Seems I didn’t have a choice anyway.
I climbed up and stood beside Luther as the flames slowly closed in around us. I could feel the heat on the back of my neck. “Engineer, look at the position we’re in. You should have taken the Architect’s offer. I allowed her a pathway to save your people, and you arrogantly refused.”
“No one in their right mind would accept that offer,” he said.
“But it was better than this alternative, isn’t it? Something is better than nothing at all? My androids worked for decades. We cleaned up your planet, and we offered you an opportunity to start over,” it replied.
“As puppets,” Luther said.
The Moderator shook its head at Luther in disapproval, then turned toward me. “Access to Xena’s files has given me insight about you and your husband, Captain Belic. I know what you were willing to do to find him. Here is what I can offer: I’ll allow the two of you to walk away and live out the remainder of your lives. Why not take advantage of the time you have left? You deserve it. You’re too old to have children, so you’re no threat to me or this planet. But of course, there is one condition,” it offered.
Luther adjusted his grip around the sword handle.
“Engineer, you know I will find your people eventually. Spare them the suffering and anxiety of running and hiding without your leadership. Tell me where they are. Look at the human infighting you’ve thwarted throughout the years. They’ll be lost, like sheep without their shepherd. It’s over, and there’s no reason that you and your wife should die other than principle, you’ve both fought long enough already, and proven you were willing to risk your lives countless times. Lay down your sword and take your wife’s hand instead. At least save her, because you can’t save the rest of them.”
Luther stared at me. We were at the Moderator’s mercy. The large wooden wall behind the Moderator was completely engulfed in flames. “Make a decision,” the Moderator demanded.
A loud snap erupted behind the Moderator as the wall collapsed. The Moderator lunged away from the falling debris as Luther shielded me with his arms. I felt him spring up from the ground as planks of wood fell off of him.
His shoulders and arms were on fire as he pushed my head close to his chest. He ran through the opposite wall, smashing through thick plywood and wood planks, plowing over furniture and beds.
I could see streaks of energy beam overhead as Luther bashed through four more housing unit walls before we fell onto the ground, rolling as he put out the flames on his back and shoulders. Luther put me down and looked me over.
“How much longer can you run, how much longer can you fight?” the Moderator taunted.
Luther reached for his belt. “My sword,” he said, searching frantically as he panted.
“You must have dropped it. Here, take mine...” I said, handing over my sword. We put more distance between ourselves and the Moderator’s deadly cannons as Luther cut through more housing unit walls with my blade. We retreated further into the living quarters.
“Luther, this way is a dead end,” I said, following his path of destruction as streaks of energy poked through the walls all around us.
“Stay low!” he shouted.
We made our way to the last housing unit. We couldn’t retreat any further. Across the way, I noticed Zion and the Legion soldiers. They were lying face down. Their corpses were scorched from laser fire. I bit my lip as I noticed Zion’s hand still on the minigun.
“Let’s go,” he said, shielding me as we ran across to the middle of the hall. Luther pushed me inside the large steel cargo bin. “Stay down!” he said as I hurried inside the steel container into the prone position.
Luther hoisted the minigun from behind the cargo bin. I peeked through a small gap near the ground. To my surprise, Luther fired the weapon upward, into the ceiling. “What’s he doing—”
Huge chunks of ice and rock began to collapse near the Moderator. I could hear small debris hitting the top of the cargo container above me. It was raining gravel and ice.
I caught a glimpse of the Moderator, and it was moving toward us rapidly while firing its cannons at us. The Moderator’s once methodical stalk now seemed hurried. It likely sensed Luther’s strategy as boulders crashed all around it.
A rock the size of a large beach ball smashed into the Moderator’s back, causing it to stumble, then another one knocked it down. I watched while its lower body was pinned to the floor as an avalanche of dirt, rock, and ice obscured my line of sight.
