Relias: Uprising Page 19

  The top of the hill glowed orange and smoke began to billow. To both sides the lights that had been searching for survivors were now heading up the hill towards the same spot they were. They saw this and ran faster.

  They came over the top of the hill and saw a Battlecraft resting amidst a basin of flame. Outside the Battlecraft Sable sliced up the Legionnaires with her katana while Pontious had transformed and was ripping them apart one by one. Manning the chain gun mounted on the side was Price, yelling insults and curses at their attackers and unleashing a firestorm of hot lead, tearing trees to splinters and Legionnaires to mush. She saw them come over the top of the hill.

  “COME ON!” She yelled through borne teeth. “DITRINITY! HOP IN!”

  She jumped from the gun and threw herself into the captain’s chair, hastily throwing on her flight helmet. The Battlecraft was already started. “HOP IN OR GET SHREDDED!”

  Morlo, Vyvyr and Hendrick jumped into the open side of the Battlecraft and held on to the handles inside. Morlo sat on the edge, keeping heavy cannon fire and pinning down an entire squad of soldiers while Vyvyr manned the machine gun. Backing themselves up and still fighting, Sable and Pontious kept the soldiers away from the Battlecraft.

  “Get in!” Hendrick yelled.

  Sable looked back, tapped Pontious hard on the shoulder and pointed back to the ship. Pontious finished off his victim, leapt onto the Battlecraft and skidded across the metal floor with sharp claws.

  The flaming greenery blew away as the Battlecraft took off. Sable was last onboard, putting a foot inside and giving one last deathly blow to a Berserker with her katana jammed into the top of his head. Hendrick grabbed her arm as the sword planted in the Legionnaire’s head had trouble loosening, nearly pulling her off the craft. It slid out with a grind and both Hendrick and Morlo pulled her onboard.

  “We’re gone!” Price exclaimed joyously, turning the craft towards empty sky and shoving the throttle hard and throwing the Battlecraft into a steep acceleration. The Legionnaires that had crowded at the extraction fired up at them. The Ditrinity was jerked back as the Battlecraft took off. Behind them the crowd of First Legionnaire became a white blur as the Battlecraft put the distance between them.

  A tall tree hit the bottom of the craft, making a loud bang and tilting it to one side.

  Then It was smooth riding. The explosions faded behind them and the gunfire disappeared. The only sound now was the humming engines and the heavy wind that rushed past them as they blazed through the sky, like an open door on a speeding car. Before Hendrick could get to his feet, a pair of slender, sweat dampened arms flew around his neck and caught him off guard. Seeing Sable’s white hair blowing in his face and her face buried into his neck, Hendrick froze in shock before returning the gesture.

  “I thought I’d never see you again.” Sable whispered, her voice showing that her adrenaline was giving way to emotion. After a tear wet her cheek, she sniffed and gave Hendrick a glimpse out of the corner of her eye. “And you’re a bloody mess.” She said in an emotional laugh. Hendrick smiled and said nothing before releasing her.

  Price was breathless. She flipped a few switches and turned to the group.

  “Feet in, guys. I’m closing the blast doors.”

  Immediate exhaustion set in. The group was sluggish, slow, and weak. The doors on the sides of the Battlecraft began to shut with an electronic grind. The wind began to get louder and whistle as the doors got closer to shutting. They closed entirely, locked into place and everything was quiet. The humming engines were no more than a gentle, relaxing, high-pitched purr now. Hendrick rested back on his hands and looked around.

  Everybody was asleep. Vyvyr sat on one of the seats where the team should have been sitting, his arms folded and his head bowed while his shoulders rose and fell with the calmed activity of slumber. Pontious was still a wolf and was sprawled out in a large white furry pile on the opposite side of the craft. Sable had curled up on the floor and had buried her face into her arm, her sword resting at her side as she slept.

  For a moment Hendrick couldn’t help but watch. She was so perfect, so innocent. A woman like her deserved more than to be fighting in a war. More impressive was the fact that she was as beautiful and as feminine as she was and she still fought harder and better than most people he knew. But this war wasn’t for her, yet Hendrick knew she’d never leave it. When Hendrick saw Sable he felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time. And when he was piloting that Raze armor and he watched her and Pontious running down the street and out of sight he felt as though a piece of himself was going with them. That’s when Hendrick felt something he knew he’d never felt before.

