Shadows of the Son

by E L Strife

  Two more codes flickered to life onscreen.

  Bennett ran a hand through his hair and wondered if it was a communication failure, or if the members had gone rogue.

  A wave of blue-green light rippled down the station’s shield. Tremors shook the floor. Through the windows above them, the sky blended into a mass of fire and fragments. Ten more codes blinked to life on Bennett’s FMC list.

  “Shield’s down to seventy-five percent, sir,” reported one of Hope’s technical sergeants from a Station Operations desk upfront.

  “Already?” Commander Lee groaned, his face contorting in frustration.

  “Their plasma weapons are more powerful than standard Earth munitions, sir,” the sergeant replied. “We didn’t know.”

  Commander Lee turned to his security staff. “Why isn’t Trif’s team shooting?”

  “They took our weapons out before they got off a shot,” he added.

  Bennett had to look away from the growing list of shepherds killed or risk breaking his calm in front of everyone. Through the window, Earth’s atmosphere glittered with the cinders of death. Hundreds of stygian fighters advanced like scourges of hungry scarabs through the remains, undaunted.

  He tracked the movement of the Linoan fleets, half breaking toward Earth and over a squad he’d hidden farther around the debris ring. The other barreled toward Agutra. “Romeo-beta, prepare to engage. Romeo-charlie, submerge.”

  “Beta confirmed,” Evami replied. “Ready.”

  “Why are they going to Earth?” Miskaht asked, sending out location warnings from her screen to the ground crews. “There aren’t any field containers down there. What do they want from the surface?”

  Gruégon’s voice growled through the coms. “Romeo-charlie en route.”

  “I don’t know,” Bennett muttered as he watched Charlie team fall from the debris ring, arcing low in the planet’s shadow.

  Another fighter passed above the station. One of the Romeo-alpha team took to the chase.

  Three waves of reverberations shook the command center.

  “Sixty-six percent!” the shepherd shouted back.

  Tension laced around Bennett’s lungs when he saw the cluster of Linoan fighters splitting into two fleets, one above and one below the debris ring. Earth’s forces had no escape until the Linoans passed.

  The moment the fighters had left his crews behind, he gave the order, “Betas, deploy!”

  Knowing Charlie squad was flying blind, he tapped the schematic in the general vicinity of the cluster of fighters headed for Agutra and sent them their target.

  The ring around Earth coruscated with the light of burning rockets—alien plasma and Romeo-beta’s modified aluminum perchlorate. Agutra’s perimeter lit up as Romeo-charlie teams approached from below. Red blended with orange as Linoan fighters turned and engaged.

  Ships fell to Earth and scattered in pieces—Linoan and Beta and Charlie.

  Codes pinged in rapid succession on Bennett’s screen. The remains of Kyra One weren’t helping.

  As the death toll mounted, Bennett wished he could retract his orders. His stomach clenched, but it was empty. Shuddering, Bennett braced himself on the console. A gentle hand rested on his back, warming away the sickness. He peered over his shoulder with watering eyes. Miskaht didn’t pause as she relayed coordinates to ground troops. Healing was as second-nature to her as fighting.

  “How many Linoans?” Bennett wheezed.

  “About fifty.” The rustling of Commander Lee’s uniform was unusually loud in Bennett’s throbbing mind.

  Bennett hung his head, listening to the FMC program pings, watching flashing warning lights of all colors illuminate his front. Station Hope quaked again and again.

  “They’re destroying Hope!” Josie’s voice crackled through the speakers. “Let us help!”

  “Josandizer,” Dequan snapped. “You stand down until they give you orders!”

  “Shields at fifty-three percent!” the shepherd up front yelled back at Bennett and the others. “Two more hits, and she’ll be patchy at best!”

  “Who’s guarding—” Commander Lee was cut off by an explosion.

  Bennett yanked his head up to look. Outside of the window, fell a slow gray rain of metal and rock.

  “Tamrin and Grun were, sir.” The shepherd stared out at the smoking wreckage gripping the sides of the screen before him.

  “We left ourselves under-guarded,” Glato said.

  Commander Lee hunkered over his station, the light of the screens glazing the edges of his uniform. “Because we aren’t the priority.”

