Dax stared up at the hazy peach silhouette breaking through the environment field. He recognized the Lupos by the stench of death smeared over his black and crimson power-armor. Swaying with a hollow clunk in the breeze, the skulls of human children dangled from the Lupos’s neck like a necklace of death.
This Lupos knew it would strike fear into the heart of any human. Dax felt it to his core.
Dax desperately forced himself to focus on the orange and black blur. He spat out a broken tooth with a glob of blood so he could speak.
“Blaidd!”
The Lupos towered over Dax. “Its time to add your skull to my collection, Dax.”
Blaidd drew his Falcata and ignited it. He knelt beside Dax. He grabbed the hair on the back of Dax’s head. He jerked back his head and presented Dax’s throat for his Falcata.
Dax felt the intense heat blister his skin.
“Focus, Commander,” Blaidd said as he waved his Falcata back and forth across Blaidd’s eye line. “I don’t want you to miss a second of your death.”
“I hate yapping puppies,” Glaw roared and with both arms reached over his shoulders.
He hauled the two Lupos troopers off his back. He hurled them at the two flanking Lupos and barreled them over the edge of the loading bay.
Glaw picked up one of the dazed and confused Lupos bowling balls and tossed him at Blaidd.
With a high pitched yelp, Blaidd fell over the edge of the loading bay. Dax focused on the Lupos commander twisting into the wind. Blaidd landed in a crouch upon the raider ship’s platform.
“Some dogs get all the luck,” Glaw said.
A vast shadow eclipsed the sunshine and fell across the two surviving Lupos raider ships. Dax glanced up at the swirling pastel colors masking the ship. He felt his jaw fall slack.
“Everyone’s luck just ran out.”
A blue-white plasma jet shot out of the cloud of colors and tore one raider ship in two. The pieces fell away in what seemed slow motion. Another jet streamed out and sliced Blaidd’s ship in half.
“We’re next unless you get us out of here,” Glaw shouted into his wrist comm unit.
A third jet of blue and white plasma rocketed at them.
Gy-Fly-Mach screamed out in shredding metallic pain as if a dagger had plunged into its heart.
“We lost all engines,” Myf’s voice cried out over shipwide comms. “Brace for crash landing.”
CHAPTER 55 - PRISONERS
Five hundred feet above Titan and the wreckage of life-pods, Lupos raiders and the curious smugglers’ ship, Commander Zania Tebrok stepped to the open ledge of the Vanguard shuttle’s loading bay. She looked up at the crimson storm clouds. Titan was claiming the final few chunks of Hermes. Dragging them down through its atmosphere.
Tumbling fireballs of the pleasure cruiser reminded her of fallen friends in their final Death Glide. She breathed deep and meditated on the beauty of its violence. But it lies to me...
Ever since she solved the mystery of her father’s murder, years before, she swore to act only on absolute truth. In the name of truth she would gladly infiltrate and conquer the gates of Infernum, Vanguard hell itself. And since the last war she had done exactly that for Sol Morlok.
Until now. Where once there was certainty, now, only doubt and hesitation existed.
We do the unthinkable to save our race. But in so doing, are we damning our souls?
Sol Morlok had once welcomed her expertise. He needed her for his plan to work. But now she sensed impenetrable secrets and lies and these were like death to her. And she was not alone. She sensed the questions on the minds of her legionnaires.
Why did Hermes have to be destroyed? Why did they need so many?
She sensed Morlok was desperate and evasive. She would go along with the insanity of his plan until success was assured. Or failure was undeniable. The spirits of her ancestors would demand justice.
She stared at the flaming silhouette of Hermes. It tumbled across the orange ball of fire that was Titan’s sun slipping over the horizon. She believed in the old ways. Of Sun Gods. Of vengeful ancestors.
She would enjoy killing Sol Morlok.
She understood science explaining orbiting shadows. But to her, this alien star’s death and inevitable resurrection meant more than mere orbital cycles. Its passing was a sign to her.
Its spreading of a cloak of darkness connected with the primordial beast that dwelt in all races. It was one of the few absolute truths shared across all galaxies.
Darkness brings fear.
The cloak of darkness suffocates the fearful. Forcing them to conquer their fears or perish. Darkness of dying suns. Darkness of the soul. And where the darkness spreads, the secrets and lies dwell.
It reminded her of home. The way it was in her childhood, before the twin sun gods went to war. First, one sun would drift over the edge, and then the other would follow. They took turns with the seasons to be the first to spread darkness over her land.
Her stomach backflipped with memories as a child. Learning to become one with the darkness crossing her land. Feeling it worm its way into her soul. Embracing the darkness through the trials. Conquering the Death Glide from the cliffs overlooking the golden sea.
Becoming one with Vanguard’s breeze. Listening for the voices of spirits. Asking them to calm her nerves. Hearing only the bitter taunts goading her to panic.
She lost too many friends in the Vanguard trials to prove her worth. But it had all been worth it. At least, that is what she told herself, until now.
Why grind these humans into dust? It makes no sense.
With visions of her homeland filling her senses, she took command of her unease. She knew she would follow orders... eventually.
