by Aer-ki Jyr
The snake got hit in the side with a winging shot, but it reared so fast it shocked Esna as it suddenly was standing in front of her in striking pose as the burnt smell of its flesh reached her. It didn’t run away, so she didn’t have a choice. Firing two more shots she managed to land one in the head, blowing out its skull and splattering her with bits of juicy gore as it fell just shy of her feet with a thud.
Move, Esna told herself without speaking. She’d already made enough noise.
Dragging herself to her feet, Esna walked around the dead snake wondering what else was out there waiting for her, but knowing she had to lose herself further in the forest. With new adrenaline surging through her she managed a normal walk, but with each step crushing her spine and sending jolts of pain through her pounding head. For the first few minutes she was waiting for shot in the back or from overhead but nothing materialized, so she just kept walking at her own pace as her body reluctantly began to get used to the effort.
Esna didn’t know where she was going, but away from where she’d made that noise was the idea. Losing track of time, she ended up beside a small river and knew she couldn’t cross it without help, so Esna pulled back under a bush and let herself drop to her knees, feeling like she wasn’t going to get back up again.
She leaned back against a tree and put her pistol in her lap, then tried to stay as quiet as possible as her body continued to ache…
Esna woke up, not realizing she’d fallen asleep, but she was still leaning back against the same tree and thankfully there were no more snakes around. When she sat up she felt extreme soreness, then belatedly realized her head was no longer hurting. Wanting to maintain that bliss Esna took a moment just to look and listen. She had no idea how long she’d been sleeping or where the others were, but at least the Viks weren’t on top of her.
She was still alive, but there was no way she could survive out here on her own. She had no supplies and only the single pistol…and she couldn’t eat the pistol. Esna was also very thirsty, but Rammak had told her not to drink unprocessed water out of fear of sickness in it. That had never happened to her on Forso when she’d drank from their private water hole, but he’d said there could be stuff in the water so small you couldn’t see that could kill you.
But right now if she didn’t get some water dehydration might kill her, so she decided to slowly crawl out of the bushes to the river’s edge, leaving her pistol on dry ground as she slid into the water feet first and lay in the shallows as her legs were pulled sideways. Esna dug a hand into the mud to steady her, then she dipped her face down and let the cool water flow into her mouth where she drank…and drank. As soon as the water touched her tongue she realized she was far more thirsty than she’d thought and slowly filled her stomach with water until it would take no more.
Esna pulled herself halfway out of the water then laid down, letting the coolness continue to soak into her legs as a little of the pounding headache began again. Trying to shake that off she just laid there and let herself fall asleep once more…
The Human woke the second time to a poking in her arm. It was gentle, but repetitive. She groggily opened her eyes and looked, wondering if it was some critter coming to give her a kiss or nibble on her arm…but it was neither as she glanced up into the familiar face of a Kiritas in an envirosuit.
“You are alive,” he said, looking down on her as she tried to get to her feet and slipped, falling back face down into the mud. The Kiritas helped pry her up into a sitting position as she swiped the mess more or less off her face. “Stay put.”
“What happened?” she asked, with her feet still in the gently moving river water.
“They killed everyone, but the Archon avenged them. We’re the only two left. You make three.”
“Everyone?” Esna said disbelievingly, though she had no tears left to cry.
“The rest of us and the Zen’zat are dead. Two of the Kat’vo are unaccounted for,” he said, handing Esna back her weapon.
“Where’s Tyrenk?”
The Kiritas raised a small finger and pointed off to the left. “Close. Can you walk?”
“A little.”
“Try,” he said, helping pull her to her feet. Esna wobbled, but managed to not fall down as her stiff legs protested and her head started hurting again, but she didn’t care. Pushing thoughts of Rammak and the past away, she focused on the future and staying alive now that she had been found.
“Where to?” she asked, taking small steps with the shorter Kiritas keeping a guiding hand on her arm.
“Camp. The Kat’vo can’t get close with the Archon now, so we don’t have to run anymore.”
“Are you sure they’re all dead?”
“We did a head count. None of us were revivable, but he did try. One of the Kat’vo was regenerating, but we finished it off. Unless there are more on this planet than those pursuing us, we got all but the two Kat’vo.”
“How far…to camp?” Esna asked.
“Far. He wouldn’t leave me behind to guard the supplies and wouldn’t leave you out here. We have to hurry back before they can find and destroy them.”
“I can’t…move very fast.”
“I know. Do what you can,” the Kiritas tech said as Esna’s white Commando armor came out of the leaves ahead. It was covered in melted spots and a few breaches, but it was moving with a speed and grace that she never could have managed.
“Hati, go. I’ve got her,” Tyrenk said, dipping down and picking her up over his shoulders.
The Kiritas hopped off heavily, then Esna’s view started changing rapidly as the Archon carried her face down through the forest.
“What happened?” he asked her.
“What?”
“With the snake. You shot it?”
“I had to. It came at me and wouldn’t leave.”
“Nice head shot,” he said, but Esna could tell there was something wrong with his voice.
“Luck,” she admitted. “Are you ok?”
