by Adam DiSalvo
There was a pause.
“Yes.” he responded, his voice coming through her headset. “Yes, shall we?”
Before Haitrion could gesture with his hand, Taytha was already airborne.
“A most fearless human,” he muttered.
Haitrion closed his eyes and fell into the sky. The wall opening to the outside rematerialized behind him upon clearing the edge. As the Hermes pitched its nose into the sky, the exterior lights dimmed out and the arc suit headed for orbit. Haitrion descended through the open sky over the mountain range and drifted in behind Taytha. The two streaked through the sky like falling stars. Taytha pitched to the right, tracking towards the entrance of their alien target. The thrusters on her back and calves kicked into afterburn while she leveled out. She made a pass over the opening.
“Haitrion. That thing is way bigger that I thought.”
Measurements scrolled through Haitrion’s HUD. The opening was sixty four feet high and forty five feet wide.
“Switch vision to kinetic energy detection.”
“Roger” Taytha responded. “Whoa. What is that?”
“I’m not sure how to explain this but, the computer says that’s atmosphere escaping from it.”
“What?”
“My sentiments as well, Sergeant.”
Taytha torqued her body and sent herself careening towards the surface. She flipped forward pulling the AGR from her back and slammed into the ground. Her weapon was tucked tight into her shoulder tracking the opening. Haitrion landed behind her.
“Haitrion that wind coming from the entrance is moving at over two hundred miles per hour and I can’t even see it. This is crazy.”
She lowered her weapon.
“How will we get in?”
Haitrion approached the diamond shaped archway. He pulled one of the metal rods from his back and held it out.
“Magnetic grounder.” he explained.
Haitrion then removed two small metal bearings from the containers at his waist. He let them slip into the air and the bits of metal began to spin until they turned white hot. The clumps of liquid metal spun faster and faster and burned ever brighter. They then vanished into a cloud as Haitrion thrust the magnetic grounding rod forward. Heralded by a blinding light, the whirling cloud ignited into a blade floating around the magnetic rod. Haitrion strode over to the opening holding the blade of plasma out to his right side. Haitrion passed the blade in front of the opening. Flames jumped forth from the from the blade as the fleeing air passed over it. Taytha’s HUD flashed a heat hazard warning. The incandescent pink and orange matter danced in her eyes. One hundred and seventy thousand degrees.
“This is the first time I've seen an ethukar up close before.” Taytha admitted. “I never imagined they were so beautiful.”
“The technique is extremely difficult to master.”
Haitrion pulled the glowing blade back from the rushing air.
“What do you mean?”
“Most ether born, or even syrens for that matter, die during their first attempt to control metallic plasma. Those of us that survive then begin the long lessons of mastering as many shapes as we can.”
“Who cares. It’s an amazing talent. I wish I could do it.”
Haitrion turned to face Taytha.
“Why?”
“I would make flowers.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah! Glowing flowers.”
Haitrion held out the blade and pointed it at her.
“The power to wade through the tides of the suns and you would wield it to make flowers?”
“I would,” she giggled. “Billions.”
She stretched out her arms with the AGR in her right hand.
"Trillions!”
Haitrion laughed.
“I would love to see your endless fields of plasma flowers, Taytha.”
She placed her left fist on her hip and stuck it out.
“Would you?”
“That would be something, I have no doubt.”
Taytha walked up to the opening and passed her fingers through the edges of the rushing air. The force kicked her hand back.
“Holy shit!” she exclaimed. “How’re we going to get through?”
Haitrion’s proximity alert sounded off, followed by Taytha’s. The pair turned to see arial transports approaching. Taytha gasped. Haitrion stepped forward and pulled a second magnetic grounder from his back as constellations of bearings lifted into the air around him.
“The Black Sun rises,” he hissed.
The three transports in the lead touched down fifty yards in front of them. Their ramps deployed. Dozens of soldiers poured out wearing gear identical to Taytha’s when she first crash landed on Styx.
