36 – VENGEANCE AT HAND

Sunlight from the solar system's star filtered in through the windows of the command dome of the Avant Garde, the paths of light traveling gracefully down to the central console and hitting holographic planes, causing the planes to change color slightly in select places. Staring at the planes, Hathrow Vorennius studied the tactical feeds of Lemon Squadron's escape from the Avant Garde. His plans for dealing with the Yellows had backfired considerably: he had lost the Quantum Manipulator, lost several dozen troops who had stood in Lemon's way, and lost at least two dozen more when the dropship Lemon had hijacked had rammed itself into the hanger door, and the vacuum of space had sucked out every soldier in the bay. However, the part that really troubled the Admiral was the fact that he couldn't figure out exactly what he'd done wrong. All the pieces had been in place. Lemon had been lured to the Avant Garde and herded into a room filled with a dozen Mantis Walkers. Had Lemon somehow managed to defeat all of them, Vorennius could have sent in more, until Lemon was eventually felled.

But something had happened which he had not intended: Lemon had hijacked a Mantis and then used its clearance codes to activate a lift out of the room. Vorennius had never imagined that a Mantis was hijackable. Lemon had taught the Avant Garde's development teams a lesson in design flaws: the canopy door needed to be reinforced so that it could not be yanked open with a robotic arm. That flaw had cost him his initial plan in dealing with Lemon.

After Lemon had broken out of the trap room, Vorennius had decided to imprison them in a section of hallway on a higher level of the ship. Yet this, as well, they had escaped. For prior to the springing of the trap, Lemon had freed a prisoner named Travis Chamaelon, whom Vorennius had sent to the brig only hours ago, and allowed the Purple to become an accomplice. So when Lemon was trapped in that section of hallway, they had used Chamaelon's id clearance to access a side door…which had just happened to enter into the Artifact Archives. Another team had been sent after them, and another gunfight ensued, which Lemon of course won. Then they had found the Quantum Manipulator, and one of them had picked it up…somehow, even though it was non-coherent with the universe.

But Vorennius had had one final plan up his armor cuff: he had used one of the Quantum Manipulator's abilities to set a power drain to take effect in Lemon's armors. At the same time, he had flooded the Artifact Archives with Mantises. Victory had seemed assured. But then, for a third time, Lemon had escaped. Despite being weakened by the power drain, they had carried each other, and sprinted to the best of their ability, somehow managing to outrun the Mantises. Following this had been the scene in the hanger, where Lemon had escaped with both the Purple and the Quantum Manipulator on the dropship.

Vorennius could understand how none of it had happened.

Everything had been in place. Yet time and time again, Lemon had thwarted him. And the only constant that the Admiral could spot in every single situation, the one thing Lemon had used…was luck. Fortune had favored them. No matter what had been placed in their way, there had always been one desperate avenue that Lemon had been able to exploit in order to escape. Vorennius could find no singular set of strategies used throughout Lemon's journey on the ship. They had always just reacted to what had been put in their way. The Admiral began to think about what kind of training might lend itself to this "luckiness". Was it something that could be taught, or was it something that just happened? Everything Vorennius had planned was based on predictions of future events. If one action was performed, another action would spring as a consequence, which would lead to necessary countermeasures and so forth. But what if it was possible to develop a soldier that could adapt and deal with any matter of countermeasures? A soldier whose operating procedure was based upon improvisation instead of foresight? Such a soldier would be unlike everything else in the Purple Army. But if the Purple Army could reproduce its own version of Lemon Squadron, then Vorennius could have himself an army unlike anything in the war.

A tremendous flash of light burst into existence, causing the Admiral's visor to black out for a second as it automatically readjusted its display settings. Though he could not see, Vorennius stepped back, knowing that there was nothing to trip over behind him. His visor finally recalibrated and reactivated. Looking around quickly, Vorennius could see that the flash had ended. But floating in the place where it had originated was a most familiar figure: a fusion coil.

The coil floated slowly towards the Admiral, its core glowing an angry red. "Admiral!" it shouted. "Where was my Quantum Manipulator when I needed it? The Hand is destroyed. If I had had the manipulator than I could have ended the universe. But no, because you still hadn't given it to me!"

