Chapter 4

Riddick had an inkling he was being followed, though he didn't know who by. Maybe it was Necromongers, but he didn't know for sure. Whoever it was wasn't following him now, as there was no one on the roofs behind him. He or she may have been distracted by the fighting. There sure was a lot of that around tonight, he could hear it. There were ships flying around, both Necro and New Meccan, waging their own private battles in the air. He looked around. The streets were filled with soldiers in dark grey armour, all carrying guns. This city was in for a hard night.

He jumped down from the roof, trying to stay hidden. He could see that the firepower of these soldiers was immense; the defending soldiers didn't have a chance against such might. He was trying to think, what was it that that Aereon said they do? Convert and kill? No, kill or convert, that was it. 'Hell, these sure do love themselves,' he thought, 'if they want everyone to be them.' He chuckled lightly to himself, much to the disturbance of a couple trying to get to the shelter. He looked at them and smiled before moving off again into the dark alleys. A couple of Necromongers broke ranks and headed into buildings, some of which ventured too close to Riddick, who, of course, killed them easily. Everywhere he looked there was death and dying, pain among innocents as they pushed through the crowds, crushing others as they tried to escape the horror of the men in grey. People were getting trampled; people were punching others to get through. Some men thought that now was the right time to give in to their sexual urges and raped women in the streets, or made love to their wives and such like.

It was amazing what war could do to people. Normally placated and gentle people became savages and animals under the shadow of war, all the bloodshed and smoke and pain drove them mad just like it does to animals. He saw a bunch of Necromongers attacking a young woman, gathering round her, pushing her around like a toy, tearing at her clothes. Now, Riddick isn't the kind of man who gives a shit about that, but these bastards were blocking his way, besides the girl was cute. He ran forward, using the shadows to his advantage, and then sprung on them, slitting throats. The last one he spared the cold steel of his blade. Instead he broke his neck listening to the bloodcurdling crack and crunching of the bones.

The girl watched her saviour killing her attackers, a sadistic smile on his face as he did so. She saw the blood spurt from one of the throats. This was much too much for her and when the last of them was dispatched she ran, not a word or nod of thanks to the bald man.

'Well that's gratitude for ya,' he thought watching after the retreating figure of the girl, 'the golden rule of helping people; don't. You don't get thanked for it.'

"Well that's my good deed for the day." He said to no one in particular, then strode off in the opposite direction, leaving the crumpled bodies of the Necromongers behind him. He came to a main street and looked left to right. Everywhere you went there were these Necros there, crowding the place, annihilating the defenders with their more advanced technology. He thought he had better look for Imam and his family. he didn't want them to die.

He took up a fast pace again, running through more side streets and back alleys searching for Imam. Knowing him, he would have gone to the nearest shelter. So that's where Riddick thought of looking first. On the way he saw some strange looking creatures with pink masks and cords attached to the back of them leading some soldiers on who were holding the cords. What the Hell are they? Pets? Riddick smiled and kept on going. He met a few of the invaders, and one of those pet things. Easy work for him. He saw Imam about 20 feet away. He made his way to him, and put down a few Necros in his way.

He saw some of the defenders holding off the Necros. So the city could fight well after all. One of the Necros, presumably the captain, jammed a staff in the ground. He was the last to die, but before he did so, Riddick saw him twist something and pull it down, activating the staff, sending up a blue ball into the air.

"I must get to my family," Imam said.

"When it's over," replied Riddick.

"No, I must get to my family!"

"When it's over!" growled Riddick in reply.

As if on cue, the floating ball expanded, then plummeted to earth, sending a massive shockwave around, nearly destroying the pillar which the two men were standing behind.

"Bloody Hell!" Riddick said, intrigued at the power.

Necros hiding in the alleys marched out and passed the broken bodies of the defenders. 'This really isn't their night' thought Riddick. He went with Imam to his family then walked off again in the dark. He started fighting another couple of Necros, unaware that Imam has just done something foolish to save his family; an act which would claim his life.

Imam led the Necromongers away from his family, going anywhere to keep his family safe. He ran through streets and back alleys. The sound of running feet in good order was coming behind him. He knew they were following him, which was what he wanted, although he had no idea how he would lose them again. He veered left heading up a street, but soon corrected that mistake as he saw a group of Necromongers heading his way.

