Annals of the Keepers - Rage

by Christiaan Hile

  I aimed the gun center-mass of the Glyphtern and pulled the trigger.

  A small charge shattered the gems in the center as the gun fell apart in my hands.

  Well, then. That didn’t work.

  The little guy is on his own.

  Then again, he didn’t need any of my help. He was doing just fine, dodging each of the stone being’s attacks and knocking small support stones from its lower limbs with precise kicks and punches, causing it to limp more with each step.

  I watched as Mistuuk lured the giant near one of the open windows.

  The creature charged him again.

  He tucked and rolled between the giant’s legs.

  The behemoth’s weight and momentum were too much for it to stop and, as it tried, its lead knee buckled and it tumbled right out of the opening, its shoulder moved as if reaching up with no arm to grab the ledge.

  One Xty remained.

  I picked up a bloodied spear and turned to find our host.

  He didn’t intend to fight.

  A forcefield flashed up near a control panel near the door we had entered from.

  Behind it…Emvel.

  “Always on the short end of the stick, huh, Rels?”

  “Always the traitorous coward, huh, Emvel?” I retorted.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Emvel grinned. “You see, the Ancient’s were just bothersome fortune tellers. They had their purpose and now I have mine.”

  He wasn’t that clever. “You mean you wanted us to kill them?” I asked.

  He laughed. “No. I had no idea what would happen. One of you could have been the last one standing. I would have commanded you to kill them. Either way, I got what I wanted.”

  “What’s that, Human?” My Vrae counterpart chimed in.

  “The last vision of the Insight, of course. It will tell me each of your homeworld’s defenses with your fleets and all your combined military assets. What you know, now I know. Your minds were not just being controlled, but archived for later use.”

  “You wanted the glory yourself? Giving it over to the Gashnee yourself.”

  “Bravo, Rels. Bravo. You figured it out. But, once again, you’re still one step behind me. Just as the many guards who climb this temple now. I got what I wanted.”

  He needed that smirk wiped off his smug, deceitful face.

  “One step behind, huh,” I said as I took a step closer to the shield.

  “One. Step. Behind,” Emvel reiterated, biting off each word as he stepped close to the shield.

  I looked into his eyes, then I smiled. As I did so, his wavered, then he frowned. “It’s you who can’t count, Emvel. You’re the one who’s one step behind.”

  His eyes squinted, trying to take in the meaning of what I had said.

  He looked over each of us.

  His eyes widened in shock with realization of his own miscalculation before the speartip burst through his abdomen.

  Blood splattered and flashed against the forcefield as more blood ran out of the corners of his mouth.

  Behind him, Yren’s head raised over his shoulder so he could look at her as he turned his head.

  “Traitor,” Yren hissed.

  She reached around Emvel with one hand to the control panel and removed the shield between us.

  Emvel held the spear, below the tip, with one bloodied hand and braced himself against the control panel’s surface with the other. “We could have had it all, Yren, you and I.” Emvel’s labored breath pushed out more saliva and blood with each word.

  Emvel fell forward with Yren’s foot to his back.

  He screamed from the sudden shock as the speartip hit the ground first and the spear vibrated and jerked within him as he slid down it until only the barbed speartip jutted out.

  Yren’s foot was still on his back from kicking him down.

  “‘We,’” she said with utter hatred. “I never had the choice. You used us. You used all of us.” Stepping on him, she grabbed an arm and started walking, Dragging him to the edge of a window.

  The blue water around him turned red as blood poured from him like ink.

  This was her moment.

  None of us said a word.

  Emvel coughed, then continued, “We can still have it all, Yren. Just the way you spoke of it. Free Xty. The resistance. The true guardians of the temple. The pure cell. We can still have it all,” he begged, his face to the side and choking on blood and water.

  Yren knelt, lifted his face close to hers, reached towards the spear again…and twisted.

  Emvel’s eyes rolled back as he coughed up more blood.

  “No, Emvel. That was taken away from me and the Xty long ago. By you. What I do now is my decision. My free will. And I’ve decided you have no part in the future of my people.”

