by James Somers
Activating the hypermagnetic discs beneath their android skin, they each clung to the hull of the Saberhawk. The ship’s shields did not prevent them since they were designed only to repel energy weapons. The two androids avoided any attempt to cut through the hull with Barudii blades as it would cause a repulsion charge from the shields and vaporize them. They crawled across the hull on their bellies, as the shields snapped back energetically above them at the incoming pulse blasts from the battle.
Vale recalled the entry code for the outer hull hatch and keyed it in. The outer hull door obeyed, and both androids entered the ship without incident. Vale recognized the cargo hold as the place of his defeat at the hands of the Barudii warrior.
The robots walked to the doorway of the cargo hold and found it locked. Vale-two used his blade to cut a portal through the metal door. The pair proceeded down the corridor toward the bridge, even as the ship shuddered under enemy fire raining upon it from all directions. The android’s heard voices beyond the locked bridge door-a man and a woman. They sliced through the door with Barudii blades.
Dorian whirled around in her chair at the weapon console, hearing the crackling of molecular bonds bursting. She threw a spicor disc toward the android coming in through the cut hole. Vale-one caught the spicor disc in the upper torso. The tightly controlled burst pattern vaporized all but its arms above the waist and left the lower body hanging in the door.
Dorian pulled her blade as the second robot moved in fast over its fallen twin. She felt the pressure and pain building in her fractured arm as she brought it to join her other arm on the hilt of her sword.
Millo looked back from the controls, as he heard the spicor explode behind him. The ship was taking a beating from the sporadic weapons fire erupting from the battlefield below them. There was no way he could leave the controls. The android grabbed a pulse blaster with its free hand and sprayed laser fire in all directions across the bridge. The electromagnetic shield on Dorian’s forearm repelled the incoming blasts.
Millo held the controls of the Saberhawk as the firestorm swept across the bridge. Several shots pierced his flight chair and his body. He arched in pain for a moment then slumped forward over the controls.
The ship lurched upward and back, causing Vale to stumble a moment. As he brought the blaster back toward Dorian, it met her blade in flight. She sliced through both the weapon and the android’s hand. With no notion of pain, Vale brought his own blade down upon Dorian’s shoulder, only to find her weapon barring the way. With Millo slumped over the controls and many of the flight controls destroyed by laser fire, the Saberhawk turned backwards from its course, descending clumsily toward the battlefield.
Tiet saw the Saberhawk under fire from both the battlefield and the sky. Millo drove the ship hard away from the fight. Soon Dorian would be safe. In his heart, he urged the ship on. He and Orin had been separated by a small distance and were furiously battling clone soldiers as they tried to get through the congestion.
The entire valley before Mt. Vaseer blazed with laser fire. Overhead a multitude of aerial combatants tore each other out of the sky. Wreckage dropped onto the battlefield at regular intervals as the Sphere drones and the Vorn attack fighters with clone pilots exchanged weapon’s fire in a chaotic dogfight.
A Horva warrior strafed at Tiet with his pulse rifle. He deflected several blasts with kemsticks as he spun them around his body then Tiet let one stick fly toward his attacker. It caught the Horva’s gun and proceeded to swipe across his chest and cut him down. The kemstick rebounded back to Tiet’s waiting hand in time to block an incoming battle staff in the hands of another clone warrior. He dispatched his opponent and kept going.
Tiet kept a visual on the ship. Its path was leading it off the battlefield to the east and he was glad Millo was getting them out. The ship slowed, arching nose up then it came back around from its present course. Something was wrong. Tiet’s heart sank when he saw laser fire flashing repeatedly through the bridge windows. “No!”
The ship fell back from its escape run and began descending onto the battlefield. If they didn’t recover quickly they would crash for sure, and Tiet was too far away to do anything to help them. Several men approached Tiet to attack. He repelled them all with a blast of his mental power.
