Prism’s electrical form moved through the bundles of nerve fibers that comprised Getla Base’s power grid almost effortlessly. The military bio-system that once rejected him seemed to embrace him after he’d cleansed it of the virus that plagued it hours earlier. It took Prism a matter of seconds to navigate to the hangar beneath the open courtyard that the Titian had initially landed on, and even less time than that to return to his physical, human form.
When he became fully aware of his surroundings again, Prism soon saw several tall, well-muscled soldiers walking towards him. The tendrils of arcing electricity shooting from the wall had immediately alerted them to his presence. He noticed that they were beginning to use their ear-clasp comms to report his location to Deriges. Without a second thought, Prism jammed their long-since restored radio communications using a burst of disruptive magic that made his irises turn red. He then sent waves of paralyzing energy from his hands to bring the soldiers to their knees, soon causing them to become motionless on the stone ground.
The hangar was sizable and poorly lit despite there being several soldiers keeping watch around the Titian. Prism smiled when he saw that they hadn’t noticed him or the guards he’d disabled. He sent a message into the ship that he stood several meters away from, a magical message that traveled invisibly through the Titian’s hull and into its transport bay for RED-1 to hear.
“I’m outside. Open the starboard bay door so that I can jump inside.”
The sudden awareness of Prism’s voice was enough to jolt the mercenaries out of their anticipatory melancholy and back into action. Ursun rushed over to the wall on the right side of the bay, twisted the handles that protruded from a section of it, and then pulled it back with all of his might. The door slid away and opened out into the darkened hangar outside. It wasn’t long before Ursun and the others within the bay heard a loud thud on the metal floor near the door.
“I’m here. You can close the door now.” An invisible Prism said quietly as to not be overheard by the soldiers who looked confusedly up at the open bay door.
Ursun quickly slid the door closed with Srell’s sudden help. Once he was satisfied that the coast was clear, Prism dropped the magical veil of invisibility that surrounded him. He smiled wide from the high that the escape had given him. Before he could tell his teammates how he planned to get them out of the hangar, Leanna rushed over to him and pointed frantically towards the back of the transport bay.
“You have to help Jaik! He’s had a stroke and he’s fading fast!” She practically shrieked.
Prism’s smile rapidly turned into a frown as he became aware of Jaik’s situation. Prism and Leanna ran over to Lorias, who was still holding a medscanner over Jaik’s motionless body. Prism’s eyes swelled and grew watery when he gazed down at Jaik. The medscanner displayed what Prism could already sense; Jaik was dead.
“Come on, work your magic. His heart might have stopped, but he must still have enough brain activity to be revived.” Lorias looked up and said collectedly to Prism.
“That’s right; the brain can survive five minutes after the heart stops, sometimes longer.” Leanna said loudly and confidently.
Prism kneeled down and held Jaik’s cheek. He rubbed his thumb along its stubbled surface, feeling how cold it had already become.
“Silly boy…you did this for me…”
When the last word left Prism’s mouth, a patter of tears on the metallic floor began to be heard by Leanna and the others in the otherwise-quiet bay. Prism continued to stroke Jaik’s face as he cried quietly before him. He felt so many different things that it overwhelmed him. His guilt, however, dominated all of his other emotions.
“What are you waiting for!? Heal him!” Leanna shouted down at Prism.
Prism shook his head and turned to look at Leanna, but he stopped himself. He couldn’t look at anyone but Jaik in his sorry state, and wanted simply to hide himself away.
“He’s beyond my abilities. The damage to his brain is too significant. If I tried to heal him, he’d be…he’d be…”
Prism’s lip quivered as he fought back the urge to break down completely. The young man who’d fallen for him so innocently was dead, and Prism could not save him.
“He wouldn’t be Jaik anymore…” Lorias said softly while placing his hand over the hand that Prism stroked Jaik’s face with.
Leanna blinked slowly as the realization started to hit her.
“Jaik isn't going to be saved by Prism,” she began to think to herself. “Jaik is gone.”
Banging sounds started to be heard around the ship, temporarily forcing the team out of their sorrow. The soldiers outside had discovered the motionless bodies of their allies and realized that Prism had probably gotten aboard the Titian right under their noses. It wasn't long until Ursun received a communiqué from Deriges through his ear clasp. With a few taps of his fingers, Ursun routed the message to the Titian's intercom system.
"How can we help you, base commander?" Ursun said coldly while crossing his arms and standing near a window to see the soldiers amassing outside.
"Somehow, someway, Prism has made his way aboard your vessel. We want him back, Ursun. You're not leaving this base until he's safely contained." Deriges said sternly.
