by C. C. Ekeke
Khrome hovered nearby, a few inches off the ground, cheerful even before a battle. Tyris stood with arms folded, still as a statue. Liliana prepped her pulse pistols with newfound calm, her dark pixie cut hair damp and slicked back. V’Korram paced back and forth like a restless beast. Marguliese surveyed her surroundings with quick, cool sweeps. The black armorweave tank top and catsuit pants she wore clung to her body as if she was poured inside, minimalist compared to her fellow Star Brigadiers and the TerraTroopers’ attire. But the Cybernarr looked no less lethal than usual.
Tyris’s dark eyes flitted in Habraum’s direction. “We’re ready, sir.”
The Cerc started toward the group. “Brilliant. The geysers will limit our visibility and hearing, so we—”
“I’m coming with you.”
Habraum stopped and turned slowly toward the familiar voice.
Mhir’ujiid stood behind him, green mohawk wild and unruly. She carried one of those toothed clubs at her waist, a metal forearm guard sheathing her right arm and a slightly deranged expression on her flat face. The Quud who was their transporter motioned at her. She replied with a glare so nasty the warrior actually cowered.
“I help you deal with Ghuj’aega,” Mhir’ujiid added.
V’Korram snarled in bother.
Habraum had no time for this. “Mhir’ujiid...”
She overrode him, “I have to avenge what Ghuj’aega did to my family…my brother—”
“Mhir’ujiid,” Habraum barked, his patience expired. “My team needs to focus on Ghuj’aega, not your safety,” he detailed. “Stay with your family.”
The Quud opened her mouth to rebut, but Habraum had already turned away. He approached Star Brigade, standing with Fiyan and Byzlar around the pillar. This was quite a brood he had under his command. One look at them dissolved any earlier concerns.
“Let’s go to work.” Habraum nodded to the Quud warrior.
Their transporter began moving several blocks around on the stone pillar, his expression like one entranced. Moments later, Star Brigade and the TerraTroopers vanished with a sharp pop.
Chapter 55
The instantaneous trip landed Habraum and his team amidst sweltering steam in every direction. He nodded at their transporter in gratitude. The Farooqua returned the gesture while shifting around the pillar’s stones with nimble fingers, then vanishing. Star Brigade was on its own.
The low-grade forcefield on Habraum’s suit protected him from the full effects of Akkabe’s balmy heat. Still, the heavy moisture along with the stink of sulfur and oxide metals made breathing a chore. Through the steam, countless cone-shaped geysers jutted up around his Star Brigade team in packed clusters.
BRRKSSSH!! A geyser erupted thunderously. Habraum swiveled his head in that direction. Cortes and Byzlar started.
Calm settled over Akkabe Plateau, the eruption a fading echo...until the next one. BRRKSSSH!
“Jakadda. Marguliese,” Habraum whispered.
V’Korram appeared at his right, surly as usual. The steam clearly didn’t agree with him, either. He eyed Habraum and shook his head, confirming no Ghebrekh nearby. Marguliese appeared at the Cerc’s left and whispered, “A cluster of body heat in the northwest clearing.”
Habraum, V’Korram, and their teammates followed her gaze. She had located Ghuj’aega. The Cerc pointed to that direction, waving his group to both sides. Marguliese, Sergeant Fiyan, Tyris, and Khal went left. Habraum, V’Korram, Byzlar, and Liliana went right. Khrome rose above ground, to catch any surprises.
BRRKSSSH! KSSSSSSH!! Another geyser jet gushed out two eruptions, covering the team’s footfalls.
For long macroms, CT-1 and the TerraTroopers moved stealthily among the maze of geysers. No sign of Ghuj’aega, his Ghebrekh, or Taorr yet.
Their search was greeted by sudden spouting eruptions, the drip-drip trickling of water down the cone geysers—and the sizzle of water drops landing on Tyris’s crystalline ice figure. The sun’s pale-pink light began cutting through the haze, improving their line of sight.
Not until the cone geysers grew more spread apart did V’Korram, on all fours, freeze in place. His ears pricked up as he rose upright. Habraum stopped and gestured tersely at his team to comply.
“What?” he whispered. Another geyser erupted far away, rumbling the earth.
“Drumbeats,” V’Korram growled quietly, “rhythmic, like a ritual.”
