by Jacob Holo
The area was clear.
“Come on!” Jack said. “Keep moving!”
The two pilots hurried across an ocean of liquid lightning. Prominences blasted upward and crashed back down into the ocean’s surface.
“That stuff looks dangerous,” Jack said.
“I would agree,” Veketon said. “Physical contact could be fatal, even for us.”
They sped across the ocean, raising their altitude whenever a new eruption took place. Soon, they sighted a gigantic slope of brass through the smoky mist.
Jack checked his chaos scanner. Two dots of incredibly powerful influx were heading straight for them.
“Vek, I think we’ve got incoming.”
“Yes, I see them.”
Two black seraphs flew out of the Ziggurat slope and stopped over the ocean’s crashing shoreline.
“You survived,” Zophiel said, his voice dripping with bitter vitriol. He pointed a portal lance at Veketon. “It seems I underestimated your resilience. No matter. I will kill you and offer your corpse to Vayl as an apology.”
“I don’t think he likes you,” Jack said on a private channel.
“Killing his sister might have created some antagonism.”
Jack laughed. “You sure know how to make friends.” He expanded the channel to include Zophiel. “Shall I assume there’s no chance to resolve this peacefully?”
“And what is this?” Zophiel asked. “Have you allied yourselves with these Keeper stooges?”
“I have,” Veketon said.
“For what possible purpose? How could you fall so low as to resort to their help?”
“I have not fallen,” Veketon said. “But rather awakened.”
“You are such a disappointment, my ancestor.”
“As are you to me, Zophiel. Same as your mother.”
Zophiel sucked in a slow, seething breath.
“I’m sorry,” Veketon said without a drop of sincerity. “Did I hit a nerve?”
“You will repent for your sins by dying here and now!” Zophiel raged.
“Oh, shut the hell up!” Jack charged straight at Zophiel. He crossed the distance in a flash of motion and slammed his sword against Zophiel’s lance. Energy crackled across both weapons, and Zophiel flared his wings and pushed back.
Jack pulled up, over, and behind Zophiel.
Othaniel launched a black whip at him, but Jack knocked it away with his shield. Zophiel thrust with the lance. Jack met his attack, their weapons clashing in an eruption of chaos energy.
Veketon swooped in behind Zophiel, forcing the Disciple down. He skimmed over the Ziggurat ruins, and Jack and Veketon chased after him.
Othaniel unleashed another whip, and Jack dodged over it. It looped around and came at him from behind. He bashed it away with his shield, then sliced through it. The whip disintegrated in winking points of dark light.
Behind him, Veketon and Zophiel clashed, their lances meeting in a brilliant flash of light.
Jack faced Othaniel and pointed his sword at her. “I’ve had just about enough of you and those blasted whips!”
Othaniel’s seraph hovered in the distance, a portal lance in one hand, dark lightning gathering in the other.
She’s not as strong as me, Jack thought. If she can do that, why can’t I?
The seraph did not speak.
You think so, huh?
Othaniel released another whip, and he accelerated towards it. He watched it come in and observed the smooth interplay of organized influx. Suddenly, it made sense! It was so easy! Why hadn’t he seen it before?
I see now! It’s not a matter of projecting energy away from the seraph! It’s a matter of moving the source!
Jack smacked the whip aside with his shield. He let his chaos sword dissipate and raised his left arm high over his head. A ball of blue light appeared in his palm, lengthening and forming into a long shaft of energy. He gripped the chaos javelin and pulled his arm back.
“Take this!” Jack sent the energy javelin rocketing across the Ziggurat ruins.
Othaniel spread her wings and dodged upward, but the javelin arced to meet her. She crossed her arms, and it slammed against her in an explosion of blue light. She backed off, staring at him, blood dripping from her arms.
“Not so confident now, are you?” Jack raised his arm and conjured a second javelin.
Othaniel loosed her energy whip, and Jack threw the javelin at the same moment. The whip lashed around his arm, energy sparking around the contact point, and Jack grunted from the hot pain.
