by Aer-ki Jyr
There was no way to carry his pod. She was going to have to revive him and take their chances. He wasn’t ready. Far from it. But this was the only play they had left. His survival was paramount, but the female Era’tran didn’t think their odds were winnable. Still, she had to try.
Sol’an moved through the large corridors quickly, slapping her tail a few times on the abrupt corners she was running around until the Era’tran came to the locked doors to the lab where Tu’vac was being held. She input the access codes telepathically then pressed her skull against the doors to register a genetic sample. When she pulled back the doors parted, giving her access to a small, but very high end genetics laboratory the like of which existed nowhere else in Era’tran territory.
Standing in null gravity inside a clear capsule Tu’vac floated in an upright position. He was kept in partial stasis as Sol’an painstakingly tried to revive his mind one cell at a time over the previous two centuries, and while much had been accomplished she needed at least an additional third to get him stable. She estimated 450 years until full recovery of remaining affected tissues, leaving him woefully unprepared for what he was about to face.
Sol’an triggered the revival process and activated the restriction fields, and as was typical Tu’vac thrashed around violently as he woke, fighting an unseen battle or just random actions as his brain tried to reassert itself with so many blocks intact. She’d never figured out which was the case.
“Tu’vac calm down and be still!” she said while also sending as much telepathic tranquility as she could. “You are alive but in danger. Focus on the moment and regain your sanity.”
The thrashing stopped immediately, to the surprise of Sol’an. That had never happened before, but then again she had never said those words, for before today they were not in danger. Perhaps he responded better to that stimuli.
“Where am I?” he asked groggily, his head twitching as it always did as he tried to access locked portions of his brain.
“You are in a Zor’do. You suffered light brain damage that we believe is curable without wiping your memories. The afflicted areas are currently locked down while we isolate and repair them manually, but there is no time for that. This facility is under attack and if you are not able to flee you will be left here to die. Pull yourself together Era’tran. We must move now while the Zen’zat buy us time.”
“Who is attacking?” he asked, trying to move against the force fields unsuccessfully.
“Much has happened since you were injured. The Zak’de’ron have allied with the independent Oso’lon and J’gar, and they are warring on the V’kit’no’sat. We are on Holloi and they currently have an invasion force on the planet, but their progress is slow. Unfortunately their initial landing point was in this region of the planet, and now their forces are upon us. We must move. Do you have enough control of your body to stand?”
“Release me and we will find out,” Tu’vac said stoicly, then his weight returned to his feet and he took several slow steps out of the pod and onto the lab floor, looking around with an intensity Sol’an had never seen before. “Armor?”
“We have none here, and the Zak’de’ron have too many soldiers to fight. We are being bought time to flee, after which the Zen’zat will fall back and try to survive. The sooner we get clear the more of them…”
“Go,” Tu’vac ordered, though Sol’an was not sure how much of this he was processing. She wasn’t going to debate any further and moved to the doorway, feeling Tu’vac following her in her Pefbar. She had to remember that his was suppressed, so he could not see what was occurring behind him.
“Follow me. Do not get distracted. Do not attempt to help in the combat. Stay right on my tail,” she said, accelerating to a slow jog and glad to see that Tu’vac was able to keep up. They moved through the facility to a different exit, then had to cross through the night air as the sounds of suppressive fire from the now elevated turret were crashing down into the jungle surrounding the facility.
They ducked across to another building and traveled inside it in order to get to the jungle edge, then Sol’an unlocked a heavy sealed door that led to a wall of plants filling in the gaps between the mighty Jumass trees.
Push through, she said telepathically to diminish the noise, though she couldn’t sense anyone near this side of the compound, and Mario’topa had indicated the assault was occurring on the far side.
Sol’an stayed in the lead, crushing underbrush with every step until they got deep enough that the sunlight couldn’t penetrate during daytime to sufficient levels, leaving only small plants and visible sightlines through the mass of tree trunks. That allowed them to move quicker, though they still had to wiggle through many tight areas. This jungle hadn’t been designed for body types of their size to move through quickly, rather it had been allowed to free grow randomly beyond the Zor’do.
Tu’vac stayed quiet and followed Sol’an as the sounds of battle grew fainter and fainter, but the turret stopped firing entirely before they got out of earshot, which was a bad sign. With no weapons other than the single Dre’mo’don strapped to Sol’an’s right arm, the two Era’tran were vulnerable should they be caught, for there was little room to fight amongst the trees that would essentially pin them in place while the smaller infantry surrounded them. They could fight here, knocking some down to create a makeshift arena, but they’d be stuck there and enemy reinforcements would eventually overwhelm them. Running was their only hope.
Sol’an kept them moving until they were out of the artificial canyon that had been carved into the planet to shelter the Zor’do. With the higher gravity there wasn’t much in the way of natural terrain on the planet, leaving their trek ahead on mostly flat ground. The question was, where to go? The Zen’zat had set up several evacuation plans for them, but without access to the Urrtren or even the tactical grid…which could potentially be tracked…Sol’an had no way of knowing where the enemy was or where friendly units were aside from their last known positions.
