The Withered Land, THE EMPIRE FALLS: HELL'S AVATAR

HELL'S AVATAR -- PART TWENTY-SIX

As the elevator moved, Uhzaysuhl set about rearranging what was left of his damaged flight suit, readying the computerized integration circuitry through the torso-mounted command panel and his wrist gauntlets. He needed his defensive systems and weapons system up and running.

There was an abrupt, shocking jolt that almost threw him from his feet and the white light inside the elevator switched to blood-red, indicating the ship had taken yet more damage. Uhzaysuhl cursed and his pulse quickened. He didn't know what was going on out in the rest of the shiftcraft. It made him feel vulnerable. He hated feeling vulnerable.

In a few moments the elevator cabin jerked as his destination was reached. He fought a sudden wave of nausea, a remainder of the physical effects from leaving Ventriculum-space. He fought it back, gulping. A soft hum from his flight suit reassured him as his weapons system finally came online. The hydraulic doors slid open with a loud hiss and he peered out into a darkened, curved corridor where many of the ceiling light panels were broken or shorted out. Shadows lingered menacingly as the corridor swept away into the distance. Uhzaysuhl could hear the echoing, evenly paced, percussive sounds of metal on metal as something approached...

He raced aggressively towards the sound.

He abruptly drew up short and froze. What he saw shouldn't have been possible. No, no, not true. The ship had been breached and boarded. What he saw was all too possible now that he was outside the envelope of the Ventriculum.

Someone else was onboard the ship. There were two of them. They wore very sturdy looking, intricately designed armor. He could not help but notice there were small splotches of blood amid the gleam of the shining metal.

Seeing their weaponry, he slowed his own bolting charge through the ship's corridors and said aloud, "Hold! Wait a moment...!"

For their part, Mune'stahr and Pylott had desperately sought cover as the gigantic hull of The Glide smashed into the few remaining towers and minarets dominating the crumbling skyline of the embattled necropolis. A massive blast-wave of displaced air in front of the craft as it gradually materialized into Shi'draih-Hakaba's airspace created a pressurized tsunami of wind knocking down or flattening many of the antiquated edifices anywhere near the reinforced fortress-walls of the Duskhelm Priory. The pair had dodged deadly suppression fire from the Ashen Brood guardsmen manning the Priory's walls and ran up and along the paved wing wall and abutment of an arching, collapsed pedestrian bridge until the span devolved into a splinter formed of ruined masonry and frayed girders. There, Mune'stahr had turned to face the oncoming, virtual avalanche of corundum-coated, titanium plate and engaged the full complement of his exo-armor's remaining smart-targeting, shaped-charge, cluster-missiles.

Sixty of the oval-shaped projectiles had launched from his armor's back-mounted, over-the-shoulder fire-rack to punch into The Glide's hull while its protective force shield had been temporarily inoperative. A hole large enough to drive a herd of buffalo through had summarily appeared through a dense cloud of smoke, torn metal and charred slag.

Mune'stahr and Pylott had wasted little time in engaging their cybernetic muscular enhancements and leaping through space into that raged opening in the shiftcraft's bulkhead. They had charged unhesitatingly into the interior of the vessel.

"Stand down and identify yourself," Mune'stahr commanded. "You have invaded Emperium planetary space without sanctioned authorization. Your unlawful presence is counter to the sovereignty of the Omniperator Cosmoterius, His Imperialness the Lord Draggyn Han'Khainus-Galorketh, also known as The World-Father."

Uhzaysuhl shifted his weight ever so slightly, seeking better balance in preparation for possible combat. The muzzle of Mune-stahr's rifle shifted with him as the Star Legion SpecOps soldier sighted on the Pilgrim Prime.

"I wouldn't," a female voice warned in a hard, clipped tone.

Pylott ratcheted the ammunition power cells via the slides on her dual Rampager auto-repeater pistols.

"Move and you will die," she said. "Who are you?"

Uhzaysuhl gnashed his teeth, all too aware of the ticking of the clock. Time was not his friend.

"Who am I?" he answered through clenched teeth, "I am someone who doesn't have any damn time for this."

He ducked and lunged to one side as he simultaneously extended both his arms, activating his energy emitters, and let rip with a pair of destructive plasma force blasts.

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