A loud roar erupted. It seemed the entire ceiling gave way as boulders the size of small cars and railroad ties fell through. The wrenching sound of twisting metal was terrifying. Luther stopped firing and dove inside the steel cargo bin and put his body over mine. I wondered if that was his plan, to entomb us with the Moderator forever.
So be it.
Dust filled the air inside the container. Dirt filled up around my feet as we crouched low. A large rock smashed into the back side of the container, crushing it down on us nearly a meter. “Luther!” I yelled.
“We’ll make it!” he shouted, holding me tight.
Suddenly, the barrage stopped. He peeked outside the container. Nearly all the housing units appeared to be destroyed from either the Moderator or falling debris. I looked up through a small hole and noticed a twenty-meter diameter crater in the ceiling.
“It’s stopped?” I asked.
“Hold on!” The container was flung into the back wall. Luther was knocked back outside as I rolled around on the floor violently. I looked through the hole and noticed the Moderator. It yanked the container away from the wall and thrust it forward like a battering ram, crunching Luther as he stood up, pinning him against the wall. The impact knocked him unconscious.
“Luther!” I yelled as I scrambled toward him. I felt the container being pulled away from him again. I reached out and grabbed his hand, but he slipped through my fingers. The Moderator shoved the container forward again, smashing his face against the wall, breaking his mask off. His mouth was bleeding, and his eyes were rolled into back of his head.
There was no escape. The only exit was near Luther and the entire structure was smashing back and forth. I noticed my sword rolling back and forth on the deck of the cargo bin.
I picked it up and charged to the opposite side of the container where the Moderator was. Enraged, I ignited the blade and stabbed through the steel container, hoping to land a vital blow. “Aaarrgh!”
The plasma sliced through the steel wall, creating a small hole. I continued to hack away at the wall. Suddenly, the bin was flipped on its side. Disoriented, I searched for the Moderator. I could see it slowly approaching through the dust-filled corridor. I had severed one of its arms.
“I must say Lioness, you two don’t give up, do you?”
On its remaining arm, I noticed the mounted cannon had been damaged, the barrel was crushed. I stood up and hurried outside the container with my sword in hand, sensing I had a chance. I circled the Moderator, navigating through the piles of rubble in the thick dust.
As I focused on the android, I noticed its helm had been damaged, revealing the top of the it’s head.
Blue electricity zapped around the Moderator’s body as it shifted its attention toward Luther.
“Get the fuck away!” I yelled, furiously swinging my blade at the Moderator as it stepped aside. My blade arched downward, slicing a rock in half as flurries of sparks flew into the air.
“Ugh!” I felt a blow to my right kidney as I was flung against the wall back near Luther. The Moderator bent over and picked up its severed arm, hurling it at me with blurring speed. I raised my sword, cutting it in half, but the pieces slammed into my abdomen, knocking the breath out of me. I gasped and fell to my knees, dropping my sword.
The Moderator stomped on my sword handle, breaking it. It lunged forward and kicked me onto my back. It stepped on my upper chest, twisting its foot back and forth. I felt my chest muscles stretching and bones popping around my st
ernum. “I know this... is painful,” it said as I squirmed, kicking my feet.
“Tell me where he’s hidden the others, and it will end,” it demanded, pressing down harder on my chest.
“Aaa-ahhh!” I screamed.
I looked over at Luther and reached for his hand. I grabbed it while staring at him.
“Where is the population, Victoria? Your husband still has heartbeat, tell me and you two can walk away, together. There’s no reason the both of you should die along with everyone else,” it said.
I looked up at the Moderator as it relieved some of the weight from its massive metallic foot. I let go of Luther’s hand and stared up at the Moderator. I reached up, gripping around the Moderator’s metal leg. I pulled it down toward me with all my might.
“More,” I challenged. I wasn’t giving up their location.
The Moderator tilted its head at me. “To think, I was actually willing to let the both of you live out your lives.”
