Starblazer- Through the Black Gate

by Reiter

  ‘Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.

  William Shakespeare

  (Rims Time: XII-4201.22)

  “Nut-crunchers!” Jocasta said softly as she moved quickly through the crowd, trekking the tracker signal still registering on her display inside the goggles. “Something about this doesn’t feel right.” With her cane in her left hand, Jocasta eased her right hand into her pocket and took hold of one of the sub-credits there. She took it out and kept it in her hand, she could at last see Vobis Slonn as he slowed his walking speed. “But then again, that’s just what I was expecting, right?

  “Dealing with a mage here,” she thought. “If I can put eyes on him, there’s a chance he’s got eyes on me. Which only makes his slowdown even creepier! Easy, Jo. We don’t shoot at movement, and we don’t jump at the breeze. Stay cool, baby!” Jocasta maintained her jog and closed the distance between herself and the InvokeR. It was a spaceport in Oasis City after all, and natural cover was on all sides of her. A couple turns of her head made her realize that cover applied to anyone who wanted to use it… including those persons who might have been moving against her.

  “And that makes four,” Jocasta thought, flipping the coin between her fingers as she walked. “… nice group too. A little eager for my taste, but not a bad spread between body types. Oh, that reminds me!

  “Satithe, send a message to Z,” Jocasta said. “… let him know that we’re still on the lookout for crew. These hopefuls are okay, but we could stand some muscle and a bit of facial hair around here!”

  “I shall relay your message at once,” Satithe replied.

  “As for these four… make that five,” Jocasta thought, returning to her observations, spotting a man in front of Vobis and walking toward her former prisoner. “… they are definitely here for Vobis! Don’t know why, but maybe I can thin the ranks. After all, no one said I have to let him walk into their trap!” Taking a hold of the small coin between her thumb and index finger, Jocasta threw it forward and to the right. It stuck Vobis’ right arm and instinctively he turned to the right to see what had touched him. Jocasta moved by him on the left, moving directly toward her bogey.

  “Hey baby!” she said affectionately, jabbing the head of her cane into the man’s neck. She took hold of the back of his neck with one hand and wedged her cane in-between his legs, driving him off to the right side. Vobis walked around the would-be lovers and continued on his way. Jocasta worked the man into a very shallow alley where she slammed the back of his head into the wall. “Oh, sweetheart, it’s been so long!” Stepping back from the man, Jocasta spun around, tapping the front of her belt with her right hand.

  Jocasta could hear a body moving quickly for the alley. One of the people from the left flank had rushed to cross the aisle, making all kinds of uncustomary noises. Her cane deflected a knife that was being thrust for her chest. The throwing knife she had in her right hand cut the stomach and then the chest of her attacker. Her cane hammered down on the top of his head before he could scream and he fell to the ground, unconscious and bleeding.

  “WHOA!” Jocasta huffed as she dropped to the ground and rolled under the swing of an energy form. She hopped and jumped out of the alley, clearing a swing of an En-Blade meant for her back, one for her legs, and one that passed just under her body as she sailed over three people who were cut down by the powerful weapon.

  “Do you remember me, woman?!” Falco barked, applying his talent to hurl Jocasta’s body toward the wall. As her body sped toward the unyielding surface, a blinding flash of light robbed Falco of his vision. The sound struck like a sledgehammer and for a practitioner of ThoughtWill, his senses were sharper than the norm. His eyes burned and he had been struck deaf and dizzy.

  “Sure, I never forget an asshole,” Jocasta said as she landed behind the man in a one foot, one knee pose, the throwing knife dripping blood from the Temple Chevalier’s neck, and an arc of blood spraying behind Falco’s body. “As you can see, I’ve made a few changes since last we tangled.”

  “Master!” Adleon cried, drawing his En-Blade and rushing to attack. His downward swing was blocked by the cane and the throwing knife blade touched lightly across his forearm, depriving him of his main weapon.