Tiet reached out in desperation with his mind, trying to seize the ship and keep it aloft, but the Saberhawk’s engines fought to drive it downward into the valley floor. The ship slammed into the ground, crushing several of the sphere robots and dozens of clone warriors caught in its path. The Saberhawk burst into several large pieces as it tumbled over twice. Tiet felt his strength slip away as he watched Dorian going down to her death in a fireball.
He burst away from his position, running as hard as he ever had. Tiet closed the distance between himself and the wreckage. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew Dorian was not dead. Tiet sensed her location in the wreckage as he drew near. He could feel her pain.
From the wreckage before him, a familiar adversary emerged with the majority of its synthetic skin burned away. The android was here-it had caused this. It had hurt her. Before the robot even spotted him, Tiet hit it with a mental burst fueled by pure rage, sending the robot flying into a large section of the Saberhawk’s hull. Before the android could recover, Tiet leaped through the air and came down on top of it. He pinned its head to the wreckage with his blade, driving the weapon in all the way to the hilt. The android body jerked with mechanical aftershocks then moved no more.
Tiet backed away and went searching for Dorian. He found her pinned underneath a metal support pillar. He pulled underneath the edge of the metal trying to move it. Using his mental power for added strength, he got it off her and let it fall a few feet away. Dorian looked at him, barely conscious. She tried to speak, but did not have the strength.
Tiet sat next to her speechless as tears welled in his eyes and escaped down his anguished face. He held her hand and felt it grow cold as life left her body. Dorian reached to touch the donjarr on Tiet’s wrist then she touched his lips. Her fingertips lingered there only a moment. Her arm fell limp as the focus of her gaze faded. Tiet’s mind raged apart from any coherent thought. He became numb to his senses.
The one who had loved him and chosen him above any of her clan was dead. Sorrow filled his mind and despair gripped his heart. Tiet only half heard the battle raging around him. Then he heard familiar heavy footsteps running across the wreckage, too heavy for a man. He looked at the robot. It was still lifeless and pinned to the hull by his sword. Then he looked toward the approaching sound and saw another android running at him, its own blade ready to strike.
Tiet reached out for his sword, still lodged in the other android’s metal cranium. It obediently dislodged itself and leaped through the air to his hand in time to meet the second android’s strike. He wondered only a moment why there were so many of these things running around. The fight was on. Tiet slashed furiously at the deadly android, finding every strike countered. He exploded with rage as the thought of Dorian lying here dead on the battlefield tore through his mind. He screamed out in fury at the robot. “Die!”
His rage burst forth as a wave of psychokinetic energy hitting the third android with astonishing force, sending it flying through the air into a pile of the Saberhawk ‘s wreckage. Tiet had never felt so powerful. His anger fueled his mental power and he could not contain it. The Vale android regained its composure and attacked again. Tiet lowered his father’s blade to his side and let the power flow freely. The Vale robot came closer, ready to kill its target. Then the Barudii blade it was carrying was torn from its grasp.
The android stopped for a moment confused. Tiet looked on with grim satisfaction. He summoned the wreckage around him to attack the robot.
Man-sized pieces of debris flew off the ground toward Vale, striking the robot repeatedly. The jagged hunks of metal tore away the androids veneer of humanity, exposing the adomen skeleton beneath. The projectiles pummeled the robot again and again
, tearing off an arm and parts of its torso.
Tiet scowled at his prey as he launched the mental attack, but nothing could dull the pain of losing Dorian. He hurled his blade at the robot. The sword pierced its adomen skull, driving hilt deep into the android’s head. The android fell over and did not move again. The battle still raged on around him. But Tiet knelt near Dorian’s body and sobbed.
GROD
Malec surveyed his monitors again to be sure. It was never a good idea to give the General premature information. He was a great leader, but not a patient man. “General, the weapons are fully charged and we have locked onto the orbital location of the giant Barudii Sphere,” he said.
