On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance

by Alex T. Kolter

  ****

  Nero slept peacefully for once, his mind not clouded by thoughts of the past. He was dreaming of Ami, and of the new life he seemed to have found. For some reason, thoughts of Talyah kept invading his dreams, but these were quickly forgotten. He had become practised at selectively forgetting things. He’d been doing it long enough.

  The sound of an alarm slowly invaded his thoughts. Not wanting to wake up, he dismissed it as an errant dream. It persisted, however, and only seemed to be getting louder. Then, slowly getting throw his sleep-deprived brain, he realised the alarm was familiar. It sounded a bit like... suddenly Nero was awake, and alert, as he realised what the alarm was. It was the proximity alarm. People were approaching the cave, people the security system didn’t recognise.

  He leapt off of the couch, and not taking the time to put on his jacket, ran out of the rec area into the largest part of the cave. Already, most of his guys in the cave - about fifteen of them - were there, picking up weapons from the racks on the sides of the cavern. Momentarily pleased with the success of the drills he’d forced them to practise, Nero picked up a laser rifle himself, and moved towards the entrance.

  Before they’d even moved into the cavern where the shuttles were kept, they heard the whine of laser rifles being fired. “Shit,” Nero muttered under his breath.

  “Who went out there?” he demanded of his men, in a whispered voice.

  “No one did. There’s no one out there,” one of them replied, with some of the others nodding in agreement.

  “Then what...?” Nero breathed, continuing to listen to the sounds of laser fire coming from the other cave. The reasoning became clear soon enough. A huge explosion rocked the cave, causing a few rocks to dislodge from the ceiling, raining down onto the cave floor. A bright flash - blue and orange - lit up the tunnel leading to the outer cave, heat rushing in to the inner cave briefly.

  “The ships!” one of Nero’s guys yelled.

  “Shouldn't we stop them?” came Nate’s cocksure voice from behind Nero.

  “I’ve no idea how many are out there, Nate. We have to wait ‘till they’re in the tunnel, concentrate our fire.” Nero continued to listen to the sounds of the weapons. In a detached moment, he reflected on how well built the shuttles were, to protect the fuel cells for this long. Then, sure enough, the sound of a second explosion rocked the cave, as the second shuttle exploded in a flash of blue. Nero looked away as the hot air rushed into the cave again.

  “Okay, get ready,” Nero said, thankful that the third and last shuttle wasn’t currently in the cave. They waited, listening intently for the sounds of footsteps. Nothing came. There were no sounds at all, no hint that anyone was even in the other cave.

  “What’s taking th--” one of the men started to ask, and was abruptly cut off as the blue flash of a laser lit up his chest, the high-intensity energy piercing through him in an instant. He fell backwards, a slightly startled expression left on his face.

  Before anyone could respond, a barrage of laser fire erupted out of the tunnel. It came from everywhere, spurting into the cave like a beautiful river of death. Nero’s men dived away, most managing to avoid the deadly light. The ones nearest the tunnel aimed their own guns and returned fire, hoping that they’d hit a target. The odd grunt emerging from the tunnel suggested at least some of them had hit the mark.

  Nero glanced at his men, noting at least three bodies already collapsed on the floor. He continued firing, aiming roughly at where the blue flashes of light originated from. Then the attack stopped. The tunnel went back to its pitch black state, once more silent.

  “Did we get them?” one of Nero’s men asked, a hopeful note in his voice.

  “No...” Nero answered, surprised at the retreat. Then it clicked. “Back!” he yelled, turning on his heel and running away from the tunnel entrance. The others followed, and not a moment too soon. A faint clinking sound followed them, coming from the mouth of the tunnel, and then there was a blinding flash of white and orange light as the whole cave seemed to explode. Nero was thrown forward on a wave of scorching heat, hard enough that the stabilization augs built into his hands activated to stop him crashing into the floor too forcefully.

