by Unknown
He landed laying down a line of steady fire on the remainder of the fighters inside the dome. There was nowhere for them to run as he mowed them down. Then he stopped firing and remained in a guarded stance to see what would happen next.
“Very good,� said Grod to the technicians around him, “lower the second dome.�
The dome around him suddenly split across the top and two equal halves separated and rolled back into the floor. Beyond was another identical domed room, only larger in size.
Within the dome were six battle robots that stood twice the size of a man. They were armored and were armed with large cylindrical fast repeating laser cannons. A shot rang out from somewhere on the dome that blasted the gun away from his hand.
They might have killed him, but that didn’t appear to be their plan. Evidently he was meant to fight for their sport; and unfortunately with no way of escape apparent to him right now, he had little choice but to comply.
Tiet retrieved the spiked bow. He raised it into the air with his right hand and started it spinning rapidly. The battle robots locked on target as Tiet sent the spinning bow into one of them like a buzz saw. The laser cannons that made up one of the robot’s hands were smashed to pieces as the bow ricocheted into its head, sending metal shrapnel in all directions.
The others quickly opened fire on him. He only had time for an instinctive move. Without even realizing it, he formed a bubble of intensely vibrating charged air that repelled the blasts from the robots. They were raining down a firestorm upon him, yet he remained untouched. The pulse blasts were disrupted as they impacted the kinetically-formed bubble.
The robots continued to fire, trying to penetrate the mental defense. Grod looked on with intense pleasure. He had not expected the Barudii to have this much power over the elements. He knew of no such incidence recorded about the Barudii of old times. This was even better than he had expected. His eyes were fixed on the young warrior through the refraction of light and image the charged bubble was creating.
Tiet quickly regained his composure and caused the bubble to swiftly expand with great force behind it; smashing into the five working robots around him. Each one was slammed into the inner mirrored wall of the dome with enough force to crush their exoskeletons and leave them as piles of twisted metal upon the floor. Once again he was left standing alone within the arena.
“Impressive power, is it not?!� demanded Grod to his technicians within the control room. “I really wasn’t expecting him to survive the battle robots.�
“Shall we open the last dome with the teragore sir?� asked one of the control techs.
Grod punched a key pad on the arm of his command chair. “Varen, do we have a viable sample of DNA?�
“Yes, General. The samples we extracted should work well for what you have requested,� said the Vorn scientist from a nearby laboratory.
“Very good then. Proceed according to schedule. And Varen…remember your family would not want to see you compromise the procedure and get them killed.�
“I understand, sir.�
Grod tapped the communication switch off. “Golon, retract the last dome!�
The Horva technician did as he was ordered and switched the control to retract the final inner dome wall.
ORIN was trying to follow the loudest sounds he was hearing. The ventilation system was not very difficult to move through; the tunnels were fairly wide to accommodate the large volume of air that moved in and out of the facility.
He came to a branch that veered off to his right. The sounds were definitely coming from somewhere off of this branch. The shaft narrowed considerably but he could get through on his belly.
He continued on for another fifty feet until he came to a side vent that had a lot of light coming through it, and the noises intensified. Orin crawled up to it and peered through. Within his sight line was a huge creature that stood about fifty feet high. From what he could see the room was a great dome and a smaller semitransparent dome was in the center. Tiet could be seen inside it.
The inner dome was quite large also but not in comparison to the dome without that held this great beast. It was reptilian in nature and had four stubby powerful legs. A long tail, thick, with a cluster of large spikes on the end curled around the animal. Its head was fierce-looking with needle-like teeth proportional to the creature’s size.
Tiet did not seem to be acknowledging the presence of the beast in the outer dome. Scattered around him were several smashed robots and a number of dead Horva men. It all looked like some deadly sport for these clones of the Vorn, and he was sure they must be watching from somewhere.
Suddenly the dome around Tiet began to separate in two and fold down into the floor. He looked in horror at the beast being exposed to him now. The creature also reacted to the dome dropping before it. Now the prey was exposed.
It began to step toward Tiet’s position, and lunged at him with its long neck, propelling the deadly head and teeth right at him. He got out of the way fast, taking to the air. The creature lunged for him again as he landed. He threw out his hands and sent a massive kinetic blast at the predator’s incoming face; knocking it away.
The beast reeled for a moment, and then regained its composure with more fury. A chemical spray issued from its mouth, which ignited in the air on its way toward Tiet. He formed another kinetic bubble to repel the flame that engulfed him. The flame was disrupted, but not the heat. It was too hot to repel this way; and he sent the bubble outward and into the creature with massive force. The animal was hurt, but only became more enraged by Tiet’s counterattacks.
Grod was completely enthralled by the display. He wanted this kind of power for himself, and he intended to have it. The teragore opened its great mouth again and a long whip-like tongue shot out toward Tiet. He flipped over its strike, as the beast tried to catch him.