  “It was a distraction tactic,” Bennett admitted. It was why Kios had to stay with Rio and not him. “We guard what we care about, not what we don’t.”

  Glato stepped protectively-close to Miskaht. “We need guards. Pull someone!”

  The anger in his voice surprised Bennett. Glato had always come across the quiet, brooding member of Command.

  His outburst gained Teek’s attention. “What is your purpose here, anyway?”

  Glato set a hand on the SI strapped to his thigh, fury darkening his glower at the teen.

  “He’s protection for the Commanders,” Bennett broke in. “And I won’t pull from our Agutra or Earth defenses. It’s more important we destroy the Linoans out there than we save ourselves here.”

  Glato’s shoulders cocked forward when he turned to Bennett. “You let Miskaht and Lioh be at unnecessary risk.”

  Commander Lee’s voice was measured and calm. “We have a shield. No one else does. His plan made sense.”

  “Non-sense,” Glato snorted.

  Another wave rocked the walls.

  “Forty-six percent!” The shepherd shouted.

  “Teek, transfer control of ships to Agutra,” Bennett directed.

  The teen dipped his head, his fingers flying over the illuminated options on his screen.

  Blue light flashed through the station windows as an invisible ship zipped by, chasing a Linoan fighter.

  “Josandizer, get your ass back in position!” Dequan demanded over the radio.

  Pops of gunfire scratched over her transmission. “With re—pect, sir. I’m n—leaving them, unguard— Shield is disinteg—ting. Can’t hold the—ff forever.”

  “One more hit, and the shield falls, Commander.” The sergeant spun around in his seat.

  Commander Lee chewed a lip. His eyes held a depth of disappointment his voice didn’t convey. “Evacuate the crews. Go.”

  Alarms pierced the halls with urgency. Staff ran out of Command Central, joining others in the hall heading for the three ships left in the main hangar.

  “You should get out with the rest. I can finish,” Commander Lee said.

  Bennett tensed, watching the phantom of Josie’s 501-Razor tear by the station again. The blazing muzzle flashes painted fleeting angles of light over the nose of the cloaked ship. “I’m not leaving until Agutra has full control,” he said to Commander Lee.

  “Then we stay with you,” Miskaht stated, sharing a brief look with Bennett, warning him not to argue.

  “Yanir sim niveriia vehr!” Teek shouted over the groan of bending metal and cracks snaking through the floor.

  Bennett set his jaw and checked the status of the battle through the windows. Red and blue missiles flared through the void cutting through ships and hearts. More codes added to his overflowing list.

  Everything he’d felt before—the fear and guilt—faded in a cold second. He should be out there with them, not stuck behind a fucking console.

  Teek had it right. Until my dying breath—

  “We fight together for each other,” Bennett finished.

  Chapter 46

  THE ATMOSPHERE BURNED WITH METEORS and missiles. Falling ships buried in Earth’s flesh like scorched teeth, trails of smoke the only indication the metal corpses once flew. With only five Field Sergeants left to protect each district, Rio knew they were spread too thin.

  “I want to stay with the others,�
�� Kios said, hand clutching Rio’s tight, his little legs struggling to keep up. “I saw kids there, like me.”

  Human Cataloging was packed with people filing into the bunker below. Rio had been called to check on one of the guards—a Kriit disguised by Command. Random areas of the shepherd’s body morphed between skin and quills. After a booster dose of serum, the man calmed and settled back to his human form. In twenty-four hours, the dose would wear off.

  Rio encouraged Kios along the sidewalk between clumps of melting snow. Human Cataloging offices were big targets in his mind. If the Kriit guard hadn’t been a teenager, Rio would’ve told them to tough it out. “We will be safest at my place, buddy. Just a few more blocks and we’ll be somewhere warm. I promise.”

  Two home-built hovercrafts whizzed down the road in a blur of green and yellow lights, stirring up crystals of white in whirling clouds. A truck plated in steel and decked with guns tailed the others.

  A slew of rapid-fire caused Rio to duck and look over his shoulder. Ships landed all over the city and not the ones he’d seen the crews working on in Home Station’s hangars. Shouts, screams, and booms of guns and grenades made Rio stop and drop to a knee. He clutched Kios tighter and scanned the nearby threats for the best path of movement. “Stay close.”