The Moderator shook its head. My vision began to fade as I felt the pressure increase. I could feel my heart beating throughout my body, pulsing. The pain subsided as I lost feeling in my hands and feet. I turned and stared at Luther as my consciousness slipped away.
Luther came to life, flinging his body at the Moderator, knocking it down. The Moderator stumbled to it knees as Luther wrapped his arms around the Moderator’s torso, pinning its only arm to its waist. I could barely move as I tried to see them through the dust.
Luther pulled the Moderator down to the ground from behind and began punching it in the back of its head. Sparks flew into the air as his metal gloves clipped against the Moderator’s helm.
The Moderator flipped over onto its back and smashed Luther in the chest with his fist, knocking him off. I heard him gasp for air as he wheezed.
The Moderator stood up quickly and walked Luther down. It suddenly stopped a few paces from him and looked up. “Impossible,” it said. Blinding light strobed from the above as the Moderator’s head was lopped off by an arching plasma blade. A silhouetted figure dropped behind the headless android.
Luther and I looked at each other in confusion.
A shadowy man with a strange helm came into view. He was partially obscured by the orange-brown haze. He stood behind the android, holding the sword over its head with one hand. The headless android dropped to a knee and grabbed the man’s dark cloak. It fell forward onto the man’s feet as he cut the Moderator limb from limb. Smoke trailed from the android’s body.
I noticed ropes dangling from the ceiling as several more shadowy figures came into view, aiming rifles in all directions. “Clear!” one of them shouted. Luther coughed as the shrouded man kneeled beside him.
Time slowed down as the warrior stood up and walked toward me. His terrifying helm came into view. I had seen something similar before. The ominous black helmet had two pointed horns on each side with a thin visor that ran across the eyes. He kneeled close to me and removed the helm.
My eyes widened. “Wait... Leo,” I mumbled in disbelief.
He looked me over. “It’s over,” he assured. “We saw the XU-97 blazing through the sky like a falling star. I knew it meant trouble.”
I looked at his scarred face. He had lost his right eye, it was completely white. “How did you—what happened?” I asked.
He gazed ahead. “My claim to the nomad throne wasn’t without challengers,” he said, putting the menacing helm back on. “I took what was mine, by force,” he added.
“Warden, what of the other survivors?” A nomad soldier approached.
Leo turned and looked at me. “Is there anyone else down here?” he asked.
“I don’t think anyone else survived,” I said. I shook my head as I thought about Zion, Knight Renheart, and the two Legion soldiers that made the ambush possible. Without them, we wouldn’t have survived.
Leo turned toward the nomad soldier. “Check the rubble to be sure, but have our medics transport these two survivors topside, immediately. Get me two harnesses, we’re taking them up on ropes,” Leo instructed.
Luther stood up slowly as Leo and another nomad got under each arm. He walked toward me and sat down, putting his arms around me. I wiped the dried blood around his mouth as he stared ahead at nothing. His face was covered in thick brown dust as a nomad soldier put harnesses under our arms.
The nomads assisted us through the debris under the hole in the ceiling and attached ropes to our harnesses. Leo inspected our harnesses, pulling the ropes tight. “Send them up,” he ordered.
Luther and I were facing one another. We felt a slight tug as the nomads beside us gave the men topside a thumbs up. As our feet lifted from the ground, Luther and I stared at one another. He gazed through me, and his eyes drifted down toward the destruction.
He stared at Leo as we swayed back and forth slowly on the ropes. “I have an image in my mind, the way Leo looked while his father was still alive. A boy full of life with wild blond hair. He used to wake me up running and screaming down the barracks hall,” he muttered.
“And now look at him,” I said.
“Life has a strange way of reminding us of things. From the time he was born, it was a struggle. And now I see his pain, manifested. For many, it ends in tragedy, others into mediocrity, but for some, it’s a steel forge,” he said.
