Into the Fire Part I: Requiem of Souls (Universe in Flames Book 9)

by Christian Kallias

  From the corner of her eye, she saw another man reaching for his blaster. She needed to act fast; she broke the knife-wielding man’s arm by thrusting her elbow hard against the man’s forearm. It violently broke, and his bone protruded out making an L-shape of his forearm, as he dropped the knife, screaming hard.

  Gaia caught the falling knife and knocked him unconscious by spinning on herself and smacking his temple with her other elbow. Using her momentum, she threw the knife at the bicep of the man that was raising his blaster. He reflexively depressed the trigger of his weapon before dropping it. The shot grazed Gaia’s left cheek, making a small incision. She jumped and grabbed a low hanging ceiling pipe and thrust both her feet into the man’s face, smashing his head against the wall and knocking his lights out.

  Sleeping gas started to fill the room, and she had trouble moving as fast as she wanted to with her brain slowly running out of oxygen. She swiftly picked up the canister and turned it off. That’s when she saw the last conscious man walk toward her with a light blade.

  The tip of the blade hummed uncomfortably close to Gaia’s face. Her brain seriously lacked oxygen, so she knew she would need to take him down quickly. He made his move, slashing the blade toward her. Gaia blocked the man’s blade-wielding hand with ease and planted her knee into his torso. It knocked the wind out of him and he dropped his weapon. Gaia caught it, turned it off and threw it across the room before reacquiring the man’s arm and twisting it behind his back, breaking it in the process. He tried to scream but wheezed and coughed instead.

  She grabbed him by the hair and violently smashed his forehead three times against the metallic bunk bed frame. He fell to the ground like a rock.

  Gaia’s sight started to blur, and she felt dizzy. She walked out of the quarters and took a long, deep breath of needed air, alleviating the burning in her lungs.

  The pain stopped after a few more breaths, but she braced herself when she heard heavy footsteps running toward her. She spun around and saw Spiros emerging from the corner of the corridor.

  “Oh, thank gods,” he said. “Why didn’t you answer earlier?”

  “I was busy taking care of the men inside the quarters.”

  When Spiros looked inside, four men lay on the ground with various wounds and bloody faces. Some looked dead.

  “What happened to non-lethal?”

  “Oh, they’ll live.”

  “If you say so. Let’s tie them up then.”

  But then the ship changed course.

  “Crap! The pilots must have over-ridden my lock of their systems.”

  The gas canister rolled outside of the room and hit Gaia’s foot. She grabbed it, set a fifteen-second delay, reactivated the device, and threw it back in. She pressed the door controls to close the room again and smashed the control panel with her elbow. Sparks flew. She saw her blaster nearby, grabbed it and magnetically re-holstered it to her belt.

  “That way we don’t need to worry about tying them up anymore.”

  Spiros blinked three times in a row.

  “Let’s go reclaim the cockpit,” said Gaia calmly.

  CHASE TURNED TO MENELAS.

  “Can you tell us where to find the soul ships?”

  “I’ve hidden them inside the core of a planet far from here.”

  “Why the core?”

  “The molten metal in constant movement around the core of a planet covers the energy emission from the force field protecting the ships. Providing them with a stealth veil if you wish.”

  That made sense and was quite an ingenious place to hide ships.

  “But what if that planet had been destroyed?”

  “I’ve chosen a remote enough world; one where technological advancement was low.”

  “Yeah, but that was ten thousand years ago; they could have evolved since then.”

  “I know. The force field protecting the ship should, in theory, be able to sustain even the destruction of the world. The ship would then automatically jump to different corners of the galaxy, making their retrieval more complicated.”

  “Well, let’s hope this hasn’t happened; I’m not sure we have the time to go on a blind ship hunt. We need to strike the Furies while they are at their weakest, now that they have lost most of their armadas. We cannot afford to let them rebuild.”

  “I’ve given the Asgardians a device that would allow us to track them if that eventually unfolded.”

