Chapter 4

Kale's mind was engulfed with memories and experiences that were not his own. He could see a planet with no stars around it and yet it glowed with a green hue. On it, hundreds if not thousands of individuals, all of different races, wore similar uniforms of green and black. They all held their fists in the air, with each of them brandishing an emerald ring. The rings blazed with green light as everyone held them to the air, chanting together. The words were strange at first, but soon they were translated in his mind. With each word, the oath reverberated his very being, sending chills down his spine.

The image of the assembly then began to fade into another, one depicting war and violence. The same individuals now wielded their rings, using them to create weapons and tools to fight against hideous creatures that looked like dark reflections of themselves. Overhead, massive machines hovered in the sky releasing energy beams down onto the battlefield. The uniformed army fought against the monsters with all their might before the vision began to blur once more.

Back on the green planet, Kale now saw it ravished by the monsters. The uniformed army was gone as the hovering colossuses devastated everything around them. Kale could see a small blue alien, wounded and broken, huddling against a cracked wall. In its hand it held one of the green rings and was speaking to it as the creatures attempted to break into the room. Exhaling its last breath, the tiny ring streaked into the sky, avoiding the giant machines and disappeared into the starless void.

Kale snapped back to reality, breathing hard as he looked around. He saw that he was still in the dark hole he had fallen into and took some comfort in that. He wondered if everything he had just seen was a hallucination, until the green metal on his finger caught his eye. The turian made a fist as he examined the ring, which now emitted a faint glow. The ring seemed to fit perfectly on his finger as he looked at it closer.

It was smooth on the sides and bottom and had a round top with the symbol he had seen in the visions imprinted on it. Kale remembered the blue alien calling itself a Guardian and referring to 'The Corps'. In his mind, the words translated 'Beacon' and when he spoke the oath aloud he had said 'Green Lantern'. That was how the ancient language deciphered in his head and in some way that sounded better to him. The ring now let off more light, illuminating the rocky hole further.

In the light, he looked down at himself and saw that he was no longer wearing his pilot outfit. Instead it had been replaced by a uniform identical to the ones the Corps members wore in his vision. Kale looked himself up and down, impressed by how nice the suit felt. He also noticed the same lantern symbol was embossed on his chest and shined in the same manner as the ring.

"Okay, let's see if I can get out of here" Kale said to himself as he remembered his predicament, looking up through the hole and into the dark skyline. He approached the rocky wall and immediately noticed his leg no longer hurt. He reached down and patted down his leg and felt no pain. Amazed he glanced back to the ring with confusion, thinking of all the possibilities ahead of him.

He once again stepped towards the rock in front of him and placed one of his white gloved hands on a stone above him. Kale strained as he lifted himself up when he realized that he suddenly became much lighter. He looked down and became wide eyed seeing that his feet were no longer on the rocky surface, but suspended below him. With his hands still on the rock wall, he lifted himself further as though he was in a zero-G environment.

Letting go of the wall, he floated upwards until he was clear of the edges of the hole. Free from anything to hold on to, he flailed his arms to get himself over solid ground. Breathing hard, trying to understand what was happening, he still hovered several feet off the ground with a green aura surrounding him.

"Okay, down" Kale commanded, speaking directly to the ring as nothing happened, "land, descend, fall?" Kale sighed as he hung in the air, wishing to get to the ground and get his bearings when unexpectedly he felt the tug of gravity in his gut and fell to his feet. Surprised, he then looked down at the ring again and saw that it now displayed a miniature compass over top of it. It looked just like one his father had given him when he was young, after one of his aerial missions, except it seemed to be made of green glowing light.

He gazed into the copy of the old compass and could hear his father telling him "So you never lose your bearings" as he presented it. Kale then looked away, trying to make sense of what was happening. When he wanted to get out of the hole, he floated out; when he wanted to get his bearings, his old compass appeared.

"Everything I think, is happening" Kale realized as he once again looked at the small jewel on his finger. Kale suddenly heard a thunder above him and as he looked up he held his ringed hand over his eyes. A flash of white light crashed down towards him and in that instant, all he could think was, "Shit."

The mass cannon projectile pummeled the ground and shook the already desolate wetland. The blast sent debris in all directions and kicked up more of the rocky foundation as the dust began to settle. As rocks and dirt fell back to the ground, some bounced off a semi-transparent emerald dome that protruded from the surface.

Eyes still shut; Kale was crouched against the ground and as it got quieter, he slowly opened his eyes and saw the shield around him. Confirming what he already thought, he steadily stood up and looked around him as the dome started to fade. Everything around him was devastated and smoldering from the blast. He could see additional blasts in the distance reign down from orbit.

Instinctively as the shockwaves washed over him a green aura formed over his body once more, protecting Kale from the intense force. He squint his eyes as he peered through the debris and could barely see the compound he was being held in. It looked relatively undamaged from the mass cannon blasts, probably due to it being built mostly underground and it having protective shielding. He thought there may still be captives inside and now that he was healed of his injuries and protected by the ring, he could go back and get anyone else imprisoned there to freedom.

Kale thought he would put the ring to test as he imagined flying again and reacting to his desire, still encased in a green aura, he began to levitate off the ground. Calming his breathing, he then focused on the faraway compound and thought of a force propelling him towards it. He began to float through the air in the direction of the compound as he leveled himself out, parallel to the ground. A natural born pilot, Kale always wanted to go faster and so he began to pick up speed as a smile formed across his face.

