MS. FADDEN
No citizen of Trego had actually heard those sirens before. When the alerts appeared on their telescreens, their communicators, their radios, anything and everything that could transmit a message, most people thought it was some kind of joke. Until the enforcers came with their vehicles, every vehicle, all the vehicles, and any vehicle they didn't have already they commandeered. And from their vehicles they announced that it was not a hoax, that the danger was real, but that no one should panic and instead proceed in an orderly fashion to the nearest orbital pad.
But yes, this really was a full planetary evacuation.
There were holdouts, and the enforcers tried to convince them, but they didn't have much time to spare on the stubborn and suspicious. Trego was a sparsely populated planet, a backwater planet. A planet with a smaller total population than cities on a lot of other worlds. But it was still a planet, a whole great big planet, and that population was scattered across it in small groups. To save everyone they would have to gather up those scattered communities and get them into orbit as quickly as possible, their one advantage being that most of those communities were near or centered around small orbital pads.
But the undertaking was still enormous, and the Chistani destroyer was hours away.
Ms. Fadden had been given the job of trying to negotiate. She did so in what was technically the command hub of planetary defense. It wouldn't have been out of place as a meeting room for a small office building, aside from the bulky information consoles the technicians in the crew worked at. The consoles were all designed to face the main screen, now displaying the command crew of the Chistani ship.
Most races in the universe found the Chistani...unsettling. They had no shape. They were obviously flesh, but somehow it billowed like smoke. The only solid parts of them were a parrot like beak and a single huge eye with an hourglass pupil that both seemed to float on the cloud of rippling skin and muscle that made up their bodies. She was too panicked to let the sight of them turn her stomach, but if she lived through this she didn't doubt it would be a queasy memory.
“You harbored a fugitive from justice,” one of the Chistani accused. They were all making whirring and clicking noises with their beaks, she couldn't tell which one the translator thought was talking.
“Because you would have blown up our planet if you knew he was here!” She snapped back. “Everyone on this planet would have died! Be at least a little reasonable.”
“Everyone on your planet is human,” The Chistani—she decided it was pointless to decide which was talking or pick out individuals, she'd have to take them as a unit—said.
“So our lives don't matter?” Ms. Hunt asked incredulously.
“There are a great many humans,” the Chistani explained in a voice the translator made sound so reasonable it made the government agent want to tear her hair out. “Trillions upon trillions upon trillions of them, scattered across the universe. And you breed very quickly. The loss of a few million, even a few trillion would not constitute an existential threat to your species.”
“So it would only be a problem if you killed too many of us?” Ms. Fadden said. “Is that the logic we're going with?”
“It is the only logic that applies,” the Chistani said. “At the same time there are scarcely more than eighty thousand Chistani. We do not breed quickly. It is taking great effort in resources and great personal physical strain to breed often enough to see our population grow, rather than recede. And all because of the actions of a single human renegade and his crew.”
Time to try a different track. The Chistani were alien, more truly alien than almost any other species. She wasn't going to make them see life and death in human terms, not in time anyway. Nor was there much hope in convincing them it wasn't worth blowing up a whole planet to kill one man, however powerful.
“Look,” Ms. Fadden said. “He's old. He's dying. He has months left to live.”
“He seems quite alive in our orbital scans,” the Chistani said dryly. Ms. Fadden had to fight to hold back her shock. She didn't know they had a sense of humor.
“He'll die even sooner then,” she said. “He's burning through his energy just to keep standing. In a day, two at the most, he'll burn himself out and die. You don't need to kill him to get your revenge!”
“We have no concept of revenge,” the Chistani said. “Or rather we have learned of this concept, but only from other races. The issue is not what he has done to us in the past, though death is also the only logical punishment for his crimes. We hunt him because he has proven himself the greatest danger to Chistani existence in the universe. Every moment, every microsecond he remains alive is an unacceptable risk to the survival of our entire species.”
“What if we kill him?” Ms. Fadden said. “If we could show you his body, would you go away?”
“Your countermeasures do not so far seem effective,” the Chistani said. “But yes. We do not desire the death of your world. If the threat represented by the human Balthazar Nodd is destroyed, we will have no reason to attack.”
“Then give us time!” Ms. Fadden said. “We're evacuating the planet right now.”
“We have seen. We have not interfered. We will not interfere with the evacuation efforts unless the human Balthazar Nodd becomes a part of them. We estimate you will save thirty five percent of your world's population before it is destroyed. We are impressed as always with your species' ingenuity.”
“But as long as he's down here on the planet,” Ms. Fadden pressed, “does it really matter when you destroy it? You could wait until we have more of our people off world. You can always destroy the planet once everyone is gone, right? You can always destroy a planet later.”
“I have already told you. Every second of the human Balthazar Nodd's survival is an unacceptable risk.”
Ms. Fadden took a deep breath. She hadn't wanted to do this, but she had one more card to play. It wasn't fair, not after all they'd already done, but it was all she could think of to hold off the destruction of the entire world.
“The Knights of the Alicorn Shield,” Ms. Fadden said. “Your planet has history with them, right?”
