Rina blinked, maybe surprised I’d taken her side.
On the other hand, Maya was clearly annoyed. She looked up at the starship floating menacingly overhead.
Jaxon waded into the situation. *Maya, let her do it. If it’ll help these Aventis a little more, then let her do it.
Rina added, *Let me make the shot. Crescent already knows we’re here. They can see right through the ceiling into the cafeteria.
A few moments went by before Maya retorted low in our minds. *What good is my being team leader if you won’t follow my orders? Or do you plan to follow them only when they suit you?
She glared at all of us. *You want to help them? The best way is to get to that hacker and have them reset the gravity field emitters back to normal. And we’re wasting time.
She turned and walked in a hurry toward the east exit of the cafeteria.
Jaxon yelled out to her. *Maya—wait!
*Jaxon, go, I said to him.
He didn’t wait to be told twice. He ran across the cafeteria’s circular floor. *You guys catch up as soon as you can.
Rina walked around me and hurried over to the glass wall facing south. However, she waited until I used my bladed gauntlets to cut the trans-steel glass and make an opening for her. The heavy winds from the storm raging around the starship blew in through the ragged hole I’d cut. Rina forced her cannon-blade through the opening, took aim and then fired.
Light danced around the barrel tip for a few seconds before a narrow purple beam of light burned through the air and the courtyard below. I squinted and watched as a cone shaped crater was burned into the courtyard.
Rina fired a second time, and I saw secondary flash followed by concentric ripples flowing outwards through the air. The shockwave rocked the floor of the cafeteria.
When the ground settled I asked, *What’s the gravity down to now?
*Around two point seven gees, she replied. *It varies across the cafeteria.
I pursed my lips for a moment. *That will have to do. We can delay any longer.
Rina argued. *The effect-fields from both courtyards overlap, so this only helps about half the cafeteria.
*It will do for now. The sooner we get to that Hacker the sooner we can address the situation. So let’s go.
Rina stared at me through narrowed eyes. *No, there’s one more thing we can do.
She walked away from me and toward the balcony overlooking the atrium in the middle of the cafeteria.
*Rina?
She hefted the cannon-blade, aiming upwards at the atrium’s ceiling – aiming at the visible starship.
Light particles began to swirl in a raging maelstrom a foot from the barrel. This was different from what I’d seen before. In heartbeats the vortex grew to a span of several feet. The loud screech became an earsplitting one. I tried covering my ears as I yelled out to her through the Fragment Link.
*Rina—don’t. If you fire on them they’ll fire back.
*Not if I make this shot count.
*Stop it!
The swirling vortex suddenly contracted and was sucked into the cannon’s barrel.
A millisecond later the weapon fired, and a tight beam of violet light connected the cannon to the atrium ceiling. The beam burned through the trans-steel as though it was paper and struck the reaction shields protecting the Crimson Crescent starship.
For a second the vessel’s shields held it back, flaring brightly as they did.
But it was only for a second.
The beam pierced through and then struck the starship’s narrow, wedge shaped prow.
Through my squinting eyes I saw the skin of the ship glow deep violet then crimson before bursting apart.
I didn’t realize it until later that many of the students in the cafeteria were crying out in fear and panic.
I was too entranced by the sight of the starship’s prow billowing smoke. The ship’s auto-repair functions must have kicked in because the smoke died out quickly. But the damage was visible.
*Rina…what the Hell have you done?
*Now it’s their move, she declared softly in my head.
The black mist surrounded the cannon-blade, and a short while later it returned to the smaller gun-blade form.
I began fearing the worst, and concentrated on strengthening my barrier-field. If they fired down on us, how long would my barrier hold?
All around me, students were struggling to their knees.
Struggling to get away.
But if they left the confines of the cafeteria, they would once again run into the crushing gravity fields afflicting the rest of the building.
Rina had made a difficult situation worse for them.
*Maya, I called out. *We have a small problem.
*What did she do? What the Hell did Rina do?
So Maya had heard my cry through the link. *She fired on Crimson Crescent’s starship and blew a hole in its hull.
*Gods damn her.
I swallowed and hesitantly asked, *How’s your end?
*Actually, we’re a little busy so get your ass over here now!
*Busy?
*We need backup, Caprice. These guys are tough as Hell, and they’re just playing with us.
So the fight had been joined.
I looked up and saw the starship swing away. It was still hovering over the academy, but from its new position it would be difficult for Rina to make the shot. She would need to find another vantage point.
Something black fell away from the ship.
I wondered if I’d just seen someone jump down from it.
I didn’t have to wonder for long.
To the east side of the cafeteria a loud boom resounded and a massive hole appeared in its ceiling. With gravity around two to three gees the debris rained down with added momentum. Aventis students crawled away as best they could, many fleeing into the exit corridor. Behind them, and through the billowing cloud of pulverized permacrete, a dark shadow dropped down to the floor with an impressive thud.
Then the shadow stood up and I saw it was an impossibly large man, covered in a skin-suit from head-to-toe, wearing a helm much like a warrior from holovid role-playing game.
