Chapter 5

Together, the Humans and Qaladdeans set out during the day, and Jack experiences a strange vision

Chapter 5

 

Unknown Planet, Unknown System, Time 0100z, 5 November 2270 C.E

 

We departed several hours later than we had wanted. A few of the scout parties were pretty far away and it had taken longer than expected to return. Artanus had come up to the Captain and I and had expressed the need for urgency, but luckily he understood the dishonor of leaving team members behind.

While we waited, Artanus had improved his understanding of the English language considerably and was able to hold brief conversations with us. His speech was very broken, but I was still amazed at how quickly he had picked it up. I had wanted to ask him about his people, but figured it wasn’t the best time. The longer we waited, the more worried he became, and I didn’t want to bother him with petty questions.

We finally left about 8 hours before the first sun would set, and Artanus set off at a very brisk walking pace. The four squat legs of these creatures seemed very awkward, but their agility belied their appearance. About two hours into the journey I noticed many of my crew slowing down as Artanus kept his quick pace. I jogged up to the front of the caravan where Artanus and his mages led.

“Perhaps you could slow down a bit? Most of our people are walking and cannot keep up,” I asked.

“Must reach Silence before Kuturus leaves us,” he replied. Hearing his voice in my head was going to take a long time to get used to.

“Kuturus?”

“Kuturus,” he exclaimed as he pointed up at the small yellow sun. “We safe when reach Silence.”

'Silence must be some sort of town or fortified base,' I thought. “What do you call the other one?” I asked, referring to the suns.

“Tryonikus. Please, Commander, we must speed.”

“Hurry,” I corrected him. “We must hurry. I’ll let the Captain know.”

I stood by as the column of marching Sailors and Marines passed. The Spectres slowly rolled down the middle carrying their injured cargo. Bringing up the rear was a lumbering Jotunn tank. Our mechanics had finally been able to repair it to working order. The behemoth looked like an old sea-faring battleship turret that had been dropped onto a pair of caterpillar treads. Its three guns only fired 88mm rounds, but their ability to cover a forty-five degree field of fire in either direction was what made it intimidating. Using our relatively new Kinetic Concussion technology, the firing mechanism was capable of accelerating solid slug rounds at very high velocities. The concussive force of a single 88mm round was like dropping a family sized refrigerator on a target at terminal velocity. And it’s liquid magazine was a special non-newtonian alloy, which meant it was reactive to kinetic energy impulses, a high enough kinetic jolt would force it into a solid state. This greatly increased the magazine capacity of the Jotunn allowing for rapid firing at one or more targets for extended periods of time. It wasn’t the most agile tank, but it certainly had enough firepower to get the job done. I was hoping it might give us a slight advantage now.

The Captain stood atop the Jotunn. Feet on the tread guards and holding onto the nearest cannon, he looked like a Captain of old sailing his wooden warship on the high seas of Earth.

“How is the front of the column, Foster?” Maxwell shouted over the rumble of the tank.

“Artanus says we can’t slow down,” I replied. “He says we have to reach our destination by sundown, and from the tone of his voice I’m guessing our destination is pretty far away.”

“Well, ain’t that a bite in the a*s,” I heard Maxwell say barely louder than the roaring Jotunn. “We should’ve waited till tomorrow to leave.”

“We really don’t have much choice now. I certainly don’t want to be out here after dark, and there’s no use turning back now. Perhaps if we keep up a strong pace we could rest when we get near.”

“We will see, Foster. I just hope we made the right choice.”

'Me too,' I thought to myself. 'Me too.'

 

* * *

 

Time 0615z, 5 November 2270 C.E.

 

Tryonikus had already set over an hour ago, and Kuturus was on the verge of the horizon. It had been a relatively silent trip aside from the rumble of the mechanized caravan behind me. I had repeatedly tried to ask Artanus about his people, but every time he simply replied with, “Now is not the time, Commander.”

Even though we had traveled over flat plains the whole time, the eight hour trek was very tiring. The pace was not quite a jog, but fast enough to make walking extremely uncomfortable. We had to stop and take a short rest just over two hours ago, which according to Artanus was eating up our precious daylight. I had insisted that five minutes wasn’t going to hurt us, and we would lose more time if we hadn’t rested. The column simply could not keep up that pace any longer.

“How much further,” I asked. We had to be getting close, but I could not see anything between here and the horizon that looked like a town, or fort.

“Not far,” Artanus said plainly. “Kuturus is very low in the sky, he may hide himself before we reach Silence. Pray he doesn’t.”

“Your English has improved much, Artanus.”

“English?”

“That is what our language is called.”

“I see. I am of the Arcanum. I learn quickly, and I take much pride in saying that am the youngest Qaladdean to reach the status of Harbinger of the Arcanum. But that must be saved for a later conversation. Perhaps when we reach Silence. We are but twenty units away.”

And he went silent.

We continued to travel even as Kuturus disappeared behind the horizon. I began to worry. I noticed Artanus and his warriors tense up, more alert, and ready for what they thought was imminent attack.

“We are here!” the Harbinger broadcasted. I looked around and still no sight of anything but flat plains for kilometers. Artanus shouted in his native tongue and jammed the bottom of his staff into the ground. He took a step back and began channeling some sort of energy from the crystal tip of his staff. His armored magi ran up to him to help, angling their staves towards his as if to lend power from theirs to his, and the warriors surrounded them in a defensive circle. Bright silver wisps of energy began swirling around the tip of his staff. More streams of light illuminated the air around him from the staves of his magi. Slowly the wisps began to condense into what seemed like a small star.

