Anyway, so I'm thinking of switching the Space Cases site of mine over to geocities, which is gonna be a feat all on its own. .
Chapter Fourteen
"You can not go through with that plan. We have tried to infiltrate the Zeeks before and it is not possible. They have machines that keep track of everything." Jenna was slowly becoming more and more of a hindrance to the operation. Commander Goddard grunted at this.
"We thought of that already. They won't expect us to come all at once in from every direction. It's sort of a suicide mission that is likely to work," he said.
"Oh good, I always wanted to be on one of those," drawled Bova.
Commander Goddard fixed him with a withering look. Bova seemed unfazed by it. "What we need is for the Sertina to come around these points here. See?"
"And promptly be killed by their guns and lasers. Commander, we have seen this before and it will not work. You need far more power than what we have to offer," said Jenna.
"If Jenna can not help, then what are the chances we can win?" said Feera in a straight tone. It had no inflection in, nothing that gave away what she was feeling.
Jenna stared at Feera with her dark eyes. "Tell me, child, would you go through with this plan without us?"
"No."
"Then, I suggest coming up with a better plan. We are here to increase your number, not to be slaughtered while you infiltrate." Jenna glared at Goddard and for the first time he felt like a child compared to this woman.
Goddard sighed and ran a hand through his short cropped hair. "Please… we need your help. Will you help us?"
Jenna stood up in one smooth motion. "I wish to rest, I have had a rather tiring day."
Goddard looked outside and noticed that it was indeed drawing on nighttime. He had forgotten how short the days and nights were on this planet. He suspected that he had a grand total of four hours sleep every night before someone came to wake him up for breakfast, and that was not with the intensive training he helped teach.
Tavik put a hand on Goddard's shoulder. "Get some rest, Goddard. You look tired."
"I feel old," he grumbled.
"You are old."
"Thank you," Goddard said in a sarcastic tone. He sighed and waved Tavik off. "All right, I'm going."
Goddard stood and looked to Radu and Harlan at the entrance of the hut. They nodded and walked to the boys' hut.
Music.
Dance.
Light.
Elmira sat in her usual spot, holding onto her head as though it was about to explode. She moaned as she waved around. A strange tune played through her mind, over and over again, making her feel as though she was going insane.
She got up and heard a voice inside her mind, commanding in tone. IT said dance. She tried to stop it, but soon she was twirling in the middle of the room, her red hair twirling around with her. She saw light all around her and she danced to the swirling music.
She kicked up and danced to the music inside her mind. She couldn't think of anything else she could do. It was there, always there, making no sense whatsoever and she couldn't contact Radu or anyone else.
She heard the voice again and she relaxed against the wall. Panting, she slid down and lay back on the ground. She was a puppet to the puppet-master and he knew when to pull those strings of hers.
She remembered telling Radu about her destiny with him. She smiled faintly. She liked him. He was a sweet boy. The music faded from her mind and she fell into a strange sleep that left her awake and yet unconscious.
Radu sat up suddenly. He'd heard something. He didn't know what he heard, he just heard it. Something was walking around the village. He concentrated hard in his mind to focus on the exact sound he'd heard.
A sharp intake of breath.
He could hear Harlan and Bova snoring behind him loudly and he grimaced. That wasn't what he'd heard. He crouched inside the boys' hut and peered out the entrance to the hut. There was some movement outside. He caught the sight of metal and narrowed his eyes. Metal?
He saw a familiar mask look right over at him and he ducked back quickly. He scrambled over to Harlan and shook him. "Harlan.. wake up. Quickly," he hissed.
Harlan woke up waving his arms about, trying to hit whatever was disturbing his sleep. He blinked blearily at Radu and then glared. "Radu, this had better be important or else I'm going to find something unpleasant to do to your ears."
Radu flushed faintly. "The Zeeks—"
The warning signal sounded. There was a loud clanging from the beaten metal plate they used to warn the village. Goddard woke to the sound of it and sat up, looking about the hut.
He peered about the hut that was reserved for him and Miss Davenport, which was odd on its own, but he didn't complain. He picked up the spear that had been given to him and the knife, creeping toward the entrance of the hut. He looked out and saw Radu fighting off someone. That someone looked as though they were wearing an automated suit to use power against Radu.
Harlan and Bova were fighting against others as well, though they wore no automated suits. He through the knife at the ground beside Miss Davenport's head and watched her sit up stiffly. "Get it and hide! We're being attacked!"
She scrambled further into the hut as he ran out, ramming the spear into a Zeek boy's chest. He put his foot on that boy's chest and tugged it out, running at the boys holding Bova and Harlan.
Treya was in the automated suit, holding onto Radu's arms. He grunted and kicked at her, but she too wouldn't move, just as he didn't budge from his spot. "You cannot win, Radu 386," she grinned.
His eyes widened. How did she know his name? His thoughts immediately went to Suzee, who had been bombarded by Zanathos.
The clamps on his wrists tightened down and he let out a yelp of pain, gritting his teeth as he sent his head forward. Their skulls collided and Treya fell back, releasing Radu quickly.
Radu wobbled slightly, rubbing his head. She had been wearing that blasted metal mask which had cracked him through his hair fairly seriously. He groaned as his back hit the hut.
