by James Somers
Millo held the controls of the Saberhawk, as the firestorm swept across the bridge. Several shots pierced his flight chair and his body. He arched at the pain as he slumped forward over the controls and his life drained away from him.
The ship lurched upward and back, causing Vale to stumble a moment. As he brought the blaster back to bear on Dorian, it met her blade in flight; slicing through both the weapon and the android's hand. Without any notion of pain, Vale brought his own blade down upon Dorian's shoulder, only to find her blade barring the way. With Millo slumped over the controls and many of the flight controls destroyed by laser fire, the Saberhawk began backwards from its course, descending clumsily toward the battlefield.
TIET could see the Saberhawk under fire from the battlefield and the sky; and still it was driving hard away from the fight. Soon she would be safe, and away from the danger. In his heart he urged the ship on to escape with his love safe inside. He and Orin had been separated by a small distance, and were furiously taking down Horva after Horva.
These were men, not like the brutish wild beasts back home on Castai. They had a definite measure of intelligence about them that could be seen just in their fighting techniques. But still, they were no match for the skills of Barudii warriors and their kinetic powers.
Neither Orin nor Tiet had made any attempt to fight against the sphere robots, since they were only built to attack the Vorn. The Sphere's fight was their fight. The Saberhawk was still some two hundred yards away as it trailed low over the battlefield to get away.
The entire valley before Mt. Vaseer was ablaze with laser fire, and overhead a multitude of aerial combatants were tearing each other out of the sky. Wreckage was dropping onto the battlefield at regular intervals as the sphere drones and the Vorn attack fighters exchanged blows.
A Horva warrior strafed at Tiet with its pulse rifle. He deflected several blasts with kemsticks as he whirled them about his body and then he let one go toward his attacker. It caught the Horva's gun as it proceeded on to swipe across his chest and cut him down. The ignited kemstick rebounded back to Tiet's waiting hand in time to parry an incoming battle staff in the hands of another Horva. His second kemstick dispatched the opponent quickly with a straight thrust to the chest.
Orin too, was fairing well in the battle; evading laser fire through the use of his kinesis and tearing down multiple opponents with his blade. Tiet kept a visual on the ship. Its path was leading it off the battlefield to the east and he was glad Millo was getting them out.
Suddenly the ship slowed, arching nose up and coming back around from its former course. Something was wrong. Tiet's heart dropped in his chest as he noticed pulse laser fire flashing repeatedly from the bridge windows. "No!!"
The ship fell back from its escape run and began clumsily descending into the battlefield. If they didn't recover quickly they were going to crash for sure, and Tiet was too far away to do anything to help them. Several men approached to attack from multiple angles. Tiet repelled them all with a three hundred and sixty degree kinetic blast; sending them backward with crushing force.
He reached out in desperation with his kinesis to seize the ship and keep it aloft, but the Saberhawk's engines were fighting to drive it downward into the valley floor. Another Horva approached unnoticed from behind. His heart seized violently just before he could bring his battle staff down on Tiet. Orin watched him drop to the ground as he released him from his own mental grip from fifty yards away. He could see Tiet fixed upon the descending Saberhawk, trying to hold it up, but to no avail. There was simply no time to stop it.
The ship slammed into the valley floor, crushing several of the sphere robots and dozens of Horva warriors caught in its path. The Saberhawk burst into several large pieces as it tumbled over twice.
Tiet felt all strength leave his body at the thought of Dorian going down to her death in that fireball.
Then the conviction that she wasn't dead gripped him and he burst away from his position with blazing speed. Tiet was moving swiftly through engaged combatants and making only the slightest effort to dispatch anyone who turned to engage him while on his way. Quickly he closed the distance between himself and the wreckage. He wasn't sure why, but he knew that Dorian was not dead. He began to sense her location in the wreckage as he drew nearer; he sensed great pain.
Suddenly from the wreckage before him, a familiar adversary emerged with the majority of its synthetic skin burned away. It was the android again. This thing was responsible for the wreck. It had hurt her. Before the robot even spotted him, Tiet hit it with a kinetic burst fueled by pure rage that sent it flying against a large section of the Saberhawk's hull. Before the android could recover, he pinned its head to the wreckage with his father's blade. Its body jerked with mechanical aftershocks and moved no more.
Tiet backed away and quickly found Dorian pinned underneath a metal support pillar. He waved it off of her with his mind and was at her side. Dorian was barely conscious when she looked at him. She tried to speak, but did not have the strength.
Tiet could not find words, as tears welled up and escaped down his anguished face. He held her hand, and could feel it grow cold as life began to leave her. Dorian reached to touch the donjarr on Tiet's wrist, and then she touched his lips. Her fingertips lingered there only a moment as her body went limp and her gaze became void of life. Tiet's mind was racing without any coherent thoughts. He was completely numb in his senses. His love was dead before him. Sorrow filled his mind and despair gripped his heart.
He could still hear the battle raging around him, then something else, like heavy footsteps running across the wreckage; too heavy for a man. He looked back to find the android still lifeless and pinned to the hull by his father's sword. Then he looked toward the approaching sound to see another android coming at him with its own blade ready to strike. Without hesitation he reached for his imbedded blade, which obediently dislodged itself and leapt to his hand in time to meet the android's strike.
