Emergence: Chapter 52

They saw the Xaosian ship arrive.

Overnight, they had made a plan. Kivina had made the plan, and the others just agreed; it seemed easier. Unfortunately, they had no idea if it was succeeding until Kivina returned. If she didn't, Tors could say goodbye to his freedom. Pandora, Emola and Cane sat with him around the fire, all looking as nervous as he felt; there was a chance that they would be killed if this went wrong. A huge chance.

“If I don't survive,” Cane started, “then-”

“Don't say that.” Emola hissed.

Cane gave him a look. “Then find Disa and my son. Tell them I love them.”

“Loved.” Pandora muttered.

Cane shot her a disapproving look. “Not really the time for perfect grammar, Pandora.”

“So, are we doing this shit?” Tors looked around and only Cane made a movement to suggest that they were. “Fine. If I don't survive, then...” His speech fizzled out. “I can't think. There's no-one I want you to speak to, nothing I want you to finish or do...I've wasted my life; I've got nothing.”

“Hey...” Pandora put a hand on Tors's arm. “You got good friends, and you've had fun; that's all that matters really.”

Tors sighed. “Yeah, I guess so. It'd just be nice to have something material to cling on to.”

“I get you.” Emola nodded. “If we're doing this, here we go.” He took a deep breath; Tors had never seen Emola nervous before and it intrigued him. “If I don't survive, then...” He looked into Pandora's eyes. “I'd like to tell you this Pandora; I love you. I have for ages.”

Tors smiled to himself. Knew it!

Pandora seemed taken aback. “Really?”

Emola's face fell, and he spoke quietly. “Yeah. Don't you feel the same?”

Pandora opened her mouth awkwardly, before closing it again. Tors looked at Cane, who gave him a knowing look, simply conveying “oh dear”.

When Pandora finally got words out, it was obvious that she'd thought about it well. “Emola. I like you. I really like you. But I don't love you, I'm sorry.” Emola's scales turned darker. “But, I'd be willing to go on a date with you, if we survive.”

Emola's smile and exhale almost broke his face, Tors was sure. He didn't say anything, nor did he need to.

Pandora turned to them all. “If I don't survive, find my family on Tras, and tell them that I loved my work on Narcsia. Tell them I died in the storms, doing what I loved; researching the history of the Empire.”

Tors nodded, but Cane did not share his sentiment. “You want us to lie? About your death?” He shook his head. “Give me one good reason.”

“I want my family to remember me for what I enjoyed. Not as a prisoner in a Xaosian camp. I don't want them to think I suffered.” Pandora looked at Cane, who nodded once, accepting her words.

“Well,” Tors spoke to them all, “now that's done, we need to wait for Kivina.”

*

Kivina was still a Xaosian and, with her helmet on, no-one could see the lack of her inhibitor, or the dodgy stitches in her ear. So, in the camp, she could still be one of the indoctrinated, which suited her just fine. As they milled around, preparing for the movement of the newly delivered inhibitors, she sneaked off to the armoury. It was called an armoury, but it was just a glorified hut, the same which the prisoners lived in.

The conditions inside were better than any of the prisoners' huts, which disgusted her; evidently they viewed weapons to be a priority over life. But, she realised as she looked around, they were pretty damn good weapons. Different sorts of guns, knives and blades of all sorts were hanging on the walls, while explosive charges where stacked, probably precariously, on the shelves.

She clipped a bunch of charges and grenades to her belt, and slung some of the guns over her back; she didn't care which ones, they were all deadly enough to cause serious damage. She left the hut, looking around for any other Xaosians; she assumed that they were all fitted with the inhibitors.

Her heart was beating quickly now; she was nervous as hell right now. She crept over to the Xaosian camp; it wasn't really a camp, just a larger and nicer hut than the prisoners had, nothing glamorous. She crouched down next to the wall and unclipped a charge from her belt. Carefully, she clamped it to the wall, activating the inbuilt adhesive to stick it to the wall. Setting the charge to blow in three minutes, she got up, ready to go.

