The Great Gate

by J R Dahl

  The Seberian, however, didn’t pass down through the ceiling. Off in the distance he saw a large demon on patrol. He was heading toward them, so the Seberian decided to head him off before he found Lonan and his team inside the control room.

  Telgrin and another Heliender immediately went to work hacking the computer system. Telgrin’s eyes got big as he looked at the Nemaron control station. “The drop sequence has been initiated. We only have ten minutes,” Telgrin whispered into his com. “And a lot of codes to bypass.”

  “Get to work,” said Lonan. He prepared charges and set them in strategic places around the room.

  Just then, without anyone noticing, one of the Leviathan stood up in the middle of the room. He grabbed one the Helion soldiers and threw him against the opposite wall. Lonan drew his rifle and fired electric rounds and took down the Leviathan. As his body hit the floor, another of the enemy soldiers silently rose up behind Lonan and grabbed him. He lifted Lonan from the floor and without any effort threw him across the room. Lonan slammed against the elevator door and dented it. As he stumbled to his feet and tried to clear his head he yelled to his men. “Get him!”

  The other Helienders jumped to their feet while Telgrin worked frantically to hack the system and shut down the execution. The Helienders drew their weapons and fired the electric rounds. With his incredible speed the Leviathan was able to dodge many of the bullets and grab the nearest Heliender, whose neck he broke just seconds before some of the electric rounds caught him and sent him to the floor convulsing.

  Lonan stumbled to his feet and prepared to enter the fight when the elevator door opened behind him to reveal Devakin and six more Leviathan.

  “Sound the alarm,” barked Devakin. “And search the building. Let’s see how many of these little maggots have crawled in.”

  One of the Leviathan reached over and hit an alarm button on the wall of the command center. Immediately the alarm sounded throughout the compound.

  Down in the main chamber twelve Leviathan came running in from patrolling the outside. The alarm started to awaken the slaves hanging in the racks. They looked around, trying to see straight. Some gathered the strength to call out for help.

  The Seberians jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the catwalks that passed in between the rack system. They landed just in front of the Leviathan as they ran toward the command center in the middle of the building.

  Up in the rafters the rest of the Helion team scrambled frantically, wrapping thick cables around the lever system that would release the racks and drop the slaves into the lava below.

  “Hurry up, they know we’re here!” As the Helion soldier spoke he looked around to see that the rack system was divided into three parts. They were just finishing locking down the first one. “We’ve got to hurry,” he said to the other Helion soldier working with him. “Do you see what I see?”

  The other soldier looked up to see that there were two other mechanical levers that would lower the racks. The problem was that they were on the other sides of the building, nearly fifty meters away. They would need to quickly crawl through the rafter system without being detected and without falling to their deaths into the lava below.

  “Great,” the second Heliender said. “Here.” He handed the other a second pack of equipment. “You take that one and I’ll this one over here.”

  “You got it. Let’s go,” said the first Heliender. They both crawled and swung their ways toward the other drop levers.

  In the command center Telgrin pulled a remote monitor under a desk for cover while he continued to work to hack the system and shut down the execution. The rest of the Helienders did the best they could to fight off the Leviathan. Some of their rounds were dodged by the enemies’ superhuman speed, but some of them hit their mark and sent them to the floor.

  Devakin slowly walked toward Lonan, who pulled his rifle and fired. Devakin dodged the first two but was hit by the third. The current passed throughout his body. Devakin fell to his knees then slowly started to laugh. He had so much of Satan’s evil fear feeding power in him that he was able to withstand the electrical current. He stood up and charged Lonan. Devakin threw a punch that hit him so hard that he flew across the room.

  “Why did you come here?” asked Devakin walking slowly toward Lonan, who lay nearly unconscious on the floor. “You should have just stayed home and minded your own business.”

  Lonan rolled over in pain as he struggled to catch his breath while at the same time searching on the floor for his rifle. When he finally found it he pulled himself to his feet and took aim at Devakin, who was picking up speed as he walked in Lonan’s direction. The powerful Leviathan commander grinned and raised his hands, inviting Lonan to take a shot.

  Lonan pulled the trigger and released a wave of ten rounds into Devakin’s chest. The rounds hit and sent a tremendous amount of current through his body. This stopped him for a second. As the current dissipated, he began to laugh again. He reached up and opened his jacket to reveal an angelic chest plate over his Leviathan one.

  “Do you like it? I got it from one of your friends the angels. Of course he was dead when I took it.”

  Lonan looked on in amazement as he scrambled to reach into his leg pocket for the heavenly metal-penetrating rounds that where distinguishable from the others by their red casing. He loaded the clip, but before he could lock it into place Devakin ran to him, ripped the rifle from his hands, and threw it across the room. It hit the floor of the elevator. As it did the clip popped out and skidded across the floor. Just then the elevator door closed.

  Devakin then picked Lonan up into the air by his throat and punched him in the face so hard that he was knocked unconscious.

  Meanwhile, in the center of the battlefield on the planet Helion, the Leviathan and Helienders continued on their collision course. The Leviathan ran at half their normal speed as if they were waiting and savoring the enjoyment to come.

