Fifteen Million Seven Hundred and Sixty-eight Thousand
Season 4, Episode 3
Kampa [city], Mur [planet], Sapuk [star system]
03 June; 04:38:02 Hours
A loud chime rang out before the clank and shriek of the elevator’s doors that slid open with a woman and her two children exiting onto the thirty-eighth floor. They were Ulvulons - a humanoid species whose skin was Caucasian though it grew more and more translucent the further up the face before completely see-through past the eyes. The children were running around the hallway, tagging one another as they laughed and screamed, and their mother carried bags of groceries as she sighed at their playing. She then whistled as she stopped in front of a door that had a three-dimensional plaque that read, “Three-eight-four,” and her son and daughter came hurrying back down the hall toward her.
The children were laughing as they ran, trying to beat the other to the door when a blur shot past the boy and snatched his sister causing him to scream, “<Hyvah - Mommy! Mommy! Something has Hyvah!>”
“<WHAT?>” she screamed, dropped the bags just inside their apartment, and hurried back out where she froze.
“<Mommy! Mommy! Help me! Help me, please!>” Hyvah cried.
There, just outside the apartment stood a young woman who was holding Hyvah in her arm while she had a short saber held down to her side, and she frantically glanced around. The woman, Daleeha was a Valtakyan who was the daughter of the most deadly warlord known in the universe. She slowly looked at the children’s mother and nodded her head for them all to go back inside the apartment. The mother shakily shook her head in agreement before motioning for her son to come but he screamed and ran straight at Daleeha.
A blue staticky haze began to appear between the boy and Daleeha, whose eyes grew threefold. She had no real time to react as Sara and Dax folded out from the haze and landed in front of Daleeha. Sara looked around where she saw the mother, the boy still charging forward and Daleeha holding the girl hostage. However, Dax didn’t seem to care as she held her trident aimed at Daleeha.
“Dax!” Sara screamed as she turned back and saw Dax’s eyes were pinpoint and her nostrils flared. “Wait, dammit! Wait, there are kids!”
“I can see,” Dax hissed, “and you don’t think she did this on purpose? Hoping we would hold off because of them. I don’t negotiate with terrorists!”
“<Then the child dies!>” Daleeha snapped as she raised her short saber to the girl’s throat.
The girl’s mother let out a shrieking scream as tears rolled down her cheeks, watching what was unfolding and realizing there was nothing she could do. “<Please! Please don’t hurt my daughter! Pleeeease!>”
“Dax, don’t do anything stupid!” Sara growled as she cringed and her eyes fluttered.
“Stupid?” Dax glanced over her shoulder at Sara, snapping, “The only stupid thing is to let her get away because she’s using your altered mind state against you!”
Daleeha smirked as she peered over Hyvah’s shoulder, looking at Sara who was seven months pregnant. The girl was crying as Daleeha kept the blade firmly against her throat. Daleeha then said, “<So, what is it? Is this innocent little girl going to die? Are you going to force her mother and brother to watch her blood spill all over the floor?>”
The static thickness of the air in the hallway only seemed to intensify as Dax held her ground; Daleeha gripped the hilt of her saber even tighter; the mother covered her mouth as she tried to contain her fear, and the boy struggled to get past Sara who held him back. Though as the tension seemed it would never break, Daleeha’s eyes opened wide at the sound of a door opening behind her and she turned ever so slightly as she glanced back behind herself.
Dax’s eyes lit up bright blue, a surge of Shine flashed through her trident and she lunged forward in the brief moment Daleeha’s attention had shifted to what was a man exiting his apartment. By the time Daleeha realized there was no threat behind her, she returned her attention to who she knew was a threat in front of her but was too late. Dax’s trident, Aelysah thrust past the little girl and the middle prong plunged into Daleeha’s shoulder. She let out a thunderous scream, dropped Hyvah who quickly scurried to her mother, and then Daleeha swung her saber up at Dax which forced Dax to yank back to dodge the blade.
“Kaboosh,” Daleeha hissed before she now moved toward Dax, swinging her short saber down at her with Dax blocking it.
Clang, sparks exploded in the hall as the children were crying and their mother hurried them into their apartment. Sara grabbed an arrow from her back quiver, pulled it back on her bow, and struggled to get a good aim on Daleeha who was shifting from one spot to the next as she parried and launched strike after strike at Dax. It had become almost impossible to hear one another from the ear-ringing clashes of the steel, but Sara gritted her teeth as she readied to fire and yelled, “Dammit, Dax… Move!”