  He jumped back up in time to make out a number of humanoid figures running out of the smoke-filled tunnel mouth, though the explosion had knocked out the lighting in the cave, making it difficult to see. Glancing at the rest of his guys, none looked to be back on their feet, or even able to stand back up yet. The force of the explosion had obviously been even greater than Nero had realised, his augmentations having shielded him from the worst of the effects. He turned to face the intruders, their outlines picked out in his holoscreen display. There were nine of them. And Nero had lost his laser rifle in the blast.

  “Come on then,” Nero whispered. “I’ve been meaning to try out these augs.” He crouched in the darkness, and slowly approached the nearest vacso.

  Before he could get very close, the alien spotted him. Evidently it had a night-vision system of some kind. Nero dived to the right as the alien raised its weapon, narrowly avoiding the blue beam of light that hit the ground near where he had been half a second before. Carrying on his momentum, Nero rolled and leapt up to the alien’s left, and before the alien could bring around its rifle, Nero extended the carbon blade from his arm, quickly and cleanly slicing open the alien’s throat. Nero felt the warm liquid touch his arm, the sensors relaying the feeling to his nervous system.

  Running to the next alien, Nero jumped high, his augmented legs bringing him high above the alien, and came down right in front of it, the blade in his arm slicing deeply into the being’s shoulder. It fell away, backwards, as Nero spun to face the alien bringing its weapon up to point at Nero’s side. He kicked out, the metal leg moving with such force that it knocked the alien’s head clean off, leaving just some bloody strands of tissue flapping from the stump.

  The other intruders had noticed the display by now, and were running over to where Nero stood, raising their weapons as they did so. Their weapons were all highlighted in flashing red in his holodisplay, in case he hadn’t noticed the danger. Just before they fired, Nero ran forward, his legs giving him an unnatural burst of speed, and ploughed into two of the remaining aliens, holding out his arms as he did so, and letting the glistening blades slice open their two necks as he passed. To those watching he looked like a bloody angel of death.

  He kept running, not turning around until he’d reached the far side of the cave. The four remaining aliens had only just turned to face the direction in which Nero had disappeared, and it looked like they’d lost sight of him. Good. He moved slowly around the side of the cave, keeping an eye on the aliens in the darkness, and watched them move over to check on the two other aliens now lying on the floor, in pools of their own blood.

  A groan came from halfway across the cave. Nero glanced at the source of the noise, to see one of his men stirring. “Shit,” he breathed, looking back at the remaining aliens. They had heard the sound as well, and they were all now looking at the man lying on the ground.

  Nero moved, running forward again. Four at once would be difficult, but it should be possible, he hoped. But before he neared them, he noticed a large table. It had nothing on it, but it did give him an idea. Stopping beside the table, he picked it up, his arm augmentations helping to lift the heavy piece of metal. He turned to face the aliens, who were approaching the man on the ground, and took a few steps towards them.

  Grunting slightly with the effort, Nero hurled the table towards the group of aliens. It went sailing through the air, covering the distance to hit three of the aliens. Two of them, nearest to Nero, were knocked to the ground, whilst the third was pinned under the table where it came to rest. Nero heard a crunch even from this distance.

  Before the table even hit he was running again, and quickly managed to dispatch the alien remaining on its feet with a swift punch to the face. He felt the alien’s face collapse inward as his fist mashed up its h
ead, thick blood spurting out from where he made contact. The two aliens on the ground were just as easy to kill, each dispatched with a simple heel stomp in the head. That left just the alien trapped under the table. Nero walked over, breathing only slightly heavier than normal.

  By this time, most of his guys who had survived were coming around, and starting to stand up. It was still dark, but there was just enough light around for them to make out some details. They could see the forms of bodies littered around, but couldn’t make out who they were. And over there, there was someone standing up, their eyes faintly illuminated by a holodisplay. Nero.

  Nate was the first up and standing next to Nero, who was stood over the alien under the table. Nate glanced down, to see that the alien was still alive, and conscious, but trapped under the weight of the table. “What happened man?” he asked, glancing around the cave, even though he couldn’t see much.

  “Hmm?” Nero queried. “Oh, the explosion knocked you guys out. I had to deal with them.”

  “Deal with them?”

