by Jacob Holo
Aktenzek itself stood out, almost totally eclipsing the pale white smile of Zu’Rashik at this angle. Massive barrages of fusion cannons fired up from its surface, lacerating the Grendeni fleet. The seraph’s scanners focused in, finding the closest entry portal and marking it with a digital nav beacon.
To Jack’s side was Earth, visible as a sideways blue and white crescent lit brightly on its night side with human civilization. Lights from the sixteen Orbital Republics and the countless factories, ships, and edifices in space orbited around the planet. Even further away, beyond Earth and the twin fortress planets, was the Moon, its surface illuminated almost as brilliantly as Earth’s.
Jack opened his chaos scanner to full gain, thankful once again that he could detect nothing through Vierj’s barrier. All across Aktenzek, Earth, and the intervening space, little fireballs appeared, each a chaos-adept human. For a moment, Jack wondered why in a galaxy filled with human life, Earth alone had produced seraph pilots.
But that was a question for another time. Three Aktenai dreadnoughts came about and headed towards his position.
Jack flared his six blade-wings. Their edges ignited with blue fire, and he shot down towards Aktenzek.
Despite his speed, Vierj rushed to his side with ease. She extended an open palm and released a thin black cord of energy, almost imperceptible against the starry black of space. The cord whipped out, went taut near an Aktenai dreadnought, and the end expanded into a huge triangle. The Aktenai dreadnought fell through the triangle, but only shattered debris blew out the other end.
“Impressive.” Jack focused his active scanners on the dreadnought’s debris. Every piece had a temperature close to absolute zero, having cooled for millions of years in a heartbeat.
“That was just a warm-up.” Vierj released two more black cords from her hands. They lashed across space and opened into triangles. Another two Aktenai dreadnoughts disintegrated from the ravages of time. “The Aktenai are such cowards to hide behind robots. And I sense something else from the planet below.”
“What is it?”
“There is a field engulfing much of Aktenzek. It feels similar to a seraph’s barrier, though much weaker and wider. Ah, Veketon. How clever of you.”
“Vierj?”
“I almost died destroying Ittenrashik. I think I would die if I tried the same here.”
Jack almost sighed in relief, but he caught himself.
“The Eleven planned for your return,” he said instead.
“As we knew they would.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing we’re not here to destroy Aktenzek.”
“Hmm. Yes…” Vierj sighed with indifference.
Jack spotted the group of Aktenai seraphs flying up from the fortress planet’s surface. “Six seraphs heading our way.”
“Shall I deal with those malformed copies?”
“We’ll take them together.”
“As you wish. Lead the way.”
Jack fed power into his wings and flew down to meet the seraphs. Fusion cannons fired up, but the tight beams splashed off his barrier without effect. He ignited his primary blade and dove straight at the leader.
As with all Aktenai seraphs, each stood out with unique personality and flair. The lead seraph ignited its dagger, bright green against the angular green-and-white of its body. The Aktenai seraph slashed up, and Jack cut down.
Their blades met, but this opponent was no Seth, nor was it among the elite pilots onboard the Resolute. This pilot had not been tempered by combating swarms of archangels. Nor had it engaged in desperate duels with other seraph pilots, and its blade and barrier were weak.
The Aktenai seraph’s green dagger exploded apart from the force of their impact. Jack sliced through the torso in a single stroke, killing the pilot instantly. Two other seraphs were quickly at his sides.
Vierj crashed savagely into one, ripped its arms out of their sockets, then tore its chest open without even bothering to ignite a weapon. A shower of glowing red fluid sprayed over her.
Jack parried the third seraph’s attack, then skewered it with his sword.
Whatever training these Aktenai pilots had received, they had never met nor imagined foes like this. From the right and the left, two more seraphs rushed in. Jack spun in a tight circle, his sword lashing out, shield at the ready. He blocked their attacks and cleaved both at the waist.
The last seraph turned and fled.
“I think not.” Vierj lashed out with a black whip of energy and split the seraph in two.
Jack formed up with her. “We need to get down to the surface. Follow me.”