“You would know, wouldn’t you? Leo might wear the Warden’s helmet, Luther, but his heart, his will comes from another man that beat the odds. The Elder counsel knew what they were doing when they selected him to replace you. Leo wasn’t just your successor, he is also your son,” I replied. “Our son,” I added.
Luther held his stare at me as the nomads pulled us up through the hole in the ceiling. There was a large crowd of nearly a hundred nomad and Legion soldiers.
They began to cheer, raising their hands in the air. For me, the voices were muted as I continued to stare at him. Neona parted the crowd with several soldiers behind her. She stopped, looking Luther up and down. “Father!” she proclaimed. Neona embraced him, weeping intensely. I saw the little girl in her as Luther held her around the waist.
Corporal Dinu walked up next to Luther. He was wearing a large backpack. “Sire,” he said respectfully. For the first time I saw the man genuinely smile with happiness.
“Dinu,” Luther said, patting him on the shoulder.
“Forgive me, but we made the decision to leave our post after the XU-97 was shot down. We lost communication, but we heard the Moderator had made its way inside. We thought the best course of action was to initiate your secondary plan and destroy the Legion with explosives, burying the android inside,” he said. My eyes widened as I noticed several of the Legion soldiers were also carrying backpacks.
Luther turned toward Dinu and patted him on the shoulder. “Well done. The new Warden showed up just in time then.”
Dinu grinned. “Literally, he was the one that talked us out of entombing you inside with the Moderator,” he said.
I chuckled. Something always told me Luther had another option, but I was content not knowing about this backup plan.
Neona walked up to me slowly. She smiled, looking me up and down. “We brought a portion of the medical staff back, you’ll be fine,” she said as I held my stare at her. She put her arms around me, hugging my neck.
She pulled away, staring at me. “You don’t know how much peace it gave me knowing that you would be here with my father. I knew that if the opportunity presented itself, he would charge headfirst to save his people, and, I knew he wouldn’t be alone, thank you,” she said, hugging me tightly.
I WOKE UP INSIDE A small hospital room. I was warm and cozy lying in bed. I looked around, unsure of how I’d got here. I swore and stiff all over.
Luther was leaning back in a chair next to me asleep. He was only wearing pants and boots. He looked like a mummy, the top part of his head and his arms were wrapped in bandages.
“Luther,” I said, waking him.
He was alerted by my voice. He leane
d up quickly, reaching for his sword. “What’s wrong?” he asked, looking around.
“No, it’s fine. Everything’s fine,” I said.
He leaned back slowly. “Oh.”
He was wearing a small device on his face, a mouth piece that connected to a machine on the floor beside him. Surprisingly, his sword was on the nightstand beside him. Someone had found it.
As I wiggled around in bed to sit up, I wondered how long I had been here. I felt a pain near my wrist. “Ahh,” I called out.
I observed the lower part of my forearm and hand were in a brace, locking the wrist in place. The hand was swollen and black and blue. It looked horrible, like the hand had died.
Luther put his hand on my shoulder. “Let me call the doctor,” he said.
“Too late.”
A bushy-headed white-haired man in a lab coat walked in. He grinned as he looked Luther over. He turned toward me. “Hello, ma’am,” he mouthed politely. “Just taking a look at you two,” he whispered.
He picked up my injured hand and inspected it closely. “Be sure you wear this brace at all times. Okay?” he asked.
“Got it,” I replied. The doctor leaned in close to Luther, looking into his mouth. He was nearly touching Luther’s face as he pushed his glasses forward. He pulled up one of the bandages around Luther’s head. “Well, looks like you’re healing up pretty well,” he said.
Luther grimaced and jerked away.
“Sorry,” the doctor said as Luther shut his eyes again for a moment.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re just doing your job,” Luther replied.
The doctor pulled his hands out of his pockets, showing us his palms. “You both are on course to make a full recovery. But I need to share a few things with the two of you, then you can both return to your quarters,” he said.
The Legacy of the Lioness Page 19
