Sisters of the Sands

by Villinger, James

  I looked down at my neck, for her glowing blue sword was below my chin. “… end their life with ease. But you? You’re too slow-moving for that. So what happens when someone gets in close to you? You can’t crush or levitate everything. You need a quicker attack.”

  She lowered the sword and switched its handle to me instead. “Here, try this,” she said as I reached out and grabbed the sword handle. “One thing I’ve envied about your teleportation over mine is its range. See the end of the blade? Make a small portal, and then put the entire sword through it except for the handle. The other side of the portal can float in front of you.”

  I raised the sword closer to my eyes and darted my fingers back and forth, attempting to create a much smaller portal. When it opened, I inserted the sword through the small hole, looked to the other end of the portal and saw the entire blade hovering through it. Success!

  “Now, leave the sword handle you’re holding by your side, and only use the teleported blade. You can practise chopping this bag in half, but uh, better wait until I’m out of the way.” Sula materialised to the far side of the room. “Do it.”

  With my left hand outstretched to the hovering sword, I flicked my hand to the side. The hovering blade followed through and the bag’s contents spewed out onto the ground. The sword came to an immediate halt mid-air. I was surprised the portal’s size had allowed me to slice through it so rapidly and easily.

  I admired the sleek weapon. “Are you giving me this?”

  “What? No! That’s my sword. You can get your own, you scavenging fool!”

  Well, that got my hopes up for nothing. But it felt good to do some real damage for a change. I hadn’t thought to use my powers in this way before. I was surprised how helpful this was.

  She teleported to my side and snatched her sword back. “Moving on.”

  “What? Slow down. Don’t you think I need a bit of time to practise?”

  “No, I’m going to impart my knowledge and then you can train your damned self. The only other style of training I know would involve physically conditioning you. So quit complaining and be grateful!”

  I supposed it would be good to practise at my own pace.

  A loud alarm emanated from an electronic speaker above and blue swirling lights flashed in the ceiling corners.

  “Here’s your chance for practice, girl,” she said and sheathed the sword back into her walking stick.

  The Hangar

  Sula and I dematerialised inside a massive building. There were thousands of soldiers standing to attention, already assembled in their formations. The detachments were broken up into their separate groups throughout the hangar. On the far side of the vast chamber, a line of aircraft awaited, their engines idling as soldiers piled inside.

  Others still poured in from entrances all around the hangar. Pilots climbed into their aircraft and powered their systems on.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Sula let go of my wrist. “It’s an emergency operation. You’re going to war.” She sighed. “You’re not ready.”

  “What?” I frantically shook my head. “But … I can’t do this. I’m not going to fight!”

  “You’ve got no choice! Do you want your brother to die?” She pointed at a large door at the edge of the hangar. Hundreds of soldiers were piling through it. “Go to the Armoury and get suited up.”

  My hands shook. I couldn’t move. “I … I can’t.”

  Sula grabbed my face with both hands and forced me to look at her. “Just survive. Do as you’re told, but survive this.” She pushed me away and gestured to the Armoury again. “Go!”

  My lips trembled, but I turned to the Armoury and spun my hands. A portal opened next to me and I ran through. I was soon surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, most of who were shocked to see a portal open beside them.

  I followed them in and saw everyone getting fitted for their armour. Soldiers attached various pads of armour and devices to their suits, while others loaded and examined their weapons, which they had acquired from the massive, long weapon racks. A small child with white tipped, red streaks rushed over to me.

  “Follow me, quickly,” her tiny voice chirped. She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the racks. “Put this on,” she instructed as she passed me a thin, silky suit.

  I took off my regular combat fatigues, and then put on the suit she had handed me. Meanwhile, she went to collect various pieces of armour. As I pulled my legs through the suit, she strapped pads onto my shins and knees. She pulled the straps tight and then procured a small tool from her belt. She brought it to my knee pads and twisted one of the bolts, which tightened it further.

