The Chronicles of Soone - Rise of Lucin Page 14

  ☼

  TIET watched the display from behind Alec. The rebels still managed to have access to quite a bit of technology, even with the Agonotti dominating the population.

  “It’s confirmed, Tiet. Someone has escaped the mountain with one of our ships. The satellite is tracking them on a course heading toward Sector City.”

  Tiet breathed a sigh of relief as he glanced back at his wife, who was still assisting one of the young mothers that had just given birth.

  “Are they being followed?” asked Wynn.

  “It’s difficult to tell. One of the advantages the Agonotti have is our inability to detect them as they travel in molecular cloud form.”

  “My guess would be that they are,” said Tiet as he stared at the tracking information. “Look at the speed they’re traveling. That’s probably close to the max for a troop transport of that type, without blowing the turbines.”

  “Perhaps they hope to lose the Agonotti somehow inside the city,” said Wynn.

  “We have a large base under the city with some of our best people there,” said Alec. “We can call for them to open up a gate here at the holding station and you can try to intercept them inside the city.”

  A warning alarm sounded at the computer station. “Sir, we’ve picked up something you had better see,” said one of the data techs.

  “What is it?” asked Alec.

  “It’s an army, sir.”

  “What? Who are they?”

  Tiet and Wynn were at his side pouring over the incoming data. They looked at one another with dread as they realized the nature of the warships and the mass of soldiers assembling in the plains outside of Sector City.

  “Those are our warships,” said Wynn hesitantly.

  “You’ve brought an army with you?”

  “Not exactly,” said Tiet. “They’re all under the control of Lucin. He managed to assimilate the population on Castai through parasitic invasion.”

  “You mean we have to fight this invasion army and the Agonotti?”

  Neither Wynn nor Tiet wanted to answer the question, but it was still obvious to everyone. Tiet stepped to him.

  “None of us has any choice,” said Tiet. “We either face them with everything we’ve got now, or we wait to be hunted down one group at a time. We have to trust Elithias, Alec. He has a plan even if we don’t understand it yet.”

  Tiet stared right into Alec’s eyes trying to reassure him. It felt good to walk by the pajet. He didn’t have any idea how they could hope to fight against the Agonotti and the symbyte controlled army that was awaiting them, but Tiet was determined he was going to obey Elithias’ command from Aija the prophet, no matter what.

  “Can you assemble your people at the Sector City base, Alec? Will you fight with us?” asked Tiet.

  Alec hesitated a moment, examining the faces of his people in the chamber. “Tranner.”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Ask Sector command to open a gate here, and send out to all commands to assemble our forces at Sector City.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Alec turned back to Tiet and said, “We’ll give you everything we’ve got, Tiet.”

  “My friend, no one can ask more than that,” said Tiet. “Wynn, I think it’s time to contact Grod and have him rendezvous with us in the city. Mirah—”

  “I’ve got to bring one of the young women with us,” said Mirah.

  “What? But we’re going to war.”

  “Ramah needs immediate care in our ship’s med-lab,” said Mirah, “This place is just not equipped for an emergency.”

  “What’s wrong with her?” asked Tiet.

  “She’s hemorrhaging,” she said. “If I don’t get it under control quickly, she will bleed to death.”

  “Alright, get her ready to move.”

  Mirah smiled and kissed Tiet before heading back to her young patient. Now, all they needed, thought Tiet, was enough rebels to face off against thousands and thousands of their former assimilated comrades and thousands more wraith-like, fallen Mithri. He would have been in despair already, if not for the words of the prophet Aija assuring him of Elithias’ plan and the inevitable defeat of his enemies.

  “You don’t look so good,” said Wynn. “Are you alright?”

  “I guess that’s the thing about walking by faith,” replied Tiet. “It’s never easy.”

  FIFTEEN

  THE ship was shaking pretty badly by now. The turbines were screaming for mercy as the engine core temperature began to overcome the cooling system and climb into the high range.

  “I think they’re gaining on us,” said Emil, from back in the troop compartment.

  “I wonder how many there are?”

  “I can’t be sure, but the cloud doesn’t look nearly as big as the time we were here before. How far are we from the city?”

  “According to the satellite feed, after these mountains, we’ll be crossing through the plains of Jezerit and then we’ll hit the city perimeter,” said Kale.

  “Well, we had better hurry, this thing sounds like its going to fly apart any time,” said Emil as he turned away from the side window.

  He came back up to the cockpit with Kale. The ship began to pass through light cloud cover around the mountains. “Too bad we don’t have really heavy clouds,” said Emil. “Maybe we could lose them.”

  “I don’t know if that would work or not, but like you said, this ship doesn’t have what it takes to keep ahead of them. According to the map we’re coming out of the mountains and into the plains now.”

  The white vapor obscuring all foresight began to part before them as the ship cleared the last peak. “Oh boy, this is not good,” said Emil as they finally got a view of the plains of Jezerit.

  A massive troop deployment was in progress in the distance and large Vorn warships were the most distinct objects—several of them were hovering directly in their flight path toward the city.

