Foreword:
*sigh* So this week I started getting pain in my right hand and was told by a friend of mine who is quite knowledgeable in this area that I was inflamed from too much keyboarding and that if I don't take steps to keep it from getting worse, I could get carpal tunnel. O.O Apparently excessive/incorrect computer use (not limited to the keyboard, even) is known to cause permanent nerve damage, but there are tons of steps that frequent computer users can take to minimize their risk, like doing hand stretches between hour-long periods of typing, and using an external mouse whenever possible if you have a laptop. But I'm digressing. Basically, where I am right now, I have to be careful how much time I spend on the computer, which means limiting the amount of writing/corresponding that I do on a regular basis. Hopefully this won't equate to serious delay in updating this story, but I figured I should give my readers a heads-up just in case. Also, I strongly urge my fellow writers to look into ergonomics now before you start having problems! It'll save you a lot of grief in the future. T-T
Well, here it is, people— the beginning of the end. You'll see why in the next installment, but for now, I'll just treat you to some action and hopefully a bit of suspense. *gasp* This chapter actually has blood in it! DX Think I can still get away with a T rating? ^-^
"They have now surrounded us in their steps; they have set their eyes crouching down to the earth,"
— Psalm 17:11
« ... »
Alister drummed his fingers repeatedly against a control-free spot on the console in front of him, worrying at his lower lip. He couldn't explain why, but ever since he'd awakened that morning a sense of unease had gripped him. Even though there had been no alert for a while about potential dispatches, he was on edge. Even though nothing was happening, his battle instincts were going haywire. It was both confusing and disconcerting.
Maybe he'd just been working too hard. Thinking too much. It was true that his time in the military—with a few small exceptions—had been a long and nightmarish experience. Ever since Raiken's death, he'd seen nothing but more injustice and further bloodshed. Every month, it seemed, there was a new attack, another threat. Pirates raiding planets, Agorians attacking settlements... About the only thing he could think of that was even remotely encouraging was that the survivors of the Dakari sect (if any yet remained) had not been able to recover from their losses and return for a comeback. This was little comfort, however, as the future was always uncertain.
He had seen more action in his mere seven years of service than most soldiers saw in an entire lifetime—which accounted for the unheard of speed at which he'd climbed to the rank of Colonel. Sadly, he couldn't even feel joy in this accomplishment, because it was just another reminder of how bad things were. It reminded him of something Raiken had told him long ago: "It's always easier to climb the ranks in times of war... because positions open up faster when soldiers are getting killed in battle."
Alister looked around, reminding himself of where he was and trying to draw comfort from it. The Main Headquarters of the Lombax Praetorian Guard was an imposing place—one of the most well-defended military bases in the entire galaxy. As an impregnable fortress, it came second only to The Court of Azimuth, which was located on the same planet. He never did find out whether he was related to the Lombaxes who designed that place...
Having successfully misdirected his own thoughts, at least for a moment, he forced a smile and told himself that, whatever may happen everywhere else, at least Fastoon was safe. As long as there was one planet that couldn't be touched, there was hope for the future, and as long as there was hope, he could stand up under the weight of war and face the daily struggles of his victimized generation. It was a frail comfort, but it was all he could muster. Though he still couldn't shake the bizarre anxiousness that lingered in his chest.
He glanced at the time readout on a nearby console. It was getting late. Soon it would be time for him to return to his barracks and call it a night. He wondered if he would be able to sleep in his agitated state. With a sigh he pushed the call button on his communicator box and mumbled into it, "Kaden? You there?"
"Yeah, I'm here," Kaden replied. "What's up?"
"Have you left the Center yet?"
"I'm heading out now, actually. Why?"
Alister felt a bit ridiculous about what he was doing, but he was compelled by a force he didn't understand. Hesitantly he muttered, "Um... I think you and Nayeli should stay home tonight."
The line was quiet for a few seconds, then Kaden curiously said, "Um, okay... Any particular reason?"
"Not a good reason," Alister admitted. "I just have a bad feeling..."
He ended the conversation with a push of a button and set off down a deserted corridor, considering that he might stay late tonight, even if his shift was over.
A few minutes later he stopped outside a huge door and stood still while the computer ran a bio scan. A brief announcement that his clearance had been confirmed issued on the PA, the door slid open, and he stepped quietly inside the Central Control Room. The expansive space was circled by raritanium-enforced walls that were covered in a collage of consoles, status screens, and all manner of buttons and blinking lights. Alister himself didn't even know what some of them did. Many stations and consoles popped straight out of the floor as well, and virtually every one of them was manned by a Lombax of rank diligently tending to their current duty.
