Foster remained.
Someone just saved their lives, and that someone was about to be fighting for theirs as repeated claps of magnetic rifle shots fired. Foster ran for the headless gunman, prying his dead hands away from the rifle and glanced at the words written in the Radiance language on the weapon before seeking out the ranger that saved them.
In the hallways, she found him ducked behind a storage crate. The shields of his combat armor rapidly flickered blue from the onslaught of bullets three robed Aryile gunmen further down unleashed. They didn’t see Foster shoot for the jugular as she peeked out from the corner and took aim, assuming Aryile even had those. A jet of blood squirted out from the neck of one gunman when her bullets exited, evidently, Aryile did have them.
The ranger that saved her, Odelea, and Pierce returned to the fray. His bullets ended the lives of the two remaining gunmen that stood shocked at their friend clasping onto the side of his neck squirting and spraying red everywhere.
The ranger faced Foster, removed his helmet, and stepped out from the cover that obscured his body. And the various weapons and swords he had equipped.
Jainuzei’s smug grin beamed at her when the helmet was finally lowered.
“Weapon’s Master Jainuzei, reporting for duty,” he said.
Foster lowered the magnetic rifle slowly, shocked at her new liaison officer. “The council chose you?”
“Indeed, Captain,” he said, moving toward the airlock. “Permission to come aboard?”
Fuck no, was what she wanted to say based on what Karklosea revealed to Odelea.
“Granted.” Is what she forced herself to say.
Not like she had a choice given their current situation.
26 Rivera
Space Ferry Arrivals Platform
Spaceport, Eiri Orbit, Luminous System
November 2, 2118, 11:20 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Anticipation and feelings of anxiety swirled around in Rivera’s body. On the ferry she and Penelope shared, she saw the Kepler docked and firmly held in place by the spaceport’s docking clamp arms. By the time the two left the airlock, she realized she was minutes away from being reunited with the crew and having to explain why she got HNI, why the evil EVE they found in Sirius was living in it, and what were they going to do with her.
That was, of course, assuming her HNI didn’t reactivate and Sarpanit took control again. In that case, she’d probably be dead before she got aboard the Kepler. It was another thing to be nervous about.
Penelope accompanied her on the trip through the densely packed halls of the spaceport. She was dressed like a tanned Essex girl, walking past people that would freak out and call Penelope a demon because she was Hashmedai.
They turned a corner and read a map of the spaceport. The Kepler was docked at an airlock on the opposite end. It was going to take at least fifteen minutes of walking to get there.
Rivera went to break the silence. Another fifteen minutes of it and her travel partner staying silent would make her deaf.
“I read about the incident at Taxah in the news,” Rivera said to Penelope. “Had no idea you were that hacker they were talking about.”
“Sadly, that incident is far from over,” Penelope said. “The UNE was kind enough to let me board one of their ships that was set to dock within an Imperial command ship which was going to take us all back to Amicitia Station 14.” Penelope brought up a small holo photo of a young woman embracing a Hashmedai woman with purple hair. “This is Lisette Bennett; she was arrested by the Empire prior to the arrival of the Terrans at Taxah.”
“She’s human . . .” Rivera said, eying the holo photo closer as it floated and followed the two. “The Empire doesn’t have a justice system. If you’re arrested, you’re put on death row, no questions asked.”
“Yep, this is why the UNE reached out to Maraschino. They asked us for any data that could help them mount a rescue mission.” Penelope made a wave of her hand and the holo photo vanished. “Me being in the system made me the top candidate for that assignment. It took a while, but eventually I found the ship Lisette was imprisoned on, unfortunately, it was too late. We had arrived in the Arietis system and it had departed. Add in the new growing tensions between the Empire and Earth, and the rescue mission was scrapped.”
“But you held onto the data.”
“Of course, if Earth didn’t want to buy it, someone else on the deep web would,” Penelope said. “Whether or not she violated Imperial laws is up for debate. We in Maraschino have people across the galaxy sharing all the lovely, top-level data we’ve collected from our missions. Have you heard of the Soldiers of Marduk?”