Daleeha saw Sara out of the corner of her eye, she didn’t hesitate as she swung her saber horizontally at Dax while pulling a small plasma-charge from her belt and tossing it in Sara’s direction. The golf ball-sized charge made a ting sound as it bounced off the floor and rolled toward Sara, who saw it and yelled, “Charge,” before she folded in on herself in a blue haze. Within seconds the charge detonated, a bright white light flashed and plasma exploded, which sent a shockwave down the hallway.
Dax was thrown into the wall, and Daleeha was sent tumbling backward where she quickly pushed herself up to her feet and took off running. Dax slammed her palms off the floor, blood running down from her left nostril, seeing only a blurred sight of Daleeha as a thunderous pounding echoed in her ears.
***
Simultaneously…
Boom. Boom. Boom exploded off the door of an apartment where Drake and Theo were pressed up against the wall, looking at one another with big grins on their faces. Drake then looked at the door and his smile shrunk until his right eye squinted. He rubbed his temple and said, “That door ain’t gonna hold much longer, brother!”
“Yeah,” Theo chuckled, “I know.”
“So when are we going to, I don’t know, go on the offensive?”
“Probably before they pull out some big artillery.”
“Ohhhhh, probably?”
Theo laughed. “Yeah, I mean, that sounds like a good idea.”
“Oh yeah, totally sounds like a good idea,” Drake said and exaggeratedly nodded his head.
“Unless you have a better idea.”
“I ain’t gonna lie, I think anything would be a better idea than that one.”
“Well, we could surrender to them.”
Drake’s face went straight and his eyes narrowed before he told Theo, “Okay, smart-ass, not better than that.”
Theo shrugged his shoulders as he smiled. He then returned his jagged, scorched knight helmet, which had a gash through the right eye portion, back atop his head with its HUD flickering on. It proceeded to scan his immediate surroundings with a four-dimensional grid before its vision incorporated an x-ray variant, then went on to scan the outside hallway. The scan identified at least seven Galactic Defense Corps Rangers, all armed, who continued their fire at the door. Theo cracked his neck, and pointed to the door as he noted, “At least seven GDC, and no heavy artillery.”
“Smart-ass!”
“Hey, I’m just letting you know!”
“Okay, okay, so what are we doing?”
“We could run right through them.”
“Um, you know we don’t have our armor, right?”
“Oh,” Theo’s eyes opened exaggeratedly wide and he looked himself up and down, saying, “We don’t?”
“You know I like sarcastic you, right? But what is with the extra level of it today?” Drake laughed.
“I’m in a good mood!”
But before Drake could snipe back, Edmund’s voice came over their earpieces, “Gentlemen, I’d like to alert you to the gossip I’ve picked up on the Rangers’ secure line…”
“If it’s secure, how did you pick it up?” Drake asked as his eyes shifted back and forth.
“Oh, Master Drake, it’s very rare that any line is secure enough to block me out.”
“What are they saying, Edmund?” Theo snapped.
“Fine, fine, I’ll get to the point… Apparently, they’re attempting to flank you two.”
Drake gasped. “Um, what?”
“Yes, I believe a unit is set to come up the rear in… well, t-minus two minutes.”
“How long have you known this, Edmund?” Theo asked.
“Oh, I picked it up about five minutes ago, sir.”
“And you’re only letting us in on this now, why?”
“Uh, yeah?” Drake said as his voice cracked.
“I know you two like a good challenge, sirs.”
“No,” Theo shook his head, saying, “You want to see us squirm.”
“See? I don’t have bloody eyes to see you two squirm - a true shame,” Edmund laughed.
“I hate you,” Drake groaned while he shimmied along the wall toward the rear of the apartment.
“I knew I should’ve recalibrated you years ago,” Theo said as he drew his curve saber, Gaerlus.
“Master Theo, you say that at least twice a week.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Hey!” Drake called as he positioned himself beside the back door. “Um, what about tapping into the Stygian?”
Theo looked down at his hands, he saw the darkness that had spread from just the tips of his fingers now up to the knuckles and a heavy silence fell over them. He then gulped, looked over to Drake, and subtly shook his head as he tried to laugh. “I don’t think it’s such a good idea at the moment.”
