Star Clash - Part II
Star Clash - Part II
Rayne’s head blows up in a shower of-metal? Circuits, metallic chunks, wires, all fly away from Rayne’s body like confetti at a carnival. Spontaneous understanding ensues.
Now I know why he was smiling like a madman and why the guards didn’t bother to stop me as soon as they saw me. I’d say “Sorry, my bad” and turn around to leave, but since I’m outnumbered ten to one by armed goons I somehow don’t think that’s going to do it.
From one of the stealth fields (the ones that I could spot a mile away, no less) comes the real Rayne, dressing exactly like the ‘bot had, and for a moment I have the sickening feeling that there’s no difference between machine and man. But then I notice the dreamy look on his face, and the feeling is washed away.
“Rayne” I say, the effort spent in keeping my tone steady bigger than I had imagined.
“Arken” the bastard replies casually, apparently unmolested by the robot’s demise. He takes a couple of steps to the side, glancing at me sideways as he does. While I look like a defeated warrior, he in contrast resembles a victorious leader after a decade long campaign.
While this happens, patrons are getting the hell away from us (or the bar altogether), some screaming, some fleeing in mute horror. In their eyes, Rayne Zetrus just got a headshot from a plasma gun, after all. They’re probably going to notify the local authorities as well.
Damn it all.
“Why are you here, Arken?”
The question takes me completely off-guard, and I shake my head briskly, hoping that I heard him wrong.
Did he inhale something recently?
My brow pushes down my forehead’s skin, forming a frown. “I came here to kill you” I hiss through gritted teeth. Despite my appearance and tone, the statement sounds like a whine, much like a kid would complain when he doesn’t get the toy he wants at a store.
“You wish me dead?” Rayne replies, a measure of surprise obvious in his voice. The nutcase shakes his head slowly, as if in denial. “Judging by your course of action, you have succeeded in killing no other than yourself, Arken the Scourge.”
Will the gloating never end? It seems like an eternity for one such as me.
He stops pacing and turns his body to face me directly; he’s barely ten feet away, and if it wasn’t for the bodyguards with the plasma weapons, he would be dead. Again.
“The moment you walked into my establishment-no, the moment you had the mad thought to dock your ship on this planet, that’s when you forfeited your life. And all because of what?” he says with a shrug, gazing helplessly at the ceiling as if it held any answers. His gaze returns to my face in a flash, a look of sudden anger clear on his previously relaxed features. “Because of your pride, thinking yourself capable of ending the life of the Crest of Purity! Your sin has, at long last, become the end of you, Arken the Scourge, and you will be put to justice in this very floor where you had intended to kill me, the leader of the noblest organization in the galaxy”
Why won’t he stop with the preaching and get on with the executing? Is this the way Rayne tortures his victims?
“Arken, I would’ve forgiven you of your past sins had you decided to join Sacred Earth, but now the chance is gone, and judgment must be passed” he says with a tone of grim finality and sadness at the same time, like a judge forced to pass off a death sentence to someone he dearly loves.
Quite the act he’s pulling off; he almost convinced me. Almost.
The guards take off the safety triggers from their weapons, and that’s the moment when I put up the act and smile back at the madman dressed in white. “Me? Join Sacred Earth?” I ask, pretending confusion. “Not in a million light years, you disgusting maggot, son of a-“.
I keep going with the name-calling for quite a while before Rayne finally makes a gesture and the bodyguards take aim at my body. He doesn’t look amused anymore.
What can I say? It’s been fun, this thing we call life.
Orphaned by a Vestii armada that destroyed the solar system I lived in.
Killed more people for money than I can keep track of.
Worked for the Triumvirate as their strike team...
that’s my life right there.
And to top it off, I almost got to kill the galaxy’s real scourge. Almost.
The inevitable sound of weapons being fired emerges at long last. Except that this happens behind me, by the entrance doors, rather than right in front of me. Disregarding the immediate threat, I yield to my curiosity and take a quick peek over my shoulder.
Kadil! I told him not to follow me! Never mind that, how in space did he get his Colossus in here?! How did he get past so many guards unnoticed?
The Colossus that somehow-fits-in-the-pub is basically a 6’ tall robot that looks like the Zarr that pilots it: a cross between a human and a grasshopper, even color-wise; apparently, Kadil wanted the resemblance to be almost uncanny, and so the thing is a mixture of yellow and orange rather than the typical metallic grey.
