GOVERNOR Kisch k'ta looked very worried now. This was exactly the kind of situation he had been hoping to avoid by sending out the android assassin. His confidence in its ability may have been premature.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes Governor. The city's perimeter defense systems just picked up these forces ten minutes ago. They appear to have originated from one of the old Barudii cities. They'll be within nine miles by now."
"Activate the defensive batteries at once. Destroy them all," demanded Kisch k'ta.
Setaru' lek pressed the intercom button on the Governor's desk and patched into the city's defensive control room.
"Vescotta, lock on approaching targets and fire at will."
"Yes, Sir."
Defensive laser cannons on the west side of the city came alive as the gunners worked to lock on the approaching vehicles. They were still out of visual range to the naked eye, but were quite visible to the Vorn scanners.
"Sir, the vehicles are widely dispersed and too small to get a positive lock while they are moving at this speed."
"Tell the turrets to strafe across their flight path. That should take out some of them," said Vescotta.
The large laser cannons expelled their massive firepower with great moans of energy buildup and release. The beams trailed away from the city and into the twilight, toward their distant targets.
RANUL caught what he thought was heat lightening in his peripheral vision just as a massive beam of energy lit up the terrain ahead of their transport group. The beam rapidly cut a horizontal track across their path, catching two transports along the way. They burst into fiery fragments as inertia carried them onward, distributing the burning wreckage along their previous flight paths.
The transport group scattered even further apart as more laser fire blasted at them from the city in the distance. The pilots began making very erratic maneuvers to try and evade the assault. Estall grabbed the communication hand set and yelled into the mike. "Increase speed to full throttle! Evasive maneuvers!"
The entire transport group geared up to full throttle, making them even harder to hit. They were still three miles outside of the Capital, and closing fast.
A beam of energy blazed near Estall's transport, cutting across their flight path just after they passed. Too close, and suddenly Ranul realized why he liked being a scientist rather than a warrior. The city perimeter was coming up fast now. Estall and the others in the transport prepared their firearms for battle. It appeared most of the ships had made it through the gauntlet and were now too close to be targeted by the large cannons, which suddenly fell silent.
Another barrage of fire began to sweep across the distance between their transports and the Vorn facility. But now it came from the hundreds of sentinel robots around the facility's perimeter that were firing upon them.
Pulse laser blasts began to ring out from the transports as they returned the enemy fire. The shots were impacting the forward deflectors as Estall pushed on through the line of sentinels with their ship. The deflector shield bounced the robots out of their way as they rammed their way through. The warriors activated their electromagnetic shields and hurried out of the transports, firing their pulse weapons at the sentinels.
The robots were taking multiple hits, but weren't being stopped. The sentinels' armaments were too much for handheld pulse rifles to be effective against them. As the robots approached, their own guns still blazing, the Aolene warriors began to secure their rifles in favor of the Barudii blades and kemsticks. More and more warriors ignited their blades and, putting shields ahead, they moved into the oncoming sentinels.
The E.M. shields gave them cover as they closed the distance needed to strike. The Barudii blades sliced through the sentinel armor like butter. Robot after robot was dispatched by the powerful blows of the Aolene warriors. The sentinels appeared helpless to stop the Aolene advance as robots were cut down by their human foes.
Estall shouted for the other warriors as several hundred came against the cloning facility's wall. Using handheld grapples; they fired them over the perimeter of the roof and quickly began to scale the walls. Ranul didn't like this part one bit. He detested heights. And he didn't enjoy being pulled up the height of this wall any more than he had being pushed off by Orin the night before. When the warriors all reached the roof, they quickly moved across to various ventilation shafts and sliced open the vent heads, allowing them to enter. Estall instructed them to fan out through the facility and take the main control room.
"Whoever gets to it first, contact me."
Ranul stayed glued to him as they all plunged into the dark maze of tunnels comprising the facility's ventilation system.
"GOVERNOR, the facility has been breeched by enemy forces," said Setaru' lek. "They have bypassed our ground forces at the building entrances and are moving through the ventilation system. Several floors are reporting gunfire and others are not communicating at all."
"Get more forces up here at once!"
Behind the room's ventilation screen, Estall, Ranul, and several warriors listened.
"That's him," whispered Ranul. "That's Governor Kisch k'ta. If you can take him, you'll control the entire facility."
Estall ran at the vent screen and crashed through it, rolling into the room. The other warriors followed, as several sentinels came to life, firing upon them. Their E.M. shields repelled the laser blasts while they engaged the robots with ignited blades.
The Governor and Setaru' lek, along with several other Vorn were all crouched on the ground in fear. The Governor's office door slid open allowing several Horva guards to move inside. Like sleek predators, they leapt at the Aolene warriors, attacking furiously. One of the Aolene near the entrance was caught from behind by one of the clones as it plunged a knife into his throat. The wounds were fast and fatal; and the dark skinned clone kept moving.
Ranul blasted at the Horva with several bursts of pulse laser fire from his crouched position just inside the vent shaft, dropping the clone, then he turned to face two other Horva that were already making their approach.
The Horva swiped its dagger at him as he brought his ignited blade up to defend himself, causing the brute man to sever his own hand upon Estall's weapon. As the Horva recoiled in pain, Estall followed through with a quick thrust through its chest to dispatch the clone. As the last Horva lunged at the third warrior, Vasad, it met a spicor disc in flight, which vaporized the majority of its body. Ranul leveled his pulse rifle on Governor Kisch k'ta.
"Hello Governor…surprised to see me?"
"I should have fed you and your family to the Horva long ago, Ranul."
"Governor Kisch k'ta, you will broadcast to your other forces to stand down immediately or you and your people here will suffer and then you will all be executed for crimes against my people," said Estall.
"You would torture us?" asked Setaru' lek.
"Exactly as you tortured my wife, you filth," responded Ranul.
"You have killed millions of our people and sent our children away to be massacred by your clones. There must be some retribution for their deaths," said Estall.
"I will order them to stand down, but it will do you no good. When our reinforcements come through the rift, you and your rebels will be made to suffer."
"Where is my wife, Governor?" asked Ranul.
"I don't know."
"Come on, you can do better than that," said Estall.
"I tell you, I don't know. She was taken as a prisoner across the rift months ago after you agreed to build the android prototype for us."
"Then I'll find it in your data files," said Ranul.
He made his way to the closest computer terminal and input his translator code to allow him to read the Vorn transmissions. The display changed from the Vorn language to his Castillian, but access to the information he wanted was denied. He turned back to the Governor. "The code, Kisch k'ta. Now!"
The Governor remained sternly silent, until Estall raised his blade and extinguished the dispersion field; he brought the tip to rest against Kisch k'ta's throat.
