The sprawling palace must have had at least fifteen bedrooms. Dotted with tall spires that shot into the sky, they pointed up as sharp talons in defiance of the galaxy beyond.
For some reason, Seb’s attention fell to one particular spire. Not the widest or tallest, but the most important of the lot. It had a large open space in front of it. Almost like a balcony but bigger than any he’d seen before. It looked like it probably had the best view of the planet around them. An image then punched into his mind, and he stumbled, his legs turning weak as he held himself up with the back of Sparks’ seat. The same woman he’d seen when he’d touched the stalt in the Pillar of Peace: a slightly older woman with white hair and clothes; human, despite the green glow to her eyes. Maybe, like him, she simply looked human.
As the vision rescinded, Seb felt SA’s hand on his back. Still rattled, he looked at his love as he tried to make sense of what he’d just seen.
You okay? SA said.
Seb nodded. What could he say to that?
Sparks then raised her computer, showing Seb the screen. A schematic of the palace. Although he could feel SA’s attention on him, he continued to watch the small Thrystian’s device while she spoke.
“At least now we’re close, I can see where we need to go.” She pointed to a room at the building’s heart. It appeared to be a large hall. “Enigma are sending their broadcasts from this room here. I’m guessing they have some kind of technology that can harness the energy in the stalt on the planet. They must use the entire palace as a transmitter. We get in there and we’re golden. At least, that’s what I think anyway.”
All the while Sparks spoke, Seb looked at the grand structure. It appeared to grow larger the closer they got to it. At first, he’d taken it to be mostly abandoned. A building like that should have an army out in front of it. Then he saw them. Only three creatures, they stepped from one of the many archways leading into the place. “I’m guessing there’s more where they just came from?”
Sparks winced. “I was waiting to show you that.” A tap on her screen filled the schematic with blue dots. Hundreds, if not thousands of them. Normal service resumed.
Tension gripped Seb’s stomach, and his heart beat double time. As he let go of a long exhale, his cheeks puffed out. He finally found his words. “Is it too late to turn around?”
Instead of replying to him, Sparks said, “But look.” She showed Seb a green dot on the screen.
Not sure what it meant, Seb simply stared at it. It certainly hadn’t changed his mind.
“Bruke’s inside,” Sparks said. “I couldn’t trace him from Kajan, but now we’re close, I can see exactly where he is.”
The first good news he’d heard in a while and the motivation he needed to push through his fierce trepidation. A nod to himself, Seb closed his eyes and filled his lungs, his entire frame lifting as he inhaled. When he reopened them, he saw more guards had come from the palace. Maybe thirty already, maybe more. Only a fraction of what Sparks had shown him. He reached across and squeezed Reyes’ shoulder. “We’ve come here with a job to do. This is the final run, so let’s get in and out as quickly as possible. Hit them with everything you’ve got, soldier.”
Chapter 35
The entire ship shook when Reyes pulled the triggers on her flight sticks. Red lasers—several inches thick—flew away from them and rained down on the palace at the emerging guards. Bipeds and quadrupeds in all different shapes and sizes. They all fell, ripped apart by the brutal assault.
The blasts that didn’t take down the creatures crashed into the palace and ground, sending showers of stalt crystals exploding away from their impact. To watch the place get torn apart lifted relief in Seb, and he almost smiled when he said, “Maybe we don’t need to leave the ship to get Bruke out of there. We could just blow our way through.”
More guards rushed out, and Reyes mowed them down. Insignificant compared to their firepower, the guards had no chance. A pack of them resembled large cats and were nimbler than the others. They avoided her first few shots, but even they fell in short order.
The ferocity of the continuous cannon fire shook Seb’s vision. Some of the stalt—so completely obliterated—turned to white clouds of dust. In other places, the shattering palace sent a storm of dagger-like shards raining down on the guards.
While Reyes destroyed the place, Sparks worked on her computer. Not unusual for the screen to mean nothing to Seb, it took for Sparks to look at him with an ashen face before he realised they had a problem. “What?”
“They have another phase planned.”
The noise of the battle rang out, and the ship shook more than before as the ever-increasing swarm of guards shot back. Their blasts did little against the ship’s force field other than to wobble them in the sky and add to the chaotic sounds of war. Seb shouted so Sparks could hear him. “What are you talking about?”
Enigma have a three-phase plan, Sparks said.
Seb turned his hand over to encourage her to continue. Go on.
Phase one was to release chaos. Phase two was to pull the slaves together so they could wipe out the planets, like we saw on Kajan.
And phase three?
Total annihilation. They’re going to wreck every planet. Reduce them to rubble so they can rebuild the galaxy in their image. They plan to take what’s useful to them—like resources and tech—and destroy everything else. The slaves will get even more coherent in their attacks.
The ship continued to shake and vibrate, but they were still doing more damage to Enigma than Enigma did to them.
And how long until they initiate phase three?
After a couple of taps on her screen, Sparks looked up at him again. It’s been set in motion already. We have fifteen minutes before the psychic blast goes out.
Seb looked at the vast palace and its multilayers and shook his head. Fifteen minutes isn’t long enough to blast our way through, is it?
