Hannah eagerly turned to him. “Hey, Jake! Glad you could join us.” She turned to Chloe, who was still kneeling on the ground. “You should get up and say ‘hello’ to him, Chloe.”
There was just one problem—Chloe couldn’t move. Her body remained frozen in the kneeling position. “I…can’t move.”
Hannah said, “You gotta get up, Chloe!” But Chloe’s body did not cooperate. Hannah gently gripped Chloe’s shoulder. “Get up, Marine!”
………
“Get up, Marine!” shouted Major Oliver, his hand firmly placed on Chloe’s shoulder.
She opened her eyes to the sight of a downed and burning CH-47 Chinook helicopter—the very same one she had been riding until something hit it. Now she lay on the streets of what once was…Baltimore. Yes, that was what was below them when the Hashmedai fired at them.
Cars in the distance were burning, some with occupants still inside but long deceased. The sidewalks were littered with corpses of a dozen people—some civilian, others from the National Guard. The sky glowed pink from the glow of God-knows-how-many fires burning out of control.
“How long was I out for?” she asked.
“No idea. We saw you guys go down and came in to assist,” said Oliver.
She got to her feet, dusting debris off her uniform, and asked, “What about everyone else?”
“All KIA—you were the only one not burned to a crisp.” He jerked his helmet-covered head in the direction behind him. “We need to keep moving. We’re outnumbered down here.” Looking in the same direction, she saw even more destruction of this once-livable city and four other familiar faces—Henry, Marlo, Luis, and Chang—who were all fellow marines, part of Oliver’s group. Chloe grabbed her rifle as the two moved to group up with the rest.
“Where were you guys headed?” Oliver asked Chloe.
“Withdrawing from Atlantic City, sir. Plan was to regroup and reinforce O’Hare forward operation base,” Chloe explained. She made eye contact with Marlo and gave him a nod.
He acknowledged her presence with a simple, “Captain.”
“Let’s keep moving west,” Oliver said to the group. “This place is too hot for us lone survivors.”
The marines continued on, moving past several overturned cars and trucks, which were all half-melted—Hashmedai plasma at work. As they moved even more carnage was unveiled, including a mangled bus with about four or five crushed army rangers underneath it. All the windows of the bus were shattered, and its damage suggested it rolled on its side multiple times before flattening those soldiers.
Luis’s fist raised into the air signaling everyone to stop. There was movement, and it wasn’t from this world. Chloe quickly stared at the Baltimore Convention Center, where a “floater”—the nickname given to Hashmedaian psionics—hovered several meters above it. If floaters were near, then so were Hashmedai soldiers.
An abandoned car at an intersection provided cover for Chloe, Marlo, and Henry. Oliver, Chang, and Luis utilized another car for the same purpose. Rifles were in hand, safeties switched off, as contact with the enemy was imminent. Chloe peered over the top of the car’s trunk. The floater remained in his spot, hovering. He was looking for something…or someone…as indicated by the movement of his head slowly scanning the convention center’s rooftop.
Oliver fixed his gaze to the right, looking for an escape from the area. Word had quickly spread that taking on these guys was suicide. Chloe’s last encounter with them resulted in six marines emptying their magazines into one, every bullet bouncing off its shield. It countered by simply waving its arms to turn said marines into ash.
Oliver, Chang, and Luis’s car suddenly exploded, sending the three hurtling away in the air. “What the fuck?” yelled Oliver, getting up from the ground.
Green bolts of plasma rained down on the marines. A few more shots came toward them from ground level. Chloe and Henry put their sights on their Hashmedaian targets—three plasma-rifle-wielding soldiers at one corner of the intersection. The marines returned the gesture with their M16 rifles. “They’ve seen us!” Henry shouted.
Marlo’s rifle erupted with fire toward the three. He stopped to scan the skyline, but there was someone else up there shooting. Oliver and Chang made it to the back of Chloe’s car, but Luis slowly limped. The blast had hit him the worst, ultimately causing his demise as plasma from the sky burned a hole through his chest and set afire what remained of his organs. He fell backward—no legs to support him since those were burned to a crisp.
