THE Whiplash skimmed above the highest airway lane alone. It was only moments before they had reached the hill where Wynn's home was located. All that remained of it was a large heap of smoldering debris and one retaining wall. Kale could see the military presence all around it. They had already attacked, but they were still dispersed around the area like they were looking for something.
Kale hovered at a distance but the word must have already gone out to look for them. An armored carrier lifted off and was headed in their direction.
"What do we do?" asked Emil.
"What else, blow it out of the sky!"
Emil locked all guns and fired on the carrier. Sparks and fire billowed across its surface as it continued to come at them.
"It's still coming!!"
"Armor's too tough. Hold on!"
Kale brought the Whiplash around and fired the thrusters. The ship gunned away toward the city with the carrier lumbering on behind them. On the scanner several targets came into view.
"We've got company!"
Several faster ships took up pursuit as the Whiplash shot into the maze of tall skyscrapers. Kale buzzed around one of the buildings and full throttle came around on one of the pursuing ships. Emil took the initiative and blasted away at the military viper fighter, shredding its rear and midsection. The other three vipers reorganized and took up the pursuit again as the Whiplash spun away from the kill.
A symbyte controlled pilot locked on the Whiplash and fired a homing beacon. It attached to the hull undetected. Their orders were not to engage the ship, just place the homing beacon. The remaining fighters disengaged and the Whiplash burst away from the city toward the wilds beyond.
Normally it would have been a good place to hide with all of the huge trees and jungle area; it was easy to lose a ship in all of it. Most people were lucky to get out alive because of the vicious wildlife that dwelt there, including a large number of the feral Horva. But the tracking device would allow them to find that ship no matter where it went on the planet.
WHEN the airbus arrived at Nagon-Toth, Grod was already waiting on the platform.
"You might as well stay for a while," said Wynn to the driver.
He nodded nervously as he looked from Wynn to the gathering entourage of Horva on the platform.
The door opened and he descended to his old friend.
"My friend, Daooth has already briefed me on the situation with Tiet. I'm confident you have a rescue in mind, yes?"
"Absolutely. We'll need the best team you can put together,"
"Of course,"
"And we'll need to use the transgate to get inside the compound where Tiet is being held."
"At your disposal, anything you need to set him free," said Grod. "Daooth told me about some setup for murder."
"It's not so much about that, Grod. It's those symbiotic creatures that controlled the Baruk. They've survived somehow all this time since the war; apparently taking up host among our people. They're behind this plot. I was attacked at my home by scores of soldiers, some under their control and others who have been caught up in this plot unknowingly."
"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."
"The boys' campsite?" asked Grod.
"I think that's a good guess. Let's go."
The group began to make their way cautiously back to the transgate portal. Several of the commando leaders took up the point position on the way back. At each open doorway they flashed three fingers skyward to signal a clear room or hall.
"I don't like this," said Grod over again. "It's a trap."
"Yeah, but all we have to do is get to the portal and it won't matter," said Wynn as they continued through the corridors.
Finally they reached the main assembly hall door and watched it open. The point man's fingers once again went skyward then he paused and looked at the other soldier next to him in disbelief then back to Grod.
"Sir, the portal is gone!" he whispered harshly.
"What!?"
Grod, Wynn and Tiet ran to the doorway and peered in. The portal was simply not there; no Symbytes, no nothing.
"Grod, could they have blocked the portal somehow; jammed the transmission?" asked Tiet.
"I don't think so, but I'm not sure."
Then a sound rang overhead, like a speaker coming on somewhere.
"Hello, General Grod, I assume you have Tiet with you and perhaps even the clever Wynn Gareth? No matter, this is not a social call."
"It's that thing that's taken over Estall," said Tiet.
"You may have noticed that your escape route back to Nagon-Toth is missing. That is, Nagon-Toth is missing now. And in a few seconds you will join them. Where can you run when your world goes boom?"
"A bomb!" said Wynn and Tiet looking at each other.
"We'll never get out of here in time," said one of the soldiers.
"The chamber where they kept Tiet, is it strong enough?" asked Grod quickly.
"Only one way to find out."
LUCIN was still speaking through the voice of Estall, but they were too busy running to listen. On board his transport he watched the monitor and the group of soldiers that were running back out of the room. He reached for the control panel and keyed in a code for the device he had left in the detention center. It wasn't as powerful as what was sent through the portal to take out Nagon-Toth, but it would be sufficient to destroy the detention center. He pressed the button to detonate. The monitor went blank as he looked out the window at the jungle terrain of the wilds passing below. That's one problem solved; now to find the boy.
