by Justin Sloan
“Way to keep it classy,” Carma said with a shake of her head as she passed, joining the others to head for the doors.
“Hey,” Samantha patted him on the back, “be sure they’re the ones getting slaughtered and not us, and I don’t care if you wear a tuxedo or a loincloth. Just stay on my side.”
“Done and done,” he replied, hoisting up a large blaster onto his shoulder.
They followed the group and made their way out of the Noraldian. What they found was what Samantha had always imagined being on the ground of Jupiter must be like. Multicolored storms swirled overhead, wind carrying purples and yellows across the sky above them in thick, gaseous clouds. Bursts of energy shot out, not quite like lightning, but that was the closest she could come to understanding it.
An immediate burst of air pushed her back, and then she was using her enhanced grip to stay balanced while she descended the ramp.
“Don’t worry,” Hadrian said through their helmets. “Or at least, not about this. We’re going down there.”
“More tunnels,” Samantha mumbled with a shake of her head, forgetting the others could hear her.
“Actually,” Hadrian replied. “Not exactly. Better if you see for yourself.”
Worsan appeared out of the thick haze, motioning for them to follow. Hadrian led the way, the rest close behind. Samantha’s sensors were registering all sorts of harmful substances in the air, along with various smells that the suit replicated for her information. She turned off the sensors, glad for the quiet safety of her armor.
Tall plants rose up before them, something between a cactus and a tree, with sharp, metallic looking spikes that stuck straight up.
“On your toes,” Hadrian warned through the comms. “It’s interesting to look up, but what’s below is more likely to get you.”
As if on cue, a figure slithered past Samantha’s feet. Then another appeared a moment later and actually tried to attack her. It was a slimy little beast with one large tooth, but when it attempted to bite her boot, she simply kicked it aside.
“They don’t seem so bad,” she replied.
“You mean the slugs?” He chuckled. “It wasn’t them I was referring to.”
She glanced up to see him in the haze, yellow and purple clouds wafting around him, and then noticed a glimmer from the ground at her feet—too late.
As her foot hit it, she felt herself yanked aside, completely nude and thrown into a free fall surrounded by those spiked trees. One reached out, and the tip of it connected with the skin at the edge of her mouth, tearing—
Then a hand was yanking her sideways.
She was back, in her armor and staring at Hadrian, his worried expression visible through his faceplate. “What’d I just say? Watch your step.”
He motioned down, and she carefully stepped around the pool of shimmering mist, what seemed like liquid metal beneath. Her breaths came quick and she blinked, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
A flick of her tongue at the side of her mouth brought with it the taste of blood. If she had been pierced, or brought back one second later, could she have actually died? It seemed like a hallucination, but… A drop of red fell beside her, carried up by a heavy gust of wind before hitting the ground.
When she looked up, the tree spike was hidden by a new blast of clouds.
“This place…” she said, glancing around for more signs of trouble. “It’s not on my top favorites list.”
Napalm laughed through the comms. “If it were, me and you would have to sit down for a little chat. But only after we leave this hellhole. I’m not spending another minute here longer than we have to.”
More of the slugs slithered across their path, quickly moving out of Samantha’s way, and the team moved forward with caution. The ground, a crystalline substance here, rose up on their sides like hands reaching up to grab them. Purple and yellow dust settled on the ground like patches of snow, occasionally picking up in a new flurry. When the wind let down for a moment, they were able to make out an area ahead that had the look of a dragon’s head.
The dragon was massive, its mouth wide open and large enough to fly the Noraldian through, its eyes plucked out long ago. Unlike the other two she had seen, this one had an almost humanistic quality to it, as if a dragon and arch-demon had merged together. Its long horns spread back above pointed ears, and its red, scaly skin had been torn and weathered down.
“Looks like we know what happened to the second dragon,” Hadrian stated, then seemed to listen to Worsan in private for a moment. “Ah…you all aren’t going to like this. That’s where we’re going.”
“You mean…?” Samantha asked, but couldn’t finish the horror of the thought.
“No, we’re not going through the mouth,” Hadrian replied, to her relief. “That’s the main entrance to the underground pirate’s den. We have to sneak in another way.”
“But all roads lead to the same destination,” Samantha said, suddenly not feeling so relieved.
“Yeah, and Captain Praks’s death is where they lead to,” Napalm stated. “Let’s get some.”
He knelt next to her, the fire of his eyes showing even through his clouded faceplate.
“Glad to have you on my side,” Samantha said, thinking how damn scary he looked. “All right, Hadrian. Point us in the direction you want us. We’re ready.”
“Worsan says he’s found several routes in, but two that he thinks will work best.” Hadrian gestured to a clump of spiked trees, and said, “Your group will go in through the entrance there. It’s between the roots of the largest tree—an opening created for emergency getaways. The rest of us,” he pointed to a reflection like water in the other direction. “just there, where there’s a bit of a waterfall, if you want to call it that.”
“It’s not an actual waterfall?”
He shook his head. “In a sense, though it isn’t water. It’s where the gases liquefy and condense, then fall through there. As long as me and my team can climb the cliff, we’re set.”
