The Forever Gate Ultimate Edition

by Isaac Hooke

  Around her, the defenders fought members of Amoch’s army. Fire swords clanged from lightning shields. Streams of flame and tines of electricity were exchanged on both sides. Enemies fell, bodies sometimes aflame. Defenders dropped in equal numbers, their hair smoldering, the charred areas of their skin indicating where lightning bolts had struck.

  Members of the heavily-armored enemy hunter class swept through the ranks, their oversized daggers and telescoping blades cutting wide swaths through the men.

  Ari equipped her shield in time to defend against two enemy swordsmen. She defeated them, but one of the hunters rushed to fill their place. It raised its huge dagger to strike at her. She hefted her shield to block the blow, not at all sure it would hold up.

  An explosive arrow struck the hunter in its unarmored face, and the resulting detonation completely obliterated its head. Leaving a trail of red mist, the empty helmet arced several meters into the air before thudding into her shield; the headless, heavily armored body fell to its knees and toppled.

  She glanced over her shoulder. A few paces back, Renna stood with bow and arrow in hand. The Keeper nodded.

  Ari hurried forward to find the next foe. A man unleashed lightning at her, but Ari blocked it with her shield and then skewered the opponent.

  Another man replaced him, launching fire at her. She sidestepped and somersaulted, cutting her weapon horizontally: the attacker’s head rolled from his shoulders.

  When she landed, she saw Amoch and Wraylor not far ahead, gliding through the battle like royalty.

  Defenders rushed Amoch. He had merely to gesture with his staff and the men were swept aside by an invisible hand, their bodies disintegrating in midair before they could strike the cobblestone.

  Wraylor pointed her bone staff at one man who raced toward her, and his body dissolved into a slithering mass of cockroaches. Those insects swarmed over the body of another defender, leaving behind a skeleton picked clean of flesh.

  Angered by the sight, Ari retreated to the collapsed portion of the obelisk that was strewn across the square. She sheathed her sword, stowed her shield, and clambered onto the ruins. The vantage point proved favorable: she had a clean line of sight to Amoch.

  She slid the bow down from her shoulder and loaded one of the explosive arrows from the quiver at her waist. She aimed at Amoch’s center of mass and released.

  The arrow flew true and detonated violently upon impact. Though he was invulnerable, the explosion knocked him far back; he struck several of his own men along the way, clearing a momentary path through the enemy. He was soon swallowed from view by the churning mass.

  Ari launched a second arrow at Wraylor and the hooded woman was similarly hurled backward, vanishing in the throng.

  Those two momentarily taken care of, she aimed her bow at a member of the hunter class, who was tearing a path deep into the defenders. Her arrow struck its unarmored face and the resulting explosion liquefied the gol’s head.

  Her exhilaration at those small victories was quickly doused when, from her vantage up there on the ruins, she realized how hopelessly outnumbered her army was. Already, she thought her ranks had been reduced by half, while the enemy hordes meanwhile seemed endless.

  Briar should have arrived by then with the promised reinforcements from the Black Den, but apparently he had decided not to come. Without his men, it seemed apparent to Ari that the battle was forfeit.

  She heard a loud thudding from her right. Brute. Apparently the creature had spotted her, because it was headed straight toward her, tearing through the fray, alternately elbowing men aside with its powerful arms or slicing them down with one of the four scimitars it held. The Dragon Lady moved in a graceful dance of death at its side, beheading any who dared oppose her own advance.

  Ari had time to release one more arrow. She aimed at the cobblestone immediately between the creature and the Dragon Lady.

  The latter noticed Ari’s intention in time and nimbly leaped away. Brute was not so quick. The arrow struck and the resultant explosion knocked the large creature backward. The beast smashed into the ground, and the cobblestone dislodged around it.

  The Dragon Lady leaped onto the fallen obelisk and attacked.

  Ari dropped the bow, withdrawing her sword just in time to defend against the katana. She retreated under the flurry of strikes, nearly losing her balance on an uneven section of the ruined obelisk.

