The Evolution of Vaughn, page 12
Vaughn looked at the Cardinal. “That would have been good information to know back in the war.”
“It was not pertinent knowledge at the time. It is now,” he said as if that explained everything.
The lift stopped and the doors opened to reveal a massive room. From the curve of the glass walls, Vaughn knew they were in the “head” section of the building. From the view, they were a thousand miters in the air. Across the floor to the left of the elevator was another set of stairs with four armed men at the bottom. The clergymen led Vaughn directly towards them.
All four men knelt when the Cardinal held his hand out, and he glided swiftly up the stairs, followed by Vaughn and Fresia. The two arch-bishops stayed at the bottom.
The pair was led to the very top floor of the building. The entire floor was one large room, topped by a glass dome. The entire dome was a single piece of glass, and the room was large enough that Vaughn could have parked Halle in it. They were high enough to view the curvature of the planet. All around them, the massive city lay at their feet.
A robed Human, who looked to be in his late fifties rose from his seat behind a desk, and then was beside Vaughn. He didn’t walk. He just disappeared from his spot at the desk, and then the Priest was standing beside him. Vaughn took a step back.
“No need to be afraid Vaughn,” he said. “I am Supreme High Chancellor Nathan Rotelle, and I have waited over a million years for this time.” He held out his hand, and Vaughn shook it. The Cardinal fell to his knees and began to pray, tears streaming from his face.
Chapter 18 Glory on Bruth
Date: 413rd Year of Emperor Valek Foger XXVI
The sound of plasma cannons echoed through the streets as Vaughn spoke through his battle helmet to the Bruthi people in the building. “The landing pad is three blocks away. You’re going to see people you know, but the chances are, they’re E’Clei now. That’s how they win; they use our friends and family against us.”
“How do we know if they’re infected or not?”
Vaughn frowned inside his helmet. “Unfortunately, the best I can offer is whether or not they attack you. My visor shows me if there is a mass of parasites at the brain-stem, but even that isn’t one hundred percent. Some of them can hide their infection.”
Another stepped forward, “So, we have no idea who to point these things at?” Vaughn was well used to the operation of the helmet, but the built in translator was odd. When people spoke in a known language, the helmet intercepted the sounds, translated them, and replayed them in that person’s voice. Visually, however, the words they were saying didn’t line up with the movements of their mouth.
“Use them for defense only. If something attacks you, point and press the button. Stay low. Stay quiet, and stay behind me. I’ll be hard to see, so stay focused.” Vaughn activated his camouflage and opened the door.
The group moved behind him as Vaughn took off at a run, building a lead in front of the group following him. He held his rifle at the ready. His visor displaying a crosshair wherever the rifle was pointing. Suggested targets were highlighted in red, but they weren’t the only threat. When he felt comfortable with the lead he had on his followers, he slowed to a walk, and swung his rifle around, looking for something to shoot.
When his eyes focused on an E’Clei patrol a block away, he flipped a lever on his rifle. His visor zoomed in. Vaughn quickly pressed the trigger four times. Four bright blue bolts shot out of his rifle, zurp, zurp, zurp, zurp. Four dead targets.
Vaughn continued following the road towards the landing pad. He knew it was going to be well guarded, but he was hoping to catch them by surprise. The soldier slowed at the edge of one building, and peeked out. His group of followers slowed behind him.
“It’s just ahead,” he whispered. “I’m going to go check it out. Stay here.” They all crouched along the wall. There were two armed Bruthi at the front, the other two at the back, with a dozen women and children between them. They’d walked no more than a kilometer across the city, but most of them were out of breath. The Bruthi people had evolved from ambush predators. Their stone-age ancestors laid in wait for their quarry before pouncing in a massive burst of speed and energy. They were certainly faster than Vaughn, but they couldn’t keep the pace up for long periods of time.
Lieutenant Troupe crept around the corner, and stopped. He was facing a massive emplacement of E’Clei. Various races and species were represented, every one of them painted with a red halo in his visor. Three huge gun turrets pointed down the road, almost directly at Vaughn. He slowly backed up, back around the corner.