  “What weapon are you using? All-in-one? Sniper? What? Hurry up!”

  “Sword,” I replied.

  “What? Sword? Are you stupid?”

  “Are you calling Sula stupid, too?”

  “Yes, I’m saying you’re just as insane as that has-been.”

  “I told you what I want, kid.”

  “Fine. Get yourself killed, freak.”

  I pulled my arms through the sleeves of the suit as the girl ran off to find me my chosen weapon. I tried fastening some of the pads myself but I was failing at it. As quickly as she left, the girl returned with a large sword.

  I was disappointed; it wasn’t glowing or anything. I reached out and took the steel blade from her, and as I examined it she continued to reattach more pads to my frame, cursing at the poor effort I had attempted.

  Another woman came over, again with red streaks, and handed me a helmet. I took it with my free hand and held it out in front of me for a moment. Not long ago I remembered throwing one of these into the depths of Teersau. Now, I was about to wear one myself, to don the symbol of my enemy. I placed the helmet on my head and stashed the blade into the sheath around my new belt.

  “Go, move! Next!” the girl shouted and pushed me back towards the door before running off to another unarmoured soldier who had entered the room. I made my way through the wall of soldiers still arriving, and walked out of the Armoury. But I was clueless as to where I was supposed to go next.

  “Sacet,” a voice behind me at the Armoury entrance said. It was Maya, already fully armoured. She looked me up and down and smirked. “It suits you.”

  “Maya? Uh, I don’t suppose you know where we need to go, do you?”

  “Yeah, hurry up. Follow me,” she said, striding away down one of the runways.

  She still seemed upset. I wish she would get over it already; I really needed someone I could count on now. I had no idea what I was doing.

  As I followed, I tried to catch up and walk alongside her. I caught eyes with her and smiled, but she turned away and ignored me.

  We approached Colonel Korin, who was surrounded by a small group of other Acolytes, with more on the way. Iya was here, too, she inspected my armour and folded her arms.

  “Ah, Sacet,” Korin said as she came over and got in my face. “I didn’t think you were going to show up at all, and then we would have had to punish you. A sword, huh? Trying to impersonate Sula already?”

  The other Acolytes chuckled; they all had more traditional laser-based firearms by their sides.

  The colonel inspected her checklist, while the rest of us awaited our next instructions. “Listen up! Iya and Neva, you’re accompanying AS12. Aki and Nito, AS07. Maya and Sacet, I want you two in AS03,” she said. As her instructions continued, I glanced back at Maya.

  Maya rolled her eyes and approached me. “This way,” she said.

  We marched over to one of the aircraft, which was already loaded with soldiers. They were strapped into seats along the sides of the craft. We climbed the ramp and the aircraft’s occupants looked over to us. I awkwardly moved to the closest empty seat and tried to strap myself in, and Maya sat in the seat opposite me. The soldiers wouldn’t stop staring at me.

  “We’re full. Go!” a standing woman screamed to the front.

  There was a loud whirring noise as the ramp rose
up and started to close. The turbines were building up power outside. We jolted in place, and the craft tilted to the side as it turned. I took one last look out into the hangar before the door closed, leaving nothing but blinking lights, darkness and faded faces.

  19. Colony

  The aircraft took off, going straight up. I was pressed down into my chair. My second vision looked outside the craft as it travelled to the hangar’s ceiling, a hatch on the top opened to let us through. The turbines’ high-pitched shrieks increased their intensity. The acceleration caused the compartment to quiver. My heart was thumping as we left the hangar.

  The lights inside the cabin turned back on, but the dim, red light barely illuminated the other soldiers inside. Above our heads there was a storage slot for our weapons and accoutrements. I still had my sword by my waist, and it was digging into my hip in this tight seat.

  I was blinded by a bright image in front of me. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that my helmet had projected an image onto the face panel. The other soldiers in the cabin had the same picture cast onto their transparent faceplates. There was some writing: ‘Standby to receive message from Commander Aella’.