He wondered only a moment at how there seemed to be quite a few of these things. But the fight was on. Tiet slashed furiously at the deadly android, finding every strike countered. He was completely enraged, as the thought of Dorian lying here dead on this battlefield tore through his mind. He screamed out in fury at the robot. "Die!!"
His rage burst forth as a wave of psychokinetic energy that hit the third android with astonishing force; sending it flying through the air into a pile of the Saberhawk's wreckage. Tiet had never felt so powerful. His power was being fueled by his rage over Dorian's death and he could not contain it. The Vale android regained its composure and headed for him again. He lowered his father's blade to his side and let the kinetic power flow freely.
The Vale robot was coming closer with its own blade ready to strike. Suddenly the Barudii blade it carried extinguished itself.
The puzzled android stopped for a moment, trying to re-ignite the weapon's dispersion field. Tiet looked on with grim satisfaction, knowing he had just crushed the crystal in the hilt of the sword with his thoughts. He summoned the wreckage around him to attack the robot.
Large, man-sized pieces of the debris flew off the ground toward Vale; striking the robot repeatedly. The jagged hunks of metal tore away the android's veneer of humanity, exposing the adomen skeleton beneath. The projectiles pummeled the robot again and again, tearing off an arm and parts of its torso.
Tiet scowled at his prey as he launched the mental attack but nothing could dull the pain of losing her. He quickly tired of the game and sent his father's blade spinning toward the robot. The blade pierced its adomen skull and stopped when the hilt impacted its metal cranium. The android fell over as dead as a mechanical could be and did not move again. The battle still raged on around Tiet, as he knelt down near Dorian's body and sobbed.
VI
MALEC surveyed his monitors again to be sure. It was unwise to give the General premature information. He was a great leader, but not a patient man. "General, the weapons are fully cha
rged, sir, and we have locked onto the orbital location of the giant Barudii Sphere," said Malec.
But the General did not acknowledge his words at all. He was watching something taking place on the battlefield that he had not expected to see.
"Sir?"
"Yes, Malec, I heard you," said Grod.
"Shall I order the weapons to fire General? "
"Wait just a moment."
"But sir, the window of opportunity is closing fast. Our junk satellites will drift beyond the Sphere's location if we don't act now," said Malec with more urgency.
General Grod was focused on the scene playing out before him on the battlefield.
"General?"
"Yes, Malec, order the weapons to be fired. Malec, do you see that person down there near the wreckage of that ship?" he asked as he handed him the binocs. "Malec, I believe that is another Barudii warrior."
"Sir? But they have been…"
"I know that, but nevertheless…he possesses the Barudii psycho kinesis. Fire the weapons now Malec; afterward I want that man in our custody."
"Yes sir. It will be done"
General Grod was a dignified, dark-skinned man, a clone of the first generation Horva; a former slave of the Vorn. He raised a long range rifle and brought the scope to bear on Tiet; still kneeling in the wreckage of the Saberhawk next to Dorian. He was holding her body.
Grod aimed his weapon and fired a single shot at the Barudii warrior from the Horva's command base atop the ridge above the valley. Tiet tried to lift Dorian's body; to get her away from the battle. Something flashed around him and he could not move. All his strength was gone in a split second, followed by his consciousness.
MALEC activated the special electromagnetic pulse weapons in orbit. The weapons were well within range of the Barudii Sphere, drifting into it and magnetically attaching as the Sphere controlled its forces on the planet below. The weapons were hidden within old junked satellites. When the devices had attached themselves, they relayed a signal to the elite Horva command base.
The Sphere, busy with the surface battle, was not alerted to their presence as they impacted its surface as any space junk would; it appeared to sense no threat in the objects. Malec fired the weapons and an instant later an electromagnetic pulse enveloped the Barudii Sphere, frying its circuitry in a devastating wave of energy.
The Sphere never saw it coming. All power failed and the control of its forces ceased. On the battlefield, the Sphere drones and the mechs became confused and weren't able to fight. The air drones flew off course and began to crash into the battlefield.
Orin was still engaged with the Horva, taking on as many as he could, when he noticed the change in the robot warriors and air drones. The Horva were cutting down the mech-robots with massive firepower that was not being returned, and the air drones were crashing all around him.
They were smashing Horva into the dirt in great swathes as they fell out of the sky. Orin ran for the cover of the surrounding ridges. The battlefield had suddenly turned into pure chaos; he only hoped that Tiet had found cover.
A drone smashed into a group of Horva near Orin, and the blast from the impact sent wreckage flying in every direction, cutting down men and showering a mound of dirt and metal on top of him. He was unconscious and half buried in dirt and wreckage.
The carnage was over very quickly and the battlefield quieted down as the men who remained alive began to reorganize and look to the wounded. The badly injured were dispatched on the spot, and it was not seen as cruel to the Horva since they viewed such a state as a burden. Those able to carry their own weight were able to rejoin ranks. Grod smiled at the outcome of his plan.