WHEN the door to the detention chamber opened again, the control room beyond was gone; only fire remained. As the team looked out of their hold, they could see that most of the building's superstructure had been blown away by the bomb that had been planted, but they were still alive.
They emerged quickly and found a trail through the rubble and fiery debris. As they came beyond the building's perimeter it became apparent that the buildings around were damaged from the blast as well. Several of them looked structurally unsound.
They reformed their group as screams came to their ears. People were being attacked; maybe hundreds of them. The blast site was clear of people all around, but when the team rounded the corner of a nearby building they could see hundreds of people being stunned and attacked by thousands upon thousands of the symbyte-controlled citizens.
They stayed in the shadows watching as mobs of the creatures that had formerly been normal people ravaged through the streets attacking any non-symbyte they could find. Once they had someone, their hands burst into spiny tentacles that were plunged down the throats of their victims, delivering the seed of the creature into its host. Tiet, Wynn and Grod watched in horror as the victims were left on the ground gasping, only to rise again within minutes under the control of the beast within.
"There are too many to fight," said Grod.
"He's right," said Tiet, "We've got to withdraw. We need a ship to get to the wilds and help Mirah and the boys."
"Are you sure Mirah is with them?" asked Grod.
"I just sense it. They're safe for the moment, but Kale must know he's being followed."
"We could probably make it to the West Quarter Hangar without to much trouble," suggested Wynn.
"Wait…look," said one of the team members.
When they looked behind their position they could see a young Castillian girl, probably no more than four years old, staring at them with a blank expression on her face from an alley way. She looked like she had been through a rough time and her clothes were tattered and torn with several blood stains visible.
"Come here, little girl," said one of the team members.
The little girl waited until a large group of symbytes were coming down the alley behind her.
"Come on, hurry!" shouted the team member again to the little girl.
Then the girl pointed her finger at the team and hissed loudly as the symbytes passed on by her and began to fire at the team.
"She's one of them!" shouted Grod as he began to fire his plasma weapon into the approaching crowd.
"They're coming from over here too!" said Tiet as he ignited a kemstick and began to repel incoming blaster fire.
"They're mentally linked to one another," said Wynn. "We've got to get out of here fast or they'll be on us from every direction!"
The group began to run as fast as they could toward the West Quarter Hangar almost a mile away from their position. They returned fire as they ran from the growing mob of symbytes. Some were armed and others, probably recently assimilated to the organism, were not. The blasters they were using were set to the maximum setting. They definitely weren't trying to capture and assimilate Tiet's team.
The Horva soldiers were returning fire using their plasma gloves. But the laser-fire coming from the symbytes was beginning to overwhelm the small team. Some of the Horva were shot and killed. As the team passed another alleyway, some of the Horva toward the rear were cut off as the symbytes poured out of the alley, attacking them.
"They're everywhere!" shouted Grod as blaster shots rang into his E.M. shield.
Tiet and Wynn rebounded incoming shots with their kemsticks and shielded themselves kinetically, but the onslaught was becoming more than they could handle. The sheer number of symbytes pursuing them was unbelievable. It appeared the whole city was now a part of these organisms.
Finally the hangar came into view, but the streets were filled with symbytes coming from all directions.
"We're cut off!!" shouted Wynn above the sounds of the mob's footsteps and gunfire.
"Into the building!!" shouted Tiet as he ran for the entrance to the building adjacent to the hangar complex.
"We'll be pinned in!" said Grod as he reluctantly followed.
"Too late for that now," said Wynn at his side.
Once inside, Tiet headed for the stairs and ran up as fast as he could with the others following.
"Where are we going?" asked one of the soldiers.
"The roof!" said Tiet from way up ahead.
Only ten people remained of their group now. The others were gunned down or torn apart by the symbyte mob. They encountered only minimal resistance on the way toward the roof. Those who came at them from within the mostly empty building were quickly dispatched by Tiet up ahead of the rest of the surviving team members.
When they reached the roof, Tiet was already at the western side looking out over the distance between them and the eastern launch platform of the hangar complex.
"We can make it!" shouted Tiet.
"Sure, we can, but what about the others?" said Wynn coming up beside him.
"We'll get to a ship and bring it back over here."
"Those things are already coming through the building after us. There isn't time; there must be another way," said Wynn.
"No! There is no other way," said Grod as he joined them.
"But, Grod, we-"
"No, my friend. This is the only way. Go! We'll do our best to hold our own here."
Wynn knew they were right. He clipped his kemstick and then he and Tiet took a short run to the ledge and jumped. They carried themselves across the entire expanse kinetically and soft landed on the eastern platform. Without stopping, they ran into the hangar area out of Grod's sight, as they went looking for a ship to take.
