Star Brigade: The Supremacy (SB3)

by C. C. Ekeke

  >>Self-Diagnosis: Skin Armor integrity at 83.6%

  Khrome’s armored skin was still on fire from Ghuj’aega’s attack as his freefall grew more out of control by the instant.

  Until a sturdy spaceship-styled coupe broke his fall partially—his mad plummet shearing it clean in half. Where that hovercar come from? he wondered before tumbling forward and crumpling the next five vehicles like wood paper.

  Several voices screamed at once, too many to be just CT-1, and all sounding Ttaunz. Unable to stop his own momentum, Khrome continued bouncing down the ferroment-covered street like a stone skipping across water. Except that each skip hit like a bomb blast, violently blowing up chunks of ferroment pavement. In his mad tumble, he glimpsed beings scrambling out of his way, all screaming.

  The Thulican skidded another half mile before finally slowing. He immediately sprang upright covered in soot, roaring, “WHERE IS HE?!” Khrome didn’t expect the sea of terrified, fleeing bystanders. “Where am I?”

  >>Analysis: Ttaunz males/females. Age estimate: between 17–21 cycles.

  >>Search Query: Designate location. Searching…

  The surrounding buildings with their bejeweled domes, the long trail of high-end hovercars he had pancaked leading to a Lorenzo-Marcus dealership, the winding black scar of ripped-up pavement…

  >>Search Query Successful: Location identified as Coiroque, near Faroor northern polar cap.

  >>Self-prompted query: How did I get four orvs north of Akkabe Plateau?

  Looking up, Khrome noted the sky still had the dark cherry shade of early morning.

  >>Analysis: 0500 orvs in the morning, three orvs before Star Brigade’s assault on Ghuj’aega…

  >>Warning: Current time in Coiroque incongruent with previous time in Akkabe Plateau.

  “Ghuj’aega threw me backwards in time.” Aloud it sounded ridiculous. But that was the only explanation making sense to Khrome.

  “Freeze, Thulican!” The sonoramp-enhanced voice shocked Khrome back into the present. He turned in the voice’s direction.

  “What...the HELL?!” The Thulican’s round, golden eyes grew wider.

  >>Threat Classification: Coiroque MetroPol.

  >>Self-Diagnosis: Skin Armor integrity at 90.2%

  In the short time since crash-landing, then figuring out where...and when he was, Khrome found himself surrounded by half a dozen heavily armored assault hovercrafts courtesy of Coiroque MetroPol. The crowds now filled every building corner around the entire block. The vehicles had swiftly cordoned off the site around Khrome with hardlight forcefield fences. Hover AVs, massive yet sleek in their sable sheen, aimed arrays of massive disruptor cannons at him.

  >>>Threat Assessment: Disruptor Weaponry possesses potential to damage skin armor.

  Hints of movement behind Khrome caught his attention, three MetroPol officers approaching stealthily with pulse pistols drawn. To them, Khrome was a living wrecking ball that had torn through downtown Coiroque. He swallowed hard. This could end very badly if not played right, which Khrome didn’t have time for.

  “Do NOT move!” the sonoramp-enhanced voice ordered again.

  The three officers edged closer, covered head to toe in dark crimson armorweave riot gear. Two circled the Thulican until they stood in front of him, their faces obscured by armor masks. Their rapid-volley pulse pistols pointed at Khrome’s head and torso.

  Like shooting me will help them, thought Khrome, clenching his huge fists.

  >>>Warning: MetroPol attack imminent.

  The MetroPol were not his enemies, so the Star Brigadier raised both hands in peace. “I am sorry,” Khrome stated as calmly as his panic would allow. “But I have places to be and terrorists to kill.”

  >>>Flight protocol: Engaged and activated.

  Khrome threw his burly arms back and exploded skyward. The shockwave of his liftoff knocked all three officers off their feet. Khrome juked left and then right to evade the disruptor blasts that nearly struck true.

  >>>Current Velocity: Mach 3.53 and climbing…

  Coiroque quickly shrank into a small, bejeweled speck below. A deafening boom echoed behind Khrome as he shattered the sound barrier. Khrome kept climbing higher, pushing faster.

  Faroor’s gravity began weakening. Within moments, he tore through the uppermost cloud layer, leaving a fluffy trail and several fleeting white halos of vapor in his wake.

  Soon after that the Thulican could only see pitch-black space sparkling with stars...and Qos pulsing with its unnatural glow. Up here, Khrome noted, even Faroor’s moon couldn’t cancel out the full radiance of Herope, which now crept around the curve of the world in all its bright crimson glory.

