Harbinger: Farpointe Initiative Book Three

by Aaron Hubble

  Risking a glance behind him, Jondon saw a steady stream of people emerging from the hidden exit. Pa’al was urging them into the forest. Beyond he could see the lake and the human ships hovering there. The water level was quickly receding, and it wouldn’t take long before the top of Alam’s dome would be exposed.

  They needed more time.

  Swinging his attention back into the forest, Jondon saw a group of advancing humans and squeezed off several quick shots, making sure each of the precious bullets counted. He wasn’t sure how much longer they’d be able to hold them off.

  Time and ammunition were two things in very short supply.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Aereas - Above Lake Keali

  Banking the ship hard to the right, Evie felt the craft respond instantly to her controls. The mechanics had done a magnificent job fixing the Valkyrie, and if they made it out of this fight she’d need to thank them.

  Right now her job was to create a little chaos.

  She flipped a switch opened the side doors of the ship, allowing the three gun-toting mechanics the ability to use their weapons. Out of her forward window she saw several Valkyries hovering over the forest. Evie activated the weapons system and the comm to the back of the ship, and Evie spoke to the mechanics.

  “I’m going in hard and fast on those two ships. Hopefully, they’ll be too surprised to know what hit them. Then I’ll try and get you good views of the forest floor. The radio chatter I’m picking up says the CPF infantry is engaging your people at the northern end of the lake. Try and give your people some help. We’ll do some flybys and then chase off the ships hovering over the lake.”

  She received shouts of acknowledgment from the men. Bringing her full attention on the targeting computer, Evie locked on the nearest Valkyrie and let loose a missile.

  The weapon tore through the armor like it was made of paper, and the ship spun out of control in a ball of fire before slamming into the forest floor and exploding. A shout of excitement rose from the hold of the ship followed by rifle fire as the mechanics took shots at the CPF soldiers they could see through the trees.

  The second Valkyrie peeled off, and Evie dropped in behind it. Seconds later, another missile reduced the ship to fiery scrap metal.

  It was a satisfying feeling, but she knew the element of surprise had been spent and the rest of the fight, however long it lasted, wouldn’t be nearly as easy. She angled the craft so the men could get a good look at the ground below and offer what cover they could. She brought the Valkyrie around the northern end of the lake, straightened her course, and headed straight for the ships hovering over the water.

  She was too far away to actually get an accurate target on the ships, but she launched several missiles anyway and let loose with her forward guns. The ships broke formation and moved away from the lake. Evie banked hard once again to make another pass over the lake’s northern end to offer more cover to the people escaping.

  Halfway through the second run, the tactical display told her another ship was behind them and closing fast. Calling up the display, she cursed when the computer identified their pursuer as a Helix fighter. She broke off the run and began to frantically search for someplace to take the ship where the Helix wouldn’t be able to follow, but came up empty.

  The Helix would quickly overtake her craft; she couldn’t outrun it. For the first time fear crept into her mind. She gripped the controls and pushed it down. She wasn’t done yet. Braking hard and making a sharp one-eighty degree turn, Evie felt the g forces push her into her seat.

  She pointed her ship in the direction of the Helix. She wasn’t going to be hunted down like a scared animal. She would face her foes head on and let fate work its course as it would.

  Slamming the throttle into full forward thrust, the Valkyrie shuddered against the strain and then hurtled toward its destiny.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  Aereas - Above Lake Keali

  Gripping the back of Cirta’s seat, Calier fought to keep his balance as the pilot guided the ship toward Lake Keali.

  Calier bent toward Cirta’s ear and tried to speak over the screaming engines being pushed to their max…and probably just a bit beyond.

  “How much longer?”

  Cirta checked his dash. “Maybe two minutes.”

  Straining his eyes, Calier was able to make out several dark shapes in the air. They hadn’t been quick enough. Human aircraft, like the one they were traveling in, hung over the lake and the forest like harbingers of death. Calier gripped the seat tightly, trying to control his anger against these people. They’d chased him out of his home city. Now the humans were trying to destroy his adopted home.

