Chapter 6
“Is everything ready?” Baron asked one of the rebel soldiers. Baron had tasked a few men who were idle to get together some supplies, thermal blankets, and a few tents for their trip through the forest.
The night was quiet and dark, the great bonfire that had been burning hours before was now nothing more than a pile of black smouldering coals with red and orange embers mixed in with the ashes. Most of the camp was asleep, with the exception of the sentries, camp patrollers and a few groups of men and women around little campfires.
“Yes, we have prepared all we could in the time you gave us. A ten day supply of food, eight thermal blankets and three tents,” the lieutenant informed him. Her eyes were blood shot and she had very sluggish movements, it was clear she was very tired.
“Very well, thank you. Go get some rest,” Baron told her with appreciative eyes. The lieutenant nodded and trudged off towards where ever it was she was sleeping.
Teran walked over to Vrik, whom was sitting down with his head hung low. He looked up as Teran approached.
“Are we ready to get this show on the road?” Teran asked his friend through a loud yawn.
Seeing Teran yawn caused Vrik to do the same, “Just about.” They were both still quite sleepy. Sura on the other hand, was wide awake and ecstatic. She was so excited to be going on this mission she couldn’t sit still; she was pacing around in circles very quickly.
“All right, everyone, pick up your bags and let’s get going,” Baron announced, after inspecting all the food, water and equipment. Sura had to muffle a squeal, while Karem grunted as he rose to help his old Mentor hand out the packs.
The five of them hauled their bags over their shoulders and walked out of the camp. They passed several sentries, all of whom saluted and wished them good luck on their mission. The outer most outlook post had two men, both approached the group. The men’s stature and walking posture gave them away instantly. Both Garen and Vladimir strode over to the five departing members of the rebel army.
Nothing was said between any of them; the two soldiers just shook each of the Guardians’ hands and nodded their heads to assert their confidence in the team to complete their objective. Then they watched as the five warriors walked off out of sight and into the darkness of the surrounding forest.
The five Zeuti Guardians walked for hours without speaking a word. They were all just too tired, too focused or unwilling to risk their voice carrying throughout the night and disrupting its silence. Except for Sura that is, she just chatted on about anything and everything, but she was wise enough not to talk too much.
After walking for nearly three hours straight the darkness was starting to lift and was being replaced by a dim dawn light. Unfortunately, the entire valley around them was full of the same thin blue mist that covered the forest every morning.
Baron called for everyone to stop. “We will take a short break here and have some breakfast.” Everyone was glad that someone finally called for a break; no one had wanted to be the first one.
Each of them found a rock or a log to sit on, everything was damp with the mist but at least they were off their feet for the moment. Teran brought out his hot water bottle and poured everyone a cup of warm coffee. They all cupped their hands around their hot mugs, warming their numb fingers and getting feeling back in them.
“I wonder how long it will take for us to reach the Hadi base,” Karem said, starting up their first conversation since leaving the rebel camp.
“From the look of the map Rogan gave us, I’d say it will take at least another twenty-eight hours,” Vrik replied. "It would have been nice to have been able to use some sort of transport but we have to move on foot to stay hidden more easily. We can't very well go saving someone if we get an entire imperial regiment, or worse yet Inquisitor Jore, on our tails."
“Really, that long?” Sura asked with some yearning in her voice.
“Your first real mission already not what you expected?” Teran chuckled.
“No, it’s not that. I just thought we’d be...” she started, but was cut off by Teran.
“Flying into action and saving the princess like knights on a white horse?” he said with a broad grin across his face.
“Yeah... something like that,” Sura admitted. She smiled, almost laughing, at herself.
Teran lifted the hot cup to his lips and took a long sip. It wasn’t so hot that it could burn his mouth, but it was definitely hot enough to send a warm sensation throughout his entire body. He had his eyes closed and simply listened to the sounds of the forest. Many of the night creatures were settling down to sleep through the day, all the while others were waking up to the dawn light. All of a sudden he heard sound of a combat boot breaking a twig a little ways off into the mist with a loud crack, as well as some quiet chatter, and his eyes snapped back open as he quickly crouched behind the log he was sitting on. Everyone else had heard the same thing, and when they all suddenly ducked behind cover Sura was a little shocked. It took her a few moments to realise what was happening before doing the same; to her the breaking branch sounds were just animals, she couldn’t tell the difference between them. They knew that it was an enemy patrol; there were no other rebel bases in the immediate area, and their camp hadn’t sent out any patrols into this sector.
