The Truth (The Seryys Chronicles)

by Joseph Nicholson

  “The driver is dead!” he called back. “We cannot stay here. The whole area is compromised. You’re not safe.”

  “Can you gain access to the car?”

  “I am uncertain,” Sibrex said. “But I will try.”

  He approached the car from the rear and crouched down between the car and the wall. He tried the door and, to his surprise, it opened. He climbed in, opened the opposite door, and pushed the dead driver out. From there he started the car up and swung around to pick up the Prefect. The whole time, Sibrex’s gut was doing jumping jacks. This was too easy, he realized. No respectable assassin would let them enter a bulletproof vehicle. At that point, Sibrex decided that maybe the car was wired with explosives or a tracking device. Before getting the Prefect, he spun the car around on its hoverpads and pointed it for the exit. He throttled up slightly, got out and let the car hover forward.

  After it floated forward about hundred yards, the car exploded, sending debris and shrapnel in all directions. Sibrex’s hunch was right and his intuition paid off. When the fire died down, a man came out to investigate. The minute he realized that Sibrex and the Prefect were still alive, he shouted for help. Sibrex quickly shot the man twice. He was dead before he hit the floor.

  Two more men came out of their hiding spots, brandishing large rifles. Outgunned, Sibrex did the only thing he could think to do: run. He ran as fast as his feet could carry him to the closest vehicle that would suit an escape. It was an Enforcer, an armored troop transport used in homeland defense and counter-terrorism situations. It was heavily armed and armored, perfect for their present situation.

  As bullets pockmarked the floor around him, he slid on his knees up to the Enforcer. On either side near the front were doors and keypads. Being a high-ranking officer in the military, his code opened the vehicle and got it started. Once inside, the bullets bounced harmlessly off the armor of the Enforcer, and the assailants broke off their attack.

  Sibrex maneuvered the Enforcer as close to the alcove as possible, opened the door, and ordered the Prefect to get in. Once inside, Sumptaruul breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down into the passenger’s chair.

  “It has been a while since I have been shot at,” Sumptaruul said.

  “I fear that there is more of that to come in our immediate future,” Sibrex responded gravely.

  Sibrex neared the exit when a barrage of bullets assaulted the vehicle from all sides. Instinctively, both Sibrex and Sumptaruul ducked and flinched as bullets bounced off the armored walls of the Enforcer. In the back was a weapons rack with several rifles. Sumptaruul raced back, grabbed a rifle, checked to make sure it was loaded and sat back down.

  “Take the fire control,” Sibrex said, flipping a switch. A small console flipped down from the dashboard with a targeting reticle on a screen and a small control stick. The stick controlled a large caliber machinegun mounted atop the Enforcer. With the trigger button held down, Sumptaruul began mowing down Black Gate members easily. At the gate for the exit, a small console blinked at Sibrex asking for the clearance code. Again, punching his command override code, the gate rolled open, but not before the Black Gate muscle brought their own big guns to the party.

  On a small ATV that had wheels was a Starfighter grade laser cannon that would easily punch through the armor of the Enforcer.

  “I believe now would be a good time to leave,” Sumptaruul said, edge in his voice.

  “I would agree.”

  The gate opened. The cannon opened fire and started punching thumb-sized holes through the vehicle. Sibrex pushed the Enforcer to full throttle but not before the laser cannon struck several critical systems. As the Enforcer took to the sky, away from the Black Gate thugs, it started to sputter and drop, sputter and drop.

  “This is going to end badly,” Sibrex growled.

  Eventually, the hoverpads quit and the Enforcer fell from the sky. Sibrex punched the thrusters to full in a last ditch effort to level out their descent. Either landing—falling or landing at reckless speed—was going to present a deadly situation. The Enforcer struck road, crashing through and over other cars on the street. One of the wings caught a building, and the whole vehicle spun ninety degrees. It only slid sideways for about a hundred yards before it started barrel-rolling over and over and over.