  “That could have just as easily been your neck, youngster,” Jocasta warned. “… and while you’re over there getting all emotional, ask yourself if it’s within your precious etiquette for a TC to blindside attack someone. Where was your ‘Master’ then?” Adleon clutched his wounded arm and focused his power to push Jocasta back. She slid ten meters before colliding with a frightened patron. As she tumbled, Jocasta could not help but notice how the ground shook. She came to a stop, making sure to catch her tumbling partner. Frightened and confused, the man managed to say thank you as she stood him up.

  “I’ll be damned!” Jocasta whispered as she looked at Falco, mended and mad, standing up from a downward thrust where he had driven his weapon into the ground… ground she had been standing on only a moment ago. The Gallant had chosen his side, and his Master did not look as if he appreciated the final decision.

  “Explain yourself!” Falco demanded.

  “The woman is right. Master,” Adleon replied. “Your attack was–”

  “Away from me!” Falco yelled, waving his left hand and cueing a telekinetic wave that tore into Adleon’s body, hurling him down the main aisle. Blood was flying from his chest before his back met with the stone tiles.

  “And you are next!” Falco declared, looking up at Jocasta.

  Olkin took his backpack off and dropped to one knee. “Anybody got any ideas?” he asked as he worked.

  “We have to help her,” Silnee insisted.

  “We have to keep calm,” Mel asserted. “We stick our noses into this wrong and all we’ll do is throw off the Captain’s timing. She hasn’t even taken a hit yet.”

  “Mel, it’s a Chevalier!” Silnee argued. “One hit can kill her!”

  “Yeah, a Chevalier who’s done nothing but miss,” Mel replied. “… and look at his face. This guy’s dealt with the Captain before, and it doesn’t look like he won that fight either. Just stand your ground and be ready to go on my order.”

  Olkin stood up with his bow assembled and nocked. He held it at the ready and looked around. Following his training, he knew it was imperative to make sure that while engaging in watch, one should make sure they are not being watched! “I’m clear over here on the right,” he said, offering a soft suggestion for Silnee to check her flank as well. Her low gasp made him grip his bow more tightly.

  “I’m not clear,” she said softly. “I think I just got zeroed. Two inbound from ahead of me!”

  “I see them,” Olkin said as he pulled the string back. As Dungias had promised, it was a very easy pull for his hands, and the goggles let him know the path the arrow would take. Olkin could see they were well armed and even armoured, dressed too clean to be commoners. They had to be Imperial soldiers. Olkin lowered his aim to the ground just in front of the two. “Head down,” he said just as he released the arrow.

  Jocasta quickly turned her left shoulder to her opponent. She knew it was a bad idea to give someone using their mind as a weapon the first move, but her opinion of this particular Temple Chevalier was dropping fast. The attack levied against his Gallant made the woman grit her teeth. She adjusted the view of her goggles to read waves of ThoughtWill. “All right, JoJo,” she thought. “… let’s see how fast you really are.

  “Did you bring enough Mercs this time, TC?” she asked. “You do realize they’re the only reason why your carcass is still drawing wind, right? Of course, you getting up from that last cut means that you brought something of a Healer with you this time. At least you can be taught. Good!

  “All this crap and scare over TCs,” Jocasta hissed as she made a very slow approach. “You make me sick. You and your high and mighty temples. Those things come with morgues too, ya know.

  “Bingo!” she thought as waves of ThoughtWi
ll appeared around her, closing quickly around her body. Hopping up and kicking out against one side, Jocasta’s foot found a firm and invisible wall to push off from. She dropped a smoke bomb that went off, sounding much louder than it should have, and she quickly realized there had been another explosion. There were screams coming from above and behind her, but Jocasta could not be concerned with them at the moment. She was in the air, just over the top of the forming sphere of telekinesis designed to crush her body. “And about time I used this thing for what it was built to do!” she thought, hurling the throwing knife. Jocasta landed behind the forming cloud of smoke, reaching for her shoulder-holstered weapon. She looked to her left and could see that her knife had flown true. “Shoulda known… another damn swordsman!” The cloaked man looked at the throwing knife lodged in his chest and dropped to his knees, looking at Falco in shock and fear. “And boy was he ready to intercept me attacking his boss. Alfie was right. Some of ‘em are so ready to guard someone else, they forget they have to be alive in order to do it!”

