by Unknown
“Readings show the rift to be fully open and safe for passage.�
Millo nodded and adjusted his flight path to carry them through the ominous black void near the center of the multicolored gaseous cloud that surrounded the rift.
Dorian wondered if she would ever see her brother or her people again. And would Estall be able to defeat the remaining Vorn on the planet? She had confidence that he would—more confidence than she had in their own ability to successfully defeat the Vorn fleet waiting on the other side of the rift. Suddenly she longed for Castillian soil under her feet again.
She looked at Tiet in the chair next to her. He was looking at the rift and the data on the viewer. He was handsome and brave and powerful, and yet behind his eyes she could see a child who had lost everything dear to him, but could still smile and have hope in the future. Was it gullibility or just innocence, and did it really matter?
As a child she had wondered about the little boy in the archive photos; the son of the king to that once great people. He was so happy in the images she had seen in her studies and she had often thought that were he still alive, they would have been the same age and could have played games together.
In her adolescence the small boy in the images had become the young man who defeated the Vorn enemies in her dreams and swept her away from the harsh reality of her life. And now, here he was; very much alive and only inches from her.
It did not matter if they returned now. She knew that here beside him was the only place she really wanted to be. She wiped an escaping tear as Tiet looked at her with the same childlike smile. She returned it and they looked back toward the approaching blackness of the rift.
DARKNESS was beginning to fall as Estall’s formation of transports swept across the wasteland toward the capital city. Approaching from the east was a violent-looking weather system that they hoped would not intercept them before they could reach the city.
He had sent nearly half of the forces ahead at full speed while his group continued on at half that pace. If the other group of transports could swing wide of the city and get around undetected then they might just be able to encircle it during their final approach. Ranul was hunkered down in the open cockpit of Estall’s transport as the wind whipped at them from different directions caused by the approaching storm.
He had seen many violent fluctuations in Castai’s weather and had studied many files from the past events. He understood all too well the reason for Castillians building the majority of their cities underground in the centuries following the appearance of the rift.
He knew that once Estall’s forces came within ten miles of the Vorn facility, even these small craft would be detected by their defense systems. The Vorn long-range phase cannons could be employed at up to seven miles, but if the transports remained scattered enough perhaps the Vorn would have difficulty hitting them.
The Aolene were a brave people. They had faced the adversity of Vorn attacks on their cities and survived to become an even stronger people through the study of the Barudii fighting arts. Though they lacked the kinetic abilities of the Barudii, the Aolene certainly reminded him of those long dead warriors in spirit. As they steadily approached the Capital, he hoped he would not witness the loss of another brave people today.
The_Chronicl-ir_to_the_King
IV
GOVERNOR Kisch k’ta looked very worried now. This was exactly the kind of situation he had been hoping to avoid by sending out the android assassin. His confidence in its ability may have been premature.
“Are you sure?�
“Yes Governor. The city’s perimeter defense systems just picked up these forces ten minutes ago. They appear to have originated from one of the old Barudii cities. They’ll be within nine miles by now.�
“Activate the defensive batteries at once. Destroy them all,� demanded Kisch k’ta.
Setaru’ lek pressed the intercom button on the Governor’s desk and patched into the city’s defensive control room.
“Vescotta, lock on approaching targets and fire at will.�
“Yes, Sir.�
Defensive laser cannons on the west side of the city came alive as the gunners worked to lock on the approaching vehicles. They were still out of visual range to the naked eye, but were quite visible to the Vorn scanners.
“Sir, the vehicles are widely dispersed and too small to get a positive lock while they are moving at this speed.�
“Tell the turrets to strafe across their flight path. That should take out some of them,� said Vescotta.
The large laser cannons expelled their massive firepower with great moans of energy buildup and release. The beams trailed away from the city and into the twilight, toward their distant targets.
RANUL caught what he thought was heat lightening in his peripheral vision just as a massive beam of energy lit up the terrain ahead of their transport group. The beam rapidly cut a horizontal track across their path, catching two transports along the way. They burst into fiery fragments as inertia carried them onward, distributing the burning wreckage along their previous flight paths.
The transport group scattered even further apart as more laser fire blasted at them from the city in the distance. The pilots began making very erratic maneuvers to try and evade the assault. Estall grabbed the communication hand set and yelled into the mike. “Increase speed to full throttle! Evasive maneuvers!�
The entire transport group geared up to full throttle, making them even harder to hit. They were still three miles outside of the Capital, and closing fast.
A beam of energy blazed near Estall’s transport, cutting across their flight path just after they passed. Too close, and suddenly Ranul realized why he liked being a scientist rather than a warrior. The city perimeter was coming up fast now. Estall and the others in the transport prepared their firearms for battle. It appeared most of the ships had made it through the gauntlet and were now too close to be targeted by the large cannons, which suddenly fell silent.
