I felt a sudden pain in my head, which I instantly recognized as a mental attack. I quickly glanced to Heiliun’s second. I could see they were in some pain. I assumed from Ember protecting me.
While Heiliun was still holding his own extraordinarily well, I worried for Ember. “Havok, we're gonna take that bitch out. Are you ready to switch targets for a second?”
“Sure,” he said, though I could hear the strain in his voice. I jumped backwards and to the side, out of Heiliun’s range. He stopped his attack for a moment, clearly thinking I was trying to back out. He should have kept up his attack, as Havok swung in a wide arc to the right, and split Heiliun's second in half.
Heiliun’s eyes went wide with horror. “My wife!” he gasped. The fight fled from him entirely as he dropped to his knees next to the dissected woman to his side.
Havok raised himself up to finish the job on Heiliun. “No! Havok, don’t!” I shouted, but Havok was in the zone, and he took Heiliun’s head, shoulder and arm off in a wicked cut.
“Dude!” I shouted, “I told you no!”
“He needed to die. They all do, Shaun. Don't worry, I’ll keep you on the right path.”
I was speechless. This was the first time Havok had gone solo against my will, and it terrified me. I couldn't do much about it at the moment, though. I needed him to make sure our people survived, and I couldn't start an argument with him just yet. But afterwards, he was in deep shit with me.
I looked around to assess the situation. There were 11 Fystr left alive, desperately defending themselves against fireballs, laser fire and one incredibly angry human with a mass of flame-colored hair. I watched for a moment, impressed as he hacked through a gap in one Fystr’s armor with a pulsating hand axe, followed by a brutal punch to their face. They went down hard. He stomped on their head, crushing their skull with the force. It was an utterly brutal display, leaving only ten Fystr left.
“Stop!” I yelled. The barrage ceased instantly. I was almost embarrassed with how quickly my command had been followed. Even the head stomper backed off immediately. I’d have to find out who he was.
The change of noise level was almost deafening. Quietness punctuated occasionally by the whimpers of those badly injured. I made my way over to the remaining bloody and battered Fystr, while taking in the bodies of my own fallen crew. There were more than a few people down and not moving, killed on a distant rock almost a galaxy away from where they should have been. And I was furious about that. Ember fell in beside me as I walked, but stayed silent. Her presence both comforted me and enraged me, as images of her lying dead sprung into my mind. She was fine now, obviously, but what if she wasn’t the next time these fuckers showed up? I pulled away from my reverie as my eyes fell back on the Fystr in front of me.
“You,” I shouted, pointing a finger at them. “You could’ve left! Now look at what you've achieved. All of this death, for what?” I shouted at them, my anger on show. “So your race can continue to abuse the galaxy? For your pathetic worthless pride? All because we got one over on you. We're light-years away, and yet you still hunt us like dogs, for no good reason at all.”
“You are dogs,” one of them spat.
I threw Havok out of my hand and he knew what to do, flying to skewer the one who had spoken. I had no doubt they tried to stop the throw with their mental abilities, but that shit wouldn't work on Havok. He returned to my hand a heartbeat later.
“Listen to me. Nobody else needs to die here. Although I strongly advise that not one of you insults me or my people again. If you do, understand I will kill you instantly. You think you’re gods among men. You’re not. You rule with fear and lies. Now, which ship is Ogun on?”
As soon as I’d spoken, I gave a mental command to Elyek to make sure the next person to throw an insult died from an invisible knife. That would really freak these fuckers out.
None of the Fystr answered. They stood there like sullen children.
“Lead me to Ogun and you can live. I’ll let you take the other ship and crawl back to your people, tail between your legs.”
“We will be imprisoned and humiliated for this failure, you stupid fool,” one of them snarled, promptly followed by a gurgling sound as a knife from nowhere penetrated his throat. Blood jetted from his arteries across the eight remaining Fystr, whose expressions turned to horror as yet another of their number bled out on the floor.
