by James Somers
ASSAULT
Governor Kisch K’ta looked very worried. This was exactly the kind of situation he had hoped to avoid by sending out the android assassin. His confidence in its ability may have been premature.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Governor. The city’s perimeter defense systems just picked up this attack force five minutes ago. They appear to have originated from one of the region of Mt. Vaseer. They’ll be within nine miles by now.”
“Activate the defensive batteries at once. Destroy them all,” Kisch K’ta demanded.
Setaru’ lek pressed the intercom button on the Governor’s desk and patched into the cities defensive control room.
“Vescotta, lock on approaching targets and fire at will.”
“Yes, sir.”
Defensive laser cannons on the west side of the city powered up as the gunners worked to lock on the approaching vehicles. They were still out of visual range, but quite visible on Vorn scanners.
“Sir, the vehicles are widely dispersed and too small to get a positive lock while moving at this speed.”
“Tell the turrets to strafe across their flight path. That should take out some of them,” Vescotta said.
The large laser cannons expelled their massive firepower with great moans of energy buildup and release. The beams trailed away from the city and into the twilight toward their distant targets.
Ranul saw what he thought was heat lightening building in his peripheral vision. A massive beam of energy lit up the terrain ahead of their transport group. The laser beam instantly cut a horizontal track across their path, catching two transports along the way. They burst into fiery fragments as inertia carried them onward, distributing the burning wreckage along their previous flight paths.
The transport group scattered even further apart as more laser fire blasted at them from the city in the distance. The pilots made erratic maneuvers in order to evade the assault. Estall grabbed the communication hand-set and yelled into it saying, “Increase speed to full throttle! Evasive maneuvers!”
The entire transport group surged forward faster, making them even harder to hit. They were still three miles outside of the capital and closing fast.
A beam of energy blazed near Estall’s transport, cutting across their flight path behind them. Ranul suddenly realized why he liked being a scientist rather than a warrior. The city perimeter came up fast now. Estall and the others in the transport prepared their firearms for battle. It appeared most of the ships had made it through the gauntlet and were now too close to be targeted by the large cannons, which now fell silent.
Another barrage of fire began to sweep across the distance between their transports and the Vorn facility. But now the firestorm came from the hundreds of Sentinel robots around the facility’s perimeter.
Pulse-laser blasts rang out from the transports as the Aolene returned enemy fire. The shots impacted against the forward deflectors as Estall pushed on through the line of Sentinels with their ship. The deflector shield bounced the robots out of their way as they rammed their way through. The warriors activated their electromagnetic shields and hurried out of the transports, firing their pulse weapons at the Sentinels.
The robots took multiple hits, but had greater numbers at their disposal. The Sentinel’s armaments were too much for handheld pulse rifles to be effective against them. As the robots approached, their own guns still blazing, the Aolene warriors secured their rifles in favor of Barudii blades and kemsticks. More and more warriors drew their blades, put shields ahead, and moved into the oncoming Sentinels.
The E.M. shields gave them cover as they closed the distance needed to strike. The Barudii blades sliced through the Sentinel armor like butter. The powerful blows of the Aolene warriors dispatched robot after robot. The Sentinels appeared helpless to stop the Aolene advance as robots fell to their human foes.
Estall shouted for the other warriors as several hundred came against the cloning facility’s wall. Using handheld grapples, they fired them over the perimeter of the roof and quickly began to scale the walls. Ranul didn’t like this part one bit. He detested heights. And he didn’t enjoy being pulled up the height of this wall any more than he had being pushed off by Orin the night before. When the warriors had all reached the roof, they ran across to ventilation shafts and sliced open the vent heads, allowing them to enter. Estall instructed them to fan out through the facility and take the main control room.
“Whoever gets to it first, contact me.”
Ranul stayed glued to Estall as they all plunged into the dark maze of tunnels comprising the facility’s ventilation system.
“Governor, the facility has been breeched by enemy forces,” Setaru’ lek reported. “They have bypassed our ground forces at the building entrances and are moving through the ventilation system. Several floors are reporting gunfire while others don’t respond at all.”
“Get more soldiers up here at once!”
Behind the room’s ventilation screen, Estall, Ranul, and several warriors listened.
“That’s him,” whispered Ranul. “That’s Governor Kisch K’ta. If you can take him, you’ll control the Vorn.”
Estall ran at the vent screen and crashed through it, rolling into the room. The other warriors followed. Several Sentinels responded by firing upon them. Their E.M. shields repelled the laser blasts while they engaged the robots with Barudii blades.
The governor and Setaru’ lek, along with several other men, crouched on the ground in fear. The governor’s office door slid open, allowing several Horva guards to come inside. Like sleek predators, they leaped at the Aolene warriors, attacking furiously. One of the Aolene near the entrance was caught from behind by one of the clones as it plunged a knife into his throat. The wounds were fast and fatal, and the dark skinned clone kept coming.
Ranul blasted at the Horva with several bursts of pulse laser fire from his crouched position just inside the vent shaft, dropping the clone. Two more Horva came in for the kill.