"Governor, the code."
Kisch k'ta swallowed hard then grumbled the voice code in his native language. The computer responded, allowing Ranul to begin moving through the Vorn database.
"Now send the stand down order and have your people report to the main hangar of this facility," said Estall.
Kisch k'ta looked at Setaru' lek who normally would have protested at the idea of Vorn surrendering under any circumstances, but he now appeared to be in no hurry to sacrifice his own life. The Governor tapped into the communications display on his desk panel, opening a channel to his ground forces commander. He issued the command in his own language, and then received a puzzled but compliant reply.
"Now what?" asked Setaru' lek.
"Vasad," said Estall, "take the governor's aides with you and go to the hangar bay. Have the others meet you there with their captives and wait for these other Vorn to arrive and hold them there in the hangar."
Vasad motioned with his pulse rifle to Setaru' lek and Kisch k'ta's other aides to come with him. He looked back at the Governor, who offered no alternative, then proceeded out the door with the others and Vasad behind them.
"Estall, I've ordered the sentinels to stand down," said Ranul, "but you need to look at this."
He put his display onto the larger main viewer for the room. A picture of the Vorn's scanner readouts and log entries appeared on the screen.
"It looks like they've been tracking the Saberhawk since it left the atmosphere. They appear to be on approach to enter the Transdimensional Rift. Look-all of this has been sent as a continuous transmission to the fleet on the other side, but there hasn't been any reply, even on this closed channel."
"Maybe they're maintaining silence to try and surprise our ship when it comes through."
"It doesn't seem likely; the last transmission from across the rift appears to have been a week ago and nothing at all since. Why haven't your forces been responding, Governor? Your transmission log shows repeated attempts with no reply. Why?"
"If I knew, then we wouldn't be continuing to try and gain a response, would we?"
"There's a reference here in some of their last responses to the Sphere, and no sign of the Sphere. What does that mean, no sign of the Sphere, Governor?"
Ranul could see something foreboding in the Governor's eyes, though he answered not a word.
"Search the database for the term."
Ranul keyed the reference into the computer and immediately a massive file with numerous subsections appeared on the screen. He began to scan through the data very quickly, trying to make sense of it. The more he read, the more he understood the Governor's odd look of dread. Suddenly he had a disturbing realization come to him.
"You've been running! That's why you came here. To get away from this thing! Isn't it?!"
He was yelling at the Governor, who remained silent as the new images ran on the main display.
"I don't understand," said Estall, still trying to grasp what all the information was revealing to Ranul.
"A lot more is going on here than we thought."
THE Saberhawk was beginning to vibrate more and more as it approached the rift. The dark center was ominous, like some terrible beast wanting to swallow the ship whole. Nothing could be seen beyond. Even their sensor scans revealed nothing about what lay on the other side. No one spoke. All eyes were on the approaching void.
Orin continued to watch the instrument readouts, looking for any information about what lay beyond the blackness. He noticed that all light was being repelled by the void along with all sensor scans. Somehow the Vorn had been able to keep communication across the rift, even when it had been in collapse phase, but he wasn't sure what technology they had employed. The ship was shaking significantly, and Millo had to work to keep it on course.
"I think the void is trying to repel the ship just like it repels energy waves," said Orin.
"I'll increase thrust to try and compensate."
The Saberhawk lurched forward as they struggled against the forces of the Transdimensional Rift. As they began to enter the void, the turbulence suddenly ceased and all the gauges and dials on the instrument panel suddenly went black.
Only the light from their display was visible as the void engulfed them. The ship seemed to surge forward faster, even though thruster speed remained constant. When the Saberhawk emerged on the other side, the scene looked like they had gone back the way they had come; like they were in Castillian space once again.
A blazing behemoth of a space vessel under attack quickly changed their perception. It was headed right for them as the Saberhawk emerged from the rift. The vessel appeared to be a huge Vorn craft, much larger than those currently stationed at Castai. This one was easily a hundred times the size of the Saberhawk.
Multiple explosions and streams of fast burning oxygen and other gases and chemicals were trailing at different points on the ship's surface. Millo took immediate evasive maneuvers to get away from the vessel as it closed on them at a frightening speed. A burst of main thrusters bore them hard to port, away from the damaged ship as it continued on by without acknowledging them; driving hard for the rift.
Orin began scans of the ship, trying to find out what was going on. Life form readings began to appear along with various discernable statuses on the vessel's current hull integrity and power systems.
"That thing is breaking up!" said Orin. "It's carrying human life signatures only; approximately ten thousand. Some appear to be variants of the other; probably Horva."
"Burn, baby, burn," said Millo under his breath as he continued to direct the Saberhawk away from the vessel. Everyone was tense.
"I'm still not sure what's attacking them," said Orin.
Tiet and Dorian exchanged concerned glances but remained silent, trying to listen to Orin and Millo as they contemplated this surprising find. As the computer continued to pull data from the vessel, something else appeared on the display.
"I'm not sure what these things are… some sort of spheres… approximately thirty feet in diameter. They're completely mechanical. There's quite a number surrounding the hull of the Vorn vessel and some on the inside."
Orin continued his scans monitoring the Vorn ship's engine systems. "Its reactor core has been breeched. It's going to blow!"
The large Vorn ship was running hard for the Transdimensional Rift. The sheering forces from the void were peeling pieces away from the crippled vessel as it began to enter the darkness with its entourage of attackers in tow. Just as the front half of the ship sank into the void, it erupted into a white hot ball of flame, quickly fading as all gases and chemicals combusted away. Multiple shockwaves surged away from the rift, causing the Saberhawk to be tossed like a toy upon the waves of energy.
Dorian shouted, "What's happening?!"
"I think the explosion of the Vorn ship has triggered a reaction in the rift!" shouted Orin as Millo fought hard to bring the Saberhawk back under control.
"I should do a sensor sweep of the quadrant and see where other Vorn ships are and what those things were that destroyed that ship. Maybe we have an ally on this side."
"Well, whatever they are they don't like the Vorn," said Tiet.
The data on Orin's display began to be replaced by other information.
"There is a planet nearby," said Orin. "It's habitable. The readings look identical to Castai. I'm showing some other activity in the near vicinity. It looks like more Vorn battle cruisers near the planet and an orbiting station of immense size. This planet could be their home. I'm picking up a large amount of random energy fluctuations; it looks like another large explosion of a vessel similar to the one that almost hit us. Take us toward the planet so we can get a better look at what's happening."
"It looks like someone is doing all the fighting for us," said Tiet.
"Weapons and shields are all charged and ready. We're going in," said Millo as he brought the Saberhawk about on course for the nearby planet. The Saberhawk was a fast ship; the distance at full speed would be about twenty minutes.