He turned right, heading straight down a back alley. He had no idea where he was going, just running and heading as far away from his family as possible. There were Necromongers to the left and right of him, all minding their own business, taking down soldiers and rounding up citizens. Luckily there was no one on his way to encumber him on his retreat. But he soon regretted taking that turning when he came to a dead end in the shape of a dropped portcullis. He frantically looked around, looking for somewhere to go and his eyes settled on a ladder. He had no hope of going back as the sound of running feet was getting closer behind him. He saw no other option but to climb up the ladder.

He ran across the rooftop and hid behind a large vent. He watched down on the ground and saw the company of Necromongers approach. The leader; a large brute of a man with two poleaxe like weapons looked around. He then turned towards the ladder and threw one of his weapons into the wall. He masterfully climbed the ladder then looked around the roof.

Imam saw the large brute heading towards his hiding place. He knew he was going to be found, and most likely killed, so why not go down with honour. He stepped out of the hiding place and walked towards the captain.

"I have no trouble with dying, as I know where my soul will be going." He said as he closed the gap between himself and the captain, "Do you know where you will be going?"

At that he grabbed the large tooth on his necklace and thrust it towards the captain, who beat him to it and slammed the spike of his weapon into his chest. Imam stumbled clutching his wound. He made one final effort, but was again knocked back by the captain, sending him over the edge of the roof and plummeted to the floor.

Riddick got to the roof too late and saw blood spattered all over the top. At first he hoped that it wasn't Imam and that it was just some other person's blood. Then all his hope was dashed when he saw the body that was on the floor. An inconsolable rage welled up inside of him and he saw the person he suspected was responsible. A captain was leading his troops away from the scene. Riddick made a silent oath to avenge his friend's death.

He woke up. His head hurt as if he had been thrown into a wall. Oh wait, he had been. The last thing he remembered was seeing that torch-eyed man slicing his way through the ranks of his soldiers heading towards him. He tried to look round, but his vision was still blurred. He had no idea of how long he was unconscious for nor where he was since he couldn't make out anything. He may have been moved. His vision was slowly coming back to him, second by second he could see clearer, and the grey mist lifted from his eyes. He was suddenly aware of someone standing over him. He tried to sit up, but his body hurt terribly, especially his back. He guessed he had broken his ribs. He could hardly breathe because of the pain.

"Where am I?" He muttered through gritted teeth.

"The same place you were 10 minutes ago." A hard voice replied.

"Who are you?" the wounded captain asked after a minutes pause. He tried to make himself sound more formal, but only succeeded in sounding more in pain. There was no answer, but he could feel a pair of cold eyes glaring at him. His vision had more or less returned now. As he looked up he could see a cloaked figure standing over him. But more prominent was the pair of angry eyes that were literally shining. He was about to speak again when a tense feeling came over his throat, as if his trachea was being squeezed by some unseen force. In fact that was exactly what was happening.

He was lifted off his feet in front of the cloaked man. Though said man's arms were by his side.

"What do you want?" The captain asked, struggling for breath as well as the pain in his abdomen. "Who are you?"

"I wish to speak to your Lord Marshal. Tell him Voldan is here." The man named Voldan took something from his pocket and slipped it in between the captain's pauldron and breastplate. It was a thin piece of diamond shaped, lightning blue metal, and as far as the captain could see from here, had a lightning bolt in it. He wasn't given chance to say anything about it as he was thrown about 20 feet to the right, narrowly missing another wall.

The captain struggled to get up after that but he did, as he didn't want to look weak under the other man's pitiless gaze. He looked behind him and saw to both his relief and alarm that the other obvious soldier had disappeared. Was it a dream? He felt for the piece of metal that he'd given him, and he found that it was there. Also he could see his soldiers lying on the floor. How can one man do so much damage and take on so many highly trained soldiers and come out victorious? He daren't think about it. He pulled out the piece of steel from in between the plates. He saw that in fact it wasn't steel, but a smooth piece of metal that felt like silk to the touch. It was lightning blue in colour but from a distance looked like silver. In the centre of it was a lightning bolt over a laurel wreath which surrounded a sceptre with a circular head.

The captain had no idea what it was, but he did know that the Lord Marshal would be extremely angry about going back a failure, he probably wouldn't give him chance to explain himself, and he would probably just kill him on the spot. He had half the mind to throw this piece of metal away. It would probably bring nothing but trouble anyway. This Voldan bloke obviously didn't just want to chat with the Lord Marshal, if he wanted to do that, he wouldn't have attacked his troops and besides he looked too angry. He was just about to toss the thing when another fear came over him. If he threw it away, then the torch-eyed man might come back and kill him for sure, but he looked like a man who made his enemies suffer, whereas the Lord Marshal killed people who opposed him relatively swiftly.

