Gravity Storm: Order of Scion book 3, page 11
“Your settlement is destroyed,” the alien hissed.
“We’ll build a new one.”
“The teachers of your way are dying.”
“It’s your minions who perish,” Mitch said.
Suddenly, more missiles fired. Mitch could sense them racing toward the Luska. He tried to stop them, but the snake creature held his power in check. Mitch felt a tremor of fear. Qwii would survive, but what about Uri and her crew. Fortunately, the missiles all missed the ship. Most collided in midair, causing little damage on the ground. The others were pushed off course and slammed into the plain as far away from the beings fleeing the destroyed academy as possible.
“After I kill you I’m going to destroy this ship,” Mitch said.
The alien feinted like it was going to strike, but when Mitch jumped to the side, it shifted its attack and lashed out at him with its tail. There was nowhere to run from the thick tail. If Mitch had been ready for the attack, he might have summersaulted over it, but instead he was hit hard. The blow was powerful, but at the last moment Mitch stabbed his sword into the tail, which slowed its lashing strike. He was hit, but had been hit harder sparing with the members of Leo Squad. He managed to hold onto his sword with one hand and wrap his other along the back of the tail.
The alien roared in pain, raising the tail high and twisting its body around. Mitch threw his legs up and locked onto the side of the alien. Dozens of little feet clawed at him, but they were no threat. He jerked his sword free of the creature just as the head was coming around to latch onto him. With a savage blow, he slashed the Cidian blade across the front of the alien’s snout. The blade ripped through the tough skin, cartilage, and bone. Green blood gushed from the cut and the alien flipped backward, slamming its face down on the deck in pain. The tail went rigid and Mitch leaped away, landing on his feet and slashing up with his sword. He opened another big laceration across the tail. The green blood spattered all over him, but Mitch wasn’t finished.
The alien turned, its face a hideous mask of blood and bulging flesh. It swung its tail at him again, but Mitch dove under it. He came up to his feet behind the alien, and drove his sword straight into the creature’s back. The entire body began to spasm. Mitch jumped on top of it, holding onto his sword like it was a handle. He got his feet under him just in time to leap away when the creature began to roll. It smashed into the planters and rolled over the many leafy boughs growing in what Mitch had come to think of as a terrarium. He moved away from the alien and began to focus more on the ship itself.
The alien was in a world of pain such as it had never known, but it wasn’t dead. Still, Mitch was able to encapsulate the vessel and its existing gravity bubble in a barrier that he controlled. He moved it away from the carnage of the battle until it was over the open plain where he used to run to clear his mind while he was studying at the academy. Then he slipped back out and down through the ship’s levels. If the alien knew he was fleeing, it showed no interest in stopping him. Mitch found the bomb bay and dove out of the ship, moving his barrier from it and encapsulating himself. He flew back toward the battle where the academy had once been, and as soon as he was at a safe distance, he reached back toward the ship. It only took a moment to locate the missiles in their places around the ship. He began crushing the warheads, detonating the devices so that the ship was ripped apart and fell to the ground. The impact created a massive crater as the ship blew apart. Mitch glided to the ground, his robes spattered with green blood, and more still dripped from the blade of his sword. Mitch saw the remaining alien invaders fleeing. It would have been a welcome sight if not for the carnage and destruction of the academy. The area beyond the ancient building was scattered with bodies. Mitch felt a lump in his throat as he sprinted toward them.
The Lusaka was between him and the field of bodies. Mitch saw Hollis waving her long arms over her head to get his attention. His long legs pumped hard as he sprinted toward the ship. His enhanced body was faster than any professional athlete. It was the reason genetic enhancement had been banned on Earth. Mitch made the run in record time, skidding to a stop on the soft, grassy soil next to Hollis.
“What is it?” He asked. “Where is Qwii?”
“He’s fighting with the others, but look,” she pointed toward the sloping ground between the rubble of the academy and the massive volcano. A river of glowing lava was surging toward them.
“We need to get out of here,” Mitch said.
