by Andrew Gates
Ikharus’s eyes opened wide as Jakhu said the words. He felt a shiver run up and down his shell. At last, his worst fear had become reality. The final refuge of the world’s most prominent rulers and the collected entirety of the Empire’s military strength lay open and exposed to the Hive like prey in a trap.
They could not stay here. Everything that remained was at stake.
There was only one option now.
“Tomorrow is too late, Emperor Sylus. We will not even endure the afternoon. We must initiate the mission now!” Ikharus said, quickly turning to the Emperor.
Sylus nodded back. The antlers on his crown moved as he bobbed his head.
“Agreed.”
With that said, Sylus reached to a microphone on his desk and held it close to his mandibles. He shouted an order into it, which quickly echoed throughout the confines of the base in foreign words.
“Come, your Majesty,” Jakhu said to Ikharus as Sylus addressed his people. She grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled.
Ikharus nodded back to Jakhu and followed her into the hall. He had no reason to stay any longer, especially with the Hive closing in. He could not even understand Sylus’s message anyway.
He had to move. The fate of the world depended on what happened next.
“Hurry along, your Majesty,” Vylan said, pushing Ikharus along as the Emperor’s message continued to blare through the speakers.
Ikharus followed Jakhu and Vylan held closely by his side. All across the hall, Sorrevahni jumped into action, dashing this way and that as they darted to their stations.
“Where is our destination?” Ikharus asked, blindly allowing the others to guide him through the chaotic tunnels.
“You said the mission is a go, correct?” Jakhu repeated.
“Indeed, it is,” Ikharus confirmed.
“Then obviously we are moving to the hangar. We are to take the transport we used on our way here to deliver the chemical to the swarm queen.”
Ikharus instantly stopped in place, prompting Vylan to collide into him by accident. When she realized that he had stopped, Jakhu stopped too and turned to face him.
“Why do you stop?” she asked.
“Because the chemical is not on the ship. It is still in the laboratory,” Ikharus explained, recalling how it was stored in a secure vault inside the quarantine chamber.
He hoped he would never have to go back there again, but fate had different plans.
“Come,” Ikharus said, motioning the other way toward the laboratory. “This way!”
Ikharus led the way this time, with Vylan and Jakhu following behind. When they arrived at the lab, the charred corpse of Soh Saratti had been moved to the center of the room atop a stretcher. His body now resided between the two tables. It stunk of burnt flesh.
Ikharus put the corpse out of mind and continued along. The room was empty. It seemed the scientists had already abandoned their lab duties for the mission. Under normal circumstances, Ikharus would have cursed the scientists for leaving a corpse unattended, but given the severity of the situation, he knew they had made the right decision in leaving so suddenly.
“Here,” Ikharus said, walking into the open door of the quarantine chamber. He walked to the small black box that housed the chemical, leaned down, set his scepter against the wall and ripped it open while Jakhu and Vylan remained out by the tables.
Sure enough, the vial of blue liquid remained safely inside the box. Ikharus raised the glass from its holster and inspected it. The stopper seemed to have worked. There were no cracks, nor signs of leaks.
Ikharus stood back up and turned to face the inside of the room as a mangled spike suddenly slashed through Vylan’s chest. Blood burst from the wound and he opened his mandibles in horror, soundlessly gasping for a breath that would never come.
Jakhu quickly turned, just as mystified as Ikharus. Both took a step back as Vylan’s corpse suddenly dropped to the floor. Blood filled the room everywhere.
They held their breath as the body on the stretcher slowly began to stand. The blackened remains of what was once Soh Saratti rose like a monster forged of living ash. Vylan’s blood covered its left claw, which was now so bent out of shape that it appeared more like a spear or spike. Ikharus could hardly identify the features of the creature’s face and could see no eyes of any kind. The mangled beast must have hunted off sound and smell, if it even had ears or a nose remaining.
“Soh Saratti, is that you?” Jakhu asked in a trembling voice as she nervously stepped away from the charred corpse.