Suddenly, a Marine to my right exploded in a bloody mess. Wiping his remains from my face, I drew my pistol as quickly as I could, but the shimmer of the demon I saw where the Marine had stood quickly vanished.

“Contact!” I screamed as I ran for the cover of the Spectres along with everyone else on foot. The gunners on top the Spectres opened fire at any movement they could see. Artanus’ warriors broke formation. Bringing their shields to bear, spears extended, they galloped in front of the Marines crossing their lines of fire and forcing them to cease. Suddenly they began jabbing and thrusting their spears in random directions all about them. Amazingly, their spears began to strike true. What seemed like jabs in mid-air were actually precisely calculated predictions of where the creatures would appear next. Thus when a warrior reached the apex of his thrust a demon would blink to that location and essentially impale itself upon the spear of his enemy and evaporate in flames of shadow.

The Marines just watched in awe, lowering their rifles as the warriors fought. Not every thrust met a target, but not a single warrior was touched save for the swipes met preemptively with a block from their shields.

“Hurry! Everybody inside!” I heard Artanus shout. I looked over in his direction as a large ball of silver light hung suspended in mid-air. Pure energy arcing to the ground below, it emitted a blinding flash. When my vision cleared a gaping hole stood in front of Artanus. The ground had simply vanished.

Well, we didn’t waste any time getting to safety. The crew of the Armstrong charged into the tunnel while the warriors still fought around us. The tunnel was so large that the Spectres drove straight in with no trouble, but the Jotunn had to be left outside. I stood at the entrance ushering everyone inside. When the last of the crew members was safely inside, the warriors quickly followed.

“Come deeper inside, Commander,” I heard Artanus say as the warriors ran past me. “The Balakh’hai can still reach you in the star light.”

And with that, I turned and ran into the utter darkness of the tunnel.

 

* * *

 

I flew through the air. The ground was thousands of feet below but nothing was keeping me up. No plane. No helicopter. Not even wings. I floated. Below me was a glistening jewel of a city built around a large silver mountain. I was racing towards the mountain at an incredible speed, and buildings began to detail themselves in front of my eyes. The closer I came to the city, the more I began to realize that despite the intricate designs the buildings were simply made of stone. Not just any old grey stone normally found on earth, this stone was of many hues. Blue, red, and green pastels. All arranged and carved in such a way that was most aesthetically pleasing to the eye. But in spite of the beauty, it was very primitive. No steel or concrete or even wood was used as the buildings back home were made of.

As I flew low over the tops of the buildings, which were only ten to fifteen meters high, I began to circle around the large mountain in the center. Half as wide at the base as it was tall, it was no ordinary mountain. I guessed that it stood over three, close to four kilometers at its peak. It was jagged, but had smooth flat faces as if cut like an enormous crystal. There was no order to the faces, however, each was a different shape and size, but all were smooth as glass. The entire crystal glowed with a bright silver aura, so bright that even at night the city would be ever lit.

I circled closer to the base of the crystal. I could see small figures gathering around it. As I moved nearer, the figures took the shape of Artanus’ people. I watched as they pulled energy from the crystal as if to harvest it. The silvery aura condensed into streams that flowed into the chests of each Qaladdean as they drained the crystal’s power.

I began to float away as the sky darkened. The tiny figures disappeared and the crystal’s aura dimmed. Clouds formed and swirled overhead. The world began to shake violently as the crystal was suddenly sundered right down the middle. The jagged crack ran from the very top all the way to the base and was wide enough to march an army through twenty abreast. When the quake stopped, the glow around the crystal rapidly dimmed and the silvery light within was little more than a flicker. The entire city went dark.

A black swirling rift opened up inside the crack. It looked as if it was created of the void itself. What light was left seemed to be soaked up by the swirling tendrils of darkness. Fear quickly took hold of me. Against my will I was drawn closer to the portal. I tried to fight it, but my efforts were useless. Soon I could see creatures of blackness pouring out from the void. They looked familiar, as if I had seen them before.

I had! These were the same demons that attacked the crew of the Armstrong in the night.

I saw Qaladdeans scramble to defend themselves. Fire, water, and lighting shot forth from their hands, a grand display of elemental power. I was sure the demons would be quickly defeated. In awe, I watched the dark creatures take the full brunt of the Qaladdean assault and grew in size as if they were absorbing the energies thrown at them. In retaliation the demons fired back large volleys of the same shadow energies encounter by our Marines. Some Qaladdeans were able to throw up fields of energy to block the counterattack to cover their retreat into the city, but many were caught by the concussive force of the violet projectiles and blown several meters backwards into the stone buildings behind them.

The demons continued to advance as a new wave materialized from the rift, but they were different. They were larger, more muscular, looked as if they were built for hand to hand combat, wore bulky suits of armor, and wielded large jagged swords. These were obviously meant to instill terror while being effective killing machines at the same time.

The demons in front literally sucked up the magic shields and continued to grow in size and power, while the heavily armored brutes began hacking away, cutting down Qaladdeans left and right leaving bloody trails in their wakes. It looked as if the Qaladdeans stood no chance as they were pushed deeper into the city, away from the crystal.

Once again, I drew away from the crystal. I could see the full city bathed in darkness. Merely a shadow of the beauty it once was. The ominous storm brewed overhead, lances of lighting frequently striking the crystal. Slowly my vision darkened as I sped away from the death and destruction.