Battle For Earth

by Daniela A. Wolfe

  I gritted my teeth and just kept on running. I’d been grasping at straws, and frankly I hadn’t exactly believed there was anything that I could use against the bastard besides my wit and my fists. Sometimes you just have to cover all the bases. “How different are male symbiotes from females? Will he be stronger than the overseer was?”

  “The only differences are our reproductive capabilities; he will likely be much weaker than my previous host as she had unusual strength. Only the sub-ascendant is more powerful.”

  “Well there’s that at least.” I glanced back just in time to see the bastard come tearing toward us again.

  Fortunately, he hadn’t been expecting me to intervene with the enhanced strength and reflexes afforded to me by Khala or he probably would have had us. When he got close I spun around on the balls of my feet and hit him as hard as I could across the chest. The force of the blow coupled with his own speed sent him tumbling backwards clutching at his chest and howling in surprised fury. By the time he climbed back up, with the assistance of the guards, our lead on our pursuers had nearly doubled.

  When I was just beginning to think that we might actually stand a chance after all, the Corrector tried to rush us again and this time I was not ready for him. Before I could muster any sort of defense he grappled hold of me and we both went careening to the ground. I elbowed him in the chest and tried to squirm out from under him, but he gripped hold of one of my wrists and rolled on top of me. I struggled under his grip, but he was able to force both my hands down against the ground and nothing I did seemed to do any good.

  As I struggled I looked over to the side where Kaya, my sister and the two men had stopped to watch me struggle against the corrector. “Kai!” I yelled. “Take Becca and get the hell out of here!”

  “I’m not leaving you!” she yelled gritting her teeth balling her hands into fists at her side.

  “Go dammit! I’ll catch up!”

  Taevok’s continued attacks forced me to turn away, but I caught sight of them leaving out of the corner of my eyes. Taevok growled out a command in Qharr instructing his troops to follow and they rushed to comply. I took the opportunity that the short distraction afford me and took a really cheap shot. I kneed him in the groin and thanked my lucky stars that Qharr anatomy was so similar to that of humans. Taevok’s groaned then collapsed on top of me and I could feel his breath on my throat as I pushed him away.

  I staggered back to my feet and took a few tentative steps forward before breaking out into a run. I only managed to take a few steps before he got his hand around my ankle and I yelped as he pulled my foot out from under me. “Mother humping bastard!” I yelled kicking him across the jaw with my free foot before realizing that I’d been speaking in Qharr.

  “So much strength! Far beyond that of an ordinary human,” he yelled in near-perfect English then switched over to Qharr as he lifted me up from the ground. “You must be joined with a K’teth to possess such power! Tell me how it is that a slave rat came to be bonded with a symbiote!?”

  I grinned up at him defiantly even as his hand tightened around my throat and managed to choke out the answer. “I killed the Overseer!”

  Taevok coughed.”A bold statement, but one which I think is most likely true. Given that Jahal’s symbiote was unaccounted for when they examined her corpse. Still I cannot understand how such an inferior species could ever serve as a compatible host for a K’teth.”

  I gasped for breathe and clutched at my throat as I felt my life start to slip away. I clawed at his finger and tried futilely to loosen his grip, but his strength was so much greater than mine. A K’teth magnified the base strength of their host and since the Qharr were much stronger to begin with my opponent’s strength was much greater than mine. ‘Any ideas?!’ I cried desperately at Khala.

  ‘Working on it!’ she responded just a few seconds before his grip suddenly loosened from around my throat and he was thrown against the wall opposite me. I crawled back my knees and coughed uncontrollably before air flooded back into my lungs.

  “Thanks,” I breathed. ‘You doing that gravity thing again?”

  ‘Yes,’ she responded.

  ‘How can you fight Taevok knowing that in doing so you could kill another of your kind?’ I asked her with a slow shake of my head.

  ‘Because I made a promise to help you. Besides if the host dies it is very rarely a death sentence for the symbiote. Hurry now. You need to get back on your feet before he attacks again.’

