by C. R Corbin
Chapter Fourteen
Sarah
He had told me about his plan and at first, I thought that he was crazy. He was really going to take them all down by himself and leave me up here to do the broadcasting? I guess that it was a job that only he could get done and he had promised me that he would try to make as quick of a return as he could but still...I was worried for him, yet he had just left, he had just departed into the roots like nothing had happened.
I was to send the video to everyone, I was to broadcast everything, the coordinates, all of it. It was supposed to be a video feed that I would trickle out to everyone watching so they would spot the gem. The real gem was here beside me, sitting inside a small compartment beside me in the ship. The only thing that I could do was wait for something to happen until then.
The signal was broadcasting at the moment, the only thing that I could focus on was this single graph in front of me with the line pulsing over and over again. The readings were steady and I could see some ships arriving soon enough, I just had to wait, I just had to wait.
From the window, I watched as the troops begin to tunnel into the small location where he apparently was. They were battling amongst one another for a chance to enter the root network first. None of them thought that this was going to be anything suspicious, none of them thought that this was just a ploy to lure them in and for that I almost pitied them. How could you be this foolish? Someone sends you the feed of where it really is and you just accept it without hesitation? You don't have any second thoughts about it? Really?
It was absurd.
I watched his own video feed as he crawls further and further into the cave. He was already rushing through the networks of roots to where we had placed the explosives. He would set down a hologram in a secluded spot and wait for them to appear before he escaped and detonated the roots of the trees to allow the rest of the people there to be trapped. That was the only way that we were going to take out the amount we wanted.
But that wasn't the only thing that I was going to do of course. I wasn't going to just lay down on some branch to watch this scenario progress in front of me without any action on my part. I grabbed the rifle from the rack and made my way for the small cliff that we were on. The ship was parked high in the mountains so that I wouldn't be targeted or hurt.
And that meant that I had a great vantage point.
My job was to only send out the message and wait for him but I had other plans in mind. I knew that their ships would be parked outside of the trees and that there would be plenty of fighting going on while a large portion of the troops entered the tree in order to retrieve the gem itself. I could be of use outside of the tree, firing onto the ships that were currently gathered here.
That was what I was going to do, I dialed back the scope on the rifle that was I using and glared through it as I readied myself. I could hear the soldiers marching, I was staring at the small screen that was to my left and noticed that he had placed the gem in the walls, the men were close to that point now although none of them had traveled the path that he had taken in order to get here. The gem glimmers there in the crack of the roots as I watched the troops begin to arrive inside the room, they all held their rifles up and the main leaders, Karo, Marot, they all stepped out and were glancing at the gem and at one another. They were all seized in a standoff and suddenly I see the hologram of Sarel flicker upwards.
The men were shocked, they glanced at the hologram with widened eyes as he began to speak rather slowly. His speech was grim, deeper than I had ever heard him but I suppose that this was the kind of Sarel that was needed to fight the enemy, a vicious man that wasn't afraid to mince words or hold back.
"So you have gathered here in search of the rock, that's good." Spoke Sarel softly as the men lifted their rifles and glanced at the rock.
"Why else would we be here stranger?" Karo asked, his eyes were full of greed, he was almost going to spring forward but the fear of being shot had held him back, "I have to admit that we all thank you for leading us here but you will be the first to die. Can't have you running off with the gem of course. That'll be me."
"Fuck you." Said Marot, "You aren't getting away with shit you worm." He snarled out.
"Wrong." began Sarel, "You all aren't going to get anything because you all are going to die down here." He darkly chuckled
And then the roots blew out and Sarel began to run.
He launches himself through the caverns as fast as he can, his feet clash against the roots as he digs his finger into the dirt and drags his way upwards. The entire camera was consumed with ash and as much as I wanted to watch I had to turn my attention back to the ships.
They all began to take off rather slowly but this rifle could easily put a massive dent, literally, into their plans if I hit them.
I had been given a couple of shooting lessons by Sarel during my time with him, it was something that we did in the fields when we had gotten tired of searching. With the size of these ships as well as the stability of this rifle, I could probably hit the crafts rather easily. I sucked in a deep breath and let a large laser bot fly out of the barrel to strike one of the ships, it bisects it and there were four more.
Another deep breath and then a release
Most of my shots miss much of the time but I had managed to strike all their main ships. The stragglers were now flying about, in a frenzy, battling one another since they each thought that the other had somehow caused this mess.
I have to wait quite a while for him to appear back near the mountains. I shut my eyes and prayed that Sarel had gotten out of that mess and after a while, my heart begins to sink. The entire massive tree that was about a mile tall and a mile wide had collapsed and he was nowhere to be seen. Had he failed to get away even when he knew when the bomb would detonate? Had someone caught up to him? What had happened?
I sighed and focused my sights with the rifle once again, the ruins had settled and there were no more dust clouds appearing or floating upwards. The only thing that was there were a bunch of ships firing on one another, that was the only sight and noise that I could sense at the moment.
