by Ken Lozito
"Yes, Battle Commander. Course has been laid in and control has been transferred to the navigation computer," Triflan confirmed.
"Very well, head down to the shuttle and prepare it for immediate departure. Gaarokk, send a ship-wide broadcast for the crew to assemble in the main hangar bay," Kladomaor said.
Valkra glanced at him in surprise.
"Time to go," Kladomaor said and took a long look at the bridge. He regretted the loss of such a magnificent ship, but sacrifices had to be made.
Kladomaor and Valkra left the bridge and headed to the main hangar bay, where they stopped at the armory and slipped into power armor. Kladomaor saw Gaarokk doing the same and arched an eyebrow at him. "What are you doing?"
The Boxan scientist had just closed the armor up, sealing him inside except for the helmet, so Kladomaor could still see his face.
"I'm going with you," Gaarokk replied.
"You'll stay with the shuttle once we land," Kladomaor said.
Gaarokk scowled, and klaxon alarms began to go off.
"Tower defense systems are targeting our ship, Battle Commander," Triflan said.
They quickly left the armory and ran toward the shuttle. The combat shuttle had been designed for troop-carrier transport, so all of them could fit aboard with room to spare.
"We're all on board. Pilot, take us out of here," Kladomaor said.
"Why are defense systems targeting our ship?" Valkra asked.
"Tower defense systems are different. The Xiiginns must have updated them with extra security," Kladomaor said.
The combat shuttle flew out of the main hangar bay just as the tower defense systems began firing on the heavy cruiser. Kladomaor and the other soldiers were secured in place via their power armor. The cyber warfare suite had a preprogrammed firing solution that was reactionary, so it automatically targeted any weapons systems that were firing on the heavy cruiser. The combat shuttle sped away and headed to one of the lower landing platforms at the base of the main tower.
Kladomaor watched the video feed as the tower defense platforms tore their heavy cruiser apart, but he didn’t have long to mourn as they made their final approach to their destination.
"Defense stations at the base of the tower have been neutralized, Battle Commander," Triflan said.
"Acknowledged. Take us in," Kladomaor replied.
The combat shuttle landed hard, and the rear hatch opened. Boxan soldiers stormed down the ramp to secure the immediate area. Kladomaor saw a shorter Boxan in power armor grab a weapon and make as if to join them.
"Gaarokk, I ordered you to stay with the shuttle," Kladomaor said.
"I know, but I'm still coming," Gaarokk said.
"You're not a soldier. You'll die if you come," Kladomaor said.
"You're right, I'm not a soldier, but I am your friend and I'm coming," Gaarokk replied firmly.
Kladomaor required a lot of focus to stay on task, and knowing that Mar Arden was close by threatened to shatter that focus. He drew in a deep breath and felt his chest swell with pride. "How very Human-like of you."
"A few cycles ago that might've been an insult," Gaarokk replied.
Kladomaor smiled grimly. "It would've been."
Gaarokk seemed more at ease knowing that Kladomaor wasn't going to try to stop him. "But not anymore."
Kladomaor nodded and they left the shuttle.
They saw the remains of a crashed ship nearby—the one Kladomaor was sure Mar Arden had been on. The hatch was open and whoever had been on board was gone. Kladomaor divided his forces to increase their odds of reaching their destination, and shortly after they'd entered the tower, Confederation soldiers began to show up. Boxan soldiers carved a path through them, killing them quickly to prevent any Xiiginns from using their abilities. The Confederation defense soldiers were comprised of multiple species, and Kladomaor knew they were killing them all indiscriminately. Kaylan had been right—they couldn't afford to fight a war with their hands tied behind their backs. When survival was at stake, they had to fight with everything they had.
Kladomaor led them to where a maintenance elevator had been, hoping the Xiiginns hadn't changed the interior of the tower as well. The corridors began to narrow. They turned a corner, and a wall blocked their path. Kladomaor brought up his weapon and changed the ammunition configuration to explosive rounds, then fired his weapon in short, controlled bursts at the wall, leaving a gaping hole. Confederation defense reinforcements arrived, and the Boxans hurried through the hole. Kladomaor left a squad of soldiers to hold the Confederation forces off where the opening had created a bottleneck.