Where’s the harm in seeking a greater understanding of their defiance?
She spread out her arms wide, fanning out her cloak. She allowed a few seconds for the nano-bots in the cloak to adjust for wind variance, gravity pull, temperature, density of atmosphere, altitude and the velocity of the shuttle.
She glanced to her left and right at her legionaries. Her elite Death Hawks. Each of them hand-picked for loyalty to her alone. It troubled her that Morlok commanded her to personally see to these agitators. This is not a job worthy of my Death Hawks. What is Morlok hiding? What is he afraid of?
Satisfied that her Death Hawks were prepared, she leaned into the wind and leapt into the freezing air. A hundred Vanguard legionnaires followed her into the Death Glide. The Death Hawks drifted down to Titan’s surface.
The dunes gave up their dead. Zania walked amongst wreckage.
“Commander,” asked her second-in-command, “what shall we do with survivors?”
To defy Morlok for the greater good? She took a deep breath.
“Gather those fit enough for the trials,” Zania said. “Kill the rest.”
CHAPTER 56 - BLOOD MARKER
A pounding headache woke Doc Ransom. He struggled to recall his last moments of consciousness before he blacked out. He remembered the intense pain in his legs. A feeling of being trapped like a floundering mouse able to measure its waning life force by the degree to which it wagged its tail.
He remembered his awareness heightened by the knowledge these were his last moments. He remembered the acid breeze creeping through the cracks in his helmet visor. The itching, scratching sensations of his power-armor’s frantic nano-bots scurrying around in desperate swarms. How they sealed the breeches from Titan’s atmosphere.
He remembered wishing they’d fail.
He remembered the panic of silence. The fear of knowing he was alone amongst the wreckage of the life-pod. And only the cold, seductive hand of death for company in his last hours.
He remembered a tall, humanoid figure approaching the crash site. He sensed the stranger was a woman. There was something about her... scent. Intoxicating. Frightening.
He remembered greeting this glimmer of hope with shame. The pathetic whine of his pleading for freedom. Or the mercy of
a quick death.
He remembered the stranger’s hands. Clinically examining him as if he were a lab test rat.
He remembered the stranger lifting the wreckage from his legs and freeing him. Witnessing such terrible strength left him in a state of awe. He remembered the gratitude he tried to communicate to his liberator.
He remembered the shimmer of her eyes like a halo of rainbow fire around the dark pupils. Like a distortion of time and space orbiting a merciless black hole destroyer of galaxies. Then he remembered the pale blue luminescence in her callous smile of fangs.
And the bite.
Oh, but the bite was glorious. Exhilarating. His blood pumped through his heart on a wave of endorphins.
He felt the change.
He felt younger than his years. He felt the vigor of youth possess him. A rage swept through his body like a tsunami. And then came the fire.
His blood burned, until his mind could take no more.
He had blacked out.
Now, he woke staring in to those same blue eyes.
“Who are you?” Doc said.
“I am Commander Tebrok,” she said. “You may call me Zania.”
“Where am I?” he asked and sat up in a functional medic bay bed.
“Aboard Vanguard fleet vessel Vela.”
“What do you want of me?” he said and winced at his own ingratitude.
Her brow creased.
“Please accept my apologies,” he said. “I mean, um, thank you for saving me. I owe you.”
She smiled. Those fangs again. He caught himself licking his own lips.
“Yes, you do, Doctor,” she said. “And I’m sure we can come to some arrangement.”
He felt a shiver down the back of his neck and rubbed the fresh puncture wound there.
“What do you mean?” he asked and as his eyes adjusted to the pale blue lightning he realized just how extraordinarily beautiful she seemed in the small room. He knew he would kill for a woman like her. It frightened him to feel such passion. He swallowed hard and shoved away such thoughts.
“Are you aware of the Vanguard phenomena of Macula Sanguinis?”
“Blood marking?” he said and his hands flew to his neck.
She raised a curious eyebrow.
“I apologize, again... I thought for a moment that you’d...”
“Yes?”
He shrugged. “I make it a hobby, a passion to study other cultures. And as Vanguard is the newest culture--”
“We are many millennium older than humanity.”
“I only meant you are new to human experience.”
“Again that is untrue,” she said. “We Vanguard have walked amongst you for many centuries.”
“Covertly, perhaps. Which goes to prove how little my people know about you and your customs such as Macula Sanguinis.”
“Are you aware Macula Sanguinis bonds the giver and receiver?”
“I’ve heard rumors.”
“What exactly?”
“That it is an act of bonding used by Vanguard lovers.. I dismissed it as a fairy tale.
“It is true... but not only in love.”
“How does it work?”
“That is a classified. But suffice it to say, a genetic bonding between two separate genetic strains takes place.”
“So your DNA changed as well as mine?”
“Only if I allow another Vanguard to perform Macula Sanguinis on me.”
“Through a bite?”
“Indeed.”
“And so my genes are altered in some fundamental manner?”
“In a subtle way that few would recognize, yes, Doctor.”
He stared at her full lips and licked his again.
“How might I respond to Macula Sanguinis?”
“A sense of belonging will manifest itself.”
“That I belong to you?”