“Kivina!”

“Ah...” Kivina froze, trying to identify the voice. “Yantae!”

“What are you doing?” Yantae sounded suspicious.

“Just chilling back here.” Kivina smiled at him, hoping that it wasn't too fake.

She had two options, because she knew he wouldn't believe her; knock him out, or kill him. She didn't want to kill him, she wanted to save him. But if she knocked him out, he could wake quickly, possibly before she could get the weapons to Cane and the others.

“No, you're not.” Yantae brought up a rifle. “Be honest, or I will shoot you.”

She drew a pistol.

His trigger finger tightened.

And he fell down as she shot first, the dense and sharp Xaosian bullet cutting through his arm.

Not wanting the other Xaosians to see a corpse out in the open, she picked him up by his shoulders, and dragged him across the hard floor into the armoury. Dumping him unceremoniously in a corner near the door, she opened up his armour. Next to the bullet wound, she placed another charge, setting it to two minutes; that was probably all she had left on the other one.

This time, she left the armoury much quicker, not wanting to be caught, nor caught up in the explosion. She could hear the Xaosians talking in the camp, but they didn't seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. She smiled; good.

Weapons slung over her back, she rushed back to Tors's hut.

Snap.

She looked around, swearing to herself and got the shock of her life.

*

Teriva burst into her sister's office, astounding the bodyguard, who went for his gun, until he was waved down by the room's occupant.

“What the hell is going on?” Teriva roared.

Lady Arias stood up and stared Teriva down. “Leave, Atim.”

The bodyguard looked at Arias. “Are you sure?”

“Of course,” Arias snapped, “it's my sister, she's not gonna hurt me.” She stared into Teriva's eyes. “She'll back off soon after she has her little hissy fit.”

Atim seemed uncomfortable, but left anyway. “I'll be right outside.”

“Thank you Atim.” Arias smiled; Teriva knew it was fake. She turned to Teriva. “What do you want?”

Teriva pointed out the window of the tower towards the edge of the city. “What the hell is going on there? And why are you working with the Xaosians?”

Arias came out from behind her desk, and placed her hand on Teriva's shoulder, and whispering in her ear, “You'll never understand the ins and outs of politics, so let me put this simply; we are at war, and I am ensuring that Irin is on the winning side.” She moved away, touching Teriva's other shoulder as she did so. “The Narcsia refugees are here as prisoners, as you full well can see. In fact, it was explained on the news by Professor Tujin Diank; one of your old colleagues? Did you not see it, it was a lovely speech.”

“I wouldn't be here if I didn't.” Teriva brushed her sister off her shoulder. “You're disgusting.”

“Why?” Arias asked. “I just want the best for my people, you're just too blind to see it; just because you can't fuck your precious Lord anymore-”

Crack.

The slap hurt Teriva's hand, and definitely hurt her shocked sister. Arias touched her cheek slowly, as if in a state of shock. “You struck me...” She stood, dazed for a moment, before snapping back to reality. She smiled. “If you want to save the refugees out of some misplaced sense of duty, then be my guest; the Xaosians will cut you down.”

“You don't care?” Teriva felt like a chunk of her had been torn away; Arias had always been a bitch, but she was never this cold. “If I die?”

“Of course I don't want you to die.” Arias sighed. “But the Xaosians can't be stopped, can't be killed; they just keep coming.”

“Can't be killed?” Teriva noticed Arias's augmentation spark; just like Tujin's.

Arias shook her head. “No. They don't die, but rise again, more unified and deadly than before.”

“How is that possible?” Teriva asked, shocked.

“No idea.” Arias grimaced. “If you're going down there, tell me if you don't die.” Her tone turned darker. “Now get out of my building.”

