Eternal Horizon: The Chronicle of Vincent Saturn (Eternal Horizon: A Star Saga Book 1)

by David Roman

  “I got it,” Vincent said. He moved the switch on his gun all the way to the right until the blue blocks on its side lit up brightly. He then rose up and shot—the force of the ricochet almost knocking him off the bike.

  A blue energy sphere the size of a beach ball exploded into the bridge, blowing up the robots. The three bikes managed to pass beneath the burning bridge right before it collapsed.

  After several minutes, the channel turned into a trench. The platforms over the path hosted dozens of troops, anticipating them with itchy trigger fingers. The offense had doubled. To add to the misfortune, two of the large Destroyer-bots barricaded their way.

  The enemy rained down on them from both sides, and the giant robots opened fire.

  “Stay on the path!” Exander shouted amid the assault.

  As Gaia targeted the guards on the ledge, Vincent released several blasts at the robots. One of them lost its head, but the other remained, continuing the volley.

  “Hold on!” Gaia cried out before leaning the bike on its left side, barely sliding under the intact robot’s chaingun arm. She then straightened and continued further, confusing the automaton, who debated as to whether he should shoot at Gaia or at the approaching twins.

  Covering Duell’s body, Damocles managed to pass right under the collapsing husk of the first robot. The second one then immediately began blasting away at the big guy.

  Sensing his brother in trouble, Exander put away his blaster and leapt up, withdrawing his sword as his unmanned bike passed between the droids. With a powerful strike, he slashed the robot apart and safely retained his vehicle.

  The two fallen machines blocked the path and further halted the pursuers, if only for a short period of time.

  Vincent wondered how many more rounds his blaster held, but there was no time to check for things like that, so he just shot at every target that came into view. The thrill of getting away from a wrongdoing was indescribable. But this was not a crime. We’re not kidnappers, but rescuers—not killers, but protectors, he told himself. And that idea was the reason he felt guilt-free. It felt like the right thing. After more than five years, he finally experienced the things that enticed him into law enforcement in the first place.

  “Almost there!” Exander encouraged them.

  It was miraculous that they seemed to escape without a scrape. But something was on their side, and death was going to have to settle with a rain check.

  The attacks eventually became scarcer, leaving the noise of the alarm to be the only thing to torment them.

  “What’s going on?” Vincent asked, panting. His hand was killing him—he could barely ease his grip.

  “We’re nearing the dock,” Gaia said in excitement.

  Explosions echoed far off, evidently produced by Spaide.

  “Something’s not right!” Damocles shouted. “They must have another trick—”

  A blast took out a portion of the wall before the party, causing Gaia to turn sharply.

  A one-passenger black jet was on their pursuit. It had a sleek and stylish design that resembled a compact sports car with two rocket launchers on its side panels and a machine gun atop its hood. Marz’s twisted grimace was visible through the windshield. Four more soldiers hovered on bikes beside him.

  “Damn,” Exander grunted. “I’ll slow them down!” he yelled to his brother. “Go!” He then pulled out a dagger and threw it at the biker approaching from his left. The soldier fell off, and his bike smashed against the wall, forcing the chasing posse to swerve and nearly crash as well.

  “Dodge this, Krynne!” Marz snarled, releasing a rocket.

  Exander leaned to the side evading the missile that exploded into the ceiling. Several troops on the top platform were toppled by the falling debris from the detonation. It was a blatant display of how desperately

  Na’ar’s protégé was trying to apprehend them—with complete disregard to the vessel that was already in outer space.

  “This guy’s crazy!” Damocles cried out.

  “Not as crazy as I am,” Exander mumbled to himself, his confident bravado awakening.

  Gaia turned into a bay packed with Imperial vessels. The right side had openings into outer space, where the red planet was in full view swimming amongst the endless sea of stars and reminding them that they were still ahead of time. They veered off the main course, promptly passing beneath several ships and heading to the farthest dock with the small fighter jets where an entire battalion of soldiers and a Destroyer-bot were trying to shoot down the Dirsalian hiding behind a crate. Bodies were piled up all around the area—Spaide’s dirty work.

