00:16, January 18th, 2135
“Now, it’s your turn.” The queen said, turning to face Kayden. “Goodbye, little human.”
Kayden staggered to his feet, his still-hazy mind trying to come up with any sort of strategy. His nanobots began to swirl sluggishly, and the electricity that sparked from his hands would barely have been enough to charge a small battery. He glanced backwards to see his women – Anna and Dawn still on the floor, and Ali struggling against the welded nanobots that held her in place.
Suddenly, the door behind them burst open with a bang. The queen looked up just long enough for several high-powered energy beams to slam into her shields, driving her backwards with a frustrated grunt. They were followed by fire from at least a dozen assault rifles, their projectiles shredding the area around her.
“I’ll kill you!” Elara’s normally-demure voice rang out over the din.
While normally small arms fire wouldn’t be enough to deter the queen, whoever Elara brought with her apparently came prepared. Several concussive pops sounded through the room, causing Kayden to leap instinctively to the ground and roll towards Dawn and Anna. He put his arms over the two women protectively and pulled them close, bracing for the rush of fire that usually came with explosions.
When it never arrived, Kayden risked a glance upwards. The sight that greeted him was almost comical – the queen was encased in what looked like a mountain of blue jelly, struggling to break free. She whipped her clawed arms and taloned wings back and forth as she screamed in frustration. Her nanobot swarm bounced off the goo ineffectually as she equally dug and swam through the viscous substance, her sharp talons only breaking free after several long seconds.
The moment she did though, dozens of elite guards unloaded their rifles at her. She took several shaky steps towards them before both her and Kayden came to the same startling realization: the sticky goo on her was still slowing her movements, despite her escape. Her eyes went wide as she made a quick about-face and sprinted as fast as she could for the door.
“She’s falling back!” A voice sounded. “After her!”
As the sound of heavy footsteps surrounded the 3 of them, Kayden pulled himself to a sitting position. Seeing that the queen was no longer in the room he sent tendrils of nanobots to his two broken drones, repairing them both until they could fly under their own power. With a quick mental instruction they darted across the room and began using their energy beams to cut through the thick layer of nanobots holding Ali to the wall. Before he could do anything else Elara leapt at him, crashing into him in an armoured hug. She squeezed him tightly before choking out the words.
“I came as soon as I could! What did she do to you?!”
“Dawn…Anna…” Kayden replied, pointing to their still prone bodies.
To his great relief, Anna began to stand. Her own genetic enhancements apparently prevented her from the worst of the damage, but she still took a moment to steady herself against Kayden’s legs as she took a few deep breaths. When she felt well enough she moved to Dawn’s body and immediately began running her healing glove over it, its warm light passing through the armour and repairing the damage to her lungs. Ali quickly joined her, having wrenched herself free of the nanobot-made manacles with the drone’s help.
When Dawn began to cough and roll over, Kayden and Elara knelt by her side. All around them black-clad troops continued to stream through the room, seemingly content to ignore the medical drama playing out on the floor for the time being. As Dawn breathed a sigh of relief and sat up slowly Kayden exhaled the breath he didn’t know he was holding, relieved that they’d all somehow made it through their close brush with death.
“Asha’dara!” The high commander’s voice rang out from behind them. “This is no time to be resting! On your feet -we need your help!”
Gone was the high commander’s typical grey dress uniform, replaced by a set of slick black armour. Welded underneath either arm was a still-smoking barrel which was connected via a tube to an enormous tank that was attached to her back. She’d pulled her helmet back to reveal her pale skin, green hair, and predatory grin – a look that he’d never seen her wear before.
“Damn.” Kayden said, chuckling. “When you guys want to be, Kel can be scary.”
“Commander! He needs-” Elara started.
“It’s fine.” Kayden said, shaking off the last of the cobwebs in his mind. “Commander – you can’t let the queen go. There’s no telling what kind of trouble she’ll cause for you if she’s left to wander around unchecked. She’s taken down worlds by herself before.”
“Agreed – which is why I’ve put together this little hunting party.” She said, gesturing to the latest squad of soldiers to enter the room. “Care to join me?”
“Absolutely.” Kayden said.
“Me too.” Anna added, grabbing a pistol from a nearby trooper.
“And me.” Dawn agreed.
“No.” Kayden countered. “The two of you are staying here with Ali.”
“But-” Anna protested.