"Vincent," Vorennius greeted. "Yes, I was informed of the plight of your doomsday device. How very unfortunate." In contrast to his words, his voice lended no amount of sympathy.

"Where is my Manipulator?" Vincent hissed. "I know that you have it. The entire planet knows of your campaign against the Orange Army, and your siege of their capitol city. They were forced to give it to you, which explains why you let Strongeheim stand. The Manipulator is in your possession. So give it to me."

Vorennius had known that this moment was coming, ever since Lemon Squadron. "I am afraid that isn't possible."

"WHAT?" Vincent shouted.

"You see, I did have the Quantum Manipulator, but it has been taken from me. By the Yellow Army."

Vincent shuddered, his core light flickering. "You promised it to me!"

"And you promised me the location of Centerpoint City."

Vincent laughed maniacally. "How can you expect me to uphold my end of the bargain when you have lost your end?"

"Because the Yellows have joined with Lime Squadron and taken the Quantum Manipulator to Centerpoint City, for safekeeping."

"How can you know this, and yet still be ignorant of Centerponit City's location?" Vincent demanded.

"I have had Yellow Base bugged for some days now. The defector, Travis Chamealon, installed listening devices in that base when he first arrived there, and has not yet bothered to remove them. But because it is a Yellow base, it does not contain information on the Green Army's capitol. I have only heard the city's name referenced."

"So you know where the Manipulator is, and you don't know where it is," Vincent stated.

"That is correct."

"But you still can't hold up your end of the bargain!"

Vorennius gave an exhale, a low chuckle. "Allow me to state things another way. Your end of the bargain is about Centerpoint City. And my end of the bargain is in Centerpoint City."

"You want us to attack the city together, don't you?"

Vorennius nodded. "For you to get your Manipulator, the city must be besieged one way or another."

Vincent glowered glowingly at the Admiral. "But I'm still thinking about the fact that you had the Manipulator but didn't give it to me. Do you really think me so gullible that you can play with our alliance like a harp?"

Vorennius shook his helmet. "I am not playing you, Vincent. Because of these developments, our objectives are now intertwined."

"Intertwined, because you set it up that way, Vorennius!" Vincent shot back. "You wanted me to end up in just this situation, so that I would have no choice but to work with you!"

Actually, this was not true. Vorennius had been intending to give Vincent the Quantum Manipulator. But then it had been stolen and taken to Centerponit City, and this forced alliance had ended up as the Admiral's backup plan. "We can still both get exactly what we want," the Admiral said slowly and carefully.

"No I can't," said Vincent. "The Hand has been damaged to the point where it can no longer alter the fabric of space-time. The Quantum Manipulator is useless to me now. All my plans…my wonderful plans…THEY HAVE ENDED!"

"Then why have you come here?" asked Vorennius.

"Because you have betrayed me," the fusion coil hissed. "Your scheming has cost me everything."

"My scheming has cost you nothing," the Admiral countered. "The failures you speak of are your own and no other's. I did not have anything to do with Lime Squadron's multiple escapes from captivity. I did not allow The Hand to be shot at with the artifact device. Those mistakes were both your own Army's responsibility."

"You kept the Quantum Manipulator from me!" the fusion coil protested.

"I did not have a chance to get it to you."

"That is your excuse!" Vincent roared.

"You are not listening to reason," Vorennius said calmly. "We have an alliance. There is no need for you to make an enemy of me. There are other ways of exacting your revenge. Our two Armies can have dominion over all other civilizations. Give me the location of Centerpoint City, and our conquest can begin with the ending of the Green Army. Once they are gone, the Yellows will be left vulnerable at the loss of their own alliance, and we can strike at them—"

"I want to destroy this universe, not rule it!" exclaimed Vincent as he began to circle around Vorennius, his lights suddenly beginning to glow much brighter. "But that plan is gone now. I will never make the mistake of siding with you again."

Vorennius crossed his arms and stared at the fusion coil with his visor as it circled him. "You are being foolish."

