by Tristan Vick
“You wanna go back to my room or yours?” she asked.
“Are you sure you want to have sex right now?” he asked. “With the amount you just ate…”
Brei laughed. “What are you afraid of?”
“I’m afraid that cake might pop back out of you in a different configuration.”
She laughed. Then, reaching across the table she took his hand, stood up, and towed him behind her. “I guess there’s just one way to find out.”
As they were leaving the lounge, the doors slid open and Captain Lianica Blackstar entered, went over to the bar, and took a stool.
“This is the third week she’s been coming here after her shift.”
“So what?” Barrion said. “The captain likes her liquor.”
“It’s not that. It’s just…ever since she handed Danica over to the emperor, she’s been wallowing in misery. It’s not healthy.”
“The captain’s a big girl. She can handle it.”
“That’s the thing,” Lianica said, turning back to Barrion. “I don’t think she can.”
He shrugged, and then, throwing his arm across her shoulder, he walked with her back to her quarters, leaving the captain to be alone at the barstool so she could drown her sorrows in yet another Dragonian ale.
20
Heliosfire missiles exploded in a daisy chain of fiery orange plumes overhead. Extending her hands above her, Danica deflected the barrage with a blue umbrella-shaped energy shield. The rapid succession of explosions was too much for her, though, and the shield quickly faltered under the brunt of the relentless volley. A rush of hot air came swooping into the dissolving energy bubble, picked Danica up off the ground, and tossed her back twenty feet.
The air rushed out of her lungs as she hit the ground hard and tumbled to a stop in the coarse sand. Ignoring the sting of fresh scrapes, she looked up in time to see Ishtar Bantu dart past a weapons rack in time to snatch a korridium spear off it.
A series of miniature missiles exploded behind the red-skinned assassin as she evaded each micro-explosion by running up the side of the arena wall.
Explosions ignited at her heels, and with a vociferous grunt, she kicked off and did a back flip over the series of fiery orange plumes. She landed in a squatting position as debris, including smoldering concrete chunks of the wall, rained down around her. Glancing over her shoulder, she quickly located the Centurion which had shifted its attention onto her.
The machine chased after Ishtar, scuttling across the sands like a menacing scorpion, and quickly pinned her into the corner of the stadium, just beneath the senatorial booth. Her back to the arena wall, she took a defensive position as the scorpion-like machine brought its whirring saw blade down, the buzzing cutter crying out for a taste of her blood.
Almost reflexively, Ishtar managed to block the Centurion’s attack with the korridium spear. The machine’s saw blade grated into the korridium alloy shaft with an ear ringing squeal, sending up a spray of hot white sparks in the process.
But with her back pinned against the arena wall, and all six of the machine’s armored legs dug into the ground for traction, there was no easy way out. And if the blistering spray of white-hot sparks cascading down her body was any indication, unless her rival-cum-teammate, Danica, found a way to get her out of this mess, the Centurion would make quick work of her.
Across the battlefield, Danica bristled at the thought of having to help her captor and tormentor, a woman who had literally put her through a living hell. A woman who didn’t deserve the spit from Danica’s mouth. But, at the same time, she knew that if she was going to get out of this mess alive, she needed to check her emotions and suck it up.
And as much as she despised Ishtar Bantu, as much as her skin crawled every time she was near her, in this instant, they needed each other. Because, the truth was, Danica wouldn’t stand a chance alone against that thing. Let alone whatever else the GGS could think up to throw at her. Hate it or love it, they were stuck together. And that’s something she’d just have to live with.
“Gradack!” Danica growled as she pushed herself to her feet. Charging the robot, she formed a half shield, the bulb glowing bright blue as the edges that wrapped part way around her remained jagged, like a cracked egg. Doubling the shield’s forward strength for ramming speed, she roared out her most fearsome battle cry and charged full speed ahead.
The machine’s triangular head, with three menacing red eyes, swiveled around at the sound of the oncoming threat. Even as it honed in on her, it didn’t have time to react. She had gotten the jump on it and smashed into the machine with the full force of her weight.