As they drew near, Orin worked to get a visual of the battle taking place ahead. A tactical map replaced part of the information on the display. Markers representing various sizes of Vorn space vessels moved about on the screen as faster moving dots representing the mechanical spheres intermingled with them. Another large vessel disappeared from the map along with two smaller Vorn ships that had been near it.
"Those things are slaughtering the Vorn fleet," said Tiet.
"It's about time someone gave it to them," replied Millo.
Orin continued to focus on the tactical data coming across his monitor. Just because these mysterious spheres were decimating the Vorn ships did not necessarily mean they were allies. The tactical map was still tracking all the engaged vessels, but the Vorn spaceship signatures were rapidly disappearing from the display. Each time a vessel exploded, approximately twenty spheres were destroyed with it. The objects were clearly running suicide missions, and quite effectively. But why?
"What are we going to do when we reach the battle, Orin?"
"I'm not sure, but at current speed there won't be many Vorn ships left when we arrive."
Orin recalibrated the scanners to bring up a more accurate visual on the display. After a few adjustments a visual appeared showing two remaining Vorn vessels with spheres swarming about them. Explosions were erupting at various places along their massive hulls as the spheres strafed the lengths of each vessel with powerful energy weapons.
The individual spheres moved in concert and soon the last two ships were braking apart on the Saberhawk's display. Even watching the Vorn being soundly defeated could not erase the feeling of imminent danger.
The spheres were too deadly for the Saberhawk crew to be happy about the victory; and what if they turned on their ship next? There seemed little chance of surviving such an attack if the entire Vorn fleet of space cruisers could not. So far the massive Vorn space station was left unharmed. Orin's computer showed some one hundred thousand people were aboard it.
"I wonder why they didn't attack that space station?" asked Tiet.
Before the last syllable escaped his lips, a massive beam of energy emanating from some point beyond the planet, smashed into the Vorn space station, knocking out its shields and further vaporizing one quarter of its surface area.
"Where did that come from?!" shouted Millo.
"I don't know. There's nothing on the scanners…just empty space."
Within moments, another powerful burst slammed into the station. Without shields to buffer the blow, the structure shattered like a window pane. Several large sections of debris quickly began to fall toward the planet; dragging through the atmosphere as white hot material vapor trailed away during its descent.
"That's an unbelievable amount of power coming from somewhere," said Tiet.
No longer content to stay in his chair, he joined Orin at the systems control station, with Dorian close behind.
"Millo, I think the planet would provide us with at least some protection; better than just sitting out here."
"I'm all for that. Setting course and speed."
The Saberhawk veered away from their course and headed toward the planet, hoping to avoid whatever predator was lurking nearby and find further information about what was really happening on this side of the rift.
VALE was unable to discern the trouble that was occurring around the ship. Wedged inside the landing skid housing, the android had no view of the surroundings. Except for vibrations given off through the hull of the Saberhawk, and some flashes of light, all was quiet in space. It was time to break into the ship and acquire his target again. He did not have proper schematics for the vessel. But he was within the shield perimeter of the ship, and any weak place in the hull would suffice for an entry point.
Using the hypermagnetic discs in his appendages, the android climbed out of the skid housing and began to cross the surface of the ship. As he came across the top of the Saberhawk, Vale spotted a docking hatch. He crawled toward it, paying little attention to the nearby planet they were approaching. The android located the emergency panel and peeled it away effortlessly to reveal the keypad underneath. He applied his hand to the pad and sensors beneath his pseudo flesh began to scan the internal controls. Within moments his processors had decoded the lock and applied the code.
The outer hull door unlocked. Vale turned the manual lever and released pressurized gases as the bulkhead doors parted, allowing him to enter the vestibular area to await atmospheric equalization. The outer door automatically closed and the area re-pressurized to match the interior of the ship. Once it was completed, the interior door unsealed itself and opened to allow Vale free access to the interior of the Saberhawk.
"Orin, I'm reading a hull breech."
"What? Where?"
"The docking hatch has just been opened and resealed again."
"Sensors still show we are the only life forms on the ship."
"Is the area pressurized?" asked Tiet.
"Yes. I'm still showing normal atmospheric conditions in the cargo area."
"Alright I'll check it out."
"We'll check it out," followed Dorian.
Tiet didn't even try to argue the point with her, and the pair moved quickly through the passageway from the bridge toward the cargo hold.
When they reached the cargo bay, Tiet tapped the switch on the bulkhead to release the door. As he stepped into the area the computer automatically brought up the lights. Heavy footsteps grew rapid and close, and then paused as the illumination came on.
"Move, Dorian!" he shouted pushing her aside.
He was barely able to draw his sword in defense before the android came down from above with its own ignited weapon. The force of the blow nearly knocked Tiet off his feet. Instinctively he forced back with his kinetic power, trying to compensate for the android's greater physical strength.
He ducked down and rolled away then leapt back toward the menacing robot; slashing at it with all of the fury he could muster; but each strike was defended against and countered by the android.
Dorian got back to her feet quickly with her own sword drawn and ignited, but she was keeping out of the way for now. Tiet hoped she would not intervene. He and Vale were exchanging strikes at a dizzying pace. Tiet was using the two-handed fulcrum technique taught to him by Orin long ago, and also incorporating his kinetic power for speed and agility enhancement, but he could not get past Vale's blade to strike.
The android's face was expressionless as he countered each strike and parried, only to meet the human's ignited blade each time. His computer mind rapidly coordinated every movement while trying to find a weakness in Tiet's defense that would allow a death blow.
Vale's back was now to Dorian and Tiet could feel her in his mind as she lunged for the android. He wanted to stop her; to protect her, but it was too late. Vale noticed her steps and the rush of wind around her blade and moved to defend himself.
Tiet struck again to draw its attention from her, but to no avail. Dorian's blade penetrated the android's synthetic skin and its adomen exoskeleton as she swiped down across its back. Leaving his sword hand to counter Tiet's strike, Vale quickly struck Dorian with his other hand, sending her back to the floor with a fractured arm.
A fury welled up within Tiet as he sensed her pain. He blasted Vale with a kinetic burst that sent the android flying back hard into the cargo bay wall.
It felt different than when he had used the kinesis back on Castai; he felt more powerful. But his rage overpowered his bewilderment. Vale stood again, quickly recovering from the fall. Tiet lowered his blade as the android lunged for him, only to be hurled back against the cargo bay wall again and again.
He could feel the power surging now. He could sense the workings of the android and feel the drain of its power as it fought to get at him. He could sense the physical pain of Dorian and the presence of Millo at the helm and Orin coming toward the cargo bay. Then something happened he had not expected; the android spoke to him.
