rubble and, with surprising efficiency, calculating angles of the standing stone. Her conscious mind hardly noticed the thump of a grenade being fired in her direction, the Voice nearly completely in control of her body. The round glanced off the short wall beside her, wobbling through the air after its ricochet. In a blur, her hand flashed out and snatched the grenade from the air. She smelled her own flesh searing from the heated round, but held firm as, in her vision, mathematical equations began dancing before her eyes. Complex angles and velocities appeared beside hastily sketched lines, showing the impending results of her throw. In milliseconds, Keryn plotted her attack and threw the grenade. The round bounced off a far wall, ricocheting in perfect concert with her equation. Rebounding, it struck an outcropping of stone, flipping wildly into the air. In her mind, Keryn heard the voice complete the countdown before the grenade’s inevitable detonation. On cue, the explosive flipped lazily over the wall behind which the Terran defenders hid, following the path upon which the Voice had decided. It exploded, causing the wall to buckle under the force and decimating the Terran soldiers. Those who didn’t die in the explosion leapt from behind their cover, burning and screaming in pain.
Keryn stood and motioned for the others to follow. “The way is clear,” she yelled. “Don’t let your momentum stop! Keep moving forward!” She ran forward, leaping over rubble and opening fire on the few Terrans who still remained in their defensive positions.
Nearly halfway across the field, Keryn’s heart froze as she heard the whine of engines rapidly approaching their location. Glancing into the sky, she could see the red trails of flames behind the Terran fighters that wove through the sky on an intercept of their position. Squinting against the darkness, Keryn could imagine the pilots watching the advancing revolutionaries from behind their night vision displays, pushing aggressively the button, which would launch missiles into her soldiers.
“Incoming!” she screamed as she dove for cover. “Everybody get down!”
She had no sooner landed behind her new concealment than the first of the rockets slammed into the rubble field and hell was unleashed all around her. Time froze as flares in shades of red and orange lit up the dark sky. Rubble appeared as falling stars, tracing flaming arcs over her head as entire foundations of building vanished in the heat. The flames ripped the air from her lungs and poured thick black smoke into her eyes. Beneath her, the ground buckled under the assault, lifting her from her prone position and tossing her like a doll through the air. She flew, weightless as her hair cascaded around her and the ground transformed from a frozen wasteland to a blazing inferno. After floating through the air, gravity harshly reasserted itself and slammed her back onto her stomach. Keryn fell hard on a jutting stone and cringed as she felt a rib crack on her landing. Pain lanced through her chest as she clawed for air; the little oxygen that hadn’t burned away in the fire now resisted her call as her broken rib hindered the expansion of her lungs. She coughed, trying to expel both the smoke and the fear that now clutched her as she struggled for breath.
Though still panicked, Keryn obeyed and let her body relax. Slowly and with great trepidation, her lungs filled with oxygen and the colorful stars that had erupted in her vision slowly receded. Alcent rushed to her side, singed but otherwise unharmed. She watched, still stunned, as his lips moved but she heard no noise. Keryn’s brow furrowed as she watched him, his lips calling her name as he rested his hands firmly on her shoulders. As though a dam broke free within her ears, sounds flooded into her mind with a garbled cacophony. She could hear a dull roar of fires burning uncontrollably all around her and soft screams tore through the air. In the distance, she could hear Alcent’s voice approach like a stampede of words.
“… alright?” he was asking, though comprehension still eluded her. “Keryn, are you alright.”
Slowly, she nodded, though the movement caused more stars to dance in her vision. She opened her mouth to speak, but only a croak came from her hoarse throat. Keryn swallowed roughly, feeling the little moisture burning down her esophagus. Opening her mouth, she tried again.
“I’m okay,” she croaked, her own voice sounding like stones clashing together. A coughing fit overcame her, but she quickly recovered. Reaching up, she gently squeezed his hand and gave him a weak smile. Brushing his hands away, she pulled herself up into a seated position, cringing as pain lanced over her broken rib. “I’m fine. How is everyone else?”
