by Paul Tassi
The fighter rocketed around the curve of Sora until the oceans gave way to greenery doing battle with endless forest fires. Noah tried again to hail Colony One now that they were barely a few hundred miles away, but it appeared distance wasn’t the problem. There was still no answer.
“We’re through,” Noah said when he finally reached Asha. “What’s happening up there?”
“They’re rallying somewhere on the other side of the planet,” she said. “Even with losses, it’s still a lot of ships. Have you reached the colony yet?”
“Nearly,” Noah said, and felt a lump in his throat. “Celton and his squad died to make sure we made it.”
Asha sighed.
“He had discretion to do whatever was necessary to keep you safe. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.”
“We could have made it ourselves,” said Erik from behind him, though both of them knew it wasn’t true. Erik and Celton hated each other, but there had always been an underlying respect below the surface. Noah had known the man for nearly a decade since he retired from the Guardians and took up teaching at the colony. They weren’t exactly friends, but he’d taught Noah and Erik most of what they knew about live combat, both on the ground and in the air. It was hard to think he was gone.
“I’m going to send the girls down to meet you with a large detachment of SDI,” Asha said. “I’ll be there when I can. Your father should be heading to the colony as well, if he’s not there already.”
That would be a welcome bit of protection.
“Do not engage, no matter what you come across down there,” Asha said forcefully.
“Mmhm,” Erik said on the comm, the sentiment less than convincing. Noah felt the same way, for a change. Asha signed off and Noah increased the fighter’s speed to max in-atmosphere conditions.
At first Noah didn’t think much of the columns of smoke he saw rising from the forest ahead amid the mountains. They were everywhere, after all. But panic began to rise in his throat when he looked at the ship’s navigation and realized where these particular plumes where coming from.
“No, no, no, no,” he said, finding it hard to breathe.
They sped over the mangled remains of the autocannons that had once lined the perimeter of Colony One and then came the facility itself, a mix of old and new structures, many now collapsed and burning.
“Scanning systems are being jammed,” said AI Natalie, sounding worried. “Unable to detect life on the surface.”
Life. Either the lives of their friends and surrogate family, or the lives of whatever had come through here and ravaged the colony. Noah’s eyes darted between the ruined structures, looking for signs of anything, living or dead.
As they descended, it was only corpses that came into view.
“We’re too late,” Erik said.
Noah made a slow pass over the ruined grounds of the colony, earth scored by plasma, buildings aflame and crumbling. After seeing no movement, Noah lowered the ship until it gracefully landed on a patch of blackened grass. The sky was an infernal orange as the sun began to set.
The cockpit glass slid open and Noah retrieved his weapons from the storage bay in the nose of the craft before leaping over the side. His warhammer was on his back and he held an SDI assault rifle in his arms. Erik joined him, hands grasping two pistols, one his, one Tannon’s.
“Enjoy your day!” AI Natalie chimed as the cockpit closed, oblivious to their horrifying surroundings.
Neither of them spoke as they took in the destruction around them. It was silent other than the soft rush of wind-blown flames. Noah crept toward a pile of bodies near the barracks entrance. They were all armored, all guards. A few were in pieces, torn apart with immense force and unspeakable violence. An explosive? But there were no burns marking any of the visible flesh.
Erik was scouring more bodies a few yards away. One of them was Xalan.
“Paragons,” Erik said, kicking the creature’s leg plating. “Had to be the Corsair and his crew like Lucas said.”
Noah found more dead. Guards and a few unarmored teachers. He gasped as he saw the body of his former history instructor was missing her lower half.
“No Earthborn. It’s all staff,” he said.
“Theta and Zeta should be here too,” Erik said, sounding worried. “I don’t—”
“There,” Noah said, pointing to the technology nexus. The pyramid-shaped building had suffered damage and several dark holes were ripped into the metal. It had likely been on fire at one point, but the flames were extinguished now, and it was merely smoking. It was the only building around where a few lights still flickered inside.
