by Nyk Nova
Satisfied that he could make his move, Tuk grabbed the troop and pulled him down, keeping his hand over the Oscerian’s mouth. Lyra threw her claw tipped staff at the second troop, bottom side first. She had little desire to wound one of her own people.
The third troop spun around only to be met, gun to head, by Kade. “You’re…You’re—”
“Trying to do you a favor,” Kade told him. “Hand over your weapons. All of them.”
Roland glanced at Tuk and Lyra who were dispatching their targets. The troops would be sore when they woke up but they would wake up.
“Take their radios,” Kade ordered.
“But you’re…” the only soldier still awake looked at the others. “You’re all Oscerian. Why are you doing this?”
“It is difficult to explain,” Roland said.
“If it makes you feel any better, we won the war,” Kade told the troop.
“We did—” A swift strike to the head silenced the rest of the questions.
Roland grabbed one of the side arms and stuck it in his waist band while the others added the more lethal weapons to their small arsenal.
“I am feeling a little better about our odds, now,” Tuk said.
“We still want to stay out of sight for as long as we can,” Kade took a moment to survey their surroundings. There was no sign of Lugaz or Oscerian troops. “Are we any closer?”
“Maybe we should warn the troops. Tell them what Jer’ren wants,” Lyra suggested.
Payce moved through the trees ahead of the others. “No. The energy’s shifted. We’re being watched.”
Kade spun around, weapon ready. “Where?”
“General Tare?” Lyra looked up. “I didn’t notice any feed cameras on the Vesper Haste.”
“Not on Tagle. It’s masked very well but it’s there,” Payce continued. “We’re being watched from Lugaz.”
“Jer’ren, no doubt,” Roland said.
“Let’s assume that’s true. It’s a good reason to take down Oscerian soldiers,” Kade said. “Whether the Lugazians are here for the stone or not, we wouldn’t be here if they had it. Roland, which way from here?”
“Beyond these trees is a path that will take us straight for the fortress. Whether he knew or not, my estimation is that Tare would have had us drop right by it. If it weren’t for that missile—”
“If not for that missile,” Kade interrupted. “we would have gone in completely unarmed. It worked out for the best.”
“Agreed,” Roland added.
The group made their way cautiously through the woods. All of them were bothered by the lack of gunfire. With Lugaz troops in planet, there should have been more fighting going on. It was a large enough area that it was possible they’d never run into each other. Especially if there weren’t many left but it was unlikely. If Lugaz was there for the Spirit Ignition Stone, there was a good chance they had a rough idea of where it was. At the very least, a recon team would have found the fortress. If not from the ground then from the sky or even higher. But there were no more bodies on the ground for either side.
A faint sound came from the other side of the tree-line. Kade immediately crouched. The others followed suit. He held up his hand, signaling for quiet. His eyes stared into nothingness as he listened intently for more of the same. Nothing else went off.
Kade stood back up and motioned for everyone to move forward.
The group stepped out from the trees and onto a dirt path. It looked well traveled but there were no signs of vehicles anywhere to be seen. Kade looked down the path then up it.
There it was, almost a quarter mile ahead of them. It was hard to make out the detail but the building was sitting in the open.
“That it, Roland?” Tuk asked.
“I have not laid eyes on the fortress of the Spirit Ignition Stone in so many years. The area around it is different but the building is much the same.”
“Let’s hurry,” Kade said. “If it’s true that thing is guarded by ABUs, I don’t want to be here when they show up.”
The group quickened their pace up the path, still vigilant of any threats. Kade crinkled his nose at the same sound as before. He looked to their rear and saw nothing. He looked on both sides of the path but saw only trees.
“ABU!” Roland shouted.
Kade refaced the front just in time to see the giant armored machine drop to the ground.
“Halt!” the pilot said, his voice sounded mechanical.
“What now?” Tuk asked.
Dirt from the trail kicked up behind the ABU as its thrusters pushed it straight for the intruders. There was no choice but to stop their forward movement.
Kade covered his eyes with his arm to keep the flying dirt out of them.
“State your business!” the pilot ordered.
No one knew what to say as they looked on at the giant guard with fear and awe, not only at the size of the machine but of its armaments as well. On both of its arms were twin gatling guns, sticking out like the very claws from Lyra’s staff. On its shoulder was an eight chambered rocket launcher and from its chest, judging by the red dot shining on Kade, was some sort of laser weapon.
“Who are…How?” the pilot said. “General Kade’Tor Lorenth? How did you? Red alert. He’s here. The Assassin of Emperors is on Tagle!”
23
The group spread out, each of them diving in a different direction as the heavy gatling guns blasted out a spray of bullets, hundreds of rounds a second. The ABUs feet suddenly lifted off the ground as its jets fired, taking it backwards, bullets still spraying.
Kade rolled behind the trees, knowing they wouldn’t provide much cover from the firepower of the ABU. His only hope was that if he stayed out of sight, the pilot wouldn’t concern himself with him. He looked out and ducked right back down as a hale of bullets splintered the tree closest to him. The trees beyond that got even more of the same as the ABU indiscriminately fired in all directions. The pilot didn’t even try to aim. As many bullets as he had, there was no reason to.