There was that name again, Marduk. It became a source of negativity and unhappy thoughts that she couldn’t seem to escape from. Marduk was a threat in Sirius, and now the AI in her head was obsessed with him. Penelope briefly explained the cult to Rivera, based on Radiance limited intel on them and data Maraschino had. It sounded like the Celestial Order all over again, only they were weaker, smaller, and had no ships.
“The SOM was recently in contact with Maraschino,” Penelope continued. “They were looking to purchase any data involving humans born in the Montreal area between 2003 and 2018 to aid them in some project called Nephilim. We told them at first, we didn’t have any data that we knew of. That’s when I realized I still had Lisette’s profile open. Her name sounds a bit on the French side, don’t you agree?”
She thought back to the photo, visualizing a woman like Lisette speaking French fluently. “I can imagine a girl like her having a background in that.”
“Turns out, I was right,” Penelope said. “After digging deeper into Lisette’s family, I found that she was a descendant of people born in Montreal during that time. Maraschino offered the data to the Soldiers of Marduk. They made a very generous bid for it. A couple of days later, the Imperial navy lost contact with one of their prison barges, of course, they kept silent about that, but you can’t hide such juicy data from us. Days later, the Radiance council was attacked, we lost contact with members of that group, we lost contact with the Rezeki’s Rage, and rumors of a massive Terran Legion reconstruction came up.”
“That’s quite the chain reaction of events,” Rivera said.
“All because we sold data to some people that turned out to be more powerful than we thought,” Penelope said. “I need to get a hold of the Kepler, and it needs to be off all networks.”
Well, there goes that idea, Rivera thought while lowering her wrist terminal which was seconds away from informing the Kepler of Penelope’s arrival. They’ll just have to wait to board it and have Penelope explain things in person with the aid of her HNI.
When they were four minutes out from the Kepler, a robed man stopped them having stopped several groups of Radiance civilians. It looked like he was asking people a question.
“Excuse me,” the robed Linl man spoke in the Radiance language. “Are you two believers?”
Penelope stared blankly at him and then asked Rivera. “What’s he saying? I don’t speak their bloody language very well.”
“He’s asking us if we believe,” Rivera translated.
“Believe in what? The Gods?”
“Are you?” the robed Linl man asked.
“We’re from Earth,” Rivera replied in his language. “Just passing through.”
He nodded. “I see.”
“So, I hope you understand,” Rivera said. “We were just raised differently from those in Radiance.”
The man grimaced and brushed them off. “Carry on.”
They moved further down the halls, looking back at the man who stopped a Vorcambreum couple with the same questions. Rivera moved her face forward, Penelope moved with her but kept her gaze looking back at him. “What an oddball,” she said.
At two minutes away from the Kepler’s airlock, the two arrived at the edge of the central foyer of the spaceport, the top level to be exact, looking down at the sea of people moving back and forth to or from
the shops toward arrival or departure airlocks. Penelope stopped to stare down at the level below. Her eyes focused on a number of men and women wearing dark robes, like the Linl man not long ago.
Penelope’s face winced. “They’re spoofing their identities.”
“What?”
“The Linl that spoke to us, I scanned his HNI and it identified him as Sayoei.”
“And?”
Penelope pointed at three robed men. “Their names are also Sayoei.” Then her finger found a robed woman speaking with a Rabuabin man and his three children. “Her name is Nyoea.” She brought Rivera’s attention to four other robed women at the back. “So is hers, hers, hers, and hers.”
“You . . .”
A cold wave of panic gripped Rivera’s mind. Sarpanit’s voice returned as her HNI flashed a connection established notification over her eyes. The THC had run its course. Rivera regretted not taking another hit or two when Penelope introduced herself. They were wasting time looking at the robed people below, Rivera needed to get back to the Kepler before Sarpanit regained control of her body and made her do something horrible to her or the people around her.