  A woman’s face appeared. She was middle-aged, and had blue streaks with black tips. This was the Troop Commander, the right hand of the Queen.

  “Please look to your sides to see if this transmission is being received by your comrades. If not, then hail the attention of the nearest superior officer,” she said as her face on the screen minimised into the top left corner, now only taking up a fraction of the visor. “I will inform you of the situation. Afterwards, your transmission will cut to your detachment’s specific commander, and you’ll be briefed on your individual orders.

  “Citeer, the neighbouring province to the capital, is under attack. The Male Dominion have laid siege to region’s capital, Usre. Your primary objectives are to drive back the forces attacking the city, muster any remaining soldiers to your squads for assistance, and to protect the citizens of Usre. The city is our largest engineering facility, which explains why it has been targeted. Use any manufactured weaponry you may find to your advantage and push them back!”

  As the commander spoke, a map of the city appeared on the visor with various areas highlighted in red. But I closed my eyes, and the commander’s voice trailed off, instead replaced by the humming of the aircraft’s engines. My attention was distracted; my perception focused outside on the sand-covered ground that whizzed past us below. These aircraft were faster than I remember.

  My breathing accelerated. Why have they sent me here? Don’t they know I’ve only just started my training? I’m not going to kill for them. I’ll do my best to help other people survive and that’s it. Would Tau land near us? I opened my eyes again and saw that Mira’s face was staring back at me on the screen.

  “Acolytes, you heard the Commander. We must save our fellow sisters. This attack is arrogant and foolhardy of the enemy, striking so close to our home and so far from theirs. It’s possible that the facility is not their true objective, so stay alert and be prepared for an ambush.” The picture on my visor containing Mira’s face disappeared.

  Our aircraft’s loadmaster walked between our seats, holding a handle on the ceiling for support. Her streaks were yellow with blue tips. “Listen up AS03,” she began, her voice being transmitted straight to our helmets, “you will be landing on the far edge of the residential terrace. Make your way through the estate gardens and enter the manufacturing wing of the factories, then await further orders. The entire city is overrun, so stay in cover. Good luck.”

  A short while later

  A minimised and see-through map remained at the top right of my view. It rotated as the aircraft turned. The small dot that indicated our position passed rectangles on the map that I assumed were buildings. Now that we were over the city, we began to slow.

  I closed my eyes again and tried to focus on what was outside. The ramp exit lowered as the aircraft hovered in mid-air, allowing a gust to enter the compartment. The dim red light switched off, and daylight from outside beamed in through the ramp door’s gap.

  The others unbuckled their straps and so I did the same. I stood and felt the aircraft rock as it landed. As the ramp continued to lower, the soldiers to my sides sprinted down it to the ground. Maya got to her feet as well and strode down the ramp with an air of calmness.

  “Hurry up! Get off!”

  I was last soldier left besides the loadmaster. I ran down the ramp and onto some grass. The area was surrounded by tall apartment buildings and pathways that led in every direction. The rest of the squad had assembled and crouched beside a nearby wall, and one of the soldiers had peered around its corner. As the aircraft began to take off, I ran over and joined the others.

  “See anything?” Maya asked as she prodded the peeking soldier from behind.

  She turned to Maya. “There’s no activity down there. Looks like it’s been bombarded though. There’s lots of plant life in the gardens; we should be able to move from cover to cover.”

  “What do you think corporal?” Maya said as she addressed the only soldier with red tips.

  “We have our orders. If there was an alternative route they would have told us about it.”

  I couldn’t go through with this. It was completely against what I stood for. I nudged Maya in the side. “Maya, I can’t do this. I’m not going to kill anyone.”

  Maya looked me up and down, then rolled her eyes like before. “Of course you’re not. Excuse me, Sacet, but we real soldiers have work to do.”

  “Is she kidding?” one of the soldiers grumbled.