“No,” he said, then carried her in silence all the way back to where she started to see bodies. Fortunately he didn’t put her down there, but a little distance further on where there was a pile of broken cargo crates stashed underneath a rocky outcropping near what Esna thought was the same river but further downstream.
He lightly dropped her beside one of the crates as Hati began pulling out a tent and setting it up nearby. Tyrenk sat down next to Esna and leaned over his own knees as the tech worked, with Esna looking at his dirt and blood covered helmet.
“How bad are you hurt?”
“I’ll live,” he said, voice firm. “I’m glad you made it.”
“I’m so sorry,” Esna said, managing to tear up a bit. “I am so sorry.”
Tyrenk turned towards her. “For what?”
“I…got everyone…I slowed you down.”
“Yes you did, but that didn’t get them killed. The Zen’zat would have been faster than the techs even if you weren’t here. We couldn’t have outran them, and we definitely couldn’t have outran the Kat’vo. You being here made it harder, but we were going to have to fight them regardless. And without your armor, I would probably be dead by now. So you being here was valuable after all.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated.
Tyrenk triggered his helmet to release and pulled it off, for the auto retract was malfunctioning, then looked at Esna eye to eye.
“I’m sorry you had to be here to live through this, but you are still alive and that’s what matters most. Focus on that, but know that you shouldn’t be feeling good right now. I’m not, and it’s not my injuries doing it.”
“It’s not your fault,” Esna said meekly, not sure what else to say but recognizing the screwed up look on his face that matched her own guilt.
“But I couldn’t save them. That will never feel right, but it is familiar. It’s been this way since the war began. Constant death. Pointless, bloody death on both sides…but they keep coming. Keep attacking. Keep trying to wipe us ou
t and we have to fight back in the same way. The difference is they can retreat and go back to their empire while we can’t, but they won’t. So we’re all here fighting to the death…and for what? We have no choice. They’re making us do it. We don’t attack like this, where we know we’re going to lose people. We’re smart. We choose our assaults wisely. But when we’re forced into a situation like this we have no choice but to embrace the ravage and hope some of us survive. We’re the few this time, and there are at least two Kat’vo still out there…and maybe more back at their ship. This isn’t over yet.”
“The ravage? What’s that?”
“It’s what hurts so much. Taking people’s lives and tearing them up in a stupid fight. No stunning, no surrender, no driving off. Just killing and destroying and the losers are gone. Hundreds or even thousands of years of training gone in a few unlucky seconds and the winners are the ones who have a few people left, but both sides are wrecked,” he said, drawing out that last word into a curse. “Warriors don’t fight that way. Savages do. And we’re pulled into it by the V’kit’no’sat. If we’re attacking we have the option of backing off, but if we’re on defense and they press us, we have to go all in and trade lives in order to have any chance of winning. We know how to do it. We do it all the time in training, but there we can learn from our mistakes or misfortunes and try again. With no regenerator we can’t try again here, so everyone lost is just a waste.”
“That’s not your fault. How could it be?” Esna asked, being visibly bothered by the Archon’s emotional distress.
“I don’t like fighting ugly.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning I had to let people die in order to kill the Zen’zat. I couldn’t stay and defend them. I had to go out on the attack while the others got killed. If I stayed and defended we all would have died, but I’m still the one who left. It was the only play we had and we all knew it, but in some ways I’d rather die side by side than leave someone behind.”
“Like me?”
“Like you. But you lived…thankfully. The others couldn’t hold out long enough. If I’d killed the Zen’zat faster then…but I was lucky to finish them off at all. This is ravage, Esna, and it’s ugly as hell. No one wins it, because the losses on both sides are so great there are no victors. Only survivors. We didn’t win, we lost. They just lost more…but their objective was to kill us and they mostly succeeded. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“I don’t see why you should be blaming yourself.”
“You’re blaming yourself for Rammak. Don’t lie to me and tell me you’re not. You didn’t get him killed, but the enemy used the disadvantage of you being here to help kill him. That doesn’t feel right to you, and it shouldn’t. And losing everyone but you two doesn’t feel right to me. I’m an Archon. I’m supposed to turn impossible situations around. I wasn’t able to do that enough here, and almost everyone died.”
“Wrong,” the Kiritas said, walking up behind the two Humans. “They wanted to kill us and walk away alive. You took them out, and there was no guarantee you were going to be able to do that. I’m proud of you, Archon, and thankful to be alive.”
“I have to be more,” Tyrenk said without arguing. “I have to save everyone. If I get comfortable with losing people then something is wrong with me. If I get comfortable with ravage, there’s something really wrong with me. If I have to I can numb it out…”
“But you have us to protect,” Hati said. “And you don’t want to go all in.”
“I can’t defend and attack at the same time.”
“We got caught in a bad situation,” the Kiritas continued, hopping around in front of the Archon. “We shouldn’t have made it to this planet. We should have died in space. If even one of us survives it is a victory. A ravage victory, but a victory none the less. If I die here, get that victory if you can. If you can’t, kill one more of them. If you can’t, spit in their face on your way out.”