Kade took note of who was still on the path. Roland stood behind a tree on the other side while Payce held his hand over a bad wound. There was a glow coming from the wound. Kade’s guess was that he was trying to heal himself. He couldn’t see Tuk or Lyra anywhere.
The ABU skidded to a halt in front of the fortress. Kade watched in horror as the battle suit extended its arms to either side and its jet thrusters flared again.
“Get down!” Kade yelled as he rushed deeper into the trees. He dove for cover as the ABU took off along the path. It was a genocide run. Its bullets ripping into anything and everything inside of the trees.
Bark, leaves and tree branches broke and splintered throughout the whole of the area. Anything that was standing was instantly cut down.
Roland dropped down just inside the tree-line. It was a worthwhile strategy. The suit was too tall and the arms too spread out for the pilot to worry about hitting anything that close to the path. The old soldier covered his head and neck, keeping the chunks of wood from hitting him.
Kade covered his head as the tree he’d rushed behind was shredded.
Finally the ABU passed them. But Kade could hear the rockets ignite. He dared to look from behind the relative safety of the tree just in time to see the ABU take to the air.
It wasn’t long before the machine crunched back to the ground just in front of the fortress, the gatling guns spinning to a stop. Kade slowly stood, keeping himself concealed behind the tree, and looked at the damage to the forest. There was no reason he should still be alive other than dumb luck. A creaking snapped his attention and he looked up at the tree he’d used for cover as it fell toward him. It was easy enough to step out of the way and it would have been a non-event if other trees hadn’t started doing the same.
Kade found himself dodging branches as they fell to the forest floor and entire tree trunks as they crashed down around him. Three of them started falling inward on him at the same time. Kade dove, trying to cl
ear the path of their fall. A sound of wood bashing together replaced the expectant sound of trees slamming into the ground. Kade looked up to find all three had collided into each other and locked together, forming a canopy above him.
He could tell the others had dealt with similar problems. Problems that were only getting worse as two whistles echoed in the air. Kade snapped his attention back to the ABU. Two plumes of smoke trailed from the shoulder mounted rocket launcher.
Kade listened for the whistle as it got closer. The breaking branches clued him to the target. He spun around to see the projectile burst down below the tree canopy. He covered his head as the ensuing explosion launched him off his feet and back toward the path.
Kade burst threw the trees and hit the ground, air blasted from his lungs. He could already hear the wind up of the gatling guns.
The general scrambled for his feet as fast as he could and dove to the other side of the path. This time the guns did not fire. Kade looked up. There was a gap in the trees right where the second rocket had exploded. Not far from that lay Payce. His chest neither rose nor fell.
“How are they shooting first?” Kade muttered.
Roland crawled to Kade and shook his head. “They have orders. Unless one approaches with a password or the Emperor’s written consent, they are to fire on anyone.”
“So the stone is probably still in there.” Kade said. “Where is Lyra? Tuk?”
“I do not know. But Payce is—”
“I saw.”
“That is three from our group.”
“And there will be more if we don’t get through this.”
A blue light blasted through the woods. It was followed by another. Each one getting closer to them. Suddenly, Lyra rose from a stack of branches. She gripped her shoulder as she stumbled out of the tangled mess.
“Lyra, hurry!” Kade called to her.
She looked back at the laser blasts as they made their way toward her.
“Duck!” Kade called out.
Lyra did as told and dropped to the forest floor right next to the dead Payce. The pain in her shoulder and the threat of her own death kept her from reacting much. Kade and Roland didn’t know how well any of them would handle this. They were veterans. Being shot at was just another part of life for them. But their fellow prisoners— criminals, maybe— but a war environment was not something that even a murderer like Tuk and certainly not a technology hacker like Lyra was accustomed to.
Kade and Roland got low on the floor and waited out the laser fire. It was better than the barrage of bullets or the rockets.
“He’s trying to smoke us out,” Roland said as the ABU passed them by. “Your take on the situation?”
“Unless we can get into the fortress, we have to find a way to take that thing out. What if we—Hold on. Is that?”
Roland turned back to the fortress to see Tuk rushing out of the trees and heading straight for the building.
“Not a bad tactic, while its back is turned.”
“He should have told us,” Kade said.
“Perhaps we can buy him time, then. Lyra?”
“I think it’s dislocated,” she said.
“You can still run.” Kade’s words had a cold tone to them. But there was little time to soothe anyone. Even if Tuk got the stone, the machine would chase after them. They’d never get back to the drop point.
Two clangs hit the ground and the three Oscerians still left in the woods looked back to find two more ABUs touching down.
“Now, we’re definitely not getting out of here,” Kade said.
24
“We can run for the fortress,” Lyra said. “Tuk made it.”
“And what security did he run into in the process?” Roland asked as an argument against her idea.
“It can’t be worse than out here.”
“At this point I’d be happy to not be out in the open with just one of those. But now there are three,” Kade said. “We should wait them out in the trees. We stay low, they won’t find us.”