As Teriva left the room, Atim glared at her. As she walked to the elevator, she thought about both Arias's and Tujin's augmentation sparking while promoting the Xaosians. While it could be nothing, and just a coincidence, she turned her augmentation off, disconnecting it from the Irinian network; an unbreachable sub-network of the main Empire network.

Maybe, she thought, it wasn't so unbreachable after all...

*

“Yantae...”

Kivina couldn't help but stare at the Xaosian. He was meant to be dead. She could see the wound in his open armour, and the charge she placed there was deactivated in his hand.

“But you're dead.” Kivina backed in horror, he lip trembling.

“Yes.” His voice was somehow robotic and monotonous. “Yantae is dead. His body is dead. It belong to me now. All of the Xaosians here do, aside from you. How did you get it out? One of the prisoners? They'll be mine too soon. And the Irinians. Everyone will be united under my rule. And then, we shall expand the Empire.”

“How are you doing this Xaos?” Kivina backed away, bringing up her pistol again.

“Xaos?” Whoever, or whatever, was speaking through Yantae seemed amused. “Xaos belongs to me too. And soon, you will again.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Kivina was still backing away, counting down in her head; the other charge should explode in five. Four. Three. Two.

One.

No explosion.

Yantae nodded to her. “I deactivated your other charge too. And I tell you, because it'll be your last independent thought.” Yantae raised his rifle.

Kivina shot first, hitting Yantae in the throat, but it didn't stop him shooting her in the leg. She fell to the ground with a feeble gasp.

“Now we wait for the inhibitors.” Yantae stood over her. “It's much easier to control the living than the dead.”

*

“Kivina's not coming back, is she?” Emola asked.

Tors exhaled. “I don't think so, no.”

Cane put his head in his hands and muttered something to himself, Tors didn't know what, but he assumed that it was some sort of cry for help or mercy.

“Are we just gonna sit here now?” Pandora asked, standing up. “Just because Kivina couldn't get us weapons, doesn't mean we're helpless; if we can take down even one Xaosian, they won't be expecting it, and we get a weapon and blast our way out, before alerting the Irinian authorities. Kivina would have helped get all of us out, but she's gone now, probably dead.”

A solemn silence fell as they realised that Pandora was right.

Cane stood next to her, and Tors could see a hardness in his eyes. He looked down at Tors and Emola. “Shall we get going then?”

Tors nodded, standing with Emola. “Let's go.”

Pandora poked her head out of the hut, looking left and right quickly to make no-one was coming; they were not. “Quick, over there!”

They ran towards another hut, and hugged the wall as Cane checked around the corner, before retreating quickly. “There's a guard round there. If we wait here, we should be able to take him down without him seeing us at all.”

They waited with bated breath.

The guard came round the corner. Tors lunged, wrapping his arm around its throat while Cane stole the Xaosian's weapons. The Xaosian's armour protected it from Tors's stranglehold and, as the shock wore off, it lashed out, throwing Tors off of it. Trying to hold on, Tors fell, cracking the piece of armour he was clinging on to.

At that close a range, Cane couldn't miss the shot that burst through the Xaosian's throat.

As it fell, dead, to the ground, they gathered up again. “We've got some weapons, but we need more,” Cane held up the assault rifle, pistol and combat knife, “that's enough for two, maybe three of us if one could get in close enough to use the knife effectively.”

Tors frowned. “We need more to storm the gate.”

“Yeah,” Pandora continued, “there's four on the gate, watching both outside and in. I imagine they're the best trained marksmen here; we need to at least match that.”

“I think we should head to where Kivina should be,” Tors suggested, “maybe she's still alive.”

“Or inhibited.” Cane argued. “But, yes, we'll go and find her, even if it's just so we stumble upon weapons on the way.” He looked at the guns. “I'll take the pistol; I have the steadiest hands, and this requires more accuracy than the others. Decide what you want between you, and let's go.”

Emola took the assault rifle, and Tors took the knife, if only to save Pandora from the fighting.

