War of Mortal Gods

by Kipjo K Ewers

  The mammoth-sized rampaging cybernetic Scorpion slammed straight into an inbound Dominator tearing it apart, starting first by blowing the main turret off at close range with its tail and then ripping its base in half with its massive claws.

  It tossed apart the two destroyed halves searching for more targets to bring down.

  Ska’s twin Azkra still in Anubis’s hand, also transformed, growing in size, becoming a khopesh sized two-handed great sword. The Eye of Set temporarily raised a blue protective dome shield around himself and his cousin to communicate with Laurence without interruption.

  “Cousin, what is your status?”

  “Within the range of the next plant,” Laurence confirmed.

  “Do bolster your efforts, little cousin,” Bastet jumped in. “I tire of the Volorion’s hospitality.”

  “On it.”

  Anubis turned to his cousin with a dull, boring glare.

  “Care to entertain our hosts once more?”

  Bastet answered first with fluttered eyes of disgust.

  “If we must.”

  Both went aerial, splitting up the second the Eye of Set dropped his shielding. With one swing from her dual bladed polearm, Bastet removed the head of a Volorion soldier on top of a Bird of Prey, sending his body and ship crashing into a nearby building. She descended back into the streets, landing into a nest of armor powered warriors. She used close combat techniques to cut down whoever was unfortunate enough to come into range of her weapon.

  Anubis hunted larger prey as he cleaved through two Dominators severing their rotating arms, bringing the massive turrets down on top of their bodies, causing them to detonate. On the way down, he used a one-arm swing with his khopesh to split a War Chariot in half before landing.

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  Time is no longer on our side to get fancy. Sol, pinpoint the location of the main reactor.”

  “Reactor has been located.”

  With a thought, Laurence’s armor simulated speeds equivalent to a lightning bolt. The attack was similar to the firing of a railgun, only several times more devastating. Using his body as a missile, the Eye of Ra blitzed through the plant’s defenses while punching a crater-sized hole right through it, which ruptured the reactor as he came out on the other side.

  He decelerated, coming to a hover several miles away as the plant became the devastating equivalent of a lit Blockbuster firecracker tossed into a birdhouse, with falling debris reaching the distance Laurence covered.

  “Planetary shield strength has now deteriorated by ten percent,” Sol confirmed.

  “On to the next one,” Laurence sighed.

  The Eye of Ra took to the skies again, going semi-orbital, skimming the planetary shield's boundaries to cover more ground.

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  From a safe distance away, High Prime Vbzarma, in his battle armor, stood within the confines of a War Chariot flanked to his right by his eldest son Prince Volker also adorned in his armor. They watched on two holographic displays as the Anunnaki warriors wreaked havoc within his capital and across his planet.

  “Our forces are taking a heavy toll from these bloody Anunnaki scum, father.”

  “Remember your history boy, there is a reason why our military is known throughout the universe as the War Machine,” High Prime Vbzarma reprimanded his son. “The Volorion Empire has spent eons amassing and perfecting weapons of war that has made us a profitable militaristic presence.”

  “Then it is abundantly clear those three are not educated in our ‘glorious’ history.”

  High Prime Vbzarma slowly turned to his son, intending to backhand him for his snarky remark when one of the holographic images in front of him changed without his command.

  Both Vbzarma and his son’s eyes widened to the image of Horus projected before them.

  “Lord …Horus?” Vbzarma addressed him with concerned bewilderment.

  “I see the Eyes are holding their own relatively well against your infamous War Machine.”

  An unnerved Vbzarma glanced at his son, who shrugged his shoulders, utterly oblivious to how Horus could have any insight into the battle raging on in the capital.

  “How …?”

  “The same way I am able to communicate with you, I am currently viewing the battle through your warships and surveillance systems within the capital.”

  “Then you should also know with our planetary shielding up, the Eyes have nowhere to go. We shall overcome them in moments, and …”

  “About that,” Horus dryly interrupted him.

  “Plans have changed. The Eyes must venture here to Earth. Raise your shielding and allow them to depart.”

  A scowl of confusion fell upon High Prime Vbzarma’s face as he narrowed his eyes a bit, attempting to comprehend what was demanded of him.

  “Did you just order me to release them?”

  “Is there a problem?” Horus asked with visible impatience growing on his face.

  “You devise plan which causes Council to give notice to my homeworld, which is the last thing I wanted. A plan that delivers three Eyes from Anu to my soil. Eyes who are currently tearing up my planet, which includes the financial toll of the massive amount of damage done to my War Machine, and you want me to ‘release them’?”

  “Yes, immediately.”

  High Prime Vbzarma answered Horus’s blank careless gaze with a face of rage and exposed feline teeth.

  “Just who in the covuck do you think you are?”

  The High Prime found his answer as he lost his voice, gasping for air, while his body began to rattle from his bones vibrating as Horus’s eyes beamed brighter, revealing his power that could be felt light-years away.

  “I am a living god promising you fortune, glory, and newly conquered worlds to claim as your own to expand your empire,” he snarled. “Yours is not to question mortal; yours is to do as told. Unless I am to place your eldest son on the throne. Maybe he will be more obedient than you are after he witnesses your fall at my hands.”

