Falcone put the engines at full throttle and pushed the ship forward, looking out for any crodillian ships as they broke through the clouds to get above the raging storm. They’d seen plenty of enemy ships roaming the skies on their way to Drakos Mavros, but it seemed that they’d all left the area for the incoming storm. After a couple of minutes they exited the planet, but were confronted with an even worse sight than the storm. Hundreds of crodillian ships surrounded them and another huge ship that was directly in front of them. They’d just exited Ovrea into a fleet of surprised crodillian ships who were clearly prepared to blow them out of the sky. Anlon turned to Kanti who was already unstrapping herself from the seat. Camillus tried to pull her back down, but just missed her as she ran to the cockpit and stood over Falcone’s shoulder.
“We have to get out of here now,” Kanti demanded. “We've come too far to get caught now.”
“I'm trying to find a way Kanti,” Falcone assured her. “Just give me a minute.”
“I'm not seeing a way out of this one” Nimesha said. “If we try anything, they’ll blow us away.”
Anlon got up from his seat. “They should let us travel peacefully after the Queen's message. We don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Don't count it,” Falcone replied, searching for ways out. “We're the only ship up here. It’s pretty obvious we’re up to something.”
Before any of them could utter another word, a transmission came through their comline.
“Surrender yourselves immediately, or be shot down,” the voice ordered.
“Do it now,” Camillus demanded. “We have too much at stake now to try to escape.”
“Camillus, we can't,” Kanti replied. “Who knows what they'll do to us if we surrender.”
“I know what they'll do to us if we don't,” Falcone said. “I see no other way but to surrender.”
The voice came back on. “You are about to be shot down. Surrender now. This is your last warning.”
Nimesha responded to the voice. “We're surrendering. What do you want us to do?”
Kanti shot a look to Nimesha. “We can't give ourselves up!”
“There’s no other choice,” Anlon put his hand on her shoulder. “We'll still get out of this. Just a different way than planned.”
“Wait for a convoy of our ships to surround yours,” the voice said. “They’ll take you to the Colchian.”
“I'm guessing that's the big ship right there,” Falcone pointed. “Must be where their General is.”
“Great,” Kanti crossed her arms. “Now we're going to be prisoners.”
A convoy of small bombers surrounded Drakos Mavros and led them to the Colchian. They escorted Falcone into the hangar of the massive ship and he set it down in the middle of several enemy ships. The entire bay was filled with warships and crodillians were busy at work with repairs or moving equipment. It appeared as if none were surprised to see them, as none stopped what they were doing to look their way.
“Don't reveal Kanti's identity,” Camillus ordered. “They don't know the Queen has a daughter yet, and though that could save us, I only think it'll cause more problems.”
“There's no getting off of this ship alive,” Anlon looked around. “We were probably better off trying to escape when we had the chance. We’ll have to do whatever we’re told here.”
“At least here we won't be dead,” Camillus said.
Falcone got up from his seat. “Yeah, you hope we won’t be killed. But now how are we going to tell the Council and everyone else how to defeat the crodillians?”
“Nimesha!” Kanti grabbed her arm. “Hide somewhere in the ship!”
“You want her to what?” Camillus asked. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
“No,” she replied. “If we’re going to have any chance of escaping, it’s with Nimesha’s skills.”
“No way,” Camillus said. “We’re not taking any risks here.”
“She’s right,” Nimesha said. “I’ve been doing stuff like this my entire life. High risk missions where I keep to the shadows are my specialty. I won’t get caught.”
“Do it,” Kanti said. “There should be compartments or something you can hide in while they search the ship.”
“There’s ducts you can fit in,” Falcone told her. “They won’t think of looking in those.”
“Lower your ramp and exit your ship now,” a voice ordered. “Don’t delay or we’ll force our way in.”
“Lowering the ramp now,” Anlon replied. “We don’t want any trouble.”
“I’ll meet up with you guys soon,” Nimesha dashed to the rear of the ship.
Anlon lowered the ramp and was the first one to exit, with Kanti close behind grasping his hand. There was a squad of crodillians at the base of the ship with their weapons pointed directly at them. The two of them waited for the others to come down, fearing what could happen to them.
“You’ll follow me,” a crodillian in black ordered them. “I’ll take you to the one in charge. She’s the one who requested to see you.”
They all nodded and walked slowly through the hangar. Anlon tried to absorb the surroundings as best he could, looking for any possible ways out later. He looked to Kanti and she grabbed his hand tighter. He gave her a look to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. The crodillian led them up a flight of stairs and into the dark corridors.
The alloy the ship was made out of was like nothing Anlon had ever seen. It was a dark grey, almost black, and it seemed to emit a pulsing green light underneath the dark outer layer. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but to him, the ship itself seemed to be almost alive. It was like a breathing creature that took on a life of its own. They all walked quietly behind the crodillian down several more similar looking hallways and stopped at a giant door. The crodillian pressed some buttons on a pad and the door hissed open, revealing an overly large room that was over-looking Ovrea.
“Bring them over here,” a voice came from a corner in the room. “I want to see them for myself.”
