Chris Randolph - Stars Rain Down

With a thought, a tube on Sal’s shoulder launched a bright green flare into the air, signaling an all clear at her position. Then she and her squad hunkered down behind the battlements and opened fire.

Jack and his team sat atop a low ridge more than two kilometers out beyond the line. Human and Oikeyan alike watched the battle from relative safety, filled with disappointment, sadness and hopelessness. The one thing Jack was sure of was that he’d failed. The thought turned his stomach.

The arrival of strange warships and armored soldiers left them all baffled.

“You’re even better than I thought,” Kai said. “I really believed you didn’t have a fleet.” He trailed off with his weird laugh.

“We didn’t,” Jack said. “I don’t know who they are. Are those Nefrem forces?”

“No. I mean, there’s a resemblance but it’s superficial. Whoever they are, they’re good, though. Very, very good.”

“So that’s it,” Charlie said. “The cavalry arrives and we win. No offense to your alien buddies, but I’m not exactly heartbroken. We should have a beer and call it a day.”

Kai shook his head. “You think the legion will be routed? You expect them to just pack up and leave? They haven’t even begun to fight yet.”

He pointed out into the distance, where the adolescent city Yuon Kwon was only a thin, hazy silhouette. “This will escalate, I promise you that. Armored Alarhya will come out of the city, and airborne reinforcements are already on their way. Expect carpet bombing if things don’t look up soon.”

“So who’s going to win?” Nikitin asked.

“I honestly can’t say,” Kai said solemnly, “but the one thing I can guarantee is more needless death. Deadlocks are never good for either side. In a war of attrition, there are only losers.”

“So, how do you break a deadlock?” Jack asked of no one in particular.

“Give one side an advantage,” Charlie said.

“Or present both sides with a bigger threat,” Kai added.

Then, right at that moment, Jack was struck by an idea. It was, without doubt, the worst idea he’d ever had. It was perhaps the most terrible idea anyone had ever had in the grand and illustrious history of bad ideas.

That was how he knew it was going to work.

Kai sprinted out across the open steppe, the immense strength in his legs driving him nearly as fast the fighter jets above. Each stride covered tens of meters, and he hadn’t even worked up a sweat yet.

He would soon enough.

As he came to the human side of the battle lines, he accelerated, and in several large leaps, moved from one embankment to the next, bypassing the soldiers completely and continuing into the scarred no-man’s land beyond. Strange weapons exploded all around, blasting soil hundreds of meters into the air, but Kai was too fast. Too agile. He danced through the field, analyzing thousands of barking weapons, and calculated the safest path through. He was built for this task.

A continuous hail of hot metal surrounded him, but he weaved through it. He was in his element, and no creature on the battlefield could match him. He wasn’t there to fight, though. This was just an obstacle course on the way to his objective. A warm-up.

He engaged his camouflage as he approached the Oikeyan side and became a ghost. The effect was imperfect, but combined with his fantastic speed and the chaos of battle, it made him virtually undetectable.

Hidden in broad daylight, he launched himself high into the air and used the fighting Yuon Kwon as terrain, leaping from the armored shell of one to the next. This part of his mission was so easy it was practically a game.

Then he came to the charred remains of the human settlement, which had burnt brightly throughout the night but was now reduced to smoking cinders. He sprinted at top speed, ignoring the ruins under foot and the human drop pods spitting fire over his head. He cut a path straight for the Ark.

As Kai came to the final stretch, he dug down deep, found the last reserve of extra power lurking inside him, and charged. He charged with everything he had. His feet ground deep into the ruined soil and the wind howled as he blasted through the thick air. He coiled his fist back and exploded through the titanium-steel door.

The metal groaned and buckled inward. Massive hinges on either side sheered under the force.

He was inside. His mission was half-complete.

Jack and Felix raced through the clotted skies, while a desperate air battle went on all around them. Cuttlefish and the strange transforming fighters chased each other in every direction, burping fire at one another as they careened about and fought for position.

Charlie and Lisa were understandably uncomfortable in the vehicle, while Nikitin was—beyond all sense or reason—having the time of his life. Behind them, Ferash and Dojer held their weapons at ready in case of unwanted followers. It was anyone’s guess how effective their weapons would be, but Dojer’s cannon was better than nothing at all.

The young city Yuon Kwon loomed in the distance, reminding Jack of the flying saucers in every old, cheesy horror movie. The last thing he ever expected was for aliens to show up in actual saucers, yet there they were.

A cuttlefish burst into flames above them and plummeted out of the sky, leaving a trail of burning debris in Felix’s path. It reminded Jack this wasn’t a movie; it was real life, and he was in the middle of a very real battle.

“I know I’ve put you through a lot, but if you could go just a little faster, I’d really appreciate it,” he whispered to his mount.

Felix picked up speed, with a jitter that showed he was straining against his limits.

“Thank you.”

They approached the flying city, a smaller version of the twenty-kilometer monstrosities which had taken up residence at the Earth’s equator. This young one was just over a kilometer in diameter, and was an even more vibrant blue-indigo than its older kin, but was otherwise identical. His interior was only opened a crack, through which damaged cuttlefish returned and fresh ones came out.

The surface of the massive alien creature bristled with cannon banks spraying blue fire, while patches of liquid metal slipped across it to deflect incoming attacks. These were the defensive membranes Kai had mentioned, and their speed was startling.

Pilots in bony Yuon Kwon battle armor came flying out of the ship as Felix approached, and the stream of them never stopped. The six-armed creatures headed off to join the battle, and Jack could only imagine what they must be like in combat.

Luckily, they paid Jack and his team no mind. No one did. To everyone’s surprise, Felix was ignored by both forces equally, and they managed to slip inside without incident.

Even more surprising was the interior of the city Yuon Kwon, which was much different than Jack expected. The stalagmite-like buildings were nowhere to be found, replaced by row upon row of short, squat hangars. That wasn’t the most drastic change, though. The generator towers were opened up like flowers in full bloom, revealing the large and furiously burning stars within, connected to one another by arcing bolts of golden lightning. Each tower was surrounded at the base by an arena-like structure, filled with the silver robed Sey Chen monks, all focused on the miniature stars above them.

With the easy part of the journey out of the way, Jack steered Felix toward the thick nerve bundle at the heart of the Yuon Kwon, and prayed for the best.

Kai navigated the maze of tunnels, and even at his unnatural pace, progress was tedious. His less than stealthy entrance triggered alarms that howled throughout the Ark. Emergency bulkheads closed, creating all new dead-ends and pointless cul-de-sacs. Every corner presented another set of guards with itchy trigger-fingers he had to avoid. They spent more time firing at their own shadows than at Kai, who blew past like a fierce wind.