Jerut smiled as the images of the three frigates taking damage streamed to him via a holographic display. “Order those destroyers to change to a different angle. All those ships need to be firing on the planet’s surface, not at Radiance.”
“Yes, sir,” Jaroin replied.
Jerut gazed at the planet’s surface—human cities were burning. “Have attack squadrons three, five, and six from the carriers swarm the Radiance cruiser. Take down its shields, and target weapons systems only.” The holographic display changed, revealing the status of the Radiance Cruiser. “Do not destroy that ship.”
“Planetary assault teams are ready to enter the atmosphere, sir,” Lynia reported the information from her computer screen.
“Instruct them to hold until the Radiance ship moves out of firing range.”
Small swarms of triangles shot out from beneath the carriers converging around the Abyssal Explorer. Like the frigates before them, tiny green bolts of plasma shot forward. The light show was now a fireworks display.
“Incoming fighters!” said Lieutenant Relei.
Panic filled Ueyei’s eyes as he screamed, “My gods…fire all weapons!”
“Fighters,” Dargonea reported.
“I’m not concerned about those right now. I’m concerned about the captain firing off all weapons in this situation. I can’t keep up with the irising requirements of the overshield.”
Stolanei chimed in. “I can assist.”
“Don’t bother. He needs to take evasive action. We haven’t come close to hitting one of those, and we won’t at this rate.” Karklosea was becoming irritated. “And now we’re taking too much damage from shots getting through our irises.”
“I’ll pass it on,” Dargonea offered.
“Thank you.”
The main engines of the Abyssal Explorer powered up, propelling it away from the overwhelming heat of combat toward the moon of the human world. The ship’s protective purple overshield shattered, and the blue shield underneath flickered as bolts of plasma relentlessly impacted upon it.
“Status report?” Ueyei asked.
Dargonea reported, “Overshield is down.”
Lieutenant Relei reported, “Main shields down to forty-seven percent. Three carriers are in pursuit of us but are not launching fighters.”
Ueyei chuckled to himself. “Of course not—they want us to stay far away.” He then added, “Contact our forces at Lejorania Sanctum. Tell them to send every ship they have.”
“It will take years for them to arrive.” Karklosea released herself from the trance. “The humans will be wiped out long before they arrive.”
“The closest Hashmedai space bridge is ten light-years away; they won’t make it there alive if our forces move out now,” said Ueyei. His eyes turned to a hologram that revealed the number of enemy ships in play—one blue dot versus almost a hundred red ones. “Why not finish the job? Hashmedai never show mercy like this.”
………
The attack on Earth took humanity by surprise. Within the first hour, Central America was a burning wasteland along with half of Eastern Europe and the western coast of Australia. Russia and the United States were hit hard with a mixture of planetary glassing and Hashmedai ground assaults. South America and Africa hadn’t seen any action outside of Hashmedai scout ships flying across the skies at high speed and stratosphere frigates floating high in the air.
Stratosphere frigates. The very same spacecraft Jazz saw as he slammed on the brakes to the minivan he and his Hashmedai acquaintances had escaped in. The wind eerily blew through the trees of a forested area just outside Mont-Tremblant, Québec. He finally spoke, ignoring Kroshka and Onatiasha’s inquiries as to why the sudden stop. “OK, what the hell is that?” He pointed to the alien ship as two objects propelled away from it.
Onatiasha leaned her head out the window. “It’s one of our strato frigates.”
The two objects appeared as pear-shaped ships, quickly descending from the sky and immediately launching a barrage of green bolts of energy toward the surface. “Please tell me those are just popsicles they’re dropping to the people below,” Jazz joked. He knew damn well what they were doing.
Onatiasha returned to her position in the backseat. “Jazz, we should go—very fast, now.”
The van carried on toward the highway. Jazz looked up to see eight triangular ships flying in formation high above. The speed of the van increased to twenty over the speed limit. He reached for his cell phone—no signal. “So the radio went dead for no apparent reason, and now I have no phone signal.”