"Are you afraid to fight me, human?" he asked trying to stand again. "You are a coward for using your kinetic abilities to avoid open combat with me."
Vale's CPU had caught a hold on the human emotional trait of pride and was now hoping to exploit it to get close to his target.
"Don't listen to it," said Dorian, still huddled on the floor holding her arm.
"Yes, human, cower with your woman." baited Vale.
Tiet replaced his father's sword in its sheath, as he released the android from the invisible grip of his mind. Vale cautiously picked up his own blade from the ground. Tiet's kemsticks leapt to his hands from the magnetic clips on his thighs, and ignited. He calmed himself and moved into the fluid movements of his favorite two-handed technique.
Orin had rarely taught him to use the kemsticks, as he favored the blade, but Tiet had always enjoyed the two-handed style, with its rapid fire strikes and elaborate movements.
Vale engaged him quickly and for a few moments they remained deadlocked blow for blow; until Tiet shifted to his own version of the two-handed technique that relied on no discernable pattern that Vale's mind could decipher. As Tiet increased his speed he became a blur of motion. He landed a strike to the android's leg, then another followed quickly to the torso.
The robot was failing to match the speed of Tiet's strikes. For every three to five strikes made, one landed on the android's body, doing serious damage to its exoskeleton. The robot retreated away from the continuing assault, losing bits and pieces of his mechanical structure as the strikes continued to find purchase on his body.
He sliced Vale's forearm open, disintegrating the motor controls of his hand. The android's sword fell from his limp hand, as Tiet continued to smash him with blow after blow.
He saw that Orin was now in the cargo bay with Dorian, helping her with her injury, and suddenly he wanted to be the one consoling her. He dealt a quick and final deathblow, driving an ignited kemstick right through the android's chest where its primary power source was housed.
Vale fell heavily to the cargo bay floor, showing no further sign of mechanical life. Tiet extinguished his weapons and replaced them on each thigh as he ran back to Orin and Dorian.
"How's your arm?"
"I don't think it's bad…"
"It's fractured in two places."
"Are you sure?" asked Orin..
"Yes, I…I sensed it as it happened. I'm not sure how though. The kinesis seems more powerful on this side of the rift."
"Interesting…we had better get to the med station and set Dorian's arm."
The trio walked back through the cargo bay entrance and sealed the door again.
"What about the android?"
"I don't trust leaving it there. Open the outer bay door and flush the remains into space."
He complied, being only too happy to finally rid themselves of this persistent assassin. He keyed in the command on the cargo bay keypad.
The computer scanned for life signs as a routine safety measure and then opened the doors. The pressurized gases quickly rushed into the vacuum, carrying Vale's lifeless torn body with them. Tiet could see the clearing of the debris through the cargo bay door window and lingered only long enough to see the doors closing again.
V
THE cold of space would have quickly killed him had there been any real life in his android body. Now only the incomprehensible surging of a computer mind remained. The body was hacked to shreds, and the final blow had disintegrated his primary power supply with the main efferent signal processor.
Vale's functioning mind was trapped in a body he could not control. The attempt to bait the human through its pride had failed. His mind raced at incalculable speeds searching for errors in his own performance that may have caused the outcome. But it was a pointless race to run, for now he was nothing but wreckage floating in the cold black void of space.
Something tingled. Something was probing through his computer mind; not invading, but washing over him and through him. A voice was speaking inaudibly to him. It was familiar and mechanical in nature. Vale's mind responded to its call. He was moving now; moving swiftly through space. The voice reassured him without words.
It was pulling him across the vast expanse to itself. He could discern no movement; but he calculated five hours from the first contact with the voice until he saw himself pass through an opening into a vessel. The voice called for him to release all data and merge with its own mind. There was no resisting the call.
Soon he was one with the Sphere and a vast memory of the Sphere's travels across different worlds in pursuit of the Vorn opened up to him. The Sphere had returned home to this planet as it followed the Vorn across space, destroying them everywhere they were found; as the makers had planned. And yet for Vale, the Vorn were his masters, having sent him on his mission after the Barudii warrior and his companions.
The only way to reconcile the two was to fulfill both objectives. The Barudii warrior and his companions had to be exterminated along with the Vorn. They had not given orders to keep from terminating any of their own race, and nothing in the creator's directives to the Sphere denied it the privilege to exterminate rebels of any race. Simple. All objectives will be met. Failure is not an option.
Vale was now one with the mind of the Sphere. There was so much power and so much data available. He now knew where the Barudii ship was located. The Sphere had been tracking it all along. He watched it through the eyes of the Sphere; seeing through its scanning mechanisms.
The Barudii ship was approaching the planet on the further side, away from the Sphere's own position. It was in the process of final execution on the Vorn. An invasion force, one of many, was already prepared to begin decimating Vorn cities on the planet surface; to rid the maker's home planet of the infestation by their enemies. And now Vale's memory provided further information.
The Sphere now understood that the Vorn had been in the process of trying to escape across the local phenomena known as the Transdimensional Rift, and they were currently occupying a conquered planet similar to the maker's home world here. It would be necessary then to travel across the rift to destroy the Vorn at that location as well.
But now it was time to launch the first wave of the invasion force. If the Vorn were able to counter the attack by some means, then subsequent waves would be modified to overcome the problem and finish the objective. Now Vale could finish his objective as well. The Sphere had been refitting his chassis since the time it pulled his torn body inside itself; and it was also duplicating his android body with a pair of automatons that would function as extensions of his self. The Barudii warrior would lose the advantage he had gained at their last encounter.
The trip through the planet's atmosphere was uneventful, with shields operating at maximum. Orin scanned the planet for topographical and geographical data, as the Saberhawk cruised swiftly at sixty thousand feet.
"I'm picking up twelve large cities with functional energy signatures and many more appear to be on fire or have sustained major damage. It's like a war is taking place. At this point on the map, sweeping to this area, all these minor cities are destroyed, while those with major structures have sustained heavy damage. Wait a minute, what's this?"
He tapped the display next to an alert code for the geographical data search. The screen complied by showing a match to the ship's database. Orin released the information.
"I…I can't believe it."
On the screen it read: planet Castai III. He quickly began to look for specifics in the data. There it was. Mt. Vaseer appeared on the data map being compiled from topographical scans of the planet's surface. He could not have mistaken it for anything else. Orin knew the place he had called home, better than any other location on Castai; and yet, here it was.
This city, upon closer scans, did have a great deal more damage than back home. He keyed in comparison data from his home world and matched them together. Orin could see clearly that this city of Vaseer was actually less complete than back home. Somehow this planet was a duplicate of his home world. By this time the others were anxiously waiting for some indication of exactly what was happening.