  “You are about to die, bitch!” Falco exclaimed.

  “You first!” Jocasta snapped, stepping around the sphere and shooting through the white smoke. It was a single shot, a well-aimed single shot, and when Falco’s head snapped back Jocasta knew she had been dead on.

  She was surprised to hear a woman cry out in pain further down the main aisle. Jocasta turned her head to see a well-appointed woman, dressed like a female version of Vobis, grab her head as it started to bleed. The woman was trying to speak, but nothing intelligible came out. Two men were attending the woman, one very slender and young, the other square-framed and he had seen a few moons.

  “Her ladyship is still alive!” the large man declared and Jocasta shot him in the head too.

  “No one likes a tattle!” she cried before the ground near her erupted from laser fire. She ran for the closest wall and the stream of laser fire followed, trying to catch her. Several bolts passed just under her body as she dove behind a kiosk. Jocasta landed on her hands and rolled to a stop.

  “Woooo!” she wailed as she moved back to the corner of the kiosk and main walkway. “Why did that sound like a deck gun to me?” she asked as she tried to take a quick look around the corner. Laser bolts drove her back from the corner as a concussive force of energy bursts and flying debris peppered her face. A small red light blinked in the lower left-hand side of the goggles view. “Because it was a deck gun, baby!” she exclaimed. “He brought armoured troops?!” Jocasta was reminded of how Rouge had always said, you can see just how seriously the powers-that-be take a threat by what they bring to try and contain it.

  “Guess I’m movin’ on up,” Jocasta concluded. “Sure would’ve appreciated a slower increase. Went from a pompous ass TC and his cronies to a damn division! But hey, who am I to complain?!”

  “Keep her pinned in there,” Jocasta heard someone barking orders. She reached to the left side of her belt and placed her cane in the loop Z had provided. “… and get me a rocket team up here!”

  “Rocket team?” she whispered. “Okay. Need to get creative and make it yesterday, Jo!

  “I’m going to need you to link up,” she said as she put her pistol in her left hand. She could feel the tubing pass down the sleeve of her left arm and link with the pistol. A green light flashed once to let her know the connection had been made. Testing the theory, Jocasta released the gun, but it simply hung from the tubing. “Attaboy, Z,” she whispered before drawing her blaster with her right hand. A quick shake of her left arm and the pistol flew up into her hand. “High explosive,” she commanded and she could feel the gun mechanics working in her hand. A soft beep was accompanied by an encircled crosshair that quickly faded. “Hmmm, upgrades. Satithe, explain.”

  “The added circle shows the radius of impact for the given yield of the explosive,” Satithe informed. “If no yield is specifically given, the default is for the lowest setting.”

  Jocasta let out a single burst of laughter as she set herself to move. “Gotta love that conservative First Mate of mine! Give me maximum yield.” The crosshair returned as Jocasta looked back along the way she had come. There was another large walkway intersection she had passed in following Vobis. They both led to exits, but the map on her goggles revealed the pathway to her right was shorter, leading to the outside of the building. The circle for the yield also showed up.

  “Damn, Z!” she said, looking in amazement at the gun that was smaller than her blaster. “Okay then, set scale on a one low to five high ratio and put this thing at level two.” Another whirring sound preceded a beep and Jocasta released the gun, reaching for the rear of her belt.

  “You can throw out your weapons and give up, woman,” the officer called out. “I will see to it that you get a fair trial!”

  “For what?!” Jocasta cried out. Looking across the way, she could see a woman crouched down in fear and holding on to two small children.

  “You killed a member of Royal Station!” the officer yelled. “And it looks like that count might get up to two if his sister doesn’t pull through. That man was a great Chevalier and fine leader, and you just gunned him down!”

