James Somers - The rise of Lucin

"You don't look so good," said Wynn. "Are you alright?"

"I guess that's the thing about walking by faith," replied Tiet. "It's never easy."

THE ship was shaking pretty badly by now. The turbines were screaming for mercy as the engine core temperature began to overcome the cooling system and climb into the high range.

"I think they're gaining on us," said Emil, from back in the troop compartment.

"I wonder how many there are?"

"I can't be sure, but the cloud doesn't look nearly as big as the time we were here before. How far are we from the city?"

"According to the satellite feed, after these mountains, we'll be crossing through the plains of Jezerit and then we'll hit the city perimeter," said Kale.

"Well, we had better hurry, this thing sounds like its going to fly apart any time," said Emil as he turned away from the side window.

He came back up to the cockpit with Kale. The ship began to pass through light cloud cover around the mountains. "Too bad we don't have really heavy clouds," said Emil. "Maybe we could lose them."

"I don't know if that would work or not, but like you said, this ship doesn't have what it takes to keep ahead of them. According to the map we're coming out of the mountains and into the plains now."

The white vapor obscuring all foresight began to part before them as the ship cleared the last peak. "Oh boy, this is not good," said Emil as they finally got a view of the plains of Jezerit.

A massive troop deployment was in progress in the distance and large Vorn warships were the most distinct objects-several of them were hovering directly in their flight path toward the city.

"Those are our ships!" said Kale.

"And our people-what do we do?"

Kale searched the control panel and said, "I don't think this ship has any decent scanning devices on board. When those cruisers lock on target we won't even know it."

"Since they're symbyte controlled, you know they'll shoot at us."

"Absolutely, but maybe we can make it a little more difficult for them to act on the urge," said Kale.

As they approached the army assembling on the ground, Kale broke his flight path and dove straight at the masses of ground troops.

"What kind of plan is this?!" shouted Emil as he struggled to fasten his flight harness.

"I figure if they want to take potshots at us, then they can take the risk of shooting their own people."

The transport groaned as the gravitational forces played against the hull. They fell to an altitude of thirty feet as Kale leveled out the ship, swooping over the heads of the symbyte controlled soldiers below.

Streams of automatic pulse fire poured upward from the soldiers as they tried to take down the aggressive ship. Many soldiers ducked for cover as the transport steadily descended upon them. The hull was taking a pounding even without fire from the big ships.

"Lower the landing skids," said Kale.

Emil smiled back at his friend. "Now, that's what I'm talking about!"

He pressed the panel button and the control motors could be heard lowering the skids. Almost instantly the ship began to quiver and shake as the extended skids pounded mercilessly through the ground troops that weren't thoughtful enough to throw themselves to the ground.

By the time they had flown three quarters of the way through the soldiers, almost all of the remaining troops ahead had flattened themselves across the ground to avoid being hit. Kale and Emil's ship left a bloody trail in its wake and the landing gear became torn and twisted from multiple impacts.

"I think we're going to make it!" said Kale as they shot away from the ground deployment and headed into the outskirts of Sector city.

Huge pulse laser blasts began to race past them, smashing into the surrounding buildings and shattering them like glass.

"The big cruisers are firing on us!" shouted Emil over the explosions.

Kale was flying erratically and fast as he fought to make their ship a wild target.

"If we can just get further into the city-" he said.

But it wouldn't happen. A blast from the big guns on the Vorn ships incinerated the corner of a nearby building as Kale managed to get the ship around it. The residual energy and debris smashed into the tail end of the transport. They were going down fast.

"Hold on, we're gonna hit hard!"

LUCIN waded through a trail of crimson with a pair of binocs against his eyes as the cannons, from his battle cruisers overhead, pummeled the outlying buildings of Sector City. They were tracking the rogue transport that had appeared out of nowhere and cut a swathe of destruction through his troop deployment. One of the last blasts connected and the ship plummeted fast, trailing its shattered aft section and a plume of flame and smoke. It fell out of view, but the impact could be heard several seconds later.

"I want them!" he shouted.

Around him were the writhing bodies of many of his symbyte controlled soldiers-mortally wounded and gasping their last, completely unable to obey the dominant voice crying out inside their minds.

"Commander!" shouted Lucin into his headset.

"Yes, sir?"

"I want a team of pods sent to investigate the wreckage immediately. I want prisoners or bodies-understood?"

"Absolutely, sir."

A shadow began to cross the plains, veiling the Lucin in its darkness. Lucin looked up at it and a villainous smile crossed his face as he recognized its true nature. Walking back through his troops, in the direction of the cloud, Lucin used his mental dominance to command the humans out of his way.

They parted before him leaving a large area around their Mithrial leader. Then he called out mentally to the boiling mass of spirits hovering overhead. Come to me my brothers. The response was almost instantaneous.

The cloud began to dissipate rapidly as spires shot down to the ground around Lucin, forming powerful Agonotti warriors ready for battle. "How dare you to address us as brothers, human?"

Lucin stared confidently at the one speaking to him as nearly fifty of the warriors encircled him. He had mentally instructed his own human soldiers to make no aggressive moves against them. Power emanated from Lucin's being as he felt his own spiritual power accentuated by the presence of his Mithrial brethren. Then the Agonotti warrior shifted from a commanding stance to one of apprehension.

"Who are you?!" the warrior asked.

"I am Lucin, my brothers."

"Lucin? That isn't possible."

"Are you sure of that?"

Lucin sent out his thoughts to his thousands of soldiers on the ground, while allowing the Agonotti to perceive the mental commands. Hundreds of pulse rifle gun bolts quickly locked into firing position in a consecutive wave around them. A group of pods headed away from a fighter bay on one of the large battle cruisers hovering overhead.

The Agonotti warriors turned to find seemingly every gun possible aimed right at them-thousands of humans moved by this man's will alone. "Can it be true? How can you be our former master?" asked another of the Agonotti.

"There is much to discuss my brothers, but surely this is not all of you. Bring the others to me at this place and we will discuss our mutual rise to power."

"But you don't-"

Lucin cut them off as he turned and walked away, leaving them puzzled and unsure of their next action.

"Bring the others to me!" he shouted back as he proceeded through the ranks of his soldiers.

The guns were still trained on them. It was an unexpected turn of events for the Agonotti scout team, but Vock would know what to do. One by one they dematerialized, reforming the mist they traveled in, and began to move away-back toward the place where their leader was waiting to hear news of the transport chase.