Legions & Legacies

by Lee Watts

  "It's not high enough," Upton grumbled as all they saw was the orange and yellow gasses.

  Balin hit a switch on the HPT, opening a call to the engineering section.

  "Engineering, the probe's still in the atmosphere; we can't see anything. Can you take it higher?"

  The voice from the speaker answered.

  "We have positive control of the probe for the moment, Sir, but the more we extend the cable, the more stress on the line. It significantly increases the chances of it sheering off."

  Looking to Upton, Balin announced, "We'll have to raise the ship." The Commodore nodded and walked to the railing overlooking the bridge.

  "Helm," he called. "Increase altitude. But not too much; we want to stay hidden in the atmosphere."

  Gently easing the ship higher, the tethered probe, at last, broke free of the clouds.

  "That's it," Upton called out. "Hold position here."

  "Looks like those incoming Entauri ships have already passed by," Balin said while studying the holographic image.

  "Excellent," Upton responded. "They won't be running active scans behind them. We're probably clear."

  Balin nodded his agreement, so the commodore turned to order the ship back into space.

  "Wait," Balin barked suddenly. Turning, Upton saw what caused the admiral's change of heart. Racing their direction were the four Hateeg capital ships that had been waiting in ambush behind the fourth planet in the system. On their way to intercept and destroy the Entauri reinforcements, the Hateeg craft would undoubtedly see the Indomitable if it ascended. With no way to help, there was nothing the Realm ship could do but watch as the Hateeg ships came to destroy the fleeing Entaurans.

  ***

  Making their way around the Fortune, Jaiden and the pirate Giovanni reached the cargo bay. Shorted out, the heavy double doors of the bay were motionless, stuck halfway from fully closing.

  "Where do we hook up the battery pack?" Jaiden asked.

  "I'm not really sure," the other man admitted. The confession did little to ease Jaiden's growing concern.

  "What do you mean you don't know?" he accused.

  "Hey, in all the years I've been on the Fortune no one has ever had to do this, but I know what we're looking for looks like so don't worry."

  "How come people on this ship keep telling me not to worry? I'm beginning to think maybe I should be worried."

  "Ah quit fretting, after all, you're not even dead yet?"

  "Yet?"

  "Don't worry about it. Come on; look for a panel marked auxiliary power ports."

  Believing more and more he was on a ship full of lunatics, Jaiden shook his head while searching for the panel. After a few minutes, Giovanni called out that he had found it. As the pirate opened the covering, Jaiden unfastened the two cables of the battery unit Giovanni carried in a backpack. Screwing down the first cable, it clicked when finally locking into place. As Jaiden reached for the free-floating end of the other cable, he detected motion at the edge of his peripheral vision. Turning to it, the light beams of his environmental suit illuminated a swift charging sea creature with a long thick body, smooth skin, and gaping mouth.

  "MOVE," Jaiden shouted, but his own frantic motions were incredibly slow compared to the monster's swift ones. The beast would be on them in seconds, and there was no way to outrun it.

  ***

  (1,000 years ago)

  Glaring up to the ledge-like second level it had fallen from, the enraged Rhia glared hungrily at Pipaluk. At the same time, vicious, immortal verses reptile combat raged in the desert temple. Leaping at her, the Rhia snapped its jaws. They caught the hem of Pipaluk's cloak when at the apex of its jump. The cloth ripped and separated from the terrified girl, and she pushed her back against the wall and statue. With some of the nearby flooring gone, the stone statue beside her wobbled. The Rhia prepared to jump again, this time with enough strength to land on the upper level and devour the human girl. With a shout born of fear and defiance, Pipaluk shoved with all she had, toppling the heavy carving over the side. The weighty stone fell hard and fast, knocking the Rhia down in mid-leap, and crushing it to death upon impacting the surface.