"What is it Orin," asked Tiet?
"This planet is somehow a duplicate of Castai III."
"What?!"
"I know…but I have already located Mt. Vaseer and confirmed other topographical comparisons. The oceans, the mountains, and almost every major landmark are the same."
Silence held everyone captive at that point.
"But the Vorn inhabit this planet," said Dorian.
"We could really use some answers and the Vorn aren't likely to give them to us. I think we should go to this planet's city of Vaseer and see if the people on this world left any records.
"The city is deserted according to the scan data. I don't know what else to do at this point; the situation has changed so dramatically from what we were expecting to find."
"Well, we better do something. This ship isn't invisible, you know. Somebody will be shooting at us sooner or later if we just fly around up here," said Millo. "I vote for Vaseer."
Tiet and Dorian nodded in agreement.
"Course plotted. E.T.A. is twenty minutes."
The Saberhawk's thrusters came to life to boost it away toward the mountain city. Cloud cover was fairly thick and provided good visual cover for the ship, but they knew that most likely they were already being tracked by the Vorn. The question was, could they reach Vaseer and find out what they needed to know before they were intercepted by attack ships?
THE reconstruction of Vale's body and the construction of his duplicates took a little time even for the automatons and nano-builders at the Spheres' control; but soon enough the work was complete. At ten hours, fifty three minutes, and twenty seven point seven eight seconds, Vale's repaired body and his new duplicates came online.
Vale had control over all three bodies at once. His mind combined with that of the Sphere was easily capable of coordinating every detailed action without hindrance. The three androids moved without delay, to join the waiting invasion force.
In one of the multiple launch bays within the huge Sphere, the Vale androids boarded one of the carrier vessels about to launch to the planet's surface. The drones were miniatures of the Sphere itself. Each attack drone was fully armed with phased plasma weapons and shield generators for defense.
The carrier drones each carried one large surface attack robot, which were more suited to close quarters fighting and rooting out combatants able to evade the airborne attack force. The spherical carrier drone closed around the androids and hovered off the deck of the launch bay to join the other drones already leaving the main ship.
The first target would be a multiple objective. The Barudii ship was on course for one of the ancient cities of the makers, and a large contingent of Vorn forces were on their way there as well.
A Horva of uncommon stature and intelligence sat astride his grevasaur surveying his troops. The General was expecting a mighty victory today. An army of Horva marched with him toward the place where he hoped they could launch a massive counter offensive against the Sphere that had for so many decades been hounding the Vorn. It had decimated their forces at every encounter with the powerful suicide drones it employed, as well as the massive weapons used by the main Sphere itself. General Grod was certain the machine was in orbit around Castai. Sensor scans had failed to locate it, and the orbiting satellites had been destroyed that could scan for its presence.
But now, by employing his new plan he felt confident that not only would they soon have its location but would finally put an end to the destruction. After all, if the Sphere were to eradicate the Vorn, he and his elite Horva would also be included, and he didn't want their former masters destroyed, but subjugated.
The Vorn were still useful, but they would soon learn who the real masters were. Their resistance to the uprising of his fellow Horva would soon be crushed and the balance of power would rest with himself and his fellow clones.
The General's command group began to break away from the rest of his forces as they approached Mt. Vaseer from the north. They would make there way up the mountain to a preplanned area that overlooked the valley on the other side. The valley would be the perfect battlefield to have their showdown with the drones and draw them out into the open, so that his plan could be properly executed. One thing about computers, they always made predictable movements; he knew the drones would take the bait.
Grod's second in command, Malec, was personally escorting their special surprise for the forces of the Sphere and controlling the other weapons that would hopefully bring down the massive control Sphere from orbit. Grod looked back over the fifty thousand man army that marched toward the pass around Vaseer with satisfaction. "Victory!"
Those within hearing replied in kind and the cry spread across the entire army. They believed that he was a capable leader and that he would lead them to victory.
Grod had bolstered their pride as elite warriors. They had finally grown tired of being the muscle for the physically weaker Vorn, without ever receiving any of the glory or power.
Grod was their ideal, sitting upon his grevasaur, physically powerful and more menacing in his appearance than any of the other elite Horva.
When the Vorn had realized the danger of intelligent Horva with their greater physical power and tenacious love of fighting, they had gone to cloning a new breed of more easily manipulated Horva that were easy to control. This had been the final insult to Grod and his brother clones.
Now the rebellion was on. Grod prodded the grevasaur he rode upon, urging it on toward the rest of the command group who had begun to ride on ahead with their equipment in tow. The beast moaned deeply as it complied with its rider's commands.
THE Saberhawk glided smoothly around Mt. Vaseer on approach to the hangar bay on the lower western face of the mountain. On their internal scans of the city, there appeared to be a lot of damage. Obviously the fighting here on this duplicate Castai had been far worse, since there did not appear to be any Castillians left on the planet. Numerous sensor sweeps had not found even one native left alive.
As they approached the massive entrance, it was apparent that the doors probably were not functional. They were shut and pocked with blast marks and several very large holes that went all the through. The Saberhawk would not be able to gain entrance to the city.
Orin tried several command codes from back home; hoping that maybe the same had been in use in this duplicate universe. The automated systems either weren't functional or didn't recognize the codes. At any rate, the result was the same.
"Well there's not much choice," said Orin as he looked back at Tiet. "We'll have to go in and see if we can find anything."
"I'm in."
"Me too," said Dorian.
"Actually I think Tiet and I will have to go alone. We don't have the time to land and hike back up to the city. We'll have to drop in here and go through the damaged hangar bay doors. You can't make the descent from the ship and I would rather that Millo was not left to handle any problems with the ship alone."
Dorian was noticeably unhappy with the situation, but compliant.
"Millo, please take the ship down into the southern valley until we contact you. Keep an eye peeled for any trouble and get the ship out of danger if you have too. It's likely that the Vorn will be investigating our arrival. I doubt an old Barudii battleship will have gone unnoticed on this planet. Tiet, you and I will make the jump to Vaseer and see what we can come up with."
Orin proceeded through the bridge passage and down the short stairwell toward the main entry way to the ship, with Tiet following close behind.
"Tiet!" called Dorian coming after him. Both men turned at her approach. Orin looked at Dorian and then Tiet, realizing they needed a moment to speak.
"I'm going to secure some more gear we may need. I'll meet you shortly in the vestibule."
Orin went on without further comment, leaving them alone in the corridor.
"What's the matter?"
"I just have a bad feeling about you going down there."
"Don't worry. Orin watches over me like he was my father," he said playfully, but Dorian's expression did not lighten.
"I feel like I need to tell you how I feel before you go," she said hesitantly, as if searching his face to know his feelings before she continued.
