by Charles Case
“I know that you know what’s coming, but I don't think you understand what’s coming. The Kubla are single-minded in their determination. When we fought them off it literally cost us everything, including ourselves. But they’re still coming, and they won’t stop with the VRC. We can play politics all day long, and if it gives us even a slight advantage it will be worth it, but you need to remember that in the end if we don't stop the Kubla, then all this maneuvering and fighting for equality and justice will amount to nothing.
“You want a better future for you and Seena and your eventual offspring, and I understand that. I want that for us as well. Remember, you and I are in this forever. We bonded, and that doesn't end with the defeat of the Kubla. So, I want us to do what we can to make this a better world, but that is secondary to our survival.”
Leela’s words hit Corbin hard. He knew they had a tough battle ahead, but he had been thinking of it as an afterthought, almost. In his mind, the real battle was to change how supers and humans interacted in the VRC.
Corbin chuckled to himself and smiled down at Leela who regarded him with her wide black eyes. “This isn’t fair, you know. Giving me the power to make the changes in society that I’ve craved my entire life, then telling me that the power is for something else entirely.”
“I know. Life rarely is fair.” She snickered, holding up a paw and inspecting it. “Look at me. I used to be a powerful member of my society. Then, my planets were burned to dust while I watched, helpless. I don't want that for your people, but if it means no one else in the universe needs to suffer at the hands of the Kubla, then the destruction of the VRC will be worth it.”
Corbin frowned. He didn't like talk of his people’s destruction, but he understood where Leela was coming from. Hell, she had already done it with her own people. There had to be a way to defeat the Kubla and save his people. He simply needed to figure out how.
“I need more power. There are no two ways about it. Meditation is good and all, but we need to step up our game. How can we speed up this process?”
Leela considered that while Corbin navigated the last few hundred yards out of the forest and converted the OVAL to hover mode. Even after pulling up the dropship’s location and plotting a course for the autopilot, she hadn’t said anything.
The OVAL processed the selected path, making a few changes for his approval when it found obstacles. He agreed to the changes and saw that the trip would take just under two hours.
“I have an idea, but it could be very dangerous if not done right. Go and get some meditation time while I talk this over with Gert. We should have something for you and Seena by the time we get to the dropship.”
Corbin nodded, and Leela flowed back into his leg. He climbed into the back and folded his legs under himself across from Seena. He watched her, breathing with the occasional movement of her eyelids, and smiled. She was beautiful. In that moment he decided that he would do whatever it took to keep her alive. Even if it meant sacrificing himself.
12
Corbin and Seena crouched behind a boulder a few hundred yards from the abandoned dropship. Pulling out a monocular from one of his pockets, Corbin surveyed the area, looking for enemy troopers. Lawrence told him that the dropship was on its own and that no more ships had been deployed to recover it, but Corbin had far too many hours out in the wilds to trust anything but his eyes. There were enemies out here that didn't walk on two legs.
“Glassers.” He handed the monocular to Seena and, sliding the assault rifle she had brought from the OVAL to her back by its strap, she took a look.
“Holy shit. I’ve never seen that many together in one place before.” She lowered the small device and glanced at Corbin, her eyes wide. “What would draw so many in? I thought they only went for live prey.”
“Usually, but if they get hungry enough they’ll scavenge the dead.” He took the monocular and put it back into one of the jumpsuit’s pockets. “Plus, there were a ton of MRE’s on that ship. A glasser’s nose is sensitive enough to smell them, even in their packaging.”
That didn't seem to settle Seena's nerves. “Can they smell us?”
“We’re downwind. We should be safe.” Glancing at the large group of near-invisible twelve-foot lizards, Corbin got the best count he could. “There are about fifteen of the bastards out there. I can take care of them with my powers without much problem. Wait here, and don't draw attention to yourself. I don't want you out there with Gert not being able to form into armor.”
The look on Seena's face told him that she didn't like the idea of sitting this one out, but she knew she would be a liability without protection. Eventually, she nodded, and he smiled back at her. She frowned at his cheery attitude and racked a round into the chamber of the rifle.
“Don’t worry. This won’t take a minute.” He stepped out from behind the rock as Leela formed into his armor.
Focusing a bit of his power into himself, he bolstered his physical abilities before activating his gravity ability and falling at speed toward the milling beasts. He had found the perfect balance of power on the first try and skimmed a foot off the ground, a smile plastered to his face.
Everything was going fine, right up until he was tackled from above by a dravek as he was passing the cockpit of the dropship.
Draveks were considered the apex predator of the wilds. Larger than a Kodiak bear and built like a Siberian tiger, the tan-scaled beast was neither mammal nor lizard, but something caught between the two.
In Corbin's haste to identify the glassers, he had failed to check the top of the dropship for predators. Draveks were known for gaining the high ground and leaping down on their prey, tearing them apart before they knew they were under attack.
The powerful taloned forearms ripped into Corbin. Leela was able to keep most of the damage at bay, but the tips of the dravek’s black talons pierced through the armor and raked bloody trails into Corbin's back.
