by Paul Tassi
“How goes the war?” Noah asked. Alpha wasn’t technically supposed to tell them, nor was he technically supposed to know certain sensitive information, but the Sorans simply had no way of restricting his access to their databases with how plugged in he was to their systems. They simply had to trust him. And in turn, he trusted them.
“The Xalan Council is proving surprisingly resilient, considering I watched them all perish years ago at the hands of the Desecrator. Though the resistance has made many colonies catch fire, there is still an order to the military I do not comprehend. Logic dictates a new council now rules in the old one’s stead, yet the communications Zeta has intercepted say nothing to that effect. It is as if the Xalan forces are being guided by ghosts. Each commander and general operates independently, yet they retain a huge amount of coordination and control with their forces. It defies reason.”
“What about Makari?”
Alpha nodded and pulled up a video feed. Contained within was footage of the human-equivalent Oni living in ruined Xalan bases and cities. They were the only colony planet with a surviving human population, however small. Periodically in the video, a Xalan or two would wander through the streets who had to be resistance or civilian.
“The chieftain Toruk managed to unite the last of the Oni clans and has come to the aid of the resistance. The native population coupled with the uprising has been enough to purge the whole of the planet of Xalan forces. The fleeing troops have been picked off by Soran blockades, and now transports are bringing food and relief to the surface. Zeta is onboard one of them.”
Noah glanced at Theta who looked a touch forlorn. Perhaps she thought she’d be able to see her mother during this visit. Granted they saw each other often, but video feed communication came with a certain degree of sterility, especially when Xalans were concerned.
“Where’s Asha?” Erik interjected. “I thought she was on Makari.”
Alpha flipped through some more footage.
“She was present for the battle at Moonwater Bay.”
The video footage showed the blurry, small shape of a woman on a beach cutting through Xalan armor, surrounded by legions of dark-skinned Oni.
“But she has since been reassigned.”
“Reassigned where?” Erik asked.
Alpha brought up another screen and scrolled through a flurry of symbols.
“Ah, she has been tasked with tracking and eliminating the Black Corsair.”
Erik and Noah looked at each other. Noah shrugged. Alpha read their minds.
“The general public is not being told about the Corsair, though whispers are spreading.”
“Who is he?”
Alpha tapped a file marked “classified.”
“Unknown. Data points to a Chosen Shadow, but one with a taste for extreme brutality.”
“Is there any other kind?” Erik asked disdainfully.
“It would seem to be a unique case. The Corsair has wreaked havoc on supply lines over the past few months. He completely cut off food relief to the Soran asteroid colony in the Eroch System. The entire base starved to death, and the supply ships meant to reach them were found drifting in the asteroid field full of psionically dismembered corpses. The Corsair’s ship was nowhere to be found, and all data drives onboard the Soran vessels were erased completely, leaving no record of his raid.”
Noah was incredulous.
“This is one ship, and one Xalan?”
“It is not known if he has a crew with him, though yes, he does have a single ship. Cloaked and incredibly fast. He has been spotted in systems that should be months apart mere days after his previous strike.”
“A new type of core?” Noah asked.
“I see no other explanation, though I cannot comprehend the physics behind it. Nor who on Xala would be capable of creating such a thing.”
“And they’re sending Asha after him?” Erik asked with concern.
“She volunteered. The Corsair butchered one of the first Soran relief fleets heading to Makari, which is when the SDI began to deem him a pressing threat. The last I heard, Asha was attempting to track him through the Kettler Quadrant.”
“She’s got a goddamn death wish,” said Erik under his breath, visibly annoyed. Noah was similarly unsettled.
“Tell them about Earth, father,” Theta chimed in from behind them, attempting to change the subject.
Alpha’s eyes widened.
“Ah yes. I am surprised you did not ask sooner. This way.”
He led them around a corner to a holotable projecting a large globe of their former planet, but it looked very different than any version of it they’d seen before. There were wisps of white clouds across the brown landscape. But more pressingly, there were splashes of blue underneath them. The datestamp was current.
