On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance

by Alex T. Kolter

  “What is your plan then?” the Aegis agent continued. “You know your weapons are no good. You know I can squash you like the bug you are.”

  “Sure, I expect you could,” Nero replied. “But you haven’t yet, and you’ve had the opportunity. I think you’re enjoying stretching this out, so why stop now? I don’t even know your name yet.”

  A chuckle came out of the man’s voice unit, sending another chill down Nero’s spine. “That is a good point. I know so much about you, Nero, and yet you know nothing about me, do you?” Nero shrugged when the man paused. “Well, let me correct that. I am Ras. Lieutenant Ras Gyyll. But there is one thing I don’t know about you, Nero.” The lieutenant paused. “Why those augmented arms and legs? Did you lose the originals?” Nero could imagine the man smiling underneath the helmet as he talked, evidently savouring the intimidation.

  “Why? I liked them.” Nero kept his eyes moving across the other Aegis agents as he talked, and the vacsos behind them, ready to fire if any of them moved.

  “You ‘liked them’?” The lieutenant laughed this time, the sound coming out oddly from the helmet’s voice unit, and turned to the armoured man on his right. “He liked them. The people on these backwater planets never fail to amaze me.” Turning back to Nero, he continued. “So, you’ve got these impressive augs, Nero. What do you propose to do with them now?” The way he emphasized the word ‘impressive’ suggested he didn’t think they’d aid Nero very much.

  “Well, I’ll kick your ass for a start. I don’t much like you, if I’m honest.” Another sinister laugh came from the lieutenant. “And what is up with that helmet?” Nero added. “I mean really, why such a large rebreather?” He shook his head in mock disbelief. “Is it compensating for something?”

  “Oh, very good,” the lieutenant replied. “See, this is why I like talking to people before I kill them. You guys can really be quite entertaining. It’s just a shame that I do have to kill you.”

  “Is it?” Nero asked, sarcasm in his voice.

  “Well,” the lieutenant tilted his head to the side. “Not really. You’ve got me there. I do enjoy my job.”

  “I’m sure you do. The costume as well, evidently.”

  “Indeed. Well, as entertaining as this little talk has been, I do in fact have a job to do.”

  “Right, yeah,” Nero said. “So do we, in fact. So if you wouldn’t mind just leaving and we’ll call it quits.”

  “Oh, I would love to, but I do have orders, I’m afraid. And my superior does not have the sense of humour that I have. So I am afraid, Nero, that that is an impossibility.” The lieutenant turned towards his men. “Men--”

  Before the lieutenant could give the inevitable order, Nero opened fire himself, aiming carefully at the lieutenant’s head. The laser beam hit the helmet directly in the centre, but when the lieutenant turned back to face Nero, there was no sign of any damage.

  “I did warn you your weapons would be ineffective,” he said, raising his own weapon. He fired, just after Nero ducked back down behind the window. He saw the flash of light pass above him, and then a general whining sound filled the room as everyone else opened fire.

  Nero saw one person fall down almost immediately, a smouldering hole in their chest, and then another fell. He crouched behind the window, and fired back. Not bothering to aim at the Aegis agents themselves, Nero picked off the vacsos behind the armoured men. These aliens didn’t have the mysterious armour that the Aegis agents had, and were as susceptible to laser fire as Nero himself was. He got two of them before he ducked back down again.

  “Shit,” he breathed, as he saw the heavy casualties they’d taken already. Another three of his guys had been hit, leaving not many of them left. He glanced back in the room, and saw Sevi was crouched at the side of the room, behind a solid metal table.

  He pulled a grenade off of his belt, and tossed it out into the midst of their attackers. “Down!” he yelled, and ducked down with the rest of his men. They heard, and felt, the explosion that followed, and Nero leapt back up to look out into the warehouse again. The last of the vacsos was down, he was relieved to see, but all five of the Aegis agents were still standing.

  “Nate,” Nero said. “You stay here. I’m taking Onon and Tal up above, okay?” Nate glanced at him and nodded, then continued firing. Nero ran beneath the windows, to reach Talyah and Onon, both of whom were shooting out of the same window. “Come with me,” Nero said, and turned and ran up the stairs to the upper level.

