by A A Warren
“The only peace Daizon can bring is the cold emptiness of death.”
Talon stepped forward, and lowered his axe. “Enough debate. I am told I must play a part in this, that I was destined to come to this place. So here I am. Will you help us or not?”
The woman turned her cold, probing gaze to Talon. Her gleaming eye pulsed brighter. She gave him a slight bow, then straightened. “The Claw of R’Kur shall be granted entry. You may wield the shard as you see fit. You have trained your entire life for this. You have all the knowledge you require.” She spread her arms. “Step forward, into the light.”
Talon took a step towards the shimmering white column. He felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking back, he saw Avra, her emerald eyes wide with concern.
“Talon, wait… are you sure?”
“I don’t like this,” Zobo snarled. “I don’t trust people I can’t smell.”
Before Talon could speak, Salena gently removed Avra’s hand from his shoulder. She held it in her own, and the two women locked eyes.
“Prophecy or not, you don’t know what will happen to him in there,” Avra snapped.
“We must let him go,” Salena whispered. “Don’t you see? Talon is No’varran.” She gestured to the statues surrounding them. “These are his people, his past. This is his destiny.”
“No,” Talon said, his voice cold and hard as a steel blade. The two women turned to face him. He glared at them for a moment, then fixed his dark gaze on the glowing figure of Ikari. “This is my choice.”
He slid his axe into his harness, and stepped into the column of light. He felt a tingling shock move across his skin as he brushed past the shimmering white curtain. Inside, he stood before Ikari. Her body was a ghostly blur, and it was difficult to focus on her for any length of time.
“Come forward,” she said. “Receive the blessing of R’Kur.”
Talon stepped closer to the ghostly woman. She reached out, and placed her fingers on his temples. Their crimson eyes pulsed as one.
“Your name…” she said. “Speak your name.”
“I am Talon. In the arenas of the Outer Reaches, they call me The Slayer.”
The woman stared at him. Her piercing eyes were like twin blades, digging deep into his skull.
“No… tell me your true name. Your No’varran name.”
“That is only name I have. I know of no other.”
The woman frowned. “Empty… the training, the knowledge… I see nothing. What has happened to you?”
“This is how I was found,” Talon replied. “I have no memories, no past. I’ve had to make my way on my own. Same as any man.”
Ikari’s face flickered into a disrupted haze, then snapped back, more clear and bright than before. Her eye glowed brighter, and the fierce crimson light spread to the column around them.
“An empty vessel may hold poison as easily as wine.” Her arms dropped to her sides, and she stepped away.
The column of light blazed even brighter. Salena and the others stepped back from the blinding glow. Then, with a crackling hiss, the light shot back up into the floating pyramid. The room darkened, and the walls fell away into shadow.
“You are tainted,” Ikari’s voice boomed around them. “All of you, tainted.”
Talon glanced left and right. There was no sign of the ghostly woman. Then her voice echoed once more.
“You must be purged.”
A grinding sound filled the air. Rivulets of rock and dust streamed from the darkness beyond the archways that led out of the temple. Zobo’s whiskers twitched. He held up his pistol, and started towards one of the corridors.
“I’d say that’s our cue to leave,” he growled.
“Wait!” Talon shouted. He powered up his axe, and the blazing orange light lit up the outer edges of the chamber. A quick, jerky movement caught his eye. Then another…
“Orion’s blazing bow,” Talon gasped.
The statues surrounding them had begun to move, pulling themselves free from the walls. The chamber shook, as one lurched forward. Avra drew one of her knives and flicked it open.
Before she could throw it, Zobo leapt in front of her and fired his pistol. The bolt struck the statue, knocking chips of stone from its torso. It fell to its knees and glanced up at them, its crimson eye glowing with a baleful inner fire. Then it slowly lifted itself to its feet, and raised its stone sword over its head.
The chamber continued to shake and vibrate, as the other stone monoliths separated themselves from the walls.