  By the lack of air, Khrome knew he had escaped Faroor’s halo of atmosphere. A myriad various satellites appeared, as did the never-ending lanes of incoming and outgoing space lane traffic. The Thulican slowed at his flight’s apex, almost free of Faroor’s gravity. He hovered a moment, pinpointing the Akkabe Plateau on the greyish-brown world below, and rocketed back down.

  >>>Location Analysis: Akkabe Plateau at northern end of equator.

  >>>Distance to Destination: 120 kilometrids

  >>>Estimated Time of Arrival: Four orvs.

  The latter data was unacceptable. Khrome needed to reach Akkabe in three.

  If I don’t reach Star Brigade on time— Khrome pushed that dread away with a kick of speed.

  >>>Current Velocity: Mach 8.96 and climbing…

  As soon as the Thulican plunged back into Faroor’s atmosphere, a tingling started burning over his metallic flesh, intensifying the faster he plummeted.

  >>>Warning: Re-entry temperature climbing higher than acceptable tolerance.

  “This is gonna sting.” Khrome grimaced.

  >>Estimated Time of Arrival: One orv.

  Khrome hurtled through Faroor’s pale crimson heavens, a smoking silvery bullet of escalating speed. The scorching agony tingling across his skin was hard to ignore, but he had to. The nearer he got to Akkabe Plateau, Qos’s colorless radiance kept washing away the pink sunlight.

  >>Current Velocity: Mach 11.57 and climbing…

  He could count the instances he’d come close to this speed before: testing his fastest flight time for military physicals, racing a hypersonic starliner on a dare, pushing his speed limits just for the hell of it.

  >>Analysis: Five times reaching near flight speeds of Mach 6.

  Khrome allowed himself a prideful smirk and nothing more. Only Star Brigade’s safety and Ghuj’aega’s demise mattered.

  Synced with UComm and local Ttaunz military channels, Khrome heard incoming reports of his Coiroque appearance—the “armored and dangerous Thulican.” He almost laughed. Not funny, however, were local news streams he’d also patched into. Many ran stories about the “odd” solar eclipse, massive skyquakes, and lightning strikes occurring all over Faroor, thanks to Ghuj’aega.

  The Thulican’s neuronet brain categorized military and news-stream chatter as lowered importance. Khrome tilted to port with a sharp left. A break in the clouds revealed a glittery stretch of deep, blue ocean far below—the Muunican Sea.

  Khrome barely noticed as he pierced through another billowing cloud.

  >>Load Extermination options.

  The Thulican had already devised ten ways to kill Ghuj’aega, all exceptionally painful. But Khrome could not arrive at Akkabe until after his disappearance. Running into his past self might create some difficulties.

  Khrome cringed, having never dealt with time-space issues.

  >>Analysis Solution: Warn Star Brigade in advance…

  With a thought, Khrome activated his Star Brigade comms.

  “Captain Nwosu! Star Brigade CT-1! Come in!” He only received crackling static.

  >>Warning: Transmission failure. Reconnection unavailable.

  The receiver shut off the comm channel? Khrome was baffled, until he realized why.

  >>Recollection archive: Unsanctioned transmission at 0809 orvs, Akkabe Plateau.
>
  >>Transmission Analysis: cross-referencing call time with previous call received at Akkabe Plateau.

  The transmissions’ times and audio were identical. “It was me!” Khrome just hadn’t called CT-1 yet…until now. The Thulican shook his head in bother. “Time/Space shenanigans,” he grumbled.

  An internal beep brought Khrome’s attention back to his display of ongoing military chatter.

  >>Warning: UComm and Ttaunz Defense Force identified location, moving to intercept.

  Khrome’s eyes narrowed into gold slits as he pondered his next move. Even at his current speed, Mach 5.88 and climbing, UComm might reach him in at least ten macroms. He had to lose them.

  Khrome dove and the sun-kissed ocean filled his entire vision.

  At the last instant, he pulled up just above the surface, cutting a crisscross of bowl-shaped waves across the water.

  >>Estimated Time of Arrival: Forty-five macroms.

  Chapter 62

  At this moment, Habraum’s consciousness hung by a thread, red and green spots dancing before his eyes. It felt like his body had aged fifty years in five nanoclics. Showers of geyser drops hit his skin like hot needles. Ghuj’aega, all blue skin and bones and gleaming white tattoos, stood over Habraum triumphantly. His bony hand gripped the Cerc’s armor chestplate, sapping his life away.

