sorrow and loss.
“Jia,” Naero whispered. “Please, stay behind with me after the others go. I…I need to speak with you, about a matter of great importance. Privately.”
Jia looked at her curiously, but did so.
They went off into a corner of the hallway and spoke together quietly.
“I have Zhen’s soul, Jia.”
“What?”
“I was barely able to capture it as it fled her body. But I have it. It sleeps inside of me, but I can feel it. It’s her. I…just don’t know what to do with it, now.”
“Naero. There’s nothing you can do. You must release her and let her go on. To take the next journey, as Spacers say.”
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 47