With a sigh, Alister turned to General Braxton, who was seated on the other side of the room studying an intelligence report. He'd never spoken of it to Alister, but Braxton had clearly held Captain Raiken in very high regard, and after Raiken's death, that regard had, in a strange way, been passed down to Alister. It was almost as though they had replaced Raiken for one another.
Almost.
Even though he had by now left his mentor's dying rank far behind, Alister never truly felt like he had surpassed him. And as much as he appreciated the favor shown him by Braxton, it could never approximate the camaraderie he'd had with the Lombax who taught him almost everything he knew. Who was so much like a father to him that he sometimes forgot they weren't actually related.
"General Braxton, sir," he said, stepping closer to the General's station, "I'd like permission to stay for the night watch."
Braxton looked up at him curiously. He must have thought it strange to hear such a request out of nowhere like that. Nonetheless, he muttered, "Granted. What's on your mind, Azimuth?"
Alister was about to begin the awkward task of explaining his odd intuition, when his fears were realized. A female officer at the surveillance station suddenly announced, "This must be a mistake... According to my sensor readings, a huge armada of ships just—appeared near orbit."
"What?" Braxton exclaimed, rising to his feet.
"I see them, too," said an officer at another station. "There was a sudden burst of energy at the moment they appeared. They might've been using some kind of cloaking device."
"A whole armada?" Braxton muttered in disbelief.
The tactical officer shouted out, "Our defense grid is shutting down! I'm reading power failures in sixteen systems!"
Alister couldn't believe what he was hearing... it seemed too nightmarish to be real. Even the General seemed to be having trouble processing it. An all-out attack on Fastoon was nigh unthinkable. It was the Lombax homeworld, and one of the most well-protected planets in the galaxy. Anyone who would even dream of assaulting it like this could only be one of two things: completely insane, or unbelievably powerful.
"Hostile ships are entering orbit! They're heading for the Capitol!"
"Sound the alert!" Braxton instructed. "Order all units to mobilize for combat immediately!"
The General continued to bark out orders, but they faded to silence in Alister's ears as he was already racing from the room to rally his troops for battle.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
An explosion that came out of nowhere knocked Kaden to the ground. With his instincts in high-gear, he leapt back to his feet and looked up to discover that it wasn't an explosion at all. The building next to him had been fired on by a ship. Then dozens of similar ships began swarming overhead, and together they rained plasma down on the ground below. Kaden activated his hoverboots and jetted forward as a spray of bullets peppered the trail behind him. It was like deja vu—the raid on Lumos all over again—and he gasped as that thought sparked a terrible realization.
Glancing up at the attacking ships, he noticed that a few of them were familiar in design. He'd seen similar ships in the raid seven years ago. They had belonged to the space pirates. Sure enough, while the smaller, unrecognizable ships continued their siege overhead, the pirate ships started to land one-by-one, and heavily-armored mercenaries began spilling out to terrorize civilians.
Kaden kicked his boots into overdrive and blasted forward, banking and swerving around every obstacle that presented itself—pirates, crumbling buildings, and panicked crowds of Lombaxes. He remembered what had almost happened the last time pirates had attacked his home, and the return of that threat struck a fear into his heart that no amount of shock could quell.
Within minutes he'd reached his home, and he burst inside, worriedly calling out, "Nayeli!"
He gasped and stopped dead in his tracks.
Half a dozen pirates were in his living room, all standing together in a group and staring in his direction like they'd been waiting for him. The one in the middle who was the largest and most fearsome of the lot smiled at him vindictively. He was grasping Nayeli around the waist, and holding a blade to her throat.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
Alister swept the battlefield with his eyes while his hands guided the controls of his ship. The sooner he got his troops down there fighting, the better, but there needed to be an element of strategy in where he chose to put them down. The first thing he noticed when he observed the enemy's attack pattern was that the invading forces were comprised of both space pirate ships and Dakari fighters. So some of those vermin had survived... While the Dakari forces kept to the skies and laid down continuous fire on key structures, like the C.A.L.R., the pirate ships were landing and emptying their crews who took to the streets in true raiding fashion.
The space pirates and Dakari teaming up for a joint strike on Fastoon. Alister couldn't imagine a worse scenario. But this wasn't the time for lamenting the graveness of the situation. Right now it simply had to be dealt with. It occurred to him that in order for a combined aerial strike and ground raid to be accomplished simultaneously, there must be some predesignated pattern in which the Dakari attacks were meant to be contained. Keeping that in mind would go a long way toward streamlining their defense. But he would trust the officers in charge of air defense to notice this for themselves. His responsibility was the command of his infantry.
