by Charles Case
“Send us the coordinates.” Corbin strapped the tablet to his forearm and started for the doors. “Seena and I will do what we can. Get me a connection to Glen so we can coordinate.”
Seena was right behind him when the doors cracked open just enough to let them out. After they stepped through, the doors quickly slammed shut.
“Coordinates sent.” Ren was practically frantic with worry, but she was good at her job and kept her head. “Please hurry. Lawrence is on that dropship. I… we can't lose him.”
A stab of fear for his friend shot through Corbin, but he gritted his teeth. “Leave it to us.” He ended the call and turned to Seena. “You think you can run there? I don't want you using all your power before the fight starts.”
“I’ll be fine, but you saw the same thing I did.” Seena put a hand on his arm. “That’s a Kubla ship out there. We’re not ready to face them, yet.”
Corbin smiled. “We’re not ready to face all of them, but one ship should be just about right to warm up on. Come on, every second we wait, the longer our odds of getting there in time.”
She nodded and kissed him on the cheek. “Be careful. I’ve got your back.” Then, she was off. The sonic boom slammed into him as she broke the sound barrier in a few feet of running.
Corbin felt his blood begin to boil as the coming battle loomed over him. He gathered his power and shot off over the plains, trailing behind the plume of dust in Seena's wake that stood out in the moonlight.
Today, the war would begin in earnest.
18
Corbin pulled more power from his well, reveling in the reservoir it now held. He felt invincible but knew that was a fallacy. If the Kubla were here, then they were in for the fight of their lives.
In the visions, Leela’s people were more powerful than a wind golem one-on-one, but there was never just one golem. Their strength was in numbers. And, even with his new ability, he was still weak compared to some of the supers he saw in the first vision of the battle on the street.
Glancing down, he saw the sprinting blur of Seena just ahead of him. By pushing his gravity ability he was able to keep up, but barely. The wind pulled hard against him and he had to put his mask up to see. The faster he went the more he drained his well, but compared to the day before, he felt like he could pull power all day.
The thought of Seena fighting on her own scared Corbin although he knew she was a competent martial artist in the army, and after watching Gert put her through her paces, he was even more confident. But, the thought of losing her put a fire in his belly to take on more than his fair share. After all, he had the ability to heal himself during the battle if needed. Of course, he could do the same for her, as long as he could get to her in time.
Corbin's worry and musings were interrupted by flashes in the night sky. He knew immediately what he saw; laser fire reflecting off EM shields. Dumping a little more power into his speed, Corbin was able to pass Seena. He wanted to be the first on the scene in case things went badly.
“Glen is calling,” Leela reported. He hadn’t heard the tablet ringing over the whipping winds. “I can route it through our helmet.”
“Good. Connect Seena as well, if you can. We need to coordinate.”
There was a crackle in his helmet then Glen’s voice was shouting in his ear. “Come on, Corbin! Pick up!”
“I’m here, Glen,” Corbin shouted. “What’s the situation?”
“About god damned time.” There was relief tinged with fear in his voice. “I have no idea who these bastards are, but my lasers have little to no effect on their shields and hull. They look like they’re shooting to wound rather than destroy, and to be honest that’s the only reason we’re still here. I have a feeling they could have blown us from the sky right off the bat.”
“We’re almost there. Come due east, and start dropping altitude. I know this sounds insane, but I need you to land. The enemy obviously wants something or someone on that dropship. Let’s use that to our advantage. Seena, are you with us?”
“I’m here.” She didn't sound winded, and the lack of wind noise told him Gert had created a helmet.
“Good.” Corbin thought for a second as the flashes of light turned and headed right for him. “Once the dropship is on the ground, I want you to do your best to protect the people. I have a feeling this is going to turn into a brawl really quick. While you do that, I’m going to try and do as much damage as I can while they’re still in the air.”
“We’ll make an emergency descent.” Glen’s voice strained and Corbin saw the fighter make a tight roll out of the path of laser fire from the Kubla ship. “Maybe we can catch them by surprise.”
Corbin closed with the three ships, almost faster than he could perceive. “Do it now!” he shouted, dumping power into his body and ramping his strength up into heroic levels.
The fighter and rebel dropship nosed down, diving out of the way as Corbin blew past them. The Kubla ship followed, but not in time to get out of Corbin’s way. Rolling back so his feet hit first, Corbin reversed his gravity to slow, but the ship was coming fast and he was barely able to drop below supersonic speeds before his feet smashed into the nose of the ship.
His legs flexed. Leela doubled the armor’s thickness, absorbing much of the impact. The front of the dark metal ship crumpled under his sudden weight and was violently pushed down. The craft began to spin out of control.
Pain shot up through Corbin's legs and he instinctively sent healing power to them, repairing whatever damage the insane move had caused. Gripping the front of the ship, Corbin climbed to the cockpit window and peered inside. The sight made him do a double-take.
Instead of the blue translucent wind golems he expected, a large creature of similar features sat in the cockpit seat, but this one was made up of what looked like millions of tiny pebbles surrounding larger chunks of rock that made up the basic structure.
“What the hell is that, Leela?” Corbin pulled his arm back to smash the windscreen. “I thought these things were made of wind.”