Upon colliding with it, she instantly expanded her energy bubble so that it expanded outward, like a rapidly rising cake, and along with her forward momentum, forced the robot up onto its hind quarters. It teetered in the air, trying its best to balance itself, and was only overturned when Danica let down her forcefield and slammed into its underbelly with her shoulder.
The robotic scorpion toppled onto its backside, its legs groping aimlessly at the air, its metal body squirming as it tried to flip itself upright and regain its footing.
“Thanks,” Ishtar grumbled somewhat reluctantly.
Danica shot her a stern look, as if to reprimand her for her recklessness, and then asked, “Can you fight?”
Ishtar nodded in the affirmative and twirled her staff.
“Good,” Danica said, turning back toward the machine which was now jerking like a fish out of water as it tried to flip itself back onto its feet. “Because we’re going to need to hit that thing with everything we’ve got if we’re going to have any hope of defeating it.”
Almost as soon as she’d finished her little pep talk, the Centurion managed to right itself using its scorpion tail. It scuttled back briefly, re-evaluating the level of threat its opponents posed, fanned its legs, crouching slightly, then reared back up and roared out like a razorback lion of Scallios Prime.
“I’ll take out its eyes,” Ishtar said, ducking a swipe of the Centurion’s protracted saw blade.
At the same time, Danica leapt to the right, curling into a ball mid-air, and then rolled beyond the reach of the pincer arm that came crashing down on her previous position. The metal prongs of the pincers clanked down behind her as she sprang back to her feet. Not waiting for it to lock onto her, she quickly circled around to the back of the hideous machine, keeping it preoccupied with her evasive dance long enough to give Ishtar a chance to mount her offensive.
“I’ll try to keep him off balance long enough for you to do that.” Danica threw out her palms and released what appeared to be a bunch of small bubbles. Each bubble, was, of course, a small energy sphere piling up like sea foam.
The machine got caught in the stickiness of the multiplying energy bubbles. And even as it helped slow the Centurion down, it wasn’t enough to stop it entirely. But Danica didn’t need to stop it. Just prevent it from striking them down before they could decommission its censors.
Ishtar tucked, ducked, and rolled between the machine’s front legs and then sprang up directly beneath its chest plating. Thrusting her spear upward with full force, she jammed the pointed tip straight into the red lens of one of the Centurion’s eyes.
A crunching of glass fracturing from the blow was heard and Ishtar sprang away, retreating to a safe distance. The Centurion’s primary eye exploded with a hiss of sparks, and fragments of red glass crumbled away to reveal the mangled censors inside. The crowd erupted with elated cheers as the machine backed away from Ishtar who, not wanting to lose the offensive, swung her spear wide and raced in for another attack.
The two women continued to dance around the machine, taking turns attacking it, never staying in one place long enough for it to get a good fix on them.
The dizzying pirouette continued until, at last, a window of opportunity presented itself. Striking fast, Danica and Ishtar successfully knocked out another eye in tag-team fashion. Again, the throng of spectators erupted
with cheers for the underdogs. But by the third round, the Centurion had analyzed their strategy and, instead of evading, it growled and bull-rushed Ishtar.
With bone crushing force, Ishtar rebounded off the Centurion’s metal chassis and crashed onto her back. Stunned, she didn’t have time to scurry out of its way before it was already bearing down on top of her. Pinchers clanging, saw blade arm buzzing, it pinned her down with its front legs and growled at her like a wounded beast.
Ishtar threw up her left arm to attempt to block its attack, but screamed out as the jagged metal teeth of the saw blade bit into her flesh.
Thick dabs of dark purple blood along with shreds of red flesh splattered her face and chest as her arm, mid-bicep, flew away from her body.
