by Scott Sigler
“Then why?”
Tara looked down. “He stuck up for me. That ... that is not something I am used to.” The misshapen Quyth Warrior looked up. “You did the same. Why would either of you defend me?”
For some reason — maybe the relief of being alive, maybe the fact that Tara still didn’t get this culture — Quentin laughed.
“Because you’re a Kraken,” he said. “That’s all the reason I need.”
The landing bay doors opened. Bridge crew rushed in, as did Michael Kimberlin and Aleksandar Michnik. Doc Patah led a floating medsled. Once the big HeavyG players had lifted George, strapped him to the medsled and led him out of the bay, only then did Quentin relax.
He lightly punched Tara’s middle shoulder. “Come on, we’re going to the dining deck for a beer.”
“I do not drink beer.”
“Then you can watch me drink one.”
Side by side, Quentin Barnes and Tara the Freak trudged out of the landing bay, leaving the bridge crew to make sure everything was ship-shape.
• • •
KRAKENS DEFENSIVE END CLIFF FROST did better than anyone could have expected. When it came to pass rushing, anyway.
The HeavyG free agent turned out to be a natural, one of those players that does far more in an actual game than he ever accomplished in practice. He attacked the Dreadnaughts offensive tackles, tight ends, fullbacks ... anyone wearing the dark brown jerseys that tried to block him.
Those that tried to pass block him, anyway. He finished the day with two sacks of Dreadnaughts QB Gavin Warren. He knocked Warren down another four times. Cliff Frost could rush the passer. What Cliff Frost couldn’t do was stop the run.
When pass-blocking, offensive linemen back up, react to what the defender tries to do to reach the quarterback. For run blocking, on the other hand, the offensive linemen gets to step forward and attack, using momentum and their mass to their advantage.
If Frost wasn’t pinning his ears back and raging in hard on all-fours, his big HeavyG hands slapping at crimson helmets, his orange-jerseyed body spinning and ripping and pushing, he was basically getting knocked on his ass. When the offensive linemen came at him, instead of backpedaling away from him, Cliff was worthless.
The Dreadnaughts took advantage of that fact all day, constantly attacking Frost by sending running back Don Dennis on off-tackle plays around the left end. Frost’s inability to stop the run made Hokor put in Wan-A-Tagol at defensive end. But the Dreadnaughts coach Smitty Halibut seemed prepared for this as well — when Frost was in, the Dreadnaughts ran it, when Wan-A was in, Themala dropped back to pass. Wan-A’s pass rush put no pressure on Warren.
Aleksandar Michnik, Ionath’s left defensive end, still brought pressure, but when Warren had to pass he simply rolled right, away from Michnik and toward the ineffective Wan-A-Tagol. That gave Warren time to throw and he used short passes to pick the Krakens apart.
The result was that Themala controlled the ball with long, yardage-chewing, clock-eating drives that kept Quentin & Co. off the field. The Dreadnaughts maintained possession for a decisive 42 minutes and 18 seconds, leaving the ball in Quentin’s hands for only 17 minutes and 42 seconds. The Krakens D held Themala to 20 points — but Quentin’s offense could only post 17.
Quentin spent most of the game on the sidelines, shaking his head at Smitty Halibut’s tactical skill. Quite simply, Hokor had been out-coached. Halibut game-planned for Khomeni’s replacements. An injury to one player could — and did — make a galaxy’s worth of difference.
When the final seconds ticked off the clock, Themala had moved to 8-3. The Ionath Krakens dropped to 7-4. Quentin looked to the scoreboard, watched the results of the other games as they came in.
Yall had defeated Wabash 38-36. The loss didn’t impact Wabash, who was 9-2 and already in the playoffs. The game did, however, move Yall to 8-3 — one game ahead of Ionath. The To Pirates, fortunately, beat Isis 28-24, knocking the Ice Storm down to 7-4.
The playoff math was complicated, but one thing stood clear — for the second year in a row, everything would come down to the last game of the season. Next week, the Krakens against the Vanguard. Sunday Night Football. Because there was no Monday Night Football the week before the playoffs, it meant that all other games would finish before Ionath/Vik. By the end of the Krakens’ Week Thirteen tilt, they would know if they were moving on to the postseason or heading home to wait six months for their next shot.