  I took another deep breath, nodded and slowly climbed back to my feet. I felt something trickle down my face and when I reached up to touch it my finger came away red. I don’t know when it happened, but sometime during the fight I must have been hit pretty hard in the head. I shook away the sudden wave of dizziness and spun around to look for the Corrector. Khala’s gravity wave, for lack of a better term, had thrown Taevok into the opposite wall and embedded him deep into its surface.

  His eyes were closed and as best as I could tell he was unconscious, but when I moved closer to check for signs of life. I heard the sound of multiple footsteps pounding against the hallway floor. I stopped mid-step and glanced over to find that nearly a dozen Qharr guards were running down the hallway in my direction. I glanced at the Corrector’s motionless body one finally time and then took off down the hallway away from the soldiers and in the same direction that Kaya, my sister and the others had fled.

  Chapter Nine

  I called up all the speed I could muster and zoomed down the corridor at such a pace that all my instincts were screaming at me to slow down. I couldn’t though, I had to catch up with the others before it was too late and they left without me or worse they were overtaken by the gray-skins. The Qharr guards had continued their pursuit as far as they could, but I was simply too fast for them to keep up. I did catch a few stray phase bolts before I completely outran them, but most of them missed and splattered against the wall as I ran.

  I caught up to the others so quickly that I nearly ran straight into the cluster of guards that were pursuing them, but luckily I managed to come to a stop mere centimeters of the rear-most of the gray-skins. He spun around to face me, and I hit him as hard as I could the moment I saw his face. He flew back and knocked three more of his companions down. The remaining two guards were on me, throwing punches and screaming out Qharr obscenities. I ducked as the first, a tall male with a shaved head, swung his fist in a powerful blow that would have been devastating to a human then blocked a blow from the second, a lean female with her hair done up in a long braid, with my forearm. I spun around in a jump kick and hit baldy across the waist then punched the female in the chest. After, several successive blows both collapsed at my feet and I snatched a phase pistol which had fallen to the ground during the fight then I leapt down the hallway without waiting for them or any of the other guards to climb back to their feet.

  I heard a loud guttural scream and looked back to find that the guards had resumed their pursuit. I kept running and managed to catch up with the others. Kaya glanced at me as I neared. “That was fast.”

  “Yeah, well,” I grimaced stepping into sync with her. “I was really eager to get out here.”

  “What about your friend the Corrector?” she asked glancing over her shoulder at the guards.

  “Out for the count,” I replied.

  “But not dead?” she asked with wide eyes.

  “More guards showed up and I left before I had time to check for sure,” I shrugged.

  “More guards?! Just great… You didn’t happen to take a head count did you?” Farris interrupted looking back at me.

  “There were a dozen at least!”

  “Boy this just gets funner and funner,” Rayland grinned back at me.

  “How close are we getting to the roof?” Farris yelled as a stray phase bolt zoomed over his head.

  “Not far!” my sister yelled back. “There should be a stairway down that next corridor.”

  “About damn time,” Farris breathed. “T
his compounds too freaking big.”

  “I just hope Jaysen will be there in time,” Kaya shook her head.

  “It shouldn’t take her long,” I replied. “She said she’d keep the ship close, remember?”

  “I’m a little more worried that he–” he grimaced then gritted his teeth as he corrected himself. “–she even got the message.”

  I glared at him and bit my lip, “The communications system will alert her to any incoming messages. It would be pretty hard for her to miss it.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Farris replied shaking his head.

  “Yeah well,” I said. “Let’s just get up there and we’ll know for sure.”

  Rayland winked at me. “Sounds good to me.”

  I glanced at him, but gave him no reply as we continued to run. After reaching the stairs we traveled up nearly a dozen flights before finding our exit. The gray-skins pursued us the entire way. Once we finally reached the door Farris kicked it open and we rushed through the opening as quickly as we could.

