by Trevor Gregg
They moved down the street, her raxi, the Marines, and Geri. The creatures tried to advance, but a withering hail of fire drove them back. She thought they might make it, thought they might reach the egg. But then the doors of the buildings around them opened, and a flood emerged. Streaming from the doors of the surrounding buildings came many, many humans. Corrupted by the Kirugi’s influence, they streamed into the street, wielding small arms and makeshift weapons.
The Marines and raxi poured their fire into the emerging civilians, but between them and the beasts, their force was inferior. Many of the Marines and raxi were driven into cover, and many more fell. Soon Elarra’s small force was devastated, smaller even than it had been at the inception. Scattered and broken, her forces appeared doomed.
The heavy-weapons Marine, the one with the rocket launcher, dodged into the middle of the street, ready to send a missile into the egg tower at the end of the long avenue.
An eight foot tall grendle in full combat exo-suit strode down the middle of the street, a laser gatling gun clutched in its oversized hands. The weapon screamed as it belched electromagnetic death, streaming burst after burst into Consortium Marine and raxi alike. Just as the Marine fired his missile, a burst from the grendle took him in the chest. As he fell, the missile streaked skyward, completely missing the egg tower.
Elarra looked over and saw Geri preparing to break from cover, preparing to assault the grendle, regardless of the foolishness of the gesture.
“Geri!” Elarra cried, hoping she would turn, hoping she would abort her suicidal endeavor.
Geri turned and looked at Elarra, a spark of recognition passing between them. Elarra quickly un-buckled the bracer from her wrist, tossing it to Geri.
“Go, do what you must,” Elarra exclaimed, tossing the bracer to Geri, who quickly buckled it onto her own wrist.
Geri took one last look at Elarra, and charged. The Marines and raxi alike opened fire on the grendle, but it gunned them down mercilessly, streams of laser fire punching through their armored bodies like knives through paper, cratering holes in the pavement behind them.
But it was enough, just enough time for Geri to reach it, sprinting in a full run. Barreling forward, she avoided its fire as it was focused on her men and Elarra’s raxi. She slid in below the grendle’s firing arc, igniting the blade from the bracer at the last second. As the energy blade flared blue, so did a massive flash illuminate the horizon.
Geri struck, and the grendle’s leg sheared off at the thigh, a meat-chopping strike leaving it crippled. The grendle toppled to the ground, its cannon firing wildly. Elarra looked to the horizon and saw a massive warp portal forming, somewhere in the center of the ruined city.
She watched as Geri dispatched the grendle with a quick thrust to its torso. She then picked up the gatling laser and opened fire on the egg tower, laser beams lancing into the organic structure below the egg. The brown goop seeping out from beneath the egg ignited, detonating spectacularly as the structure collapsed, sending the egg crashing to the ground, unable to launch skyward.
Then the ground shook, the buildings swayed, and the sky darkened. She saw the world around her begin to crumble. A warp portal more massive than the Kirugi stood in the distance, an inky blackness swirling within. The world began to crumble, buildings began to fall, the ground shook with the force of a thousand locomotives.
She snapped back to the present, realizing she had the answer. She realized that her own sacrifice was near, but that it just might be enough.
“Benjam, do you copy?” Elarra cried, desperately hoping he would answer, hoping it wasn’t too late, that Alis hadn’t already initiated their own demise.
“Elarra, I read you. I do hope you have something for us, I don’t see my brontian resiliency bringing me back from this one,” Benjam responded, desperation clear.
“What if a warp portal were opened?” she asked.
“Well, it would merely prolong the infestation. If we move the Kirugi to another system, it will simply create more eggs. We can only delay it, we cannot stop it,” Benjam responded despairingly.
“But could you open a warp portal to somewhere destructive, somewhere powerful?” she continued urgently.
“Hmmmm, indeed!” he cried triumphantly. “Perhaps, yes, maybe so, let me calculate.”
Elarra listened to Benjam muttering, performing mental calculations and murmuring to himself.