“Is that … water?” Noah asked, his eyes widening.
A few years earlier, Alpha had informed them that temperatures on Earth were beginning to normalize. After reaching incredible levels of heat after the Xalan invasion and resulting nuclear war, which seared the last life off the planet, temperatures gradually began to drop years later. Alpha mused that Earth was somehow beginning to heal itself after the shock of the human-Xalan war that had devastated its surface. The ozone was reforming, the air clearing. Alpha couldn’t rule out that the Xalans had managed to artificially create this new state in an attempt to salvage a planet that would have been a great prize of war had they not completely destroyed it during their assault.
“Rain has begun to fall in certain areas of Earth over the past few months,” Alpha said. “Nourishing rain, not the corrosive variety that plagued the planet in its final days. The oceans remain mostly dry, but certain lakes are retaining water in areas with particularly severe downpours.”
Noah was amazed. First habitable temperatures, now actual water?
“The Xalans have minimal forces on the ground and in orbit, but the SDI followed them. There have been a few skirmishes outside the planet’s atmosphere and on the surface, but both Sora and Xala seem to be devoting few resources to investigate. Even with small amounts of pure water that could be used as fuel, Earth has almost no tactical significance in the larger war. I do not understand why Xalans are there at all, in fact. It would seem to be an inefficient use of resources. I am also picking up a few energy signatures on and around the planet I cannot identify.”
Alpha looked up at the map, which pulsed with colorful dots.
“In any case, when the war concludes, I thought you would enjoy knowing that perhaps one day you may visit your homeworld again. It truly was a beautiful place before its annihilation. Perhaps someday it may be again.”
Noah stared at the unfamiliar rock. In a few places where the barren oceans were starting to fill in with water, it created odd continental shapes that weren’t at all what the planet used to look like, if the history scrolls were accurate. It was turning into a new world. But new or old, it would never feel like home to him. He seldom spoke of it, but Noah only truly had one memory of Earth.
Fire.
4
Noah winced as Wuhan’s staff cracked across his forehead. The hammer was heavy to wield, and not the most effective weapon for blocking. For every strike he deflected from the lightning-fast wooden staff, another three would land. He was fortunate Wuhan’s weapon lacked the usual blades that would accompany its tips, otherwise he might have already lost a few facial features.
The other Earthborn were gathered in a wide circle around them, and instructors were shouting advice as they fought. Parry! Thrust! Low! High! It was simply too much to process, and Noah took a dashing strike to the chest that sent him stumbling backwards. Wuhan grinned before attacking with a wheelhouse kick that Noah managed to negate with his forearm.
The hammer was slow, but Noah had adopted it as his melee weapon of choice nonetheless. He read about how the ancient Yalos warriors would tear through villages and strongholds using their mighty warhammers, crushing armor and bone and stone alike wit
h their colossal strength. They conquered a third of the world in their time, before Haleo the Wise decimated their empire once he invented gunpowder. Still, for someone possessing as much raw strength as Noah, the hammer kept its allure. His training maul was made of graftstone and tulwood, not anything nearly as formidable as allium or darksteel, but it was still solid enough to leave an impression.
Wuhan whipped his staff around, and it took every bit of Noah’s minimal speed to avoid more strikes to the head. Wuhan had seemingly limitless energy in combat, but Noah did see him starting to sweat. The blows Wuhan had landed on him would have felled any other combatant, but Noah still stood, patiently waiting for his moment.
Noah wiped a trickle of blood from his forehead as he circled Wuhan, who was now being more reserved with his strikes to avoid fatigue. Behind him, Noah could see Erik sitting on the amphitheater’s carved stone sidelines, talking to Theta of all people. The two were whispering back and forth while Erik’s latest Earthborn devotee, Penza, sat on the other side of him. She was a tall, leggy blond from Russian and Danish stock, with ghostly pale skin and sky-blue eyes that looked rather bored at present. She didn’t seem terribly amused at being ignored for a Xalan. What were Erik and Theta talking about? Most days Erik barely acknowledged her existence.