  When the Enforcer finally came to a halt on its roof, it was a mangled mess of steel. Smoke rose from the underbelly where the hoverpad used to be. The thrusters were dark and oozing a pungent liquid used as fuel. As the green ooze pooled on the street, a rouge spark ignited it, setting the vehicle ablaze.

  Inside, Sibrex was the first to awaken. His skull felt as though it was on fire, his vision was blurred, and he could taste blood in his mouth. His first thought was not of himself, but of his leader.

  “Prefect?” he weakly called out, flinching at the sparking wires that hung from consoles throughout the vehicle. It was then that he realized the vehicle was upside down. When he got no response, he looked frantically for his leader.

  He found him. During the crash, one of the bulkheads came loose and crushed everything from the waist down. He was alive, but barely and not for long by the looks of things. The same bulkhead that killed him was also keeping him alive.

  “Sibrex,” he said weakly. “Do not wait for me. Go. Before it’s too late.”

  “But my Prefect,” he began, but was cut off.

  “I said go! Do not defy me!” he argued, putting as much steel in his voice as he could muster. “Find the colony.”

  “Yes, my Prefect.”

  “I see you bringing in a new era of peace for our people, Sibrex. Make me proud. The Lords of Vyysarr are calling me.”

  With that, his eyes fluttered shut forever. At that moment there was a loud whoosh and he could hear people screaming outside. The fuel has ignited, Sibrex thought immediately. The doors were smashed beyond any dream of opening them, so his only way out was the forward windshield. Grabbing one of the sets of plastic explosives from the armory, he set it and stuck it to the windshield.

  He grabbed a rifle and several magazines and hid behind the same bulkhead that killed his world’s leader. Seconds later, a deafening explosion thudded in his chest and windshield blew out. Ignoring the ringing in his ears, he rushed to get out of the Enforcer before it blew. Thousands of bystanders stood, mouths agape at the sight.

  He ignored them, as he was more concerned about the approaching Black Gate muscle from the north. They were armed to the fangs, and what did he have? An automatic rifle and bag full of extra magazines. Running was the only viable solution, so he did. He bolted for nearest shop and crashed through the window just as the Enforcer exploded. The occupants jumped and ran for safety. Sibrex barged his way through the shop into the back storage area.

  Seconds later, Sibrex heard more screaming as the thugs barged their way in as well. Sibrex was prepared to make a stand there and at least try to force them into a retreat. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and pulled his pistol and his knife. His heart raced as he waited for the group of men to come. Using the reflective surface of his knife, he was able to count ten people armed with military-grade assault rifles. They approached cautiously. As the point man entered the room, Sibrex quickly chopped down on the rifle with his right hand still hold his pistol and struck the man in the throat with his left elbow simultaneously. As the others reacted, Sibrex shot two of them dead and flipped his knife into the chest of the point man that was lying on his back.

  As the others dived for cover, Sibrex ran again. He burst out the back door of the shop at a full sprint. He knew he had just bought himself precious seconds, as they waited to see if another attack would come. Running down the alley, he finally heard the thugs crash through the back door. Sibrex didn’t bother to waste a glance, he just kept running. Bullets chewed off part of the building wall as he rounded the corner back into the streets. He was looking for a car.

  He found his ride home in the form of a sporty hovercar that had been left idling on
the street as its owner was in a shop buying goods. Without hesitation, Sibrex jumped in the car, pulled the down the door and sped off as the angry owner ran after. Bullets ricocheted off the paint of the car as he took to the sky at unsafe speeds. He weaved and bobbed through the city, heading home as fast as the car would go. It was race against time; he knew that they knew who he was and that he had a family.

  Ten miles from home, he came up with an idea. Using his com unit, he keyed in the military access code and called his ship.

  “Commander, are you in duress?” his first officer, Captain Xuur, answered immediately.

  “Yes,” Sibrex said plainly. “I require a recon flyby of my residence. I will explain later.”

