“Help us!” One of the unarmed councillors bellowed.
Telarrek looked across and saw them cowering at the very edge of the platform. The Novaarian levelled his rifle and put holes in the heads of the Shay who were almost upon them. In truth, however, he thought it would have been a greater mercy to have killed the councillors and save them from the slaughter. He just couldn’t do it. Telarrek lowered the rifle to his hip and squeezed the trigger as he stepped in line with the honour guards. Between them, they put down countless Shay, but their infected kin simply crawled or leaped over them.
A warning flashed up on the hologram beside his rifle, alerting him to the depleting magazine. Telarrek knew he could kill at least ten more Shay, maybe eleven, before the rifle had to be used as a club. He wouldn’t last very long after that.
As one, Telarrek and the honour guards backed up, heading closer to the terrified councillors at the very edge of the landing pad. The Tularon honour guard on the far side, next to the pink-skinned Atari, ran out of Intrinium rounds first. Without hesitation, the furry honour guard dropped his rifle and reached for the short-sword on his thigh. The blade was razor sharp and had no trouble slicing through the Shay, but it didn’t have the reach of a rifle. One crazed alien shot out low and gripped the guard’s ankle. In the blink of an eye he was on his back and under the horde, his screams of agony muffled under the Shay.
Telarrek stepped back again, firing the last of his own rifle. A strong swing caught the closest Shay in the face and sent it tumbling over the edge of the landing pad. How many more times could he do that before fatigue set in? How many times before he was simply overwhelmed?
This was it and he knew it.
He would die beside what was left of the Highclave and never see what became of the Conclave. He had to believe that they would win, that Naydaalan would make something out of the ashes and help Kalian build a better galaxy.
The offensive rumbling sound of large engines assaulted Telarrek’s sensitive ears before a red gunship ascended above the edge of the landing pad. Before any of them could register the ship, the side panel slid open and a torrent of Intrinium fire erupted from the barrel of a high powered cannon. The Shay directly in front of the survivors were wiped out in an instant by the high calibre rounds, saving Telarrek only a moment before he was mobbed.
The Novaarian narrowed his vision to look beyond the flashes of blue, and discovered Uthor behind the cannon. Both of Telarrek’s hearts skipped a beat when he saw his old friend mowing down their enemies. It didn’t take long with a cannon like that to flatten the entire landing pad, leaving a platform of smoking dead Shay.
“Get on board!” The Raalak yelled as the gunship hovered closer to the edge.
Telarrek easily hopped the small gap and clasped his friend’s arm. “Uthor! Your timing will go down in Conclave history as legendary, I am sure.”
“As will your ability to survive, old friend!” Uthor shouted back over the engines.
The Shay on the landing pad were beginning to slither across the platform and put themselves back together.
“We need to reach the High Spire!” Telarrek urged. “There’s a—”
“Backup control system,” Uthor finished. “I know. I’m the one who had it installed.” The Raalak turned to the cockpit door. “We need to get out of here! Head for the High Spire!”
The cockpit door parted in half and a female Raalak and two infants of the same species looked back at the survivors. Telarrek couldn’t help but smile at the sight, recognising them as Uthor’s family.
“As you command!” his wife called back before moving the gunship away from the landing pad.
“She was a Dart pilot when I met her,” Uthor explained with a proud grin on his face.
“I remember,” Telarrek replied, happy to see the landing pad shrinking in the distance, along with the entire command tower. “I believe you serviced the cleaning mechs at the time…”
“Indeed,” Uthor said. “She couldn’t resist my charm!”
The two friends shared a brief laugh before Telarrek noticed the councillors’ shell-shocked expressions. They all had their own way of dealing with near-death experiences, but the Novaarian had to remind himself that these councillors had been ambassadors, not warriors. The Atari honour guard had fallen into the seat at the back of the gunship and had already begun his own ritual, one familiar to any soldier. The rifle in his hands was halfway stripped and under the scrutiny of the Atari.
“Thank you,” Telarrek said to Uthor, loud enough for the councillors to hear. He hoped it would focus them for a moment. “You saved our lives back there. And you, honour guards. Your courage kept us all going.”
The Atari nodded once as his rifle came back together. “Sir,” he addressed Uthor. “Where did you find a gunship just lying around?”
It wasn’t accusatory, Telarrek knew. He had been in situations similar to this before and could see that the warrior was trying to occupy his mind in the lull between action. It wasn’t easy to adjust from the adrenaline-filled escape to sitting in a gunship, very much alive after believing you were moments from death.
“C-Sec was doing its damnedest to organise the Raalakian population,” Uthor explained. “The pilot and gunner left the ship to help maintain order. That was when the Shay attacked. It was chaos after that. I gathered my family and headed for the Clave Command Tower, believing it to be the only safe place in the capital.”
“You were wrong,” one of the councillors blurted out.
“Well, I am just glad you arrived when you did,” Telarrek added.
The gunship continued to descend down Clave Tower and they watched every level pass by. Fires burnt out businesses and homes, people ran over the bridges, desperately trying to flee the Shay, and smoke filled the lowest levels, concealing the usual pallet of lights. The High Spire occupied the very middle of Clave Tower and was one of the few places untouched. Used only by the Highclave when addressing the masses, the enormous stadium-like facility was empty, and therefore devoid of any Shay.