Sparks shrugged.
So if we want to be certain, the only way we can take their broadcasting device down is to land and go in on foot?
I think that’s a safe assumption.
At that moment, a loud boom shook the ship. Even in slow motion, Seb only saw the aftermath, so he couldn’t blame Reyes for missing it. The explosion of red from the thick cannon blast turned to mist in front of them as all the dials in the ship spun. Alarms sounded and lights flashed before Reyes said, “Hold on. We’re going down.”
Chapter 36
The impact of the ship hitting the ground jolted Seb forward, white light punching through his vision as he connected with the back of Sparks’ seat, nose first. Fire flared through his sinuses, and he clapped his hands to his face as he fell to the floor.
The ship had hit the ground so hard, even SA fell over. Sparks and Reyes were strapped into their seats. Seb watched SA stand up, his head spinning. When he felt damp on his top lip, he wiped his nose with the back of his hand to see a trail of blood streaked across it. It could have been a lot worse. Then he looked out of the front windscreen … Enigma’s army were running towards them en masse.
One of the large cat-like quadrupeds burst ahead of the pack. It leapt towards them, hitting the windscreen with a thud. The glass remained intact. Stronger than the steel hull of the ship, the beast must have seen the futility of attacking from that way because it ran over the top of the vessel, its feet thudding against the roof. A second later a loud bang connected with the back door.
More creatures came at them, laying down laser fire as they charged. The windscreen held, black marks from the blasts but nothing more. They ran past the ship, joining the cat around the back. The vessel shook from their assault.
Only just getting to his feet, his head spinning while his nose leaked blood, Seb held on to Sparks’ seat so he didn’t fall as it rocked. Vision blurred through watering eyes, he looked around them as if he could find inspiration from the inside of their shuttle.
More footsteps thundered over the top of them. More of the cat
-like creatures. They had wide shark’s mouths filled with sharp teeth. They had thick jaws loaded with muscles that looked like they could crush rocks. Although, as yet, they hadn’t managed to bite through the steel hull of the ship.
The hammering continued against the back door as the front cleared. Sparks stared at her screen before showing it to Seb. The dots of Enigma’s army mostly remained in the palace. “They must be protecting the transmitter,” she said.
Seb continued to hold on against the shake of their wrecked ship and looked at the scorch marks on their front windscreen. “How long before phase three?”
“Fourteen minutes.”
A look at the back door showed Seb it had buckled from the attack driven against it. It wouldn’t be long before they busted in. He glanced at SA and Reyes. Both of them stood ready to fight, for what good it would do; they had no chance against the army outside.
An orange glow then dragged Seb’s attention away from the back door. Sparks had a blowtorch in her hand. “Where did you get that from?”
She pointed at an open panel. “Most vessels have them. Any active ship needs emergency repairs at some point.”
“And what do you plan to do with it?”
Instead of replying, she turned to the wall closest to her and started to drag a smouldering line down the metal. “Just keep them busy at that end. Hopefully I can open an escape route for us before they realise.”
Seb rushed forward and banged against the other side of the door. It seemed to work, the creatures roaring and shouting in response, their blows landing harder than before. The entire ship rocked as if they might turn them over. He banged again and shouted, “Enigma will fall.”
A roar unlike any he’d heard before. A deep resonance to it, it made the ship hum from the vibration. Then silence.
Although Seb turned to the others and opened his mouth to speak, something clattered into the ship’s door before he could. It hit them so hard, they slid across the stalt desert like a hockey puck.
They came to a halt about fifteen metres away. Fifteen metres closer to the palace. Daylight shone in around the door’s seal from where the beast had bent it. It wouldn’t hold up to many more attacks like that.
A rush of feet came at them. A second later the army they’d left behind crashed into the back again, shoving them closer to the palace for a second time.
Maybe the same creature, maybe a different one, another deep roar ran a vibration through the soles of Seb’s boots. Then the gallop of an almighty beast headed their way. It sounded like it had taken a long run-up.
Boom! It hit the ship again, pushing them closer to the palace. It bent the door, so they could now see out of the gaps between it and its frame. At least forty creatures charged at them.
Before Seb could react, SA and Reyes ran at the gap, poked their blasters out, and opened fire.
Although they fired blind, the screams from the other side suggested they were hitting something.
It gave Seb a moment to look at Sparks as she pulled back a flap of steel. She’d made a gap large enough for them to climb out. She looked at him. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“One of you two hold them off,” Seb said to SA and Reyes. “The other one needs to come with me now.”
Reyes shoved SA after Seb before returning to the gap in the door.
No time to argue about who went, SA accepted it and followed Seb out of the hole. A large rock of stalt nearby, he ran to it and she followed. The army remained occupied by Reyes around the other side of the ship.
Where Seb had expected to see Sparks come out next, she didn’t. “What are they doing?”
Then the shooting stopped. Seb and SA looked at one another.
Reyes burst from the hole with Sparks behind her.
Despite the vociferous cries from Enigma’s army, Seb still heard the pulsing bleep. The look in both Reyes’ and Sparks’ wide eyes confirmed what he thought the noise meant.