“Yes… carry the seven, divide by the tensor of relativity, increase by a factor of one gagillion, and… yes! I’ve got it!” Benjam squeaked triumphantly.
“What?!” she heard Alis cry in the background.
“Alis, there is another way!” Benjam squawked victoriously.
“What? Benjam, tell me now, we’ve only got seconds, I’ve primed the reactor to blow,” Alis cried, her concentration evident.
“A warp portal, Kyren can open a warp portal!” Benjam bellowed.
“Do it Kyren,” Elarra cried, motioning for Geri to follow her as she made her way down the street, toward the only egg that would escape, toward what she knew was her death, but was also her destiny.
“What good is a portal, if you only take the problem elsewhere,” Kyren cried, desperation in his voice.
“If you open it to coordinate alpha zero, it’ll have the desired effect,” Benjam exclaimed.
“What?” she heard Kyren cry over the comm.
“Yes, coordinate alpha zero, the most massive source of gravity in the entire galaxy, the supermassive black hole at the center,” Benjam replied as if speaking to a child.
“You want me to open a portal to a black hole? Won’t that destroy everything?” exclaimed Kyren, voice breaking up as he spoke over the comm channel.
“Indeed, but it is the only hope of destroying the creature. My calculations show the Ashari’s nova blast might not be enough,” Benjam said after a maddeningly long moment.
“Do it!” Elarra cried. “It’s our only hope.”
“Um, that’s nice and all, but I’m gonna have to move first, it’s seen me” Kyren cried, just as the Kirugi slammed into the building he was atop, sending a cloud of debris and rubble down into the street around Elarra.
88
Rooftop Dance
Kyren saw it coming, and knew he had only one hope. He knew he had to flee, so he programmed the Gaidan to keep fighting, no matter how desperate, no matter how ineffective. As the Kirugi barreled toward the building he stood atop, he furiously controlled his bot.
“Um, that’s nice and all,” Kyren replied to the conversation occurring over his earpiece. “But I’m gonna have to move first.”
The Gaidan leapt atop the Kirugi, desperately attempting to stymie its advance. The bot grasped for a hold, but the beast shook it off, sending the Gaidan crashing to the ground. Kyren realized the beast was going to reach him, it would catch him and there was nothing he could do.
Unless he could move, unless he could flee, he realized suddenly. Yes! The warp belt, he thought, reaching down and activating the belt, selecting a destination of the next rooftop over. Keying it, the portal opened and he leapt through. He watched incredulously as the Kirugi barreled into the building he had been standing upon.
His world went wonky for a brief second, the warp sickness delaying his mind by mere moments. Was it his experience, or was it that the warp belt was limited in its power? He couldn’t tell, all he knew was that he recovered mere moments after stepping through the portal, thankful the warp sickness wasn’t overwhelming.
Kyren stood atop another building, a short distance from the one the Kirugi had just destroyed. He caught the tail end of Elarra and Benjam’s conversation, something about a warp portal, an alpha-zero point or something.
“What did you say, Benjam? What are you talking about?” he queried in desperation.
“Point alpha-zero, Kyren. The point at which all warp vectors originate,” Benjam replied, as if he would understand by just his matter-of-fact tone alone.
“Benjam,
I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kyren murmured as he programmed in another routine.
The Gaidan jumped on the Kirugi again, this time driving it to the ground. It shook the giant bot off and stood, turning its baleful red eyes upon him once again. Dammit, the thing had found him again. How was it tracking him? He didn’t know, but he did know he had to move again. Activating the warp belt, he leapt through to another nearby rooftop.
Moments after clearing his head, he saw the Kirugi turn again toward him. He kicked the Gaidan into motion, executing a jumping spinning kick. The attack took the Kirugi in the back, and it stumbled into the nearest building. The building began to collapse, Kyren thankful he was no longer atop it.