“Man down!” yelled Marlo.
Chloe quickly looked up at the two Hashmedai riflemen atop the adjacent building. Her index finger raised toward Luis’s killers. “Top of the building!” she screamed. Five more appeared on the building after a bolt of blue light hit it. “Right side, right side!”
Chloe, Marlo, and Henry’s rifles unleashed a storm of bullets at the new threat. She stopped firing briefly, turning back to look at the convention center. What became of that floater? He’s gone—not good. Almost instantly, the car was no longer safe cover as it got yanked across the intersection and became cover for the three Hashmedai riflemen. Oliver almost fell backward, as his back was leaning on it when it moved.
“Knights, knights, knights!” Chang screamed as he spotted two Hashmedaian guardians—“knights” as they had been nicknamed.
Their sword tractor beam was no doubt responsible for the car suddenly flying across the road, conveniently giving the Hashmedai ground side something to protect them from the bullets. The marines were now fully exposed and out of time to think of a new plan. Three shooters and two knights were on the ground, eight more up top.
“Floater in play!” said Chloe. “Let’s move.”
The floater wanted to have some fun as it levitated down to the streets beneath it. The marines got to their feet and darted toward the ground-level entrance of the convention center, leaving behind smoldering craters, where plasma balls, intended for the marines, hit the ground.
“This way!” Oliver ordered, leading the way past the shattered windows of the darkened convention center.
Chloe noticed that the arms of the floater glowed orange, and she knew bad things were about to happen. Chloe was the last to enter, running to tell the others to get back. An explosion rocked the front side of the convention center—massive white fireballs the cause. Flames and smoke flared up while green balls of plasma flew toward the marines.
“Fuck off already!” yelled Chloe, taking cover behind a nearby wall to return fire.
Blind exchange, plasma for bullets, between the two forces occurred nonstop for about a minute. Another explosion occurred farther back. That floater must be bombarding the place with his powers, Chloe thought.
The two knights stepped forward, through the flames and smoke, into the center. Each had a plasma sword in one hand and a handheld plasma shield in the other. Weapons’ fire from the marines came to an end—no point wasting ammo on the absorbent shields.
Oliver screamed from behind a pillar,”Get a frag in there!” But the knights’ shields extended to the top of the ceiling, so the grenades exploded with only a flowing blue ripple effect.
“I got civilians here!” Chang said from the distance. A small group of people, no more than four, were at the very back of the ground level. Terror filled their eyes, and dirt and soot covered their face and clothing.
Oliver said, “Henry, get the civilians to the back of the building. We’ll hold them off—”
Oliver’s body shot forward toward the knights, one having fired off a tractor beam. Oliver landed on the ground below their feet and proceeded to perform his last action—springing to his feet, only to be decapitated by the swift swing of a plasma sword. The knight laughed as Oliver’s blood splattered on his shield. Five more Hashmedai became visible to the group as the knights quickly pushed forward with their impervious shields.
“Everyone—back, back, back!” ordered Chloe. Oliver’s demise instantly put her in command. “Warriors
—five of them!”
Chloe, Henry, Marlo, and Chang took up position in front of the civilians. An inactive elevator was beside them, and Chang attempted to force it open. It was a long shot, but getting the civilians safely stored within the confines of its shaft was the best and only option.
Chloe reached into her back pocket, pulling out the Radiance distress beacon. How the hell does this thing work? Figure it out now, Vaughan, she thought, her fingers randomly fiddling with it. Nothing, fuck. The knights and warriors came into Chloe’s view once again. Her time to meddle with this alien device was running out. A bright light in the center of the device flashed as her palm slapped the side of it. This better work. “Shit…everyone stay down,” Chloe said as the Hashmedai closed the distance between them minutes later.
Her rifle let loose a flurry of shots alongside Henry and Marlo, giving the shieldless warriors something to think about before leaving the safety of their knights upfront. The exchange carried on for another minute or so before multiple explosions came from outside.
