The Burning Grove

by Skyler Grant

  Cleo highlighted two sections of the map. “Primary weapons control, secondary weapons control. They’re on opposite sides of the station.”

  “Secondary is near the main hangar bay. We’ll hit primary coming in and secondary on the way out,” Banok said.

  “And take out the fighters when we do,” Vanwyn said with a nod.

  Banok still didn’t like the plan. More than that, it disturbed him how much Cleo shouldn’t like this plan, but wasn’t objecting to anything. Cleo was always the one that had contingencies on contingencies. This plan was rough, too rough.

  “Hopefully they’ll have a transport big enough to fit everyone in a dock. We get them all aboard and out of system, then meet up with Cleo later. A plan even a dummy could follow,” Nyx said.

  Banok looked over to Vanwyn. “I don’t like this. I get Cleo being in on a bad plan, it is her family. But you’re a warrior who has lived forever, why don’t you have any reservations?”

  “You are vicious and dangerous people at the best of times. Cleo is doing this out of love for her family. You are doing this out of love for Cleo. I pity the people standing in the way of either of you,” Vanwyn said.

  “Jia, you shouldn’t be involved in this,” Banok said.

  Jia shook her head. “I know I don’t have the history with your friends, but I go where you go, Master. Those are the rules. My place is at your side.”

  Banok had brought her along for that very reason. Banok didn’t believe in coddling weakness, that was the problem with the old Druid Order. That was something he had always fought against. Jia was capable, but this just felt different. It was one thing to go on something he feared might be suicide for him—he’d do it for Cleo. It was his choice. Of course, Jia could see the odds too. If she chose to do it for him, who was he to say no?

  “We’ll get it done,” Banok finally said. He just wished that he felt better about it.

  8

  Banok tumbled through space before his suit’s systems automatically stabilized him with tiny jets of the thruster pack. Alongside him Jia’s did the same. Vanwyn seemed to be manually controlling her own suit, coming to a stop with the casual ease of someone who had done so thousands of time before.

  Nyx zipped ahead of them, keeping her momentum as she hurtled towards the station. The station itself was an ugly affair, it looked like nothing so much as a blocky and malformed lump of clay.

  Banok took a moment to watch the Catspaw as it moved away, never slowing after releasing them. It was headed towards the planet, towards its own fight.

  It took almost an hour before they finally got Nyx’s signal to proceed.

  In unison they hit their thrusters, heading for one of the station’s maintenance airlocks. It was barely large enough for three people. While the outer door wasn’t locked the inner was still secure. That was fine, expected even. Once the outer was sealed Banok focused with fire magic and melted the seals.

  The vacuum inside the airlock was breached and the hull beneath their feet gave a tremble at the change in pressurization.

  They hadn’t counted on having any stealth. It was a good thing. They quickly stripped out of their space suits to reveal the combat armor underneath.

  Banok felt naked without his staff, he was so used to having it. Nyx had offered to make him one which was collapsible, but as it wouldn’t have been the magical wood he was used to he’d declined. Jia had one though, and his apprentice already extending it.

  Banok and Vanwyn both had energy pistols. They didn’t have to wait long to use them. They were no more out of their suits than the first patrol reached them. The Vipers were all thin of build but muscled despite it, skin often showing a fine patchwork of scales.

  Three approached, all wielding small energy rifles. They didn’t get a chance. Vanwyn put shots into the head of two while Banok ignited the third with a surge of fire, sending him staggering backwards and screaming as his entire body caught alight.

  Vanwyn didn’t wait for them as she led the way, setting off down one of the halls. Banok and Jia fell into place behind her. They hit a second patrol before they’d made it to primary weapons control.

  Banok kept a lot of his attention on his apprentice. Bringing a staff to a gunfight was never a good idea at the best of times. He’d done it enough, but that didn’t make it smart. This far away from the Grove she wouldn’t have much of the magic she was used to, not without pulling from her own lifeforce. Banok as her Master could provide her a trickle of power, but there was only so much he could share.