Telarrek craned his neck to see the crystal spire that rose up from the centre. They had been inside when they first met Savrick, after the Gomar attacked the capital for the first time. The Novaarian had already made one daring escape from the High Spire, though it was this incursion that had led to an upgrade in the automated security.
The gunship touched down on the extended landing pad and the group filed out with Uthor collecting his family. The Raalak also detached the cannon from the side of the gunship and carried it with him. Having reloaded his own rifle, Telarrek led the way beside the Atari honour guards and made for the main doors. The Novaarian had to offer just about every part of his body before the scanners were happy that he was a member of the new Highclave and opened the doors.
“Everyone needs to step inside the bio-scanner,” Telarrek instructed inside the High Spire’s foyer. “The automated defences won’t target you as we descend into the control room.”
One by one, the councillors, the honour guard, and Uthor’s family stepped into the full body scanner. It was a slower process than Telarrek would have liked, but knowing what defences were hidden beneath square panels that were placed every fifteen metres along the ceiling, the Novaarian was happy to wait.
“Do you know the way?” the Atari asked Telarrek.
“I do,” Uthor answered. “It’s five levels down.”
With Uthor’s family and the councillors in the middle, Telarrek led the way beside the Raalak while the Atari brought up the rear. They rushed by the entrance to the grand hall, where thousands of seats overlooked the pitted court where the Highclave would sit. It was there that Kalian and Li’ara had once faced the entire Conclave, explaining their dire situation.
It was an odd thing to run through the silent empty corridors of the High Spire, but it was also comforting in a way. Telarrek had heard nothing but dying screams, gunfire, and explosions since the command tower had been overrun. He would take the eer
ie silence over that any day.
The Translift, hidden in plain sight as part of a wall, took them down into the control room. Telarrek took note of the square panel above them in the Translift, thankful again for the security measures; no one would reach them in the control room. The dark chamber beyond the opening doors came to life as the lights switched on, row by row. It wasn’t as magnificent as the room in the Clave Command Tower and it offered them no views of the capital, entirely encased in reinforced myopallic walls.
The banks of consoles were illuminated by a plethora of holograms and menus. The far wall, curved with the circular room, was taken up by one massive hologram that displayed the same galactic map as the one in the command tower. The image was one of both hope and despair.
“Our enemy has moved,” Uthor observed.
Telarrek had to agree, though the movement acted as a double-edged blade. The red dots of the enemy were crowded around Shandar as well as closing in on Evalan. It was a moment of reprieve for the other planets in the Conclave, who were mid-evacuation. Most planets were still under assault from any Shay who happened to have been on the surface at the time the Crucible was activated. Still, it was a form of offensive they could cope with, unlike an assault by the nanocelium-based ships.
“What is the location of our fleet?” one of the councillors asked.
Without any technicians or C-Sec officers to assist, Telarrek took the nearest seat and began inputting commands into the console. The main hologram changed to show them the location of every ship, both C-Sec and enemy. The C-Sec ships in Shandar’s system were dropping out fast, leaving a sea of enemies envelop the planet. The other half of the fleet were gathering on the outer edges of Evalan’s system, awaiting orders to jump in and defend the humans while Kalian attacked the harvesting ship.
“Have they engaged Evalan yet?” another councillor asked.
Telarrek sat back in his seat when the data presented itself. “They have just arrived in orbit…”
“Well, send in the fleet,” Uthor suggested.
Telarrek examined the map closely. “There are still a few of their ships yet to arrive. Kalian said we were to wait until they gathered in full—.” The Novaarian’s words were cut off by the alarm that flashed up on every screen and blared from the room’s speakers.
“What is that?” the councillors asked between each other, clearly terrified.
The Atari honour guard silenced the alarm using the console in front of him. “Intruders,” he stated. “The automated defences have been activated.”
Uthor’s wife pulled her children closer. “Nowhere is safe…”
With his large rocky hand raised to calm her, Uthor said, “We are safe in here, I promise. This room is reinforced all the way around. That door could only be opened by a Terran and the defence turrets will cut the Shay down.”
Telarrek brought up the external camera feeds using a private channel on his console. The Shay were swarming the foyer of the High Spire just as they did the command tower. The infected species were cut down in great waves by the turrets dropping down from the square panels. For all the bodies and gore that decorated the white halls, Telarrek knew they would get back up again. How much time did they really have?
“What’s that?” the Atari asked, pointing to another alert in the bottom corner of the holographic screen.
Telarrek slid his finger over the glass and removed the camera feed. The new alert was enlarged across his console, its message clear.
“The Shay have taken control of one of the Starforges…” The Novaarian was beginning to reconsider the level of intelligence the Shay retained.
“What are they doing with it?” Uthor asked.
Telarrek accessed the Forge’s details and looked up the destination the Shay were inputting into the machine’s controls. “They are opening a wormhole to Evalan!”
Uthor lurched over the console. “Can’t you shut it down?”