Another barrage of fire began to sweep across the distance between their transports and the Vorn facility. But now it came from the hundreds of sentinel robots around the facility’s perimeter that were firing upon them.
Pulse laser blasts began to ring out from the transports as they returned the enemy fire. The shots were impacting the forward deflectors as Estall pushed on through the line of sentinels with their ship. The deflector shield bounced the robots out of their way as they rammed their way through. The warriors activated their electromagnetic shields and hurried out of the transports, firing their pulse weapons at the sentinels.
The robots were taking multiple hits, but weren’t being stopped. The sentinels’ armaments were too much for handheld pulse rifles to be effective against them. As the robots approached, their own guns still blazing, the Aolene warriors began to secure their rifles in favor of the Barudii blades and kemsticks. More and more warriors ignited their blades and, putting shields ahead, they moved into the oncoming sentinels.
The E.M. shields gave them cover as they closed the distance needed to strike. The Barudii blades sliced through the sentinel armor like butter. Robot after robot was dispatched by the powerful blows of the Aolene warriors. The sentinels appeared helpless to stop the Aolene advance as robots were cut down by their human foes.
Estall shouted for the other warriors as several hundred came against the cloning facility’s wall. Using handheld grapples; they fired them over the perimeter of the roof and quickly began to scale the walls. Ranul didn’t like this part one bit. He detested heights. And he didn’t enjoy being pulled up the height of this wall any more than he had being pushed off by Orin the night before. When the warriors all reached the roof, they quickly moved across to various ventilation shafts and sliced open the vent heads, allowing them to enter. Estall instructed them to fan out through
the facility and take the main control room.
“Whoever gets to it first, contact me.�
Ranul stayed glued to him as they all plunged into the dark maze of tunnels comprising the facility’s ventilation system.
“GOVERNOR, the facility has been breeched by enemy forces,� said Setaru’ lek. “They have bypassed our ground forces at the building entrances and are moving through the ventilation system. Several floors are reporting gunfire and others are not communicating at all.�
“Get more forces up here at once!�
Behind the room’s ventilation screen, Estall, Ranul, and several warriors listened.
“That’s him,� whispered Ranul. “That’s Governor Kisch k’ta. If you can take him, you’ll control the entire facility.�
Estall ran at the vent screen and crashed through it, rolling into the room. The other warriors followed, as several sentinels came to life, firing upon them. Their E.M. shields repelled the laser blasts while they engaged the robots with ignited blades.
The Governor and Setaru’ lek, along with several other Vorn were all crouched on the ground in fear. The Governor’s office door slid open allowing several Horva guards to move inside. Like sleek predators, they leapt at the Aolene warriors, attacking furiously. One of the Aolene near the entrance was caught from behind by one of the clones as it plunged a knife into his throat. The wounds were fast and fatal; and the dark skinned clone kept moving.
Ranul blasted at the Horva with several bursts of pulse laser fire from his crouched position just inside the vent shaft, dropping the clone, then he turned to face two other Horva that were already making their approach.
The Horva swiped its dagger at him as he brought his ignited blade up to defend himself, causing the brute man to sever his own hand upon Estall’s weapon. As the Horva recoiled in pain, Estall followed through with a quick thrust through its chest to dispatch the clone. As the last Horva lunged at the third warrior, Vasad, it met a spicor disc in flight, which vaporized the majority of its body. Ranul leveled his pulse rifle on Governor Kisch k’ta.
“Hello Governor…surprised to see me?�
“I should have fed you and your family to the Horva long ago, Ranul.�
“Governor Kisch k’ta, you will broadcast to your other forces to stand down immediately or you and your people here will suffer and then you will all be executed for crimes against my people,� said Estall.
“You would torture us?� asked Setaru’ lek.
“Exactly as you tortured my wife, you filth,� responded Ranul.
“You have killed millions of our people and sent our children away to be massacred by your clones. There must be some retribution for their deaths,� said Estall.
“I will order them to stand down, but it will do you no good. When our reinforcements come through the rift, you and your rebels will be made to suffer.�
“Where is my wife, Governor?� asked Ranul.
“I don’t know.�
“Come on, you can do better than that,� said Estall.
“I tell you, I don’t know. She was taken as a prisoner across the rift months ago after you agreed to build the android prototype for us.�
“Then I’ll find it in your data files,� said Ranul.
He made his way to the closest computer terminal and input his translator code to allow him to read the Vorn transmissions. The display changed from the Vorn language to his Castillian, but access to the information he wanted was denied. He turned back to the Governor. “The code, Kisch k’ta. Now!�
The Governor remained sternly silent, until Estall raised his blade and extinguished the dispersion field; he brought the tip to rest against Kisch k’ta’s throat.
