Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1 (Splintered Galaxy Book 3)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Phylarlie heard voices coming from behind her, followed by multiple footsteps running. She spun back around into the storage area and saw the three people from earlier in environment suits. They all stepped through the gateway exiting whichever place they were previously, entering the Linl ship. Behind them slipped in four strange feral like creatures with hostile intentions, all of them moved themselves to attack via psionic beams from their arms. One of the new comers was armed with Radiance rifle and wasted no time putting the four creatures down, making a whole lot of noise in the process. Terrific.

  As expected, the gun fire got the attention of the pirates and their two friends. Phylarlie backed her invisible body closer into the corner in the hope that nobody would trip over her and be aware that she was hidden away. There were enough complications to the situation already, like how was she supposed to get Ella back safe and sound?

  The pirates arrived inside the storage room with their weapons aimed at the three that came through the gateway. A vocal exchange of words in the Radiance language followed next, in fact, everyone currently in the room was a race from Radiance, except the Hashmedai human hybrid, who spoke no words at all. More yelling and demanding in their language occurred, one of the Radiance personnel in the environment suit pointed to the fallen creatures on the floor. From what Phylarlie could tell, that person was Aryile. A young Aryile woman.

  Phylarlie recognized her face, Odelea, still alive, having aged little since the invasion of Earth, and now she was here. What could she have been up to this time? One of the creatures on the floor started to twitch. Life came back into its body as it climbed back to its feet followed by the other three. The pirates hesitated, clearly shocked at what they saw and it was that hesitation that led to their end, the creatures leapt at them, melted their armor with their psionic beams, others had their faces and chest shred so deep, their bones and organs could be seen.

  Only two targets left, Phylarlie thought looking up at the Aryile in combat armor and the hybrid next to him. She moved herself behind him, placing five incendiary disks below his feet, while preparing two stun disks in her hands then quickly reviewed her plan of attack, while he raised his rifle toward the creatures, unaware of his incoming demise. Shatter his shields with the incendiary disks, quickly stun him with the disk in her hands now, then cut off his head with her plasma dagger.

  Her hands and psionics executed the strategy with perfection as planned. In a matter of five seconds the whole process played out exactly, the Aryile’s head fell off his neck, leaving behind a burning and bloody stump. She was now visible to all and didn’t care. Odelea and her friends now bore witness to Phylarlie’s skills and were probably instilled with fear. As for the creatures? They ran past her during the ambush, mauling the hybrid as he tried to flee. She hoped they would take their time with him, as she would rather not have to fight four targets that could clearly resurrect themselves after a minute or two of being dead.

  Phylarlie moved toward Odelea and her friends, one of them held his rifle toward Phylarlie, his hands shaking. He didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger, she had nothing to fear from him, or any of the other two. The shorter one of the group started to talk to Phylarlie in Radiance. She merely shrugged, not knowing how to reply to her questions.

  Odelea began to speak in Hashmedai. “They wish to know where are they and how did they get here.”

  “This is Derkurio,” Phylarlie said.

  “Derkurio, but,” Odelea seemed confused as she turned around to look at the now dormant oval object, “this must be a small-scale wormhole then.”

  Odelea translated her conversation with Phylarlie to her friends. The Rabuabin holding the rifle toward Phylarlie continued to do so and continued to tremble. “Tell him to lower his weapon or I’ll do it for him.” Phylarlie said to Odelea. “With my blades.”

  The four creatures that ran off to dispatch the hybrid returned as the dead pirates rose from their temporary death, having mutated, and becoming a member of the strange beings that slipped through the gateway.

  “I don’t like your kind,” Phylarlie said gazing at the new-found threat moving toward them. “But it seems we both have a common enemy.”

  “Given the current situation, I welcome a temporary truce,” Odelea said, then spoke in Radiance to her two friends.

