Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “I can see that,” he said. “Shipboard psionic duties aren’t for you, slaying those that oppose us are.”

  “Most impressive, Admiral,” Empress Y’lin’s said from behind him.

  Turning around Yominv saw her float in the sea of weightlessness as two of her armed bodyguards hovered next to her shoulder to shoulder.

  “Your Majesty,” Yominv said bowing. “I had no idea you were here.”

  “I had to see the power of the wormhole myself,” said Y’lin. “You, Noylarlie, and the rest of your team have proven yourselves. I want you to push things forward now. No more hit and run attacks.”

  “Invasion of Earth?”

  “Turn it to glass, and bring me the heads of the any surviving Radiance zealots.”

  Yominv bowed again. “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  Y’lin moved forward to continue her inspection, propelled by her telekinetic thoughts while her two bodyguards moved alongside. Both Yominv and Neviana floated away in the opposite direction as their fake smiles originally aimed at the empress transformed in to real frowns as they were outside of hearing range from her.

  “When do we cut off her head?” Neviana whispered to Yominv.

  “Waiting for the word from our order brothers and sisters in Radiance,” Yominv whispered back. “Until then, let us continue to play the role of loyal imperial navy personnel.”

  Valric’s Revenge, Imperial fleet outside of Paryo, Uemaesce system

  Yominv arrived via a transport to the Valric’s Revenge a Hashmedai destroyer flying in a sea of hundreds of Hashmedai ships outside of Paryo’s orbit on patrol. Yominv summoned Noylarlie to meet with him shortly after boarding as her assistance was once again needed. She floated away from the elevator door and entered the bridge where he sat in the main command chair.

  “Noylarlie,” he said as she approached him. “How would you like to take a quick trip with me?”

  “You mean you want me to create another wormhole for you to travel through?”

  “In a word yes,” he said, conjuring a holographic screen of a blue and white planet. “To Taxah, your home world.”

  Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

  Onatiasha was still slightly light headed, but well enough to hold her blade as she walked toward the manors entrance. She saw from the windows the militia was starting to gather in front. She made her way down to see if she could offer assistance. It was quite clear the order had attacked in her and Zhinbryo’s dazed state. If the incoming raid was any indication, the order was still at large, probably in hiding.

  Daylight sunshine highlighted her presence to the Hashmedai militia strike force as they kicked in the front doors and stormed in. The guardians as expected led the way with their arm mounted shields raised in the air, while the riflemen and warrior stood behind, awaiting further instructions.

  Those instructions came in loud and clear as they saw Onatiasha.

  “Kill her!”

  “What, you got the wrong—”

  Her voice was cut off by the sound of multiple guardian sword mounted tractor beams attempting to pull her toward her death. All beams deflected at the last second as Onatiasha’s shield rose to protect her. Looking through the blue waves of her shield, she saw several guardians hiss and charge toward her. A short sword fight ensued forcing Onatiasha to go on the defensive, deflecting thrusts with her shield, parrying cleaves that got too close to her face. As skilled as she was with the blade and shield, a four on one fight wasn’t something she was going to win. A tactical retreat was necessary.

  She ran down the main halls, keeping her arm mounted shield behind her to deflect plasma rifle shots that came toward her on occasion. Zhinbryo turned the corner, armed with his two-handed plasma sword wearing his exosuit. There was a concerned look on his face. He had heard the fighting, screaming and now plasma rifles volleying.

  “Onatiasha! What is going on?”

  “Imperial forces are attacking,” she said, panting.

  They proceeded further away from the danger, their footsteps taking them up a flight of stairs. She felt her head slowly start to spin as they neared the top of the stairs. They had to keep moving, she had to find it inside of her to ignore the after effects of the toxic substance in her veins. Zhinbryo too was moving slower than usual upon ending their climb up the stairs and at one point, it looked as if he was going to faint.

  “Zhinbryo, don’t let me down!”

  “I am fine, let’s keep moving.”