Themala had out-coached Hokor, sure, but Hokor would adjust the Krakens strategy for Vik. Had to adjust, because Khomeni would still be out of the lineup.
One way or another, the Krakens had to find a way to win.
GFL WEEK TWELVE ROUNDUP
Courtesy of Galaxy Sports Network
THE TO PIRATES (9-2) are in the postseason thanks to a 28-24 win over the Isis Ice Storm (7-4). The loss nearly crippled Isis’s chances, putting them a game behind Themala and Yall, which are both 8-3. For Isis to get in, Week Thirteen must see the Ice Storm defeat Themala, and Yall must drop its final game to the Pirates. Isis owns the head-to-head tiebreaker against Yall, so if they both finish 8-4, Isis is in.
If Themala beats Isis, the Dreadnaughts finish 9-3 and are in the playoffs. If Themala loses that game, they are 8-4 and out of the playoffs due to being on the bad side of a head-to-head tiebreaker with Yall.
Ionath is also 7-4 but needs more help to make the postseason. The Krakens must win a tough game against the Vik Vanguard (8-3) and also must see Yall lose to the Pirates. Ionath owns the tiebreaker over the Ice Storm, thanks to a 24-21 Week One win, so if both teams finish 8-4, Ionath is in.
There is a possibility that Ionath, Themala, Yall and Isis will all finish 8-4. If that happens, a complex tiebreaker process will ensue.
Yall’s 38-36 defeat of the Wabash Wolfpack kept the Criminals in the playoff hunt. Wabash is already guaranteed a postseason appearance, although the Pack could finish anywhere from the first to the third seed.
Over in the Solar Division, the dance card is full. Neptune (10-1) defeated the Jupiter Jacks (8-3) to take the Solar Division title, lock up a first-place seed and earn home-field advantage in the first and second playoff rounds. Jupiter and Vik will have either the second or third seed, depending on the outcome of their Week Thirteen games.
The Bartel Water Bugs (6-5) claimed the fourth and final Solar playoff spot, thanks to a 17-14 win over the Texas Earthlings (4-7). Even if Bartel loses their final game and Jang (5-6) wins, both teams will finish with 6-6 records and the ‘Bugs get the playoff spot due to the head-to-head tie-breaker.
Relegations
Sala’s 31-13 loss to the D’Kow War Dogs drops the Intrigue’s record to 1-10, sealing its relegation fate. With one game left in the season, Sala is two games behind the next-closest team, the Shorah Warlords (3-8).
The Alimum Armada (3-8) won 27-21 over the Orbiting Death (4-7). That, combined with Lu’s 23-13 loss to the Hittoni Hullwalkers (5-6) means that the Juggernauts (1-10) are relegated out of the Planet Division.
Deaths
Lu Juggernauts center Rikard Pettersson, killed on a clean hit by Hittoni Hullwalkers nose-tackle Pro-Co-Pio.
Offensive Player of the Week
Texas receiver Leavenworth, who caught 11 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns in the Earthlings’ 17-14 losing effort to the Bartel Waterbugs.
Defensive Player of the Week
Vik defensive tackle E-Coo-Lee, who had six solo tackles, one sack, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery in the Vanguard’s 10-0 shutout of the Bord Brigands.
23
WEEK THIRTEEN:
IONATH KRAKENS
at VIK VANGUARD
PLANET DIVISION
9-2 x - Wabash Wolfpack
9-2 x - To Pirates
8-3 Themala Dreadnaughts
8-3 Yall Criminals
7-4 Ionath Krakens
7-4 Isis Ice Storm
5-6 Hittoni Hullwalkers
4-7 OS1 Orbiting Death<
br />
3-8 Coranadillana Cloud Killers
3-8 Alimum Armada
1-10 *Lu Juggernauts
SOLAR DIVISION
10-1 y - Neptune Scarlet Fliers
8-3 x - Jupiter Jacks
8-3 x - Vik Vanguard
6-5 x - Bartel Water Bugs
5-6 Jang Atom Smashers
4-7 Bord Brigands
4-7 Texas Earthlings
4-7 D’Kow War Dogs
4-7 New Rodina Astronauts
3-8 Shorah Warlords
1-10 *Sala Intrigue
x = playoffs, y = division title, * = team has been relegated
BEAUTY. DEATH.