  “What is it?” Talyah asked, once they’d caught up to him.

  “We need to try something different,” Nero said, picking up a small crate. Inside it were rows of grenades. “Let’s see if they can withstand all these at once.” He placed it down next to the upper window, and prepared to start throwing them out. But then he stopped, and stared down at the floor of the warehouse.

  The Aegis agents, and Nero’s men, had stopped firing. His men were instead slowly walking out of the room, to stand in front of the lieutenant, with their hands up in the air. “What the hell?” Nero breathed, and Onon and Talyah came to stand by the window. Behind the men, walking out of the room, was Nate, with his rifle aimed at the others’ backs. The ever-present smile was gone from his face, to be replaced by a more serious visage.

  “What are you doing Nate?” Nero whispered to himself. Once he had emerged from the room, Nate went over to stand by the Aegis lieutenant, and spoke to him in whispered words.

  The lieutenant then looked directly up at Nero, in the upper floor window. “I told you your weapons wouldn’t be much good, Nero. Perhaps I failed to mention that your men couldn’t all be relied upon, either.” The lieutenant paused. “Would you mind joining us down here?”

  There didn’t seem to be much choice in the matter, Nero realised, and he turned and walked slowly down the stairs. Talyah and Onon followed at a slight distance.

  When he left the room, and stepped out onto the main floor of the warehouse, the lieutenant was holding onto Sevi by her neck, and Nate was stood next to him, looking somewhat uncomfortable. Treacherous bastard, Nero thought as he locked eyes with the man. Nate looked away quickly, and Nero turned back to the lieutenant, a dark look in his eyes.

  “Let her go, Ras,” he said. “She has nothing to do with this.”

  “She has everything to do with this, Nero. She’s with you, and that makes her fair game.”

  “Fair game? She’s twelve, for fuck’s sake!”

  “So?” the lieutenant asked. “What difference does age make? At what age does someone become fair game? Fifteen? Twenty? Eighty? No, it is actions that make someone fair game, not an arbitrary thing like age.”

  Nero cast about the place for something that would stop the lieutenant, but he couldn’t find anything. Their weapons didn’t work, and he knew his blades wouldn’t do anything. He looked at the lieutenant’s helmet again, wondering what was going through the man’s mind.

  “Let this serve as a lesson to that effect,” the lieutenant continued. He brought up a laser pistol to Sevi’s head, and held it there. Nero could see her trembling in the lieutenant’s grip, but she didn’t make a sound. She just stood there, accepting whatever was going to happen to her. Nero was aware of Onon next to him, shouting at the lieutenant. But he knew that wouldn’t do anything. There was nothing any of them could do.

  And then there was a brilliant flash of light, that looked like it came from within Sevi’s skull. Her eye sockets glowed bright red, and her nose and mouth lit up too. Then a beam of white light burst from the side of her head, opposite the pistol, and she went dark. The lieutenant let go of her, and her small, scruffy body crumpled, hitting the floor with almost no sound. Nero just stood there, looking at her for a time.

  One of the other Aegis agents began to approach Nero, and he was pulled from his reverie. “You will regret that, Ras. She was innocent,” he said, malevolence filling his voice, the anger making him shake slightly as he stood facing the agents.

  “I appr
eciate your resolve, Nero, misplaced as it may be.”

  The other Aegis agents were all walking forward now, leaving Nate standing on his own next to the lieutenant. An idea struck Nero as they approached, and he waited until the nearest one was a couple of metres away, and raising its weapon. Then, with a final hate-filled glance at Nate, he raised his hands in front of him. Planting his legs firmly on the floor, he activated the stabilization augmentation, built into his hands.

  A brilliant flash was emitted from the blue repulsors in his hands, disorienting those in front just as effectively as a flashbang grenade, and with his legs anchoring him to the spot, the propulsive forces were all directed forwards, at the Aegis agents lined up in front of him. He saw them, through the blue light, thrown backwards, knocked off their feet.

