by J. A. Huss
These six demons are Junco’s weapon. She never needed that knife. One bite from these abominations and all manner of genomic changes can be made inside a biological entity. Every SEAR knife I’ve come in contact with fucks up the collagen transcript—the scaffolding that holds a body together. But the repressors in this saliva might do anything.
I snap back to the situation at hand as one demon sniffs the air, its head darting around. I don’t look back. I just have to trust that Subjack is not a worthless soldier and leave him to do his part.
“Obey,” I growl in Akkadian, the ancient language of the avian. “Obey,” I repeat. I don’t know much of this to have a conversation, it’s not the same as avian, so if they start being chatty I’m screwed. But I know a few commands because it’s been programmed into me.
“I’m the master here,” I continue.
This makes two of them tilt their heads. They all look male to me, but I could be wrong.
One opens his mouth and talks to the others. I have no fucking idea what they are saying, but it sounds angry and ugly, filled with guttural grunts and spitting saliva. They all turn after the words are exchanged and grunt at me this time.
“Obey,” I repeat in Akkadian.
The biggest one steps forward, his red eyes dimming down just a little, just enough to give me hope that they’ll be compliant.
And then the door opens with a loud squeak. And every demon’s head turns to catch Subjack trying to escape. So I have no choice.
I attack.
I have a fraction of a surprise advantage because of the squeaky door and I use it to cover the distance in flight. I pummel into the big one, dragging my razors across his face. Blood gushes and I twist and slice through his throat with my talons.
The neck opens up and he crumples to the ground. I’m knocked sideways and hit the ground with a thud and then slide across the polished concrete floor. I’m a little closer to the door, so I get up and make a break for it. Another demons slices through my back with his razors and the heat of rushing blood floods down my body. I’m knocked to the ground again, a few paces closer to the door, but close is not good enough. I need to be outside to fight properly and use my gifts.
Another one grabs me and slams me back down on the ground, pushing on my chest with its clawed foot. I am left gasping for breath. I squirm to get out from under his foot but another one has me by the arm. And another one has a leg. One by one they grab my limbs and hoist me over their heads. My heart beats faster as I imagine what they’ll do next and then—wham. I’m laid out flat on the ground. Rib after rib cracks and breaks. Pushing my lungs inward and leaving me breathless.
From the corner of my eye I spot the head demon walking my way, fully recovered. My own body is healing as fast as it can, but I’m damaged. Fucking bad. So all my energy is going to inhaling oxygen right now. I am picked up again, and the thing actually opens his mouth, like he’s gonna eat me. He rears his head back and screams the avian battle cry again, and then snarls at me and bites off a hunk of my shoulder.
I scream. I go ballistic. I have never felt such pain in all my life. I squirm in his hold, twisting my body, every fucking hand-to-hand fight move I’ve ever learned rushing into my forward consciousness, and I force myself to reach up to his neck, through the pain in my ribs, through the pain in my other shoulder—and I hammerfist his neck where the jugular is throbbing form the pumping blood in his artery.
He drops me and the crushing pain in my chest almost makes me pass out. I flip my legs up because they are still working, and drag my talons across the artery that runs down his leg.
Blood shoots out in a river, splashing the other Siblings, making the floor slippery, and they stumble.
My ribs are feeling slightly better, my Aves self-heal gene kicking shit up a notch, and I force myself onto my knees just as the other five come at me again. They pick up where they left off, each taking a limb and the leftover raking his claws against the armor that covers my stomach.
I’m moving across the floor, not towards the door, but not exactly farther away either. They pull my limbs as they walk, making me grunt with pain as my tendons are stretched in my shoulders and hips, and then I am thrown down on the pile of bodies.
The head demon is up again and he’s tracking me with his blazing red eyes. His mouth opens and his fangs grow longer. He lifts his arms to swipe at me—
And then the whole place is lit up with plasma fire. The demons all turn simultaneously to see who’s threatening them.
I almost chuckle when I see more than a hundred armed PF soldiers blasting their demon asses. The soldiers push forward, all the rifles on full stream, forcing the demon Siblings to back up. They almost step on me, but I roll off to the side and manage to get to my knees, then my feet. The demons are pinned to the far cave wall, wailing and flailing their claws around, batting at the hot river of plasma that bears down on them. I stumble forward and then Subjack is there, holding me up and dragging me to the door.
We break through and soldiers pile out after us. Subjack takes me over to the side where Linny Coot is waiting with her wounded ankle. I’m a bloody mess from head to toe, my armor slashed, my breath still coming in fits, blood and spit dripping out of my mouth.
The PF soldiers get the door closed and then everything goes silent. Moments pass.
Then—“Holy fucking shit! Did you see those things?” The soldiers get excited and start talking it out, trying to come to terms with what happened in their own soldiering way.
“You’re a mess, son,” Subjack says.
I look down at my shoulder. It’s already healing, and I’m not melting away, like Kush did when Junco accidentally cut him with her SEAR knife, so that’s a good sign. But I’m gonna have to have Wyrd look at this if I live through the day. “Yeah, I know. Thanks for the update. Ashur to Command Ship 039. Ashur to 039 ship.”