Half the crowd roared when Wuhan caught Noah in the gut with a half moon strike. The other half cheered when Noah retaliated with an uppercut with the butt of the hammer. Poor Sakai remained silent when either of them was struck, not wanting to cheer for injury inflicted on either her pair or her half-brother. Erik, meanwhile, took a break from talking to Theta when either took a savage blow to cheer because he just seemed to like watching people get hurt. He was still nursing a rapidly swelling black eye from his earlier bout with Heraklion, but his foe had fared worse and was currently unconscious in the med bay.
Noah had fought Wuhan more than a few times, and certain patterns began to make themselves known in his fighting style. Noah deftly dodged a downward strike to his right, then countered with a hard cross swing that hit Wuhan in the shoulder and sent him staggering to the side. Wuhan countered with a sweep to Noah’s knee, but the move was anticipated. Noah raised his foot and slammed down on the staff with all his might when it arrived, snapping the wood with a crack. Wuhan had just enough time to look surprised when the graftstone head of the maul slammed into his chest, imploding the fiberslate plating and sending him flying backward into the dust. When Noah reached him, he was writhing around coughing, attempting to reclaim some of the air that had been pulverized out of his lungs. When Noah’s swings did land, the results of his strength combined with the brute force of the hammer were devastating. He offered Wuhan his hand as the instructors waved their arms to call the fight in his favor.
“Kyneth’s blessing?” Wuhan asked as he got to his feet, clutching his chest.
“Must be,” Noah said with a smile. He glanced over at Erik who, still deep in conversation with Theta, hadn’t even seen his winning blow. Penza was now tugging on his arm in an effort to pry him away from her, and was starting to look more than a little annoyed.
Noah was still breathing heavily after the fight and let the hammer slip from his grasp and land upright on the ground with a thud. The weapon was three feet long. He didn’t know how much the rectangular stone head weighed, but nearly no one other than him could effectively wield it in combat. His size might not have been great for dodging plasma, but it proved useful on days like today. Wuhan crumpled down next to Sakai, and both simply shook their heads at Noah. Thankfully, both were masking smiles. He felt a clap on his burned shoulder.
“Good fight, brother,” Erik said with a grin. “Swing that thing enough and you’ll hit someone eventually, I guess.”
Noah just rolled his eyes and continued walking toward the med bay, where he could acquire a few liquid stitches for his forehead. Erik kept pace with him and began to speak in a hushed tone.
“So I’m out of here tonight,” he whispered. “Finn’s picking me up near the south gate in his Shatterstar at 0200.”
It was clear now why Erik had been talking to Theta.
“You’re going to get her in trouble one of these days,” Noah said, annoyed.
“Who?” Erik asked with a puzzled look. “Anyway, you should come.”
“You know that—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know you’re a black hole of fun, but this is different. We’re going to Mark’s Mission.”
Noah stared blankly at him.
“Oh, come on,” Erik continued. “Mark’s Mission? The casino supersatellite orbiting the Talosi Colony in the Deca Quadrant?”
That made Noah stop walking.
“You’re going to an entirely different quadrant? Are you insane? The Watchman will crucify you.”
Erik stopped as well and stared out into the forest past Noah.
“He won’t find me. None of them will.”
His tone was more somber than the destination suggested, but changed in an instant.
“Come on, it’ll be a blast. When’s the last time you were out of the quadrant? When we were kids? You can even bring Sakai!”
Noah threw up his hands.
“Alright, I’ll think about it.”
Anything to get Erik off his back. He’d never go, of course. A casino satellite? That was hardly anything that remotely interested him. It’s not like the two of them even had use for marks living in the colony. But the real reason to go to the Mission was likely more about the flowing drinks and promiscuous Soran girls who would be there, which likely interested Erik more than gambling. Noah was sure Sakai would love that.
“He’s going out of the quadrant to go to a floating casino?” Sakai said incredulously. She did not, in fact, love it.