  Nero turned and yelled at Talyah and the others to run, and then himself sprinted forward to the lieutenant, who was still standing, having been far enough away from Nero’s blast. Before the man had the chance to raise his weapon, Nero leapt forward, his augmented legs propelling him at a great speed into the armoured man. The lieutenant was knocked over backwards, and Nero laid into him, punching his helmet repeatedly. He felt whatever material the helmet was made of begin to crack slightly, but then the lieutenant managed to throw Nero off of him.

  Nero got back onto his feet, as did the lieutenant. “Impressive,” the Aegis agent said. Nero took the chance to glance behind him, and saw Onon, Talyah and the others disappearing through a side door from the warehouse. He looked back at the lieutenant, and at the other four now back on their feet, and closing fast. If the helmet had withstood the full force of Nero’s punches, he reasoned, there was no way he could defeat all of these opponents at once.

  With a last glance at the lieutenant, and at Nate getting up from the ground, Nero used the full power of his legs and sprinted towards the door, seeing a couple of laser shots hit the wall next to the door as he shot through it. He continued running until he caught up with the others, not far beyond the door, and then slowed down to match their speed, checking behind him as he did.

  “Faster,” he urged, knowing full well they couldn’t. They ran down the street, and up the nearest alley, hearing the sound of running feet behind them. Part way down the alley, with Nero in the lead, they turned left, and then took the next right. They followed that street for a short while before making another left. All the time Nero felt like their pursuers would catch up at any moment.

  But after an inordinate amount of time, taking turn after turn in an effort to throw off the pursuit, Nero slowed, and finally stopped. The others collapsed on the ground, breathing in huge breaths and trying to recover themselves. “Wait here,” Nero said, and ran back the way they had come, for a short distance. He paused to listen, but it seemed like they had lost their pursuers. For now. He returned to the others.

  They were still sitting on the ground, taking in deep lungfuls of air, and Nero was once again thankful for the endurance his augmentations afforded him. He waited patiently for them to recover themselves enough to stand back up.

  “I think we’ve lost them,” he reported.

  Talyah looked up at Nero. “Where,” she managed to say between breaths, “will we go, Nero?”

  “I’ve got a small hideout, Tal,” Nero replied, “maybe a half hour walk from here. We should be safe there for a time. Nobody else knows about it.” His thoughts briefly flickered to Nate.

  When they had got their breath back, they set off at a more leisurely pace, though still very aware of their surroundings. They passed through deserted alleyways, along deserted streets, and also along streets with some wary-looking people milling around. None, thankfully, wore grey armour, however.

  Finally, they walked up to a building not far from the Scrapers. It was on a reasonably well-populated street, and on the ground floor of the building there was a pawn shop, with a sign advertising immediate bonds for any type of item. Talyah glanced at Nero, slightly mystified at his choice of hideout.

  “It’s in here, in the basement. There’s access from the rear of the place,” Nero informed them. He led them up the small alleyway, and brought them to the dank rear of the building. There was a metal hatch in the ground next to the building, secured with a large padlock. Nero bent down and pressed his finger to the scanner, which flashed green and opened once it had detected the chip in his forefinger.

  He pulled the padlock off, and yanked the hatchway open. Lights turned on automatically in the basement, and light spilled upwards to illuminate the step ladder leading down. Nero gestured for Talyah to go first, and he followed the others in once they were inside. But before he pulled the hatch down, he glanced up into the sky, and chanced to see a very sinister, very advanced shuttle fly overhead, heading towards the city. He pulled the hatch closed.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  VICTUS

  He managed a few fitful hours of sleep, after a long time spent staring at ceiling. The others didn’t seem to fare much better, based on the amount of tossing and turning that was going on throughout the night, and it was a relief to finally get up in the morning.

  When Nero did finally get up, his vision was swimming and his head felt strange, like he had a particularly nasty hangover. He sat on the edge of the bed and put his head in his hands, waiting for the sensation to go. It didn’t disappear entirely, but it did lessen, and once he took his hands away, he saw Talyah on the other side of the room, watching him.

  “Morning Tal,” he said, in a dejected tone. He stood up, and went over to retrieve his shirt from the floor.

