James Somers - The rise of Lucin

Everything around the ship flashed. In a moment the murky scene of torn transports, fire and smoke was replaced by the brightness of day above ground. The sudden transport into sunshine was a little painful to the eyes, but still a welcome sight.

They could see that many of the ships were already on the surface, but there seemed to be no direction as to the intended destination for the group. Aerogores still mingled among them-the foul creatures weren't giving up their prey so easily.

Suddenly, a massive burst of energy impacted with the side of a building near the place where the ships were emerging from the underground hangar. It shattered the old dilapidated structure to pieces.

"What is that?!" shouted Merab.

"My guess is that those Vorn cruisers are firing on us from the plains beyond the city," said Emil.

"I'm picking up something else," said Merab as he surveyed his scan readouts. "It looks like several hundred pods are heading this way from the same area beyond the city."

"I'm taking us in," said Kale. "Let's see if we can provide some cover fire until everyone can get above ground."

BY the time the warrior trio reached the door to the corridor indicated on Wynn's schematic, they were all winded. The aerogores were still somewhere behind them and continuing the chase.

"This is it," said Wynn as he tried to make out the details in the low light.

Tiet ignited his weapon and proceeded to cut a portal through the electrically controlled door. As soon as the piece fell through, they were hit with a horrible odor coming from the corridor beyond.

"Oh man! What is that smell?"

"I know that odor," said Grod. "It smells like an aerogore nesting site."

He proceeded through the cut portal ahead of them, peering cautiously into the dark corridor before moving completely through. Wynn and Tiet were puzzled, but they followed their friend on through with their own weapons at the ready.

Something was squishing under their feet. Tiet lowered his lit blade to cast the glow on the floor. Oh great, droppings.

"Don't slip," said Wynn as he came up behind him.

He might have thought it funny if they weren't potentially creeping toward their own deaths in the chamber up ahead. There was absolutely no light at all. They had seen the last of the emergency lighting back before entering this corridor. It seemed like no people had been in this remote corner of the base in years. He remained close enough to illuminate Grod's back with his blade and Wynn was on his heels, but walking sideways against the wall to be sure nothing came at them from the darkness behind.

The horrible stench was only getting stronger as they approached what was supposed to be an auxiliary hangar with a clear designated opening to the outside, at least according to the map.

"Are you sure about this Wynn?" asked Tiet in a low whisper.

"This is what the schematic says. I only hope there are still ships stored down here."

"And that they're in working condition."

Grod stopped ahead of them. "I think there are some controls here," he whispered.

He stepped off to the side as the corridor opened up into the other room. They couldn't see anything beyond the glow of Tiet's blade. It appeared to be a vast chamber and descended downward beyond the railing they were standing near. Grod raised the computer display mounted in the forearm of his uniform and clicked the power on to cast some light on the panel he was looking at. He tapped a few keys on the board and it began to illuminate its own controls.

"Power is coming on," said Tiet.

"They must have an alternate power source for this bay-good thinking on someone's part," said Wynn.

The self illuminating of the control panels began to run off of the panel before Grod and continued on many more along the walls of what appeared to be a control booth for the hangar. The overhead lights blinked on in the booth around them revealing an aerogore waking on the floor near Grod. It screeched and sprang toward the Horva general. He reflexively brought his glove up and swatted at the beast. Its powerful head knocked Grod into the air and over the railing as the lights continued to come on inside the chamber.

Tiet was quick to slash into the beast. He got a strike to the aerogore's face and barely recoiled ahead of its claws as it defended itself. He somersaulted over the reptile, driving his blade deep in between the beast's shoulder blades into the heart as he went; landing against one of the control panels on the other side. He found a place of attachment and clung to the face of the panel as the aerogore went into a wild spasm and died.

Wynn was already at the railing searching for Grod. Tiet grabbed his blade as he jumped over the carcass and landed next to his elder.

"Help me!" shouted Grod as he hung from a lower portion of the railing that spiraled along the chambers outer wall.

The Barudii raised him safely with their thoughts, bringing him back to stand beside them.

"Thank you."

The main lighting for the chamber was on now and they could see that it had been a great while since any humans had been to that portion of the base. There were droppings everywhere; especially along the bay floor below. There appeared to be twenty fighter craft in the bay, although the majority of the ships were ruined. Most appeared to have been used as aerogore play toys and were beaten and stripped apart; chewed on and defecated upon.

The men hurried along the ramp, cautiously investigating their surroundings for more predators. "It looks like the rest of them are all inside the base," said Wynn.

"This is definitely a nest," said Grod. "They love caves and places like this where they can rest undisturbed and then use the dark of night to hunt by."

"How do you know so much about these things?" asked Tiet as they came to the tarmac at the lowest level.

"My campaigns with the Vorn military-we fought on several different worlds. The Vorn home-world of Demigoth also has aerogores indigenous to it."

"That looks like the way out," said Wynn, pointing to an orifice in the chamber above them.

"Now we just have to see if there are three working fighters in this mess."

MERAB was blasting away at the aerogores, but they were difficult targets to hit. Buildings were being blown to pieces around them by the big Vorn cruiser in the plains beyond Sector City and over a hundred pods were on their way to intercept their convoy of ships.

"I've got the Maelstrom!" shouted Emil over the noise of explosions. "Captain Viche is online!"

"Captain Viche, this is Kale Soone, the son of the king. We have to get everyone away from that cruiser firing on us from the eastern outskirts of the city."

"I understand. We had better head west, away from them. There is a place we can regroup some distance from here; the valley of Sayir," said Viche. "The other rebel forces were rendezvousing there already before coming on to Sector City. I will let them know our situation and have them wait for us there."

"That sounds good. Please transmit the coordinates to the others while we try to provide some cover for you."

"I'll notify all of our ships," said Viche. "Lord willing, we'll see you there, young master. Maelstrom out."

"The coordinates are coming through now," said Emil.

"Good. Keep trying to raise my father. We've got to let him know where we are headed."

"Those pods are closing in fast," said Jael.

"Merab, send the scans of the pods into the auto-targeting system and set it to fire at will!"

"Kale, I've got your father online," said Emil.

"Great!" he said, relieved that his father was safe. "Send him the coordinates for the valley and tell him we'll be meeting the rest of our forces there."