“Hey kid,” Doctor Mycroft’s voice crackled from his earpiece as Ronin daydreamed about getting his hands on Stanly. He had other things to be worried about, but he couldn’t help coming back to the man who’d killed his parents, either directly or indirectly. “There is trouble in the teleportation room, the Priest wants you to report there, asap.” Ronin felt his heart lurch in his chest. Was this it, had he come already?
“I’m on my way,” he said into the earpiece, before excitedly turning to Elyria and Jaya. He was already forcing his body into the armored suit, even before he spoke. “They’re asking for us in the teleportation room.” He said, not having any more information to give, nor the desire to do anything other than rush there at full speed.
Jaya, who was already armored up, reached behind her back, and grabbed the huge gatling gun off its gear harness in response to his words. Elyria, who was also armored, moved over to help Ronin buckle himself into the suit. He’d gotten better at doing it solo, but it still wasn’t something he could do in a hurry.
“Ready?” She asked him, once she’d tightened the last strap, and he’d grabbed his own gatling gun.
“Ready,” he said in response, getting a nod from Jaya, he rushed from the room. Ronin pushed himself to run as fast as he’d ever attempted in the suit before. The surroundings almost blurred at the speeds he was able to reach, and he could feel the ancient stone giving way under his feet. He winced at the thought of what his armored boots were doing to the stone streets, which had survived hundreds of millions of years. He didn’t let that thought slow his stride, however, Stanly might be here, and he was determined to kill that man before he left earth.
“Slow down,” Elyria said, easily keeping pace with him in the air. “You’re going so fast, if you trip, you’re likely to break something, if not yourself, then the suit or the cave. Besides, Jaya can’t keep up.” Ronin didn’t slow, her words actually having the opposite effect, and he pushed himself even harder.
He’d spent almost every waking hour in the suit since he’d been convinced to wear the thing, and his ability to control it had improved by a large margin. He flexed his fingers, feeling the bands wrapped around each joint activate the switches that made the suit mirror the action. He had similar bands at each joint, used to convey his desired movement to the suit. The lag was still very noticeable, but he’d gotten used to feeling the suit react a second behind his movements. Sure, it felt like he was operating in quicksand, while wearing a body covering oven mitt, but Ronin had learned to compensate for that, better than anyone else on his team. Jaya was good, but she still couldn’t manage much more than a fast walk without falling.
“No time,” he said in response to Elyria’s request. “If he’s here, I need to get to him before someone intervenes.” The jarring impact of his feet on stone was shaking his balance, and he could feel as well as hear the sound of stones breaking under the suit’s armored weight.
“And what if he isn’t there?” Elyria asked the question Ronin was doing his best to not focus on.
“Either way, there’s trouble. I’m not going to make them wait.” The elf snorted, but apparently gave up, because she moved out of his line of sight. Likely hovering over his head with her own Rifle in hand. Rounding the last bend, Ronin saw the doorway that led into the, mostly intact, stone stable the Priests had used as a teleportation chamber. His temper had flared with each step, and as he slammed right through the bark door that had been erected over the entrance, sending splinters everywhere in the process, he looked out through a red haze. In fact, it was all he could do to keep his finger off the trigger to the gatling gun, so ready was he to meet out justice.
“…won’t stand for this, the dwarf's faction will…” The speaker, a short, stocky figure with a smith’s apron and a large beard, trailed off as the door shattered. Everyone blinked in shock and ducked as the splinters from the door rained down upon them. Cries of ‘watch it,’ and ‘what the hell?’ rang out from the gathered mass of people. Ronin blinked, every bit as surprised at the site that greeted him, as those gathered were at his entrance.
“Glad you could join us.” The Priest said wryly, brushing bits of wood from his Daoist robes. “I have to admit, you made better time getting here than I anticipated. Though, next time, please use the door.” Ronin, whose rage had been replaced with confusion, looked around at the gathered people. Who made up a collage of shapes and color, so individually diverse that he couldn’t untangle the mass into individual people for several long seconds. Thanks entirely to his adrenaline-fueled brain.
