James Somers - Heir to the King

"What about Mirah and the boys?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I did see the Whiplash running and gunning toward the outskirts of the city, and Kale is the most likely to be flying it."

"You're probably right. We'll concentrate on Tiet and hope for the best."

"Grod, the boys are well-trained, both of them. They'll be alright."

He smiled through the obvious worry he was feeling. "I'm sure you're right. Now let's get to work."

LUCIN walked into the monstrous hangar bay of the main city complex in the form of Estall. Assembled before him was a huge mass of symbyte-controlled soldiers and civilians, at least one hundred thousand of them; all under the influence of his angelic mind.

In all of the twelve cities, groups of symbyte-controlled soldiers and civilians from among both the Castillian and Vorn population were assembled. Lucin spoke to the assembled masses in every city through video feeds and satellite uplink.

"Now is the time. We are ready to ascend to complete power. It is time to assimilate all of those who are not part of my body. Arm yourselves and use stun on our prey if possible. Dead people are of no use to us. However if the warrior Wynn Gareth is found or any of the Horva who might come to his aid, they must be eliminated immediately. The special legion of warriors I have chosen will be with me as we follow the tracking signal and search the wilds for the boy, Kale Soone. Once we have him added to us we will be ready to move beyond this planet and conquer again. Our special envoy is to remain at the detention center guarding the King. He will serve as the bait to lure the Horva into a rescue attempt. Then we will end them. Go now and add to my body."

The legions in every city moved on command and prepared for the night of conquest to come. Every symbyte-controlled man, woman and child headed out into the cities armed for capture or kill. No one would be spared. All would be liberated from their miserable individual existences to the serenity and power of Lucin's collective body. What was taken from the Baruk would be restored more gloriously in these peoples and the Lucin would rule again. The boy was the key. The people were obedient at this point but somewhat disconnected. Kale's powerful mind was what Lucin still needed to connect the people to one another and to him; then they would truly be one.

WYNN watched as the schematics for the detention center scrolled by, until he found the one he wanted. He motioned to the transgate technician to highlight one spot in particular.

"I think this would be a good location to get our team in," said Wynn. "It's a large hall that's behind most of the security barriers and should give us pretty easy access to the chamber where Tiet is being kept."

"What about going into the chamber itself?" asked the technician.

"If Tiet can't get out of there from the inside then we won't be able to either," said Grod. "What about the shield controls for the chamber?"

"We'll have access from the panel in this room," said Wynn as he pointed to a place on the schematic.

"Alright then, load up the destination and prepare to activate the gate."

Grod and Wynn left the console and returned to the jump area. The rest of the strike team was already assembled in the designated area on the chamber floor. There were twenty top notch warriors from among Grod's elite guard, fully outfitted with plasma weapons, blasters, spicors and E.M. shields. The best of the best to rescue the one man they all still considered to be their king.

Wynn and Grod took up positions in the front as the transgate hummed to life. The technician locked the coordinates and punched the controls to establish the gateway. Before them, a wall of light snapped into place between the gate posts. The team all readied their weapons as the light faded and the destination came into view.

"Lets go get our king back!" shouted Grod to the team as he ran through the field with the others following.

Within the assembly hall of the detention center at Baeth Periege a wall of light snapped into existence. The two guards looking on readied their weapons. Two kemsticks whirled out of the energy portal into the symbyte guards before they could make a sound or fire a shot. The kemsticks flashed shut and then rebounded back to Wynn's thigh clips as he ran through the portal. The bodies fell as the team began to come through behind Wynn and Grod.

"Those were the only two guarding this room?" asked Grod.

"Apparently," replied Wynn. "We'll need to follow this walkway over here."

They moved through the door, which-surprisingly-opened up without any access code.

Wynn might have thought it odd if he hadn't been so intent on Tiet's rescue. He looked at the schematic on his wrist bound display as they proceeded toward the control room and Tiet's holding chamber. They had designed the chamber to be impregnable and Wynn himself had been the candidate to test it out. He had never supposed they might actually imprison a Barudii inside of it.

When the last of the Horva soldiers had exited the assembly hall and the door had closed again, another door opened and a lone symbyte-controlled Vorn soldier entered the room. He briefly examined the transgate portal before him and then he reached to a small pack on his back and flipped the arming switch on the fusion bomb he carried, then he ran through the portal.

Within the transgate chamber at Nagon-Toth, a group of special commandos caught the target coming through the portal. The symbyte soldier could only make it a few feet within the chamber before he was cut down by the Horva. But it was enough.

The fusion bomb detonated as they continued to fire on the symbyte soldier. They never felt a thing.

Back within the assembly hall of the detention center, the transgate portal flashed then disappeared.

Wynn and Grod's team continued on toward the control room and encountered minimal resistance getting in. The chamber was completely sealed so that no one could see inside. On the control panel a video feed showed Tiet inside sitting on the floor within a containment field able to dampen the exerted neural energy of his Barudii kinesis.

Wynn punched in his own access code; it was denied as expected. Without further delay he concentrated on the physical controls to the chamber door and began to manipulate them mentally. In moments the locking mechanism gave way. He located the power conduits feeding into the wall of the chamber that controlled the containment field and sliced his blade through them.

Grod opened the chamber door as the field went down around Tiet. He was already up on his feet heading for the door when he spotted Grod. As he joined them in the control room, Wynn tossed him a pair of kemsticks.

"What took you so long?" he asked with a grin on his face.

"Sorry, I got caught up in a game of tag with the military," replied Wynn slyly. "I think the creature that was in control of the Baruk is responsible for all of this."

"Absolutely. Estall, or what used to be Estall, confronted me in the chamber. They set me up for murder to get a clear shot at Kale; they want to use his power for themselves."

"They've already been by your home; I saw the Whiplash gunning toward the outskirts of the city."

"It had to be Kale. I can track the ship's location," he said as he made his way to a control panel keyboard.

"You'd better hurry, the symbytes will no doubt have realized we are here by now," said Grod as he scanned the video displays monitoring the different hallways and rooms in the detention center. He couldn't spot anyone on the monitors; no one at all.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that these monitors are showing no one in the building but us. They've got to be nearby waiting to ambush us."

"I've got it; the Whiplash is currently in an area of the wilds."