  The door to weapons control was plainly labeled. It was also sealed, a result of the alert no doubt.

  “This is you,” Vanwyn said, as she turned to keep an eye on the hall.

  Banok sent a surge of strength to his muscles and gripped the door. Metal strained and with a high-pitched squeal the doors were forced open.

  Those inside were ready. Shots hit his body armor as soon as the door was cracked aside. Banok retaliated with fire, hot enough to incinerate the contents of the room including all the people and machinery. Even as the screams began he forced the doors back shut, trapping them inside with the fire.

  A flow of power healed his chest. While his armor had absorbed most of the energy from the blasts, it wasn’t absolute.

  With a hiss, billowing clouds of gas began to come down from vents in the ceiling. Vanwyn and Jia began to cough violently. It was poisonous, highly poisonous. This wasn’t good. Banok began to channel lifeforce to them both, enough so that they could shrug off the effects.

  “How long can you keep this up?” Vanwyn asked.

  In the Grove Banok would have had lifeforce to spare to pull off something like this. Instead he was drawing power from Astra and from the medallion she bore. Neither was affiliated with life magic. He could convert it into a useful form, but it wasn’t an efficient exchange.

  “I can maintain it, but it doesn’t leave me room for much else magically,” Banok said.

  They weren’t supposed to reach out to Nyx, not yet. If she answered it would give away her position. Yet, if the serpents had this gas ready to go, they couldn’t risk them deploying it on the level Nyx was infiltrating. Banok might be able to support two others and himself, he wouldn’t be able to protect Cleo’s family.

  Banok opened a comm channel. “Poison gas deployed for intruders.”

  If Nyx was able to disable the sensors, hopefully she could bring down that system as well.

  Right now, though, Banok had other things to worry about. More guards, a lot more guards. None wore masks, the Vipers were immune to the poison.

  9

  Vanwyn pulled a grenade from her belt, rolling it down the hall. Banok pulled Jia into what appeared to be a maintenance closet as Vanwyn dove through another doorway. After a muffled boom Banok looked out as Vanwyn did the same. Four Vipers were still up. Not for long, going down under a fusillade of gunfire.

  Above them the hiss of poison gas cut out.

  “Systems neutralized. I’ve got some pissed-off wolves with guns, but we’re outnumbered,” Nyx said.

  “We’re on the way,” Banok said.

  Three decks down. The lifts were sealed with the security alerts going, but even space stations had ladders in case of system failures.

  The hatches to those were sealed as well, but they were nothing Banok with his boosted strength couldn’t open. After the first, more Vipers were waiting for them each level, and it used up the last of Vanwyn’s grenades to clear them out.

  When they caught up to the Nyx she had five well-muscled and wolvish sorts with her and holed up, having a shootout against over three dozen Vipers. Fortunately, the Vipers weren’t watching their rear.

  Banok led the way with a fireball to the middle of them. Now that he was no longer having to boost Jia and Vanwyn he again had some power to spare. Then Jia was in the middle of them, staff twirling away as Vanwyn took shots, every one perfectly placed and devastatingly accurate.

  The moment the Vipers we
re distracted the wolves hit them on the other side. They moved as if they had fought together for years—perhaps they had. Banok recognized two of them, he’d had dinner with them once. Cleo’s mother and father, Hela and Eoman, but the other two were strangers.

  When only a pile of bodies remained Eoman approached and nodded. “Banok, I knew our daughter wouldn’t abandon us. The question is why are we still alive?”

  “We don’t know. You can figure that out later,” Banok said.

  “We need to save the pups,” Hela said. She was armed with a pair of submachine guns, one in each hand.

  “They’re next,” Nyx said, buzzing over to land on Banok’s shoulder. “I feel useless without armor.”

  “You’re anything but that. We wouldn’t have gotten this far if it weren’t for you, Miss Nyx,” Jia said, sounding breathless.