The long tongue darted back and forth trying to capture its prey as he continued his acrobatic evasive maneuvers. Orin cried out to Tiet from behind the vent in the dome wall. He heard him and tried to pause as much as he could to locate his voice. He could see Orin’s hands coming through the vent in the wall.
This was a tight place to try and maneuver. The vent was quite thick and blended right into the rest of the wall materials. He couldn’t get enough room to cut through. Orin pulled a kemstick from his thigh clip and brought it through the vent space with his hand, as Tiet tried to evade the whipping tongue of the teragore.
“Tiet!! Take it!!� cried Orin.
Tiet saw the weapon in Orin’s hand and leapt upward after it. The kemstick leapt away to meet him in the air. He caught the weapon just as the tongue of the teragore found purchase around his legs. It brought him full body into the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of him and the kemstick out of his hand.
The great tongue began to retract quickly, dragging him toward the beast’s mouth. He realized the kemstick was not in his hand and reached out with his mind to retrieve it, as he was pulled across the ground. The kemstick obeyed and rolled after him; leaping into the air to find his hand as Tiet was lifted upside down toward the gaping mouth of the creature. He caught the weapon as the creature pulled him inside and the jaw closed after him. The teragore raised its great head and swallowed the young warrior whole.
Grod was grinning from ear to ear as the lump of flesh began to slide visibly down the creature’s throat. Orin’s heart was about to leap from his chest as he watched the heir of his king devoured by the animal. Suddenly the visible lump stopped its descent within the teragore’s throat. A rod of bright orange light erupted from the creature’s neck and quickly whirled around in a great circle from within. The teragore’s massive head pitched forward as the neck separated from the rest of the animal’s body. He leapt out of the orifice within, landing near the severed head covered in the c
reature’s secretions.
“Unbelievable!� shouted Grod.
He was out of his chair on his feet in amazement. “I have never seen such a display of power and skill!�
Suddenly Tiet sprang into the air and caught a hold of the vent where Orin was located.
“Get back!�
Orin was still in amazement himself at the wonderful escape his protégé had just executed. He slid backward fast to allow Tiet to gain entrance. Tiet stabbed the ignited kemstick into the armor plated grating and cut through it with ease. The hot piece fell out and landed on the floor of the dome below as Tiet crawled inside.
Orin backed his way out of the smaller vent shaft with Tiet following him on his belly. Soon they came out into the larger main shaft.
“Good to see you again!�
“And you. Quickly, put this on. It will hide you from their scanners.�
Tiet pulled on the Barudii cloak and the pair headed back down the main shaft on their knees the way Orin had come in.
“Where did he go?! And how did that weapon get into the arena?!� growled the General.
“We’re searching sir. It appears he has gone into the main ventilation system but his life signature has disappeared from our scans.�
“Find him now!!�
The_Chronicl-ir_to_the_King
VII
Estall had been doing a good job getting the Vorn battle ships ready for departure. With the enemy under control here, they had been able to gain control of the ships that were still docked on the planet. Ranul had come up with technology to allow them to operate the Vorn control systems. The devices converted the Vorn computer language to Castillian and vice versa, allowing them to pilot the craft through the rift if necessary.
A number of pilots from various Castillian tribes had already signed on for the mission, and now it looked like it would be necessary to go through and intercept the fleet before they attacked as Kisch k’ta had threatened. According to Ranul’s readings of the data, the rift would be stabilized within five hours and they needed to be in space waiting for it.
The Vorn fleet still had not contacted the Governor and Ranul could only conclude that the massive attack sphere was the cause of it. According to the files contained in the Vorn database, the Sphere had been constructed by the Barudii. It still blew his mind to think that on the other side of the rift there was a twin planet to his home world Castai.
He was as anxious to see it as he was to know what had become of his friends. Perhaps they might find the Vorn engaged in a battle with the Barudii sphere and be able to aid in the fight to destroy the Vorn armada. The communication link sounded. “Yes?� said Ranul.
“Ranul, all seven battle cruisers are under way. Are you ready to go?� said Estall.
“Yes. I’ll meet you at the pad in ten minutes. How does everything look?�
“Everything seems to be operating smoothly so far. Those translation devices are allowing everything to go smoothly.�
“What about the Vorn?�
“They’re tucked away nicely in one of their own prison compounds, guarded heavily by my men. The other Aolene warriors are settled in on the warships and ready to join Orin and the others in the fight across the rift.�
“Very good. I’ll join you shortly.�
He did not mention to Estall that the Saberhawk may very well have been destroyed by now. He assumed that Estall could have figured out how dangerous the mission was in the first place, or maybe he just had that much confidence in Orin and Tiet.
The Barudii warriors were powerful, but in a space battle that would make little difference. He hoped Estall’s optimism was well-founded. He also wanted to see his friends again—alive.
