Sector City appeared on the horizon. The ominous Agonotti cloud continued to track with the shuttle trying to overtake them somehow. The sun diffused through the mingled forms of thousands of the immaterial creatures.
"We're almost there!" Olson shouted to those in the rear compartment.
Tiet moaned from his injuries. Guilt flooded in on Kale as he tried to make his father comfortable in the shuttle while it rocked and reeled from the pressures being exerted on it by the cloud.
"Father, I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you…"
"I know. I'll be fine. I'm just glad we found you. Please don't ever think you have to run away."
"I just wasn't sure if I could keep control of that thing in my head," Kale said. "I didn't want to hurt anybody so I ran, but now it's happened anyway."
"Don't worry, soon we'll be home and your mother will know what to do for me."
That thought comforted him a little. Yes, his mother would know, after all she was an excellent physician. According to Emil, she had been the one to find the cure for the symbyte-the antibody formula necessary to kill it. At least, Kale thought it was dead. It certainly had lost control over him and the voice in his mind had gone silent.
Kale looked out one of the portal windows and saw the vile formation crowding around the ship, but then something more. The ship shuddered as something collided with the hull. Kale watched physical forms coalesce on the hull of the shuttle.
Agonotti became solid one by one, clinging to the craft and forming for their weapons large broadswords and battle hammers, all coming into being from the same material that their bodies had formed from. So that's it, their clothing, weapons and bodies are all formed from the same matrix.
The creatures hammered into the ship with their weapons, trying to breech the hull or bring it down.
"What are we going to do?" Emil shouted. "They'll destroy the flight controls!"
Kale didn't have an answer. They couldn't fight them on the hull while they were in flight.
"Father, what can we do?"
"I'm too weak. Kale, you and Emil try to push them off kinetically. Just don't damage the hull."
The boys moved to either side of the compartment trying to sense where the Agonotti warriors stood on the outside. They each pushed the creatures away as they sensed them beyond their touch. As the warriors fell away they disintegrated their forms and rejoined the mass of Agonotti in the cloud. Still, more formed on the outer hull and more than the boys could deal with at one time.
Suddenly, several of the portal windows burst inward and the foul smoke poured through into the compartment. Agonotti warriors formed from the dark vapor ready for battle. Kale and Emil pulled their weapons and began to slash through the creatures physical forms.
Juli and her mother screamed as the Agonotti cornered them in the compartment and moved in for the kill. Emil intervened instantly-dispatching both warriors and then quickly moved on to several more. The compartment was of fair size for a shuttle and Elam had certainly outfitted for luxury, but the battle grew cramped fast with more and more Agonotti materializing from the invading fog.
A warrior tried to attack Tiet, who was too weak to fight-only barely maintaining consciousness. But Kale came to his defense being sure not to allow anyone near his father, the king. The wind howled through every portal window in the shuttle except the cockpit. For some reason, they had abandoned that option when they had gained access through the others.
Olson continued to drive the shuttle hard for Sector City and soon they were flying over the boundaries of Wellor Lake. He looked down at the beacon display that Emil had left in the cockpit for him to follow. The gate showed a location in the heart of the city only a few miles ahead.
The battle raged in the rear compartment with Emil defending the women and Kale standing against those trying to get to the cockpit or to his father. Clanging could still be heard from Agonotti warriors on the outer hull. There were just too many of the Agonotti warriors to do anything except hold their own ground and try not to get killed.
An explosion rocked the craft.
"They've blown out the flight control module!" Olson shouted. "We're going to crash!"
The Agonotti began to disintegrate immediately upon hearing Olson's warning. The battle ended suddenly as the ghastly warriors rode the wind back out of the ship.
"Is everyone alright?" Kale shouted.
"We've got to get strapped in!" Emil said over the howling wind.
Kale went to help Juli get into a flight restraint as the wind whipped through the shattered portholes like a cyclone.
"Olson!" Juli's mother got to her feet and ran toward the cockpit to help her husband as the shuttle pitched to the side. She slammed into the wall as she ran, but frantically continued on, trying to reach her dear husband in the front of the ship.
"Mother!" Juli cried.
The shuttle pitched forward and descended down into the city. It slammed into one of the city's tall buildings full of glass panes. Kale tried to put a kinetic bubble around the ship to protect it as it collided with the wall of glass and steel.
The craft penetrated and came through diagonally out of another side of the building, nearer to the street. The entire compartment rotated as Kale tried to hold the mental force field around the ship and simultaneously get the final click on his own flight harness, but he couldn't manage both in the chaos.
His grip on the strap gave and he flew out of his chair through the compartment as it rotated around him. He hit the top of a flight chair and slammed into an adjacent wall. The mental bubble dissipated as Kale was tossed about like a rag doll. The exposed craft descended toward the street below and slammed into a number of personal transport vehicles. It skidded to a halt on the pavement.
The massive Agonotti cloud descended upon the city as civilians ran through the streets in a panic. People had been killed, when the ship fell out of the sky and plowed through businesses and then into traffic. Everyone recognized the Agonotti cloud.
Agonotti warriors materialized in the streets. They would not waste the opportunity of a feeding among the civilian population roaming the streets during the middle of the work day. The cloud cast a massive shadow and it seemed as though death itself had come to call upon Sector City.