  Cirta’s voice interrupted his internal rant. “Better buckle up, Professor. It could get bumpy.”

  “Do you have a plan?” Calier asked.

  Cirta shrugged and then briefly smiled at him before turning his attention back to his instruments. “I’ve always found plans constrictive to creativity.”

  The ship bucked and Calier nearly lost his balance. Contemplating Cirta’s last comment and whether he should just bail out of the ship now or try and ride it out, Calier swayed on his way back to the hold of the ship and buckled himself into the seat next to Berit. She was strapped into one of the ships berths used for wounded soldiers.

  The med screen showed that her vitals were stable, but she remained unconscious. Calier stared at the woman he’d all but given up hope of ever seeing. Despite her frailty and sickly pallor, Calier thought she was one of the most beautiful sights he’d ever seen. He prayed for their safety and for her mother’s.

  A soft moan escaped Berit’s lips and her eyes fluttered open. Unsnapping the latches of his harness, Calier moved quickly to her side and grasped her hand. Her gold eyes searched the ceiling and she swallowed several times before turning her head and locking eyes with him.

  “Calier?” she whispered hoarsely, barely audible over the engines.

  A thrill of excitement ran through Calier. “Berit,” he tried to say through the emotion that choked him. “We’ve got you. You’re safe now.”

  Her eyes fluttered and closed, but not before he felt her hand tighten over his in a quick squeeze. Maltoki sat across from him, weapon in hand. He smiled at Calier and gave him a thumbs up. Calier nodded back. It had been a long journey, but they had their Berit back.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Cirta spoke over the ship comm. “I would like to thank you for flying Alam Airways. Unfortunately, we won’t be landing right away, at least I hope we won’t. Seriously guys, there are a lot of hostile ships over this area. I am going to take a few shots at them and then we will probably need to make a run for it. Just hang on.”

  Scrambling back to his seat, Calier felt the ship shudder followed by a new sound. Snapping his attention toward the cockpit he could see a trail of white smoke streaking away from their ship. The missile struck true, and they watched as a Valkyrie erupted into flames and spun into the receding waters of Lake Keali.

  Maltoki gave a cheer as Cirta banked the ship hard. Calier grabbed at the handholds near his seat instinctively. Something rattled against the side of the ship.

  Cirta spoke over the comm again. “Sorry for the short ride, guys, but we just got tagged by their guns and it messed with a whole bunch of really important stuff that keeps us flying. So, hang on, because I need to ditch this lovely lady.”

  The ship dropped quickly, rocking and fighting against Cirta’s efforts to maintain control. Calier risked a peek out the forward window and saw that Cirta was trying to angle the ship toward a more open area to the north of the lake. He heard the braking thrusters fire and the ship slowed. Cirta was able to get the nose up, but the ship still hit hard.

  Calier was thrown against his restraints as the ship bumped twice and skidded to a stop. He’d expected so much worse, but somehow the pilot had been able to pull off a decent landing.

  “Yeah!” he heard Cirta shout from the cockpit. “Barely a scratch
.” The pilot jogged past them and hit the control panel to open the loading ramp. He looked back at them as he picked up a rifle. “I accept tips for such an amazing landing. Come on.” He gestured toward the early morning light streaming in through the open doors. “I saw a group of our people fighting the humans not far from here.” He jogged down the ramp and disappeared.

  Maltoki, Ammaya, and Denar were out of their seats in seconds, checking their weapons and extra ammunition. Maltoki removed a pistol and a rifle from the weapons locker and handed them to Calier.

