James Somers - The rise of Lucin

Kale wasn't even acknowledging the rebel commanders except to try and protect them. He charged toward Viche with his blade held high. The men reached for him as he pushed toward the bewildered Captain Viche. Kale was too fast for their attempt to restrain him, seconds were passing like hours. Viche went for his blaster pistol strapped on his side. He wouldn't have made it, Kale was already pushing between Viche and another man trying to get past them-a figure was forming from the dust of the ground behind the group.

The Agonotti warrior had only just congealed his form when Kale landed the first strike with his ignited Barudii blade. The warrior was covered by the same morphing exoskeleton Kale had seen on them inside the first underground rebel hangar. He had learned the weakness of their armor in that encounter and wasted no time exploiting it, striking a deep thrust into the joint between the deltoid plate and the left pectoralis plate. He drove the ignited blade up to three quarters of the way in. The Agonotti howled in pain as Kale sliced sideways to remove it through his chest, doing even more fatal damage.

Laser fire erupted all over the valley floor as seemingly thousands of Agonotti materialized among the rebel forces. The rebels present, were utilizing a heavier version of blaster rifle than those he had seen them using before. The rebels were retreating into groups, covering each other in all directions as the Agonotti tried to close in. It wasn't going to be as easy as might have been expected; the rebel blaster rifles were being fired in short bursts that was doing damage to the Agonotti.

Kale was fighting furiously, with Juli in tow. He was trying to find some safe place to take her, but the battle was raging in every direction he turned toward. The Agonotti were taking down the stray soldiers with ease utilizing their melee weapons, but it was the small groups of rebels putting up the most resistance.

Kale spotted Jael and Merab and headed for them, trying to protect Juli as best as he could. An Agonotti warrior materialized behind them and snatched Juli from his grasp, hurling her several feet through the air as he focused on bringing his large, spiked mace to bear on the young Barudii warrior. Kale dodged allowing the head of the mace to chunk into the ground next to him. He swiftly severed the mace's chain and in the same stroke, he hurled his blade between the breastplates of the Agonotti's armor. The Agonotti staggered and Kale hit the creature with a massive kinetic burst that sent it reeling away to the ground some feet away. He ran to help Juli up from the ground and called his weapon from the disintegrating body of the Agonotti. The blade leapt away to find Kale's hand as he continued his move to reach his Horva companions, Jael and Merab.

LUCIN watched with his troops from the edge of the plateau, where it began to descend steadily into the valley. Laser fire was erupting everywhere on the new battlefield. The Agonotti were disintegrating and materializing according to their special abilities and doing a great deal of damage both to the rebel soldiers and their transport vehicles, but it was not to the extent he had hoped to see. The rebels were actually holding their own in the fight and it surprised him.

"It looks as though my brethren cannot complete the job without my help," said Lucin under his breath.

All of his thousands were ready to descend into the fray at his command. Storm clouds were gathering over head. The wind began to whip up as the weather system gained very steady strength. How odd, Lucin thought, the sky was clear only moments ago. Perhaps, he thought, the weather is freakish here as it sometimes had been on the twin worlds of Castai. He turned to his troops who were kneeling in row upon row, with their weapons at the ready.

"We Attack!!" shouted Lucin as he stood up and drew the Barudii blade he had procured back on Castai-an elegant weapon in the right hands. He charged forward down the natural incline toward the battle raging below, his body still clad in the morphing black armor, an extension of his inner symbyte form. The masses of troops following after Lucin had not been assimilated long enough to be able to form the living armor in them, but it was definitely on his list of things to do once this battle was won and the planet secured. Lucin intended to reform this new human army into the likeness of his former Baruk clan army. They had been a terrible force to contend with. He would regain that power and more. The only world that remained unaffected by his forces was the home-world of the Vorn clan, Demigoth.

He had never set foot on the planet, neither with a human host. Demigoth was virgin territory. The Vorn military had been in covenant under the Baruk for control of the twin worlds of Castai, but they still maintained complete control of Demigoth, at least for now. Lucin and his troops raged toward the ongoing battle, ready to tip the balance of power and destroy the rebels and the Barudii once and for all.

TIET, Wynn and Grod had passed through the mountains only moments ago and were heading out over the plateau to the north of the Valley of Sayir. The signal the trio had been monitoring of a mass of indeterminate life readings suddenly changed when they cleared the mountains. The signal strength became very strong and Wynn was the first to report it to the others. "Do you see it? The scan says those signals are definitely human."

"It must be Lucin's ground army, but where are the big ships?" asked Tiet.

"The army is moving into the valley. Maybe Lucin realized the large cruisers would alert the rebels to his presence. Now, he seems to have surprise on his side."

"I'm reading something else," said Wynn. "There's a multiplicity of gunfire down in the valley already."

"I'm trying to reach the Equinox," said Tiet. It took a moment of silence before Emil's voice came through Tiet's cockpit speaker saying, "Yes, sir, this is Emil. The Agonotti are attacking!"

The Agonotti! "Emil, where's my wife and Kale?"

"Dr. K'ore is here on the ship with Ramah and Kale was out in the Valley meeting with the rebel commanders when the attack came. Merab and Jael are out there with him and Juli and I'm on my way now to help them."

"No! Emil, I want you to stay with my wife and Ramah. They'll need someone to protect them in case the Agonotti get to the Equinox."

"Yes, sir, I'll protect them with my life!" swore Emil.

"I have every confidence that you will. Your father and Wynn and I are inbound right now from the north. We are coming up on thousands of ground forces coming into the valley. We think it may be Lucin's forces, but we're going to try and slow them down."

"Understood," said Emil and he signed off.

Tiet spoke again to his friends flying in formation with him and said, "I spoke with Emil. The Agonotti are attacking in the valley already. They must be coordinating with Lucin and his human army."

"If they are what Aija has told us, then it makes sense," said Grod.

"We're coming up fast on Lucin's forces. Let's dump everything we've got left on them," said Tiet.

"I've got some missiles left," said Grod

"Just unload everything into their ranks," said Tiet. "We'll make multiple passes and see if we can thin out their ranks a little before they can intermingle with our people."

The three ships shuddered as the sheering forces of the increasing wind began to whip at their aerial fighters. They could see the ominous weather system hovering over the Valley of Sayir and it appeared to be growing quickly in intensity. Tiet led the other fighters in a descent towards Lucin's ground forces as thousands of symbyte assimilated humans ran hard for the raging battle ahead.

Tiet and the others triggered their weapons sending missiles and automatic laser fire into the sea of Lucin's army. Multiple explosions rocked the landscape sending bodies into the air, and more were cut down in mid-stride by the assault of pulse cannons from the three aerial fighters.