Destiny Abounds (Starlight Saga Book 1)

by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane

  Step by step in an unbelievably rapid sequence, she watched Mr. Leonard’s influence spread through the system like a virus, deactivating or turning aside device after device, before finally rippling like an electronic wave and spreading further than her scan range could reveal. Thoroughly impressed, Merlo paused a moment to whistle lowly under her breath, then took another deep, settling breath and looked to her Captain. “We’re clean. I mean, the security systems are down, Captain.”

  Branwen nodded once, sharply, and checked her sword in its sheath as she replied. “Then it is time to go.”

  One by one, they streaked across the brief opening and took turns boosting one another up over a corner of the wall obfuscated by a layer of shadow. Except for Prisoner 286, who simply leapt to the top and then dropped onto the other side before the rest of them could manage themselves over. Once on the opposite side, Merlo crouched low and paused, scanning her surroundings. Beside her, she noted Branwen doing the same as Zimi dropped down behind them, sliding off the top of the wall and touching down surprisingly lithely and with hardly a whisper of noise.

  They were in front and off to the far side of a large manor house. Not nearly as large as Don Mateo’s had been, but still far more extravagant of a building than Merlo could see any reason for. The style differed greatly, of course; this structure was taller and made from the same stone as everything else in Kharvid, though here, the stone was decorated with figures and art, carved into the blank canvas of its rocky sides and corners. Odd, deformed little monster-men with wings leered down at her from the shadow of arches and rooftops, countered by elegant carvings of women or vine-like patterns adorning the flat expanses between windows, of which there were many.

  The manor home didn’t quite reach up to the top of its sloping cavern roof, leaving a ten meter gap at its closest. The roof of the building was steepled, with multiple points reaching up in a seeming carved mimicry of stalagmites, making the space between Stone’s roof and the cavern ceiling resemble a massive, rocky maw riddled with creepy fangs. On a more pertinent note, Merlo noticed that a footpath ran around to the right of the building, skirting the manor and disappearing behind it, where the house didn’t meet the cavern’s back wall on that side. From a distance, one might not have noticed it, but up close one could tell there was actually a small yard tucked neatly behind the house.

  She raised an arm, pointing it out to Branwen, who nodded. The Captain’s eyes were fixed on distant, passing guards, only easily visible to Merlo because of Mr. Leonard highlighting their silhouettes on her HUD, a helpful act that brought an appreciative smile to her face. The Captain could see them just fine with her better-than-normal visual range, she supposed.

  They waited for a break in the guard patrols, watching as hired men spread out to investigate the malfunctioning equipment. As soon as they spotted a wide-enough gap in the guards’ movements, they darted across to the side of Stone’s manor. Crouching there in the long shadows cast by the embellished carvings around them, Merlo looked to Branwen; they didn’t have long to observe and craft a plan of entry. The Captain’s eyes, however, were focused forward, on the even taller wall now revealed at the back of the compound.

  Merlo followed Branwen’s gaze to the back of the cavern where it looked like the back side of the stone formation disappeared into darkness. The layout of the terrain implied that there was a further area concealed by a four meter wall that mostly blended with the grotto’s rock all around it and by the positioning of Stone’s home.

  “Seems much effort to undertake, unless one has something to hide,” Branwen commented quietly. “I would know what Jori Stone keeps in such a place.”

  Merlo looked from the Captain to Prisoner 286, who was staring at her and grinning. She caught the Captain’s attention again. “Do you want us to split off and check it out?” Branwen looked heavily doubtful. “It would be much quicker that way, Captain. And if we happen to get spotted, we could draw some attention our way before we pull out. Either way, you get a good chance to look around.”

  Branwen still looked hesitant, already shaking her head. “We do not know what is back there, or even what awaits in the manor…”

  “Hey, no worries. She’s with me.” 286 stood up straight. “Nothing here’s a threat to me.” She broke stealth casually and started off toward the back wall, sauntering with her hands in her pockets. “Coming, Merlo?” She called offhandedly over her shoulder.