  Chase turned to Thor.

  “Do you know about this device?”

  “No, I’m afraid not, but I’m sure Odin would.”

  “Alright then,” said Chase, returning his gaze to his father.

  “Before you ask any more questions,” said Menelas preemptively, “can I ask one of my own?”

  “Of course,” said Chase.

  “Is Athena still alive?”

  “She is. Her ship was heavily damaged during the battle with a new sort of ship we haven’t encountered before, but they’re already in the process of repairing it.”

  “Thank the gods of Olympus.”

  “Whatever’s left of them,” said Argos solemnly.

  “So, it’s true?” inquired Menelas. “Arakan destroyed Olympus and killed Zeus?”

  “I’m afraid so,” sighed Chase.

  26

  “Impossible!” spat Arakan with some accompanying blood.

  He breathed heavily as more blood dripped from both sides of his mouth.

  How can these two miserable insects manage to draw my blood?

  I’ve been observing you fight, Supreme Commander, and I once more propose that we fuse together in order to kill your enemies, proposed Tanak’Vor inside his mind.

  I don’t need your help!

  Pride and ego; never a good mix, Supreme Commander.

  Get the hell out of my head; I have a fight to finish.

  Looks to me like your daughter has a fight to finish with you. But far be it for me to tell you what to do, even when it’s in your best interest.

  Arakan growled instead of continuing the sterile conversation.

  One last friendly warning, though, added Tanak’Vor. Once your heart stops beating inside your adoptive daughter’s hand, it will be too late for me to help you; I hope you realize that.

  There was no way Arakan would let Oryn get the better of him. In fact, he was already running out of patience with his opponents and wanted to go and kill Chase and Argos, so he decided that it was time to shake things up.

  He took a power-up building stance as he unleashed an inhuman roar that sounded like it came from the depths of hell itself. Everything around trembled as his aura doubled in size each second, soon shining for yards around him.

  Arakan smiled as he saw a spark of fear in both his adoptive daughter and the Olympian.

  They are right to fear me. They should never have defied the Fury God!

  I think you’re mixing up determination with fear, Arakan.

  Arakan was surprised that the shadow had addressed him by his first name but mostly was angered that he was still pestering him in a moment like this.

  I thought I had told you to shut the fuck up and get out of my head; leave me be! For good this time!

  Very well; it’s your funeral. Goodbye, Arakan.

  Arakan snorted the thought away. That damn shadow would be back pestering his thoughts soon enough, as he always did. Until then, he would hopefully let Arakan finish his fight in peace.

  “WE HAVE TO HURRY,” said Spiros when they arrived near the cockpit doors. “If they land the ship near re-enforcements, they could storm the ship and then it’s game over.”

  “We’ve been running to get here; I do not see how we could have been any faster.”

  Right, why do I even bother? thought Spiros.

  “How do you want to approach this?”

  “You hack the door open; I shoot them down.”

  “Straightforward enough, I like that. Give me a second to hack that door. Be ready to fire.”

  Gaia grabbe
d her blaster and pointed it forward.

  “It’s been three seconds already,” she said.

  “One second is a human expression; it means I’ll do it in a moment.”

  “I see, but then why do humans not say ‘in a moment’, then?”

  Spiros exhaled in frustration. He decided his time was better spent hacking the door than trying to continue this conversation. Soon, the door unlocked and Gaia opened fire before it had completely split open. She was hit on the shoulder by incoming laser fire before she managed to bring the second man down. She fired three more shots into the man’s torso, and he collapsed, back first, onto his console and accidentally put the ship into a tight spin.

  Spiros’ stomach quickly became queasy as he was thrown head first into Gaia’s bosoms. The next spin sent him crashing into the bulkhead. Gaia tried to step into the cockpit despite the strong centripetal forces. A small crate flew out of nowhere and hit her squarely on the back, sending her crashing, head first, to the floor.

