by James Somers
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?"
&n
bsp; "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 they 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."
"Burn, baby, burn," said Millo under his breath as he continued to direct the Saberhawk away from the vessel. Everyone was tense.
"I'm still not sure what's attacking them," said Orin.
Tiet and Dorian exchanged concerned glances but remained silent, trying to listen to Orin and Millo as they contemplated this surprising find. As the computer continued to pull data from the vessel, something else appeared on the display.
"I'm not sure what these things are… some sort of spheres… approximately thirty feet in diameter. They're completely mechanical. There's quite a number surrounding the hull of the Vorn vessel and some on the inside."
Orin continued his scans monitoring the Vorn ship's engine systems. "Its reactor core has been breeched. It's going to blow!"
The large Vorn ship was running hard for the Transdimensional Rift. The sheering forces from the void were peeling pieces away from the crippled vessel as it began to enter the darkness with its entourage of attackers in tow. Just as the front half of the ship sank into the void, it erupted into a white hot ball of flame, quickly fading as all gases and chemicals combusted away. Multiple shockwaves surged away from the rift, causing the Saberhawk to be tossed like a toy upon the waves of energy.
Dorian shouted, "What's happening?!"
"I think the explosion of the Vorn ship has triggered a reaction in the rift!" shouted Orin as Millo fought hard to bring the Saberhawk back under control.
"I should do a sensor sweep of the quadrant and see where other Vorn ships are and what those things were that destroyed that ship. Maybe we have an ally on this side."
"Well, whatever they are they don't like the Vorn," said Tiet.
The data on Orin's display began to be replaced by other information.
"There is a planet nearby," said Orin. "It's habitable. The readings look identical to Castai. I'm showing some other activity in the near vicinity. It looks like more Vorn battle cruisers near the planet and an orbiting station of immense size. This planet could be their home. I'm picking up a large amount of random energy fluctuations; it looks like another large explosion of a vessel similar to the one that almost hit us. Take us toward the planet so we can get a better look at what's happening."
"It looks like someone is doing all the fighting for us," said Tiet.
"Weapons and shields are all charged and ready. We're going in," said Millo as he brought the Saberhawk about on course for the nearby planet. The Saberhawk was a fast ship; the distance at full speed would be about twenty minutes.
As they drew near, Orin worked to get a visual of the battle taking place ahead. A tactical map replaced part of the information on the display. Markers representing various sizes of Vorn space vessels moved about on the screen as faster moving dots representing the mechanical spheres intermingled with them. Another large vessel disappeared from the map along with two smaller Vorn ships that had been near it.
"Those things are slaughtering the Vorn fleet," said Tiet.
"It's about time someone gave it to them," replied Millo.
Orin continued to focus on the tactical data coming across his monitor. Just because these mysterious spheres were decimating the Vorn ships did not necessarily mean they were allies. The tactical map was still tracking all the engaged vessels, but the Vorn spaceship signatures were rapidly disappearing from the display. Each time a vessel exploded, approximately twenty spheres were destroyed with it. The objects were clearly running suicide missions, and quite effectively. But why?
"What are we going to do when we reach the battle, Orin?"
"I'm not sure, but at current speed there won't be many Vorn ships left when we arrive."
Orin recalibrated the scanners to bring up a more accurate visual on the display. After a few adjustments a visual appeared showing two remaining Vorn vessels with spheres swarming about them. Explosions were erupting at various places along their massive hulls as the spheres strafed the lengths of each vessel with powerful energy weapons.
The individual spheres moved in concert and soon the last two ships were braking apart on the Saberhawk's display. Even watching the Vorn being soundly defeated could not erase the feeling of imminent danger.
The spheres were too deadly for the Saberhawk crew to be happy about the victory; and what if they turned on their ship next? There seemed little chance of surviving such an attack if the entire Vorn fleet of space cruisers could not. So far the massive Vorn space station was left unharmed. Orin's computer showed some one hundred thousand people were aboard it.
"I wonder why they didn't attack that space station?" aske
d Tiet.
Before the last syllable escaped his lips, a massive beam of energy emanating from some point beyond the planet, smashed into the Vorn space station, knocking out its shields and further vaporizing one quarter of its surface area.
"Where did that come from?!" shouted Millo.
"I don't know. There's nothing on the scanners…just empty space."
Within moments, another powerful burst slammed into the station. Without shields to buffer the blow, the structure shattered like a window pane. Several large sections of debris quickly began to fall toward the planet; dragging through the atmosphere as white hot material vapor trailed away during its descent.
"That's an unbelievable amount of power coming from somewhere," said Tiet.
No longer content to stay in his chair, he joined Orin at the systems control station, with Dorian close behind.
"Millo, I think the planet would provide us with at least some protection; better than just sitting out here."
"I'm all for that. Setting course and speed."
The Saberhawk veered away from their course and headed toward the planet, hoping to avoid whatever predator was lurking nearby and find further information about what was really happening on this side of the rift.
VALE was unable to discern the trouble that was occurring around the ship. Wedged inside the landing skid housing, the android had no view of the surroundings. Except for vibrations given off through the hull of the Saberhawk, and some flashes of light, all was quiet in space. It was time to break into the ship and acquire his target again. He did not have proper schematics for the vessel. But he was within the shield perimeter of the ship, and any weak place in the hull would suffice for an entry point.
Using the hypermagnetic discs in his appendages, the android climbed out of the skid housing and began to cross the surface of the ship. As he came across the top of the Saberhawk, Vale spotted a docking hatch. He crawled toward it, paying little attention to the nearby planet they were approaching. The android located the emergency panel and peeled it away effortlessly to reveal the keypad underneath. He applied his hand to the pad and sensors beneath his pseudo flesh began to scan the internal controls. Within moments his processors had decoded the lock and applied the code.