The high imperial guard and successful decoy wore common Terran clothes, jeans and a tee-shirt, nothing that would give away his true identity as he left a building. Regardless his stealth, Brutus's brain flashed bright, "enemy-acquired" alerts as the man glanced both ways down the street, stepped up to a black vehicle and slid behind the wheel.
Loyalists. Brutus snorted.
He waited until the man’s attention fixed on the transporter’s ignition and then pulled a ball from inside his trench coat. A quick flip of the wrist and it rolled under the car.
The guard glanced up. His eyes widened as he spotted Brutus standing in the shadows. The man pulled a communication device and flipped it open.
Brutus gave him a salute and smiled. His com wouldn’t save him.
The guard spoke into the device then smacked it against his palm. He glanced up again. Brutus shook his head as the pod hatched. A swarm of bio-mech drones poured out, surrounding the BMW in a metallic fog that sounded like a chainsaw screaming against metal. The phone dropped from the man’s hand. He hit the locks and fumbled with the ignition.
The wasps drilled through the doors. They altered the matter and pushed through the steel as though it was gelatin. The holes snapped shut behind them, solid, normal, no evidence left of their entrance. The engine whined. “Rrrrr, rrrrrrr, click, click, click.”
The guard glanced back up. The blood drained from his face and his eyes popped. He hit the steering wheel and cranked on the keys again.
“Rrrrrrrr, click, click, click.” A valiant effort. Commendable but worthless. The electro-magnetic pulse from the hatched pod had long before disabled it and the loyalist guard wouldn’t be going anywhere.
The man began to flail, swatting at the ento-robites. For every one he hit, another two landed. Brutus watched as they filled the cab and bit into the man’s exposed flesh. They kept coming, entering his eyes, open mouth, nostrils and ears. Many penetrated his skin and slid under the surface along the muscle in little lumps. Deeper and deeper they moved, boring into his body like it was rotten fruit. The man clawed at his flesh. He raked, bucked, thrashed and shrieked.
No one who cared could hear him. His biggest mistake had been to lure Brutus to the empty warehouse and remote location. Brutus reached into his coat and fingered the button on the controller, savoring the man’s pain for a few more moments. A smiled curled his mouth and he pushed. Blue light glowed from behind the guard’s eyes, lighting him like a jack-o-lantern. A wet sucking sound, accompanied by a high-pitched whine sheered the night as he imploded and collapsed into a puddle of smoking skin on the front seat.
The pile ignited and incandesced, until all that remained was greasy soot and a pair of legs. The charred stumps were the only evidence a man once sat there. The authorities here would scratch their heads when they discovered the remains. Another victim of spontaneous combustion, Brutus thought and smiled again.
They may have saved her this time. Next time there’d be no place to run. Brutus turned on his heel and spoke into the com attached to his collar. “They’ve moved her. Contact Hector. I want her found.”
* * *
Six years later…
A loud explosion rocked the tower where Zoë sat. Yanked out of her daydream, her eyes snapped open and scanned the horizon for the source. More than likely, it came from the mines that honeycombed the subterranean crust of Odroxia, so common they were a lullaby to the Droxi children.
Every day the explosions spewed toxins into the air and sent men to their graves in the hundreds. Working below was the final destination for many and she’d never get used to land shakes and booms, regardless the Droxi children slept through them. They accompanied death.
The wail of sirens filled the night. Those were new. Zoë leaned forward, narrowed her eyes and studied the skyline. The thick haze that wrapped the countryside danced and twisted before her. Dark shapes began to emerge from the fog. A bright ball of fire mushroomed over the horizon, backlighting the silhouettes of ships that streaked toward the city and the embassy where she sat.
Topside.
Her heart jumped and the cup she held slipped from her hand to fragment on the floor.
She leapt up and ran for her brother and sisters. The embassy was no longer a safe place to be. She had to get them out before the strike.
Shrieks shrill like a cat being tortured, but worse, much worse. Her sister’s screams reverberated through the corridor. “Kimi!” The lights in the structure flickered and went out. They’d hit the power plant and everyone would have to escape in the dark. Not good since she had three floors to go to get to her brothers and sisters.
Another explosion shook the building. Zoë staggered into the wall. Kimi’s screeches echoed above the chaos.
“Zoë!” Another supersonic scream, several frequencies higher.
Invasion alarms continued to blast, blending with Kimi’s terror. The building rocked from another explosion, much closer this time. Zoë stumbled, hit the other side of the corridor and found the entrance to the stairwell. She lunged for the stairs, taking two at a time, heading for her siblings rooms below. Skylights illuminated her path with gray light. Dark shadows slipped overhead and created a strobe light effect, throwing the nightmare into slow motion. The building vibrated under her feet and its metal frame groaned. She stopped and grabbed the rail.
Another blast, this time on top of them.
The explosion loosened blocks of stone from the walls and ceiling. They crashed around her in heavy clunks. She dropped and clung to the rail. Ducking her head, she covered it with her arm and waited for the building to stop shaking. As soon as it settled, she pulled herself up and started back down.
“Zoë,” Kimi screamed again. Another explosion. This time no wails followed the blast. The building groaned and the wall next to the stairwell fell away, leaving her looking out into the night. The load bearing wall that kept the weight of the building off the lower rooms, remained intact, but one more blast would surely bring it down. “Kimi! I’m coming.” Silence and dust. Zoe raised her hand to her mouth and coughed. No answer this time.
“Kimi?” Zoë caught her foot on a block. Pain shot up her leg. She screamed and tripped. The back of her skull smacked against the edge of one of the steps in a hollow thud.
She reached for the rail as the world around her began to shift and skitter before her gaze. Focusing on the skylights, she tried to control the vertigo. The metallic tang of blood mixed with smoke penetrated her nostrils and chalky dust pelted her face. Overhead the roar of more approaching ships. The building vibrated.
A large chunk above swung by an iron thread. It rocked back and forth for several moments before it snapped free. With only seconds to react, she rolled to her side. The block glanced off the step and smacked the middle of her back before it bounced down the stairwell. It echoed like a church bell against the metal steps as it tumbled to the bottom, testifying how close she’d come to a crushing death.
The roar of the ships grew louder.
Dear God, they’d all die. She had to get to them. A band of pain shot around her ribs when she sucked in a breath to cry. Heat blasted through her cranium followed by nausea. Zoë tried to draw another lungful of air, but only managed a small sip of plaster dust and sticky, emaciated oxygen. In desperation, she pushed with her arms in an attempt to take the weight off her injured torso. She sucked in a desperate breath and shoved, but her body refused to follow. Bright bolts of stabbing light and shooting stars burst across her vision. Pain pounded in her head like an atomic sledgehammer and drove a spike of agony through her skull. As darkness sealed in around her, consciousness sucked away. So this is what death is like, she thought as she faded.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Target word count: 60,000
Flavor: Military Science Fiction Romance
Status: First draft WIP
Author: D. L. Jackson is published with Liquid Silver Books. Click on the Author page for her bio.
Author: D. L. Jackson is published with Liquid Silver Books. Click on the Author page for her bio.
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