“If it comes to that, I will. And I expect you two to do the same. You hear me?” he said, looking at Esna. “I know you’re in way over your head, but survive. You’re still alive, and stay that way as long as possible. Don’t think about anything else. If you do make it out of here, you’ll have plenty of time for thinking later.”
“I can barely move in this gravity, but I won’t give up. Please make sure you don’t.”
“Archons don’t give up.”
“I can hear it in your voice,” Esna said, too distraught to worry about overstepping her bounds. “You’re barely keeping it together.”
“True,” he admitted, “but it’s not for the reasons you think. Good people can’t handle ravage without numbing it out, and neither of you are warriors. I can’t mentally disconnect from protecting you two in order to numb it out and become a weapon…and it’s driving me crazy.”
“Just do it,” Esna said. “Just go kill them. That’ll keep us safe.”
“It doesn’t work like that. I can’t stop caring and you can’t defend yourselves…and I already had to do it once.”
“The burdens of leadership,” Hati said, moving in front of Esna. “I don’t envy you that. Come youngling. I can’t get you out of this gravity, but I can get you out of the heat. Sentries deployed, Archon. You can get some rest now.”
“It’ll be a while,” Tyrenk said, not moving aside from his jaw flexing in a contained rage that Esna did not want to get closer to, despite her trusting him completely.
She climbed to her feet and wobbled over to the now erect tent, with Hati helping her inside as they left the Archon to himself.
“You need to get your clothes dry. Take them off and get clean if you can stand in the shower. A cleanser survived the damage, so I can take care of them if you’ll give them to me.”
“Thanks,” she said, stripping down and tripping during the process. She fell heavily, then finished sitting on the floor before crawling over to the shower and turning on the water as she knelt on one knee, trying not to think and keep her mind clear as she continued to fight the gravity, but unfortunately her body was getting used to it just enough to allow a host of bad thoughts through that left her crying again…until a stomach pain brought her out of it.
“Hati,” she said, still in the shower under the heavy rain drops. “I drank the river water.”
“You are getting sick?”
“I think so,” she said, holding a hand against her abdomen.
“I will get a med kit. Stay put,” he said, opening the door and hopping out as Esna began to get acquainted with yet another type of pain.
3
August 24, 4812
Chawik System (Devastation Zone)
Darlek
“Drink,” Hati said, handing Esna a small cup that felt heavier than it should, but sometime during her intestinal distress she’d forgotten what normal gravity felt like. Now that her self-inflicted poisoning was near an end and her senses were returning to focus, the planet felt as close to natural as her mind could fathom. Forso and Tauntaun were nothing more than dreams, and what low gravity felt like was something her brain just couldn’t fathom right now.
The advantage in that was that Esna was adapting to the heavy gravity, enough at least for her head to stop pounding, though walking even a short distance was exhausting and she couldn’t truly rest even when laying down. The worst of it seemed to be behind her, and the loss of Rammak and the others was a wound she carried still, but her constant fatigue left Esna without enough energy to keep replaying what had happened over and over again in her head like she had with Teren.
“What is it?” she asked the Kiritas, smelling what looked like water, but it was so small in amount that she guessed there was something special about it.
“A new headache for you.”
Esna cringed. “Why would I want that?”
“You don’t. You want what it provides.”
“And that’s what?”
“You’ll see. This wasn’t my idea. The Archon authorized
it given the circumstances.”
“What is ‘it’ Hati?”
“A very, very small dose of Human ambrosia.”
Esna wrinkled her nose as she looked at the clear liquid. “What?”
“It will give you strength, but we don’t have the ability to measure out so small a dose as you need. This is as small as we could manage, but it will overload you. Hence the headaches.”
“I really don’t want those again. I just got rid of them,” she said, not moving the cup any closer to her lips than it was now.
“We can’t stay here any longer,” the Kiritas said, letting Esna figure out the implications of that.
“Right,” she said guiltily, realizing her weakness was holding people up again. “You sure this is a good idea?”
“The Archon does.”
“Alright then,” she said, tipping her head back and gulping the water down. She tasted only a hint of flavor…or maybe that was her imagination. Either way, she drank the water then waited a few seconds, not feeling anything as she looked back at Hati.
“Let’s go.”
“I don’t feel any different,” she said, dragging herself to her feet and following him outside their tent. “Where is Tyrenk?”
“Nearby. The Kat’vo are close, and there are more of them.”
“Baju,” she whispered, stepping out onto the damp ground with her casual shoes sinking in, but glad to have them. Had she not worn any inside her armor she’d been going barefoot now…which would have been bloody foot, given how many thorns she’d stepped on thus far. “They know where our camp is, don’t they?”
“They spotted us from the air days ago.”
“Can’t they sense my mind no matter where I go?”
“Yours and mine both,” the Kiritas said as he began deconstructing the tent.
“So where can we go that they can’t find us?”
“With me,” Tyrenk said, appearing out of the brush to her left. “If you stay close enough I can shield you from their mind scans, but I can’t stop their Pefbar without it giving away our location. They’ll feel the disruption.”