“He cannot hear you. Soh Saratti is dead,” Ikharus explained. “A monster now takes his place.”
In one quick movement, the abomination jerked forward with its teeth, lashing out like a bird snatching an insect. Its powerful jaw clung to Jakhu’s front left leg and bit down with all its force. Jakhu let out a shriek of pain, then thrusted her claws down on the monster’s shell.
“Grah!” it shouted as it fell to the floor.
Jakhu’s blow may have been powerful enough to free the creature’s grip on her leg, but a massive gash now took its place. Blood flowed through her suit and down onto the floor.
Ikharus carefully set the vial onto the floor, then sprung into action. He exited the quarantine chamber, jumped on top of the closest table and bounded off it, using it as a launching board. He flew and landed atop the monster, knocking it hard into the floor. Ikharus heard the sound of breaking bones and took comfort in the knowledge that all his own limbs still seemed to be intact. The breaks clearly belonged to his victim. He climbed off the squirming monster now, then grabbed its head. He held it still while Jakhu darted forward, fighting through the pain in her leg, and brought her right claw forcefully through the monster’s neck, severing the head.
The body dropped down to the floor as Ikharus held the disconnected head in his grasp.
It was over.
“Kho Vylan!” Jakhu shouted, not even taking a moment to catch her breath now that the enemy was subdued. She leaned over his body and stared at him.
Vylan was unmoving. Ikharus could already determine the guard’s fate from where he stood.
He was dead.
“Kho Vylan was an honorable solider, the finest guard I could have asked for,” Ikharus said, slowly placing his claw on Jakhu’s shoulder, “but there is nothing we can do for him and we haven’t the time to mourn. Kal Jakhu, we must get moving.”
Jakhu slowly rose, knowing that Ikharus was right. She took a second to compose herself, then nodded toward the vial in the quarantine chamber.
“I will secure the package,” she said, jumping back into action as if nothing had occurred. She pushed past Ikharus and retrieved the vial. Then she lifted his scepter from the wall and walked it over to him. “This is for you to wield.”
Ikharus accepted his scepter and nodded back to Jakhu, proud of her determination to see this mission through. It was hard for him not to concentrate on Vylan’s sudden death, but it helped to see Jakhu put it out of mind so effectively.
“Thank you, Kal Jakhu,” he said.
He turned.
Another face suddenly caught him off guard, this one standing in the threshold.
It was Kho Jallah.
Ikharus froze.
“Kho Jallah, what are you doing here?” he asked.
“I heard the mission is starting. The Hive is attacking. Kal Ukhrani told us,” he answered.
“That is affirmative, Kho Jallah, but that still does not answer what you are doing here.”
“I was worried maybe someone might have forgotten the Metamorph,” he explained. “I came to get it in case no one picked it up.” As the young evolved-one spoke, his eyes slowly met the mangled corpses of Saratti and Vylan. His mouth began to open wide as he put it all together.
“Get to the ship,” was all Jakhu said as she moved forward. She walked into the hall, then turned.
Ikharus walked out now and was careful to put his body in between Jallah and the sight of the g
ore that now covered the room. As he exited, he pressed against the evolved-one’s body, urging him forward.
“Here,” Jakhu said, handing Jallah the vial.
“What’s this?” Jallah asked.
“You handled the chemical before, did you not? You were its wielder,” Jakhu said.
“That’s right,” Jallah answered, nodding as he accepted it from her claw.
“Then you shall handle it again. This is your quest, your duty.”
“My… my duty,” Jallah repeated in a tone of shock.
“My Kreed and I, the Supreme Chieftain, we will need all claws free if we are to deliver this weapon to the enemy. Take it. You will handle it better than I.”
The boy gulped and slowly nodded.
“Take heed, evolved-one,” Ikharus said. “The fate of the world depends on you now.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Assault
Mr. Jallah Sane
Jallah nervously held the vial in his trembling grasp as he stood on the hangar’s edge, staring at the view before him. Frigid gusts of wind blew against him, but he did not care. The view was too much to turn away from.