  Merlo sucked in a breath, as she heard Branwen curse quietly. “Blood and fire. Merlo, go.” Merlo nodded to the Captain’s instructions, a grin of anticipation of her own starting to grow. The pilot eagerly turned to leave, but paused abruptly as the Captain caught her elbow firmly. “Careful. If you receive no quarter, give none in return. I will be back for you.”

  Merlo nodded again, and didn’t disregard the sincere warning conveyed by Branwen’s eyes, but she did put it aside for the moment as she charged across the compound’s imported lawn toward 286, keeping low and limbering up her compact muscles as she went. The woman stood near the tall stone screen, grinning broadly and tapping her foot in an impatient show. With the barrier as high as it was, she expected the Prisoner to give her a boost up and over it, but instead, the woman just turned, and with a smirk and surge of distorted light shot up and then over the wall.

  Heh. Fine then Six, you’re on. Merlo grinned and surged toward the wall and shoved mightily off from the ground, a jump propelled by her dense Arlesian muscles and the minor enhancements of her nanosuit. Urzran gravity wasn’t too much compared to what she’d been raised in, and she hit the wall halfway up, catching just long enough to grab and propel herself upward again. Slapping her grip firmly onto the top edge of the wall, she used the last of her momentum to flip her body’s weight forward, arching her back and flipping acrobatically over the wall entirely. She dropped the four meters to the ground on the other side and landed, kneeling, without complaint as she let her body and the suit absorb all the impact.

  See? I can manage just fine on my… As she rose, Merlo examined her surroundings. 286 stood near her, rimmed in a nimbus of beyond-black, distorted light. The Prisoner stood tall, facing off with the half dozen armed and armored security, who seemed just as surprised as Merlo felt to suddenly have intruders drop into their midst.

  “Well, shit.” It seemed like she and especially 286 had gotten what they wanted. Merlo let her muscles relax as she prepared for the fight.

  16.3 - Branwen

  As soon as Merlo took off, so did Branwen. “This way.” Zimi followed her, a much quieter shadow, and Branwen edged quickly around the building, keeping low and in the dark. She stopped under the first lower window she came across. She looked back at her medic and occasional infiltrator. “Get us in?”

  Instead of moving immediately, Zimi pursed her lips and looked the prospective entry point over for a moment. “Not this one, Cap’n. Try the next one down, ‘kay?” Branwen nodded. She hadn’t brought along someone more experienced just to waste time arguing against her expertise. They edged further down to the next low, elaborate window, and Zimi moved around her to work at it.

  After only a handful of seconds of working her arcane methods on it, Zimi slipped a couple of slender metallic tools away and pushed the thick, heavy glasteel open with a grunt of effort. “You comin’, Cap’n?” She smiled through obvious nervousness back at Branwen, slipping lithely up into the house and offering a hand down.

  The inside of the manor was paneled all in rich, dark, obviously imported woods, and they found themselves in a dimly lit hallway flanked by multiple doors, along with carved statuettes on pillars and fine art oil paintings. They weren’t inside more than a meager few moments before Branwen heard the first footsteps pounding on the wood as they headed their way. Zimi flattened back against a wall reflexively, but Branwen was far too bulky to accomplish the same thing, unless the Fade was kind and whoever was coming happened to be blind.

  Instead, the Captain tried the first door handle she
could reach, and to her relief, it popped open. She slipped inside, but had to close quickly it due to the rapidly nearing footfalls echoing down the hallway. Her last glance out of the cracked door showed that her young crewwoman seemed to have vanished, though. She waited with her hand on the handle, and the other hand on the hilt of her Skyblade, but the footsteps passed and then receded without any outcry from noticing an intruder in the hallway. She would have breathed a hearty sigh of relief, but she’d been all too easily able to hear the person speaking to someone on the com system about “intruders in the rear compound.”

  Cursing again and worrying after Merlo, she pushed the door open, and after a second, Zimi stepped out from the shadows beside her. She even had her datapad out. “Mr. Leonard says he’s got the system good, or at least most of it. Says the office we’re lookin’ for’s prolly on the third floor, an’ in the back.” Zimi whispered.