“Haitrion!?” Taytha yelled, digging her feet in and aiming her weapon.
Haitrion stepped in front of Taytha. The liquid hot bearings swirled around him like a storm of electrons. To either side in each hand he held the mythical ethukars. Soldiers fanned out around them with their weapons at the ready. More transports appeared in the skies accompanying a large black ship. Atmosphere began to gather around them.
“How can it fly?!” Taytha called out.
“His power is immense.”
The under belly illumination blinked on bathing the trench in a soft, white light.
“Who’s?”
The other transports began landing behind the first line. The massive black ship dropped in low. The air thickened.
“Lord Kilahren.”
More soldiers filed in behind the others, weapons drawn.
“Haitrion what’s happening?”
Haitrion stood still in silence.
“Haitri—“
“Lord Haitrion!” boomed a voice over their mics. “What a great day this is! It seems you are not dead after all!”
More silence from Haitrion.
“I see you have one of my Sergeants. Care to explain?”
The soldiers crept forward.
“Sergeant! Do you care to tell me why you failed to report ba—“
A terrifying screech dominated the airwaves compelling everyone to grab at their helmets. The hurricane of proximity warnings returned to Taytha’s HUD.
“Looks like we are all present today,” Haitrion growled.
He launched into the air as masses of worms poured over the edges of the trench. A bright light exploded from the top of Kilahren’s ship and shot through the air homing in on Haitrion. The soldiers surrounding Taytha turned about and began firing up at the advancing cybernetic army. Taytha merged her field of fire with theirs and took off into the sky drawing her azukar. She fired her thrusters, flying in low slicing though worm after worm, hot on Haitrion’s trajectory tracking the furious light. Taytha slashed through one last worm before following Haitrion skyward. She flanked to the right around Haitrion as they climbed into the sky. Taytha stowed her azukar as the light screamed towards them. The heavy guns underneath the great black ship opened fire shredding the cybernetic organisms on either side of the trench. Haitrion and the light closed in. The two ethukars clashed with such force the shockwave sent both soldier and worm spinning along the ground. The light from the strike was blinding prompting Taytha to cover her eyes. The forces separated. It was Kilahren.
Kilahren’s ether skin was ferocious. It’s black and red finish, menacing. The red and neon green lights gave it a supernatural, poisonous look. Spikes and wing like tentacles protruded from the back.
The two syrens dashed for each other once more. Taytha laid into the trigger of her weapon sending blue shards of energy towards Kilahren.
“Traitor!” screamed Kilahren as he evaded the spray. “Knight’s of the Void! Kill her!”
Kilahren streaked towards Taytha at lightning speed. She drew her azukar just in time to stop Kilahren’s blade from cleaving her in two. The force of the blow sent her plummeting towards the moon below. She impacted on the edge of the trench among the calamity of worms. Kilahren whipped around deflectin
g another strike from Haitrion and parrying the bolts from the electron storm encircling him.
“The goddess speaks to you clearly Lord Haitrion.”
“You are powerful young lord,” Hatrion replied. “But you lack practice.”
Haitrion released his blades and shot them towards Kilahren. Lightning arced along side them as they raced forward with Haitrion close behind. Kilahren blocked the weapons as they came flying in. The lightning slammed into Kilahren’s ether skin as Haitrion grabbed his chest plate. The shock stunned Kilahren and Haitrion whirled him around mid flight, hurling him towards the ground. Haitrion rotated once more grabbing his ethukars in each hand before he dove after Kilahren.
“Get the fuck off me!” Taytha screamed, as she evaded the jaws of a cybernetic serpent.
