SPACE STATION TERRA NOVA
Two on the left, one on the right, and… four above and slightly behind. None of them very close.
Akasha motioned for Ivan to follow her through the narrow alleyway. They were somewhere deep in the heart of the city—a city devoid of habitation. Although the massive space station was nearly complete, it had not yet begun accepting residents. As a result, the only living beings on board were a handful of ARKS soldiers… and thousands upon thousands of Darkers.
Akasha could feel them thanks to her newfound ability. It was a strange sensation, this psychic link, a cold tingling that tugged at both her body and mind. She prayed it was a one-way connection. Otherwise, this trip was about to end very badly.
She also quietly wondered about its implications. Was her ability, as Aki02 had suggested, proof that she was now part Darker? Was she secretly under the influence of a malevolent overlord, a Dark Falz, little more than a puppet on strings? No, she convinced herself. That couldn’t be true. Dr. Mallory’s tests had all come back negative. No Darker infections, no trace of negative photons. And yet the mystery remained. Why was she able to sense Darkers before she could see them? Why had Shankar given her this power? It weighed on her mind constantly, a bottomless well of self-doubt amid a sea of uncertainty.
As if giving voice to her fears, a ghastly roar rose up from somewhere beyond her line of sight. It was a terrible, bone-chilling bellow, loud enough to rattle nearby windows and shake the buildings in their foundations.
Typhon. Only that oversized behemoth could be responsible. It was out there, somewhere, probably already battling the ARKS forces.
From behind Akasha, Ivan remarked, “Hard to believe that thing is your brother. Or
was, anyway. I don’t know what the hell it is now.”
Back at the ARKS Command tower, they’d all watched the recording of the gargantuan beast named Typhon as it stomped through this very city. General Valias said he had video proof of Shankar standing in the same spot only minutes earlier. The evidence was compelling—maybe even damning—but somewhere within Akasha lay a sliver of doubt. She could
feel the Darkers now, and while Typhon certainly felt familiar, it was also somehow different. Like it was Shankar and yet wasn’t at the same time. Then again, it was very possible that the creature known as Typhon had already devoured the last traces of Shankar. If that were true, her brother really was gone forever.
At the end of the alley, Akasha and Ivan found themselves at the edge of a large intersection. There was no traffic around, obviously, but also no cover. If they wanted to reach the other side, they were going to have to sneak across without being seen by the multitude of Darker patrols roaming the city. Luckily, Akasha happened to have built-in Darker radar. She waited until she couldn’t sense any enemies nearby, then made a break for it. Ivan followed close behind her.
They should have made it safely across. Should have, but didn’t. Halfway across the street, they were ambushed by a veritable army of Darkers. The creatures seemed to materialize out of nowhere, almost as though they had been lying in wait. Akasha’s sixth sense didn’t register until they were nearly surrounded. Dozens of spider-like Dagans, El Dagans, even a few Dagan Neros glared at them with menacing red eyes.
“Not good,” hissed Ivan. He and Akasha stood back to back, their hands slowly inching toward their weapons. There didn’t seem to be any way out except through brute force.
The Darkers didn’t rush at them as expected, however. They seemed to be biding their time, advancing slowly closer, tightening the circle around the pair like an executioner’s noose.
Akasha decided she wasn’t going to let them get the jump on her. She always believed that the best defense is a good offense. If she was going down, she’d do it with daggers swinging and a cry of determination on her lips.
So she acted. She leapt at the closest Dagan and dismembered it before the creature had a chance to react. Behind her, she could hear Ivan springing into action as well. His card-like talis crackled with Razonde lightning. Flinging it into the crowd of enemies, Ivan unleashed a storm of electrical energy that fried several Darkers at once.
Akasha, meanwhile, was a blur of motion, racing through the street at top speed, hacking and slashing whenever possible. She used wind energy to propel herself forward, enhancing her natural abilities to stay one step ahead of her opponents.
The odds were against them. As hard as they were trying, there were simply too many Darkers to fight off. For every Dagan slain, another two seemed to appear in its place. It was only a matter of time before Akasha made a mistake. When that happened, she would be slaughtered in an instant.