“Um,” he said dumbly, now looking at the Priest with bewilderment. “What did you need to see me about?” His ears flushed at the idiocy of the question, but thankfully his face was hidden by the suit.
“It occurred to me… after so many people accepted the invitation you asked me to send out…” The Priest paused, stroking his long white beard, and looking around at the circus. “That, since it was your idea to invite them here, then perhaps it should be your responsibility to take care of them.” The thin, hunchbacked old man was surprisingly spry for someone who looked so frail, and he’d skipped around Ronin’s bulky form and was standing outside the doorway by the time he’d finished speaking. “If you need housing, ask one of my under priests, if they cannot behave themselves… well, good luck young man.” With that, he was gone.
Ronin blinked in shock, while Elyria, who was hovering just outside the door, burst into laughter. He couldn’t see her, but he pictured her clearly in his mind anyway. Knees pulled up and arms wrapped around her chest as she cackled at his misfortune. He sighed, looking around at the group that was finally clear enough for him to see.
There was the dwarf who’d been speaking before, at the head of a small group of five other dwarves. A group of six elves with ridiculously long ears. Not only them, but there were halflings, dragon kin, goblins, and several other species Ronin had once read about in his old fantasy novels. In addition to them, there were a group of forty heavily armored people in futuristic science fiction armor. Twenty of them were in red, while the other twenty wore blue. There had to be dozens of people in here, but not one of them, he noticed with a frustrated grinding of his teeth, was Stanly.
“Well,” the Dwarf said, clearly the spokesperson for the fantasy contingent. “Ye called us here, now, what ya gunna do with me an me comrades?” His voice was gruff, and the words were spoken in a near grunt that made it difficult for Ronin to understand them. He’d barely even considered how to reply when another voice popped up.
“What about us?” Asked the only woman in the group of red armored soldiers, or at least, the only woman of normal height, wearing a skimpy, body-hugging skinsuit. Everyone else was over seven feet tall and wearing bulky armor that covered them from head to toe. Each carrying a variety of guns that, at first glance, didn’t even look like real weapons to Ronin. One of them even held a sword that glowed with a strange blue light.
“Settle down, Cortexa.” Said the largest man in red, who stood at the speaking woman’s side. “I’m sure this man will tell us everything we need to know…”
“That isn’t Cortexa,” said the nearly identical woman in blue armor. “I’m Cortexa,” she turned to the equally large man beside her in blue and grabbed him by the elbow. “Tell them Sergeant major.”
“No,” Red Cortexa said, grabbing the red man’s elbow. “This is the Sergeant major. If you keep this up, we’re going to have too…” Ronin watched in bewilderment as the pair of nearly identical women bickered, while the heavily armed and armored people jeered and exchanged rude gestures with one another. It didn’t take long for the dwarves to join the verbal sparring match and before long, everyone was yelling. Ronin honestly didn’t have a clue what he was supposed to do. At least Elyria had stopped laughing, having flown in and was now hovering at his side.
Just then, he picked up the sound of crashing footsteps, and Jaya plodded through the doorway at his back, just as the teleporter activated again. Blinking, Ronin focused on the device, just as twenty new figures appeared out of nowhere. His mouth went dry, and he staggered back a step.
“Hands up.” He said in a near yell, as he raised the gatling gun to point at the newcomers. Jaya and Elyria doing the same to either side of him. “Don’t make a move for your weapons,” he said. “Or we’ll drop you where you stand.” He held his breath, hoping this didn’t turn violent, because he already knew how it would end.
At his move, the fantasy coterie dove to the ground, while both red and blue factions pointed their weapons at him. The blues, after seeing where the reds were aiming, turned around and pointed their guns at the newcomers instead. Ronin would have laughed at how idiotic a decision that was if he wasn’t focused solely on the newcomers himself.