In their rush to leave, they didn't notice the dead Xaosian touch a hand to its still-bleeding throat.

*

Kivina gasped in pain again.

It came in waves, the agony. The feeling of something grating inside yourself felt strange and uncomfortable even before the pain where it's torn through numerous nerves. Blood was still oozing through her armour, but she imagined that there was so much more inside the armour; when she moved her leg, she could feel the wetness. When she looked at Yantae, she could see that there no blood seeping from his throat; he had already bled out.

Kivina grunted. “The inhibitors are...taking a while,” she winced as she moved her leg, “aren't they?”

Yantae nodded. “They are. They're being sorted for delivery, ensure maximum efficiency.”

Kivina ignored him. It was for the best; that way he – it – stayed silent too.

Silence. Only the sounds of the camp could be heard. Quiet, indiscernible speech, the hum of the electric fence and the hard sound of footsteps.

Footsteps?

She shouldn't be able to hear any footsteps normally, but these were getting louder: closer? Yantae noticed it to, raising his gun and looking around. “Who's there?” Yantae called.

“Maybe it's your crew with the inhibitors.” Kivina suggested.

“No.” Yantae shut her down. “Impossible; I can see them through their own eyes. No-one should be here. Unless it's your helpers.”

As if on cue, Cane shot Yantae twice; once in the leg, once in the chest. The leg-shot caught him off balance, and the chest-shot knocked him down. Tors ran over to Kivina, evidently worried about her.

“Are you alright?” Tors asked, checking her leg. “Oh god...”

“No.” Kivina answered bluntly, before snatching Tors's knife from him, and slashed down on Yantae's neck again and again, ignoring Tors's shouts and attempts to drag her from him, even as he twitched and tried to stand, until his head was hanging on only by flesh; he wasn't coming back this time.

She dropped the knife and collapsed to the floor, breathing as if she'd run a marathon. Pandora looked at the weapons on Kivina's back. “Got enough there?” Pandora smiled as she said it.

Kivina smiled, understanding the sarcasm. “Never have enough weapons.”

She threw the guns to the ground, and they all picked up one, leaving some behind; Kivina said it was impractical to take too many each, with nowhere to put them. “Now let's get out of this dump.”

She turned to look down at Yantae's head again, feeling as if part of her was lost as well.

Gunshot.

Shout of pain.

Gun clattered to the ground from a bloodied hand.

“Emola!” Pandora shot the Xaosian back, and he stumbled back once, before calling the others. The Xaosian's hut slowly began to stir as they mobilised to catch or kill the prisoners.

“Run for the gate!” Kivina roared, steeling herself for the pain that was about to accompany the running.

Time seemed to slow. Doors swung open, Xaosians poured out. The pain in her leg slowly emerged, going from just a niggle, to complete agony as she put pressure on it. Gunshot. The ground behind her spat small grey boulders at her. Gunshot. She missed one of them, the pain distracting her at the last moment. Another bullet narrowly missed her, and she assumed that it scratched the edge of her armour. Emola was being shielded by Tors, Cane and Pandora as the Xaosians closed in, their armour and slow start keeping being the only things that kept them behind Kivina. Looking over her shoulder, she could see them form a firing line, and shoot. Taking the pain, she dived onto the others, taking them down as the bullets whizzed over their heads.

“Get up!” Kivina got off of them, and they all followed suit, looking around them; Xaosians had closed them off left, right and behind. They ran a little further forward, before being forced to stop.

The gate was right in front of them; they had made it.

And were now about to pay the cost.

*

Teriva could see the prison camp now; the giant searchlights were just two of many of the traditional or clichéd archetypes she could see. The barbed wire topping the fence was always a sure thing, but the electric fence was usually optional. She walked right into one of the searchlights' path, wanting to speak to whoever was in charge; she knew she couldn't do anything, but at least she could see what she was dealing with.

But nobody hailed her, or acknowledged her, or even, in the worst case scenario, shot at her. Something's amiss...