  More troops and droids were headed in Spaide’s direction, unaware of the hover bike that passed them. Gaia pulled out a blaster and began shooting at them while simultaneously applying the brakes.

  “Hurry!” Spaide cried out. He jumped on top of the crate, screaming like a madman and blasting away with both of his revolvers to create a distraction.

  Vincent leapt off the bike, blocking Gaia. They stooped down and dove behind the crate.

  Spaide jumped down next to Vincent and began to reload. “Havin’ fun?” he asked, grinning.

  Vincent raised his arm and shot in the direction of the assailants. “More than I can handle!”

  “Wait till we get in space!” Spaide said and began to shoot as well. “Where’re they at?”

  “Damn it, you big fool! Go, I’ll stop them!” Exander screamed at his brother, who remained alongside despite being told several times to leave. He then rose up in his seat and added, “Get the master to safety!”

  “Right,” Damocles finally concurred, taking off as they entered the dock.

  Exander stood up, arms spread. He threw his last dagger at the approaching mounted soldier with one hand and shot the remaining two with the other.

  Their bikes exploded into one another, forcing Marz to fly over them, scraping the ceiling. “Damn you!” he cursed, almost losing control of his jet. Passing over the metal pile, he ejected the second missile at his target.

  Exander jumped up as the rocket hit his hover bike, somersaulted backwards over the explosion, and crash-landed on the hood of his pursuer’s vehicle, thrusting his sword through the windshield just about spearing Marz to his seat.

  “You, bastard!” Marz mumbled as he leaned to the side, inches away from the cold blade. He let go of the wheel.

  The blonde hopped off as the vehicle flipped over and began scraping down the dock on its side.

  Damocles stopped (or rather, crashed) his bike at the crate that hid the others. He laid down his master by the jet, threw the swords in the cabin, and turned around to face the troops.

  “Carry Duell inside!” he cried out as he jumped at the soldiers. With one swift blow, he split four of them in half, spraying the floor with their blood. He then dodged a few blasts and cart-wheeled into the remaining troops, mercilessly stabbing and slashing through them.

  The Destroyer-bot that was alongside the mass lowered its chaingun limbs in an attempt to shoot the target that appeared beneath. Jumping up, Damocles hacked off one of the robot’s arms, its head, and then kicked its torso across the room, toppling two more guards. He then put away his sword, picked up the robot’s mechanical arm that continued to convulsively shoot and, holding the weapon at his side, turned its fire toward the approaching brigade.

  “Die, you Imperial scum!” he yelled as he slowly sidestepped and swept the perimeter with the blue energy spheres.

  Taking the opportunity, Gaia, Vincent, and Spaide entered the shuttle, carrying Duell with them.

  Spaide positioned himself in the pilot’s seat. “Hurry up!” he called out to the big Xenian.

  Through the corner of his eye, Damocles saw Marz running behind his brother with a withdrawn sword. He quickly turned the robotic limb at the assailant.

  Marz blocked the blasts by whirling his blade with unparalleled speed and jumped away, hiding behind the Destroyer-bot’s torso.

  Exander hurrie
d by Damocles. “Drop it, let’s go!”

  Despite the ceaseless assault, Marz jumped up and threw a dagger at the big man.

  Damocles blocked the hit with the weapon, which at that point discontinued firing, then threw it down and headed for the ship.

  Marz jumped atop the metal husk and heaved another dagger. The blade stuck the cargo door of the shuttle just as the big man managed to close it.

  Marz raised up his gauntlet. “Turn on the magnetic beam in D-4!”

  The fleeing shuttle lifted off and propelled through the plasma shield into open space.

  “Man your ships!” Marz commanded the dozens of pilots that poured into the dock. He then repeated frantically, “Damn it! Turn on the magnetic beam!”

  An explosion thundered in the distance, forcing the ship to tremble.

  Marz paused for a second, looking around. “Take cover!” he managed to cry out before dropping to the floor.

