gun, but she was faster and came down with the hot end of the staff. Jolo pulled back just in time, but he knew the next blow would be his death.

Jaylen stood over him with the blade high in the air. Jolo closed his eyes. It was over.

“Hey, bitch!” came another voice.

Jaylen turned around and there was Katy holding Greeley’s shotgun. Jaylen turned on her but it was too late. The shotgun blast tore through her chest and she flew back beneath the bottom row of Jaylens.

Jolo stood, picked up his gun, and walked over to Jaylen. He put his hand on her leg. She was nearly torn in half but she wasn’t bleeding. She was a synth. They all were.

“I’m sorry, Jolo,” said Katy.

“I can lead you out to your ship if you’ll take me,” said the green humanoid. “I am Merthon, a Vellosian, the last of my kind, I fear.” He took them through the door on the far wall as the rows of Jaylens began opening their eyes. Some screamed, “Murder!” Still others smiled at Jolo as he passed. “I read A Moveable Feast,” one of them said. “Come back to me, Captain,” said another. The green-skinned Vellosian ran through the door but Jolo just stood there staring at the Jaylens. Katy pulled on his arm, and he took a tentative step in her direction, the wet, red gash across his chest dripping blood onto the floor, but he remained. Katy yelled at him, looked back to the door, the Vellosian had returned. “Hit him across the chest,” he yelled at Katy. So she slapped him on his wound and he screamed out in pain, turned to look at them. “What’d you do that for?” he yelled. And they all ran out together.

 

 

The Emperor

 

 

 

Montag

 

 

 

 

The Vellosian made a series of lefts and rights through the large hallways of the big room marked Quarters on Jolo’s map. Jolo was still trying to process what he’d just seen, but his mind couldn’t let it go. I’ve got to save her, he thought. But something is wrong. It was like his mind had reached a dead end and he couldn’t go anywhere else. Why was he here? he wondered. He missed the girl. The girl on the boat. His boat.

“Look at me,” said Katy. “Snap out of it. I need you.”

“Where is your ship?” said the Vellosian.

“Airborne,” she said. “Take us topside and they’ll pick us up there.”

She called the Argossy on her wrist comm. “We’re coming!” she yelled.

“Roger that,” said George.

And then a strange noise echoed through the entire building. It got louder and louder. “Some kind of BG weapon?” said Katy.

“No,” said Jolo. “It’s oscillating. It’s a Fed thruster about to explode.” And then there was a thundering crash and the building shook and they were thrown to the floor. Dust fell down from above and everything went dark for a second. They looked down the hall where they had just come from and sunlight from outside streamed in. Half the building was gone and through the giant hole where the wall was they could see the hull of a ship, burn marks up and down, black scars on its shiny surface.

The Leviathan had fallen.

“George, everyone okay?” said Katy into the comm.

“Yeah, but make it snappy!” he said. “The Emperor’s here.”

They jumped up and ran down the hall, the floor of the old Vellosian building now leaning to one side. The rooms they passed were empty, the air thick with dust and smoke. Soon they made it to a small staircase and began climbing up as fast as they could. It was dark and they stumbled their way to the top. The door was locked so Jolo raised his gun to shoot the scanner lock but Merthon stopped him. “Wait, this building was made by my people.” He put his large hand on the biometric scanner and the door slid open and the three spilled out into the blinding sun on the roof of the synthetic humanoid production facility.

For a moment no one could see. But soon the sound of a furious battle below brought their attention down to the ground thirty meters below. The Leviathan’s marine group were firing on the Emperor’s guard. Green battle-suited soldiers and BG warriors lay fallen on the ground in the rubble of the destroyed building. The Leviathan lay on her side, the giant rail gun nearly torn off, half dug into the ground during the crash. The Emperor’s boat was burning. Her nose stuck into the soil, her tail sticking up at an odd angle. There wasn’t much left of the Emperor’s guard, and the BG buildings beyond were nothing more than burning piles of rock and metal. Jolo had started to regain his composure and pulled Katy towards the other side of the roof.

But when they turned it was then they noticed a large black warrior with a cape standing twenty meters away on the center of the roof.

“You thought you could come here and take whatever you wanted? You fools!” he screamed. “Can you not see,” he said, pointing behind him. On the other side of the building long rows of black-suited Jaylens were running towards a large BG transport ship. There were thousands of them. Two Leviathan marines fired on them and several fell. But then two teams of ten broke off and each group attacked the marines. One ran at each marine head on, drawing his fire, while the others surrounded him. Their speed and coordination was amazing and they killed both marines with small red blades. It all happened in a second, seemingly with no communication. It was as if each knew exactly what to do. As if they were one organism. They picked up the two fallen Jaylens and carried them into the ship.

Jolo looked around for the Argossy, but it was nowhere to be found.

“Your ancient transport ship is being hunted by a far more powerful adversary,” said the Emperor. He stepped

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