“No.” Kayden said firmly. “Trust me, there’ll be plenty of time for payback later. Right now I need the 3 of you running logistics.” He paused, meeting their eyes before continuing. “Ali, see if you can salvage any records from the president’s terminal. Then get me a map of this place, and get our comms up and running. Dawn, Anna – you’re on perimeter duty. Do whatever you have to do to get these troops covering the exits and making sure the queen doesn’t escape.”
“On it.” Dawn said, standing next to him.
Finally, Kayden turned back to Elara, the high commander, and the squad of 20-or-so black-clad elite soldiers. “Alright ladies, let’s go hunt.”
As one, the professional soldiers turned towards the door that the queen used to make her escape. Kayden watched approvingly as they moved through carefully, weapons levelled to check corners as they spread out into the next room. Before he could follow them though, Elara tapped him on the shoulder and handed him an external power cell.
“I brought this for you. I thought it might be useful for this.” Elara said as Dawn, Anna, and Ali moved to the president’s damaged workstation.
“Later, I’m going to show you just how much I appreciate you.” Kayden promised before plugging his control cable into it.
Bracing himself slightly, he funneled the rush of energy into his nanobots. They quickly coalesced into his robotic wolf companion – one who looked at him before snapping its jaws and bounding forward through the door. Kayden grinned as he sent his drones ahead to follow the wolf, giving their vanguard extra protection.
“That’s a neat trick.” The high commander nodded approvingly. “Shall we follow them?”
“Let’s do it.” Kayden nodded.
Together the three of them moved into the adjacent hallway while syncing their radios so they could talk through their in-suit helmets. He was immediately grateful for the move as he snapped his visor shut when they passed through the doorway. Even though he was no stranger to gore, he still had to steel himself at the sight of the body parts strewn around and the overpowering scent of blood.
“On the bright side, we don’t have to guess which way she went.” Kayden said grimly, pointing to the trail of blood leading down the hallway.
“Flashlights on!” The high commander ordered, seeing that several of the light fixtures towards the end of the hallway were broken. “I don’t want her jumping out and surprising us.”
When they immediately complied, Kayden spoke to Elara over their private channel. “So how exactly did you get these guards to listen to you? Because they didn’t seem too enthusiastic with me.”
“The short version? The head of the assembly is now the new president, and she gave the guard here strict orders to follow our instructions. They swore oaths to uphold this office and they’re determined to fulfill them.”
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“And the longer version?” Kayden asked as they trudged through the gore.
“The president wore a device which monitored her vitals at all times. The moment she died, the title of ‘commander-in-chief’ passed to the leader of the vice-president, but she resigned the moment she realized she’d likely have to interact with humans.” Elara paused for a moment before muttering. “Pure Kel bitch.”
“Okay, so power passed to the head of the assembly after that?” Kayden asked, bringing Elara back on track.
“Yes, exactly.”
“And how did you figure out what was going on? Or how to get to me? Because you arrived just in time.”
“A few hours ago when the communications to the president went out, I started looking into it. Eventually I looked through the sensor arrays and found that there was data missing, which never happens. I used a Vrul trick Mirana taught me to restore it and found a recording of a Voidborn ship landing a few hours ago. I couldn’t believe it myself until I looked further back and restored the communications which that traitorous whore tried to hide. From there it was a simple matter of calling the high commander, assembling a strike force, and coming here. She’d already created the prototype suit based on Anna’s schematics, and thought it was important to bring it. We both thought we’d have to fight our way through the guards to get to you until we got the message from the head of the assembly.”
“Her grand plan, undone by a Vrul trick.” Kayden mused as they reached the end of the hallway, pausing at the door.
“She got what she deserved, in the end.” Elara replied bitterly.
“Kayden, Elara.” Ali’s voice sounded in their radios. “I have access to the facility’s sensors. The queen is ahead of you by 250 meters. She is trapped in one of the vehicle service bays by heavy weapons fire from 3 squads of Kel troopers. I would hurry – they won’t last long.”
Kayden relayed the information to the high commander before breaking into a jog. She kept pace just behind him, with Fenrir and Elara on either side. Around them more and more elite troopers were gathering, and soon they began to hear gunfire and explosions.
Ali, adrenaline rush. Kayden ordered as he rounded the corner and saw the queen eviscerate a trio of soldiers.
Together with Fenrir, Kayden charged into the fray. The world around him slowed as he did, to the point where he closed the distance between them before the final soldier’s body hit the ground. His mind was flooded with anger as the images of Dawn, Anna, and Ali being incapacitated surfaced. He dimly noted the row of in-atmosphere shuttles along the wall, and the carlike buggies in various states of repair strewn about the bay floor.
