Fallen Empire: A Military Science Fiction Epic Adventure (Born of Ash Book 1)

by Marc Alan Edelheit

  It felt like they had been walking for hours, days even, but a quick check of the time told her it had been no more than an hour and a half since they had left the corridor filled with desperate civilians.

  Lee had died a little over two hours ago, and yet it seemed like an eternity had passed. Keira was worn out, tired both mentally and physically. She felt like she was hanging on by a thin strand to her sanity.

  Her rifle was heavy in her arms. Keira longed to put it down and take a break. Her mouth was dry as a sun-drenched desert. She did not want to think or hurt anymore. She was angry too and had been for some time. It was a simmering thing, malevolent, hateful, and it was growing with every step she took away from her old life.

  The train station was a large space and, like much of the rest of the underground, dimly lit. Only a few of the overhead panels worked, and of those, the output was significantly reduced, as if they were operating in low-power mode.

  The foggy haze had grown thick again, making visibility even more difficult. They had worked their way deeper into the underground, descending back into the heart of the toxic zone. The fog gave the setting a surreal, outlandish feel. Keira hated it. She hated the militia too, Hakagi, and this planet most of all. It had taken nearly everything from her and, before it was all said and done, would likely take more.

  From what she could see of the train station, it had been constructed in a grand manner with a high, vaulted ceiling. The walls looked to be white marble, but that was likely just a façade, some sort of printed ceramic material that made it look like genuine marble.

  There were numerous columns throughout that appeared decorative but could just as easily have been load-bearing. Keira supposed the train station had been designed to be not only archaic-looking, but also aesthetically pleasing. She was too tired to care.

  There were four platforms for passengers just ahead, along with four corresponding tracks that ran from the front of the station into large tubes at the far wall, perhaps a kilometer distant. The subterranean rail system had once connected the entire planet. It had been yet one more marvel of engineering.

  A train sat on the track second to the leftmost. Like much of the rest of the station, the train had been scavenged for parts and lay in a partially disassembled state.

  There were entire panels missing from the outer shell of the cars. From what she could see, much of the internal equipment had also been removed. The doors and most of the windows had been detached and taken as well.

  All sorts of parts, equipment, and coils of power conduit stripped from the train and station lay nearly everywhere in view. Some had been organized into neat piles, while others had been strewn about haphazardly. There were even passenger seats stacked in neat rows on the platform next to the train.

  The train itself was at least a quarter of a kilometer long and consisted of ten cars, along with a sleek-looking engine, which was closest to them. The front of the engine was smooth and rounded to a near point. There were no windows for an operator. An AI would have done that job.

  The sight of the train, despite its partially disassembled state, almost made her forget their current predicament. A stir of curiosity overrode her weariness, exhaustion, hurt, and anger. The old urge bubbled up from within, the drive to dive in and explore, to tinker, to fix things. Keira stopped. The presence was still there, hovering just out of view. So too were the words it had spoken to her.

  Your worst nightmare …

  Chris glanced back at her, clearly wondering why she had stopped. Keira started walking again. She did not feel like answering uncomfortable questions. They continued, moving deeper into the station. Vex was still in the lead, ten meters ahead. She had moved past what had once been some sort of automated ticketing gate, then stopped.

  Vex gave a thumbs-up as she took a knee. Chris joined her a moment later. Keira stopped too. She was so exhausted, it felt good to drop to a knee. She almost gave a sigh of relief as she settled down.

  Much of the ticketing gate had been disassembled and stripped of its parts. Someone had even taken the shell too, leaving only the internal frame and a few unwanted components behind. Wash, who had been bringing up the rear with MK, sank to a knee as well. MK just stood there, gazing around the abandoned station. Keira wondered what he was thinking.

  “Our route took us well out of the way. Beyond this station, we’re only six hundred meters from where the Beast is parked.” Chris pointed to the train at the far end of the station. “According to the schematics Pikreet gave me, we go down the tracks, the ones to the right of the train, and enter that tube there.” He shifted his finger to the right, beyond the train. “It passes straight through to the garage bay.”

  Keira felt relieved that they were almost to the APC. The walking in the bulky hazard suit would soon come to a blessed end. She did not know how much farther she could go without taking an extended break.

  Behind them in the distance sounded a muffled explosion.

  “I guess they found another one of your presents,” Chris said.

  “Explosives are the best way to say I love you,” Wash smirked.

  “I bet it was a booming surprise,” MK said.

  Vex simply shook her head at the mech. “You need to work on that sense of humor. Good try, though.”

  “I’ve always had an excellent sense of humor,” MK responded. “My wittiness is simply too complicated for most marines to comprehend.”

  “Uh huh,” Vex said. “I’m calling bullshit there. You’re a marine also, dumbass. Keep working at it, though.”

  Wash was still staring back in the direction they had come. “My surprises are slowing them down, but they’re still catching up. We need to get moving and be gone before they get here.”

  “Why are they still pursuing us?” Keira asked. She was having difficulty understanding. It couldn’t be for revenge, could it? “Everything we had of value burned up in the fire. I don’t get it.”