The sky darkened as branches of swirling swarm ships cascaded down from the heavens like a dense fog enveloping the world. Light from the sun quickly dwindled as the swarm turned the world darker and darker with every passing second.
The warships below were beginning to ascend now. The roar of their engines filled the air. Some ships that were already far enough along in the takeoff process had already begun firing their weapons into the sky above, sending rockets, plasma, lasers and countless weapons Jallah could not identify careening upward and taking out massive yet somehow inconsequential numbers of Hive ships in every blast. Even from where he stood so high above the world, Jallah could feel the ground tremble as the Sorrevahni warships took off from their hidden landing sites across the mountain range. Some ships were so covered in snow that Jallah was completely surprised to learn there was even a ship there at all. It was as if Sorrevahni warships popped right up out of the ground, sending avalanches of snow in every direction each time a new ship was born.
Fighters began to deploy from the ascending warships like flocks of birds traveling in formation. The fighter squadrons rose to meet the descending Hive tendrils and blasted away at them, adding to the already abundant firepower that the warships laid out against the enemy.
The sky began to light up now, not because the Hive was beginning to disperse before the sun, but because a billowing curl of fire and explosions traveled ahead of the incoming swarm like foam ahead of a crashing ocean wave.
As the boy watched the enormous ships emerge from the snow one by one, it suddenly hit him how massive this assault force truly was. Sorreveous was sending everything it had. Everything. This was no mere mission. This was something profoundly more pivotal. What had been set in motion could not be reversed and if it failed, there would be no second chance. This was it. They were committed to this one last strike. There was no other choice.
Kreed Scion approached Jallah now, forcing the boy to finally look away from the spellbinding sight before his eyes. He turned to face the Kholvari that surrounded him. He was supposed to have waited by the ship after Ikharus and Jakhu found him snooping by the lab, but he could not bring himself to do it. Something about returning to that ship just did not feel right, like it was the last place he would ever go, like he was walking to his doom. So he decided to take a walk to the edge of the hanger instead, if only for a minute.
“The ship is prepared for launch. It is time,” Ezenkharam said.
Jallah nodded and looked down at the vial in his grasp.
He gulped and took a step toward the ship. Then another. Then another. As he walked, the Kreed turned and walked alongside him. I’m doing this, he thought. I’m really doing this. He felt lightheaded. His heart raced. Calm down, calm down, take a deep breath, he told himself.
Ikharus and Flokh stood at the rear of the ship, along with Margery, Ophelia, Dan and Grey. Unlike him, they had followed directions and stayed with the transport. Each of them, regardless of species, were suited up in advanced astronaut uniforms. The helmets that the other humans wore resembled the same type of helmet Jallah had worn during the lab experiment and the suit itself was black and shiny like the armor worn by the Kholvari soldiers.
The Supreme Chieftain nodded in affirmation to Jallah as he approached, then turned and ascended the ramp. Margery dashed forward and gave Jallah a big, warm hug. Though she had a helmet on, Jallah could imagine the feeling of her tears against his skin.
“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” Jallah said.
“I can’t either. I’m scared,” she admitted.
“I’m scared too,” he said, pulling away. He pointed to her suit and suddenly realized how much his hands trembled. “Are we supposed to wear that?”
“Yeah.”
“Where do I get one of those?” he asked.
“There’s one in the cabin for you,” Grey said, motioning up the ramp, butting in. “The Sorrevahni built them for us. All the studies they’ve done on the Hive show that their ships are full of methane, so that’s likely what we’ll find in the queen’s ship.”
“There is no time to change into it now,” Kozakh added as he ascended the ramp next to Jallah. “You will need to put it on during takeoff.”
“Okay. I can do that,” Jallah said.
He stared at Margery one last time, then turned and walked up the ramp, holding her right hand in his left and the vial in his right.