  Both Phylarlie and the Rabuabin led the charge forward shooting and slashing their way past the creatures, plowing a clear path for everyone to escape along. During their escape Phylarlie noticed the body of the Aryile she killed did not transform, and neither did the body of the mutilated hybrid out in the halls. One of the rooms the pirates had been searching earlier was still open, previously sealed with a large vault like door. Phylarlie ported ahead and inside the room, hoping the rest would get the message. Given how fast the creatures healed themselves, she had doubts they would all make it back outside alive with all the running through the halls they would still need to do. Sealing themselves away inside this room should make do, until Trin returned, if he returned.

  Odelea was the last person to enter the room, seconds before Phylarlie and the Rabuabin used their hands to push and shove the heavy vault door shut. A voice called out from the halls toward them.

  “Wait for me!” It was in Hashmedai.

  Phylarlie stopped briefly and peeked back into the halls, it was the hybrid. But how? He was dead, his body ripped apart. But unlike the pirates he didn’t change and unlike the creatures he was still able to speak and beg for help. Phylarlie didn’t trust him, and continued to push the door shut, her brief stop to examine the situation in the hall however, bought the hybrid just enough time to slip in regardless as the door slammed shut.

  She held him up against the wall while her plasma dagger shifted toward him, stopping close to the hybrid’s neck. Its intense heat was starting to singe the flesh. “Start talking,” she said.

  “The only thing I know is that Noylarlie is going to be pissed you beheaded her friend Parcisei.”

  “Noylarlie,” she whispered to herself. He couldn’t possibly mean her. “Archmage Noylarlie?”

  “Yeah,” the hybrid said, nodding.

  “How do you know her?”

  “She brought me to the empire from Earth,” he said. Multiple loud bangs impacted on the door from the halls outside. The creatures wanted in. “Holy shit. What are they?”

  “Wraiths,” Odelea said. “Psionic mutations the order has been trying to create for several years now. They can self-heal, have unlimited psionic power and can infect the dead and near dead, turning them into one of their kind.” Odelea produced a data pad from her side which she used to scan the hybrid up and down. The Vorcambreum with them seemed to have objected to her using it.

  “As I recall, they killed him,” said Phylarlie.

  “They did,” Odelea said, eying the data that appeared on the screen.

  “Then why didn’t I turn?” the hybrid asked.

  “They still need an active brain to take control of a host,” said Odelea. “If brain activity is inactive the mutation does not take place.”

  “That explains Parcisei, but what about me?”

  Odelea lowered the data pad upon finishing the scan and said. “I don’t know, you healed rapidly in the same manner, but your mind then later the rest of your body seems to have rejected the transformation.”

  Phylarlie released the hybrid for the time being, though she continued to keep an eye on him, just in case. She addressed Odelea, the person who clearly knew more about the situation than everyone else. “How do you know all of this?”

  Odelea said, “I helped create them...”

  … … …

  ►► Mountain range, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star System

  Jazz couldn’t see anything except snow blowing into his helmet’s visor, and the lights from Vaishea’s helmet next to him, making their trek through the frostbitten mountains a risky one. Rasi being a lower gravity world resulted in terrain such as mountains st
retching up higher into the skies compared to the ones found on Earth, not to mention taking on a wider shape. Slipping and falling could lead to a long downward spiral that would either result in their suits being damaged and leaking air, dying on impact if it was a far enough fall, or straight up being trapped within the many jagged fractures.

  “It’s going to take us hours to get down,” Jazz said, gazing at his oxygen level display. Or at least he assumed it was that. Either way, the blue holographic bar was shrinking in size with every hour that passed since they left the labs.

  “Might take us hours to find the nearest entry on this complex, as well,” Vaishea said.

  “Hold up,” Jazz said, coming to a stop. He heard a sound. It came from behind them. They weren’t alone.

  Powering their weapons up, the duo turned around looking at the rugged path they just crossed, only their footprints in the snow visible. Jazz zoomed in with the targeting display on his rifle. It reported nothing in sight except millions of white flakes, floating down at a snail’s pace. They later came to a cliff. Below it were the pointed peaks of smaller mountains arching up like spikes, a deadly reminder they needed to watch their step in the snow and the darkness of this world.