Ranul glanced over the data screens once more as he grabbed a pack of his own technical gear and headed for the exit to the lab he was working in. He boarded a nearby transport tube and was whisked away toward the main launch platform where he was to meet Estall.
Within three minutes he was across the large compound and exiting the tube to find Estall waiting for him with a shuttle. They greeted each other unceremoniously and climbed into the small ship. Estall, a capable pilot himself, operated the shuttle controls as they ascended to the Vorn battle cruiser hovering one thousand feet above the compound.
The other warships were already en route for the Transdimensional Rift and would be leaving the atmosphere by now. The small six man transport was dwarfed by the ominous size of the Vorn ship which received it into itself like a mother pulling in its young.
The battleship was easily ten times the size of the Saberhawk and much more heavily armed. These same types of ships had destroyed the Castillian space fleet in the early years of the war with the Vorn. Now, they would allow the Castillians to exact retribution for those losses and more.
They made their way to the bridge where a Castillian crew piloted the ship with the aid of Ranul’s translation devices. They had all spent so many years under the heel of the Vorn, that it was a tremendous feeling to have taken so much control back from their oppressors. The ships were quite powerful and Ranul was pretty confident that if they had to face the Vorn fleet they would fair well in the battle.
The cruiser soared upwards toward space, breeching the atmosphere. The rest of the ships appeared on the main monitors with the Castillian language equivalents. The new Castillian space fleet pushed onward toward the Transdimensional Rift. Neither Estall nor Ranul had ever been in space. The sight of the rift, as they approached, was ominous. It was so huge in comparison with their ships. Absolutely nothing could be seen beyond the void.
Ranul checked the science station readouts on the stability of the rift. It would still be several hours before it became permeable enough to cross. He continued his work on communication with the Barudii sphere. If the Sphere was in the area of the other Castai, then they would need to quickly establish contact with it to show themselves as Castillian and not more Vorn ships to be attacked. The void lay before them, and everyone wondered what they would find beyond.
WITHIN the ventilation system, Tiet and Orin were making good time, as they passed under a vent coming from above. Tiet, who was bringing up the rear, heard a clattering sound like something coming toward them. He looked upward into the tube and saw a mechanical beast of some sort coming fast at him. There was no room to have a full out confrontation in this vent, and the insect-like robot was going to have the advantage.
He scrambled out from under it as it fell into the same vent tube he was in. Suddenly he saw more appearing behind it, coming from the way he and Orin had already been. The robotic beasts had multiple legs on each side of their slender cylindrical bodies. Several red eyes were spaced across the slender heads that contained small compressed air jets.
As the creatures took up pursuit, scurrying along the vents, they began to fire small spikes from the air jets. The spikes were clattering along the metal sides of the vents as they tried to move as fast as they could through the curves of the system.
The spikes imbedded into the metal where they hit, injecting acid cores, causing the walls to sizzle as the acid burned into them. At this point, they didn’t know if they were on track for the outside or not, but the robot insects were gaining on them. If they tried to blast the mechanical creatures kinetically they might shatter the entire vent tube and drop themselves right into the middle of an army of Horva.
The tube that had previously provided many twists and turns to help them avoid the spikes now opened up into a long straightaway. Orin almost paused, but there was no time to find another route. He picked up the pace as fast as he could, but the creatures were quick and the spikes they were firing were even faster. With a straight shot at them the creatures would no doubt hit them multiple times.
Orin could hear Tiet behind him, dogging his heels
. The smaller man definitely had the advantage running in these tubes. Suddenly the shaft closed ahead of them. A security door had come down in front of them and the only outlet was a connecting tube from above. Orin came to a halt below it and turned to see if he could hold the creatures off while allowing Tiet to go up first.
The moment he turned to fight, the entire ventilation tube between themselves and the approaching robots, collapsed inward as though a giant hand had grasped it from without and crunched it. They couldn’t believe what had just happened in their favor and had no explanation for it. The integrity of the tube seemed to be intact. They could hear the robots on the other side of the collapsed tube clattering against the crumpled metal trying to get at them, but to no avail.
Without wasting anymore precious time, they shot up the outlet tube using their kinesis to propel them. The tube appeared to keep going and it looked like they might even reach the roof again by way of it. But how had the Horva known their location in the vent system to close that door in front of them?
Orin wondered if the robots had been transmitting images and navigational information back to the Horva once they had happened upon them. He couldn’t come up with anything else. The Barudii cloaks had been working when he got into the facility; he had no reason to believe they had failed to hide them now.
But if the Horva were looking at their own schematics of the system, they might well know where this tube was taking them and be waiting. Still, they had no choice but to try and exit the facility or be potentially caught in a battle they couldn’t win; if more Horva were waiting they would have to deal with the problem then.