“They were one of the twelve knightly orders that defended our refuge worlds from destruction during the Ruin Wars,” the Chistani said. “Are they somehow involved? From our knowledge of unaugmented human lifespans they should all be infirm by now, if not dead.”
“They are,” she said. “But...oh, what terms would you understand? Do you....we have a concept. Tradition. Inheritance. Passing the torch, whatever you want to call it. Is any of this ringing a bell?”
“We have a similar concept,” the Chistani confirmed.
“Their successors are here,” she said. “I dunno if you believe in luck or fate or whatever but they're here, right now, and they just headed out to face Balthazar. I was with them when he started his attack, when they went I came to contact you. They should catch up with him any moment now. Don't they deserve a chance to succeed? Don't your people owe them at least that much?”
For the first time she saw something she recognized as individuality from the aliens as three enormous eyes darted around, making contact with each other, in what was unmistakably hesitation.
“We will be in firing range of your world in two of the units you call standard hours,” the Chistani said. “Before firing it is standard procedure to contact those who command us for confirmation of the order to deploy the planet destroyer. During that contact I will present this information, and ask whether a change of orders is deemed appropriate. I can make no guarantee except that my superiors will agree these facts deserve consideration.”
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“Thank you,” she said, not quite slumping in relief. All she'd bought was the possibility of time. She had to hope Chistani gratitude was deep enough to keep them from firing. More than that, she had to hope they could stay alive fighting Balthazar long enough for it to matter. If the destroyer arrived when the young Knights were already dead she had no doubt it would fire without hesitation. They probably wouldn't even mention the incident to their superiors.
VERRO
The news that Balthazar Nodd had reached the city came shorty before the collapse of a building, one of the taller ones at the city's edge. It toppled like an ancient tree, filling the air with dust and rubble as it disappeared from the skyline. The five knights, plus Aurina, had gone in that direction.
Verro was not very happy with Aurina being there. He had a sneaking suspicion Andry wouldn't be either. But when he'd said as much all she'd done was hold Booky out in one hand, pet Charu with the other, and ask him if he honestly thought they wouldn't be better off with Booky's cannons to back them up in the fight. She hadn't had to remind him who'd done most of the work against Dyban. And Verro wasn't too proud to admit she'd been the only reason he survived. But she was still a civilian.
Or was she? She'd been in almost as many battles as any of them, since this whole thing began. But even so she wasn't one of them. A friend, yes. But while she had an impressive supply of auram she had no real control over it, no training, and no Regalia except the one belonging to her (admittedly impressive) pet. For that matter he wasn't very happy with Rimni being here, and he had training and a Regalia. The kid had talent, and a useful mile-wide vicious streak, but he was still a child. And everything about his character, personal history, and training told him civilians and kids were supposed to be protected.Kept as far away from the fighting as possible.
But there wasn't time to argue about it, especially not when the arguers in question had as much talent and dedication to their craft as both Aurina and Rimni. So despite Verro's every instinct the whole group headed towards the crash. They reached an enormous Y intersection in some kind of market district at the same time as a huge old man riding a tank.
“Hell,” Fann said. “And I was wondering how we were gonna recognize him.”
“That does not appear to be among our problems,” J'vann agreed.
“What's this?” Balthazar Nodd raised an eyebrow. “A buncha kids with active Reglia...hey! Hey stop! Stop this thing!”
He banged his foot on the top of the tank and the vehicle slowed to a halt. The pirate stood on the tank, in front of the turret, staring down at all of them.
“Are you the knights that killed my boys?” Balthazar Nodd said.
“Yes,” Verro said. “We are.”
“Not as many of you as I thought,” Balthazar said. “I recognize the little shit who attacked Jalgoz while he was on the comm with me.” Rimni stuck his tongue out at the towering pirate. “Which one of you killed him? Jalgoz, I mean.”
“He's not here,” Sasha said. “Two of us got separated from the group when your crew attacked. We know they were the ones who defeated a man named Birger, but we don't know where they are now.”
None of them mentioned Birger had been the one to kill Jurgo. Or that a Chistani destroyer was coming. It wasn't likely the pirate would care. And if he did care it was too likely the news would make his rampage worse, not better.
“Probably half dead themselves,” Balthazar grinned. “Birger's one mean son of a bitch. I think that's why we always got along so well. Hold on a second, if you're all here I won't be needing a ride anymore.”
He raised his foot and stomped down on the turret of the Thundertank, hammering it into the compartment below like a nail into wood. There was a horrified scream from inside the tank before Balthazar stomped again, setting off the tank's magazine. The vehicle exploded beneath them, and the pirate walked casually out of the wreckage and flames.
“So just the six of you huh?” he said, looking them over. “And only five of you even got Regalia. Oh but the girl over there is riding my grandson's snails. Looking pretty different though, played some tricks with his Regalia did you? Well fair enough, fair enough, spoils of war. Of course you can't complain when I take it all back.”
“Is this how you got to be a big famous pirate?” Rimni taunted. “Talking your enemies to death?”
“No,” Balthazar rumbled. “No, no I didn't. It was more like this.”