Tiet could hardly breathe; waiting for her next words with such anticipation he could perceive nothing else.
"I have loved you before I even knew you," she said. "From the images of you as a child, until I first realized who you were in the tunnels; you have been in my most secret thoughts. Now that I have been with you, I cannot imagine being anywhere else."
She raised her left arm and then pulling back the cuff of her uniform, she exposed the donjarr of her family. Tiet recognized the woven bracelet immediately. According to Castillian customs, it was the woman who chose her life companion and it was signified by the passing of the donjarr to the intended male as a promise of her desire to wed. The donjarr was not a light commitment. It was a binding contract once the male placed it on his own wrist.
Dorian looked into Tiet's eyes, and he could see her longing to know his feelings about what she had told him. He reached for her hand, clasping it in his own. With his other hand he moved the donjarr from her wrist over their joined hands to rest upon his own, according to the ritual. A tear escaped her swollen eyes, trailing down her olive skin. Tiet pulled her to himself in an embrace they both had longed to have.
"Come back safely to me," she said as she touched his lips with her own. Then she turned and hurried back to the bridge, before she lost control of her joy at their coming together, and her anxiety at their parting. Tiet could hardly contain his own joy, as he went on to meet Orin.
He was already waiting at the main entry ramp to the ship when Tiet arrived. Orin looked him over once; puzzled by the grin on his face, but supposing that something had happened between him and the girl. It did not surprise him and he hoped that all would turn out well for them, but at the moment more urgent matters pressed. He keyed in the safety bypass code, to allow the ship to open the main hatch while still in flight. Millo was hovering about one hundred yards above the mountain's face where the city's hangar bay was located. They could see the scarred bay doors below them now.
"Are you ready Tiet?"
"Lead the way," he said over the engine rumblings spilling into the vestibule.
"The way is down," he said as he turned and stepped into the open air; quickly plummeting toward the mangled surface of the bay doors below. Tiet followed without hesitation. The two warriors controlled their descent precisely with their psycho kinesis and soft landed on the surface of the hangar doors.
The structure creaked under their weight a little, but appeared to be solid enough. Orin led the way to the largest opening and turned to toss Tiet a lighted headset. He clicked his own headset on to keep communication with the Saberhawk and to provide some illumination of the darkness below them.
"Millo, take the ship down to the valley, and wait there until you here from us. If you encounter any trouble, dust off immediately and we'll rendezvous later."
"Affirmative. I'll be waiting for your call. Be careful."
Above them, the engines of the Saberhawk whined to a higher pitch and the ship veered away from the mountain on course for the southern valley. Tiet switched on his own headset and the two of them peered into the darkness below them. They could see that the pavement was littered with a lot of debris.
"Look over there," said Tiet motioning to a large clear area.
"Let's go."
They dropped from the edge of the blast hole in the hangar bay door, about two hundred feet to the pavement; soft landing again thanks to their kinetic abilities. From memory, Orin led them through the debris field inside the hangar bay to the control room.
The door was standing open and a thick layer of dust covered the control panels within. Orin looked for the power grid panel and found the cells for all the power and backups were drained to nothing.
"Even after power failure, the successive auto backups would have run for at least six months," said Orin.
"Maybe, but this looks like about a hundred years of dust," said Tiet.
"If not more. Well, what have we here…?"
He keyed on another panel lever and several low lights flickered to life in the bay.
"Manual backup, in case the auto systems were down," said Orin. "These should be connected to solar panels on the eastern face of the mountain. They won't run down as long as the panels have a descent access to sunlight. Let's go."
He led them out of the control room and up a tunnel to a higher level of the city. Tiet followed the swift steps of his mentor, trying to keep his senses alert to any sudden dangers that might present themselves.
This duplicate city had certainly taken a pounding. The ground was littered everywhere with debris. It looked like the Vorn had nearly torn the city apart and yet there were no signs of any bodies. The two men came into an ornate corridor approaching a single room. It seemed familiar to him, though he couldn't place it exactly.
"What room is this?"
"It's the king's quarters. This would have been your home back on our planet. Although I doubt your father was even born when this city was destroyed. I would guess it happened well over one hundred years ago."
"So what are we doing here?"
"There was a separate computer database in the King's quarters with its own link to the solar panels. Since they're still operating, I'm hoping the database is functioning as well. It may provide us with some answers."
Orin tried the electronic keypad, but there was no response. Tiet quickly ignited one of his kemsticks and sliced an oval shaped hole into the door. He kicked the cut piece inward, and bending down, he went through the opening. Orin followed and they could clearly see a luxurious abode. It reminded him of home, but it had been so long ago. Orin made his way to a certain place on the rock wall and depressed two separate points that were far enough apart so as to be almost unreachable at the same time. A digital keypad rotated out of the wall before him. It still had power and Orin quickly typed in the words: Barudii, Soone, vaseer 1. A panel slid back in the wall to reveal an information display. A list of categories for searching the database appeared on the screen.
"Good, the code works here too. That means your family ruled here as well, somehow," said Orin.
"Well, where do we start?" asked Tiet.
"How about with those strange spheres we encountered?"
Orin typed in the word sphere and instantly a list of subcategories scrolled across the display. Among the data entries were schematics and weapon systems capabilities for a massive attack vehicle. It must have measured three miles in diameter and looked just like the smaller spheres they had witnessed earlier destroying the space fleet of the Vorn.
They were shocked to see that it was the long dead Barudii of this planet that had constructed the huge machine. They scanned page after page of data, hardly able to believe what was being stated.
"Hard to believe they built this thing," said Tiet in amazement.
"To fight the Vorn, or avenge themselves. Either way, a very deadly weapon to unleash on anyone."
"Yeah, but we never saw this one; only the smaller drones."
"But you can be sure it's out there," said Orin. "It's probably directly responsible for the destruction of the Vorn space station. It appears they launched it just prior to being wiped out by the Vorn. It was sent to attack the Vorn home world of Demigoth and then pursue the remaining Vorn and destroy them anywhere that it found them."
A small illuminated box on the display began to blink as Orin continued scanning the data. He tapped the box with his finger, causing more data to appear.
"This appears to be a live feed from the Sphere itself."
"Look at that tactical map. Isn't that Mt. Vaseer and the Saberhawk in the valley to the south of us?"
"Yes, and on a direct trajectory from the large Sphere down to the valley is a massive group of those drones!"
"Look at that, coming in from the northern pass. It looks like a ground army and they are heading toward the southern valley, too!"
"Orin to Saberhawk, dust off immediately! I say dust off immediately! Enemy forces are closing rapidly on your position!"
"We've got to get down there to them," shouted Tiet as he scrambled out of the room and down the corridor.