  “No… Lord Horus,” High Prime Vbzarma groaned. “I shall …comply.”

  Prince Volker nervously looked on as his father gasping for air was finally released by the Ancient, whose eyes returned to their natural glow. A stumbling Vbzarma slowly raised his head, hiding his rage as he looked at Horus, staring back at him.

  “Raise your planet’s shielding and pull back your forces,” Horus commanded. “They will come to me, and I shall deal with them in mine own way.”

  Horus, without another word, ended the transmission.

  “Raise …the shields and pull the War Machine back,” High Prime Vbzarma ordered.

  “Father! You would take commands from a lowly …!”

  High Prime Vbzarma violently grabbed the front collar of his eldest son’s armor, draping him up as his son looked at him in disbelief.

  “Silence thy miserable tongue and do as commanded! Give the order to raise the bloody shields and pull our War Machine back! Now!”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  “Detecting planetary shielding powering down,” Sol relayed to Laurence.

  Amid a dive bomb attack targeting a third generator plant, Laurence slammed on the brakes, going into mid-hover.

  “They dropped their shields. But we have only taken out two of their stations. Anubis. Bastet.”

  “Message has been confirmed by our own familiar’s cousin,” Anubis answered back. “The War Machine is also falling back to a defensive position.”

  “I guess the Volorions no longer wish to play with us anymore,” Bastet snorted.

  “I’m heading to Earth right now.”

  “We shall follow from our own portals and finally take leave of wretched planet,” Anubis said, agreeing with his cousin. “Ska, send my ship home.”

  “As you command.”
>
  Ska communicated with his ship’s artificial intelligence system. It did as it was instructed, taking off, leaving the planet back to Anu.

  As his cousin’s exited via their portal, Sol’s eyes emitted a bright orange glow as he opened up a dimensional jump portal in front of Laurence, heading straight to Earth.

  CHAPTER 2

  Planet Earth, minutes before lowering the planetary shield on Volori, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, was a stand-off on an intergalactic level. With almost a mile and a half between them, the Crown Prince and Princess of the Thracian Empire hovered in the air staring at a visibly distraught and enraged Freedom glaring back at them. She also hovered over a sinkhole she created from the force of the enormous energy reserves she unleashed within herself.

  In her arms, she clutched the lifeless body of her only child.

  As Freedom held Kimberly close to her bosom, bulging veins protruding from her exposed skin glowed bright blue, while the continuous tears that fell from her eyes became mist from the immense heat they generated.

  Vengeance and hatred left her with little to no reason, save for what to do with her daughter’s body.

  On the other side, the royal dual each had their thoughts.

  A brooding Attea interrogated herself as to how she allowed her elder brother to coax her into an insane plan of planetary appropriation that had gone wrong and now stood to threaten the very security of her homeworld that she was sworn to protect.

  Merc’s visage was one of irritation, while the wheels turned within his head on how to salvage their current situation.

  “What is she waiting for?”

  “She’s deciding if she should drop her child’s body knowing it will fall within the sinkhole she created and attack us,” Attea bluntly answered her brother.

  “So, why doesn’t she just drop it?”

  Attea slowly turned, glaring at her brother as her eyes blazed with the desire to remove his head from his body.

  “You know I find that look vexing,” Merc snarled. “Use your words.”

  “My words say you should be praying to the old gods that she does not drop that body,” Attea snapped at him.

  “So, what are our options?” Merc inquired with a mutter in Thracian.

  Attea’s eyes fluttered in disgust.

  “First option, we attack her, she fights back, she detonates, and we lose the planet. Second option, she attacks us, we fight back, she detonates, and we lose the planet. Third option, we do nothing, the energies within her continue to build until she detonates, and we still lose the planet.”

  Her answer was met with awkward silence from her brother.

  “So, very little options.” Merc deduced.

  “Yes, brother,” Attea growled. “Very little options.”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  Amid the portentous stand-off, the sky above them opened up to three portals, each expelling the Eyes of Ra, Set, and Osiris. A livid Merc locking onto Laurence prepared to hurl himself towards him, only to be stayed by his sister’s hand.

  “Remain where you bloody are,” Attea whispered to him, “This is the last fight we wish to have given our current situation.”

  Merc muttered a curse in his native language as the Anunnaki warriors descended, hovering before them. Laurence wasted no time pulling up the faceplate to his helm and making his intentions felt.

  “What the hell transpires here, Merc?”

  Merc blatantly ignored him, turning his attention to his eldest cousin.

  “Anubis inform that micro-breed relative of yours standing next to you that he is to address me as Prince Merc. Also, inform him that if he fails to learn his station and show me proper respect, I shall teach him final lesson by ripping his heart from his chest with my bare hands.”

  “I would like to see you try that,” Laurence defiantly dared him.

  Attea instinctively flew into the path of her brother, who unleashed a savage, animalistic growl as he attempted to rush the Eye of Ra.

