Ignite (Blackout Book 1)

by Daniel Young

  Grey dawn spread over Keter. Mist covered mountains of the same trash boulders. Liri and Lana waited for Jackson and Roy. As soon as the two men showed up, they started winding their way through the terrain.

  Mile upon mile of trash formed aisles and avenues between ridges of debris. So this was what happened to a world without government. The Legion passed from hand to hand between those strong enough to control it, while the garbage piled up with nowhere to go.

  No fence or border separated this trash landscape from the rest of the city. Liri and Lana strode around another hill, and there was the city spread out before them.

  The twins headed into the winding streets and twisting neighborhoods when the racers pelted overhead one more time. The four comrades dove for cover behind the trash, but the racers paid no attention to them.

  The racers fired well away from the hiding friends. Charges smashed into the street, heading away. Lana poked her head out. “Look! It’s Arlyane and his people.”

  Liri took a look. “They’re under attack! We have to help them.”

  Jackson started to ask what they were talking about, but the twins had already charged away. They ran straight into the street where the racers were firing. The Legion craft hammered the pavement and swiveled through clouds of smoke to shoot into doorways.

  Jackson couldn’t see who they were shooting at, and without Liri and Lana to guide him, he had nowhere else to go, either. In half a second, the twins vanished into the melee. Jackson straightened up to get a better look, but Roy pulled him down. “Don’t even think about it!”

  “What are we supposed to do—leave them there?”

  “You’re damn right!” Roy hollered back. “They want to throw their lives away, that’s their business. You want to get your head shot off for someone you’ve never laid eyes on? I don’t.”

  Jackson sneaked one more wary glance out of their hiding place. Not only could he not see the people Liri and Lana were so keen to help, but he couldn’t see Liri and Lana, either. Plumes of smoke clouded the neighborhood.

  Roy gave him another tug, and Jackson bowed to the inevitable. He let Roy pull him away. They crept around the nearest mound to a different part of the city. The racers didn’t come this way. Roy darted across the street and dove into the warren of blocks and intersections.

  They passed three corners. Jackson relaxed now that they were leaving the battle—and Liri and Lana—behind. Roy turned another corner. He couldn’t possibly know where they were going either, but at least the noise got quieter.

  Jackson glanced behind him just to make sure, and got the shock of his life when a crowd of thirty people barreled out of nowhere. They all wore hoods—all except one man right in front.

  The strangers carried weapons of various sizes, but these weren’t soldiers from the Keter Legion. Not only did they not wear uniforms, but the racers hounded them from behind.

  Jackson got one good look at the unmasked leader as the racers chased the mob straight for him and Roy. This strange Keteran had all the usual near-invisible features Jackson now associated with all Keterans. A nasty scar carved across the man’s face. It started on his semi-bald head and sliced down his forehead, across his nose, and twisted his upper lip.

  “Shoot!” the man thundered as he charged past Jackson. “Shoot, for God’s sake!”

  Jackson’s arm shot out. He pointed his weapon at the racers, but he still hadn’t learned how to use the damn thing.

  The racers hurtled overhead, unloading charges right and left. The renegades darted out of the way as best they could. Some dodged into alleys or open buildings, but several went down under the bombardment.

  Screams pierced the din. Jackson pressed his thumb to the weapon again and again, but nothing happened. He turned it around to study it when Roy’s arm jutted past his ear. Roy pointed at something on the object’s side and Jackson’s brain clicked. Of course. Why didn’t he see that before?

  He aimed again, and this time, the thing went off. A deafening boom thumped outward, and one of the racers veered. Jackson fired again and again. He drove the racer back. It wobbled, trying to stabilize itself. With one last vicious assault, he hurled the craft into the nearest building, and it exploded in a ball of fire.

  A surge of triumph swept through him, but he didn’t get a chance to celebrate. Roy yanked him off his feet. “Move, you dope! They’ll kill you!”

