Within the ventilation system, Tiet and Orin strove to escape the Horva compound. As they passed under an intersecting vent above, Tiet heard a clattering sound like something coming toward them. He looked upward into the tube and saw an insect-like robot scrambling on multiple legs to intercept.
Tiet leaped out from under it as it fell into their vent tube. He saw more of the robots appear behind it, coming from the way he and Orin had already been. The robots looked like metal centipedes the size of a man’s leg with a crown of red sensors on the heads.
As the creatures took up pursuit, scurrying along the vents, they began to fire small spikes from compression jets on their heads. The spikes clattered along the metal sides of the vents as Orin and Tiet tried to evade through the curving tubes.
The spikes imbedded into the metal wherever they hit, injecting acid cores, causing the walls to sizzle and burn. At this point, Orin and Tiet did not know if they were going in the right direction to lead them outside or not. But the robot insects were gaining on them. If they tried to blast the mechanical creatures telekinetically they might shatter the entire vent tube and drop themselves right into the middle of an army of Horva.
The tube, which previously had provided many twists and turns to help them avoid the spikes, now opened up into a long straightaway. Orin almost paused, but there was no time to find another route. He picked up the pace as fast as he could, but the creatures were quick and the spikes they fired were even quicker. With a straight line to their targets the creatures would have them in seconds.
Orin heard Tiet behind him, dogging his heels. The younger man definitely had the advantage running in these tubes. A security door came down in front of them. The tube connecting from above was there only outlet. Orin came to a halt below it, turning to see if he could hold the robots at bay while allowing Tiet to go up first.
The moment Orin turned to fight, the entire ventilation tube between them and the approaching robots collapsed inward, as though a giant hand had grasped it from without and crunched it like a can. Orin couldn’t believe what had just happened in their favor and had no explanation for it. The integrity of the tube seemed to be intact. They could here the robots on the other side of the collapsed tube clattering against the crumpled metal trying to get at them.
Wasting no time, Orin and Tiet shot up the outlet tube using their mental power to propel them in great upward leaps. The tube kept going and it seemed they might even reach the roof by this way. Orin wondered if the robots had transmitted images and navigational information back to the Horva. He couldn’t come up with any other reason how they had could have shut the security door on them. He had no reason to believe the cloaks had failed to hide them.
But if the Horva were looking at their own schematics of the system, they might well know where this tube was taking them. They could be waiting. Still, he and Tiet had no choice but to try and escape the facility or get caught in a battle they couldn’t win.
Orin sent a pressure burst ahead toward the vent cap. The power rippled the air causing odd refractions of the available light, like a wave of heat rising off of a hot road. The vent cap shot off the tube. Both men flipped out of the tube and landed with weapons ready on the roof. Orin’s suspicions had come to fruition.
Several hundred Horva warriors were closing from all directions across the roof. But the automatic gun turrets still had not picked up on their life signatures. The cloaks were working, but didn’t hide them from the soldiers. The Horva closed fast and began firing their pulse weapons.
The pair blocked several shots with E.M. shields. They each sent out mental blasts of power trying not to hit each other in the process. Soldiers fell like wheat each time, but more followed. From somewhere within the Horva masses, a huge kinetic burst erupted, sending many of the soldiers over the sides of the rooftop. Tiet and Orin looked at each other in surprise as neither had caused the incident.
Then they saw someone new in the midst of the clones. This warrior utilized twin swords. He carved the air precisely, dispatching soldiers in every direction. The mystery warrior had both Orin and Tiet captivated by the complexity of his attacks. Neither of them had ever seen such swordsmanship. The auto-guns on the roof charged up and swiveled around. These fired on the Horva soldiers. For a moment, Orin thought the warrior must be controlling the guns. But it didn’t seem possible with the rest of the fighting he was doing. It would have been beyond any Barudii abilities Orin had ever known.
The soldiers were now preoccupied with this warrior and their own mutinous sentry lasers. Tiet and Orin didn’t know whether to get away or wait to see how it all turned out. Then the warrior, having cleared away many of the Horva around him with his swords and the auto-guns, launched high off the rooftop landing in front of Orin and Tiet.
He wore a sand-colored garment that seemed oddly pedestrian for a warrior of this caliber. He was hooded, with only his glaring, penetrating eyes visible. “Do you want to live, Barudii?” he asked as the Horva regrouped behind him, more reinforcements adding to their numbers.
The warrior ran to the edge of the roof and launched out away from it with enough power to completely clear the compound’s energy wall three hundred feet away from the buildings perimeter. He sailed over as easily as a bird in flight. Orin and Tiet barely took enough time to glance at each other then stood up and followed. They each made the jump, but with less elegance. They soft-landed next to the warrior.
“What about the perimeter cannons?” Orin asked, as they broke into a run away from the compound.
“We’re cloaked from their sensors by our garments,” the warrior said.
“Who are you?” Orin asked as he puffed along beside the mysterious man.
“There isn’t time for introductions just yet. The Horva are already mobilizing attack fighters to come after us. We must keep moving.”
“Where are we going?” Tiet asked. There was only desert before them. Against the pale sand, the attack fighters he had spoken of would easily spot them, even without sensors.
“Just keep moving!” the warrior insisted.
As they ran toward the open desert, the terrain began to change from rock, where the facility was located, to shifting sand and large dunes. The trio ran for nearly fifteen minutes then they heard the sound of whining engines coming from behind.
The men entered the dunes heaving every breath in and out of their tired bodies. Orin looked back and saw ten aerial fighters coming into view about a mile behind them and closing fast. As they entered the dunes, the sand began to swirl around them. Orin wasn’t sure what was going on, but he kept running. The whine of fighter engines grew louder and louder. Orin knew they must be within visual range by now. Only the warrior’s tan attire seemed appropriate now, as they ran through the whirling sand. A wave of sand billowed up around them and swallowed them whole. The Desert had eaten them alive. The airships zoomed past where the men had been and kept going.
Tiet, Orin and the mysterious warrior were now in an odd shaped underground alcove. The sand was above them without being on them. It was as though the desert had opened its mouth and swallowed them, depositing them within its bowels. The sand parted before them to reveal an underground cavern of immense size.
“Don’t be alarmed, gentlemen. We are well hidden down here,” the stranger said.
“Who are you?”
“Ah, yes,” the warrior said. He untied his hood and slipped it away, revealing a man of more years than Orin. He had a partial beard and short, white hair.
“It can’t be,” Orin said. “Wynn Gareth? But I thought you were killed in the Sector Seven Battle.”
Tiet appeared clueless.
“Well, I see you’ve heard of me, though I don’t remember either of you,” Wynn said. “I wasn’t killed in the battle, obviously. One of the big Barudii carriers exploded near my fighter, disabling my controls. The shock wave forced me through the transdimensional rift.
“After I emerged on this side, I was able to affect repairs to the damaged system and make my way to this planet. It took me a while to figure out what had happened. At first I didn’t realize my ship had even gone through the rift.”
“My name is Orin Vale and this is Tiet Soone, the son of our late king, Kale Soone.”
“Really? The birth of the king’s son was announced only days before we went into battle against the Vorn at Sector Seven. And here you are all grown up-and a very promising warrior from what I saw.”
“How long have you known we were on the planet?” Tiet asked.
“I have been watching you both since you emerged from Mt. Vaseer and entered the battle against General Grod’s forces. After you escaped the dome, I aided you in your escape.”