  “They want you,” Chris said quietly. “That much has become clear.”

  “Me?” Keira briefly closed her eyes as more of the puzzle fell into place. “That means the UPG knows about my ability.”

  “The pursuit certainly suggests that they now know your value. There’s no reason to come after the three of us, but you, Keira, are an entirely different matter, especially after they saw MK.” Chris’s look became grave. “What I’m going to tell you will be hard to hear. It’s important that you understand. There are two possibilities. One, they want to capture you alive and exploit you, to use you for your ability.” He paused, as if the next part was difficult. When he spoke, his voice was gruff, harsh even. “The other is they want you dead.”

  “Dead?” Keira was surprised by that. “Why would they want to kill me?”

  “Killing you effectively denies the Protectorate and whoever else is up there the opportunity to capture you,” Chris said. “It takes away their reason for being here. Without you in the game, they all go home and leave things as they are on Asherho. That potentially gives the UPG breathing room and a chance to restore order and hold onto power.”

  Keira was horrified by what he was telling her. He must have sensed it, for he reached out a comforting hand to her shoulder.

  “We’re not going to let that happen. They won’t get you.”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it,” MK said. “Keira, you have always been dear to my core processing unit. As long as this mechanical body is functioning and I have power, I will kill any and all that try to harm or capture you.”

  Keira felt a lump in her throat, grateful that they were with her. She could not ask for better friends. No, they weren’t friends. They were family, her adoptive family, and she was lucky to have them. Keira knew that. She glanced at the killing machine and decided MK was part of that family too. Though she couldn’t remember him, he had been there when she was a child, a devoted guardian. And he was here now, no less dedicated than the marines.

  She was about to speak when C
hris gave her shoulder a squeeze, then removed his hand. He glanced around the train station, rapidly studying it while chewing his lower lip.

  “Right,” Chris said. “It’s time we got moving. Vex, you’re still on point.”

  “Got it, Gunny.” Vex stood, raised her rifle to her shoulder, and moved out, heading toward the station platform they needed. Chris stood and followed.

  Groaning, Keira came to her feet as well and hefted her rifle. It felt twice its normal weight. She started moving again, placing one foot in front of the other, while MK and Wash brought up the rear.

  The station had a deserted feel to it, as if no living soul had been down here in years. Keira knew that was likely an accurate assumption. The radioactive and toxic dust was heavy all around. It coated everything. She could see no tracks, no disturbance, just a smooth, uniform layer of dust.

  With each step, they kicked the dust up into the air in small puffs. She glanced behind and saw their trail, clear as day, stretching back out into the dimness. The militia would have no difficulty following. That was for certain. Their only option was to forge onward and try to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

  When they reached the platform with the train, Keira found her exhaustion lessen a tad. The platform was at least a kilometer long. The train sitting on the tracks before them was even more impressive than it had appeared from farther away. It had been pulled right up to the end of the tracks and towered over them in all its dusty splendor.

  She tried to imagine what it had been like before the Fall. Hundreds of passengers waiting for a train to take them somewhere else, perhaps someplace pleasant, to visit family and friends or go on a vacation. Asherho had once had oceans and lakes. She thought of the photo of her mother sitting by the ocean.

  Slowing her pace, she glanced over at MK. Machines, really AIs, had run the train and almost everything else in the underground system that made Asherho tick and hum. Just the thought of it all was incredible to her. She had always been fascinated by such things. Asherho had once been a marvel, a paradise, not the depressing hellhole it was today.

  Despite all that had made it good, life easy, everything had collapsed, burned, and turned to ash. It had taught her that everything in life was fleeting. There was no permanence in anything.

  She was certain the people before the Fall had thought their world would go on and on. They must have believed it would continue without a hitch or interruption. No matter how hard you resisted, or covered your eyes to reality, change was always just around the next corner. She had learned that truth the hard way and it had been once again ruthlessly reinforced.

  Like Lee, and her mother and father … what had once been was all gone, forever lost, just like the photo of her mother. That saddened her, terribly so. It also fed her mounting anger, the rage at the injustice, the insanity of it all.

  Keira stopped as she came abreast with the front of the engine. It had come to a stop at the very end of the tracks. The nose was almost sticking out over the platform and was close enough to touch. Next to her, MK came to a halt as well. He was watching her closely, almost curiously.

  Badaling Express was painted along the side of the engine in large sweeping red lettering. A dragon in flight had been painted underneath the name. The dragon looked magnificent, fearsome even.

  If she recalled, Badaling translated into galactic standard as the Great Wall, a structure that had been built back on Old Earth. The wall had been meant to keep barbarian tribes out. On Asherho, there had been no protective wall and the barbarians had ruined everything.

  Keira found herself fascinated by the train engine and took a half step nearer. As if she were in a sort of trance, Keira reached out a hand and touched the engine cowling, disturbing the dust that lay upon its silvery surface. She could not feel the actual train, the cool touch of the composite material, not through the glove. She felt an irrational urge to remove her hazard suit, to touch the train directly with her own fingers. And yet she knew she could not. To do so would mean certain death, and a horrible one at that, gasping for breath as the atmosphere of the underground not only poisoned but choked the life out of her.