Even the pursuing Hashmedai stopped to talk among themselves. It was clear they were worried—something unexpected had happened. More explosions knocked everyone to the ground, including the Hashmedai. The convention center rumbled, slowly crumbling to pieces as debris fell from the ceiling like hail.
Chloe felt a wave of heat shoot past her as the final explosion went off, completely destroying the front end of the convention center. Light from outside illuminated the back area where the humans stood. A ship hovered in front of them, and below that were the burning and mangled bodies of the Hashmedai group.
Chloe got to her feet and analyzed the ship—she recognized it. It was the same ship that had landed on the White House lawn not long ago. Radiance sure knows how to make an entrance. The ship slowly lowered toward the ground, hovering just a few feet above it while its side entrance swung open. A lizard-like man with four eyes leaped out, wearing a black suit of alien combat amour.
As his feet connected with the floor, he turned to Chloe and said, “Hurry aboard. This region of the planet is no longer safe.”
“Yeah, no shit,” muttered Henry.
Chloe approached the lizard man. “Thanks for the assist. I had my doubts the beacon would work.”
“That…was you?” he asked, puzzled.
“Yeah, Stolanei gave it to me,” said Chloe.
The lizard looking visitor gazed at the civilians with his four eyes. “You have noncombatants?”
“I hope you have room. We need to get them out of here,” said Chloe.
The lizard man peered into his ship. Chloe curiously moved her body closer to see what had him concerned. She saw that more civilians were in the back of the ship, some of them visibly beaten and downtrodden. “We will…make it work,” said the lizard man.
She turned to the flock behind her, motioning them over with her hand. “Let’s go! This is our ticket outta here!”
The transport took to the skies with the survivors on board, many still visibly shaken. She took a seat up front next to the lizard man, who piloted the craft above the burning city below. What did he say his name was? Right…Gengei.
“Glad you guys are on our side,” she said to him. “Where are the rest of your people? Didn’t you have a bigger ship in orbit?”
“It was attacked. We were forced to withdraw or risk being shot down,” said Gengei.
“Will it be able to support us?” she asked.
“The Hashmedai have a great number of ships in orbit. Our ship, the Abyssal Explorer, will not be able to assist.”
“So we’re on own, then,” said Chang from behind.
“Not so—I am here.” Gengei turned and nodded toward a young Aryile woman who was talking with the human survivors in the back. “And…so is she.”
Chloe looked and said, “The translator?”
“Yes, Odelea. She is young, but she convinced me to help the civilians. I just…do not know where to take them.”
Chloe zeroed in on the devastation below. The transport was now high enough in the sky that a large view of the East Coast could be seen from the window. The landscape was littered with burning buildings and smoking glass-lined craters.
“We have a forward operation base set up in Chicago,” Chloe said. “Should be safer there—it was last time I checked.”
“Jesus Christ…look at that,” Marlo said as he peered through the cockpit’s window.
“I will help your people to the best of my skills. But until the Hashmedai fleet moves or spreads out, my people above are useless,” Gengei said, activating a holographic projection of North America. “So Chic…ago? I am…unfamiliar with the names of the places on this world.”
Chloe’s finger landed on the approximate location of Chicago on the projection. “Right here.”
“Thank you. We shall be there shortly.”
………
Phylarlie pondered the thought of Lettielia and Nodevar’s whereabouts. They were reassigned to a new task—this part they knew since Whigli had received a transmission to return to the command ship, a transmission he flat out ignored.
The subsequent invasion of the human world gave Phylarlie and Whigli the chance to pilot the transport throughout the world with no worry of being detected. Humans were busy dealing with the stratosphere frigates, while Hashmedaian forces saw the transport as friendly. Their search for Chidorli and Kroshka, however, turned up no results. The human city Phylarlie last saw them in had become a burning, glassy crater, slowly filling with water from a nearby river. The surrounding area was crawling with Hashmedai ground forces, which razed cities, slaughtered survivors, and retaliated against human soldiers.
