Broken Stars (Universe on Fire Book 1), page 16
Then, before they could break through, another alien stepped forward, taking the shots on his own shield as he crouched and placed his arm on the ground. The armor on his back suddenly changed and flowed from his back to form a wall in front of them, creating cover. Then indents formed in the wall and the aliens opened fire again forcing Kane and his squad back into cover.
He checked his suit’s power levels and saw that he had already nearly depleted the cell dedicated for magic. “Don’t let their weapons hit your shields if you can avoid it. They are powerful and will drain your cells fast!” Kane said as he tried to think of a way out.
An idea blossomed in his mind, and he ordered Hansen and Okoye to try and give him covering fire. He cycled the spell on his second launcher and then stepped back from the statue’s base while still keeping himself out of the aliens’ sight. He pointed his forearm into the air in the middle of the room, above the aliens’ position and then cast the spell. He blinked across the space and exited above the aliens. Immediately he started falling and quickly he aimed his rifle and fired from above.
His first bullet punched through the already hit alien, punching through the armor from above, making a hole in the alien’s back. His next shots focused on the two aliens that were firing through their cover. One of the aliens had no armor on its back and his bullet tore through its orange fur, making the alien crumble to the ground in a shower of blue blood and torn pieces of flesh and bone. The other alien, surprised, turned toward Kane just as he hit the ground. But before he had a chance to even turn his weapons on Kane, bullets from Okoye and Hansen punched through the alien’s cover and hit his armor pushing the alien forward toward Kane.
Kane raised his rifle and fired. In moments their combined weapons fire tore the alien’s armor to pieces and punched holes through its body. The alien fell down with blue blood leaking through the holes in its armor.
Kane moved forward to determine if the aliens were dead. “Check on Kovac.” Kane ordered as he saw that his suit still had a life-sign.
Okoye ran past him. She took only a few steps before he heard her yell out over the comms. “Captain!”
Kane turned, his weapon at the ready, just as a large sphere dropped to the ground in front of him. Suddenly it opened and Kane crumpled to the ground, his mind going dark.
***
Aiko’s fingers tapped against her chair’s armrest, displaying her irritation for all the bridge to see. It had been several hours since Kane and his squad had gone down to the planet, and while they had expected not to be able to communicate, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. In truth, this entire mission had felt wrong.
“Captain?” one of the crew on the sensors called, and she turned her head toward him.
“You have something to report, Ensign?” Aiko asked.
“I’m not sure, Captain, our sensors have picked up some readings out in the system,” Ensign Carter answered.
“What kind of readings?”
“It looks like there is something moving out there.”
“Do you know what it could be?”
“No, Captain, it could be just some stellar debris, an asteroid, a comet, anything really.”
“A ship?” Aiko asked.
“If they are coasting cold, yes.”
“Where?” Aiko asked as she leaned forward in her chair.
“Still some distance away, the course will bring the anomaly within two hundred thousand kilometers of the planet. Not exactly an intercept course…” Ensign Carter said as he shrugged.
“Still close enough,” Aiko said as she scratched her chin. “Keep an eye on it, let me know if there are any changes.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kane woke slowly, his mind feeling groggy. For a moment he couldn’t get his bearings, but then he remembered. He opened his eyes and froze. In front of him stood two aliens, the same as the ones that had attacked them inside the structure. One of them had its helmet off and Kane saw that its lizard-like head was covered in gray fur with a scar running down one side of its snout. It wore a different kind of armor with markings that he couldn’t read just as he couldn’t any of the writing inside the structure.
He cast his eyes around and saw that they were outside the structure. Their mech-frames stood motionless where they had left them, with a few aliens looking at them and pointing strange devices at them. One other alien had a crate that held their weapons and was carrying it toward a dark green transport ship that looked like a dart, which had landed about a hundred meters away. To the other side he saw Okoye and Hansen, kneeling a bit away from him with two aliens keeping their eyes on them. He could see that their eyes followed the aliens that were all around them, but he also saw that both were injured, with gashes in their suits. Okoye’s leg was bleeding through it, and Hansen kept one of her arms pressed against her side. Kane swallowed his anger at the sight. A bit to the other side was Kovac, his suit’s systems now showing a flat line, and two aliens were examining him. Kane felt his magic churn, but he kept himself still.
The alien that seemed to be in charge leaned down to look at Kane and forced him to shift his attention to the alien’s red eyes.
The alien spoke but it all came out as noise, the same as with the aliens inside the structure.
“I don’t understand you,” Kane bit out.
The alien tilted his head, then raised his hand and a holographic display appeared above his forearm. He started doing something and then looked back at Kane.
“There, do you understand me now?”
Kane felt something in his head, as if a mist had cleared. He looked at the alien and suddenly realized that he could see the markings on his armor. That he could even read them. The alien’s armor had a crest that looked like a crescent blood moon, and just above it were the words: “Ever in service of truth.”
“Yes, I can understand you now. What did you do to me?”