  She walked around him, pushed him like a bleeding mop to the edge of the window, and paused as his head dangled out. Too weak to look, Emvel’s face fell and he could only watch as his blood started to pour down the pyramid, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

  Then, Yren pushed.

  His body slid down the face of the pyramid until it caught momentum, hitting the flowing turquoise water channel and flipping end over end until his mangled and broken body crashed to the ground far below.

  Yren turned, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and held her hands before her.

  Mistuuk shuffled, but no one else made a sound.

  Yren’s eyes opened and she walked towards us.

  “We don’t have much time. The guards will be coming up the stairs,” Yren stated.

  “Oh. Um.” I made a mental note not to ever get on Yren’s bad side. “How much time do we have?” I asked.

  “Two or three minutes, maybe. We need to get to the Trandeshion tubes.”

  “Let’s go,” I said as we all ran toward the door. Then I stopped. “Wait. Maybe I can slow them. You continue on, I’ll catch up.”

  “Don’t be crazy, Rels,” Mistuuk argued.

  “No time to debate, buddy. Where’re the tubes located, Yren?”

  “Below us. Take the stairs down. Make the first left down the tunnel. Then turn right at the first stairs. Take that shaft the rest of the way.”

  “Got it. Now go.”

  Yren and Kayasa exited the chamber. Mistuuk stopped short.

  “What are you going to do, Rels?”

  “I was thinking I could take this grenade.” I grabbed it off the dead Xty. “And the crystals out of this gun.” I removed them from the fire arm. “And drop this make-shift bomb down the center water shaft.”

  Mistuuk thought for a second. “Good idea, Rels. But,” Mistuuk’s smile dropped and he gave me the most serious expression I’d ever seen from him, “if you die, I’m going to kill you.”

  I couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “Picking up my humor. Don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you. See you there.”

  He nodded and left.

  Not the smartest idea I had, but what other choice did I have.

  I placed the crystals between the leaf folds of mud.

  Reaching the center, I pulled the wired cord sticking out of the pouch and dropped it down the water well.

  It didn’t hit the water before I bolted for the door.

  I expected at least a dozen or so seconds before it went off.

  I had made the door and down the first set of stairs as it blew.

  The explosion was massive, throwing me against the wall right before I rounded the first corner.

  So much for a dozen or so. That couldn’t have been more than half that.

  The stone tunnel shifted and shook. The roof began to crack and collapse the hall.

  Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

  I got up and made the left just as the first Xty warriors made their way from around the other corner.

  They too were off-balance.

  Spears flew through the tunnel in my direction. The ceiling caved in as I dove for the next hallway on my exit.

  Dust and debris from
the concussion threw me to the ground.

  I could hear the tremendous grinding and cracking of stone along the outside of the upper pyramid.

  Maybe I’d bought enough time. We would see.

  Getting up, I made my way down the stairs in the direction Yren told me to go.

  But I wasn’t the one headed there.

  I guess there’s more than one entrance to this place.

  The last hallway that led to the room on the other end that I had to get to had two Xty warriors enter from another corridor.

  They were running straight for the others.

  I could see them through the entrance next to the tubes in the far room.

  As I ran to catch up, I passed by the corridor and, out the corner of my eye, I could see a dozen more Xty sprinting down the stone hallway.

  Not good.

  The two Xty in front of me pulled back their spears to throw at the others through the door.

  I caught one from behind, grabbing his spear by the end, I turned it and drove it with all I had right into the neck of the other Xty next to him.

  The owner of the spear I held turned and flipped me to the ground.

  He drew his blade, but didn’t make the strike as a wild Cuukzen crashed into his face with his own blade.

  The Xty warrior fell backwards to the ground.

  Mistuuk made his final cut.

  “Thanks, pudge.”

  “Come on, Rels. We’re running out of time.”

  “I got that feeling.”

  We both got up and ran to the room.

  Yren was by the console that sat in front of ten Trandeshion transfer tubes.

  “Get in!” she yelled.

  We didn’t hesitate.

  Mistuuk and Blink entered one with Kayasa in another.

