by Isaac Hooke
She threw her shield. The lead hunter dropped its dagger to catch the object. She unleashed flames at the gol’s face, aiming for the eyes above the mandibles of that helmet. But the hunter turned its head so that the fire caught the side of its helm.
Another hunter struck out at her, extending its telescoping razor weapon. She somersaulted sideways, growing frustrated. She had to get to Amoch and attack before the man killed her and her companions.
In the middle of her somersault, she grabbed one of the arrows from her quiver and hurled it between the two hunters, toward Amoch. The deadly arrow flew at the leader of the army like a dagger.
Incredibly, Amoch caught it. And then his body floated forward. Literally floated—his feet didn’t touch the ground. He forced his way past the hunters, and the parts of their bodies that he touched disintegrated. He halted directly in front of Ari.
He did all of that before she returned to the ground from her somersault.
The air had grown black around Ari. When she landed on her two feet, she and Amoch were isolated from the rest of the army, floating in an island of darkness.
He wrapped an arm around her back, placing his palm at the base of her skull, drawing her in. His other hand held the explosive arrow almost to her lips. Ari tried to move away, but his grip was like a steel vise.
“Did you know,” Amoch said. “Once launched, the tip will detonate immediately upon contact? It doesn’t matter the speed at which the arrow travels.” He moved the steel tip closer.
Ari squirmed, but she couldn’t escape his grip.
“Come Ari, embrace the sweet kiss of death.” Amoch brought the arrow nearer still. “I always wondered if I would have the courage to kill you when the time finally came.”
Ari stared at it, fighting him with all her gol strength, but it was to no avail.
Just when it seemed the tip must touch her lips, he abruptly lowered the arrow. “But I can’t do it.”
Ari slumped in relief.
“You saved me,” Amoch said. “In those dark days when I first emerged. I couldn’t cope. The shock from living so long on the Inside, out of time from everyone else. The separation from my wife. I was lost, and felt that my entire life had been a sham. A waste. Nothing I had done was real. Living further seemed pointless. I was ready to end it all. I had managed to deceive everyone. My relearning specialist. The Children. All except you. You could see the pain inside me. You told me that I had to set my feet firmly on the deck and concentrate on my work. You promised I would eventually forget what happened to me on the Inside, and that I would find purpose. Well you were right. I found purpose. Just not, perhaps, the purpose you envisioned.”
He let go of her and stepped back. “But while I cannot personally kill you, others can. And so—” He abruptly looked up. “What—”
The darkness vanished and she stood in the square once more, in the middle of the battle. The bodies of the slain hunters lay around her. There was no sign of Amoch or Wraylor.
“Ari!” Renna said. “There you are! We thought we’d lost you!”
“What happened?” Ari said.
“When Amoch reached you, a globe of darkness enveloped the two of you and then you were gone.”
“What about Wraylor?” Ari asked.
Briar was the one who answered. “The she-bitch was fighting here only a moment ago.” He deflected a lightning blow with his shield and launched flames from his sword. “But then she vanished. Good riddance! She was decimating my men!”
Ari scooped her shield from the dead body of the hunter who had stolen it and then scanned the battlefield one last time for signs of Amoch and Wraylor. The pair were completely absent. Either they had teleported somewhere, which was doubtful, or, judging from Amoch’s reaction, someone had pulled them out.
Tanner found Kade, Ari thought. That was the only way to explain their disappearance. We’ve almost won, then.
She noticed that the ground rumbled violently every three seconds and realized that Amoch’s giant hammer still floated in the air above one of the houses. Without its master to steer it, that hammer smashed down into the same rooftop every three seconds, locked in an infinite loop, sending shockwaves across the square.
She was about to rejoin the main fighting when defenders and enemy fighters alike were batted aside before her. Brute burst through the front line and made its way straight toward her.
She remembered Amoch’s words: while I cannot kill you, others can.
