by M. R. Forbes
Keeper bowed low. “As you command, Father.”
“I would like to visit the Shard,” Lucifer said.
“Of course, Father. The Shardship has been reconfigured for easy passage from here to the Core. I will show you the way.”
“Judas will guide me,” Lucifer said.
Judas bowed again. “Of course, Father.”
“Keeper, Belial will arrive soon. Engage FTL the moment he is on board.”
“Yes, Father.”
“This way, Father,” Judas said.
He pointed his Master toward the larger opening that had been created to allow the Asura creature into the landing bay. It was a more suitable size for the Father than the smaller passages the others had used.
“Do you ever regret your decision, Judas?” Lucifer asked as they walked.
“Which decision are you referring to, Master?” Judas replied.
“To not support me when I murdered the Shard.”
Judas kept his eyes forward. “Yes.”
“Do not lie to me, Judas.”
“I did not understand the way of things back then,” Judas said.
“But you do today?”
“I have waited many, many years for this day to come. I betrayed those who trusted me. I remained hidden from the universe. I did all that you asked. Why do you question me, Father?”
Lucifer didn’t respond right away. Judas could feel the growing heat of his Master’s anger behind him. He needed to be more careful with his answers. The Father was not as beyond logic as the legends suggested, but the Gift still exacted its price.
“The Prophets failed me, brother. All of them, except for Thraven.” Lucifer laughed, a deep growl. “And he isn’t even a Nephilim.”
“Yet he sees like a true Disciple,” Judas said.
“He does. I question you because your loyalties once belonged to the Shard over me. I question you because you killed my Lilith.”
Judas felt more heat behind him. Would this be the thought that caused his death?
“As you killed my Beatrice,” Judas replied. “In the heat of war, not with malicious intent. I regret both of our losses, Father. Both sadden me.”
Lucifer fell silent. Judas allowed himself to breathe. He had survived this encounter. Would he survive the next?
They reached the tomb of the Shard, bypassing the Core. Judas waited at the enlarged entrance, head bowed, allowing Lucifer to enter first. The Father did so, pausing ahead of the tomb, dropping to a knee and bowing his head. Then he stood and approached the Shard, stepping up to the Tomb, leaning over it and looking in.
“It is a long road we have taken,” he said. “Look at you. Look at me. Victory will be mine. Your Creator will fall at my feet. I will hold his head in my hands and proclaim freedom to the Seraphim, and then I will smash this vessel and tear you from it and rip your frozen remains in half. I’ll shred you to pieces, and piss on what’s left.”
His hand came down hard on the top of the tomb, flames of energy flaring around him. Judas watched him freeze, grunting in an effort to contain his rage. It took a few breaths, but he calmed, taking a step back from the Shard.
“Until then, I will use you the way you’ve used us. Your ship is mine. Your body is mine. Your blood is mine.”
He placed his hand in the fountain at the head of the tomb. Judas stared in amazement as the milky white liquid running through the tubes quickly became tinged with red. Within a minute, it was deep and dark, all evidence of the Shard’s Gift erased.
“Judas,” Lucifer said.
“Yes, Father,” Judas said, entering the room and walking toward him.
“I have never forgiven you.”
Judas had just enough time to draw in a breath to scream. Then his entire body was on fire, every molecule burning, both inside and out.
His ashes drifted across the floor of the tomb under his Father’s satisfied gaze.
8
Gant checked the comm one last time, calling out for Keeper and the Covenant, and receiving nothing back.
The AI had abandoned them, that much was clear. Why? That was a lot more confusing. It was a machine, not capable of changing its mind or breaking its programming, and it was programmed to follow the Chosen. What could have happened to alter those directives?
The only thing he could come up with was an outside influence. A third party. Hiding on the Shardship? It was certainly possible. The Covenant was huge, and they had barely explored a portion of it in the time since they had left the Republic. Another entire army could have been camped out inside, and they would never have known.
Shouldn’t Keeper have known?
What if it had been hacked?
The idea annoyed him. So did the fact that he couldn’t quite get a grasp on it. It was another symptom of his diminishing intelligence, the loss of the perfect mind he had been given. He should have had a clear picture of the circumstances. Instead, he was left to wonder.
There was no more time for even that. A pair of Asura soldiers lay dead in the center of the comm room, their necks neatly slit by his knives. They had popped in on him out of nowhere, and only his size and agility had saved him, allowing him to slip away and avoid too much damage. As it was, he had a cut on his arm that was bleeding a little bit and hurt a lot. Assholes.
Abbey had been playing with fire to bring them to Jamul, and now they were all getting burned. He didn’t blame her. He knew their options had been limited and that without the Asura they might not have defeated Rezel’s forces at all. He couldn’t help but wonder if there was another option they had missed because they were leaning on the creatures. Something more creative but equally effective.
Again, it didn’t matter now.
