James Somers - Heir to the King

Wynn found it a little difficult to empathize; he had never married. He was used to being alone and had grown to like it. The closest he had ever been to having a family was mentoring Tiet and continuing his training after the death of Orin Vale.

Then he thought about Kale lying back on the compartment floor with a symbyte fighting for control of his body and mind and it hit him. Kale had been his pupil with his father from the time he could walk and he loved him like a son. His reaction to almost losing him back at the clearing among the symbyte soldiers had been to immediately jump out of the transport, risking his own life, without a second thought, to save the boy. Kale was stable for the moment, but Wynn could understand now how much more terrible it must be for these men.

The transport finally sailed beyond the Korsov ridge and into view of Nagon-Toth. The entire basin was charred from the blast. The remains of the compound were nothing more than charred shrapnel and fiery debris on the basin floor. All of the Horva men were pressed to side viewing windows as they passed over the site.

The devastation was unbelievable. Wynn conducted a life scan quietly at his console even though he was sure what the result would be. The computer sounded an alert: "No life readouts within specified parameters."

Grod and his men turned at the voice. Wynn was embarrassed that the men had heard it. They all looked at him helplessly. The scan only punctuated the aching in their hearts at the sight of the smoldering ruins and lost family members.

Tiet began to bring the ship into a descent toward the impact crater beyond the sight of the compound. He recognized it as the same place where Kale's trials had been conducted. He looked back to Grod, "Is that it?"

He nodded back. "The entrance to the underground compound is in the southern wall of the crater. We'll land and get inside quickly."

"If the symbytes are tracking us…"

"They have to be," said Wynn.

"Then it won't take them long to get their forces here," said Tiet. "How fast can you get the ship ready to depart?"

"Prep for the ship and the transgate will take twenty minutes; the ship has never been out of the bunker. I also need a little time to set the detonation system for the bunker; I'm not leaving this planet without taking out as many of those things as I can."

"But, we'll have to wait for them to get into the bunker to do that," protested Mirah.

"Grod-" Tiet started and then thought better of protesting.

Grod stared into his eyes and he knew that the Horva general would not be persuaded otherwise. He glanced over at Wynn and could see a look of understanding on his face. It would be alright; a little close for comfort, but they would survive.

LUCIN pored over the data coming in from his forces as they made their way to the Nagon-Toth area. He had originally planned on assimilating the king, but the boy had youth to his credit and he had all but overwhelmed the two older Barudii during his trials.

Putting an Angelic seed into humans was not ideal; they were strong willed and difficult to control. But if such noble spiritual beings like himself were to be cursed to this disgusting physical prison, then mankind would suffer.

Why had God separated him from the other angels that rebelled? It wasn't fair, to be singled out; when they had at least been given forms that transitioned between physical and spiritual realms. They had rejected him after; even though he had been the greatest and brightest. God had done it; imprisoned him in this disgusting, putrid form for leading the others in the rebellion. He would have revenge; propagate his seed. Lucin would rise again.

One hundred squads of soldiers were currently en route to the destroyed Horva compound. There would be no escape for them now. He saw their coordinates to be near Nagon-Toth at the impact crater where the boy had conducted his trials. It didn't make sense; they were easy targets down inside the crater.

Lucin had quickly become accustomed to the human mind and one thing he had learned about a Barudii warrior was that he would not knowingly put himself in such a situation without a plan of action. The Barudii were very cunning warriors indeed; they had to realize that they were being tracked; the only conclusion was that they were planning some sort of trap.

TIET helped his son out of the transport and through the hidden door in the crater wall. Grod went ahead of the group, powering up the lighting systems and leading them through the winding tunnel as they descended deep below the surface.

Mareb and Jael remained at the transport ship; they had to set the first defense. Mareb keyed through the command sequences in the transport's computer and set the fuel cells for a command detonation. He set the command frequency as Jael set the detonator frequency on his display. They completed the sequence adjustments and ran out of the transport to assume positions on the crater wall near the underground bunker's entrance.

The Horva soldiers carried large tripod mounted rapid fire blasters and set them up at their respective positions. They had plenty of rock for cover and would hopefully be able to take out a large number of the symbytes before retreating into the bunker themselves. The warriors were each looking forward to a lot of payback today, but now it was time to sit and wait.

When the rest of the group finally descended to the lowest level, Grod keyed in a code on the wall pad. The large metal doors unlocked themselves, like a huge vault, and the treasure inside was finally revealed to their eyes. Tiet and the others gazed into the large chamber beyond.

"My friends, I give you the Equinox," said Grod somewhat grandiosely.

The entire hangar bay lit up around the magnificent ship. It was a cruiser class ship by appearance, large enough for general housing quarters for twenty people and deep space travel.

"We don't have time for a formal tour, but if you will all get on board I'll prep the engines and the gate and we'll be on our way."

Tiet helped Kale into the ship with Mirah following close behind, while Wynn helped a recently conscious Emil into a harness behind the main cockpit area. Both of the boys looked like they were barely able to stay awake as their bodies fought against the parasites. Mirah stayed close to them, monitoring their vitals and the organisms struggling for control of their bodies. She could see a distinct difference between her son and Emil.

Something about his Horva physiology was causing the symbyte within to shrink in size. His body was fighting it and winning, but Kale was struggling just to keep the organism at bay by mental power alone.

Grod worked at the helm controls, bringing the engines online while Wynn and Tiet went after supplies and weapons that Grod had instructed them to retrieve. The engines came to life obediently and Grod soon passed by on his way back to the transgate compartment.

Once inside he followed the manual's instructions that appeared on the display and proceeded to prep the gate for the jump sequence. He set the target coordinates for the planet Kosiva. The planet itself was one visited before by the Vorn military scientists who had either built or stolen the transgate technology.

It was reported on file as a hospitable planet with a peaceful, friendly and intelligent race. The Vorn military regime had apparently been surveying for future conquests; fortunately, they weren't around to fulfill those plans.

After the prep sequence was set and counting down toward jump readiness, Grod left the ship to set the bunker's self destruct control sequence so that he could trigger a timed delay from the ship's transmitter.

Wynn and Tiet made quick work of the supplies that Grod had requested, the bunker had an ample supply of weapons, and the best of all for the Barudii warriors was a cache of old Castillian weapons including several Barudii blades and kemsticks. They scooped them up quickly and loaded them onto the ship.