The crodillian started leading them towards the window, where a female human figure came into view. She still wasn't facing them, but instead had her hands behind her back and was looking out of the window.
“They’ll be fine there,” she turned around. “I believe they’ll cause me no trouble.”
The crodillian who’d led them in the room turned around and left them alone with the woman. Anlon couldn't figure out why she’d want to lead crodillians, she wasn't one of them. Her jet black hair, dark skin, and green eyes had to look as alien to those monsters as they looked to him. This woman was just a normal human, who’d betrayed her own kind to lead these monsters.
“So you're Jahdiel,” Kanti said, getting a hushing look from the others.
The woman chuckled. “Yes. That’s me. And who are you?”
“I'm Kanti and these are my friends,” she held out her arms.
“So, Kanti,” Jahdiel said. “Why are you and your friends trying to escape me?”
“We weren't,” she lied. “We saw the Queen's message and thought that we could move freely without harm. That's why we came here peacefully to speak with you. We aren’t afraid of you.”
“Ahh,” her black hair bounced as she nodded. “That would make sense, if you hadn't escaped me on Gaea and destroyed several of my fighters.”
Kanti glanced at the others, who didn't know how to respond.
“Last time was just bad timing,” Anlon said. “We were leaving right when you came and our pilot kind of freaked out. Your men shot at us first so we had no other choice but to shoot back.”
Falcone glared at him. “Yes, Jahdiel. I already had the ship in route and you all of a sudden attacked. I ordered them to keep our ship in the air.”
“You took out several of my ships.”
“Your ships attacked us!” Kanti replied. “If we hadn't defended ourselves we’d be dead.”
“My ships were ordered to attack threats,” she pushe
d her hair back. “Obviously, you and your friends were seen as a threat.”
“We don't want any trouble,” Camillus intervened. “We’re sorry for taking out your ships, we acted out of fear is all. We’re all on the same page now.”
“I would've done the same,” Jahdiel nodded. “But I don't believe you were just traveling and happened to run in to us twice. You were here for a reason and you were at Gaea for a reason. What is it?”
“It was just coincidence,” Anlon answered. “We travel to many planets.”
“I know when I'm being lied to. I’ve lived with monsters who’ve tried to take my position for the past fifteen years,” she replied. “You’re lying to me. If you don't want to tell me what you were really doing here, then I'll hold you as prisoners until I return to Hera.”
“You can't do that,” Kanti protested. “You made a deal with the Queen.”
“And I'm upholding our deal,” Jahdiel motioned for the crodillian to come back in the room. “I'm not killing you. That was all the deal was.”
“How can you do this?” Kanti asked, as the crodillian came in. “You're destroying your own home.”
“Hold them in a cell until we reach Hera,” she told the crodillian. “I don't trust letting them go. They’re up to something.”
The crodillian nodded and motioned for them to follow him back down the hallways. Anlon pulled at Kanti to get her to move and they followed the crodillian out. They walked down the halls and came to another room with cells that had green force fields instead of doors. The crodillian pushed them inside and reactivated green force field on, locking them all inside.
Donnchadh got off of his glider, covering his face from the smoke billowing from the engine. He had ridden it until the engine finally gave out and now he was stranded in the wasteland. There was no chance he’d followed this far, but he kept going until there was no chance anyone could find him without putting their own life at risk. The crodillians were merciless and bloodthirsty monsters, he’d rather the grey desert take his life than them.
It was only just now occurring to him that maybe the wasteland would be just as merciless, in its own way. He’d put so much focus into escaping the crodillians, that he’d forgot to keep track of where he was going and how far he’d gone. It was definitely far and there was no chance he’d make it back to any city by foot. He had nothing on him that would help him survive, and he'd have to try to live off of the land until he fell upon a city or tribe.
Donnchadh looked around to see if there was anything he could use as shelter until he gathered supplies for the journey back, but all that surrounded him was grey dirt and rocks. There was absolutely nothing here that he could use to live off of. He did see a small canyon a little ways in the distance and decided that he'd head there to see if there was any type of shelter or food.
As he started making his way towards the canyon, he felt the winds begin to pick up and looked to the sky. Thick black clouds were moving in, and he knew he had to hurry if he wanted to survive. Erebos' were notoriously brutal and anyone caught outside during one without any protection would surely die.
Donnchadh picked up his pace to a jog to reach the canyon, hoping he could get there before the cackling storm. By the time he reached the canyon the black clouds were right on top of him and he had no choice but to keep going forward without scouting the canyon for possible threats. He ran forward as orange liquid started trickling down from the sky. It was a form of lava, but it was harmless compared to the real thing. It was no more than a form of water. Donnchadh saw a small hole that looked like a cave and he sprinted towards it, but was knocked from his feet before he could reach it.
He lifted his face from the dirt and saw a huge creature hovering over top of him. It had eight legs with razor sharp claws on the end and scaly black skin with six red eyes fixated him. Donnchadh slowly reached down to his pants to grab his pistol but grasped nothing but air. He cursed to himself and grasped the blade on his belt before lunging up at the creature. The reaction was to slow and the eight legged creature swiftly moved out of the way. After regaining his balance, he decided to wait for this strange creature to make a move. It wasn't long before the creature shot straight forward and then shifted direction to straight up, catching him completely off guard. Instead of trying to strike the creature, he jumped out of the way, unsure of what this thing was capable of.