The alien tilted his head again. “Do you not know what it is that you have inside your head?” The alien’s nostrils trembled as it studied him. “You are a puzzle. We have not been aware of your kind before. And your technology is strange to us, you have shown us things that we had never before encountered, and we cannot tell how you did it. Yet in your head you carry a Zhal’Qash bioimplant. You are not of the remnants, so how is it that you possess that technology?”
Kane narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“No matter, I see that you are a foolish people. You put a technology you don’t understand inside your head. You are like the remnants, toying with things beyond them.”
“What did you do to me? Why can I now understand you and see the writing on your armor?”
“The old Zhal’Qash hated us enough that they made it so that none of their people could read or understand our holy language. None could read it, nor could they even understand our words. A punishment in their minds. But we knew the true reason they had done so. In their hubris they tried to prevent us from spreading the true words, thinking that by denying us a voice they could silence the creator’s words. It is a shame that we have never been given the commands for the implant’s higher functions, it would’ve made things far easier. Removing the block is the most we can do.”
Kane felt his heart pound inside his chest as he put things together. “You are the Apostates.”
“We have been called that, yes. I am Antaris Truthspeaker, Battle Commander of the Third Verse in service to the Val’ayash. It was fortunate that we received this temple’s beacon, it had been thought lost in the war… Fate it seems announces the time of the return.” His eyes raised to the sky. “It has been so long.” He turned his head down to look at Kane again. “And it will be my privilege to guide you to the true life, child of Order and Chaos.”
Kane felt the words almost die on his lips before he could say them. “Wait!” he said. “We are not with the Qash’vo’tar or the Zhal. We are at war with them, trying to find a way to survive. We have no quarrel with you and your people!”
“Your wars matter not to the truth. Your lives are just brief moments, candles casting but a walking shadow. Your conflicts, your desires, mean nothing. You are all full of lies and delusions. To be given the gift…” Antaris said as its eyes took on a wistful look. “The gift, is what we were charged with. To usher all of you into the embrace. Pray you for your people, for without us your souls wander aimlessly upon death. Rejoice, for it was fate that has brought your kind to our sights, it means the Creator favors you above others. For only through our hands may a soul reach the true life.”
Kane’s eyes widened as he listened to the alien’s words. He had read the reports about the Val’ayash, what the Qash’vo’tar knew. And he had dismissed their fears, he had thought them nothing but a story blown out of proportion to justify Qash’vo’tar actions. But now, hearing the conviction in Antaris’s words, he could feel only a chill that settled deep into his bones.
“But before we send you onward, would you share just how your technology works?” Antaris asked, his voice conveying that he did not believe Kane could even refuse. He leaned down and pointed at Kane’s forearms. “These things do not seem to have any technology that we can detect. Your machines as well, they seem to be lacking a movement mechanism. Tell us how you’ve accomplished this, and I promise a painless passage for you… and your companions.”
Kane tried to focus his mind, but whatever had knocked him out was still affecting him. That meant that he couldn’t do much. Focus now, Kane, he told himself, you need to focus! Remember, it is the intent. Intent needs to be clear, that is the key. He kept repeating it inside his mind.
“Well?” Antaris tilted his head as he waited patiently.
“Sorry, but I can’t do that,” he said as he used his suit’s HUD to reroute power from his last power cell to his magic launchers.
Antaris’s head dropped. “That is disappointing. No matter, we have means of extracting such information, in the end we will know all that you know.”
“But I need to say something,” Kane said as he kept the image and the words inside his mind.
“It matters not, unless you have changed—”
“Leviathan, destroy them!” Kane’s voice thundered, tinged with magic as he issued a command to his awakened battle-golem. The Val’ayash surrounding the mech-frames had no chance to react as the Leviathan moved, his foot coming down on top of one of them with a satisfying crunch. Leviathan’s hands moved, swiping and throwing others around it.
Antaris moved his eyes from Kane at the commotion, and Kane jumped on the opportunity. He pointed his hand in the direction of Okoye and Hansen and triggered the teleportation spell. He blinked across the space between them, crashing to the ground with the rocks that had been beneath him as he was lying on the ground. The Val’ayash guarding the two of them had taken their eyes of them when Leviathan started moving. And Kane pointed his hands at them as he cycled the spells through. He cast two magic-bolts from his left hand, each connecting and exploding, sending the two aliens flying away.
“Blink to that ledge, now!” Kane ordered to the two of them while pointing.
Both followed his orders immediately, disappearing and reappearing on a ledge overlooking the small clearing they were in. Kane followed behind them. Once he stood there, he turned to them. “Use the command spells for your mech-frames, I’ll keep you safe.”
Both immediately sat down and did as he asked. Kane hadn’t used the command spell because it left one vulnerable, and required them to sit relatively still. He had instead given an order to the Leviathan, one that the golem would follow until told otherwise. But the Leviathan itself couldn’t use any of its weapons, other than its arms and legs. Those systems operated on human technology, not magic.