Teran pulled his two stormswords from his belt and went to move towards the Imperial Hadi patrol, but he was halted by the quiet, harsh, command of Karem.
“Stay still, you fool!” Karem hissed. “Do you want to alert them to our presence?”
“No, I was more or less thinking of killing them instead,” Teran said blankly.
“Kill him, punch him, slap him, do something to shut him up!”
“Let’s kill them, Teran,” Vrik replied as he crept forward, and drawing one his own stormswords before coming to a stop behind his friend.
“If you don’t, I will,” Teran’s eye twitched as he buried the thought to the back of his head. That was odd. Why did I say it like that?
Teran nodded and smiled at Vrik. “I’m coming too,” Sura whispered from behind them.
“No, don’t kill them you idiots. What if they alert the base?” Karem argued. His nose was scrunched up into a snarl.
“Karem is right, the mission comes first. We need to remain hidden; we must keep our element of surprise,” Baron wisely weighed in.
“See, Baron agrees. We should not attack.”
“Bah, they don’t deserve to live,” Vrik said annoyed. “Come on Tec, they are getting away.”
Teran nodded and stepped forward, he only got two steps in before he had a pair of hands pushing him against the log.
“You can’t go!” breathed Karem, his eyes were filled with frustration and concern.
Teran shrugged him off and pushed him away. “Don’t worry, they won’t get away,” and, with that, he ran off through the trees. Vrik and Sura quickly followed.
Baron sighed and shook his head. “Come Karem, let’s go help them.” Karem frowned but nodded. When will Teran learn? Baron thought to himself.
Teran, Vrik and Sura crept through the brush of the forest floor. They were careful not to make too much noise, or make any quick movements that could alert the patrol that they were coming. Teran caught view of the point man. He felt an impending joy fill his body as he savoured the feeling of stalking his next Imperial victim. When the three Guardians were within three metres of the enemy they all charged out of the ferns, ambushing them. Teran extended his two emerald stormblades, Vrik turned on his dual blue blades and Sura flicked on her light purple stormsword. As they closed the distance Teran and Vrik, both, unleashed a bio-push, sending four of the ten men flying backwards. Still with the element of surprise the three Zeuti warriors crashed into the enemy troops. Teran slid by one, ducking while gliding pass him to avoid being hit by the man’s gun hilt which was being used as a club. As he skidded passed Teran used one of his swords to slice open the man’s stomach, spilling his intestines all over the forest floor. The soldier hit the ground with a loud, painful, grunt before dying in a pool of his blood.
At the same time Vrik used his biofeed to propel himself forward, charging into another one of the imperials sending him hurtling towards one of his comrades and smashing into him. Vrik quickly put an end to both of their lives by stabbing both of his blades through their chests. By this time the remaining others had recovered from the initial shock and started firing their storm-blasters. They started shooting little lightning bolts at the Guardians. Sura held in a deep breath as the first of the zapping shots made their way towards her; at the last instant she raised her lightning blade and deflected the enemy fire. After successfully defending herself once, she let out her couped up air and took some more steady breaths as she calmed herself. She ran at the firing soldier, keeping her blade moving swiftly to deflect the bolts as she made her way to him. However, all of a sudden, the firing rate and the strength of the bolts changed, catching her off guard. One of the lightning bolts zipped past her sword and caught her in the shoulder.
Sura let out a little scream as she cringed at the pain, but she didn’t stop moving forward. She became more alert and focused on the speed of the bolts adjusting her swings for the pace. She wasn’t going to be caught off guard by such a simple tactic again. She steadily got closer to the soldier; four metres, three metres, two metres, and then she jumped. Using some biofeed and releasing it through her feet she used its energy to help her gain some extra air and flip over the soldier, landing behind him. Before he could react she spun around and cut the man across his back, deeply and fatally.
As she stood there looking down at the first man she had killed the world around her became a haze and all the sounds of the battle around her drifted out of consciousness to become like quiet whispers in her ear.