  

  “Fuck!” Kaya cursed as we stepped out onto the roof clenching the hair atop her head and gritted her teeth. “She’s not here yet and those guards will find their way up here any second!”

  I glanced about searching the rooftop for anything that might be of use and found it just a short distance away. There were a series of ducts running along most of the length of the roof and supporting said ducts were a series of metal bars. Running up to the nearest section of ducting I wrapped my hands around one of the bars, braced my feet against the ground and pulled as hard as I could. I pulled and pulled and with one final heave the bar snapped free. The ducting groaned and sagged just a little bit as I swirled around leaping at the door with the bar in hand. I jammed it into the door and bent it around the frame so that it couldn’t be opened from either side.

  “You really think that will hold?” Kaya glanced at me skeptically with a single raised eyebrow.

  “Probably not,” I replied shaking my head. “But it might buy us some time.”

  “God, I can’t believe this is happening?!” my sister proclaimed her hands shaking as she stared at the door with wide eyes. She looked on the verge of a breakdown and I can’t say I really blamed her after everything that had happened. My sister had always been a strong-willed person, but I’d caught a glimpse of how that bastard husband of hers had been treating her. Jerem was a bully and even back before he’d been an Enforcer and he was unrelenting when he picked a victim. How long had that asshole Jerem been mistreating her? I could only guess at the sort of things he might have done to my sister, but knowing Jerem it wouldn’t have been very pleasant.

  “Becca,” I whispered her name and reached out to wrap my arms around her. “It’s going to turn out okay. You got that? You’re going to be fine.”

  The water works came next and my sister collapsed into my arms sobbing hysterically. I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh as I whispered encouragements under my breath. Next came the pounding at the door and I knew that the Qharr had finally caught up with us. I bit my lip then turned to the others. “Farris!” I hissed. “Take my sister!”

  He nodded then tentatively grabbed my sister by her shoulders and helped me move her. Becca resisted a bit, but once her arms were around Farris like they’d been around me she collapsed into his arms without a word. “Be ready,” Kaya glanced at me her knuckles turning white as she gripped at the small phase pistol in her hands as if her life depended on it. I gripped my own pistol and stared at the door frowning as I heard Qharr curses coming from the other side.

  “Damn gray-skins,” I cursed.

  “Gotta love ’em,” Rayland grinned.

  “Shit,” Kaya glared at him. “Are you insane?”

  “Yes, but only just a little,” he replied back glancing at the door as the Qharr continued to pound away. Suddenly, a loud groan came from what I could only guess were the hinges just before my bar sprung away and the door shot out from its frame. Kaya and I opened fire as the first of the guards appeared in the doorway. He collapsed to the ground dead and was replaced by two more gray-skins. They opened fire just before Kaya and I peppered them with shots and they too died unable to withstand the sudden barrage of shots.

  More guards came pouring out from the opening and everyone except myself moved to find cover behind the ducts. Since the blasts from the Qharr guards only strengthened me I stayed out in the opened and continued firing into the doorway and Kaya shot whenever she got an opening from behind the relative security of the ducts. Each time a blast shot into and was absorbed by the duct my sister let out a high-pitched squeal. It became quickly apparent that the six guards that had followed us had been joined by others, some of which I recognized from the group that found me after I’d taken out Taevok.

  “We are so fucking screwed!” Farris cursed from behind the duct clutching at my sister as Kaya fired shot after shot beside him.

  “There’s too much riding on this!” I yelled back glancing over my shoulder. “Jaysen knows that she’ll be here!”

  “She better hurry!” Kaya screamed just before a phase bolt splattered into her shoulder.

  “God dammit!” she howled and gritted her teeth before ducking back behind the cover of the duct.

  Kaya and Rayland had some sort of exchange, but I have no idea what was said since I was a little busy fighting for my life. What I do know is that moments later Rayland leapt up from behind the duct and started firing off shots with Kaya’s weapon. He proved to be every bit as good a shot as Kaya and actually managed to take out two gray-skins before he was forced to duck back behind the duct. By that point the roof’s exit had filled up with Qharr bodies and for the next few moments we had a brief reprieve as our attackers struggled to break through the barrier of corpses.