The queen spun to meet him, but her sluggish movements were no match for him in this state. He easily grabbed the talons on her wings as they swung towards him, stopping their momentum midair. Tightening his grip he pulled them like reins, yanking the queen’s body towards him before bashing her in the face with his helmeted forehead. The motion caused the queen’s already-weakened shields to fade as she staggered back, bloodied.
Letting go of one wing Kayden brought his metallic arm back before using all of his genetically enhanced strength to punch her in the stomach, cracking through her tough carapace. Even as he was swinging though, his nanobots were swirling around his arm. With some mental help from Ali he formed and fired his coilgun at point-blank range just after the punch connected, blowing a small hole through the queen’s body and out the back.
She fell to the ground just as the adrenaline rush wore off, bleeding from her face and stomach. Her wing twitched towards him but was intercepted mid-swing by Fenrir – who grabbed it between his metallic fangs and wrenched it side-to-side like a dog on a bone. She let out a wordless roar of frustration before grabbing at Kayden with her taloned claws, only to miss when he deftly leapt to the side, letting go of her one wing while he fired another coilgun round into her body.
She roared in pain before wrenching herself free, rolling to her feet as she did. Her eyes darted around the vehicle bay frantically before she leapt towards a nearby shuttle, desperate for cover from the ongoing assault. Unfortunately for her she did it just as Fenrir dug his claws into the pavement, causing her wing that he was holding to come out of its socket with a sickeningly wet sound.
Showing an alarming amount of strength for her frame, the queen dug her one working wing and a claw into one of the shuttles, tearing the nose off before spinning and tossing it at Kayden. He leapt to the side just in time to avoid the metallic block, rolling and hopping back to his feet as another shuttle part sailed through the air at him. On instinct he summoned his nanobots into a tower shield in front of him, bracing himself just before it hit him. His strategy proved effective – other than throwing him several feet backwards, the flying part had no effect.
He waited a moment for another part, but when he instead heard concussive shots being fired he peeked over the top to see the queen struggling through yet another mountain of slime. Grinning to himself he sprinted forward, closing the distance just in time to bash her in the face with his shield as she emerged from the slime, dazing her for a moment.
In desperation, her swarm of nanobots began to dart towards Kayden but his own swarm was there to intercept them. The two groups of tiny machines immolated against each other, filling the room with the sound of soft pops as each pair met in midair. Through the tiny sparks darted Kayden’s drones, using their energy beams to begin burning through the queen’s carapace around her neck.
“I’ll kill you! You can’t kill me!” The queen shouted, her voice hoarse. “You are insects cowering in the dirt! I am the one true-” She was suddenly silenced when Elara reached them and levelled her pistol before blowing a sizable hole in her face.
Amazingly, the queen didn’t die right away. Her bloody form continued to struggle, with her nanobots retreating to her body in an attempt to heal the biological damage with mechanical parts. Kayden watched for a moment in morbid fascination, wondering if he could do the same thing to himself if needed.
“Best not to take any chances?” The high commander asked, joining their party and firing several more globs of slime at the queen to keep her thrashing body pinned down.
“Right.” Kayden nodded before placing his armoured boot on her shoulder and pulling on her remaining wing, tearing it cleanly out of its socket.
With a sideways glance at Elara, Kayden levelled his coilgun a final time and began firing. His Kel wife soon joined his barrage with her pistol, as did the high commander. In moments, a ring of Kel troopers were standing around the queen and firing downwards at her body, causing it to spasm and shake as it was filled with bullet holes and energy burns. After a full minute of firing the high commander raised one hand, calling for a halt.
“I see you weren’t exaggerating about her durability.” The high commander nodded to Elara.
“No, I wasn’t.” She replied.
“High commander, I…” Kayden trailed off for a moment, trying to find the right words. “I don’t mean to be insensitive, but this is a pressing matter. We need those ships for the fleet. Every second we waste means that more Voidborn ships appear above Earth. If we act now we stand a chance of defeating them.”
“I understand, Asha’dara.” The high commander responded, looking between him and the dead queen’s body. “You will have your ships. The Kel will stand with humanity – and the Vrul.”
“Thank you, high commander.” Kayden said before keying his radio. “Dawn, Anna – send a message to the fleet commanders. It’s time to go take Earth back.”