  “Nero,” she replied. “Are you okay?”

  He picked up the shirt and began to put it on. “Yeah, fine Tal. Just feeling a bit funny. Haven’t had any of the pills in a while now.”

  “The qiameth?” Talyah asked, coming over to stand closer to Nero. “How many of those have you been taking?”

  “Oh, I don’t know Tal. A few a day.”

  “A few a day?”

  “Maybe more,” Nero admitted. “I get a bit down if I don’t have them for a long time, you know?”

  Talyah looked concerned as she studied Nero’s face. “You do look a bit odd, Nero. Perhaps it’s for the best that you’re off the pills for a while.”

  “Huh, not really my choice though, is it?”

  Talyah smiled. “No, it’s not, Nero.”

  At that moment Koegan walked up to them, apparently having woken up as well. He yawned, stretched, and sat down at a nearby chair. “Speaking of which,” he said, “what are we going to do about this situation? I’m not inclined to just leave these guys alone, you know?”

  “Nor am I, Koegan,” Nero replied, rubbing his forehead.

  “I think we shouldn’t do anything hasty, Nero,” Talyah said, the ever-present voice of reason. “You saw how tough these agents are. We don’t even know if it’s possible to kill them in that armour.”

  Nero looked up at her sharply, a flash of inspiration in his eyes. “Hey, you might have hit on something Tal.”

  “Taking things slowly?” she asked.

  “No,” Nero said, missing the sarcasm in her tone. “The armour. If we’re to stand a chance of defeating them, of making them pay, we have to neutralise that armour.”

  Koegan, sat at the table, looked at Nero quizzically, but let Talyah get the details out of him. “That may be, Nero, but how do you propose we achieve that?”

  “I’m working on it,” he replied, thoughtful. Talyah and Koegan exchanged glances, and Koegan went to get some food rations out of a storage chest in the room. He handed Talyah a protein bar, and sat down to chew on his own as they waited for Nero.

  By the time Nero had come up with what he thought might be a workable plan, Onon and the other few survivors had woken up, and were gathered around with their own breakfasts.

  “Okay,” Nero said. “So we can’t penetrate their armour. Or at least, not with our usual weapons. Maybe some high-powered rifles would, but we can’t rely on that. So we have t
o assume that nothing will penetrate. That means we have to separate the men from their armour.” He paused to look at the others, who just nodded vaguely, waiting for him to continue; they were too exhausted to offer any ideas of their own. “The only way I can see us managing that is by forcing them to take their helmets off, of their own accord. And the only way I can see that working is by stopping their rebreathers from working. That way, they have to take their helmets off to take a breath, yes?”

  Talyah and the others waited for a moment, but he didn’t elaborate any further. “And you have a plan to accomplish that, Nero?” she asked.

  “I believe I do,” he said, a faint smile on his lips. “But first, do you still have that contact in the Governatore’s circle?” Talyah nodded. “Good, because I need him to tell me where these Aegis bastards are based.”

  ****

  As they walked along the street in the darkness, night having fallen a few hours ago, Onon walked up to Nero, and pulled him aside from the rest of the group. He looked at her curiously, but let her lead him a few paces away.

  “What is it, Onon?” he asked quietly, as they continued walking slowly.

  “I just wanted to check that you’re sure about this, Nero.”

  “Sure?” he asked. “Of course I am, Onon. It has to be done. I have to do it. But there’s no shame in leaving, Onon. I know this is risky, and no one would blame--”

  Onon cut him off. “You know I loved Sevi, Nero. You know I’d do anything to get her back.” He nodded. “But she’s gone, and nothing we do will bring her back. This seems so risky, and if your reason for doing it is vengeance for Sevi, or for the others, then I have to ask, is it worth it? What will it actually achieve?” Nero looked away from the piercing stare Onon gave him.

  “We cannot let them get away with what they've done, Onon,” he said, turning back to her. “They killed Sevi. They killed Jerad, and they killed so many others. And they’ve destroyed what I’ve worked so many years to achieve. I have to try to get that back, Onon. And they have to pay for what they’ve done.”