Evolution's Essence (2 page)

“
Ten seconds!” Oliver
shouted and both Stone and Steven broke off the fight and ran over,
removing their gauntlets to use a bare hand to touch his armor.
Visor and Satellite latched their talons on his spiky shoulder
pauldrons and Renee took his free hand an instant before he
teleported to the planet’s surface.

Still staring up at the stars were twelve
giant felines already covered in armor standing eerily still.
Around them were their cubs that stood knee high, but didn’t have a
blue collar that holds their armor yet. Oliver added his own eyes
and it shaved another four nanoseconds to the calculations. “Got
it!” he yelled and as he did the Ligers instantly lined up, biting
the tail of the one in front. Nova, biggest and smartest, leaned
lower and clamped his vicious maw on Oliver’s leg just as the Valek
pierced hyperspace and signaled the exit end of Oliver’s
calculations were clear of debris. A translucent bubble spread
around the group and when it held everyone who touched him, they
crossed the barrier of space in an instant.

The ice planet disappeared and now nine
hundred kilometers below was the ocean world of Mereddia. Like a
glistening blue gem dotted by sparse floating islands always adrift
on warm currents.

Renee took stock of the
situation in the high and thin atmosphere to use her chip to
augment natural vision and zoom. The chip integration allowed her
to focus in on distant areas by shedding peripheral and using
advanced computing software to render visuals the naked eye was
unable to. With it, as they fell to the planet, she caught sight of
the continuous beams of lethal firepower and nudged the minds of
others to look. They did and she said mentally
“I’ll cripple the fighters. You guys nab the
bastard.”

Oliver’s mind calculated she had a zero
percent chance of injury compared to those beams. Her power was
inferior in the known universe by one single person and her
personality was of an individual who kicks ass first and asks
questions if she can put the individual back together. He didn’t
worry this time, she was more than capable of ripping stars
apart.

Seventeen unknown fighters weren’t an
issue.

He nodded.

Renee grinned maliciously before letting go
of her lover. Though her mind was geared to biology over
technology, the bracelet Valek had its own teleportation too, but
was limited to distance equivalent of a standard habitable planet
of ten gees. But hers is used by intuition over technical. With
will alone she surrounded herself in a thick electrical barrier
using her inner power and moved instantly below the fighters.

Multiple beams made impact, but paled in
comparison to her spherical defense. Her mind reached out and using
the pilots’ surprised minds by appearing out of nowhere, she used
her naturally gifted telepathic mind to seize all of theirs in an
iron grip and take simultaneous control. The shock of her sudden
arrival was the key because that momentary slip in concentration
was all she needed. She mentally forced them all into a deep sleep
and disengaged the weapon systems to use telekinesis on the ships
and flew them all towards the city of water.

Teleporting inside the city was impossible at
the moment due to the lockdown, but arriving just outside wasn’t an
issue. Oliver and the others appeared in a remote corner of the
largest ancient city thus far discovered and let go of everyone
just outside the pier where some ships docked and floated. All
around were hundreds of flying individuals holding firearms. Some
people with a low Psionic ability were swimming in the sea after
being forcibly removed from the citadel. Others were being rescued
by shuttle.

Ligers let go of each other, their armor
changing into wings with a jet turbine situated to either flank.
Stone and Steven let go too, flying under their own telekinetic
power and put their gauntlets back on. Then Stone removed the great
battleaxe suspended across a broad back over using the azure
hatchets hung at either hip. Steven readied his lance and flail.
Visor and Satellite flew ahead, fast as their wings could carry
them.

A bright flash of Psionic energy was seen
only by Oliver’s eyes as he drew a round shield from underneath the
cape flowing behind the shoulders. It was indigo in color and held
over the right forearm. Being left-handed, he naturally drew the
cutlass into it. It was solid black, but in his grasp the lethal
curved blade sparkled with seemingly tiny flickering stars
randomly. It had a knuckle guard and was a singlehanded weapon. The
single edged blade being a full meter long and perfectly balanced.
His amber eyes naturally saw the flow of Psionic electrical energy
and with the flash followed a ripple showing the sheer magnitude of
the user trying to escape. The sprawling city literally was made of
pure water, but had stone roads and foliage. But mainly the theme
was water-based technology. Just because the city was liquid didn’t
mean it wasn’t solid. It was, but retained pure water
characteristics.