  As more of the lizards fell, the creatures decided the cost of this prey was too high. When the first beast rushed out of the temple, the others quickly followed. Merrick looked around; carcasses of half a dozen of the scaly creature lay scattered about the large chamber and the torn bodies of two Guardians as well. Though the animals were gone, Merrick and the other immortals knew the real fight was yet to begin. Brushing an arm across his forehead to wipe sweat from his eyes, Merrick looked to Shania. She was scratched across one arm, but otherwise fine. Returning his gaze, she smiled. More than seventeen-hundred years had passed since she'd seen such a gathering of Guardians. It refreshed her soul being with so many of her own kind. Turning to one of the room's many openings, she brought up her fiery blades waiting for the Dridmor's attack. She didn't have to wait long.

  With angry shouts and flaming staffs furiously spinning, the denizens of evil charged through the whirling sand, and the temple erupted in immortal combat.

  CHAPTER 49

  "Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." – Deuteronomy 31:6

  Slamming the engine's controls forward, Colonel Ortiz forced every bit of speed he could out of the shuttle while trying to outdistance the cannons of the Hateeg ship targeting them.

  "They're firing," Sergeant Sanders warned.

  An orange bolt of energy zoomed through the great void, tracking the shuttle's path.

  "Are we going to make it?" Aulani asked as the golden ball closed on them.

  "No," Ortiz answered plainly while pushing the engines well-past their design limits. "But the more distance it travels, the more power it bleeds off. It depends on if the power is low enough when it hits us."

  "How will we know if it's low enough?" Cheyenne asked.

  "If we don't explode, it was enough," the Colonel answered.

  Watching out the narrow back glass of the shuttle, Aulani saw the deadly sphere dissipating as it drew nearer. Cheyenne squeezed the translator's hand as the burning globe blocked out everything else in the view. Closing her eyes tightly, Cheyenne braced for the impact. Kicked hard, the shuttle fishtailed in its flight; everyone in the rear compartment was tossed roughly against the left wall then slung back toward the right. Crumbled on the floor, Cheyenne opened her eyes.

  "We made it," she breathed in relieved surprise.

  "I think we have a new problem," commented Sergeant Sanders from the copilot's chair. "Sensors show a Hateeg heavy cruiser out there, and it's directly in our flight path."

  "Heading this way?" Ortiz asked.

  "No, Sir. They're going the opposite direction. Looks like they're chasing some transports straight out of the system, but it's not what's out there that's our problem," he said. "It's what's not out there!"

  "What's not there, Sergeant?" Colonel Ortiz asked.

  "The Indomitable."

  "Everyone looked out the front window. Though the battlecarrier would be far from visual range even if it were there, the vacant black of space now seemed all the more ominous.

  "But- but where did it go?" Cheyenne asked.

  "I don't know, Ma'am," Sanders answered while checking the equipment. "I'm not reading any debris, so I don't think they were destroyed. She's just… gone."

  "Well, we're not turning around," Ortiz let them know.

  "Does this thing have lightdrive?" Aulani asked.

  "Negative."

  "Then there's no way we can make it to another star system," she said. "What are we going to do?"

  Ortiz looked at her blankly.

  "I'm… working on it," he muttered.

  "NEW PROBLEM," Sergeant Sanders voiced in alarm. "I'm detecting four Hateeg starfighters launching out after us. Intercept in ten minutes!"

  *
**

  Deep within the lifeless moon, three Hateeg starfighters entered the expansive opening near the planetoid's core. Tracking the mysterious energy signal of some unknown alien craft, the Hateeg ships were virtually on top of their quarry. Dakota knew there was no way to mask his ship's power output readings so he resigned that sooner or later the Hateeg would find the source. Deciding to use that to his advantage, Dakota quit running and let the Hateeg find what they were tracking. With his vessel concealed within one of the many tunnels leading to the lightless, hollowed-out compartment, he watched with delight as the enemy craft located his ejected power core. Dakota smiled while thinking of the consternation he was causing the enemy pilots.

  "Not under cup number one," he said to himself as light beams from the first Hateeg craft fell on the power core without a ship.

  "Not under cup number two," he gleamed as the second Hateeg vessel joined the first.

  Hearing what the other pilots had found, the third ship halted its advance and began searching the darkened chamber.

