Agatha…or Sage did it for me and Vellish, Talon considered. He quickly shook away the thought. He couldn’t imagine why she wanted to extend their time aboard the freighter, but it was obvious she’d orchestrated the whole thing. She would never actually put herself in danger like he was about to.
Destroying gravity generators wasn’t a particularly popular tactic after all, whether amongst Ceresians or Tribunals. Where the latter believed them to provide an extension of the Earth, for Ceresians each habitable asteroid was another lifeline. What he was about to do would wreck Eureka for years—eliminating a key position for whichever faction happened to own it. His own people might care about that if they were foolish enough to believe they could win the coming battle, but Talon didn’t. The Tribune clearly had no issue with wiping Kalliope off of the face of the Circuit despite their faith. He was going to take something back.
The control console beeped and the hatch into the generator room slid up into the ceiling. It was at least a foot thick so it took a minute, but he was through.
An aura of blue emanated from within, so bright that he hesitated before entering. He knew it couldn’t hurt him, but he couldn’t forget what it had done to him on Kalliope—the flash of blue, coruscating light lashing across his and Zargo Morastus’s unsuspecting bodies before he was knocked unconscious.
Talon took a deep breath and stepped in. It was a two-layered ingress, and once he was inside the outer seal slammed shut and the glassy, more delicate interior one popped open. The peace and quiet came to a quick end. He’d never stood in the very core of an asteroid colony before. He couldn’t help but be filled with awe. It was a vast, intricate system of which he had only the barest understanding. There were a few experts throughout the Circuit, but unfortunately for Eureka he didn’t have one with him. They’d probably try to stop him regardless. People could be very protective when it came to their Gravitum.
Several rows of enormous turbines inside were as noisy as the engine of a ship upon liftoff. They crackled from electric surges as the refined Gravitum within them was charged at the perfect measure in order to produce the sense of gravity. Talon wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, but that was the gist of it.
Every so often the blinding, cerulean light shining in their centers would swell as if part of a beating heart, and the countless conduits branching out from them would hum with current. It was the asteroid colony’s circulatory system, but instead of running beneath skin it threaded through the rocky walls and ceilings. There the tubes would continue for miles, cycling the charged element throughout the settlement and evenly spreading a sense of pseudo-gravity.
Talon truly had no idea what would happen when he blew the generator to pieces, besides that it would swiftly dial the gravity conditions on the asteroid back toward its natural, minimal-G state. But even in its refined form, Gravitum could be a highly volatile substance. He’d learned that firsthand. The risks were great, but they were worth taking. Having an army of Ceresians with the Blue Death was better than having no army at all. They’d need numbers to last the war.
Talon gritted his teeth and held up his pulse-rifle. All of the control consoles within might as well have been in a foreign language anyway, so there was no use wasting time trying to figure the system out. “Well, Elisha…maybe I’ll see you soon,” he said to himself. He caught a glimpse of his face reflecting in his weapon’s barrel, of his sallow flesh and cobalt veins. “If not, it won’t be long.”
He aimed the gun in the direction of one of the turbines and squeezed the trigger. The spinning blades of the machine crumbled in on themselves as the forces holding the turbine together were compromised. Streaks of raw, bluish energy bolted out past his visor. Talon wasn’t scared of it filling his lungs, but as hot flames licked at his boots he couldn’t deny his trepidation.
He slowly backed away as he changed the clip on his rifle. It was difficult to walk. A concurrent feeling of both sinking and rising stole over him. Before long his feet were barely touching the ground. Conduits tore free from the walls and spit out billows of Gravitum in its gaseous state. The typical, azure coloration of the element was lost. It mixed with black smoke and filled the room with a noxious miasma so dark that Talon could barely see a thing.
Every portion of the generator was tearing itself apart all on its own. There was no longer a need to continue firing. Some people on the Circuit believed that the Ancients’ unbridled harvesting of Gravitum caused Earth to fall apart. For the first time in Talon’s life that didn’t seem like some timeworn story told to inspire restraint. He was watching the unseen forces of the universe lash out at each other without relent, and it was truly terrifying.
By the time he backed up against a wall he’d already inhaled so much smoke that he could hardly breathe. Death was all around him, like the stuff of nightmares. He was powerless—his gun a useless tool.
No! He thought. I won’t die like this. Falling in battle was one thing, but he wasn’t going to give Gravitum the satisfaction of taking him even earlier. He released his rifle and watched it disappear into the cloud of chaos and energy. Then he reached out to try and find anything he could grab hold of. It was impossible to differentiate between up and down, but after a few frantic seconds he found a groove in either the floor or ceiling. He drew his weightless body along it, back toward what he hoped was the way out.
His fingers brushed against a projection and he used it to launch himself forward with as much force as he could muster. His shoulder slammed against a glass wall—the outer seal of the generator’s entrance. The door’s controls were right above him. He set it to open and as it did the inner seal squeezed shut. He used the walls to haul himself through, watching in horror as ravenous strings of energy clawed at the glass, like the twisted fingers of angry specters.
