Kyle West - Extinction

But it wouldn’t end just yet.

The next leg of the journey passed in silence. A little over an hour later, the LCD showed us twenty miles north of Los Angeles. Ashton began to descend.

“Look!” Anna said, pointing at the dash. It showed the time to be 22:28.

“What?” I asked.

“Look at the date.”

It was December 31, 2060. Only a few hours left until the New Year.

“It snuck up on us,” I said.

“It’s easy to lose track of days when you’re just trying to survive those days,” Anna said. “This attack they’re making is like clockwork.”

Ashton shook his head. “I doubt they take our calendars very seriously, or even know about them. The measure of time only exists in the human imagination.”

“They see time differently than we do, anyway,” I said. “For the Xenominds, months, even years, pass like seconds. That’s what the Wanderer said, at least.”

“I can’t even imagine,” Anna said.

The ship lowered further. The plain of cloud rose to swallow us whole. We left the stars behind and were plunged into darkness. The bridge was lit, and we hung like a lantern in the clouds. Ashton flipped a switch, shutting the lights off. Now, the only illumination came from the glowing buttons on the dash and the LCD screen.

From the wardroom, voices murmured. Samuel came from amidships, and stood silently behind us. Makara must have still been back there. He gazed outward, waiting for the spread of the ruined city to appear before us.

At last, we broke through the clouds and it came into view. My eyes widened upon seeing the devastation. Flashes emanated from the metropolis’s eastern side, lighting the tall, shadowed buildings and twisting streets with arrhythmic bursts. Streams of violent light arced from the dark towers of downtown, streaking through the sky and exploding in white-hot plumes upon the city’s eastern side. Each flash revealed the silhouettes of dragons, swooping down on Augustus’s position.

“They’re being slaughtered,” I said.

“They could be gone by morning,” Makara said.

“It’s almost like the Radaskim and the Reapers are working together,” Anna said. “How can we throw our men into that?”

Ashton shook his head. “If they are, the Reapers’ number will be up, soon. The Radaskim might be fine with a temporary truce, if only to destroy the Novans first. It’s up to us to stop the war between the two sides.”

“That means speaking to Black,” Makara said.

Ashton switched frequencies, calling Augustus. It was a while before the Emperor’s voice came online.

“Where the hell are you?”

“The first of us are here,” Ashton said. “Where do you need men?”

“Where do I not need them? Those monsters are everywhere.”

“What about the Reapers?” Ashton asked.

“What about them?” came an unexpected voice, low and dangerous.

Carin Black.

None of us knew what to say. In that lull, Black spoke again.

“We’re working together now, Augustus and I,” he said. “Try not to find that so surprising.”

“But…” Anna said. “You’re bombing the airport.”

“Yeah,” Black said. “And we have been since this afternoon. What’s left of us are fighting behind the wall.”

There was little time to contemplate how drastically things had changed. If Augustus and Carin were working together, then it had to be bad down there.

“What do you want us to do?” Ashton asked.

“You have any nukes?” Black asked. “Because that’s the only way I see us getting out of this.”

“No,” Ashton said. “Perseus doesn’t have any. And I was speaking to Augustus.”

“How many men do you have?” Augustus asked.

“Twenty.”

“You have to be joking,” Carin said. “These are the reinforcements we’ve been waiting on?”

“They have the ship, too,” Augustus said. “That counts for a lot.”

“What’s your location?” Ashton asked.

“We’re sheltering behind a building, in Orion,” Augustus said. “There’s too many dragons out there. Every time we come out to fight, they chase us back to the towers.”

“How many dragons?” Ashton asked.

“Thirty, maybe,” Augustus said. “We shot down a few, but only one with the ship. The Reapers shot some others with SAM’s. We’re running low on rounds, though.”

“I can’t fight thirty dragons,” Ashton said. “I don’t care how long I’ve been piloting. That can’t be done with even two ships.”

“Then we have to find the Elekai,” I said. “It’s the only way.”

Finding the Elekai in time to save the city was a tricky proposition. We didn’t even know where they were. If they were relatively close, it might only take a few hours. If they were far, it could take far longer.

“Look,” Augustus said. “At this rate we won’t last until the morning.”

“You’ll have to,” Samuel said. “There’s nothing we can do from here. Even if we dropped off our men, what will twenty extra guns matter, and how can two spaceships fight against thirty dragons? We tried that fight already in Wyoming. We even had nukes, and still both ships went down. With the skies out of our control, Askala’s ground forces can run unchecked. We have to find the Elekai dragons, or no one’s surviving this night.”

Both Augustus and Black went silent on the other end.

“What’s our course?” Ashton asked.

Ashton’s question was followed by a silence on our end. Now that it was time to make a decision, it seemed like no one wanted to make it. Trying to find the Elekai was a risk — either we found them in time, or we didn’t.

But the way I saw it, we had no choice.

“There’s nothing more to say,” I said. “Head east. I can try to reach out for the Wanderer or Askal with my mind.”

“Will that work?” Makara asked.

“I…think it might. It’s always been involuntary, but maybe, if I try hard enough…”

“You don’t sound too sure,” Black said. “We need you here to fight those dragons. Together, we have a chance to kill them.”

After a moment, Samuel spoke.

“Finding the Elekai is the only way. Go east.”

Ashton turned back to the dash. “Augustus. Carin. We’ll return.”

“What?” Carin bellowed. “You can’t leave us to die here!”

Augustus said nothing, so I wasn’t sure what he thought. But no words of theirs could have stopped Perseus rising once more into the sky, above the clouds.

I exited the bridge. I needed to find a quiet place to try and communicate with the Elekai. Pray was more apt a word, because it would take nothing less than divine intervention to see us through.

In the wardroom I passed the Raiders, who looked to me for an update.

“Makara will explain,” I said.

I reached an aft cabin where I could get some peace. I sat on the deck, closed my eyes, and brought up an image of the Wanderer in my mind. It came surprisingly clear. I tried to let go of all thought, and let that image guide me, until a connection was made. The picture grew firmer as the world outside faded. My mind slipped into complete calmness.

It had worked.

Then came an awful, reptilian scream. Whether that scream was in my mind, or outside the Perseus’s hull, I couldn’t tell.

I had gone into a vision.

When I awoke, it wasn’t on the ship. It was in the midst of battle.

Not the battle for Los Angeles, but the battle for the Elekai.