  Kios eagerly huddled in the shield of Rio’s body.

  Red plasma arced along the streets to their right. Some green and yellow and white fought it back. Smoke billowed out in plumes from buildings and mortars. Bullets and stripes of fire left the shadows throughout the town targeting the off-loading Linoans.

  A black ship fell from the sky toward them—a red-rimmed hole in the side. Rio hauled Kios up and sprinted down the sidewalk with every ounce of energy he had.

  Cracks and pops of breaking rock thundered after them. The screeching groan of metal grew louder. Rio glanced back to see the ship’s nose buried in the ground, fording the city street. Bracing Kios’s head, Rio pushed his legs harder toward an intersection and an escape.

  Blood-orange light filled the bank to his left. The building burst. Chunks of brick pelted Rio’s body. He turned away from the assault, barricading Kios in his shadow.

  Grating sounds of fracturing concrete frayed Rio’s nerves. The ground gave under his feet. Rio slid and tumbled over heaving asphalt and brick, Kios knocked loose from his arms. Rio scrambled to fight the fall, calling out to the boy. Every bump reminded him he was moving farther away from his assignment.

  But Kios was more than that.

  Frustration thrust energy into Rio’s muscles, and he caught a piece of rebar. Looking up through the clouds of suffocating dust, he saw the boy crawl to the edge of the sinkhole and peer down at him.

  “Are you okay?” His youthful voice echoed through the small cavern.

  Bracing himself on the rubble, Rio tried to climb back up. The structure wobbled, making him pull back. “Kios, I need you to jump. I’ll catch you. Promise.”

  The boy shook his head.

  “It’s not safe up there. Trust me.”

  Kios slunk back from the opening, humming discordantly.

  Another explosion from the crashed ship rocked the earth. Shadows moved behind the boy, causing Rio’s heart to leap into a sprint. His voice graveled with panic. He thrust out an urgent hand. “Please Kios, I need you to jump!”

  Before he could reply, a lanky being in scaled, black armor, snatched Kios up. The boy’s screeches faded in the dust and smoke-filled street.

  “Kios!” Rio clambered after him, forgetting about the unstable pile beneath him. Concrete shifted, and he stumbled, falling through a hole. Stone and brick pelted his body until he slid to a stop.

  Body aching, Rio coughed against the pulverulent air and forced himself to his feet. He was three meters below ground, too far for a man his age to jump. Trying would be a waste of time. Staggering through the remains of the bank and the alien ship, he wiped the grit from his eyes and searched for another way out.

  Passing crushed filing cabinets and small pieces of desks, he found a door hidden behind a slab of the sidewalk from above. Rio wedged himself in between and pushed the concrete away. It fell with a slam, puffing up gray clouds.

  He released an SI from his right thigh holster, shielded his face with an arm, and fired at the latch. It took five shots before he could kick the door open. The top two floors of the bank had collapsed into the basement, and he quickly found a pile of remnants tall enough to climb out. Splintered wood sporting rusted nails mixed with the brick and exposed rebar, made the journey to the surface a challenge.

  Tasting blood, he angrily spit the fluid aside. He knew he had a gash on his leg the way the fabric of his pants clung to his skin. Judging by the heartbeat in his cheek, he had a contusion. And at least one finger was broken on his right hand—the ring or the pinky, maybe both. He couldn’t quite tell through the pain, and he refused to take the time to look.

  Peering up and down the streets as he set foot on solid ground again, he noticed his neighbor Athia and her three boys running toward their home. Groceries were strewn from broken bags on the sidewalk. He scanned for Kios. A black and red figure had Kios slung over a shoulder. It headed toward the cluster of ships near H.Co.

  Rio’s wristband buzzed. He glanced out of habit to see two codes blinking under FMC. The two shepherds protecting H.Co. were dead. He was the only shepherd left at this end of the district.

  Shouts in an unfamiliar language jerked his attention back to Athia as she huddled around her boys. A Linoan marched toward them, gun drawn, glowing red along its action. The creature pointed the weapon at her head. She cried out and shuddered.

  Rio drew his SI without hesitation, taking three shots.

  The Linoan crumpled. Athia tried to shield the boys’ eyes as they scrambled back.