They descended towards Aktenzek. A barrage of fusion beams shot up from the surface. They wove through, rare hits splattering off their barriers. Seraph squadrons diverted from other battles and began to converge on their position.
“Dominic, we’re becoming awfully popular here.”
“Yes, I see that. Sending reinforcements.”
Eight Grendeni carriers folded in and released their archangels. Cannon fire from the Aktenai fleet and Aktenzek prioritized the new targets. They killed dozens, but the archangels were fast, nimble targets, and they swarmed over the Alliance seraphs as soon as the range dropped.
Ahead, four EN seraphs opened fire from the surface. Volley after volley from their rail-rifles slammed into the archangels, felling several of the skeletal machines. Jack flew past the archangels and dove at them.
The closest EN seraph didn’t have time to ready its dagger. Jack slashed through it diagonally, cleaving through its wings, torso, and rifle with equal ease. The other three EN seraphs backed away and fired at him, but their rail-rifle bolts ricocheted off his barrier. One of the EN pilots shouldered its weapon, ignited a bright orange dagger, and sped in.
Jack slapped the dagger upward with his shield, then slipped inside the EN seraph’s defenses and stabbed through its torso. The seraph’s orange vent-like shunts turned black, chaos influx dying with its pilot.
Without a barrier providing resistance, the seraph slumped off Jack’s blade. The broken remains clattered lifelessly against the pale armored surface of Aktenzek.
The two remaining EN seraphs backed away.
In a flash of dark motion, Vierj was behind them. She ignited her blade, gutted one from groin to head, pirouetted, then gutted the other from head to groin. Four seraph halves slumped to Aktenzek’s surface, each sputtering streams of conductor fluid.
“Such weaklings are fools to stand against us,” Vierj said.
Jack took off and gained some altitude from Aktenzek’s surface. He found the navigational beacon for the entry portal.
“This way.” Jack raced towards it.
Vierj fell in behind him. The Armor Shell of Aktenzek stretched out like a frozen sea of white metal. Vast pillars rose from it, forming a forest of towers kilometers high and tipped with dreadnought-caliber fusion cannons.
Jack and Vierj wove through the towers, dodging fusion beam volleys. The few lucky shots that hit only splashed against their barriers.
They sped out of the tower forest and through mountain ranges of white and silver domes, past mammoth drone control pyramids, until finally arriving at the entry portal. Even though the portal stood a full five kilometers square, it was dwarfed by the four drone control pyramids surrounding it and the fusion towers encircling those.
“Vierj, can you open it?”
“Yes. This field around Aktenzek should not interfere with a small display of my power.”
Vierj flew up and stopped directly above the portal. A continuous barrage of fusion beams deflected off her invincible barrier. A black cord spilled out from her open hand, whipsawing back and forth until it came to rest just above the armored doorway.
The tip of the cord expanded, grew larger with frightening speed and became a square five kilometers to each side. The square sank down into Aktenzek and splintered a set of ten armored doors, each a kilometer thick.
They were in.
***
Seth folded into Aktenzek space and gasped at the scale of combat before him. He hadn’t seen a fleet engagement this big in twenty years since the last battle at Earth. No one had.
The Resolute’s full complement of seraphs folded in around him. Quennin and the six silver Renseki seraphs appeared to his left. Jared’s combined squadron folded in to the right, a total of twelve pilots out of an original twenty four.
“The fleets appear to be evenly matched,” Quennin said. “Even with their archangels providing cover, our seraph squadrons and Aktenzek’s defenses will eventually thwart this attack.”
“They don’t have to win.” Seth sent the others coordinate data for a huge black square opening up near the surface of Aktenzek. “Look there. Near the surface.”
“What is that?” Jared asked.
“The Bane has returned to the Forsaken who created it,” Quennin said.
“We’re going in. Follow me!” Seth descended towards Aktenzek’s surface. The rest of the Alliance seraphs followed him in.
“Sir,” Jared said, “even if we catch them, what can we hope to do? All our attacks against the Bane have failed to penetrate its barrier.”