“Sura, Sura!” Someone was calling her name. It was getting louder by the second, each time they called her name. In a moment all the noise of the world rushed back to her as she blinked a couple of times. She looked up to see what was happening and saw an imperial soldier running at her with a knife. The female lieutenant had lost her gun when she was thrown backwards and hit a tree when Teran and Vrik had first used their powers. Sura’s eyes widened, she tried to lift her arms to defend herself with her own blade but her arms wouldn’t move. Fear filled her mind. Why couldn’t she move? The lieutenant was close now, preparing to thrust the six inch knife right through her. The soldier threw her arm forward and still Sura couldn’t do anything. All of a sudden a blue blade came into view from below her and swung upwards. The blue stormsword cut the lieutenant’s arm off before she could imbed the razor sharp dagger into Sura’s belly. Then a second blue blade came through the imperial’s neck, slicing her head off and scorching the wound closed with the heat of the lightning.
Once she lay dead and headless Sura recovered and was finally able to move again. She looked up at her saviour to see Vrik looking down at her with concerned eyes.
“Are you alright?” he asked. Sura nodded and Vrik made a little smile. “Don’t worry, happens to everyone the first time. Don’t think, just act.” She nodded again and then he left her to take care of others.
Sura looked over to Teran and saw that he was standing over three mangled bodies. Arms, legs and heads were scattered all over the place. Then two more of the soldiers whom were flung through the air by the initial bio-push rushed back into the fray to see seven of their brothers-in-arms lay strewn across the small battlefield. They turned to make an escape but bumped straight into Baron and Karem. The soldiers raised their guns to shoot the two Guardians but in less than half a second the two Lords had their deep purple and cyan coloured storm weapons buzzing and inside their victims.
Baron sighed at having to kill unnecessarily and turned his dark purple blade off and put the handle back on his belt. The five Guardians regrouped in the middle of the carnage and took a moment to look around.
“Are they all dead?” Karem asked. Neither he nor Baron knew how many there were to begin with.
Vrik looked around for a moment counting all the heads, rather than bodies, he could see. He clenched his jaw and shook his head. “One is missing.”
Karem deactivated his sword and grabbed Teran by his robes and pulled him towards himself, getting right into his face. “I thought you said none were going to get away? And yet, one has.”
“Get the hell off me, you ass!” Teran shouted as he shoved his rival off of him. “Take it easy Karem, the guy is scared and running all over the forest, chances are he won’t even know how to get back to his base.”
“We can’t depend on luck you fool! Our mission is too important,” Karem snorted.
“Oh, give me a break. Our mission on this world is to help the rebellion and win back the planet. We aren’t going to be able to do that by going on a goose hunt for the Queen’s love child! We should be out here killing as many Hadi dogs as we can,” Teran said coldly. He didn't really mean that the way it had sounded. He did want to save her, it was just his priority was doing as much as he could to slim down the Imperial’s numbers on Kalorin.
“You’re close now. Do it. Do it! You want to!”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. You aren’t here for the rebellion and let’s face it, neither am I. I was dragged into this by you and your defying followers. I only remain because Baron is here, and because I know that you will run this planet’s last hope into the ground and I am going to be here to make sure you don’t do that.”
The other three Guardians simply watched, it was that time again. They just had to let these two duke it out for a little while, and hope Karem doesn’t bring Sasha up again. At least Vrik really hoped that anyway, he still remembered what Teran told him after he woke up from being paralysed by Baron. “Next time he brings up Sasha, not even Baron will be able to save him.” That was what Teran had said, and Vrik believed it too. Vrik didn’t like Karem, but he didn’t want to see him die over something silly.
“And how am I running this rebellion into the ground? As I remember it I have already brought around five decisive victories and several wins in tight spots. You haven’t done shit. The only thing you’re good for is pissing me the hell off!” Teran spat callously, as he poked Karem in the chest with his finger.
“The way that you conduct anything that you do is wrong. You are completely about bloodshed! Everything you do is to allow you to fight the Hadi, get into a girl’s pants, drink or infect the other Guardians. You have led yourself and so many others away from the path of the Zeuti, and that is why you will fail here,” Karem was snarling at Teran now.
“What a load of horseshit! I did not infect the Guardians. I simply left to do the right thing, to help the United Alliance and others followed me, because they weren’t afraid of disobeying brainless orders that helped no one! As for being ‘blood thirsty’, this is war you ignorant fool. We can’t win a war by talking to the enemy about kittens and puppies, or by laying down arms and letting them screw us nine ways to Sunday.”
Before continuing Teran got right up into Karem’s face and stared at him dead straight in the eyes with a gaze as hard as steel. “And I have never gone after another girl since Sasha. Never!” Tec hissed through clenched teeth. He waited for Karem to reply.