But just as things looked their most grim, a stray thought caught Akasha’s attention:
This is too easy. It was rather ironic, given the sheer number of enemies arrayed against her. The situation should’ve felt hopeless. Overwhelming. Instead, Akasha had barely broken a sweat. Had her skills magically increased over the past few minutes? Not likely. Rather, it seemed the Darkers themselves lacked their usual aggressive tendencies. Almost like—
Akasha froze in her tracks as the revelation hit her. “Ivan,” she called out mildly.
He turned to regard her… and watched in horror as she lowered her daggers to her sides. The horde of Dagans surrounding her closed in for the kill.
“Akasha! What are you doing?!” he shouted, his tone bordering on panic.
The girl was completely calm, serene in the face of imminent death. “Ivan,” she repeated, “put your cards away.”
“Are you crazy?! They’re going to murder us!”
Akasha shook her head. “It’ll be okay. Trust me.”
There was something in her voice, her face, that convinced him. Reluctantly, he returned his dwindling supply of talises to his jacket pocket.
To his great surprise, the army of Darkers did
not attack them. There was no bloody massacre in the street. The spidery creatures stared them down, studying them, appraising them. Apparently satisfied, the crowd began to disperse. Eventually only a single pair of Dagans was left. One of them made a chittering noise at Akasha, then both Darkers turned and headed for the nearby entrance to an underground subrail station.
“I think they want me to follow them,” said Akasha.
Ivan was incredulous. “And you’re actually considering it?!”
“I can’t really explain it, but… this is something I have to do. I think maybe it’s the reason I came here, to
Terra Nova.”
“In that case, I’m coming with you! No way in hell am I letting you walk into the lion’s den by yourself. That would be…”
“Crazy?”
“I was going to say dangerous.”
She smiled at him warmly. “You’re a sweetheart, but I have to go it alone from here. Don’t ask how I know that, either. I just do.”
“Then what do you expect me to do?”
“Wait for me,” Akasha replied. “And promise me that no matter what, you won’t follow me down there. Please, Ivan. I need to do this. I have to.”
She could tell he was struggling with her request. His desire to protect his friends ran deep. But, in the end, he grudgingly nodded his consent.
Akasha took one last look at Ivan, then followed the Darkers into the foreboding depths below.
* * * * * * * * *
The subrail station had never been occupied. In fact, it was brand new. Construction of the underground station had been completed less than three months earlier. Still, with its dim (and in some cases nonexistent) lighting, not to mention her present company, Akasha couldn’t help but feel a bit unsettled. It was like walking into a tomb, a long-abandoned place that people told ghost stories about. Every new shadow seemed to conceal sinister intentions. Around every corner lurked unimaginable terrors. But that, of course, was all in her mind.
The pair of Dagans skittered across the polished tile floor in front of her, leading her deeper into the abyss. They walked at a steady, casual pace, apparently in no hurry to reach their destination—wherever that may be. Akasha started to wonder if she made the right choice leaving Ivan behind. She could’ve really used his company then, and the Dagans weren’t much for conversation.
When she could take the tedium no longer, Akasha decided to speak up. “So… you guys, uh, come this way often? Know any good places to eat around here?”
The creatures paid her no mind. She had no idea whether they even understood her language. If they did, they certainly didn’t speak it. She let the question drop and continued the rest of the way in silence.
They trekked down a non-functioning escalator—essentially, stairs—past an electronic ticket reader, and through a series of bland hallways. Another frozen escalator later, they arrived at the main platform. When
Terra Nova eventually opened to the public, this is where dozens of subrail trains would transport thousands of passengers every day. For the time being, however, it was just as dark and quiet as the rest of the station.
Belatedly, Akasha realized that her two escorts had disappeared. She looked to the left, then to the right, but the Dagans were nowhere to be found. It was as though they had melted away into the darkness itself. In any case, Akasha suddenly found herself very, very alone.
She wandered the platform in search of something, anything, though she didn’t know what. As she approached the far wall, her eyes locked onto a faint shaft of light. The light was directed downwards from the ceiling, illuminating something lying on the ground there.
No, not something. Some
one. Akasha’s eyes went wide when she realized the identity of the reclining figure. It was her brother. It was Shankar.
The Newman lay on his back, his upper body propped up by a support column. He was wearing the form-fitting suit of armor Akasha had last seen him in on
Orpheus, one week earlier. The rest of his appearance, however, was dramatically different. Her brother no longer possessed the small pair of horns on his forehead, the glowing red eyes, or the armor-sheathed forearms indicative of his Darker fusion. In fact, though it was hard to tell from her current viewing angle, Akasha didn’t see the Master Core on him at all.