  They continued to move through the upper halls, several of the raiding Hashmedai strike force started to split up and search the manor while three others continued their pursuit of Zhinbryo and Onatiasha.

  “Did they do all this?” Zhinbryo asked.

  “No idea, they could be here in response to this.”

  “They why attack us? We played no role in this foul play.”

  “Maybe they think we did it,” she said.

  “With what proof?”

  His answer would have to come at another time as a group of warriors rappelled down from the rooftops and smashed through a window in front of Onatiasha and Zhinbryo. There must have been at least six, all of them raised their two-handed blades and charged toward them, while the pursuing group from behind gained.

  Onatiasha hissed and growled as she held off three of the warriors, while Zhinbryo did what he could to parry the attacks of the remaining three. A sense of remorse hit her as she put down her first warrior, her blade cut a massive horizontal gash across his chest, spraying his blood on the floor below him while smoke went upwards, caused by the intense heat of her blade and the damaged electronics in his suit. Her second kill followed seconds later. Her tractor beam yanked a warrior that was in the process of delivering a leaping cleave at Zhinbryo. A two fold swing of her blade decapitated the warrior into three even slices like a butcher preparing a cut of steak.

  Now it’s an even match, she thought as she defended herself from the two aggressive warriors still swinging their blades at her, while Zhinbryo held his own, handling two of his remaining opponents. Meanwhile the three pursers from earlier were a minute away from jumping into the chaotic plasma sword rumble.

  Onatiasha saw blue teleportation light fade in the distance behind the three pursers. It was Di’aria, her augmented arm extended forward, glowing orange, conjuring multiple sets of white fire balls. The question was, who were they aimed for? At this point Onatiasha had no idea who to trust.

  Di’aria’s swarm of white flames was released from her hands like a rifle unloading its rounds into the battlefield. The three pursers ignited into flames and quickly turned into ash, the shock of the attack distracted the remaining warriors just long enough for Zhinbryo to spin like a top with his blade in his hands, the entrails from his opponents splashed across the walls. Onatiasha’s two challengers stopped moving, paralyzed by Di’aria’s telekinetic grip, they rose into the air while their own blades left their hands, span and slowly plunged into their chests. Onatiasha could see they wanted to scream in pain, but Di’aria’s telekinesis forced their lips to stay shut. Their impaled bodies slammed into the floor shortly after she was satisfied they would never get up.

  Di’aria spoke. “Please come with me at once—”

  Rage in Onatiasha’s hands caused her to aim her sword toward Di’aria. The tractor beam activated pulling the sultry psionic toward her. “What’s going on?” Onatiasha shouted, while her hands wrapped around Di’aria’s neck.

  “I can explain but first we must leave.”

  “No, that will just make us look even more suspect.” Not to mention we’ll be abandoning our duty to protect. Oh no. “Hasiv.”

  Onatiasha pushed Di’aria away while her fleeting armor-clad footsteps carried her toward Hasiv’s chambers, worried about his safety, knowing that it was her duty to protect him, knowing that she already failed in her duty to protect Prince Akeia. Zhinbryo and Di’aria followed, while plasma rifle fire from behind them erupted, the strike team wasn’t finis
hed with them just yet.

  “It is the Celestial Order, it must be them!” Zhinbryo shouted toward Onatiasha.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense,” she shouted back, dodging a hail of green bolts. “They knew we were here and had to try a more aggressive means of getting to Hasiv.”

  The massive twin doors to Hasiv’s chambers were forced open, Onatiasha’s plasma blade was the key. They stepped in, only to see Hasiv, his guards and his entire harem all dead, their throats were all slit. Across from the senseless massacre two figures stood, one was a guardian female with long purple hair, the other a male warrior, with short white hair. They looked exactly like Onatiasha and Zhinbryo, and were equally equipped.

  Onatiasha began to rage internally and hiss loudly, not because she once again failed to protect her target, but because she and Zhinbryo were looking like the prime suspects. It all started to make sense, these lookalikes killed everyone while they were passed out. Someone called for help and reported that Zhinbryo and Onatiasha were killing everyone.

