Earthfall

by Rhett C. Bruno

  Zaimur released a deep exhale. “A shame.” He wiped his hands on Talon’s leg and got to his feet. His hound rubbed her face lovingly against his leg. “Come, girl,” he said to her. “It’s time to end this.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN—SAGE

  Blood for Blood

  Sage tried to keep herself from growing overly frustrated while she watched the Hound’s Paw’s hangar. A line of armed Morastus and Lakura henchmen were expectedly posted outside. None of them paid much attention to anything beyond their own conversations. That was when she noticed an entourage of Ceresians exiting the command deck and crossing the hangar. First came ship engineers and henchmen who stuck around to mingle with those already in the room. Then came men in garish outfits hurrying to the exits. Much of Ceresian culture remained a mystery to her, but there was no doubt they were important.

  A few minutes later, all of the henchmen posted in the hangar headed to the exits and the ship engineers jogged back toward the command deck, leaving Sage, the Monarch and its crew completely alone. Something is wrong. She poked her head out of the ship first and then cautiously stepped down the ramp. It was completely silent. The only sound she could hear was the buzzing of old air recyclers.

  Then she heard shouting in the distance. She edged slowly across the hangar until she heard a horde of footsteps growing nearer and louder. Morastus gunmen came pouring into the room, the Lakura ones gone, only they weren’t holding their rifles slack. They were armed and aiming at the Monarch.

  Talon! Sage thought. She ran back up the Monarch’s ramp before anyone could get a shot at her.

  “What’s out there?” a Vergent crew member called out.

  “Tell your captain to start the ship!”

  “The hangar is sealed.”

  “Just tell her!”

  Sage whipped around and took a moment to gather her bearings. I knew he couldn’t be trusted! Whatever Talon had said, Zaimur turned on him quicker than even she’d imagined.

  She instinctually reached for her hip, but her artificial arm took double the amount of time it usually did to reach it. She also realized that she didn’t even have a gun on her. She could see the shadows of the approaching soldiers dancing along the metal deck of the Monarch’s ramp, and she had nothing.

  “Take them quietly,” a Morastus man ordered outside. “Zaimur’s orders.”

  She crouched down by the corner and attempted to use her human hand to fish out her wrist-blade. That was when she noticed the Combat Mech sitting in the center of the room. The hull was scratched and burned, but it was in decent shape. And she knew how to operate it. The thing was Tribunal, after all.

  Sage rushed over to the hulking metal construction. She climbed up the side and signaled the external controls to open the cockpit. As she waited for it, she saw Kitt and a crowd of confused Vergents standing at the entrance of the cargo bay.

  “Get back!” she hollered. She used her artificial arm to throw open the cockpit faster and leapt inside.

  She switched on the Mech, her limbs syncing. Then she swung the lumbering Mech’s arm, and as the front line of the Morastus soldiers peeked over the rim of the ramp she unloaded its machine gun. Large caliber bullets tore through them. The surviving soldiers scrambled to figure out what had happened.

  The Mech’s legs came alive and she turned around at the hip toward Kitt. Standing beside him, eyes glued open in horror, was Elisha. “Don’t move!” Sage yelled to them. I’ll get your father back. The entire Mech shook and she could feel a light pressure building in the center of her chest. It wasn’t the Monarch. The Hound’s Paw was beginning to move.

  She signaled the cockpit to close and pressed forward. Sparks shot out as the Mech squeezed through the tight berth of the ramp. When she emerged she promptly grabbed the Monarch’s ramp with her colossal hands and swung it shut. Bullets ricocheted off of the Mech’s dense armor. The Ceresians were completely unprepared. A cluster of gunmen in blue sets of armor fled straight away from her, and she mowed them down. More flooded the hangar from its various entrances, some wearing Lakura yellow as well, and met the same end.

  Flames from improvised Ceresian grenades licked at the feet of Sage’s Mech, but they were too weak to pierce it. Muzzles flashed in every direction, but she spun, using her human arm to pick them off. It was the first time she could remember when it was the more proficient limb. The fighting didn’t last more than a few minutes before the few survivors retreated into any corridor they could find.