He pinpointed the area in greatest need of ground support and pulled the ship in for a landing. His co-pilot, Lieutenant Darren, brusquely commented, "This is gonna be one for the history books, eh, Colonel?"
Alister didn't reply except for a muted sigh. He knew that the Lieutenant's crass, flippant manner was truly just a defense mechanism for dealing with the stress of battle. Unlike Alister, he lacked the ability to reign in his emotions, and the only method left him to keep from breaking down in despair was to pretend that the horrors he faced were no big deal. Alister still remembered the day news had come that Darren's brother had been killed in action. He remembered how, after a few seconds of staring in utter disbelief, the young officer had let out a quiet, awkward laugh, earning the confused ire of all soldiers present. Only Alister recognized the pain ironically embodied in that laugh.
The ship touched down, all the hatches opened, and dozens of battle-ready soldiers poured out onto the streets, led by Alister himself. As though sharing one mind, they followed him as he charged out into the fray with both ends of the his battle wrench sizzling with blue electricity. He swung furiously at the first enemy he met, and the pirate was blown backwards by the impact of the energy blast and trampled underfoot by the advancing tide of furious Lombaxes.
Per Alister's earlier instructions, the unit broke up into smaller groups and scattered throughout the streets. The sound of shrieking and gunfire instantly doubled as the Praetorian Guard engaged the enemy. Rundaks mixed in with the pirates offered savage resistance, moving faster than most of the soldiers could keep up. They scurried into sight from around building corners, rushed at their enemies on all fours, then leapt forward before the unsuspecting target could react. Alister saw several of his men go down in this manner. Rundaks could cut into an unprotected neck with their bare claws and be after their next victim almost before the blood spattered across the pavement.
Alister held out his wrench like a bar in front of him just as one of the vicious creatures attacked, and as its sharp claws clanged against the metal of his weapon, he drove his knee hard into its stomach. The thing squealed in pain, then silenced when Alister pulled his wrench loose and jabbed one electrified end into its body. Snapping his head to the left, he saw his lieutenant desperately struggling to hold back a robotic attack dog that had him pinned to the ground. With one deft swing he sent forth a fierce blast of energy that knocked the robot off his comrade and into the side of a nearby building, where it exploded. Darren jumped to his feet and quickly muttered, "Thanks!"
Alister nodded with a quick smile, and the two of them returned to the battle.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
Nayeli's eyes met with Kaden's. A mechanical gag was locked across her mouth, holding back all but the faintest squeaks of mortal fear. Her hands appeared to be tied behind her back, and her exposed neck was stretched taut as she shied back from the blade that pressed suddenly closer.
"No, wait!" Kaden cried, helplessly splaying out his hands. "Don't hurt her!"
"If ye want to save the lass, ye'll have to take her place," the pirate stated.
"What?"
Kaden was bewildered by this ultimatum. Why would they want him?
"Hard of hearin', are ye? I'm offering a trade: you for her. Refuse, and we'll cut her up like so much leviathan bait."
Nayeli suddenly looked twice as afraid as before. She set her eyes on Kaden and did her best to shake her head despite the sword set at her neck. Kaden swallowed hard. The choice would have been obvious if not for the dubious character of the person offering it.
"If I agree," he wondered aloud, "how do I know you'll let her go?"
"Doubt our trustworthiness, eh?" snapped a pirate who emerged from the back of the group with cruel swiftness. "Allow me to prove that we always keep our promises."
He grabbed Nayeli by the elbow as his own sword flashed out of its scabbard. Faster than Kaden could even react, he slashed across her arm. She winced in pain and blood began seeping from the new wound.
"No!" Kaden screamed, dashing forward on instinct.
"Stay back!" The monster bellowed, this time slicing into Nayeli's leg.
Kaden stopped cold, his eyes widening in horror. Nayeli drew in a sharp breath through her nose, but the gag on her mouth prevented her from screaming. Her legs gave out and she collapsed, but her captor held her upright and refused to let her sink to the ground. Kaden gazed at her face as it twisted in agony. His heart felt like it would explode.
"Stop! Please!" he begged. "Take me! Do whatever you want with me! Just let her go!"
Bleeding and in horrible pain, Nayeli still managed to raise her head to look her husband in the eyes, and she pleadingly shook her head from side to side.
The pirates smiled with accomplishment and one of them tossed something to Kaden. "Put these on," he instructed.
