The Genesis Sequence Books 6-10

by Mackenzie Morris

  Rav had to do something. "I won't let you go alone. You're in no shape to take on whatever forces Trilx has gathered in there. Do you really think he would have done this without any help? I'm going with you."

  "Who will watch Nemo?" Kalimis asked.

  "He'll come with me. I have a carrier I can wear and he'll be on my back. I can still fight and everything. I'm not leaving him anywhere."

  "Do you think you two can handle this? Are you on good terms again? I know things got bumpy for a bit after that business on Dualictum."

  Rav looked to Vance before taking his hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "We're good. Do you agree, Vance?"

  "Yeah, mate. We're good."

  * * *

  "Get up, Lucas! Get up! Get up, pet!"

  Lucas groaned as he slowly woke up under the flashing red emergency lights, his ears ringing with the blaring of sirens coming from the ceiling, and the shouting echoing back towards the elevator shaft. In a state of delirious confusion, he sat up on his sleeping bag and opened his eyes to the chaos around him. "What happened?"

  The Biromian drew the laser pistol from the holster on his belt just as the roar of the maintenance elevator whirred to a stop down the hallway behind them. He then tossed it onto the pile of equipment instead. "Can't let that get in the way down in these tight quarters. Come on, Lucas. We've got company. Here. Let me help you into your exosuit."

  Lucas allowed Dallis to hoist him up then practically shove him into the awaiting metal armor as the sound of boots thudding on the floors approached down the back hallway.

  Dallis held up his fists as he stood in the entryway, defending them from the incoming flood of soldiers. "Stand back!"

  Lucas fumbled with the controls and the connectors, working quickly to secure himself inside his exosuit with Derek's help. Within thirty seconds, he pulled on his helmet and was sealed inside and ready to go. He reached for the gun attached to his armor, but he froze when he spotted the white and golden patches of the eagle the shoulders of the soldiers. Elysian troops?

  Bullets and laser beams streaked across the reactor room, digging into the concrete and ricocheting off of the exposed reactor cooling pumps. A second set of alarms began blaring through the crimson-lit darkness.

  Dallis dove into the fray, sending kicks and punches at the perfect points on the soldiers' bodies, nullifying their armor and sending them to the floor. He spun around in a flurry of blue fists and combat boots, easily taking out ten of the men while evading their fire without breaking a sweat. His tall yet slender frame towered over the soldiers, but he moved with the agility of a cat. He dropped low to kick the legs out from under the nearest one before leaping up and sending his fingers into the side of the next one's throat.

  For a few moments, Lucas could only watch in fascination as the Biromian worked like a true agent of death itself. But once Derek joined the fight by throwing some of the scrap metal hunks from the floor into the fight, he knew he had to act as well. Lucas swiped his palm over the control panel on his arm, sending the power through the limbs of his exosuit. Even if they were Elysians, Lucas had to keep his allies safe.

  Dallis knocked a soldier to the floor, but he stopped when the remaining four held up their hands as a sign of surrender. They were doubled over or holding onto the walls as their rifles clattered to the floor and streams of sweat dripped down their reddened cheeks.

  The one with the cornrows wiped his brow then spoke through his gasping for breath. "Enough. Enough of this. We didn't come here to fight. We came here to save someone who got caught up in this mess, but this isn't his fault. We realize this. Military Director Tolstoy does as well. Stand down, Lucas Stephens."

  Lucas's exosuit hummed quietly as he took a quick step backwards. "You know my name?"

  "We served in the same squad when we were stationed on Elysia. Don't you remember? We were working with General Ivy. We were sent here by Tolstoy to retrieve you and transport you back to Elysia. He is offering you a full pardon for all of your crimes against the country. If you agree, you will come back with us and you will not face any penalties or punishment for any of it. You will be reinstated at your previous rank with all the benefits and privileges of that rank. You can be a soldier again. Come back to us."

  Dallis snapped at him as he picked up the pistol from the pile of supplies. "Don't listen to them, pet. They're trying to get into your head. I'll just take them out-"

  "No!" Lucas pushed Dallis's gun out of the way. "Don't shoot them. We can talk it out."