  She quickly scanned the inside of the cockpit. It’d been a few years since she was in a Mech and it was a slightly older model, but it didn’t take long for her to remember. She took aim at one of the passages branching off the hangar and fired a rocket at it. The ceiling caved in, plugging it up with a pile of smoldering metal shards. She did the same with every other possible means of entering the room except for the one corridor that led to the command deck. When she was done she thought about using the Mech’s rail-gun to blow a hole through the hangar’s dense airlock so that the Monarch could escape, but that would merely make it easy for reinforcements to arrive through transports.

  She directed the Mech over to the command deck’s corridor and planted it right in front. It was much too tall to fit, but she stuck its arms through and tore into the gunmen waiting at the other end. Then she punched open the cockpit with her artificial hand—it could manage that at least—and hopped down.

  Her lower torso stung with pain as one of the Vergent’s stitches popped out, but she was finally getting used to pain. Instead of ignoring it, it fueled her and drove her onward.

  Groans from the dying met her ears. Failing systems sparked throughout the hangar and flame crackled by the ruptured exits. She heard the sound of armor scraping across metal, and looked right to see a soldier crawling toward his pulse-rifle. His right arm was missing at the stump. She placed her foot over the gun just before he reached it. She bent down, grabbed the gun and walked toward the command deck.

  She held the rifle with her artificial hand on the trigger as usual, but focused more on allowing her other arm to guide its aim. The wide corridor was lined with bodies, and at the end was the sealed entrance of the command deck. A few of the Mech’s shots had ripped fist-wide holes in the thick metal. There was chatter on the other side.

  “Do you realize what you’re doing?” Zaimur Morastus shouted through it. “There’s no way you get out of this alive!”

  “Where’s Talon!” Sage yelled back. She crouched down and peered on a safe angle through the gashes in the door, watching for shadows.

  “He’s not going anywhere until you stand down!”

  “Let him out and we’ll leave.”

  There was a hesitation. It dragged on for a few seconds, and Sage caught one of the guards inside straying too far from his post. She fired her gun through one of the holes and hit him in the chest.

  “Now!” Sage demanded.

  “You know I can’t do that, Agatha. I don’t know what this is about, but lay down your weapon, return to your ship, and we’ll see if we can come to some sort of agreement.”

  His voice was overflowing with deceit. Cassius, Benjar, him, she’d been around her fair share of liars and though it took her too long to recognize them, she was getting more proficient. The last part of her training. Ceresian, Tribunal—it didn’t matter. Some people just couldn’t help it.

  “Let me speak to him,” Sage said.

  Again, there was a long pause. That was all the answer she needed to confirm her suspicions. This wasn’t a hostage negotiation, it was a standoff.

  “Just drop your weapon and I’ll open up,” Zaimur declared. “Nobody else needs to get hurt.”

  Another lie. Sage wasted no time. She used her artificial arm to grab onto the low ceiling, and pulled her body up. She balanced there with her legs, keeping her weapon aimed down.

  The command deck’s door slid open before she even answered, and a host of guards stormed through, shooting. They didn’t have tim
e to readjust their aim before Sage mowed them down from above. The only one who managed to get out of the way was a woman in a golden-yellow tunic who Sage immediately recognized to be Yara Lakura. Sage swung through the opening, using her outstretched artificial arm to launch herself across the command deck. Bullets trailed behind her, and as she soared she picked off a few more gunmen on the balcony wrapping around the room at the height of its viewport.

  “Kill her, Yara!” Zaimur hollered.

  Sage landed and took cover on the other side of a round table. Just by using her ears, she counted only four or five combatants left that actually had firearms. The rest of the Ceresians, other than Zaimur, were engineers stationed at control consoles piloting the ship. She stretched out her artificial arm as far as it could manage, using her other arm to get it all the way. Then she gripped the edge of the table and flung it with all of her might. Yara Lakura dove out of the way before it crushed two guards against the far wall, and provided cover for her to roll out into the open and shoot down two more.

  “Yara!” Zaimur screamed.