Vincent let out a maniacal laugh. "Am I? You're one to talk, Admiral. You think you're so different from the Greens. But both your Army and the Green Army are cowards. You hide in your capitol ship, while the Greens hide under Yellow Command like a hermit under a rock."

Vorennius suddenly sensed an opportunity. "The Greens do what, again?"

Vincent laughed again, his cackle reverberating all around the dome. "Not so bright when you're being insulted, are you? I said that the Greens hide just like you Purples do. They use Yellow Command like a shield, and you use your reclusiveness as a shield."

Vorennius sharply turned and strode back over to the holographic console in the center of the dome. He hit a few buttons, and a holographic representation of XBOXL1V sprang up.

"What do you think you're doing, Admiral?" Vincent shouted at him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Vorennius ignored the fusion coil, instead focusing all of his energies on the hologram. Can I have found it at last? he wondered silently. He isolated the holoscreen over the location of Yellow Command, focusing the program on the station's latitude and longitude relative to the planet's surface. As it so happened, the station was in geosynchronous orbit, which lended credence to his theory. Acting on a whim, he had the computer scan for electromagnetic signatures on the surface, directly under Yellow Command. To the Admiral's triumph, the area he selected lit up like a Christmas tree: the revelation of an electromagnetic shield, exactly of the size needed to protect a large city from radar. Zooming far inwards, the Admiral discovered a great lake shaped like a thick ring. Within the ring, at the center of this lake, was a durasteel pedestal upon which rested a layer a manmade structures.

At long last, Vorennius' search was over.

"I demand to know what you are doing, Admiral!" Vincent shouted from the other side of the console.

"The Greens decided to set Yellow Command in geosynchronous orbit above their capitol city," said the Admiral, more on audible thought to himself than to the fusion coil. "They thought that move would make them safer, when instead it has proved to be their fatal mistake. Hiding behind Yellow Command like a shield: a tactic both clever and clumsy at the same time."

It was at about this moment when Vincent began to catch onto his own mistake. "Oh fuck, I told you…I told you…"

"You told me enough to allow me to collect my end of our little bargain," said Vorennius smugly, now bothering to turn his visor back in Vincent's direction.

"Even though I haven't collected on mine," Vincent protested.

"Spare me your ridicule," Vorennius countered, suddenly becoming more domineering in tone. "In order to collect the Quantum Manipulator for you, I have launched a campaign against another Army and beaten them to within an inch of their existence. That is what I did to honor our alliance. Yes, the Manipulator was stolen. You want it, then help me take Centerpoint City. But you have no right to call me a traitor. How dare you? After everything I have done, you repay me by barging into my command dome and making accusations."

"I've already told you, I don't want anything to do with you or your Army anymore!" Vincent shouted.

"And due to your verbal blunder a moment ago, I don't need anything to do with yours, for I now have all I wanted from you. If that is your choice, then so be it. The alliance we have is now at an end."

Vincent chuckled sinisterly. "Our alliance was ended before I even came into this dome. It was ended the moment I lost The Hand. I did not come here to break alliances with you. I came to end you for your betrayal!"

Suddenly, loose items in the room began to float up from the floor. At first Vorennius thought that the artificial gravity had turned off. But then he realized that it could only be Vincent using his powers, for the fusion coil was glowing madly. Someone else had realized this as well, for a shadow flowed out of the darkness and launched itself at Vincent with arms abnormally long. However, Vincent lifted up the tall figure with his powers, sending Nezilus Thane sailing back towards the outskirts of the dome. Then a spherical barrier began to shimmer into existence, surrounding both Vincent and Vorennius. Thane was left outside.

"You and I are alone now, Admiral," said Vincent. "Your bodyguard cannot help you in here. Any last words?"

"I have none and need none," said Vorennius as he reached for an object on his belt. A brilliant blade of light appeared in his hand. It was a White Blade, commonly referred to as an Energy Sword, and it had kept the Admiral company ever since the revolution on Roster Teth. Its glow illuminated the spherical barrier, causing the surroundings to change into a transparent abyss of sky blue. "Take me if you can," the Admiral goaded to the fusion coil. With his left arm, he angled his hand above his helmet, with the White Blade aimed at Vincent, so that he was poised like a scorpion with a glowing tail.