The statues were all moving, advancing towards them with heavy, thundering steps…
Chapter Twenty-Four
Talon charged forward, grabbing Avra and yanking her back as the statue’s granite blade descended through the air. The stone sword struck the chamber floor inches from Talon’s feet, and the walls rattled from the impact of the thunderous blow.
Zobo fired again, blasting chunks of stone from the living monolith’s head. Talon heard the electric whir of servo motors, as the creature focused its glowing eye towards the alien. As it turned its head, Talon spotted a metal skeleton and dura-plas armor beneath the crumbling layer of stone.
Bellowing an angry war cry, Talon swung his axe, burying the glowing orange blade in the statue’s skull. The blow sent more shards of rock flying though the air. Sparks flew from the mech’s glowing eye, and the statue stumbled forward. A thundering crash echoed though the room, as its weight struck the ground. A spiderweb of cracks rippled through the smooth stone floor.
“Mechs,” Talon shouted. “These things are mechs, hidden under rock and stone!”
Salena’s eyes blazed as she flung bolts of energy from her fingers. One of her crackling missiles struck another statue in the chest, and arched across its body. The surge of energy overloaded the circuits inside the mech. It froze in place, and struggled to raise its weapon.
A pair of Avra’s knives whirled through the air, striking it in the neck. Talon ducked, as the twin weapons exploded, sending a spray of dust and chips through the air. Dipping low, he swung his axe, lopping off the decapitated statue’s foot. It too fell, striking the ground with an echoing boom. More cracks radiated across the floor.
The chamber shook again. Talon glanced up the nearest corridor… He saw movement. More shadowy forms stalked towards them with slow, ponderous steps.
Zobo fired a pulse from his weapon as another statue lumbered closer. His bolts struck the mech’s head, knocking it back a few steps, and revealing its glowering eye. The creature straightened its neck, then swung its sword at the wolf-like alien.
Zobo rolled to the side, and the blow missed by inches. The sword dug into the crumbling stone floor. More steps thudded behind him. He narrowed his yellow eyes and spun around, snarling as he raised his weapon at the new attacker. Stomping down on the buried blade, he fired a pulse bolt at his second attacker. The barrage of energy bolts knocked the new mech back into a group of two more… the trio of lurching statues collapsed to the floor in a crumbling pile.
Spinning around, Zobo pointed his pistol down and fired again, blasting his opponent’s trapped sword into fragments of rock and steel. Then he raised the gun, and aimed at the creature’s glowing red eye.
Another bolt streaked from the smoking pistol’s barrel. The statue’s head exploded in a wild shower of sparks. It fell backwards, and crashed into the floor.
“If we don’t get out of here soon, they’ll overwhelm us!” Zobo growled, as he spun around to face more attackers.
Talon heaved his axe up, blocking one of the statue’s powerful swings. Stone broke away from its descending sword, revealing the metal blade beneath. The muscles in Talon’s back and shoulders bulged, and the magnetic field of his axe wailed as it pushed against the enemy’s blade.
“The Western corridor is still clear!” Talon roared.
He grit his teeth, and fell to his knees as the mech’s powerful servos drove its sword down with inhuman strength. The fiery blade of his axe sank lower and lo
wer. Its blazing glow reflected in his crimson eye, and he felt the plasma’s raging heat stinging against his cheek.
Suddenly, a blast of blue energy surged through the mech. Rock and stone flew away, revealing the metal skeleton beneath. Its motors jerked and seized, as its spasming body flew up into the air. The shriek of tearing metal echoed above. Talon looked up… the thrashing mech was impaled on the tip of the pyramid hovering above them. Sparks and torn bits of metal rained down from its gyrating corpse.
Salena stood before him, smiling. “I pay my debts as well, warrior!”
Talon glared at her, then shook his head.
He turned to the others. Avra had leapt onto the back of a statue, and impaled its head with two more of her blades. Zobo sent a barrage into the bucking mech’s chest, then spun around and fired at another mech as it advanced.
Talon raised his arm and gestured to one of the sloping corridors.
“Everyone, follow me!”