  “Death comes quickly, Habraum, for you and your Star Brigade,” Ghuj’aega spat merrily. “I have foreseen it.”

  No. Habraum refused to succumb, shaking his head. Not this way. Khrome and Uyull deserve justice!

  Teeth chattering, the Cerc triggered his powers and a familiar energy flooded his body. However, the biokinetic power came more like a slow trickle than a bursting dam. Habraum grimaced, digging deeper. Our lives depend on it. After a long moment, the dam burst wide open. He forced Ghuj’aega’s weakening grip off his chestplate. The more he pushed, the faster his strength returned. No more spots filled Habraum’s vision, which revealed Ghuj’aega’s insufferable confidence finally cracking.

  As the Cerc slowly climbed upright, the withered feeling in his muscles and on his blood flow all faded.

  Ghuj’aega’s frown became full-sized frustration. He snaked a hand back at Habraum, who slapped it away and rose to his full and supple six foot five inches. The Cerc’s body throbbed with constant, refreshing biokinetic power. He had no clue how his abilities had reversed Ghuj’aega’s aging effect, but now wasn’t a time to guess.

  Confusion filled Ghuj’aega’s flat face. “H-How?”

  Habraum’s reply was a biokinetic-charged right cross to Ghuj’aega’s face, spinning the scrawny Ghebrekh fully around. The Cerc dropped to a crouch, cat-quick, unloading thick crimson blasts from both fists at the Ghebrekh’s back. Ghuj’aega smashed against the rim wall face first with a thunderclap. His body nearly vanished under the gushing radiance of Habraum’s onslaught.

  As if someone pressed “play,” Akkabe Plateau’s ruined terrain sprang back to life. Marguliese, Tyris, and V’Korram all simultaneously glanced about to find Habraum and Ghuj’aega’s current locations.

  “Take him,” Habraum ordered. No explanation was needed. Marguliese’s burning blue eye beams and three different volleys of pulse rifle fire converged with his biokinetic blasts. Ghuj’aega’s body shuddered and shook from each hit. It stunned Habraum how little fight the Ghebrekh was putting up, until he noticed rays of pink sunlight cascading down. Qos no longer covered Herope. “The eclipse was supercharging him,” Habraum murmured.

  The captain turned to Marguliese, gesturing at their target. She charged and swiped at Ghuj’aega’s head with her energy sword…only for him to vanish again…reappearing behind Habraum.

  The Cerc anticipated this. Spinning around, he sank a biokinetic-charged fist into Ghuj’aega’s stomach, followed directly by another concussive blast that nearly launched Ghuj’aega up into orbit. But Habraum firmly gripped the scruff of Ghuj’aega’s neck, ensuring the little bastard felt every iota of his wrath.

  As soon as he ceased his attack, Marguliese rushed in. Her brilliant blade erupted out through the Ghebrekh’s belly. Ghuj’aega gaped at the gruesome wound, his insides sizzling loudly like cooked meat.

  Marguliese casually tossed back her drenched mop of crimson hair, which had come entirely loose. “For Khromulus,” she stated flatly, but Habraum caught the venom in her words. V’Korram stalked closer, soaked and twirling his scaphe daggers expertly. Tyris, Fiyan, and Vaas kept their pulse rifles trained on the terrorist, ready to fire at even the smallest movement. Ghuj’aega shuddered and slumped to his knees in defeat. Trickles of blackish blood dripped from his mouth. He sucked in short, desperate gasps as the white tattoos covering his body darkened. Ghuj’aega stared up in disbelief at his surrounding foes, looking so small and breakable.

  The Cerc stared down at the beaten Farooqua with an icy hatred. “Honestly, how did you think this would end?” Habraum’s voice was hoarse and hard. He aimed for Ghuj’aega head, his fist glowing with crimson energy.

  “Reign, we’ve got company coming in hot!” Khal shouted on comms.

  Instants later, Habraum felt his teeth rattle. Another skyquake? The answer came from a trio of diamond-shaped shadows soaring toward them through the pale red sky. The Cerc recognized them instantly: Ttaunz Defense Force aerial interceptors. “Why the hazik are they here?”

  “Reign,” Marguliese stated, her sword still lodged through Ghuj’aega’s back. “They’re arming weapons.”

  It happened too quickly. Along the sterns of each interceptor, weapon ports opened and peppered the foggy terrain in a hailstorm of blistering emerald fire.