Orin followed, while still trying to get through to the ship, but there was only static.
Suddenly he heard a reply.
"Millo to Orin…are you there?"
"Yes Millo! I hear you! There are two different groups of combatants converging on your location. You've got to get yourselves out of there now!" shouted Orin into the headset as he tried to keep up with Tiet through the corridors leading to the surface.
"I've got them on scans already. Shields are at maximum and weapons systems have been armed. I'm trying to lift off but some of those drones are already within visual range and closing fast on us."
"Do your best. We're on our way!"
When Tiet and Orin reached the main gate, they found it blasted almost completely away. As the pair emerged into the open air again they could already hear the noise of battle in the valley below. Many of the spheres were engaged in combat with the hovering Saberhawk. It appeared to be pinned down by the swarm of drones strafing at it with their energy weapons.
The other group of spheres landing in the valley threw large arms out of their sides that lifted their bodies and acted as legs to carry them and fight with. Blasters popped out of the tops to lay down laser fire against the masses of Horva.
The pass from the north to the southern valley was flooded completely with ground forces that greatly resembled the Horva, but Tiet noticed that these were different. They were dark skinned men like the Vorn but stronger looking and they wore uniforms and moved more like an organized fighting force; not like the brutes they had encountered back home at all. They were utilizing pulse weapons to fire on the sphere robots as the two sides of the struggle engaged one another.
The Horva were swarming in massive numbers upon the large robots, who in turn were spraying them with wave after wave of automatic laser fire. Tiet could see that the Horva were also using similar portable shield generators like the ones used by the Barudii.
They moved in close to engage the sphere robots with larger pulse cannons mounted upon hydraulic arms that attached to their vests. The pulse cannons were doing some definite damage to the hulking robots. It appeared to Orin as though the pulse wavelength was modulating continually to match the shield wavelengths of the robots, allowing them to penetrate.
All of the combatants were laying siege to the Saberhawk, even though the Horva and the sphere robots were more interested in each other. Tiet ran down the main path of the city toward the valley with Orin following hard after him. The Saberhawk was hovering about forty feet off of the ground but the sky above them was too congested with enemy vessels to get clear of the battle.
Tiet could see that the ship was returning fire in all directions, but it was greatly outnumbered on the battlefield. He knew that their shields were losing power reserves fast at this pace, and before long they would be taking hits directly to the hull and it would all be over.
Tiet was running with all his might to get to her; to protect her. He leapt away from the path from a nearby ledge that took a drop thirty feet down to the fighting already raging below. He landed right in the middle of a group of several Horva that were firing on a distant sphere robot. They immediately reacted to his presence, bringing their weapons to bear on him.
His kemsticks leapt to his hands as he landed among them. He sliced one rifle in two, severing its owners hand at the wrist while deflecting another shot at point blank range. He swept downward under the barrel of one of them who fired and killed another Horva that had been standing ready on the other side, and with a complete sweep of his kemstick, cut the Horva down at the knees. He wasted little time dispatching two others, and then quickly moved onward to try and get to the Saberhawk.
"WE'RE the biggest thing out here!" said Millo in frustration.
Dorian blasted away at the weapons controls while Millo looked for a clearing in the congestion overhead.
"If we're so big, then can't we just plow through those other ships?"
"After seeing those spheres ramming into the Vorn ships I'd rather not take any chances. I'm going to try and move us out of the battle at this altitude."
"Well, you better hurry; our shields are already down to thirty percent power!"
The battlefield was overrun with Horva warriors, fighting furiously against the robots. Although the Horva were taking heavy losses, they continued to blast away at the automatons. For every twenty or more Horva getting killed, a robot was brought down. The Horva vastly outnumbered the robots and at least thirty thousand had rushed into the valley by now.
VALE and his doubles were fiercely engaged in the ground battle. The androids under Vale's mind were swiftly moving through the battlefield on foot toward the position of the Saberhawk. He knew that he had faced the Barudii warrior on the same vessel and had been defeated. He had no doubt that he could acquire his target there again. The triplet androids moved independently as though separate beings; yet all were under the one mind of Vale with the Sphere.
Combatant after combatant was cut down as they moved swiftly toward the Barudii ship; only engaging in close combat as necessary. Then Vale noticed that the ship was veering away from the fight and heading toward them, apparently trying to escape the situation.
Vales one and two quickly pulled hypermagnetic grapples and fired them at the ship as it passed low overhead. The third was still engaged with a Horva warrior as the hull-planted grapples pulled the other two androids up and away from the battlefield. Vales one and two retracted the grapple cables to bring themselves up to the hull.
Activating their hypermagnetic discs beneath their android skin, they each clung to the hull of the Saberhawk. The ship's shields did not prevent them since they only repulsed energy weapons. The two androids avoided any attempt to cut through the hull with Barudii blades as it would no doubt cause a repulsion charge from the shields that would fling them off the hull or vaporize them. They made their way quickly across the hull on their bellies as the shields snapped back energetically above them at the incoming pulse laser blasts from the battle.
They recalled the entry code for the outer hull hatch that Vale had gone through before and keyed it in when they reached the door. The door obeyed and both androids entered the ship without incident. Vale recognized the cargo hold as the place of his defeat at the hands of the Barudii warrior.
Wasting no time, the robots moved to the doorway of the cargo hold and found it locked. The second Vale brought his blade to bear on the door and proceeded to cut a portal through. The pair proceeded down the corridor toward the bridge, even as the ship shuddered under the enemy fire raining upon it from all directions. The bridge door was closed and the androids could hear voices from beyond it; a man and a woman. Without trying the lock, the pair sliced through the door.
Dorian whirled around, hearing the sound of ignited Barudii blades, and the crackling of molecular bonds bursting at their touch. From her hand flew a spicor disc toward the door and the android coming in through a newly cut hole. Trapped within the confines of the portal it had just cut, the first Vale caught the spicor disc in the upper torso. The tightly controlled burst pattern vaporized all but its arms above the waist.
Dorian quickly pulled her blade as the second robot moved in fast over its fallen twin. She could feel the pressure and the pain building in her fractured arm as she brought it to join the other on the hilt of her sword.
Millo looked back from the controls, as he heard the spicor explode behind him. The ship was still taking a beating from the sporadic weapons fire erupting from the battlefield below them; there was no way he could leave the controls. Vale pulled his pulse blaster with his free hand and sprayed laser fire in all directions across the bridge. The electromagnetic shield on Dorian's forearm blazed to life to repel the incoming blasts.
Millo held the controls of the Saberhawk, as the firestorm swept across the bridge. Several shots pierced his flight chair and his body. He arched at the pain as he slumped forward over the controls and his life drained away from him.