  And watch their backs.

  Jainuzei leapt down from an overhang above them. His weight crashed down onto Jazz, sending him and his rifle to the ground. It was just like Jazz and Jainuzei’s first encounter, with brawling, rolling on the ground trying to gain the upper hand. Only this time it was harder, one roll too far to the left, and one of them could end up falling off, too far to the right? Same deal, all the while the reduced visibly made it almost impossible to see what exactly their adversary was going to do, worse if you were on your back, facing up as fresh snow landed directly on the visor. Vaishea tried to assist, she ending up losing her footing when Jainuzei kicked his leg back toward her. Jazz had no idea what became of her afterwards, as far as he could tell it was just him and Jainuzei at this point.

  Half a dozen punches later, Jainuzei's superior strength and muscle mass gave him the upper hand. As Jazz tried to recover from the pain in his gut, he felt his body rise up. He was being held up in the air firmly by Jainuzei. Jazz kicked and turned trying to break free, but he couldn’t Jainuzei was like an unstoppable titan preparing to toss Jazz off the cliff into oblivion, and quite possibly where Vaishea ended up.

  Jainuzei chucked Jazz, his body glided through the air falling toward the deadly void below, or so he thought. Jainuzei’s aim was off, or forgot to take into account the gravity, none of which mattered, Jazz was once again on his feet and faced his enemy head on. It’s just you and me now mothafucka! Jazz sprinted toward Jainuzei, and the ledge he stood on gave away, crumbling into rocks that slowly fell down toward the smaller mountains peaks below. Jazz’s right hand shot up, grabbing a hold of what remained of the now shattered ledge.

  Tilting his head upwards Jazz saw Jainuzei standing cross armed looking down at Jazz with a self-righteous and delighted smirk on his face through his helmet’s visor before he turned away, vanishing from visual range in a blanket of snowfall from the blizzard.

  “I hate cliff hangers,” Jazz said, mumbling to himself.

  … … …

  ►► UNE Black Site, Titan

  ► Sol system

  Chris, Sarah, and Michei, along with the base’s security team shot their rifles at the imposing Hashmedai forces that were moving deeper and deeper into the facility. Desperation was kicking in as many of the non-combatants started to take up arms. Michei was showing signs of psionic fatigue, his response times and the potency of his gifts was diminishing with each telepathic push, and plasma conjured ball.

  And it wasn’t enough.

  The brave humans were eventually pushed back toward Ella’s cell. Too many Hashmedai guardians with their arm mounted plasma shields pushing forward like medieval knights once did during castle sieges. A new makeshift barricade was created by pushing over computers, equipment into the halls, anything that would force the Hashmedai to waste time side stepping to slow their advance.

  Avearan stepped past Chris and Sarah causing both of them to look upwards at her in surprise wondering who let her out. And wondering whose side was she on, she may be human on the outside, but was a Hashmedai on the inside, and therefore could not be fully trusted.

  “Whoa, whoa,” Sarah said to her.

  “You are in no position to be picky right now,” Avearan said, taking cover with them.

  Avearan shut her eyes and lifted her hands, not to surrender to the Hashmedai, but to command four rifles from downed security personnel to rise from the floor and orbit around her like the rings of Saturn above them. Despite having no psionic implants, her command of telekinesis was quite strong as she demanded her new-found minions to burst their projectiles toward the Hashmedai. Some bullets curved and zigzagged around the shields of the guardians, ripping holes through their heads and perforating the Hashmedai warriors behind them.

  Chris along with everyone else took advantage, adding their weapons fire to the battle as the front guardians fell over dead. The Hashmedai were pushed back, for now. “Not bad considering you don’t have any implants,” Michei said to Avearan.

  “Indeed,” Miriam König said, noting the results on her holo pad. Chris grinned upon putting two and two together. König released her, probably taking advantage of the situation to conduct a live field test. “It’s a shame our augmentation ward isn’t fully active yet, I would have taken this time to at least have some of the basic implants installed on you.”