  Chapter 63

  The pungency from the pulse beams fused into the geyser haze, making Habraum’s eyes water. Blinking to clear his vision, he spotted a windy ribbon of scorch marks across the terrain from the Ttaunz interceptors’ warning rounds.

  “NO, you klonkers!” Habraum muttered, barely fighting the urge to aim up and blow those interceptors out of the sky.

  A ping on their comm channel sounded—a new party requesting access. Habraum sucked on his teeth in fury and nodded to Marguliese. “Strategic Assault & Reconnaissance Brigade,” proclaimed a male with that sing-songy Ttaunz accent. “Ghuj’aega is to be taken into Supremacy custody.”

  The look Habraum exchanged with his Brigadiers along with Fiyan and Vaas, ranged between understated confusion from Marguliese, to plain murderous in V’Korram’s case.

  “Are you greybricking me?” Habraum spat. “We have a standing kill order on Ghuj’aega.” He glanced at the kneeling terrorist with Marguliese’s energy sword sticking out from his stomach.

  This did not sway the Ttaunz Defense Force. “Our orders are to bring Ghuj’aega into custody.”

  Ghuj’aega spasmed and coughed up more bloodied spittle.

  BRRKSSHHH!! Another geyser blew just outside the rim wall. Habraum came back with, “And the TDF was ordered by the UComm to stay out of our business.” Done with this conversation, he raised his glowing fist to aim for Ghuj’aega.

  VEEP! VEEP! Two white-hot blasts from the lead interceptor blew up chunks of rock on either side of Habraum. Warning shots. V’Korram’s furious roar thundered across the terrain. Fiyan and Vaas protested via comm channels. Tyris swung his repeater blaster, about to target the interceptors. Marguliese didn’t even blink, still as a statue.

  Seething, Habraum lowered his arm.

  “We were told to disregard UComm’s orders,” replied the soldier on comms with smugness so palpable it was nauseating.

  Rogguts. Habraum could not have hated anything more than the Ttaunz right now, including Ghuj’aega. He turned to the trio of ships floating overhead. Through the all-pervasive geyser steam, Qos continued slipping away from the cherry sun behind the vessels. “On whose authority?” the Cerc demanded, expecting to hear Defense Minister Haemekk’s name.

  “Maorridius Magnus, Supreme Ruler of Faroor.”

  Habraum and Tyris traded a stunned glance. Maorridiu
s Magnus, back in charge after Liliana cured his life-threatening illness. This is how he shows gratitude?

  “This matter is under UComm jurisdiction, so I don’t recognize your Viceroy’s bullshit authority,” Habraum bellowed, too furious to remain composed. “Go flutter on back to your master, then.”

  “Ttaunz Defense Force!” a voice shrieked out, clearly not part of the comm channel. Taorr ran into the fray, flailing his hands. “Let Star Brigade complete its mission!”

  Ghuj’aega’s chuckle was an ugly rasping from his torn diaphragm. “The little prince wields his overwhelming power.”

  Marguliese gave her blade a hard twist, and the Ghebrekh trembled. How Ghuj’aega wasn’t dead astounded Habraum. “Stay back, lad.” He waved Taorr away, doing a double take on Mhir’ujiid appearing next to the Ttaunz. She held the Ttaunz back in a rather acquainted manner. Good “friends” indeed.

  Zojje also emerged from the mist, trailed by Khal and Liliana. The doctor leaned heavily against him, coughing. Blowing out a heavy sigh of relief, Habraum nodded gratefully at Khal.

  “Good to see you alive, Taorr son of Maorridius Magnus,” the voice from the lead interceptor stated genuinely. “You know your father. His way is the only way.”

  That warmth vanished when addressing Habraum. “Captain Nwosu. This is your final warning.”

  The weapons banks on the sleek ships lit up brightly. V’Korram paced back and forth like a caged panther. “I was about to say the same thing,” Habraum replied casually, glancing at Marguliese.

  The Cybernarr’s left eye flashed a jagged, cerulean starburst. All three interceptors shuddered suddenly, but held position.

  “What the—” the once arrogant voice exclaimed. Then, remembering he was on an open comm, the Ttaunz regained some repose. “Every system just became nonresponsive.”

  “Ours, also,” another panicky male voice added, probably from one of the other ships.

  “Likewise,” declared a third Ttaunz voice, this one female. The ships hovered in the sky, unmoving.

  “What’s happening?” an awestruck Vaas asked.