Ari hurried to the giant hammer. It continued to smash the collapsed house every three seconds. When the hammer raised, she hurried across the rubble. She stumbled on a pile of broken bricks, but managed to regain her footing in time to clear the ruins. The hammer smashed down behind her as she entered a side street free of fighting. The shockwave nearly sent her reeling.
She rested against the wall of a nearby building and watched Brute approach the demolished house from the other side.
The creature paused at the far edge of the ruins, well away from the falling hammer.
“Come on,” Ari said. “Come get me!”
Brute sneered, but did not move. The hammer smashed down, momentarily hiding the creature from view. When the hammer raised, Brute was no longer standing there.
Movement drew her eye to the adjacent building. Brute was clambering the intact wall.
“Shit.” Ari retreated several paces.
Brute reached the rooftop, crossed to the rear side, and then leaped down, cratering the cobblestone beneath him. The creature approached her, smirking widely.
Brute had conveniently positioned itself between Ari and the moving hammer. If she timed her attack just right...
“Wipe that smirk off your face,” Ari said.
She threw her shield with all her strength and struck Brute squarely in the chest. The creature hurled backward, directly into the path of the giant hammer. It smashed down right when Brute passed underneath.
The hammer lifted and Ari’s shield did not return. Half buried in the debris, Brute struggled to get up, but was too slow, and the hammer struck again.
Ari retreated. She knew the hammer would not kill the beast, but it would at least keep Brute occupied for a while.
Before she could return to the square and the battle fought there, Gemma dropped from a nearby rooftop. The woman wore her dragon mask once more.
“You have to be kidding me,” Ari said. “Look, Gemma—”
The woman closed ranks and attacked.
Ari parried the blade, purposely keeping to the defensive for the moment.
“Gemma, don’t do this,” Ari said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“But I want to hurt you!” Gemma’s voice sounded muted from behind that mask.
“Your brother is alive.” Ari dodged a stab from that katana. “I swear to you! He told me all about your life on the streets. How you ran away from home. How he raised you.”
Gemma paused in her attack. “He told you this?”
“Yes,” Ari said.
“Did he tell you why we ran away from home?”
“No,” Ari admitted. “Though I can imagine the reasons.”
Gemma pressed the attack.
“This man you follow,” Ari said between blows. “Amoch. Have you listened to any of his sermons? He preaches that none of this is real. That there is another world atop this one. Do you believe him?”
In answer, Gemma sliced at her throat.
Ari deflected the attack. “You must, or you would not follow him. Have you not seen the people he lines up at each of his sermons? People who fall upon their blades so that they may leave this reality and move up to the next?”
Gemma attacked harder.
“You don’t believe it, do you?” Ari said, the realization dawning upon her. “You follow him only out of vengeance.”
Gemma struck so hard that Ari nearly lost her grip on the fire sword.
Ari focused on countering, and she managed to divert those powerful blows. Ari swi
tched to the offensive as Gemma grew tired, and her blade darted through her opponent’s guard a few times, merely to deflect from that curlicued armor.
“I am going to tell you the cold, hard truth,” Ari said. “And you can do with it what you will.”
Gemma weakly parried Ari’s latest attack. She had obviously exhausted herself.
“Amoch speaks rightly,” Ari stated. “There is indeed a world that sits atop this one. And I am its leader.”
Ari waited a moment for her words to sink in. Gemma responded with a half-hearted stab.
Ari easily parried the blow and continued. “Do you hear me? The leader. And I chose Zak. Chose him. I wanted to awaken him from this world myself. I saw potential in him. A man who could make a difference. And he is doing that at this very moment. Fighting for us. Leading an attack against an Enemy even more powerful than Amoch. One among you is from that very Enemy. Jeremy.”
Gemma finally stepped back and ceased the attack. She kept her sword raised and at the ready, however. “You can bring me to my brother?”
Ari felt her expression soften. She lowered her blade slightly. “I could. But it is against the rules we have laid down. Even I, as the leader, cannot violate these rules. It would set a bad precedent. Without these rules, there would be chaos in both worlds. Besides, to do so, I would have to end your life here.”