“Mhmm,” Noah muttered as he picked at the new gel stitches across his face. They were still warm, but had dulled the stinging quite a bit. By morning there wouldn’t even be evidence of a cut.
“Your mother isn’t the only one with a death wish,” Sakai continued. “I’m shocked he hasn’t been kidnapped or assassinated already. I almost wish you would go with him just so he won’t be.”
“Really?” Noah raised his eyebrows.
“No,” she said. “But you know what I mean.”
“Erik can take care of himself. He’s done nothing but tell me that for the last decade or so.”
Sakai shook her head.
“Poor Theta. You really think she’s helping him?”
Noah nodded.
“That could cost her the teaching position she has here, especially if anything happened to him,” Sakai said. “I’d hate to see that.”
Noah loved how empathetic Sakai was. Many of the Earthborn were far too wrapped up in themselves. Each was their own sort of mini-celebrity on the planet, but she was always concerned with everyone else, Noah included. She once failed a final because she was busy taking care of two girls afflicted with the forest parasite when the silvercoats hadn’t been able to make it to the colony because of severe storms. That was just the kind of person she was.
Too often Noah forgot that Sakai, like all the other Earthborn, was effectively an orphan. It wasn’t really fair to complain about his parents being alive or dead war heroes when Sakai’s father and mother were brain-dead and simmering in a bio-tank somewhere. The tank-borns had even less of a sense of self than he or Erik, and it was remarkable to see them come together to form something resembling a functioning society despite their complete lack of a past. The fact that Sakai had turned out kindhearted and selfless was impressive considering the absence of role models other than caretakers, teachers, or governmental supervisors. Noah smiled to himself, but Sakai caught him.
“What’s so funny? You want to go to Mark’s Mission?”
“Oh gods no,” Noah said, violently shaking his head. “I’m heading to the spire.”
“Not yet you’re not,” Sakai said playfully. She pulled him in by the edge of his undersuit and kissed him. Once. Twice. A
dozen times. Soon the suit was a neat heap on the floor, and her robes had fallen away to reveal a sight to make the pain of training melt away completely. The light of three moons danced across her skin and there was nowhere else Noah wanted to be.
The climb to the spire that night was a tough one. Fall was starting to give way to winter on the continent and Noah could see his breath. Once the steps turned to ice, the time it took to ascend would triple, and the climb could quite possibly kill him. He thought the gods would appreciate the effort at the very least and show him some mercy when he showed up for judgment at the Oak Thrones.
His foe wasn’t only the cold; there was the heavy stone warhammer on his back to contend with as well. The trainers always said he needed to get used to carting it around if he ever wanted to wield it in battle. While the hammer was his friend in a fight, now it was an enemy, straining his chilled muscles with each new step. He thought of the ancient Yalos, who had scaled mountains with their own hammers, and they didn’t have the luxury of steps.
The winds whipped across Noah’s skin as he reached the final stair. He dropped to his knee, unslung the hammer from his back, and laid it on the dusty path. His back ached, but he’d made it. Usually during hammer ascents he’d have to stop once or twice to rest, but he’d climbed straight through this time. He was getting stronger.
The moons and stars were hidden by cloud cover, and there was no one in the gardens outside. It was a bit late to be tending to plants, but he’d seen Anointed out here at all hours. Approaching the arched doorway to the spire, he prepared to surrender his weapon at the entryway as was customary when entering the sanctuary. Curiously, there were no guards there to greet him.
“Hello?” Noah called into the dark hallway after cracking the ornate doors open. He took one last look around the courtyard. Still empty, still silent.
And then he heard the scream.
Noah’s head jerked back toward the doors. He flung them open and dashed inside. Torchlight flickered, casting shadows on the walls, and Noah sprinted down the corridor.
“Who’s th—” he called out, but was stopped short when he tripped over an obstacle in the hallway. Picking himself up, he bent down to find the body of a colony guard, blood pooled in a wide circle around him, his weapons nowhere to be found. Noah quickly checked his pulse, but it was nonexistent, and when he pulled off the man’s helmet he found vacant brown eyes staring up at the rafters.