Kaden caught the object and saw that it was a pair of energy cuffs. The same kind the Lombax Praetorian Guard used. Where they'd gotten them, he didn't know, but he knew that once they were on, he wouldn't be able to get them off.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
Alister's ears rang from the deafening impact of a nearby explosion. He looked up, and gasped in horror as he suddenly found himself in the shadow of a tumbling building. He kick started his hoverboots and zoomed away, barely making it out of the impact zone before the whole structure came crashing to the ground. He couldn't stop himself from glancing over his shoulder to see the wreckage, shuddering at the thought of how many lives had just been lost. It was even worse to realize that the tragedy had been caused by an enemy fighter that crashed after being shot down by a Lombax ship. Even their own defense effort was causing casualties for them!
Alister grit his teeth in silent fury. All around him his home had erupted into a battlefield. Civilians raced about in a senseless panic while pirates terrorized the streets. Fires burned everywhere. More damage was being done by the second. As his sense of hearing returned to him, he was assaulted once more by the blood-chilling sounds of screaming—children screaming in fear, adults screaming in pain, soldiers screaming instructions so as to be heard over the din of battle.
He was jarred to his senses when a pirate twice his size came charging toward him, brandishing an electrified machete. Alister dodged backwards to avoid the first deadly swing, but in the process lost his footing and fell to the ground. The pirate was right on top of him, aiming to decapitate him with a swift downward thrust. On pure instinct Alister pulled up his battle wrench and braced it at an angle so that the assaulting weapon caught in the cleft of its exposed end. The opposing energies crackled all the louder as they collided. Alister yanked his wrench aside, and the pirate's blade flew from his grasp and clattered on the street several paces away. Within the same second he plunged his weapon into his enemy's chest, and watched as his whole body convulsed from electric shock. A moment later the pirate fell to the ground, the metal parts of his body still sparking in the aftermath of Alister's wrath.
The Lombax soldier immediately jumped to his feet. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lieutenant Darren and the rest of his group facing down an enormous a rogue pirate. He swallowed hard, remembering the one he and Raiken had fought in the Lumos raid. This one was even bigger, firing bombs from his arm cannon at double the rate. He raced to the aid of his subordinates, but a cold dread seized his heart as the next few seconds flashed before his eyes, for he saw that there was nothing he could do.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
Kaden looked to Nayeli, then to the pirate who seemed to be in charge, and weighed the situation in his head as carefully as he could in a few brief seconds. Indeed, he would willingly offer up his own life to save Nayeli, but he seriously doubted that these thugs had any intention of actually releasing her, and he wouldn't be doing her any favors by letting them both get captured. What could he do? There had to be some way around this.
He swallowed hard and said, "First let me treat her wounds."
The pirates eyed him threateningly, and he hastened to add, "You releasing her does me no good if she bleeds to death!"
Apparently the pirates, cruel as they were, saw the sense in this reasoning. They nodded to one another and the one holding Nayeli gruffly pushed the girl away from himself. Kaden dashed forward and caught her before she struck the ground, sinking to his knees while her frail, injured body fell limp in his arms. Almost at once, however, she found her strength and began to wriggle about, muttering worriedly behind her gag. Kaden hated to leave her bound up like that for another second, but realized that her injuries took priority.
"Hold still," he instructed, but Nayeli continued to struggle as he carefully lay her down on her back and stripped away some of the fabric from the edge of her skirt to tie around the cuts on her arm and leg. She winced as he pulled the knots taut, and ironically he was almost grateful for her pain as it kept her from moving too much. But now came the tricky part.
"Are you finished, then?" asked a pirate impatiently.
"I'm not gonna leave her tied up like this," Kaden insisted, hoping his enemies would rather humor him than go to the trouble of forcing him into those cuffs themselves. Thankfully, this proved to be the case, and the band of intruders grumbled amongst themselves without making a move.
Kaden wasted no time in carefully rolling Nayeli over on her good side so that he could deactivate the cuffs binding her hands. As expected, once free she immediately reached out to push him away. He caught her right hand in his left, paying no mind to her other hand which was weak from the cut arm. Still gripping her hand, he pressed down hard against her collarbone, pinning her to the floor, but he had to physically straddle her in order to hold her down.
Her head thrashed back and forth, and Kaden could tell she was fighting with all her might against the machine that kept her silent. Beneath his hand he could feel her chest heaving with effort as she struggled. She locked her eyes with his, tears pouring down her face—he almost lost his resolve and let her go. But as much as he hated having to force her into submission like this, he knew it was the only way to save her.
Steeling his nerves, he reached behind her head with his free hand and felt for the release mechanism on the back of the gag. He pinched hard once he found it, and the device fell loose from Nayeli's mouth.