His fist slammed into the clear screen, sending out a spiderweb of cracks. The golem didn't even flinch. Instead, it wrestled with the controls, ignoring him.
“This is strange.” Leela’s voice was tinged with worry, and distant as if in deep thought. “There were never any golems made of anything but wind during the invasion.” She was quiet while he slammed his fist into the screen again, sending out more cracks. “I don't think these are Kubla. I think someone else is using their technology. It is obviously of the same design, but they never attacked with anything less than a full battalion. This is different. More focused than the Kubla ever were.”
“Well, let’s hope they still have a soft and gooey center like the wind variation.” Corbin slammed his fist into the windscreen a final time. It exploded inward, raining shards of glass into the stone golem’s face. The thing didn't even seem to notice the glass. However, it did finally turn the pinpoints of light that passed for its eyes on him.
“Oh, now you see me, you pebble bitch?” Corbin shouted, pulling himself through the window while using a boost of gravity to move quickly.
He slammed into the golem shoulder-first, punching it in the center of its chest as it wrapped its taloned hands around his back. He dumped a good amount of power into the punch but was still surprised when his fist crushed the stone chest and split it open, burying his fist to his forearm in the stone monster.
The golem howled an eerie wail of either pain or anger. Corbin couldn't tell which, but the talons on his back raked at him desperately. Leela had thickened the armor but the golem was strong, and he felt the metal at his back peel away in thin strips.
Shoving his hand further in, Corbin rooted around, feeling for the core he knew had to be there. He pulled his fist out, sending shards of stone blasting out of the hole, and slammed his fist back in. This time, he felt a hard round object about the size of a baseball and clamped his fingers around it.
With another burst of
power from his well, he squeezed as hard as he could. The ball resisted for a second, then imploded in his fingers.
The golem’s back arched and its mouth opened in a scream that never came. The lights of its eyes winked out, and the whole thing crumbled to a loose pile of rocks that spilled from the seat in a tumble.
Corbin glanced over his shoulder and saw that they were still a few hundred feet up but coming down fast. Moving quickly, he leaped to the back of the cockpit and threw the door open. His eyes widened when instead of a cargo bay full of more golems he saw that the back ramp had been lowered and only a single golem was left.
The monster turned and roared at him before jumping out the back, following his compatriots.
“Shit,” Corbin shouted, boosting his gravity up and out the back door. He shot out of the tumbling craft just in time to clear it before it smashed into the ground and exploded. A fireball rose behind him, and he shot himself to the side to avoid the blast.
Turning and falling toward the ground, Corbin surveyed the battlefield. The rebels’ dropship had landed but was still sealed up. Glen’s fighter was banking hard to come back around for a strafing run before the two dozen stone golems could close the distance to the dropship. The golems had spread out and were charging the defenseless ship as a whole, except for three that had peeled off and were going after Seena.
Corbin's first instinct was to go help Seena but as he was about to dive in her direction, he saw her throw a rock right into the face of the closest golem at supersonic speed. There was a crack of thunder as the rock split the air, then hit the golem in the chest, exploding with the force of a grenade. The golem went down and she moved on to the next.
Deciding that she had a good handle on her fight, he changed direction and aimed for the golem leading the charge.
He changed his orientation and shot feet-first at the hulking figure’s back. He wasn’t moving quite as fast as when he’d hit the Kubla ship, but it was still fast enough to force the golem off its feet and slam face-first into the ground, digging up a furrow of stone and sand a few yards long.
He spun and dumped power into his body, feeling the strength flow through him till he vibrated. The charging Kubla slowed and began to spread out. It seemed that they recognized him as a threat to take seriously. Corbin wasn't sure if he was proud of that, or if he was upset that the fight just got much harder.
Corbin shot a good amount of power into reversing the pull of the lead golem, picking him up and blasting him backward into three of his fellows. The whole group tumbled in a heap that the others behind simply jumped over.
It would take too much power to destroy them with his gravity powers alone. This was going to have to be up close and personal. Just before he could charge in, the back ramp of the dropship released and fell to the ground.
“Get down!” a familiar voice shouted, and Corbin dropped to the deck.
The night lit up as thousands of explosive rounds were fired from heavy chain guns. The tracers of every tenth round lit the air above him like laser fire. He glanced up at the oncoming golems and was happy to see that the guns were doing their job nicely.
Each round was not as damaging as Corbin had hoped, but the sheer volume of bullets along with the explosion of each impact chipped away at the lumbering beasts.
“Aim for center mass!” Corbin shouted, hoping that whoever was firing could hear him. “Their controllers are in their chests.”
Leela must have amplified his voice because he saw the spray patterns tighten on one golem’s chest at a time. The concentrated fire quickly dug out the stone around the controller, and eventually, one of the explosives destroyed it, making the golem fall to pieces.
Corbin watched as they whittled the golems down to three, then the automated clicking of empty firing chambers replaced the roar of the previous heartbeat.
Corbin moved quickly, not wanting to give the last three golems a chance to regain their footing.