  “It will be done! What am I looking for?”

  “Armed men posted outside my residence and in the surrounding area,” Sibrex responded. “Upload it to my micro-comp when the sweep is finished.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Convinced that no aerial pursuit was coming, he eased off the throttle and let his men do their jobs. Five minutes later, his micro-comp beeped with new information. He activated the uplink to his ship and saw a three-dimensional map of the block in which he lived. On the map, every person was highlighted and those with weapons were outlined in red. This was sticky situation, because the people outlined in red might not necessarily be Black Gate thugs as much as armed civilians.

  He knew that the armed men on the floor of his apartment and the on the roof of the building adjacent to his apartments were most definitely thugs waiting to attack. There were some armed men on the floor level that could or could not be thugs, but he wasn’t planning on going in through the front door. There were four thugs on the roof. His plan was to take them out first. He swung around low, knowing that they were most likely looking for the car he was driving, and parked in hover on the backside of the building behind a large structure housing an intricate duct network for the air filtration system.

  He leapt up to the top of that structure with the rifle he had procured from the Enforcer. Picking his target, he knew he would only get two shots off before the others responded in kind. He quickly rehearsed his move. Sight one, pop! Sight two, pop and duck for cover. He lined up his first shot and just as his finger touched the trigger, one of the thugs happened to turn and see him. Sibrex silently cursed himself as he pulled the trigger and took the man down but not before he shouted a warning. Now the other three were converging on him.

  Crete exploded all around him as he dove for cover at the center of the structure. He did the calculations in his head and not a single scenario ended without him getting shot…again. He blindly fired at the oncoming men, hoping to drive them back a ways. He belly-crawled to the edge of the structure and found that his enemies had taken cover and that one had been shot, because he could see the blood trail leading to his cover. Knowing that eventually the man would emerge from his spot, he trained sights on that spot and waited, while simultaneously keeping his other eye on the surrounding area as to not get flanked. He really had no idea where the other two were—for all he knew they could already be flanking him. Finally the man made the fatal error of peeking out from his cover spot and—bam!—his head was reduced to bloody vapor.

  Feeling a little more confident, he rose to one knee and surveyed the field of battle. The other two were nowhere to be seen. Nearly panicked, he rushed to right edge of the structure and then to the left and found no one sneaking around. He knew he was basically a sitting duck up there, so he moved. He jumped down to the roof and began moving in a counterclockwise direction around the roof in an attempt to flush them out. Sibrex was encouraged by the fact that he heard no talking; that meant that the thugs were not radioing for help, most likely because they didn’t want to give away their positions.

  After one full revolution around the roof, he realized that they had either fled the scene to regroup with others, or they were playing cat and mouse. That being said, Sibrex immediately switched directions and swept the other way. He made it a quarter of the way when he nearly ran face first into one of the two remaining thugs.

  They were both stunned by the abrupt meeting, but Sibrex was faster. He moved quickly, grabbing the thug’s gun and pointing the barrel away from him just as the gun went off. A wrestling match for control of the weapon ensued. Sibrex worked the gun down to waist level and quickly drove his forehead into the thug’s nose, smashing it into his face. The man fell to the ground, writhing in pain and gurgling dark blood. He wouldn’t live long, but Sibrex took a little solace in knowing that his last moments would be agonizing.

  After Sibrex moved on his micro-comp blipped again, and he was given an updated recon. The last man on the roof had retreated to the lower levels and called for help. The two outside his apartment had barged in and forced his wife and children into the bedroom. There were four guards in the living room. He also noticed that the guards on the ground level were taking a lift up.

  With his options limited, he did the only thing he could. He got back into the hovercar and flew over to his building. From there, he called for help.

  “Captain Xuur,” he called. “Bring me an interceptor—now!”

  “Yes, sir! ETA five minutes.”

  “Very good, Captain.”