  “My house now!” Rio shouted. Advancing toward Athia, he caught movement between the houses, plumes of steam from breath giving away their positions. Rio fired again. Two bodies fell. He hadn’t used serum since its implementation. Adrenaline was something he missed being stuck in the labs of Home Station.

  Rio spun to guard their six and picked off three more who rounded the corner antique shop across from the bank. “Why didn’t you get in the H.Co. bunker with the others?”

  “I couldn’t take a day off. Jopa said he would fire me. I can’t afford—” Athia trailed off as she herded her boys toward Rio’s door.

  Rio dodged a shot at his head. Spreading his feet, he sent five blue-green bullets along a row of cars. A red leg clad in black flopped into view. They didn’t have time to talk. Kios was being carted away.

  Ushering her and her children across the street, he waved them inside the foyer of his house. The scents of laundry detergent and mint cleaner were a pleasant change from the sulfuric smoke outside. Opening the door to the basement stairs, he directed them down with a toss of his head. “Samu ta uya aang,” he said to the boys. Hide and be quiet.

  The three boys were always rambunctious and rarely listened the first time. But today, they filed through the door with no complaint.

  Athia stopped Rio when he turned to leave, confusion twisting her beautiful face and brassy eyes. “You speak Simsa?”

  “Some,” he replied with a smile, checking his SI magazine. “I’ll explain another time. You know how to shoot?”

  She bared her teeth in doubt. “Point and squeeze?”

  “Good enough. Thirty-six shots left. Always count. I have to go find Kios.” Rio handed her his Standard Issue.

  Athia grabbed him and pulled their lips together. Startled, Rio sucked in a sharp breath through his nose.

  “Be careful,” she cooed into his mouth.

  Rio’s heart felt like it might explode as he backed up with a nod. “Stay in the bunker. Don’t let anyone in who doesn’t know your name.”

  Closing the door, he listened to the clack of the metal bars sliding into place. Rio launched himself out of the house, pulling the e-rifle from his back. The spark of desire sh
e’d ignited inside him fueled his legs stronger than any serum. He ducked and wove behind the protection of buildings and cars as he returned the direction he and Kios had come.

  The ships were gathered in the courtyard behind H.Co. as if they knew where to find Earthlings. Heat signatures? Or the Linéten traitors? Quietly passing the building, he looked inside to see several Linoans firing shots at the bunker doors. But Command had designed them to withstand nuclear attacks. He wasn’t concerned about the people inside. Only Kios.

  Rio crept through the shadows of the buildings under the fiery sky. Most of the shrapnel fallout burned upon reentry. Whole ships didn’t. He skirted the H.Co., taking shelter in the hedges of the courtyard. Smoke and dust rendered a dusky haze over the cold city. Small puffs of fog formed, suggesting pyraplasma burned with a similar effect as propane: adding moisture into the air.

  “What do you mean?” Kios squirmed in the Linoan’s grip near the lowered aft ramp of a fighter. The ships were slightly smaller and narrower than collectors, resembling a shard of broken glass more than a scorpion that had eaten itself to death. The rows of circular ports in the ship’s belly were missing the burning green “slingshot” ring Atana had said was what snatched people from the surface of planets.

  And these ports were open.

  Must’ve dropped troops before they landed.

  Rio snuck in closer. Through the leaves of the hedges, he glimpsed the inside of the main cabin beyond the ramp. Individual slots were framed in tubes of red light with empty personnel harnesses hanging inside. The ship could easily hold fifty Linoans.

  “I don’t want to go back there!” Kios cried.

  Garbled wheezes were all Rio could make out of Linoan communication. He drew in a quiet breath as he counted the armed crew members on the ramp behind Kios. Carmine skin freckled with black peeked out of their scaled body armor. ArcBows and guns filled their hands and belts. Their crew maneuvers and staging area seemed more organized than what Atana had mentioned of the Linoans on the agriculture ship above. Across their knuckles and heels, pairs of arched blades glinted in the hazy light.

  The brume wouldn’t be enough to cover Rio’s position if he shot at them from where he was. He figured he could kill four, maybe five before they shot him down. There was no hope to save Kios that way. He needed a better vantage point.