  “Yeah, there were nine of them. They came in after they threw the grenade,” Nero said, looking at Nate.

  “So you just...?”

  “Dealt with them. It wasn’t too hard man. Though maybe you could take a nap afterwards, next time... Might make it a little easier for me.”

  Nate grinned. “Well, I’ll consider it. Looks like you managed to handle it reasonably well without me, though,” he said, glancing down at the alien under the table.

  “I haven’t decided what to do with this guy yet,” Nero said, answering Nate’s unasked question. “I think we’ll leave him here for a while. Can you find some lighting for us?”

  “Sure,” Nate replied, going off in search of some portable lighting. Nero turned to see how the rest of his men were doing. Four of them had been hit by the initial barrage of laser fire, and it looked like another three had been killed by the grenade. Their bodies were severely broken and burnt, and it was obvious that none of them were still alive. Of the rest, it looked as if most had just been knocked unconscious by the blast. Many were already back on their feet, though a couple were still on the ground. Conscious, but not standing up yet.

  “Zea,” Nero said, spotting one of them, who had more medical training than anyone else. “Take a look at these guys,” Nero said, indicating those still lying on the ground.

  “Certainly boss,” the middle-aged man replied, having just stood up himself.

  With the adrenaline that had coursed through his body dissipating, the reality of what had happened was starting to hit home for Nero. He’d lost at least seven of his men, two of his shuttles, and this base was certainly compromised now. He thought back to what Jerad had been talking about the other day, about dealing with the Nostra.

  He turned back to the alien under the table. It still hadn’t said a word yet. “Let’s get the formalities out of the way, shall we?” Nero asked the alien, staring into its piercing eyes. He leaned over and picked up the table, placing it back down on its feet next to the alien. “You’re Nostra, I presume?”

  The alien didn’t say anything, but the anger in its eyes was answer enough for Nero. “I’ll take that as a yes. I take it you won’t talk?” Again, the alien didn’t respond. It just stared into Nero’s eyes. At that moment, Nate came back with a couple of portable light towers. He placed them on the ground and switched them on, producing a clean white light that illuminated the mess of the cave.

  “This one won’t talk, Nate. Any ideas on what to do with it?” Nero asked, playing up to the role of captor.

  “Oh, I have a few ideas,” Nate replied, with a particularly nasty grin.

  Nero smirked, though with no mirth in his eyes. “But first, I have a message I’ll want you to deliver,” he said, turning his attention back to the Nostra agent. “The city is mine, it has been for years. Yet you think you can just come in here and what - muscle me out? That’s not going to happen. I run the city now. If you try anything like this again, I will retaliate, you will die, and I will prevail. Got that?”

  The alien blinked in response. Nero sighed. “But you’re not going to deliver that message, are you?” Again, no response came from the alien. “No, of course you won’t. Well then, I’ll need you to deliver it in another way. A more personal way. Nate?” Nero said, turning towards the muscular man beside him.

  He raised his eyebrows in a questioning response. Nero nodded, and turned his back. He heard a muffled, high-pitched alien scream as he walked away, to find Zea.

  “You doing okay?” Nero asked, placing a hand on the older man’s shoulder.

  “Yes, I’m fine. We’ve been lucky, Nero. Relatively speaking, I mean. These three are dead,” he said, gesturing to the broken bodies Nero had already dismissed as gone, “and the four hit by lasers haven’t made it, but the rest should be fine. They’ll have a few headaches, bruises, that sort of thing. But they’ll be okay.”

  “That’s good to know, Zea,” Nero replied, looking on the seven dead bodies. He felt a small sense of relief that Jerad wasn’t amongst them, as guilty as that made him feel, but he still knew them well. One of them was only fifteen, and had only joined them a year ago. He turned away, not wanting to look on them any longer.

  “I’ll be outside if you need me,” he said to Zea, picking up a rifle, and walking towards the tunnel. The outer cave was almost unrecognisable. The two shuttles were just skeletons now, metal skeletons that were still on fire. Blue flames licked up from where the fuel cells were mounted, lending the cave a strangely surreal air. Nero carried on through, and climbed the gentle slope towards the mouth of the cave, and the daylight that was streaming down.

