by M. J Kreyzer
Pitt was snoring just as Hendrick finished his statement. Hendrick clenched his teeth and folded his arms. “You’re not… you’re not asleep. I know you’re not asleep.”
Pitt kept snoring, and Hendrick was quick to give up. With his eye brows furrowed and a scowl on his face, Hendrick looked up with frustrated disapproval at Pitt’s upper bunk. But soon, doing the same as everybody else in the room, Hendrick’s eyes got heavier and heavier until he was soon snoring louder than anybody else in the room.
Chapter 23
The Legionnaires came down on the forest’s edge hard and fast. The others were lucky that they made it out when they did. With the amount of security seeming heavier and thicker by the minute, Luke could only hope that they were able to make it inside the city without detection.
That was the thought that kept tearing at Luke’s mind.
They didn’t understand how Luke was looking at things. He tried to make them understand that he cared, he honestly did. But it only took a slight mention of the Legionnaires before he was driven to drop everything and rip them to pieces. And that was when Luke wasn’t sure if he even knew himself anymore.
Why was he so bent around killing Legionnaires? Even with the Ditrinity in consideration, Luke was the only person that the Legionnaire’s feared, even respected. They regarded the Ditrinity with caution, but never apprehension or fear. Maybe it was because Luke knew that the Legionnaire had to be defeated and he was one of the only men who could help that happen.
But that wasn’t it. It couldn’t be it. Otherwise why would Luke have been so willing to abandon the Darks and the entire resistance in order to protect Tess?
Tess. Luke thought as his eyes lit up in an epiphany. Tess was the reason. Or, more so, his family. She was all that Luke had left and Luke wanted to protect her at all costs. But his anger over the destruction of his family trumped the feelings of love that he felt and blinded him to other options.
That’s when it struck him. Love and concern is what used to drive him, but because the objects his love and concern had been stripped from him, those feelings were replaced by a feeling almost as powerful: Revenge.
They killed his family, his people, and they did it with a sick, sadistic smile on their face. They tortured them, mutilated them, hunted them tirelessly and dispatched of them mercilessly. They were the white-armored footmen of the devil himself and every last one of them had to die.
Revenge trumped love. The realization made Luke sick. He thought about the Ditrinity, pulling him from the prison in Styne, supporting him in every ill-advised endeavor that he pursued, even backing him up against the Darks, their own side, when they made attempts to harm Luke. They were as loyal as they came, and Luke had betrayed them. And Tess, she was Luke’s daughter and he loved her more than anything in the world, and for all she knew Luke didn’t care about her in the slightest.
Concealed within a muddy, tangled mess of roots, Luke watched from the darkness as Legionnaires combed the area, provoked by the violent disturbance between him and Hendrick. Nightwolves sniffed at piles of leaves and at trees, while Berserkers, Knights, and Skirmishers worked in a criss-cross, covering every last inch of ground in search of the perpetrators. Luke remained motionless, his scent covered by the scent of wet dirt, wood and greenery, and thought of a number of different ways he could turn this investigating squad into crimson gelatinous chunks of flesh. As he did, thoughts of his family, of Trina, came to mind. Then, the face of Frenz, laughing at him, as he laid on the ground helpless at Olsgrad Canyon.
His breath became sharp and his jaw set. His hand shot back to his sword as he found his first target; a Skirmisher, skirting dangerously close to Luke’s position. Luke could drag him into the darkness and rip his heart out before any of the others could tell he was gone.
Then he thought of Tess. The way she looked at him when he hurt her. The way she looked at him back in Praemon, or even earlier that day. The feelings he felt seeing her face and the faces of the Ditrinity made him want to tear his own heart out, and the recollection of those feelings calmed Luke, brought him back to his senses. He calmed his breathing and he fell back into the darkness.
Luke had been fooling himself. He’d been thinking that he was doing the world a favor, justifying the mass slaughtering of thousands of Legionnaires when, though he told himself that he was doing it to destroy the Commune, he was doing it because he hated them. He hated them as much as it was possible for anybody to hate. But, in the end, Luke knew that he loved his friends, his family, even more.