He was thrust aside by Feera as a laser blast from her laser cannon on her arm narrowly missed them. He hit the ground and rolled away from Feera so he wouldn't crush her. He grabbed the nearest object he could find and threw it at Treya's arm. It was a rock and it crushed the armature in one blow. He grinned and ran his shoulder into the Zeek that was holding another Tirateem.
Bova and Harlan weren't having too many difficulties. Harlan, with Goddard's help, managed to get himself free enough kick the boy's head. Goddard ran the spear he had through the boy's chest and pulled him off in almost one move.
Bova grumbled and built up as much energy as he could inside of him, letting off a lightning blast that knocked the boy off of him and the second one coming at him. "Well, now you know that electricity isn't your friend," he said with an odd bout of humor. Unusual for him, probably, but he felt bit better being able to shove off two Zeeks without a problem.
There was a scream from the hut near the boys' hut. Rosie and Suzee were being pulled out by their hands and knees, though it was only really Suzee. Rosie singed one girl quickly and then clapped her hands on the one holding Suzee's feet right on either side of his head. He jolted slightly and let out a scream of pain as he hit the ground. "MY EARS!"
The Zeeks seemed to keep coming.
The Sertina walked out of their huts, some carrying the bodies of their dead comrades. Jenna appeared amongst them and growled. "ENOUGH!" she shouted.
Suddenly, like Bova, she seemed to glow with electricity for a moment and she pointed at Treya and the crowd of Zeeks. Commander Goddard grabbed Harlan and jumped from the area. Radu followed behind, grabbing Suzee and Rosie on his way.
There was a massive blast that lit up the sky. It was as though out of nowhere in the sky, one massive lightning bolt shot out and hit the crowd of Zeeks and their machines. Each one dropped, though most of them were covering themselves with something that could be called a shield of sorts. They jumped on the ground, like fish out of water.
Jenna collapsed on the ground. One of her people picked her up and pulled her away from the battle scene. The other Sertina ran forward with their spears and started fighting against the Zeeks that were getting up.
The blast had been witnessed from not too far off. Zanathos growled. "Damn that Jenna. Damn her to farthest reaches of purgatory!" he snarled. He picked up his machines and ran past the lake. He'd come to show the Tirateem and the Sertina what true power was, but he couldn't ever match fists with Jenna of the Sertina.
He stopped as he heard something coming out of the lake. Light. Bright and beautiful light was coming out of the lake. He growled and covered his eyes. "NO! NOT YOU! I SHOULD'VE MADE SURE I DESTROYED YOU LOT WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!"
He started to run when he heard some female voice behind him. He recognized it and shuddered, his black eyes going wide. He turned, as the voice asked him to, and he met a pair of bright red eyes. "The… The Empath.."
Freya tilted her head in an inquisitive fashion. Her voice came out sounding distorted, like a robot. "You…are the one that should have died. You have hurt people."
The light grew stronger and he had trouble seeing Freya. The beings coming out of the water were made of the light, so bright it hurt his black eyes to look at them. "Get away from ME!" he snarled.
The same polite and gentle robotic voice sounded inside his head again, though now he could discern it as not so much a voice, but the feeling of one speaking to him. He smirked. He was gaining control of himself again. The Empath wasn't as strong as he'd thought originally.
"You can not stop me… not any of you." Then, he ran. Freya ran after him. He was faster than she was that much he knew for certain.
He found his ship hidden in the ruins of the old statues to the gods. He grinned as he punched the eye of one of the heads and the rock fell off of it. Light burst from it, forming into a ship that was so black, it could barely be seen in the darkness of night without looking at it from the side. Only movement of space could give you an idea of where it was.
Freya leapt at him, but he disappeared inside the ship. She bounced off of some sort of shielding around the vessel and hit the ground, completely limp.
The Zeeks were tied up with rope and whatever else they could find. The Sertina held them together as the Tirateem started trying to fix up the last of the wounded. Radu hissed as a girl cleaned his cuts and burns.
Goddard was situated not far from them, dealing with his own wounds. Tavik helped nearby. "It seems… we have won," said Tavik with a small smile. "There don't seem to be any more Zeeks coming at us and Feera tells me that the town is nearly empty. Her operatives are clearing out the rest with the help of a few Sertina."
"I'm sorry that Freya couldn't get back quickly. We could have done this better with fewer losses if she had," Goddard said with a heavy sigh.
"No… the Lokalit are something of a pacifist race. The way they fight is far more advanced than that of either tribe. Even that of the Zeeks."
Goddard blinked. "Tell me, how did these tribes form?"
Harlan sat up with a grunt. "Yeah, Feera said Jenna was one of the scientists that created the plague and Jenna said that Zanathos was a myth and a god. What happened?"
Tavik blinked and was about to say something when another voice came from no where. Light filtered into the camp. Bright and glowing with promise. "What happened is still something of a mystery, even to those who had seen it."
Tavik's mouth opened and closed like a fish. Radu blinked at them. "Huh?"
"The Lokalit," whispered the Tirateem around him.
"Would someone PLEASE tell me what is going on?" growled Goddard. He'd had enough of these mysteries.
The light formed into people and a boy with bright ocean blue eyes and white hair smiled at them. He was a child compared to the others around him that were now forming into humanoid form. All had the same almost glowing blue eyes and white hair of varying lengths.
"It is time that the tale is known as well as any of us can remember it," he said in a melodic tone.
