by Justin Sloan
Drones exploded, soldiers fell to the ground as their legs were knocked out from under them, and Kolack heads imploded.
“Save some for us,” Samantha shouted as she took a knee and aimed in, shooting down one of the drones.
Hadrian paused, then nodded. “You all do need the experience,” he admitted. “Very well. But make it fast and bring Commander Blaze to the ship when you’re done.”
Samantha smiled, then pressed the button that caused her helmet to unfold, covering her head and face.
Napalm glanced over, excited to finally see what this young woman was capable of.
SAMANTHA WASN’T ABOUT to let her first display of her military prowess in front of her team be anything less than legendary. Using her full speed and upgraded strength to lift her rifle and keep it steady, she ran at her enemy, blasting them as she went. Years fighting against the Syndicate had turned her into a battle-hardened war machine, one that knew how guns of every size and shape worked.
Drones fell before her, Kolack in mounds. When the armored soldiers emerged from Commander Blaze’s ship, shielded in gray and green armor and weapons at the ready, she almost felt like she was back home. Except she had never been able to fight quite like this back home.
It gave her a rush, the sounds of her teammates fighting at her side, the knowledge that the explosions before them were their enemies being destroyed.
Then she reached the line of new arrivals and exchanged the rifle for her sword, smiling as she saw its green glow reflect on her enemy. Some sort of targeting system, she surmised. She knew it was a light that only she could see through the visor, but it made her feel more powerful.
Commander Blaze’s ship lifted back into the air and a command came out in his voice. “Surrender, members of the Alliance, or you will be fired upon.” More ships were coming up behind him now, their massive guns big enough to cause Samantha to take a step back.
However, Napalm moved forward, smiling. “My turn,” he said, then lifted his hands toward the enemy fleet. A shockwave went through the air, and then the middle three ships exploded. The nearby ships careened out of control, knocking into each other and then, finally, the commander’s ship. It spun, trying to regain its position, spraying bullets into the ground at Samantha’s feet.
She dove out of the way, rolling back, and came to a kneeling position where she could watch Napalm as he created a smaller explosion on one of the ship’s wings.
The ship couldn’t stay up now, and slammed into the ground moments later. Two of Commander Blaze’s soldiers emerged, pulling him to safety, and then all three of them were charging in for the fight.
Dex took out one, sweeping through the darkness like a ghost, his blade sending the man’s body in two separate directions.
Carma was on the third while Kwan continued to blast away at the others on the hills, leaving Samantha to happily deal with this commander prick.
Blaze surprised her by throwing a disk that exploded nearby and sent a shockwave through her system. He had a gun out before she had recovered, and laser beams tore through the ground at her side. But she was rolling, using her speed and ready for each shot.
The last blast flew at her, about to hit. She raised her arm and the shield formed, absorbing the shot before fizzling away.
Shield down, recharge in 1 minute, her HUD said. She had better end this right now, before another use of the shield became mandatory. She dove forward, came up in a roll, and sliced. But the commander blocked with a force field shield of his own, then kicked her in the thigh before handing a punch across her face.
The strikes didn’t do much damage through her armor, but were jarring. Apparently the commander had meant them as a distraction, because now he had his gun aimed in on her facemask, point blank.
Could the armor take that? She was skeptical.
Not that it mattered though, because Kwan had seen what was happening and turned his fire on the commander. Two shots pinged off the man’s armor, giving Samantha enough time to recover, knock the gun aside, and slam the commander across the face with all the strength she could muster. To her delight, the blow sent his helmet flying off his head.
He turned to her with a look of horror and shock.
With a kick, she sent him flying backward. He landed, shook his head as he pushed himself up, and then prepared to charge back into the fight.
He froze, a blade at his throat. Carma held the handle of the blade, and looked up to remove her mask and show her smile.
“I do so love a good victory,” Carma whispered into the commander’s ear, then heaved him up and started marching him back to Hadrian. Samantha prepared herself to join the rest of the fight, but was a little let down to see that the others had either taken the rest out or sent them fleeing back to the hills.
Carma stopped three paces from Hadrian, kicked out the commander’s knee, and threw him at Hadrian’s feet.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Hadrian asked.
Commander Blaze grunted in pain, pushing himself up to a kneeling position. “We go to the biggest bidder. You’ve always known that.”
Hadrian sighed, a heaviness in his eyes. He turned back to Carma. “This man and his followers are no longer friendly to the alliance. You have permission to turn him over to your planet.”
Carma’s eyes flared with excitement, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.
“Go on.” Hadrian nodded toward the ship. “You can notify them from there and have my crew give them the coordinates.”
They waited, and when she returned she looked truly happy for the first time since they’d known her.
“They’ll be here soon,” Carma said with a grateful nod to Hadrian. “I’m sure they would like to thank you.”
“I’m not taking sides in your war,” Hadrian replied. “All we’re doing here is removing a group that has proven themselves disloyal to the alliance.”