There were hundreds, perhaps thousands aboard the spaceport. The thought of Rivera being forced to harm them because of Sarpanit made her face turn pale. That new shade of pale caught Penelope’s attention as she faced away from the railing, looking back at Rivera.
“Jasmine, you okay?”
“After everything I’ve done for you!” It was Sarpanit’s voice, paralyzing pain traveled through her joints and bones making Rivera lose control of her body. The AI Goddess was angry and punishing her reluctant servant. “You’ll be punished for this!”
Rivera fell to the floor screaming as the feeling of millions of swords piercing her body hit. The pain came to a sudden end when an explosion turned a market kiosk into smoldering bits of metal and body parts. The blast made Rivera, Penelope, even Sarpanit face its source. Spinning clouds of psionic energy appeared in the air, it was like a storm cell made of purple light growing in size. Below, one of the robed men stood with his arms out while rippling blue bolts danced up and down his body.
When he lowered his arms, the psionic energy he summoned exploded. The blast was strong enough to send Penelope to the floor, and half a dozen bodies near the explosion to their red splattering end with arms and legs spiraling through the air. More psionic bombs went off adding to the deadly carnage. A rib cage flew across the floor on the lower level while those that survived ran in fear. It was a sight Rivera will never forget.
Penelope got to her feet when the majority of the psionic bombs finished. She went running to the Kepler’s airlock. Rivera didn’t follow, the pain Sarpanit inflicted on her made her legs and feet numb, its effects slowly dissipating. Her hands came to hold onto Rivera’s frame, forcing her up, while the robed men and women unfazed by the devastation drew hidden weapons out from their cloaks, chanting Marduk’s name, turning those that didn’t run fast enough into bullet-riddled corpses that fell as fast as they tried to run. Those that were lucky to escape paid the price with missing limbs leaving lines of red behind as they limped away.
Rivera wanted to look away. Sarpanit didn’t, forcing her to look at the madness. “What’s this?” Sarpanit said with fascination in her voice. “They, they worship my husband. This pleases me.”
“Okay, love, time to go!” Penelope grabbed Rivera, forcing her to move with her to safety. Sarpanit, in control of her body, flung Penelope back three meters.
“Perhaps I was wrong to punish you,” Sarpanit’s evil voice and laughter echoed inside Rivera’s head. “I should be thanking you. You’ve brought me to Marduk’s followers.” Sarpanit forced Rivera’s feet to move. She was forcing her to the nearest staircase, walking past the troves of fleeing people escaping the blood-soaked carnage below. “I want you to help them. I want you to kill those who aren’t believers of Marduk.”
Every forced step Rivera made brought her closer to the pain those below were facing. Every step made her scream internally, as it was the only thing she was able to do. Sarpanit’s rage was too much. The only saving grace was that her movements were slow. Sarpanit’s control of her wasn’t perfect, which would explain why she never took complete control from the start. Rivera’s freewill was stronger.
Armed rangers charged into the massacre, their rifles seeking out the robed men and women that were killing everyone in sight. Psionic barriers kept most of the robed gunmen and women alive while they fought with the rangers in a violent gun battle. A battle Sarpanit was forcing Rivera to walk into.
A flash of holo screens came into existence around Rivera, orbiting her. The contents of the screens had lines upon lines of computer code all executing various commands. Rivera’s body stopped moving when the holo screens finished running whatever programs they were running.
Sarpanit’s holographic appearance appeared behind Rivera’s stunned body. The AI Goddess looked up and down at Penelope and the four holo screens that she had been interacting with.
Penelope hacked Rivera’s HNI.
Sarpanit didn’t like that.
“What sorcery is this?!” Sarpanit’s irate voice, now audible to those around yelled at Penelope.
“Lights out, bitch!” Penelope spat.
An error message flashed across Rivera’s eyes, and Sarpanit’s holographic image faded, as did her hold over Rivera’s body. The unexpected return of her motor functions made Rivera limp, but eventually, she was able to walk back and away from the stairs that led to the chaos below.
