Chapter 5: War zone
"Though stormed with shot and shell, bravely they charged, into the mouth of the Devil, into the maw of Hell"-Lonard Dawes, Dark Empire's fall
HILLYS-Seaview airspace-Night 13/9/2435
Sev brought the yacht down through the clouds the ships hulls shimmered as the sunlight slid across its transparent hull. Sev had engaged the cloaking system; it was eating up power at a phenomenal rate, giving Sev just another few hours of flight time before the batteries went dead. He looked back at Jade, who had changed out of her prison uniform into her traditional clothes. It was immediately clear that two stints at Alpha Section prisons had done little for her looks, she had seemed downcast, as if her fighting spirit had been crushed. Understandable given Alpha Section 'hospitality' but now Sev could se that she was raring to fight now. Amazing what a good meal and a long sleep could do for someone. Jade's hair was now as long as Sev's, hanging over her shoulders with a locks framing her green eyes in a brushed back style that looked just plain good. Sev had to admit that jade had made quite the recovery, only a day after her second time in prison and she was already back to having simple, down to earth good looks.
'Keep you eyes on the sky' the thought came from nowhere but Jade had just a hint of a smile. For now Sev returned his attention to the view in front of him just in time to see one of the most heart breaking things in his life.
Seaview, the city that Jade had long considered part of her home was a vibrant, beautiful town. The wide canal that cut through the center of the island it was built upon played host to a multitude of hover cars, small boats and hovercraft of all shapes and sizes. The pedestrian district was home to most of the city's population. A town within a town it was Jade's favorite place on Hillys, from the laidback atmosphere of the Akuda Bar, with its Spanish/Latino rap soundtrack to the simple 'welcome home' felling you got when you walked into Fountain Square with Nouri's kiosk, Ming-Tzu's Equipment dealership and the deep water of the fountain itself, the Pedestrian District was where one could spend hours, watching the hovercraft races on massive screens courtesy of General Kheck's Alpha Sections, or wander among the various shops and kiosks, owners displaying their latest goods and produce or wile away time at the Akuda Bar and try a game of Three Coconut Monty with Peepers. The rest of the city was just as amazing. Even the few factories, which assembled the non-organic needs of the Seaview population, hover cars, building metal, parts, were part of Seaview's 'town on an island charm' anything for your mechanical needs could be found in the Industrial District. Continuing further and one would find other residential areas. The old Alpha Section HQ and Warehouses now converted into a bustling spaceport that fed the city and its surrounding area with exotic or unobtainable supplies. It was truly a city where you could live your entire life and never grow tired of it, never lose that sense of wonder, never lose that insatiable desire just to keep exploring around the next corner.
Seaview was all these things, no longer. The dark night silhouetted the streams of anti-aircraft fire that lanced into the night sky, questing for a victim. Though it was hard to make out the smoke in the darkness that same darkness enhanced that source of the smoke, brilliant fires raged across the city, the result of urban warfare. It was all too much, Jade stared in shocked horror at the vista below the invisible ship, she looked down at Sev, for most people it was hard to tell what Sev was thinking below the cold exterior and front of grim determination that he put up.
Jade's horror lanced through Sev like a knife in his heart. Her suffering made it all the more worse. It was the same nightmare all over again.
I climbed out of the wreckage through a small hole I had made by pulling the debris away. As I wormed my way out into the dawn sky I could smell smoke. All around fires raged, pouring volumes of thick black smoke into the orange morning skies of Furia. As I looked around I saw a glow in the distance, the city burning furiously. I looked out across the courtyard where, hours before I stood beside my Father as we watched the night sky and I dreamt of my future as the ruler of a whole system. The courtyard was now unrecognizable, three large, green, teardrop shaped objects covered in strange lumps were half buried in the solid ground. I could tell that danger was nearby; I drew my sword from its nano-sheath. I approached the meteor; I had no other words to describe it, my foot crunched on something. I looked around; small green fragments of what must have been organic matter surrounded me. Alert now I edged around the meteor, my hair blowing in the breeze. My Father, he lay dead on the ground, his body lacerated with hundreds of slashes, in his hands laid a sword and data pad. I did not dare touch his sword, it was crafted for my Father and so must never leave his hand. But the data pad was on and had something written on it. I picked it up and accessed the last entry
For my son, I have a grave warning. Listen well, for if you do not, you will die. I accessed the file and read through it, my disbelief and horror growing with every word. I finished reading, dropped the data pad and crushed it under my boot, making sure to grind the data crystals into dust. I walked to the family's garage finding the bodies of house staff everywhere. I found the family's Mercadi Stilleto. An old ship christened Icarus, I gathered my belongings and dumped them in the captain's quarters. I activated the garage doors, walked back to the ship and flew it out of the ashes of my home.