“In time you’ll learn that we don’t fight them simply because of the dangly bits between their legs,” Carma said. “In fact, there are those among their kind that we wouldn’t call enemies. It just so happens that most males of my species are on the wrong side of this war.”
Hadrian gave her a curt nod, then walked off to board his ship.
13
HADRIAN’S SHIP: SIMULATION CENTER
Samantha stood with the others in a new room, similar to the training room where she had earned her armor. It fit so comfortably, she barely noticed she still wore it. It even had a cooling system that felt rather natural, like a spring day.
They were rapidly approaching Entono Fos Prime, the planet Hadrian told them housed the Elders, and became his new home after his own planet had met a horrific fate.
“Before we arrive,” Hadrian said, pacing across the metallic floor, “I’m going to send you all as a group into your simulation. This will be the location we just left, with one goal… We have the man the Elders wanted, and they’ll get the information they need. But we want to find this boy, and see what else we can learn in the process.”
“So then why all of us?” Samantha asked. “And why this way?”
“If he’s jumping like I suppose he is, I suspect he has some way of knowing when you are jumping, and will therefore come to you.” He paused, looking at the rest of them. “The rest of you are going to hold off any straggling attackers, so that Samantha and the boy have a chance to talk.”
“So we’re chaperones,” Carma said with a laugh, turning to leave. “Call me when the date’s over. I need my beauty sleep.”
Hadrian gave her a look and she stopped mid-step, then returned to her spot with a barely noticeable nod.
“How’s all this connect?” Napalm asked.
Kwan said something in Korean, to which Hadrian nodded. Hadrian stared at the spot behind them, a large hexagon like the others in the training rooms; only this one would fit them all.
“In more ways than I can explain,” he replied. “The simple version is that we had
you all train for the specific purpose of hoping you would find a clue. This is a very large and very important clue. The boy might be related to why the enemy is able to use our gates.”
“I thought…” Napalm’s eyes went wide.
“What?” Samantha asked.
Hadrian gave him a nod.
“Only Hadrian’s people can create and control gates,” Napalm explained.
Now it was Sam’s turn to show her surprise. “But I thought…” She didn’t want to say it. She thought the rest of his people had been killed.
Smiling with a distant, sorrow-filled gaze, Hadrian turned from salt-and-peppered haired man to the old, disfigured man. The reasoning behind this resonated with Samantha immediately. She had never paid much attention to the slightly yellow tint to his skin, or the small triangle barely visible on his forehead, just under his receding hairline.
“Oh!” she exclaimed as it hit her. “He’s one of you?”
“And likely a traitor at that.”
“It’s the only way to explain the gates,” Napalm confirmed. “Someone survived.”
“Taken by the enemy, forced into this.”
Napalm frowned. “Or, betrayed you?”
Hadrian breathed deep, then shook his head. “I cannot accept that.”
For a long moment, everyone turned to Napalm. He very much seemed to want to say something to that, but finally clenched his jaw.
“We’re ready,” Carma offered, breaking the tension.
“Most of you have likely increased your skill points since the skirmish down there,” Hadrian reminded them. “I want to make sure you are all at your best. Please, take a moment to upgrade.”
Samantha was pleased when she put on the helmet and saw she had four skill points ready for her. Her sword was due for a skill add-on, as well.
A new function showed up that she hadn’t noticed before. It allowed her to swipe right on her display simply by gesturing with her hand in the air. When she did, she saw two skill trees, each showing combinations of different skills that unlocked based on skills from before.
Wow, this was going to get complicated.
However, at the bottom of one skill tree was the image of her surrounded by lightning. There was no doubt in her mind that she would achieve that skill tree, so she worked backward and selected one of the top two skills available to her for that particular branch. It was entitled Lightning Shield, and she had to imagine that was something cool.
She applied the rest of her skill points to grip, after having seen how she could run along walls with that skill.
Her sword was next, and she picked an image that looked like lightning, figuring it would be cool to match the sword with the specialization branch she had chosen. An image on her screen showed her, sword charged and glowing. When she thrust it forward, electricity lit around the sword for a moment before vanishing.
That could be damn useful, she thought with a shiver of excitement.
Finishing, she lifted her visor to see the rest were looking at her.
“How many points did you have?” Carma asked.
“Five, why?”
Carma laughed, and Kwan nodded his approval.
“They each had one or two,” Hadrian noted. “Though they hadn’t been on the other side of the hills as we were.” He gestured. “If you are all ready, begin.”
Samantha lowered her visor and was the first to step onto the silver hexagon. She expected to instantly reappear planet-side, but nothing happened until they were all in position. Then, Hadrian made a hand gesture that must have been a command.
Instantly, they were back on the planet, but now at the edge of the small camouflaged outpost they had originally set off for.
“The old man must’ve set a jump point here,” Carma stated, glancing around at the line of dead soldiers and drones nearby. “Guess they haven’t cleaned up yet.”
“Who would?” Kwan asked.
He had a good point. They had taken down these forces, and likely started the chain reaction that would win Carma’s people her civil war.