  “You doing okay?” Banok asked her.

  Not everybody took to killing easily, most didn’t.

  “I’m good,” Jia said.

  Banok wasn’t troubled if she wasn’t.

  When they got to the pups they found a barricade set up. It wasn’t Vipers waiting for them. The body armor was far heavier, the size bigger, Orcs.

  One stepped out before the others, no weapon in his hands. “We just want to talk,” he bellowed.

  Banok exchanged a look with the others.

  “This is Eoman. I can parlay for our people,” Eoman said.

  “Not with you. High Druid Banok and his companions,” said the Orc.

  Banok didn’t like seeing Orcs again, and he especially didn’t like one knowing who he was. Still, what was done was done. With his life-sense there were a lot of them, and they wouldn’t go down nearly as easily as the Vipers.

  Nyx complained, “Why don’t they say the fairy Nyx and her companions? I’m the smart one! This whole jailbreak is possible because of me.” She shouted the last in the Orc’s direction.

  Banok stepped forward. “What have we got to talk about?”

  “I’m Gardok,” said the Orc. “Got an offer for you, not mine. Might say our employer wants to chat with you. You and yours come with me and you hear their pitch. Safe conduct guaranteed and we stand down. Vipers will still be in your way, but you’re doing okay against them so far.”

  “And if not?” Banok asked.

  “If not, we came prepared for what you can throw at us, and we’ve orders that the prisoners die first,” Gardok said.

  “You can’t trust big people. You really can’t trust giant people,” Nyx said.

  “Even the old Orcs had honor, of a sort. If we have his word, we may be able to believe it,” Vanwyn said.

  “You do. Both about your safe conduct and about what will happen, if you don’t accept,” Gardok said.

  Banok could kill Orcs quickly with magic. He’d done it before, but there were a lot of them. He doubted the guns the others had would be effective against that armor. The Orcs also had been given the time to prepare. Explosives could have already been rigged on a deadmans switch so even if they were killed, the prisoners would die.

  “You’ve got a deal,” Banok said.

  Gardok waved back at his men. “Stand down and let them through. Evac, they might want to blow this place when they’re done.”

  Vanwyn pulled the wolves aside and Banok heard her giving them a summary of their remaining plan. They’d have to hit the secondary weapons control and steal their own ship.

  Gardok waited a few moments and then led the way, a few Orcs taking positions behind them. They were headed for the hangars. The few Viper patrols passed on the way gave them a wide berth.

  10

  With Gardok leading the way to the hangar the trip was a lot faster and less bloody than Banok anticipated. Behind him he heard weapons fire. He could only hope that the wolves would be able to hold their own, free the pups and get clear.

  “So! My Master killed a whole bunch of you and blew up your shipyard. You hold a grudge?” Jia asked.

  “Don’t say that,” Nyx exclaimed, flying over to kick Jia in the ear. “Your apprentice is a dummy, dummy. I guess that makes sense, but I still don’t like it. We don’t need a whole new generation of dummies.”

  Gardok laughed, a deep heavy sound. “It is fine, little one. We mind less than you might think. We are about trying ourselves in combat. That we were defeated means we have lessons yet to learn.”

  Banok found himself rather approving of that. The Orcs had impressed him on most of their previous encounters, being quick to adapt and fearless in a fight.

  “Was this your idea? Taking hostages?” Banok asked.

  Gardok shook his head. “Not ours. If we wanted to call you to a meeting we’d have … called you. People get too fancy, when you could go straight for things.”

  The Orcs had a small craft. It looked a lot like their battleships, the hull a dull black, and the design somewhat blocky although with clearly advanced technology. It was also heavily armed. Banok counted two gun emplacements and a missile launcher.

  The interior was well lit, although the light had a faint reddish tint. The interior spartan with simple but efficient seats and massive arms lockers.

  Gardok gestured to a pair of benches facing each other. “Sit and strap yourself in. It is going to be a few hours.”