“Now’s your chance, give him something real to whine about. If you don’t want to, let me do it.” There it was again. Why am I speaking my thoughts like that?
The others could all tell this was the edge of the canyon. Sasha had been brought up and both Teran and Karem were pissed off. All that Karem had to do to sign his own death wish was to say one thing about Teran’s lost love. But, staring back into those cold eyes Karem could see the darkness that was laying in wait just behind this layer of flesh, and his anger turned into fear. He had to admit, when Teran was pissed off, he was scary, but when he was holding in such dark fury with that blood crazy look in his eyes it was far, far worse. Karem blinked and breathed out heavily, and then he stepped away from Teran and look to the floor.
As soon as the confrontation was over the anger in Teran died away, quickly. And he turned to face Sura with compassionate eyes and not a dark stare, for which she was thankful.
“Are you alright Sura? You seemed to freeze up a bit before, lucky Vrik was close enough to save you,” he asked softly. It always amazed them how Teran could turn on and off so quickly, and so suddenly. It was as if there was a trigger that flipped on and off in his head. One side was the anger and hate filled warrior, and the other the compassionate, light hearted, leader and friend.
The blood of her entire body seemed to rush to her cheeks. She could feel them burn in embarrassment with a crimson fury. Not only because she was being question about her hesitation during the battle, but because of the obvious concern Teran was showing.
Sura bit her lips and nodded. “Yes, I’m ok. I am so sorry, I promise it...”
Teran smiled and placed his hands on one of hers, he felt her body trembling but figured it was simply the adrenaline still coursing through her body. “Don’t worry about it; it happens to the best of us. When I first saw the blood of someone I had killed I threw up. You just need to act and, when you have, don’t dwell on those actions, and just move on to the next opponent,” Teran cut in. He sounded very comforting and was very understanding. The comment about him vomiting made Sura smile, which made him glad that he got her mind off of her mistake.
Yeah, but that was back when you were still a child in Talon City on Mars. Vrik was thinking to himself, but he didn’t say anything. He knew that it was a good move to try and get Sura to not feel too bad about her mistake.
“But, make sure they are dead; don’t turn away from them before you know,” Vrik said out loud. Sura nodded.
“Thank you,” she gratefully said as Teran released her hand. She was still trembling terribly; Teran looking at her with such concern and compassion in his eyes and his kind words, all on top of him holding her hand. It was all too much, but it was all just for her. She forgot all about her blunder during the battle and was so happy she could barely suppress what she suspected would have been the biggest grin in the universe.
“Alright, enough talk. We need to get a move on before the escapee brings reinforcements,” Baron ordered and marched off into the forest. Karem walked quickly by his side shaking his head, while the other three followed behind them.
“Man, you’re weak. When are you going to trust your instincts? You’re raw instincts should always be followed,” Teran said, referring to himself.
The five of them walked for hours undisturbed, but it was still only six in the afternoon. They didn’t hear from or encounter any other patrols; the only things that they saw were the few animals that did not scatter as they approached. Everything seemed to be going great; they hadn’t been troubled, they were making good time and as far as they could tell they would be at the camp by a little after midnight. Yet Teran couldn’t shake himself of the bad feeling in his gut, he felt as if something was coming for them. It made him constantly turn and look behind them to make sure that they weren’t being followed. Each time he did he scanned the woods but saw nothing, but even so, each time he saw no one, the feeling in the pit of his stomach just got worse. And there were things pricking at his biofeed senses, like ants biting his toes but in his mind. There was something there, he just didn't know what.
As if right on cue, he thought, there was a crack of thunder and flash of purple lightning. Torrential amounts of rain dropped down upon them. The five of them quickly started looking for some kind of shelter to get out of the heavy downpour.
“Over here!” Baron shouted loudly so that everyone could hear him over the deafening sounds of the pouring rain. He waved his hand and motioned everyone to follow him. Baron lead them all to a small cliff face that was, probably, only twenty metres high. He took them to a small cove at the base of the cliff face.
Inside the small hole in the wall of rock they found an old, unpowered, door. It looked like it would lead them deeper into the cliff.
“Must be an abandoned colonial supply shack,” Karem suggested as he wiped his face of some water.
“I can repower the door if I connect my high density battery to the circuits,” Vrik said and he got to work when the others nodded for him to do so. In a couple quick minutes he had opened up a panel on the side of the door and hooked up the battery to power the door. The battery would only have enough energy to power it for a couple of days, three at the most, but they were only planning on staying until the storm subsided.
