by Paul Tassi
Two more aircycles sped through the smoldering remnants of the gate, and behind them came four hundred Black Wings, armed to the teeth and racing to support their leader. Zaela had now directed her attention toward the remaining guard towers on the wall. Rockets with pink-tinted booster flame shot out from the rear of the aircycle and spiraled toward one of the obelisk-like towers. One guard dove fifty feet to the ground before the missile hit, but whoever remained inside was instantly incinerated. A second missile hit another tower midway up, and the metal groaned until it snapped, sending the entire thing crashing to the ground.
The prison group had finally spread out enough to the point where Noah could breathe again and, more importantly, contribute to the effort. He cracked off a stream of shots at a nearby guard, who spun around wildly as the plasma ripped through his plating at close range. Up ahead, Noah could see Razor hacking at the legs of a SolSec mech with his battleaxe. Key had reappeared and was slicing through Red Suns with a curved blade, her normally stoic face now lit with fury. Worsaw had a rusted scattergun he was using as a club now that its energy cell was dry. He bashed in the face of a SolSec helmet before driving it into the abdomen of another passing soldier. A thunderous high knee appeared to break the man’s neck when he doubled over.
Behind Noah, Kyra and Sakai walked with pistols extended, but they weren’t firing. This was Sakai’s first real taste of actual combat, and though she’d trained for the concept of war, nothing could have prepared her for the pandemonium that surrounded them. Finally, a Solarion guard got close enough that Sakai was forced to unload a shot that hit him square in the neck. Her face was expressionless as he toppled over ungracefully, clutching at the wound.
“The gate!” Noah yelled over the din, and motioned them toward the opening in the wall Zaela had created. He’d lost track of her aircycle now, but could still hear the whine of its engine somewhere nearby. One of the other cycles had been destroyed by a fresh group of SolSec that had emerged from a nearby barracks. A single-engine microjet zipped overhead and unloaded spinning twin barrels into the crowd, a red sun stamped on its nose. Three more jets appeared behind it, and the Black Wings were forced to turn their fire toward the flying craft.
There was a reason SolSec ruled the station. Their firepower was unmatched and their numbers were massive. More and more troops streamed out of nearby buildings, and even some of the more bloodthirsty prisoners began to flee toward the ruined gate as well.
Noah caught up with Erik and Tannon, who were firing into a disorganized unit of Solarion soldiers. Tannon’s shots landed between the horizontal eye slits of two men while Erik’s pistol cut what might have been an armored woman completely in half. He spun around and planted a knife into the skull of another guard wrestling with Celton nearby, and Erik gave his instructor a quick wink, which was met with a scowl from the silver-haired soldier.
Erik’s head snapped to the right as something else caught his attention. Bobbing around in the fray up ahead was a shock of blond hair. It was Hayne. The young warlord was screaming orders to his troops while he slowly backed away toward the main doors they’d been escorted through earlier. He was falling back with a contingent of guards, the battle more evenly matched than he liked, presumably. Even at a distance, Noah could see the veins throbbing in his neck as he shouted at his men.
And then, Erik was gone. Before Noah could blink, his brother bolted into the chaos ahead, racing after Hayne as he made his way to the door. His pistol fired golden death at anyone in his way, and his knife cleaned up the rest. Too fast to be caught, anyone he wasn’t actively cleaving through found only empty space when they turned toward him.
“Erik!” Tannon shouted, and ran a few steps forward. He turned back to Noah. “Get the girls and Auran out of here,” he said, then ran into the sea of light and metal ahead of them.
Noah turned to see Zaela’s aircycle park itself next to them. The gust of hurricane wind that accompanied it unsteadied him.
“Time to go, ya?” she said, violet eyes motioning toward the strafing microjets above. The Black Wings had only managed to shoot down one so far, and were starting to be decimated by the rest.
“Money in th’ bank, lotta SolSec corpses. Day is won,” she continued. “Oi’ll give th’ girls and ya a ride.”
Noah nodded, hoisting up the feather-light Auran into the aircycle; he was stiff with shock. Sakai and Kyra took each of Zaela’s hands, and she pulled them up so both were seated behind her. She lowered her hand again to Noah, who stared at it, then back toward the central building.