  "Don't be crazy. They're maniacs."

  "They're fellow soldiers. I fought at their sides. We have a bond, a bond you wouldn't understand." The thought of being forgiven, being officially pardoned and clearing his name after everything with Euro, the cyanide pill, and the events on the train so long ago . . . it was enthralling. Like a mouthwatering scent, the need to finally clean up his record that had been unjustly tarnished beckoned to him. The temptation drew him in. "What do you want me to do?"

  The soldier held out a hand to him. "Surrender and come with us to our ship."

  "What happens then?"

  "That is classified information. Trust us. This is for the best of everyone. Don't you want to be a soldier again? Don't you want to be a chaplain so you can help the grieving and the broken? That's what you were always meant to be, Stephens. We need you. The military needs you. Your fellow soldiers need you. Most of all, the grieving widows and the children need you. Come back to us."

  Before Lucas could ask another question or make a decision, four short blades flashed through the red emergency light. The soldiers cried out then fell to the floor where they writhed for a few seconds before remaining lifeless in pools of their own blood. Lucas and Dallis both turned to Derek, who had his hands at the ready with four more throwing knives between his fingers.

  Lucas gasped. "What did you do? What did you just do? They were soldiers. They were heroes! I knew them. I knew them!"

  "It's over, pet. Derek did the right thing, and you know that. They may have been soldiers, but they were not on our side. I'm sorry, but we have a mission to do down here in order to end this war. Think of your family. Remember that you're doing this for them, not for these soldiers who have been brainwashed by the government. Weigh your options. Make sure you pick the one that means the most to you."

  A crackling came over the speaker in Lucas's helmet and a quiet, broken female voice spoke to him. "Lucas, come in . . . you . . . there . . ."

  "Leah?" Lucas smiled. "Oh, thank God. I finally got some signal back."

  "You . . . the . . . and . . ."

  "Leah, you're breaking up. I can't hear you. We just killed some Elysian soldiers who tried to stop us. I don't think there are any more up there, but we need to get moving just in case. Do we have permission to get this going early? Are the Azimandian and Elysian armies inside the Odyssian atmosphere? Leah? Hello?"

  There was no answer over the earpiece as the static went dead once again.

  He slapped the outside of his helmet to try to jostle the radio into working again, but it was futile. "I lost it again."

  "Damn it all. The radiation down here must be messing with the signal. There's too much interference. If there were Elysian troops down here, then there are probably more up above the surface. We're sitting ducks here, waiting for them to come find us. I'm making a decision for all of us. We're doing this now. I don't care if it's a day early. We're going for it."

  "But Dallis, we're not ready yet. We . . . we need to wait to get authorization from Sandra and Ben."

  He snarled at Lucas from behind his thin black lips. "Do I sound like I give a damn about their authorization? Do you really want to fight me on this, Lucas? Do you?"

  "Dallis, don't. I-"

  "Do you want to fight me on this? Yes or no? Because I'm not afraid to throw a few punches into that armor of yours if it means knocking some sense back into you. You volunteered for this. You knew the consequences. I tried to get you to back out
before we were in too deep, but you insisted on coming for this suicide mission. You're not a coward, Lucas Stephens. Don't go to your death whining and whimpering like one. Now, power up the strength modules on that exosuit and let's get this first reactor overheating."

  Lucas bit his lip until he tasted the tartness of his blood seeping from the puncture wound. He did not want to die. It was a sickening realization that dawned on him too late. The sentence repeated over and over in his mind until it finally escaped him. "I don't want to die!"

  Dallis's face hardened and he crossed his arms.

  Lucas's eyes stung as the pressure grew in his throat. "I don't want to die, okay? I don't. I volunteered for this because I thought I had nothing left to live for. But now I know that I have a daughter and that Ruth is out there somewhere. I want to be like Rav. I want to be the hero to head out across the galaxies to find the ones I love, even if the odds are stacked against me. Don't I have the right to live my life and to be a father? I have to get out of here. I have to find Ruth!"