The inside of the supply shack was dark and dusty. Using the light from his stormsword Vrik looked around the small depot while the others got comfortable and started cooking a meal. There was nothing left in the depot except for two chairs, a large empty crate and a few small boxes.
They all gathered around the big crate and used it as a table as they ate a portion of their rations.
“That thunderstorm came out of nowhere,” Karem said quietly, stating the obvious.
“I am completely soaked through,” Sura complained through chattering teeth, as she wrung out her hair.
“I don’t know why you are all complaining. We are out of the rain here, we have some food on the table, and what the heck is so bad about lightning storms?” Teran said cheerfully, he was having a good time. He loved the rain, as well as the thunder and lightning. To him, the power that lightning had was fascinating, which intrigued him all the more to know he had that power inside two small sword hilts tucked away under his robe.
Sura, Baron, Karem and Vrik all scoffed in displeasure at the same time, which made everyone laugh.
“I mean we have harnessed the power of lightning in our storm weapons, how can we not admire it?” Teran asked, but no one answered. They just smiled and continued eating.
The weather cleared up in a few long, and boring, hours, but that wasn’t the end of the companions’ troubles. As they were getting ready to walk out of the door they all felt a dark, shadowy presence waiting just outside. They all knew what it was; they all knew that they had been found. Those ants at the edges of Teran's senses were now like giant dark pincers in his head.
“Damn it, I suppose that escaped soldier did finally find his friends and he sent them after us,” Baron cursed under his breath.
“What are we going to do now? We can’t fight them, the mission is too important to risk failure in a battle against the Hadi,” Karem weighed in.
“I think we need to fight them, if we don’t they will just pursue us,” Vrik stated plainly. They all agreed that he was right, they couldn’t escape the Hadi.
“No, we can’t, we are at a disadvantage anyway. I feel that there are equal numbers out there, five of them that is, and we all know that Hadi are stronger than us Guardians,” Karem pressed. He had another good point, while Zeuti were generally very good at both combat and biofeed with the exception of some who were gifted in them, Hadi would usually chose to specialise in combat or biofeed. They became formidable in their chosen specialisation but became less useful in the other.
“I don’t know if we can win...” Sura said gloomily. “I thought I could at least finish a mission before I died.”
Teran rubbed his face as he thought deeply about what was being said and about what he was sensing. “I think you are both right. We need to fight, but we can’t risk the mission.”
The four of them looked at Teran, waiting for what he was going to say next. But, when he looked at them with that glint in his eye, they already knew what he was going to suggest.
“You four go on ahead, I will stay back and do my best to stop them. I was the one who caused this by going in to attack the patrol,” Teran said with a faint smile. As much as he thought it was unfortunate that they had been followed by Hadi, he was looking forward to fighting and killing a few of them before they took him down.
“I will stay, too; I was also responsible for attacking the Imperial scouts,” Vrik put forward.
“No, you must go with the others. They will need your skills when it comes to fight the Hadi again,” Teran countered. Vrik sighed but couldn’t refuse, so he nodded.
“Alright let’s do this.”
“Good luck, Teran. I am glad to have fought with you,” Baron told him as he took Teran's pack off him.
Teran smiled and turned to open the door. He pressed the unlocking mechanism and it opened with a whoosh. The five of them stepped out of the small store house and out into the forest at the base of the cliff. Standing in front of them, waiting, were the five Hadi warriors. They were all clad in black robes or armour, and they all wore masks over their faces in true Hadi tradition. It was clear that there were three berserkers and two inquisitors. The berserkers all wore armour while the inquisitors only wore robes, and on the masks of the inquisitors there were two red lines running down over the eye socket; lines running the length of the mask.
The Hadi didn’t make a sound or say a word; they simple activated their red and orange stormswords and just waited.
“You all ready?” Teran asked quietly. Baron nodded.
“Perhaps you shouldn’t fight, Teran, they look very strong. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Sura asked cautiously, clearly worried for Teran’s well being, but didn’t want to sound too obvious.
“Don’t worry, Sura, it will be OK. Just remember, don’t think about anything when you fight and you will be fine,” he replied to her in a little more than a whisper. She couldn’t help but smile a little and was almost able to believe him, almost.
“Alright, be ready.”
“Finally, let me see what you got, weakling.”