Ursun made eye contact with Prism, who was still kneeling by Jaik's dead body. The two of them exchanged a hardened look that communicated their defiance of the situation. Prism's eyes told Ursun that Deriges could not contain them, and Ursun's eyes told Prism that they needed to leave immediately. Ursun saw that the soldiers outside were preparing a laser cutter that would allow them to force their way into the ship. Deriges was merely stalling for time.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"We're done. This nonsense got one of my men killed. He was a good mercenary. Heck, he was a good doctor, too. Do what you have to, Deriges. We're out of here."
After he finished speaking, he ended the radio link with Deriges with a squeeze of his ear clasp. With a curt nod to Prism, Ursun signaled that they were leaving. Ursun jogged over to the door leading to the cockpit and gave it three distinct knocks. In seconds, the Titian's tilt-engines began to hum as the ship's fusion reactor fully came online. Plasma began to circulate through the ship's propulsion system, providing an immediate ability to take off.
Prism glanced up and sensed the mechanisms that controlled the massive sliding roof hatch above the ship. The Titian sat on a lift platform that could be raised up to the courtyard level, but Prism knew that they didn't have time to wait for the heavy lift to slowly ascend. He reached out with his mind and remotely contacted the base's bio-system. Their bond was still strong, and the system did as he asked. Soon, the roof of the underground hangar began to slide open against all lockdown protocols that were in effect.
"Grab hold of something! This is going to be rough!" The pilot's voice began to crackle over the ship's faulty, temperamental intercom.
Before the hangar roof could fully retract, the Titian took flight. Its twin tilt-jets aimed at the ground and unleashed pulses of plasma-boosted detonation waves that soon lifted them into the air. The nearby soldiers were knocked to their feet by the sudden force, but none were seriously injured. The ship leaned over at a 45 degree angle so that it could fly up diagonally and clear the section of the roof that had already retracted. After just barely missing an edge of the opening, the pilot proceeded to fly up and above Getla Base, just as the border guns began to loudly engage the Vadamite Air Fleets dozens of kilometers away.
"Free and clear." The pilot reported over the intercom.
"Good. Fly north and get us back to Ruskedan airspace. Once there, we'll figure out the best route to Pack HQ." Ursun ordered.
"Yes, sir." The pilot replied before the intercom went silent again.
The room seemed like a tomb once the silence crept in. Prism had returned to Jaik's body, taking over for Lorias when he decided to stretch his legs and walk over to Srell near the tactics table. Leanna knelt beside Prism and joined him in his vigil. The scene made Ursun increasingly uneasy, especially when he saw how busy the airspace outside was becoming. He knew that Aksos would not let them go so easily.
"There are body bags in the storage locker near the medical station. It'll help keep him preserved during our trip back." Ursun said to Leanna and Prism.
The two of them heard Ursun, but they couldn't bring themselves to do as he said. In Leanna's mind, she kept telling herself that Ursun gave Jaik the order that killed him. She knew that Ursun couldn't have known that reaching out to Prism would end so badly for Jaik, but she wasn't being governed by reason at that moment.
When Ursun noticed that they weren't moving, he shook his head and retrieved the body bag himself. He would do the task, and he would not tarry nor complain.
Prism took his hands away from Jaik's chest and face when Ursun leaned down and placed the body within the bag. With a press of a button, the bag became airtight and leakproof. Prism found the sight sickening. He looked away from the bag while Ursun lifted it up and placed it within a chamber in the wall that Prism hadn't been aware of. When Prism felt the chill come from the body-sized chamber, he realized that it was a refrigeration unit with the express purpose of storing bodies.
"This is...this is..." Prism repeated while he clenched his fists and looked over at the closed refrigeration unit.
"It's horrific, isn't it? They install those things within our tiltjets. We're expected to die every few missions, and Engineering is very practical about it." Leanna said dispassionately.
Prism wiped his eyes and rose to his feet while Leanna did the same. The two of them felt as though they were leaving a funeral. Ursun looked at the two of them stoically, hoping that his eyes didn't betray his own feelings. But when Prism caught his glance, Ursun's heart was laid bare to him.
"It's my fault, not yours. I shouldn't have been careless. I could have cast a protective ward on myself to prevent being harmed while I slept. I should’ve restored our telepathic link then and there. I should've tried to rid Jaik of that damned raw magic that wouldn’t leave his body. I knew it was dangerous, but I didn't think he could actually use magic. I didn’t think...I just…"
During Prism’s guilt-ridden monologue, Ursun reached down and grabbed his slender shoulder. Prism held his mouth open as he stopped mid-sentence. Ursun looked angry and intense, and Prism feared that Ursun was going to punch him across the face.