“Where are we going?” Tu’vac asked once they stopped for a breather as Sol’an studied her options using the crown-like data ring she wore on her head.
“As far away from here as we can get,” she said amongst the nocturnal chirps of the Saipenna. “But first we need to get to a dead drop. We left several around the perimeter in case evacuation on foot was required, but most take us back the way we came. There are two ahead. One near and one far, but the one far is more in line with our current trajectory.”
“And after?”
“I don’t know. We needed to stay in the facility to continue your healing. At this point we’re just trying to stay alive and hope the planet can hold out. If it doesn’t…we’ll have to hide as long as we can.”
“Why can’t I…use my claws? I feel like I should be.”
“Your psionics are deactivated because part or all of the memory cells associated with them were damaged. They weren’t the highest priority to heal when you couldn’t even stand up on your own two feet.”
“What else can I not do?”
“A lot. I am sorry, you are not ready for this, but we have no other options. Surrender means death or enslavement. For the Zen’zat it means immediate execution. Itaru had decreed they all must die and will be replaced with their cursed Bo’ja.”
“Replaced how? Are we not at war?”
“Itaru is calling on all races to return to its leadership. The Era’tran and others have refused, but not all. The empire is fractured and failing. Only legacy defenses are keeping Itaru from sweeping it all up.”
“What are legacy defenses?” Tu’vac asked, and Sol’an could see the strain in his face as he tried to remember.
“Large, permanent defensive infrastructure that cannot be moved from system to system. The war fleets on both sides have been mostly destroyed, so Itaru cannot conquer many planets, though they are pouring a great deal of what they have left into this assault.”
“Are we losing?”
Sol’
an bowed her head in shame. “Yes. I do not know what to do. There are no ships nearby to evacuate you from the planet, even if we could get through their blockade. And even then I do not know where we could go. Holloi was the safest place in the galaxy, which is why you were brought here, but now…I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
“Does the dead drop have armor?”
“I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure. The Zen’zat set it up. They said they couldn’t get any armor. Everything was deployed to the fighting troops.”
“Then our next objective is clear. We get to the dead drop, and the more distance we can put between us and the facility the less likely it is we will be followed.”
“That makes sense,” Sol’an said, glad and partially relieved to get a bit of wisdom out of him, both for his sake and the fact that he had far more combat training and experience than her, though most of it was locked up inside his brain inactive. “Are you tired?”
“I can continue at our previous pace. Move on.”
Sol’an turned and aligned with the trajectory on her mental display. The ring didn’t produce a hologram that others could see, but superimposed it on her own vision within her mind. She had a navigational program that would lead her to anywhere on the planet within the database, but the location of the dead drop was known only to her and a handful of the Zen’zat…and they had kill programs in their armor that would wipe the locations from their armor’s memory in the event of their death, so hopefully no one would be able to know where they went. And with the primary defense shield still up over top this region, the enemy couldn’t scan down on them from orbit. Only local units operating beneath the shield would be able to spot them.
But if that shield came down…or when…their heat signatures would stand out amongst the jungle even if the trees did obscure them from most view, for the leaves were not thick enough to hide all of it.
The female Era’tran took off running again, heading towards a nearby stream that they came to a few minutes later. They turned north and traveled in the stream for nearly half an hour before heading back into the jungle again. They broke so many branches and left such large tracks that they were essentially making a path everywhere they went, and the more bodies of water they could travel through the more breaks in that trail there would be. Meaning that if anyone followed them they wouldn’t know which way they went when they came to the streams, for the water would wash away their footprints and there would be no heavy limbs overhead to break as they passed…usually.
A few more hours and they’d be at the dead drop, but it looked like the sunrise was going to beat them to it…
Mario’topa lunged for the Bo’ja, tackling him at the ankles as he fired his wrist-mounted weapons at another Zen’zat. He emitted a Fornax field as soon as he made contact, which disrupted the enemy long enough to get him in a stranglehold from behind, peeling his weapons off their target and allowing his fellow Zen’zat to close in and put multiple shots into the Bo’ja’s helmet…enough to eventually get through the armor and kill him.
Mario’topa pushed the body off him and got to his feet as two more of his Zen’zat caught up to him on the inner perimeter of the Zor’do. As they did another enemy transport flew in and set down inside, disgorging how many more infantry he didn’t know, for they couldn’t see, but it was clear that they were not going to survive if they continued to stay here.
No Oso’lon had showed up. No large Viks either, let alone a Zak’de’ron. It was all small races from their employ, so there wasn’t even a single traitor here to avenge the Era’tran against. Just hordes of meaningless troops too green to be worth a damn. Even the Bo’ja were not as good as advertised, though they were by far the most competent. But against Zen’zat with countless millennia of combat experience, they were severely outclassed and being used as fodder to draw out or weaken the indigenous forces as more and more transports arrived in the system and poured down through the small safe zone that had been carved out of the planetary defenses.