And he thought of what Sable had said, about him being sent to make things right. God, whoever or whatever he was, did have a hand in the world. It wasn’t through miracles, it wasn’t through divine intervention, but it was through people. It was through him.
Luke had wronged the Ditrinity and Tess. It was time he became the leader they had always believed him to be.
Chapter 24
“Welcome to the Leramato Shipyards.” Merino said, sweeping his arm across the massive open space behind him. “It’s the third largest airport in the world and has twenty multi-level terminals that are a mile and a half long each with fifteen of those terminals having twenty mobile jet ways which is enough to handle a Helio and even the next larger version whenever they come out with it.” Merino led them through the airport, between the luggage racks, past the bag-laden airport workers, and following the faded yellow line that all passengers were supposed to follow.
The Leramato Shipyard doubled as a commercial port and a military one as well. There were two sections designated for each purpose, the commercial section of the airport being clean, contemporarily designed and consumer friendly, while the military side was just the bare bones; the management on that particular side of the airport had no concern with making the girders, beams, and bare cement visually appealing. Instead, it was a shimmering steel forest of grated elevators, intersecting walkways and the trusses that supported them, all of which formed a chaotic patchwork hundreds of feet in the air.
They boarded a tram that took them from the shipyard entrance and deep into the military half of the airport. Tall, steel beams held the terminals aloft, each one stretching for miles in order to accommodate the massive ships that docked at them. It was a busy day and every terminal was occupied, the battle cruisers and Sky Freighters floating silently in place as workers walked up and down the jet ways that led to the separate doors up located all across the ships’ various gateways. As high as the terminals were, the men that traversed them were nothing more than dark specs.
On that day, with the massive influx of Praemon immigrants, there were less Sky Freighters and more battle cruisers; the fact that the majority of those cruisers were Helios did nothing to comfort the Ditrinity and Rush.
“Keep your heads down.” Merino explained in a lowed voice as the tram slowed to a stop, pointing discreetly down the car where several Legionnaires were either standing or sitting. The doors slid open with the accompaniment of a mechanical, female voice explaining the destination terminal as well as the upcoming terminal. The team followed his exit, walked down the cement walkway as the tram rumbled to life and moved to the next station, past dozens of Legionnaires (unsuited, of course, which was a strange experience for most of them) and out onto the open tarmac.
Now in the wide open, the massive scale of the shipyard came into view. Helios floated in and out of dock, Sky Freighters emptied their cargo, while all had hundreds of workers loading and unloading them, looking like an altitudinous steel ant farm. At ground level, military transports ferried supplies to one of the dozens of elevators that led up to the catwalks high above. With the airport workers scurrying every which way, trolleys showing little regard for pedestrians, and men piloting Grave armor (the freight-working brothers of the Raze armor), it was a turbulent environment.
They came to a set of eight elevators lined up flush against each other. Each one led up to the catwalks above with each elevator leading to a different level of
catwalks, each level designated by one of the letters A through H. “We’ll be taking A.” Merino slapped the elevator door that he referred to and moved to the end of the row. “Come here.”
Everybody moved to the edge of the elevators where Merino had folded his arms and looked proudly to the sky. They stopped behind him where they found themselves standing in the shadow of a Legionnaire battle cruiser.
“There’s my baby.” Merino smiled as his eyes combed fondly over the massive craft floating overhead. It wasn’t as big as a Helio, sizing up to a little less than half its size. It had half the weapons of a Helio and, instead of having eight aircraft hangars on the rear portion of its belly, this battle cruiser had two.
“It’s a Mysto Class.” Merino touted. “It’s got everything a Helio’s got but it’s just has half of that everything. It comes fully loaded with sweep lasers, deflector shields, landing bays-“
“The reactor?” Pitt asked with an awed face. He’d never been on a cruiser before.