And then I heard it, a light panting from one of the roots.
"Hey." He muttered as he dragged himself up, the side of his face had a large gash on it. He smiled at me and I could see that there were several burns on his side as well as a knife stuck to his arm, he also seemed to be limping.
"What the hell happened?!" I asked him in shock and he only shrugged before something tackled him to the floor near the ship
It was a rather charred, broken man with large gashes across his body. The closer I looked the sooner I realized that the man that was currently wrestling with him on the ground was someone I recognized.
It was Karo.
That expensive black battle suit that he had worn was chipped and broken at several points, his helmet was removed and I could see his blond hair and blue eyes, his rugged and cruel expression was even more twisted now and his scarred and pale complexion was even more emphasized in this light.
He truly looked like a nightmare and now he was here with the two of us.
Part of me wanted to smile, this was the vengeance that I had always wanted.
Chapter Fifteen
Sarel
"Fuck you." Said the other human that I didn't recognize, I could recognize Karo, however.
Tall, muscular, scarred at spots with a pale complexion and bright blonde hair with blue eyes. I could only imagine how strong he was since I could sense that there was something different about him. All the same pheromones that the rest of the humans were shooting out were not apparent on him. There was something different as if he was part machine or something like that.
I frowned and pressed the button on the detonators I began to make my way through the tunnels. The hologram would do the rest of the work. I latched my finger around the roots and began to flee when smoke began to cloud up the room. I saw the roots b
egin to crumble and I ran as fast as I could, there was a momentary delay on the explosives around the outer area of the tree so the explosion would be delayed a bit.
That meant that there was no room for error if I didn't want to get completely crushed.
As soon as I began to run I could hear someone behind me, someone was running after me as fast as they could and I had no idea who it was. I sprinted as fast as I could, chucking myself through the roots with my sword in hand in case the person approached me. I hurled myself through the last stretch of root when someone had grabbed onto my leg, we were both held there in place while the wood collapsed on top of us.
And then I laid there with my arms spread, my entire body was shaking and I could feel more than a fair share of roots digging into my skin while I laid there. My eyes shut and I grimaced as I sat up, my right leg was caught under some wood, not quite broken thanks to my armor but it was still...hurt, it was still a bit painful to the touch but there was nothing overwhelmingly bad about it.
My arms were wounded as well, there were some bits of wood sticking out of them. I could feel some blood trickling down my cheek from this large gash that wasn't apparent immediately but made its presence known with a sharp pain.
But Karo, as I found out, was a different story.
At least half of his body was under the rubble but he merely shrugged it off as if it was nothing and stood back up in front of me. I glanced him over with widened eyes as he stretched out his arm in front of me, as if to challenge me and I got into position. My gaze was fixed on him and I was gritting my teeth, I didn't know if I could take a man with such strength in a direct fight. I had none of my stealth, none of my resources, all I had was the blade in my hand as well as the blaster that was on my belt. I had a feeling that it would take much more than that to bring him down however
This was a battle that I might not come out of. As strong as I was, I don't think I was nearly strong enough to lift the portion of the tree that he just did but I steeled myself. My eyes glowed that furious red and I charged in without any further thought.
He draws his knife at the same time that I drew my blade and he clashes with me, our blows are quick but furious. As I was the larger man by far I thought that I had the edge in power, but he was far more durable than I was, just as fast, and his strength was surprising. He could easily match me blow for blow, he clashed his knife blade with my sword and flipped it midair after we collided before he grabbed it and jabbed at my shoulder but I had tackled him before he could complete the motion. The knife was still in his hands as he had fallen down, I hold my sword tightly and engaged, my blade draws back as I swing it in a wide arc in an attempt to catch him off guard and he merely deflected it with his knife once again before kicking me away. From his belt, he draws his blaster and fries me several times on the side. The laser bolts burned and I hissed but regained my composure as I backed off. My entire body was throbbing in pain, with my damaged leg I couldn't dodge or move like I usually would.
The surrounding area was covered in grey ash, the sky was hidden from me by the ash and the branches were laid bare on the ground. The troops laid on their side all over the place and only a few trees were left standing. We were on one of the few plots of dry land here and if I was launched any further back I would hit the water that was covered in ash at the moment. I steeled myself and glared at him before I launched back in
It was do or die.
He brings his knife down in a stabbing motion in an attempt to catch my head but I moved to the side so he stabbed my shoulder instead. I jammed the blade through his stomach and rammed my horns into his throat before pushing him on the back foot, paving the way with the blade still in his stomach. He seizes up for a moment and I drew my blaster, firing off a countless amount of bolts that hammered his chest again and again but nothing seemed to burn through, I targeted his face as well and his helmet had begun to chip away and fall to the ground as I continued my efforts.
He had to fall right? He just had to.
I grit my teeth and tossed the blaster at him when it became apparent that I was going to be out of rounds soon. I jabbed him instead and pushed him onto the floor, grabbing his neck and hammering him down with blows as he seized up.