Many plans were made
regarding how to deal with the ‘Corrupted One’, a lethal and deadly
adversary who nearly killed Oliver recently. With help by the AI
Aquerril after the initial confrontation with him, she explained he
was an illegally created individual who was made by the theft of
highly gifted humans, spliced into a single entity and mixed with
Keptl spores and Beast DNA. He was near as fast as a Solarian and
had tremendous power, but wasn’t slated to live long. This
Corrupted One has already stolen the cores of two cities and
destroyed them after being given information beyond human
understanding. Now he was here trying to do it again, but this time
preparations were made and he fell in a trap laid weeks earlier by
a
much
more gifted
tactical mind. Now came the hard part.

Marines were informed of the allowance of
Oliver and those with him, but believed him to be an Elder Hunter
and nothing more. So they didn’t try stopping them after the
evacuation order sounded throughout the city to get all scientists
and archeologists out of harm’s way.

Aquerril said “Mistress Void has eliminated
the threat from above and is slowly approaching. Master, the enemy
is attempting to self destruct. In ninety two seconds his body will
reach critical mass and exceed my internal defenses by seven
hundred percent and destroy the stability of this world.”

“
I’m coming.” Oliver’s power
spiked and he could not submit Stone and Steven to the inertia
forces he was about to unleash. He ascended and Gathered an excess
of power by opening the mental image of a lever and focusing the
torrent into a telekinetic stream down both feet as if they were
engines. A loud whirl came from the Liger Pride as their engines
superheated the air to fly forth, leaving the Hunter’s behind.
Oliver released the power down both feet and shot ahead fast as a
bullet, aiming straight for the center of the city where stood the
great citadel overlooking everything. He managed to catch up with
the Pride with fire shooting out behind them. The chip calculated
distance and time to impact was a mere four and a half
seconds.

“
Hot damn! I never get used
to how fast they can go.” Laughed Steven as he tried flying as fast
as possible, unable to keep up.

“
We are faster and stronger
than before. Get ready, Brother. This will not be easy and do not
forget his Star-saber is poisoned.”

“
Haven’t forgot that. And
Mrs. Void gave me an antidote if you get hit just in case.” The
lancer said.

Oliver cut the stream of energy propelling
him over the great city and flipped over, creating a dense barrier
as he collided through the wall of the castle on the same level as
the AI core. Aquerril perfectly opened a hole in the barrier that
was flipped inwards, through the walls to resist attack. Being
water, his impact with the liquid wall made the hall explode with
droplets as his mind felt out the lone creature being peppered by
droplets that hit like bullets.

“
Knew this was your doing!”
sneered a tall man with glowing black eyes behind a new ceramic
mask. He was covered in an armor that looked more like snakeskin
beneath new and shiny plate armor. Oliver’s momentum slowed and he
landed solidly fifteen meters from the other. In his right hand was
a sparkling white longsword and the other held a dagger like last
time. The accumulated power for self-destruction vanished when
noticing Oliver’s entrance created a gaping opening in the wall.
“Thanks for the escape hole, Solarian. Let me show gratitude by
finishing what I started last time and take your head to
Father.”

This time Oliver was ready and was too smart
to taunt because the tactic was expected and calculated. Last time
Oliver shattered the man’s leg with a kick, his denser and heavier
bones shattering the human counterpart. And the man was afraid,
that was clear. It became more pronounced as Ligers came pouring
through the hole roaring and in their razor sharp spiked armor no
less.