Both entities stared at each other for a long moment. Then they lunged.

Vincent plunged towards the Admiral like a falcon coming for its prey. But Vorennius was suddenly fast, because in the next instant he was not in the place Vincent was swooping down towards. Another instant, and a painful slash impacted the fusion coil from the side. The psychic barrier he always kept around himself prevented Vincent from exploding, but the White Blade cut deep into the energies surrounding the fusion coil, completely throwing off his focus. Vincent floated up into the air again, coming to a stop at the very top of the spherical barrier. "How?"

"A property of the weapon which I wield," Vorennius stated sharply. "The resonance of the energy stored in the blade is capable of interfering with telekinetic influence. It is the weakness of many things, which is why I always keep it with me. I am never unprepared: this you should have realized about me from my reputation alone."

Vincent cackled. "Ah, but you can't reach me up here, can you?"

"Then I will patiently wait for you," Vorennius replied calmly. "I have much time to spare. Can the same be said for you, I wonder?"

Vincent growled, his anger showing through yet again. Then he swooped down again. The response to this action was another miss, followed by another slash at his side. At that, Vincent moved again for the Admiral, not as a lunge, for he was already at ground level, but as a push in the Admiral's direction. The Admiral stood still as a statue—and then he was gone! Of course, another side slash impacted Vincent.

"Do you know what Einstein defined insanity to be?" Vorennius called over to Vincent from behind the fusion coil. Vincent saw the Admiral coming at him, quick as lightening, and just barely dodged. "Doing the same thing over and over again when it clearly does not work," the Admiral finished. Almost as if to try to prove the Admiral's point, Vincent lunged for the Admiral, missed, and got side attacked for the fourth time.

Vorennius could plainly see that his attacks were having an effect on the fusion coil: Vincent's massively glowing light (the indication of his use of psychic powers) was beginning to flicker. Furthermore, the sound of Vincent's grunts were turning more into pants. The Admiral did not know what kind of circulation a fusion coil went through, or if sentient fusion coils even had a circulatory system, but the correct interpretation of Vincent's utterings could only be complete exhaustion.

"How…are you still…alive…" Vincent wheezed. Out of desperation, he levitated some metallic object within the spherical barrier and flung it at Vorennius. But of course, the Admiral did not get hit. However, watching what happened, Vincent suddenly got an idea of what was going on. Just before the object reached him, Vorennius suddenly became extremely fast, moving faster than any human should be able to. And as the Admiral moved, Vincent could see small white flames emerge from the back of the Admiral's armor, the kind that came out of thruster packs. That was when Vincent realized what was happening: Vorennius would always stand perfectly still until exactly the right moment, then use the thruster pack to dodge out of the way, conserving all of his energy until it was needed, then using it to evade and deal a counterattack at Vincent's flank.

Now that Vincent had figured out Vorennius' strategy, it was time to try out a new tactic. He created a huge glowing orange ball in front of him, which simply appeared out of thin air. It was a spherical cloud of plasma contained within a force field. Called a Kill Ball, it could vaporize anything it came in contact with. With his new toy, Vincent whirled the Kill Ball around the inside of the spherical barrier. As the Kill Ball was the size of a Scorpion Tank, this was difficult to manage, because the ball of plasma already took up so much volume of the inside of the barrier.

The Admiral dodged out of the way using his thruster pack…and then did something which Vincent could not have anticipated: he ran a little bit up the wall of the spherical barrier, then leapt off, and activated his thruster pack while in midair. This added momentum propelled him towards the center of the inside of the barrier…and Vincent. Another slash from the White Blade caused Vincent to lose focus yet again. The Kill Ball fell to the floor, and instantly disappeared, as Vincent's consciousness was required for it to remain manifest. Another strategy Vincent had hoped to defeat the Admiral with was gone.