  The Dragon Lady attacked mercilessly, the expression on her silver dragon mask never changing: the wide eyes, the thick nostrils, that unnerving gaping grin.

  Ari tripped and fell over the edge of the ruins. She landed hard, with her back to the cobblestone. Her armor absorbed most of the blow, but the wind was still knocked out of her. She had dropped her sword, and it lay about a pace to her right.

  The Dragon Lady leaped at Ari. In midair, the woman raised her blade with both hands and plunged it downward in time with her descent.

  Ari rolled toward her dropped sword, but she doubted she’d retrieve it in time to defend against the katana.

  The Dragon Lady landed beside her.

  Ari scooped up her sword, knowing that death was imminent...

  And then she heard a loud clang beside her.

  Another blade had intercepted the death blow meant for her.

  She spun to see who it was.

  Renna.

  Ari clambered to her feet while the Keeper forced the Dragon Lady backward. Ari grabbed the shield from where she had stowed it on her back and strapped it to her arm. Then she rushed the Dragon Lady and renewed the attack.

  Together, she and Renna pinned the woman against the ruin of the fallen obelisk. The Dragon Lady struggled to keep up with the twofold attacks.

  Renna was abruptly drawn away by an aggressor from the side; Ari positioned herself to screen the Keeper’s back from the Dragon Lady.

  Ari kept up the relentless assault. She used the lightning shield to her advantage, protecting the left side of her body so that her sword arm could continue the attack unabated. She struck that curlicued armor repeatedly, but as in the previous engagement, Ari could not inflict even a dent. As she gazed into those grotesque features while she fought, she had an idea. The mask... the mask was the key. If she could rip it off and then strike at the face, her opponent would fall.

  An opening presented itself and Ari slapped the mask with her hilt. The hand guard caught against the embossed edge, and Ari flipped the weapon upward.

  The mask flew off.

  Ari was stunned by who she saw underneath.

  “Gemma!” Ari said.

  Zak’s sister picked up the attack, taking advantage of Ari’s momentary distraction. “Who told you that name, gol?”

  “Your brother!” Ari defended the blows. “He is with us now in the real world your Amoch speaks of!”

  Gemma’s face crumpled in outrage and her attacks increased, becoming frantic: “Lies! You killed my brother before my very eyes. You and the gol Ten burned him to a crisp!”

  Gemma’s attacks became a fervent blur, coming in from all sides, and even with the shield Ari had trouble defending. Gemma’s assault only abated when the ground began to shake and men screamed around them. A shadow fell over the pair. Motion drew their gaze skyward.

  Meteors of different sizes fell from the heavens, pummeling the defenders. One particularly large one was headed toward her and Gemma, blotting out the sun.

  Gemma leaped backward, while Ari dodged to the side. The meteor struck: the ground exploded and she was flung across the battlefield.

  Ari landed on her back. Broken cobblestone followed her down, and she raised her shield to protect herself. When the incoming debris ceased, she crawled to her feet, dazed.

  She had lost sight of Gemma. She did, however, spot Amoch in the distance: he was extending his staff in the general direction of the defenders. He had caused the meteors, no doubt.

  Wraylor stood beside him. She, too, had returned with a vengeance. She transformed the ground into
acid underneath several defenders. The men sank, screaming. Some attempted to crawl from the greenish liquid but it was too late, and the tissue sloughed from their faces and arms, leaving bone.

  Brute meanwhile rampaged through the fray, causing death and destruction wherever it went. Though she could not see them in the seething masses, she had no doubt that Jeremy and Gemma continued to fight somewhere out there as well.

  Enemy soldiers raced forward to fill any vacancies. Ari found herself standing before a hunter gol. Renna rushed to her side, and while the Keeper distracted the thing, Ari unleashed flames into its face, disabling the unit.

  Three more defenders joined them and they fought back to back. Other pockets of men formed nearby, surrounded by enemies, struggling to stave off the attacks. It was then that Ari realized her army was completely overwhelmed, reduced to a few score survivors. It was doubtful the hold-outs would last much longer.