  I made mine, but stopped short. “Yren, let’s go!”

  “I’ll be right behind you! I need to set the coordinates!”

  “Where’re we going again?” I asked.

  “Vrae territory. That’s the closest I can get you.”

  I guess it could be worse.

  Just as I entered my tube, the door slid shut.

  I could see the throng of Xty coming down the hall. “Yren! Get in the tube!”

  She turned to look behind her, then back to me. She placed her open palm to her forehead and then towards me. I didn’t like to think about what that meant.

  “No! Yren! You can’t! Get in the tube! YREN!” I yelled. I didn’t know if she could hear me, but I didn’t care.

  She smiled.

  Light enveloped our tubes and she was gone.

  Data Cell 61

  Barsa watched the Vrae household troops charge forward through the breach into the compound. He stood next to his current master, Issara, about twenty-five meters away from the wall. Safe behind his shield, Issara laughed, pleased with the prospect of his superior force overwhelming and destroying the Kryth.

  “We will crush them, Barsa,” Issara said with confidence, oblivious to the disdain plain on the Vartis’ face. Holding the rest of his emotions in check, Barsa issued commands to the gathered Vrae covenants. Plasma bolts poured into and throughout the compound, targeting Kryth and Humans alike, as the Vrae pushed through the breach in the wall. They marched shoulder-to-shoulder through the breach.

  ∞∞∞

  “Kason’s down!” Ramek roared as his eye caught the flashing red skull icon inside his helmet. Turning to confirm Kason’s location, the hot energy from a Korin Shai spear scorched a deep gouge across his right shoulder and seared the flesh beneath. Grunting, Ramek spotted Kason’s thermal signature through a cloud of dust over seventy meters away. Ramek slapped the spear aside and shouldered his bulk into the Kryth, bowling them aside as he started to run towards the wounded Reaver.

  A second Korin Shai slashed his spear at Ramek as he ran towards Kason. Ramek caught the haft of the spear in his huge fist and yanked. The Korin Shai stumbled forward for a brief moment before Ramek caught him by the throat and squeezed with crushing force. The armor on his neck failed to protect him from the power of the Reaver’s grip. Gasping for air as his throat collapsed, he had no time to worry about suffocating to death. Without pausing in his rush towards Kason, Ramek held the Korin Shai aloft by his neck alone, then smashed him headlong into a stone column as he passed. The Korin Shai crumpled to the ground, its head caved in, as the Reaver behemoth charged across the battlefield.

  ∞∞∞

  Kercy stood up and holstered her rifle. Stepping back a space, she drew two curved blades and blocked Lintorth’s spear as he lunged. Deflecting the blade to the side, Kercy flowed into her next attack, attacking Lintorth’s legs and lower torso as she moved past him and blocked another of his attacks. Lashing out with her foot, she connected hard with his armored torso, eliciting a grunt. She slashed at his head and he still managed to duck and avoid them.

  Whipping the spear around with both hands behind his back, Lintorth brough it forward and struck one of Kercy’s blades near her wrist, then spun again and cracked along the side of her helmet. Turning with the blow, Kercy spun and slashed, Lintorth blocking her sword with his spear. She fell into a crouch and spun the other way, avoiding the spear as it rotated up towards her. Lintorth’s vambrace blocked the sword as it swung, and he used his longer arms to catch her wrist. He pulled her up to him by her wrist, then brought his knee up and into her ribs, his brute strength lifting her up from the stone floor. The young Reaver used the momentum to rotate, break his grip on her wrist, and backflip out of his immediate reach, but she clutched her abdomen from the pain.

  He’s this fast and strong? Kercy thought.

  Lintorth smirked at her.

  Two Korin Shai circled Kercy, watchful for an opening in her defense that could be exploited, while they awaited Lintorth Sar to express his wishes.

  Kercy shifted her stance, altering her body and swords to thwart potential attacks, trying to anticipate what the Kryth would do. She circled to keep as many of them in her front or sides as possible, putting the wall behind her.

  Lintorth, still smirking, twirled his spear and had it come to rest beside him.