  “I know you don’t like these things, but I need you to keep Berit safe.” He looked after Ammaya and Denar who stood waiting for him just beyond the ship’s door and then back at Calier. For the first time he could remember, Calier saw a real fear in Maltoki’s eyes. The bravado had been stripped away by their situation. Maltoki smiled and gave Calier a quick embrace. “We’ll be back for you. We’ve got a reunion party to plan”

  Calier barely recognized his former student. Once a promising academic, the student he’d mentored and encouraged on that journey, now jogged down the ramp as a warrior. He’d seen this side of Maltoki several times on their journey through Sho’el. In times of great stress, Maltoki had become the encourager and the leader. He was naturally born for it, and Calier begrudgingly admitted as a sentinel, he was in the right spot to take full advantage of those talents.

  He regarded the piece of cold metal in his hand. The pistol was heavier than he’d expected. It wasn’t the physical weight that disturbed him so much, it was the weight of what it could accomplish, or destroy. The wayward philosophies of war and violence in Aereas’ past disturbed and disgusted him.

  His disgust was directed toward the people who’d forced him to this point where he had to use a weapon in an act of self-defense. As he stood on that ramp, his mind began to spiral into anger and depression at his circumstances and the humans who’d caused it all.

  Behind him Calier heard movement. He turned around and saw Cullen walking toward him. He turned on the translator. Calier regarded his unlikely ally. He looked at the pistol, and then held it out to the human.

  “Can I count on you?”

  Cullen took the pistol from Calier’s hand. “You can.”

  Calier looked at him grimly. Cullen had risked his life for Berit. He couldn’t put it into words, but he trusted this man.

  Turning, he looked in Berit’s direction. Within him he felt only one desire, to safely bring Berit home to see her mother again. Gripping the rifle tighter, Calier swallowed hard, understanding what it might take to fulfill that desire.

  The sound of footsteps made him bring his weapon up only to see Maltoki poke his head into the ship.

  “Get ready. The humans chased us back this way. I think they want their ship back,” Maltoki said before disappearing out of sight again.

  He ran down the ramp acknowledging the situation he’d been thrown into, but praying the inevitable would pass them by.

  ****

  “Keep your head down! Ammaya yelled.

  The first shots came just after they’d managed to erect a flimsy fortification of anything loose they’d found in the ship. The shots came from the surrounding trees, but Calier couldn’t see from where exactly and that was the terrifying thing.

  Maltoki and Ammaya would take occasional shots at movement they caught just beyond the tree line, but mostly they waited and hunkered down behind their makeshift fortress.

  Ammaya peaked her head over the blockade and surveyed the forest. “They really want this ship back in one piece.”

  “How do you know that?” Calier asked through labored breath.

  “Because if they didn’t care, we’d all be dead by now,” the captain replied as she squeezed off a shot before ducking back down behind the crates. “They have enough fire power to turn us into a crater. They’re biding their time for some reason.”

  Maltoki sighted down his rifle. “Maybe they’re waiting for friends.”

  Calier swallowed hard. He wasn’t sure how soldiers like Maltoki and Ammaya did it. How did they function in this murky, anxiety soaked existence where your life was in constant danger? He was exhausted and the fight had only been going on for fifteen minutes. Prayers flowed out of him like water, and he asked the All-Knowing One to see them through to the other side of this situation.

  On his other side, Cullen huddled behind a crate, occasionally taking a wild shot. Calier no longer had any doubts of the human’s loyalty.

  The clatter of metal at his feet made Calier open his eyes. He stared at a metal cannister spewing white smoke. Several more cannisters rattled against the loading ramp while some bounced off the metal crates and landed among the forest grass. Immediately, Calier began to cough as the very air he breathed began to sear his mouth, nose, and lungs. It felt like someone was using a wire brush to clean out the inside of his throat. His eyes were on fire. Dropping his rifle, Calier rubbed his eyes furiously trying to dull the pain, but it continued to rage. The others were gagging as well. The pain was overwhelming, and he needed to get away. Stumbling past the boxes that had protected him from the enemy bullets, Calier staggered toward open air and away from the gas. After several steps, fresh air began to fill his lungs and the burning began to subside.

