Earthborn Alliance

by Matthew DeVore

  Aleena tapped the monitor on her right. “She’s taking a position behind us.”

  The ships skimmed the ground, nearly blowing off roof shingles as they passed the houses below.

  “There.” Ethan pointed to a low, sprawling building coming up fast on the left. All around were huge swaths of empty pavement. “Looks like a mall. Put us down there.”

  She altered course just a smidge, then brought the ship to an abrupt stop while swinging the nose around to face opposite of the building.

  The phoenix shot past and pulled up hard, rocketing back into the battle raging in the skies above.

  “Thanks for the help,” Aleena said over the mic.

  “Stay alive,” the girl responded.

  Aleena set the transport down and powered off the ship. “We’re sitting ducks in here. Everyone out now,” she demanded. “Get inside the building.”

  She opened the ship’s doors and they climbed out. Just as her feet hit the ground, an Urlowen fighter bored down on them, firing its cannons at the ship.

  “Down!” Allison screamed.

  Everyone dropped to the pavement except Aleena; she threw her hands up, raising a half-dome shield over the group. The fighter’s weapon fire shredded the Elven ship, which exploded in a brilliant flash, throwing debris in every direction.

  Metal slammed into the shield with loud thunks and bounced off. The fighter rose gently and banked, beginning to circle back around for another pass.

  “Inside, now,” Aleena ordered. She dropped the shield, and everyone ran.

  She was the first to reach the entrance. “Go, go, go,” she yelled back, pulling open the door and holding it for the others as they filed in.

  The fighter finished its turn just as Rayland, the last of them, got inside. Aleena raised a shield in front of them as the ship let loose a volley of cannon fire at the doors.

  The bolts melted through the building’s exterior with ease, slamming into her shield. A moment later, they heard the whine of the engine scream past and then dissolve in the distance.

  “We’ve got to get farther inside,” Rayland told everyone.

  Alena dropped the shield and they ran deep into the mall, stopping at a coffee shop. The whole place was abandoned.

  “So much for the exosuit you brought,” Rayland said after they’d caught their breath.

  Ethan dropped his hand to his thigh, using magic to open the pocket containing the QueSet like Aleena taught him before they left.

  “What are you doing?” she asked him.

  “Figuring out our priorities,” Ethan responded.

  She watched him activate the black phone. A few moments later, the sound kicked on, though it was hard to hear Leon’s voice over all the background weapon fire. “Ethan?”

  “We’re here,” Ethan responded. “What’s your status?”

  “They’re pushing us back toward the barrier. We’ve had huge losses. There are thousands of them.”

  “What’s your position? We’ll come to you.”

  “No,” Leon said. “The generals are trapped behind that shield they put around the city. You’ve got to get to them. If they’re captured, it’s all over.”

  “But if they pin you against that shield, you’ll have nowhere to go,” Allison chimed in.

  “Allison? Is that you?” Leon asked.

  “Yes, it’s me, Leon. You’ll be trapped. Let us help you.”

  “We’re already trapped. They’ve got us surrounded and are inching us back, little by little. Get to the generals and see if they have anything else up their sleeves.”

  “And if they don’t?” Ethan asked.

  “Then it’s already over. Can’t talk anymore. Gotta move. Remember, save the generals.”

  “Where are they? The city’s too big to search.”

  “They’ve set up a command post inside Cloit Bakery. It’s on 53rd and Clairmont.”

  The connection broke off.

  “I don’t know,” Allison said. “It sounds like he needs help. We can’t just leave him out there alone.”

  Norman stepped forward. “How about we split up? Aleena, Robert, Rayland, and Ethan can find a way through the shield and find the generals. Allison, Conner, Meghan, and I will rendezvous with Leon.”

  “But you don’t know where he is.” Ethan replied, then turned to Allison. “And I don’t want you on the front lines.”

  “Me either,” Aleena agreed. “Allison should go with us.”