  He looked around the cabin of the Battlecraft at the sleeping Ditrinity and he realized something. One of the Ditrinity’s greatest assets was the fact that none of its members had any attachments and much less anything to lose. But after tonight, remembering all the life and death situations they’d scrapped their way through, Hendrick knew that they had attachments; they had something to lose. They had each other.

  Hendrick thought for a moment longer and got to his feet, stepping carefully over Sable and into the cockpit next to Price. Hendrick flopped back into the co-pilot’s chair and slumped low in it, pulling his Blazers off and dropping them on the floor. “That jagoff busted ‘em.” He looked over to Price and saw the tired in her eyes. His eyes half closed Hendrick reached over and gave her a gentle pat on the arm. Price gave a slight start and turned to Hendrick with wide eyes. She gave a reassured chuckled and calmed herself down. She did a double take and looked back towards Hendrick’s shredded face.

  “My god, Nate…” She said quietly. “How did you-“

  “Lots of different things.” Hendrick said with a laugh as he closed his eyes and rested his hands on his stomach. “How did we get past the battlecruisers?”

  Price yawned and wiped her eyes. “They were concentrated on Praemon. They left the outside of the city to the Forge Tanks. Guess they expected all the Battlecrafts to be taking off from inside.”

  Hendrick hummed and said with a half-conscious voice, “Rookie mistake.”

  Price forced a laugh and waited for Hendrick to say something else. After a few seconds she looked over and saw him sitting with his eyes closed. She gave him a good look and she smiled, admiring him before turning her attention back towards the flying. Hendrick took a sharp breath that one takes when waking and sat up further in his chair. Price looked again and remembered a question she had to ask. She began to ask it and just the thought of the question seemed to make her uneasy. She thought quietly to herself.

  “So Nate?” She asked.

  Hendrick licked his lips, readjusted his sitting position and got himself comfortable. “Hmm?”

  Price was apprehensive. Her normally rough and tough exterior was plastered with uncertainty.

  “What now?” She asked timidly.

  “What do you mean ‘what now’?” Hendrick asked in a quiet groan.

  “There’s no place to go. Praemon is gone, Styne is being assaulted, and-“

  “We find Luke.” Hendrick interrupted her. “We find Luke, find his daughter and we take things from there.”

  Price was still unsure. She shook her head in discouragement, readjusted the trim on the ship, did a quick check of the gauges and answered. “Then what?”

  The horizon began to lighten to watercolor purples and blues. The crescent planets were spreading further apart as the moon crossed through between them. The stars were few in number and the other moons were small white dots spaced across the sky. The rolling forest stretched far beneath them, the Battlecraft staying low to the trees to avoid detection. Hendrick rolled to his side in the seat and, after getting comfortable, he answered.

  “The Legionnaires are chasing his daughter. Luke’ll have something in mind.”

  Chapter 14

  The Battlecraft flew all through the night and well into the morning. Not a single member of the Ditrinity had woken up since t
hey passed out the night before. Morlo was flat on his back, his arms stretched out on both sides while his cavernous chest rose and fell with every massive, snoring breath. Pontious’s ears twitched in his sleep and his hind leg would kick out occasionally. Vyvyr, of course, hadn’t moved in the slightest, and Sable rested on her stomach, oblivious to Morlo’s massive arm resting across her back.

  Price was sleeping in the co-pilot’s chair and Hendrick, with bags beneath his eyes, piloted the ship. He had used a cloth and a few gauze bandages to clean himself up, wiping the dirt and blood from his face and doing his best to not make himself look like a raw piece of meat.

  He wanted to sleep. So bad that it hurt. But Price needed it more than he did and she’s one of the best pilots he knew. She had to be rested and ready when the nasty stuff came along. Hendrick could survive a bit longer.