  Spiros preformed his fastest mental hack to date, and regained control of the engines, stabilizing the ship. Just when he thought his stomach would settle, he vomited on his feet.

  “Here goes lunch…Are you alright, Gaia?”

  When he saw a growing puddle of blood under her head, his blood froze.

  “No, no, no, Gaia!”

  He crouched by her side and turned her on her back. She probably had a concussion, and a surface wound to her scalp was bleeding.

  “Hang on, dear,” he said out loud.

  He sat at the console and set the ship to autopilot. He then located sickbay from the ship’s schematics and took Gaia into his arms. “Hang on; we’ll get you patched up.”

  CHASE FELT both Oryn and Arakan’s energy build up massively. They had begun fighting. Oryn’s energy levels were stronger than when he faced her.

  “Shouldn’t we go help her?” inquired Argos.

  Chase was surprised by his brother’s question; he knew how little he valued or appreciated her.

  “Perhaps I should go alone,” proposed Chase.

  “No! We all go, or none of us do,” protested Argos. “You said it yourself; nobody takes on Arakan alone; don’t exclude yourself from your own rules. Plus, we may never have another chance to have five Furies and an Olympian all fighting together. That’s a lot of firepower; we could end this war right here and now.”

  Chris, who had stayed silent, walked outside of the shadows.

  “I agree with uncle; we should join forces and destroy him. I don’t care how powerful he is, with our combined firepower, I’m sure we can take him down.”

  “Except that we’ve all used a lot of energy up until this point,” cautioned Chase. “Nor can we risk Menelas’ life. He’s the only one who knows where the soul ships are.”

  “I’m perfectly able to fight, Chase, with all due respect. In fact, you’ll find I’m an accomplished fighter. And truth be told, I’d love to be a part of the team that kills Arakan. Given the chance, I’d probably take him on my own; we have unfinished business him and I.”

  “And that’s exactly why I don’t like the idea of you taking part in that battle.”

  “Listen, son—”

  Chase’s look hardened and he shook his index finger at him. “Uh-uh, you haven’t earned that yet.”

  Menelas nodded. “Fair enough, Chase. Please listen to me. I won’t take any unnecessary risks, I give you my word; but Argos and your son are right, together we can defeat Arakan, today.”

  “And if you die, we lose our one chance at acquiring the soul ships. Can you at least tell us the name of the planet?”

  Menelas shook his head. “I can only point to it on a star map; I would recognize the star system if I saw it, but I specifically didn’t memorize any details beyond the star system configuration to make sure that if I was tortured for the information, I couldn’t tell them more than I knew.”

  “And have you?” asked Argos. “Been tortured, I mean?”

  “For a very long time; Arakan is a persistent sort of mad man,” answered Menelas.

  “If we take a vote, and perhaps we should in this case, I vote that our father comes with us. Worse comes to worse, I’ll risk my own life to protect him.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t do that Argos; I’ll be fine,” reassured Menelas.

  Chase also hoped Argos wouldn’t risk his own life, no matter the situation. He had grown very fond of his brother. But he understood Argos’ drive and logic. Especially now that he was also an Ultra Fury; he could easily protect Menelas in the middle of a chaotic fight with minimal risk to his own life.

  “Let’s not forget that if Arakan manages to injure us and draw blood via physical contact, we may die from that wound.”

  “Poseidon survived,” noted Argos, knowing that was a razor-thin argument.

  “That doesn’t mean we would; depending on the wound.”

  Chase felt Poseidon’s aura grow as well. He had joined Oryn.

  “I think I’m gonna regret this, but alright. I have a few ground rules, though.”

  “Of course you do,” jested Chris with a chuckle.

  Chase grinned and waved a playful finger at his son. “Don’t you start, now.”

  “What are your rules?” said Thor, approaching the group.

  “You’re coming too?” questioned Chase.

  “This man tried to assassinate my father, and I’d like to repay him in kind.”

  “Who’s then covering Kvasir while we go to the throne room?” cautioned Chase.