“We’ll stop it,” Seth said. “No barrier, however strong, is truly invincible. We keep hitting that monster until it falls.”
The formation of seraphs flew in as space boiled over with cannon beams and torpedo explosions. The Aktenai and Grendeni fleets engaged each other in bitter duels. Aktenzek fired salvo after salvo from its surface cannons, tearing into the approaching Grendeni ships. Nearly three thousand archangels and hundreds of seraphs meshed in battle throughout the dying fleets.
Zo transmitted a set of coordinate data. “Seth, I am concerned about our fleet’s positioning. Grendeni ships are moving into a gap in Aktenzek’s orbital defenses. If they succeed, they’ll be able to screen approaching archangel squadrons.”
“Yeah, I see it.”
“I suggest you send Pilot Daykin’s squadron to seal that breach while the rest of us continue after the Bane.”
Seth knew that wasn’t the real reason. He stole a glance at the blue seraph flying in formation near Jared’s EN command seraph. But even knowing Zo’s ulterior motive…
“Good idea,” Seth said. “Pilot Daykin, take epsilon squadron and seal that gap. I don’t want any more archangels reaching Aktenzek’s surface.”
“Confirmed, sir,” Jared said, perhaps a little too quickly. Twelve seraphs broke formation and headed for the cluster of Grendeni ships.
Seth, Quennin, and the six Renseki continued onward.
“Thank you, Seth,” Zo said privately. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I understand why you asked all too well. Believe me.”
“Archangels folding in directly ahead,” Quennin said.
“Break through them!”
Seth rocketed out of formation at a speed none of them could match. Quennin and the Renseki opened fire. The twenty archangels were still reorienting themselves when seven fusion beams slammed home and obliterated five archangels.
Two archangels survived the hits, their barriers flickering weakly.
Seth ignited twin chaos daggers and closed with the stunned archangels. He cut through fragile wings and torsos with a pair of clean slices. Yellow fluid pulsed from deep gashes.
Seventeen more archangels closed in, but Seth did not stand against them alone. A second volley of fusion beams pounded into the archangel formation, vaporizing three more before the opposing forces collided. At full strength and in close quarters, the archangels would have struggled against eight fully functional seraphs, perhaps willing to accept a kill or two for their loss.
But this archangel formation had been utterly decimated, and the survivors found themselves dueling the elite honor guard of Aktenzek’s Sovereign. The fight was over in seconds.
“Form up!” Seth said.
They pressed on towards Aktenzek, leaving the wreckage of twenty archangels in their wake.
“Grendeni dreadnought moving to block our path,” Zo said.
“Take it down!”
The Grendeni dreadnought lumbered about. Torpedoes and seekers belched from its armored carapace, targeting the approaching seraphs. Seth and the others executed practiced evasive maneuvers, their conformal wing pods automatically ejecting clouds of countermeasures. Some of the seekers and torpedoes zeroed in on the countermeasures, exploding vainly in empty space, but others impacted against seraph barriers.
A short spasm of discomfort rang through Seth’s leg as a torpedo found its mark, but he pushed relentlessly through the expanding nuclear fire. The dreadnought was directly ahead: as powerful and invincible a craft as Aktenai and Grendeni science could achieve.
It didn’t stand a chance.
Seth fired six torpedoes from his leg weapon pods. The torpedoes activated their overloaded gravity drives and joined the others fired by Quennin and the Renseki. Forty-eight torpedoes wove their way through the thick layers of defensive fire. Railguns, lasers, and defensive seeker ports all contributed to the protective blanket of fire around the dreadnought. It shot down over half the torpedoes.
Twenty-two small suns erupted across the dreadnought’s massive length, heating, cracking, and even vaporizing sections of the mnemonic hull. The dreadnought shuddered, its weapons and drives failing for a moment. Internal systems restarted. The armor cooled and began to close under carefully programmed forces.
Seth and the others fired eight fusion beams through gaps in its armor, precisely cutting into delicate vitals. The hull cracked at a diagonal, and the dreadnought broke apart. Each piece would continue to fight to the last, firing seekers and torpedoes and lasers until every last compartment was dead, but the threat of its centerline beam cannons had been destroyed.
