by M. R. Forbes
The Venerant.
Quark was gone, and the bitch was still alive. Hayley fought against the panic, focusing her resolve. What the hell was the woman doing?
The Venerant stood right in front of the lift while the doors continued to move aside. Hayley could tell by the colors surrounding the woman that she was using her Gift, though how she was using it was unclear. It was reaching back into the lift, a red and gold rope of dense naniates stretched out to something within.
Hayley remained in place, crouching low to watch. This was a clue to whatever was happening on TDS. This was a key to the reason the Riders had been duped into coming here.
The individuals scattered around the floor of the warehouse had all turned to look. They were growing more confused, and their qi was shifting to white with sudden fear. Hayley took a moment to check her surroundings, just in case, and then returned her attention to the scene below.
The soldiers in the warehouse had their weapons up, ready to fire. They stayed separate and continued to face the lift. They weren’t trying to run. They weren’t shooting at the Venerant, not that they could hit her anyway.
The naniates in the lift retreated to the Venerant, the red line snapping like elastic and becoming denser within the energy field composing her. There was a short, angry, terrifying howl from behind her.
Then death burst out of the lift, three meters tall and pure red, fury in a Goreshin form charging toward the soldiers.
They opened fire, round after round of projectiles and plasma targeting the creature. It leaped into the air, over their fire, turning and shifting, skipping off the side wall and down toward the nearest shooter.
Its massive claws cut right through the soldier’s body, almost literally tearing them in half. The Goreshin didn’t slow at all, rushing to the next one, sliding on the floor to drop below their aim. Bouncing up, it slashed the soldier’s head with its hind claws before traveling to the next. It grabbed the soldier’s neck in its teeth, ripping out their throat.
Hayley watched in stunned fascination and fear. She had never seen or heard of anything like this before. The Goreshin was bigger than any she had encountered, faster than any she had encountered, and apparently smarter, too. It didn’t charge headlong into bullets as though it was immune to them, even though it probably was. It took a specific route to each shooter, as though it had planned the whole thing out ahead of time. It cut them down, one after another like they were paper targets waiting to be shredded.
It was over in seconds. The Goreshin cleared the floor of over two-dozen armed soldiers without taking a single obvious hit, and without losing any of the blood-red fury that fueled it.
When the last soldier fell, it turned toward the Venerant and charged.
She reached out with the Gift, the naniates spreading around it and slamming it to the ground. It grew angrier at being contained, claws scraping the floor of the warehouse, struggling to get up and attack the woman. Whatever she was doing with it, clearly it wasn’t a completely willing participant.
The Venerant stood in one place, waiting for it to give up. The red slowly started to fade, not vanishing but becoming less intense. A few minutes passed. Hayley made sure to check her surroundings repeatedly as she waited. She knew she should hurry, but this was valuable intel.
Finally, the Goreshin stopped struggling. It sat still for a moment before shifting back into its first form.
“You did well,” the Venerant said to him.
He didn’t answer. He stared up at her.
“I know you hate me, Tibor. I gave you the hate to make you strong. Look at what you did.”
The Goreshin turned his head back to the bloody mess he had left in the warehouse. “This is no challenge, and you know it.”
“The real challenge is coming,” she replied. “For you and your brothers. Gloritant Thraven failed us, but that doesn’t mean our time is over. The Nephilim will rise again, and you and your kind will be the spark that lights the fire. Whoever would have guessed that the Shard’s special gift would be the very thing that would lead to the end of humankind?”
“I don’t care about the end of humankind. What is all this for?” He waved at the death behind him.
“You know what it’s for. These worlds are ours by right. The Shard tricked us. He made us believe he cared about us. It was the humans he cared about, not his original people. Not his faithful and loyal servants.”
“I never wanted to be part of this.”
She laughed. “Then you shouldn’t have gotten captured.”
The Goreshin, Tibor, stared at her, his qi turning red again. The Venerant knew he wanted to rip her apart. She also didn’t care.
“You belong to me, Tibor. You and the others. Once we’ve completed the trials, we’ll be ready to send the sequencing back to the Extant, so we can begin rebuilding our armies.”
“What good is an army of Goreshin against starships?”
“Don’t be stupid. You aren’t the only ones we’ve been modifying. The idiots in the Republic did half the work for us with their enhancement programs. We’ll have geniuses in space and killers on the ground. As it should be.”
“And if I resist?”
The Venerant reached out, naniates flowing from her hand. Tibor collapsed, crying out in intense pain.
“You can’t resist,” she said. “Our scientists have made sure of that.”
She released him. He stayed on the ground, shriveled up in agony.
“We’ll begin prepping the warehouse for your final test. As the least of your brothers, you’ll be the first to match your strength against the best the Republic has to offer.”
Hayley’s eyebrow raised at the statement. The best the Republic had to offer? The Riders had a reputation, but they weren’t members of the Republic. At least not officially. Then again, if there was anyone in the galaxy who could go toe-to-toe with one of these modified Goreshin, it was probably Quark.