In an instant, Kadil’s twin Quake 360 plasma-cannons shoot the guards nearest to the entrance, killing them instantly, and the subsequent beams do the same with the goons closest to me. The fact that he risked such a close-shot angers me, and despite the whole situation, my irritation goes up a notch when the sunnavanalien waves at me with the Colossus’ mechanic arm and yells “I got ya covered, Chief!”.
Note to self: administer an extensive smacking session for Kadil to serve as an example for the rest. If I make it back. Sigh.
I don’t need to be told twice: I fire several beams of hot plasma at the guards closest to me, artfully adding several extra air holes for him to breathe with, while simultaneously performing a perfect back flip that takes me behind a table that has gone vertical. Not really good against plasma, but hey, better than thin air.
Rayne would’ve been the ideal target, but the bastard somehow disappeared in the sudden turns of events.
“Wahooo! Boom, you go, BOOM, gwahaha! Go boom, baddies!” the maniacal engineer that is Kadil yells while shooting a barrage of plasma in random directions. This, naturally, causes the remaining (and most unfortunate) patrons to duck for cover, scream in fear, jump away, and all sorts of improvised evasive maneuvers. Chairs, tables and other furniture is blown to bits all over the tavern.
The wreck this inn will be after he’s done with it will be impossible to describe with words. Heck, they’ll probably invent a new word for this type of mess: “kadilism”.
As I shoot with my pistol from behind the table I activate my microcom in order to express my feelings to my right-hand alien. “Damn it, Kadil, we need to get back to the ship ASAP! It will only be a matter of time before the entire city guard is here!
Much to my surprise and relief, the uncharacteristically wild mannered Zarr stops with the random violence and leaps (yes, leaps, large Colossus and all) towards me, bends down in order for me to get atop the mechanical shoulder, and off we go. Leaping.
“How in the hell did you get over here without getting caught? Whatever you used, you better be able to do it again” I yell towards the robot’s head in order to get my message through above all the noise, mainly from screams and plasma beams shot at us. More than one such shot hits the Zarr-Colossus, but the thing is made of Megatonium, and it holds for the time being.
He makes the Colossus shrugs in response, as if it wasn’t that big of a deal. “Photon shield, chief” he says via microcosm. “I’m the hax, remember?” he adds, making me perform a face-palm.
“It’s ‘hacker’, you crazy Zarr!” I shout, mostly to cover my amazement at Kadil’s skill in somehow installing a Photon Shield, the best stealth technology developed so far, with a freakin’ Colossus. It’s not like the little guy needs any more encouragement for his demented creations, no sir.
Kadil takes us through the tunnels back the way we came, and around the bend there’s a large squadron of security guards forming a barricade, easily twenty of the buggers. The ones up front carry large Matter Shields, the fancy kind that blocks any attack, physical or energy, while the others behind have the biggest and deadliest pulse rifles trained in our direction. One shot of those and, armored or not, you’re a goner.
Too bad they can’t see us, thanks to the Photon Shield.
Kadil takes advantage of the taller tunnels to leap over the blockade, and not even the guard at the back of the formation notices the 1-ton robot landing right behind him, all thanks to the Shield.
I barely need to move my lips and whisper via microcom in order to transmit my message to Kadil “Good job, Prime Zealot” I say in a perfectly serious business tone, my eyes looking straight ahead at the corridor we’re in. “We might just make it back to the Black Nereid in one piece.”
“WAHOO!” Kadil screams. I sigh.
So much for stealth.
"They have a stealth field! Activate your Piercing Visors!” one captain orders the troops.
The alarm is sounded yet again, and the chase is on; a shame that no one here owns a Colossus as fast and agile as ours, and we actually make it to the docking station after a short while of jumping and wall running, leaving our pursuers far behind, with little security to bypass up ahead.
“Did you get the big baddie guy, Arken?” Kadil asks in a whisper, having learned his lesson at keeping quiet while maneuvering the robot around people and ships in order to reach ours undetected.
I shake my head. “Nah, not this time” is my response. My eyes are drawn towards the plastisteel window that allows me to get a look of space. Somewhere, in another sector of the galaxy, a star reaches its end, blowing up in a spectacular supernova, and I can’t see it happening, but I know it’s happening, somehow, out of intuition.
Does it mean the same thing: having Rayne die, even if I’m not there to witness it?
“Maybe next time, eh, Chief?” Kadil asks in a conciliatory tone. I can’t help but nod and half-smile.
Nah. If I’m not there to pull the trigger to blow him into bits, it doesn’t count. I’ll get you Rayne; maybe not today, but tomorrow. The Righteous Nova will come to an end, consuming the organization it created.
And for once, the Scourge of the galaxy will overpower the Righteous.