“We can switch if you want,” Samantha offered. “You know I have my grip practically maxed out.”
“No, we’ve got this.” He glanced around at them all. “You know that saying about ‘nobody needs to be a hero,’ right? Well forget that. Right now I want all of us to be heroes. You see that rat-eating scumbag, you do what it takes to take him down. As far as we know, he’s the last link to not only ending this Shadow and Arzanian slave business, but you can bet he’s also our key to finding the last of the Guardians.”
“The dragons…” Samantha frowned, confused. “The one we pushed back on Arzan?”
He nodded. “They were trying to get it through a portal, and my guess is they know where the other side of that portal was. They have tried to use two dragons against us, and one of them is still alive. This one must have fought back. Their manipulations didn’t work, so they were left with only one recourse—to kill it.”
“But if the third is killed, there will be no closing of the gate,” Samantha said, recalling what he had told her earlier. “The Great Deceivers will have free rein, free movement, and we won’t be able to stop them.”
Again, Hadrian nodded. All others were silent as they considered this.
“You think they’ll try to kill the dragon, then?” Samantha asked.
“I think our mission after this isn’t only to save the third dragon,” Hadrian replied, “But to save it and reinstate it as the last remaining star of Orion’s belt. There are others, those from the area around Hoydren, the children of the Guardians. Perhaps, if we can save the third Guardian, she will be able to bring two of her children into Orion, and reinstate the Three Kings.”
“Can I just say,” Carma’s voice crackled in, “you didn’t tell us all of this in the job pamphlet. In fact, I seem to not remember there even being a pamphlet. Not cool, Hadrian. Not cool.”
A couple of laughs followed.
“Save the laughs for after the gate is protected,” Hadrian stated. “
It’s what brings me much of my power, and without it we would lose much of our advantage. I trust you all see how that’s a negative thing… something not to joke about.”
“If I couldn’t joke about things that worried me,” Carma replied, “I’d be lost to depression. All of this, especially this damned planet, would eat away my sanity.”
“Fair enough, just don’t expect me to join in the levity. All hands, ready?”
“Check,” Samantha replied, followed by the rest.
“Then move out.”
“A team on me,” Samantha said, starting to move. She paused and added, “I figure we can call ourselves Team Awesome. A Team—it makes sense, right?”
The rest just followed her as she continued the charge to the grouping of trees. She didn’t want to have to explain that the name was from an ancient show she had seen a few times at her neighbor’s house. As she ran, she thought back to how much that neighbor and his old collection of shows, movies, and games from what he called the “Golden Age” of media had impacted her as a youth. Maybe because shortly after had come the invasion, and then pleasant memories had been hard to come by?
Either way, she would have loved to have a van right now to go charging into this base, guns blazing and shouting “I pity the fool,” or whatever that Master T guy had said. Was it Master T? Mr.? It had been so long ago and…
“Sam!” Carma was at her side. “Are you listening to me?”
“Huh?” Samantha realized she hadn’t been. They had made it three-quarters of the way toward the trees, but she had been spacing out on the run.
“I was asking if you want one of my crescent blades. I brought two.” She held out a small, boomerang-shaped piece of metal. “Folds out with a quick jerk.”
Samantha reached out and took it, marveling at the way it folded up so smoothly, and then hitched it to her armor. “You don’t think I’ll get myself killed with that thing?”
Carma snorted—an act Samantha hadn’t really thought her capable of. “I think you’re better than you realize.”
“But you always tore me a new one when we sparred.”
“Sam, one thing you have to realize about me when it comes to that weapon—I’m the best there is.”
“Not too cocky, at least,” Samantha replied with a laugh, then focused on her breathing. The armor gave her extra speed and energy, but the effects of being in cryogenic sleep still lingered.
“I just tell it like it is,” Carma replied.
“You take your swords any day,” Kwan said, catching up to them and patting his rifle like a baby. “We’ll see which kills the most.”
“Oh, hell no. Did this guy just challenge me?” Carma whooped, loving the thrill of it all. “You’re on, musclehead.”
“This isn’t a game,” Samantha said. “But… since we do want to utterly destroy them, first to fifty gets a high-five from me.”
“The best reward ever!” Voira shouted, struggling to keep up but still able to join the conversation via their helmet comms. “Count me in!”
“It’s slaughtering time!” Napalm shouted out, trying his catchphrase again.
Samantha rolled her eyes, even though nobody could see, but then repeated it. Why the hell not?
“IT’S SLAUGHTERING TIME!” the other two called out in response, and they all ran up to the tree line, eager to get in there and do some major damage.
22
The Shadow Worlds: Death’s Swamp
When the A Team had lowered themselves down through the roots of the spiked tree, they instantly saw how the underground world had earned the name Death’s Swamp. While above was bad enough, down here it was terrifying. Rivers of liquefied gas led to an underground ocean of the stuff, purplish waters that boiled and steamed. Hanging from the rocks and built up on the ledges were outposts, docking ports for ships, and what looked like a city in the distance.
“It’s massive,” Samantha noted, then saw that a large opening from the ceiling led to metallic walls that wrapped around it all—the dragon’s body, now carved out. “They’re mining it, selling.”