“It’s an invasion, Jazz,” said Onatiasha.
“Hashmedai invading Earth? Why?” Anger filled his voice.
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit!”
“Look, if I wanted you dead, I would have had you put out of the airlock after we acquired Kroshka.” Frustration entered her voice as well. “You saw that destroyer chase us—determined to vaporize our ship with us aboard. We are not your enemies, and it was not our intention to attack your world.”
“OK, fine, but why are the rest of your kind acting like this?” Jazz asked.
Onatiasha paused for a moment. “The command ship must have been compromised.”
“Or your people are pissed off that our leaders welcomed Radiance with open arms,” said Jazz. Onatiasha remained silent. “Yeah, that’s probably it,” Jazz decided.
“We need to keep moving, avoid highly populated areas for now. If the place isn’t burning, it will be crawling with Hashmedai soldiers,” she explained.
“Oh, yeah?”
“I’ve invaded Radiance Union colonies. I know how this works. They will devastate one region while leaving another untouched. Once the refugees escape to the untouched areas, they’ll launch a bigger attack,” Onatiasha explained, “demoralizing those who witness it.”
Chapter 15
Eight years ago…
The remains of three partially incinerated Linl rangers fell to the ground. Black ash covered the floor of the elevator, and smoke filled the air. Amid the chaos stood Parcisei and Noylarlie, who were removing the non-active slave collar. The duo was in the elevator, heading to the bottom level of an underground detention center deep below the surface.
“Let’s get out of here,” Noylarlie said.
“Wait, might be a slight change in plans,” said Parcisei.
“I don’t care. We’re leaving.”
“Xyniea might be in danger. One of those rangers talked about a prisoner down below being interrogated and mentioned her name. Yeah, bad news.” Noylarlie sighed as Parcisei continued. “Look, all we need to do is go down there and blow the place up. It will be fun.”
Movement of the elevator ended as the doors slid open…and the butt of a rifle crashed into Noylarlie’s head. Unconscious, she fell to the ground on top of the charred Linl bodies. Parcisei looked in shock to see an Aryile ranger, who was responsible for the sneak attack, and his Javnis commanding officer.
“Commander Mil Gengei! What an expected surprise,” said Parcisei. The Aryile raised his rifle at Parcisei, and Gengei did the same. “What are you guys doing? You got the wrong person!”
“Silence, heretic,” ordered Gengei.
Parcisei's body fell to the floor via the same manner Noylarlie's did.
………
Noylarlie awoke with massive pain pulsing through her head…and her psionic gifts nonexistent. She felt the familiar cold feeling of the slave collar around her neck, but this time it was armed and doing its job. Terrific, she thought, examining the boxed room she was held in.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were white, and that was basically it—an empty white room with seemingly no way in or out. She got to her feet and limped toward the wall, her hand extending forward to touch it. Soft and cold.
“It’s soft so that when you lose your mind, you will not hurt yourself,” said a voice in the Hashmedai language. Noylarlie slowly turned around to see a hologram of a Linl psionic.
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“Who the fuck are you?”
“Language, young lady, language.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“You may call me Ure Karklosea.”
“Thank you,” Noylarlie said, walking around the hologram. She was quite impressed with her cybernetics—definitely more advanced than what Hashmedai had to offer. “Now I know who to kill when I get out of here.”
Noylarlie’s body was launched across the room, her back hitting the wall. She never fell to the ground, staying pinned to the wall. “I have the power here,” said Karklosea. “There will be no escape for you, only suffering, until you give us the information we seek.”
Noylarlie’s body was thrown again psionically, landing in the middle of the room below the feet of Karklosea’s hologram. “You’re pissing me off,” Noylarlie said.
“There are two heretics operating in this system, this we know. Well, three now that Parcisei showed his true loyalty in Morutrin.”
Noylarlie slowly arose to her feet yet again, this time huffing and puffing. “I don’t know anything about them,” she said.