The Horva swiped his dagger at Estall as he brought his blade up to defend himself, causing the brute man to sever his own hand upon Estall’s weapon. As the wild man recoiled in pain, Estall followed through with a quick thrust through its chest to dispatch the feral man. As the last Horva lunged at the third warrior, Vasad, it met a spicor disc in flight, which vaporized the majority of his body. Ranul leveled his pulse rifle on Governor Kisch K’ta.
“Hello, Governor…surprised to see me?”
“I should have given you and your family to the Horva long ago, Ranul.”
“Governor Kisch K’ta, you will broadcast to your soldiers, telling them to stand down immediately or you and your people here will suffer excruciating deaths for crimes against my people,” Estall said.
“You would torture us?” Setaru’ lek asked.
“Exactly as you tortured my wife, you filth.” Ranul responded.
“You have killed millions of our people and sent our children away to be massacred by your clones. There must be some retribution for their deaths,” said Estall.
“I will order my men to stand down, but it will do you no good. When our reinforcements come through the rift, you and your rebels will be the ones made to suffer.”
“Where is my wife, Governor?” Ranul asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, you can do better than that,” Estall said.
“I tell you, I don’t know. She was taken as a prisoner across the rift months ago after you agreed to build the android prototype for us.”
“Then I’ll find it in your data files,” Ranul said.
He made his way to the closest computer terminal and input his translator code allowing him to read the files. The display changed from the Vorn language to Castillian, but access to the information he wanted was denied. He turned back to the Governor. “The code, Kisch K’ta? Now!”
The Governor remained sternly silent, until Estall raised his blade. He brought the tip close to Kisch K’ta�
��s throat.
“Governor, the code.”
Kisch K’ta swallowed hard, listening to the hum of adomen, then grumbled the voice code in his native tongue. The computer responded, allowing Ranul to begin scanning through the Vorn database.
“Now, send the stand-down order and have your people report to the main hangar of this facility,” Estall demanded.
Kisch K’ta looked at Setaru’ lek who normally would have protested the idea of Vorn clansmen surrendering under any circumstances. He now appeared to be in no hurry to sacrifice his own life. The Governor tapped into the communications display on his desk panel, opening a channel to his ground forces commander. He issued the command in his own language and then received a puzzled but compliant reply.
“Now what?” asked Setaru’ lek.
“Vasad,” Estall said, “take the governor’s aides with you and go to the hangar bay. Have the others meet you there with their captives and wait for the Vorn army to arrive. Hold them there in the hangar for now.”
Vasad motioned with his pulse rifle to Setaru’ lek and Kisch K’ta’s other aides to come with him. He looked back at the governor, who offered no alternative, then proceeded out the door with the others and Vasad behind them.
“Estall, I’ve ordered the Sentinels to stand down,” said Ranul, “but you need to look at this.”
He put his display onto the large main viewer on the wall. A picture of the Vorn’s scanner readouts and log entries appeared on the screen.
“It looks like they’ve been tracking the Saberhawk since it left the atmosphere. They’re on approach to enter the transdimensional rift. Look, all of this has been sent as a continuous transmission to the fleet on the other side, but there hasn’t been any reply, even on this closed channel.”
“Maybe they’re maintaining silence to try and surprise our ship when it comes through.”
“Not likely,” Ranul said. “The last transmission from across the rift appears to have been a week ago and nothing at all since. Why haven’t your forces responded, Governor? Your transmission log shows repeated attempts with no reply. Why?”
“If I knew, then we wouldn’t be continuing to try and gain a response would we?”
“There’s a reference here in some of their last responses to the Sphere. What does that mean, Governor?”
Ranul could see something foreboding in the governor’s eyes, though he answered not a word.
“Search the database for the term.”
Ranul keyed the reference into the computer. Immediately, a massive file with numerous subsections appeared on the screen. He scanned through the data very quickly, trying to make sense of it. The more he read, the more he understood Kisch K’ta’s odd look of dread. A disturbing realization came to him.
“You’ve been running! That’s why you came here through the rift. To get away from this thing! Isn’t it?”
The governor remained silent as the images appeared on the main display.
“I don’t understand,” Estall said, still trying to grasp what all the information revealed to Ranul.
“A lot more is going on here than we thought.”
The Saberhawk began to vibrate more as it approached the rift. The dark center was ominous, like some terrible beast wanting to swallow the ship whole. Nothing could be seen beyond. Even their sensor scans revealed nothing about what lay on the other side. No one spoke. All eyes fixed on the approaching void.
Orin continued to watch the instrument readouts, looking for any information about what lay beyond the blackness. He noticed all light repelled by the void along with all sensor scans. Somehow the Vorn had been able to keep communication across the rift, even when it had been in collapse phase. But he wasn’t sure what technology they had employed. The ship shook violently and Millo had to work to remain on course.
“I think the void is trying to repel the ship just like it does energy waves,” said Orin.
“I’ll increase thrust to compensate.”
