Fall of Icarus (65 page)

           
As Iana stared in awe at the devastating firepower, a dark shadow passed over her ship.
 
Looking upward, Iana stared into the dark underbelly of an Alliance Cruiser as it passed overhead, still raining down its rail gun slugs and large yield plasma rockets on the surprised Terran forces.
 
In its wake, another Cruiser passed followed by yet another.
 
From around the far side of the gas giant, dozens more Cruisers entered the solar system and destroyed the fleeing fighters.

           
All around her, walls of metal appeared as her
Duun
fighter was swallowed by an open Cruiser hangar bay.
 
In front of her, the large hangar doors slid shut and her
Duun
set down heavily on the metallic floor.
 
Alliance soldiers hurried to her ship to render aid.
 
Iana smiled as they cut away on the cockpit, trying to free the trapped pilot within.
 
Her salvation had come not in some carefully devised plan by her and the other members of the Squadron.
 
It had come instead from an Alliance Fleet who was willing to fly at such incredible speeds that they arrived ahead of schedule.

           
Finally, after all she had been through, Iana allowed tears to stream down her face.
 
The Fleet had arrived.
 
In her heart, she knew the fall of the Empire was now inevitable.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

           
Yen’s lungs screamed for air as he was suspended in the air above the rectangular, manmade pond.
 
Achilles’ psychic, vice-like grip tightened around his throat, choking out what little oxygen remained in his body.
 
Though Yen struggled against the Terran’s power, he was helplessly trapped.
 
There was no physical hand crushing the life from his body against which he could break free.
 
And with a lack of air clouding his mind, Yen couldn’t find the mental clarity to concentrate on severing Achilles’ psychic control.
 
Instead, Yen felt his limbs growing heavy as darkness crept into the corners of his vision.
 
His legs slowly stopped kicking in the cool, damp breeze.
 
His arms clawed weakly at his throat before flopping, limply to his side.
 
The muscles on the sides of his neck tightened until it caused Yen physical pain, but he was unable to find the smallest iota of breathable air.

           
Through the haze of his vision, Yen could see the mocking smile of Achilles, staring up from his place on top of the water.
 
Though Yen could see the Terran’s lips move first as if forming words and then laughing heartily, the sounds never penetrated Yen’s ears.
 
All he heard was the pounding of his fading pulse rushing through his head, sounding like the beating drums of a war party on the march, moving off toward a distant kill.
 
Yen hated Achilles; he hated everything the Terran was.
 
An abomination, a scientific experiment, unnatural.
 
To a pure born psychic, the fact that Yen would soon be killed at the hands of a freak of nature was abysmal.
 
Even though he neared death, a furious rage still burned through Yen’s body.
 
If he could only find a way to break free, Yen would exact a most painful and permanent revenge on his Terran counterpart.

           
Even as Yen’s consciousness faded away and the beating in his ears retreated even further, a single gunshot split through the rain-soaked air.
 
Achilles staggered as blood sprayed from his shoulder.
 
The shot had only been glancing, barely grazing Achilles; a much less impressive shot than Yen had hoped for.
 
Achilles’ reaction to the gunshot, however, was remarkable.
 
His concentration broken, the Terran sank into the water, finally coming to rest with the pond lapping above his knees.
 
Turning, Achilles was able to raise his psychic shield before a volley of gunfire erupted from the tree line to Yen’s left.
 
The rounds ricocheted off the wavering red shield in front of the Terran as Achilles threw his arms up protectively in front of his face.

           
To Yen’s surprise, the pressure on his chest and neck began to lessen.
 
Cold air slipped down his throat and burned his lungs, which cried out for more.
 
In hitched breaths, Yen drew the moist air into his lungs and coughed painfully, feeling each breath burn painfully in his throat.
 
As the psychic grip slackened on his body, so did the height at which Yen was being held.
 
Slowly, Yen drifted back down into the frigid waters of the pond.

           
Gripping his chest tightly, Yen turned and watched as Achilles regained his composure.
 
Stepping toward the Alliance gunmen, Yen’s own soldiers who had accompanied him into the park, Achilles rose out of the water until once again he glided across the surface.
 
The Alliance bullets continued to ricochet harmlessly away, none able to find a weakness in Achilles’ defenses.
 
Reaching out with both hands, Achilles closed his eyes as his outstretched fingers angled toward the trees behind which the soldiers hid.
 
Quickly closing his hands into tight fists, the trees exploded one by one, the bark and splintered wood becoming deadly
projectiles which
flew into the faces and exposed flesh of the Alliance soldiers.
 
Skin shredded under the assault, spraying the grass behind each of the men with gore.
 
Only the soldiers’ torsos, protected by the dense body armor, escaped the great punishment that the rest of their bodies endured.
 
Collapsing to the ground, hardly recognizable as the once distinct soldiers they had been, Yen could only hear the weak mewling of the dying men from where he sat in the water.

           
Despite Achilles’ ferocious assault, Yen managed a confident smile.
 
In a moment, Achilles had annihilated four of Yen’s best soldiers.
 
