strapped themselves in.
Grod activated the landing thrusters and brought the ship upward a little, hovering above the bay floor as he locked the final coordinates into the helm and started the transgate sequence.
A flood of symbyte soldiers came running into the bay with their weapons blazing. Pulse laser fire pounded into the hull with little effect as the soldiers tried to surround the vessel hovering above them.
A wall of light pierced the bay ahead of the ship. Grod tapped the command sequence for the bunker on the ship's transmitter panel.
'No!! Stop them!!' shouted Lucin as the large ship suddenly lurched forward into the transgate jump field. Another flash and the ship and its portal were gone from the hangar bay, leaving Lucin and his troops alone.
Lucin sank to his knees and pounded his fists into the pavement. Now what? He had lost the boy. How would he make the host bodies of one mind and body without a mentally powerful host?
As Lucin pondered the question, he suddenly noticed a voice coming over the intercom. It was counting, 'three, two, one.'
The symbyte soldiers within the bunker never knew what had hit them. The reactor core powering the underground facility erupted with such ferocity that most of the crater wall above collapsed inward upon the hundreds of symbyte soldiers and their transport ships that covered the crater floor. A portion of their military was destroyed in the last trap of the Barudii and Horva on planet Castai.
IT was a mild sunny day on Kosiva's Guniran province the day that his father, Wynn and General Grod left for negotiations with the Guniran council. Kale sat in the grass outside of the ship thinking about recent events as a cool breeze provided relief from the sunlight.
The Kosivans were a peaceful people, and highly intelligent though they purposely minimized overt technology in their lifestyle. The arrival of the Equinox on their planet had alarmed the population somewhat. They weren't sure if the Castillians were to be trusted and they were familiar with the Vorn military which had visited them in the past. The Vorn had evidently left the impression of a coming invasion, but had not come back since their visit over thirty years ago.
The Council of Gunira province was now ready, after a month, to consider an alliance with the group on board the Equinox, and his father and the others were to be gone into the main city for at least two days. Only his mother, Emil, Mareb and Jael remained behind with him and the ship.
It had not been a good month for Kale. The symbyte within his body was constantly speaking in his mind; still trying to take over. He often had horrific dreams of murdering everyone on board the ship at the symbyte's command. Kale didn't sleep well anymore. He feared he might succumb to its influence while unconscious and actually perform the awful deed.
It had been a difficult decision for him to make, but he couldn't risk hurting his family and friends; he had to leave them to save them. His mother, as brilliant a doctor and scientist as she was, still had no answer as to how to remove or destroy the organism terrorizing him from within. And his body, unlike Emil's, was not able to fight it off. He could feel it getting stronger even while he struggled to maintain control.
His mother, Emil and the two Horva soldiers had gone to survey an area just north of the camp where the Guniran council had recently approved for the group to begin building a permanent facility for housing and other needs. The Gunirans would be providing the necessary materials, technology and labor as long as the talks today went as well as expected.
He was alone with the ship, claiming he didn't feel like making the trip today, and in his present condition they believed him. Kale breathed in another deep breath of the fresh air and stood up, carrying a letter he had composed to his father and mother. He made his way back into the ship and headed back to the transgate control room.
He had spent the last week and a half, since making his decision to leave, studying the operations of the transgate by way of the ship's computer. He had found a suitable location, another planet that the Vorn military had apparently rejected because of the hostile inhabitants that controlled the planet. It would be the last place his family would look to find him. And if he ran into trouble it wouldn't be a peaceful people that suffered his wrath if he went out of control.
Kale laid the letter on the transgate console and tapped in his own preset jump sequence. Once the gate was ready, he activated it. A wall of light snapped into place in the room ahead of the console. The gate could jump the entire ship or a small group depending on the need.
He picked up his travel bag from the floor next to the console and hoisted the backpack of supplies up on his shoulder. He wore his Castillian army uniform loaded with weapons that would give him an advantage in the hostile environment, and in the other hand he carried more supplies. He tapped another key on the display that would begin a scrambling sequence on his jump point once he passed through the portal.
This was it. He looked around the room once more, then whispered his goodbyes to his family and friends. He turned and walked through the portal into the world beyond. The transgate obeyed his preprogrammed command sequence and the portal snapped the jump gate closed after him-he was gone, without any way to return, but at least his family would be safe.