“We won't insult you again,” said another voice, a dark-haired woman with a blood-smeared face. “But I want you to understand a couple of things. Our lives are over if we go back, and no matter what we do, our people will never stop hunting you down.”
“So, what will you do if I let you go free?” I asked, genuinely interested in the answer.
“We have no choice but to continue to hunt you and make sure we are more successful when next we meet.”
“So, basically, I have to kill you all here then?”
“I do not wish that end, but there is no other way.”
“Could you not join us?” Rufus said, coming to stand by my side.
I think I actually fish mouthed. I was more than a little gobsmacked that Rufus had suggested it.
The Fystr began to snicker among themselves. The new leader hushed them. “An interesting offer,” she said, eyes flicking from Rufus to me. “Would you have us?”
I turned to Astrid and Rufus. They looked at me for my reaction, but instead of speaking to them, I spoke to Ember in her mind. “I can’t believe Rufus just offered them that, can you?”
“He's a bit of a dick at times, so yeah. What are we gonna do about this?” she asked.
“Even if they say they’ll work with us, they won't. It's not in their nature. They see us as animals. They’ll just kill us later. They’ve no morals.”
“Yeah,” Ember sighed, “I'd have to agree with you. Can we imprison them in any way? How do you actually imprison a Fystr?”
“Astrid or Rufus might know a way,” I replied.
“Ogun will definitely know a way if we can get him back alive. He seems to have kept a lot of information from them about us, even under torture.”
“Yeah. I picked that up, too. Right!” I asserted. “You need to go in and find Ogun. Take all our team, along with Astrid. I'll keep an eye on these fuckers.”
“Okay, Shaun. Will do,” she said before returning to her normal state to speak to Astrid. “Come with me, Astrid.” She waved to the other members of our team – that she could see, anyway. Astrid nodded uncertainly; Rufus looked confused, but I ignored his stupid face, turning back to the Fystr.
“If you’re honest in your intentions to become part of the crew and support us in all of our future endeavors, including against your own people, then yes we’d have you,” I offered.
Her eyes almost seemed to glint as I said those words. “I will discuss it with what remains of our troop,” she replied.
“One more thing,” I said, “you'd have to give me access to your Interface Room.”
Her face fell at that, smug grin gone. “Just a moment, then,” she said, and turned to converse with the others.
Ember and Astrid had peeled off, and I gave Rufus a frustrated look, but the daft shit was oblivious, seemingly happy with his work.
After a minute of conferring, the lead Fystr turned back to me. “We are against mind invasion of this sort. However, in the promise of goodwill, one of us will submit to this interrogation.”
“Why not all of you?” I asked, heat entering my voice again.
“As I’ve just explained, we consider it an affront.”
“Better than death though?”
“Maybe not. However, those are our terms.”
“Very well, then. Let's have a look and see when my friends get back.”
“Where have they gone?”
I didn't reply. I just waited. It took ten minutes before Ember popped her head from the ship. She spoke into my mind: “Ogun is alive, barely. He seems to be in some kind of stasis capsule. We don't know how to free him.
Gus thinks he can get him out, but not quickly. Shit Shaun, they've really done a number on him.”
“Damn. I’ll see if any of these bastards know how to free him,” I replied.
“Yeah, that would be good. I’ll go back in and tell Gus and Elyek.”
She went back into the ship, and I spun to face the Fystr once more. “I need one of you to get Ogun safely from the stasis capsule before we take this any further.”
“No. We won't be doing that just yet,” the Fystr woman replied. “We will keep him in there as our insurance that you will not do anything to us.”
“Are you kidding me? I could’ve had you killed at any time. You fuckers are infuriating.”
“Yes, but you have considered letting us go. You have also kept us alive. There is obviously value to you that we do not die,” she said with an I'm-cleverer-than-you look spreading across her face, like she had somehow backed me into a corner. She really hadn’t.
With Elyek and Acclo helping Ember, I found Hwista’s mind for my next order. “Kill them all, except the speaker. All at once if you can. I don't want to give them a chance to retaliate, hurt or kill any of you. We’ve already lost too many. And, sorry for asking you to do this.” And I was, I felt like utter shit.