  The battle was lost. They could attempt a retreat, but it would be slow and arduous with the enemy on all sides like that. By the time they made it to the edge of the square, most of the remaining defenders would be cut down.

  She had wanted to save Kismet. But she couldn’t even save her own army.

  A horn echoed loudly in the square. Ari ignored it, fighting on. Some of the attackers paused in confusion, perhaps searching for the source of the horn, and she used that moment of hesitation to strike them down.

  Motion drew her gaze to the rooftops, where archers knelt in plain sight. They lined the roofs of the square on all sides, likely placed by Amoch to ambush her. She was angry that the scouts hadn’t reported them, and even angrier that neither she nor her generals had thought to position a similar group of archers.

  We didn’t have enough men for such a maneuver, the voice of reason reminded her.

  Yes, the battle was indeed lost.

  And then a voice echoed above the sounds of war.

  “Let the whoremongers come out to play!”

  She would have recognized that voice anywhere.

  Briar. The archers were his.

  He had come through for her in the end.

  The archers unleashed their arrows into the fray. Explosions ripped through the square, chewing wide holes through the enemy ranks.

  Fresh swordsmen from the Black Den rushed forward, unleashing flames and lightning, and their ferocious onslaught swept the opponents from Ari.

  So there was still a chance she might win after all. A very slim one, but a chance nonetheless.

  Briar joined her. “Why hello, dear niece! Fancy meeting you here.” He wore lightning rings on every finger, and carried a fire sword and shield.

  “Thank you, Briar,” she said.

  “No,” Briar told her. “Thank you, Ari. For showing me that I’m still a good man somewhere inside. And that I still have courage buried within me, however deep.” He glanced toward the dueling ranks ahead of them. “Now let’s teach this Amoch and his whoresons some manners, shall we?”

  48

  Hoodwink resided within a shuttle far above Ganymede. “Steady as she goes.”

  His pilot, Zak, sat in the cockpit beside him. They were both dressed in spacesuits with exoskeletons attached to the outside. Their helmets were on. In front of them, above the controls, a viewscreen relayed video from the external cameras, giving the illusion that the cockpit had windows. Behind them, in the freight area, a nuclear warhead awaited placement. Custom magnetic shielding designed by Hoodwink and implemented by the engineers would prevent the Satori from realizing what their deadly cargo was. In theory.

  The trailing shuttle, piloted by Klay, carried a similar nuke. Those were the last two weapons of their kind that the human colony ship had aboard. Some might have thought the proximity of the trailing shuttle to Hoodwink’s was dangerous, should that craft be destroyed. However, the nuke wouldn’t detonate in an attack: it required a specific combination of temperature and pressure to activate the proper chain reaction, a combination only the warhead itself could achieve.

  Of course, while Hoodwink wasn’t worried so much about the nuke detonating, he was very nervous about losing it, as they needed both for the plan to succeed. That was why he had assigned the second-best pilot after Zak to the trailing craft.

  Two decoy shuttles flew on the left and right sides of Zak’s, piloted by Clark and Raynor. Zak followed the third decoy shuttle, which was flown by Myerson. At the very front was Hoodwink’s own alien flyer.

  Through the viewscreen, a thick black mass gathered before the Satori mothership, their destination. Much of the ship was occluded by that darkness, and Hoodwink saw only portions of the hull, which hinted at its massiveness.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” Zak asked him, his voice coming over the speakers of Hoodwink’s helmet.

  “It’ll work,” Hoodwink said. “They haven’t fired at us so far, have they?”

  “But they will, if this works,” Zak said. “They’re going to be pretty pissed.”

  “And that, my boy, is precisely why I brought along someone with your flying skills.” Hoodwink glanced at the overlay on his aReal. Was Clark drifting to the left?

  Hoodwink activated the squadron channel. “Clark, looks like you’re straying to port.”

  The display updated with the shuttle’s corrected trajectory.

  “Sorry about that, Hood,” Clark transmitted.

