Nakiel

by C. R Corbin

  Luckily he wasn't human and as such they couldn't find him using the usual methods that they usually used to seek out humans. By they he meant a litany of things, patrolling droids, bandits, manhunters, anything.

  Yet he still had to be careful, there was nowhere to hide in the sands.

  He had understood that the rebellion had sent several troops first to clear a path for him but he was under no delusion that it would be a safe journey. He knew that the enemy would have a presence. This wasn't his first reconnaissance mission after all. He had been on many before with his brothers which was why he was glad that he was chosen for this one. He was perfectly suited for these long treks where he could ponder.

  At night he stopped and dug small burrows for himself in the sands if he had to, if not then he would try to find the nearest mountain to seek shelter in. Usually this ended up with him tucked behind a boulder, watching the skies and observing the distant stars as well as the twin moons here.

  It was during those nights that he talked to her.

  "Where are you now?" she would ask over messages.

  The two of them decided that sending texts was much safer than holding an actual call. This was primarily due to the fact that the networks were carefully observed and any large transfer of information such as video or audio would inevitably be recognized. Texts were much more discreet and as such, they were selected.

  "In the desert, about to cross over. Will reach the power plant sometime tomorrow." He replies.

  There is a silence that lasts too long for his tastes, even if it was for a few moments, "Be careful. I miss you a lot." she states.

  "I do too." He replies.

  "Any fights yet?" she asks.

  Heather was putting her time at the base towards as much work as she could handle. Whether that would be repairing weaponry or helping the maintenance crew clean parts or facilities, it didn't matter. She just didn't want to feel helpless, she didn't want to simply lay there as a damsel in distress. The rebellion valued her immensely for this dedication and she quickly became popular as a result of her efforts, she even outworked Sophia who was no slouch herself.

  Some saw her as the second coming of her mother, a fierce woman dedicated to the cause. Heather wasn't sure how she felt about that one, however.

  During her spare time she went to the firing range and practiced. She drilled the movements over and over again and even put the effort into exercising vigorously. Often she was so exhausted that she would come back to her quarters and nearly forget to talk to him until her communicator inevitably rang and she would cut deep into the nights with him until it became clear that she was too tired to continue. Every day was a practice in controlling her anxiety so she simply applied herself to her work even more, trying harder and harder to drive the cause forward and to drive herself forward as a soldier.

  She was determined to help him, to stand with him when the time came.

  And as Nakiel reached the power plant and began to encounter more and more bandit and droid patrols, he had to take special care regarding his movements. He would only move during the night, during the day he would try to camouflage himself in burrows of sand or even the occasional mountain that would hug the edges of the facility. He understood that he would not be able to go through this journey without firing his arrows, however.

  And that was proven to him one night, where, as he walked he detected something in the distance.

  It was the same droid that he had fought at Heather's home town. A massive bulky thing that was walking in the distance around the power plant. Nakiel could see the panels in the distance, he was dangerously close but this was the only path that he would be able to traverse to reach the caverns in time. There was no other way.

  And the beast glares at him, its metallic body shifting as Nakiel sees the red eyes peering into him from the distance.

  And he notches his arrow accordingly and begins to run.

  It was in the midst of the night that the chase began. Nakiel understood that humans would not be functioning at this time, usually at least, but the machines had no restrictions. They felt no fatigue, no hunger, no thirst, they could travel forever if need be.

  And it was just his luck that he attracted the ire of the strongest one.

  There were other droids of course, aerial ones that Nakiel would either hide from by laying in the sand with his cloak over him or shooting down with his arrows. The cloak that he bandits had given him was specifically made to mask heat signatures. As such it proved invaluable at such times.

  But this machine knew him well, so well in fact that even the cloak couldn't protect him from it. There must have been something that he neglected to care for during their first battle. Perhaps some sort of chip that had snuck into him during their fight.

  Nakiel didn't care to think of it, he just had to get to the cavern as soon as possible. He was sure that he wouldn't be able to get out of a battle with that thing unscathed.

  And as Nakiel runs he makes sure to fire off a few shots that would at least hold the machine back. A couple of explosive arrows jam into the leg of the droid to slow it down, and it works. For a time at least before the droid continues. It must have been made out of something incredibly durable to still last even after the things that he shot at it. He literally went through his entire arsenal of arrows before he realized that the damage being done to it wasn't going to be enough. It was too far for him to fire on anything vital considering the fact that he was running, so he simply dove into the cave as soon as he reached the mouth of it.

  And looked back to see the machine approaching, firing off a volley of lasers and rockets at him. Nakiel runs deeper into the cavern just as the machine begins to approach it.

  He hears an explosion and doesn't look back, he presumes that the machine had destroyed the entrance and was now stuck outside but as he picks up the distinct scent of it he shakes his head.