  “I think I’ll be fine,” said Kvasir. “Plus, it looks like I might be done in the next fifteen minutes. Worse comes to worse, I’ll contact you, and you can teleport back, can’t you?”

  Chase didn’t like the idea of leaving Kvasir all alone, but the risk to his life was only minimal. Arakan was busy fighting two lethal opponents right now, and he would soon fight many more. Kvasir was right, if worse came to worse, Chase could get him out of Dodge.

  “Very well. Here are my rules. We’ve already spent a substantial amount of energy fighting hordes of Furies, Zargon and more, so we don’t take any unnecessary risks during the fight. We fight together and as a unit, intelligently, smartly, sparing our energy and playing on our strengths. And, if things look like they’re not going well, I don’t want to hear any arguments from any of you. If I decide we need to retreat, that’s exactly what we will do. One last thing, Menelas cannot be killed. I don’t want any of us to lose their lives protecting him either, but he needs to survive today.”

  “And that,” said Chris “is why he’s the Admiral.”

  Chris, Argos and Chase laughed.

  “Admiral, huh?” said Menelas, his eyes sparkling with pride.

  Chase shrugged.

  “Are you teleporting us there?” inquired Thor.

  “I’d rather we run or fly,” said Chase. “Teleporting you all at once would drain more than half of the juice I have left. I need to conserve my energy in case I need to get us out of there.”

  Chris flexed on his knees a couple of times and stretched.

  “Let’s not waste any more time; let’s go!”

  In a flash, all but Kvasir had exited the room.

  “Eeeer— Bye, guys?” said Kvasir incredulously “Never mind; I guess I’ll keep working on the machine, then,” he added.

  WHEN GAIA OPENED HER EYES, Spiros got up from a nearby chair.

  “You’ve hit your head pretty badly, but fortunately it wasn’t as serious as it first looked,” he reassured.

  “Did we accomplish our mission?”

  “We did retake the ship, yes, even though I had an unexpected encounter with one crewman I forgot we hadn’t dealt with on my way to sickbay, but I took care of it.”

  “The biomaterials?” inquired Gaia.

  “We’re on our way there; I expect we’ll be there any minute, now. The good news is, while you were resting after I used this ship’s crude medical equipment to tend to your wound; I discov
ered that the ship has a cargo teleporter. I think we can just lock onto the materials we need, set a course back to the lab, and be on our way.”

  “That’s great news. How long have I been out?”

  “Just under twenty minutes.”

  “My head is pounding.”

  “That will happen when you hit it that hard against any solid surface.”

  “The frailty of these bodies is a tactical disadvantage.”

  “Well, that’s what it means to be human, I guess.”

  “I’m not human. And my older body easily could have taken such treatment without the loss of consciousness.”

  Spiros scratched his head. Had he heard her right?

  “What do you mean your old body? This is your first body.”

  “No, I clearly remember a time when my body was made of metal; I have these flashes. I see myself and others like me fight some strong men with incredible powers.”

  Did the head injury cause an inadvertent memory data-leak? Spiros would have to keep a close eye on that and make sure that if there had been a leak, the data had just been accessed or copied, and not moved.

  “Is there anything else you remember?”

  “Just some random flashes. I am having a hard time understanding them without some context.”

  “That’s alright; just dismiss those, they won’t help us deal with our mission.”

  “Understood.”

  A double bleep sounded over sickbay’s speakers.

  “What is that?” she inquired.

  “It’s just a proximity waypoint alert I had set up earlier. In means we’re three minutes away from our target.”

  Gaia tried to get up from her medical bed, but her head spun, and she felt dizzy.

  “Don’t move just yet; I can take care of that part on my own, you just rest.”

  “Can I ask you a question, Spiros?”

  “Of course. But make it quick as I need to go back to the cockpit now.”

  “Is my brain human or am I part machine?”

  “It’s a little complicated; you have elements of both. I’ll explain it in more detail later, okay?”