Rina and I reacted immediately, taking a combat stance. The blades on my gauntlets extended to their full length, and I concentrated my will on the Valkyrie Armor, urging it to strengthen the barrier-field.
*Maya, we have company here in the cafeteria. I don’t think we’ll be there any time soon.
There was a delay before I heard a reply.
*I understand…do your…do your best.
I swallowed. Without taking my eyes off the huge man facing us from across the open atrium, I said, “Rina, if this guy doesn’t kick our asses first, I swear I’m going to kick yours when we’re done.”
In my peripheral vision I saw Rina shoot me a nervous glance.
I shook my head slowly.
“You are so dead, Rina. So dead.”
#
(Alessandro)
I stared in awe and disbelief at what I was seeing.
From inside a school building, probably the white donut known as the cafeteria, someone had fired a bright lancing beam of light into the Crescent vessel.
The ship took the hit amid a flash of light, smoke and fire, then shied away. It put an extra hundred feet or so of distance between itself and the cafeteria below.
The beam that struck it was too strong to a hand held weapon used by the Special Intervention Enforcers. Even a shoulder cannon couldn’t achieve a tenth as much. That meant one of the Familiars had used a Fragment or Artifact against Crescent.
I could only think of one person.
Rina Sayen.
The girl bonded with the Artifact Brahmastra – a gun-blade with the ability to augment into an incredibly powerful quantum reaction cannon. It was a weapon that could strike a target tens of thousands of meters away with millimeter precision.
Her profile described her as a follower, not a leader, so I believed someone ha
d instructed her to take the shot.
Maya Khayman? Perhaps. I doubted anyone else could have convinced Rina Sayen to fire upon a starship.
But what if I was wrong? Well, the only way to know would be in a post battle debrief – provided anyone survived to attend it.
I replayed the scene from various angles as recorded by the holocams.
Yes, in response to that shot someone had definitely dropped out of the ship and into the cafeteria.
I felt utterly helpless sitting in my office. All I could do was watch, with no power to affect the proceedings. With that ship floating overhead, the area around Galatea Academy had been evacuated, but the school was still full of students. And with the underground passages locked down, there was no way to evacuate without being seen. Making matters worse the effect-field generators were outputting a simulated gravity in excess of six gees within the academy grounds.
So for now a small army of Enforcers was camped around the perimeter of the school, keeping to within a district block of Galatea Academy.
That was as much as the Enforcer Division could do.
And Special Interventions wasn’t faring any better.
A report had come in a minute ago.
A fragment of a transmission from the convoy of vehicles headed for the Vault.
They’d entered via the underground service tunnel that connected the Vault to a subterranean military staging area. It was a means of access that didn’t require the command codes stored in the black box network. But the doors within the large tunnel had been sealed shut, so the convoy had been forced to blow holes in them in order to get through.
Their last transmission had lasted only seconds but it was clear they had met an untimely end.
I read a follow up communication – a directive from Alucard ordering the next group of vehicles to hold position at the head of the tunnel, yet still within the staging area.
I had a bad feeling she was considering throwing in the towel, and would allow Crescent to get whatever they were after.
Then a message arrived on a holovid bubble floating near my head.
AVIENDA ON STATION.
I blinked and felt a chill run through my body.
She did it! Alucard convinced the Avenir Pride to weigh in on the situation.
But by the gods how had she convinced them to deploy her?
The Avenir Prides’ most prized possession…in the hands of a child.
The only child to have shown the required level of compatibility with the Artifact.
The Seer-Khan Warlord, Avienda.
I instructed the holocam drones to search for it within the confines of Habitat Three.
It took long seconds, many long seconds, but in the end one drone spotted something standing on the rooftop of an Aztec style building, a design prevalent within Pharos.
A bipedal machine, skeletal in places, while wearing thick armor in others. It had chevron link chains connecting its limbs to a spine-like structure. Wing-like vanes formed a skirt around its hips and back, connected to the spine of the main body by more of the same chevron link chains. At its back, six wing-vanes hung away from its body like the giant leaves of a palm tree. They were the six wing-vanes unique to a Seer-Khan, the second most powerful Warlord type in existence.
Only a Rho-Khan was stronger, uniquely identified by seven wing-vanes rather than six.
But to have Avienda standing here in a populated habitat sent cold wave after wave running through my body.
I didn’t know if it was from excitement or extreme terror.
I pictured the worst case scenario – a habitat in flames.
No, I was definitely getting chills of terror.
If Avienda were to engage that starship in combat, the habitat was as good as history.
I prayed the Warlord was there as a deterrent.
The holocam zoomed in on the pilot, clad in a black and white outfit that clearly highlighted she was a teenage girl. A short teenage girl at that, though I did notice her breasts were well developed. Her legs were encased in armor that connected to the thighs of the skeletal, armored Warlord.
A helmet-like visor covered half her face, but not her maniacal grin as she turned to face the holocam spying on her.
She made the shape of a gun with her left hand, aiming her index finger at the holocam.