  A crushing impact hit the street nearby. Gravel and shrapnel peppered Jackson’s cheek, ear, and neck. He ducked under his arms, but Roy wouldn’t let him stop. Roy jerked Jackson backward, and they both ran after the fleeing renegades.

  Jackson spun away to find another ten racers circling for the kill. They pounded the tarmac and all the surrounding buildings. Blocks and mortar sprayed the fugitives.

  He fired over his shoulder, not bothering to aim. He kept the renegades in sight. Were these people the Underground that Woolzi had mentioned? Jackson could only hope.

  They didn’t head for the trash dump. They veered to the right and skipped between more buildings, with the racers hounding them all the way. They charged onto a wide avenue, and Jackson’s heart dropped when he beheld a giant building in the distance.

  It resembled a black pyramid with multiple tiers rising to the pointed roof. A giant emblem of the Keter Legion covered one side, and thousands of racers and other fighter craft rose from every tier. They spread over the city like some toxic infection.

  Someone grabbed Jackson and hauled him to the left, but it wasn’t Roy. Liri steered him onto another street, and the surviving renegades made one last mad dash for a different building straight ahead.

  Jackson didn’t see an entrance. The hoodless leader ran in front, but the racers overtook the group in no time. With nothing to slow them down, they blitzed the street all over the place. Only the other survivors getting blasted off their feet saved Jackson from certain death.

  Five racers streaked over his head and turned their fire on the building. They battered its walls to powder. It started to collapse, but the leader never stopped running.

  The building crumbled before him. The racers swiveled over the wreck and turned their guns on the renegades. The leader took a flying dive and plunged into the heart of the destruction. He vanished into the crater the charges blasted in the foundation.

  One after another, the other renegades followed him. They sprang over scattered debris and dropped into the hole. The racers escalated their attack, but with escape in sight, the renegades only ran faster.

  Jackson hesitated. What waited for him down there? He slowed, but Liri yanked him forward even harder. Before he could think twice, she vaulted off the ground and soared into the gap. Another blast gave Jackson all the motivation he needed.

  He jumped…and dropped. The ruined floor gave way to a black cavern falling beneath street level. He, Liri, and Roy plummeted into the dark.

  8

  Jackson bounced on something soft and squishy. A few more bodies bumped into him, and then he fell another fifty feet to land on what felt like a giant bed.

  Lights flickered on, and he saw the other renegades climbing off a wide airbag. From what he could tell, it was the only piece of furniture in a giant, empty underground warehouse.

  Liri scrambled off the airbed as Lana, Roy, and a few more renegades plunged down and bounced. The others stood off to one side. They gathered around the leader, and some of his entourage pulled off their hoods.

  He either didn’t notice Jackson and Roy, or didn’t care that they entered his hideout uninvited—not that Liri or the racers had given Jackson much choice about it. The leader guy strode away, with all his people hustling to keep up with him.

  “We have to move fast! We only have five more hours to get inside, find the goods, and make it back to the meetup before sundown. Creet, you take Wicklow and Bombie to the rendezvous. See if you can salvage anything from those slugs. Give ‘em half an hour of your time and then walk away.”

  “You got it,” some
one replied from the crowd.

  “Montayne, you and Ritner make tracks to the fuel storehouse. I don’t care what you have to do. Steal as much raw fuel as you can transport and bring it to the rendezvous. The rest of you, arm up and come with me.”

  Jackson and Roy exchanged glances, but when the renegades started to walk away, Jackson realized he had to do something. He trotted to the man’s side. He had to walk fast to keep pace with him. “Excuse me. I don’t know who you people are, but we aren’t part of this. I appreciate you letting us use your escape route to get away from the racers, but if it’s all the same to you, we’d just as soon miss out on whatever mission you’re on right now.”

  The guy stopped in his tracks, and a deadly silence fell over the warehouse. No one breathed as the man turned around and came face to face with Jackson. He stood a few inches shorter than Jackson, but he didn’t flinch or fidget in the slightest. “You don’t know who I am and I don’t know who you are. I am Arlyane and you…” He dipped his clear blue eyes to Jackson’s uniform. “You are a member of the Zenith Militia.”