Alcent looked around furtively. Most of his vision was obscured by smoke and fire, but what he could see was not promising. Bodies littered the piles of rubble, their bodies tossed and forgotten like rag dolls. Many still burned freely, though the individuals were far beyond feeling the flames.
“We’re still alive,” he said promisingly, rubbing soot from his face. “That’s what matters.”
Keryn pulled herself up until she was standing. Crestfallen, she looked at the damage caused by the volley of rockets. In the back of her mind, she heard the Voice call out in amazement that they were still alive at all. However, Keryn couldn’t shake the feeling that, even knowing that many of the revolutionaries would die during their insurrection, the loss of life seemed too high a price, even for their freedom. In the distance, she heard the whine of engines turning over the buildings and fighters realigning for a second pass.
“They’re coming back,” Keryn said quickly, her own nervousness showing through her normal mask of composure. She wasn’t sure she could survive a second attack. Looking around, watching silhouettes emerge from the acrid smoke as more of her surviving soldiers approached her position, she tried to call out a warning, but her voice wouldn’t come. Alcent laid a hand comfortingly on her arm and shook his head
“Trust that our men have done their jobs,” he said soothingly. “If we can’t trust that, then we’re already as good as dead.”
Standing together, the growing group of revolutionaries watched the dark sky as the burning engines of the Terran fighters quickly approached, their noses aimed threateningly at the survivors. Breathing difficultly, Keryn could hear a few hitched sobs of those behind her; these were people who had already endured so many hardships, only to be faced with their own demise among the same rubble in which they had slaved for three long weeks.
As the fighters grew closer, many in the group clutched hands, finding strength in each other’s touch. Keryn, however, stood stoically at the front of their cluster of soldiers. She held her head high, knowing that if their plan failed, it would only be seconds before their memory was erased from the universe.
The Terran fighter pilots switched their arming system to the second set of rockets held underneath their wings, readying their second pass. As they began a quick dive that would bring them closer to the ground for their volley, spats of fire erupted from the towers around the field. The turrets, come to life as their newly programmed targets were acquired, threw molten metal into the advancing squadron, shredding through the armored plating of the fighters and slamming into the pilots inside. The lead craft spun haphazardly as a round shattered the cockpit view screen and vaporized the pilot’s head, a red mist settling over the ship’s controls. The fighters fell from the sky, one after another, as the turrets continued their unrelenting assault. The ships, flaming and out of control, fell far short of the revolutionaries, showering the Terran ground force like improvised bombs.
Watching the annihilation of the Terran squadron, Keryn held her pistol high above her head and yelled to her gathered group. “No quarter to the Terrans! Kill them all!”
She turned and, ignoring the lancing pain in her side, charged toward the burning rubble of the once deadly Terran ships. From amongst the flames and smoke, other groups like her own emerged, hollering wildly and chasing down the Terrans who were, once again, in full retreat.
Commander Lucience checked his magazine before sliding it back into his pistol. His bodyguards were packing the last of the communications equipment into carrying cases in preparation of their evacuation of the planet. He had watched in horror as his fighters vanished from the display, hearing their explosions even from the Black Void. That, if nothing else, had sealed his decision to leave the planet. Even if he had no solid communications with the
“Let them enjoy reclaiming their city,” he muttered to himself as he turned toward his guards, his cape fluttering behind him. “They can enjoy it all the way until I glass the entire place.”
The guards locked the last of the cases and loaded them on a hovering loader; its flat surface and directional controls able to carry and maneuver even the heavy communications equipment from the Void to the warehouses where they would be loaded onto awaiting ships.
All three turned with a start as the doors flew open to the front of the former bar. The Commander eased his grip on his pistol, however, as one of his men staggered through the door, closing it behind him. Obviously fresh from the front lines of battle, the soldier’s armor was bloodied and he hadn’t even taken the time to remove his