“What’s in this building?” he quietly asked.
“It is a community dwelling.”
Vaughn looked up. The back side of the building would offer a tactical advantage. The turrets were pointed down and would take several seconds for them to rotate upwards towards the building. Once they did, the building would be reduced to rubble, but if he was fast enough, he could pull it off.
“See that building over there?” Vaughn pointed across the street, towards an identical building. “When the shooting starts, I need you all to run there as fast as you can. You can rest once you’re inside; I’ll draw their fire this way. When the shooting stops, if I’m still alive, come out. If I’m dead, hide and stay hidden. Don’t make any noise, and don’t go out into the street. Ration what you can find for as long as possible. It’s going to be less than three more days before my people retake the planet. You only have to survive for three days, got it?”
“Got it. What is your name?” The Bruthi all looked up at Vaughn. They were petrified, cold, exhausted, and starving. Unlike Humans that could go days without eating with relatively few side effects, Bruthi had to eat every few hours. They rationed as they could, but their bodies weren’t suited for these situations.
“Vaughn Troupe, Lieutenant, Imperial War Command. It’s been my pleasure to serve you. May the Emperor guide us through. We will live to see the dawn; you have my life on it.” There were tears on their faces as he spoke.
“Thank you, Vaughn Troupe, Lieutenant. You are a hero to our people.”
“How about we wait until you’re safe to decide that?” Vaughn darted inside the door of the apartment building, and started up the stairs. As he passed, doors opened, and people asked if they were safe. After the third, he sent a small Bruthi boy ahead to let everyone in the building know they needed to get out.
Vaughn climbed to the top floor, where he kicked in a door on the back side of the building and strode across the windows. He could see all three guns, and the Bruthi-E’Clei behind them. He removed three charges from his pack and stuck them to his chest, slowly opened the window and climbed out. Standing on the ledge, he looked up, then leapt straight upward towards the roof, catching it with one hand.
He hung there for several seconds, afraid to move. Once he knew he wasn’t going to fall to his death, he pulled himself up onto the roof. The roof was stone, but the pitch wasn’t horribly steep. He stood and hurled the small disc shaped charges. Each could make minor adjustments to its flight; they were set to home in on the largest power source and once it attached itself, it would explode.
The three discs clanged to the side of the cannons. The moment the cannons blew up, Vaughn opened fire. He was one with his rifle - the suit was designed so that it became a deadly extension of his arm. He killed half a dozen E’Clei, and saw out of the corner of his eye that his Bruthi friends had made it across the street. He fired bolt after bolt.
Twice, E’Clei soldiers threw explosives at him, and twice he shot them out of the air. The third time, he was mid-fire on a small group that came running out of one of the control towers. His display flashed a explosives warning. Vaughn dropped his rifle in its sling and leapt off the edge of the building as it exploded. He fell until he was level with the building across the street, before firing his second grappling hook. It embedded itself in the exterior of the building, and Vaughn clenched his fist, causing the tiny motor in the arm of his suit to reel in the cable, pulling him up out of his dive and swinging him towards the building. Just before he hit the window, he released the cable and crashed through the glass to the floor of a bedroom.
There was no time to stop now. He’d promised the Bruthi time to rest, and being in this building was endangering them. He ran through the building, out the rear door and into an astonishing sight. Bruthi were everywhere. Hundreds of them were fighting the E’Clei. The battlefield was awash with decapitated bodies. He watched as the Bruthi he’d given a gun to threw it at a Geraldinian-E’Clei and then with incredible speed, almost faster than his eye could keep up with, the Bruthi leapt on the enemy, landing with his hands and feet on top of the Geraldinian. In one smooth motion, he rode the corpse to the ground and twisted its head completely off its shoulders.
Before Vaughn could fire a shot, every E’Clei in the area was dead. The Bruthi, every man, woman, and child, let out a low, guttural howl that Vaughn could feel through his armor. It was a terrifying and exhilarating sound. Vaughn joined them, and they all turned to look at him.