He flicked a finger in Rimni's direction. Only the speed and reflexes of the Rat Knight saved him from being ripped apart by the resulting blast of air. And only the speed and reflexes of the other knights—and Booky, with Aurina on his back—saved them all from the backlash of it. The blast drilled a hole halfway through the storefront behind where Rimni was standing, and the battle began in earnest.
They'd talked about what to do on the way. Their best front line fighters, Tyram and Andry, were missing somewhere in the city. So they led with their second best, Fann and J'vann. Between the Bat Knight's spead and the Verdant Knight's ridiculous strength and vitality they had the best chance in close combat. Both enchanted bludgeon and vibroblade katana struck the pirate's flesh and stopped, Balthazar knocking them aside with the sweep of a single arm.
By the time they hit the ground Sasha was already on him, all five of her. Their spears struck his flesh and twisted it, pressed it, deformed it into painful looking shapes—but didn't pierce it. He grabbed one of her duplicates by the hair and swung it like a flail, slamming it into the others (including the real Sasah) with an ugly cracking sound, bursting the duplicates into glittering auram and sending the Wolf Knight skidding across the ground until she slammed into a pile of rubble.
Aurina and Verro took their turn, Aurina riding Booky around the pirate in a wide arc firing blasts from the snail's cannons while Verro shot arrow after arrow that exploded on contact with Balthazar Nodd's skin. He'd spent a lot of time thinking about Arlo's exploding arrows, and asking Sasha about energy conversion, and he'd figured out how to make it work. He'd been very proud of his new technique, now if only it was capable of hurting Balthazar Nodd at all. But as far as Verro could tell against the enormous pirate it was all just pretty fireworks. Aurina was doing a little better, at least he seemed to feel the need to block Booky's blasts, batting them out of the air with sharp chops of his hand.
Balthazar threw a punch in Verro's direction, and the Eagle Knight found himself in the path of an expanding wave of force. He dived behind some rubble for cover but the blast went right through it, rolling Verro across the ground and pelting him with shards of shattered pavement. The pirate kicked a chunk of broken street at Aurina, making her swerve to avoid it, and while she was distracted he grabbed a spike on Booky's shell and lifted the snail off the ground, throwing him across the street where he lay on his side, both heads weaving in confision. Aurina had fallen off near Balthazar's feet. Balthazar's arm shot out for what at first seemed like no reason, but when the motion finished he was gripping Rimni by the front of his hooded coat. The pirate tossed the Rat Night through a second story window with a flick of his arm.
And less than five minutes after they chose to attack him, the Knights of the Alicorn Shield were down and Balthazar Nodd stood again.
“Is this it?” Balthazar sighed. “This is all the six of you can do? And what are you even doing on the battlefield?” He kicked Aurina in the side, making her cry out in pain and roll across the ground. “If you're this eager to die I should just kill you right now.”
As the pirate reached for Aurina Charu, who had been clinging tightly around her neck, flapped into the path of Balthazar's arm, hissing and snarling. He looked at the tiny little flapping thing at first in confusion, than his eyes widened in surprise.
“A Churmegoedon,” he said. “Where the hell did you get a Chrumegoedon?”
“Why should I tell you?” Aurina asked, rising to her feet.
“Because I'll kill you if you don't,” Balthazar snarled.
“You were going to kill me anyway,” Aurina said.
“Yeah but I'll do it slower,” Balthazar told her, lifting her into the air. His massive hands closed around her waist and began to squeeze. Charu flitted around him, shrieking and chittering, but the pirate ignored it's bites and tiny claw swipes. Aurina gagged, pounding her fists against the pirate's arms. “If it was thirty—hell if it was fiveyears ago, I'd take it for myself. But I'm dying now, we're all dying, and what's important is there was only one place I know of to get a Churmegoedon, and I only told two people. So where did you get it?”
“Let her go!” Rimni shouted. While Balthazar had been torturing Aurina the knights had gotten up, and were now charging at him from all directions to try and rescue their friend. The pirate snorted derisively, took a step forward, and spun. The energy of his spin transferred to the air around him, auram poured into it to turn a simple motion through the air into a whirling malestrom that shattered windows, tore apart the walls of buildings, and sent the Knights of the Alicorn Shield flying in all directions.
“Insects,” Balthazar snorted. “Now tell me who was stupid enough to...oh. Well, if I'm gonna mess with the air pressure while I'm squeezing your lungs what can I expect?”
He could still feel her heartbeat, but Aurina had passed out. She hung limply like a rag doll in his grip.
“Well I still wanna know,” the pirate sighed. “What to do, what to do....should I take you with me? But if they hit me with missiles again you'll just die. I mean you're all gonne die anyway but...hey wait a minute I recognize you! You were on that call too, like the kid night! You're from that village that started this whole mess! Right, right, I should be wrecking that place. More poetic that way. And besides, they have it coming...”
“Aurina!”
Balthazar's rambling to himself was interrupted by the shout, and when he turned to see where it came from there were two more knights staring wide eyed with shock next to the rubble of a ruined store. Balthazar grinned. Maybe these two would be a little more entertaining.