There were eighteen ships left in Rezel’s fleet, and they were more than happy to remain in orbit and follow their new Queen. They had watched the Prophet lose planet after planet, but their staunch support of the bride of Lucifer held their loyalty. The resemblance between what Abbey was becoming and what Lilith had become was too strong to be a total coincidence. He hadn’t told her about that yet, but he had found an image in Rezel’s datastores that verified that truth. Not that they were the same, or even slightly related. Maybe the naniates simply changed males one way and females another, but the result was what mattered, and she was starting to look like Lilith. In this case, it was working out in their favor.
Those ships would wait, but he was certain the other fleet wouldn’t. Even as he crossed the room and reached the exit, he could see on the array’s sensors that the transports were reaching their destinations and remaining there, packing it in and getting ready to leave.
Would Abbey be able to stop them in time?
She had turned against the Light of the Shard. She had turned back to the blood of the Nephilim. He couldn’t really blame her. He had seen both powers at work, and there was no denying Lucifer’s brew was more suited for war. It was violent and powerful as a storm, while the Shard’s naniates were soft like a breeze. Both useful for their own purposes, he supposed.
He thought it was disgusting that she had to drink blood to increase the power. He thought the fate she was tempting was equally terrible. She was his alpha, and he knew she was going to lose herself. Not dead, but different. And when she did, he would follow her. If that meant slaughtering innocents, he would do it. If it meant killing the other Rejects, he would do it. He wouldn’t even question. That’s what loyalty was to a Gant.
He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He would do whatever he could to help prevent it.
For now, he needed to reach the others. Benhil and Jequn were in trouble.
He left the comm station, moving out into the hallway. The makeshift Palace was a tall tower in the center of the city, the home of the planet’s High Apostant, who was in charge of the occupants below. It housed dozens of Apostants, hundreds of Lessers, and even more Unders. It was mostly abandoned now, the residents fleeing at the first sign of trouble. Only corpses remained from that
group, nearly thirty of them on his way from the station to the tubes that would carry him back to the ground.
He didn’t run into any Asura on the way. He assumed because they had thought the floor was clear and empty, or that the two who had gone after him were guaranteed to survive. They had forgotten quickly that the Rejects didn’t die all that easily, even against phase-shifting aliens from another dimension. They were hard to kill to begin with, and when Gant was pissed like he was now, he was an even harder kill.
He called the tube platform up, waiting impatiently while it ascended. He paced back and forth, wondering where Abbey was and if she were in one piece. He knew the Gift had turned her into something only a few steps short of a demigod, but he still worried. Her neck wasn’t impervious to sharp edges, and the Asura were able to appear out of thin air.
He had to restrain himself to keep from contacting her. She knew what she was doing, and she had given him a different mission.
“Okay, it’s Gant. What’s your status?” he asked, as the platform reached his floor, the tube doors opening.
“Gant,” Pik replied. “I’m in the mess with the Freejects. We took a beating down here, but I’ve got ten dead Asura stinking up the place. Where are you?”
“I’m on a tube heading down. Joker and Cherub are in trouble, and Queenie ordered me to rescue them.”
“By yourself?”
“I could, but I’d prefer a little backup.”
“Roger. The mess is on the third floor. We’ll meet you on the ground.”
“Roger.”
The tube reached the third floor a few seconds later. Gant looked out into the hallway as he passed, seeing nothing but a few dead Nephilim. It had gotten ugly on this planet in a hurry.
“Gant,” Abbey said, her voice cutting in.
“Queenie,” he replied, a little too excitedly. “Where are you?”
“On my way up to meet Aqul’s ship. Listen, if you see a Legionnaire carrying a Darkstone sculpture, do whatever you can to stop him and retrieve it. That’s what they’re after, and if we get it back we may be able to calm them down.”
“How am I supposed to find one Legionnaire when they keep popping out of this timeline?” he asked.
“You might not. Just if you see that one, do your best.”
“Roger.”
The tube reached the ground floor. The door hadn’t even opened when an Asura soldier appeared in front of Gant, blade already arcing toward his face. He snapped his head to the side, narrowly avoiding being skewered, and in one smooth motion threw one of his blades into the Legionnaire’s chest. It grunted in pain, unable to phase with the weapon embedded in it. It drew back its sword to strike again, but Gant jumped away, using the sides of the tube to reach the creature’s eye level. He still had one more blade, and he grabbed the soldiers neck with his hand, slipping around to its back and yanking it along its flesh. He dropped off as it tumbled onto its side, grabbing the first knife and pulling it back out. The dying Asura vanished for a moment, and then came back into phase as it died.
Gant moved out into the main floor of the building. He could see the city beyond, and the dozens of bodies that had already been left in the Asura’s wake. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the dead, whether or not they were Apostant, Lesser, or Under. It was a shitty way to die, and it was at least partially their fault. While they hadn’t brought the Asura into this universe, they had brought them to this planet.
He ran over to the front of the tower, where the transparent doors remained intact. They slid open at his approach, allowing him to leave. He hung back there, watching as an Apocalypse fighter swooped down toward the street, unleashing a line of projectiles that kicked up debris along the ground.
“Ruby, is that you?” Gant asked. The fighter streaked past, rising and circling again.
“Aye, Gant,” Ruby replied.
“What are you shooting at?”
