Muses of Terra (Codex Antonius Book 2)

by Rob Steiner

“Like you would?”

  “Of course,” Marcus said, “but we can’t. Plus…we’re not sure we’d want to anymore. We’ve developed a certain, oh, respect for you over the years. Perhaps it’s the same love and respect slaves develop for a benevolent master, or the acceptance your species gave us when we first infected your ancestor. Whatever it is, we stand with you now, young Antonius.”

  Juno sneered, looking at Marcus for the first time. “Your strain has become a slave to the mortals, just like the strain on Libertus. Blasphemy! When we retrieve the boy’s body, we will burn you out of him.”

  Marcus bowed. “You are welcome to try, my lady.”

  When he straightened, he had a javelin in his right hand. Cordus had a microsecond to wonder where the javelin came from before Marcus flung it at Juno. The javelin flew straight and true into Juno’s heart. Red blood spurted across her white robes. She gasped, staring first at the javelin and then at Marcus, before she slumped in her throne.

  Jupiter roared. He stood, a fork of blue lightning in his right fist. He cast it at Marcus. Marcus raised his forearm, and a large, red shield emblazoned with the golden eagle of the Republic materialized. The shield deflected the lightning, but the blast sent Marcus flying backward twenty paces. He landed hard and then slid across the smooth marble floor.

  Marcus leaped back to his feet, another javelin in his hand, and he threw it at Jupiter. The god tilted to one side. The javelin missed his chest by a breath, but continued on to slam into Minerva’s stomach, who had stood up from her throne. Her eyes widened as she clutched at the javelin. She fell back against her throne, leaving bloody streaks down the white marble.

  Minerva’s owl shrieked and shot toward Marcus. He now had a gladius in his hand. He stabbed at the bird as it raked at him with its claws and beak. Jupiter flung more lightning at Marcus. This time the lightning struck Marcus’s helm just as he sliced the owl in half. The two halves of the owl fell on the marble with sickening slaps; Marcus’s golden helm clanged to the floor.

  Jupiter threw another lightning fork just as Marcus flung his gladius at him. The gladius stabbed into Jupiter’s thigh, causing the god to roar and fall onto the altar’s steps. The lightning, however, hit Marcus in the chest, incinerating his armor and creating a massive hole. Marcus grunted and fell to his knees.

  The entire battle had taken seconds. Ocella continued lying prostrate on the floor, never moving a muscle during it all. Cordus suddenly found the will and strength to move. He rushed over to Marcus to catch him as he started falling backward.

  Cordus had no idea how Marcus could still live. The hole in his chest was two hands wide and Cordus could see the floor on the other side. The lightning had cauterized the surrounding tissue. Marcus’s heart and most of his lungs was gone.

  But they were not in the mundane world.

  Marcus’s face was pale, his body shaking. A weak smile appeared on his lips. “I think he got me,” he said in halting gasps.

  “What do I do?” Cordus asked. He could feel the Muse whispers weakening as they struggled to live. “How can I save you?”

  “Can’t be saved. No strength…”

  “I can’t do this without you.”

  Marcus laughed weakly. “We just remembered…today is your eighteenth birthday…you’re a man in Liberti eyes now…” Marcus grabbed Cordus’s shirt in a surprisingly steel grip and pulled him closer. “Be the man you were meant to be…young Antonius.”

  Marcus loosened his grip.

  For the first time in Cordus’s life, the Muses in his mind were silent.

  47

  Aquilina tried desperately to unlock the com dish as rapid pulse fire from the bunker behind her slammed into the oncoming alien horde. Gracchus fired from a laying position. The pulse fire ripped the creatures apart, but there were always more to take their place. The wave was slowly getting closer.

  Aquilina pushed her thumb onto the dish’s pad, trying to will her implant to unlock the dish from its magnetic moorings. Nothing happened. She couldn’t focus with all these alien shrieks and that pulse fire.

  This is why I joined the Praetorians and not the Legions! I hate battles!

  Praetorians in the bunker screamed, “Targets behind us!”

  Pulse fire was redirected behind the bunker, and an explosion announced the Praetorians were using grenades.

  Aquilina pressed her thumb to the pad. Open, godsdamn you! “Cac!” she screamed, pressing harder.