  “That man couldn’t lead today into tomorrow!” Jocasta yelled back as she gestured for the woman to take her children and leave the area. The woman shook her head ‘no’ emphatically. “And I only gunned him down cuz he wasn’t close enough for me to smack the life out of him. I did the royal station a favor! Remember that when I send you the bill!” Laser fire was her only response and she pulled back from the corner again, seeing the red light flash once more. “What the hell is that light, Satithe?!”

  “Activating face guard,” Satithe said as a face-plate helm formed over Jocasta’s face and head. She laughed inside the facemask and rolled out three smoke bombs. They burst into action and started making a wall of smoke between Jocasta and the troops. She then fired her blaster at the woman across the way, hitting centimeters from her head. The woman screamed and took off running, carrying one child and herding the other two in front of her.

  “Dammit! I can’t see a thing, sir,” a man cried out.

  “Team One, get ready to charge that alley!” Jocasta spun around the corner and fired three shots from the smaller pistol. Three explosions were followed by screams and panic fire. She chuckled as she moved back into the alley.

  “Be still!” a voice commanded and the power of the voice was so gripping that even Jocasta fell silent.

  “Satithe, I need to see through the smoke,” Jocasta whispered as she looked around the corner. The voice had indeed come from a person, but the owner of the voice had not yet arrived on the scene. Jocasta drew focus on the portal – that her mask view ports identified as MannA – and saw a man walk through, followed by a five-man entourage. “There goes that twitch again,” she whispered, looking at the lead man who appeared to be on fire with the mode of vision she was using. “Because that’s MannA all around him too, isn’t it?”

  “I am afraid so,” Satithe replied, “though it is not the same signature.”

  “Are you telling me that is someone else’s MannA making that portal?” Jocasta asked, fearing the obvious answer.

  “Affirmative. The matching signature comes from the slender man at the rear of the group. I suppose the only good news I can offer you is that they are the only two–”

  “That are generating MannA,” Jocasta whispered. “So loving the twitch right now!”

  “Counselor Sylgarr,” one of the Imperial officers called out as he ran over to kneel in front of the tall man who looked stately just in the way that he walked. It was easy to see that Falco and this man were related. They had the same color of auburn–red hair, though streaks of gray were beginning to make their claim on this man.

  “Satithe, the name of the TC I just waxed,” Jocasta said softly while shaking her head in disbelief. “Was his name Falco Sylgarr?”

  “It was, Captain,” Satithe informed. “The Counselor is his father and one of
the ranking members of the Emperor’s Council of the Mage.”

  “I don’t suppose you can give me ears on what they’re saying, can you?” Her mode of vision went telescopic and suddenly the Counselor was almost as close as the wall at her side.

  “We were told to hold our positions, Counselor,” the officer explained. “Your son engaged the woman and… and she killed him, Master.”

  “A single woman killed my son?!” Gulfrim Sylgarr asked. “How long ago?”

  “Our readers put the time of death at three minutes, eleven seconds ago,” the soldier answered.

  “Then there is time,” Gulfrim said as he looked back at the second figure of his entourage. A slender and quite comely woman reached for a large platinum amulet that rested on her chest as she walked over and placed one hand on Falco. She closed her blue eyes and Jocasta started seeing energy waves surrounding the woman’s body.

  “Is that MannA?” she asked.

  “Negative, Captain,” Satithe replied. “That is called KaA, the name given to energized faith.”

  “Energized what?!”

  “Master, you should know… the woman in question can hear us,” the first of the entourage spoke softly to the Counselor. His eyes gray eyes locked on Jocasta’s position. “She’s talking to someone. Your priestess has been made as such”.

  “The death-urge has been abated,” the woman reported as she opened her eyes and stepped back from Falco’s body, breathing out black smoke as she moved. “But the touch of the Reaper is heavy upon him.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “Your son has met with this woman before,” the young priestess advised. “She delivered him to death’s door on that occasion as well. The Gallant saved his life then as I have now, but the spirit of your son has been crushed.”

  “The Gallant? And Falco sought this woman out?!” Gulfrim questioned.