Soon he was kicking up his own wake on the ground as he left behind a green streak through the air. No stranger to the dynamics of flying, he slowed his descent and leveled back out so his feet now hovered over the ground. "Flying is going to be so much more fun"

Landing with a thud, he realized that whatever shielding the compound had was now gone as he slowly crept up to the wall he had escaped out of earlier. As he entered, he realized he did not have much of a plan, other than he now had the means to help other soldiers captured in the facility. He quietly entered the cell and saw that due to the damage of the compound, the door now hung open on the other side. As he neared the door, he wished he had a way to determine how many people were still inside, both enemies and other prisoners.

"Scanning surrounding area"

The toneless voice startled Kale as he pressed himself against a wall, hoping his position wasn't given away. He looked down to the ring and saw it pulsing.

"Found: Four identified Separatists and three imprisoned soldiers of the Taetrian military"

"Thanks" Kale said louder than he wanted to, being surprised.

"What was that?"

Kale heard the guard call out from around the corner. He kept his fist raised as he began to think what he was going to do. Desperate, he looked at the ring again and wondered if he could create a weapon like when he had the compass appear over the ring. Hearing the footsteps draw closer, Kale closed his eyes and concentrated on a weapon in his hands.

Keeping it simple, Kale opened his eyes as he felt a baton form in his hands. Impressed with himself, he then readied the blunt, green weapon and as the enemy turian rounded the corner he received a strong blow to the face. The turian fell instantly as Kale jumped from his position and prepared for another attack.

From the other side of the hall another guard took notice of his fallen comrade and drew his own baton, which sparked with electricity. The guard began in a sprint towards Kale with his shock baton raised as Kale glanced at his own weapon, feeling more confident in his new abilities. As the guard neared him, Kale's baton morphed from a sleek blunt weapon into an elegant turian mexta, a type of sword preferred by military officials.

The guard had a perplexed look on his face seeing the new weapon form in Kale's hands, but continued his attack as he swiped his baton down upon Kale. Sword trained as a teenager, Kale effortlessly blocked the attack and quickly countered, cutting the guards leg open. Wounded, the guard dropped to his knee as he looked up to see Kale's sword had disappeared and instead he now wielded a pair of armor-plated knucklebusters on each hand. Smiling, Kale brought down a reinforced, emerald fist into the guards face, knocking him out cold.

Satisfied, Kale let the classic weapons on his fists disappear as he looked at the ring once more, "This is incredible" he thought, only just realizing the full potential of the ring. Refocusing on what he was doing, Kale continued down the corridor and saw a stairwell to a lower area. Shaking his head on a whim, he thought he'd ask the ring if the others are down on the lower level.

"Are the other prisoners down stairs?" Kale asked, feeling silly talking to a piece of jewelry.

"Affirmative"

Listening closer now, Kale swore the voice sounded like his own, only with no tone to it. Curious, he made a note to fully explore the full capabilities of the ring later, but now focused on rescuing his allies. He made his way down the stairs which went underground and came to another corridor. Before he could start down the passage, a turian quickly stepped out of a close doorway and saw Kale in his bright green suit and jumped.

Even though Kale was several feet from the startled Separatist, he instinctively punched the air in front of him which caused an oversized replica of his fist to fly through the air and collide with the turian's head. The green hand then faded away as Kale walked up to the unconscious guard and continued down the corridor. He could see two barred cells and figured that's where the other soldiers were.

Kale guessed that the other Separatist the ring had identified earlier had fled as he felt another cannon blast shake the foundation. He jogged up to the two doors, which had a control console on the wall between them. He could hear the turians inside the cells as he examined the console and finally jammed his ring against the main panel, concentrating on releasing the captives.

As if obeying, the ring began to spark jade bolts as it interacted with the console. Code flashed across the main screen as both of the door locks disengaged. From the open doors, one turian stepped out of one of the cells, while two stepped out from the other. All three of them looked at Kale with confusion on their faces.

"Who are you supposed to be?" finally asked one of them, breaking the silence.

"I'm not sure yet" Kale shrugged as he looked behind himself to see if there were any more guards coming. None came, so he motioned for the freed captives to follow him back to the surface level and find a way out. As they came up to the main level, the ground shook once more as other mass cannon shots detonated near to the compound.

"How are we gonna get out here with the Offensive going on?" asked one of the soldiers. Kale looked back at him and saw from his uniform that he too was a pilot that must have got shot down.

"Well," Kale started as they made it to an opening in the compound wall, "we're going to fly out."

The three soldiers looked around, looking for the transport, "You have an extraction on the way?"

"No. Huddle up guys" Kale said as the three of them begrudgingly did as they were told and stepped closer to each other. Focusing his will, he pictured an orb forming around the three soldiers and pointed his ring at the trio as green energy formed around them. They were bewildered by the construct as it levitated off the ground and Kale hovered beside it with a tether, connecting them. Looking upwards, he held his ring out in front of him as he and the orb carrying the soldiers slowly rose into the sky.

Kale could see a glow forming in orbit over him, a dreadnought cruiser preparing another cannon strike. "Hang onto something guys!" he yelled as he turned sharply in the air, snapping the bound orb in his direction.

"To what?!" shouted back one of the senior soldiers, rattling in the orb.

"Oh, right" Kale thought as he swirled through the air. He climbed further into the smoke filled sky, as the soldiers were relieved to see safety belts expel from the orb's interior and wrap around them, securing them in place.

Kale soon saw the orbital dreadnought powering down its main weapon and he sighed in relief when further above him he could see a formation of fighters heading for him. He was ready to send a comm frequency to the fighters, but when they were within range the fighters opened fire, sending projectiles reigning down upon him and the soldiers.

"Damn"