  A dark, multi-limbed form leaped at her. She ducked out of the way, but the creature clung to her with tentacles that had fingers on the ends. It quickly wrapped other tentacles around her throat. Her eyes bulged and her tongue flapped as the creature strangled her. She desperately reached for the knife at her belt, drew it, and stabbed at the alien’s bulbous head. A gurgle escaped the alien’s beaked mouth in the center of its body, along with the foul, ammonia-like odor of its breath. It released its tentacles from around her throat and fell to the ground. Aquilina dropped to her knees, gasping for as much air as her lungs could bring in.

  Gracchus had tossed away his pulse rifle and was shooting aliens with his pulse pistol. But the aliens soon swarmed over him before Aquilina could help him. He fell to the ground, buried in tentacles and gray bodies.

  More aliens leaped at Aquilina. She swung at them with her knife, stabbing some, but not enough. Their numbers shoved her onto her back, knocking the remaining air from her lungs. She couldn’t breathe as aliens wrapped their tentacles around her throat once again, while others tied her limbs to keep her from flailing.

  No weapons, she thought as she began to black out. What a strange species…

  Pulse fire erupted in rapid bursts, accompanied by grenades that exploded so close that they deafened Aquilina. The aliens released their grip around her throat and limbs. Once again she gasped for air, but she couldn’t move or hear anything. She simply looked up at the clear sky, marveling at how many stars she could see when the lights of Roma were turned off.

  When was the last time a Roman saw a sky like this?

  She knew her body and mind struggled with oxygen deprivation, yet she still could not muster the will to move or to think clearly.

  Cordus needs me.

  She thought of him strapped in that chair downstairs, wondered suddenly what he was doing in the alien vessel above. If he was still alive.

  Tarquitius’s face appeared above her, as did several other black-helmed Praetorians. He shouted something at her. She blinked, realized she didn’t want this traitorous whoreson giving her any more help than he already had. She gathered her strength and tried to rise on her own. Her hearing slowly came back. Rapid pulse fire continued all around her. Alien bodies and pieces were strewn about the roof.

  To her right, Gracchus lay on his back amidst alien bodies. His glazed eyes stared up at the sky, his tongue hanging from his mouth, his face purple. A groan escaped her throat that she felt more than heard. A sudden memory came to her of the pride on Gracchus’s freckled face when she told him he had earned a place on her team. They were the same age, had been in the same graduating class at the Praetorian—

  “They’re overrunning us,” Tarquitius shouted into Aquilina’s ear, forcing her to stamp down her grief once again. “We need to get below, with or without that dish.”

  Aquilina looked down at the dish, still locked in place. Tarquitius tried to pull her back toward the door that led down to the temple, but she yanked her arm free and bent down. Her brush with death seemed to have cleared her mind, not to mention that most sounds around her were now muted. Her concentration focused sharply on the dish.

  Unlock, she directed to her implant.

  The locking mechanisms suddenly blinked a green color. A metallic chunk came from the dish, loud enough for her to hear. She picked up the dish and examined the small tabulari interface. It was still transmitting. She took two strides toward the door that led down to the com room, but stumbled and fell into a pile of wet alien parts. Disgusted, she tri
ed to stand but was still too stunned. Tarquitius lifted her up by her arms before she could shrug away his hands. She didn’t say anything to him and continued toward the door.

  I need to get to Cordus. He’s all that matters now. My men are dead. My mother is dead. He’s all that matters now…

  The door to the Temple was near the edge of the roof. As Aquilina and the Praetorians approached the door, a wave of aliens suddenly rose up over the edge and skittered toward the humans.

  Without pausing, Praetorians near her opened fire on the horde. Alien bodies disintegrated under the pulse blasts slamming into them at twenty pellets per second. The Praetorians held them off, but more aliens always came from behind and took the place of the dead. Not even the piles of corpses the aliens had to climb over slowed them down.

  Tarquitius screamed into his com. “All available units, to the roof now! I say again, all available units to the roof to protect the Consular Heir!”

  Where are these monsters coming from? She glanced up at the dark sky, the east now indigo with the approach of dawn. And where are the drones?

  She hugged the dish tighter. They want this and they want Cordus. They don’t want to risk destroying the dish or killing him. They want to overwhelm us with numbers rather than weapons.

