by Jared Paul
I shouted into the speakers to all, "This is the President. The 'Tomahawk' is taking heavy fire. We've lost strategy. Break formations and cover that ship! All available fighters to the 'Tomahawk,' now!"
The "Tomahawk" swung through the clouds like a prey. Its hungry predators were not far behind. Sentria maneuvered her ship to engage, but there were too many of them. Damage was getting worse with every volley and the chance of making it to the altar was becoming unrealistic.
My fleet finally came to aid, but they would prove to be of slight help. The Thralls were already ejecting from their ships, catapulting an army of jet packs into the sky. The singular targets would be too small to hit and all too quick to aim accurately. Their armored boots stomped onto the surface of the "Tomahawk," locking on with magnets.
"They've made contact," cried Sentria as she swung her ship into a barrel roll. "I can't shake them off!"
Assisting fighters weren't making it any easier. In attempt to clear the jet packers from the "Tomahawk," the fleet was firing onto the ship's very position. Each successive shot was getting too close for comfort.
Deadstock beckoned through the radio, "Ember, this friendly fire is hardly helping. Call off your fleet."
I agreed with his request, "Copy that. Pulling the fighters to standby. We are keeping close."
Soon enough, we gave them some room. Regretfully, there was nothing more we could do except to watch it all play out. Heart beats quickened, pounding in all of our ears as we witnessed the enemy's attempt to bring that precious ship down.
"Sentria, keep the ship steady," I heard him say as a topside hatch popped open. "I'm going outside for a brisk walk."
Braving the high wind and velocity, Deadstock was personally going to take out the invasive jet packers. He arose from a maintenance shaft, catching the attackers off guard. It was a nearly suicidal endeavor, given he had been recently stripped of his power. He was vulnerable and I admired his strength through his weakness. What followed was a violent brawl atop the "Tomahawk" as he wafted rounds from his Dragon's Throat.
Jet packs, armor, and flesh all burst into grisly fragments. The remains immediately washed away in the airstream. Impressive as it was, he couldn't kill them all. These Thralls and their jet packs were like ants crawling over a fresh carcass.
I sighted an anomaly, "Doctor, they have Demon Eggs!"
"Sentria, close up every exhaust vent and airflow chamber," exclaimed Deadstock as he caught sight of one of those notorious grenades being activated.
"Shutting the ports now," she quickly complied. "What's your status?"
"They've got Demon Eggs live and ready up here," he radioed back as he ended a deadly scrap.
The last outlet was closing up when a Thrall got a forearm jammed in the vent. Deadstock madly crawled over through the wild gusts to confront, but it was too late. The Thrall let out an awful sneer before breaking free and flying away. I knew what it meant and so did Deadstock. A Demon Egg had found its way in.
"Oh, no," I whispered under my breath with all severity.
All that Deadstock had time do was yell out our daughter's name in the panic, "Sentria!"
A flash of blinding light and then, boom! A wing and half of the compartment imploded, sending the "Tomahawk" into a twisting plunge downward without any hope for control of the aircraft. Deadstock stuck his knife, the Dragon's Tooth, into the outer shell of the ship and held onto to it for dear life.
"We are going down, we are going down." Sentria kept calm as she did her best to steady the disastrous trajectory, allowing Deadstock time to slide down and slip inside the hatch.
I commanded at the top of my voice, "Secure your chutes and eject!"
A seat then burst from out the cockpit as Sentria confirmed, "The Overlord is away."
Deadstock separated from his seat and a silver parachute plumed out from his back, holding him safely up through the aerial mayhem. Yet, Sentria had strangely not ejected along with him. Something had gone wrong, perhaps purposefully.
With a sad rasp in his lungs, Deadstock asked "Sentria, what have you done?"
I fearfully inquired, "What does he mean? You have to eject now, Sentria. You are going to crash in seconds!"
"There was only one escape chute and the Overlord has just taken it," she clarified without regret. "I'm sorry, Father. I knew you wouldn't have ejected if you had known."
He responded, "Never would I have wanted it like this, your life for mine!"