“Yes, sir,” they answer me back from the comm implanted on my uniform.
“I need you to pick up approximately… one hundred ten PF soldiers outside PF headquarters and transport them to wherever they want to go. Out.” I look up at Subjack. “That good enough for them?”
A loud banging against the massive steel door.
“They better get here quick, those things won’t stay put long.”
The blue lights shine down from above and I throw out my hands in a there you go gesture. “Just tell them to step into the light beams, they’ll be transported up and they’ll take them wherever it is they need to go. You guys are coming with me. We need to have a chat and everyone is back in the Stag, so that’s where we’re going.”
Subjack walks off to give orders and I look over at Linny. She’s stoic. “I know what’s coming,” she says.
“Yeah?” I say. “Well, congrat-u-fucking-lations. It’s not real hard to see it’s the end of the fucking world.”
“Not quite the end, Ashur Aves, 039-2. There’s a lot we need to do yet.”
“Well, that’s why your ass is—”
My words are cut off by the rumbling of the mountain again. Half the soldiers are already in the light beams, safe from the demons inside the compound, but this has nothing to do with them.
The Halo bursts forth from Pillar One a few hundred miles to the south. It shoots across the sky, an arc of silver light that almost looks like the contrail of a large airship.
Everyone left on the ground starts whooping, but I get to my feet. “Silence!” I roar above the chatter and celebrations. They all go quiet and I point up. “Watch. This will never happen again. Ever. This is the last time this device will be activated. You won’t want to miss this. No one else on Earth will see what you will see today. Because we are the only ones near the First Pillar to witness it. Listen,” I whisper.
I can see every single person left on the ground strain their neck a little and aim their ears to the sky.
It starts as a distant hum, then turns into music, like a song. The melody is familiar to me but I can’t place it at
the moment. The simple song becomes more complex, the hum in two tones now, then three, then more. I know the sound isn’t changing. The beam is racing around the world emitting the same pitch and frequency from one Pillar to another.
No. What’s changing is how close it’s getting to us.
A faraway ping rattles the atmosphere and the ship signals that it has to pull out of low orbit immediately.
“Watch!” I yell, pointing up at the sky. “It’s coming!”
And then just above the distant horizon in the south east, I spot it. “There!” I feel like a fucking kid, that’s how excited I am. We did it! I laugh a little as the beam comes racing towards us, the song more like an orchestra now, and then the ping of Pillar One engagement signals the completion of the halo. All seven Pillars are joined now and it looks like a silver arc that begins at the horizon, climbs up overhead, and then disappears in the northwest. But if you were on ship right now, like those lucky fucks who just got picked up, you’d see that Earth now has a brilliant, sparkling silver ring.
We have our final weapon.
Lucan might win this after all.
Chapter Twenty-Five—TIER
Peak City
I am just entering the port when a message from Annun comes through. No. Message is not the right word. Distress signal. I avert my port and come out a fraction of a second later in New Peak City.
Angels are everywhere.
Annun is fighting like the warrior he is. John Hando is doing his best not to get killed and firing off some projectile weapon that simultaneously electrocutes and sets fire to the attacking army. And a demon version of Junco who must be Iliana is twirling around confused as massive plasma cannons erupt from the rooftops of all the Peak City buildings.
The earth begins to rumble as the Seventh Pillar that shines above the mountains in the west suddenly explodes upwards. Every souls puts a hand up to cover their eyes but me and I take this moment of blindness to kill all the Angels between myself and John Hando. Weapon or not, he’s likely to be killed without help. Once they realize I’m here the Angels snap out of the light-induced stupor and form up for an attack.
I don’t have to fight. I could just tap my friends on the shoulder and leave right now.
But I want to fight.
It’s been way too long since I fought.
Too many brothers have died to miss this opportunity.
The heat starts in my face and I turn to the nearest Angel and rake my claws through his chest. His body is sliced in two with a ping sound, and then they all stop.
I throw my head back and laugh as the heat falls down my neck, the muscles bulging from my shoulders, the fangs already formed, my eyes already burning like fire from the red.
I send Annun a message. Take them to the Stag and wait.
“I’ll stay and fight with you, Tier.”
“I don’t need yer help, Annun. Take them.”
Iliana is only a few paces off, still twirling around, looking at the plasma cannons on the roof. John Hando reaches Annun, the tap completes, and they are gone.
This is some secret signal for the cannons to come alive because the entire Circus is hellfire before me.
I don’t burn.
I can’t burn.
But these Angels do. It won’t kill them, but it slows them down. I find the commander of this squadron by the signals coming off his body. He’s low-level compared to my brothers. Arel could kick this Angel’s ass without even trying.
The concrete explodes in front of me but I simply fly forward through the flames and hover above their captain as the other Angels form a circle around me.
The cannons stop, like whoever is controlling them wants to watch what will happen.
“You have an audience,” the Angel says in avian as he stares up at me. It sounds like singing in his native accent. He points behind me and I chance a glance. I’m on the giant screen that broadcasts the shows that take place down in the amphitheater to the people up in the Circus level. There are a lot of humans trapped down there, like there was a concert before the aliens appeared.
Stupid fucking humans.