It may have been an effective strategy for the enemy, but it wasn’t the way V’kit’no’sat fought. Mario’topa would die if necessary to achieve a mission objective, but he wouldn’t waste his life. He’d been trained not to, for if he died they’d have to bring in someone new out of the Ter’nat worlds and train them all over again to get back to his level of experience. The empire needed strength, not suicide squads, but it seemed the Zak’de’ron didn’t care how many they lost so long as they succeeded in wearing down the Era’tran and eventually claiming the planet.
And for the Bo’ja, at least, their replacements were coming from the Rim, and the strike force that had been sent there to deny the flow of reinforcements had been thwarted by the Voku that spawned the Bo’ja. Thus the Zak’de’ron’s supply of their least worthless infantry was still flowing generously.
I don’t see any more easy targets, Ben’ra said to the trio as they repositioned around a corner in a little nook amongst the streets between buildings. What now?
I have one more charge left, Lenna said, referring to the explosive inside her pack.
Save it, Mario’topa said angrily, but his ire wasn’t directed at his fellow Zen’zat. We have to leave while we still can.
Why? Jo’ra asked.
We have another mission.
The wounded Era’tran? he guessed.
Yes. If we can catch them. But we have to make sure we’re not followed first, so we’re going to split up and rendezvous here, he said, sending them a new waypoint on their regional map. If you’re followed, go anywhere but here. If you get clear, run your asses off. The Era’tran can move faster than us over open ground, but we can catch up in the jungle.
Is there something special about that one, or are we just keeping them alive to spite Itaru?
There is something special. And the enemy cannot know it, he said, looking at the other three sets of Zen’zat helmets through his own. Tu’vac must survive.
Survive how if we lose the planet? Why wasn’t he evacuated earlier?
Was there a safer place than this to send him?
Somewhere not being invaded, Ben’ra pointed out.
The spacelanes are being hunted by J’gar interceptors. Anything less than a battlegroup isn’t safe to move around with. Believe me, we wanted to move him, but there weren’t any good options and this Zor’do had the only equipment that could treat him.
Explain that, Jo’ra insisted, but they didn’t have time. The proximity sensors they’d left on several of the buildings picked up scout drone activity just before they were blasted offline.
Survive and ask me later. This is where we part, he said, reaching out a hand and putting it on Jo’ra’s shoulder. Disappear, he ordered.
As instructed Jo’ra’s body disappeared from view, for he was wearing specialized scout armor with a cloaking device. He couldn’t fight with it active, but now they didn’t need to. They needed to run, and soon the other two Zen’zat disappeared as well, with Mario’topa giving them a head start, for none were transmitting even the faint identification signals for each other to pick up, and he didn’t want to trip over them by accident.
He took one last look at the quiet night sky as the first lightening was beginning to appear on the horizon. The stars were still visible overhead, but amongst them were the enemy warships ringing the planet outside of Holloi’s attack range. Any ship trying to leave the planet would be intercepted by them, and unless what was left of the Era’tran fleet beneath the shields came out to fight a blocking action no one was getting out of here alive.
But Holloi was a big planet, and even if the enemy took down all the shield generators a single Zen’zat with scout armor could disappear here indefinitely…so long as he didn’t run out of supplies or power. Mario’topa much preferred direct combat, but this war couldn’t be won by killing more Bo’ja. It was going to take something far greater than that. And Tu’vac was the only chance he figured the empire had of surviving. Without him, th
ey were doomed to either death by Itaru or death by Hadarak.
Mario’topa had to catch up to him, but first he had to figure out which way he’d gone, and that meant finding the tracks on the perimeter that the large bipeds had no way to conceal on the semi-soft ground…
4
“Here,” Sol’an said as her visual navigational display brought them to a grove of trees too tight for an Era’tran to fit inside, but her Pef’bar could already see the cargo canisters stashed between the various gaps. “Our supplies.”
Tu’vac tried to reach out with his mind and touch them, but it was as if his ability to do so was merely a figment of his imagination.
“How are we to get them out?”
“I can,” she said, telekinetically pulling on one and dragging it over another before rolling it across a branch and letting it fall to the ground. Her Lachka wasn’t strong enough to fully lift it, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t maneuver them around into the clear. Sol’an also used her invisible ability to open the seal on it and reveal trays of food cubes. She broke out several and floated them towards Tu’vac.
“Eat,” she said, but he would not open his mouth.
“I can feed myself. Set them down.”
The food cubes floated to the ground and stacked themselves there, soon to be joined by others as the healer added more from the container to the pile building on top of the moist soil. Tu’vac knelt beside it and reached down with his right hand, picking up several in his palm before standing up again and flicking them into the air above his head.
He tilted it to the side and let them fall between the two halves of his mouth, then he clamped shut before they could pass out the other side again. Tu’vac righted himself and chewed for a moment before swallowing and looking at her.
“What is wrong?”
“I’ve never seen you eat like that before.”
“How did I eat before?”
“You licked them up with your tongue or bit them out of the suspended air racks.”
