PART 2

The bursts of plasma from the speeders guns him my shield like a rain of hail, the energy shield sparking as I held my ground. Another shield popped into place beside me on my right and left. We formed a shield wall, the plasma impacting our shields but not pushing us back. The speeder skid to halt as the rider turned it sharply to the left, the other speeders following its lead spreading out as they dismounted taking cover behind them.

Bullets and plasma fire was repelled by our shields.

“Advance!” I called out.

We took one step and braced. Another step and brace, another step brace; again, and again we slowly moved forwards. I kept an eye on my wrist reading my shield’s readings to make sure it didn’t overheat. The Luminari fighters began circling around us and our shield wall curved to keep them from shooting into our flanks.

We were only a few paces away from each other now, a distance we could cover in an instant.

“On three we break,” I instructed. “One, two, three!”

Our shield wall broke apart as we charged forward in different directions. I headed for the Luminari’s leader or at least who I guessed was their leader. He had more gold armor, the special alloy only their light weavers could forge, it was harder than a starship’s hull and could withstand the heat of a reactor’s heart.

He saw me charging towards him and drew a golden cutlass from his belt, the edge lit up a cobalt blue as its ion edge activated letting it cut through the ceramic armor we were equipped with. I drew my gladius and activated its own edge. The cutlas slashed at me and I deflected it with my shield. The readings on my wrist grew brighter as the shield began to overheat.

Our swords clashed as he parried and deflected my gladius striking for the parts of my body not behind my shield. I did my best to dance away from his attacks, but I was no duelist, I’d been fighting for ten years and practiced but this fighter was obviously trained from childhood in how to use a blade. Even fully stimmed up the enemies power armor was superior to my mismatched set letting him keep up with me and get in close.

The cutlass impacted my shield again and again and finally it shorted out. I blocked the cutlass with my gladius drawing my pistol from my left side. My opponent responded likewise. We pushed on each other with our blades as we blasted unable to aim properly with the rapid flow of our duel. Shots impacted my breastplate but didn’t crack the ceramic plate. My own shots bounced off the gold armor as I was unable to aim properly for a weak point.

The golden visage of his helmet stared at me emotionlessly as we blasted each other our swords still trying to cut the other to ribbons. Finally, he caught my sword with his and twisted flinging my gladius out of my hand. I rolled to the side as his sword came down again. I pulled my other pistol from my belt and blasted both of them into his chest, only staggering him back a step.

The cutlass sliced towards me and I blocked with my vambrace. I reversed my grip on the pistol and stepped inside his guard, taking away the reach of his cutlass. He tried to get some space but I didn’t let him, I moved with him as I blasted into him with my left pistol until its ammo went dry.

My pistol in my right hand whipped up across the chin of his helmet knocking it clear. Silver hair flew out as he slashed out at me with his cutlass. I ducked under the cutlass tackling him to the ground grabbing his arm and smacking it against a rock until he dropped the sword. We rolled across the ground for a moment as I reversed my grip on my pistol and jammed it under his chin. I simultaneously felt the press of a pistol against my sternum right under where my breastplate ended. Our eyes locked and I was surprised to see not a man but a woman. Her hair hung down to her shoulders cut in a neat line and her nearly solid gold eyes trained on me with iron determination. A moment passed in tense silence between us.

“Lower your pistol,” she said.

“You first,” I said.

Silence fell between us again.

“I would appear we’re at a stalemate,” I said.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Don’t suppose you’d let me shoot you?”

“That’ll have to be a no from me,” I said.

We fell silent again hearing the gunfire from both of our sides as the people under our authority took shots at eachother from behind cover.

“What you say, I lower my pistol and you lower yours same time?” I asked.

“And then?” she asked.

“We talk for a bit,” I said. “Tell eachother our names at least before we go back to killing eachother.”

“Fine,” she agreed. “On three?”

“One,” I said nodding.

“Two,” we said together easing our pistols away.

“Three,” we finished setting out pistols on the ground.

I eased off of her sitting down across from her. “Names, Enil. Captain Enil for now, I’m in charge of this hunk of metal.”

“I’m Templar Amara,” she said.

“Templar?” I asked. “Thought you were all assigned to light-weavers, didn’t see any of that sun-magic going on back there.”

Her jaw clenched, as I struck some nerve. “The Paladin I was assigned too died in battle a year ago. I’ve been assigned to raiding enemy forces since then.”

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“Sorry to hear that,” I said. “I’m going to reach for my belt now and grab my flask, don’t go all twitchy on me.”

I slowly reached down pulling out my flask. I unscrewed the lid and poured a shot of the burning liquor down my throat. I offered it over to Amara and she took it sniffing it suspiciously before taking a sip. She winced at its acrid taste but finished taking her shot before handing it back.

“That’s some awful stuff,” she said.

“Cook made it from some plants he found down in the caverns,” I said. “Tastes like shit but its strong as starship fuel.”

Amara slowly reached down to her belt and opened up the flap of a satchel she reached inside and pulled out a bright red fruit. Taking a short knife from her belt she cut it in two, handing me half.

“Been saving that for special occasion,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow. “This is a special occasion?”

“Well, either you or me is going to die today,” she said. “Last meal might as well be a good one.”

I bit in the sweet juices running down the stubble on my chin. It was the best thing I’d tasted in over a year. I wanted to close my eyes in pressure but resisted the temptation.

“How long you been fighting?” I asked her.

“Since I was sixteen,” she said. “Your people been on my planet longer than I’ve been alive. How long you been here?”

“Ten years,” I sighed. “I’m not even suppose to be here, my military term ended two years ago.”

“Why are you still here then?” she asked.