  He said it like it explained everything, but Jackson was in no mood to bow and scrape before anyone. “I’m Captain Jackson Keogh. The Krakzid shot my ship down on this planet and I’m trying to get back to my own country.”

  Before Arlyane could answer, Liri leaned in and whispered something in his ear. She and Lana were right in the middle of his entourage. They’d been walking away with him when Jackson interrupted him.

  Arlyane listened to what she said, and his expression softened slightly. “Well, Captain Keogh, you saved these two warriors of mine and you drove the racers away from me just now. You drew them toward you and allowed me to escape. Now I will do something for you in return. Liri and Lana will take you to a place where you can find a ship to leave Keter. You will perhaps return to your own world and tell the Zenith Militia about conditions on Keter. You will tell them that the Keter Legion has been oppressing the Keterans for generations, and some of us are trying to defeat them and establish a real government.”

  Jackson’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that what you’re trying to do?”

  “Perhaps when Zenith hears this, the Militia will see its way to help us in our cause. Perhaps Zenith will even consider making Keter one of its colonies.”

  “You want…?” Jackson had to make sure he used the right words. “You want to become a Zenith colony?”

  Arlyane waved Jackson away. “None of that will happen unless you get off this planet and return to your own world. You will be in good hands with Liri and Lana. Many blessings on you.”

  He turned on his heel and walked off. His people went with him—all except Liri and Lana. Lana glared at him. “A ship. Nothing else.”

  “I never even asked for that.”

  The twins barged past him, going in the opposite direction. “We were supposed to be on that mission,” Lana grumbled. “Now you got us pulled from it.”

  “Did you at any time hear me ask for this?” Jackson fired back.

  “What are you complaining about?” Roy interjected. “It sounds like they’re storming the castle or something.”

  “The Guard Post, actually,” Liri asked. “Arlyane has been planning this for months. They’re going to break in and assassinate as many Krakzid as they can find. Arlyane found out Commander Kwex is stationed at the Guard Post right now. He’s hoping to catch Kwex in the sweep.”

  “You should be thanking us,” Roy told her. “We probably just saved your lives again.”

  “Most of us would gladly give our lives for Arlyane,” Lana told him. “He’s the greatest leader our people have ever had.”

  “Doesn’t look like the Keter Legion agrees with you,” Roy replied.

  “What is he—some kind of figurehead?” Jackson asked.

  Lana turned away. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “We definitely won’t understand if you don’t explain it to us.”

  Lana didn’t answer, and Liri didn’t enlighten them. They returned to the airbag. Lana pulled the plug, and a rush of air hissed from the vent as the bag deflated. When it collapsed enough, she dragged it out of the way to reveal another hole in the pavement.

  This one opened into an underground channel with lanes marked on the ground. The lines ran parallel in both directions. The only thing missing was some class of vehicle riding down there.

  Lana jumped down, and Jackson, Roy, and Liri joined her. Ceiling lights illuminated the thoroughfare. “This looks downright civilized,” Jackson remarked. “Why isn’t it being used?”

  “Most of the infrastructure from past generations has fallen out of use,” Liri replied. “Keter had a much more advanced civilization in our grandparents’ time. That’s what Arlyane says. He says if we didn’t have the Legion lording it over us all the time, we could build it back to what it was, or even higher. He says we could be as powerful as the Krakzid or even stronger. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about scum like them invading our territory.”

  “Good luck with that,” Roy returned. “You got a ways to go before you defeat the Legion. Forget about the Krakzid.”

  “We will never forget about freeing our planet,” Lana snapped. “We don’t care how long it takes. As long as we have Arlyane to lead us, we’ll never rest until we throw all the aliens off our planet.”

  “What about the Urval and the Silden?” Jackson asked. “Do you plan to throw them off, too?”