“It’s okay, Captain. I agree with this course of action. I sense they are nothing but evil and have already indicated they wish nothing but ill will to us.”
I watched the lead woman intently for a few seconds when all those around her dropped to the floor, blood spurting from deep neck wounds. The Veiletians were brutally efficient.
“Okay”, I said. Her face must have been exhausted, from the amount of expressions it had been through: it had now settled on horrified. “I hope that clears up how much I value you all. Now are you going to help me get Ogun out of the stasis chamber?”
“I… I will. I need assurances from you that…”
That was the last thing she said as Havok took her head from her shoulders. It was so quick she barely saw it coming.
“My god, Shaun!” Rufus said over my shoulder. “That was brutal!”
I spun round to meet his eyes and spoke into his mind. “Don’t ever go over the top of me like that again,” I snarled into his head.
He went white and nodded in response.
“You should have killed them straight away,” Havok said into my mind, “You just wasted your own time there.”
“Havok, me and you are going to have a serious talk too, now shut he fuck up,” I said, with a mentally projected growl.
He fell silent after that, leaving me to my thoughts for a moment. I would have to go and explain what had happened out here to Ember and the gang. There were a lot of eyes on me right now, and I would be glad to be able to get away from their stares for a moment.
“Everyone!” I shouted, as unfortunately I couldn’t just walk off. “Thank you all for your hard work. I’m sorry we were caught flat-footed like that, but you all did amazingly. I’m gonna go check on the situation with Ogun. I won't be long!” Then in a quieter voice for Rufus, I said: “Try to clear this mess up as best you can. We need to save who can be saved. We also need to deal with the inhabitants.”
He nodded in response, still looking pale and shaken.
With that I walked off into the Hunter ship to find where Ogun lay. Ember saw me first. Gus was leaning over the control panel.
“Shaun. Would any of them help?” she asked.
“No. They were uncooperative,” I said grimly.
“What are we going to do about them, then?”
“Nothing. They’re all dead,” I said, struggling to make eye contact.
Everyone but Gus looked up at me. No one looked horrified, which was good. I just got nods of grim acceptance.
I walked over to look through the transparent cover of the capsule, seeing Ogun’s battered form lying there. I felt a surge of queasiness; for some reason the bastards had cut his hands and feet off. It was a disturbing sight. If he had tried to protect us through all this torture, I owed the man a massive solid. Although I didn't know the full extent of what had happened, I felt a real sadness at how I'd thought about him in the past. For some time now, I’d begun to feel bad for him as my Clarity and Wisdom increased; I could see more clearly the choices he had to make each time he left us. There were really no choices at all. He had done the right thing each time. I’d even kinda done the same thing with Elyek on Arus. Though I knew Astrid was there to pick up the slack.
“What's the score, Gus? How do we do this?” I asked.
“We can't do anything at the moment. Elyek has looked over it with me, too. It needs the captain's bio-scan, I think,”
“Right. Well, let's go get his body then!” I said, a little confused that this hadn’t been done already.
“It will not work, Captain,” Elyek jumped in. “This is a different type of technology from what we used in the bank. This detects the vital signs of the operator in the scan. It will make sure the operator is not under the influence of any chemicals, or in a state of fear or heightened stress.”
“Oh, shit. That's no good then, because that fucker hasn’t kept it together at all,” I said, for some reason trying to bring levity to the hellish situation we were in.
“Shaun, you fucking idiot! Now is not the time for your shit jokes,” Ember said, thankfully just into my head, which was kind of appreciated.
No one else had spoken, so I continued. “Any suggestions, then?”
“We take the ship and the captain's body with us. There will be something we can do. It will just take time,” Elyek responded.
“Sounds like a good enough idea to me. Do we have enough crew to take both ships?” I asked.
“Yes. Although we are stretching our resources thin,” Acclo piped up immediately.