I had always loved looking at Furia from space, and now I would do it one last time, but it was no longer the beautiful verdant planet it once was, greens and blues mixed with the lights of cities so large they could be seen from space, now the entire planet was blackened. The victim of a ruthless enemy's scorched Earth tactics, I maneuvered the graceful yacht out through the wreckage of space stations and factories, shipyards and blasted hulks, set up a hyperspace vector and left Furia, never to return. Os so I had thought then…
The ship put down on a small outcropping that no one would be able to reach, unless they had a hoverbike, like Sev's. The night was cold as Sev maneuvered the bike across the island, Jade clinging to his back. They pulled up on the outskirts of the city.
"Lets go. I don't know what we'll find but…We'll find your friends, I can feel it." Sev said as much to reassure himself as Jade.
"You do know we might die in there." Jade said.
"I've lived my whole life running, always knowing that one wrong step and I'd die, I'm used to that feeling by now. You just need to have a goal to reach and that goal will be what sees you through."
Jade thought about Sev's words. Then did something neither of them saw coming, she stepped closer to Sev, stretched up and kissed him. "I, I'm sorry I, didn't know what I was doing. I haven't been thinking straight and…"
It was a testament to Sev's level of control that he had managed to cover at least some of his surprise at jade's sudden move. 'Here we go…' Sev opened his mouth to say what he had been feeling for all this time when a patrol of twenty Alphas spotted them.
"Hey Stop!" The leader yelled, drawing his T-Hammer. Before anyone could react the Alphas had surrounded Sev and Jade. They drew their weapons, prepared to fight back-to-back, The Alphas closed in. The next thing Sev knew they had both had their retinas scanned, he knew they didn't have him on file, yet but they would defiantly have Jade on a file. This would mean more trouble ahead, predictably…
'Its her! Quick kill the other one and bring her in!" An Alpha with Lieutenant markings on his shoulder pads ordered.
"Sir yes sir!" The ring of soldiers chanted in unison.
"I don't think so" Sev stated, he wasn't remotely afraid of what the Alphas could do to him, he could take this lot on his own, but he was worried about Jade, Sev had no idea of how she would fare in a fight, he had a good idea that these Alphas would be little challenge for her. "You really don't want to come any closer" Sev told the Alphas. Something furry and soft gripped his hand, Jade, wearing a gyrodisk glove. Sev gave her hand a gentle squeeze while running a mental checklist of all the weapons he could hold in that hand 'Any one of my knives, 2430 Desert Eagle SE, grenade, then again maybe not' he felt the grip loosen. At the same time he could sense Jade placing both her hands o her dai-jo. 'Here we go again' Sev thought, he could sense Jade through the telepathic link. He stepped away from her, confident that he would know the moment she was in trouble and directed his first swing, the Alpha blocked it with his hammer, the impact shuddering up Sev's bones, he brought the sword around again faster than the eye could blink, slicing through the Alphas armour and dropping his enemy to the ground. Sev moved faster than the Alphas could react, dropping two within a few seconds. H ducked under a third's swing and brought his sword up through the soldier's armour, he impaled another an brought his sword down through the fifth's armour. He leapt up onto the ninth's chest plate and plunged his sword into the soldiers neck, then he launched himself off came over the other Alpha and sliced this one's breathing tank in half on the way down. He spun around to assist Jade. She was standing surrounded by a pile of dead Alphas and had apparently been watching him fight his Alphas using old-fashioned methods while she had taken down her adversaries with some unknown power.
It had finally happened; with such a release of emotions just a moment ago she knew it would come. 'dammit, why couldn't you control yourself? Why did you have to go and let your blind romantic imagination take over? Now it knows, now it'll try to catch you again! Stop acting like a lovesick school girl and start thinking about what you're going to do now you fool!' Jade managed to ignore the mental tongue lashing her more sensible side was giving her while Sev made a flashy show of spinning his sword on his hand so fast it was a blur. He finally returned the sword to its sheath, which melded itself around the weapon instantly.