  Ready to duck back in if anyone was still out there, he looked out of the cave’s entrance. Empty desert and rocks stretched to the right, and to the left, a ship sat. A run-down, battered ship, that looked like it had served many decades of service, but a ship nonetheless. And no other Nostra around, thankfully. Nero slung the rifle back over his shoulder.

  He made his way over to the abandoned shuttle. It was surprisingly large, about twice the size of his own ships, but it didn’t look anywhere near as fast. It was a weirdly bulbous shape, with protrusions coming out of odd places on it, and stubby wings that looked like an afterthought. Still, Nero reflected, it was better than nothing, until he found some new ships.

  Standing in the shade under the vehicle’s bulk, Nero called Talyah’s communicator. She answered almost immediately, her voice coming over clearly in Nero’s head.

  “Nero?”

  “Yeah, Tal. We’ve had a problem back at the base. I’m gonna need you to come back here, as soon as you can.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well,” Nero started, thinking he’d rather talk in person, but aware that Talyah wouldn’t wait. “We had a problem with the Nostra. Turns out they knew where our base was, and they came here.”

  “What did they do, Nero?”

  “Destroyed our shuttles for a start. And we lost seven guys, Tal. Remember that kid you found last year? I’m sorry, Tal, but he was one of the first hit. Laser bolt in the chest. He would have been gone almost instantly.”

  There was silence from the other end for a time. Nero knew that Talyah had been close to the kid. He’d always had a smile on his face.

  “You killed all the Nostra, then?” Talyah asked, her voice as steady as ever. She had an inner strength that Nero often forgot she possessed.

  “We did Tal. There was one left, but he wouldn’t talk, so... Nate’s dealing with him.”

  “Good,” Talyah said, saying nothing more.

  “Don’t worry, Tal. We’ll retaliate. You know I won’t let this go. We’ll hit them hard, and we’ll hit them soon. But I need your shuttle, and I need you Tal. Are you heading back here?”

  “Of course, Nero. I will be there shortly.”

  She clicked off her communicator, a faint beep filling Nero’s head when she did. Sighing, he emerged from the shade of the hulkin
g metal ship, and headed back towards the cave.

  ****

  “That’s it?” Nate asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

  Nero glanced sideways at Nate, watching the man watch their destination approach. “Expecting big flashing lights? A sign saying ‘we are here’?”

  “Well obviously. But this, this is just an abandoned building in the outskirts.”

  “It’s a means to an end. This isn’t HQ. That location is a well-known ‘secret’, but this... this is our entry to the tunnels, since they blocked off the old entrances.”

  Nate watched Nero now, as he was bringing Talyah’s shuttle down to land. “And you know these tunnels?”

  “I know them pretty well. I was using them before they were taken over. Before the Nostra requisitioned them. But now they never really use the tunnels. I guess they were already set up above ground, so the tunnels are pretty much abandoned now. The occasional patrol, I’m told, but that’s it. Good for us, but it’s a lost opportunity for them. One among many, really.”

  The shuttle settled down on an empty area of concrete, engines causing the ship to vibrate slightly at a low frequency. Next to them, the other ship, the old one formerly owned by the Nostra, settled down too. Its landing was less smooth, the legs compressing dramatically as the weight was rapidly applied.

  “I hope you find a new one soon,” Nate said, also watching the other ship land. “That one is hideous.”

  They and ten others descended the boarding ramp to emerge in the late afternoon haze. The sun was low on the horizon, casting a slightly purple tinge in the air, and as ever in the city, it was raining. Nero turned at the grinding sound that accompanied the lowering of the other ship’s boarding ramp. He cringed inwardly. Nate was right; he needed to find a new one.

  Descending first from the other ship was Talyah, her slightly wild hair billowing behind her in the wind as she strode forward. Combined with her large, golden eyes, she was quite a presence. Fifteen others followed her down, and together with Nero’s group, they made up almost the entirety of his gang. A small group, but a precision instrument, Nero thought as he surveyed them.