“If they’re here, that’s where they’ll be,” he said. He tried his comm, but the signal was being scrambled. The Xalans must have left something behind to screw with their tech. At least he hoped that was the explanation as to why he couldn’t detect a single life form in the area.
Noah and Erik walked cautiously across the grounds, occasionally coughing from the smoke and ash blown their way, looking at every shadow shift in the dead buildings and scorched trees. Noah’s heart ached seeing the colony in its current state. He’d spent most of his life there. The classrooms and training grounds were his home. The corpses were his teachers and his former caretakers. Now they were gone. Celton was gone. Tannon was gone. It was too much to process. He had to find Theta, Zeta, and the Earthborn.
When they reached the nexus, Noah had to use his hammer to pry open the fused-shut doors. After a series of sickening groans and a bit of help from Erik’s laser pistol, the metal parted and smoke rushed out to greet them.
“Up top?” Erik asked as they entered.
“Too exposed. We should head down,” Noah replied, waving the smoke away from his watering eyes. “This place has at least half a dozen sub-basements.”
Almost on cue, a door ahead buzzed, its indicator switching from red to blue.
“Did that just …” Erik said.
“Unlock,” Noah said, his heart beating furiously. “Someone must know we’re here. Someone is alive.”
“Or it’s a trap.”
Noah suspected that if any surviving Xalans were in the area, they would have been sniping at them from the jungle the moment they landed. This felt like a friendly gesture. At least he hoped it was.
Reluctantly, Erik followed him through the newly open door and down a hall where an elevator opened up of its own accord.
“Theta, is that you?” Noah called out, directing his voice toward a dead-eyed security camera that didn’t look functional. There was no response.
“Only one way to find out, I guess,” Erik said, and strode into the elevator. Noah followed.
The holographic display popped up and automatically selected sublevel seven before they could even touch it. The ride down felt like it took hours rather than seconds. Noah and Erik raised their weapons toward the doors. A chime sounded as they opened.
Xalans.
Pure, snow-white Xalans.
Their barrels fell.
“Oh thank gods,” Noah said, rushing forward to embrace Theta. Behind her stood her mother, Zeta, and a scarce handful of Sorans with various injuries. Most appeared to be civilian staff, but there was a gravely wounded guard propped up in the corner of the room. They’d apparently been using the cramped laboratory as a bunker, and it seemed to be one of the few places in the colony that still had power.
“I could not believe it was you when I saw the ship arrive on the monitors,” Theta said, her lanky arms around Noah in an awkward hug. She released him and turned to Erik. Noah’s brother walked up to her and planted a kiss on her forehead.
“Never thought I’d be so glad to see you,” he said. She immediately turned a fierce shade of scarlet.
“I … you … as well,” she got out, her eyes smiling.
“It is a relief to see you safe, but who have you come with?” Zeta asked.
“We’re alone,” Noah said. “But Asha is sending more troops down. The SDI and r
esistance fleets just broke the Xalan barricade. They’re in retreat.”
A brief rush of exhilaration spread among the weary souls in the room.
“What happened here?” Erik asked. “Is this everyone that’s left? Where are the Earthborn?”
Everyone in the room exchanged nervous glances.
“They’re gone,” said a woman who Noah knew as a chef from the cafeteria.
“The Corsair arrived in a ship of pure darkness,” Zeta said. “Xalan Paragons landed and engaged the guards. The colony’s protectors put up a valiant fight until—”
“Until that demon came down with them,” wheezed the injured guard behind them. He was clutching his bloody midsection and his face was as pale as Zeta’s.
“The Corsair tore apart the remaining defenses of the base,” Zeta continued. “He and his troops systematically hunted through every building and every inch of the surrounding forest until they found all the Earthborn.”
“What happened to them?” said Noah, stomach churning. “Where are they?”
“I saw blue flashes,” Theta said, the pink on her skin fading back to white. “They used stun rounds to incapacitate every human. Every Earthborn. Everyone else was deemed expendable.”
