Last Hope for Earth

by Jaime Mera

  “So what do we do now?” Cindy asked as she and Creator’s group watched the event from the edge of the buildings in the center.

  “Quatris can take care of himself. We need to find Varken as fast as possible.” Mathew replied.

  “I’ll lead.” Creator said and pulled Cindy’s wrist while the rest of the group followed in a daisy chain of hand to wrist contact.

  Spot and Rat Bastard breathed easy as they saw and heard the conversation, but the departure of the two super beings left them staring at craters, holes, rubble and a clearing of flat concrete for almost a mile outward. “What now?” Rat Bastard asked.

  Spot turned his body around looking for any enemy. “I don’t know big guy, it seems no one wants to attack us.”

  Rat Bastard quickly looked towards the center beam and the shaking ground. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

  Spot and Rat Bastard flew away from the center beam as the ground caved in surrounding it. The smaller beams around it were almost engulfed by the energy, but it was mostly the increase of the green light that gave the illusion of the large spread.

  “Whoa, that’s not good.”

  “No, but either we stay here or go help the Soldiers down that way.” Spot pointed, seeing the South American advance less than five miles away.

  “What happened to Io?” Rat Bastard scanned the area.

  “Don’t know, big guy, but they’re tough and should be alright. Let’s focus on people that need us.” Spot said and flew off towards the southeast.

  “I hope you’re right.” Rat Bastard glimpsed backward at the enlarging green beam, where Io, Ghost and Lee had disappeared.

  Outer space, one trillion miles from Earth

  The vastness of space seemed to be overrated for Quatris as he traveled the fraction of a light year in less than a minute. He looked back to check on Cyer matching his speed; more out of wanting a visual as he sensed Cyer’s energy level emission the entire route. With a slight grin he slowed down and turned. “If only we could talk.” He said to himself as Cyer stopped several hundred meters from him.

  “Is this far enough for you?” Cyer’s question came into Quatris’ mind.

  “Oh good. I thought this was going to be a silent action film.” Quatris said in his mind and with his mouth in case Cyer was reading his lips.

  “You can make the first move.” Cyer hovered in a relaxed standing posture.

  Instantly, Quatris moved next to him with his fist coming at Cyer’s cheek with lightning speed as Cyer blocked it with a raised arm. Both men jabbed and swiped at each other with hand-to-hand attacks and defensive maneuvers. In a few seconds they exchanged hundreds of blows only confirming no matter how hard they hit one another, their almost impenetrable skins were not going to be broken by brute physical force.

  Quatris locked his arms in a bear hug around Cyer’s waist. He strained to keep his tight hold as Cyer tried to push him away. Quatris let go and shot a black beam of energy, swirling with white electrical static, into Cyer’s chest.

  The antimatter energy tore into his flesh but stopped a half inch as Cyer absorbed the damaging energy and instantly regenerating any signs of skin or flesh damage. “Is that all you have?” Cyer’s taunt was more of a laugh.

  “You sure are in a hurry to die.” Quatris grinned also feeling the thrill of the game. He blasted Cyer with a blot of antimatter, much bigger and intense than the last.

  Cyer dodged the blast with his flight powers and returned a yellow laser beam at Quatris’ head.

  Quatris stuck his hand up as if catching a pitched baseball; the beam’s light spreading out on impact. The pain on his palm was long lasting, but welcomed as he focused on absorbing the intense energy into his own internal vortex of antimatter energies.

  Cyer flew in on top of Quatris shooting a blot of energy from both hands, arms extended outward. Hitting Quatris center mass on the chest.

  Quatris’ eyes glowed bright white as his chest seemed to yield to Cyer’s yellow energy, but the blackness of the surrounding chest cavity swallowed the energy and light.

  With a surge of power and extreme speed, Quatris flew behind Cyer, facing away from the sun and pushed a stadium size black antimatter ball of destruction at the genowraith.

  The ball of energy engulfed Cyer, blocking out all light emanating from him. The ball increased in size moving out several hundred miles taking Cyer with it before dispersing into a million pieces of static and fizzling booms flowed by flashes of white light.