“I have to get Erik,” Noah said, looking back and forth between Kyra and Sakai. “He’s my brother, I can’t leave him here.”
“The Watchman will bring him back,” Sakai said, nodding for him to take Zaela’s hand. Kyra stared at him with a pained expression, like she didn’t know whether he should stay or go. Would she be as indecisive if it were him who had run off and Erik who stayed? He locked eyes with her and saw her mouth a single word, “Please.”
Please what? Come with them to safety, or bring his brother back to her?
“No time for this,” Zaela said, and the aircycle blew back Noah’s hair and stained cloak as the four of them raced away from him toward the gate. The decision was made, but he knew he never really had any other choice. He took the hammer from his back and threw himself into a wall of bodies.
When Noah finally reached the towering doors of the central hall, nursing a fresh plasma graze and some shallow stab wounds, Tannon was surrounded by a protective ring of Black Wings holding back the SolSec hordes. The Watchman was banging on the door in frustration with an armored glove. He looked disappointed to see Noah.
“I told you to get them out of here,” he said, giving the door one last pound for good measure.
“They’re out,” Noah called over the din. “I’m here for my brother.”
Tannon shook his head.
“Now that your father’s alive, I can’t have his kids dying on me. I don’t need two of them taking stupid risks. One’s enough.”
“You need to get that door open, don’t you?” Noah said, ignoring Tannon’s persistence. The Watchman glared at the tall metal doors.
“Stand back,” Noah continued, and Tannon reluctantly obeyed.
Noah curled his hands inward on the hammer’s grip. The two metal spheres lit up on the side of the head, glowing the same blue as his eyes. He planted his right foot and hurled his entire body forward into the swing.
The shockwave was visible as dust shook off the metal in circular waves. A millisecond later both doors were torn from their hinges, dancing into the hall like playing cards tumbling in the wind. Noah’s ears were ringing and every one of his bones felt like it was vibrating.
Tannon raced inside and Noah followed, attempting to stop his teeth from rattling inside his jaw. Down the hall, the roar of the battle outside grew quieter, but was replaced by the gasping of a Solarion soldier, clawing at a slit throat in the darkness. Erik had indeed come through there. They ran toward a light at the end of the hall, and the sounds of gunfire echoed off the stone walls ahead. They leapt over two more fresh Red Sun corpses before they made it to the larger antechamber.
Ahead was Erik, engaged in combat with Hayne, clad in his matte black darksteel armor. There was one more dead guard draped over the edge of the dry stone fountain, blood pooling where water had once flowed freely. Erik had apparently lost his pistol somewhere, and was deflecting blows from Hayne with only his knife. Hayne was wielding a larger blade, a short sword glimmering with a thousand colors of oil. Noah noticed his expensive rifle split in half near the foot of the stairs. Tannon and Noah raised their energy weapons at Hayne, but the pair were dancing around too quickly for either to get a clear shot.
Erik slashed upward with the knife, but Hayne rocked back so the blade missed him cleanly. He countered with a series of blindingly fast swipes at Erik’s ribs, but his brother managed to twist out of the way of each of them. Erik swatted
Hayne’s sword hand away with his left wrist and stabbed downward with his right arm, but the blade was deflected by the plating on Hayne’s forearm, which sent sparks showering to the floor. Hayne countered immediately with an upward swing of the sword. Erik dodged it, but caught an armored fist in his gut that followed it. There was a malevolent glee in Hayne’s eyes, but his next decapitating blow missed as Erik spun right just as the blade came down.