  The Lakura Leader sprawled forward, evading the rest of Sage’s clip. She too had run out of bullets, and before she could pick up another of the many guns scattered throughout the room, Sage was upon her. Yara evaded a few swipes from Sage’s human arm, and then drew a knife.

  “You traitor!” Yara growled.

  She thrust forward with the blade, forcing Sage to have to use her synthetic arm to block it. She couldn’t move it quick enough any longer for it to be of much use in hand to hand combat, but all she’d need to do is find an opening and land one powerful blow. They bobbed and weaved across the floor, and as they did Sage kept one eye on Zaimur. He’d picked up a gun, but she made sure to keep Yara between them so he couldn’t get a clean shot.

  Before long Sage’s back was nearing a wall, and she baited Yara by feigning fatigue. The Lakura Clan Leader extended her knife-hand fully, allowing Sage to catch it between her arm and side. She twisted, ripping it out of Yara’s grip and pulling them both to the ground. She wrapped her artificial arm around Yara’s slender neck and raised her body to guard from Zaimur.

  Suddenly, a powerful force slammed into Sage’s side and tore her off of Yara. Zaimur’s hound was upon her. She held it back by the neck with her human hand as claws on its front legs scratched along the chest plate of her armor. Yara pinned back her synthetic arm, and in its distended position Sage couldn’t gain proper control of it. The knife sat loose beneath it.

  “Now you die!” Yara snarled.

  Yara went for the knife, leaving Sage with no other choice. She pushed the dog down, angled her body, and allowed its fangs to sink into her collarbone. A sharp pain shot through her upper body, and she stymied a scream. The move allowed her to roll enough to regain motion in her synthetic arm, and once she did, she bent it, grasped the hide of the dog and tossed it across the room toward Zaimur. The hound bowled him over on its way to slamming headfirst into the wall and breaking its neck.

  Sage rolled out of the way of Yara’s descending blade. As she came around she swung her arm as fast as she could. The metal fist slammed into Yara so hard that it broke her neck in an instant. The knife was inches from sinking into Sage’s side, but it slipped through Yara’s limp fingers and clanked on the floor.

  Sage glanced up toward Zaimur. He was still scrambling to get his lifeless dog off of him.

  It took a great deal of effort to get to her feet, but she limped toward him. The bullet wound had completely re-opened, blood oozed out. The dog bite seared. Never in all her years as an Executor had she been so damaged, but still she walked.

  Engineers on the wrapping balcony struggled to keep the ship’s systems going since the firefight had damaged the command deck. One engineer attempted to make a run for one of the guns on the floor, but Sage snatched one up herself and shot him in the chest.

  “Do you realize what you’ve done?” Zaimur groaned. The dog was lying on his legs. “I needed her!”

  Sage didn’t respond. She merely continued to approach him. The engineers had all stopped working. None dared make a move. When she was closer she saw that Zaimur wasn’t looking at her, but to her side. With her peripherals she followed his gaze and noticed a familiar boot sticking out from behind a console.

  “Talon, is that you?” she questioned. There was no response.

  “All of this for him?” Zaimur asked. “Some Ceresian you are. You’ve betrayed us all.”

  “I’m not Ceresian!” Sage hissed.

  She rounded the corner and her heart stopped. The rifle fell out of her grip. She hadn’t felt such a pain in her chest since the day she lost her arm. Talon’s body was tucked against the console, slumped over and with a bloody gash in his ribs.

  “Talon…” she mouthed. She climbed over his legs and placed her palm over his chest. It was completely still. “Not again. No, no, not again. Talon!” She slumped onto her elbow over him.

  All of the color had left his cheeks, making his bright blue veins even more pronounced than they’d ever been. Back on New Terrene she’d seen a few statues made out of marble hoarded from Earth, and he looked just like one of them.

  Her throat went dry. Her lips began to tremble. Even breathing grew difficult.

  She ran her human fingers through his messy hair and over his forehead. His skin was cold as ice. She knew death better than probably anybody in the Circuit, and she knew it then. Talon Rayne—heretic, mercenary, Ceresian, and a man she’d come to love—was gone. The Blue Death was cheated of its prey by a knife to the lung.