  Quatris smiled as the energy which would have reduced the moon into a clump of misty white powder did very little to his opponent. With matching speed and direction, Quatris and Cyer flew further away from the Sun.

  Quatris flew into Cyer, but didn’t use his max speed in case he himself might be harmed for hitting a like harden object. Cyer dodged with difficulty, as Quatris’ shoulder nicked Cyer’s thigh. Quatris grabbed his shoulder as his muscles and joint ached with pain. He glanced back as he sped off into the distance. Cyer was grabbing his thigh also in pain. He grunted as the muscles and tendons regenerated back into their stable state, with the help of his antimatter energy.

  He reversed direction, but slowed down drastically stopping hundreds of meters from Cyer.

  Cyer started to glow yellow as if recharging his batteries. “Thank you Quatris, you have lived up to your reputation… You actually hurt me. No one has done that since I was born.”

  “Do we really want to find out how much more I can hurt you?”

  “It’s but a temporary injury, you will have to do better than that.” Cyer raised his palm out at Quatris. A throbbing cone of white energy engulfed Quatris.

  Quatris put his hands out in front of him straining to redirect the energy into the center of his being. He felt much stronger, but Cyer’s second energy attack was also more intense.

  He didn’t try to redirect the energy this time, instead he released a large amount of antimatter energy against Cyer’s beam.

  Cyer moved out of the way as Quatris’ retaliation overpowered his energy beam.

  “I’ve destroyed planets with the amount of energy I have sent your way. Now I’m beginning to understand.” Cyer flew away from Quatris giving him a respectable amount of distance between them.

  “Understand what, that you can’t win?” Quatris put up a hand as a black orb formed around Cyer.

  The pitch blackness of the orb caught Cyer by surprise. “Interesting, I can’t see through this bubble, but I can still sense your presence. No, matter.” A burst of yellow energy broke through the negative energy field.

  Quatris intently scrutinized the escape. Cyer’s energy was similar to Sedric’s quantum blasts. His DNA was mixed with three superhumans he knew, and five others he assumed were used to allow Cyer to balance his powers. He understood the need for self-control if whoever created Cyer used his DNA, but that was a flaw he could exploit. Quatris concentrated on Cyer again and brought another orb of dark energy, ten times stronger, around him.

  Quatris floated a mile from the hundred meter wide solid black sphere. It was quiet for the moment as he scanned around the Earth and the sector. Everything seemed to be the same with the green force generator still active but, warp signatures inside the Solar System drew his attention. He turned towards the orb sighing with concern. This battle needed to stop quickly and he doubted he could beat Cyer without creating a black hole in the process and destroying the Sun.

  The black orb instantly dissolved as Cyer’s body burst into a bright explosion lighting up the area as if the solar system had a second star for a few seconds.

  “You are powerful, and I’ll be happy to continue, but I don’t have time for this right now.” Quatris clenched his teeth, his body glowing with a red and black aura.

  Cyer felt the spike of energy with wide-eyed excitement, as Quatris unleashed a mile arc bolt of negative energy. The faster than light attack burned into Cyer’s flesh, pushing him back an unknown amount of distance before he lost consciousness.


  UFS Tarsus Bridge, Earth Orbit

  The crew watched the screens as two routes to the center of Apex were cleared by their particle beam weapons. It was a computer simulation of what should’ve been physically completed with confirmation by Stargazer and three telepaths on the bridge. Many faces lighten up with relief, but Eduardo turned to the comms officer with alarm. “Battle stations, tell the fleet and reinforce the shields!”

  No sooner had the commands transmitted out to the fleet when the UFS Izar’s starboard ion generator ruptured hydrogen fuel into space as a plasma bolt penetrated the exterior’s physical shielding. The starship twirled momentarily by the escaping gases, but computerized retro rockets along the port side countered the effect. Within seconds, the ship blew up with added plasma bolts hitting the crippled vessel.