He stepped forward onto the landing pad. “The night is ours! You are free! Fly to Kinto Nagar. There is safety there.” He moved to a small, two person E’Clei craft. It was the only weaponized vehicle on the platform, but would present a problem if he wanted to land inside Kinto Nagar. Just before he closed the cockpit door he called, “Savor your freedom! Your lives are worth fighting for. Spread the word, The Imperial War Command will be here in a couple of days. Hold on.”
Vaughn closed the door and lifted off. Every ship that left the ground had to have four controls. Pitch, yaw, roll, and thrust. He hovered for a moment, wiggling the small craft in the air as he figured out the flight controls, before rocketing off. When he was outside the wall, he made two big circles as he located himself on his forearm map, and then took off towards where he’d left Holdan.
When Vaughn landed the craft, Holdan was sitting upright, bad leg propped up on a rock. Vaughn jumped out and rushed to his friend. “You okay, man?”
“You shouldn’t have come back, Vaughn. Forg’s going to crucify you for abandoning your orders,” Holdan said.
“Plenty of time. We still have three and a half hours to fly there, ditch the plane and slide in ahead of schedule.”
“You always have everything worked out,” said Holdan, holding his hand out to Vaughn. “Help me up. Let’s get moving.”
Vaughn pulled his friend up and headed towards the small craft. Once they were both safely in the craft, Vaughn took off, making sure to keep it low, weaving in and out of the massive trees. They passed over a low lying savannah, carpeted in a short, purple, grass-like plant. They flew over dozens of herds of animals, each at least fifty meters tall. The herds were mostly head-down, eating the purple grass. The animals themselves were covered in purple fur with tiny black stripes, which helped them to blend in with the grass. Vaughn piloted the craft directly over their heads. Huge, flat teeth snapped at the vehicle, but he was too fast for them, pulling up and out of the way of the crushing mouths. The animal’s heads were bigger than the craft Vaughn was flying.
“Oh shit, look!” Holdan pointed as they neared the edge of the savannah. Six massive, bear-like creatures erupted out of the tree-line. They ran at incredible speed with their mouths wide open, displaying their long, wickedly pointed teeth. Their long brown fur streamed out behind them, waiving up and down as the animal bounded towards its prey. “Swing around, I want to see this!”
Vaughn slowed the craft to a standstill so they could watch from a safe distance. The predators spread out, surrounding the herd. In one coordinated effort, they all converged on the same animal, sinking their missive teeth into its flesh. The creature let out a horrible roaring shriek as it was brought down. Two of the massive bear creatures grabbed its head and shook violently, breaking the animal’s neck.
“Damn! Look at how much power those things have!” Vaughn circled one more time as the successful predators settled in for their meal, and then flew off towards Kinto Nagar.
The pair was about thirty kilometers out, with two hours to go when alarms started blaring across the ship.
Holdan shouted, “Can you read E’Clei?”
“Not a bit. But they’re red, and red is always bad. I’m taking her down.”
Vaughn slowed and started to set the craft down when the back exploded and the craft spun to the ground. Vaughn felt a momentary excruciating pain in his leg before he and Holdan were thrown from the vehicle, still strapped to their seats. The wreckage tumbled over and over before coming to rest against a large boulder.
Holdan released the belt that held him in his seat and dragged himself over to his friend. “Wake up, buddy. We have to move.” Holdan shook his friend. “That was an E’Clei torpedo. We gotta go man, come on Vaughn.”
Lieutenant Troupe regained consciousness slowly. “What happened?”
“We were hit. You lost your leg. We have to move.”
“My leg? What?” Vaughn looked down. About mid-thigh, his leg was severed cleanly, straight through his armor. His armor registered the breech and sealed it to maintain atmosphere, cauterizing the wound. “I don’t have time for this,” he groaned.
