Nemesis

by Christian Kallias

  She wished she had some stims with her. Stims were highly illegal in the sector. The most efficient ones contained Spectre blood, and the penalty if caught using or selling these ranged from life imprisonment to summary execution. A synthetic version of the drug existed, but the authorities looked at it in the same way and applied similar punishment.

  Spectres were unchallenged masters in this dimension. As such, they didn’t like their blood being used in any way, shape, or form. Spectres liked to believe they were the only pure beings in the universe, so it was no surprise they would react vehemently when their blood was used in such matters. But Spectres’ stims were the only drug that would allow a living, breathing lifeform to stay awake for days on end, if not weeks, and not feel tired while under their influence.

  There was, of course, a risk in using it, especially taking too high a dose. A Spectre’s blood had, at homeopathic doses, some truly wonderful properties in the hands of the right doctors and chemists. But mess up the dosage, and the healing properties turned to poison, and more often than not, followed by death.

  One of the reasons why Spectres reigned unchallenged in this dimension was that when they injured their foe in combat, they’d voluntarily flood the enemy with some of their blood. Because not much was needed to kill almost any species, most learned to accept the Spectres’ absolute power and bowed to them for fear of being annihilated. There was also the fact that they could rip out one’s soul and siphon its essence. Who in their right mind would want their soul to be trapped inside a Spectre for all eternity?

  But Nyx had had more than her fair share of exposure to a Spectre’s blood in the forms of stims, some of them of shady origin. One batch, in particular, had been very potent due to its elevated concentration, which almost killed her. Luckily, she was a good friend with an underground chemist living on Geminon Prime. He had discovered an antidote to a Spectre’s blood overdose. Not many people knew about it, and if it weren’t for Jared saving her life, she would never have learned about its existence. Jared knew very well that if his life-saving interventions were rendered public, the Spectres would hunt him down and destroy him, his research, and whatever stockpile he had.

  Her train of thought was interrupted when she looked at her rearview holo-cams and noticed a set of distant headlights in the night sky. Was she being followed? She needed to make sure, so she adjusted her course to check. She looked behind her and the headlights were gone.

  I guess I’m just being paranoid—

  But then a projectile impacted with her grav-bike, splitting it in two. At over three hundred meters altitude, Nyx started to free fall toward the harsh desert landscape.

  7

  A day after meeting with his friends, Chase, sitting in the captain’s chair of the new Iron Fire, was ready to depart for the unknown regions in the hopes of finding a cure for Sarah. As expected, Altair had readily found a crew to man the ship.

  Yanis, Kvasir, and Spiros were manning engineering, making sure the ship performed at peak performance. Argos and Daniel were on the bridge with Chase. Chris, however, had decided to stay in his quarters.

  “Are you all sure you want to do this?” Chase inquired. “There’s no way to know what awaits us in the unknown regions.”

  “Whatever is there,” Daniel said, “we’ll face it together like we always do.”

  “Couldn’t have said it better,” added Argos.

  For the first time since the devastating battle with Tanak’Vor, Chase felt hope and warmth return to his heart. As much as he feared losing any of them, he was equally grateful to have his friends and family by his side. And there was no one else he’d rather go to the unknown with than with people he respected, loved, and trusted with his life.

  “Helmsman, take us out of dock.”

  “Aye, Captain,” answered the crewman.

  The Iron Fire’s sub-light engine came to life, the thrusters fired, and the ship slowly moved out of the shipyard. Soon, it was free of the massive facility orbiting Earth. Chase looked at the blue marble intensely, not knowing when or if he’d ever see the beautiful planet again. He had to though, Sarah’s life depended on it.

  Chase brought his chair’s holo-controls to life with a single thought thanks to one of his Fury gifts that allowed his mind to interact and become one with computers.