  The Helion soldiers continued down the gradual slope toward their enemy. The stingers led the charge with the AUVS close behind and with the Helion infantry running behind them. When they reached optimal range for their weapons, the Stinger gunners opened fire with their four-centimeter electric rounds. They had these in the top-mounted, quad-barrel guns that sat just above the drivers’ cockpits.

  Ten Stingers were spread out across the front of the Helion defensive lines and rocketed toward the invading army. The electric rounds poured across the open battlefield and cut through the Leviathan ranks. As the rounds hit they immediately took out the first three lines of Leviathan. The soldiers fell to the ground unconscious with the electrical current pouring over their bodies. The next round of Leviathan didn’t hesitate but continued in their attacking run toward the Helion lines.

  At that same moment back in the Nemaron command bunker a soldier analyzed the results of their attack.

  “Sir, we’ve exposed the outer walls of their base,” he reported, pointing to his control monitor.

  His commanding officer looked over his shoulder at the monitor. “Good. Focus all our fire power on that location.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  At the back of the Nemaron lines the field artillery that remained turned remotely as they rotated on their bases. They each targeted the area of the Helion base that had been exposed by their previous attack. In order from south to north, the cannons consecutively fired on the Helion base. Every six seconds another round was fired from the next massive cannon.

  Inside the Helion base they could hear the consistent bombardment of the Nemaron field artillery. In the command center Kilgron leaned over one of the soldiers at a control panel. “Evacuate everyone in that wing of the base. If they break through we’ll need to shut it all down.”

  “Roger that, sir,” yelled a Helion soldier as he struggled to be heard over the constant bombardment of artillery attack.

  Elsewhere in the Helion base men and women helped each other as they ran down the hallway. The lights flickered and debris hun
g from the ceiling as the base shook again from the impact of yet another well-placed missile.

  In the Nemaron bunker the commanding officer turned to another monitor and called to Maginon’s command shuttle.

  “Sir. We should be finished with this slight resistance very soon. We have nearly penetrated their fortress walls. I believe you can send the mining shuttles, we’ll have your work force momentarily.”

  Maginon sat in the pilot’s chair on the bridge of the command shuttle as he received the message. He couldn’t help but grin as he watched the attack on large monitors form the safety of his ship. “Very good. Launch the mining shuttles.”

  “Yes, sir,” answered one of his soldiers there with him on the command deck.

  Moments later the long, drill-shaped shuttles took off from hangars on the far back quarter of each of the ten Nemaron spacecraft. The Helion fighters were still engaging the Nemaron fighters as they fought to control the narrow strip of space that lay between the Nemaron carriers and the planet Helion. As the drill ships turned toward the planet they each were joined by three Nemaron fighters that escorted them through the outer-atmospheric battle.

  Meanwhile, down in the center of the battlefield, the Helion forces had run out of space and the Leviathan infantry crashed on to the Helion Stingers like ocean waves overtaking rocky shores. The Leviathan poured over them and consumed most of the Stingers. They jumped on top and began to destroy them as they continued to plow through Leviathan ranks. The large wheels and suspension of the Stingers along with their wide metal battering ram mounted on the front rolled over and through many of the Leviathan. Most were knocked unconscious; however, several that were run over immediately jumped back to their feet and continued on their attack toward the Helion forces.

  The Stingers that were not completely overtaken and destroyed by the thousands of Leviathan continued to lay down fire and electrify hundreds of the enemy soldiers. Those stingers that made it through the Leviathan charge stopped short of attacking the line of Nemaron tanks. They knew that their weapons would be useless against the tanks’ armor, so they turned back and re-engaged the Leviathan from behind.

  As the AUVS neared the Leviathan forces they fired their side-mounted guns. These rounds had been engineered to capture as many invaders as possible. As the round flew through the air and neared the enemy, the outer casing peeled off and in the process pulled open a ten-meter-wide net. Each net was made of a heavy yet flexible metal mesh that spun and expanded as it flew through the air. Once they landed they covered twenty to thirty advancing Leviathan. At the moment the nets made contact the electrical current was discharged and the Leviathan all received the non-lethal jolt of electricity. All the Leviathan within the nets immediately fell to the ground.

  The Helion soldiers driving the AUVS cheered as they saw the success of the net system. Everyone inside the command center also cheered as they watched from within the safety of the base.

  Just at that moment Cloin rode in from the northern end of the battlefield. A clearing had been created from two electric nets taking out nearly seventy Leviathan. As she approached she hit a large mound of dirt and launched herself and her bike into the air. While she flew forty meters she pulled her rifle and fired electric rounds on the army of Leviathan that still numbered in the thousands. Her mind was attuned to every movement on the battlefield. She could see and hear everything that was happening and was able to process it so quickly that she could nearly see everything happening in slow motion. As she fired each round she watched each and every one hit its direct target. The Leviathan armor was weaker at the base of the neck, so each of her shots were directed for this one spot.

  When the rounds hit the Leviathan received a more direct, and more potent, jolt of electrical current due to the lighter armor around the neck. Each of the Leviathan she hit was unconscious before their bodies touched the ground. In that way she took out another thirty enemy soldiers before she landed in the center of the clearing. Her bike landed with such a great force that she completely compressed the suspension. She rolled on into the clearing and was surrounded on three sides by enemy soldiers.