Letting out a cry of rage, Vincent levitated a massive metal stanchion, a pillar for the command dome, and ripped it out of its foundation, then twirled it around in the air like a club. Easily as massive as a small vehicle, one hit from it would likely be fatal for the Admiral. He swung it down as fast as he could move it with the will of his mind. The Admiral dodged. Then Vincent swung down with the stanchion a second time. The Admiral again dodged, of course. But this time, Vincent kept the bar moving after the Admiral. The Admiral's thruster pack stopped, halting his movement, but the bar kept coming. The Admiral saw it in time and fell to the ground, rolling underneath the stanchion. The fact that he missed infuriated Vincent, and he lifted up the stanchion again, bringing it down on one end to slam against the floor. Of course, the Admiral wasn't there when it hit. Still moving from his evade, Vorennius sprinted over to stand upon one particular panel of the floor: it seemed to be made of a slightly different metal, because its coloration was not the same as the panels around it. However, Vincent didn't care. He just wanted the Admiral dead. For a fourth time, he raised the stanchion and brought it down.

A sickening crunch came from the floor. At first, Vincent thought that he had finally hit the Admiral, and was about to let out a shout of victory. But then he bothered to look downwards, and realized that the tip of the stanchion had sunk into the floor, the metal of the discolored plate having bent and twisted around the giant rod. Vincent struggled to free the stanchion, but it was to no avail. The stanchion would not move a millimeter. Vincent had nearly exhausted himself trying to telekinetically move the stanchion when he suddenly felt it vibrating. This wasn't because the stanchion was finally moving. Looking along the axis of the metal rod in dismay, the fusion coil witnessed Vorennius running up and along it like a ramp, White Blade at the ready. Having used up much energy on trying to move the stanchion, Vincent could do little to stop the Admiral. Once he was about halfway up the metal rod, Vorennius activated his thruster pack and launched himself at Vincent.

The added momentum caused the White Blade to do far more damage than it otherwise would have. Vincent could feel the blade cut deep into his energies and his consciousness. The fusion coil simply floated around the dome barrier in a daze. The stanchion came into his vision and left it again, over and over. It wasn't for a few moments until he realized that he was spinning. Then he felt more of his psychic energies give out, and he was forced to slowly float down to the floor. It's too much…can't take this… He looked back up to the top of the stanchion, and saw Vorennius standing at the very tip of that pinnacle, staring down at him victoriously. Then the Admiral hopped off of the stanchion, and quickly became larger in Vincent's vision. A brilliant flash of white light was the next thing he saw.

The Admiral was unrelenting. The White Blade became a storm of light in his gauntlets. As though it had a life of its own, a life of pure fury, the Admiral brought the White Blade down upon the helpless Vincent, slashing again and again, coming at him from every angle. The space around the fusion coil became a sea of flashes of white light. Vincent began to shriek as the combo ensued, his cries managing to leave the psychic barrier and reverberate throughout the command dome.

A swirling orb of light appeared behind the fusion coil, enlarging just enough to admit Vincent. And then, with one final burst of psychic discharge, Vincent propelled himself through the portal, a desperate act to save his own life in an admission of defeat. The portal closed immediately after Vincent entered it, condensing itself down to a single bright point before vanishing altogether.

Vorennius deactivated the White Blade, letting out a sigh of relief and exhaustion. Looking around himself, he could see that the psychic spherical barrier Vincent had created was now disappearing. It became more translucent, at the same time dissolving into subtle specks of light which floated down like snow. The top of the dome barrier went first, and the area under it followed. The air soon became filled with glowing particles. It was only a few seconds later when the barrier was gone altogether, and the specks of light on the floor became dimmer and vanished. The longer Vincent's consciousness was away from the psychic barrier, the weaker it became, until it seemed as though it had never existed.

Still watching the last of the barrier dissolve, Vorennius heard familiar steps coming towards him quickly. "I am fine," he informed Nezilus Thane. "The conflict was intense, but nothing that I could not persevere."

"Vincent," Thane said in his smooth, watery voice. "Is the fusion coil gone?"

"Gone back to the dimension he came from," Vorennius stated proudly. "I doubt that he will make an attempt on my life again after this encounter. For as long as I possess a White Blade, he will not be able to harm me."

