The six of us shuffled into Beth’s ship. She didn’t even wait until we were seated before taking us into the air. I should have praised her. But this was no time for niceties. We needed to distract the First Division before they blew up all of our friends.
I sat beside a window so I could watch the FD ships. Black Dwarf after Dwarf shot out: just like dropped bombs. The base had to be crawling with them by now. We could take a wall of them, but an army would be too much. We got out just in time.
Laura and Kaela, who were standing beside Beth, stared out the windshield. Nessa sat beside me, but she was glaring at Anderson. I had forgotten about his “betrayal” until now. He seemed not to have noticed her staring. I hoped he wouldn’t.
“I’m open to ideas, Alpha.” Beth clenched her teeth as she gripped the wheel. “Distracting a whole fleet won’t be easy.”
“This thing has weapons, right? Use them. Fire at each ship, and fly around to avoid their retaliation. That’s all I’ve got unless this ship has got shields too.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Of course it has shields. The Keyholder is an all-purpose vessel.”
Kaela sighed as she leaned against a wall. “This base has been my home for almost a decade. Now we have to abandon it like an old candy wrapper? What happened? How did Frost finally find us? It’s because we started wearing space suits again, isn’t it?”
“You want to know how she found us?” Nessa furrowed her brow. “Luckily for you, I have the answer. It’s the only useful thing my father has ever told me.”
“What? Wait a second, Nessa.” I lowered my voice so that the others wouldn’t hear. “We shouldn’t discuss this now. We’re in the middle of something.”
“You want to hide the truth? It’s just to protect your friend, isn’t it? Well, he’s no friend of mine.” Nessa jumped up and stumbled a little before she found her balance. “You all want to know how Frost knew where to find us? It’s because of this buffoon: Anderson Oak.”
Anderson flinched out of confusion. “What? Come on, do you guys still not trust me? I swear I’m not a rat. I wouldn’t even know how to contact Frost.”
“But you used to. You told her where we lived in the past, didn’t you? She must have remembered that and waited until now to act.”
Anderson’s eyes widened. He looked at me, silently asking if I could confirm her claims. I looked away, but that was essentially a confirmation in itself. I just had to come clean.
“It was when Frost kept you prisoner,” I said in a low voice. “I guess you told her about us way back then?”
Anderson’s face fell. He knew what I was talking about. It must have sucked to have something from his past dug up while he was trying to be a better person. I wanted to comfort him, but then my stomach shot to my throat as the ship dove toward the ground. Missiles whooshed past us, exploding against the ground below.
“Whine later, idiots! We’re in the middle of a fight.” Beth tightened her grip on the wheel.
“Right,” I said. “Kaela, watch the hangar. Notify us when all the ships are gone. That’s how we’ll know we can leave.”
Kaela planted herself in a seat and pressed her face against the window. Since she was the sharpshooter, I trusted her eyes the most. I ran up to Beth and watched the battle unfold from over her shoulder. Missiles soared out of our ship and exploded against an FD one. The FD ship shot back two of its own, and Beth swerved to avoid both. The force flung me against a wall. So far, so good.
“They’re starting to warp out!” Kaela said. “Just a few though. We should be fine after another minute.”
Beth dove to avoid another missile, but then the ship rocked as one finally hit us. The explosion knocked me off my feet. My back met the ground first. I ignored the pain as I held on to the closest wall. The wheel was Beth’s instrument, and she was playing the heck out of it to keep us away from more missiles.
“I was wondering when they’d break out the homing missiles,” Laura said, groaning as she rubbed her head. “Guess that means we have their full attention. Kaela?”
“Kind of hard to see with all the stars in my eyes.” Kaela rubbed her face and peered out the window again. “I don’t see many ships left. We should go before we’re blown apart by another missile.”
Beth tapped the monitor. The ship buzzed as blue light washed over all the windows. I guessed those were the shields that Beth had assured me her ship had. The monitor flashed with a message: SHIELD ACTIVE.
“There. I’d like to see those homing missiles break through an AI shield.” Beth grinned as she took hold of the wheel once more. “Now we’re in no hurry.”
Static filled the monitor. There was no way the shield was causing that. Everyone’s eyes flew to the display as the static cleared up, revealing a woman. It was someone I was sick and tired of seeing. Her magenta hair was tied up in a bun that seemed seconds away from unraveling. I wanted nothing more than to punch her in the face and shatter her round glasses. Maybe then her green eyes would quit looking at me like that. It wasn’t the look you’d give your enemy. It was one you’d give your son…
“I’m guessing the plan here was to distract my troops long enough to make your escape?” President Margaret Frost said as she smirked. “Well done, because it worked. It must have been your idea, Wander. You’ve blossomed into a true leader, haven’t you?”