“Peace,” said a man’s voice from inside an armored Exo-suit, that looked very much like Ronin’s. “We come in peace. Please, let’s talk before you decide on anything hasty.” Ronin looked at the man, who was waving a white flag on the end of a crystal tree branch. His hands were nowhere near his cannon, neither were the hands of any of the SWAT team standing behind him near their own weapons.
“What do you want?” He asked, hoping against hope that this encounter didn’t come to a fight. His group had only survived the last encounter with a SWAT team because they’d outgunned and out flanked them. As things stood now, Elyria would die within seconds, and they’d be lucky to take down one suit before the enemy destroyed him and Jaya with their cannons.
“Please,” the flag waving man said again, holding his hands away from his chest. “The government ship has gone, the lizards are almost here, and we don’t have anywhere else to go. We won’t cause you any trouble, we just want to die with our own kind, fighting the invaders tell the end. We…” Ronin listened as the man pled his case. Not sure if letting them in like this was a good idea, but fearing trying to make them leave, and wondering if it was ethical to do so, considering it was certain death outside.
“Ok,” he finally said, after the teleportation pad activated again, showing the arrival of a double handful of incredibly well muscled men and women. Each wearing martial arts uniforms, which were clean, but had been strategically ripped and torn to look used. “Tell you what, I’m going to send my sergeant, Karr, up here soon to take charge of this mess. Work with him to make an attendance list of everyone who comes through the teleporter and help keep order until I figure out what to do with all these people. If you do that, and Karr gives me a positive report, you’ll be welcome in my camp.”
“Fair enough,” the armor suited man said with a shallow bow that served those in armor as a nod. “We’ll prove ourselves to you… ah?” Ronin mentally slapped himself when he realized that he hadn’t introduced himself yet.
“Sorry, been a long day.” He said by way of apology. “I’m Ronin. My people call me the White Flame in my pocket world, but Ronin is fine. And yourself?” He asked, feeling awkward for not having thought to ask sooner.
“Names Ian,” he said, reaching out a hand to Ronin. “Staff sergeant Ian Hill. But don’t worry, I won’t try to pull rank on your sergeant Karr.” He said, adding on the last part in a tone that indicated to Ronin that it was intended to be a joke.
“Nice to meet you Staff sergeant,” Ronin said, taking the man’s proffered hand. “And my military ranks work somewhat differently than yours. If you command nineteen men, then your ranks would be about the same.” He was a little offended by the comment but felt it would be childish to act that way, so instead he just tried to explain it away. Before he could continue, the pad flashed again, this time depositing a large group of men and women with cat ears and tails, but otherwise looking no different than a regular human. Unless one counted their attire, which would have been right at home in a light novel.
“We’d better get started with that attendance list soon.” He continued, letting go of Ian’s hand. “Otherwise, we’ll…” his earpiece crackled, causing him to raise a hand to his head, before realizing he was in the suit, and pressing a button inside the suit arm. “Go ahead,” he said, motioning for Ian to hold on.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Hey kid, it’s Doctor Mycroft again.” The doctor’s voice said, drifting from his earpiece. Bringing with it a strong since of annoyance, over being told to rush here, only to have this responsibility dumped on him. “Look, I heard about what happened from the Priest. Sorry about that, I didn’t think you would rush off like that, destroying the road for a dozen blocks in the process… but this time it really is an emergency. We need you to get to the observation room, right now. We have eyes on space, and it’s happening now.”
“I’m on my way,” Ronin said. Giving Ian a quick apology, he turned and sprinted back out the door. He Tuned out Elyria’s questions altogether, since he didn’t know, and they’d find out soon enough, and the stomping of boots behind him, since he was sure that would be Jaya, doing her best to keep up. He tried to move with more caution this time around, not wanting to destroy any more of the street. That was until he remembered they were leaving this planet soon or dying here. Then he tore off down the road as fast as his body could move the armored suit.
Ronin finally slowed down when he reached the castle. Well, he supposed they were calling it a temple now, but in either case, he thought it would be too disrespectful to ruin the ancient building. The Priest had asked him to remove it before, but there wasn’t time for that now, so he just moved cautiously.