  "Sorry fellas, but if you want another chance, it'll cost you," the Realm pilot taunted and launched a trio of missiles. Though he had clear shots at all three ships, he restrained from firing at them, knowing a weapon discharge would ignite the vast quantities of tizanite in the moon. Instead, his targets were the natural columns of rock supporting the rock above them. Without a charge, the missiles had only kinetic power so while they destroyed the room's supports, they didn't ignite the tizanite. With a rumble, huge chunks of stone began slamming into the Hateeg craft, quickly crushing them. Extremely pleased with himself, Dakota's sense of triumph was short-lived. Weakened by the collapse of the room with the now buried Hateeg ships, the tunnel where Dakota was hiding also started to close in on itself, as did most tunnels in the heavily-mined moon.

  Though far removed from the blast, Ian detected the tremors and began his race to escape as the passage that was now crumbling around him. He wasn't sure how, but Ian knew that somehow the country bumpkin was responsible for the mess. Racing through the wild volley of falling rocks, he came almost nose to nose with the Hateeg starfighter that was tracking him. Immediately, the alien craft fired, missing.

  "IDIOT," Ian spat as he quickly changed course and headed down another tunnel. The Hateeg ship was in quick pursuit and kept firing. If the Hateeg pilot kept hitting the rock, his shots could hit a pocket of tizanite and detonate the entire moon. Not that being buried under a mountain of stone was a much better way to die, but Ian preferred the slim chance of escaping the cave-in than the zero chance of outrunning an exploding moon. The Hateeg fired twice more, missing his target.

  "Where'd you learn to shoot," Ian complained and slowed so the poor marksman wouldn't kill them both. A blast of energy slammed into Ian's rear shields. "That's more like it," he said then realized the ridiculousness of the situation. With no time to dwell on it, he concentrated on maneuvering his ship through the hail of rocks in a desperate flight to the surface. Trouble was, he had no idea which way led out.

  ***

  Admiral Balin and his first officer, Commodore Tom Upton, helplessly watched the image above the HPT as a quartet of Hateeg capital class ships decimated the Entauri reinforcement ships that were coming to aid in defense of their homeworld. Having dispatched the much smaller craft, the Hateeg vessels quickly sped back toward the fourth planet in the system to take concealing cover behind the world.

  "Why don't they just cloak?" Upton wondered aloud. "What's the point in hiding behind the planet when they can disappear wherever they want?"

  "Hmph," Balin huffed considering the point his first officer raised.

  "Why indeed?" Balin questioned. "Maybe they can't decloak and power up their weapons fast enough to spring their trap," he speculated.

  Tom had another theory.

  "Or maybe running active scans gives away their position, so it makes the cloak useless."

  "Admiral," called out the sensor operator, "we've lost contact with those Hateeg craft. They went off the scope when they ducked behind the planet."

  "Good," Balin said looking to Upton. "If we can't see them then they can't see us. But that still leaves those transports and the cruiser chasing it. What's their position?"

  Commodore Upton had the engineering section reposition the periscope-like probe to look in the direction of the incoming ships. On the HPT appeared the image of the fleeing transports and the Hateeg cruiser launching its first deadly bolt at them.

  "It's not too late," Upton offered as an option. "We could surface and draw their fire. It would give the transports the time they needed to escape."

  Balin bit his lower lip. He desperately wanted to raise the ship from the clouds of the gas giant and blast the heartless invaders of Entauri Major, but more than that, he wanted to keep from giving the Hateeg Confederacy an excuse to invade the Realm.

  "Hold position," Balin ordered lowly. "It's not our fight."

  In rapid fire, a series of deadly shots leaped from the main cannon of the Hateeg cruiser, slamming into and destroying the rearmost Entauri transport, and the four-hundred children aboard it.

  "I'm picking up a signal from the transports," the communications officer reported. "Running it through translation now… 'Hold your fire; hold your fire! There are children on these ships… only children!'"

  "Admiral, the Hateeg are closing on the next ship."

  "…Hold position," Balin repeated in the emotionless monotone of a condemned man.

  "Sir, I'm getting a visual transmission from one of the Entauran ships," the communications officer said.