  All other ships in the vicinity turned towards a vector a hundred-thousand miles above the North Pole. The battle screens changed to empty space, zooming as much as the computer system could optimize using the various optics installed on all the starships. “What do we have?” Eduardo griped the captain’s seat as the Tarsus moved away from the Earth into a nine thousand mile broken orbit.

  “Twelve alien craft, firing salvos of plasma torpedoes.” A young ensign replied short of being frantic on her console, adjusting the scans for potentially other enemy ships from different vectors.

  “Shields are at a hundred percent.” Ship controls, reported.

  Stargazer looked out into space but he couldn’t spot anything with the fidelity needed for the situation, having been unable to get a point of reference. He was also trapped inside the ship requiring too much time to exit through an airlock. “Rick, can you show me where they are?” Stargazer turned to Rick.

  “Sorry, I have to get the neutron weapons online.” Rick replied putting commands into his console.

  With controlled and concise exchanges, the bridge crew targeted and managed the ship’s countermeasures. “Second salvo impact in three seconds.”

  The Federation ships moved sideways as the computer’s countermeasures preempted and dodged the trajectories of the attack. “How did you do that?” Stargazer asked wondering why the more advanced Andromen starships he was on in the past never performed such maneuvers against almost light speed attacks.

  “All ships, fire alpha one.” Eduardo announced through his arm console.

  All starships and satellite weapons in line of sight fired the scheduled alpha one targeting program. A hundred plus synchronized beams of neutron particles converged on the twelve Pylaxian spacecraft. Eduardo watched as the twelve red icons on the screen turned yellow for a few seconds, then disappeared.

  “Twelve alien craft destroyed.” The battle damage officer confirmed the report.

  Eduardo turned to the comms officer, Commander Heather Jorge. “Tell me some good news Heather.”

  “No Sir, long-range sensors show hundreds of warp shadows.”

  Eduardo manipulated his console throwing Heather’s display on the main screen. In the same general direction but further, the spaceships’ warping light and transmitting subspace chatter were careless in thinking human technology wasn’t comparable to some aspects of Argonian space and military vessels.

  “Heather, give me secure coms with the fleet,” Eduardo touched the new icon that came up on his console ensuring the starships were talking to each other with laser comms alone.

  “As some of you are aware, there are three hundred plus warp signatures coming our way. We need to disperse away from Earth, so no stray or intended shots kill millions of people on the surface. Launch all fighters and get them into the atmosphere and on the ground. If it’s a hostile fleet, our dispersion will hopefully make them spread out as well. Use maximum weapon settings and take no quarter. Hold fire until you are engaged or identification has confirmed they are hostile. Andromeda battle officers will assign dispersion. We have eleven minutes and counting. Eduardo out.”

  Stargazer stood next to Eduardo. “Why didn’t you guys see the initial ships coming in from further out?”

  “We were using the communications system for comms and not extending our long range sensors, since Earth was more important at the time. Besides, space is big.” Eduardo said as he received the status of the UFS Izar with a crew of three hundred-six; now all KIA.

  “Oh.” Stargazer said nothing more seeing the report and looked away towards the main screen in thought.

  “The alien scouts got cocky shooting from so far with slow weapons. Out computers instantly took evasive maneuvers like our Hawk fighters. It was normally made to help prevent collisions with stray satellites and debris in orbit, but as you can see it helps against other stuff, something most interstellar travelers ignore because they constantly use strong deflectors.”

  “So our low tech saved some ships?” Stargazer looked at the surrounding digital windows along the main screen.

  “Yeah, well low tech can be subjective. I would say practical tech on our part, which they won’t be expecting.” Eduardo swiped his console and all four main screens converted to battle tracking of the sector of space in question. A small forty inch screen on the bottom right showed Earth operations, in particular Apex.

  “I can’t find Quatris.” Stargazer said not being able to track where the two super beings went after they left Apex.

  “It’s okay. There’re greater dangers than alien spaceships; even though we’re outnumbered by three to one. I’m sure he’s near and will step in as soon as he can. ”

  Stargazer watched as the ships swiftly moved several hundred thousand miles away from Earth thinking how much had changed since he signed up with the CIA back in 1970, making a trip to the moon as a miracle, but now it was an afterthought as a casual occurrence to step to the side from an oncoming train.