  He looked at the holo-starmap of the known regions and let his gaze drift outside the boundaries of space. Listening to his instincts, he chose a point that triggered a tickle-like sensation inside his body. The hyperspace coordinates locked onto the part of the holo-map that was void. Chase fed the coordinates to the jump engines. From the looks of it, that would result in a little over two day’s jump.

  “Ready to depart from the Sol system,” he said. “Helmsman, engage!”

  The Iron Fire’s jump engines came to life, and the ship vanished from orbit.

  Ares explored the arachnid ship from stem to stern, multiple times. His lack of understanding of their language made finding tactical information about their race both difficult and frustrating. He was about ready to give up and move on to another part of the Spectre’s space to see if any of the races that inhabited the dimension spoke a language he could understand.

  But just before he was about to leave the spider ship, movement in a nearby corridor caught his attention, especially the heavy clanging noise that sounded like the spider bots on overdrive. What he saw would have sent a shiver down his spine if he still had one.

  Several arachnoid warriors armed to the teeth were approaching. Also, there was something else, something massive, bringing up the rear and making infernal reverberating sounds. Whatever that monstrosity was, Ares now understood why most corridors on board this ship were so large.

  The beast was at least five times the size of the foot soldiers and was half organic, half machine. It had four massive mechanical spider legs and two smaller legs that didn’t touch the ground but moved about like independent tails. At their end resided sharp plier-like appendages that could grab or even crush most humanoid heads. Atop this metallic, almost mech-like portion sat a humanoid body, fused with the machine underneath. It was beige and hairy skinned, with overinflated muscles and long, razor-sharp black claws. It wore a battle helmet with multiple red glowing orbs.

  The spider bio-mechanical beast was hands down the scariest thing Ares had ever seen. And coming from the Olympian God of War who had lived for tens of thousands of years, that was saying something.

  Whatever that group was doing, Ares knew he had to investigate further. He followed them to a drop ship and boarded it with them. Hopefully, this was going to yield more interesting intel than he had been able to gather so far.

  Nyx looked around to try to identify who took out her grav-bike. But no one was around. Using her Fury powers to counter gravity, she slowed down her descent and landed like a feather on the sandy landscape. Her fiery hair had violet highlights that cascaded down her back and shoulders. It was lustrous and voluminous, resembling a mane and gave Nyx feline qualities accentuated even more by the intensity burning in her eyes.

  She was a huntress, not prey, and whoever thought differently would soon feel her wrath.

  Her mind was on full alert, telling her that her aggressors were not done with her. If it was Zarna’s doing, they knew blowing up her vehicle would not take her out. Since the night was pitch black, she couldn’t see them, yet. But, sure enough, she could sense multiple lifeforms approaching her position, thanks to her Fury gifts.

  Nyx had the ability to sense both a lifeforms presence as well as their energy levels. Among them, she could sense Zarna, who had come with backup—one being, in particular, had energy levels off the scale.

  I should have known they wouldn’t let me escape so easily.

  But Nyx was determined to regain her freedom. She may have been the last of the Furies, and because she was female, perhaps the only hope for her race’s survival. She owed it not only to herself but her entire race to escape this dimensi
on, and perhaps one day, rebuild her bloodline.

  The thought of her species ending was unacceptable. No matter how much she disagreed with the supreme commander when he was alive, the events leading to the destruction of Erevos were proof that Arakan had led them all astray. Still, the delusions of grandeur of one man didn’t mean Fury kind deserved extinction, and Nyx would fight until her dying breath to make sure that part of her civilization survived.

  Six lifeforms, all arachnoids, were homing in on her position. Though she didn’t need any flying apparatus, as most Furies could fly, she had used the grav-bike to try to stay under the radar, but it became obvious that the arachnoids could track her. She needed to get them off her back, preferably with a strong message so they’d leave her alone for good this time.

  Nyx created a white fireball and threw it in the air. She used her telekinetic abilities to let the energy sphere hover, providing her with a shimmer of light so she could see enemies approach. A sort of artificial moon.