  Zhinbryo and Onatiasha both drew their weapons as their respective doubles did the same. Di’aria however, backed away out of them room. Turning around Onatiasha saw Di’aria use her powers to force the door shut, and probably locking it too judging by the loud sound that vibrated from the door seconds afterwards.

  Di’aria? Friend or foe?

  Two plasma blades clashed into one another while two plasma great swords did the same. Onatiasha and Zhinbryo engaged in a battle neither of them expected to ever encounter in their life as a soldier, a mirror fight against themselves. Onatiasha’s double was equally skilled, deflecting attacks with her shields, knowing exactly when Onatiasha was going to attempt to use her tractor beam and countering as a result. Zhinbryo’s slug fest was just the same, two massive spinning blades cutting through the air or clashing into each other releasing sparks with each parry.

  Sweat dripped from Onatiasha’s forehead ten minutes into the bout. She lost track of which Zhinbryo was the real one with all the leaping they did as they tried to get an edge on one another. This only led to more worry as one of the Zhinbryo’s was quickly impaled, distracted as they stood a second too long watching Onatiasha duel her copy, probably wondering which was their ally, much like she was.

  Onatiasha’s double hesitated before making another strike. It resulted in the double’s shield raised too high and angled off to the side, creating an opening for Onatiasha to make her strike. Onatiasha’s hands swung to her blade forward to make a wide horizontal cleave. The tip of her blade slashed across the double’s chest, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she leapt backwards, that would have been the end of her. Instead Onatiasha’s blade merely cut away at a section of her armor, spewing sparks outwards. She could see blood poor through the damaged gash, but the cut wasn’t deep enough put her down.

  The double fell to her knees, her weakened hands dropped her sword and she began to plead to the remaining Zhinbryo with pain in her voice. “Help me! I need assistance!” She then collapsed holding her chest. A fake move if Onatiasha ever saw one, it was a deep gash, and the medical systems in her armor should have kicked in, pumping full of pain killers while trying to repair the damage. She was faking it.

  Zhinbryo charged toward Onatiasha roaring with his blade outwards. Either this was the fake one, or Onatiasha’s double convinced the real one to attack her, either way the situation was grim. As a precaution Onatiasha entered a defense stance, keeping her body behind her shield as the two-handed blade plunged down toward her.

  “Onatiasha and I been through so much!” Zhinbryo shouted toward her. “I will kill you where you stand!”

  He sounds like the real one, perhaps there’s hope! She thought as she stepped backwards, deflecting each of his attacks with her shield. “Zhinbryo. It’s me!”

  “Lies!”

  “Don’t be stupid!”

  The dead body of the downed Zhinbryo began to melt away, almost as if it was turning into a liquid of some sort. The body continued to liquefy, then morphed into a familiar face.

  Kezea.

  The body transformed into Kezea’s body.

  In the heat of the moment a random and last-ditch idea came to her mind. These doubles, whoever they were had the power to transform into someone else. And going by what Onatiasha just witnessed, would revert back when killed.

  Onatiasha looked to the side at her double that now crawled back to her feet as Zhinbryo’s back was turned to her. Onatiasha’s double rearmed herself with her blade, and pointed it toward Zhinbryo. She was going to back stab him. With the full force of her arm, Onatiasha shield bashed Zhinbryo as he raised his blade upwards for a savage vertical slash. He lost his balance, then later was pushed toward the floor by Onatiasha as she charged toward her double. In an unexpected move, Onatiasha slid on the floor next to her double and slashed her blade toward the double’s right leg – It was severed instantly, they fell over backwards.

  Leaping back to her feet, Onatiasha guided her blade to finish the job, splitting her double’s head open like a piece of fruit. Zhinbryo raged and roared upon seeing what happened, but only for a few seconds. The double’s body began to turn into liquid, and transform in Sev.

  The ordeal was over, and they began to examine the bodies before them, grateful that neither of them were killed, or was tricked into killing one another. “I recognize her,” Zhinbryo said, gazing at Kezea’s head.