Noah finally did a headcount. There were only nine people in the room, the Xalans included. There used to be a staff of hundreds here, not to mention three dozen Earthborn.
“They were pulled up into the ship, unconscious,” Theta continued. “I saw it on the monitors.”
“How did you all survive?” Erik asked.
Theta looked away.
“When the Corsair came, I raced here to ensure the defenses of the base would be secure. I tried to re-arm the cannons that had been knocked offline. I tried to call for reinforcements. I tried to tell the guards where the Xalans were moving. I tried to do everything I could, but it was not enough. The Corsair destroyed everything, was killing everyone. My mother left to try and pull more people to safety underground. By that time, the Earthborn were gone.”
“And we were all that was left,” said a man behind her wearing a bloodied silvercoat. One of the newest colony physicians.
“I’m sure you did everything possible,” Noah said, lightly touching her arm. Her gold-ringed eyes were wet. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a Xalan cry before. He thought they couldn’t.
“I saw … I saw,” she stammered, “I saw something in the system near the end of the assault.”
“What do you mean?” Erik asked.
“The Corsair was accessing the colony’s central data tree. He went deep, deep into the roots, further than I even knew existed. He was accessing files that I had never seen before. There were data packets flagged at a level that even outstripped Watchman Vale’s clearance.”
Noah cringed; he didn’t want to relay the news of Tannon’s death to her. He supposed he could put that off a while.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “What was he looking for?”
Theta looked to her mother nervously.
“The last file he accessed contained a set of coordinates. I believe that is where he is heading next.”
“Where?” Erik asked breathlessly. “Where can we find him?”
“On Sora,” Theta said. “Roughly 3,200 miles northwest.”
“Sora?” Noah asked. “Why would he stay on the surface?”
Theta raised her hands and brought up a three-dimensional image of an enormous structure bathed in sunshine, surrounded by lush pine greenery.
“What is that?” Noah asked, peering at the picture.
“The files say little, I still do not understand what is there, but—”
Noah’s heart stopped as he saw a small tag in the upper right corner of the frame.
It read “Colony Two.”
36
“Wait, like ship-ship? On water?”
Lucas shaded his eyes from the sun as he rode on top of the hovertank making its way through an old dirt side road somewhere along the outskirts of Kun-lai.
“That’s what I said,” replied Captain Torwind, spitting something offensive and black off the side of the tank. “You said you wanted a ship, and this city’s full of ’em.”
“I need to get there fast,” Lucas said. “A lot of innocent lives are in danger.”
“We’re all in danger, Earthfriend,” Torwind replied, smirking. The rest of the unit was jogging alongside the tank, everyone soaked in sweat from the oppressively humid climate. Periodically, Xalan ships streaked overhead, all moving east to west, but none paid them any mind, and they were mostly shielded by foliage on the long-forgotten road.
“Waterships are plenty fast,” Torwind said. “And where you say you want to go is just a few thousand miles up the coast. Speedy trip for a skimmer.”
“There’s nothing in the air we can use?” Lucas asked. Every minute delayed was another the Corsair could be tearing up the colony, or Noah and Erik.
“Unless you can pull a cloaking ship out of your ass, anything you throw up in the sky is going to be classified hostile and shot to pieces by the Xalans. How much Soran metal do you see in the air right now?”
He was right. They’d seen nothing but Xalan ships for hours now. All moving the same direction. All moving to meet Asha, no doubt.
“They won’t pay no mind to something bouncing along the water up the coast,” Torwind continued. “Especially not a civilian craft. This is a biggest port city in the hemisphere, since you don’t seem to know your Soran geography.”
“Haven’t been here all that long, technically,” Lucas said.
Lucas stared at his comm. There had been no word from any of them, Asha, Alpha, or his sons. He figured they must not want to risk any communication whatsoever with the reclamation attack imminent.