Instantly, Drake remembered back to four months ago when they all were on Ghad and a coven of Mages tried picking up the Title’s bounty. He got intense flashes of Theo, his mouth transformed into razor-sharp fangs from ear to ear, an unfathomable shimmer of Shade that emanated from him and violence that he hadn’t witnessed in person, but only heard the whispers of the happenings on Rulic. Drake never thought he’d experience the blackened-ape-fiend but he did, and quickly he shook his head at Theo.
“Nah-no! We’ll figure something else out!”
“Didn’t think I’d say this,” Theo agreed, “but yeah, let’s figure something else out.”
***
The stairwell door swung open and slammed against the wall as Daleeha rushed out onto the landing. She slammed into the railing and grabbed ahold as she stopped her momentum from throwing her over before she looked down to the levels below. For a brief moment she tried catching her breath before the sharp pain shot through her shoulder, Daleeha looked at it and found the gash from Aelysah with her blood dripping off her fingertips as it had run down her arm.
“Kaboosh!” she hissed before grabbing a bandana from her back pocket to press against the wound. “<Damn Shim! What is she doing traveling with Beelezika? Dammit!>”
Thud, thud, thud echoed up the stairwell and Daleeha quickly glanced over the railing again where she saw a unit of Rangers. Daleeha made eye contact with one before she quickly backed away from the railing, though the Ranger opened fire at her.
“<I see her!>” he yelled. “<Suspect is several levels above us!>”
“<Freeze!>” another barked before a third Ranger yelled.
“<Daleeha Sar, surrender yourself immediately!>”
She didn’t hesitate as she took off running up the stairwell, several charges shot past her as they barely missed her and struck the wall. Daleeha ran as fast as she could up the flight of stairs and onto the mid-landing where she drew her Kramat PS22 pistol and fired three shots back at them. The first charge missed and struck the railing while the second and third struck a Ranger in the chest, his body armor chestplate took the hits and threw him into another Ranger, and Daleeha continued up the stairwell.
The Rangers quickly pushed their way up the three levels and as two rounded the thirty-eighth-floor landing, Dax came running out of the hallway and thrust her trident into the chest of the Ranger who just stepped foot onto the landing. The prongs cut clean through his chestplate, he let out a yelp before she thrust him back down the stairs and into the remaining four Rangers with them all falling backward down the steps. Though, Dax quickly spun around as the two other Rangers now turned their attention to her and she aimed Aelysah at them with Shine surging through the shaft before releasing from the prongs. The focused stream let out a high-pitched screech that reverberated through the stairwell and scorched the Ranger’s chestplate who was directly facing her before launching him up a couple of stairs and into the other.
Daleeha had stopped two levels above where she looked down, saw what Dax had done, and cracked a smile.
Dax then glanced up to the levels above where she saw Daleeha who was smiling at her, instead of running, Dax causally walked up several steps before stepping over the Ranger’s corpse and then fired a quick blast of Shine into the second Ranger’s chest. Daleeha’s smile disappeared as her eyes opened wide at what she just witnessed, she even shook her head in disbelief before finally forcing herself to start running up the stairs again.
***
“Sir,” Edmund’s voice came through Theo’s helm’s comlink, “you asked me to keep an eye on the Princess…”
“Is Drake in on this?” Theo asked as he glanced over his shoulder to his friend.
“No, sir. I’ve isolated our communications at the moment.”
“Good. They already have their concerns about her, I don’t need them knowing I’m worried about her.”
“Well, sir, she is in fact the Archangel of a genocidal military empire.”
“Edmund, just give me the update.”
“Very well… The Princess and Sara have been separated after a brief encounter with Daleeha Sar, and it appears Master Cole was correct when he said the GDC is also after her.”
Theo’s eyes narrowed. “W-what do you mean?”
“Dax continued her chase of Daleeha and encountered a separate unit of Rangers who were after our target, and well…”
“Yeah?”
“Sir, she just eighty-sixed three Rangers with extreme bloody prejudice.”
Theo closed his eyes tightly.
“Is there information you’ve held from me, sir? My algorithms are suggesting that there is something, well, that there is history between Dax and Daleeha.”
“Edmund, not now—” but before Theo could finish, Drake yelled as the back door exploded off its hinges.
“They’re breaching!”
Bright blue streaks shot through the smoke as the unit of Rangers attempting to flank the two began their push. Theo clenched his left fist tightly as he gritted his teeth and looked down at it, again seeing the darkness and how far it had grown. He then stepped in front of the door beside him, his HUD displayed an emergency reading that the door wouldn’t hold much longer as the Rangers were less than ten feet from it and readying to breach, and Theo unleashed a front kick that sent the door flying out into the hallway.