  “And I recognize him,” Onatiasha said, putting the two halves of Sev’s head back together to closer examine it. She stepped toward Hasiv’s body, there was something on his forehead. She moved down to get a closer look. A triangular shape object was stuck to his forehead, a memory recorder. “They were downloading his memories,” Onatiasha said, “and his knowledge that he was feeding us information about the order.”

  Zhinbryo said nothing, just hissed loudly in frustration. Onatiasha ripped the device from Hasiv’s lifeless forehead and walked toward Kezea’s body. “What happened to us in the morning was not a hangover,” he said finally, then asked. “What do you intend to do?”

  “Her brain should still be active for a few more seconds,” Onatiasha said and placed the device on Kezea’s head. “Let’s see what they knew leading up to this.”

  Valric’s Revenge, Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system

  The Valric’s Revenge emerged from a small wormhole outside of Taxah’s orbit. Aboard the bridge, Noylarlie’s hovering body slowly lowered back closer to the floor as the glowing red gem started to dim and her focus returned to the normal world. With a grin, Yominv guided her toward a holographic screen at the aft end of the bridge. The screen displayed a zoomed in view of Hasiv’s manor. It was captured by the exterior cameras of the Valric’s Revenge, aimed toward the surface of Taxah.

  “Familiar sight, isn’t it?” Yominv asked.

  Noylarlie grunted. “I spent too much time there.”

  “I meant the strike force.” Yominv pointed toward a group of Hashmedai storming the manor. “It was a group like that which pulled you away from your mother and sent her to the execution grounds was it not?”

  Noylarlie glared at the screen closer. In some way, he was right. The day she was taken away looked somewhat like this, a task force of soldiers raiding the manor, taking her and her mother captive. To this day, she never did figure out who alerted the authorities that she was a psionic keeping her powers a secret, while her mother an Archmage loyal to the Celestial Order which was unknown at the time, hid her out of sight from the empire.

  Yominv patted her on the shoulder. “Teleport us outside of the manor, please.”

  Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

  Both Noylarlie and Yominv materialized outside of a small group of Hashmedai soldiers who were standing guard outside of Hasiv’s manor front door. Many of them turned around, astounded to see them appear from the teleport.

  “What is your status?” Yominv asked the commander in charge of the raid.

  “Admiral, I was
not expecting you to be out here,” he said.

  “I’m a man of many secrets,” said Yominv. “Now, your status?”

  “Oh right.” The commander stood straight and continued to speak. “We received a distress call claiming the manor was under siege and Hasiv has been attacked. The perpetrators are still at large inside and killed a few of my men.”

  They continued to speak, Noylarlie blocked out what they were rambling about. Most people would be happy to return home to a place they grew up in, even if it was only for a short time. Noylarlie however, was feeling the other way around. She hated this place, she hated having to be a servant, she hated how Hasiv used to touch her, she hated how Phylarlie just upped and vanished one night, never to be seen again, and she hated how she was expected to pleasure his friends that came to visit.

  Then came the day they took her away... five years in that psionic training facility. So much regret and fury. Noylarlie wanted to kill someone, anyone, it didn’t matter who, just someone’s life needed to end at her hands. Remove all the bottled-up anger inside of her, convert it to her psionic powers then use it to pull someone apart limb from limb, crush their skulls like a grape, vaporize their internal organs just by thinking about it. She’d suffered enough, it was time others did in her place. Doing such things... it was the only thing that would make her feel better.... other than that gem, and it’s soothing voice.

  Her cybernetic hands rolled into a fist.

  A small group from the Hashmedai strike force knocked down the door into Hasiv’s chambers. It caught both Onatiasha and Zhinbryo off guard. Trapped with no place to run, they both put their lives in the hands of the strike force as they were surrounded. Well at least one good thing happened today. They chose to take them alive rather than dead, their previous stance not long ago. I wonder what changed their minds? She thought while they were brought outside.