And that wasn’t all. Shankar’s rich, copper-colored skin had grown deathly pale, with a network of dark blue veins radiating across his face. The hard gleam in his eyes had all but disappeared. Akasha had no clue what caused the severe changes, but she knew at once what they meant: Shankar was dying.
After a long moment, the big man seemed to notice her for the first time, raising his head slightly to regard her. “You came,” he whispered hoarsely.
Akasha stood frozen in place, her mind racing. Everything suddenly made sense. The strange feeling drawing her here, the reason the Darkers hadn’t attacked her and Ivan earlier, it was all
his doing. But there was one missing piece of the puzzle, perhaps the biggest piece of them all. If her brother was here, then who—or what—was Typhon? Had the ARKS been deceived?
There was perhaps only one person in the universe who could answer that question, and he was lying right in front of her. And so, her head and her heart both filled with turmoil, Akasha approached her errant brother.
She had only taken half a dozen steps when it happened. It started as little more than an instinctive reaction, perhaps to the faint sound of footsteps behind her or the distinctive hum of the photon blade arcing towards her neck. Whatever the reason, something inside her screamed “danger.”
Akasha whirled around and brought up her twin daggers in a hasty blocking maneuver. Just in time—the doublesaber crashed into them with the force of a Rockbear’s punch. Akasha was immediately thrown off balance. Before she could recover, she received a booted kick to the gut, hurling her off her feet. Her body hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop several meters away.
She was up again in no time, scanning the darkened platform for her mysterious attacker. There was no one there. No one except Shankar, still lying on the far side of the cavernous room. Then: a flash of pale blue light to her left. The doublesaber came in high, angled downward. Given the apparent strength of her opponent, Akasha opted to roll out of the way rather than block. The blade missed her by a hair, swung around, and came at her again. No time to dodge this one. She threw up her daggers to block, calculated it wouldn’t be enough, and discharged a blast of Foie straight ahead. Her attacker cried out in the dark—a female voice—but the doublesaber remained undeterred.
Once again their blades met with an intense crackling of energy. And once again, Akasha wasn’t strong enough to completely deflect the blow. She spun away from it, using her attacker’s momentum against her, but winced in pain as the searing-hot weapon nicked her shoulder.
As she backflipped away from the next strike, her mind scrambled to come up with a plan. A straightforward confrontation was out of the question. Whoever her opponent was, Akasha was clearly outmatched in terms of raw power. There was no getting around that. But maybe, just maybe, she could win a contest of speed—with the help of the right tactics. A dash of luck wouldn’t hurt, either.
Before her feet even touched the ground, Akasha found herself being thrown into a nearby pillar, though she didn’t recall being grabbed. She used a Nazan wind Technique to blunt the impact, but even so, it was a rough hit. Gasping from the pain, Akasha pulled herself up off the floor.
Just in time to take a hard punch to the stomach. As Akasha began to keel over, she felt a vice grip clamp onto her throat. The girl was lifted into the air and slammed against the same pillar from before. Her opponent’s fingers dug deep into her neck, eager to wring the life out of her. Akasha couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t even cry out from the pain. She thrashed about violently, struggling to get free, but her attacker was far too powerful. She kicked blindly, again and again. Finally she got lucky. The toe of her boot struck flesh—once, twice, three times. The mysterious attacker growled in anger and flung Akasha to the ground.
The Newearl immediately rolled to safety. When she stood up again, she found herself standing beneath one of the few active lights nearby. The overhead lamp bathed her in its pale yellow glow, making her an easy target in the otherwise-dark subrail station. Yet instead of scurrying back to the darkness, Akasha stood her ground. If her opponent wanted to fight so badly, she would have to step into the light.
Which is exactly what she did. The shadowy figure stepped forward, joining Akasha in the harsh spotlight.
Akasha wasn’t prepared for what she saw. It took her a moment to realize that the face she was staring at, twisted into a mask of hatred and disgust, was her own. From the lined tattoo wrapped around her left eye to the beige Neighbor Quartz armor she wore, this woman—her mysterious opponent—was Akasha’s spitting image. It was more than a passing likeness; they were completely identical. Or rather, the woman looked exactly how Akasha did before, back when she had an adult body.