He’d never faced a creature like this before, so he wasn't completely sure how to kill it. The creature came back down and spun in a circle, clawing at the spot he’d just been standing. It turned back around and faced him again, coming right at him with a high pitched squeal, but this time took a hard right to circle around him. The grasp around his blade tightened as he struck the creature the second it began to pounce on him. The scaly creature shrieked and backed away from him with a hissing noise.
Donnchadh grinned to himself, as he saw he’d put a decent sized gash in the beasts chest. There wasn’t much time to think about what to do next, as it came straight towards him again fury in its eyes. Without a second thought, he lunged towards the creature, blade extended before him. The creature tried to pull up to avoid him, but he was too quick and struck the creature again. Before it could back up and escape him, he jumped on its back and dug his finger into the scaly skin. The creature squirmed in pain and tried to throw him off, but was unsuccessful in every attempt. Donnchadh pulled his blade up and pushed it into the skull, yanking back with all his force once he was sure it was deep enough. The head split open and the body slumped lifelessly down to the ground as black liquid oozed from the fresh wound.
He stepped off the body and wiped the bodily fluids of the creature off of the blade. The orange drops began to pound the grey dirt and the winds picked up, creating a howling in the canyon. He quickly ran over to the small cave he’d seen before the monster attacked and got inside for cover. Quickly, he looked around to see if there was anything else in here with him, but as far as he could see he was alone. Searing pain began to throb in his head and he grabbed it with both hands before falling over on his. His throat began to constrict and he clawed at it desperately, trying to get as much air in his lungs as he could. The life was slowly draining from his body and he looked around frantically, hoping something could save him.
He stumbled out of the cave and fell hardly to the wet ground. The orange liquid pounded on him, but the only thing he could hear were his gasps for breath and his slowing heartbeat. Once his vision began to blur, it sunk in. Death had finally found him. Even with all of his training, nothing had prepared him for surviving in an environment that could kill with ease. It was unforgiving and he’d made the mistake of thinking he was stronger and smarter than he really was.
He turned over and looked up at the orange liquid pounding down on him. Several seconds later, he felt the pounding of the liquid seize. He tried to clear his vision to see why it had stopped, and made out a dark figure standing above him. Donnchadh tried to push himself up, but his body failed him and he collapsed back to the ground. The figure got closer to him and reached a hand towards him right as he blacked out.
Chapter 13
Pyrrhus landed on Ares and was glad to see things seemed to have calmed down some since his first visit. Races were going from place to place as if it was any other day, and if he wasn't leading the rebellion, he wouldn’t even suspect what was coming. He left the spaceport and waved down a cruiser to take him to the Capitol building where he’d discuss recent events. The driver got him to the building within minutes and he went straight to the Debate Hall. A calmness was in the room as he entered. Every race was at a station, busy working with a group, and the noise was kept to a low level. He walked around until he found the Prime Minister watching one of the video feeds of Hera.
“I've established bases on Hermes and Gaea.”
“Just those two?” Prime Minister Gidon asked. “I thought you weren't coming back until you had a few on every planet.”
Pyrrhus shook his head
. “I didn't think so either, but I ran into Moran Borislav on Gaea.”
“The guy that works for the Queen?”
“Yes. Part of the GSOU unit,” he nodded. “He already had thousands of survivors under his protection and said he had men ready to set up bases elsewhere in Orion. He seemed to have everything planned out before my arrival.”
“Doesn't surprise me.” Gidon said. “The Queen’s men are always thinking ahead and are natural leaders. I presume if you hadn't run into him and told him what we were doing, he would've started his own rebellion. What about Hermes? Who’d you put in charge there?”
“A lady named Zarah.”
“Zarah?” Gidon repeated. “Should I know of her? The name doesn’t sound familiar.”
Pyrrhus shook his head. “No. I didn't even know her name until she introduced herself.”
“Military?” Gidon asked.
“Just a regular human woman,” Pyrrhus answered. “She was on Gaea when the crodillians attacked and left her home to go to Hermes. She lost her whole family and wanted to lead a rebellion so that was the planet she chose.”
“And the races of Hermes just picked up and followed her?” Gidon asked surprised. “They followed some random woman they'd never seen or heard of?”
“She's a strong woman, Gidon. She had a whole group around her when I arrived. On top of that, she had the city ready to attack in case of an invasion. They were very well organized considering she had few resources and no military experience.”
“Just a random woman did all of this?” Gidon said aloud, stunned. “Do you think she'll turn out to be good in her new position?”
“Of course!” Pyrrhus replied. “I wouldn't have put her in charge otherwise. There's just something about her, an aura, she gives people hope and they follow her without question.”
“That's what we need,” Gidon said. “Leaders who give the races hope of ultimate victory.”
“She's definitely giving it to them. I have no doubt she'll lead them to victory either. The woman was made for this role.”
Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) Page 13