Traveling by boat seemed ridiculous, but Lucas had to get to the colony somehow, and without a cloaking drive or a lightning-fast prototype fighter, Torwind was probably right about getting shot down as soon as he took off. The sky was dense with Xalan armor, but he had to trust Torwind that something as innocuous as a sea-bound freighter might slip away unnoticed.
The captain’s comm chirped.
“Sir, sensors are picking up something ahead. Xalan signatures, ground-level. Around that next bend from the looks of it.”
Torwind raised his hand and the entire unit came to a halt. Lucas’s stomach churned, containing only paste-based insta-rations the soldiers had given him. Everyone on the ground stood at attention as he and Torwind dismounted, but some were clearly fading in the heat. Lucas noticed the young woman he’d been speaking to before, Wisher, supporting herself by her rifle, the fibers of her armor slick with sweat.
“If we can see them on the scanner, they can see us,” Torwind said. “Ready positions.”
The unit snapped to a secondary formation, weapons facing front. Lucas felt the rumble of the tank next to him activating its primary weapons systems.
“They’re moving away from us,” the comms officer said, rechecking his readouts. Torwind snatched the holographic pad out of his hand.
“I’m reading Soran contacts as well here, how did you miss that, boy?”
The soldier looked horrified, his milky face turning even more pale.
“I—I didn’t expand the filtering, I thought that—”
Torwind waved his hand.
“You screw up, people die, soldier,” Torwind interjected. “And from the looks of this sensor data, plenty of people are dying right now if the Xalans are right on top of them. We have to scout this before we round the corner and run straight into an ambush. We need our fastest. Lulta, Wisher, Raa’li, that’s you.”
The three soldiers rushed forward, two men and Wisher, who looked like she was on the verge of collapse. But she stood at attention as stiffly as she was able.
“Sir,” all said with a quick salute.
Lucas turned to Torwind.
“Send me with them,” he said. The soldiers eyed him nervously.
“You�
�re fast, eh?”
“You won’t find faster.”
“All them stories true, then?”
“You can see for yourself. But as you said, people are dying.”
Almost on cue, a muffled series of explosions boomed in the distance, and a few shrill screams pierced the air.
Torwind waved the four of them toward the brush on the side of the road.
“I need a full report in six minutes,” he said. Everyone nodded, Lucas included. The unit watched them disappear into the greenery.
The journey was short. Lucas naturally had to slow down to keep pace with the other three, and somehow the clearly fatigued and sickly Wisher had pushed aside her issues and was keeping up with all of them. The other two men were among the most healthy of the unit. Raa’li was tall and lean and moved gracefully through the brush. Lulta was shorter, but still agile. His tan face was marked by old, deep scars.
It wasn’t long before they caught up with the screams.
A Xalan force had set upon a long caravan of Sorans stretching down the dirt road. The creatures had two armored hovercraft that were strafing the ground-bound vehicles of the Sorans, sending up periodic explosions whenever an engine core detonated. Xalan troops on the ground were unloading into the swarms of Sorans fleeing up the road or into the jungle. A few of the civilians had weapons and were fighting back, crouched behind wrecked metal vehicles, but most were either dead or hysterical.
“Shit!” Raa’li said. “They must have all been trying to make it to the port. How many Xalans are there?”
Lucas’s Shadow-enhanced mind flipped through every single Xalan he could see, and he calculated the angle of plasma coming from locations that were obscured. A tally instantly sprang into his mind.
“Thirty-seven on the ground, six more in those hovercraft.”
The three soldiers turned to look at him like he was crazy, having made the count in under a second.
A woman lay not ten feet away from them on the road. She wailed and cried until a tall Xalan, armor streaked with red warpaint (or blood) in swirling, runic patterns, came by and smashed her head in with an armored boot. He growled something to the rest of the Xalans who spread out to chase down the rest of the Sorans. The road was starting to become paved with bodies. The Xalan leader snorted and strode calmly toward the chaos ahead, directing the hovercraft to fire on what few occupied Soran vehicles still remained on the road.