  “Those are our ships!” said Kale.

  “And our people—what do we do?”

  Kale searched the control panel and said, “I don’t think this ship has any decent scanning devices on board. When those cruisers lock on target we won’t even know it.”

  “Since they’re symbyte controlled, you know they’ll shoot at us.”

  “Absolutely, but maybe we can make it a little more difficult for them to act on the urge,” said Kale.

  As they approached the army assembling on the ground, Kale broke his flight path and dove straight at the masses of ground troops.

  “What kind of plan is this?!” shouted Emil as he struggled to fasten his flight harness.

  “I figure if they want to take potshots at us, then they can take the risk of shooting their own people.”

  The transport groaned as the gravitational forces played against the hull. They fell to an altitude of thirty feet as Kale leveled out the ship, swooping over the heads of the symbyte controlled soldiers below.

  Streams of automatic pulse fire poured upward from the soldiers as they tried to take down the aggressive ship. Many soldiers ducked for cover as the transport steadily descended upon them. The hull was taking a pounding even without fire from the big ships.

  “Lower the landing skids,” said Kale.

  Emil smiled back at his friend. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about!”

  He pressed the panel button and the control motors could be heard lowering the skids. Almost instantly the ship began to quiver and shake as the extended skids pounded mercilessly through the ground troops that weren’t thoughtful enough to throw themselves to the ground.

  By the time they had flown three quarters of the way through the soldiers, almost all of the remaining troops ahead had flattened themselves across the ground to avoid being hit. Kale and Emil’s ship left a bloody trail in its wake and the landing gear became torn and twisted from multiple impacts.

  “I think we’re going to make it!” said Kale as they shot away from the ground deployment and headed into the ou
tskirts of Sector city.

  Huge pulse laser blasts began to race past them, smashing into the surrounding buildings and shattering them like glass.

  “The big cruisers are firing on us!” shouted Emil over the explosions.

  Kale was flying erratically and fast as he fought to make their ship a wild target.

  “If we can just get further into the city—” he said.

  But it wouldn’t happen. A blast from the big guns on the Vorn ships incinerated the corner of a nearby building as Kale managed to get the ship around it. The residual energy and debris smashed into the tail end of the transport. They were going down fast.

  “Hold on, we’re gonna hit hard!”

  ☼

  LUCIN waded through a trail of crimson with a pair of binocs against his eyes as the cannons, from his battle cruisers overhead, pummeled the outlying buildings of Sector City. They were tracking the rogue transport that had appeared out of nowhere and cut a swathe of destruction through his troop deployment. One of the last blasts connected and the ship plummeted fast, trailing its shattered aft section and a plume of flame and smoke. It fell out of view, but the impact could be heard several seconds later.

  “I want them!” he shouted.

  Around him were the writhing bodies of many of his symbyte controlled soldiers—mortally wounded and gasping their last, completely unable to obey the dominant voice crying out inside their minds.

  “Commander!” shouted Lucin into his headset.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “I want a team of pods sent to investigate the wreckage immediately. I want prisoners or bodies—understood?”

  “Absolutely, sir.”

  A shadow began to cross the plains, veiling the Lucin in its darkness. Lucin looked up at it and a villainous smile crossed his face as he recognized its true nature. Walking back through his troops, in the direction of the cloud, Lucin used his mental dominance to command the humans out of his way.

  They parted before him leaving a large area around their Mithrial leader. Then he called out mentally to the boiling mass of spirits hovering overhead. Come to me my brothers. The response was almost instantaneous.

  The cloud began to dissipate rapidly as spires shot down to the ground around Lucin, forming powerful Agonotti warriors ready for battle. “How dare you to address us as brothers, human?”

  Lucin stared confidently at the one speaking to him as nearly fifty of the warriors encircled him. He had mentally instructed his own human soldiers to make no aggressive moves against them. Power emanated from Lucin’s being as he felt his own spiritual power accentuated by the presence of his Mithrial brethren. Then the Agonotti warrior shifted from a commanding stance to one of apprehension.

  “Who are you?!” the warrior asked.

  “I am Lucin, my brothers.”

  “Lucin? That isn’t possible.”

  “Are you sure of that?”

  Lucin sent out his thoughts to his thousands of soldiers on the ground, while allowing the Agonotti to perceive the mental commands. Hundreds of pulse rifle gun bolts quickly locked into firing position in a consecutive wave around them. A group of pods headed away from a fighter bay on one of the large battle cruisers hovering overhead.

  The Agonotti warriors turned to find seemingly every gun possible aimed right at them—thousands of humans moved by this man’s will alone. “Can it be true? How can you be our former master?” asked another of the Agonotti.

  “There is much to discuss my brothers, but surely this is not all of you. Bring the others to me at this place and we will discuss our mutual rise to power.”

  “But you don’t—”

  Lucin cut them off as he turned and walked away, leaving them puzzled and unsure of their next action.

  “Bring the others to me!” he shouted back as he proceeded through the ranks of his soldiers.