They descended to the computing core of the space station and ran to the adjacent corridor where the Star Shroud network computer core was stored. They'd met little resistance on the way, which confirmed what Kladomaor had always suspected: After the Xiiginns failed to gain access to the core, they'd simply tried to lock it down.
They found dead Confederation soldiers along the way, but it was only a token force. Kladomaor tried opening a comms channel to the second team, but there was no reply. Two of his soldiers approached the door to the inner chamber and accessed the door controls. As the door began to open, Valkra pulled Kladomaor to the side. A barrage of plasma bolts sped from the darkened interior, killing the soldiers clustered at the door.
Kladomaor swung his weapon up and returned fire, as did Valkra. Bright flashes lit up the area around them. Kladomaor scampered along the wall toward the doorway and checked inside. The ground was littered with the bodies of the Boxan soldiers from the other team.
"Still falling for the same old tricks? Come inside so we can finally finish this," Mar Arden called out.
Kladomaor bared his teeth and clutched his rifle. "Why don't you come out from the shadows?" he said with a sneer and fired his weapon into the gloom.
He heard several Boxans scream from inside, and Kladomaor became blinded by rage. Mar Arden was toying with him, making him kill his own kind. Not again. Kladomaor bellowed as he raced inside. He knew it was a foolhardy path to a quick death, but he was focused on killing Mar Arden for everything he’d done. He heard Valkra and Gaarokk shouting for him to stay back, but he’d seen Mar Arden standing outside the door to the computing core. Kladomaor fired his weapon, and his rage was so great that he didn't even notice that none of his shots had found their mark. He charged forward, letting out a savage roar, eager to tear the Xiiginn apart with his bare hands.
Mar Arden dove out of the way and Kladomaor crashed into the door, a Xiiginn phaze-knife stuck in his side. He groaned in pain and stumbled to the side, trying to scramble to his feet.
Mar Arden aimed a plasma rifle at him. The primer inside was charged to a molten yellow, and it took every ounce of his will not to charge the Xiiginn. There was a hard edge to Mar Arden's features, as if he were chiseled from stone. His gaze was both wild-eyed and calculating, and his dark uniform was faded and torn, looking as disheveled as its owner.
"You see the difference," Mar Arden said and smirked. "Yours is not the only species with the Mardoxian potential anymore."
Kladomaor regarded the Xiiginn for a moment. "I don't think it agrees with you."
Mar Arden shrieked and leapt forward, slamming the butt of his rifle into Kladomaor's helmet. "I am the pinnacle of my species," he screamed, beating Kladomaor down.
Kladomaor jabbed his fists outward and knocked the Xiiginn back, but Mar Arden pointed his rifle at Kladomaor's head, then lowered the barrel toward his leg and fired. A plasma bolt slammed into Kladomaor's leg and the force of it spun him around, sending him careening into the wall. His armor was only able to deflect part of the blast. He sank down and planted his fist into the ground to prevent himself from falling over.
"Killing you would be too easy," Mar Arden said.
"So you keep saying, and yet I'm still here," Kladomaor replied.
Mar Arden laughed. "I've enjoyed tormenting you. I found it infinitely more satisfying than merely making another slave. You wer
e the first. Did you know that?"
Kladomaor saw Mar Arden's gaze shift to something behind him. He turned and saw that there was a device sticking out of the door to the computing core.
"I'd been making so many Boxan slaves to do my bidding that I'd grown tired of it. When I came across your team, I decided to try something new. I have since perfected that process, and if there were any of those Boxans still alive they would vehemently attest to its effectiveness," Mar Arden said.
Kladomaor didn't need the Xiiginn to remind him. He'd heard the screams of his dying fellow Boxans as they threw themselves at him. Mar Arden had made them slaves and ordered them to kill Kladomaor. One of the side effects of being partially under the Xiiginn influence was that those memories would never fade for him.
"I think I'll finish what I started all those cycles ago," Mar Arden said. He leaned forward, his gaze narrowing menacingly. "Go ahead—resist. You all do and you all fail. Yours is the weaker species."
The stomping of feet sounded from the doorway.