The Saberhawk lurched forward, struggling against the forces of the transdimensional rift. As they began to enter the void, the turbulence suddenly ceased, and all the gauges and dials on the instrument panel went black.
Only the light from their display was visible as the void engulfed them. The ship seemed to surge forward, even though thruster speed remained constant. When the Saberhawk emerged on the other side, it seemed as though they had emerged to the same space they had come from.
A huge space vessel, blazing under attack, quickly changed their perception. It flew right for them as the Saberhawk emerged from the rift.
“It’s a Vorn ship!” Orin shouted.
The ship was much larger than those stationed at Castai, easily a hundred times the size of the Saberhawk.
Multiple explosions and streams of fast burning gases and chemicals trailed at different points on the ship’s surface. Millo took immediate evasive maneuvers to get away from the vessel as it closed on them at a frightening speed. A burst of main thrusters bore them hard to port away from the damaged ship which continued on by without acknowledging them-driving hard for the rift.
Orin began scanned the ship, trying to find out what was going on. Life-form readings appeared along with various discernable statuses on the vessels current hull integrity and power systems.
“It’s breaking up!” Orin reported. “There are ten thousand people onboard.”
“Burn, baby, burn,” Millo said under his breath as he directed the Saberhawk away from the vessel. Everyone remained tense.
“I’m still not sure what’s causing this,” Orin said.
Tiet and Dorian exchanged concerned glances but remained silent, trying to listen to Orin and Millo as they contemplated this surprising find. As the computer continued to pull data from the vessel, something else appeared on the display.
“I’m not sure what these things are-some sort of spheres-approximately thirty feet in diameter. They’re completely mechanical. There’s quite a number surrounding the hull of the vessel and some on the inside.”
Orin continued his scans monitoring the Vorn ship’s engine systems. “Its reactor core has been breeched. It’s going to blow!”
The large ship ran hard for the transdimensional rift. The sheering forces from the void peeled pieces away from the crippled vessel as it entered the darkness with its entourage of attackers in tow. Just as the front half of the ship sank into the void, it erupted into a white hot ball of flame, quickly fading as all gases and chemicals combusted away. Multiple shockwaves surged away from the rift, tossing the Saberhawk like a toy upon the energy waves.
Dorian shouted, “What’s happening?”
I think the explosion has triggered a reaction in the rift!” Orin shouted as Millo fought hard to bring the Saberhawk back under control. In moments the turbulence passed and the voyage became smooth again.
“I should do a sensor sweep of the quadrant and see where other Vorn ships are and what those things were that destroyed that ship. Maybe we have an ally on this side.”
“Well, whatever they are, they don’t like the Vorn,” Tiet said.
The data on Orin’s display recalibrated to his new search.
“There is a planet nearby,” Orin said. “It’s habitable. The readings look identical to Castai. I’m showing some other activity in the near vicinity. It looks like more Vorn battle cruisers near the planet and an orbiting station of immense size. This planet could be their home. I’m picking up a large amount of random energy fluctuations. It looks like another large explosion of a vessel similar to the one that almost hit us. Take us toward the planet so we can get a better look at what’s happening.”
“Someone is doing all the fighting for us,” Tiet said.
“Weapons and shields are charged and ready. We’re going in,” Millo said as he brought the Saberhawk about on course for the nearby planet. The Saberhawk was a fast ship. The trip at full speed would take about twenty minutes.
TWIN
As they d
rew near, Orin worked to get a visual of the battle taking place ahead. A tactical map replaced part of the information on the display. Markers representing various sizes of Vorn space vessels moved on the screen as faster moving dots, representing the mechanical spheres, intermingled with them. A large ship disappeared from the map along with two smaller ships traveling near it.
“Those things are slaughtering the Vorn fleet,” said Tiet.
“It’s about time someone gave it to them,” replied Millo.
Orin remained focused on the tactical data coming across his monitor. Just because these mysterious mechanical spheres decimated the enemy ships did not necessarily mean they were allies. The tactical map tracked all of the engaged vessels, but the Vorn signatures were rapidly disappearing from the display. Each time a vessel exploded approximately, fifty spheres were destroyed with it. The objects were clearly running suicide missions. But why?
“What are we going to do when we reach the battle, Orin?”
“I’m not sure, but at current speed there won’t be many Vorn ships left when we arrive.”
Orin recalibrated the scanners to bring up a more accurate picture on the display. After a few adjustments a visual appeared, showing two remaining Vorn vessels with spheres swarming about them. Explosions erupted at various places along their massive hulls as the spheres strafed the lengths of each vessel with powerful energy weapons.
The individual spheres moved in concert and soon the last two ships broke apart on the Saberhawk ‘s display. Even watching the destruction of the Vorn fleet could not erase the feeling of imminent danger. The spheres were too deadly for the Saberhawk crew to be happy about the victory.
“What if they turn on our ship next?” Tiet asked. There seemed little chance of surviving such an attack if the entire Vorn fleet of space cruisers could not. So far the massive Vorn space station was left unharmed. Orin’s computer showed nearly one hundred thousand people aboard it.