Chapter 50:
Right In Two
Kai sprinted out across the open steppe, the immense strength in his legs driving him nearly as fast the fighter jets above. Each stride covered tens of meters, and he hadn’t even worked up a sweat yet.
He would soon enough.
As he came to the human side of the battle lines, he accelerated, and in several large leaps, moved from one embankment to the next, bypassing the soldiers completely and continuing into the scarred no-man’s land beyond. Strange weapons exploded all around, blasting soil hundreds of meters into the air, but Kai was too fast. Too agile. He danced through the field, analyzing thousands of barking weapons, and calculated the safest path through. He was built for this task.
A continuous hail of hot metal surrounded him, but he weaved through it. He was in his element, and no creature on the battlefield could match him. He wasn’t there to fight, though. This was just an obstacle course on the way to his objective. A warm-up.
He engaged his camouflage as he approached the Oikeyan side and became a ghost. The effect was imperfect, but combined with his fantastic speed and the chaos of battle, it made him virtually undetectable.
Hidden in broad daylight, he launched himself high into the air and used the fighting Yuon Kwon as terrain, leaping from the armored shell of one to the next. This part of his mission was so easy it was practically a game.
Then he came to the charred remains of the human settlement, which had burnt brightly throughout the night but was now reduced to smoking cinders. He sprinted at top speed, ignoring the ruins under foot and the human drop pods spitting fire over his head. He cut a path straight for the Ark.
As Kai came to the final stretch, he dug down deep, found the last reserve of extra power lurking inside him, and charged. He charged with everything he had. His feet ground deep into the ruined soil and the wind howled as he blasted through the thick air. He coiled his fist back and exploded through the titanium-steel door.
The metal groaned and buckled inward. Massive hinges on either side sheered under the force.
He was inside. His mission was half-complete.
Jack and Felix raced through the clotted skies, while a desperate air battle went on all around them. Cuttlefish and the strange transforming fighters chased each other in every direction, burping fire at one another as they careened about and fought for position.
Charlie and Lisa were understandably uncomfortable in the vehicle, while Nikitin was—beyond all sense or reason—having the time of his life. Behind them, Ferash and Dojer held their weapons at ready in case of unwanted followers. It was anyone’s guess how effective their weapons would be, but Dojer’s cannon was better than nothing at all.
The young city Yuon Kwon loomed in the distance, reminding Jack of the flying saucers in every old, cheesy horror movie. The last thing he ever expected was for aliens to show up in actual saucers, yet there they were.
A cuttlefish burst into flames above them and plummeted out of the sky, leaving a trail of burning debris in Felix’s path. It reminded Jack this wasn’t a movie; it was real life, and he was in the middle of a very real battle.
“I know I’ve put you through a lot, but if you could go just a little faster, I’d really appreciate it,” he whispered to his mount.
Felix picked up speed, with a jitter that showed he was straining against his limits.
“Thank you.”
They approached the flying city, a smaller version of the twenty-kilometer monstrosities which had taken up residence at the Earth’s equator. This young one was just over a kilometer in diameter, and was an even more vibrant blue-indigo than its older kin, but was otherwise identical. His interior was only opened a crack, through which damaged cuttlefish returned and fresh ones came out.
The surface of the massive alien creature bristled with cannon banks spraying blue fire, while patches of liquid metal slipped across it to deflect incoming attacks. These were the defensive membranes Kai had mentioned, and their speed was startling.
Pilots in bony Yuon Kwon battle armor came flying out of the ship as Felix approached, and the stream of them never stopped. The six-armed creatures headed off to join the battle, and Jack could only imagine what they must be like in combat.
Luckily, they paid Jack and his team no mind. No one did. To everyone’s surprise, Felix was ignored by both forces equally, and they managed to slip inside without incident.
Even more surprising was the interior of the city Yuon Kwon, which was much different than Jack expected. The stalagmite-like buildings were nowhere to be found, replaced by row upon row of short, squat hangars. That wasn’t the most drastic change, though. The generator towers were opened up like flowers in full bloom, revealing the large and furiously burning stars within, connected to one another by arcing bolts of golden lightning. Each tower was surrounded at the base by an arena-like structure, filled with the silver robed Sey Chen monks, all focused on the miniature stars above them.
With the easy part of the journey out of the way, Jack steered Felix toward the thick nerve bundle at the heart of the Yuon Kwon, and prayed for the best.
Kai navigated the maze of tunnels, and even at his unnatural pace, progress was tedious. His less than stealthy entrance triggered alarms that howled throughout the Ark. Emergency bulkheads closed, creating all new dead-ends and pointless cul-de-sacs. Every corner presented another set of guards with itchy trigger-fingers he had to avoid. They spent more time firing at their own shadows than at Kai, who blew past like a fierce wind.
He missed the days when he was allowed to kill indiscriminately. It made his job a lot easier.
Level by level, he penetrated deeper into the mound, running on walls as often as the floor. Each corridor was warmer than the last, and more packed with heavy tubes and pipes. That meant he was getting close to his target. So did the slow throbbing of his radiation detector.
Two, burning blue rounds streaked past Felix, and the tiny flyer juked hard to the side. “We’ve got company, Jack!”
“Really,” he said with as much sarcasm as he could pack into the word, “I hadn’t noticed, Nik. Maybe I should try to evade them.”
Jack and Felix zoomed down toward the hangars and began weaving through the streets where the larger cuttlefish was too large to follow. It stayed above and took pot shots every few seconds.
Nikitin and Ferash opened fire with their rifles, but the rounds plinked off the alien ship’s armor without effect.
“-Are you planning to shoot any time soon, Dojer?-” Jack asked in Mirresh.
The rhino’s deep voice sounded nervous. “-Not a good idea.-”
“Dojer!”
The Rozom put his autocannon away and brought out his artillery weapon instead, aimed at the cuttlefish and fired. It thumped three times, and the tiny flyer rocked under the vicious recoil, nearly flipping over in the process.
Jack and Felix struggled to stay upright. “Whoa!”
Roiling balls of smoke erupted along the cuttlefish’s exterior, only to be swept away by the onrushing wind a moment later. The ship’s hull was unmarked.
“-Told you it wasn’t a good idea.-”
The cuttlefish fired again, this time aiming in front of the smaller Yuon Kwon. The blasts exploded in the thin alleyway ahead, and Felix instinctively made a hard kick-turn to avoid the rain of debris.
“Smooth,” Jack said, and the flyer cooed in response. “I’m all out of ideas, little buddy, so if you’ve got something, I’d love to see it.”