Sparks overtook Reyes as the beeps grew louder, skidded behind the rock with Seb and SA, and pressed her back to it to use it as a shield between her and the ship. Reyes slid behind it a second later.
All four of them gasped for breath as they listened to the last tone, a beep longer than the others. It ended with an almighty boom. A bright explosion of fire, the heat searing as it blew a strong gust at them. Were it not for the rock they’d shielded themselves behind, they would have melted where they crouched. Scorch marks about ten metres long on either side of them stretched in the direction of the palace.
The mist of vaporised bodies rode on the wind, some of it laying cold pinpricks against Seb’s sweating skin.
When the ship crashed down again, the impact of it landing shook the ground.
As the smoke cleared, Seb peered around the rock. None of the soldiers had survived. Very few body parts remained, the blast enough to obliterate most of them. He felt bad for fighting the slaves on the other planets, but any being associating with Enigma deserved everything they got. A look from the wreck to the palace and back again, he patted Sparks’ back. “Well done. What did you do?”
“All ships have a self-destruct function.”
After nodding at her, Seb said, “Now we need to get into that control room. How long until phase three?”
“Twelve minutes.”
Chapter 37
SA led this time, bursting out from behind the rock and running across the crystal ground straight at the main entrance to the palace. Enigma’s guards knew they were there, so there seemed little point in stealth. Seb followed behind with Reyes and Sparks, watching the grace of his love as she drew one knife for each hand and threw them.
Even with his world slowed down, Seb hadn’t seen the guards. Yet, by the time SA’s blades reached the palace’s entrance, two heads poked out to meet them. The knives landed true, both of them hitting the centre of the guard’s faces and burying to the hilt.
Both of Enigma’s soldiers fell forwards out into the open. Were they not moving at a flat-out sprint, Seb might have said something, but SA didn’t need his compliments. She knew what she could do. They just needed to get inside before they were faced with an army.
SA jumped over the two dead guards, armed herself with two more knives, and threw them into the palace.
Seb heard the sound of laser fire and watched several red traces of it shoot from the palace out across the stalt desert beyond. With Reyes and Sparks beside him, they reached the palace’s open entrance in time to see the last guard fall, a line of blaster fire ripping into the ceiling above as it toppled backwards with its finger still on the trigger.
Seb raised his arms over his head as crystal shards rained a sharp spray on top of him. When he pulled them down again, he looked at the back of his forearms to see small pieces embedded in his sleeves. Thankfully he hadn’t chosen to wear a T-shirt.
The immediate danger over, Seb looked around the huge open space, gasping as he took it in. The sheer magnificence of the place nearly took his words away. “It looks like something from a fairy tale.” He sighed. “It’s a shame we have to tear it down.” A large open entrance, it had a huge sweeping staircase in the centre with pillars running up either side of it. An almost perfectly square room, it had a first-floor landing running all the way around it. Both the first and ground floors had multiple exits.
Reyes said it before Seb could. “Where are we going, Sparks?”
Although Seb looked at Sparks and watched her open her mouth to reply, he lost sight of her before she spoke. The green-eyed brilliance of the woman in white dragged him into his mind. She stared straight at him. Not angry, but powerful and all-knowing. He and his friends had just entered her domain. She’d been waiting for him.
The woman in white then vanished, and Seb’s sight returned. When he looked at the faces of his friends, he saw them all staring at him. A lingering connection with SA, he could see she knew. She’d known all along.
“You okay?” Sparks said. Then, after a second, sh
e helped him out by saying, “We need your call.” She pointed at one door and then the one next to it as she said, “Door number one, or door number two?”
The words made sense, but Seb couldn’t process them as he looked from one of his friends to the other. As much as he didn’t want to say it, he winced and said it anyway. “I have to do something.”
“What?” Reyes said.
“I need to go. I think I know where Enigma’s leader is. I need to go and see her.”
Sparks this time. “Why don’t we take down their transmitter and rescue Bruke first?”
Shaking his head, Seb looked across all three faces again. “You can do that without me. I need to do this.” To SA more than any of them, he said, “I’ve been having visions too. I saw the Pillar of Peace, and then I started to see a woman in white. I think this is why I’m here.” Back to the others, he added, “I think if I go, it’ll improve your chances of getting to the transmitter and Bruke.” SA still hadn’t said anything about his visions. He spoke exclusively to her. Take care of them, yeah? I know you can do this. I’ll see you on the other side.
The blank expression on SA’s face threw Seb. Even when pissed off with him, she usually responded. SA, can you hear me?
Nothing.
“SA?”
She looked at him.
“I just spoke to you in your head. You can’t hear it, can you?”
Crow’s feet spread away from the edges of her pinching eyes. A second later, she shook her head.
“It must be something to do with the stalt and the transmitter,” Sparks said. “Hopefully if we take the transmitter out, we’ll be able to communicate through her again.”
“Okay,” Seb said. “I’m guessing we’ll find each other when this is done.”
Although Reyes spoke with a calmness in her voice, her furrowed brow contradicted it. “Surely the fact that we can’t communicate is a reason to stay together?”
Prophecy: A Space Opera: Book Seven of The Shadow Order Page 12