Slave Line (The Young Ancients)

by Power, P. S.

  A feeling of horror ran through him though. Not that someone had tried to kill him, that just had him shaking and breathing hard. No, it was that those hostages would almost certainly be killed now. Tor couldn't even get to them in time to save them.

  Crud.

  A single person, a man in his twenties or so, wearing a green jumpsuit and having no hair on his head at all, stood with his device held out toward Tor. He looked panicked, but he kept doing whatever it was they did. Tor walked over to him slowly, since he was the only person left, a decently bad cut spreading blood from his forehead, dripping on to the mint green clothing below.

  Before Tor could so much as hold out the healing amulet in his hand and explain, the man stammered at him.

  "This... this is going out live. Everyone in Austra is watching this." He sounded scared, and Tor didn't blame him. He probably didn't know that the Assassin had exploded at all and thought that his weapon had done all of that. How could he explain?

  He decided not to even try until the man was repaired.

  "This is... for healing. You have a wound on your head and might be in shock." Tor handed it off, which got the man fixed in a few seconds. It wasn't a bad injury at least. The silver and black device was pointed at Tor again instantly.

  "Why did you kill that Larval? How did you do it? Why meet here?"

  "The Larval tried to kill me. The weapon I used kept his explosion from doing too much damage and my shield saved me. We wanted ice cream and this was far enough away from the place where the other forty-nine Larval are holding a town hostage to buy us some time. It seems that they're really after me though, so they can just meet me in battle and let those people go. They're not supposed to kill innocent Austrans, are they? No one gave orders for that, so they should redirect their efforts towards me personally, since they believe that I, personally, am their target. If they can they should use a communications device to get in touch with me here, so I know where to meet them for it." He wasn't going unarmed, that was for certain. As it was Tor wondered when the airstrike would get to the town of Queensland. The thought had to have occurred to Prime Minister Foley already.

  Instead his left front pocket chirped at him, making him just a bit. That was fast. He answered it with a smile, knowing that everyone in the whole land was watching him do it. Not that he cared what they thought overly. He wasn't a hero after all. He was just a man in a bad situation. Let them see him shake in fear. Tor had a pretty good reason for it, didn't he?

  The focus of a group of insane assassins built to be more than human.

  That sounded fair. After all, he'd probably earned it by being... alive. Yep, the crime of existing. Really he should have guessed at that one earlier.

  "This is Tor." He held the device up to his face and spoke loudly, like he'd seen other people doing. The voice that came back at him wasn't a Larval. It was Brown.

  "Tor! We finished the Nano complex, but the town is empty. Of Larval I mean, the citizens are all fine. No one was hurt beyond a few bruises and one broken arm on a young boy that fought back. He's off to hospital already. The others seem to be headed your way. I'd guess they'll be there in about twenty minutes? We're coming. Hang in there." He had a breathless sound to his voice, like he was running while he spoke. Hopefully they weren't trying to take the distance on foot. That wouldn't be helpful at all.

  "Um, Denno?"

  "Yes?"

  "You... do know that I'm not the "Great Unknown Factor" or whatever, right?"

  There was silence for a few seconds with only heavy breathing coming across and a rustling noise that was probably someone getting into a vehicle. Tor heard Trice yell something in the background. It was her voice but he couldn't make it out.

  "Of course you aren't. Who said that? The Great Unknown Factor is just a mental exercise, a way of trying to prepare for things that you otherwise might not have thought of. You know, like "the forth thing"? My way, your way, the other guys way and the thing no one has thought of yet?"

  Tor felt a little better, figuring that Denno wouldn't have lied about it if he really thought Tor was this factor. It would be easiest to just talk to him about it all, wouldn't it?