Habraum nodded and waved the team forward. As CT-1 moved further inside the labyrinth of geysers, he began hearing the drums. Alien and gloomy, but beautiful.
His team looked ready, though each eruption visibly unnerved Cortes.
“Reign,” Khrome muttered via wristcom, “five Ghebrekh hiding up ahead.”
“Copy that,” Habraum whispered. “Fiyan, release the—”
“Captain...krk-krk...CT-1...krk-krk... Come in—” Khrome’s voice crackled on the CT-1 com channel.
Everyone dove for cover behind either a geyser or one of several rocky outcrops.
Habraum switched to another channel, tempted to punch the Thulican even if his hand broke.
Floating overhead, Khrome looked more shocked than anyone and frantically mouthed, “I didn’t say anything!” in the face of the murderous glares lobbed at him.
Before anything could be said, Habraum spied five silhouettes slinking into view from behind several geysers. Khrome floated up into the muggy haze. The shadows emerging from the steam revealed furless, tattooed Ghebrekh armed with toothed clubs, metallic forearm guards, and whips. The warriors silently slinked forward, scouring the geysers for the source of the sound.
And Star Brigade struck. Marguliese darted behind two Ghebrekh at the rear. A slash of light dropped the pair...without their heads.
A silvery blur streaked past the two Ghebrekh in front, snatching them up. Khrome soared skyward holding the terrified Ghebrekh’s faces in each hand, muffling their screams. He banked a hard left toward the nearest geyser, tossing his cargo into its overflowing mouth as he flew by—just as it erupted. BRRKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! This time, the frothy white gush bore a wine-red tinge.
The last Ghebrekh swiveled about in clear panic, swiping his toothed club at shadows surrounding him.
Tyris charged forward, hooking the Ghebrekh’s arm holding the toothed club to render it useless. He rammed a hard palm into the Ghebrekh’s face once...twice...three times, each strike breaking more bones. Tyris caught the Ghebrekh by the throat, slamming the back of his neck on a bent knee—snapping it.
“Clear,” Khrome whispered.
The group resumed moving toward the ceaseless drumbeats. Craggy stubs and a few cone geysers ahead ringed the clearing.
Liliana stayed put, eyes closed and shivering. BRRKSSSH!! She barely flinched at a stout cone geyser’s violent eruption to her left.
Veiled under the roar of water and fury, another Ghebrekh dashed from around a geyser at Cortes. Habraum’s eyes widened and he snapped up a glowing red fist. Marguliese dashed to her. Khrome dove forward. But the attacker moved too fast to intercept…
At the last instant Liliana dropped to a knee, eyes still shut as she turned, aimed, and fired.
Bright white sound waves knocked the Ghebrekh off its feet, shattering bones and ripping apart tissue. His ruined body hit the ground in a floppy heap. Dark blood wormed from ears and mouth across the cracked earth, quickly diluted by scalding water flowing around him.
Marguliese and Khrome halted. Habraum lowered his arm. Liliana opened her eyes to see her handiwork, looking even more panicked.
Khrome gaped. “You felt the Ghebrekh with that—”
“Sonar thing? Yeah.” Liliana rose. Everyone was impressed and relieved, except Habraum.
V’Korram scanned behind the geyser where Liliana stood. “Transport pillar.”
“Marguliese, destroy it. Quietly,” ordered Habraum, still glaring at the medic. The Cybernarr flitted around the geyser as Liliana met the Cerc’s anger with a trembling look that might have earned his sympa
thy under different circumstances. She knew about the attack. Clearly, Cortes had seen this in her vision from last night. Yet she put herself in ridiculous danger by saying nothing.
Habraum swallowed his fury—barely. Not now. The mission took priority. “You okay?” he almost snarled out the inquiry.
Liliana offered a scared nod, clearly understanding she had some explaining to do later. Habraum glanced skyward. Herope’s sunshine was nearly cancelled out before the remorseless cold light of Qos, Faroor’s pale moon now a second sun. Just like in last night’s vision.
The Cybernarr reappeared and nodded; the pillar had been destroyed. Habraum signaled his team to move. Within macroms, Star Brigade came upon a wall of jagged spires all sharpened and shiny from continual water spray. From what Habraum saw through the wall’s crevices, this jagged divider wrapped around a wide depression containing the source of the booming drums from the distance.