  “No, Leon doesn’t know any of them. It’s best if I go too,” Allison said. “Give me the QueSet. We’ll use it to find him.”

  “How will we find each other when this is over?” Ethan asked.

  “The generals will have communication equipment,” Allison answered.

  “I’ll come back for you,” Ethan told Allison.

  “I know.” She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Be safe.”

  “You too.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Aleena said. “We’ll contact you once we’re with the generals.” She turned to her crew. “Ethan, Rayland, Robert, you’re with me.”

  Rayland patted his Elven rifle, and Robert put a hand on his son’s shoulder.

  Everyone made their way to the front of the mall. The glass door was nonexistent after the Urlowen fighter pass, but jagged shards rimmed the metal frame. Aleena stepped through the doorway, followed by Ethan, Robert, and Rayland. She scanned the sky and the surrounding storefronts, looking for signs of troops. “I think we’re clear,” she whispered behind her, “but stay close just in case.”

  They worked their way between buildings, staying off the streets whenever possible. This side of the city was relatively uninhabited; they were able to avoid two troop patrols by slipping around them a block or two away.

  At one point, they hid in an abandoned apartment to let a squad pass. Since their goal was to reach and get through the shield, Aleena and Robert agreed it was best to avoid engagement when possible. Neither wanted to give away their position or have the Urlowen troops calling for support.

  When they reached the shield, they found a house had been sliced in two right down the center.

  “There, that’s perfect,” Robert whispered. “We can attempt to breach it out of sight.”

  Breaking a window, they all climbed inside.

  “These people left in a hurry,” Ethan said, stirring a bowl of cereal that was left out on the dining room table. The kitchen was cut in half by the translucent barrier.

  “Great, we made it. Now what?” Rayland asked. “Any bright ideas?”

  Aleena glanced at Rayland and then Ethan. “I’ve only got one, but it’s dangerous, rash, and no one’s ever done it before.” She couldn’t believe she was going to suggest it, but it was now or never. They hadn’t come this far just to give up.

  “Sounds like our kind of plan.” Ethan smiled.

  “Who’s first?”

  “First for what?” Robert said.

  The corner of her mouth curved upward. “You don’t want to know.”

  “I’ll do it,” Ethan volunteered. “I trust you. Besides, I think I know what you have in mind.”

  Closing her eyes, she reached past the spark into the sea buried within it. She opened her eyes and looked at Ethan.

  “Holy crap, Aleena. Your eyes are glowing green,” Rayland sputtered.

  “You can do this,” Ethan whispered.

  She pictured him on the other side of the barrier next to the silver refrigerator. She reached out and felt the buzz of the energy field, then plunged through it to feel the air on the other side.

  She felt her heels lift slightly from the floor but pushed the distraction out of her mind.

  “Now all of you is glowing,” Rayland said, taking several steps back. “And you’re starting to float.”

  Suddenly Ethan was standing on the other side of the barrier.

  “He was… but now he’s….” Rayland’s eyes widened. “Wait, I feel tingly.”

  In the next
instant, he was with Ethan on the other side. A moment later, Robert joined them.

  With everyone else through, she turned her focus on herself, imagining the stale air of the house filling her lungs and the heat of Ethan’s breath on her neck.

  “Whoa,” Ethan said, jumping backward.

  She’d appeared so close to him that they were nearly kissing. When she glanced down, she looked normal—no glowing, her feet firmly on the ground.

  “How?” Robert asked, ignoring Ethan and grabbing Aleena’s arm.

  She looked down at Robert’s hand and he immediately let go of her. “I don’t know.”

  They crept through the other side of the house and out the front door. The streets were empty on this side of the barrier as well. She figured everyone was taking shelter in their homes, offices, anywhere they were when the battle began.

  “One problem solved. Now we just have to get to Cloit Bakery, 53rd and Clairmont,” Ethan said.

  “Let’s figure out where we’re at,” Robert suggested.