"Enough!" Gaarokk bellowed.
The Boxan scientist fired his weapon and missed. Mar Arden returned fire and Gaarokk tumbled backward. Kladomaor lunged for Mar Arden, and the Xiiginn kicked him, hard. The Xiiginn's genetic enhancements gave him a physical strength that rivaled any Boxan’s, and Kladomaor fell backward from the force of the blow. Valkra darted out from the doorway and fired her weapon, but Mar Arden dove out of the way and rolled to his feet behind Kladomaor. He shifted the barrel of his rifle to Kladomaor's head and shouted for her to stop. Kladomaor watched as Valkra took cover behind a barricade, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. She couldn't hide from the Xiiginn influence. She must've arrived at the same conclusion because a moment later she stepped out from cover but kept her weapon aimed at Mar Arden.
"Shoot him," Kladomaor said.
He watched Valkra, willing her to do what needed to be done—his own life be damned—but she didn't move. She just stood there, looking as if she were straining against some unseen force. Kladomaor growled and tried to reach for Mar Arden as he circled around him, but the Xiiginn stepped out of reach.
"I haven't taken her yet. She resists, just like you did. Just like you all do," Mar Arden said.
Kladomaor slammed his fist on the floor in frustration. "Let her go."
Mar Arden grinned. "Pleading for another's life?" the Xiiginn said and shifted his gaze toward Valkra. "Remove your helmet. Let me see who's worth all this effort."
Kladomaor heard Valkra grunting with effort. He knew she was seconds from succumbing and would be lost forever. No more. He lunged toward Mar Arden, his injured leg dragging behind him. Mar Arden stepped back and then stomped his foot on Kladomaor's outstretched arm, pressing it into the ground.
Tower alarms blared for a moment and then were cut off, and the air filtration systems engaged. Kladomaor felt a reduction in the artificial gravity field. Mar Arden glanced up for a moment and Kladomaor looked back at Valkra, who was straining to raise her rifle. She roared. Mar Arden took his foot off Kladomaor's arm and stepped away from him. The Xiiginn held his arms out wide, presenting her with the target.
"Good, that's it. Go ahead, Boxan, take your shot. I won't move. Do it," Mar Arden said, taunting her.
He heard Valkra's breath come in harsh gasps as she strained against what was happening to her. Kladomaor closed his eyes, not wanting to see yet another Boxan succumb to the Xiiginn influence. Not again.
The rifle fired. There was a surprised choking sound and Kladomaor saw Mar Arden fall to the ground with a gaping hole burned through his chest. Kladomaor's eyes widened and he looked at Valkra. She rushed to his side and helped him sit up.
"How?" Kladomaor asked.
Valkra looked just as surprised as he was. "I don't know. One moment it felt like there was this indomitable force compelling me to obey. I found myself longing to do anything Mar Arden wanted while hating myself for it. Then it was gone. The pressure and the longing . . . it was just gone."
Kladomaor frowned. He didn't feel any different. He looked at Mar Arden's body and wanted to savor the sight of the despicable Xiiginn finally meeting his end, but what he really wanted was to erase all thoughts of Mar Arden from his mind forever. He turned away.
"What’s that device on the door?" Valkra asked.
Kladomaor struggled to his feet, and the exoskeleton inside his power armor helped him stay upright. He looked at Valkra and almost couldn't believe she'd been spared, but her gaze was focused and alert, both of which he knew to be impossible had she succumbed to the Xiiginn influence. "The Athena," he said. "They must have found a way to negate the Xiiginn influence." His mind raced with the implications. How had they done it? He glanced up at the air filtration system, but filtration alone couldn't have been enough to do it. There had to be something else.
He heard someone stumbling behind them. Valkra spun, her weapon ready.
"Don't shoot," Gaarokk said quickly. "I don't know if I can take another shot. This armor is barely holding together as it is."
Kladomaor reached a hand toward Gaarokk, unable to believe his friend had survived. The plasma bolt had partially melted through the power armor, and he saw burned flesh beneath. "Take it easy. Your armor has released numbing agents so you're not feeling as much pain."