She mouthed the word ‘bang’, and the picture crashed into snow as the device stopped functioning.
On a second holocam I saw it blow up into a shower of super-heated fragments that lazily rained down upon a district block.
My vision of the habitat in flames resurfaced with a vengeance.
I tapped my palm-slate in a hurry and called the habitat command center.
“Evacuate Habitat One. Command authorization, Alesso one nine seven two. Pass phrase, summer rain.”
I listened to the man on the other end of the line, and nodded subconsciously.
“That is correct. This is a red five alert. Highest probable danger. Evacuate all civilians and non-essential personnel from the habitat.”
I swallowed as I gave the next order.
“Then lock it down.”
I had the rank to call for such a directive. I was Special Interventions’ second-in-command.
Once everyone was out, the quatre-steel shutters would come down at the exit and entrance to the tunnels that connected Habitat Three with the rest of the Island asteroid.
I ended the call, and it didn’t take long for calls from other division commanders to come in, each one undoubtedly demanding an explanation for my actions.
But one message flashed up on my holovid message bubble.
DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO. I HAVE MY HANDS FULL ON MY END.
I swallowed again as I read Alucard’s words.
Do what I need to do?
I needed a way to shut up the incoming calls.
Fine. They wanted an explanation, then I would give it to them.
A picture as they say is worth a thousand words.
How many words was a holocam data stream worth?
I instructed a single holocam drone to keep a covert eye on the ‘loose cannon’ that was Avienda in the hands of its battle lusting pilot.
I instructed a number of other drones to turn their holocams on the Warlord, and not to be shy about it.
Then I answered all the calls at once, and presented the faces questioning me with one holovid window displaying the scene of young girl happily destroying one holocam drone after the other.
It didn’t take them long to understand why I’d ordered the complete evacuation of Habitat One.
But I also knew that by now Crimson Crescent was well aware of the Warlord stationed on the outskirts of the habitat.
Chapter 23 – The Vault.
(Caelum)
Eventually Simone’s strength gave out, and we slowed to a walk.
Simone’s voice was weak as she walked beside me.
“Do you think…do you think Melanie survived?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. That explosion was pretty big. It might have collapsed part of the tunnel.”
I thought I heard the Countess swallow. “Damn it, Melanie….”
I swallowed too, but had no words to add.
We walked in silence for a little while, until the Countess softly asked, “Do you still want to see your sister?”
I hesitated, understanding what she was implying. Was the price of so much destruction worth it?
Thought of that way, didn’t it make the carnage thus far my responsibility?
I wasn’t ready to accept that, at least not yet.
But I wasn’t going to change my mind.
I cleared my throat. “I’ve come this far. I can’t turn back now. It’s like I said before, I won’t let Melanie’s sacrifice be in vain.”
I was talking as though Melanie was dead, and that was clearly wrong.
I whispered an apology to her and to the gods above.
Simone said, “C
elica may not be the sister you remember.”
“I know that.” I swallowed then added, “But Melanie said that Celica wanted to see us. And I know she included you in her words.”
Simone was quiet for a little while. “I can’t believe Melanie was a member of Crimson Crescent.”
I laughed softly. “I didn’t know her that well. I can’t say I suspected her.” I thought of what Melanie had told us. “Simone, do you believe what she said about the super-freighter explosion?”
Again the Countess was quiet for a little while. “I heard she was adopted by the Cardwells. I knew that her own parents died when she was young. However, I didn’t know they were Familiars, and I certainly was unaware they were aboard the super-freighter.”
I thought of the death of my parents.
I thought of Caprice telling me her father had died when she was a child, and her mother had passed away while on a mission. She didn’t know much about the circumstances of either incident.
Was there something to all the deaths that surrounded us Familiars? Was there an insidious, malevolent hand at play?
I was tied to Arisa by the red string of fate.
Now I’d learnt I was tied to Melanie as well.
Simone softly added, “The Cardwells are extremely wealthy. I doubt they ever denied her much. I guess her need for revenge was too much to overcome.”
“So you believe her…?”
Simone sighed under her breath.
I glanced at her, and noticed her thoughtful, pensive expression.
The Countess shook her head ever so slightly. “I wonder if it’s true, or if she was somehow conditioned to believe all that. After all, when I asked her about her parents’ journals she said she’d returned them to Crimson Crescent. I find that odd. If my parents were precious to me, and if those journals were precious to my parents—I would never have returned them.” She shook her head forcefully. “No, I would never have relinquished my parents’ legacy to anyone.”
I was about to add to that, when I noticed something that stole my voice.
In the distance ahead, the tunnel changed shape. We continued onward in silence, but came to a stop where the tunnel grew into an enormous half-domed chamber. Simone and I looked about the interior which was illuminated by dozens of light strips embedded into the curved rock walls. I noticed numerous perforations dotting the walls and realized they were gun ports. A half dozen cannons hung from the ceiling high overhead, all pointing at the chamber’s entrance to the tunnel.
Pride x Familiar Page 40