  She wondered what it had been like when the engine had power, been in its prime, in perfect operating order, not the partially disassembled and skeletal wreck that remained before her. She wanted to feel the train thrumming with barely controlled power as it waited to depart the station. Keira ran her gloved hand over the smooth edge of the cowling, shifting the dust aside and exposing some of its lost luster, the former magnificence.

  “Keira, what are you trying to do?” MK asked, taking a step closer to her.

  That was a good question.

  “Please tell me,” MK said. “Perhaps I can be of assistance.”

  She didn’t know why she had done what she had done, why she had felt the need for physical contact with the train. It was all so irrational. They needed to keep moving, and yet there was something about the train, the station around them … something almost familiar. It called to her.

  “Can I help in some way?” MK asked again. “I like helping.”

  “I don’t know,” she replied as she turned back to the train. “I don’t think you can help me with this.”

  Hand still on the engine, she closed her eyes and reached out with her mind. For what, she did not understand. Realization came momentarily. She was searching for a presence, almost desperately, something else besides the alien thing watching and hovering just out of view.

  That strange presence was still there, on the edge of her awareness, watching. It was always watching. Despite its words to the contrary, she had the feeling it meant her no harm, no ill will. Why else would it warn her of danger? Why show her the militia storming the control room? Why show her what was going to happen?

  Could she connect with it? Could she learn more?

  Are you there? Speak to me again. Please …

  She reached out to the alien presence, trying to mentally connect. There was no response, no reply, nothing. No, she realized after a moment. That was not quite correct. It had pulled away from her, retreated, as if afraid. Yes, that was it … the thing was frightened of her. She could feel the fear, taste it even. Then it was gone, vanished. The connection between them had once again been severed.

  Suddenly frustrated and angry, Keira stretched out her senses, like a bird spreading its wing. She wanted to find it, learn where it had gone … or discover something else. She would test this new ability she had unlocked.

  Was anything else out there? Keira would search for something alive in this dead, subterranean world. She strained, hunting, looking. The engine was dead, inert. There was no power, no life, nothing, not even the echo of a presence, like what she had felt inside Chris’s armor.

  The magnetic tracks that had once channeled immense quantities of power to the train were also dead. Everything around her was lifeless, depressingly so.

  The train was nothing more than a hulk. Her senses traveled beyond the train, moving through the feeds and power connections, coursing through the conduits that had not been removed or disconnected by scavengers.

  There were many dead ends, terminated lines. Those that remained wove their way around and through the station. They still had the ability to channel energy, only there was none to be had. They were not connected to any energy sources, or if they were, those had long been shut off.

  How far could her mind go? How far could it travel? Through these feeds, conduits, and connections, she could see the station, cold, lifeless, a shadow of what it had once been, but also in a different way. She was looking at the station not with her eyes, but with her mind. It was so very strange, more like a three-dimensional schematic, a technical design or representation, than anything else. She found it wonderful and at the same time frightening.

  How was she doing this? How was it possible? What more could she do?

  A handful of overhead lights were the only things still connected to a power source. That supply
was weak too, a fading emergency backup. According to its log, the emergency supply had not received a recharge from the tower in over a year. Someone had turned off the line, shut it down.

  Within a few months, as the batteries slowly drained away, the lights in the station would go out. Darkness would settle upon everything, just as it had much of the underground, locking it in an eternal darkness.

  In her mind, Keira reached out to the emergency power supply, which was controlled by a mindless machine. The machine lacked the spark of sentience. She could feel the power being doled out by the control unit, a dribble that was carefully rationed to extend its life for as long as possible.

  The power lines from the batteries glowed intensely before her, like a brilliant sun in the darkness. At first, she was hesitant, and then with her mind she touched the lines, more to see what would happen than anything else. Keira instantly felt energized by them, more alive than she had ever been. It was like she had drunk a liter of the strongest coffee after getting a good night’s rest. A giddy feeling came over her, and mentally she smiled, enjoying the moment, savoring it.

  Though she was disembodied, the connection to a power source was a wonderful feeling. The power from the backup flowed into her, through her veins, and drained the battery reserves at an alarming rate.

  Realization of what she was doing struck home. Reluctantly, Keira pulled back and away, cutting the connection to the power flow. She had almost drained the backup by a third of its reserve. Had she remained in contact, there was no doubt in her mind she would have exhausted the batteries powering the lighting. That would have plunged them into darkness. She did not want that. Some light was better than none.

  Then, she froze as something caught her attention. There was another power source out there, and it was close too, strong even. It was an energy field of some kind, faint, and yet at the same time, the field wasn’t there.

  How strange …

  The field was centered on track one. How she knew the tracks were numbered, she could not say. The energy source was … she couldn’t think of a better word, but—hiding. A moment later she became aware of another identical energy field by track four. The two fields were attempting to conceal their emissions, diffusing the radiation away from the center of the train station.