“We have one being questioned now, and we suspect Xyniea might be one. The Abyssal Explorer launches soon, and we can’t have her on board if she is one of them,” explained Karklosea. Noylarlie said nothing. “I will punish you if do not reply,” Karklosea threatened.
“Go right ahead, bitch.” A thunderous force hit Noylarlie hard enough to spin her around. Once again she was on the ground, out cold.
………
Noylarlie opened her eyes and stared at a rocky ceiling. She arose, instantly taking note of the bunk in the corner and the sliding door on the other end—her room back at the psionic training facility. Has everything this whole time been a dream? Am I truly still here? She quickly moved her hands and eyes across her body to examine herself—no cybernetic implants, same black uniform she had to wear…and, oh, the slave collar.
A soft knocking vibrated off the door, probably Abraxin here to do his thing. Her face rested on her palms as she sat on the floor, refusing to move to answer the door. Abraxin will just let himself in anyway. The knock came again, but she still didn’t move, in shock that she had never gotten over this page in life.
The door slid open, and footsteps made their way into the room behind her. The footsteps were way too soft to be Abraxin’s. Chidorli perhaps? Her head slowly turned to see a child, a Linl by the looks of her long black hair.
The child spoke in the Hashmedaian language. “Come, your mom wants to talk to you.”
Mother? Talk to me? Isn’t she dead? Noylarlie thought as the child ran out of the room. Noylarlie got to her feet to pursue the child.
The far end of the hallway revealed on the walls the shadow of a short person running—must be the child—so she moved her body in that direction. She neared the end of the hallway when suddenly footsteps were heard from behind. Someone was running down the hall, just like she was. The steps got louder as they got closer, and she heard a woman cry out in a language she didn’t understand.
The person came into view, stopping before her. It was a Linl woman, wearing primitive combat equipment and holding a primitive-looking projectile rifle. The two stared at each other until yet another set of heavy footsteps came from behind. This time a Linl man ran to the two. He had dark skin and wore a similar primitive combat setup as the woman did.
All three exchanged glances before the child spoke up again. “She’s right here.” Noylarlie spun to face the child. “She said not to take too long, because she can’t stay.”
The child pointed in Noylarlie’s direction. Noylarlie turned around to see that the two Linl were no longer there. In their place was…Mother. She looked just the way she had when Noylarlie last saw her—blue skin, long silky black hair, and light orange eyes.
“Mom, I missed you,” said Noylarlie.
“I’m proud of you, Noy. You’re becoming the woman I wish I had become.”
“There’s so much I need to tell you.”
“I can’t stay long, Noy.”
“When can I see you again?”
“When Y’lin pays for her crimes, we can talk and enjoy life all we want.”
The empress? What could her mother possibly mean? The child ran past Noylarlie toward her mother with a smile on her face. She looked up at her and asked, “So you’re Noylarlie and Phylarlie’s mommy?”
Her mother looked down at the little one and smiled back. “Why, yes, I am. You must be Hannah, right?”
“Yep, I am! Your hair is very pretty. My mom has hair just like it,” said Hannah.
“I bet she does, judging by how wonderful your hair looks. Tell your mom I said ‘hello,’” said Mother.
“I will. I’m going to see her right now!” said Hannah, running farther down the hallway and out of sight.
"Humans such as her will help you bring in a new age for the Hashmedai people,” Mother said.
“She is human?” asked Noylarlie.
“Indeed,” said Mother, pointing to the two combat-geared people who now stood behind Noylarlie. “So are they.”
She turned around. The human woman and man simply looked at Noylarlie as her mother reached out and touched the back of the slave collar. It instantly vaporized. “Mother,” Noylarlie muttered.
“I must go now. It was nice talking with you again, Noy.”
………
Noylarlie’s eyes opened to the sight of a plain white ceiling. She was back in the white room. A dream…or was it? Her fingers slid across her neck. The slave collar was missing, and she was able to interact with her cybernetic implants.
She got up as Karklosea’s hologram reappeared and spoke. “Awake at last—let us continue, shall we?”