  “Take her alive if you can, dead if you must.” Lintorth’s order was punctuated by a large explosion outside that shook the walls.

  ∞∞∞

  The rhythmic pulsing of weapons from the Vrae soldiers pushing through the breach added to the cacophony of fighting between the Reavers and the Korin Shai. The Human and Kryth warriors, locked in combat with each other, found themselves targets from another hostile force. At first, dozens of plasma bolts flew at random through the air, fired to suppress a foe that the Vrae knew were inside the compound but could not yet see.

  The Korin Shai and Reavers fought on, ignoring the plasma fire, concentrating on each other. Korin Shai spears crackled, probing for weaknesses and scoring wounds, countered by Reaver blades and assault rifles. A moment’s distraction for either ended in death.

  The Vrae fighters pushed through the breach and formed into ranks with precision and battle-hardened efficiency. These were no recruits. The front rank stood, protecting the second with energy shields that hummed. The surface of the shield, appropriated from a Gashnee starship during the war, undulated with swirls of light and bubbling energies just below the smooth surface. The second rank staggered behind the first and fired plasma weapons between them, suppressing resistance and counterfire as the formation pushed through the breach. The concentrated fire hit a knot of Kryth and Reavers as they fought each other. A Reaver was knocked down as the plasma rounds hit him in the back and lower legs. Rolling to the side, he scrambled to cover behind a broken column. Some of the Korin Shai had seen the Vrae entering the breach and reacted, dodging the weapons fire and seeking cover behind stone columns.

  Keelan Sern stepped over a dead Kryth bleeding from a handful of exit wounds. He preferred to engage the enemy at a distance rather than the brawls that some of his fellow Reavers seemed to relish. He was armed with a mor
e adaptable weapon that he intended to use to its fullest capacity. He watched the Vrae advance into the compound, their first rank starting to take fire from Reavers and Kryth alike. Plasma bursts from the Kryth struck the energy shield of the front rank and were absorbed by the swirling surface.

  Cycling solid rounds into his weapon with his HUD, Keelan fired a heavy burst into the front rank of the Vrae. The projectiles hit the shields much harder than the plasma rounds, creating concentric circles that rippled on the surface of the shield, but did not penetrate. The kinetic force did slow the Vrae, as they staggered under the impact. A few did falter and fall into the second rank, to be pushed back up by their comrades.

  The second volley was more effective. Explosive rounds detonated above the advancing ranks of Vrae, raining hot metal shrapnel upon them, killing and wounding dozens, and slowing their advance as Vrae faltered under the onslaught.

  ∞∞∞

  Barsa saw the explosions, then Vrae crumple to the ground bleeding or dead. The advance slowed as the ranks were thrown into disarray by the destruction. “Stabilize ranks!” he ordered to his covenant commanders, surveying the mass of fighters in front of him. “Push through on the front and high arc suppression.” The back ranks fired grenades over the heads of the front ranks, still taking plasma fire from the Kryth and Humans. Explosions rippled through the air before them and the oncoming barrage lessened, allowing the Vrae to move forward again.

  “Break through now!” Barsa yelled, sweeping his arm forward. “The Kryth scum can’t hold us back.” The bronze arm attached to his body spasmed for a second. The Gashnee artifact was worrisome to the Vartis at best, terrifying at worst. He sensed Issara behind him, protected by another piece of Gashnee technology, unscathed by the explosions and weapons fire plaguing the Vrae covenants. Flexing his three-digit hand, Barsa reassured himself that the prosthetic was a boon from Issara, a reward for bringing news of his heir and a tool to aid him in the fight against enemies of the House of Dal Karsis.

  The arm moved well. A masterpiece of technology that was synchronized to the movement of the rest of his body by neural implants in his spine. Barsa was pleased with the capability to fight again, but wondered if he had gone too far in accepting the transplant. Since having it, he often thought that he should be rid of it in favor of a less…tainted prosthetic limb. After all, it wasn’t meant for Vrae biology and it wasn’t one of their most understood treasures. Sometimes, he thought it moved on its own.