He gripped one in a gravitational viselike grip, pulling its arms into its chest, where he centered the pull. Dumping power into the spot where he thought the controller might be, he focused a pinpoint of gravity and didn't hold back. The golems arms smashed into its torso, unable to extend them against the crushing weight. It fell, its legs also folding up against the hips, and deformed in unnatural ways, until the rock itself broke and crumbled. The thing shuddered and there was a popping noise from deep within the stone, then the light of its eyes went out.
Corbin released the ability, and the ball of inert stone crumbled to a pile of small pebbles.
The entire attack had only taken a second but in that time, the two other golems had halved the distance to him. Corbin dumped half his well into his physical body in one go. He felt the power surge through his limbs and a grin split his face, mimicked by the fox mask.
Instead of waiting for the next golem to make it to him, he leaped at it and tackled it to the ground, one hand on its chest, the other gripping one of its wrists. The golem landed on its back, mouth open and roaring at him. With what felt like a gentle yank, he ripped its arm off at the shoulder. As soon as the rock that made up the appendage was detached, it crumbled to simple stones in his hand. That, however, did not deter Corbin from pulling the other arm off, followed by shoving his hand into the thing’s maw and ripping the top of its head off.
Since the controller was still active, the golem was trying in vain to fight him off. With a quick stab of his fingers, he plucked the small spherical device from the stone chest and crushed it without a second thought.
Turning to the last golem, Corbin was surprised to see that it had been sliced in half at the waist. He wondered how it had happened when he saw a green blur flash by the golem, slicing the torso again. Over the next two seconds she passed by the thing so many times that there was nothing left but a ham-sized chunk of stone where the controller was.
Reaching down, Corbin picked it up and held it in one hand. Seena stopped opposite him, a cloud of dust following in her wake, giving him the first view of her mask. Where his was modeled after a fox, hers was modeled after a falcon. The beak and eye ridges gave her a fierce, graceful look, while the wide large eyes made him feel as if she could see into his soul.
He held out the last controller encased in rock. “You want to do the honors?”
“It would be my pleasure.” She hefted a severely bent and mangled piece of steel rod like a sword.
Corbin chuckled. “Where did you get that?”
She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the dropship. “In the parts storage. I think it used to be some sort of jack handle.”
Shrugging, Corbin tossed the rock up for her to hit. “Whatever works.”
In a blur, Seena cocked back and swung the rod like a bat. A loud crack followed by a shower of stones raining out into the night told Corbin that she had been right on target.
Seena propped the bent rod on her shoulder like a child with a sack on a stick running away from home, and let the hawk mask reabsorb. She was all smiles. “Let’s see who we have here.” She pointed to the dropship.
Corbin turned, lowering his mask, and saw three fully armored heavy troopers working to put their chain guns back in their cases. The bulky, heavy power armor was almost a mech suit it was so large, but the fact that it mimicked movement, instead of using controls, technically made it armor. Watching the three move in jerking starts and stops, he could tell that they were not experts with the weapons platforms by any means.
Once the crates that held the huge chain guns were closed and the reloading sequence punched in, the armored man in the middle turned and pulled his helmet off.
Corbin's eyes went wide. “Lore? What the hell are you doing in that thing?” Corbin quickly crossed to the dropship’s ramp, meeting Lawrence halfway, and shaking his hand. He had to use a little power to bolster his hand as Lawrence was still unused to the power of his grip and almost crushed Corbin's bones.
“Corbin, my man.” Lawrence was all smile
s. “We are glad to see you. I thought for sure we were goners when that fell in behind us.”
“Glad we could make it.” Seena stepped up beside Corbin and shook Lawrence's hand as well, wincing at the grip a little. “Careful with those things. You’re going to rip someone’s hand off.”
Lawrence flushed and chuckled uncomfortably. “Sorry. I haven't exactly had extensive training in one of these.”
Corbin looked the suit up and down. It was one of the older models, but still in circulation in the military. “Where the hell did you guys get those? They don't exactly sell them at the corner market.”
Trying to look down at the suit, but unable to see past the collar, Lawrence thumped himself on the chest. “You would be surprised how much stuff doesn't show up when it’s ordered and needs to be reordered. Some of that stuff was lost paperwork, but some of it was trucks that ‘got lost’ when a bribe landed in the right hands.” He made air quotes with the bulky power gloves and winked suggestively.
“We should get back to the bunker. The nighttime out in the wilds is not exactly a friendly place to have a chat.” Corbin motioned off to the east. “Wait till you see this place, man. It’s unbelievable.”
Lawrence turned to the two guys still suited up on the ramp of the dropship and made a lassoing motion over his head. “Let’s get loaded up, boys! We have a giant… thing to see.”
Corbin and Seena laughed at his over-the-top motion and word choice but they were impressed that the two armored men complied, rolling the cases with the chain guns up the ramp and past the rear barricade that hid the interior of the ship.
“Want a ride?” Lawrence asked, unconsciously trying to hike his armor up like he did with his suit pants at the office.
“I think we’re good.” Corbin clapped him on the shoulder. “In fact, we’ll get the place ready while we wait for you.”
Lawrence was about to comment but Corbin and Seena took off, Corbin literally, and Seena in a super sprint.