“I ordered him to contact you. I told him to do whatever it takes. I’m the commander, and I’m the one responsible. You’ve got your magic, but you’re not all-powerful or all-knowing. This one’s on me, kid, and I’ll have to answer for it when we get back home. Jaik was a real asset to our organization. He could’ve worked on any team in the Red Wolves, and he chose mine.” Ursun’s voice grew louder and louder as he spoke.
Prism and Leanna saw that Ursun was hurting under his stoic exterior. Seeing the guilt and grief suddenly appear on Ursun’s face showed Prism how much Ursun had truly cared for Jaik. It was enough to make Prism muster up the strength to put his own grief aside and bolster his team’s morale. They still had a job to do, after all.
“What matters now is that we get back to Pack HQ safely. I’ll do all in my power to make sure that happens.” Prism said resolutely.
When Ursun and Leanna looked upon Prism favorably, an alarm began to blare from the Titian’s intercom speakers.
“Unknown object headed our way from the west! 50 kilometers and closing fast!” The co-pilot said over the intercom, which distorted her voice for whatever reason.
Ursun, Leanna, and Prism rushed over to join Lorias and Srell around the tactical table. With a few taps and swipes of its display surface, Ursun brought up the visual feed of the ship’s external cameras. He magnified the view of the fast-approaching vessel only to find that it was something he’d never seen before.
The vessel was actually a giant, bio-mechanical entity that had two arms, two legs, and giant insectoid wings on its back that moved and appeared like those of an earwig. Its red chitinous surface shimmered in the sunlight, giving its sleek design an even bolder appearance. Two similar objects had broken away from the red entity’s flight path and headed straight east towards the approaching Vadamite fleets.
Before any of them could discuss the unknown object, the co-pilot informed RED-1 that the object was attempting to hail them using audio only.
“Put it through.” Ursun ordered.
“This is Lieutenant Kurillios Maginae of the First Biost Unit. Return to Getla Base immediately or I will be forced to disable and seize your ship.”
Ursun kept the Titian’s own audio muted for the time being so that he could get his team’s input on how to respond.
“That’s Deriges’ boy! He helped us defend the bio-generator last night!” Srell shouted out of surprise.
“It’s a pity that circumstances have forced us to become enemies.” Prism said softly.
“A “Biost,” eh? Guess that’s the secret weapon that Deriges was talking about.” Lorias commented.
“Sir, based on its structure and speed, I don’t think we can outmaneuver it. There’s no telling what sort of weapons or others abilities it might have. I advise that we handle this situation with extreme caution.” Leanna said.
Ursun watched the red Biost keep its distance five kilometers behind the Titian. With the confidence that Deriges had shown when mentioning the weapons earlier, Ursun surmised that they were truly extraordinary.
“I concur.” Ursun said to Leanna. “I doubt we can outrun it, and firing on it is out of the question. That leaves you, Prism.”
Prism stared blankly up at Ursun and then looked around at his team’s expectant eyes on him. They were clearly out of options and he was clearly their way out of the situation, though none of them knew exactly how. Prism rubbed his chin before the co-pilot informed Ursun that Kurillios was hailing them again.
“You have 30 seconds to respond. If no response is given, then I will take immediate action against your ship.” The young man said as though he’d rehearsed the line.
“Any ideas, Prism?” Ursun asked impatiently.
“Lower the rear ramp. I can engage him, draw his attention away long enough for you all to-“
“We aren’t leaving you, don’t you get that!? Jaik was willing to die to get you back to us! There isn’t a plan that involves letting you sacrifice yourself, you hear me!?” Ursun slammed his fist angrily on the glowing tabletop while he yelled.
“Yes, sir; I understand.” Prism nodded slowly. “Lower the ramp. I’ll stick close to the Titian and keep it well-defended while we learn the capabilities of this “Biost”. Once we see an opening, I’ll disable it so that we can all escape.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Ursun said with satisfaction.
With a few taps on the tactics table, the rear wall of the transport bay began to tilt, opening into a ramp. The Titian’s construction allowed the bay to remain relatively undisturbed by opening it mid-flight. Lorias, Srell, and Leanna held onto something nevertheless, as they knew that their ship was a bit of a prototype and therefore subject to unexpected malfunctions.
Prism closed his eyes and touched his temples before releasing a wave of blue magic that encircled the group gathered around the tactics table. They all began to hear each other’s thoughts again as their telepathic link was restored.
Prism, still only wearing briefs, nodded to them and to Ursun before running through the bay and leaping out of the ship. With a flash of blue light from his eyes, he began to fly just as easily as the Biost in front of him. He still had an abundance of mana from the bio-system he’d escaped through earlier, and he was ready to bring it all to bear to ensure that they escaped.
“Your sacrifice won’t be in vain, Jaik.” Prism thought to himself as he flew.
With his arms at his sides, Prism swooped around the side of the ship and flew up a few meters directly above the Titian.