  Aleena led them straight to the next intersection, about a quarter mile ahead. There were two street signs, one pointing toward the heart of the city that read Fitzgerald and one directly perpendicular to them that said 64th Street.

  “We’re close,” Robert said.

  She motioned forward. “Lead the way.”

  He stepped out into the intersection and nearly got hit with a plasma bolt in the chest.

  Aleena ran into the open, deflecting the bolts with small transparent shields she conjured in front of each one. Ethan crouched at her side, raised his rifle, and fired.

  “We’ve got to get past them,” Rayland shouted from the corner of the building.

  There was a flash of black that crossed the window in the bank to their left. “Did you see that?” she asked Ethan.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “To the left, eight o’clock.”

  “I was looking right,” Ethan told her, sending another volley at the window where the first shots originated.

  “They’re Council Guard,” Aleena said. “I’ll distract them. You take Rayland and Robert and keep moving.”

  “No way. I’m not leaving you alone.”

  “Fine, but follow my lead.”

  “You got it.”

  “Make a wall in front of Rayland and Robert. Keep it moving as they cross the street.”

  Ethan stopped firing and turned around. A wall of earth rose up in front of Rayland and his dad. As they moved toward the other side of the street, Ethan continued to raise the wall on the front and lower it on the back.

  “Can you keep it up and still shoot?” Aleena asked.

  “I think so.”

  “This isn’t a time for guessing. Can you do it or not?”

  “I can do it.”

  “Get ready,” she yelled over her shoulder. I’m tired of this. So far, she’d counted five positions. “Everyone pick a target. You’ll know when to fire.”

  Reaching out with her mind, she felt the steel and brick comprising the outer walls of every building on the block in front of them. The ground began to tremble.

  “Is that you?” Ethan asked.

  She was too focused to answer. She pulled hard on the material and the front façades of all the stores ripped off and flew into the street, breaking into thousands of pieces.

  Behind her, the boys started firing.

  One, two, three bodies collapsed. Spinning up a blue-white ball of energy, she sent it slamming into the fourth Guard, who fell to the ground like a rag doll.

  A plasma bolt sizzled through the air. She missed it, but a huge wall of rock soared up from the ground, taking the hit.

  “Thanks,” she told Ethan.

  “Any time.”

  The last Guard was on the second floor of an apartment complex, just above a bar.

  “I’ll pull him out,” Ethan said.

  A moment later, a gust of wind hurled the man out of the building into a free fall.

  Aleena sent a blast of magic toward the falling Guard, which hit him square in the chest at the exact moment Rayland’s and Robert’s plasma bolts connected.

  Everything was still. They waited, watching and listening for any other Guard.

  Aleena stepped out from behind the wall Ethan made and into the open to draw fire.

  Silence.

  She turned back toward the others and watched the ground fall back into place as Ethan released his magic.

  “Let’s keep moving.”

  CHAPTER 23

  As they approached 53rd and Clairmont, a squad of Alliance soldiers in urban camouflage crouched behind barricades, their sights set on Aleena and the team.

  “Put your hands up,” Ethan whispered to everyone.

  “Why?” Aleena asked.

  “So they know we’re not here to attack them.”

  “If I was going to attack them, I’d have done it by now. And they’d likely already be dead.”

  “I know, but they don’t.”

  “Fine.” She raised her hands above her head like the others.

  Ethan stepped out in front of everyone. “We’re friends.”

  “And why should we believe you?” a voice called back from behind the cement barricade. “Just stop right there. Our snipers have you in their sights.”

  Rayland and Norman stood next to Aleena, hands raised and motionless.

  She leaned forward and whispered into Ethan’s ear. “Come on. We don’t have time for this. Let me handle it.”

  “No,” he said sharply, then took a step forward. “Look, we’re here to help. We need to speak to the generals.”

  “Ah, ah, ah. Not another step or you’ll have a large hole in your head,” the man warned. “Besides, there aren’t any generals here.”