I clenched my fists as I stood over the monitor. Glaring down at her tiny image, I resisted the urge to slam my fist into it. Frost and I had once had a decent relationship. She had given me so much and had hoped to give me a lot more. She’d become something like a second mother because that was what I’d needed at the time.
Then she’d shown her true colors, and I’d learned about all the horrible things she’d done. It turned out she was the real reason why the AI had killed my parents and I had someone else’s Implants inside me. A dead person’s. My grandfather’s.
“Get off the monitor,” I said. “How did you get on it in the first place? Are you really in one of those ships? How about you land so we can settle things right now?”
Frost chuckled, which was a horrible sound. “Your ship may have been created by those wretched AI, but it’s not so different that I can’t assert my authority over it. I’ll have to decline your invitation to duel, by the way. Honestly, I don’t think you’re in any position to negotiate. Thanks to young Anderson over there, I’m about to get control over this wretched, abandoned planet again. To think you’ve been hiding here all along. How could I have been so blind?”
Anderson gritted his teeth upon hearing Frost speak his name. She’d just confirmed that he had been responsible for all of this. Guilt flooded my chest even though I had nothing to do with it. I just knew that, if Anderson had been able to, he would have prevented his past self from ratting out his current self.
“You’ll be blinder when you finally show your face!” said Kaela as she marched up to stand beside me. She looked about as angry as I felt. Considering her history with Frost, I understood why. “You destroyed my home, so it’s only fitting that I get to shoot your eye out. I’ll even let you pick which one!”
“You call this a valuable teammate, Wander? Good luck hitting anything with a temper that unrefined, young lady.” Frost glanced behind her. “I should be going. I see a lot of redecorating in my future, and I need to prepare.” Her expression turned stern. “Leave now, or die. I do hope you pick the first option for Wander’s sake.”
Frost faded away, and the message about the shield returned to the monitor. She was gone, but she’d left behind an uncomfortable silence. To think she was in one of those ships and none of us could do anything about it… It wasn’t hard to guess. There was no way Frost would have missed out on the chance to reclaim Earth in person.
I rubbed my face. “Kaela, hangar status?”
Kaela was heaving with rage, but her face lit up when she heard my words. She rushed back to the window then another explosion shook the ship. The window’s blue tint flickered. The shield had protected us thus far, but how many missiles could it take? We rocked again and again as the First Division continued to assault us. My head ached. I was trying to make sense of my surroundings. Was it really a floor if it wouldn’t stop rumbling? It felt more like I was inside an erupting volcano minus the searing magma.
“How many more can your shield withstand?” Nessa asked from the floor. If I’d been able to walk, I would have helped her up.
Beth glanced at the monitor. Underneath the message about the shield, there was a bubble around an icon of a ship. The bubble shrunk with each missile that literally rocked our world. That bubble must have been an indicator of how much longer the shield would last. The bubble was red and almost gone, so the shield wouldn’t last any longer.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I grimaced. “Warp out now!”
Beth’s hand hovered over the monitor. She hesitated to leave. We didn’t know if everyone had gotten out yet. I was the leader, so attempting to leave before we knew everyone’s status was especially hard on me. Unfortunately, it was either leave or get blown to bits. Beth seemed to realize that: she finally lowered her hand to the monitor. Cycling through its menus, she eventually found the warp option and hit it.
The missiles, the rumbling, the fear…they all faded away. It was like someone had hit a switch and stripped me of all emotion. My body stretched through every star in the galaxy, nudging them all but never staying for longer than a second. I closed my eyes and allowed the warp to hold on to my worries for me—almost all of my worries, anyway. The anger and grief I felt because of the latest tragedy remained. It was too fresh to leave. I knew that this attack wasn’t my fault, but it didn’t help that it had happened under my leadership.
I didn’t know when the warp ended; I’d become too immune to its effects to tell. I only realized I was back because of Kaela’s groaning. Nessa rubbed her head as she shuddered. She felt the warp’s effects, but she didn’t want me to know that.
I glanced out the nearest window. Darkness and twinkling spots. We were in space. We’d escaped Frost’s wrath. God, I hoped that the rest of the Oppressed had escaped too.
“Good job, team.” I stretched the numbness from my limbs. This was my only chance to relax, so I had to take it. “In light of all that, let’s allow ourselves a pat on the back. Not everyone could have done what we did.”
“Yes, meaning that most of the Oppressed wouldn’t have betrayed everyone.” Nessa set her sights on Anderson once again. “Don’t forget that this is all your fault, heathen. Once everything settles down, I’m going to tell Surge everything. He built that home for us, and, because of you, it’s gone.”
Anderson’s eyes darkened. The old Anderson would never have backed down from a fight. This Anderson seemed like he’d given up before the fight began.