Ishtar’s scream pierced the uproarious cheers of the crowd which grew into an excited frenzy at the sight of freshly spilt blood. The red-skinned assassin, the only one who had consistently seemed to be able to hold her own in a fight, was badly wounded. This would make the remaining bout all the more exciting and the crowd let the contestants know it with their renewed zeal.
Violet blood gushed from her severed limb and, fighting through the shock, she rolled out of the way just in time to avoid another swipe of the saw blade. The teeth dug into the sand, missing their mark, but the machine quickly tore the blade out again and searched for its prey.
The moment she had made it into the clear, her nemesis was right there again–on top of her, blade buzzing, pinchers clanking viciously as it came for her. She screamed out in pain-laced frustration, “Gahhh!” Scurrying backward, her bloody stump gushing blood, she looked up and prepared herself for the impending deathblow of the buzzing saw.
This time the bloodthirsty war machine aimed for Ishtar’s neck, hoping to sever her head. And it would have surely decapitated her, too, if it wasn’t for the energy shield that abruptly formed around her.
Blue energy rippled as it absorbed the brunt of the attack. The saw blade stopped mere centimeters away from Ishtar’s face. She scrambled backward to get away from the threatening robot.
“Leave…her…alone!” Danica roared. Her voice rattled with fury and, with all the strength she could muster, she erected a giant energy wall that plowed into the distracted Centurion.
Her energy sphere expanded forcefully so that it propelled the death machine straight into the concrete wall of the arena. There was a loud crunch as the wall fractured and the robot was embedded part way into it, the forcefield crumpling its legs like empty beer cans.
Still shaking with adrenaline, Danica screamed out even louder, her cries rising above those of the roaring crowd. She expanded the energy bubble again, smashing the Centurion further into the wall. The machine’s servos groaned against the compressive force of the energy shield, but even so, the machine proved relentless and began clawing at the concrete wall with its mangled limbs, trying to pull itself free.
“No you don’t,” Danica growled, and with a wave of her hands, the energy bubble popped, an assortment of patchwork fragments hanging in the air momentarily as if caught in slow motion. The tiny fragments solidified into a myriad of raindrop sized energy balls and, with the speed of a machine gun, they shot into the Centurion. Sparks flew as the energy projectiles, as powerful as disruptor blasts, tore into the armored beast.
If that wasn’t enough to destroy the Centurion, each of the individual energy pellets, now imbedded inside the machine, dissolved again and began to mend themselves back together like liquid mercury, spreading across the surface of the Centurion, filling in every seam and coating the machine with a uniform glaze of blue glowing energy. Danica held up her open hand and growled, “DIE!”
In a last-minute hail Mary attempt to put the machine out of commission, she used every ounce of remaining energy, clasped her hands into tight fists, and gritted her teeth. The energy bubble instantly contracted, constricting the machine with it, causing it to crumple inward from the added force.
The Centurion squealed like a pig being taken to slaughter and tried to break free, but Danica held on tight. By now her entire body was shaking with adrenaline; the veins in her neck bulged from the physical stress exerted on herself. She screamed one last time and a deafening boom rang out as the machine imploded under the weight of the forcefield.
A flash of blinding light dazed the onlookers and the vid-drones pulled back to avoid the backdraft of the explosion as the Centurion’s main power cells ignited. This time an even larger blast followed, blowing everyone’s hair back with a rush of hot wind, and smoke flooded the arena floor, engulfing everything in a black haze.
Moments later, emerging from the billowing strands of smoke was a bowling ball sized chunk of metal. The metal ball sparked briefly and then went silent.
A hush fell over the stunned faces of the stadium patrons as events took an unexpected left turn. Even the two-headed serpentine announcer watched on in stunned silence as he grappled with what had just happened.
Never before in the history of the arena had anyone gone up against a Centurion war robot and won. But they’d done it. Ishtar and Danica had actually done it.
It was just as Grendok had foretold. In their moment of peril, two mortal enemies had come together and survived. It was a match for the ages.