He swung the edge of his shield through the whip, sheering it off. The javelin struck Othaniel’s shoulder and sent her reeling back. She crashed into the Ziggurat ruins, and Jack dove after her.
Othaniel rose, holding her portal lance ready. Jack ignited his chaos sword and plunged into the ruins next to her. Their weapons struck in a brief flash of light, but then Othaniel slipped away with a startling burst of speed. She arced around Jack and headed towards Zophiel and Veketon.
Jack launched off the ruins and followed. “Vek, behind you!”
Veketon ducked just in time. Othaniel’s lance passed over his head, barrier energy snapping between his throne and the Disciple’s weapon. He skimmed swiftly across the ruins and rose, regrouping with Jack.
Zophiel pointed his lance at Veketon. “You only prolong the inevitable, ancestor.”
“We need to take one of them down,” Jack said privately. “Turn the fight in our favor.”
“Those incoming spawns may complicate matters.”
Jack checked his scanners. A swarm of twenty-two spawns approached from within the fallen Ziggurats, weaving their way through ancient derelict tunnels. Behind them sped another swarm, barely detectable at this distance, and Jack suspected a third swarm was probably behind that one.
“Crap,” Jack switched to the squadron hypercast channel. “All seraphs, can anyone assist at these coordinates?”
One by one, the Alliance seraphs reported they were otherwise delayed, engaged, or fighting for their lives. No help was coming.
“Great. Looks like it’s just you and me, Vek.”
“There are worse allies I could fight alongside.”
“Huh,” Jack said. “I’m not sure, but was that a vote of confidence?”
“Perhaps. Let’s go!”
Together, Jack and Veketon charged their foes once more.
***
Jared ascended the Ziggurat slope, his chaos sword gleaming with blood-red light. He cut across another spawn, splitting it in half.
“ ‘Avoid confrontations where possible,’ he said,” Jared muttered.
Two more spawns dove towards him, and he quickly linked a targeting priority to Yonu. She spun with practiced ease and fired two bursts from her rail-rifle. Both spawns blew apart into sprays of red and black gore.
“ ‘Don’t get bogged down in fights,’ he said.”
Two more seraphs from Knight Squadron flew by overhead, chasing and being chased at the same time. Another spawn rushed Jared up the slope. He charged in, severed three of its arms, then struck it with a kick that tore through its flesh.
Jared raised his rail-rifle, holding it single-handed, and fired a three-bolt burst into another chaos spawn diving at him. The bolts tore through, turning the spawn into a shower of sticky pulp.
“Don’t get separated,” Jared said. “Hold the formation. Yonu, watch out! Three of them coming in from above.”
“I see them! Engaging!”
Yonu and another seraph fired two intersecting fusion beams, and the lead spawn exploded into bits of charred meat. Two more spawns swooped in, and Yonu drew her sword. Its edge ignited with brilliant fire, and she slashed through the first one. The second slammed into her and wrapped its nine tentacles around her wings.
Jared fired a three-shot burst, and the spawn exploded. Bits of it splashed off Yonu’s barrier.
“Everyone, form up and keep moving,” Jared said. “We’re almost at the rendezvous point.�
��
Jared dropped in close to the twisted Ziggurat wreckage, and the three Knight Squadron seraphs closed ranks behind him. Two more seraphs from Knight Squadron rushed across the churning energy ocean and joined the formation. Both had minor damage and low ammo stores.
“Jared, something’s approaching us from behind!” Yonu said.
“Can you be more specific?”
“I think it’s the Gate!”
Jared turned, focusing all his seraph’s scanners behind him. The gloom of rotten smoke and ash moved unnaturally, as if a huge unseen object were pushing its way through. His accelerated mind extrapolated the object’s course.
“Everyone, straight up! Get away from the ruins!”
Jared flared his wings and shot upwards as the Gate appeared, pushing thick clouds of purplish smoke aside. It twitched and pulsed: a speeding ellipse of unruly silver. His thrust weakened for a moment, the Gate’s very presence disrupting his source of power.