"Hmm" looks like we'll need to head back to the ship, they'll know we're here now and I've got some gear that'll help us get past whatever the Alphas can throw at us. Oh, and we'll have to bring Fehn along, we can dump 'im at the Iris den."
"You sure it's a good idea to bring Fehn, he's just a kid and want to take him into a warzone!"
"I'll protect him, that's why we need my gear."
Half an hour later they were sneaking through the ruins of the city, making their way to the Akuda Bar. Sev had bulked up on ammunition and had changed his cream trousers for a pair of combats, he had also added a dark green cap to complete the effect, 'You look like an idiot, and she defiantly seems to think so' Sev glanced at Jade, who he could feel had been watching him the entire time though he had a strange suspicion that it wasn't because of his poor attempt at camouflage. 'Focus' he told himself sternly, he crept forward and leaned around the corner of the ruined storefront they had been creeping along, frag! A checkpoint, there was a durasteel wall that spanned the entire wall, it had a door in the center with a control room on one side, a semicircle parapet on each side with an Alpha manning a heavy machine gun, on top of the wall were two small towers, each one holding what Sev recognized to be an M-606 section automatic weapon, the Alphas in the towers were also cradling Malari M-20 .50 caliber sniper rifles. Sev silently drew his M-29 O.I.C.W from the nano-sheath and took aim at the first machine gunner, he depressed the trigger and a 25mm grenade shot out, it hit the Alpha, smearing him against the wall, Sev blew the other machine gunner clean over the wall before the Alphas could react. One of the snipers spotted him just in time to be flung from his perch by Sev's third grenade; the fourth grenade blew the other tower to shreds, launching its occupant sky high. Sev fired the last grenade at the door in the center of the wall, the explosion flung the remaining Alphas into the shops on either side of the street. To get through that door they would need something else. Sev, jade and Fehn ran to the wall, which was now blackened from the blast of Sev's grenade, Sev dropped the spent magazine to the ground, summoned a new magazine of 25mm grenade's from his S.A.C and loaded it into his gun, he drew the action back and savored the reassuring metallic click as he let the bolt slide back into place. "Jade how are you're hacking skills?"
"Not bad" Jade replied.
"Good, see what you can do about that door" Sev said. He looked up just in time to see a small camera dangling on a long, articulate arm. The camera had been watching them the whole time 'So much for stealth' Sev thought, he summoned his 2430 Desert Eagle SE (Special Edition) from his S.A.C, took aim at the camera and fired, the big, long barreled pistol let off a booming report and its heavy .357 caliber bullet blew the camera to tiny fragments. "They know were here, better get a move on" he told Jade and Fehn unnecessarily, both had seen the camera. 'camera…' the word jolted something in Sev's memory, he watched Jade trying to get the door open and the two came together 'Jade's camera! Its in my S.A.C I'll have to remember to give it to her at some point.' Sev stored the memo in the back of his mind while he tried to think of another way past the checkpoint.
"Got it!" Jade yelled triumphantly. Sev marched over to the booth and the big doors folded away.
"Nice" Sev commented in a way meant to sound offhand, but he was honestly impressed with Jade's speed. She gave him a sweet smile and walked through the gates. Now would be a good time, Sev decided. He caught up with Jade and summoned the camera out of his S.A.C "Hey Jade, look what I found in the Alpha's base on Atlas" He held up the camera. It got the reaction he expected.
"My camera!" Jade yelled, she rushed over ad grabbed it, examining her precious camera from every angle, she flicked it on and took a picture, realizing just how much she had missed that whir and click that her camera made. Pey'j had given this thing to her when she was just a little girl; he had said it was from her parents. From that day on the camera never left her side. As the only thing she hade to remind her of her parents, Jade always kept the camera close, these past few months were the only time when Jade had been separated from her camera and now she realized again just how much the precious little device meant to her. She stored it away in her S.A.C, making sure it was safely digitized. She looked up at Sev unable to think of anything to say, so she hugged him and then kissed him again. Though this time Sev seemed a bit more prepared he smiled at Jade's gesture of thanks
'Ha!' Sev thought 'Didn't manage to surprise me his time did you' but he was genuinely happy with the way Jade had chosen to show her appreciation for returning her camera. "We'd best be going. The Alphas know we're here now." With that Sev took the lead, quickly recovered from Jade's second move on him within ten minutes of landing on Hillys he drew his sword and walked forward twelve feet.