One of the newly arrived ABUs stomped toward the trees on the other side of the path. The top half of the machine turned ninety degrees, arm extended. With one spin, the arm crashed into a good sized tree trunk, just shoving it over.
Branches clashed into those of foliage still standing.
“They’re searching for remains,” Roland said.
“There goes that idea,” Kade said as another ABU started knocking down trees on their side of the path.
“We could go back to the drop-off,” Lyra suggested.
“Without the stone? We’d be banished here.”
“It’s closer to home. And we could find an Oscerian ship.”
“We risk kicking off another war,” Kade said over the falling of a tree. “We’re sticking this out. Jer’ren is planning something big. The best thing to do is stop it before it starts.”
Roland smiled. “Your father would have done the same. What is your plan?”
“We need a way to use the ABUs to our advantage.”
“If you can get me in one, I can get control of it,” Lyra said.
“I think I have a better idea. Both of you stay in here and out of sight.” Kade didn’t wait for any protests before he stepped toward the path.
He kept his eyes on the ABU crashing through the trees. He was surprised the pilot hadn’t spotted him yet. It wouldn’t have changed his plan but it would have put the others at greater risk.
Kade crouched at the edge of the path, just behind a tree. He watched the ABU on the other side. It had stopped cutting down the forest and was only rotating side to side, searching for any hint of the intruders. Back in front of the fortress was the ABU that had narrowly killed them all. Its only victim was Payce. Kade drew his hand gun and charged out of the woods, firing the useless weapon at the highly armored suit in front of him.
“Target sighted!” the pilot in the machine yelled. “Taking fire!”
The other two mechanized suits burst from the woods, sending branches and logs in all directions. Kade’s feet stumbled to slow down, putting him between twelve sets of gatling guns. Just him and one side-arm. He thought how it felt similar to facing down Tare’s Siege Machine. The current situation was much worse, but staring in the face of insurmountable odds was how he rose through the ranks in the first place.
The two at his rear weren’t as far as the fortress guardian.
The radio of the first of two ABUs squawked. “General Kade’Tor Lorenth. Put the gun down and surrender.”
There was no time to hesitate. Kade began running toward the two ABU’s behind him.
He took three steps before a noise like sound waves from a drum stopped him.
“What is that?” Roland asked, looking up at the sky.
An aircraft made its way toward them, the hover waves emanating from it were hard to miss.
“The Vesper Haste!” Lyra yelled.
“What are you doing, Tare?” Kade muttered.
“Air raid!” one off the ABUs called out.
All three of the armored machines turned their guns up at the Vesper Haste as it streaked down at them. Its guns fired round after round at the Oscerian battle suits. Kade dropped to the ground, his hands covering his head as the bullets straddled him and dotted the path before tearing into the first ABU.
The other two fired on the Lugazian aircraft but it was much too fast to get a good lock on. The fortress guard fired off its entire depot of shoulder rockets. The trails of smoke filled the air as the heavy ordinance flew after Tare. Kade could hear one of the two ABUs as its jet thrusters took it skyward. He glanced back at the fortress. Its guard was too distracted by the sudden appearance of the fighter ship to worry about a single attacker with a hand gun. Above him, the ABU tried to fly after the Vesper Haste but it was in no way fast enough. It entered hover mode and stayed airborne, firing at the ship.
A clicking noise grabbed Kade’s attention. The ABU at his rear tried to move forward but its legs weren’t wo
rking. Kade noticed a fuel line had been ruptured, spilling pneumatic fluid onto the ground.
An explosion burst in the sky and the Vesper Haste traveled straight through the fireball made from the aerial ABU. Its armored hide was as nothing against the superior firepower of the Lugazian ship.
Kade rushed to the malfunctioning machine and climbed its legs all the way up to the cockpit door. With the Lugaz military on Tagle, it was a wonder the ABU pilot did not latch the door. A fortunate occurrence for Kade. He swung the door open and aimed his gun at the pilot.
“You’re not going to beat that thing up there. Not now. Get out!” Kade said.
The nervous looking Oscerian pilot stayed seated.
“You stay, you die. Don’t make me be the one that pulls the trigger.”
The words were enough and the pilot unlatched his harness and scrambled to exit the ABU.
“Lyra!” Kade yelled, hoping the only other fully functioning machine wouldn’t hear him.
Lyra and Roland looked out from their hiding place in the trees. The ABU at the fortress was too busy taking shots at the fast moving ship. Whether or not Tare knew what was happening on the ground was irrelevant. It was just the diversion they needed. They rushed out toward the damaged ABU, its pilot fleeing back down the path and away from the conflict.
“We must hurry,” Roland said. “He will no doubt send for reinforcements.”
“You’re sure you can pilot this thing?” Kade asked. He reached down for her good arm and helped lift her toward the cockpit.
The tech savvy Oscerian let her actions answer the question. Kade held tightly as the torso moved left then right.
“Are we taking out the Vesper Haste?” she asked.
“Negative. Target the other ABU. Take out its arms and legs,” Kade ordered.
“But we can—”
“Status quo, Lyra.”
“Right.”
The damaged ABU sighted in on the fortress guard. Its right side gatling guns spun, readying a heavy barrage of fire.