The building was tall but not very wide. It only had a few access doors to the roof and Grod stationed himself and the other Horva soldiers in positions to defend those exits. At least, he thought, they can only file through the doors a couple at a time.
Wynn and Tiet broke into the first sizeable troop transport they could find.
"I don't have the right access code," said Wynn as he punched the keys on the panel with frustration.
Tiet didn't answer. He turned to find him concentrating on the controls mentally. Wynn heard a beeping from the display and the engines fired up immediately.
"Excellent!"
"I had a good teacher," replied Tiet with a grin as he jumped into the pilot's seat and took over the controls.
The transport lifted off of the platform and headed for the bay entrance.
When the transport climbed to the level of the roof on the adjacent building they could see the remainder of the team blasting away furiously at the symbytes pouring through the roof access doors. As one person was being hit by the plasma weapons the others would jump through over top of them. The roof was quickly becoming overrun.
Tiet brought the transport down near the few team members who were left; five more had been overrun by symbytes and had been pummeled by the crowd or thrown over the side of the building to their deaths. Grod and the others ran for the transport with symbytes hot on their trail, firing with blasters.
Wynn took the controls of the mounted gun turret through an access panel behind the pilot's chair and began to fire into the crowd of symbytes chasing after the Horva. He mowed them down as Grod and two others jumped into the transport.
Tiet wasted no time lifting away from the roof. Several of the symbytes tried to jump and cling onto the transport but they quickly fell off over the city as Tiet brought the engines to full power.
"We've got to get to the wilds before they catch Mirah and the boys," he said plotting the navigation data into the computer.
"I only hope we're in time," said Grod.
KALE adjusted the controls slightly to keep on course for the campsite that he and Emil had previously scouted out for their post trial outing. It was located deep in the wilds. They had relished the idea of a rigorous survival trip, but had never intended on this.
The Whiplash glided just above the massive treetops as the sun began to set. Electronic eyes watched from orbit above the planet. A skynet satellite locked onto the fast-moving target. The satellite network had been intended to help repel invaders, but was now under the control of the symbytes.
The satellite's laser focused to a tight beam as the guidance system compensated for the speed of the target. A precise pinpoint shot was needed to bring the ship down in a controllable fashion.
The satellite fired from the silence of space. Onboard the Whiplash, the fighter rocked with the blast that took out its engine cooling system.
"We've lost the coolant system, something hit us, but I can't find it on the scope."
"The temperature will go up fast if I don't bring her down. How far to the campsite?"
"We're still twenty minutes out."
"That's too far. I've got to find a place to land now."
"I'm scanning the terrain…I've got something…I'm loading the coordinates."
Kale changed his course to reflect the new landing zone on his display. Smoke billowed from the laser burn on the hull as the engine began to heat up rapidly. He slowed the speed and spotted the clearing among the massive trees as he began to land the ship before it exploded.
"Kale?! Kale?! What's going on, where are we?"
"Hold on, Mother, we're on landing approach."
He continued the landing and got the ship safely on the ground. Smoke still billowed out of the laser burn as the ship's engines powered down.
"The engines is still at critical temperature, Kale, we'd better hurry."
He popped the latch on the spare compartment and quickly helped his mother out of the space.
"Where are we?"
"Out in the wilds. We didn't know where else to go with the military conducting attacks on us and at Wynn's home."
"What about your father?"
"We don't know where he is."
Mirah looked worried, as if the worst may have happened to her husband.
"Mother, I know he's alive, with Wynn. I can sense it."
"Well, what now, have we been followed?"
"I think so. They shot us down somehow, but we never saw them. They have to know our location; it's only a matter of time before they find us. Our best chance is to set out on foot."
"On foot? In the wilds?"
"Wild animals are the least of our worries now."
"Could they track us on foot?" asked Emil.
"I don't know, but all the wildlife out here might just mask us enough to keep them guessing."
The engine compartment continued to smolder more and more, then the whole ship began to burn.
"We'd better get out of here before it explodes," said Emil.
"Let's go."
The trio gathered the gear they had available and headed out cautiously into the cover of the dense jungle foliage.
"SIR, we're picking up some burning wreckage approximately ten miles ahead west by southwest."
"Good, their ship is down, which means they'll be nearby on foot," said Lucin. "I want you to scan for any group of three human size life forms traveling away from us; it will be them. Then I want the transport, with our little gift, to swing in front of their heading and drop her one mile ahead in their path."
"Sir, the ship that the King took from the hangar has not been located yet."
"Once we have the boy, it won't matter anymore."