Pain exploded from his shoulder to his hip as he was shoved to the ground, crushed under the heavy animal. Being face down, Corbin had no leverage to throw the beast off, and instead focused on healing the damage and closing the armor back up.
A pressure clamped down on Corbin's shoulder and with a glance to the side he locked gazes with the red eyes of the dravek that was biting down on his shoulder. Long fangs threatened to puncture the armor there, but Corbin saw the metal thicken as Leela compensated, keeping him from becoming the predator’s next meal.
“Well, that didn’t quite go as planned,” he grunted, beginning to focus his power into a gravity attack on the huge catlike beast.
Before he could unleash his power, the side of the dravek exploded with multiple rounds from Seena's rifle on full auto, tossing the beast off Corbin and giving him the chance to get to his feet.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Seena crouched beside the boulder, her rifle to her shoulder. He gave her a thumbs-up, but she was waving frantically at him. Too late, he realized that he was blocking her line of sight to the dravek. He whipped around just in time to dodge a talon-swipe meant for his face.
Dravek scales were as tough as heavy armor. The blood dripping from its side told him that Seena's fire had done some damage, but in truth it had probably just enraged the thing. Quickly channeling a burst of power, he induced a sideways pull on the dravek, sending it tumbling backward, directly into the pack of charging glassers he hadn’t noticed until they were nearly on top of him.
“Oh, shit.” He pushed off the ground in a leap aided by his gravity powers. He flipped backward, landing beside the boulder providing Seena what cover she had.
“No problem, huh?” Seena mocked, taking aim and sending a three-round burst down range.
One of the glassers’ heads exploded as the essence-infused rounds punched through its tough skull. She pulled the trigger several more times, dropping another glasser and wounding a third.
Corbin began tossing them into one another, but they were so closely packed that he was havin
g trouble getting enough speed out of their tumbling bodies to do much more than trip them up. Then the dravek leaped over the charging horde, and Corbin had to focus his powers on it.
He grabbed the scaled cat thing and dumped a large portion of his power into it. The dravek stopped mid-leap, and hung there for a second before the reverse gravity yanked it backward at several hundred gravities. Corbin lost sight of it in the light of Trac as it flew through the air at several hundred miles an hour. He would have laughed at the ridiculousness of throwing a dravek a few miles into the wilds, if not for the charging glassers.
There were far too many for the two of them to take out in the dozen or so yards before they overran their position. Corbin turned to grab Seena and get them away with a gravity assisted jump, when the deafening roar of several hundred autocannon slugs ripped a line through the charging glassers.
Corbin covered Seena with his armored body while looking for the source of fire. A second line of slugs tore down the few glassers that, through sheer luck, had made it out of the first attack unscathed. A sonic boom blasted sand, pebbles and bushes flat to the deck as a Nova-class starfighter slashed through the air only a dozen yards above them.
The sleek air and space fighter banked hard, leaving vapor trails in its wake, shooting off over the barren landscape before slowing and coming back around. The wedge-shaped ship flared its forward sweeping wings, bleeding off speed as its landing struts lowered from the hull. A roar of belly jets slowed the ship even more, and blew up clouds of dust as the three landing struts flexed under the ship’s weight on touchdown.
Corbin let the dust settle, keeping Seena covered while she coughed and spat.
“Are you okay?”
She waved him off, coughing once more, and spitting on the ground beside him.
They stood and turned to the starfighter as its engines were shut down and the cockpit canopy lifted. A man in an unmarked pilot’s suit and wearing a full-face helmet climbed out of the craft and onto the wing. He pulled the helmet off and tossed it back into the cockpit before jumping down off the wing and giving Corbin a hesitant wave of greeting.
Corbin recognized him as Baldy Earrings, the guy that had come to take him to Mara the first time.
“Corbin Holt?” He only took a few steps closer, worry on his pale face.
Corbin cocked his head wondering why Baldy didn't recognize him. Then he laughed, and let the fox mask reabsorb, revealing his face. Baldy smiled and quickly jogged the rest of the way over.
“They weren’t kidding about the mask. That thing is crazy.” He held out his hand. “Glen,” he prompted when it was obvious that Corbin didn't remember his name.
“Glen, right. Sorry.” Glancing over Glen’s shoulder at the starfighter, Corbin raised an eyebrow. “You’re a pilot? No, wait, that’s not my most pressing question. You guys have a starfighter? What, did it fall off a truck or something?”
Glen glanced at the ship over his shoulder. “Yes, on both counts. I am a pilot, and that thing did fall off a truck. I spent twenty in the fleet before moving to Cinder to make my fortune, as it were. Mara approached me because of my experience flying. I guess they were able to steal this thing right out of the manufacturing plant. You would be surprised what Mara has squirreled away.”
Seena walked up beside Corbin and shook Glen’s hand. “While we’re glad for the help, why are you out here at all?”
“Mara thought you might need some air support just in case there was another unexpected attack. Lawrence didn't exactly catch this one till it was all over.”
Corbin clapped the man on the back. “Well, she was right. We are glad for the support. Want to help get the dropship up and running? You can do the preflight while we clean it out and load up the OVAL.”
Glen gave a quick nod. “Whatever you need. We shouldn’t spend too much time out here, though. I say we just load the OVAL and do the cleaning later.”