"Not just for you, Father, for the world," she coughed back as black smoke engulfed her ship. "We both know this world has fallen from its own height, but you can still catch it on its way down. Raise it back up, better than you found it. I just gave you the chance."
Deadstock cried desperately, "Just hold on!"
"Goodbye, Father," she ended.
"Wait, I want you to know something," he whispered as he beheld the final moments. "I want you to know that I would've wished to catch you right now, than catch the whole world forever. I love you, my daughter."
"I love you too," she radioed with a murmur.
The "Tomahawk" then plowed through the tall trunks of the surrounding rainforest. Pieces went everywhere as the axe headed ship collided with the earth, crashing into the dew covered Lair in a blast of mist and fire. It was over and all I could do was restrain a mother's horror inside of me. I had to remain emotionless until a later time. For now, she was just another face among the battle's unavoidable death toll.
My streaming eyes knew it all too differently. I could not hide the truth from my instincts. I could only hold it back, shaking with fury.
Meanwhile, with his silvery chute, the Overlord floated down into the central courtyard of the Lair. The challenge altar was near, unguarded and right there beside him. I could tell it was the last thing on his mind. He practically paid it no attention as he turned to veer his gaze elsewhere. Detaching his parachute, Deadstock headed toward the outlying forest where a wreckage billowed through the trees. Thrall ground troops were swarming everywhere between him and the crash site. He would not make it very far before he was completely overrun. I had no choice. I had to intervene. Sentria would have wanted me to.
I radioed out to him with every ounce of compassion and understanding within me, for I knew his pain and was matching it tenfold. "Doctor, the area is too hot. You will never reach her. You have got to get to the altar and activate that challenge pillar. Otherwise, Sentria's sacrifice will mean nothing. Your call."
Silent, he persisted onward without relent. There was no pause in his step when I spoke to him, no acknowledgement. His pace was unwavering. Ground troops began confronting him from here and there. He sliced many and shot most of them without so much of a break in his stare ahead.
I turned to my officers aboard my ship, "Light up the perimeter!"
In an instant, our cannons propelled a volley around him, blasting the approaching Thralls and igniting the courtyard perimeter into a wall of fire. Deadstock was locked in with nowhere else to go. It broke his heartache trance. Taking in the blaze around him, he finally returned to the mission at hand with a remorseful step.
The path to the altar was free. Over its mysterious plain face, the Overlord loomed up. He slipped off his glove and pulled out his milky bone blade of renown. With the edge of his Dragon's Tooth, he drew a few drops of blood from his hand and sprinkled them upon the altar. Replacing the glove, he waited. It wasn't long until the triangular altar came to life. Pathways of violet light ran across the surface, culminating at the middle. The center glowed in a haze before bursting forth into a pillar of light that stretched up into the dark clouds above.
The battle was over. It was done. The challenge pillar had been lit. Its light could be seen from anywhere among the neighboring skies, signifying a ceasefire to all immediate scuffles. In ritual, every Thrall was obligated to respond to its activation.
The aerial dogfights had abruptly ended in that moment, allowing me the opportunity to call my fleet back, ou
t of the way. The Overlord's challenge had been successfully made and we of the United Corps were to become spectators to an endgame. All that was needed was for the final participant to reveal himself.
17
THE RIGHT TO RULE
The light of the challenge pillar gleamed across the glassy panels of the pyramid. Eerily, Zero's interested eyes reflected the light as well. He was leaning forward with an arm against the glass where the levitating structure hovered over the burning gardens below. The attack on the Lair was over, but I, Solomon Boone, cared not for pillars, altars, or challenges. I had just witnessed my love as she crashed her ship into oblivion's shadow.
Time had frozen still and had yet to reawaken. It was all moving so slowly around me that I couldn’t hear myself yelling for her. I couldn't even feel the agony of my knees when they hit the floor. Everything had become numb.
Zero motioned my gaze toward the Overlord and the altar, "Looks like I won't be needing your blood after all, mate. Somebody else just offered their own."