Two words that seemed to be opposites, but both applied to the planet Ki, home of the Empire. Nine-point-one billion sentients lived on the Earth-sized sphere. Where Earth’s twelve billion covered the planet with concrete, glass and steel, reducing plant life to the realms of isolated reserves, Ki looked untouched — a lush, endless vista of yellow and red land mass and oceans of emerald-green spotted with fuzzy dots of blue.
The red and yellow were the colors of native trees. The blue spots in the oceans represented bacterial blooms hundreds of miles wide, part of the ongoing lifecycle between the bacteria and the microscopic, waterborne plants that created the dominant green color.
Those colors, the pristine, natural expanse of forests so thick you could go from coast to coast without touching the ground, those were the beauty of the planet.
As for death, that came from the Ki themselves.
Quentin Barnes had been born and raised in a violent place. From what Kimberlin had taught him, the Purist Nation — Humanity’s most violent society, by far — had nothing on the Ki culture. Wars raged beneath the endless forest canopy. The Creterakians controlled what they could, removed firearms whenever possible. That meant that most of the time, Ki fought with axes, swords, knives, spears, even clubs.
The Ki species had developed agriculture by taking food and materials from their trees instead of cutting them down and planting other things. Even their prey animals flourished in and among the towering red plants. As such, the Ki never leveled their forests as had the Humans and the Sklorno. This lack of open spaces impacted the Ki’s style of warfare — even large-scale conflicts still had the feel of guerilla battles.
The Ki had been a pre-industrial species when the Collectors landed over a thousand years ago. The Collectors enslaved the Ki race, turning them into shock troops that would help the Collectors conquer other planets. After overthrowing their Collector overlords in 2009 ErT, the Ki slid into a dark age. There the race stayed for five hundred years, centuries of tribal warfare and sacrifice to dark gods, a time of subsistence farming and feudal hierarchy. This lasted until the Givers landed in 2518. For the second time, an alien race advanced the Ki beyond their own means.
The Givers provided punch-drive technology, taught the Ki to build starships and also taught them how to develop natural resources without altering the face of the planet. The Ki responded by butchering their benefactors, ending the Givers’ run of technological benevolence that brought faster-than-light travel to the Harrah and the Kurgurk.
Quentin thought about the planet’s history as the shuttle rattled through the thick atmosphere. It seemed shocking to see forest running to the horizon in every direction. Through planning or luck — or possibly both — the Ki had avoided the endless urban sprawl that now covered the surface of Earth, Chachana, Satirli 6 and dozens of other worlds.
The shuttle angled toward a massive, circular city covered by a high dome. Most Ki citizens lived beneath the forest canopy, but intergalactic business required dealings with other races — that meant domed cities dedicated to commerce.
This dome: the city of VikPor, the very capital of the Ki Empire. Home to not one, not two, but three professional rugby clubs, including the two-time galactic champion Vik Vengeance. Rugby remained the Ki Empire’s top sport, but that didn’t mean the sentients didn’t enjoy their gridiron. Gridiron was the galaxy’s most-popular spectator sport. That meant football was where the big money lie. Where there is money, there are the Ki.
Five years ago, the Vanguard had come just five points from winning it all when they lost Galaxy Bowl 2679 to New Rodina. The team had fallen apart after that, barely winning enough games to avoid relegation. Team owner Kin-Shal-An had hired new coaches, signed key free agents and invested in rookies. Out of the fifty-three players on the 2679 team, only four remained. Forty-nine new faces in all. The Vanguard had gelled into one of the league’s best teams, as evidenced by its six-game winning streak. If Vik landed a seventh-straight win, it had a shot at a home playoff game.
Quentin would not let that happen.
The shuttle slid through a dissolving hole in the city dome, a hole that closed up as soon as the shuttle passed through. Quyth technology. The Ki culture had money to burn — they bought the best tech available anywhere in the galaxy. Like other Ki cities, VikPor was laid out in concentric rings that alternated circles of tall buildings and circles of native vegetation. Near the city center, Quentin saw VikPor’s crowning jewel: three stadiums, one for each rugby team. The teams could have shared a stadium, but funds to build massive structures were in no short supply.