She walked closer to the gate and saw a number of armoured Xaosians closing in on a small group; two Scalimen, a human, another Xaosian, and what seemed to be a Trasman. Intrigued and worried, she grew closer and shouted in. “What's going on?”

A Xaosian on the guard turned to look at her, not recognising her at first. “Ah, Lady Teriva. These prisoners tried to escape; we're only trying to put them back in their huts.”

Teriva looked at the group; one had a wounded hand, another a wounded leg. They all terrible, and growing gaunt. “Release them.”

Another guard looked around to see. “We answer to Lord Xaos.”

Teriva sighed and put her hand in her pocket; she knew it was a good idea to bring this. “No, you don't.” With the element of surprise on her side, she drew her compact pistol and shot the two guards, knocking them from their podiums atop the gate.

The Xaosians inside turned to her, and some shot through the gate. She screamed as she ducked beneath the bullets. Keeping one eye closed, she peeked at the group of prisoners.

*

While surrounded, Kivina had pretended to be fiddling with her belt, hiding her actions with a stoop and her weapon. Instead of her belt, she was actually fiddling with what was attached to it; the charges and explosives she had stolen. Feeling grateful to the woman outside for the distraction, Kivina set the timer on a charge for two seconds, before lobbing it at the Xaosians near the gate.

They saw it too late as it exploded, knocking them down. Other Xaosians raised guns to fire, but Kivina had already dispensed charges to them; they were only force charges, and unlikely to kill, only damage. Tors and Cane fired on those that the charges did affect as Kivina prepared another one, and Pandora protected Emola, keeping an eye on him more than the surrounding battle. No flames in this battle, no real explosions, just a burst of kinetic energy that threw the Xaosians out of its blast radius. With the Xaosians cleared out of the way of the gate, she chucked her final one at its centre. It detonated, blowing the lock.

“Come on!” Kivina yelled, ignoring her pain again; pain is for the weak.

She led the way, Tors and Cane covering them from behind as the Xaosians got up; they obviously expected this to be an easy catch. Tors shot down some that were getting up, and Cane knocked a few back down. Kivina kicked the gate, and it opened with a clang, before falling off its hinges; evidently the charges did more damage than she'd thought.

She let Pandora and Emola go through first, before following and waiting for Tors and Cane to get through as they backed towards the gate, firing on the approaching Xaosians.

“Follow me!” The other woman cried, beckoning them over to her.

The searchlights came back on, but Tors and Cane shot them out, hearing the sprinkle of falling glass as they did so. They ran across the rocky surface of Irin, before the other woman stopped and got on her knees.

“What are you doing?” Kivina sounded annoyed.

“One minute.” Using the palm of her hand, she cleared some of the small rocks off of a metal pipe. “Sewage entrance to the city; you won't be able to get past the checkpoint other wise.”

Tors looked at the others, who seemed to agree with him; it wouldn't be so bad. “Let's go then.”

She nodded, opening the panel. “Just drop through there, I'll close this behind you.”

They all jumped down aside from Kivina, who lowered herself in slowly, and still cried out in pain when pressure was put on the foot again. The other woman was the last one down, and when the sewer was sealed, the tunnels seemed to glow.

“Anyway, I'm Teriva,” she smiled, “and you're safe now.”

Kivina mirrored her smile; both were strained. They both knew that if the Xaosians came down here, they had nowhere to run and hide.

“Safe?” Tors scoffed. “Haven't been safe for months; first Narcsia, now this.”

Teriva tried a sympathetic expression, but she didn't know what it was meant to look like. “Don't worry; I intend to get us all on a flight out of the capital and to Orbus to get help to rescue all of the others.” She touched her augmentation and moved her lips slowly for a moment. “Done. We'll have a ship waiting for us at the spaceport. It'll have a med-bay too, so you can get patched up there.” She smiled to all of them, the worry from her face gone. “Let's get you out of here.”