“Good call. Let’s get out of here before the glassers start to smell too bad.”
Glen chuckled, then jogged off toward the rear ramp of the dropship. Corbin took Seena’s hand and jogged in the direction of the OVAL.
“Leela, we need a place to lay low. Is there another sewer system or something we can use?”
“Good idea,” Seena added. “Maybe something with access we can fly the dropship into.”
“I have just the place.” Leela sounded cheery. “As a matter of fact, it’s where Corbin and I first met.”
“That little cave? We could maybe squeeze the OVAL in there, but it would never fit down the passage, let alone a dropship.” Corbin laughed.
“Don't worry. You only saw the entrance. Trust me, there’s a lot more to that system than you might think. It used to be an emergency bunker.” Leela’s tinkling laugh made the inside of Corbin's head itch.
Corbin smiled over at Seena. “Looks like our luck might be changing.”
“God, I hope not!” Her eyes were wide in mock disbelief. “By my count, we’re two of the luckiest people in the galaxy.”
Corbin squeezed her hand in agreement.
13
Loading the OVAL into the dropship only took half an hour. Glen had run all the appropriate startup procedures while Corbin and Seena worked, so they were wheels up minutes after the last strap was in place.
Corbin quickly found the location of Leela’s cave and they were coming in for a landing after what felt like only ten minutes. The flight was so short that Corbin never got completely comfortable with the dropship’s controls before he needed to take it in for a landing.
“It’s been a hot minute since I flew one of these. I forgot how much the controls on these dropships remind me of a wallowing pig,” Corbin complained, flipping the switch to lower the landing gears.
Increasing the belly jets just a little too much on touchdown, Corbin hopped the large ship once before settling on the rocky ground a few hundred yards from the cliff that held the cave where this whole thing started.
Leaning forward, Corbin spotted the depression in the rock. “Home sweet home, Leela. Glad to be back?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it home. More like my final resting place.”
“Well, that wasn't grim or anything.” Corbin rolled his eyes, flashing a smile over at Seena in the copilot’s chair.
She raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Sorry, I forgot you can't hear her unless we’re touching— “
Seena cut him off with a raised hand as she listened to Gert. She rolled her eyes at Corbin. “What did you expect her to say, dummy?”
“How— “
“Gert told me her part. You should really be more sensitive,” Seena admonished.
“Uh, sorry, Leela.”
“It’s no big deal. Why don't we head in and I’ll lead you to the place I’m thinking of. Gert wants to do some more training with Seena, so her afternoon is booked up.”
Corbin unbuckled and climbed out of the small seat. He needed to lift his leg over the middle console in order to get out. “Okay, Leela and I will be back shortly. Leela tells me Gert has plans for you.”
Seena sighed and nodded. “Yeah. It’s going to be super fun.”
Corbin laughed, giving her shoulder a tender squeeze before leaning in and kissing her. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be worth it soon.”
She smiled up at him. “I know. You two get out of here and find us a new home.”
“You got it, darlin’.” He leaned down and kissed her one more time, then opened the door and stepped out of the cockpit.
“Wow, this place looks way different with the lights on.”
Corbin slowly spun in a circle taking in the now-lit circular room where he had found Leela. The walls were carved with intricate designs he only vaguely remembered from his first time. There was now another doorway in the opposite wall from where he entered, unlike the previous visit.
“We need to keep going deeper. It’s not far,” Leela prompted.
Corbin turned to th
e new doorway and peeked through before continuing down a hall with several closed doors along its walls.
“What’s in the rooms?” Corbin tried pushing on one of the doors, but it wouldn’t budge.
“They were storage and offices. I told you this was a bunker, but I may have underplayed how big of a bunker it was. It’s just through the doors at the end of the hall.” The amused anticipation in her voice made Corbin smile.
He walked to the end of the hall and the double doors slid open at his approach. Not understanding what he was seeing, Corbin slowed to a stop as he stepped through the opening. It took a few seconds for his brain to catch up with what he was seeing.
There are times when a sight is so new that the brain doesn't know what to do with it. This was one of those moments for Corbin.
The “room” on the other side of the doorway was so huge that he was having trouble understanding the proportions. The entire room was an arch that stretched into the mountain for at least two miles and had to be three-quarters of a mile wide. The ceiling soared half a mile at its highest point. Just like in the sewer system, every surface emanated light, which made the walls and floor blend together as far as the eye could see.
“How many people are supposed to fit in here?” Corbin realized his mouth was hanging open.
“There used to be a city at the base of the mountains here. This particular bunker was for the entire population. Unfortunately, this side of the planet was facing the anomaly and was wiped out before anyone could get in here.”
“That had to be millions of people.” Corbin scanned for any features in the glowing background of the huge space. “I can't believe a room this large could even be constructed, let alone in the short time from the first signs of invasion to the end of the war.” He spotted a large set of double doors built into the left side wall about a half-mile down from the end where he stood.
Corbin started walking toward the doors as Leela spoke. “It was a marvel of engineering and supers working together. In our day, we could accomplish anything. Well, almost anything.” The last was said solemnly.