He walked in the direction of his Lord's ship, it was still dark but with the pace he was going he guessed he wouldn't be there until the morning, and he was travelling at an agonisingly slow pace, his ribs radiated pain. But he was expecting to be hurting even more than this when he arrived before the Lord Marshal.

Voldan watched the captain of the Necro troops limp off. He knew he was contemplating throwing the metal plate away, but if he did he would have pounced on him and made him regret it. That plate was extremely precious to him, and it was something to remind the Lord Marshal of. He was glad when the captain put it away, and he turned and stalked off the roof. It was still night and there were more Necro heads to smash, besides, he needed to relocate Riddick.

He was aware that his eyes had dimmed to their usual colour of blue, the light had faded, as they only shone when he was angry. But he didn't mind, there was no one around to freak out or scare and they didn't help him see in the dark anyway. He jumped off the roof landing quietly and jogged off down a street.

There were no Necros down this street, he could hear them down another street which ran parallel to this one – the sound of fighting gave them away – but hadn't actually came into this street. He was actually glad of it, he liked to avoid getting angry if he could, but he knew it was unavoidable, especially with him as his anger was like a damaged bomb; it could go off at any given time, and with the slightest knock. He was hoping that he could get out of the street before any Necros came near him. But he hoped in vain. As he was exiting the street, he saw a company of them approaching. In fact, the force looked to be bigger than a company, more like a battalion of soldiers. He knew he was a good soldier, but even he would be out of his depth if he tried to take on, at the least, 500 soldiers at once. He tried to run in the opposite direction, but he found his way was blocked by a ship unloading another battalion of soldiers. There were tall buildings in front of him, he didn't want to go back and the enemy were either side of him, and by now the previous soldiers had noticed his presence and shouted a warning at him while speeding up to surround and arrest him. 'Shit' he thought. looking around he stood in a defensive position; in a wide low stance, his swordstaff across his body ready to slash at the first one who came close. He was looking for an escape route, as a soldier it was drilled into him, especially when pitted against overwhelming odds.

Just as he was about to slash at the lead Necromonger who was coming too close in his eagerness to arrest the man, who's eyes were again shining, an escape route presented it self in the form of a low flying ship that was, he estimated, about 5 metres off the ground and flying towards an empty patch to unload its troops. Voldan ran towards it, leaving the Necros behind screaming at him to halt. Some started firing at him but too late; he jumped, using his momentum. It was one of his abilities, to jump far and high, he could jump three times the length and height of the average man. He was putting those abilities to good use and landed on top of the spacecraft then jumped from there to the top of a tall building.

He looked back at the Necros, his eyes had once again dimmed but they could still see him looking at them. He gave a mocking salute to them then ran off, while they were flabbergasted at the feat they had just witnessed. They didn't know of anyone, other than their Lord Marshal, who could do that, in fact they didn't actually know whether their commander-in-chief could do that. Voldan relished in being able to do that to people. But he knew that doing things like that provoked questions, and he hated being asked questions.

He jumped off the top of the building and landed in amongst a group of New Meccan soldiers who jumped in fright at the sudden landing of a man, especially from that height. He was aware of their shock too and hid a smile, nodded a greeting and walked through the gap the shocked soldiers had made. They were only young, hardly out of childhood and definitely not ready for a war on this scale, but there was nothing he could do about that now. He needed to find Riddick, while killing as many of those bastards as he could on the way. If he could give some people a little bit of hope in the form of someone not afraid of the Necromongers then he would.

He saw a bunch Necromongers searching the streets, looking for soldiers. 'Well you've found one' he thought to himself. He then ran and attacked them quickly dispatching the soldiers. He forgot about the strange creature during his fight with the others, there were only five, but he soon remembered it and fired a blast of lightning at it killing it instantly and propelling it into the wall.

He kept moving and soon came to a dropped portcullis. He looked around; there was no one in sight, apart from one person who was lying dead on the floor. One of the only civilian casualties he had seen. He knelt next to him. there was something familiar about this man, as if he had seen him somewhere before, then he suddenly remembered; he was one of the people he saw with Riddick back at that house. Voldan grimaced, he looked around looking for a sign of Riddick, but there was nothing. He suddenly felt tired and felt as though he couldn't keep his eyes open. There was nothing else he could do this night; one man couldn't take on the might of the Necromongers. He just hoped that the precious Lord Marshal of theirs got the message. But for now, he found a dark place hidden behind some rubble and fell asleep.