The next thing I remember, I was standing among many, all packed around the altar. My senses finally returned as I took in the legions upon legions, the rows upon rows. The whole Lair had become one massive arena and at its center was the challenge pillar.
The Commander was slowly circling the beam of light, inspecting it while the Overlord stood off to the side with a complacent glare. Nobody had seen the pillar since the Last Day of the Last War. That was twenty years ago, before I was even born. The bright pillar was a privilege to marvel.
"Challenge accepted," said Zero with satisfaction. The pillar then vanished, leaving an open faced altar that held ample surface space for a duel. "Tell me, Doctor, does this feel familiar? This is where it all began. The place where you first became a ghost."
"I was a ghost long before," said the Overlord as he caressed his side where the old scar lay. "I became a ghost the moment I first tried to play God."
"It still hurts, doesn't it?" Zero asked. "The wound on your side. I'll have you know that my brother's never forgiven himself for sticking that blade in your belly all those years ago."
Why would Zero bring that up? Fossil was standing beside me and I could almost feel his regret. He sighed heavily, likely remembering the Last Day. Was the Commander truly so cruel and evil, even to his own brother?
The Overlord picked out Fossil's remorseful face in the ranks, "Your brother should learn to forgive himself, because I have already forgiven him."
"What about me?" Zero taunted. "Would you forgive me?"
"Of course," chuckled Deadstock before switching to a more serious tone. "Forgiveness doesn't excuse justice, though, so I'll get straight to the point. What have you done with the Wandering Star?"
Zero became grave, "You're going to have to kill me to find that out, which I'm beginning to believe that's more than you're capable of at the moment. You're nothing but a pile of half beaten flesh and bones. It won't be that hard to take you down. The work's already mostly done. All I have to do is put you out of your misery like the stray dog that you are."
The Overlord spat at the Commander's feet, "It's you who's the stray, Zero, not me."
Zero spat back, "I am the fearless watchdog of the Thralldom. What's funny is that it's you who placed me here too. You set a watchdog over our sacred destiny to guard this planet. I have been protecting it ever since. What have you been doing? Let me make something very clear for you, Doctor. When you ask a fearless watchdog to stand guard, don't act surprised if your heel gets bit when you come back like a thief in the night!"
The Overlord came up to him, eye to eye. "So it's the stray against the watchdog then. We'll just have to see whose fangs bite the deepest. Unleash the Thunder Blades!"
From the bottommost corners of the triangular altar, two pedestals arose at either side. Embedded in each one was an odd looking sword, clear like a sharp crystal spike. The two rivals then grabbed ahold of the respective blades and both pedestals subsequently leveled back down.
Among the ranks, we were all advised to shove our helmets back on to protect our eyes from what was about to happen. I had no idea what to expect from the duel, but the dark visor inside my helmet was supposedly going to prevent me from going blind. The Overlord slapped on his usual signature pair of shades while Zero strangely inserted a pair of special contact lenses. It made his eyes appear as black and sinister as a winter night.
"For the Thralldom," vowed Zero, raising his Thunder Blade up high.
"For the world," declared Deadstock, lifting his own sword to the sky.
As if on cue, dark clouds began swirling overhead. Thunder boomed and crashed while flicks of lightning began to snap. There was some kind of weather manipulation going on up there, but I couldn’t tell who was doing it or how. I looked around, only the Bottom Bunks, like me, seemed mesmerized by the strange tempest above. The senior operatives, the Top Bunks, displayed no surprise. Apparently, it was all just a customary part of the duel. The storm was artificial.
With their swords still outstretched, strokes of lightning hit down and enveloped each of the special weapons. In a whirlwind of white light, the Thunder Blades became energized by the electric streams. Having harnessed the very power of the sky, the glassy shards gave off a pale glow that was both deadly and beautiful.
Zero swirled his sword to and fro, agitating the lightning weaponized in his blade. "Is this really how you wish to be remembered, Doctor? To go down in the songs of woe?"
"This isn't about me anymore," professed the Overlord as he held his Thunder Blade, unmoving and static.