  “That process takes months anyways,” Michei said.

  “You’ll be surprised at the advances we’ve made here.”

  Sarah’s mouth twisted while she looked back toward the chambers behind them. “So, this is a place that was made to create human psionics?”

  “More or less,” said König. Sarah holstered her rifle and jogged toward the chamber as Chris, Michei, and König followed behind. “That’s where the magic happens,” König said pointing at the pods behind the glass window inside the chamber. “Subjects lock themselves inside those pods and the mind-altering therapy begins.”

  “Yeah, my people use a similar method to create psionics,” Michei said.

  “Does it work?” Sarah asked.

  König nodded. “It’s operational, just not tested on humans.”

  “Good enough for me,” Sarah said, walking into the chamber.

  Something she shouldn’t have been doing as the enemy was still at large. This whole chit chat could have at least waited until they secured the place. “Vaughan!” Chris shouted toward her.

  “How long does the process take?” Sarah asked as she eyed the pearl white pods inside the chamber.

  “A few days, depending on the subject,” König said. “The computers will scan their minds and determine if the therapy was a success or not.”

  Sarah grinned and asked, “Can a partial psionic be created?”

  “The level of power in one’s psionic mind varies from person to person, so yes even if the process was to take five days and was interrupted, a partial psionic could still walk away.”

  “That’s all I needed to hear.” Tossing her rifle on the floor Sarah approached quickly and pushed her body up and into the pod with ease thanks to the moon like gravity.

  “As much as I’d love to perform human tests now, this isn’t the time,” König said.

  “Get down from there!” Chris said to Sarah.

  “Those Hashmedai will be back and you know it,” Sarah said. “We need the extra fire power.”

  “We’ve already taken several casualties,” said Chris. “Back up is not an option with all the flak outside.”

  “We need every edge right now,” said Sarah, nodding to König. “Get me out when they come back for another strike. Hopefully I’ll have some new-found powers by then.”

  König’s long fingers selected a command on her holo pad, linking it to the chamber’s operation comman
ds. The lid of the pod Sarah rested in began to shut and lock. The psionic creation process began.

  … … …

  ►► ESV Winston Churchill, Titan orbit

  ► Sol system

  Zero progress. They were the only words that came to mind while Xavier thought about the last few minutes in this deadly encounter. The duo Hashmedai destroyers continued to circle and fire at the Winston Churchill like it was some kind of game, like two bullies taunting and running around a defenseless kid in the playground. There was no place to move, to gain some breathing space, and still no safe distance to launch nukes. Rail guns and plasma missiles could only do so much.

  “What’s the ETA for the Wilfrid Laurier?” Xavier asked, as the Wilfrid Laurier at this point was there only means of escape.

  “Still another fifteen minutes!” Benally said, checking the central hologram.

  Fifteen minutes, that meant they had held their ground for forty-five. Not bad, he thought as the higher ups back on Earth would love the data as this was the first real test of an Earth warship and possibly the last as several new fires ignited behind him, the aftermath of the last direct hit they had taken.

  The three-dimensional hologram shifted and displayed a new projection revealing news from the last hit, shields down to twenty-seven percent. Then came another ear-splitting blast.

  Twenty-four now...

  “I don’t think we’re going to last that long,” said Benally “We must withdraw.”

  “No, we hold, not leaving them behind,” Xavier said, establishing a comm link with the engineering team. “Engine room. Give me all power you can muster for the shields!” He directed his gaze toward the helmsman frantically shifting his hands across his terminal. “Mr. Chavez, keep looking for an opening”

  “Aye sir!”

  “Captain, I may be able to shut down power in non-essential sections of the ship to transfer into the shields,” EVE said. “In addition, I can deactivate weapons ports that are unable to target the Hashmedai due to range.”

  “Do what you can EVE! Give me every drop of power you can get!”