FALLEN COLONY SHIP ORPHEUS
Clarity. That’s what the scope on Delfoy’s sniper rifle usually provided. All he had to do was look through that tiny window and the rest of the universe melted away. Dissolved into blackness. Everything seemed easier then, simpler. The only thing he had to worry about was the target in front of him. That window became his whole world, his alpha and his omega. It brought everything into focus.
But now, looking through his scope, Delfoy wasn’t sure what he saw. The window offered only confusion. He knew what he
thought he saw, he just wasn’t sure whether to believe it. He gave it a second look. It was still there, same as before. Delfoy picked himself up, grabbed his weapon, and made his way back to
Rico’s Folly. Time to report.
* * * * * * * * *
“An egg?”
Delfoy nodded. “That’s what I said. It looked like some kind of Darker egg, but… hell, I’ve never seen one like that before.”
Across the table, Aki02 cocked her head slightly to one side. “And Shankar is the one who created it?”
“No idea, but I doubt it. There was this Darker, ugly looking thing. Looked sort of like a Breeahda, but this one had tentacles coming out of its side. It was guarding the egg, protecting it. At least that’s what it looked like to me. With the Darkers it can be hard to tell sometimes.”
“How do you know Shankar’s involved at all?” asked Ivan, his brow furrowed with concern. “Maybe this ‘egg’ has nothing to do with him.”
“Because I saw him there. He was… I don’t know, communicating with the Darker somehow. Like he was giving it orders.”
“Maybe he’s just trying to make a Darker omelet. Yummy!” Luna rubbed her belly in a failed attempt to lighten the mood.
Aki stood up and paced back and forth in the cramped cabin. She seemed deep in thought. “I don’t like it. He’s up to something, and we need to find out what. I may need to adjust our mission parameters somewhat.”
Ivan gave Delfoy a hard look. “If Shankar was there, why didn’t you take him out? You know, save us the trouble?”
“I would have, smart guy, if he hadn’t disappeared into one of those Darker portals.”
“He can do that now?”
“It would appear so.”
“That would explain how he got ahead of us on our way back from Kestren’s lab,” mused Aki. “But it presents another variable in our plan. One of several, now. More than I would prefer.”
Delfoy understood what she meant. Any mission planner could tell you that more variables meant more uncertainty. More chances for things to go wrong. “You want to call it off?” he asked.
“No,” she replied after a moment of mental calculation. “The odds are still in our favor. Just… be careful, everyone. Stay alert. And be ready for anything.”
* * * * * * * * *
“Is it still there?”
“Yeah. It’s there, all right.” Delfoy passed the sniper rifle to Ivan. “Here, have a look.”
The four of them were crouched on the same roof where Delfoy had hidden earlier. The building wasn’t particularly tall, maybe a dozen stories, but it provided a good vantage point for the surrounding area. A couple city blocks away was their target. Ivan closed his off eye and stared into the scope. In the distance, he could see a local park—what was left of it, anyway. The trees were stripped bare and everything was blanketed in alien mosses and glowing fungi, but he was pretty sure it used to be a park. And sitting right in the center of it was the thing Delfoy had described: a large, dark egg. It was about two meters across and covered in reddish veins. Not a pretty sight. And definitely related to the Darkers.
“There is no sign of Shankar,” Aki observed. She and Luna didn’t need the magnifying power of the rifle scope. Long-distance viewing was one of their built-in functions.
“How ‘bout I shoot the egg right now, then we go hunt down the big bad Newman?” suggested Delfoy.
Aki shook her head. “There’s no guarantee your shot would take it out, and we need the element of surprise against Shankar. We’re going to have to split up. Delfoy, I want you and Ivan to go after the egg. Try to find out what’s inside if possible, but your main priority is to eliminate it. Luna and I will deal with Shankar.”
“It’s been hours since I last saw him. The big guy could be anywhere by now. How are you gonna know where to look?”
The Caseal’s red eyebrows rose slightly. “I will… trust my instincts.”
* * * * * * * * *
While Aki and her support partner went off in the other direction, Ivan and Delfoy headed straight for the park. They didn’t encounter any resistance along the way. That made Delfoy nervous. There were thousands of Darkers aboard
Orpheus, yet apparently none of them were nearby. Was it a coincidence? A trap? Or had they left for some unknown reason? There was no way to know for sure. All Delfoy could do at the moment was stay alert.
When they reached the last building before their destination, Delfoy put up a hand to signal Ivan to stop. Cautiously he peered around the corner. Still no Darkers in sight, not even the weird one with the tentacles he’d seen earlier. Just the egg, sitting by itself in the center of the park, seemingly unguarded.