“Seven Ghebrekh guarding around the clearing,” Khrome murmured from the skies, which was now blanketed by Qos’s light.
Habraum frowned. What is going on? The Cerc ignored his own curiosity, tersely gesturing Marguliese and V’Korram forward. The duo sped around the encircling wall on opposing sides.
Within macroms, the Kintarian and the Cybernarr returned, having made quick work of the Ghebrekh.
“Clear,” Marguliese murmured. The team moved into place behind the wall’s pinnacles. Steep crevices between the spires revealed a crater-like expanse of flat, cracked earth packed with not just obsidian-skinned Ghebrekh. Sinkhole-dwelling Gajj, arctic Ajjadr, N’noa grasslanders, Quud mountaineers, and other tribes stood in unified allegiance with the splinter tribe.
All seemed indifferent to the shower and steam of the surrounding geysers. There had to be over a hundred bulging-eyed Farooqua present. Only the Ghebrekh were visibly armed with weapons, though.
The source of the drumbeats also revealed itself beyond the rocks. A massive Ghebrekh, heavily tattooed and generally unpleasant in appearance, slammed his hands rhythmically on a cylindrical drum of wood and animal hide. His back was against a colossal cone geyser—the largest that Habraum had seen. All Farooqua present encircled the stone, which was adorned with the oddest component of the scene thus far.
“What. The. HELL?” Liliana breathed across the comms, stealing the words from the Cerc’s mouth.
Habraum saw Ghuj’aega, bound to the cone geyser, half-submerged in a circle of steaming water around the rock formation. The silvery restraints holding him looked like metal under the brilliantly white moonlight from above. Two obsidian-skinned Ghebrekh guards stood before the terrorist hefting pronged spears. Is Ghuj’aega sacrificing himself...to the Zenith Point? For what bigger purpose, Habraum couldn’t figure. Ghuj’aega’s death would leave the Ghebrekh leaderless.
The terrorist leader looked unafraid. In fact, his expression was so blank, so still, that if he didn’t turn his head occasionally to observe his followers, Habraum might not have known he was alive.
“Looks like...he’s being sacrificed by his own,” Fiyan deducted, just as puzzled as the rest of the group.
The Cerc could almost see V’Korram’s surliness as he growled. “Isn’t that what we want?”
Habraum considered this for a moment. “We want Ghuj’aega dead on our own terms. His own nutters killing him won’t benefit us.” He crept forward. “Assume positions.”
Star Brigade and the TerraTroopers moved into position. Liliana, Fiyan, and Byzlar took high ground posts in a triangle formation around the rim, each ideal for sniper shots. Three geysers erupted nearby, one after the other, showering Star Brigade with steaming droplets.
Tyris and V’Korram went next, taking opposing sides of the wide rim. The Farooqua waited silently around the geyser. The drumbeats grew louder still, and faster. Khrome floated high above, concealed by roiling billows of steam. Khal, Habraum, and Marguliese stood near Liliana’s spot along the wall, facing Ghuj’aega directly.
“Got eyes on Taorr and Zojje,” Khal muttered. “Tattshi, the kid looks like he’s been hit by a hovertram. Twice!”
Habraum shuddered in agreement. Both hostages, kneeling to Ghuj’aega’s right, looked terrible.
Taorr, drenched and sporting the bruises of clear abuse, also looked corpse-like from malnourishment. But his gaze haunted Habraum the most. The Ttaunz stared ahead, barely aware of what was happening around him. Habraum knew all too well the gaze of someone broken by captivity. Eight years ago that had been him, when held captive during the Ferronos Sector War.
Taorr’s Kudoban companion appeared just as haggard, his robes utterly soiled. But he took in his surroundings calmly, cradling a stump that used to be his left arm. Habraum sighed in relief, but with modest misgivings. On one hand, both hostages were alive, meaning he got to keep his promise to Lethe. Yet protecting two hostages subtracted an operative from taking down Ghuj’aega. Luckily, one of CT-1’s combat strategy from last night accounted for this.
“Vertex,” Habraum asked, “grab those two from here?”
Khal’s insulted look clearly meant, “Yes.”
“Crescendo, target Ghuj’aega.” Liliana nodded, crouched with fingers pointed gun-like.
“Alright.” Habraum aimed at Ghuj’aega, drawing his left arm back while keeping his right pointed forward like an archer.