He hefted his axe, and raced up the corridor. The walls of the western passage were smooth, and devoid of statues. As Avra and Zobo fell in behind them, Salena stopped and whirled around. She waved her hand through the air, sending spirals of mystic symbols whirling around her fingers. A shimmering curtain of blue energy blocked the passage behind them. The mechs inside the chamber pounded on the glowing barrier. It buzzed and flickered, but it held fast against their assault.
Talon panted for breath, his muscular legs driving him up the steep passageway. The tiny square of light that was the exit grew larger as they ascended through the structure. As he drew closer he saw green… the lush jungle surrounding the temple came into view.
“Keep going,” he shouted back. “We’re almost there!”
He looked back to the exit… then skidded to a stop and froze. Something in the air ahead seemed to shimmer and ripple. A pinpoint of crimson light hovered in the center of the distant doorway. It rapidly grew, swelling into a crackling sphere of energy, large enough to block the corridor’s exit. Bolts of energy discharged from the glowing sphere, striking the walls surrounding it. With a quiet hum, the sphere floated towards them as it ballooned larger and larger.
“What the hell is that?” Avra shouted.
Talon spun around. “Back to the chamber! Hurry!” He shoved past them in the passageway, and swung his axe. The sphere hummed behind them, driving them towards the energy barrier Salena had erected.”
“Salena, drop the shield!” Talon shouted as he surged forwards.
With a wave of her hands, and a half spoken phrase he could not make out, the shield wall dissipated. The living statues on the other side lurched off balance, as they rushed towards Talon and the others.
Crouching low, Talon swung his axe left and right, severing the legs from under the clumsy monoliths. The others followed close behind him, finishing the twitching stone figures with blasts from their pulse weapons.
Glancing at the opposite corridor, Talon saw another group of the statues marching down towards them. A glowing red sphere, identical to the one they had just fled, advanced behind them. It overtook the slow, ponderous mechs. Its crackling bolts of energy struck the statues, reducing them to ash and dust that scattered into the air.
“There’s another one of those damned spheres in the eastern corridor!” he shouted, glancing over his shoulder at Zobo.
“Same to the north,” the wolfish alien called back. He sent a barrage of weapon fire down the corridor, reducing another statue to molten slag. But his shots had no effect on the glowing sphere. It moved closer and closer, and soon a hellish crimson glow filled the chamber.
Avra hurled the last of her blades, and drew a pistol from her belt. “There’s one in every corridor… they're blocking all the exits!”
The four huddled back-to-back in the chamber's center, as the glowing spheres decimated the last of the statues. They filled the archways around the chamber, trapping them inside. The alien humming grew louder, and the air seemed to vibrate around them. Strands of their hair began to lift and sway in the charged atmosphere.
Salena chanted more of her strange, whispered words of power. Bolts of dark energy flew from her hands, and shot towards one of the archways. They struck the sphere, and the surface of the glowing ball seemed to ripple and part. It absorbed the energy within its crimson walls, and continued advancing towards them.
She glanced up at Talon, her eyes wide with concern. “No effect. What do we do?”
The spheres hovered closer, bulging through the narrow archways. Their creeping energy bolts struck the floor a few feet away from where the group stood, sending a hail of stone shrapnel flying towards them. Salena cried out as a jagged fragment slashed her shoulder. Talon pulled her behind him, cursing as stone chips cut across his cheek.
“We’re trapped,” Avra shouted. Talon’s eyes met hers, and he saw she was not panicking, but stating a simple fact. She shrugged. “There’s nowhere left to run.”
The four spheres hummed closer, filling the chamber. Talon glanced down at the floor. In the shadowy red glare of the spheres, he could just make out the web of cracks, running beneath their feet.
“There’s still one way,” he grunted. “Everyone, brace yourselves!”
He raised his axe overhead. With a savage cry, he swung the blazing weapon down with all his strength, burying the plasma blade deep into the floor.
A rumbling percussion of cracking rocks drowned out the hum of the spheres. The ground shook beneath their feet. With a sudden crash, the floor gave way, crumbling apart into tumbling fragments of stone. Talon and the others plunged down into the hidden abyss below.