Telarrek searched for everything he had access to regarding the operation of all the Forges in the capital. “The Starforges are new to our systems,” the Novaarian replied frustrated. “I do not have remote access to any of them…”
The Atari honour guards removed his helmet. “If the Shay open a wormhole to Evalan, the humans won’t be able to open a wormhole to the Boundless.”
Telarrek felt his hope fading fast. “We will send in the fleet,” he replied with determination, doing his best to combat his despair. “With any luck, our forces at Shandar will soon be free to join them at Evalan and add to our numbers.”
“And the Shay will no longer pose a threat,” Uthor added.
Telarrek could hear it in their voices, in their choice of words. Their hope was indeed fading, but it was also the only thing they had left, the only thing that bound them all together.
Telarrek gritted his teeth and held on to that hope with everything he had.
Chapter 30
It would have been better to sit with Captain Fey after such a revelation, to help her to process the origins of mankind and come to terms with humanity’s immortality. Learning that your ancestors are the very creatures trying to wipe you out had come as something as a shock to Fey, but there was no time to go through it all again.
The Kellekt were here.
Kalian had heard it from ALF before the city’s early warning system alerted them to the incoming ships.
“Get to your emergency vehicles and head for the Starforge,” Kalian told the captain and Li’ara. From Fey’s office, they could see the hundreds of hover vehicles darting towards the mountains.
“Kalian…” Li’ara gripped his arm as they followed the captain out of the office.
He turned to face her. “They won’t get this planet. I promise.”
“You have to come back,” she blurted out. “If I really am going to live forever, I don’t want it to be without you.”
Somewhere between the truth and a lie, Kalian said, “No one else dies today. We’ll both survive and we’ll be together when this is all over. But I need to know that you’re safe.”
Li’ara nodded and blinked away her tears. Kalian could feel his own eyes welling up and he brought her in close to embrace. He kissed the top of her head and enjoyed the scent of her hair. They pulled apart and kissed with the passion of lovers who knew they might never see each other again.
He would see her again.
Li’ara cupped his face. “Don’t let them touch this planet.”
“Kalian!” ALF’s voice was loud in his ear. “You need to get up here now! The super subconducer is almost ready to juice you up.”
“I have to go,” he whispered to Li’ara. “Get as many people through that Forge as you can and make sure you reach the Boundless yourself.”
They parted in opposite directions, holding on to each other until their fingertips finally separated. Kalian reached out with his mind and found Sef’s unique brainwaves.
Keep her safe.
Sef’s voice replied inside his mind. I will die for her if I must.
It would be logical to ensure that Sef survived over Li’ara, being the incredible asset he was, but the love Kalian had for her would always outweigh his rational thinking.
This will all be over soon, he promised the Gomar.
Making his way on to the roof of the building, Kalian looked out at the vehicles and people making for the Forge at the end of the main street. C-Sec tanks crawled to their designated positions and aimed their cannons high, ready for the invasion from above. The Gomar were like dark sentinels, floating effortlessly above New Genesis. Kalian could feel them scanning everything around them, allowing the universe to feed their minds with data.
He hoped they would be enough.
Kalian stepped off the edge and dropped one metre before reversing his direction and launching into the sky. The nanocelium in his exosuit expanded over his head and hands, ready for the extreme change in temperature. The higher he rose, the smaller New Genesis became, reminding him how eas
y it would be to obliterate from space. His plan had to work…
After launching through Evalan’s many layers of atmosphere, Kalian turned his attention to the moon in the distance. Beyond it lay the Boundless, easily detected by the onboard wormhole connecting it to Evalan’s surface. The portal acted as a beacon to his Terran senses, but so too did the humans who were just beginning to fill its hold. So far, he thought, everything was going as—
Kalian pushed his body to the side at the last second, narrowly avoiding the sleek black column of nanocelium that hurtled past. Three more followed its trajectory, but Kalian was more concerned with their contents. Each solid column appeared to be teeming with Shay! He could feel them all writhing around inside, desperate to claw and tear at anything.
“Kalian!” ALF called in his ear. “You need to be ready. Leave them to the Gomar!”
Kalian was torn; he could see the dark columns heading New Genesis, for Li’ara, but he also had the harvesting ship in his sights, which was impossible to miss. Larger than the moon, the Kellekt’s main ship had transformed its tentacles into one solid spear point. If something that size made it any closer than the moon, Evalan’s oceans would know about it. There wouldn’t be much of a planet left to harvest if it impaled the surface either.
“Kalian!”
Before he could continue along his flight path and join up with ALF, half a dozen flashes flared among the stars. These flashes gave birth to six shining red battleships with C-Sec painted in thick white letters across their hulls. No sooner had they arrived in-system than they were launching every missile and opening up with every cannon they had. Intrinium in every ballistic form shot across space and pummelled the columns, knocking them off course.
Then another six battleships arrived, forming a barricade of ships between Evalan and the harvesting ship. Then five came into being farther out, followed by so many that Kalian stopped counting. Every Nebula- and Nova-Class battleship unleashed their payload upon the smaller enemy ships breaking away from the spear-shaped vessel.
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