  All through the night Hendrick scanned every radio frequency on the dial, looking for whatever intelligence he might be able to gather concerning Luke’s whereabouts. After hacking into the Communal Subnets, something that was surprisingly easy, he searched for hours, finding nothing of interest save for the countless reports from Legionnaire commanders concerning the successful campaign against Praemon. One report gave a death toll of eleven hundred and thirty eight Legionnaires and more than two hundred thousand Praemon citizens and counting. Two thirds of them dead. Thousands more would be dead within the hour. It was unbelievable, even to Hendrick. And from what other reports he heard, the remaining citizens were under lockdown. As for the prison, life for them would undoubtedly continue on as usual as the Commune retook control of the city.

  Nobody woke up during his search; they were all out cold and it had been a good eight hours already. His eyes making active attempts to pull themselves shut, Hendrick finally found a transmission that interested him. It was a small Legionnaire outpost to the northeast. A company of soldiers that were taking part in the Praemon invasion hadn’t reported while the base where they were stationed went dark; all communications had been lost. There were no Darks in that area. And, considering that the base had over six hundred soldiers stationed there, no other group of rebels would dare attack it. There was only one explanation for it.

  It was good that everybody was asleep too. Hendrick had changed direction and headed straight for that base. Maybe they had purposefully gone dark, but Hendrick doubted it. The others wouldn’t like it, but it was the only way he could think of that they might be able to find Luke.

  The night before, Praemon had been wiped out. But while they were busy trying to escape the city Luke was hard at work laying waste to the biggest group of Legionnaires he’d conquered yet. Radio reports that Hendrick had been picking up from Legionnaire chatter were saying that half a legion, some five to six hundred men, had been mercilessly slaughtered. The details of the reports were vague but from what Hendrick could tell Luke had taken the swords and spears of the Legionnaires and pinned them all up on trees with their heads resting at their feet.

  It was brutal, grizzly details, but hearing about how much the Legionnaires feared Luke was something Hendrick would never get enough of. Frenz had tried scare tactics of his own, but he would never compare to what Luke had accomplished. Not even close.

  There was a day when people would get all stoked over a guy with twenty or more confirmed kills. And to most people that was still a good number. But then here you have a guy like Luke Semprys, one guy, who struts into a Legionnaire base- not a small group of poorly pitched tents, but a base- and kills several hundred of the best trained men in the world. Better yet, he makes their worst nightmares seem like playtime compared to what they’d face up against him. Hendrick still had no idea how he managed to do it, but Luke Semprys was the man he considered to be the ultimate badass.

  There was smoke in the distance that rose up through a clearing in the trees. Hendrick put two and two together and brought the Battlecraft to a slow hover. He tapped Price on her shoulder and woke her up. She stirred, rolled in the seat and she opened her eyes.

  “We’re landing.” Hendrick said quietly. “And I honestly have no idea what I’m doing.”

  Price smiled groggily and got up, Hendrick and her squeezing past one another as they switched places. Price balled up a fist and rubbed her eyes while searching for an adequate landing zone. After a few seconds she pointed to the right of the craft and spun it in that direction.

  “Small clearing. Nothing big but it’ll keep us hidden.” She said.

  With the trees brushing the Battlecraft’s belly Price took it over to the clearing and put it into a slow, even descent. She switched off the rear thrusters, adjusted the trim for a soft landing and unlocked the blast doors.

  “So what’re we doing, Hendrick?” She asked amidst a yawn.

  Hendrick pulled off his flamethrowers and set them on the floor, looking in back towards the rack of Infiltrator rifles and the equipment locker next to them.

  “Last night while we were getting a good old-fashioned family friendly raping from the Legionnaire, a nearby Legionnaire base went dark. Wiped off the map.”

  Price seemed to be getting the picture. “So you think Luke is involved. So how did you…”

  He tapped the radio headset he had over his ears. He took it off and stepped into the back. He bent over and shook Sable’s shoulder, rustling her armor. She inhaled sharply and curled up tighter and stretched her arms. On his way over to wake Vyvyr, Hendrick jumped up and landed on Morlo’s stomach, causing the breath to rush from his mouth. Morlo grunted and curled upwards.