  "Oh, pet . . . I wish you hadn't said that. It's too late now, Lucas. Once the soldiers triggered these emergency alarms, the elevator shaft became closed off all the way up. We can't get out. You're just gonna have to go along with the original plan."

  "Don't let me die down here, Dallis. I can't. I can't do it!" Lucas screamed as he dropped to his knees and slammed his gauntlet-covered fists against the concrete floor. His breathing grew rapid, his chest tightened, and his mind raced. "I can't breathe. I can't!"

  Dallis knelt down and grabbed the shoulder of the exosuit with one hand as he pulled the helmet off with the other so he could look into Lucas's eyes. "Stop. You're hyperventilating. You have to breathe, pet. Derek, can you bring him a bottle of water? Once I get him calmed down, we will begin the process of ending this war once and for all."

  Chapter 12

  Darting from building to building in the cover of the shadows made by the rusty-colored streetlights as Star-World sped through the deep reaches of space, Rav slid to a stop behind one of the wooden fences that encircled a warbringer training yard. Shifting Nemo in the carrier on his back, he waited for Vance to catch up while keeping a lookout for anyone approaching down the many side streets around the area in the night.

  He watched the warbringers marching in formation down the streets, the women in bright pinks and oranges with their children clinging to their skirts in the markets, and the rejected boys being herded through the fields like cattle on their way to the slaughter. Everyone appeared to be going about their daily lives with no regard for the explosions and dogfights occurring in the atmosphere above their heads.

  Even from down here, the distorted and muffled noises of the battles echoed around the tops of the largest buildings. The whistling of laser cannons, the rumbling of missiles making contact with metal hulls, and the vibrating roar of Vitalanum engines as the pilots throttled their ships into high speeds. But down on the ground, the children were playing and the families were strolling down the sidewalks below the glittering canopy of flickering soft candlelight, multicolored from the glass holders.

  Vance slid past the opening in the fence just as two warbringers raced past, headed in the opposite direction. He squirmed through then fixed his long leather coat. "Slow down, mate. And stop squeezing into these tiny places. I'm not tall and skinny like you. You're gonna feel bad when I wind up stuck halfway into something and you have to cut me out of it."

  "I'm going to feel bad about that? No, I'm pretty sure I'll be laughing my ass off. I thought Ben made you go on a diet."

  "This isn't fat, mate. It's love fluff."

  Rav groaned, rubbing his eyes. "Oh, dear space."

  "Ben is the crispy graham cracker and I'm like the gooey marshmallow of a love s'more. When we get pressed together, we get all sweet and sticky-"

  "Stop. Just stop. I don't want to hear about your love s'more. Besides, s'mores have chocolate in them, right? Who's the chocolate?"

  He winked at him playfully. "That's for you to find out, mate."

  Rav covered his mouth with his hand. "I'm gonna be sick. Okay, how about this? You're half Azimandian and marshmallows are deadly for Azimandians. Your weight may be slowly killing you."

  Vance chuckled and crossed his arms on his chest as he leaned back against the wooden fence. "Nah, mate. I can assure you one hundred percent that my physique is not what will end up killing me. Now, enough chit-chat. We gotta get moving before these warbringer yobbos spot us. The road to the left leads directly to the palace. I know a secret way in, but I think it would send a better message if we simply stormed the front doors and barged inside."

  "I think all your love s'mores have melted your brain. If we're spotted trying to barge into the palace, what do you think is going to happen? The alerts will go out and all the remaining warbringers on this planet will join forces to come stop us. I don't know about you, because you're crazy, but I don't want to have two hundred laser rifles pointed at my back. The mission is to get into the palace, assassinate Trilx, then get out before anything goes wrong. We're a stealth team. That's why we waited until it was night before we came out here."

  "With a seven-year-old boy strapped to your back who could start screaming at any moment? Sounds perfectly stealthy to me, mate."

  "Then give me something else, something actually doable. We're not storming the front doors. I'm not an idiot. What I wouldn't give to have Ben back at command. He would know what to do here."