But the creature recovered quickly, lashing out with its tail, skewering the Gaidan in its thigh. Armor tore away as the creature retracted its tail, leaving the Gaidan limping, nearly crippled.
“Benjam, how do I open the portal to the black hole?” Kyren questioned, not hiding his desperation.
He prepared for another jump to another building as the creature fixed its baleful stare upon him.
“Just let it select the most powerful point, the greatest gravitational influence. Extend the sensors out as far as you can, and then pick the biggest reading,” Benjam instructed.
Kyren wasn’t sure if he understood, but he tried anyway. He keyed open the warp controls and began to select a target. Before he could understand what he was looking at, the Kirugi disentangled itself from the grappling Gaidan and sprinted toward his current destination.
Damn this thing’s persistent, he thought. Time to take it out, though. He programmed in a final routine before keying in the activation. The Gaidan’s jump jets fired, launching it into the Kirugi. He grappled with the mighty beast, struggling as its many claws slashed and tore at the bot’s body.
But Kyren wasn’t to be deterred. The pain blossomed but he ignored it, maintaining his grip on the great beast, dancing and whirling with it as it attempted to reach him atop the skyscraper. The Gaidan and the Kirugi struggled and crashed into a nearby building, sending it toppling to the ground, a cloud of dust and rubble shooting into the sky.
Then Kyren finished his programming with a slight flourish, hoping he would succeed, hoping Benjam was right. Suddenly, a massive warp portal opened at the center of the city, crackling and arcing with electromagnetic energy. At its heart swam an inky blackness, eating up all light, bringing a pallor of darkness over the city.
Then the destruction began. Kyren watch as buildings collapsed and were drawn toward the portal, huge clouds of rubble sucked in without remorse. Then there was a massive rumble and then the very ground began to be drawn into the open portal. Kyren felt the building beneath him begin to shake and shudder.
Kyren knew the end was near, knew he had only mere moments to act. So he directed the Gaidan to reach out and grab the Kirugi in a massive bear hug. He hit the jump jets at full burn, rocketing the beast forward and toward the warp portal. It shrieked and struggled, but Kyren resisted the blossoming pain as it raked the Gaidan’s body with its claws and tail.
He held on through the pain, pouring more and more energy into the thrusters, driving the creature ever closer to the warp portal, and its imminent doom. As he watched the beast and the bot pass through the warp portal and into the black hole beyond, he felt the building give way beneath him.
89
Egg Tower
Geri followed Elarra down the street, commanding her Marines to obey the liadi. She had a vision, one that had shown a path to victory. Geri didn’t necessarily believe in prescience, but she had hope, and plenty of it. Elarra had attempted to deter Alis from her suicide mission, and it seemed she may have succeeded.
Now it was time to deal with an imminent threat. The sort of thing Geri could handle, she realized. This was what she did. Identify a target. Develop a plan, even if only mere moments were available. Then execute. Ad nauseum, as needed. Geri knew she was a true warrior, and she was determined to fight until the end.
This was likely the end. Elarra had seen their future, and had expressed the urgency. She had told Geri that Alis would be okay. She had convinced her that stopping this last egg, denying the Kirugi its spawn, would mean victory, ultimately. It would mean their sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.
And Alis would survive. That, above all else, was what what Geri cared about the most. If Kyren could open a portal, if he could access the black hole at the center of the galaxy, then her daughter wouldn’t kill herself, wouldn’t die trying to stop the great beast.
Benjam was hurriedly instructing Kyren on the finer points of warp travel, so she followed Elarra, who had already started down the street. Shortly after she and her men abandoned the building Kyren was occupying, a horde of creatures entered the street. But the combined firepower of the raxi and Marines left the creatures fleeing for cover.
Geri could see the egg tower coming into view, the brown goop at the base of the organic-looking latticework beneath the egg beginning to smoke and steam. Suddenly a horde of civilians streamed from the surrounding buildings, taking them by surprise. Hesitating to fire upon civilians, despite their disposition, the throng managed to reach them.