  “Stick to formation, people,” Hoodwink sent over the encrypted line. “And maintain speed at half throttle. I don’t want anyone showing any sign of hesitation. Let’s not give them any clues as to how frightened we really are.”

  Hoodwink cut the line and watched as the squadron closed with the black cloud over several minutes. Soon, that darkness completely obscured the mothership from view.

  He glanced at Zak. “It’s time for me to get back to my flyer. The autopilot can only take it so far.”

  “Good luck,” Zak said.

  Hoodwink smiled. “On a good day, I make my own luck, lad.”

  “Is today a good day?” Zak asked.

  Hoodwink’s smile wavered. “Don’t be jinxing it now.”

  He sat back in his chair, closed his eyes and thought of the code word of squeals and pops that would allow him to detach from his surrogate and return to his Satori body.

  GRAOL AWOKE TO a transmission in the Satori tongue.

  Unknown ship, identify yourself.

  He floated in a greenish liquid within what served as the cockpit of the flyer, looking out on the universe through the twenty-four eyes that granted him three hundred and sixty degrees of visual acuity. A portal offered him a view of the black fog that blotted out the stars ahead.

  The local AI aboard the flyer would have transmitted a canned response to the challenge, but apparently the mothership was not impressed, because the communique repeated.

  Unknown ship, identify yourself or you will be destroyed.

  The moans and hisses were transmitted directly into Graol’s quadmind, courtesy of the local AI, which had received the telepathic signal and boosted it.

  This is flyer Hrotissqerie 122, piloted by Graol-52-70-32-144, egg donor Laol-12-142-160-924, sperm donors Maol-16-30-42-43 and Fallow-92-1002-4-58.

  Graol waited several moments before the response came.

  According to the records, you are assigned to Earth. As is your flyer.

  Graol knew he was speaking to the Shell, the primary AI in control of the mothership, and the main representative of the ship’s local Hivemind, not to be confused with the Hivemind Graol had destroyed on Earth.

  The records are inaccurate, Graol sent. You are aware that Earth colony has ceased transmissions?

  We are aware, the response came. A minor communications glitch with the colony, no doubt. We expect contact to be fully restored shortly. Explain what this has to do with the inaccuracy in the records.

  I have been operating undercover on Ganymede, Graol returned. Collecting samples of Species 87A technology. Species 87A was the Sator
i designation for humans. Because of the sensitive nature of my mission, the records were purposely obfuscated to conceal my location. Ordinarily I would instruct you to contact my superiors on Earth to confirm my identity, but since communication is down, I can do no such thing.

  I must clear your approach with the Hivemind, the Shell responded.

  The Satori AI had one major weakness: it’s appetite for new technology. So Graol said: I bring you five shuttles laden with 87A weapons and equipment. They carry hitherto undiscovered technologies. I have also uncovered the 87A Hidden Archives, which contain the entire technical history of Species 87A.

  Obviously tempted, the Shell did not reply for several moments.

  Finally: Turn back. The Hivemind refuses to grant authorization for your approach at the present moment.

  But these technologies—

  Turn back or suffer the consequences, the Shell interrupted.

  It was worth a try.

  Turning back, Graol lied.

  He waited until the flyer was within two kilometers of the black fog that shielded the mothership.

  You have not turned back, the Shell sent.

  Doing so presently, Graol responded.

  The flyer closed to fifteen hundred meters.

  Graol transmitted the code that ordinarily would allow a Satori flyer to penetrate the countless nanobots that composed the black cloud. Not unexpectedly, the microscopic robots did not respond to it.

  A thousand meters.

  Graol broadcast several more overlapping frequencies; if his values were correct, the affected nanobots would vibrate in turn, retransmitting and amplifying the same frequencies to their neighbors.

  Five hundred meters.

  You have not turned back, the Shell sent.

  He doubled the signal strength. Tripled it.

  Two hundred meters.

  He knew he was successful when the black fog visibly changed form, condensing into discrete clumps as the nanobots vibrated at their resonant frequency and ceased functioning. The dark clusters spread like a disease through the cloud, as the nanobots comprising the shield deactivated en masse.