  "Let's call him." Vance whipped out his communicator and dialed a number. "Sandra gave me the number for the communicator Ben found on Elysia. It's already nearly sunrise where he is, but he should be awake already. I'm sure dealing with fifty children has kept him busy."

  Ben cautiously answered the call. "Hello?"

  "Ben? Hey, love. It's me."

  "Go away, Red Mask. I'm tired of you using all these different numbers to call me and harass me. No, I don't know where Vance is. All right? You can keep calling, but I'm not going to tell you because I can't. He's dead."

  "Red Mask? Are those clones even still around?" Vance asked. "Ben, I'm not dead. Did Sandra not explain everything to you?"

  "Oh, so now you're pretending to be the real Vance. Okay, then. If you're the real Vance Trainor, then tell me something only he would know."

  "You have a tiny pink heart tattoo on your inner right thigh and a line of freckles trailing down the bottom of your left foot. You are allergic to strawberries, you hate to read books, you love children, you once cried for two days straight after you accidentally stepped on an earthworm and killed it, you can't drive, you have one missing tooth way in the back from when your ex shoved a pistol in your mouth and nearly broke your jaw. Your chest is ticklish, you like me kissing your eyelids, and you shave your legs. So? How was that? Do I need to continue?"

  Ben let out a tiny mewl. "Vance? You're . . . you're alive?"

  "As alive as I'm gonna get, mate. Rav and I are on Star-World Zero Alpha with Nemo on his back and we're trying to come up with a plan about how to get into the palace and take down Trilx."

  "Who is Trilx? Wait. How are you alive?"

  Vance shrugged his shoulders. "Plasma. Don't worry about all that, dearest. We'll have time to talk later, I'm sure . . . at least for another hour or so. Right now, I need you to help us out. We're hiding at the moment, but these shadows giving us cover could move any moment and we'll be exposed out here for these warbringers to shoot us down. Basically, a warbringer named Trilx was the one Kalimis attempted to bribe, but instead, he took the bribe and ran with it. Now he has taken the throne and proclaimed himself as the new warlord. We have to assassinate Trilx."

  Ben was quiet for a moment as the sounds of children playing in the background grew. He then sighed. "Listen, I have a plan, but it's not foolproof. I haven't had a chance to think about all the ways it could go wrong."

  "Give us whatever you have."

  "You know how you had this entire plan in the works for years and y
ou kept it a secret from everyone? Well . . . I have had my own plan too. You know those bombs I was supposed to disarm underneath the ground you're standing on? I never actually disarmed them. They're still very much alive and active. Even if you do manage to kill Trilx, you and Rav will still be surrounded by warbringers after they find out what you've done. That's when my contingency plan kicks in."

  "You want us to blow up the Star-World."

  "Precisely. Why not?" Ben asked. "There's nothing you need there. It will solve all of your problems."

  "And how do you expect us to do that?" Vance asked.

  "You will get in there, reset the connection for the long-distance detonation frequency to your or Rav's communicator, then get onto Kalimis's ship to escape the atmosphere before the bombs are detonated. Easy."

  Vance raised an eyebrow. "Easy? We're gonna have to go through the palace to get to a terminal where I can access the bomb controls. Before I left, I made sure to close all the sewers and access tunnels to the underground areas except for one. The opening is in the throne room and the only terminal I could use to bypass having to physically go down into the sewers in is the royal bedchambers."

  "Well, that certainly makes this a bit more difficult. Still, I think you should do it. If you can pull this off, it will make sure these rebel warbringers don't rise up again. We are ending this war in order to bring peace, not more fighting. Do this, okay?"

  "Ben . . . it's Saturday evening."

  After a few seconds of silence, Ben spoke, his voice low and airy. "I know. I know. When is the exact time that you . . . you know?"

  "Midnight."

  "Oh, Vance . . ."

  Rav shot him a questioning glance. "What happens at midnight? Enough of these secrets, Vance. I deserve to know what's going on. Ben, can you hear me? Listen up. If there's anything you know that will help me here, I need to know. Tell me. Tell me, or I turn around and go back to the ship and you and Vance can do this on your own."