  “I’m going to give you all one chance to leave here in one piece,” she shouted into the stillness of the night. “This offer expires in ten seconds, at which point I’ll rip each and every one of you to pieces. Ten…nine…eight…”

  Nyx continued her countdown all the way to zero. The arachnoid fighters were almost upon her. She closed her eyes as her purple aura burst to life.

  “So be it,” she said calmly as her hair shot upward like a mad flame

  Upon opening her eyes, she moved with such speed and agility that the first arachnoid never saw her coming, and by the time he felt her hand slash through his neck, his head was already detached from his shoulders. The remaining five soldiers opened fire with plasma weapons embedded in their arms. The once dark, quiet desert lit up with flying red balls of plasma.

  Nyx dodged most of the energy projectiles, deflecting some with the back of her hands and forearms. She needed to thin the herd, dodging and deflecting wouldn’t get her anywhere, so she jumped high into the sky. Balls of molten plasma followed her ascent as she prepared an attack of her own. Both her fists were engulfed in purple energy, forming into fireballs, which grew bigger with each passing second. When she was satisfied with their intensity, she clasped her hands atop her head, effectively merging both fireballs. Dark purple lightning bolts sizzled to life. She needed a second to aim, so she used her mind to erect a protective shield to deflect the plasma fire still raining upward toward her.

  She smashed her hands down toward the quintet of arachnoid warriors, right in the dead center of them. It was unlikely that her attack would kill them all, but that wasn’t the bulk of her plan; in fact, this would serve as an effective distraction. The large purple fireball darted downward like an eagle descending upon its prey.

  The arachnoid that was directly in the trajectory of Nyx’s attack tried to jump out of the way, but the velocity at which the purple fireball homed upon him made the attempt futile. He was caught in the inferno from Nyx’s attack impacting with the blue, sandy ground. Flames consumed the arachnoid’s flesh in the blink of an eye.

  Sand exploded into the air from the resulting shockwave, like water when hit by a heavy object, and the remaining four arachnoid warriors were sent tumbling and scattering away. By the time they understood what was going on, the female Fury no longer hovered in the air.

  She killed the third arachnoid by punching through his ribcage from behind. The beast’s heart stopped beating in her hand. With a swift motion, she smashed what was left of the organ and opened her palm, not bothering to remove her arm from the dead arachnoid, but instead using him as a shield for a nearby warrior who had returned to his feet and opened fire with his arm appendages, raining red plasma upon Nyx.

  With a single thought, Nyx unleashed a telekinetic shockwave through her open palm and sent the arachnoid warrior in the air. She sensed incoming fire from behind her, and so she swiveled and kept using the dead arachnoid as a shield while maintaining a visual on the prey she had sent tumbling a moment ago. Her eyes flashed orange and shot out two thin lasers, piercing the arachnoid’s skull, which promptly exploded like a bursting watermelon, splashing dark-gray blood before the rest of its carcass impacted with the cold sand and then sunk to its sandy grave.

  Four down, two more to go!

  8

  Captain Talon Epizon’s reaction was immediate, and he activated his ship’s sub-light engines to their maximum.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said as he pressed a control on his chair that turned the lights red and sounded an alarm. “Tar’Lock, shields up!”

  “Shields are up, Captain.”

  Talon opened a channel to the entire ship. “This is the captain, all crew to the bridge; this is not a drill!”

  Tar’Lock clicked nervously. “The lock is still on.”

  As if to make the Gorgar’s point, the ship rocked as yellow streaks of plasma grazed the Bellerophon.

  “Shields down to eighty percent,” Tar’Lock said, a series of panicked clicks escaping him.

  “What?!” exclaimed the captain. “They barely grazed us. Who the hell are these guys?”

  “We encountered a ship like this one before, albeit a larger one, and our strongest destroyer barely survived the engagement.”

  “Then we’ll have to make sure this enemy doesn’t hit us full force. Meanwhile, divert every once of power from secondary systems to shield regeneration power nodes.”