“And that I belong to you.”
“Forgive me, but you sound like a very possessive race. What’s the purpose of Macula Sanguinis?”
“It helps maintain a certain standard in the gene pool.”
“By bonding two Vanguards?”
“Indeed.
“But I’m human.”
“It has other purposes to.”
“Such as?”
“If someone were to inform your High Command that your blood now contains alien DNA administered through the act of Macula Sanguinis, would they trust you?”
“Blackmail?”
He knew at that moment he had to get away from her. For his own sanity. He climbed off the bed and hurried across the floor to a window. He stared out at a planet he’d never seen before.
“Is that Vanguard?”
“It is.”
He turned around to face her. He was startled that she had somehow moved across the floor without him knowing. She stood directly before him. Her lips, mere inches from his.
He leaned into her and kissed her hard and passionately. She kissed him back and his heart pounded with desire. Endorphins rushing through him. Drowning out that tiny voice in the back of his mind. That primordial fear that needed him to run from her and never stop.
With every morsel of strength he pulled away.
“What do want of me?”
“You are my eyes and ears, Doctor.”
“You want me to spy on my own people?”
“Your role is to maintain peace in the galaxy.”
“And I’m to believe that?”
The halo around her pupils seemed to erupt like solar flares from a sun.
Instantly his blood seemed to ignite. The burning pain engulfed his senses. He cried out and dropped to his knees in agony.
He fell at her feet.
She stooped, grabbed the hair on the back of his neck and whispered in his ear.
“You will spy for me, doctor. Or die in torment.”
He whimpered at her feet. “Please, stop this madness, please...”
“I cannot, unless you stop fighting me.”
He knew he was damned either way. “OK, OK. I’ll help you.”
The burning subsided.
He got to his knees. That halo of flames on her eyes vanished.
“Are you ready, Doctor?”
“What do you want me to do?”
CHAPTER 57 - AN OFFER
President Xylo Arc stared out through the windows of her cell. The twin suns seemed like spitting cobras at war with each other. Spitting spears of flames many thousands of miles long. She shuddered for the people on the planet below.
The door of her cell slid open. In stepped Sol Morlok.
“President Morlok,” she spat. “Are you behind this act of war?”
“Rescue is an act of war?”
“We wouldn’t need rescuing if it wasn’t for your actions.”
“I apologize for the meager decor.”
“If you knew anything about me, you’d know I’ve experienced far worse.”
He waved a hand and a pair of chairs rose up out of the cold, steel floor. He indicated she should sit.
“I did hear about your treatment by the Lupos,” he said with some sympathy. “How are your injuries healing?”
As if you give a damn. “I prefer to stand for negotiations,” she said.
“Negotiations?”
“I presume that’s why I’m still alive.”
He smiled.
“Perceptive of you, Madam President. What else have you learned since you arrived?”
“It’s no coincidence that my cell looks out at your planet.”
“If you say so...”
I have my spies too, Morlok. “Your planet is dying. You need a new home.”
“I have a deal to offer you.”
“I’m listening.”
“If you accept you shall be returned to your people.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then you shall share the fate of the other humans we rescued from the Titan crash site.”
CHAPTER 58 - FYRE’S BETRAYAL
<
br /> Sol maintained his cross-legged posture. He was sat in the center of the glass dome of his private observation deck. Staring out to space at the twin suns ravaging Vanguard below. Deep in a timeless place of meditation. Contemplating his own future and that of his people.
“Commander Tebrok is here, President Morlok,” the door announcer whispered and seemed a million miles away. His gentle voice might have been spoken a week ago for all the time it took his words to be heard. Sol treasured these moments when time folded in on him. The past, present, future converged as one.
Everything was now.
Here, he would witness everything. Learn the true meaning in men’s hearts. All the unspoken secrets. All the doubt, hesitations, regrets, impatience, and betrayals...
When the announcer’s words finally pierced the insulating cloud of mediation, Sol felt his mind focus on the ultimate betrayer.
“The evacuation should proceed,” Admiral Folant said.
Sol felt the click-clack of the Admiral’s pacing steel heels resonate across the conference room and puncture deep into his consciousness like the pulse of a distant star. Gasping for meaning, like a ghost refusing to accept its own death.
Sol heard the desperation for action in the Admiral’s voice as a warning of rebellion. Or perhaps a rallying call for those who had lost faith. For those who would dare to defy him.
But he was not the ultimate betrayer.
“It only delays the inevitable,” said General Kroq and Sol heard the tone of reliable skepticism. He heard the General’s grating teeth tense with pragmatism. The Vanguard was a loyal old warhorse demanding a thorough workable plan. And yet, knowing in times like these, all plans go to hell.
Sol rolled his neck and released the tension with a violent crack. He heard it sever the grumblings, musings and antagonism like a guillotine blade on their traitorous necks. Slowly, Sol allowed himself to surface.
“Show the commander in,” Sol said in a voice that seemed distant to him. But he was sure rang loud and true like a tolling bell to the midnight of their souls.
Zania carried a long bundle in her arms. It was covered by her cloak. She set it down on the crowded conference table and whipped away her cloak.
Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1) Page 27