He tore off his helmet once he was floating safely outside. Everything he’d inhaled had him violently coughing, and it was only after he vomited that he was able to finally gasp for fresh air. He groped his face to make sure that he was alive and that what he’d just seen was real. It was. The red emergency lights in the tunnel were all illuminated, and there was a siren wailing, different than the one that went off when his people invaded the asteroid.
He recognized the sound from the only other time he’d heard it. On Kalliope. There was still oxygen filling the tunnel, as well as every other life support system, but gravity was gone. Let’s see what the Tribune does about this. As long as Tarsis was able to spread the message to enough Ceresians, they’d have the upper hand. It would take the Tribune a while to figure out that Eureka was defiled and her generator was more than just deactivated. Just long enough, perhaps, for a miracle.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE—SAGE
This isn’t my Battle
The glowing belt of docking stations that wrapped Eureka was easy to spot against the blackness of space. Debris from broken ships floated everywhere, forcing the transport Sage was on to weave its way toward the docks. Tribunal Fighters darted all around, defending them from Ceresian ones. Fire from their flak cannons traced across the stars. There was nothing coming from the asteroid itself, so Sage figured the Ceresians must’ve already destroyed most of the asteroid’s defenses during their own invasion. It was the perfect strategy. Invite the Ceresians in, and then leave them defending unfamiliar ground.
She glanced down and checked the pulse-rifle in her hands. Just in case there was still fighting to be done she hoped it was at least in working order.
“The breaching of Eureka is underway,” Yavortha said through Sage’s com-link as her transport initiated docking procedures with Eureka. “May the Spirit guide your steps.”
“For the Spirit!” all the soldiers on board hollered. Then they leaned over as far as their restraints would allow and allowed their fingers to graze the ground. She did it as well.
The commander of her unit came onto her com-link once the prayers were completed. There was some chatter about what their unit’s orders were, but she ignor
ed most of it after she found out they belonged to the second wave. Judging by the size of the army traveling with the Ascendant, the docks would likely be taken by the time they landed. Once they were there, both Yavortha and her unit’s commander would have too much to keep tabs on to monitor any individual soldier. She’d easily be able to bow out of ranks and sneak onto a supply transport headed back to the Ascendant.
The inner airlock came open and the transport soared into one of Eureka’s many lofty docking stations. Mark V Combat Mechs were already present, with more being dropped off on what was left of the landing pads projecting from asteroid. They were the newest model, and Sage had never actually gotten a chance to see them in action. She didn’t count the one on the Tribunal Freighter which never even had a chance to fight back against her. A few of them fired their back-mounted, light railguns toward the Ceresian held end of the docks. Bolts of white light speared across the way, lighting up the room as if she were in an electrical storm on Titan.
The transport touched down and Yavortha led Sage’s unit out. She waited long enough before getting up for there to be a sizeable gap between them. They were immediately greeted by a legion of Tribunal troops. She used that moment to sneak out of the ranks and climb into a pile of scraps nearby to observe.
Bodies were everywhere. They didn’t just belong to Ceresians either. The charred corpses of Eureka’s Tribunal defenders were already lying amongst the wreckage.
“Sir,” an eager commander ran over and addressed Yavortha, falling down to his knee and grazing the floor with his hand. Yavortha signaled him to rise. “The Ceresians surrendered the docks without much of a fight,” the commander continued. “They’ve fallen back into the tunnels, but we’ve interrogated the ones we managed to capture and found out that they’re still receiving some resistance from Eureka’s inhabitants down there.”
“Good men,” Yavortha replied.
“Also, they’ve revealed interesting news. Apparently Cassius Vale has been executed back on Ceres.”
Yavortha laughed. “Yes, our Executors there have reported as much. Apparently the traitor didn’t have as many friends as he thought.”
The commander appeared disappointed by Yavortha’s lack of surprise, but he retained his composure. “Shall I announce the news to the men?”
“Not yet. His Eminence Benjar Vakari has taught me to never trust what you hear. I’ll believe the news when I see his body myself. Either way, if it is true, then this war should come to a swift end. Now, relieve the first wave and send these soldiers in. Don’t give them any time to establish defensive positions.”
“Yes, sir.” The commander kneeled again and went to wave Sage’s unit on.
Sage froze.
She imagined that the rumored news of Cassius’s execution should upset her more than it was. Whether or not she wanted to admit it, he’d been important to her. Without him she would have likely lost her life two times over. However, for the first time in recent days she actually agreed with Yavortha’s sentiments. Cassius wasn’t the type of man to allow himself to be executed. He wasn’t the type of man to die either. If Benjar Vakari didn’t trust the news that his greatest rival was gone, then she couldn’t either.
After settling on that, she skulked along the wreckage to try and get a clearer picture of the situation. As she did Yavortha stopped the commander to give another order.
“Execute all captives, and relay the message that no prisoners are to be taken,” he ordered. “Our Lord Tribune wants to send a message to those who’d dare attack colonies under our protection.”
The Commander glanced over at a cluster of bloodied Ceresian captives nearby. They were cuffed and on their knees. “Yes—yes sir,” he stuttered.