The ship lurched upward and back, causing Vale to stumble a moment. As he brought the blaster back to bear on Dorian, it met her blade in flight; slicing through both the weapon and the android's hand. Without any notion of pain, Vale brought his own blade down upon Dorian's shoulder, only to find her blade barring the way. With Millo slumped over the controls and many of the flight controls destroyed by laser fire, the Saberhawk began backwards from its course, descending clumsily toward the battlefield.
TIET could see the Saberhawk under fire from the battlefield and the sky; and still it was driving hard away from the fight. Soon she would be safe, and away from the danger. In his heart he urged the ship on to escape with his love safe inside. He and Orin had been separated by a small distance, and were furiously taking down Horva after Horva.
These were men, not like the brutish wild beasts back home on Castai. They had a definite measure of intelligence about them that could be seen just in their fighting techniques. But still, they were no match for the skills of Barudii warriors and their kinetic powers.
Neither Orin nor Tiet had made any attempt to fight against the sphere robots, since they were only built to attack the Vorn. The Sphere's fight was their fight. The Saberhawk was still some two hundred yards away as it trailed low over the battlefield to get away.
The entire valley before Mt. Vaseer was ablaze with laser fire, and overhead a multitude of aerial combatants were tearing each other out of the sky. Wreckage was dropping onto the battlefield at regular intervals as the sphere drones and the Vorn attack fighters exchanged blows.
A Horva warrior strafed at Tiet with its pulse rifle. He deflected several blasts with kemsticks as he whirled them about his body and then he let one go toward his attacker. It caught the Horva's gun as it proceeded on to swipe across his chest and cut him down. The ignited kemstick rebounded back to Tiet's waiting hand in time to parry an incoming battle staff in the hands of another Horva. His second kemstick dispatched the opponent quickly with a straight thrust to the chest.
Orin too, was fairing well in the battle; evading laser fire through the use of his kinesis and tearing down multiple opponents with his blade. Tiet kept a visual on the ship. Its path was leading it off the battlefield to the east and he was glad Millo was getting them out.
Suddenly the ship slowed, arching nose up and coming back around from its former course. Something was wrong. Tiet's heart dropped in his chest as he noticed pulse laser fire flashing repeatedly from the bridge windows. "No!!"
The ship fell back from its escape run and began clumsily descending into the battlefield. If they didn't recover quickly they were going to crash for sure, and Tiet was too far away to do anything to help them. Several men approached to attack from multiple angles. Tiet repelled them all with a three hundred and sixty degree kinetic blast; sending them backward with crushing force.
He reached out in desperation with his kinesis to seize the ship and keep it aloft, but the Saberhawk's engines were fighting to drive it downward into the valley floor. Another Horva approached unnoticed from behind. His heart seized violently just before he could bring his battle staff down on Tiet. Orin watched him drop to the ground as he released him from his own mental grip from fifty yards away. He could see Tiet fixed upon the descending Saberhawk, trying to hold it up, but to no avail. There was simply no time to stop it.
The ship slammed into the valley floor, crushing several of the sphere robots and dozens of Horva warriors caught in its path. The Saberhawk burst into several large pieces as it tumbled over twice.
Tiet felt all strength leave his body at the thought of Dorian going down to her death in that fireball.
Then the conviction that she wasn't dead gripped him and he burst away from his position with blazing speed. Tiet was moving swiftly through engaged combatants and making only the slightest effort to dispatch anyone who turned to engage him while on his way. Quickly he closed the distance between himself and the wreckage. He wasn't sure why, but he knew that Dorian was not dead. He began to sense her location in the wreckage as he drew nearer; he sensed great pain.
Suddenly from the wreckage before him, a familiar adversary emerged with the majority of its synthetic skin burned away. It was the android again. This thing was responsible for the wreck. It had hurt her. Before the robot even spotted him, Tiet hit it with a kinetic burst fueled by pure rage that sent it flying against a large section of the Saberhawk's hull. Before the android could recover, he pinned its head to the wreckage with his father's blade. Its body jerked with mechanical aftershocks and moved no more.
Tiet backed away and quickly found Dorian pinned underneath a metal support pillar. He waved it off of her with his mind and was at her side. Dorian was barely conscious when she looked at him. She tried to speak, but did not have the strength.
Tiet could not find words, as tears welled up and escaped down his anguished face. He held her hand, and could feel it grow cold as life began to leave her. Dorian reached to touch the donjarr on Tiet's wrist, and then she touched his lips. Her fingertips lingered there only a moment as her body went limp and her gaze became void of life. Tiet's mind was racing without any coherent thoughts. He was completely numb in his senses. His love was dead before him. Sorrow filled his mind and despair gripped his heart.
He could still hear the battle raging around him, then something else, like heavy footsteps running across the wreckage; too heavy for a man. He looked back to find the android still lifeless and pinned to the hull by his father's sword. Then he looked toward the approaching sound to see another android coming at him with its own blade ready to strike. Without hesitation he reached for his imbedded blade, which obediently dislodged itself and leapt to his hand in time to meet the android's strike.
He wondered only a moment at how there seemed to be quite a few of these things. But the fight was on. Tiet slashed furiously at the deadly android, finding every strike countered. He was completely enraged, as the thought of Dorian lying here dead on this battlefield tore through his mind. He screamed out in fury at the robot. "Die!!"
His rage burst forth as a wave of psychokinetic energy that hit the third android with astonishing force; sending it flying through the air into a pile of the Saberhawk's wreckage. Tiet had never felt so powerful. His power was being fueled by his rage over Dorian's death and he could not contain it. The Vale android regained its composure and headed for him again. He lowered his father's blade to his side and let the kinetic power flow freely.
The Vale robot was coming closer with its own blade ready to strike. Suddenly the Barudii blade it carried extinguished itself.
The puzzled android stopped for a moment, trying to re-ignite the weapon's dispersion field. Tiet looked on with grim satisfaction, knowing he had just crushed the crystal in the hilt of the sword with his thoughts. He summoned the wreckage around him to attack the robot.
Large, man-sized pieces of the debris flew off the ground toward Vale; striking the robot repeatedly. The jagged hunks of metal tore away the android's veneer of humanity, exposing the adomen skeleton beneath. The projectiles pummeled the robot again and again, tearing off an arm and parts of its torso.
Tiet scowled at his prey as he launched the mental attack but nothing could dull the pain of losing her. He quickly tired of the game and sent his father's blade spinning toward the robot. The blade pierced its adomen skull and stopped when the hilt impacted its metal cranium. The android fell over as dead as a mechanical could be and did not move again. The battle still raged on around Tiet, as he knelt down near Dorian's body and sobbed.