“Spread out,” Napalm said. “We’ll cover possible entries and exits, like Hadrian said, to give Sam room.”
As they moved out, Sam glanced around, debating her next move. Her heart raced at the thought of being back here again, so soon after what they had just fought through to get out. But now it was slightly less risky, at least. She glanced back and saw the light silhouette of her jump point—glowing faintly like a ghost.
She walked back over to the now-destroyed outpost, its camouflage canopies flapping in the wind, torn to shreds.
Walking into a place like this, she wasn’t sure what to expect. So when the boy suddenly materialized before her, she was almost relieved. She had always been the type to prefer direct confrontations over wandering around not knowing what would happen.
“Ralod,” she started, “I don’t think you’ve been honest with me.”
A wicked smile slowly spread across his face. “You all messed with my playthings. You’re going to have to say you’re sorry.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant, but when he glanced around at the dead drones, she got it. “They attacked us… you do realize that, right?”
“Oh, you don’t know anything about an attack,” he replied, and then started to laugh. As he stepped back toward the light that would take him out of there, he said, “I know Hadrian’s watching. Tell him to crawl back under the rock, and… well, tell him this for me. You. Never. Deserved. Her.” With that, he stepped into his light and was gone, leaving behind only the sound of a sudden cacophony of shots from all directions.
Samantha spun to see gunshots and lasers lighting up where her teammates had secreted themselves. A projection appeared on her HUD, and she knew they were all seeing it. Hadrian appeared at her side, looking more alarmed than she had ever seen him.
“Return immediately,” he said. “We’re under attack.”
Samantha spun to make her way back to the light that would carry her out of there, but saw that a crew of Kolack had blocked her way, along with a tall battle mech.
What happened if she was killed here? If she never made it back to the jump point? She had meant to ask Hadrian that, and preferred not to have to find out firsthand.
She pulled out her sword and ran forward, glad she had upgraded her speed so much. With her peripherals, she looked for any ledges she could use the grip upgrades on, but so far, none. Then it hit her—the mech.
Now this was going to be fun.
Parrying strikes aside and dodging shots, she leaped for the mech. It swatted, knocking her out of the air and rolling across the ground. Her back spasmed in pain as she recovered, but that wasn’t going to stop her.
This time she ran again, cutting through the Kolack and feeling her sword charge. That gave her another idea. She pivoted around the mech so that it couldn’t get a good angle on her, cutting down more Kolack as she went. Spotting a particularly large one, she used it as leverage for her jump.
The mech tried to hit her again, but she had an extra two feet and she leapt over it easily. The massive metal arm swung beneath her, and she ran up its side, her feet sticking as they had on the wall.
She reached the mech’s controls and smiled at the Kolack operating the thing. His little purple face scrunched up in anger, then terror as she brought her fully charged sword up and thrust it through the thick glass. The sword burst with electricity, shattering the glass before going through the Kolack and into the mech’s body. Kolack and mech fell, as Samantha pulled her sword free and leaped to safety.
Her jump spot was only blocked by several Kolack now, so she charged.
As she approached, she saw Dex floating over, cutting through the enemy, and she was reminded how much she still had left to learn about the sword. He was a true master. Kwan came charging down from his direction, gun blasting, with Carma bringing up the rear.
A Kolack came at her with a strike, and Samantha raised her arm so that her s
mall force field appeared. As soon as her attacker made contact, the shield lit up, sending a wave of electricity through the unfortunate Kolack.
He smelled of charred meat as he collapsed to the ground in spasms.
“Where’s Napalm?” Carma shouted as she arrived at the jump spot, the rest of them there except for him.
Samantha spun, considering running back out there. The problem with that idea was that she had no idea which direction he had gone.
Then she saw two dots of light moving toward them—fire. Napalm’s eyes!
He had an army of Kolack on his tail, along with several drones and two mechs. The mechs and drones were lighting up the ground behind him with bullets and lasers, gaining on him.
“Come on,” Samantha said. She started to run, but he held a hand out.
She wasn’t sure what was happening until he suddenly stopped, turned, and focused. A rumbling sounded as the ground vibrated, then one of the mechs, and—KABOOM!
All of the enemies vanished in an explosion of white flames.
Napalm turned back with a smile, took a step toward them, and fell.
There was no hesitation this time. Samantha ran for him, reaching him just as Carma did. They saw several shots had gotten him in the leg and torso.
“Get him to the jump spot!” Carma shouted, and Samantha turned to see Kwan, and Dex standing lookout.
Together, Kwan and Samantha lifted Napalm, while Carma turned to ensure there were no more following them. The flames were still licking the sky—nothing was coming through there.
When they reached the jump spot, Dex was at Napalm’s side. He took a layer of cloth from his robes, wrapped the man in it, then waved.
“Go,” Carma said, helping them pull Napalm into the jump spot.
With a flash of light, they were back on Hadrian’s ship. A screech sounded and the ship convulsed. Shots echoed, and again the ship shook, causing Samantha to lose her balance.
The ship was indeed under attack.