This smells bad, thought Delfoy.
It’s too easy. But what other choice do we have?
None. They couldn’t go back without at least trying, so that’s what they were going to do. The two men jogged as quietly as possible across the open field, wary of an attack at any moment. It never came.
At last they were standing next to the egg. Up close it looked even more revolting than it had from afar. Aside from the patchwork of veins stitched across its shell, a series of tubes—roots?—connected the egg to the dirt. How far beneath the soil those tubes extended was anyone’s guess. Looking at it now, Delfoy wondered if the thing was actually an egg or some kind of giant black potato. It certainly looked like an egg. But since when did eggs have veins and roots?
“This thing is freaky,” Ivan said in a whisper. “Let’s find out what’s inside, destroy it, and get the hell out of here.”
Delfoy studied the egg closely without touching it. He was more than happy to oblige his teammate, but he also had questions that needed answers. Or at least needed to be asked. “How long do you figure it’s been here? If Shankar’s involved, it couldn’t be more than a day or so. And… it might be my imagination, but I think it looks bigger now.”
“Bigger?”
“Than before. When I saw it earlier it was a little smaller than this. I think.”
“You
think?”
“Hey, cut me some slack. I was six hundred meters away at the time. I’m just saying this egg might be growing. Not that it really matters—it’s going to end up scrambled either way.”
The Newman sniper raised his gun up high and swung the butt down like a club. It struck the side of the egg with a dull thud but there wasn’t any noticeable damage. He tried twice more with the same result.
I don’t know what this shell is made of, but it’s absurdly tough, Delfoy thought with a grimace.
Looks like this job is gonna require a sharp object instead of a blunt one.
He reached into his cloak and pulled out a photon dagger with a serrated blade. Then, with a grunt, he plunged it directly into the egg. The energy coursing through the dagger sliced through the shell like warm butter.
Delfoy’s weapon was lodged into the side of the bulbous egg. All he had to do was pull downward and the contents inside would spill out. Delfoy gave Ivan a look that said “be ready.” The other man nodded back. At the last moment, however, a flash of danger raced through Delfoy’s mind. He released the dagger and spun around as a large shadow descended upon them from above.
* * * * * * * * *
The ARKS cemetery at the crest of the hill immediately felt familiar to Aki. Not just because she’d been here a day earlier, battling Darkers. No, it was familiar because she had visited this place several times in the past. Back then the trees were lush and green, the grass was always well-trimmed, and the gravestones weren’t covered in glowing fungi.
Now it was an otherworldly wasteland, claimed by the Darkers along with the rest of
Orpheus. Aki tried not to think about Zack and her other friends who were buried here. That was a distraction, one she couldn’t afford at the moment.
“So… why are we back here, again?” asked Luna. The little support partner glanced around nervously.
“We need to find Shankar,” Aki answered simply.
“Well I don’t see him, so let’s get going, huh? The faster, the better. This place is giving me the creeps!”
Aki didn’t respond. She was busy thinking, trying to figure out Shankar’s next move. The cemetery was a good starting point. Aki had hoped, but not really expected, that he might still be around. If he wasn’t, maybe she could at least find a clue, some hint as to where he was headed next. It wasn’t much, but it was all she had to go on.
All around her, the scars from yesterday’s battle were evident: shattered gravestones, pock-marked soil, broken trees. Much of it was caused by the devastating fight between Akasha and her brother. Aki had never seen such powerful Photon Arts before. Compared to most Techniques, they were on a whole other level. Little wonder, then, that there was so much collateral damage left over.
Snap! Just then, the crunch of a twig underfoot caught Aki’s attention. She looked up. Standing on the other side of the clearing, staring straight at her, was none other than the big man himself. Shankar.
“You were foolish to return,” he said without emotion. His eyes were a pair of crimson saucers shining in the dim light of the cemetery. “Go now and I will spare your life. Do it, before I change my mind.”
Aki stood her ground. She hadn’t come all this way just to turn around and leave. “I don’t know what you are planning, but if it endangers the lives of my friends, I cannot allow you to continue.”
The Newman’s eyes narrowed slightly. He flexed his clawed hands open and shut. When he spoke, his voice remained calm but his tone was more insistent. “
Leave. I won’t ask you again.”
“Nor I.”
The time for discussion was over. Shankar raised an open palm in Aki’s direction. A moment later, the battle began.
* * * * * * * * *
Behind Delfoy, hovering just overhead, was the Breeahda-like Darker he’d seen earlier. It did not look happy.