  Chapter 23

   --- 

  We All Die Sometime

  Western District, Apex Palace

  Off the main entrance of the palace, stood eight robotic spider looking monstrosities. Fifteen meters in height, their metallic black skin, glossy reflections and stillness made them seem like a marvel of modern era artistic statues of war. If it weren’t for the fact they stood in the path of street traffic without signs of damage to the paved ground, an onlooker would have thought they were craned in to be simple ground barriers or statues. The large caliber pair of guns on top of the head also added cause for awe and fear of the contraptions. The machines covered half the perimeter of the palace, which was surrounded by a twenty meter high wall made of metal and reinforcing silicon.

  Creator flew slowly above the buildings and descended down just over the wall. “I don’t see a force field, we should be good.” Creator said as he gave Mathew time to confirm it was clear of danger.

  “Good thing we don’t have to mess with those robots” Diana asserted.

  “If they’re outside, whatever’s inside is worse.” Creator replied as he flew to the center top of the octagon shape four-story sixty meter wide palace structure.

  “How are you so sure?” Kyle looked around the open surrounding lawn and top of the palace.

  “You don’t put your best bodyguards outside the door for protection, you keep them close.” Creator scanned the inside of the palace with difficulty. The two foot thick walls were coated with concrete, but the inside was a solid titanium alloy. “Damn, the walls are built like a battleship’s hull; except stronger.”

  “So can you see where Datan is?” Cynthia asked.

  “Yeah, he’s with a dozen androids and three humans, probably superhumans. There are like a hundred androids all throughout the palace waiting I guess, since they aren’t moving around like normal people. I guess they think someone will attack them directly through the front door.”

  “There might as well be a hundred plus with Datan if they can teleport to his location at will.” Valerie stated.

  “So we create distractions and take on the androids in the hallways and rooms. They don’t know our numbers a
nd as long as we watch our backs we should be able to reduce the reinforcements down to manageable numbers.” Mathew said.

  “What if someone calls the alarm outside the palace and gets another hundred to come and help?” Kyle muttered.

  “Then it’s going to be really crowed in the throne room.” Creator grinned and concentrated on the people around Datan. “Okay, Cynthia, you can start on the south side and work your way to the center. Kyle, I’m not sure if you can even hurt these guys so try to find their comms or defensive systems and shut them down. Valerie, go with Kyle. Diana, I will need you to work your way around with Cindy and kill whoever crosses your path starting from the north. Mathew and I will destroy what we see from the east and west ends of the palace, converging to the center, where we will spread out again and work our way down the floors. Any questions?”

  “Yeah, what do I do?” Larcis asked.

  “Stay up here out of sight as a lookout. Once it’s safe for you to enter, I’ll call you.” Creator stated knowing Night wouldn’t be able to stay alive if more than two androids attacked him in close quarters.

  “Sounds good to me Boss.” Larcis looked around spotting cover behind waist high set of boxes used for life support or something for the building’s electrical or mechanical functions.

  “Okay, Mathew will be first, Kyle and Valerie will start with him.” Creator flew towards the east side, and pointed to a room that the three could enter without being seen. Diana phased them through the ceiling into the fourth floor. As quickly as Diana phased back outside, Cindy made her invisible. Cynthia was second, and Creator third, giving Cindy and Diana a minute to get to her position before he started the attack.

  The empty office Creator was in seemed dull with almost no significant use, except to work as a location for someone to hold a title and manage emails. His gut told him it was built to fill a job no longer needed for decades. The palace was probably built first and now that the city seemed to be totally automated and filled with androids, it was wasted space. The inside walls on the floor were not as thick as the ceiling perimeter walls or floor, so he could see almost all the way across to the other side where Mathew was dropped off. Twenty-one androids were on the floor, which helped out his plan to attack them in sections. He targeted a group of five, down the hallway from the office and two rooms to the right.