  It was in here with him.

  The droid would be able to function in the dark, it would be able to see as clearly as it would on the outside. Nakiel was able to see as well so they were still on equal footing but with the cramped corridors of the cavern he was unsure if he would be able to evade the machine as he did on the surface. And destroying the cavern wasn't an option considering the fact that he still needed to escape with the Oracle once this was all said and done.

  So Nakiel shuts his eyes and examines himself for a moment, searching for anything that might have lured the machine towards him. He eventually feels it, a small humming in his back. He reaches back and uses his claw to prick his flesh and drag the small device out before tossing it further down the path that he wouldn't take.

  That should buy him some time.

  He readies his sword just in case and follows the map that the rebels granted him. Hopefully, he would find the salvation of mankind in this cavern, the oracle, then he could return and be with his beloved. But the war wasn't over yet, and as he hears the mechanical clanging of the machine in the distance he understands that this wouldn't become rather violent before it ended. And that was just fine with him.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "He's fine." Sophia reassures her and she nods, despite being reassured almost every day it was in Heather's nature to worry. He didn't message her that night which probably meant that he was inside the caverns, there was no way that the signal could travel through those thick walls of granite. She still worried however.

  He hadn't called her before he entered the caverns which was something she hoped that would happen but she supposed that it was for the best that he kept silent. She wouldn't have wanted him to be distracted from what he was about to do by her. Especially when what he was about to do was to find something incredibly important to the cause.

  She spent her days as she always did since she left.

  Her duties consisted of cleaning machinery, putting together weapons, and tending to the wounded. She made it a point to go to the shooting range e
very day after she was done with her work. The story there was practice, practicing over and over again as she learned the basics of shooting. She hoped that she would prove to be useful once he returned, once he came back with the oracle.

  The details about what the oracle was were foggy. She had learned from her mother that it was this computer mainframe that contained the means to destroy the satellite that ruled over this world but as she understood it, it was more of a virus. A virus that was made to infect the sun god's system before killing him and all the droids that he commanded from his seat in the sky. She wasn't sure how it would work once the drive returned here but she was reassured by the engineers. "We deposit it here once it comes back." Said Damien as he led her into the computer room, she stared at the massive blue screen and at the scanning station where the device would then be laid. "Once it's scanned we can download the virus from it and then upload it into the system...that is if Iza doesn't notice that something is amiss and tries to stop us. I sincerely hope that that doesn't happen but it is a possibility." Her uncle states, "But we are prepared for that scenario of course."

  And Heather pauses, glancing at her uncle before asking what she wanted to ever since she had met him, "What was mom really like with you guys?"

  Damien chuckles and glances at his hands, rubbing his fingers together as he reminisces about his sister. The boldest memory that he could recall was the time when she had left the rebellion for her growing family. He still remembered how he reacted after she had told him that she had fallen for a miner that worked in a nearby town that regularly delivered ore to their camp.

  "I'm leaving now." She said as she stood there in the doorway. Damien was busy cleaning his rifle when he noticed his sister standing there.

  The two of them hadn't spoken ever since she had told him about her miner boyfriend. Not that he disapproved of the man necessarily, Damien didn't care about that at all. The thing that he was concerned about was whether his sister was still going to be dedicated to the cause. She had told him that she was going to be leaving. Why leave when the miner could just come and live with them? Apparently, she had informed him that the miner had family, an elderly father that he had to care for. Love made people do idiotic things, at least that's what he thought back then.

  "Then go, I already told you of the risks." He stated.

  She huffs, "You're really not going to give me a hug?"

  He couldn't argue with that and got to his feet.

  He walks up to her and wraps his arms around his older sister one last time. She holds him and presses her forehead against his shoulder before the tears begin to fall from his eyes and from her's as well. She was his oldest friend, his guardian at times, and his teacher.

  And now she was going to leave him.

  "The cause still needs you Delilah."

  "I know....but the cause isn't going to win at this point, we need to stay low...and that's what I'm going to do. Think of it as a spying operation."

  Indeed this entire escapade for her wasn't simply as a result of love. It also had the secondary purpose of being a reconnaissance operation that would be rather drawn out in order to spy on the nearby mines, all the factors made her want to follow through.

  She grabs her bag and turns, she had been the teacher to the troops here for quite a while. The cause had begun with their father and was passed onto her. But control was really split up between her and Damien. The two of them held the hearts of the soldiers here but she had to admit that Damien loved this far more than she did. The military life that is. She had thought this was all that she wanted until the distractions began to come through.

  Like the miner.

  "Wow...." Heather mutters after Damien informs her of this final encounter with her mother.

  Damien nods, "I know, it seems maddening but she did all of that for your father."

  Heather couldn't quite understand that.