  “I’m out!” screamed a Praetorian beside her. He flung down his pulse rifle, drew his pistol, and fired single shots at the aliens. More Praetorians ran out of pulse pellets and drew their pistols. The aliens grew closer as they climbed over their dead. All the Praetorians would soon be out of ammunition.

  Tarquitius yelled once again into his com. “Repeat, all available units, report to the roof to protect the Consular Heir!”

  Unless the units were just outside the roof door, they would not arrive in time.

  The roof beneath her feet rumbled, then a loud whooshing sound arose that seemed to suck the breath from her lungs. White lights came from beyond the edge of the roof where the aliens were surging. The lights grew brighter until a spherical ship rose above the lip of the roof. Its landing lights illuminated the entire area and the seething aliens beneath it. Aquilina first thought it was a massive alien drone until she realized what it was a second later.

  “Vacuna,” she breathed.

  “Who in all the hells is that?” Tarquitius screamed above the pulse fire.

  “Our Amesha Spentas,” Aquilina said. The “beneficent immortals” of Persian heathenism come to rescue a band of Romans. She barked a laugh that sounded half-sane to her recovering ears.

  “What?” Tarquitius yelled.

  She didn’t bother to explain and didn’t care if he heard her.

  “They’ll crush us if they get any closer!” he said.

  The ship rose above the roof and hovered thirty feet over their heads. Such close proximity to the ship’s engines made her teeth and skull vibrate. There was no noise from the engines, but their deep hum felt as if they would rattle her body to pieces.

  Then she realized what Vacuna was going to do.

  “Everyone gather beneath the ship!” she screamed. Tarquitius issued orders to the centurion next to him, who passed it along to the others. The surviving Praetorians and Custudii gathered in a tight circle directly beneath the ship.

  Tarquitius screamed into Aquilina’s ear, “Now wha—?”

  A sphere of shimmering blue energy, like the waves off a black road on a hot day, appeared around the ship extending fifty feet from the hull. The sphere ripped through the roof and sliced into the floors below. Aquilina and all the Praetorians stumbled as the roof jolted beneath their feet. The aliens in the path of the shield were sliced in half or had limbs cut off. The aliens outside the shield ran into it, but recoiled when their bodies began burning and smoking. The aliens on the inside still charged at the humans, but they were far fewer in number now. The humans picked them off with their pistols and some used their knives to finish the job.

  The humans and surviving aliens stumbled again as Vacuna slowly rose higher and away from the temple. The roof section beneath Aquilina groaned and shrieked, metal grinding against metal. Cracks appeared in the floor around the humans as the roof shifted from the movement. She struggled to keep her balance and hugged the com dish tight to her chest.

  “Clear!” a Praetorian shouted behind her. More shouts of “Clear!” came from other directions as the human defenders announced that the last of the aliens inside the shield were dead. Now all they had to do was concentrate on not falling through any crevasses in the roof.

  Vacuna flew them toward the temple’s administrative building, a blocky rectangular structure that was connected to the temple via two glass bridges. She looked back at the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Vacuna had taken a semi-spherical chunk out of the building, with parts of the roof, side, and top floor cauterized. Her heart froze a moment when she wondered if Cordus had been scooped up as well, but she remembered the com room was on the other side of the building.

  Aliens still climbed the walls near where they had just escaped; however it seemed their numbers were not endless. Several dozen drones sat on the ground nearby, but she didn’t see any more aliens coming out of them. As she watched, each drone rose into the sky and then shot up into the upper atmosphere toward where she assumed the alien vessel orbited.

  Vacuna descended to the ground car parking lot in front of the administrative building. The lot was surrounded by a stone wall topped with electrically charged fencing that Aquilina prayed still had power. Vacuna gently lowered the roof section to the lot on top of cars already parked there.

  “Hold on!” Aquilina screamed. A moment later Vacuna deactivated its shield. The roof section dropped about a pace with an earsplitting crash. Aquilina and everyone else fell down. The roof teetered, then tilted at a forty-five degree angle. Aquilina slid on her back, head first, down the roof structure toward the ground several dozen paces away, all the while concentrating on holding the com dish to her chest. She ultimately collided with a pile of hard debris and bloody alien bodies. Flailing humans slammed into her at the bottom. She scrambled backward, trying to avoid any more collisions. She leaped to her feet and ran away from the roof section, accompanied by other Praetorians and Custudii.