“Let’s go,” the Venerant said, walking back into the lift.
Tibor rose slowly, still in pain. He got to his feet, following. As he neared the lift, he turned his head back, looking up for only a moment.
Directly at her.
Then he entered the lift. The doors started to close at the same time the door to the outside began to open, and a fresh crew of individuals entered.
Hayley shrank behind the wall, surprised the Goreshin had known she was there. Would he tell the Venerant? If he was going to, wouldn’t he have done it already?
She burned another few heartbeats watching the group below begin cleaning up the mess the Goreshin had left before returning to the stairs. The good news was that every indication pointed to Quark still being alive. The bad? While there was a slim possibility Quark could kick Tibor’s ass if it came down to it, seeing the way the Goreshin had destroyed the soldiers left her anything but confident.
She had already lost one father.
She wasn’t ready to lose another.
8
She made her way to the bottom of the stairwell, winding up in the southeast corner of the warehouse. She had to stop there, opening the door just enough so she could get a read on the space.
There were nearly fifty individuals in the wide open room. They were almost finished removing the soldiers Tibor had killed, and now many of them were near the front of the warehouse.
The larger doors to the outside starting sliding open. Hayley could hear the soft whining of vehicles behind them, and then the heat of them as the doors moved aside. A number of trucks were waiting to enter.
She looked the other way, back toward the large lift. There had to be a stairwell down, or a smaller lift she could take. It would be stupid to leave only one way out. In fact, there were probably multiple escape routes in different parts of the city. She didn’t have time to figure out where they were.
She found another small door opposite the lift. There was no way to be sure it would go where she wanted. And it was probably locked. How was she goin
g to get back there and through it unseen?
She looked back at the workers. They didn’t appear to be armed.
In that case, did it matter if they saw her? The Nephilim had to know she was still alive, didn’t they? Making a run for it was risky as hell, but so was doing nothing and waiting for Tibor to kill Quark. And if Quark won that fight? The Venerant said Tibor was the least of them. The weakest.
She didn’t want to know what the strongest of the modified Goreshin was like.
She made her decision. She pushed the door open, sprinting along the wall toward the rear of the warehouse. She had gone almost halfway when she heard the first shout. She glanced back to see the workers were facing her. They were confused, not angry, and they weren’t pointing weapons at her.
It was a good sign.
She kept running, peeking back over her shoulder every few steps. She was closing in on the door. Would it be locked?
She finally reached it, putting her hand on the cold metal frame. She reached out with the Meijo, sending it into the mechanism, searching for tumblers or magnets. It didn’t matter which. She commanded them to open it, and though it took a few seconds, they did.
She blinked a few times as the door slid out of her way. She had already used them more in an hour than she typically did in a day, and she was feeling the effects.
The workers behind her were shouting and finally giving chase. The trucks were entering the warehouse too, the lead vehicle racing across the floor toward her.
She stepped over the threshold and sent a new command to the naniates to close it. They did.
She put her hand on the wall to hold herself up. She needed to conserve the rest of her Meijo to heal the captured members of Black Squad after she reached them.
If she reached them.
She pushed that thought away. She was going to rescue them. There was no room to doubt. She paused, realizing suddenly that all of her earlier nerves and fear had evaporated. Her heart was still thumping, and the adrenaline was coursing through her, but there was a new calm in her mind. A new focus. Good.
She took a moment to survey her new surroundings. There was no stairwell here. She was in a box, with walls all around her.
“Gant, there must be a lift here or something,” she said, hoping she hadn’t wandered into a utility closet.
“Scanning,” the AI said.
Hayley couldn’t see the red beam that emerged from the visor, sweeping the room.
“I found the controls. The wall to your right, two meters up, sixteen centimeters to your left.”
She moved to the location, putting her hand out and sliding it over the wall. The controls activated, and she called the lift. She could hear the mechanism begin to move behind the hidden door, the machine rising from the depths.
She took a step back from it, grabbing her Uin and spreading it in front of her, using it as a shield. The room was too small to fire her pistol in. Not with the ammo she had loaded.
The whispering sound of the lift grew slightly louder as it neared the top. Hayley kept her breath calm and even as she waited.
The doors started sliding open. She could see the qi energy the moment the doors began to part.
She stepped back, her calm threatening to shatter.
Of course, they had known she was coming this way.
They had sent an Executioner up to stop her?
The largest and strongest of the Nephilim were rare outside the Extant. So rare she had never seen one in person before. So rare the only people she knew on this side of the galaxy who had seen one were the Rejects. This one was nearly three meters tall and covered in the spiked protrusions of thick, dense bone that made his origins easily identifiable.
He was fragging terrifying.
She decided the best defense was a good offense, jumping toward the massive humanoid before it could react. She turned her Uin sideways, slashing through the opening doors at the Nephilim, her blade slicing along its chest.
It skipped and sparked against his armor, and he laughed at the futility of the effort, waiting for the doors to finish opening.
Hayley cursed, bouncing back. It pushed the opening door the rest of the way, causing it to squeal on its tracks.