“Fuck off” was all Noylarlie had to say. She extended one hand forward, releasing a devastating blast of psionic power toward the wall. A hole blasted through, flames flaring up along the edges of her exit out of the prison.
“Oh my gods,” Karklosea whispered as the hologram shut down.
Noylarlie stepped into a narrow corridor from the hole in the wall. Two Linl rangers unleashed a barrage of bullets that traveled at a fraction of the speed of light. Rippling blue flashes of light appeared in front of her, and she grinned at their futile attempts at combat. Her feet slowly carried her toward them, while the implants in her arms glowed orange and her psionic shield rippled blue from their weapons’ fire. She unleashed two white fireballs directly at one of them, and his body vaporized instantly from the intense heat. The remaining Linl was still alive, even though his armor was on fire from the blast.
He launched his body toward her as if jumping from a building. After landing on the floor beneath her, he was raised in the air, where she looked him straight in the face. “Where is Parcisei?” she demanded.
In his panicked state, he uttered words that meant nothing to her…and the occasional yelp…while his armor burned.“Par…cis…ei?” was all he was able to say, as it was all he understood.
“Yes, Parcisei—where do you have Parcisei?” Noylarlie said, fist clenched.
His arm slowly raised, pointing toward the corridor behind them. “Parcisei!”
“Thanks!” She used her mind to break his neck in three places, and his lifeless body dropped to the ground.
She made her way to a block of a dozen prison cells. One by one, she peaked through the window on the door of each cell, but nobody was in any of them. The Radiance Union must not see a lot of Hashmedai…or heretics…out in this region of space. Three more cells remained. She peeked through the next window and saw a familiar face.
“Stand back!” she yelled as the door launched forward with her telekinetic might. Parcisei was on the floor, the side of the door having hit him good. “I said to stand back.”
“You…didn’t give me enough time to move,” he said, pain in his voice.
“Get up,” she ordered.
He complied, slowly coming to his feet. “Why come back for me
? You could have teleported out?”
“Because I have a use for you,” she said. “Do I dare ask if you found the person we stayed around for?”
“Turns out, you and I are the only prisoners here, alive.”
“Of course.”
Blue light flashed within the Crimson Arrow’s cockpit, and Parcisei and Noylarlie emerged from it. Noylarlie took her seat in the main pilot’s chair, while Parcisei strapped into a seat behind her.
“Let’s not repeat an escape like at Morutrin, OK?” Parcisei said.
The Crimson Arrow’s engines primed up, raising it off the ground and into the rainy sky, only for it to come to an expected stop. A gravity well manifested behind it, and intense gravity from the well yanked the Crimson Arrow toward it. Noylarlie tried to push forward but to no avail. The gravitational force from the well, combined with the Crimson Arrow’s engines, resulted in the ship slowly moving backward.
“Why aren’t we moving?”asked Parcisei, concerned.
Noylarlie looked out the window to find the answer. Karklosea floated in the air directly in front. The well must be her doing. And her undoing was the only way for them to get off this world. Noylarlie unbuckled her seat belt and said to Parcisei, “Take the helm.” She then vanished with blue light.
“Yeah, about that.” He looked at the many controls up front with a puzzled look his face. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
As powerful as the gravity well was, its range was limited, as demonstrated by Karklosea, who floated a mere seven meters away from the Crimson Arrow but did not get pulled in. Noylarlie took note and made sure her jump-port put her behind Karklosea and even farther away from the well. Karklosea spun around, expecting an ambush, but no such thing happened. She and Noylarlie locked eyes as heavy rainfall drenched their levitating bodies.
Karklosea broke the silence and stared down, her blond hair now soaking wet from the downpour. “So when are you going to kill me?”
“I was giving you the courtesy to pray to your gods before I got to that,” said Noylarlie. “Do those fancy upgrades make you a Radiance Union Archmage?”
Celestial Ascension (Splintered Galaxy Book 1) Page 25