The shuttle shot past that trio of temples, moved closed to the city dome’s edge. There lie the floating Kin-Shal-An Trade Guild Stadium — just two decks, a seating capacity of only 65,000. Six huge, deep-green, arcing pillars rose up and in from a hexagonal base. Thick cables webbed out from each pillar, running down to the stadium’s concave yellow-brown base, under it, rising up and connecting to other pillars. The entire stadium hovered a hundred feet above the city. Kin-Shal-An’s architectural statement of grandeur. Below the stadium, a low-light forest park, home to the Vanguard’s training facilities and administrative offices.
The shuttle slowed, dropped in above a wide radius road. Tall buildings passed by on either side. The yellow-brown was a constantly swirling layer of fluorine trapped between two thick sheets of crysteel, making the stadium seem to float in a bowl-shaped cloud. Bright sun gave way to shadow, to artificial lights bathing everything in an iridescent blue glow. Such a surreal feeling, to fly under a football stadium. Above him, a web of tree trunk-sized cables supported the curving stadium bottom. Down below, the strange curls of alien plants.
The shuttle then angled up, slid into an opening below the stadium. Quentin felt the ship slowing, preparing to land.
Once he set foot off the shuttle, he would be on enemy territory. For the next two days, no more thoughts of his fake father, no more thoughts of George Starcher, no more thoughts of Somalia Midori, his sister, Fred’s investigation, Gredok’s double-dealing, Danny the Dolphin’s warning against signing the contract. Quentin Barnes had begun this season with a single goal — lead his team into the playoffs. To make it, they had to beat the Vik Vanguard.
The rest of the galaxy would have to take care of itself for a little while.
He would be busy.
Live feed from UBS GameDay holocast coverage
“Hello there, football fanatics and welcome to our coverage of Sunday Night Football. I’m Masara the Observant. With me, as always, is the galaxy’s most colorful color-man, Chick McGee.”
“Hello, Masara and hello, folks at home.”
“Chick, we’ve got a nebula-sized game ahead of us tonight. A pair of upstarts fighting for a playoff berth. The visitors, the Ionath Krakens, or as their fans call them, the Orange and the Black. Led by third-year quarterback Quentin Barnes, the Krakens are seven-and-four — they must win this game to make the playoffs and they would also need help in the form of a Yall Criminals loss. The Criminals have already finished their game against the To Pirates and we’re just waiting for the punch-drive messengers to bring us news of the results. Chick, what is Ionath up against tonight?”
“Masara, the Krakens have their work cut out for them in the form of the green-and-gold Vik Vanguard, led by defensive super
star Mur the Mighty. Eight wins and three losses, Vik has already qualified for its first trip to the playoffs since losing Galaxy Bowl twenty-one to the New Rodina Astronauts. But just because they’re already in the postseason parade doesn’t mean they’ll lay low and lollygag in this titanic tilt. If Vik is victorious and Jupiter gets jilted by Jang, the Vanguard will secure the second seed in the Solar Division. That means a home playoff game, the franchise’s first-ever. So they want this win badly for themselves and for their fans.”
“Sounds like we’ve got us a firestorm of a game, Chick.”
“Yes, Masara, this one is shaping up to be hotter than Somalia Midori in a wet rad-suit contest.”
“Chick! We’re not even five minutes in! Can you—”
“Sorry, Masara, sorry folks at home, but this game is just that incandescent. The Krakens are up against the league’s best defense, anchored by Ki defensive tackles E-Coo-Lee and Ar-Cham-Bault. You can bet those two have sharpened up their triangular teeth and are ready to take a bite outta Barnes.”
“Chick, major stories in this game for Ionath are the loss of defensive end Ibrahim Khomeni and the benching of tight end George Starcher. Khomeni has been replaced by rookie Cliff “The Spaz” Frost, so nicknamed for his seemingly uncoordinated, lurching style of pass-rush. Frost is only brought in on passing situations. For every-down play, Khomeni is replaced by either rookie Rich Palmer or fourth-year player Wan-A-Tagol. You can bet the Vanguard will attack all three of those players. As for Starcher, last year he and Ju Tweedy seemed to be the final pieces of Ionath’s contender puzzle. But Starcher’s star has fallen as of late, to the point where Coach Hokor the Hookchest didn’t even have him dress for last week’s loss to Themala.”
“Masara, ever since Starcher dropped that game-winning pass against Coranadillana in Week Three, he hasn’t been the same. Fortunately for the Krakens, Rick Warburg seems to have stepped up as a dominant tight end. Warburg has three touchdown catches in the last two games and has become a favorite target of Quentin Barnes.”