As Taytha rose to her feet above her azukar, she lifted it from the ground and secured it. She readied her AGR and squeezed the trigger. Blue rounds sliced through her writhing target. She scoped in the next worm behind it and fired again. In the sky above her Kilahren fell like a comet. Her suit's thrusters fired as she fled the impact zone. Kilahren slammed into the ground sending broken rocks and chunks of armored annelida high into the air. Haitrion came screaming in behind him. The two ethukars smashed together once more throwing back the ring of worms. Haitrion's weapon came down hard as one of the cybernetic monstrosities struck him from the side. He tumbled up over the edge of the impact crater. The one hundred foot beast coiled up in front of Kilahren who rose to his feet with his palm forward, fingers spread out. The animal struck but, stopped short, frozen in air. Starting with the maw of teeth the creature ripped in half before Kilahren. The metal pieces dislodged from its carcass and flurried though the air like a dust devil.
Haitrion got to his feet and reached out with open palms. The magnetic grounders flew though the air finding their home in Haitrion’s fist. The blades ignited again and Haitrion dove forward into the mass of enemies.
“Computer! How many cybernetic signatures are there?” demanded Taytha.
“Forty six thousand and counting,” responded her operating suite.
“Good goddess.” she shuddered.
From the edge of the great trench, Taytha looked out to see the area behind the landed transports filling with writhing combatants.
“Haitrion they’ll be overwhelmed!” she cried.
Haitrion’s ethukars carved through the waves of metal horde as Taytha leaped from the edge. She burned a trail over the transports and landed in between the dropships and the approaching mass of death. Behind her the soldiers were getting pincered between the worms flowing over the edges of the trench. The belly guns from Kilahren’s ship maintained their rain of destruction to no avail. Taytha's weapon tore into the wave of worm’s. Monster after monster shredded before her but, she failed to stymie their advance. Soldiers began falling back to their transports. Kilahren amassed a swirling shield of metal and lightning and stepped from the crater at the edge of the trench. The worms began to break the ranks of his soldiers. Carnage broke out on one flank. The soldiers were torn to pieces. Their retreat became a scramble. Kilahren looked over his fleeing forces and screamed. He turned to face Haitrion.
“You will not leave this battlefield!” he roared.
Kilahren rushed Haitiron.
“Haitrion! On your six!”
The lightning strike of clashing syren weapons ripped through the air again. Kilahren swung wildly carving though ground, worm, and stone. Like a thunder storm, lightning arced out from each parried strike. Electricity fanned out behind Kilahren and snaked through the air towards Haitrion. A mangled worm’s carcass intercepted the nearing bolts. Haitrion came exploding through the center of the robotic corpse charging Kilahren. On the rear flank Taytha back pedaled away from the tides of worms and never holding her fire. She hopped into the air and rocketed away as the overwhelming enemy approached. The first transport lifted from the ground and went airborne.
“Haitrion we must retreat. Call down the Hermes!"
Kilahren engaged Haitrion again. The young lord parried one strike after another, falling back from the onslaught. He dashed away. Haitrion persued.
“Negative Sergeant. We must gain entrance to the mountain."
Another transport went airborne only to be seized by the jaws of a cybernetic worm. A second worm latched on and the transport crashed to the ground. One beast ripped open the hull as gunfire erupted from the inside. The second worm plunged its head inside.
Haitrion swung again at Kilahren smashing their weapons together. Then again. And again. Kilahren parried and returned the attacks. whirling around at incredible speed. Each strike was met equally by Haitrion who released his weapons and hit Lord Kilahren with a gravity strike. The blow sent the Lord spinning through the air and slamming him into the haul of his ship. The escaping atmosphere blew crew members out into a plummeting death of suffocation. Haitrion called his blades back and rushed towards the cave entrance. He landed with force and stowed one grounder. He released the other, suspending it in air. He held out his palm, orienting the blade point up before him. He stepped into the rushing atmosphere cascading from the opening. The weapon split the air, creating a wake of licking flame.
“Come Sergeant! Into the wake!”
The two disappeared into the darkness.
CHAPTER 8
RAFFA SAT HIS drink on the bar top and turned to Lusio.
“I’ll admit, I’m impressed.”
Lusio chuckled, taking a sip of bourbon from a short glass. The two sat in a brightly colored room packed with every imaginable amenity. The air was accented by a soft, musky aroma provided by the plethora of exotic plants hanging from the walls and ceiling. The flora was adored with tiny lights to accent their vibrant color patterns.