“I should make it worth their time, then, right?” I say back in my Amelia version of the old language.
He holds up his hands. “We’re not here for you, Beast,” he replies in English.
“No, but I’m here for you.” I attack. He flips aside, quicker than he looks, and swipes his razors across my back as I turn.
I smile.
“You’ll play then?” I watch his expression change as I morph up another level. My wings crack and my feathers drop. Not one by one like a gentle wind blowing flowers off a tree. They shed in a single moment of time. Left behind are the batwings reserved for Lucan. The Captain’s reaction is surprise. “You have no idea what I am, do ya?”
I laugh.
And morph up again. This time there’s a cracking sound as my leg bones break and mend millions of times in the span of a moment. My arms follow, then all my muscles rip apart and repair themselves.
I am two feet taller now. Let’s see Gideon hold those two centimeters over me now.
The Captain is afraid.
But he remains still, so I level up again, the knives burst through my boots, ripping and shredding them until they fall apart.
“You come to my world and think I’ll let you live?”
“This fight is not with you,” he sings in avian. “I’m here to collect the Seven, Beast. She belongs to us.”
I attack again. This time I’m so fast he doesn’t even know I’ve moved until his head is on the ground, rolling towards his second-in-command.
“You’re next,” I growl. “And then you.” I look past him to his third, then the four, the five, the six, swivel my head and find the seven, the eight. I find them all by their light in exact ranking order. I point to each one individually. “I’m going to kill you all.”
And then I enter the shift, only this time I am time. I walk among them like they are statues, that’s how fast I move from their perspective. For me though, I walk like I’m taking a summer stroll on the Sargassum beach with HOUSE. I cut their heads off, one, two, three, four, five… I lose count, just continue, slowly, methodically, in perfect ranking order, until the seven lowest ranking members of this squad are the only ones left.
When I exit the timeshift, they are standing with their mouths open.
My vision screen says four seconds have passed.
I take the new One by the throat. “I have a message for ya, Angel,” I say in my most formal avian to make sure he understands. “You go tell your commander Aesin that Raubtier Aves is the ruling Angel of this planet. You tell your commander Aesin that if he wants someone who resides here, he’s to come beg at my feet for her. You tell your commander Aesin that if he wants to leave Sol System with all his pieces intact, he will come kiss my claws and bow his head.”
And then I laugh.
“You tell your commander Aesin,” I drawl out the word now, slipping back into my Amelia avian accent. But it hardly matters, the gist of my words is already being broadcast back to the Angel who needs to hear it. “He will never take my Seven.” I stop to repeat it so there is no mistake. “And you tell him”—I roar so loud that the One’s body vibrates and a trickle of blood seeps out of his ear—“that I will rip his throat out if he tries.”
I look over at the giant screen on the mountain and it’s got a close-up of me. I see myself in this form for the first time. I’ve never made this change. Ever. You don’t morph back easily from this level. I don’t know where the cameras are, but I’m must be looking straight at them. It’s a frontal close-up of my demon face. My fangs are ten feet long on that screen. My eyes are nothing but red light. My neck bulges with each and every inhale, my chest sucking in tens of liters of oxygen with each draw to power my muscles and metabolism.
I switch back to English because now I’m talking to Earth. “I will kill them, but make no mistake.” I stop to walk over to the e
dge of the top level and peer over the side to talk to the humans down below directly. “Make no mistake, I will kill all of you as well. No one will get out of this unscathed. This planet will be unrecognizable when I’m done. You will all be dead and my father will live. But this, humans, is better than the alternative, take my word for it. This is yer best-case scenario.”
I look up to see what’s happened while I was raging. The Halo is stretching out across the horizon from southeast to northwest.
It’s done. She’s coming home now.
And then I port away.
Feeling pretty fucking satisfied.
Chapter Twenty-Six—LUCAN
Tigris-Euphrates River Delta
5000 BC
I don’t go back to the river that night. I sleep in my house on my soft bed, and dream about Amelia the whole time. I don’t go the next night either. I bathe in my own bath house. I fully expect a visit from Crage or someone, asking me to join them again. But no one comes.
My whole week passes by. I stand up on the supervisor’s terrace, looking down on the slaves toiling in the hot sun. Aesin interferes with the crops, bothers the women, kills some of them… it only gets worse from there.
And still, Crage never comes.
Each day my workforce gets smaller, until finally, after six continuous days of harassment by Aesin, the slaves rise up and he slaughters them all, leaving me with no one to farm.
It’s not the first time. This is a well-known pattern. But the slaves are not smart enough to understand what he’s doing. They don’t see it, otherwise they would not react to him by rising up.
Now I am forced to go to Gibborum Plaza and request a new crop of workers.
This excites me. I’ve stayed away from the river for a week. I didn’t even send a servant to check and see if she’s there. But now I will surely bump into her in the plaza. They have to know that my workers have all been killed by Aesin. They have to be expecting me.
The gardens inside the plaza are lush and green, the small irrigation systems built to support the botanicals flowing in small canals all over the place. There are little foot bridges that allow passage as I make my way over to the genetics building and relish the artificially cooled air inside after the door closes behind me.