Grod did not acknowledge his words at all. He was watching a scene on the battlefield he had not expected to see.
“Sir?”
“Yes, Malec, I heard you,” Grod replied.
“Shall I order the weapons to fire, General? “
“Wait just a moment.”
“But, sir, the window of opportunity is closing fast. Our junk satellites will drift beyond the Sphere’s location if we don’t act now,” Malec said with more urgency.
General Grod was focused on the battlefield again.
“General?”
“Yes, Malec, order the detonation. Malec, do you see that person down there near the wreckage of that ship?” he asked as he handed him the binocs. “I believe that is another Barudii warrior.”
“Sir? But they have been…”
“I realize that. Nevertheless, he possesses the Barudii power.” He paused. “Destroy the Sphere, Malec, but afterward I want that man brought into custody.”
“Yes, sir. It will be done”
General Grod raised a long range rifle and brought the scope to bear on the young Barudii. He knelt in the wreckage of an old Barudii warship holding the body of a woman. Grod aimed his weapon and fired a single shot at the young man.
Malec activated the special electromagnetic pulse weapons in orbit. The weapons, disguised as old junk satellites, drifted into the giant Sphere, magnetically attaching themselves as it controlled its drones on the planet below. The Sphere, busy with the surface battle, sensed no threat from the objects. Malec hit the destruct key.
One instant later, an electromagnetic pulse enveloped the Barudii sphere, frying its circuitry in a devastating release of energy. The electromagnetic wave penetrated to the core of the giant Sphere module and laid waste to every electronic circuit it came into contact with.
The Sphere never saw it coming. All power failed and the control of its drones ceased.
On the battlefield, the sphere drones became confused and unable to fight. The air drones flew off course and began to crash into the battlefield. Orin was still engaged with the Horva, taking on as many as he could, when he noticed the change in the robots and the air drones. The clones tore down the mech-robots without receiving any retaliation while the air drones crashed around them.
Orin ran for the cover of the surrounding ridges. The battlefield had suddenly turned into pure chaos. He only hoped Tiet had found cover. A drone smashed into a group of Horva near Orin. The blast from the impact sent wreckage flying in every direction. The debris cut down the men and showered a mound of dirt and wreckage over Orin.
The carnage was over quickly, and the battlefield quieted down as the men who remained alive began to reorganize and look to the wounded. The badly injured were dispatched on the spot. Those able to carry their own weight rejoined ranks with General Grod.
He smiled at the outcome of his plan. Victory was well within his grasp now. The destroyer was gone and only the Vorn remained. And they were proving to be no match. It had been a foolish thing for their masters to place all of their military hopes on their clone slaves. And now Grod gave them no choice-their muscle was taking over.
“Well done, Malec. Now fetch my Barudii prize and return him to the laboratory complex at Nagon-toth.”
“Yes, sir. General, we’re picking up a massive object in orbital decay. It will hit the atmosphere within the hour.”
“Very good.”
The giant Barudii sphere could be seen to the west within forty minutes. Fire trailed away as the atmosphere burned away most of its mass. The remaining charred wreckage would eventually drop into the Waron Sea to the northeast, approximately three hundred and twenty miles from the battlefield at Mount Vaseer.
Malec led the armed group to the wreckage of the Saberhawk and gathered up the unconscious Barudii warrior Grod had brought down with a tranq-round. One of the soldiers pulled the female body away from him then they bound and fastened the unconscious warrior within a shielded capsule for transport to the heavily fortified complex at Nagon-Toth. The General was already leading the remaining Horva troops toward their home base. There they would begin regrouping with more clones in order to execute the General’s next objectives against the Vorn.
By the time Orin regained consciousness, the battle was over. It was earlier in the day than it had been during the battle, letting him know he had laid there overnight. A large piece of drone wreckage had landed across his body, but it had been buffered by a significant mound of dirt carried in the impact. Orin felt the weight, but no pain.