  To make a shorter trip for the pilot that was bringing the small single-seat fighter, Sibrex climbed up as high as the hoverpads on the hovercar would allow and used his com unit as a beacon. Within minutes, the fighter had entered the colony’s blast shielding and was coming up on Sibrex’s six.

  “Commander, I have been ordered to assist you.”

  “Very good, pilot. Dock with me and relinquish command of your vessel. I will do this personally.”

  “Yes, sir,” the pilot said, betraying the slightest amount of apprehension, but as a good soldier, he did what he was told. The car bucked as a seal was made. Sibrex opened the canopy and the pilot dropped down into the car.

  “Keep the car,” was all Sibrex said as he climbed up into the cockpit.

  Once fastened in and sealed tight, Sibrex quickly and expertly activated all the flight controls. When the HUD came online, he synced it to his micro-comp and another recon had been uploaded. There were now six men in his home holding his wife and children hostage. There was a clear shot from the living room down the hall to the bedroom. His hands shook with rage at the thought of his children cowering in a corner afraid for their lives.

  He detached from the car and swung around quickly, making a direct shot for his home. At a hundred yards, he leveled the ship out and used the sensors to scan the apartment. The men were huddled in the living room waiting for Sibrex to show up, and his family was still in the master bedroom.

  He quickly approached the window leading to the living room. He got close enough to see the men’s faces and took grim satisfaction when he saw the terror cross those faces, realizing that they were all about to die. From less than twenty yards out, Sibrex opened up with the forward cannons designed to take down enemy ships. The men met a very loud, very violent, and very bloody end. Once the living room was nothing more than blood and bullet holes, he stopped and scanned the area again. With no more enemies in the immediate area, Sibrex maneuvered the ship into the giant hole in the wall left from the barrage. He landed and got out.

  “Marthuur?” Sibrex called out to his wife. “Marthuur!”

  “Sibrex?” her scared voice came from the bedroom.

  “Yes,” he said with relief. “Come out. It is safe, now.”

  Marthuur barely poked her head out from the door to the bedroom. The look on her face betrayed her surprise and concern but also relief. She rushed from the bedroom down the hall into his arms. He held her close as his children all come running out. That was when she noticed his wound.

  “You’re injured,” she said.

  “It is nothing,” he said honestly. “The bullet passed clean through.”

  “You will require medical attention,” she insisted.

  “Yes
. In due time, but now we must run. You are not safe.”

  “Who were those men?”

  “Members of a violent faction called the Black Gate Society.”

  “But who are they?”

  “I will explain when we get to my ship,” Sibrex said. “But for now, I need you to stay here and wait for my return. Then I will take you to our car and escort you to the ship.” He got a nod from his wife. “Good. Do not open the door for anyone but me, you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “I will return shortly,” Sibrex said, hopping back into the fighter.

  He took the ship up to the upper parking area where their vehicle sat. Using the superior power of the fighter, he forced his way into the parking spot next to his by forcing the vehicle out of the way. He then put the ship in hover and locked up the canopy.

  On foot, he ran down to the floor where his apartment was and ran down the hallway. By the time he got there, there were two more thugs trying to force the door open. With their attention on the door, they didn’t see Sibrex peeking around the corner. Looking down the iron sights of his rifle, he turned the corner firing. Both men dropped quickly, completely taken by surprise.

  Sibrex approached the door and yelled, “Marthuur, it’s me. Grab the children and come with me!” The door slid open they were all ready to go. “Follow me.”

  Sibrex led his family to the car next to his humming, waiting dogfighter. The angular ship looked like a serrated tooth. “Get in.”

  They all piled into the car and Sibrex programmed the navigation to follow a flight path that would take them to the exit of the colony atmosphere shield and his ship beyond. Once the navigation computer accepted the course plot, Sibrex got back into the fighter and sent a message to his car.

  Marthuur pulled the car out of the garage and headed skyward toward the giant airlock above. Sibrex hung back actively scanning the area for enemies. Two blips showed up on his radar and were moving in fast.