“Look out!” shouted Ivan, as though Delfoy weren’t planning on doing that anyway.
He was in the middle of grabbing his rifle when the Darker struck. It charged straight at him, tentacles swinging wildly. Delfoy noticed there was a long, pointed barb at the end of each appendage, and the Darker had at least a dozen of them.
Better not get poked by one of those or it’s game over, he told himself.
A forward roll carried Delfoy under the creature. It passed by harmlessly over him, then swung around for another pass. Nearby, Ivan fired two rounds from his photon pistol into the Darker’s bulbous backside. The monster screeched and flailed about in pain. It veered away from Delfoy—directly towards Ivan. The brown-haired man tried to dodge but wasn’t fast enough. He was grabbed in an instant and scooped into the air. Darker tentacles snaked themselves around his chest, arms, and legs, binding him tight.
Try as he might, Ivan couldn’t break free. The creature had him a vice grip and wouldn’t let go. Even worse, Delfoy couldn’t get off a clean shot. If he fired he risked hitting Ivan. He couldn’t take that chance…
The Darker hovered back and forth, its insectoid wings buzzing. Then it came to a stop fifteen meters away. A barbed tentacle slowly aimed itself at Ivan’s neck, and suddenly Delfoy didn’t have a choice anymore. He fired.
The shot whizzed past Ivan, missing his head by mere centimeters. It caught the Darker right between its beady red eyes. A blood-curdling scream rang out and the monster’s tentacles went slack, dropping Ivan to the mossy ground. He rolled out of the way just before the Darker came crashing down in the same spot. It died instantly.
Ivan picked himself up and wiped himself off. “Nice shot.”
“No problem,” Delfoy lied. Actually, he guessed his odds had been about seventy-thirty. But he didn’t want to tell Ivan that.
The other man regarded the fresh corpse behind them. “You weren’t kidding about this thing. I’ve never seen a Darker like it before. Now I’m hoping it’s the only one.”
“Look at the shape of the wings and the bulb-shaped backside. Whatever it is, or was, I think it’s related to a Breeahda. A distant cousin, maybe. If that’s true, you think maybe it laid our mysterious egg here?”
Ivan shrugged. “Who cares? I just want to be done with this place once and for all.”
It was a rather ironic thing to say to Delfoy, who had been trapped aboard
Orpheus for the better part of a year. But he got it. He understood. Ivan had just lost two of the most important people in his life. Staying here was only prolonging his pain.
Delfoy didn’t argue. He was eager to leave as well. The Newman returned to the egg to finish what he started. Gripping the handle of the dagger, he pushed downward. The blade met little resistance as it sliced through the thick, almost rubbery shell.
When the incision was complete, Delfoy pulled out the dagger and returned it to the scabbard on his hip. He and Ivan stood on either side of the egg and tugged in opposite directions. The shell peeled open like a giant cacaiya fruit. Slowly at first, then faster. A dark, watery liquid began pouring out of the narrow opening. The two men put more muscle into it until the entire side of the shell tore open, revealing the contents inside.
Delfoy was stunned. He was speechless; Ivan doubly so. Of all the things he had seen and done in his life—and there were quite a few—nothing had prepared him for this. Nothing at all.
With great effort he managed to get his mouth working again. “What… the hell…?”
* * * * * * * * *
Aki dodged left as the massive bolt of Zonde lightning crackled past. Her rifle was blazing almost instantly, lighting up the graveyard in split-second intervals. None of her bullets hit their mark. They were deflected by the two-meter-tall shield that had suddenly blossomed in Shankar’s hand. A shield made of organic-looking black armor plates, not unlike a Ga Wonda’s.
She knew from experience how tough that armor could be. Normal photon bullets would never penetrate it. In that case, Aki had two options. She could either try grenade rounds or she could get around the shield somehow. She opted for the latter.
As soon as Shankar launched another Zonde blast her way, Aki sidestepped and sprinted straight for the towering Newman. As a CAST she was faster than any flesh-and-blood creature. That speed caught Shankar off-guard. Three meters away, she forward flipped high over his head, her weapon aimed downward. There wasn’t time for him to dodge. No time to raise his shield. Shankar caught one bullet in the left shoulder, another grazed his ankle.
Still in mid-leap, Aki suddenly found herself being hurled sideways by an immense gust of wind. The power of Shankar’s Technique sent her careening into a pair of leafless trees. Then she hit the ground, hard. Hard enough to send her tumbling end over end. Aki dug her fingers into the soil to slow her momentum and let the storm pass, which it soon did.