Now inside the cabin, Jallah found the suit Grey was talking about. It was hoisted up against the far wall with hooks. He let go of Margery’s hand, walked up to it and pulled it down, inspecting the suit. It was heavier than he expected and the surface of it was smooth to the touch.
“How do I put it on with this wool coat?” he asked to anyone who was listening.
“You can’t. You’ll have to get naked,” Dan explained, the last human to enter the ship.
“Naked? In front of all these-?” Jallah stopped in the middle of his sentence. He was about to go into battle against an enemy that no one had been able to defeat. Right now, getting naked did not seem like such a bad thing in hindsight.
He placed the vial on the floor and began to disrobe as the last Kholvari ascended the ramp. Ukhrani pushed past him up to the cockpit and the others took their places around the cabin.
Now naked, Jallah did his best to put everyone else out of mind. He did not look at them, nor think about them and attempted to ignore the icy cold that attacked his skin. He slipped both feet into the heavy black suit, then pulled it up his waist, then did his arms, whose sleeves ended in gloves. It was a lot like the grey jumpsuit he had worn for months, only it encompassed his feet and hands… and was way sleeker.
Margery approached him now and began latching some sort of clamps on the backside of the suit. With each latch, Jallah could feel the suit tighten and stiffen up. When she was done with his back, she moved onto his arms, then his legs, then places he never thought there would be latches; places like his neck, his wrists, his calves. There were latches everywhere!
When at last the suit was tightened up, Margery handed Jallah the helmet and the vial. He accepted both but did not put his helmet on just yet. He smiled back at Margery and she smiled back.
The engine of the ship began to hum now and the ramp in the back slowly rose up. Jallah blinked his eyes, trying to stay focused. He would need to be on top of his game from here on out.
Ikharus moved to the center of the cabin and Margery took a step to the side, giving the Supreme Chieftain some space.
A hush fell over the cabin as the transport slowly rose from the floor of the hangar.
Ikharus cleared his throat.
“My Kholvari, evolved-ones, I praise all who come to join in this fight,” he began. His words were slow and heavy. All ears were devoted to his words in this moment. “There are times whe
n we are called to arms and in those times, should we fail in our duties, there has always been another battle to come. But this is not one of those times. Today we are not merely called to arms, we are forced to take them. And should we fail on this day, there shall be no more battles to come.”
As Ikharus spoke, Jallah could not help but feel like someone was missing from the group. He studied those in the cabin and realized that Vylan was not among them. His breath almost left his body as he recalled the bloody mess behind Ikharus in the laboratory and immediately wondered if it had been Vylan’s corpse. If so, he had so many questions, though he knew now was not the time.
“Our enemy fights with a different passion. As the Hive sees it, this is just another battle, one lost among the long list of battles fought and won. The Hive does not understand what we intend to do today. Our enemy knows not that we seek to destroy them in one coordinated offensive. The drones will fight as if this were just any other battle, and that gives us a distinct advantage. You, I, the Sorrevahni that ascend to the skies, we will fight today with a paroxysm unrivaled and our foe will learn firsthand what it means to challenge the power and might of a world united.”
Ikharus raised his scepter high to the ceiling as the Kholvari around him began to chant cheers of excitement.
“We shall not surrender. We shall not quit. Only death will bring our mission to rest! We are the creatures of Earth and this is our world!”
The Supreme Chieftain’s voice bellowed and echoed across the cabin. Jallah could not help but feel caught up in his inspiring words. For a moment he almost forgot how nervous he was… almost.
Suddenly a blast of white light lit up the world outside the window. The ship had passed through the threshold of the hangar and in seemingly no time at all, an explosion erupted outside, causing the ship to shake.
“Quick! To your seats!” Ezenkharam said, instantly jumping into action.
Jallah found a nearby seat and sat down. Margery sat next to him. They strapped in.
“You should probably put your helmet on now,” she said.
Good idea, he thought. He placed it on his head and tightened the straps so that it was secure. Like last time, it took a few seconds until the flow of oxygen began, but once it did, he took a deep breath and did his best to hold still and not tremble.