Noah began to charge toward the pair of them, but a group of four guards rushed in from the right side of the room. Pulling out his repeater, Noah hit the first one square in the chest, and winged another. They returned fire and Noah was forced to roll behind a nearby pillar as the plasma took chunks out of the stone. Tannon fired his hand cannon, which plowed through the red sun painted on one of the soldier’s chests, and his second shot detached the arm of the man Noah had grazed. The remaining soldier pulled the trigger of his rifle, but the gun detonated in his hand as Tannon put one more round directly into its power cell. The soldier staggered backward, somehow managing to dodge subsequent fire from Tannon, but Noah spun out from behind the pillar with his warhammer. The horizontal blow to his side sent the man flying into the wall to their right, and Noah followed it up by spearing his chest plating with the spike on the hammer’s head. If the man had survived the initial strike, he was surely dead now. Blood pooled on the inside of his nearly opaque helmet. There was a moan from the Red Sun on the ground with no arm, but he wasn’t moving.
Noah turned his attention back toward Erik and Hayne, who had danced further away from them. Tannon fired a dangerous shot that hit Hayne’s shoulder plating and threw him momentarily off balance. Erik used the opportunity to send his knife racing toward Hayne’s eye, but the young commander’s sneering face and blond hair disappeared behind a double-slitted helmet that clamped down over his head an instant before the knife landed.
“You fight well for a child,” Hayne jeered from inside the helmet. Suddenly, blue jets shot out of his back and he launched himself into the air. The flames disappeared and gravity slammed him back down to earth, with Erik barely having time to lift his knife in defense. Hayne’s sword cracked it at its base, and the useless blade clattered to the floor as Erik tossed away the handle and rolled right. Hayne rocketed himself forward as Erik barely dodged thrust after thrust. Finally, one swing caught him across the breastbone, and a thin red line parted fabric and skin. Erik grimaced and clutched his chest.
Noah sprinted toward the pair of them, and leapt toward Hayne with warhammer cocked and starting to glow. In an instant, he learned what happened when darksteel met darksteel.
The armor didn’t splinter, and the hammer didn’t shatter. Rather the two of them were thrown apart as the force plowed Hayne all the way through a stone pillar and flung Noah into the crumbling staircase behind him. The rock bit into his barely protected legs wrapped in leather instead of metal armor. He heard a sickening crack and dropped to the floor in agony, pain radiating through his right leg.
As Noah tried to recover, Erik launched himself toward the dazed Hayne, who was picking himself up from the bits of marble strewn around him. Erik lunged for Hayne’s sword, which he’d dropped beside him, but Hayne’s leg found him first. The armored kick slammed into Erik’s side. Hayne flew to his feet and spun around with another kick, this one landing across Erik’s cut chest. Erik was flung backward, but Hayne flew after him, propelled by the jets on his back. One final punch connected with Erik’s jaw, and even at a distance Noah saw his brother’s teeth eject from his mouth.
Erik hit the floor groaning, holding his chest and bloodied face. Noah tried to stand, but his broken leg completely collapsed from under him. He grimaced as he pulled himself up to the foot of the stairs. He tried to toddle, supported by his hammer, toward Hayne who was approaching the downed Erik with his blade drawn.
“Killing little boys, raping little girls,” Tannon called out from the center of the room, his pistol trained on Hayne. “King of this floating ruin of shit and death.”
“You’ll regret this day, grandfather,” Hayne spit out, turning toward him. “You have no idea what you’ve done here. You don’t know what sort of wrath this will bring down on your head. I will kill you and your two charges slowly. It might take weeks, months, years even. And I will make you watch as I ravish those delicate girls you brought with you over and over.”
“You will die, here and now,” Tannon said, gun arm steady. “I am Tannon Varrus Vale, First Watchmen of the Guardians, Grand Admiral of the Soran Defense Initiative and former High Chancellor of the planet you fled from.”
Hayne’s face was hidden inside the helmet, but his silence said he knew exactly who Tannon was, now that the man had stepped into the light, face free from his old disguise.
“If that is true, all that will happen today is that my legend will grow ever larger,” Hayne said finally.
“Then earn it,” Tannon said. He fired his pistol.
Hayne rocketed toward him, jets spewing flame behind him. He dipped right so Tannon’s first two shots spattered off his indestructible armor. Tannon didn’t get off a third as Hayne smashed into him and dragged him across the floor and into the opposite wall.
Noah staggered toward the mess of dust and smoke, using his hammer as a crutch. He could feel the bones grinding in his leg, his femur snapped in two. Erik was picking himself up, his mouth drooling blood onto the ground. He tried to wipe it away with the back of his hand, but it just kept flowing.