  "Put it on up here," Commodore Upton instructed.

  The holographic projection showed a large, open bay of one of the transports where hundreds of terrified children cried and clutched each other in a fruitless search for comfort or protection.

  "Hateeg cruiser closing to range on the next transport," came a report.

  Balin stared at the hologram; he was transfixed by the terrified, innocent faces he beheld. Though the room was a sea of young people, the admiral's eyes locked onto a single boy staring directly at the camera. The child, no more than eight or nine, was silent. No tears streaked his cheeks, no one held him in consolation. Eyes affixed on the camera, the boy stood and sucked in his lower lip to keep it from trembling. He refused to cower, refused to let the Hateeg make him a beggar, and this simple act of courage and defiance cut the battle-hardened admiral to the heart. This child was willing to stand, willing to face what may come, and his simple act of courage shamed the admiral for his reluctance to act. Pushing the intercom button on the HPT, Balin addressed the entire ship.

  "Battle stations."

  ***

  (1,000 years ago)

  Flaming blades whirled in fast-paced clashes as sixty plus immortals engaged in close combat. Fighting two opponents at once, Merrick parried and slashed at the same time with his short swords. With a spinning kick, he knocked one adversary back several steps. The other Dridmor leaped, bringing his full weight and strength in a chop targeting Merrick's head. Dropping to one knee and bringing his blades high, Merrick crossed his swords in an X pattern, blocking the blow. Extending his leg, Merrick swept the Dridmor off his feet then quickly stood. The Dridmor thudded against the ground, but immediately arched his back and sprang back to his feet. Merrick's sword was there to meet him, and the Dridmor impaled himself on the Guardian's burning weapon. Withdrawing his sword, the lifeless Dridmor fell, and Merrick turned to face another foe.

  The Dridmor Gorlak swung his staff in a wide, powerful swing toward Shania's neck. Arching back, Shania avoided the strike and turned her move into a backflip. The instant she landed, she launched one of her swords at her enemy. Flying straight and swift, the blade found its mark, penetrating the center of the Dridmor's chest, killing it. As the body collapsed to the floor, Shania was already sprinting forward to retrieve the other half of her weapon. Cutting off her advance was another Dridmor. Seeing she had only one sword, he q
uickly separated his staff and rushed her with two blades. Shania had to use all of her formidable speed in deflecting the furious onslaught of slices.

  Focusing on the opponent in front of him, the Guardian Gibeon jolted in shock as much as pain as a burning blade jutted from his chest. With the Guardian dead, Koraden withdrew his sword from the dead man's back, and Gibeon crumbled to the stone floor. Turning, Koraden sought other prey when his eyes fell upon Merrick. Though the large circular room was awash with sound and motion, it all became as a slow-moving, muted distraction as Koraden focused on the Guardian he loathed the most in the entire universe. Rage filled him, and he raced forward with a savage war cry. Catching sight of Koraden, Merrick charged him as well. Leaping at the last moment into a forward double-kick, he knocked the Dridmor back more than three meters. The blow sent both immortals to the ground, and they rushed to their feet. Flaming blades were a blur of motion as each combatant pushed their abilities to the absolute limit. After blocking a powerful thrust, Merrick stepped close and pulled outward with his elbow, smashing Koraden across the jaw. The Dridmor overlord spun half around from the blow. Merrick moved to press his advantage but was cut off by other duelers. Another Dridmor lunged at him from the right, forcing Merrick to temporarily abandon the contest with Koraden. Dazed from Merrick's strike, Koraden shook his head to clear it. Turning back, he couldn't see his nemesis. Enraged, he chopped down in a fury against the back of a Guardian's neck, severing head from body. From the corner of his eye, Koraden caught motion on the ledge-like second level of the room. There, cowering, were the hated Elderites he had been looking for in the desert. Among them was the accursed slave girl who stole the crown stone keys. The pupils of his eyes widened until taking up his entire sockets. Light itself seemed to be unable to escape the blackhole like openings. With vengeful spite, he rushed up the stone steps to the ledge and advanced on Pipaluk.