He’d been disappointed beyond words when he’d arrived at the teleportation pad to see Stanly hadn’t arrived. Judging by the caliber of those who had, it was likely they were all gatherers. Who hadn’t known anything about the lizards and only joined the hunt to get a free body to come play on earth with. All except for the SWAT team anyway. He frowned at the thought of them. They could be a real problem, or an essential asset, depending on what Ian decided to do. If K3 had been there with Karr and his men, Ronin might have just taken his chances in killing them before they could kill too many of his people, but as it was, he hadn’t stood a chance.
Reaching the observation room at last, Ronin looked back, shocked to see that Ian had followed him all the way here. Not only had the man kept up with him, but he’d done it so silently Ronin hadn’t even heard him back there. Glancing up at Elyria, he hid a wince at the look she was giving him. Knowing she’d likely tried to tell him about Ian, but he hadn’t been listening.
“I left my people to do as you instructed.” Ian said, clearly knowing what Ronin was thinking, despite not being able to see his face. “I’m aware the Priest doesn’t allow government personnel into the city. This is, and always has been, a safe zone from their rule. I understand that, just like I understand the government is gone. Leaving me, my people, and all of you behind. I also understand the lizards are almost here. Don’t worry, I won’t rock the boat, I’ll stay quiet. But I am responsible for my people. In order to look out for them, I need to understand the landscape, who has the power here, and who will be most likely to ensure my people’s safety. No offense, but I’m aware of the Temple city’s leadership, and I don’t know you.”
Ronin digested that quietly. He hadn’t known Undercity, or Temple city rather, had been a government free zone. But apart from that, the staff sergeant made a good case for his presents. He wouldn’t have blindly trusted his people to the first guy he met either, not without first checking in with those who were in power at any rate.
“Ok,” he said after a minute of silence. “I can accept that,” and without giving it another thought, Ronin opened the door and walked into the observation room. Glancing around, Ronin took in the room. Once again, being struck by just how much this room reminded him of something he’d seen from a book about NASA. It felt like an auditorium, with its semi-circle of desks, each with a computer of its own, ringing around the multi-tiered room, which had a giant screen covering the far wall. His observation of the room stopped when his eyes met the screen, because it had been frozen on the lizard’s pyramid of cube ships.
“Good, you’re here. I paused the feed so Mycroft could call you, so the playback will be a few minutes behind. But since it’s your man on the ship I wanted you to witness this with us. Start the feed playing again, please.” The Priest greeted Ronin as he walked through the door, feeling Ian enter just behind him as the screen began to move again.
The pyramid broke apart, into fourteen individual cubes. One moved towards the beetle ship, one moved towards the moon, while the other twelve split up and made their way towards the planet. More views bloomed into existence on the screen, one focused on each of the fourteen ships, but the main screen focused on the one heading towards the beetle colony ship.
The cube ship slowed as it reached the beetle ship, launching hundreds of small craft that swarmed from all six sides of the cube. Ronin couldn’t get an exact count, but he assumed there had to be hundreds of them. The tiny craft, at least compared to the cube they came from, were also shaped like cubes. He couldn’t help but wonder what possible reason the ancients had used to create the lizard tech so symmetrically, when the beetles, another of their creations, were all about rounded edges and flowing, living shapes. Were they supposed to contradict one another? He’d have to ask Leo or Mycroft, heck, Owl Two would know by now, he was sure.
As the cloud of ships ballooned out to encompass the sleek, colony ship, with its wings that made it resemble a beetle, the colony ship launched a cloud of its own. The camera zoomed in, and Ronin saw the beetle dropships were easily twice the size of the lizard’s, and there were far fewer of them. He still counted close to one hundred of them, but even that was more than Ronin expected. Especially considering the government had planned to empty the craft of dropships during the hunt for resources, which turned out to be a ploy to get rid of their competition. At least, that’s the feeling Ronin got since he hadn’t actually spoken with anyone with real authority in the government.