The fall was brief. He gasped in pain as he struck a pile of broken stone and rocks. Rolling to the ground, his chest heaved for breath. Choking in the haze and dust that filled the air, he looked up, and saw the four glowing spheres hovering above. They were only inches apart now, moving closer and closer together.
A spark drifted between the glowing walls of energy… the spheres met, and touched.
A blinding flash of light filled the air. Talon shielded his eyes, as an explosion rippled above them, sending a wave of intense heat blasting towards them. He spun around, shielding Salena with his body. The energy pulse scorched his skin and singed his hair.
Then the heat and fury faded. The roar echoed into oblivion, and the only sound remaining was the quiet trickle of dust and rocks from above.
He heard a groan of pain. Looking over, he saw Avra, lifting herself from the debris. Zobo sat in a pile of rocks next to her, clutching his right leg. The limb was twisted at a strange angle, and blood stained the fabric of his trousers.
Salena stirred beneath him. Her blue eyes opened wide, and stared up at him. “Oh my. Are we…”
“We’re not dead. Not yet,” Talon said with a sheepish grin. He stood up, brushing dust and rocks off his skin. He knelt beside Zobo and Avra. The fiery haired woman helped him shift his leg straight, and he howled in pain.
“You alright, old man?”
Zobo panted for breath, and snarled. “Could be worse. And who are you calling ‘old man’, Fledge?”
Avra glanced around the new chamber. “His leg’s broken. We need to make a splint. Do you see—”
A sound echoed from above, cutting off her words.
It grew louder, closer… Footsteps, marching towards them.
Many footsteps.
“Now what?” she muttered.
Looking up, Talon saw shadows moving across the curved walls of the chamber above. Judging by the number, it looked like a small army was advancing down the corridors.
A figure approached the lip of the crumbled floor, and peered down at them. The man was tall, and cloaked in black and red robes. In the dim light, Talon could make out the shimmering highlights of a snarling golden mask covering its face.
A naval officer in a crimson uniform stood at attention by his side. A platoon of Dominion centurions marched into the chamber. The armored soldiers aimed their pulse rifles down
into the pit.
Salena staggered to her feet, grabbing Talon’s arm for support. She glanced up. “Sartarus,” she hissed. “He’s found us.”
The man in the golden mask threw back his head, and laughed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Talon moved without thought, acting on instincts honed by countless victories in the arena. His enemy stood before him… Sartarus. And so he attacked.
With a single fluid motion, he raised his arm, and hurled his blazing axe at the man in the golden mask. Even as he heaved the weapon through the air, from the corner of his eye he saw Avra drawing her pistol. She raised the weapon in a double-handed grip, and unleashed a barrage of energy bolts toward the men gathered on the edge of the pit.
Sartarus stepped to his left, and raised his arm. He effortlessly caught the spinning plasma axe by the hilt, as the fiery blade passed within inches of his officer’s terrified face. The bolts from Avra’s pistol seemed to impact against thin air, sending crackling blue ripples through an invisible wall of energy. Sartarus ignored the glowing flashes, and examined Talon’s weapon with a cursory glance.
“I suppose I should be impressed,” he muttered, his voice distorted by the speakers in his mask. “After all, I purchased your contract from that lecherous fool, Omdura. You are my property now.”
“You think you own me?” Talon snarled. “Come down here and try to claim your property. We’ll see who owns who.”
Sartarus powered down the axe, and tossed the hilt through the air. Talon caught the useless weapon, and slid it into his harness.
The robed man laughed once again. “You think you can kill me? With an axe? We’re not in an arena, gladiator.” He cocked his head to face Salena. The beautiful alien woman stood silent, and ramrod straight, as if in a trance. Sartarus stared at her for a moment, then sighed. “Ah, Salena. Lovely as always. I must admit, it is good to see you again after all these years.”
“I wish I could say the same, Lyko,” Salena replied, her voice quavering. “I wish things were different between us. I wish many things could be different.”