  Bright light exploded over Calier’s brain as something solid impacted the side of his face, and he tumbled to the ground. Through blurred vison he was able to make out a black-fatigued soldier in his visored helmet standing over him pointing a gun at his chest. Instinctively Calier rolled and swept his legs in an arc, taking the soldier’s legs out from underneath him. The human fell on top of Calier, his gun bouncing away. Calier wrapped the man in a bear hug, trying to pin his arms to his side. He didn’t know what else to do, but if the man couldn’t get to any other weapons, maybe Calier could find a way out of this.

  They thrashed on the ground, and Calier used all of his strength to keep the man pinned, but was losing the fight as strength fled from his arms. The soldier was able to work one arm free and get off a wild blow to the side of Calier’s face. Calier lost his grip on the second arm and then felt two hands close over his throat, cutting off his ability to breathe.

  Calier tried to roll and buck the man off his chest, but the soldier was solid and had weight on him. Balling up his fist, he beat against the man’s helmet and sides, but only succeeding in bloodying his knuckles. As consciousness faded, his hand struck the man’s side and felt the handle of a knife.

  Calier yanked the knife free and wildly stabbed at the soldier. The blade glanced off body armor twice, before finding a space between the thin plates and plunging into flesh. The man groaned, but did not let up on the pressure. Again he jabbed and found the opening. A third and a fourth time he sank the blade in as far as it would go, his only thought for his own survival. Around his throat the pressure eased. The man sagged and collapsed on top of Calier. With the strength left in his arms, Calier rolled the soldier off him and lay panting in the grass.

  In his hand he still clutched the knife. The blade was crimson with the blood of the man he’d just killed. He stared at it in revulsion. He remembered the day of the invasion, that first day when he’d looked into the courtyard of the university and had seen students murdered. That was the first time he thought maybe he was capable of something like what he’d just done. Now he knew, and he hated the knowing.

  Still lying on the ground, shapes swarmed about him and he knew the end had come. There were too many and the humans would take this day and then Aereas. Without the Ma’Ha’Nae there would be no one to pick up the weapons of war and fight. Despair roughly pushed aside any hope he’d been clinging to and crushed his will to resist. His hand dropped to the ground and his fingers uncurled from around the blood stained blade.

  The roar of engines filled his ears. Dirt and debris flew into the air as the shape of a large aircraft darkened the sky above him. Calier squinted against the flying dust. The ship didn’t have the right shape and it was mu
ch larger than any human ship they’d encountered. It hovered above the clearing for several seconds and then accelerated out of sight. He heard more gunfire and saw several of the black-uniformed men drop to the ground. Out of the smoke emerged five new shapes, humans, judging by their weapons, but dressed in distinctively different clothing.

  A man loomed over him, rifle leveled at his chest. Calier stared into the man’s blue eyes and waited for the end. Instead the barrel of the weapon lowered and the man offered his hand to Calier. He looked at the offered hand and then back at the man before reaching up and being hauled to his feet. The soldier nodded and gestured for him to follow.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Aereas - Alam, Ma’Ha’Nae city under Lake Keali

  The streets of Alam were filled with panicked people trying to find a way out of the doomed city. The Eldest helped those who didn’t know which way to go, directing them toward the exits leading into the forest.

  He helped and he prayed. He’d always imagined his prayers as smoke offerings to the Unseen One drifting up through the waters and into the sky beyond where his God made a home for all those who believed. Those prayers were collected in bowls and offered before the throne of the Unseen One. Right now, he knew his prayers, those of his fellow elders, and the people streaming out of the city were filling many bowls in that celestial home.

  A young man holding a small child stopped in front of him. “Father, you need to leave the city. We can’t lose you.”

  The Eldest smiled, reached his hand out, and laid it on the head of the black-haired child. “No. It is such as these we cannot lose. If the All-Knowing One sees fit in His will that I should see another day, then I will give thanks. If not, then I will praise Him before his throne. You must flee and save this one entrusted to you. The children are our future. As long as they draw breath, our hope has not run out.” He pushed the man toward the exit. “Now go. Remain here no longer.”