“Why’s that?” laughed Lusio.
“Well,” Raffa replied. “We’re in one piece, we only took a few shots from the Pyramid guns, and they didn’t chase us beyond Imperial space.”
Raffa took another sip.
“The odds that all of those things would happen were low Like bottom of your feet low.”
“Ah. No.”
Lusio stood up.
"They weren’t. They were predictable.
“Predictable?” Raffa frowned, scoffing. “What made any of this predictable? How many ships have you EL’ed before being chased from Imperial space, whilst being shot at?”
Lusio stretched his arms far above his head and clenched his eyes shut.
“About twenty two or so, I think.”
Raffa swallowed his drink hard.
“Twenty two?” he blurted. “Holy goddess! Why so many?”
“It’s cheaper to higher pirates or smugglers than it is to pay the disposal fees on a starship.”
Raffa stared into his glass.
“Fuck’n hell,” Raffa responded taking down the rest of his glass in one gulp. “That is definitely true.”
“And how many ships have you unloaded to pirates Mr. Calderon?”
Raffa looked over his shoulder at Lusio.
“Not enough,” Raffa sneered.
“Oh man!” Lusio laughed. “Struck that nerve pretty hard, didn’t I?!”
Lusio took a few steps around the bar and began searching through the myriad of expensive bottles secured through flexible clamps. Raffa leaned over the bar.
“It’s not that Lusio. I’m just aware of the expense involved with ship disposal. There’s a lot of valuable components on a spaceship. Working or not.”
Lusio looked over many of the bottles reaching for a brown canvas bag covered in dust near the back. He unlatched the lock and pulled it out. His expression was cheery as he turned around to face the bar top.
“What’s that you got?” Raffa asked.
Lusio removed a bottle from the canvas bag. It was a clear bottle filled with a transparent liquid. Within the liquid itself were tiny pink flakes. Lusio sat the bottle down next to the glasses.
“This my friend, is red gold spice
d rum, from Norumbai.”
“Nepheri spiced rum? I’ve only heard stories about that stuff.”
Lusio flashed a wide grin as he took a place across from Raffa at the bar.
“They call it ’gonimi’.”
“Gonimi huh? What’s it like?”
Lusio held up the bottle.
“You want to try some?”
Raffa cocked his head.
“Isn’t it more like a drug than a drink?” Raffa asked.
“Alcohol is a drug and this certainly doesn’t taste like one,” Lusio smirked. "Shit tastes like chocolate cake and after about ten ounces or so, forces the hypothalamus to secrete a ton of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins.”
Lusio handed the bottle to Raffa and bent down to search for a fresh glass.
“The hypothalamus, huh?” laughed Raffa.
Lusio nodded with a smile.
“Hypothalamus,” he repeated.
“How long do the effects last?”
Lusio stood back up with a tall slender glass in his hand.
“Well, if you were to drink an entire ten ounces at once, you’d probably start feeling the effects within about ten to fifteen minutes.”
Lusio grabbed three large ice cubes with a pair of golden tongs and dropped them into the glass. He held out his hand to Raffa waving his fingers. Raffa handed Lusio the bottle, who poured its contents over the ice.
“You’d be pretty messed up for about six to eight hours."
Lusio handed the drink to Raffa.
“Much better to pace oneself. It’s easy to get carried away.”
Raffa took the drink from Lusio.
"Thank the goddess though,” Lusio concluded. “Its not lethal to humans.”
“Well then whats the worst that could happen?!=” Raffa jested, peering at the beverage through the clear walls of the slim cup.
Lusio grabbed three more ice cubes and placed them into his glass sitting on the bar and filled it to the brim.
The door to the rear of the bar slid open and in stepped Serena. Her long black hair was wet and she wore skin tight black pants and a matching black spaghetti strap tank top. She was stunning. Even without makeup.
“Is that Nepheri rum?” she exclaimed, smiling. “No way! Is it real?”