"You don't understand." He stated, "This is all that we have. How dare you judge us and take this from us. You and that girl."
"Shut up!" I snarled out while my claws tense around his neck and sunk into him. "You are a leech, a cancer on this world and you deserve to die." I snarled.
"Oh how foolish you are." He spoke, "You may have killed them but I won't stoop, I can't, not until I get that money and get my life back."
I hold him there for a moment, his hands were on my wrist and I was trying to squeeze the life out of him, but I was tiring and he kept on going with the same amount of intensity. It was rather surprising to me that he could keep up the same amount of strain in his muscles for this long.
"What life?" I asked him. "You're a thug." I growled out.
"You're a soldier too aren't you? You understand what we do, how far we're willing to go to leave the gutter? The men who did this to me, who tore me apart and put me back together...they're holding up there with Corinthian columns and suits."
I had no idea what this Corinthian column was but I listened in, this was a man that was speaking from the heart and as much as I didn't want to...I listened.
"I was born alone in the worst slump in the human quadrants, in the lower towns of the Martian cities." He spat, "And to think that they could make me into this. A being without pain, the only pleasure that I would ever get is if I have enough money to exact my vengeance on those bastards."
"It's all a joke. How you see me, how I see you, a big joke."
And all I could do was growl in frustration as I drew my fist back and hammered it into his face. My knuckles grind into his cheeks as the metal and synthetic fibers begin to reveal themselves. The muscle fibers and skin that he was made out of, they were synthetic underneath, I had to presume that there was some brain tissue lingering in his head but no matter how hard I hammered his head it was apparent that I wasn't getting through.
As soon as it was apparent that I damaged him enough to incapacitate him I got off and left a grenade near his head, walking away as the explosion sounded before I began to make my way back to her, as I made my way towards the life that I had wanted for so long.
And as I come over that cliff and see her smile become a frown I have to wonder what's wrong.
And it becomes apparent to me that this isn't over quite yet.
Chapter Sixteen
Sarah
He rolled onto his side beside me and I turned towards the sniper rifle that I had, I quickly turned to face Karo and fired off a shot but it misses and he kicks the rifle away before he grabs me and tossed me against the wall.
I screamed as I hit the rock, a rib breaks, as well as some other bones that I didn't even know, were there until now. I winced as I fell on my face, my entire body quivers and I gazed at the rifle which was only a small distance away as I see Sarel roar in anger.
All bets were off now.
He screamed as he lunged at Karo and pinned him down, sinking the claws into his neck as he tries to literally pound the man into a paste but it isn't working. I think that on one of the hits Sarel breaks his hand, he's tossed back and I can only watch as the man I love is stabbed by that knife from his shoulder that is dragged out and jabbed into his chest
He roars in pain but kicks the man off of him, the knife was causing some blood to drip out but Sarel's armor was doing a good job of keeping him in fighting shape. He shuts his eyes and lurches forward, his hand is cocked back and he throws a right hook that is blocked before he follows up with a head-butt and strikes him, hard.
Bits of metal come drifting off of his head, some of Sarel's horn chips off as well and I have to wince at that display before they continued to duke it out. The men trade shots and Sare
l grabs him and pins him up against the wall as I made my way towards the rifle. If Karo really was a cyborg then this could only last for a little while, Sarel couldn't last forever while Karo could.
I had to do this, it was on me, only me.
The blaster at my side wasn't nearly powerful enough to pierce the shell judging from the burns on Karo's chest so I needed this, I crawl as fast as I could while they were still distracted, Karo had just pinned Sarel up against the ship and had slammed him into the ground. Sarel grabs his sword that had fallen off to the side and jams it through Karo's neck but that doesn't stop the cyborg.
There was only one way that this could all end, one way.
I tensed my grip around the rifle and turned just as Karo was busy getting on top of Sarel, his hand cocked back in an attempt to smash my teren before I pulled the trigger and hoped that it would find its mark.
And it did, several moments later brain matter and metal came flying out of that man's head, drifting onto the floor in clumps while I laid back, sighing and shaking my head in shock.
It was a lucky shot but I would take it. I was hoping to have some last words for the man considering all that he has done to me but I would accept this small victory that I had been granted. I would settle for it.
I shut my eyes and crawled over towards Sarel who laid there with a knife in his chest, he stares at me and smiles, he was bleeding but it wasn't that bad. I capture him in a silent embrace and hold him there for a while, while he stroked my back, our bodies melding into one with the knowledge that we had won.
We had beaten the darkness.
The days that followed were rather simple. Recover from our injuries and fly out of here, both were done in a matter of hours after we had killed Karo.
The two of us had agreed to burn the body to prevent any further...mishaps from going on. The incinerator had to work five times before the body was entirely gone, I had to wonder what the human governments made that man into and how they did it. It was a curiosity to me, how he could have ruled with such tyranny but I suppose that it was due to his cybernetic enhancements.