“The Asura were there a second ago. They’re closing on the warehouse. Joker and Cherub are inside with Uriel.”
“Why are they so interested in those three?”
“I believe they are simply interested in killing everything that isn’t one of them.”
“Lovely. I need to cross over to the warehouse. Don’t shoot me.”
“Give us a mark when you’re ready.”
“Roger.”
Gant turned back toward the tube. “Okay, where the hell are you?”
“On my way,” Pik replied. “Tube was jammed. Had to take the stairs.”
A hatch opened to his left, the Trover bursting out, trailing the remains of the Freejects. There were still over a hundred of them. Helk and Herschel were both intact, keeping the other former slaves organized as they moved out into the area.
“Queenie said that if you see one of them carrying a statue, kill it and get the statue,” Gant said.
“Roger that. What’s it a statue of?”
“I don’t know. Does it matter?”
Pik shrugged. “I’m curious.”
“Then I recommend doing your best to capture it. The warehouse is that way.” He pointed to where Ruby had strafed the street. “Are you ready?”
Pik nodded enthusiastically. “Hell, yeah. Free-jects, it’s fragging time!”
Gant rolled his eyes at the same time he started for the street. He had only made it a few steps when a line of Asura appeared a dozen meters ahead, becoming visible for only an instant. A warning that they were there and coming for them.
“We’ve got incoming,” Gant said, crouching and keeping his knives ready. “Delta, a little support?”
“Sorry, Gant,” Phlenel said. “I’m out of position. Coming around.”
“So am I,” Ruby said. “Damn it.”
“Freejects, cover fire,” Pik bellowed.
The former slaves organized themselves into three rows, firing at different heights. They let off single rounds in a smooth cadence, impressive considering how little training they had been given.
The bullets served to keep the Asura out of phase and little else. It was an ineffective defense. Without the Phase Blaster, was there an effective one?
Two soldiers appeared on either side of him. He dropped low, bending in a way only a Gant could, the blades missing his flesh and skidding off one another. He grabbed one of them lightly, letting it carry him upward as the soldier finished his swing, lifting himself with its momentum and slashing with a knife, cutting the Legionnaire across the face. He swung himself, kicking the same face, bouncing off it toward the second soldier, who vanished before he could be stabbed. Gant rolled smoothly back to his feet on the ground at the same time Pik grabbed the first soldier and snapped its neck.
Screams went up behind them, the Freejects falling under attack from the Legionnaires. The organized defense fell apart in a hurry as the slaves scattered away from the Asura blades, trying to escape their deaths. Pik produced a sidearm from his hip and started firing, bullets tearing through the Asura while they were distracted by their prey, cutting four of them down before they got wise to the attack and disappeared once more.
“We need to make a run for it,” Gant said.
“Roger,” Pik replied.
“Ruby, we’re on the move. Cover us.”
“Affirmativ- Gant, wait.”
Gant was already dashing outside, Okay and the Freejects behind him. He wasn’t about to wait, not with the Asura at their backs, able to phase in and stab them before they could react. Abbey had lost enough of her army already.
They charged out into the main thoroughfare where he had killed Azul, the former Prophet’s headless corpse one of the many that littered the area. He could see the warehouse tucked behind another building, a few hundred meters distant. He could hear the pitch of the starfighter’s thrusters nearby.
A roar caught his attention, and he turned his head in time to see Dog swooping toward them, hind legs down, talons out, wings positioned to help him land.
“Dog, yeah!” Pik shouted, se
eing the dragon approaching.
9
“He’s not on our side, idiot,” Gant said. “Get them down.”
It was too late. The talons swept through the Freejects as the creature landed, knocking half a dozen of them away. The dragon turned and roared again, its head shifting back and forth.
“Oh, shit,” Pik said.
“Keep running,” Gant said, waving the Freejects on.
The Asura were catching up, phasing in and cutting them down. Each time one of them appeared he tried to catch a glimpse of the statue Abbey had mentioned, but none of them seemed to be carrying it.
The fighters swooped in, unleashing a barrage of rounds on the ground in front and behind the Freejects, hitting a few of the Asura soldiers as they passed. A few of the rounds struck Dog, but they seemed to be absorbed by his thick hide, and he didn’t react to them at all. Instead, his head swung back and forth, snapping forward. Only when his jaws closed did the Asura soldier he had grabbed become visible, legs dangling from teeth before being chomped in half.
“At least he’s not on their side, either,” Pik said.
“He’s looking for the statue,” Gant said.
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Did you see it?”
“No. Maybe inside?”
“It’s as good a place as any.”
They finished crossing the street, Dog’s sudden appearance giving them the break they needed to make it unharmed.
“Go on ahead,” Pik said. “I’ll get these ones back in line.”
He motioned to the ragged line of Freejects joining them at the warehouse. Helk was still with them. Herschel was gone.
Gant moved ahead, through a set of large doors and into the main warehouse.
“Joker,” he said. “Where are you?”
“In a freezer on the south side,” Benhil replied. “They’re banging on the door, but I think we’re safe for now as long as we don’t freeze to death.”
“We’re on our way. Hang tight.”
“Roger.”