“It would be madness not to take these ships, Captain,” Elyek added. “They seem to be very advanced, even in comparison to the Thoth.”
“If we can, we will totally take them. Plus, it’ll mean we can put butts in the seats of even more weapon stations. We can get more crew eventually, even if it means going back to Torax and that fucking smugglers’ moon. It’ll be nice to know we have a stronger fleet for space battles; that’s something we’ve been massively underpowered for. Agreed?”
Everyone nodded, including Mick, but he looked thoughtful. “These really must be some of their best ships, right?” he said. “To catch up with us this far away. I mean, I still can’t believe they found us. Does it seem odd to any of you guys?”
Everyone looked confused, excluding me. “Yeah, Mick. I don’t know why, and we have a lot going on, but it feels like something was a bit off with them turning up like that. But to be honest, I wouldn’t know what to do about it. Everyone just keep their eyes open for anyone behaving suspiciously.”
Astrid replied, “Absolutely, Captain. I will have the Thoth covered.”
“Cool, let’s leave it at that for now. Acclo, Koparr, work with Astrid and Rufus to get well-balanced crews for each Hunter ship. Ten should be enough on each, right?”
“Yes Captain, right away,” Acclo answered before they left with Astrid and Koparr.
That left me, Ember, Calegg, Elyek, Mick and Gus. I slumped against Ogun’s pod and slid to the ground. I wanted to cry, to hurl, to be in a coma like Ogun.
“Shaun, are you okay?” Numerous voices said at once, worrying around me. Ember crouched down and put an arm around me.
“I really don't think I am. I’m not the right person to be running this shit-show. All those deaths. Plus, how many did I coldly order myself? I'm turning into a fucking monster, just like the Fystr.”
“Stop being a daft-ass, Shaun,” Ember said from my side. “You're a pretty awesome guy. We’ve just survived a stand-up fight with 40 Fystr. That would’ve been impossible even a month ago. Now, I’m glad you're upset; we’ve lost a few good people and it's heart wrenching. It’s one of the reasons why I love you, too. But the only thing similar about you and the Fyst
r is how big your heads are. You can't take credit for everything we've done that's a success. We're a team, and we’ve worked together to get where we are now.”
“I know that! I'm not trying to take credit for everything!” I said, offended.
“Really? Because it sounds to me like you're trying to take all the responsibility for everything that's gone wrong or isn't very nice. You can’t have one without the other.”
“No, it's not that. All those deaths are on my hands, including the ones I just ordered.”
“No, they’re not, Shaun,” Mick said next. “All of those deaths are purely in the Fystr’s hands. Every last one. Now, you're a crazy, odd bastard, and I don't know how you achieve one-tenth of what you do, but I'm proud to follow you. I think I can speak for every single person of the Uprising when I say that.”
“You do for me,” Gus said, while the others nodded agreement.
Then Gus added: “Although it’s closer to one-fifth for me,” which brought some chuckles.
Calegg bent down. “It’s worse for me. I don’t want to put a number on it, but I’d still follow you to my death,” he said as he patted my shoulder.
Ember leaned in. “Right, Shaun. That's enough of us all blowing smoke up your ass. We know why you're feeling like this, but you need to give your head a wobble. We’ve just won an impressive battle, and that’s what the people of the Uprising need to see and hear from you. Not this morose, motherfucking self-pity. We only let you off because we're pretty much a family, but those guys out there need a lot more from you.”
“Argh! Fuck off, all of you, okay! I just needed a moment to pull myself together, and you all ruined it.” I pulled myself to my feet and gave everyone a red-eyed smile. I hadn't cried, but I’d been bloody close. Especially after they all started trying to make me feel better. They were right though; I had a job to do, and I needed to keep going for everyone else. I decided I'd just cry my ass off in my favorite hiding spot tonight: the shower.
We all walked back off the ship, and I pretended I was overjoyed with our victory and filled with confidence. I actually felt bad that I was lying to everyone with my body language, but I pushed it down to the welcoming recesses of my mind.
Condition Evolution 3: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure Page 19