Jade watched Sev from where she was standing trying to work out what had come over her again, 'You've got to stop acting like that, this is a war and…' just then Jade noticed something glint in the window of a two story office across the road from where Sev was standing, something clicked in her mind 'Sniper!' Jade started to run towards Sev as a blue laser designator appeared, it traced its way along the ground towards Sev's feet "Sev look out!" Jade screamed. The beam traced its way across Sev's chest and came to a rest on his neck. Sev saw the beam, he moved to dodge nut it was to late. In those last few milliseconds Sev, realized what had been nagging at him this whole time 'Jade, I love you'.
The sniper had watched this man as he demolished his comrades. He knew immediately what this stranger was, a Furion, the last of the Furions. The last of an ancient race of warriors who's lineage had spanned many millions of years. Now he alone would be the one to finish of this thorn in his master's side, he would be praised and he would be rewarded in a way none of his comrades could ever hope for. Now was his chance. It took a mere eight seconds to line up the Furion as he stood, calmly watching the streets as arrogant and convinced of his own immortality as the rest. It took him mere milliseconds to finalize his aim on his target's neck. It took him only another millisecond to pull the trigger and send the fifteen-centimeter bullet tearing towards his target at hypersonic velocity, in that mere millisecond, the last of the Furions fell…sideways? The bullet should have sliced him in half!
Sev owed jade his life, her warning had given him that split second he needed to lean backwards just as the bullet streaked over his head, its massive slipstream pulling at his hair. When he came back up he had a massive Bowie knife's blade in his hand. He used the momentum to hurl the blade through the window.
The sniper saw the knife coming but unlike the Furion could not dodge it, there was nothing he could do as the blade spun towards him and buried itself between his eyes. At least it was a quick end.
Sev dusted his hands, frowning at the window were the sniper had taken up residence "Now I have to go it there and get my knife" he said in an offhand manner, though it sounded callous. It took hima minute to scale he side of the building and retrieve his knife from the sniper's body. He swung in through the window to check out the sniper's roost. It looked like the guy was well set up food, comms, couple of crates. A blocky gun caught Sev's eye, it was about similar length to most rifle but consisted purely of one long rectangular block, at one end the trigger and grip sat inside the stock and at was a pump action. In between hung a stubby magazine 'A frag gun! Excellent!' Sev walked over and picked up the 25th century shotgun and cradled it in his hands it was practically weightless. Though he was used to that now, nearly all guns since the 22nd century were made out of extremely strong carbon fibre plastic, Sev had used frag guns enough to know how they worked, it was like shotgun loaded with flechette shells, rather than pellets, a frag gun shell held densely packed shards of razor sharp metal that ripped a target to pieces, it was a simple, brutal weapon no bothering around with aim simply unload a frag gun shell on your target and they would be torn to shreds by dozens of razor sharp slivers of metal. Sev ripped the bolt out of the weapon; he had never liked frag guns anyway. He dropped back down to street level and walked over to where jade was standing and simply said, "Lets go…"
It took another hour to reach the resistance frontlines battling through the Alpha Section lines. Or rather it took another hour to reach the Hovercraft races. The trio stood on a mountain of wreckage near the far side of the collapsed dome that provided access to the dozen or so races held around Hillys. Sev checked out the local area. This lobby-esque structure was one enormous dome with a short tunnel that led to the main canal that ran through the heart of Seaview, to Sev it was obvious why the sounds of battle had intensified getting closer, this canal would allow either side access to the entire city, not to mention allowing easy access to the outside world. It would be a valuable bit of territory. For now however Sev contented himself with his current surroundings, the dome had three tunnels in a T-shaped arrangement; one led out to the main canal the other lead to various races. The rear wall had collapsed into the water, judging from the surrounding destruction a result of laser artillery. It was on the remnants of the wall that Sev and his companions were standing.
"How are we gonna get to the Iris home?" Fehn asked, looking out to where, in the distance, the docks of the pedestrian district could be seen faintly. He looked up at Jade, who was holding his hand, she could see the fear in the youngster's eyes.