Holdan helped his friend up and they began to stagger away. The pair didn’t make it very far before they needed to stop. Aggravation took over and Vaughn tore a branch out of a tree and used the blades in his armor to cut the twigs and leaves from it. The lieutenant stuffed the branch under the armor and he hobbled along on the crutch for nearly a kilometer before calling for a break. “This crutch shit isn’t going to work. Give me your binders.”
Vaughn took the self-locking strips from Holdan, connected several together and used them to bind a length of the crutch to the side of his thigh. He stood on his new peg-leg and hobbled forward. Now, with the aid of the crutch for balance, he was able to move at an appreciable speed. Every time he moved his leg, pain shot up the bone, through his hip and into his abdomen. It was hard to breathe and walk at the same time.
“Come on, Holdan. We gotta go.” Vaughn and Holdan walked, leaning on each other until they were at the edge of communication range.
“Reetus, this is Commander Vaughn Troupe. Two for pickup. Transmitting coordinates.”
“You were ordered to leave Commander Jackstone.”
“I am aware, Captain. I’ll submit for discipline when we are back aboard.”
“See that you do. Transport dispatched. Twelve minutes to arrival. Reetus out.”
The pair leaned on each other until the shuttle landed a few meters away. Two soldiers jumped out to help them back to the ship. Vaughn was rushed into surgery where his stump was cleaned and closed and he was fitted with a prosthetic leg. He was given three days to recover, before Captain Forg initiated disciplinary hearings.
The trial lasted three days. By the end of the proceeding, Vaughn was awarded a medal of honor for heroic action on the field of battle, and a commendation for singlehandedly destroying an E’Clei outpost in friendly territory.
On his return to Foger almost two years later, The Emperor himself met with Vaughn to commend him on his quick thinking and action exemplifying the War Institute.
Chapter 19 Nathan Rotelle
Date: 432nd Year of Emperor Valek Foger XXVI
“Your Grace, that’s what they call you, right?” Vaughn asked.
“You, Mister Troupe, may call me Nathan. Technically, as a scion of Max, you outrank me.”
“I have no idea what’s going on here. My son was kidnapped. Your men were dead on my planet. Do you have any idea why they were there, and where my son is?” Fresia recognized Vaughn’s tone. It was the tone of a Captain giving orders to his Commander.
The priest motioned towards a massive brown table, made of some wood Vaughn had never seen. “Please, come to my desk. As far as I know, this is the last wood from planet Earth. It’s called Mahogany. Queen Willa the Great gave it to me off of a Colcoa-E’Clei vessel. It was to go to E’Clei to be sold as a curiosity.”
“It is exquisite,” said Fresia, running her hands over the surface. The feeling was unlike anything she or Vaughn had ever felt. An organic material from their home world, over a million years old. “How is it still here? How has it not turned to dust?”
“The Geraldinians applied some genetic enzyme to it when we first settled this planet. It’s kept the cellular structure intact for all of these years. Please, watch this,” Nathan answered, and then waved his hand over the surface of the desk.
Directly over the desk a series of five holographic screens appeared. A map of the known universe spanned all five. “These dots,” Nathan said, poking seven spots on the map, “Are the locations of every scion left.”
“So, there are seven of us?” Vaughn asked, looking at the map.
“There are a few more. Two of these planets have several.”
“I don’t even recognize some of these planets,” Vaughn said.
“We believe we have the most comprehensive star maps of any civilization in the universe.” Nathan was clearly proud of the work they’d done.
“It’s incomprehensible how long it would take to calculate a fold over such distance, or how much power it would take to fold that far,” Fresia said.
Nathan swiped the map away, and it was replaced with a blue-print of the building. “This entire building is designed around a central computer core, which we have upgraded with the latest systems. To get to the farthest planet, we calculated for sixteen days.”
“Wow. I bet the E’Clei will never find them,” Vaughn said. “Are there other people on those worlds?”
“I’m sorry, for the security of the bloodline, I cannot reveal anything more,” said Nathan.
“So, this is a great fairy tale. But how do I know you aren’t responsible for kidnapping Matthew?”