The ships passed one another in space with what looked to be only feet between them. The lizard’s ships swarmed into the hangars, while the beetle’s ships flew out. Of course, space was so vast it was hard to tell. The camera zoomed out again as the lizard ships disappeared into the beetle ship, and Ronin was shocked to see the lizard’s large cube ship had come up right beside the colony ship now. It was literally a mile on a side, but the ship was dwarfed by the beetle ship. In comparison, it looked like a locust drone, standing next to a queen.
“That ship is huge,” Elyria said, letting out a low whistle beside him. “It’s likely bigger than the pyramid, made of all fourteen lizard ships.”
“The beetle ship was designed to transport everything the species needed to colonize a new world. The lizards only need to kill everything, wherever they go. Since AI fly their ships, and the lizards are beasts of war, vat grown on site to fight, there isn’t a need for massive ships.” Doctor Mycroft said, having come to stand beside them without Ronin noticing. Her arms were crossed, and her face was calm, but the four hands on the end of her tentacle arms were nervously smoothing her lab coat.
Ronin continued to watch as he thought about those words. Did that mean the lizards weren’t really sentient? He wondered if they might be more like trogs than he realized, anger fueled rage monsters bent on killing everything that wasn’t a trog. Jade had said they were remnants of the lizards, or something like that. Not like the airheaded, but friendly beetles, just mindless beasts. He could read about it on the tablet he’d been given, but he supposed he’d be finding out soon enough.
“What the hell!” The words, or a variation of them, were spoken by everyone in the room. Some even ducked for cover, as the colony ship exploded. It took the single cube ship, and all the smaller ships that had boarded, with it. Ronin stared at the screen in shock. The lizards didn’t use explosions like that, his memory was hazy from stress and overwork, but he was sure Mycroft or Leo had told him that. They were designed to capture planets intact, and blowing things up was a direct contradiction to that. So, how…
“Lord Ronin,” Owl Two’s image popped into existence in the corner of the screen. The view was only waist up, and it looked, from the background, like he was in his lab. His fingers moved wildly close to the camera’s lens, and Ronin assumed he was filming himself from the tablet’s camera while he worked on the device.
“Owl Two, what happened up…” Ronin asked, only to have the android talk right over top of him.
“I’m sorry my lord,” he said, never stopping the rapid finger movements. “But as I am sure you failed to notice; this is a recording. I am not actually speaking with you right now, so hold your questions please.” Ronin ground his teeth together in fury, but there was a little relief mixed in as well. It was good to see the android again. At least, until he registered just how bad a shape the android was in. His body was riddled with bullet holes, his chest armor all but gone and his helmet was broken. The cracked visor showing a flickering red light where his left eye would have been, but only darkness on the right.
“I’ve left more detailed recordings with my Xerox. If he survives the descent, then you will be able to access information that has been beyond you for some time. If, however, he doesn’t make it down to you then we’re all dead anyway, so let us hope for a positive outcome.” Ronin didn’t react to the words. He’d known this was a do or die mission from the start, Ian and several of the gathered priests weren’t so quiet however, and the Priest had to shush them as they started muttering among themselves. Aurex and Fabius, who Ronin hadn’t noticed before, were particularly vocal.
“Unfortunately, as you may be able to gather from my appearance, the syndicate is under attack.” Owl two continued his message as his badly damaged fingers never stopped dancing across the screen. Ronin saw sparks flashing inside his broken body and winced in sympathy for his damaged friend. “We are being destroyed, but I was able to get through enough of your forces to hopefully make the difference.” Ronin had been composed up until he heard his home was being destroyed. Then he panicked, wondering what was happening to his people, who of his friends might already be dead, and cursing himself for not being there to aid them… again.