The Admiral walked over to the stanchion that was now imbedded in the metal grating floor. During the fight, Vorennius had goaded Vincent into sending the tip of the stanchion into an access hatch trapdoor. The material of the trapdoor was aluminum instead of steel, and so had bent around the stanchion at impact instead of reflecting the stanchion. He looked over the giant beam. "I need this removed. Its appearance does not become my command dome." He made a mental note to order it removed as soon as he got to the holographic console. "But first, there is another, much more important matter that must be attended to."

He strode over to the holographic console and reopened the window showing Centerpoint City's location. Vincent may have just tried to kill me, but my last encounter with him was actually quite helpful, the Admiral thought to himself. Because of him, I now know the location of the Green Army's capitol city, at long last. The moment he had been waiting for had now arrived. "Computer," he ordered to the Avant Garde's artificial intelligence. "Assemble the Vice Admiralty."

A second window plane opened up next to the first. A please wait logo shone upon it for perhaps fifteen seconds, and was then replaced with the visors of six very important Purple soldiers. Each one was a general who had led the Purple Armies to revolt on Roster Teth, alongside Vorennius himself. Together, the seven of them had taken back the planet, and Vorennius knew that each and every one of his six could be trusted with his life. The last time the Vice Admiralty had assembled had been almost three days ago, in person, on the Avant Garde, when Vorennius had first briefed them on his plans for XBOXL1V.

"Admiral," said Gorn Wilhuff. "What news?" Gorn Wilhuff had originally been the general to oversee XBOXL1V, but had recently been sent back to Roster Teth to take charge of the forces there.

"My brethren," Vorennius stated slowly and proudly. "The day we have all been waiting for has arrived. I have just discovered the location of Centerpoint City. Vengeance is at hand."

Nods of approval and enthusiasm came from the six members of the Vice Admiralty. "Most excellent, Admiral," said Yoren Stendaar, the general of the Far Reaches. "Your forces are in place, I trust? Good, then Centerpoint City is ready to fall, and the rest of the Green Army with it."

"Indeed it is," said the Admiral. "The reason I have summoned all of you is so that you may watch with me as the city is destroyed. I will inform the Twins that it is time to strike, and then it will begin."

He opened a third window next to the first two. The responders to this summons were only two soldiers, but each represented a powerful weapon that Vorennius had been waiting a long time to bring into play. "Captain Thenriss, Captain Fenrir," the Admiral greeted as he nodded at both in turn. "Centerpoint City has been located. It is time to strike. Bring both of your ships into realspace, but both must be cloaked. Yellow Command stands in geosynchronous orbit above the city, for it seems that the Greens believe that the station will help protect them, in their new alliance with the Yellows."

Captain Fenrir gave a low chuckle. "They are fools."

"They will come to realize that at their end," the Admiral agreed.

"Shall we bother to destroy Yellow Command, or simply incapacitate it?" Captain Thenriss asked.

"Incapacitate it," said the Admiral. "All you need to do is make it past the station, while ensuring that it cannot attack. Given its size, the station's destruction will take too long. The city is the capitol of an entire Army, whereas Yellow Command is only the capitol of an Army's forces on this planet. The city is what matters."

"Understood," said Captain Thenriss. "Both of our ships are preparing to launch as we speak."

The shipyards of Roster Teth had only been operating for just under a month. In that time, the shipyards had been able to assemble two cruisers, sister ships. Called the Edge of Glory and the Edge of Doom, these Twins had become the centerpiece of the attack fleet that Vorennius had stationed in slipspace, just outside of XBOXL1V's gravity well. They were captained by Torrhen Fenrir and Zanos Thenriss, respectively. Just as the Admiral had planned, the Twins would serve as the attack force on Centerpoint City, with the rest of the attack fleet coming into play for the rest of the planet once the city had fallen.

The Admrial watched his displays as the Twins entered realspace and began moving towards the planet, like an alligator in a lake slowly drifting towards unsuspecting prey. Both ships were making use of state-of-the-art cloaking technology, which would obscure the ships from radar and used a projection technology to blend into their surroundings, so that they could not be detected by the naked eye. Everything was in place. The stage was set for vengeance and victory.

"This will be a day to remember, my brethren," said Vorennius to his Vice Admiralty. "For this day, our sworn enemies shall face the Edge of Glory, and then the Edge…"

"…of Doom."