The Gate slammed into the Ziggurat slope and ate effortlessly through layers of brass walls. The slope warped around it, solid structures bending inward before rebounding back to their original shapes.
Power rushed back into Jared’s wings so suddenly he gasped. All was quiet for several moments, but then the slope’s surface exploded outward.
Huge fragments of broken towers scythed through the ash clouds. Jared dropped beneath one massive section, then climbed above an even larger piece. It arced underneath him and splashed into the energy ocean.
He opened a hypercast channel.
“Seth, we’ve sighted the Gate burrowing into these ruins. Shall we pursue?”
“Negative, keep heading for the rendezvous point. There’s nothing you can do without a portal lance. I’ve linked up with Tesset and Quennin, and it looks like two of your pilots are already at the rendezvous.”
“What about Jack and Veketon?”
“They’re currently engaged. We’ll swing back and retrieve them once we’ve regrouped.”
“Confirmed,” Jared said. He switched channels. “We’ll hold at the rendezvous point. Keep it tight!”
Jared flew over the slope, and soon, two more seraphs came into view and joined them. He breathed a private sigh of relief. Everyone in Knight Squadron had managed to link up.
Jared slowed above the rendezvous point and glanced across the Ziggurat slope. A structure underneath them stood out, its brass possessing a brighter luster than the rest of the Ziggurat rubble, almost as if the structure had been recently formed. It sprawled over several fragments with thin spires and miniature platforms that looked insignificant against the scope of the ruins.
Jared thought the structure to be some sort of base that melded with the ruins and led into the interior.
Whatever it is, it’s empty now, he thought.
A wide depression in the structure caught his attention. It was slightly angled and bowl-shaped with a lip rising above the rest of the ruins. Someone hiding within the bowl would possess a commanding view of the ruins and could only be attacked from one hemisphere.
“Knight Squadron, move into that depression. We’ll hold a defensive position there.”
“Good idea,” Yonu said. “That cuts their approach angles in half.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Jared dropped into the wide brass bowl. Knight Squadron seraphs assumed positions along the lip, rail-rifles ready.
“Here comes another wave flying down the slope!” Yonu said.
“Gun-line, fire!” Jared said.
Kinetic bolts traced up the slope and pulverized the first rank of spawns. The dark angry mob rushed forward, oblivious to their losses. There were so many that Jared’s targeting computer couldn’t give him a definitive count.
Jared joined Yonu at the bowl’s lip, sword in one hand, rail-rifle in the other. He raised his rail-rifle and fired in full automatic until the weapon’s reserves ran dry.
Yonu launched a spread of thirty tactical seekers. The agile missiles arced over the lip and slammed down into the approaching swarm. Spawn bits blew out of the explosions, but the swarm didn’t even slow down.
Jared studied the huge mass of writhing bodies charging towards his squadron. His mind worked out the odds, and he found those odds in need of adjustment.
“Knight Squadron, full missile spread!”
All seraphs crash-launched all remaining guided munitions. One hundred twenty tactical seekers and over two hundred fusion torpedoes rose from the bowl, engaged short-live gravity drives, and dashed into the swarm. Fusion explosions and seeker detonations rippled across the swarm’s front lines.
“Here they come,” Jared said. “Swords out!”
With practiced coordination, Yonu and the six Knight Squadron seraphs shouldered their rail-rifles and lit their chaos swords. The swarm charged down the slope, and the seraphs flew out to meet them.
Jared swung through the first spawn, splitting open its long serpentine body. He spun and sliced through another, and then another and another and another. Yonu followed him through the rushing mass of nightmarish creatures, killing anything that approached him from behind.
The swarm enveloped Knight Squadron, but constant rail-rifle fire and that final missile barrage had thinned their numbers. Eight seraphs, all seasoned veterans against overwhelming numbers of archangels, cut through the spawns with ferocious determination, and soon nothing remained of the creatures beyond little splats of black or red or golden fluid on the bowl’s surface.
Knight Squadron formed up, victorious.
Yonu opened a private channel. “We won’t be able to stop another attack like that.”
“Doesn’t matter. We hold this spot until Seth arrives.”