“Go ahead. I deserve it.” Anderson slumped in his chair. “I only said that stuff to Frost because of how mad I was. My life was awful, and it was all my fault. If I’d known you rebels were such cool people, I—”
“No excuses.” Nessa crossed her arms. “If you’re trying to use reverse psychology, it’s not working. I’m not letting you go unpunished for this.”
“Leave him alone,” said Kaela, of all people. I’d thought I would have to step in, but Kaela did it for me. “What he did sucks, but that was in the past. He’s trying to change, Nessa. If we tell the others about this, he’ll get kicked out at most or become an outcast at least.” Kaela frowned. “If anyone knows what that’s like, it’s me.”
Kaela had technically betrayed the Oppressed by fighting Dylan in Red City. Not only had she done that, but she had also been the reason we had gotten onto Surge’s ship in the first place. Things had really escalated since those days.
Nessa scoffed. “Dang it, I can’t argue with Kaela. It’s like yelling at a puppy. Fine. If he’s really trying to change, then I don’t have to lift a finger anyway. His guilt will eat him alive.”
I rose from my seat. “Then the discussion is over. Every second we spend fighting each other is a second wasted. Frost thinks she won, guys. She thinks it’s only a matter of time before she gets the galaxy all to herself. If we’re going to prove her wrong, we need to stand together. Understood?”
Silence settled in as my friends absorbed my words. I was sure Nessa wasn’t happy with how different our views on the matter were, but at least she was respecting my…authority? Now I sounded like Frost.
I marched up to the windshield. My heart skipped a beat as I saw all the Oppressed ships surrounding us. Most of our friends had made it out for sure. Our armada framed a red planet. The planet was made of metal, which was a first for planets everywhere. It was covered in silver lines, like cracks in the surface.
Planet Epsilon, home to the AI: apparently, it was about to become our new home too.
I can’t wait to share a bunk bed with a Kilo.
Beth drove toward the surface, gliding past all the Oppressed ships. I snuck peeks at them in an attempt to see which ones had made it and which ones hadn’t. As I did, even more ships warped in beside the ones I had counted. Most of them were unscathed. It seemed like everyone had made it, but it’d be impossible to tell for a while. I needed to take my own advice and quit worrying about it.
As we approached a city, Epsilon’s odd building structure became apparent. The buildings seemed to have been shaped without a solid outline or purpose in mind. They were curvy and free of windows, like a quake had shattered them all. Sitting in the middle of the city was a red dome known as the Machina Mansion. All the AI lived there. One big missile could have wiped them all out, but there wasn’t a missile big enough. I was sure Frost was working on one.
I thought Beth would touch down beside the dome, but she flew right past it. She was headed for a building that resembled a hangar, but it was twice as big. It was filled with ships so colorful that it seemed the AI had drained a couple of hundred rainbows to get them. Blue, tan, and green ships filled the facility. They weren’t as wide as the First Division ships, but, somehow, that made them more intimidating. It was like they were compacted with power.
I’d never wondered where the AI stored their ships, but now I knew. As Beth lowered our ship toward the ground, I spotted one that was ten times larger than all the others. It was in the very back of the hangar, and it was red. If there was anything that this planet had taught me, it was that red things were the most important.
“Beth, what’s going on with that little guy?” I pointed to the massive ship.
“The Mainframe? That’s the strongest ship in the galaxy. But Lord Exo wants it to be reconfigured for a purpose other than war.”
Nessa rolled her eyes. “Good for him. Still, that ship looks oddly familiar. I think I read up about it once, but it wasn’t called the ‘Mainframe.’”
“That’s what the AI named it. I’m sure the First Division called it something much nastier, considering it was the ship that devastated Earth.”
Five exclamations of shock rang out all at once. That was the ship that had ruined humanity’s original home? That meant it had to be the ship that possessed the Planetary Devastation Cannon. If Exo wanted it reconfigured, then he probably planned on removing the thing.
“That’s the ship with the thing that blew up Earth?” Kaela asked. “The one Frost’s great grand-ancestor apparently used? What’s the deal with that, anyway? How did he supposedly fire the cannon from their ship?”
“You want answers, you ask Lord Exo,” Beth said. “This is an alliance, and it’s time you petty fools acted like it. Now let’s go explain this horrid mess of a situation to the AI.”
The AI hangar had a tan roof, so I almost thought the Sun was up when I walked out of Beth’s ship. Then I remembered that it was nighttime. The artificial sky was dark to prove it, and it even had its own Moon. Though it was fake, it lit our way like the real one did back on Earth. At that point, I realized that we’d failed both the Earth and the Moon. Those were two homes that we had to save.