“Warn the others,” she told him. “I’ll ready the ship.”
Hollis dashed inside as Mitch sprinted away. He ran past several beings he didn’t recognize. Mitch didn’t know if they were faculty or students. The academy wasn’t like a school on earth. Each prospective member of the Order of Scion had at least one full time instructor. Doss had been his, and Mitch recognized the alien from a distance. He was slumped over another body on the ground.
“Master Doss!” Mitch shouted. “We have to get these people out of here.”
The older alien turned. There was a look of great distress on his features. Mitch was suddenly filled with a sense of grief that made his eyes well up with tears. Doss communicated telepathically, and though he had never shared emotions with Mitch before, the young man was hit by a powerful sense of loss.
“Mitch Murphy, you have returned,” Doss said, his words forming in Mitch’s mind.
“We have to get everyone way from the academy,” Mitch said. “There’s a river of lava headed this way.”
Doss turned back. Mitch saw a younger alien. It looked to him like a cross between a human and a fish. But there was no time to dwell on the alien’s anatomy. It had a blackened cut through its side and halfway into its body. The alien was clearly dead.
“Come on, Master, this way,” Mitch tugged Doss by the arm. The older alien obeyed. Mitch pointed to the crescent-shaped Luska, “There. Get to the ship.”
“Yes, very well,” Doss said.
Mitch let go of his teacher’s arm. Doss continued on, and Mitch turned back. He ran from body to body. Whenever he found someone still alive, he used his ability over gravity to levitate them back to the ship. It was much faster than carrying them, and less tiring.
Mitch was long into his task when Qwii appeared. He had a burn mark on one shoulder, the white fur under his robes blackened from a laser.
“You stopped the attack,” Qwii said. “That was very well done.”
“It wasn’t fast enough,” Mitch said. “There’s a lava flow that will top the hill at any moment.”
“I have felt it,” Qwii said. “We must continue searching for the wounded. Leave the dead behind.”
Mitch was already doing what Qwii instructed, but it was still a shock to realize that the dead would be caught in the lava flow. Their bodies would be incinerated, their ashes buried in the new stone when the molten rock finally cooled. Hundreds of members and prospects would be buried on the plain where the academy had once stood. All of the surrounding buildings were buried in the rubble or smashed flat. The domiciles of the faculty, the workshops of the technical crews, and the storage buildings were all gone. The open area behind the academy where Mitch had sparred with his fellow students was gone. The massive hall in the center of the academy building where Mitch had been introduced to the history of the Order of Scion was completely destroyed, along with everything that had been inside. The attack had come suddenly and was well thought out. Even when Qwii had jumped into the system, there was no call for help or warning about an enemy ship in the system. They only discovered the attack as they moved into the atmosphere of the planet.
Mitch had no idea how a surprise attack could happen against the Order of Scion. But as he worked through the field of bodies, searching for survivors, he contemplated the attack. It was hard to be objective when he was seeing the bodies of aliens he recognized. Mitch had only been close to a couple of beings during his time on Vodex, but he had been a keen observer. He saw other instructors and students from his days, which weren’t very long ago, on the battlefield. He even saw one of the masters, Hash Tier, who had encouraged the council to accept Mitch into the Order, lay dead. He was face down in the dirt; a hole burned through his back.
Anger and a desire for revenge was kindled on that battlefield. And he only got through a quarter of the bodies before the lava drove them back. Other members who had survived the fighting levitated bodies away from the lava flow. Mitch didn’t think any of the survivors perished in the molten flow, but he couldn’t be sure.
Eventually, he slumped down on the edge of the Luska’s loading dock. Inside were dozens of bodies. Many were being tended to by Hollis and other members of the Order. Mitch felt suddenly exhausted. When Uri appeared at his side with a liter-sized bottle of water, Mitch could have kissed her.
“Thank you,” he said, unscrewing the cap and putting the bottle to his lips.
“You must regain your strength,” Uri said. “We are leaving soon.”