  Another glanced back at the corporal. “Is she not assimilated? Why is she here?”

  The corporal turned to Maya. “We don’t have time for this. Maya, she’s your responsibility. If she disobeys one of my commands, I’ll shoot her myself.”

  Maya grabbed my collar and forced me in front of her face. “Kill or capture them alive, got it?” She seethed at me. I nodded back and she let me go.

  The corporal turned to everyone. “Stay in a single line and watch for explosives. Let’s go!”

  The corporal stood up and rushed out around the corner. The other soldiers followed and I trailed at the rear.

  As I passed the corner, I was greeted with a disturbing sight. The garden itself was beautiful, even more so than the garden around the Citadel. But below the treetops, the ground was littered with dead bodies. I stopped in my tracks, in complete disbelief of the revolting scene.

  Around the bodies were large dirt patches. It looked as if something had struck the surface of the gardens with such force that it devastated the ground itself. Pieces of the trees and plants lay strewn alongside the bodies. In the far distance there was a giant facility, and its shadow loomed over the garden.

  The soldiers in front of me had already descended a staircase that led to the gardens. I ran after them and tried to keep up. None of this felt right, so I unsheathed my blade and held it out in front as ran. I weaved my fingers and opened a small portal in front of the sword, and then I stuck the sword through it and returned the handle to my right side. In front of me now was my hovering blade, which I was controlling with my left hand.

  My squad had already passed some of the bodies and the circles of dirt. They continued through the gardens and moved from cover to cover as they had planned. I stopped in my tracks, for my perception sensed something.

  I walked over to one of the dirt holes in the ground and visualised what was under the surface. Poised to emerge from the dirt, a Necrolisk was hidden under the mound. This wasn’t the aftermath of an artillery strike … they were burrows!

  “Necrolisks!” I screamed back at the squad, who stopped to look back at me.

  “What? Quiet down! What are you … ahhhhhh!”

  The corporal was impaled by an emergent claw midsentence, for she had been standing on top of the one of the mounds. Maya rushed over to the Necrolisk as it surfaced, and it tried swiping at her with i
ts other claw. Maya raised her hands to block it. Instead of knocking her backwards, the claw transformed to water the instant it touched her fingertips. The water sprayed over the other soldiers, who were now eyeing other surfacing Necrolisks.

  The creature screamed as green ooze spat out of its open limb joint. Without hesitation, Maya ran closer to the creature and held its glistening torso with both hands. Its body erupted in all directions and covered the ground with a sickening green slime.

  The ground at my feet rumbled. I turned back to the mound. The Necrolisk beneath me burst out of the burrow and landed back onto the ground. I flung my left arm across, and the sword sliced through the creature’s abdomen. More of the green slime splashed onto the ground as the top half of the Necrolisk fell backwards. Its legs leaned to the side and toppled over.

  Laser fire and flames spewed from the soldier’s weapons as they tried to fight back the encroaching swarm of monsters.

  “Retreat!” Maya ordered, and everyone ran back towards me without argument. “Sacet, get us out of here!”

  I panicked. Where was I going to teleport to? I pulled my sword out, closed the portal that was already open, and looked up at the apartment buildings surrounding the garden. There was one shorter building physically connected to another taller one. Concentrating on the roof of the shorter one, I opened a portal to it and waved the others over.

  The swarm of Necrolisks stampeded closer. One after another, the girls all dived through the portal, with Maya and I rushing through last. I closed the portal behind us, just as the Necrolisks converged.

  We could see most of the city from here on the roof, and its factories were on fire. There were towers of smoke rising from them.

  We all approached the roof’s edge and watched the Necrolisks crowd around our last known position in the gardens. When they realised we were no longer there, they all bent their heads back and roared.

  Maya walked over to the connected building where its windows were accessible. “I’ve seen this before; they’re being controlled by an Acolyte. He’ll be watching from nearby.” She placed her hands on the glass – the window changed and splashed onto the corridor carpet on the other side.