Kane cycled one of his launchers to a shield and turned to watch the chaos beneath them as the Val’ayash tried to get out of the way of the hulking monster that was crushing them beneath its feet. Then the two other mech-frames moved, raising their hands and pointing their forearm-mounted laser cannons at the Val’ayash. A moment later laser fire started scorching the ground. Kane, Hansen and Okoye hadn’t yet been noticed, but he kept watch as the Val’ayash retreated and entered their ship. Not all of them made it, but Kane thought that he spotted Antaris entering, after which the ship’s bay closed and it started lifting off the ground.
Okoye and Hansen fired on it, firing missiles as well as their lasers. Their attacks had almost no effect as they struck a shield, much like the one that the Val’ayash troops had. He noticed the ripples in the shield turn yellow for a moment, but by then the ship had moved too far up. And soon enough it accelerated away over the mountain and out of sight.
“Get in your mech-frames now!” Kane ordered as he blinked back down and commanded Leviathan to come to him. One look told him that the Val’ayash had taken Kovac’s body with them and he cursed them silently. Not letting his emotions get to him, he walked over to Kovac’s mech-frame. Without its pilot it was useless, the golems were keyed to their pilots for a reason, and without the body they couldn’t key it to someone else. He climbed the mech-frame and entered the cockpit, engaging its systems and triggering the self-destruct protocol. Their orders were to not allow any of their magitech to fall into enemy hands, and already the Val’ayash had too much Earth technology and magitech. Kane was certain that it would be useless to them unless they had magic, which likely wouldn’t be a concern for a long time.
He walked over to Leviathan and entered. “Blink to space, we need to get back to the Prometheus.” That ship itself might be a threat, but it looked more like a small landing vessel to Kane, and he worried that a bigger ship might be somewhere inside the system.
***
“I’m detecting atmospheric disturbance at the location of our target, Captain,” Ensign Carter reported from his station.
“What kind of a disturbance?” Aiko asked.
“We can’t tell precisely, but it is moving away from the location toward one of the planet’s poles. And it is going very fast, Captain, fast enough that it can only be a ship.”
“Any sign of Captain Kane and his squad?”
“Not yet, Captain.”
Aiko debated ordering Prometheus a bit closer when her communications officer spoke up.
“We have a comm request for you, Captain, from the landing team.”
“Patch it through on my terminal,” Aiko said.
“We see them now, Captain,” the officer on the sensors reported. “Three mech-frames have just blinked into orbit.”
Aiko was tempted to ask for an elaboration, but she instead put her headset on and answered the comm.
“Captain, we are coming in fast, I suggest getting the Prometheus away from the planet.” Kane’s voice came in quickly, and Aiko could immediately tell that something was wrong.
“What happened down there, we are detecting only three mech-frames?”
“Lieutenant Kovac is dead. We found an alien structure, we were exploring the inside when we were attacked by aliens. Aiko… the aliens were Val’ayash.”
“What?” Aiko asked, stunned.
“You need to get the ship ready, I don’t know where they came from, but they arrived after us with a small transport ship. I think that there is a Val’ayash ship in the system and if I am right they will not let us go, they are insane, Aiko… They got some of our tech, I couldn’t prevent it, and they were very interested in how our magitech works. If they have a ship in system…”
“I understand, just get on board,” Aiko said, and closed the comm and immediately turned to Commander King. “Red alert, get us away from the planet immediately, and get the fighter squadrons ready for launch.”
“Aye, Captain,” Commander King said and relayed her orders over the comms.
“Captain! That signature we detected earlier started changing course, I am detecting thrust. It’s a ship!” Ensign Carter reported.
Aiko immediately switched her attention to her screens. She wondered if that was the Val’ayash ship. She knew little about them aside from the fact that they were most certainly more advanced than the Qash’vo’tar.
“How long before we are in range?” Aiko asked.
“Half an hour if they keep their current speed, Captain.”
“Damn it, how long before our squadrons are out?” Aiko turned to Commander King.
“Ten minutes for both of them, we can have them out sooner if we just launch as they are ready.”
“No, we have time,” Aiko said.
“Captain!” Ensign Carter yelled out again, “I’m detecting two more ships on an intercept course.”
Aiko’s board updated and she saw the new ships, one coming in from above toward the Prometheus and the other from below. “Do we have any scans of them? We need information now!”
“We should be getting the return of the scans, just about… now,” Ensign Carter said. “This… the two new ships are in the 300k tonnes range, and first one is in our database, Captain! It’s the Hadsone from Jar Allera.”
For a moment Aiko felt relief that the ships were not Val’ayash. But then she realized what their presence here meant.
“We have an incoming message, Captain, from the Hadsone.”
“Put it on the screen,” Aiko said.
The face of Captain Anterix appeared, she was sitting on her own bridge staring straight ahead. “This is Captain Anterix of the Hadsone, greetings to you and your crew. I see that your people have returned from the planet, hopefully with the recovered tech. I must thank you for that, recovery of the old tech is a very dangerous job, the old tech is filled with dangers and traps. But now that we are here there is no need for you to bother with it. It would be incredibly kind of you if you would hand the tech over to us… along with your ship of course. I would rather not have to damage it, but either way you will not be leaving this system in it.” The alien smiled, showing her teeth, and then ended the message.