Tannon and Hayne had extricated themselves from each other after their collision and were circling one another. Tannon was a large man, but Hayne towered over him in his suit of armor. Tannon had lost his pistol, but Hayne still had his sword, which Noah was horrified to see was coated in dark blood. Tannon was favoring his right side, and Noah could see blood running down his left leg, seeping through his clothes from an unseen wound. Hayne lunged, and Tannon dodged, but he wasn’t as sprightly as Erik. Still, even after being cut, he grabbed Hayne’s wrist and spun him off balance, tripping him with a swift kick the suit’s stabilizers couldn’t recover from in time.
“Watchman!” Noah cried, and he used the last of his quickly draining strength to heave his black hammer toward Tannon. The old man caught it in midair and immediately brought it crashing down on Hayne’s chest. His body smashed into the floor, creating a vast spiderweb of cracks in the stone.
“Your story ends here,” Tannon said as he raised the hammer again. This time, it smashed into Hayne’s visor, shattering glass and detaching the housing from his collar. The young man’s eyes were unfocused and Tannon pried the rest of the helmet off with his hand.
“Face your death like a man,” Tannon said, flipping the hammer around in his hands so the rear spike was facing forward.
“We face death together,” Hayne said with a red smile, amber eyes glinting madly. Tannon drove the hammer down just as Hayne brought up his oiled blade. Noah couldn’t scream. He couldn’t do anything.
After a deafening crash, Hayne was dead, his head a red ruin on the floor with the hammer sticking upright out of the shattered stone. But Tannon clutched his side, the short sword lodged between his ribs. He crumpled to the floor wordlessly.
“No!” Noah finally shouted and he hobbled toward the fallen Tannon. Eventually he lost his balance and hit the ground painfully. He dragged himself toward Tannon’s body. Erik was staggering toward them as well, a look of horror on his bloodied face.
Tannon was groaning, his armored hands around the blade. Just as Noah reached him, he pulled the entire sword out with long gasp that might have been the most painful sound Noah had ever heard.
“Little shit,” Tannon said, wheezing like he had a new hole in his lung. And it seemed he might, judging by the angle of the blade. Gripping Noah’s forearm weakly, Tannon held out the blade with the other arm.
“Analyze it,” Tannon said, choking on blood. “Save your brother.”
“What?” Noah said frantically. “What are you tal
king about?”
“Poison blade,” Tannon said, holding the sword aloft in the light. It was red with his blood, but still had an oiled shimmer to it. Noah looked over at Erik who was still stumbling toward them. He dropped to his knees when he found his lost laser pistol, discarded on the ground, but as he gripped it, he vomited up a stream of blood and foam.
“Oh gods,” Noah whispered. Up ahead in the corridor they’d come from, he could hear the iron march of soldiers coming to greet them. In the distance, he could make out the faint outline of red suns. Erik spewed another torrent of liquid misery across the floor, and clutched his chest wound. He collapsed on the spot.
Tannon looked at Noah with stern, mismatched eyes, a brilliant green and blue. Each breath was a painful wheeze and both his mouth and torso wound were emptying his body of blood, which filled the cracks in the stone below him.
“Three wives, you were the only kids I ended up with,” he said, his voice far away. “Could have done worse, I suppose.”
“Watchman,” Noah said frantically, looking toward the approaching soldiers. “Get up, we have to try and go out the rear.” He tried pulling Tannon up but the man’s face contorted painfully. Noah set him back down.
“I’m tired, son,” Tannon sighed. “I’ve earned a rest. A long one.”
Noah’s mind raced with a silent prayer. His lips moved involuntarily. Kyneth save us. The clomp of metal boots was closer. Zurana protect us. He could see the glowing eye slits of the SolSec helmets in the darkness ahead.
“Take care of Cora,” Tannon said, delirious. “She’ll save us all someday.”
And with that, his body relaxed, and his breathing stopped. Erik lay motionless a few feet away. The thunder of footsteps stopped. Noah’s vision drifted into darkness.