James Somers - The rise of Lucin

The aerogores flooded out into the street in a rage of bloodlust, screeching to one another as they sought their prey.

Kale and Emil ran into another nearby hollow of a building as the aerogores flew after them. Surprisingly, the glass entryway was still intact-no way in but to go through it. A thought was all that was sent to smash through one of the large panes ahead of them, allowing the boys to proceed inside unhindered. A staircase led upward from the left. They took it-leaping over whole flights at a time, trying to put as much distance as possible between predator and prey.

The brownish scaled aerogores smashed through the entire entryway to the building in mass numbers, each several times the size of a man and winged at mid-body, sending glass and metal framing in every direction inside the building's huge lobby. Those leading the reptilian pack quickly spotted the boys and hurled streams of flame upward at them. They were just beyond range of the searing chemical spray that mixed and ignited in mid-air just beyond the aerogore's faces.

TIET watched the display nervously as the technician adjusted the settings on the orbital satellite. Their group had successfully made it to the Sector City base and had found it to be enormous in comparison with what they had already seen under the rebel's control. Tiet had not been able to reach his son or Emil through their collar pins and he was terribly worried.

"I think I've patched into the Maxus uplink," said a rebel technician. "I should be able to get a live feed of the city now."

Seismic disruptions had been picked up from the sensors throughout the city and were all available through their base computer systems.

"There!" said Alec as the image zeroed in on a commotion in the city.

Relief and panic hit Tiet all at the same time as he saw two young men in Castillian uniforms leaping from rooftop to rooftop, but they had heavy pursuit.

"What are those things?!" said Tiet.

"Aerogores," said Alec. "They're very deadly flying versions of the larger teragores."

"We've got to get the boys out of there fast."

"What about a transgate portal?" asked Wynn.

"I've got something better," said Alec. "You could use one of our recall transmitters-you can teleport in utilizing a localized gate and then once you've got a hold of them, hit the recall and it will bring you directly back here."

"I'll go," said Wynn quickly.

"No offense, but you'll never catch the boys on foot, Wynn," said Tiet.

"Well, you're still suffering from your injuries," he countered.

"To get them back, I'll weather a little discomfort."

"I'm in too," said Grod, walking into the room.

They smiled; glad to see their old friend had arrived safely at the base.

"Then let's go."

STREAMS of flame poured out of the sky at the boys as they leapt to another rooftop. Their only shelter was the various chimney stacks that jutted up out of the buildings. Kale and Emil ducked and weaved through them as they fled from the vicious airborne raptors dogging their steps.

A flash of light caught Emil's eye to their right. Two men were emerging out of thin air onto the rooftop of one of the buildings nearby-one light skinned and one dark.

"Father!" he shouted, drawing Kale's attention to them as well.

Both pairs of warriors were running across the rooftops in parallel.

"We've got to intercept them!" said Emil.

The young men adjusted their path and began to head for their fathers who were doing the same, several buildings away. The aerogores were a dozen strong in the skies overhead; reigning down their lethally combustible chemical mixture. A trail of singed asphalt and burning debris was left in the wake of the two young warriors as the flying predators sought to catch them.

The aerogores were several times the size of a man and had great leathery wings and four legs. They were rare to find anywhere near civilization, but extremely lethal and nasty tempered. The various obstacles the boys were ducking and weaving through presented some problems for their aerial attack, but they weren't going to give up.

Kale and Emil were only two buildings away from their approaching fathers now. As they approached another ledge and began to make the jump across, an aerogore swooped up from between the buildings trying to catch a meal. Emil sailed into the air toward the beast, adjusting his flight just enough to dodge the stream of chemical flame that erupted toward him. He bounded off of the top of the creature's head and cleared to the next rooftop.

Kale was right behind, sending his blade whirling ahead as the creature appeared. Just as Emil's foot touched off of the great lizard, Kale's blade sank into its head. Kale cleared the predator as it began to fall out of the sky; screeching in agony all the way to its death.

As the boys ran across the rooftop, Grod appeared from behind one of the structures-it was a small building labeled hazardous chemicals. Kale looked for his own father, who quickly appeared on the other side of the roof. They ran for each other as more streams of flame came splashing down on the roof after them.

Seeing their prey regrouping, the aerogores began to land on the building with their wings folded back to enable short fast sprints for the prized meal.

Grod and Emil ducked into the small building as the reptiles closed in on foot. Tiet noticed the warning written all over the structure.

"NO! Grod get out of there!!"

The aerogores spat flame at the structure which quickly erupted with tremendous force; killing the predators near it. Tiet grabbed his recall pack as the other aerogores closed in for the kill. They were so close-Tiet grabbed his son and leapt out over the side of the building, tapping the recall as they left the ground with aerogores lunging for them. But the beasts caught only air as the pair dematerialized out of their grasp.

LUCIN stood in the desolate streets of Sector city. Nearby were the pods that he had sent to bring back the pilots of the troop transport that had killed quite a few of his soldiers three hours earlier. The ship was found demolished in the street a few blocks away, but no blood or bodies were found.

Several of his men were running back out of the building in front of the abandoned pods, toward him. A few of the men were deathly pale and two more were leaning against the devastated building vomiting into the street.

"Well, Lieutenant?"

"They're-they're all dead, sir," he said gasping for breath. "Some sort of flying reptiles. It looks like they stumbled into a nest of them. Some of the creatures are dead inside and all of our people are scattered in pieces everywhere."

Lucin did not pretend to feel any loss for his human soldiers. They were completely dispensable as far as he was concerned. "And what about the pilots of that ship, are they among the dead?"

"It's difficult to say, but I don't think so-only our men, sir."

"Then they are still alive," he said as he began to pace. "I want them found, immediately."

"We'll begin a search of the surrounding area, sir."

"The entire city will be searched if need be, Lieutenant. I want them. No one is going to be allowed to insult me this way." He turned and looked back at his Lieutenant. "Is that clear?"

"Crystal, sir," said the Lieutenant and then he spoke into his communication link, barking orders for the deployment of more troops. "I want pod squadrons ready in ten minutes. I want continuous sweeps of the city by section until the pilots of that transport ship are found."

Lucin scanned the skyline. Something moved on a high building ledge a block away-it was watching them. He called out mentally to the creature and it perceived his call-the creature leapt away from its perch into a dive toward the pavement. As the reptilian sailed toward their group, gun bolts began to lock into place."