  "Well, apparently your Larval Army thinks that I'm that thing no one has thought of yet, and wants to kill me over it. If I was told correctly the idea is that they know you can't order me killed directly, so have just provided them with enough secret information to get the job done. A bit inconvenient over all. I mean, great for collecting them away from the civilians and freeing that town. I can go with that, but there's what... Over thirteen hundred of them missing? Out of touch with you even, so you can't just tell them to change their minds. All of them coming for me. Oh... just to confirm, they're also all Cordes. So add that bit of crazy to the sauce." Oddly enough Tor didn't feel bitter about it. He probably should have, but that wouldn't help now, would it?

  "Tor..." Denno stopped talking and the voice changed after a few seconds of rustling.

  To Burks. His grandfather.

  "Tor... If that's the case you have to run. Even you can't take an army of those things, not alone. Run and don't talk to anyone you know. I... There's no time. Meet me in the Capital city two hundred years from now. Denno and I will handle this. It isn't your mess. I'm so sorry... You... can't go home. They know to find you there."

  No doubt. That would also mean it was the best place to set things up to pick the Assassins off one by one. Fourteen hundred of them. It was too dangerous to go back though. At least to his home or school. Not just for him, but for everyone he knew and loved. Cordes had memories of having done something like that once. Leaving everything to protect others. It hadn't been fun for him either.

  "Right. I can't say where I'm going. I'll work on the propulsion for the space craft and deliver the results to... someone. If I can do it alone. I have something to do first, before I vanish. Two things really."

  One was a message to Noram, so that everyone would know what was happening and why he wasn't there anymore. The second was making sure that he was only going up against Thirteen hundred and fifty of these things coming at him from the night. Not fourteen hundred.

  Well, and making sure they didn't kill all the people in the buildings here. He needed to get out of town, visibly.

  "I'm moving this due north of the city here. About five miles I think. Meet us there?" If he was still in the area when they got there. Or still alive.

  "Right, headed there now." The line went dead with a little click.

  Tor pulled out the amulets around his neck and found the third one he almost never used. It had an emergency shelter on it, a water pump and purifier and some odds and ends just in case he ever got stuck away from his gear. Like a communications device. It only called one place though, so just had the one sigil. For the Capital. He hit the blue glowing word and waited, wondering if it would be noticed in time. He left it on as he set up his Fast Carriage and headed toward the place he planned to fight, making his craft change as it flew to glow a very brilliant orange. It was the color of Alice's pack, just in case she needed to know where he was going. He didn't see her, not even from the air.

  Then Tor hovered in place, about two hundred feet up, glowing like a setting sun in the night.

  "Tor?" This voice was deep and powerful sounding. Commanding, but not unfriendly. Richard Cordes, the King of Noram.

  His friend. It was an odd thing, but it wasn't just him he realized. The man actually treated him that way, as young and no doubt vexing as he sometimes had been.

  "Rich, I don't have a lot of time. Ah..." Where to begin? There wasn't a lot of time for this at all, was there? Minutes at most.

  "OK... I have about fifty Larval assassins coming to kill me right now. These are only the distraction, the rest of them, well over a thousand, have spread and apparently think their only goal in existence is killing me. I have to vanish. If I live through this here I mean. I'm hoping to get them to try and chase me, maybe kill as many of them as I can. I
won't be in touch again. Not directly. Not until there are no more Larvals left. It could take a while." Tor was proud of how he sounded, not like a cowering little boy at all hardly.

  "I see. Why? Do you know?"

  "Yes, but I'll let you get that from Green or Brown. I don't have time. Could you do something for me?"

  There wasn't even a bit of hesitation at all.

  "Anything. What do you need? I can scramble the army within a day to almost any location in Noram, we could set up a trap? Or if you need..."

  Tor didn't let him finish.