  “Wake up, fat ass.” He said. “Hey Vyvyr, you got… oh yeah, you don’t have your sun block.”

  Vyvyr took a deep breath and was awake. His eyes came slowly open, his face slowly raised and he looked upwards to Hendrick. Hendrick’s eye brow raised, he looked at Vyvyr in disturbed shock.

  “I don’t know if anybody’s ever told you this but you’re creepy as hell when you wake up. Don’t… don’t do that.”

  Vyvyr reached back and pulled his deep hood over his head, his face disappearing beneath it. He moved to the gun rack and found a sniper rifle. After reaching satisfaction, Vyvyr slung it over his shoulder. Hendrick plucked an Infiltrator from the same spot Vyvyr took his rifle, grabbed a few magazines and shoved them in his pocket. The rest of the Ditrinity got to their feet and raided the weapons stash as well, taking the weapon, checking its ammo and collecting extra bullets. When Pontious woke he woke with a loud bark, coming back to reality amongst his friends and immediately transforming, his black leather trench coat billowing out as he did. He pulled it snuggly about his shoulders and stretched his neck.

  “So here’s what’s going on.” Hendrick said as everybody woke up and found a weapon. “Last night somebody wiped out a Legionnaire base, some six hundred soldiers stationed there. Only one thing I know who’d pull a stunt like that.” He looked around at the battle-weary faces. After a night of retreating, of watching their allies get butchered all around them, of wondering whether or not they’d live to see the next sunrise, optimism, though faint, emerged amidst the hopelessness.

  The Battlecraft landed softly, the long green grass and large-leafed shrubs bending away from it in the thrust of its engines. It came to rest on the ground with a slight lurch and powered down. The doors pulled themselves open, sliding along the metal track and opening them to the world outside. Golden sunlight poured in and, more importantly, cold, fresh mountain air.

  “Alright, keep low, keep fast.” Hendrick said. He unsheathed his fourteen inch combat knife, looked it over and nodded in approval. “The massacre in the next valley over happened only a few hours back and I doubt Luke could’ve gone far.” Hendrick sheathed the knife to the upper part of his armored vest before stepping towards the outside of the Battlecraft.

  “You gonna be able to make it like that?” Pontious asked, motioning towards Hendrick’s left leg which was crusted with blood.

  Pushing the burning pain in his thigh out of mind, Hendrick didn’t
answer. He hopped off the craft and landed in the long grass. He stood up straight and stretched his legs. It was a spectacular feeling to be back on solid ground. It was that same feeling you get after sitting in a car for ten hours and stopping off for a snack break at a gas station. It felt good to walk.

  “Hendrick,” Price said, leaning back towards the rear portion of the craft as to be seen. “The area’s swimming with Legionnaires. I can’t stick around if they find me.”

  Hendrick shrugged. “We’re finding Luke. We’ll be fine. I’ve got a radio so keep us posted.”

  Price saluted him and rested in her seat, sighing and pulling her helmet over her eyes. “I am so sick of sitting around and waiting this is crap.”

  The Ditrinity got into the shade immediately. The noise they made was minimal, blending seamlessly with the leaves and grass that rustled in the wind. They ran with their guns in both hands, keeping fast but, more importantly, keeping alert.

  The forest was clean, green, and vivid. The sun shone on the tops of the leafy canopy and caused the leaves to glow green beneath its rays. On the forest floor it glowed gold where the sun found its way through the tree tops, casting a surreal glow across the dry foliage.

  They were quick. They closed the difference between the LZ and the site of the massacre in a mere ten minutes. It was good because they got there fast, but it was bad because the Legionnaire could cover that kind of distance just as fast as they had. But there weren’t any Legionnaires at the moment. In fact, not a single soul besides Price knew that they were here. They were, at the moment, invisible.

  The top of the next hill came into view. Between the shadowy trees the bright blue sky could be seen along with the golden hilltops of the opposite side of the valley. The smoke was just over the hill’s crest. Hendrick held his hand up and the Ditrinity slowed down. They crouched and slowed to a mere crawl. Hendrick signaled for them to stop. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and he crawled over the top of the hill.