The boy kept his rifle barrel pressed into Kale's temple. If the boy leader was to be believed, then the others back at the ship were in big trouble and they had to get out of here now to help them. Kale eyed Wynn, looking for something in his expression-permission to act. Wynn glanced down at the floor and Kale followed his gaze.
On the ground just behind the boy leader, words etched themselves into the thick layer of dust and ash. An unseen finger wrote: Don't Harm and Diversion in the Barudii language of old that Wynn had been teaching him. Some of the other armed children had come to encircle them and stand guard.
"We'll move you to our secret location, where the Agonotti can't reach us," the boy leader said.
Wynn wasn't listening anymore; instead he was focused on the surrounding room. Things began to move in the dark around them-pieces of debris pounded into the walls and bounced across the floor out of view. The children reacted immediately with fear. Their eyes searched for targets with weapons pointed into the darkness around them; their hands trembling with anticipation born of experience with the Agonotti.
The dust on the floor and all around the room suddenly churned into a fog. The lights that the children carried and those mounted above flickered. Many of the children screamed uncontrollably, expecting dark horrors to pop up beside them at any moment and kill them as they had seen happen countless times to other people over the last few months.
The boy had removed the gun from Kale's temple as he searched for materializing attackers. In the chaos, his prisoners disappeared. The lights quickly returned to normal and the swirling storm of debris and ash began to settle as the boy tried to quiet the others. "They've tricked us! They're getting away!"
Kale and the others ran at breakneck speed ascending to the street level of the building. They weren't running for fear of children, but for the lives of all of their people left onboard the Equinox. Mere moments passed like hours as the group sprinted through the ash covered streets and leaped over the dead and debris.
When the team turned the last corner and saw the ship still sitting in the street unharmed, they all breathed sighs of relief. They slowed and walked cautiously toward the entrance ramp-it was no longer extended. Everything seemed just like when they had departed.
"Those children must have been mistaken, everything looks fine," Emil said.
They all holstered and sheathed their weapons as they approached the entrance ramp at the underside of the ship.
Wynn tapped a code into his uniform keypad. The ramp complied with his access code and unlocked itself. Kale continued to survey their surroundings as the ramp lowered. Had the boy really been wrong about the Agonotti? The city certainly looked dead enough. Other than the children, who had managed to survive somehow, nothing remained but decaying corpses and the burned out remnants of civilization. And of course there was the fog of ash that lingered in the air coating everything in gray soil.
He noticed something as he looked at the ground-footrints for the team headed toward the ship. They had been made only moments ago. The unusual thing about it was that at a certain distance from the ship he could see the imprints they had left in the ash when they had departed earlier and yet closer to the Equinox there weren't any. Somehow they had been covered up, but only close to the ship.
The ramp tapped the ground behind Kale and the others began to walk up toward the entry way door. Insight suddenly hit as Kale turned to see the opening in the ship.
"Wynn! Close the door now!!"
The dark ash on the ground all around the ship burst upward in a great cloud that instantly cut visibility to zero. Men formed from the molecular contents of the living fog. Shots could be heard from inside the ship as the others left onboard reacted to the breech by the Agonotti.
A man formed in front of Kale as he ran blindly toward the sounds of battle. He ignited two kemsticks and continued running right for the attacker. Kale blocked several strikes and then he took the wraith down. Someone else stood behind him. Kale reacted but this one got a hit in knocking Kale to the ground. He rolled and recovered with his weapon at the ready.
The cloud spent itself birthing the physical forms of Agonotti warriors. Kale saw the others from the boarding team engaged in the fight to defend the ship. These dark warriors had come well-armed like those they had run from only three months before. The Agonotti use weaponry formed from their matrix.
Explosive shells sailed into the fray from down the street. Agonotti torso's exploded and shadowy wraiths fell dead in the street with each good hit. Kale's team members sought cover behind any debris available as the children who had captured them earlier reigned down a firestorm against the ghost-like Agonotti warriors.
Kale looked back at the ship to see the prophet standing in the entryway with his staff in his hand. He owned a confidence that didn't come from faith in man's efforts. When he spoke, his voice rose above even the exploding shells coming down all around them.
"Here the Logostus of the Eternal One, ye cursed and fallen from Mithrium!"
The words ignited a thunderclap that boomed throughout the city. The battlefield suddenly became quiet as all attention turned to the prophet. Kale noticed about forty Agonotti warriors still standing and another twenty lying on the ground beginning to lose their physical forms and turning to vapor again.
"Does a mere man speak for the Eternal One?" said an Agonotti warrior that appeared to be leading the attack group.
Aija turned an eye to him and said, "A mere man, yes, but I trust in Elithias alone."
"Elithias has abandoned you, old man. You should abandon him, and perhaps I will show you mercy."
"You do not know of mercy, neither will it be extended to you."
The Agonotti warrior sneered at the prophet and walked toward him with his great battle axe raised to strike.
"Your time is not yet, saith the Logostus!"
The wind suddenly roared through the streets, sending debris and dust through the air like a storm. The Agonotti warrior stopped when he noticed his weapon and his hands losing form and substance.
"The breath of the Eternal One shall take you from us," the prophet said, as the physical forms of the Agonotti disintegrated against their will. In a moment, the Agonotti and the wind that carried them had gone and the streets became quiet again. All eyes focused on the prophet.
"Come little children!" he said to the group down the street. "Do not be afraid. The Lord Elithias is our help and our stay!"
The children began to emerge from their hiding places among the ruins slinging their weapons as they approached the ship. The boy leader walked among them, but he didn't even glance at Kale or the others-they all were transfixed upon the prophet. Aija greeted them as they made their way up the boarding ramp. "Please, come inside. We will help you. Elithias will protect us."
Kale and the other members of the landing team followed the children as they entered the ship. As Kale's team came near, Aija turned his attention to them. "Gentlemen, I'm pleased to see you well. Come, we must talk."