“What’s taking him so long?”
Jared was about to respond when he felt… something. His chaos sense wasn’t nearly as well developed as Jack’s. In fact, it lagged behind most pilots of his coefficient, but something was approaching them. Something from below.
“Yonu, do you feel that?”
“Yeah. My chaos scanner is going crazy, but there’s definitely something beneath us.”
Jared verified all ally positions. “It’s not an Alliance seraph, and it’s not a throne. Looks like it’s moving through the ruins.”
“Whatever it is, it’s getting close.”
The surface of the wide bowl sank down, and parts of an intricate eye in the center started to move. Pieces spun against each other like strange clockwork cogs, and huge fissures opened, radiating out from the center. The bowl’s surface separated into eight segments and slid aside, revealing a wide chamber—
—and the chaos fiend within.
“Knight Squadron, SCATTER!!!” Jared shouted.
The fiend rose from the chamber: a great winged humanoid of blackest night, its eyes burning with hate. It spread its six vast, leathery wings and gazed upon the seraphs with a horrific, flayed face.
The Alliance seraphs dashed aside, but the fiend moved faster. It raked its talons through a Knight Squadron seraph and disemboweled it in one swipe. The broken seraph fell to the ruins below, yellow fluid gushing from the chest, darkening as the influx dissipated.
In Jared’s mind, the pilot’s vitals pulsed red.
The fiend lashed out again, catching another seraph with the tip of a talon. The attack sheered both legs off at the knees, but the seraph managed to flit away, regrouping with the whole squadron high above the enormous creature.
Allies of the Keepers, you are not welcome here.
The voice boomed in Jared’s mind like thunder.
“Open fire! Kill it! Kill it now!”
Rail-rifle bolts impacted against the beast’s night-black skin. Jared switched to the fusion cannon mounted in his forearm pod and fired until it was empty. All seven seraphs hit the fiend with a continuous barrage of nuclear forces, striking its wings, chest, and face.
Nothing fazed it.
The fiend rose from the tunnel mouth and appraised them.
> Is that all you have to offer?
With a sudden burst of speed, the fiend reached for Yonu. She dodged underneath the talons, but the fiend clenched its hand around her and began crushing the life from her seraph.
“I’m coming!” Jared brandished his sword and dove at the fiend with all the speed he could muster. He crashed into the fiend’s wrist, and stabbed into the base of the thumb.
Blood as black as the fiend’s skin sprayed from the wound and splashed off Jared’s barrier. Yonu sank her own sword into the same spot, even as the fiend crushed her wings. She cried out in anguish.
With a shout of effort, Jared drove his sword in and through! The thumb came loose in a spray of black ichor, and Yonu darted to safety.
Jared spread his wings to dart away, but the chaos fiend clawed him with its other fist. Talons tore through his barrier and armor as if they weren’t there, and he screamed as his organs cooked themselves from the inside out.
“Jared!” Yonu cried out.
He crashed into the brass ruins, conductor fluid spurting from his broken limbs.
Jared forced his head up, his mind swimming with pain. The black shadow of the fiend approached with Knight Squadron far on the other side. It held its wounded hand up, and Jared watched new flesh bubble forth and reform the thumb almost instantly.
“No…” Jared croaked.
The fiend reached down and plucked his broken seraph off the ground. It brought him close so that the horrible face and the burning wells of its eyes were all Jared could see.
You managed to wound me. A pointless gesture, to be sure, but still one that I find mildly impressive.
“Yonu, help!”
The fiend opened its mouth to reveal huge teeth glistening inside. It positioned him so that its incisors were directly above and below.
“HELP ME!!!”
Chapter 19
Ziggurat Necropolis
Jack sped across the energy ocean shoreline with Veketon close behind. The two Disciples they pursued angled up the Ziggurat slope, heading for that terrifyingly powerful chaos signature.
“Yonu! Help!” Jared shouted over the squadron channel.
Jack gained a little altitude, and the fiend came into view, holding Jared’s seraph in a giant hand. The fiend opened its horrible mouth and brought the broken seraph close.