"Ka—" she began to exclaim, but before she could get out a single word, he clapped his hand down hard over her mouth, gagging her all over again. For a moment she looked surprised, and a few sharp, irregular breaths puffed over Kaden's fingers. He stared down into her eyes, silently begging her to stop fighting him.
"Please, Nayeli..." he murmured. "I can't watch you die... I just can't!" He noticed that her left hand was no longer pulling against his grip, so he let go and reached slowly for his belt, still capping her mouth hard enough to immobilize her entire head. She gazed up at him with watery, terrified eyes. He could read in them every word she would have said to him had she been able.
Kaden gripped a small device on his belt, and leaned in even closer to his wife.
"I'm sorry," he whispered in her ear, and with lightning speed he pulled away from her and snapped a small machine onto the belt of her dress. Nayeli disappeared in a flash of light.
"Why you—!" thundered one of the pirates, and Kaden barely turned in time to see a giant metal arm swinging toward him. The hulking brute easily smacked him across the room, where he smashed into the wall hard enough to leave a large dent, and fell painfully to the floor.
His whole body throbbed as he pulled himself to his knees, but Kaden smiled. The fact that they were angered by his sneaky move was proof that they would not have kept their end of the deal, and he was glad that he had been able to force the issue... But if they thought that they could get away with having their cake and eating it too, perhaps he could dare to hope the same.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
"Look out!" Alister shouted, but it was too late. The rogue pirate fired a bomb from the canon on his arm, and it hit Lieutenant Darren dead on. He screamed and flew backwards, landing hard in a patch of broken concrete.
Alister rushed to his side and fearfully examined his injuries. Shrapnel from the explosion had cut right through his armor, and a deep laceration across his waist was bleeding heavily. Much of the fur on his face and limbs had been singed right off, serious burns left in its place. He coughed and groaned, trying in vain to get up. Alister realized with a heavy heart that he was beyond help. The battle was still raging all around. There was no time to dwell on the inevitable.
"I'm sorry," Alister murmured, looking down into his friend's eyes with great compassion. Gasping for breath, Darren met his eyes calmly… and managed a weak chuckle. Alister lifted up his wrench, setting the shock level to maximum, and forced himself not to close his eyes as he drove it down, aiming for the heart.
He swore under his breath that this would be the last time. The last time he would have to fight on his own home planet. The last time he would have to perform a mercy kill. He charged back into battle with a vengeance, crying out in desperate rage.
The following moments passed in a blur of movement, pain, and blood. Alister ignored the minor flesh wounds dealt to him in the course of his frenzied crusade. He fought with impassioned brutality, his mind and body utterly disconnected from all sense and reason, until a voice from his comm unit informed him that the invading forces had begun their retreat.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
Kaden heard angry footsteps clomping toward him, and a sword or two slashing at the air. Instead of looking up at the advancing pirates, he glanced over to his right and saw a large wrench lying on the floor. He crawled toward it, pretending to be hurt worse than he actually was. Already he could feel adrenaline surging into his veins, and now that Nayeli was safe, his earlier fear had been completely replaced by boldness. The pirates laughed at him, advancing slowly while he made a show of his helplessness. He was grateful for their arrogance, and the chance it afforded him to defend himself.
As soon as he was close enough he thrust out his hand, seized the tool by the handle, and leapt to his feet. He charged at the surprised intruders with feral animosity, coiling his weapon behind him. The closest pirate was still in shock when Kaden struck, swinging with all his strength. The cheap metal of his torso crumbled against the force of Kaden's wrench, and the subsequent blow to his head reduced him to a twitching pile of scrap metal on the floor. Immediately the furious Lombax turned to the rest of the intruders with double the fierceness he'd unleashed upon the first. Thrashing his wrench back and forth like a lunatic, he repeatedly bludgeoned his foes who were too slow from shock to react in time. Within minutes Kaden stood victorious, surrounded by smashed, disfigured robotic components strewn all about the floor. He breathed heavily, watching for any signs of movement amidst the debris. When he was satisfied that his work here was done, he made a run for the door, calling for Aphelion on his communicator. But from the sound of things outside, the attack was already over.
Author's Notes:
- Nayeli's Rescue— Don't worry, the next chapter will explain. ;)
- The Attack— Hopefully it all sounds plausible. ^^' I had a hard time figuring out how to contain the whole thing in one chapter without moving things ridiculously fast. As always, I plan to explain this a little better in future chapters. If you don't like the way it is now, perhaps it'll make a bit more sense to you soon.