Chaos ensued as Geri fired into the crowd, dropping corrupted humans and attempting to protect her Marines, who were also beleaguered by the advancing throng. She fired, and fired again, and again, and again. The bolt locked open on her rifle and she cast it aside and drew a pistol. A massive figure strode through the crowd, a laser gatling gun barking fire into her Marines and Elarra’s raxi alike.
“Geri,” Elarra cried.
Geri looked up at Elarra, pistol in hand, and dispatched an advancing club-wielding corrupted man.
“Here,” Elarra cried, tossing her energy-bladed bracer to her.
Geri caught the bracer with her left hand, right bringing her pistol to bear and downing several more corrupted humans. She looked toward the center of the street and saw the most massive grendle she had ever seen, armored head to toe in environmental combat power armor, wielding a massive laser gatling gun cannon.
It was mowing down her forces, mercilessly downing several of the last few Marines and raxi alike. Realizing her pistol was next to useless, she transitioned it to her left hand and strapped on the energy blade on her right side.
The Marine with the rocket launcher attempted to fire his missile at the egg tower, but was blasted by the grendle’s cannon, sending his missile wide. She charged, igniting the energy blade as she ran.
The grendle was slow to respond, bringing the laser gatling gun to bear just as she reached it. Going into a slide below its firing arc, she delivered a meat-chopping strike to the creature’s thigh, severing it just above the knee. The grendle fell to the ground and she quickly scrambled atop it, driving the energy blade into its neck.
Armor melted and flesh boiled as she punched into the creatures neck, nearly decapitating it. She struck several more times, to be certain it was down. Panting with exertion, she looked up to see a few Marines and raxi still engaging the corrupted human force. She also looked down the street, focusing on the remaining egg tower, Kirugi-spawn positioned and ready to launch into the unknown, destined for another inhabited world.
Geri reached down and pried the laser gatling gun from the grendle’s grasp. She swung it around, bracing it on her hip, and pointed at the egg tower, squeezing the trigger with vehemence. Laser bursts barked from the cannon, streaming into the egg tower.
The tower exploded spectacularly, clouds of fire and smoke billowing out beneath the egg as it toppled to the street.
“You’ve done it Geri!” Elarra cried out. “You stopped the final egg!”
“Now let’s get out of here, before that black-hole portal opens,” Geri cried, immediately raising Isa on comms.
“On my way,” Isa responded, urgency apparent.
90
The Portal
“Isa, get my mom!” Alis cried out as the hundred-story-tall
warp portal opened.
She couldn’t bear it if anything happened to her mom. She just couldn’t go on if she couldn’t save her.
“Already on my way, Alis,” Isa responded.
“Good! Kyren, where are you? I’ll pick you up. Benjam, get those scanners and detectors keyed up,” Alis commanded.
“I can’t find him, Alis!” Benjam exclaimed in desperation.
“Find him, now!” she barked.
She felt just as strongly about Kyren as she did about her mom. What did that mean? What did that reveal about herself? She couldn’t think about that now, so she pushed such thoughts away.
“There, he’s over… wait! No, lost him,” Benjam squawked from his console, desperation clear in his voice.
“Benjam! Where is Kyren?” she growled as she banked the Ashari for another pass.
“I can’t seem to lock on, his signal keeps fluctuating and moving,” Benjam replied timidly.
“I don’t care what you have to do, just find me a location!” she bellowed, dodging the Ashari out of the way of a swipe from the creature’s tail as she flew past.
“Alis, get out of here,” she heard Kyren cry as the bot and Kirugi staggered around, locked in a desperate grapple for supremacy.
“No, I won’t leave you. Just tell me where you are,” she urged.
His signal went dark again, reappearing shortly after, but she couldn’t identify where he had gone, just that he wasn’t on the building before her. She banked the Ashari and circled for another pass.
As she flew above the tops of the buildings, she searched Benjam’s sensor results furiously, looking for signs of life, looking for Kyren.