"Its simple" Sev said in the closest thing to a reassuring voice his English tinged growl could manage. The next part however ruined any reassurance he had given "We swim."
"Are you crazy?" Jade snapped "Fehn can't swim that far. And we're not just gonna leave him behind!" she added.
"I never suggested that" Sev replied calmly. He wasn't willing to argue with Jade on account of how stubborn he knew she'd be. But just who would win they never knew, just as Jade opened her mouth to say something a hail of gunfire erupted around them. Sev took the opportunity to grab Jade by her jacket and throw her into the water, followed by Fehn.
Jade hit the water and went under, her momentum carried her about two meters before she came up spluttering and gasping for air, Fehn broke the surface near her. Up on the mountain of rubble she could see Sev with his sword drawn "Go! Go swim! Get out of here!" he roared. Without another word he vanished but Jade could hear the sounds of a fight breaking out, without another look back, she grabbed Fehn and began to swim to across the canal…
Sev drew the fight out to ten minutes, but that wasn't the end of his trouble, someone had called in air support. Just as he felled that last laser rifle armed Alpha a gunship came hovering up over a ruined apartment block. It was like an L on its side, a long nose that stretched straight down eight metres in a rough D with a large canopy in the center and a long tail with wide fins on it. Just behind the nose were two long fins that terminated in a pair of multi-exhausted ram scoop engines with enormous collection fins on the front. From the bottom of the nose a quad barreled cannon hung, Sev could also spot six gun ports on the nose, a machine gun on either side of the nose and eight missiles, four slung under the two wings. He ran for it and the gunship gave chase, firing as it came and tearing up the street around Sev like paper in a turbine with Sev at the center of the howling bullet storm. Sev dashed down a side street and managed to loose the gunship for a second or two, then he chase started again with Sev slowly loosing ground. He realized that he wasn't going to escape this gunship there was only one other option: bring it down. 'Great plan! Notice you haven't got anything that could SHOOT DOWN A GUNSHIP!' Sev admonished himself; he would just have to find another way to take out the aircraft. He ducked inside an apartment, hoping to get a moment to formulate a plan, all it earned him was the gunship crew switching to the chin gun. The nose-mounted guns were machine guns but the chin gun was a Hertz-Rutger AMC (Aircraft Mounted Cannon) 550. Sev recognized it by the distinctive sound it made as it chewed up his cover. He dived to the side and the cannon shells shredded the wall where he had been hiding mere milliseconds ago. He was forced to keep up a desperate dash to keep just ahead of the rolling destruction; Sev noticed that he was rapidly running out of room, up ahead was a very solid wall lined with windows he scooped up a charred chunk of durasteel girder and flung it at the window. The glass shattered and Sev leapt through it, flying well clear of the glass on the ground and tumbling into the street. The gunship hadn't noticed that he was no longer in the building "Ladies and gentlemen, I have left the building" Sev left the corny one-liner hanging in the air before vanishing into the darkness, the gunship crew unaware of his disappearance…
PEDESTRIAN DISTRICT-Akuda Bar
Sev dragged himself into the bar, soaking wet. He had been forced to swim from some part of the city near the hovercraft races across the main canal and into the Pedestrian District, underwater and under fire. Now he walked in and was greeted by a row of gun barrels "Safe and sound in its shell the precious pearl is the slave of the currents" Sev said tiredly and the guards lowered their weapons and stepped aside, allowing him to march up the stair and into the Iris Den leaving a trail of water behind him.
"Hey Sev! You gunna leave me to mop all this up!" Mo shouted from the bar.
Sev turned around, pushing his wet hair out of his face "Yeah, yeah I am Mo" He said. Sev turned and came face to face with the ever-present master of Three Coconut Monty, Peepers.
"Just through that room, go up to the locker and they'll let you in, the kid, Jade's been having kittens over you" Peepers informed him, he mimicked Jade "'where is he? he should be back by now' You should get in there and calm her down, she'll come out after you soon" Peepers grinned, nearly losing his long pipe, which was now issuing a faint whisp of smoke and a faint smell of Carosian tabacco.
"Right, thanks for the warning" Sev said, immensely glad that his, current sodden state prevented him from going too red, without another word he trapped into the room with Peepers' faint laughter fading away behind him. He stepped up to the locker, it jolted and began to rotate. It span a slow 180 and shuddered to a stop, Sev stepped off it into the Iris Den…