  “I know you didn’t believe,” she whimpered, “but you are with the Spirit now. I know it. I feel it.” Her tears dripped onto Talon’s face. She wiped the blood pooling in the corner of his lips, and then, before she could stop herself, she leaned down and pressed her lips against his.

  A metallic taste filled her mouth, but she held them there until she heard the sound of a foot sliding across metal. She quickly turned and saw Zaimur, almost free of the dog’s weight. Sage’s eye’s narrowed. Never had she wanted to kill someone. She’d done it because it was asked of her.

  She didn’t bother to pick up the gun. She caught up to him with ease, grabbed him by the collar and tore him free.

  “What are you doing!” he howled. She ignored him. She wrapped the fingers of her synthetic hand around his throat, and as much as it hurt to do so, lifted him into the air. She stared into his petrified eyes as she began to squeeze.

  “If you kill me this all ends,” he rasped. “The war. Everything!”

  In the reflection of Zaimur’s enlarged pupils Sage saw the blue of Talon’s veins. It was then that she remembered exactly why he’d stepped onto the Hound’s Paw. She remembered why Zaimur would be willing to murder one of his own in cold blood. And then Cassius will win.

  Her grip loosened and Zaimur crumbled to the floor gasping for air. Most of the engineers left on the Command Deck were attempting to approach while she wasn’t looking, but she picked up the rifle by her feet and kept them at bay. Then she aimed it at Zaimur. She fought every fiber of her being not to pull the trigger.

  “Tell me where we’re headed.”

  “Or what?” Zaimur spat. “You’ll kill me either way, just like Yara and my beautiful Magda.” His gaze turned to the dog. “She was worth more than you’ll ever have in your life!”

  “I would love to kill you, Zaimur Morastus, but even though you may have held the weapon which killed him, you’re not the reason he’s dead. Talon was right. I’m going to have that face-to-face with Cassius, and I’m going to end this.”

  “You and him with Cassius Vale. I’m the one in control here, girl. Me!”

  Sage knelt down and pressed the barrel of her rifle against his chest. “Then tell me what he’s planning, and I’ll let you live.” She knew she couldn’t guarantee that she’d be able to do that after what he’d done, but she was sick of being the only one on the wrong end of lies.

  “We’re go
ing to take Earth back from the Tribunals and force them into a fair treaty.”

  He said it proudly, as if it was actually his idea. She knew it couldn’t be. Earth! Sage realized. Where he believes he was betrayed, he’ll complete his betrayal.

  “That can’t be it,” she said. “The Tribune will crush your fleet there. What else?” She grabbed him by the collar. “What else!” Her grip tightened near the trigger of the rifle and she shoved it into Zaimur’s forehead.

  “That’s it!” he squealed. “I swear in the name of the Ancients that’s it. We threaten the Gravitum mines, and then the Tribune sees things our way.”

  “There’s got to be more.”

  Sage thought back to when they were approaching the Ceresian fleet. As it stood she imagined it was large enough to take Luna and then swarm Earth successfully until the main Tribunal fleet arrived. For the mines the Tribune might give in, but there had to be more to it than that. Cassius had already orchestrated one treaty between the Circuit’s two greatest factions. He wasn’t about to do the same thing all over again. She knew there had to be more.

  “Can you contact him?” Sage questioned. Zaimur hesitated, and she smacked him across the jaw. “Can you?”

  “I can! But there’s no stopping it now. Kill me. Destroy this ship. Earth will still fall. We’re on our way now, and Cassius will be there. He’ll be arriving on this ship at the same time the Tribune does to discuss terms. Yara over there…” He swallowed and glanced over at her. Her neck was splayed open. “I was hoping she’d think the Tribune was behind Cassius’ survival and take his life the moment she saw him. Of course neither of them would survive that. I suppose I’ll have to think of a new way to dispose of them now.”

  “The Earth will rain fire on all of you for this,” Sage growled. “But that’s not my concern. Tell Cassius that the situation is resolved and to proceed normally. Tell the rest of your fleet as well. You want peace with the Tribune, fine. There’s enough blood on both your hands. But if Cassius is coming here, then I intend to be here when he arrives.”