"Well done, Malec. Now I will have you fetch my Barudii prize and return him to the laboratory complex at Nagon-Toth."
"Yes, Sir. General we're also picking up a massive object skimming the atmosphere."
"Very good."
The giant Barudii Sphere could be seen to the west. Fire trailed away as the atmosphere burned away most of its mass. The remaining charred wreckage would eventually drop into the Waron Sea to the northeast, approximately one hundred and twenty miles from the battlefield at Mount Vaseer.
Malec led the armed group to the wreckage of the Saberhawk and gathered up the unconscious Barudii warrior Grod had brought down with a stun blast. Dorian was still in his arms when they found him unconscious.
The Horva pulled the female body away from him, and then they bound and fastened the unconscious warrior within a shielded capsule for transport to the heavily fortified complex at Nagon-Toth. The general was already rallying the remaining Horva troops to move onto the complex where they would be regrouping with others to execute the General's next objectives against the Vorn. The Horva troops moved quickly to the northeast, following the General who led them upon his grevasaur.
By the time Orin had regained consciousness, the battlefield appeared barren of living combatants. The carrion birds and animals tended to the rest. It was earlier in the day than it had been during the battle, letting him know that he had been there at least overnight. A large piece of drone wreckage had landed across his body but had apparently been buffered by a significant mound of dirt carried in the impact of the aerial robot. He felt the weight, but no pain from broken bones or gashes in his skin. He was still buried up to his chest in the dirt with the wreckage overlaying it.
He moved the large piece of metal with his mind, sending it flying off away from him about fifteen feet. Then he mentally pushed the heavy dirt off as well, and inspected his mid and lower body for signs of injury. Other than a possible concussion, he appeared to be fine. He regained a standing position and scanned the valley floor. He found the wreckage of the Saberhawk and headed off for it.
The whole valley was littered with debris from crushed drones and aerial fighters. The remains of Horva also covered the landscape. Wild animals growled at him as he passed through the area; they guarded a smorgasbord. The sky was filled with birds. They swooped down onto the battlefield to collect their portion and fly away again. They scattered as he ran toward the wreckage.
He could hear screams coming from different places where wounded but living men were being attacked by ravenous beasts, and he thought them fitting for the enemies of his people, the destroyers of his race.
When he finally reached the remains of the Saberhawk, it was still on fire in a few small places and smoldering across most of the main body section. He found Dorian's body, but there was no sign of Tiet. Something must have happened. He would not have left her body exposed to the elements and wild beasts.
A closer look at the area revealed another surprise. There were two more androids among the wreckage that apparently had been destroyed by Tiet. He went to one that lay on the ground with Tiet's blade still imbedded into its skull up to the hilt.
He withdrew the sword, allowing the robot's head to fall to the ground and placed it into the sheath next to his own sword. Looking back to the ground around Dorian's body, Orin could see what appeared to be several sets of Horva tracks. There were no dead Horva lying in the near vicinity.
Tiet would not have been consciously engaged by these brutes without having killed at least a few. He must have been unconscious. He spotted Millo several yards away among the cockpit wreckage. They had taken Tiet for a reason, but why would they want him alive?
First things first. He buried both Dorian and Millo in a clear area among the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Then he kinetically pushed a large piece of fuselage over their graves to protect the site from predators.
He followed the tracks left by the Horva army's departure. He didn't know where they were headed, but he would die before he gave up on the son of his old friend. Tiet had become like his own child after all these years, and nothing was going to stop him from either retrieving the boy alive, or avenging his death.
WHEN Tiet regained consciousness, he was suspended inside a semicircular mechanism with a form-fitting black suit covering all but his head, hands
and feet. What appeared to be metallic buttons covered the surface of the garment and more were attached to his feet, hands and around his head.
The room he was being kept in was fairly dark except for a light around him and the soft glow of machines beyond. He could see some movement in the darker area, but the bright light that was focused on him kept his pupils constricted, not allowing him to see much.
He tried to exert his mind upon the mechanism that held him suspended in an energy field. He heard a spike in the monitor and a shock suddenly emanated from the suspension mechanism that nearly drove him to unconsciousness again. Apparently his brainwaves were being monitored.
He thought he might try again and began to feel for the people in the room. Perhaps he could seize someone controlling the unit, but the unseen monitor alarmed again and the field shocked him once more. Man that hurts!
He tried to contain the urge to cry out in pain. He was exhausted from the punishing energy. He knew another attempt would knock him out and he at least wanted to be conscious. Had the Horva captured him? He wasn't sure. He could only remember Dorian amid the wreckage of the Saberhawk taking her last breath, and then pain and nothingness.
It wasn't like the Horva to have such technology, but he remembered that the Horva he had faced on the battlefield had been much different than those back home on his own planet. And what had happened to Orin? He had not seen him since before the Saberhawk crashed into the valley floor. "Who are you?!" he shouted.
There was no reply from the darkness. "Where am I?! Come out and face me, you cowards!"
Behind a Plexiglas barrier a scientist tapped his communicator panel. "General? He's awake."
"Are you ready to collect your data?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Excellent. Move him to the dome."