Seth dove towards Aktenzek’s surface, reached it, and skimmed across it. Vast fields of fusion towers passed underneath, all firing at the Grendeni fleets above.
“Archangels and exodrones are breaking through to the surface,” Zo said. “Grendeni carriers are ramming their way through our defenses and actually crashing into the planet.”
Tallies for the archangel forces on Aktenzek’s surface came up. Nearly three hundred archangels had already made it through.
“That’s a lot of archangels and a whole cursed swarm of exodrones,” Quennin said. “Some are getting close to the breach in the armor shell. We can’t let them get into Aktenzek.”
Seth opened a channel. “Pilot Daykin.”
There was a short pause before Jared replied, his voice strained and quick. “Go ahead, sir!”
“As soon as your squadron is free, I want them to blockade the breached entry portal.” Seth sent coordinate data. “Keep the Grendeni out of Aktenzek.”
“Confirmed, sir! We’ll finish off the last few dreadnoughts breaking through and head down.”
Epsilon squadron dove for the surface several hundred kilometers ahead.
Seth skimmed across the surface and came to an intact entry portal. The first of ten heavy mnemonic doors snapped open. He dove inside, followed by Quennin and the Renseki. The surface door sealed shut, and the nine doors below it opened. All eight seraphs rushed through.
Seth descended into Aktenzek, flying through rings of light and darkness. He cut around a sharp turn, flew straight for several kilometers, then dove into a massive abyss.
Unlike in the past, the interior of Aktenzek was far from defenseless, and the further down invaders traveled, the more kill zones they faced. Corridors often made sudden turns into armored doors edged with fusion cannons.
But for all these traps, Aktenzek’s primary defense still remained its outer shell, and while formidable, the inner defenses were incomplete. Even after twenty years of buildup, Aktenzek’s inner defenses had yet to be finished, since the full force of the planet’s industries had focused on completing Zu’Rashik.
Seth linked with Aktenzek’s security grid, bringing up the Bane’s position.
/> “We’re falling behind!” He flooded his wings with fresh power and surged forward.
“Seth, we can’t keep up with you! Stick together!” Quennin said.
Seth forced himself to slow down, staying in a tight single-file formation with the other seraphs. A single barrier door opened just long enough for them to speed through. They passed the checkpoint and turned down a sharp descent. A row of armored shutters parted and then snapped closed as they flew down.
They turned at the bottom and entered a narrow horizontal passage, finally linking up with the Bane’s path of descent through Aktenzek.
“They’ve already been through here,” Quennin whispered, surveying the demolished kill zone. Armored doors and fusion cannons floated weightlessly in shattered, frozen pieces.
“We need to keep moving. Come on!” Seth shouted, descending further.
The other seraphs swept in behind him.
Chapter 15
Tyrant and Destroyer
Jack descended deeper into Aktenzek’s interior. Once again, he took a sharp turn into a waiting kill zone. Four fusion cannons opened fire, searing his barrier. Tight strands of plasma ricocheted off and hit the walls with tremendous force. He grunted, raising his shield to protect his face. Hot needles prickled his armored skin.
Vierj rounded the corner and unleashed a thin black cord from her hand. The end bloomed outwards into a square, passed through the fortifications, and reduced them to frozen dust.
Jack sped through the demolished kill zone and turned down into a shaft blocked by a thin mnemonic door. He smashed a kick into its center.
The doorway split open down the middle. Its panels tore free of their moorings and tumbled into the great chamber beneath. Jack flew down into one of Aktenzek’s habitat discs and then stifled a curse. Even though it had been twenty years, he hadn’t expected new cities this close to the Core.
The habitat disc measured twenty-five kilometers across, its interior space shaped like a fat coin with a ring-shaped lake and wide central island. Along the edge of the disc rose the vast ringcity, extending sideways towers out of the wall. The lake stretched out from the edges of the ringcity and gently caressed the beaches of the central island. Towering spires of polished stone and glass rose from the island’s center, forming this habitat disc’s hubcity.