James Somers - Heir to the King

He remained as motionless beneath the wreckage as possible. He concentrated, his mind taking in the entire area. The soldiers were mostly Vorn, yet they weren't. Something was alien about them and the Castillian soldiers with them. It was like the body was proper but the mind controlling them was joined one to another like one mind controlling them all in a way.

Then it hit him. It was the same sense he had of the Baruk. The creatures that inhabited them were still alive. He felt for a weapon and found one two feet away under some of the wreckage. Time to act.

With his mind he raised the entire room full of wreckage, in a massive burst of motion, along with the soldiers standing on top of it. Wynn stood up as he called the kemstick to his hand and ignited the extended post.

The soldiers were returning to the ground along with the rubble as he began to whirl through the rainstorm of dust and debris cutting through the symbyte possessed soldiers. Others were approaching fast from outside of his demolished home. He deflected several blasts, then retreated into another portion of the home that was still standing. The symbyte soldiers pursued him hard, like hounds on the hunt. They reached the innermost portion of the room as he escaped through a window. He returned a mental command that blew out the supports that remained and dropped the rest of the house on his pursuers; more were on the way.

He could head right into them and try to kill as many as possible or try to escape and reach Tiet's home. These things would certainly be on the attack at the king's residence if they were going all out here.

His estate was near the airway and overlooked it to the east. He ran for it as the soldiers began to come beyond the wreckage of his home after him. The hill had a wall across it that prevented someone from falling over the edge into the airway lanes below. He jumped up to it and down on the narrow ledge on the other side as laser fire blasted into the wall near his position. Below him, shuttles and transports of every sort sped along the airway lanes in two directions.

The chances of successfully landing on one of the small transports without serious injury were not very good. Then he spotted a large bus transport. It was still moving pretty fast but the margin for error was more acceptable. Laser fire was eating away at the wall as the soldiers approached; they weren't taking any chances. Wynn leapt away and guided himself over to the bus. The transport's speed jerked his feet out from under him and he rolled backward and landed hard, but he was still on board.

The soldiers came to the top of the wall looking for him, but he wasn't sure whether or not they actually spotted him on top of the transport. It was going the right direction to get him to Tiet's home, but it would take about ten minutes. He hoped it would get him there in time to help them.

"WHAT is it?" asked Emil.

"Don't you feel it?"

"No."

"Don't worry, that will come in time. Grab some real weapons and follow me."

Kale headed for the main room of the house with Emil in tow close behind.

Mirah went to the door to answer the chime. When she opened it soldiers were all over the place. They raised their weapons as she turned to run for cover. The blasts caught her full force and sent her flying across the floor under her own momentum. The soldiers at the door poured into the room after her.

"How is she?" asked one of the soldiers as another knelt to check her.

"She's alive."

"Alright. Let's retrieve the boy. All weapons on stun, men. The boy is not to be harmed."

The soldier kneeling beside Mirah stood to his feet again and went to raise his weapon. A flash of light severed half of the rifle from the rest and took off his head. Kale was a blur. His thoughts brought the door slamming shut on the soldier standing in the doorway. He slumped down the wall with cracked ribs and sternum as the door released him again. Soldiers from behind kicked it back open and rushed in with their rifles blazing. They ran into the room but couldn't find anyone.

Kale looked down on them from his suspended position against the ceiling. He dropped right into the middle of them with twin sticks blazing. He cut down several before they could fire a shot. But more were rushing in as they saw him engage the others. They fired their rifles right into the crowd taking down their own men in an attempt to get him. He used the soldiers still standing around him as a shield to get away.

More soldiers began to file through the door. Then a number of live spicors flew at them from Emil's hand on another side of the main room. The discs exploded, cutting down most of the soldiers coming through the doorway.

Kale used Emil's attack to take the opportunity to scoop up his mother. He hoisted her to his shoulder and headed back toward his own training room with Emil coming through the room to follow. They shut the door behind them.

"What's going on? Those are our soldiers out there."

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right about them. Maybe the Vorn council has decided to stage a coupe against Father."

"Too bad he's not here now."

"Maybe there's a reason for that. Right now we better get Mother out of here. I think they've only stunned her; they must mean to capture us."

"The transport!"

"Let's go. You drive."

"Right."

They headed out of the other side of the room into a garage area that housed the transports. Emil raised the canopy on the transport they had planned on using to go on their post-trial outing.

"Hey, look," said Emil pointing to another ship across the hangar.

"The Whiplash! We'll take that instead."

"Do you have access codes for your father's ship?"

"Are you kidding? Father had me flying this thing as soon as I could reach all of the controls."

Kale opened up a hatch behind the navigation area of the two man cockpit and slid his mother inside. The compartment was used to carry a wounded person and have them better protected beneath the ship's thicker armor plates. He closed the compartment and keyed in the code to raise the canopy. He and Emil jumped inside.

"I'll fly this one," said Kale."

"I thought you might say that."

"You take the weapons console up front."

"Aye, Captain."

The canopy came back down again as Kale fired up the engines and other systems came on line. Emil placed the targeting lens on his head and adjusted it to his eye. The targeting icon blinked to life as the forward cannons began to track his head movements.

"Here they come," said Kale looking toward the access door from the house.

Soldiers began to file through it with their weapons trained on the ship.

Emil activated one of the wing turrets which immediately tracked with the lens toward the soldiers. The cannon blazed to life with fast repeating laser blasts from the rotating barrel assembly, cutting the soldiers down in a moment.

"Let's get out of here," said Kale as he raised the ship off of the platform and began to move it toward the hangar opening ahead. A Vorn troop transport came into view ahead of them, trying to come into the garage bay.

"Shred it!"

"I'm on it!" said Emil as he activated the forward cannons.

Rapid laser fire filled the troop transport's cockpit causing it to burst outward. The transport dropped out of the way as Kale moved the Whiplash out of the garage bay and punched it-they sprang away from the area fast.

"Where do we go now?" asked Emil.

"We'll head for Wynn's and see if he knows where Father is and what's going on."

WYNN heard a familiar engine sound as the airbus continued to carry him toward the Soone home. He could see Tiet's ship blasting away from their home fast. The Whiplash came around hard and sailed by overhead as Wynn flailed his arms to flag them down. Apparently they did not see him.