Five meters away was the rifle she’d dropped. Aki spotted it just as Shankar did. They looked from the weapon to each other and back again. Both sprang into action at the same time. Aki dove for the weapon, while Shankar unleashed an incredible torrent of fire in her direction. The Caseal was quick—but not quick enough. Right as the flames were about to engulf her, an icy gust of Gibarta intercepted them. The two Techniques canceled each other out in a great cloud of steam and light.
Aki looked to her left. It was Luna. The support partner had saved Aki with her hammer-shaped rod. Angry at the interference, Shankar decided to give Luna a taste of her own medicine. He materialized a ring of spear-shaped icicles in the air above her and waved his hand downward. One at a time, the icy projectiles hurtled down from the sky like laser-guided missiles. Luna rolled out from under the first one and barely dodged the second. Then, at the worst possible moment, she tripped over a tree root and went sprawling to the ground.
The third icicle was about to impale her when Aki’s rifle blew it to pieces. Shredded it into a fine mist. The gun didn’t stop roaring until every single icicle had been turned into white powder, which gently rained over them like a fine layer of dust. Luna turned to Aki. The red-haired Caseal gave her a brief nod that said,
Thanks for the save, but now we’re even.
If Shankar was upset before, now he was furious. He growled and charged at Aki, intending to use his shield as a battering ram. Aki never let him get close. She switched her rifle over to its secondary firing mode and launched grenade after grenade at him. They detonated against the shield in an increasingly spectacular series of explosions that lit up the cemetery like a fireworks show. Shankar was forced to stop in his tracks or risk getting blown to bits.
He was not, however, willing to concede defeat. Nor was he out of tricks. Just as Aki ran out of grenade rounds, Shankar raised his free arm and squeezed his fist into a ball. There was a crackle and a spark in the air next to Aki.
Only her battle instincts and CAST reflexes saved her. She dodged left a split-second before it appeared—some kind of explosive Technique she’d never seen before. It wasn’t like a bomb going off. Rather, it was an expanding void that swallowed everything caught inside its radius. A black hole of absolute destruction.
The void reached a maximum diameter of six meters before collapsing in on itself. Aki stared, horrified, at the damage left in its wake. It wasn’t what was there, but what was
missing, that surprised her: everything. Everything in that six-meter sphere was simply
gone, like it had never existed at all. A great semicircle was carved into the dirt. Within that area of destruction, an entire row of gravestones was no longer there. A cluster of trees at the edge of the blast was only half there. It looked like a giant beast had taken a bite out of them.
But that’s not all the void took. It also took Aki’s right arm just above the elbow, and her gun along with it.
The attack had taken a toll on Shankar as well. He looked drained. Spent. Maybe it was his first time using it. Maybe he wasn’t prepared for the strain it placed on his body. Regardless, Aki knew she had to act quickly. She couldn’t give him time to recover. Another blast like that could be the end of her. She also knew her best bet was a close-quarters battle. Shankar wouldn’t be able to use most of his Techniques from point-blank range, at least not easily.
So she acted. She sprinted across the mossy field, leapt high into the air, and came down swinging with her one remaining fist. Shankar caught it with his free hand. The two struggled back and forth, a contest of strength and will. It was a contest Aki should have been able to win easily. Yet somehow, Shankar was pushing her down. Forcing her into submission.
With one final shove, he threw her to the ground. “You cannot defeat me,” he growled. “My powers are growing. I’ve become too strong. I will not allow you or anyone else to stop me from fulfilling my purpose. My destiny.”
Aki looked up at him with contempt in her eyes. “And what purpose would that be?”
“I’m going to build a new society. A better society. One free from the rampant filth and injustice plaguing Oracle.” Shankar spread his arms as if delivering a divine proclamation. “This world is rotten. It’s beyond saving. My only choice is to burn it all down and begin anew. I’m going to finish what the Darkers started. I’m going to destroy everything, and I have the power now to do it.”
* * * * * * * * *
Delfoy took a step forward, as though his eyes had somehow deceived him. As though getting closer would bring the impossible sight before him into focus. But no, he wasn’t imagining or hallucinating it. As incredible as it seemed, what he saw was real.
Curled up inside the egg was a girl. One with rich, copper-colored skin and long, chocolate brown hair. A girl with pointed ears and a distinctive facial tattoo that wrapped around her left eye.
It couldn’t be, thought Delfoy. She was too small. Too young. Barely a teenager, by his estimate. Not to mention the most glaring discrepancy: she was alive. Asleep, but definitely alive.
It couldn’t be, yet it had to be. There was no one else it could have been.
It was Akasha.
TO BE CONTINUED
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Originally Posted by AIDA
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