bridge. The electromagnetic shield on Dorian's forearm blazed to life to repel the incoming blasts.
Millo held the controls of the Saberhawk, as the firestorm swept across the bridge. Several shots pierced his flight chair and his body. He arched at the pain as he slumped forward over the controls and his life drained away from him.
The ship lurched upward and back, causing Vale to stumble a moment. As he brought the blaster back to bear on Dorian, it met her blade in flight; slicing through both the weapon and the android's hand. Without any notion of pain, Vale brought his own blade down upon Dorian's shoulder, only to find her blade barring the way. With Millo slumped over the controls and many of the flight controls destroyed by laser fire, the Saberhawk began backwards from its course, descending clumsily toward the battlefield.
TIET could see the Saberhawk under fire from the battlefield and the sky; and still it was driving hard away from the fight. Soon she would be safe, and away from the danger. In his heart he urged the ship on to escape with his love safe inside. He and Orin had been separated by a small distance, and were furiously taking down Horva after Horva.
These were men, not like the brutish wild beasts back home on Castai. They had a definite measure of intelligence about them that could be seen just in their fighting techniques. But still, they were no match for the skills of Barudii warriors and their kinetic powers.
Neither Orin nor Tiet had made any attempt to fight against the sphere robots, since they were only built to attack the Vorn. The Sphere's fight was their fight. The Saberhawk was still some two hundred yards away as it trailed low over the battlefield to get away.
The entire valley before Mt. Vaseer was ablaze with laser fire, and overhead a multitude of aerial combatants were tearing each other out of the sky. Wreckage was dropping onto the battlefield at regular intervals as the sphere drones and the Vorn attack fighters exchanged blows.
A Horva warrior strafed at Tiet with its pulse rifle. He deflected several blasts with kemsticks as he whirled them about his body and then he let one go toward his attacker. It caught the Horva's gun as it proceeded on to swipe across his chest and cut him down. The ignited kemstick rebounded back to Tiet's waiting hand in time to parry an incoming battle staff in the hands of another Horva. His second kemstick dispatched the opponent quickly with a straight thrust to the chest.
Orin too, was fairing well in the battle; evading laser fire through the use of his kinesis and tearing down multiple opponents with his blade. Tiet kept a visual on the ship. Its path was leading it off the battlefield to the east and he was glad Millo was getting them out.
Suddenly the ship slowed, arching nose up and coming back around from its former course. Something was wrong. Tiet's heart dropped in his chest as he noticed pulse laser fire flashing repeatedly from the bridge windows. 'No!!'
The ship fell back from its escape run and began clumsily descending into the battlefield. If they didn't recover quickly they were going to crash for sure, and Tiet was too far away to do anything to help them. Several men approached to attack from multiple angles. Tiet repelled them all with a three hundred and sixty degree kinetic blast; sending them backward with crushing force.
He reached out in desperation with his kinesis to seize the ship and keep it aloft, but the Saberhawk's engines were fighting to drive it downward into the valley floor. Another Horva approached unnoticed from behind. His heart seized violently just before he could bring his battle staff down on Tiet. Orin watched him drop to the ground as he released him from his own mental grip from fifty yards away. He could see Tiet fixed upon the descending Saberhawk, trying to hold it up, but to no avail. There was simply no time to stop it.
The ship slammed into the valley floor, crushing several of the sphere robots and dozens of Horva warriors caught in its path. The Saberhawk burst into several large pieces as it tumbled over twice.
Tiet felt all strength leave his body at the thought of Dorian going down to her death in that fireball.
Then the conviction that she wasn't dead gripped him and he burst away from his position with blazing speed. Tiet was moving swiftly through engaged combatants and making only the slightest effort to dispatch anyone who turned to engage him while on his way. Quickly he closed the distance between himself and the wreckage. He wasn't sure why, but he knew that Dorian was not dead. He began to sense her location in the wreckage as he drew nearer; he sensed great pain.
Suddenly from the wreckage before him, a familiar adversary emerged with the majority of its synthetic skin burned away. It was the android again. This thing was responsible for the wreck. It had hurt her. Before the robot even spotted him, Tiet hit it with a kinetic burst fueled by pure rage that sent it flying against a large section of the Saberhawk's hull. Before the android could recover, he pinned its head to the wreckage with his father's blade. Its body jerked with mechanical aftershocks and moved no more.
Tiet backed away and quickly found Dorian pinned underneath a metal support pillar. He waved it off of her with his mind and was at her side. Dorian was barely conscious when she looked at him. She tried to speak, but did not have the strength.
Tiet could not find words, as tears welled up and escaped down his anguished face. He held her hand, and could feel it grow cold as life began to leave her. Dorian reached to touch the donjarr on Tiet's wrist, and then she touched his lips. Her fingertips lingered there only a moment as her body went limp and her gaze became void of life. Tiet's mind was racing without any coherent thoughts. He was completely numb in his senses. His love was dead before him. Sorrow filled his mind and despair gripped his heart.
He could still hear the battle raging around him, then something else, like heavy footsteps running across the wreckage; too heavy for a man. He looked back to find the android still lifeless and pinned to the hull by his father's sword. Then he looked toward the approaching sound to see another android coming at him with its own blade ready to strike. Without hesitation he reached for his imbedded blade, which obediently dislodged itself and leapt to his hand in time to meet the android's strike.
He wondered only a moment at how there seemed to be quite a few of these things. But the fight was on. Tiet slashed furiously at the deadly android, finding every strike countered. He was completely enraged, as the thought of Dorian lying here dead on this battlefield tore through his mind. He screamed out in fury at the robot. 'Die!!'
His rage burst forth as a wave of psychokinetic energy that hit the third android with astonishing force; sending it flying through the air into a pile of the Saberhawk's wreckage. Tiet had never felt so powerful. His power was being fueled by his rage over Dorian's death and he could not contain it. The Vale android regained its composure and headed for him again. He lowered his father's blade to his side and let the kinetic power flow freely.
The Vale robot was coming closer with its own blade ready to strike. Suddenly the Barudii blade it carried extinguished itself.
The puzzled android stopped for a moment, trying to re-ignite the weapon's dispersion field. Tiet looked on with grim satisfaction, knowing he had just crushed the crystal in the hilt of the sword with his thoughts. He summoned the wreckage around him to attack the robot.
Large, man-sized pieces of the debris flew off the ground toward Vale; striking the robot repeatedly. The jagged hunks of metal tore away the android's veneer of humanity, exposing the adomen skeleton beneath. The projectiles pummeled the robot again and again, tearing off an arm and parts of its torso.
Tiet scowled at his prey as he launched the mental attack but nothing could dull the pain of losing her. He quickly tired of the game and sent his father's blade spinning toward the robot. The blade pierced its adomen skull and stopped when the hilt impacted its metal cranium. The android fell over as dead as a mechanical could be and did not move again. The battle still raged on around Tiet, as he knelt down near Dorian's body and sobbed.
VI
MALEC surveyed his monitors again to be sure. It was unwise to give the General premature information. He was a great leader, but not a patient man. 'General, the weapons are fully charged, sir, and we have locked onto the orbital location of the giant Barudii Sphere,' said Malec.
But the General did not acknowledge his words at all. He was watching something taking place on the