  Five of the jets blew up at once, filling the dock with smoke and fire. Marz rose up, dusting himself off, the thought of what had occurred slowly sinking in: they were outsmarted. Then the emergency sprayers began releasing white foam, subduing the flames and enveloping the entire pier.

  “One day, Krynne… one day,” Marz muttered as the foam rose up to his knees. He then picked up his wrist and said into the transmitter, “Master, they’re gone.”

  *

  The companions were crumpled on top of each other inside the small cabin that was designed for two people. There weren’t any ships on their tail, thanks to the clever Dirsalian’s bombs destroying most of the nearby hangar.

  “Yes, yes!” Spaide guffawed. “Chase us now!”

  “No time for cheers!” Damocles warned.

  “We made it so far, let’s be a bit more optim—”

  The vessel began vibrating as the gravitational pull of the planet took charge.

  “We’ll have to wait till I regain control of it!” Spaide said.

  “But we’re moving so slow!” Gaia shouted. “The Imperials will be on us in—”

  “Here they come!”

  Dozens of ships headed after them, some from the farthest docks of the Nomad and more from the other carriers that orbited the planet.

  “We could’ve had him!” Exander’s fussing was heard through the pile.

  “There’re too many of us!” Spaide panicked. “This piece of junk won’t hold!”

  Vincent was squished up in the left corner of the ship, Damocles’ elbow in his side and Exander’s foot on his shoulder. He could catch a glimpse of the outside through the window, where he saw that the vessel’s wings were red, burning from the momentum of the ship ripping through the atmosphere.

  “We could’ve had him, Damocles!” Exander continued grunting.

  “Concentrate on holding the ship!” Damocles shouted as he pressed his palms against the roof while closing his eyes.

  Exander sighed and followed the example, pushing his hands on the floor. The brothers were in a supernatural trance: eyes shut, faces indifferent. Somehow, Vincent guessed, perhaps using their telekinetic powers, they kept the ship intact.

  “Hold it!” Spaide cried out as flames fully surrounded them.

  Few of the ships in pursuit began exploding from the unstable pressure, bombarding them with debris.

  “Hold it!” Spaide repeated, clinging to the controls. Their ship was ablaze at the moment, as if they were in the belly of a fiery monster. After several seconds, the flames disappeared, and Spaide regained control of the ship.

  The twins let go, their faces betraying signs of exhaustion.

  “Okay”—Spaide sighed with relief, leveling the ship—“let’s cool things down a bit.” He flicked a switch that triggered cooling sprayers on the wings.

  “There are five of them on the radar,” said Gaia, who monitored the co-pilot’s screen behind Spaide’s chair. “If we lose visual contact with them before they enter the atmosphere, we can easily escape.”

  The Dirsalian shook his head. “We’re way too heavy. They’ll be onto us. We must go into crisis mode!”

  “Here we go again,” Damocles fussed. “I hate when he does that!”

  “What is the crisis—” Gaia couldn’t finish her question as Spaide yanked the wheel and turned the ship downward, forcing everyone to mass up behind his chair. They headed straight down through the smoke clouds, past the traffic of other ships.

  Exander managed to pull out his electronic device to locate the beacon on the Serpent. “Head northwest!”

  The clouds swept aside, and the vast city spread out before them. Spaide straightened the ship, and everyone fell back.

  “There!” Gaia pointed at a shadowy opening between two cooling towers. “But try to mingle in with the local—”

  Disregarding her opinion, Spaide turned the vessel downward, and everyone piled up once again. The heavy carriage forced the ship to spiral down.

  “You maniac!” Damocles roared from somewhere in the mass.

  “Pull up!” Exander cried out as the buildings and the factories grew bigger.

  “Not yet!” Spaide replied, fighting with the controls. The city was becoming so clear that people were distinguishable moving below them like tiny ants. Collision was surely inevitable.

  “Pull up!” Gaia and the twins cried out together.

  Spaide yanked at the helm with all his might. The vessel slowed down and stopped spinning, but the power of the gravity still forced it to plunge. At the last second, it straightened, nearly grinding on a rooftop.

  “They’re still on our tail,” Gaia said. “They must have a homing device aboard this ship.”