Mitch nodded, got to his feet, and followed her inside. Qwii was on the observation deck. The Nagani was tireless. He was surrounded by a group of survivors. Mitch only knew one of them by name. Master Thorn Isska Malchais Sonso, the World Mover who had questioned Mitch during his induction ceremony. Mitch quietly joined the little group as Qwii lifted off. The Luska rose straight up into the air. For a moment, Mitch had an unobstructed view of the lava flow. It was spreading down toward the plain and showed no signs of stopping. Mitch wondered how the ancient volcano had held so much molten rock back for so long.
Qwii rotated the ship around and flew them toward the crater where the enemy battleship had crashed. Fires burned inside, and much of what remained of the ship was blackened and twisted.
“Who was in that ship?” Thorn Sonso asked.
“Ask the Member who took it down,” Qwii said, pointing to Mitch. “You remember Mitch Murphy, first of his kind.”
“You destroyed the alien ship?” Another member asked.
“I did,” Mitch said.
“Who was directing it?” Another asked.
“A huge snake creature,” Mitch said. “I didn’t bother asking for a name.”
“A Kulkan,” Qwii said. “One of the ancient ones.”
“Powerful,” said Thorn Sonso. “That explains how it hid from us until it was close enough to unleash its deadly cargo.”
Mitch wanted more information, but he knew it wasn’t the right time. He stood quietly. Everyone was disheveled, with dirt on their clothes, and debris in their hair or fur. They were all aliens to Mitch, but he felt a kinship with them. It was born partly from their abilities and beliefs, and partly from doing battle with a common enemy.
“Is that its blood on your robes?” Thorn Sonso asked. “If so, it is toxic.”
“Uri will have fresh clothing in your quarters, Mitch Murphy,” Qwii said. “We have done all we can here. We will leave the system and make the jump to Ashlyn.”
“And there we shall call a council,” Master Sonso declared. “We must meet this threat head on.”
“Are we strong enough?” Another member of the group asked. “We have lost so many.”
“We have the strength of the Creator,” Qwii said.
“Well said,” Thorn Sonso replied. “But we have let the enemy grow in power unchecked for too long. We must stand against it now, or it will destroy the Order of Scion and lay ten thousand worlds open to the tyranny of the Fray.”
The others agreed, though Mitch saw looks of concern on many of their faces. He left them to make their plans and went to clean the toxic Kulkan blood from his body and sword. They had survived the attack, and in the end, won the battle. But to Mitch it didn’t feel like a victory. It felt more like a defeat. And he knew all too well what it was like to be pushed around, bullied, past over, and ignored. It brought back a lot of old feelings that he didn’t like. And he was determined in his mind not to let it happen again.
CHAPTER 15
“My lord,” the figure of Fors’No was merely a hologram, but it bowed as it spoke. “I have the report.”
“The first great blow has been struck,” G’all Gotha said, rising from his throne-like chair on the bridge of his ship, Anathema.
“Yes,” Fors’No said, although with less enthusiasm than expected.
“You do yourself no favors by hesitating,” G’all said. “Tell me what happened. Were we not victorious? Was the Order of Scion’s training academy destroyed?”
“It was, my lord. Your careful planning was exactly right. The mountains were destroyed, the academy buried in the rubble. Hundreds died in the attack, and the volcano filled the valley with lava.”
“Then why are you hesitant?”
“Because we lost the sky serpent my lord,” Fors’No said. “His warship was destroyed, and him with it.”
The attack had been meticulously planned. Every last detail thought through, including the silence of Tradd, the Kulkan who carried out G’all’s plan on Vodex. It was better for the ship to slip away between star systems. The battle was not intended to cause the Order of Scion to strike back immediately. They let their warrior caste search for Tradd’s ship to no avail, while their council worried where the next attack was coming from. Eventually they would call the entire Order together for an emergency meeting. They would of course utilize the facilities on Pappisbad, where his agents had everything needed to strike a death blow to the Order already in place. So, G’all hadn’t been surprised not to hear from Tradd directly.