  All of her life Heather's mother seemed completely dedicated to the rebellion, not once wavering in her dedication to freeing humanity but now it seems as if there was another side to her mother. And perhaps her mother wasn't a diehard freedom fighter at all...she was just a free spirit, an adventurer that went where her heart told her to.

  And the reason that she died....that was due to her trying to sneak out to pass information onto Damien. It all made sense to her now.

  "So....you guys didn't part on bad terms did you?" Heather asks.

  Damien remains silent for a moment before shaking his head,

  "Not at all."

  Back in the Karakasis Desert, things were decidedly less leisurely.

  Nakiel had been walking for the entire day. As he descended he could tell that the environment was getting colder and colder, yet it was hot for the first long stretches. As such he was rather dehydrated, he had gone through the majority of his water supply and needed to find this thing soon otherwise he would have to go through a stretch of dehydration. Which wasn't ideal.

  He could probably survive if it came to that however.

  But he continues to traverse these tunnels that seem endless, in the distance he hears rumbling at times, beasts more fearsome than sandworms lurked in these depths from what he understood so he was on high alert at every moment. He had his sword drawn and when he slept he tried to only sleep for small periods of time, splitting up what would be a long period of sleep into tiny bits split throughout the day.

  But he could tell that the machine was still here, from the mechanical whirring that was still sounding at times through the tunnels as well as the distant digital chirps that would sound...he could feel it here. At times the footsteps of the machine caused the ground to even quake.

  Nakiel knew he was getting closer, he could feel it, the spirits were guiding him along and leading him towards that distant objective. He was unsure of what this oracle even looked like but he knew that he would be able to reach it, the spirits made him feel confident that he would.

  And he comes across a miracle enroute, an underground stream of water.

  He takes up some of the fluid in his hand and tastes it, after determining that it was clean he drinks a handful and then fills his containers. The rumbling was still occurring but he had learned to ignore it, lest he be driven mad by his concern about whatever it was.

  A day longer and he would reach it.

  And as he sees this small light in the distance he hurries, it was a red screen that was continually blinking, there was this strange disc that was placed onto a glass sheet near the computer. He grabs it and suddenly a message appears on the screen. Nakiel was about to jam his fist into it simply on instinct but he waited.

  It was a human, a human female to be exact. She seemed rather middle-aged, the id at the bottom of the screen identified her as a professor.

  "Patricia Lee."

  "If you are listening to this then you have found the oracle and are not a droid or else this entire mainframe and tunnel would have already exploded and collapsed. I congratulate you for your success but this is far from the end of it. You must take the Oracle back to a mainframe capable of uploading the virus to the satellite, our's has been destroyed. If you do not possess this device then you must manufacture it. The schematics are currently split up with several humans that have established underground bases, the plan is to-"

  Nakiel was already informed of all of this, the device was back at the rebel base.

  The schematics for the uploading console were distributed amongst the humans that eventually founded the entire rebellion. This was the only missing piece, the Oracle. She was holding up the same thing only the oracle of her time was all sleek and new, the one that he found was covered in dust. It was only a few moments after standing there that he noticed the human skeleton in the corner.

  He shuts his eyes and bows, the sacrifice of this woman would ensure that humanity would be saved, for that she deserved the utmost honors.

  But then something happens that he wasn't counting on.
/>   He hears the droid approaching.

  He turns and hears it stumbling in his direction in the distance. The droids relied primarily on solar power but they had back up generators in case they needed to fight for extended periods in the darkness. Nakiel was hoping that his batteries would have run dry at this point but it was clear that this wasn't the case.

  He grabs his bow and readies himself, placing the oracle into his pack before running forward to confront his final challenge.

  He would be coming home to Heather, he swore it.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  "It's happened....he's taken it. Now we just need him to confirm when he emerges." Says Damien one morning.

  The signal of the uploading console began to signal to the rebels that the Oracle had finally been found and was being delivered back. Heather breathed a sigh of relief once she heard this. It was news that the rebellion had finally had their deus ex machina yes, but in addition, her mate was alive. He was coming back to her. But they had all understood that the journey back would be just as treacherous if not more. He was inevitably running out of supplies at this point so Heather simply hoped that he would be able to survive the last stretch before coming home.

  In addition, there were also the concerns amongst the humans that something would occur with the droids once they realized that the oracle was gone. The sun god had to have some sort of intel on the device, no one knew what would happen once the device was found, if it was ever found of course. The humans hoped that the droids would simply ignore it but that was not to be of course. The droids would unleash all that they had if they had even an inkling about the device. The utmost secrecy had been maintained about it however and its signal was untraceable, or so it was said. She just hoped that her beloved would return soon. Meanwhile, Nakiel was simply trying to figure out how he would get past the latest roadblock in his journey.