“Governor, the code.�
Kisch k’ta swallowed hard then grumbled the voice code in his native language. The computer responded, allowing Ranul to begin moving through the Vorn database.
“Now send the stand down order and have your people report to the main hangar of this facility,� said Estall.
Kisch k’ta looked at Setaru’ lek who normally would have protested at the idea of Vorn surrendering under any circumstances, but he now appeared to be in no hurry to sacrifice his own life. The Governor tapped into the communications display on his desk panel, opening a channel to his ground forces commander. He issued the command in his own language, and then received a puzzled but compliant reply.
“Now what?� asked Setaru’ lek.
“Vasad,� said Estall, “take the governor’s aides with you and go to the hangar bay. Have the others meet you there with their captives and wait for these other Vorn to arrive and hold them there in the hangar.�
Vasad motioned with his pulse rifle to Setaru’ lek and Kisch k’ta’s other aides to come with him. He looked back at the Governor, who offered no alternative, then proceeded out the door with the others and Vasad behind them.
“Estall, I’ve ordered the sentinels to stand down,� said Ranul, “but you need to look at this.�
He put his display onto the larger main viewer for the room. A picture of the Vorn’s scanner readouts and log entries appeared on the screen.
“It looks like they’ve been tracking the Saberhawk since it left the atmosphere. They appear to be on approach to enter the Transdimensional Rift. Look—all of this has been sent as a continuous transmission to the fleet on the other side, but there hasn’t been any reply, even on this closed channel.�
“Maybe they’re maintaining silence to try and surprise our ship when it comes through.�
“It doesn’t seem likely; the last transmission from across the rift appears to have been a week ago and nothing at all since. Why haven’t your forces been responding, Governor? Your transmission log shows repeated attempts with no reply. Why?�
“If I knew, then we wouldn’t be continuing to try and gain a response, would we?�
“There’s a reference here in some of their last responses to the Sphere, and no sign of the Sphere. What does that mean, no sign of the Sphere, Governor?�
Ranul could see something foreboding in the Governor’s eyes, though he answered not a word.
“Search the database for the term.�
Ranul keyed the reference into the computer and immediately a massive file with numerous subsections appeared on the screen. He began to scan through the data very quickly, trying to make sense of it. The more he read, the more he understood the Governor’s odd look of dread. Suddenly he had a disturbing realization come to him.
“You’ve been running! That’s why you came here. To get away from this thing! Isn’t it?!�
He was yelling at the Governor, who remained silent as the new images ran on the main display.
“I don’t understand,� said Estall, still trying to grasp what all the information was revealing to Ranul.
“A lot more is going on here than we thought.�
THE Saberhawk was beginning to vibrate more and more as it approached the rift. The dark center was ominous, like some terrible beast wanting to swallow the ship whole. Nothing could be seen beyond. Even their sensor scans revealed nothing about what lay on the other side. No one spoke. All eyes were on the approaching void.
Orin continued to watch the instrument readouts, looking for any information about what lay beyond the blackness. He noticed that all light was being repelled by the void along with all sensor scans. Somehow the Vorn had been able to keep communication across the rift, even when it had been in collapse phase, but he wasn’t sure what technology th
ey had employed. The ship was shaking significantly, and Millo had to work to keep it on course.
“I think the void is trying to repel the ship just like it repels energy waves,� said Orin.
“I’ll increase thrust to try and compensate.�
The Saberhawk lurched forward as they struggled against the forces of the Transdimensional Rift. As they began to enter the void, the turbulence suddenly ceased and all the gauges and dials on the instrument panel suddenly went black.
Only the light from their display was visible as the void engulfed them. The ship seemed to surge forward faster, even though thruster speed remained constant. When the Saberhawk emerged on the other side, the scene looked like they had gone back the way they had come; like they were in Castillian space once again.
A blazing behemoth of a space vessel under attack quickly changed their perception. It was headed right for them as the Saberhawk emerged from the rift. The vessel appeared to be a huge Vorn craft, much larger than those currently stationed at Castai. This one was easily a hundred times the size of the Saberhawk.
Multiple explosions and streams of fast burning oxygen and other gases and chemicals were trailing at different points on the ship’s surface. Millo took immediate evasive maneuvers to get away from the vessel as it closed on them at a frightening speed. A burst of main thrusters bore them hard to port, away from the damaged ship as it continued on by without acknowledging them; driving hard for the rift.
Orin began scans of the ship, trying to find out what was going on. Life form readings began to appear along with various discernable statuses on the vessel’s current hull integrity and power systems.
“That thing is breaking up!� said Orin. “It’s carrying human life signatures only; approximately ten thousand. Some appear to be variants of the other; probably Horva.