  “A homing device?” Exander pushed Vincent and Damocles aside and sat up halfway. “I thought you were supposed to thrash it!”

  “Well, it slipped my mind!” Spaide replied. “I was alone, surrounded by dozens of soldiers… sorry for not findin’ extra time!”

  “Then what the hell are we going to do?”

  “Ditch this ship.”

  “First, we need to create a gap between us and them,” Gaia suggested.

  Spaide arched the ship under the bridge connecting the cooling towers and flew into the darkness between them.

  “It’s a factory,” Exander said, looking in his device. “Our ship’s a few miles away. We’ll have to land and continue on foot.”

  “On foot?” Vincent asked.

  “Yes, Vincent, on foot.”

  Spaide turned on the ship’s lights as they continued past the towers and into the dark factory. Rows of tar-covered buildings were erected on either side of their gloomy path with hundreds of gigantic pipes connecting them. Numerous trains ran hundreds of feet below them, carrying minerals on the maze of railroads that were built alongside canals filled with lava. A small patch of the orange sky was visible above—filled with Imperial vehicles.

  Spaide proceeded down the alley, going over and under the numerous pipes, trying to cloak the ship within the haze released from some of them.

  “They’ll be unto us,” Gaia said. “The homing beacon is coming from this vicinity.”

  Spaide turned to face her. “Stop panickin’, we—”

  “Turn in here!” Exander interrupted, pointing to a small alley on their left.

  Spaide turned the ship, scraping the left wing on one of the pipes.

  “Damn it, baldie, can’t you—” Damocles began complaining right before a ball of green energy exploded against the nearby wall.

  “They spotted us!” Gaia shouted.

  “You think?” Spaide grunted.

  Another blast burst beside.

  “I got it!” Spaide assured.

  “They must be pretty desperate!”

  Several more discharges barraged their ship.

  “We can’t sustain anymore fire!” Exander screamed out. “Land!”

  “There’s still some juice left in this baby,” Spaide replied.

  “Are you mad? The power’s draining!”

  “We�
�ll convey it into offense.”

  “Offense? The very second our shield is down—”

  “We’ve lost the rudder!” Gaia intervened.

  “Hit the red button!” Spaide yelled out to her as he accelerated the vessel to full speed, racing down without a fin.

  Gaia leaned over and hit the button as instructed. The ship released a blast, blowing up a part of the structure some hundred feet ahead.

  “Are you insane, woman?” Spaide exclaimed, barely avoiding the explosion. “The red button in the co-pilot controls back there! I could’ve hit this one myself!”

  “Speak clearly, then, you moron!” Gaia smashed the switch. An energy sphere exerted from the back of the ship, suspending itself in midair.

  Spaide resumed the remaining power to the shields. “Come on, you son of a…” he muttered as an explosion rumbled through the alley— the enemy fell for the trap.

  The ignition caused several of the pursuing ships to skid off, thus exploding as well.

  “Now!” Exander shouted. “Now, Spaide! There isn’t anyone else!”

  “Well, it’s hard to turn without a rudder!”

  Exander pointed to a round opening within a building. “There!”

  Spaide roughly turned the ship down into the gap and started taking consecutive turns, burying them deeper and deeper into the factory.

  Exander looked at his tracker. “We’re about a mile away. Now land this ship before you kill us!”

  “Hold on!” Spaide began lowering and thumping on the brakes.

  “I hate it when—” Damocles started as the companions were once again tossed to the back.

  Spaide tugged at the wheel. “Stop—you—piece—of—junk!” The ship began scraping against the rough terrain of the factory, hurling everyone.

  “Spaide!” Damocles roared as he smashed his head against the roof. The ship levitated for a mere second, but then skidded on the ground again.

  “I know what I’m doin’, damn it!” Spaide turned around and shouted at his pestering comrades.

  “Spaide!”

  “What?”

  “Lava pit ahead!”

  “Oh!” Spaide yanked the helm to the left. The vessel began to slide sideways until eventually stopping several feet away from the trench. Spaide took a deep breath, then looked back and said, “You see what happens when you distract me?”