“<Incoming!>” a Ranger yelled as the door flew past him but struck another Ranger.
Theo glanced back to Drake, yelling, “Open the gates…”
“And ride on hell!” Drake finished as Theo went charging out into the hallway, and he drew his tanto blade that he twirled around before charging out into the rear hall.
Theo moved quickly, dodging several charges before swinging Gaerlus at a downward right angle at a Ranger with the blade slicing clean through his shoulder and chest. Then in a matter of seconds, Theo spun and thrust his blade into the chest of another who he then maneuvered in front of oncoming fire with the three shots hitting the Ranger in the back before Theo grabbed his shoulder and yanked Gaerlus free, only to throw the Ranger into another. Theo then took a charge to his shoulder with the blue aura displacing through his mail. He let out a quick chuckle as the Ranger who shot him froze and stared him in the blackened eyes beyond his knight helm.
“<W-wa-w-wait!>” the Ranger pleaded, but Theo delivered a front kick that dropped the Ranger to the ground.
Two more Rangers began firing their TAK8 rifles at Theo as he stood over the Ranger, though he deflected each charge with Gaerlus. Loud pings and hisses screamed throughout the hall followed by the bloodcurdling hollers of the Rangers as Theo moved on each.
Drake could hear the slaughter from the other end of the apartment as he witnessed the morale of the Rangers he was taking on quickly fade to nothing, and one after the other began to fall back. “Oh come on! Where is the unrelenting fight that you guys are always plastering across the Uni?”
Flashes of deep blue erupted at the end of the hall as the Rangers had begun a full retreat. Drake paused for a moment with his left eye squinting as his right eyebrow raised, though the silhouette of a man came into view and Drake’s curiosity shifted to a smile as he knew who it was. The man’s voice called out over the loud booming of charges he was firing, “You’re getting rusty, Drake! I remember a day when you would’ve sliced through this lot like they were nothing!”
“Ohhhh, that coming from the man who would’ve taken them on solo!” Drake quipped as he sliced a Ranger’s thigh before spinning around him counterclockwise where he plunged his blade through the Ranger’s back.
Cole fired a charge point blank from his spark-pistol into the face of a Ranger, shattering the visor of the Ranger’s helmet. “I learned I can’t always be the center of attention!”
The two walked up to each other, grins on their faces and then they fist-bumped before they quickly turned back to the doorway of the apartment as one final scream cut through the thick tension. Cole looked at Drake who was fixated on the doorway, and he nudged him. “He didn’t tap it, did he?”
“Nah, he was the one who said it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Come on, we both know Theo… If he thinks he has to in order to make sure we’re good—”
“Normally I would’ve,” Theo said as he walked out of the apartment, “but, but times are changing.”
***
Sara came running up to and hugged Drake as he, Cole, and Theo came walking out of the sixty-story complex. Drake hugged her tightly before he stepped back and placed his golden hand on her bump, smiling and then looking back into Sara’s eyes. He said, “You okay?”
“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” Sara said and forced out a smile.
“Where’s Sparky?” Theo bluntly asked as he looked around the street and through the crowds of people.
Sara looked over her shoulder at him. “I, I don’t know. She went after Daleeha after she threw a plasma-charge.”
“And you didn’t go with her?”
“Go with her? That bitch threw a plasma-charge, Theo! I could barely make the jump, especially in the condition I’m in!”
“You shouldn’t have left her go alone!” Theo snapped.
“Wait, why? I thought the Shim Princess was beyond capable…” Sara now stepped up to Theo, growling, “What aren’t you telling us?”
Theo’s face was stone-cold solid as he scowled at Sara, and Drake and Cole positioned themselves behind her as they all looked at him with curiosity. However, the sound of glass shattering caused the civilians around them to scream before a shrieking scream grew louder and louder until Daleeha’s body smashed into the sidewalk twenty feet from Theo and the others. The four instantly looked to the upper stories of the building to their right where in the broken window of the eighth floor stood Dax with her trident in hand.
Her dreads blew in the wind, eyes still glowed bright blue and slowly she looked from Cole to Drake before Sara who she glared at for a long moment, and then finally she locked eyes with Theo. The intensity in her own extinguished before she slowly turned and walked out of view.