The Corrupted man was a fast thinker too and
raised a hand out of trained reflex at the incoming giant cats and
attempted to blast them apart and it would have worked if not for
Oliver sending his immense power through Nova who directed the
Pride attacking in the hallway fifty meters wide and thrice as tall
on the topmost level of this building. A visibly seen sphere
surrounded the felines now running down the fleeing person. His own
speed barely kept from being bitten by the swift Pride.

Nova stayed back as Oliver blazed down the
hall, his cape snapping as his speeds exceeded seventy kilometers
an hour. The Pride moved away as if one mind as Oliver swung the
blade and threw the shield forward.

Caught by surprise from behind, the arm of
the enemy holding the dagger was cut clean off as the shield forced
the barrier-shielded man to the ground. Armor meant nothing to the
cutlass who’s edge was sharp as a single atom. No matter how hard.
Only psionic energy and a blade of similar origin stood a chance at
blocking such a keen edge. Before Oliver could capitalize and cut
off the other arm he was hit by a concussive Kinetic Blast and
thrown over while the Ligers were thrown back. It didn’t cause
injuries, but it gave time for the person to get up and yell.
“Father! Get me out of here!”

“
Too bad so sad!” Steven
replied as he surprised the attacker from above and smashed the
flail down and shattered the barrier in millions of sparks. Stone
exploded from the floor beneath right then, using the battleaxe to
make a slicing wave and even managed to sever a leg while flying up
through the floor, holstering the axe and initiating electricity
through his armor to give the target the most shocking bear hug in
existence.

“
Ahhh!!!” he yelled as the
Hunter’s armor sent him into convulsions and Stone’s great strength
locked tight, muscles straining to their limits. He tightened even
further, breaking the lower spine with a satisfying
crunch.

Plan working, Oliver seemed to just appear
such was his speed and he yelled as he brought the cutlass down to
feel nary a sensation of resistance as he removed the right arm at
the shoulder and followed the same motion to the remaining leg
without endangering Stone. He moved as he sensed movement and
easily evaded Steven’s spear piercing the Corrupted through the
middle, missing Stone’s helmet by mere millimeters and funneled
power to the spear. “Got ‘EM!”

Stone jumped back, drawling the hatchets with
a hole in their faces and readied for further attacks. Steven’s
lance kept the electrical charge to a point where focus to use the
Psionic arts was impossible. Oliver though hooked the shield back
underneath his cape and willed the Valek to heat up, just like he
tried when trying to see if raw beast was better cooked. It wasn’t,
but the extreme heat allowed him to cauterize the four missing
limbs as well as use a scanner built into the top of his left hand
to scan and find the spear missed all major organ and arteries.

“
Ha! Shocked grub anybody?”
Steven joked seriously.

The Ligers’ surrounded them, Nova staying
back as usual, in eleven feral mouths were spheres of condensed
plasma in readying Kinetic Blasts if there was any more tricks.

“
This is for hurting my
husband, Fucker!” Renee suddenly appeared and punched the spitted
person fully in the face the moment they got close. The ceramic
shattered and she grimaced as she landed on the balls of her feet.
“Yep, infested and fucking ugly.” Said the hellcat. “Armor stays
up. He’s got Keptl spores in his blood, Boys.”

Without the mask hiding, the Corrupted One
was grotesque to say the least. Wormlike bubbles under puckered and
inflamed red skin moved unnaturally as Keptl blood cells began to
corrupt anatomy. Spores create worms that take over the host and
remake them in time. Usually infestation takes a week and this is
the last stage before the host’s biology begins to reshape into
another Keptl minion who is mindless and controllable.

Realizing he had been bested, he planned to
give them nothing. Even through the screaming pain electrocuting
what remained of the body he managed to move his jaw enough to
crack a back false tooth.

Renee realized this the moment symptoms were
different from what he was experiencing and acted fast. She smiled.
“Nice try, Fucker! I’m getting what I want regardless of what you
believe.” And raised her right arm to launch a black tendril from
her bracelet. At the end was a sucker-like appendage from an octopi
tentacle. It latched onto the middle of his hideous forehead and
removed after a few moments before connecting to her own forehead,
clean of any spores.