As the six of us stepped out of the hangar, the Oppressed fleet swooped down from the atmosphere. I had a feeling that they’d deliberately waited for us to land so that they could follow suit. It would have been awkward if Surge and the gang had been alone with the AI.
I told Beth to go up ahead and get the AI while the rest of us waited for the Oppressed to land. Her response was a single scowl before she stomped off. It seemed she still didn’t like taking orders from me. Once the ships were parked in the hangar, Surge and a whole group of Oppressed shuffled out of them. My heart swelled at the sight. Kaela’s did too if her smile was any indication. Dylan was walking beside Surge with a smirk. That was a confirmation that two of her favorite people were safe.
Ben Oak stumbled through the crowd in a hurry. His dark eyes were locked onto Anderson, who grinned back at him. The brothers hurried toward each other. Ben wrapped Anderson up in a hug when he caught up to him.
“Don’t ever disappear again, got it?” said Ben. “I didn’t know if you were safe on a ship or reduced to ash on Earth Three! Ahem! Sorry. I meant Earth. Where did the three come from?”
Where did the three come from? That was an odd slip of the tongue…
Anderson scoffed as he gently pushed his brother off. “You think I’d let Frost kill me before I got payback for what she did to us? I’m stoked to see you alive, bro. I was just off distracting those ships with these guys. We were keeping them off your tail.”
Ben’s eyes lit up. “Now there’s the kid I raised. Frost called me a hero, but that was just another one of her lies. You’re growing up to be more of a hero than I ever was.”
Anderson’s face fell at that statement, but Ben didn’t seem to notice. Anderson probably didn’t feel like he deserved Ben’s pride, not when he was the one responsible for the attack. Nessa scowled at the two brothers then joined Surge, Dylan, and Kaela. She was still thinking about telling Surge. It would be easy. Anderson wouldn’t even stop her. She made eye contact with me for just a few seconds then she turned away. She still wouldn’t do it…for now.
“Hey, little man!” Opifex sprinted toward me with his arms held out. I grinned as I held mine out too. He scooped me up into a bear hug that was as literal as it got on account of his hairy face and arms. “I knew you’d make it out. Hybrids are invincible, right? I have to assume that because you survive a lot of crazy crap, man.”
“It sure feels that way sometimes,” I said. “Do you guys know how many people made it out?”
Opifex shrugged. “Everyone, I think. I don’t know for sure. Sorry, man. Everyone in the forge made it out though—”
“What?!” Nessa whipped around. “Where are they?”
Opifex pointed a huge finger toward a crowd making their way over. I recognized at least half of them from when I had been the head of the forge. If I hadn’t recognized them, their pale skin (from staying inside all day) would have tipped me off. Those were Nessa’s people. Her jaw dropped as she ran over to meet them. It really did seem like everyone was accounted for.
I sighed with relief as I spotted two people I’d been worried about. Manning held Rebecca up by her waist as they both made their way toward us. Her eyes were shut, and she was holding her right arm. That didn’t look good. I motioned Laura over as I headed toward them. Manning’s expression was neutral as he noticed me. He was certainly still mad at me, but he was also happy that I was alive.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I reached for her arm. Just like the last time, I could only sense static. What was going on here? “What happened to your arm? I didn’t see any of the Dwarfs hit you. You messed them up before they could.”
“That’s precisely why she’s feeling weak,” Manning said. “I…I don’t think her body can handle her Implants any longer. If it were a broken bone or strained muscle, it’d be fine. However, it seems more like her body is rejecting her abilities. Continuing to use them might end up killing—”
“I’m fine!” Rebecca slurred. Her eyes were still closed. It was like she was drunk, but from exhaustion rather than alcohol. “I can’t stop fighting, Theo. If I do, we’re all screwed.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said. “I know I encouraged you to keep up the hard work, but take a rest if you need it. Besides, I’m sure the AI have something that can fix you. I’ll ask—”
“No…they’ve done enough to me.” Rebecca’s eyes fluttered open, and they met mine. “I don’t want their help.”
Laura frowned. “But, if they can help, why reject it? They’re not going to hurt anyone else. We wouldn’t be here if they were.”
“They’ve done enough already,” Manning sighed. “We’re going back to the ship. We just wanted to make sure you two were okay.”
I frowned. “I’d be better than okay if we were all on the same page again.”
Manning scowled. “I’m not the one who needs to open his eyes.”
He and Rebecca limped back toward the ships. I frowned as I watched them go. Not even winning this war would be worth it if Manning stayed mad at me. I had to get back in their good graces somehow.
“Kid? Are you ready?” Surge asked. “The sooner we start this awkward alliance, the sooner we can strike back.”
“Yeah, I’m ready.” I shook my head to clear it. “Everyone follow me. We’re going to go meet Satan and all his little pals. It’s gonna be great.”