On further inspection, Akasha noticed the tear in the chest of her opponent’s armor, a tear she had gotten when Shankar stabbed her aboard
Orpheus. The weapon she held was the custom Lambda Hellfret that Captain Colton gave her before her ARKS final exam. Clearly, this was no mere imposter. Somehow this woman
was Akasha, right down to her clothes and weapon. But how could that be? Akasha’s head reeled from the implications.
It was the other woman who broke the silence. “How dare you show your face here, you traitor! You imposter! You
thief!” She practically spat the bile-filled words.
“W-What…?” Akasha was completely stunned, rendered slack-jawed and speechless by this impossible revelation.
Her look-alike didn’t offer time for further speculation. She raised her hands, palms outward, and unleashed a torrent of fire energy in Akasha’s direction. “Get out or die already!” she snarled, her eyes burning with hate.
Akasha dove behind the nearest pillar as the firestorm raged past on both sides. She had hoped to wait it out, but her twin leapt through the inferno after her. Doublesaber and twin daggers crashed together once more, their impact producing a shower of photon sparks. Back and forth they dueled. Akasha tried to hold her own, to remain even with her twin, but it was a losing battle. The other woman was simply too powerful. As Akasha retreated time and time again, she wondered to herself,
Was I really this strong before? And so freaking huge?!
The look-alike came at her with an overhead swing. Akasha caught the blade with her daggers, but her strength was fading fast. Her arms felt like they were about to fall off. At this rate, she wouldn’t last much longer.
It was then that a certain memory flashed through her mind. During Akasha’s sparring match with Aki01, the former Academy headmaster told her,
“Learn to recognize your opponents’ weaknesses. Everyone has them. If you can turn their weaknesses into your strengths, you can turn the tide of battle.” Back then, Akasha had been the larger fighter. Aki01 had beaten her with speed and smarts, and by exploiting her size against her. If Akasha could do the same against her twin now, perhaps she still had a chance.
With their weapons still locked together, Akasha released a small, concentrated burst of Barta. Ice crystals materialized in the air around the look-alike’s hands, fusing them to the handle of her doublesaber. Caught off-guard, the big Newearl staggered backwards. Her surprise, however, was short-lived, and anger quickly replaced confusion. The woman used a fire Technique to break free from her icy cuffs, then turned her attention back to Akasha.
Fortunately, the brief reprieve was all Akasha needed. Using wind energy to augment her speed, she ran circles around her opponent, dodging left and right to avoid the fiery blasts headed her way. The bigger woman grew angrier with each failed attempt. Howling in fury, she unleashed a wall of flames that trapped the two of them together. Now Akasha had nowhere to run. With no options left, she turned to face her twin.
Both women lowered themselves into a fighting pose, Akasha with her daggers and the look-alike with her Lambda Hellfret. Both knew the next attack would be the deciding blow. They steadied themselves, eyes locked together, expressions resolute.
Then they charged.
* * * * * * * * *
High above, on the surface level, Ivan was growing restless. Akasha still hadn’t returned from her detour with the Dagans. He considered going after her despite her wishes, but in the end decided against it. He would be patient a little longer.
That’s when he felt it. A ground tremor, its vibrations coursing from his feet up to his head. Startled, Ivan glanced up and down the empty street. Nothing. The city looked just as desolate as before.
Then: another tremor. At an intersection two blocks away, a black mist began rolling into view. The dark haze curled through the air in a rather unnatural way.
Ivan gulped. A cold knot of fear began forming in the pit of his stomach. He knew what was coming. After all, he’d seen the same phenomenon once before, on the holotape General Valias had shown them.
Right before Typhon arrived.
TO BE CONTINUED
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Vorda-3000 is also a dumb name. Also good thing that Sia isn't around. Aside from that, seeing their name being Delta Squad reminds me of Republic Commando. If they're super successful, them being hand picked to do their own missions with a dropship would be cool to see. Would be interesting to see if one of them was obsessed with blowing stuff up too. Strange that the Darkers they're fighting seem less dangerous compared to the previous battle though. Would have imagined the cores would have had more security on them. Should be interesting to see what awaits them. 
I think dancing Dagans would be a little too silly for what I had in mind.
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