  The guns were still trained on them. It was an unexpected turn of events for the Agonotti scout team, but Vock would know what to do. One by one they dematerialized, reforming the mist they traveled in, and began to move away—back toward the place where their leader was waiting to hear news of the transport chase.

  ☼

  KALE awoke upside down, still strapped into his flight chair. He looked over to find Emil stirring to consciousness also.

  “Do we have to end up like this every time I visit this city with you?” asked Emil sarcastically as he unbuckled his harness and rolled out to a standing position.

  “I’ll let you drive next time.”

  Kale got out of his harness and climbed through the smashed windshield opening, stepping into the street beyond. Emil was close behind him, wiping glass and debris off of his clothes.

  A low hum could be heard rising in intensity as its source approached. They recognized it immediately.

  “Pods!”

  Just as they began to run away from the transport wreckage, the pods appeared from multiple directions; thirty in all. “They’ve spotted us!” shouted Emil.

  “Keep moving to cover!”

  The young men moved through the wreckage strewn through the streets like water, fluid and quick, navigating around every obstacle without delay. The pods began to lay down heavy gunfire, but it wasn’t very accurate. The pod guns could only fire in the direction of its flight path, and the boys were moving erratically on purpose.

  “Head for cover!” shouted Emil as he outpaced his friend toward a nearby shell of a building.

  Kale followed him inside ducking and weaving around debris that hung from the ceiling and that which was piled high on the floor. They regrouped while the pods remained outside. Gunfire erupted through the dusty, burnt walls they had just found a way through. The boys hit the floor together as the pulse laser fire scattered all through the room they were in, sending more debris showering down upon them.

  After a moment, the gunfire stopped. They could hear the pods powering down their engines outside.

  “They’re coming in,” said Kale as he shook off the dust in his hair.

  They looked around. There wasn’t much in the way of cover. Then they spotted a staircase behind them—it was completely dark beyond.

  “A basement?” asked Emil.

  “I don’t know, but it’s got to be better than here.”

  Kale and Emil got to their feet and quickly ran toward the stairs. Outside, they could hear footsteps; no doubt the symbyte soldiers from back on Castai as they shuffled through the debris looking for a safe way to go in after the two youths. Kale wondered for a moment if he might know any of them. It was so horrible—all of their friends and associates taken over by the vilest enemy he could imagine.

  The boys stopped at the head of the stairs when the odor hit their nostrils.

  “What is that?” whispered Kale with a sour look on his face.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe people died down there.”

  “That’s not it,” said Kale, “The city reeks of death. I can handle that, but this is—”

  “Do you want to stay up here or what? Breathe through your mouth like me.”

  Emil led the way down with his extinguished blade in hand—just in case. Kale followed reluctantly, trying out his friend’s advice on breathing. He could see the lights mounted on the soldier’s rifles sweeping into the room as they began to cautiously come inside.

  Kale and Emil descended completely into the darkness. They could here the creaking of the floor above them as the soldiers proceeded into the large room upstairs looking for them. The boys moved cautiously in the pitch black all around them. The foul funk was worse down where they were and it was surprisingly warmer. Kale could feel sweat beginning to roll down his face due to the humidity.

  The boys were doing their best to sense all around themselves; mentally maneuvering through the darkness. Something wasn’t right in the vast room around them. Kale could sense life all around, but it was so indistinct. He couldn’t locate any one being. It was like the whole room was alive around them.

  The
stomping sounds were growing in intensity as more and more of the pod soldiers moved around above them. They would be coming after them down the stairs any moment. There appeared to be no exit and no way to find something to hide behind.

  “Looks like we’re going to have to fight them,” whispered Emil from somewhere in the darkness, beside Kale.

  “At least we’ve got better odds down here. We can sense them, but they’ll have a hard time seeing us. Just don’t ignite your blade.”

  “Something’s not right down here,” said Emil.

  “I feel it too. But I can’t figure it out. It’s like the whole area is alive or something.”

  The soldiers were coming down the stairs behind them about a hundred feet away. Their lights were sweeping across the steps as they descended.

  Suddenly a hand clutched onto Kale’s arm—it was Emil.

  “Kale,” he whispered almost in a panic.

  “I know—they’re coming.”

  “No. I just remembered where I’ve smelt this odor before.”

  “What?”

  Their pursuers were headed right for them now. The sweeping lights began to fill the room and as those lights played across the ceiling above them, Kale and Emil could finally see what their senses had been telling them all along.

  “Aerogores!!” shouted Emil.

  Mass hissing erupted all over the room as the great lizards sprang to life at the intrusion of the soldier’s lights. Guns began to spit fire all around the room as the pod pilots panicked at the sight of the aerogores, cast as horrible apparitions in the chaotic movement of their rifle lights.

  Kale ignited his blade as the whole room came alive with the beasts. The indeterminate life they were sensing before was now leaping at them from every aspect of the room. Emil’s blade flashed as he seared reptilian flesh, striking down one of the beasts. Kale sliced quickly as he sensed a predator lunging for him from the dark. He divided one of its arms in a quick duck and roll maneuver as the lizard swept by.