“How?” G’all asked, a sudden sense of fury boiling up inside him.
“I wasn’t there, my Lord, but the spies who survived the fighting say Qwii Nagani’s ship arrived at the planet just moments after the attack began.”
“The Nagani are a plague on the universe,” G’all growled. “But no match for Tradd. They are a careful, calculating species. And Qwii’s ship is no match for a warship.”
“Yes, my Lord, but his new apprentice is a warrior. It was he who killed Hannoi.”
“Who is this new apprentice?”
“A human, sire, the first of his kind. The spies say he infiltrated Tradd’s ship, stopped the pod invasion with hundreds of the mercenaries still in the bomb bay, and managed to slay the sky serpent.”
“Impossible,” G’all said. “One lone fighter did all of that?”
“It appears so,” Fors’No replied. “I risked exposure to see the destruction on Vodex myself. The academy has fallen just as you predicted, but in the plain beyond the mountains there is a crater. Tradd Kulkan’s ship lays in ruins within it.”
G’all wanted to destroy something. He was powerful enough to do it too. He could alter the orbit of moons. His strength was not enough to alter the position of planets yet, but in time, he would become the most powerful Fray in the universe. But it wasn’t just his power over gravity that made him deadly. He was a brilliant strategist. And he had an advantage over the rest of the universe. G’all Gotha was in contact with the Shinning One himself, the source of all power. Under the tutelage of the Great Savior, he would thwart the Order of Scion, crush their false beliefs, and seize control of the universe. Every being on every inhabited planet would worship him. But somehow, an acolyte had thwarted his plan. Tradd was arrogant, and lazy, but a useful lieutenant. The Kulkan was ancient, but too self-centered to be a threat to G’all Gotha. He was content being a minor player. As long as G’all stroked the Kulkan’s ego, Tradd would do whatever was needed. Losing him gave G’all pause.
“This changes nothing,” G’all said. “The Order of Scion will do exactly as I predicted. They are a weak confederation too tied to their traditions to stop our plans.”
“Yes, Lord Gotha,” Fors’No said, bowing again.
“But this human, what is it called?”
“I do not know, sire.”
“Find out. You must learn everything you can about it, and about where it comes from. I will not tolerate failure. And any being that stands in our way must be crushed. We may need to alter our plans and destroy this human’s world.”
“I will find out all there is to know,” Fors’No promised.
“Yes, that is now your complete focus,” G’all ordered. “Find them, study them, and report every weakness to me.”
“And the great assembly, sire?”
“I have other faithful warriors in place to ensure we strike the killing blow,” G’all Gotha said. “Our plans move forward. We will exterminate the Order of Scion, and rid the galaxy of their false beliefs.”
“Shall it be so,” Fors’No said reverently with another bow.
The hologram disappeared. G’all returned to his seat. He sat down, leaning forward, deep in thought. No one should have been able to board Tradd’s battleship. It was a vessel constructed for war, with strong defenses. But a single creature, acting independently was not imagined to be a threat and therefore not guarded against. Tradd’s arrogance only made the matter worse. He would not have had adequate protection. G’all vowed not to make the same mistake. A great leader had less to fear from his enemies, than from those closest to him. It was a reminder that he could never lose his focus, could never allow anyone else to get too close to him. G’all was an incredibly powerful individual, but in close quarters anyone was vulnerable.
He took his time considering every angle of his plan. If Qwii Nagani had arrived at Vodex, it could be only coincidence. Tradd’s ship would have intercepted any calls for help. G’all had studied Vodex a long, long time before deciding that it would be his first target. There were ships that came and went from the academy on a regular basis, but not so many that he considered them a threat to his plan. Most Order of Scion vessels had no armaments of any kind. They relied solely on their gravitic powers, which Tradd was strong enough to counter. The key to the attack had been the pods. Dropping them near the academy should have kept the instructors busy while Tradd fired on the mountains. That was the real threat. And it seems to have worked just as G’all had predicted.