“The last little Rider,” it said, its voice so deep and its accented Earth standard so thick it was hard to parse, even for her ears. “Mistress figured you’d turn up soon enough.”
Hayley didn’t answer. She maneuvered to the side of the small room, trying to keep as much distance between herself and the Executioner as she could.
“Mistress would have come herself, but she said you ain’t worth it. Just a scout, she said. Fast on your feet. Let me see.”
He stepped into the room. He had to weigh at least three hundred fifty kilos. Probably more.
“Come on little scout,” the Executioner said. “I ain’t got all day.”
Hayley charged again. She wished the anti-gravity plate was still functional. It would have made it much easier to reach the Nephilim’s head.
She had to settle for his legs and torso. She guided her Uin, flipping it skillfully from one hand to the other, turning it over and slashing, spinning it back and slashing again.
The Executioner hardly moved. The blade skipped off whatever armor he was wearing without doing any damage.
“What’s that weird thing you got on your head?” the Nephilim asked, unconcerned with her attack. “I never seen nothing like that before. Your tats are sweet though. You get some kind of dye what glows in the dark?”
She backed away from him, reaching for her sidearm.
The color of his qi shifted as she did. His arm shot out, faster than she expected for something that size. She had the weapon halfway out when his hand smacked her arm with so much force she was thrown sideways, slamming into the wall and dropping the weapon.
“Nuh-uh,” he said, stepping on the gun and crushing it before she could grab it again.
She jumped back to her feet, keeping the Uin in front of her for protection. As if the weapon could protect her from this beast. If his armor was resistant to rhodrinium, there was no way in hell she could beat him. Not like this.
She noticed the lift was still open and waiting behind him. Maybe she didn’t have to fight? Maybe she just needed to get around?
“Where’s Quark?” she asked.
His qi changed. He was amused. “The Colonel?” he said. “You’ll be seeing him soon. I got orders not to kill you unless you make me. You gonna make me?”
She responded by charging toward him again. He reached out for her, and she jumped up, grabbing his arm and using his weight to pull herself forward and up. He reached out with his other hand as she vaulted past him. She tucked her legs in, barely avoiding his grab and diving into the lift behind him.
He didn’t try to turn around. He just jumped back, nearly spearing her with the spikes on his back as she ducked beneath them, winding up inside the lift between his legs. He reached down, grabbing her hair and holding it with one hand while hitting the lift control with the other.
She didn’t cry out, but she could feel her face flush with embarrassment. She had screwed up. Again.
Fragging newbie.
“Well, that was easy,” he said.
9
The lift reached the bottom, the doors opening. The Executioner had a vice grip on her arm and was holding her Uin in his other hand.
The Venerant was waiting for them.
“Got her, Venerant Devain,” he said, lifting her up by her arm to show her off. She didn’t struggle. That wasn’t going to help her now.
The Venerant’s qi was curious.
“I’ve been following the Riders’ missions for some time,” she said. “Preparing for this. And I don’t know you.”
“I’m new,” Hayley replied.
Devain was amused. “You have Koosian markings, but you aren’t a native Koosian.”
That was easy enough for anyone to guess. Native Koosians were dark-skinned. She
was the furthest thing from it. Her flesh was ivory to their ebony.
“I’m from Earth originally,” Hayley said. “I was-”
“I don’t care,” Devain said. “The visor you’re wearing. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
She reached out for it. Hayley felt a sudden sense of panic at the thought of losing it, and she had to force herself to stay calm.
Devain pulled it off her head, turning it over to examine the inside. Her qi shifted color again when she saw that the front of the visor was as opaque as the back.
“Are you blind?” she asked.
Hayley didn’t answer. She had made a stupid mistake getting caught at the top of the lift. Could she rectify it now?
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll answer me, girl,” Devain said. Hayley could see the Gift flowing to the surface, the Venerant preparing it for use. “Are you blind?”
“Not exactly,” Hayley replied.
She made her move, reaching up and grabbing the Executioner’s arm with her free hand and using him to swing herself forward. She brought her foot up and into the Venerant’s face, hearing the satisfying crack of the woman’s nose as she came back down, yanking hard to try to get away.
The move took the large Nephilim off-guard, and she managed to get loose, rolling forward, tackling Devain and pulling her to the ground. She reached over, snatching the visor back and hitting the Venerant on the side of the head with it, sliding her arm across Devain’s bloody face as she did. The woman gasped and didn’t move again, knocked unconscious by the blow.
“You little bitch,” the Executioner said, reaching for her again. He grabbed her arm, but it was slippery with blood, and he lost it when she pulled away.
Then she was sprinting down the hallway. She struggled to keep her vision focused as she ran, the loss of the visor leaving the colors in front of her more scattered. There hadn’t been any other guards in the corridor, giving her a few seconds to run uncontested.
She slipped the visor back on, the path becoming clearer when she did. She turned right at the first intersection, nearly crashing into a soldier as she did. His qi turned red and green with angry confusion, and she threw her fist into his face, cracking him in the jaw hard enough to leave him stunned.