The Commander signaled over to the men holding the prisoners at gunpoint. The Ceresians looked around at each other frantically, but there was no time to attempt anything. The Tribunal soldiers followed their orders and fired their pulse-rifles without hesitation. A brief chorus of screams rang out before they were rendered silent, and all Sage could do was stare from her cover. They were men of flesh and blood, mowed down in cold blood.
Sage looked back to where Yavortha had taken up position, watching the bloodbath from his perch on the ramp of the transport they’d arrived in. All she could do was hope that he was really the one behind the slaughter and not Benjar, but she was starting to know better than to assume that.
Before she could think of what to do next a deafening sound filled the entire space. It was so high pitched that she went to hold her ears even though she was wearing a helmet. Then, all of her weight melted away. The scraps of metal around her started lifting off of the ground, then her body, and then everyone else in the docking station.
It can’t be? Sage thought as she noticed even the heavy Combat Mechs beginning to rise. The Gravity Generator had been turned off, and she could almost guess who had to be behind it. He’s here?
She pushed off of the ground so that she could get a better view from the ceiling when suddenly flames shot out from a portion of Eureka’s enclosure. The blast punctured the emergency shutters covering a cluster of viewports before being swiftly extinguished by vacuum. The sudden pressure change peeled the breach open even farther and plucked Tribunal soldiers out without relent.
Sage grabbed onto a light fixture with her artificial arm and endured the initial rush. Most of the unit she’d arrived with weren’t so lucky. Yavortha pulled himself back into the transport just in time. The unit commander in front of him was yanked away along with everyone else nearby who couldn’t find something fixed to hold onto. They had space-worthy suits of armor on so most of them would likely survive as long as they didn’t slam into any metal slag too hard. But they were useless to the battle drifting through space with timers on their oxygen tanks.
A brief moment of silence ensued after the air stopped gushing. Sage peered through the molten gash and saw a white ship zip by. For a second she thought it might be the White Hand, but decided that was unlikely when she noticed the flicker of Ceresian ships speeding toward Eureka beyond it.
“The heretics will sacrifice an extension of the Earth!” Yavortha shouted over the com-link. “Take the heart of the asteroid. The Ascendant will ravage their fleet!” He sounded more panicked than she’d ever heard him, which meant that he wasn’t expecting another Ceresian fleet to arrive. It didn’t appear to be nearly enough ships to win the battle and destroy a New Earth Cruiser, but they clearly weren’t going to lie down and die.
As soon as Yavortha stopped barking orders the Ceresian army flooded out simultaneously from the tunnels of Eureka and the rafters along the tall walls. A firefight erupted beneath her. From her high position, Sage could see that the same thing was happening in all of the other docking station throughout Eureka. The Ceresians remained outnumbered three to one, but the lack of gravity made it impossible for the Tribunal army to reestablish order. With the Combat Mechs left off-balance, targeting a rail-gun was impossible as well.
Sage quickly swung up out of the way of a hail of bullets. Her mind reverted to old form, plotting out a course she could take to help her people. She could have a Mech pummel the tunnel entrances with missiles and seal the Ceresians inside for as long as it took for her people to reestablish their position. She shook her head when she saw Yavortha emerge from the transport and remembered. This isn’t my battle. He’d made that decision perfectly clear to her back on Titan.
She kicked through a vent cap in the ceiling and thrust herself into the narrow shaft. It was a position she was unfortunately getting used to, but being weightless made it simple to traverse. It was time to improvise again. The gravity generator going off changed the equation. Maybe she was just being foolish to hope, but if it really was Talon then she could fulfill her mission to reunite him with Elisha. It was the only mission she had left.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO—TALON
The Hero of Eureka
“Die, you Tribunal bastards!” the familiar voice of
Tarsis shouted up ahead. The tunnels of Eureka were ringing with gunfire, but he’d recognize that voice anywhere.
He used the nooks in the metal-plated ceilings to pull his weightless body along. His helmet was back on, and the farther outwards he got within the asteroid the harder it was getting to breathe. The life support systems had been compromised. Whether or not that was due to him didn’t matter, because judging by the chatter on his com-link it seemed his plan was working. The Lakura forces were being ordered to lock down every choke point and continue to press into the hangars so that they couldn’t be boxed into the tunnels where they would slowly starve or suffocate. They were keeping the Tribune at bay, and the maze of passages through which he passed were crawling only with his own people.
Talon propelled himself into a hollow running adjacent to the docks. It was a fairly sizeable refectory. Ceresians were posted at each of its many branching exits and every single table was overturned to provide cover for more. Yara Lakura’s mobile command station had been moved to the back, hidden behind the food service station. She, Captain Hadris, and at least a dozen Lakura officers were hard at work transmitting orders.
Talon spotted Tarsis down a nearby passage. It appeared that a lack of gravity was proving beneficial for him. The Vergent was holding on to the ceiling with one hand and using the other to fire a heavy machine gun into the docking station it connected to. His back was pinned against a wall to keep the recoil at bay.
“Tarsis, need a hand?!” Talon hollered.
Tarsis looked back and even through his visor and thick beard Talon could see him smile. “By the Spirit and the Ancients and every fucking god who might be out there, you’re alive!” he exclaimed. “This is the man who did it. This is the man who braved the generator!”
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