"Yet, you choose to offer yourself up into so much pain for something that's not really about you," disputed Zero.
Deadstock sustained, "My part in all this is now to end all this and I do so without fear of pain, in any of its forms. You're not the only one without fear, Zero. I have known many pains. I don't fear them anymore."
"Then come, Doctor, and I'll show you a new pain," called out the Commander. "Pain unlike anything that you've ever felt before."
With great ferocity, Zero jolted his electrified sword toward the Overlord. A violent streak of lightning shot straight for him, but Deadstock quickly deflected the voltage as he ignited his own blade. His sword absorbed the energy and both electric bolts went twisting away into the black clouds above.
The Overlord then pointed his Thunder blade forward. "I would tell you to go to hell, Commander, but today, I'm going to take you there myself!"
"I think you're already there," scoffed Zero.
Like cracking a whip, Deadstock then slashed out a bolt from his Thunder Blade. The lightning swiped across the altar in a wave of terror. Zero quickly dodged and rolled, letting the incoming surge fly past him. The bolt then dissipated into the near distance.
The Commander, now full of fury, struck back. A brutal duel of thunder and flash then began. The more they fought, the closer they came. The closer they stepped to each other, the more potent became the wild electricity between them. The deadly display neared the center of the altar. Their weapons hissed and crackled. Toe to toe, the opponents swung out their swords before blocking the other's inbounding current.
In all directions, lightning was discharging from their midst. Thunder Blades snapped their flashing waves into the sky and across the arena. It was the defining battle of our time.
Ultimately, the two opposing forces hacked their swords at the same instant. The Thunder Blades met. Crystal cracked against crystal. Hilt smashed into hilt. A luminous energy began forming at the center of the interlocked weapons. It was a stalemate where both would soon know defeat. Too powerful, they were losing control of the energy they had just created.
I then recalled the omen I'd seen in the forest, the two bucks and their locked horns. The charging muscles. The frothing jaws. The smashing skulls. The beating hearts. The steam rising from the hide of their backs and the hot exhales blowing from each of their nostrils. In the clash of the pitiless contest, the antlers tu
rned brittle and cracked. The boney barbs shattered, thrusting the split remains into the softness of a neck and a head. Both alphas fell, defeated by the other.
The duel upon the altar was no different. The electric presence between the Commander and the Overlord soon erupted in a thunderous bang of crystal and lightning. The Thunder Blades had overloaded, fracturing into a thousand pieces as the two men were aggressively pushed back to either side. The destructive power brilliantly plumed into the far reaches of the atmosphere, leaving the whole face of the altar coated in broken glass.
The arena stood silent. The fate of the two forces was revealed as each man got back up to his feet. Boots crunched over the scattered shards as they loomed back to the center, discarding the empty hilts in their hands.
Deadstock growled, "Is it really worth dying for, Zero? Renewable energy or not, the Blood Tech should've never been made. Human life is too high of price for control of the world."
The Commander rolled his blackened eyes, "The world was ending anyway, Doctor. Remember? Or have you forgotten what it was like when the oil fields ran dry? The riots, the wars. The Blood Tech brought peace to the turmoil. No one here would be alive today if it was not for our actions in the Last War. Are we truly to blame when fools started killing each other for a piece of our solution? We had the perfect answer, but it was corrupted by the weak, the filth from the dirt. Their casualty was our progress."
"We are all from the dirt," put forth Deadstock.
"Then allow me to return your flesh to the dust," said Zero as he reached a hand behind his back, slowly unveiling his retractable machete from over his shoulder. With a flick of a switch, the full length of the blade unfolded. "Looks like we'll just have to finish this the old fashioned way."
The Overlord attempted to plead further, "Zero, if we continue to draw lines between right and wrong, eventually no right will remain, only evil."
"I no longer put my trust in right and wrong," returned the Commander. "Right and wrong are mere points of view, Doctor. Preferences that can be rewritten by the constantly changing laws of human beings. I believe in good and evil, though. You and I, we were a different kind of evil. We were a necessary evil. We did what we had to do as we both do even now."