  "To uncontrolled. The Assassins probably won't fall for something that simple, unfortunately. No. I need you to take the funds from my kingdom account and make sure Alphonse has control over them. Ali is going to be busy, but make sure she's protected? I told her to learn building and take over if I didn't come back, so don't be surprised when she does it. I think I've been underestimating her pretty badly. Anyway, I... Tell everyone that I love them and that I'm safe, just trying to deal with this. It isn't a secret, so just announce what's happening and that it's a personal issue for me, a family problem, not an Austran attack. That part is important. This is between me and them, not Noram and Austra. Even if I die. As far as I can tell no one ordered this at all, it's just a set of mistakes. But... if I'm around anyone that can be used as a hostage they might take them, so you know, shields all the time and stay armed. Plus..." This part was awkward, but had to be said. Some things were too important to forget.

  "Could you get Ali some flowers from me? I know it isn't the same as getting them myself, but she should have flowers. All this time and I never even got her any damned flowers. How bad of a husband is that?" Ok, now he sounded bitter, but it was all about him and his failures, not anything other than that.

  There was so much else to say, but Tor saw the dust coming towards him in the glow of his craft. It was hard to tell how many. They moved fast, but on the ground. About as fast as a military Not-flyer could go. They could have missiles and weapons though, so he needed to keep that in mind. Coming from the same direction though was a black rectangle, flying high in the air above them all. It had a single green glowing light on it. Burks.

  "Got to go now Rich. After I kill these I'm leaving directly from here. I won't be in touch again. Or, I mean, I will be if I can, but if so expect it to be coded and secret, coming from a strange source or something. I'll try to signal that it's from me by..." His color was purple so he almost said that, but Cordes flashed a warning to him that it would be a little obvious.

  "By making it white and brown."

  "I... I'll make sure everyone knows." Then the sigil faded to its normal cream color because he shut it off.

  Tor set down slowly as the vehicles stopped and the Larval exited fast spreading out to surround him. They had weapons indeed. Powerful ones that rocked the Carriage hard. It didn't give yet, but the air pressure changed so much he nearly passed out after the first volley. Then a horrible buzz filled the space around him. A sound weapon of some kind. He heard it, but most of the noise was taken up by his shield. It resonated in him though, painfully. The design would try to shunt the force into the ground normally, but that meant having contact with it. Without that connection it tried to reflect it back directly, but it didn't work very well with the air itself.

  Tor had a plan of sorts. Nothing too brilliant, but staying where he was wouldn't help and flying away, though prudent in the moment, didn't kill the Larvals. He didn't try to fool himself there. He had to kill them. All of them. At least if Denno didn't figure out how to reprogram them using nano's like he'd planned. Make them too tired to care or whatever it was. If that was going to happen it had to be quick, since he was running out of time.

  He sighed and dropped into a trance, one as deep as he could manage on short notice. He fought as the bombardment kept going, watching the men, who were all exactly the same, start moving toward him weapons still firing making different patterns in the dark. Brilliant yellow streaks for the missiles and the faintest blue shimmer for something else that didn't seem to be having any effect at all.

  Above them the black craft Trice flew moved into place, pulling part of the weapons activity, just as he slapped the floor of his craft, and using a focus bit of will... turned it off.

  He dropped to the ground, which seemed to take forever, firing his weapon in the explosive mode. The Larval moved on him faster than a regular man could have by far, but they also died everywhere he could aim. They blew apart in great bloody gouts of mist in the air, even as black ash dumped from Trice's craft, almost unnoticed. The fight didn't last long, since they couldn't make it all the way to him, though he lost his footing several times when the ground was blasted out from under him, sending him spinning through the air. It didn't hurt too much though, except the force of his brain slapping against the inside of his skull. It was enough that he was bleeding from the nose when the remaining Larval all just sat down.

  He didn't notice that part of things at first, figuring it for a trick or a new combat technique he simply didn't know about. A different firing position perhaps? He killed most of the remainder before he heard people yelling at him to stop. It sounded distant and remote. A world away. Deep and slow too. Which made sense. He was watching the world move in slow motion. A trick he'd learned to help him fight a giant. Pulling himself out of it he kept the assassins covered as well as he could and waited for the others to come for him. Denno got there first.