Whigli sat upfront in the transport’s cockpit, his arms crossed, while his psionic mind piloted. Phylarlie noticed his head bobbing up and down, fatigue clearly kicking in. Whigli had not slept since the UN incident, and neither had Phylarlie—though she had been relying on the transport’s stim injection supply to stay awake during this stressful time.
“Take this,” she said, holding a small purple cylinder to his face. His tired eyes looked puzzled. “Stims—they’ll keep you awake and focused.”
“It had better not interfere with my psionics,” he said, removing it from her light-blue hands.
“Mine work, so you should be fine,” she reassured him. “No sleeping allowed until we find them, so take these.”
He guided the device to the side of his shirtless body. A soft hissing sound emitted as the chemicals entered his body. Phylarlie grinned. The sight reminded her of the anti pregnancy chems her mother provided her and Noylarlie when they were younger and copulating with men for the first time. Copulation was something she’d been lacking in life since becoming an assassin. Number-one task when I return back to Hashmedai-controlled space—find a male to seduce. She stared at Whigli with bedroom eyes and grinned.
“Any other places you can think of to search?” he asked.
She activated a holographic display that showed an image of the continent. Some areas on the map glowed red, which meant the area had been glassed or razed. Thirty-eight percent of the map was red, most of it on the eastern side. “None, unless they used human flight craft to travel prior to the attacks. In that case, they could be anywhere.” She added, “Can’t you send her a telepathic message?”
“I was never good at that. Besides, the mind shield onboard might interfere since she’s been labeled an enemy.”
“Then let’s get off and then try.” She placed herself next to him. Her holo display switched to a projection of the planet and then zoned in to the North Pole. “We can land here. It's cold and icy like that region we were at earlier.” The two looked at each other, and she smiled. “Another place on this world I’ve always wanted to visit.”
Chapter 17
The sight of military tanks rolling below through the streets outside their hotel window became a common sight for Alisha. Los Angeles was one of the few cities in North America that rema
ined unaffected by the invaders. A great number of refugees from Canada, Mexico, and the rest of the United States slowly poured into Nevada and California. Along the West Coast, only San Francisco and Reno had seen alien activity. Outside of that, it was as if nothing had happened, provided one ignored the displaced people and increased military presence.
The future naturally was Alisha’s mightiest concern. According to news reports, Montreal and most of the East Coast were gone. Like it or not, her family was stuck here in LA and would have to claim refugee status. But with so many coming in, would there be enough food and water supplies for everyone? Her concern was that rioting and chaos might be a common sight while the military would be forced to take control—assuming, of course, there was a future. At the rate things were progressing, Earth could turn into a mass grave of 7.4 billon. If the Radiance Union are truly here to help, they need to get their act together now.
Jason crept up next to Alisha, who was lost in thought as she looked out the window. Her body jerked slightly as he embraced her with one arm. “Sorry,” he said.
“It’s fine, Jay,” she said. “On a positive note, I guess we are moving to LA.”
The two chuckled, laughter the only thing keeping their hopes up. “And we’ll be closer to Korea—easier access to my cousins,” Jason added.
Alisha turned to him, a troubled look on her face. “Jay…”
“I’m sure Korea is still standing; these aliens are doing a terrible job at wiping us out despite all the ships and tech they have.” A smile of hope manifested on his face. “I’m sure the unconfirmed, secondhand reports of Korea burning are untrue.”
Hannah unexpectedly joined the two. She stared blankly out the window as if she were looking for someone or something. A sight in the skies zipped through, heading north and filling the air with screams of horror from people below. It was a Hashmedaian ship, the last thing people wanted to see. Both Jason and Alisha’s eyes opened wide as fear streamed through their trembling bodies. Little Hannah said, “Don’t worry, guys. It’s just Phylarlie. She’s looking for the princess. She doesn’t want to fight us.”
Celestial Ascension (Splintered Galaxy Book 1) Page 27