“An unamplified Ignata reactor. Furo based, obviously.”
“So… this isn’t a Mysto that was equipped with a Helio reactor.”
“No.” Merino with a disappointed sigh, like a man who had a secret desire for his wife to have larger breasts. “They only made, like, a dozen Mystos before they figured out that the new Helio reactor could handle a much bigger craft.” Merino looked up at the cruiser, his pride quickly replaced by disappointment. “But the Mysto has got something that the Helio doesn’t have.”
It was starting to appear as though Pitt and Merino were starting a contentious back and forth. Pitt smiled hotly and raised his chin. “Yeah? And it’s…”
“Discretion.” Merino said flatly. “The Mysto was designed before legitimate cloaking technology had been developed and even with modern cloaking you still can’t hide something as massive as a battle cruiser.” There was a sharp metallic beep and Merino pointed towards elevator A. “That’s our way up.” Merino was first to enter, holding the door open for everybody to enter. It was a larger elevator in order to accommodate the Legionnaires that used it, particularly the large masses of Berserkers and Monoliths that would use them at once. As soon as everybody was on board, Merino let the door slide to a close and the elevator lurched upward, ascending in a smooth, quiet motion.
“Engineers knew that battlecruisers aren’t exactly visually tactful so they put a system that runs along the ship’s outer hull that creates a massive cloud around the entire ship which changes depending on what kind of weather the cruiser is flying through. This sucker might not have a Helio reactor, but it’s got some kickin’ tricks that the Helio could only wish for, not to mention it’s still twice as fast as an actual Helio cruiser.”
The elevator slowed to a stop and opened up. They walked out and onto the black, grip-tape covered catwalk, finding themselves several hundred feet in the air. Merino parted his way through the group and led them to the right.
Large trusses lined both sides of the catwalk, casting shadows across the walkway beneath the bright morning light. Now on the catwalk, it was clear that their walking space was larger than they had thought, able to contain two Monoliths walking side by side. To their left, the Mysto battle cruiser was massive, despite the fact that it still wasn’t a Helio. There were five levels that were accessible from the catwalks and a sixth level on the bottom of the ship where hovering trolleys bused supplies from the ground to the ship and vice-versa. Welders worked all around the outside of the ship alongside dozens of other Enforcer engineers, making last minute preparations for the ship’s journey to Pyre.
“We’ll be coming in on the ship’s B deck. I’m not gonna give you guys a full tour cause it shouldn’t take a genius to figure out that I’m not the kind of guy who’d actually care to do that.” Merino turned around as he reached the entrance door, watching the team’s faces as they looked up to see the ship towering above them. Only Hendrick had ever been on board a Legionnaire cruiser before.
They entered through the side door which took them into one of the many tunnels that ran through the ship. Like the military side of the shipyard, there was no effort taken in making the interior of the ship visually appealing. Pipes ranging from miniscule to massive ran along the lengths of the passageways while clustered bunches of cables dipped up and down off of the ceiling where they were suspended. It was a monochrome palette with only the occasional deterring colors of yellow and red. And, no matter where they walked, there was a pervading hum that vibrated throughout the entire interior of the ship originating from the enormously powerful engines at the ships rear.
“Mystos have an older anti-gravity slash gravity generators that don’t compensate for distance so the closer we are to the gravity plates at the bottom of the ship, the heavier you’ll feel. You’ll be your normal weight at around the third floor.”
Hendrick absentmindedly ran a finger along a thick set of piping alongside the wall, feeling the tiny vibrations that ran through it. Looking at the ship reminded Hendrick that what they were doing was a very real thing and, if things went the way they were supposed to, something spectacular would happen as a result. It should have been an empowering thought but it wasn’t. His fight with Luke was still fresh in his mind and Hendrick couldn’t shake his anger. But it wasn’t because Luke had left them. It was because Hendrick couldn’t go with Luke.