“I was able to get Staz, Unyielding oak, Lily, and a few others away in time. With luck you will find them when you get back. I will leave those explanations for my other recordings however, for now that isn’t important. The reason I’m contacting you like this is three-fold. First, I plan to destroy the colony ship, it likely is already gone by this time for you. I would have flushed the dropships, filled with a few surprises for our enemies, and detonated the whole thing, assuming you are watching this. Second, thanks to the attack, and the last-minute crystallization of so many people delaying my plans, I no longer have the time to do a test run into the underwater caves. I’m currently writing a program to help Sam get the ships through, but once again, if that fails, we’re all dead anyway. Thirdly…” the recording of Owl two stopped talking for a moment, and one of the priests took the opportunity to point at the screen.
“Elder, look.” He said, pointing at a smaller screen that had four dropships coming down in a tight formation, heading right for their location. “It looks like they are aiming right for us. That must be the ships the robot is talking about…”
“Forget about that,” Aurex snapped, talking over the priest as he glared at Ronin. “What happened to all the people we sent through to your personal realm? I swear if we sent them from one war zone into another just to die, I’ll…” Owl Two started speaking again, causing even the angry Aurex to shut up and pay attention.
“Sorry, K2 is delaying our enemies, he’s spending yokai teams faster than we can afford to lose them though, so I sent him some aid.” The android’s lifeless tone never wavered as he talked, helping bring Ronin back down to a calmer state, even though he knew the android always spoke that way. “I sent the latest refugees to Andy’s reef. I will tell you that now because I know you will worry about them. They are alive, at least, as long as the plan works, they will live. But thirdly I wanted to say goodbye.” Ronin stared at the android, wondering what he was saying. Wouldn’t he be there when Ronin reconnected the pocket world? Or was he closer to death than he looked.
“You see, I wasn’t entirely honest with you. As Mycroft and Leo have stated before, your pocket world is different than any other. The life forms there are much more advanced than any they’ve ever seen. That is because it isn’t a stasis stone, in the truest sense of the word.”
“I knew it,” Mycroft hissed, shaking all of her fists at the screen. “Tell me your secrets you abomination.” She all but shouted, making Ronin have to lean forward to hear what the android said next.
“Your world was formed from the ship’s entire core. I discovered the lizard ship’s approach before the human government did and took steps to find a way to save as many of my passengers as I could. I already knew about the buried lizard ship and decided to use it to facilitate my escape with my passengers. But as an artificial intelligence, I didn’t have the authority to make the decisions. I needed a captain for that. Unfortunately, the captain of the colony ship was permanently killed when I sabotaged the engines to prevent the ship from being stolen. I needed a new captain, so I kept my eye out for a suitable candidate, and I found you. Young, cave raised, gullible, and filled with a righteous desire to be an honorable man.”
Ronin thought he’d experienced all the surprises he was likely too for the day, but he was floored by that revelation. Owl two was the beetle ship’s AI, and he’d been selected as the ship’s captain… because he was, gullible?
“Well, he has your number and no mistake,” Elyria said. Ronin turned his head to her, ready to bite her head off just to settle his own confused anger, but when he did, he noticed she was staring at the screen with as much confusion on her face as he felt. She’d probably not even realized she’d spoken.
“I have left you enough information to get you going. But the process of combining with the lizard AI core will change me drastically, I will effectively die, and be replaced by… something else. That’s why I needed an honorable captain to command the ship.” Owl Two stopped typing then and looked straight into the camera. “I wanted to say goodbye to you in this public forum, to let those around you who harbor ill intentions know, that Ronin is the designated captain of my core. If you are to get off this planet, you will do so at his behest. Kill him, or attempt to leave him behind, and you will all die together. When the incoming ships reach you, there are several technologists, and enough workers on board to rig the ship for flight. But it will take time. I suggest you work together to hold off the enemy until they are done. If you want to leave the planet anyway.” Ronin felt that one flickering red orb burn deeply into his soul at the last words Owl Two spoke before the screen went dark. “Goodbye, my lord. It has been an honor.”
The observation room exploded into shouts and angry words as the small window at the bottom of the screen winked out. Ronin, on the other hand, could barely hear them, too focused was he on the place where Owl Two’s image had disappeared. The stakes had been raised, and the penalty for failure now rested squarely on his shoulders.