  After a few dozen paces, she stopped and checked the com dish. Miraculously, its small tabulari monitor indicated it still transmitted normally.

  She turned back to the wreckage. Black-armored humans stumbled away from the roof debris. Aquilina did not see any human bodies among the aliens. The deep, teeth-shaking hum of Vacuna’s engines drew her attention behind her. The ship landed in a clear spot towards the end of the parking lot a hundred paces away. Aquilina jogged toward the ship and arrived just as one of its door ramps descended. Dariya and Daryush walked down the ramp. Daryush stared wide-eyed at the roof section, while Dariya scanned the black-armored humans near the roof debris.

  Before Aquilina could say anything, Dariya asked, “Where is Cordus? The Praetorian bands said he was on the roof.”

  “He’s still in the Temple and still in danger,” Aquilina said. “You coming with us?”

  She put a hand on the pulse pistol holstered at her hip. “Well we did not come back to save you.”

  “Understood. Thanks anyway.”

  As the three jogged toward the gathering Praetorians and Custudii, Dariya laughed. Aquilina glanced at the Persian woman. Dariya nodded toward the semi-spherical gouge in the temple roof. “I suppose it was not a complete waste of time. Ahura Mazda will be most pleased with me.”

  Despite all that had happened, Aquilina wanted to laugh, too. But the laughter died on her lips when she saw another wave of drones streak over the temple and land in the same place the empty drones had just left. Dariya saw it, too. They shared a determined look, and then all three sprinted for the temple entrance near the administrative building.

  48

  Aquilina, Dariya, and Daryush arrived at the back entrance to the temple next to where it was attached to the administrative buildin
g. Tarquitius and the rest of his men arrived at about the same time. He came to a stop near Aquilina and Dariya, his chest heaving from the run.

  “I thank you for saving our lives,” Tarquitius said to Dariya and Daryush. “But you will need to answer for destroying the Republic’s greatest religious relic.”

  Dariya looked at Aquilina. “Is he serious?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  She studied the ancient, ornately carved doors, and then spotted the discrete control pad on the left. She flipped open the bronze cover and placed her palm on the control pad. Nothing happened.

  “The temple is locked down,” Tarquitius said. “No one can get in or out.”

  “And those things are coming this way,” Dariya said, staring behind them.

  Aquilina turned to the parking lot wall. The breaking dawn illuminated it well enough for her to see aliens climbing over. Sparks and smoke erupted when the fence at the top electrocuted those who touched it. But the alien corpses simply draped over the fence, allowing other aliens to climb over them and leap down to the ground.

  “We could go through the administrative building,” a Praetorian centurion suggested.

  “By the time we go through all the hallways and locked doors, the aliens will have Cordus. This is the most direct route. Tarquitius, you try the control pa—”

  Dariya gave an exasperated grunt and fired her pulse pistol at the door handles. The handles exploded into cinders and smoke, and a gaping hole appeared where the locking mechanisms once existed. She pulled the doors open and glared at the Romans. “Are we going,” she said, “or will you arrest me for destroying more relics?”

  Aquilina nodded to Dariya, then charged through the doors. She still clutched the dish with both arms, checking it every now and then to make sure it still transmitted. As far as she could tell, it did.

  The white-columned hallway emptied into the temple’s main, circular altar chamber. Aquilina skidded to a stop in shock. The temple’s backup generators still functioned; the lights in the high roof above illuminated hundreds of people standing, sitting, or laying prostrate on the floor around the altar. Black-robed flamens led them in prayers. Holo-monitors on the walls surrounding the main altar area displayed either the flamens or the text of the prayers they were chanting. The people seemed be a mixture of commonly dressed plebeians, senators in white togas, and well-groomed patricians; though it was hard to tell who was who since the clothes of all were torn, dirty, bloody, and burned. Mothers and fathers tried to comfort crying children. Most heartbreaking of all were the blank-faced children who sat alone without parents to console them, all the crying ripped out of them by the horrors they had witnessed.