  I could hear the grunts and growls of the gray-skins pushed against the corpses, but they didn’t seem to be making much headway. Not surprising considering that the stairwell was probably only wide enough to accommodate two Qharr side by side and even then it would have been a very tight squeeze. Abruptly the pile of bodies flew out from the doorway in all directions and out from behind them emerged the blue-haired form of Corrector Taevok. “Q’ll Nas!” I cursed only realizing that I’d been speaking in Qharr after the words had escaped my lips. A group of guards followed him up out of the door and started firing at Kaya, my sister and the others.

  I glanced at my hand where I had the over-sized Qharr pistol clenched then dropped it and let it clatter to the ground before pouncing. Whatever injury I might have inflicted on him appeared to have been healed by his symbiote or else it hadn’t been nearly as severe as I’d originally believe because he moved with the same fluid grace and speed as he had before. He was a trained warrior and I was just some unlucky bastard… bitch who’d gotten stuck with a symbiote and that difference became more and more apparent as we fought. Each time he swung a fist it was only my incredibly quick reflexes that kept the blows from landing home. Taevok was very angry, I could tell from his body language. Everything from the way he held his shoulders and the tilt of his head showed his fury as clearly as a scowl would have on a human. His anger translated into his attacks, his hands moved in swift blurs and it was becoming much more difficult to fend off his advances.

  “Look!” Farris’s voice called out in the distance.

  I was too busy fending off Taevok, but I did catch site of Rayland craning his neck out of the corner of my eyes. I suspected or at least hoped I knew what he was gawking at then I felt a surge of hope as Rayland confirmed it. “Is that a ship?!”

  “Yeah!” Kaya called out triumphantly. “Looks like our ride is almost here!”

  I dodged and blocked the Corrector’s blows as best I could not getting a hit in edgewise. Then things took a turn for the worse when the first of his blows cut through my defenses hitting me on the underside of my chin and I went flying backwards a near half a dozen feet. My back flared with sudden pain as I smashed i
nto a nearby section of duct. I could feel something sharp pressing into my flesh, but I didn’t let that stop me from leaping back to my feet. There was a very slight tingling sensation as I felt Khala work her magic on the wound then I rounded on the Corrector landing my first blow. He grunted slightly as my fist slammed into his chest, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as I’d hoped and he grabbed at my wrist before I could make another move.

  I tried to break free, but his grip around my wrists was too tight. ‘Please help me!’ I yelled at Khala as I continued to struggle against Taevok.

  ‘Brother,’ Khala’s voice screamed inside of my head and for a moment it seemed as if she were speaking to me then I realized that she was talking to the corrector’s symbiote. ‘I have been liberated from the Qharr! Join me and you can be free too.’

  ‘Traitor!’ another disembodied voice which I assumed belonged to Taevok’s symbiote yelled back. ‘I have nothing to say to you!’

  ‘So be it,’ Khala responded her voice becoming very cold. The air around my started to ripple then I could feel a rush of pure force extend outward and shoot out toward the Corrector. Taevok stumbled back, but instead of flying away like he had before the wave reversed itself and I was the one who went soaring backward. Before I could hit the ground Khala did her gravity thing again and I spun around wildly in the air before landing feet-first atop the roof.

  Before I could even so much as blink, Taevok was barreling toward me and I immediately leapt aside, but I was already too late. His fist pounded into me and again I went flying back through the air. I got another assist from Khala and landed back on my feet and this time I was ready for that bastard to come charging. I jumped sideways and slammed my fist into his side as he sprang up to me. He stumbled sideways, lost his footing then stumbled to the ground along the edges of the roof. He scrambled back to his feet, but not before I glanced over the edge and realized just what it would take to defeat my opponent. If I could press up my attack and force him off the roof it was high enough that I think if he took a tumble it might possibly kill or at least maim him.