It had always confused Hendrick how Luke could completely detach himself from something and act as he wanted. Hendrick was actually jealous. But seeing the Ditrinity, having Sable walk at his side, gave him second thoughts. Changed his mind, actually. He’d had his time as a ruthless, indiscriminate killer and now he had things to fight for. But this operation had to succeed and if Luke wasn’t going to lead the group then somebody had to. Maybe Morlo or Pontious could, but Hendrick would sooner give himself a sex change with a screwdriver then let either of those blowhards Kristik and Muldoon take command.
No, Hendrick had to lead the group, and what he doubted wasn’t his ability to lead, but rather his ability to accomplish. That wasn’t an absence of confidence. Sometimes even your best isn’t good enough and Hendrick hoped that wasn’t the case. Oddly enough, though, he was excited. They were diving into the heart of Pyre and taking out the entire Commune and First Legionnaire, killing two birds with one kickass stone. It was a chance that Hendrick didn’t think he’d ever get again, as wiping your enemy off the face of the planet somewhat removes your chances of any future encounters.
Rush walked at the rear of the group and the rest of the Ditrinity walked ahead of him. Sable, who was the exception, walked next to him, showing concern over what she believed to be a lack of confidence.
“You’re doing better than any of us could.” Sable reassured him, touching his wrist as she did. “Don’t worry.”
Hendrick smiled at her. She misconstrued what he was thinking, but Hendrick was more concerned with preserving the moment than he was with correcting her. He nodded and clasped her hand, squeezing it briefly then letting go. “Thanks for believing in me.”
Thanks for believing in me. He sounded like a complete jackass saying it like that. He might as well told her Hi, I’m Hendrick, and I like men. They both had the same effect, at least that’s what he thought. But once he got a glimpse of the smile on Sable’s face, Hendrick decided that insincerity and saying something for the sake of saying something occasionally had its benefits; he just made a note to himself to not make it a habit.
The thoughts soon went out of mind as the length of their walk through the cruiser began to dawn on them. But at long last, after traversing more than half a mile of claustrophobic and pipe-lined tunnels, the team arrived at a large set of hydraulic, steel double-doors.
“Here we are.” Merino said, mostly to Pitt who was the only remarkably interested person. There was a sharper hiss as the doors lurched into motion, starting slow and accelerating as they allowed passage.
Merino was the first through the door, walking to the railing on the e
dge of the platform on the other side and leaning on it. He held an arm out for the rest to follow. Pitt forced his way through the group to be the first to get a glimpse.
It was the ship’s bridge. The room was massive, with the ceiling rising far above where they stood and the floor dropping down several levels. The platform on which they now stood gave a full vantage point of the entire room.
The most noteworthy characteristic about the room was that approximately half of it was reinforced Paxical, a clear-as-glass, specially treated steel. The front, sides, and bottom of the bridge was shaped as though they were a large portion of one giant sphere. Suspended by metal supports just above the bottom of the sphere was another large platform. On this platform there were five rows of control consoles and a raised platform at its rear where the large, bulky captain’s chair rested. Behind that, in an area that was below the platform where they now stood, were entire walls devoted to communications and navigation, integrating touch-sensitive holographic light boards into a user interface that was uncommon for battlecruisers of that age. Metal walkways ran along the edge of the spherical ceiling where there were more areas devoted to the operation of such a massive craft. Black jumpsuit-clad workers and engineers were everywhere, making every repair and modification necessary for the impending journey to Pyre.
“Mostly standard maintenance.” Merino explained. “Nothing big. We probably won’t even spend any time in here. Just thought you guys might wanna see it.”
“And you’re the captain?” Pitt asked.
Merino nodded, looking ready to segue into another lengthy brag about the ship that he considered to be his pride and joy.
“Just brief us.” Hendrick said quickly, looking aggravated. “We got stuff to do.”
There was a low mumble of agreement and several nods from the rest of the group. They didn’t have anything to do, but they were ready to move onto something else instead of enduring another excruciating series of meaningless explanations. Disappointed and slightly offended, Merino obliged. “Fine. This way.”