  Laurence hovered where he stood, unintimidated by Merc’s aggressive action.

  “What did I just tell you?” Attea admonished her brother in her native tongue. “Do not debase your station here of all places.”

  “Then reframe the micro-breed’s tongue from wagging!” Merc howled.

  “Find center and memory that we have more pressing matters than poisonous words between you and the Eye of Ra.”

  Merc forced himself to calm down. He remembered the human hovering several yards away whose power he could feel steadily rising to destructive levels soon to tear the planet apart with a slight movement.

  “May we attempt conversation again?” Anubis asked, stepping in to mediate. “What transpires here between you and the human over there?”

  “The human is wanted by the Council for recent attacks and assassinations on three diplomatic convoys,” Attea answered. “We came to take her into custody for an inquiry.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Laurence said flatly.

  “I care not what you believe, Laurence Danjuma,” Attea coldly retorted. “The only reason I am extending you any professional courtesy is that we have a dire situation on our hands, which I can assure you all detect.”

  All five slowly turned to Freedom with a murderous catatonic look on her face clutching Kimberly’s body. An enraged Laurence quickly turned to lock eyes with Merc as he gripped Sol tighter.

  “What did you do?”

  “Your gall knows no bounds, micro-breed,” Merc answered with a sarcastic cackle. “I administered proper punishment to anyone who would dare lay a hand on a Thracian Prince. The question to be asked is, what did you do?”

  “What are you accusing my cousin of, Thracian?” Bastet demanded to know as she stepped into the conversation.

  “Infusing a human with Awakening energy!” Merc bellowed his accusation.

  Anubis and Bastet slowly turned to Laurence with mirrored expressions praying that his next words were that what Merc spewed was a big fat lie.

  His silence and visage told them that the Thracian Prince was telling the truth.

  “Praise be to the old gods that I shuffled that little abomination from mortal coil before …”

  “The child lives.”

  The notification from Sol wiped the sinister smirk from Merc’s face and drew a surprising breath of relief from everyone else, including Attea.

  “Detecting very faint pulmonary and cerebral activity. The child requires immediate medical attention so as not to expire.”

  Without a word, Laurence turned, sailing over to where Freedom hovered.

  “And where are you going?” Merc demanded to know.

  “To defuse this debacle you created,” he turned, snapping at Merc. “Unless you have formulated a plan in the past couple of minutes to stop her from going supernova?”

  He rolled his eyes to the Crown Prince, rearing his fangs as he continued over to Sophia. At that moment, he wished it were anyone else other than him. As he got closer, Freedom’s emotional state had a crushing effect he never felt before. Mainly because her eyes were filled with infinite rage, which was now all directed toward him.

  “Dennison …”

  “Are you with them?”

  Laurence paused before he spoke, knowing that his words had to be chosen very carefully.

  “No …I am not …with them,” he answered while motioning to Merc and Attea. “I was informed of what happened, and came …”

  “I need for you to take my daughter’s body,” Freedom cut him off with a cracked voice. “I don’t want to drop her.”

  Laurence knew without asking what she was planning and how to stop her.

  “Freedom, Kimberly still lives.”

  His words triggered her eyes to well with tears as she gripped her daughter tighter.

  “You’re lying, she’s gone, there’s no heartbeat, no pulse.”

  “I assure you
with my honor, there is activity, but it is the faintest. She needs immediate medical attention that she can receive from my homeworld. I need you to listen carefully to what I am about to say and not react; you’ve been accused of murder.”

  Freedom shook her head to focus.

  “Murder? Who?”

  “A total of seven-star ships, eight thousand four hundred and seventy-three dead, including three diplomats all from species under the Dominion Council.”

  “I haven’t even made it to Mars!” Freedom screamed out as her eyes blazed.

  “I believe you,” Laurence said flatly. “The warrant for your arrest was sent by the Dominion Council. Prince Merc and Princess Attea were sent here to take you into custody.”

  “They tried to kill my baby and me!”

  Once again, her slight movement shook the entire planet as it did with her battle years ago with Peace.

  “I assure you; they will answer for their actions. Right now, we have to get Kimberly to my homeworld for treatment immediately.”

  Freedom’s body trembled as she looked at Kimberly, barely clinging to life.

  “I’m not leaving her. I’m not leaving my daughter.”

  Laurence nodded, seeing in her eyes that she would not be moved on the issue.

  “Bastet, switch places with me, please.”

  Bastet nodded as she flew over to his location to keep watch over Freedom while he went to discuss terms between Anubis and the Thracian Royal family.

  “You must allow her to come to Anu with us to seek treatment for her child.”

  “Out of the question!” Merc spat at him.

  “You are not going to get her into custody any other way, Merc,” Laurence told him flatly. “Especially if that child dies. Unless that was never your motive.”

  Merc’s eyes blazed with rage at Laurence’s accusation.

  “What do you dare insinuate, you filthy micro-breed piece of …?”

  “Enough, brother!” Attea cut Merc off with an admonishing tone.

  “Yes, Merc, heed your sister’s warning before you spill words that cannot be wiped clean,” Anubis warned.