But, simultaneously, he had shown something Yen had waited a long time to see: Achilles had a weakness.

           
Turning back toward his prey, Achilles frowned at seeing Yen pushing himself to his feet in the cold water.
 
“I would have guessed that by now you would have had the common sense to die.”

           
Yen coughed, his chest still aching from Achilles’ last attack.
 
“I never was a very quick learner.”

           
Achilles strode forward dangerously, a predatory look in his eyes.
 
“I’ll just have to do a better job of teaching you this time.”
 
The air around Achilles began to flicker as he let the psychic energy build.

           
Yen backed away until he was near the short end of the rectangular lake.
 
Behind the stalking Terran, silhouetted in the darkening sky, Yen could still see the large stone monument watching like a sentient judge of the day’s battle.
 
Surprising Achilles, Yen didn’t show a level of fear that the Terran would have expected.
 
Instead, Yen smiled broadly.
 
When he had been suspended in the air, Yen had wanted nothing more than another opportunity at revenge against the Terran.
 
Given that opportunity, he wasn’t about to let it pass.

           
“I think it’s about time I taught you a lesson instead,” Yen replied.

           
Reaching to his belt, Yen quickly unclipped one of the grenades hanging there.
 
In a swift motion, he pressed the grenades activation button as he tossed it forward, its trajectory taking it straight toward the Terran’s chest.
 
Red lights flared to life around the equator of the grenade as the short fuse counted down toward detonation.

           
Opening his hand, his palm facing the grenade and Yen, Achilles laughed as the grenade came to a stop in mid air, hovering only a couple feet in front of the Terran.
 
The circling red light stopped flickering around the explosive as Achilles let out a hearty, crazed laugh.

           
“A grenade?” he said in disbelief.
 
“The two greatest psychics in the universe face each other and you insult me by attacking with a grenade?
 
What’s wrong with you?”

           
Yen heard the faint cracking as the shell of the grenade broke apart along
it’s
seams.
 
The individual outer plates floated away from the grenade’s core, floating in an orbit around the rest of the explosive.
 
From where Yen stood, he could clearly see the rest of the grenade’s inner workings.
 
Hovering, encased in red psychic energy, the detonator was separated from the rest of the explosive, pulled apart by Achilles’ will.

           
“I had such high hopes for you, Yen,” Achilles mocked as he began dismantling the core of the grenade.
 
First, the explosive components fell harmlessly into the cool water at Achilles’ feet.
 
Then, he pulled apart the more volatile detonator and explosive caps.
 
“I thought that you would show up on Earth like Death riding his pale horse.
 
You would stream through the cities, leaving piles of Terran soldiers in your wake, piled like lost souls caught in eddies on the River Styx.”
 
Achilles let the last of the components drop into the water before returning his gaze to Yen, his eyes flaring angrily with inner red light.
 
“But instead, you come to me with little control over your vast power.
 
You are easily defeated without even so much as a strain on my part.
 
Then… then when you finally show some inner strength, the best you can do is throw a meager grenade at me!
 
You don’t deserve to exist in my universe!”

           
“I’m not done yet,” Yen growled.
 
In rapid succession, Yen unclipped the other three grenades from his belt and launched them at the infuriated Terran.
 
All three flew through the air in perfect arcs, guided by Yen’s psychic power.
 
And each of the three, much as the single grenade had done previously,
were
stopped before coming in contact with Achilles.

           
One by one, the lights went out around the circumferences of the grenades as Achilles deactivated their detonators.
 
Howling in frustration, Achilles waved his hand and the shell around the first grenade exploded outward, exposing the core within.
 
Yen didn’t flinch as the shell rebounded off his psychic shield, glanced away, and disappeared into the surrounding darkness.
 
Above the pair, as if in response to their own brewing anger, lightning split the dark sky.

           
“You’re not even listening to me!” Achilles yelled as the rain grew heavier, splashing across the surface of the pond.
 
“You have incredible untapped potential, yet you struggle to think of anything except the most mundane of attacks.
 
I can’t believe you would even waste my time with these… things.”

           
“One of your…” Yen began before the words faded away.
 
He could feel his power building inside of him, rising like an unchecked tide coursing through his body.
 
Swallowing hard, he continued.
 
“One of your… biggest faults… is that you… underestimate people too much.”

           
Blue tendrils of power arced across Yen’s body, rolling as though his body were a lightning rod, conducting unseen sources of psychic energy.
 
In front of Achilles, the grenades inched forward and the one of the far right flickered back to life.
 
Snarling, Achilles focused deeper, shutting down the grenade once more.

           
“Here you are, nearly killing yourself, and for what?
 
To inch a grenade just a little closer to me?
 
In the end, I’m still more powerful than you will ever be.
 
You’re just delaying the inevitable!”

           
“Nothing… is inevitable,” Yen gasped.
 
His eyes watered as pressure built in his temple and the strain began to cause physical pain in his spine.
 
Yen’s cornea was consumed with blue as the energy saturated his body.
 
From within his mind, Yen could hear the joyful chorus of the psychic power crying out at its freedom.
 
Shivering from far more than the cold, Yen concentrated harder.