Gaarokk glanced down at his torso and grimaced. "It's not working very well then because I'm still in a lot of pain." He looked at the door. "Valkra, since you're such a good shot, can you take out that device on the door?"
Valkra aimed her rifle, and a single plasma bolt tore through the device.
"Mar Arden was trying to use one of our communications nodes to gain access to the Star Shroud network," Gaarokk said.
"Would that have worked?" Valkra asked.
Gaarokk swayed on his feet and Valkra helped him sit down.
"I think it's safe to assume it would have," Kladomaor said and looked around at the dead Boxan soldiers, but he couldn't look at their faces. It was time to end this. "Gaarokk will be alright. Come, help me." He limped over to their fallen comrades. "We need to gather all the explosive charges."
Together they gathered the explosives some of the soldiers had been carrying. Valkra, being uninjured, moved the quickest. Kladomaor told Gaarokk to stay where he was, and for once the scientist didn't protest.
Kladomaor and Valkra walked to the door of the computing core.
"Aren't you going to use the door controls?" Valkra asked.
"Those are Xiiginn door controls. We don't need to use them," Kladomaor said and utilized his neural implants to access the computing core systems. He retrieved an old access key and waited while the system checked his authentication. It took a few moments, but then the door to the computing core opened. "Go inside and set the charges around the base of the power conduits that feed the core. Once we blow them up, it’ll start a chain reaction that will take out the core and all the shroud network data."
Valkra's mouth hung open in surprise. "You're destroying it?"
"It was part of a broken system that we shouldn't have built in the first place. It needs to be destroyed to keep developing species safe from the Xiiginns. Will you help me?" Kladomaor asked.
"Does the High Council know about this?" Valkra asked.
"Would it really matter to you if they did?"
Valkra gave him a long look and shook her head, then headed inside to set the charges. Kladomaor leaned against the wall. He didn't know why but he felt very tired. He accessed the Star Shroud network and configured a set of instructions to be completed immediately. All remaining Star Shrouds would receive the update. When Valkra finished setting the charges, they helped Gaarokk to his feet. Kladomaor sent out self-destruct commands to the dead Boxan soldiers’ power armor. The power armor flashed an orange glow and the Boxans disintegrated. Kladomaor brought his fist across his chest, with Gaarokk and Valkra following suit. Then Kladomaor sent out a broadcast on the comms channel, alerting anyone in range to leave the tower.
<
br /> It took them much longer to exit the tower than it had to enter. They found Confederation soldiers who seemed to be highly agitated. The few Xiiginns among them had been killed. They looked at Kladomaor and the others as if they weren’t quite sure what to make of them. They'd been under the Xiiginn influence for so long that after the initial rage they seemed confused. He told them they were free and urged them to leave the tower. Kladomaor wondered if it would be the same for them as it had been for the Human who’d gone to the Drar space station—free from the Xiiginn influence but only fleetingly so because the damage had already been done. How many more would be in the same state?
They made it back to the shuttle and saw that there were a few Boxan soldiers already on board.
Triflan smiled a greeting. "We got pinned down by Confederation soldiers. It was a close thing there for a while and then they suddenly stopped shooting at us. They killed the Xiiginn soldiers with them and left us alone."
"I'm glad you made it," Kladomaor said.
There was a deep rumbling sound as the explosive charges unleashed their payload. The Star Shroud network and all the knowledge it contained was destroyed. The High Council might not approve of the final set of instructions he'd sent out to the remaining Star Shrouds in the galaxy, but he knew they couldn't do anything about it. It was time for the Boxans to move on. They'd fought to protect the data contained in the Star Shroud network for so long that Kladomaor thought he'd regret it when it was gone, but all he really felt was a profound sense of relief knowing that the darkest chapter in their history was coming to a close. The only thing left was to wonder just how many Boxans would remain once the Confederation and Alliance fleets finally stopped shooting at each other.
Chapter Thirty-One
The battleship-carrier Lincoln approached the warring fleets. They'd received preliminary targeting data from the Boxan flagship, which was currently surrounded by three Confederation Dreadnoughts. The Boxan flagship and supporting battle groups had taken out two of the behemoth ships, but the flagship looked to have sustained heavy damage and the Lincoln hadn't received any communication from them in a while.