  “Done, Captain. And, I concur, too many direct hits with the shields down could blow us to smithereens. Should we head back to the jump gate?”

  Captain Epizon answered by taking manual flight control of the ship, using every trick he knew to evade, alternating one maneuver after another to keep the enemy guessing. This seemed to work as more streaks of plasma screamed past their ship, far enough away that the shields weren’t affected. But Talon knew very well this course of action was just a stopgap and that he couldn’t keep dodging forever.

  He swore to himself. If only the Bellerophon jump engine was functional, he could get the hell out of here. But backtracking to the gate would leave the ship a sitting duck, and all the enemy had to do was line up a couple of well-aimed shots, and they’d be history.

  “No, Tar’Lock, that would give them a clear line of fire, which is a risk we can’t afford to take. Why can’t we fucking see them? I thought ships couldn’t fire while cloaked?”

  “Not these spider ships.”

  I hate spiders!

  “Well, do whatever you did earlier and make sure we can at least acquire a radar position on them; I can guess their position from the plasma fire coming at us, but if we have any hope of losing them, I’ll need to know where they are.”

  There was frustration in Tar’Lock’s next streak of clicking noises. “I’ll do my best, Captain. I suggest we send a distress call.”

  “To whom? We’re a crew of smugglers with no allies or friends to speak of.”

  “The Earth Alliance, sir.”

  The simple mention of the Alliance enraged Talon.

  “No, I’d rather die!”

  “Under the circumstances, you may get your wish sooner than you think. I know you don’t like the Alliance, Captain, but they need to know that the Spectres are in our space.”

  The captain had heard of the Spectres, though until now, it had only been in the recounting from drunks in bars, and there were stories of how the Fury named Chase had defeated the mighty Tanak’Vor. Tar’Lock had confirmed the truthfulness of the stories, but to a certain extent, Talon always thought these tales had been embellished.

  Should Talon reconsider? This enemy’s firepower was like nothing he had ever encountered, not even during his tour with Admiral Thassos and their journey of survival against both Obsidian and Zarlack forces.

  More plasma fire grazed the shields.

  “Shields down to fifty-two percent,” said Tar’Lock, alarm resonating in his voice.

  Talon’s mind was on overdrive as he flew the ship by the sea
t of his pants while analyzing the holo-starmap and short-range sensor data for a place to hide. He found one in a thick nebula cluster off their starboard bow.

  “Let’s hide inside that nebula cluster,” he said.

  “We’re assuming that their sensors, like ours, won’t penetrate the nebula.”

  “Unless you have a better idea?”

  The captain could feel that Tar’Lock wanted to return to their previous exchange, and so he added, “One that doesn’t involve the Earth Alliance, that is.”

  “Then that’s a negative, Captain, I don’t have a better idea.”

  Members of the crew scrambled into the bridge, a mixture of tiredness, fear, and confusion in their eyes.

  “We’re being attacked by an unknown cloaked ship, we’re going to try to lose them in a nebula cluster,” Talon said, catching up his crew. “Make no mistake people, this enemy has more firepower than anything we’ve ever faced. Frontal assault is not an option.”

  His tactical officer and second in command, a large Droxian, growled. “What did you get us into now?”

  “I didn’t get us into anything; assume your station and return fire!”

  “Captain,” said Tar’Lock. “Our weapons won’t be the least bit effective against their shields.”

  “I don’t care, just find me a firing solution on that ship and return fire!”

  Tar’Lock sighed. “As you wish, Captain.”

  The holo-screen turned off, and Loki exhaled deeply. His plan of protecting Asgard from the next threat was going well, even though he didn’t like deceiving those he loved—his family. But they wouldn’t listen to him, anyway. Loki felt strongly about protecting Asgard by any means necessary.

  Asgard had came very close to being destroyed during the Fury War, and while his father Odin had decided to bring the Asgardians into the Earth Alliance, Loki had always felt it was a mistake to get involved with them.