“They can’t be bothered to send a transport,” I said. “Haven’t had a bird land on us in two years, they just drop the supplies and fly off. Soon as one lands… I’m gone, headed off to the outer sectors to colonize the latest terraformed planets. What about you, this war’s got to end someday. What are your plans?”

She shrugged. “Move back in with my family, start a garden, raise a family; I don’t think I’ll stay in the order; they don’t want to assign failed Templars to any new members.”

“Well,” I said taking another swig from my flask and passing it back to her. “Here’s to us, may one of us see our dream come true.”

She took the flask lifting it in a toast and drank. A beeping from my transponder sounded and I looked down to the inside of my wrist at the flashing light. A second beeping sounded and I looked to Amara where a light blinked on her wrist.

“Looks like people want to talk to us in our final moments,” I said tapping the button. “I’m a bit busy what’s going on?”

“Sir we’re getting reports in from the south, a storm’s coming in about an hour out,” Sergeant Karsen said.

Amara was whispering into her wrist holding it up to her head as she got her own report.

“And this is important?” I asked. “We’ve seen storms before.”

“Yeah but, signals keep dying, transmissions get cut off as soon as it passes over them.”

I frowned. “Some type of weapon maybe?” I asked.

“Not sure thought I’d let you know; the amount of signals being cut off are concerning,” Karsen said.

“Patch me through to someone in charge, if I its someone I know all the better,” I said.

“Copy sir,” Karsen said.

My transponder beeped for several minutes before a voice came over. “We need evac! I repeat we need evac! This is Captain Hors requesting immediate evacuation!”

“Captain Hors,” I said. “This is Captain Enil, what’s going on?”

“Captain Enil? It’s the storm,” he said his voice panicked and wild. “Its killing everything it touches.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “How, is it some weapon?”

“It’s not a weapon, its punishment,” Hors said his voice frenzied with fear. “It’s like the world itself it striking us down for what we’ve all done it to it. I watched it tear through the armor of a light tank and shred the men inside.”

“What tore through it?” I asked him, pressing him for information, keeping my own voice steady to try and calm him. “What is in the storm.”

“Look on the ground,” Hors said his voice choked with fear and tears. “You’ll see, the thing we’ve been fighting this damn war for.”

I grabbed a handful of dirt letting it run through my fingers. Bits of solarite were left in my hands the dull sheen of the unprocessed bits of ore each as sharp as a knife and harder than diamond. The dirt was dry loose and crumbly, I felt the wind pick up for a moment and whisk away the shards of metal into the air.

“It’s here, I can hear it,” Hors said in the background of his transmission I heard the howling of the wind mixed with chilling screams of men dying in agony. “Don’t let it catch you Enil don’t let it…”

The transmission ended. I turned to the horizon where far in the distance a dark bank of clouds was moving towards us. I looked back to Amara who also stared at the coming clouds with a look of dread on her face.

“What is that?” she asked.

I picked up one of the grains of solarite again. “It’s a massive windstorm, its picking up bits of solarite and turning into a sandstorm.”

“An iron wind,” Amara said. “Nothing is going to survive that.”

“We need evacuation now,” I said holding out my hand. “If you come with us I can get you to safety, truce?”

Amara hesitated than took my hand. “Truce.”

“Cease fire, cease fire,” I shouted into coms as I raced towards the back of Hades. “Open the back and let everyone in we are evacuating.”

Bullets whizzed past me before Amara ordered her own troops to stand down. The doors to Hades opened up as my men gathered around me casting suspicious looks at the Luminari forming up around us.

“What’s going on sir?” Melor asked me.

“That storm is killing everything it touches,” I said pointing out at the dark wall of clouds. “We’re getting off this rock before it kills us.”

“And them?” Melor asked jerking his head towards the Luminari.

“They’re coming with us, I’m not going to leave people to that thing,” I said. “If the high command doesn’t like that they can say it to my face when we’re in orbit.”

I raced up the steps to the bridge Melor and Amara followed behind me.

“Patch me into central command,” I said to Karsen.

“I can’t just patch you into…” Karsen protested.

“Damn it Karsen I know you know how to hack into our own coms now do it!” I snapped at him. “We don’t have time for debates or questions.”

Karsen nodded paling at my tone as he made adjustments to his controls. He turned and nodded to me. “Your patched in captain.”

“Central command this is Captain Enil of Hades, we have a storm headed to our location that is killing everything in its path,” I said into the transponder.

There was silence and for a moment I thought Karsen had failed to patch me in properly.

“Captain Enil this is Legate Cephil of High Command,” a cold calm voice said. “My reports say you are supposed to be on the Western Front but your several leagues away from where your supposed to be.”

“Our track is ruined,” I said trying not to snap at the officer. “We’re grounded; that doesn’t’ matter, in a little less than an hour that storm is going to shred us all to pieces. We need immediate air evac.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that right now,” Legate Cephil said. “The storm you are talking about is making flight to risky for my pilots. After the storm has passed, we can arrange transport off world and send you back home.”

“You aren’t listening!” I shouted into the transponder. “None of us will be alive if that storm hits us!”

“I’m not risking my pilots to that storm,” Legate Cephil said his voice as calm as before despite my outburst. “You are just centurions, easily trained and replaced, a pilot takes years to properly train. The equipment you wear is harder to replace than you; your death though tragic is for the good of the Empire and Emperor.”

“Fuck the Empire! Fuck the Emperor and fuck you!” I snarled into the com and ended the transmission.

We were all silent as we watched the coming storm.

“What do we do now sir?” Melor asked.

“Send out a message over every open frequency,” I said. “Tell those who are close to come here, those who can’t reach us are ordered to find cover get underground if they can. We’ll have to hope Hade’s armor can withstand that storm.”