An eerie silence permeated the amphitheater as the smoke settled. Barely able to stand, Danica staggered back a step. Her arms limp at her sides, she did her best to gather herself and stand poised. She stood looking up at the countless faces looking down at her, both sharing an equal dismay for the outcome of this bout.
Before the announcer could declare the women as the triumphant victors, however, Danica’s eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the ground.
A few feet off to the side of where Danica lay, amid a scattering of carbon fiber and steel wreckage, was the Centurion’s last remaining eye. Cables dangled behind the red device, which miraculously survived the implosion. It pulsed with one final angry red flare then faded to black.
Barely able to believe her eyes and still reeling with shock, Ishtar Bantu struggled to her knees and let out a heavy sigh, her head slumping between her shoulders.
Numb from it all, she clutched her bloody appendage and stared out across the hot arena sands at Danica’s unconscious body. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why this woman–a woman whom she had tortured to within an inch of her life, whom she had violated, and who had every reason to despise her–had, against all odds, fought with all her strength to save her life.
Maybe, Ishtar thought, she had misjudged Danica. Maybe beneath that pale blue skin was the makings of a real warrior. Not just a soldier who took orders. But a woman who could defeat any enemy and emerge victorious.
21
The setting sun cast a sickly lime green light across the primordial valley. The lush basin was the only strip of fertile land as far as the eye could see in any direction from Jegra’s rocky perch of the eastern cliff face. Everything beyond the small patch of green was a barren wasteland, burnt and decaying.
The harsh electrical storms which came out of the thick green stratus that engulfed the planet never seemed to touch down on the oasis. Jegra guessed it had something to do with the electromagnetic atmosphere of the planet. A naturally occurring protective barrier that gave shelter to the small amount of life that endured on this unforgiving surface.
But, as she had quickly learned after having arrived in this hellhole, natural selection had guaranteed that everything that had endured down here was the fiercest and most dangerous of its kind. Only the fittest could survive the harsh conditions of this inhospitable planet. Everything else was relegated to the food chain for the predators that thrived and preyed on the weaker animals. Which was precisely why she wanted off this rock.
High up on the cliff, far above the green canopy, the wind snarled like a beast and the gathering of charcoal gray stratus that hung so low it seemed as if she could reach up and touch it, crackled with blue tendrils of electri
city that curled down from the dark gray clouds like the throbbing veins of some invisible monstrosity. As the cloud front slowly rolled in, she knew the electrical storm would cause too much interference for the shuttle’s navigation system and any attempt at takeoff would be compromised.
Thankfully, this approaching storm front worked in Jegra’s favor. This way, Onelle would be grounded long enough for Jegra to either talk some sense into her or pound it into her. Either way, she wasn’t about to be left behind on this godforsaken rock all alone.
A hot flash of blue lightning seared the nearby rockface, brining all of Jegra’s senses into the present. Still clutching the side of the cliff, she turned her face to avoid the spray of sparks that blew her way and looked down to find the pteranodon still circling below.
She only had one chance at this. If she missed, she’d be back to square one and without a ride off this rock. But, if she timed it just right, she would have a fighting chance.
Determined not to be marooned on this hostile world, she took in a deep breath and then, without any further hesitation, kicked off the side of the cliff and entered into a freefall.
Vaporous wisps of fog rushed passed her as she plummeted past the blurred rockface. Cutting through another thin layer of white, the green, scaly back of a pteranodon abruptly manifested beneath her and she crashed landed on its back. Startled by the sudden interloper, the dino-bird squawked noisily and frantically flapped its wings about as it zigged and zagged in a random pattern of course changes. Yet no matter how hard it tried to lose the uninvited rider clinging to its back, it could not shake her.
Jegra held on tight, settling onto the dino-bird like a cowboy settles onto a bucking bronco. “Calm…the frack…down!” she yelled, bringing a pointed elbow down onto the creature’s backbone. The dinosaur’s spine cracked as her elbow drilled into it hard and the beast reluctantly conceded the struggle and began a more normal rhythm of flight.