He moved the large piece of metal with his mind. Then he mentally pushed the heavy dirt away and inspected himself for signs of injury. Other than a possible concussion, he appeared to be fine. Orin stood and scanned the valley floor. He found the wreckage of the Saberhawk and ran toward it.
The valley was littered with debris from crushed drones and aerial fighters. The remains of clone soldiers also covered the landscape. Wild animals growled at Orin as he passed through the area-they guarded a smorgasbord. The sky was filled with birds. They swooped down into the valley, collecting their portion then flew away again.
The birds scattered as Orin ran toward the wreckage. He heard screams coming from different places where the wounded clones were attacked by ravenous beasts. How fitting for the destroyers of my people.
When he reached the remains of the Saberhawk, it was still smoldering. Orin found Dorian’s body, but there was no sign of Tiet. Something must have happened. He would not have left her body exposed to the elements and the wild animals.
A closer look at the area revealed another surprise. Two more androids lay among the wreckage, apparently destroyed by Tiet. He walked over to one lying on the ground with Tiet’s blade still imbedded in its skull. He withdrew the sword and placed it into the sheath next to his own sword. Looking back to the ground around Dorian’s body, Orin saw what appeared to be several sets of boot prints. There were no dead clones in the vicinity.
Tiet would not have been consciously engaged by these brutes without having killed at least a few, he thought. He must have been unconscious. Orin spotted Millo several yards away among the cockpit wreckage. They had taken Tiet for a reason, but why would they want him alive?
First things first. Orin buried Dorian and Millo in a clear area among the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Then he mentally pushed a large piece of fuselage over their graves to protect the site from predators. Orin followed the tracks left by the Horva army’s departure. He didn’t know where they were headed, but he would die before he gave up on the son of his old friend. Tiet had become like his own child after all these years. Nothing would stop him from either retrieving the boy alive, or avenging his death.
When Tiet regained consciousness, he was suspended inside a semicircular mechanism with a form-fitting black suit covering all but his head, hands and feet. What appeared to be metallic buttons covered the surface of the garment. The room was dark except for a light focused on him and the soft glow of machines beyond. He saw vague movement in the dark but not much.
Tiet tried to exert his mind upon the mechanism that held him suspended in an energy field. He heard an alarm sound. A shock emanated from the suspension mechanism nearly driving him to unconsciousness again. My brainwaves are being monitored.
Tiet thought he might try a
gain and began searching for people in the room. The monitor alarmed again and the field shocked him once more. Pain. Tiet tried to contain the urge to cry out in pain. He was already exhausted from the punishing energy. He knew another attempt would knock him out and he at least wanted to be conscious. Had the Horva captured him? He wasn’t sure. He could only remember Dorian taking her last breath then pain and nothingness.
It wasn’t like the clones to have such technology and what had happened to Orin? Tiet hadn’t seen him since before the Saberhawk crashed into the valley floor. “Who are you?” he shouted.
There was no reply from the darkness. “Where am I? Come out and face me, you cowards!”
Behind a Plexiglas barrier a scientist tapped his communicator panel. “General? He’s awake.”
“Are you ready to collect your data?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Excellent. Move him to the dome.”
There had not been much to salvage from the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Orin had been able to obtain one blaster pistol, two working kemsticks and an extra scabbard for Tiet’s sword. He also found a locker containing several Barudii cloaks and some food packets.
The cloaks were made of a synthetic material capable of scrambling electronic signals coming into contact with it. This had the effect of rendering the wearer invisible to most scanners and sensor devices. It was a valuable asset when stealth was necessary.
Orin wore one cloak and carried another for Tiet stuffed inside his belt. If he was still alive then they would need it to escape from the clones with as little fight as possible. These intelligent Horva were much more skilled fighters than the brutish sort back home. He and Tiet would be greatly outnumbered even with their mental powers. A subtle approach would be necessary for this rescue if Orin was to successfully retrieve his protege and get him home.