“So if I end your life,” Gemma said. “You will simply return to this upper world of yours?”
“Not precisely,” Ari said. “If I die here, I die for real. It has to do with the way I’m connected to this world.”
Gemma lifted her mask, revealing her face. She seemed torn by indecision. She pursed her lips. “Who is Amoch in the real world?”
“He used to be one of my top programmers. A man named Kade. But something happened to him. I don’t know what, but he changed. Or maybe he remained the same the whole time and simply shielded his true intentions from the rest of us. Whatever the case, he betrayed us all.”
Gemma’s eyes momentarily flicked to her own blade, as if she were trying to decide whether to use the weapon or sheathe it. “Jeremy is part of this Enemy who attacks us? This Enemy my brother is helping to destroy?”
Ari nodded. “He is.”
“The man in the suit and tie?” Gemma asked.
“That’s him.”
Gemma turned toward the square. “If he is my brother’s enemy, then he is mine. Come then, gol Nine, let us finish this.”
“You can call me Ari,” she told her.
Wary of a trick, at first Ari allowed Gemma to lead the way. But as the woman attacked the enemy fighters and it became obvious that she had switched allegiances, Ari fought directly at her side and trusted her to guard her flank.
“Thank you for believing me,” Ari told her.
Gemma nodded curtly.
Ari and Gemma cut their way through the defenders until they reached Briar and Renna.
“Who’s the fine lass?” Briar said, eying Gemma up and down.
“She’s with me,” Ari said.
Renna raised her shield to deflect an incoming blow of fire, then nodded at Gemma. “Welcome to the party.”
Ari continued the fight. She had hoped the enemy soldiers would flee the square at some point after Amoch and Wraylor vanished, but apparently she had been wrong. Perhaps the members of the opposing army hadn’t yet realized their leaders were gone?
“Your masters are dead!” Ari shouted into the attacking ranks. “The fight has ended!”
In answer, a lightning wielder launched a stream of electricity at her. Briar moved forward and deflected the blow with his shield.
“Clear from my path!” someone shouted. “Clear away!”
A corridor formed among the enemy ranks. Jeremy stood at the end of it in his suit and tie.
“Ari dearest,” Jeremy said. “The fight is far from ended.”
The head of the giant hammer, which continued to pound into the battered house beside the square, abruptly broke away from the handle and crashed to one side. Above it, the damaged handle continued to feebly move up and down.
Brute stood to its feet amid the debris, extended its four arms out to the side, and roared. It withdrew its scimitars—one of them was broken, so the beast discarded it—and then stepped into the square. Soldiers on both sides gave it a wide berth.
Jeremy grinned as the creature approached. “Two’s company. Shall we, Brute?”
“She’s mine,” a muted voice hissed.
And then, before Ari could react, a blade penetrated her from behind, stabbing clean through her armor to emerge from underneath her diaphragm.
A mortal wound. Every breath she took burned.
Ari stared at the square-tipped blade in shock for a moment and then fell to her knees.
“Ari!” Briar said.
She jerked in pain as the blade withdrew, and then glanced over her shoulder.
Gemma stood there, katana covered in fresh blood. The mask covered her face once more, obscuring her features. Ari could almost imagine her snarling victoriously beneath that gaping grin.
51
Hoodwink gripped the armrests tightly with his gloves. Zak was bringing the shuttle on its fourth pass through the plasma flak when the nearest enemy turret flashed brighter than it ever had before. The incoming fire abruptly ceased, and all that remained of that particular point defense was floating debris.
With the aReal built into his helmet, Hoodwink zoomed in on the farther turret in range: it too was destroyed and inoperative. That could only mean the non-visible spectrum lasers from the human ship had finally fired.
Stanson’s voice came over the radio. “Defensive weapons back online.”
Well done, Tanner.
“Take us in,” Hoodwink instructed Zak.