“Or trading it on the black market,” Napalm said.
Samantha looked around to see a flash of light from the opposite wall—a signal from Hadrian.
“We’re in,” his voice came through. “Keep the comms to individual channels, when possible. We don’t want to risk them picking up our signal.”
“Roger that,” Samantha replied, mad at herself for still having the global comms on. She used her HUD to select only her team—Voira, Kwan, Napalm, and Carma. “Move out. We’re looking for Captain Praks, but I have a feeling we won’t have a problem finding people who’ve seen him.”
They followed passages carved into the walls, some looping into the darkness of the ground, others leading to the outskirts of this underground hell.
“We get to the first outpost and get our answers from them, then—” Samantha started. She spotted the shape before she heard it, and motioned the others down. They ducked, watching as a ship flew past. Judging by the extravagant designs on its side, there was no doubt it was one of Captain Praks’s. Others joined shortly after, and Samantha felt a moment of panic. Hopefully Hadrian had done a good job of hiding the Noraldian, and Jackal would be safe guarding it.
“What if he’s not here?” Voira asked. “What if the Shadow intel is false?”
“If they’re leading us into a trap? An ambush?” Samantha shrugged. “Good. Easier to find them all that way. And if he’s the type I’d be willing to bet he is, he’d want to be there to witness his ambush at work.”
“So… as a leader of a black ops team, you’d rather he knew you were coming so you could face his whole army at once?”
Samantha considered the question. “No, I suppose not. I’m just saying it wouldn’t be the worst situation.”
“What would be the worst situation?” Kwan asked. “Self-destruct?”
“You mean blowing up his whole hidden base, the legendary terror of an underground city, just to get to us?” Samantha scoffed. “Doubtful. Again, his pride wouldn’t let him.”
“Agreed,” Napalm said, and the rest quieted, knowing he had insight into the way of the pirates. “He’ll want to make a show of it, but won’t sacrifice his treasure, everything he’s built up as his legacy.”
“Death’s Swamp, a legacy?” Samantha asked. “Remind me to never go pirate. When I’m done with this world, I plan on leaving a little something more behind.”
“Such as?” Carma asked.
“We’re doing this Shadow Corps thing,” Samantha replied. “Why not a Shadow Fleet? Hell, a Shadow Empire! We get so many committed to what we’re doing, that there’s not a single enemy in the universe that would want to come at us. I don’t know, I mean, others can go find allies to join our side. I want to get enemies to join our side. Build up a network of every group, armada, and galaxy we can find that will help us trap those Great Deceivers when it matters most. One massive hit.”
“The girl can dream,” Carma said to the others, but it was clear she was impressed.
“Sounds like we just got our mission statement,” Napalm said, then whistled. “It’s going to be a journey, that’s for damn sure.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Sam replied. “If a goal is easy, it’s not really a goal, just another thing you do. I set goals others doubt, then prove them wrong and rub their faces in it. Juvenile? Hell if I care. I get it done. Oorah?”
“Oorah,” Napalm replied, and the others followed suit with a joint, “OORAH!”
“Love the enthusiasm, but…” Samantha motioned with a finger to her mouth and laughed. She waved them forward, now that the ships had passed.
The path turned back into the darkness again, and she stumbled right into someone.
“Oh, sorry,” she actually said, before realizing the ridiculousness of it. Her second reaction was to pull her sword. But as she did, the darkness vanished, replaced by a blinding light.
Samant
ha stumbled back, colliding with Kwan behind her, who helped her not to fall.
“So nice of you to join me in my home,” a voice said, and she knew it was Praks. “Isn’t it fun to watch the tables turn? On Arzan I was surrounded, with no way of my dragon making it through in time. Here, you are surrounded.”
As he spoke, the light spots faded and Samantha’s eyes adjusted, showing a line of space pirates, blasters aimed in on her. To her surprise, they had Dex.
No, not Dex, but one of his kind.
“You’ve faced them before, haven’t you?” Praks asked, thrusting the creature forward so that it stood there, facing off with her. “I want to see you at work, see if you’re worth keeping around.”
“As in, you want me to join you?” Samantha scoffed. “Ain’t happening, big guy.”
“Aren’t you even curious why I think you would consider?” His smile took on a new level of confidence. “I’ve had my little spiders among you, weaving their webs, seeing what they can catch. I know about you and what Karstrack said. I know about your father.”
“Then you know that I’ve had enough of that bull. I’m not here to chase pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. I’m here to kill evil bastards like you, to show the universe that it’s time for justice and retribution.”
“Big words for a scared little girl,” Praks replied with a sneer. “Or maybe you’re some great fighter, this wonderful creation of the heavens, put here for my betterment. Show me.”
With a gesture from Praks, the Dexetilaitite flew forward, robes flaring and a sword appearing in its hands.
Samantha wasn’t here to play games, and she wasn’t going to take it from this guy. One word was all it took—“Slaughter!”—and then her team was charging into the fray, weapons tearing into enemies. They didn’t care if the other side opened fire, because they knew their shields would absorb the impact and keep them alive long enough to reach the enemy and do the necessary damage.