  “All aliens,” Lana declared. “Keter belongs to Keterans—no one else. The Silden and the Urval wouldn’t even be here if the Krakzid didn’t bring them.”

  “Looks like we’ll be thrown out with the rest of the trash,” Roy joined in.

  “You’ll be long gone. As soon as we get you a ship, we never have to see your ugly faces again.”

  Roy curled his lip at Lana. “Who are you calling ugly, Frankenstein?”

  “Who’s Frankenstein?” Liri asked.

  “Never mind,” Jackson cut in. “Where’s this ship you want to give us?”

  “Down here.”

  Liri turned off into another channel. Dozens of lanes curved everywhere. In the years this causeway had sat unused, it didn’t appear to have degraded at all. Jackson didn’t blame Arlyane for trying to revive the past. He was almost certainly right about the Keter Legion stopping a legitimate government from taking over.

  From what Jackson had seen so far, the Legion hoarded all the technology for itself while the people lived in squalor and neglect. Once Arlyane established peace, the Keterans just might be able to surpass their neighbors in advanced civilization. Anything was possible.

  The twins turned off a few more times. At last, they rounded an underground curve and entered a large circular intersection where several avenues joined. A roundabout surrounded a pinnacle set up inside the ring, with the lanes flowing off to either side.

  The twins took the left fork and stopped almost immediately. Lana approached a few steps chiseled into the wall. “This is it. The ship is up here.”

  She climbed up. Jackson didn’t see any trap door at the top until she wedged her shoulder against the concrete ceiling. She heaved, and a manhole opened above her. She peeked outside and then climbed up into the daylight.

  Jackson, Liri, and Roy joined her in yet another trash dump. How long had the Keter Legion been letting garbage pile up? In this section, Jackson spotted street people rummaging in the debris. They all wore hoods, but some of them were unmistakably children.

  The twins started off, with Jackson and Roy in tow. Jackson got so fascinated by the gutter rats he didn’t notice a craft drifting overhead. Apparently, the twins didn’t notice it until too late, either.

  A puff of air brushed Jackson’s cheek, and he looked up. His heart stopped when a racer rotated over the nearest mound and pointed its nose at the party. Liri jumped. “Cover up, Lana!”

  Both twins whipped up their hoods to cover their faces, but the damage was done. The racer’s guns locked downward, and a de
vastating blast smashed into the trash at Lana’s feet. Bundles of garbage flew upward, and the impact flung her backward.

  The racer advanced, raining destruction everywhere. The gutter people scattered, and the concussion hurled Liri down the mound. She somersaulted across the pavement. Jackson spun around to help the twins, but the racers’ fire cut him off.

  In half a second, a dozen more racers pelted in from all directions. They fired everywhere, not just at the four friends. In between ducking for cover and running for his life, Jackson noticed the racers pummeling the trash for no other reason. Were they only trying to cause as much confusion and mayhem as possible?

  Their charges sent the trash flying in all directions. The racers uncovered several street people hiding in tunnels like the one the twins had used to escape the jail. They left plenty of time for Jackson and Roy to get away, but not enough for Jackson to figure out where Liri and Lana disappeared to.

  Jackson darted one way and made a dash for freedom before he realized Roy wasn’t with him anymore. He darted back and collided with Roy coming to find him. They grabbed each other and barreled behind the nearest hill.

  “Now what?” Roy yelled over the noise. “Where’s this famous ship everyone keeps talking about?”

  “The twins can’t be far away. Let’s find ‘em.”

  “How do you plan to do that?” Roy countered. “They could be anywhere.”

  “I think they went that way.”

  “The racers are over there.”

  “Yeah, I know that,” Jackson snapped, “but if they went that way, maybe the ship is over there, too.”

  “Well, a ship doesn’t do us much good if we’re dead.”

  “They made it sound like this ship was nearby, so maybe we don’t need to find them to find the ship.”

  Roy cracked a grin. “Yeah, and maybe we can just waltz on board, fire that mother up, and sail away into the wild blue yonder.”