  "We had them going into conservation mode, why did you keep firing?" He sounded horrible, like he was asking Tor why he'd killed his puppies, not realizing they were actually rabid wolves. It was just who the man was though, so Tor ignored that part of things.

  "Combat trance Denno. I didn't realize what was happening. Not exactly at least." It was true enough. Burks got there next, followed by Trice and oddly enough Orange, who moved in on foot from the side, stopping about ten feet back.

  "I found more in town. Ten of them. They no longer live either. Good enough fighters, if a little weak."

  Tor looked around counting the piles and spots of blood carefully.

  "Fifty-seven gone then? So that gives me a start. Three left here. Can you control them Brown? Can I count them out of the list or do I need to assume they'll always be a threat?" He felt cold but his voice seemed normal enough. No scent of death even. Oh, it would get to him, Tor didn't doubt, since killing was wrong, but it wasn't that overwhelming horror at what he'd done he was used to when he killed. This was better. Far easier to deal with.

  Brown looked sad, but stared at the black eyed men sitting dumbly in place, not even paying attention to the carnage around them.

  "I can handle them. All of them. It will take time, but you don't have to worry Tor, I can do this. I just need to... figure out how."

  Burks started to speak at the same time Trice did, getting them both to stop. Green gestured for her to go first, which she did, more hesitantly now.

  "I'll go with you. We can fight them together." She sounded brave and strong when she said it, but Tor shook his head anyway.

  "No Trice. I don't know where I'm going, but it won't be Noram and I need you to take care of it while I'm gone. I won't be forever. Denno will figure this out, and if he doesn't, I'll take care of it. I have a plan for that." He gestured to the dead on the ground, not mentioning that all of their people were still just fine. Well, he allowed, he was a little shaken and abused, but he'd taken worse beatings before. He probably would again.

  Denno seemed almost panicked though, getting what he meant.

  "No, no, I'll fix them, please don't kill them all. It isn't their fault."

  "No, it isn't. It's a mess and no one person's responsibility. Still, if you fail, they'll kill me. Maybe a lot of other people in the process. After that's done they might just move on to the next person. Possibly everyone. We don't have a lot of time to fix this Brown. I'll try to lead them off for a while, but I'm not waiting decades to get my life back. We h
ave those ships coming and should at least go say hello, even if they do come by every fifty years or so to visit..." He didn't know that, even the Larval Cordes hadn't said it that way, but Denno winced.

  "It could be a problem though, we've never seen three fleets like this. No more than one at a time and it's normally a much smaller group for those."

  "What?" Burks looked surprised. It was rare that he did that. Enough so that Tor blinked and stared a bit himself.

  "This has happened before? I suppose that you and Blue have been in radio contact with them?" He looked ticked and crossed his arms, so didn't notice the Larval struggle to his feet, weapon coming around slowly. It was almost confused and ponderous seeming.

  Tor killed him instantly sending bits of him all over the Earth around them.

  "Fifty-eight. Sorry everyone, not the time or place for this. Do I need to keep working on the drive for the space craft or what?" He set the Fast Carriage back up and made it stop glowing, then turned it a night sky black, which was really a deep blue and not black at all.

  Denno sighed.

  "Please do. I... Have a bad feeling about this one. I really will fix this Tor. I promise." He held out his hand, which Tor shook, then did the same with Green. It was the polite thing to do after all.

  Trice got a hug, a close thing that lasted for a lot longer than was proper no doubt, but no one cared about that here. The Ancients didn't care and really, after everything, he didn't either. He loved Trice, which is why she needed to be far away from him until this was all taken care of. He really would sacrifice his life to protect her if it came to it and the Larval couldn't be allowed to know that. From that point on he had to convince them that he didn't have a heart at all, no matter what that meant he had to do. Or how much it hurt him.

  "Where will you go? You don't even have any gold with you..."

  "Like I need gold? Take care of Ali and the others for me Trice. Noram too."