  She calmly pulled her leg back over the motorcycle and extended the center stabilizer, which left the bike vertical and ready for her to jump back on at any time. She turned toward the hundreds of Leviathan soldiers who were now charging in her direction. The rest of the battle continued on the southern end as the Stingers and AUVS tried to take out as many enemy soldiers as possible. But all the Leviathan on this northern end of the charging infantry turned their attention to this lone women solider.

  As the Leviathan advanced they all suddenly crouched down and released a horrific and deadly roar. They could now sense whom they were fighting. The holy power of God so filled Cloin that the demonic power within the Leviathan recoiled from her. They could feel her power, and it hurt them physically. The pain made them want to run, but the evil in them pushed them to want to destroy her. With an inner turmoil of both hate and fear the Leviathan charged full speed at Cloin.

  As the enemy drew in closer she could sense all that was happening on the battlefield. The Nemaron artillery continued to bombard the exposed corner of the base on the far end of the field. The Helion and Nemaron fighters were still locked in endless mid-air battle. She could see and sense everything that was going on around her with extremely heightened sensitivity. As the Leviathan charged in her direction she could see each and every movement of each soldier as they came forward. With one fluid motion she pulled her rifle and fired in a continuous stream across the front lines of the Leviathan. One by one she took down each of them as she fired from right to left and then back to the right. Those who tried to dodge her rounds found themselves only jumping into her line of fire. The power of God that surged through every cell of her body gave her the ability to anticipate the enemy’s movements and fire in advance of where they would be.

  She took down the first three rows of Leviathan until she had emptied that clip. In one lightning fast motion she dropped the empty and inserted the new clip and only missed two seconds of firing. She laid down three more rows of Leviathan and finally ran out of ammunition. When that happened she threw the rifle to the side and pulled her two meter-long blades from the sheaths on her back. She knelt down on one knee and held the blades low to the ground. She bowed her head for a moment and when see raised it up again her eyes burned with a white-hot light.

  A few of the Helion soldiers fighting on that side of the battlefield could see Cloin as she knelt there with an army of lighting-fast Leviathan running in her direction. To the Heliender’s eyes the battle seemed to be a blur. All the movements of both Cloin and the Leviathan were so fast that their unaided human eyes could only see bits and pieces. They stood amazed and tried not to lose focus on their own battles at hand. But the fact remained that they couldn’t believe the speed of the movement that they saw.

  From Cloin’s perspective, or of that of the Leviathan, the battle appeared at a slower than normal speed. As she raised her head she also leapt into the air nearly three meters. When she landed she was only half a meter from the front line of Leviathan that was charging her. As she touched the ground she spun in a tornado a blade strikes. All the Leviathan that were within three meters of her lost their red, glowing amulet that gave them their demonic power. She cut and tore them from their armor so fast that they could barely react. As the fear-feeding amulet hit the ground, so too dropped the Leviathan to their knees. The evil demonic power began to drain from their bodies, and the pain of that process was immense. The men cried out in agony as the black blood running through the veins in the whites of their eyes returned back to a normal red color.

  Before another group of Leviathan could jump over those lying on the ground, Cloin jumped backward fifteen meters to a safe spot on a hill. When she touched down she landed in a kneeling position. With her head still facing the ground she said, “I was beginning to wonder when you were going to get here.”

 
Just then her father Armon stepped up over the hill and stood beside her. He was dressed in his complete black body armor. He held one of the Helion rifles and also carried a blade on his hip. “I’m sorry it took so long. It seems that some of our Seberian brothers need a lot of time to pack.”

  At that moment Eliune of Galaxy 55x8 and his thirty Seberians stepped up over the hill. Eliune looked out across the battlefield to see the thousands of Leviathan attacking the Helion forces. He couldn’t hide his smile. “If I’d known you had this type of partying waiting, we would have been here a lot sooner.”

  Chapter 12

  Outside the base a squad of Helion fighters flew in a tight formation as they turned back for another attack run on the Nemaron ground forces. “Follow me in. Take out as many of their cannons as you can,” ordered the squad leader.

  The fighters came in low and locked their targeting systems on the massive surface mounted cannons that were bombarding the mountain side and Helion ground forces. As they weaved thought the rounds flying through the air they were able to take out another five Nemaron cannons.

  As the Helion squad passed over the center of the Nemaron side of the battlefield, they picked up some unwanted attention. A group of five Nemaron soldiers equipped with the winged jet packs took to the air. Immediately they opened fire on the Helion fighters in an attempt to clear the battlefield. The Nemaron jet packs were able to match the Helion full-size fighter’s speed, but due to their size and design they were far more agile.

  The Heliender pilots tried desperately to lose their pursuers as they took on more and more direct hits to the back of their ships. Due to the smaller size the Nemaron jetpacks couldn’t carry heavy armor or weapons, but what they had was beginning to cause too much damage. One of their shots caught a Helion fighter in a weakened spot in its armor. Immediately he caught fire and crashed into the side of the mountain.