  Branwen nodded in return. That fit with the floor plans she’d looked over and memorized a few hours ago. Just as she started to turn and head that way, however, a deep boom of sound rumbled its way through the house from the back, reverberating through the walls and foundation and settling into Branwen’s stomach. She glanced back that way, her worry an internal mirror of Zimi’s, but Merlo would have to fend for herself for a little while longer. She turned resolutely and headed deeper and higher into the manor in search of clues.

  16.4 - Merlo

  The first guards came at them in pairs and trios, brandishing riot shields, in the sleek black of moderate to heavy body armor, with what passed in this cluster for military grade energy shielding. But with casual gestures and rippling shockwaves of force, 286 swept most of them aside. In the rare case that one managed to keep their footing, she suspended them helplessly in the air, then threw them violently against the wall while they futilely struggled. Bullets from shotguns and pistols, silly primitive projectile weapons that they were, hit 286’s Kinetic barrier, but she didn’t let anyone get close enough for those weapons to pack enough punch to be a threat. Instead, bullets and tight packed shot deflected harmlessly aside, or even stopped completely, suspended in the air for an instant, then fell impotently to the ground as they were suddenly robbed of their force and potential.

  Merlo was impressed, but she was a bit too busy to spend much time admiring her girlfriend’s skills. These mercs weren’t nearly as well trained as an Arlesian soldier, much less a Starlance Lancer, but they were still skilled enough to be a threat. Fortunately, Prisoner 286 was far too powerful of a threat herself for them to focus on Merlo and close in on her in the numbers required to give her trouble. Man, she felt jealous of those Kinetics, watching the woman just stand there and dish out punishment, not even bothering to try and utilize cover or evade attacks.

  She smacked shoulder first into a clear riot shield, pushing a surprised Urzran back a step before grabbing the edges of the shield and flipping over it, putting her full, substantial weight and strength into a falling axe kick. The heel of her suit hardened on impact, distributing and denying much of the force, and she was in too close for the enemy’s shielding to do anything protective. The terrific impact, executed perfectly, split the hardened shell of the Urzran merc’s helmet in two, leaving the woman staggering and stunned.

  As her opponent dropped her shield and tried to steady herself, Merlo willed the port in the palm of her hand open, the pad underneath already shimmering with electric blue, high voltage static. She stuffed that charged palm directly into the woman’s rugged face, the impact of the open-palm blow enough by itself to break her jaw. When the electrical arc also discharged into her, she spasmed and went down, not dead but unlikely to rise again anytime soon.

  The next attacker came in quickly for such a broad figure, swinging an electrified weapon of his own in both hands, making a wide arc with the intention to impact Merlo’s upper body. He didn’t have a shield for protection, though, and he was far too slow by Merlo’s standards. She grabbed his arms as he swung and turned his momentum against him, smashing a forceful knee into his side as she moved, and cracking the reinforced plating there, the force driving the fragmented pieces of it into his ribs. He whooshed out a heavy breath and tried to bring the hammer-like object to bear again, but Merlo shifted her grip to his shoulder plates and flipped over him, spinning her weight as she did so and slinging him down and across the ground in a rolling impact that dazed him and lost him his weapon.

  Merlo looked over at Prisoner 286, who happened to check on how she was doing at about the same time. They shared a grin across the battlefield, though 286’s was more like a fracture crawling up the side of her face that let the crazy show through. It wasn’t so different from the expression Merlo felt on her own face, though. They weren’t so different after all, and she was really enjoying the thrill of letting loose after what felt like forever. She was finally putting her skills to the test, and it felt good.

  She broke visual contact with the Prisoner for a moment to slide across the weird grass-stuff, underneath the shield and between the legs of a merc she’d identified as male. She punched up powerfully between them as she passed, then flipped her legs up and, with the support of her arms on the ground, kicked him squarely in the small of his back. She wasn’t sure how much damage the two blows had done, but he seemed content to lie there for now instead of continuing to brandish a pistol at her.