“On my mark...” he addressed the group over the comm channel, both fists glowing crimson with biokinetic force.
Chapter 56
Taorr knew he wasn’t ready to die, but wanted this horrid situation to be over.
He had been out in the Akkabe Plateau for over an orv, continuously sprayed with near scalding geyser water as more Farooqua from the different tribes arrived. Taorr bit back the prickling discomfort of cracked earth digging into his bare knees.
The skies had been bright pale pink earlier, but now all the color had drained away from the sky, Qos its dazzling centerpiece. The phenomenon was the only thing keeping Taorr together currently, especially since he had no interest in the sight behind him.
Ghuj’aega was bound in metal chains to the massive, dormant cone geyser behind them. Two hulking Ghebrekh flanked either side, armed with sharp pike weapons. Their orders were to kill Ghuj’aega as part of a Zenith Point sacrifice then skewer Zojje and Taorr. Purg’iasha, Ghuj’aega’s second-in-command, stood before Taorr and Zojje, signing enthusiastically to the gathering. By the nods, pumping fists, and contemptuous looks in his direction, Taorr knew these misguided Farooqua were being fed some false rhetoric about how the sacrifice would save them.
Taorr knew all these defectors were just cannon fodder for whatever Ghuj’aega’s true endgame was. But he had no way of communicating this. A sudden movement drew the Ttaunz from his misery.
The guards positioned on either side of the geyser had stood as still as statues for over an orv, and were finally moving. Both aimed their pikes at either side of Ghuj’aega, who looked ahead with a grim sneer. The crowd of Farooqua let out a collective gasp.
Taorr. Zojje’s voice entered Taorr’s head, irksomely calm. We will be okay.
Taorr side-eyed his friend. They were going to die. No Kudoban platitudes could stop that. Zojje ignored the Ttaunz’s petulance. Malnourished or not, all three of his mouths smiled. Taorr was beginning to wonder when captivity had broken Zojje’s brain.
The two Ghebrekh guards hefted their pikes high, about to strike their leader. Ghuj’aega stared ahead fearlessly, violet eyes burning.
I’m fine, child, he replied, amused. Just stay close.
Tension hung thick in the already muggy air. Taorr winced, his knees screaming while he turned toward the Kudoban. “Why?” he whispered.
Two blinding energy blasts answered his question. A thick red beam and a shockwave of radiant rings streaked forward from beyond this clearing, striking Ghuj’aega so hard he was drilled through the cone geyser. The rock formation imploded instantly in a cascade of stony rubble and broiling water.
The terrorist
’s ropy-thin body hit the far side of the rim wall with a smack. He sank to the cracked earth and didn’t move.
Then everything became chaos.
Farooqua screamed incoherently, pelt-covered bodies tripping over each other as they tried to flee. The Ghebrekh in the crowd quickly set aside their surprise to find the attacks’ source.
Taorr gaped at Ghuj’aega’s unmoving body. Was he dead? One could hope.
Purg’iasha turned to flee...then tripped, courtesy of Zojje’s foot. “He cut off my arm,” the Kudoban calmly explained.
Taorr gaped at his friend, right before Purg’iasha got trampled by a mob of fear-crazed Farooqua.
And those very Farooqua stampeded too close. Taorr’s heart thudded. He and Zojje would be next.
Zojje grabbed the Ttaunz’s shoulder, keeping him from standing. “We’ll be fine.”
Finally, Taorr exploded, “HOW do you know that? And what was that energy?!”
Above the cacophony, he caught a low drone growing louder, closer. Taorr looked up...and blanched. Something glinting in the heavens plunged toward the ground. A bomb?
Before he could wonder further, Taorr got yanked backwards. He flailed about against the invisible, powerful force around his waist jerking him away from the tumble of Farooqua…and Ghuj’aega.
Same with Zojje, who had gone limp.
The drone above became a roar. The shiny bomb, closer now, actually had arms and a head. A mechanoid? Taorr gawked.
Too much happened too quickly, scrambling the Ttaunz’s brain. He and Zojje now soared straight for the rim wall behind them. Taorr closed his eyes, hoping this would end…until he felt actual hands catch him.
“I have Zojje,” a female stated from Taorr’s right, her voice oddly mechanized like some automaton.