With the weapons back online, the humans would be firing continually at the unshielded mothership, Hoodwink knew, even if he could not see the laser attacks with the naked eye. The automated defenses of the Hercules ship were supposed to avoid hitting their own shuttles, or Hoodwink’s alien flyer. He could only hope that the Children hadn’t made any mistakes while programming the targeting systems.
Other turrets on the mothership continued to fire, though they were aimed at the human ship on the surface below—the landing zone on the hull was clear.
As the crafts neared the alien surface, Hoodwink said over the squadron line: “That’s close enough Klay and Myerson. Hold your positions. Armageddon One going in.”
The respective pilots “rogered” him. He glanced at the position of his flyer on the three-dimensional map that overlaid his vision: the autopilot hovered the craft nearby. Good.
“Launching grappling hooks,” Zak announced. A moment later: “The hooks aren’t taking. I’m going to have to land without their help.”
“Do it,” Hoodwink ordered.
“Turning on AI assist,” Zak said.
Hoodwink watched the smooth metallic surface close on the cockpit viewscreen. It extended as far as the eye could see, from horizon to horizon, marred by the occasional rectangular superstructure or depression.
Then the craft shook and the descent ended.
“We’re down,” Zak said. “Activating mounting magnets.” He paused. Hoodwink’s chair rumbled slightly. “Magnets have taken.”
“Let’s do what we came here to do,” Hoodwink said.
He unbuckled, floating from his seat. He shoved himself toward the cargo area and began unstrapping the nuke. Zak joined him and in moments they had the nuke floating free.
He flexed his arms, hauling the bomb toward the airlock. He felt the vibrations in his suit as the servomotors in the exoskeleton momentarily strained to change the motion vector of the mass. The engineers had placed small engines on the nuke that would sense attempts at directional changes and launch propellant to aid in steering. Some of that propellant fired.
Hoodwink opened the inner airlock and then the outer hatch. There was no explosive decompression, as the
interior atmosphere was already evacuated. The hydraulically-actuated ramp descended to the hull—not that Hoodwink needed it in the weightless environment.
“Now we’re going to see how well your spacewalk training went, we are,” Hoodwink told Zak over their local line.
He and Zak shoved the bomb forward. The overhead of the shuttle fell away, revealing the empty void above. Jupiter hung there, the size of a fist, its swirling clouds reminding him of where he was.
Hoodwink vented propellant from his suit to keep close to the alien hull. Zak did likewise from his position on the opposite side of the nuke.
When they were well clear of the shuttle, Hoodwink said: “Vent dorsal propellant. Let’s plant this thing.”
The pair descended toward the hull and the flat-bottomed nuke struck soundlessly. They activated the mounting magnets.
As a test, Hoodwink attempted to pry the bomb free of the surface. His arms shook as the servomotors shuddered in protest.
“We’re good,” he sent Zak. “Arming the weapon.”
He set the countdown to ten minutes and then armed the nuclear core. The HLED display updated.
9:59.
9:58.
9:57.
He synced the countdown on his aReal to the timer, then switched to the squadron line and transmitted: “Armageddon One, deployed. We’ve got ten minutes, lads. Then shit’s going to get radioactive.”
Hoodwink and Zak vented propellant to return to the shuttle. When they were in, Hoodwink shut the airlock hatches and buckled himself in to his seat.
Zak released the magnetic mounts and jetted the craft from the surface to rejoin the waiting shuttles. The three moved forward, staying close to the hull, putting distance between themselves and ground zero. The autopilot of Hoodwink’s flyer was programmed to follow Zak’s lead by that point, and it kept within five hundred meters behind them.
Hoodwink ordered a halt when the group was just out of range of the nearest Satori point defenses, and well outside the blast radius of the planted bomb. They were still within radiation range of the latter, but in theory the armored hulls of the shuttles combined with the shielding in their suits would protect them from any serious radiation poisoning. And Hoodwink’s Satori body could handle whatever dosage passed through his alien flyer.