  Another stray shot deflected off of her shielding, momentarily blurring her visibility. As it cleared, she noticed two enemies heading her way, both heavier armed and more cautious than the last ones. And past those, she almost chuckled as she watched 286 lift three more in a tight group, heedless of their gunfire. Merlo even found enough sympathy for them to spare a brief, mental wince as she heard the trio’s armor begin to crunch painfully under the force of the tiny singularity they were suspended in.

  And then, to her shock, 286 let them go. They fell to the ground in a pile, and without looking back, the woman just strode away. The remaining mercenaries, and those rushing onto the scene simply parted to let her pass as the Prisoner strode toward the dark jaws of the tunnel leading further into the cavern.

  Utterly stunned, Merlo had only time to shout at her a couple of times, “Six! What are you doing? Six!” Before the ring of mercenaries began to tighten slowly around her, weapons bared.

  16.5 - Branwen

  The repeated sounds of gunfire hastened them though the house and lended obscurity to their infiltration. Still, though, they had to stop several times to dodge patrols, guardsmen rushing toward the sounds of Kinetic violence behind the secured estate. Branwen considered striking several times and cutting off some of the reinforcement going for Merlo and 286, but she had to trust in her friend and in their impromptu “plan,” instead of drawing attention to herself. Besides, she’d seen some of the videos of what Prisoner 286 was capable of, and didn’t doubt that both women could hold her own against unprepared forces long enough for Branwen and Zimi to get their part of the job done.

  “Here we are, Cap’n.” Zimi, after a moment’s extended fiddling with a pair of thin tools, popped open the locked door to what they understood to be Jori Stone’s private rooms. The girl hadn’t quite been a wraith as they journeyed through the manor’s halls and stairways, but she had come close enough for their needs here. She seemed confident enough in her abilities, yet constantly apprehensive. Though perhaps she was simply nervous about Merlo, just as Branwen was.

  Once inside, Zimi closed the door behind them, leaving the illusion that nothing was amiss. Stone’s room was well-appointed, and Branwen was sure that there were many intriguing cultural artifacts on display, but she didn’t have time for them right now. Their first stop was Stone’s desk, and more importantly, the computer sitting atop it. After rushing over, however, Branwen could only stop and stare at it helplessly for a moment.

  She didn’t know how to turn it on.

  “Zimi, can you take care of the computer? I will search elsewhere.” She began to act even as she
spoke; every moment wasted could be a moment too long, even as the rolling thunder of Kinetic impacts from outside served to remind her of her need for haste. To her relief, Zimi activated the machine without any problem, rapidly entering commands into its glowing, projected interface.

  A hasty search of the tastefully expensive surroundings turned up little of import to Branwen. Stone didn’t seem to have the same penchant for archaic notation and clever riddles that Don Mateo had indulged in, leaving her own skills mostly useless. “Cap’n,” Zimi called softly to get her attention. “I got it up an’ runnin’. I can’t get in myself, but Mr. Leonard gave me somethin’ that might can crack it.” She produced a long, thin metallic strip from her inner pockets, something Branwen could only vaguely identify as some type of data drive. She thought.

  Moments after inserting the object into a port on the computer, Zimi smiled merrily. “You’re amazing, Mr. Leonard.” She glanced back at the Captain. “We’re in, Cap’n.” The girl’s fingers flickered across the keys once more as she searched the computer. Branwen cast about, internalizing the discomfort of being temporarily useless during an important moment. She’d just fully accepted the fact that her investigation was more or less useless here when Zimi got her attention once more with a low whistle. “Cap’n, you’re gonna wanna see this. It ain’t pretty.”

  16.6 - Prisoner 286

  Gritting her teeth, 286 took one slow stride after another away from Merlo and the fight. Of course, her strides were actually normal speed, and her teeth weren’t really gritted, because she couldn’t.

  It just felt like that beneath whatever was dominating her.

  Ahead of her, a man in dark, close-fitting body armor reminiscent of Urzran spec-ops took one careful step backward after another. His left arm was bulked out somewhat from all of the armored tech built into it, and his fingers danced back and forth rapidly as they constantly tweaked the data scrolling by on the pad installed into his left forearm.