  Banok took a seat and Jia settled in beside him while Vanwyn took a position across from them. Gardok and the Orcs that accompanied him took other benches.

  As soon as they’d strapped themselves in Banok felt the ship tremble, the engine an unpleasant roar as they took off. The ship was far louder than the Catspaw. It must lack the sound insulation that was there for comfort. The bench also lacked for padding.

  “So, this is unexpected,” Banok said.

  Vanwyn said, “It shouldn’t have been. Cleo will be mad she missed it. Why have one trap when you can have two? This was always about getting her attention—and who else would she call when she was in trouble?”

  “Do you think she’s sitting in her own shuttle somewhere getting hauled off to parts unknown?”

  Nyx said, “You kidding me? If any Orcs pulled something on Cleo she’d be ten steps ahead. They probably didn’t even get a chance to say anything. If I’d been properly armed I’d have showed them.” Nyx was buzzing around the interior of the cabin and poking at things. The Orcs didn’t seem to mind, although her last words had them chuckling among themselves.

  “It wouldn’t surprise me if she is on her own shuttle. I wonder what they have to say,” Vanwyn said.

  “I wonder if this whole thing is just a plot to kill us,” Banok said.

  “They could have rigged that whole station to blow with us aboard. It might have pissed off the Vipers, but I think we’re worth it,” Nyx said.

  “I think she’s right. If the goal was to kill us, there were better ways to go about it,” Vanwyn said.

  Speculating wasn’t doing much good, but there wasn’t much else to do to pass the time.

  “What do you think of the ship?” Banok asked Nyx.

  “Well made. It looks simple, but everything is reinforced. Backup systems,” Nyx said.

  “Orc ships are built for war. You don’t fight with an axe that falls apart at the first hit,” Gardok said.

  “Can you tell us anything about who we’re meeting?” Banok asked.

  Gardok chuckled. “Does it surprise you to hear I don’t know myself? Relationship we have with those in charge is … complicated. Not something I’m getting into, but I can say information doesn’t exactly flow both ways.”

  “From tools for the Lady of the Void to being tools of somebody else,” Vanwyn said.

  Gardok tensed, it was the first time Banok had seen or heard something that seemed to strike home. “That I wouldn’t say more on. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  That was interesting. They were still fond of the Lady of the Void?

  “Astra?” Banok thought, trying to get his familiar’s input.

  “It wasn’
t like that. When Urania found the Orcs she tried to help them. They were living on a world that was dying and they were dying right along with it. They might have killed for her, but they signed on for it,” Astra thought back.

  Banok knew that Astra wouldn’t lie to him, she couldn’t. Really. But he also knew to take what she thought with a dose of skepticism. Nobody ever saw themselves as the villain of their own story, and that included Urania Vox. Of course she saw herself as some sort of savior to the Orcs.

  That the Orcs perhaps agreed though did raise some questions.

  11

  The flight took six hours. Six uncomfortable hours on miserable benches making awkward conversation with each other and Orcs. Then, just like that, they were being let off at a much smaller space station.

  Banok knew of the type, although he’d never actually stayed in one. The ultimate in executive getaways. They had a few rooms, usually not more than four. First-rate automated chefs and freezers stocked with almost any cuisine one could imagine. Elegant decor and the very best in entertainment facilities.

  The hangar was empty after the Orc ship departed, leaving the three of them alone.

  “Well, I guess we’d better find out just who we’re meeting,” Banok said.

  Together they moved into the station proper. A quick search found that they were the only people aboard, although a clock was counting down in every room. A timer showing a little over thirteen hours.

  “Maybe you get your bomb after all, dummy,” Nyx said.

  “Can you find out if that is the case?” Banok asked, turning to her.

  “I’m already poking through their systems,” Nyx said, and in fact she had already dismantled a wall panel. “External communications haven’t been so much cut as they just aren’t here. The timer doesn’t seem connected to anything, just running on the local systems.”

  “So we can’t escape. If we were of a mind to,” Banok said.