“You must have a lot of questions,” Rivera said to her.
Bullets soared above their heads. The robed gunmen had made it to the upper level, charging at them from the rear.
“Right now?! Not really!”
Animal instinct fear for a Hashmedai and human carried them away from the streaks of gunfire, hiding behind a bench. The bullets that missed turned the transparent walls behind the two into fractured white cracks and dents. No air was leaking out, meaning the rifle’s automatic safety systems were active, and preventing it from firing rounds that would travel fast enough to put holes into the station. It also meant the bench they hid behind could take a few hits before it was time to find new cover.
One of the gunmen approached, a Rabuabin man. He moved to the bench slowly, his eyes and rifle’s sights looking to see if the two didn’t survive the barrage. Rivera wanted to make a break for it, looking back at one of the hallways devoid of life. Penelope was focused tinkering with a tiny holo screen before her, the progress bar to an application hit 100 percent when she flicked the screen away.
The gunman found them, pointing his rifle. Rivera’s eyes were wide, her heart racing, wondering if this was it. He pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Penelope smiled then charged at him, crashing her knee into his balls, kicking the rifle out from his hands, and then delivered another high kick into his throat, not caring that she was still wearing a short skirt when she made those moves. As a final insult, she stepped on his tail when it lowered to the floor.
The gunman learned the hard way that he wasn’t dealing with a human or Linl woman, but Hashmedai, one that moved quickly and deadly like the vampire-like hunters they were. It took Penelope seven seconds after that to get behind him, snap his neck, grab his rifle, shoot it, and make another Rabuabin gunman that was approaching spin around six times before his body full of blood-gushing holes hit the floor.
Penelope returned later holding two rifles, offering one to Rivera. She shook her head no.
“Take it, you silly girl,” Penelope insisted, shoving the weapon to her face.
Rivera swatted the weapon away, standing back to her feet. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”
“If you’re worried about the bloodstains on the trigger, I assure you Rabuabin blood washes off fairly easily.”
“I don’t like violence.”
“You’re a pacifist?”
“You could say that.”
“A
nd if this bloke over here,” Penelope said, pointing off to the side. “Wants to pass his fist into my face because you’re a pacifist, what will you do to help me?”
Rivera followed where Penelope was pointing. She saw the bloke in question dive into cover, and yell to his friends of the human woman and the Maraschino hacker that were a threat.
27 Foster
XSV Johannes Kepler
Eiri Spaceport, Luminous System
November 2, 2118, 12:04 SST (Sol Standard Time)
“Seal the airlock!”
Foster stood and watched from inside the Kepler as its airlock doors shut. Her captured magnetic rifle aimed out, her finger next to the trigger, waiting for any straggling gunmen from beyond. Jainuzei stood with her doing the same. Neither of the two left until the doors were shut locked and no signs of movement were seen beyond its small windows.
The two lowered their rifles when it was deemed safe and Foster strode back to the bridge, slinging the weapon over her shoulder, Jainuzei followed behind. As she turned the corner, she put her wrist terminal to her face and asked. “Why the hell did it take so long to open?”
“The airlock doors on our end opened fine,” Chang’s voice transmitted. “It was the Radiance ones that were slow.”
“Remind me to file a lawsuit against the Radiance engineers that built it if we all die,” Foster replied.
“Uh,” Chang muttered slowly. “How’s that gonna happen if we’re all dead?”
Foster snickered. “Oh, I’ll find a way!”
Foster took her captain’s chair as she returned to the bridge. Nobody bothered to ask why she still had a magnetic rifle with her when she left it on the floor next to her seat. Jainuzei was moving around behind, probably examining the layout of the bridge, and how fast Odelea and Pierce returned to their stations amidst the sounds of alarms blaring.
“Any word from Rivera?” Foster asked, facing the communication station.
“I can’t seem to reach her,” Odelea said after a moment, checking her computer.
Hallowed Nebula Page 20