  “There definitely there,” Robert whispered. “He’s nervous. He doesn’t know how you knew that.”

  Aleena looked at Robert out of the corner of her eye. “You can sense emotions?”

  “Yes,” he whispered through his teeth, “among other things.”

  “Look, just go get General Baker. He knows who we are,” Ethan shouted.

  “He won’t remember us,” Aleena whispered.

  “Us, no, but you. You, he’ll remember,” Ethan replied.

  “I told you,” the soldier yelled back. “There are no generals here.”

  Aleena stepped forward.

  “I said no moving.”

  “Oh shut up,” she called out. “Take us to the generals or I will go there myself.”

  “I’d like to see you tr—” There were sounds of shuffling, and then the soldier stood up from behind the cement retainer.

  “Follow me,” the soldier said with extreme irritation.

  Aleena gave Ethan a smug smile. “Told you we should’ve started with a threat.

  She walked forward, leaving Ethan and the others slightly behind.

  When she got to the barrier, the man glared at her. “That’s better,” she said. “Now lead the way.”

  They passed through several rows of soldiers and into a small bakery on the corner of the intersection. The man led them through the front of the store, past several sets of gazing eyes and questioning looks from soldiers, and into the kitchen where the counters had been cleared of utensils in lieu of computers tracking troop movements.

  Next to the table, General Baker turned toward the newcomers. The strong, slightly overweight man looked them up and down. “I thought I told you to stay out of this.”

  Ethan was about to speak, but Aleena stepped in front of him. She fixed the general with a serious stare. “The Council Guard are hunting you. We took down one team just a few blocks from here. We can keep playing games, or you can let us help. We’ll probably still lose either way.”

  “Great pep talk,” Ethan whispered under his breath.

  She glanced at him and he quickly stared down at his shoes.

  The general looked at the map in front of him. “Everyone outside the shi
eld is pinned against it. There’s fighting within the perimeter on the far side moving this way.” He pointed to the opposite side of city center. “We’ve launched everything we have at that tower up there, but nothing can take it down.”

  “What can we do to help?” Ethan asked.

  A gray-haired general with a crew cut on the other side of the table shrugged. “Nothing. Not unless you brought an army.”

  An explosion overhead shook the building.

  “What in the Sam Hill?” General Baker shouted, gripping the table for support. Ethan ran from the kitchen, disappearing behind the swinging double doors. A moment later he tore back into the room.

  “General, it turns out we did.”

  “You did what?”

  It would’ve been impossible for Aleena to misinterpret that smile. She looked at General Baker. “We brought an army.”

  “See for yourself,” Ethan said, pointing toward the exit.

  Cheers rang up from the men outside. On the map, the red circle indicating the Urlowen siege shield flickered and disappeared.

  The general pushed one of his aides out of the way, moving toward the double doors. “What in the blazes is going on?”

  Aleena and the others followed the man into the street. She looked up to find the shield gone, just as the map had indicated. The siege tower had crashed in the middle of the city, taking down a few skyscrapers with it. Multiple explosions sounded throughout the metropolis.

  Far above the heart of San Fridas, an enormous starship hovered in the sky. Squadrons of sleek fighters poured out of its sweeping launch bays, darting into battle. Urlowen ships were falling from the sky like rain. The Elven fighters turned on a dime, changing speed and direction at head-spinning rates.

  Out of the top of the craft, pods launched into the air. The oblong objects hurtled to the former shield’s perimeter.

  The general grabbed a pair of binoculars, then handed them to Aleena. She watched as an oblong pod opened a few hundred feet above the ground, releasing mechanical warriors that landed with ease.

  She handed the binoculars back to the general just as a radio operator ran to his side.

  “Sir, there’s an incoming transmission in a language I’ve never heard before. It’s coming through our secured channel, sir.”

  “I suggest we take this call,” Aleena said.